More Pointless, Incomprehensible, Unevidenced Restrictions Imposed on North
The Sunday papers have been trying to get their heads around what Boris is going to announce on Monday, but none of them have the details because the plan is still being thrashed out between Downing Street and regional mayors. The Sunday Times thinks the Government is moving away from its centrally-planned, top-down model towards a more federalist approach, but what local areas will be given control over sounds like pretty small beer.
Mayors will be given more control over the coronavirus test-and-trace system as ministers try to secure their support for tough new local lockdown rules due to be announced tomorrow.
In an admission that the national system is failing, ministers will empower town hall bosses to deploy an army of new local volunteers to knock on doors and ask people to self-isolate.
With COVID-19 running rampant, they want local people to take charge of controlling the spread of the virus in the hope it will generate “community spirit” and “improve compliance”.
Details of the plans were being thrashed out between Downing Street and mayors yesterday amid warnings that immediate action is needed to stop the NHS being swamped in the north of England.
Tomorrow ministers will publish new rules for local lockdowns in areas labelled “medium risk”, “high risk” and “very high risk”.
The Sunday Telegraph thinks pubs and bars are going to be closed in the North-West and North-East – but not restaurants – and people will be told to avoid travelling outside their areas and not to visit other households.
The talks included discussions about deals that would give local leaders greater autonomy over measures and testing in their area in exchange for helping to enforce and explain the rules.
Plans for the third “very high” tier are understood to include guidance asking residents not to travel outside their area other than for specific reasons such as work or education. Local mayors said they expected pubs and bars in these areas to have to close, with restaurants able to remain open until 10pm.
In telephone calls with local leaders, Boris Johnson’s aides also indicated that areas put into the third tier could face bans on multiple households mixing either indoors or outdoors.
Separately, Downing Street is inviting leaders whose areas are due to be in the “very high” tier to request the closure of specific types of hospitality or leisure venues, including beauty salons and sports centres.
That came after acknowledgement that the Government had not done enough to achieve “local buy-in” for some of the existing restrictions faced by areas with high infection rates in the North-East and the North-West.
Meanwhile, local leaders in the North are threatening legal action against the Government for not bunging their regions enough cash to secure their consent to these potty new rules. The Telegraph has more.
Northern leaders have said they “cannot accept” the financial package offered by the Government that will pay two-thirds of the wages of workers at businesses forced to close by local lockdown measures, and may launch a legal challenge.
Speaking at a press conference this afternoon, Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, said that the current financial package would “surrender our residents to hardship and our businesses to potential failure or collapse, and we are not prepared to do that”.
Mr Burnham added that the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, had told local leaders that the package was “final and non-negotiable”. But the mayor said the package suggested that hospitality workers were “second-class citizens”, given that national furlough was much higher at 80 per cent.
Steve Rotheram, the mayor of Liverpool City region, echoed the comments and said that “imposing new restrictions without providing adequate Government support is simply not acceptable”.
According to the Mail, some Northern mayors are claiming the daily number of cases is beginning to fall.
Data on patients with Covid-19 is not comparable across the UK due to differences in the way the figures are reported.
Separate statistics show almost one in five with the virus in hospital tested positive seven days or more after admission – implying they caught it there.
The findings suggest COVID-19 hospitalisations caused by community outbreaks may not be growing as fast as some fear.
Rises in admissions have been greatest in North West England, say health officials.
But the total number of virus patients in UK hospitals is still a fraction of the peak figure of 19,849 in April.
The latest figures come as local leaders have urged the Government not to punish the North East of England with draconian lockdown restrictions forcing the closure of pubs and bars, as it is claimed the number of daily new coronavirus infections in the region has begun to fall.
Those statistics referred to above were provided by Prof Carl Heneghan and his team, as reported in the Telegraph, and show that up to a quarter of patients currently in hospital with COVID-19 caught the virus after being admitted.
One thing is clear: the authority of the Prime Minister and his Government continues to drain away at an alarming rate.
How much longer can this omnishambles continue?
Hancock Breaks 10pm Curfew in House of Commons Bar and Makes Tasteless Joke
The Mail on Sunday has a belter of a story on its front page. Hancock broke his own Covid rules about not drinking after 10pm and made a crass joke about the failures of the Government’s test and trace programme.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock was last night accused of breaking his own Covid curfew by drinking in a Commons bar beyond 10pm – where he made a crass joke about the Government’s test and trace failings.
Mr Hancock arrived at the bar just before a 9.40pm vote, ordered a glass of white wine and announced: “The drinks are on me – but Public Health England are in charge of the payment methodology so I will not be paying anything.”
His ill-conceived joke came after he had tried to explain to the Commons why the quango had lost nearly 16,000 positive coronavirus tests – a fiasco which Labour claimed had put “lives at risk”.
A senior Tory MP told the Mail on Sunday that Mr Hancock remained in the Smoking Room bar until at least 10.25pm, despite Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle insisting that Commons venues must abide by the same 10pm drink-up-and-leave curfew as all English pubs.
Is it time to send a taxi to the Department for Health and Social Care? I wrote in my Spectator column this week that Hancock was only being kept around to serve as Boris’s human shield and it may be time to initiate Operation Scapegoat.
Prophetic?
A Senior Doctor Writes…
A top NHS doctor has been checking the stats and made some interesting observations.
I spent Friday morning (when I should have been operating) running over the PHE released stats up to Oct 1st – they are obviously not up to date but there is quite a lot of info on here, though the data on the complex spreadsheet isn’t as granular as one would like, so definitive conclusions are difficult to draw.
However, there are some interesting findings.
Firstly, the number of people admitted with an already positive test is quite low as a percentage of the whole – about 20% in the last week of September.
Most ‘admissions’ are admitted without a positive test and only become ‘positive’ after two to five days when the test comes back. But about 6% to 9% test positive after eight days in hospital and these may be hospital acquired covid – Hennegan has access to more up to date figures and says in the DT today that this percentage of late positive tests is rising, possibly suggesting more hospital acquired infection.
Some of those positive swabs will be people with covid symptoms – but many are admitted with other things and the positive swab is an incidental finding as they don’t have any covid symptoms – I have heard this from anecdotal discussions, For example every patient admitted (irrespective of the reason for admission) is swabbed on admission, again at five days and weekly thereafter – any positive swab puts them into the ‘covid admission’ column regardless of reason for admission.
So the reported number of covid admissions is not the same as the number of patients with covid symptoms – in some ways it could be the same testing artefact as with the community asymptomatic tests.
The age breakdown of positive swab tests also shows a disparity in the last week of September – the positive admission swabs are skewed to a younger age group. I’m not sure what the significance of this could be as we don’t know if all these admitted patients were symptomatic for covid or not (I suspect not).
