Sturgeon Makes Masks Mandatory in Schools – Boris Urged to Follow Suit
Nicola Sturgeon has made face masks mandatory in Scottish secondary schools and now Boris is facing calls to do the same. The Telegraph has more.
Boris Johnson is under fresh pressure to introduce face masks in schools after Nicola Sturgeon signalled over-12s will be made to wear them in Scotland.
Teaching unions called on the Government to review its guidance on face coverings, which currently says they should not be worn in schools, although ministers said they had no plans to do so.
It came after the World Health Organisation and the UN children’s agency Unicef advised that children aged 12 and over should wear face coverings in the same conditions as adults, particularly where they cannot guarantee at least a one metre distance from others.
Ms Sturgeon, the First Minister of Scotland, launched an immediate review of practices in Scotland (where the school term has already started) and is expected to announce that over-12s will have to wear coverings in corridors and other communal spaces.
The Association of School and College Leaders immediately said Mr Johnson should follow suit, putting the union on a collision course with the Government just days before children in England return to their classrooms.
Let’s hope Boris withstands this pressure. Sage member Professor Rusell Viner said on Newsnight last night that if children wear masks they’re more likely to pass on the virus.
If you don’t fancy the idea of your child being muzzled in the classroom, please sign this petition by UsForThem. Although if you make your signature public there’s a risk that LBC’s bedwetting shock jock James O’Brien will hold you personally responsible for any child that dies of COVID-19 after returning to school. On his LBC show yesterday, O’Brien told a listener who was arguing for the re-opening of schools in full next month, “When a child dies it’s on you.” Even Piers Morgan thought that was over the top.
Stop Press: Headteachers say they won’t fine parents who don’t send their children back to school next month. Heads have the power to impose fines of £120 per parent, cut to £60 if paid within 21 days, for their children’s non-attendance. But Paul Whiteman, General Secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, has said he will be advising his members not to fine parents. “We think fines will be counterproductive now,” he said. “Where families have deep concerns about coming back, we hope that through engaging with schools, their fears are allayed.”
Simon Dolan Launches #BackToSchool Campaign, Writes Exclusively For Lockdown Sceptics
Anti-lockdown campaigner Simon Dolan has written a piece for today’s Lockdown Sceptics about his #BackToSchool campaign.
Whether it be the largest restriction on personal freedoms in a generation, or the ludicrous decision to mandate face masks, this Government has proven time and time again that it is not up to the job.
If the Government’s handling of this year’s A-Level results day did not fill you with confidence, then I am certain that you will be concerned about the prospect of children returning to school in the coming weeks. With the Scottish Government today announcing that they will be mandating facemasks in schools, we are rapidly watching another wave of restrictions wash over the UK.
A poll for Keep Britain Free suggests that over three quarters of parents are perfectly happy to send their children back to school. So why is this Government being pressurised into preventing them from doing so and ensuring that the few that do are required to wear face masks and prevented from interacting with their friends.
We cannot allow Gavin Williamson to pander to the trade unions and Nicola Sturgeon, we must stand up for our children and ensure that they all return to school as normal in the coming weeks.
That is why I have launched the #BackToSchool Campaign, calling on the Government to display some rarely seen fortitude and ensure that children return without social distancing, face masks or blended learning. Join me on Facebook and Twitter and let the Government know that we will not be cowed, and our children will return to school as they are intended to.
It’s vital for the physical, mental and economic health of future generations that our children get back to learning as soon as possible. Let’s get our kids back to school and life back to normal.”
Fightback Against Kim-Jong Dan Begins
A freedom fighter in Australia sent me a photo of this box of leaflets that has just been delivered to his home in Melbourne.
I wanted to send you the image of my letterbox flyers that I have just had printed x 2,000 (yesterday) and another 3,000 to come today. I have enlisted a number of neighbourhood walkers to letterbox their “permitted zone” (the ludicrous 5km radius from one’s front door).
I love your Lockdown Sceptics website and have been reading this along with listening to James Delingpole and you on the London Calling podcast well before us muted-Melbournians were plunge into a previously unthinkable holding-pattern of fatuous-fright.
Meanwhile, the Premier of Victoria, Dan Andrews – known to locals as Kim-Jong Dan – announced yesterday that the State of Emergency would be extended by 18 months. This is in spite of the fact that the state recorded its lowest rise in infections in seven weeks with 116 additional cases on Monday. To see what the State of Emergency means for ordinary Victorians, take a look at this shocking YouTube video.
Defund the BBC
The Mail leads on the BBC’s crackpot decision to ban Rule Britannia – although after this provoked a backlash, BBC mandarins have now said it will be played but not sung, which has of course provoked another backlash.
Laurence Fox today led calls to strip the BBC of its licence fee funding over the bungled decision to play Land of Hope and Glory and Rule Britannia at the Last Night of the Proms but not sing the “racist” words to avoid offending left-wing critics.
Critics accused the BBC of “erasing history” and caving in to “woke morons”, while others mocked the corporation for its suggestion that singing the songs would be too risky due to the Covid pandemic, noting that the National Anthem will still be sung by a lone voice.
Fox tweeted this morning: “Defund this shameful, Britain-hating organisation and start again. The lunatics are in charge of the asylum #Defund the BBC.”
There’s plenty more in this vein, not least from the redoubtable Richard Littlejohn.
I weighed in yesterday on Julia Hartley-Brewer’s TalkRadio show (see above).
And you can sign the petition created by my friend Christopher Silvester urging the BBC not to scrap Rule Britannia and Land of Hope and Glory here.
French Riot Police Storm Bar
The French riot police stormed a bar last night and assaulted a group of football fans watching the Champions League final because they weren’t observing proper social distancing rules. This is what a police state looks like. Shocking.
Why Are Doctors Exempt From Quarantine?
A reader emails with a story that reveals just how nonsensical the quarantine rules for returning holidaymakers are.
