Croatia Added to Quarantine List
First it was holidaymakers in Spain who were told they had to quarantine for 14 days on their return to Britain, then France. Now, Croatia has been added to the “red list”. According to The BBC the 20,000 Brits currently holidaying in Croatia have until 4am on Saturday to leave the country or face the consequences. Meanwhile, the Scottish government has added Switzerland to the lists of countries on its quarantine list!
However, there is a scintilla of good news. Portugal has been added to the “green list”, meaning you don’t have to self-isolate for 14 days after returning from the Algarve.
Portugal’s ministry of foreign affairs welcomed the changes as “useful for all those who travel between Portgual and the United Kingdom”.
In a tweet, it added: “This decision is proof of the good outcome of intense bilateral work. It allowed for an understanding that the situation in the country has always been under control, with Portugal standing as one of the European countries with more tests, fewer deaths and fewer hospitalisations.”
A friend of mine returned from the Algarve last week. Does he still have to self-isolate, even though the Government has finally admitted the virus has all but disappeared in Portugal? No doubt he does.
Another Judicial Review
Another group has applied to the High Court to judicially review the Coronavirus Act 2020, this one led by an outfit called the People’s Brexit. It describes itself as “a legal research and campaign group… fighting for the democracy and rights of the people of the UK”. The solicitor acting for the group is Robin Tilbrook of Tilbrook’s – the same firm I advertise on this site. You can read his excellent pre-action protocol letter here.
Here’s an extract:
In passing the Act complained of, the Government has failed to have any or any adequate regard for the Department of Health’s own report “UK Influenza Pandemic Preparedness Strategy 2011“.
This report made it clear that the Rule of Law should be upheld and life should carry on as normal for the healthy.
Further, the ‘lockdown’ and ‘social distancing’ were measures that were forced upon us and were based upon advice by Government ‘advisors’, from ‘modeling’ estimates and reports not even peer reviewed. These ‘advisors’ included Professor Neil Ferguson who has a track record of failure, including the slaughter of millions of healthy animals and the ruin of livelihoods during the Foot and Mouth debacle.
The World Health Organisation themselves in their report ‘Nonpharmaceutical Interventions for Pandemic Influenza, National and Community Measures’ from 2006, the writers of which include current members of SAGE, criticises forced isolation and quarantine branding these measures “ineffective and impractical”. It also states that “Legal authority and procedures for implementing interventions should be understood in advance and should respect cultural differences and human rights.”
Crucially, the report states that at Phase 6 of a Pandemic, when it is officially declared, measures such as tracing and quarantine should not be attempted. It states “Patient isolation and tracing and quarantine of contacts should cease, as such measures will no longer be feasible or useful.”
For these reasons, the Act is irrational.
If you want to contribute to the cost of bringing this case, the Crowdjustice fundraiser is here.
New Paper Purporting to Show Lockdowns Were Effective is a Bit Thin
A new paper purporting to show that the lockdowns have been effective in preventing the spread of the virus was published by Plos Medicine last week. I asked Alistair Haimes, a financial analyst and independent researcher, to take a look at it for Lockdown Sceptics. He isn’t very impressed.
For those of us more interested in the “hard” data of covid (triage calls, hospital and ICU admissions and deaths), and less in the haruspex hand-wringing over ‘cases’ (subject to changes in test availability and protocols), the key finding of this paper is: “Statewide social distancing measures were associated with a decrease in the COVID-19-attributed mortality growth rate beginning 7 days after implementation [of statewide social distancing measures], although this decrease was no longer statistically significant by 10 days.”
Is significance that only lasts three days actually significant, or just coincidence? In other words, there is only a statistically significant correlation between implementing social distancing and reducing the growth rate in Covid deaths if the lag period between symptom onset and death is seven days, and this significance evaporates if the interval is longer; but the Lancet paper by Verity et al estimates this gap as 18 days, and the later Zhang/Zhou paper at 15 days, with seven days well outside the confidence intervals of both papers, which raises the question: is there any association at all?
This is a secondary finding of the paper, and is acknowledged slightly sheepishly and a bit awkwardly. The main body of the paper looks at the daily growth rate in cases (i.e. positive tests) before and after the introduction of social distancing measures. Happily, the authors acknowledge that the growth rate in cases was indeed slowing before the introduction of a state’s first social distancing measure (i.e. the growth in cases was not exponential), though they do not seem to have much of a handle on quite how fast it was decelerating. That’s the line of black dots to the left of the dashed green line below – it basically means they aren’t sure what the gradient should be. As such, the central claim that the growth rate in cases decelerated faster after the introduction of social distancing measures (the line of black dots to the right of the dashed green line) is rather holed below the waterline: eyeballing the data, I could just as easily fit a single straight line through the data, or more convincingly a modest curve, which might well make more sense.
The paper is quite open about the “potential confounding by contemporaneous changes (e.g. increases in testing)” although this isn’t expanded upon – rather frustratingly, given it could be all-important for their conclusions. The poor quality and lack of testing in the early days of America’s epidemic are well publicised. Not that I’m here to peer review, not being a peer, but oddly it also doesn’t expand its reach internationally to check its findings against countries that did/didn’t lock down hard (sceptics know that Sweden’s covid report compares well to countries that had far more social distancing), nor check its claims against the less locked-down US states such as South Dakota. Social distancing after all is a gradient rather than a binary switch, and you’d think the authors would check that the relationship they claim is more robust, the stricter a state locked down. The analysis is a bit… thin.
It also doesn’t discuss the most fundamental questions: even if social distancing did modestly reduce the growth rate in cases, which the paper does not convincingly prove, (a) was it worth it, given the other health impacts of social distancing (particularly non-covid excess deaths), and (b) would ‘flattening the curve’, reducing the growth rate in cases, likely reduce the eventual cumulative number of covid infections and deaths (i.e. the area under the curve) anyway? Perhaps these latter questions were simply left for someone else to answer, but they seem the most important questions of all.
Faulty Risk Assessments of COVID-19
I’ve published an interesting piece today by Brian Gedalla, a retired insurance actuary, about how we routinely assess risk and why so many people are exaggerating the risk posed by COVID-19. Here’s an extract;
We assess risks every day of our lives. We learn to do this as very small children and long before we reach adulthood we carry out most of the assessments completely subconsciously.
COVID-19 is forcing us to assess the risks associated with the virus in our conscious minds and we are not very good at it.
This is an illuminating analysis of the problem by someone who’s spent 30 years assessing risk. Worth reading in full.
Sydney Unions Want More Masks on Buses
A reader in Australia has got in touch about a threatened strike by Sydney bus drivers.
