PROFESSOR John Baruch says he is a retired scientist “as much as scientists retire,” meaning in reality he isn’t retired at all.

The former head of the Department of Cybernetics at the University of Bradford is now a visiting professor at three universities working on “education for the fourth Industrial Revolution” — the impact of new technology on work and the economy.

But his latest project is the Bradford Science Collective, a group of like-minded scientists concerned about the government’s appalling handling of the coronavirus crisis — and the science on which its actions are supposedly based.

He poses the question: is it the scientists telling the politicians what to do, or is it the politicians telling the scientists, whose wages it pays, what it wants to hear from them?

He explained the reasons for the need for scientific advice independent of government.

“Back in January and February we could see that the personal protective equipment (PPE) recommended by Public Health England was inadequate and has since contributed to many of the deaths of public facing health workers.

“Public Health England is part of the government and its advice is politically motivated. 

“It was set up in 2013 as many NHS operations were closed to enable the government to implement privatisation of the NHS. 

“The advice given by Public Health England on PPE was at odds with the advice given by the World Health Organisation (WHO).”

Baruch has doubts about the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, the Sage committee, which is advising the government on a daily basis.

“The Sage committee is also partisan with people like the chief government political adviser Dominic Cummings sitting in on it,” he said.

“He is no scientist. The previous chief scientific adviser to the government, Lord King, was so horrified by this political interference that he has set up his own committee.”

He went on: “It was the government’s Sage committee that produced the wicked ‘herd immunity’ strategy which, without a vaccine, would produce the best part of half a million deaths.”

The herd immunity theory is based on the belief that if the coronavirus is allowed to spread across the British population, people will develop a natural immunity which will end the march of the virus.

Although the theory was hastily dumped when the potential 500,000 death toll was revealed, he believes the government may now be attempting to introduce it clandestinely to a degree through the premature reopening of primary schools and the scaled reopening of other schools soon after.

“Today we see the herd immunity idea surfacing again with the proposal to reopen the schools before we have cornered the virus with test, track and isolate methods, and without the PPE recommended by the WHO. 

“The WHO is focused on the science and protecting the public and the economy.”

The issue of reopening schools was the subject of his group’s first media release in which Baruch explained how it could spread the virus.

“When the virus infects us we show no signs for four or five days but we are highly infectious and many children have the disease and never show any signs but are highly infectious,” he said. 

“Opening schools will spread the virus right across the community.

“One child whose family has the virus will bring it into school. Every cough or sneeze will infect all around them, everything they touch, door handles, pens. 

“On day one they may infect only five of their fellow students. On day two each of these five will infect another five and on day three all the schools and the teachers will be infected and they will infect their families.

“There will be no signs for four or five days and then some of the children will become ill. Many of their parents and families will become ill. The virus will go right across the community and the death rate will soar.”

He says that the lockdown is the best way to slow the spread of the virus, and that testing and tracking is the way to defeat it, in advance of the development of an effective immunity inoculation.

“We need to test anyone and everyone to find the virus and then track those who that person has been in contact with and when we find people who are infected get them to isolate for 14 days.

“Opening the schools before we can do that is crazy. This government is struggling to have 100,000 tests a day, but we also need testing facilities at every pharmacy throughout the land. We are miles away from that.

“The present lockdown strategy has to stay until we have the PPE gear necessary to keep everyone safe who is public facing.

“Then in every community we need to be able to test those we suspect have the virus. This we know from the WHO, whose advice kept the numbers of deaths in New Zealand to 21, in China to 4,633 and Germany to 7,510.”

Trade unions with members working in schools also have fears about reopening schools too soon.

General union GMB surveyed 14,000 school support staff and found that 96 per cent were worried that reopening schools too early will put children and their families at risk. 

The survey also shows that only 0.6 per cent of respondents think it’s possible for young schoolchildren to socially distance in school, and fewer than 12 per cent are confident adequate coronavirus testing will be available for staff. 

GMB national officer Karen Leonard said: “It’s impossible for young children to socially distance and current plans would put lives at risk.  

“Ministers are playing Russian roulette with the youngest pupils in schools leaving parents and staff feeling scared, confused and with no confidence in the process.” 

The National Education Union also voiced fears.

Within an hour of being asked for their views after the announcement that schools would reopen, 49,000 teachers gave a resounding No to the government’s plans, and said they would feel unsafe.

The Bradford Science Collective’s latest warning focuses on the government’s decision for work to resume in workplaces such as factories and building sites — a decision trade unions say will put hundreds of thousands of workers at risk unless every workplace has been vetted for safe practices, including workers maintaining social distancing.

“The ‘go back to work but stay alert’ message without enforceable health and safety advice will convert our workplaces into cruise ships,” he said.

“The government is in a hole. They have failed to deliver adequate personal protective equipment for public-facing staff. 

“They have failed to provide enough accessible testing for anyone who may have encountered the virus, and the economy has stalled.

“Now they are attempting to climb out of the hole over the corpses of working people who will be taking the virus home from their cruise ship employment.

“Without a health and safety evaluation which is enforceable by law, workers will not be able to resist working practices they regard as unsafe. 

“We have seen from cruise ships that keeping people apart in the same environment doesn’t stop the virus. People will return home from work and bring the virus with them. It is confusing, cruel and unnecessary advice.”

Prof Baruch is an active trade unionist and a member of Scientists for Labour and the Socialist Education Association.