Medical Journals Refuse To Publish Landmark Danish Mask Study
Three leading medical journals have refused to publish the results of the first major scientific investigation into the effects of wearing masks on the spread of COVID-19. The authors of the long-awaited “gold-standard” randomised controlled trial have admitted their findings are “controversial” and are keeping them secret until their paper has been peer-reviewed and published. The Danish newspaper Berlingske has the details.
Professor: Large Danish mask study rejected by three top journals
The researchers behind a large and unique Danish study on the effect of wearing a mask are having great difficulty in getting their research results published. One of the participating professors in the study admits that the still secret research result could be perceived as ‘controversial’.
For weeks, the media and researchers around the world have been waiting with increasing impatience for the publication of a large Danish study on the effect – or lack thereof – of wearing a mask in a public space during the corona pandemic.
Now one of the researchers who has been involved in the study has said that the finished research result has been rejected by at least three of the world’s leading medical journals.
These include the Lancet, the New England Journal of Medicine and the American Medical Association’s journal JAMA.
“They all said no,” says the Chief Physician in the Research Department at North Zealand Hospital, Professor Christian Torp-Pedersen.
However, the Professor does not wish to disclose the journals’ reasoning.
“We cannot start discussing what they are dissatisfied with, because in that case we must also explain what the study showed – and we do not want to discuss that until it is published,” explains Christian Torp-Pedersen.
The study was initiated at the end of April, following a grant of DKK 5m [£600,000] from the Salling Foundations [owner of the Salling Group, Denmark’s largest retailer]. It involved as many as 6,000 Danes, half of whom had to wear face masks in public over a long period of time. The other half was selected as the control group.
A large proportion of the test participants were employees of the Salling Group’s supermarkets: Bilka, Føtex and Netto.
The study and its size are unique, and the purpose was once and for all to try to clarify the extent to which the use of face masks in public spaces provides protection against coronavirus infections.
One of the co-authors, Henrik Ullum, tweeted yesterday they are “very unhappy”.
It wouldn’t be the first time politics has trumped science amongst those who are supposed to be its guardians. Professor Sunetra Gupta said in September that she was having unusual difficulty getting anything on herd immunity published, and Dr Gabriela Gomes has said the same thing.
I think we can be fairly confident that this mask study – the largest ever carried out – doesn’t say what the pro-maskers would like. On October 18th, Alex Berenson revealed on Twitter that one of the study’s lead investigators, Professor Thomas Benfield, had said the study would be published “as soon as a journal is brave enough to accept the paper”.
No courage would be required if the study confirmed Covid orthodoxy. Watch this space.
Mask Creep
Molly Kingsley, one of the three founders of UsForThem, has written a piece for Lockdown Sceptics today about the harm mandatory masking is doing to schools – particularly in those schools that over-interpret the Government’s advice and insist that children wear masks in the classroom – and the strange absent of any public debate about this. The Government didn’t allow the House of Commons to debate mandatory masking before ramming it through with a Statutory Instrument, and the House of Lords has failed to step into the breach.
I am increasingly despondent. Many who believe there should have been more rigorous analysis of this, the most intrusive non-pharmaceutical public health intervention of our times, speak as if the argument has been lost, or believe there are more important battles to fight. Alas, there are many battles ahead. But for children, this is a critical one, particularly for children with special needs. It is a debate we must have even when those around us tell us we should be ashamed to do so.
This is an excellent piece by a mother of two young children who has been red-pilled by the transformation of our democratic Government into a public health dictatorship.
Worth reading in full.
Case Counting: Government Quietly Starts Double Counting Positives
“Case” numbers are all over the place at the moment. After hitting a high on Wednesday of 26,688 reported, they were back down to 21,242 yesterday. By specimen date there still appears to be no overall growing trend since October 12th, except for a bizarre tower on October 19th. As ever with “cases”, what these positive test results actually mean and how they relate to clinical cases of the disease COVID-19 is difficult to unravel.
One issue is whether “cases” now include repeat positive tests for the same individual, conducted for example as they await the all-clear. Previously they did not, but it was revealed this week that as of Thursday October 15th the Government has begun to include duplicates as long as they are from different survey weeks. This means that each person who tests positive and is then tested again each week will continue to add new “cases” to the counter for as long as the test (at what sensitivity they don’t say) continues to find some virus fragments to trigger it. Here’s the relevant part of the revised methodology statement.
People tested and people testing positive
For both pillars 1 and 2, data for England is provided by the NHS and PHE and the number of confirmed cases are collated to give the total number of confirmed cases over the reporting period. More details about the data sources and methodology for pillar 1 and pillar 2 can be found in the section Coronavirus (COVID-19) testing in the UK.
From October 15th, the methodology for people tested and people testing positive has changed.
Previously, the number of people newly tested and newly testing positive was reported, where the figures were de-duplicated over the entirety of the pandemic so an individual would only appear once. This meant someone tested in March and again in September would only be counted in the March counts. This was progressively becoming less meaningful the longer the duration of the pandemic and meant that it was not appropriate to calculate a positivity rate from this data.
Figures are now reported as people tested and people testing positive at least once in the reporting week. People tested or testing positive are only counted once over the 7-day reporting period (Thursday to Wednesday), with a positive test being prioritised over a negative test. A person can be counted within more than one 7-day reporting period. If someone was tested more than once in different reporting weeks, they would be included in the count for all reporting weeks they were tested in.