The New South Wales Rail, Tram and Bus Union is threatening a 48-hour strike by Sydney’s 2,300 bus drivers next week unless masks are made compulsory for passengers on crowded buses (when passengers exceed the number of socially-distanced green dots on the bus). It pains me, as a former workplace delegate/shop steward (in the high school teachers’ union and public service workers union), to see teachers and public servants essentially on strike to maintain the lockdown. Sydney’s bus drivers are flexing their union muscle, not to break free of The Mask, but to make the thing mandatory. All, sadly, part of the Left’s surrender to virus hysteria, policy panic and a faux-radical embrace of the principle of putting ‘lives’ ahead of ‘money’.
Peru: The Country Lockdown Zealots Don’t Want to Talk About
Jordan Schachtel has a good piece on Substack, the blogging platform, about Peru. The South American country imposed what is arguably the strictest lockdown in the world – masks everywhere, 10pm to 4am curfew, grocery stores close at 3pm, mandatory face shields on public transport… Yet it is about to surpass Belgium to take first place in the league table of Covid deaths per million.
Once hailed as a COVID-19 “success story,” Peru is now the COVID-19 case study that lockdown advocates no longer want to discuss. Lima is on pace to surpass Belgium (another strict lockdown country) sometime next week as having the world’s highest COVID-19 deaths per million. So why is no one talking about it?
Pandemic panic promoters have been quick to criticize neighboring Brazil for its leadership’s more relaxed policies towards the virus, but they’ve been noticeably absent in discussing Peru. That’s because Peru implemented arguably the earliest (for their region) and strictest lockdowns in the entire world, along with several attempted suppression measures with the hopes to contain the virus, and none of it worked.
Has the Peruvian Government now woken up and smelt the coffee? Don’t be silly.
Instead of learning from their mistakes, and admitting that the lockdown failed and the several suppression measures undertaken were a catastrophic error, Peru is doubling down on the madness. Last week, the country reimposed and tightened nationwide curfews. The new curfew prevents any citizen from leaving their home on Sundays.
Worth reading in full.
New Poem From Bent Knee
Bent Knee, a lockdown sceptic poet, has sent me his latest.
The Initiation
Banish your old gods and superstition
Before science shall ye kneel in submissionWhy have you forgotten me? Your spirit roars
Remember, religion closed its doorsAbandon all hope of afterlife
Seek only to extend earthly strifeObediently consent to be baptised
Ablutions performed, hands sanitisedThou shalt have no other gods before science
Governments will ensure complianceThou shalt not covet fleshy delights
Laws must govern all intimate ritesThe pleasures of the body forbidden
Heavy breathing masked and hiddenIf you must make love, do so through a glory hole
Relinquish the last vestige of your soulTrust none but the Righteous Book of Face
Sign in to state-approved truth and graceAdore TikTok’s uniformed nurse angels
Pray for health delivered in syringes and pillsIncanted by broadsheet bourgeoisie
Mask up, love it, demonstrate your pietyIt’s just a bit of cloth, this vestiture of faith
Protect others, be reborn a masked wraithIn the long, dark night of lockdown,
Did you forget your soul is your own?
So-Called Second Waves Much Less Lethal Than the First
I’ve published a short article today by a reader who’s spotted a curiosity about the supposedly terrifying “second waves” engulfing Europe and the United States: they’re much less lethal than the first waves.
The second wave of reported Covid infections we have seen across Europe should be neither a surprise nor any great cause for alarm. But instead of a measured response, balancing all considerations and planning for the long term, we’ve been subjected to hasty and high-handed panic-measures. These range from the UK’s ruthless quarantine ambush of those who dared to take a holiday abroad to the Spanish Government’s national edict to wear masks when anywhere outdoors, even when totally alone. Every day we were admonished with the threat of stricter measures unless infections return to somewhere near zero.
What justifies this new approach? Are we seeing a greater proportion of Covid deaths associated with these increases in reported infections?
No, we are not. Quite the reverse in fact. There is something fundamentally less dangerous about the recent waves of reported infections than the first.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: A reader has sent me an absurdly alarmist story in the Eastern Daily Press about how Norfolk County Council is preparing for a “second wave” that the Council says will last longer and cause more deaths than the first wave. To be fair, this prediction appears to be based on data that’s been sent to the Council by some organ of the Government, although it doesn’t say which. Can someone please send the leader of the Council the above analysis?
Give Yourselves a Smoked Salmon Treat
Food recommendation for readers of Lockdown Sceptics: a side of smoked salmon from Bleiker’s, a smokey in Yorkshire. I ordered a side of the peat-smoked salmon a couple of months ago and it was so good I’ve just ordered it again – and it arrived this morning, less than 24 hours later! Postage and packing is free. Place your order here. Highly recommended.
Round-Up
- ‘The Challenge of Marxism‘ – First rate essay in Quillette by political theorist Yoram Hazony
- ‘The crucial variable with Covid-19 isn’t ethnicity – it’s fat‘ – Brilliant analysis by Lionel Shriver in the Spectator. Gives the lie to Kamala Harris’s bizarre claim that COVID-19 is racist: “This virus has no eyes, and yet it knows exactly how we see each other and how we treat each other. And let’s be clear – there is no vaccine for racism. We’ve gotta do the work.”
- ‘Coronavirus outlier Sweden chooses its own path on face masks‘ – Good analysis in the FT of why Sweden has ignored the global Covid panic
- ‘PPE providers, the firm behind school meal vouchers and the NHS locum medic bank among big winners making millions as Government pays private firms £6.5BILLION during COVID crisis‘ – The Mail is getting angry about the money being handed out by the Government to private firms. That’s bad news for Boris
- ‘Why Oldham shouldn’t go into Lockdown‘ – Good post by Carl Heneghan and Jason Oke suggesting that the number of infected people per 100,000 isn’t the right measure for deciding whether to impose a local lockdown (or a travel quarantine). Instead, the Govt should be looking at the number of hospitalisations and deaths
- ‘Manchester “faces 1930s-style homelessness” as eviction ban ends‘ – I wonder if Andy Burnham now regrets supporting the lockdowns?
- ‘What We Stand For: Advance NZ / NZPP Policies‘ – A new anti-lockdown political party has been set up in New Zealand. This is the manifesto
- ‘The law is no protection against modern tyranny‘ – Excellent column in the Telegraph by Sherelle Jacobs
- ‘Britain is about to be sucked into a catastrophic economic doom loop‘ – Usual upbeat, cheery stuff from Allister Heath
- ‘“Anti-Racism” vs. Liberalism‘ – Excellent video from the New Discourses team
- ‘Why Americans Should Adopt the Sweden Model on COVID-19‘ – Good article by Gilbert Berdine, a medical doctor, on the Mises Institute blog
- ‘Can we cope with too much testing?‘ – Intriguing analysis of the PCR test by a farmer. He’s concerned about specificity and, yes, you guessed it, false positives
- ‘Climate of Fear: Climate Change as a Dress Rehearsal for the Covid Leviathan‘ – Good blog post on the Government’s attempts to terrify us all by Paul Collits
- ‘Australian PM backtracks on plan to make coronavirus vaccine mandatory‘ – Very sinister story. Australia is emerging as the North Korea of the Southern Hemisphere
- ‘Join Michael Hurley at Come Pray the Rosary‘ – For Catholics missing Sunday mass, Michael Hurley is turning his house into a church for on Sept 9th
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Two today: “Con Trick Of The Century” by Moonlight J and “Up The Creek (Without A Paddle)” by The Temptations
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. If they’ve made that clear to customers with a sign in the window or similar, so much the better. Don’t worry if your entries don’t show up immediately – we need to approve them once you’ve entered the data.
