YouTube Censors Me
A few weeks ago I took part in a discussion about the coronavirus crisis organised by the Institute of Arts and Ideas. The other participants were David Alexander, Professor of Risk and Disaster Reduction at University College London; Anne Johnson, Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at University College London; and Michael Levitt, Professor of Structural Biology at Stanford and winner of the 2013 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Among other things, we discussed the pros and cons of lockdowns and I set out the case against, which is what I’d been invited to do.
Afterwards, I extracted a four-minute clip featuring me and Michael Levitt – although he was nodding along enthusiastically to what I was saying rather than speaking – and put it on my YouTube channel, calling it “The Case Against Lockdowns”. I also created a two-minute clip and posted that on Twitter which you can see here.
This morning at 12.20am I received an email from YouTube which said the following:
Hi Toby Young,
As you may know, our Community Guidelines describe which content we allow – and don’t allow – on YouTube. Your video The Case Against Lockdowns was flagged to us for review. Upon review, we’ve determined that it violates our guidelines and we’ve removed it from YouTube.
As regular readers will know, when I post links to controversial YouTube videos I often joke that they should watch them before they’re taken down by the censorious video platform. YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki told CNN’s Reliable Sources back in April that the company would be “removing information that is problematic”. Wojcicki told host Brian Stelter that this included “anything that is medically unsubstantiated”. She continued:
So people saying “take vitamin C; take turmeric, we’ll cure you”, those are the examples of things that would be a violation of our policy.
Anything that would go against World Health Organisation recommendations would be a violation of our policy.
In the four-minute clip of the Nobel Laureate and me, I don’t recommend any miracle cures for COVID-19, or indeed say anything “medically unsubstantiated”. So what did I say that violated YouTube’s “Community Standards”? Presumably, just challenging the idea that lockdowns are effective, or disputing the notion that states are entitled to suspend the civil rights of their citizens without any compelling evidence that doing so is necessary to reduce fatalities, is what set off alarm bells at YouTube since indiscriminately quarantining whole populations was one of the WHO’s recommendations. Readers will recall that the WHO initially praised China’s response to the coronavirus outbreak, which involved more or less imprisoning up to 60 million people in Wuhan and surrounding cities, before it changed tack and praised Sweden’s response.
I’ve now reposted my video on Bitchute and you can watch it here. Is this so dangerous that it needs to be removed by YouTube? Judge for yourself.
Stop Press: The FT’s Izabella Kaminska has written about this latest example of big tech silencing a dissident in a piece headlined “Censortech strikes again“.
France Passes New Censortech Law. Will Britain be Next?
In France, YouTube would have no choice about whether to take down my video. Two weeks ago, the French parliament passed a new law forcing social networks to remove problematic content within 24 hours or face fines of up to €1.25 million. Signed into law on May 13th, the “Lutte contre la haine sur internet” requires digital platforms to remove discriminatory and sexually abusive comments within 24 hours of being flagged by users.
It’s based on a similar law passed in Germany in 2018 – the Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG) – and before it became law in France it was vigorously opposed by pro-free speech advocates. As with the German law, one of the flaws of the new French law is that there are no penalties if social media networks wrongly remove content that is later found not to be in violation of any laws or community guidelines. This will inevitably mean legitimate freedom of expression will be curtailed. For instance, anyone challenging the view that “transwomen are women”, however respectable their argument or impressive their credentials, will no longer be able to express that view on platforms such as Facebook, YouTube or Twitter because the social media companies will remove it rather than risk being fined for permitting “hate speech”.
The law doesn’t explicitly mention the coronavirus pandemic, but according to Simon Chandler writing in Forbes, “the French Government and the Assemblée Nationale has exploited fear over online coronavirus misinformation to pass it”.
Will the British Government take advantage of coronaphobia to fast-track its own censortech law?
Under the ‘Online Harms‘ proposal, published in the form of a White Paper last year and on course to become an Act of Parliament, the British Government would appoint Ofcom, currently the broadcasting watchdog, to regulate social media companies, empowering it to levy fines of up to four per cent of annual worldwide turnover – and jail company directors – if they don’t comply with Ofcom’s new guidance on harmful content. According to the White Paper, the regulator would ban online material “that may directly or indirectly cause harm” [my emphasis], although it neglects to define “harm” and says that content may be deemed harmful even if it’s “not necessarily illegal”.
As an example of what it has in mind, the White Paper singles out “offensive material”, as if giving offence is itself a form of harm. In effect, Ofcom would have the power to prohibit speech which isn’t unlawful but which it believes may indirectly cause harm because it’s offensive. That gives it almost limitless scope to prohibit the expression of opinions which some people find disagreeable.
There’s much talk in the White Paper of a “right of appeal”, but this turns out to apply to the tech companies only — individual social media users cannot appeal the regulator’s decisions — and would necessitate the companies applying for a judicial review. Not only is that a lengthy and cumbersome procedure, but it’s unclear how Facebook, YouTube or Twitter could demonstrate that a particular viewpoint won’t under any circumstances cause harm, particularly when “harm” isn’t defined. Merely showing that the content in question hasn’t caused the complainant any tangible harm won’t be sufficient, since all the regulator will need to show is that it may cause them indirect harm. More or less anything falls into that category, including any content challenging the Government’s guidance relating to the virus.
The part of the White Paper concerned with “fake news” would give the new regulator almost limitless discretion when it comes to removing content that dissents from Covid orthodoxy. In a section entitled “Disinformation”, the document says tech companies will “need to take proportionate and proactive measures… to minimise the spread of misleading and harmful disinformation and to increase the accessibility of trustworthy and varied news content”. But who’s to say what content is “misleading” and what’s “trustworthy”? Presumably, the BBC is “trustworthy” and sites like Lockdown Sceptics are “misleading”.
The White Paper suggests social media platforms should promote “authoritative news sources” and make use of “reputable fact-checking services”, by which it means organisation like the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, which is currently urging social media companies to remove anything suggesting SARS-CoV-2 originated in the Wuhan Institute of Virology rather than the Huanan seafood market, as Douglas Murray wrote about for UnHerd a few weeks ago. (Incidentally, Chinese scientists have now uncovered even more reasons to doubt the virus originated in the seafood market.)
