Trump Hospitalised
The big news last night was that Donald Trump, who has tested positive for coronavirus, has been taken to Walter Reed National Military Medical Centre in Bethesda, Maryland, for a “few days” as a “precaution”. The BBC has more.
A feverish US President Donald Trump has been flown to hospital after testing positive for coronavirus.
The White House said the president was “fatigued but in good spirits” and was taken to hospital as a precaution.
Mr Trump received an experimental drug cocktail injection at the White House after he and First Lady Melania Trump both tested positive for Covid-19.
Not great news for Trump, obviously, and not great news for lockdown sceptics either. Trump, after all, is one of the most outspoken critics of the extended “shut downs” in some US states and has praised those Republican governors who have reopened their states the quickest. If he were to die of Covid, lockdown zealots would be cock-a-hoop, treating it as definitive proof that sceptics are wrong. Of course, all it would really show is that people of a certain age, particularly if they’re over-weight, are vulnerable to the disease and if they want to minimise their risk of death they should shield themselves from others. It wouldn’t show that it’s sensible to lockdown entire populations when the risk posed by the disease to healthy people under 65 is no greater than the risk posed by seasonal flu.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Even allowing for his age, gender and weight, Trump still has a 96% chance of surviving. And given that he’s been self-medicating with hydroxychloroquine, the odds are probably better than that. Get well soon, Mr President.
Covid Vaccines “Will Never Prevent Infection”
William Haseltine in Forbes has looked at the trial protocols that four leading vaccine developers, Moderna, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson, have published and drawn a shocking conclusion: none of them is aiming to produce a vaccine that prevents infection or reduces likelihood of death.
Prevention of infection is not a criterion for success for any of these vaccines. In fact, their endpoints all require confirmed infections and all those they will include in the analysis for success, the only difference being the severity of symptoms between the vaccinated and unvaccinated. Measuring differences amongst only those infected by SARS-CoV-2 underscores the implicit conclusion that the vaccines are not expected to prevent infection, only modify symptoms of those infected.
We all expect an effective vaccine to prevent serious illness if infected. Three of the vaccine protocols – Moderna, Pfizer, and AstraZeneca – do not require that their vaccine prevent serious disease only that they prevent moderate symptoms which may be as mild as cough, or headache.
So mild are the symptoms the vaccines are being tested against that Haseltine dryly remarks: “These vaccine trials are testing to prevent common cold symptoms.”
It appears that all the pharmaceutical companies assume that the vaccine will never prevent infection. Their criteria for approval is the difference in symptoms between an infected control group and an infected vaccine group. They do not measure the difference between infection and non-infection as a primary motivation.
A greater concern for the millions of older people and those with pre-existing conditions is whether these trials test the vaccine’s ability to prevent severe illness and death. Again we find that severe illness and death are only secondary objectives in these trials. None list the prevention of death and hospitalisation as a critically important barrier.
He concludes the trials are designed to succeed come what may, which may explain the unusual pace at which they are progressing and the strange sense of confidence that surrounds them, with reports coming out that some vaccines may be available this year.
What it means, though, is that these companies are not creating what most people assume they are creating, namely something that bestows immunity or at least reduces the risk of death. The fact that the prevention of hospitalisation and death – the only reason people are really concerned about Covid, after all – is not a primary aim of the vaccine development is somewhat surprising.
No wonder Haseltine concludes the vaccines currently under trial “will not be the silver bullet needed to end the pandemic”. Do the politicians understand what they are getting? If not, it is incompetence of the highest order as they are wrecking their economies and steamrolling their people’s liberties awaiting drugs that are little more than a glorified version of Lemsip. If they do, why are they making their people languish in ruinous confinement awaiting what is essentially a placebo?
Either way, it has the making of a huge scandal.
“Second Wave” Fizzling Out
Another day brings yet more evidence that the second wave ripple continues to dissipate. Backing up the findings of the Imperial React study published on Thursday, the ONS study released on Thursday shows an even greater drop off in new infections, falling from an estimated 9,600 a day last week to 8,400 a day this week. This suggests that, far from continuing to grow exponentially as per Witless and Unbalanced’s graph of doom, the outbreak has already entered a phase of decline. Christian Yates in the Medical Xpress provides further confirmation of this trend from hospital admission rates and the number of calls to emergency services and the NHS.
The Government, inevitably, will claim it’s due to their latest restrictions, and as usual present no evidence but just wave their hands in front of wiggly graphs. But the truth is that cases have been growing fastest in the regions that have been placed under local lockdowns, as the Mail illustrates.
In light of this, the Mail questions whether local lockdowns are really effective or worthwhile.
There are now concerns that Luton will follow in the footsteps of Stockport and Wigan and see even more restrictive measures reintroduced just weeks after they were eased.
If this becomes the case, it will mean not a single town, city or borough in England will have successfully turned around a COVID-19 outbreak with the help of a local lockdown.
Experts say it raises questions about whether the juice is really worth the squeeze, as local businesses go bust and people are forced to go weeks without seeing their loved ones due to the targeted measures.
Meanwhile, in Madrid, dubbed the “capital of Europe’s second wave”, hospital occupancy continues its downward trend, now sustained for over a week. Importantly, the decline in infections predates any Government intervention, showing that it is most likely the result of acquired population immunity. And, of course, the Spanish Government has ignored this positive data and just placed Madrid under a local lockdown of sorts, imposing a rule of six and a 10pm curfew.
Boris Rejects Advice of Leading Oxford Epidemiologist
Andrew Neil on Spectator TV on Thursday night interviewed leading Oxford epidemiologist Professor Sunetra Gupta. It’s well worth a watch and confirms what we feared – that Boris has heard and rejected Prof Gupta’s advice. Here’s the relevant part, kindly transcribed by a Lockdown Sceptics reader.