For example, if a person was tested on Thursday and Friday of the same week, they would only be counted once in the reporting week. However, if someone was tested on Tuesday and Friday of the same week, that individual would be counted in 2 reporting periods, as the 2 tests fall into different 7-day reporting periods. If a person is tested under both pillar 1 and pillar 2 in the same reporting week, then only the pillar they were first tested under is counted, unless they were tested in both pillars on the same day, in which case, they are counted under pillar 2.
Is this what lies behind the increase in week beginning October 15th? It’s unclear whether this change will affect daily case data, as reported on the Government’s coronavirus dashboard, or just the weekly statistics released by NHS Test and Trace. The way the Government introduced this major change without proper announcement or explanation is very poor and doesn’t exactly help us understand the course of the epidemic. As far as we are aware, this is the third methodological change the Government has made when it comes to calculating cases and the positivity rate since July 2nd.
To be fair to NHS Test and Trace, this change may be intended to eliminate the problem in calculating the positivity rate that Dr Clare Craig spotted in tab 5 of the dataset in the press release that accompanied Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance’s presentation on September 30th. A note in tab 5 stated: “The number of people tested in a given week will exclude some people who have been tested in a previous week, so may not be an accurate denominator to use. For example, someone testing negative for the first time in week 1 will be counted in the ‘people tested’ figure for that week. If that same person tests negative again in week 4, they will not be counted in the ‘people tested’ figure for week 4.” As Clare pointed out, if NHS Test and Trace wasn’t including repeat negative testers in the weekly test results – people who’ve tested negative before – that meant the denominator was being artificially deflated and the positivity rate artificially inflated. So what this new change may mean is that repeat testers who’ve tested negative in the previous week are now included in the denominator when it comes to calculating the positivity rate. But when NHS Test and Trace made this change it also decided to include repeat testers who’ve tested positive in the previous week when it comes to calculating “cases”, thereby increasing the number of positive “cases” in the weekly releases. We’ve asked Clare about this and she confirmed this reading. As she said, the most honest way of reporting this would be to only include first positives in the daily and weekly testing data and to keep all the negatives in the denominator when calculating the positivity rate.
Meanwhile, the latest update from the Royal College of General Practitioners shows that patients under investigation for COVID-19 dropped considerably in the North West in the week ending October 18th. This is yet another indication that the autumn epidemic in and around Manchester peaked well ahead of its Tier 3 restrictions coming into effect.
Needless to say, these are not the figures of an epidemic “increasing exponentially ” and in need of authoritarian intervention.
Stop Press: Check out this Facebook video by Luke Pompey. He gets a Covid test in the post, breaks the swab stick in half without taking any swabs, posts it back to the NHS then gets a positive result in the mail a few days later.
Sweden Liberates its Elderly and Takes Another Step Back to Normality
Faced with a small rise in Covid cases, what does Sweden do? Not clamp down hard, as we have, but abolish all remaining restrictions on the elderly, declaring they’ve suffered enough. Fraser Nelson in the Telegraph has more.
Sweden has rejected lockdown and face masks, but infections there are on the rise again. Yesterday, its public health agency published a report noting this – and pointing out that the elderly are at the gravest risk. In any other country, you could guess what would come next: a crackdown or curfew, a ban on socialising, a “rule of six”, no more seeing grandchildren. But what the officials had to say next was – to British ears – astonishing.
The elderly, they said, have suffered enough. They have spent months being advised to avoid public transport, shopping malls and other parts of everyday life. And the result? Loneliness. Misery. This is more than unpleasant: it quickly translates into depression, mental health issues and mortality. “We cannot only think about infection control,” said Lena Hallengren, Sweden’s health minister, “we also need to think about public health.” An important distinction: focus on Covid to the exclusion of other conditions and you risk lives.
Sweden is perhaps the first country in the world to make this case so clearly: isolation kills too. We now know much more about the virus, said Ms Hallengren, but we also know more about the side effects of lockdown – and even in Sweden’s case (where restrictions were voluntary) these effects are severe. Her 21-page report found a “decline in mental health” that was “likely to worsen the longer the recommendations remain in place”. So restrictions for the over-70s have been abolished forthwith, even with Covid rising (albeit slowly). And all this in the name of public health, not the economy.
This may sound at odds with the Great Barrington Declaration strategy of focused protection of the vulnerable. But in fact it’s the endpoint of it: to reach a level of population immunity in a relatively short space of time that allows restrictions on the high-risk to be lifted. Sweden may well still see the usual rise in respiratory disease this winter, but its public health officials have evidently concluded it is unlikely to include a large new deadly wave of Covid. The evidence to date suggests they’re right. Once again, Sweden pioneers a different way. Let’s hope this time we learn from them.
Stop Press: Sweden is also allowing large gatherings to take place, provided the total number is 300 or below.
Vaccines Unlikely to Prevent Infection
Seasoned sceptic Barry Norris on the Argonautica blog has written an incisive and well-researched piece on the widespread misconceptions of what the Covid vaccines are likely to achieve. Surprisingly, it’s not to prevent infection or reduce the risk of death or serious illness.
It is a common misconception that an approved vaccine will provide “silver bullet” immunity, a scenario based more on a Hollywood film narrative than reality5 because no Covid vaccine trial protocol6 defines its “success” as:
– Providing immunity from infection from the SARS-COV-2 virus
– Reducing mortality risk from the COVID-19 disease7
– Providing immunity from COVID-19 disease symptomsInstead trial “success” is defined as an amelioration of COVID-19 symptoms in 50-60% of volunteers, who are healthy adults likely to be at risk only from a mild or asymptomatic infection and thus not even a population group facing significant mortality risk from COVID-19.8 These dud Covid vaccines aspire to be buckshot not silver bullets: if they are the answer, what was the question?
