Largest Anti-Lockdown Demo So Far
The pictures from yesterday’s anti-lockdown demo in Trafalgar Square are quite impressive. Some reports put the turnout at 35,000. The Express was one of the first newspapers to report on the protest.
Pictures of the large crowds show people holding signs that read “coronavirus is a hoax”, “no to mandatory vaccines” and “masks are muzzles”.
One person has claimed it is the largest anti-lockdown protest to date.
The large numbers of protesters have filled the area beneath the National Portrait Gallery.
Very few of those in attendance appear to be wearing face coverings.
A flyer for the event said the protesters would be joined by “top professional doctors and nurses speaking out”.
Jeremy Corbyn’s brother, Piers, is also due to make an appearance at the event.
The Express report was more even-handed than the report in the Metro, which began:
Thousands of coronavirus-deniers have gathered in London’s Trafalgar Square to protest against lockdowns and vaccination programmes.
And the Mail was even worse, headlining its report of the protest: “More than 10,000 COVID conspiracy theorists gather in London as police arrest Jeremy Corbyn’s brother Piers AGAIN: Huge crowd of anti-vaxxers led by David Icke gather to argue that virus is a lie spread in secret global plot organised by Bill Gates“.
A reader emailed me to tell me his impressions after the demo ended.
Just on my way back from the protest at Trafalgar Square. Apparently there were 35,000 people there, according to Piers Corbyn. I wonder what number the mass media will report?
On the whole it was a brilliant atmosphere. Absolutely packed with people, like an outdoor festival event. Brilliant!
My only criticism, is that the MC, Kate Shemirani (an ex-nurse apparently) was pushing some ideas that I just did not agree with. For example:
* 5G radiation will kill us all.
* The vaccine will make us all infertile and kill us all.
* Fluoride in our toothpaste is killing us and numbing our brain.
* Pandemic ideology, that this has all been planned for years/decades, etc.
It frustrates me that 5G conspiracy theorists and anti-vaxxers are at the forefront of the pushback. I’ve had all my jabs (MMR, BCG, etc.) and I have no issues with vaccines in general. I just don’t agree we need a rushed out vaccine to “cure” a diseases that has pretty much disappeared.
So mixed emotions, but generally I’m feeling good that so many people are waking up to the nonsense.
Meanwhile, a protest in Berlin was broken up by police at 9am, according to MSN News.
Police ordered a protest by people opposed to Germany’s pandemic restrictions to disband after participants refused to observe social distancing rules.
Tens of thousands of people had gathered at the German capital’s Brandenburg Gate in the morning before streaming down the Unter den Linden boulevard in a show of defiance against Germany’s coronavirus prevention measures.
Protesters carried a wide range of grievances and banners proclaiming their opposition to vaccinations, face masks and the German government in general.
Stop Press: There was an anti-lockdown protest in Ottawa yesterday. The T-shirts and slogans are remarkably similar to those in London and Berlin. This is a global movement.
Is the Government Preparing to Turn the NHS into a Covid-Only Service Again?
Matt Hancock gave an interview to ITV News on Friday in which he suggested plans are underway to turn the NHS into the National Coronavirus Service this winter, seemingly oblivious to the tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths this misstep caused over the summer.
“We’re doing a huge amount of planning to make sure that the NHS is prepared and can cope to make sure that people can have as much freedom to enjoy Christmas, to enjoy winter, as possible,” he said.
What’s the rationale, Matt? Better to have half-empty hospitals and turn patients away just in case there’s a spike in Covid hospitalisations over Christmas? That’s like throwing people out of an aeroplane to reduce the risk of it crashing.
Alarming.
Schools Insisting on Unnecessary Face Muzzles
Yesterday, my colleague Will Jones asked readers to get in touch if their children’s schools were insisting on face coverings, even if they’re not in local lockdown areas. Needless to say, we’ve been deluged with responses.
This is an extract from a letter sent to parents at Chatham and Clarendon Grammar School
Face Covering – with regard to the revised Government guidance yesterday about the wearing of face masks in communal areas and in restricted spaces like corridors, at the moment this is not mandatory as Thanet is not in an area with increased lockdown restrictions. However the corridors in the school are very narrow and we have therefore decided that with safety uppermost in everyone’s minds we will require all students to bring face coverings with them to school and wear them in corridors and communal areas. Each student must bring plastic sealable bags to store their face covering and use the lidded bins on site to dispose of face coverings if they get wet or damaged and should also carry spares for this eventuality.
Here’s another, this one from a grandparent in Darlington which is an area of low infection.
My granddaughter attends Polam Hall School in Darlington and will be returning for the new term next Friday. We have received guidance relating to COVID-19 procedures. It says “You will be asked to wear a face covering in crowded corridors and communal areas”. So no mention of Government guidelines or the WHO in this case. However, Darlington has always been at the lower end of the scale in terms of COVID-19 cases. I keep a check via the BBC online service which allows you to enter your postcode to find out how many cases there have been. Last week there were two cases in a town with a population of just over 106,000.
This one is from a parent of a school in Cobham:
I’d like to report my school, ACS International School Cobham, bringing in a masking rule for all children aged 10-18 in indoor communal areas. In our case, this will mean everywhere except in the classroom. Cobham (district of Elmbridge) has no local spikes in infection and has no plans to introduce local lockdown of which I am aware.
