- “Covid deaths at lowest level since before first lockdown” – New ONS data shows that fewer than 1% of all deaths in the week ending May 28th were attributed to coronavirus, the lowest proportion since lockdown began last March, the Telegraph reports
- “No 10 won’t rule out an overseas summer holiday for Boris Johnson” – The Environment Secretary has suggested that people should be taking holidays in the U.K., but according to the Telegraph Downing Street has refused to say whether Boris Johnson will be following this advice
- “Fears of unlocking in name only, with Covid laws to be replaced by ‘stringent guidance’” – MPs are concerned that lockdown rules will be replaced with a “web of restrictive guidance” in what critics have dubbed a “smoke and mirrors” reopening, the Telegraph reports
- “A Place In The Sun presenter Laura Hamilton rushed to A&E after reacting to Covid jab” – The television presenter Laura Hamilton was forced to pull out of a breast cancer awareness event after having a sudden reaction to her second coronavirus vaccination, according to the Express
- “Vaccine proof or tests to be used at Wembley” – “Covid status certification” has arrived, the BBC reports, with fans heading in to Euro 2020 games at Wembley required to show proof of vaccination or a negative test before entry
- “People who are scared of Covid are ‘more judgemental’ of others” – MailOnline reports on research carried out at the University of Cambridge which found that people who are more worried about Covid are more likely to look down on others or react with disgust at questionable actions
- “Government to delay controversial NHS data sharing plan” – The plan to extract patient data from GP records is to be delayed until September 1st, the magazine Computing reports, as opposition to the scheme grows
- “Petition: Do not vaccinate children against COVID-19 until Phase 3 trials are complete” – The Department of Health and Social Care has responded to this petition on vaccinating children against Covid saying it will be “guided by the advice of experts, including the JCVI, on any potential deployment of COVID-19 vaccination in children”
- “2021 Edelman Trust Barometer” – The Edelman Trust Barometer 2021 survey, measuring population trust in government, the media, business and NGOs in 28 countries, found that the U.K.’s trust in its government increased by 9% from the year before to 45%
- “Lockdown Britain has surrendered its ancient freedoms far too cheaply” – “More shocking than the high likelihood of further delay is just how few people seem concerned by it,” says the Telegraph’s Madeline Grant
- “The five major plans for travel that the Government has failed to deliver” – Starting with a green “watch list”, Emma Featherstone lists for the Telegraph the five key ambitions for restarting foreign travel that the Government has failed to achieve
- “Plant-based diets, pescatarian diets and COVID-19 severity: a population-based case–control study in six countries” – According to this study in the BMJ, vegans and vegetarians were 73% less likely to come down with moderate or severe Covid
- “Does the data justify a delay to lifting lockdown?” – “It appears,” writes Ross Clark in the Spectator, that, “many in Government cannot bring themselves to tolerate any increase in infections whatsoever”. If so, he says, “it is going to be a very long time indeed before we are allowed to resume ordinary life”
- “Let’s hope June 21st brings an end to pointless Covid theatre” – If Boris Johnson wants “to recapture some of the energy and optimism that this country used to have”, writes Alys Denby in CAPX, then “dispensing with the Covid theatrics once and for all would be a good start”
- “Beijing’s useful idiots” – In an essay for UnHerd, Ian Birrell describes how science journals have encouraged and enforced a false Covid narrative
- “Who really benefits from the plan to ‘vaccinate the world’s poor’? – A letter signed by over 200 former world leaders about helping to vaccinate the world’s poor was met “with a great deal of fanfare”, writes Toby Green in UnHerd, but “what was also being proposed was a mechanism to strangle the recovery of the world’s low income countries”
- “Can asymptomatic people spread COVID-19?” – “Covid probably does spread asymptomatically,” says Sebastian Rushworth, based on the “fact that the virus has spread so rapidly and successfully around the world, and also on the complete and utter uselessness of lockdowns”
- “Five reasons why Freedom Day must go ahead on 21st June” – “We must reclaim our freedoms on 21st June,” says Fraser Myers in Spiked as he offers five reasons why we should open up
- “The madness of vaccinating teenagers” – “Making schooling dependent on vaccines reveals scant concern for children and little regard for education,” says Joanna Williams in Spiked