Early stage trials have generally demonstrated an antibody response to inoculation with uncomfortable but so far generally tolerable side-effects in healthy adults (although both Astra9 and J&J10 trials were on hold whilst safety data was investigated).11 But the duration of the antibody responses is (as yet) unknown and it has not yet been proven whether the antibodies will offer any protection from the SARS-CoV-2 virus infection or the onset of the COVID-19 disease.12 Moderna recently admitted in the recent rehash of their Phase 1 data “no correlate of protection for SARS-COV-2 has been established”.13 In fact, no vaccine trial has yet presented any data providing any evidence of sterilising immunity which would be considered the gold standard for any vaccine. In a rare interview where senior management has been asked what constituted “success”, the Head of Biopharmaceutical R&D at Astra Zeneca Mene Pangalos confirmed that the vaccine “doesn’t need to cure you of SARS-COV-2”.14
You might think that “success” in all vaccine trials would involve a primary endpoint of a statistically significant reduction in infection from the specific SARS-COV-2 virus amongst the inoculated group versus the placebo group. This is not the case. The primary endpoints are focused on safety and the efficacy of the vaccine in ameliorating the onset of the COVID-19 disease as measured by the severity of symptoms (asymptomatic infections are not even counted toward the primary endpoint but only towards secondary, more speculative endpoints). The vaccines are therefore primarily measuring their effectiveness as a treatment of the COVID-19 disease rather than immunising the inoculated against infection from the SARS-COV-2 virus. This is a subtle but extremely important nuance. An analogy would be a vaccine that delays or mitigates the onset of the AIDS disease but does nothing to protect from being infected by the HIV virus. Hence the stated clinical aim of the vaccines is not to prevent transmission of the virus.
One question this raises is should the vaccines actually be called “vaccines”? Google’s Oxford Languages definition of vaccine is “a substance used to stimulate the production of antibodies and provide immunity against one or several diseases, prepared from the causative agent of a disease, its products, or a synthetic substitute, treated to act as an antigen without inducing the disease”. If the Covid “vaccines” aren’t going to “provide immunity” they’re not really vaccines, are they? More like prophylactics – the leaky condom variety.
Worth reading in full.
Freshers’ Covid
A reader writes to tell us about what life is like for her daughter in her second year of university in the north of England, where there is an outbreak of SARS-CoV-2.
Going to the campus testing centre for a test is becoming a virtual rite of passage at the first sign of a sore throat or a sniffle, along with the obligatory posting of the test result on Snapchat. In my daughter’s house of four occupants, three of them developed flu-like symptoms over the course of last week and by Saturday all three of them had been for tests. (The fourth thinks she had “the virus” earlier this year.) All three tests came back positive so all four of them have had to self-isolate for 10 days. One felt ill enough to spend last weekend in bed but is now much better. The other two, including my daughter, felt a bit headachy and grotty for a few days but are now fine, except that all three of them lost their sense of taste and smell – oddly, this only happened after they had the test. They’re complaining bitterly about this as they can’t taste their food, as well as panicking in case it’s permanent (since there’s so much fear porn about this on the internet). I agree it’s a vexing symptom and I hope they recover from it soon, but it isn’t life-threatening. They seem to have forgotten how ill they were with “freshers’ flu” last year – it persisted for weeks and nobody escaped it, along with viral conjunctivitis, chest and sinus infections, even a case of glandular fever in my daughter’s hall. And yet the university’s student “cases” are rising steadily as the vogue for getting tested intensifies, and most of them seem to be fine except for many of them having this loss of taste and smell.
James Delingpole Interviews Dr Mike Yeadon
James Delingpole has interviewed Lockdown Sceptics contributor Dr Mike Yeadon for the latest episode of the Delingpod. This is a must listen. You can either listen to it on YouTube here or on Podbean here.
Round-Up
- “Wales lockdown: Supermarkets told to sell only essential items” – From BBC News. Even more extreme than the original lockdown, and supermarkets have complained the definition of essential is unclear
- “The triumph of China’s Covid spin offers a terrifying glimpse of the West’s future” – Solid piece from Sherelle Jacobs in the Telegraph excoriating Western countries for buying Beijing’s lockdown and track-and-trace propaganda and pointing to Sweden as the only country to attempt a better alternative
- “Sunetra Gupta and the COVID-19 culture war” – Carefully balanced and sceptical long read in New Frame
- “Revealed: A company so small it doesn’t have to file full accounts was given £387million for Operation Moonshot – as £1.3bn High Court challenge lucrative Test and Trace contracts is launched” – Good scoop from the Mail
- “Revealed – the 83-year-old who spoke for a nation: Ex-housekeeper Maureen from Barnsley who said she ‘doesn’t give a sod’ about Tier 3 survived Covid, is not a fan of Matt Hancock and laughs off calls for her to be PM” – More from the nation’s new lockdown sceptic hero in the Mail
- “Europe’s long Covid: things aren’t getting better any time soon” – Dismal but probably accurate piece from Kate Andrews in the Spectator, unless our leaders can see the Swedish light
- “Contact-tracing apps: there’s no evidence they’re helping stop COVID-19” – An unsurprising but important finding from Allison Gardner in the Conversation
- “Update on The Coronavirus Act 2020 is Null and Void!” – New details of Robin Tilbrook and Kevin Corbett’s legal action against the Government
- “Scousers will lead the new peasants’ revolt against the lockdown scam” – Sean Walsh in Conservatives Global spies growing resistance in his home town of Liverpool