If you want to read more about the ‘Online Harms’ White Paper and why it should be resisted at all costs, read this piece I wrote about it in the Spectator last year. At that point, the Government hadn’t decided whether it was going to create a new, stand-alone regulator or enlarge Ofcom’s jurisdiction. It has decided to do the latter – and that in itself is worrying, given that Ofcom recently reprimanded Eamonn Holmes merely for suggesting on ITV’s This Morning that David Icke’s theory linking 5G masts to COVID-19 symptoms should be discussed in the public square. This was in spite of the fact that he described the theory as “not true and incredibly stupid”. The Free Speech Union has written to Ofcom to complain about this.
How Have We Responded to Previous Pandemics?
I’ve put up a new page on the right-hand menu entitled “How Have We Responded to Previous Pandemics?” Apart from this being historically interesting, the idea is to draw attention to the fact that the indiscriminate quarantining of whole populations has never been attempted before as a way of mitigating the impact of a pandemic, save for in Mexico in 2009 in response to the swine flu outbreak. That particular experiment was abandoned after 18 days due to the rising social and economic costs.
I will be adding to the page in due course, but also publishing sub-pages about specific pandemics – and today I’m publishing the first one.
In “The 1957-58 Asian Flu Pandemic: Why Did the UK Respond So Differently?“, the brilliant young academic who’s written for Lockdown Sceptics before under the pseudonym “Wilfred Thomas” contrasts the stoicism of the British response to the flu pandemic of 1957-58 with the hysterical over-reaction of today.
Globally, Asian Flu (H2N2) killed between two and four million people – the equivalent of three to six million people in today’s money. It was just as infectious as SARS-CoV-2 – an isolated outbreak in Hong Kong managed to spread across the world – and young people were more susceptible than older people, so in that respect it was more dangerous.
In total, it’s estimated that anywhere from 9 – 12 million people contracted H2N2 in the UK. That’s the equivalent of 15.4 million reported cases in the UK of 2020. To put that into context, the UK currently has 267,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases. There were around 33,000 deaths directly attributable to H2N2 and if you scale that up to the UK’s current population it’s the equivalent of 42,000. As I don’t need to tell you, that’s higher than the current death toll from coronavirus.
Yet the Asian Flu caused very little fuss. Mr “Thomas” has trawled through the British Newspaper Archive for 1957 and can only find 427 articles about the epidemic between January 1st to December 31st. As he points out, it’s probable that the BBC alone produces that many stories about COVID-19 across its various news platforms in an average day. He continues:
It’s fascinating to sit here, in the lockdown society of 2020, and read about a pandemic response from history that involved society doing its best to keep going. Back then you got ill, you went to bed, you got better, you re-joined society, and society continued to function. That was it. In the UK, something of this stoic philosophy was at the heart of the pandemic response rolled-out by a then recently instilled Conservative Government under the leadership of Harold Macmillan. Rather than dragging power and authority towards Whitehall, Macmillian seemed happy enough to devolve most of the operational, day-to-day responsibility for responding to the pandemic down to local and regional medical authorities. To be sure, the Government advised those with symptoms to stay at home, but otherwise took little national action as the flu spread right across the country during the autumn. Senior figures within the medical establishment of the time also seemed happy to adopt this hands-off approach. “In the end, and in spite of the scare stuff in the lay press,” wrote Ian Watson, Director of the College of General Practitioners’ Epidemic Observation Unit to a local GP on June 24th, 1957, “we will have our epidemic of influenza, of a type not very different from what we know already, with complications in the usual age groups.”
The result was a pandemic response that by today’s standards looks astonishingly laissez-faire. Some mines and factories shut, but that was due to a shortage of fit employees rather than Government diktat. Public gatherings were not stopped. In some areas, schools were closed (up to 100,000 children were off in London at the height of the outbreak), but few sporting events or other mass gatherings were cancelled. By early June, as the first cases were beginning to appear, Macmillan’s health secretary Dennis Vosper had yet to make a public statement setting out the threat posed by H2N2. The virus was at its peak when Aneurin Bevan was heckled at the Labour Party Conference on October 3rd 1957 for arguing that unilateral disarmament wasn’t possible. It was still going about its infective business when CND held its first meeting at Westminster Central Hall on February 17th 1958. During the winter of 1957, Macmillan was kept busy not by the Asian Flu pandemic but by the events that followed the world’s first nuclear reactor accident, when Windscale Pile No. 1 caught fire. President Eisenhower meanwhile was preoccupied by the Russians’ launching of Sputnik 1 on October 4th. In October, during the peak of the outbreak in Britain, the Conservative party conference went ahead as usual. In his speech to conference Macmillan speech didn’t even mention the pandemic.
Partly as a result of this much more stoical approach, the total cost to the British economy of the Asian Flu epidemic was around £2.6 billion in today’s money. In the four quarters of 1957, only one saw negative economic growth – Q3 saw GDP shrink by -0.6% – and only one did in 1958 (Q2). Overall, 1957 saw growth of +1.5%, as did 1958. Quite a contrast with the financial and economic cost of Britain’s management of the coronavirus epidemic, with the Bank of England forecasting a -35% contraction in Q2 alone. If we generously assume that the cost of the measures the current Chancellor has put in place will be £108.35 billion, that’s 4,358% more expensive than the cost of managing the 1957-58 epidemic.
Mr “Thomas” concludes by analysing the difference in our response to these two remarkably similar episodes, detecting a profound cultural shift:
In 1957, the UK responded to a global pandemic with cool, calm stoicism. The pandemic was “just” a pandemic, not a social catastrophe. Citizens could cope. Death was the exception not the rule. Society (and the economy that paid for it) would struggle on. People would continue to go about their everyday lives. Fast forward to the UK of 2020, and we encounter a society that’s responding to a similarly infectious, similarly dangerous pandemic with what amounts to shrill, hyperventilating hysteria. The pandemic will destroy everything we know and hold dear about life. Individuals can’t cope. Death lurks around every corner. Society (and the economy that pays for it) must be suspended. People must be protected from the myriad risks posed by everyday life. Whereas the stoic proclaims, “I’ll manage, let me be!” the hysteric wails, “I can’t cope, help me!”
Mr “Thomas” has put a huge amount of work into this. Please do read it in full.
