Handy Cock’s Brilliant Solution to Ending the Covid Crisis – Even More Tests!
In a move that will surprise no one, Matt Hancock has announced that the Government will carry out even more tests in an attempt to better understand how prevalent the virus is. The BBC has the story.
The Office for National Statistics’ Infection Survey will test 150,000 people a fortnight in England by October, up from 28,000 now.
The survey is separate from the mass testing programme of people with symptoms to diagnose cases.
For the survey, a random sample of the general population is tested.
That means it can provide estimates for the true spread of the virus.
The diagnostic testing programme, which provides daily totals, largely relies on people with symptoms coming forward.
Some people do not display symptoms when they are infected so the daily totals are an underestimate of the amount of infection that is around.
As part of the expansion of the programme, data will also be gathered in Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland.Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the survey was the “single most important tool” the government had for making policy decisions around coronavirus because it helped it understand how the disease was spreading.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Mr Hancock said expanding the ONS survey would allow the government to be “more accurate and more localised” in its response.
He added that it would help the government with its “biggest challenge”, which was finding people who were asymptomatic but could still pass the virus on.
Finding people who are asymptomatic but who can nonetheless pass the virus on may well be a “challenge”. Let’s not forget that at a World Health Organisation (WHO) press conference on June 8th, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead on the pandemic, said the following:
We have a number of reports from countries who are doing very detailed contact tracing. They’re following asymptomatic cases, they’re following contacts and they’re not finding secondary transmission onward. It’s very rare and much of that is not published in the literature.
From the papers that are published there’s one that came out from Singapore looking at a long-term care facility. There are some household transmission studies where you follow individuals over time and you look at the proportion of those that transmit onwards.
We are constantly looking at this data and we’re trying to get more information from countries to truly answer this question. It still appears to be rare that an asymptomatic individual actually transmits onward.
The WHO immediately attempted to “clarify” Dr Van Kerkhove’s comments, saying it simply didn’t know whether asymptomatic people are infectious because not enough studies have been done (even though those that have been done show there’s little or no secondary transmission). And here’s some new evidence – a study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine on August 13th.
In this study, a team of Chinese researchers looked at 3,410 close contacts between infected and uninfected people that mainly took place in Guangzhou. That is, they looked at the contact that 391 infected people (some symptomatic, some asymptomatic) had had with 3,410 other people. They found that of these 3,410, 127 became infected. But here’s the kicker: 126 of them were infected by symptomatic people and only one by an asymptomatic person. And to infect that one person, the asymptomatic group had to have close contact with 305 other people. So that’s a secondary transmission rate for asymptomatic people of 1:305.
The researchers conclude:
Our results showed that patients with COVID-19 who had more severe symptoms had a higher transmission capacity, whereas transmission capacity from asymptomatic cases was limited. This supports the view of the World Health Organization that asymptomatic cases were not the major drivers of the overall epidemic dynamics.
Limited! That’s one way of putting it. Hat tip to Phil Kerpen, who flagged up this study on Twitter yesterday.
Incidentally, one of the researchers’ findings, duplicated numerous times in other studies, is that the secondary attack rate was highest in household settings. Does this mean that locking people down in their homes, making transmission within households much more likely, may not have been such a good idea? Who would’ve thunk it!
New Zealand Lockdown Unlawful
Congratulations are due to Andrew Borrowdale, a Kiwi lawyer who brought a Judicial Review against the New Zealand Government alleging, among other things, that the restrictions introduced by the Director-General of Health on March 26th were unlawful. The High Court released its judgment today and found that, on that point at least, Borrowdale is correct. Here is the relevant paragraph:
By various public and widely publicised announcements made between March 26th and April 3rd 2020 in response to the COVID-19 public health crisis, members of the executive branch of the New Zealand Government stated or implied that, for that nine-day period, subject to limited exceptions, all New Zealanders were required by law to stay at home and in their “bubbles” when there was no such requirement. Those announcements had the effect of limiting certain rights and freedoms affirmed by the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 including, in particular, the rights to freedom of movement, peaceful assembly and association. While there is no question that the requirement was a necessary, reasonable and proportionate response to the COVID-19 crisis at that time, the requirement was not prescribed by law and was therefore contrary to s 5 of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act.
I like that final sentence – no question indeed! Needless to say, the NZ Government has since passed a law prescribing the draconian rules so any attempt to JR the present restrictions would probably fail. Nonetheless, Borrowdale has scored a significant victory, showing that – for nine days at least – Saint Jacinda was in breach of the NZ Bill of Rights.
Andrew Borrowdale is my Sceptic of the Week.
Ship of Fools
There’s a good piece by the Telegraph’s Jeremy Warner on the hapless fools running the country.
In Plato’s The Republic, Socrates describes a ship on which the sailors mutiny and try to pilot the vessel with no knowledge of “the year and seasons and sky and stars and winds, and whatever else belongs to his [a pilot’s] art”. Success on this “Ship of Fools” is defined not by having the skills to navigate the vessel but only by the ability to persuade others that such skills aren’t actually necessary and that the job can be done regardless.
The story is intended as an allegory on the downsides of democracy, of the danger that in such a system of government, ignorant fools elect persuasive fools and are then led to ruin. After the Government’s latest shambolic, Covid-related failing, it seems an appropriate description of today’s political leadership.
I’ve used it before, admittedly, but make no apology for repetition; each day brings further confirmation of its legitimacy. No doubt much of the blame for the myriad misjudgments lies with the incompetence of the public sector and its accompanying quangocracy, the latter seemingly deliberately created to absolve the politicians from responsibility for day-to-day management. However, the fish rots from the head. Buck-passing is itself a symptom of poor leadership.
After giving numerous examples of the Government’s financial incontinence and warning of the dire reckoning to come, Warner says we shouldn’t expect a policy shift any time soon.
Ministers cannot bring themselves to admit they got the Covid response wrong. Too many egos, too many careers are now fully invested in the strategy adopted. Rudderless, the ship of fools sails on.
