ICU Occupancy in English Hospitals No Higher Than Last December
The media is full of alarming reports of NHS hospitals being on the brink of armageddon, such is the surge in coronavirus patients. “As we head into the new year we are seeing a real rise in the pressure on NHS services, particularly across London and the south-east,” Saffron Cordery, the Deputy Chief Executive of NHS Providers told the Guardian.
A letter from NHS chiefs sent to the chief executives of all NHS trust and foundation trusts on December 23rd contained this alarming paragraph:
With COVID-19 inpatient numbers rising in almost all parts of the country, and the new risk presented by the variant strain of the virus, you should continue to plan on the basis that we will remain in a level 4 incident for at least the rest of this financial year and NHS trusts should continue to safely mobilise all of their available surge capacity over the coming weeks. This should include maximising use of the independent sector, providing mutual aid, making use of specialist hospitals and hubs to protect urgent cancer and elective activity and planning for use of funded additional facilities such as the Nightingale hospitals, Seacole services and other community capacity. Timely and safe discharge should be prioritised, including making full use of hospices. Support for staff over this period will need to remain at the heart of our response, particularly as flexible redeployment may again be required.
And the Independent reports that the London Ambulance Service has issued a warning saying it can no longer guarantee an ambulance will turn up if women giving birth at home require emergency care.
Sounds like a major crisis, right? Better move the rest of England into Tier 4, make mask-wearing mandatory in all settings and close schools until Easter.
Or is it?
If you look at ICU occupancy in NHS hospitals across England on December 20th it was lower than the December average in 2019 in most of the country – and it’s worth remembering that the 2019-20 flu season was unusually mild.
Admittedly, the total number of ICU beds occupied in London on Dec 20th was quite a bit higher than the average for December 2019, but according to the ZOE app daily symptomatic cases in London are falling. The ZOE data in the graph below shows rising and falling daily symptomatic cases up to December 27th.
It’s also worth bearing in mind that there are more ICU beds this year than last year, so if you calculate the percentage of ICU beds occupied in NHS hospitals across England and compare that to the average percentage in December 2019 the picture looks even less bleak. In every region, including London, the percentage of ICU beds occupied at the moment is lower than it was this time last year.
East:
Dec 2019 average: 76.3%
On Dec 20th 2020: 74.0%London:
Dec 2019 average: 88.7%
On Dec 20th 2020: 86.3%Midlands:
Dec 2019 average: 82.2%
On Dec 20th 2020: 67.0%North East and Yorkshire:
Dec 2019 average: 78.4%
On Dec 20th 2020: 69.8%North West:
Dec 2019 average: 82.6%
On Dec 20th 2020: 68.7%South East:
Dec 2019 average: 83.7%
On Dec 20th 2020: 75.4%South West:
Dec 2019 average: 79.5%
On Dec 20th 2020: 73.3%
I’m not suggesting that NHS hospitals aren’t under pressure – nor even that they aren’t under more pressure than they were this time last year. But the issue isn’t a lack of ICU beds and it doesn’t appear to be a surging number of patients admitted to ICU beds with COVID-19. After all, if those numbers were surging on top of the usual December admissions for respiratory diseases you’d expect the total number of ICU beds occupied to be much higher this year than last and, as you can see from the Spectator data, the totals are lower in four of England’s seven NHS regions.
The reason for the crisis – if indeed there is a crisis – must lie elsewhere.
My money’s on a combination of higher-than-average staff absences and poor management. Disappointing, considering the NHS has had over six months to prepare for this “crisis”.
Lockdowns Pose Greatest Threat to Mental Health Since Second World War
According to the country’s leading psychiatrist, the ongoing restrictions pose the greatest threat to mental health since the Second World War. The Guardian has more.
Dr Adrian James, the president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said a combination of the disease, its social consequences and the economic fallout were having a profound effect on mental health that would continue long after the epidemic is reined in.
As many as 10 million people, including 1.5 million children, are thought to need new or additional mental health support as a direct result of the crisis.
“This is going to have a profound effect on mental health,” James said. “It is probably the biggest hit to mental health since the Second World War. It doesn’t stop when the virus is under control and there are few people in hospital. You’ve got to fund the long-term consequences.”
Demand for mental health services dropped at the start of the pandemic as people stayed away from GP surgeries and hospitals, or thought treatment was unavailable. But the dip was followed by a surge in people seeking help that shows no sign of abating.
Data from NHS Digital reveals that the number of people in contact with mental health services has never been higher, and some hospital trusts report that their mental health wards are at capacity. “The whole system is clearly under pressure,” James said.
Modelling by the Centre for Mental Health forecasts that as many as 10 million people will need new or additional mental health support as a direct result of the coronavirus epidemic. About 1.3 million people who have not had mental health problems before are expected to need treatment for moderate to severe anxiety, and 1.8 million treatment for moderate to severe depression, it found.
The overall figure includes 1.5 million children at risk of anxiety and depression brought about or aggravated by social isolation, quarantine or the hospitalisation or death of family members. The numbers may rise as the full impact becomes clear on Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, care homes and people with disabilities.
Worth reading in full.
Conservative MPs Urge Boris to Keep Schools Open
A number of Conservative MPs have pleaded with Boris not to close schools in January even if it increases the R number. Camilla Turner in today’s Telegraph has more.
Their intervention comes ahead of crunch talks due to take place today between Number 10 and Department for Education officials about whether to delay the return to the classroom in January.
Downing Street has repeatedly said that keeping schools open is a “national priority” but scientists are warning that closures may be necessary to slow the spread of the new COVID-19 variant.
The New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG ), which advises the Government, has said that the new variant of the virus may spread far more effectively in children than the original strain.
They said that might explain why the rate of the virus continued to increase in some areas during the second lockdown, when schools were open but more adults stayed at home.