Andrew Neil: What did you make of Kate (Andrews) pointing that public opinion was perhaps moving in a direction that maybe we now need just to learn to live with this? Not that it means everything back to normal or anything like that but that we’ve got to accept it’s going to be around for some time and rather than lockdowns or extreme measures, we should learn to live with it. Would that be a sensible response?
Professor Gupta: I think that that’s a very sensible response and that’s what should have been made available as an option or as the most likely course, again, right from the outset because that is what was likely to happen with a virus of this ilk. So what’s most likely to happen and desirable is that it settles down to what we call an endemic equilibrium such as we enjoy with influenza, with pneumococcal bugs that cause pneumonia and a variety of other pathogens – we live at an endemic equilibrium with them and live lives normally and accept the deaths that they cause because, you know, that’s what society is about; it’s about optimising on this really quite complex landscape of risks and weighing the costs and benefits to arrive at a solution that is the best thing for everybody.
Andrew Neil: When you put these points to the Prime Minister, what did he say?
Professor Gupta: Er, nothing. But then he has responded since then.
Andrew Neil: Clearly, he didn’t listen to you did he?
Professor Gupta: He has since then responded in terms that suggest he doesn’t agree with what we propose as a strategy which is that we allow the virus to reach that endemic equilibrium but meanwhile protect those who are susceptible to death and try and hasten that moment where it becomes the same as flu, which may have already happened, we don’t know, but to try and get there the best thing to do is allow it to circulate and protect the vulnerable people and then once it reaches that endemic equilibrium, life can return to normal – it doesn’t have to go to some new normal; we can go back to the old normal, maybe we can learn a few things from this experiment.
Neil concludes that we’ve been sold a false prospectus intentionally… with Witless and Unbalanced being complicit.
However, Spectator editor Fraser Nelson is a bit more sanguine. Asked by Andrew Neil if the Prime Minister is being held hostage by his two senior scientific advisers, he says:
I don’t think so. I actually think that when he had Professor Gupta in the weekend before last and other people of her persuasion, he was trying at least to listen to other voices. Now, since then, sure, he hasn’t said that he agrees with her or disagrees with the Swedish approach but we haven’t had too much in the way of restrictions. When I heard earlier this week we were going to get another Boris Johnson and Patrick Vallance press conference, I was all braced for sharper lockdown measures, the same as I was on Tuesday last week. In both cases, they didn’t emerge. I think he’s in a position now where he has created some space to allow himself to have a look at the data. Is it going to settle? Is it going to look like the Vallance projections? And if it isn’t following the Vallance trajectory in the way that Kate (Andrews) showed us it isn’t, then we don’t need to proceed with more national lockdown measures. So my sense is that in listening to dissenting voices, and also recently hasn’t asked Patrick Vallance and Chris Witty to meet his Cabinet every week – this is a new development – and expose them to their questioning. So I think he is now creating space where he can say, “OK, gentlemen; I’ve heard you. But I’ve got to consider cancer deaths, the economy, public health in general and I think, on balance, I’m not going to implement lockdowns which you recommend.”
Optimistic, some would say. Isn’t it more likely they will see falling “cases” and conclude all their various convoluted measures did the trick and need to remain in place? Time will tell.
Ripples Not Waves
What governments insist on referring to as “second waves”, sceptics tend to call ripples. Today on Lockdown Sceptics we’re publishing the next instalment in our “Canaries in the Mine” series, this one called “Ripples“. In it, Dr Rudolph Kalveks, who has a PhD in theoretical physics, seeks to put the wave/ripple distinction on a rigorous scientific footing. Here’s the question he tackles:
How can we objectively distinguish a “wave”, which may represent a cause for concern, from a natural “ripple”, which can be expected to subside without impacting the population at large?
His conclusion:
Thus, we continue to have the perplexing situation in the UK where an observational analysis across multiple countries puts the ripples (and their plausible development) at (one or two) orders of magnitude smaller than the first epidemic wave, while government advisers persist in presenting scenarios where the “second wave” could be an order of magnitude greater than the first!
Well worth a read.
Deserted Doctor’s Surgery
Author and Lockdown Sceptics reader Melvyn Fickling wonders where all the patients have gone at his local surgery.
I have just returned from my local GP surgery in Norwich where I went to have a routine blood test. I knew it would be an unusual experience, but I was unprepared for what I found. Outside the door stood a large sign in yellow and black telling me that if I felt ill, I should go straight home… Reassured in my own rude glow of good health, I complied with the Wear a Mask signage and tried the door. It was locked… I suspect I was supposed to ring the doorbell, but I discovered that irascible handle rattling had the desired effect. A masked receptionist unlocked the door, stuck out his head and asked “What can I do for you?”
“Er, I have an appointment.”
The young man took my name, locked the door and went to check that I was telling the truth. He returned, unlocked the door and pointed what I took to be a taser at my face. It turned out he was taking my temperature. Reassured that I was not rabid, he finally allowed me across the threshold, immediately directing me to the toilet with an instruction to wash my hands. The toilet door was wedged open so he could watch for any lack of enthusiasm on my part. While humming “Happy Birthday” I read the sign that told me these facilities were cleaned after every single use…
Deemed clean, I was directed to the cavernous waiting room that was completely empty except for half-a-dozen chairs set at a very generous two metre distance from one another. Ludicrously, my escort allocated a specific chair and waited for me to be seated before retreating, presumably to scrub the basin I had just used.
I sat in cathedral-like solitude for a few minutes before the nurse called me. It was apparent that she knew me from better times, but with her features swaddled and her voice attenuated by a visor, I did not recognise her. It was not only the nurse that was wrapped like a mummy; her keyboard and mouse lay under their own makeshift clingfilm coverings.
Blood successfully taken, I was directed to exit following the one-way system. I crossed the still-deserted waiting room to the side door and left via the garden and car park.
