Boris Johnson confirmed today that “nothing” is ruled out in responding to the Indian variant. Asked if local lockdowns are possible, the Prime Minister told reporters:
There are a range of things we could do, we want to make sure we grip it. Obviously there’s surge testing, there’s surge tracing. If we have to do other things, then of course the public would want us to rule nothing out. We have always been clear we would be led by the data. At the moment, I can see nothing that dissuades me from thinking we will be able to go ahead on Monday and indeed on June 21st, everywhere, but there may be things we have to do locally and we will not hesitate to do them if that is the advice we get.
Meanwhile, Professor James Naismith, from the University of Oxford, told BBC Radio 4 that local lockdowns will be ineffective at containing the variant and it should be viewed as a national problem.
I think we should view it as a countrywide problem. It will get everywhere. We keep learning this lesson, but we know that this will be the case. When we tried locally having different restrictions in different regions that didn’t really make any difference. So I don’t think thinking about a localised strategy for containment will really work.
An emergency meeting of Government scientific advisory group SAGE was convened this morning to address the rapid spread of the variant. One member reportedly warned that a delay to the June 21st lifting of restrictions is “possible”.
Is the Indian variant really something we should be afraid of? No doubt India is currently experiencing a surge in which the variant plays the dominant role. But that doesn’t mean the variant will pull the same trick everywhere – viruses aren’t as simple as that. There are all kinds of reasons one variant might come to dominate, and it isn’t necessarily accompanied by a surge in infections.
Italy is the European country currently most dominated by the Indian variant, having seen it quickly grow in the past few weeks (Indian variant in green).
Here’s what’s happened to the positive test rate in that time.
Clearly, the growth and dominance of the Indian variant does not necessarily lead to a new epidemic.
Meanwhile, in Spain (which has ended its state of emergency) the variant came and went very quickly.
In the UK, the variant is taking longer to grow, and appears to have stalled, though this could change (and it is reported to have grown in the past week).
This pattern has not led to a new surge, of course
India’s own epidemic has slowed and may be peaking.
There is also no evidence that the Indian variant is particularly good at evading vaccines (or causes serious illness when it does), as Oxford Professor Sunetra Gupta told Julia Hartley-Brewer on talkRADIO this morning.
Isn’t it past time the Government stopped scaring people with stories of variants and came through on its promise to restore basic freedoms now that the vulnerable are vaccinated? There will be no end to the coming of new variants of contagious diseases. That’s not a good reason to live in a permanent state of quarantine.
Discussion
Comments
This week across the site:
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to the Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
A while back I put an entry in my diary for June 14th : xxxx variant means restrictions will have to be kept in place.
xxxx looks like it will be Indian. It doesn’t matter as anything will do.
This is just the b.s. excuse “they” are using to keep us under the leash indefinitely. Nothing is going to truly give us back our old freedoms. These bastards are going to tighten their grip unless we fight back. Only problem is most of “us” are cheering the c*nts on!
Storm in an Indian Tea cup.
Do not be afraid of acceleration
And we are still conspiracy theory nutters even though we predicted this months ago.
Toby will suffocate soon if he doesn’t get his head out of the sand or his arse – or someone’s arse at any rate.
What has Toby done wrong? Have I missed something?
He’s still thinks that this is all down to incompetence and vaccines will stop it.
He changed a few months ago hence the site’s format changing and going pro-vaccine.
There is a problem in that UK is world leading in sequencing the virus and as too much vested interest in that process it will continue. In the US, it seems much less fixation about variants and in a report from Houston they found to their surprise, that almost all known variants were circulating in the area, often regardless of recent travel.
Will’s article very interesting shows the Indian scariant increasing in Italy whilst positive rates goes down and a temporary spike in Spain. Both those countries do not seem to have succumbed to scariant hysteria which is much an establishment disease in the UK.
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
“If that is the advice we get”.
Vote Boris, get Rasputin!