I thought the number of daily discharges of covid patients also interesting – there is quite a ‘churn’ of patients in and out of hospital with covid – again this may be asymptomatic patients or people admitted for treatment who get better quickly. Of note is that the percentage of discharges per day is higher in September (15% – 20% per day) than it was in April (8% to 10 % per day) – this might mean that a proportion of these people discharged in September were not covid symptomatic patients – i.e., admitted for routine reasons and discharged with a positive swab as an incidental finding. You can clearly see the ‘weekend effect’ in the sheet (highlighted in red) – it is more marked in September than in April as well.
The percentage of patients on ventilators is pretty constant at between 11% and 13% of the total in September (the figure for Sept 12th is clearly a counting error) – there is no age breakdown on these figs and they are a small proportion of total ventilator available beds. I’m also told that this time round there will be more scrutiny on decision making so that a greater number of patients who have minimal chance of survival will be ventilated (whereas last time round there was a cap on the ceiling of care for people with minimal chance of survival). The percentage of people in ventilated beds in April was a bit higher at about 15-16%. Also note that just because a patient is in a ventilator capable bed, it does NOT necessarily mean that the patient IS ventilated – they could quite easily be on a face mask – its one way of massaging the data… I do know that the ‘planners’ are assuming that we will not be short of ventilators this time and that more patients can be managed by CPAP – this is important as the main issue last time was managing a lot of intubated patients and the lack of ITU nurses – much easier to manage if they aren’t tubed. This has major implications as last time the critical skills shortage in London was ICU nurses. I wrote a paper about it in May suggesting that over the summer we needed to rapidly upskill the junior ICU nursing cohort – predictably, nothing has been done.
The Year the NHS Failed the People of Britain
A GP and regular reader of Lockdown Sceptics has sent me an angry letter about how the NHS has been failing patients since last March. What pushed her over the edge was a brain-dead tweet by the Health Secretary praising the NHS. Here’s the opening section:
I am a UK GP and feel devastated at the catastrophe unfolding before us and the harm that governmental decisions (un-debated, unchallenged and ignoring the evidence) have done. The last straw was Matt Hancock’s October 9th tweet
To which I say, what utter rot. As a GP I know hospital activity is less, because we get fewer inpatient/outpatient letters from them, and many of those we do request us to do tests that they are no longer inclined to do. When I see a patient with life-threatening symptoms they are terrified to go to hospital, fearing Covid. Cancer screening has been suspended, and cancer diagnostic tests are delayed, scanty and often not the optimal tests – I am already aware of delayed cancer diagnoses and treatment. Outpatient waits for people with disabling, unstable, chronic conditions have soared. Mental health services are overwhelmed with little face-to-face contact. We continue to see people but the ‘guidance’ from up above makes us triage everyone, limit numbers in our waiting room, wear masks, wipe things down and this significantly slows our throughput. This is made worse by our having key staff frequently and suddenly absent due to requirement to isolate should their child, as children do, get a transient cough. Despite this, in our large practice, not a single one of us has been diagnosed with Covid, despite our likely contact in the earlier days of the pandemic. The evidence for these heightened hygiene measures are non-existent – we have never done it in high flu prevalence years, and it should be noted they are not preventing a continued ‘average’ stream of flu deaths at present, which by far exceed current deaths from Covid. Two metre separation is entirely arbitrary and I have read no compelling evidence regarding cloth masks, yet plenty, including from the British Medical Journal, to indicate they increase risk. My experience is that they constrain communication and invoke fear.
Worth reading in full.
Latest Polling Data: Public Still Gulled
I got an email yesterday afternoon from Opinium with its latest polling data. pretty depressing reading, although support for the 10pm curfew is falling.
Overall, the public support the latest COVID-19 restrictions. Seven in ten (72%) support the notion that people should work from home wherever possible, 71% agree that face masks should be compulsory for bar staff and non-seated customers, shop workers and waiters and 70% agree with the introduction of table service only in bars, restaurants and pubs.
There are lower levels of support for a potential “circuit breaker” lockdown where hospitality venues close for a short period (58%) and continuing the “rule of six” and limits on socialising over Christmas (55%). Meanwhile 44% support pubs, bars and restaurants closing at 10pm (vs. 27% opposing), almost half (49%) support limiting guests at wedding from 30 to 15. Two-thirds also support fines for not wearing masks or following rules increasing to £200 for first offence
There has however been a drop in the number of people who support the 10pm closure of pubs, bars and restaurants. A fortnight ago, 58% supported the measure while 16% opposed. This week, 44% supported this measure while 27% oppose.
In line with the above, people are continuing to err on the side of caution when it comes to the measures in place. Half (53%) lean towards the view that coronavirus threatens a large number of lives and we need strong measures in place to keep us safe. On the other hand, 24% lean more towards the belief that the measures in place are too damaging and we need to learn to live with Coronavirus for the time being. The vast majority of people (88%) are still generally or strictly following the rules.
Boris’s Willing Executioners
We like to tell ourselves that Hitler could never have risen to power Britain. But seeing vast numbers of the British public leap at the opportunity to become Covid enforcers and informants has put paid to that myth. It could have happened here. Bella Wallersteiner, a Lockdown Sceptics reader and Parliamentary assistant, has written an original piece for us today about the creeping authoritarianism that the Covid pandemic has given rise to. Here’s the opening section:
It has been nearly 31 years since the Berlin Wall came down to reveal 69 miles of files amassed by the Ministry of State Security (Stasi) as it spied on more than 5.6 million citizens of the former German Democratic Republic. The archive holds films, photographs, recordings of phone conversations, mind-blowingly tedious reports of mundane conversations and interactions between neighbours and even samples of sweat collected by punctilious officers hoping to win a medal or promotion. We have a supercilious and unfounded belief that British citizens would act differently and rise above compliance with an authoritarian state. Do we not cherish individualism, freedom of speech and make fun of our politicians?
Evidence from the first month of lockdown suggests that many of us harbour an inner Stasi: in April the UK Police received 194,000 calls from members of the public snitching on neighbours alleged to have broken lockdown rules by making an unnecessary journey, going for more than one walk a day or checking on a second home. So much for the doughty spirit of British non-conformity and defiant anti-authoritarianism.
More recently, the police arrested 32 protesters at the Resist and Act for Freedom Rally in Trafalgar Square on September 19th. The media focused almost entirely on the lunatic fringe of anti-vaxxers and 5G conspiracy theorists and chose to ignore the majority of the protesters who turned up for a peaceful demonstration with banners and placards proclaiming “This is now Tyranny” and chanting “Freedom!”
Worth reading in full.
Joint Letter in Times From Matt Ridley and Others
There was an excellent “we, the undersigned” letter in the Times yesterday written by a clutch of peers, including Matt Ridley. It’s exactly the same message as the Great Barrington Declaration.
Sir, It is now clear that a policy of lockdown failed to bring the virus under control while having crippling economic and social side effects. Sweden has achieved a lower death rate from COVID-19 than the UK, with far less economic and social damage, despite being a slightly more urbanised society. If lockdown were a treatment undergoing a clinical trial, the trial would be halted because of the side effects. We suggest the Government try a new approach, more in keeping with the Conservative philosophy of individual responsibility. Anyone who wishes to be locked down, whether because they are vulnerable or for other reasons, should be supported in doing so safely. Anyone who wishes to resume normal life, and take the risk of catching the virus, should be free to do so. The choice would be ours.