Prof Neil Ferguson, the Imperial College London epidemiologist who became known as “Professor Lockdown” due to his instrumental role in pressing the Government into the first lockdown in March, has raised similar concerns.
He said data so far suggested that the new variant “has a higher propensity to infect children” with “statistically significantly higher” rates found among under-15s compared with those of the standard virus.
But Conservative MPs have told the Prime Minister that schools must be kept open even if it means a rise in the R number. “The view of most Tory MPs is that schools do need to stay open,” one backbencher said.
“It is the health people who are saying ‘oh gosh, the hospitals will be full’. We know that schools being open does increase the R rate. The question is, is that a price we are willing to pay and in my view it should be. Frankly, children don’t get harmed so why on earth should we punish them?”
Another senior Tory MP said it is regrettable that closing schools is now “on the table” but added that many MPs would oppose this.
“Until the Chief Medical Officer gets up and says ‘this is a disaster if we keep schools open because the new strain will threaten parents’, then fine, even I would accept that,” he said.
He added that “Professor Lockdown” is a “fanatic who wants to shut down everything” adding: “I think it’s absolutely wrong for him to start scaring parents and children without actually having the scientific evidence.”
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: In the US, school administrators are rethinking quarantine rules, according to the Wall St Journal.
Ten More Reasons to be Anti-Lockdown
A reader has sent us a good piece setting out 10 reasons to be opposed to lockdowns which we’re publishing today. Here are the first three:
The research: While those who oppose lockdowns have rigorously sought to justify their position with research – and can reference tens of studies as to the lack of efficacy of lockdowns (or stringent measures under different names) – the Government has been capable only of publishing one graph in their cost-benefit analysis of the tiers which appeared to show a correlation between Tier 3 measures and a reduction in cases (since discredited).
The use of data: While those who oppose lockdowns have analysed all data in as close to real time as possible, the ‘data’ used to justify lockdowns have been cherry-picked and often predictive, while being based on spurious assumptions that have repeatedly been proved inaccurate.
The source and balance of information: While those who oppose lockdowns possess no bias in obtaining their information, the Government is informed on the risks by a number of committees (SAGE NERVTAG, SPI-M) whose sole responsibility is to consider the virus and present the risks of that virus.
Then there’s my favourite, number 9:
Censorship and debate: While those who oppose lockdowns are constantly appealing for open debate and free speech, the Government avoids open debate, seeking instead to censor dissenting voices. Further, as there is a push to censor any “misinformation”, one can quite easily conclude that the mass of information available, and uncensored, from dissenting voices must therefore be much closer to irrefutable having had to pass a much higher standard in order to simply be available.
Worth reading in full.
BBC’s Alarmist Report on Fake News Contains Fake News
A report by the BBC’s “disinformation reporter” raises the alarm about the dangers of fake news. According to Marianna Spring, the “flurry of online falsehoods about coronavirus” are “destroying relationships and endangering lives”.
But what sort of deadly misinformation is the reporter talking about? Scroll down and you find this paragraph:
We catalogued mass poisonings and overdoses of hydroxychloroquine – a drug that world leaders like Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro falsely claimed cures or prevents COVID-19.
Hang on a second. The claim that HCQ cures or prevents COVID-19 is false?
I’m afraid that doesn’t pass the fact-checking test, Ms Spring. Over 200 studies have shown HCQ is an effective treatment for Covid. Trump and Bolsonaro may have exaggerated the preventative and curative properties of HCQ, but that doesn’t mean it’s completely ineffective and anyone taking it is likely to poison themselves. On the contrary, it’s almost certainly no more dangerous than any of the Covid vaccines.
Stop Press: David Goodhart wrote an excellent piece for the Telegraph yesterday about the moment he lost his faith in television news.
I believe it was on Monday April 20th that it struck me most forcefully: that day, a grim milestone was reached, with 100 health and social care workers reported to have died from COVID-19 – and I was witnessing a national panic. I realised then that we can no longer do television news for grown-ups.
For the preceding three weeks, I had been watching the same thing every night on the BBC Ten O’Clock News: here is a shocking statistic about Covid, here’s someone who died, here’s a sobbing relative or frontline hero telling you to stay at home, save lives and protect the NHS.
The coverage was relentlessly emotional and infantilising, lacking explanation and context. Was the 100-plus NHS staff deaths from Covid a lot, or a little? There are 600,000 patient-facing staff in the NHS, so a few probably die from infections they catch from patients every month in normal times. Was 100 deaths since the start of the crisis, about a month earlier, twice the normal rate or 50 times? How did it compare to other countries?
Not a word. In Britain, we are supposed to be good at media. And no doubt in some niches we still are. But at the start of the crisis, our main channels of electronic communication became showcases for our contemporary vices: emotionalism, virtue-signalling and a querulously adolescent attitude to authority.
At the same time, I was keeping an eye on the main TV bulletins in Germany and France and while, reassuringly, they were having exactly the same debates as us about inadequate PPE supplies and the disease ravaging old peoples’ homes, the news seemed to be delivered with more rigour and authority and without the British reflex of blaming the Government for everything that was going wrong.
Worth reading in full.
Is Public Opinion Finally Beginning to Turn Against Lockdowns?
According to a poll in yesterday’s Sunday Express, millions of Britons want the Tiers to be scrapped.
With much of Britain stuck in Tier 4 rules, an exclusive survey for the Sunday Express showed more than half of people do not want to wait for the whole population to be vaccinated. The One Poll survey revealed one in five people (21%) want the tiers to be ended when MPs have the chance to vote on them at the end of January. Three in 10 believe that restrictions should end when all the over-60s and people in vulnerable groups have had the chance to have the vaccine.
Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty and Chief Scientific Adviser Sir Patrick Vallance have suggested restrictions should remain for most of next year until the whole population has had the chance to have the vaccine.
However, only 32% of the 1,013 people, surveyed in the week before Christmas, support this position which some MPs have already branded extreme.