All this in a city that is today declaring 12 ‘cases’ per 100,000 and where the hospital (a major hub for the whole county) has recorded only two Covid deaths in the last four months.
In normal times I have never seen this waiting room with fewer than a dozen people at any time of the day, and generally it is quite crowded. Where are those people now? Who is dealing with their health concerns while the NHS pussyfoots around with their risible Covid-emergency overkill?
More University Insanity
A reader has returned to university to find his life is now governed by countless inconsistent and pointless rules.
Back at university with all the restrictions reminds many of us of what Vladimir Nabokov is quoted as having said of ageing faculty members: they had long ceased to notice the existence of students on campus.
Given we are still paying full fees some attempt is being made at normality, and it was with some relief that our university has allowed us to start training to play sport – in this case water polo. But thanks to the new rules made in response to Covid in the UK, water polo has changed beyond all recognition.
Before entering the pool we were instructed to maintain a safe space at all times. This is not only quite difficult in a contact sport, but also rather perplexing as it is played in a pool of chlorinated water – quite literally a bath of disinfectant. More amusing, however, every player was given their own ball, which was not under any circumstance to be passed. No goalkeeper was allowed either, as he or she would be at risk of catching the virus from one of many balls in the pool at the same time.
So a game of countless goals, with every player in the net at the same time retrieving their own or any ball to hand. After the ‘match’, all 15 of us piled back into the same changing room before heading back to campus and being subject to the ‘rule of six’, meaning no celebration at the pub to rejoice in the highest scoring training game in the university’s history.
It is all so pointless and poorly thought out. Campus is lifeless, depressing, dead. If this is the new normal, then it would be much better to subscribe to the Open University where one may still be encouraged to ask the right questions, even about the coronavirus, instead of being fed the ‘right’ answers. It would certainly be cheaper and entail less risk of getting locked into solitary confinement because a student friend happens to meet another who met another who maybe has or had the virus.
Round-Up
- “Toby Young on Media Masters” – Toby is interviewed by Paul Blanchard for his Media Masters podcast series. Plenty of lockdown scepticism is on display
- “How hysterical leaders fail workers” – Excellent Blue Labour critique of the damaging and opportunistic behaviour of the unions by Paul Embery in UnHerd
- “Why can’t some people get to see a GP?” – Telegraph editorial raising the troubling unavailability of primary care
- “Now battling Covid himself, Donald Trump faces uncomfortable questions at a turning point for the US election” – Analysis of yesterday’s big story by Ben Riley-Smith in the Telegraph
- “False positives and the never-ending epidemic” – Good, clear explanation by Diana Kimpton in the Conservative Woman
- “COVID-19 is not a pandemic” – It is a “syndemic” characterised by an “array of non-communicable diseases” caused by the same virus, argues Richard Horton in the Lancet. He also has a piece about “Science and the breakdown of trust“
- “We need an exit plan from CV 19 restrictions” – John Redwood MP challenges the Government on its lack of a Plan B in the absence of a vaccine. He has also set out his view of the situation post-Brady amendment
- “How universities tricked students into returning to campus” – Lorna Finlayson in the Guardian suspects foul play from our institutions of higher learning
- “Let’s stop this doom-laden Covid talk leading us into another disastrous lockdown” – Patrick Minford doesn’t hold back in the Telegraph
- “Boris Johnson has become the servant of incompetent scientists” – The latest sceptical blast from Frederick Forsyth in the Express
- “The impact of host resistance on cumulative mortality and the threshold of herd immunity for SARS-CoV-2” – Updated paper from Professor Sunetra Gupta and colleagues that concludes, reassuringly: “It would be reasonable to expect that second and subsequent epidemic waves will result in far fewer deaths than the first wave”
- “At last, the Conservatives are showing some fight in the culture war” – Douglas Murray in the Spectator is pleasantly surprised by the recent show of spirit from the Tories
- “The sly dishonesty of Owen Jones” – Douglas Murray, this time in UnHerd, is unimpressed by an exculpatory rewrite of history
- “This Covid Hysteria Is Unforgivable” – Solid, well-evidenced sceptical piece by Robert Hunter in Medium
- “Important Viral Update for UK – What Whitty and Vallance say and what the science says” – Latest from Ivor Cummins
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Just two today: “Nanny State Blues” by Marion McCoskey and “Power is Taken” by Moby.
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 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.
Update: Some of you have asked how to link to particular stories on Lockdown Sceptics. The answer used to be to first click on “Latest News”, then click on the links that came up beside the headline of each story. But we’ve changed that so the link now comes up beside the headline whether you’ve clicked on “Latest News” or you’re just on the Lockdown Sceptics home page. Please do share the stories with your friends and on social media.
Woke Gobbledegook
We’ve decided to create a permanent slot down here for woke gobbledegook. Today, we feature the “Historic Landmarks Consultative Exercise” by the City of London Corporation.
Like many areas of the country, the City of London has a number of statues and other landmarks which have links to the slave trade and historic racism.
In the light of the Black Lives Matter movement, organisations across the UK are reviewing the cultural legacy of slavery and deciding how this issue should be addressed.
The City of London Corporation is committed to equality, inclusivity and diversity, and to ensuring the City, and City Corporation sites managed outside the Square Mile, are places where people of all ethnicities and backgrounds feel safe and welcome.
In June 2020, the City Corporation set up the Tackling Racism Taskforce to consider what the organisation should do to tackle racism in all its forms.
They want to know:
– Whether you think statues, building and street names and other landmarks with links to slavery, and historic racism in the City of London – or on City Corporation sites managed outside the Square Mile – are a problem
– Which statues and other landmarks in particular you think are a problem
– What action you would like to see taken – for example leaving statues and landmarks in situ, reinterpreting them visually in some way, or moving them.
The consultation is open until November 24th. If you don’t want to see London’s unique history erased by Year Zero fanatics then let them know here.