A colleague of my mine just returned from a quarantined country. He mentioned the usual stuff that the entry form takes over 45 minutes to complete but then no one even looked at it when he came back.
However, his wife is a hospital doctor. Hospital doctors are exempt. Seriously. So, she goes straight back to work and they wanted her back. Apparently, she suggested getting tested and they will do that in a few days! But please come back to work anyway.
To state the obvious: if any of this made any sense then surely doctors would be the most likely occupation to have in the most secure quarantine we could dream up, given that they deal with the most vulnerable people? Of course, this approach makes zero sense. Strongly suggests that the people who really understand the risks agree that this is all nonsense and are quietly ignoring it.
Stop Press: Apparently, NHS staff were exempt from having to quarantine in England but haven’t been since July 31st.
Cui Bono?
Sitting round the dinner table with my children a couple of nights ago, we tried to cheer each other up by listing the people and companies who’ve done well out of lockdown. Not recommended. It didn’t work.
- Amazon
- Microsoft
- Apple
- Tesla
- PayPal
- Zoom
- Roche
- AstraZeneca
- Imperial College
- Netflix
- T-Mobile
- BT Broadband
- Bicycle shops
But here’s one we didn’t think of: Caravans and motorhomes. I received a press release today from MHB Corporation, the owner of Robinson’s Caravans:
One of the UK’s largest caravan companies has reported a sharp increase in the sale of caravans and motorhomes during the Coronavirus crisis, and new research reveals a huge spike in people taking caravan holidays this year – many of whom are first-timers. In June and July 2020, Robinsons Caravans, based in Brimington, Chesterfield, saw sales of new and used fixed caravans increase by 9% and 14% respectively when compared to the same period last year. For motorhomes, it exceeded sales targets by 250% in June alone.
A Scientist Writes…
Yesterday, I urged readers to submit evidence to the APPG on Coronavirus, although there’s something a bit odd about that APPG. The website hosting it is linked to an anti-Brexit campaigning site. I daresay it’s all part of Layla Moran’s leadership campaign. (Is using an APPG to promote a leadership bid within the rules?) Nonetheless, I imagine the evidence still gets through to the APPG. And today I received an email from a scientist emphasising how important it is for sceptics to participate in this inquiry.
May I please urge any scientists, researchers or university academics who read Lockdown Sceptics and who have had their work disrupted by the stupid lockdowns to submit to that APPG link as a “scientist/public health expert/other relevant expert” and make criticisms of how delays and cancellation of research have cost lives. There are good arguments to be made here that had we stuck to the herd immunity strategy and kept on as normal Britain would have got many more months of science done, and be months closer to having, for example:
* new anti-cancer drugs (if you’re in cell biology),
* new radiation therapies (if you’re in particle physics),
* new abilities to foresee and stop political crises and wars (if you’re a historian),
* safer aircraft which need less regular maintenance overhauls (if you do metallurgy that could apply to turbine blades),
* better body armour to save soldier’s lives (if you’re in ceramic materials science),
* wearable medical devices to monitor conditions like diabetes (if you do electronic sensors or novel battery chemistries),
* faster emergency responses to remote regions (if you do satellite communication related work)…
There is also the “UK PLC” argument – that the UK could be making months more profit by having these new scientific developments ready months earlier and hence, some day in the future, however long it takes from research to application, being that many months earlier to market for export.
If you’re involved in a randomised controlled trial of a drug your views might carry more weight still.
He thinks submissions from sceptical scientists will be particularly valuable because Layla Moran is the MP for Oxford West and Abingdon and many of her constituents will be scientific researchers whose work has been torpedoed by the lockdown.
You can submit your evidence here.
Round-Up
- CoviLeaks – A new(ish) anti-lockdown website that’s worth checking out
- ‘New Thinking on Covid Lockdowns: They’re Overly Blunt and Costly‘ – Excellent long read in the Wall St Journal summarising the thinking of renegade epidemiologists and economists
- ‘German doctors say COVID-19 is a scam‘ – A group of German doctors have launched an “extra-parliamentary inquiry” into coronavirus which they are convinced is a fraud
- ‘Switzerland “will be added to the UK’s quarantine travel list this weekend” as Tory MPs blast border “chaos” and urge ministers to follow 30 countries which already have airport testing to slash 14 day self-isolation rules‘ – Boris and his Downing Street chums hit Switzerland in their weekly game of throw-a-dart-at-a-map-of-Europe
- ‘British workers are the MOST reluctant to come back to the office because of second wave fears, says study‘ – Project Fear on steroids has done its work
- ‘More proof Britain’s COVID-19 outbreak is shrinking? Nine of England’s ten worst-hit areas have seen a decrease in cases over the past week‘ – The Mail reveals that infection rates are falling in Oldham, Leicester and Manchester
- ‘British Museum bosses remove bust of its founder Sir Hans Sloane over his links to slavery‘ – Who needs protestors when museum bosses are toppling statues themselves?
- ‘In the Brazilian Amazon, a sharp drop in coronavirus sparks questions over collective immunity‘ – Interesting piece in the Washington Post about how the virus has disappeared from Guayaquil in spite of no lockdown and only 33% testing positive for antibodies. Implication is herd immunity threshold is much lower than was first thought
- ‘Doctors’ “gut instincts” better at catching cancer than just a symptoms checklist‘ – An Oxford University study says GPs are more likely to detect cancer symptoms in face-to-face meetings
- ‘The young are being robbed‘ – Luke Johnson in the Sunday Times on the tragic closure of nightclubs and live music venues
- ‘Burning Witches‘ – Good piece by John Church in Hector Drummond Magazine
- ‘Madrid lockdown looms‘ – Poor bastards
- ‘Save Yourself: Stop Believing in Lockdown‘ – Excellent polemic by Stacey Rudin on the American Institute for Economic Research blog. Contains this quote from Voltaire: “Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.”
