8pm Curfew Imposed in Melbourne by Power-Crazed Premier
After reading yesterday’s “Postcard From Melbourne” I didn’t think things could get any worse in the capital of Victoria. But yesterday the power-crazed Premier of the state – Daniel Andrews, known as Kim Jong Dan – announced tough new “Stage 4” restrictions in metropolitan Melbourne, including an 8pm curfew. This looks like another instance of what I’ll call the “collapsing skyscraper” rule of this unending catastrophe. Being in lockdown is like falling through a collapsing skyscraper. Every time you think you’ve come to the bottom and your feet have found solid ground, the floor gives way again.
Here is a list of the “Stage 4” measures introduced from 6pm yesterday and due to last for six weeks:
- The “state of emergency” in Victoria has been upgraded to a “state of disaster”, meaning police can now enter your home to carry out spot checks even if you don’t give them permission and they don’t have a warrant.
- Between the hours of 8pm and 5am, you’re not allowed to leave your homes except for work, medical care and caregiving.
- Outside those hours, you may only leave your home for four reasons: shopping for food and essential items, care and caregiving, daily exercise and work. “We can no longer have people simply out and about for no good reason whatsoever,” said Kim Jong Dan.
- Daily exercise can only take place within a 5km radius of your home and cannot last longer than an hour.
- You cannot exercise in groups of more than two, even if they’re members of the same household.
- Apart from daily exercise, you are only allowed to leave your home once a day for essential supplies and food.
- In the whole of Victoria, you cannot buy more than two of certain essential items, including dairy, meat, vegetables, fish and toilet paper.
- Schools have closed again, with all Victoria school students returning to remote learning from Wednesday (except for vulnerable children and children of permitted workers). Childcare and kindergarten will be closed from Thursday.
- Golf and tennis venues, which were open, have now been closed.
- Weddings will no longer be allowed from Thursday, and funerals will be limited to 10 people.
- Face nappies anywhere outside your home have been mandatory for people in metropolitan Melbourne since July 22nd, but that rule has now been extended to the entire state of Victoria.
- You cannot have visitors or go to another person’s house unless it is for the purpose of giving or receiving care. However, you can leave your house to visit a person if you are in an “intimate personal relationship” with them, even during curfew hours. So no “bonk ban”.
- If you have a holiday home or were planning a holiday outside Melbourne, tough cheese. You must remain in the city for the next six weeks.
- The maximum fine for breaching a health order currently stands at $1,652, but Kim Jong Dan said he would have more to say about penalties later today, i.e. he’s going to increase them.
These measures were prompted by 671 new cases of coronavirus on Sunday and seven more deaths. That’s up from 295 new cases last Wednesday, but down from 723 on Friday. It was that spike on Friday – the highest daily total in Victoria to date – that prompted Kim Jong Dan to unveil the new restrictions yesterday.
But could the increase be due to a corresponding increase in testing? It certainly looks that way.
Victoria tested almost 43,000 on Sunday, July 26th, twice as many as on normal days, and the peak on Wednesday could be due to the few days delay before the results come through. In addition, a percentage of the positive results are likely due to the extensive contact tracing introduced in the past few weeks, with targeted testing of those who’ve been in contact with other infected people.
It looks like a familiar pattern: on the advice of public health officials, a political leader ramps up testing and introduces a track-and-trace programme, then, when the number of cases inevitably increases, the leader panics and introduces draconian new measures.
How long before bungling Boris introduces another new set of random restrictions here?
Stop Press: A “Major Incident” was declared in Greater Manchester yesterday in response to alleged increases in coronavirus infection rates across “multiple localities”. (Almost certainly an artefact of increased testing, as explained below.) Major Incidents are typically declared after a terror attack or natural disaster and mean a region can access extra national resources if necessary, with the police able to draft in the army if they need support. Looks like Manchester is in the frame to be the Melbourne of the UK.
Oxford Professor: Covid Cases in England Are Not Rising
Carl Heneghan has struck again. The Professor of Evidence-Based Medicine at Oxford wrote a blog post yesterday in which he showed that the alleged increase in the number of infected people in England – the pretext for locking down four-and-a-half million people last week – is an artefact of increased testing.
First, he looks at the raw data which seems to show the number of positive cases in Pillar 1 (testing in healthcare settings) trending down and the number in Pillar 2 (community settings) trending up.
That alone is sufficient to demolish the case for imposing more restrictions – if an uptick in community cases isn’t resulting in an uptick in healthcare cases, then it’s nothing to worry about. But Prof Heneghan then goes on to show that the increase in the number of Pillar 2 positives is entirely a function of increased Pillar 2 testing.
However, what happens if you adjust for any change in testing over time? On July 1st – the seven day moving average of testing was 41,109 for Pillar 1 and 43,161 in Pillar 2. By July 31st, the Pillar, 1 seven day average for testing had increased to 49,543 (a 20% increase); while the Pillar 2 had risen by much more – by 82% to 78,522 tests.
The next graph shows what happens when you adjust for the number of tests done and then standardise to per 100,000 tests. Pillar 1 is seen to be still trending down, but Pillar 2 is now flatlining. The increase in the number of cases detected is likely due to the increase in testing in Pillar 2.
Prof Heneghan’s conclusion – typically understated – is that the Government doesn’t know its arse from its elbow.
Inaccuracies in the data and poor interpretation will often lead to errors in decisions about imposing restrictions, particularly if these decisions are done in haste and the interpretation does not account for fluctuations in the rates of testing.
Heneghan also gave an interview to the Telegraph‘s Science Editor Sarah Knapton yesterday in which he said the apparent increase in cases in Greater Manchester, East Lancashire and parts of West Yorkshire disappears if you control for: (a) the date the tests were taken rather than when the results came through; and (b) the increase in Pillar 2 testing.
“The northern lockdown was a rash decision,” he said. “Where’s the rise? By date of test through July there’s no change if you factor in all the increased testing that’s going on.
“As areas are tested, like Oldham, then there’s a slight rise in detected cases, asymptomatics.
“It’s not clear if these are false positives, or if these folk have viable virus or just RNA fragments detected by a test threshold that picks up minute traces of RNA.
“While you get these small clusters, which will have been occurring for some time, they have not led to an overall increase in cases
“The Government needs to allow the local public health teams to do their job when localised clusters emerge.”
Mapping the coronavirus trend by result date appears to show a slight increase in cases over the past few weeks, but based on specimen date – a more reliable measure – cases appear to have plateaued and may even be falling.
Between July 22nd and July 29th the seven day rolling average of reported cases jumped between those two dates from 659 to 753 – 16.7%.
However, when judged by specimen date the seven day rolling average actually dropped from 641 to 442, a 31% decrease.
Any rise is also being skewed by a general increase in testing. The seven-day rolling average for tests carried out between July 22nd and July 29th jumped from 137,427 to 153,252 – an 11.5% increase, wiping out much of the increase.
“Why is no one checking this out at Government level?” added Prof Heneghan
“The specimen date is more reliable as the reporting data will be skewed by the delay in Pillar 2 testing reporting.”
Northern Lockdown Going Down Like Bucket of Cold Sick
A reader in one of the areas flattened by Boris’s “whack-a-mole” hammer has got in touch. Not quite as bleak as you’d think.
I’m in one of the areas recently “locked down” (BD20). We’re actually nowhere near the city of Bradford, but presumably the Government couldn’t be bothered to plot accurate maps so just lazily locked down the whole council tax area.
