Wales To Go Into Full Lockdown
The First Minister of Wales Mark Drakeford announced yesterday that Wales would be plunged into a full lockdown from this Friday until November 9th. The BBC has more.
People will be told to stay at home, while pubs, restaurants, hotels and non-essential shops will shut.
Primary schools will reopen after the half-term break, but only Years 7 and 8 in secondary schools will return at that time under new “firebreak” rules.
Gatherings indoors and outdoors with people not in your household will also be banned.
First Minister Mark Drakeford said the “time-limited ‘firebreak'” will be “a short, sharp, shock to turn back the clock, slow down the virus and buy us more time”.
Without action the NHS will not be able to look after those falling sick, he told a press conference.
Leisure businesses, community centres, libraries and recycling centres will shut. Places of worship will be closed for normal services, except for funerals and weddings.
The announcement follows rising case numbers in Wales and increasing hospital admissions, and replaces the 17 local lockdowns that had been in place.
Figures now stand at 130 coronavirus cases per 100,000 over seven days – there were 4,127 cases recorded between October 9th and 15th.
Needless to say, daily deaths in Wales are in low single digits and cases are falling.
Daily deaths from Covid peaked at 11 on October 7th and haven’t climbed above single digits since. The cumulative death toll in Wales, as of yesterday, was 1,712, which is about 3.9% of the total in England.
There is absolutely no need for a ‘circuit breaker’. Let’s call this by its proper name, a hospitality industry breaker.
One of the many irritating things about this is that Mark Drakeford can indulge in this pointless virtue-signalling without worrying about the economic impact because the Chancellor has agreed to bung Wales an extra £350 million this year. We’re now facing an untenable situation where Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland can all afford to introduce these absurd, economically destructive measures because the English are covering their losses. It is this, more than anything else, that will tear the union apart.
Stop Press: Matthew Lynn has the right idea. He’s written a comment piece for the Telegraph‘s Business section saying that Scotland and Wales should pay for their own lockdowns.
26,000 Excess Deaths in Private Homes, But Not From Covid
According to data released by the ONS yesterday, around 26,000 excess deaths were recorded in private homes in England and Wales between March 14th and September 11th, but only 3% were due to COVID-19. The BBC has more.
More men than normal are dying at home from heart disease in England and Wales, and more women are dying from dementia and Alzheimer’s, figures show.
More than 26,000 extra deaths occurred in private homes this year, an analysis by the Office for National Statistics found.
In contrast, deaths in hospitals from these causes have been lower than usual.
The Covid epidemic may have led to fewer people being treated in hospital…
Between March and September 2020, there were 24,387 more deaths in England than expected in private homes, and 1,644 in Wales. The large majority did not involve COVID-19.
Of these, an extra 1,705 men died from heart disease in their own homes in England compared with the average number over the previous five years.
This is 25% more than normal. In Wales there was a similar rise in male deaths from heart disease, of 22.7%.
Over the same period, deaths in hospitals from heart disease went down by about a quarter in England and Wales.
During the pandemic, about 1,400 more women than usual died at home from dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
While deaths from these conditions also increased in care homes, hospital deaths from dementia decreased by 40% in England and 25% in Wales.
Prof David Spiegelhalter, Chairman of the Winton Centre for Risk and Evidence Communication at the University of Cambridge, says that this equates to an extra 100 people dying at home every day between March and September.
“Usually around 300 people die each day in their homes in England and Wales,” he commented.
“The latest ONS analysis confirms that even after the peak of the epidemic this has stayed at around 400 a day and shows no sign of declining. That’s one third extra, very few of which are from Covid.”
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: The Mail has also done a story on this.
Manchester’s Hospitals Not Overwhelmed – Andy Burnham
Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, and Sir Richard Leese, the Leader of Manchester City Council, issued a joint statement last night in which they expressed their frustration that the Government is continuing to put out fear-mongering stories about hospitals in Greater Manchester being on the verge of collapse. This was in response to Boris’s Downing Street spokesperson claiming Greater Manchester’s hospitals were on track to be overwhelmed by October 28th if the area isn’t immediately placed under a Tier 3 lockdown. Burnham and Leese dispute this:
We are disappointed that the Government has today sought to raise public concern about the NHS in Greater Manchester with selective statistics.
Greater Manchester’s ICU occupancy rate is not abnormal for this time of year and is comparable to the occupancy rate in October 2019. Also, providing information about individual hospitals does not reflect that our hospitals work as a system to manage demand.
We are not complacent about the position in our hospitals and are monitoring the situation closely. But in the current situation, we believe it is essential that our residents are given clear, accurate information about the state of the NHS in Greater Manchester and that public fears are not raised unnecessarily.
They’re not wrong. The chart above, which Prof Carl Heneghan and colleagues flagged up in the Telegraph on Saturday, shows that emergency episodes for respiratory conditions, including Covid, are well below the five-year average in Manchester University hospitals.
Interestingly, Sir Richard Leese has suggested that a policy of “focused protection”, shielding the elderly and the vulnerable rather than forcing everyone to self-isolate in their homes, would be far more sensible than a Tier 3 lockdown, echoing the strategy laid out in the Great Barrington Declaration – and his proposal has been endorsed by several local Conservative MPs. The Telegraph has more:
He claimed this would be less than a fifth of the cost of the business closures that would happen in Tier 3, enabling businesses to stay open and the majority of people to avoid tougher restrictions.