Warner’s piece reminded me of the verdict a reader sent in yesterday, summing up why the Government, its most senior officials and their advisors have made so many mistakes:
It’s what’s to be expected when you place incompetent people in positions where they have authority, but no real responsibility, where there are no sanctions for poor performance and where people do their best rather than doing what they’re best at.
If you think that doesn’t apply to senior civil servants, think again. Today I’ve published a piece by an anonymous senior civil servant on how Whitehall has mismanaged the crisis. Here’s an extract:
There are few among our political elite and the supporting Senior Civil Service who have STEM degrees and the consequence of this narrow pool is a failure to understand basic concepts, e.g. they believe “the science is settled” when it comes to climate change, and that they’re “following the science” regarding COVID-19. What they fail to appreciate is that science is rarely settled. By its nature, it is about investigating and challenging assumptions, collecting and evaluating evidence to test hypotheses, and seeking to avoid bias and misrepresentation of results. The current narrative regarding testing and ‘cases’ is a classic example of this lack of numeracy and statistical knowledge. If you test more you are likely to find more occurrences and they may be actual positives or false positives.
Worth reading in full if you want to understand why the Government has made such a complete hash of everything.
Ireland Introduces More Pointless “Containment” Measures
The Government of Ireland has announced another raft of measures prompted by an uptick in the number of cases – 533 last week, up from a low of 61.
The measures include:
- All outdoor events limited to 15 people, down from 200
- Indoor events limited to six people, reduced from 50
- All visits to homes limited to six people from no more than three households, whether indoors or outdoors
- Football matches and other sporting fixtures can only take place behind closed doors
- Restaurants and bars can remain open, but must close by 11.30pm
Needless to say, the rise in cases is almost certainly due to a rise in the number of PCR tests being done. In the week from August 10th to 16th, more than 50,000 tests were carried out, a significant increase.
As of Noon today, the total number of cases in Ireland is 27,499 and the total number of deaths 1,775.
Stop Press: I suggest the Taoiseach and his Keystone Kabinet read this piece in the Conversation entitled “Seven Ways to Manage Your Coronaphobia“.
Supermarket Sales Decline, Thanks to Mandatory Face Nappies
Colour me shocked. According to Kantar, there were two million fewer supermarket visits after mandatory face coverings were introduced in England and Scotland. The Guardian has the story.
Supermarket sales have begun to slow in Great Britain since the easing of lockdown restrictions, as the introduction of compulsory face coverings in stores in England and Scotland initially deterred some shoppers.
Growth in total take-home grocery sales slowed to 14.4% year-on-year in the three months to August 9th, from 17% in the three months to July 12th. Supermarkets felt the impact as more shops and hospitality venues reopened, making consumers less reliant on food retailers, according to the data analysis firm Kantar, which examined shopping trends in England, Scotland and Wales.
Kantar said there were two million fewer supermarket visits in the week after the face-covering rule was introduced in England than otherwise have been expected.
Meanwhile, online shopping continues its upward trajectory, with a record 13.5% of all grocery sales ordered through the internet.
The online delivery firm Ocado, which will start a new contract supplying Marks & Spencer food instead of Waitrose products from September 1st, has been a significant beneficiary of the switch to online food shopping, according to Kantar.
Ocado had a 1.8% share of the grocery market in the 12 weeks to August 9th, up from 1.4% a year earlier. Its sales were up 45.5%, compared with the same period last year.
False Positives in Care Homes
A reader has made an interesting observation about his mother’s care home.
I want to tell you about the care home my mother lives in. As you know, residents are effectively imprisoned in these for the foreseeable future. The residents undergo Covid tests and my mother was recently tested positive and placed in isolation for 14 days as per PHE’s rules, I am told. She has no symptoms, has not been outside the home, and if she has Covid it can only be through transmission from a member of staff. Under these circumstances one would expect to see a widespread outbreak in that home. There is not.
There have been similar occurrences there recently and the care home has admitted that there has been no Covid outbreak and confessed to a number of false positive test results. It would seem from my simple analysis that at this home the number of positive test results that are actually false positives is 100%, because no one testing positive has had any symptoms of COVID-19.
If this is applied to community testing, what does this say about the apparent increased number of infections (cases)?
The reader may be on to something. I’ve published a piece on false positives today by a Professor of Genetics who believes that about 0.17% of tests yield false positives, almost certainly due to contamination in the PCR testing labs. Here’s his conclusion:
A hidden/ignored contamination positive rate of 0.17% would lead to authorities declaring (on average) a minimum of 170’cases’ per 100,000 tests. Curiously, this is exactly the kind of rate that is being declared in many regions, and is very close to the level at which travel quarantines kick in.
Worth reading in full.
Give Yourselves a Smoked Salmon Treat
I’ve never done this before, but I’m going to give my readers a food tip: A side of smoked salmon from Bleiker’s, a family business established in 1993 by Jürg Bleiker, a Swiss chef who settled in the Yorkshire Dales. I ordered a side of the Yorkshire peat-smoked salmon a couple of months ago and it was so good I’ve just ordered it again. Postage and packing is free. Place your order here. Highly recommended.
Postcard From the Algarve
A reader has sent me a short postcard from the Algarve. Sounds heavenly.
We are very lucky to have a property in the Algarve but sadly had to make the decision to come on holiday for the summer without the children and grandchildren as Portugal is still on the naughty list and they are unable to quarantine due to not being able to work from home.
All the cafes, restaurants, shops and beaches are open and dare I say it it but life is so lovely and normal here. People do not jump six feet in the air when you walk past them but are more than happy to pass the time of day.
Sitting down at a cafe you are not presented with a sheet of paper with all the new government restrictions and asked for your name and mobile number. You’re presented with a menu.
The only negative is that you have to pop a mask on in the shops and if you go into a restaurant to pay the bill. But even we have decided that it’s a small price to pay to be treated like a human being again and to have our sanity back.