Lord Ridley; Lord Cavendish of Furness; Lord Dobbs; Lord Hamilton of Epsom; Lord Howard of Rising; Lord Lamont of Lerwick; Lord Lilley; Lord Mancroft; Baroness Meyer; Baroness Noakes; Lord Robathan; Lord Shinkwin
Free Speech Under Attack
I’ve been busy over the last few days defending my friend Darren Grimes, the journalist who’s been threatened with arrest by the police because of things Dr David Starkey said when Darren interviewed him at the end of June. I’m pleased to say Darren is a member of the Free Speech Union so we’ve been able to arrange pro bono legal support in the form of a top flight criminal solicitor called Luke Gittos. You can read about this outrageous assault on press freedom in the Mail. The support for Darren has been almost universal, and his defenders include an ex-Home Secretary as well as the current one. I’d be amazed if the police don’t drop this like a hot potato. This should never have been a police matter.
But there are three other recent victims of censorship I wanted to draw your attention to and urge you to sign the petitions supporting them.
The first is a petition expressing support for Bruce Gilley, a professor of political science at Portland State, who has been cancelled for the second time in three years. In 2017, the editors of Third World Quarterly, an academic journal, started getting death threats after publishing an essay by Professor Gilley called “The Case For Colonialism” and promptly deleted it from their website. Now, the same thing’s happened again. He has written a book about Sir Alan Burns, a post-war colonial governor who argued that Britain was decolonising too quickly, that was due to be published by Rowman & Littlefield this month. However, the publishers have now decided not to go ahead after a petition objecting to the book was started by Joshua Moufawad-Paul, a self-described “Maoist”. Even though the petition hasn’t even managed to scrape up 1,000 signatures, it was too much for the panty-waists at Rowman & Littlefield. Professor Gilley has written about the episode for the Wall St Journal. Please sign the petition to show your solidarity with him.
The second is a petition in support of Mark Crispin Miller, a professor in NYU’s Department of Media, Culture and Communication, who got into trouble for urging his students to review all the scientific studies on the effectiveness of wearing masks, including those suggesting they’re ineffective that Google has shadow-banned. This was for a class he teaches on propaganda. One of his students made a flurry of complaints, claiming he was endangering public health, and as a result the university has asked him not to teach his propaganda class next term. Please sign this petition to express your support for academic freedom.
Finally, a petition has been started urging The Hist, a society at Trinity College, Dublin, to reissue its invitation to the biologist Richard Dawkins after he was no-platformed last month. The College Historical Society – known as the Hist – recently disinvited Professor Richard Dawkins on the grounds that things he’d said on Twitter about Islam and sexual assault would make the members feel uncomfortable. I wrote a letter in my capacity as General Secretary of the Free Speech Union to the head of the Hist on 30th September, urging her to honour the original invitation, but so far she hasn’t replied. Please sign this petition, which makes the same request.
Is it Time to Retire the “Bedwetter” Jibe?
I got an email from an elderly gentleman who thinks our use of the term “bedwetters” to describe those who are excessively concerned about catching COVID-19 – and think the rest of us should be too – is unacceptable.
I am very grateful for Lockdown Sceptics and often find myself (a) wishing to refer other people to items published on the site, and (b) wishing to make a financial contribution. But, unfortunately, I find myself unable to do either of these things for the following reason…
You frequently use the term “bedwetter” as a term of disapprobation. I agree that those to whom you apply the term deserve the disapproval, and very possibly also a measure of disdain, but surely you can see that the epithet “bedwetter” — which, after all, denotes a rather distressing disability, whether of mind or body or both — really cannot be an acceptable way of expressing this in civilised discourse.
I am old enough that I can remember when the designations “spastic” or “spaz” were considered acceptable ways of mocking other people’s clumsiness or physical incompetence. I think it’s fair to say that pretty much everybody in civilised modern societies now understands that that is simply not on. I fail to see why mocking someone’s excessive timidity using the epithet “bedwetter” is any different.
I hope I have persuaded you to change your ways. If so, please publish something on the site saying that you intend to do so, and why (I have no objection to your quoting what I have written, although I definitely do not wish my name to be published), and send me a link to that item on the site. If on the other hand you publish something about this on the site, prefaced with “A Bedwetter Writes …”, then I shall know what to conclude!
What do people think? Is it time to retire this insult?
Round-Up
- “Global perspective of COVID‐19 epidemiology for a full‐cycle pandemic” – New paper by Professor John Ioannidis. Been peer reviewed. He estimates the global infections fatality rate at between 0.15% and 0.2% and recommends a targeted, precise approach to managing the pandemic
- “Three Quarters of People with SARS-CoV-2 Infection are Asymptomatic: Analysis of English Household Survey Data” – New paper from a couple of boffins at UCL
- “COVID-19: A Data Driven Reality Check” – Ramesh Thakur, former Assistant General Secretary of the UN and a Professor at the Australian National University, sets out the case against lockdowns
- “Still think Johnson cares about liberty? I have a bridge to sell you” – Michael Curzon in Bournbrook Magazine isn’t happy with the PM
- James Delingpole Interviews the Fat Emperor – James’s guest on the Delingpod this week is Ivor Cummins, leading lockdown sceptic
- “Ireland and Europe’s Viral Outlook – what does the Latest Data say?” – And here’s Ivor’s latest YouTube video
- “Stop scaring us into an economic abyss” – Stuart Rose, the Chairman of Ocado, urges the Government to stop pumping out death porn propaganda, scrap the 10pm curfew and let us all get on with our lives
- “Schoolchildren are banned from singing Happy Birthday in the classroom over fears it could spread coronavirus” – What utter nonsense
- “If anyone tries to force apart mourners at my funeral, I’ll be back to haunt them!” – Peter Hitchens in the Mail on Sunday on the cruelty of not letting people comfort one another at funerals
- “A SARS-CoV-2 vaccine – don’t hold your breath” – Dr Malcolm Kendrick warns that vaccines are being rushed through and will almost certainly be ineffective
- Review of Cynical Theories – Dr David Butterfield, a Senior Lecturer in Classics at Cambridge, reviews James Lindsay and Helen Pluckrose’s book for Don’t Divide Us
- “Boris Johnson becoming ‘new Maggie’ as coronavirus lockdown rules cripple the North” – The Mirror doesn’t mean this as a compliment
- “COVID GESTAPO: Boris Orders Marshals To Target Weddings and Pubs Wearing Body Cameras” – Politicalite has the details”
- “‘He became a hero’: Bolsonaro sees popularity surge as COVID-19 spreads” – Disobliging piece about Bolsonaro by the Guardian‘s “Global development” team which, according to a disclaimer, is supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
- “Is the ‘cure’ worse than Covid? Driven to despair by lockdown, two of Professor Angus Dalgleish’s colleagues took their own lives… and compelled him to join a growing rebellion against Cromwellian restrictions” – Excellent piece by rogue prof