Some good news. Matt Hancock’s plea for household distancing has gone down like a bucket of cold sick! Everyone I know – and I mean everyone – intends to take no notice of the new rules. Crucially, unlike in March, even the previous lockdown zealots are now jumping ship. I visited my mother-in-law’s today with three generations of my family and it was totally different to March. No “sneaking around” needed. Gardens were full and people were happy to park cars outside and mingle freely as if nothing had been said. I think the penny is finally dropping. This will be forever if people go along with it this time.
The same can’t be said for local businesses, unfortunately, who have one again been thrown under a bus by these measures.
Anti-Mask Protest in Central London
Missed this yesterday, but there was an anti-mask protest in Central London on Saturday. Russia Today has the story.
Activists took to the streets of London a day after the UK cabinet expanded its guidelines for mandatory face coverings. The demonstration comes amid growing skepticism worldwide over the efficacy of such policies.
A large group of demonstrators assembled in Hyde Park on Saturday, where they listened to speeches denouncing the government’s anti-coronavirus measures. Piers Corbyn, brother of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, was among the speakers.
Carrying placards reading “Stop the new normal, save lives,”“Freedom over fear,” and “Masks are muzzles,” the protesters then marched towards Downing Street, stopping outside BBC headquarters along the way.
Question From Reader About Legality of Remote GP Appointments
Can anyone answer these questions from a reader about the legality of restricting NHS care?
The Government revoked and replaced the Coronavirus Act 2020 with a pared down Part 2 on July 3rd. Matt Hancock announced that healthcare appointments would remain virtual/remote for the foreseeable future. I wondered if one of your clever readers might be able to explain what is and is not a legal requirement when it comes to the provision of NHS care? After all, when challenged, the Government said it never ordered schools to close, merely recommended it. Is this is a similar situation?
I ask because my elderly dad is 85 and his memory loss has rapidly accelerated under lockdown which is really affecting quality of life. He gets very flustered with technology – even phone calls make him anxious. We’ve had a specialist second opinion and the consultant wrote to the GP asking him to carry out some tests and to support my dad. His GP will not see him in person, only remotely, and only then when you’ve run the gauntlet of the terrifying receptionists to get a phone slot. We are in a small rural market town and in our county Covid cases and deaths have remained incredibly low – you’re more likely to be trampled to death by a herd of escaped cattle.
It seems extraordinary to me that a 20 GP mega-practice which serves the town and its huge hinterland can just close its doors, and ration and suspend services in this way. I’ve heard anecdotally of patients being asked to take photos of body parts and email or text them to the surgery, as they can’t be seen in person. Surely, that cannot be good medical practice, let along consistent with GDPR, or patients’ rights to confidentiality, privacy and dignity? One would hope that the Public Sector Equality Duty still applies, and GP practices are obliged to properly equality impact assess any provision. One would assume they have to properly risk assess it too (Covid not being the only risk!). If your GP practice is over-reaching and presenting guidance as law, what recourse do patients have? I know we were told we had to protect the NHS, but my dad has paid his taxes all his life. It seems really unjust that he’s getting such threadbare care.
If anyone knows the answers to any of these questions, please email here and I’ll publish them in due course.
News From Cornwall
I may have taken news reports of locals reacting badly to tourists in Cornwall too seriously yesterday. One reader currently on holiday in Cornwall with her 14 year-old daughter and partner says it’s actually not too bad.
In St Mawes all the guests, pubs and restaurants seem pretty sensible/chilled. We just had beers and chips at a pub and it was a mask-free zone even among staff, refreshingly. Posher joints such as Hotel Tresanton and the Idle Rocks are closing their restaurants to non-residents in the evenings, however… 🤷♀️
New Report Lays Bear Extent of Free Speech Crisis in Universities
Policy Exchange has published a report today, written by three members of the Free Speech Union’s Advisory Council, making clear the extent of the free speech crisis in Britain’s universities. Among the findings, based on extensive polling, are:
- Fewer than 20% of UK academics voted for right-leaning parties and about 75% voted for the Labour/Liberal Democrat/Green parties in 2017 and 2019.
- Only 54% of academics said that they would feel comfortable sitting next to a known Leave supporter at lunch.
- Just 37% would feel comfortable sitting next to someone who, in relation to transgender rights, advocates gender-critical feminist views.
- A third of academics would seek to avoid hiring a known Leave supporter, and between a third and a half of those reviewing a grant bid would mark it lower if it took a right-wing perspective.
- Among the small minority of academics who identify as “fairly right” or “right”, 32% have refrained from airing their views in teaching and research.
Having identified the problem – structural discrimination against academics with right-of-centre views – the authors propose a solution: an Academic Freedom Bill. This would provide for the following:
- Establish the position of a Director for Academic Freedom as a member of the senior team of the Office for Students, reporting to the Board of the OfS and appointed by the Education Secretary.
- Establish that universities and other Higher Education Providers (HEPs) have a direct duty to protect academic freedom.
- Establish that breaches of the duty of freedom of speech or of academic freedom are a tort in breach of a statutory duty, with HEPs being liable for damages for violating these duties.
- Expand the scope of activities which are protected beyond those specified by existing academic freedom legislation.
- Make it explicit in law that, in fulfilling both the public sector equality duty and the harassment provisions of the Equality Act 2010, HEPs are to have particular regard to the need to ensure academic freedom and freedom of speech.
- Extend the existing statutory duty to ensure freedom of speech to include Student Unions.
There’s much more in this excellent report. Worth reading in full.
And in case you’re worried about your own speech rights being violated, you can join the Free Speech Union here.
Postcard From Belgium
The postcards are coming in thick and fast. Yesterday, I published one from Melbourne – probably the bleakest yet, although it was written before the latest horrific “Stage 4” restrictions were imposed – and today I’m publishing one from Belgium. Sounds like it could give Melbourne a run for its money in the draconian lockdown stakes. Here’s an extract:
The madness was ratcheted up even further on July 28th. Initially, a group of 100 town mayors ganged up to impose mandatory mask wearing for pedestrians within their town centres. On the street, walking alone, or in a park within their jurisdictions, masks are now mandatory. Doubtless, the remaining 200 town mayors will follow with breathless urgency to keep everyone “safe”. Masks are now mandatory on beaches along the Belgian coast. And this, in a country that banned total or partial “face coverings” in 2011, the legality of which was upheld by the European Court of Human Rights when two Muslim women claimed it breached their “human rights”. The irony is stark.
There is zero pushback to this nonsense in Belgium. The news is dominated by rising rates of infection in Antwerp and other hot spots, without any data on hospital admissions, or the condition or age profile of the “infected”. A chemist, whom I had regarded as a sensible woman for over 20 years, told me mask wearing was important to “discipline the people”. A night out with a banker friend, who could usually be relied on as a comrade in arms, made me realise Belgium is lost. He was genuinely concerned for his personal safety, believed what he was being told by the media, and happily complied with his overlords. The guy I had known for decades was no more.
Worth reading in full.