“When we tried locally having different restrictions in different regions that didn’t really make any difference. ” And so, the realisation that NPIs are NFU began slowly to dawn upon Professor James Naismith.
Indian “scariant” is bullshit, same as the Brazilian one was, same as the Kent one was. It’s just the rinse and repeat to gaslight everyone as usual.
Boris still believes that he can “control” a virus
He also believes he can control the temperature of the earth.
Not much point in scrolling through the comments or commenting as you’ll have said what I’m thinking. We’re being primed, the BBC have already started the big propaganda push, not if but when.
and yet again the BBC report focussed on “cases” and totally failed to place the data into any context. Surge testing to find cases in the asymptomatic population likely to find more cases…so what is test positivity? How many symptomatic? What age range affected? If 25 to 45 why should we be necessarily worried? How does a member of SAGE have any authority to suggest the variant may put a delay on removing restrictions? Will we ever get out of this?
Isn’t this just a another attempt of coercion by the government to get even more people to have the magic juice that works one minute and then doesn’t the next or it might but we don’t know. Invent another scary variant for the gullible British public to swallow, and they will!!
“We have always been clear we would be led by the data….”
Except, apparently when it comes to releasing us from authoritarian rules.
Ah, the terrifying Indian variant. According to Worldometer, India is still only in 110th place in the league tables for deaths per million population, at 188 per million compared with Hungary’s 3005 per million, and well below the world average of 430 per million. And it looks like the “covid” death rate in India is close to peaking. I guess the covid cult leaders are soon going to have to start looking elsewhere for the next scary variant. But seriously, do they think anyone is scared at the mention of variants now?
I was looking at comments on a BBC article about the venue for the Champions League final (moved from Turkey to Portugal, UK govt rejected idea of holding it here – it’s between two English clubs). Many comments were either approving it not being in the UK because it meant people wouldn’t travel here from abroad, or saying it shouldn’t be in Portugal because people would travel there. There are a lot of people who are obsessed with border closures as the answer to all our problems, including people who are happy for restrictions here to be eased. I think they have bought into the idea that we need to finish the vaccination program to be safe. They want us to be like New Zealand.
And yet, that doesn’t fit with the many people reportedly getting “vaccinated” just so they can get their freedoms back (so they think) and go abroad on holiday again. I’d be quite suspicious of comments on a BBC website. They are likely to be heavily censored, maybe even populated by 77th Brigade types, and not representative of the general population. Yes, some people are still very nervous about covid, but most people I know are just getting bored of the whole thing and much less careful about adhering to “the rules” as they were.
And the BBC boards are moderated by those who value the party line above all else.
literally any negative comment about “ anti vaxxers” seems to be legitimate. I have complained about some totally unsubstantiated slurs, and got very short shrift.
I tried to comment for the first time on BBC today. I was logged in to a suspicious thread that was overwhelmingly pro lockdown and pro government line, submitted my comment and everything looked good. Except my comment wasn’t there, clicking submit just erased my comment text. Then I did some testing. I found some old posts with zero votes and I upticked them. All looked good with my votes showing. Then I refreshed the page and low and behold, they are all at zero votes again. I tried on a different device and the same again. I have always found it suspicious that some comment threads on BBC are suddenly sensible when the majority are a disgrace. It often seems that the Scottish themed threads have realistic comments. It is as though there is a setting that they can use to shut the threads down to real people.
I think there are plenty who’d like to travel, yes, but I know plenty who don’t want to and don’t want people coming in. It’s a fixation, just yet another thing to cling to for people who believe that Something Must Be Done.
I doubt 77th trouble BBC sports reports comments. Yes they are moderated and conspiracy theories or overt anti vaccination stuff would probably get removed, but I don’t think they are greatly censored – just reflective of the type of person who follows the BBC and takes the time to comment on sports reports.
I’ve noticed that the most upvoted comments on BBC are often in great contrast to what appears to be the overall sentiment of the most recent comments. This has always suggested to me that the upvotes are heavily manipulated. Based on this I’ve suspected that it’s manipulated in other ways too.
