Keeping the handbrake on is a polite way of describing Boris’s raft of announcements yesterday about how and when the lockdown is going to be eased. On Twitter, I described it as placing the country on “double secret probation”, so elaborate are the rules about when we’re allowed out of our domestic prisons. Others have been more forthright. One reader described the Prime Minister’s speech as a “nothingburger squared”, while Kathy Gyngell at Conservative Woman has a new name for our glorious leader: Bottler Boris.
The weird thing is, lots of people think he went too far. That was particularly true of left-wing politicians. Jeremy Corbyn, for instance, tweeted: “There should be no return to work until it is safe to do so. If work cannot be done safely, it should not proceed. People must come before private profit.” The idea, obviously, is to get it on record that they think Boris is making a dreadful mistake so if the death toll starts to rise they can pin that on him. Sturgeon is playing the same game. Happily, that didn’t stop people getting on the tube to return to work this morning. London Mayor Sadiq Khan has responded by saying wearing masks on public transport should be compulsory.
One thing that stood out in Boris’s speech was how often he mentioned “the R” – the rate of infection. Clearly, how free we’re allowed to be is inextricably bound up with what the R number is, although the details were hard to follow. That led Ben Pile, a Spiked contributor, to post this amusing summary of the speech on Twitter: “If I understand the Prime Minister, the level of alert will be updated by scientists checking their Rs. If their Rs is low, then we can be free. But if their Rs is high, then we must be locked up again. Scientists will be speaking to the Prime Minister through their Rs.” He then added: “The PM will be checking the scientists’ Rs every day. Scientists will also be checking each others Rs – a method pioneered by Prof Neil Ferguson and his lover.”
If there’s one straw to clutch at, it’s that Boris has abandoned the crackpot notion that any reimposition of restrictions after some modest easing would be “an economic disaster”. That’s what he said when he addressed the nation on April 27th, announcing we couldn’t possibly relax any of the extreme social distancing measures if there was the slightest risk it would lead to an uptick in infections. I despaired at the time because it seemed like a “test” that could never be met. But he’s done a reverse ferret on that, thank God. Now the line is that if infections start to rise, restrictions will be tightened up again until they start to fall. Indeed, he unveiled a ‘Covid Alert’ metre that will dictate when restrictions are turned on and off. As several readers have pointed out, it bears an uncanny resemblance to the ‘Peri-ometer’ at Nando’s, the high-street peri-peri chicken chain:
Another reason we should welcome switching measures on and off in response to the rise and fall of the R number – first suggested in the Imperial College March 16th paper – is that it seems unlikely infections will start to climb again as a result of any easing. In Germany, for instance, it’s clear that new infections have been trending downwards since the lockdown was dialled back a couple of weeks ago. And, of course, infections have also been declining in those countries that never imposed lockdowns in the first place, such as Sweden.
And Belarus. We mustn’t forget Belarus. A reader reminded me yesterday that no lockdown has been imposed in the East European republic and it has experienced one of the mildest Covid outbreaks anywhere in the world. Only 135 deaths so far, which works out at 14 per million. Who would have suspected that Alexander Lukashenko, the autocratic President of Belarus, would have managed this crisis better than our own democratically-elected leaders? As Mark put it in the comments beneath yesterday’s daily update: “What a state we have come to when a thuggish ageing Belarussian autocrat makes our entire political, media and social elite look like a bunch of scared, hysterical old women (with due apologies to all the sterling ladies of a certain age posting here).”
So why are infections unlikely to start trending upwards post-lockdown and why have they been falling in those countries – and US states – that never made the disastrous mistake in the first place? One theory is that the herd immunity threshold is far lower than originally anticipated – more like 7-24% than 50-60%. Nicholas Lewis, a climate change researcher, has written a piece that parses the evidence and sets out the argument. He shows that variation in COVID-19 susceptibility and infectivity between individuals, arising mainly from differences in their social connectivity, lowers the herd immunity threshold to a much more manageable level. His analysis draws on a recent preprint by Gomes et al entitled ‘Individual variation in susceptibility or exposure to SARS-CoV-2 lowers the herd immunity threshold‘. Lewis’s paper is well worth a read.
By the way, what happened to the much-heralded Porton Down antibody testing survey? That involved randomly testing tens of thousands of people with a view to building up a picture of just how many Britons had been infected. It was announced over a month ago and I haven’t heard a peep about it since. Can any reader throw any light on this?
One more reason why the R number is unlikely to go up post-lockdown is that it may have sunk to below 1 before the lockdown was imposed and remained at that level throughout. That’s what happened in Germany. This chart from the Robert Koch Institute shows that by March 23rd, when the German Government imposed its most severe lockdown measures, the reproduction figure was already below 1, meaning the number of new infections was declining. In addition, it shows that in the following weeks, after the lockdown was in place, the R figure didn’t decline any further. So the lockdown didn’t result in any additional reduction of new cases.
“Sue Denim” has been in touch to point out that several other people with similar levels of coding expertise have posted analyses of Neil Ferguson’s code that are as scathing as his. Take this one, for instance, by Chris von Csefalvay. He is an epidemiologist specialising in the virology of bat-borne illnesses, including bat-related coronaviruses. “It is very difficult to look at the Ferguson code with any understanding of software engineering and conclude that this is good, or even tolerable,” he writes. He notes that Ferguson apologised for the poor quality of the code on Twitter, explaining that he wrote it more than 13 years ago to model flu pandemics. Csefalvay responds as follows: “That, sir, is not a feature. It’s not even a bug. It’s somewhere between negligence and unintentional but grave scientific misconduct.”
Then there’s this review by Craig Pirrong, Professor of Finance and Energy Markets Director of the Global Energy Management Institute at the Bauer College of Business, University of Houston. “Models only become science when tested against data/experiment,” he writes. “By that standard, the Imperial College model failed spectacularly.”
Meanwhile, the quality of the responses to these critiques by Ferguson’s defenders is pitiful. Like this one by Phil Bull, a Lecturer in Cosmology at Queen Mary University headlined ‘Why you can ignore reviews of scientific code by commercial software developers‘. Includes a caveat that tells you everything you need to know: “I will caveat this section with the fact that I am an astrophysicist and not an epidemiologist, so can’t critique the model assumptions or even really the extent to which it has been implemented well in the Imperial code.”
Problems continue to mount for the NHSx contact-tracing app. On May 7th, the parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights chaired by Harriet Harman published its report on the first version of the app and it doesn’t look like anyone on that Committee is going to be installing it on their phones anytime soon. The same person who wrote a detailed analysis of the app’s shortcomings for Lockdown Sceptics has summarised the Committee’s findings:
- The Committee does not believe the app, in its nascent form, is even legal: “Unless the efficacy and benefits of the app are clear, the level of data being collected will be not be justifiable and it will therefore fall foul of data protection law and human rights protections.”
- From the summary: “there are significant concerns about a tracking app being rolled out at speed with the potential longer-term effects on personal freedoms and concerns around surveillance encroaching on people’s everyday lives…” “The implications of such an app are so widespread, significant, and, as yet, subject to limited public examination, that they should be subject to the in-depth scrutiny of Parliament at the earliest opportunity. The Committee is concerned that this has not happened to date.” “The implementation and oversight of this app must, in our view, be urgently placed on a legislative footing…”
- The Committee is calling for primary legislation to govern the app and the use of its data, plus an independent body to oversee it. Matt Hancock has apparently appointed an independent Ethics Advisory Board but the Committee sees this as insufficient.
Meanwhile, in Germany an anti-lockdown political party has been formed called Widerstand2020 Deutschland. Founded on April 21st, it has already attracted more than 100,000 members (although that number is contested). I can’t find anything about the party in any English-language publications, but it has a German website and a Facebook page and its two leaders are Ralf Ludwig, a Leipzig-based lawyer, and Dr Bodo Schiffmann, an ear, nose and throat specialist. Together, they’re known as Ralf and Bodo. (There was a third leader, Victoria Hamm, but she seems to have dropped out.) There is some discussion in Germany about whether Widerstand2020 Deutschland is, technically, a political party because single-issue parties are legally prohibited from participating in elections by Germany’s Basic Law. The fact that it accepts anonymous donations also rules it out. Widerstand2020 Deutschland has a page on Wikipedia, but lockdown zealots are straining every sinew to get it removed. (The party’s website has also been under attack since May 3rd.) The entry notes that a “right wing extremism researcher” called Matthias Quent believes the party – and the German lockdown sceptics movement in general – is a “collective of dissatisfied, frustrated and esoteric types, conspiracy theorists, people who are against vaccinations, anti-Semites and right-wing radicals”. A German-speaking reader of this website, to whom I’m indebted for doing some research on this for me, notes that nearly all the reporting about Widerstand2020 Deutschland in the German media has been dismissive. “The tendency to lump the entire membership of the organisation together as dangerous extremists dominates all the news reports I found,” he says. Dr Schiffmann also has a YouTube channel in which he makes arguments that will be familiar to readers of this site, such as questioning the level of danger presented by the virus and pointing out how disproportionate the response has been. One interesting fact uncovered by my researcher: the German term for lockdown is “der lockdown”. Incidentally, widerstand is the German word for resistance. If Widerstand2020 Deutschland does figure out how to get around Germany’s election rules I’ve no doubt it will do well. Das Bild, Europe’s biggest-selling newspaper, announced yesterday that the lockdown in Germany had been a “huge mistake”. Breitbart has more.
The UK still seems a long way from the emergence of Widerstand2020 Großbritannien, but an embryonic anti-lockdown movement is emerging. For instance, a group of sceptics in Manchester were out yesterday plastering the town with stickers. The group, which calls itself “For Freedom’s Sake” and can be found on Twitter here, is hoping to encourage others by engaging in small acts of resistance, a bit like Otto and Elise Hampel, the Berlin couple who wrote postcards denouncing Hitler and left them in public places around the city. Here’s one of the stickers:
And now for our own small act of resistance. Today, Lockdown Sceptics is launching a searchable directory of open businesses across the UK. The idea is to celebrate those retail and hospitality businesses that have reopened, as well as to help people find out what has opened in their area. But we need your help to build it, so we’ve created a form you can fill out to tell us about those businesses that have reopened near you. Should all be fairly self-explanatory – and the owners of small businesses are welcome to enter their own details. Please visit the page and let us know about those courageous entrepreneurs who are doing their bit to get the country moving again.
And check this out. An enterprising family has created a drive-thru McDonald’s in their back garden. But don’t add underground businesses like that to our directory. We don’t want the police to use it as a tool to track down Covid dissidents.
A reader in Japan has sent me this imaginative diagram that a designer friend of his has created to help people understand the social distancing rules. Could this be an example of what will come to be known as Covid art? Obviously, I don’t include this monstrous piece of propaganda by Banksy in that category.
Good letter in the Yorkshire Post yesterday from Peter Snowdon contrasting his fathers’ generation, which won the Second World War, with the current lot of bed-wetters:
They would be appalled by the way in which we have responded to this pandemic. They would think that we are unable to balance and manage risk. The effects of the breakdown of the economy will put those vital parts of society – the health service, education and social care – back by many years. We will live with the economic effects of these few weeks for years to come. Unemployment will soar and many more people will die worldwide than ever succumb to the virus as a result of the economic strictures that will be in place.
Let’s honour the memory of those who died, or gave up their younger years, by accepting that, in times of natural disaster, we cannot solve everything. Our parents did so and ‘just got on with it’. We cannot reduce the numbers dying to nothing and we shouldn’t rob the future of millions of people in a futile effort to do so.
I received a heart-rending email from an isolated sceptic in Bexhill-on-Sea, a small town on England’s south coast. “Never has there been a bunch of more hysterical, scared-shitless snowflakes, not only wanting the lockdown to carry on for months, but to tighten it down to unprecedented levels,” he writes. “There is a very popular community-based facebook group here and there are literally hundreds of posts screaming about the slight ease-up in restrictions that Bojo spoke about last night.” He continues:
Toby, I wanted to post something on the group with the alternate point of view, but my wife and daughter wouldn’t let me! I realised myself that I would generate so much abuse and hate and wouldn’t be surprised if I was hounded out of the group. I have friends in the same group and I actually think I would lose some of them if I put in my penny-worth. It has actually become like the Brexit/Remainer thing now, dividing communities and even families. There is a lot of shaming of, not only those breaking the lockdown, but those who dare to walk on the seafront who are still socially distancing.
I’m sure there are a lot of readers of this site who feel his pain.
I was at Comedy Unleashed, the samizdat comedy night in Bethnal Green, on March 10th when Dominic Frisby unveiled a new verse to his ‘Maybe’ song, this one about coronavirus. Talk about prophetic! You can see Dominic singing that verse here. If you fancy anther dose of Comedy Unleashed-style humour, there’s this brilliant YouTube piss-take of Nicola Sturgeon reacting to Boris’s announcement by Jane Godley. Warning: Contains profanity. And this YouTube video by Paul Weston is laugh-out-loud funny. Slow start, but wait till you get to the bit when he points out that people aged 19 and under are about as likely to die from COVID-19 as they are from putting on their trousers. Apparently, eight people died while trying to do that last year.
Conor Friedersdorf, a journalist at the Atlantic I have a lot of time for, wrote a good piece yesterday entitled ‘Take the Shutdown Skeptics Seriously‘. After summarising the sceptics’ case, he writes: “These facts may not be evident from the least thoughtful proponents of reopening, many of whom advance arguments that are uninformed, dismissive of experts, or callous. But the warnings of thoughtful shutdown skeptics warrant careful study, not stigma rooted in the false pretense that they don’t have any plausible concerns or value human life.”
And on to the round-up of all the stories I’ve noticed, or which have been been brought to my attention, in the last 24 hours:
- ‘Covid-19’s Third Shock Wave: The Global Food Crisis‘ – Michael T Klare in the Nation argues that the lockdown will cause the collapse of global food-supply systems, leading to mass starvation in the developing world
- ‘How to make a crisis far, far, worse‘ – Latest jeremiad from Dr Malcolm Kendrick
- ‘Global virus lockdown was “madness”‘ – Uwe Parart summarises the evidence, as laid out by Stefan Homburg, Professor of Public Finance at Leibniz University
- ‘Is there any point in social distancing?’ – Will Jones’s latest in the Conservative Woman
- ‘What are the ‘reopen’ protesters really saying?‘ – Great piece in the Conversation doing some social anthropology about the different groups attracted to the sceptics’ cause
Some more suggestions for theme songs from readers: ‘Wake Up‘ by Rage Against the Machine, ‘Isolation‘ by Joy Division, ‘Sitting Round at Home‘ by the Buzzcocks and, of course, ‘Infected‘ by the The. Can’t believe we haven’t had that one before.
Thanks as always to those who made a donation in the last 24 hours to pay for the upkeep of the site. If you feel like donating, you can do so by clicking here. (Every little helps!) And if you want to flag up any stories or links I should include in tomorrow’s update, you can email me here.
And finally, Guy de la Bédoyère, a long-standing contributor to this site, has written a great essay for Lockdown Sceptics about Britain’s slide into totalitarianism. Guy is a historian who mainly writes books about the Roman world, but he taught a course on Totalitarian Ideology in Theory and Practice for a number of years. Please do read the whole thing, but here’s an extract:
One of the most remarkable aspects of the creation of Britain’s Covid Reich was that even in the middle of the Government’s witless, confused and ambivalent approach to the crisis it was able to rustle up overnight many of the key ingredients of totalitarianism. The ideology and the slogans, and the continual repetition of the message with the supine assistance of broadcast media, all fell into place with frightening speed. The speed with which the Great British Public acquiesced was even more alarming.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
Meanwhile… in a country that used science, as opposed to “the science:”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-28/sweden-unveils-promising-covid-19-data-as-new-cases-plunge
Logic, common sense, an appreciation for actual facts & real world experience.
It makes me so depressed to this how far we have to go to even get close to that level of competency, similar to the scale of job Arteta has on his hands at Arsenal.
As an Arsenal fan I concur
Yes good reference there, made this here Gooner smile
Well, after we beat CFC in a few days, we’ll have closed the competency gap! What possibly could go wrong?
As a kopite, I’d just like to say it’s nice to have you middle-of-the-table types posting here.
Glad to see a few fellow gooners are on here adding to our misery haha
That moron Johnson is telling us to walk more. Before his stupid lockdown I used to walk 25 miles a week on a couple of group walks. I got fit and met my friends and it improves mental health as well. Group walks are still suspended even now, despite the fact that social distancing in the countryside is very easy (even if unnecessary). The reason is that we should still limit contact as much as possible. However, I can go to the pub or shopping or the cinema or gym. There is no logic to any of this.
I used to walk to work at 4 miles a day. It also made for a good means of clearing my mind and separating the job from my home.
One of the biggest improvements for peoples health as a lot of people don’t take exercise would be to provide funding for standing desks, so that people weren’t so sedentary during working hours. Then they’ve got the option of standing and sitting to work.
More taxes, more Nanny State interference in our lives.
Remember at the start of lockdown:
Johnson effectively locked people in their homes, only permitted to leave their homes for 1 hour per day to do exercise, people who used their small front gardens visited by police and told them not acceptable, all parks closed, all playgrounds closed, care homes still under draconian lockdown measures.
Please give us a break from all this nonsense and find a clever plan to get the economy going. Tip: remove all the ridiculous distancing measures and masks
The one hour limit was the result of an off-the-cuff comment by Michael Gove. I ignored it. I try to walk between five and eight miles a day.
I cant walk much at all I’ve now damaged my heel!
I’m in the same place as you – except it’s the ball of my foot I’ve damaged. Happened just as lockdown came in and so frustrating as I’ve really want to get out and about more,because of the lockdown. If that makes sense!
Buy a scooter?
Hop ?
Pogo stick.
First week of Lockdown – my step-daughter and I took an epic 7-hour walk to the highest point in the area so we could get a glimpse of the sea on the horizon. Not a soul in sight. Highly illegal at the time. In fact it feels strange now, not breaking the law on a daily basis.
Unlawful perhaps, but never illegal. I’m not entirely clear on the distinction, though another reader may be, but I think ‘unlawful’ pertains more to government whims than anything else and so is nothing much worth bothering about, while ‘illegal’ relates to actual criminal acts.
They didn’t want us to do it, either way :o))
You have the concept about distinction. But vice versa.
Crime – basic right and wrongs – simple universal – not tricksy.
Illegal – paperwork – policies statues – human contrived.
What then of ‘unlawful’? There is definitely a difference between that and ‘illegal’, with ‘illegal’ pertaining to murder or theft for instance. Even if it is merely lawyer’s quibbles.
Illegal means the law expressly forbids it. Unlawful means it’s not allowed under the law because no law expressly allows it.
The concept of unlawful does not properly exist in UK law then, as that is an aspect of the Code Napoléon is it not? In UK law and derived systems nothing is not permitted unless a law specifically says it is not permitted. Does it not mean that something being called merely unlawful can be ignored?
It’s… complicated. You’re basically right – there’s nothing illegal about acting unlawfully in this country (I believe that under a civil code, ‘unlawful’ is less of a real concept). It might help to think of it in this way: You might have acted against the spirit of the law, but kept to the letter of the law and so your actions are unlawful, but not necessarily illegal.
There remains a possibility that, in acting unlawfully you have also acted illegally.
Either way, you can’t be done for unlawful.
I’m well aware it’s complicated, that’s why I asked
I’m a bit of a jack of all trades but law is something I am little familiar with beyond basics, so I thank you for the elaboration.
Police being punitive against ‘unlawful’ are thus themselves committing questionable acts are they not (whether illegal or unlawful or otherwise)?
Yes.
Murder is unlawful. Is it illegal? I don’t think so. Murder being a natural wrong.
Building without regulation standard – illegal it is against a contrived rule. This is also called unlawful refering to statute law. I would suggest illegal is more accurate.
Common law is law rights and wrongs we know within us.
Statute law comes from maritime law as strange as that may be. Dock(!) Often you can cross a statue law without knowing. Like, frinstance, not wearing a mask.
I obviously see things the reverse way to you. ‘Unlawful’ is not a term I would really ever use, hence my confusion. You seem to equate ‘unlawful’ to ‘wrong’ or ‘unjust’ where I would see both it and ‘illegal’ as coming from lawyers’ prattle, but ‘illegal’ is applied by legal types to such natural wrongs, not ‘unlawful’. See also my response to matt above.
I agree with legal being lawyers prattle and ‘law’ being innate/natural within us.
Legal Law
Universal Law
Common Law
All result with a term unlawful.