I put it down to pre-emptive action due to extreme caution and ignorance of the facts. This action will, of course, make absolutely no difference whatsoever to the odds of someone introducing COVID-19 to the general school body. We have opened a book on the odds of the school shutting again. Current best guess is mid-October.
Here’s the face mask section in a letter from Guy Sanderson, the headmaster of Eltham College, a private school in Mottingham.
As I mentioned last week, students travelling on school buses or public transport will be required to wear a face covering. We have taken the decision to follow World Health Organisation guidelines and to go further than the government’s current stated positions on masks in school. Accordingly, all Senior School students should bring a mask (and ideally some spare masks) to school in addition to the mask that they wear whilst travelling to school. Students will be required to wear these between lessons when moving around corridors and for communal events such as year group assemblies. They will not need to wear them in lessons (where they impede communication) or when outside on the fields at break or lunchtime.
The parent of a child at Alcester Grammar has forwarded the rules issued by the school’s headmaster:
Face coverings should be worn
• In corridors and inside communal spaces
• Whilst queuing for entry / collection of food in the canteen, Pit Stop and Studio
• In the Theatre and Sports Hall for assemblies
• In study areas (library, Newport Study).
• On transport and when queueing for buses after school
The same parent has suggested that another verse should be added to Madness’s “Baggy Trousers“:
Risk-free kids in risk-free schools
Headmasters laying down new rules
No more fun, we’re ruled by fools
Can’t get near the woodwork tools
Do Masks Increase Risk of Transmission?
I’ve published an original article today by a senior research scientist for a pharmaceutical company on the risks posed by face masks. Here’s the kernel of the argument:
The aim of face coverings is to prevent an asymptomatic individual from infecting others. For such an individual, their face covering would become saturated with respiratory droplets containing coronavirus and in fact, the more effective the face covering, the more virus it will have captured. So if an infectious individual touched their face covering, they would potentially be contaminating their fingers with coronavirus…which they could then transfer to the next thing they touched – like a door handle, handrail or table.
Although such an individual could have still contaminated their hands and the environment whilst not wearing a face covering, the fact that the face covering has captured viral particles means that it provides a much more concentrated source of the virus. Additionally, putting a cloth covering on your face will almost certainly increase the probability that someone would touch their face to adjust or fiddle with it, especially if it is not well fitted. This further increasing the likelihood that an infectious individual would actually touch the contaminated cloth material.
Worth reading in full.
Alarmist Sage Report Says 85,000 People Could Die of Covid This Winter
According to a Newsnight report by Deborah Cohen on Friday night, Sage signed off on a report in July predicting that a further 85,000 could die of Covid in the UK between July and March 2021 in a reasonable worst case scenario. Cohen has written up her report for BBC News.
A leaked government report suggests a “reasonable worst case scenario” of 85,000 deaths across the UK this winter due to COVID-19.
The document also says while more restrictions could be re-introduced, schools would likely remain open.
But it says the report “is a scenario, not a prediction” and the data are subject to “significant uncertainty”.
However some are critical of the modelling and say some of it is already out of date.
The document, which has been seen by BBC Newsnight, was prepared for the government by the Sage scientific advisory group, which aims to help the NHS and local authorities plan services, such as mortuaries and burial services, for the winter months ahead.
Among its key assumptions are that schools will remain open and that the government’s tracing, isolation, and quarantine measures will only be 40% effective in cutting the spread of Covid outside households.
It also states that by November “policy measures would be put in place to reduce non-household contacts to half of their normal pre March 2020 levels”. In other words, restrictions to mitigate the impact – other than school closures – could be put in place.
According to the report these measures might be expected to remain in place until March 2021.
I haven’t seen this report, but what’s the betting that the 85,000 prediction is based on a static computer model that takes no account of the fact that the rise in cases since July, whether here or in Europe, has not been accompanied by any corresponding rise in hospitalisations or deaths? (The authors should read this surprisingly even-handed piece by Fergus Walsh for BBC News). Business leaders are reportedly furious about this report and the suggestion that there might have to be a second lockdown to prevent these deaths.
The assumptions built into the report, as described by Deborah Cohen, sound unduly pessimistic.
The figures, which the scientists say have a wide range of uncertainty, suggest around 2.4% of infected people could be hospitalised (range: 0.0%-8.9%) with 20.5% of hospitalised patients going into ICU (range: 1.5% – 35.25) and 23.3% (range: 1.2% – 43.3%) of all hospitalised patients dying.
The model also predicts an overall infection fatality ratio of 0.7% (0.0% – 9.7%).
While the model is by no means a prediction and subject to “significant uncertainty”, the reasonable worst case scenario is used to inform government planning decisions.
However, some are critical of the modelling and believe some of the assumptions in the “official sensitive” model prepared for the Cabinet Office are wrong and the model is unhelpful given the wide range in possible scenarios.
Prof Carl Heneghan, from Oxford University, said some of the assumptions made in the model were “implausible” and that the report assumes that “we’ve learnt nothing from the first wave of this disease”.
If anyone has a link to the report, or has a copy, please send it to the usual email address. We’ll get our team of experts to scrutinise it.