- “Anti-face mask protesters chant ‘Freedom’ as they descend on Downing Street to demand end to lockdown” – Article in the Sun about yesterday’s protest outside Downing Street
- “Students arrive at Bristol Uni wearing hazmat suits after 300 freshers told to isolate in halls” – I thought this would be a story about an amusing rag week stunt. But no. Bedwetters, apparently
- “Ex-BBC star Sue Cook, 71, accuses broadcaster of unbalanced Covid coverage and pushing too hard to shut down UK by forever ‘wheeling out’ ‘Professor Lockdown’ Neil Ferguson over other scientists” – Excellent intervention from former Crimewatch host. Sounds like she’d make a good witness in the Free Speech Union’s Judicial Review of Ofcom’s “coronavirus guidance”
- “Spanish way of life at risk in Madrid as second lockdown threatens to kill off restaurants” – Depressing piece in the Telegraph
- “End of the liner – cruise dreams lie rusting at the shipbreakers” – The Times reveals that vast holiday vessels are being scrapped off the coast of Turkey, their pianos given away as presents
- “Professor Sunetra Gupta on the Perils of Disease Modelling” – Prophetic piece written by Prof Sunetra Gupta nearly 20 years ago about the hubris of mathematical modellers
- “WHO (Accidentally) Confirms Covid is No More Dangerous Than Flu” – The WHO’s Head of Health Emergencies Program “best estimates” put IFR of Covid at 0.14%
- “This crisis is tearing apart the underpinnings of Western democracy” – Janet Daly is at her wit’s end in the Telegraph
- “Did the lockdown work in Wuhan?” – Good blog post by George Dance
- “Average age of coronavirus fatalities is 82” – The Times reveals that the average age of Covid fatalities is 82.4
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Two today: “Gimme Some Truth” by John Lennon and “The North Will Rise Again” by the Fall.
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.
Sharing stories: 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.
“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 £1.49 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).
Stop Press: The Chair of the BMA, Dr Chaand Nagpaul, has urged the Government to make masks mandatory in all outdoor settings and indoor settings. He also said alcohol sales should be restricted in England, just as they now are in Scotland. What else, Dr Feelbad? A ban on sweets? Whistling to be made illegal because it might spread the virus? The same GP who’s written the angry letter we’ve published on Lockdown Sceptics today has sent us another email about this codswallop.
I am a member of the BMA and no-one has asked the membership what they think. As far as I can see, this is the BMA Chair going unilaterally off piste and making an unevidenced dictat. I note neither he, nor anyone on SAGE, has cited any reliable randomised control trials to indicate they will make a blind bit of difference.
The Great Barrington Declaration
If you Google “Great Barrington Declaration”, the top hit you get is a smear piece in the Byline Times, an obscure, online magazine that traffics in left-wing conspiracy theories. One of the three videos linked to at the top of the results page is an interview with Devi Sridhar telling Channel 4 News that the Declaration is not “scientific”. That’s rich considering the three main signatories – Professor Sunetra Gupta, Professor Martin Kulldorff and Professor Jay Bhattacharya – are all eminent scientists, whereas Devi has a PhD is in social anthropology. If you continue scrolling through the Google search results, you cannot find a link to the Declaration. It has been shadow banned. Discussion of the it has also been censored by Reddit.
You can find it here. Please sign it. It now has over 200,000 signatories – no thanks to Google or Reddit. On the contrary, the attempt to suppress it is having a Streisand effect. I spoke to Jeffrey Tucker yesterday, Editorial Director of the American Institute for Economic Research, which hosted the scientific conference at its headquarters in Great Barrington that led to the Declaration. He told me the website that hosts the petition experienced 10,000 denial-of-service attacks within the first few hours of going live. Pro-lockdown zealots on social media have been encouraging their followers to sign the petition with names like “Dr Bananas” in order to discredit it, keeping Jeffrey and his staff busy as they go through the signatories, weeding out the fakes. But these sophomoric attempts to discredit it have backfired. The petition just keeps gathering momentum.
Stop Press: The Declaration now has over 250,000 signatures, including over 7,000 medical and public health scientists and more than 20,000 medical practitioners.
Google Update: The correct link does now come up in the first page of Google searches in Google UK. I hope I played a small part in persuading the tech giant to reconsider. I tweeted about it yesterday and that tweet got more than 9,000 likes and among those replying to it, endorsing the Great Barrington Declaration strategy, was Elon Musk, a lockdown sceptic with ~40 million followers.
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 YouTube video about the way politicians try and shame their opponents into accepting ever rising levels of sate interference in their lives is brilliant.
Discussion
Comments
This week across the site:
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to the Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
The usual BBC doom at the start but if you keep reading some insights into the terrible harm lock down is causing.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-54483547?xtor=ES-211-%5B36459_PANUK_NLT_41_ENG_TheTrumpShow_RET_O35%5D-20201012-%5Bbbcnews_doctorsdiaryaheartbreakinginsightintotheimpactoflockdown_coronavirus%5D
Never mind the piss-und-drang
Bedwetters is here to stay 🤘😎🤘
No speech controls – no fear – no indulging the nervous tremblers – all is mirth, all is one – language is free – go wet yourselves ❤
Not if you whine like an impotent simp. They have votes too and, despite their apparent lack of testosterone, a great deal more ‘levveridge’.
In the desperate push for ratings, principles and consistency count for fuck all.
‘Bedwetters’ fits and I will continue to use it as i use ‘window lickers’ to describe those who wear a mask inside their cars.
I learned long ago that those who suggest that in the fight against your enemy you are stronger stripped of weapons are as much your opponents as those you face. We are past the stage at which we could use polite language to convert our enemies to reason. Now we must fight and fighting requires crude defamation of one’s opponents. How else can one hate them to the point of wanting to defeat them? We are under attack and being civil to our attackers cannot help us defend ourselves. Those who describe us as puerile and uncivilised are not on our side; they are, to use Orwell’s explanation, ‘objectively pro fascist‘, and bedwetters.
Covididiot the obvious choice I think, sorry I haven’t been following all this discussion surely someone has suggested this before?
Don’t know if it’s already been posted but the Sunday Times reports
‘Contract-tracing data harvested from pubs and restaurants being sold on.’
No surprises there, specifically mentions QR code as source, details going to marketing, credit card and insurance companies.
Hi, does anyone have an email address for Peter Hitchens, or any other influential LS? This important petition is ticking along, but could do with spreading around more widely on social media…
Nullify non-disclosure agreements/gagging orders for NHS staff for covid-19
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/550598
Pass legislation to make null and void any non-disclosure agreements or gagging orders, irrespective of when entered into, when related to covid-19 (sars-cov-2), and to protect any staff who speak out. Apply to all current and former employees, directly or indirectly employed by the NHS.