Former Cabinet minister Esther McVey, the founder of the powerful Blue Collar Conservatism movement of more than 120 Tory MPs, said that the poll shows the Prime Minister cannot keep forcing restrictions on an unwilling country.
She said: “As on every issue the public are way ahead of politicians. We cannot keep these restrictions and lockdowns in perpetuity and the Government needs to take heed and ensure a new strategy is developed ASAP which returns our freedoms and allows the economy to reopen.”
Worth reading in full.
Round-up
- “Meet The 50 Doctors, Scientists And Healthcare Entrepreneurs Who Became Pandemic Billionaires In 2020” – Forbes identifies the 50 people who’ve become billionaires as a result of the pandemic. 27 of them are based in China
- “Millions to receive Oxford coronavirus vaccine from Jan 4th” – Two million people will receive their first dose of either the Oxford vaccine or the Pfizer jab within a fortnight, according to the Telegraph
- “Eton College attempted to refer dismissed Master under Prevent Duty for advocating male superiority” – The Telegraph‘s Camilla Turner reveals the Head Master of Eton referred English teacher Will Knowland to the Local Authority because he thought’s his lecture challenging radical feminist orthodoxy was a breach of the Prevent Duty, as set out in the Prevention of Terrorism Act
- “UK radio host under fire for highlighting low COVID-19 mortality among healthy & young and calling for them to ‘carry on living’” – Julia Hartley Brewer is under fire for retweeting Paul Embery’s tweet pointing out that only 377 under-60s in England with no underlying health conditions have died of Covid this year
- “377 people aged under 60 with ‘NO underlying health conditions’ have died of Covid in England’s hospitals” – MailOnline may be about to get into trouble too as it’s devoted a story to the same statistic
- “Hundreds of British holidaymakers escape from quarantine in luxury ski resort” – 420 Brits were in Verbier, but after they were told to quarantine in their hotel room for 10 days all but a dozen fled
- “WHO Deletes Naturally Acquired Immunity from Its Website” – Jeffrey A. Tucker, Editorial Director for the American Institute for Economic Research, weighs in on the WHO’s decision to redefine “herd immunity” so it makes no reference to naturally acquired immunity
- “More than 15,000 lorry drivers tested for Covid after almost a week of disruption” – ITV reports that of the 15,000 lorry drivers tested for COVID-19 only 36 (0.23%) were positive. Needless to say, these were lateral flow tests, not PCR
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Four today: “Fear” by Pulp, “Stuck in a Bubble” by George Alice and NASAYA, “Going Out of My Head” by Dodie West and “Get Up, Stand Up” by Bob Marley.
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 as well as post comments below the line, 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 so you can share it. To do that, click on the headline of a particular story and a link symbol will appear on the right-hand side of the headline. Click on the link and the URL of your page will switch to the URL of that particular story. You can then copy that URL and either email it to your friends or post it on social media. Please do share the stories.
Social Media Accounts
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Woke Gobbledegook
We’ve decided to create a permanent slot down here for woke gobbledegook. Today, we bring you the tragic story of a young American girl who lost her college place when a vengeful classmate released an embarrassing SnapChat video she’d posted when she was 15 in which she used a racial epithet. The New York Times has more.
Jimmy Galligan was in history class last school year when his phone buzzed with a message. Once he clicked on it, he found a three-second video of a white classmate looking into the camera and uttering an anti-Black racial slur.
The slur, he said, was regularly hurled in classrooms and hallways throughout his years in the Loudoun County school district. He had brought the issue up to teachers and administrators but, much to his anger and frustration, his complaints had gone nowhere.
So he held on to the video, which was sent to him by a friend, and made a decision that would ricochet across Leesburg, Va., a town named for an ancestor of the Confederate general Robert E. Lee and whose school system had fought an order to desegregate for more than a decade after the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling.
“I wanted to get her where she would understand the severity of that word,” Mr. Galligan, 18, whose mother is Black and father is white, said of the classmate who uttered the slur, Mimi Groves. He tucked the video away, deciding to post it publicly when the time was right.
Ms. Groves had originally sent the video, in which she looked into the camera and said, “I can drive,” followed by the slur, to a friend on Snapchat in 2016, when she was a freshman and had just gotten her learner’s permit. It later circulated among some students at Heritage High School, which she and Mr. Galligan attended, but did not cause much of a stir.
Mr. Galligan had not seen the video before receiving it last school year, when he and Ms. Groves were seniors. By then, she was a varsity cheer captain who dreamed of attending the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, whose cheer team was the reigning national champion. When she made the team in May, her parents celebrated with a cake and orange balloons, the university’s official colour.
The next month, as protests were sweeping the nation after the police killing of George Floyd, Ms. Groves, in a public Instagram post, urged people to “protest, donate, sign a petition, rally, do something” in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.
“You have the audacity to post this, after saying the N-word,” responded someone whom Ms. Groves said she did not know.
Her alarm at the stranger’s comment turned to panic as friends began calling, directing her to the source of a brewing social media furor. Mr. Galligan, who had waited until Ms. Groves had chosen a college, had publicly posted the video that afternoon. Within hours, it had been shared to Snapchat, TikTok and Twitter, where furious calls mounted for the University of Tennessee to revoke its admission offer.
By that June evening, about a week after Mr. Floyd’s killing, teenagers across the country had begun leveraging social media to call out their peers for racist behavior. Some students set up anonymous pages on Instagram devoted to holding classmates accountable, including in Loudoun County.
The consequences were swift. Over the next two days, Ms. Groves was removed from the university’s cheer team. She then withdrew from the school under pressure from admissions officials, who told her they had received hundreds of emails and phone calls from outraged alumni, students and the public.
This is an appalling story, revealing just how petty and spiteful the woke can be. Worth reading in full – although bear in mind that the New York Times calls what happened to this teenage girl “a reckoning”, as though she got her just deserts. Chilling.