Round-Up
- ‘Universities are failing to protect academic freedom from the anti-free speech radicals‘ – Professor Vernon Bogdanor (my old politics tutor) raises the alarm about academic free speech, based on the Policy Exchange report, in today’s Telegraph
- ‘Covid’s nasty – there’s more to life than imprisoning ourselves‘ – Good comment piece by Professor Robert Dingwall in The Express
- ‘LOCKDOWN LUNACY 3.0: It’s over‘ – Latest blog post from JB Handley
- ‘Secrecy has harmed UK Government’s response to COVID-19 crisis, says top scientist‘ – Sir Paul Nurse says the Government’s lack of transparency when it comes to its apparently arbitrary, dart-throwing response to the ongoing crisis has undermined public trust
- ‘Covid deaths are actually falling off a cliff – now we’re dying of coronaphobia‘ – Robust column by Trevor Kavanagh in The Sun
- ‘Let’s not panic now – we CAN deal with this virus‘ – Strong piece by Professor Karol Sikora in The Mail
- ‘Are we all vulnerable now?‘ – Dave Clements in Spiked says our exaggerated sense of vulnerability has driven us to catastrophe
- ‘The lockdown debate has morphed into a rerun of the Brexit wars‘ – Christopher Snowdon claims there’s a lot of overlap between arch Brexiteers and lockdown sceptics. I get top billing, alongside James Delinpole, Dan Hannan and Peter Hitchens
- ‘A realistic fear‘ – More psychological insight from Dr Hugh Willbourn
- ‘Is the Church of England determined to kill off the parish church?‘ – Giles Fraser laments the CofE’s pathetic response to the crisis
- ‘The cure to irrational Covid fear is a dose of healthy conservatism‘ – On-the-money Telegraph column by Tim Stanley
- ‘Ministers face backlash over plans to extend the shielding programme to over-50s this winter‘ – Tory MPs and business leaders warn the Government that telling over-50s to stay at home risks damaging the economy and runs contrary to Boris Johnson’s plea to get workers back to the office
- ‘Did Lockdown Work? An Economist’s Cross-Country Comparison‘ – New paper by Swedish economist Christian Bjørnskov looking at whether there’s an inverse correlation between the severity of a country’s lockdown policies and Covid mortality. Answer: No.
- ‘Antibody tests do not pick up people who had mild coronavirus, Oxford study suggests‘ – More confirmation that antibody tests don’t measure extent of immunity that’s already been acquired
- ‘Some India slums “may have reached herd immunity”, study finds‘ – About six in 10 people living in some of Mumbai’s biggest slums have antibodies, according to a new study
- ‘Thousands of maskless Germans protest COVID-19 rules in Berlin‘ – New York Post report on Berlin protest increases attendance figure to 17,000
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Two today: “Sons of Liberty” by Frank Turner and “Don’t Believe a Word” by Thin Lizzy.
Small Businesses That Have Re-Opened
A couple of months 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 re-opened, 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.
Now that non-essential shops have re-opened – or most of them, anyway – we’re now focusing on pubs, bars, clubs and restaurants, as well as other social venues. As of July 4th, many of them have re-opened too, but not all (and some of them are at risk of having to close again). 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 – particularly if they’re not insisting on face masks! Don’t worry if your entries don’t show up immediately – we need to approve them once you’ve entered the data.
Forums Back Up and Running
I enjoy reading all your comments and I’m glad I’ve created a “safe space” for lockdown sceptics to share their frustrations and keep each other’s spirits up. But please don’t copy and paste whole articles from papers that are behind paywalls in the comments. I work for some of those papers and if they don’t charge for premium content they won’t survive.
We have created some Lockdown Sceptics Forums that are now open. Initially, they became a spam magnet so we temporarily closed them. However, we’ve found a team of people wiling to serve as moderators so the Forums are back up and running. Any problems, email the Lockdown Sceptics webmaster Ian Rons here.
“Mask Exempt” Lanyards
I thought I’d create a new permanent slot down here for people who want to buy (or make) a “Mask Exempt” lanyard/card. You can print out and laminate a fairly standard one for free here (a bit like the one above) and it has the advantage of not explicitly claiming you have a disability. But if you have no qualms about that (or you are disabled), you can buy a lanyard from Amazon saying you do have a disability/medical exemption here (now showing it will arrive between August 20th and 29th). The Government has instructions on how to download an official “Mask Exempt” notice to put on your phone here. You can get a “Hidden Disability” tag from eBay here and an NHS exemption notice for just £2.99 from Etsy here (although when I last checked, it was no longer available).
And don’t forget to sign the petition on the UK Government’s petitions website calling for an end to mandatory face nappies in shops here.
Shameless Begging Bit
Thanks as always to those of you who made a donation in the past 24 hours to pay for the upkeep of this site. If you feel like donating, however small the sum, 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…
Discussion
Comments
This week across the site:
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to the Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
Went into Starbucks today for a coffee. Turned off Bluetooth on my phone to stop the tracing app, then the girl asked for my contact details. Gave her a phone number with one digit incorrect, and refused my surname. She smiled, put “Smith” and served me with a smile. No mask of course, it’s a food outlet so I didn’t need one. My mask exemption badge stayed in my pocket.
I showed it to a friend (72 yr-old) and her eyes widened with delight. “Where did you get that!” she said. “Lockdown Sceptics link; arrived in three days…” Yay! Her cleaner asked for the website, too. The exemption tag has a bright orange “MASK EXEMPT” ribbon.As it happens, I have a genuine condition which is so cringmaking that I can’t wait for a police officer to challenge me; I’ll make it the worst day of his life.
My wife and I have agreed that we won’t put any worker’s job at risk by making a fuss in front of their management; the managers, however, are fair game. So delighted, this mild protest has improved my mood no end.
Wake up be free – because that’s precisely the problem people are like robots doing as they are told I feel like shaking people to wake them up to this shite
Thanks Toby for creating this website and bringing together the writings of so many experts on the subject. I have learnt a huge amount and am spreading the message of Covid scepticism far and wide.
New page is up – https://dailysceptic.org/2020/08/04/latest-news-94/#comments
You know, folks, I’m feeling down. It’s all I can think of… Down… Everything is going down!
I mean:
Covid Hospital Admissions: Down
Critical Care Bed Occupancy: Down
No of people in Hospital: Down
All Cause Deaths: Down
And it all keeps going down, what can we do (sniff)??
Sadly the BS Index is UP, rising inexorably, reaching daily new highs.
Some interesting snippets on the ONS July 24th deaths info:
The number of deaths in care homes, hospitals and other communal establishments remained below the five-year average in Week 30, while the number of deaths in private homes continued to be higher than the five-year average (727 more deaths). Would these be collateral lockdown deaths by any chance?
The coronavirus (COVID-19) has had a large impact on the number of deaths registered over the last few months and is the main reason for deaths increasing above what is expected (the five-year average). The disease has had a larger impact on those most vulnerable (for example, those who already suffer from a medical condition) and those at older ages. Some of these deaths would have likely occurred over the duration of the year but have occurred earlier because of COVID-19. These deaths occurring earlier than expected could contribute to a period of deaths below the five-year average.
Nice of them to admit it. Wonder if whoever sneaked that gem in will be fired?
Region name Number of deathsFive-year average DifferencePercentage above average
North West 1197 1210 -13 -1.1
Yorkshire and The Humber 817 888 -71 -8.0
So why the localised lockdown… Read more »
Eid.
Oh and a bunch of presumably naughty, socialising white folks in a nobby part of G.Manchester.
And because they can!
Try taking part in a study by the ONS, really screw up the answers nd data.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/surveys/informationforhouseholdsandindividuals/householdandindividualsurveys/opinionsandlifestylesurvey
https://www.ons.gov.uk/surveys/informationforhouseholdsandindividuals/householdandindividualsurveys
My 9-year-old daughter is a staunch lockdown sceptic. She wants to announce her theory, so over to her:
the goverment have been obducted by alians !!!!!!
and they’re trying to take over the world, also, the masks make the alians able to control us. NEVER EVER WEAR A MASK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
More sensible than anything from government or their experts so far.
She talks more sense than our so-called experts!!!
And it’s neck and neck in the race for a new PM. The Rt. Hon Biker being seriously challenged by Miss Dee!
Hope you’ve got her talking to all her friends… get them sceptic early!!!
If they waited a bit longer they could have had a higher R number and prevented even more cases…
Melbourne’s stage 3 lockdown prevented thousands of coronavirus cases, research data shows
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-04/melbournes-coronavirus-lockdown-worth-it-burnet-institute-data/12521434
And how many of those cases required hospitalisation or resulted in a fatality?
