Another Government U-Turn: Vaccine Passports on the Way
Sky News reports that today Ministers will discuss a Cabinet Office proposal to introduce vaccine and testing certificates for future international travel.
Responsibilities have already been divided up between government departments to look at the idea. If approved, the Department for Transport will be told to draw up plans for a certificate infrastructure. And the NHS will be told to prepare to let people access their vaccine status when preparing for international travel.
“Formal engagement” with other countries and international organisations will also begin, led by the Cabinet Office. The Foreign Office, meanwhile, will help design the international certificate system.
Sky News has been told Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has signed off on the proposal ahead of a meeting with other cabinet ministers tomorrow. A government insider stressed there is “nervousness” about when such a system will even be announced publicly, let alone rolled out for use.
A briefing paper prepared ahead of the COVID operations meeting tomorrow and seen by Sky News said: “We should not set even speculative timelines on when this may change border measures.” The policy will not be implemented until there is “sufficient scientific evidence” from the Government’s advisory group known as SAGE on the effects of vaccine and testing certificates.
A Government spokesperson did not deny the plan, telling Sky News: “The UK Government, like most nations, wants to open up international travel in a responsible safe and fair manner and we continue to be guided by the science. We want to ensure there is an internationally recognised approach to enable travel and are working closely with international partners to do so.”
The Government has previously denied there were plans for vaccine passports. Which made it highly suspicious that £450,000 worth of Government grants were given to eight schemes focused on developing digital immunity documentation. Lara Prendergast in the Spectator takes a closer look at what is going on. She finds an idea gaining traction internationally.
The Prime Minister of Greece, whose economy depends on holidaymakers, has proposed a system of vaccine passports, a global ID card scheme which identifies the vaccinated. His logic is simple and compelling: vaccines speed up the return to normal life. A system of immunisation passports could get us flying again. He’d like the EU to oversee it.
Denmark will start issuing vaccine passports this month, followed by Sweden, where identity cards and ‘personal numbers’ are already ubiquitous. Israel has introduced a ‘green pass’ for those who can prove their immunity status, which grants them access to shopping centres, gyms and museums. Joe Biden has asked for an evaluation of a vaccine ID scheme for Americans. Spain, Italy, Cyprus and Malta – all desperate to revive tourism – are in favour of vaccine passports. All they need is for other governments to give them the go-ahead.
But the application of vaccine passports will inevitably extend far beyond holidays. The safety-first mentality could spread into almost every area of modern life. One of the most appalling tragedies of the pandemic was the failure to protect the elderly in care homes. There’s a clear moral case for those who work with the elderly to be able to prove they’ve been vaccinated. Hospitals can make the same argument. But convincing proof can only be issued by the NHS – or, rather, the Government. Without its backing, a vaccine passport system will never get off the ground. When it does, there’s no telling where it will lead.
It would likely start with holidays. But where would it stop?
At first, it would just be a glorified doctor’s note, to help you get on that longed-for flight to Greece. Later, it could exist to “reassure” your employer. The concern is that before long your freedom to move, to work, to do anything beyond sitting in your house may depend on whether or not you have had the latest Covid vaccine (be it Oxford, Pfizer, Moderna or another). The vaccine will give you more than just the prospect of immunity; it will grant you immuno-privilege. Freedom could be determined by the characteristics of your blood: good blood and bad blood.
Polls say that about 85% of British adults are “likely” to take up the offer of a jab, but 15% have concerns. People who can’t have a vaccine for medical reasons might be granted an exemption. But will the wishes of others be taken into consideration, their rights protected, their religious views respected, if vaccine documentation is brought in? Inevitably it will be those already on the edges of society – people who often avoid contact with the authorities – who are pushed out further by the need to prove their immunological status. Vaccine refuseniks, according to Zahawi, “skew heavily towards BAME communities” which raises the prospect of vaccine passports deepening racial divisions – particularly if the Government decides to grant certain exemptions.
Right now, debate has been muted. Who wants to be accused of being ‘anti-vax’ or told that they are putting lives at risk? Meanwhile, the technology continues to develop at pace. Systems that we willingly use to document every moment of our lives are now being commandeered to keep track of our health status. Covid results are sent by text message. An NHS app can ‘ping’ us with an instruction to self-isolate.
We don’t even have to imagine where this might lead: we need only look at China. Just as it pioneered lockdown, it is now blazing ahead with digital identification. A health colour code exists: green allows a person to move around freely, enter offices and shops, and take public transport. Yellow or red will deny them entry. The code is based on location data taken from individuals’ phones, as well as self-reported information. Data is also shared with the police. “We need to further harmonise policies and standards and establish ‘fast tracks’ to facilitate the orderly flow of people,” said President Xi Jinping, as he called for a “global mechanism” to enable international travel. That must be music to Blair’s ears.
Anyone who considers such systems sinister and authoritarian may soon find themselves in a vanishingly small minority. A recent Bristol University study found that almost two thirds of the British population are in favour of immunity passports, making them almost as popular as lockdown. Just 20% were strongly opposed: a figure that Professor Stephan Lewandowsky, who conducted the study, described as “surprisingly low”, suggesting greater public acceptance of “privacy-encroaching technologies”. Maybe we’re not actually that far behind China, despite what we like to tell ourselves about our old-fashioned love of liberty.
Worth reading in full.
Imperial College Modelling Falsely Assumes No Seasonality to COVID-19
We’re publishing an original piece today by Glen Bishop, a Lockdown Sceptics reader and maths student at Nottingham University. Fresh-faced and youthful he may be, but he spotted a serious flaw in Imperial College’s coronavirus modelling that appears to have escaped the learned professors: it gives no regard to how the spread of Covid is affected by the seasons. He writes:
How likely is it that there is going to be a summer surge in SARS-CoV-2, a surge where hospitals have similar numbers of coronavirus admissions to what they saw in January? Pretty unlikely, I would have guessed. But doing the rounds in the news was a paper by the Imperial College modelling team projecting just that. It predicts, as a mid-range scenario, 130,000 more deaths, with a catastrophic summer surge even if restrictions are lifted at the current snail’s pace and the vaccination programme goes well, at two million doses per week from February.
As a maths student at Nottingham University, I have been reading through some of the modelling done for SAGE recently. Bad modelling at the beginning of a pandemic, particularly with a communist country withholding or obscuring crucial data, is understandable. What I did not understand was how predictions of scenarios worse than have occurred anywhere in the world keep being predicted for the UK.
On reading the paper, I realised they are assuming there is absolutely no seasonality to SARS-CoV-2. This is fundamentally wrong. They are attributing all the reduction in R-value last spring to non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) and none to seasonality, leading to assumptions that the base R-value in July will be the same as it was in January. This seemed crazy. It goes against the last century of knowledge on respiratory diseases and human coronaviruses. It also goes against the patterns shown in the real-world data from the last 12 months, in both the southern hemisphere and the northern hemisphere.
I emailed the Imperial researchers to verify that I wasn’t mistaken, and this was the assumption and if so to find their justification for it. It was indeed the case and I received this paper as justification.
