This is an article by Charlie Spedding, whose blog can be found here. Charlie is a former pharmacist. He was also a champion long-distance runner in his younger days. He was the winner of the 1984 London Marathon, and he is an Olympic bronze medallist.
Media attention has been focussed firmly on the misdemeanours of Dominic Cummings recently. As the calls for his sacking continue, we are in danger of missing something far more important. Boris Johnson clearly finds Mr Cummings’ input extremely valuable to his government and does not want to lose his adviser for the sake of a car journey. I believe the crowd is going after the wrong man.
The person who has the most serious questions to answer, in my opinion, is not Dominic Cummings but the Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance. His position requires him to provide scientific advice to the Prime Minister and members of the Cabinet and to ensure the quality of the scientific evidence used in policy. His record throughout the Coronavirus pandemic appears to me to be so devoid of scientific input as to be a complete failure of his duties.
It has been known for many years that high levels of Vitamin D greatly reduce the severity of respiratory infections and is a vital component of our innate immunity. Because Vitamin D is produced by sunshine on the skin, our levels are invariably lowest during winter, which explains why influenza is so much more prevalent in the darkest months. Researchers around the world, who are aware of this, have tested hospitalised Covid-19 patients for Vitamin D. An Indonesian study found a death rate of only 4% among people with normal levels. People with insufficient levels of Vitamin D died at a rate of 87.8% and those who were deemed deficient in Vitamin D died from the virus at the extraordinary rate of 98.9%. An American study by Dr Eric Hermstad showed that death or serious illness invariably occurred among those with Vitamin D levels below 25 nanograms per ml, which is 5ng/ml below the national average. Nobody who was admitted to hospital, in his study, had a Vitamin D level above 40ng/ml, suggesting that this prevented hospitalisation.
As far as I am aware, Sir Patrick Vallance has never mentioned the hugely important effect of Vitamin D in his pronouncements or advice to the Government. He said nothing when the police were preventing people from sitting in the sunshine on a beach or in a park.
Also, the vast majority of deaths in the UK have occurred in older people with pre-existing conditions, especially diabetes and heart disease. These are metabolic problems caused largely by an inappropriate diet. Professor Timothy Noakes in South Africa, Dr Jason Fung in Canada and Dr David Unwin in Stockport have all separately, and clearly, demonstrated that type 2 diabetes can be reversed by the near elimination of carbohydrate from the diet. This is important information because the National Dietary Guidelines recommend a high carbohydrate diet for everybody, including diabetics. Throughout his tenure, I have never heard Sir Patrick recommend a change in the Government’s dietary advice despite growing scientific evidence and ever-increasing rates of obesity and diabetes.
In his official Twitter feed, which displays the banner ‘Government empowered by scientific evidence’, the Chief Scientific Adviser offers very little information. One of his few tweets praises a collaboration between a pharmaceutical company and a major university in search of a vaccine for this virus. He does not mention that it is notoriously difficult to produce a vaccine for a coronavirus. We have no vaccine for other coronaviruses like the common cold and Sars and it is highly unlikely we will have one before Covid-19 has faded away.
Who am I to criticise a Knight of the Realm with his long and distinguished career? I have worked for most of my life as a pharmacist but left my profession several years ago feeling very disillusioned. Too many people were taking medication for metabolic diseases but never getting better. The drugs were treating the symptoms but not the root cause of their illness. I have devoted recent years to researching and writing about the real reasons so many people are ill. Clearly, lifestyle factors are to blame and among them diet has the biggest influence. Tragically, the official dietary guidelines, issued by the NHS and the Government, are a major cause of most of the metabolic diseases suffered by so many people. The pharmaceutical industry benefits from this situation: official advice makes people ill and symptom-treating drugs make those people patients for life.