If you don’t wear a mask superstition says you’ve only yourself to blame. If you do wear a mask it’s not your fault:
https://twitter.com/justin_hart/status/1315424421935411201
An odd introduction from Nodoby to a devastating critique of mask wearing. Absolutely devastating.
Have you seen the new rebuttal doing the rounds:
So weekend, ‘ignoring the nonsense’ update…..
Friday evening toddled off to the local pub. After walking in maskless barmaid gave me a T and T book so I signed in as Henrik Larsson…. really weird that I’ve got his phone number as well.
Anyway, a few beers and get talking to the bloke next to me….. his daughter was at the anti lock down protests where it kicked off.
He thinks it’s a bag of shite and we should be buying guns.
The wife turns up and we have a good anti lock down chat with the fella and realise there is sanity in the world.
Saturday… toddle off to the golf course…. couple of buses to get there…. took the kids… all maskless….. not a shit given and not a word said to any of us there or back. … few holes …. and a pint in the club house …. nobody cared.
Sunday…. number two son playing rugby at local club …. bus there and back…. maskless…. nobody said a word……. kids shouted at to stay 2m apart when they were getting put into teams….. they then spend an hour playing rugby….. no logic behind that whatsoever……… Read more »
Musical version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4TEzKULQaM
Sounds like a good day had by all, I might have liked to join you except for the buses (and the golf).🍻
I am sure we all know the Psalm very well so I decided, some years ago, to introduce my Greek group to the version in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew started in about 250 BC and continued until about 100 BC (these dates are very approximate).
Anyway, the penultimate verse has ‘my cup runneth over’ or so the AV has it.
Imagine my amazement when I read the following from the Septuagint (my translation):
‘Your cup is intoxicating in the extreme’.
The word used is ‘μεθύσκον’ (methuskon) which comes from μεθύσκω (methusko) which means ‘I cause to make drunk’. My Hebrew is not very good, so I looked up the Vulgate (there are two translations in my copy of the Vulgate but they both say the same thing) and found ‘calix meus inebrians’.
So what we have in the AV (and the AV does not pull its punches; the word σκύβαλον (skubalon) used in Philippians can be translated as the four letter word used in you post; the AV uses ‘dung’) is really a rather toned down version of the original. The way I read it is that what God really wants to give to us is… Read more »
Regret to say, while Van Morrison’s newer song “As I Walked Out” does better on giving the details of the horrors and crime of lockdown, his earlier “Born to Be Free” just sounds a better song, “Born to be Free” seems more the kind of song a crowd could sing along to together, catchier tune and hence better for spreading around.
Lets hope his third anti-lockdown song ticks both boxes, tuned liked “Born to Be Free” with lyrics of more (considerably more if we’re lucky) detail than “As I Walked Out”.
Van’s still the man either way!
Bit low – just had chat with semi-love interest who apparently knows “fit people” who have “nearly died” of Covid and told me the IFR was 3%. Obviously it’s all over between us now but terrible to see someone so intelligent so brainwashed. Suspect he will crawl back when the truth is out but a bit lonelier than ever now. Oh well!
I know people who think it has a 10% IFR. Probably the same mindset as those who think 10% of the population have already died of it.
Jenny-style is stylish!
Where do such factual travesties come from? An IFR something like 200 times greater than the latest estimate -??
But this isn’t unusual, and ‘intelligence’ in that obvious sense seems to have nothing to do with it. Certainly ‘intelligence’ in the root sense is absent.
If and when he does crawl back I would recommend a firm kick in the bollocks. Except that he doesn’t have any. What a spineless piece of shit.
Lol. Don’t hold back will you, say what you mean!! 🤣 Tend to agree!
Pretty much resigned myself to the fact that any future love interests will be covid-obsessed mask fanatics, so for the time being at least, I’m not even going to bother. Just have to suck the lonliness up.
Thanks all! He has been texting begging me to come over and “worried about me” feeling this way. No way!
Hey, better to find out now that your values are not aligned. I know that’s no consolation, but you’ll find someone since you’re clearly a critical thinker who won’t settle. Hang tough!
Haha, from going on about an IFR of 3% and how we should all be very afraid, to asking you to come over, all in the space of half an hour. Is your love interest Neil Ferguson?! 😁
That did make me laugh!! 😆 No – not Ardnassac (son and his schoolfriend have been doing Cassandra in classics and have concluded that Neil F is the opposite in that he predicts nonsense and is believed the whole time so this is now our nickname for Ferguson!)
What women bring to politics: emotional problems.
If you need advice on whether or not you should consider the advances of your apparently more than semi love interest you should consider sparing us the drivel and confine your attention seeking to the numerous women’s magazines that cater for your sort.
It’s difficult. We all have to deal with people disappointing us!
Yes, that’s all part of growing up.
Does he hold down any sort of responsible job?
That “people will die” music is great. Shows the bullshitters up so clearly.
Since social media censor everything that goes against WHO recommendations… does that mean that anything pro-lockdown will now be removed?
Thought not.
Nope. Wouldn’t it be great if all algorithms used in the public sphere had to be published.
The Algorithm at Amazon suggesting what else I might be interested in when ordering Exempt Lanyards came up with…
Designer face masks and cheap nasty visors.
I find bedwetter unnecessary too rather like Climate denier and Antivaxxer
DT:
Nice… Modern Moron Slaves DO DESERVE to be screwed!
He had to outdo Sturgeon, who at least claims only 16 days rather than 6 months.
Gyms shut, McDonalds open.
With the RAF Regiment already busy in Birmingham they will soon run out of soldiers.
Am I missing something?
Are Covid deaths and Influenza deaths going to be conflated?
Therefore, are we to be condemned to eternal lockdown because of ordinary winter bugs?
“This will be the last COVID-19 surveillance report, as of 8 October 2020, the information in this report will be published in a combined Weekly flu and COVID-19 Surveillance Report on GOV.UK.”
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/923668/Weekly_COVID19_Surveillance_Report_week_40.pdf
Before the change Covid was always reported in the Flu Report. You can see it in the Feb and March reports.
@mhep
but was sars-cov-2 separately distinguishable then?
It was mentioned in the reports. Just search for gov uk flu report. There’s a section on Flu A and B and then Sars-cov-2. It was growing in importance in the reports. Whether it was in actuality is a different story
No. I very much doubt it.
How do we know when we have ‘defeated the virus’, if we don’t know how many people (separate from flu) are affected by it?
It’s seems more like a sign it is less important now. Which goes against the Casedemic.
I think they will still publish separate figures. This is a red herring.
‘Flatten the Curve on Covid’ became ‘Get the number of Covid cases down’. which will now become ‘get the number of Covid plus flu cases down’.
My heart goes out to you scousers, but being from central belt Scotland in a twisted way i’m pleased to know that for once we’re not getting the biggest shafting in the UK.