Round-Up
- ‘Are you sitting comfortably? This is Not the Six O’Clock News‘ – Must-read column by Allison Pearson in which she imagines what a conversation between a numerate Hugh Pym and his innumerate co-newsreader Sophie Raworth would be like on the BBC Six O’Clock News. Comments are hilarious too. And here’s a YouTube video of an actual interview between a Raworth-like, bedwetting newsreader on Spanish TV and a hospital doctor who knows his onions. It’s spookily like Pearson’s imaginary exchange
- ‘Argonaut’s Norris: “Fraud” lockdown was the “biggest policy error since WWI”‘ – Good piece in Investment Week about top financier and leading lockdown sceptic Barry Norris
- ‘Gaining Immunity From Propaganda‘ – YouTube video in with Tony Heller debunks the CDC’s claim that Covid antibodies only give you immunity for three months
- ‘Scientists see signs of lasting immunity to COVID-19, even after mild infections‘ – And here’s a new paper showing the CDC is wrong – once you’ve had it, you’re immune
- ‘NYC is dead forever – here’s why‘ – Depressing blog post by James Altucher on why New York is unlikely to ever recover from being locked down
- ‘Is there science or fiction behind the Government’s COVID-19 decisions?‘ – Good article by Oliver Watson in Hector Drummond Magazine
- ‘Gavin Williamson may sound like a nitwit… but has he just pulled off a strategic masterstroke?‘ – Funny piece from Michael Deacon, the Telegraph‘s parliamentary sketch writer
- ‘Mel Brooks is cancelled‘ – Not a spoof – it’s actually true. HBO Max forces anyone watching the film to endure a three-minute health warning from a film professor, according to Paul du Quenoy in the Critic
- ‘We can’t lock down forever‘ – Good piece by Fraser Myers in Spiked on the ineffectiveness of the lockdowns in Argentina and Peru, among other places
- ‘Farewell, Public Health England‘ – It’s good riddance to PHE from Christopher Snowdon, Britain’s leading opponent of the nanny state
- ‘Dido Harding’s unstoppable upward rise is an egregious example of the chumocracy at work‘ – Ross Clark again, this time on Dido Harding, the new head of the Institute for Health Protection, PHE’s successor
- ‘Why weren’t we wearing masks at the start of the crisis?‘ – And here’s Ross Clark in the Spectator posing a question to which he knows the answer
- ‘In defence of Claire Fox‘ – The redoubtable Ruth Dudley Edwards comes to the defence of Free Speech Union Advisory Council member Claire Fox
- ‘History to “vindicate Swedish COVID-19 strategy”‘ – Good piece on Sky News Australia’s Outsiders
- ‘Countries using hydroxychloroquine have far fewer COVID-19 deaths than countries that don’t, study from Association of American Physicians and Surgeons shows‘ – More evidence HCQ is effective (although treat source with caution)
- ‘Pizza Express closures: The full list of chain’s restaurants shutting down in the UK‘ – Pizza Express, one of my favourite high street restaurant chains, is closing 73 branches and making 1,100 employees redundant
- ‘Deaths registered weekly in England and Wales, provisional: week ending August 7th 2020‘ – The ONS’s weekly data release showing deaths in Week 32 were below the five-year average for the eighth week in a row. Incidentally, all-cause mortality in private homes was 702 higher in Week 32 than the five-year average. Why? Collateral damage from the lockdown. More on that here
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Two today: “Lousy Reputation” by We Are Scientists and “No More Waves” by Nigel.
Love in the Time of Covid
We have created some Lockdown Sceptics Forums that are now open, including a dating forum called “Love in a Covid Climate” that has attracted a bit of attention. We’ve also just introduced a section where people can arrange to meet up for non-romantic purposes. We have a team of moderators in place to remove spam and deal with the trolls, but sometimes it takes a little while so please bear with us. You have to register to use the Forums, but that should just be a one-time thing. Any problems, email the Lockdown Sceptics webmaster Ian Rons here.
Small Businesses That Have Re-Opened
A few 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 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.
A reader has made a good suggestion.
I was wondering if your map of businesses who have opened could be expanded to businesses who display “No mask? We won’t ask” sign? That would allow us mask-refusers to know where we are safe to visit without risking a drama with a Covid loon, and also reward those plucky businesses with our custom. It’s been interesting to see how the Covid terror only seems to last as long as financial necessity allows (note previously hysterical pub landlords get much less worried when they are allowed to re-open) so I’d be interested to see if a line of mask free customers outside one shop tempted its neighbours to risk the plague.
“Mask Exempt” Lanyards
I’ve created a 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 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 Oct 3rd to Oct 13th). 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 “exempt” card with lanyard for just £3.99 from Etsy here.
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 (now over 29,500).
A reader has started a website that contains some useful guidance about how you can claim legal exemption.
And here’s a round-up of the scientific evidence on the effectiveness of mask (threadbare at best).
Stop Press: The BBC has flagged up a story of a mask exempt woman with an autistic child being harangued in a supermarket by a mask Nazi in Whitley Bay. She had a panic attack and had to leave the supermarket. The BBC’s advice, echoed by the National Autistic Society, Asthma UK and the Alzheimer’s Society, is to treat non-mask wearers with courtesy and understanding. Meanwhile, in Connecticut, the Governor has signed an order requiring non-mask wearers to get a note from their doctor to prove they should be exempt.
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. Doing these daily updates is a lot of work (although I have help from several people, including one indefatigable techie who doesn’t want to be named). If you feel like donating, 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:
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It’s interesting, the same week Apple’s market cap exceeds $2trillion UK debt exceeds £2trillion. What’s the exchange rate 1.31 or so. It’s amazing, a company flogging mobile phones is worth almost the UK’s GDP.