- ‘With Covid in retreat, the real battle now is against hysteria‘ – Good stuff from Ross Clark in the Telegraph
- ‘Where’s Johnson? Not in the tent, not on our TV screens and not in charge‘ – Rod Liddle’s piece in the Sunday Times, in case you missed it
- ‘The ZeroCovid debate: can the disease be eliminated?‘ – Freddie Sayers interviews lockdown fanatic Prof Devi Sridhar for UnHerd
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Two today, both by Chris Brown: “Tell Me What To Do” and “Wet the Bed“.
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 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 30,500).
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).
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 lots of people, mainly in the form of readers sending me stories and links). 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.
And Finally…
In the latest episode of London Calling, my weekly podcast with James Delingpole, we rage against the fact that progressive Year Zero types are using the pandemic as an excuse to cancel everything we hold dear, including city centres, live sport, fast cars, air travel and now Rule Britannia. You can listen on iTunes here. Don’t forget to subscribe!
Discussion
Comments
This week across the site:
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WEDNESDAY’S PAGE has arrived wheezing up the hill and thinking of doing a u turn like fatso johnson
https://dailysceptic.org/2020/08/26/latest-news-115/#comments
During the Vietnam war the refuseniks burnt their draft cards.
How about a mass burning of face masks? Maybe at the London protest this weekend?
Difficult for me though, I haven’t got one.
Not a problem, you can burn an old sock, t-shirt or tea towel all of which have been suggested as suitable for use as face coverings.
I’e heard that coaches have been hired from all parts of the country. What’s the betting police begin stopping them on motorways before they can get to London.?
https://www.lockdowntruth.org/post/first-ideas-for-my-ten-point-plan
Me again…
This is a rough idea of what I want to do to get simple but critical FACTS across to the masses.
I want to avoid opinions and areas considered by some to be “conspiracy theories” as they put people off.
As much as possible I want to use the government’s own data and words so we are just pointing out FACTS.
I know I quote Fauci but that is a FACT! He tells lies also.
I’m not a writer or a doctor though I do work a bit in epidemiology.
Please comment on the text and suggest your own.
Remember, the point of this diagram it to show that cases are rubbish, deaths are nearly at zero and the “Second Wave” is not something to worry about.
Please show it to someone who is not a sceptic and let us know what they think.
Thanks
Brilliant visual – really clear!
Thanks!
very very good
Thanks!
It’s great! The only thing I would ponder (as this is aimed at the true believers of the pandemic) is the large title “It’s gone!” – will people look at this and experience *brain shutdown* and refuse to read any more?
Perhaps use the main title as an invitation to look further; something less “in your face” and matter of fact?
Just my two cents! Good luck with this!
Hi LD, fantastic! Really well done! I do agree with Eve that possible “IT’S GONE” could be replaced by “SECOND WAVE?” and “NO SECOND WAVE” replaced by “It’s Gone!” …
But that’s my humble 2 pence.
I always find graphs such as this which show deaths, cases, *and* hospitalisations in the same visual quite striking as well – I’ve found people can digest those three metrics visually quite easily and shows the broken link not just between cases and deaths, but cases and hospitalisations as well.
But that might make the graphic too “busy”.
Anyway, nice job, if you don’t mind I’ve downloaded it and added it to my lockdown cheat-sheet (my Quick Facts type sheet I brush up on whenever I know I’ll be meeting Zero-Risk Zealots – sadly within my colleagues and family!).
Cheers
Dave
Obesity increases risk of Covid-19 death by 48%, study findsComprehensive study suggests vaccine may not work as well for overweight people
…Popkin said vaccine developers should look at the data from their clinical trials for the obesity effect, even where they have an overall benefit. “They might just then have to consider this and do some testing in the vaccine to get it to work better for obese people.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/26/obesity-increases-risk-of-covid-19-death-by-48-study-finds
An odd statement. Obesity makes it more likely you get ill so the conclusion is that you need to make a vaccine that somehow gets around that fact, as if you wouldn’t just be producing the most effective vaccine you could.
This article also chimes with another article the other day saying that Britain’s ‘cheap food’ is helping to spread Covid because the workers are living in poor conditions. There seems to be a push towards making food more expensive in Britain – for our own good, of course. Or, to put it another way, to reduce the supply of food in Britain.
Johnson and co already have that in hand. It’s called Brexit.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=49rAlzU7WlY
The Mask Slips
A video by Dave Cullen, discussing the recent EU corona virus pledging session, with lots of leaders, including Merkel, Trudeau, and Boris, pledging to give taxpayer’s money to Gavi and CEPI (i.e. vaccine production), using words like “solidarity” (how very Communist of them) and the WHO leader promising to leave “no one behind (ie mandatory vaccines??)
I’m assuming the school mask wearing is because we can rely on the clever virus to stay in the corridors and communal areas but never dare enter a classroom. After all it knows to stop at the door of a supermarket cafe while circulating madly round the store.
When will the government put its foot down and end this death by a thousand cuts of our liberties? We knew transport wouldn’t be the end and indeed shops soon followed. Do they think the bedwetters will be happy with secondary school corridors? Of course they won’t! Next it will be classrooms, then primary and infant schools, then outdoors. Eventually it will be anywhere you meet people from outside your own household including in your own home.
simple.. the virus is put into detention
Indeed, once you pay the Danegeld etc.
It is a one way ratchet with the ” its only a mask, if it saves one life, better to be on the safe side” that wilfully ignores all the scientific evidence against mask wearing.
Once you give in on one thing they willl push and push to get their way on everything else, eventually it’ll be the same as Oz where the police can enter your house without a warrant to check you are obeying all govt dictats.
https://principia-scientific.org/neurosurgeon-face-masks-pose-serious-risks-to-healthy-individuals/
Don’t worry, they already can, under the ‘Test, Trace and Detain’ measures.
http://www.laworfiction.com/2020/08/test-trace-and-detain/
‘If you do not go where you are told, or abscond, a police officer may take you into custody and return you to wherever the public health officer specifies. Indeed, a police officer can enter your home or any premises at will in order to exercise these various powers relating to screening, assessment and detention.’