“Mask Exempt” Lanyards
We’ve created a one-stop shop 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 (takes a while to arrive). 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 £1.99 from Etsy here. And, finally, if you feel obliged to wear a mask but want to signal your disapproval of having to do so, you can get a “sexy world” mask with the Swedish flag on it 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.
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).
Samaritans
If you are struggling to cope, please call Samaritans for free on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email [email protected] or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch. Samaritans is available round the clock, every single day of the year, providing a safe place for anyone struggling to cope, whoever they are, however they feel, whatever life has done to them.
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 hard work (although we have help from lots of people, mainly in the form of readers sending us stories and links). 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 us here.
And Finally…
This video by comedian John Bishop, in which he sarcastically welcomes Boris’s new coronavirus restrictions, is very funny.
Discussion
Comments
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https://dailysceptic.org/2020/10/04/latest-news-153/#comments
The farce continues! Two of our grandchildren aged 13 and 3 were sent home from school and pre school. One with slight cough and the little one with a “fever” and had to be tested before being allowed back. This meant a 80 mile round trip for one and a distressing poke up the nose and throat for the 3 year old. Both were negative as we knew they would be. Multiply this by hundreds of thousands and we see how the public think the virus is everywhere! Only one person we know has tested positive, not surprising as he works in A and E!
Things are so rubbish in Victoria that sometimes I get jealous that you guys don’t have to wear masks everywhere and can have exemption cards. And that you can eat out. The useless CHO isn’t even permitting people who live in the country to not wear masks in heatwaves, despite no recorded cases there.
‘Inhumane, degrading, inexplicable’: Britain’s Covid care home policies ‘violated the fundamental human rights of vulnerable elderly residents’, Amnesty International report finds
EXCLUSIVE: The measures exposed elderly residents to the virus and then, crucially, blocked them from receiving life-saving medical care. And ultimately this led to tens of thousands of deaths, according to the Amnesty International analysis, shared exclusively with The Mail on Sunday, ahead of publication. The report will show, starkly, that Ministers ‘knew from the outset’ that Covid-19 posed an exceptional danger to the 400,000 residents of UK care homes, many of whom are frail and live with multiple health conditions. But while claiming time and again that the need to protect them was at the very heart of policy, what actually happened was quite the opposite. Homes were ‘overwhelmed’ by infections and older people were subjected to ‘inhuman and degrading’ treatment. The review paints the Government as ‘directly responsible’ and lays bare a litany of failures and sinister edicts that resulted in tragedy. Left, a care home resident in Selston. Top right, Geoffrey Ward, who was ‘denied’ medical treatment by care home staff who ‘wrote him off’ when he developed a cough. Bottom right, a careworker with an… Read more »
And here’s the story right below that one. All in all, not what the government wants o see prominently displayed on the leading daily newspaper website:
Neil Ferguson’s doomsday prediction of 510,000 COVID deaths went unchallenged by Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance – despite warnings it was 12 TIMES too high as No.10 panicked into lockdown
Investigative author Tom Bower tells how a critical meeting of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) on February 25 was presented with the ‘reasonable worst-case scenario’ from Professor Ferguson under which 80 per cent of Britons would be infected and the death-toll would be 510,000 people. The author writes: ‘This was an improvement on Ferguson’s earlier assessment that between 2 per cent and 3 per cent would die – up to 1.5 million deaths. Neither [Patrick] Vallance nor [Chris] Whitty (pictured left) outrightly challenged Ferguson’s model or predictions. By contrast, in a series of messages from Michael Levitt, a Stanford University professor who would correctly predict the pandemic’s initial trajectory, Ferguson was warned that he had overestimated the potential death toll by ‘ten to 12 times’.’
UK based Amnesty International is the most powerful rights organisation in the world. They usually spend their time defending the rights of those people who have been imprisoned or oppressed by totalitarian or tyrannical states worldwide. The fact that they now have to act in their own country says an awful lot about where we are.
Testing … this is my last two weeks –
5 tests : -, +, +, -, –
Similar results across 60 staff.
There are what, 230k tests happening daily, nationally?
The error rate in these is way higher than they say.
45 cycles. Intended to give eroneous positives. Isn’t it widely known that such a high number of cycles will cause massive nunbers of errors?
Watch the court case develop
https://youtu.be/kr04gHbP5MQ
Encouraging, but I am not going to pin my hopes on legal cases. The reset will not just take down our economies, but the entire edifice of civilisation as we know it. I still think it is ultimately going to come down to what each of us are able to do to protect ourselves individually. Do not trust anyone.
Give it a listen richard. Regardless of your thoughts about the likely success. You will not regret listening to the whole thing laid bare.
I feel really strongly that this is perhaps the single best point of counter we have to date. Not because its going to win – it absolutely should – but because it documents so explicitly the crimes of the thing. One by one. You get a full grasp on what has been done by who and how.
Absolute garbage.
… and well documented to be so.
Phone call from son’s boarding prep school. Pupils are permitted to wear masks in common areas. Very few do. Son and Some of his friends have been doing fake coughing near the mask wearers, referring to them as “wetties” and generally mocking them. Hence son and friends are on “no privs” whatever that means. I am the proud mummy.
Just to follow up on a discussion I was having here earlier regarding the advertisement by Michael Dickie, Head of the Project Management Office of the Cwm Taf Morgannwg Health Board in South Wales for a project manager to help vaccinate the area’s entire population as part of it’s covid management strategy, as publicised by Anna Brees and Michael Yeadon.
I thought that this was perhaps just a university, but in fact the area covers a considerable chunk of the old county of Glamorgan and serves around 450,000 people.
I decided to e-mail Mr Dickie and I asked him why he was for advertising such a post when a covid vaccine was not even currently available, and may not be available for some time, if at all.
I also asked him if he was intending to deploy the police to force such a vaccine on those who were unwilling to take it (should one become available), pointing out that this would be currently (and I certainly hope it will remain) illegal.