- “Study helps explain declines in death rates from COVID-19” – A new study of New York hospitals reported in the Medical Xpress identifies a number of reasons mortality rates are declining
- “Google Mobility Data Suggests Sweden ‘Socially Distanced’ Less Than Other Countries” – Ryan McMaken at the Mises Institute does his bit for busting the myths lockdown zealots spin about Sweden to justify writing it off
- “Reports of Sweden’s deaths highly exaggerated” – George Dance with an excellent fact check of the anti-Sweden camp
- “Four Newborn Babies Die In Australia After Being Denied Heart Surgery Due To COVID Travel Rules” – Shocking example of the skewed health priorities of lockdown in Summit News
- “Rishi Sunak provides extra £13bn to keep businesses alive” – The Chancellor introduces extra measures just weeks after setting out his Winter budget. Where’s the money coming from? Anxiety levels at the UK Debt Management Office must be off the charts
- “Rishi Sunak’s Tier 2 U-turn has exposed his first major mistake” – Good analysis from Ben Kelly in the Telegraph on how Sunak’s new splurges expose the Government’s miscalculations of the true costs of lockdown
- “What the Woke Terror shares with the French Revolution” – Matthew Crawford in UnHerd on how modern wokery shares the paranoia, emotivism and religious caricature of 18th century radicals
- “USA Today Refused To Publish Hunter Biden Scandal Op-Ed, So Here It Is” – Political censorship exposed by Glenn Reynolds in PJ Media
- “There’s No Justification for Another Lockdown” – Triggernometry interview with Ivor Cummins
- “Oct 20th Shocking Data – Endemic Virus versus Damaging Lockdowns” – And the latest YouTube video from Ivor Cummins
- “Care staff ordered to work in one home only” – Report from the Telegraph on a new measure that in theory should prevent spread in care homes – but are there enough staff to make it work? The sector doesn’t think so, warning it is already dangerously understaffed
- “‘Structural racism’ has no place in the national debate on tackling COVID-19” – Good piece by Rakib Ehsan in the Telegraph
- “PM criticises trace efforts amid warnings of 90,000 coronavirus cases a day” – Does this mean Matt Hancock’s for the chop? We can but hope
- “£2bn lost to criminals in furlough cash fraud” – Shocking story on the front page of today’s Times. We are becoming a banana republic
- Desmond Swayne MP on the Insanity of the Continuing Restrictions
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Just one today: “World of Tiers” by Hawkwind.
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.
Woke Gobbledegook
We’ve decided to create a permanent slot down here for woke gobbledegook. Today, it’s the plans of the Scottish Government to force all teachers to subscribe to the radical Left notion of “intersectionality” or be out on their ear. Steerpike, the Spectator‘s gossip columnist, has the details.
This year, the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) has been consulting on new ‘Professional Standards’ for teachers, which will come into force in August 2021. In June, the GTCS approved a final draft of the new standards, which it has now published online and asked for feedback.
As part of its powers, the GTCS is able to strike off teachers who do not meet its professional standards, and they are a benchmark of competence for all new teachers joining the profession. In other words, any teachers who do not subscribe to them will not be teaching for very long.
Rather worryingly then, Mr S has spotted that the teaching body has decided to adopt a left-wing political framework for its new standards.
The GTCS lists three professional values that all teachers will be expected to have in Scotland in 2021: ‘trust and respect’, ‘integrity’, and ‘social justice’.
Some of the qualities the GTCS describes as belonging to social justice are innocuous enough. It is hard to object to the idea, for example, that teachers should promote the health and wellbeing of students in their care.
Other qualities are more controversial. If the standards are enacted, it will become compulsory for teachers in 2021 to be: “Committing to social justice through fair, transparent, inclusive, and sustainable policies and practices in relation to protected characteristics… and intersectionality.”
Exactly how teachers are meant to demonstrate their commitment to ‘intersectionality’ (a rather nebulous strand of identity politics that stresses the importance of competing levels of privilege) in their day to day practice, as the standards command, is beyond Mr Steerpike’s imagination.
Thinking of becoming a teacher in Scotland? Forget about the three Rs. You need to read Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, the inventor of this dotty theory.
“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 Googled it on Tuesday, the top hits were three smear pieces from the Guardian, including: “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 tops the search results – and Toby’s Spectator piece about the attempt to suppress it is among 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 600,000 signatures.
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…
Toby in his Spectator column this week has had enough of the profligacy and politicking of the devolved administrations during this pandemic as they have indulged in heavily subsidised lockdowns which seem designed to make the Westminster Government look bad.
The actions of Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford are scarcely any more explicable. His decision had nothing to do with rising case numbers, hospital admissions or deaths. Daily cases by specimen date plateaued in Wales last week, as have the number of COVID-19 patients in critical care. Daily deaths from Covid peaked at 11 on October 7th and haven’t climbed above single digits since. The cumulative death toll in Wales is 1,722, which is about 4% of the total in England.
No, the reason the Welsh Labour leader has imposed these draconian restrictions is to ratchet up the pressure on Boris and make it more difficult for him to avoid imposing a two-week ‘circuit breaker’, thereby enhancing the standing of Keir Starmer, who called for one last week. Drakeford can afford to play politics with his own people’s livelihoods because he knows that Boris — the man he’s doing his best to embarrass — will have to pick up the pieces.
