“SAGE is Like a Golfer With a One-Club Strategy” – IDS
Former Conservative leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith MP has penned a withering attack on SAGE in the Telegraph, targeting its catastrophically one-dimensional handling of the pandemic.
In the midst of this sits the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage). The normal run of affairs is that advisors advise and ministers decide. Yet with Sage it is different. Though it is a public body, it is one which the like of I have never previously come across.
So much of the advice influencing policy that has changed our lives and livelihoods has come has come from this opaque organisation, which operates behind closed doors and whose members were only officially identified in May after a very public clamour for transparency.
Appointments to it of an estimated 100 scientists and academics appear to be made by the Chief Scientific Officer [Patrick Vallance] and the Chief Medical Officer [Chris Whitty] alone. And yet its “advice” has taken on the character of commandments written on tablets of stone – despite the fact that many of its recommendations are hotly disputed by other reputable scientists with relevant expertise. Meanwhile, when the government does not follow its advice exactly, it immediately publishes its minutes, in what appears to be a nakedly political act.
The search for a way to control the virus without severely damaging the economy and causing life-threatening delays to other vital health treatments is an entirely legitimate one. But – as one scientist put it to me – Sage has fallen prey to a form of groupthink that focuses exclusively on a drive to push down the infection rate to the exclusion of all else.
The problem is that if this one aim becomes the only thing that is discussed and advised on by Sage, we end up like a golfer with a one-club strategy – lockdown.
So, while it was gratifying to see the Prime Minister this week break ranks with the scientific technocracy over what Sage euphemistically calls a “national circuit breaker”, however with London and other places now entering Tier 2 restrictions, the risk is that it could come to be seen as a national lockdown by stealth.
Why, he asks, has more not been done to promote effective treatments, such as rolling out pre-emptive antivirals as part of protecting high-risk groups?
With the average age of death from Covid-19 standing at 82, and fewer than 4% of those who have died of the virus having no known comorbidities, such a policy of prescribing antivirals to members of vulnerable groups would reduce both admissions and deaths. Such a move now could help prevent the need to lock down the economy.
Importantly, in 2012 the Government did this very thing by massively widening the prescription of antivirals in the community to combat the risk of flu.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: Antiviral drug remdesivir has been found to have “little or no effect” on the chances of survival of hospitalised COVID-19 patients, according to a WHO clinical trial – although the authors allow it may still work early on or as a prophylactic. According to the Swiss Doctor, the treatments with the best current evidence base are: for prophylaxis and early treatment – Zinc, Quercetin, Bromhexine, Vitamins C & D, and Aspirin (early treatment only); for ancillary treatment – Hydroxychloroquine, High-dose vitamin D, Azithromycin and LMW heparin.
Cases Fall Again
How can the Government justify bringing in new restrictions and continue to warn of “exponential” increases in cases when it is becoming clearer by the day that “cases” are barely rising in most areas? Furthermore, this flattening-off happened before the additional restrictions were put in place, just as the autumn spikes in the North appeared despite the local lockdowns. When will the Government give up its conceit of claiming to control this virus and focus on protecting the vulnerable while the rest of us get back to normal?
Lockdown is Political
We’re not partisan here at Lockdown Sceptics and welcome readers from across the political spectrum. However, it’s hard not to notice that lockdowns seem to have a greater attraction for people on the Left than the Right. We’ve known this for some time, but it’s particularly apparent in the latest polling from Gallup in the USA. To illustrate: a miniscule 4% of Democrat voters say they’re ready to return to normal activities right now compared to a whopping 59% of Republicans. Again: 71.5% of Democrats say they avoid going to public places compared to 34.5% of Republicans. (It’s also apparent that women are much more pro-lockdown than men). Partly this will be a reflection of how partisan the issue has become in America around Trump in an election year. And, of course, Democrats tend to be richer than Republicans so are less likely to be feeling the economic damage. But it has also become increasingly clear that the Left sees the pandemic as an opportunity to drive forward some of its favourite causes, such as disfiguring inner cities with endless bicycle lanes. Something No 10 ought to keep in mind when it listens to the demands of Sage, whose members are overwhelmingly left wing.
A Top NHS Doctor Writes…
We’ve heard again from our friend, the top NHS doctor, whose understanding of what’s going on in NHS England gets deeper by the day.
I’m beginning to understand this latest crap from the medical point of view. The ground truth is that there are very few Covid patients in London hospitals.
More in the north east sector than elsewhere (Barts/Royal London/Newham/North Middlesex, etc.) but certainly not swamped – maybe 5% to 10% of ICU beds but there is no flu around at all this year so far. So that’s a normal upper respiratory case load and as we know ICU capacity can be ramped up very quickly if needed.
There were 82 patients in total in ICU in London on October 15th – half of them not intubated. We have an ICU bed stock of approx 1,500 across the capital, so well within capacity.
The problem – the reason the NHS wants tighter restrictions – relates to how the medical management have ‘organised’ the hospitals.
Instead of designating certain hospitals as ‘dirty’ (‘fever hospitals’) and other sites as ‘clean’ they have instituted a bizarre and complicated traffic light system.
Red means Covid positive; Amber means Covid suspected but swab not back or negative test with Covid clinical signs; Green means Covid negative.