The plan was backed by senior Conservatives in the area including Sir Graham Brady, the Chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbench Tories, who said there was no scientific basis for the tier system.
Sir Graham, the MP for Altrincham and Sale West, said the proposal should not be “dismissed out of hand”, adding: “The fundamental point about Tier 3 is the proposals don’t appear to have any evidential basis. There is no reason to think that closing some pubs and bars would have a significant impact on the spread on the virus.”
He was joined by James Daly, the Tory MP for Bury North, who said he was “extremely sympathetic” to Sir Richard’s proposal, and Chris Green, the Tory MP for Bolton West, who said: “I think this is a good direction of travel. Let’s keep our hospitality running up to Christmas and support people at home if they are deemed vulnerable.”
William Wragg, the Tory MP for Hazel Grove, said: “I think Richard Leese’s proposal has merit and should be properly considered.”
Sir Richard said: “Most people who test positive for the virus are not getting particularly ill. They are not the problem”, pointing out that those most at risk of hospitalisation were older people and those with existing underlying conditions, diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure or respiratory illnesses.
“If this is the evidence, wouldn’t it be much better to have an effective shielding programme for those most at risk, rather than have a blanket business closure policy of dubious efficacy?” he said.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: Ross Clark has written a piece for the Spectator headlined: “Does Manchester really need tougher restrictions?” I’ll let you guess the answer.
High Noon: Robert Jenrick, the Communities and Local Government Secretary, has given Burnham until Noon today to reach a deal – or else. But can Boris really force the people of Greater Manchester to observe Tier 3 restrictions in the teeth of opposition from the Mayor and the leader of the council?
Why Does Hancock Want to Lock Up the North When Cases Are Falling?
Matt Hancock said in the House of Commons yesterday that talks had begun with local leaders in South and West Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, the North East and Teesside about joining Liverpool and Lancashire in the tightest level of lockdown. But why, when infection rates across the North are falling? The Mail has more.
Official data shows Nottingham, Newcastle, Sheffield and Manchester are among the cities where cases have started to fall after a surge at the end of September, when thousands of students and staff poured back into universities.
Infection rates in all four cities have been steadily decreasing for several days, suggesting they are on a consistent downward trend rather than a temporary dip. Yet Mr Hancock warned tonight that large parts of the North of England are headed towards a ‘Tier 3’ lockdown.
The Mail then looks in more detail at the infection rate in a number of Northern cities.
In Nottingham the rolling weekly rate of cases peaked at 1,001.2 per 100,000 people for the seven days to October 8th – the highest in England – but since then the number has been falling, currently standing at 787.6.
Manchester’s current rate is 432.5, after peaking at 583.5 in the seven days to October 3rd, while in Sheffield it’s 396.7, down from a high of 500.3 in the week ending October 7th. The rate in Newcastle stands at 371.5, down from 553.8 in the same period.
Zero Transmission in Pubs, Gyms and Restaurants, According to NHS App
Lockdown Sceptic‘s very own NHS Test and Trace correspondent has been combing through the NHSX data to see how many outbreaks have occurred in the businesses that are being forced to close in Tier 3 areas. Answer: almost none.
We are all getting used to seeing QR code check-in posters in shops, gyms, offices and restaurants. Ever wondered how many of those venues have been deemed to have a COVID-19 outbreak? Perhaps that data is driving the decision to shut pubs and gyms?
We can see for ourselves because NHSX publishes the data via its “risky venues API”. It’s easy to see, just click here: If you see something like “{“venues”:[]}” that’s what we techies call an empty list and it means there are no venues listed. Zero.
Of course, the list is constantly being updated and perhaps today is just a good day when nowhere is risky. If only someone were clicking on that link regularly and keeping a track of the results, like the graph at the bottom of this page. Then we could see a grand total of, er, four venues that have been flagged up since the app was released. Yes, four. They were in September. There have been none in October.
Remind me why we’re shutting pubs, gyms and restaurants?
As NHSX say on its website, “The purpose of maintaining records and displaying an official NHS QR poster […] will help to avoid the reintroduction of lockdown measures and support the country to return to, and maintain, a more normal way of life.” In that case, isn’t NHSX’s own data telling us we can all get back to normal?
A Guardian Reader Writes…
I got an email today from a disillusioned Guardian reader. There must be a fair few of those!
As a reader of the Guardian since my early twenties 40 years ago I was willing to believe in the integrity of its journalism. My faith has waned over the years as the paper’s investigative journalism has become more obviously and frequently shallow, and in the last weeks it has become a Government mouthpiece. But I didn’t expect such flagrant falsehoods as the ones I have read today in its coverage of Scott Atlas’s Twitter ban.
In particular: “In a stream of posts, Atlas falsely claimed that several US states and other countries had taken up widespread use of masks without evidence of any positive effect. He also incorrectly said that there were ‘many harms’ to the practice.” To the contrary, there is considerable research to support Atlas, available to anyone with internet access.
The article continued: “Atlas’s views on how to deal with the virus have raised alarm in scientific circles. He has repeatedly cast doubt on masks and social distancing, and suggested people could gain natural self-defenses against the disease even without a vaccine through ‘herd immunity’.” Which “scientific circles”? All of them? And what exactly is “alarming”?
It goes on: “Friday saw the daily number of confirmed cases exceed 70,000 for the first time since July, with almost 900 deaths. In a leaked report, the White House put 26 states in the ‘red zone’ – indicating a dangerous level of new infections – including almost all states in the midwest.” In fact, the rates are falling, even according to the authority the article itself cites. That site says that there there were 393 deaths on Sunday, which supports Trump’s assertion rather more than the Guardian‘s.