Toby says he hasn’t “quite given up on unionism” and still thinks “we’re better off together”, though worries “what will become of Scotland and Wales if we were to part”. Indeed. Personally I find it bizarre to think we’d no longer be Great Britain or the United Kingdom. Talk about a shock to the system! I’m more inclined to say we should be strict with our separatists in the time-honoured tradition of America and Spain and not even countenance secession. But Toby is more charitable and thinks we should give them an ultimatum: “The English can’t continue bankrolling you if you’re just going to set fire to the money in a misguided effort to make yourselves look better than us. Either you abandon this sophomoric pretence of independence and throw in your lot with us or you become separate sovereign states, entirely responsible for your own affairs.”
Worth reading in full.
Discussion
Comments
This week across the site:
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to the Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
The Mask study in Denmark. Having seen the English translation (done by AI I suspose). Is this translation accurate? I’m having doubts.
Guys we all know what this is, we also know there is no proof that shows face masks are stemming the flow of their beloved scamdemic. I for one am not sold on any of these untruths and the fact is I’m not sure many people are. Those that don’t want to wear a mask take them off, those that do, leave them on. Making healthy people wear masks is not how this will be in our favour.
Is there any update on the Danish study, its contents could be the final nail in the coffin for the harmful placebo mask epidemic we are having battered over our heads daily?
So just publish in a news outlet of your choice. (I hope the test was randomised, in the sense that some participants knew they were wearing a mask, and some didn’t).
I knew all along the science wasn’t there. Studies and real-world results over the years have repeatedly shown masks are not effective against the spread of viruses as evidenced by the makers of the N95 Masks placing a disclaimer on the box. If the study showed the efficacy of mask use, these “medical” magazines wouldn’t be able to publish it fast enough.
Faith in Quick Test Leads to Epidemic That Wasn’t
?quality=75&auto=webp&disable=upscale
Dr. Brooke Herndon of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, shown at left this month, was told last spring that she appeared to have whooping cough.Credit…Jon Gilbert Fox for The New York Times
By Gina Kolata
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/22/health/22whoop.html
..
‘Choose your lucky number
That much money could drag you under’
Pulp
I’ve chosen my lucky number and its number 9
The mass detention without trial in Wales ends on 9th November
Meanwhile at the eastern end of the Mediterranean Cyprus has introduced new draconian rules. A curfew and masks to be worn outside. These rules also end on 9th November
How could two governments that are so far apart geographically come up with the same date for the end of the virus?
Perhaps for the first time they are actually following science
For those of you who have not listened I recommend the Delingpole/Yeadon podcast. It runs for two hours. Take the time to listen. Yeadon demolishes the covid bollocks with scientific fact. If you do nothing else this weekend listen to it
For example. There has never been a second wave of this type of virus. I’ll repeat that, the second wave is a myth. There could never be a second wave. Vallance knows that. The dictator knows that. It’s not a guess, it’s not a prediction. It is a scientific fact
Yeadon describes in detail the Gompertz curve of the first wave. He also describes how a… Read more »
Prescient lawyers might well be preparing cases for the prosecution and the tidal wave of compensation claims which eventually will come to pass.
We have the judicial reviews and we hope for their ultimate success, but I think well informed legal eagles will be gathering their ammunition for the inevitable breeching of the propaganda wall.
I don’t expect anything of the judicial reviews; the courts are far from independent and impartial.
This is so obviously the case that I struggle to comprehend that so few can see it. The fog of propaganda and compliance has ingested many into the deceit. They prefer to drown in their virtuous nonsense of saving others and worshipping at the alter of the NHS, rather than admitting a gross folly.
Those truly responsible, those with power, those who “only followed orders” will have the weight of truth and history to bear upon their shoulders. Those who can, should do everything in their power to never let them forget it.
The damage is so profound it will last for a generation or more. Public health will be scarred for so long that those dying (and their nearest and dearest) from heart disease and other serious conditions, in ten or twenty years, may dismiss any link to actions of those who are actively and knowingly signing their early death warrant. Make no mistake, those direct connections will exist and those responsible will be sipping champagne in their grand houses whilst many around them succumb to their wrongdoing.
We have a pheasant strutting around our garden. We usually have one or two visit this time of year. Meanwhile……….
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8874191/PLATELLS-PEOPLE-Great-grandmother-Maureen-sense-leaders.html
Yesterday we drove to Leicestershire to visit my mother in law in her care home, although I wasn’t allowed to see her only one visitor per week!! First visit in 10 months! Anyway we are having a serious discussion about moving her down to us because this cannot continue, whether she’ll want to move in with us is another conversation!
How lovely Bella. They are beautiful birds. My MIL is 93 and still in her own home. She gets some external help and we do what we can. However, she comes and goes as she pleases and can see anyone anytime she likes. Other friends’ mums are in nursing homes and you are able to make an appointment for 2 hours as and when you can, perhaps once a week if you are lucky. I hope you can persuade her it is a good idea, you don’t think this thing can get any sillier, but if the powers that be can find a way to make life more unpleasant they will do it.
NEW PAGE IS HERE
https://dailysceptic.org/2020/10/24/latest-news-172/#comments
I have never despised politicians as much as I do at this moment particularly the leader of our council who begged to be put into tier 2.
We are looking after our grandchild at the moment. His mother has been in hospital with bacterial pneumonia, caused no doubt by mask wearing.
This little five year old is sobbing his heart out at the moment because until 7pm last night, he was running in and out of our house with his friends and going into their houses too. This morning, he can’t understand why his friend’s mummy won’t let his friend come in to play with him. She is a front line worker so doesn’t want to lose her job, I understand that.
This government and its minions are the biggest child abusers on the planet.
My heart goes out to you and your family.
There will be a reckoning.