If you compare it to the DM comment sections you really do sense it isn’t representative.
As I said above, try upticking some old comments with zero votes. Then refresh the page, ideally in another browser or with incognito/inPrivate mode. I find that they are still at zero votes.
wonder what they will do if no new variant comes along??? oh my God the panic in the corridors of power – no variant in sight to stop them opening everything up
A new variant will appear. You don’t seem to have got the hang of this yet.
Not necessarily a new variant. Could be something about the “vaccine” – shock horror, only (partially) effective for X number of months, must get booster injections rolled out (we’ve already been primed, but just for the “most vulnerable” of course (erm, think I’ve heard that line before somewhere)). But turns out we don’t have enough booster vaccinations ready in time, so really sorry folks, you’re going to have to be locked down again. Don’t forget, your booster isn’t about protecting you, it’s about protecting other people, you selfish plebs.
That wouldn’t help Pfizer shareholders though.
Extremely profitable for Pfizer if they’re producing booster “vaccines”, required every few months!!
Aren’t the new variants caused by the leaking gene therapies though. I thought that was to done to continue the situation.
They have 350,000+ sequenced “variants” to choose from. I bet most full sequences that they run are unique variants, but they just bucket them into the most convenient Variant Of Concern™. Does anyone know if they are still categorising “variants” with the PCR by working out which if the three target genes are positive, giving them only 5 possible combinations. Or are they fully sequencing before they decide it is a scariant?
“scariant” 😂
Does James Naismith know that it’s arrived here literally from a different continent despite lockdowns, travel bans etc.?
The usual argument is that we should ban more things and then everything would be OK. I spoke to a lockdown fanatic recently who, having admitted they hadn’t worked, said he was sure there was a way to do it that WOULD work and we should keep trying. They are fixated on it, desperate to be proved right, that it was the right approach, just needed executing better.
Maybe that quote of ‘its easy to fool people than convince them they’ve been fooled’ is making them stubborn
How worried should we be about Boris or the variant?
Its between the mutant and the variant
What a pantomime, honestly I feel as though I could write their scripts!
Wasn’t overly scared of the WuFlu, and I’m certainly not scared of the Chicken Tikka variant. Shall just carry on in my usual state of non-compliance.
I’m taking my lead from Elizabeth Bennet, “There is a stubbornness about me that never can bear to be frightened at the will of others. My courage always arises at every attempt to intimidate me.”
Surge vaxing in Blackburn will lead to many compromised immune systems, then cases, then deaths… clowns.
https://www.rationalgalerie.de/home/indien-stirbt-aus
A good comment in German on the Indian scare mongering.
14 months on and I still don’t know anybody who has died from or of covid. I have personally known 6 who have died this year none of them covid all elderly except 1 who was 62 and 30 odd stone he died of heart failure.
The latest person I knew who has died was 93, who was blind and deaf and her children couldn’t go and visit her in the nursing home. What a sick society that has been built over the past year.
I was thinking the same this morning. Who do I actually know who’s even been affected by covid, and the answer is still no one!
I know people who have had it (well they tested positive) all of them had a mild illness, no worse than the mild colds/flus most of us get a few times a year. They all made full recoveries after a few days.
I know of only one person who died possibly with covid not of covid – he was very elderly and went into hospital with a water infection last autumn – before he was admitted he was tested for covid and the test proved negative – while in hospital he recovered fully from his water infection but tested positive for covid and yet he showed no symptoms of the disease – they kept him in for a little while longer but then he was eventually released .. he died early this year of complications due to previous health issues he had and nothing to do with covid.
The only other person I know of who could have had covid was myself last February 2020 just before the sensationalised news headlines and the government lockdown – I had all the flu-like symptoms and treated it just like the flu because thats what it felt like – I recovered fully in just over a week then a couple of weeks later national paranoia set-in with the public and the msm demanding the government lock us all up because of nasty flu-like virus which was going around and being painted as the Black Death.
