Since the first drafting of this article, the Committee referred to below has published its report, but the Scottish Government has yet to respond to it.
In January 2023, the Scottish Parliament announced the Covid–19 Recovery Committee, which was given the task of investigating the effects of ‘long Covid’, an illness said to be affecting 187,000 Scots.
Official statistics (supplied in the United Kingdom by the ONS) are estimates on this matter, and that all data has been self-reported. The ONS figures of those affected by ‘long Covid’ would cover 3.4% of Scotland’s population if accurate.
Through a recent response to one of my Freedom of Information requests, which I have been pursuing for months on other lines of Covid inquiry, I discovered the statistics provided by the ONS are ‘experimental’. The ONS expressly states that “we advise caution when using the data”. The ONS goes on to warn:
[M]isclassification is possible. For example, some participants may be experiencing symptoms because of a health condition unrelated to Covid–19 infection.
The WHO definition of ‘long Covid’ is (emphasis added): “the continuation or development of new symptoms 3 months after the initial SARS–CoV–2 infection, with these symptoms lasting for at least 2 months with no other explanation”. It covers over 200 different symptoms.
Much lower Scottish threshold
However, here in Scotland, the working definition of ‘long Covid’ has the persistent symptom criteria changed from twelve weeks to four weeks, a lessening of the threshold which would obviously greatly increase reports of the condition.
John Harden, Deputy National Clinical Director, explained that ‘long Covid’ is an umbrella term for symptoms persisting beyond four weeks following a Covid infection. Those experiencing long Covid are split into two groups, he said at an expert advisory group: those who experienced a severe episode of Covid infection, and those who did not experience a severe episode of Covid infection but have persistent symptoms.
Despite this criterion, Jane-Claire Judson, CEO of Chest, Heart and Stroke Scotland said in February at the Scottish Parliament inquiry:
My final point is that I would love for us at Chest, Heart and Stroke Scotland to be overwhelmed with people with long Covid. And at the moment, we are not overwhelmed.
What she means here is that sufferers of ‘long Covid’ in Scotland are not being acknowledged enough by their GPs (family doctors) to be referred to specialists—and, as stated above, this is likely because of the symptom overlap with many common ailments.
Problems with diagnosing ‘long Covid’
Clearly, this is a confusing and subjective diagnostic framework, wide open to abuse and to misdiagnoses with other many common conditions. For example, a persistent cough, back pain, and low mood for four or more weeks after an asymptomatic ‘positive’ PCR test for Covid–19 can be reported as ‘long Covid’.
In the Times, Professor Sir John Bell, Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford University, has reiterated the problems associated with a ‘long Covid’ diagnosis, specifically using British ONS data.
Many readers will be aware that an extremely comparable disease has existed for decades, otherwise known as myalgic encephalomyelitis or chronic fatigue syndrome. It is a long-lasting condition whose sufferers have been marginalised since its discovery decades ago. There is still no effective treatment, and sufferers who were once healthy are suddenly left bedridden, with many only capable of limited physical exertions and full recoveries being rare. The close association between ‘long Covid’ and ME/CFS is noted on the ME Association website. Dr Charles Shepherd says:
The ME Association takes the view that Long Covid and ME/CFS are both examples of a serious and debilitating condition that can follow any type of viral infection.
Crucially, he warns:
Not everyone with Long Covid is able to confirm a previous infection with Covid–19.
I myself don’t know anyone who has suffered from ‘long Covid’, or even anyone who has died or been seriously ill from the disease known as Covid–19 over the last three official years of the ‘pandemic’. However, I am willing to accept that the condition does exist and is debilitating to some people, as evidenced by this testimonial in the Scottish Parliament.
No new disease
In one of Scotland’s most populous local government areas, a February 2023 Freedom of Information response by South Lanarkshire Council shows that ‘long Covid' is a reason for absence from work from the council and is not regarded as a medical diagnosis. Out of the thousands of staff employed by South Lanarkshire Council, 99.86% have not reported the disease over a three-year period. More shockingly, though, there was a 97% increase in ‘long Covid’ reports in 2021—after the rollout of the Covid ‘vaccines’. There is no real-world evidence that the inoculation reduces the disease called ‘long Covid’, as has been claimed. Quite the contrary.
So we can conclude that ‘long Covid’ is not a new disease and is likely overestimated, and that no effective treatments are available. However, the Scottish Government has decided to prioritise this condition and allocate it time and funds. Is it justified for the Scottish Government to afford the issue such a high priority in response to considering its own data? Are there perhaps other health concerns that should be taking precedence for Scotland’s population? I am certain there are.
