Yet Another Bloody U-Turn
Boris often sings the praises of the first-class education he received at Eton and Oxford. But the most valuable lesson he ever received was when he was taught to drive. After all, that’s where he learnt how to do a U-turn.
The Prime Minister has now performed so many reverse ferrets he’s in danger of swallowing his own tail. Yesterday brought news of his latest pirouette – on face masks in schools.
Since he returned from his camping holiday in Scotland, Boris has been on a mission to persuade parents it’s safe to send their kids back to school.
“The risk of contracting COVID-19 in school is very small and it is far more damaging for a child’s development and their health and wellbeing to be away from school any longer,” he said on Sunday.
But now he’s changed his mind – apparently influenced by Nicola Sturgeon’s decision to make face coverings mandatory in Scottish secondary schools. Henceforth, kids aged 11 and older will have to wear masks in local lockdown areas. Not so safe, then. Talk about mixed messages! The Prime Minister’s default response whenever he’s asked a question of vital national importance is to launch into his Vicky Pollard impression: “No but, yeah but…”
Let’s be clear: the risk posed to children by COVID-19 is vanishing-to-zero. As the Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Jenny Harries said on Monday, kids are more likely to be killed in a road traffic accident than die of coronavirus – and that may be overstating it. To date, only two children between the ages of 5 and 14 have succumbed to the virus.
Some parents are worried about their kids catching it in school and then passing it on to vulnerable adults. Rest assured, that risk is negligible, too. Earlier this year, China and the World Health Organisation issued a report saying they hadn’t found a single case of a child transmitting the disease to an adult.
The bottom line is children aren’t vulnerable to this disease and they don’t pass it on. Why can’t Boris just stick to that clear, simple message?
He had an opportunity to reassure parents and he’s blown it.
The Mail is incandescent about this latest bit of dilly-dallying, while the Sun blames Gavin Williamson. The Telegraph says Tory MPs are furious about the endless U-turns the Prime Minister has performed – seemingly more responsive to Nicola Sturgeon than he is to Parliament. The only supportive article I could find was this piece by Angela Epstein in the Telegraph – and the comments below the line from sceptical readers are a joy to read.
As someone who helped set up four schools – one secondary and three primaries – I know just what a nightmare it will be to make children wear masks. How will teachers know which child is talking out of turn? How will they respond when a child claims to be exempt? Will children who turn up at the school gate without a mask be sent home? Or stuck in isolation?
Don’t take my word for it. Calvin Robinson, the teacher who appeared in a recent Department for Education’s advertising campaign to recruit more teachers, described the endless problems this will create in schools in an interview on Radio London last night.
When is Boris going to show some leadership? His response to this national crisis has been the opposite of Churchillian.
He’s more like the nodding dog in the insurance advert than the wartime leader.
The Year Evidence-Based Medicine Died
A senior research scientist in a pharmaceutical company with over 15 years’ experience in drug research and development, both in biotech and large pharma, has emailed to express his despair about mandatory face masks in schools.
I was moved to write when I read with utter dismay about the decision for masks to become mandatory in Scottish schools, with the rest of the UK probably not far behind.
As a scientist, for me face coverings are emblematic of what has gone completely wrong in our approach to COVID-19. Face coverings are not some “jolly jape” or “what’s the harm” thing, they are an invasive treatment that has been imposed on the entire population based on weak scientific evidence. They also have potential to cause harm both to individuals and the environment; how long before disposable cloth “jelly-fish” start washing up on our beaches? I also believe that in some circumstances they could actually increase the risk of transmission. Simply stating over and over that face-coverings help “stop the spread” without any data, seems to me to smack of “if we say it enough, it will be true”, rather than sound clinical science.
What is so utterly ridiculous is that the potential risks/benefits of face coverings are completely testable with appropriately designed studies and if this was a normal clinical intervention then there would be a justified expectation of just such testing before being was rolled out. I’ve seen people say that holdouts against masks are akin to those who wouldn’t wear seatbelts. But the big difference is that seatbelts were subjected to precisely this kind of rigorous testing, and there was a lot of evidence that they worked, before they became mandatory. Such evidence for face coverings simply does not exist, or has not been published, so scepticism is justifiable given that it is a significant societal change to mandate wearing a face-covering in most public spaces.
Graham Martin et al summed this up in a recent paper: “Well-intended population health interventions can do harm, but the downsides of mandatory face-covering policies have to date been under-conceptualised and under-studied.”
Given the general chaos in policy making, the imposition of lockdown itself and the ongoing issues surrounding screening highlighted by people such as Prof. Heneghan, it appears to me that 2020 is the year that evidence-based medicine died.
Rod Liddle on the BBC
Rod Liddle’s column in the Sun today – about the Rule Britannia row – is a corker.
All those ghastly people waving their Union Jacks. Singing Land of Hope and Glory and Rule, Britannia!. Nasty Little Englanders who probably voted for Brexit.
It’s the one night of the year when the BBC’s left wing bias is dropped for an hour or two.
And the licence-payer for once gets what they want. An evening of enjoyable, uplifting patriotism.
The BBC holds Middle England in utter contempt – and has done so for a long while.
It cannot tolerate anything which doesn’t fit into its woke agenda. And it’s why support for the BBC diminishes daily.
It has lost touch with the values of the people who pay for its existence.
Still, there’s one bright side to all this. It’s saved me £157.50 per year.
I will not pay the licence fee any more. Not ever again.
Why should I pay for an organisation which hates and despises everything I believe in?
Meanwhile, Vera Lynn signing “Land of Hope and Glory” has topped the iTunes charts.
Economists: “The Scientists Got it Wrong.”