You might like to send him the link to this:
Dr. Reiner Fuellmich is a consumer protection trial lawyer in Germany and California. He is one of four members of the German Corona Investigative Committee.
https://youtu.be/kr04gHbP5MQ
It might shock him to understand just what his actions are complicit in, unknowingly so.
Crimes Against Humanity
https://youtu.be/kr04gHbP5MQ
50 minutes – a really important watch.
Dr. Reiner Fuellmich is a consumer protection trial lawyer in Germany and California. He is one of four members of the German Corona Investigative Committee.
This needs to be up above the line and pinned there. It is huge. It is the international legal case for taking apart the crime. Essential for every LS regular to view – a complete history of the fraud in clear terms.
Watch and share. This is good. Exceptionally good.
Has someone sent it to Simon Dolan, just in case he has missed it?
Speaking of more pointless COVID measures at universities, my daughter is a freshman music major. Since all orchestras and concert bands have been cancelled, she was assigned to three woodwind quintets. Each group is allowed only 30 minutes of practice time per week, outside. The temperature and humidity have to be within a certain range or they are forced to rehearse over Zoom, a completely fruitless exercise.
Just read a Covid death study by epidemiologist Veena Raleigh and this is interesting:
About 23,500 excess deaths occurred at home from early March to 7 August compared with the 2015–19 average, of which about 2,500 were Covid-19 deaths. Unlike deaths in other settings, a relatively small proportion (10 per cent) of the excess deaths at home were coded as Covid-19
I’m interpreting this as meaning 21,000 excess deaths at homes which have no mention of Covid-19 as a cause of death. This is indicative of how damaging the effects of lockdown measures and a Covid-only NHS service have been.
Another interesting part relates to care home deaths:
About 26,500 excess deaths occurred in care homes from early March to 7 August compared with the 2015–19 average, of which about 15,500 were Covid-19 deaths.
So that’s another 11,000 excess deaths not relating to Covid. To be balanced, she does speculate that this could be down to a later testing roll out and underreporting, which are feasible.
That said, as deaths from Covid are shockingly low compared to with Covid (CDC estimate just 6% for the former) , it is also fair to say we don’t know how many people with serious health problems died prematurely because of suddenly being plunged into fear, loneliness and stress, especially if not fully understanding the situation (dementia/alzheimer’s are already known as key comorbidities), in addition to inadequate care and conditions within care homes.
https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/publications/deaths-covid-19
Thank goodness I’ve found some sane people!
I adhere to social distancing and wash my hands regularly, these being scientifically proven to limit the spread of Covid. The rest of the measures and rules I now ignore as I believe they are wholly disproportionate to the problem and will do more harm than good to our collective health and well being.
We have a scientifically illiterate, corrupt, incompetent and authoritarian government that refuses to disclose its aims or any evidence to back up their arbitrary, society destroying decisions. They’ve chosen to rule by edict, avoiding debate or scrutiny at every possible turn. Why on earth should I show willing and meekly go along with that level of BS?
I will not play a part in perpetuating and lending credence to their dystopian nightmare, one which is inflicting far more damage to the health of the nation than Covid ever could. One where as the threat from the disease recedes, the fines, laws and curtailment of freedoms increase.
In fact I feel morally obliged to push back against their unique blend of evil and stupidity. I hope more people wake up and do so in due course before it’s too… Read more »
Welcome aboard! New page up now, so most commentary will have moved to there.
“Is it OK to occasionally admit to being so fed up with the signs, and the arrows, and the protocols and the one way systems and the patronising missives, and not being trusted and the isolation and the lack of any hope of an end to it?
I want to be on a train with a drunk football crowd, I just want to be jostled. I want to grin at a baby in a pram, I want to hug my friends, I want to whisper In a colleague‘s ear. I want to walk through a bar trying not to spill drinks, I want not to feel guilty all the time.”
– Kirstie Allsopp, 2 October 2020
It wouldn’t be ok or human not to feel like that Kirstie.
https://www.bullionstar.com/blogs/ronan-manly/planned-in-advance-by-central-banks-a-2020-system-reset/
Very sinister as with everything else they’ve orchestrated they will get away with this Scot free.
Am I right that the Covid ZOE study/app is purely symptom based with no need for confirmation by a positive PCR test? I’ve read their guff but it’s not very clear. If so surely it’s mostly just tracking common colds and flu, plus it’s encouraging people to report every symptom under the sun that they think might be covid related…
This is from the Guardian. So they can’t help with masks work narrative but when you look at the those highlighted as positive, looks like half are wearing masks. It’s ridiculous pandering.
Of course, they are about protecting others so I am probably just ranting
Whoever put that picture together has far too much time on their hands! Useless speculation at its finest.
I’m baffled how they caught it outside as people on crowded beaches were fine. I’m thinking they may all have been crowded in a room together before the event or are people usually mixing with each other.
A better key to this is needed. It looks to me as only those highlighted in red tested positive- five altogether. Only one of whom was wearing a mask.
But I can only count six people altogether wearing a mask* – out of what? nigh on a hundred people?
So one out of six mask wearers were infected. (17%)
As opposed to four out 80+ non-mask wearers. (5% or less)
But, of course, not all those tested positive have probably been identified,
What an excellent opportunity to test the thesis that make work!
*There’s two way at the back.
Went to M&S today, big store – no mask. And no problems. Just sharing.
These kinds of updates are always helpful 😊👍
I’ve stopped saying “I’m exempt”… I’m trialling “I’m excused”. If there is a further question coming I say “I’ve got a note from my Mum”. Sweep in through the confusion.
We’re currently in Stockholm
Bloody marvellous
No masks, no track and trace, not much distancing, minimal Covid hygiene measures
People out in big groups, night in full swing at nearly midnight, singing, dancing, not much of a police presence
I get the impression of a more adult society- government treats people as adults, adults expect the government to behave like adults
Nice one Julian. Keep an eye out for a heron fishing next to the palace – it likes an evening fish in the glare of the street lights!