“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 5th to Oct 15th). 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: All the passengers on a JetBlue flight were forced to deplane after two-year old refused to wear mask. Let’s hope the genius who made that risk assessment isn’t flying the plane!
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. If you want me to link to something, don’t forget to include the HTML code, i.e. a link.
I’m taking a day off tomorrow because I’ve got a bit too much on my plate. Back at the weekend, hopefully.
And Finally…
In my Spectator column today I’ve written about the impact the Gavin Williamson’s reverse ferret on last week’s A-level results will have on the next cohort of university applicants.
Whatever harm the Government may have prevented by its U-turn will have been more than offset by the harm it has done to next year’s cohort of A-level students, of which my daughter is one. Good universities make many more offers than they have places because they know that not all the applicants will meet those offers. Cambridge, for instance, made 4,500 offers for 3,450 places this year, while Oxford made about 3,900 offers for 3,287 places. Had Williamson stuck with Ofqual’s grades, roughly the same number of children would have been disappointed as in previous years, but now that he’s allowed children to choose between the Ofqual grade and their predicted grade, a far larger number of applicants to good universities will have met their conditional offers. Most universities will honour those offers, which will mean accepting many more students than in a typical year. But they won’t have the space or resources to accommodate them all, so they’ll encourage some to defer until 2021. That will mean fewer places available at good universities next year, when my daughter will be applying.
You might think I’m being pessimistic. After all, won’t the expected decline in foreign students applying this year, thanks to Covid, mean that universities have room to squeeze in all the additional British students? Afraid not. That’s partly because universities have already factored that in, lowering their entry requirements in order to admit more British applicants; and partly because the decline in the number of foreign students isn’t as great as anticipated. And next year they will be back to full strength. Indeed, there may be more than usual because some who would have applied this year if it weren’t for travel restrictions will apply in 2021 instead. In effect, my daughter will be facing a double whammy. Fewer places available for British students overall, and what places there are already part-filled by this year’s overspill.
I conclude by comparing the Government’s A-level climb down to the lockdown – “a quick fix to avoid some bad publicity, even though the unintended consequences are far worse than the problem it was designed to solve”.
Worth reading in full – obviously.
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.
Very good piece in the DT by Sarah Knapton (behind a paywall I think)
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/08/21/despite-positive-tests-coronavirus-death-rate-continues-fall/
Watch out! Here comes the RMT union:
https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/rmt-warns-that-planned-cleaning-staff-cuts-on-hull-trains/
MW
Went into my local national craft shop today, wearing exemption lanyard, lots of masked sheep in, but at the check out there is a big sign telling them to remove their mask if they are buying scissors or glue, which the elderly man next to me had to do. The masked sheep will be the death of our Free Society.
UK Society been dead for the last 20 years.
WTF IS WRONG WITH EVERYONE??
people are giving away their freedoms
because a stupid sign tells them.
this is an eye opening display of how well the brain washing has worked. I’m lost for words.
how about this one:
Walk off the cliff for COVID
-Face coverings are mandatory
-Orderly queues
-Look away if you see another face
-Close your eyes and walk through the dark curtains as fast as you can manage
This is a more detailed version of a post I put up earlier this morning.
A medical chap speaking at 7.48 this morning (Friday, 21st, August) on Radio 4 spoke of asymptomatic cases amongst young people being of concern because they would inevitably result in hospital admissions of more vulnerable people in five of six weeks time.
He cited what has happened in the southern states of America as bearing out what he said.
Anyone know what state or states he’s referring to?
He talked about “an increase in prevalence amongst a younger population”. Has this actually been tracked? Cases amongst younger people as opposed to older people and how that later might appear on hospital admissions?
He surely wasn’t mange it up was he?
Florida and Texas were the ones where an increase in cases was highlighted in the media. I’m not aware that this actually led to an increase in hospitalisations/deaths however. It hadn’t last I checked.
‘cases’? MW
In Leicester the asymptomatic cases which started our local lockdown were found in mid June. They then tested more and more and more people which is why Leicester is still in local lockdown now. Cases aka well people with positive tests remain at the same Very low steady rate. However in all that time (so now 2 plus months), hospital admissions and ITU admissions have continued to be really low and have fallen and continued to fall. Leicester has had no deaths from covid in nearly 3 weeks…
The same story as Manchester etc and all the other local lockdown places…
On the bright side, it’s Friday. #graspingatstraws
Interesting findings from the Zoe covid symptoms monitoring app. I think I’m right in saying it’s the world’s largest realtime survey. 1.6m people have contributed to their survey on diet & exercise during the lockdown. I suspect it’s a bit a of a self selecting group skewed to middle class engaged people but the results are still really interesting. Essentially it finds that people who’ve snacked, drank more & exercised less have put on about 3kgs & those who’ve drank less, snacked less & exercised more have lost about 2kgs each. A 5kgs delta is a lot! The vulnerable put themselves more in harm’s way, the less vulnerable become, well, less vulnerable.
https://covid.joinzoe.com/post/lockdown-weight-gain
Lots of it is to do with stress. People react differently to stress.
I have been feeling stressed for months and have lost about 3 kg without any changes to the diet or exercise.
Some people over eat when stressed.
same here
I got this from the Chair of my Craft Club. Great news! Craft Club can start again in September. Oh but:
For Craft Club to run again, there will be several changes and guidelines.
By entering the building you will confirm that you do not have Covid 19 or have been in recent contact (14 days) with someone who has. [how the fuck will I know this? Presumably I need to take a test every day along with everyone I’ve walked past in the last 14 days. Should I carry a notebook and a mobile testing kit, do you think?]
You will have to wear a face mask, use the hand sanitiser, maintain social distancing and put your name and contact number in the Track and Trace book.
Craft Club will have to meet in the main hall. There will be no extra cost. The small tables will be 2m apart and only 2 households at any one table.
You will have to bring all your own craft equipment and refreshments.
We will have to submit a risk assessment. I can do this when we know if sufficient of you wish to return.
[] there will now be a… Read more »
So sad MW. I hope you can find a saner group to play out with.