Now the first problem with that paper is that it was published in August, so all the data from the last six months, which I think anyone would agree shows significant seasonality, has not been included. In the moving picture of a pandemic, this is old science. Secondly, it seems more of a political commentary on the consequences of what the virus being seasonal would mean for American politics, rather than a purely scientific paper. It cautions the reader to look out for “bad faith politics”, the example it gives being “economic interests driving reopening or non-intervention”. Comments asserting that people wanting to address the fact that people are losing their livelihoods are engaging in “bad faith politics” have no place in an objective scientific paper. The paper also unfavourably includes comments by the President of Brazil and President Trump, as they mentioned seasonality could help reduce viral spread come summer. One ought not to be able to guess a scientist’s political leanings from a paper they write. It seems in some way that this paper was written as a political reaction to Trump mentioning something his advisers will have told him about seasonality.
Worth reading in full.
Lose Weight, Stay Healthy, Protect the NHS
Lockdown Sceptics reader Matthew Brittain has an idea of how to get the Government to stop obsessing about Covid – give it something else to obsess about.
According to a recent report summarised in the Guardian, excess fat is responsible for 23% of deaths, far more than the number of deaths with Covid.
Given the precedent of the lockdown, isn’t it now time to issue rationing cards to all those considered overweight?
Surely, this would be less of an infringement on the freedoms of the overweight than forcing them to stay indoors, parted from their nearest and dearest, unable to work, be properly educated, protest or enjoy a healthy cultural life. Moreover, it would be targeted, meaning that the economic effects on the nation would be relatively tiny.
Some might argue that such an intervention would be ineffective, but to me this indicates a lack of concern for the wellbeing of the overweight as if their lives somehow didn’t matter. In any case, eye-watering prison sentences could be used to deter others from dealing calories to the unentitled.
Those of a more liberal bent might suggest that it is the right of the overweight to make their own choices about their bodies, but what then about the NHS? If we do have another winter crisis, the NHS could be pushed over the edge by the overweight.
Focus on the overweight would offer a displacement for the life-wrecking instincts of Government and their advisors. Maybe, in the end, they just need to be given something new to meddle in; a set of lives that can be theirs to ruin and degrade.
No, “Double Masking” Is Not the Answer
There follows a guest post by Jonathan Barr.
There are a number of reports floating around about the studies by the US Centre for Disease Control suggesting there may be great benefits in double-masking.
They need to add: “for dummies”.
The study, which was carried out in January, consisted of:
Experimental simulations using pliable elastomeric source and receiver headforms to assess the extent to which two modifications to medical procedure masks 1) wearing a cloth mask over a medical procedure mask (double masking) and 2) knotting the ear loops of a medical procedure masks where they attach to the mask’s edges and then tucking in and flattening the extra material close to the face) could improve the fit of these masks and reduce the receiver’s exposure to an aerosol of simulated respiratory droplet particles of the size considered most important for transmitting SARS-CoV-2.
In the course of their experiments, which were carried out in “a chamber approximately 10 ft (3.1 m) long by 10ft wide by 7ft high” they played around with various combinations of masks, double masks and knotted masks and they found:
When the source and receiver were both fitted with double masks or knotted and tucked masks, the cumulative exposure of the receiver was reduced 96.4% and 95.9%, respectively.
But so what? There were no humans involved in this so it can hardly form the basis for a mandate or even a recommendation regarding mask-wearing in real life.
Indeed, the discussion section of the study points up one of the reasons that ubiquitous masks may not be very effective.
These laboratory-based experiments highlight the importance of good fit to maximize overall mask performance. Medical procedure masks are intended to provide source control (e.g. maintain the sterility of a surgical field) and to block splashes. The extent to which they reduce exhalation and inhalation of particles in the aerosol size range varies substantially, in part because air can leak around their edges, especially through the side gaps.
Hardly a bombshell discovery. We know that fit is important for masks to be effective and the fact that people aren’t going to pay much heed to it when they mask up for school, shops or public transport has been pointed out by sceptics before. The study goes on to admit certain limitations in the findings, including their lack of bearing on real life.
First, these experiments were conducted with one type of medical procedure mask and one type of cloth mask among the many choices that are commercially available and were intended to provide data about their relative performance in a controlled setting. The findings [should not be] interpreted as being representative of the effectiveness of these masks when worn in real-world settings.
And a couple of the points on which I think we might all agree:
These findings might not be generalisable to children because of their smaller size or to men with beards and other facial hair, which interfere with fit.
Although use of double masking or knotting and tucking are two of many options that can optimize fit and enhance mask performance for source control and for wearer protection, double masking might impede breathing or obstruct peripheral vision for some wearers, and knotting and tucking can change the shape of the mask such that it no longer covers fully both the nose and the mouth of persons with larger faces.
Naturally, these awkward discussion points have not stopped numerous media outlets going big on the value of the medical and cloth mask combo. Here, for instance is the how-to guide from Wired:
Start with a disposable medical or N95 mask underneath. Then add a cloth mask over the top. As with any mask you wear, the most important thing is making sure both masks have a proper fit. Both masks should be covering both your nose and mouth. Ideally, the inner medical mask will have a nose wire to make a proper seal against your nose, and the cloth mask will press the inner mask closer to your face and ensure a tighter fit.
Try blowing out a big breath while you feel around the edges of the mask stack. If any of your hot air is escaping, adjust the mask until there’s a sealed fit all around the sides. Try to use a mask with a nose wire, as they do a much better job of forming a seal around your nose and mouth.
Can anyone imagine someone actually doing this before heading into Sainsburys? More to the point, has anyone remembered that it is actually important for air to pass in and out of one’s nose and mouth, something that a “sealed fit” of multiple masks is likely to impede?
Murder by Misinformation
Janet Menage, a retired GP in Wales, had a scorching letter published in the BMJ last week. We reproduce it in full below.
Dear Editor,
History is littered with examples of the atrocities which ensue when doctors abandon their traditional principles and judgement in favour of unquestioning subservience to government diktat – medical involvement in torture, human experimentation and psychiatric punishment of political dissidents being familiar examples.
Abbasi takes as axiomatic that there was no prior immunity in the population, that lockdowns are effective, that computer modelling is realistic, that statistics have been accurate and that WHO statements are reliable. All of these parameters have been widely challenged by knowledgeable and conscientious researchers whose findings were often disregarded, censored or vilified.
From a medical perspective, it was clear early on in the crisis that disregarding clinical acumen in favour of blind obedience to abnormal ventilation measures, reliance on an unsuitable laboratory test for diagnosis and management, and abandoning the duty of care to elderly hospitalised patients and those awaiting diagnosis and treatment of serious diseases, would create severe problems down the line.
Doctors who had empirically found effective pharmaceutical remedies and preventative treatments were ignored, or worse, denigrated or silenced. Information regarding helpful dietary supplements was suppressed.