Legal – contived aka prattle (good word!)
Law – common law
A good way to look at things is what a Police Constable can do and what a Police Office can do – the two are not the same.
Officer – legal.
Constable – common law.
There’s no Napoleon within British Law. The Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights and the Scottish Claim of rights form the basis of laws of the land.
Maritime law has the language legalese associated e.g. ‘Understand’ commonly means one thing to us but within legalese it means Stand Under (a statue or act) to be in agreement with. Sly.
The root of the two systems and complexities are best shown by the completely unbelievable fact that your birth certificate is not your property it is crown copyright. Your legal name is just that – and that is what legal law operates on. You the human is seperate to your legal name.
The above is incoherent. Start here:
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/understanding-legislation
johnsons proroguing of Parliament was deemed Unlawful, no meaning in law, therefore Parliament was not prorogued so immediately resumed the sitting as though johnson had done nothing.
The remainers in their willful ignorance conflated this with illegal ie criminal, nothing of the sort.
An example of unlawful is 30mph signs on a road with no street lights.
Councils may only impose 30mph limits in an urban environment and that is defined by having said lighting. The signs thus have no meaning in law = unlawfull but not illegal.
Cadair Berwyn? Or Moel-y-Gamelin?
It was never law, at least not in England. Neither was there ever a once-a-day law, or any law regarding distancing.
…says a man who probably travels 99% of the time in a ministerial car that he does not even need to drive himself!
I volunteer for a local wildlife trust. Every Tuesday out in the fresh air doing stuff like clearing invasive species, coppicing, tidying up local parish leisure areas etc. All with like-minded people of “a certain age” in excellent health – both mental and physical. This ended in March and none of it has restarted. We had a safetyism-heavy letter from a director about 2 months ago telling us no imminent return and since then not a peep from the trust management. Meanwhile we find other ways to occupy ourselves outdoors and I suspect that when the call comes to return it will be so overladen with “safety” measures that most of us won’t bother. Such is coronapanic.
I walk with various Ramblers groups but walking is pre booked in groups of max 6. In normal times we sometimes had 20 plus on a walk so it is very restricted. Obviously I can and do walk on my own but not allowing unrestricted group walking is madness. Rather like your wildlife trust work I suspect many will not bother in future.
And walk leaders, of which I’m one, are to be required to complete a risk assessment for each walk, recce it the day before the walk, and take a list of names. Also run the booking system and try to make sure everybody gets a chance for a walk every now and again. There used to be 15 or so, many old, including some over 80’s, walking 7 or 8 miles every week. Some have found they can walk informally in smaller groups with none of the nonsense and this will likely continue – charities like Ramblers will possibly not survive if their demands on their volunteers are too onerous. We also always used to have tea, cake and chat afterwards but where can you do that nowadays in a group of 15 or so? This has destroyed the health, social life and raison d’être of many older walkers, many are stressed and depressed and we’re having to almost be their social workers to make sure they don’t go under.
These are all just guidelines. Nothing forcing you to do any of this.
http://www.laworfiction.com/2020/07/bands-and-orchestras-can-gather-together/
This link applies to all groups
The mask nonsense came in on Thursday evening, and on Friday morning, the shops were almost deserted. Only absolutely essential shopping being done. People were showing their disapproval by simply not going out unless completely necessary. A quick trawl of my favourite fora showed that people were mostly saying that they were going to order online as much as possible, so the businesses that were just starting up again will all be in dire straits – again. Probably by design.
I already walk quite a lot Boris due to your stupid ffing mask on public transport rule
Bloody hypocrite. I challenge him to walk from where I live – NW London to Number 10. See how he likes it.
He did genuinely used to cycle quite a lot – I saw him fairly often on his bike. Doubt he does any more. He was somewhat hazardous – on his phone, not paying much attention to zebra crossings etc. He once came to the rescue of some poor person who was being harrassed by feral thugs – on the route he cycled, this was quite common – and chased them off. Possibly one of the last honourable things he did.
He did use to take the underground as well. An acquaintance of mine sat next to him once and she was tempted to lend him her brush as his hair was so disheveled.
I don’t get his tousled hair look – in photos of the younger Boris, his hair was normal, ie combed and tidy. If he thinks the unkempt look makes him more like one of the ‘plebs’ and thus more approachable (ie less of a toff), he needs his eyes tested! Not combing your hair only makes you look like a tramp..
Me neither. Its really odd and makes you wonder what he’s aiming for with the touseled hair looks. I don’t think its to make him one of us, people tend to take pride in their appearance even if they don’t have much money so Lord knows why he can’t be bothered to comb his hair.
Start from Alexandra Palace, walk down to Priory Park in Hornsey, through the cricket grounds into Queens Wood, over to Highgate and Hampstead Heath, across Regents Park and almost there.
Surprisingly green is London.
This was to your bloody hypocrite post.
And McDonald’s drive-thru was one of the first places to re-open of course, people were queueing for hours in their cars to get their Big Mac and fries…
Here’s some logic.
Covid related salad dodging hasn’t been addressed north of Hadrians Wall. I believe it might be a diplomatic dance too far for even sturgeon. To get her, lets be honest, ‘largish’ cult followers to slim. Being quite factual a liberal amount of anti chafe vaseline will be required before Scotland loses weight.
A relative used to swim competitively in a club. 6 sessions a week. Fit, toned, a picture of health. Since March, nothing. I need say no more. When he starts again, it’ll be a huge struggle…..
It’s not about a virus and the policies aren’t based on sense or science.
Since lockdown I have been cycling 15 miles nearly every day
I walk loads and enjoy this activity but it is now one that is marred by people who prefer to socially distance into bushes or into a road in their bid to avoid me at all costs. Or they stop and wait for me to walk past??? Why?! And then look at me expecting a, I don’t know, thank you?! It is still happening ..argh
Is Boris taking his own advice?
It would improve his figger, his face, and even his coif.
Very unhealthy looking fellow.
I rather suspect he is a born again evangelical exerciser. Lecturing those of us who have always done exercise and tried to live healthily.
Like most things in his life these days, it’s everything to do with following orders from the missus
Hi Bumble, the antisocial distancing are just guidelines. You are free to ignore them
http://www.laworfiction.com/2020/07/lockdown-laws-in-england-have-been-revoked/
And
http://www.laworfiction.com/2020/07/bands-and-orchestras-can-gather-together/
Fiction:
Brass bands, orchestras and every other large group of 30 or more people are still unable to get together to rehearse.
Law:
Brass bands and orchestras can now rehearse in England. Gatherings of up to 30 people, including musicians, are allowed anywhere in England unless there is a specific prohibition. Under the new law in place from 4th July 2020, those prohibitions include (read through these quickly then come back again):
private dwellings (reg. 5(1))
public outdoor places which are not operated by (or part of premises used for operation of) a business, a charitable, benevolent or philanthropic institution or a public body as a visitor attraction, (reg. 5(1) and reg. 5(2))
raves indoors (reg. 5(4))
Exceptions to the above are made, broadly, for gatherings
for elite sportspersons
necessary for work, charitable purposes, education and childcare
reasonably necessary for purposes of education or training
in such public outdoor places where both (a) a written health and safety risk assessment has been undertaken and (b) all reasonable measures have been taken to limit the risk of transmission of the coronavirus taking account of government guidance*
So true Toby
There is unfortunately a specific problem here. You cannot make any claim that a drug works unless you have (a) evidence that it does (b) for most non-grandfathered claims, the agreement of a regulatory body that your evidence is sufficient and that benefit outweighs risk.
That principle, like it or not, does not apply to face masks, lockdowns, or even a lot of medical treatments like surgery. It’s because hydroxychloroquine is a pharmaceutical agent and they are regulated that way. So statements about it are going to be subject to more risk-aversive scrutiny.
I was horrified when trials were stopped on the basis of obviously shoddy data. The only way to know is to conduct and complete an adequately-designed trial. I say that as a (current) HCQ-skeptic. Show me it works and I will change my mind.
Source/conflict of interest statement: I work at the interface between pharma companies and the regulators.
Love the LS Mask Exempt cards. Much better than all the other ones available.
i do however prefer white backgrounds as it uses less ink to print
https://assets.amuniversal.com/6582abe0c854012e2f9100163e41dd5b
The social media companies are platforms, which is why they are not liable to libel suits. However, every time they censor someone, they are implicitly asserting that they are publishers, which makes them liable for all the content on their sites. They should be made to choose: either they are platforms, and therefore can no more censor than a telephone company, or they are publishers and are free to censor.
You might be aware that BigTech is about to appear before the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives at 12 ET. This is relevant, as antitrust is likely the way to resolve this. The problem has been brewing for some time in the US – the dominant Chicago School paradigm of antitrust law and economics does not recognise what are known as portfolio or network effects, meaning they have come to dominate the space, and some would argue, stifle innovation and entrepreneurship. If their platforms are broken up, they would then fall under scrutiny in your second category, I think. If you are interested, Google Lina Khan (Yale Law School) and Amazon’s Antitrust Paradox – free to view, and an excellent read – she is now advising one of the Federal Trade Commission commissioners. Also see the book by Scott Galloway at NYU Stern School of Business (he is a professor of marketing), ‘The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google’
The problem is that the leading Democrat criticism is that they do not censor enough.
Democrats and Labour voters don’t deserve freedom of speech because they openly believe in censorship of dissent. There are of course some people on the right who do also, but these days the impetus comes primarily from the politically and socially dominant left. It’s not anti-white racists like BLM who are censored and hounded, it’s people protesting eg against racist murder of whites in South Africa like Katie Hopkins
They should no longer be given that option. They’ve clearly decided to be publishers, and to interfere in the U.S. election.
Time to fine them, remove their protection from being sued, and punish them for their political interference.
If they were made legally liable for their content, they would very quickly find their business models were unsustainable.
Exactly. They’ve made their political leanings clear. In fact they went political years ago as soon as they gave in to the “hate speech” nonsense, but they got away with that because they were only suppressing fringe dissent. Now they’ve stepped more or less directly into the political fray in the US especially on the side of the Democrats and of coronapanic, so hopefully they will be dealt with appropriately.
We do need actual platforms, but they need to be genuinely free from political censorship. Including censorship of “hate speech”, which absolutely is political censorship.
The censorship by Google and Facebook are all part of the one world one story all fall in line with the same bullshit. Google is unusable and and you’ve got to have a hole in your brain if you use facebook, same with watching the the BBC. We can now see the evil bastards that rule over the majority of people no bother at all. Their lies are so open it’s hard to believe that your leftie arsehole can’t see it. Fuck these people they are a danger to humanity. I keep saying but civil war is inevitable. Any time a new frontier opens up there will be a war and all these tech firms want is to shut down any chance of competition. They are pure evil.
I detest Google if only there was an alternative!
There is …try DuckDuckGo!
I’ve heard of it thanks. I’ll give it a go.
It’s okay, but not necessarily on all searches. Google is still better on a lot of mundane stuff.
If you use firefox, the search box in the top corner will have a dropdown by the magnifying glass (you’ll have to mouse over it) and it will give you a list of search engines you can use for the search. It’s customisable, too.
I used to use Firefox then changed to Opera but both use Google as the browser.
Firefox defaults to google, but it can be changed via the mechanism that I mentioned.
I’ve not used Opera for a while, but it wouldn’t surprise me if that was the same.
Opera has a v. useful built in VPN, useful for finding torrents etc. Set it and forget it.
I use Firefox because everything about it can be customised.
For most things though I actually use the Firefox ‘lite’ or whatever it is that basically just deletes everytihng you just did as soon as you exit it.
You can choose your default browser with firefox.
Seven Steps to Online Privacy
https://medium.com/@re_53711/seven-simple-steps-toward-online-privacy-20dcbb9fa82
Google — A Dictator Unlike Anything the World Has Ever Known
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/05/10/google-and-your-privacy.aspx
yes definitely duck duck go which doesnt track you, but i do find its searches arent quite as good as google so i use google as last resort
The searches are terrible though, with too many USA results in them.
Try typing UK at the end of your query
I did. It gave only a fraction of the results from google. I suppose it depends what you’re searching for.
Bing is absolutely rubbish.
Yandex search:
https://yandex.com/
It’s Russian, but appears every bit as good as Google.
Dogpile is good. It colltes lots of other search engines.
DuckDuckGo is still fairly decent but has been fucked with search algorithm wise (I think they have a similar way of ordering the results as google)
For email give Proton Mail a try protonmail.com
Yes Swiss encrypted not like Gmail that keep all your emails on server
Vpn by proton too. Excellent and free.
I would love to know if it is possible to buy a smart phone without requiring google.
Apple phones probably don’t have much Google software. Idk if you can trust Apple any more but at least you pay them making you a customer. With Android you’re the product. You can also install GNU/Linux on a phone for full freedom but it will probably be quite a hassle.
Thanks. Thats a good help to my understanding. Apple finger print is out for me, but perhaps worth looking into. At least theres a possible way in linux. Google is exceptionally intrusive.
Startpage is great.
Google always puts Conservative Woman at the bottom of my recent searches list so likely to disappear on my next search but I am wise to their slimey tricks.
‘Civil war is inevitable’ At least we’ll be able to identify the enemy, they’ll all be wearing muzzles….
And you will be able to easily see the whites of their eyes.
Twitter somewhat late in the day have removed Wiley’s account.
The Free Speech Union are backing Wiley aren’t they?
Anti trust hearing is being heard in US right now live on BBC and Sky.
Amazon Google Face and apple
Petition to repeal mask mandate in shops past 22,000. Please sign if you haven’t already
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/331430
I was quite encouraged by the comments BTL of Ross Clark’s Telegraph article https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/28/panic-rising-covid-19-case-numbers-irrational-dangerous/.
There were a few comments by zealots of course, but they are looking increasingly ludicrous and indefensible now in the face of the evidence. I know this is by no means a represenative example of the population (and those poll results flagged by Toby are really frightening), but maybe the tide of opinion is beginning to turn? Hope so, because I need to feel some optimism.
Ditto
Polls say only whatever the vested interests commissioning them want them to – the true art to being a pollster is to make the results believable and nothing more. Such is my theory for what it’s worth.
Shouldn’t be frightened, most of the population have no idea what ‘per cent’ means, no idea if what the population size is, no idea what they are talking about, it’s duckspeak.
Clearly this fkin government doesn’t give a flying fcuk. It would have been better had Boris died in a ditch! And yes I do mean it!
Reading that email from someone trying to book a doctors appointment to just hearing my mother in law can now receive visitors but only one designated person, no one else and for just 1/2 hour. Yes that’s what this fkin fascist government has dictated.
Apologies if my bad language offends I’m too fckin angry!
Is the half hour rule imposed by a care home?
My brother in law thinks its government diktat he’s forwarding the email so I’ll let you know.
It’s probably guidance, as usual subtly insinuated to be law
It’s unlawful to prevent you seeing your relative. I’d get on to the social worker about it.
Or a solicitor!
My sympathies Bella. Having the same experience up in Scotland. 88 year old mother-in-law has been in hospital for 4 weeks. Only allowed one nominated person (me). She was very poorly last week (has since rallied) but I asked if my husband (her only child) could get in to see her. The short answer was ‘no, Nicola says….we are only following Scot Gvt advice’. It’s madness.
A truly evil, made-up diktat. Demonic.
Personally, I would call it that; demonic in a literal sense
Advice. Not law. I know what I would do…
2nd trip to Asda.Last Friday I was the only bare face.Today,footfall again noticeably down,…..a good ten bare faces, 4 workers,6 shoppers…..no trouble at all!spread the word.
Went to the local butcher today here in London. None of the three customers were wearing masks. The staff had Perspex masks.
I can’t see why businesses are making their workers wear masks – why aren’t visors sufficient? Less harmful to the wearer’s health and still give some protection in the event of a customer unexpectedly sneezing or coughing..
The Karens complained that if the customers had to it was illogical if the staff didn’t. As you can imagine, Wankock’s answer didn’t exactly clarify things.
We have visors at work which are much better. Unfortunately I still can’t wear them so my managers have transferred me to positions where you don’t need them. They have been excellent in dealing with my condition.
This is actually a good thing:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/consumer-affairs/shopworkers-refusal-wear-masks-causing-conflict-cash-register/
Here’s the start of the article (paywall):
Shopworkers’ refusal to wear masks is causing “conflict at the cash register” and sparking hundreds of complaints, a new survey shows.
While members of the public who visit supermarkets, banks and clothing stores must wear a face covering, the people who work in those venues do not.
This split has caused anger amongst shoppers, who have made more than 350 complaints to companies, mainly about staff not being masked and the failure of retailers to enforce social distancing.
If all the shop workers are forced to wear the uncomfortable nappy, they will hopefully lobby their management, who may complain to the government, who may just see the futility of the whole thing, for everyone.
It could go that way, or businesses will voluntarily or under duress make their staff wear masks whenever they are “in public”.
It has gone this way at Heathrow Airport. In theory, staff are supposed to wear face coverings in all public areas of the airport.
That’s what Aldi decided. Cashiers behind perspex are exempt. Aldi staff multi-task, so hopefully won’t be on the shop floor all day.
I couldn’t possibly insist shop workers wear masks, to wear them all day every day isnt feasible and thoroughly injurious to their health.
Some shops and other businesses already do insist their staff wear masks, all day every day, while customer facing.
We could see the first WARRANTED strike in quite a while!
LOL – 350? How can they measure this?
Good point, made it up journalism.
Unfortunately, the easiest way for Gov (or shop mgmt) to settle any dissent is to make them mandatory for all. Cos they’re all bastards.
I suspect mandatory mask wearing at work would be illegal under discrimination legislation.
Unless they waive it,during ‘the emergency period’. Woudn’t trust em as far as I could spit em, with my mask on.
They have done it to the nurses
Bastard wimps!
Better if we customers write and say it’s cruel and unhealthy and we’ll shop at other stores that care properly for their staff ……
It’s the same ‘logic’ that forced the construction trade into lockdown which the gumment never intended. Too many complaints “if I’ve got to stay home how come builders don’t !?!”
Thank you for everything you are doing. Much more useful than a list of businesses that have reopened (most of them, apparently) would be a list of businesses that are ignoring these dreadful mask rules. I’d be very happy to give them some of my money.
Been out and about in Billericay earlier, and can report that I hardly saw anybody in face coverings. Went into the BP filling station and shop.No one on the forecourt wearing. Inside some old guy had what looked like a dishcloth he was holding to his mouth, one young couple where female was unmasked and male was, but only around his neck. Three other customers were masked. Two ladies serving, one masked, one unmasked. I was beckoned over by the masked one. I smiled at her and she was extremely pleasant. She had to remove her (quite heavy duty looking) mask to ask me a question and I could see she was smiling. My local convenience store and off licence both seem to be making a point by being overtly friendly to non-maskers, and none of their staff ever wear them. . Am I being too optimistic, or is this falling apart already? PS I went onto Waitrose on Sunday. I was the only one un-masked. To my disappointment though, nobody said anything!!
The opinion poll is downright scary. Do people in the UK really believe 7% of the population have died from Covid and 10-15% of the population currently have it? If so, no wonder people are still so fearful (and think masks are necessary).
Even taking into account the effect of fear-propaganda, it really doesn’t say much about the average intelligence and education of the public. Either people think the total UK population is less than a million, or they think that four and a half million people have died (and are either unaware of or disbelieve the official death toll), in which case where are all the dead people?
Ask any of them what ‘per cent’ means.They haven’t a clue.
Ask them what the population ofBritain is. Not a clue.
Tell them the figure.
Ask them to calculate 7% of it.
Ha ha ha.
Nice one, Annie. And a sizeable percentage (!) of them will have degrees.
There are a lot of thick people in the UK
Back in the mists when we were first incarcerated to do our bit to save lives, I avidly followed Worldometers and for me, it did for a while look scary. I am no statistician but I found a formula for calculating exponential growth and put some numbers in my diary as a reference point. According to this on 30th June there should have been 1.5billion cases and 12million deaths worldwide. Needless to say the divergence from these projected figures and reality became apparent fairly quickly. As did the absence of bodies piling up in the streets. 7% of the UK population dead in the space of 5 months, is a hell of a lot of bodies. Roughly 10x the annual average. Where do people think these bodies have gone? I just don’t get it.
