Peter Rhodes on crowded housing, wacky virus theories and reasons to be hopeful

Fascinating statistics of our age. Number of men jailed for taking illicit images in the first year since the upskirting law was passed: four. Number of links to upskirting on Google: 230 million.

A Guardian report on the prevalence of coronavirus in black and Asian communities blames “extreme overcrowding” in some inner-cities, introducing us to a pizza-delivery driver who lives with his wife and five children in a single room four metres square, sharing a bathroom and kitchen with four strangers. The Birmingham Ladywood MP Shabana Mahmood says the custom of large south-Asian families living with elderly relatives, sometimes in overcrowded conditions, could be a factor. How do you protect old people when three generations share a small house? How can folk follow the official coronavirus guidance if the leaflets are only in English?

When this wretched contagion is over, the inevitable public inquiry must look at every aspect of what went right and wrong, and why Britain suffered so many deaths. While politicians and advisers must take some blame, we must accept that the way some people are forced to live influences the way they die. And before the usual suspects among my readers reach for the keyboard to shriek racism, this is no such thing. It is about giving minorities the same chances as the rest of us.

Meanwhile, if you're not entirely up to speed on coronavirus, it was deliberately created by the New World Order as part of its plan to reduce global population from seven billion to five billion. When the vaccine is finally revealed, it will be compulsory for every citizen and will come with a microchip to be inserted in your body so They can track your movements. If you refuse the vaccine and chip you won't be able to have a bank account or even leave home. I do not make this stuff up. I found it all on the internet so it's gotta be true, innit?

The big mistake, of course, is allowing unlimited access to the internet to anybody with a pulse. In the old days you could spend a lifetime trying to publish a wacky conspiracy theory. These days it takes five minutes on your smartphone with no proof of anything, least of all your IQ. The intriguing thing is that everyone warning darkly about being traced by the New World Order seems to own a smartphone, which is the ideal device for being traced.

I have a theory of my own. It is that in the next couple of weeks one or more of the hundreds of existing drugs designed to fight other diseases and now being re-tested will be bringing Covid-19 victims back from Heaven's gate. We should be scared of coronavirus and keep our guard up. But the task of defeating it is massive and global and there must be a breakthrough. There is still a place for optimism.