This was further compounded by rule-changes to death certification, coroners’ instructions, autopsy guidelines, DNR notices and the cruel social isolation policy enforcement regarding family visits to the sick and dying.
When medical professionals allow themselves to be manipulated by corrupt politicians and influenced by media propaganda instead of being guided by their own ethical principles and common sense based on decades of clinical experience, the outlook becomes very bleak indeed.
Historically, public respect for and trust in doctors has exceeded that awarded to politicians. The unquestioning capitulation of medicine to an authoritarian executive and predatory corporate power may have undermined the doctor-patient relationship for a generation.
The Great Debate
Peter Hitchens and Dan Hodges faced off against each other in a talkRADIO debate about lockdown hosted by Mike Graham. Quite entertaining, although Peter clearly did more preparation than Dan who was winging it throughout. Dan’s argument against sceptics amounts to this: some sceptics have got some things wrong over the past 12 months, therefore everything sceptics say should be disregarded. As Peter points out, people on both sides of this debate have got things wrong, but most of us have struggled honestly to get things right and it would be odd to dismiss one side’s arguments in this debate because they’ve got some things wrong and not the other. Worth watching if you have an hour to spare. We need more debates like this.
Poetry Corner
In What Can I Hope?
by Jonny Peppiatt
With all this talk of ‘horizon’ and ‘hope’,
I wonder sometimes, ‘Did I miss the boat?’
What is it that has these people excited?
Should I see it? Or have I been blinded?
Whatever it is, whatever they see,
Whatever they think, I know they’re not me.
They’ll never know what it is that I fear,
They’ll never risk losing what it is I hold dear,
They’ll never see the world through my eyes,
They’ll never just sit at their desks and cry.
I envy them this, their blindness, their bliss,
Their freedom in hope, their faith in a wish.
I’d trade all I have for that faith and hope,
I’d give it away to look forward and know,
Know that tomorrow brings a brand-new day,
Know that tomorrow brings light, paves a way;
Paves a way to joy, to reason and worth,
To happiness, cheer, merriment, and mirth.
I envy their hope that all will be well,
But their hope alone does nothing to quell
My fears that I’ll be left nought but a shell,
Left here on my own, in my fears to dwell.
For my fears pave my way, keep me this way,
Keep me locked up, hidden, keep me dismayed.
I see no reason to hold onto hope,
I see no reason to look forward and know
That all will be better. How can that be so
When, time after time, I’ve nothing to show.
I’m down a job, a house, a lover, and friends,
I know I’ve support, but when does this end?
When can I look to, in what can I hope,
When all I see makes it harder to cope.
Round-up
- “SAGE doomsters push back on easing lockdown any time soon: No10 advisers say Covid infections must fall from 750,000 to fewer than 10,000, the Rule of Six should stay for a YEAR and we could be wearing masks FOREVER” – Mail report on more cultish Zero Covid nonsense from the Government’s advisers
- “Matt Hancock admits he’s booked summer holiday” – The Mirror reports on the chaos in Government as Ministers struggled to keep up with their own ever-changing messaging and get the story straight
- “School return date must be ‘signed in blood’, Boris Johnson told” – The Covid Recovery Group flexes its muscles, reports the Telegraph
- “Scientists should be ‘the last people running society’, claims pathologist” – HART member Dr John Lee delivers a cracking turn on the Telegraph‘s Planet Normal podcast with Allison Pearson and Liam Halligan
- “I’m living in a country that won’t let me out” – Lionel Shriver in the Spectator on the craziness of closing borders indefinitely, and on grounds – fear of vaccine-escaping variants – that will never expire
- “220,000 people wait more than a year for NHS hospital treatment” – This compares to just 1,500 a year earlier, a 150-fold increase, reports the Times
- “It would be a mistake to put power hungry Matt Hancock in charge of top-down NHS reforms” – Ross Clark in the Telegraph discerns a tyrant in the making: “Beneath his bland exterior lies a natural authoritarian who trusts only his own judgement on what is good for us”
- “Full Level 5 restrictions in place until after Easter but schools and construction likely to reopen” – Independent.ie reports that the Irish lockdown is set to be extended for a further six weeks till at least April 12th
- “An Alternate Response to the Lockdowns” – A Christian anti-lockdown viewpoint from the Revd Paul Little on Rebel Alliance Media
- “Supporting the vulnerable during lockdown” – The Government is currently inviting evidence for an inquiry into support for the vulnerable during lockdown, closing Monday February 15th at 6pm. Respond here
- “Risk of death from COVID-19 3.5 times higher than from flu” – A new study published in Canadian Medical Association Journal broadly confirms the IFR found by John Ioannidis (worth noting that pandemic influenza has a higher IFR than endemic influenza)
- “In first, Israeli study indicates post-COVID immunity stays when antibodies fade” – Times of Israel reports on a study that confirms lasting immunity after antibodies have faded: “Our study points to continued protection, whether or not antibodies are detectable”
- “Urgent Message From Prof. Sucharit Bhakdi – What Might Go Wrong With The Vaccine?” – The renowned virologist explains why some people may have a strong reaction to the mRNA vaccines
- “Critics of the 10-year Covid jail sentence are right, but out of touch” – Ross Clark in the Spectator on the disturbing YouGov poll showing that more than half of all adults think that a 10-year jail sentence for ‘porkies about Portugal’ is “about right”, and 13% think it “doesn’t go far enough”. So 15 years? 20 years? Life without parole?
- “A Dangerous Crank” – Bruce Wallace writes on Left Lockdown Sceptics about the smearing of Professor Carl Heneghan by Neil O’Brien MP and others
- “Facebook censors award-winning journalist for criticising the WHO” – Freddie Sayers on UnHerd on the problem when social media companies decide to censor views that don’t conform to those of a China-friendly international body. A representative of Facebook has now tweeted that this “fact check” was a “mistake”, which is one way of backing down
- “Lockdowns in China (2021)” – The Swiss Doctor has gathered together tweets showing the disturbing reality of the current lockdowns in China, with building doors being welded shut and people inside crying for food and jumping out of the window to their death
- “Unlocked with Professor Robert Dingwall” – In the latest episode of the Unlocked podcast, Laura Dodsworth speaks to sociologist and SAGE member Robert Dingwall about the growing calls for Zero Covid
- “Escape from Lockdown: Episode 30 – Oliver Smith” – In the latest episode of the podcast, Alex McCarron talks to the Telegraph‘s Digital Travel Editor about what travel will look like in the age of Covid
- “Lockdown Policies: Doing More Harm Than Good?” – Psychologist Oliver Robinson will be speaking this Saturday at 4-6pm on “the wider implications of lockdown policies on mental health and the central role of the immune system in a more systemic understanding of the crisis”. Sign up here
- “Masking: A Careful Review of the Evidence” – Paul E. Alexander on the AIER blog with a new summary of the evidence that face masks do not protect the wearer or prevent transmission of COVID-19
- “Take Action” – Time for Recovery’s guide to getting stuck in
- “We are all Maoists now” – For many of the West’s leaders, the Beijing model of enlightened autocracy is looking increasingly appealing says Alex Story in the Critic
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Six today: “Madness” by Muse, “Gotta Get Away” by The Rolling Stones, “Wasted Years” by Iron Maiden, “I can’t wait” by Nu Shooz, “Oh freedom!” by Joan Baez and “She Blinded Me With Science” by Thomas Dolby.
