Yesterday, Professor Neil Ferguson told the Science and Technology Select Committee in the House of Commons that if the Government had locked down a week earlier, the death toll would be less than half what it is now.
The epidemic was doubling every three to four days before lockdown interventions were introduced.
So, had we introduced lockdown measures a week earlier, we would have reduced the final death toll by at least a half.
But where’s the evidence that the number of people becoming infected was “doubling every three to four days” in the week running up to lockdown?
Numerous analyses – the latest by Simon Wood, a Professor at Bristol University, entitled “Did COVID-19 infections decline before UK lockdown?” – suggest the R number was <1 before the lockdown was imposed. Here’s one of Professor Wood’s graphs, showing the daily infection rate in the lead up to and immediately after lockdown (the red line).
You can read more about Professor Wood’s paper in this blog post by Fraser Nelson.
The same conclusion was reached by Carl Heneghan, Professor of Evidence-Based Medicine at Oxford, who has long maintained that infections peaked shortly after the Government introduced a raft of social distancing measures on March 16th and were declining by the time the lockdown was imposed on March 23rd. He told the Mail:
The peak of deaths occurred on April 8th, and if you understand that then you work backwards to find the peak of infections.
That would be 21 days before then, right before the point of lockdown.
Far from imposing the lockdown a week earlier, these data suggest it wasn’t necessary to impose it at all. Infections were falling before it was introduced and would have continued to fall, just as they did after peaking in those countries that didn’t impose a lockdown – like Sweden and Belarus – as well as those US states that avoided locking down. As numerous analysts have pointed out, the trajectory of the pandemic has followed almost exactly the same pattern in every country it’s afflicted, regardless of whether or not that country locked down, when it locked down or the severity of the lockdown it imposed.
The reason the media has seized on Neil Ferguson’s statement is because it fits the narrative that the UK’s high Covid death toll is due to Boris Johnson’s “dither and delay” at the beginning of the crisis. This was the narrative set in stone by a Sunday Times article on May 23rd entitled: “22 days of dither and delay on coronavirus that cost thousands of British lives.” A key plank of that case is that the scientists advising the Government were urging the Prime Minister to impose a lockdown long before he did and if only he’d listened to them – to epidemiologists like Professor Ferguson – many unnecessary deaths could have been prevented.
But if you go through the minutes of the SAGE meetings immediately preceding the lockdown decision, there isn’t any evidence that the scientific attendees were urging the Government to impose more severe social distancing measures.
As I’ve blogged about before, the former barrister Paul Chaplin has gone through the SAGE minutes in a lengthy blog post and concluded that placing the entire country under virtual house arrest was not something the Government did at the behest of its scientific advisors. His analysis is compelling.
Chaplin finds plenty of evidence in the minutes that various different containment measures were discussed by SAGE, but at no point before March 23rd did the group recommend the quarantining of the whole population. The measures SAGE considered were home isolation of symptomatic individuals, the isolation of everyone in a symptomatic individual’s household for 14 days and the cocooning of those over 70 and those with underlying health conditions – the three measures introduced by the Government on March 16th.
At no point did SAGE discuss anything resembling a full lockdown. Indeed, SAGE noted at a meeting on March 10th that banning public gatherings would have little effect since most viral transmission occurred in confined spaces, such as within households.
The last SAGE meeting before the lockdown was on March 18th where it was noted that the impact of the social distancing measures introduced thus far would not be known for two or three weeks. The attendees did not at that stage know whether those measures would be sufficient to prevent the NHS’s critical care capacity being overwhelmed and in the absence of more data could not offer any advice on whether additional measures – such as closing bars, restaurants and entertainment centres, and limiting use of indoor workplaces – would be necessary. The only further measure SAGE recommended at that meeting was closing schools.
SAGE advises that the measures already announced should have a significant effect, provided compliance rates are good and in line with the assumptions. Additional measures will be needed if compliance rates are low.
Minutes of the 17th SAGE meeting on COVID-19, March 18th 2020
The attendees discussed locking down London but no conclusion was reached. However, they did say that if additional measures were going to be necessary, it would be better to bring them in sooner rather than later. According to the minutes: “If the interventions are required, it would be better to act early.”
In other words, Boris Johnson and his advisors were not following “the science” when they took the decision to lock down the country on March 23rd – they weren’t acting on any specific recommendations by SAGE. Nor can the Government claim this is one of the options that was discussed at SAGE meetings and it was basing its decision, in part, on SAGE’s analysis of the impact of a full lockdown. That option was not discussed at any of the meetings before March 23rd.
This dovetails with Christopher Snowdon’s analysis of the decision-making in the period leading up to March 23rd published in The Critic on May 28th, although Snowdon only had access to the broad summaries of the SAGE meetings that the Government has released at that point, not the more detailed minutes that were released on May 28th as a result of Simon Dolan’s lawsuit.
Snowdon concluded that the Government’s scientific advisors never explicitly recommended a lockdown; on the contrary, at various stages they recommended against it.
Snowdon says that even Neil Ferguson’s March 16th paper, predicting 510,000 Covid deaths if the Government took no measures to stop the spread of the virus and 250,000 if it stuck with its “mitigation” strategy, stopped short of recommending a full lockdown:
Contrary to popular belief, the infamous study did not call for a full lockdown, nor did it model the effects of a full lockdown. It looked at school closures, social distancing and household quarantine for suspected cases and those living with them. It concluded that the greatest benefit would come from a combination of social distancing and household quarantine, with further benefits likely to come from closing schools, although it conceded that school closures would prevent many people from working.
There is no doubt that Ferguson’s model was impactful. It suggested that hundreds of thousands of people would die from COVID-19 if the Government continued to pursue a policy of mitigation. This put containment back on the table and gave legitimacy to more coercive action from Government, but the measures it recommended did not amount to a full lockdown. Its social distancing recommendations were far from trivial and yet they seem modest after nine weeks of genuine lockdown (the authors anticipated most people still going to work, for example). The only time Ferguson and colleagues use the word “lockdown” in the text is when they are making a distinction between their proposals and an actual lockdown. They implicitly dismiss a lockdown as being too extreme for the UK, saying that their favoured policies are “predicted to have the largest impact, short of a complete lockdown which additionally prevents people going to work”.
Snowdon’s conclusion is remarkably similar to Chaplin’s:
The founding myth of the lockdown is almost the opposite of the truth. Science did not triumph over politics on March 23rd. It would be more accurate to say that the strategy which preceded the lockdown, unpopular though it now is, was based on science whereas the decision to go into lockdown was political.
I emailed Christopher Snowdon when I blogged about this before to see if he’d had a chance to look at the SAGE minutes and he got back to me to say he had and they did indeed corroborate his analysis:
The minutes fully support what I wrote in The Critic. The social distancing measures discussed by SAGE – and modelled separately by Neil Ferguson et al. and John Edmunds et al. – are not well described in the documents, but it is clear that they are more moderate than the lockdown that was introduced on March 23rd. Even at the late stage of mid-March, SAGE was never seriously entertaining a full lockdown, nor did the attendees expect their more modest measures to be in place for more than 12 weeks. To claim otherwise is to rewrite history.
A reader challenged this analysis, claiming that if you look at the minutes from SAGE 18, the meeting which took place on March 23rd, the same day the full lockdown was imposed, it’s clear that the Government was “following the science”.
I took a look and don’t agree. As with the meeting of March 18th, there’s more stuff about not yet being able to assess the impact of the social distancing measures announced on March 16th, not much about them being insufficient: “SAGE noted that social distancing behaviours have been adopted by many but there is uncertainty whether they are being observed at the level required to bring the epidemic within NHS capacity.” However, there is some talk of the effectiveness of those measures: “Footfall in London transport hubs reduced by 80-90% over the weekend, but in retail and food outlets has decreased by a smaller margin.”
There is some other interesting stuff in there, however. For one thing, the attendees seem quite worried about the negative impact on public health of the measures already introduced. “Actuarial analysis is required to estimate deaths caused indirectly by COVID-19, including those caused by the social interventions,” says one of the minutes. (Is this the ONS data that was released on June 5th analysing excess deaths not involving coronavirus?) Another says: “Given the clear links between poverty and long-term ill health, health impacts associated with the economic consequences of interventions also need to be investigated.” And: “In due course, analysis of the effects of the interventions on other causes of death should be undertaken.”
There’s also some evidence that it was beginning to dawn on SAGE that COVID-19 is a predominantly nosocomial disease. There’s a reference to “nosocomial hospital clusters” and one of the action points is “NERVTAG and DSTL to investigate spread of COVID-19 in hospitals”.
Interestingly, the minutes also say that any restrictions on travel into the country “would have a negligible effect on spread”.
And that last minute points to one of the major shortcomings of the scientific advice the Government has received during this crisis. That is, at no point during the beginning of the pandemic did any of the members of the official scientific committees recommend that Britain introduce port-of-entry screening, when it could have actually been effective (unlike now).
Readers of this site will recall my post on May 9th pointing out that the Newly Emerging Respiratory Virus Advisory Group (NERVTAG) considered screening passengers arriving from Wuhan at a meeting on January 13th chaired by Peter Horby, an Oxford professor with links to the World Health Organisation. This is the same Peter Horby who has criticised the Government for easing the lockdown too soon. At this point, seven other countries had introduced temperature screening at airports for visitors from Wuhan. However, the NERVTAG recommendation was that there would be no point in doing this if exit screening at Wuhan airports was already taking place, although they had no evidence it was.
At the next NERVTAG meeting on January 21st, this one attended by Chris Witty and his deputy Jonathan Van-Tam, as well as Professor Neil Ferguson, the boffins were asked to reconsider the question. But again they passed the buck to the Chinese authorities. By now, human-to-human transmission had been confirmed. Nonetheless, NERVTAG’s response was the same.
Neil Ferguson noted that from the modelling perspective, with exit screening in place in China, effectiveness of port-of-entry screening in the UK would be low and potentially only detect those who were not sick before boarding but became sick during the flight. NERVTAG felt there was a lack of clarity on the exit screening process in Wuhan, although it was thought that this process would be robust, and statements had been released by Chinese authorities about stopping febrile passengers from travelling. However, as noted, there were no data on the implementation of this programme.
Minutes of the NERVTAG Wuhan Novel Coronavirus Second Meeting: January 21st 2020
So rather than recommend port-of-entry screening, the assembled brains at NERVTAG decided to trust to the Chinese authorities to screen people leaving the country.
That may count as one of the biggest blunders the British Government and its scientific advisers – notably Professor Ferguson – made. It’s a shame that none of the MPs questioning the Imperial Professor yesterday appeared to be aware of any of this. If they were, they could have pointed out that he was present at the meetings in January when a measure was discussed that really might have saved lives and he recommended against it. Those countries that started screening airline passengers arriving from Wuhan in early January have some of the lowest Covid death tolls of anywhere in the world – Hong Kong (four deaths), Taiwan (7), Singapore (25), Malaysia (118), Thailand (58) and Vietnam (0).
Yesterday, Channel 4 News added its 10 cents to the case against Boris, bringing us what its Health and Social Care Correspondent Victoria Macdonald called an “exclusive”. This was the revelation that a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (SPI-M), Professor Steve Riley, produced a paper on March 9th saying that unless the Government imposed a full lockdown 1.7 million Britons would die over the next 18 months.
Macdonald acknowledged that she didn’t know if this paper had been circulated to SAGE, let alone shown to anyone in the Government, so it’s hardly a smoking gun.
But if it was circulated, the Government would have been right to dismiss it.
I haven’t seen Professor Riley’s paper, but assuming he was estimating that 80% of the country would be infected over an 18-month period, that means 53,600,000 would become infected. For that to result in 1.7 million deaths – the headline figure in the Channel 4 News report – the virus would have to have an infection fatality rate of >3.2% – higher, even, than the WHO’s initial estimate. If we assume the IFR Professor Riley was working with was 3.25%, that’s nearly 13 times the CDC’s current best estimate of the IFR, which is ~0.26%.
I’m amazed Professor Riley is sharing this forecast with Channel 4 News – if, indeed, that’s how Macdonald got her hands on it. If I was the author of that paper, I’d bury it in a nuclear waste facility at the bottom of the North Sea.
So to summarise:
- Had Boris imposed the lockdown a week earlier it wouldn’t have made any difference to the subsequent Covid death toll since the R number was already falling by the time the lockdown was imposed. Neil Ferguson’s claim that infections were doubling every three or four days in the week leading up to the lockdown is evidence-free political point-scoring.
- Nearly every robust comparative analysis of the rise and fall of the disease in different countries across the world has come to the same conclusion: the pattern is unaffected by whether or not a country imposed a full lockdown, when it imposed it, or how severe it was.
- There is no evidence that the Government’s scientific advisors, acting in their official capacity as members of SAGE and its subgroups, advised the Government to impose a full lockdown before March 23rd.
- The one intervention the Government could have made that really might have saved lives would have been to introduce port-of-entry screening in January. That’s something Neil Ferguson explicitly warned against, preferring to rely on a Communist dictatorship to ensure the safety of the British people.
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:
- ‘Black Lives Matter is now a political party‘ – Tucker Carlson persuasively argues that Black Lives Matter is a political party, perhaps the most powerful one in America at the moment
- ‘UK orchestras may not survive coronavirus pandemic, conductors warn‘ – Sir Simon Rattle and Sir Mark Elder write open letter to the Guardian about challenges musicians face
- ‘Bitcoin Doesn’t Take Sides: Why Apolitical Solutions Are the Internet’s Future‘ – Interesting take by Preston Byrne
- ‘Lockdown was unnecessary, claims German virologist‘ – Professor Hendrik Streeck predicts there will be no second wave
- ‘UK economy is world’s biggest Covid-19 casualty, OECD warns‘ – The Telegraph has an alarming report about just how great the damage done by the lockdown is likely to be
- ‘Why aren’t broadcasters scrutinising Neil Ferguson’s claims?‘ – Ross Clark in the Spectator poses an excellent question
- ‘Towards herd immunity? New data suggests millions of Russians may have Covid-19 antibodies‘ – Interesting report in Russia Today – but it is RT, so treat with caution
Small Businesses That Have Reopened
A few 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 takes me many hours every day, which doesn’t leave much time for other work. If you feel like donating, however small the amount, please click here. And if you want to flag up any stories or links I should include in future updates, email me here.
And Finally…
Slightly off topic and not funny, but this letter by an anonymous history professor at the University of California, Berkeley, taking issue with some of the claims made by the Black Lives Matter movement, as well as the uncritical way in which they’re accepted and regurgitated by American universities, is a must-read. No doubt as soon as his identity is discovered he will be subject to a mobbing and may very well lose his job.
If you want to see a growing list of all those who’ve suffered catastrophic career damage for challenging the orthodoxies of the BLM movement, or because they haven’t genuflected before it with sufficient piety, or because they’re married to someone who’s criticised it (not making that up), click here. It’s up to 21 so far, but to borrow a phrase from Neil Ferguson, it’s growing exponentially. And if you want to donate to the Free Speech Union, which has already gone to bat for one of these people (Stuart Peters, the Manx Radio presenter suspended for questioning the concept of “white privilege”), click here.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
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If this study https://virological.org/t/preliminary-analysis-of-sars-cov-2-importation-establishment-of-uk-transmission-lineages/507
(referred to in a James Gallagher article on the BBC site today) is to be believed, early quarantining of arrivals from Wuhan would have made no difference to the spread, as almost all the UK cases came from Italy? Spain and France.
I don’t see how you could stop the virus getting into a country like our’s. Perhaps you could do that in a country as small and remote as New Zealand, but not here. Protect the vulnerable and then let the virus do whatever it does and get population immunity. Then back to normal. No lockdown, no quaratining arrivals. And wasn’t all that obvious from the start?
Indeed, which is why I get so annoyed when I see how smug Jacinda Arden is about ‘eradicating’ the virus in New Zealand, which is probably on of the most geographically remote countries there is and which has more sheep than people, and then the lockdownistas insist that we have to copy NZ and totally eradicate the virus, despite the fact that the UK is a global transport hub and incredibly densely populated.
I am aware that there are Asian countries which are also densely populated and big transport hubs who have managed the virus far better than the UK has but I wonder whether that theory about Asian societies having more cross-immunity from other coronaviruses (e.g. SARS, MERS) has played a part in that. There definitely seems to be an enormous disparity between how the virus has affected the West and the East.
Yes. I agree. Take Japan – they didn’t go full lockdown. They have a huge aged population and lots of young & old households. They have a very low incidence of the disease, despite all their economic and travel contacts with China. There has to be some reason.
Taiwan, Japan and Vietnam have proven – beyond reasonable doubt – that lockdowns didn’t work. A flight ban would have, only if fully enforced with no exceptions. But Boris petrified of the Remainers citing that as proof of his isolationist tendency in the aftermath of Brexit. And that, in a nutshell, is why we are where we are.
We only needed a sensible quarantine policy for new arrivals.
Maybe they just proved that not lying about Covid caused deaths results in fewer numbers of covid caused deaths.
There is: they quarantined all new arrivals to Japan.
… and to Taiwan.
That’s because they all wear masks and whilst the government didn’t mandate lockdown as strictly the people there are more conscientious and reduce they travel voluntarily.
Take a look at the citymapper mobility index. Yes that’s Tokyo, Japan at the top of the list as having the fewest people moving:
https://citymapper.com/cmi
Masks + less travel = less severe outbreak. Simple really.
I think people here are pretty “conscientious” too. It hasn’t worked out that well though, has it?
MERS is mostly in the middle east (you quite often catch it directly from your camel) although they did have an outbreak in South Korea.
SARS1 however will likely give a lot of cross-immunity to SARS2, and there is a possibility that there was more exposure to that in Asia, although it’s likely it was also a global pandemic.
Taiwan are constantly on the lookout for nasty new viruses coming out of China and were aware of it (and telling the WHO who were ignoring them) long before anyone else was. If anyone knows how to actually stop one of these things spreading right at the start it’s them.
But I should add that there are going to be lots of other similar coronaviruses going around that haven’t been specifically identified. Unless a lot of people start dying you don’t notice these things.
The Singapore (and California) study both found cross-reactivity of T cells with SARS2 in about half of people tried at random which would have come from some mix of known and unknown coronaviruses.
So the level of cross-immunity might well be different in different places.
‘you quite often catch it directly from your camel’
Like some STDs, then.
Born in Japan, I live in HK, lived-worked in Asia 40+ years. We’ve also done well in HK, with “Lockdown Lite”.
Reasons (my take):
We never locked down like the UK: only closed bars and gyms and only for a short time. Closed schools. Tested and tracked like crazy. Result: only four deaths, and pretty much zero new cases.
We’re always ignored when people look around how well places are doing, I guess because we’re China adjacent, and China = bad these days….
People ought to study how we did it. There’s lessons to learn.
By the way, I note no hint of second wave anywhere.
(And, btw, the NZ story is silly. It’s closer to Antarctica than anywhere…)
Sorry to disagree but Japanese families more often than not do live in multi-generational households, perhaps not so much in the big cities, but often out in the countryside. It
s the eldest childs (plus family of eldest child) responsibility to live with parents and care for them. I (as wife of eldest son) would have had to live with his parents..unfortunately they died young..if we were still over there we would have had his grandmother live with us (as eldest son of eldest son it would have been his responsibility to care for her). I suspect diet, vitamin levels and less obesity have more to do with it.plus honest recording of deaths
maybe the UK is overcounting to justify the lockdown??
And presumably New Zealand has developed no immunity and will forever be looking over their shoulder, waiting for the virus to strike.
I wish you were our PM here in bankrupt NZ. All evidence seems to show that our death rate overall would be the same if borders had stayed open. A full lockdown raises deaths.
The bug probably went away here as 60% had cross immunity and it was summer. If open borders kill why has Belarus not had a holocaust. No extensive serological testing has been done to show that the remaining 40% have not had it.
Very obvious :o)
Yes, as a kiwi and serf suffering under Comrade Ardern’s rule I am very sceptical of travel bans, particularly in economy’s like ours where tourism is 15% of GDP. Surely protection of the elderly and voluntary social distancing is enough?
The IFR of C19 is the same as the flu and itonly kills very sick 80 year olds. All the actual evidence shows it goes away at same rate even with no travel ban as in Belarus etc.
In Scotland we suffer under comrade Sturgeon, at least for you Jacinda is a bit easier on the eye. But I am still royally sick of the Graunitariat touting Ahern as some kind of woke visionary entirely responsible for NZ “beating” covid 19. All the while they are silent about the fascist commander in chief next door, who achieved identical results. Fact is neither had anything to do it, NZ and Oz’s success comes wholly from their geographical isolation, in a Hemisphere opposite to China’s.
because it was summer and everyone’s vit D levels were high. The opposite in the northern hemispehere
Exactly. That’s what Whitty and Vallance were recommending – till the baying MSM took over.
You cannot stop a virus unless you lock people up forever. We need to learn to live with it.
Most people will get over it quickly.
You mean live life anyway as living is risky?
Once you re born only 1 thing is certain – you will at some point die.
Trick is to enjoy to the fullest the time inbetween and make the most of it no matter how short it is.
Once a virus has got into the population, you can’t control it. The chance for that has passed.
I think your comment sums it up. Travel bans do not work once the bug is in.
Belarus has had only 250 C-19 deaths with 10 million people (from 50,000 “reported cases”) yet has had no border shut down. In New Zealand, with five million people, 500 die every year from the flu. No evidence has emerged that the Belarus figures are incorrect.
In other words, therefore, C-19 is less dangerous than the flu. If not named, C-19 would probably not have been noticed.
The maths shows, IMHO, why bans do not work. Bans do not work as it is impossible to “trace” those infected by carriers of an airborne, respiratory virus that starts infecting three days after you get it. Oh – what were the names of those 200 people at the supermarket? In addition 80% of carriers are asymptomatic.
The UK ONS figures indicate that 25% of “C19 deaths” had dementia and a similar percentage was over 86 years of age… A travel ban is not needed as the economic damage is too high given the very low risk of death and very high average age of death. C19 does not scare me.
It seems odd to be looking at Belarus as your paradigm. A dictatorship with the same man in power for 25 years and you’re highlighting how reliable their data is? North Korea is doing really well too.
Also Russia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Ukraine have unilaterally closed the border to Belarus (not that that is easy to enforce). They aren’t releasing these depsite the fact they are opening to other countries around them.
Clearly those governments have less confidence in the Belarusian approach than you – but no doubt you feel better informed.
The less dangerous than the flu trope is ridiculous. The worst flu year in recent years 2014/15 for the UK led to just under 30,000 deaths. We’ve already surpassed that – and what percentage of the population do you think as contracted Covid-19?
It should’ve been stopped at the borders with proactive action but now it needs to be managed with HK, Singpaore, Japan-like precision. Track and trace properly, reduce movement and masks for all.
Well, there have been other flu seasons that were a lot worse than 2014 if you go back a little further. On the evidence so far the present “pandemic” is not orders of magnitude more serious than others in living memory, yet the reaction to it has been unprecedented in the damage it has caused. I think the burden of proof has to be on those who think this virus merits the reaction it has provoked.
I can’t see much correlation between measures taken by various governments and outcomes, beyond those rare cases like NZ who closed their borders and who will need to remain closed forever, and beyond how well the vulnerable were protected as opposed to sent home to infect other vulnerable people.
Not orders of magnitude, but the highest excess mortality since 1918/19. That in a population of which only about 6% have experienced the pathogen in the community. Even if one accepts herd immunity on about 25% (perhaps due to some cross immunity from other past corona virus infections), then the current epidemic is really only about a quarter through. I doubt if it was now left to run its course we would see 4x as many deaths (since we will now protect the most vulnerable much better with testing and quarantine of nursing home residents). But the situation is not really a great one.
One of the differences with past influenza epidemics is that we know that there is some previous immunity to infection severity conferred by past influenza infections. Only during a shift in [H]aemagglutinin or [N]euraminidase type (e.g. to H1N1 for swine flu) do things get really squeaky bum time. That does not appear to be true here, but the jury is still out. Most people seem to argue immunity based on their preconceptions of what they want for policy decisions. A long-term study (20 yrs) of the four other endemic coronaviruses in circulation gave a typical reinfection period of 30 months. We are six months into human experience. Is it any surprise how little we really know with confidence?
“Most people seem to argue immunity based on their preconceptions of what they want for policy decisions.”
I’m sure there’s some truth in that, as it’s natural to want to believe that your preferred course of action will turn out to have less bad consequences than predicted.
But I think a lot of people have different ideas about what is important and what they are prepared to sacrifice, and what they think a country should be prepared to sacrifice, to save a certain number of lives. If this virus had been around since the beginning of time, I tend to think we’d not be taking the approach we are now taking.
Fair point. But what people forget is that very early in the epidemic, this new coronavirus virus could have been that deadly combination of common cold transmissible, but SARS-CoV-1 pathogenic (it is very similar genetically). Faced with that gravity, intervention was absolutely necessary. Now a few months on, SARS-CoV-2 looks much less pathogenic (thank goodness!), but it may well become the fifth circulating endemic coronavirus. For some, it’s definitely more than a cold. For others its nothing more than a modest or even asymptomatic immune challenge. For the other four coronaviruses, there is no lasting immunity, and time between reinfections about 30 months. We’re not even a quarter of the way through that cycle yet. Some perspective is needed. Witty has tried to provide that (if people notice).
If this virus had been around forever (like the other four viruses), then we definitely would not be acting as we are now – but much of this really is hindsight (OK only a couple of months but it is very early days). In three years time, we might have become comfortable living with the new virus, are able to manage infections better and protect the vulnerable with either passive immunity (which I work on) or vaccination (which I am skeptical of). Or we may have eradicated it completely.
I view this sacrifice as an absolute once-only action which was reasonable given the unknowns of the time, and late coming based on the evidence. But I expected the government to a better job of protecting the vulnerable and protecting the economically vulnerable too. They have manifestly failed in both of those aims. I completely understand why others feel different. I also try not to let my beliefs cloud my judgement, even though economically there will be some suffering in the family.
Tell that to Matt and Boris!
I was just having a rant about Professor Doom on yesterdays thread so narcissisticly thought I might as well pull it in here:
“Ferguson is as thick as two very short planks.
It’s evident in every absurd statement or prediction that he makes.
It’s not unusual for the odd thicko to make waves in academia but it is odd to do it in a place that has (had?) the prestige of Imperial.
I can only assume that he is a grant winning machine because he sure isn’t there for his insight.
From a comment yesterday and Kendrick has also indicated that this is the case
https://drmalcolmkendrick.org/2015/06/18/conflict-of-interest-not-just-about-money/
See, this is the problem when you introduce fees into academia and turn them essentially into businesses. You need to balance the books and need more investment to keep attracting students into paying those fees.
When this happens you end up with bad scientists with bad science doing dubious work for external “donors” but hey! They pays the bills!
This is all aside. Ferguson is clearly a fool and the government should never have had him anywhere near Sage.”
At least those of us in the arts can’t influence government policy that much. (In the short term anyway – I apologise profusely for intersectionality)
Scientists are now far too academicised rather than professionalised. Especially when you’re getting yor advisors directly from academia rather than industry.
The problem is that the do nothing model is merely an equation and to argue against it would require disproving the equation.
You could say that 100% of the population would never get infected and the simple counter would be “only if something was done”.
Perhaps this is why Ferguson has been around for so long because it’s just not possible to argue against an equation that has no real meaning in reality.
Exactly. It has echoes of the classic, “But, you can’t prove God ISN’T real….”
One equation to remember regarding science:
observation:theory::10,000:1
As Bill Gates’ viceroy, he is considered a ‘sage’ in equal measure by Imperial and the Johnson regime
NF funded by GAVI and Gates. Could explain a lot.
His grant winning machine is called Bill Gates
Great to hear Toby carpet-bomb Nick Ferrari with evidence and facts on LBC radio this am.
Unfortunately NF clearly remains Lockdown +ve, and I think the problem will be that these folk are not receptive to a message which changes the narrative from one of self-sacrifice ‘we’re all in it together’ to ‘we got this completely wrong’.
“We got this completely wrong. Wrecked our economy. Lopped off 11% of GDP puts millions out of work. Destroyed countless businesses. Condemned cancer patient to death. Hastened the lonely death of many elderly people deprived of contact with their family. And we still ended up with more deaths per million that Sweden or Japan. ” That’s a difficult message isn’t?
The truth can set you free – but it might be painful.
Not surprising from a station that’s just sacked Farage for telling the truth about Black Lives Matter.
Great stuff again Toby. But sadly there is zero cut-through into the MSM.
Virtually all of today’s news leads with positive reaction Boris’ “bubble” policy and the chapter and verse reproduction of Ferguson’s latest doubling down bullshit.
The 5 minutes of so I can bear of the Today programme this morning had Nick Robinson interviewing the Labour health guy – Ashworth about Labours attitude to school closures.
His solution by the way was to open up unused civic facilities as temporary educational facilities – WTAF!
In amongst this however I noticed Robinson tossed in Ferguson’s latest doomsday predictions without any caveats. Seems it’s just become accepted wisdom.
For me it’s anger and despair in equal measure.
I feel the same, what is the point of this analysis when MSM have all the control. They can say anything they want and it becomes true. I think Ferguson should be guillotined, he is a political, ideological non scientist.
Which is why I suggested Toby should seriously consider crowd-funding a new radio (and maybe TV) station – one that can start on the internet. It could provide objective news, a broad range of opinions on all subjects, good music, drama and books, interesting talks etc. A bit like the old Radio 4 before it was made woke and PC-stupid. I really think that crowd funding exercise would raise a million in a month. I’d be happy to put up £100 and I am sure there are at least 10,000 others like me in the country desperate for someone to create a sane media outlet.
As I read your message, I thought, you mean like the BBC is supposed to do. I think that’s a good idea, I’d contribute.
Exactly. We shouldn’t have to pay twice over…but I think people who can afford it and are disgusted by BBC bias would support such a move to create a fair and balanced media.
We don’t have to pay twice over. Stop watching live TV and using the BBC iplayer and you can stop paying the BBC. Seems to me quite a small sacrifice considering.
I’d like an alternative, apart from silence.
I have not had a license for over 10 years and do not have silence. I have the internet. I no longer have netflix but used to I still do have amazon prime. You can even watch most good BBC content which is often made available on these services. I would prefer silence over the BBC news though ! but even then there is plenty outside the MSM to replace it.
As long as you are not watching the BBC content as it is broadcast or on the BBC iplayer you can still watch it on demand on other services without a TV licences. My 3 year old like octonauts which is available on amazon prime and is quite good.
There’s this really cool thing nowadays, OKUK, called the interweb. Or something like that.
Silence is much better for your sanity than BBC news.
Music is pretty good …..
I’m in.
There’s already UK Column
UKColumn, David Icke, Jim Stone, X22 report, Corbett report and a few others I’ve seen over the months and years already try.
‘last american vagabond’ is great on youtube or bitchute )
With respect, using David Icke as a source will immediately discredit your argument in the eyes of the general public. The data published by the ONS, PHE, and respectable scientists is far more credible and speaks for itself. Associating this with Icke (I’m not familiar with your others sources) will push people away. It would push me away.
yes true but if you listen to what he has been saying its all suddenly coming true!
He talks about agenda 21 and agenda30
Has been interviewed by Brian Rose on London Real and the BBC had OFCOM remove the interview from you tube that day so he must be on to something!
Forget the alien stuff but read, watch and research what else he has said over the years then ask how far off the wall he is.
infowars
Not all the MSM …. Certain ones are not changing their stance and we know who they are. Keep an eye out for seemingly out of the blue non lockdown/BLM related front page stories coming out too.
All very very weird until you start digging
To be fair, he should be sacked and forced to spend the rest of his life surviving on Universal Credit and witnessing the fruits of his genius.
Those who have employed him, or who consider employing him in future, should be guillotined.
Nah….Professor Lockdown should be made to re-enact Sisyphus for the rest of his life with the public allowed to pelt him with stones, rotten food, rubbish and milkshakes.
In my most uncharitable moments, he and Hancock should be executed. As the Code of Hammurabi has said “an eye for an eye” and so both of them should pay.
Actually, execution sounds pretty charitable to me, especially compared to your first option.
The MSM, together with the Government, opposition parties and academia are jointly responsible for both the panic surrounding covid and the subsequent lockdown. Once people realise they’ve been “had”, and that their jobs or businesses have gone, that they are now unlikely ever to retire, that their children’s or granchildren’s education has been blighted irreparably, they will be angry. Very angry. Perhaps murderously angry.
There will be reckoning. If not this year, then next. But it will come.
Right.
Who’d have thought, in the days of the Nazis’ glory, that the leaders would one day be un the dock to answer for their crimes? At one time they seemed all-powerful, unconquerable. But a hempen collar fitted their foul necks just fine in the end.
Is there a statue of Ferguson we could chuck in the Thames?
Not yet. Give them time.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52985446
Ignore the story. Thats nothing that was blatantly obvious months ago.
The comments however are a different story. All the top rated comments are livid with the lockdown and its effects now. This was inconceivable a few weeks ago.
A reckoning is a coming.
I often comment on Guido Fawke’s blog. The day after the lockdown was announced, I posted denouncing the lockdown. I don’t think I got a single uptick (not that this bothers me, I don’t post to be loved, only to speak the truth as I see it). People slagged me off: a memorable one was somebody wanting to draw pictures in crayon to “educate” me. Eight weeks later, his view is almost 100% in line with my own (which hasn’t changed). The transformation in so many people is remarkable.