Excess Deaths Much Higher That Reported Covid Death Count
In its latest weekly update, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) notes that the total number of deaths in care homes England and Wales in Week 20 (May 8th – 15th) was 2,350 higher than the five-year average for Week 20 and COVID-19 only accounted for 1,078 of them. As the Times points out, 12,335 more people have died at home this year than usual. “There have been almost as many unexplained deaths at home as there have been as a result of COVID-19, according to analysis of official figures,” it reveals, in a story based on the latest ONS data.
But this isn’t a phenomenon that’s unique to England and Wales. On the contrary, excess deaths have exceeded the total number of deaths attributable to COVID-19 all over the world, as the above FT graph makes clear.
Some statisticians believe the reason excess deaths cannot be accounted for by deaths from coronavirus alone is because the latter are being under-counted. But another explanation – more plausible, in my view – is that the lockdowns themselves are causing excess deaths. Note that the number of of excess deaths relative to the average for recent years, expressed as a percentage, is lower in Stockholm (88%) than in London (142%) or New York (398%).
BBC Death Porn
Yesterday, the BBC’s News at Six (and the News at Ten) led with an eight-minute report about “the growing fears among doctors of a second peak of coronavirus infections as the lockdown restrictions are eased in England”. Huw Edwards, introducing the report, said: “Medical staff say a rise in cases is now inevitable as more people have contact with each other.” Bit odd to report the fears of “medical staff” so uncritically when the easing of lockdown restrictions hasn’t seen a rise in infections anywhere. Not in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Holland, Norway, Denmark, Switzerland… not in any US states… not in China… The “second spike” that’s been so confidently predicted by epidemiologists touting their infallible computer models simply hasn’t materialised. Why then would the BBC give such credence to this clearly unfounded “fear”?
One reader was so incensed he sent me the following screed:
I have just sat and watched the BBC1 News at Six tonight. It led with the most extraordinary virus death porn story to date. This one was by Clive Myrie, the latest “embedded” BBC hack to be parked in a hospital (in this case the Royal London Hospital in East London). It almost amounted to a nostalgia piece for the glory days of COVID-19. We were treated to the tear-sodden exhausted medics waxing lyrical about how it been only a few days ago with people dying left, right and centre, and how shattered they are. They are terrified of a second wave that’s supposedly going to be caused by people interacting with one another. Lots of shots of patients on ventilators and some speeded up footage to show how frantic it had all once been and how it might be again if anyone speaks to anyone outside their households. I was completely incredulous.
If you knew nothing else about the virus and watched this piece you’d have visions of the streets piled with corpses, hospitals completely out of control and total armageddon imminent. Incredibly, the piece built to its climax by actually tracking a 55-year-old male patient in his final minutes, the ultimate Covid death porn scene as medics piled in to try and save him. The drama building, Myrie sidestepped to interview medics who told us how close the hospital came to be broken, briefly showing another patient having a ventilator removed (successfully). But the piece finished with Myrie ponderously announcing the 55-year-old patient had died. The whole piece had turned into a real-time death scene. “Another soul lost,” Myrie intoned solemnly, in case you hadn’t realised what death amounts to.
Myrie doesn’t seem to have been keeping up with current events. He seemed mainly worried, naturally using his best doom-laden ponderous tone, that with declining cases he might not have been able to make these reports in time for his moment in the Covid media sun. In the general poverty of BBC journalism during this crisis, this slavish lockdown propaganda was a new low. Totally unbalanced, it foundered first and foremost on the belief that by interviewing people in a foxhole you are likely to get an accurate take on what’s going on. It was a perverse celebration of the height of the virus being some sort of Battle-of-the-Somme moment that he and his NHS subjects seemed unable to move on from. “Now you understand what the peak of the pandemic was like,” Myrie intoned in his best gloom-laden, ponderous tone.
What’s next? This wasn’t just Covid death porn, it was competitive death porn.
The entire agenda of Myrie’s commentary and interviews seemed to be that we should be locked down forever. Naturally, there was a trailer for the next instalment, coming tonight, flagging up “prayers for the dying”, over-flowing morgues and showing a body being pushed into one of the racks. It was like a Monty Python “bring out your dead” homage.
Around the World in Eighty Lockdowns
I’ve started a new section today called “Around the Work in 80 Lockdowns“. My aim is to build up a picture of what it’s like to be locked down in different countries by publishing first-hand accounts from readers in those countries. So far we’ve published three “Postcards” – one from Spain, one from Sri Lanka and one from Belarus. If you fancy writing one from a country we haven’t included yet, please email me here.
Here’s an extract from the “Postcard from Belarus“, published today:
I took an eventful 12-hour coach journey from Warsaw to Belarus. Arriving in Minsk was like stepping into a different realm. The mood of the city was not one of fear – things felt pretty normal. Roughly one in ten people chose to wear a mask, and while there were fewer people out and about than usual, by and large they went about their everyday business as if life was normal. Had nobody told them to be terrified of one another? That by simply stepping outside they are risking not just their own life, but the lives of everyone around them? What on earth would Neil Ferguson and his infamous Imperial College model say?
Belarus decided against the nuclear option: they have not pressed the panic button and destroyed the country’s economy, like most of the world. That’s not to say they haven’t introduced some measures. In Minsk, universities have switched to remote lectures; museums and theatres are closed; business trips have been cancelled, with meetings moved to video conferencing; care homes are closed to visitors, and arrivals into the country must self-isolate for fourteen days. But schools remain open, as do cafés, restaurants, bars, shopping malls and most outdoor events. Indeed, many thousands of people lined the streets for the annual Victory Day parade on May 9th. Belarus has struck a refreshing balance: one which has not led to a population in fear of one another.