Something which became very clear in my research was the enormous role of ‘influence’ in the world of health organisations. Vested interest groups work hard to have leverage in the corridors of power. Sir Patrick Vallance is a clinical pharmacologist who has spent most of his career on the development of new drugs for pharmaceutical companies. I know from experience that in the mindset of the drug industry there is a belief that people cannot make themselves well; they can only be made well by the use of drugs and medicine. I do not know but I feel compelled to ask, is Vallance genuinely trying to guide the Government with reliable science or is he there to protect the interests of the Pharmaceutical Industry? His promotion of vaccines, which make profits for the industry, and his avoidance of the benefits of diet and appropriate sunlight, which do not, makes me feel he may well be the latter. I think we need to forget about Cummings and ask Sir Patrick Vallance some very important questions.
14 thoughts on “Charlie Spedding: Are We Chasing the Wrong Man?”
We should be chasing Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock. These two men made many of the key decisions and the buck ultimately stops with them whatever scientific advice they receive.
Ironically a pandemic was considered to be a top of the list threat to national security, but the government itself has been the biggest threat to national security thanks to their poor decision making. It’s countries like Taiwan and Vietnam who acted straight away which are the ones we should be learning lessons from. We should be sacking most of the people who have advised our government thus far.
Dear Mr Spedding
I came across your details, history, tweets etc by accident today. I write on sport for a racing company, but am allowed quite a lot of freedom/digression. I would like to write something about you including your background, sporting achievement and in particular your take on lockdown (I’ve had a quick look through your Twitter stuff). My email is below. Please, if you can chat, drop me a mail with your phone number and a time to call. You can find my stuff here https://oldgoldracing.com/author/paul-st-john/
Good post and pertinent questions many have been asking
imho a good experiment on type 2 was Dr Michael Mosely. He deliberately put on weight, developed type 2, lost weight and cured
Covid 19 science? Summed up by one SAGE interviewed: “I’m scared, better safe than sorry, I want to hide” – everyone must be compelled to emulate her
Rather damning:
Media driven hysterical demands and weak, scared politicians
Sunday Telegraph front page main story – no credit given to Simon Dolan
Whut? £4-5 Billion per year PHE could only cope with five Covid-19 cases a week – way beyond appalling
Weak Hancock wouldn’t order NHS/PHE to use private sector or even Unis
I thought the whole issue over Cummings was about his apparent breaking of the government rules over travel and mixing with people at risk, especially if you had been showing any symptoms. As far as I am aware, Cummings is not a scientific advisor so the issue of Cummings and the action and lack of action on various aspects of the science information is entirely separate, unless of course Cummings was responsible for facilitating the government action (or lack of action) on the scientific advice given by Sir Patrick Vallance? Whatever, the responsibility lays firmly with the PM and clearly he has been inadequate to say the least in determining government action, or lack of action.
I’ve said for some time now that the medical profession’s obsession with saturated fat, and its championing of carbohydrates as a dietary replacement is one of the biggest scandals in modern history. Its probably the cause of more premature deaths than the Holocaust. Hundreds of millions of people in Western countries have been advised by the medical profession to eat precisely the wrong types of food, and on their advice governments have directed food manufacturers and retailers to promote the same switch from saturated fat to carbohydrates. And tens of millions will have suffered significant health problems as a result, many suffering a premature death to boot. The fact that this decades long policy has been scientifically proven to be completely wrong, and the work of its progenitor, Ancel Keyes, to have been fraudulent, is still ignored by the medical profession, and doctors are to this day still giving their patients dietary advice that will exacerbate their health issues and probably send them to an early grave.
In my view the medical profession lies somewhere far below journalism and estate agents in the moral integrity stakes.
Superb article! I had heard of Charlie Spedding and followed his distinguished athletics career, but I did not expect such comprehensive knowledge, insight and clarity of expression.
Everyone in the world would benefit from reading this article.
In those famous words — Embrace the power of “AND”.
There would be nothing wrong with dumping Cummings for his unforgivable act of not following the stupid guidelines his government was imposing on the peons AND dumping Vallance for failing at his job. Getting defenestrated used to be called “accountability” — which was believed to be a Good Thing.