Oh, plus take your kids away from you without your permission e.g. if they test positive at school. MW
Finally some truth coming out from a government advisor: https://www.zerohedge.com/political/uk-govt-scientist-admits-lockdown-was-monumental-mistake-global-scale
Although he only saw the light after cooping himself and family up in Lismore (pop. 146) on the remote Argyll island hours before Scotland announced lockdown. He had evidently regretted that smart move by the end of July when he was interviewed, still on the island.
https://www.lockdowntruth.org/post/data-query-please-help
I have overlaid daily cases, hospital admissions and deaths in the UK as best I can with the data available.
The trouble is, hospital admissions stick out of the cases early on suggesting there were more hospitalisations than cases at the time.
Is this a mistake on my part or is it correct? Or is the data wrong?
Could it be that some hospitalisations were registered on the basis of symptoms not positive tests?
Just as the false positives are exaggerating a disease that has all but disappeared now, the false negatives underestimated the case numbers early on. The useful idiots then took the data and vastly exaggerated the IFR.
Very good graphs.
I doubt your graphs are wrong. If online published data is anything to go by the data you are using maybe muddled.
I’m trying to track hospital admissions in Ireland and some days there is a minus admission!. Meaning they’ve revised what the’ve said previously. But a minus admission could mean a dozen were admitted and thirteen previous admissions were declassified, but which ones those were is anyone’s guess.
Have you adjusted for date? If you are using the date the test was reported as opposed to when it was taken it could explain the discrepancy, same for both the other values.
I’m sure I saw something about hospitalisations being recorded for people who had a positive test, but were in hospital for something else. “Case” had a different definition in those days, so this practice seemed doubly dubious I seem to recall.
And I certainly wouldn’t discount the possibility of multiple counting of “hospitalisations” e.g. every visit the Covid-positive person makes to the hospital to have a (non-Covid related) dressing changed is counted as a “hospitalisation”.
And maybe some people with, or without, positive Covid test results presented at A&E several times, worried about symptoms, and were sent home again. I’d bet these would all be counted as individual hospitalisations.
Appreciate the effort but wouldn’t even bother graphing the cases as the bedwetters see it going up and nothing else.
The whole point of this is to clearly show that the cases go up but the hospitalisations and deaths go down.
I told my ex wife this yesterday and she literally hadn’t heard that deaths were going right down. So I want to get this across simply.
It’s a good project I think, nice bit of visualisation. Would be interesting to see the test numbers on as well for comparison, although presumably they would be will out of scale with the other numbers.
I plan on doing that but having tests on the same scale as deaths (which I want to do) means you can’t see them. You’d need a big poster or something.
Ivor Cummings has done a graph with the cases or positive tests on top and the deaths mirrored below which shows as yours does that cases or positive tests continue but deaths have all but stopped
Yes. I’ve seen that but I want to put thing on the same scale. It’s more shocking when you see how small the deadly numbers are.
I think that it is probably to do with the reporting of ‘cases’ – which, you recall (as your overlay shows), grew with testing as the hard evidence of admissions and deaths declined.
The root problem with ‘Covid’ data is that is pretty well buggered right from the start – although the hospital data provides as good a baseline as you will get.
shouldnt use “cases” . implies that somebody is ill. Are these just positive tests?
As I told Tom above – the idea is to de-programme the masses that “cases” are irrelevant and deaths are going to zero.
But this isn’t the final graph anyway – it’s just for your comments
In March and April mostly the only people being tested were those admitted to hospital as there wasn’t enough testing to extend to the community. Could the infections be higher as it doesn’t capture asymptomatic people so if it could give an estimate of those people too it will really bring the hospitalisation sand deaths in to perspective.
Possibly a combination of that and maybe a lag in reporting test results.
Yes, sorry what I was thinking was cases or positive people are likely to have been much under estimated given the antibody testing shows 3.4 million with antibodies and that is likely to be a low representation of infections as many don’t show antibodies on blood testing. They are very good graphs. You could use Car Heneghan recent estimates of IFR perhaps. He gives it at 0.49 to 0.3
Are the numbers some thing like 50k deaths with Covid and mostly comorbity; 130k hospital admissions; 3.5 million with antibodies
Also of the 3.4 million with antibodies most have had no symptoms, is is around 70% asymptomatic?
And of the deaths very few have had no comorbidity and most older people.
ONS graphs might help
I’m working on a graphic showing the age/comorbidities of deaths.
What numbers are you calling ‘daily cases’? Source?
all the usual daily figures from GOV
Everyone is right below – asymptomatic positives are not an illness. It’s a person encountering a virus and stopping it with their immune system from making them unwell.
“asymptomatic positives are not an illness.”
… even more, they don’t indicate the presence of an actual virus – just a bit of RNA.
Yes that is right. Factor in the false positives too.
Could be that at the start ‘x’ number of people were in hospital. They were there for hip replacements, ‘pneumonia’ etc, and then caught the virus in hospital.
It could also be that they were not identified as covid positive on admission, and misdiagnosed with flu etc
The date of the admission doesn’t change
I think one of the early recorded cases was a woman who went into the Royal Gwent Hospital for a routine hip replacement. Whilst there she caught ‘pneumonia’. She was treated for ‘pneumonia’ in intensive care for a month. On the point that she was about to die they realised it was covid, and she tested positive
Usually the sequence would be
positive test….. hospitalisation ……. death
in her case the sequence was
Hospitalisation …….positive test………. death
Here is the link. apologies, it was a gall bladder operation not a hip replacement
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/coronavirus-newport-royal-gwent-hospital-17975223?utm_source=linkCopy&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sharebar
Some more balanced school mask reporting from the DT:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/08/25/face-masks-worn-schools-government-u-turn/
John Jolly, chief executive of Parentkind, the national parent-teacher association, backed the move “as long as we are not moving into a situation where children are wearing face masks in the classroom”. He said masks could reassure the estimated 25 per cent of parents who were “very worried” about their children returning.