Round-Up
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:
- ‘How a suburban church-going Conservative found himself confronting police in Hyde Park‘ – Chris Larkin in Hector Drummond Magazine on how he found himself shoulder-to-shoulder with Piers Corbyn at an anti-lockdown protest
- ‘Wankers Lovin’ Lockdown‘ – Comedy Unleashed‘s Leo Kearse thinks he may have discovered the common thread linking all lockdown enthusiasts
- ‘What the Dominic Cummings saga tells us about lockdown‘ – Dr John Lee’s latest for the Spectator in which he marvels at the media’s focus for days on the alleged behaviour of one Government advisor, while failing to question the rationale for the ongoing devastation of education, health and the economy unfolding in front of us
- ‘France’s facemask fiasco burns deep for Macron‘ – The Times reports on the mass burning of facemasks by the French army just as coronavirus arrived in the country
- ‘Superdrug suspends sales of antibody tests following questions over reliability‘ – Misleading headline from the Times. In fact, Superdrug has been forced to suspend sales of its tests because the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency has banned all private testing. The Mail‘s version is better. More on this scandal tomorrow
- ‘What does the Covid-proof gym of the future look like?‘ – Something tells me this isn’t going to boost David Lloyd’s share price
- ‘National helpline charity reveals ten-fold increase in visits to its domestic abuse website‘ – The Telegraph reports on the huge surge in domestic abuse in Lockdown Britain
- ‘More People Are Taking Drugs for Anxiety and Insomnia, and Doctors Are Worried‘ – The WSJ reports on the psychological toll inflicted by the lockdown in the US
- ‘REOPEN WIDE: Dentists should plan for treating patients again “in three weeks”, say MPs‘ – The Sun reports that dentists’ surgeries are set to reopen on June 15th
- ‘Boris’s Corona Catastrophe‘ – Simon Heffer with a hard-hitting piece about Boris’s failures in the June issue of the Critic
Theme Tune Suggestions From Readers
Some more suggestions for theme songs from readers: “I Aint Been Nowhere” by Chuck Mead, “I’m Bored” by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and “Set Me Free” by the Kinks.
Small Businesses That Have Reopened
A couple of weeks ago, Lockdown Sceptics launched 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 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 opened near you. Please visit the page and let us know about those brave folk who are doing their bit to get our country back on its feet.
Shameless Begging Bit
Thanks as always to those of you who made a donation in the last 24 hours to pay for the upkeep of this site. It still takes me about nine hours a day, what with doing these updates, moderating your comments and commissioning original material. If you feel like donating, however paltry the amount, please click here. And if you want to flag up any stories or links I should include in tomorrow’s update, email me here.
And Finally…
This video is worth watching. An MSNBC reporter chastises locals in Wisconsin for not wearing facemasks – while wearing one himself, of course – and is then ambushed by a passer-by who casually points out that his cameraman isn’t wearing one either. Busted!
Discussion
Comments
This week across the site:
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Yamaha’s ‘Remote Cheerer’ app is the most depressing way to fill empty stadiums with sound
It’s even bleaker than you’d expect.
https://www.inputmag.com/culture/yamahas-remote-cheerer-blares-applause-tracks-into-empty-stadiums
People out clapping for Wee Burney. Pass me a sick bag!!!
Can we clap for the end of clapping yet?
I feel a little responsible for this coronavirus panic. You see most of my life, right up until the appearance of Tony Blair and the subsequent disappearance of the labour party, I had voted socialist. But, disgusted by the ever increasing triple scourges of political correctness, minority politics and the eu, I swallowed my pride and voted Conservative for the first time ever at the last election. I had expected to get a government that respected individual freedom and responsibility, instead I got the Fascist UK Wokes In Tory Shoes party (whose acronym I am sure you can work out for yourselves). I try to assuage my guilt by telling myself that under Tory fascism we have had 3 months of extreme misrule followed by who knows how long of slightly less extreme misrule, but that if I had elected a labour government that 3 months would have been 6 months, and with a lib-dem government it would have been 9 months, and with a green party government it would have been perpetual, but none of that helps me.
The problem is you see, that in a few years time, someone will waltz up to my door and… Read more »
I haven’t been able to bring myself to vote for anyone since 2010. There must be around 50% of the country now who feel this way, and fewer and fewer people will prepared to hold their nose and vote for least worst. Eventually, there has to be some sort of uptick for the smaller parties. An election contest between the new SDP and the Brexit/Reform Party would be something.
My song is “Money” by Pink Floyd. The UN estimates a $2 trillion hit to the world economy over the next year from the Covid slow down. Over ten years the loss may therefore be at least $5 trillion IMHO.
If Governments had done what they should have, ie not much, except maybe increase care home protection it should have cost at most about $1 billion at max, I would humbly estimate.
The world has therefore wasted about $4,999 billion as lockdowns will probably increase world mortality in the long run – due to deaths in the third world from hunger and missed cancer tests etc in the first world. (Only 250,000 people have died from C19 and 150,000 die every day in the world).
This has to be the world’s largest economic “mistake”. Usually Governments and insurance companies budget $100,00 to save one year of human life. This has been totally ignored. This bug has a very similar effect to the flu as to “years taken” and should have been treated the same way.
I’m with you re the politics brother
Apparently Boris has signed a truce with General Covid who has promised not to attack anyone as long as there are no more than 6 of them at 2M intervals in the garden. The armistice starts at 12.00 midnight on Sunday. Oh, and we can use the toilet, unlike the poor Scots who will have to hide a pee bottle under their kilts!!
Pleased I don’t have to dig a latrine in the garden….
Which might lead to some raised eyebrows from the lady of the house!
Or the curtain-twitcher next door at least.
Very interesting situation at Weston General Hospital. Mass testing of staff showed 40% with Covid but asymptomatic. Covid patients doubled in last week but many of the new patients were already in hospital. Hysterical MSM blaming bank holiday crowds and VE day parties but missing the point that the main spreader of disease is the hospital which is contaminated. Now closed to all new patients for their own safety so hospital can have a deep clean. I wonder if the virus spread at 8pm on Thursdays when all the staff met in a crowd out front to clap ?
The virus is a problem for first world countries and chiefly spread in insitutions like care homes and hospitals with lots of frail vulnerable. Stay home , save lives …what a pile of croc…
A friend of mine contracted the virus whilst being treated in a south London hospital. He was negative when he went in, but tested positive when he fell ill again and had to be readmitted. He had been observing the lockdown rules, and the only place he could have caught it was in the hospital, in a supposedly covid-free ward.
Nosocomial:
Originating or taking place in a hospital, acquired in a hospital, especially in reference to an infection.
The term “nosocomial” comes from two Greek words: “nosus” meaning “disease” + “komeion” meaning “to take care of.” Hence, “nosocomial” should apply to any disease contracted by a patient while under medical care. However, common usage of the term “nosocomial” is now synonymous with hospital-acquired. Nosocomial infections are infections that have been caught in a hospital and are potentially caused by organisms that are resistant to antibiotics. A nosocomial infection is specifically one that was not present or incubating prior to the patient’s being admitted to the hospital, but occurring within 72 hours after admittance to the hospital.