They are waking up. You are right: the reckoning is coming.
Well done Nick. When Boris said we shouldn’t go to the pub, off I went. Hadn’t been intending to, but sometimes one just has to stand up for principles …
Criticising the gov on Guido site is a tough gig. It’s packed to the gunnels with half the cabinet Dominic Cummings and they can practically do no wrong.
I’ve posted aswell and there are a handful of sceptics there but it’s a tough crowd!
I just upticked you. I’ll send you a signed printout if you like!
I remember a story on GF praising Steve Baker’s “barnstorming” (or some such nonsensical word) speech in parliament during the non-debate about the new coronavirus law at the start of all this. I simply commented something like Baker is “worried about a libertarian dystopia, votes to implement it” and was roundly downvoted and even blocked, I think. I used to go to GF regularly but have since given it up since it has become an outright propaganda arm for the government. I popped in the other day and it doesn’t seem to have changed, but I wasn’t there very long.
Ashworth is incable of talking about cv without using the words horrific or terrible.
Words which would be better reserved for describing his shameless fearmongering.
There is increasing coverage in the mainstream media. The Telegraph in particular is full of lockdown scepticism, but I’m increasingly noticing articles elsewhere including one on The Guardian recently (their motive still being to attack Boris and co but from a different angle). It is filtering through, but it will take time.
If it’s finally creeping into the Grad, there may be light at the end of the tunnel.
I am a doctor and I only found this site a few days ago. It is refreshing and reassuring to me to finally see viewpoints such as those posted on this site as the absolute crap we have been fed for months was making me feel very sick. Covid-19 seems to be fizzling out as every virus in history has ever done, despite lock-down rather than because of lock-down – much as many patients get better despite what we do rather that because of what we do!
despite lock-down rather than because of lock-down
Yep, you’ve got it!
Perhaps you could put in a word with my stupid doctor’s surgery which has closed its waiting room and insists on muzzles. Thank God I’m not ill. Well, if I was they’d run a mile.
It’s not the first time I have read that when doctor’s go on strike deaths drop.
I recall reading that it has happened two or three times over the years in Germany and I found this today, same in Israel:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1127364/
Makes you wonder why, other than for A&E which is really good when you are wheeled into it unconscious on a stretcher after a nasty accident, what the rest of the medical industry is up to?
From my experience if you could not be put into the correct tick box, given a pill for life or failing that have something chopped off or cut out then it is stumped.
You sound like you are questioning a career that you got into with all good intentions of curing lots of people and doing the best you can and are now questioning how it all works as the overbearing nature of it all takes over and people and individuals become a poor second to the system itself.
Apologies in advance if I have got it all wrong on how you are feeling as I’ve made these assumptions on one post on a website but your frustrations show through.
I’ve had a similar discussion with a GP over the years when sitting in on my wife’s consultations (and a couple of her specialists) – there is the official line they has to follow and spout from but they don’t really believe then the off-record “chat” afterwards about any things and how they think it is all wrong and they want out to follow his calling of actually helping people live healthier lives.
And, as Michael Flanders remarked in pre-MSM. days, ‘when there are no newspapers, nothing happens.’
Oh I remember Flanders and Swann – they were wonderful! I remember the “nothing happens, it’s marvellous!” remarks too.
National ill-Health Service.
over the last few years I have lost what little faith I ever had in doctors; I feel as if they finish their training and then never keep up to date or change their thoughts about what they were taught. The way they treat diabetics seem to me to be the proof of this, sticking to their advice to just go on and on eating carbs and upping the insulin to compensate for all the terrible consequences, and of course taking insulin for type 2 diabetes is problematic in itself. Statins are another example, in my opinion, over prescribed with bad side effects for some people. Having said that men like Dr Malcolm Kendrick, who has just emailed out his latest blog today about Covid, Dr Jason Fung and Dr Eric Westman are absolutely fantastic.
It’s why I trained in clinical herbalism, so that I could treat my own body if necessary. I try to eat a good diet with proper nutritious food, balanced vitamins and minerals. Lots of outside time, as I have a smallholding and grow my own fruit and veg. I’m not registered with a GP and haven’t seen a doctor for over 20 years. At 65 years old I am luckily still very healthy. This was following a conversation with a hospital consultant, when my mother asked him what was the best way to stay healthy. In all seriousness he replied “stay away from hospitals unless it’s an emergency!”
I do understand that so many doctors truly go into the profession to help, to be kind, to do their best, but sadly the system seems to wear them down in the end.
Many doctors, particularly in the US go by the book – big pharma’s book.
off-guardian is another good site for doctors interviews
Sarah, do please tell us what you have observed as a doctor working through this time – would be interested to hear!
Yes, do, and Toby, please highlight it. It’s important that we hear from doctors whose pbrains have nit been added by NHS poison.
Nice one Toby, but you can’t let the SAGE scientists off that easily. Here are the key excerpts from the March 23rd SAGE meeting that show they were pressing for what we now call lockdown (emphasis added):
‘1. UK case accumulation to date suggests a higher reproduction number than previously anticipated. High rates of compliance for social distancing will be needed to bring the reproduction number below one and to bring cases within NHS capacity.
2. Public polling over the weekend on behaviour indicated significant changes but room for improvement in compliance rates. …
Case numbers in London could exceed NHS capacity within the next 10 days on the current trajectory…
21. Key areas for further improvement include reducing contact with friends and family outside the household, and contact in shops and other areas.
ACTION: SAGE secretariat to share SAGE paper from behavioural scientists on options for increasing adherence to social distancing measures with CCS and HMG Communications leads.’
I don’t think it’s hard to read between the lines here and see this is a group very worried about where things are going and urging more radical action. I imagine the paper with ‘options for increasing adherence to social distancing’ shared with the government that day may well have prompted the (unexpected) move in the evening to house confinement to reduce contact ‘outside the household’.
I appreciate you want the government to carry the can for this, and rightly so. But the scientists are up to their neck as well. It’s true that prior to March 23rd they were being less firm and clear, but they were on a journey, and by March 23rd they have clearly become super-scared and super-cautious.
I was going to say something similar. Even though the committee may not have used the words “We recommend lockdown”, they presented such apocalyptic ‘evidence’ that the government felt it had no alternative.
I’m with you. I’m broadly in agreement with Snowdon but think the minuted AFTER March 18th need to be considered. It is likely the SAGE talking heads were also swayed considerably by doctor doom. – They stopped short at recommending full lockdown but the language used here is certainly projecting urgency. Not exactly a call to arms but certainly a polishing of the trumpet in readiness.
And don’t forget that after Cummings pressed for a ‘lockdown’ at the 18 March SAGE meeting (his presence is conveniently not stated, of course) the group did not meet again until 22 March, the day before the ‘lockdown’ announcement:
As hinted at in the SAGE Minutes for 16 and 18 March, the HMG decisions were being made elsewhere. By people who were not following the science.
https://www.paulchaplin.life/blog-original/lockdown-boris-violated-sage-advice
Two separate sources familiar with the meeting said Mr Cummings had pressed for lockdown measures to be introduced more quickly.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8268415/No10-chief-Dominic-Cummings-intervened-SAGE-meeting.html
Johnson’s Top Aide Pushed Scientists to Back U.K. Lockdown
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-28/top-aide-to-u-k-s-johnson-pushed-scientists-to-back-lockdown
Our surmise is that Cummings reports directly to Sedwill. Do not believe that Boris Johnson is in charge of anything now, if he ever was.
Some good points on this thread.
Toby and the others are probably narrowly correct when they say SAGE did not, as a minuted conclusion of their meetings, directly propose the lockdown. But that doesn’t mean to say the decision was entirely political. As I’ve posted here before, we need to allow for whatever private discussions the government may have been having with Ferguson and his cohorts. My feeling – no more – is that such private discussions were indeed taking place, and that Ferguson et al were pushing for as draconian measures as possible, up to and including lockdown. (As evidence that Ferguson was advising the government privately, I was struck by Sherelle Jacobs’ Telegraph column last week, 4 June, in which she said Ferguson is still(!) advising No. 10.)
Such a scenario would fit with the general drift of SAGE opinion, as illustrated in the quotes Will Jones gives here.
As I’ve written here previously, it is clear to me to me that many academics, with direct and indirect links to SAGE, have been entirely happy with the concept of lockdown; and it is difficult to read the Imperial College paper of 16 March and not surmise that, although hesitant to make such a draconian and unprecedented proposal at that stage, the authors would have been enthusiastically supportive of the Prime Minister’s announcement a week later.
I think Will’s conclusion is broadly correct: some scientists are up to their neck in this. Certainly it’s far too early to exonerate them.
all the academics happy with lockdown are funded by the Gates Foundation
Imperial to the tune of $288m, LSHTP $363m, etc, PHE $9m, etc
Gates has called for a ‘zero carbon’ world and to vaccinate the whole world and reduce its population. Microsoft is working with the vaccine alliance on surveillance systems and then there is ID2020.org
Yep you got it.
All roads lead back to Bill gates or George Soros.
“by March 23rd they have clearly become super-scared and super-cautious.” But by late April they must have known that the predictions were wildly excessive.
Sherelle Jacobs skewers the government for relying upon Fergie’s dubious modelling.
This is not the first time the public have been sent into a state of alarm by the government (particularly the Scottish devolved govt) and MSM who report models as scientific certainty.
Recent use of models as fact have been the reporting of the climate emergency, the economic impact of Brexit and now Fergie doubling down on his model for the ‘rona.
Whenever these models are held up to closer examination they prove to be only speculation formed in the image of the modellers personal bias.
Or indeed, those who pay the modellers! The ‘science is settled’ mantra of Climate Change of the Blair years was followed closely by the systematic removal of funding and the associated opportunities for academic advancement, for any such scientist who did not agree. Hence the ‘97% of scientists’ agree that Climate Change is man-made – they reside in the same echo chamber of ‘you just have to believe’ to pay the mortgage. But, times change. We now have the 17 year-old daughter of a film producer and singer/actress with no formal education to guide us through Climate Change, so no need for the 97%. Guess what, some of them have turned up in other fields – take a look at the wider ICL research agendas!
Can we please stop use by the term “model” – it is correctly spelt “muddle”.
What is science?
“The Government claimed to be relying on ‘the science’. In practice there is no such a thing. There are competing views from eminent scientists about the nature of the virus, how it is spread and how effective various measures are against it” Comment by Roger Bootle
Yes, but the problem is they only listen to those in the echo chamber and not to people like Wittkowski, Ioannidis, Cahill, Mikovits et al.
Open all Schools immediately.
And so say all of us!
Aye. And with no bollox about s.d.
Yes!
With the proviso – without restrictions.
I just suggested that the school where I teach should have the lightning conductors tested since they represent a greater risk to the pupils’ life than the virus.
I think, and have always thought, that the lockdown was to protect Boris’s image.
This is the guy that “promised” 350 million a week for the NHS.
Not a good luck then if a few months into his Premiership patients start dying on stretchers as the NHS gets swept up by this killer virus (that Boris clearly never understood). So he panicked and ordered the lockdown to be sure that didn’t happen.
Ferguson is just a useful idiot in all this. His hopeless model giving Boris the excuse to order lockdown and make sure that the catastrophic worst case scenario didn’t happen.
Of course it was a drastic over reaction.
But then this what happens when you let a hack journalist with narcissistic disorder run the country. Especially when he has a advisor like Cummings who apparently has a slender grasp of science.
Many people have pointed this out – it was all about the NHS and now its become a full blown religion, any hopes of reforming it will be doomed to failure. Even any future enquiry into this shambolic mess will whitewash any failures that the Church of the NHS presided over this sorry saga.
I think support for the church might plummet soon.
They’ve not really done a great job of keeping deaths per capita low.
They’ve abandoned all other care.
Plus I have a sneaking hunch that the virus was nosocomial and that the early spreaders were consultants coming back from their skiing holidays.
People are immune to evidence and reality it seems. All they have to cling to is their new religion I am not sure they are prepared to let go any time soon regardless. Perhaps I am feeling overly negative at the moment but I see little real reason for hope.
The NHS has been pretty catastrophic for many people well before this yet here we are clapping on command and treating the NHS as some godlike organisation that can do no wrong.
We can only hope that’s going to be the case because I still see a lot of people putting NHS banners on their social media accounts.
And rainbows and nhs stickers in shop and other businesses windows. It’s like thanking a bully for kicking you to the ground.
You’re right, of course. But it’s just people trying to tap into the zeitgeist and get people to like them
There are times I want to do a Captain von Trapp and rip those rainbows away.
I think, and have always thought, that the lockdown was to protect Boris’s image.
That would be a reasonable hypothesis, except we’d then have to believe that much of the rest of the world simultaneously plunged itself into lockdown and economic destruction, in order to protect Boris.
I’m also concerned that the foot-dragging we’re now witnessing regarding our release is not just about face-saving.
The real danger will come from what’s being done by government under cover of covid19. I’m trying to understand information from numerous sources, excluding BBC and msm and government briefings; my gag reflex can’t cope with their propaganda. I spread the fact-based alternate view wherever I can. I give financial support to advocates of the truth such as Toby when I can. The work to overcome this nonsense, I’d even call it wickedness, must continue, must be supported. No time to be a wimp.
This dishonest handling of the ‘pandemic’ begs a number of questions:
Are the problems we now face too great for a democratically elected government to manage?
Do we need a more paternalistic society with technocratic stewardship by neo-Marxist woke ‘managers’?
Will the government just step down to enable this to happen?
If not, can a Marxist mob be mobilised (enabled by woke useful idiots)?
Will mob be prevented or discouraged by police, local government or MSM?
A very good definition of Common Purpose.
Here’s what happens when the “woke” rule:
First this on the 08th June i think:
https://www.city-journal.org/antifa-seattle-capitol-hill-autonomous-zone#.XuFj070FOV0.twitter
Well that didn’t last long did it? By the 10th June:
https://thespectator.info/2020/06/11/antifa-organizer-in-seattles-autonomous-zone-begs-for-vegan-meat-and-soy-to-keep-area-operational-after-homeless-people-take-all-their-food/
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/06/seattles-autonomous-zone-first-warlord-local-rapper-raz-simone-takes/
So much for the lovey dove all sweetness and light autonomous zone in Seattle.
Hilarious. Cheered me up, that.
Pity the MSM are not reporting it.
I try to keep the country’s moral up best I can.
My morals are of course impeccable. My morale is always grateful for a boost though, AG.
Not wearing my glasses and predictive text got me yet again.
Before I read the second link, it had occurred to me that they’d put themselves in a position where the police could easily just cordon them in and wait for them to capitulate. The police didn’t even need to bother!
Mind you, frankenfood and soy. Poor things, no wonder their intellect is impaired.
Are we not there already, I am not sure what better a job a marxist mob could do to destroy everything and pave the way for totalitarian communist rule. It seems to me that’s what the conservative party is now.
I say as a full on Boris supporter for many years that his leadership vacuum has come as a great disappointment. He should not be trying to maintain this impossible balancing act between saying the virus is deadly but, on the other hand, get back to normal…while he tells us to obey a confusing ever-changing array of rules and while the government demonstrates they will not apply the laws on social distancing and gatherings to Far Left violent protests.
Totally confusing!
The message I think should now be one of stoicism…along the lines of “We have weathered the storm, protected the NHS, now we must face the future with courage and resilience…go forward in a spirit of optimism…We will maintain bans on mass gatherings for some months but for most activity, we urge a return to normality. Now wash your hands.” Something more like that is required now. And really it’s surprising how little Public Health TV advertising there is. There should be upbeat stuff: this is how you protect yourself.
I don’t think we should at this stage be trying to imagine how our politicians can weasel their way out of this – they must be held to account.
After we’ve been freed from dystopia, if you don’t mind.
Don’t you mean: We protected the NHS at the cost of tens of thousands of lives. We also trashed the economy. So wash your hands and get back to work – and be quick about it!
And rescind all the lockdown laws immediately.
Elect a clown, get a circus. The message should be sorry we failed to protect the vulnerable.
As I’ve just tried to post in the Daily Fail’s comments:
Funny that – at the beginning of this pantomime farce they were saying that the lockdown was to slow the spread and save the NHS from being overwhelmed. Then it was to wait for a vaccine. Now it was to cut lives. Sorry you cannot have it all ways. They are talking absolute B@$loc*(s to cover their backs now it’s all falling apart) as the lockdown is killing more people than the 10000 he has quoted and this is just the beginning of the collateral deaths. Look at the ONS breakdown on deaths recently. Total unwarranted and unjustified destruction of the economy and society. When oh when will the Daily mail and the rest of the MSM stop being copy and paste writers (cannot call them journalists anymore) or teleprompter reading talking heads? Where are the independent and challenging and questioning MSM? It’s long gone an dis now just propaganda broadcasting narrative following mouthpieces.
Short answer -NO, there was no science to follow. Just panic and fearmongering.
They keep on shifting the goalposts because they know that this has been an unmitigated disaster. They should have been lifting lockdown and not bothered with antisocial distancing as soon as those reports about the empty Nightingale Hospitals and hospitals being idle started to trickle in and were verified.
But no, they’re content to further trash the economy and store major problems for their beloved NHS because they can’t admit that they panicked and made a colossal mistake.
I reckon they are supporting Gates and Fauci who are in the race to get a vaccine (untested, of course) to help reduce the population. The government gave £8.8 Billion to GAVI – a Gates organisation.
Daily mail tell down right lies ! Shocking paper
It is but fi you can get through the censors on the “umdoderated” comments it’s fun to wind up the trolls and get the real people thinking.
I worked with someone who only comments on the Daily Mirror and only puts in his comments things to delibertly wind everybody up – good on him.
What I would like to know is, where is the second spike, uptick, big increase in Covid cases following the actions by all those selfish and unthinking people who dared to take their family to crowded beaches and parks in the sun two weekends ago?…….
I was listening to Pam Popper yesterday – apparently the Floridians tested almost everyone on one of the smaller beaches (dunno how, they must have taken their details before they allowed them on the beach) at spring break. They found that only ONE was infected with Covid. ONE. And of course they didn’t know where they’d been infected – but if it was beach, you’d expect way more than one, no?
Let’s Hope Ferguson says something ill-advised or insufficiently woke about BLM and is forced to resign. It’s about the best chance there is of knocking this pin-head off his lofty perch.
ICL is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
So is Whitty, Vallance, Fauci, Birx, WHO and many more.
Tell him what you think…his email is on the Imperial College website. I did, he even bothered to reply!
I think i will move to Russia if this nonsense goes on for much longer.
Hilariously, Russia is now less communist the the UK.
exactamundo
My gf lives there. I would say we are now on a par with Russia, however Russia now seems to be opening up a lot faster than the U.K.
I suppose they tore down all the statues already.
Or did they?
I think an alternative planet would be a better option currently.
Also considering just becoming a tramp as it seems preferable to trying to fit in with the inverted morals of modern society.
I know a tramp ( not a good word really, he’s a sweetie) who is living happily through the current junk panic – in a converted NHS ambulance.
There are points at which lockdown and Covid merge as cause of death in my view. A lot of old people who became sick with Covid were being denied the support of their relatives in face to face meetings (screen contact is no substitute for the elderly) because of the lockdown. I think a lot of older people who would have recovered with the support of their families became disconsolate and simply gave up. It might have little effect on the end of year excess deaths figures since they would have been close to death in any case but they might lived a little longer were it not for the lockdown destroying their morale. I’m not suggesting there was any “right” answer here but it is facile to presume that the lockdown “protected” the elderly by depriving them of direct contact with their families.
I’ve seen plenty of very elderly people die in hospital due to neglect by the staff. They often get very disorientated when ill which appears as dementia but they recover when they get back to their house.
A lot of mental confusion in the elderly is actually caused by dehydration.
Yep, that’s something else they don’t bother about in hospital…
Yes, I’ve seen that myself with a relative – (unpalatable) food just being left, no help with spoon-feeding – and I once saw a nurse a criticise a 95 year old for failure to respond to a question shouted across a busy ward! How stupid was that nurse!! Care homes generally offer much, much better care.
I knew a lady who had to go to hospital with advanced Parkinson’s. Nurses dumped meals on her bedside table. ashe couldn’t feed herself. An hour or two later the untouched food would be taken away.
In the end, her husband came in for every meal and fed her.
The NHS is a god a truly worthy of any zombie’s worship.
The night nurses left my elderly mother hanging half out of bed unable to right herself due to her broken hip. Her throat was on the rails of the bed and she could hardly breathe. The three other patients in the room kept buzzing and eventually a nurse popped her head round the door crossly and told them to be quiet, they were in their tea break and would come later! The nurses didn’t help feed my mother or even give her a drink. I had a dreadful fight trying to get mother’s painkilling medication to take with me when I discharged her, but eventually I got her out of there, complete with inoperable broken hip, and took her back to her very lovely nursing home, and helped nurse her for the following 30 days until she passed away. No, I won’t clap for the NHS. Sorry.
Yes. Despair induced in the old folks and the poor families having to stand by helpless.
I’d like to present the preliminary antibody test results from my country, India.
Initial surveys have shown that the covid infection could be 100-200 times more widespread in most of the hotspot areas in Delhi and Mumbai.
CFR in these cities is around 3 percent. Our IFR is somewhere between 0.01 percent and 0.03 percent.
And, we had one of the harshest lockdowns in the world!
https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2020/jun/08/15-30-people-in-containment-areas-exposed-to-covid-19-icmrs-serosurvey-2153893.html
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/11/ignore-neil-fergusons-guesswork-the-post-mortem-covid-19-best/
Ignore Neil Ferguson’s guesswork – the post-mortem on Covid-19 is best left until this is all over
The trouble comes when reporters, or politicians, see one study which suits their purposes and promote it as if it were scientific truth, beyond all challenge. Ferguson’s claim was reported in Wednesday evening’s news bulletins as if it were evidence that the Earth is spherical – that you would have to be loopy to deny it.
There is a still a huge amount we have to learn about Covid-19 and about the success or failure of various measures which have been employed to combat it in different countries. Why, for example, has Japan had such a low death rate when it has neither gone into lockdown nor carried out a huge amount of testing?
But…. It IS all over!!
https://off-guardian.org/2020/06/09/report-over-95-of-uk-covid19-deaths-had-pre-existing-condition/
Over 95% of “COVID Deaths” recorded in England and Wales had potentially serious comorbidities, according to statistics released by NHS England.The latest figures make for pretty stark reading. Or, rather, they would make for stark reading…if they didn’t follow the exact same pattern already shown in other nations around the world.
You can read the full report here. We’re going to focus on the comorbidity stats. Here are the number of deaths where Covid19 was listed as the only cause, split by age:
Just read through the UC Berkeley letter. I agree with almost all of it, though have to say he makes some serious glosses as to causation. But nevertheless, well put. It’s sad he is afraid to speak publicly. You’d think the firing of a ‘person of color’, if he actually is of that background, would be a big no-no at the moment, whatever their views. Of course, then he would just be accused of having internalised the narrative of his oppressors, and be sent to the re-education camp.
America is going to hell in a hard-cart, and like a faithful old pup, we follow our exciting intrepid master to the bitter end, though that end be full of nasty things and pins and glowering eyes in the darkness.
Would love to read it but it seems the thought-police have got there first. Anyone have another link?
https://cloverchronicle.com/2020/06/10/uc-berkeley-history-professors-open-letter-against-blm-police-brutality-and-cultural-orthodoxy/
All of which suggests the virus runs its’ own course, regardless.
16-17% of 4,000 hospital staff have tested positive for antibodies. When is our government going to ‘fess up about the nosocomial transmission of this infection? – each day prevaricating is costing lives and to protect what? – an idea, a policy, a career. Sort it out Boris
https://youtu.be/-TVFFK0pdjI
Basically we could all be walking around with it asymptomatically without even realising (as most people seem to), and it would make fuck all difference to the mythical R because no bugger else would either – and it would also crucially not make a difference to deaths either unless we all decided to spend our leisure time kickin it in the local hospital or care home.
The fact that people still believe breathing around other healthy people is a biohazard is absolute stark staring madness.
Agree. The narrative needs to change to – is the virus endemic yet. Suneptra Gupta mentioned having non-biased risk assessments completed by non-partisan statisticians. I think European nations should have a scientist swap. See what other nations make of our data and vice versa. Knowing our luck we’d get Professor Ferguson sent back ‘return to sender’
The zombies don’t believe that there are any other healthy people.
Rationality levels well below those of the average slug.
I understand that if people have antibodies then they are immune and no longer spread the disease. Hence part of herd immunity
I sent this comment through to Toby earlier as part of a broader piece on email but wanted to add the summary part to the discussion here.
Lab Rats…
Hmm, I think that is one conspiracy theory too much!
I would not suggest this is a conspiracy – it is simply how (I believe) the scientists consider it “best” to exit lockdown: step-by-step and data driven. There is no doubt that they would want to have the data if possible and unless told otherwise, they will seek to manage us out of this in exactly this manner. Ask SAGE what the effect of unwinding any single measure would be and they will say – that they don’t know as they have no data. Ask them two weeks afterwards they have unwound a measure what the impact HAS been and they will be able to tell you – so long as they can control the “experiment” for other variables.
Your mention of ‘data-driven’ makes me think that Cummings has a hand in all of this as well.
Yes, please see my other post on here about Cumming’s attendance at SAGE meetings.
“ Ask SAGE what the effect of unwinding any single measure would be and they will say – that they don’t know as they have no data.”
Well they have access to some scientists with an apparently very sophisticated model with thousands of lines of code, that attempts to simulate the behaviour of an entire country, on the basis of whose predictions we got into this mess in the first place. So, no, they don’t “know” but previously they “predicted”, and also seem to “know” how many lives they have saved. So wouldn’t it be reasonable to suppose they could use their model to predict the effects of lifting various restrictions? They can’t have it both ways.
The data collected will be thoroughly distorted by the fact that huge numbers of people are ignoring official advice and are probably many steps ahead in their own ‘easing of the lockdown’ than what the scientists are recommending.
Perhaps, but it is all about what can be controlled to produce the best experimental conditions possible. I am sure that the DC issue is seen as a noise factor that led to an uptick in activity but they clearly try and control for that using all of the Apple maps and google data on traffic volumes etc. The idea of variable control would also explain the reasoning behind otherwise indefensible the 14 quarantine nonsense: It is exactly the response one would need to see if you were going through the relax, record, update – rinse and repeat process of easing out of lockdown.
Actually, this brings together 1) one of the reasons that yesterday’s briefing depressed me as much as it did and 2) an exchange I had today with djaustin on yesterday’s page.
I came away from yesterday’s briefing feeling exactly as you did – like a lab rat. It was an interesting insight, I suppose.
Djaustin made a comment in response to my “what the hell is actually going on” post that made it clear that this is the only way that the scientists can behave and the only advice they can give the government (I oversimplify grossly)
So we’re back to following the science.
Problem is, _only_ following the science is a stupid way to run a country.
I don’t disagree with that last point! Scientists can only advise one part of the decision-making. Politicians decide, and should rightly take on other considerations – notably the economy, education, welfare…
Has anyone watched the video of event 201? (the pandemic plan one done last autumn; think that is what it was called?) How does this compare to that?
I worry that this is a dry run for the real thing – and I dread to think what that may be.
They are clearly playing with us, seeing how far we can be pushed – and in some cases the distance is shocking.
You say: ‘the trajectory of the pandemic has followed almost exactly the same pattern in every country it’s afflicted, regardless of whether or not that country locked down, when it locked down or the severity of the lockdown it imposed’. Israeli mathematician Isaac Ben-Israel suggests that the virus follows a 70 day course and disappears in every nation, whatever the measures taken. What reason then lies behind the UK’s second equal rating with Spain under Belgium in the European per capita of population deaths-from-Covid league? Is it down to lack of testing, care home mismanagements, standard of medical care, ethnicity, obesity, underlying health, climate, star sign or a mixture of all the above? Or in the absence of a vaccine or an effective intervention drug, will all nations end up with the same per capita death rate in the end?
That’s a good question and I don’t know the answer. I suspect it has to do with the number of infected people that have entered the country since the beginning of the year (we didn’t impose controls until Monday, remember), as well as the discharging of infected elderly patients from hospitals into care homes, and the lack of treatment available to those infected in care homes. I also suspect we’re more scrupulous about not under-counting “deaths involving coronavirus” than other-countries, and, for that and other reasons, have ended up over-counting.
I think physical fitness obesity etc makes a big difference thsts why we are doing so poorly over half the uk population is overweight or obese
How about over counting the c-19 deaths?
Sweden provides the obvious endemic counterfactual. And most likely a picture of the UK post-lockdown. Low (<100 cases/day) mostly in hospitals and nursing homes, with perhaps 30 deaths/week.
The fundamental problem is you are arguing around figures that are attributed to something that has not been established – namely we know there is a SARS-COV-2 strain (because it was being studied in Wuhan) but we don’t know what it does when in humans.
The analogy I give to people is called The Santa Clause [sic] and it is a great demonstration of the difference between science and the ethical application of scientific findings.
Say the mayor of London decrees that all houses inside the Circulars (A406) have to re-tile their roofs with expensive non-slip tiles costing £500 per square foot. The reason: so that Santa Claus and his reindeer don’t slip off the roof and cause a health and safety incident and incur the liability of not delivering presents.
Now, I expect you’ll probably laugh at this. But just for a moment consider the arguments IF you assume certain qualities about Santa Claus and his reindeer.
So let’s assume them. Maybe you don’t need to tile the whole roof, just the chimney? Do you need to worry about reindeer as they fly anyway, so any incident will self-correct? Is it justified to impose such a penalty if the risk of Santa falling is minute? It’s not like he’s got a track record for that.
And on it goes.
In the scientific method (as many here will know) your conclusions are consistent as long as your assumptions and methodology is. And as long as you don’t extrapolate beyond the scope of such an exercise.
Assuming certain qualities about Santa Claus is the realm of Theoretical Science.
Now, imagine the mayor ACTUALLY imposed this. You’d think he/she was mad.
Because you can see that key assumptions do not justify the REAL WORLD action. This is the field of Empirical Science, and further Engineering, Quality, Safety and Auditing. The application of an idea. It is also where the Ethics of science comes in.
Theorists rarely deal with Ethics. So imagine what happens when it is assumed that we have a virus that causes respiratory problems above and beyond the flu/cold. But this has not been demonstrated with minimum assumptions, the test is not a gold-standard test with low uncertainty and the range of declared symptoms cover a lot of other known ailments.
You have a Santa Clause.
And what has happened is that all actions have been taken based on reacting to it.
It is still “science” but it is not “ethical”.
In case TJN doesn’t go to yesterday’s comments but to today’s in answer to their query on the 77th brigade:
Good description of them:
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/inside-the-77th-brigade-britains-information-warfare-military
https://www.ukcolumn.org/article/british-military-information-war-waged-their-own-population
MP Tobias Ellwood is supposedly the independent oversight of them for the Government but he is actually a reserve Luitenant Colonel in the 77th Brigade so not exactly neutral nor independent is he?
From here:
https://www.forces.net/mental-health/watch-mp-tobias-ellwood-discusses-mental-health-veterans
“A former army officer with the Royal Green Jackets, now a proud reservist with 77th Brigade”
It boggles my mind that this stuff is real. I thought this kind of chicanery was reserved for the ‘security’ services
It appears to be correct. Look at UK Column and their links to Cabinet Office documents. Those who say a coup has taken place are right. The virus, although real, was always planned for. That is why Johnson cannot sort this out. Parliamentary Democracy is as good as over. I’m off now to cook lunch and fashion a new tinfoil hat…
My wife wears a tin foil hat – really, not joking. Works wonders. And no I’m not upset as 10 years of trying to find out why she was ill meant I was on there receiving end of some pretty horrendous “you are a nut” type comments.
She suffers from electromagnetic hypersensitivity so has a special baseball cap with silver material weave through it (a small faraday cage) she wears when she can feel the neighbour turn on his hi-power wifi in every room work from home whatever he uses.
Affects more people than you think but they just put it down to being under the weather or being a bit off or some malaise and so on.
Hi AG, this is really interesting and I meant no offence at all to any real wearers of tinfoil hats.
My good wishes to your wife.
She is getting better but it has been along hard uphill struggle as non-one believes it exists – until they research if for themselves and find out how common the symptoms are.
There are two frequency ranges used by wifi standards at the moment 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz. Have you tried to see if there is any difference between these two frequencies?
Yes, we’ve had the same eperience. Since we turned off the Wifi hub at night, after reading in various places that they can give off harmful emissions, I sleep a lot better. I’m not aware of any hum but I’m probably going deaf anyway.
see wifiinschools.org.uk for info
Thanks, Sam. Useful information – children must be getting a massive wifi overload at the moment (including our grandchildren!) I’ll send this on. . . .
also ssita.org.uk
I use a wired connection but for the wife to read the news on her tablet at night before sleeping I use a Netgear wifi extender by her side of the end. She turns it on, reads what she wants then turns it off.
Simple answer – yes.
yes its the Adey affect, google Ross Adey
why not shield your house from the neighbour?
powerwatch.org.uk have a company that sells paint from Germany
Looked at that and know someone who used it – really cut down the EMFs in his house. Unfortunately with my business destroyed I cannot afford the £3000 or so it would cost to paint just the bedroom to give her somewhere to hide at the moment.