Hat tip to Jeffrey Tucker, the Editorial Director of the American Institute for Economic Research, for sending me this excellent paper by four economists. Called “Four Stylized Facts About COVID-19“, it cites four things we know about the virus and its transmission that suggests the initial policy response across the world was wrong. Here’s the abstract:
We document four facts about the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide relevant for those studying the impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) on COVID-19 transmission. First: across all countries and U.S. states that we study, the growth rates of daily deaths from COVID-19 fell from a wide range of initially high levels to levels close to zero within 20-30 days after each region experienced 25 cumulative deaths. Second: after this initial period, growth rates of daily deaths have hovered around zero or below everywhere in the world. Third: the cross section standard deviation of growth rates of daily deaths across locations fell very rapidly in the first 10 days of the epidemic and has remained at a relatively low level since then. Fourth: when interpreted through a range of epidemiological models, these first three facts about the growth rate of COVID deaths imply that both the effective reproduction numbers and transmission rates of COVID-19 fell from widely dispersed initial levels and the effective reproduction number has hovered around one after the first 30 days of the epidemic virtually everywhere in the world. We argue that failing to account for these four stylized facts may result in overstating the importance of policy mandated NPIs for shaping the progression of this deadly pandemic.
Worth reading in full.
We Will Mock You
This YouTube video by Media Bear ridiculing Covid hysterics – and BLM protestors for good measure – is fantastic.
Glad to see there are some young people not buying the bullshit.
Letter From Care Home Dated March 23rd
A reader has passed on the letter she received from her mother’s care home in Bagshot on March 23rd, the day the full lockdown was imposed.
This is with a great sadness I have to say that I have been informed by our Doctor today that NHS hospitals will not accept people over 70 years old if they have been tested positive with COVID 19, which means that these residents will be treated here, at Sunrise of Bagshot, and in case of deterioration they will go straight into palliative care. In these unprecedented times due to COVID-19 outbreak the NHS has no choice but to make tough decisions. I want to reassure you that we are doing everything possible to keep our residents safe and well protected.
At this moment we are working with Doctor to sign DNR forms for all of our residents. In order for us to complete this, I would ask you to send me a confirmation email if you agree for this to happen if your parent/loved one doesn’t have one.
If you have any questions or would like to discuss this with Doctor, please let me know and I will arrange telephone conversation.
Thank you for your understanding.
Horrendous. But at least this reader’s care home had the courtesy to consult her about the DNR form…
Civil Servants Are Very Busy… Sunbathing
Got an email from a reader who’s understandably angry about public sector employees refusing to return to work because it’s “too dangerous”.
Your daily update is the highlight of my day. I’m a self-employed bookkeeper who also runs payrolls so I’ve been working throughout the nonsense. I’ve been increasingly exasperated at the ridiculous restrictions placed upon us. I thought you might like to know of the worst instance I’ve heard of. My husband is a retired army officer who is now employed by the MoD on a large army base in Hampshire. The entire civil service staff were sent home in March and most have since been issued with laptops. They have a Friday morning ‘coffee’ on Zoom where they discuss whether they will be sunbathing or carrying out DIY during their office hours. Most have decided it’s “too dangerous” to return to work. Today I’ve been told that Army HQ have decreed that no more than 25% of staff should attend the office at any time (regardless of office space – the civil service is not known for cramped conditions!). I am beyond angry as I and all my small business clients have worked throughout as their livelihoods depend on it , as have supermarket staff. Our council (Wiltshire) is impossible to reach and my efforts during the course of my work to communicate with HMRC have been utterly fruitless. There are retired people in my lane who have been ‘shielding’ since March and are now so frightened they are on the verge of mental Illness. They haven’t even been out of the village as it’s “too dangerous”. This is surely a result of the ‘stay at home and save lives’ propaganda from the BBC which is their only source of information.
Kim-Jong Dan Not Quite a Dictator (Yet)
It seems I may have overstated things yesterday when I said Kim-Jong Dan was going to extend the State of Emergency in Victoria for another 18 months. A reader has written to point out the news isn’t quite that bad.
Re. the comment on Dictator-Dan – he is seeking a 12-month extension to the State of Emergency powers which reach their six-month legal maximum on Sep 16 (not yet extending for 18 moths). If he gets the extension it allows him to reinstate his rolling four-week lockdowns/restrictions on the advice of the Chief Health Officer and no one else. BUT the legislation must pass the Victorian state upper house and his party (Labor) only has 17 of 40 seat, so not yet a done deal for Danny The Dictator.
Looking For a PA
I’m looking for a part-time personal assistant to help me and the Chief Operating Officer at the Free Speech Union. Pay isn’t bad: £25/hour. Eight to 14 hours a week. More details, including how to apply, here. Please forward the link to anyone you think might be interested.
Round-Up
- ‘The crisis is the response to coronavirus, not coronavirus‘ – Arch sceptic Alan Jones, the voice of reason on Sky News Australia, interviews Adam Creighton
- John Anderson interviews Dr Jay Bhattacharya – The former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia interviews Jay Bhattacharya, Professor of Medicine at Stanford and long-standing sceptic
- ‘The origin story of COVID-19 lockdowns‘ – Jordan Schachtel on how a draconian, illiberal policy adopted by a totalitarian country was copied by governments around the world
- ‘Here come the Covid Detention Centers‘ – Lee Rockwell on New York State bill A99 which will allow the authorities to take an individual “suspected” of being infected to a detention centre
- ‘Flipping the Covid switch‘ – Latest blogpost from arch-sceptic Omar Khan in which he tries to understand how the world succumbed to mass hysteria
- ‘Sociology of Masks and Social Distancing‘ – Sociologist Randall Collins explains why face masks lead to more social conflict
- ‘When will our surgeons be allowed to do their jobs?‘ – Allison Pearson on the NHS’s Covid obsession. Hospitals are deserted, yet the NHS faces a possible patient backlog of almost 10 million by Christmas
- ‘August heatwave fuels rise in deaths, as COVID-19 fatalities fall to lowest level since before lockdown‘ – Telegraph reports on the latest ONS data. Deaths from all causes rose above the five-year average in the week ending August 14th for the first time since mid-June, but Covid deaths continue to fall
- ‘Woman, 75, in Nottingham was “first person to catch coronavirus in UK”‘ – A Nottingham woman tested positive on February 28th and died a few weeks later. Was she really the first, though?