‘They’ are hiding all those bodies – ‘they’ have all died from this terrible plague. It is coming to get us. That’s why we must hide in our homes, in our masks, in our minds. It beggars belief. I cannot understand how people are thinking this is OK and we are going to be shepherded around at the behest of a deranged lunatic till the financial system sizes up and stops the money circulating. If the economy continues to tank and the physical retail and catering sector just dies, the unemployment rate will be eyewatering, the businesses will shrink again and again – so little tax revenue anywhere and all that universal credit to pay – will the BoE continue to print money or will they stop or will borrowing rates start to really go up? I’m a very simple soul so if there’s anyone here who can draw me some scenario’s I’d be grateful. Do I for example, draw out any notes I might have left and put them under the mattress? Or do I buy some gold sovereigns? We will all be living in much reduced circumstances I imagine? This is simply bonkers.
You can only depress the economy so far before it enters a “death spiral”, where falling tax receipts fail to cover government spending and debt servicing payments. Which leads to greater shrinkage of the economy and further falls in tax receipts.
The worst case scenario (which is very unlikely btw) is total economic meltdown. Best case scenario (also unlikely the longer this nonsense goes on) is a “V” recovery. Sharp fall, followed by a sharp rise.
Gold is currently at its highest price level ever. If the outlook gets worse, it will climb higher yet, but if the recovery scenario comes true, the price will fall again as investors rush back to shares.
https://www.bullionbypost.co.uk/gold-price/gold-price-history/
DT today is talking about a “K-shaped” recovery.
“What the hell is that?” you may ask, as I did.
Apparently it’s a recovery where people in employment enjoy an improving standard of living, while those who are unemployed see life getting worse and worse.
So much for ‘leveling up’
I’m holding out for a lower case ‘g’ shaped recovery.
Somewhere there’s a roomful (or a teams call full) of economists trying to work out what every letter of the alphabet might mean in terms of a recovery.
See Jeff Taylor’s video on youtube on the K-shaped recovery: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJ1-6P5OEWE
He makes good points very clearly and succinctly. (I also listened at double speed!)
Gold/silver for if things get desperate ie the majority loose faith in govt. Shares, despite economic downturn, as big money has to go somewhere and won’t be going into- and thus avoid- bonds/govt debt.
Simple, I got a Pass ‘0’ Level Economics, when I were a lad I could buy 4 pints for a quid, now it’s 4 quid for 1 pint. The pound in my pocket is now worth 1/16th of what it was.
They will inflate the debt away over a generation.
That was always Iannidis’ point re the Gompertz curve. The rise looks exponential to start with but soon levels off. Any epidemiologist/mathematical modeller should have known that.
It seems to be typical loose/lazy usage of technical terminology anyway, as I doubt very much that growth anywhere (or decline for that matter) has actually been exponential. If it follows the pattern 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 etc (or indeed 32, 16, 8 etc) it is exponential, otherwise it’s nothing of the sort.
I think nobel prize winner Michael Levitt would agree with you. He has been trying to make himself heard for months, telling us that it was never exponential. His interview with Freddie Sayers on Unherd is well worth watching.
He doesn’t say it’s never exponential – he says that the exponential growth decays quickly. So the virus will rapidly spread to those who aren’t going to be able to put up a defence and then increasingly struggles as it has fewer potential vitcims.
The week and a half spent obsessing about Dom Cummings was to distract us from the exponential growth not happening, the red tops tried it with maddie McCann for a few days but their readers weren’t interested.
People should continue to book holidays but “ need to be aware of the risk that quarantine could be imposed” culture secretary Oliver Dowden said this morning.
”But as long as people are aware of that risk, they should continue to book holidays, but just bear in mind that this may happen and sadly it has happened in Spain,” he told BBC breakfast.
What planet are these people on? Who can afford to pay thousands of pounds for a holiday that could be cancelled at a moment’s notice and then give up a further two weeks of holiday entitlement to be imprisoned at home, most likely without wages?
Contemptible. They just have no idea.
They don’t live in the real world. And apparently those of us who do are uneducated gammon.
To a cynical person it might look as though they were trying to kill off the travel industry. I can’t believe that they can be so f****ng stupid as to think that they can restart the economy AND f*** with people’s lives like this.
Barney, I know ‘we can’t believe it’ but lots of people still do believe this garbage
They want travel to be a luxury, only for the elites..
Added to that Carrie they want to take our right to travel.
It is our world. Each of ours.
They even want to steal our right to travel around the country.
?
Local travel seems to be in the sights yes. The commute has been extraordinarily hit already. Yes jams are up as people don’t use public transport. The work from home ideology has been sold like it or not. Its now a fight for how much up take or resistence there will be.
Who, the people who are trying to bribe you to go and eat out, because they made you too frightened to go and eat out? Oh, they can do stupid, alright.
And now sturgeon saying testing won’t work as an alternative to quarantine because testing on day one might miss an incubating covid and testing on day 8 gives no guarantee either. Pretty much verbatim.
Ok… I was going to slur her name and introduce swearing to an otherwise polite internet page. Can you feel me seeth at this jumped up flump.
So, work your bottom off all year, putting away a little each week, for that yearly two-week break of actual life instead of existence. Now for a little added thrill you get to gamble all on a holiday these gouls in suits might snatch* from you at whim. Sounds good. Even more added thrill to the gamble if you realise you are soon to be out of a job and things look bleak in the short to long term.
*employer says cannot give you two week quaratine so you cannot go = snatching.
And people then decide, you know what, I think I’ll put the handbrake on at work. In-tray’s on the left there. I’ll get round to it. Maybe.
Apparently hotel prices in Devon & Cornwall are horrendous so its Skegness for the rest of us.
“but just bear in mind that this may happen and sadly it has happened in Spain,”
No, ****, it didn’t “just happen”. You and your scumbag collaborators in Whitehall inflicted it on people, for no good or legitimate reason whatsoever.
Hopefully none of them will forget, or forgive.
Sky new ‘news hour’ just throws to a break by saying “coming up, how does the government decide which countries [to cause this quarantine/lockdown scandal] for? We talk to a WHO expert next”.
So government decides when WHO tells them?
Clueless. I expect they have no idea of the prices of a litre of milk or a standard loaf of bread either.
Have to be honest, I buy two or three of each of these a week and I’d struggle to tell you how much they are, beyond a rough guess.
Men!
At least I do the shopping!
(And the cooking, I’ll point out while in defensive mode)
Haha I’m guilty too. Don’t have a clue what anything costs
It’s so they can effectively force us out of the skies without actually banning us in law thus leaving them free for Greta and all the Special People.
“Vietnam, which had gone 100 days without reporting a case of local transmission of the coronavirus, said on Saturday that a 57-year-old grandfather in the central city of Danang had tested positive. How he got the illness remains a mystery.”
Remember Hope-Simpson’s theory about influenza and seasonal transmission and perhaps the same thing with Sars Cov-2?Follow a few links first a summary of his theory
https://twitter.com/kerpen/status/1286530684459405320/photo/1
In fact, his whole book is free to download here
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4yda40j4hf9nbad/11th%20The%20Transmission%20of%20Influenza%20BOOK.pdf?dl=0
Now it has been produced a nice picture with Covid-19 deaths and compared with influenza and outbreaks depending on latitude
https://twitter.com/Hold2LLC/status/1286550960190431233/photo/1
“The embedded flu chart, based on the Hope-Simpson model, uses 0-30 N latitude and 30+ North. For whatever reason, we’re seeing outbreaks in the middle east and southern states that fit under 35 North into the tropical 0-30 region he describes with the flu.”The following link
https://twitter.com/kylamb8/status/1286526752756584449
“Here is a look at some states and middle east countries all in the ~30 N region. See how so many of them are all flaring up in late June or July at about the same time regardless of whether they were hit earlier or not.”
Still speculative but interesting as there are many mysterious things with influenza i.e. hard to explain simultaneous outbreaks at the same latitude and very difficult to explain by travel spread etc. Why not the same with Covid-19?
Mystery can be explained by erroneous reporting, or mis-information. Vietnam is a Communist Country, I wouldn’t trust them to tell me the colour of the sky.
In his recent article Harvey Risch, Professor of Epidemiology at Yale School of Public Health argued that there is strong evidence for the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine:
“I am usually accustomed to advocating for positions within the mainstream of medicine, so have been flummoxed to find that, in the midst of a crisis, I am fighting for a treatment that the data fully support but which, for reasons having nothing to do with a correct understanding of the science, has been pushed to the sidelines.”
“the medication has become highly politicized. For many, it is viewed as a marker of political identity, on both sides of the political spectrum. Nobody needs me to remind them that this is not how medicine should proceed. We must judge this medication strictly on the science”
https://www.newsweek.com/key-defeating-covid-19-already-exists-we-need-start-using-it-opinion-1519535
Oh no!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMFWd4R8BOU&feature=youtu.be
I expect all the people on that train will need to self isolate for 14 days. Perhaps even any train spotters standing at the track side as the train hurtled past will also need to quarantine.
It would make sense if he’d lowered it to speak, then replaced it. He obviously hadn’t been wearing it. They really are aliens!
‘Yes, there’s some evidence that non-surgical masks are effective,’
Effective for what? A barrier to droplets expelled in the breath, but no more so than your hand or handkerchief or a banana skin.
There is no evidence that surgical or non-surgical masks are effective at preventing spread of coronaviruses either as a source barrier, or barrier against being infected.
All evidence is related to barrier against Marge droplets 0,3 micron or larger, but it may not be assumed large droplets are the only vector of spread of the virus.
Just sneeze into your hands and then wash them. Or sneeze into your elbow and wash your clothes later. And don’t lick things.
Job done.
Total lickdown.
Trouble is for the sheep – that’s too easy and too logical.
John Lee was saying something the other day about it. Without proper tests, nobody really knows whether the drops don’t dry out, concentrating the virus in one place, and then the first time you speak you blast concentrated viral particles into the face of the person opposite – and straight through their ‘chicken wire’ mask, obviously. It really could be as counter-intuitive as that: instead of spreading a little bit of virus to someone else who builds up a little bit of immunity as a result, you end up giving them a larger viral load, and a proper infection. (If there was any virus around at the moment, of course).
Edit: that’s what happens when you begin dancing to the other side’s tune. I shouldn’t be arguing about whether masks ‘work’. I oppose them at every level on principle. They are a literal example of totalitarian government. Arguing about whether they work is how you get sidetracked.
India’s death rate is like 19 per million (ifr 0.002%). Mali – MALI!!! – has had 6 deaths per million. The countries where people habitually take HCQ are doing way better than the global north. See: https://www.lifesitenews.com/mobile/opinion/this-indian-slum-contained-a-possible-covid-19-disaster-with-hydroxychloroquine?__twitter_impression=true
Dr. Malcolm Kendrick has also sung the praises of HCQ for inhibiting viral infections: https://drmalcolmkendrick.org/2020/07/05/distorting-science-in-the-covid-pandemic/
And see the estimable Gummi Bear’s deep dive: https://twitter.com/gummibear737/status/1283840177497088001
HCQ has been used by billions for the past 50 years. IDK if it’s a “cure” for COVID, and quite likely some doses of it are indeed dangerous, as is the case with all drugs – but for goodness sake, can’t we at least discuss it? It certainly appears to have some promise. If it’s truly dangerous, then responsible research would bear that out, but even if it is, there’s no reason to suppress mentioning the very word. Suppression makes it look like there are people who don’t want us to know something.
If HCQ was so dangerous, it wouldn’t be used for malaria or lupus, etc. The fact that they’re trying to claim that it’s dangerous shows more than anything that they’re lying.
If it was so dangerous it wouldn’t be on the WHO’s list of essential drugs (where it has been since the WHO has had such a list).
65 years of deadly usage, it’s amazing it’s still around
I didn’t see on BBC the picture of Bolsonaro coming out after his bout with Covid-19 smiling showing the crowd his HCQ package
Are you aware of the HCQ trial in the UK which used a known potentially lethal dosage to prove it was ineffective?
..and also did not use the suggested additions of zinc and azithromycin..
Worth repeating – MALI!!!
The NHS are not comparable to – MALI!!!
Well done MALI!!!
Point was taken but worth making again!
I can understand the desire by some to have something ready to hand indicating an exemption to face coverings, but given that there is no requirement to have such, and that it all smacks just a bit too much of yellow stars and pink, black or red triangles, I cannot support the notion myself.
Mae’n syniad da i bobl sy ac ofn arnyn nhw o gael eu herlid gan y zombis!
Digon teg, but perhaps we should punch them in the nose if they try, as there need to be consequences for such disgusting breaches of decency.
I’ve been walking in and out of places without a lanyard (or a mask). In England, as well as at home where it isn’t an issue. Yet.
https://twitter.com/Covid19Crusher/status/1288440908648796162
“Ruined and torn by civil war, Afghanistan has barely any healthcare system left. A brief lockdown was lifted as the nation had to choose between hunger and COVID-19. It braced for the worst, but then the unexpected happened: the pandemic burnt out. Herd immunity”
This disease is prolonged by constant publicity. Afghanistan obviously couldn’t be bothered to do the PR so poor Covy died.
Theres the CIA crop to get in, no time to covid!
Felt neglected so wandered off to Downing Street instead.
Sweden too from the looks of things. Just without the civil war first.
Note, The Lancet was forced into a very embarrassing climb-down on the attached spoiling paper when it was discovered that one of the co-authors was supposedly an ‘adult model’ and another was a ‘science fiction author’
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31180-6/fulltext
Also note that the backpedalling was not given nearly the same coverage as the original publication.
Also note business as usual. Normal normal at last!
Richard Horton is not very keen on being questioned on the Andrew Wakefield MMR paper either!
Why Medical Authorities Went to Such Extremes to Silence Dr. Andrew Wakefield
“In the years after his initial controversial finding, linking the MMR vaccine to Crohn’s disease and autism, he [Dr Wakefield] published another 19 papers on the vaccine-induced disorder.
All were peer reviewed. However, strangely enough, none of these 19 papers are ever discussed in the media. The only study that keeps seeing the light of day is the original study from 1998, along with the original questions about conflicts of interest, which he explains in great detail in this interview.
This is very interesting indeed, because not only has he continued his own studies, but since then, a large number of replication studies have been performed around the world, by other researchers, that confirm his initial findings.”
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/04/10/wakefield-interview.aspx
Someone’s in deep shit if it’s shown many 1000s of people have died when there was a cheap safe treatment available all along
Newsflash from France:
« le ministre des Solidarités et de la Santé Olivier Véran a assuré que la France n’était « pas dans la deuxième vague du coronavirus »
Trans: Minister for Health has confirmed that France was not having a second wave.
Someone tell BoJo the Clown in No 10.
I highly doubt the PM really believes we will have a second wave of any great significance. It just suits him to talk about it. I may be wrong, but it seems implausible.
Of course he doesn’t. It’s all about covering his ar@e regarding the quarantine decision. He’s at odds with what the WHO are saying too.
It’s all about covering his big fat one for i) Not stopping flights from Italy and Spain when it could have helped, ii) Moving elderly, ill patients out of hospitals into care homes leading directly to the majority of deaths WITH Covid, and iii) listening to known Charlatan and hyper sensational doom merchant Ferguson and initiating the idiotic and destructive lockdown. Everything he and his clownish Government say and do now is all about deflection from those three critical errors (amongst many others). They are trying to ensure the narrative that WE are to blame, by insisting on Face Masks, putting in place illogical and pointless quarantine and travel bans, Social Distancing and all the other idiotic paraphernalia. They clocked on very early that the thick as mince and/or totally compliant MSM would put up no serious questioning, and all he/they had to do was ramp it up as far as possible and they would lap it up. The ‘Second Wave’ is a comple fiction which has landed in his lap from the MSM and sensationalist medics. They can now tell us that it was only their brave and wise decisions that saw it off and saved millions of lives to the mass ‘unprecedented pandemic. Ha bloody ha.
Neil Fergusson has saved eleventeen thousand cats’ lives…
I think the foul “Professor” Ferguson would need those lives for himself if he came across people who weren’t allowed to even say goodbye to a dying relative.
A slight point I’d make is that the media has driven government policy from the beginning (presumably because they think that the media represents the popular view, despite the overwhelming evidence to the contrary over the past 5 years), and as soon as the government implemented what the media were demanding, the media changed tack. Before lockdown: we need to lockdown now! After lockdown: how long will lockdown be for?! or: Lockdown needs to be harsher!
Before masks: Make masks mandatory! After masks, either: They need to be mandatory in more places! or: When will we no longer have to wear masks?!
I agree, and this is interesting because according to Mason Mills, the government are planning imminent action as regards the BBC – this despite the BBC seeming to have driven policy/regulations that the government seem clearly to have wanted.. So I don’t see why the government have on the one hand allowed/encouraged this, but yet now say they plan to rein in the BBC… What am I missing?
Surely, it’s a simple case of HMG blackmailing the beeb. Print covid fear porn – or else …
Remember how they handled the beeb journalists during the election, turned them into Tory lackeys. One of the only clearly declared things in the Tory manifesto was their intention to decimate the beeb.
I doubt it – the media leads the government, not the reverse, and it’s a left wing fallacy that they’re in cahoots (odd word, I must remember to look up the origin). The BBC is only too glad to run endless death porn as it makes the government look bad (not that they need any help…)
“ odd word, I must remember to look up the origin”
One of those where nobody really knows. Sorry.
As the cartoon shows – he’s got his chart upsidedown
There was some expert on something today or yesterday -yes he was that impressive I remembered so little – anyway he was saying waves are not what he prefers, he prefers spikes. Plenty of spikes this expert says will come, but not a wave. He was some big wig dribblista.
You’ve probably all discussed him before.
Why I mention is there may come a shift from waves to spikes.
Geez. 2020.
Easier to fabricate a spike than a wave, just create spikes all the time and say they threaten a wave unless we act now
By George, you’re right!
Wave requires large scale collusiin across continents.
Billiam arm flap gates seems to be loosing his rag… see the latest heningsen twitter video on this tread.
Are we seeing an on the hoof move in plan?
Could have been David Nabarro, “WHO Special Envoy on Covid”, who is obviously completely impartial and very fond of spikes.
https://extra.ie/2020/07/28/news/irish-news/david-nabarro-who-schools-ireland
Notes on impartiality:
https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2020-05-29/gates-foundation-donations-to-who-nearly-match-those-from-us-government
It was him! This thread never beaten! The most vague fragment reveals information and often relations and histories. Thanks!
There was a famous clown in the USA called Bozo the Clown. I wonder if they are related?
Moved over from earlier:
Out and about with the wife, both of us maskless all the time. She now actually asks me before we leave the house if i have my badge on, before she didn’t care. Now she puts ear’s on and reminds me.
Few downer observations:
Good though:
Best bit, I made an old woman smile in pleasure as well – not like that you dirty lot – going inside the garden centre everyone bunching up at the door while muzzling up, walked straight past them and in. Old lady about 4 ft 6″ came in immediately behind us, almost like we were running interference for her. We stopped to look at plants and as she passed I smiled. She stopped, smiled back a bit hesitantly so I smiled bigger and said “another unbeliever but remember to say you are exempt if questioned, breathing problems”. She says she’s not exempt but in her mid-80s she’s not wearing a mask as the nazis did not win the war. She was relieved someone else felt the same way and she now knows she is not alone and smiled again, this time a big grin and she got one back.
See, I did make a woman smile in pleasure.
Every smile is a poke in THEIR eye.
Take THAT, Matt the Death. Take THAT, Fetida Dickhead.
Today I had an appointment for a 3 month overdue B12 jab at the GP surgery. Spoke to two women in the queue outside, one over 70, and both said they were fed up with masks and can’t wait till we can stop wearing them.
I hope you educated them!
I love that – she’s not wearing a mask because the nazis didn’t win the war!
Last couple of days I’ve been looking at DailyvMail headlines, and in particular comments. Today was about the dreaded 2nd wave, so I wrote an appropriate comment. I was truly amazed at the consensus of agreement and ferocity of the vast majority of fellow contributors. It was almost like being on LS, the tide IS turning!
Might I suggest as many of us as possible find as many appropriate articles as we can to comment on via their site? It would at least add useful ammo to the cause we all care about so much.
Yesterday was the opposite on the Spanish nonsense – guess it depends on how much the 77th and 13th Signals are paying attention and if the censorbot is busy.
Yea I saw that too, my 4th day of imprisonment after we dared go on holiday to Tenerife. I think a lot of that might just be envy they didn’t have the guts to do it themselves? Today is the sudden realisation they’re gonna all get Locked(f…ed!) up on this one. Penny is dropping ‘sheeple’!