Thanks Cheezilla! Sadly, I don’t think there’s much hope round here. The High Peak has gone Karen Central and even most people who don’t believe the lies are just going along with it all for a quiet life.
Apart from AlanG, without whom life would be unbearable, a couple of local LSs and my ‘friends’ on here and a couple of other sites, I honestly don’t know what I’d do. None of our old friends understand and they don’t even want to. MW
They HAVE been busy reading ‘guidance’, haven’t they? That first bit is from the ‘detention of infectious persons’ diktat. Full marks for research… and for being wankers, too.
I feel for you. The orchestra I play with is just in the process of deciding whether to recommence rehearsals – within the strictures of the barmy ‘guidance’ which means, at best, that half the complement can meet together at any one time, whilst wind players are a dangerous component because they use their breath!
But beyond that, there is a sort of grateful acceptance of the inevitable that I find so depressing – instead of a massed chorus of “WTF!???”
Now – there are some of us who are members of the Old Fart’s Club who might have a genuine issue of assessing risk in relation to a respiratory infection (and that assessment would be pretty positive at the current time). But a large proportion of the membership fall in the under-40 age bracket, where there now is no sign of any mortality or of significant danger.
It was bad enough when Blair decided to bomb Bagdhad. Now the government is carpet-bombing our own country.
Ah but remember the under 40’s have been told it’s their fault if Granny dies.
Leave it to Granny (and Grumpa) to f.ing decide if there’s a problem, and take appropriate action – is the answer.
The feeling is mutual, Rick II. We were both in an orchestra too. There is no sign of it re-convening and we’re not not hopeful. The last email from our hitherto robust conductor, some weeks ago, referred to ‘this awful virus’ and we’ve had a couple of bedwetting emails from colleagues. Even if people wanted to meet, conditions like the above would mean we couldn’t bear to be part of it.
I’ve been a musician of some sort all my life (even earned my living as a piano/organ player at times) and I’ve only recently stopped playing the French horn in favour of the viola. The idea that anyone is any danger from a wind-player’s breath – I don’t answer for the sound 🙂 – is total bollocks. All wind players know this and it was confirmed by a study done by the Vienna Philharmonic, back in May, for God’s sake!:
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-05-vienna-philharmonic-virus-orchestras.html
This also applies to singers which is why the ‘no-singing’ rule would be so cruel and pathetic even if there was a virus to catch these days. Ignorance, fear and tyranny rules and most people just cheer it on.
In 2003-6 when we held a vigil… Read more »
If people want to be slaves, it’s impossible to free them.
Alternative, possibly underground, groups will spring up.
Can people invite others to their own houses instead? The bedwetters can stay at home and the others can enjoy crafting again with tea, biscuits and the whole shebang.
Telegraph reporting that hospitals admissions were over reported at height of pandemic. The whole thing is a scam
The numbers game, it’s great until people discover what you’ve been up to.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/08/20/coronavirus-hospital-admissions-inflated-height-pandemic-investigation/
Hospital admissions for Covid-19 were over-reported at the peak of the pandemic, with patients who were taken in for other illnesses being included in outbreak statistics, it has emerged.
An investigation for the Government’s Science Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) found that people were being counted as Covid hospital admissions if they had ever had the virus, and were added to those being admitted directly due to it.
Government figures show that, at the peak of the pandemic in early April, nearly 20,000 people a week were being admitted to hospital with coronavirus (see graph below), but the true figure is unknown because of the problem with over-counting.
…. On Thursday night, experts warned that the miscalculation was particularly concerning because the number had been used to reflect the current state of the epidemic.
…. Prof Heneghan said: “This really does need sorting out as we go into the winter, otherwise we get into this noisy position where we can’t understand what’s going on. There will be loads of people coming in with different conditions who have survived this, so it’s a huge problem. It’s clouding our judgment as to whether the disease is having a significant impact.”
There are also… Read more »
I’m beginning to wonder whether Heneghan and CEBM are being used here. He’s unpicking the numbers that have driven the fear piece by piece (which is great), but if the government want to try to rewrite the story to start getting things back to normal without taking the blame for their overreaction (I know opinions vary on whether they do in fact want that) then this is a great way to do it.
“You can’t blame us, guv – the numbers we were being shown made it look much worse than it actually was. Thank goodness for that Heneghan fellow, eh? Without him we might still be too scared to get on a bus and go to work.”
I’m just happy that the CEBM data and analysis is finally getting the air-time.
I don’t, however, think that the full implications are coming home to the general public. Let’s face it, the evidence that this is a manufactured Panicdemic has been on the table for ages – and it’s made FA difference.
I’m also pleased it’s happening, And also frustrated that the things he’s pointing out are things we’ve been talking about here for months, though credit to him for doing it so calmly.
Nothing in the official numbers has changed enough yet for it to change the narrative, but he’s chipping away slowly. First we reduce the death numbers by changing the rules back to something more sensible than they originally were. This has had the effect of making it look like the epidemic was over much earlier than it previously looked like is was. Now we take a chunk of the numbers of hospitalisations at the peak and throughout. That will have the effect of making it look like the situation was never quite as bad as it had seemed in the first place. The next logical step will be taking the people who were admitted for non-Covid but tested positive and then died for non-Covid reasons out of the death figures. And then looking at the actual death certificates to separate “from and with”.
I’m just saying that, if (I realise it is “if”) you want to get to a position where you can say to the… Read more »
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8647387/Poll-Two-thirds-parents-intend-send-children-school-month.html Let’s assume that you are genuinely scared of sending your kids back because you had believed that what the Goverment told you about the virus. The Government therefore needs to start producing graphs showing the risk per age group and quoting the more likely to be struck by lightening statistic. But how do they do this politically without saying “we got it wrong”?
They pull some more false stats out of the hat, get their highy paid experts to conjure up a study and by the time it’s revealed as yet another fudge, the kids will have been back for weeks, no-one will have died and it will be a storm in a teacup.
So, this ‘pandemic’ killed over 430 (!) Australians and tanked the economy to the tune of 450 BILLION dollars!!! Yes Toby you’re right. It is VERY sinister that this twonk wants a pseudo compulsory vaccination programme. FFS SAKE, WAKE UP AUSTRALIANS .
“I would expect it to be as mandatory as you can possibly make,” Morrison said in a radio interview. “We’re talking about a pandemic that has destroyed the global economy and taken the lives of hundreds of thousands all around the world, and over 430 Australians. So, you know, we need the most extensive and comprehensive response to this to get Australia back to normal.”
“a pandemic that has destroyed the global economy”
No. An incompetent/evil political response that has destroyed the global economy.
Sorry didn’t read far enough below to see your comment.
It’s gone beyond incompetence a long time ago. I would suspect everything being done now is social engineering and remodelling the global economy. Truly Evil.
Politicians are the world’s best liars, 430 Australians shock horror, now how about the figures for how many died of cancer, heart disease during the same period.