Stop Press: Rakib Ehsan in the Telegraph says he hopes we can ditch the concept of “white privilege” in 2021
Stop Press 2: In the latest twist in the free speech scandal at Eton, the Telegraph‘s Camilla Turner reveals the Head Master referred English teacher Will Knowland to the Local Authority because of his concerns that his lecture challenging radical feminist orthodoxy was a breach the Prevent Duty, as set out in the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
“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. Another reader has created an Android app which displays “I am exempt from wearing a face mask” on your phone. Only 99p, and he’s even said he’ll donate half the money to Lockdown Sceptics, so everyone wins.
If you’re a shop owner and you want to let your customers know you will not be insisting on face masks or asking them what their reasons for exemption are, you can download a friendly sign to stick in your window here.
And here’s an excellent piece about the ineffectiveness of masks by a Roger W. Koops, who has a doctorate in organic chemistry. See also the Swiss Doctor’s thorough review of the scientific evidence here.
Stop Press: The constitutional court of Bosnia and Herzegovina has declared that the forced wearing of masks is a violation of basic human rights.
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 in October and the lockdown zealots have been doing their best to discredit it ever since. If you googled it a week after launch, 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 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 three quarters of a million signatures.
Update: The authors of the GBD have expanded the FAQs to deal with some of the arguments and smears that have been made against their proposal. Worth reading in full.
Update 2: Many of the signatories of the Great Barrington Declaration are involved with new UK anti-lockdown campaign Recovery. Find out more and join here.
Update 3: You can watch Sunetra Gupta set out the case for “Focused Protection” here and Jay Bhattacharya make it here.
Update 4: The three GBD authors plus Prof Carl Heneghan of CEBM have launched a new website collateralglobal.org, “a global repository for research into the collateral effects of the COVID-19 lockdown measures”. Follow Collateral Global on Twitter here.
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. Alas, he’s now reached the end of the road, with the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear his appeal. Dolan has no regrets. “We forced SAGE to produce its minutes, got the Government to concede it had not lawfully shut schools, and lit the fire on scrutinizing data and information,” he says. “We also believe our findings and evidence, while not considered properly by the judges, will be of use in the inevitable public inquires which will follow and will help history judge the PM, Matt Hancock and their advisers in the light that they deserve.”
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’. A High Court judge refused permission for the FSU’s judicial review in December and the FSU has decided not to appeal the decision because Ofcom has conceded most of the points it was making. Check here for details.
Stop Press: An Italian court has declared lockdowns illegal.
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
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And Finally…
Discussion
Comments
This week across the site:
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https://amazingpolly.net/videos.html
Listen to Polly’s ‘The Swamp is Doing the Auditing’, about Arlo/Voting Works and Homeland Security’s voting machines for the US Presidential Election. Guess where the funding came from. Chilling.
Scotsman coverage of a publicity stunt that has been declated hogmanay celebration. Castle car park has illuminated Thank You [NHS] in it for a few moments – did anyone attend bar the press tog?
“Edinburgh’s Hogmanay kicks off its virtual celebrations with a stunning tribute to NHS staff and key workers
Edinburgh’s Hogmanay 2020 digital festivities kicked off with a heartfelt thank you to NHS staff and key workers across the country.
“‘Thank You’ was spelled out in fiery rainbow letters taking inspiration from the rainbows that Scotland and the rest of the UK placed in windows and homes over the past year to show support for front line staff.”
https://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/christmas/edinburghs-hogmanay-kicks-its-virtual-celebrations-stunning-tribute-nhs-staff-and-key-workers-3079477
As John Junor used to say
” Pass the Sick Bag Alice”
Populist Programme – the first 100 days of the Covid Action Programme.
Day 1 Remove mandatory masking.
Day 2 Terms of reference for Judicial Inquiry published including power to name persons to be prosecuted for enabling gross breaches of people’s natural rights.
Day 7 Close down national test and trace programme. Replace with limited test and trace in cases if established symptomatic infection.
Day 14 Publishing of “Sensible Health Advice Programme” emphasising basic hygiene to avoid exposure to high viral loads.
Day 15 Tiers and all lockdown regulations removed from Day 30. Free movement and free association restored. Some restrictions on mass gatherings remain. People in the age range 18 to 60 who do not have health issues encouraged to mix and socialise to hasten achievement of herd immunity.
Day 20 Public Health Information Programme announced. “You Are Strong”. Programme to counter the preceding years of fear propaganda. Will explain how we have co-evolved with viruses -viruses are always in the environment and always mutating and that we have little to fear if we avoid obesity and lifestyle diseases, have a good diet and exercise regularly.
Day 21 Shielding and Care Home Support Programme… Read more »
Just get rid of all the restrictions immediately.Arrest of all sage,nervtag and the last cabinet.Arrest warrant served on Bill Gates and the WHO.Leave NATO World bank and all UN treaties.Thats the first week sorted.
I foresee a slight problem with day 20 – “avoid obesity and lifestyle diseases, have a good diet and exercise regularly”. I suspect the majority of the population have a problem in one or more of these areas and that most of them will continue to do so unless we start to tackle various issues including but not limited to the misuse of considerable power and influence by big food (and bog pharma), toxic social environments related to breakdown of communities and erosion of healthy family life, toxic environments at home and work, and the lifestyles that many people are forced to live (work/life balance, things which increase stress etc.).
Clearly written piece about the deletion of Herd Immunity from the WHO website. Style perhaps useful for sharing onwards.
“WHO Deletes Naturally Acquired Immunity from Its Website
December 28, 2020”
https://www.aier.org/article/who-deletes-naturally-acquired-immunity-from-its-website/
It has been something very unpleasant to see WHO luvie devi sridhar weasel around herd immunity throughout the year, she has held as many positions on it as the snp has brexit. Synthetic herd immunity was the only herd immunity until this last memory holing.
And in so doing they are effectively stating that the human immune system no longer serves a useful purpose.