Worth remembering that last month another report, this one done at the request the UK’s Chief Scientific Adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, suggested there might be about 120,000 new coronavirus deaths in a second wave of infections this winter. Why the discrepancy between that report and this?
They might as well just pick these numbers out of a hat.
You can watch Deborah Cohen’s report here.
Government Casting Call For People to Model “Spreading Germs”
An actor has sent me a casting call he received yesterday. You couldn’t make it up.
Needless to say, SARS-CoV-2 “germs” don’t show up “under a UV light”. What about a UVA light, which is what the writer of this blurb actually means? Nope. Coronavirus particles are so small you’d need an electron microscope to see them.
How the Government can persuade itself that it’s pumping out this bedwetting propaganda to counter “misinformation” is beyond me.
A Philosopher Writes…
I got another email from a self-described “left-leaning, Remain-voting, Tory-averse” person saying he shares our scepticism about the crisis. This one is from a philosophy professor (not AC Grayling, I should point out).
I’m just writing to thank you for Lockdown Sceptics. I’m a Professor of Philosophy, working mostly on medicine and health. So I find that I’m able to digest a lot of the scientific literature and I’m also pretty good at identifying the weak points in arguments. Back in March, I thought the lockdown was an awful mistake, but I naively assumed that the situation would be reevaluated as the evidence became clearer. That didn’t happen, of course. Instead, anything that didn’t fit the established narrative was distorted until it did and then assimilated, or it was ignored. Still, I hoped that reason and evidence would prevail by now. But no, it’s masks, more masks, and then even more masks – surely they’ll help ward off the evil spirits.
For a while, I was just bemused by it all, but now I’m genuinely frightened. Can one really impose something so odious as mandatory masking on the whole population, despite there being no decent evidence in support of it? Yep, they’ll just slap the rags on their faces as a symbol of virtue and chastise anyone who doesn’t conform, so that the whole wretched thing is self-policing. I dread to think of all the things an authoritarian regime could get the Great British public to do, while barely lifting a finger.
More generally, something deeply unsettling is happening, which I really struggle to understand: somehow or other, this virus has triggered a perfect storm of reasoning biases, fears, and vices disguised as virtues, resulting in something that often looks more like the behaviour of a religious cult than an informed response to a viral pandemic.
Lockdown Sceptics is one of only a few places where I’ve consistently been able to find sensible discussions of what’s going on. So I’m very grateful to you for your efforts. Good luck to you!
That penultimate paragraph is bang on. In response, I sent him this blog post by Hugh Willbourn which flagged up a book called When Prophesy Fails by a psychologist called Leon Festinger who joined a UFO doomsday cult in the 1950s to better understand the mindset of its members. Festinger was astonished by what happened when the cult’s doomsday prophesy failed to materialise. Instead of abandoning their crackpot beliefs, the members doubled-down, coming up with spurious reasons as to why the apocalyptic prediction they’d made hadn’t come true. Festinger hypothesised that the reason these cultists refused to abandon their beliefs was because the pain of admitting they’d been wrong, and their sacrifices were all for nothing, would have been too much to bear.
Sound familiar?
Every Mistake We’ve Made So Far Predicted in 2006
A reader in the US has flagged up a 2006 paper by Thomas Inglesby, Director of Johns Hopkins’ Bloomberg School of Public Health, in which every mistake that governments around the world have made in their response to the pandemic was warned against. It’s quite uncanny. The paper is called “Disease mitigation measures in the control of pandemic influenza“. Here are some highlights:
In brief, models can play a contributory role in thinking through possible mitigation measures, but they cannot be more than an ancillary aid in deciding policy…
A major challenge for all authorities charged with managing a pandemic will be how to allot scarce, possibly life-saving medical resources and how to maintain hospitals’ capacity to care for critically ill flu victims while continuing to provide other essential medical services…
The negative consequences of large-scale quarantine are so extreme (forced confinement of sick people with the well; complete restriction of movement of large populations; difficulty in getting critical supplies, medicines, and food to people inside the quarantine zone) that this mitigation measure should be eliminated from serious consideration…
Home quarantine also raises ethical questions. Implementation of home quarantine could result in healthy, uninfected people being placed at risk of infection from sick household members. Practices to reduce the chance of transmission (hand-washing, maintaining a distance of 3 feet from+ infected people, etc.) could be recommended, but a policy imposing home quarantine would preclude, for example, sending healthy children to stay with relatives when a family member becomes ill. Such a policy would also be particularly hard on and dangerous to people living in close quarters, where the risk of infection would be heightened…
It is reasonable to assume that the economic costs of shutting down air or train travel would be very high, and the societal costs involved in interrupting all air or train travel would be extreme…
Implementing such measures would have seriously disruptive consequences for a community if extended through the 8-week period of an epidemic in a municipal area, let alone if it were to be extended through the nation’s experience with a pandemic (perhaps 8 months). In the event of a pandemic, attendance at public events or social gatherings could well decrease because people were fearful of becoming infected, and some events might be cancelled because of local concerns. But a policy calling for community wide cancellation of public events seems inadvisable…
Schools are often closed for 1–2 weeks early in the development of seasonal community outbreaks of influenza primarily because of high absentee rates, especially in elementary schools, and because of illness among teachers. This would seem reasonable on practical grounds. However, to close schools for longer periods is not only impracticable but carries the possibility of a serious adverse outcome. For example, for working parents, school serves as a form of day care and, in some areas, a source of nutritional meals for children from lower-income families. In 2005, some 29.5 million children were fed through the National School Lunch Program; 9.3 million children received meals as part of the School Breakfast Program. A portion of America’s workforce would be unable to go to work as long as children were out of schools. Heightened absentee rates could cripple essential service industries. Teachers might not be paid and a great many hourly workers (mall and fast-food employees; school janitorial, security, and kitchen staff; bus drivers) would face particular financial hardship…
And here’s the kicker:
An overriding principle. Experience has shown that communities faced with epidemics or other adverse events respond best and with the least anxiety when the normal social functioning of the community is least disrupted. Strong political and public health leadership to provide reassurance and to ensure that needed medical care services are provided are critical elements. If either is seen to be less than optimal, a manageable epidemic could move toward catastrophe.