Patients are mixed up all over the place and this may be one reason for the high hospital acquired rate – everyone knows you can’t keep things separate when staff are coming and going or patients have to be moved about the hospital for tests, etc.
So you may be asking why has it been set up like this? Non-medical people assume that the NHS is a cohesive national system. In fact, it is a series of quasi-independent fiefdoms ruled by princelings – especially so in London. There is a vast amount of under-the-counter professional jealousy and rivalry. Essentially no one wants to be the dirty hospital – so there is vast push back, foot dragging and passive resistance to the sensible plan of isolating patients and their carers on one site.
Allied to that, Simon Stevens has decreed that all hospitals have to continue business as usual instead of scrapping non-urgent stuff – again, this is a political thing and exacerbates the problem of in-hospital transmission by having more staff and patients moving around the place.
So the pressure from the NHS for more lockdown is one of convenience not emergency. They are nowhere near approaching overload. They have had five months to sort this out and have completely failed (again).
When medical managers implement a useless plan which is clearly not working, instead of scrapping it early and starting again, they tend to double down and start blaming external factors – a bit like politicians because they are often incapable of shouldering responsibility and terrified of the personal reputational risk. Of course, they are not the ones to suffer. Salaries and final salary pension schemes are still paid by the taxpayer. Lockdown only affects doctors and NHS managers in a positive way. They get to stay at home and have less work to do but still get the same level of remuneration – what’s not to like?
As Charlie Munger says – show me the incentive and I’ll show you the outcome.
“It’s An Absolute Shambles” – ONS Survey Nurse
The Lockdown Sceptics reader who is participating in the ONS’s Covid infection survey and whom we heard yesterday has written an update.
Amazingly, I’ve just had a visit from a lovely nurse. She spent half an hour telling me what an absolute shambles it is. Her husband is trying to get her to give her notice because of how stressful it is. I asked if she’d let me pass on her number, but they’ve been instructed very firmly that they mustn’t speak to anyone in the media and she didn’t dare. But she did say I could tell you what she said.
Some days they’re given nothing to do. Some days, they’re given more than they can possibly do and she ends up working until 10 at night to finish the paperwork. Sometimes they give her some people to see at one side of her two-hour’s driving area and some at the other, so it’s impossible to see them all.
They get their list in the evening and have to see everyone on it they can the next day. No chance to make prior arrangements with them. They’re not allowed to see people at weekends or evenings, so she keeps missing anyone who has children.
People have been promised their results, but no one has been given any at all.
It’s being administered by several private companies and no one knows who’s supposed to be doing what. When she emails about a problem, they never get back to her in time for the answer to be of any use; usually weeks later, always by a different person.
Lots of people, like me, have had lots of missed appointments, but they’re listed on the system as having happened, even though they haven’t.
In the beginning, it all worked reasonably well, but they keep taking on more and more subjects and it’s getting worse and worse. She, and all the subjects are doing their best to make it work, but it’s becoming impossible.
I felt really sorry for her. Whatever data, if any, is coming out of this, it just has to be a steaming pile of poo.
Best Smoked Salmon For Christmas
Bleiker’s Smokehouse in Yorkshire has won the “Best Smoked Salmon for Christmas” accolade from Good Housekeeping. Well-deserved – it’s Toby’s favourite. And don’t forget, salmon is a natural source of Vitamin D which we now know beyond doubt is an effective prophylactic against Covid. Indeed, if the Government had spent 1% of the money it has spent on NHS Track and Trace (£12 billion and counting) on buying smoked salmon from Bleiker’s and distributing it to care homes, we’d likely have far fewer Covid deaths.
Order it here.
Charity Commission Censors Lockdown Sceptic
A reader has written to tell us the shocking story of the Charity Commission threatening a charity trustee who has dared to question the wisdom of lockdowns.
More evidence of attempted censorship of anti-lockdowners, but this time from the Charity Commission.
Yesterday, the Charity Commission sent a threatening email to a small local charity in Norfolk called Hey Jude, which supports people with chronic neurological diseases and cancer.
A week ago, its founder, Dr Henry Mannings, wrote an opinion piece that was published in the regional newspaper Eastern Daily Press and widely shared. In it, he essentially argues along the same lines as the GB Declaration.
The Charity Commission has alleged in its email that the article “could give the impression that Dr Mannings is writing in his capacity as charity trustee”, and warned that although no action will be taken at this time this incident has now been ‘”saved to the charity’s records”, and they may “decide to proactively look into the concerns in future”.
But if you read the article, there is no mention of the charity in the article at all, other than in the caption below the article’s photo, which correctly states that Dr Mannings is the founder of the charity.
But even if he did mention the charity in his article, what on earth has that got to do with the Charity Commission? If it’s verboten for a trustee of a charity to have a point of view on the lockdown and associated measures, why isn’t the Commission censuring those who toe the Government’s line?
Lastly, in case you missed it, note how pernicious the allegation actually is. It wasn’t even that Dr Mannings spoke on behalf of the charity, it was that the article “could give the impression” that he did.
This is a clearly a completely unfounded warning email that has been sent to intimidate Dr Mannings and the charity – the nasty implication being “shut up or the charity may face consequences”.
I would use the word unbelievable but I think I’ve exhausted its use over the last six months.