I don’t know anyone hospitalised by covid. I know one person who has now been hospitalised for 8 weeks, ventilated for the first 6 following the AZ poison.
Is it possible we can clarify the Ivermectin situation in India? I just noticed over on the forums a suggestion that it’s use was apparently stopped in January, R seems to start increasing about then, cases rise mid February. It’s use apparently resumed end of April; AIIMS reinstated it, R seems to drop mid April, cases possibly started dropping a few days ago, (might need another week or two to be sure that continues). In my mind not sure if R or cases increasing/dropping is the key thing to look at. If R dropping mid April is the relevant indicator I wonder, did doctors start taking things into their own hands and start using Ivermectin again about then before the AIIMS changed its mind?
There is one Indian state that will provide the evidence required:
“Goa on Monday announced that all citizens above 18 years will be given Ivermectin drug irrespective of their coronavirus status in a bid to bring down mortality.
State health minister Vishwajit Rane said patients will be given Ivermectin 12 mg for a period of five days as expert panels from the UK, Italy, Spain, and Japan have found a statistically significant reduction in mortality, time to recovery, and viral clearance in COVID-19 patients treated with this medicine.
The minister said this treatment would not prevent COVID-19 infection but it can help reduce the severity”
Just search for Goa and Invermectin, there are loads of results.
Excellent, many thanks. My concern though is I suspect cases in India may be just about to plummet anyway so it might not be easy to get too much from the results. And, I don’t know, (regretting taking my eye off the treatments story a long time ago when it suddenly got complicated) but wondering if perhaps it’s important to use treatments the right way, the right time depending on the patient’s condition, so if you get it wrong looks like treatment doesn’t work, but get it right and it is very effective; I don’t know.
Let’s not forget that none of these variants differs from the original WuFlu by more than 3% and I suspect the “Indian variant” is no different which means it’ll pose no more of a threat of disease or death than any of the others. Variants will never stop forming, this is known to them but they are prepared to use it as a stick. Bastards!
And the BBC helpfully ratchets the fear upwards with each variant every time one comes along. I had to explain India to an elderly relative the other day when she mentioned how worried she was about it. The relative size compared to the UK, the size of its population compared to the number of cases/deaths, you know, all that context that the BBC just isn’t keen to provide, unless of course it is doing a piece on the harms and side effects of the vaccines which it minimises away by conveniently trying to point out that if you set them “in their true context”, bearing in mind the numbers of jabs given, they are ‘miniscule really’.
Is Johnson mad? Or a psychopath? In fact, is he surrounded by people who are both?
He is simply afraid of being held to account, and so will spin this irrational national imprisonment as long as it takes for him & his cohorts to work out personal exit strategies. Meanwhile Big Pharma’s experimental ‘vaccines’ are currently killing 9 people per day, and leaving thousands seriously ill without the slightest peep from MSM.
Then it is our duty to no longer comply, but now to defy.
I suspect many of us are not complying, and have never bought into it from the off. The overheating black economy is already a key driver against recession, although the government could never admit it. Millions are paying lip service only to draconian regulations, and the jab rate is nowhere near as high we are being led to believe. It’s building…
and with all that harmful income tax dodged they’re getting far more than before.
I agree about the jab rates. 95% in the 55-59’s ? Really ?
Agree We have had friends over throughout and noticed our neighbours have recently started doing the same, I also know people who went ahead with Christmas gatherings. I feel sad for those who ‘blindly follow’ and have allowed their lives to become so narrow.
Boris = opportunist, skilled liar, blusterer, psychopathic charm, manipulative. Currently also being very, very stupid.
But nemesis is creeping up behind him. Every time he enters his flat he glances at the wallpaper and shudders. Soon he will have to hold little Jacob up for the cameras while a cold needle carrying Heaven knows what into his innocent arm.
And one day Carrie will wake up.