Lockdown zealots will say, “This was advice about how best to respond to an influenza pandemic and that isn’t what this is.” But in reality the coronavirus is no more deadly than a bad bout of seasonal flu and, therefore, the advice contained in this 2006 paper is 100% relevant.
Worth reading in full.
Round-Up
- ‘Report reveals tragic number of people who have taken their own life during lockdown‘ – The Leicester Mercury reveals there’ve been 25 suicides in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland since the start of lockdown
- ‘The West’s response to Covid shows we have succumbed to a Medieval mass neurosis‘ – Good column by Janet Daley in the Telegraph
- ‘BBC needs wider diversity of opinion‘ – Tony Hall, the outgoing D-G of The BBC, engages in some damage control
- ‘Eat out to Help Out loophole saves £180 on meals‘ – If a table of six ordered starters, mains and deserts, asked to be billed separately for each course, and then all six claimed the £10 discount each time, they could collectively save £180
- ‘MGM Resorts lays off 18,000 staff‘ – The economic recession hits Vegas
- ‘About 61 Million Americans Have Stopped Commuting Due to COVID-19‘ – It’s not just Brits that are reluctant to return to work
- ‘Thank goodness schools are back. Another week’s holiday and I’d have gone round the bend‘ – The Telegraph‘s Michael Deacon looks forward to schools re-opening next week (and as a father of four I know how he feels). But how long will they remain open for?
- ‘Thousands arrested for “virus-related crimes” in China‘ – One case involves a shopper beating another customer to death for refusing to wear a face mask
- ‘Whitehall mandarins have lost sight of what it means to be politically neutral‘ – Excellent column by Charles Moore on the woke Civil Service
- ‘Public health lessons learned from biases in coronavirus mortality overestimation‘ – Must read new paper by a Canadian medical researcher exploring why the mortality risk of COVID-19 was over-estimated
- ‘Half a million Covid deaths was ABSURD we are being DUPED‘ – Missed this piece when it first appeared, but we can add Richard Madeley to the ranks of lockdown sceptics
- ‘American tourist faces £430,000 fine after breaking quarantine rules in Canada‘ – Incredible story in the Independent
- ‘The true picture: Has Sweden emerged as paragon or pariah in the corona sweepstakes?‘ – Another excellent piece by Prof Ramesh Thakur in the Times of India
- ‘Former Congressman: “The Coronavirus lockdown is one of the biggest mistakes in the history of this country”‘ – Former Rep. John J. Duncan, Jr delivers the truth serum
- ‘Your Coronavirus Test Is Positive. Maybe It Shouldn’t Be‘ – The New York Times discovers false positives
- ‘Former No 10 adviser Sir Robbie Gibb launches a TV rival to “woke wet BBC”‘ – Go Robbie
- ‘50:50 chance next summer’s exams will be scrapped‘ – Robert Halfon, Chair of the Education Select Committee, wants next summer’s exam results to be based teacher assessments
- ‘Either the Electoral Commission reforms or we will abolish it‘ – Amanda Milling, co-Chairman of the Conservative Party, takes aim at the Electoral Commision
- ‘Did we really elect a Tory government? – Interesting question posed by John Collingride in the Sunday Times
- ‘Portugal “likely” to lose its travel corridor this week‘ – The Telegraph has had a premonition of of which countries Boris going to hit in his Thursday night darts match and it’s bad news for Portugal
- ‘Spain arrests pandemic-denier who wrote “covidiots” deserved “to die”‘ – Yikes! Hope I’m not next
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Three today: “Twisting and Turning” by the New Foundation, “All Out to Get You” by the Beat and “Germ Free Adolescence” by X-Ray Specs,
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 2nd to Oct 12th). 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 almost 31,000).
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).
Stop Press: Jenny Harries, England’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer, says “the evidence on face coverings is not very strong in either direction”. The Mail has more.
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, including Will Jones who will be doing these updates about half the time from now on). If you feel like donating, please click here. And if you want to flag up any stories or links we should include in future updates, email me here. And if you’re sending a link don’t forget to include the HTML code.
And Finally…
Discussion
Comments
This week across the site:
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I was at the rally at Trafalgar Square on Saturday.
