A video claiming that negative consequences of the lockdown are evidence of genocide was shared online. Although there were serious consequences of pandemic measures, it was not instituted to deliberately wipe out certain groups.
The clip shows a British woman named Louise Hampton speaking to a crowd here and here on December 12th.
The speech begins with a description of the impact of the closure on the elderly. The effects this group is experiencing have been widely reported, for example by Reuters here and here.
At 1:16 in the video, however, the speaker says: “Boris Johnson, Matt Hancock, we know about the orders not to resuscitate. This is genocide. ”
Through non-resuscitation orders, individuals can decide what intervention they want if they have a heart or respiratory attack, including refusal of resuscitation. According to the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the independent regulator of health and social care in England (here), the person should always decide whether or not they are too bad to get involved, by family members.
At the outset of the pandemic, there were concerns about the possibility of using non-resuscitation orders on certain patients in certain environments. The CQC described this practice as ‘unacceptable’ in a joint statement with the British Medical Association and Royal College of General Practitioners in April (here).
However, the abuse of orders that should not be revived was not genocide. Genocide is defined by the United Nations as “acts committed with the aim of destroying a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, in whole or in part.” (here)
The government asked the CQC in October to look at how orders are used during the pandemic (here) and an interim report published on December 3 said: ‘Although there is no evidence to suggest that the general approaches to DNACPR decisions are not made. currently used, people using services and groups they represent told CQC that they or their loved ones received DNACPR decisions early in the pandemic that were not based on their wishes and needs, and without their knowledge and consent.
“It is unacceptable that decisions are applied to groups of people of any description.” (here)
The speaker also gives an explanation of how the pandemic affected cancer services. At 1:48 she says: “Intestinal, breast and uterine contractions have been suspended. There were 210,000 impressions per week beforehand, but there is now a backlog of more than three million patients. Between April and August, it was estimated that 350,000 fewer people were diagnosed with cancer. Why is this? People are terrified of going to their GPs. They are terrified that they will be sent to hospital and get COVID. The government has placed COVID on cancer. We say no to tyranny. 37% decrease in patients receiving treatment. This is genocide and these figures are from Cancer Research UK. ”
Again, the impact of the pandemic on the detection and treatment of cancer is a serious matter that has been widely reported, for example here, here and here.
The statistics mentioned in the speech are true. Three cancer screening programs have been delayed to protect people from COVID-19 and to allow NHS staff who manage them to support critical services, according to the charity Cancer Research UK, although some have started here again. The other mentioned figures were reported on September 11 (here) by the charity.
As before, however, it does not involve genocide. Cancer services were not reduced with the aim of eliminating people suffering from cancer, but because of measures taken to protect people from COVID-19 and to support critical services of NHS.
VERDICT
Partly false. The video highlights issues of non-resuscitation orders and cancer care, both of which were of concern during the pandemic. However, the speaker falsely claims that this is evidence of genocide. Genocide is an act carried out with the aim of eliminating a group of people.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.