- ‘Perth woman who hid in truck to enter WA from Victoria cops harshest penalty yet‘ – A Perth woman who hid in a Victorian truck to sneak into Western Australia without quarantining has been jailed for six months, the toughest penalty handed down for the charge since the COVID-19 pandemic began
- ‘COVID – What have we learned?‘ – Latest blog post from Dr Malcolm Kendrick
- ‘The Tragic Hydroxychloroquine Debate and Dr. Fauci’s Denial of Evidence‘ – Great post from Dr Mikko Paunio, an epidemiologist and contributor to Lockdown Sceptics
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Four today: “High Street Blues” by HCB, “Dead Cities” by the Exploited, “From Riches to Rags” by Travis Orbin and “Hot For Teacher” by Van Halen.
Love in the Time of Covid
We have created some Lockdown Sceptics Forums, 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 30,000).
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 my monthly column in Spectator USA, I argue that Donald Trump should seek inspiration from an unlikely source in his forthcoming re-election campaign.
To win in November, Trump should seek inspiration from President Alexander Lukashenko, the 65-year-old autocrat who has ruled Belarus since 1994. He trounced his liberal opponent in the presidential election in August with 80 percent of the vote.
I’m not suggesting Trump emulate Lukashenko’s methods. Among other things, the man dubbed ‘Europe’s last dictator’ disqualified his three main political opponents at the beginning of the race, imprisoning two of them. He has never won an election with less than 75 percent of the vote, although none have been found to be free and fair by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), an election monitoring body. His defeated opponent this time round — Svetlana Tikhanovskaya — was initially detained by the authorities, during which she recorded a hostage video conceding defeat, before fleeing the country.
But in one respect, at least, Trump should take a leaf out of Lukashenko’s book. The barrel-chested populist is an unapologetic COVID skeptic. Belarus was one of only two European countries that didn’t impose a full lockdown, Sweden being the other, with Lukashenko urging his fellow citizens to avoid infection by drinking vodka and taking saunas. The Belarusian football league was the only one in Europe not to shut down, providing soccer fans across the continent with a much-needed weekly fix. In May, with Belarus’s COVID death toll still in double digits, Lukashenko congratulated himself on not succumbing to the global panic.
“You see that in the affluent West, unemployment is out of control,” he told supporters at a mass rally. “People are banging on pots. People want to eat. Thank God, we avoided this. We didn’t shut down.”
This was the rallying cry of Lukashenko’s presidential campaign: that the threat posed by COVID-19 had been wildly exaggerated by his bedwetting opponents and it was thanks to his innate common sense that Belarus was weathering the storm better than other countries. And Trump could make a similar argument. True, he wasn’t able to prevent Democratic governors from imposing severe lockdowns in states like New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Massachusetts and Michigan. But insofar as he was able to stay the hand of Republican governors and use the bully pulpit of the White House to pour scorn on the panicky pronouncements of public health panjandrums, he showed real leadership.
Of course, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are trying to portray Trump’s handling of the crisis as a catastrophic mistake and pin America’s high COVID death toll on him. But if you look at deaths per capita, the US fares better than Belgium, the UK, Spain, Italy, Peru and Chile. Yes, America’s economy shrunk in the second quarter of 2020, but by just 9.5 percent, the second-lowest contraction in the G7. (The UK figure was 20.4 percent.) Trump can claim, with some justification, that the US has fared better than most during this global pandemic and that he’s entitled to some of the credit.
Worth reading in full.
Discussion
Comments
This week across the site:
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THURSDAY’S PAGE has just walked in , red faced and wheezing because it was wearing a mask
https://dailysceptic.org/2020/08/27/latest-news-116/#comments
Then if you ask them if the parent has type 1 or type 2 diabetes, they have no idea that if you have type 1 diabetes that you are not ‘more vulnerable’ to Covid-19
https://thecritic.co.uk/face-masks-make-you-stupid/
Some refreshingly sensible writers at The Critic.
This article is a boost for the Sceptics.
But rather too many academic references; however, the message is plain and simple: masking amounts to a mass dumbing down, as we know.
biggest problem with face masks/coverings: N95 protects one from virus, but lets virus out; the other masks supposedly stop virus getting out, so protecting others, but may let it in.
So in essence everyone should be wearing the same kind to be effective. Government and VIPs wear N95, so they don’t give a damn about everyone else.
Not me. Another new Mark
https://thecritic.co.uk/the-whitehall-rot-sets-in/
Some very interesting examples of media propaganda in the Dollar Vigilante episode today – apparently 88% of women find mask wearing men sexier. I am absolutely amazed at the lengths they will go to get the easily fooled to comply. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZLB4re5x0k
Tell that to a rape victim who’s been attacked by a masked person.
I would really have to question the morals of the people who come up with these types of articles, they come up with what I would heavily suspect are completely fake made up survey results. I think a lot of people who virtual signal and love their masks now won’t like them in the winter on a dark evening when people are going around hooded and masked – it will be frightening for many people.