China’s WHO? or is that a myth?
From 21st Century Wire
“France: New Law Would Ban COVID Vaccine Refusers from Using Law Public Transport”
“How far would governments in the West go in order to force a medical or pharmaceutical intervention on its population? This scenario is no longer confined to the realms of conspiracy theory, as a number of governments have either tried, or are currently preparing to implement this unprecedented policy.
A recent attempt by the Danish government to rush through an emergency “Epidemic Bill” calling for forced vaccinations triggered a national uprising, as intelligent members of the public got wind of the government’s attempt to slip draconian vaccine regulations past the public. A similar situation could be building in France, as the government in Paris attempts to push through new crisis legislation that would ban citizens from using public transport unless they submit to a dubious testing regime or refuse to take the latest experimental COVID-19 vaccine.”
The article continues..
https://21stcenturywire.com/2020/12/28/france-new-law-would-ban-covid-vaccine-refusers-from-using-law-public-transport/
I’m relying on the French people to say “Va te faire foutre”
Governments are bearing their teeth now.This is make or break time.If they can vaccinate enough people then it will be self policing,like masks and social distancing,so refuseniks will be treated as pariahs.
But it also presents an opportunity for a true fight back as the principle of bodily autonomy faces tyranny.
It also leaves incompetence theorists clinging on to their faith.
Just look at the state of the UK today and feel sick.
Is a repeat of 1976 just around the corner? – Sex Pistols – Anarchy in the UK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=na7A3-UCCYE
I see a potential depopulation scenario here if the majority of these 22 million take the AstraZeneca vaccine and are then exposed to a wild coronavirus that triggers the ADE response.
We are destined to wait and see – and hope that none of our family and friends are included.
The “wild” virus will only be released when the requisite number have been vaccinated.
Indeed, and it could be a virus that would ordinarily be no more serious than the common cold. So the unvaccinated will be perfectly safe.
Nothing I would like better than to wake up tomorrow and find myself in 1976.
Yes – it was a golden summer!
And you could smoke in the pubs.
And you could go into a pub in the first place.
22 is an oft occuring number same as the old 33. Used when counting on fingers. Watch that number 22 creep slip, slide and fade away in coming days. One thing is certain 22 million is not a number that will be spoken of in a weeks time.
I don’t know what Gemma Atherton’s got to do with Covid… 🙂
We may have had a poor government in 1976, but it didn’t plan to eliminate most of its own people.
Propagandising the global population.
The disaster films over the years have essentially taught the global population how to behave in times of crisis and what the various roles of media, government and regular people will be (they even teach us those divisions). China Syndrome from the 70s is an example, but the ideas of freethinking, fighting for morally right ideals of those early disaster movies changed for a much more prescriptive coalescence to an authoritive agenda in later years. Movies over the past 20 years have left me mostly unimpressed to say the least.
The film Deep Impact from around 2000 is a regurgitation of the old asteroid on a collision course with earth story. The societal behaviours shown in the movie are present today under these plandemic conditions. Simple to imagine covid in place of the space rock.
In the film it is announced no one over 50 will be selected for government protection via millitary underground base – comparison to covid might be DNRs placed on over 45s in NHS hospitals. The movie has arrangements made to freeze wages and inflation to stop economic disaster. Scientific models are grasped at by a government that clearly has… Read more »
I’m seeing a lot of “experts” on social media using terms such as “frightening” and “scary” in what looks like an effort to ramp up the fear factor.
Personally I think people who show fear when there is little or no danger to themselves are not particularly rational.
Every single person who has contributed to this bullshit – including all those who have complied without questioning anything – deserves to burn in hell for eternity. If 2021 follows the trajectory I expect, the remainder of their pitiful lives here will be hell.
I feel Fine
My law-breaking daughter and her boyfriend are here (we’re in full lockdown) and he just found out the roommate of a good friend of his was found dead in their apartment by his friend. He had addiction issues but had gone through rehab and was doing well. He was all alone over the holidays, which undoubtedly contributed to his relapse and overdose. He was 28 and now his friend has to live with finding him dead in their apartment. I know this is one of many such stories, but I’m sitting here so angry that these young people’s deaths don’t seem to matter. The young are not supposed to protect their parents and grandparents — it’s supposed to be the other way around. Whether it’s life years lost or evolutionary theory that dictates that parents protect their children, it’s simply wrong that the young and healthy are being sacrificed in such a callous way. I don’t care to mortgage my children’s futures to protect me, but I would happily take on risk to get back to real normal for their sake.
This is terrible. A mate of mine did this. He was on heroine but he managed to get of it. Then he went back and the first does was particularly pure and he wasn’t used to such high doses. He overdosed. He was probably in his early 40’s. Also another guy I know he OD’ed about 5 years ago in the toilet of a train as he was coming back from scoring. He was probably early 40’s too.
Both of them were great guys. Sadly missed.
The irony will be some will say these people must have had pre-existing issues conveniently forgetting that the majority of covid deaths also have pre-existing issues.
University of Florida researchers find no asymptomatic or presymptomatic spread
https://rationalground.com/university-of-florida-researchers-find-no-asymptomatic-or-presymptomatic-spread/
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2774102
I find the Conclusion very strange. One of the most interesting parts is of course the statistically invisible infection rate of asymptomatic people in households, but instead the author concludes with:
“The findings of this study suggest that households are and will continue to be important venues for transmission, even where community transmission is reduced. Prevention strategies, such as increased mask-wearing at home, improved ventilation, voluntary isolation at external facilities, and targeted antiviral prophylaxis, should be further explored.”
What?!?!
The authors will have had to insert that final clause in order to get the study published. Upside down world we live in.
Hi all
We need an experienced statistician to advise us on research around deaths/testing etc.