Round-Up
- “Truth about the claims scaring us all to death: Soaring infections, teeming hospital wards, and terrifying death rates… but do the numbers justifying crippling new lockdowns REALLY stand up to scrutiny?” – A tour de force of Covid myth-busting from Ross Clark in the Mail
- “Crucial Viral Update Oct 15th: Why are the Media Undermining Science and Data?” – Latest from Ivor Cummins
- “London calling… Genghis is working for the clampdown” – Richard Littlejohn in the Mail on the terrible reign of Khan the Destroyer
- “JD Wetherspoon boss attacks COVID-19 restrictions as pub chain slumps to loss” – Tim Martin takes the Government to task for imposing “an ever-changing raft of ill-thought-out regulations” none of which “appears to have any obvious basis in science”, in Yahoo
- “We have to get out of this spiral of authoritarianism” – Brendan O’Neill in spiked calls for some serious dissent
- “Covid suppression strategies will never work for a freedom loving democracy such as Britain” – Jeremy Warner in the Telegraph makes the mistake of thinking it was China’s heavy-handed reaction that rid the country of Covid, even though, as he acknowledges, Japan also saw low impact despite a much lighter touch. In fact, five million people fled Wuhan before the lockdown – some containment. The real source of the East-West difference is much more likely to be pre-existing cross-immunity
- “Covid has killed off our civil liberties” – Blistering attack on the progressive creep of public health regulation that reached its apogee in the Covid pandemic, from Lionel Shriver in the Spectator
- “How likely is the NHS to be overwhelmed by Covid?” – Not likely at all, says Fraser Nelson in the Spectator, although that’s no thanks to ministers telling the NHS not to prepare for a second wave in the winter because test and trace would take care of it
- “Warning of extra cancer deaths after more than 25 million GP appointments lost during pandemic” – More signs of the huge health costs of lockdown in the Telegraph
- “Five per cent of care homes have had no Covid testing of residents” – And 40% of residents were not tested in the last month, despite the Government pledging in July monthly tests for all residents
- “Woke teaching has been a disaster for working class kids” – Excellent piece by Calvin Robinson in the Telegraph criticising the malign role of Critical Race Theory in education in holding back working class children of all ethnic backgrounds
- “Courts overturn 11pm coronavirus curfew for restaurants and pubs in Berlin” – Another legal decision goes the sceptics’ way
- “GDLN Covid-19 webinar – Q&A” – The latest from Professor Ramesh Thakur – former UN panjandrum and one of the most intellectually agile lockdown sceptics – on face masks, rising cases, balancing risks and benefits, population immunity, and the way forward
- “Backing lockdown isn’t proof of caring more” – Good sceptical piece from Janice Turner in the Times. Better late than never Janice!
- “The New Zealand story” – Hector Drummond on the tragedy of a successful ‘Zero Covid’ strategy and the delusions of those who tout it here
- “Jacinda Ardern wins the New Zealand election in a LANDSLIDE” – Depressing news from New Zealand – the toothy tyrant won the election
- “Pandemic disruptions indirectly killed 75,000 more Americans than reported, study says” – Researchers with the Virginia Commonwealth University found that an estimated 75,000 of the 225,000 excess deaths in America between March and July – a third of the total – were caused by the shut downs, not Covid, in the Miami Herald
- “The BMJ Interview: Tim Spector on how data can arm us against COVID-19” – The inventor of the Covid Symptom Study app tells the BMJ there’s almost no evidence of reinfection and he thinks London has reached herd immunity
- “Hitting the panic button will cripple Britain… How DID they turn a crisis into an epidemic of madness?” – Strong and well-argued editorial from the Mail
- “Dead at 31 after her chemo was ‘paused’ due to Covid” – Tragic story of a young woman who couldn’t get critical care from the Covid-only NHS
- Judicial Review of the Coronavirus Act – Fundraiser for a Judicial Review
- “Just 0.05% of healthy under-70s who get COVID-19 will die from the disease, study claims” – As many as that?
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Two today: “Life Is A Risk” by Red Metafor and “Outdoors And Indoors” by The Creams.
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 £1.99 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 masks 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: A new preprint study by Dr Colleen Huber and colleagues reviews the evidence on masks and finds “mask use is not correlated with lower death rates nor with lower positive PCR tests” and that due to risks of contamination the “use of face masks will contribute to far more morbidity and mortality than has occurred due to COVID-19”. Worth a read.
Woke Gobbledegook
The new Belgian Director of the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford – which has inspired generations of students with its rag bag of fabulous oddities – doesn’t seem very fond of the institution. Martin Fletcher in the Telegraph has more.
When the museum reopened for the first time since the Covid lockdown last month, visitors were greeted with brightly-coloured new signage warning that the PRM is ‘a footprint of colonialism’; that its labels ‘use language and imagery that is derogatory, racist and Eurocentric’; and that ‘often the interpretation in the cases evades the complex and devastating circumstances in which many of the objects were collected’.
Under the leadership of Van Broekhoven, who conducted similar work in the Netherlands before her arrival in Oxford, it has conducted an ‘ethical review’ of its entire public collection. Displays are being systematically relabelled and ‘contextualised’ to explain their historical and cultural significance. Around 120 human remains, including skulls, scalps and a mummified Egyptian child, have been removed from public view and put into storage.