- “Covid vaccines: Concerns that make more research essential” – Writing for the Conservative Woman, Neville Hodgkinson highlights a new paper reviewing some of the potential unintended consequences of the mRNA vaccines that underline the need for further research
- “Is this why the MSM don’t mention Sweden any more?” – The Conservative Woman‘s Kathy Gyngell highlights Ivor Cummins’s latest video which looks at the data from Sweden and finds that the country did rather well by following the World Health Organisation’s 2019 pandemic guidelines
- “Ivan on the box (Minus ten Social Credits for not watching)” – The latest instalment of the life and times of a Covid Marshal (Grade 2) by John Elwood in the Conservative Woman see’s our man take part in a BBC documentary
- “Ofcov – we have ways of making you Chinese” – Nick Booth heralds the launch of a new Government department, Ofcov (Office of Covid), in a satirical piece for the Conservative Woman
- “Nicholas Wade Explains Why It’s No Longer Taboo to Ask Whether COVID-19 Was Caused by a Chinese Lab Leak” – Science writer Nicholas Wade is the guest on the latest Quillette podcast, telling Razib Khan how the lab-leak theory came in from the cold
- “Dr Richard Taylor: “Lockdown should continue indefinitely.”– Watch Julia Hartley-Brewer’s clash with National Health Action Party member Dr Richard Taylor who thinks that lockdown should continue “until we’ve got rid of this wretched bug”. She was flabbergasted
- “A Biblical case for freedom (even during a pandemic)” – The Rev Phill Sacre makes a biblical case for freedom and why it is important and worth defending even when there is a pandemic
- “Animal sales from Wuhan wet markets immediately prior to the COVID-19 pandemic” – An Oxford-led investigation published in Nature’s Scientific reports finds that there were no bats or pangolins for sale at the Wuhan wet markets at the start of the pandemic
- “U.S. Report Found It Plausible COVID-19 Leaked From Wuhan Lab” – A study undertaken in May 2020 by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California concluded that the lab leak hypothesis was plausible and deserved further investigation, the Wall Street Journal reports
- “Segregated dining in NYC, some create separate spaces for the vaxxed” – Some bars and restaurants in New York City are creating separate seating areas to allow vaccinated customers to mingle while the unvaccinated remain outdoors or behind plexiglass, according to the Daily Mail
- “Joints for jabs? Washington state allows cannabis stores to hand out free pot to COVID-19 vaccine recipients” – Washington state’s Liquor and Cannabis Board is temporarily permitting marijuana retailers to hand out free joints to people who have had at least one jab, RT reports. This allowance is set to expire on June 12th so locals will need to get in quickly
- “Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis blames COVID on Chinese Communist Party, signs bills thwarting Chinese influence in schools” – Newsweek reports that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed two bills aimed at preventing the CCP from influencing Florida’s educational institutions and from committing corporate espionage
- “Support for Lockdowns: A ‘Bootleggers and Baptists’ Phenomenon” – Support for lockdowns, argues David McGrogan in the AIER, has been generated through “confluences of interests” of Baptists and Bootleggers. They “appear to suit those with self-consciously virtuous motives; they also very often suit those who want to make money”
- “Australia’s forever lockdown” – A postcard from James Bolt in Melbourne, published in Spiked, warning U.K. politicians and commentators of the perils of Australia’s approach to Covid
- “Freedom Day could be delayed by a fortnight after Chris Whitty delivered a downbeat assessment to ministers” – Continuing lockdown can only push “any deaths that there might be from the Summer, when the NHS will not be overwhelmed, into Winter when its overwhelmed every year”, says Dr. Clare Craig
News Round-Up
A summary of all the most interesting stories that have appeared about the virus in the past 24 hours – not just in Britain, but around the world.
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It is a source of regret that the “variants” are now to be known by letters of the Greek alphabet. With the unquarantined, probably untested and uncontrolled arrival of the G7 people, along with Johnson’s special guests from India etc., to make up the mythical G11, and together with their vast retinues, doubtless riddled with Covid, we can probably look forward to an outbreak centred on Carbis Bay.
Whilst a “Cornish Variant” might be OK, it does sound like a new ice-cream variety. Personally, I’d prefer “The Kernow Variant”, which would be much more flattering to the native inhabitants of that once-delightful and remote county.
This bullshit will go on indefinitely until we make a stand, mass non-compliance. They are never going to give us back the freedoms they stole from us. We have to take them back!