The Memon plug-in, the hat and the blanket she wraps herself in at the moment are working and she has improved drastically in the past 6 months.
What you are trying to do is create a faraday cage. People create them for different purposes for example if you wanted as a DIYer to do some EM testing. Perhaps if you look into DIY faraday cages you might find a cheaper and more effective method then a fancy paint.
Wow. Glad she found something to help mitigate the effects.
Any particular edition of UK column where that info was broadcast?
It was first done about 2 weeks ago and been mentioned nearly every podcast since.
Thanks, AG, you beat me to it! They broadcast every Mon, Weds and Fri at 1pm (UK time). They include lots of notes and references with each show. Yesterday’s edition was particularly good with more on to the Cabinet Office’s coup. Their argument is compelling.
I think were going to need to start deploying the copper foil things are so bad.
Yes: I wish it weren’t so.
And now the 13th Signal Brigade:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/armed-forces-announce-launch-of-first-cyber-regiment-in-major-modernisation
There is a lot of frightening stuff out there that is hard to believe is true, it’s a dark, deep hole you go down if you start digging.
This virus and lockdown just the tip of the iceberg.
Bang right!
The secret squirrels are part of the military. Their acronyms give it away somewhat.
They are the security services.
I seriously suspect that there are a few of them infesting the Telegraph BTL comments sections.
I suspected the same. Adam Hill is an obvious one.
However, I can’t decide if so many of the Torygraph readers really are so self-righteous and smug, or if it’s young trolls laughing their heads off as they write such revolting bollox.
Thanks AG – I generally do check previous comments threads when they are still live, and have seen your post on that video – strange and disturbing stuff, yet surely not suppressible in the long term?
As an aside, perhaps this site could have a general comments page, not linked to one day’s newsletter, as some of the topics are worthy of being discussed over long period, which they don’t tend to be at present.
I didn’t know about the 77th. Really, on here? We should all be flattered.
One way out would be for the up/down votes being identifiable against posting names (as on The Spectator site). By being able to link votes to actual posters it would be much easier to identify if the votes were by trolls, especially if that voter’s previous comments were also visible. As Toby often says, sunlight is the best disinfectant.
“For example, following the Syria airstrikes, the unit identified that a number of false narratives from alternative news sources were gaining traction online”
I’d love to know what they considered to be “false narratives.” From what I’ve read since, in the Independent newspaper, and other news sites, the false narrative was that it ever happened in the first place.
False = The Independent disagrees.
What is that rag supposed to be independent of, BTW? Common sense,obviously, but what else?
Is a serving MP actually allowed to still remain in the military?
He’s a reservist – the Territorial Army – and yes you can be in the TA and continue your normal work and get paid for the time you go to the parades, exercises, training etc and your employer cannot stop you.
What has happened to the world in 2020?
– All white people are now systemically racist, privileged supremacists that perpetuate the slavery of black people.
– Covid-19 is the deadliest disease known to Mankind. More deadly than cancer, heart disease, obesity, dementia and all road traffic accidents combined.
I mean, really?!
It’s very sad, I was sat in a meeting at work yesterday (actually in an office with other people) and some of the talk came on to people remote working and perhaps some staff who are better working in teams weren’t so suited to remote working and that in future perhaps it would be better to employ people who prefer working on their own.
I was sitting there thinking how can online contact ever replace physical human contact and interaction? For me it just doesn’t work, at least not long term. We’re naturally social beings being forced to live apart from each other.
Makes me feel sad.
Many people meet their spouses at work. That’s going to be impossible if everyone works at home. Maybe that’s the whole idea.
I think it’s depressing too. It can be more productive to work at home, but it’s not something you’d want to do all the time, especially if you’re young and single.
Yes. A lot of people’s social lives are enjoyed with their workmates.
We ate programmed to survive in groups
Iam on my own and really suffering
I am hearing you so you are not alone.
Yup, we are, and I know how you feel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfVunEjeQPQ
At least you’ve got us. Our hearts are with you.
I know it isn’t much, but…
@RWawg I think The UK is being particularly stupid.
Other European countries seem to be pushing to return to normality, here in the UK *we are trying as hard as possible to make the return to normal as slow and complex as possible.
Number waiting over year for NHS treatment trebles
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/number-waiting-over-year-for-nhs-treatment-trebles-288tvfn9m
NHS England released waiting time statistics this morning showing that 11,042 people had been on the waiting list for more than 52 weeks in April, up from 3,097 in March. Overall the number of people on the waiting list fell to 3.94 million, down from 4.2 million a month earlier. This was driven by a sharp drop in referrals.
Only 491,934 people were referred for treatment in April, down 60 per cent from 1.2 million in March. The figure for April last year was 1.7 million.
This might help explain what’s happening to our new national religion. Notice ‘NHS Reset’ is now a brand:
https://www.nhsconfed.org/resources/2020/06/getting-the-nhs-back-on-track
Edited highlights:
A delay in returning to the inspection regime of the CQC to take into account the positive changes that have been achieved as a result of the lighter touch approach to regulation that has been in place during the pandemic.
Putting in place an ongoing arrangement with the private sector – this will be vital to provide capacity to respond to the backlog of treatment.
A call for assurance that there will be a fully operational and robust test, track and trace system, as well as appropriate supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE),as services are resumed
As you are all aware, and incredible as it may seem, according to ‘HMG’ we are still at Alert Level 4 of the ‘Pandemic’, so:
Level fourThe virus is not contained, with the R number above one in at least some areas. However, as is the situation now, hospitals would be able to cope with the levels of admissions.
Likely response: Nationwide lockdown imposed by the Government, with the vulnerable shielded and those who can work from home asked to do so. During the UK lockdown, Britain has been at this level. However, Alok Sharma, the Business Secretary, said on Sunday, May 17, that the UK would soon be able to move to level three in ‘careful steps’.
Level three (orange)The number of new infections would not be increasing significantly. The reproduction rate, or R number, would be below one, meaning that each infected person is transmitting the infection to less than one other, on average.
Likely response: Partial lockdown, although with significant relaxations compared to level four.
This article https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341832637_All-cause_mortality_during_COVID-19_No_plague_and_a_likely_signature_of_mass_homicide_by_government_response
argues that the coronavirus peak is the result of institutional homicide.
This is grounds for arresting the PM for murder.
Wakefield Police where are you?
The question is whether any minister or advisor in government made that decision, or whether it was Prof. Whitty, or Public Health England.
The same decision was made by various Democrat governors in the U.S., where care home deaths were up to 50% of the total.
There does seem to be a far left agenda at play here. Why is our government instituting the same policies as the far left nutcases in the Democrat party?
Whoever suggested it is reasonably irrelevant. Surely Boris is CEO and carries the can for the decision that was executed.
Is he alive?
I think there should be a a ‘Care homes trial’, and that it should be for murder.
Probably been posted before – but this woman is holding the government to account for care home deaths. High Court tomorrow, apparently.
https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/care-home-deaths/?utm_source=sendinblue&utm_campaign=Update24322078onHelpmeholdthegovernmenttoaccountforCovid-19carehomedeathsJune112020&utm_medium=email
Thing is – blame where blame is due – it was NHS and PHE policy of clearing out beds and sending the virus into care homes that caused the problem. Compounded by care homes – largely private businesses – having staff with no training in disease control. HMG struggles with PPE didn’t help, but they weren’t the root cause of the problem.
That’s basically what I’ve been saying. There is a book called The Shadow Economy that highlights this effect, where the reaction to or even adaptation in preparation of a theorised event, or a small preliminary event, causes more damage than what the theorised event would do.
The example given was that China didn’t need to sell a large amount of US treasuries. It would only need to sell maybe 5% at most. The inferrence of what this means and the risk mitigation would cause a massive sell off from others and hence become a self-fulfilling prophesy. It was wargamed about 10 years ago.
It’s also like that Billy Connolly joke about dogs humping. A dog would hump a bitch, but then another dog would join in, and another. The bitch would crawl out from under and go lie under a tree, all the while the humping mass of dogs gets larger and wilder. So you’d have all thes dogs humping just because.
Thanks for posting this. I’d seen a headline about it on YT last week, but couldn’t find the actual article.
The planet Earth is made of cheese according to Neil Ferguson,although he did admit he had no proper scientific basis for making this claim.Its also not an analysis that has been published in a scientific journal and peer reviewed. Breaking on the BBC now,they’re warning of global catastrophe once the Daily Mail’s forecast summer heatwave begins…….
It would be funny, except …….
Up to 500,000 Welsh rarebits are predicted by his model.
Let’s face it, we’re toast.
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.05.28.20116012v1.full.pdf
Not sure if this article is correct in all its aspects
“Cremation-based evidence suggests massive under-reporting of cases and deaths in Wuhan. The epidemic start is inferred to have been in October”
“The estimates of cumulative deaths, based on both funeral urns distribution and continuous full capacity operation of cremation services up to March 23, 2020, give results around 36,000, more than 10 times of the official death toll of 2,524.”
“the estimates projected on February 7, 2020 in Wuhan range from 305,000 to 1,272,000 for infections and from 6,811 to 7,223 for deaths – on the order of at least 10 times the official figures (13,603 and 545).”
I suspect that China and WHO will strongly disapprove of this article and I think it is unclear how they have inside information on cremations. But it is still published but not peer reviewed.US article.
I think the ” care” the Chinese gave there patients probably killed many that would have survived.
China do not care about their people that’s why they locked down, so why did we follow this fascist dictatorships lead?
No idea, but I do remember news footage of some poor Wuhan residents literally being shut into their apartments by having their doors welded!
Any stick-poking of China by the US should be viewed circumspectly.
So Ferguson says that the death toll from CV19 could have been halved if the government had “followed the science” and imposed lockdown a week earlier.
There’s a better way than using 20:20 hindsight and fake science (using a random number generator prediction model isn’t exactly science), i.e. doing a full audit of the causes of death. As Professor Karol Sikora says, the real number of deaths from CV19 could well be half of that declared in the current statistics.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/11/prof-karol-sikora-covid-19-death-toll-may-less-half-has-recorded/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr
“Prof Karol Sikora: Covid-19 death toll may be less than half of what has been recorded
In conversation with The Telegraph’s Planet Normal podcast, oncologist says medics can too easily put Covid on death certificates”
Ferguson I must admit is a thick skinned bastard
or should that be thick skulled?
Bith.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-53006938
‘More than 31,000 close contacts were identified during the first week of the test and trace system in England, figures show.’
This sounds like an awful lot of people. The BBC report states that this figure came from 8000 positive cases. I am not scientifically inclined and obviously I can’t speak for everyone and I suppose it depends on one’s lifestyle and daily interactions, but I thought scientific data showed that the disease was dying out in the community now and only really existing nosocomially in hospitals and care homes. I can’t see many people visiting these places right now for obvious reasons. So where are all these new cases coming from? And how many degrees of separation does a person have to be from the index case in order to be contacted? If anyone on this forum could shed some light on this for me that would be great.
Also it can’t just be me who thinks this track and trace system is a bit of a rubbish idea. I remember seeing that study (name escapes me now, if anyone knows the one I’m talking about please help me remember!) about how something like 80% of cases came from around 10% of previous cases, and that this is a virus spread during isolated superspreader events, rather than just evenly throughout the population. There have also been discussions on this comments board about the possibility of many people coming into contact with the virus but not actually contracting the disease, and of course there’s a big question mark over how effective asymptomatic transmission actually is. We also know now that the disease isn’t spreading exponentially anymore so where is the possibility of 31,000 contacts catching the disease from 8,000 people? That’s a big increase, just because it’s a bigger number. I’m just very confused (sorry if these are thick questions lol).
This news report has really put a damper on my day. If what I’ve said in my previous paragraph is true, then we could have people who are not even incubating the virus needlessly self-isolating for 2 weeks. This is the sort of thing that maybe would have been a good idea at the beginning of the epidemic when there were very few cases and no spread, but I don’t imagine there will be much appetite for asymptomatic people to isolate for a further 2 weeks now that restrictions are lifting and we’ve already endured three months of mind-numbing purgatory, not to mention the fact the virus has pretty much ripped its way through the country anyway. People should only isolate if they have symptoms – just stay in bed if you’re ill, like any other sodding disease before this one!
I’m not sure how accurate the Covid test actually is. And of course, the more you test, the more you find. Plus I believe it has been decided (nor not, changes by the day!) that asymptomatic people do not pass on the virus. We also know that not everyone who comes into contact with a carrier, actually catches the disease. In fact the vast majority do not. So there is no way that 8,000 people will actually spread it to 31,000 people.
Yes, this is exactly what I was thinking, and I was aware that the Covid test is a bit dodgy for false positives and the like, which is why I think it’s disproportionate for all of those 31,000 to self isolate for 2 weeks. I thought I was going mad…!
I’m not entirely sure about asymptomatic people not spreading the virus.
I now know of two people who were admitted to hospital, where they were infected. One died (online funeral was yesterday), and one, 90 y.o. has recovered. He was in for hip replacement surgery.
The person who died was tested for CV19 on a first admission to hospital and was negative. He fell ill again about a week later, readmitted, and was then found to have the virus.
As he was unwell anyway, hadn’t been anywhere or seen anyone apart from hospital staff, he couldn’t have caught it anywhere else.
There is definitely a big question mark over asymptomatic spreaders – they may well still spread the disease but I would imagine it would be harder for them to spread without symptoms, i.e. no coughing or sneezing out droplets.
Your anecdotes of those two people contracting it in hospital definitely lend weight to the fact that it’s nosocomial. I’m sorry to hear about the death.
Doesn’t that prove the nosocomial point though? You will be more likely to get a larger dose, or more small doses, while trapped in hospital. If he was ill anyway, his immune system wouldn’t have dealt with it effectively. Double whammy.
Agree WHO were saying worldwide cases were shooting up ,but then more tests were being done.
IRAN through their latest antibody test reckon they have 15 million cases ,of course the more infections there are the lower the death rate becomes as desths are falling on the worldometer
I agree Nic. So much testing is always going to give more positive results. I’m sure many of us are walking round with various types of cancer, but because we don’t get tested for them as we don’t have symptoms (and maybe never will) then we don’t come under cancer statistics.
They’re gonna do the same with this as they’re doing with the death figures – inflate, inflate, inflate. Everyone a ‘case’ test subject named will be called as a ‘contact’ – even if they are never actually forced to isolate because they were only in very fleeting proximity to the positive individual. So… say I’m positive, and they ask me where I’ve been etc. and I say the supermarket, and I name some people that I saw there, but only walked past and waved at, they will put them on the list of ‘contacts’ despite the fact said contact was way less than 15 minutes and they therefore won’t have to be put on the isolation hitlist.
Yes, I can see them doing this to inflate the figures, prolong the crisis and justify ruining the country with the lockdown, but it takes only a very basic grasp of maths to work out that 8,000 people supposedly spreading it to 31,000 does not tally up with the constantly decreasing deaths and infections.
You are under no legal obligation to supply a tracker with any information as to who you have been with, much less give the tracker those people’s personal details. However, I would suspect the government have now (via phone updates) given themselves access to such data anyway. What they do not know is when someone gets symptoms – for that they rely on people actually self-reporting. If no one does, then the scheme will fail..
And this is why I’ve blocked their number. Good luck getting me to even talk to you let alone lock myself in my house for two weeks. Go spin on my finger.
If I get ill I will take myself to Lemsip like I would have done anyway. That is my prerogative as an individual taking care of my own, and yes, other people’s health.
I’ll toast you in my glass of Lemsip.
A small business owner I know pointed out that if she is fingered for self-isolation, that’s the end of her business -assuming it ever re-opens at all.
They’re not enforcing self isolation anyway. It’s reliant on people’s good will.
Just more whitewash then?
Haven’t one research group found antibodies in pre-CV19 blood samples, i.e. 2017-2018-ish blood donor samples?
Is there any indication whether the current test-and-trace are testing for antigens or antibodies?
Not sure for certain, but I assumed it would be an antigen test because there would be more urgency for the contacts to self-isolate if the index case is currently infected. Plus I read somewhere it can take several weeks for antibodies to appear.
Yes it’s antigens. The test usually has a low false positive rate but it can pick up smashed up bits of virus in recovered patients.
No, but they found cross-reactive memory T cells that probably got there from infections by similar viruses.
Antibodies only last for a few months but if you have the memory cells you can just make some more (it’s actually the memory B cells that make them but if you have the helper T cells you will probably have the Bs as well).
Test and trace is using PCR tests for virus. That uses a primer that in essence detects a segment of RNA from the virus.
Antibody tests look for parts of the virus itself. They won’t work in the newly infected because it takes a while to start making them.
PCT is very accurate if you get a good sample. People can test positive for several weeks, sometimes longer. That does not mean they have the virus that long, as dead bits of viral RNA can hang around. The number of amplification cycles is what determines “positive”. It’s normally gone in four weeks,
“Antibody tests look for parts of the virus itself.” Do you have a citation for that? I’ve never, ever read that anywhere else.
“PCT is very accurate if you get a good sample.” That’s a vacuous statement like saying MOT tests are accurate if you have a good mechanic conducting them.
The antibody tests are looking for the antibodies which have small proteins on them that stick to parts of the virus. That’s what they’re looking for.
Here is a useful graph someone sent me that came off some paper (and the actual delays may not be exactly this for different test kits but it’s a good rough guide):
Not quite. The antibody assays use some of the antigen on a plate. Antibodies in blood or serum pass over them and some will stick if present. Then a reporting antibody is used to stick to any bound antibody. That’s called an ELISA test (most accurate). The home test capillary blood flow assays with less sensitivity that have poorer performance use a s. The Abbott and Roche antibody tests are ELISA and run on automated machines with high throughput (300 tests/hr), high sensitivity and high specificity. Provided we have enough machines, of course.
Yes. My point was just that they’re looking for antibodies (that as you say stick to antigens on a test plate). But the person you’re testing might not have any actual parts of the virus inside them (although they probably did unless they were given the antibodies artificially).
Its designed to keep us locked up until we agree to the vaccine to be let out
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/markets-by-sector/technology/governments-moving-to-compel-tracking-tracing-to-control-everyone/
The incoming NHS number for tracing is 0300 0135000. I’ve added it to my phone blacklists so good luck to the fuckers if they try and contact me.
Done. Thanks.
Exactly..unfortunately. They want to grind people down mentally until they are so desperate that they will agree to anything
Has anyone else noticed that ‘track and trace’ has now been renamed ‘test and trace’ in the information films and posters? My suspicion is that the word ‘track’ has been removed because of its obvious connotations with monitoring the population…The government must have noticed that a proportion of people have wised up to what this is really all about, and so are attempting to play down the tracking part, at least in the promotion of it…
Good spot Carrie.
8000 out of 60m is very few people. I would not be especially surprised if the number of active covid infections stayed around that level for ever.
Rough ballpark 2000 people a day are born in the UK. About 20% of them will end up with Covid at some point and the disease usually lasts about a week. So you might expect the equilibrium level of people with a Covid infection in the UK to be around 3000 for ever, probably going up a bit every winter and down again in the summer.
The population grows more because of immigration than births but we can ignore that because the people coming in are from places that are typically equally saturated with Covid.
Right now the actual number of active infections is about 100k so it still hasn’t quite died out (but likely will do soon because of herd immunity). Tracing 28k contacts of 8k of those 100k isn’t going to make much difference to anything.
Interesting when you put it into context like that, thank you.
I had a similar thought on the slides in yesterday’s briefing. They say that infections are increasing and that they estimate that 53,000 people are currently infected. But they also say that 39,000 are being infected per week.
Given that it takes 2 weeks to get over the virus, how can that represent a reducing number? I’m pretty sure that 2 x 39 > 53
I have just been listening to Allison Pearson’s Planet Normal podcast via the Telegraph where they interview Professor Karol Sikora. The presenters were saying that in future years you won’t get asked which year you specialise in on quiz shows, it will be which quarter of 2020! So far, in the first quarter we’ve had Brexit, and the second quarter the disaster that is Covid-19 and the lockdown. The third quarter? Probably the start of severe financial depression and unemployment with masses being laid off. Fourth quarter – likely riots, strikes and god forbid, a second wave! Only this time we probably won’t notice it as there is no way we can lock down again and will just get on with it.
In the interview itself, Professor Sikora is very adamant that the final death figures will be nothing like they are now, and blames the UK’s archaic paperwork system and of course the fact that so many death certificates have been passed as “with Covid-19” even if they have not tested positive or even had a doctor signing the certificate. He believes that the final figure will be in the low 20,000’s, which is still a lot, but as he says most of that number will still be people who would have died anyway in the next three months or so, and to wait to see what the final yearly figures say, how much they are above normal.
Germany requires much more stringent criteria for a death to be ceritified as a covid-19 death than most of Europe does, this might be why their death rate seems so much lower than everywhere else. Not magically healthy germans, just overcounting of deaths elsewhere.
If the SAGE committee didn’t advise the government to fully shut down our country then who did?
I think it was a case of Monkey See Monkey Do
Exactly.
A tyrannical communist monkey imposed the sort of measure that was only to be expected from a tyrannical communist monkey, and all the western so-called ‘democratic’ monkeys followed suit.
Elect peanuts, get monkeys?
Those green chaps from Betelgeuse …
Basically the press. They all had such a massive bleatfest at the idea of “herd immunity” that the government had to immediately pretend they’d never said that and to pursue an “illogic” strategy instead.
Triggered into economic oblivion
I read that Macron threatened that if we didn’t lockdown, France would cut us off. Don’t know if it’s true but it wouldn’t have been without effect.
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/disease/dutch-scientist-warns-this-a-a-crisis-in-science/
Dutch scientist discusses the innate immune system that is 90% of our immune system and does not depend upon antibodies as well as other points.
Has everyone seen the world government’s plans for us?
https://intelligence.weforum.org/topics/a1Gb0000000LHMsEAO?tab=publications
https://intelligence.weforum.org/topics/a1G0X000006O6EHUA0?tab=publications
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIDsKdeFOmQ video is from the New York hospital but I suspect it will have been similar in the NHS
Just ban team sport
That’s what they want.
Perhaps instead we need to ban ‘medical experts’ from dictating how people should live their lives.
You can add Farage to that list, Toby:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-53006006
Drawing parallels between two groups of iconoclastic fanatics is apparently beyond the pale for LBC.
Splendid piece today, Toby.
Simon Dolan’s lawyers will have these data and they should take the govt and its lying minions APART.
Few people under the age of 70 will fully understand this but we are in such a state of misgovernment that only satire can help.
In the 1960s it was satire that made the ruling elite look ridiculous in “That Was The Week That Was”. This continued with “Spitting Image” until 1996, when viewing figures apparently declined (even satire couldn’t make people laugh about Major – he was totally ridiculous anyway).
Now the time is ripe for satire to make a return. Apparently “Spitting Image” might return on Britbox. I can see the Boris puppet now.
Question: if a puppet (real or computerised) represents a black person, can it be designed, made, painted, dressed or operated by a white person, or is that puppetry ‘blackface’?
The serious point being that we have created a situation where nobody will be inclined to create a grotesque black character even on Spitting Image. And that in itself is patronising, infantilising, racist.
I suggest that if there were plans to bring back Spitting Image, they’re probably being quietly shelved, now…
The solution is to simply not show black people at all. That will avoid any possibility of causing offence…
But then they will be deemed to be under-represented!
Goodness knows – I’ve lost the plot on that issue. It’s all got out of hand.
I’ll just put this here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s08spTvb-bs
BTW the right answer is that it shouldn’t be a problem, but the puritans want it otherwise
Less funny, but more of a problem…
Spitting image puppets were exaggerated caricatures. It has become increasingly difficult for cartoonists to get away with caricaturing black politicians and celebrities in cartoons without being denounced for racism.
I can’t imagine for a minute how spitting image will get away with it. And, of course, if they aren’t representing non-white politicians and celebrities, that will be a problem too.
My guess is, that one casualty of BLM will be the death of the idea of spitting image coming back to BritBox
This is what people have forgotten about Bo Selecta and so on. Back in 2005, impressionists doing impressions of white or black people was fine because we’d reached the point where society was at ease with itself. To not do impressions of black-skinned people would actually be racist. So ‘Keith Lemon’ could do impressions of people who were more famous and successful than him, and if they were black then that was just how it was. In fact, I remember at the time, thinking it was self-consciously PC!
How far does a spit carry?
Both these shows are incredible. I’m a bit young to have watched them as they happened but my dad use to watch them with me on vhs when I was a kid. Stuff just isn’t funny like that more.
Satire is defunct. Armando Iannucci is on long-term sabbatical until matters of government improve.
Sage Chair Prof Catherine Noakes, speaking on Inside Science (radio 4), has just suggested ‘propping open fire doors to avoid unnecessary touching – after all, they can be closed if a fire alarm goes off’.
Now I’d imagine there’s probably a few unnecessary fire doors out there, but ffs! If ever there was a clear example of myopically obsessing about one of the risks in life, at the total expense of the rest, it’s that.
Totally representative of the response to threat overall, and the reason I’ve got three kids st home when they should be at bloody school.
One wonders re the vast salary needed to attract people of her calibre …
It’s consistent with the crazy idea that it’s OK for people to die of anything but covid-19 – for instance by being burned to death or suffocated by smoke inhalation in a fire.
If it was simply a question of closing fire doors when the fire alarm went off, why would we ever bother closing them? Oh, listen, there’s a fire alarm, I will spend a few minutes walking around the building and closing all the fire doors. Stunning.
And brave.
Burn down your own establishment before BLM does!
And that would certainly be against the law!
Good to see the latest Euromomo data showing the UK having no excess mortality for week 23. It is also interesting to use the interactive map showing data from previous years, to see how many times and in how many of the European countries (for which data was available) have had very high excess mortality in the past-without needing lockdown!
This Ferguson geezer is just pulling weeds out his arse.
You reckon he knows his arse from his elbow?
No.
Off topic I know (and apologies to those not interested) but anyway, to all of you asking about the wife’s electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EMHS).
A few things to do:
that’s a good start for you.
Now all the thumbs down and debunking and insults start.
woo hoo i feel heavy metal
Iron Maiden? Led Zeppelin? Deep Purple? Aerosmith? All the good oldies from the 70S?
Perfect for raising hell to!
i was mocking you you utter twat
We have such a weak cell phone signal that we don’t even get a signal at all in half the house. It’s permanently in the hallway, and well away from the bedroom, as is the WiFi hub.
I have a couple of WiFi boosters, but always switch off the one close to the bedroom except when I’m watching Netflix or Prime.
can’t watch netflix anymore as they’re banning Little Britain!
Yep, you definitely get slagged off when starting to question.
Same reason the mob supports lockdown. And BLM. They are less evolved, and believe what the bad guys tell them via their tv.
An informative vide, good place to start researching and questioning:
https://www.brighteon.com/d32bfd09-d59b-43c7-aa90-0260f2f1a63f
There are a few more videos around to look for as well. Don’t take my word for it.
Look at the similarities between 5G effects of haemoglobin and how covid-19 affects the lungs and why ventilators did not work but killed people.
Firstenberg is a crank and grifter with no scientific or engineering background, he’s been at it for 20 years and has been largely responsible for the 5G misinformation campaign.
I deal with radio waves all the time and can tell you that most of it is nonsense. 5G cannot pass through a leaf. So that’s that.
“5G cannot pass through a leaf. So that’s that.”
I bow to your expertise, but if it can’t pass through a leaf, how does it work when a person’s in… a forest? Or a car, building, etc.
“5G cannot pass through a leaf. So that’s that.” Thats not actually correct. 5G uses several frequency ranges. It is true that as frequency increases the ability of the signal to penetrate matter decreases. 5G has three frequency ranges – lowband, midband and highband. Lowband and midband use frequencies close to what 4G uses and give similar range and penetration and marginally better speeds. Highband uses much higher frequencies which can provide much higher data rates but over shorter range and with poorer penetration. This will require far more cell towers to be useful and will not be useful for some circumstances in which case the service would have to fall back to a midband or lowband.
I will just add that the energy at certain frequencies is absorbed by certain types of matter and it may there it may be the case that the claim that certain frequencies are absorbed by oxygen are correct but that would make that frequency a poor choice to use to communicate through an atmosphere of 20% oxygen.
Maybe an EM weapon system is being installed under the cover of the 5G rollout – I keep an open mind, it would be quite a big conspiracy however and its not likely someone trying to design an effective communication system would choose to transmit at a frequency readily absorbed by atmospheric gasses.
Here’s an investigation before Panorama went to the dark side!
https://www.bitchute.com/video/UvopupwQcRP4/
WiFi a warning signal
Can it affect oxygen take-up at around 60Ghz, Edgar ?
I’m not a doctor so do not know the mechanism by which oxygen is taken into cells, nor do i know how that could be interfered with by a radio signal, but i am doubtful it would make a difference as sunlight is far higher frequency and strength than 60ghz radio and we spend a lot of time walking about in that (when we’re allowed out by our masters).
We have been surrounded by radio waves going well into the gigahertz range for more than 50 years and i don’t see much effect of that on our health. People get cancer far more now, but that may also be an effect of better detection methods. Who knows? I do know there are more things to worry about than 5G installations. Like letting the Chinese run the radio sites, that’s a bad idea 5G or any other G.
Just to add a bit of technical stuffage:
Signal strength is attenuated by the square of the distance, so it drops off very fast the further you are from the source, and any obstacles make the attenuation even higher. Higher frequencies have less strength so cannot penetrate as far, hence the need for more transmitters for 5G. As a practical example, just think about the noise you hear from your neighbours, is it loud and clear? No, it’s muffled, and mainly lower frequencies, that’s because the high frequencies can bounce off the walls inside your neighbour’s house, and the frequencies that do not get reflected are instead absorbed by the wall’s material. It’s very easy to make sound-proofing for high frequencies, but for lower frequencies it’s much more difficult, as you need larger distances in the wall cavity to properly attenuate the low frequencies through an insulating material like foam or rock wool. It’s the bane of studio design, getting the bass right, as you encounter such phenomena as standing waves, which means your room resonates and accentuates certain frequencies. We’re bombarded by infrasonics all the time, as well as ultrasonics, and nobody seems to be making a fuss about that. Let’s hope nobody discovers the brown note.
Higher frequencies at high energy can do serious damage, i’m denying that (my tinnitus attests to this fact). But the normal level of radiation is not increasing with 5G, according to the standards agencies across the world (take that as you will), it’s just the technology is changing and thus needs to be implemented in a different way.
“i’m not denying that”
I actually enjoyed this post. Maybe I need to stop working with computers.
As I’m sure you’ed agree the microwave part of the EM spectrum is fairly silent (background microwave radiaiton is virtually zero) It has been pumped up trillions of times these low levels and the assumption was there would be no ill effects. However life on the planet developed with virtually zero radiation in this frequency band. It turns out that the effects are harmful at the levels we are currently exposed to
The WHO has been covering this up for years as you can imagine. The EMF project was funded by the industry.
Start with the reviw of 4000 studies at
http://www.biointiative.org
You can listen to some talks here
https://electromagnetichealth.org/
A leaf, I think it can pass through, unless the leaf has been sprayed with highly conductive material. But I’m well aware that it is less penetrating than other radio wavebands. 5G is optimised for faster data transmission but to do this they had to move to shorter wavelengths, these shorter wavelengths travel less distance and are more easily blocked by buildings and terrain. hence the need for many more 5G base stations than were needed for older protocols. All these radio wavebands are perfectly safe.
Thats not what people’s experience is nor what the studies show
This is the area called biophysics, the effects of microwave radaition on living organisms, not something that engineers study.
http://freiburger-appell-2012.info/en/home.php?lang=EN
Over the past decade, the evidence of serious risks has been increasing and accumulating worldwide. As physicians, we observe a clear increase in health symptoms when radio-frequency exposure levels increase with regard to distance and time—especially in the case of heavy cell phone use, and in the vicinity of DECT cordless phones, Wi-Fi, and cell towers—including problems falling asleep and staying asleep, chronic fatigue, headaches, migraine, vertigo, tinnitus, unhealthy blood pressure levels and arrhythmias, concentration and memory problems, learning and behavioral disorders, a more frequent incidence of ADHD among children. And numerous studies of independent scientists have now confirmed many of these observations made by physicians.
I’d say at least half of those things are caused not by EMF, but by changes in human behaviour and use of technology. We have things to keep us active at hours that would have been totally quiet many years ago, like electric lighting. That mucks about with time perception. As do clocks (viz people getting hungry just because it’s almost 1pm, Pavlov much?).
We also do less strenuous physical activity. We have pointless concerns about things like paying bills. We eat far more sugar and salt than we ‘evolved’ with. We have passive entertainments on tap 24/7. We read less than we used to. We remember less than we used to, now having any answer at the tap of a screen.
We are devolving.
And you are wrong about engineers. They study effects of radiation on humans all the time. That’s what the standards agencies do. Whether you trust them is a different question.
And just because somebody has studied medicine, doesn’t mean they are qualified to comment on engineering, just as engineers are not likely to be the best people to turn to when you have a broken arm.
I think if there’s one thing this whole fiasco has shown us, it’s that “the science” is not really reliable on all kinds of things, especially medical science. That list of symptoms is silly – it’s huge and most of them are extremely vague.