Pro-Masking Fanatic Gary Lineker Caught Shopping Without a Mask
Gary Lineker has always made his feelings about wearing masks very clear. Back in April, he tweeted: “How can there be any debate about whether we should be wearing a mask? Even if it’s only a one per cent chance of making you safer. Even if it is only a one per cent chance of stopping you giving it to someone else.”
On July 2nd he wrote: “Can’t understand why anyone would object to wearing a mask. Painless gesture to ensure you don’t spread the virus to others, and great for hiding bad breath.”
And on July 14th, he tweeted: “Why would anyone object to wearing a mask in a shop? Not exactly a hardship. What a country of snowflakes we’ve become.”
He then added: “Wearing masks, of all things, is the most obvious thing we can do to help decrease the spread of the virus, and the smallest of all the sacrifices. No brainer.”
But in spite of this constant finger-wagging, Gary was spotted wandering around Marks and Spencer in Barnes on Sunday night without a mask.
The Express has the story.
Hypocrisy, thy name is Lineker.
Stop Press: There may be an even bigger hypocrite than Lineker in our midst. Matt Hancock was spotted in a chauffeur-driven ministerial car without a mask, forcing Number 10 to issue reminders to ministers about the need to wear masks, even in ministerial cars.
Might Most Positive Test be Wrong?
We’ve devoted a lot of attention to the false positive rate of the PCR test on this site – and even though we haven’t run anything new on it recently don’t assume we think the problem has gone away. That’s why we’re delighted to publish a piece by a maths teacher called David Mackie today highlighting just how much impact a seemingly low false positive rate can have on overall results. Here are the opening four paragraphs:
A lot of people are bad with numbers, and especially so in the area of probability. Earlier this year (with accidental prescience), in the school where I work, as part of our off-curriculum ‘mind-broadening’ provision for sixth-formers, a few of my colleagues and I presented students with a puzzle involving imperfect methods of testing for rare conditions. Such puzzles can yield startling results – ones which even bright students are often reluctant to accept.
For example, if the incidence of a disease in the population is 0.1% and the test has a false positive rate of 5%, the probability that a randomly-selected individual testing positive actually has the disease is approximately one in fifty: about 2%, or a probability of 0.02.
Though this is easy to demonstrate, it is remarkable how resistant many perfectly intelligent people are to the conclusion, even when shown the proof. “But the test is 95% reliable”, they protest. “How can it be that a person with a positive test has anything less than a 95% chance of having the disease?”
That kind of response merits attention. It does so because it is an example of an important failure to understand relevant data (and/or the terminology used to describe those data); and it is a failure that renders people blind (or, worse, resistant) to legitimate concerns about the significance of the published results of recent mass testing – concerns that are still not receiving the wider public attention that they deserve.
This is a very clear explanation of the problem. Worth reading in full.
Round-Up
- “COVID-19 Kills – But So Does Lockdown” – Excellent piece by Prof Karol Sikora in the Spectator on the terrible public health cost of forcing the entire population to stay at home
- “Covid’s ‘collateral damage’: how delayed operations have created a health timebomb” – Disturbing piece in the Telegraph about the impact of delaying elective surgeries
- “Broadcast media and the second wave of fear” – Michael Psaras in Bournbrook magazine about the failure of the broadcast media to scrutinise the Government’s hysterical “second wave” propaganda
- “Vaccine ‘unlikely to eradicate Covid’, Sir Patrick Vallance tells MPs” – The Chief Scientific Officer says the disease is likely to become endemic in Britain and will be more like annual flu. Does this mean he’s come back around to herd immunity?
- “White House Chief of Staff Warns of a Potential Lawsuit Against Tech Giants” – Story in the Epoch Times claiming Mark Meadows is mulling a lawsuit against Twitter and Facebook for censoring the New York Post story about Joe Biden’s son
- “State moves to Level 5 for six weeks with hopes of ‘meaningful’ Christmas celebrations” – The Irish Government has agreed to a six week Level 5 lockdown for the whole of Ireland. That means the Taoiseach held out against the Irish equivalent of SAGE for 10 days. Can Boris do any better?
- “Crucial Viral Update Oct 15th: Why are the Media Undermining Science and Data???” – Ivor Cummins puts Ireland’s epidemic in perspective
- “Boris Johnson will not regain his squandered trust” – Rachel Sylvester in the Times thinks Boris is doomed
- “Manchester University student commits suicide due to lockdown anxiety” – Terribly sad story in Metro
- “York self-isolating students told ‘wait behind in fire‘” – This is a shocker. Apparently, the York University authorities think it would be better if students burnt to death than risk having them transmit Covid
- “Our Covid strategy is based on faulty assumptions” – David Paton in UnHerd questions the assumptions behind the Government’s interventions
- “Ministers should reject a second lockdown and prepare for Plan B” – Steve Baker in Conservative Home calls for a more balanced approach to managing the risk of the virus
- “I urge you to visit a restaurant you love while you can” – Impassioned plea from food writer Kathryn Flett, urging people to do what they can to keep their favourite restaurants afloat
- “Stores close at record rate as shoppers change their habits” – Depressing story in the Times about the decimation of the High Street
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Two today: “Fool If You Think It’s Over” by Elkie Brooks and “Never Ending Story” by Limahl.
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.