Will do
No herons yet but have been accosted by a merry Swede not afraid to get up close and personal
Even better!
Great to hear. We are all Swedes now.
Contrast that to the comments section here today. Mass vaccines, mask bullying, Serco, dodgy data and Trump ill. The UK is in a very dark place right now.
Glad you’re enjoying it over here 🙂
Sounds like bloody bliss. I have a third cousin once removed living out there who I’ve only met once. I wonder if he’d put me up for six months?
This is just a strange bit of trivia, it may have already been posted long ago.
BBC Survivors 1975. I’m sure any self respecting sceptic is now aware of the series.
What has me puzzelled is a youtube videos from 8 YEARS AGO asking ‘ Did BBC Survivors predict 2020?’ The video has a few random scenes from the series and nothing more. It’s just really strange can anyone point out what I might have missed? 8 years ago suggesting 2020. Just luck or is there a clever trick at work?
https://youtu.be/GH6us7DLaRk
I don’t really think it’s either.
I expect that much of what governments have done this year they have done on the basis of protocols that were mooted many years ago.
I think it is very likely that they have had plans such as these on the shelf ready for the eventuality of a global plague.
If you gathered together a group of people and asked them to come up with ideas of how you might deal with a global plague then they would probably think of a lot of the things that have happened this year: lockdowns, masks, social distancing, etc.
They might have have watched dramas such as this and thought, “masks?, what a good idea, why didn’t I think of that …”
This isn’t a global plague, but they’ve now pressed the “nuclear” button to trigger all of these responses and we are now enduring it.
I can predict that it will soon rain and I can also predict that I will be driving my car tomorrow. That doesn’t make me a fortune teller.
I understand what you are saying John. I am not sure I explained myself clearly.
Survivors written by Terry Nation for the Bbc in 1975 is sci fi imaginings based on sound scientific ideas and then dramatised inyo a story. All fine totally get it. Predict the weather tomorrow yes.
What my curiosity is about is a random youtube video posted 8 years ago in 2012 asks did the 1975 series predict 2020?
That’s odd. Why not 2022 or another date? Just a coincidence maybe. I wondered if the coincidence has already been spotted and a simply explanation given.
I’m not suggesting the 1975 series predicted 2020. Someone in 2012 asked that question.
Well, I agree, you make a fair point. I don’t know!
I’m always wary of reading a lot into these things.
BTW, Terry Nation is well known to all Dr Who fans as the “inventor” of the Daleks.
He had a knack for daily life sci fi, not off world. Kitchen sink sci fi. Maybe thats where the egg wisk and plunger look came from.. though I suspect at least one LS will know the precise detail of how the darlek look came to be.
Survivors is quite informative about human co operation in parts. Reflective of LS in some ways. Total strangers with different viiews and goals having to relate to each other to survive.
Yeah. Not reading into it. Given the chat on here I thought someone wise might have a good explanation ready to go. No such luck – I’ll have to learn to ignore the oddity!
I don’t know, maybe the guy had some reason to choose 2020. I would expect it’s just a coincidence.
(He’s probably feeling very pleased with himself now though …)
I would be. I shall sleep better John knowing I can rest on it being just a coincidence. Phew!
Just had another thought.
Is it possible that he originally posted it in 2012, but then more recently edited the blurb to ask if it had predicted 2020?
I don’t post stuff on youtube, so I don’t know if you can do that, but it would possibly explain it.
That’s the kind of trick I wondered myself. It’s a sly way to make a wind up if so.
I haven’t looked at the video in your link but they did remake Survivors in 2008 and it ran until 2010. As I recall it ended ambiguously as though they expected to make another series but it got cancelled.
I also recall not building up a great deal of character empathy because in one way or another they all behaved like a bunch of fuckwits.
Not watched the remake for the very reasons you give – bbc drama has been exceptionally unwatchable for two decades or so.
The 1975 original is a crude production by modern standards by shot on location which is fascinating as it roams rural Britain, characters are developed even if the acting is sometimes no so polished – my preference.
My point though was about the strange 2012 youtube video that asks if the 1975 series predicted 2020? Inexplicable.
Right after posting I had a look your link. My best guess is that the uploader has been back and edited the title in light of current events. Ignore my comment about the remake. I had misunderstood your question.
John P has had the same thought, I did too before posting so thats three suggestions for the same possibility. Just need someone to say it’s tevhnically possible to change the title and mystery sloved!
https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-more-than-half-of-us-are-reusing-disposable-masks-and-others-arent-being-washed-much-12087965
In addition to the main observation, the following is noted concerning disposable masks:
“the report says those that are binned incorrectly could also pose a risk for those who handle waste,”
Isn’t virtue signalling wonderful
That’s what happens when your strategy mimics an extreme case of OCD.
Google always happy to provide a covid dashboard of deaths by country has a bit of a glitch.
Scotland covid deaths
Cases 30, 687
Recoveries 4, 282
Deaths 2,526
That a hell of a lot of people not recovered and not dead with covid.
The numbers don’t tie to the Scot Gov numbers, why would they?
https://www.gov.scot/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-daily-data-for-scotland/
I might start making up my own numbers, you might like to too. Don’t feel left out. Witty and Vallance at it as well.
Thoroughly untrustables.
Mind boggling! A massive cock up with the “cases” statistics on the Covid Dashboard. A “technical issue” apparently…
You mean, they need more time to make up dross for the Monday press briefing.
More than 12,000 today! I’m really hoping the technical issue means a backlog has suddenly been dumped onto today’s count… Can’t see how it could have doubled overnight.
Well it can’t. Not that it means very much anyway, as Carl Heneghan and others have been keen to point out.
A positive test is just that. It is not a “case” and it is not an “infection”.