That and care homes
Walked round the park this afternoon. It was busy but very relaxed. Not a single mask to be seen and nobody jumped into a bush to maintain distance. One couple moved aside slightly for me but smiled, so done from consideration, not fear.
Been speaking to a lot of clients recently and always say that I have my own particular views on the plandemic. They question and this week all have agreed and think that this ranges from a cock up of biblical proportions or there is something else behind all this. Most refreshing.
My supermarket trip today was uneventful but I always play the mask and gloves game. I beat daughter today as I guessed closest at 4 masks and 12 pairs of gloves. Worrying thing was that the mask wearers were the youngest by far. I guess they may have underlying conditions so I shouldn’t judge.
BBQ in the garden tonight and have invited several ‘gardeners’ round to help clear some brush. All happy to help for payment in food.
Good for you
If all those young mask-wearers have underlying conditions, maybe it’s due to vaccinations?
Hurray!
Been into work today, though I am working from home, but going into work whenever a job needs to be hands on.
Anyway, today I had a sensible adult conversation / discussion with two colleagues at the same time about lockdown and the fall out from it.
In no particular order, concern was expressed about the economy, mental health, the controlling way in which family members have not been allowed to be with loved ones when in hospital or when they have passed away, the affect on children’s / young peoples socialisation and normal development. etc etc.
Neither of my colleagues felt that Dominic Cummins behaviour has changed their attitudes to lockdown. They are being careful where elderly or infirm people are concerned, understanding that some people are petrified, and annoyed how MSM have pushed the agenda.
I feel elated, by a simple adult conversation.
During the conversation we kept the sensible British comfort zone between us, not because of CV19, but because Brits like our personal space.
First country to ban facemasks?
https://www.rtnnewspaper.com/2020/05/african-country-bans-face-masks-also-reopen-schools-and-shops/
The same president tricked the testers with goats and fruits. Legend.
Now there’s a true leader for his people!
Why is it that all the so-called tinpot dictators are putting the rest of the world to shame?
Because they don’t have to worry about re-election. 😘
Dude gives no fucks. What a legend.
Krankie is up there with the saintly Jacinta of New Zealand and can do no wrong for a large section of the twatterati. Her latest Barbie proposals are Kafkaesque . Presumably people will need to dig a hole by the rose bush if they want a number 2 . The new rules seem to have been written by a 15 year old with an autistic personality disorder.
Use bitchute.com
Just read the piss poor Sturgeons next stage of the coronavirus lie and apparently i can play tennis, only tennis is rubbish i won’t bother, i can play golf but you’ve got to be dead to play golf so that’s out, I can sunbathe in the park but i only go to the park to play on the slide and the swings so she never said i can do that so i don’t know, i can go round my mates for a bbq but eating food cooked in a tinfoil tray over coal with added kerosene has never really been my thing. I want to take my Motorcycle up to Knockhill and race round the track but she never mentioned if in the Socialist Republic Of Scotland that would be allowed. I’d imagine my exhaust might contravene pollution and noise regulations.
They’ve also opened up the dump (hooray) but (boo) you’ve to book a slot on line and turn up with your driving licence and your council tax bill to dump the six bags of rubbish you’re allowed, well at the last count i’ve 18 bags of rubbish waiting to go and that is with recycle in my bins. Even… Read more »
What I hope we’re all learning from this (and by all I mean the LZs as well) is that, across the board, 95% of our politicians are rank and incompetent and not fit to lead a drunk dog to a lamppost to take a piss (their own lamppost of course, not anyone else’s).
95% seems rather generous – but uptick anyway.
Surely they’ve put police tape round the lamp posts?
easy to see why some folk take the easy option and fly-tip
Best done on local authority land though.
I love Glasgow.
Good for you, i hate Glasgow it’s full of wee naffs and sectarian bile. It’s the plook on the arse of Scotland
Simply 2 weeks behind England I’m afraid….
Blood-sucking insects, as ever the bane of Scotland! I’m not too fond of the midges either.
Toby, I agree with you that free speech is important, but you continue to be very wrong on the evidence surrounding Covid-19.
Some of your claims are easily disproven by even cursory examination:
“But another explanation – more plausible, in my view – is that the lockdowns themselves are causing excess deaths.” If this was true, why are there no excess deaths in New Zealand that underwent severe lockdown early on (hence minimising hidden Covid deaths)? (source). The obvious conclusion: Lockdown doesn’t cause excess deaths, Covid-19 does. “Sweden has not locked down its citizens. Instead, it is following the mitigation strategy the UK Government was pursuing before it was frightened into changing course by Imperial College’s March 16th paper” – Classic misinformation. Sweden have put in place restrictions, universities and secondary schools are closed. More importantly the average Swede is travelling much much less, and that ‘voluntary’ distancing happened at the almost the same time as the rest of Europe. (Stockholm mobility data) (London mobility data). This ‘voluntary’ distancing has led to an economic impact that is projected to be of a similar magnitude as nations that did lockdown ‘properly’, although it is too early to properly compare.
… Read more »
Day started off badly with email from Scotrail saying that we had to wear masks if we want to use their trains plus with the anti social gapping much fewer people will be able to travel; they referred to this being for “over the coming months”. I have emailed them to clarify whether masks are indeed compulsory.Then I went for a decent walk and was pleased to see many cars on the road and plenty of people about; no face masks although the occasional terrified body swerver. However very encouragingly everyone I spoke to turned oot to be in the must end it now club!
Lunchtime and Sturgeon decides we have all been good little girls and boys and lets us have a few crumbs off the table, but far too little and far too slow. As lockdown eases I am hoping that people increasingly take it upon themselves to ignore the ridiculous rules as they see that there is no second wave. Dangerous time for the politicians if they get left behind by people asserting their. democratic freedoms. With superb weather forecast for the weekend hopefully we see thousands out and about.
I think you will find the same thing happening as it is here South if the border, I had my first traffic jam today… I’ve never been so pleased!! the roads were very busy, almost back to normal, very few facemasks on show maybe less than 3% of people.