Stop Press: A couple in Milan have been fined £360 for kissing in the street without wearing masks. They should have arranged to meet discreetly via Love in a Covid Climate.
Woke Gobbledegook
We’ve decided to create a permanent slot down here for woke gobbledegook. Today, I’m highlighting the report of Alison Lowe, an historian commissioned by Leeds City Council to review the status of statues in the city in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests. She was clearly expecting to find a lot of public unhappiness with the statues, even though none of them were of individuals who were central to the slave trade. But in fact over 90% of the people surveyed said they didn’t have a problem with them and didn’t want them to be taken down. The Yorkshire Evening Post has more.
Ms Lowe said: “I was surprised there were so few people wanted any change. I thought it would be a 30-70 split or 40-60 and I worried about that at the beginning because if there was no clear feeling it would be hard. As a panel we wanted to do the right thing by the majority of people and only 10% wanted some active change. I know thousands did not (respond) but we had to take it that they were happy with the status quo.
“There was a perception that lots of black people would write in and say ‘get rid of statue X or Y’. That was as a result of the Edward Colston toppling in Bristol which was as a result of George Floyd and Black Lives Matter. There was a belief, no facts, that lots of black people were angry about statues but I had lots of conversations with Black Lives Matters groups and actually people were not really that interested.”
So there you have it. Almost no one in Leeds wants the Council to take down any statues of the City’s colonial era panjandrums, including the black residents.
Worth reading in full.
“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 an excellent piece about the ineffectiveness of masks by a Roger W. Koops, who has a doctorate in organic chemistry.
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 last week and the lockdown zealots have been doing their best to discredit it. If you Google it, one of the top hits you get is a smear piece 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 my Spectator piece about the attempt to suppress it is one of the top hits – 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. Now over 550,000 signatures, compared to the John Snow Memorandum’s 4,400. Embarrassing.
Judicial Reviews Against the Government
There are now so many JRs being brought against the Government and its ministers, we thought we’d include them all in one place down here.
First, there’s the Simon Dolan case. You can see all the latest updates and contribute to that cause here.
Then there’s the Robin Tilbrook case. You can read about that and contribute here.
Then there’s John’s Campaign which is focused specifically on care homes. Find out more about that here.
There’s the GoodLawProject’s Judicial Review of the Government’s award of lucrative PPE contracts to various private companies. You can find out more about that here and contribute to the crowdfunder here.
The Night Time Industries Association has instructed lawyers to JR any further restrictions on restaurants, pubs and bars.
And last but not least there’s the Free Speech Union‘s challenge to Ofcom over its ‘coronavirus guidance’. You can read about that and make a donation here.
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…
One of our readers has noticed the uncanny resemblance between Alf Tupper, the Tough of the Track, and Labour leader Keir Starmer.
Discussion
Comments
This week across the site:
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Great idea adding the woke gobbledegook, yes it’s minor compared to everything else going on but that method of trying to guilt and shame a person into thinking their beliefs are wrong are precisely the same logic behind shaming someone for choosing to not wear a mask.
“Cases” well up again today, but when you look at this graph it shows about 15,000 “cases” per day in England for the first week in October:
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/cases
However, the ONS survey, which is generally regarded as the best source we’ve got, estimates 28,000 “cases” per day in England during the first week of October:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/16/coronavirus-infections-hit-27900-cases-day-england-ons-data-suggests
Is it realistic to accept that the cack-handed testing operation in England is picking up over half the actual cases in the country?
A bit of a musical diversion but with all this talk of Manchester you may recall The Beautiful South once made a song about Manchester, All being well this is a link to the video;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFWP62EoU4g
Good old Andy Burnham sticking up for the people of Manchester by saying “OK, I agree. We should lock down all our citizens, BUT I WANT AN EXTRA £1.57 PER PERSON!!!”.
True man of the people.
Keep practising the acting, Andy…
Pay for lots of new cycle lanes that will.
The only single person fighting back in the UK and you are mocking him? Why don’t you fucking fight back instead of making lazy comments?
He’s not fighting back, he just wants more money none of which will benefit the small businesses and self employed that are going to go bust.
I’m sorry if I offended you by writing some words on the internet. I have a hypothesis (might not be a popular one) that this punch and judy show you are watching is totally pathetic.
Andy could redeem himself in my eyes by coming out and saying how insane this whole thing is (all of the missed cancer screening appointments, tell us the number of people who they think might top themselves by locking everyone in their homes, how many people have been found alone in their homes decomposing in their own shit)
He could say I am totally against all of this bollocks and tell the police in Manchester to stand down (but then he’d probably be arrested).
But no, he agrees with it, he just wanted to fight for an extra £1.57 for each person.
Pathetic.
Burnham is a chump. Don’t forget he was one of the biggest enthusiasts for a national ID card. However, his current obstinacy and arrogance is helping the cause, so carry on Andy.
Looks like less than 50 turned up to Piers Corbyns rally in Sheffield today. Hoped there might be a bit of a fight back in the north. A bit depressing to be honest. https://www.bitchute.com/video/uQd2DGGh2maD/
Did the cops carry of Piers again?
He’s probably, by now, just set up a direct debit to pay his fines; quicker.
Don’t believe so, but he is in court this Friday so they probably thought it wasn’t worth the hassle as so few people attended.
Maybe after the furlough ends, Darryl; then we might see some shit hit a few fans.
If masks, social distancing and forced lockdowns are necessary to control covud-19, then why have Sweden and Belarus not been decimated.