A bloke I’ve never heard of on Sky named Conway has been wetting himself over it though. Or having an orgasm. Hard to tell really.
Bet he had a h*rd on…
Yes – that’s pretty much what happened. Worldometers have recorded 7k cases for to-day and distributed the rest across several days (weeks).
The overall trend is largely unchanged. If you use SPECIMEN date rather than the reported date, September 24th is currently the ‘local’ peak.
Phew! Otherwise I could see Hancock’s tweet going out at 2345 tonight throwing us all back into lockdown… Cases are doubling daily!
So they say.
The Scotsman
“Leading infectious disease expert Hugh Pennington calls for ‘mandatory’ testing of all Scots care home staff as some decline tests despite threat of more Covid-19 transmission in winter
Leading public health and infectious disease experts have called for “mandatory” coronavirus testing for all care home staff across Scotland with the possibility of higher virus transmission this winter, as it emerged some staff have been declining tests.”
https://www.scotsman.com/health/leading-infectious-disease-expert-hugh-pennington-calls-mandatory-testing-all-scots-care-home-staff-some-decline-tests-despite-threat-more-covid-19-transmission-winter-2991772
“Professor Bauld said: “Repeat testing of care home workers, and where appropriate, NHS staff, is an important element of reducing the risk that older and more vulnerable adults will be exposed to the virus and become unwell. This is an approach that is being widely used in other countries now, so not unique to Scotland or the UK.
“It would be concerning if staff were declining these tests and if that is the case, the reasons for it need to be investigated and addressed. My own view is that it should be required, but handled sensitively and the needs of staff listened to and taken into account.”
The article points out half of Svottish deaths occured in carehomes. It doesn’t point out the seeding of carehomes by nhs hospital clearing covid positive paitents into carehomes. Sturgeon has refused to investigate the matter, because investigating deaths can wait she says.
Sounds like advertising for BJ’s moonshot programme….
Yes I agree. Bauld seems unaware the test is unreliable this is concerning. One argument about face masks crosses over to the testing – increase in risk taking behaviour because of perception of safety provided by intervention.
I can see why care homes don’t want to subject their staff to weekly invasive tests.
Been out briefly this evening, including to Morrisons. I was the only unmasked person there (it feels so liberating!), no challenges and saw one staff member with the muzzle round his neck until he saw me and pulled it up over his mouth and nose (why?).
I also saw several discarded masks outisde on the ground – thanks nice people.
DavidC
General feeling is more and more people seeing this for the nonsense it is.
Friday – Shopped in Morrisons sans mask as always and passed coppers on escalator who didn’t bat an eyelid at me even though I clearly drew their attention and was asking for confrontation. I glared at them and they looked away. Small victories.
I’ve handled out a a lot of self exempting tickets in meantime – bus queues seem particularly receptive – people hate masks and that’s where we can win.
Friday night in pub I heard a few young fellas speaking about the Trafalgar Square meet and the coppers reaction. Was like football was like back in the good old days – I did enjoy a good old ruck I have to say. Nice to hear their talk and the reaction of those listening. Didn’t mention I’d been there and seen the same. Just listened.
Saturday – Number one son made his Confirmation today. Church service nice but overly Covid conservative. The reaction of the church has been disappointing but they do have a lot of 70 plus priests so I suppose I can understand their reaction. Shield the at risk is reasonable.
Restaurant post… Read more »
You comfort me, Ryan. Keep up the good work.
Congratulations to your son in his confirmation. Hope he will grow in faith in a better and more courageous church than the one we have now.
God bless you Ann. I’ve had conversations with priests and deacons about the situation and can to some extent understand their position. Having said that Easter should have been non negotiable in my book but people willing to give the benefit of doubt – Christmas is rebellion time if suppressed.
My mother’s not been to Mass for six months. She’s reasonably okay about it, but I think the Church should be doing more.
Sorry, but my stand is no sympathy for the clergy. If they actually believe the scriptures they purport to believe, they are but vessels to promote the word of Christ, and life on earth is but a journey to salvation, which is what they preach to us. So in what way should they be in fear of death. Their purpose is one only, to preach the word of God, so can we stop with the I understand why they did this or that. In the days of gross oppression in the communism of old, the massacre of orthodox Greeks, armenians, the most incredible priests emerged – they sacrificed their lives for their congregation and their love of God.Not one of the priests in this country, Catholic or Anglican have come close to one of those brave chaps, and I say that as a practicing Catholic, who actually now is not, as I no longer go to a Church, that engages in a ghastly shadow of the mass with sinister masks, it is wrong, plain and simple. Angry, yes by god I am, and our priest refuses to engage with any debate, he cannot even rebut my arguments. The church is… Read more »
“In the days of gross oppression in the communism of old,”
Communism and Christianity have a lot in common : fine principles that have a record of being perverted for authoritarian control; full of contradiction in interpretation and often eating its own children.
Yet again broke lockdown rules today met with family in doors. All the woke folk this is the real deal if you want a legitimate fight then fight for our freedom.
Am in a local mockdown area. Am ignoring it.
Same here.
Same here.
No way to live is it. Ignoring opression. You’re both fortunate to have the courage and confidence to ignore.
I see some hopeful signs too and it makes me braver. The guy who came to give me a quote for some electrical work was donning a mask and I told him that if he wanted to wear it then fine but definitely not to bother on my account because I thought it was all absurd. He whipped it off to reveal a huge grin and said he was thrilled to hear me say that because he agreed. Went on to say that his daughter has been so terrified by it that she was now on anti-depressants and that made him very angry. Previously, I was much more nervous about being open about my views but people are becoming more aware.
Three tradesmen this week on different days. No mention of masks or weird distancing dances. Interactions were completely old normal. I paid them cash too!