This is an exact repeat of the “Kent variant” talk just prior to lockdown for Christmas. I am highly nervous
Yep, my thoughts exactly. The evil bastards imposed a total ban on households mixing, just a couple of days before Christmas, here in my neck of the woods, throwing plans for many, not to mention all the excess food, in the bin. I ignored them and went ahead with my little garhering, sod them to hell.
You are certainly not the only one, HH.
All we can hope for is that more and more people follow our lead and ignore the ever increasing stupid rules that the government comes up with.
Yes. On a positive note I had a good day in town today. Went to all the shops maskless as usual and TWICE in two places, people saw us without naps, and they took theirs off! I say Deeds not Words – lead by example. And it’s made me feel upbeat, too.
Cases should never have been the Issue. Cases among vulnerable are. At their point all vulnerable have either been jabbed or offered such (I’m just 50 and I had my 2nd Pfizer yesterday). The responsibility must be passed to the individual.
This variant has already been shown to be no more deadly in Western nations and unable to escape immune response. It is a non-issue.
But look at the power it has. We have been arguing all restrictions should end sooner than the 21st, including masks. But now, suddenly, talk of moving forward normality is gone. In fact now we are talking of moving backwards. And it’s the people who are willingly moving the goalposts. The b@stards at SAGE may be awful at predictions and coming up with ways to actually slow deaths. But they are aces at controlling us and keeping power. Got to give them credit…sadly.
Indeed, provided no negative consequences whatsoever are attached to those individuals declining the injection.
On a forum local to me there was a serious suggestion today that the ‘unvaccinated’ should be made to isolate at home while everyone else behaved as normal. Nonsense of course with regard to transmissibility, as no-one has a clue yet nor will for a long while, but it demonstrates the spiteful direction of travel for some.
My OH has been ostracized from an activity she used to love by vaccine fascists. We’ll have to get used to being outcasts.
Despicable bastards, bedwetting morons and ignorant pondlife.
I am so glad I don’t count myself among their number; I couldn’t live with myself.
Thats terrible. If it wasn’t bad enough, it isn’t even logical.
If lockdown has been bad then I think the hard part for those of us not vaccinated is only just beginning
There’s a similar group where I live. The same folk who told all local businesses they were being watched and would be reported for any transgressions, marched up and down the street during the Thursday clapping sessions and harassed people who didn’t take part- even suggesting that they should go to the back of the queue for NHS treatment!- and the same folk who are now flexing their authoritarian muscles with new ventures into speed traps, etc. What could possibly go wrong?
I HATED the thursday clapping – the socially coercive nature of it
Rasputin. Rather hard to finish off, I heard.
Boris. My mother died of loneliness thanks to your lockdown.
Now I am unable to travel for my godson’s wedding, and my brother’s wedding has been postponed twice thanks to you and your fucking idiotic pointless exoensive and hopelessly ineffective rules.
Boris – stop fucking with my life.
In all honesty, politicians have to use this sorta of (ridiculous) rhetoric in the climate of “gotcha” political journalism.
Ask George H.W. Bush about “no new taxes”. Or Barack Obama about “If you like your health insurance you can keep it.” Absolute statements, no matter how sincerely meant, sometimes come back to bite the speaker.
If Johnson had said something along the lines of “We’re opening up June 21 no matter what” – then you can be guaranteed that some bright spark would be on the next David Marr program or the Guardian editorial page, warning us all of the thousands of dead grannies we would suffer as a result.
In this instance “nothing ruled out” is the political equivalent of “Terms and Conditions Apply.”
As a radical alternative, he could explain that there’s no evidence that the “Indian variant” is any more dangerous than any other, and that covid is more or less disappeared from the UK because of vaccination and people already infected, and it’s summer, so as it stands there’s no reason to change the plan.
Far too logical.
Harold Macmillan famously claimed that Britons “never had it so good.”
Probably true at the time. But it inevitably opened up disagreement with people who weren’t feeling particularly chipper at the moment he said it.
In 2021, “Nothing off the table” keeps one’s options open. “No matter what” makes you a hostage to fate.