I had lunch with my son and elderly parents, they were scared sh*t less 8 weeks ago but have read around the subject and realised the lockdowns mostly crap. My lane is full
of faily normal like minded people and they have been having visitors and BBQs for weeks now.
Keep you’re chin up this mockdown will soon be over. When the government realises they are fighting a losing battle they will open up and pretend it was because of them and claim the plaudits.
Always worth mentioning your ‘existing breathing issues’ when querying large organisations about mask wearing …
And quote Asthma UK: “For some people with asthma, wearing a face covering might not be easy. It could make it feel harder to breathe. The government has advised that people with respiratory conditions don’t need to wear face coverings, so if you are finding it hard, then don’t wear one.” I actually am asthmatic, so no muzzle for me, thank goodness.
I just developed a respiratory condition.
(It’s called breathing. Very problematic.)
Yes, this is from Scotrail website – imagine all UK TOCs will follow suit:
New measures have been introduced by the train operator in the last week with new rules for travel:
It is very easy for the TOCs to bring in this bullshit,whether they carry passengers or not they are getting a set payment to run the trains for at least six months,the government,or I should say we,are carrying the cost.If they were a genuinely private business who depended on passenger revenue the last thing they would be doing would be alienating passengers as much as they are.
I am also sick of this ‘key workers’ crap,it’s hugely insulting to the rest of us,I mean,we’re all useless and never do anything do we ?.The early morning trains I have seen for weeks,run for our wonderfully angelic and important betters,have have been empty of maybe with two passengers on a five hundred seat train.
Rules rules rules
Reminds me when i was visiting france a number of years ago ‘les regles’ everywhere
Well i mocked the French back then and look where we are now.
They forgot no.6 …have a pleasant journey and we look forward to seeing you again soon
Glasgow Green 12.00pm on Saturday for some sanity
Good luck, go for it.
Sadly, unable to join you as am imprisoned in the Soviet Socialist Republic of Wales.
Brew Dog have released a beer called ‘Barnard Castle eye Test.’ Described as “a short sighted beer for tall stories. Dry-hopped for a juicy hit with pineapple, mango and hint of zesty lime.”
👍👍👍😅😂😂
If one holds it up to the light, is it possible to see clear through it, I wonder?
Why yes! It’s totally transparent!
They should have used pawpaw!
😂😂 that can be their next one.
The Covid-19 Test
“a deceptively simple beer that you think tastes of a myriad of exotic fruits but really just tastes of papaya. Take a sip and concentrate….really. …hard”
They are coming thick and fast:
I’ve sent the following email to my daughter’s high school. Let’s see if I get a response:
Hi,
My daughter, xxxxx xxxxxx, is in xx. She emailed her English teacher last week for some assistance with the assignment she’s been given. Unfortunately, a week later, she’s had no response.
I don’t know if this teacher in particular is off sick currently, but could my message be passed along to the xx head of year or guidance teacher, please, as I’m keen for my daughter be able to continue with some semblance of an education?
Thanks.
i know this is slightly off topic now- but just seen this from a commentator in the DT; very interesting!
Ian Blackford, leader of SNP MPs at Westminster, demands that Dominic Cummins must be sacked for travelling from London to Durham on 27 March and breaking lockdown rules.
Ian Blackford, leader of SNP MPs at Westminster, travelled from London to Skye on 26 March because the incidence of coronavirus was higher in London.
https://twitter.com/RockboltG/status/1265277894063820800
https://twitter.com/SocialM85897394/status/1265288382894297088
Although the cases are different, they should be compared. Neither Mr Blackford nor his wife were displaying symptoms of illness, and he was travelling from a residence near his place of work in Westminster, after it had been closed, to his constituency home in Skye. However, his home in London was perfectly adequate to live in during lockdown (he says that his wife was living there with him); he had no childcare problems to justify travelling; his journey distance of 600 miles was double that between London and Durham, requiring stops en route; and he states that he deliberately travelled from an area of high coronavirus incidence to one with, at the time, few cases – completely against the purpose of lockdown.
The BBC, Guardian and… Read more »
And he recently stated that the lockdown must continue in Scotland because of the emergence of new cases on Skye of COVID-19…in care fucking homes.
Could this be the same Ian Blackford whose agressive behaviour towards the late Charles Kennedy’s staff was reported to the police? The ex-banker who likes to describe himself as a ‘simple crofter’? The MP who employed his son-in-law as a ‘senior researcher’ at the taxpayers expense? Ian Blackford – a hypocrite? Never!
Blackford is a disease far more noteworthy than covid.
From The Telegraph:
Barred from using the toilet!!!
How much more bizarre, and outrageous, is this lockup madness going to get?
Won’t all the Mars bars melt being transported distances in this hot weather ? 🙂
No. They will have been deep-fried in batter ahead of time!
Edit. Apologies to Scottish friends, this is a North East chip shop favourite, along with just the batter, and chips with curry sauce!
🤣😂
it’s alright most of us scots piss in the garden anyway
Yes, and most sensible Scots will ignore Sturgeon and Leitch. Leitch changes his mind more often than most people change their underpants and is no more than a Nat apparatchik. Sturgeon has also had to state that this is “advice” and not enforceable in law.
Potty!
Is the host going to have to throw the food to the guests? Or will each guest have to cook their own food? How, in a small garden, will people manage to stay 2m apart? How ludicrous this is!
When Vaclav Havel was a dissident playwright in Czechoslovakia I used to read his okays with a growing sense of disbelief, thinking thank bloody goodness I live in the civilised West, hisd world is positively Kafkaesque. He went to prison for exposing things like Tenchy’s comment above. Well Havel ended up as president of the Czech Republic after the velvet revolution and is now no longer with us. I feel now that we are a play in Havel’s canon of work. Can’t use the toilet ffs? Now we need our own velvet revolution.
‘plays’ not ‘okays’ (IT this site needs an edit button.)
‘Quilted’ revolution maybe?
When the First Minister stands up in public to tell us who can or cannot use our toilet you know that she has completely lost the plot; everyone knows she is a control freak but this is beyond ridiculous. Of course people will allow visitors to use their toilets! How stupid can Sturgeon get?
How stupid? The sky’s the limit!
Well we shall see when the comatose population wake up and see the mess they are left with.