I’m not scared to pin my colours to the mast to such an extent I am becoming a crushing bore according to my wife. On Friday night I had to apologise and ‘put money behind the bar’ as means of an apology for telling the bar maid she looked like a fecking half wit for wearing a face screen. She did though. But it wasn’t her choosing as was pointed out to me. mea culpa.
This is new. Audible graphs to help the visually impaired. Scotland figures. Scroll to graphs then press the sound icon. Beep beep squeal.
8% case fatality rate seems questionable.
https://covid19.scottishtecharmy.org/
https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-more-than-12-000-new-cases-announced-after-technical-issue-increases-figure-12089368
What’s another name for a violin?
So pretty much the most obvious and tragic attempt to save face…screw with the figures.
Losers
Attempt to save the graph to the moon?
A short video looking at some of the ‘behind the scenes’ of the NHS app.
https://brandnewtube.com/v/PfGHxR
Anna Brees tweeting a job advert for mass vaccinations in Wales…says ‘entire population’..
https://twitter.com/BreesAnna/status/1312486373891301377
Yes, but not the entire population of Wales.
From what I can make out “Cwm Taf Morgannwg” is the name of a health board in Brigend.
I think that the principle of “herd immunity” ought to apply in any event, which would mean that it is not necessary to vaccinate an entire population in order to eradicate a pathogen.
(I know, someone needs to tell Herr Hancock …)
Entire population of that area sets a precedent for vaccinating entire populations of other areas. Why would you vaccinate everyone in only *one* area anyway? It makes no sense…
Well I would agree, but I’m not sure it it’s even an area. I think it’s just a university. Staff and students maybe?
I think the idea of mass vaccinations is a fairly old one.
So long as they’re not mandating (ie forcing) them I’m cautiously okay with it.
My thinking at the moment (sorry, I know I have said this several times this evening) is that “herd immunity” should apply to this situation as well, so it would never be necessary to have everyone take a vaccine to eradicate a particular virus.
That would mean that those who wish to decline the offer of a vaccine could do so without the vaccine zealots getting upset. Big pharma will no doubt be wanting everyone to have it though, more profit for them!
They are planning a segregated society for us where those who have been vaccinated are ‘liberated’ while those who are not are to remain under ‘restricted’ living. See Elwood speech to parliament and following academic chit chat at bbc online.
Go back two weeks and devi the globalist did a five day stint of rubbishing herd immunity ending with an evening on questions with bruce on the bbc.
Regardless of what makes sense, a segregated society is being planned. A transitional period they may call it – for a year or so…
Just been watching a video on youtube made by an African scientist, talking about how the Gates foundation are using Africans as ‘lab rats’ and mass testing the Oxford vaccine on them because they know the people are more and do not have access to legal services if anything goes wrong. She argues (justifiably) that the trials should be done in countries that have had more deaths..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJ0F3mgabBE&feature=emb_logo
Thanks Carrie have sent on to some friends in Africa.
Atlas Shrugged
I’m sure they’d love that, but illegal under international law. The court cases alone would take thirty years to get through.
Hope so – Pfizer is already tweeting about a clear and ambitious vision for vaccination in the UK:
https://twitter.com/Pfizer_UK/status/1311931423465648129
I’m sure they are. It’s what they are about.
Trust this? Not me. We all know what’s coming.
Tobias Ellwood MP
@Tobias_Ellwood
Preparing for a NATIONAL (VOLUNTARY) VACCINE PROGRAMME
With a vaccine potentially 6 months away -let’s learn the lessons from PPE/testing & think ahead.
This is the largest logistical challenge in a generation. Let’s begin developing the detailed blueprint so we get this right.
No, you think you know. This is the problem with making assertations without evidence. It’s why I’m not on board with speculation. If you’re trying to win me over, I need evidence.
Somebody not even in the Cabinet opining in the HoC, or psychedelic websites don’t cut it sorry. Evidence, evidence, evidence. Data, data, data.
I have no doubt there are vested interests at work, and I don’t doubt your intentions, but not even mega corporations can just ignore international law on medical interventions simply for their own convenience, we have Josef Mengele to thank for that. There’s no getting around it.
Here we go again Nick telling me what I think. Don’t. Forgive me for not reading the rest of your comment.
Coercion is coming. The tweet by Ellwood normalises a national roll out of an inappropriately tested vaccine that is fucking scandalous.
Don’t bother telling me what I think nick. I hope you understand.
And you stop trying to convert me. Not interested.
You might find this thread on Mike Yeadon’s Twitter interesting:
https://twitter.com/MichaelYeadon3/status/1312492066283249664
He quotes a little extract from an article in the New England Journal of medicine regarding Covid vaccines:
‘mandates should not be structured as compulsory vaccination (absolute requirements); instead, noncompliance should incur a penalty. Nevertheless, because of the infectiousness and dangerousness of the virus, relatively substantive penalties could be justified, including employment suspension or stay-at-home orders for persons in designated high-priority groups who refuse vaccination.’
Yeadon’s comment: This document, in my view, represents the kernel of the most severe assault on the rights of individuals to consent, or not, to what are essentially experimental medical interventions. Basically, if you refuse, on any grounds, you will be subject to indefinite house arrest.
I can’t believe I’m reading this in 2020. More like Germany, 1938.
I’ve read it. That’s medicals expressing their opinion. The legal guys will be all over it, as Yeadon himself pointed out yesterday.
Using the same jobs website as Anna, I have also found jobs being offered for Covid vaccine trials in Powys, Cheadle and London starting later this year..
the rules that we have to follow although basic to us might not be in another country where sanitation and the opportunity to isolate is available but it doesnt appear to have made a difference.
It’s conclusive! Local lockdowns cause infections to rise.
Infections or positive test results?
DavidC
Answer: Harder lockdowns!
.
Ireland
‘This is very important: 8 of the 10 deaths reported today occurred before September 2020.’ 3 oct
https://twitter.com/FergalBowers/status/1312442536481320961?s=20