I did a model recently that showed if nobody is ever born eventually we would eradicate death.
Every person not born is equivalent to one death prevented in the future. The sooner we start the more deaths we can prevent.
This is why I love this site!!!!!
This is what this country needs now. Simple, clear thinking that will save lives and get this country back up on its knees. Hurrah.
Professor Ferguson has improved on this model by positing an infinity of non-births (based on an extrapolation of reversed reproduction rate ie the -R2 rate) which will result in an infinity of saved lives and the award to him of the Nobel Prize.
Life can be fatal.
Now you sound like Uncle Bill!
The masks will prevent any future pregnancies.
Or am I wearing it wrongly?
NSW(Australia) 12 new cases today 4th Aug
This week 86 Known source 74 Unknown source 12
Last week 74 Known source 71 Unknown source 3
Hang on, haven’t we seen that pattern before? Yes, UK just before it started to pick up first with unknown source increasing.
And this is not in Victoria, Melbourne. Shall we guess that masks and lockdown won’t stop this?
Update Melbourne
RECENT FINES:
161fines issued cards
60 for no masks
Someone bought a car after 8 pm
Police had to smash windows of 4 cars after occupants refused to give details
38y/o woman not wearing a mask smashed police woman’s head into concrete-she’s been charged+bailed
18,686 cases averted? How very precise…
They turned me into a newt…
the news benders:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCSdNUWNefA
they told us back in the late 60s
Apologies if already mentioned but I just noticed this:
‘Of the deaths registered in Week 30, 217 mentioned “novel coronavirus (COVID-19)”, the lowest number of deaths involving COVID-19 in the last 18 weeks and a 26.4% decrease compared with Week 29 (295 deaths), accounting for 2.4% of all deaths in England and Wales.’
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/datasets/weeklyprovisionalfiguresondeathsregisteredinenglandandwales
A 26.4% decrease…..that’s a big decrease…..in one week……
Week 29 is 13-19 July
17th July?
‘Health Secretary Matt Hancock has called for an urgent review into how coronavirus deaths have been recorded in England.’
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-53443724
Just saying………
Mask On, Mask Off?
During a brief trip to a supermarket, I noted that this week’s charade is playing out as follows….
Not wearing a mask:
Me
Young mother with young child
All supermarket staff
2 x uniformed Police Officers
Wearing a mask:
Almost everyone else, none of whom batted an eyelid at non-mask wearers.
An amusing and senior curmudgeon who said, “f*cking moron” behind me as he walked past. If he was talking to me, it was to my back, so I could neither tell nor react. What made it funny was that the mask muffled it to such a degree that it sounded like he was talking to himself.
I came away with the impression that nobody is any more or less scared than they were a fortnight ago, but that they are mostly polite, law-abiding and non-confrontational.
The man that swore would be exactly the same chap that would accuse you of queue barging, or of taking the last item of a product that he needed, or of having a child that was too noisy and so on and so on.
It seems perfectly obvious that if the government told people to get out and about and… Read more »
Seen displayed in a front window (somewhere) in big letters:
Want a lockdown?
GET A TEST!
Sadly not on a main road but a few people will see it.
Maybe we can start spreading this message somehow!
When the Irish Taoiseach, Michael Martin, announced his masking edict on the 15th, July, he said:-
My government and I have received very sobering advice from the National Public Health Emergency Team. The concern about the rise in the number of cases over recent weeks is very real.
The “recent weeks” he referred to could only have been a reference to the previous eighteen days or so as before then the number of cases was generally falling
In the eighteen days before the announcement there were 256 cases.
In the last eighteen have 510. Which doesn’t suggest the mask wearing is having a great impact (the number of cases has increased in the last week especially.)
The number of people dying is little changed. It was sixteen in the eighteen day period before the announcement and fourteen in the last eighteen day period.
Don’t take my figures as gospel, I’d like my figures to be checked. I can’t imagine anyone will want to do so but here is the website to use if they do:-
https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/b6a9e-updates-on-covid-19-coronavirus-from-july-and-august-2020/
Behind the paywall but a brilliant article by Andrew Lilico in the Telegraph. He is becoming nearly as reliably excellent in his opinion and analysis as Janet Daley.
You can read any article at the Telegraph by hitting a certain key twice as the page loads, but as Toby disapproves of circumventing paywalls I won’t say which key.
Go on!—-give us a clue?
More generally: Reader. View.
There’s be no Escape from a severe telling off from Toby if I did…
Howdy, ya’ll. New Englander here – been reading this site for about as long as it’s been up – the Comments section in particular has been a source of much relief, nice to know there are folks out there who aren’t so taken with the present Airstrip One-ing of western civilisation. I wrote the following Fbook post yesterday re: masks and the private response was quite telling –
“Muzzles don’t work. They make us dumb and dull and paranoid and stressed. It’s not a question of ‘being a team player,’ now, not when you don’t get to decide for yourself if you agree to the terms of the match to begin with. Liberalism is founded on consent, and every time Authority manages to convince people otherwise it takes decades, sometimes centuries to repair the damage. I’m harping on the mask drama in particular because it’s becoming a shorthand all it’s own, a small window into peoples’ souls where superstition reigns and critical distance is seen as a mark of mental disorder. Whether or not we wear a mask seems to me to be about our self-image and our place in a political social club more than it is about… Read more »
(Continued🙂
Well, get on with it, man! Don’t leave us in suspense….
Welcome Sam!! But… I really want to know what the response was!!
Apologies friends, I couldn’t reply to my original post because it had to be approved first. The rest:
“I had a conversation recently with a recently-converted pandemic-response skeptic – we came to the conclusion that masks are a small part of a wide-scale movement towards complete Pavlovian thought- and information-control, tiny little tools of mass demoralisation that indicate a willingness (often subconscious) to indulge in seemingly-mundane pseudoscientific lies so as to 1.) keep ourselves reassured and compliant so that we never forget to mouth the right mottoes and genuflect in the right moral direction for the sake of thickening the herd (ie a ‘moral camouflage’ gambit, a kind of sinister ‘herd immunity’ that dovetails perfectly with the goals of the global police-state); 2.) focus our collective paranoid energy on an external recurring Enemy so that we never have to think of ourselves as fragile or suggestible or cowardly (alá the phenomenon of ‘social cancellation’), which goes along quite nicely with adolescent-power-fantasy “Woke”-brand agitprop (sponsored by CitiGroup and Nike and Apple and Google et al, one must always stress!); and finally 3.) avoid evidence-based value-neutral knowledge production, call it impossible (or “white”), render the natural sciences politically and industrially corrupted beyond… Read more »
Have you all seen the disgustingly corrupt picture (which vanished a few minutes ago!) from the BBC News home page this morning? It’s a picture of a schoolgirl (school bag on her back, so no doubts) wearing a mask, with, as far as I can tell, a big smile under the mask. Subtle message from the BBC to copy this role model when sending your children back to school. Ironically, she’s wearing the mask very badly, and all the pesky covids will leak out of the sides, killing millions.
I’ll be interested to see what happens here in Sweden when the schools go back in a couple of week’s time – ie whether there is any uptick in cases.
Everything is going well here looking at this morning’s hospital stats, where for the first time, Stockholm is NOT the region with the most people in hospital!!! Stockholm has 20 fewer hospitalised Covid patients than on Friday..
Eleven of Sweden’s 21 regions – ie over half – now have 5 or fewer people hospitalised with the virus.. I reckon in the next week there will be regions with zero…there are already 7 regions with no intensive care cases..