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 Lockdown Sceptics here.
Stop Press: The Mail reports that two women were caught by police “‘fornicating in car on Dartmoor at 2am in -3C temperatures in breach of Covid rules”. And I thought it was permitted to meet up with one other person for exercise?
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
You can follow Lockdown Sceptics on our social media accounts which are updated throughout the day. To follow us on Facebook, click here; to follow us on Twitter, click here; to follow us on Instagram, click here; to follow us on Parler, click here; and to follow us on MeWe, click here.
Woke Gobbledegook
We’ve decided to create a permanent slot down here for woke gobbledegook. Today, Andrew Doyle in spiked sets the record straight about the origins of the word “woke” – the latest focus of woke historical revisionism.
No word seems to generate more conversations at cross purposes than ‘woke’, whose definition varies depending on who is using it at any given time. For the various black civil-rights activists of the 20th century it signified an alertness to injustice, particularly racism. This usage became popularised by the singer Erykah Badu in her 2008 song “Master Teacher (Stay Woke)”, and was taken up by the Black Lives Matter movement in 2013. Soon after, the term was co-opted by practitioners of the new ‘social justice’ ideology, and for a few years was a popular form of self-identification. We became accustomed to headlines in the Guardian such as “Can a woke makeover win Barbie and Monopoly new fans?” and “My search for Mr Woke: a dating diary“. In the US, articles such as “Keeping your classroom woke“, “Becoming woke in the wake of ‘Me Too'”and “The woke black person’s guide to talking about oppression with family” became commonplace.
Inevitably, those who took a critical stance on these identitarian perspectives would describe their proponents as ‘woke’. It made sense, given that this is how they were describing themselves. Before long, commentators who had once happily embraced the ‘woke’ label became dismayed at how their opponents were using it to criticise or mock them, and so they pretended that the word had been concocted by the right as a slur. Afua Hirsch exemplified this kind of gaslighting in the Guardian when she claimed that anyone using the word was “likely to be a right-wing culture warrior angry at a phenomenon that lives mainly in their imagination”. Not all of her colleagues received the memo, which is why a Guardian writer recently described the Saved by the Bell reboot as “a woke reimagining” and another asked “why are some Americans woke online but not in real life?”
This revisionist strategy is unlikely to succeed, given that the proposition that identitarian writers did not commonly self-define as ‘woke’ can be easily disproved with the most cursory of internet searches. When Comedy Awards director Nica Burns launched the 2018 Edinburgh Festival Fringe by declaring that she was “looking forward to comedy’s future in the woke world”, she was not roundly lambasted for using a term that was merely “a right-wing slur”. When Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey wore a “#StayWoke” t-shirt on stage at the 2016 ReCode conference, nobody suggested that he was guilty of disseminating right-wing propaganda. These people were woke, and proud of it.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: The New York Post invites us to “Read the column the New York Times didn’t want you to read“. It’s a piece by NYT columnist Bret Stephens criticising the rationale behind the forced removal of NYT reporter Donald J. McNeil, spiked by publisher A.G. Sulzberger.
“Mask Exempt” Lanyards
We’ve created a one-stop shop down here for people who want to obtain a “Mask Exempt” lanyard/card – because wearing a mask causes them “severe distress”, for instance. You can print out and laminate a fairly standard one for free here and the Government has instructions on how to download an official “Mask Exempt” notice to put on your phone here. And 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.
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.
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 and Prof Carl Heneghan and Dr Tom Jefferson’s Spectator article about the Danish mask study here.
Stop Press: Science News reports on a new study that finds “long term mask use breeds microbes that infiltrate the lungs and contribute to advanced stage lung cancer”.
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. In February, Facebook deleted the GBD’s page because it “goes against our community standards”. 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. Sign up to the newsletter here.
Judicial Reviews Against the Government
There are now so many legal cases being brought against the Government and its ministers we thought we’d include them all in one place down here.
The Simon Dolan case has now reached the end of the road. The current lead case is the Robin Tilbrook case which challenges whether the Lockdown Regulations are constitutional. You can read about that and contribute here. UPDATE: The JR was denied permission to proceed yesterday, though they have not given up yet.
Then there’s John’s Campaign which is focused specifically on care homes. Find out more about that here.
There’s the GoodLawProject and Runnymede Trust’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.
Scottish Church leaders from a range of Christian denominations have launched legal action, supported by the Christian Legal Centre against the Scottish Government’s attempt to close churches in Scotland for the first time since the the Stuart kings in the 17th century. The church leaders emphasised it is a disproportionate step, and one which has serious implications for freedom of religion.” Further information available here.
There’s the class action lawsuit being brought by Dr Reiner Fuellmich and his team in various countries against “the manufacturers and sellers of the defective product, PCR tests”. Dr Fuellmich explains the lawsuit in this video. Dr Fuellmich has also served cease and desist papers on Professor Christian Drosten, co-author of the Corman-Drosten paper which was the first and WHO-recommended PCR protocol for detection of SARS-CoV-2. That paper, which was pivotal to the roll out of mass PCR testing, was submitted to the journal Eurosurveillance on January 21st and accepted following peer review on January 22nd. The paper has been critically reviewed here by Pieter Borger and colleagues, who also submitted a retraction request, which was rejected in February.
And last but not least there was the Free Speech Union‘s challenge to Ofcom over its ‘coronavirus guidance’. A High Court judge refused permission for the FSU’s judicial review on December 9th 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.
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
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This week across the site:
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https://delingpole.podbean.com
Josh.February 12, 2021
Proud, defiant Englishman Josh – @remedysounds on Twitter, @lionheartengland on Telegram – talks about his journey from Royal Marine commando to snowboarding musician to voice of the resistance against the Covid Nazis. Raise the White Dragon flag!
I recommend Phucemol (as widely advertised in the alternative). It’s a great drug, with highly satisfactory results. The side effects are initially debilitating, but in time are easily overcome.
Ha ha. Took me a minute to catch on there.
I’ve been out this evening. Good thing Wancock doesn’t know. There were around 30 of us, up close and having fun. Lots of chatter, laughter and drinking. Very much a normal Friday night of those better times we used to have. I’m temporarily happy now; I know it won’t last. I’ll leave you with the latest response from my MP who I wrote to this week.
Thank you for contacting me about new restrictions to suppress the spread of COVID-19.
I appreciate that this is a very challenging time for everybody and that there are differing opinions on how best to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. Nevertheless, I firmly believe that in being guided by the science, the Government has made difficult but proportionate decisions.
I understand that lockdowns and other restrictions have caused enormous stress and disruption to people’s lives. I also understand that lockdowns do cause other side effects and we must be mindful of these when considering policy options.