Only 25%?!!!!!
75% being made to pander to a bunch of idiots?!!!!
And a couple more potential heroes:
Prof Russell Viner, a Sage adviser, and President of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, suggested the evidence did not support such policies.
He said: “There are lots of concerns about mask wearing for children, particularly younger children, because they touch their face, they are constantly worried about the mask, it actually could potentially spread the virus more.”
When it came to older children and teenagers, “we don’t have the evidence that this is useful” he said.
Dr Jenny Harries, England’s Deputy Chief Dedical Officer, has previously said the evidence on whether children over 12 should wear masks in schools was “not strong”.
Prof Susan Michie, a member of the Sage sub group on behaviours (SPI-B), said she was… Read more »
Let’s face it – if an individual is a member of SPI_B, then they are disqualified from having judgment.
Absolutely. Not to mention that there’s no virus to catch or spread. If there were, children and teenagers would not in any danger from it at all.
Masks are not about health. This psyop is about mandating obedience, demoralisation and destroying communication between us. The ‘pressure from unions and fearful parents’ is just a ruse. The politicians do not fear public opinion; they do not care. Unions and parents’ groups are useful idiots.
Remember Philip Larkin’s Poem, ‘They fuck you up your Mum and Dad/They may not mean to, but they do.’ * When Mum and Dad + teachers have been brainwashed by a Government that does not wish us well, we are looking at a lot of fucked-up people in the near future. MW
*Fancy doing a job on it, Annie, if you haven’t already? MW
“Why were you excluded from school?”
“I touched my mask.”
https://omni.se/nara-4-000-svenskar-har-fatt-felaktiga-covid-svar/a/JoKLp7
https://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/jd8rLb/4-000-coronatester-felaktiga–sjalvtester-holl-inte-mattet
Big news from Sweden.3700 persons got wrong result that they were C-19 pos. They had all very mild disease or not symptoms and they all had false positive result. Sweden will have to adjust the statistics. These are self administered samples used in 9 Swedish regions. The wrong results were from middle of March until August .This is a widely used Chinese test kit product and the Swedish authorities has alerted International bodies of the problem
By checking with the labs it seems to be a Chinese produced test kit which is CE .CE marking is a certification mark that indicates conformity with health, safety, and environmental protection standards for products sold within the European Economic Area (EEA).
Sweden also started mass testing (government initiative) and is now paying the usual price for such a stupid decision. Most likely used in other parts of Europe.
Do they say out of how many tests, Swedenborg?
No I have not that details
Thanks! Would be great to know what percentage were wrong, but just the raw figure is surely important. Appreciate you sharing the info.
That is almost 4% of C-19 patients in the world ststistics for Sweden now gone.If this kit failure happens in a first world country you wonder how reliable statistics in the second and third world conuntries based upon these Chinese junk kits.
Not sure if this has been posted before but the UK has not quite followed their own guidelines (OK this is Corona not flu but principles the same):
UK Influenza Pandemic Preparedness Strategy 2011
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/213717/dh_131040.pdf
Section 1.10 (some highlights, emphasis mine)
Put in place plans to ensure a response that is proportionate to meet the differing demands of pandemic influenza viruses of milder and more severe impact, rather than just focusing on the “worst case” planning assumptions. Take greater account of age-specific and other differences in the rate and pattern of spread of the disease across the UK and internationally. Further explore statistical population-based surveillance, such as serology, to measure the severity of a pandemic in its early stages. Take better account of the learning from behavioural scientists about how people are likely to think, feel and behave during an influenza pandemic. Develop better plans for managing the end of an influenza pandemic – the recovery phase and preparation for subsequent seasonal influenza outbreaks. 2.12
This means that it almost certainly will not be possible to contain or eradicate a new virus in its country of origin or on arrival in the UK. The expectation must be that the virus… Read more »
UK Influenza Pandemic Preparedness Strategy 2011 was updated to include coronavirus after SARS COV 1 and was meant to prepare for a pandemic that killed upto 200,000. A few weeks into this scamdemic the whole plan went out the window and we followed the WHO instead.
Paul Chaplin has an excellent breakdown of exactly what occured in this article https://www.paulchaplin.life/blog-original/lockdown-boris-violated-sage-advice
A very useful posting.
It demonstrates vividly the motivation behind the current panicdemic – and it clearly has nothing to do with public health, as can be seen in the contradiction of the advice in 3.1.
We’re left with the question of why the advice was not followed. My completely uninformed guess is that reaction was heavily influenced by Dominic ‘Take Fright and Run Off’ Cummings, whose blog early in 2019 (Thank you John Stone for extracting from the archives) reflected on forthcoming pandemic in an unrealistic way. Intelligence unanchored to contact with real life.
… and then there was the dangerous discovery of Fear as a method of social control.
And miss a perfect once in a decade/generation opportunity to implement the long awaited but behind schedule Agenda 21 (renamed Agenda 2030 it was that far behind) new green utopia great reset?
Full marks for digging this out. Sceptic of the day.
From what I’ve seen so far this looks like a measured and well thought-out document.
What has gone wrong in our government? I wonder if it is in fact mainly down to Johnson/Cummings and SAGE et al.
The suggestion in this document is that previous administrations would have handled things very differently. Oh for the days of May and Cameron … I now bitterly regret all my ill-bred remarks about them.
This is exactly why you have an emergency strategy, so that when the emergency arises you don’t panic and instead implement well researched and thought out plans. I suppose it needs a big caveat at the top saying “This strategy relies on a strong, intelligent administration being in place”.