Excellent news. The MSM will be furious. I went to the Wikipedia page to look at the situation in Sweden:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_pandemic_in_Sweden
Unfortunately the main graph and some other graphics further down in the article have not been updated for a few days. I don’t suppose you do Wikipedia by any chance? Alternatively, I can update it if there’s an English version of the data somewhere.
I did however, feel somewhat stressed in reading that Amazon are planning to open here in Sweden. Possibly a sign of my having developed ‘Covid paranoia’ (!) – them opening here been on the cards for a number of years – but having read online the other day that the level of Covid restrictions and ‘power’ over countries is in proportion to the US’s level of influence in that country, the thought of Jeff Bezos starting to exert power over Sweden worries me a lot.
Either he is crazy, and over-estimates how big the market here is, or this move is being used as a way of trying to exert more control over Sweden..
Or maybe I am just paranoid!!!
I have a copy of it, but I can’t post it here. I just keep getting the message “Input is too long”. Any ideas?
This is my source of data; Dagens Nyheter newspaper: https://www.dn.se/nyheter/grafik-det-nya-coronavirusets-utbredning-i-varlden/
Scroll down to this heading: *Patienter i Sverige som just nu vårdas på intensivavdelning (IVA)* (patients in Sweden who are currently in Intensive care)
The three columns show name of region, total number of hospitalised patients, and the number of that figure who are in intensive care. So for example in Stockholm, there are currently 49 patients in hospital, *of which* 8 are in intensive care. The numbers in brackets with + and – show the difference between today’s figures and the last issue of stats (which was last Friday)
At the bottom you get the totals for the whole country.
It is quite disturbing how the BBC now automatically use mask pictures even when they don’t make sense, clearly some sort of subliminal messaging trying to normalise masks. I was also disgusted by that one today. Other recent examples include every story about Scotrail being accompanied by a photo of a man with a mask walking in front of a departure board (why not a photo of a scotrail train?), story the other day about extending isolation to 10 days accompanied by photo of someone masked standing by window (why wear a mask in house on your own?) and the all time classic announcing the eating out vouchers with photo of 5 masked people in a restaurant (no comment necessary)
Looks like today’s story has now had picture replaced with a stock photo of children in a classroom without a mask to be seen. It would be interesting to know what prompted them to change it.
Anyone with good computer graphics skills fancy working on this suggestion?
Turn the government’s “Stay Alert – Control The Virus – Save Lives” sign into
“Stay Afraid – Control The People – Save Boris”
Might be useful to turn into T-shirts or badges.
Also, for those who feel intimidated enough to consent to wearing face rags in the shops (and I am one, as I’m stressed enough without becoming even more anxious about being assaulted by vigilantes – no lectures please), it seems to me that the face rags are a potential own goal by the government: if we could get a simple enough message, someone, even Toby, could sell masks with a suitably anti-mask message on them, turning the masks into something we could use to our advantage.
Great idea!
Thank you.
Love the “Stay Afraid – Control The People – Save Boris” slogan.
I think a guerilla sticker campaign with stuff like this on would work quite well, if we could get it going in sufficient numbers.
I’ve raised the idea of guerilla stickers recently but this design idea is much better than mine. I might see if I can find time to put a design together. Perhaps see if we can find a compliment printers and resell them, perhaps in Toby’s or Carl Vernon’s merchandise shop.
Yes – we could stick them everywhere. Inside loo cubicles on the back of the door is a good place – captive audience. Anywhere where people linger is good: bus stops, backs of bus seats, etc.
I’ve been to ASDA this morning and wore my face nappy (the lanyard is on order but hasn’t arrived yet). I got Defund The BBC on my nappy, but I’d still rather go without it.
Then do so. I had no probs in my Asda, chatted with staff etc. Hold your head up and smile.
Just go without it. You don’t need a lanyard.
how many fucking times do people need to be told if you wear the mask you are the problem. Grow some balls or fuck off
Biker – I may have misread your comment to JustMe? If I have my apologies, but I found it rather startlingly and unnecessarily rude and personally directed. If I had been the recipient I would have been quite taken aback.
Biker, we’re not all like you. Try and remember that.
Print this on a t-shirt
Excellent. Lots of great ideas for T-shirts and stickers.
Maybe “I support loved ones dying scared and alone”
See how that hits the feels.
Or kids – Can you imagine “Daddy, daddy, where’s my daddy” being the last thing a dying child hears in today’s NHS.
Sobering isn’t it?
How many of you who don’t want to wear a mask but are too anxious to not wear one, have considered a visor instead? Classed as PPE. Copied this from gov website mid July. I don’t think it is still there, but I copied and pasted it into a Word document, and printed it out. I used one for a medical appointment and nobody challenged me. For shopping I am exempt. 3 trips to shops so far and 3 shoppers who looked as if they were planning to say something about me being mask-less peered at the badge with lanyard then walked on without comment. No issues with staff – all smiley and friendly.
PUBLICATION – ADVICE AND GUIDANCE
Coronavirus (COVID-19) Phase 3: staying safe and protecting othersPublished: 15 Jul 2020
Directorate: Communications, Ministerial Support and Facilities Directorate
Rules on staying safe and protecting others to help suppress the virus.
Face coverings
In enclosed spaces, where physical distancing is more difficult and where there is a risk of close contact with multiple people who are not members of your household, you should wear a face covering.
People must by law from 24th July wear a face covering in shops and on… Read more »
Meanwhile over at Guido:
https://order-order.com/2020/08/04/confidence-in-scientific-advice-sees-double-digit-fall/
And lots of lockdown-sceptical comments..
Apologies if this is already discussed this morning, but I have been looking through The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health article that is being widely disseminated in today’s MSM as scare story of the day. You can download from here, second article on the list:
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanchi/onlineFirst
Professor Bonell was just interviewed on Sky – he doesn’t apparently know anything about the Track & Trace system – Umh! – but then he is neither a doctor nor a natural scientist, but a public health modeler, and a Neil Ferguson lookalike. I digress. Key takeaway:
‘We modelled the spread of COVID-19 using Covasim (version 1.4.7), a stochastic agent-based model of SARS-CoV-2 transmission. The model was developed by the Institute for Disease Modeling (Bellevue, WA, USA); further details of the mathematical approach used for Covasim have been published previously as a preprint’ ….. ‘This approach is similar to that in the study by Ferguson and colleagues which informed the implementation of lockdown measures in the UK’.
I despair. At what point are we going to stop using these discredited models – and modelers – and rely on thorough analysis of the actual data, as per Carl Heneghan and his team?
Modelling is the approach to take if you want to avoid doing science.
‘This approach is similar to that in the study by Ferguson and colleagues which informed the implementation of lockdown measures in the UK’.
It really beggars belief that people still write that kind of thing as though they are unaware of just how dramatically the Imperial study has been discredited (at least for anyone paying proper attention to reality).
It’s incredible either way, either that they should still be unaware how worthless and damaging the study proved, or that they should be aware of it and still see it as something to refer to as though it boosts your own work’s credibility.
Not because I think there’s a connection,but just to put it out there, Bellevue is a Seattle Suburb, right next to Redmond and is stuffed full of Microsoft offices.
Thanks for that Matt. It prompted me to Google Covasim – the ABS model used. Guess what, the article has the following statement: ‘This work was supported by Bill and Melinda Gates through the Global Good Fund’!!!!!!!
Is there any of this shite at all that doesn’t trace back to Gates???
The commentary by John Edmonds (yes, him), comments that the Panovska-Griffiths model doesn’t take into account that increased infection rates might just as well result from increased transmission by adults freed up to return to work because their children were back in school. The Australian nursery school piece, based not on a model but actual data, is pretty pointless for drawing any relevant conclusions. Covers a period up to March, so out of date, tiny number of children involved, etc. Etc.