You can’t hide a pandemic.
Covid19 the only deadly viral pandemic that needs an global PR campaign.
You can add Japan – no national lockdown. At various times the media have been rubbing their hands expecting dead bodies piling up in the streets in those countries and it never happened.
But they might now all have “super-long-aids-covid” or something (it keeps mutating). We’re not going to know for at least 357 years what effect not imprisoning yourselves will have on the Japanese or Swedish people.
Same goes for Pakistan which gave it up after a month as they simply could not afford lockdown.
You can; if the media hadn’t started reporting China at the start of the year, we might never have known about it at all.
Sad, but true. 2020.
Just had a blast of bbc R4. The truimphantalist overtones from the female presenter as she talked about trials to infect volunteers with Coronavirus to aid the development of THE VACCINE reminded me of the newsreaders in North Korea. They made a point of saying that in young healthy people the virus is not that dangerous. Oh that’s OK then.
Then another item that said that the backlog in court trials is now at a 20 year high with 10’s of 1000’s of court trials now waiting to be heard in “Nightgale” courts.
You would think the bastards could have come up with a more original name for them.
“They made a point of saying that in young healthy people the virus is not that dangerous.”
Oh really?
yes they DID
They say anything as it suits their purpose. They didn’t believe in lockdowns. Now they do. They didn’t believe in masks. Now they do. Covid only used to have two identifying symptoms. Now it has hundreds.
the duplicity is unbelievable. they have throughout framed it s a ‘deadly virus’ yet its fine to deliberately infect these volunteers because the risk of harm is v low. yet suggesting encouraging herd immunity in a population with same risk factors is morally reprehensible. BBC reporting is brain dead.
yep, and EVIL
Rumpolds perhaps
Perhaps the BBC should get the Korean Granny to do their important announcements.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7J2Nnl7Ano
And now, here’s Tom with the weather. 😉
“Tom” who formerly know as Tomacine.
Can anybody be arsed to write a woke shipping forecast?
I don’t know.
I like that Korean woman; shame she’s only like that because she’s scared for her life.
Tool. Excellent reference 😉
A professor Robert Reed (Reid?) was discussing the human trial vaccine on the Jeremy Vine show earlier.
His parting words were
(Vaccine acquired) “immunity will wear off, we will always need new and better vaccines to protect the population”
ffs
Which is why we will still be relying on herd immunity – vaccine or not. It will always be the default position. it is wilful ignorance (and denial of how every other pandemic that has become endemic in a country has been treated) not to accept that it should be the goal to reach HI soonest (with or without a vaccine) with fewest deaths – aka GBD . DOH…
“Public sector net borrowing (excluding public sector banks, PSNB ex) is estimated to have been £35.9 billion in August 2020, £30.5 billion more than in August 2019 and the third highest borrowing in any month since records began in 1993. Central government tax receipts are estimated to have been £37.3 billion in August 2020 (on a national accounts basis), £7.5 billion less than in August 2019, with Value Added Tax (VAT), Corporation Tax and Income Tax receipts falling considerably. Central government bodies are estimated to have spent £78.5 billion on day-to-day activities (current expenditure) in August 2020, £19.5 billion more than in August 2019; this includes £6.1 billion in Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) and £4.7 billion in Self Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) payments. Borrowing in the first five months of this financial year (April to August 2020) is estimated to have been £173.7 billion, £146.9 billion more than in the same period last year and the highest borrowing in any April to August period since records began in 1993, with each of the months from April to August 2020 also being records. https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/governmentpublicsectorandtaxes/publicsectorfinance/bulletins/publicsectorfinances/august2020
Summary: Central government spent 78.5 billion in August
Tax receipts covered 37.3 billion of this.
… Read more »
Yep. This is unsustainable even in the short term. So – no more happy holiday lockdowns. From now on it’s mass unemployment and economic misery. The UK train should be ploughing into the reality buffers just about NOW. Furlough scheme ends in a couple of weeks I believe,
I don’t see how they can do anything but extend furlough.
Nope. I believe there are enough relatively sane Tory MPs who will put a stop to it once Brexit is done. So expect the full scale Tory rebellion by late Jan.
Isn’t that a bit optimistic, surely it is too greater political opportunity to kick the Brexit can down the road for another 12 months – unless it is Brexit in name only that is.
Whether Boris truly believes in Brexit or not he knows he has to deliver on it. It is his one legacy, his one desperate grasp on popularity and his one claim to great historical significance. He can’t abandon it. But once it’s done then, paradoxically, his position is much weaker. He becomes expendable.
I think Brexit is not really a thing any more as there won’t be a European Union. Just a global management structure. I think this was understood a long time ago. Yes we leave “Europe” as “Europe” is assimilated into an new communitarian global dictatorship.
The framework of this new globalist juggernaught is being rolled outunder the cover of covid.
I’m hoping for some sane Tory MPs to say “enough!” when Bojo and Handjob try to start locking down the Tory shires.
There obviously going for complete economic destruction so they can have their great reset and bring in all their pet projects like –
The Chinese are back to ‘normal’ as they are enslaved already. Going to take a few more months / years for us.
It seems they have form… whilst looking for something else, found this in the BMJ from 26/6/2018
“ Government exaggerates flu mortality again: why cannot the public be trusted with the truth?” Seems the figures were exaggerated 150 times…
https://www.bmj.com/content/361/bmj.k2795/rr-6
Investing in global health organizations aimed at increasing access to vaccines creates a 20-to-1 return, the Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist says.