THURSDAYs edition has arrived
https://dailysceptic.org/2020/08/20/latest-news-109/#comments
https://www.forbes.com/sites/leahrosenbaum/2020/08/19/why-t-cell-immunity-wont-end-coronavirus-pandemic/#36bfbbbc33d5
Another article from MSM to show that T cells immunity now is an election issue in the US
Clearly propaganda.
Fascinating little vignette on Radio 3’s ‘In Tune’ this evening.
The discussion was about how new research had shown that singing in normal venues is not a hazard for the spread of droplets.
It was seen as ‘good news’.
…. but nobody was pointing out the fact that the major fact that the virus is now as rare as hens’ teeth. There is no basic risk of any magnitude – droplets or no droplets.
… But the myth goes on.
This is an everyday example of its perpetuation : it has become the taken-for-granted narrative that is so deeply embedded.
Yep and the UK MSM – particularly the three unwise monkeys of the BBC, Sky and ITV – are to blame. They know exactly what they are doing when they switch from referencing deaths and ICU admissions to referencing cases while still showing images of hospitals or people on ventilators. This is designed to maintain fear levels. They know exactly what they are doing when they peddle nonsense, like the suggestion that young people have only been ignoring social distancing for the last couple of weeks, and this is somehow going to cause an Autumn spike. They know exactly what they are doing when they claim the US has the worst Covid record in the world when in fact its death rate is better than those of the UK, France, Italy, Spain and Belgium. They know exactly what they are doing when they ascribe what are negative effects of lockdown to the virus. They know exactly what they are doing when they don’t tell people vastly more people are dying from flu compare with Covid now.
I just saw a new batch of Quebec government posters. There were 4 and each one had a youngest person, 30 to 40, masked. Below one it said Solidarity, another Conviction and another Courage. Below that was written Votre Gouvernement/Your Government.
Here’s a webpage full of them. Quite a new industry is popping up here and it’s all negative.
Revealing though, clearly Covid is a totalitarian thugocrat’s big opportunity
Well, if it’s ‘their’ government then they can sack the lot of them, can’t they?
misinformation campaign is alive and well.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-19-appeared-to-be-under-control-in-europe-now-its-surging-again-11597848444?mod=trending_now_pos3
Memberships I’ve quitted in order:
Economist
FT
Spectator
and finally the WSJ…
Go woke go broke I hope.
Don’t forget National Review
I gave up on the Spectator a few months ago. I keep reading about how their readership has increased (from them) but so many comments I read on various websites indicate lots of people are cancelling their subs.
Seems a bit unfair on the Spectator. The rest I can understand being hardline globalist propaganda outfits. It’s true Liddle has disappointed and they give far too much space to drippy commentators like Ross Clark, Isabel Hardman and James Forsyth. But the Spectator has some good sceptical voices – not least Our Tobes.
As it was such a lovely evening I went out for a walk today. Stopped in at one country pub for a pint outside in the sun. I had to wait by the door to be seated, was instructed by a sign to sanitise my hands, and was eventually told that the garden was “being shut down” for “capacity management”, but I could have a table inside. I walked out.
5 minutes walk away I tried my luck at another favourite, and it was like Covid had never happened – no tape, no sticky circles telling me where to stand, no perspex and NO TEST AND TRACE! I don’t think I’m ever going to leave…
At the pub now, same reason it’s a lovely evening. I don’t bother with the hand sanitizer and give a fake number and name. I was listening to another couple arrive who were unhappy to give their details, the lad working the garden shift assured them they binned the details after two weeks. But all they do is scrawl the details down on a waiters pad anyway.
Half a million already spaffed on “mission statements” for the the new PHE replacement:
‘McKinsey was paid more than half a million pounds by the UK government for six weeks of work to decide the “vision, purpose and narrative” of a new public health authority in England, according to a recently published contract.’
https://www.ft.com/content/3cc76ad4-4d75-4e07-9f6d-476611fbb28f
I guess these little things add up. Now perhaps I’m starting to understand how a phony T&T scheme can end up costing £10bn (if that figure can really be true).
The £10BN figure can’t be true. It’s impossible. I’m eagerly awaiting the answer to the FOI request.
But half a million for 6 weeks’ work from McKinsey sounds about right. Not that I understand why you would engage McKinsey in the first place.
Watch “Brewster’s Millions” again!
Make sure Simon Dolan knows about this, he will tweet it!
I couldn’t quite believe what popped up on the Daily Telegraph website – a holiday advert for south Australia, specifically mentioning Victoria and Melbourne. That’s some sick sense of humour for an algorithm!
Good idea! Booked.
Enjoy your beating by the police.
Yeah, there is no way I will ever visit Australia or New Zealand Now.
Film yourself not wearing a mask in Oz and you can sell the footage as Romper Stomper 2.
Only a few days ago it was Greece that was likely to be on the quarantine list. Is anyone taking any bets that that won’t happen until Stanley Johnson and the rest of the clan are safely back on UK shores?
Alternatively, the Johnson clan could well be turned into “victims”, a “look it can happen to any of us” scenario.
Get ready for new Lockdowns!
I’m writing from Spain. There have been comments in the Spanish press recently denying an article in the Euro Weekly News last week that the Spanish government is planning a nationwide lockdown starting from the 18th of September. It has since been admitted that there were such discussions but “this would only happen if things should get worse”.
My wife is Czech. A friend in Moravia told her last night that they had been told to prepare for a further lockdown. (Number of deaths in Czechia in the last week? 13.) Guess when?
17th September.
I checked Spanish deaths on Worldometer this week. Spain, number 10 on the list, deaths yesterday 127. UK is number 12 on the list with 16 deaths. Italy 7, Germany 9, France 17.
What on earth is going on? One could presume that the Spanish government, which has imposed the most draconian anti covid measures in Europe, is counting all non – accidental deaths as Covid. They would appear to be positioning for a new lockdown, after all.
Has anyone else heard of 17/18 September being touted as a make or break day?
Out of interest, have you seen the Spanish doctor interview video I posted along with a couple of other posters earlier today? What sort of response in Spain has there been to this interview?