The PRM has even removed – from a case labelled ‘Treatment of Dead Enemies’ – the celebrated shrunken human heads with their sewn-up lips and eye sockets and great cascades of hair.
The Shuar and Achuar people of the Upper Amazon produced these ‘tsantsas’ by removing the brains and skulls before boiling the skins and filling them with hot sand and rocks to shrink them. They were allegedly a means of imprisoning the souls of enemy warriors, or possibly of honouring Shuar chiefs.
Last month the Oxford Mail called the removal of those heads ‘the latest symptom of a politically motivated curatorial revisionism sweeping the land’. A Times art critic accused the museum of ‘patronising’ the public and observed that ‘nobody will be attracted to the Pitt Rivers by the slogan: “It’s the museum that won’t let you see its shrunken heads”’.
But Van Broekhoven is unrepentant. ‘Our audience research has shown that visitors often saw the museum’s displays of human remains as a testament to other cultures being “savage”, “primitive” or “gruesome”. Rather than enabling our visitors to reach a deeper understanding of each other’s ways of being, the displays reinforced racist and stereotypical thinking that goes against the museum’s values today.’
Sounds like Van Broekhoven is aiming to close the museum altogether. First tell visitors it’s a monument to white supremacy, then give away all the exhibits.
The Great Barrington Declaration
The Great Barrington Declaration, a petition started by Professor Martin Kulldorff, Professor Sunetra Gupta and Professor Jay Bhattacharya calling for a strategy of “Focused Protection” (protect the elderly and the vulnerable and let everyone else get on with life), was launched on October 5th and the lockdown zealots have been doing their best to discredit it. If you Googled it last week, the top hits you got were two smear pieces from the obscure Leftist conspiracy website Byline Times, and one from the Guardian headlined: “Herd immunity letter signed by fake experts including ‘Dr Johnny Bananas’.” (Freddie Sayers at UnHerd warned us about this hit job the day before it appeared). On the bright side, Google UK has stopped shadow banning it, so the actual Declaration now shows up in the search results – and Toby’s Spectator piece about it is the top hit – although discussion of it has been censored by Reddit. The reason the zealots hate it, of course, is that it gives the lie to their claim that “the science” only supports their strategy. These three scientists are every bit as eminent – more eminent – than the pro-lockdown fanatics so expect no let up in the attacks. (Wikipedia has also done a smear job).
You can find it here. Please sign it. It now has more than half-a-million signatures.
Stop Press: The number of experts signing a petition doesn’t have any bearing on the truth of its claims, of course. In the “hierarchy of evidence” for evaluating healthcare interventions, expert opinion is dead last. This letter in the BMJ by John Ioannidis on why petitions and open letters should be taken with a large does of salt is very good.
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. (Don’t assume we’ll pick them up in the comments).
Special thanks to graphic designer and Lockdown Sceptics reader Claire Whitten for designing our new logo. We think it’s ace. Find her work here.
And Finally…
Comedian Simon Brodkin thinks he’s figured out how the Government picks its coronavirus policies – and it bears an uncanny resemblance to the National Lottery. Watch his latest YouTube video.
Discussion
Comments
This week across the site:
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https://youtu.be/mJq_lCcMPnI
Excellent interview with German lawyer Reiner Fuelmich who is preparing to sue the creator of PCR tests and a few others.
He is also defending students violating social distancing rules.
If flu is apparently on the wane since Summer ( as WHO claims) then how is it that we’re all being urged to get the flu jab? I was personally called by my GP surgery and I’m not in any risk category. Suspect they’ve bought a huge batch and need to get rid of it to be paid?
Things I learnt today:
1. The rate of hospital discharge is a lot higher in what passes for the second wave compared with the first. The lying MSM are not telling us about this because it doesn’t fit with the nightmare scenario narrative.
2. Lieutenant Mayo is due a promotion to Colonel in view of his determination to press forward despite insuperable enemy forces on the sceptical side.
3. This is a good place to discuss, in relation to Covid, the intersections between incompetence, conspiracy, chance events, honest endeavour, commercial interest, politics, science (genuine and bogus), corrupt coalitions and malign influence.
I am beginning to form the opinion that if and when this horror show is all over, the UK (state) security services’ (77th Brigade) greatest achievement will have been in convincing a large number of sceptics that the lockdowns were nothing to do with Boris Johnson and the British government.
That Boris Johnson was not the country’s main protagonist and the architect of Britain’s catastrophic lockdowns, but instead that he was simply an innocent bystander, a victim of unseen and unknown dark forces abroad. (And Bill Gates, of course).
They must be finding all of this very amusing.
Nor a victim, not an innocent bystander. We can all agree on this as you well know.
Change the record…and the CD…and the download.
Ffs are you still pushing that rubbish
Hi
We’re building a great online management system to help us bypass the mainstream and social media and get the facts out to the public.
But we need someone who can build a front-end with a great UI/UX.
Is there anyone here who could do that? If so, please get in touch via the website: http://www.covid19assembly.org
Thanks
Victoria recorded 1 case yesterday and 2 cases today. The strategy is ‘working’. I don’t see it as a victory, I see it as result of the worst strategy in the world.