A pandemic has not ‘destroyed the global economy…’ – what has destroyed the global economy has been the govt and media response to said ‘pandemic’.
I wonder if Australians really believe that pandemic destroyed their economy not Australian government.
https://twitter.com/the_exception/status/1296661345425698816
My daughters school just called me & said I have to come pick her up… Because she sneezed. They said their policy is if they see a ‘mild’ symptom then children must stay home for 2 weeks & cannot return until I present them with a negative covid test result. She’s 7yrs old.
From Australia
FFS!
I see they’ve upped they’re training to be medically competent. Wonders never cease
maybe just an allergic reaction to idiotic teachers
Oh my word. Their country is truly going down the tube if the people allow this much longer
https://twitter.com/ifihadastick/status/1296659157215518722/photo/1.
More data on excess deaths in age group 25-45 Tennessee
Died of C-9 80 Excess death 468 What epidemic died the other 388 of?
The epidemic of lockdown suicides, drug over dose? We don’t know yet but must be the explanation The CDC chief being so serious about suicide deaths and now pressing for school openings etc.
The interesting thing is that under 25 no excess death (also milder C-19) and also no apparent excess deaths in older age groups in Tennessee.
The excess deaths in this age group is devastating if you calculate years lost compared to average age C-19 death.
Looking into DELVE, which is part of the Royal Society:
https://rs-delve.github.io
This is their “facemarks study report”:
https://rs-delve.github.io/addenda/2020/07/07/masks-update.html
They are a data analytical group so no need for medical people, just data analysis.
Few gems from the “report/study” if you can call it that”
Underwhelming to say the least was my first and second impression reading through it.
Like the 6 countries study on diets it’s cherry picked data with what does not meet your preconceived ideas being ejected and not included – ergo, not mention of the 15 or 16 reals studies done using humans in surgical settings that contradict their finding completely.
I think all new scientific studies that posit the efficacy of masks must have a huge question mark over them now. It has already been decided politically (and globally) that masks are useful and now scientists are trying to justify the policy, not the other way around. Even scientists who genuinely want to find out the truth will consciously or subconsciously err on the side of the prevailing zeitgeist with the political, social and of course financial pressures they will be under.
Masks are a cult. They were never about safety. Nasty of me but I await with kindly interest the epidemic of mask-related ailments and how it will be spun. MW
They’re a very successful part of the psy-op.
AN INTEGRAL part of the psy-op.
I try not to listen to Blair but his statements do shine a light on the Greedy Blair Institute for Global Change closely linked to the Gates Foundation when he says, mask wearing will be here for some time until we are all vaccinated and we can go back to pre March days, when vaccinations will be frequent to keep Covid away. I actually think there is something seriously wrong with the man
Psychopath
Seems to be a necessary qualification for the role of PM these days.
I am going to submit an FOI to my local acute NHS trust (University Hospitals of Leicester) to request:
a) The number of patients admitted who tested positive for SARS-COV-2
b) The number of patients admitted who tested positive fo SARS AND who showed signs and symptoms of CoViD19
c) The number of patients admitted into ITU with serious signs and symptoms of CoViD19, e.g. ARDS, abnormal clotting, other inflammatory symptoms
d) a breakdown of a – c on a week by week basis as well as total numbers
This may be skewed slightly as Glenfield Hospital is a UHL hospital but covers a wider area as a cardiorespiratory centre.
If everyone on this forum did the same for their local acute trust then a truer picture would emerge, assuming that they withhold the information as not in the public interest or other get out clauses in the FOI legislation.
Only when I read this blog did I realise that I lived through the Honk Kong flu
I was 12/13 at he time, my parents didn’t even tell me, and I have no recollection of it. None of my five brothers and sisters ever mentioned it. No-one at school mentioned it
On a point of law:
As I understand it an authorised person’ which includes a PCSO or anyone authorised by the local authority (so it could include the local binman); has power to arrest me, detain me, and force me to undergo a medical procedure (a test)
They have power to detain me indefinitely until I provide a negative test
Is this true?
That’s how I understand it. Shocking isn’t it?
Yes – it is a violation of the very foundations of a free and democratic society.
On the point of law, yes, that was my reading of it.
You also lived through the Asian flu pandemic of 1958, although you, like me, were too young to know about it.
I knew about it, and caught both viruses – the first more seriously than the later one.
I wouldn’t wish a bad dose of influenza-type illness on anyone. But it’s one of the risks of life that we’ve always taken in our stride with sensible counter-measures.
I recall having had bad flu as a child and spending christmas day in bed – so i must have been quite ill. It is only now that i think of how old i possibly was that this was likely to have been the Hong Kong flu of 1968/9. I think i was the only one in the family
https://twitter.com/kerpen/status/1296649582366068737
“Remember there is a pretty high floor under hospitalizations because they now test everyone through the door and code them COVID if it comes back positive. The CDC reports that 25.7% of COVID-coded hospitalizations among women aged 15 to 49 are pregnant.”
These pregnant women are not hospitalized for C-19 in the absolute majority of cases. They are just stamped as C-19 cases (and categorized as C-19 hospitalization case) being admitted for other reasons most likely pregnancy related.
This must also be happening in the UK and Europe so beware of hospitalizations C-19 figures in the urrent wave.
This routine testing will also sustain the death toll. Any of these patients admitted for non-Covid reasons who tests positive and then dies for reasons related to their other condition will be added to the death toll. Thus keeping the pandemic going …
Yes indeed, new depths are plumbed as we go further through this. One wonders how evil it will get. NZ, Aus and China, or worse?
The other day I did this calculation on the death toll. Imagine you test every person in India and you come back with, say , 400 million people testing positive (not unlikely given serological surveys). Let’s say you count as a COVID-19 death if you die within 2 months of a positive test, and the death rate from all causes is about 8 per 1000 per year, that is ~1.33 per 1000 per 60 days. You’d get at least 530 thousand deaths ’caused’ by COVID-19 in India alone. Applying this logic to the entire world, you could get a few million deaths ’caused’ by COVID-19 just by testing.
I talked with some friends in the USA today. Unfortunately they are covid believers. They don’t question wearing a mask.
What drives me crazy is when they say “WE have a lot a cases”. or “WE have been doing really good with covid by wearing masks”. It is like they are brainwashed into owning it – I am not sure what it is.
Cognitive dissonance rules. That’s why so many people are bonkers. MW
Have you noticed how the government is now doing a lot of takeaways?
They took 5377 deaths from the sum total
They took 1.3 million tests out of the equation
Now it looks like they’re going to have to subtract lots of hospital admissions.
My hope is this is preparation for saying “We reacted in good faith when we had little or incomplete information. Now we know we have done really well and can ease off the restrictions much more quickly than anticipated. We will of course be keeping a close eye on matters in case it flares again”.