Maybe this is why “they” don’t care if schools reopen or not? Same shit planned worldwide?
I think so as Bill Gates and Microsoft are involved an have been for a long, long time.
https://www.activistpost.com/2020/08/gates-and-big-tech-reimagine-post-human-education-the-new-normal-is-a-i-data-mining-for-social-credit.html
From the report:
Project BEST (Better Education Skills through Technology). A sub-project of President Ronald Reagan’s Private Sector Initiative, Project BEST was a plan to corporatize the American education system through public-private partnerships with Big Tech companies which replace human teachers with Skinnerian “teaching machines” programmed with psychological conditioning algorithms that train students for workforce placement in a planned economy.
They’ve managed to shoehorn “reimagine” and “new normal” into a single heading. Bloody well done! And as a bonus we’ve also got “post human” in there. Bullshitting bastards (the advocates of this evil, not the article writers).
Don’t think there is any doubt big US technology companies are going to be the huge winner – just look at their share prices. Very surprised the public just goes along blindly with all these schemes / scams. The long term aim is transhumanism – not a conspiracy many in tech openly talk about it.
Again I am relieved that I have no school age children. These people are sick! Just plug the kids into a machine and ramp up the indoctrination levels to max. There won’t be a thinker left in the world come 2050
Not much difference than sticking them in front of TV, tablet, X-box/Playstation or mobile that happens a lot now.
Just more formal and official.
Priti’s gonna revel in this:
The widow of PC Andrew Harper is due to meet the Home Secretary next month in an effort to harness major political support for a new law meaning those who kill emergency workers are jailed for life.
Lissie Harper, 29, said she was contacted by the Home Office to arrange face-to-face talks with Priti Patel.
Mrs Harper, whose campaign has secured nearly half a million signatures, said she was “delighted” that the Home Secretary had agreed to a meeting, and that her campaign is “vital and urgent”. (DT)
Flat Earth Syndrome…
Sufferers are unaware of their condition. The sufferer will spin and argue with reality when data and evidense shows the theory to be wrong, and attract simmular sufferers creating a ‘group think’ cult.
They can fester harmlessly in large institutions but become extremely dangerous when incompetent government, and their corrupt quangos, take them seriously and believe the sufferers theories are ‘The Science’ – when no such settled science exists.
They can easily be diagnosed by a simple challenge of their theories – Instead of a reasoned argument the challenge is met with anger and insults in defence of the theory and, interestingly, the challenger is often accused of being a right wing fascist.
People with Flat Earth Syndrome have the wrong personalities to be involved in science – where an ability to constantly adapt thinking when new evidense and data becomes available.
Spot on. They, not us, are deniers. Truth deniers.
So is the wee krankie having a laugh at Boris’ expense? She just waits until he jumps on the bandwagon, and then says she didn’t mean it quite the way it came out? Perhaps she’s cleverer than we thought ….
A couple of travel updates:
Some £22 billion could be lost from the UK economy due to the collapse of international travel in 2020, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC).
This year international visitor spending could plunge by 78% compared to 2019, equating to a loss of £60 million a day, or £420 million a week.
Nearly three million jobs in the UK supported by travel and tourism are at risk of being lost in a ‘worst case’ scenario mapped out by WTTC economic modelling.
According to its 2020 Economic Impact Report, travel and tourism was responsible for almost four million UK jobs, or 11% of the country’s total workforce, last year. It accounted for nearly £200 billion GDP, or 9% of UK economy.
“We urgently need to replace stop-start quarantine measures with rapid, comprehensive and cost-effective test and trace programmes at departure points across the country.
But…..
‘Limited prospects’ of imminent changes to quarantine approach
The government was due to review quarantine measures and the potential for a relaxation this week, but sources suggested limited prospects of immediate change.
Travel Weekly understands ministers excluded the industry from discussion of the review amid anger at the extent of… Read more »
only £22 billion, Ha – no problem, fire up the money printing press – and theres plenty more paper and ink for billions and trillions of more money…
This money is so magic it doesn’t even need paper and ink!
Correct.
And neither is it a problem either – as Japan has shown for 30 years.
There is no way we can continue to pretend governments are fiscally constrained after furlough pay, the global financial crisis and Japan.
It no longer passes the laugh test.
We are only constrained by the physical resources we have available. Again as Covid demonstrated. We may have had as much money as required, but we still couldn’t buy enough PPE for health workers in the early days.
Last week a small group of BA staff were demonstrating against job losses in Oxford St. I told them about the protest on Saturday in Trafalgar Square – they didn’t know about it (and never heard of KBF, either).
Sadly I don’t think most people are anti lockdown as long as they are getting paid. It was blindingly obvious from day one this was the nail in the coffin for many travel companies yet many of the staff never seemed to think about doing some research and questioning what they were being told by the media. The fact so few people seem to know about Keep Britain Free is sad, hopefully it will change.
Maybe this is how it will end. Workers/unions realising, at last, that calling for more lockdown measures is not in their best interests regardless of what the Media and Labour tell them.
Yes, this is exactly what we need – workers and business owners, unite!
If anyone listens to the WTTC it will end up a lot more jobs lost.
They rote a letter to Governments recently asking for:
Wearing a mask: This should be mandatory on all modes of transport throughout the entire traveller journey, as well as when visiting any interior venue and in locations where there is restricted movement which results in close personal contact and required physical distancing cannot be maintained.
Testing and contact tracing: We need governments to invest and agree on extensive, rapid, and reliable testing, ideally with results available in as quick as 90 minutes, and at a low cost, before departure and/ or after arrival (symptomatic and asymptomatic would-be travellers), supported by effective and agreed contact tracing tools. The application of one or multiple tests, with the second after five days, will help to isolate infected people.
Quarantine for positive tests only: Quarantine for healthy travellers, which only serves to damage the economy, should not be necessary if testing is in place before departure and/or on arrival, and effective containment measures are taken five days later. This can replace blanket quarantine in a more targeted and effective way significantly reducing the negative impact on jobs and the economy.