Temporary “victory.” As soon as measures are relaxed the virus is going to do what the virus is going to do. New Zealand declared victory and now the Zero Covid queen is going to isolate the country for a good long time, and then when they emerge they’ll still be susceptible. Hollow victory.
“I don’t believe I’d ever do a mandated vaccine,” the president told Fox’s Stuart Varney. “I just don’t think I would do that, where you have to have it, because there are some people who feel very strong about that whole situation,” Trump said.
https://www.twitter.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1316754740177498112
DM reporting that official commons investigation found MPs were drinking in commons bar past 10pm last weekend. Wanksock hasn’t managed to answer the question as to whether he was he present yet (he’s only been asked 30 times so far…)
Arrogant fucker. I’ll be having a drink myself when he is dislodged.
http://Www.iceagefarmer.com
I was drawn to this site by the latest vernon coleman video.
Yes, I think the worm is turning. Slowly at the moment, but it’s turning. From the Telegraph (paywall):
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/10/17/tory-grandees-demand-covid-exit-strategy-boris-johnson/
Tory grandees are demanding that Boris Johnson urgently sets out an exit strategy from “a constant cycle of lockdowns”, as an influential expert on public opinion warned the Prime Minister risked appearing “blasé” about the lives of ordinary people.
Senior Conservatives expressed growing anger at the Government’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, amid mounting concern that swathes of the country are heading for further restrictions this week.
On Saturday, Julian Jessop, an independent economist, said that another lockdown could result in a fresh hit to GDP of at least 5 per cent.
Lord Lamont, the former Chancellor, warned that repeatedly imposing draconian restrictions and then lifting them is “deeply damaging to business and is not really a strategy”.
Sir Graham Brady, Chairman of the 1922 committee of Tory backbenchers, whose Altrincham and Sale West constituency in Manchester faces being placed in the highest tier of restrictions, said constant lockdowns or “circuit breakers” to suppress the virus would be “pointless”.
“If further restrictions on people’s lives are proposed, the Government has to set a clear end date and a strategy for returning… Read more »
It certainly is, however, my real fear now is that the government position is so entrenched, their next move is going to be coming after us and websites like this, if you don’t think this could happen, look how quickly things have descended in 7 months already. They are running out of moves to play…
Yes. Takes that thought and know that you are onto the right thinking. What next? Because if they turn back now, Hancock ends up in jail. Do you think then, in that case, that turning back is an option?
I don’t know. We definitely live in “Crazy Times”! What happens between now and Christmas will probably define society for the next 50 years or so is my best guess.
Piers Morgan is claiming that the BAME population would need to be shielded if we went down the GBD route. Today I read that the ONS say that any disparity among the races is down to socio-economic reasons and not genetic.
Piers’l; probably start saying that “we should lock all the coloured folk away so we can protect them” soon.
The bloke lost the plot probably about 357 years ago.
It’s folk of colour, racist.
(Or at least it was last week)
Ignore him, never has anything useful to say
Did the ONS say that? Can I get a link? It’s just that it was a specific argument I made at the start of all this with a close friend.
From a June analysis – there may be an updated one.
“ONS analysis continues to show that people from a Black ethnic background are at a greater risk of death involving COVID-19 than all other ethnic groups. The risk for black males has been more than three times higher than white males and nearly two and a half times higher for black females than white. Adjusting for socio-economic factors and geographical location partly explains the increased risk, but there remains twice the risk for Black males and around one and a half times for black females. Significant differences also remain for Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Indian men. The ONS will continue to research this unexplained increased risk of death, examining the impact of other health conditions.”
Sauce
They are maybe short of vitamin D.
The age distribution of deaths is almost exactly as normal. It is impossible for there to be any special risks, except in proportion to the normal risk of death.
It is always so reassuring to be on the opposite side of an argument to Piers Moron.
Doctors Speak Out About Misinformation Surrounding The Coronavirus.
https://youtu.be/6HLcg9n-WPs
3 hours ago on the steps of the supreme court – quite a big thing.
NORTHENERS: “I want to work hard and be rewarded”
BOPRIS: “Excellent!”
How’s that working out?
Great piece in the Spectator by Lionel Shriver:
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/covid-has-killed-off-our-civil-liberties
“We’ve granted government the right to regulate whether we can see our parents, whom we may invite into our homes, and how physically close we may approach another human being outside our household. We’ve accepted wearing dehumanising, fear-inducing face coverings in public without demanding proof of their efficacy. With Covid-19, there’s no aspect of our lives that we’ve not granted our betters total control over.”
Underline mine. She gets it.
That could be a line straight out of a WWII journal.
I don’t know which “we” he is referring to, but I don’t recall being asked for my permission.
The government simply misused an act that was passed when I was a child to entirely side-step the Parliamentary process.
Liverpool tomorrow.
Clayton Square 1pm opp Central Station
More NHS app chaos:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/17/nhs-covid-19-app-users-sent-incorrect-risk-level-change-alerts-england-wales
Jeremy Place, an information security specialist, told Sky News that as many as 4 million people could have been sent incorrect updates by what he described as “a fat-finger error”.
This probably happened when a blank file was accidentally sent to phones instead of an alert-level update, he said. Any phone receiving the empty file would have reverted to the old system, triggering a message saying “the risk level in your area has changed”.