Call me a hopeless optimist. I’m not, I’m depressed as hell and really believe this is cock us rather than conspiracy and the powers that be are too scared to take any opportunity to climb down.
Cock up, obviously
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.17.20176636v1.full.pdf
One of the first studies, retrospective, showing that HCWs in Massachusetts had less severe symptoms later in the pandemic supporting that the virus has attenuated.
“Our study provides epidemiologic support for the hypothesis of possible attenuated viral virulence regarding clinical severity. We found cases infected later in the pandemic were less likely to sustain a complication. Later cases were also more likely to have headache, which may portend a more favorable course”
The great crime is not the decision to go for lockdown – the Gov made a safety first judgement call with a lack of data – but the fact that when it soon became clear that we were not faced with a great plague they chose to pretend that we were rather than admit their mistake and go into reverse. They were prepared to fiddle figures, pump out fear inducing information and curb civil liberties in order to convince the unemployed, homeless, bankrupt and countless number of non-corvid ill that their suffering was the sad unavoidable result of a fight against a terrible virus rather than an a catastrophic Gov cock up.
…and they’re still doing it.
I think the decision to go for lockdown was also a great crime, as no cost benefit analysis was done, and an unprecedented measure with unknown consequences was undertaken. But that was a crime perhaps punishable by being banished to political obscurity and kept away from power forever, as unfit to govern.
The greater crime is the cover-up, a crime whose punishment must surely be more severe.
Agree. Worse still, the lockdown decision was made based on the modelling from a team with a well-established and well-known track record of massively over-estimating deaths in other viral and disease outbreaks, Moreover, the prime decision maker – Boris Johnson – would appear to have taken the decision having relied on the summary of ‘evidence’ provided by Dominic Cummings, a person who is neither elected, nor an expert in interpreting scientific evidence.
Here are some of the useless predictions Ferguson made. 2005 he said 200 million would die of “bird Flu”, 440 people died, 2009 he said “swine Flu” would kill 65000 in the UK, 457 died, 2001 Ferguson said that 6 million healthy farm animals must be slaughtered and incinerated in huge festering piles all over the UK. A decision that is now considered to be deeply flawed. 2002 Ferguson predicted that 50000 would die from BSE or 150000 if it broke out in sheep, 177 people died.
Agree, but they would have got away with it if they’d ended the lockdown at the end of that first three-week period.
They are still getting away with it. But even the three-week lockdown was immoral, and stupid.
I agree, if schools had gone back after the Easter holiday and restrictions lifted with just robust advice to wash hands, stay at home if ill and additional precautions for vunerable groups it would have been OK, Not wonderful, still expensive but no exam fiasco and the economy would be in reasonably decent shape. In the long run, and quite possibly short term as well, there would be less deaths and less suffering as normal medical services would have resumed.
It cannot be proved but Sweden is strong evidence in favour.
I think that it’s worse than that. They actually doubled-down on the original analysis – i.e. went in the opposite direction.
Remember (as has been said here) – a lock-up of unknown duration had never figured in any plan for dealing with an epidemic – even one of much greater severity (and this one was already downgraded in March). The only rational was for one of as short as possible duration to prevent health services being overwhelmed at the peak (and, in the event, this didn’t happen).
Now we are approaching the six-month mark; there is no epidemic; deaths have been within the normal range for a high infection years (only at the 3rd quartile in terms of a quarter of a century) – and yet we still have unheard of restrictions in terms of social activity and face coverings etc. that are sinister in the extreme.
Remember none of this is recommended in previous planning documents.
It has become the case that the propaganda-induced amnesia and compliance amongst the population has become the most evil domestic event of my lifetime.
Someone also posted up some analysis here yesterday on the % of cases where the virus was contracted in a care home or hospital. It was around 70%. If that is the case, an inquiry into that alone would be enough to blow this government wide open
Looking at it coolly, however – even that mortality in care homes was partly a feature of a much higher than usual vulnerable population than resulted from many escaping death the previous year because of the exceptionally low level of infection.
In fact, we have, for the last decade, been going through a period of low mortality, which may have saved more elderly and infirm individuals for a longer period than would normally be the case.
In this situation, any sudden infectious disease spike would be expected to cause high mortality amongst that group – which it did.
Yes. It appears more likely that the simple change of how old people were treated – put back into homes to clear beds – rather than stay in the hospital was what led to the spike. Any infectious disease like you say would do the same thing.
Can anyone think of a more evil domestic event in the history of this country? Witch trials? Civil wars?
No. Perhaps the land reform clearances acts that caused thousands of Scotts to starve or the fabricated” Irish Potato Famine”. Both of those things were very evil.
To which can be added English enclosure – and the various predations of religious totalitarianism over history.
The reformation? And the back-and-forth that followed. Nobody’s been burned at the stake over this (yet)
‘It has become the case that the propaganda-induced amnesia and compliance amongst the population has become the most evil domestic event of my lifetime.’
Absolutely right. MW
All they had to do at the end of that first three weeks, was point out that they now had the Nightingale Hospitals ready, time to go back to normal, here’s what you must do to protect yourselves (hand-washing, keeping a reasonable distance, and the like) and take all the steps you can to protect the vulnerable groups.
The Nightingales were only ever equipped to treat those with ‘pure’ cv19 when it was expected that otherwise healthy people would be dropping like flies in Spanish flu style. The plan was always that anything more complex would need ‘proper’ hospital care. It was obvious early on that they were therefore both white elephants and red herrings, but admitting that would have undermined the fear narrative.
The thing is they knew we were past the peak in infections before they went to lockdown on March 23. When questioned in a parliamentary sub-committee Witty admitted that the R rate was below 1. He would have known that once you get past the peak in a pandemic curve, infections/deaths will decrease almost as quickly as they increased. So the whole thing was based on a lie, the NHS was not in any danger of being overwhelmed.
They couldn’t have known that the peak of infections had passed until several weeks after the peak of infections had passed. The relatively low testing capacity at the time meant that there was no positive diagnosis until the point of hospitalisation – this was when the PCR tests were being used properly to confirm a diagnosis when symptoms were present. The peak of deaths was around 8th April. This means that the peak of hospitalisations should have been around 1st April (this should be verifiable; I haven’t looked at it, I admit). A fall in 999 calls and hosspitalisations would have been the first indicator that infections were falling. And it would have taken a week or so to be sure that the falling numbers were an actual trend, rather than just statistical noise.
That’s right – except that, of course, we now know that the PCR test is a very rough and ready diagnostic tool.
Indeed. But the problem with it at the moment is that it’s not being used to confirm an observed diagnosis, it’s being used to hunt down invisible covids, symptoms or no. When it was only being used to test people being admitted to hospital with observable symptoms that made it very likely they were suffering from the disease, the results were a useful confirmation (though still not 100% accurate). That was when the tests were relevant.