Look, I can give you another correlation. Life expectancy is higher than ever before. The amount of radio usage is also higher than ever before. So radio waves make us live longer.
That’s the problem with this form of argument. It’s a logical fallacy to just observe two variables moving together and conclude one causes the other, especially when those variables are so vaguely defined.
OK not going to thumbs down or insult, but this is an honest question. Can your wife reliably tell you if the WiFi is on or off just by feeling it? You can easily do this experiment.
if it were a dildo i’m sure she might be able to tell but living with that geezer she’s probably dead down there.
Yep she can no matter what angry biker says with his recent insults, and no he’s not going to rile me up and all those who claim EMFs and especially 5G are harmless can say what they want, they are not safe.
This was even admitted in the US Senate hearings last year by the 5G operators who admitted not one study has been done that proves they are safe.
The USN in 1972 released a bibliography of studies done on EMFs and their effects on humans (I have a copy) and there are hundreds of studies listed done previous to then and the effects they found and confirmed.
Examples:
in the local garden centre she always went strange and dizzy at the exacts are point outside the entrance to the cafe. Very time we want there was the same at the same point. One day one of the staff saw this happen and came across. She said she had exactly these are feeling at the same point. On checking the main wifi hub is about the ceiling, it’s the only one in the place.
on holiday in Arizona, stayed places miles from anywhere, no mobile masts, no wifi etc. She had no headaches or all the other stuff she feels. One night stayed in Sedona and 100 m from the motel was a major mobile mast. She couldn’t sleep properly and next morning and all her problems back including the mosts debilitating headache.
We got a new neighbour. After a few days every afternoon the wife would suddenly get a raving headache and feeling like shit. The neighbour went away for 2 weeks holiday, nothing happened each afternoon. They came back and it all started again. Spoke to them and at the time the wife problems start in the afternoon is when he said he came home from worked and turned on the his hi-power in each room wifi so he could work from home. He turned it off and it stopped. Speaking to them later they also noticed they had less general health issues, less headaches etc.
I could go on with lots more personal examples.
If your wife can genuinely feel radio waves you need to get a demo of that in front of some skeptics on live TV right now, you will be instantly world famous and in huge demand. I’m serious. Your name (or rather her name) will go down in history. If such a phenomenon exists and can be understood, it could not only end a health disaster but potentially be harnessed for all kinds of new beneficial technologies we can’t even imagine.
But you have to understand, and I suspect you already do, the reason virtually everyone thinks EMF sensitivity doesn’t exist is because quite a few people have made this claim over time. And when tested in a properly randomised test, every single one of them has failed. Every, single, one. There is just no reliable evidence anywhere that people can feel radio waves.
The last random example I heard from this was the local electricity company laid a new high voltage power mains cable through a village. The residents started complaining that they could feel it and it was making them sick. It got to the mayor, I think. The electricity company had a simple but devastating response – due to project delays elsewhere the cable hadn’t been energised yet. It was just some metal in the ground. The people who said they could feel the energy were imagining it.
That’s why it’d be so amazing if she really can, in a provable and repeatable way, feel radio waves when they’re being switched on and off from a position she cannot observe, by someone she doesn’t know. She’d have the 6th sense. Every scientist worth their salt would want to understand how she does it. It could revolutionise human existence.
Great information. This censorship is unacceptable, people should be able to read all the information on EMFs/5G including pros and cons and then make up their minds. We are all unique individuals; some people are more sensitive to EMFs and some people are more susceptible to disease.
More resources:
also many UK sites like
radiationresearch.org
Great link thanks
Just think conservation of energy, the few examples you can give where electromagnetic radiation has done any harm used very high powered sources. Phones would literally catch fire if they tried to pump those levels of power through their tiny cirsuits and antennas, the battery would be flat in fractions of a second. The same goes for wifi routers. High power radio equipment is big heavy, power hungry and expensive. Do you really think capitalists would ever waste profit by putting more expensive things than necessary in to consumer devices or backend phone infrastructure? Let me make you a suggestion, open up your wifi router, get a soldering iron and carefully remove the LEDs inside it which light up while it is operating (or put thick black paint over them), reassemble the router. Have it on, and operating. tel your wife to put her head right beside it, she’ll see no LEDs and think it is off. She’ll suffer no symptoms, because the body isn’t sensitive to radio wavelength emissions at even thousands of times the power level feasible for consumer equipment. Then tell her it was on the whole time, prove it by using a wifi connected device. And watch her symptoms vanish forever. There have been randomised controlled experiments where people who claimed sensitivity to EM were put in scenarios like this, none had their symptoms when lights were obscured so they thought devices were off. EM hypersensitivty is almost as barmy as Ferguson’s modelling.
good web sites with loads of studies referenced on the subject are
http://www.bioinitiative.org
http://www.radiationresearch.org
http://www.powerwatch.org.uk
http://www.es-uk.info
http://www.wifiinschools.org.uk
http://www.stopsmartmeters.org.uk
I don’t believe any of it. I don’t believe the number of dead, i don’t believe the number of infections, i don’t believe in the testing. This whole thing is a giant mind fuck set to blow up the western world. I don’t believe the Chinese footage from Wuhan, i don’t believe the News, i don’t believe in Boris, i don’t believe any of the muppets in government have the first clue what they are doing. I don’t believe the testing labs, I don’t believe anyone is being tested, anywhere. I don’t believe the NHS.
I do believe there are agents controlling this narrative and everyone involved who thinks this is real don’t ask themselves the questions need asking, they just assume others are doing it. The hospitals are empty, but none of the muppets who work there think anything of it. They are told other hospitals are full but they’ve been lucky. No one knows anyone who’s had it and if they do then either they’ve been lied to or they’ve been lied to. No autopsies to prove any of it. You die in hospital it’s written on the death certificate and the body burned so no proof. The only way back from this is to object and refuse in every single way possible. If you own a shop, open it and let as many folk in as you can, if you own a pub the same, get in the face of anyone who toe’s the state line. There is a war for your life right now and if we sit back and let them they will. Oh and the BLM muppets are a smoke screen. They’re paid for deep state actors just like the did when they set up things like the National Front or the British National Party. They’re either playing games or this is the end of consumerism and the world really is fucked and bad things are gonna happen.
I’ll be cool though because i don’t give a fuck, any day to die is good enough for me.
My hospital was made emptier, because we discharged everyone “for their own safety” and cleared the decks for the surge (love that word) now we’re back in business we aren’t anymore. Still not as busy, as the MSM have terrified the public into staying away, as have PHE. Bastards all. Definitely lots of bollocks out there. I have to wear a face cloth at all times, which I have become used to though it inhibits effective communication and means very little when worn by asymptomatic individuals, but it’s political right? They’re aren’t enough people in our communities with covid to justify this. Anyway, the bollocks goes on.
Surge could equally be replaced with purge.
We’re having a S(t)urgeon up here.
Lucky us.
Hmm, good comment: maybe this whole thing is modelled on “The Purge”!
I had to go to St Barts Hospital in London today. They gave me a face mask at the door and almost all patients seemed to have one on, but interestingly of perhaps 60 hospital staff I observed moving around I would say 70% of them did not.
Not scared away and not back in business. Maybe it varies round the country but my local NHS trust is still not functioning properly.
This week, I got a call from my maxillo-facial consultant’s secretary. Is it ok if he phones me for a telephone consultation on Monday? This is regarding a major op INSIDE my mouth last year. I should have had a follow-up x-ray in March. Surely that could have been arranged before he spoke to me.
What’s he going to do, look in my mouth down the landline?
So don’t believe it when the MSM claim the NHS is back in business. It’s mostly box-ticking at my local right now.
The only question is…
Why are those damn nightingale hospitals still fully functioning?
Anyone..?
Named after a lady who is famous from her actions during another bloody pointless war …
Interestingly.
Well, I certainly agree that bad things are going to happen – walk in the park so far!
I’ve had it (tested). My friend died of it (tested). My wife went for a walk with his widow yesterday. He’s definitely dead. I presume he was in the coffin as they drove him away from the house (only close family at the funeral), but I must confess I did not check.
Tonight’s briefing – Handjob and Dildo. They really should stop doing these – it’s boring and cringeworthy.
I gave up many weeks ago.
Thanks for giving me the best laugh I’ve had all week!!! Your description of their names is hilarious.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U47_sRuG0Yg
The Truth About Face Masks
(Dave Cullen – Computing Forever)
Article which is discussed:
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/make-face-masks-compulsory-in-shops-public-transport-immunology-expert-1.4271602
Make face masks compulsory in shops, public transport – immunology expert
‘Wearing masks literally reactivates your own virus…and if it happens to be Sars-Cov2 you’ve got a big problem.’
Greetings Fellow Sceptics!
I’m nearing the end of my Ghost Town Capital journeys (before my self imposed boycott from 15 June to avoid wearing a muzzle) and my route today took me towards the City where unsurprisingly its still dead but for a few signs of life with some people already at work and surprise, surprise! No-one couldn’t give a rat’s ass about antisocial distancing and extremely few were wearing muzzles.
Interestingly I walked past a few shops and I could see staff getting ready for their reopening on 15 June. What was worrying however were the signs inside – the arrows for one way, dots for antisocial distancing and signs at the entrance with the usual we want to keep you and our staff safe, blah, blah (many of them were patronising to the extreme). One high fashion shop was requiring customers to wear muzzles!
I have to say that seeing the signs did not inspire confidence and if this is representative of retail in general then I get the feeling that they will put customers off and will be headed towards economic Armageddon.
i agree – going to the supermarket is such a depressing experience with social distancing and muzzles and fear of people as they avoid you like a leper.. I can’t see see people flocking to the shops as a recreational activity as they used to as it’s just such a hassle and unpleasant. So the retail sector will unfortunately decline even further which is a real worry.
I think supermarkets may not be a good guide. Zombies go to them because even zombies have to eat. ( Waste of good food.) But they won’t need to go to ‘non-essential’ shops, so there should be a much better chance of encountering human beings there.
Unfortunately we have to recreate the Soviet Union in order to survive but even people have their limits and I like you I seriously doubt many shops will survive this.
Sadly, I imagine very few shops of any size will dare resist the SS!
That is the problem I think – its not only the government but what are the odds that insurance is behind this as well?
hopefully they lighten up a bit when they realise they aren’t attracting any customers
By then it might be too late.
They know a fucking thing or two, these medical experts don’t they ?
Looks like Farage has become the latest to be cancelled for telling the truth about the BLM thugs. Shameful behaviour by LBC, who previously had seemed like a bastion of free speech.
In what way cancelled?
I believe he has left LBC, with immediate effect. Possibly the OP was using “cancelled” in this sense:
cancelled or “cancelled culture” basically means if you or anyone does something thats considered “bad” (being racist,sexist,manipulative etc..) you would most likely be “cancelled” , basically means no one would look at you in a good way anymore, no respect, etc. this is mostly found on the internet and people who are mainly “cancelled” are celebrites and online influencers
I know all about the cancel culture – I was asking in what way he had been ‘cancelled’, eg if his social media accounts had been deleted or if he had been ‘no-platformed’ or uninvited from some planned interview or suchlike..
He referred to the “BLM Taliban” in relation to the pulling down and damaging statues the wokerati disapprove of, so LBC has got rid of him.
Can’t insult the cultural vandals, but they can insult us.
farage’s evening show on LBC has been stopped with immediate effect, as in tonight!
then we need to boycott LBC
It was never a ‘bastion of free speech’.
Quite so – what about O’Brien; need I say more?!
“LBC, who previously had seemed like a bastion of free speech.”
Only up to a point. They’ll happily ban people – not overtly, but simply hang up on them if they call in. They’ll talk over someone they don’t want heard.
They got rid of Katie Hopkins as well.
They’ve done an excellent job of rubbishing the use of HcQ:
https://www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presenters/shelagh-fogarty/donald-trump-hydroxychloroquine-coronavirus/
https://www.lbc.co.uk/hot-topics/coronavirus/what-is-hydroxychloroquine-donald-trump/
“His own government has warned the drug should only be administered for the virus in a hospital or research setting, due to potentially fatal side effects – so what is hydroxychloroquine? And why is Trump taking it?
Dr Chris Smith, a Consultant Virologist at Cambridge University Hospital, revealed why the myth has appeared that it may help protect you from coronavirus.”
This was just after the Lancet published that faked study on its use. I don’t know if they’ve told people that.
I’ve recently started to listen to TalkRadio with Julia Hartley Brewer instead of Ferrari….
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/21/world/coronavirus-missing-deaths.html
I’ve been following this article since early on. The data isn’t quite as up to date as on other sites but it’s a useful quick reference for excess deaths.
What I find striking is that the number of excess deaths not attributed to COVID-19 in just these locations is now 109k.
That’s roughly 25% of the total official COVID-19 death count in the whole world. Now I’m sure some might argue a lot of these could be undetected virus related deaths but equally some of the official deaths may not have been due to the virus, merely present. So let’s assume they cancel each other out for now and we still have an large proportion of excess deaths which if not virus related are likely due to lockdowns/restrictions.
You can see the countries the various degrees of lockdown by country on this site:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-52103747
Countries that didn’t allow the virus to spread do tend to have lower excess deaths. Germany seems to be an outlier in that they enforced a strict lockdown later than other countries and also don’t have a particularly high excess death count.
Germany have not done so badly on euromomo’s z-scoring. Not as well as Finland, Norway, but the same as Denmark. Sweden fared less well.
The NYT are probably the best source of US data, particularly by county.
Hi, Toby. Just wanted to say thanks for yet another marvellous effort. I particularly admired the essay by the Berkeley historian. I can’t say I enjoyed it because the reality – the totalitarian reality it describes is too sickening. Quite suddenly the vast mesh of “PC” and “woke” is tightening around us – people sacked for speaking; for normal utterance; for objecting to hysteria, for heaven’s sake. Under a nom de guerre, I post at Conservativehome. Answering some cheery chap who tells us that British people must adjust their sense of identity, I said no – we won’t, thanks. We warned our leaders that identity was involved in migration; they ignored us and now we’re expected to endure the humiliation we foresaw, without so much as a by your leave. The remarks were deleted by a “moderator”. Does this censorship come from fear? Indoctrination? Opportunism? Or conviction? The worst thing about totalitarian situations is that people can no longer tell. They are too ashamed and disgusted with themselves to admit the reality; it depresses them too much – so they obey the dictates of fear, take the shilling and resent anyone who reminds them of what’s really going on. They draw comfort from being part of the swarm and the rest of us, like Piggy and Ralph in Lord of the Flies, are lonely individuals, ostracised and threatened and isolated. It sounds exaggerated, but these are the conditions of a purge; of a Great Terror and the people who should stop it in its tracks are themselves in a funk. I almost wrote a blue funk, but it is clearly pink.
Ah yes, Conservativehome, the home of the blairite wing of the CON party: I don’t go there anymore, in case I pick up some ghastly infection!
Blair is one of the most evil people ever to rule Britain. You look at his record on removing human rights, on creating new antiterror powers which are immediately corrupted to take steps to dictatorship, and now his commentary at CogX on how surveillance is “good” and immunity passports are “necessary”. Pure evil behind a wide smile.
Has anybody here figured out the best way to write to Boris personally? If so please share here.
I’m also thinking about a letter to Cummings – so again if you know how best to do that, please share here. Thanks.
It’s doubtful you’ll get a response I’ve had no response to two emails I’ve sent him.
Equally doubtful is that it will get within a three-person separation from either. We are not only locked down, we are also locked out!
What email address did you use?
I’m not actually bothered about a response, my tack is to write a personal letter that will appeal to his sense of legacy. I think legacy is what motivates him more than anything. If he gets to read it, I want to make him think. Whether he replies or not is irrelevant to me.
Contrast that to the days of Maggie Thatcher, who was somewhat taken over by the Falklands War at the time so quite busy. I wrote to her in despair as I had been unfairly cut off from housing benefits by the DHSS (or whatever it was called in 1982, I can’t remember). I was unemployed and literally didn’t have a penny. I was about to lose my home. Just three days later I had two managers from the local DHSS office on my doorstep, saying that they had been sent by the Prime Minister who wanted my situation sorted out, and also a personal report sent to her as to what they had done. They were quaking, and certainly did sort it out immediately. I can’t see that happening with Boris. I know Maggie did many things people hated, but for that I have always held a soft spot for her.
maybe write it on a cornish pasty and he might at least pay attention to it
https://email.number10.gov.uk
boris.johnson.mp@parliament.uk
Perhaps by sending a letter to ‘Boris Johnson, PM,10 Downing Street’. I am not being rude Adam, it might get through as I am sure emails are too numerous to elicit a personal response whereas a hand written envelope might. )
Thanks. Letter already in envelope for No 10 and emails sent per Lms2. I know it sounded a bit thick, but just wanted to hear if there were any other routes that might work.
Adam, I understand, but there are around 67,000,000 people living in this country.
You might not be the only one who wants to try this.
Try the Mason Mills twitter account. A lot of people think that’s him.
Fantastic – the ‘second wave’ of doom narrative has reared its ugly head again today and markets have taken it seriously and absolutely tanked. Seems to be driven by an increase in cases and hospitalisations in California, Florida, Texas, no sign that I can see of anything significant in Europe yet. Timing wise that’s surely a pretty direct correlation to the protests all last week.
Will be interesting to see how the BBC, Guardian etc report this, will any blame be apportioned to the BLM protesters / rioters?
Gives those of us convinced it’s a load of bollox the chance to buy buy buy !
It may be a load of bollox but then that only adds weight to the idea that the government is out to destroy everything and there is no restraining force. Perhaps better to hold off on the buy buy buy for now and perhaps buy buy buy some off grid living equipment in preparation for the apocalypse. Might be handy too when we setup sceptic town.
Sceptic town sounds okay to me,but it won’t be like Barter Town in Mad Max 3 will it ?.
Concur re the off grid equipment, STD. Wouldn’t play games on the stock market otherwise.
Much of it is indeed bollox, but the hit on the economy is very, very real and is going to be horrific.
For sure.
Why these states bordering Mexico? There is a peak just now in Mexico of Covid-19.Lots of Americans,green card holder coming back.Even reported in MSM.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/07/us/coronavirus-border-mexico-california-el-centro.html
Blame? One must never blame noble ‘protesters’. The cloak of righteous ‘correct think’ protects them.
I’m certainly hoping that the Israeli Prof, Isaac Ben-Israel’s mathematical patterns hold He’s not another bonkers epidemiologist, just a mathematician who openly admit he knows little of diseases, but recognises patterns in real data rather than models in crystal balls. He’s been finding that once cases got above a certain level in any country they shot up for a bit, peaked, and were on the downslope after 70 days, whatever measures the country did or did not take. A mighty strange pattern, but a real one in the actual measured data. I’m highly doubting a second wave in summer, but on the basis of what he’s said I can’t be sure that another wave might not arrive in late autumn when people pack inside more and filthy air con units get turned on. Can still be sure that a lockdown isn’t the answer though, we need loonies like Ferguson defunded and the money given to empirical researchers willing to use real data to try to work out how we’ve been so lucky with this pandemic and whether any factors that change in atumun might break that luck.
That may be what the media says but in reality I don’t think the market falls have anything to do with ‘second wave’ fears… just that the markets have been very overvalued if you take into account the economic carnage that can only unfold when you stop most of the western economy for 3 months or more.
It’s all being reported by the Marxist media, i.e. Guardian, N.Y. Times, CNN. None of them are averse to lying. I’m not saying they’re wrong, but they can’t be trusted either.
I lost it today.
My MSP (Lib Dem) had not responded to my previous email, so got another this morning after I read the depressing headlines re job losses in the hospitality industry across Scotland. We are facing an abyss and our next ‘review’ is not until next Thursday. I thought, naively, that as he is in opposition and seeing the carnage being inflicted, he might want to at least raise the issue of Scotland’s snail pace easing of lockdown.
He replied, promptly! His email ended with ‘Finally, the main reason why we have managed to contain the mortality rate and infection rate is because of lockdown measures, not because it is any less deadly’.
He got a reply immediately..lock, stock and two smoking barrels. I am sick of this and have spent the rest of the day with my head in my hands. WTF is going on??
If we cant find a way to hold these criminals to account we are doomed.
Are you related to Private Frazer?
I’ve known some people in the Lib Dem party, they all despise the SNP for reasons I could never fully understand. Even when both were supposedly on the same side of the brexit debate. And this was before the SNP took the seat off the Lib Dem leader. To see Lib Dems backing up the illegal lockdown, and willing to stand by the SNP to do it, is highly disturbing. Do Lib Dems forget what The Lib and Dem in their name are short for? Two things highly incompatible with lockdowns I would hav thought.
It’s not fucking deadly you see you next Tuesday of an MSP.
Ask your bank to cancel the DD – job done. No need to talk to Crapita if you don’t want to.
Do they refund you if you cancel?
No. I for one will simply not be renewing when my next one comes around. Have given up on BBC completely, their “news” is pure lies and all their other content is pretty rotten too.
Yes, my sister in law got a refund.
Ah, website down eh?
You can tick a box that declares you don’t watch live-streamed tv or iplayer. Hopefully that will stop a barrage of unsolicited mail.
I was going to suggest cancelling your direct debit however looks like that’s not an option for you. I would suggest you keep trying or phoning them?
That’s good news and glad you managed to finally do it!
It has been mentioned several times here, but UKColumn is by far and away the most reasonable alternative news, IMHO.
A traditional presentation, new 45 minute show every Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Watch whenever you like.
They’re not perfect, they’re obviously resource limited, but beats the hell out of anything else.
If most people watched this instead of (or even as well as) MSM, things would be rather different.
Interesting history of opposition to common purpose.
http://www.UKColumn.org
This as many youngsters know is the first weekend since March when the girlfriend / boyfriend can legally come over for some horizontal exercise . This actually may come as a surprise to Dr Whittey and the other adult train spotters of SAGE but I suspect that this rule has been ignored by a few already…
Just when you think peak clown world had already been reached we have the Health authority in New York urging partners to wear face masks before getting steamy in the sack.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/11/new-yorkers-encouraged-wear-masks-having-sex-stop-spreading/
I’m completely lost for words. Why is it that society has collectively forgotten how to be human?
I just laughed til a little bit of wee came out
Really into clown world now!
Looks like there will be demand for en suite glory holes
This has to be a joke right?’
I imagine that the media are just making clickbait headlines now that there’s no actual danger to report on anymore.
Cue lots of New Yorkers visiting the sex shops and buying kinky masks . . . LOL
This is merely laughable.
I would laugh but I don’t want to blow my mask off.
This report brightened up an otherwise dull, miserable day. I particularly like “Make it a little kinky,” the New York health department guidelines said. “Be creative with sexual positions and physical barriers, like walls, that allow sexual contact while preventing close face-to-face contact.”
Be creative with physical barriers like walls? ROTFL. What the hell is that supposed to mean? The only connection between wall and sex that I can think of is doing it against one!
Having mused for a day or two on the strange coincidence of the WHO’s mask advice changing 180 degrees, after several years, on almost the same day that the new directive from the UK government was announced, I decided to follow the money as it looked very much like ‘decision-based evidence making’.
After Trump pulled the $893m US funding for the WHO a couple of months ago, this left the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as the biggest funder ($531m) but the kicker was the next biggest. Yes, you’ve guessed it – the UK at $435m! The next biggest, at $371m is Bill Gates’ GAVI to which our dear PM (you know, scared, hapless, poorly Boris) promised £1.65 billion of our money only last week. The WHO figures are 2018-19 but you get the picture. China donated $86m.
Coupled with the almost daily contradictions the WHO publishes about asymtomatic spreading, is it any wonder that so many people feel (and look) totally defeated and confused? Can anyone doubt now that this is a massive psyop?
The plandemic did not kill as many as they hoped so now they’ve reverted to starting a race war.
Nice people.
Yes, really nice! Although to be honest we think BLM is much more likely to be part of ‘the spectacle’ and possibly dreamed up by one of the many US spook organisations. It’s a gift for European virtue signallers as well.
Couple this with Gates Foundations contribution towards The BBC and the Guardians in return for their supine reporting of Lockdown and it has a conspiracy written all over it.
https://www.theguardian.com/info/2018/oct/02/philanthropic-partnerships-at-the-guardian
https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaaction/about/funding
Thanks PD. Gates seems to be able to buy anyone or any organisation he wants! We were aware of the above and we keep bending people’s ears but they probably just think we’re crazed old buggers. At least we have the time to dig around online. Weirdly, knowing at least some of the worst is quite liberating – at least I don’t think we and other LS are deluded.
If he can’t buy them off with his wealth he just has his old company f*ck up their computer systems until they submit, most of the time he does this even to organisations he isn’t trying to pressure. Although in all seriousness I’m not sure if any suggestions about Gates being behind it all are plausible, I certainly am serious that using Micro$oft operating systems will bu*ger up any computing you wish to do. I advise Linux Mint or Ubuntu.
Wish Trump could persuade Boris to pull our funding from both WHO and the Gates foundation..
Sadly, Carrie, I think it’s beyond Johnson’s power to do anything so constructive any more.
Brilliantly researched Miriam. Can you point me to the source? I need to see if I can get it down to 140 characters and bung it on Twitter. I agree, exercise in social control. The more we can get this out there the more we can build resistance.
Thanks, Bella
I spotted the chart of main funders here
https://www.france24.com/en/business/20200415-who-funds-the-who
and then checked the figures on the WHO’s own website and various othere MSM sites. It all seems to check out but the France 24 site is the most useful because of the chart.
UK Column had the news about the GAVI funding but they said £1.7 billion – but news sites say 1.65. ‘Makes all the difference
On it
GAVI is in essence the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s piggy bank. Taxpayer money from western countries replenishes GAVI coffers. The funds get transferred to the said ‘foundation’. which then makes ‘donations’ to keep up the ‘philanthropy’ con. Follow the money, because it’s yours and mine.
Remember the scare in the Somerset Hospital recently because of an uptick of Covid-19 cases? Quickly was blamed the opening of beaches behind this in MSM. Very upset medics warned about the reckless opening up in the UK. One even threatened to resign.
Seemed to be 60 false positive tests due to a machine error
https://twitter.com/AlistairHaimes/status/1271031254243258368/photo/1
Lol
In the next few weeks there’ll be story claiming the BLM protests have lowered the R through cross-immunity promotion. More false positives ;P
Actually that bit of fake news may not be so fake.
Thats our NHS! No doubt lessons will be learned but nothing actually improved.
Every report I’ve read concerning an uptick in cases/second wave after relaxing measures has proven false. Every. Single. One.
Exactly infection rate still falling
It’s almost as if they actually want a second spike just to rub it in people’s faces for having the audacity of wanting their freedom back.
Yes, I definitely feel as if there’s an undercurrent of finger-wagging and pessimism – whenever a lick of positive news is reported, governments/scientists come down on it like a tonne of bricks, insisting that the pandemic isn’t over/we’re in this for the long haul/no time for celebration, only caution/etc etc etc.
2nd wave ….2nd wave ….2nd wave …..
The second wave is history’s worst recession and chinese commie party style dictatorship, against these covid-19 will look like nothing, however many waves it may or may not have.
That’s an understatement !
I think they do. Same as they want oeoole in Sweden to die.
In fact they have a death wish.
Other people’s deaths.
And they have the cheek to call us heartless.
There may be another reason for the supposed uptick in the southwest, which if true doesn’t reflect well on one of the hospitals down there either:
https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/news/bristol-news/exclusive-weston-general-hospital-whistleblower-4182209
You seriously couldn’t write this as no one would believe you! The ‘Stock image of a Whistleblower, had me falling off my chair!
Let’s get this track and trace procedure right. 26,985 people were phoned up by a complete stranger, told they might have been infected by someone who that person would not identify, and have willingly agreed to self-isolate, even though there are no legal sanctions to enforce it.
What percentage of that 26,985 does Mr Hancock believe will actually comply for even 24 hours, let alone the full 14 days. I’d guess less than 10%.
We are told that all track and trace calls will come from 0300 013 5000. Put it into your phone now, and put a block on it, now.
Not much to say today, except I’m gonna make a dartboard out of Matt Handjob’s smirking face.
I feel it will improve my aim considerably.
He keeps using the phrase “civic duty” with impunity. Never has a phrase with such conservative connotations sounded so Communist.
I’m all for civic duties.
But they are balanced by civic, civil and human rights. rights.
Restore my human rights and maybe I’ll consider my civic duties.
Would upvote this mroe times if I could.
Fun idea, but I don’t think I could bear to have an image of any of the buffoons in my house. I’m very happy to anti-social distance the lot of them.
Actually that’s a point. Maybe I could blunt the pain by not wearing my glasses…. but then my aim most definitely wouldn’t improve
When you’ve mastered the darts, Farinances, throwing knives are great fun !
Not sure which is worse, his smirking face or patronising tone. He is a complete berk.
He is the archetypal headmaster talking to schoolchildren. Annoys me when he lectures about civic duty.
You could try not listening to the creep. I’ve made a point of never listening to their sermons. Not even once. I’m still here. I’m still reasonably well informed.
I don’t any more. But I do occasionally look at a Telegraph article just to see what nonsense the government are imposing on us now. It was there, in black and white (oh sorry, probably not allowed to use that term now!) about yet another civic duty remark.
We need to revive this to inflict the worst punishment on him when this is over:
https://avalon.law.yale.edu/ancient/hamframe.asp
And chuck in Professor Lockdown as well.
Parallel universe of common sense, scientific advice, proportional risk management (cost versus benefit) and the respecting of basic human rights
So, to summarise so far, this is what the uk government/s could have done:
· Feb / mar port of entry screening from abroad (the uk being one of the largest travel hubs in world so clearly at high risk);
· An even earlier shielding strategy for the most vulnerable (care homes; over 70s; individuals with significant underlying health problems);
· With the support of the private sector (decentralised partnership working) running track and trace from the start with an initial focus on the most vulnerable and hospitals;
· Yes, setting up the nightingale hospitals, but being full of covid patients, will the other potentially life and death core services of the nhs maintained elsewhere with volunteer support;
· Following the ever changing advice of the WHO (and later confirmed by the comprehensive lancet review) instructing human services to maintain 1 m distancing. 2 m if possible. In other words, as we all know, sweden.
· No large-scale furloughing programme / claim culture. Rather, state payments for reduced business income where appropriate. Therefore maintaining cash flow in all service industries and significantly reducing business failure and long term unemployment. As toby et al. has stated, the idea of simply stopping and starting large sections of the economy is absurd without catastrophic consequences – mass unemployment, etc.
Outcome – yes, significant damage to the economy and the future well-being of the nation, but more akin to that of german and sweden (half as such!). And with the aforementioned actions, a strong possibility that deaths could actually have been reduced without a lockdown, particularly care homes in the short term. However our uk governments actually managed to fail on all the above! Hence, as toby has called it, lockdown will be remembered as the biggest post war policy disaster of the british state.
Also, in this case, hindsight is no excuse as the advice / information was there from start, including the approaches of other countries in certain areas and some of the sage guidance.
What we needed was wise leadership to interpret this in a quick and rational manner respecting our basis human rights whilst focusing the states resources on protecting the most vulnerable.
Instead, as things stand, the mainstream majority still believe the lockdown was the correct decision and that if we had simply done it sooner we could have saved many more lives in the uk.
However, by the winter this ‘tyranny of the majority’ will no longer hold with the full consequences of lockdown becoming apparent alongside greater evidenced-based scientific reviews. I predict the telegraph will be the first to fully turn with a front page headline as such. As david starkey has stated so well, historians will mock the ‘mad spring / summer of 2020’ when the uk lost the plot at the feet of the nhs and nanny state. Or perhaps more akin to the ‘big short’ movie in reverse where a small minority predicted the 2008 financial crash, the journalistic resource toby et al. has created will stand as testament to the mainstream lockdown folly.
Whilst of course acknowledging the human misery of covid-19, bravo lockdown sceptics!
Good list. I would add ‘have kept schools open’!
You left off decentralize testing from PHE to local labs to enable rapid expansion of capacity for testing. Witty said as much yesterday.
Was bored so I decided to create this lovely artwork…
RDwag…that’s cheered me up no end!! xx
This is better than most of the stuff that wins the Turner Prize.
Love it.
Bwahahaha!!! Well done!
I’d give this twenty thumbs up if I could
‘We shall be free’ is your Twitter handle isn’t it? (Or have I got the wrong person?) Are you going to share it on there?
Hi Bella. Yep, that’s right. I’ve stopped using Twitter for the foreseeable. Mainly because it was depressing me and really getting me down. The account is still active but I soon realised that Twitter is a bit of a toxic environment. I have to look after my own mental health.
Sod it. I decided to post it on my Twitter after all
Good news, I shall find it and retweet
Can’t find it
twitter.com/wewillbefree82
Someone has not been paying attention:
‘More than 60 per cent of new covid cases diagnosed at two hospitals in the Midlands in recent days were caught at least two weeks after the patient was admitted — suggesting there may be particular problems with the virus spreading on their wards.’
Health Service Journal 11 June 2020
People were right about avoiding going to hospital.
In order to protect THEMSELVES – not the NHS!
(Unless you’re having a heart attack of course.
Don’t fear the corona-reaper. Your ticker-reaper is way worse).
I though BoJo said a couple of weeks ago that we had the very best testing and results would be available in 24 hours?