Right. End this now. Track and trace is systemic virus in itself
World-beating tech eh!
From Dr. Mercola’s site today: Where did the flu go? WHO stats show influenza almost non-existent
“Globally, influenza activity remained at lower levels than expected for this time of the year, though increased detections were reported in some countries,” according to a WHO influenza summary. “In the southern hemisphere, the influenza season remained low or below baseline. Despite continued or even increased testing for influenza in some countries in the southern hemisphere, very few influenza detections were reported.”
So where did the flu go? The CDC attributed the apparent “disappearance” of flu numbers during the COVID pandemic to “widespread adoption of community mitigation measures to reduce transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.” Specifically in the U.S., samples submitted that turned out to be positive for influenza cases during this time period dropped by 98% compared to other seasons.
Here’s what scares me — the CDC is chalking up the “disappearance” of flu to widespread adoption of community mitigation measures. If they can spin the flu disappearance as being due to anti-social distancing and mask wearing, I fear these “mitigation measures” will never go away, particularly if the imagined “second wave” of Covid never materializes. I hate to think… Read more »
Let’s not forget all the post-9/11 “emergency” measures are still here twenty years later.
Thinking of the USA, I’m just watching this https://twitter.com/OANN/status/1317520715755646976 if no one has posted about it yet – USA doctors a few hours ago, calling out the myth of masks working….
It gets worse. The architects of that are behind the bio security agenda. Just take some time and look at Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld (especially). Gilead. Etc.
One of the worries for winter was that Hospitals would be overwhelmed due to both Flu and Coronavirus. If flu is effectively gone then that changes the risk profile for winter.
Regarding prolonging social distancing and mask wearing I can only see bad things coming from it with long term effects unlikely to manifest until well into the future. At best it will create more problems due to unintended consequences that we will be required to fix somehow.
Flu will probably return, ONS data shows flu deaths are still at 5Y average.
UK? How do you explain the global trend?
That Covid deaths are actually flu deaths and Covid is practically non-existent?
Yes it’s been supressed, but not eradicated and can still seasonally circulate at a reduced level. Plus a lot of flu is probably being reported as covid, not helped by unreliable testing.
I suppose it also depends on how they are measuring death-by-flu.
As far as I understand it, flu has traditionally not been mentioned on the death certificate in the UK because it is not a notifiable disease.
This is of course in stark contrast to having died within a month of having looked sideways at a fragment of SARS-CoV-2, for which your are automatically a victim of COVID-19.
If you die in hospital of influenza, it will be recorded as such. Most likely with a positive PCR test for influenza too.
Then how do we know 30,000 died of flu in the UK in 2018?
Dont forget this is the WHO official flu numbers. Do you think they’ve just given up on that whole data collection enterprise on flu overnight?
The actual levels of testing for flu hasn’t decreased. So what are you saying? Look at the testing numbers for Northern Europe. Pretty stable. See the pic attached.
This stuff is now being removed from twitter by the way so theadreader version is avakibel here
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1317186379483406337.html
Sure. Even that light acknowledgement of the data means we are operating in a seriously foggy mess.
Unless it’s some thing more sinister. But it doesn’t need to be. If flu is being counted as Covid then what is PCR?
It’s a direct hypotehesis for why excess deaths are normal.
I can’t now understand how a lockdown zealot can look at that data collapse and still hold their ground. Honestly, I’ve been going over this in the last 24 hours and I’m unable to know how they can still tell themselves it’s because of masks, or hand washing, or whatever. 97% is just unimaginable from a data perspective, from a medical perspective, from a historical perspective.
Madness squared
If flu really is now it is most likely because there are no social events to catch it at. I’d rather be free to choose if I want to go to things.
I worry about this too, but I don’t think it will happen. After all most people think that flu doesn’t kill people and besides, we’ve got a vaccine for flu, and everyone knows vaccines are magic and make a disease disappear completely.
Also how does this work if ten times as many people have been dying of flu than of covid, over the summer at least?
And I’ve had at least two colds since September so we’re definitely not managing to eradicate colds…
I have a cold
If only you’d used the Magic Powers Of The Masks!
I hope a few Covid marshals will soon be visiting your area to make sure you’re not out and about there LT
I’m afraid people just got wise to the fact that flu kills tens of thousands every year and the sheeple are self-flagellating for all the grannies they may have inadvertently killed over all these years. And the ineffectiveness of the flu vaccine is getting lots of press these days as well. They’ll want to aim for zero death from any respiratory illness! I truly think they don’t give a rat’s ass about any death that isn’t a result of something communicable because they couldn’t have prevented it. Now that we’re apparently responsible for each other’s health, we must pull out all the stops to prevent anything that spreads. Cancer be damned, suicides be damned, heart disease be damned…
That’s nonsense. When flu kills 30,000 in the UK (2018) surely those families alone know.
Who exactly doesn’t know that flu kills?
Could be there is a Darwinian struggle going on in old people’s lungs and Covid19 is currently winning out against the flu virus.
The more likely explanation is that a lot of Covid was attributed before a flu test and even with a flu test any deaths arising are still labelled Covid. We saw this with the ONS figures.