It’s a great video!
The female presenter in that video mentioned rumoured lockdowns in September/October.
https://twitter.com/plaforscience/status/1296442287065636864
https://twitter.com/plaforscience/status/1296440742412537856
Death data Spain complex. Different regions different reporting. In Basque region every death after 60 days having PCR+ is a C-19 death. Suspicion something similar Catalonia, Aragon, Canarias. Yesterday 127 deaths Spain. Such a sudden extreme high number is always suspicion of artefacts. Doubt a second national lockdown. Macron can’t afford it and speaks about very localized lockdown i.e. pestering local population in some restricted areas. These tourist countries are on the brink of ruin.
I remember the rumours of an October lockdown leaking out of Westminster circles a few months back.
If this is pulled off then it’s game over.
I was listening to a Russian political analyst. He said that Russian elites would not survive a second lockdown. People have nothing to lose, there will be violence.
Daily death figures are hopelessly unreliable. There’s always a load a back-filling, posting deaths back weeks or months because notification has been held up in the system, or a change in procedure somewhere. Also, with the PCR test it catches lots of people who aren’t necessarily symptomatic, but the more you catch the bigger the chance some are going to die. Also, remember a huge proportion of deaths are of very old people in care-homes who were, in many instances, exposed to the virus in April and May so may well test positive but may now have died of the other things that kill old people.
UK death figures have just been published and things like heart problems, pneumonia/flu, dementia are all down, why? because the people that you would expect to die of these things have been coded as Covid deaths. It’s back to the died ‘with’ v died ‘of’ covid. I think it’s a bugger’s muddle!
My stepson is finally going to use his exemption card, and not wear a mask again, and brave the hostility he perceives from mask-wearers. The reason – his asthma has got far far worse since he’s started wearing a mask. I’m relieved!
No idea why considering the amount of anti lockdown anti mask articles I read, but this popped up in my news feed:
https://arstechnica.com/science/2020/08/plastic-face-shields-do-masks-one-better/
I’ll have a look at what background this idiot comes from.
Unsurprisingly he has a number of qualifications. But loves getting the hiking boots on and getting outdoors, how odd.
Tempted to email him, as it’s on his site profile.
Can I just make a small comment, to say how much I admire those of you who have the ability to dig deep for well-analysed and presented information. Although I am able to find some things myself, I have to say that there have been some corkers of articles highlighted here. There is so much information, figures and data, it is brain-blowing trying to keep up with it all. I’m keeping tabs on the basic issues, such as falling death-rate, the unreliability of the current tests (i.e false positives, due to previous infections etc); and trying to keep a few pointed facts up my sleeve when faced with bed-wetters who are totally on board with the covid narratives and simply refuse to listen to anything else. Personally I’ve found the “go along to get along” types particularly frustrating.
Agreed, this site has been an absolute goldmine for me.
There is a great deal of alignment, and a coherent structure, in many of the positions expressed in the comments here. A collaborative effort to transform this into a punchy slide deck/pdf outlining the key sceptical positions that could be widely distributed is worth considering.
I have a quiet day at work tomorrow. I’ll give it a stab for others to add to.
Great stuff. I’m absolutely shit at visuals but could definitely pitch in with wording/structure. I’ll have a crack at a potential outline myself.
My role involves communicating scientific information. I do a lot of PowerPoint. I can help.
Keep it up darkhorse, and nice name by the way!
Hi everyone, I want to tell you a story about my last week. I have had no problems going mask less until last Saturday when I came upon a weird situation. I walked into a millets store and as soon as I was in the door a voice barked at me where’s your mask and put one of these on, I turned and saw a big guy member of staff pointing to a box on a table .I explained to him I am exempt . Again he said are you going to put one on whereupon I again said I have a exemption card do you want to see it and also do you not understand what exempt means .At this point he threw his hands up and said I will not come near you then . Feeling things were getting serious I said ok forget it and walked out.I was about to walk away but thought no why should I suffer this . I walked back up to the entrance where he was now standing and said you know you can be fined for discriminating,his reply was fine me then and go on fill your boots. What I felt… Read more »
Well done for that.
Today, I was prepared to complain about the door keepers in my local Waitrose store. They’re not bad, but I have been told to wear a mask every time I have gone there, and each time, I’ve said I’m exempt, and there’s been no further trouble. But today I was prepared with a print out of the government website saying people should not be routinely asked for proof, and I was going to see the manager about it all. Surprise, surprise, I walked in with no mask and was not told to put a mask on. Maybe the word is going round. I might still print off one of those ‘we won’t ask’ posters and take that along next time.
Well done keep up the pressure Felice.
Brilliant! Well done!
Thanks mate.
This appeared in the local free paper delivered today. “Teesside to manufacture coronavirus vaccine if trial successful” Article cites Mayor Houchen has given £4million to Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies in Billingham to produce 60 million doses. WTF. Goes on to say the first lucky recipients will be, “… frontline health and social care workers, ethnic minorities, adults with serious diseases, and the elderly.” The Mayor goes on to say everyone in Teesside should be proud we’re at the forefront in the fight against coronavirus. Well he does not speak for me and if I’m the last person on Teesside to reject this snake oil, only then will I feel proud. Incidentally I read today that dentists are discovering more and more problems with the prolonged wearing of face nappies. So much so they’re calling it ‘mask mouth’. Take them off zombies.
You are absolutely correct, also noted here:
https://www.foxnews.com/health/mask-mouth-dentists-new-term
key line: “while mask wearing is not negotiable during this time…”
Oh, yeah? Why not? This bullshit infuriates me.
Sounds like we finally found some white privilege….not being a Guinea pig for an untested vaccine.
Just seen this moronic nonsense on FB. Surely this contravenes the Equality Act 2010?
Easiest is just not to spend your money there.
To which point – do we know where it came from? I’d like to boycott them, even if I have to travel halfway across the country to do it.