“Data, data, data. I cannot make bricks without clay.” Sherlock Holmes.
Observation:Theory::10,000:1
Hi,
Can anyone tell me if the North West lockdown is actually in legal effect yet? Someone has told me it isn’t but I get the feeling that it is.
Thanks.
Today’s Sun has this:
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/politics/12306520/lockdown-rules-north-law-100/
£100 FINES for people breaking lockdown rules in the North of England are to be signed into law today.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock is set to publish and sign the new coronavirus regulations which will force people in the new targeted areas in Greater Manchester, parts of Lancashire and West Yorkshire not to visit other people’s homes.
Got to love the Sun – “force people not to visit other people’s homes.” Ffs.
OK, thanks – so basically I could have had my friends over at the weekend after all! Unbelievable! Where can we find the law when it is actually published by Hancock?
No, you couldn’t, cos it would have been against the guidance, even though it’s not law. Except yes you could, because we ain’t standing for it!
It will turn up here (probably today, then), or someone will have a link on here or in the news.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2020-2029
Thanks.
Notice the scum media always say “£100 fines”, when it’s actually a £50 fine that doubles if you don’t pay quickly enough. Imagine, trying to make things sound worse…
Not been fined for mask noncompliance yet but I do regard the early payment scheme as a two-for-one offer lol.
Our press don’t do things like that? Surely not?
As I asked on here the other day, how does the government ensure that information about rules/guidelines/ laws, whatever you want to call them is disseminated throughout the area to which they apply?
It needs to be in a shedload of different languages for a start, plus Braille and sign language and what about those considerable numbers who can’t read anyway? The television and newspapers only give us the broad brushstrokes of information and not the finer details.
It takes me all my time to find what is today’s law which might of course have changed by tomorrow. Information overload at its finest. I think it’s designed to confuse so that no one follows it anyway, just like the government has given us so many get out of jail free cards with masks.
Is ignorance still bliss?
Really good point, how can people possibly know all this?
Why, you simply read the government information. You’ll need to check about every five minutes, though! And don’t forget the law may be different in your town, but there are exemptions, and really it depends on whether it’s raining and if so, in what direction. Oh, and sometimes a cafe is a shop, but then it’s a cafe again, but not if you are under eleven.
The govt website spelt out the “guidelines”. Regarding the law, they used the words WILL BE a lot. So the Sun was probably right.
It may be like before, that people assumed that there was immediate legal force to the relations before they were actually *written* into law…
When they announced the lockdown on Thursday night, they said it would be reviewed after a week. So why bother to make it law? Worrying!
Because the ‘promise’ of a review was designed to placate people and avoid protests. They have no intention of living it imminently!
Isn’t Leicester still locked down?
Yeah, this is huge concern for me.
Imagine them letting you think that…
Guidance right now. They say they will pass law. More nonsense coming on Saturday, so the actual law will probably encompass it all. Don’t “get the feeling”, that’s what they want – check! 😉
https://twitter.com/Covid19Crusher/status/1290532190061764608
“Mauritania is another African country were lockdown loosening in May led to an exponential flare-up of COVID infection for a month, followed by a 90% collapse in new cases as herd immunity likely kicked in. Interesting comparison with lockdown control-freak neighbour Morocco.”
It seems to be a natural experiment going around in the world where dirt poor countries can’t afford lockdown and the pandemic becomes a natural curve very fast rise but see also the very quick decline. Can’t discuss hospitalizations, deaths etc in these very different countries but there must be some advantage for these countries to get it over quickly. An endless lockdown in some form of another with pain just adding up over time.
That’s why Whitty and Vallance were against lockdown and recommended the football and Cheltenham went ahead.
Funny how they stopped giving useful advice somewhere along the way ….
Probably because of official ‘muzzling’ with threats of losing their positions, hundreds of perks and gold plated pensions if they didn’t tow the line.
It’s why and how mankind has survived up until 2020.
Our current approach is the unique, first time experiment, with very likely disastrous immunity and health consequences.
But then, as some say, that’s exactly the point and why we/they are doing it in the first place.
https://www.aier.org/article/is-immunity-a-case-of-rothbards-lost-knowledge/
Excellent picture for a country with large landmass. This is not a second wave but everything is a first wave over this huge landmass. Could something similar happen in bigger European countries?
https://twitter.com/Covid19Crusher/status/1290527072566247425/photo/1
“All the regions that have led the “2 wave” in the USA (and were actually 1st waves locally) are rolling over. The steepness of the decline in the South suggest herd immunity might be reached in some States (Louisiana, Florida).”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-53645748
You’d have to have a heart of stone not to laugh!
Got what he deserved 🤣
What a great idea – fine everyone who goes for a test
No testing = back to normal
Absurd headline from the disgusting BBC. 803 deaths in a day is not a high number in a country with a population of 1.4 billion! Even the UK, with a population of 66 million, has had daily death totals higher.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-53591031
25,000+ people die every day in India.
is that from “having a problem with your computer” ?
600,000 die naturally annually of old age in Uk population 66 million
transfering that over to India’s population
13 million die naturally annually in India from old age with a population if 1.3 billion
thats 35,000+ each day
oops – I shoulda read Chicot’s post first…
India’s death toll is low for its population. Goes back to what we all know already – this isn’t a dangerous illness to the young and India has a young population.
There’s a new article in the Spectator entitled ‘Wearing a mask is good manners’. (https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/wearing-a-mask-is-good-manners). I can’t seem to comment on it there. I wanted to say that he (she?) will have to put up with some bad manners from those of us who won’t submit to tyranny. It may seem a trivial thing, but it’s not actually trivial to be forced into public humiliation and unwanted conformity on completely false and irrational grounds.
I think wearing a mask when you are speaking to someone is bad manners – but, of course if you saving their life by doing so that’s more than good manners!
Sneezing/coughing into somebody’s face is bad manners. Sneezing/coughing into a handkerchief is good manners.
Holding the handkerchief to your face while you’re talking to somebody when you’re not sneezing/coughing is just rude.
The thing is, people do actually pull their masks down to sneeze and caugh!
When I was in spain I saw a bloke walking along sneeze into his mask, hillarious!
It would be grim to sneeze into a mask wouldn’t it. Ugh
I have a mission for you fellow sceptics and anti face nappy champions.
This morning, after doing some naked shopping (you know what I mean) in two local shops, no questions asked, pleasant chat with the staff etc, OH and I ventured into the food hall of the out-of-town M and S. No problem going in-the faceless ones were in full force, except for the staff. OH insisted on wearing his lanyard but I refused to do so as I believe that it is akin to having to wear a star by Jews in Germany during the war.
Going down the first aisle, a clinically obese man made a comment to his equally obese wife about us not wearing face masks. Because we are free they really resent us don’t they? I turned and informed him loudly that I was exempt. Afraid OH was a bit less polite so the man lumbered off.
I immediately reported this incident to the floor manager and pointed out that although he could not control his clientele, it was his company’s job to inform shoppers on a regular basis that there were lots of people who had a reasonable excuse for not wearing a… Read more »
I like “less polite”. 🙂
Well done Margaret. 👍
Perfect. Gonna try it in my local coop soon. I’ve been putting it off and not been in a shop since the mandate came out. But that is the lesser of my angers as I am in the northern lockdown zone. If you look at the government’s guidelines for this area it is actually illegal to have a guest in your home or garden! Illegal!! Most people in this area I know are ignoring the new restrictions but I have been wondering about people like myself, retired so no job to lose, breaking the law and going to court to make a point. My mother in law who is 79 says she will do the same.
Not illegal yet. Probably by weekend. Ignore either way.