And since one of the key tasks of the Big Banana is to choose the right people for particular roles, old Boris is not looking too good either right now.
well said; you are so right; we are told so many lies; like you, we now eat very-low-carb and our health is much better; I was aghast to hear of Vallance’s background;
Roy Anderson (Sir to you!!) who set up the now infamous IC unit; is at age 73 on the board of GSK; tentacles within tentacles.
Charlie Spedding, bless you for raising these questions!
Looking at the comments so far, I think people need to re-read your article. This isn’t about diet – although I fully agree that the guidelines are reprehensible and cause an inexcusable amount of illness. But that’s a red herring here.
No, the big question is about Patrick Vallance. I’ve been calling him a snake for several weeks now. Just look at this for a perfect example. Headline: “Boris says he wants to relax 2 metre rule.” Patrick Vallance says it won’t be safe, there will be a second spike, too many new cases, scary scary scary, etc etc etc.
This is a very typical example and the MSM are always happy to augment it and add to the fearmongering. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/03/boris-johnson-says-he-wants-to-relax-2-metre-physical-distancing-rule
Those baying for the blood of Boris and Cummings are similarly missing Charlie’s point. The Cummings incident (which I think was more about the GSK vaccine contract than any of the obvious lies he smirked his way through) has been a very convenient smokescreen – even down to the timing of its disclosure.
Every time we are told the lockdown is going to be eased, Vallance puts the brakes on. Is this a deliberate ploy between him and Boris? I’ve no idea but he’s the one to watch because he’s spreading some very damaging misinformation.
Just have a look at what Vallance says. His statements are full of mights and possiblys. The figures he bandies about bear no relation to applicable facts.
He has definitely been (and may still be) in the pay of archenemy Gates and is a rather too keen proponent of unnecessary vaccines.
So, yes, the official dietary gudelines are atrocious, yes Boris is a lying buffoon, yes Cummings is an evil anarchist. But Vallance is the one to watch right this moment. I don’t think he needs to go because he’s incompetent. He needs to go because, I suspect, he’s doing it very well.
While I generally agree with comments made here about Vallance and his part in this ludicrous nonsense, I’d suggest that, ultimately, It’s the geezer in charge who should be handed the Black Spot.
I’m not, to quote Cheezilla, “baying for the blood of Boris and Cummings”, (I consider that, at some stage, Cummings will be regarded as an expendable commodity) but these hired hands like Ferguson and Vallance are/were only in place at The Dear Leader’s behest.
I think Johnson should remain in post for now (what sane individual would want his job at the moment anyway?), but he needs to get his house in order, pronto. Like all suspect leaders, he has far too many yes-men, like Vallance, milling around, telling him things he wants to hear.
@Cheezilla
My ref to SAGE woman interviewed: omitted she was asked why 2M not WHO’s 1M – silly me.
Sturgeon was asked why 2M not WHO’s 1M yesterday:
– err, umm, hmm, people can’t be trusted with 1M; they might touch someone
If you think Valance is bad (he is), have a look at USA’s Faucci’s past
@John
+1
Fauci seems to belong in a lineup of those who epitomise evil.
Sir Richard Dearlove, noted for his former role in UK security, claims that the virus accidentally escaped from a Chinese lab. Well where do you think he’d get that idea?
Do you think it’s odd that I’ve come across several previous accounts suggesting that it escaped from a US lab, then was sent to be worked on in the lab at Wuhan on the instructions of Fauci, who is a “friend” of archenemy Bill.
Whatever the true story, someone keeps poking China with a big stick and the result could be rather uncomfortable for many of us.
After it was banned in USA Obama moved some R&D plus funding to the Wuhan Lab. Trump ended it when he found out.
Obama, Fauci etc evil? imo Yes
Another former pharmacist here. Agree completely with this article. On the PHE and NHS websites it clearly reccommends that all people take vitamin D supplements in winter and BAME/elderly who are highly likely to be deficient all year around. This guidance has been there for 4 years. One amazing study I saw was in African women who took high vitamin D supplements and completely eliminated resporatory virus infection over winer months. Also most elderly women in UK take vitamin D supplements to prevent post menopausal osteoporosis. Could this partly explain the difference in death rates ?
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