Couldn’t agree more Darryl. All the value and security of CCTV and the comfort it brings to lone female travellers – nullified in one fell swoop. None of these measures has been fully thought through. There’s a reason for having proper debate and process before new laws are passed ( including full cost/ benefit analysis). Something those who cared about democratic accountability before but since CoVid seem to have junked it completely, will come to realise with ( hopefully) both regret and hubris. I live in hope…
Not me! I might be a curmudgeonly sceptic, but I think most men-in-masks fall into these categories: right-on pretentious virtue signallers; sinister bank robbers-lite; silly old duffers or mannikins.
If it looks like an article made up to serve an agenda, I heavily suspect that is the case. ‘Covid-19’ is almost entirely now a propaganda war between the authorities and the increasingly sceptical public – even the main stream media admits hospital cases are close to zero (although it doesn’t highlight it).
That’s strange, I find the opposite.
Ignore, posted in error!
Was that the French professor? If so, it was excellent. It should be compulsory viewing for our idiot politicians.
Yep, thought it was a new one but was the old one.
Has anyone who contacted their MP had an encouraging response?
3 weeks and still no reply from the 2 I wrote to.
My first was written like a fact finding mission for them. I wanted them to look at the data from NHS England (links provided etc) and justify their silence.
My second is gonna have the latest data printed and attached to the letter lol. Since i’m outta work after tomorrow I may even deliver it in person !
I think there have been a couple of slightly encouraging replies that people have written about but the vast majority have been standard party line stuff
I understand that MPs will only respond to their own constituents, so if you wrote to two of them, at least one won’t respond.
Well, I posted by mail and I omitted my locality on the address for the one who’s no longer my MP in the hope that they’d not bother to double check the postcode. All 3 MP’s for my area have constituents with the same first three characters so they’d have to bother to check.
They have assistants that check. I emailed Desmond Swayne about his comments against masks, and though he is not my MP he answered me, though all he did was thank me for my support.
I personally think it is worth writing to your MP periodically to remind them that people are watching them, and they may lose votes. If they are in a safe set, which most MPs are, they may not care, but if enough people do then they will start to feel uncomfortable.
They also probably don’t suffer overly from a conscience, but some who feel uneasy about what’s happening might take on board some of the comments, even if they don’t acknowledge it.
I look at the local “Live” stories a couple of times a day (Birmingham) via the FB feeds. As you know these are the online remnants of what used to be proud, independent local papers now mainly owned by national media like Reach. They have been fully on board with all the fear porn and corona panic since day 1. Now very noticeable that the comments appearing underneath each story are almost totally sceptical. This has turned round completely in the last couple of weeks. The opprobrium that was dumped on last weeks stories when we were being threatened with a local lockdown was quite refreshing. Todays stories on the €13 a day quarantine bribe and some poor teacher complaining about “stepping into the unknown” on return day are universally sceptical. Beginning to think we may have turned a corner.
https://twitter.com/AlexBerenson/status/1298842900617474053/photo/1
From the US Univ of Virgina
“And tonight’s winner for higher education insanity goes to Univ. Virginia
each student “must maintain a distance of 6 feet AT ALL TIMES FROM ALL OTHER PEOPLE.”
Or face immediate semester-long suspension “at a minimum.” They said it, not me”
Dear Lord, what on earth are they thinking? Perhaps the person who wrote this was on LSD?
“There will be no warnings – the stakes are too high” – it’s not the blinking plague, for goddness’ sake!!
It’s a plague of stupidity.
Sadly, I think you are absolutely right.
UVA is a highly respected university, or at least it was in the past. It’s located in Charlottesville, which may be one small US city you might recognise because of the white supremacist tiki torch march a while back. It’s a lovely town. It’s also where Thomas Jefferson’s estate, Monticello, is located. I used to visit often when I lived in Washington, D.C.
I looked up the Dean who published the notice and she really does exist. She’s made a laughingstock of the University. I hope students raise a ruckus, but my expectations are really low these days.
She’s a boggart! Ridikulus!
According to DT In the US, a liberal arts college in Michigan came under fire last week after it emerged that students would be required to download a contact tracing app, called Aura, which will track the locations of its almost 1,500 students in real-time.Not only was the app able to track student movements, it would report if a student left the college campus without permission, supposedly increasing the risk they could bring coronavirus onto the site, and revoke their access to buildings and their student ID automatically. If students turned off location tracking on their phones, they could even be suspended.
Another excellent piece from Dr. John Lee in the Spectator this week:
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-coronavirus-immunity-riddle
It’s behind the paywall and I’m afraid I can’t précis it in just a few sentences, but here are the final two paragrahps:
Definitely well worth reading in full if you have access
Just discovered this on the google search home page, I think it was designed to persuade we sceptics how we are wrong – but it would work just as well for us to explain to the irrationally fearful bewetters we they are infact irrationally fearful.
https://www.inverse.com/mind-body/how-to-win-arguments-actually-change-someones-mind?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB
Yes, the author has no self-awareness. Everything he says about those pesky ‘other’ people are true of himself and his intended audience. He just instantly makes the assumption that non-mask wearers are stupid, ignorant and knowingly irresponsible while he and his readers are educated, virtuous and right.
There are those radiant little moments…
Out riding today, passed by a bus empty except for driver (un- muzzled) and one jolly young mum, un-muzzled, with two jolly little girls, all beaming and waving. I beamed and waved back.
Horse was not impressed, said the weather was rotten and there was nothing to smile about, but was out-voted.
Here’s a funny thing.
Go to this site:
https://www.gematrix.org/
Type in ‘vaccination’
(However, please scroll down the page – there’s plenty of other words that equate to the same number).
Made me laugh, anyway.
Certificate of Covid bollocks
https://twitter.com/CharlieEmma85/status/1298754235002228737
Honest young woman!
Her name is Louise Hampton and she is a genuine hero. Not sure she’ll be in post tomorrow………. but she deserves praise and support.