Please let us know if you’re interested at: mail […at…] covid19assembly.org
Thanks!
https://mobile.twitter.com/HowardSteen4/status/1343406437255491585
Deep dive on PCR, Dorsten retraction request and other related issues. Kevin Mckernan presentation
Spain is planning to create a register of vaccine refusers. https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/spain-plans-registry-those-who-refuse-covid-vaccine
“What will be done is a registry, which will be shared with our European partners… of those people who have been offered it and have simply rejected it. It is not a document which will be made public and it will be done with the utmost respect for data protection.”
Laughable beyond belief. How does “sharing a registry with our European partners” constitute the “utmost respect for data protection”?
Don’t answer the phone to unfamiliar numbers, burn the letters. Don’t refuse; just don’t respond.
Obviously, hard if you have to go to the doctor because you are actually ill (that still happens, allegedly), and the nurse runs at you with a needle.
Yes. It’s like at work, never sign up to the “new terms and conditions” that you never agreed to yourself.
Apparently your privacy is guaranteed, that’s reassuring.
What is this insistence on everyone getting vaccinated? They keep banging on about asymptomatic spread so many people should therefore be immune.
Also, why insist that you still require a vaccine even if you have had the virus? And, I don’t need to remind anyone here the survival rate even for the more elderly population.
No wonder some of us are starting to question the coercion apparent via the Government and MSM to comply.
Starting to question?its been obvious for a long time that the goal is vaccination followed by digital passport.This is the reason for the current coercion.Keep the pressure on so we will be begging to be let out.Hancock said this last week lockdown until Vaccine rollout
C-O-N-T-R-O-L
What do they want control?
Everything.
Literally…. Fucking….. Everything.
Maybe because it really is a depopulation event.
Should have added the french public transport to this thread. In order to keep the great unvaccinated trial participants from french public transport a register will clearly be needed and infrastructure with bouncers and or automatic closing doors to keep things nicely segregated.
‘BBC’s Alarmist Report on Fake News Contains Fake News’
In my experience, anyone who drones on about ‘fake news’ and how to spot it is in fact dishing out fake news.
They’ve discovered hiding in plain sight and are completely convinced we can’t see ’em; that’s the level of intelligence that we’re dealing with.
Segregation is here. Ryan Air have launched a new tagline.
Jab & Go.
No jab no go.
So predictable it’s becoming tedious. But even this will not be enough. To achieve the 90%+ vaccine uptake which is the wet dream of the technocrats, physical and legislative coercion will be required.
Yes, I suspect that was why the Tiffany Dover psy-op happened. To get enough people to refuse so as to make it mandatory to catch the original dissenters in their net.
I also think the Pfizer vaccine is a dead duck, and will be pulled when the AstraZeneca shot gets going next week.
They are getting an absolute pasting for it on social media though. The last time I looked there were over 100 comments on their Instagram and pretty much all of them were saying that people would boycott them if vaccination was a condition of travel. I was actually pleasantly surprised to see so many against it, maybe the zombies are finally waking up.
I do think that companies and businesses who advertise on a ‘free choice’ basis will be very popular and will clean up; more people are fed up with this than we realise and this will be reflected in where they spend their money in the future.
Lifted this from twitter
“The WHO actually killed the legal argument for forced vaccines. If the vaccine has no impact on transmission, then the sole legal basis to mandate vaccines — protecting others from transmission — is gone.”
Ryan Air feel they have a right to coercing a person into introducing improperly tested cocktails of unlicensed medical trials into their body. Ryan Air’s motive to do this must reduce down to profit for stakeholders, is there any other possible motive?
Comments on the DM article seem 80% anti-lockdown. The gulf between the sides is astonishing though. The pro-lockdowners are utterly convinced and it’s hard to see any common ground.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9093133/Britain-records-41-385-Covid-cases-357-deaths-second-wave-continues-grow.html#comments-9093133
Divide and rule on steroids. These two groups cannot co-exist in the same society.
Yes, this is how civil wars get started.
Yeah, but one side in a civil war whose watchwords are fear, stay home, and obey the rules, is doomed. 🙂
Having touted a comparison in the banner headline and then gone on to expand on that theme, they bury this halfway down:
“But it is impossible to compare infection figures in the second wave against the first because of a lack of testing in the spring.”
Calling into question whether the article has any serious meaning whatsoever; even the cringe-making ‘Top scientists’ gets an airing. Obviously aimed at the hard of thinking and those who like butter on both sides with fear round the middle.
My Gran used to have a little corner grocery shop. It served the community well. My Grandad used to do home deliveries in a small van. I’m going back 40 years. Home delivery is an very old idea and community caring idea. Many were once a week customers, a bit like we have today.
The biggest two threats/ stresses my Grandparents had in relation to their small grocery business were emerging Supermarkets, and emerging shops in Garages.
These threats were enabled by market forces and, most importantly, changes to national and local government planning rules. The changes, especially to national and local government rules, led to investment and competition that transformed the competitive landscape and therefore my Gran’s grocery shop transformed from a profitable business into a slightly loss making lifestyle business.
Something akin to this change is happening today.
Big Business is investing collectively and massively into what used to be a free and informative Mass Media. Mass Media is no longer neutral but is acting as as advertising arm. The new markets Big Business are successfully developing are On Line shopping and Pharmaceuticals.
The Western governments are facilitating this (possibly unwittingly, but I’m not sure at all) by… Read more »
The government knows exactly what’s up. They allowed a KGB guy and his son to acquire – with money from God knows where – an influential paper (the Lonion Evening Standard) which is now edited by one George Osborne.
aka George Nobsore
Nose sore as well.
Ah yes, the Bolivian remedy.. Robsone is another useful anagram for (a Chancellor) the little shit.
Cocaine in my brian-Cocaine Dillinger
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xVp1mauGnU
Big Tech is overtly polticial
https://mobile.twitter.com/unherd/status/1343655596738928641
What they don’t do is have a control group? I would be perfectly happy to be the control group where I don’t do any measures.