I know I’m not the only freelancer here, so posting this well composed comment on this DT article, which I’m sure rings true for most of us.
Finian Manson
24 Oct 2020 6:41AM
The hypocrisy of the Chancellor and Treasury and the Government knows no bounds!
Self-employed have been punished and penalised by the Chancellor and the lack of support he has given them during the self-induced pandemic crisis that is destroying the economy as well as the nation’s health by enforced lockdowns in isolation.
Even today, recognition is dawning in government that productivity has dropped in the public and private sectors. Indeed, in the public sector in particular it is safe to say that those working from home are no longer working five days a week but more likely five hours a week but in their case with about the same output. That is to say, one could culled 80% of the public sector and see no change in performance.
At the same time, he and the Treasury are loudly announcing that tax and national insurance contributions will have to go up for the self-employed to help pay the pandemic even though they receive few if any benefits under the largess beings handed out by the… Read more »
My freelance work is also all online, but I’m struggling to find a more hospitable place to go. Not that the UK is particularly hospitable right now, but rather the whole world seems to have gone mad.
Bubble wrap.
We need it. It’s essential for us moving home soon.
The closest we can get to buying it in Wrexham is to order it online from The Range. Sold out.
So we try Wilkos. Click and collect fee: £2. Home delivery £5. For 4 rolls of bubble wrap. Delivery ETA: 6 days time.
Talk about milking the situation. We’re all in this together. Right.
How are people without recourse to online shopping going to manage for the next two weeks? (if indeed it lasts only two weeks).
I know it’s only bubble wrap, but there will be things that individuals regard as essential for themselves that the Communist government of Wales deem inessential for everyone.
This is day one of Drakeford’s ‘fire-break’, and it’s not started well.
Theme tune suggestion: I predict a riot. The Killers.
Nah insane in the brain by cypress hill!
Is there a big yellow storage near you?
What’s a big yellow storage?
https://www.bigyellow.co.uk/
Buy all your moving gubbins
Meanwhile the Bill & Melinda Gates operation IHME gets this whimsical piece of non-research into masks in NATURE (for God’s sake!): https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-1132-9
Margareta Griesz Brisson who she is:
https://www.topdoctors.co.uk/doctor/margareta-griesz-brisson
This is the German-language version.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pd22FGeuyog
My friend who is tri-lingual said this “Have just listened in German. It is the most moving appeal to reason and heart I have heard.”
Here is the English translation, it lasts 20 minutes and it’s all about the long term damage to the brain by masks and it’s as my friend said.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/Blzj0nJFEnpZ/
Good for you.
This has been posted several times and we need to keep posting it. Again and again and again. Until someone takes some notice.
Children getting brain damage. Is that a problem? Anyone in government care about this? Anyone?
Ha, just got a reply from Desmond Swayne to an email I sent him yesterday.
I sent him 2 simple words – thank you!!
His reply – thanks!
That will do for me.
I wrote him 3 paragraphs saying thank you and why I appreciated what he was doing and also got a “thanks” back.
Also does it for me.
Me too.
I think we should do a tally – I’ve had a couple of them – he replies to literally everyone. He is the only real politician in that godforsaken place.
Damn right and he looks smart as fuck. Unlike the other lot.
Maybe there is a correlation, bad ill fitting suit, thick as shit!
I hate to say this but the dress sense of many of the female MPs leaves an awful lot to be desired.
Suits with shoulder pads – the rest of us stopped wearing them in the 80’s (thank god! – as a swimmer, I really didn’t need them!!)
And the bizarre head gear worn by a couple, the more corpulent ladies crammed into tight skimpy things and Liz Truss in a mini skirt.
Or remember former Labour Home Sec Jacqui Smith’s voluminous cleavage?
Another over-generalisation. The site seems to be full of them these days. I am certainly not thick as shit, but I also wear clothes from charity shops. Intelligence is not correlated with appearance (or income to buy “nice” clothes), no matter how much one wishes it were so.
Great source these days – my daughter buys lots of amazing and very cheap things from charity shops – very proud of her being a good bargain-picker. But it all fits, looks smart and suits her perfectly, if something doesn’t fit or looks scruffy, it doesn’t really matter where it’s been bought I don’t think. I’m sure Stefarm wasn’t referring to charity shops in particular – it didn’t read that way to me anyway.
Don’t disagree, it was somewhat tongue in cheek however Boris could at least stop using a toffee apple to comb his Barnet.
Yes indeed; I’ve had 2 so far.
yes, he replied to me too. My hero.
Within in the last hour Prof Ferguson was being interviewed on Radio 4’s ‘Today” programme – again.
I just caught half of it. He thought, and I paraphrase, if people threw all caution to the winds and had a normal Christmas there wouldn’t be a steep rise in Covid deaths but there’d certainly be a few.
The point he made which I most noticed was his saying masks were useful in crowded situations.
When I shop at a supermarket I can’t say I find it more crowded than walking along the street. And when I travel on a bus it is usually less crowded than sitting on a park bench – thanks to passengers being scared away. (The first journey I did yesterday there were just myself and one other passenger – [’tis a small bus mind] – coming back it had three others.]
I heard that interview too. Don’t remember the bit about masks, I was just struck by how deferential it was – no mention of previous errors of modelling or playing fast and loose with soc. dist rules as anyone else would have had.
Yes, the BBC interviews chancers like Ferguson, Edmunds and Michie in that style of prostrate deference it once reserved for Prime Ministers and Archbishops back in the early 1950s.
Crowded situations no longer exist. Show me one crowded situation in the UK.