Send here a message of support. I have just done so. Imagine if we all did here, how good that would make her feel. This is her Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/louisewilson83
I’ve just messaged her with my thanks.
I really wish the MSM would pick this up, even an alleged comedy show like HIGNFY would do it.
Can anybody point me to the article where somebody ran the Swedish data through Ferguson’s model and got a huge number of deaths?
Thanks
Imperial College Model Applied to Sweden Yields Preposterous Results
This was the one I remember.
Thanks
https://attachment.outlook.live.net/owa/MSA%3Amarierendell%40hotmail.com/service.svc/s/GetAttachmentThumbnail?id=AQMkADAwATE2MjAxLTYxYmIALTM5ZDYtMDACLTAwCgBGAAADh0zmUZSXDkWra6QZUD5vjAcAzqj2W1QXJ0O6R8NyfxsIEgAAAgEJAAAAzqj2W1QXJ0O6R8NyfxsIEgADqKKXnAAAAAESABAA2toAdo1glOJJiHyCLkLeYGU%3D&thumbnailType=2&owa=outlook.live.com&scriptVer=2020081704.08&isc=1&X-OWA-CANARY=tms5mp5mFEy48Gb-PHVFe9ByxsCCStgYJhjWQMsKe7qA2p1Be-owVyF5ztwEYX8uWlKY0hUQlCw.&token=eyJhbGciOiJSUzI1NiIsImtpZCI6IjU2MzU4ODUyMzRCOTI1MkRERTAwNTc2NkQ5RDlGMjc2NTY1RjYzRTIiLCJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJ4NXQiOiJWaldJVWpTNUpTM2VBRmRtMmRueWRsWmZZLUkifQ.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.Pu5A7BhCqAYZ44umrRykZzYhQwnFAJArRNbDuB2Na8jRR9CXkAJCSoZYTvEV6cQam8euEkqDu7yuXBYUzEPKnN60B0ibgJcC77B6mwOexkngWggnXgXVd89ha0bj9NKVWp_464MVWGR6WA-8n8WL-ULyjJg3r9DtVfbe3T3h-yyyPi9Wuv2JKMtudqYEtcU6yq03nVkc9HiPYMP58Zrr17rxX8iow7FmP-v7hlT6o7dLFd8JwSiBI4gL-vR2d39HDVA4X5rqMwPE750xL-IyuKOD63i8wZbs5tPmVX4YGjJrtRfXH3p13VCRrZ1npsuRqUP_P-6k4M9AnMBXdwkkcg&animation=true
Not sure where from though
Now that’s what I call a link!!
https://bit.ly/2YFrT5x
That’s easier…
I’ve just typed your link out and it didn’t work, could you check through if anything is didgit missing – many thanks
I batter those who still uphold Ferguson’s model by pointing out that Sweden saved a higher %age of it’s population than the UK by subtracting the actual deaths (according to Worldometers) from the predicted “do-nothing” scenario numbers. Do-nothing Sweden saved 0.88% of its population and lockdown UK 0.70%.
Not sure where from though
Its from something called the blogmire
http://www.theblogmire.com/is-lockdown-essential-comparing-the-swedish-experience-with-the-imperial-college-model-suggests-otherwise/
Thanks!
Oh shit! We’re done for now. From The Telegraph coronavirus live [bad news] feed:
Coronavirus particles could spread through plumbing systems
Researchers who discovered coronavirus particles in the bathroom of an unoccupied apartment in Guangzhou, China have suggested that the airborne pathogen may have wafted upwards through drain pipes, echoing of a large SARS outbreak in Hong Kong 17 years ago.
Traces of SARS-CoV-2 were detected in February on the sink, faucet and shower handle of a long-vacant apartment, researchers at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said in a study published this month in Environment International. The contaminated bathroom was directly above the home of five people confirmed a week earlier to have Covid-19.
The scientists conducted “an on-site tracer simulation experiment” to see whether the virus could be spread through waste pipes via tiny airborne particles that can be created by the force of a toilet flush. They found such particles, called aerosols, in bathrooms 10 and 12 levels above the Covid-19 cases.
Two cases were confirmed on each of those floors in early February, raising concern that SARS-CoV-2-laden particles from stool had drifted into their homes via plumbing.
So the little bugger “wafts upwards through… Read more »
Good job then that it’s not a particularly dangerous disease that we would need to worry about more than, say, flu.
Probably carried by the rats that swim round the bends!
And I’m sure we can all believe everything the Chinese say after they have ruined half the worlds economies and seemingly assisted in getting countries locked down via social media. Still amazed no “sellers” have come up with a “notfromchina.com” site for people to buy from after what they have done.
This was known and covered back in March on the Market Ticker.
https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=239747
and
https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/sars-cov-2-orofecal-transmission/
Beware the Toilet of Doom.
Covid death lurks in the smallest room.
Don’t pull that chain,
Or you’ll never wee again.
Except virtually, on Zoom.
As Basil Brush would say, ‘Boom-boom!”
There are toilets in schools and businesses. Everyone must stay home and dig a longdrop. Not sure what to advise if you live in a flat.
Watch Blackadder the Second for practical advice.
I guess I need to stop drinking toilet water. Oh well…..
Just a shout for a recent CEBM update on surveillance of respiratory tract infections in the community :
“What we can say is there are low circulating levels of acute respiratory infections, lower respiratory infections and COVID-19 in the community that require consultations with general practice. The levels of suspected COVID-19 have not reached epidemic consultation levels and are dropping dramatically.”
See: https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/what-does-rcgp-surveillance-tell-us-about-covid-19-in-the-community/
Basically – the incidence of Covid has never reached the level of the accepted definition of ‘epidemic’ within the wider community.
