Portuguese Microbiologist Accuses Grant Shapps Of Lying

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Transport Secretary Grant Shapps. Image: Twitter

PORTUGUESE Microbiologist Accuses Grant Shapps Of Lying about the number of cases of the Nepal mutation in Portugal

Britain’s Transport Minister Grant Shapps, last Thursday 3 announced that Portugal was being moved back into the UK’s ‘amber list’ of travel destinations, and cited one of the reasons for that decision as being the discovery in Portugal of 68 cases of the Nepal mutation of the Indian variant of coronavirus.

In response to this decision, João Paulo Gomes, a leading Portuguese microbiologist who works for INSA – and is one of the key experts belonging to the public health institute of Dr Ricardo Jorge, that advises the Portuguese government on the pandemic situation – has accused Mr Shapps of lying, claiming that only 12 cases of the Nepal mutation have been found in the country, according to the Portugal Resident.

Speaking with SIC television news on Friday evening (June 4), Mr Gomes explained that only 12 cases of the Nepal mutation had been detected nationally via mass-testing, and went on to suggest that this new mutation is no more virulent than the Indian variant, and that, as such, there is no data available to back up Mr Shapps’ warning that the public should exercise “extreme caution” in case this new mutation was found to be immune to any of the available vaccines.

He accused the Transport Minister of making, in his own words, “a storm in a glass of water”, going on to explain that virus variants “have a process of evolution”, and that this new mutation is a “perfectly normal” mutation of the Indian variant, and is not, as the British Government seemed to intimate, some ‘super Indian variant’.

Last week, the DGS health authorities confirmed that national incidences of the Indian variant are below five per cent of the total number of cases.

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Written by

Chris King

Originally from Wales, Chris spent years on the Costa del Sol before moving to the Algarve where he is a web reporter for The Euro Weekly News covering international and Spanish national news. Got a news story you want to share? Then get in touch at editorial@euroweeklynews.com

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