I had also wondered about sending store managers the first few pages of the laworfiction legal pack which talks about the need to protect staff under the Equality Act (2010).
http://www.laworfiction.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Face-Covering-Exemption-Notice-with-Law-Explained-24-July-2020.pdf
Ozzie, don’t wonder- just do it!
Good for you and love the bit about going out ‘naked’!
No its not good manners to wear a mask, in fact it’s the very opposite.
No masks and No social distancing.
If you’d worn a bandana over your face going into a shop a year ago you would have frightened someone and the police may have been called. Now it’s good manners. Very convenient how mores change. I agree, it’s bad manners because it’s sinister – like it’s bad manners to scowl at someone for no reason
Fortunately there’s enough comments saying the article is daft and I’ve upvoted on all of them. (You have to join Disqus to comment which is a pain in the arse)
To my mind the mask mandate is problematic for many reasons:
1 no need where very low incidence of virus
2 no evidence they work – more they don’t and dirty left in pockets
3 unlikely passing someone in a shop will risk infection – 15 minutes
face to face needed. Most transmission is personal and domestic.
4 supposed to be about preventing asymptomatic spread – which is not proven anyway and spread needs sneezing and coughing. Spread from breathing through nose unlikely – asymptomatic person won’t be coughing etc.
5 When do we stop wearing a mask – flu, colds, tonsillitis, d and v viruses – seems likely all these once normal illnesses next become added to the taboo list.
I don’t need to go on with this list because we all feel the same. Perhaps we can ask Carl Heneghan to help out with this.
All true, and besides physics (virus size vs cloth gap size) standing in the way of their possible efficacy, much more should be made of point 3 to highlight and establish the absurdity:
IF the distance the aerosol/virus travels is indeed relevant and could be reduced by wearing a mask, this can only be relevant and prevent the infection of someone else, if that person stood at that reduced distance from you then, i.e. BETWEEN 1.5 to 2 meters away.
The mask would make no difference at all at distances above 2 or below 1.5 meters!
So, the probabilities of preventing just 1 infection through wearing a mask- IF they worked as such at all- are in truth absolutely minuscule, 1 in the millions.
The Norwegian study presented a calculation as such, and even at its ludicrous 40% efficacy assumption, it calculated a reduction of most 1 infection per 200.000 inhabitants per week- if all inhabitants wore at least a medical mask and were trained properly in its correct use.
(The study established from the start that cloth masks are medically completely pointless, or, as we know, actually harmful.)
As I pointed out a few days ago, if it takes 200,000 people wearing a mask to stop a single infection, with an IFR of ~0.25, 800,000,000 people would have to wear a mask to save a single life.
As Chris Whitty remarked back in March:
“Wearing a mask if you don’t have an infection reduces the risk almost not at all.”
A good piece as an antidote to this nonsense is:
https://thecritic.co.uk/face-masks-make-you-stupid/
which was listed on LS a few days ago.
The article is by one of Toby’s and Delingpole’s former heroes: Robin Aitken. So he is another name to join the growing list of Rod Liddle, Steve Baker, Chris Snowdon et al. – those you thought were reliably sound but show themselves to be deficient when it comes to critical thinking. In this case, he thinks that if lies have been told that have scared the population, it’s OK for the liars to tell further lies about what will make people “safe”. And that those who know it’s a lie should go along with it because it’s good manners! You couldn’t make it up.
Robin Aitken may have slipped up this time, but I can recommend his book ‘The Noble Liar’.
It covers how the BBC twists the media message to suit its own ends. RA worked there for many years and it’s a great exposé of BBC groupthink.
Yep, I picked it up after someone here recommended it and it’s pretty good.
Rather ironic if he suddenly can’t see through the BBC propaganda now, when it’s even more blatant than ever.
Tony Blair told Times Radio:
On some estimates 70% of people with the disease are asymptomatic, so if you are only testing people with symptoms you are losing the majority of people from your testing strategy ….
Hmmmm. And what strategy would that be then?
Did anyone point out that an asymptomatic disease is not a disease at all?
Bring back Lord Denning!
You would think that given many eminent and powerful organisations would have us believe that the world faces a grave threat, they’d have done some studies that showed strong evidence one way or the other regarding asymptomatic transmission, given that, as Professor Blair points out, so many are asymptomatic. I haven’t seen much evidence from these bodies that they actually want to find out more about the virus so that they can modify their response to be more appropriate.
I’ve seen two studies on “asymptomatic” transmission, all based on sample size of 1 (yes, -o-n-e-) and if you actually read the “studies” they’re so full of holes that you can’t even use them to stop paccheri from falling through into a sink!
Yeah, great idea. Let’s test everyone and then the higher number of “cases” can be used as justification for more strict lockdowns.
These ‘get tested’ ads are an outrage! https://twitter.com/DHSCgovuk/status/1290369345462231040
I understand they’ve now replaced the dictionary definition of evil with a photo of Tony Blair.
I reckon there are only a few ways for covipanic to stop:
1 – the government admits it’s been misleading and lying to everyone;
2 – some high profile celebs get on board and start speaking out;
3 – civil disobedience/unrest;
4 – a scandal of some sort that exposes the lies;
5 – a well-respected mainstream journalist suddenly sees the light.
I’m getting increasingly worried. Too many people are naive about it all, although everyone I’ve spoken to since Friday has been a skeptic. I’m in the North West and I’m affected by the non-sensical local lockdown, I’m worried if it is left to local councils they’ll just keep it going indefinitely. People I know think it’ll be over soon but I just can’t see it, they’ll be introducing masks for schools next, and even outdoors too the rate they’re carrying on. I seriously think that Boris Johnson isn’t in his right mind.
I don’t think (1) is going to happen, ever. But the others, yes, over time I think we’ll see more of it. And (6) neutrals and those badly affected by the nonsense will gradually tire of this and start to question things more. It will take time.
Good point. I know 1 will never happen, although the Norwegian PM did admit to being fear driven. Bart, I’m not sure about number 3 happening the way people have just put up with things so far.
I’m not sure how much time we’ve got.
I think it will be more number 3 – the mandatory muzzling has seen a massive decline in High Street footfall to the point that even supermarkets are now being affected. It will get worse come 8 August when even museums, art galleries and cinemas will very likely go in the way of shops while libraries, concert halls, leisure facilities might not bother reopening. This will mean more redundancies and businesses and institutions going bust.
Then come October when the furlough scheme ends and more people join the ranks of the unemployed they might decide that having lost everything, they have nothing to lose by rioting and engaging in massive civil disobedience.
I was thinking maybe number 3 or 4,but after seeing the sheer overwhelming compliance by the zombies in my town this morning I think civil unrest seems unlikely.What really stood out to me today was the slavish compliance with masks etc across all age groups and the look of total defeat in most peoples eyes.
Maybe not now but when this lot gets hit in the pocket and stomach or if they’re retired find their pensions raided then they might just wake up and realise that they’ve been had.
Not many people know that there was law passed some time ago that allows the government access to take money from your bank account if you do not pay a fine… What’s to stop them dipping into people’s bank accounts for a ‘Covid’ fund of some kind?
That’s rather sinister. However the CPS has invalidated any previous fines and have ordered those fined for violating antisocial distancing guidelines be refunded if they’ve paid.
Do you have a source for that, Carrie?
Bl***y h**l – where did you hear that? What law was it, do you know? Didn’t Greece do that a couple of years ago and raid people’s savings and pension pots to help pay off the huge national debt? I know HMRC has the power to access your bank account if you don’t pay your tax bill, but if what you say is true, that is a massive cause for alarm. Is it why the government is trying to phase out cash do you think, as well as making sure they close the back door on the cash in hand job black market?