You don’t always test for flu anyway so saying more testing is done is relative. Remember flu is often underdiagnosed.
I totally accept that argument.
But 97% global drop in flu?
The WHO drove the guidelines for attributing Covid. Remember Italy?
Again. I know this. They have a system to say Covid is a sniffle.
So are the WHO saying flu =covid? So get on with it?
No. They are not. That would end this. It would be unbelievable to suggest that is what the official position is. So what is going on? I am at loss to grasp it.
Something a bit more lighthearted to cheer the gang.
The App! Here is a review from Mr Moist on Google Play:
Gave me a giggle. 🙂
Down the Pub in London.
Amazing the bubbles and relationships forged 🙂
Probably be busted shortly, but for now, sense predominates.
Good stuff.
Totally agree, my friend. I was down the pub earlier myself and it was really heartening to see how much credence people are putting in to the tier-based lockdown shite. I.E. very little at all.
Let’s keep on keeping on and let’s make it clear that we want freedom – not needless restrictions of slavery tarted up as health-related restrictions.
People are smarter than that and our governments should be afraid of this resistance!
If they enforce the new restrictions the pubs go bust.Nothing to lose if they ignore them
Awkward Git, thank you for all your hard work. I have researched some of these issues myself, particularly the very concerning one of false positives re the RT-PCR test. It has to be assumed that sage et al must know all this, so the conclusion one is left with is that the complete shebang has been and still is exclusively politically driven, thus facts will change nothing.
The first lot of restrictions in March happened because Johnson lost his nerve when he suddenly realised, shit I might get blamed for the collapse of the NHS, a behemoth that comes well ahead of even the monarch in the public’s affections. The collapse of the sainted NHS would spell disaster for any Government so saving it is a political imperative, and thus it was a no-brainer that Johnson must give it top priority.
Wind forward to late summer when a growing number of people has become restive and less submissive. They started to suspect that (especially with the example of Sweden in our face) the Government has wrecked the economy, caused thousands of avoidable deaths of people with serious illnesses, ruined the education system, imprisoned the population, etc for no reason. So, time… Read more »
Hats off to Awkward Git.
That is almost exactly my reading of what is going on. David McCluskey.
Flagged up earlier, below, but here’s yet more reason not to get tested:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/17/police-get-access-to-people-told-of-self-isolate-by-nhs-test-and-trace
💯
Share far and wide. That’s next level
https://brandnewtube.com/watch/they-don-039-t-want-you-to-know-any-of-this_rXFlW2slmZ8sMcI.html
They Don’t Wand You To Know This.
Dr Vernon Coleman
Vernon Coleman doesn’t seem to have posted anything for several weeks. Anyone know if he’s ok?
That was yesterday.
16 Oct 2020
Oops thanks! Hadn’t spotted the date.
I thought it was the earlier one of the same name!
He’s on Brandnewtube – where they don’t censor.
He has taken a break from Richie Allen’s slot too.
The man deserves a break, he’s been an absolute stalwart
The post-1945 era in the West, and all that we associate with it, ended in March 2020.
I would describe it more as the post Cold War era which ended, but agree with the sentiment.
I have heard that South Wales police today stopped a bus travelling from Rhondda Cynon Taf into Merthyr and made those not travelling for essential reasons to get off and catch the bus home.
If I’d have been on that bus, I’d have been the Welsh Rosa Parks.
I have family in South Wales, and they tell me the police are being a right royal pain in the arse with their (over)zealous enforcement of cross-boundary journeys.
Apparently yesterday they were sitting at a roundabout on the Cardiff/Penarth boundary and turning people around. So the good people of Vale were not allowed to enter Cardiff to do their shopping or whatever, and vice versa.
Obviously the police are short of something useful to do.
(I sometimes wonder whether I’ll ever get to see my grandchildren again because of that poundshop dictator Drakeford and his lickspittle lackeys. But I’m determined I shall, and when I’m determined….)
Nothing here in north east wales, under the same regime. I’ve been crossing the borders more or less every other day with no sign of any enforcement.
A pound fir Dripfeed?
Worst bargain ever.
Pigs wouldn’t eat him from a swill bucket.
But what can they do if you refuse to turn around? Issue a FPN?
My daughter, granddaughter and son-in-law came to me on the South coast, from Penarth,on Thurs evening, no problems – due to go back home tomorrow – if in doubt, ‘family support’ is the reason. 🙂
“But man, proud man,
Drest in a little brief authority,
Most ignorant of what he’s most assur’d;
His glassy essence, like an angry ape,
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven,
As make the angels weep.“
“Most ignorant of what he’s most assur’d” is this whole nonsense in a line. Shakespeare does it again.
Shakespeare never checked his privilege and wrote plays that were racist, misogynistic, ageist, eurocentric, militaristic, nationalistic, non disability-aware and anti-democratic. So clearly he has nothing important to tell us about the human condition.
Isn’t that the line that got a TV news presenter dismissed?
Went to a game of non league football this afternoon. One of the few vaguely normal things no longer proscribed.
Crowd restricted to 400, but how liberating it felt to see people just interacting like humans are supposed to. Also refreshing to see so many ‘older’ people out and about, enjoying a drink and a game of football, chatting with friends, refusing to be cowed into sitting in the cupboard under the stairs pickled in hand sanitiser.