Bedwetters losing their very thin veneer of fake altruism
Easy. Boycott.
Need some business size cards to hand out to managers at these places. Let them know why we are not putting our money into their tills.
Hello, sorry my apologies if this has already been on here. Simon Dolan is raising funds for his legal challenge to lockdown legislation. I understand they feel the case is stronger as death rates fall and there are now few hospital cases so that there is no imminent threat requiring draconian lock-down powers.
https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/lockdownlegalchallenge/
Always good to keep in in the comments feed. Thanks.
‘removed the queen’ – have read that before somewhere – is it true? Proof?
https://twitter.com/grantshapps
He is copping a lot of flak over latest announcement. The masses are stirring.
I know I keep saying it, but this is just flim flam, to divert attention from the manslaughter of tens of thousands in the hospitals and care homes
Johnson got slaughtered on Twitter today as well, and with some pretty robust sceptic positions represented.
https://twitter.com/BorisJohnson/status/1296378748372123657
Comment on his twitter feed:
Plandemic 2
The media are fomenting hysteria. On Sky, there is a rolling banner saying that 6 people have died of Covid. If it were ebola, or the plague, or a mad axeman, there would be a frisson of fear. But there are 1650 deaths per day on average. Probably 30 or more died of flu. Goodness knows how many people died of dementia and alzheimer’s yesterday. They don’t give us a daily update on those.
Either the broadcasters are so stupid they don’t know that 6 is a small number. Or they are trying to maintain the story of “deadly virus stalks the land” long after its time. I think what they are doing now borders on the criminally culpable.
Just put official compalints into the BBC, ITV and Sky about “misrepresentation of facts”:
“From a FOI to the DHSC about tests they are using. Q : supply the justification that a positive test means the person is suffering from the virus as is a danger to the public and must be isolated. A: SARS-CoV-2 RNA means the RNA is present in that sample at that point in time. It does not mean that the patient has the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).
Any broadcast, TV show, news show, advert says a positive test is the same as having the virus is a deliberate misrepresentation of the truth.
If you would like the full FOI answer please do not hesitate to contact me.”
Yes, I saw that. Very interesting and well done for finding it. I have no confidence that a complaint would be noticed. The fear-mongering is quite obviously deliberate.
Well done – look forward to the replies!
I wouldn’t hold your breath for a meaningful response from the BBC re your complaint. I think they outsource their complaints department. I once complained to them about sexism on Woman’s Hour. They have a play or a book as a serial each week. In this play, a female character was angry about a male driving badly and shouted at him that he was a *cock”. Given the anti-sexist stance Woman’s Hour and the BBC take, I complained that it was sexist and, for them, hypocritical, to use male genitals as a term of abuse, pointing out that there would no doubt be outrage if a character was referred to as a “fanny”, or worse. No reply after weeks, so I pestered them. Eventually, case dismissed as no grounds for complaint, since “cock” is a term of endearment in Lancashire, where the drama was set. I pointed out the woman was angry, with no hint of endearment. No avail. That’s the BBC. Anyway, a story of light relief.
How about posting your email here so we can copy it and send it ourselves plus addresses.
” … borders on…”. ?!?
But yes indeed.
Rappoport as usual leads the way –
https://blog.nomorefakenews.com/2020/08/20/covid-going-to-root-of-the-poisonous-tree/
Yep. I read his work earlier in the year. John is describing what Robert Cialdini called Commitment and Consistency. It’s harder to backtrack if you accept and commit to changes in thinking. And that’s how you get brainwashed or more often just plain conned.
Robert Cialdini. I’ve been waiting for someone to mention him here. Read his book “Influence”: many illustrations of what tricks are being used on us by the government.
yes … but … there is polio, etc…
I think it is perfectly fine to express concern with the safety of vaccines, but there are plenty of safe vaccines where the good outweighs the bad. I also think it is a good idea to express particular concern about any sort of new covid vaccine, especially as we are becoming increasingly aware that it is totally unnecessary.
But I also dislike this tendency to use anecdote to push arguments. After all, we can interview the parents of children killed by covid, and we can document pretty awful stories of families impacted by covid. But that doesn’t make the costs of interventions worth-while, and it doesn’t somehow make the idiotic masks and distancing magically work.
Same goes for vaccines. For every tragic story of a child negatively impacted by a vaccine, there are hundreds of tragic stories of children killed or harmed by polio. So, I reject that premise of this guy’s argument, not because I don’t want to be seen as extreme, but because I think the anti-vax arguments are fundamentally flawed, even when I remain extremely skeptical about a rushed CV19 vaccine.
“But I also dislike this tendency to use anecdote to push arguments. After all, we can interview the parents of children killed by covid, and we can document pretty awful stories of families impacted by covid. “
There was a time when the culture in the Anglosphere frowned on that kind of emotionally manipulative “reporting”, and it was regarded as something for less reputable outlets to engage in. There was at least an aspiration to report the dry facts alone, with opinionating reserved as far as possible for editorials.
The story of how that was replaced even as an aspiration, by our modern, emotive, cause-driven, manipulative news reporting would be an illuminating one.
Before you comment on vaccines it might be a good idea to get more informed. As a dentist I presumed I know about vaccines – it was a mentioned in lectures, one learned enough to get through exams and they had eradicated polio and TB, right?
Recently I was shown a Facebook comment criticising Dr Judy Mikovits as she had said that there are no vaccines that have been effective against respiratory diseases. “Hasn’t she heard of BCG and TB?” I’ve seen Dr J M on video and I thought she really wouldn’t make such a basic mistake, so I looked up BCG and TB on the WHO website.
Guess what? Paragraph 2 says that the BCG doesn’t protect against TB but against secondary infections! WTF?? Please excuse the expletives but this was a Red Pill Moment!
The only way to find the truth about vaccines is to look into the website Children’s Health Defence from Bobby Kennedy Junior. Although pilloried as an “Anti Vaxxer” he is actually PRO vaccines – if they’re safe. And guess what?????