No disagreement that “no matter what” is probably better leadership, and that “terms and conditions apply” sounds like the utterance of a corporate weasel. But then we knew what sort of guy Johnson was when we elected him, no?
Well, I think “no matter what” is the correct approach as I don’t think we should have had lockdown or any of the other futile nonsese to start with. But within the lunatic universe he inhabits where covid is seen as unprecedented and exceptional, he can just say that all the evidence points to the current roadmap being followed, and that there’s no evidence at this stage we need to worry. He doesn’t need to say “no matter what”. The default position for life is “nothing off the table” in the sense that if something unexpected comes up you react accordingly, but given what is currently known, they are confident we’ll be OK opening up in May and June. He’s articulate and intelligent enough to find the right words, but he chooses not to. Instead he deliberately blows hot and cold.
Harold Macmillan certainly handled the Asian Flu pandemic much better.
He could also explain that the death rate in India is still far lower than UK and that their testing is one of the top rates in the world.
Just a quick thank you to all those people who voted for this useless bastard’s party last week.
He’s emboldened now, thinks he can get away with pretty much anything.
He’d be right too.
God help us.
Spoiled my ballot paper.
Me too.
Voted for our postman- he was an independent
Not guilty as charged. However what you have to bear in mind is what alternatives we are actually being offered and how much worse it could have been.
We are now in the hideous situation where we are being given a choice between catastrophic or worse than that. All those that have merit are now being rigorously censored.
With the latest proposals the government are pushing in conjunction with the Silicon Valley giants it is unlikely you will ever know these people exist.
In present circumstances, tactically voting out Tories would have been constructive, if a bitter pill to swallow. Letting the regime know it’s not appreciated outweighs making potentially, or actually, worse alternatives believe they might be. Putting any spoke in the wheel buys time for the sheeple to wake the f. up.
Wander what newold labour’s (or whoever’s) acceptance speech would say?
You could always join a party that’s sceptical of lockdowns and stand yourself. Or at least campaign for them in the hope that someone will join and stand.
I joined the SDP a while ago, and they thankfully are skeptical (I’d have left if they weren’t). I know they aren’t everyone’s cup if tea but there are other parties available. This isn’t going to be fixed overnight but if you don’t take the first step then it never will.
Didn’t have a chance to not vote for him sadly.
The fact that we’ll be living under an elected dictatorship for the foreseeable future demonstrates how flawed the party political system of democracy is.
I didn’t bother- what’s the point? Seriously, if not Johnson’s mob, who else? Labour? They still don’t seem to have realised that if you constantly insult people they are unlikely to vote for you. ‘Vote for us you thick, Northern, racist, homophobic scumbag!’
The choice presented to me
CONservative
Liebour
LibDims
Green Communists
Much better to stay at home
Reform needs candidates.
I thought the greens were neo-marxists!
Mass vaccinations in and around infected people will invariably cause super strains of the virus. You only have to look to the results from the over use of anti-biotics for an example of what is to come. Even if this particular strain is a natural progression there will soon be others that are not.
The destructive impact to the immune system caused by continual lockdown measures and compulsory face masks/social distancing will, if things are allowed to continue in the current vein, lead from what is currently a mild illness for most to something deadly to the majority.
The vaccinated will almost certainly be the ones most vulnerable as the mutations move further and further away from the original and become less recognizable to the hurriedly spliced together dubious protection we will soon all be forced into taking.
I believe that’s the plan and it’s all the virus’ fault.
I believe that’s the plan and it’s all the virus’ fault. Plausible deniability.
…is still nothing compared to the annihilation of the immune system being perpetrated by experimental vaccines, while they simultaneously cause untold short and long term adverse reactions (including death) in the process.
Yellow Card Report Data
Is that data UK or worldwide?
(over my dead body).
It’s hard to see these restrictions ever ending at this rate. “Ar4e we nearly there yet? just a little further!” Ad infinitum – yippee!
Saturday has become a very important day now, more so than before. This cannot be allowed to continue.