Immunology Prof Beda Stadler: we have reached herd immunity and masks for all make no sense, plus lots more super interesting info: https://youtu.be/GBRcK-od50Q
“We have replaced sxience with a medieval believe system”
He talks a lot of sense. The Swiss version of Dr John Lee.
We have. Surprised the Flagellants haven’t reappeared yet. Oh, wait, muzzles…
Cause the masks don’t work
They just make you worse
But I
Know I’ll see your face again
One for that guy who did the majestical Sunglasses At Night parody
Ashcroft probably looks better with a muzzle.
Thinking about it, that video could be remade with hordes of masked people desparately trying to avoid an unmuzzled Ashcroft.
Edit: memory failure, I was thinking of the Bittersweet Symphony Video
That’s so bizarre. I was thinking this morning about this exact same song – and changing the words as you have done. Great minds eh?
Maybe antisocial distancing is creating psychic connections between sceptics ;P
“Shielded” groups feeling lonely in their isolation? Never mind, we have a new solution.
No, not social contact – god forbid!
It’s ….. ta-dah! …..
A robot!
From the DT live.
Now, after a surge in loneliness among vulnerable groups during the coronavirus pandemic, this robot’s potential as a companion have earned her a role in a Scottish university’s assisted living experiment with artificial intelligence.
Scientists at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh have programmed robots, including Pepper – who was launched as the world’s first humanoid in Japan in 2014 – to perform tasks normally carried out by care workers.
“We are specifically interested in understanding the needs of the most vulnerable at this time and what technology could be used to make their lives better,” Mauro Dragone, the project’s lead scientist, said.
…. “Successful innovation in the field is crucial to alleviate the strain on health and social care services.”
You wonder if the human race really deserves the gift of life sometimes, present company excepted
I wish I was a dog, or a goldfish or something. Anything but human.
There’s a simple test to check whether you’re either of those things. Two questions:
1) Have you already forgotten writing the post above?
2) have you eaten (or rolled in) someone (or something) else’s poo in the last 48 hours?
If the answer to both of those questions is “no”, you are neither a dog, nor a goldfish.
You’ve got me seriously worried. I think I rolled in something malodorous this afternoon but can’t remember what. All I know is that my scales are smelly.
Are you perhaps a dogfish?
Ta daa indeed. Long has it been up the sleeve. Foreseeing this very day of isolated people how could they have known.
If you ever speak to a mask zealot ask them if only people with a wheelchair or visible walking difficulties should be allowed to use a disabled parking space. They will probably say no and point out many have hidden disabilities or words to that effect. You’ve hopefully made them think about pointing the finger.
Good idea!
If you grab the pointing finger and bend it backwards towards the wrist, I find they always think before pointing next time.
Point one finger, three point back at you!
Greetings fellow sceptics!
Haven’t been on here as much lately because I am currently on holiday in a remote part of Scotland with my bf and there is no wifi in our accommodation and even mobile data is pretty patchy. In a way it’s nice to be cut off from all the Covid bollocks on the internet, it was really starting to do my head in and make me feel pretty low, especially with all this rubbish about a second wave (more like a suppressed first wave). We’re right next to the sea, talking daily long, brisk, bracing walks surrounded by gorgeous scenery, diverse wildlife and fresh air – nothing better for the immune system and there’s hardly anyone around, and those that are act totally normally, not a mask to be seen. We’re going for fish and chips tonight and we refuse to feel guilty for it as part of this ludicrous anti-obesity drive. We eat such meals as part of a healthy diet and we are both very physically active people. I take particular issue with the nannyish obesity campaign not only because I am naturally averse to increased government interference in our lives, but because I was hospitalised with an eating disorder at the age of 11. It has taken me a long time to have a healthy relationship with food and I taught myself to have an ‘everything in moderation’ attitude, along with plenty of exercise and sleep. I also don’t think that slapping calorie labels on menus and banning fast food ads will address obesity which is more of a problem relating to how modern life and society is structured (e.g. more people working longer hours, therefore less time/energy to cook healthy meals and exercise) but that’s another debate for another day.
Anyway, I love reading this edition of the Postcards. Lots of countries engaged in collective insanity back in March but it just goes to show that the UK is a true basket case. It can probably be attributed to the deification of the NHS, something unique to our country, an overhang of our lost imperial glory, and how everyone’s lives must be upended permanently to ‘save a hospital’ (in the words of my bf). Everything is viewed through the prism of the NHS and it is totally sclerotic and myopic, skewing any sort of debate on any relevant issue – like Covid.
But back to the fresh sea air and my bf. I feel like I’m 100ft tall when I’m with him and like I can take on anything. I’m trying to enjoy life as much as possible now because I am dreading winter (a season I loathe enough as it is) when it will all come crashing down and we could see some genuinely horrendous times and maybe martial law. I sincerely hope I’m wrong.
Great to hear you’re doing better Poppy. Some of your distressing earlier postings had this curmudgeonly old bugger close to tears. Carry on doing what you’re doing. All I can do is apologise for the fuck-up that politicians of my generation are creating for yours.
The traditional guide to healthy living:
I can vouch for it.
Have a great holiday, Poppy.
Forget winter.
In Scotland, the remote parts are the best parts. Enjoy your holiday!
Glad you’re enjoying your holiday Poppy. And sadly I have to agree with you on the deification of the NHS; a colleague is in poor health because he’s missed consultations and check ups regarding his heart procedure last year. Yet he still continues to believe that the NHS is the best despite them failing him.
I feel sorry for him and yet the mind boggles as to why he continues to lavish the Church of the NHS with hosannas!
The calorie thing doesn’t bother me, I must admit, as I have no notion of what it means and have no clue how many make up my daily intake (obviously not what would count as too many as my weight hovers around 10 stone), nor do I particularly care. I eat chocolate most days for instance, but not much, as eating the right amount of anything you like is the key, not only eating greenery our something. Eat whatever you like in moderation and you will never be fat, nor feel like you’re starving yourself and then randomly binge. I bet Boris will binge, I can just see it…
Great to hear that you’re with the bf and he seems to have come round to your way of thinking….
Good to read your both having a nice time. Getting out in the countryside really does help a lot. Getting away from mental people.
Eat more chips!
New science is emerging that eating chips helps prevent covids or something.
The story of a reader having problems trying to see their GP is one that resonates with me (and probably many others).My argument is that this is not solely down to the virus as I had exactly the same issue back in November. Trying to get past the brick wall that is a GP’s receptionist is an age old problem.I also had cause to cancel a hospital appointment around the same time and,after numerous lengthy unsuccessful attempts to get through, gave up.Two days later a letter arrived;by missing my appointment and by not bothering to tell them,I had cost the NHS hundreds of pounds and was now removed from their database. Two more identical letters also arrived.The NHS,much loved by this zombie nation,is,and has been for some time, unfit for purpose.
PHASE 3 COMPLETE!
Phase 1, about 2 wks ago, was get the bus, and explain I don’t have a face covering, before wasting my e-ticket. Success, driver just nodded.
Phase 2, last week, get on bus bare faced, just say hello and ping my ticket.Succes, driver didn’t engage at all.
Phase 3, just now: Aldi for a few bits. No goon on the door, I was the only bareface customer, felt great. No hassle at all. Two staff without muzzles, lady in front of me (muzzled) asked checkout girl if she had to wear mask, girl said “We don’t, customers do, but we’re not supposed to tell them they have to“. Result!
On to Home Bargains. No goon, mostly masked, but counted four adults, two teenage girls without. At least two customers with masks under their noses – which is breaking the law, if they aren’t exempt. Shame they didn’t have a go, it would have been fun. Did my thing, no hassle at all.
Back to Aldi and Asda tomorrow, for Phase 4 – full weekly shop. Feeling good.
Imagine posting on a website that you’ve been shopping without having to humiliate yourself…
I was wondering about Home Bargains. My favourite shop pre-mask, really relaxed and friendly/skeptical staff. (havent shopped anywhere yet since M-day though)
They’ve been great throughout, just the anti-social distancing thing. I turned away just once when it was peeing down and there was a queue to get in. That’s died down now. Same staff since day one, quite a few minority ethnic ones too, and yet all strangely still alive.
Yes, shopping the new intrepid adventure into the Heart of Darkness.
As per the previous thread and discussions about the 28% increase in positive tests that prompted our Dear Leader – he with his superior skills for absorbing facts, figures and detail while winging it – to declare the possibility of a second wave. This has just been posted on The Mail, suggesting there has been a 14% increase in positive tests:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8572387/Britain-announces-coronavirus-deaths.html
By tomorrow, this will have been adjusted further to an insignificant 4-5%, something that will be closer to the actual figure based on the reported data. So which civil servant or minister can’t do percentages?
“So which civil servant or minister can’t do percentages?”
Is that a trick question? I was about to answer “all of them.”
no – it is 120% of them
Hello, I’m Diane Abbott….
Sadly I think they can do percentages very well. I expect the 28% wasn’t technically untrue, just a cherry picked statistic, designed to mislead. Governments have always done this, but once upon a time, we had a free, curious press and an opposition to hold them to account. Now they just spout any old nonsense and people don’t question it.
Ministers have always been vegetables:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjE080TGEEk
I’d spotted this earlier today. They really must have got very close to the truth!
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/28/trump-covid-19-briefing-hydroxychloroquine-video
Donald Trump has praised as “spectacular” a doctor who wrongly dismissed the use of face masks to combat the coronavirus as well as reportedly claiming that alien DNA is used in medical treatments and some gynecological problems are caused by people dreaming about having sex with demons.
A group of lab coat-wearing doctors posted an online video on Monday to make a string of inaccurate assertions about the coronavirus that contradicted official government guidelines. Among them was a woman who identified herself as Dr Stella Immanuel and said: “You don’t need masks. There is a cure.”
Yes, and Bill Gates is obviously frustrated at the lack of enthusiasm for his vaccines: https://twitter.com/21WIRE/status/1288366362532941824
He is not too subtly angling for social media to take down any anti-vaccine information..
As has been said elsewhere: I wouldn’t trust Bill Gates to fix a virus in Windows 10….
Bill Gates is 64 – below the age of most people who have died from CV19, but nonetheless no spring chicken and therefore potentially at some risk of getting a more serious case of the virus were he to be infected. *IF* this virus really was as dangerous as he makes out, he would hardly be out and about touring TV studios and mingling with other people, not wearing a mask…
Bill gates looks much older. Dermatologists would be able to age him more accurately I am sure!
Cut him in half and count the rings?
Bill Gates has stated in a recent interview that he has $10 billion invested in covid19 vaccines, and he hope to get a return of 20 to 1: i.e. $200 billion.
I saw that interview moment too. He looked so pleased. One step closer to becoming a trillionaire.
“wrongly dismissed the use of face masks to combat the coronavirus”
Wrongly dismissed? I’m sorry, I must have missed the conclusive study that settled the previously debatable usefulness and concluded it was no longer “marginal at best”. Does anyone have a link?
If you’ll excuse me for a minute, I must go and buy myself a fetching little black number now that the evidence is clear.
Yesterday I wrote to TFL to complain about their manipulative and distressing muzzle announcement so I was surprised to receive this:
29 July 2020
Dear XXXXXXX,
Thanks for taking the time to complete a web form on 28 July about TfL and face mask public announcements.
I’m sorry you feel uncomfortable over our public announcements encouraging customers to wear face mask. In line with new Government guidance, face coverings must be worn for the full duration of journeys on the public transport network from Monday 15 June.
We have been running a far-reaching communications campaign to encourage the use of face coverings, with posters, radio and other advertisements, public announcements and millions of emails sent to customers.
However, if you are exempt from wearing a face covering, you can download and print the card below and carry it with you. You may want to print it and wear it on a lanyard or attach it to your clothing. You can show it if you are asked why you are not wearing a face covering. We will also recognise similar cards that may have been issued by other transport operators. You can also display it on your phone.
If you do not have a printer or a smartphone, you can contact us and we will print and post a card to you. Call 0343 222 1234 (charges may apply).
Nevertheless, I’ve now passed your comments over to Keolis-Amey Docklands who manage the DLR on behalf of Transport for London.
Feedback and suggestion from our customers are valued and can only serve to improve our services and system. We are always grateful to hear from our customers and would like to encourage you to pass along your future thoughts.
Thanks again for contacting us. If there is anything else we can help you with, please reply to this email. Alternatively, you can call us on 0343 222 1234 and we’ll be happy to help you.
Kind regards
XXXXXXXXX
Customer Service Adviser
Transport for London Customer Services
My blood was boiling as I read the reply as obviously the person who replied did not bother to read my email properly. I was rather in a bad mood when I sent this:
Dear XXXXXXX,
Thank you for your reply. It seems to me that you did not understand the thrust of my email. I am fully aware of the government guidelines as I have been bombarded with emails from your office every week exhorting the use of face coverings as well as seeing the patronising and even threatening adverts on the station. I do not need you to remind me of what the regulations are.
I am also aware of the exemptions as I carry a lanyard with me.
My question now is, what are you planning to do with the announcements on the station? As I mentioned in my email, its not only in the DLR that I have encountered these manipulative and harassing announcements but even in other stations. You say that you are sorry that I feel uncomfortable so would it not be the best course of action to reword and lessen the frequency of the announcements? I should think that I am not the only one who feels distressed with these announcements.
Your office should practise what it preaches and you should also show consideration for people who are unable to wear face coverings for physical and psychological reasons.
Thank you again and I look forward to your response.
Yours sincerely,
XXXXXXXXX
Good one. I look forward to their reply. And why do these scumbags insist on referring to passengers as “customers”. It’s almost as bad as HMRC referring to tax payers as “customers”
The mind boggles.It will be interesting to see how quick they reply.
Yes, the HMRC and “customers” … As a “customer” of the taxman I must say that I am dissatisfied with the service and will be taking my custom elsewhere!
Huh. Our local district council refers to us as ‘customers’. And when I moaned to our councillor, she genuinely could not see what the problem was.
Apparently DWP now refers to UC claimants as ‘customers’. Whilst sanctioning them into starvation.
Your local council will in fact have a trading wing for profit with stakeholders.
Currently a month wait into my complaint about just this. HMRC claimed, when I questioned, they use customers because it is friendly. I spelt out to them the point about a customer has choice. I dabbled a little further by proposing that it may be HMRC is a trading entity, for profit. HMRC clearly should not be twisting language without reason. Waiting..
Or like HMPS referring to inmates as customers.
Good response, but perhaps you could have pointed out that exemption cards are not required by the regulations and as such they have no business expecting exempt people to carry them. Something like that anyway.
Alas too late as I’ve sent it already. However my hope is that they change their announcements as they’re irritating and it constitutes harassment. The staff have not really challenged me or anyone else unmuzzled.
You have to question why Facebook, Twitter, Google/YouTube have all censored every possible version of the American Frontline Doctors video. Even shutting down their website.
What is really going on? I have never before believed in conspiracy theories but now I genuinely suspect the WHO is corrupt and the vaccine pushers are desperate to keep the fear going, in order to push their vaccines on a virus that is rapidly dying out.
What is the end game here? Mandatory vaccination for all? Huge profits to be made? Social control? Compliance and obedience? I wish I knew the answers.
Bill Gates is obviously frustrated at the lack of enthusiasm for his vaccines: https://twitter.com/21WIRE/status/1288366362532941824
He is not too subtly angling for social media to take down any anti-vaccine information..hence why the Frontline doctors video is being censored..
Great thanks
Old Billy boy does seem almost angry in that piece.
He like the narrative to go his way and those doctors speaking out go a lot of views, despite the videos being removed from the main streaming platforms.
Yes, the more angry he is, the more he waves his arms about!
He was interviewed on CNBC yesterday. Had a serious go at Elon Musk (a lockdown and corona vaccine sceptic) for his lack of background in vaccine research. Last time I looked, neither he nor his wife have either!
And none of them are medically trained at all!
Interesting that CNBC chose to have Andrew Ross Sorkin interview him rather than former Microbiologist and climate change sceptic, Joe Kernen!
Thanks shared onwards without twitter
Non of us mere citizens know the end game.
Not too long ago on here many were saying BoJo and his cabinet have just cocked up and are looking for a way to get out without looking too foolish.
This is virtually world wide, BoJo is only a very tiny player in this.
Sorry I do not have answers.
And with the plethora of research and data analysis available, you’d think Starmer would be all over Boris like a rash. But no, not one dissenting voice in any of the opposition parties, anywhere. Yes, this is an international push for…???
“Yes, this is an international push for…???”
Injecting something into us
‘Injecting something into us’ Twice. Hasn’t Gurning Gates said we’ll also need a ‘booster’?
.. and the microchip…
I don’t see why both can’t be happening on two levels.
Groupthink by world ‘leaders’!
On the other hand, since the opposition parties were fully behind the ‘lockdown’, how do they criticise the Government without first admitting that they got it wrong as well? As things stand, they won’t be able to lay any blame on Boris – even when the economic damage becomes obvious to all.
The video’s still up on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKbQbcInHnA&feature=emb_logo
I’m also not usually a conspiracy theorist but have a strong suspicion that vaccine-related money is at least part of the reason behind the media’s seemingly relentless attempt to keep up the fear and censor “misinformation”.
I don’t think there’s anything deeper (along the lines of a totalitarian world state, implanted microchips for tracking, etc. etc.), just money and corruption. If there really was a diabolical conspiracy they would surely be doing a better job of it, with censorship beyond simply removing things from the biggest social media platforms.
If you look at some of the events which us conspiracy theorists believe are set-ups, these events are not done very well.
Despite having massive organisations behind them many times the cracks are not too difficult to find.
So it is not a surprise that they are making a hash of cv19, yes they have brainwashed many, but not all.
What if an accidental virus leak bounced them into implementing a pre-existing plan early?
I urge anyone who has not watched the American Doctor conference to watch at least the first part of the video above.
Gives a good insight into cv19, description of the disease and how one doctor has been treating it.
It has got almost 300,000 views, so will probably be dumped by YT shortly.
I opened the link to this video last night on Brietbart but paused it because I didn’t have time to watch it all…I’ve just gone back to the tab/page now and it’s also disappeared from Brietbart’s page! And I didn’t shut my computer down overnight…I simply refreshed the page just now as the video wasn’t playing properley and voila! it has now gone…!
I have to strongly disagree with you.The entire broadcast media.The whole of the printed press.Anything that contradicts the official narrative is swiftly taken down by all the social media outlets.Thats now a bad stab at total control of opinion in the internet age.
This is precisely the sort of thing that encourages conspiracy theories! If it is wrong – argue back! Why is is wrong? Let journalists investigate it. Some of us are still thinking individuals.
Given what has happened on masks, I worry that a sort of “mandatory” vaccination may come. It wont actually be compulsory, but life will be made a little bit harder for those who dont comply. (eg. vaccination certificate number required to send your child back to school).
I am not an “anti-vaxer”. Carefully developed and trialled vaccines have been a good thing. People must surely have a choice though. Medical interventions must require geuine consent. There must be no coercion.
I agree. Anti-vaxxers are generally fringe conspiracy theorists, but I won’t have a Covid vaccine that has been developed and tested in an unusually short time. I will let other people be the guinea pigs and wait for evidence that it’s safe and more than marginally effective.
You’re entitled to your opinion, anon. Tell us about all the double-blind vaccine safety trials please.
I just don’t know what I believe anymore. What seemed absolutely bonkers to me was Tedros Thingybob’s announcement yesterday:
“Covid-19 is “easily the most severe” global health emergency the World Health Organization (WHO) has ever declared, said WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus during a press briefing today.“
Read more:https://www.newscientist.com/article/2237475-covid-19-news-this-is-the-most-severe-health-crisis-ever-says-who/#ixzz6TVOrAFyV
L O L
My flabber, it is ghasted.
Cash. Gates gets his and they get theirs (from him).
Global DNA Database
UK Column have some answers. Their news broadcasts are excellent: https://www.ukcolumn.org/
John Ward suggests some ideas here: https://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2020/07/25/the-saturday-essay-the-best-whodunnit-hypothesis/
All of those things, Dawg.
Interesting times !
The TJN household’s MP (Conservative) doesn’t bother any more to reply to our emails concerning government Covid policy, which in public at least he appears broadly supportive of.
But this morning I did get a rise – asked him straight out whether he was in favour of, against, or unsure about compulsory vaccination, including for covid. Got a same-day reply saying ‘he is not in favour of compulsory vaccination’.
Of course, I’m going to hold him to this.
It may be worth other Sceptics trying the same on their MP – they can hardly refuse to answer such a fundamental question.