I agree Bart,I’m hoping that will finally wake most people up but an extension of the furlough scheme at the last minute wouldn’t surprise me either.
Sunak has ruled that out but yeah that wouldn’t surprise me either.
That said I seriously doubt it will have much effect. More businesses will simply go bust come what may and even those who manage to hang on won’t be able to afford the contributory payments.
Bart Simpson – I simply cannot understand why Lockdown Sceptics are the only apparently well-informed, rational and non-brainwashed people who have worked out where this is all going from October. With a crashed economy, no job and none left to apply for, no money to pay rents or mortgages, pay bills or even buy food, what on earth do all the brainwashed folk think is going to happen to them and why is avoiding one little flu like bug worth all this universal pain and distress?
The hope for solution is a vaccine of course. There’s bound to be ‘fraying at the edges’ afore one is found. People might start “voting with their feet” before then and they’ll just be a general collapse. Sorry to mix my metaphors – and when I say “feet” maybe I should say “faces”.
faeces?
This article, if disseminated widely enough, might increase the number of people thinking twice about agreeing to a hastily produced vaccine: https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/08/04/side-effects-of-fast-tracked-vaccine.aspx?cid_source=dnl&cid_medium=email&cid_content=art1ReadMore&cid=20200804Z1&mid=DM614275&rid=932407084
WTF does Gates know about vaccines? He never found any for his software. In fact didn’t care.
I’ve read that Gates has a personal agenda – he is very vocal about his belief that the planet’s population needs to be drastically reduced and soon. Didn’t he fund the development of a vaccine before which was only given to young females of fertile years which was later found to have an ingredient that effectively made them sterile? Or was that just fake conspiracy theory misinformation, that should not be given any credence at all? (I’m still suspicious of his and Fauci’s financial connections).
I’ve tried guiding believers to NHS England’s Daily Covid-19 deaths website to look at the numbers. So far no takers. They can ‘hear’ me but they’re not listening, you can tell by their reactions.
When unemployment takes off and the furlough ends it’s going to start focusing peoples minds but what kind of Police state will be trapped in by then I wonder?
Same here
There is no ‘hope’ or ‘solution’ in a vaccine, unless you’re talking about the Final Solution of course. Oh wait, it couldn’t happen here.
Seen the video on mercola.com where Gates fumbles while trying to minimise the side effects that everyone in the vaccine trials (of the Moderna Covid vaccine) suffered? The stats (on Mercola’s site) are worrying, to say the least..
3 would be the best bet but as everyone knows on here you can’t talk to the bedwetters and we’re in a minority. Even when face masks become mandatory everywhere there will still be compliance and us who claim exemptions will be treated like Jews in Germany in the 1930s. That’s how dark it is becoming. Johnson is very much in his right mind (the one he demonstrated in 2019 when he prorogued parliament and lied to the Queen.) Be careful what you wish (vote) for.
I sometimes wonder if “the tide is turning” is our equivalent of the bedwetters’ “two weeks!”. Something we all want to happen and get excited about if apparent but still hasn’t come to anything yet. I’m pinned my hopes on furlough ending (tapering off this month) but it might take something unexpected and/or big to wake up the sheeple (vaccine going wrong?)
2 & 3 is our only chance of escape and I think 2 will follow 3, not the other way around. We need to start getting organised and fast.
1 will never happen and 4 is impossible with the media being all-in with 24/7 fear porn since day one. They have as much face to lose as the Govt at this point.
5 happens occasionally, Telegraph has a few voices of reason, but I doubt any paper will stick it’s neck out
Longer Lockdowns Associated with Much Worse Economic Outcomes
https://www.aier.org/article/longer-lockdowns-associated-with-much-worse-economic-outcomes/
This is obvious .But sometimes you must document and record it and comparing the different states with different lockdown in US is done in this article which might have some interest
No, it’s good. Thanks.
Comment seen on Con Home site:
I find the level of support that the PM apparently retains is truly unbelievable. I don’t know anyone who thinks he’s done a good job. A quick review:
* Less than 1,500 people without any underlying major medical conditions have died from a virus.
* Around 45,000 people have died with the virus in their system but no-one knows how much the effects of the virus actually prompted their death and included in this total are any people who had the virus and recovered but then died of another cause. In essence, the death statistics relating to the virus are very suspect to say the least.
* Entirely by coincidence hardly anyone seems to have died of influenza recently; strange that.
* Around 55,000 people die from a ‘normal’, bad flu season and 85,000 people died in 1968 from a very bad flu season.
* Notwithstanding the above figures, the freedom of individuals in the UK has been reduced in a draconian fashion, courtesy of lockdowns, social distancing, etc., etc. and an estimated 200,000 people will die as a result of missed cancer and other treatments whilst the NHS has been obsessed with… Read more »
That is a very fine summary and it’s not incompetence.
It cannot possibly be incompetence – NO ONE is that incompetent.
Brilliant. Spot on. I always err towards cock-up rather than conspiracy but even I am beginning to wonder.
The only way they can still be judged to act in good faith and with a positive intent is, that they know something they can’t tell us yet, and that they try to prepare us for, or don’t want to upset us too much until that event occurs.
The movie ‘Deep Impact’ provides an example for that.
There is simply no other rational explanation for most governments actions anymore.
Another possible rational explanation is that they want to keep this nonsense going to cover up their initial mistakes, or because they like the power and the attention it gives them. These are all quite common human weaknesses and character flaws, to which politicians are subject as we all are, but in more normal times in a “free” society the opposition, the media, the judiciary and public opinion prevent them from the worst excesses. Saving lives gives them perfect cover.
I’m still leaning towards incompetence, or more precisely gross incompetence followed by psychopathic arse covering. If they weren’t all psychopaths then I would have to lean towards conspiracy. These are evil, relentlessly self-serving, psycho scumbags of the highest order, who do not care about their country, their population or the planet.
The illusion of incompetence is part of the plan.Its a trick to disorientate us.
If you look and listen carefully they have told us everything we need to know.
Whitty told us it wasn’t a serious disease.
They told us masks are next to useless
They told us the end game is a vaccine when Boris unveiled the Nando’s plan.
Also all the other western governments are acting in the same way.
This is not about a virus and never has been,as to the governments true intentions who knows but I doubt that they are benign.
Maybe Boris was ‘chosen’ for us, because he has always played the ‘buffoon’, so they thought we would just *not notice*, or simply brush off the ‘incompetence’ and just put it down to Boris’ well-known eccentric ‘act’…?
I agree. They have spelt it out clearly and truthfully, then systematically buried the truth in a load of contradictory nonsensical “rules.”
Wankock used to speak coherently but is fast mastering Adolf de Piffle’s ability to waffle and bluster. The slimy Gove has always been an absolute master of long-winded erudition that manages to say absolutely nothing meaningful.
Did anyone on here access the government commissioned report that was published last summer, coincidentally after numerous governments around the world had met to discuss the so far unsolved problems of lack of affordability of
caring for ageing populations, providing health care services to those without private medical insurance, maintaining social welfare services and funding, and
state pensions? I found it by accident when doing some research on proposals to change the UK state pension age to 75. It was quite lengthy, detailed and with some highly alarming and drastic solutions proposed, as well as moderately drastic ones, and more reasonable, palatable ones. Interestingly the most alarming and drastic recommendations came first under each heading. Have already seen some of them beginning to creep in under this pandemic, but the original proposal was to look at the options over the next 2 years.
The report was too large to download, and i only skimmed through chunks of it so I made a note of the link so I could revisit and read chapters one at a time. But it disappeared around January and the link now says page not found. I know some others saw it because… Read more »
Outstanding. Thank you