I know how frustrating it is, after the hard work and sacrifices that were made throughout 2020, to start the new year with further restrictions in place.
The Government does not take these decisions lightly, and has worked… Read more »
Which MP might that be?
Marco Longhi
Thanks. I like to put names to the responses posted here so that I can see which ones might see reason eventually and which ones are beyond hope. The majority are in the latter category, of course, and yours looks like one of them. Mine too. Simon Fell. Says he has “libertarian instincts” but he seems to suppress them quite effectively whenever there’s a vote.
This latest response is an “improvement” to the previous two replies from him, one of which was basically a cut and paste of the first. I knew he was a lost cause when I saw a photo of him in the local newspaper, posing outside one of the vaccination centres.
Mine just stopped replying to anything I sent. Letters or emails. No response now. Not even an acknowledgement from his PA. On the other hand I’ve written to Desmond Swayne and Charles Walker and, although they’re constituencies are far away from here, they both acknowledged and have even found time for a brief personal response. Manners maketh the MP.
Well, I’m glad you had a fun night out. The rest is just bullshit. Well written, but crappy nonetheless. My only follow-up question would be: Define “last phase” of the struggle. With the goal posts being moved on a regular basis, forgive me for not believing you.
Take some solace in your very normal Friday night and know that you will have many more of them regardless of the idiotic restrictions.
I think we were into the “last phase” in April 2020, and have been in and out of the ever since. It was good to get out, Lisa, and just listen to the buzz of the conversation. Something which seems from another world now.
“I agree with the Prime Minister that, while the weeks ahead will be hard, we are entering the last phase of the struggle.”
False at so many levels it beggars belief. First and foremost, how can any MP in their right mind believe that only the “weeks ahead” will be hard? Maybe these pricks have bought into the brainwashing as much as Mr. and Mrs. Lockdownhardearlyforever.
This isn’t new. But we must have a clear and concise message to take out there.
More and more average folk are getting pissed off with the ‘lockdown’ , but need direction.
1. 12 weeks to flatten the curve. A year ago . Why are we still in this situation?
2. The vaccine will save you. You’ve had the vaccine. Can you go out now?
3. Do you know how many people die every year?
4. The schools are closed causing much grief. How many children and teachers, do you know who have died from this?
I have found challenging the lock down fanatics leaves a gaping silence.
Do not be afraid. Take it to them. They are waiting for us. To take the lead.
Here are the Lockdowner responses and further rispostes:
1.”Because we didn’t lock down early enough and hard enough.” So how do you explain Belgium and Peru experiencing such high rates after they locked down early and strictly? And why have there not been national lockdowns in China, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea?
2.”We have to vaccinate enough people”. Why do you have to vaccinate healthy young people who don’t suffer seriously from the virus if the vaccine is effective?
3.”That’s callous. Every life matters.” If every life matters equally why do NICE make decisions about what lilfe saving drugs can be used based on their cost benefit analysis of efficacy and affordability. Would you be prepared to sacrifice chiildren’s education and happiness to save just one 85 year old from dying of Covid this month as opposed to the flu the next month?
4.”But children can be infectious. They can put adults at risk.” How long are you prepared to see children’s education and life chances being ruined by lockdown? Another six months, another year, another two years, another six years?
When people express their dismay that they can’t take a holiday, I find I have to catch myself because the articles are usually for the retired middle class customers of the press and I don’t relate to the “victims”.
It’s easy to dismiss holidays as frivolous if they’re not something you’re particularly bothered about yourself. I personally hate flying and won’t be bothered if I can’t travel abroad – though I do worry I won’t be allowed to see my son and his family if internal travel threats are carried through.
However, to those people living in cramped accommodation who look forward to a change of scenery and some sunshine with their kids, it can be the highlight of a pretty mundane life. To the young people who are working from home squashed in a house share or bedsit, it could be the carrot that’s kept them sane.
The holiday fiasco has been a very useful smokescreen for whatever HMG has really been up to this week. But, even if we have no intention of every going abroad again, we must fight this for those who would. For those who have families abroad, and just for the sake of… Read more »
Very well said. Like you I disliked flying but endured it in order to reach the destinations. Post 9/11 the flying experience as a whole was abysmal, but now, even if it were allowed, it is so disgusting as to be completely unacceptable. Moreover, most of the places I used to visit have been so poisoned by the Covid Cult that they would be unbearable.
Nevertheless the idea of a vaccine passport must be defeated, because as you say it will not be just for international travel.
A friend asked me if I missed being in Spain this winter. I was there this time last year and had to beat a hasty retreat back to Canada right before they locked down. My answer was a hard NO — I do not miss Spain as it’s a mask wearing hellhole right now. I hold out a bit of hope that perhaps we’ll be able to drive to Florida or the other sane states one day, but the idea of international travel makes me sick to my stomach at the moment.
I totally agree that the “vaccine passport” has nothing whatsoever to do with travel. I will not comply.
Get down to Florida if you can, and then stay there. DeSantis is not taking any shit from the Woke Clown Covid Administration in DC. Don’t let porn star Trudeau fuck up your life anymore.
He’s fucking with us pretty good at the moment. All the Canadians who spend winters in the US must get back to Canada by February 22nd or face the 3-day imprisonment at a cost of $2,000 per person. Plus the border is closed to car traffic and who knows if/when it’ll ever open up. No going to Florida until the border is open and no forced imprisonment at my own expense upon returning. And, of course, this also assumes no “vaccine passport.” I’m not super hopeful.
This is the New British Covid Empire. The Five Eyes are under a particularly brutal assault. I’ve said it before though, our governments have been dishing it out worldwide for centuries, particularly the UK and USA. Now it’s domestic payback time.
More happy Friday news – knives are out for Killer Cuomo from every angle:
https://nypost.com/2021/02/12/cuomo-lied-and-covered-it-up-we-need-a-federal-investigation-to-find-the-truth/
I guess he didn’t realize what Bolsheviks do to useful idiots once they attain power.
I am often reminded of the G. Edward Griffin interview with Yuri Bezmenov. Whether or not he really was a KGB defector, what he said rings true today more than ever before.
Asymptomatic an oxymoron how fitting.
https://youtu.be/yKxM4ToLLR8
Brilliant!
I visited:
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/datasets/vitalstatisticspopulationandhealthreferencetables
There, I downlaoded their Excel spreadhseet:
https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/populationestimates/datasets/vitalstatisticspopulationandhealthreferencetables/current/vitalstatsannualreferencetable20201.xlsx
I went to the Deaths worskheet and saw it had years, death toll and – most importantly – death rates per 1,000.
I hid all columns on that page except for the three just mentioned. I then inserted a row for 2020 (the spreadsheet only goes up to 2019).
Once I had created the row, I entered 2020, 697,000 and 10.3. The 10.3 figure I calculated by dividing 697,000 deaths by an estimated population of 678,886,011 and multiplying by 1,000.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9140499/More-600-000-people-died-England-Wales-2020.html
The article says there were just shy of 697,000 deaths but I took the higher number.