I’ve been going to them since the KBF one at Hyde Park a while back. The first one wasn’t huge but is was large enough to shut down parts of Oxford street and the entrance of the BBC HQ (which they didn’t report in their news coverage), and it has been growing ever since. The turnout on Saturday was amazing! I wasn’t sure what numbers to expect, maybe a couple of thousand, but the actual turnout was incredible – imo a reasonable estimate would be 30k+ – all well behaved!
I know some of the speakers may turn a few people off, but personally I like people like David Icke. You may not agree with all his other views, but he has been destroying the virus narrative, the PCR tests, Bill Gates etc and exposed this to many people!
The threat of 5G is more to do with ‘bio-security’ and how technology will be used to help us get out of lockdown! Bill Gates has been pushing his ‘digital immunity passports’ right from the beginning, which will be linked to the vaccination records. So if we don’t take the vaccines,… Read more »
Goldman Sachs, Prince Charles, the WEF.. all talk about using covid to reset the economy – the Great Reset. The Great Greta Reset.. a fake green reset. Boris even eluded to such back in February in Greenwich.. and yet neither lockdown sceptics, or spiked, or the spectator, or Toby or Delingpole dares to tread that far.. instead you criticise David Icke and Piers Corbyn. And Bill Gates.. he makes billions from vaccines.. and gives money to the telegraph et al to write articles as Glocal Health Security… in plain sight.
The NHS has a front that is a sacred cow – but it is also a cash cow of a PPP that has corporatised the captured revenue stream of pharmaceutically defined and dictated ‘sickness management system’, which under the new Covid Health Service ( you still haven’t noticed have you?) is switching to a biosecurity state.
Under the Top Down and pervasive imposition of ever creeping regulatory stricture, people compartmentalise the part that loves God (generic term for all that truly lives) while giving to Caesar (dictate of worldly power) what it demands so as to survive.
I don’t doubt that she loves her bubble – and will not want to let the penalty of state and state-backed blame culture destroy her world.
Hancock is a hollow man – acting out a front as a crisis actor feigning inconceivable incompetence. He has vaccine interests and bio-tech butter on his bread and dances to whatever tune fear and self loathing sets him. By the way part of the psyop is to render the image of the political process in such a terrible and shameful light as to induce the willing acceptance of bio-technocratic – ie faceless system controls.
How involved in decision… Read more »
I have to admit that I only half understand how to use twitter, but in a small attempt to do my bit I have attempted to reply to a few tweets from lockdown/facemask zealots. So far most of the replies and ‘likes’ have been from people in support of my comments.
But I received this reply to a reply I made with regard to facemasks
#ZeroCovid @seventiesicon
Replying to @martindale567 and @BGidmxn
which is why they are worn in every other country in the world
To me this response goes right back to the fairy story about the Emperor’s New Clothes, everybody says the emperors got clothes on, so everybody says they can see them even though he is naked. So facemasks must be right because everybody is wearing them? I guess that puts us in the role of the little boy who pops up and shouts that the Emperor has no clothes on.
I then went to highlight the reply I had been sent so I could maybe reply further to find that ZeroCovid had blocked me so I could not reply nor see their posts.
So the argument for facemasks seems to be that they must be right… Read more »
MONDAYS PAGE has been posted overnight and is ready and waiting for your erudite comments
https://dailysceptic.org/2020/08/31/latest-news-120/#comments
I wonder if Boris Johnson ever thinks about the Brave New World he is creating for his newborn child.
Cont’d
5. You suggest that: ‘There are already situations that arise during public health vaccination programmes where there may be excess vaccines in one healthcare organisation and too few in another separate healthcare organisation…The current solution would be to return the excess vaccines to the supplier who would then dispatch them to the organisation with too few vaccines, but this is time consuming and inefficient. With the national vaccination campaigns to protect patients against flu in Autumn 2020 and COVID-19 once a vaccine become available, it is essential that vaccines can be moved swiftly and safely within the healthcare system between NHS providers (and between the suppliers of medical services to the armed forces) to meet patient need and avoid wastage..’ You reference the armed services several times.
You give no explanation of why dealing with CV19 vaccine should present any more difficulties than already posed by getting the current flu vaccine to the right place at the right time. Changing these arrangements brings into play more possibilities for failure to meet ‘controlled storage requirements (for example strict temperature limits for vaccines)’ and failure to ensure that ‘ the transfer of any medicine should be properly controlled and appropriate records… Read more »
Jeez, a couple of monster posts. Can’t you post elsewhere and link to them?
Was just doing as AG does, his sometimes come in 3 parts!
https://consultations.dhsc.gov.uk/5f43b8aca0980b6fc0198f9f
Thank you for highlighting this Sylvie and for the link. Didn’t know about it anD your responses helpful for me to realise this is something we need to pay attention to
I was going to post my responses to the NHS Consultation doc below as a reply to TT’s helpful signpost, but fear it will get lost in the succeeding posts! So here they are, in case anyone else is moved to respond – the time limit is 28 September.
1. I am unclear why, if ‘Sufficient evidence of safety, quality and efficacy’ is available, such as is ‘likely to be equivalent to requirements of a marketing authorisation’, it is thought necessary to proceed by way of anything other than a ‘normal marketing authorisation’. You need to set out what sort of ‘flexibilities and pragmatic approaches may be required based on the situation and mode(s) of deployment of the national vaccine programme ‘ before I, or anyone else, could sensibly comment further.
