HART’s must-read report “COVID-19: an overview of the evidence“, written about in Lockdown Sceptics on Thursday, has been making waves today. Former Supreme Court Judge Jonathan Sumption praised it in the Telegraph this morning, and then this afternoon Times Science Editor Tom Whipple did his best to bury it under smears of being anti-vaccine and “extremely irresponsible”.
In a mean-spirited piece that makes no effort to engage with the arguments of the report, Whipple rounds up the usual suspects to heap opprobrium on anything that deviates from the establishment line or raises awkward questions.
Originally headlined “Scientists condemn report claiming vaccines caused second wave deaths”, it now reads “Scientists condemn report questioning role of vaccine in second wave deaths”, presumably after someone pointed out to the editors that the report never makes such a claim but only raises questions based on patterns in data. The report clearly states that “we cannot infer causation from correlation”.
Whipple writes:
Among arguments about the harms caused by lockdown the 50-page document also states that the rollout of the Pfizer vaccine coincided with a large number of deaths and this may not have been a coincidence. “When something in data is this unusual, we have to ask questions, no matter how uncomfortable they may be,” it states, in a chapter written by a “quantitative analyst” called Joel Smalley. “It would be extremely unscientific and even negligent not to investigate whether the rise in deaths during this period is linked in some way to the vaccine rollout.” He suggested the Pfizer vaccine had not been tested sufficiently on older people.
Jeremy Brown, from UCL and a member of the Government’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, said this was “ridiculous”. He pointed to the now extensive real-world data showing the vaccines were safe and reduced deaths. “It is quite conclusively true that the vaccine offers protection in the real world,” he said. Far from killing people, he said, “if you’ve been vaccinated you have around an 85% lower chance of ending up in hospital”.
The rise in deaths was caused by infections, he said, rather than vaccines.
He added that academics should not be endorsing the idea vaccines may be causing mass death. “The only way out of this mess is the vaccine so anything that undermines that is distinctly unhelpful,” he said.
Jonathan Ball, professor of molecular virology at the University of Nottingham, added that to make the link “shows a blatant disregard for the facts” and “is irresponsible in the extreme”.
HART this evening published a response that clarifies they are not making claims so much as raising questions.
While scientists quoted in the article have dismissed HART’s suggestion that there is a possible link between vaccination and COVID-19 infections, it is worth highlighting that earlier this month a study led by Public Health England found a “notable” rise in COVID-19 infections in the over-70s immediately after receiving a vaccine.
We are not asserting that vaccines are the only possible cause of “second wave” cases and deaths. We are not asserting that the vaccines are, in and of themselves, dangerous or deadly. There are many factors at play here. For example, the increased contact from the vaccination programme or from possible relaxation of social distancing following vaccination have been suggested as possible causes for the correlation. It has also been shown that lymphocyte levels fall in the first three days after Pfizer-BioNTech vaccination. The phase two trial of AstraZeneca showed a transient neutropenia in 46% of patients in the vaccine arm (compared to 7% in the control arm). Whether this suppressed immunity sufficiently accounts for increased susceptibility is uncertain. These observations have no bearing on the efficacy of the vaccines which is a separate issue.
They draw attention to a number of studies that show a spike in infections in the days following vaccination: the FDA Pfizer report that found a 40% increase in the vaccinated versus placebo arm in the first week of the trial; an Israeli study reporting a doubling in daily incidence until about eight days after the Pfizer vaccine had been given; a Danish paper showing a 40% increase of COVID-19 in the vaccinated in the first two weeks; and a Public Health England study that noted a 48% increase in Covid in the first nine days after vaccination.
Whipple also takes the report to task for supposedly getting the false positive rate of PCR tests wrong.
The report, which has been backed by other Tory MPs, also states that the false positive rate of Covid tests is 0.8-4%. To support this claim, which contradicts all the real-world evidence, it cites a paper that explicitly says the true rate must be lower.
However, as HART point out in their response, the figure they use is simply the Government’s own current estimate of the false positive rate. If that “contradicts all the real-world evidence” then Whipple should take it up with Public Health England, not HART.
Whipple is also unhappy with the claim that “50% of the population is already immune to the coronavirus”. It appears from the report that this figure is drawn from a review of evidence on pre-existing immunity in the BMJ.
Memory T cells are known for their ability to affect the clinical severity and susceptibility to future infection, and the T cell studies documenting pre-existing reactivity to SARS-CoV-2 in 20-50% of people suggest that antibodies are not the full story.