Except Wee Krankie will need to go one up again, so you will get the extra shaft.
I have no doubt she’ll be spitting poison that Boris has managed to one up her.
Perhaps shutting the petrol stations to stop them escaping.
Well – it’ll be a good test of whether Liverpool lives up to its reputation as not taking any shit.
Vote for ‘endaypairndunce’, we won’t stop you, and then we can’t ‘shaft’ you any more.
The likely ordered study that alleges that the virus survives on cash for 28 days has only one purpose: to ban the use of cash, so that they can always and more easily track you.
Germany’s head of the main doctors association, certainly not a lockdown sceptic, came out last week and stated, that smear infections do not play any role in the spread, and that the disinfections in restaursnts, for example, could therefore be stopped entirely.
I read quite a few weeks ago that smear infection has been ruled out, and told a lot of the customers in the cafe where I was working so.
My (former) employer (an international catering company) did their risk assessment in spring and has not updated it, they are hysterical about sanitising.
I paid cash for a coffee in a Beefeater last week, the barman vigorously hand sanitized afterwards.👏
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)30561-2/fulltext
And this is a more realistic study – the other Oz one showing 28 day survival on banknotes etc was conducted in total darkness, the only charitable presumption being that it was to test the upper limits of survival.
There was this study reported on last week that stated surfaces were mot a concern.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/coronavirus-can-i-be-infected-by-touching-surfaces-ljrbthz8d
However this was the same scientist who suggested masks can help make you immune. Best to know that.
I actually think such conflicting info, on what should actually be easily enough to prove one way or the other, demonstrates something is at not right at the fundamental level.
Maybe it’s the ability to detect the virus in such studies suffers from the same problems as RT-PCR for diagnosis of infection. That CV-19 is in fact an illusive thing from a scientific point of view and proof of detection is extremely volatile. Pure speculation from me but it doesn’t smell right
As the so well deserved demise of Sturgeon continues and popcorn stocks across the land decrease, spare a thought for controller Sridhar. Sturgeon’s replacement might not take so kindly to the meddlings of a globalist American calling the most damaging shots to Scottish culture and life possibly ever.
I know it’s unlikely to change things but the very demise of Sturgeon as is happening in front of our eyes will be causing concern to Sridhar. Munch. Munch.
This is relevant to lickdown because of Sturgeon’s place in it all. Notice here what a bright sun of a webcam spotlight the sturgeon home library has. A spot light to bladt away those haggard lines and bags of nights awake way past the witching hour.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=0KtcvSVgf-A
If watching this 10mintue car crash please remember that she, the woman Sturgeon, is currently sitting their in the middle of the worst plague ever to hit Scotland, we know this because of the unprecedented measure this woman has chosen to take. Those same measures have caused the collapse of her countries main industries. Keep that in mind as she spouts. Good luck to you if you make it to the end of the video,… Read more »
pass the popcorn!
Alex Salmond ‘astonished’ at Nicola Sturgeon ‘attempted collusion’ claims
The row between Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon has intensified, with Mr Salmond said to be “astonished at the ever-shifting sands of her story”, it has been reported.
That from the Scotsman.
Also in the Scotsman:
Scots pub bosses hit out over ‘no guarantee’ on reopening
Pub and restaurant chiefs say they must not not be “left in limbo” over the latest Covid shutdown after being warned there is no guarantee they will reopen in a fortnight.
Sturgeon is spiralling – she is the weakest link in the globalists plan that is why I’m polluting LS with this nationalist collapse.
You’re not polluting. Keep at it.
Is Salmond planning yet another comeback? He bounces back more often than a Wobbly Man toy.
Oh, and how’s George Galloway’s campaign going? I don’t have much agreement with his politics, but by God I respect his grit and courage. Mostly because of this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrdFFCnYtbk
I have the same admiration for Peter Tatchell even though I don’t agree with much of what he has to say.
Rumour is Salmond will start separate party. That would be fun.
https://www.change.org/p/petition-vote-of-no-confidence-in-nicola-sturgeon-and-the-scottish-government-resignsturgeon
Doesn’t matter who is in power in Scotland the parliament is a left wing, identity politics ridden, LGBTQ+, misandrist, anti – free speech cesspit.
“I know it’s unlikely to change things but the very demise of Sturgeon as is happening in front of our eyes will be causing concern to Sridhar. ”
I think if you pop over to wings over scotland there is a possible shifting in the snp locked wokeshed that is Holyrood. Independence supporters are fucked off beyond words now too.
loss of cool, should’ve worn blue… will she survive it?
And so it begins, the reason for the smokescreen that is a virus. The sustainable world that officially controls travel etc, starting with OZ
Hands-face-space.
Hands off our ancient liberties.
Face the truth: you can’t “defeat” a respiratory virus.
Space is where the a Prime Minister is orbiting.
Well something small just brightened up my day, and perhaps the perpetrator is on here. Spotted a large ‘COVID LIES’ sticker on a sign at a roundabout on the road between Hartley Wintney, Hampshire and Reading. Nice!
Sounds like a worthy new sort of tourist attraction – something exciting and new to see anyway.
David Cameron country?
Fortunately not (although I’m sure the place is very nice!), that’s Witney.
How on earth can small African tourism dependent countries like Mauritius recover revenues when they have such draconian Covid19 policies as set out below?
We used to visit every November, but their current policies will deter many visitors.
Just to be clear, to visit, you will need
https://www.tourism-mauritius.mu/en-int/mauritius-travel-alerts
Heard Tanzania was more chilled?
A valid ticket on Air Mauritius who have no gone bankrupt? Rumour is November will see reduced restrictions but too little too late?
Tanzania is far more chilled but remains against FCO advice.
It’s all those diseased goats and fruit that worries FCO.
Passport optional?
Zero Covid and Herd Immunity are not the only options.
I do believe the Government are going for an all out Pyrrhic victory.
Victory over the iceberg will be declared even as the Titanic goes down.
I think the titanic comparison is apt.We have hit the iceberg and are going to sink,but the band plays on and the majority of the passengers haven’t realised yet.
And the captain is saying that the only reason we didn’t get rid of the iceberg properly the first time round is that the passengers weren’t sufficiently committed to destroying the iceberg, so he’s taking us ‘round for another go at the iceberg, because zero ice is the only wa.
Lol Matt!
A lot of the passengers I come across are down in the hold,helping to drill holes to let the water out.
Except Commander Johnson and Lieutenant-Commander Hancock, who think the water will drain out faster if they use dynamite to blow the bow off.