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/23/bill-gates-turns-10-billion-into-200-billion-worth-of-economic-benefit.html
This is not a light matter. It may be possible to point to fraudulent behaviours by charitable trusts.
noun, plural phi·lan·thro·pies.
altruistic concern for human welfare and advancement, usually manifested by donations of money, property, or work to needy persons, by endowment of institutions of learning and hospitals, and by generosity to other socially useful purposes.
If the intention is to garner profit then the word philanthropy should not apply. Obviously sound business would be to stretch money for maximum benefit possibly a x20 return could be argued to be increasing philanthropic funds. However that is a clear push from what we are seeing in general terms.
It’s not a light matter the profiteering from charitable trusts.
Do you think those middle class leftie virtue signalling mentally deranged extinction rebellion w&nkstains are starting to have second thoughts about their carbon zero utopia? The thought cheers me up a little 🙂
I challenged a bunch of these XR nutters blocking a major road in London, telling them in no uncertain terms they could potentially kill someone by holding up an ambulance. They looked a bit stunned – so used to throwing out wild allegations about others being killers, the idea they themselves might be on the receiving end of such an allegation had never occurred to these poor virtue-signalling fools.
Yes they were the real archetypes of lockdowns pre covid. Just as destructive then.
Indeed. If XR policies were followed (carbon neutral within 5, now 4, years), you would have a huge sustained depression, collapse of the NHS, and breakdown of basic public health functions like water sewage treatment and waste disposal. Millions would starve to death or die of disease. These people are political extremists, part of a crazy death cult. And they are treated with cringing respect by the BBC, Gove and the Metropolitan Police. Such is the modern age!
The most scared and the most enthusiastic branch covidians I know are also XR supporters.
XR is government controlled opposition.They were part of the attempt to build the idea of a climate emergency and were given free rein to shut whole areas of London
Having witnessed some of the XR protests I believe they have full establishment and City Hall backing. We know a lot of demonstration attendees work for the BBC, Guardian and government itself – which is a bit of a give away.
Very suspicious of the event to block the print works and all the nonsense about protecting the free press. Doesn’t exactly look very free over the last 7 months – most resemble government newsletters.
They were part of a slow build up to Agenda 30.They have just found a better and quicker way to implement it.
I had managed to quit antideps. Started low.. now on a bit mnore. Thanks Boris.
Sorry to hear that.
Sorry to hear this , keep fighting. I’ve had my ups and downs throughout this you are definitely not alone. Some things that have helped me a lot have been exercise/ comedy and music and reaching out to family/ friends.
The quips on this board often make me laugh out loud. Best medicine!
Sertraline has worked phenomenally well for me. From nothing beforehand to being in the pits of hell and, for now, well out the other side. I would note that initally I was put on 1 month renewal and without request I am now on 2 month renewal. FWIW.
Very good passionate speech by an American Doctor (at 4.30 – 9.00) DOCTORS SPEAK OUT! – MASKS DON’T WORK! – “YOU’RE BEING LIED TO!” https://www.bitchute.com/video/7No2MIqSuOnc/ – really doesn’t hold back and attacks the media propaganda.
Superb insight whoever came up with this first – reposting as it’s so good:
“If there was a real pandemic the government and the media would be doing everything possible to calm us down”
This has been my argument from day one. If this was for real, they’d be covering it up left, right and centre!
They’ve done a great job. Just enough fear to ensure compliance, but not too much to create panic.
Good point. If you read Defoe’s or Pepys’s account of the plague year of 1665 both men believed that the authorities were understating the fatalities in order to try to maintain calm.
Here we see the other side of the coin
Saw this on FB and it make me laugh much more than it probably should have done. Fight fire with fire/if the cap fits etc.
That’s brilliant!
Sky News host Alan Jones says COVID-19 is not, and has never been, a pandemic.
“A pandemic is a disease which is prevalent over a whole country. This is not a pandemic. It was never a pandemic,” Mr Jones said.
“So let’s look briefly at the facts surrounding mortality.”
https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6203093698001
I’d love Alan Jones to present BBC news at 10 for a week
Or gatecrash a Clown Show!
I love Alan Jones!
Not our Sky News sadly.
Good guy but actually a ‘Pandemic’ is an epidemic existing in several adjoining countries. The common cold is almost a permanent pandemic.
Hancock. I’d be tempted to call him Boris’s ”evil genius” except that he’s obviously not a genius. I don’t think he’s clever enough to be evil, either.
This is the same Hancock who announced to the HoC that there was no evidence to support the assertion that Vitamin D had any positive effect.
He is either stupid, bought, got at, or someone knows where he buried the bodies.
I think he’s just on a power crazed high. He got away with lying, over and over again, even standing at the dispatch box. He’s loving it!
He’s definitely a sociopath.
Inadequate people get high on power. Look at Drakeford and Sturgeon.
He’s one of the architects of Austerity. That he was ever elected as an MP after his stint in social destruction as part of Osborne’s club is a stain on this country. He’s not got one (not one) micron of compassions for the masses.
I understand he has managed to marry into a very wealthy family, can’t imagine for a minute he understands the concerns of ordinary working people. A bit like Boris Johnson who considers money spent on Child Sexual Abuse enquires as being “spaffed up the wall” – not so careful with money when it come to funding Bill Gates pet projects.
Nor track and trace etc etc
How are Boris and Handycock seen in the UK? Here in Victoria, the UK’s death rate is a disaster and we should be lucky that we don’t have those deaths.