Now – this may partly be due to social distancing (i.e the sort that Sweden adopted voluntarily) in terms of the April/May figures – but , given the above, and the data from hospital admissions, ICU occupancy and deaths in hospital – we mare in a Catch-22 situation, since the constructors of the narrative will be claiming that it is the imposition of restrictions that is keeping the Scary Fairy away – not the natural process of viral decline and growth in immunity.
Decision tree below covers what the narrative will be:
The Sun: Mum’s shame as man who ‘knocked out commuter in London station mask row’ revealed as scaffolder dad-o.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/12495221/clapham-junction-mask-row-man-revealed/
Is there any chance of us getting behind this guy? It’s plain to me that maskers are out-and-out harassing those that are legally exempt. Why should they be able to get away with it?
This just in from Reverso-World:
“Brave passer by defends innocent employee from harrassment by agressive passenger”
Blimey – I just looked at the comments below this article – a bit different than on the DT! One comment suggests that 15 million have died from COVID.
ffs
Think he is implying that 15 million will die based on the 0.06% fatality rate stated in the comment above. Not sure how he works that out though. Still a fucking idiot regardless.
Probably no idea how to work %ages.
Incredible
Very suspicious when articles making out non-mask wearers are thugs are published – fits the government narrative. There is a very strong element of propaganda, some incidents are undoubtably staged. Social engineering by the media.
just looked at the article which includes a photo of the guy that was hit .. Photo has him pointing at a wear a mask sign .. so that justifies his harassment of non wearers?. He has a weasel face that you would want to slap
unintended consequences!
Have you seen this?
America’s COVID Warning System
We use 5 key indicators to determine risk levels
None of them are deaths….
I did their survey.
Well I suppose it is to be expected now now the definition of pandemic by the WHO does not require any deaths at all.
Indeed.The scary term ‘pandemic’ now just refers to the geographical spread, not the consequence.
The problem with Hydroxychloroquine is that it would get in the way of a multi-billion dollar vaccine scam.
The more I read about HCQ (see the realclearpolicy.com article for example) the more “convenient” Trump’s endorsement seems to be.
The campaign to discredit HCQ seems to have started well before his statement, but the latter immediately turned it from innocuous anti-malarial drug, to dangerous quack cure pushed by irresponsible populists, making it politically toxic.
It wouldn’t at all surprise me if someone (surely not Fauci, but maybe one of his associates) recommended it to Trump!
Actually, Tucker Carlson talked about it on his show the day before Trump mentioned it in his press conference.
Past Studies Found Pandemics Create Perfect Storm For Controlling Populations & Creating Conformity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsQk7GPHzQ0
https://www.magic.co.nz/home/news/2020/08/nz-should-move-to-similar-approach-to-covid-as-sweden–who-speci.html
NZ should move to similar approach to COVID as Sweden: WHO special envoy Dr David Nabarro suggests
Nabarro is just a shade better than the others. He was to be the Chief of WHO but the Chinese stopped it
.
That’s a pretty bold statement. Why wouldn’t it apply to every country?
It’s an interesting interview and the presenter skilfully steers Navarro down this route, though he only concedes that the Swedish approach will become acceptable some time after hell freezes over (when a country has 0 cases effectively). Navarro still seems to think that ‘movrment restrictions’ are the only response to even a small number of community cases if the source is not known. I didn’t take any comfort from his assertions.
I’ve totally given up attempting to make sense of what the WHO are trying to do. One moment they recommend masks for kids and make sinister pronouncements about “not going back to normal”, the next they say something like this!
Do the WHO have a “party line” that members are supposed to go along with, or do individual members have a fair amount of leeway for their own opinions? The latter would explain their seemingly constant U-turns and inconsistency.
They presumably follow their paymasters
There is one simple factor operating, I think. That is the simple act of arse-covering.
As others have pointed out, there is rarely blame attached to extraordinary excess in measures, whereas any rise in deaths will be a subject of blame – whether they are related or not.
The result is that – essentially – epidemiologists are prone to a built-in conformation bias towards hysteria, which may also be bolstered by the simple factor of inflated limelight-seeking.
Is he son to Gerard Nbarro of the handlebar moustsche?
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2700-3
Sex differences in immune responses that underlie COVID-19 disease outcomes
” In contrast, female patients mounted significantly more robust T cell activation than male patients during SARS-CoV-2 infection, which was sustained in old age. Importantly, we found that a poor T cell response negatively correlated with patients’ age and was associated with worse disease outcome in male patients, but not in female patients.”
The most bizarre PC comment was this about Nature
(Nature recognizes that sex and gender are neither binary nor fixed.)
The magazine might, but nature herself knows the truth and that is that y chromosome bodies are immunologically less robust.
I really like that.
.
Not entirely convinced that accounts for the difference. There are differences that apparently favour female immune robustness during pregnancy (especially), but I would like to see a breakdown by sex for those without other comorbidities. Generally speaking, pneumonias affect more females than males, though this has much to do with there being more females than males at the relevant age groups.
While of course denouncing their obvious transphobia and reinforcement of cisgender heteronormative stereotypes, they did find rather big differences.
I wonder what the reason for this is? Might have something to do with hormones but also a lot of women were already taking vitamin D, usually with calcium, so they don’t get osteoporosis. The mean age of their patients is only about 60. I don’t know what age they start giving these supplements to people.
It does not take a majority to prevail … but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.
– Samuel Adams
Let’s get on with it.
I’ve just been catching up with John Anderson’s conversation with Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, cited above.
Forgetting for a moment the detailed issues what strikes me is the simple contrast between Anderson (once Deputy Prime Minister) and most politicians that we have seen fronting up this panicdemic.
Thinking Johnson, think Starmer.
What a contrast! … and how serious it is that we simply do not have many (any?) politicians of real stature.