On a par with Crimes Against Humanity……IMPORTANT PLEASE WATCH
The Great Reset’: World leaders to harness COVID and pursue ‘sinister’ climate agenda
11/10/202
https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6199544116001
To be excluded from a society that has gone totally insane is not punishment, but vindication. For those of you who are struggling with family and friends, my heart goes out to you. I was already a social outcast before any of this nonsense started, so the adjustments have been minimal. The abysmal coercion and emotional blackmail that the state and its supporters are using (i.e. you can’t return to public life unless you do x, y and z) is as ludicrous as it is cruel. The so-called “society” that these people are attempting to construct is unsustainable, and will fall, because it is built entirely upon lies. Will all of us live to see its collapse? Almost certainly not. We have to maintain our inner strength, no matter how bad it gets “out there”, to maximise our chances of survival. With regard to facing the ultimate sacrifice, I cannot help anyone else. This is each individual’s decision to make alone.
I’m in the best if both worlds. As a Key Worker immune from their daytime lockdown rules and as one who luxuriates in my own company I don’t care about night time curfew since I’d be home alone anyway.
I have worked from home throughout, but this will eventually end when my company issues the ultimatum to return to its Covid-safe premises (with mandatory masks and temperature checks) under penalty of termination. I expect my savings to disappear in the economic holocaust, so there is the very real prospect of having no income and no access to money.
Rather than endlessly worrying about these things, given how far off the deep end the whole society is I am instead accepting and internalising their inevitability, and preparing to face them without flinching.
Here here Richard. I myself am not a worrying type and as a recovering addict I’ve already lived through my own personal hell. I have been awaiting their big move for years and now that the SS Incompetence has docked at every government port throughout the world, we are witnessing a global coup by the A-holes. My time left on this planet is not long now.
Even if the whole charade were to collapse overnight, the reality of this non-civilisation has been fatally exposed and will never recover my respect. This is a good thing.
I have reached breaking point with my (lockdown zealot) family.
Tried to make the point about false positives and against lockdowns and was told that I hadn’t logiced my arguments through. That I was living in an echo chamber of sceptics (not that they aren’t living in an echo chamber of zealots), that I was a granny killer who was advocating either locking the elderly up or killing them, that economic collapse was going to happen anyway and isn’t Sweden’s service economy destroyed and they had no lockdown (tried advising that Swedish residents on this site advised otherwise, but was told that they are in an echo chamber as well). The fact that I am an accountant and understand more than any of my family the interconnectedness of economic decisions appears to have been lost on them. The final slap was that I had expressed opinions “that are not welcome in this house”.
I think I will be breaking contact at the end of the week. Have my Dad’s car currently (he insisted I take it at the start of lockdown to allow me to avoid using public transport – I never asked for the option) but need it this… Read more »
Keep going mate it will get better. Please keep in contact with your family this will not last forever.
You will have the pleasure of saying:
“I told you so”
You might want to take the opportunity of recording them parroting givernment talking points in order that you can play their words back to them at leisure, should they in future attempt to downplay their present views.
I don’t think there will be much pleasure in that. And for those that simply don’t want to hear the logical argument right now, they will surely engage in some mental gymnastics to disavow themselves of any regret or guilt.
Hell, they’ll be encouraged to by their own leaders as they too try to say that they didn’t know better. Or that they were following the science. The compliant can just fall right back into line behind them.
I think we have seen a severe crack open up in society. For if this does play out as we see it, that the weight of reality will see the Covid facade crumble and we acknowledge that we have to live with this virus (whatever it is), there’ll be no guilt for those zealots that drove us here. There’ll be scapegoats and much hand wringing but no apology.
If you are seeing relationships break down because you have an alternative view on this, I wouldn’t expect them to be repaired anytime soon. You have to make that choice, choose your truth. This is real and I respect your bravery.
I’m so sorry. This issue has torn apart many families and friendships, but like you I have no interest in interacting with people who are irrational and perfectly OK sacrificing our civil liberties for perceived “safety.” Ironically, I have one friend who is terrified (she has lupus) and she and I have managed to keep our friendship intact by laying out the ground rules and just staying away from discussing certain aspects of this insanity. We’re both suffering because of it, so that we have in common, even though we’re on different sides of the issues. If you’re unable to interact with your family in a way that’s respectful to both sides, then it’s probably best for your sake to stay away for now.
This is very sad to hear – you are obviously an intelligent person and they know this, and yet they aren’t even prepared to consider that your views are in any way valid. Their idea that economic collapse was going to happen anyway – someone said similar to me about the unemployment situation the other day. That these jobs weren’t needed anyway and companies are using the situation to rid themselves of unwanted staff. I hadn’t heard this before – where is it coming from? Do you know?
I am sorry to hear that Ewan. To be honest, on the basis of what you have said, I think it is likely you would have ended up in conflict with your family at some stage in the future anyway. Sadly, I think your family has demonstrated a complete lack of respect for you. This happened to my husband a number of years ago, related to a family event, and a similar ‘not welcome in this house’ missive from his father. He walked away and we have not spoken to his family since. You need to protect your own mental health in these situations.
Hi Ewan, Family can be bloody difficult. I know. You could just do like I did tonight and put a few stickers up on local lampposts…”distrust the government, avoid mass media, fight the lies”. Made me feel better. No feedback from the family. Will carry on the good fight again tomorrow.
It seems to me that the brainwashing has been so complete that no argument of any kind or about any aspect can penetrate it. Its become impossible to converse with some people including family members. Shockingly neither will they read any contrary opinions but appear to thrive on the propaganda from the box in the corner. Its an unusual phenomenon and they are not to blame.
Call them a child killer https://bongino.com/study-global-lockdowns-killing-10000-children-per-month
Mask-wearing, visors, distancing etc are explained by …..
this:
“A fad, trend, or craze is any form of collective behavior that develops within a culture, a generation or social group in which a group of people enthusiastically follow an impulse for a finite period.
Fads are objects or behaviors that achieve short-lived popularity but fade away.[1] Fads are often seen as sudden, quick-spreading, and short-lived.[2] Fads include diets, clothing, hairstyles, toys, and more. Some popular fads throughout history are toys such as yo-yos, hula hoops, and fad dances such as the Macarena and the twist.[3]
Similar to habits or customs but less durable, fads often result from an activity or behavior being perceived as emotionally popular or exciting within a peer group, or being deemed “cool” as often promoted by social networks.[4] A fad is said to “catch on” when the number of people adopting it begins to increase to the point of being noteworthy. Fads often fade quickly when the perception of novelty is gone.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fad
Please let it merely be a fad and let it not morph into a habit.
Maybe I’m thick or just don’t know enough about these things but surely the virus could in theory last indefinitely in lab conditions?
Also, if the virus hasn’t been isolated, how can it be used in a lab?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-54500673
No no, please don’t criticise yourself.
The BBC is the gift that keeps on giving. Quoting the article:
“However, the experiment was conducted in the dark. UV light has already been shown to kill the virus.”
Honestly, that comment really made me laugh. UV light, doh, doesn’t that come from the sun? So the virus will live for a month as long as it’s kept in the dark.
Well maybe.
BTW, the article you linked to says “28 days”, not “indefinitely”.
If you are infected and are not already immune then the human immune system will generally kill it. After that it’s dead, but pieces of it can remain in circulation for up to three months (Carl Heneghan).