Source: MHRA Freedom of Information response to the author
From the Government’s own data, we see can that a large number of Covid–19 ‘vaccine’ injuries and deaths are recorded, along with unusually high levels of excess non-Covid mortality. Historically, adverse events from vaccines are known to be significantly underreported, by as much as 99%. Public Health Scotland’s own in-house Covid–19 ‘vaccine’ monitoring system (separate from the MHRA Yellow Card scheme) details 36 deaths related to Covid innoculations, with 641 adverse events in total, including anaphylaxis and Guillain-Barré syndrome.
In relation to ‘long Covid’ mortality, National Records of Scotland data shows there have been no deaths from the disease (also logged as ‘post Covid–19 condition’) as an underlying cause in the three years of the pandemic.
Source: Public Health Scotland Freedom of Information response to the author
Most people in Scotland are also unaware that in the second week of 2023, the nation suffered record death rates from all causes—the highest number registered for the entire ‘pandemic’ period (and the highest in 23 years)—with a large excess death burden, the majority of which (80%) was from non-Covid causes. The higher level of evidence outlined here is completely ignored by the parliamentary recovery committee, in favour of addressing these erroneous ‘long Covid’ reports.
Source: National Records of Scotland
Deaths involving coronavirus (Covid–19) in Scotland—report (nrscotland.gov.uk)
Caused by Covid jabs?
Therefore, will parliamentary committee members be asking how many sufferers of ‘long Covid’ have potentially been injured by the experimental Covid ‘vaccines’? This is acknowledged as a reality in the scientific literature.
Furthermore, Dr Kevin Deans, a consultant chemical pathologist for NHS Grampian in the north-east of Scotland who has been researching ‘long Covid’, spoke on BBC Radio Scotland in January 2022, saying that Covid ‘vaccine’-induced ‘long Covid’ was under-recognised and under-acknowledged.
We are now uncovering evidence that some people are developing the same sort of presentation—‘long Covid’—after the vaccine [. . .] So we do need to get a serious handle on just how big this problem is.
This was reconfirmed in the USA in February 2023 by the Deputy Director of the CDC, no less, Dr Tom Shimabukuro, who said:
We are aware of these reports of people experiencing long-lasting health problems following Covid–19 vaccination.
And one of the world’s top pathologists, Professor Arne Burkhardt, asserted before his recent death that many of the side-effects of Covid inoculations are due to the toxic spike proteins expressed by recipients, which create ‘long Covid’ symptoms. All organs are affected, including blood vessels, the heart, brain and reproductive system.
Dr Clare Taylor, advising the Scottish Government, has said she believes ‘long Covid’ is “a medical condition with roots in the blood vessels”.
When I asked her about Covid inoculations possibly causing ‘long Covid’ on social media in 2022, her immediate response was to block me.
She also believes mask wearing is an effective mitigation to stop aerosolised respiratory ‘viruses’, despite the highest-level evidence and real-world data proving them to be useless, and in fact dangerous, to the user and the environment.
Source: Graphic shared on Twitter of remarks by Dr Taylor
We really do have to question why the Scottish Government and its ‘experts’ ignore higher-level evidence and instead trust very low-quality data from experimental ONS estimates. The constant denial by Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) that Covid mRNA ‘vaccines’ are not causing widespread health issues, despite a higher-level evidence base to prove that they are, is now impossible to excuse. John Mason MSP still believes that any Covid ‘vaccine’ adverse events are minor/rare and that the benefits of ‘vaccination’ (jags in Scots) outweigh the risks.
Source: John Mason MSP on Twitter
Also of relevance is that the excess deaths inquiry in Scotland was completed well back into 2022 and was closed after only 109 responses. Astonishingly, nearly one third of all respondents stated the Covid–19 ‘vaccine’ was extremely harmful. This real-world data, with feedback from his own Scottish citizenry, is the opposite of what Mr Mason claims.
Source: Scottish Parliament solicitation of public submissions to Covid–19 Excess Deaths Inquiry, now unavailable on parliament.scot but archived
Why the inquiry, then?
Given the information that has been outlined above, the committee prioritising ‘long Covid’, which has already become a political football, could be seen as a whitewash exercise—one which would, in practice, cover up harms accrued from Covid ‘vaccinations’, many of which I have witnessed first-hand on a local level. It is also noticeable worldwide that, since the rollout of the experimental injections, more people have come forward to detail the results of their debilitating vaccine injuries, on which UK Column has conducted a series of harrowing interviews. I highly recommend watching the full documentary Safe and Effective—A Second Opinion.
As a logical person, I ask myself the following questions in conclusion:
- If large numbers of people in Scotland were in fact suffering chronic health issues directly from experimental Covid ‘vaccines’, how would the Government know?
- The Scottish Government and Parliament appear to have no interest in finding out. Is the Recovery Committee sincerely following the evidence, or something else?
- Should it perhaps be more aptly named the Covid–19 Cover-up Committee?
To argue with a person who has renounced the use of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.
— Thomas Paine
Article image: Covid injection victim John Watt (36) of Glasgow, from the documentary Safe and Effective—A Second Opinion