I sent a note to our local Con MP, a member of the 1922 Committee a few weeks ago. Oh look, tumbleweed….
Mine replied that the vaccine will be voluntary – but he’s a mere backbencher, what does he know?
Mason Mills said it would be voluntary… but that could still mean no vaccine= no job/travel etc..
I think that is the route they will go down.
Sadly I would have to agree..
In Ireland a few years ago, a government minister came up with a doozy of a quote about Public Services Cards (ID cards by the back door), stating that the card was “not compulsory but is mandatory” for certain services. I envisage any vaccine being treated similarly.
I think it’s an excellent question to ask – would you vote to make covid vaccination mandatory, yes or no. Don’t ask whether it will be, ask whether THEY would vote in favour.
They know they won’t be given a vote, so can safely say “no”.
Here’s an update to the lab origin article Toby linked above:
https://www.independentsciencenews.org/commentaries/a-proposed-origin-for-sars-cov-2-and-the-covid-19-pandemic/
Thanks! I just read the whle thing – very, very interesting seems plausible. The final paragraph or so is worth reading, even if you don’t want to read it all.
BREAKING: Congressman Matt Gaetz has just sent Attorney General William Barr a criminal referral for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg following Project Veritas insider reports detailing political censorship and targeting #ExposeFacebook
Partake on Parler
Parler.com was set up to protect free speech, time to go there before being taken off the monopolist totalitarian Facebook, Twitter, youtube
Joined Parler a month or so ago. Might sound weird but I feel a lot better for it mentally!
Last time I looked you needed to give Parler a mobile number. Is this still the case?
Yep
And if you want to verify your account you have to upload your passport.
LOL – they won’t be getting my custom then.
Just wanted to share a very positive shopping experience today – local parade of shops. First the greengrocer. Had already sussed him out as an anti-masker, so in I trotted. He smiled and we chatted. He then told me I could get a card if I didn’t want to wear a mask – his lad had just got one. I said I have one but only intend to use it if a situation gets difficult. Next stop the post office. Walked in with confidence and went to the card section. Browsed for a bit then spotted the owner heading my way. He is normally a grumpy git, so I was expecting some grief, but to my surprise, no – he smiled and walked past. Bit of a dance with a mask wearer as I approached the till – she obviously had me down as some kind of leper, but no bitching. Girl at till was lovely and maskless. We chatted and she gave me what I felt was a conspiratorial smile as I left. Has boosted my confidence massively as I haven’t shopped since Mask Friday!
I’ve just checked the ban muzzles in shops petition. Just over 22,000 signatures. Needs more support.
I’m proud to say that my constituency has 70 signatures so far.
It’s crushing to see how many other petitions there are with WAY more support, on topics much less important. The top 20 or so are an interesting mixture of “we want more lockdown, close everything now and keep it closed” and “we want more money to compensate us for being closed during lockdown”.
There are way more zombies than human beings out there.
Sounds to me like there are a lot of people about to get a rude awakening.
Bannantyne threatening to close down Scottish gyms as they still can’t open unlike in England. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-53573635
We need more prominent business leaders to speak out
I can’t understand the silence from big business over this.This has been one of the strangest things in this crisis.
It is a good point you mention Jonathan. The strange silence. Has it been decided by public relations/marketing advisers or why?. Silence in all industries has been a feature of this entire debacle.
I seem to remember reading the other day that 3 large influential organisations – BlackRock and 2 others – own all the big businesses, hence probably why businesses are silent..?
Remembering one of the others was called ‘State Street’..
Luke Johnson addresses that, I think in his Delingpod podcast. He claims he knows several big business owners who privately agree with his lockdown scepticism but won’t speak out. They’d be rejected from polite society/establishment. Could impact future deals and jobs. They can move money & houses around so not directly impacted.
Potentially a further 600 job losses to add to the 150,000 or so which have lost jobs since March.
Purely anecdotal but I’ve noticed a lot more reduced items in my local supermarkets since masks became compulsory. To me it’s a possible sign that numbers are down because people don’t want to spend more time in a mask than necessary. Anybody else notice signs of this? (Scotland BTW)
It is usually the “music” that drives me out.
Yes, I’ve noticed that in Lidl (Highlands) the last couple of weeks, possibly because they don’t do home delivery. In fact, last week they were giving away dozens of large boxes of eggs for free although they still had several days before the bb date. Never seen them do that before.
Sadly only seen one other person without a mask in there in the last three weeks. The staff are very friendly though and I’ve not been given any grief by anyone else but the store is never very busy so easy to keep out of folk’s way.
Yes, I’ve noticed that in Lidl (Highlands) the last couple of weeks, possibly because they don’t do home delivery. In fact, last week they were giving away dozens of large boxes of eggs for free although they still had several days before the bb date. Never seen them do that before.
Sadly only seen one other person without a mask in there in the last three weeks. The staff are very friendly though and I’ve not been given any grief by anyone else but the store is never very busy so easy to keep out of folk’s way.
So, masks impact negatively on women more than men….time to encourage the sisters to support a ban….
Has a peer-reviewed study been done into this, or is it more of the usual feminist tripe?
Can anybody shed on any light on the ‘story’ I heard today. Apparently PHE are now including positive antibody results in the C19 infection statistics. This can’t be true, your now part of the 2nd wave even though you had the disease months ago? Please tell me it isn’t true?
Just like Spain does? Wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest, but don’t know for certain.
Hasn’t one of that idiot’s childish “pillars” always been antibody tests?
Looks like Pillars 3 and 4 are:
https://coronavirus-staging.data.gov.uk/about-data
3 & 4 a small proportion, but still nonsense to include them as it is counting apples with oranges. Bastards. And of course they don’t break the positive cases down by Pillar, so a lot of the positives could be for antibodies.
Split for today of tests done
Pillar 1, 55,096, Pillar 2, 75,515, Pillar 3, 7,128, Pillar 4, 17,207, All pillars, 154,946
The so-called “Pillar 3” and “Pillar 4” tests are not included in the daily case numbers, as far as I can see. “Pillar 3” is antibody testing and “Pillar 4” is a mixture of antigen and antibody testing. Only “Pillar 1” and “Pillar 2” are included and they are both swab antigen tests. Whoever thought of the word “pillar” to describe these tests, FFS!
That idiot made it up off the cuff in one of the daily press briefings while he was trying to explain his testing strategy in April, when nobody believed he was going to hit his 100,000 daily target and everyone still thought that testing people somehow magically cured people (“look at Germany and Korea”). And then inexplicably everyone swallowed it and ever since, people have been pretending that it means something.
Same in the USA. Trump fired the cdc for doing the same thing making numbers look bad
“So now that Trump has said hospitals need to report numbers to WH instead of the CDC, the CDC just came out & said they made another “mistake” in FL; And they’ve also been counting Pneumonia & Flu as Covid– dropping their # from approx 90,000 to 11,000.
So many “mistakes,” huh?
https://mobile.twitter.com/DeAnna4Congress/status/1285765280606625794
90,000 to 11,000 is not a mistake – it’s deliberate falsification of statistics! And a huge one at that..
Went to Tesco Express earlier
Good news. Only 50% of people were wearing masks
Bad news. There was only me and one other bloke in there
Actual good news. A lot of people I know aren’t wearing masks and have had no problem in any shop.
lol
Hmmm … remember all that talk about keeping health care workers safe, it turns out that their immune systems were already doing that … no worries, only 30-40 million people here in the US lost their jobs, and all public institutions are now smashed beyond recognition … but you know, “we are all in this together!” See the news link below (also note this is a local reported, not the national associated propaganda (AP) outlet.
http://ocregister.ca.newsmemory.com/?publink=3cff606be
Am I right in thinking that if you visit Sweden you must quarantine for 14 days on your return? If so, why is this? Today in Sweden, 27 positive tests and no deaths. Denmark had 57 positive tests and one death.
I think we all know why – to punish, and to make sure people don’t go there and realise life can go on
Bastards, aren’t they. Our holiday to Portugal has been scuppered so we were looking for a city break; maybe Copenhagen, maybe Stockholm (which Mrs Tenchy has yet to visit). But no, not allowed!
Because Sweden screwed up and people are dropping like flies. You can’t walk down a single street in Stockholm without clambering over piles of corpses.
Lol… according to yesterday’s stats here, there had been no new hospital admissions for Covid in Stockholm since Friday
Is UK allowing return of any defector from Sweden?
I’d like to visit my family in the UK, but to be honest having read what it is like over there at the moment, I’m minded to stay here!
Swedes are advised not to make non-necessary visits to the UK until 12th August as things stand. If we travel against the regulations then travel insurance is invalidated.. Not sure about quarantine?
Haha, the irony of Swedes being advised not to visit the UK.
I wouldn’t advise anybody to visit the UK, it’s horrible.
I wrote to Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Wilko and M&S registering my opinion on the mask wearing measures in shops. Replies from the first three. Tesco – Thank you for taking the time to contact our Chief Exectutive’s office. I have been asked to respond on his behalf.
I understand your concerns regarding face coverings. Not wearing a face covering will be a criminal offence with a fixed penalty notice. However, Tesco, and our colleagues, are not required to enforce this law.
From Friday 24 July, in line with new government guidelines, customers will need to wear a face covering when visiting our stores in England. This guidance has already been introduced in Scotland.
We will continue to follow government advice and so will be strongly encouraging colleagues and customers to wear face coverings. There may be some colleagues and customers who are not wearing coverings, for example due to a health condition, or if they are already working behind a protective screen.
We also continue to have social distancing guidelines in place within our stores, as well as a number of other measures to help our customers to shop safely, including:
These are challenging times and we’re doing everything we can to support our colleagues and customers.
On behalf of the Chief Executive’s Office
I feel so much better – now I know why I always felt so UNSAFE shopping in Tesco
I thought not wearing a mask was a civil offence, not a criminal one, hence why the Police can’t arrest you for it???
No mention of exemption at all in there. I double checked the signs outside their stores today, there needs to be a line ‘unless you are exempted’.. I seem to remember you mentioned that in your original letter, it has been ignored.
By the way I noticed today one of the TFL signs on the underground had ‘unless exempted’.
Passed through our local village today. Had to send thre eMails and one Facebook post to shopowners to remind them that their signs indicating compulsory mask wearing with no reference to legitimate exemptions risks prosecution for disability discrimination.
Others might wish to do the same – I wait to see if it has any effect!!
Excellent interview of immunologist Prof Dr Beda Stadler on Ivor Cummings’ channel covers a lot of the ground re immunity and vaccination:
Ep91 Emeritus Professor of Immunology…Reveals Crucial Viral Immunity Reality
It’s brilliant. Considering mass emailing out the link.
Agreed. Cummings has produced some great stuff from right back near the beginning of all this, and Stadler both knows his stuff and makes most of the key points well in the course of this interview. I’ve passed it out to a couple of intelligent friends who are not slow to fight back if they see anything they disagree with. Will be interesting to see if they come back with any substantive criticism.
I’ve not watched him religiously, but I’ve seen a few of his and they’ve been consistently very good (John Lee and Michael Levitt, I think).
Stupid thing to say, but his face gets on my nerves for some reason. Otherwise, always good stuff.
(I did say it was a stupid thing to say)
LOL! Impressive tan, anyway….
It may be exactly that.
I listen to him whilst walking dogs…works apart from the graphs.
Shopping in Scotland, the land of the masked believers.
Lidl, once a fairly balanced place to shop during the darkest days of lockdown, has presented me on my last 3 trips there with 100% mask compliance. Apart from me.
Last week they’d introduced a table at the inner doors with hand sanitiser and a disinfectant spray, and, while there was no queue outside, there was a queue to use this new arrangement. I waited all of 2 seconds before loudly saying “excuse me” and edging past the huddle of mask wearers who suddenly need to sanitise in a shop that hadn’t previously offered this option. I grabbed a wheeled basket and started my shop.
Being the only unmasked person in the shop on my last few visits felt very strange, very social-experimental, but I’ve become more relaxed with breeching the social and moral norms. I’m aware of the death stares I’ve had on each occasion. That burning feeling in the back of your head that makes you turn around, to be met by a socially distanced glower over the top of a piece of damp fabric.
But what’s it like to actually wear a mask while you shop?
Well, last week I didn’t have a choice. I needed some puppy supplies urgently and decided to give the small, independent pet shop my business. At the door the proprietor asked me if I had a mask. I didn’t. She got me one. I didn’t argue. I put it on.
She had one on also, and while she tried various different harnesses on my puppy, she complained about struggling to breathe in the mask…
Business done, I popped down to Lidl, the mask sitting on the passenger seat of my car. I debated it and then decided to try shopping in a supermarket with a mask on.
I was hyper aware of my breathing and my face under the mask became itchy and irritated after a few minutes. But the strange thing is what happened at the till when the cashier asked if I wanted a receipt. I found I couldn’t answer him. I had to actually force myself to speak the words “no, thanks”.
Very strange. Muzzled, indeed.
Since then I’ve paid for my fuel, no mask, no fucks given. Popped into Scotmid on a few occasions, no mask, no fucks given.
I was stood behind someone I knew, but hadn’t seen for years, in the queue outside the bakery. She was wearing a mask. I wasn’t. It was outdoors, after all. She turned around, recognised me, I didn’t recognise her. Until she spoke. She kept her mask on, of course.
One final observation, again from Lidl. A woman came into the shop at the same time as me with her no-more-than 3 year old daughter. The woman was wearing a mask and said to her child “I know you don’t need to wear this, but put it on anyway”, before strapping a mask to the wee kid’s face.
In Scotland, the land of the masked, the people love their Dear Leader and they
love to show their obedience to her. To do otherwise just isn’t Scottish.
Ugh.
Emigrate!
Excellent account thanks. Just as it is I’m afraid 100% supermarket masking. Better in the smaller shops for less laser looks. Thanks for writing.
The social order has collapsed for now, so you are not violating it by not wearing a mask. As for violating the moral order by doing same, certainly not. Masks are dehumanising and expecting people to wear them is most definitely immoral (and in violation of the Human Rights Act and no doubt the Universal Declaration of Human Rights too).
The moral thing to do is to ignore this law, I’m convinced of it.
Lidl Sweden are marketing masks in their weekly flyers and TV adverts… but very few people are wearing masks here – just the obviously frail/ill and some Asian students. I wonder if Lidl are assuming Sweden will eventually adopt masks, or are just trying to encourage it and make money at the same time?
No other Swedish supermarkets sell masks – yet…
“I wonder if Lidl are assuming Sweden will eventually adopt masks, “
Not looking like it if Tegnell’s latest is any guide: “‘With numbers diminishing very quickly in Sweden, we see no point in wearing a face mask in Sweden, not even on public transport.’”
I had the same situation today down here in Surrey – an independent shop – “do you have a mask? No? Here’s one!”
This evening 100% compliance in my local supermarket. To be honest I went in with the mask I was given earlier in the day. Took it off halfway round. Odd feeling. I felt very awkward being the only face. Next time I will be more bold and not wear it at all!
Interesting to hear how compliant Scotland the Brave are. From down here it can seem like much of independence support seems to be about hate for Westminster, the evil Torys, and it is about time Scotland was free of them both. Yet this “evil Tory” nannying UK government, has a lot in common with the SNP on Covid! (Its just Scotland has been getting things done more quickly). Is the Scottish tyrant keen to be more controlling, more hysterical she can be, to show how much better she would do things, after she gets her 2nd referendum?
Popped down to Cairngorm, then over to the West Coast. The mask situation in all establishments I have visited is ‘on’ when compliance required, but ‘off’ everywhere/when else possible.
The bollocks factor is queing and availability in restaurants etc, which are limited by numbers and anti-social distancing mandates etc.
We went on a ‘canyoning’ trip. No masks or distancing. In theory required in transit, but no enforcement. Similarly for a quad bike thing.
Anytime a safety briefing et al required, the mask was off.
During the event people walked and talked in proximity, like normal.
At no point did I get the sense that anyone was genually covid-concerned. More of a resigned, ‘well – rules is rules’ British thing.
Depressing but reassuring at the same time.
My mum is a bit like that – she thinks all the measures are OTT, but is going along with them, eg wearing a mask to set an example to the young, that one should obey rules and not engage in law-breaking (despite me pointing out that these are guidelines, not criminal law..). This despite her also having a major heart and lung condition and therefore being exempt – I despair…
This would ordinarily be my position too and it _is_ an instinctively British way of thinking. But the problem with bad, nonsensical, unenforceable and unenforceable law, is that it starts people thinking that maybe other laws are not worth following. That’s the reason I think this one must be resisted to the point where it’s abandoned very quickly indeed.
Exactly. It’s been argued that the reason Britain was traditionally law abiding was that we had fewer laws and therefore took the ones we had more seriously. That’s why a law should never be imposed lightly.
The study of people over 6ft suggests that masks may actually be more useful to deal with aerosol transmission:
https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/survey-suggests-aerosol-is-significant-form-of-covid-19-transmission/
Why the down votes? I posted a fact about what the study says about face masks. Toby only linked to a media article and didn’t say why the study means masks are useless. I’m agnostic about whether masks are useful outside hospitals, but let’s at least report what studies say correctly.
No idea mate, probably Cos the article is just more coronabollox. Probably not a personal down vote. I’ll give you a thumbs up for asking
So basically they’re using the presumption that tall people get covid more to base another assumption on?
Yeah ok.
There was a lot of information suggesting that aerosol transmission was likely and that the virus could hang in the air for hours. This was right around the time Scotland mandated mask wearing in shops.
I remember commenting that if that was the case then a mask would be useless as you would become infected as soon as you walk into infected air and breathed it in. Given that air tends to spread out and not hang in stasis, simply removing your mask at any point would likely render you infected.
The discussion on transmission conveniently changed to droplets soon after to justify the useage of masks.
CNN showing that for them being journalists is only important because it gives them a platform from which to suppress political dissent and harass people they dislike or who are expressing opinions they dislike:
Don Jr. speaks out about temporary Twitter ban on ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’
And here’s a rare case where the woke media bullies were caught out harassing someone they dislike politically with false accusations of “racist” “hatecrime”:
Washington Post settles Covington student’s defamation lawsuit
“62% of Americans say they have political views they’re afraid to share”
“Only staunch liberals felt comfortable enough to share their opinions out loud”
Because you are very unlikely to lose your job or lose business by expressing a leftist opinion, even a grossly hate-filled one such as supporting BLM lies, but you absolutely are likely to be punished for expressing a conservative opinion, or one that resists the woke narrative. Toby has kept a list of some of the higher profile cases of people punished merely for questioning the BLM dogmas, or even merely for being associated with someone who does so.
So Twitter, Facebook You Tube etc decided to take down the video of the American doctors.
Maybe a look at the major shareholders of these media platforms can give some clues as to their decision-making on certain key issues of the day.
Twitter: Top two shareholders – Vanguard and Blackrock
Facebook: Top two shareholders: Vanguard and Blackrock
You Tube (owned by Google, whose parent company is Alphabet Inc.). Alphabet’s top two shareholders: Vanguard and Blackrock
Shareholders of some major US Pharmaceuticals:
Major Shareholders in Johnson & Johnson include – Vanguard Group (more than 13%); Blackrock; State Street
Major Shareholders in Pfizer Inc. include – Vanguard Group (more than 13%); Blackrock; State Street
Major Shareholders in Merck & Co., Inc. include – Vanguard (more than 14%); Blackrock; State Street; Wellington; Capital; Price (T.Rowe):
Major Shareholders in Abbott Laboratories include – Vanguard (more than 14.5%); Blackrock; Capital; State Street; Wellington:
Major Shareholders in Eli Lilly and Company include – Vanguard (more than 18%); Lilly Endowment, Inc (more than 11%); Blackrock; Wellington; Primecap; State Street:
Major Shareholders in Gilead Sciences, Inc. include – Vanguard (more than 12.5%); Blackrock; State Street; Capital; FMR (Fidelity)
(Credit to ‘Firestarter’ at Ron Paul forums for doing the legwork to dig all of this information up:http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?517340-BlackRock-Vanguard-State-Street-own-the-US&p=6638718&viewfull=1#post6638718)
Unsurprisingly, both Vanguard and Blackrock are major shareholders in most the other companies that control over 90% of US media.