I did… Read more »
Face masks will only be mandatory in schools located within local lockdown areas, Gavin Williamson has stressed, after the Government performed yet another U-turn overnight.
Despite ministers and officials repeatedly ruling out the need for face coverings over the past 72 hours, thousands of children across England will be required to wear them in communal areas such as corridors and libraries when they return to school next week. (DT)
It’s not long ago that anyone with a brain would have fallen about laughing at the idea of Gavin Williamson parading in his short trousers pretending to do a serious job of any sort.
“How the country lost it’s brains” will be the story.
… come to that, who would have guessed, even against a pretty low bar, that a Toad – known only for buffoonery, narcissism,, laziness and wasting public money – would be elected PM
Meanwhile in NZ:
https://twitter.com/ezralevant/status/1298497148837928960?s=12
Distressing to say the least.
Fascism comes to NZ.
So much for tolerance of dissent and a “right to protest”.
I hope the screams of that distressed child echo in the dreams of those police each night.
Much as I loathe St Jacinda of the One ond Only Truth, in the name of actual truth I need to point out that her sticky pawprints aren’t actually on this one
According to the police badge it’s Australia – NSW to be exact. Shocking anywhere but perhaps not surprising for Oz right now.
Found this on a FB group . coincidence I’m starting to think not
The movie Hedgehog was released in 2016 by Chinese directors & is about a respiratory virus in humans.
Exact quote from the ending:
“I’m happy to announce we’ve discovered a vaccine! We no longer have to live in fear; everyone can go back to their normal lives
Look at the screenshot
Everyone takes their masks off as they announce a vaccine was discovered
News desk
That sounds even more sinister than the film “Contagion” a few years ago – dangerous virus, dodgy natural healer (played by Jude Law), selfless scientists working round the clock to find a vaccine, particularly selfless scientist tries it first on herself for the sake of humanity, bingo, it works. The film was a flop at the time I seem to remember.
I don’t think that, in 2011, that film was taken as anything other than a sci-fi story. Nothing there.
Or this TV show from 2003:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jY6-HvE5YdU&feature=emb_imp_woyt
A bit of interesting news here… genuinely! The Devi Sridhar is going to be focussing more on being nonsensical and ineptly interferring at a global level because, and I quote – “[she is] finding it too hard to make sense of what’s happening in the UK as a whole.”
https://twitter.com/devisridhar/status/1298335364915040256?s=20
Earlier Devi tweeted: “Becoming increasingly difficult to follow what’s going on without the regular press briefings & with technical difficulties on key data website.”
And finally, not set back by the “pure bullshit” report about a Hong Kong reinfection that wasn’t a few days ago, she has retweeted a Belgian news article which claims a reinfection there.
https://twitter.com/STcom/status/1298149204041379840?s=20
Has she been removed from UK duties for being so clearly a joke professor with long red shoes and a big bow tie? No doubt she’s the type that lingers.
The Devi seems to have her fans, though. Here is a comment on her twitter feed. “Having only met you virtually and following you on twitter for a few months now, I am a total fangirl and think you are incredibly impressive and have only ever made perfect sense on Covid. Will miss your wisdom!” One, Christina Pagel. Member of independent Sage. Professor at UCL. Is that the sort of person students have teaching them now? Let’s hope poor Nicola Sturgeon can start listening to more sensible people now.
That comment has the same ring to it as all of the “favourable” comments by the CCP bots that did the rounds on various leaders twitter feeds when the fakedemic unfolded.
Total fangirl…sounds like a 10 year old.
Rejoice!
Why do these people even tweet at all? – It’s just ridiculous as if we want to know they every inane thought. Why don’t they get back to us when they’ve got something well thought out to say.
Ego, pure and simple. They love to be
‘influencers’.
They’re narcissists, think that their opinions are worth so much more than those who they seem below them.
She probably couldn’t take all our sarky comments .
https://www.straitstimes.com/world/europe/dutch-belgian-patients-re-infected-with-coronavirus-media?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_campaign=sttw&utm_medium=social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1598337845
There is no indication in the repoort whether they have isolated the virus and proven different strain.The Belgian woman mild reinfection.The Dutch case in an elderly immunocompromised.Not anything thrilling here or even unusual.
Well done Swedenb fir getting to grips with the nub of the thing.
Nothing unusual but needed to be pumped out with glee by her. Why? Are we winning Swedenborg?
Fascinating that those of us without tenured university posts in public health have found it perfectly easy to understand what is going on in the UK – given that some details may need filling in and expanding.
The confession is obviously a mark of this individual’s lack of intellectual grasp and adherence to an insupportable narrative.
I watched the Unherd interview. Freddie Sayers is a very impressive interviewer – very calm, polite, gives the interviewee the opportunity to present their argument without interruption. One might have thought Devi would have been smart enough to do the background check on Freddie – she was clearly phased by him saying he was Swedish. The point is she was gabbling, constantly fiddling with her hair, and throwing in all manner of ‘alternative facts’ that demonstrated, to anyone who might not have known otherwise, that she is no scientist. She talks in soundbites, like many politicians. She is connected to some very important people, not sure how and where exactly, but we don’t seem to know much about her parents (in her Wiki entry, we hear she was inspired by her grandmother). What we do know is she is linked to Chelsea Clinton. She has a two-year undergraduate degree in Biology, from a feeder course to the 48th ranked US Med School. She was then the youngest person ever to get a Rhodes Scholarship, at age 18. Although times change, and standards have undoubtedly slipped, I cannot begin to understand this.
Great post by you and the rest above. Good to have such comprehensive awareness of a globalist weak link.
Two more anti-mask heroes:
But Huw Merriman, the Tory MP for Bexhill and Battle and chair of the transport select committee, said masks in schools would “further downgrade the learning environment. Like every other risk in our daily lives, we need to embed Covid and proportionately live with it.”