My population estimate came from Worldometers earlier today. It was estimated as at 12th. February 2021 but won’t be significantly out of whack.
(697,000 / 67,886,011) x 1,000 = 10.3 (rounded up).
Having entered the figures,, I copied the Deaths worksheet to a new worksheet which I called Deaths By Worst Year.
The ONS spreadsheet goes back to 1838 but the death rate numbers only go back to 1953, the year in whch Queen Elizabether was crowned. So I removed all the row relating to 1952 and prior.
This gave me a… Read more »
Is there a good Twitter, article, blog resource that specifically has takedowns of Neil O’Brien’s covidfaq site? Aside from LS of course.
Does a pretty good job by itself if you ask me. Sorry if that’s unhelpful though!
Maybe I am mistaken but it seems to me that, now that the numbers of ‘cases’ and ‘deaths’ are reported to be declining, there is suddenly an absence of horror stories in the media about young healthy people dying suddenly from covid or posting selfies on Facebook about their horrendous experience that’s like no other. These stories appear to have been usurped by articles such as “Was Dixon of Dock Green the Met’s first gay policeman?”, which appeared in the Daily Mail today. For once I am overjoyed to see such banal opinion pieces taking prominence! Maybe covid stories are, at long last, no longer de rigueur.
Smokescreens and red herrings. There are a lot of them about.
What’s really going on?
Superficially it looks like a tactical withdrawal after the battering the Zero Covid approach took this week. Conceding a little territory and consolidating for the next almighty barrage.
This is WW1 all over again, but in the mind, not the flesh.
Confining lockdown restrictions and face mask wearing to page 7 is just part of the ‘normalising’ scam.
”Conformed covid cases pass 4 million mark.”
Oh yeah.
Got to observe, the longer this goes on, the more fantastical the narrative lies and propaganda the greater the sceptics numbers swell. At least amongst my own circle. ‘Slowly slowly catch a monkey’.
The problem is most of the pussies will take the vaccine when there is even just a little bit of pressure.
Let them have it. Even if it is our death knell once there is an absolute majority of the population that has been stabbed. If their world comes to pass, the living will envy the dead.
Not so easy when you have a young family to care for. In a way, I envy my friends who have no ties.
You are in the toughest position of all, but have the greatest motivation to carry the fight to the enemy. The future of your flesh and blood is on the line here. Do not envy those of us with no ties, it can and does lead to careless and self-destructive nihilism that doesn’t help anyone, least of all ourselves.
Yes many will have the vaccine and for them I hope to god it’s not dangerous because I can’t stop them. But they expect it to end on those terms. There are 12million plus (plus us). They won’t be fobbed off with ‘still need to isolate’ crap.
Absolutely. The narrative is falling apart. Extremism abounds. This is coming to an end.
There’s something of a paradox in my approach to all this, and I suspect it may be the same for many of you on here.
I’ve spent the better part of my adult life avoiding people at every opportunity. I loathe large social gatherings. I generally dislike most people I encounter. I detest most popular things. Yet here I am, attempting in the very small ways that I can to restore all the things that mean little or nothing to me. All on behalf of people who either hate me for doing so or, if we turn things around and end up beating this, will not give me or anyone else the slightest bit of credit. Who cares, I never gave a shit about what any of those fools thought about anything, I still don’t and I never will.
I am doing this simply because I cannot live with myself if I allow these horrendous violations to happen without saying or doing anything. Opposing all that is false and evil is a moral obligation. No rewards are necessary, or expected.
Yes, I know how you feel. I particularly disliked the local rugby drinking culture.
Don’t get me started on rugby. A sport whose “World” Cup is still an invitation tournament. The first and last time that happened in football (which I used to follow very closely) was 1930.
The empty culture of all professional sports has been exposed as the bread and circuses bullshit it always was. Give me Hackney Marshes any day of the week.
With a ladder and some glasses,
You could see the Hackney Marshes,
If it wasn’t for the houses in between.
Integrity. Principle. Moral compass. A Man For All Seasons. Thank you Richard O for believing in and fighting for what matters, what makes us civilised and human.
These are the only things that have ever mattered. Everything else in life, especially in our decadent Western culture, is just irrelevant noise. Hypnotic for a while – I was transfixed by the signal for decades – before I snapped out of it.
Same here. There is so much in the world I neither want nor need but I still believe in and would fight for it to be freely available to others especially our children. They should enjoy the freedoms we had.
My family never cease to remind me that I’m the most Howard Hughes (don’t go out much) person they know when I rant against lockdown. To which I press upon them how important the principle must be then. I’m getting there.
If you’re anything like I am, you may not want to go out much but you certainly don’t want anyone telling you that you can’t! That’s when the claws come out. I’ve never been good with rules that don’t make logical sense, particularly when proscribed by ignoramuses.
Hatred is a much less dangerous emotion than apathy.
Good man I salute you, your contributions to this forum do not go unnoticed..
Seconded. There’s an uncanny depth to, and humour in, Richard O’s posts (and many others on here). I spend far more time reading than I do posting, so I don’t always reply to posts which particularly strike me, but they don’t go unnoticed.
Like you I have always been a nonconformist.
Although I have many private pusuits and can easily occupy myself, meaning that I fare much better than most in present circumstances, I have always delighted in meeting people and am generally very social. I have always tried to keep these two facets of life in balance.
What drives me on is my compassion for my fellow human beings, and as with you, the utter impossibility of allowing these violations to occur without doing or saying anything.
I must bear witness, and be able to say: “I did what I could”.
I have to say this is one of the things I find fascinating about contributors BTL here. Quite a large number seem, like yourself to be fairly ambivalent about social interaction.
I however, love a crowd, am gregarious and actually find solitude somewhat disconcerting.
Therefore the fact that so many here fight for something that they themselves do not necessarily engage in, makes me rather humble.
I’m not convinced that I’d so readily fight for a cause or argue so vehemently for a lifestyle that I did not engage in myself.
I doff my hat and thank everyone here who sees the bigger picture and keeps pulling these bastards up for every appalling lie that falls like poison from their ghastly mouths.
I generally dislike people, but I love truth and I despise being made to do something I know is either morally wrong or based in lies.
There was this interview in East Berlin in 1989 with an old lady 90 years old. She was out in the streets celebrating. The Wall had just come down. There came a radio journalist by and asked her: “I see you are celebrating, are you going over to West Berlin?” She said “No I´m not.” “Then why are you so happy?” asked the journalist. “Because I know I can.”
Deep respect Richard – very profound. In more sober moments I might write something more but can’t do right now – maybe tomorrow.
Well said.
I’m a bit of an introvert and misanthrope myself.
However, I depise having the option to enjoy simple pleasures like heading out on a Friday night to have a beer or two removed with zero debate, discussion, or rationality.
Thanks Richard, I empathise really strongly with this. One of the things I hated until recently was the adoption of the European greeting of kissing each other on each cheek. So annoying, superficial and prone to faux pas. Mwah, mwah, what a load of bollocks.