Why their own food and plates and who the hell is going to police that?! My house my bloody rules!! No police will come in my property and tell me that no one can use my house / toilet etc! All the politicians can go to hell in a handcart, they’re all bloody mad!!
One is reminded of the 2011 census (which, strangely, my dog ate 🙂 ) that contained a question “Is there a toilet in your accommodation that only you can use ?”. Ffs.
‘No $hit Sturgeon’ – immortalised!
🙂
(Took me a minute or two …).
Comedy gold right there….
I don’t wish to be crude,but I will be anyway,perhaps everyone should go and have a s**t in Sturgeon’s garden instead ?.
I think it’s obvious that we are being played, our governments are seeing how far we can be pushed. They’ve backed themselves into such a tight corner that sometimes I wonder if bollox like this is basically a get-out clause for us to say F** it, and just get on with our lives. Or are they goading us on so they can clamp down further?
What’s stopping us now, besides Handjob’s very nasty threats, is all the establishments (Scotrail is a recent example here) having to do stupid things in order to comply with thedraconian regs.
Which reminds me, what about all the plastic that’s being employed to fence everyone off behind screens, Mr Gove?
In my mind this shit has GOT to be purposeful. They’re doing all these stupid rules off the cuff, knowing noone will abide by them, knowing everyone is just gonna get on with it and eventually the lockdown will dissipate as smoothly and calmly as a fart on the breeze. Win win for the government. They get themselves out of the lockdown via the good old British public – no embarrassing climbdown, no statements of apology. No inquiry?
The sheep are being played.
Like, how will they be barred? A policeman at every door of every house? Loo-seeking drones? Sniffer dogs???
I think I may be being censored on this site but I will try again later.
I’ve found before that posts with more than a certain number of links seem to need manual approval. Could that be it?
Yep, likely, or some dubious html special characters.
Such as..?
Maybe < or > ?
Don’t know. But the post was very interesting and I would have liked it to be seen..
Keep trying
(I’ve seen comments intercepted before they reach the website they were destined for)
Shock horror California COVID 19 outbreak slaughters care home residents!
‘56 residents and 26 staff developed respiratory illness in a long-term facility; 12 residents died…..
All 56 residents living in 2 long-term care units developed respiratory symptoms, for an attack rate of 100%. No residents in an adjacent subacute care unit became ill…….
The outbreak lasted 6 weeks and peaked at 10 days after onset when 15 residents developed symptoms. The mean age of the infected residents was 87.6 years. Twenty-six health care workers, 22 of whom were nurses providing direct patient care, became ill in the same period.’
‘…..the 26 ill health care workers reported symptoms of mild upper respiratory infection with dry cough, sore throat, and subjective, low-grade fever.’
What did I leave out?
‘The first patient developed symptoms on 15 June 2003.’
‘In elderly populations, severe illness may be associated with organisms typically considered to be “benign,” such as rhinovirus.’
‘This report highlights the importance of both strict practice of respiratory hygiene and the early institution of infection-control measures (e.g., isolating and cohorting patients, daily screening for new respiratory illness in residents and staff, restricting flotation of… Read more »
Wow, a time-travelling virus: this will have the physicists scratching their heads!
This video was included in Paul Joseph Watson’s latest video:
https://caldronpool.com/video-shows-visitors-forced-to-wait-while-nhs-nurses-perform-for-a-tik-tok-video/amp/
“Video shared on social media allegedly shows visitors inside a UK hospital being forced to wait while NHS nurses perform a dance routine for the video-sharing platform Tik Tok.
“What are they doing?” the woman filming the incident can be heard saying, after noticing hospital staff lined along both sides of a corridor with mops in their hands.”
It’s a shame the BBC didn’t include this clip along with Myrie doing his grief-porn report.
Or mention how many patients contracted CV19 whilst being treating hospital for something else.
Well that was illuminating.
“So this is why we’ve been waiting so long. They’re all down here with brooms. Am I really seeing this?”
Back of envelope cost study.
30 people involved in TikTok video
30 mins of time per person taken out of work for video
Equates to 15 man hours
£20 assumed gross cost per man hour average (conservative).
£300 Total cost to hospital for one TikTok video
How many of these NHS Tik Tok videos have been made during lockdown?
Literally hundreds
I had enough of hand jobs wittering and sent a message to him via his website:
https://www.matt-hancock.com/contact
“I was reading your statement in what is laughingly called a mainstream media newspaper today about your ideas for your “test and trace” self-isolation.
All I can say is:
Follow the LAW – Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984, not your totalitarian edicts:
a doctor must be the one who says he suspects you of being infected by the exact virus as stated in the Statutory Instrument
a test must be done to prove it
a notice must be prepared by a “proper person” employed by the local authority as per the examples given by the Secretary of Health
a Justice of the Peace must then sign the notice
the “proper person” must then issue the notice to the individual
infected individual must be taken to hospital or other secure place until better then released
local authority has to pay compensation for any losses the individual has suffered due to the isolation
Since the start of what you call “an unprecedented once in a century pandemic” it has been blindingly obvious that it isn’t, the numbers… Read more »
Brilliant A.G.
Well said – just keep an eye out for passing MI5 snipers!
another annoying day in lockdown. My neighbours not content with a bloody stupid trampoline they’ve now got a giant paddling pool. I despise them and can’t stand them living all over me. I wonder how many people are gonna end up at war with their neighbours before this is over
We all crowd-funded the trampoline and the paddling pool, Biker. 🙂
We’ve got a trifecta – paddling pool on one side, trampoline and all-day every-day table tennis on the other – 6 of them in that house between kids and adults, all in enforced idleness
I feel for you… I had the same. Trampoline, kids and the works next door, all bloody day. Home schooling? yeah right. All the while I am trying to work in my living room (full time, busier than ever thanks to this crap)… then as if by magic the numbskulls have sold up and moved out last week.
To be replaced by what looks like a sound couple (so far…)
Don’t lose hope, and try and hold your nerve. I know it’s a bitch
Sounds like a great evil going on there, are there even kids playing in it?
Went to the garden centre and supermarket today. Both well-stocked, and at first glance seemingly ‘normal’. But the cafe wasn’t open, and there was much evidence of sanitisers for baskets and trolleys, lots of people in face masks, pretty much everyone observing the two metres which makes it feel awkward if you have forgotten something and go back down the aisle to get it.