The tests would also have been relevant if they had been used to check whether anyone had SARS 2 _before_ they were sent out of hospital into a care home. That would have been a good time to exercise the precautionary principle (and by using multiple tests to eliminate false negatives)
There is this NHS dashboard which shows the 111/999 triage rate against ‘cases’. It is quite fun to play with as you can isolate different districts. However what they dont spell out is whether that is ALL triages, (e.g. chicken pox) or whether they are keeping a separate count of those people presenting with corona symptoms.
https://prog.dashboards.data.digital.nhs.uk/views/Covid-19ProgressionV5LiveS3/Covid-19Progression?%3Arefresh=yes&%3Aorigin=card_share_link&%3Aembed=y&%3Arevert=all
OK, fair enough. In that case I don’t understand why Witty answered as he did in the parliamentary sub-committee.
He didn’t say they knew it at the time. He said that it now seems clear it was happening. Retrospectoscope and all that. Unfortunately, they don’t at any point seem to have used the retrospectoscope to work out that they got things badly wrong.
By the way, a thought just occurred to me on this.
The peak of infections occurred some time (a few days) before 23rd March.
Based on the post here yesterday which worked out that >70% of the transmissions that led to infections that led to death occurred in hospitals and care homes, that seems to me strongly to suggest the following:
The “clearing of the decks” in the hospitals in the weeks running up to lockdown, not only led to the high number of care home deaths, but also in fact actually led to the majority of infections that caused the deaths in any setting.
“the Gov made a safety first judgement call with a lack of data “
No, they panicked because they abandoned existing scientific advice on how to respond to a pandemic that had already become established, ignored advice dissenting from that of their limited circle of groupthinkers, failed to treat that groupthink advice with the caution it required (especially the modelling based advice that was by definition unreliable and a known exaggeration), and absolutely failed to carry out a proper multidisciplinary cost/benefit analysis for the decision.
That decision was at the least criminally negligent.
It was already apparent in February, let alone March, that we were not facing a disease significantly worse than a bad flu season.
Dental services…
I have just been talking to my dentist, who i have not seen since last year and where i am now many months beyond when i should have had a check up. Fortunately i havent had any problems and whilst they would see me with an emergency they are not carrying out any routine and preventative work.
I specifically wanted a prescription from them for high flouride toothpaste (which is not available without prescription). This is something they recommended over a year ago. In the circumstances, and with this being a beneficial treatment, one would expect that they would write a prescription and put it in the post (as they have done before).
BUT NO! They are no longer doing this. They will not issue a prescription without seeing me, and they will not see me due to the Covid as it is not an emergency.
I tried the doctor but there is a demarcation issue so they cannot prescribe.
So my dentist is stopping me from using a treatment they recommend . Madness
Like my dentist, they want you to pay £95 for an ‘emergency appointment’. Mine lasted 3.5 minutes.
Where on earth are they getting their money from? Unless they are getting money from the govt, I can only think they are still dealing with the backlog of the most serious issues from while they were closed. However, my dentist saw me for a routine check and hygiene appointment SEVEN weeks ago.
Cavities: Symptoms, Causes and Support Strategieshttps://drjockers.com/cavities/
Hi Victoria… I know you are keen on the alternative approaches!. It does make interesting reading and i think i follow most of that guidance anyway. I am just annoyed that the dentists are following such a warped process and depriving me of something which i do think is therapeutic . And also as it is on prescription it costs me nowt!!
I wanted to share a few experiences from my work.
I’m a community psychiatrist, working closely with GPs, in the UK.
So far I have not worn a mask. I think they’re dehumanising.
Not long ago I met a young woman with her GP in a joint consultation. The GP knew I would not be wearing a mask, so she didn’t either, and the young woman took hers off when she came into the room. Within minutes it was possible to explore more about the young woman’s past. She welled up and told us she’d been sexually abused in childhood. This is the first time she had told healthcare professionals. I don’t think such a conversation could have happened if we were wearing masks (and certainly not over the phone/by video).
Another day I was leaving a GP practice where I had been working and overheard a patient having to shout into the intercom to tell the reception staff what he needed. He was not allowed into the building, despite a large perpex barrier erected at the reception. It was humiliating for him to give out personal details with passers-by able to hear. So much for confidentiality! In the end… Read more »
I really don’t understand how medics everywhere aren’t loudly complaining and resisting mandatory masking. This is so serious. Where is any resistance from the professionals?
THERE IS NOTHING. TUMBLEWEED.
Exactly and it is so profoundly against everything a medic should stand for, holding patients hostage to compliance with a pointless symbolic gesture, before they can have potentially vital medical advice or treatment.
And which they must know causes physical and psychological harm. Where are their morals? MW
In the supermarket unmasked (only shop I go to & as little as possible) I always smile at everyone & noticed children -who look worried when they see me -then smile back & look better! Faces are windows?
I’ve been making it a point to smile cheerfully at everyone I encounter – even fleetingly – since this debacle began back in March, in order to try to help people feel less afraid in a world where fear is encouraged. I too find smiling has an infectious effect. (The downside is I’ve now got a permanent rictus grin.)
Thank you for that considered non-rant; I fear that we all tend to just let off steam with the frustrations of the evil and inhuman absurdity of the current situation.
I am a frequent flyer in terms of the Health Service. Without the expertise of a great range of staff, I would not have survived the last six years – so I have little patience with generalised anti-NHS rants.In the US I would be broke, and probably dead.
I have watched this non-crisis unfold in hospitals from the very first of lock-up, and sensible hand-hygeine was instituted. If you wanted to clear the decks – then it was done very efficiently in the Trust here.
But that’s the point : the decks remained cleared long after the need had gone – and staff commented that they had rarely had less busy time. But the decks remained cleared. Worse, staff and patients were forced into wearing face coverings – despite their unproven usefulness and proven discomfort (at minimum). My conversations with staff confirmed their discomfort at the end of every day. The most absurd incident was sitting in a clinic next to a chap with COPD – in a mask.… Read more »
Well said Rick. You can most definitely be a fan of the NHS in theory but be utterly aghast at the farce it has been the last few months.
I think there has to be a distinction between ‘the NHS’ as a service and ‘the NHS’ as the politically appointed/controlled administrative structure that is ‘NHS England’.
It is clear that the latter has imposed a dictatorial fiat on staff.
Thank you sharing your stories. In Sydney the other day where masks are not required, I saw a mum wearing a mask tending to her baby in the stroller. And I thought that poor baby looking up her mum with that mask.
Some interesting remarks on here as to what made individuals sceptical in the first place.