It’s a bit like asking how medieval people saw their parish priest. His individual personality was not particularly important; what mattered was the supernatural power he represented. Boris and Hancock represent ‘The Science’, which is the modern secular British equivalent of Almighty God.
The UK’s covid death rate has been seriously overhyped.
The UK mockdown death rate is an ongoing scandal.
Oh I get it, I’ve followed Prof Heneghan from the start. The latest post going around is comparing case numbers with the UK with Victoria, never mind that the UK has a significantly higher population and deaths are at normal levels. They just see big numbers.
Victoria’s deaths consist of nursing homes, hospices, and cancer wards but it’s heartless to say that they would have likely died regardless of covid.
The “death” rate is mostly of those that died WITH covid. Only about 3% of 43,000 actually had covid. What’s not included is the 26,000 that had died during lockdown due to lack of healthcare, isolation, loneliness…every single death has been used and politicised by this government to push this agenda. Every one of them has to be made accountable for those deaths.
Boris is a buffoon, Hancock is a squib or, as someone commented in the Daily Mirror, the one who everyone bullied at school.
I often think think that if Madame Sin aka Cynthia Payne was still around, she’d have this government totally whipped into shape!
Just joined.
I have been reading this site and the comments for the last few weeks.
There are some great posters on here, please keep it up.
Myself, well I’m frustrated. I can’t see a way out of this shitshow.
I will keep reading, I’m not an activist but someone who feels like this insanity will never end.
Welcome. Good to have you here.
This evil will end.
Welcome to the dark side! 👋
It will end. 100th monkey syndrome.
Welcome!
It’s bonkers. We’ve all had our lives screwed up in some way or another over this, the insanity has to end.
KICK OUT THE JAMS MOTHER FUCKERS!
It’s up to people like you to come together to make it end. Sitting at home with your head in your hands is no good anymore. Get out on the streets.
Welcome langers 🌞
Welcome. You’ve made the first move; another sane voice among the insane babble.
Is Farinances still alive?
I was wondering if Farinances was ok too. Not been on for some time and she was a great contributor. If you are reading this, we do miss you.
Indeed! Come back Farinances!
I live in a ‘boondocks’ rural parish in Torridge N/W Devon, the area in the country with the lowest Covid in the UK, in the S/W, the English region with the lowest Covid in the UK. This is despite a huge influx of visitors over the summer. There is no herd immunity here as the virus never really got here in the first place. This is a mixed blessing as many locally are afraid that if it did arrive it would be our first wave with a severe impact.
Just wondered if anyone has any thoughts as to why, so far, covid has not made it to N/W Devon?
I was chatting to the virus down the pub earlier and it said that it hates cyder and seagulls, so please ensure your friends and neighbours down there that theres not that much to worry about.
It went on to say that it only kills around less than 0.1% of people who get infected and the average age of death is 82.
As the overall average age of death is 81, people who don’t understand statistics who catch it will live a year longer than they would have done.
Did it say how long it was planning to hang around, captain?
Well, Cornwall is well out – especially St Ives (it hates posh twats who have second homes in St Ives because it is trying to get on the property ladder and people like that just keep pushing the price of everything up)
As for the rest of the world, it said went to Japan but their immune systems were rather good because they didn’t imprison themselves and carried on building natural immunity by, like, living and stuff.
It also hates Sweden because they did something similar.
I got angry with it and said “Well, you won’t be around here much longer because medical science is being paid billions to come up with a vaccine”
It laughed and said “I’ve already mutated about 35 trillion times, I’ve got 4.2×10^357 children”
Captain.
Brilliant ! 🙂
Did this conversation take place after your ninth or tenth pint? And where is this pub you can just sit and chat with strangers? I want to know!
I only had three pints because I had little Miss Beefheart with me at the time (she’s only roughly up to a year old). I want her to see the “Old Normal” world where people go out and meet each other and see smiles and things as much as I can while there’s still a bit of it left.
I met two townfolk who I’ve not met before. One of them was not wearing a mask and the other one was. He took it off when he sat down. Resisting the temptation that I never had whatsoever to shout abuse at the younger one who was not wearing a mask, I greeted them like normal people do. They said how beautiful Ms Beefheart was and we started talking (like people do) about things in general (asking each other if they were OK and if they’re coping, that sort of thing – you know – the sort of thing that keeps humans sane)
They both agreed that what is going on is total bollocks and that the people that are doing this to us should be imprisoned.
We all agreed that at first, because we were a bit scared of this… Read more »
Just had a look at the stats on the region. Eye opening to say the least. No deaths at all in Exeter in 4 months (at least to early this month) very strange. But probably a combination of factors, rather than just one that’s kept your cases down. I’d think that population density, outdoors living (assumed) and decent hygiene might be a large part of the story.
Plenty of students in Exeter. In Falmouth, I think they outnumber town folk
its obvious they lockdowned early and followed the rules unlike the Neanderthals in the North….
Also brilliantly sunny spring early summer.
There was a vicious cold that affected the SW badly, two or three years ago. Perhaps it was a coronavirus and gave the population greater cross-reactive immunity. That’s what my folks are hoping, anyway.
What’s the population demographic like? I’m just wondering if there’s a lot more young people in the area compared to other places. As the virus mainly affects the elderly and those with serious health conditions then an area with a younger, fitter population would take less of a hit.
You’re kidding? The South West is THE place to retire to.