The checkout at the garden centre was bizarre, having to push the trolley into a box marked with tape on the floor, then you have to step back into a small box marked similarly. The checkout girl scans your items, then shrinks back as far as she can while you pay using your card and walk out. The staff were all wearing those clear plastic ‘welder’s mask’ type visors.
Yes, it all reminds me of having an X-ray at the dentist, with everyone stepping back as far as possible or even out of the room. It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad world!
That’s a perfect example of fear breeding fear. If a few people started behaving normally – going the way they want, smiling and chatting to checkout staff, and of course not wearing muzzles, sanity would spread rapidly. I’m seeing it happen in some shops I frequent.
Well my local Tesco Express (south coast) the exact opposite. Hand sanitisers at the door were gone. (Never used then anyway. What’s the point if you are then going to pick up produce handled by countless others: packers, stackers and customers?) No-one observed the one way system and no-one cared if you went back for something you’d forgotten. And absolutely no-one was keeping their two metres distance. Hurrah. Sadly couldn’t say the same for the chemist five doors up.
Yes…! The smaller outlets now don’t give a shit. I have noticed that too at the Tesco express
Just got back from garden centre – first one very regimented, with rules explained before going in (don’t they just love it) and one way system – but no compost left!
On to second, much smaller, family-run place – had to laugh as their only concession to lockdown was a solitary, grubby looking bottle of hand sanitiser half-hidden on the check-out counter – you could also go where you wanted …. and they had some compost!
Good for them! My son had such a bad experience at B&Q this morning, he phoned me to vent about it. My local garden centre opened yesterday. I haven’t been yet but, having read their preparations on their website, I’m not entirely looking forward to visiting. Hopefully this time next week, they’ll have relaxed a bit!
I am waiting for approval for something I posted earlier.
I didn’t realise we were being censored here. If so that is surely rather hypocritical of somebody.
I guess the furloughs theme and working from home is a roaring success then, from the ONS website:
This means 69% of the workforce will not return from furlough doesn’t it?
Or be fired before they even get to go back.
Or it might just mean that they’re phasing in the return to work.
Optimist!
Had fun in Homebase today – would complain to them direct but their complaints e-mail seems to have disappeared from the contact us page. Oh well but lots of unbelievers out and about. The mosts cared are still the under 30s who have last to worry about but I guess that’s this wimpy generation we have now. Between us unbelievers we managed to get a few people thinking anyway.
While queueing to pay the “Karen” in bright hi-vis and a face shield was ordering people about:
“put your stuff on that table”
“stand there”
“move there”
and so on.
My turn comes, Herr Obergruppenfuehrer starts blah blah so I put my stuff on the table, turn round and in a very loud and firm but not shouty voice “Haven’t you ever heard of the word please?”.
Deafening silence, everyone looks round at her and the look on her face was priceless, like I had slapped her. How dare I have the temerity to question her authority?
“Pardon” says the Karen.
“Haven’t you ever heard of the word please? You’ve not used it once since I’ve been standing here.”
“Wait of a few… Read more »
“1 girl … about 25 had nothing on“
Well I suppose Homebase had to do something spectacular to get their customers back in…
We could all try wearing nothing but a face mask …
I submitted a petition to have an investigation into the influence vaccine manufacturers had on the covid 19 response. Unsurprisingly, the government rejected it –
See their response below
“Sorry, we can’t accept your petition – “Investigate influence vaccine industry has had on our response to covid 19”.
It included confidential, libellous, false or defamatory information, or a reference to a case which is active in the UK courts.
We can’t publish petitions that include false or unproven statements, including about the views or influence of individuals or organisations. We have published the following petition, which you might like to sign: Hold a Public Inquiry into the handling of the Covid-19 crisis: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/302576 The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency regulates medicines, including vaccines, in the UK. The MHRA is responsible for ensuring that all medicines used in the UK meet applicable standards of safety, quality and efficacy. The Government has set out its own plans to support the development of a vaccine for coronavirus, including creating a Vaccine Taskforce, funding domestic trials, and providing funding to international research on the disease.”
What a joke, The fact they are even pretending the vaccine industry doesn’t have a massive say in… Read more »
Yes… all in the name of ’emergencies’… don’t stand for it. Ignore it. Round here, other than the furloughed being at home, nobody appears to be taking any notice of what the government or media say.
The masked morons are a tiny minority, probably getting more terrified by the day as they see more and more people around going about their business as normal
I worry that the facemaskers have now simply given up going out of their house though… god knows how many of them there are
More and more I feel like I’m living in a dystopian version of the 1930s, what with the rhetoric about C-19, censorship and suppression of dissent, a compliant media, totalitarian police powers, and so on.
This feeling is all too real for my wife and I; more so for her as she spent over half her life living in the then Soviet Union, and what is happening here, now, is not exactly new to her; she used to joke that living here was becoming more like Brezhnev’s Russia; it is no longer a joke in our house.
The 1840s also saw social and political upheaval, so maybe it is something almost generational, but with the evidence of the past concerning mass suppression and the development of technology to watch, monitor and manage us, the threats to our freedom and liberty will continue to grow apace.
It also struck me that today ‘progress’ seems to consist of little more than the banning or prohibiting of something, never enabling, and is a negative response, a pattern that our response to C-19 fits very well.
This ‘new normal’ is not normal at all, it is abnormal! Plain, unadulterated normal is what we need… Read more »
“Today progress seems to consist of little more than banning or prohibiting something”
Spot on.
The ongoing cencorship makes me sick. Youtube, Facebook, Google, Twitter… I starting to feel like Trump is the last hope of the world, how did this happen.
The Simon Heffer piece says:
“…it was an appalling dereliction for him to take a 12-day holiday at Chevening, apparently — and versions of the real reason are legion — to try to manage uncomfortable aspects of his increasingly surreal private life.”
Does anyone know what that refers to?
Boris Johnson spent nearly two weeks out of the public eye, staying at a taxpayer-funded country mansion with his girlfriend as ministers held emergency meetings on the coronavirus crisis.
It sounds more interesting than that. “…to try to manage uncomfortable aspects of his increasingly surreal private life”… What does that mean?
I think I’ve found it:
https://order-order.com/2020/02/26/carrie-gave-boris-black-eye-rumour/