While these results do not necessarily mean 50% of the population has pre-existing immunity, as Dr Mike Yeadon wrote for Lockdown Sceptics, with COVID-19 one must also factor children into the immune category, and between adults with T cells and children you are getting on for “about 50%”, as HART put it.
Whipple also quibbles with the report’s claim that “there is no evidence the UK variant, which has come to dominate in countries around the world, is more transmissible”. Yet this claim was drawn from a study in Nature headed: “No evidence for increased transmissibility from recurrent mutations in SARS-CoV-2.” The evidence on this may change of course, but it’s worth keeping in mind that science does not proceed by consensus and it is not “irresponsible” to cite peer-reviewed papers to support an alternative point of view.
Having amassed what he presumably regards as conclusive evidence that the report is full of falsehoods and heresy, Whipple attempts to tar others by association for daring to endorse it, including Toby, while the editors obligingly stick a picture of Sir Graham Brady at the top. That’ll teach MPs to think twice before backing anything from the renegade scientists again.
Whipple writes:
The report has found other backers. Jonathan Sumption, the former Supreme Court Judge, described it in the Telegraph as “scrupulously referenced to specialist research”. Toby Young, a journalist and founder of the Lockdown Sceptics website, described it as a “devastating” assessment by “highly qualified” experts.
In contrast Simon Clarke, Associate Professor in Cellular Microbiology at the University of Reading, said the report was “the reverse of science” and “bizarre”, adding that the authors “seem to have worked backwards, deploying only research findings which fit their ideology, or they simply don’t bother with anything so inconvenient”.
“The smearing of some of the current vaccines is particularly egregious,” he said. “It seems calculated to grab attention and frighten people, it could cost lives if anyone were foolish enough to believe it.”
The piece initially went out without a comment from HART, though one was later added:
A spokesperson for HART said, “In HART’s recently published overview of COVID-19 evidence, we noted that the January peak in Covid cases and deaths correlated both in time and geographically with the mass roll-out of the novel vaccines. However, HART is mindful that correlation does not always equal causation and we are not asserting that vaccines are the cause.”
At Lockdown Sceptics we are acutely aware that, as far as the Government and much of the public is concerned, as Jeremy Brown said, “the only way out of this mess is the vaccine”. That’s why we support the (voluntary, obviously) vaccination programmes and would never discourage anyone from getting a vaccine if that is what they consider to be right for them and their health. However, we also believe in free enquiry, and scientists raising questions, and exploring potential trends in data to see what they might be telling us – and we don’t think that that is irresponsible, pandemic or no pandemic. On the contrary, the irresponsible thing is to close down scientific enquiry for the sake of a questionable “greater good”.
Stop Press: Whipple’s article is headlined: “Scientists condemn report questioning role of vaccine in second wave deaths.” But not all scientists, it seems. A woman describing herself as a “scientist” at UCL wrote this Rapid Response in the BMJ on Monday: “After the initiation of vaccine programme, almost all countries experienced a sudden surge of transmission and most countries had to impose strict lockdown measures.”
Stop Press 2: Hector Drummond was unimpressed with Whipple’s mudslinging, tweeting: “The establishment is badly rattled. This is a hatchet job of unprecedented partisanship by the Times‘ tame science lapdog Tom Whipple. They’d prefer to say nothing about HART’s report, but have been forced to attack it because it is getting noticed.”
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If Matt Hancock had a shred of integrity he would have resigned immediately. It looks like he is going to have to be dragged out kicking and screaming. The sooner the better.
Currently he’s not ‘kicking and screaming’ … he’s in the warm if slimy embrace of Mr Toad.
We were in LONDON for the anti Lockdown demo
Join every anti Lockdown even you can
Stand in the park South Hill Park Bracknell every Sunday 10am meet fellow lockdown sceptics
Join our Telegram Group: t.me/astandintheparkbracknell
Like the rest of his colleagues he doesn’t, but this isn’t the point, he has a NWO/Big Pharma agenda and an ever growing brown paper envelope stuffed with rewards for the 15 months of state totalitarianism. Integrity (along with morals and all the other bunkum) has NOTHING to do with this. We are in for a summer of ever diminishing civil rights, check this for starters from next Thursday…
From 1 July this year, if you’re registered with a GP in England, the government will be taking a copy of every medical event your GP recorded on their systems since you first registered with them. (Your children’s records, too, if you have children.) According to the NHS website, the events – called ‘codes’ – it will collect include: “Data about diagnoses, symptoms, observations, test results, medications, allergies, immunisations, referrals, recalls and appointments, including information about physical, mental and sexual health”.