The PCR test can detect virus genetic material (body parts), but cannot say if it’s alive or dead.
Quoting you:
“Also, if the virus hasn’t been isolated, how can it be used in a lab?”
Well it has been isolated. I’m not sure where you’re getting this notion from?
The only way to tell if the virus is alive or dead is by using a plaque assay. Which basically means you put the suspect sample on a cell culture… Read more »
Has a viral body actually been isolated?
Crowe D(2020) “Flaws in Coronavirus Pandemic Theory” suggests that has not.
Well yes. It is known to be a coronavirus. It does exist.
There are some people who will insist that it’s all fake, but I think it is simply that the danger from it is exaggerated.
Viruses are quite complex beasts. Virologists classify them according to their genetic material into seven distinct types. Genetic material resembles string, it’s composed of very long strands.
Coronaviruses are (+) sense RNA viruses. Their genetic material is a single strand of RNA (some are DNA). The (+) refers to the way their genetic material is twisted.
The genetic material is enclosed in a shell that is encoded by the genetic material. It does resemble the pictures you see.
Coronaviruses are the largest viruses of this type.
Flu viruses are (-) sense RNA viruses and are rather smaller than coronaviruses.
Pictures here taken in 2019 by an electron microscope of coronavirus MERS:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/mers/photos.html
Who isolated the virus? Is it kept in a vault in Paris? Is there a photograph of it? Is there a description of it?
There is this:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/lab/grows-virus-cell-culture.html
And this:
https://www.sciencealert.com/this-is-what-the-covid-19-virus-looks-like-under-electron-microscopes
How do we know they’re not pics of exosomes?
Came across this
Flaws in Coronavirus Pandemic Theory
https://theinfectiousmyth.com/book/CoronavirusPanic.pdf
https://notpublicaddress.wordpress.com/2020/10/10/what-debate/
Author David Crowe passed away in July.
https://twitter.com/tomdabassman/status/1315281786264522753
****BREAKING NEWS!****** HOLLAND STELLT TRACK&TRACE EIN !!
Important.If you see Netherlands C-19 curve with 6000 cases today they have now thrown in the towel ie made the sensible thing stop, track and trace and concentrate on testing sick and stop testing healthy. If you are sick and pos you are just told to inform any contacts but no follow up of public health.
This could be the big gamechanger hopefully.Let us hope common sense spreads faster than C-19 in Europe
Interesting, just seen Ivor Cummins tweet a graph showing Netherlands to have had an enormous casedemic – maybe it’s finally realising the folly now?
Yes.They are also having a Public Health department nationally which is not pro mask and only isolated places use them.There are rumours that Gemany’s test and track are under sevre pressure.Let us hope the house of cards is starting to fall.
Were they not doing an RCT on masks?
I think it was in Denmark they had this study.It was finished in July and has not been published.Rumours that no conclusion could be drawn because of statistical too few cases involved.So it might nevr be published.Don’t know any study in NL.
Interesting story from Germany. A customer in a bar on the island of Sylt, where the rich like to party, although not sure if this particular bar was frequented by the rich, tested + 2 days later. He told authorities that the bar was packed (against the rules). The health dept. tried to trace people with the mandatory list, which was lacking a lot of names. So they asked people to voluntarily come forward. 101 people raised their hand.
On Monday a fine of 1000Euros was introduced, to be paid by customers who leave wrong names. No fines issued for people who came forward and did not put their names on the list.
The comments were the worst, close all bars down etc.
One man stated he read the several page list of his local restaurant and was angry by all the James Bonds, Trumps and Micky Mouse apparently dined there. Angry about false names?How about how the f… were you able to read several pages of confidential information?
This way for the showers, cattle trains to the left.
Or maybe they are aware of the Crimes against Humanity case?
Could the whole damnable fraudulent criminal facade be about to crumble. Please watch as important as Crimes Against Humanity IMO
The Great Reset’: World leaders to harness COVID and pursue ‘sinister’ climate agend11/10/202
https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6199544116001
Wow. This would be a badly needed boost to sceptics in the UK and Ireland as we are facing full lockdowns again.
The amount of resources being thrown at T and T is sickening. Low downloads, poor delivery and then low compliance anyway. False negatives and false positives thrown into the mix and its a clusterf**k
I think we should pay attention to a smallish country in northern Europe with one third of its land area below sea level that still manages to account for 17% of world food exports!
They also had a lockdown” lite” if I remember correctly.Surprised that they did that considering their national character,libertarian and non conformist.But I think their Ntional Public Health Dep is on the right track,not mask endorsing and now this.
Yes I also recall them being lockdown lite. Encouraging if they are moving to a realist position. The fact they are so dependent on exports may have something to do with it. Also they are used to living with risk, given how much of the country is below sea level.
They know about managing risk, their flood defences are against one event in a thousand years, ours are one per century.
Yay!!!!!
I think belgium also stopped a couple of weeks ago. T&T is a waste of time once the infection rate gets beyond a certain level anyway.
Even at 100% efficiency you can’t do it fast enough to catch every infection + all their contacts.
Add in potential false positives and not only are you chasing rainbows but you can’t chase them fast enough.
Looked at cases /deaths in a few countries (worldometers.info)
From first peak to now (daily rate, 7 day average)
UK.
Cases up 3 times
Deaths down to 1/15th
France
cases up 3 times
Deaths down to 1/15th
Spain
Cases up 20%
Deaths down to 1/7th
USA
cases up 50%
deaths down to 1/3rd
Italy
cases down 30%
deaths down to 1/32nd
Sweden
Cases down 60%
Deaths DISAPPEARED (from first peak 99 per day)
So, the ’science’ surely should be asking ‘what has changed’?
– the ‘dry tinder’ in care homes already culled in first peak
– virus milder
– testing massively exaggerates cases and severity
Pro all of the above. All without lockdown a la March-July. Announce that, Boris?
It’s so simple when you put such stats in such a way.
We really need to break the cases obsession. It’s crippling society. I see the strain everywhere now.
‘Cases’ are not an obsession. They are a ploy.
Saw a few members of my family tonight at my parents’ house. With them, my sister, her husband, my niece and myself. (That’s six peeps.)
Anyway, my sister gave me an interesting snippet about one of her friends who is a hairdresser.
The hairdresser is 44 and up until this year apparently had perfect eyesight. However, she has been wearing a visor a lot and had noticed that not only was she suffering from vertigo, but she was also sometimes struggling to see properly.
An examination at the optician confirmed that she now needs glasses. He confirmed to my sister’s friend that it would have been caused by wearing the visor for long periods.
She does also wear a face mask and has been suffering from acne.
Unfortunately, we need a lot more of these ill effects to put a stop to the mask lunacy. I don’t like wishing bad things on people, but I fear that’s what it’s going to take.
Face masks are obviously a risk to health. I can imagine face visors in a salon setting with maybe fluorescent lighting in the room could lead to eyesight problems.