Now though I go out of my way to instigate it, as well as unnecessary hugging and vigorous hand shaking to confirm masculine pecking orders. The hand shaking especially confuses the alpha male pretenders (i.e. 99%) who are shitting themselves with the danger.
My old man drummed into me that I should never trust a man with a limp handshake. Consequently I have always gone for the bone crushing grip at every opportunity. Who would have thought that this would become an offence punishable by a fixed penalty notice?
You have absolutely hit everything on the head as far as any people who are remotely human and have any compassion for their fellow beings. I am completely pissed so please forgive my ramblings and spelling/ grammar mistakes. I am not the most social of people and have always been the quiet and behind the door person, but this shitshow has made me rise up beyond the parapet and I will not lie down and take this without a fight. I hate these bastards with every fibre of my being and will not accept what they want me to, they are vile and murdering scum. Richard, you and many others on here are the only reason I haven’t thrown in the towel, I am struggling big time.
You’re spot on and very coherent for someone who is completely pissed! What makes us empathetic is that we can see beyond our own needs and preferences and fight for what is right and just. We are the least selfish people — fighting for other people’s kids if we don’t have our own, being indignant about restrictions that don’t necessarily affect us, caring about business owners even if we are financially secure. Please don’t throw in the towel — we need you!
Thanks Lisa, you are great and I have read so many of your posts for a long time. Thank god we have people like you, Richard and so many on here who have enabled people like myself to remain even remotely sane. I am not as educated and clever as many on here, but my soul tells me that I am right and I will not bow down to the evil and tyrannical dictatorship. Love to you all out there fighting and believing in the truth. I’m off to bed, my head is spinning and I’m paying now for the bottle(s) of wine that I have drunk.
I think you just haven’t found your people…until now. You’d definitely like some of us! My husband hates large social gatherings and I’m no big fan, but we never thought of ourselves as anti-social. He’s always been suspicious of people and I have always assumed the best in people until proven otherwise. The problem with this last year is the proven otherwise part. I trust nobody now and am wary even among old friends and acquaintances (when I’m able to be around people). I’ve never been one to hide my opinions or care what others think of me, so it’s been hard to hold back in an attempt not to lose friends. But I have my line in the sand — if you think I am not entitled to health freedom then you are dead to me. Like you, I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t fight back in the small ways in which I am able. I do have kids so they are a motivating factor. I commend you for your fighting spirit and appreciate your contributions to this community. You are among friends!
“I have always assumed the best in people until proven otherwise”
For me it’s the other way around. Any stranger by default is a threat until proven otherwise. For me it has been this way for decades and is nothing new. The ongoing catastrophe has a few meagre silver linings, one of them being that I was right to assume this about most people.
We should get married, Richard!
We have a war to win first. Nothing else matters at this point.
I totally agree. I live in the middle of nowhere and have been effectively self-isolating for the past 25 years. I avoid social gatherings whenever possible but that’s my choice. Others (including Mrs F), are more sociable and I understand that so I hate the fact that normality has been stolen from them by a bunch of tin pot tyrants who have become intoxicated by their own sense of importance and want to hang on to their supreme power without regard to the precious time they are stealing and the lives they are destroying.
I have lived alone for 20 years, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. That you have been able to sustain a marriage is therefore worthy of high praise. I have no idea how you deal with another person in your face 24/7 like that under these circumstances, even if they agree with your viewpoint.
She very much does agree with my viewpoint and has spent just as much time on this site as I have since it began last spring. And she’s not in my face at all. She keeps me sane(ish) and I endeavour to do the same for her. She’s also very patient considering we haven’t been on holiday since we moved up here to the wilds of Cumbria in ’96. But she would like to go out and get a change of scenery from time to time. She likes live music and she likes a crowd round her at least a few times a year. And she hasn’t been very well so I’m more than pissed off that her few pleasures have been denied her.
At least BMJ publish this letter from a retired GP
https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n314/rr-8
When medical professionals allow themselves to be manipulated by corrupt politicians and influenced by media propaganda instead of being guided by their own ethical principles and common sense based on decades of clinical experience, the outlook becomes very bleak indeed.
Historically, public respect for and trust in doctors has exceeded that awarded to politicians. The unquestioning capitulation of medicine to an authoritarian executive and predatory corporate power may have undermined the doctor-patient relationship for a generation.
Easy to read very interesting article discussing why influenza has disappeared and C-19 instead.Recommended.
https://medium.com/illumination-curated/the-unexpected-case-of-the-disappearing-flu-64fd1fa5e909
.
Ivor Cummins relies on the work of Hope Simpson too. The elbowing out of flu by SARS-CoV-2 seems the most plausible…not masks of course
”The day the people stood up…..”
https://usercontent.flodesk.com/18362695-f9e0-4cfd-9424-36de88d15e58/upload/the-day-the-people-stood-up-2_62e437a4-3e84-44f1-8f7f-f0e79f92f5d6.pdf
A bit of Friday cheer from our recently cancelled fellow sceptic, Gina Carano:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6uqqtlxJ9sw/UB007EhYUyI/AAAAAAAACEM/AklTdmSs1v0/s1600/gina-carano.gif
The natural infection with C-19 give an antibody and T cells response. But even if antibody disappears these seronegative previous cases get a brisk response when they encounter the vaccine or infection (only vaccine in this study).Only one conclusion. Previous infection do not need vaccine. As a theoretical risk for ADE it seems dangerous to promote vaccine in previous infected. Israel seems now to think that they might get 70% protection 2-3 weeks after the second dose. Lower than the Phase 2 but in line with a good matched seasonal flu vaccine.UK is in the dangerous position with only 1 dose which seems to be not good according to Israeli data.
https://www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2021.26.6.2100096#abstract_content
The Israeli study of vaccine. One dose of vaccine in previous infected gave a boost to antibodies.This was also the case for cases withC-19 who had lost their antibodies.
Conclusion the famous T cells immunity kicks in and they draw the conclusion that previous infected can not be a priority group for vaccine.
Sounds similar to the French findings posted below by ‘theanalyst‘: https://www.france24.com/en/france/20210212-france-recommends-single-vaccine-shot-for-people-who-have-had-covid-19
Continued to be amazed by your insights, please keep it up!
Thank you 🙏. I’ve saved this to my library of facts that I regularly reference in efforts to educate those I care about as to all things ‘virus’ – why they shouldn’t be afraid and why lockdowns are wrong.
Just found this gem on Laurence Fox Twitter:
@fiona_byrd
·
Feb 11
Replying to
@LozzaFox
Does this mean an end to double-breasted suits? Are they now double-chested? And is a breast pocket on a shirt a chest pocket? Do people in a group walk four achest instead of four abreast? Do we eat chicken chests?