““No 10 won’t rule out an overseas summer holiday for Boris Johnson””
Can I suggest somewhere like Juan Fernandez – but with no return ticket?
A month in Hellbourne?
St. Helena is on the Green List. If he goes there, he can forget his Churchillian schtick, and channel his inner Napoleon Complex.
Apropos of nothing but made me titter.
“New ONS data shows that fewer than 1% of all deaths in the week ending May 28th were attributed to coronavirus,”
Note the ‘were attributed to’. This is the basis of the whole pantomime – attribution, not reality.
‘Stop the sale of halogen bulbs’. Will they compensate businesses with stocks? Most LED bulbs won’t dim so people needing this feature will have to pay for the expensive ones that do. If the government is serious and doesn’t want to punish the lower income group then they should offer an initial exchange program, bulb for bulb. Same for small retailers. Amazon et al can just eat it!
It doesnt seem long ago that government was pushing us into the compact fluorescent bulbs. My hubby was saying it was a waste of time cos LEDs would eventually take over, but at that time they were hard to get. Now they are much easier. All this chopping and changing is ludicrous, but it’s par for the course when you look at all the other stuff we’re being forced to do.
Another illogical piece of insanity from the government. A single old type incandescent bulb of 100W (costing 50p or less) lit a room perfectly, as the output is perfectly matched to human vision requirements. 100W, gasp…. but it’s nothing, compared to how much electricity ever other item in your house uses! Typical kettle rating is over 2kW, ie 2000W. So boil a kettle for 3 min (a twentieth of an hour) and it uses the same as an old light bulb left on for an hour. You boil the kettle how many times a day? The hob – each ring 2 to 3 kW. Heating water – your electric shower is at least 9 kW. Each minute in the shower burns the same electricity as leaving your 100W bulb on for an hour and a half. If you believe the green agenda, stop heating food and water, and wash in cold water, because the ruddy light bulbs even if incandescent make up next to nothing of domestic energy use.
So we are now in the ludicrous situation where ceilings are pock marked with dozens of 5 W led downlights, which consume in total about the same as one old… Read more »
I live in a new build house. Because of some retarded EU directive, the house builder had to use G23 4-pin bulb fittings. It was a way of ensuring that you could only use energy-saving fluorescent bulbs. The bulbs are massive, difficult to buy, and you cannot choose different brightnesses. They have built the balasts into the electrics. So now if I want to use any other bulb, I have to get an electrician in to remove the balasts. There is a surplus of seriously (fascist?) cancerous thought processes on this planet.
I’m looking to move, but every time I see a ceiling with a bad case of the pox I am costing how much it will take to rip it all out and replace the plasterboard and put in a pendant fitting.
Lighting manufacturers have controlled the market since the 1920s, when they agreed to ensure tungsten bulbs only lasted a limited time. If you make the filament just a little thicker, they will last forever. Vested interests.
I have at least one tungsten bulb that was here since we bought the house 16 years ago. On the other hand I had a mini-fluorescent bulb that only lasted a few weeks. The halogen lights in the kitchen are obviously built with a design life, when the first one blows the others rapidly follow. This modern crap contains toxins that can escape if a bulb blows
“Another illogical piece of insanity from the government. A single old type incandescent bulb of 100W (costing 50p or less) lit a room perfectly, as the output is perfectly matched to human vision requirements. 100W, gasp…. but it’s nothing, compared to how much electricity ever other item in yiur house uses! “
And that highlights another parallel between the covid panic and the slower motion climate alarmist panic (beyond the fundamental fact that they are both based on spurious modelling nonsense, and sustained by open suppression of dissent).
The climate alarmist responds to your point by saying “ah, but when you add up all those millions of 100W incandescents it comes to x [insert impressively large number]!
No consideration of the fact that their “impressively large number” is still, in context, a tiny proportion of the total, and sliding past all the confounding unintended consequences of their proposed policy.
It’s an “emergency”. Therefore something must be done. This is something…..
I’m sure I don’t need to lay out all the direct parallels there in the covid panic process.
The old relative vs absolute figures trick.
Fitness for purpose also trumped by green and vested interest agenda.
LED street and vehicle lighting effectively destroys night vision and hence likely to cause more traffic accidents instead of helping prevent them through careful design considerations.