By the way, I’d like to see your references of children killed by covid. My understanding is that there are next… Read more »
Thanks cubby.
(What’s your poistion on fluoride ?).
I’ve done much research on vaccines , starting in dogs actually, it seemed odd to me that most vaccines in humans last a lifetime but canine vaccines needed a Booster every single year . So I began reading and digging out why this could be so . Turned out it wasn’t , the reason was simple Big Pharma had never tested immunity after 12 months ( why would they when they make shed loads of money) Vets just learned their vaccine info from the Companies that sold it . It took one Vet to make it his business to find out … and yes the majority last a Minimum of 7 years
I then started to look at human vaccines … Boosters are not given to make any difference to immunity but to catch those children that missed the first course .
A child is either immune after the first dose or not … antibody tests don’t tell the full story , low antibodies are often the reason for a Booster .. not needed as memory cells have a big role to play. If you have some antibodies then your T cells will recognise the virus and produce more… Read more »
I don’t disagree about children killed by covid. Extremely rare. But I think kids killed by vaccines is even more rare. I do agree that safety is important- it’s a cost/benefit analysis.
Err, SV40 ?
I should have added – you wouldn’t trust the MSM and the politicos to tell you the truth re the 2nd, would you Ryan ?
So why trust the medical establishment and big pharma (and the politicos again) to tell the truth about vaccines?
No, I don’t trust the media. But I do have doctor friends. Not always in favor of every vaccine fwiw.
Austria , Croatia and Trinidad & Tobago now on the 14 day quarantine list . Portugal now ok .
The covid world tour 2020.
All very carefully calibrated no doubt.
Strange world of UK .Those countries will probably do the same.
In diplomacy they call it reciprocity.Normal people call it preschool behaviour.
Well, most of the countries cannot do that because it’s not a symmetrical relationship (e.g. Portugal desperately needs UK tourists whereas the UK couldn’t care less about Portuguese tourists).
Can we conclude from this that Boris is either already in Greece, or about to go to Greece for his dad’s 80th birthday? Let’s hope there are some sharp-eyed members of the public with cameras to hand.
Moderately encouraging results (allowing for some selection bias) from a survey of those on the mailing list of a local organisation which puts on live music in pubs.
62% are ready to attend live events, subject to the current precautionary policies in pubs.
22% are not yet ready but expect to be in two months time.
15% prefer to stay at home and watch a live-streamed event.
1% are not interested in attending or watching a live stream.
This is in the Midlands. It contrasts with the cowardly behaviour of large arts organisations, particularly those in London as described by our regular contributor Bart Simpson.
I wonder what the logic is for people thinking it’s not OK now but will be in 2 months. I wonder what that’s based on?
Seeing if there is a spike *if* schools re-open maybe???
Good question. Must have been talking to the clairvoyants who also know they’ll be a vaccine in 18 months.
Regarding your upcoming protest, which I agree with entirely, I think it’s important not to lump together being against lockdown with other issues.
By way of example, I don’t hate Bill Gates or think he’s some kind of evil megalomaniac. I’m don’t want the NHS sold to private equity, I’m not pro guns, I don’t think Hillary Clinton is a lizard, I don’t think the whole thing was planned (though they are trying not to “…waste a crisis) etc. Furthermore, I didn’t vote for Brexit and I still think it’s a bad idea, though I acknowledge that the issue has been flogged to death so the Brexiteers better get on with it.
Simply, I think the cost of lockdowns massively outweighs the benefit, by many orders of magnitude. The fact that so many don’t, or won’t see this simple fact infuriates me.
That does not make me a right wing loon. In fact I had a Guardian membership before this whole affair – I have ended it due to their incompetent and misleading reporting and refusal to write anything vaguely sane.
If you want to get broad appeal, don’t tie in this issue with others.
Great advice. Simple message: no lockdowns, no masks, no new normal. And that is it.
I completely agree with you. Focus, focus, focus.
And I think Gates is a megalomaniac – but we have to focus on what affects us directly and what we potentially have control over – and that is the Lockdown. Even the masks issue can be a distraction (and probably was introduced to be one).
Once we win the Lockdown Sceptic argument we can then move on to another issue, if necessary. We have to fight our battles one at a time.
Whatever Gates is, his name is all over this situation and he has funded nearly every organisation and institution cheer-leading for lockdowns and unnecessary and rushed vaccines.
I agree with the idea of focusing on the lockdown and leaving out other issues (Gates, Brexit, climate change, 5G, cancel culture etc.).
However, protesting about mandatory masks should be a given. In my view, the mask mandate is such an infringement of civil liberties and so inextricably a part of lockdown that protesting this is essential. MW
My problem with the Gates stuff is this: Bill Gates is a billioinaire, and so he has “ties” to literally everything. Look at your own stock portfolio… if you have any fund, you probably have ties to a lot of things as well. This has been used against Trump in the liberal press… “oh, Trump has an interest in such and such.” Well, of course he does. He has assets everywhere.
But furthermore, if Gates really was concerned about this virus and wanted to do something, it makes sense that he would sink a ton of money into vaccine research. So, doing the right thing kind (from his perspective) kind of looks the same as doing the nefarious thing.
I’m not willing to spend too much time on the Gates conspiracy stuff. He’s an egomaniac, and maybe he does want to rule the world. I’m skeptical about unproven vaccines, and I inherently don’t trust people who want to control me. But I also don’t like to assume the worst in people, and frankly, the jury is out on most of them. I simply think our focus should lie elsewhere. Like, asserting our individual rights, keeping our government in line and… Read more »
At the end of last year, before the pandemic, he posted on his gatesnotes site that vaccines were the smart thing to invest in over the next year… coincidence? I think not…
I think just talking his book. By the way, what are his personal investments in Pharma? As in shareholdings?
agree!
Absolutely agree!
You sound like me posting under another username. There’s a few in the same boat, and there’s a broad range of political leanings in the comments down here.