It made me laugh, so I thought I’d share it – someone else may need a laugh…
Excellent 👍👍
“200m cheststroke”
“make a clean chest of it”
Keeping achest of the situation
Grrr “I snoozed and I losed” – you beat me to it by a second. 🙂
🤣🤷🏻♀️sorry 😇
From the next ‘Shades of Grey‘ novel:
“John held her away from him; cupping one in each hand, he whispered breathlessly, “You have beautiful chests!“
But I’ve got a chest infection! What is it?
And both my lungs are in my chest. Help!
And builders are going to be using chestsummers.
Made me laugh out loud thanks you! It doesn’t happen much anymore.
Everything has gone tits up.
Great stuff thank you.
Makes you wonder what some people think when they see a Horse Chestnut Tree…. 🙂
Well that’s 3 of my Nursing colleagues refusing Satans Spunk 4 including myself.Steady the Fife and Drums.
Well done but keep us updated about whether you and your colleagues face further pressure.
They can go to fuck .I’m embarrassed to be a Nurse.I have worked 34 years in the job and this new breed of Nurse,the obese self important I went to Uni types are pure shite.
So now France admits normal immunity exists….but only just. UK government still lies about this. We must remember and one day hold them all to account for this lie.
“France’s public health authority said Friday, however, that people who had already been infected with Covid-19 develop an immune response similar to that bestowed by a vaccine dose, and that a single dose after infection would likely suffice.
“A single vaccine dose will also play the role of reminding” their immune system how to fight Covid-19, it said.”
https://www.france24.com/en/france/20210212-france-recommends-single-vaccine-shot-for-people-who-have-had-covid-19
But the last line is important……….”The authority recommended a gap of between three and six months after infection before individuals who had recovered from Covid-19 receive a jab.”
Why don’t the UK recommend this? What do the French know that Boris the Mass Killer of our elderly and lover of Big Pharma is not saying?
Tenuous link, but coincidentally I’m watching ‘Fench Connection’. Excellent film and no masks.
Peabrain Authoritarians.
The new album… 😉
Just had a bell from a couple of the Bro’s, Covid Marshalls car is now standing on bricks minus two wheels unfortunately didn’t get time to remove all four, this is the same guy they boxed in last week thought he was being clever parking car in quite back street,prat didn’t even have locking wheel nuts easy peasey.. poor fuckers are freezing so I have a bottle of good Brandy waiting.
Look in his eyes and tell him he’s walking home.
Look him in the eyes and tell him ‘don’t EVER turn on the peoples you son of a bitch. We’ll teach you integrity’
‘Of all the back streets in all the world he had to drive into mine..’
I drop into some lockdown fanatics twitter pages from time to time, and it’s a more depressing experience than the Hancock press conferences. Granted, we all have our echo chambers and need to stay wise to that, but they literally have the opposite view to us.
PCR being one example. Absolutely no problems with using it for the last year, none.
Asymptomatics are walking time bombs still.
Their constant adaptation to new rules and thh questions. DEAR GOD THE QUESTIONS. “Should we be wearing N95 and cloth when double masking now or just double cloth do?”
How can people have arrived at such a question in just twelve months? It’s almost as if they’ve been preparing to shine in this hell their whole lives and are utterly loving it.
They will never give an inch
Thank you for your service.
Is there any chance ideas like masking up with a plastic bag can be seeded among them?
I hear carbon monoxide is a tremendous disinfectant of Covid.
These people are not human. They have no souls.
Good grief. Well just wait until they find out that cases of Ebola appear to be up 300% now in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (from 1, to 3). Someone better be careful next time they go in to the supermarket & find an unmasked assistant.. better watch out for that asymptomatic ebola now! 🙂
More than 95% of these fanatics on twitter are enjoying the feeling of being personally much richer in terms of finance and work/life balance as a result of lockdown. They are not driven by fear. Not at all. They love it and they want it to continue. This is why they are so vocal in their support. They are selfish buggers.
So they have more money – that’s great – what are they going to spend it on???
We could be said to be in a similar (in a smaller way) position, but we most certainly do not share their glee at this current predicament.
Child porn.
The chancellors budget in March might shake them out of their complacency.
In the US, many of those people are what we call upper middle class.
They typically have jobs unaffected by lockdown, substantial investment portfolios and savings, and many derive good income from those portfolios.
They also tend to watch CNN and the BBC religiously.
Victoria cross for bravery for you then
Brain dead celebrity watch Kadashian followers. This is what happens when you turn away and let them get on with it. Big Brother, I’m a Celebrity, Strictly, Twitter, Facebook, BLM, BBC….blah blah blah. I ignored it all and got on with my life, why can’t they leave us alone?
“Should we be wearing N95 and cloth when double masking now or just double cloth do?”
Sometimes I have difficulty telling the difference between satire and real life. If only because it would be the sort of question that I would troll them with.
Branch Covidians.
What is Joel Smalley alluding to here? Wish he would just spit out whatever it is he is trying to say.
https://twitter.com/RealJoelSmalley/status/1360236362713227265?s=20
He’s created a model which, given his model parameters, when run, it matches the curves seen in many regions in 2020. Almost perfect given what he’s posted there. So it basically says his model is robust given empricial data over a couple of distinct periods and many regions.
But when he applies it to January, it doesn’t hold. A new profile is taking over.
Vaccines?
His model assumes a self limiting power to the spread of the virus. And this holds, but for January the same power doesn’t kick in when it should.
In a few weeks we’ll find out, I suspect. If it is the vaccine, the PTB won’t be able to hide it indefinitely. They’ll deny it, of course, but eventually they won’t be able to deny it.
But how many more millions will they have jabbed by then?
Interesting Statistics on Type of UK Tests Done by Publish date. Major change in emphasis. Fall in PCR test volumes and rise in more relevant Lateral Flow.
Most recent – 7 Days after and including 05/02/2021
Historical – 7 Days after and including 28/12/2020
Lateral Flow is now less that 1% positive for the last couple of weeks (0.6%)….so we are possibly back to a potential pseudo epidemic again. PCR might take a little time to catch up….as it detects remnants of virus.
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/download
Yes interesting. This AdapNation article was talking about some related testing chnages.
https://adapnation.io/the-covid-exit-strategy-lfd-test-pivot/
Just arrived from the oldest posts. People were feeling rather depressed this morning.
So, watch this and laugh: https://youtu.be/wC4awKLVHG4?t=22
Don’t miss the bit about the Royals though – explains a lot!
Less amusing but this section about the RRM explains why all the mockdown countries use the same terms and do the same crazy stuff re covid: https://youtu.be/wC4awKLVHG4?t=3525
I dont give a flying fuck https://youtu.be/Vqbk9cDX0l0 what any mp has got to say I wont be writing/ listening or engaging with the self serving wankers anymore..
There will be no remedy forthcoming and no recourse to what is lawfull from them.
agreed
https://youtu.be/bBIG113IvBY
Ivor Cummins speaking re NZ:
https://www.bitchute.com/video/MSvjhrFaHuha/
Good to see these girls essentially telling the World that not everyone in New Zealand is convinced that the Utopia St. Jacinda is claiming exists.