If I did not know better I would think that they want the numbers to go up.
Would so love to see your video, it’ll be amazing I’m sure.
#metoo!
What about a spoof of ‘Open all Hours’ as well?
Intersting weekend ahead possible rioting maybe it will be live streamed looks like there might be some proper opposition there this time , and I dont mean the police!
I saw that there are groups organising to protect monuments. Could be a very interesting weekend. Hoping for everyone’s safety and common sense but fear the worst.
That last sentence makes you sound like the government !
Government does not encourage common sense.
Might be time to leave some signs by the base of the statues saying: “Yes we can debate about which historical figures are worthy of public commemoration, but how about we end this oppressive and discriminatory lockdown first. Statues do not move by themselves, they can still be here to argue over after we’ve seized back our rights.”
Surely, they’d have to change the name to wimpball or something.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=U47_sRuG0Yg
The Truth About Face Masks (Dave Cullen)
Comment btl:
“2019: ban straws to save the planet
2020: everyone wear a new face mask daily”
I still have my Dad’s old gas mask from 1940 so I can start wearing that next week! How environmentally friendly is that!!
Vernon Coleman has done a good video on the dangers of wearing masks.
In my boys’ school, each year has a “sailor class” – named after a famous sailor – and a “ship class” – named after… well, you get the point. Maritime connection for the area, you see.
They’ve just announced that, from next year, they will be renaming ‘’Drake’ and ‘Nelson’ classes because of “problematic connections with slavery.
_So_ glad they’re focusing on what’s important and not wasting their time doing things like educating children.
Perhaps your boys should read this before it gets re-written:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_Africa#:~:text=Slavery%20for%20domestic%20and%20court,of%20the%20Atlantic%20slave%20trade.
“Slavery in Africa
Slavery has historically been widespread in Africa, and still continues today in some African countries.
Systems of servitude and slavery were common in parts of Africa in ancient times, as they were in much of the rest of the ancient world. When the Arab slave trade (which started in the 7th century) and Atlantic slave trade (which started in the 16th century) began, many of the pre-existing local African slave systems began supplying captives for slave markets outside Africa.[1]”
“Barbary slave trade
The Barbary slave trade refers to slave markets on the Barbary Coast of North Africa, which included the Ottoman provinces of Algeria, Tunisia and Tripolitania and the independent sultanate of Morocco, between the 16th and middle of the 18th century. The Ottoman provinces in North Africa were nominally under Ottoman suzerainty, but in reality they were mostly autonomous.
European slaves were acquired by Barbary pirates in slave raids on ships and by raids on coastal towns from Italy to the Netherlands, Ireland and the Southwest of Britain, as far north as Iceland and into the eastern Mediterranean.
The Ottoman eastern Mediterranean was the scene of intense piracy.[1] As late as the 18th century, piracy continued to be a “consistent threat to maritime traffic in the Aegean”.[2]”
And Nelson’s crime?
You need to object to this revisionism.
I’m well aware, yes.
Given that before Christmas, my younger boy’s whole year were made to sing a song about Nelson sailing around worrying that his crew needed to be “more diverse” before the battle of trafalgar, this is not a new phenomenon to me.
Just before the schools were shut, my older boy came home telling me that “coronavirus is the planet’s way of healing itself”, according to his teacher.
That one got short shrift from me too.
China have been lecturing the Americans on slavery. It was abolished in law (but not in fact) some 45 years after the abolition in the USA. Han China still treats Tibetans and other nationalities as second class citizens, setting out to destroy their culture and prevent them from exercising any power in the country. Of course India still has virtual slavery with its class of “untouchables” and in many Arab countries domestic servant are treated like slaves. I doubt Yorkshire Tea will be lecturing Chinese, Arabs and Indians on these matters. But, hey, PC virtue signalling is no more about honesty than Puritan virtue signalling was back in the 17th century, when they tried to ban Christmas and hot cross buns.
To my memories both Drake and Nelson opposed the slave trade, often raiding ships of other nations who carried slaves to the americas. I may have remembered wrongly, but am sure that if they weren’t actively opposing it neither had incidents directly supporting it either.
I think Nelson supported it. This article suggests he had several important contacts in the W Indies –
https://www.historyextra.com/period/georgian/lord-nelson-slavery-abolition-william-wilberforce-dark-side/
Those BID arseholes are really asking for a slap aren’t they,they inhabit a world of their own funded by hardworking people like you.Are they part of your local council ?,the similar thing around here is and the way they waste taxpayers money is an utter scandal,they love to throw thousands of pounds worth of grants at ridiculous no-hope start-up businesses whilst letting long established ones flounder and die.
Yes,all that sort of crap sounds very familiar !,our council keeps tell us how much they have done to save everybody from the virus and basically how grateful we should be !.They have done absolutely nothing except put the fear of god into small takeaway businesses by implying they will have to close unless they install screens and wear masks etc.
Or because so many people are wanting to cancel! I
t’s a 24-hour thing, so maybe try late at night?
But of course Aussie NRL has just restarted this week. Empty ground but no stupid changes in scrums. Typical UK overkill
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/11/coronavirus-cases-fall-in-france-despite-easing-of-lockdown
Wow. The Guardian.
That mighty force for truth, yeah.
Exoect banner headline tomorrow:
TWO AND TWO MAKE FOUR, SAY SOME EXPERTS.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/jun/11/we-locked-down-a-week-early-the-scottish-care-home-with-no-coronavirus-cases
Only one story but if this happened in all care homes the death count would be about half what it is.
I’d wager they didn’t take in any patients from hospitals. In fact they locked down around the time the Govt issued a directive to the NHS to discharge elderly patients to care homes. I know of a couple of care homes who locked down early and took in no patients and so far no issues.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-guidance-for-stepdown-of-infection-control-precautions-within-hospitals-and-discharging-covid-19-patients-from-hospital-to-home-settings/guidance-for-stepdown-of-infection-control-precautions-and-discharging-covid-19-patients
I have visited multiple care homes at peak infection and undoubtedly the ones that fared best were the ones that locked people (illegally) in their rooms.
Can somebody please just pull the plug on the government now and turn this off and make it all go away?! My wife has just told me about the summer school catch up thing and then I read hancock and civic duty in the same sentence and it makes me feel sick. Why do they just keep on compounding the disaster and not just own up and admit their error and will someone please tell everyone to stop listening to Neil Ferguson?! I’m at the end of my tether.
“Can somebody please just pull the plug on the government now and turn this off and make it all go away?”
Would like to.
Guardian again on their Coronavirus feed:
Sweden insists opening schools did not create virus outbreaks
Sweden’s decision to leave schools open for under-16s during the pandemic did not lead to any major outbreaks of Covid 19, according to Anna Ekstrom, the country’s education minister.
She said research by the Swedish Public Health Agency showed that Swedes working in education had not been more likely to be diagnosed with coronavirus than those in occupations.
Schools for older pupils and universities have been given the go-ahead to reopen from 15 June but for summer schools and courses only.
From Saturday, Swedes without any Covid-19 symptoms can travel within the country. On Sunday, elite sports can resume although no fans will be allowed to attend.
Study suggests Coronavirus is seasonal:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-8410703/Coronavirus-seasonal-suggest-vibrant-maps-help-predict-virus-spread.html
It’s almost as if it’s an unvaccinated flu.
Lol –
except flu kills way more young people!
There’s a wee bit in the back of my mind that wonders if some/many of these people were “killed” because of the treatment for COVID-19 somehow screwed with pre-existing conditions. This could explain deaths in hospitals. Care home and domestic deaths could have been simple neglect/lack of medical attention.
It could also explain the age factor and why the results differ so much around the world. Could it be down to the treatment I wonder.
Actually it doesn’t. Mortality in children from influenza is equally low. Influenza puts a lot more children in hospital though. Which was part of the justification for closing the schools.
Seasonality may be a reflection of contacts. We stay in when it’s colder and pass viruses on. But we’ve only had one season so early days.
https://osf.io/y3fxt/
Interesting article about underestimating of true seroprevalence especially now with so many seroprevalence studies coming forward
“Growing evidence suggests that asymptomatic and mild SARSCoV infections, together
making up over 95% of all infections, may be associated with lower antibody titers than more severe infections Similarly, it is known that antibody levels peak a few weeks after infection and then decay gradually. Yet, positive controls used for assay optimization and validation are usually limited to samples from hospitalized patients with severe disease, leading to what is commonly known as spectrum bias. Sensitivities estimated from these sample sets may therefore overestimate the actual sensitivity that the assay would have when applied to the general population, leading to underestimates of the true seroprevalence”
PHE are running a combined swabbing and antibody testing population study in the community. So by definition, mild to moderate patients. Results should be interesting. They’ve published their swabbing data (0.26% infected).
The problem is that 0.26% is only 45 people. So they can look for antibodies in those 45 but it’s a small sample.
This is the Lübeck paper, which had a sample of 110 (thanks to swedenborg of course for the link): https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.30.20111393
What you need is somewhere like Germany or Iceland where loads of PCR tests were done early on mild cases. Then see how many antibodies those people have.
In the UK we only started doing either kind of testing too little and too late.
They also have regular data in several 1000 blood donors – 6% average, 16% in London. Far more robust data.
Yes but that’s not a population of people who were PCR positive but with mild or no symptoms, which is what is needed to evaluate how many antibodies can be found in recovered mild cases.
Part of the problem is also inconsistency in different places. Milder cases often result in low levels of antibodies (as they found in Lübeck) but different test kits set the cutoff differently. So if you read about 30% in India, 50% in Bergamo, and 4% for Hong Kong evacuees returning from Wuhan how do you compare those numbers?
You posted a link the other day to the Indian testing in “containment areas”, and I think that story mentioned that they set the bar quite low to get a good judge of exposure. But the 4% for those guys coming back from Hong Kong (as they admitted in the paper) was using a high threshold, and (as they also conceded) was about three months after they were in Wuhan.
Even if you have access to the actual study and not just a news report, there often isn’t a comparable unit of actual antibody “titer”. In one of those I read (I think the HK one) the units used were “OD” or “optical density” which I think just means the colour something goes on the kit.
A Black Market Haircut. I got one.
God it feels good. A stylist I’ve never met before, but recommended by my closest friends and really good (London good, not Bolton good). And such a gift for human interaction.
I think we both very much enjoyed the human interaction… well, we ended up having a 3hr chat about IT ALL. His elderly mum kept the coffee flowing and shared her fags with me.
On the one hand I’m over the moon. On the other I’ve just had a glimpse of what we’ve all been missing for the last 13 weeks or so. That’s 25% of a whole year by the way. I don’t know how I’m going to feel tomorrow.
If I feel down, I’ll go to the supermarket and flaunt my shiny new hair at all the people looking as bedraggled as I did this morning.
What times these are.
Well done you. I had a DIY one – not great but I felt good given that my hair after it reaches a certain length refuses to cooperate
Did you manage to fit in 3hrs of talking to yourself and serving yourself coffee, cake and cigarettes?
Nah. It was a brutal hacking – all done in half an hour.
Well this is a start….
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-53003046?utm_medium=email&utm_source=CampaignMonitor_Editorial&utm_campaign=BLND%20%2020200611%20%20Huawei%20%20JO+CID_bd33ed8042f82af57516084a8cff81a4
Indeed.
Much annoyed, but not at all astonished, by the pathetic little link ‘What am I allowed to do now?’
People who ask that are generally aged under ten, aren’t they?
This crisis has basically infantilised society and allowed TPTB to get away with treating us like idiots.
As those of you who read my occasional scribbles here will know, I try, to write something a little different. Sometimes I make serious points, sometimes I attempt humour, and occasionally I might even make sense.
With that in mind I fear I maybe owe our beloved Home Secretary an apology for criticising her the other day. She’s apparently had a love letter from a number of Labour MPs and has declared that she will not be silenced.
Good for her – me neither!
This sounds like good news for the cause of free speech anyway. I am slightly amused by the fact that should she marry me she would be “Priti Pretty”. lol, oh dear. Well you have to laugh sometimes.
And in that spirit I declare that I look forward to seeing the head of Matt the Hancock on a platter and bumbling Boris burned at the steak. Medium rare!
I have, on occasional occasions of despair, thought of emigrating. Only three countries seem remotely appealing. Canada (because it’s big), but it’s unfortunately very woke. Japan, for I hope, obvious reasons, though the language appears impenetrable, and Russia.
I am an unapologetic Russophile and have been struggling to learn the language for a number of years. I was planning to visit the country for the first time this year. That’s clearly not going to happen now.
For those used to MSM tropes regarding Putin’s Russia, I suggest you may want to at least consider divesting of some of those opinions. The MSM is no more reliable in it’s coverage of Russia that it is in it’s coverage of coronavirus. IMO.
Well, I like to speak up for Russians. Russians are, on the whole, very nice people. And what’s more, they’re not nearly as “woke” as Canadians!
I note that Farage has been filming some deranged migrants in the English Channel who seem to think that the UK is a democracy. What’s the matter with these people? Why the hell would anyone want to come here?
I’m wondering if maybe I could use one of their boats to get off this prison island. Maybe I could paddle to Russia? I feel like Clint Eastwood: Great Britain is the new Alcatraz.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/06/11/revealed-sage-minutes-show-advisers-not-calling-early-lockdown/ apologies if this has been posted elsewhere but this appeared on the Telegraph website earlier. Sort of a kickback against the stuff that Ferguson is claiming . This is not news to anyone who reads this forum but good to see stuff ( ie kids struck by lightening) eventually gets into the mainstream.
Was disappointed that the journalist didn’t make the obvious point that scientists not only didn’t call for an early lockdown but didn’t call for a lockdown of any kind.
I just wanted to say that I’m watching “The Magicians” and Quentin says: This is a spell. We’re all trapped in it and I’m the only one who knows.”
Thank God for you guys. I am not the only one who knows!
Before long, everybody will be claiming to have known all along.
I don’t have your faith. Something else usually comes along to muddy the waters. For example, if you predicted riots as a result of lockdown, you’d have been right, but the riots have, instead, been blamed on BLM. No riots will be pinned on government lockdown policy at all.
The media hates the government and wants to see it squirm, but they don’t have the vision to make the killer accusation: that the lockdown was unnecessary.
In any public inquiry, the basic narrative of the necessity for lockdown will not be challenged. It will be framed that the damage to the economy was made marginally worse by smaller operational errors. Why did they not have enough PPE on a particular day? How come they were 7.3% short of their testing target on April 12th?
And we are already seeing that people are concentrating on the idea that if lockdown had been brought in a week earlier, fewer people would have died – and no doubt the economy would have fared slightly better, etc. I suspect that the government might rather hold their hands up to this hazy, unsubstantiatable accusation than admit that the whole lockdown was unnecessary.
Only one comment on the Simon Wood paper (which I really enjoyed). It’s a nice analysis but has the benefit of considerable hindsight. It certainly helps with the debate about coming out of lockdown but cannot help with the debate about going in. What the graph you show really states is that once the peak of deaths is known with confidence, it is possible to infer the likely earlier peak of infections. That appears to be earlier than lockdown from this analysis, but has some dependence on the model used – observed cases (mainly hospitals) are not included in the analysis.
What I would like to see is what would the model predict with deaths ONLY up to, say March 16th? The week before lockdown, based on the analysis of available data, what would the author recommend? The expansion of the prediction interval at the end of the graph would be seen without a peak – things would blow up and healthcare predicted to be be swamped. That’s not a failing – if the data is limiting, so be it. That was my conclusion at that point – models could not give any confidence.
Your reading of the SAGE minutes agrees with mine. But hindsight is wonderful. I think it is hard to convey the limitations of “the science” only three months ago. Decisions are made by politicians, and are not taken with such hindsight But decisions must be made and with them comes accountability.
So you’ve given up on your BS claim last night that UK stats for Covid-19 deaths only record hospital deaths? Perhaps, as a fan of early lockdown, you’d like to explain why Belgium has such an appallingly high death rate for Covid-19, some 30% or thereabouts higher than the UK, despite locking down 6 days earlier than us, or why Japan, which never put in such a full lockdown, has such a low number of deaths.
OK one last time Belgium include all people who have died and SUSPECTED of having COVID19. The England only count people TESTED POSITIVE with COVID19. Belgium over-report deaths by about 50%. If we counted the 63,000 excess deaths from the ONS statistics published this week, we would have a rate of 1050/M in England. Are we winning yet?
Once again you are spreading BS. That’s simply not true.
“Care Home Deaths are being recorded as Covid-19 related even if the victim has not had a positive test or shown any symptoms, it has emerged.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/05/01/care-homes/
Who are “the England” anyway?
Where’s your citation for Belgium over-reporting deaths by 50%? More BS.
There is absolutely no reason to count excess deaths as Covid-19 related. It is highly probable they are Lockdown-related.
Furthermore a positive test for Covid-19 is not a reliable indicator that someone “died from” Covid. Typically, at the end of life, a patient will have numerous pathogens in their lungs sapping their life force and taking them closer to death.
You would need a much more detailed analysis (impractical but not irrelevant to cause of death) to see how much virus load is in the patient. There is no particular reason to say they “died from Covid” if there are several other pathogens taking their toll.
The lockdown was imposed with the benefit of hindsight.
On what data was it based?
Must have been 100% reliable, corroborated, rock solid data, to discharge thousands from hospitals, over 10,000 to an untimely death, kick children out of school, students out of university, shut down the economy, impoverish millions, more thousands of untimely deaths to come as a consequence of delayed medical treatment, must have been really good data to do all of that………or not really?
We could have easily come out of the lockdown after three weeks though. At the time we went into it I was sort of OK with it (to “flatten the curve” and prevent overshoot). In fact it looked like we’d lucked into just about the right time to have a 3 week lockdown. After three weeks, I assumed they would lift it as it was much clearer by then what was going on.
The same with Spain. It was clear just looking at the log deaths on worldometer that by the end of March the line was bending down, which was less than three weeks after the lockdown. But at the time of the lockdown (which was mid-March) you couldn’t have said with much confidence that the log deaths wasn’t a straight line (i.e. still exponential) with no way of knowing when it was going to bend down.
I don’t think the scientists and modellers were behind the cold-blooded decision to put thousands of frail old people in harm’s way and deny them medical treatment.
On the other hand, Whitty and Vallance had pointed out the solution before the modellers came along: Wash hands a lot, protect the obviously vulnerable and use your common sense. Following their advice would have given a much better outcome all round.
Actually it would have made a much better slogan than their beloved 3 phrase one: Save the NHS: murder the elderly: tank the economy
Wash hands a lot: Protect the obviously vulnerable: Use your common sense.
There is discussion in the US that increase of “cases” could be that employers start testing staff coming back to work like Tyson Food Arkansas
Tyson Foods Inc: Tyson Foods, Inc. Releases
Results From Covid-19 Test 06/11 20:12 *TYSON SAYS 198 TESTED POSITIVE AT SITE, ONLY 1 SHOWED SYMPTOMS
06/11 20:11 *TYSON SAYS 1,102 TEAM MEMBERS TESTED FOR COVID-19 AT SPRINGDALE,Arkansas
How do you interpret such a result? Sending home 20% of your staff for isolation? “Sick leave??”
Perhaps this idea of testing staff coming back to work will also spread to the UK.
Another tick up of 1000 cases in California the other day suspicion of a second wave in MSM
https://twitter.com/ianmSC/status/1271186351392579584/photo/1
Nearly 1000 inmates test Covid-19 pos in Chuckawalla Prison
Not stated how many symtomatic but in US prison usully 95 % asymptomatic earlier.
The US stock market it not happy, they had priced in a relaxation of lockdown. But I would like to see positive cases/100k tests. More cases will be found due to more testing – so you must control for this in the denominator. That does not mean a second wave (although I do not rule one out). deaths will be less sensitive to testing – all-cause deaths less sensitive still. Wales data shows a similar effect, but prolonged rather than an upswing.
As for testing staff – if you work in any form of care facility, definitely. In an office without symptoms? Less certain.
The only people who merit any mass testing programme whatsoever are workers in medical and care environments.
“More cases will be found due to more testing – so you must control for this in the denominator.” That makes no sense at all. What difference does controlling the denominator make? It could be a million, 100K or 100. Makes no difference.
Think about it for a few seconds before you type.
I only have 100 tests and I use them all – I find 2 cases. The following week I have 200 tests and I use them all as well. I find 3 cases. Oh cases are going up! The ratio of tests to cases is 2/100 and then 3/200 – hmmm looks like the ratio is going down. That’s what we mean by prevalence – proportion of tested who are positive. You need the denominator.
In the beginning in hospitals, it is assumed that everyone who needs a test gets it and you find everyone (actually this may not have been completely true). Out in community testing, you need the denominator.
You’d have to be a very, very stupid person not to understand that – that a rise in the numerator does not necessarily mean there has been a rise in the percentage of positive tests or the absolute number of cases.
You’re not “controlling” the denominator in any way as you claimed – you’re just doing tests. And of course you “need” a denominator because that’s what a ratio involves!
“In the beginning in hospitals, it is assumed that everyone who needs a test gets it and you find everyone (actually this may not have been completely true).” That makes no sense either.
You needed a denominator in hospital as well, to understand the proportion of emergency admissions related to the new virus – important information.
I think what you might be struggling to communicate is that testing in hospitals is more diagnostic than epidemilogical in character. But of course diagnosis is still important in relation to community testing as well.
Exactly there are millions of people who are positive or who have had the virus that we will never know about.
On worldometet cases are climbing but deaths remain about the same which means that there is just more testing happening.
“you must control for this in the denominator”
Were you doing this when you concluded that cases in the UK were doubling every three days? That site I pointed you to suggested that it was not, in fact, doing that once the denominator was taken into account.
Surely the problem here is that, regardless of the comparative numbers, you’re still not comparing like to like. I’m not aware that California has had mass-population testing, so you’re comparing a set of tests where only people who have symptoms are being tested with a set of tests where everyone is being tested, symptoms or not. The latter says something potentially interesting about the prevalence of asymptomatic cases in the community on that day, but nothing about any possible increase in infections.
I still don’t understand why the frig anybody cares about asymptomatic cases.
We’ve all been walking around year in, year out, infected with numerous things and not showing any symptoms whatsoever. Why the hell does this benign virus suddenly have to change that?
Because for the scientists it’s the first Xmas present that Santa’s ever given them and they’re afraid he may never come back with another present. So they want to get the most out of this one present.
They really are loving this aren’t they. Maybe even more than the meedja
I think frauds posing as scientists would be a more accurate description.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/06/11/unnecessary_lockdowns_created_social_turmoil_global_suffering_143419.html
This article has many things about lockdown which are well known in this forum. However, there were two things which I haven’t noted earlier. Flu deaths increased in the US when the lockdown started, which is strange considering influenza spread as Covid-19. The other information that essential workers in New York city had lower seroprevalence for Covid-19 than the lockdown population. A bit surprising that they were not more infected due to their supposedly higher exposure than the lockdown population.
A strong suggestion that lockdowns increase the risk of infection or make the infection worse. This is backed up with the data showing flu deaths increasing after lockdown.
Call it confirmation bias but it certainly adds to my suspicions that government actions made the situation worse than it might have been.
Stands to reason. Lock healthy people up with unhealthy people with infectious diseases, healthy people get ill.
Rocket science, yeah.
Hmm… lack of Vitamin D due to being confined to their dwellings? New York doesn’t have as many open spaces as even London, so lack of sunlight could be quite a factor.
Exactly the same thing happened in Bergamo: health workers, considered at high risk, had lower seroprevalence than the general population, which had been in lockdown: https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2020/06/09/over-half-of-people-tested-in-italys-bergamo-have-covid-19-antibodies.html
“essential workers in New York city had lower seroprevalence for Covid-19 than the lockdown population”
Maybe it’s because they spend less time trapped inside, but I was speculating a couple of weeks ago as to whether supermarket workers would turn out to be less susceptible than many other people because of their constant, repeated low level exposure to so many viruses.
hi
Hi!
Hi
‘but it is RT, so treat with caution’- why pick on this source? these cautionary words should be added to every msm source you use
It’s here:
https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/an-anonymous-letter-from-a-uc-berkeley-history-professor-to-colleagues-calling-out-their-bullshit/
the letter by the anonymous history professor has been taken down. did you save a copy?
If they could work out it was him, he might well lose his job, so if he’s decided to withdraw his letter I think we should accept that. So if anyone does have a copy, I think they should keep it to themselves.
Tough one. He/she obviously wanted it to reach a wider audience. It really is an excellent summation of the situation, and should be widely read.
Very sadly, I think he/she has already done enough to get sacked just in writing the article.
Maybe not lose his job, but the article has been removed!!
Katie Hopkins talking about the young men who tried to protect the statue of Churchill in Parliament Square:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxvF0hWb8Qw
Especially 0:39 to 1:15
Powerful little speech and she raises some important points, though I suspect the “lads” weren’t as sweetly innocent as she makes out. I’m sure they’d gone prepared for a good scrap.
Can’t stand Churchill myself – come from what used to be a mining area – but I understand what his icon represents.
I don’t support violence of any description, including psychological and biological warfare – from which we’re all currently under attack.
Following my post on Perspectives on the Pandemic, Episode 9, yesterday (and the posts here on this subject of the day before that), in the interests of balance here’s what appears to be the beginning of a heated rebuttal of the nurse’s account:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4gGxRlzoKI
It’s difficult to know what to make of what happened in that hopsital. My initial feeling is that the truth has many sides.
But we are still left with the question: why, why was New York so bad?
It’s fascinating. The rebuttals of the nurse on ZDogg’s web site are not completely convincing. For example, a doctor writes:
“While it is true that some patients tested negative, those patients all had horrendously deranged inflammatory makers (with distributive shock on pressure) and chest x rays clearly demonstrating lung injury. In this case the responsible thing to do is to assume covid positive and give the available treatment.”
The impression is that someone with flu, for example, could easily be assumed to have Covid. I don’t know whether the treatments are different, but the doctors do seem to be following a narrative (or hysteria) where a patient who didn’t have the disease might easily contract it in hospital or be given the wrong treatment. As I mentioned the other day, here in the UK I knew someone who ended up in hospital in a coma on a ventilator in January as a result of flu. A month or two later, and she would presumably have been assumed to have Covid even if she had tested negative.
A friend challenged the video and asked how we know it’s genuine, as you should do. The nurse is anti vaccine, that much is true but unless she is going to make shed
loads off money somehow, then why make the video? Journeyman have a long history and would they risk their reputation? She makes very inflammatory comments that could get her in a lot of trouble if completely false but makes no effort to hide her identity. ZDogg has posted rebuttal videos of just about everything but I find him less convincing. The stories he posts from Elmhurst could be true but could be ass covering.
Will we ever know the truth? I doubt it.
Offlands and Barney M – thanks for both your replies.
I haven’t read Dr Z’s material yet, but will do so. Doubtless more rebuttals will follow, followed by rebuttals of the rebuttals; until without a proper inquiry all is lost in a mire of claim and counter-claim, and emotion. Pretty well standard for the whole covid debate right now.
I am confident (or want to be confident) that the great majority of the medical staff at that hospital were doing their best, at huge risk to themselves, in extremely difficult and distressing conditions – hence Dr Z’s anger.
But it also seems clear from the data that something has gone horribly wrong in New York, which of itself demands an explanation. The nurse’s account does at least offer something of a part explanation, which in turn lends it credibility.
As I posted yesterday, right now the best I can think is that the hospital – in common with almost every other institution, in the UK and US at least – appears to have been trapped in the narrative, established back in early March, of there being a tsunami of covid cases coming, which would overwhelm the hospitals and lead to medieval scenes of death and suffering. Given what was ‘obviously’ coming, normal standards of rationality and protocol would have to be abandoned.
Even when it became clear that the apocalyptic scenario was not going to be realised, these institutions have seemed unable to give up the original narrative. It’s as if they were actors in some pre-scripted play, in which they saw their parts – duty even – to fulfil and live up to that narrative, almost as a form of collective autosuggestion.
It’s as if as a society we have sought to create what we most fear.
I am not anti vaccine but I am anti mandatory vaccine and anti coercing people into having vaccines. All I have seen so far is this nurse campaigning against mandatory vaccine and coercion. Is she actually anti vaccine? Not all vaccines have the same risk/reward trade off.
A very valid point and the distinction is very important. I will try and find more information on her, the Zdogg post mentioned she has a website but I couldn’t find one. I shall search.
She was also not the first nurse to raise concerns about NYC:
https://vosizneias.com/2020/05/05/nurse-btearfully-claims-ny-hospitals-are-murdering-patients-with-complete-medical-mismanagement/
Erin does have a book coming out so financial gain may be an incentive. She appeared on Fox:
https://iotwreport.com/erin-marie-olszewski-on-tucker-carlson/
This article seems to suggest she is actually some sort of undercover intel agent:
http://cosmicconvergence.org/?p=35727
I need to reread to understand fully.
“Zdogg post mentioned she has a website”
In itself, that’s could be a very effective tactic. For sure, when I heard him say that I presumed it must be true, and my mind filled in the blanks: she’s something of a professional troublemaker with an axe to grind so treat her testimony with increased scepticism. It didn’t really occur to me that maybe she doesn’t have a web site.
I, too, am susceptible to the simplest tricks to smear someone.
I’ve spent a few minutes looking for her website. Given what a hot topic she is at the moment it would be pretty prominent in an internet search. Didn’t find anything.
Yet again, I wake up in this nightmare.
It’s getting worse, not better.
There is no end in sight, rumours of ‘a second wave and a winter lockdown.
The Cenotaph and Churchill’s statue has been boarding up in preparation for the far-left violent demonstrations.
And we are just taking it.
Are we so evil?
One thing,we could never afford a second lockdown it wont happen and people wont put up with one either,
The soaring unemployment rate and number of bankruptcies will see to that – lockdown and antisocial distancing will be discredited.
Yes, as the furlough unwinds, the utterly appalling damage will start to be revealed. Our politicians had better be ready to go down into the nuclear fallout bunkers!
From July onwards, companies will have to contribute more and I seriously doubt that many of them have the funds to do so hence its possible that we will be seeing loads of redundancies from next month.
Am still convinced that we will be seeing rioting before summer is over or from October onwards.
Which will bring in martial law. Someone please convince me that this wasn’t all part of the end game.
Hopefully that won’t happen as fingers crossed that people have already woken up to the fact that they have been taken for mugs.
I do wonder if some of the difficulty the govt has in rowing back from the scary messages put out at the outset could be because they turned to their own counter terrorism people to write them :
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/access-to-online-counter-terrorism-training-made-easier-for-home-users
The similarity in the messages, Stay Safe, Remain Vigilant a.k.a. Stay Alert, is noticeable.
Some of these videos would be worrying if they weren’t so hilarious.
We had to watch one of those for work.
It became known as “Run, Hide, Be Home in Time for Tea”.
Like ‘duck and cover’ to protect you from a nuclear attack
It’s all in the Coronavirus Bill, in black and white. Just like the Austrian Corporal said what he was going to do in Mein Kampf.
We never learn……
If they think BLM is causing them problems they haven’t seen anything yet.
Its not like we could afford the first lockdown. People have been happy to see 3 weeks turn into 3 months and have their business wiped out after being made illegal and many are still keen for more – why not 3 years?
Perhaps just my morning pessimist speaking but if I have learnt anything over the last 3 months its that the most the British public do not deserve the prosperity and liberty that was handed to them on a plate and are more then happy to give it all away.
Yes, but we weren’t and they’ve given away ours as well.
Yeah, we’re cushioned on here. It’s like we live on a sunny island and all around us it’s raining. I had occasion to write to the managing agents of the sheltered accommodation where my mother lives complaining that they have removed the chairs from the communal gardens when the elderly (well all of us) need their vitamin D. Conceding my point in her reply the area manager went on ‘but we have to do all we can to protect people from this awful, deadly virus.’ In other words this isn’t the flu or anything like it, it is the Black Death.
Don’t get my blood boiling by talking about jobsworths. I’ve had to deal with H&S crazies in my role as a resident in my flats. They’re bonkers and you can’t reason with them because of the ‘regs’. Bottom line, why would you do a job like that unless you were either stupid or desperate?. I’m old enough to remember a culture where you were encouraged to be creative in problem solving and use common sense.
Unfortunately there is still some people who think their wealth or situation (good pension, no mortgage or rent) will cushion them from the effects of the lockdown. Others think that our health should come first not the economy.
They forget that a healthy economy also means healthy people and as for those who think that their situation makes them immune, how will they react if the Treasury raids their pensions to pay for all the borrowing we’ve done to keep us afloat?
Pres Macron in France has reportedly said that there will be no second lockdown in France.
I really don’t think there’s appetite for a second nationwide lockdown, not after the damage this first one has done. The government knows it’s made a huge mistake, it just doesn’t want to admit it so it doubles down on it, making it look like it still agrees with lockdown.
Furthermore, by winter, I predict things will be much worse than they are now so people won’t want to adhere to a lockdown; they’ll have far bigger fish to fry. The furlough scheme will have ended and the economic reality will be finally biting. Scary reports today in the BBC of the economy contracting by 20.4% in April, and that’s just the start. I imagine there will also be much more illness going around this winter, what with NHS waiting lists growing to unprecedented levels and once the consequences of locking up healthy people and making them live unnaturally for months finally start to manifest.