Loads of oldies retire to the seaside, Sidmouth = Gods Waiting Room.
Somewhat the opposite, a high proportion of old fogeys (like me!), however I would say that the vulnerable people I know round here have been very good at shielding themselves and local communities have been very good at organising support for vulnerable people e.g. collecting shopping and prescriptions and organising social events in village halls that are safe for vulnerable people to attend. So it has been protection with imagination and consideration
If you had a huge influx of visitors, the odds are the virus arrived with them.
Sounds like you’ve been lucky to escape the testing epidemic.
We don’t hear much from the media about mutation but everything I have read suggests there are thousand of mutations. Perhaps there is a less deadly mutation established in the South West and maybe it got established there in the Spring because you have fewer areas of really high density population (and tourism at the time was pretty much suspended). Maybe it’s more difficult for the more lethal strains to get established once a milder version is locally established. It seems to be milder in all areas with low population density, nit attached to metropolitan areas. Pembrokeshire for example has low fatality. More lethal versions probably get established in areas of high population density because there are more easily available vulnerable people ie more “low hanging fruit” for the virus to pick off in the early stages.
Radon gas ?
Anecdotally I believe there was a soft first wave in SW England either side of the Xmas New Year shutdown, many people were ill but nobody noticed because they were all on holiday.
What’s in the paper? Virus virus virus virus get through this virus lockdown virus
On tv? Virus virus virus virus virus
Since March? Virus virus virus virus virus.. virus virus virus virus
Please make it stop.
The only thing to knock this off the headlines will be an impending meteorite impact at extinction level, the outbreak of the Third World War or Greta decides Global Warming is not so bad after all!
What about the alien invasion we were promised…?
It feels very reminiscent to how I remember the 2008 recession. Non stop orchestrated doom and gloom from the media.
Easy. Don’t read the paper.
Can’t believe the daily mail have a story about the horrors of a woman in Iran being arrested for not wearing an Islamic veil, ie a face covering- comments do not even register the irony. I despair.
I bet the Daily Mail didn’t have the story earlier this week about the horrors of the men caught not wearing a mask on the Metro in Romania and being savagely beaten and arrested.
The Daily Mail openly supports anti-lockdown protestors getting a beating but condemns Iran – could it be another one of those instances where UK newspapers reflect UK government policy. UK print media is as biased and unfree as in the nations we criticise.
To be fair the daily royal has been pretty anti lockdown headlines wise for the last ten days or so.
Seems to often have a mixture of hysterical headlines and then articles which actually contain facts. I would imagine they will always ultimately back the Conservative regime even if it takes us to the point of armageddon.
The best take I´ve heard for a while was on this site earlier: if there was a real pandemic the government and the media would be doing everything possible to calm us down.
Or, as the apocalyptic novelist John Christopher put it, ‘the time to worry is when the newspapers only print GOOD news.’
Bonkers policy from our letting agency (we our having an issue with our oven fixed tomorrow). It says if we want to speak to the maintenance man we need to wear a face mask… in our own home! WTF?!!!
Thankfully I don’t think the handymen are that fussed. We had one come round for an emergency a month or so ago – no mask (wasn’t in uniform and no distancing). Very normal.
Probably just a*rse covering nonsense. I had a plumber round the other day, fully masked up, but after 5 minutes he asked ‘are you happy for me to continue wearing a mask’. I said ‘Certainly not – but you do what makes you feel comfortable.’ He immediately pulled the mask off and said ‘thank God for that.’
Yes – from all accounts handymen aren’t fussed.
That’s been my experience. They even accept a cup of tea.
No you don’t. What you need to say is that you have completed your own risk assessment in line with government guidance and as there has been no evidence of transmission in the place assessed you do not see any control measures as necessary. That’s it. Sarcasm and logic will put the ball fairly back in their camp.
Level of belief in some:
Manchester Evening News attempt to get to the bottom of hospital numbers in the region. Both an insight into how such behemoths as the NHS are organised and how data is wide open for spin because there is no golden source.
“So it has been, after nine hours of trying to get to the bottom of it, impossible to provide a reliable and detailed picture of our hospital capacity, despite it being at the heart of a raging political row.”
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/secrecy-spin-surrounding-greater-manchesters-19131905
Good that they are trying
These regional lockdowns starting to look like a blunder by the PM as they are focusing minds on the reasons for them and the effects
Numbers obfuscated or hidden – tells you all you need to know.
Looks like Mrs Dick got her way
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-54621539
Mr Dick shames all women. Prick that she is. (Confusing my genders for comedic effect)
Just watched Scot Atlas interviewed by Freddie Sayers on unherd lockdown tv.Check it out it’s interesting .
Firework parties are banned in Wales. I hope people take a leaf out of the defiance of a similar order by California’s mad governor. https://www.bizpacreview.com/2020/07/05/defiant-residents-light-up-the-sky-in-response-to-newsoms-fireworks-ban-never-seen-it-lit-up-like-this-943301
But rockets could be a virus transmission vector. After all, Bunter told us cricket balls are.
I’m aiming mine at a shed in Cardiff…
I wondered if it was to do with the guys perhaps looking a little different this year.
Just ordered three packets of extra-large sparklers.
I’m so cheesed off today I would order 3 extra large bazookas.
I was just wondering what the Welsh would do for bonfire night. Plenty of choice for who to make the Guy. Go on Wales, let rip.
Two words
Guy Fawkes !
Auditions are open now for starring role atop the conflagration 🙂