Every single one of these events will be linked to your NHS number, your full postcode and your date of birth. Does that sound like “anonymous” data to you?
This clumsy groping incident with an old student girlfriend from twenty years ago is co-ordinated to deflect from other far more important things, Hancock gets (VERY WELL) paid regardless, and don’t worry his missus is fully on board with all the faux outrage – and laughing. More provincial standard Tory panto for the plebs, just as with Brexit negotiations, but look how easily the punters fell for it.
“Oh no we didn’t!”
“Oh YES YOU DID!!”
Oh really Toby, give it up. You aren’t Hancock (after all you are supposed to be a sceptic…) so we can never put your declaration of moral virtue to the test.
Is the GP data grab definitely from 1st July? I thought it had been deferred from 23rd June to either August or September?
As I understand it the date the legislation comes into law remains 1st July 2021, but the actual date that sharing commences with NHS digital is the 1st September 2021, as per the NHS website:
Isn’t it funny how destroying an entire economy, lying to the people under your care, and killing tens of thousands of people is ok with everyone, but go and kiss your assistant on camera and everyone just goes crazy?
I’m not saying that what he did is ok, but in the grand scheme of things that’s nothing.
That bit isn’t new. The upstanding Great British Public have a strong salacious streak that, despite protestations, quite likes this sort of indulgence.
That’s because the British are repressed hypocritical puritans at heart who’d love not to be but daren’t. They’d all be wearing black and have starched ruff collars if they were still in fashion while getting up to all kinds of devious stuff behind the scenes. This definitely isn’t new, it’s a staple observation on these islands.
To use Jungian terms, they don’t confront their shadow, they politely deny it exists!
Love this comment. Nail on the head.
I would add that the British treat sex scandals as if they are some kind of naughty soft porn that they get to indulge in once every few years.
It’s not just the British public. We’ve seen the same thing with our American cousins and Cuomo. Andrew Cuomo is directly responsible for the death of many nursing home patients because he ordered the nursing homes to take covid patients because he didn’t want to use the hospital ships Donald Trump sent in and give Donald Trump the credit. Cuomo is nothing less than a murderer
But no one cares about this. What they care about is that Cuomo made sexually harassing comments to a variety of women
Exactly.
Its not the affair, its the ignoring of draconian rules that he implemented and expected everyone else to follow
if he allowed us to leave the house for a run once a week and he was found out to have done it once a day it would be the same
this is the greatest attack on liberties the world has ever seen
the major architect thinks it doesn’t apply to him
Exactly!
Be honest, is he alone? Well there was Cummins and Ferguson and the Scottish woman but they were only the ones that got caught. I suspect they are all at it and just haven’t been caught – yet. He is a horrid little reptile yet has (had) a wife and children and a girlfriend. He will never be tried for the harm he actually did. Good to be rid of him whatever the “reason” though.
You are correct, it is a funny old world where gross incompetent, corruption, malfeasance, lying, killings 10,000s people, needlessly holding an entire nation prisoner in their homes for 15 months, destroying hundreds of thousands of livelihoods and bankrupting a nation are all perfectly fine but having a little peck and a grope is a resining matter. Still, just be grateful he is going. Only problem is he will be replaced with someone equally corrupt and incompetent.
It is, however, the context of what he did that makes it such a disgraceful and unforgiveable act.
Not to me it isn’t.
Hancockwomble’s affair is an utter irrelevance, his totalitarianism is what is important
The point is that this “event” provided the public and more especially the MSM the opportunity to put on a face of defiance and bravado – MSM could for once become loud with their indignation.
All of a sudden the public had an outlet, a way to blow off steam after fifteen months of misery.
Wancock and his philandering are nought but a diversion.
Simple kiddology.
“in public office with positions of responsibility “should act with the appropriate moral and ethics that come with that role”. “
A bit late for that to have any credibility re. this shower – led by the biggest sociopathic liar of them all. The ‘reshuffle’ scenario is quite credible.
Resignation or sacking? Weeell … I’ve already said I reckon on him staying as a useful idiot/lightning conductor. But – other scenarios are distinctly possible – mainly resulting from internal pressure like this, and there is a case that the same shit from another arse will gain ‘credibility’ amongst the GBP. There’s certainly a surfeit of the gullible.
Let him rot in the cabinet and fester outwards. Encroaching on all biological matter around like a pulsating glub of fungi, devouring any semblance of respectability for all who dare be near to this thing.
Let it all come tumbling down around them. The stink will be horrendous
‘Embracing’ a ‘longtime friend’?
How coy.