When more and more people are unemployed, unwell, and on the brink, they won’t give a single s**t about observing lockdown – the thing which made them lose everything in the first place.
More illness(the mutated second wave!), NHS overwhelmed – sounds like the perfect ingredients for another lockdown.
I think you give the British public too much credit. They’ll be installing their immunity passports and queuing up for their questionable vaccine and will be more then happy to continue to violate your natural rights. Anything to save the NHS!
That is what worries me – that the ‘plan’ is to wear the people down so much that they will readily accept tracing, immunity passports etc. Especially people who have lost their jobs, if there are new laws which only allow people to work if they have an immunity passport
And those jobs will be tantamount to slavery I’m guessing
Poppy, I was watching a financial video a week or so ago and it was saying one outcome of this is that a proportion of people will be a lot more frugal. They will minimise spending. Try and save more. Buy guns and ammo (in the US).
They will also simplify their diet, look after themselves and try and maintain health without pills and the like. So yes maybe more vitamins and simpler foods. With the odd extravagance.
As Nassim Taleb calls it: The Barbell strategy.
This is what the Preppers do. So it looks like a few more will start to do it
What they were saying is that it doesn’t need a lot of people to do this for it to have amplifying effects on the economy.
This time of frugality was coming anyway due to the Everything Bubble of the stock market, but the Covid nonsense has caused it to happen in a very short time.
That little change will have large effects going down the road and a reaction to it may be even more draconian laws with subsequent public reactions.
The thing I find ironic is that I grew up in the Troubles, where Northern Ireland had Emergency Powers to detain people and basically come into people’s homes and do all sorts. There was also a bias in against Catholics. Phone lines were bugged (but we all knew that). You were distrustful of the police and army. You put your head down and avoided the more fervent people.
I moved to England 20 years ago loving the fact that none of this crap was happening in the mainland. Well, welcome to Northern Ireland.
You can guess what will happen if this continues for many more months.
If I’m right about the end game then they (the c u next Tuesdays) will have thought of that.
No we’re not evil they are.
We or They?
There’s evil by action and evil by complicity.
Yes, just as we meekly accept the hounding and sacking of traditionalists for expressing perfectly legitimate opinions, that we should be at least requiring respect for as such even if people might choose to disagree with them.
What I am struck by is the similar response to expressing heresy on either coronapanic or BLM. In both cases there is often a general and very evident discomfort in the listener, and a clear feeling on their part, sometime openly expressed, sometimes not, that you are saying actually nasty things. Uncaring, selfish things, even perhaps criminal things in the case of anti-BLM because of the way we have allowed speech to be criminalised in the area of race.
The result is both socially costly, and dangerous for anyone active in the public sphere, because you will not be defended if you lose employment or face aggressive action against you.
These are both modern plagues, and we are probably weak to both for culturally similar reasons, but I feel that while the coronapanic is doing more short term damage, the BLM hysteria is more dangerous longer term. It is a brewing Cultural Revolution, and the kind of zealots who seek to destroy symbols of resistance to their dogma and drag down anyone who dissents from it are exactly the kinds of people it is most necessary to stand up to. We are doing the opposite of standing up to them. Our leaders are kowtowing to them, and those who might resist are being picked off, alone and largely unsupported, because nobody is prepared to properly resist the underlying premises.
My husband emailed me this link yesterday (not sure why he had to email it when he’s only working upstairs!!) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Olds
Though I know a little about the Cultural Revolution in China, I hadn’t realised how it started. It all sounds scarily familiar.
Yeah,the Taliban and Daesh have been pretty adept at destroying cultural artefacts so it’s only right that we show our tolerance by following suit. Statues are art, so look to the censoring of plays next. Then the burning of books, lah di dah. And if some moron claims that me defending art means that I am defending colonialism just go and do one now. I’m all for the merits of debating the appropriateness of whether the damn things should be there, but I’m not in favour of wilful and indiscriminate destruction. I have solid links with the theatre and there was a time when all plays had to be submitted to the Lord Chancellor for possible censorship before getting a pass. That’s why playwrights came up with dialogue such as “Kin ‘el” so the dickhead censors wouldn’t get it. There was mighty relief when that censorship was abolished. but, hey, we’ve come full circle.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53019360
UK economy shrinks record 20.4% in April due to lockdown
I am pleased that the BBC is starting to change its language – the economy didn’t shrink ‘due to the pandemic’, but ‘due to lockdown’. The MSM tide is clearly turning.
However, this sort of figure would make shockwaves around the world and be completely terrifying if it were recorded in any normal time. It still is terrifying.
And yet here we are, still hiding behind our sofas, denying children the right to an education, single people the right to a physical human relationship, denying the right to freedom of movement and travel, denying the right to any normal life, scared of a virus which kills a very specific subset of the population who can be protected with less stringent measures, and which has an IFR on par with seasonal flu.
Collective psychosis. It’s like living through a really s**t Derren Brown experiment.
Poppy, I feel exactly the same
Agreed Poppy
Well said and agree with you that the MSM tide is clearly turning.
That is a worrying figure and Lord knows what the unemployment figures are like.
Worrying?It’s bloody cataclysmic.
Another ‘Christ’ from Ballless Boris perhaps?
Just goes to show how much our politicians live in La-la land
“The MSM tide is clearly turning” – no chance! If I had a pound for every time this has been said in the comments on this blog I’d be a rich man.
Every MSM outlet is still very much pro-lockdown (even the Daily Mail), turn on any TV channel today and it will all be about COVID-19, they can’t get enough of it as the majority of people in this country believe it.
They only produce articles that look sceptical once in a blue moon, and the reason for this is that if they are accused of being biased, then they can point to this one article to show that they gave the opinions of both sides.
Given how bad the MSM were in March/April, I definitely think it’s turning, just too slowly. But we still haven’t reached the nadir of the economic fallout yet so just you wait.
And bear in mind that the MSM have a captive audience right now – everyone stuck at home with everything closed, no information as to when this hell will end, so people will turn on the news and watch. Of course all they’re talking about is Covid [cash register noise].
Exactly Poppy; I feel as though I am in a living nightmare.
… the BBC is starting to change its language – the economy didn’t shrink ‘due to the pandemic’, but ‘due to lockdown’. The MSM tide is clearly turning.
That’s music to my ears. It will make such a difference – but it’s going to have to do it quickly. So much damage done just by so few words.
The only reason for this change will be that Boris created the lockdown – he didn’t create the pandemic. They want us to blame the “Tories”, even though Labour wanted an even stronger and earlier lockdown.
I think the most disturbing thing (and I refuse to be terrified by any of it) is that it now seems glaringly obvious that this is one big power grab. I’m not suggesting the virus was designed and released deliberately at a certain time – that would be too much for me to entertain conspiracy wise – but that this is opportunistic and they are using it to create more totalitarian societies across the globe. And particularly us. I was struck by Miriam’s discovery somewhere here that the WHO’s second biggest funder after Gates is the UK, which explains the WHO’s u-turn on masks. The mask thing is my biggest concern: it’s an overt sign of submission and I can see a time when those who refuse to wear one are treated as pariahs and eventually fined and then imprisoned. This despite the fact that they are more dangerous to your health than not wearing one. We need to keep on banging that message out there.
Political leaders are supreme opportunists. You don’t have to be a conspiracy theorists to see that it was in the interests of some leaders to support lockdown. Sturgeon for instance has used it to boost the Scottish independence cause, or at least has tried to do so.
What’s worse are all the comments under the news stories saying it’s nothing to worry about, it’s to be expected, the economy will recover etc.
It reminds me of the end scene in Some Like it Hot when Jack Lemon’s character Daphne reveals he’s a man who’s been pretending to be a woman. And Osgood who’s been wooing her simply shrugs it off “Well, nobody’s perfect”.
Well done British Airways, easyJet and Ryanair. Hope you win!
https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-ba-easyjet-and-ryanair-launch-legal-action-over-govts-quarantine-policy-12005185
Is that the “Don’t mention the war!” episode? The country has gone stark staring bonkers.
It is and yes, it is.
You can get all episodes on Netflix….unless they pull them too.
get a firestick, add downloader app,. then download cinema app… everything is there… and free. instructions on interweb.. i am finally doing Game of Thrones. surprised thats not been banned. !!!!
it is specifically because of the section where Major Gowan explains the different names for the West Indies cricketers and the Indian cricketers. and of course the Racism industry doesnt understand the nuances. What this is demonstrating is the prewar racist bigotted attitude of Major Gowan and his type, which it does very well. So the joke is Gowan. But that is ignored. It is like “Till death do us part”. Alf garnett and his attitudes was always the butt of the joke And in Love thy neighbour again it was the racist white man played by Jack Smedley who came off worse and was shown as ignorant. But this goes over the head of the BLM and BBC.
Note i have no excuses for “Mind your language” though
There is also an important scene in now banned, Gone with the Wind (near the end), when Scarlett gives the black butler her dead father’s treasured watch, telling him her father would have wanted him to have it. It signals something very profound. Perhaps the ‘woke’ virtue signallers of today can’t grasp that!
I love Gone With The Wind
Ditto. I have to confess to never having been a great reader of anything other than facts and factual texts – I am a scientist by background. However, me and my scientist husband had to assist elder son with his English A level (schools should do it, but that’s another story) so we had to do our own crash course in the basics of literary criticism and read various books. One of his course books was Streetcar Named Desire. I was struck by Elia Kazan’s casting of the ageing Vivien Leigh as the Southern Belle, having just watched Gone With the Wind. She was an extraordinary actress.
We were having some discussion yesterday in my institute about how to try and restart a science program. The latest madness, as part of ‘Level 3’ operations is we won’t be able to use wet laboratories for 72 hours after someone has been in there, and have apparently been banned from using strong bases/acids. We can’t operate like this. The health and safety Nazis are loving this, it’s the gift that keeps on giving. And we are two departments down from the minister, good grief. To think private companies are meant to earn a living in this environment?
Coronavirus: Isle of Man to scrap social distancing ruleshttps://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-isle-of-man-53001567
Somebody must be first
That’s the ticket! They probably don’t want (or deserve) a load of English refugees pitching up and pushing up property prices, but it’s a tempting thought – no language barrier for a start.
Bear in mind that IoM are idiosyncratic, but that doesn’t mean they are necessarily any less insane than the rest of the British Isles, and in fact they have been far worse on this particular insanity:
Coronavirus Isle of Man: Man jailed for accepting a lift to the chemist’s
The island can operate in a sane manner – but they’re completely cut off from the rest of the world.
Here in France, the Wuflu seems to be an endangered species – headline in yesterday’s La Depeche (regional paper) “Le coronavirus est-il sur le point de disparaître en France ?”
(Is the coronavirus about to disappear in France?)
As of yesterday there were less than 1000 people in intensive care nationally, continuing the steady decline over the month since “deconfinement” began.
Only 16 of the 20,000 tests in our region have been positive in the last week. How many of those were false positives, I wonder.
However, the fear propaganda has really hit home. Example: a runner friend, who was happy to stop for a fairly lengthy chat during lockdown exercise periods, not always at at an antisocial distance, passed us yesterday with a sort of ‘leper swerve’, at the same time raising her muzzle. Unnerving and leaves an unpleasant feeling.
Restaurants are mostly open, with the weird rule that muzzles must be worn while entering or moving about but can be removed while seated. Exactly what you do with the – ostensibly virus-infested – muzzle in between, and how you sanitise your hands after handling it, is not clear.
Face covering to save face?
Meanwhile headlines at the BBC,desperate to keep the whole thing running: Coronavirus doctor’s diary: ‘People think it’s over, but it’s not’
https://twitter.com/ChroniLyme/status/1271140199674888195
Quite important. Le Figaro was clear MSM and supporter of Macron and the lockdown. Perhaps they are changing now.
Now publishing from a new book by Prof Perronne. The title seems spot on(if I translate it correctly)
“Is there a mistake they have not done? The holy union between the incompetence and the arrogance”
That’s a rather bizarre rule isn’t it given that many doctors have said that’s one of the reasons why they not effective – constantly adjusting them means that the muzzle is inhibiting your breathing.
At this rate, I can see why a lot of restaurants and cafes have gone bust.
Don’t see why not.
Possible mention in the local press, with accompanying publicity ?
Please, please do. They are unsanitary. I posted yesterday that I saw an interview where a doctor said you can breathe in your own viruses (we harbour about ten million of them) and activate them. So if it’s Sars-Cov-2 you’re in trouble. Perhaps a sign in your window saying they’re more dangerous than not wearing them. (Maybe not, you’d get lynched by the thought police.)
Maybe you should. Or a sign that says “Contrary to popular belief, wearing masks is hazardous to your health”
Was talking to a client/friend in Munich the other day. Same, utterly baffling rule around restaurants there too.
I wonder whether, when the reopen the pubs, you’ll have to put your mask back up in between every swig of beer.
Make a small hole big enough for a straw to suck through
I’m joking of course. 
Our town council is handing out free masks to the over 60’s, maybe to help the makers get rid of their embarrassing over-production.(French muzzle-wearers apparently prefer Chinese-made single-use (!) masks to the washable cloth ones made in France.)
?v=1
Interesting photo in our local paper today – showing my 80-year-old neighbour (and local councillor) carefully observing antisocial distancing (not) as he poses to receive his free masks in the Mairie (council offices).
But nobody is muzzled. Hope the photographer was
https://www.springfieldmo.gov/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=6939
“The Springfield-Greene County Health Department is encouraged to report that the incubation period has passed from those potentially exposed from Great Clips. No clients of either stylist nor additional coworkers contracted COVID-19 as a result.
Two stylists had tested positive after working at the Great Clips at 1864 S. Glenstone Ave, potentially exposing 140 clients and six other coworkers. No additional clients or coworkers tested positive.
Testing was offered to all those potentially exposed, and 46 people pursued testing—all came back negative. Regardless of testing, all potentially exposed were quarantined for the duration of their exposure period.”
This is an impressive experiment in a way. The stylists worked with masks during illness and the hair salon was following other guidelines.
When are the hairsalons going to be opened in the UK?
My hairdresser phoned yesterday to say she was planning to open on July 4th. I was offered an appointment for July 9th which I accepted gratefully-my husband’s hair cutting skills are just not up to scratch! I have to take a carrier bag in which to put any coat or handbag and use hand sanitiser when going in (they were already doing this the week before lockdown) and whereas they will be wearing masks/visors, the wearing of masks by clients is optional otherwise I wouldn’t be going. She did tell me that quite a lot of clients had told her the same thing.
You have to use a carrier bag for your coat or handbag ?,well that’s a new one,another level of lunacy,but what about a carrier bag to put that carrier bag in etc,etc…
How does she know this? Haven’t heard anything myself.
No idea. It’s been in the media quite a lot about hairdressers not being able to open until at least July 4th. I suppose she is ringing round her clients, trying to be pro-active and positive. It certainly made me feel better anyway!
You can probably set up an extension of your business at this rate.
Me too!!
I look fireard to the day you buy up their business. Or put the lid on it?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OodlihNmcqI
Tucker Carlson Tonight 11/6/20
Watch this (before it gets deleted) from 21 minutes in, regarding the CV19 outbreak in NYC, and in particular the hospitals there. Patients with and without CV19 were nursed together, and anyone who questioned it were sent home.
Note in particular the date of Cuomo’s edict about CV19 patients.
Infecting non-CV19 patients wasn’t a bug, it was a feature.
Sounds like deliberate global manslaughter to me.
Already censored? “This video is private”
Saw this elsewhere. In light of todays 20% GDP contraction thought it was pertinent.
If Prof. Ferguson was running an investment fund:
Invest 1 trillion pounds with Ferguson Asset Management and you would be left with £2.11
2002 For BSE the prediction was 50,000, reality 177. You are left with £3,540,000,000
2005 For Bird Flu his prediction was 200,000,000, reality 282. You are left with £4,991.40
2009 For Swine Flu his prediction was 65,000, reality 457. You are left with £35.09
2020 For Covid-19 his prediction was 510,000, reality 30,615. You are left with £2.11
This week I decided to re-watch The Crown on Netflix. I get to Series One Ep 4, ‘Act of God’, and think I’m either on drugs or this is uncanny. It covers the health crisis that was the great smog of the 1950s and parallels abound as the Tory government can’t handle the crisis and run about like headless chickens, Churchill as PM being a useless bumbling idiot. And the opposition (Atlee) reluctant to challenge. In one sequence at an overwhelmed hospital a doctor yells (not verbatim) ‘Masks don’t work, it’s just the government trying to be seen to be doing something.’ Given that I have been banging on about masks in these pages for the last couple of days I was rather touched. A caption at the end reads that about 12,000 people died in the four days. So this poxy virus is chicken feed. (I’m being facetious before someone tries to chop my head off.)
That was a good episode and you’re right it shows how governments were clueless in dealing with public health incidents! I’m surprised this hasn’t been mentioned more in the media.
That was the Russian Flu and its now widely accepted that’s the reason why a huge number of old and middle aged people survived the Spanish flu as they’ve developed an immunity when they were younger to that strain.
Toby, in the Round Up section, you refer to an article in RT and add the rider – RT so treat with caution. Do you really think that RT is any more unreliable than say the BBC, the NYT, Der Spiegel, etc?
What he thinks is irrelevant. The warning is there because if you try to cite an RT article in an argument, or forward one to someone, the source will make most people think “kremlin disinformation” regardless of what the story is. If we want our case beleived we typically don’t use RT to back it up.
If RT said “the sun will rise tomorrow”, most people would think that Putin has a missile which coud not only reach the sun from earth easily* but dump something into the stellar core to cease the fusion reaction.
*Quicker and with more payload than ESA’s solar orbiter or NASA’s Parker probe
Interesting read:
“Would You Stand up to an Oppressive Regime or Would You Conform? Here’s the Science”
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/would-you-stand-up-to-an-oppressive-regime-or-would-you-conform-here-s-the-science?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB
“the atrocities of the Holocaust were made possible by normal people, manipulated into conforming to a horribly abnormal set of behavioural norms”
“it may be that those who have the most to lose and/or are keen to climb the social ladder are particularly likely to conform”
“What drives forward fights against an oppressive society is a rival vision – a vision of equality, liberty and justice, and a sense that these should be defended, whatever the consequence”
“What drives forward fights against an oppressive society is a rival vision – a vision of equality, liberty and justice, and a sense that these should be defended, whatever the consequence”
Well, in our case, the ‘nice people’ all want a more authoritarian government, and for different ‘identities’ to be favoured or maligned based on nothing more than skin colour or sex.
And anyone who genuinely might fight for equality, liberty and justice is painted as more-or-less a n*zi. Is it possible to fight for those good things if even educated, virtuous, responsible people think they’re fascistic?
58% of 3672 adults surveyed? How is that most Brits?
They ask daily questions and I suggest we start voting to get some real opinions there. Today’s is “DO YOU AGREE WITH THE IDEA OF ‘SUPPORT BUBBLES”?
https://yougov.co.uk/opi/myfeed/#/all
Ooooo, it then lets you answer previous questions – this is going to be fun!
If you refresh the screen you get a whole new batch too.
Those who want to keep 2m may do so, leave the rest of us to get on with it
They must have asked another OR question: ‘do you want to keep the 2m distance rule or do you want to see people die?’
Thanks for the link. I wondered who these people are who get asked and come up with weird opinions that no way reflect mine.
A telling one is: How concerned are you about your personal finances over the next 12 months?
Scarily, the majority have voted Not very concerned.
These are no doubt the ones who want to perpetuate lockdown indefinitely. They’ll maybe wake up when there’s no salad or tenderstem in Waitrose. Let’s hope they don’t wait till there’s no electricity.
Having said that, I saw the bubbles question. There is no nuance. The one that invites you to say yes because you want to go and see your family also makes you accept the bubbles in the first place. You are really left only with the Don’t know box to tick.
Double edged sword. Sneaky stuff – as surveys usually are.
Exactly – of course I support the measure because I’ve gone 3 months without seeing my boyfriend, but I also don’t support the measure because I don’t support the lockdown full stop and just want a normal, unrestricted life…!
Just gone to the site. It asks you if you want to stay and answer more question – going to have fun with this!
These surverys are a complete waste of time as they only survey people inside, online. A survey conducted in the high street with a clipboard and pen of an audience who are happy to talk to strangers (at 2m apart for the sake to avoid overcorrection) would produce a different result
I am not sure whether posted before but indeed shocking.
March-17th to April 15th
“25000 persons were discharged from hospitals to care homes. It is not known how many had Covid-19.”
This is from national audit office UK.
Why was it not known? Covid-19 test existed at that time. Is it known but suppressed information?
Probably most likely incompetence and not tested at all and in a panic to save the NHS killing our care homes instead.
https://twitter.com/ericn131/status/1271367088398106625/photo/1
Haven’t checked the original information nao but doubt that this report is incorrect.
https://www.aier.org/urgent-report-on-pandemics-and-freedom/
Page down through this report from the American Institute for Economic Research and discover that the lockdown and ‘social distancing’ have their origin in a plan by 3 people from 2006. The plan was opposed by the medical profession and others but got accepted anyway has US policy. The Institute is still trying to find out how that happened.
So there has been plenty of time to plan the details. Given that transferring sick patients into care homes is so obviously wrong, and that many care homes tried to prevent it, this points to it being a deliberate policy.
This paper from D.G. Rancourt concurs:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341832637_All-cause_mortality_during_COVID-19_No_plague_and_a_likely_signature_of_mass_homicide_by_government_response
He is in discussion with Jim Larsen about the paper:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fublYhEc_Xo
I would not have given him any! Why should you help Starbucks get customers? Find other small businesses and sell to them instead…
This was recommended by someone on Twitter. I think Littlejohn is spot on:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8412783/Britannia-teetering-brink-anarchy-national-emergency-says-Richard-Littlejohn.html
Especially this:
and this:
Someone should really throw cold water on this lot. It’s appalling how people are sleepwalking into economic and political Armageddon.
Home Secretary Pritti Flamingo …
Ah yes, the Priti Useless one.
you could take these black kids out the ghetto waste a fortune on them in private schools and most of them will still be thick as fuck. Tired of people defending these type of people. Work and look out for yourself and stop blaming others because you’re to thick to do anything more than steal trainers, take drugs and say init bruth. No one owes you jack shit in this life, something a lot of people seem to have forgotten
Get them interested in science and to a half-decent FE college then a decent uni and they’ll stop using that foul word “init”, (or use it only as short for initialisation if they end up on a computing course). Doesn’t need to cost a fortune if we sack all the managers involved in adding piels of paperwork to both education and later employment. We need to recognise that people can be brought out of the ghetto with a bit of a push and some hard work, and that lockdown is trapping them there. Undoubtedly some people will want a whole life of drugs, theft and “innit”, but if we keep everyone locked down we want be able to save those who don’t want that.
More studies on T-cell immunity. This one from Singapore. Just one of many that seem to be coming out now supporting the idea.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8412807/Can-cold-coronavirus-immunity.html
Even Stephen Powis just mentioned other forms of possible immunity in today’s briefing.
Good morning Hell. I am now becoming convinced that I have died without my knowledge and I have been inducted into Hades for some undeclared crime. The Toby Young of Lockdown Skeptics is a hologram, the real Toby Young is still living in the United Kingdom on planet Earth which is going through a painful transition from EU membership to independence. All is going to plan, though there are concerns about the effect that leaving the EU will have on the economy, and Jolyon Maugham-Fox is still abusing wild animals. John Pretty, RIP.
As I woke this morning I was surprised to feel fear coursing through my arteries. Despite my feeling I still seemed to be in a good humour. How strange, I thought. My only drug is Lockdown Skeptics and the caffeine in my tea, but I was reminded that morphine apparently works not by eliminating pain, but by somehow fooling the brain into not being distressed in any way by pain.
Anyway, well, I’m not in any physical pain.
I may be awoken, but I am still not woke – or so it would seem. On a semi-serious note I have been thinking of the nature of being offended. I had an exchange with another skeptic here a couple of weeks ago and politely asked the person to “leave me alone”. I couldn’t handle it. I was wounded by a suggestion that I might be fond of bitter. Well, generally I preferred lager, but these days it’s strictly tea. I don’t drink. “#tea man”
I don’t know if I was inherently sensitive or whether it’s more that I didn’t have the mental tools to deal with “offenders”. I can recall the painful memory of being called “baldie” by a giggling teenage girl on a bus when I was in my twenties. As far as I was concerned this was a reminder that I was deeply unattractive. I felt exposed and embarrassed. I am still single.
I do believe in free speech, but there are difficulties with it. We maybe need as a society (if we have any such a beast left) to acknowledge some of these difficulties.
I don’t believe in “safe” spaces – I don’t want to be protected. I am challenged on how to deal with feeling offended. But I needed first to understand that I could deal with it. It is no accident that those who desire the comfort of safe spaces these days are often barely adults. They just don’t realise that there is another way.
There’s no problem with free speech if it is laced with kindness but, so far, there doesn’t seem to be an epidemic of kindness. Got the vaccine for that.
“My only drug is Lockdown Skeptics…” Describe it like that an maybe the left-wing hippies will want to take some of our views, at last!
From Lockdown San Francisco .Drastic way of getting rid of the homeless without the scrutiny of MSM from a PC type of city administration?
Total death Covid-19: 42
Over 300 people overdosed in SF IN 2019. We are in pace to double that this year. Covid-19 is not even close to the health risk that drug overdoses are in this city.
https://twitter.com/CharlieDonahue4/status/1271323497411645443
Big move of position from the Republic of Ireland
The Republic of Ireland will not enter full lockdown again even if there is a second wave of the virus, the country’s chief medical officer says – despite EU health experts warning that further lockdowns could be needed.
Dr Tony Holohan says that as the country knows more about Covid-19 than it did in March, when restrictions were first introduced, it will be able to take a different course.
“I wouldn’t be anticipating at this point in time that we would move back to blanket closures in the way we did in March,” he told Irish state broadcaster RTE.
“People understand more about the disease, the risks and how they can protect themselves when it comes to hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette.
“If a resurgence of the disease happened or a second wave, we would know what specific measures to take, having done our work proactively.”
All together now – Sweden!!!
Good news – slowly but surely. Another crack in the dam.
Yes, the Americans and the French have said this too.
Our government is so invertebrate that I wouldn’t be surprised if they even refused to reassure the public that there won’t be another lockdown, because that would be an admission that they failed spectacularly with the first one.
Everyone knows the cost of lockdown isn’t worth it. There are better options, they just won’t come out and say it directly.
Sadly, I think lockdowns are an excellent option if one is implementing a tyrannical new form of government. Hence the regularly changing rationale/focuses, disregard for the economy and education system, several bizarre laws and projects, and total MSM complicity.
And now the unelected government wants laws to get “violent” protesters “tried” and jailed in under 24 hours, we can imagine that “violence” will mean any cause the government disapproves of.
These EU ‘health experts’ are something else since they seem to have no idea of the effects of lockdown on health. Maybe some of these ‘experts’ should stand up to be counted
Found this on twitter, kh1485, you might want this for your cafe:
You’re welcome. This is the source:
https://twitter.com/DouglasCarswell/status/1270746347638046721
That’s brilliant, thanks.
Great! will definitely use this
Excellent!
I’ve noticed that the people who wear masks (whom I always give a very wide berth) can often be seen fiddling with the mask around their nose and face. Touching your nose and face is a classic way of spreading or acquiring infections. It’s the wearing of the mask which encourages this frequent finger-face contact.
Saw that a lot today. And this woman whose breathing was so harsh that her mask was becoming wet with her own saliva.
That’s very bad. That’s why this muzzle wearing should be dropped.
Nice one Bart,I could have done with that a couple of hours ago at Aldi,the idiots in their masks were really getting my back up,I especially like the ones that were driving with them on !.I think I might print a few copies of this and put them in the trolleys and baskets at Aldi next time I go.
You know the Masketeers will simply call people selfish for only thinking of themselves upon seeing this.
Someone I know keeps posting those “I wear a mask because I care for your health”, it was so bad that I had to unfollow her.
Another study from last month meanwhile has found evidence up to 60% of people may be partially resistant to SARS-COV-2 without ever being exposed to it.
Importantly, we detected SARS-CoV-2-reactive CD4+ T cells in ∼40%–60% of unexposed individuals, suggesting cross-reactive T cell recognition between circulating “common cold” coronaviruses and SARS-CoV-2.
In other words, large numbers of people may be immune or resistant to this virus because they have already been infected by other coronaviruses.
This may not be surprising, given the close relationship between most coronaviruses, but it is a further indicator that this virus, known to be harmless in the vast majority of cases, is neither especially unique nor especially dangerous.
The evidence continues to mount that the original estimates of the danger posed by this virus were massively exaggerated.
Massively exaggerated? You dont say! It’s pointless showing this to my MP I’m done communicating with her as she is very much
Hey, I’d like to be paid 7 times my measly state pension to sit around doing
I knew it. Flattening the curve wasn’t enough. The plan is complete suppression/eradiction of the virus just because it’s been done in other countries.
Yes, I’d noticed that recently the goal seems to be complete eradication. I suspect the economy will be long gone before thay achieve that.
I’d like to say they are idiots but I fear it’s more sinister than that. They certainly come up with ever more far-fetched reasons to maintain antisocial-distancing.
I think in Scotland it may be a pretext to force some issues regarding Independence.
What happens if it’s eradicated in Scotland but not England and it’s decided we need to isolate like New Zealand? Close the Scotland/England border? If that’s not allowed then is it a case for Independence?
Devi Sridhar tweeted:
“Elimination is a journey, not a fixed point in time, but progress towards this goal will allow restrictions to be eased safely & elderly/vulnerable groups to feel cared for & valued”
So unless it’s eradicated there can be no easing of restrictions. If it’s not eradicated in England as well then it will be their fault we can’t ease restrictions in Scotland. Another case for independence?
She doesn’t give a s**t about the health or wellbeing of the Scottish people. She just wants to see news reports about herself, like those about Jacinda Arden, looking smug and doing her ‘little happy dance’ because she’s eradicated the virus in Scotland. It’s all about her.
While also eradicating the economy and the life prospects of millions.
It’s actively in her interests to damage the Scottish economy to the greatest extent possible. The devolved government does not have responsibility for the economy (nor for paying for furlough in Scotland) and so can be blamed on Westminster, making it easier to point the finger and say “all our problems are their fault” when pushing for another independence referendum.
Can England have one too?
She is out of her tiny mind.
She knows exactly what she’s doing She’s a shill.
This morning I thought I detected some light at the end of the tunnel. One of my favourite coffee shops reopened a week ago and, while I was waiting for my takeaway long black, the owner and I discussed the chances of ditching the two metre nonsense and getting back to the old normal.
Then I got home and all my hopes were dashed because those medical experts Nicola “The Surgeon” Sturgeon and “Jawbreaker” Jason Leitch have a plan and the plan cannot be deviated from. It doesn’t matter that Scotland has fewer than 600 confirmed cases in hospital. It doesn’t matter that (a fortnight after the scenes on Portobello beach that made the FM feel like crying) Scotland has had only 127 positive tests in the last seven days (down 50% from a week ago). It doesn’t matter that of the approximately 1000-1100 people who have died in Scotland this week only 33 of them had tested positive for covid we have to stick to the plan because we’re only a sneeze away from the apocalypse.
Just looking at the long range weather forecast and it’s pretty crap, rain ,rain and more rain cant see many pubs bothering to open then.
And I think the mood of the people will get steadily worse now the days of endless sunshine are fast disappearing.
It’s going to be a long hard road ahead can see many people really suffering with their mental health a d suicides increasing
We must break this lock down soon and try to get back to normal.
Hopefully with the use of marquees etc pubs will be able to use their imagine as to what constitutes to being outside.
More expense though.
I’d wondered what effect the weather would have. If Boris doesn’t grow a pair pronto and make some sensible and useful (to the people!!) decisions, things could get very ugly.
And those who thought it is a bad idea to fly will suddenly change their minds and want quarantine reversed so that they can head off to sunnier climates after all
Yes, we have to, but so many people have bought into the death cult, complicit in the suicide of the nation.
Reasoned argument doesn’t work when the hysteria is so deep.
At least you will only be going on holiday with people who don’t give a crap about Covid
The crap weather would render antisocial distancing and face masks useless.
I think there will be an increase in low level violence as frustrated communters and customers take it out on transport and retail staff as they are forced to queue and wait in the pouring rain or howling wind.
ha ha
P45-2020 Virus Epidemic
The P45-2020 virus is incredibly complex, to thrive it requires a number of other Viruses to align – to do ‘the right thing at the right time’
P45-2020 sneaks in hidden in the shadow of an extremely overestimated virus, in this case Covid-19. Covid-19 is a nasty cold that, like the Flu can be deadly to extremely ill people but, is only a tiny danger to the, little understood but incredible, human immune systems of the healthy population.
For Covid-19 to be useful to P45-2020 it needs to be blown out of all proportion by a number of other viruses – to create an irrational hysterical herd insanity amongst the healthy population.
The virus chain….
Firstly, the Brainwash the Masses Virus uses national media outlets (that once reported non-bias news with the help of investigative journalism) that produce selective sensationalist drama very loosely based on fact, they call this ‘news’ and include drama outlets like BBC ‘news’, Sky ‘news’, ‘etc’. These ‘news’ outlets ‘report’ Covid-19 in a selective sensationalist way to keep viewers watching. An unintended consequence is to creates an atmosphere of irrational hysterical fear amongst the healthy population. A massive red pulsating, horror provoking, invisible killer image of a Covid-19 Virus (actual size 0.0001mm diameter) is employed for the brainwashing.