The Tory backbencher Marcus Fysh said: “Masks should be banned in schools. The country should be getting back to normal not pandering to this scientifically illiterate guff,” he said. “It is time to end the fear. And keep it away from our kids thank you very much.” (Grad)
Let’s hope more like them speak up!
Very encouraging words from both. Ranks starting to break.
I do hope so!
I like the Fysh comment. Hope he forms an Immunity and Health Research Group with fellow MPs to push back on the lockdown-mask ideology. MPs have reacted with shameful insouciance so far to destruction of our liberties, our jobs, our children’s education, our cultural life and our health service (dentistry, cancer treatment and so on). Time for them to recover in part their reputation.
Boris is now Mr Blobby-Noel Edmonds take note-and his theme tune is ‘Blowin In The Wind’.
Bizarre EU Funded Comic Book Predicted Pandemic, With Globalists As Saviours
https://summit.news/2020/05/15/bizarre-eu-funded-comic-book-predicted-pandemic-with-globalists-as-saviours/
Wowsers!
Predicitive programming for the psy-op. In how many official languages ?!
It would be interesting to know who the author and artist were …
JD MORVAN and HUANG JIA WEI
You can download @
https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/4cc2ea93-d003-417e-9294-1103a6ee877d
Thanks 2p !
UK gov has ordered 5 doses of C19 vaccine per head of population.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02450-x
Hancock can have my 5, and my Mrs and kids… Just so he’s extra-immune.
My MP can have mine.
So could mine if I knew where he is hiding.
I can see an amnesty for illegals. Justification: “It’s the only way we can be sure they’re vaccinated”
Shit. That case will be made.
Brace yourselves for the tsunami on the horizon that is the controversy over the vaccine (re: costs, efficacy, risks and compliance). I’ll be stockpiling a lot of popcorn for that one!
We will be assured by lobotomised breakfast TV presenters that the vaccine is safe for everyone. The SNP will decide that everyone should have a double dose. The Conservative government will reply at midday that the science shows that is not necessary. By teatime they will have ordered double doses for the whole of England.
And Lo! Here is the Mariannabot:
https://twitter.com/mariannaspring/status/1298316028271906818
Now I’m glad I unplugged the aerial!
Seems the great unwashed now tell the Government what to do, rather than vice versa. So, here is #1 in an occasional series of T-shirt slogans:
“Government of the Sheeple, by the Sheeple”.
This is a free service.
Here come the Covid Detention Centers (USA related)
Article relating to a New York bill to be passed.
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2020/08/no_author/764696-2/
School teacher niece, spent a lot of time arranging the school, signs for toilets, one way system, etc, says on the question of masks’ you know, you get used to them’ bought her daughter, about to go to senior school, some ‘masks with nice patterns on’, they will become a designer accessory, named brands, costing a fortune, like trainers etc.
You can ‘get used to’ many things – that’s not an argument for accepting them. As has been pointed out before, putting a courgette up your fundament may limit the spread of coronavirus. There’s no evidence that it doesn’t. Should that be mandatory? You could probably ‘get used to it.’
We have a new hero:
Face masks could actually make students less safe when you “take into account children’s behaviour”, a leading headteacher has warned.
Katharine Birbalsingh, founder of the Michaela Community School in London, told the Today programme that ministers needed to consider the unintended consequences of their latest U-turn, which will make face masks mandatory for students aged 12 and over in corridors and communal areas in schools that fall within lockdown locations.
She said: “What about the children who turn up to school with uniforms that haven’t been washed?… They will be wearing reused, dirty masks. They will pop them they will ping them, they will lick and spit on each others’ masks for a joke. They will wear them incorrectly, they will lose them.
“When half of your students turn up without masks, what do you do? Do you exclude them? The girls will be in the loos, checking their masks, making sure they look nice, touching their faces all the more.
“We need to take into account children’s behaviour – and I would actually argue they make them less safe.” (DT live)
At last, a headteacher who actually understands kids! Obviously she doesn’t work in some nice yummy mummy… Read more »
I think this line of argument is key to changing minds. If parents are worried about health of their children because of covid, surely the same parents will be worried about the health of their children if we can convince them that a bacteria ridden cloth strapped to their child’s face is even worse.
You’d think, wouldn’t you …
They aren’t worried about face masks as only Covid kills you.
Katharine Birbalsingh is inspirational. Check out her interviews on the Triggernometry podcast, if you want to know more about her – she’s done quite a few now. Highly recommended viewing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39vGqUOTulI
Thanks!
I agree, I think she’s wonderful, a breath of fresh air in the educational world. One of the few people who speaks sense all the time.
Katharine should be education minister rather than the useless waste of space currently in situ.
Indeed, but she is far too intelligent and sensible to want the job!
Have a great lunch time ! 🙂
sound on do many things educational thus disliked by the ed establishment.
Those who have influence are pushing the control methods, the rest of us are ‘getting left behind’, Ministers who disagree, need to start speaking LOUDER
Just seen this on the BBC news website –
Face coverings in schools a ‘slippery slope’ – Tory MP
Requiring pupils to wear face coverings in schools is a “slippery slope”, says Conservative MP Huw Merriman.
The MP for Bexhill and Battle told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that he disagreed with the move because “we need to send the message out that our schools are safe with the measures that they’ve been taking and will be taking”.
“Anything that sends a message out that it’s not safe in the corridor means that it can’t be safe in the classroom and we’re on a slippery slope,” he said.
“My concern is that we just keep making this up as we go along,” he continued – adding that the World Health Organization was “not explicit about schools at all”.
His comments came after the government said secondary pupils will have to wear masks in school corridors in local lockdown areas of England.
A blast of sanity! We need not despair entirely!
Voices of sanity creeping into the Beeb and the Grad. Maybe there’s hope ….