For me:
A paper written in 2017 made it clear that the common cold was more dangerous than influenza to the elderly and infirm:
‘Unexpectedly Higher Morbidity and Mortality of Hospitalized Elderly Patients Associated with Rhinovirus Compared with Influenza Virus Respiratory Tract Infection’
Further research showed up any number of earlier papers, including this one, from 2011
‘The new respiratory viruses or viral strains include influenza A virus H5N1 and H1N1, MPV, SARS-, NL63- and HKU1-CoV, HBoV, HRV-C and –D…’
‘The ultimate clinical significance of the new respiratory viruses is still poorly unknown in the elderly population but probably these infections are greatly underestimated…..Serious outbreaks have been reported in long-term care facilities.’
So the medical profession well knew that Influenza Like Illnesses including common cold viruses were demonstrably more deadly to the elderly and infirm than influenza many years before 2019, which makes the hospital clearances in Britain and the way in which they were conducted so much more incompetent.
And then
23 Jan 2020:
‘We talked to Dawn Bowdish, the Canada Research Chair in ageing and Immunity at McMaster University in Hamilton, about coronavirus, why the… Read more »
Got this one through the Daily Fail “we don’t moderate” censorbot on this story (can’t be called a report can they anymore):
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8650163/Hospital-coronavirus-admissions-reported-peak-pandemic.html?offset=7&max=100&jumpTo=comment-583956299#comment-583956299
“It wasn’t a mistake or an oversight. It was deliberate to increase the fear. Same as the easing of standards to allow falsifying of cause of death on death certificates – as stated as a fact on the ONS and UN WHO website.”
Surprised going through the comments put on the story – amazing how many people are saying it’s been a scam all along.
What a change.
Yes they are great and definitely favour the conspiracy theory
The tide started to turn last month. About the time this site began to attract a thousand comments a day.
Just had an email about a new London show:-
“Doctor Who: Time Fracture will allow audiences to be drawn into a story with Daleks, Cybermen and more, in a new immersive experience.”
Tempted to write back that I’m already in it, they just need to change the title to “The W.H.O: Mind Fracture”.
I’m a bit perturbed by the fact that the English Democrats are offering masks for sale….admittedly with the cross of St George on…for their fundraising. Isn’t it a bit of a conflict, considering that Robin Tilbrook is linked via advert with this website and also the “Coronavirus Act is null and void” CrowdJustice fundraiser? Or am I missing the point?
Maybe they’re only intended to be worn in case of potential police shutdown of a protest (on the basis of not wearing masks), ie only in cases of absolute desperation? Or maybe it is a concession to the vulnerable (but pro English democrat) who have yet to be convinced that masks make no difference?
I’m of the view that this shit show transcends politics. It’s not really helpful having people jockeying for position to shape the new normal by introducing political angles when they are not there.
Agree.
If they can make money out of it, they will. If the Brexit Party farce didn’t make it clear enough, there’s not a political organisation out there that isn’t just trying to make a few bob for it’s dear leaders – no matter their stated goal. The ones claiming to be by the people for the people standing up for freedoms yadayada, they’re all the same.
Seeing all these fashion brands, sports teams, political groups and everyone else bringing out branded masks just to make a quick £ really shows what a shallow world we’re living in.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12358593
Six weeks jail for hugging a friend
“A Whangārei painter has been sentenced to six weeks in jail for entering a quarantine facility and hugging a friend who was in isolation after returning from abroad.”
“To make matters worse, the judge said Welsh briefly embraced his friend which was a serious breach of isolation rules.
“This was not an example of people under severe stress because of a family death or some other reason. You knew full well about the quarantine rules and was not just content with talking to him, but hugged him as well.”
Outrageous! Methinks this sentence is designed to quash any dissent from the draconian (nonsensical) ‘rules’…
WOW how horrible. What the hell has happened to NZ. I have been aware for a long long time, since the 80’s that the deep state try out social policies in NZ first, then roll them out here. Especially policies that have an element of psychology wrapped up in them.
Can this be a case for Amnesty International?
I thought that Mr Dee, then remembered there’s a reason I cancelled my membership subscription this year…
Nah when you read the article, he was actually jailed for 6 weeks for failing to stop his car when police tried to stop him. The charge for breaking C-19 quarantine rules was dropped cos ‘it was laid incorrectly’.
Having read Toby’s column on ‘A’ levels results I will repost the famous Ronald Reagan quote for the scariest nine words one can hear.
“I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”
A German state minister, Karl Jisef Laumann of NRW, admitted on TV yesterday that they wouldn’t have locked down, if they had known then what they know now.
He also stated that they couldn’t have known that ICU’s stayed so empty just because they asked hospitals to defer any non A&E procedure.
I, and others, are speechless in light of that openly admitted stupidity, ignorance and criminal neglect, but even more so about the lack of outrage about it, and about the ever increasing acceptance and desire for even more restrictions by the vast majority of the population.
A retired German Epidemiologist that was in charge in Germany until recently. (Thai descent from memory, which is why it stuck in my mind) said in February that this infection was a nothing burger. So don’t accept the pleading of hindsight – if they had listened to the wisdom of the wise, we wouldn’t have gone through all this stupidity.
I remember him, he was censored away down the memory hole wasn’t he?
Professor Sucharit Bhakdi?
Easy to ‘apologise’ and plead ‘ignorance’ *after* you have achieved your real objective, ie to kill off the elderly, further reduce the population by killing other vulnerable individuals, and also to scare the population into submission. Plus wreck the economy in order to achieve other objectives, and further a move to a cashless society..
In fairness, Carrie, Germany did not do this. They have a barely noticeable death toll from the virus and one of the reasons is that they did, whatever the reason, succeed in keeping the virus out of the elderly and vulnerable part of the population.
As for cashless… I’ll have to look into it and it’s an interesting question. Germany has always been a hugely cash-based economy and very resistant to plastic and digital transactions. I’ll try and find out whether that’s been changing.
Germans like stable money, and have a special terror of inflation. This has been ingrained ever since the 1923 crisis. I doubt if there are any Germans alive now who can remember that firsthand, but every German schoolchild knows how that all ended.
My German ex-girlfriend’s grandmother was terrified when they switched to the Euro. She thought she was going to have to withdraw all of her Deutschmarks from the bank and convert them into Euros before depositing them again. She’d had to do that at least twice before in her life.
https://mailchi.mp/tomwoods/newnormalschool?e=8e86beb5bb
Tom Woods: “They say a picture is worth a thousand words.
Well, here are a few that show what the “new normal” will look like in some American schools” (see link)
The psychological damage being done to these children is incalculable. It’s pure child abuse, and all parents should resist this with everything they have. It cannot be allowed to continue.
Look at this one, in the UK: https://twitter.com/simondolan/status/1296686303929675776
Horrific – hope all parents boycott the school..
Of course they won’t! They will applaud this and comply because it means their (never at risk) children will be ‘safe’. Not only is the Head Teacher mentally ill, so are the parents who will go along with it. MW