(Initially the population political ‘leadership’ follow the time tested and natural herd immunity treatment where the vulnerable in the population are screened while the healthy population acquire herd immunity. Once the healthy have achieved herd immunity then the vulnerable are protected as the disease can no longer spread….)
Secondly, the Academic Modelling Incompetence (AMI) Virus produces ‘BS Science’ – future predictors who once read; crystal balls, cloud formations, goats entrails, etc are used to incorrectly predict the future, modern computer based complex modelling is used as the traditional nonsense was deemed out dated and less believable by the generally gullible. The carriers of the AMI Virus have embedded themselves in once excellent institutions of learning like Imperial College London, taking on the form of Intelligent Professors, and destroying these places from within. Unfortunately, though these institutions are now disfunctional they still keep their completely undeserved credibility.
Thirdly, the Gutless – Focus Group Lead- Leadership (GF-GL-L) Virus (the title is mis-leading as it requires the population ‘leaders’ to definitely not posses any form of leadership qualities what so ever – in this case a bumbling buffoon columnist and a bag carrier, with other various cling-ons and being advised by a goblin). Under pressure from; a) the mass hysterical cries from the petrified population of ‘something must be done’, b) threats from the leader of France, c) ‘the science’ – a theoretical production of gibberish and nonsense claiming we are all going to die (AMI Virus) – Lead the population’s ‘leaders’ into PANIC and to lockdown the country for no good scientific reason, and with no thought of the deadly unintended consequences. It is important for the G-FGL-L Virus infection in the ‘leadership’ not to be effected by any evidence based real science – which, in this case has been incredibly successful as, for political face-saving and certainly not a shred of real scientific evidence reasons, the lockdown stays in place as the Covid-19 ‘nasty cold’ disappears of its own design (possibly through herd immunity).
It is at this point – as an ICL ‘Professor’ might say – the stars have aligned – for the host economy to collapse and the P45-2020 Virus to reek deadly havoc through the once healthy population, leaving no one to look after the few remaining vulnerable (due to inadequate/non-existent shielding).
There have been theories that the Covid19 Virus was developed in a Chinese laboratory, but these were discredited as the covid19 turned out to be a rubbish bio-weapon as it only effected the frail old and the extremely ill.
Crazy though…The P45-2020 Virus is surely far too complex to have been developed by communist minds, possibly disguised by scientists and professors
Conclusion….
Later, it was decided by the survivors of the self-inflicted economic holocaust, that a referendum should take place with one simple question;
Should the UK state become; a) communist or b) fascist
Anyways – good luck all….
note – P45 is a bit of paper your emplyer will give you when you are told you are no longer needed
Yes, can we give out a few to deserving cases?
Aren’t our media wonderful? They argue hysterically for a total and immediate lockdown…now they are whingeing about the economic effects…“Ooh we didn’t know it was going to be that bad.”. It’s sickening hearing people on the BBC discuss the fallout knowing how cushioned they are from its repercussions.
Meanwhile apparently there are going to be “Far Right” demonstrators in London this weekend…you might have noticed there have been no “Far Left” demonstrators to be seen anywhere in London in recent weeks, otherwise I am sure BBC, Sky and ITV would have alerted us.
I try and avoid Radio 4 as much as possible now but I had it on this morning…there was an earnest discussion about whether banning Fawlty Towers showed things were going too far…not that there was ever any doubt about what the discussion would conclude.
Justin Webb was doing that irritating thing of laughing in jocular fashion about what is/was probably the most important thing in our society: free speech. And who were the two guests they had on? Well ,the impeccably PC duo Ash Sarkar (Far Left Remainiac) and Matthew Parris (Left-Liberal Remainiac) were on hand with a combination of deceptive and limp-rag commentary. Matthew was pleased to agree so much with Ash…Of course, Sarkar wants to destroy free speech and Rhodesian Parris, a direct beneficiary of colonial exploitation in Africa, is the last person you’d have on to mount an effective defence against the Puritan Left’s assault on our “collonial” (as they spell it) past.
I would suggest that making this about Remain v Brexit is not especially clever.
I voted Remain.
I have changed my view on that in more recent times, but in any event it’s not really relevant to this debate and I think it’s unhelpful to risk alienating remain voting lockdown skeptics.
Part of being a grown up is accepting that there are others who do not agree with us.
So having positively encouraged far left/anarchist, antiracist cultural revolutionaries to demonstrate, the mainstream media will now proceed to demonise as supposed aggressors any “far right” demonstrators who attempt to respond.
And most likely any resistance demonstrators will be met by aggressively violent “counter-demonstrators”, or by harsh police control measures pretty much absent from the policing of the BLM mobs, which will then allow the resistance to be painted yet again as thuggish aggressors.
It’s an old play that has been ongoing in this country for decades, since demonisation of “racism” was first introduced as a means to suppress opposition to mass immigration.
They are neither anarchist or antiracist. They are far left statist and racist cultural revolutionaries.
Anarchism is to be without a ruler which is the opposite of an all powerful state able to decide what you can say and should think and feel, what films and TV programs are permissible. They wish to increase the power of the state not eliminate it.
Ok, you make a fair point on the terminology, but this area is a minefield of contradiction and misleading propaganda. BLM are marxist left anarchists and antiracists, which are both terms that are used to cover for the fact that they seek to enact their opposites. Marxist and other left anarchists claim to be against authority structures whilst being fundamentally authoritarian extremists, while antiracists claim to be against racism whilst actually pursuing anti-white race hatred.
The idea is to recruit the maximum possible number of useful idiots as supporters and collaborators.
Marxists are anarchists? Try that one in Barcelona!
Functionally yes. And I’m not just talking about doctrinal bollocks about withering away of the state, I’m talking about “smash the system” practice.
As with antiracists it’s not necessarily about what they say or think they represent, but what they actually do and actually represent.
Most anarchists in real life don’t want to ‘smash the system’ they want to move on a voluntary basis towards a system where the state has less and less power and becomes more decentralised.
The ‘smash the system’ anarchists tend to be more ‘deep state’ for want of a better word – sponsored groups intended to discredit the notion and create chaos during peaceful protests that certain actors don’t like.
Take the definition given by google even of anarchism
“belief in the abolition of all government and the organization of society on a voluntary, cooperative basis without recourse to force or compulsion.”
Violent means and smashing the system would be the opposite to ‘voluntary, cooperative basis without recourse to force or compulsion’ and is not what anarchism is about.
You are viewing this idea through the MSM lens.
Devi Sridhar in The Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/11/pandemic-scientists-second-wave-coronavirus?CMP=share_btn_tw
“The successes of New Zealand and Australia might force other countries to rethink their own strategies, and the feasibility of eliminating the virus within their borders. Instead of living with a constant threat of Covid-19, people might start asking their own governments – why not try to get rid of it altogether?”
The question I would ask is why this particular virus for eradication?
‘Why not try to get rid of it altogether?’
Maybe because doing that in a country like the UK, where the virus is already widespread, involves absolutely flattening the economy and normal way of life for pretty much everyone.
Oh wait, we’ve already tried that, and we’ve ended up with the worst of all worlds.
‘Why not try to get rid of it altogether?’
This is probably impossible anyway, especially given that we are dealing with something so small that it is completely invisible to our senses. And what would be the point? As those of us come here well know, it’s not especially dangerous!
And why not abolish death while we’re about it?
Not possible when we are having 1k plus illegals coming across the channel every week,it only takes 1 of them to be positive and you are back to square 1
Instead of living with a constant threat of Covid-19, people might start asking their own governments – why not try to get rid of it altogether?”
Like they did with influenza and the common cold?
Devi Sridhar is a snake anyway.
Big mates with Chelsea Clinton, heavy involvement with WHO, World Economic Forum, according to Wiki. Full professor at the age of 30. Um!
I didn’t know her background but the way she talks is a dead giveaway.
Very interesting that.
If we want to try wiping out a virus how about putting measles on our hit list? An easy target as we’ve a vaccine for it. And worse than covid-19 as it can cause serious complications in the young and middle aged, not almost solely in the elderly.
It’s an interesting thought experiment, although not one that it would ethical (or remotely practical) to attempt in the real world. If you did eradicate Covid-19 worldwide through lockdowns that would have the side-effect of eradicating all other human respiratory viruses (colds, flus, etc.). After lifting the lockdown we would reacquire many of them (including SARS-CoV2) from our pets. The adult population would probably be OK but it’s unknown what harm this would cause to the current generation of children, who would suddenly be encountering all of these viruses at once and with much less partial immunity.
It would also be interesting to see how the ecosystem of viruses was affected. With children having no immune memory it’s likely a set of different strains of viruses would become established. The new ones that actually killed children would die out relatively soon (along with their hosts), so perhaps after a thousand years or so we might be back to about where we are today– sharing our world with a few dozen “common colds”.
Indeed.
Unless you propose a permanent change in our culture to one basically modelled on the behaviour of the formerly tiny minority of hygiene-obsessive “germophobes”, assisted by huge material investment and technological developments directed appropriately on a sustained basis.
It would be far less efficient, and very unnatural and probably disturbing to those living in it, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say it would be impossible to create such a society.
If we were to go down that path, essentially bubbling ourselves away from nature then we would never be able to come out of our bubbles for fear of nature itself killing us. Diversity gives any species the best chance of survival by not allowing any single entity to wipe it out.
Much of the human genome actually came from viruses in the first place.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg19926711-600-viruses-the-unsung-heroes-of-evolution/
Behind a paywall, but here is a quote:
‘At least 8 per cent of the human genome consists of clearly-identifiable ERVs. [endogenous retroviruses] Another 40 to 50 per cent looks suspiciously ERV-like, and much of the rest consists of DNA elements that multiply and spread in virus-like ways. Taken together, virus-like genes represent a staggering 90 per cent of the human genome. […]. “There is this continuous raining of viral genes into cellular genomes,” says [Patrick] Forterre [Paris-Sud University in Orsay, France].’
Basically we co-evolve with viruses and that’s all part of how life works and got here in the first place. Although we can manage without SARS2 isolating ourselves from the entire virosphere is probably most unwise.
Because we can’t eradicate the common cold, you dolt.
It gets worse! Now Uber is at it.
No custom!
Having said that, I did see a local taxi driver in a mask the other day. High Asian/Arab population here though.
No ride, no Money!
No money, no honey!
Wait what are we talking about again?
I know so many of those toilet attendant phrases!
No custom from me then. Simples.
Then they can eff off too
Because of course driving is so safe when you’re deprived of oxygen.
It’s not Uber.TFL has mandated the wearing of masks for all taxi and private hire drivers and it is up to the drivers discretion if they choose to pick up an unmasked passenger.
It is Uber if they say ‘if you’re not wearing a face covering the driver has a right to cancel your ride.’
Serious point.
Although I have no children myself, I do have a nine year old niece. My sister told me last month that she preferred her daughter to go back to school in September.
This was not because of any safety concerns, but because she was of the opinion that the “social distancing” would be dropped by that time, and my niece would not have to be put through it.
I would love to hope this is true though the FE college I work in is preparing for the new academic year with social distancing still in place. A lot of the managers are of the opinion it’s here for the long term.
Obviously as a sceptic I’m hoping it won’t be here much longer.
I really do hope that is true. I cannot see it lasting, so fingers crossed. Professor Sikora believes the pandemic will be over in this country by the end of July, and even the Daily Fail have a headline today saying that “only” 33,000 people are estimated to have Covid right now, most of whom are not showing symptoms, and that is a drop of 100,000 in 2 weeks. Now the suspicious side of me says that the government is now deliberately downgrading the figures as it wants people back at work. But whatever the reason, let’s hope all the nonsense really is drawing to a close.
I’m still not sure how the government are going to get the majority of the population on side with it though, having scared them witless.
Like to agree with you but if there is an increase in cases or deaths the media will be shouting to go back in to lockdown!
But I’d like to think the nation would not have the stomoch for another 3 months plus of nothingness.
I feel things are gradually changing particularly as the job losses are already starting.
I know, there is always that risk that a further lockdown could be MSM driven, pretty much like the first one. But surely to goodness, by then sadly people will be losing their jobs in droves and must then join the dots and realise that lockdown will merely make it worse?
If the government wants us all back at work, it only needs to drop the antisocial-distancing completely.
Shouldn’t be that hard. They can surely use their expensive propaganda experts to come up with dazzling figures (true or not) to show the sheep how safe it now is?
It would be worth a quick bribe to the MSM to support it, save the taxpayer a fortune in the long run.
We don’t have to wait until the end of July, it’s over now. And I don’t need scientists or the BBC to tell me. Pity the government can’t get their fingers out of their arses.
We are all aware of the rubbish that goes around social media but this article is a succinct statistical demolition of a recent video that is doing the rounds. It’s an interesting case study into the shady statistical tricks that the scare-mongerers use.
https://massagehealth.co.uk/covid19_57/
Gosh that graph is just awful. Can you imagine how scared someone would be if they didn’t know any better? There should be some sort of criminal punishment for spreading misinformation and fear like this.
I don’t know if anyone else has had this experience?
In 2009 I worked briefly for a local authority as an accountant. During my stint as a public sector worker I was required to spend a day attending a training programme. These “training” days were compulsory.
One of these, I well remember, involved being told by a pleasant Asian woman about what constituted blackness. Apparently, we were told, Beethoven was black.
I don’t know how long these “training” sessions went on for – if they are still being run in local authorities, but at the time it was rather disturbing, and in the light of what is currently happening much more so.
In my opinion this was not training, but compulsory brainwashing.
Common Purpose? Sounds like it.
“In my opinion this was not training, but compulsory brainwashing.”
You were correct of course,. Which is another reason why I draw attention to the deep roots of this BLM cultural revolutionary hysteria within our society.
If Beethoven was black then so was Churchill which means he was OK and we can leave his statue alone.
Jan 1st – May 29th- England and Wales
296,595 Total deaths
Deaths from Covid where there were no pre-existing conditions
0-19 years – 3 (0.001%)
20-39 years – 32 (0.011%)
40-59 years -259 (0.087%)
60-79 years – 555 (0.187%)
Over 80 – 485 (0.164%)
Total 1334 – 0.450%.
So the total deaths from covid for people of any age with no underlying condition is less than the total of the average of one days worth of deaths.
But behind every number there is a family grieving. Other causes of death clearly do not involve grieving family members so can be ignored.
Every death is one too many but only if it’s due to this virus. People should be allowed to die of something else because dying from Coronavirus is the worst possible way of dying that mankind has ever seen.
How horrific that covid victims should be bumped off by something like hypoxia! Not even giving them the chance to have a painful end! [/sarcasm]
Indeed. I live in North London, where there are precious few A&E departments (even before the lockdown). And when I read this … well, the message is clearly that child mortality is perfectly acceptable collateral damage.
“Due to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, the children and young people’s emergency department at Barnet Hospital has been temporarily closed until further notice. Patients will be diverted to another service including the North Middlesex University Hospital, Watford General Hospital and the Royal Free Hospital as appropriate.”
A pleasant shopping experience this morning in a local delicatessen. No queuing to get in – just a notice on the door saying that if they feel there are too many people inside they will close the door for a short while – no one way system, no marks on the floor, you could wander inside wherever you wanted. A couple of signs asking people to keep 2 metres distance but nobody actually enforcing it. Staff not wearing masks, and only the two young cashiers behind the tills were behind a Perspex half screen. Plenty of bakery products, fruit and veg in open baskets on sale to choose your own. Hand gel at the door to help yourself but I don’t mind that – in fact I think that should stay even when this is all over, as it would likely reduce the amount of colds we all pick up. There was just one elderly customer in a mask, so out of politeness I gave her a wide berth. Nobody else was bothering. A pleasant relaxing experience. I will go again.
I went to Aldi last night. OK, it was 7pm and raining but still reasonably busy. Everyone was behaving completely normally.
I joined the checkout queue a trolley-distance from the person in front, which is normal. A couple fell in behind me: a man in his fifties and a woman in her early thirties, who’d been arsing about and teasing each other on one of the isles. He stood a couple of feet behind me, as those of us without trolleys used to do in supermarket queues many weeks ago. I smiled at him. (He ignored me but you can’t always have it both ways.)
Only one person in the shop was wearing a mask – black, somewhat chubby. Fair enough.
At the checkout, I accidentally brushed the cashier’s hand as she moved a package towards me. Shock, horror! We both automatically said sorry, as we English normally do when that happens. I’m delighted to report that she didn’t go pale and reach frantically for the hand gel. She just breezily carried on checking through my purchases (cash or card?) and actually handed the receipt to me, instead of abandoning it on the counter.
A car pulled up beside me in the carpark and a noticeably fat Pakistani woman got out and waddled nonchalantly into the shop, not a mask in sight.
I just hope “non-essential” businesses about to open and their customers can get away with being as sensible about it all.
I think part of the issue is that people can’t be sure about how somebody else may react. So they take the safe option and just stick to the guidelines. Over time as more people begin to ignore the rules others will feel it safe to “come out” so to speak.
Businesses behaving like this will prosper!
More power to their elbow and I’m glad you had a positive experience!
Oh dear, that really doesn’t sound good. It’s going to attract every Jobsworth going.
It doesn’t specify the exact advice or guidance though. A chance for an enterprising LS member to be subversive.
Now there’s a Good Plan if ever I heard one! A real Cunning Plan.
Hardly sounds like it’s going to be temporary either..
I would need to know the name of the person with whom I had allegedly been in contact. Otherwise how would I know it is genuine? And not just somebody who harbours a grudge. I’m not stupid, if one of my friends rang me up and said they had been tested for Covid and have it, and I had been with them at close range for longer than a few minutes, yes I would likely isolate myself quite willingly. Or at least I would carry on looking after my livestock, but make sure I do it alone, and stay away from other people for a couple of weeks. I don’t need the interference of some NHS tracking system to do my “civic duty” as Hancock would say, or “protecting my friends and family” as I would look at it.
WTF and that is swearing.
Just go the whole hog, hazmat suits for all players. Officials can officiate using Zoom from home.
A side benefit of this is that the referees and flag men (lines men?) can enjoy watching the game on TV from a comfy chair at the same time they are officiating.
‘whilst maintaining social distancing measures at all times’
Is that their own social distancing or other peoples. If they are meant to maintain other peoples social distancing measures at all times how is that not a policing role?
Seems like the job holder will be expected to waste police time by ringing them up when anyone should dare to stand up for their liberties. Hope the council who created this role gets fined every time the cops are needlessly called out.
Guidance only!
Re-reading it I guess it does imply giving guidance while maintaining their own social distancing.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jun/11/pandemic-scientists-second-wave-coronavirus
The pessimistic Graun, as always. Cherry-picking certain pieces of scientific evidence to make a ‘second wave’ (not so much as a second wave as the first suppressed wave growing again) look inevitable. I find it interesting that the only argument lockdownistas make for keeping us under house arrest is the dreaded ‘second wave’ – a hypothetical event that hasn’t actually happened yet, anywhere in the world. Not exactly empirical evidence. All ‘second waves’ that the MSM has screamed about have been small localised outbreaks that have been easy to control and haven’t overwhelmed health systems.
Even if a large second wave does occur, leaders will have to weigh up the benefit gained from locking down again to stop the spread against the downsides of doing so – and by that point, economies will be in a much weaker position and won’t be able to afford another lockdown.
The article described coronavirus as ‘our generation’s polio’, quoting the doctor who treated Johnson in ICU. Seriously? The justification for this moniker is that Covid-19 has long-lasting effects on the body, even after the virus has gone. What, just like flu does for some unlucky patients? Johnson was one of those unlucky patients who got hit particularly hard by Covid-19. The virus doesn’t affect people uniformly, that’s precisely one of its great mysteries.
“Johnson was one of those unlucky patients who got hit particularly hard by Covid-19”
How do you know? I think he just had a mental breakdown and had to be kept out of the public eye for a few weeks – and of course it made a perfect script for spreading the fear.
I don’t know, but how do you know either? We are all speculating. He just still looks slightly unwell to me. But perhaps there was a mental element to it. I can’t imagine the stress will have done his immune system any favours. He’s just been very off the ball ever since he came out of hospital and he seems to be stuck in some sort of brain fog. Total lack of leadership. Johnson has never been a details man anyway and he was pretty absent as a PM before he caught Covid but at least he was known for his optimism and gumption, both of which have just totally disappeared. It would make sense for the virus to hit him hard and then he assumes that everyone gets affected that badly, which could be part of the reason he is so slow to lift restrictions.
Simon Dolan put up a video of Boris from February on his Twitter feed and it is like watching a different man!
Having had ME for thirty years, all I can say is that if he has post-viral fatigue, he should resign and let a fitter person take the reins, or he might never fully recover.
He was sacked from a journalism job for being drunk.
I did wonder why he hid at his country house during the flood. Maybe he was sobering up?
“leaders will have to weigh up the benefit gained from locking down again to stop the spread against the downsides of doing so”
According to Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, the government made no attempt to assess how many people would die as a result of its lockdown measures. If they didn’t bother the first time, what makes you think they would bother the second time?
Wtf makes this twat think he’s a leader ? Bad sign they no longer think of themselves as public servants.
I agree, but I tend to use the word ‘leaders’ as a generic term for those who implement these measures.
They’re weren’t leaders, they were dictators, once they secretly implemented the SI.
Hes not hes led by the science blah blah bluster,bluster
Funnily enough, the SAGE minutes taken before the lockdown do make some indication of a weighing-up exercise. They indicate a more nuanced approach than just blanket lockdown. There was also more talk of cost-benefit analysis in the early press briefings; the scientific advisors and the government acknowledged that any sort of lockdown would be strictly temporary for the obvious detrimental side effects and the reason they held off introducing it was because people would get bored of it after a while and not comply. It just made sense to weigh up pros and cons like this because why on earth wouldn’t you for a policy which affects literally every single person in the country?
IIRC the last SAGE meeting before lockdown was 18th March, where it was said that any social distancing measures would take 2-3 weeks to have an effect and that no feedback could be given at that point. A full lockdown was not mentioned at the meeting. I wonder whether in those 5 days some undocumented conversations happened, so as Toby states above, the lockdown was a political decision rather than one led by ‘the science’.
Matt Hancock made the admission at the 10 April 2020 Coronavirus Daily Update. Whilst the SAGE minutes do mention the need to weigh risks, they are references to doing so in the future. No assessment of the risks of imposing the lockdown measures was made prior to implementing those measures; and, as far as I can tell, the government has still not bother to assess how many people have/will die as a result of the measures.
At that same press briefing Hancock assured us that he took the matter seriously and that he would make such an assessment immediately. Yet he has signalling failed to make any further comment on this. The obvious inference is the government know the lockdown measures are lethal, but admitting they have killed many thousands is something they think they cannot politically afford.
I think you are right. I would hope that weighing up is a basic calculation that any policymaker would do. I guess I just expect too much from those I have elected to act in my own interests…!
I dont think we can afford to lockdown again you force someone to close their business you must compensate them.
And I dont think people will put up with it a second time o know I wont
“The pessimistic Graun, as always.”
You are far, far too polite with that description.
That’ll be the Grauniad founded by an 1820s cotton merchant which supported the Confederates in the American Civil War. Cancel!!
It’s free!
And, significantly, it’s begging like mad for donations at the moment, so presumably the government payment for propaganda has ended. Fingers crossed we might see an alternative viewpoint start to emerge.
The doomsters and gloomsters are wrong, March was the dreaded second wave
Has any of them seen a polio victim?
I have.
The comparison is ridiculous.
Isn’t Drury crippled for life!
Not since he died.
Ha!… 2nd wave my arse. Not going to happen, at least from the point of view of the ‘coronavirus’ anyway.
It’s difficult to step back from all this mess and see the actual true picture of what’s happening, the misdirection happening on all sides.
1st Covid 19 virus wave (nonsense basically) 2nd BLM race baiters (even more ridiculous and hysterical -in the middle of it now – nonsense )…
So what’s 3rd? Climate change…? Would not surprise me at all.
They can easily fabricate a second wave if the media is on board.
Boris I’d also an obese extremely unfit individual.
Tomorrow is the Global Day of Action to #ExposeBillGates
Must see: http://www.corbettreport.com/gates/
What does the action involve?
Find Bill Gates and pull his trousers down.
spiked: What has the experience of reopening schools been in other countries?
Cole: Many countries have reopened schools, with and without social distancing. First of all, there have not been spikes in new cases where schools have reopened. Norway, for example, opened schools in May with social distancing between children, but they have now rolled back those measures. In Sweden, schools have been open throughout the crisis and they have not had social distancing in place between children in schools. Cases of coronavirus have continued to fall there. They have just focused on the sensible, respectful hygiene measures. The Netherlands has also had schools open without social distancing between children.
That’s at least 2 countries where children have been unnaturally shielded from the virus and then allowed to mix freely in school. So far neither is showing a second wave in cases.
Primary schools reopened here in France on 11 May and ‘colleges’ on 18 May.
Apart from a short closure of the local lycee when the mothers of 2 pupils tested positive (symptomless- both work in the local care home), no upsurge.
See my earlier post today re. the virtual disappearance of Covid in France.
There’s ‘open’ and there’s ‘back to normal’. Are all children in school, for a full day, every day? And do they still have to play in separate chalk squares?
Still don’t care about their lockdown rules. Let them destroy the country. I can’t wait for Scotland to go bankrupt. The poor feckless morons who vote scottish nazi party will suffer and i will laugh in their stupid faces.
Nicola wants furlough money from the UK Exchequer for 2 years! When this is refused, she will blame big bad Westminster for Scotland’s problems. She won’t consider reducing 2 metre to 1 metre until the virus is “eradicated”. She will need to close the Border for that! I see her modelling herself on that Jacinda woman in NZ. Wants the glory but someone else is UK can pay. Silly bitch.
She’s going to jail. Make no mistake!
Perhaps take the role yourself beore a jobsworth can get it, then use it to make a mockery of the whole lockdown delusion.
Has China run out of plastic?
Nanny state WRIT VERY EFFING LARGE!!!!!!!
Scientists challenge moves to reopen bordersLeading scientific advisors in countries ahead of the UK in dealing with Covid-19 have warned against relaxing border restrictions to allow mass market travel.
https://www.travelweekly.co.uk/articles/374949/scientists-challenge-moves-to-reopen-borders
I think it is time all scientists and modellers were put back in their cupboards and the keys to the doors mysteriously lost.
Amen.
Scientists are also campaigning to shut down academia and STEM
https://www.shutdownstem.com
“On June 10, 2020, we will #ShutDownAcademia, #ShutDownSTEM, and #Strike4BlackLives. ”
I’m not sure how much credence we can give to many scientists these days.
Scientists – uggh
Only 10 deaths with COVID-19 on the 11th June, and just 123 new lab based infections confirmed with COVID-19 by PHE, yet we still cannot consider coming out of lockdown!
It’s infuriating beyond belief!
Have been trying to find the source of the Hospital deaths but can’t, where is it please
Yes Shapps telling us we still need to stay home as much as possible. FFS!
The letter by the anonymous Berkeley history professor dissecting Black Lives Matter – especially its ‘lockdown’ of black aspirations – has been taken down by pastebin! I have a friend who’s son is at Berkeley and he told me “the letter” has done the rounds there and has caused quite a kerfuffle.” One kerfuffle too many, evidently.
I’ve applied to the Ministry of Free Money for a grant to open a chain of second hand book-burning shops.
Still up at Reddit, and no doubt elsewhere.
Amusing to me, because I and others here were accused of being “racist” and it was heavily implied that we should “f*** off and take our evil racism elsewhere” (though not in so many words) for writing pretty much exactly what was in that letter, but rather more softly toned because we don’t have (or haven’t claimed) the protective advantage in this kind of situation of being black ourselves, unlike that writer.
The sad reality of our politically censored society is that I and others making these points would most likely have been censored and/or banned in almost any mainstream forum in response to those complaints, which is probably the response they are used to.
Small wonder our society, which has been subjected to this kind of one-sided censorship more or less for a generation now, is so ignorant and deluded on the topic of race and racism.
Here you go, @concrete68, @cruella. You’ll no doubt be wanting to point out to Toby that the disgusting racism he’s linked to in his piece is neither appropriate nor wanted on this blog.
2 words to them pis off!
https://www.nhs.uk/news/medical-practice/three-quarters-of-people-with-flu-have-no-symptoms/
If the track and trace is being implemented for covid-19, wouldn’t they have to implement it for flu as well, bearing in mind the huge numbers of people that are killed by flu each year (despite vaccines)?
And if a workplace is “Covid-19 secure”, shouldn’t it have to be “Flu secure”, “Norovirus secure”, etc. etc.
None of this makes any sense…..
Bloody hell,I hope no-one from our council finds out about this,they would be ecstatic,it’s so stupid I’m amazed they didn’t think of it first !.Experience tells me that the sort of person who would volunteer for this will be a much bigger arsehole than someone doing it for the pay,Hi-vis jackets and radios !,that’s going to attract every frustrated wannabe copper from miles around,
All in all this sounds like another potential disaster for the economy in your area,I certainly wouldn’t go anywhere that had prats like them wandering around snooping and giving out orders.
So the Scottish position has been set out as suppression/eradication of the virus, as I suspected.
Let’s rewind the clock to when this all started but take the knowledge we have of this virus with us. Based on what we know now it’s unlikely we would have locked down. A targetted approach would have been appropriate.
The question is would the objective have been to eradicate the virus? We know it’s possible because some countries have done it (NZ for example). I would say unlikely because it wouldn’t have been considered deadly enough and more than manageable given what we know. New Zealand probably wouldn’t have locked down as severely thus creating a paradox.
Why would now be time to eradicate the virus if it wouldn’t have been considered then? Is the idea of eradicating the virus simply an act of revenge for the lives it has taken? Is this like the second Gulf War where Bush Jr went in to finish the job his father started.
It’s a stalling tactic.
Ms Sturgeon is in thrall to Devi Sridhar, the 36 year-old professor of public health and mate of Chelsea Clinton, and happy to ignore Hugh Pennington, 82 year-old emeritus professor of bacteriology, who was I recall did post-doc study with the academic who discovered human coronaviruses (as he pointed out in his Telegraph article a couple of weeks ago). Wonder why, but then again, after the UK government decision to rely on the ICL model to direct the lockdown strategy, I can see a link!
There will always be someone somewhere who carries it around: there are too many very poor and very badly controlled countries (at war etc) to fully eradicate the virus without the most massive world-wide program. My guess is that it will still exist even in New Zealand, just waiting for a suitable host to show itself.
Which is why any lockdown is not only futile, it is the worst possible thing to do. The optimal strategy, bearing in mind another coronavirus is likely to emerge at some point in the future, is to optimise immunity across the portfolio (common cold, SARS 1, MERS, SARS 2) – there is a growing view that cross-immunity exists. Few of us have been exposed to SARS 1 and MERS. Surely, therefore, we need as high a level of SARS 2 immunity as possible, especially among the young and healthy, in case SARS 3 has a more potent impact on a younger age group?
I think this is partly what Giesecke meant when he said it’s easy to go into a lockdown but not so easy coming out (or words to that effect).
If the virus is still around how do you open up if you’re not willing to accept some level of infection and death?
Exactly what he said in an interview on an Australian news channel when they asked him how to come out of lockdown. He said he didn’t know, he would be watching interest, but that was their problem! I love his blunt manner.
You shift the public’s attention to something else. That’s what the taxpayers is paying the Nudge Unit to do.
Let’s face it, the ongoing BLM fiasco is a very effective smokescreen for starters.
I’m just in Tesco. I’m pretty much ignoring the stupid one way system but they funnel you through to queue up through the frozen food area so you’re standing there freezing at risk of catching a cold for goodness sake! How dumb can you get?
Morrisons are much better. No one way systems and properly designed.
My local Aldi are very laid back.
Take jacket ? I’m always chilly in supermarket freezer areas.
From Toby’s FSU Twitter feed:
“Leading economists, including Paul Krugman, are calling for Harald Uhlig, a professor of economics at the University of Chicago, to be fired as editor of the Journal of Political Economy because he criticised the BLM movement.”
There should be a special place in Hell reserved for supposed academics who seek to have their fellows sacked or otherwise persecuted for expressing opinions.
It will be interesting to see whether the other Professor Ferguson – Niall Ferguson – has anything to say. He and Krugman had a long-running and public dispute after the 2008 Financial Crisis. Journal of Political Economy is an extremely prestigious journal and your stuff does not get published in it on a whim (in contrast to The Lancet). Also interesting is the wider debate between Chicago School economists and the neo-Keynesians, to which Krugman aligns. On the issue of academics seeking to have other academics sacked – happened extensively in the 2000s in the Climate Change arena and explains why ‘97% of scientists agree’ it’s man-made!
Of course that 97% was a manufactured number anyway – based on very many definitely non-scientists!
‘You just have to believe’ said by one very prominent one in a public meeting. It’s akin to religion, just like believing in ICL modelling!
There is!
This has been published today on gov.uk.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-disease-2019-covid19-intervention-strategies
Haven’t read it all yet but posting here for info….
Just perusing the Grad’s summary of the daily briefing – If I sat through the real thing, I’d have no teeth left!