This isn’t about any particular political stance or amount of agreement. It’s about competence and stature. It also reflects a personal observation of three generations of MP in one particular constituency.
It’s serious, and I think that it does relate to the growth of the ‘career politician’ and the loss of even second-hand touch with really serious times, such as the last war. Political life has become a branch of the PR industry, rather than a serious occupation for serious people.
Yep. What this whole thing has exposed for all to see is that our current political class are ethically and intellectually inadequate.
I blame being part of the EU for the abysmal standard of politicians. We no longer have Leaders in the true sense we have followers who toe the Brussels line, and that’s why at a time when we need strong leadership we have a massive fail! Boris is so weak he still follows what everyone else is doing.
I disagree with a lot of what you say (I
m a bit of a right winger) but your last paragraph does sum it up entirely. I disagreed with most of what Tony Benn ever said but I thoroughly admired his commitment and his eloquence on the subjects he cared about. Him and the late Jimmy Young on radio 2 were a joy to listen to - even to me. Politicians now just dont seem to have that drive, gift and experience.Brazilian city Manaus — where dead bodies were piled up in refrigerated trucks — may have reached herd immunity with no lockdown, scientists say
An interesting mish-mash of a report in the DM. Overall the impression is of complete chaos amongst the supposed experts and authorities trying to explain this disease. Clearly there is still an editorial push to scaremonger, considering the headline spin nonsense about “dead bodies piled up in refrigerated trucks”.
The basic common sense of herd immunity does seem to be getting some rehabilitation (perforce, because you can ignore reality as long as you like, but you can’t ignore the consequences of ignoring reality, which in this case have been disastrous policy incompetence and an inability to explain what is going on).
“the supposed experts and authorities trying to explain this disease”
Trying to explain the evidence, which flies in the face of their predictions and narrative. The most obvious explanation – that the predictions were wrong – doesn’t seem to occur to them.
Country X hasn’t had much mortality, or the cases have dropped – it must be because of lockdown, or masks, or testing, etc. Never that the thing is over.
https://ourworldindata.org/coronavirus-testing#united-kingdom
Who does more testing per thousand people South Korea or UK? You will be surprised to hear that UK is doing seven times more testing than South Korea. And the Public Heath Icons Blair, Hunt, Hague wants us to imitate South Korea to eradicate C-19.
South Korea has today increasing cases but they have not done widescale testing in the population. This is the same in Taiwan, another country to imitate according to the test fanatics. I think their testing is really around known cases and clusters and not at all in the population in general like Japan.
That is very practical in the way not knowing if the virus is spread in the population in general. There is no way this transmissible virus is not spreading in their population but obviously not that big concern if not corresponding to increase hospitalizations and death. Impossible with these low testing rates that they are testing all URI in the whole country with PCR.
They have probably chosen a Chinese way of suppressing the pandemic, reduced testing but bluffing us that they are super testing.
Yes. A moment’s thought is enough to conclude that widespread testing and ‘track and trace’ is no solution to anything.
Ahh no not again. Don’t they know you cant eradicate a virus?
‘The BBC really is like W1A’: Former news boss compares top of the corporation to the comedy show and says too many big decisions are made by ‘white liberals’
‘The only thing I’d add really is I think diversity is very broad though. In a sense, it’s also about diversity of thought. It’s about Left and Right, it’s about liberal and conservative. And if you think about the missing voices last year … they also included people in the red wall, people who voted for Brexit, people who were from working class areas in the north of England … and pretty much every major decision in television is still taken in London. And part of that diversity is getting the sense of a whole UK with this amazing canopy of people in it and getting newsrooms to be more representative of everybody in the UK, rather than what it used to be really which was white liberals in London.’
This guy does at least grasp the real problem, although he doesn’t understand that this is inherent to being a state licensed and protected broadcaster, and the only solution to the problem of the BBC is to end its existence as… Read more »
The BBC in particular have been strongly pro-lockdown and bought into the coronapanic narrative – much more so, it seems to me, than the papers and other TV channels and news sites. They don’t have the excuse of having to sell papers or clicks. I don’t buy the line that they are government stooges – I think a lot of them hate the PM and the Conservatives and would much prefer the Lib Dems and/or Labour.
So why is the BBC intent on keeping this going? Are they victims of their own groupthink and herd mentality? Or do they have an agenda? If so, what is it? How does the coronapanic fit in with their wider aims and views?
The BBC – guilty as charged over Corona – is what it is because of government power and influence, and is a useful diversion from the main fact of gross political failure.
Beyond that, it is necessary to separate out the fact of appalling news and current affairs coverage – part of the general terrible level of the narrow perspective of the MSM – from the wider functioning of the BBC.
In that latter role, it does provide the wider range of choice that the mish-mash of commercial interests doesn’t and can’t, as the latter chases after the lowest common denominator of simple audience figures. Just tune a DAB radio and see where choice comes from.
Personally I would rather have my liberty and live in a country full of people not suffering from media induced mental health issues then a ‘wide range of choice’ on the TV and radio.
The BBC needs to be shut down and all those who have been shouting fire in the proverbial packed theatre for months on end need to face justice.
Yes they do because if you shout fire in a packed theatre people die in the panic and that is what has happened in the UK
I used to think they provided quality, and think you could still just about argue that case, though a lot of the competition isn’t great, but I find it hard to get past what seems to me pervasive and fairly blatant attempts at pushing a “progressive” agenda not just in news and current affairs but across the board. But I’m right-wing, I suppose.
I tend to think we’d be better off without them, and that it’s wrong to have a publicly funded broadcaster of such power that is so obviously not impartial.