2. The wording in square brackets enables the question of what is a ‘serious breach’ to be determined by another pharma company.
Your argument will be that only one such could possibly understand the complexities of bringing the product to market. It’s not too dissimilar to the argument that complex fraud trials were too difficult and took too long before a normal jury. After many attempts the removal of jury trial… Read more »
I was going to post my responses to the NHS Consultation doc below as a reply to TT’s helpful signpost, but fear it will get lost in the succeeding posts! So here they are, in case anyone else is moved to respond as well – the time limit is 28 September.
1. I am unclear why, if ‘Sufficient evidence of safety, quality and efficacy’ is available, such as is ‘likely to be equivalent to requirements of a marketing authorisation’, it is thought necessary to proceed by way of anything other than a ‘normal marketing authorisation’. You need to set out what sort of ‘flexibilities and pragmatic approaches may be required based on the situation and mode(s) of deployment of the national vaccine programme ‘ before I, or anyone else, could sensibly comment further.
2. The wording in square brackets enables the question of what is a ‘serious breach’ to be determined by another pharma company.
Your argument will be that only one such could possibly understand the complexities of bringing the product to market. It’s not too dissimilar to the argument that complex fraud trials were too difficult and took too long before a normal jury. After many attempts the removal of… Read more »
Any mathematical thoughts on the actual incidence of infective Covid disease in the population?
The ONS ‘Infection Survey Pilot’ comes up with a mid-estimate of 1 in 1,900 of the population.
But, given the inherent inaccuracy of PCR testing, the real incidence will be much lower – but I can’t think of a quick way of nailing it.
Interesting that they say “ We use current COVID-19 infections to mean testing positive for SARS-CoV-2, with or without having symptoms, on a swab taken from the nose and throat.” But then do not provide the figures for those who tested positive with symptoms and those without symptoms.
Found it! Just 28% of positive tests showed symptoms.
“Out of those who have ever tested positive for COVID-19 on nose and throat swabs over the whole period of our study just 28% reported any evidence of symptoms around the time of their positive swab test.”
So is that 1 in ~6300, not 1 in 1,900… I think
If theres 10 in every 19000 but 7 can be excluded, it’s 3 in 19,000 (/3 = 6333)
I’m not sure how to work that out as a % chance of any individual having infectious covid, but it’s pretty fucking slim
R-i-g-h-t.
And what symptoms were they? There are NO symptoms which are unique to Covid-18/coronaviruses. That’s why they are generally considered within the ‘respiratory disease’ we have each year. This si the FIRST year when there has been a focus on this specific(?) coronavirus – and there are NO coronavirus SPECIFIC symptoms!
DavidC
Thanks for that, Skipper. It at least gives us a basis for re-calculation for real risk.
I was listening to Clare Teal’s programme on BBC Radio 2, when up popped a propaganda song encouraging people to wear face masks. It’s about 45 minutes into the programme if anyone wants to check it out online. I’ve emailed [email protected] to say that I won’t be listening to the programme again. (Not really cutting off my nose to spite my face as it’s a pleasant enough programme but not essential listening).
I used to like I’m the Antibiotics song that used to be on TV and Radio. Is it as good as that one?
Dont know the antibiotics song ,. but this one was crap.. repetitive …
The song that accuses the public of overuse of antibiotics when they can only be prescribed by doctors! I found those lyrics very annoying.
I have a suggestion. The next anti-lockdown protest should march on the BBC. Could they seriously not report on (hopefully) 100k people at their gates?
Maybe tear down the statue of the naked child that was created by a paedo that is outside broadcasting house. That would probably make the news!
yer really that sculpture is very very weird indeed.
Certainly symbolises the BBC and their history.
Eric Gill?
Salford Quays! Manchester
Protests against lockdown were also held in Cyprus and Lithuania yesterday.
Zurich too
“Europe is at last waking up to its lockdown folly
As battening down the hatches fast loses favour, we can at least take this as a glimmer of hope”
Lots of positive comments…..
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/08/27/europe-last-waking-lockdown-folly/?WT.mc_id=e_DM1281014&WT.tsrc=email&etype=Loy_Dig_Acq_EmailStud_SatTopStories&utmsource=email&utm_medium=Loy_Dig_Acq_EmailStud_SatTopStories20200829&utm_campaign=DM1281014
Lord Sumption in conversation with The Royal Society of Medicine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-syjnHYST-4
Thanks.Just watched the interview. Most enjoyable.
Read it and weep folks. Anti-mask wearers are now being denounced as psychopaths.
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffhp&q=anti-mask+wearers+psychopaths&ia=web
Don’t care. So there.
Yep, fuck ’em
Hahaha the top result is CNN – the network who recently ran a segment claiming the solution (after the death of George Floyd) was for young white children to be attacked, harassed; the same network who just the other day talked about ‘mostly peaceful’ events as a city was literally burning behind the reporter on screen, & gunshots were being fired! – yes, everybody takes them seriously!!
It’s so obvious at the moment how Google results are being pushed towards a particular point of view. Always was, but the CV19 stuff is glaring.
That was duckduckgo in the original post, not google.
It’s _all_ being pushed in a certain way, the WHO word is gospel, until they change it again, and then the new one is gospel.
I’m quite happy to go full psychopath anytime these people fancy it.