We’re better off with Hancock staying in post. We don’t want someone more efficient and honest imposing lockdowns. Better an obvious clown/liar than one who hides it better. There’s very little in this for us.
In a weird way I agree. At least if he stays, most people will ignore any further drivel he comes out with and perhaps, just perhaps, normal life will resume. The duped will, hopefully, open their eyes and see what we’ve seen from day 1.
Fortunately for us efficient and honest people just do not exist in government. It’s a sad state of affairs when we have to rely on government incompetence to protect us from government tyranny, but that’s how it is
Someone who appears efficient and honest, for a while, to the general public
I disagree. He has hugely undermined public trust in the pantomime. A lead authority figure has been exposed as lying to and laughing at the people from the start.
They will find it v hard to extend the restrictions now.
Masks and stayin’ apart – hugely undermined.
And it is not finished for Hancock. Malcolm Kendrick’s piece on his blog about being a gp in care homes is devastating. Read it if you have not.
This was Hancock’s show, and it was essentially euthanasia. More painful than euthanasia.
“Only obeying orders” said middle managers.
And whose orders, and what was he being promised by Vallance and co for his unquestioning obedience to their agenda?
Hancock shouldn’t be allowed to resign. He should be [words deleted for legal reasons]
The only desirable outcome is for him to be banished from office, forever, for his part in the biggest misfeasance in public office we’ve ever witnessed in this country, along with the rest of the cabinet, SAGE and others. He has probably committed some other crimes too.
Anything else is really an irrelevance. I have no sympathy for him personally, but unless he is paying for the right crimes, any punishment for him doesn’t interest me.
At last a bit of good news! Watching the demise of the man who, drunk on power, has brought untold misery and suffering to the people of the U.K. for the last 15 months. Even journalists in the daily telegraph are saying he should go. With Hancock’s half hour gone next in the firing line will be Doris himself.
Our main enemy is the Big Lie. Hancock resigning allows the govt to move on and continue with the lies.
This smells of sh*t, sorry. It seems like an engineered operation to have him removed. Something else is going down. Why did the Queen say of Hancock the other day, “that poor man!” That whole clinch thing looks too set up. I’m not buying it – I’m sure its a cover up for something much more mendacious, like all the other cover ups we know about (and don’t know about!) and he’s the fall guy to save their bacon. Be glad to see the back of the evil sod, regardless.
Again, going back to Andrew Cuomo, the New York Governor who filled the nursing homes with covid patients. If Andrew Cuomo had gone down for that, plenty of other Democrat Governors would have also fallen, because they did the same thing. Instead he was targeted for sexual harassment complaints which means the other Democrat Governors were saved.
Same deal with Wankcock. If he went down for his handling of covid, the corruption the malfeasance, the incompetence and just general spitefulness, he could take a lot of people down with him because they’re all equally guilty. If he goes down for having an affair he goes down alone.
Exactly. They’re happy to throw one of their own under the bus if it saves their sorry arses. They all deserve the gallows.
He still has to face those charges. And he may not be loyal now.
Yes – possibly – but if you look at ALL the other pictures published of the two main players in each other’s vicinity – they always seem to look enamoured of each other. I do think they were up to hanky panky even if it might have been staged for other reasons like the kind of engineered operation you posit. And if it is an engineered operation it won’t be anything good for the British people.
I don’t think it matters much whether it is engineered or not. It’s just another distraction. Covid was not an emergency, NPIs don’t work, the vaccines are not needed. Covid was not an emergency, NPIs don’t work, the vaccines are not needed. Covid was not an emergency, NPIs don’t work, the vaccines are not needed. Covid was not an emergency, NPIs don’t work, the vaccines are not needed…..
Ah the cult of the personality, its all the UK MSM are ‘good’ at.
Its an irrelevance and sidetracks attention from the real issues, however much an odious man getting ‘fired’ might feel good for a few seconds.
He’s taking a leaf out of “Professor” Neil Ferguson’s book: create a reason to resign which distracts the indignant public from the REAL reasons he should resign. And then crop up in public life a few months later, as if nothing happened.
…. I heard there was a protest going on in London today …
I confess I have repeatedly broken almost all of the Covid rules, er sorry about that. I assume the matter is now closed, no fines or anything?
It’s not a question of political expediency, but of character, here is a man that deceives his wife of 15 years standing – who he knows, and probably no doubts loves – so what chance have we ( the man/woman in the street) he doesn’t know. That trust has gone, he can redeem himself but not in that office – false in one false in all. I leave it to Bojo to dust down his classical notes in Latin.