I don’t know what they’re agenda is but it’s plain to see that the quality of their “journalism” has sunk to an all time low (with a few exceptions). From click-bait headlines to nigh on propaganda pieces. If you look at their new website these days the headlines are rarely about what’s happened and more about how people think about things. Hence lots of articles along the lines of “people calling for”, “criticism grows”, “concerns about”, etc. I think most of their investigative journalism doesn’t go beyond scrolling through Twitter these days.
Sheer laziness, lack of talent and professionalism may well be part of it
I stopped even visiting the BBC site (other than the occasional article linked from elsewhere) a few months ago as apart from their blatant scaremongering and misrepresentation around Covid, so many of their articles are either blatantly biased or inane clickbait worthy of the Daily Mail (if more PC than the latter!)
At the start of the crisis it was the first source I checked daily, in the naively mistaken assumption it was the most factual, unbiased, neutral news source available! Let’s say my opinion of the BBC has changed a bit since then.
The BBC have something of a mental dichotomy in that they think they have to chase ratings, but have no idea who their viewers are. So many of their anchors live on Twitter that they genuinely believe that the small proportion of people who do likewise (and the even smaller proportion who are vocal on the platform) represent the views of the country. This is why they were so taken off-guard by Brexit (Twitter was largely remain) and why they didn’t see the election result coming (Twitter leans toward Labour). It appears in this instance that Twitter tends toward the panicked (some of the polls about public opinion have been conducted purely on the platform) and those for whom lockdown is a free holiday. As to why Twitter leans that way…
this is why BBC is continually striving to expand the youth audience. They believe some youth listen and they want more which is why they throw so much at it and try to follow what the “youth” think.
In reality the young are not interested in scheduled output and ignore the BBC. .The true BBC audience is the older conservative (small c) public which the BBC do not want and so ignore . With marketing like they have, had they been a commercial company they would have gone under years ago
They should read daily mail comments pages then. I had very good sight of Brexit and Tory landslide from that.
I think there are two basic agendas at play in the BBC over the coronapanic. There’s the “facing a crisis”, state behavioural manipulation organ, which I think they have bought into because the cause is one they share anyway. And then there’s the basic hysteria over the coronapanic which they themselves share for the same reasons other leftist groups have shared it – the underlying collectivism and “lives ahead of money” nonsense that seems to have been used to whip the mainstream left (Guardian, trade unions, Labour and LibDem parties, BBC, etc) into line behind the coronapanic and against any rational arguments trying to appeal to sanity in the face of a not very dangerous disease.
There’s another agenda too. If they prolong this then the economy becomes weaker and weaker, therefore as this continues to happen the chances of us rejoining the EU And Single Market increases as this may be seen as the only way to recover the economy.
More than likely, they only take opposing sides to achieve more power. Now with the majority they have and the plandemic, why not fall back to their previous position and say “it was the only thing we could do to save the country and the NHS.”
I’ve thought about this before and there is definitely an element of what I call an artificial community spirit. The idea being that you are suffering for the greater communal good or at the least supporting it. There’s the hint of the “wartime spirit” about it. The problem is that while it gives the impression of being a force for communal good it is actually a very divisive and intolerant approach as it vilifies or ridicules anyone that isn’t part of the group cause or criticises it. It also of course self-perpetuates it’s belief systems so alternative viewpoints are ignored or shut down and intellectual debate stifled.
I think this shows with the BBC and other MSM orgs, education, civil service, politicians, NHS, public services, charities, businesses, etc have now been taken over by the Fabian Society. A completely peaceful takeover which they always hoped to achieve, we have just allowed it to happen.
Media Funding
https://www.cjr.org/criticism/gates-foundation-journalism-funding.php
If the BBC gets de-funded could it be a perfect opportunity for ‘fingers in the pie’ billionaires to jump in and fund – a near perfect propoganda machine?
Rhetorical?
Ha, yes it is currently a publically funded propoganda machine, but what an excellent, ready made, tool for the world dommination billionaires, if these things exist…
(I am not sticking up for the BBC, just pointing out that there are always consequences)
The only thing better then buying a near perfect propaganda machine to push your narrative is not buying the near perfect propaganda machine and still have it pushing you narrative.
mmm… i don’t have the solution, but it is a trusted brand that could be useful if it was for sale – is there another way, reforming it rather than junking it, I don’t know…
If you control the media – you control
I did think Sky News (UK) was reasonably reliable, once upon a time
I remember some BBC news program where Joe Public could write in and complain about the news coverage – every time some smarmy twat from production would arogantly tell why Joe public was wrong and he was right.
Solution – get rid of the smarmy twat, punching him on the way out – simples…
Maybe, but a large part of the reason the BBC has been such a “near perfect propaganda machine” over the past century, and so profoundly damaging as such culminating in its deplorable role in the coronapanic, has been that it has worn a fake glamour of supposed neutrality and honesty, as the national broadcaster.
Take that away, and eventually it will settle down to being just another media company.
Fair dinkum, what is to be sung instead? Oh sorry, tradition is a thing of the past. As the small number of reprobate Aussies on a number of Cunard cruises we liked nothing more than taking part in these resounding choruses. Parents were 10£ poms, OF COURSE I’M GOING TO SING, I’m proud of my heritage.
Today, hairdressing appointment, known hairdresser for years. Only one in salon – take your mask off Sandra, it will make you sick. She did. Yeah!
Thank you all, I look forward to every evening and reading your posts. Sets me up for another day of battle!
Why is there a problem with marking homework? They need to don a pair of rubber gloves if they are worried. Sounds like another excuse to not get on with what they are paid to do (btw I am a teacher).
I couldn’t imagine anything worse than the kids or teachers having to wear masks.
Rubber gloves would spread infection thoughout the books. They could try handwashing!
I recently overheard some teenagers as I passed them in the park. One was saying “… but if they don’t mark your work, how can you improve?”
Quite!