How about this:
Q. What do you say to businesses in the south-west who are actually quite worried about it [the R value]?
Shapps says stay alert and stay at home as much as possible.
Shop and cafe owners will be very reassured by that advice.
Is he deliberately stupid?
Yes
No, not deliberately. He can’t help it.
What a stupid question. Any business of worth is worried about the damage of lockdown, not about an R number for what is increasingly looking like a virus on the verge of natural extinction, either due to cross-immunity with historic common colds or some other even mroe mysterious factor.
Maybe he thinks if aircraft do not use carbon fibre in their construction, the flight will be carbon free?
They are relishing the attention
Does anyone have a link to this, as pastebin have now kindly removed it. Don’t you just love free speech.
Slightly off topic and not funny, but this letter by an anonymous history professor at the University of California, Berkeley, taking issue with some of the claims made by the Black Lives Matter movement, as well as the uncritical way in which they’re accepted and regurgitated by American universities, is a must-read. No doubt as soon as his identity is discovered he will be subject to a mobbing and may very well lose his job.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/10/world/asia/reopening-before-coronavirus-ends.html
“Some of these leaders, especially those in the developing world, said they couldn’t sustain the punishing lockdowns without risking economic catastrophe, especially for their poorest citizens. So the thinking has shifted, from commanding people to stay indoors and avoid the virus and other people at all costs, to now openly accepting some illness and death to try to limit the damage to livelihoods and to individual lives.”
“It’s a bit of a mess,” said Indrani Gupta, a health economist in New Delhi. “Our economy is so dependent on labor, millions would have lost their livelihoods and their lives if this lockdown went on for months and months.”
But, she added, the lockdown began too soon.
“We got it in reverse,” she said. “We shut down too quickly and it was too draconian. And I don’t think now is the time to ease up.”
https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2020/06/11/indonesias-hundreds-of-suspected-child-virus-deaths-highlight-danger.html?fbclid=IwAR1KnRgWToL5_IY-8lo34vIcYMN99X7nz5Q-kViFhbes524kOPV0DEgH6S4
“Hundreds of children in Indonesia are believed to have died from COVID-19, giving the Southeast Asian country one of the world’s highest rates of child deaths from the novel coronavirus that experts around the world say poses little danger to the young.
Pediatricians and health officials in the world’s fourth most populous country said the high number of child deaths from a disease that mostly kills the elderly was due to underlying factors, in particular malnutrition, anemia and inadequate child health facilities.”
In other words, they are believed to have died from COVID-19, but they died from “underlying factors, in particular malnutrition, anemia and inadequate child health facilities.”
Yes, basically they probably wouldn’t have died otherwise.
While that was risible, of more concern was the ‘here and now’ of taking your face mask with you when you leave home in the same way you take your mobile, wallet and house keys. It was said in the same tone as a parent to a little kid when they leave the house for school every day – make sure you have a tissue, have you got your pencil case etc. I resent being spoken to like this by someone whose wages I pay, and who has the intellectual ability of a carrot.
That’s offensive – a carrot has far more intellectual ability.
It’s the nanny state gone mad. I hate it and just ignore anyone who speaks to me like that. I have been independent all my life and intend to stay that way. I will make my own decisions and stand or fall by them.
Happy Friday everyone (not that any day is that much different to another right now) but we get a new LS update and I cannot wait.
In travel news, 2 doctors booked an August holiday with me today. I asked if they were worried about a 2nd wave possibly affecting the trip. ‘Not in the slighest’ was their reply.
*slightest
Did they mean they weren’t worried about a 2nd wave happening or they just weren’t worried either way?
Yes, the 2 GPs that I know are in the same camp!
GPs? I thought they’d be gleefully awaiting a second wave so they could take a second extended holiday!
I agree. The medical professional has a lot to answer for.
Hope it pisses down the entire time they’re there.
Arseholes!
Article in the Telegraph making out that the proposed undemocratic removal of statues that the far left doesn’t like is some sort of lark. The caption to the photo of the statue they threw into Bristol harbour is: The statue of Edward Colston plops into the Avon in Bristol last weekend.
Plops? This isn’t a rag week stunt.
Intersting I look at the coronavirus worlometer e eryday
I know the figures are probably far from accurate but they do give a rough idea
Noticed infections continue to climb approaching 150000 a day but fatalities remain consistently 5000 or below.
I’m not an expert but I wonder if anything can be learned from this regarding how the virus Is progressing.
Anybody have any views on this data?
Two teams of doctors in northern Italy, and I think one in the US (or Germany, not sure) have suggested it is becoming less aggressive over time from what they are seeing in their hospitals and surgeries. That seems plausible.
Yes I sae those reports WHO quick to say this was not correct.
I plead the (misquoted) Mandy Rice-Davies defence!
Or the weakest and most vulnerable have all died and people better able to fight the infection are left.
Yes, could also explain it, so it ‘looks’ weaker.
“The Director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) agency has told MEPs that wearing masks during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic could pose a potential health hazard.”
https://www.theparliamentmagazine.eu/articles/news/wearing-masks-could-pose-health-hazard-says-head-eu-agency
“It now appears to have passed its peak with a decline in most EU countries, but all Member States must continue to do several things to maintain this.”
These, she said, include “robust” surveillance strategies which, for instance, can follow the impact of the virus on health systems, extending testing and return-to-work strategies.
Other necessary measures include contact tracing and ensuring there is sufficient healthcare capacity in case of a “new surge.”
She said, “We must also identity best practice and, finally, engage with the public in explaining all these strategies.”
She told members, “I know you have heard this before, but this is a marathon, not a sprint so we must be able to manage peoples’ expectations of the continuing impact this will have on their lives.”
“People need to know that this is not going to end any time soon and they need to prepare for that reality.”
She added, “We must not drop our guard and must continue to maintain high standards of hygiene and social distancing. People need to be constantly reminded that this will not go away as long as we don’t have a vaccine.”
Same old sinister stuff!
Jesus wept:
https://www.waterstones.com/help/coronavirus-updates/2104
This will be a nail in the coffin of bookshops and ensure that Amazon’s continued dominance.
Utter bonkersness!
How about queuing in the rain then letting your brolly drip all over the books? (Crime I know but sacrifices must be made.)
It is bonkers.
As much as I love books and browsing at bookshops, I will sit this one out until these cowards see sense.
People won’t take kindly to be made to queue in the pouring rain, howling wind or snow just in order to get to a bookshop. Won’t be surprised if an unfortunate staff member is on the receiving end of colourful language or a fist smashed into their face.
I so want to support my local High Street, as I value it highly, but I simply cannot see myself putting up with all this nonsense. Not to mention the fact that part of me just wants to go in there (without sanitising my hands) and touch every single book I can reach…
It’s tempting just to show how absurd all this is. I’m wondering if Waterstone’s are realising that this is in effect a suicide note.
I also want to support the high street and only buy online as a last resort when I can’t find something in the shops. I can’t help thinking that online sellers are influencing government policy as the current situation is a wet dream for online sellers. Firstly shops can’t legally operate for several months and then they take stupid measures which put off customers.
Hubby has been convinced from the beginning that this has all been part of the lobbying of the tech companies – working from home, online retail, no face to face GP appointments any more, etc etc.
It’s so ridiculous and unnecessary. I escaped from Wales over the English border a couple of days ago to visit an country store. I needed to try on some walking boots and buy some socks. I checked before I went. Yes they have installed sinks at the entrance where you are expected to wash your hands but apart from that you go in, you browse, you pick things up, put them down again. I tried on a few pairs of boots, didn’t buy any, they went back on the racks. I rifled through the socks, picked the ones I wanted. Handed them to the person behind the counter. Yes there was a Perspex screen but she handled everything I passed her and passed them back to me. No one died. It was all quite sane and verging on normal. None of the floor staff were wearing any PPE and weren’t worried about staying 2 metres away. There is sanity out there but you probably won’t find it in the national chains as they are run by management groups rather than real individuals
Why are so many companies so determined to commit commercial suicide ?,it wasn’t long ago that Waterstones were moaning that not enough people were going to bookshops,I think this will really draw the punters in .They’ve lost me as a customer.
I’m asking the same as well. If Waterstone’s go under they will have no-one to blame but themselves and they can’t lay this on the door of Amazon.
They should have been making noises to the government before all this.
Has anyone eagle-eyed seen anything on what legal force the insistence on masks has on trains and other public transport?
I can’t see anything that covers it in the latest revision of the relevant Coronavirus laws, and neither can I see any sign of the national conditions of travel which govern National Rail being amended.
In tonight’s briefing as usual what seems to me like government advice is presented as law by the speaker and by the BBC. Shapps said not wearing a mask could ULTIMATELY lead to a fine, which suggests they have not yet amended any law that can be enforced.
They said previously they were going to amend the conditions of carriage, a bit like a by-law I guess.
I think the transport company have the right to refuse you service if you don’t comply. Bit like a bouncer at a nightclub not letting you in if you’re wearing trainers. Not illegal to wear trainers but they don’t have to let you in.
e.g https://www.firstgroup.com/help-and-support/coronavirus-information/face-coverings https://www.firstgroup.com/uploads/node_images/face-covering-exemption-extra-help-travel-assistance-card-12-06-20.pdf
I assume that noone would make a false claim.
Not sure about that. Nightclubs aren’t subsidised with our taxes.
Well I think they are bound by the National Conditions of Travel, which I don’t see any sign of having been amended. I don’t think they can make their own rules up.
If you go to any travel operator website and dig deep enough you can find the exceptions which are all self certifying. https://www.tpexpress.co.uk/travelling-with-us/on-the-train/face-coverings-faq
Thanks. I think this is the crucial bit: “The regulations are being brought in through the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984”
They haven’t done that yet, that I have seen. I suspect this is still being worked on, hence Shapp’s use of the word “ultimately”. Another example of announcements of new “rules” as if they were law, before they actually are.
This is the mechanism that they have used for introducing most of the restrictions, and the thing that Simon Dolan’s legal challenge is focused on. I understand the intention of that act was more to restrict movement of specific people or groups, rather than indiscriminate restrictions on an entire population.
I can’t see it being enforced when the guards are too frightened to pass through carriages with passengers in,like when the poor chap died on a train at Manchester but no-one noticed until it got to Bournemouth.Some of the jumped up little hitlers in the BTP will enforce it I bet.
Received the 1st newsletter from Simon Dolan‘s ‘Keep Britain Free‘ https://www.keepbritainfree.com
Dear Supporter,
Thank you for signing up to the Keep Britain Free campaign.
As you know, this country has a proud history of fighting for freedom. Yet in recent years, Government interference has become endemic in the UK. With great concern, I have felt a creeping encroachment on our liberties by those at Number 10, all of this culminating in the catastrophic lockdown we are living in today.
Through lockdown, the Government has succeeded in stripping us of our freedoms and liberties. Every aspect of our lives is being controlled by a series of chaotic and conflicting measures. We are told who we can see, where we can go and what we can do. We are even told what to think.
These draconian measures are devastating the economy and ruining the lives for many generations to come. Thousands of people are losing their jobs and our children are being denied their education. People are dying.
Through my judicial review proceedings, it has become clear to me that I am in no way alone in my concern.
Keep Britain Free is a new movement representing the millions of people who believe in personal freedom. We want to think of ourselves and we want to take back the responsibility for our own lives.
We are not a political party, but a group of independent thinkers who seek to bring politicians to account, not just on polling day, but every day.
Through a strong and coordinated voice, we will spread our message of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, with a determination to bring about real change.
Too many people have forgotten that the purpose of a Government is to protect its citizens – a simple premise, which through our action, we will seek to return to.
So I want to say a heartfelt thank you for joining our campaign and lending your support. It is hugely appreciated, and I truly believe that as one, our voices will be heard.
Now that you’ve signed up, you will receive regular updates on the campaigns, actions and growth of the movement.
We have also set up new social media channels, to spread our message far and wide. The links are at the bottom of this email. Please follow these channels and take it upon yourselves to spread the word amongst your networks.
To further demonstrate your support, consider changing your profile photo to the Keep Britain Free logo, sharing the attached image asset on your channels, or posting a message of support such as the below:
“I believe in freedom of choice for all and the protection of personal liberties. The Government’s actions are crippling the economy, denying children education, and trampling over human rights. That’s why I am supporting Keep Britain Free – and it’s why we need to #endlockdownnow“
The more followers we have, the stronger our voice will be and the more the Government will listen.
So tell your families, colleagues, professional circles and your friends – anyone who believes in freedom of speech, choice and thought.
Our message is simple – together we can Keep Britain Free.
With kind regards,
Simon.
After seeing this posted here I’ve just signed up to Keep Britain Free’s email alerts myself.
P.S. one possible piece of good news. When out go out for a walk i make a habit of saying anti-lockdown slogans to passers-by. Today for the first time I got a fully positive response of utter agreement.
The government is truly retarded but Grant Shapps must officially be the pinnacle of all dickheads. I watched the daily briefing and as usual, was greeted with utter disbelief. I may be wrong, but non essential shops can open on Monday – thats everyone bar the hospitality industry. Yet the man with a hair cut from bucks fizz says everyone should stay at home and avoid going to work. Dear god what fucking planet are these belters on? I give up.
Open businesses, let people shop to urgently get the economy moving but don’t go to work and stay at home. Thats a clear message if i ever heard one.
What a selection of utter twats, of an order never seen by mankind before, we have in power.
Couldn’t agree with you more – and we have another four and half years of it. As my mother would say, if there’s a war, I’m going to join the other side!
Could be a total breakdown of law and order before that and the government would be finished anyway.
Why dont they scrap these daily briefings and have say 1 a week.
I mean does anyone actually watch this comedy show every day?
I find the briefings depressing and wooden. Few probing questions are asked and if asked the answers always avoid the issue.
Too many people on here do, apparently.
Adverts on the tv all I hear is “STAY HOME STAY SAFE”
Nothing but a bunch of whimps in the uk these days
I dont want to stay home I dont I dont I dont!
I want to go to the pub watch a match have fun.
It’s just one of the reasons I never watch live tv nowadays. Only Netflix and Amazon Prime where the relentless propaganda can be avoided. If it’s as often and as bad as that, no wonder my tv watching friends are so taken in by the whole story.
Agree will they ever see sense ,but they are in the majority and the likes of me and you will suffer for their stupidity.
Sadly that is very true.
Well Netflix has just added a BLM collection which seems a bit like virtual signalling to me. Of course they matter, but come on…
They haven’t – yet – removed the Fawlty Towers episode which seems to have caused a furore. I’ve just watched it!
I think you got away with it then.
Well that’s something. Netflix is one of the mechanisms I’m using to keep me sane.
I drove past a house today with STAY SAFE *RAINBOW* scrawled all over the garage door. It looked like a kid did it but it still made me gag.
I want to start seeing anti-litter adverts on TV instead. (although I don’t have a licence anyway!)
I am continually disappointed in several friends who assume they can watch tv without suffering the ill-effects. A combination of arrogance (“Doesn’t affect me”), and an assumption they’ll miss out somehow if they don’t tune in.
I’m sick of the adverts too,endless ‘we’re all in together’crap,lots of happy families really enjoying the lockdown,companies saying how much they care about us and how they are making it ‘safe’ to shop in their stores,constant praise of the NHS and it’s heroes and numerous ‘in these uncertain times you can trust on us’ bullshit from numerous banks and building societies.It’s the same on the radio aswell.I don’t watch any live tv now,my wife does though so I can’t tell the BBC to stick it’s licence where the sun doesn’t shine unfortunately.
The European Commission has recommended travel to the EU from selected non-EU countries be allowed to restart from July 1.
However, Germany extended its foreign office advice against all but essential travel to most of the world until the end of August this week.
Wow!
https://www.travelweekly.co.uk/articles/374955/ec-recommends-lifting-restrictions-on-non-eu-travel
I’m afraid our globalist Blair says we must hvae digital ID !
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stAM_XwCLrA
Tony Blair says people will need ‘digital ID’ to prove ‘disease status’ in future
Vile, vile man
Indeed, though I would shift the ‘e’ from the end to the beginning of that adjective!
Over my dead body Tony. You will literally have to kill me before that happens.
Dreadful, awful man.
“this letter by an anonymous history professor at the University of California, Berkeley, taking issue with some of the claims made by the Black Lives Matter movement, as well as the uncritical way in which they’re accepted and regurgitated by American universities” https://pastebin.com/WBzAFDgA. “This page is no longer available. It has either expired, been removed by its creator, or removed by one of the Pastebin staff.” I wonder which it was.
Knowing what we know about the generally left-censorious political inclinations of tech company staff, the first guess should be that it was taken down, either voluntarily by staff at the company or under coercive pressure from other tech companies their business depends upon.
Hello, Sceptics,
Has anyone saved that letter, or does anyone know of an alternative source/link? I sent the link to a friend in the US yesterday, but it’s too late, he can’t see it now! It’s such a shame – it was an excellent summary of the problems we are facing.
Big thank you to Toby, and to all the contributors for this great site.
@Alice
Still up at Reddit.
If that goes, it’s posted as full text in a comment on the next Sceptics.
I get the impression the government are starting to give up the fight most iam sure would walk away given the chance.
It’s not that the majority of them need the money
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/12/science-right-government-wrong/
‘The science’ was right – it was the Government that was wrong SAGE advisors never suggested a full lockdown – so why are they now trying to rewrite history? By TOBY YOUNG
………………………………
The penultimate SAGE meeting before the lockdown was on March 18 where it was noted that the impact of the measures introduced so far would not be known for two or three weeks. According to the minutes, the boffins said it was too early to say whether additional measures – such as closing pubs, restaurants and entertainment venues – would be necessary.
In short, Boris Johnson and his Cabinet were not “following the science” when they took the decision to place everyone under virtual house arrest, and nor were they ignoring it by not doing so earlier. On the contrary, their scientific advisors were urging a more cautious approach.
…………………….
In other words, the containment measures introduced on March 16 were more than sufficient to halt the spread of the virus. The government’s scientific advisors did not urge the Prime Minister to go any further, and they were right not to do so. I’m convinced that the decision to place the entire country in suspended animation on March 23 will end up costing more lives than the pandemic.
The myth that’s grown up around the lockdown, then, is the opposite of the truth. Boris didn’t turn a deaf ear to the scientists urging him to lock down. Rather, he ignored their advice to tread carefully and rushed into one of the worst decisions in our history. Next time Professor Ferguson speaks out, that’s the story he should tell.
Wow this should be all the newspapers headline story tomorrow
Makes me wonder again, in the light of past revelations, just how much it was Cummings’ political influence, panicking about negative NHS-related headlines, that pushed
Johnson over the edge and into full panic mode?
Don’t know if Toby mentions this in the article as I don’t have or want a Telegraph subscription.
I do, so i highlighted the best bits
Does he name names, in terms of who was pushing the lockdown crime to the PM, politically?
Mark
No names
More from it:
The penultimate SAGE meeting before the lockdown was on March 18 where it was noted that the impact of the measures introduced so far would not be known for two or three weeks. According to the minutes, the boffins said it was too early to say whether additional measures – such as closing pubs, restaurants and entertainment venues – would be necessary.
In short, Boris Johnson and his Cabinet were not “following the science” when they took the decision to place everyone under virtual house arrest, and nor were they ignoring it by not doing so earlier. On the contrary, their scientific advisors were urging a more cautious approach.
In the SAGE meeting on March 23, the day lockdown was announced, the attendees flagged up the negative impact of the containment measures. “Actuarial analysis is required to estimate deaths caused indirectly by Covid-19, including those caused by the social interventions,” says one of the minutes. Another says: “Given the clear links between poverty and long-term ill health, health impacts associated with the economic consequences of interventions also need to be investigated.”
Some will point to the report by Professor Ferguson and his Imperial College team, warning the government that hundreds of thousands would die if it stuck with its mitigation strategy. But that paper stopped short of calling for a full lockdown. The measures it recommended were precisely those introduced by the government on March 16. As the journalist Christopher Snowdon notes, “The only time Ferguson and colleagues use the word ‘lockdown’ in the text is when they are making a distinction between their proposals and an actual lockdown.”
What’s so odd about Professor Ferguson’s remarks on Wednesday is there’s no reason to think infections were doubling every three or four days in the week before lockdown. Simon Wood, professor of statistical science at Bristol University, published a paper on June 1 showing that the R number in England and Wales was less than 1 before March 23. The same conclusion has been reached by Carl Heneghan, professor of evidence-based medicine at Oxford.
I think we need to be careful at this stage. From what I have seen of the SAGE minutes, and having spent considerable time looking at official declassified government documents in The National Archives, they appear to me to be ‘minutes of minutes’, produced in full knowledge that they would be in the public domain long before the standard 30 year rule. To make a definitive case, we would need to see all the ‘off record’ discussions (memos, emails etc) among the protagonists. Specifically, we need to know how, why and when a dataset from China was provided to ICL for modelling various outcomes in the UK and US (the mid-March, non-peer reviewed paper). This coincided with very aggressive public statements, (volte face), from The Lancet’s Dr Horton on Twitter and Professor Ashton on Question Time. Possibly, or possibly not coincidentally, the teachers unions were agitating on Twitter, and the universities were already making plans to close halls of residence.
It is common knowledge (or should be!) that Macron threatened to close the border if we didn’t lock down like in France – no imports, no exports. Faced with that threat, HMG had little option but to follow suit.
Can you explain your thinking that “HMG had little option but to follow suit”?
Any chance that people can fill in this survey about their thoughts on lockdown (which is from LSE).
I really think it needs some more sceptic views to counter the general lunacy that appears to have taken over…
https://lse.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5huZ0ysuUtrqOAB
Thanks! (Not my study)
Will do! Thank you.
Simon Dolan has tweeted an update about his legal case against the government over lockdown and quarantine for travellers. He says their letter of defence is 58 pages long, arrived 3 minutes before the deadline, and that they are using a QC and 3 barristers. He says they are “evidently terrified.”
I really, really hope that he’s right.
If it wasn’t blasphemous, I would say ‘crucify them’.
Even if Simon Dolan actually loses in court, I am hoping he may actually “win” anyway just by the amount of information that will inevitably come out during the case. The MSM will pick over it like rats in a dustbin once it has got that far – the Telegraph will love it – and a lot more will become public. Fingers crossed!
And as Toby’s article says, SAGE never suggested a full lockdown and Johnson and his cabinet were not “following the science” when they decided to go ahead. If this gets to Court they are likely deep in pigs’ muck and they will know it.
I’ve just discovered this evening that childminders in Scotland (under Phase one of our easing) have been allowed to start operating again. They can take children from up to 4 different households plus their own. Am I the only one to think this is utter madness when schools and nurseries are shut and currently I’m only allowed to go 5 miles, have a socially distant bbq in the garden and pee in a bush?
This being a UK site, I wonder how many are familiar with the American Institute of Economic Research – an old and venerable libertarian thinktank that’s transformed into a leading voice lockdown and shutdown scepticism on our side of the pond. Here’s my blogged abridgement of their comment on the “3 million lives saved” claim from the ICL (Imperial College for Lockdowns). Those who want to learn more about AIER can click through to their site.
“Imperial College’s claim that lockdowns saved 3 million lives in Europe relies on the same bad logic as Donald Trump’s claim that he saved 2 million American lives.”
https://gdspoliticalanimal.blogspot.com/2020/06/lockdowns-saved-3-million-lives-claim.html
Yes, Eggs in moonshine.
But the zombies believe it. The longer we are all banged up, the more lives will be saved.
Great God in Heaven.
https://off-guardian.org/
REPORT: Over 95% of UK “Covid19” deaths had “pre-existing condition”
Over 95% of “COVID Deaths” recorded in England and Wales had potentially serious comorbidities, according to statistics released by NHS England.
The latest figures make for pretty stark reading. Or, rather, they would make for stark reading…if they didn’t follow the exact same pattern already shown in other nations around the world.
You can read the full report here. We’re going to focus on the comorbidity stats. Here are the number of deaths where Covid19 was listed as the only cause, split by age:
These are across all of England and Wales since the beginning of the “pandemic”.
Simply put: Of the 27045 deaths with Covid19 in English hospitals (up to June 3rd), only 1318 had no pre-existing conditions. That’s less than 5%.
Christopher Bowyer has made some great graphs for the figures at Hector Drummond Magazine, none more impactful than this this:
<strong
[click to enlarge]
Those big green bars are all the people who died “with” Covid19 AND some other serious disease. The little yellow bars are the people who died with Covid19 and nothing else.
In fact, the 25,727 other cases were listed as having over 42,000 comorbidities. That’s almost 2 each (the report itself points out that many patients had multiple conditions). This, again, aligns completely with the Italian figures which said over 80% of fatalities had at least 2 comorbidities.
What are these comorbidities? We don’t know. Not entirely specifically. The report lists ischemic heart disease, chronic kidney disease, asthma and dementia among others. But it also lists nearly 19,000 “other” conditions, presumably including liver failure, emphysema, AIDS, ALL forms of cancers and literally potentially thousands of other diseases.
Implicit in this is the possibility that these diseases were the actual cause of death, and that Covid19 played no direct role at all.
Further, the PCR test for coronavirus can return false positives in up to 80% of cases, so it’s entirely possible the majority of these deaths never even had the virus.
This isn’t breaking news. We have covered this numerous times. No matter how you switch them around the Covid numbers, as they currently stand, will never add up.
Businesses can scrap two-metre rule if they take other coronavirus precautions, scientists say
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/12/businesses-can-scrap-two-metre-rule-take-coronavirus-precautions/
The two-metre social distancing rule can be abandoned by businesses reopening after lockdown if they introduce other measures to reduce the spread of coronavirus, Government scientists have told ministers.
Following a political backlash against the two-metre rule, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) published a paper on Friday which set out protocols – such as regular breaks, and getting workers to sit side by side – that would make it much safer for people to be within one metre of each other.
……………..
When people are at close range and face to face, transmission is most likely to be through respiratory droplets, but aerosol transmission of fine particles can carry further depending on ventilation.
The new research says that sitting within one metre of a person side by side or back to back is as safe as facing a person at two metres when indoors.
“When people are side to side or behind one another, risk is via aerosols and so is determined by the influence of ventilation; at one metre the exposure risks would be similar to two metres when face to face in an indoor environment,” it says.
One business source said civil servants had been in touch in recent days asking if they would “kick up a fuss” if the Government cut the distance to one metre.
Government sources confirmed the calls had taken place but they said they were part of the usual liaison with business groups, adding that “there is always business stakeholder engagement, asking ‘just how badly do you feel about this’ to gauge reaction.”
https://slate.com/technology/2020/06/advice-on-reopening-activies-er-doctor.html
I’m an ER Doctor. Here’s What I Feel OK Doing as My State Reopens.
………………….
So should I just ignore the fact that restrictions are easing, and stay home?
Well, I haven’t been.
Yes, we would all be safer at home. If you had the ability to ride out the pandemic, however long it takes, by staying home, growing and cooking your own food, ordering nothing off the internet, and avoiding contact with anyone except those who had chosen to isolate themselves with you, you could be 100 percent guaranteed not to be infected with coronavirus. You would also be guaranteed not to die in a car accident, an occurrence whose lifetime risk is 1 in 100 for people who live in this country. And yet most of us drive every day.
I know that people want to be safe and healthy but that they also want art, and laughter, and music, and bourbon—to create them and to consume them.
Responsible people take risks all the time in the course of normal life. And as responsible people, both out of regard for ourselves and for others, we take steps to mitigate those risks. We drive, but wear seat belts; we bike to work, but wear helmets; we drink alcohol, but don’t get behind the wheel of a car right afterward; we have swimming pools in our yards, but have fences around them. So can we return to some semblance of normal, but do it without endangering ourselves or others?
For every activity I think about going back to, I consider the opportunity costs. For example, just as Virginia began to ease restrictions, a local sports club reopened its outdoor tennis courts. I called a friend and we played tennis for an hour. We were well over 6 feet apart, and although we obviously had indirect contact through the balls, we were careful not to touch our faces and we washed our hands afterward. It felt safe, and also exhilarating. Did I absolutely need to play tennis? Of course not. Was it terribly risky? Probably not. Did it make me happy? Undoubtedly, it did. And we are all in need of a little happiness right now.
The value of a life is not just in the simple act of living it, but in how you do so. I know that people want to be safe and healthy but that they also want art, and laughter, and music, and bourbon—to create them and to consume them. Not everyone can do those things in lockdown, but if you can, how do you decide?
There are three things that enter my calculus for what I should and shouldn’t do right now. The first: Am I putting anyone else at risk? For me, “anyone else” includes all my patients, so I feel acutely responsible for making sure I am safe. For many people, “anyone else” will be family members or close associates who are elderly or have other risk factors for getting very sick from COVID. I consider the downstream effects of increasing my risk on those whose well-being I am responsible for. Without this, being young-ish (42) and with no chronic illnesses, I might be tempted to be more cavalier. The risk to others is perhaps the most complicated to determine. When I think about visiting my parents, who are in their 70s, I worry about infecting them. And, of course, it would be safest to stay away. But I also worry about them feeling isolated, and the fact they miss their grandchildren. So one weekend, just as Virginia began to lift restrictions and I had not worked a shift in the ER for five days, I drove my family up to see them, and we sat in their living room with masks and on their back porch without them. If case numbers climb where I work, I probably will feel less safe visiting them and will stay away. But if this drags on for years without a vaccine, I imagine I will then feel differently. They and I will weigh the risk of them getting COVID and dying, against the sorrow of missing their grandchildren growing up, and perhaps we will all decide the risk is worth it.
Because I consider myself a possible risk to others because of my job, I might not invite friends over for dinner inside my house right now. But I might consider grilling in the backyard, with people I trust to wear masks in public, wash their hands, and realize that the coronavirus really is a threat. (This brings up a side note: This is a time to reflect upon the company we keep. If we gave freely of ourselves in the pre-COVID era, perhaps it is time to consider just how important any given person is in our lives. Some people we were friendly with before just might not make the cut. There is legitimate value right now in keeping one’s social circle a little bit smaller.)
A second consideration is the risk of the activity I want to partake in against its importance to me. And although some of the things I would like to do could be categorized as frivolous, I intend to do them anyway. Friends have asked me: Are pedicures safe? Perhaps they are, and so may be spa visits and haircuts; weeks after two Missouri hairstylists exposed more than a hundred customers to COVID because they worked while sick, no customer has yet tested positive at the time of writing. If this remains true, it suggests that close quarters with masks, which the two stylists were both wearing, might be OK. While none of these activities are essential, they are things many of us are longing to do. And what we have learned is that there are real ways to make them safer: physical distancing, masks, and good working conditions for employees. (This matters because it’s a good indicator of how able the employees can protect themselves as they want to—if you were already worried that your nail salon was exploiting its workers, now is definitely not the time to go back, for their sake or yours.) If you don’t long to do something, then maybe holding off on doing it for now is the best option. For example, there is no dearth of movies on Netflix I haven’t seen, so going to see a new release in a theater holds no fascination for me. But if everyone is 6 feet apart at the movies and wearing masks, an armchair movie critic might choose to make this their first pandemic outing. Similarly, if I couldn’t drive to see close family, I might consider getting on a plane but would wear a mask and bleach-wipe my surroundings. Each of us will decide, with a certain degree of arbitrariness, what we consider safe and important. But I wouldn’t go to a crowded bar, or a pool party where no one was wearing a mask, no matter how much I wanted to. That would clearly just not be safe right now.
It’s not just the frivolous that concerns me. As the days with COVID march on, some of the things we have been avoiding will become necessary. Adults will need to go back to work, and we’ll need to send our children to school and day care. How will we learn how, and teach our children how, to be safe in those settings? The CDC has published mitigation strategies for schools and business, and we will want to know that our employers and school districts are taking them seriously. While there is data that suggests children aren’t a huge source of transmission, we really won’t know how safe school is until we have tried it. I intend to send my children back as soon as schools are open, but I imagine there will be some parents who won’t want to. Until that long-awaited back-to-school day arrives, I’ll try to ingrain COVID safety in my kids. They now always wash their hands for 20 seconds or leave their shoes by the door, and they are learning to be comfortable in masks. And for us adults, the skills we acquire in our occasional forays into the world will serve us well when work in an office is a regular occurrence again; not touching our faces, and sanitizing obsessively, will have to become second nature. We’ve already contended with decisions about something that is morally necessary: protesting. People have done integrated strategies to mitigate their risk of COVID even as they march and kneel in the streets.
………………………………………………
There’s a lot of shaming on the internet of people who want to go out and do things, and this makes us question our desires to do so. Yes, we all want to survive this pandemic. But we also need to learn to live with COVID around us and take steps to protect ourselves and our communities. Ultimately, most of the risks we will all take won’t be about pedicures, or haircuts, or eating at a steakhouse. They will be about seeing the people we love, being with the people who sustain us, interacting in a way that makes us feel human. While love can be expressed in an email, on a computer screen, in a phone call, those digital forms of communication are no substitute for sharing the same physical space with another person, even if the words are the same. And wanting that closeness does not make you a bad person. Just wear a mask when you do it.
Makes his/her kids wear masks. Fucker.
The letter from an anonymous academic which was disappeared from Pastebin has shown up here: https://uncoverdc.com/2020/06/12/uc-berkeley-history-professors-open-letter-against-blm-police-brutality-and-cultural-orthodoxy/