Naples is stirring
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/13011717/naples-italy-coronavirus-protest/
https://metro.co.uk/2020/10/24/violence-erupts-at-lockdown-protest-in-naples-as-curfew-imposed-to-curb-virus-13473185/
Good to see
A “largely masked” protest.
Well said, there is no culture without the people to support it
In the article mentioned that president Duda in Poland has got C-19(despite mask as this has been mandated in Poland)
The Mayor said “violence must always be condemned”. I wonder if he applies that to state sanctioned and approved violence at the hands of riot police.
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/bed-availability-and-occupancy/bed-data-overnight/
The above site has data on levels of occupation and availability of NHS beds.
However, I’m looking for something more timely, where I can see on a current basis the bed situation.
I’m interested in comparing the pattern of developing bed occupation at the current time to the situation at this time of year in previous years.
I am very dubious about ‘covid patients’. In my opinion it is very likely that ‘covid patients’ are those who are admitted for other reasons, but then produce a ‘positive test’
The data I am looking for would help decide that issue.
Does anyone know where I can find current (this week, or even by the day) data on NHS bed occupation rates?
Thanks in advance.
Well, that link has data going back for years. If you wanted to track a historical comparison, that should have the info you need. I highly doubt that there’s anything more real time than the NHS data I’m afraid.
The Daily SitRep reports start in December
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/winter-daily-sitreps/
Contains bed occupancy data
Sounds like a description of a Horror Channel (freeview channel 70 moving to 68 soon) film that you sit through for two hours constantly thinking it must get better-then it ends.
I am meant to be going along to a meeting today of (I thought) like minded kind, compassionate people who wanted to provide a free service (repair cafe) for the public. I signed up for this back in the day before all this coronavirus nonsense. I felt keen to get involved, looking forward to meeting others in the community but yesterday evening I got a list of guidelines that must be followed (I had already informed them I am exempt from muzzles ) and its like something out of a science fiction novel.
Its extreme. 30 bullet points of things to do/not do (such as item must be quarantined for 72 hours in a plastic bag before being brought along and sanitise hands before using the toilet, wash them after) All enthusiasm seeped out of me with the reading of said rules and I thought I had made up my mind not to go along..surely it would only add to make me feel dejected, it wouldnt have the positive effect I was hoping for?
However in my dreams last night I stood up and spoke out time and againyoure all borderline insane
this is inhumane
why are you all complying with these… Read more »
Be brave, humanity depends on it.
Good luck Watashi, you ARE brave. Hope you manage to convert a roomful of people.
Suggest you take a simple leaflet with you. All the best!
May the force be with you-my favourite salutation for dissenters.
many thanks all
This letter https://docs4opendebate.be/en/ is very useful. My friend prints it out in full to give to people, but it’s a bit long for most purposes. Here is a cut down version I’ve just done.
Open letter from medical doctors and health professionals to all Belgian authorities and all Belgian media. [extracts]
September 5th 2020
We, doctors and health professionals, wish to express our serious concern …..The current crisis management has become totally disproportionate and causes more damage than it does any good. We call for an end to all measures and ask for an immediate restoration of our normal democratic governance and legal structures and of all our civil liberties.
The course of covid-19 followed the course of a normal wave of infection similar to a flu season. As every year, we see a mix of flu viruses following the curve: first the rhinoviruses, then the influenza A and B viruses, followed by the coronaviruses. There is nothing different from what we normally see.
The non-specific PCR test produces many false positives. The test does not measure how many viruses are present in the sample. A real viral infection means a massive presence of viruses, the so-called virus load. If someone… Read more »
Spreading occurs by drip infection (only for patients who cough or sneeze) and aerosols in closed, unventilated rooms. Contamination is therefore not possible in the open air.
Wearing a mask is not without side effects. Oxygen deficiency (headache, nausea, fatigue, loss of concentration) occurs fairly quickly, an effect similar to altitude sickness. Every day we now see patients complaining of headaches, sinus problems, respiratory problems and hyperventilation due to wearing masks. In addition, the accumulated CO2 leads to a toxic acidification of the organism which affects our immunity. Some experts even warn of an increased transmission of the virus.
Our Labour Code (Codex 6) refers to a CO2 content (ventilation in workplaces) of 900 ppm, maximum 1200 ppm in special circumstances. After wearing a mask for one minute, this toxic limit is considerably exceeded to values that are three to four times higher than these maximum values. Anyone who wears a mask is therefore in an extreme poorly ventilated room.
A second wave is now being discussed in Belgium, with a further tightening of the measures as a result. However, closer examination of Sciensano’s figures shows that, although there has been an increase in the number of infections since mid-July, there… Read more »
I’m about to make a shorter version again
The NHS Shutdown Atrocity is all very well as far as social engineering is concerned, but do they really need their accustomed £150 billion per year in order to provide a skeleton service?
This stupendous sum could be better spent on all sorts of things.
You could also look at the huge subsidy for public transport.Buses tubes and trains are deserted in London.Why continue?
As someone who’s dependent on buses down here on the south coast, I fear the day that the subsidies end. Obviously, I will have to move since otherwise I will be trapped at home. My mistake in thinking that the quality of life for non-car owners was secure when I returned to the UK in 2018.
So you want public transport to simply cease operating?
Always good for the morale to see how accurate Whitty’s estimate of weekly doubling was!!!!
Here is actual hospitalisations to yesterday compared to where it would have been if it had doubled each week since the beginning of Sept.
Why, why, why is Whitty not sacked immediately?