Agree on the not conflating being pro individual freedoms with all the other issues, however I believe the group organising it unfortunately does come with some other positions attached, which is a shame.
I’ve also seen Simon Dolan tweeting a pro trump and retweeting an anti trans message from Brexiteer London mayor candidate today, which I reckon will alienate some potential backers to his anti lockdown stance. That said, he’s entitled to his own views and to say what he wants, I can just see the downside of it.
Definitely agreed. Stick to the facts and figures of the virus, lockdowns, masks etc. and avoid anything that could be perceived as “conspiracy theory” or separate issues like climate change.
I’ve no problem with e.g. Simon Dolan’s views on Brexit or US politics even if I might not agree with them myself, but highlighting them in an anti-lockdown context is likely to confirm the prejudices of those who think we’re all “far-right” and “irresponsible libertarians”.
Maybe all this is a lost cause when, e.g. T-cell immunity research can be labelled a “right-wing conspiracy theory” in a Buzzfeed article, but the more people we can convince without alienating them, the better.
I find the phenomenon of labeling any potentially positive story as “a right wing theory” especially bizarre.
77th, innit …
or 13th Signal Regiment
who they?
British Army Cyber Intelligence and surveillance unit:
https://military.wikia.org/wiki/13_Signal_Regiment_(United_Kingdom)
T Cell immunity is also an accepted fact from mask advocates too.
https://youtu.be/D5Z6wdu1eI0
Honestly, as this drips through to the lockdown fanatics, they really need to come out of this and take a long hard look at themselves.
At least John Campbell provides a balanced view of matters.
I’m going to the gathering on the 29th regardless of what other interests may be present. In a perfect world it would be great to be able to participate in a clearly messaging anti lockdown civil liberties demo but so far I haven’t managed to find one.
I think that’s a naive idea – that you could have a ‘pure’ demo. Variety of opinion and overlap are part of the nature of protest in my limited experience – messy but that’s a bit like life, eh?
But if anyone here wants to do the work organising one I’ll be happy to help and definately come along.
I’m grateful to the people organising the one on the 29th for giving me the opportunity to stand up in public. Beats sitting at a keyboard typing and tutting and shaking my head etc…
Well said. Ditto climate change.
Does someone agree with me? Just because the manufactured response to Covid is wrong, concern over GW is not misplaced. The two issues are not similar.
I don’t think we should spend time here (and even less so at a protest) debating it.
Personally, I’ve never spent any time questioning the theory (as distinct from the asinine government responses to it).
Recent history might lead one to question the validity of computer modelling in terms of predicting the future and therefore to raise a sceptical eyebrow at any claims generated through that method, but otherwise, I have bigger things to worry about.
Yes, I agree. Though with 30 years of data to churn, climate change models might not be too far off the mark. Analogous, perhaps, with models of global population by 2100, with there high, median and low. We,now, have bigger things to worry about. But let’s not bequeath our grandchildren a calamity.
Agreed.
Watch it while you can:
https://plandemicseries.com
Pandemic 2.
It’s also on London Real and Rose has his own Digital Freedom Platform so it won’t be taken down. I highly recommend watching it, and Rose interviewed the film maker the next day and the interview is also worth watching on London Real.
Well worth a watch.
As my very wise wife put it to me the other day ‘one person’s conspiracy theory is another person’s yet to be proved hypothesis’
https://nypost.com/2020/08/19/swedens-tegnell-wearing-face-masks-may-be-very-dangerous/
This has to be my last post today – you must be getting fed up of me!
All posts inspired by me listening to this episode of The Last American Vagabond:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yxqhXg-pJA
Here is why I don’t like that article, Mr. Dee.
The way they frame his comments makes it seem like what he’s saying is that face-masks are not enough, and that stricter measures are also necessary. That totally contradicts many other statements I’ve read from the same man. He is not recommending masks on public transport or anywhere in Sweden, for instance, so to say that his disagreement with masks is that they are insufficient alone, seems to be very obviously misleading. I would prefer a much more complete interview that includes his full statements.
Yes I saw that. Great piece of PR by Tegnell (if it’s really coming from him and not just spin from the NY Post). He’s portrayed as some kind of Grim Reaper so I don’t see why he shouldn’t point out some of the other side’s hypocrisy.
Today’s stats from Sweden are very encouraging 🙂
13 out of the 21 regions now have *no one* in intensive care with Covid. Of the rest, 5 regions have one person in intensive care and one region has 3. There are 8 people in intensive care in the Gothenburg area and 11 in Stockholm.
There are 11 regions (more than half) with 3 or fewer hospitalised CV-19 patients and 6 regions with between 5 and 10 hospitalised patients.
The only regions with more than 10 people in hospital with the virus are:
Kronoberg (which borders the Malmö area) – 10
Uppsala (4th biggest city and about an hour from Stockholm) – 15
Stockholm – 43
Västra Götaland (Gothenburg area) – 47
The drop in the total number of hospitalised Covid patients since Tuesday is 18.
In other news, good to see that Hashem Abedi doesn’t need to worry about leaving his cell afterall. For 55 years. That’s what I call a local lockdown.
He’ll be out in 5 years
He’ll be released by the end of the year when we have our next full Lockdown to make way for us lot, arrested for ignoring the Lockdown and refusing to wear masks outdoors.
Oh look who received $200 000 in April 2020 from the Gates Foundation:
Date: April 2020
Purpose: to support improved and efficient strategic coordination for Nigeria’s emergency response to COVID-19 outbreak
Amount: $200,000
Term: 4
Topic: Global Health and Development Public Awareness and Analysis
Regions Served: GLOBAL|AFRICA
Program: Global Development
Grantee Location: London
Grantee Website: http://institute.global/
Wasn’t Nigeria where Gates tried to bribe the senate with $ 10 000 000 to start giving covid vaccines etc?
I believe it was.
I believe that $10 million was the money I was promised from a Nigerian Prince in a email I received yesterday!