There is much else to dig into. Did Gina pass information to her pharmaceutically involved father in Rephine – did his company benefit? Having a daughter so ahem close to the Minister gave her access to all the Government plans and information.
I see her father offers Crisis Management. I wonder if he wrote that resignation letter? Or Gina did and he read it?
Wankcock resigns.
Now how about the rest of em?
All neatly scripted, while the vaxxed numbers keep on rising and the economy contracting. The damage has been done, and MH will be well recompensed for his invaluable opening knock for the UK Big Pharma 1st XI.
“Well played that man, jolly bad luck with that damned awkward yorker….”.
And go crying all the way to the “offshore island” bank.
I don’t think it is scripted, but I agree it’s just a distraction. No reason to celebrate. Our target is the mad, evil narrative, the Big Lie. There are too many of them pushing it for it to be possible to defeat it by removing a few individuals.
Yes, here is the link:
Matt Hancock resigns as Health Secretary after kissing aide scandal
https://mol.im/a/9728531
Ta.
He’s gone! The bloody dog is dead! (Well, not literally, but it’s a start.)
So making decisions that lead to the deaths of tens of thousands of OAP’s, shutting down the health service for over a year, resulting in millions of delayed treatments and tens of thousands more premature deaths, not to mention handing over billions of OUR money to friends and family are not reasons to quit. But being caught canoodling your mistress is.
Watch your back Hancock. This isn’t over.
Scumbag 2 is out!
Although as correctly predicted it isn’t because he killed thousands and is corrupt, but because he grabbed a ass. Depending on who takes over and where handycock get’s shuffled/paid off too should reveal who was behind this manipulation.
meet the new boss.. same as the ..
https://www.wef.org.in/sajid-javid/
Hancock going is bad news for sceptics. It allows the govt to move on. Him staying would have been preferable. Sadly the govt’s political instincts still function fairly well. I think they knew it would be a step too far to keep him on.
meet the new boss.. same as the ..
https://www.wef.org.in/sajid-javid/
Replacement just announces – Sajid Javid.
Not sure whether that’s good or not but at least it isn’t Zahawi or Gove both of whom I consider dangerous to the point of evil.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2021/06/26/sajid-javid-replace-matt-hancock-health-secretary/
meet the new boss.. same as the ..
https://www.wef.org.in/sajid-javid/
Erm…. the whole lot of them are evil.
He’s just a fall guy.
His un-elected replacement will promise to stay true and steer Britain to freedom, so the public will give him the benefit of the doubt and sit back and do nothing but occasionally moan as the scripted agenda to collapse and reset society has another year to metastasise.
How long you think they’ve been sitting on those cctv pics of Hancock snogging? Timing is everything. All the mounting grievances and frustrations at their promise breaking and double standards (freedom day postponed, G7 restriction flouting etc.) have been turned manifest and smeared over that little creep before he is ‘booted’ out the door, to enjoy the lavish kickbacks he accumulated while dragging the country closer to hell.
And in the weakened and naive mind of the common pleb, some justice will have been served somewhere and there might be some change now, so they can breathe a sigh of relief that they don’t personally have to do something about it and risk being called a conspiracy theorist by their pleb friends and pleb neighbours who have all taken the vaccine like good little boys and girls yet continue to live in fear and ignorance, never spending even a fraction of the time seeking the truth that they spend obsessing over sports or fashion or what their pleb friends are doing on social media.
Fuck.
meet the new boss.. same as the ..
https://www.wef.org.in/sajid-javid/
meet the new boss.. same as the ..
https://www.wef.org.in/sajid-javid/
What I find utterly astounding is the lengths that ‘PAPS’ and ‘Journos’ will go to in order to get this sort of lurid photo / story. And the MSM as a whole slavering all over it. A story that whatever we may think of mendacious Mancock, will still have a horendous effect on numerous innocents. I imagine his wife, children and other family are going through their own personal hell because of this. Especially the children FFS.
OK he might deserve it, but do they?
Yet the mercenary MSM and pap bastards can’t ask a single probing question about evidnce for lockdowns, the laying down of crazy COVID laws on their audiences, ‘gene therapy’ efficacy/dangers, forced faceknickers, rule of six, magical graphs, fictional stats, generic removal of civil liberties, a potential crime against humanity and pandemic mendacity. Real journos would have a field day with all these blatant lies and bullshit.
I suppose we get what we deserve in the end. They are simply catering to the masses that make up their audince as whilst simultaneously licking the hands that feed them.
Whatever happened to real investigative mainstream journalism and old school hacks who went after the real stories that affect the lives of real people?
We miss you guys.