Try it for a doubling every two weeks not one week. The emphasis is on the “if”. Change the y axis to log and we can talk about exponential vs. linear growth.
So people are going to receive 60%/80% of their salaries/wages.
I assume that all banks,building societies,councils and every shop in the country will accept said 60%/80% of bills then?
It’s nuts, we’re definitely in the upside down. Now even Ed Miliband is making sense
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/rishi-sunak-self-employed-job-support-coronavirus-labour-ed-miliband-b1258008.html
Conmen posing as Stasi to con old people. Nasty stuff, but what did they expect?
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/coronavirus-scam-covid-marshall-medical-professional-entry-home-ctsi-b1265211.html
I sometimes forget to thumb up people who have taken time to post. I’m now remembering to thumb up. Make sure you do the same (if you agree of course). 50,000 people visit this site daily I think. Thumb up every post. Show you are there. Support.
Done!👍
Down memory lane:
Coughs and sneezes spread diseases.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ElApI7pXEAEv45p?format=jpg&name=900×900
So, in Wales, clothes are classed as non essential.
Pity that the weather at this time is somewhat on the chilly side because there is a case for sceptics to march along the main street in Cardiff and other cities and towns in Wales “stark b×××××k naked answering the coppers with the reply “Well, the Welsh assembly have stipulated that clothes are “non essential”
Back to the Celtic traditions then, climb up Snowdon with your woad on!
http://www.woad-inc.co.uk/history.html
Just imagine Mark Drakeford addressing the Welsh Assembly only painted in woad, enough to put you off your breakfast.
Could be worse,could be Bojo.
Hallucinogenic that woad, sinks into the skin.
I want to see unclad male voice choirs bellowing rude ditties at Drakeford and co.
We went through all this in March/April, when the supermarkets were supposedly restricted to essential items. Until it was pointed out that things like say art supplies, were essential to some peoples mental well being.
Instead of Jones the Outfitters getting your business, some mail order organisation in England can have it instead. Jones goes out of business. WTF?.
Have they confirmed the status of velcro gloves?
Not sure about gloves but velcro shoes are essential for those members of Govt and SAGE etc. who have difficulty with laces.
Oh go on Phil, I dare you. Seeing you reported on our news over here would make my day. A naked rally I love it!!!😂
Sorry GDU, I live in England and I’m almost 72, not a pretty sight.
PS:Reminds me of the old black country saying concerning men: You go out of this world the same as you come in:”No hair,no teeth and a little c××k.
You’re too modest, FP. We all saw this footage of you caught on camera out and about in London the other day.
I WISH!!
Phil. There is absolutely no need to go naked. My Morrison’s is still selling Halloween costumes. Apparently they are essential and you can wear one of those!!
I suffer bad from anxiety. Corona madness has ramped this up. I have found several supplements that arer truly invaluable. Glycine, Inositol, Magnesium.. More recently I have had to go back on a low dose antidep (Venlafaxine).. but the other day I also found that Beta Alanine is also good for anxiety. I buy them all as powders from Bulk Powders, or Pure Source, Pheonix, Peak, Redwells, BBW, etc… just in case anyone else feels they could benefit from something. Glycine etc also very good for you.. we really only get it in our diets is small amounts.. larger amounts in bone broth or chicken skin..
Magnesium gel is excellent,as is Better You’s magnesium sleep lotion , Good price on Amazon.
Daily B12 tablet as well ; good for brain function, and general maintenance of healthy blood and nervous system.
I take a strong B complex that uses methyl folate instead of folic acid made by Pheonix.. definitely a good product for fatigue. I buy magnesium malate from iHerb where it is cheaper.. comes from USA in days.
Suggest focus on what you eat and drink and go for ‘nutrient dense’ diet, making every mouthful count. Also daily routine, so that daily life is predictable and reliable
Chaos – is there any way you can get in touch with me: swap emails? (I don’t want to do this on a public forum) I know someone who can help you with your anxiety.
I’ve posted twice in the forum I think.. you can PM there. thank you
Aw, I hate chicken skin.
I’ve found medicinal mushrooms (the legal ones) are good for balancing your mood. I take reishi and cordyceps. That and regular exercise.
You’re a trooper Chaos.
I’ve just received an update from the Spectator headed something like, ‘Boris’s Christmas cheer’. I haven’t read it, having recently cancelled my subscription. However, I assume Boris is promising a normal Christmas, and if he is, doesn’t it just show the whole thing is being stage managed? If the cabinet has to remain unaccountable to parliament because ‘they have to act quickly’, how can they possibly predict what’s going to happen in two month’s time?
Australian Spectator and Sky seem to have a great deal more courage than our Brit versions.. O’Neill is definitely a sceptic but is being a little careful about conspiracies like Toby.. UK spectator still on our side though I think. Been an ok little anchor during all this.
Agreed and the daft out there haven’t joined up the dots- on anything actually. And there will be a very selfish motive- how many kids does Boris have? At least 6. And MPs they have families too.
What made you cancel your subscription?
I think of cancelling mine but only because I can’t get through it all. And I don’t get through it all because there’s no imbibing of liquid refreshment anymore in congenial establishment any more which was when I was most want to read it.
I cancelled as well. They are too pro regime, plus the pig dictators connection with it
We tend to look at the comments on all the articles we read too – and they are a pretty similar bunch to us on here – very rarely any who aren’t sceptic now. In face I’ve seen some familiar names!
Not promising. Says it’s his ambition.
They’re continuing to test the limits of how stupid the British public is. That’s what this is really, a social experiment to determine how dumb people are. The results so far: much more than initially thought.