Apparently we’re narcissists and less intelligent (than whom???) as well. I prefer to think of us as non-conformists who have not let fear subsume us.
Yes. In the future people will compare this to the Milgram experiments. We’ll be in the honourable minority who failed to lose their minds, obey orders and indulge their sadism.
I almost have a PhD in psychology (all but dissertation) and an attempt to repeat the Milgram experiment more than 50 years later yielded the same result. So let’s be proud of the fact we aren’t obedient! I consider it a badge of honour.
“People learning about Milgram’s work often wonder whether results would be any different today,” Burger says. “Many point to the lessons of the Holocaust and argue that there is greater societal awareness of the dangers of blind obedience. But what I found is the same situational factors that affected obedience in Milgram’s experiments still operate today.”
Psychopaths are very clever with lots of the top jobs such as CEO’s, MPs, surgeons, civil servants, lawyers, journalists, clergy, and police officers having the highest proportions.
And do you know, today I was bellowed at, speechlessly, by a masked man in a railway station. I heard strange high-pitched grunting and turned round to see a man (not a member of staff) on the other side of the big station concourse pointing at his mask and at me, grunting rhythmically and aggressively like a big animal. Does wearing a mask deprive him of language? Or is it the action of endeavouring to coerce cultic obedience from a stranger that had robbed him of capacity?
Sweden is full of psychopaths, apparently.
They sure hide it well! I spent a few weeks there many years ago and they seemed quite civilized to me.
Don’t miss this story from sky.
“Taxpayer money was used to pay social media influencers and reality TV stars to promote the NHS Test and Trace system, the government has admitted”
https://twitter.com/SkyNews/status/1300068326698299392?s=20
As Simon Dolan puts it – we must be winning.
Dr No calls it Test and Tits Up
Another story in the daily mail covering the same. UK gov paying influencers to propagandise their followers.
And the replies (earlier when I looked at least) were largely of the opinion: ‘good, government being smart for once’ … no one the slightest bit fussed these were people being paid to voice adverts and propaganda as if it was their own lived experience or opinion (maybe they did share it, but irrelevant) — people happy for this horrid experiment to continue as long as it continues to match their own pathetic needs.
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.24.20181214v2.full.pdf
Universal properties of the dynamics of the Covid-19 pandemic
“Can we derive medical information from the mathematical behavior of the 100s of case time series now available? It is attempted here, with 2 conclusions: 1. asymptomatic cases contagious for 5.6 days 2. cases to halve every 12 days in the extinction phase”
Another article for the mathematicians
interesting … BBC 10pm news leads on protests in Belorus. Pro plucky protesters against a bad president and government
Compare sparse coverage of Berlin protests of bad protesters against sensible government and none existent coverage of London protests.
Oh and they also feature protests of good BLM protestors against Bad Trump.
BBC making political decisions about protests and what to show
Looks like the BBC is pushing for a repeat of Maidan.
Followed by the most partial, slanted and anti- Trump article from that condescending git of a reporter Sopel in the US.
The reporting is so biased it should be a criminal offence to call yourself unbiased and have a political polemic like tbat.
The Bbc pushing the neo con American agenda again.Part of the USAs plan to encircle,then dominate Russia
Agreed. But there seems to be more than one American foreign policy right now, more than one government almost.
Will be interesting to see what happens to these ‘spontaneous’ protests in Belarus if Trump wins.
No change there then.
https://rationalground.com/new-cdc-guidelines-are-aligned-with-science/
A good short article stating that mass testing asymptomatic of no use(both false pos and old cases with no viable virus) and surveillance of CLI is better reflecting circulating virus in the population
Thanks. A good article about the science surrounding PCR testing, and not overly technical – the issues are clearly explained. Recommended reading for all sceptics.
I watched the Carl Heneghan interview.
He did very well. But, the way that the questions were put to him in this classic MSM way of trying to put bad words in his mouth sums up why I watch zero TV current affairs programmes these days. They are all just trying to sensationalise everything. Zero attempt to debate the issues, the data and the theory but just nonsense such as: “what do you think government scientists would think of your views”, or “what would you say to teachers”. These are not useful or smart questions. Terrible bunch of people. You Tube interviews by people such as Ivor Cummins or Freddy Gray are so much more informative.
The various You Tube clips from France and Germany do suggest though that they have a much more intellectual and less sensational TV media. Am increasingly ashamed of this country. Sadly. I think we almost deserve the appalling government that we now have,
German TV media less hysterical?? They are liers, withholding information, cutting reports very short so they can only broadcast the MS opinion. Re the demonstration at the weekend, everyone is ONLY talking about them being politically on the right. I have watched the live stream for 2 days, the people attending are mostly the usually silent majority who would never go to a demo, middle aged blue collar people. I saw a lack of very young people. Sad.
My reaction to the media reporting of the London Protests – 30.8.20 – Anna Brees
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYdm_3hu_UY
Anna Brees 9th August 2020
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJKDG–vBOA
Mercy Wolf, 58, Care Worker, Sydney, Australia. 9th August 2020
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZOsOaQkqGc
Anna Brees was also a guest on TalkRADIO from about 22:15 on Saturday night:
Select the 22:00 to 22:30 segment on listen again.