Here’s a short video about Blackrock (BlackRock – The company that owns the world?)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4foal20UTA
As regards WHO’s ‘donations’ from the drugs and pharma industries, this site has some revealing details:
https://www.dr-rath-foundation.org/2019/01/world-health-organization-gates-foundation-now-second-largest-funder-after-u-s-government/
Vanguard and Blackrock are asset management companies. They will invest in “quality” companies. That is, companies who will make the most money for their investors. I like these companies – some of my pension funds are invested with them, and they are good performers.
In fairness, most of those “assets” are owned on behalf of others, including pension funds. However, I will accept that the management of these firms will have significant influence over the companies they invest in on behalf of others.
Blackrock now running the newly combined US Treasury/Federal Reserve and is rumoured to have taken $385 billion out of it as payment.
The latest fear porn from The Independent: “But scientists fear young people enjoying their summer will be hit next – as was the case with the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic.” With a few honourable exceptions (Toby being top of the list) it seems to me most journalists are fucking cretins.
Funny that only young people died from Spanish flu and only old die from this (as broad generalisations – obviously there are exceptions), so they’re speaking from their arses as usual.
There were two waves of Spanish ‘flu. The first was particularly bad for the very young and the old, the second seemed to hit people in their prime worse. They were very probably not actually the same disease.
As far as we know, both waves are indeed the same variant – H1N1 – but the reason I gave to DDS above is the reason different age groups were affected. And because the second wave affected the young disproportionately, modern epidemiologists are assuming this will follow the same pattern.
This unqualified armchair polymath (in my own fevered imagination at least) predicts with 99.9999999% confidence that any “second wave” of covid will not act this way.
I agree, wasn’t that second wave a mutation relating to the War logistics? Of course, flus mutuate much faster/easier.
The second wave seems to have been brought back from the trenches, one way or another. They traced (god knows how) the origin back to a farm in I think Kansas – rural US anyway – and it was almost certainly brought to Europe by a GI.
As someone else has said here in the last day or so, it wasn’t remotely Spanish, but the countries in the war had a press embargo on it and Spain (neutral) didn’t.
I thought so. Wasn’t another detail that the mildly infected stayed on the frontlines, whilst the badly infected were sent to crowded hospital trenches? So the worse strain got to spread more?
Yes, but let’s face it – people had reason to be a little better at dealing with the concept of death then than they are now.
It’s generally believed that the first wave of Spanish flu was mild because of an earlier epidemic in c.1890 meant most people had already been exposed to flu. Those who were too young for that epidemic were still, mostly, in France.
When the second wave (potentially just an expansion of the first) came, most of the soldiers were home again, vulnerable to flu. And, without any immune defence against flu, died.
I have no idea how this 1918 epidemic affected young women, as I assume most of those were in the UK for the first wave, working in factories and so on.
Much worse than cretins
The 1918 “Spanish” flu seems to have been bacterial pneumonia which strikes people down in their prime unlike viral flu which goes for the feeble. There is an interesting article – some people might find it a bit conspiratorial – but the fact that bacterial meningitis vaccines made from a vaccine serum derived from horses were administered to American soldiers in a camp in Kansas in the first months of 1918 and these soldiers then went abroad to fight in the trenches is a documented fact.
https://www.winterwatch.net/2019/05/the-truth-revealed-about-the-deadly-1918-spanish-flu-it-was-actually-bacterial-pneumonia/
Aspirin is believed the have been the major killer in the second phase, as it was a new drug so doses weren’t know, this overdosing patients.
Watch out for the next set of petty rules designed to stop young people enjoying their summer….
How can they possibly equate this to the Spanish flu?!
Funny how the people saying it’s just like the Spanish flu are the selfsame people saying but it’s not just a flu, isn’t it?
Has a similar kill rate of ordinary flu we get fairly often these days, at <0.1%. Spanish flu was a little more virulent at ~0.5%. UK population c.45 million, 228k deaths.
WE know that, but the people saying those two contradictory things with no recognition that they are contradictory don’t want to know about it.
Oh believe me, they are.
They just love the drama. THEY CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT IT.
Except it’s not flu and it’s 2020 not 1918.
‘With numbers diminishing very quickly in Sweden, we see no point in wearing a face mask in Sweden, not even on public transport.’
– Sweden’s state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell.
‘All of a sudden the numbers have got bigger, but in fact they’ve been growing slowly over the past month or two… There isn’t a particular trigger – it’s just part of that process of exponential growth.’
– Graham Medley, professor of infectious diseases modelling at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, discussing the growth of infections across Europe.
2 quotes from my evening email from The Spectator. One very sensible and the other complete b****cks. Can you tell which is which, children?
If Graham Medley had been paying attention at York University where he studied Biology and Computer Science or at Imperial College where he did a PhD in Epidemiology, he would have learned the meaning of exponential growth- and would know that is not what is happening now! He is now a mathematical modeller in infectious diseases and a member of SAGE and so presumably has lost all connection with the reality!
I get that email from the Spectator too. The blend of irrational and rational is quite jarring.
He is unable to speak English in coherent sentences
I wonder why Dr Stella Immanuel is being branded a ‘witch doctor’? Surely it can’t be because she is black? Or do her views mean she deserves racist abuse?
Precious Ramotswe more like.
The TV series of those novels was great!
I also think the focus on Asians in our own Midland and Northern towns is borderline racism. Why has this suddenly become OK?
There is a serious witch hunt in the headlines tonight. All focussed on her but also that arranged by Pro Trump group.
Just watching the CEOs of Apple, Facebook, Amazon & Alphabet (Google) facing congress.
Couldn’t find a direct link, watching via BBC website.
Questioning is directly telated to covid censoringon facebook. Zuckerberg answering live.
Found a link for anyone interested who does not have access to The BBC:
https://youtu.be/nvrn35A8_9M
Oh wait he has just crashed, his eyes have gone, hit the BUTTON and reset him FASTS
Those wily techniques of zoom or whatever eh?!
See them be prompted by interns working their behinds off out of shot by the way.
C-SPAN is the usual channel: https://www.c-span.org/video/?474236-1/heads-facebook-amazon-apple-google-testify-antitrust-law
ONS mortality statistics for week 29: COVID-19 related: 295, ‘flu and pneumonia: 879, all-cause: 8823, so COVID-19 amounts for 3.34%! Let’s all run around like headless chickens
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsregisteredweeklyinenglandandwalesprovisional/weekending17july2020
And most of those will be WITH covid rather than FROM covid.
You’re being way too generous: ONS expressly state they conflate U07.1 code (lab confirmed COVID-19) and U07.2 code (clinical or epidemiological diagnosis, i. e. hunch because COVID-19 signs and symptoms are so unique, right?)
How are all these people still getting flu since social distancing, masks and all that gubbins are the only thing stopping covid?
I think it relates back to something someone wrote on an earlier post about ‘the illusion of control’ the powers that be seem convinced they can be in the controlling seat but I am not sure these viruses have read the script!
The simple explanation: those measures don’t work. Long explanation: there was a man who dedicated his life to understanding how influenza was transmitted and so forth, he even wrote a book, aptly titled “The Transmission of Epidemic Influenza.” That man’s name was Robert Edgar Hope-Simpson, he was a GP… But why bother reading someone else’s work when you can make it up as you go along?…
Good question! Except that you’d likely have to take an antibody test, during which they can nick your DNA…
Dutch government will not advise public to wear masks (The Telegraph coronavirus live feed):
The Dutch government said it will not advise the public to wear masks to slow the spread of coronavirus, asserting that scientific evidence of their effectiveness is mixed.
The decision was announced by Minister for Medical Care Tamara van Ark after a review by the country’s National Institute for Health (RIVM).
The government will instead seek more adherence to social distancing rules after a surge in coronavirus cases in the country this week, Van Ark said at a press conference in The Hague.
Incidentally; the aforementioned “surge” amounts to 1301 cases in the last week. Previous weeks’ case numbers were 927, 452, 421 and 551. So yes, a small increase (Netherlands population is 17.3 million), but how many tests are being carried out (I couldn’t find the data)?
The line is that it will mutate like seasonal flu. So yes, they can vaccinate.
‘Apocalypse Meow’ was excellent, Simpsons in its heyday. The clip cut off before the full list of standard symptoms, most indistinguishable from a hangover as our host has pointed out. “Mistah Covid – he dead” ‘A penny for the Old Guy’.
My adventures with Mr Bart regarding the NHS Test and Trace:
PS. Chelsea Physic Garden wasn’t busy and the shop was dead – did go in to have a look at the seeds for sale, I wasn’t muzzled but no-one approached me. Other people were simply bypassing the shop to go to the toilet then the exit.
ScIeNcE aNd DaTa gUyS…
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1232869/
2005 study showing chloroquine effective against SARS-COV … weird..
Interesting stuff about being tall and coronavirus risk.
Although you do wonder if the scientists involved could be employed more productively.
So, any bets as to if Sturgeon imposes a Crouching in Public Places Regulation before the UK Government?
I thought you already had to genuflect every time you even so much as thought about Nicola Sturgeon.
That frontline doctors group should have vetted their speakers better. I suspect they thought the presence of Ms. Immanuel would break up the monochrome effect that was caused by the skin tone of the rest of the speakers and their lab coats. She came off awfully: ranting, incoherent, provocative, zealous. Not synonyms for rational argument you may agree. She forgot the word for ‘H’ in the acronym of NIH, ‘Health’, not a good look for a doctor. The facial expressions of the rest of the group speak volumes, and one leaves the scene obviously attempting too late to disassociate himself from the car crash he was watching unfold. She had to be stopped by the boss doctor though nobody else was. I can see exactly why the video was banned based just on her assertions. The rest make a balanced sensible case.
Disagree with your take profoundly, her passion for the dispossessed was very moving. The death toll in the third world will exceeed (briefly) that from the denial of the affordable electricity that we take for granted.
She only talked about saving American lives from Covid, and nothing about electricity shortages. Not sure why you equate her testimony with the third world.
I would agree that the rest of the docs presented a very balanced view. It’s a shame that their contributions are not the ones doing the rounds or being shown. The actual conference was well worth the watch.
Yeah, i listened to the whole thing. It is quite good. Can see why it was memory-holed, as i say above. I also made another connection later on when the original hydroxy proponent Dr. Todaro showed up. He’s basically persona non grata no. 1 as far as US medicine is concerned and is effectively kryptonite to social media companies (not that they are superheroes, poor analogy).
Looking forward to tomorrow evening. Having dinner with Two-Six and Mrs Two-Six to discuss all things sceptical
and collect your FREE badge!
Enjoy!!!! Regards to you, Two-Six and Mrs Two-Six!
Roger that, and to you x
Wish I could join you! Eat, drink and be merry. Drink damnation to THEM.
We’ll raise a glass to you all I am sure.
We might be down your way Annie before its gets chilly, legal bare-face seems appealing.
Looking forward to it too! We’ll be the ones wrapped in bubble wrap stuck inside a zorb ball
I had tickets to attend the British Touring Car Championship at Donington Park this weekend.
I’ve just had an email telling me that it’s been decided that no supporters are now allowed to attend because the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) has classed BTCC as an elite sport just three days before the event.
So much for getting the economy back to normal. This government is just full of a bunch of dicks!
An ‘elite’ sport??? Ie only the ‘elites’ are allowed to attend? One rule for us…
Other elite sport is football, cricket, rugby, which are all in enclosed grounds, but motorsport has the spectators spread over a huge area. The risk of transmission must be tiny.
Probably done it so the football fans don’t kick off.
There’s been events on every weekend since the beginning of July. I’ve been to two of them as it’s one of the places where things seem normal. All these other event are fine to take place, it’s just a for some reason they decided to class this as “elite” three days before, even though the event has been on for months!
Other events at Donington Park, or other BTCC events?
Donington has enough space to allow the crowds without too much worry.
Just this weeks BTCC. All other events are allowed.
Oh, also, today i met my first Covid oberleutnant. I was walking home from the bus stop and passing through an alleyway there was a couple ahead of me walking very slowly. I got within about a metre of the man in front and he heard the sound of my suitcase being rolled towards him, looked around and said “Keep your distance, mate”. My reply being “fuck off”, he then responded “No you fuck off, I’ve got the virus, you don’t want to catch it do you?” to which i said “why are you not staying home then?”, he signalled that he had nothing to reply to that by doing the wanker sign.
They looked like Guardian readers, so no surprises.
You should’ve got your phone put, snapped a pic of him and sent it to the Police as he’s breaking the law isn’t he by not self isolating?
He was wearing a face napkin, obscuring his identity, but not enough to disguise the Grauniad smug halo. And i would rather have punched him than take a snap.
You could have said you were exempt from the virus
Rejoice, all ye sceptics!
Ye are privileged to be the first readers of a completely new and original collection of deathless verse from the pen of Annie. Immortality begins here. [cue fanfare]
Covisong of the hen-pecked husband
I was so tired of being nagged,
I used to dream my wife was gagged.
Then I woke up and it was true.
But, alas, they’ve gagged me too.
Covisong of the boy who had a baby brother
Baby wears nappies on his bum,
It troubled nobody but mum.
But nappies turned into a disgrace
When mum put one on my face.
And what I think is quite the worst:
She forgot to wash it first.
Covisong of the Anglican vicar
The C of E has done its best
To keep us all in terror,
But when it comes to Peterkin
I think there’s been an error.
For Peterkin, the silly sod
Has told me that he trusts in God.
Coviconfession of the Catholic priest
I married two the other day,
I did it quite correctly.
No father gave away the bride,
And all were masked perfectly.
I had ten men in Hazmat suits
To disinfect the ring,
I stayed inside my Perspex pod
And let nobody sing.
The bride and groom were muzzled,
No wedding feast was guzzled.
One thing, however, troubles me,
At least I think it’s weird:
The bride, despite her lacy dress,
Had such a bushy beard!
I’m sure their love is true and tender,
But I have doubts about their gender.
Two more:
Covinightmare of the Classics don
While I was lecturing on Ovid
My mask fell off, and I got Covid.
Covibadness of Year Nine, who do not respect their teacher
We found it quite an easy task
To put a nettle in his mask.
And, to make us laugh the louder,
We filled his gloves with itching powder.
Brilliant Annie!!
You are our Lockdown Sceptics’ poet laureate!
Went for a lunchtime meal today with my parents in a local hotel – first time out in this context. None of us wearing masks, as we are all exempt – my Mum even excused by the doctor! As a result, we weren’t allowed in.
The owner was completely thrown by us turning up without masks. I don’t think it had even crossed her mind that people would not wear them.
We asked her politely how she was going to deal with people without masks, as it is discriminatory not to. She replied that she had a duty to protect her staff – some of whom had vulnerable family at home that needed protecting.
She also said that she had already received complaints from customers about people not wearing masks when they went to the toilet!
I still don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
I should add that we are in Scotland and live in a smallish community, which sadly has embraced mask wearing with relish.
Very sad. This is POISON.
I know. I’m looking forward to a week in Yorkshire in a couple of weeks to compare notes. I’m really hoping that it is just where I live that has fallen hook, line and sinker for the rubbish, which gets more rubbish by the day!
Just got back from my weekly shop at Aldi.
Breezed in maskless, greeter (who doesn’t ever actually greet) ambled gently towards me. I smiled at him, he nodded – maybe smiled back, I could only see his eyes.
Shop quiet as you’d expect at 8pm. Customers all masked.
Staff told to wear masks on shop floor were complying, though one wore his conspicuously as a chin strap. Yay!!
At the checkout, I was joined by three exuberant males, late 30s, buying beer. No masks, no challenge.
This afternoon I went for a walk in the park. It was busy but nobody was wearing a mask except for one schoolboy, about 15, walking with maskless female friend. Go figure!
Quick run to local Tesco for BBQ supplie searly this evening – we breezed in without any comment – great to see two or three others wandering around without muzzles plus at least one other keeping firmly around their neck – hopefully inspired by our collective not wearing !!
Today’s trip out, another walk in London, 5 miles or so along the Limehouse Cut and Thames. I get my exercise Boris…..
Masks nearly 100% on the trains and bus. I admit I did the same – though noticed coming back that while walking Waterloo East to Waterloo I was a bit breathless, it is very real. Soon took off again once I found myself in a near empty carriage.
Lunch was planned at the Dickens pub at Limehouse but when I arrived the girl at the door (surrounded by loads of sanitiser) said that they weren’t doing food at the moment. Found another pub near London Bridge that did – sanitiser at the door, separate entrance and exit, but no sign of any other COVID measure, not a mask anywhere, and no request for my T&T details. Nice fish and chips and pint but not as cheap as Wetherspoons.
Waterloo to limehouse to London Bridge is a bit of a slog!
Which pub near London bridge, Davews?
There was a bit of tube involved as well…. Waterloo to Bromley-by-Bow on tube, walk down to Limehouse basin, along north bank to St Catherine’s Dock then across Tower Bridge. Train from London Bridge (using ‘London Terminals’ option on ticket). Pub was The Horniman at Hayes, a Nicholson’s pub.
Thinking of braving public transport to go up to Aldgate tomorrow. The manager of a pub I used to go to a lot sent me a WhatsApp the other day to say they were open and I want to support him and I could also murder a proper pint of something truly hoppy. If they’ve gone nuts over the guidelines (which I doubt) I will provide some free education. Either way – I’ll report back.
Trains six to a carriage at the most. Jubilee line this morning was slightly tight for 2m distancing but a long way from packed. Couple sat opposite were chatting away maskless but put them on when they got off. I feel the dangers of trains have been grossly overhyped and now they really need to get the passenger numbers up again.
I’ll be overground to cannon St and then walk, most likely. I might take the circle line, but I hate the tube at the best of times. There’ll be nobody to stop me at my local station. Interested to see what happens at cannon st on my way back.
Everything has been vastly overhyped!
Ah yes, been there before lockdown. Nice place.
“Third, social media platforms should err on the side of free speech, so in the absence of “proof” that hydroxychloroquine is actually harmful they shouldn’t ban people promoting it.”
Quite apart from the fact that these c omputer nerds are not scientists or doctors.
LIke Bill Gates, they have ZERO competence to determine which statements about potential medical treatments are true or false. We have SCIENTISTS to perform that function Scientists who actually conduct Random Control Trials to eliminate dodgy outcomes. Unlike the BS that is being rammed down our throats concerning mask wearing–for which there is ZERO scientific evidence.
The precautionary principle would mandate *not* demonizing and discarding a strong candidate as a potential treatment but instead to support RCTs, to generate reliable, replicable data.
Oh, no time for that!! That might get in the way of the Operation Warp Speed time line for rolling out vaccines to the public without adequate testing and RCTs.
And how about the U-turn on vitamin D?
Two months ago methinks vitamin D was in the HC “witch doctor” category.
No longer, it seems.
These people truly speak with forked tongues. Speaking of which, white kind of racist dog whistling is to call a Black American pphysician a witch doctor? I won’t even comment on the use of the word “brand,” which commonly refers to how we permanently mark and identify animals we own—as opposed to merely saying “has been called a witch doctor.”
Jesus.
Thank you, Toby, for so articulately calling out the double talk and forked-tonguery.
If I had a pound account I would donate.
I just posted the BitChute link to my Face account.
Here it is again:
https://www.bitchute.com/video/YYWZdod7oAap/
I’m at work but it’s quiet so I thought I’d nip down to Sainsbury’s to buy a few bits and kill some time.
There was a police car outside, engine running, waiting for an officer inside. I hand sanitiser as respect to others and walked.
Everyone was nappied up, including the officer at the self service checkout. Someone behind me mumbled something like “doesn’t apply to you then”, in a weak pathetic voice.
I ignored him, got my stuff, paid and left. The police car was long gone, presumably in search of some real crime.
(Fair do’s to dibble nappying up when he didn’t need to)
Greggs boss says he won’t pay staff stuck in quarantine after travelling abroad
The CEO of the popular bakery chain told the BBC that Greggs employees “can’t expect the company to pay” if they have to quarantine
https://www.edinburghlive.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/scotland-airbridges-greggs-boss-staff-18677902
Good maybe this sort of thing will piss people off enough to open their eyes.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/29/cambridge-scientists-fear-coronavirus-second-wave-r-rate-rises/
Paywall – summary here:
Cambridge scientists fear coronavirus second wave as ‘R’ rate rises across UK
South-east and south-west regions now thought to be above ‘R1’, meaning virus is spreading exponentially.
Laura Donnelly, our Health Editor, and Gordon Rayner, our Political Editor, have more:
Fears of a second wave of coronavirus in the UK have been raised by Cambridge University scientists, who have warned that the reproduction ‘R’ rate is now close to one in every part of the country.