If some idiot then asks me to sign some waiver that I won’t be treated for Covid-19 I’ll sign that after I sign the one where I get to not pay tax for 5 years.
Does anyone know a sceptic that has been more than mildly ill during all this? I certainly don’t.
P.s Scottish prof pushing for masks outdoors as well as indoors.
Not even mildly, no
Not personally but Gordo from Those Conspiracy Guys podcast got pretty ill after diagnosis of Covid, or positive PCR to be exact. He’d just finished a podcast chat with the Higherside Chat podcast guy where they openly discussed their scepticism. Worth a listen as he introduces it discussing his illness
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/greg-carlwood-the-higherside-chats/id917288490
I had mild something or other at the beginning of March.
The main point is not the dubious validity of any single personal observation – but the complete dissociation between a range of observations and the advertising of a major infectious incident. The narrative just doesn’t compute – and then you do the data, and underpin the general observation.
No
I stubbed my toe on the bathroom door in April. I didn’t get a test though so I won’t be in the stats.
I do know about 4 people who reckon they had severe flu or Covid back at the beginning of the year and about the same again anecdotally since. Covid19, though, has the luxury of being hard to spot among other respiratory infections and the undivided attention of an adoring public. All a bit unfair really, and the numbers are ultimately rather academic.
This is surely one of the top lines to take with believers.
Even my parents, who have been totally taken in by the BBC and other MSM on this, can only think of one person, who is a friend of a friend, who has died (almost certainly old and infirm).
I don’t know anyone, not even a friend of a friend of a friend.
My parents-in-law only know of a friend of a friend, who, again, was almost certainly old and ill anyway).
None of my friends know anyone, as far as I can work out. One of them had an elderly aunt who died, but she’s Turkish and she died in her homeland.
If enough people start having this conversation openly, it will surely do enormous damage to the government line.
The parents’ generation (65-75) are so entrenched it’s just embarrassing, but they do acknowledge those sorts of things and from tiny acorns etc…
My dad was hospitalised a couple of weeks ago. He tested positive for covid and was also diagnosed with a clot on his lung. Whether or not the clot was caused by covid or was there already is anyone’s guess though. He’s back at home now and slowly on the mend.
All the best to your dad.
Thanks Ovis. 😊
I have three relations who have tested positive; two self isolating at home, the other one in hospital (aged late 80s) with various other medical problems. The other half’s mother also tested positive but no symptoms after a week.
Man flu in April, three weeks into lockdown 1. A couple of days in bed. Pain killers and lucozade. Children jumping on me occasionally. Rose on the third day because my sister told me I stank and needed a wash along with my disgusting bedlinen. Possibly not the Rona at all, but if that wasn’t it then I must be immune given the exposure I must have had from January.
My wife and I had a reasonably bad lurgy back in December 2019, it was enough for me to call in sick for a couple of days, but nothing more. Many colleagues had the same. We were both working at Heathrow Airport at the time.
Other than that, I’ve had a sore throat once this year. I don’t do any isolation or social distancing, worked in a crowded non-socially distanced and mask free warehouse for 8 months of this year.
My leaning lady’s uncle died of it in spring in his 60’s. She is fairly septical. a friend’s sister in law was pretty ill but recovered. A church friend’s aunt has it, no idea how ill she is.
A good example of peaceful resistance USA
https://www.bitchute.com/video/5CYpAbKyo9ZY/
Something that’s been puzzling me.
On the Government covid dashboard, it logs patients on ventilators. I understood that ventilators are a no-no for covid patients. Have I misunderstood?
Most of those intubated will likely have other conditions.
Thanks. I’d assumed that – but why include them in the covid stats?
Covid patients don’t necessarily present with covid symptoms. Over 80% of all covid hospital admissions were already inpatients when ‘diagnosed’. These people are usually not in hospital with covid.
To scare. German media do the same.
Same reason why in the US one area in Colorado had 40% ‘covid’ deaths actually turned out to be gunshot victims… same reason why George Floyd was listed in the covid stats.
Agreed. It is rarely if ever seen without pre-existing medical conditions which predispose to it. If the respiratory dysfunction is mechanical, i.e. the act of breathing in/out is impaired, then intubation may be useful (despite the dangers). However, Covid19 disease principally affects oxygen exchange, in which case oxygen by nasal canula etc. is sufficient. That’s if you’ve neglected to treat with HCQ or Ivermectin in the first place. The object of the exercise in this case is presumably to keep the numbers up and keep us on the run. We scare because we care.. like f*ck.
Yeah, it’s now known to be a last resort. I’ve read some shocking reasons why they used them so excessively in March and April. When they knew they were already ineffective in Wuhan they continued to use them to reduce the need for health workers to be close to them for extended periods. Reduce infection risk was one. Totally unconfirmed, just speculation
In the US, several (inc. Dr Mikovits) have said that hospital authorities received financial incentives, certainly early on, for a period of time, for the number of people that they stuck on ventilators; despite the fact it was unlikely to be the best treatment, for the vast majority with covid.
If you need a reminder why we need to continue the fight, here is a good recap of the lies being pushed on the population globally
https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=241062
Great piece from Karl Denninger.
Kirstie Allsopp brings up a good point on twitter that has caused quite a thread.
The hypocrisy of coke users who are covid mask wearing virtue signallers.
Cocaine production and trafficking causes destruction to countless lives before it reaches the nose of, say, the civil servant, the politician, the bbc worker, the social worker.
Allsopp is being praised for bringing the subject up given she’s clearly a part of the media landscape. A comment in the thread that appealled to me calling for names to be named.
Anyone one who routinely uses coke and yet is full of virtuous fear signalling for the covid deserves an outing.
Abso-fucking-lutely
In the end, mask wearing doesn’t signal ‘virtue’ – it signals knicker-wetting self-absorption – even if it is induced. The Granny Preservation Society is just a cover, and the rest is just arse-covering compliance.