Anna Brees on TalkRADIO
Apparently Piers Corbyn has got a £10,000 fine for organising an illegal demonstration (no fines for BLM or Extinction Rebellion obviously) does he have a crowd funder to help fight this?
Were there really no fines for BLM and ER??! If so then surely the fining is arbitrary and therefore illegal, isn’t it??!
Not heard of any.
I’m sure there weren’t…as far as I know, and despite video of violent BLM activists propelling bikes forward to hit Police horses, don’t think anyone was charged.
The fine will be under the latest SI that came into force the day before the protest.
I was down in Parliament Square yesterday where the BLM lot were having a convenient protest at the end of our march. More than 30 of them, and the TSG police between them and us. No arrests apparently and therefore no fines.
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/m.huffingtonpost.co.uk/amp/entry/piers-corbyn-fined-arrested_uk_5f4bf36cc5b6cf66b2b978db/
That report is a right hatchet job making it seem like a bunch of looneys there, and that only 1000 attended.
Fascists rule. OK?
“In short, this epidemic has done him proud. He is happily at one with all around him, with their superstitions, their groundless panics, the susceptibilities of people whose nerves are always on the stretch”.
Cottard – the only character from Albert Camus’ The Plague who REVELS in the situation. Could equally apply to Matt Hancock.
Cottard, the Collaborator, the plague’s accomplice: ‘Because an accomplice is obviously what he is and he revels in it.’
Hangcock to the life.
Good reference.
Just checked into an article by Janet Daley yesterday.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/08/29/wests-response-covid-shows-have-succumbed-medieval-mass-neurosis/
I’d commented this afternoon that she must be on the nail because the trolls were out in force.
One commenter had 26 upticks this afternoon. 1 now!
Janet Daley is nearly always right on the nail…
Swiss Policy Research Geopolitics and Media Facts about Covid-19 Updated: July 2020; – Please share
https://swprs.org/facts-about-covid-19/
https://twitter.com/jhnhellstrom/status/1299316220328640512/photo/1
Fergusson and others said we should have an even earlier lockdown. Peru is the best evidence what happens with an earlier lockdown together with military lockdown masks and visir. Mother Nature has already given us an evidence what happens. This should be shown to all saying we should have had an earlier lockdown (Peru now have the highest C-19 mortality in the world)
Unfortunately the argument that we locked down too late tends to accompany any potentilaly helpful lockdown criticism that gets into the media.
That claim says as much as needs to be said about Fergusson’s false claim to be a scientist.
A famous actor once said “They say that love is blind, apparently it is also deaf” – perhaps that’s the appeal of Matt Wancock, Mrs Wancock simply plays blind and deaf.
Question to @Victoria and fellow sceptics who are knowledgeable about vitamin supplements:
Mr Bart and I take one of those A-Z multivitamins but are concerned about the coming few months. We want to ensure that we avoid catching colds.
I know that Vitamins C. D and zinc are important in keeping the body healthy during autumn and winter, my question is do we take these alongside our regular multivitamin tablet and what brands would you recommend?
Take vitamin K2-MK7 if you’re taking Vitamin D – and make sure it’s vitamin D3.
Take them at different times.
Mercola.com has good advice on what to take, and why. You do not need to buy from there, the supplements mentioned can be bought in the UK. If you don’t mind buying online, try Higher Nature or BigVits.co.uk – the latter has a particularly huge range and is very reasonably priced.
Thanks. Just checking the sites out.
Highly recommend these. Been taking for 18 months now and not so much as a sniffle. Cleared my psoriasis also:
https://wearefeel.com/products/essential-multivitamin
The last review of the evidence that I read suggested that Vitamin C is a waste of money – but D and Zinc have some potential benefit.
They’re always trashing vitamin c – because it works and its unpatentable.
The argument is usually that it goes straight through.That’s true if you take a high dose that your body doesn’t need.
However, if you’re under stress, have allergies or are fighting an infection, you take “to bowel tolerance”. If your body needs it you’ll be surprised how high a dose you can take.
I would recommend Cytoplan. https://www.cytoplan.co.uk/organic-vitamin-c. Quite a few vitamin companies have been bought out by pharmaceutical companies so best avoided. I’m not sure which ones though but I do know that Cytoplan is owned by a charitable organisation and has been really well regarded by nutritionists for years. You can contact their nutritionists via email to ask about what vitamins and minerals to take.
Cytoplan do a Vit D3 and K2 supplement but I think you’re only meant to take it to get your levels up and then move on to one of their multivitamins. Best to check with them directly though and their advice is free.
I wouldn’t. The cheapest does the same as the most expensive. Don’t fall for the marketing b*llshit.
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.10.20171413v1
High prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in care homes affected by COVID-19; a prospective cohort study in England
“RT-PCR testing for SARS-CoV-2 significantly underestimates the true extent of an outbreak in institutional settings. Elderly frail residents and younger healthier staff were equally able to mount robust and neutralizing antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2. More than two-thirds of residents and staff members had detectable antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 irrespective of their nasal swab RT-PCR positivity or symptoms status.”
Those frail elderly seemed to have produced good antibody response similar to the care staff in this London study.Strange
That is very interesting. If only that could be told to care homes they would not feel so afraid and yet I have no hope this government will do so. Very sad.