Four out of seven English regions have seen a rise in the rate of infections, with the south-east and south-west now thought to be above ‘R1’, meaning the virus is spreading exponentially.
NHS leaders have said there is “a very high” level of concern about a looming spike in cases, as well as worries about how the health service will cope this winter.
Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, is said to be worried that a second wave could arrive in the next fortnight after warning that it is already happening across Europe.
They are just never going to let go of this. Bugger off the lot of you!
So face masks don’t work?..
It’s all my fault. I live in the south east and I’ve not been wearing a mask. Presumably, one of us is in the south west too.
Don’t give them ideas :p
Ooops that’ll be me. Sorry.
If cases continue to rise it will simply be said the rise would be greater without the face masks. If they fall it will all be down to the face masks!
I’m really worried the’ll create a “second wave” through manipulation and MSM sensationalism just to keep the fear up.
Complete and utter bollocks the lot of it.
Sadly this shit seems to stick.
Depressing, is it true?
It’s true that R is about 1. So what? That’s where it is going to be forever.
They can’t accurately calculate R values, and this stupid excuse for a ‘deadly’ virus has never spread exponentially. There needs to be a reckoning after this.
Leaving aside the fact that the number of infections is the wrong thing to measure (because it’s obvious they will go up when you allow people to go back to work…. those that have jobs still), how do they take into account rising number of tests?
People using the word ‘exponentially’ need to have a long hard look at themselves. They know full well the general public think that it means ‘out of control, growing at an incredible pace’, which is plainly is not
I’d like to recommend to fellow sceptics a holiday in Greece this summer. (I don’t often post but have followed avidly since the start) I’m here now with family in Santorini. I’d been nervous about the trip over here re mask wearing and potential quarantine. However it couldn’t have been easier – I wore a mask on my chin through Heathrow and on flight with no challenge. In Greece there were no Covid checks at the airport. Now we are here I feel a huge weight off my shoulders – being in the UK was really getting me down. In Santorini, where there has not been a single case of Covid, it is all fairly ‘normal’ – masks are mandatory in shops but rarely enforced. The real tragedy is that the place is empty – beaches are deserted, restaurants part full etc. Great for us to have a holiday without the crowds but terrible for the locals who depend on these few months to see them through the winter. They are all so hospitable and keen for our business. Definitely a tonic to get out of the oppressive vibe in the UK.
Why is Greece so free of infections? What have they done differently?
Not faked their death figures.
Who has? Why would any country do that?
Hope is doesn’t hit Santorini:
Masks to be compulsory at more indoor public spaces in Greece
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-greece-masks-idUSKCN24T1C7
‘Lockdown has killed 21,000 people’, say experts Lockdown policy has had “significant unintended consequences” such as lack of access to critical healthcare and a drop in A&E attendances
article just published in the telegraph.
Great! The truth is starting to come out!
Or is it another false hope? There have been some before.
The consequences of lockdown will kill far more than that over the next few years, even decades, but such deaths will be invisible and silent.
doesn’t take a flippin brain surgeon to work out that if you close everything down including hospitals it’s going to have consequences. Personally I think it’s negligence on behalf of the government, not unintended consequences!
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.26.20162420v1
This article about NYC outbreak just published. Overdispersion(superspreader) is not the sole cause of heterogeneity which can also arise through long-term, or persistent variations in individual susceptibility or infectivity“Persistent heterogeneity has three important consequences compared to the effects of overdispersion: (1) It results in a major modification of the early epidemic dynamics; (2) It significantly suppresses the herd immunity threshold; (3) It significantly reduces the final size of the epidemic. “
You don’t need that high herdimmunity to supress the outbreak
So some people are more susceptible than others and once they have been culled by the virus, numbers naturally decline – flatlining. The mass hysteria is not justified.
These lawyers have been writing what that actual law is relating to all this coronabollox.
http://www.laworfiction.com/2020/07/lower-prices-and-no-queues-here/
I’m not sure why it’s not been more widely distributed. Simon Dolan’s QC Francis Hoar linked to them so they are genuine
All these businesses struggling to open make money need to realize the antisocial distancing is just guidelines and can be ignored.
“Fiction:
Businesses don’t have a choice about imposing social distancing and other Coronavirus measures.
Law:
Subject to consideration of health and safety risk assessments as mentioned below, businesses can choose to impose some, all possible or no social distancing measures at all.
They can offer dual service provision, directing those worried about Coronavirus to the left and those who are not to the right. They can charge higher prices to consumers who want social distancing and other Coronavirus ‘safety’ measures. They can offer lower prices and ‘fast passes’ and no queues for those who do not.
This is the common law position in England and Wales. It remains the law in England for the moment and unenforceable guidance won’t change that.“
I think it’s often more about local EHOs than the law per se.
In the cancel culture world we live in public image will be a major concern for many businesses.
I can’t see all the hypochondriacs wanting measures in shops for long if not wanting them means they’ll get discounts!
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.07.27.20162693v1
From Kenya few cases compared to Spain with seroprevalence 5%
“Conclusions We estimate that 1 in 20 adults in Kenya had SARS-CoV-2 antibodies during the study period. By the median date of our survey, only 2093 COVID-19 cases and 71 deaths had been reported through the national screening system. This contrasts, by several orders of magnitude, with the numbers of cases and deaths reported in parts of Europe and America when seroprevalence was similar.”
Several hundred thousands infected most likely asymptomatic or very mild symptoms
I don’t suppose we should be surprised:
Scientists advising the government have predicted that between 43 and 84 people will still be dying from Covid-19 every day by mid-August, as health leaders called on the government to adopt a “zero Covid” approach and seek total elimination of the virus.
On Wednesday, the government’s official dashboard showed 83 Covid-19 associated deaths and 763 newly lab-confirmed infections. Modellers from the MRC Biostatistics Unit at Cambridge University, however, estimate that there are far more new cases – approximately 3,000 a day – and that deaths will stay high for weeks to come.
.… If those infections are among young people and a significant proportion are mild or even asymptomatic, that may not translate into a big rise in deaths. Nonetheless, hopes among the scientific community of reaching zero Covid-19 deaths are fading, raising fears that the disease will not be contained into winter and there will be a second wave of the sort experienced in Europe.
Ominous:
Scientists are anxious that the lockdown measures in the UK are neither tough enough nor being well enough observed to avoid either localised rises in infections and deaths, or a second wave. The increase being seen in infections needs to be nipped in the bud, they say.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jul/29/uk-health-leaders-call-for-government-to-seek-total-elimination-of-covid-19
Mark my words, MARK MY WORDS, if they lock us down again we need to start burning things. I’m serious.
God almighty, a second lockdown should be totally out of the question. I honestly thought these cretins surely wouldn’t want to smash the economy, people’s mental/physical health, and our total way of life all over again, not when it was such a huge mistake. Maybe I’m wrong.
Is anything out of the question for these psychos? I’m getting very worried!
me too
Unfortunately I think they will be happy to do it again,it’s what I’ve expected all along,to keep building us back up just so they can knock us down again and make it hurt more than the last time.
We simply cannot allow it to happen again,they need to be taken down.
I really can’t see a second lockdown happening. The NHS will in future be prepared for a pandemic – so the threat of an NHS meltdown will not apply (which will also show the threat of an NHS collapse in early 2020 was simply the consequence of Government incompetence) I don’t think any other W European country could bear the cost of another lockdown. No finance minister has got another €300 billion in their back pocket. So there will be relative return to sanity…
…that will also mean a Macron threat to close the Channel to lorry traffic will be unlikely to materialise.
Money is irrelevant, if it was relevant there wouldn’t have been the first lockdown.
I don’t think it matters whether the medical system is overwhelmed. That was a lie from the outset. In the US, even in New York, the medical systems were never overwhelmed, yet, we had massive lockdowns. As things get better, our governors just keep coming up with more and more restrictions. None of it is based in actual fact. I don’t know what the motivation is – it is likely as simple as power-hunger.
The first lockdown hasn’t ended yet, so how can a second one start?
Yes,I agree,no more,enough is enough,it will be time to take action.
guy fawkes night in november – finish the job!!??
Positive PCRs aren’t even “cases” anymore, just “infections”. And I don’t think zero deaths are possible with our current reporting methodology.
But I think anything’s possible with our current predicting policy!
This is all just bizarre. We’d like zero colds, zero cancer, zero heart disease, zero hangovers, zero work, zero death even. Why on earth would anyone think that zero-any virus in particular was either achievable or desirable, among all possible goals of existence?
Quite. I would also apply the “better the devil you know” principle. If (by some unlikely sequence of events) we vanquish flu and corona viruses from old and diseased lungs what fresh hell might we usher in by allowing space for novel pathogens that might successfully attack young and healthy people?
This seems to be coming from “Independent SAGE” as they call themselves, not from the official government stooges.
They are a menace – worse than the ‘real’ SAGE.
Their only objective is to trash the economy, and many of the individuals have had that objective for some time and were primed ready to go as soon as ‘the opportunity’ presented itself.
The Guardian can just fuck off now, hysterical fucking rag pumping non-stop fear. And I say this as someone who until this was a ‘contributor’ as I stupidly thought they were pretty reliable, albeit fully aware of the need to ‘balance out’ my hot takes with some from more right leaning papers too. Now it is just 100% junk.
It’s always been junk.
However, it was once junk with a very admirable investigative arm which was worth the price of the paper alone.
Sadly that has now gone almost completely to shit. Nearly ALL their ‘reporting’ is now tinged with agenda bias. Now the tabloids and the DM are often ones doing the best job when it comes to investigations aka proper journalism.
I’ve got a voucher for £50 to repair my Penny Farthing!
Interesting commentary on a Bill Gates interview:
https://youtu.be/y8Qp3RLB0PY
I am feeling really anxious tonight about all this “second wave” stuff- we all know it’s rubbish but most don’t and I’m fearing all sorts.
I think they will twist it into a series of spikes. They cannot get tge nations to collabourate as they had hoped to orchestrate a wave. At least that is my latest computer model based on what I see.
Perhaps try distracting yourself by going crazy and visiting the SNP twitter account @theSNP. I can’t really believe what I’m seeing there, so many sceptics – it’s cheering in a normal-people-are-seeing-through-this-now kind of way.
One beautiful reply is about a statement made by kate? Forbes? The one wot does the money in Scotland.
On @theSnp a reply is: “You cannot create jobs, babe. Any more than you can buy a shovel and expect it to dig it’s own holes.”
It’s just good to realise we are not alone by any means. We have a large silent majority as Simon Dolan said.
It’s whether that’ll be enough to stop more lockdowns or worse. That’s what really rattles me.
I understand, it is sickening and these are nervy times, taking whatever action you want is a good way to stop feelings of helplessness. I am a great believer in humanity. We are many they are few. The brain washed will wake us – we are seeing that all around us.
The day where sturgeon asked fir volunteers to be vaccinated got her 350 odd replies. One of them:
“am a Gulf War Veteran. One third of GW Veterans are ill due to being forced to have vaccinations that had not been adequately tested and were unlicensed. I won’t be going within a million miles of this.”
There is a lot of fight on our side. A lot.
Actually – gulfwar syndrome hasn’t been mentiined at all during my days here on LS. It requires raising more often.
wasn’t there the issue also with the anti-malaria tablets give to soldiers also, think it was Larium and supposedly gave psychosis.
Thankyou for mentioning it! I had no idea this was even a thing!
Is this because they were basically testing vaccines on soldiers?
A whole cocktail of mrdicines were administered. I believe the movie Jar Head cover this by one fast scene where each solider in line is given a pill. It was much more than that. Chemical weapons being assumed. It would be a good idea to search a little into it and post again. It is ceratainly a parallel to the situation now.
I don’t think there will be any more general lockdowns. Jean Castex, the French Prime Minister, said there will not be another lockdown because “the economic and human consequences from a total lockdown are disastrous.”
As reported in the DT, Macron forced Boris into lockdown by threatening to close the Channel ports. So, if the French don’t have one, we won’t have to have one. Know what I mean?
Dirty Mask stories.
Take dirty screwed up mask from pocket and put it on. Pull it down to chin. Pull it up again. Fiddle with it and then touch items on shelves. Pull it down to speak. Pull it up again. Exit store and take it off quickly. Screw it up and place back in pocket.
I even saw someone in the High street pull mask down to cough then pull it back up. Ugh!
Yuk!
So it’s not alright to wipe your nose with it before chucking it in the gutter ?
https://twitter.com/daniellevitt22/status/1287845863935455232/photo/1
This shows that mask wearing in China and Japan (pre Covid-19) did not have better outcome as regards flu deaths compared to non-mask wearing US and Germany (pre-Covid-19)Perhaps not surprising . Posted yesterday CDC May 2020 study that masks did not protect for influenza. Evidence from 14 randomized controlled trials of these measures did not support a substantial effect on transmission of laboratory-confirmed influenza.Contrast that with Covid-19 at the moment not a single RCT is published no evidence. We are waiting for a Danish study not yet published but finished(the investigator just stated that he hoped that Denmark would not mandate masks, perhaps a hint of the result of the study??)
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/5/19-0994_article
But the answer will be “it’s not ‘flu”.
It is, clearly, a completely new virus that behaves in ways we’ve never seen viruses behave before and our immune system reacts to it in ways our immune system reacts to no other viruses.
When they say this say “no it’s a common cold”. Seriously it works. Usually they laugh. Because somewhere deep inside, it lands.
More from Ross Clark:
By appearing in public flanked by scientific and medical advisers the Prime Minister has indicated he wants us to know that all his decisions are backed by science. But what difference might it have made if he had involved economists to anything like the same extent?
True, economists have hardly bathed themselves in glory in recent years with their lousy predictions over Brexit and so on. But at least we wouldn’t have ended up where we are at the moment: with economic considerations smothered by the all-conquering aim of suppressing the number of new viral infections.
…. Whether there really is a second wave in Spain, or in any other European country, is debatable – while there has been a moderate upwards blip in new confirmed cases in Spain over the past four weeks there has not been the remotest sign of an uptick in deaths, of which just two were recorded on Tuesday.
Ministers try to excuse the hurried change in the rules by saying that they were in receipt of dramatic new evidence of a second wave in Spain – evidence which seems to consist of 10 people returning from that country and testing positive for Covid-19.
…. It isn’t just the holiday industry which faces devastation from this kneejerk policy-making. It is hard, for example, for any business to invest in reopening shops or offices knowing that it could be forced to close them again should they fall victim to a sudden Leicester-style lockdown.
…. At least when lockdown began in March everyone was in the same boat, huge grants and loans were being made available for businesses unable to trade – and the Government had the excuse that the virus had caught the world unawares. There is no excuse for the way the Government is behaving now, pulling the rug from whole industries, and whole towns at whim. It is simply not safe at the moment for anyone to invest in any public-facing industry.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/29/fear-second-wave-no-excuse-destroy-left-economy/
well said!
Unfortunately the pressure will be for COVID Zero which will be argued is the only way to avoid having to put any measures in place, other than controlling borders.
YouTube outlaws “contradicting” the World Health Organization
[“YouTube doesn’t allow content that spreads medical misinformation that contradicts the World Health Organization (WHO) or local health authorities”]
https://off-guardian.org/2020/07/29/youtube-outlaws-contradicting-the-world-health-organization/#comments
If true, You Tube has effectively become WHO’s mouthpiece …and WHO is the mouthpiece of its biggest donors (i.e. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and big Pharma)…
(Apologies if article has previously been linked)
Great article from Julia Hartley-Brewer:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/politics/holiday-fiasco-proves-fed-diet-junk/
The holiday fiasco proves we are being fed a diet of junk.New contradictory measures about travel to Spain and fighting obesity show the government is making it up as it goes along.
….the latest pronouncements from Number 10 suggest that, far from directing his Cabinet to create the sweet music of good government, Boris’s left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing. And, frankly, I’d chance that it seems that what his right hand is doing sometimes comes as a complete surprise to his right hand too.
…. It’s also a bit rich for the Prime Minister, who we’ve seen photographed cycling and jogging every morning for years, to tell us to get on our bikes to lose weight when, with all due respect, it plainly hasn’t done the trick for him.
Unfortunately the comments make for very depressing reading – maybe 77th decided to have a party there.
Shame – the comments looked very healthy indeed when I looked at them this morning.
I especially like the second most highly rated one, though:
‘Boris & his Government couldn’t organise a fart in a Mushy pea factory: they have totally lost the plot….and it is us paying the price.
Every step of the way they seem to have made wrong decisions ,from ‘experts’ to trying to manipulate the British people ‘for their own good’.
I have totally disconnected from them and ignore anything they say or do’
Something amazing happened on the local BBC news this evening. I apologise for watching the MSM news, but in my defence i was round my mums, so she had TV Rights. Anyway, there was a outside broadcast from Southend pier. They were interviewing people about holidays etc. They spoke to a lass who had come down from Liverpool. Interviewer asked if she was worried about catching the virus/transmitting it/taking it back to Liverpool. Usual bed wetting BBC question. Her reply ” Not at all, I haven’t got it and I don’t know anyone else who’s had it since this all started” Almost choked on my dinner!! Can’t believe the BBC, of all people included her interview and didn’t edit out this reply…Priceless
They will face-morph and voice synth her to make her say” Well my gran had it and died, a bloke down the road had it and died, I am shielding my Dad and I feel terrible for coming on holiday now you mention it, sorry, I will go home tomorrow”.
Wastch out for the re-run on BBC Breakfast.
I can see a BBC report negated to all the rubbish jobs for some time.
but that is local news,,,,,,,,,, now if that was national news ….it would be news. all the same i dont know how that got past the censors
That’s what happens when they do a genuine vox pop instead of editing it before broadcast!
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/07/29/lockdown-has-killed-21000-people-say-experts/
Almost 2,700 people a week have died because of the effects of lockdown, analysis of official data suggests.
The study by economists and academics from Sheffield and Loughborough universities suggests more than 21,000 people died as a result of the measures introduced in March.
But only COVID19 is on the list of unnacceptable ways to die.
These deaths were necessary as we must do everything we can to save just one life. All life is precious. Tell that to the families of COVID victims. blah blah blah.
Blood directly on the hands of Johnson and his cabinet, and the opposition leaders who supported it, and moral complicity for all the coronapanickers who pushed it.
This should be front page news of every newspaper and the leading headline of every news channel.
It’s been flagged on Sky as it is the lead article in the hard copy tomorrow. Paper review about to start
Sorry, it’s not on the front page, my mistake.
wow.
I agree totally. Sick to the back teeth of the whole thing and not sure how much more I can take.
Agree completely Mark. Not sure what the average age of these poor souls is, but it sure as hell isn’t 79/80.
What on earth will the hysterics who have been claiming every single ‘excess death’ so far this year was exclusively Covid-19 do?! First the dodgy counting revealed, now they gotta take 21k off their tally, soon they’ll discover the whole ‘notifiable disease’ malarky
It’s taken them bloody long enough so far.
I think we got a long wait, judging by what I still see on social media & how I see people behaving, before any useful backlash. I’m no longer hopeful of an end to this before middle of next year, and even then it will quite literally be a ‘new normal’ of increased surveillance, some people never letting go of their comfort masks and a never ending threat of lockdowns for the tiniest winter flu blip.
Mostly out of sheer bloody-mindedness, I refuse to agree with you. The wheels were clearly coming off (albeit slowly) pre muzzle day. We just need to keep plugging away.
I really bloody hope I’m wrong too
I see a fragility in the lies. Truth is a big, round cast iron affair. This is akin to a snapped and broken game of Kerplunk!
https://twitter.com/plaforscience/status/1288516666721263617/photo/1
All are now interested in Spain and the increasing numbers of cases. According to the twitter and the comment the few deaths you see during the last 2 weeks are all elderly with co-morbidities.But you wouldn’t expect an increase in death already in the new surge and if it is according to rumours mostly young might only be very few deaths coming. Spain’s death statistics for Covid-19 have been criticized. Can’t vouch if twitter has reported correct data 100 %
For anyone concerned about gloves, looks like you might be looking in the wrong direction:
https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/dr-fauci-says-people-should-probably-use-eye-shields-protect-against-covid-19
Mrs Cameron, if you are looking in, you need to start designing those goggles!
Honest to god, at that point I’m going to start punching people.
Snorkels next.
Welcome to clown world
Full scuba gear. Wouldn’t even want to breathe the same air as others, despite being oxygen deprived from the face muzzle. Hey, it might be easier to breathe with an oxygen tank strapped onto your back than with a cloth mask!