Love your final description.
Did the same. First game since March Delightfully normal. Bit more of a queue to get in and at the bar, due to rather shambolic lip service to Covid rules but that almost felt part of the charm. Also my team won in an exciting cup game
Enjoy it while you can. I support a team in NLN and their game today was postponed as an opposition player had tested positive. This could be the never ending season.
Did the same a few weeks ago, Marske v Brighouse, it was the most normal I have felt for a long time (nithering northerly wind though)
I hope Brighouse won. Fond memories of visiting there when I was a lad.
I’ve been checking the websites of small football clubs in my area with a view to doing the same. Nothing near enough for me today, but maybe next Saturday.
I hope you spread the sceptic feels far and wide at such an event.
https://jordanschachtel.substack.com/p/comprehensive-study-faucis-standard?r=6a3x3&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&utm_source=twitter Comprehensive study: Fauci’s ‘standard of care’ COVID-19 treatment doesn’t workFauci’s agency helped develop and fund the failed treatment
And yet Falsei rubbishes HCQ despite writing in 2005 that chloroquine could treat SARS:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16115318/
Remdesivir is barely antiviral against SARS-COV2 at the concentrations achievable over five days. It appears to have a modest anti-viral effect if given early – a challengs as it is IV only, but has no effect on more severe patients (Lancet Chinese study and now SOLIDARITY WHO study). To be honest, after they screened clinically available anti-virals, it was the best bet in town (but still a long shot). But it must be given early to have an effect. It did not have much of an effect on Ebola – a virus it was screened to suppress – most likely because it takes time to build up in cells, and with Ebola, there isn’t a lot of time.
Where’s the Advertising Standards Agency when you need them?! Just sat through another nauseating round of the ‘Hands, Face, Space’ adverts. The ASA should act as we know the actors are really thinking
“Hands. I wash my hand because I’m not sure what you’ve touched with your virus ridden fingers
Face. I wear a face covering because I know you have Covid, and I don’t want you breathing on me
Space. I’m socially distancing because I don’t trust you. Keep away and don’t infect me”
I thought Peter Hitchens had complained because of the untruthfulness of the muzzle stopping the virus
I sent a short complaint to ASA regards the radio ad…no reply of course. Would be good if we all complained…
A nice video by Carl Vernon looking at the BBC article I shared earlier. Journalism is beyond saving.
https://youtu.be/jMLvVk8ulpo
Went to Epping Forest today -almost normal spoiled by a few wearing muzzles in the fresh air.
FFS!!!!
Their loss, the stupid twats.
lol, twats.
Me and Mrs 2-6 went out for a walk “up the woods” and a few ales with a couple of other sceptics today.
We didn’t break the rule of six mind you, all five of us. We didn’t see one face napppy, Plenty of people out and about, one or two swervers. A very nice way to spend the day!
‘Twas a most enjoyable afternoon with superb company and beautiful surroundings
Yes it was – best afternoon I’ve had in months. Lovely to meet you all.
Looks like an enjoyable day for you and the missus. Well done!
I didn’t spot the lack of nappies! You’re right though – not a one!
Proves the absence of face nappies is unremarkably normal.
It was lovely to meet you and Mr CGL. Talking to sane people is so refreshing and makes me believe all hope is not lost xx
Those who swerve
Lack nerve.
Those in a nappy
Can’t be happy.
They all make the sceptic
Feel dyspeptic.
But who cares?
The misery’s theirs.
Filthy face rags give you eye bags, spots and rashes, ugly skin tags. It’s also bad for you, to breathe in all that CO2.
Though I cannot fault the sentiment in any way at all, this SHOULD have been written ‘Mrs. 2-6 and I went …’. One does NOT say, ‘Me went for a walk…’.
Exactly. They’re just breathing in their own CO2!
Mrs Tenchy and Miss Tenchy are watching that Strictly bollocks on the BBC. I’m sitting in another room, but I can hear it. Apart from the usual nauseating self-congratulation that is the hallmark of the BBC, and an almost continuous stream of guff telling us that this is the best programme of all time the world have ever known, ever; apart from all that – the programme seems to be not so much about dancing, but more about Wuhan lab flu and how they’ve dealt with it. There’s much talk of “bubbles” and testing and all the other shite. The BBC at its best!
Just can’t resist scoring propaganda points can they.
Nope. Not safe from Corona-ganda even on Radio 3. When they do have live music especially with an audience the term “socially distanced” crops up every other sentence. Annoying, to say the least. But at least the music is (generally) worth listening to.
Yes. I’m having much the same gritted teeth, keep-the-peace experience.
And, yes, I noticed all the Covid posturing.
I might see the programme in a different light if one of the victims mentioned the fact that its all total bollocks.
Relaxing to the Now 70s music channel blissfully unaware of Strictly!
Strictly Dumb Dancing
Had to switch off. I usually love Strictly but I can’t bear all the 2m shite and the constant reassurance that it’s “Covid safe”. Was it “flu safe” in all previous years then?
Professor (Mrs) Beefheart and Miss Beefheart watch that too sometimes (little Miss doesn’t get a choice though). I always make sure that when I get a chance, Miss Beefheart gets to listen to a bit of ACDC or something, just to balance things out.