Indeed. They intend to signal, “I’m virtuous” but it gets received as, “I’m a cunt.”
Production and trafficking no more cause the destruction of lives than say, coffee, or tea. It’s the illegality/prohibition that causes the problems.
(Thought we’d sorted this one back in the 70s …).
As some one mentioned earlier u thought I’d repost this just for the latecomers to the shit show. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/options-for-increasing-adherence-to-social-distancing-measures-22-march-2020
The names of those comprising the SPI-B group are a matter of public record, yes ?
The comments under the Mail article on Tier 5 are encouraging. People won’t go along with it.
Let’s hope not
Tier 5 how does that differ from 4.
Presumably schools will be closed, maybe churches as well… What else is there left to close?
Most of the rooms in your house. You’ll have to live in the kitchen or under the stairs. On the subject of not going along with this, RT reported 16 assaults on Sussex police officers on Christmas day alone. Maybe they were being too zealous.
I don’t have stairs – I think I’m just going to stay in bed!
12 were in W Sussex, and 4 in B&H. E Sussex folk all get gold stars !
Tier 4 is lockdown by another name.Just curious as to what fresh nonsense they will dream up.
The only other things they can do are to ban any movement outside the home except for food shopping (only with official papers, like they did in France and Spain), and demand mask wearing outdoors. I think they will struggle to do this – it was easier on the continent because they have a more widespread, feared and armed police.
They can go full fat continental fascist, but there are too many of us who are resigned to being sent to the lager rather than comply for that to be viable. The small proportion, but large absolute number, of non-maskos is a metric. I am almost looking forward to meeting some of you guys. Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think we’ll be meeting in the concentration camp in April 2021. I think that’s a step too far for the regime.
Ferguson and the rest want to, but one way or another they’re going to get ‘cock blocked,’ as the crude expression has it.
Same, except Johnson jabs his thumb at us a bit more often.
That’s nothing to worry about, then. I don’t watch BBC.
In his best Churchill impression in the style of Jim hacker
Keep reading in the press that the NHS is on the cusp of being overwhelmed.
Once it has been, the job’s buggered, so can we stop pretending to protect it and go to the pub again?
Populist government now!
The only way out of this hellhole is by electing a populist government. By definition populism is opposed to Globalism. It is also non-dogmatic being free of commitment to either Marxism or capitalistic ideology. What is good for the people, what works for them is what the government will pursue. Lockdowns, mandatory masks, school closures, an underperforming health service, mass immigration, the BLM agenda, suppression of free speech and PC indoctrination are not good for the people.
Jeremy Bentham would have agreed wholeheartedly, and so do I.
Don’t be naive. This whole shit-show is populist government : propaganda-driven kidology.cloaked in ‘public interest’ and ‘common sense’ instead of intelligence.
Well Humpty Dumpty thought words could mean whatever he chose them to mean, so I suppose there’s nothing to stop you following the same approach in life.
Really a “populist “ government in thrall to big businesses and billionaires pursuing the ruin of millions of people.
Don’t know what you are on about! Populist governments are not in thrall to billionaires and big business. If they are, then they are not populist.
We need a Gracchist movement.
Exactly.Rick H is claiming we have a populist government now.My point is we haven’t.Read the post as a reply.I agree with you.
Apologies! Thought you were responding to me.
<<Bangs heads together>>
It could come quicker than you think. There is undoubtedly a core of MPs in Conservative ranks (to be found in the sceptic-friendly Covid Research Group) who are much closer to a populist view of the world than a globalist-capitalist-XRgreen-PC view (as espoused by mainstream Conservativism now). As the political-economic-social crisis gathers in 2021, there is every chance 40 or more Conservative MPs could abandon their party and join in a new political movement. We saw that with the SDP, which with the Liberals in the Alliance was scoring over 50% in the polls. It was the Falklands War that sunk the Alliance, not domestic politics.
Thank you – every little bit of hope counts in these dark days.
These two are lovin’ the lockdown and now gloating at the full hospitals….
https://twitter.com/Laura__Farris
Bleeders not leaders.
“We project that large resurgences of the virus are likely to occur following easing of control measures. It may be necessary to greatly accelerate vaccine roll-out to have an appreciable impact in suppressing the resulting disease burden.”
In other words, total lockdown far stricter than anything we had in 2020 combined with mandatory vaccinations in perpetuity. Get me out of here.
But will people obey? Or will Imperial College begin to advocate mass internment and executions of dissenters?
I’m sure this scenario has already been war-gamed. There is only so much that can be accomplished with the “soft” psychological totalitarianism we have been subjected to for the last 9 months.
Well, maybe it is better to die on our feet than live on our knees. Easier said than done, I know.
A major cause of false positive Covid-19 test is contamination, as outlined in a new opinion piece in the journal ‘Clinical Chemistry’.
Good article here.
https://www.surrey.ac.uk/news/false-positive-covid-19-tests-may-be-result-contamination-laboratories
“A major cause of false positive Covid-19 test is contamination”
It’s only part of the story. High Ct is also massively important.
For sure. There will be many causes. In addition. I read some scientific paper in German this morning that said German scientists have observed something like a 6.7% false positive rate arises when a subject had a certain corona virus common cold. Does anyone have a link to that as I’ve lost it ? Dr Thomas Binder retweeted it I think.
It’s not a standardised process either. You search for a result depending on Ct then try and come up with a reason why that’s valid and comparable to other results at lower Ct. It’s not. Different noise thresholds.
PCR was always suppposed to be used qualitatively as it is used in the flu with Ct usually 25 to 30 max and normally used if someone has severe enough symptoms. So immediately you have a threshold for viral load and signal. Even then it simply is used as a means of narrowing the diagnosis, not being a definitive one. If this way of doing PCR was maintained there would be no mass testing idiocy and seeing shapes in the clouds.
Not to mention processing at 45 cycles!