Feels like they’re just trolling us now
They have been doing that here since Cummings’ preposterous Barnard Castle Defence. Some are enjoying the power trip a little too much. Others are just plain evil.
Ramping up the fear
Totally impartial BBC presenter Emma Barnett is pushing the joys of masks on her twitter thread. Memo to Emma: mandatory masks are, to use a very BBC word, “controversial”. It’s not in your JD to take sides.
For anyone in the area, the KeepBritainFree Sussex group is getting together next week for chat/drink/meeting.
So just out on a whim I decided to see if there were any studies on plastic fibre aspiration (given that most “cloth” masks are actually polyester or polyester elastine mix)…
Found this recent one on ScienceDirect (paywall, but graphics isn’t paywalled) with a lovely lung tissue slide called “Microplastics in air: Are we breathing it in?” — https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2468584417300119
There’s also one called “inhaled Cellulosic and Plastic Fibres found in Human Lung Tissue” (graphic pictures!) in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention 1998, Vol 7, 419–428 — https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9610792/
An even older one called “Respiratory disease caused by synthetic fibres: a new occupational disease” in Thorax (BMJ) 1975, 30, 204 — https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1179318/
And that’s a cursory 5 second search!
Thanks for the research….I had also wondered about that. Presumably more microplastics are released as the same filthy mask is reused and kept in people’s pockets and handbags for months, so gradually fraying.
I suspect once you stick it in your bag/pocket it would pick up loose fibres there and the nose-facing part is a convenient “scoop” to accumulate all those “just in the right place” until it’s right against your face…
Yes think of it as a pathogen scoop!
Oh happy days, snotty junkies in schoolboy pockets.
Snotty HANKIES
I thought I had read a few articles picking apart this lancet study as being junk science… but I cannot find them now that I’m looking. Anyone have any links for me?
Thanks!
https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S0140-6736%2820%2931142-9
Regarding not being able to see your GP; in my area it has been the case where you call in the morning for a same-day appointment for some time. If you don’t get one, you are advised to call the next day.
I just assumed they got paid more for always being able to see patients within 12hrs of asking for an appointment.
No we dont get paid more for seeing patients within 12 hours. The problem has been for years trying to fit the demand in to the available working day. I have between 50 and 60 telephone appointments a day which after triage I see about a third in the surgery .
Is that just a catch-up from being unavailable to your patients, or too many patients in your practice? Genuinely interested, as either answer means ‘our’ NHS doesn’t work and needs urgent rectification.
I have been available from the begining in mid March thanks . Ok I get it you are in the I hate my GP group. My average is 50 -60 calls a day to triage from a personal list size of 2,400. My day starts at 7.45 am and finishes at 7.15 pm. The last hour of the day is spent checking blood results and dictating letters.
I don’t think James is necessarily in the “I hate my GP group”, rather just genuinely interested in why you have such a phenomenal daily work rate. I’d be concerned for safety if I knew that any GP I was consulting was working 12 hours and fielding 50 to 60 telephone consultations per day and then seeing 20 or so patients that same day. This surely is not a safe way to practise medicine. I don’t believe that any GP in my own practice is working at this that rate. The practice is locked and bolted by 5.30pm apart from anything else unless they are all inside checking blood results but the doctors’ car park (which I can see from my window) is often deserted from 4pm except for perhaps one Range Rover a couple of times a week. For a group practice of 7 doctors (only 2 full-time) I believe that it is very unusual for more than one doctor to be on the premises after 4 pm.
I was criticised before on this subject for mentioning a fact (facts being dangerous): many, possibly most, female GPs don’t work full time. You aren’t really getting full value from training of GPs as a result. I’ve absolutely no problem with women choosing a good work-life balance but it clearly places strains on GP services.
How do you think you can rectify that ? stop women studying medicine or have quotas ?
I suggest you contact your Health Board in Scotland as GP services are contracted between 8 am and 18.00 . Here is the link for you.
https://www.mstrust.org.uk/a-z/nhs-uk
I think you have an axe to grind Gillian as I have noted before.
As to safe way to practice medicine how else do you think I can cope with the demand ?
I’m not having a go but it’s a fact GP surgeries in London basically closed down during the height of the Covid crisis which I think was shameful. People were essentially being advised to go to A&E.
I can not comment on London . I doubt though that the surgeries closed completely.
Thanks for the clarity, Peter.
Edit – this has never been an issue for me. Always managed to get an appointment when needed. Anything urgent and I would head straight for the walk-in centre in any case.
Depends on the practise, I walk in and ask for an appointment (not fussed which Doctor) usually get seen within 24 hours, it’s a busy Surgery but I’m not a frequent user.
Last year i had a chest x-ray at the hospital in the late afternoon, my own GP was on the phone 07.30 the following morning to tell me all was well. Top Marks.
If this isn’t a piss take, I think we’re well and truly f*cked
https://apis.mail.yahoo.com/ws/v3/mailboxes/@.id==VjN-VM1NNjLYSLACkMHu2_s1tgWEEcDL2YUGxa3ybKQ590e6UFduZJjCrhZTduGfg6KjAm9leSnacDH4J9qI9xACdA/messages/@.id==ADbhXG8tuFGHXyH9QA7FQGt43Zg/content/parts/@.id==2/thumbnail?appId=YMailNorrinLaunch
The link does not work.
Sorry, have a look at Tyneside Tigress’s below, same subject
Sorry ignore, have a look at Tyneside Tigress’s link below, same subject
The Chairman of the Technology Anti-trust investigation session in Washington today summarised by saying some of these four businesses need to be broken up.
These were concluding sentiments after several hourse of questioning by senators of Zuckerburg, Bezos, Cook and Pichai.
Apple, Amazon, Google and facebook told they are a monopoly and face being broken up under anti-competition laws. No involvement of Mircosoft, curious.
Quite extraordinary language, on the surface, with the caveat that these things frequently amount to nothing.
Aside from the LS related issues of corona/covid19 censoring on these information platforms the hearing makes it believeable that Gates’s global monopoly may well be also challenged, in time.
The Republicans seem to really have the bit between the teeth now on this problem, which has been building for years but has become urgent because of the Presidential election. Consider Jim Jordan’s (ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee) comments about this (5:25):
Rep. Jordan sounds off on Democrats’ treatment of AG Barr at House hearing
Anyone got the picture with flags and percentages of covid survivals someone had a couple of days ago?
It was an Irish Freedom Party tweet I believe.
Thanks, but can´t find it.
I have it, will post shortly as on laptop
Obviously we are an embattled minority but I’ve been feeling a little bit more optimistic over the last few days. If the reality is we are living in a flatlining world, as seems increasingly likely (certainly as far as deaths go) then the opposition are going to have a hard time of it maintaining extreme fear levels.
Here is a lovely lilting Irish take on things. Putting across the same positive message amongst the gloom – and it is deep gloom. Several topics covered including gates looking panicked by the army of anti gates humans that are rising. A lovely bit of work emminently shareable:
https://youtu.be/LINSRUlsa54
Yes, sounds like good stuff. I think he’s right in saying no one seriously believes that masks have a protective effect..,the significance lies in us adopting the marker. We’ve certainly seen this before with the national salute in Germany in the 30s and the obligatory use of “Comrade” in the Soviet Union. What is being sought here is our compliance.
I have met a lot of people who sincerely believe that masks work. A lot. I also watched a baseball game last night and the announcers were believers. People just have a really hard time accepting the fact that they are being manipulated. And note that lancet article I asked about. People really do believe this stuff.
I imagine that everyone fronting mainstream tv would have to at least pretend to believe.
Ha Ha and if course it’s the skeptics who get the face recognition surveillance. Clever little buggers.
Dave Cullen, great guy surprised YouTube haven’t already cancelled him, following his bitchute too.
BBC are saying that the current self isolation time of 7 days is going to be extended to 10 days, in England.
We are only 19 weeks into the pandemic so we expect a few adjustments to the protocols.
Dart board planning at play here.
Had to leave my haven in the country to go back to the city for my grandmother’s funeral. While she didn’t die of Covid, the lockdown effectively killed her will to live. She was almost 101, so not tragic but I feel badly that her last month’s were so miserable. Our regional dictatorship has limited funerals to 20 attendees, etc., etc., which was fine, but the funeral home told my mother that the cemetery required the use of masks. Now this was a completely outdoor funeral and there is NO requirement to wear masks outdoors (yet). I was literally told that they could call the authorities and have me removed if I did not comply. So I e-mailed the cemetery after hearing their voice message “strongly recommending” the use of masks and asked for clarification. I cited the by-law and wanted their answer on the record as I believe this to be a human rights issue. Well, of course the masks are not mandated but I honestly don’t think anyone has ever pushed back on this nonsense. Even though I was told in writing that masks are not mandated, I was still accosted by a cemetery employee trying to push hand sanitizer and a mask on me, but she got the message really quickly that she ought not mess with me. I was gratified that my mom removed her mask to give the eulogy, my husband didn’t wear one (I knew he wouldn’t) and my brother and a few of my nieces and nephews didn’t once they realized they didn’t have to. Back at my mother’s, a few relatives stayed outside in her garden with their masks on and the rest of us stayed inside and didn’t distance at all; I went outside once the mask wearers had left. While my husband would like me to be less confrontational with people over the mask nonsense, I feel that these would-be dictators trying to force their bullshit non-rules on me don’t deserve kindness or the benefit of the doubt. In another annoying confrontation, we tried to go out for dinner for the first time since March and were told we must provide contact tracing information. I took it up with the manager who acknowledged this was not a government mandate but a decision by the restaurant to keep people “safe.” I asked if he was turning away our business and he said that indeed he was. Pragmatism kicked in as we were starving, so at the next restaurant my husband wrote an illegible signature and a fake phone number. Lovely dinner on the patio, only spoiled by the morons wearing masks outside when they don’t even have to. Sorry for the long post, but it was my first time out in society in a very long time and it was kind of fun to push back instead of hide away like I have been doing.
You’re right to be forthright and push back, Lisa. They can only get away with what they are doing because all too many go along to get along.
Thank you Mark, I’m beginning to see that. I’ve spent many a day in tears and with a lot of anxiety since the mask mandate. It’s much more empowering to be bitchy and pushing back than wallowing in misery.
I’ve mentioned several times here that demoralisation of the elderly through denied contact with loving family, through absence of visits by entertainers, petting animals etc and through being cared for by people previously known as friendly faces but now masked, must be raising death rates…possibly more than the virus itself…who can really tell?
Another friend of the family who is at the same residence is also going downhill fast, especially cognitively. She says she’s bored and unstimulated. And this is a very high-end retirement residence with a hair salon, pool, computer room, etc. and they used to have lots of programs and special guests come in. My grandmother loved it there until the lockdown. A reporter from a local paper interviewed my mom for a story she wrote a while back and wants to talk to her again now that my grandmother has passed away. So at least some attention will be drawn to this issue. I do feel badly for the residence owners as they are between a rock and a hard place.
I don’t blame UK care staff at all. They understand the needs of confused or frail elderly people much better than hospital staff and generally are good carers. The problem here is government guidance and the general fear atmosphere which encourages care homes to adopt zealous attitudes.
Well, Canada has the distinction of being number 1 in the world at killing old people in LTC facilities. Some 80% of all our Covid deaths came from this population, so it’s hard to blame the owners for being so diligent with the lockdown, even though the residents have suffered terribly and continue to do so as they are nowhere near operating as they did before. The government-run homes fared terribly as they are underfunded and pack people in. My grandmother’s place was private and very high-end, though even they had a few Covid deaths despite being locked down at the end of February (they were quite early). It was the additional care workers that work part-time for residents and often work at multiple places that brought Covid into the facility. Eventually they were forced to pick one facility and could only work there, but the damage had been done.
If masks work why isn’t the country back as it was pre-lockdown?
Because back then science said they were useless, but now we have “the science” (perhaps some post-modern “this is what I feel it is” bastard child of science) that “says” they “might” work…
If masks work why is “The Masked Singer” such a shit show?
Why couldn’t the Lone Ranger see the tracks like Tonto did?
Why isn’t fencing more popular than football?
Why do brave people always refuse them when offered prior to execution?
Fencing mask! Great idea.
I’ve suggested wearing an adapted sieve.
Lol
https://thecritic.co.uk/face-masks-make-you-stupid/
Says it all.
Dare to bare; think for yourself.
Obviously we all do this, but most no longer do.
I have seen a few Irish posters on here, and would like their view. What is the position there? I am from Irish stock, and have spent many childhood holidays amongst my cousins from Offaly and Carlow and held the passport long before it became fashionable. My experience was that they were the best bullshit callers ever. Surely they are laughing and ‘calling out’ this nonsense? The relations I have are more fixated with Brexit and the rise of SF, so not yet really engaging in this. Please tell me you are going to honour the Irish tradition!!!
There’s a letter from Northern Ireland on LDSs tomorrow page.
Thanks. Look forward to reading that. As I say, in my experience the Irish are very good at spotting nonsense and crap a mile off and are very irreverent towards politicians and authority in general. Long years of experience of seeing where listening to ‘lies dressed up as almighty truth’ gets you. The Catholic Church being but the most recent example, I guess.
Not Irish by birth but by heritage, an active Munster rugby supporter and contributor to one of the fans forum many of whose contributors have become firm friends over the years. I tend to plough a lonely furrow, politically, on the forum as it is very left wing (intolerant of anything that doesn’t fit the group think) I posted a fair bit of sceptical opinion and was regarded as having two heads by many posters. I got the sense that a few people felt any deviation from locking down till kingdom come smelt of Anglo Saxon exceptionalism. I haven’t been on for a while as arguing with entrenched confirmation bias is a recipe for an aneurism.
All I can say is my family are there and they are completely suckered. It’s like here. Obviously there are the dissenters we hear about but they’re totally duped.
Chris a chara,
I have been in Ireland for the last five months. Before mask wearing was mandatory I would say 25% of people were wearing then in Lidl in Dingle. But once the Toaiseach merely said they were to be Mandatory 90% were wearing them.
When that legislation came in force I was refused service in a village shop for not wearing one. Not been back since.
In a very remote country shop two days ago I was served by a poor girl that had to wear a mask (obligatory in Ireland unless they are behind a screen) – she didn’t seem to notice I wasn’t wearing a mask. But it is such a quiet shop it is possible that a lot of people pop in without one.
I’ll be braving a shopping trip to Dingle this morn – but venturing only into small shops which are limited to one or two customers at a time, while the friend I’m staying with shops at Lidl wearing a mask – a bit of a cop out I admit.
I’ll be noticing the mask wearing on the street of course.
It might be some comfort to you to know that on St. John’s night I was at a gathering with about fifty others in the countryside around a tinecnamh and no social distancing there at all, at all, and only one mask in sight – on a young woman working with a film crew who soon had it round her chin. And some pubs are lán go barr of an evening with no one eating at all, at all as they are suppose to be.
Mise le meas,
Ned
2 anecdotes from Sturgeon land: think Kafka/Catch 22/ Great Leap Forward:
met an acquaintance recently who works at our much loved, but no longer accessible, local library.
Although the council website still claims that library services are closed until further notice, Sturgeon sanctioned reopening on July 15th.
Our conversation revealed the mad guidelines now operating: readers must now ring a general number-the library’s own number is out of action- to request a book.
However, reservations for titles from other libraries cannot be accepted and appointments must be made to appear at an agreed time to collect a book.
General access is still forbidden. The staff now fear that these arcane nonsensical restrictions will be used as cover for cuts to services and even closures.
The library here runs training classes for adults, free computer access,story sessions for very young children, exhibitions and various community groups.
It is widely used and has a marvellous DVD collection and the normal service is excellent.
The average reader is unlikely to be a plague ridden, vandal intent on a bit of antisocial behaviour in the crime section, so why are we not allowed entry?
Secondly, finally received an appointment by text from local beautician for much needed facial tidying up.
List of instructions in text, plus friendly greeting.
Turned up, another lady waiting, admitted, asked to take seats suitably distanced.
Temperatures taken, all masked except for me.
Then, the piece de resistance: Covid questionnaire in triplicate, list of open questions:identity, contact, travel, symptoms etc.
Totally useless and open to making it up as you go along and where will the forms go?
Therapists hate the masks, as does the other customer; their expenses have increased- forms, masks,plastic items, sanitisers, deep cleaning of treatment rooms between sessions, fewer customers and longer working hours to compensate.
Fortunately, this little business is secure with a loyal customer base, but what a piece of nonsense all this is.
The therapists are now dreading the winter with its attendant infections: how will they cope? Will staff be sent home if they sneeze?
Another suspension of service unthinkable.
Meanwhile young people here cannot sit their exams, their future plans are in disarray, jobs are vanishing and masks and gloves are being dumped everywhere.
And now the Holyrood Headbangers have a new hate crime bill in the pipeline which, if reports are to be believed, will gag our thoughts as well as our speech and our actions.
Welcome to the unhappy tartan dystopia folks.
Might I make a suggestion re Libraries. Your new abnormal has seized libraries for the front line in the woking of our childrens minds.
Perhaps it is well lifraries remain closed if the below manner of physop is unleasted from them: https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/arts-and-culture/books/lets-get-fabulous-edinburgh-libraries-welcomes-drag-queen-story-hour-2885341%3famp
The Edinburgh Libraries have booked the act again for next year. Yes Aida H Dee is as unfunny as it is unbelievable.
One Drag act has said openly that this is as sick as it seems since the scene of drag is ‘on the seedier side of ‘adult’.
But good news from Leeds – https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/uk-england-leeds-53164255
I thought it had disappeared but they have started to talk about the ‘R’ rate again and here in the south west it could be above 1, shock horror, the apocalypse is upon us! It surprises me that everybody seems to accept these announcements without question, as if the powers that be sit round like Macbeth’s witches, eye of newt and toe of frog and out pops the R number never to be questioned.
It seems very hard to find out how they calculate this number and what has changed when it goes up or down? I get the feeling it is a more subjective process than they would like to admit. As it is, it seems just another factor that was supposed to be helpful but is actually being used to beat us. Why is nobody questioning the R rate business?
Morning, I need to go to the opticians and they’re saying I will be required to wear a mask, obviously I won’t be doing that but do the guidelines state that I should or is it like hairdressers where the client doesn’t have to?
Please try not to comply and then report back here.
I went about 3 weeks ago. They wanted me to mask up but I refused and they reluctantly agreed. You could try a different optician, some seem to be more militant about it than others. Last time I looked opticians were not on the govt list of places where masks are required.
A whimsical thought struck me this morn – what if “the science” concluded that not wearing trousers would hamper the spread of the virus. I rather thinkover night we’d see men wearing sarongs and kilts
I’ve not worn trousers for the whole of the lockdown, only shorts, and we’ve had no COVID-19 in our household, family and friends, so you might be on to something here!
That’s an easy one: trousers wearing would become mandatory.
https://twitter.com/FrankfurtZack/status/1288707765574172672/photo/1
Austria’s new Law where you must wear masksMasks:Pharmacies,GPsurgeries,Banks,Bakeries,Butchers,Small general stores,Catholic churches,Mosques,Public Transport,Supermarkets,Petrolstation shops,Hospitals
No Masks: Hard ware stores,Clothes-Fashion Shops, Evangelic Churches,Museums,Restaurants
This is the scientific logical thinking of the young, charismatic Chancellor of Austria to keep the country virus free. Good luck.
12 hours ago Chris Hume asked how things were in Ireland.
It is four hours ago I responded by saying:-
I’ll be braving a shopping trip to Dingle this morn – but venturing only into small shops which are limited to one or two customers at a time, while the friend I’m staying with shops at Lidl wearing a mask – a bit of a cop out I admit.
Here is my report.
The streets of Dingle look very normal. Few people wearing masks outdoors – circa 10%. but once in shops they seem to don them.
I ventured maskless in to five small shops. I had no problem in four of them. In two I was engaged in conversation as they know me. In one, however, I was refused service. The proprietor, who knows, me by name was sat behind a plastic shield and fully masked. A masked customer left as I approached the counter leaving me the only customer in the shop.
It’s the law you must wear a mask.
It would have been so easy for her to take the two items I had in my hand and the money I had ready. She’s lost trade and caused unpleasantness so what has she gained?
A sense she has done her bit to save the health of the country?
Was she doing it to secure her own health?
Or was she just obeying the law as she saw it?
I did say, though it might be the law that I should have to wear a mask in a shop it wasn’t her role to enforce it.
It gives me some comfort to be able to say that she is English (agus gan aon focal Gaeilge aici leis.)