Also, compact fluorescents contaminated houses with mercury because people used vacuum cleaners to clean up broken bulbs.
still don’t know where sars-cov-1 went – lol!
They should spend a day testing 500,000 people for it – might get a surprise!
Ahhhhhhhh, don’t say that: you’ll give them ideas!
lol
I really want them to test everyone who dies for every one of the 200 colds that circulate plus any pre-existing conditions
and then assign the death to each of the things that were coincident at time of death
we could get the numbers up to 65 million ‘deaths’ a year I reckon
my great uncle died ‘with’ athlete’s foot but they put him down as dying ‘of’ covid. Mind you, he was 108 years old.
“MailOnline reports on research carried out at the University of Cambridge which found that people who are more worried about Covid are more likely to look down on others or react with disgust at questionable actions”
I certainly think it’s true that people who are rule followers themselves get very upset when others don’t follow them. I am very much like that, usually.
I think the rule followers are different from the snobs. There many who have just followed orders without questioning, just to survive another day, always has been the case. The ones who treat others as unclean are a serious part of the problem.
Well I guess I was talking about people who actually LIKE following rules, rather than people who do it because they are more less forced to through work or whatever
Worth considering this in conjunction with some of Jordan Peterson’s observations about the connection between disgust and orderliness, conservatism and fascism (though personally I’m not a great follower of Peterson). Suggests one reason why conservatives were vulnerable to conforming with this panic despite its origins mostly on the big government, public health left (eg NHS worship, the state is responsible for our health, Chinese communism etc). Also highlights the fascistic nature of the coronapanic.
https://youtu.be/sQwUCRhWoYs
https://youtu.be/XBu6xI1iUM0
Totally agree – in my sleepy Home Counties county town, heavily Tory and small-c conservative, compliance with covid rules is very high and people are very orderly. Ordinarily, orderly people are probably easier to live with as long as they don’t get misled into madnes. Right now I think I would rather be living in a town full of brigands.
I don’t always agree with everything he says, but Peterson is intelligent, calm and fearless. That’s why he engenders such viciousness in his enemies – they know he is a threat.
That’s pretty much my view of Peterson as well.
Unquestioning rule followers are usually suffering from psychological issues, such as undue repression, and I guess that’s a fair proportion of the population.
I’m sure I have psychological issues. I think it’s easier if we do things like walk on the left, and it seems logical to me, but I probably get crosser about it than is healthy. What I find more worrying is when people know the rules are nonsense but follow them anyway and get cross when others don’t. It’s that last part that is unhealthy and unhelpful IMO. I know people like this – quite nice people generally.
July, 2020: We have no plans to bring in mandatory face coverings in shops. [Michael Gove.]
The next day: Face coverings in shops will be mandatory, unless you claim an exemption, which most people will not do.
May 30, 2021: The plan for domestic “vaccine passports” for large events is being shelved. [Government source, as reported in the Telegraph.]
June 9, 2021: Those attending Euro games at Wembley will be required to show “proof of vaccination or a negative test before entry”. [BBC website.]
May 3, 2021: The UK is on course to ditch “social distancing” rules on June 21. [Boris Johnson, as reported by Reuters.]
June 5, 2021: Other options for June 21 are under discussion, such as retaining the use of masks, home working, or a “slight delay” to unlocking. [A government figure, as reported by Sky News.]
June 8, 2021: Britain’s “roadmap” for easing lockdown could be delayed by a fortnight; the latest data has been described by Whitty and Vallance as “fairly grim”. [The Times.]
July, 2021: ‘Cases’ are starting to rise, it’s too dangerous to reopen and restore freedoms?
August, 2021: With the rise in ‘cases’ and new “variants” [Omega?], we need to increase restrictions,… Read more »
It’s never-ending. And people just comply, with no questions asked. 2020 has been stolen from us, 2021 will be too, in its entirety. Then we face 2022, that going the same way as well? What the fk is wrong with people? this is years we’re talking about, YEARS of life being washed away that can never be recovered; all because of a pack of lies and NHS and government worship. Something has to break it; something big. Something unexpected, maybe. We don’t seem to have enough people who will say that’s enough, it’s over, we are dropping all the restrictions and are ignoring all the “rules”.
Yep. You, Mrs Bee and me ignore and fight it, so that at least we can look into the mirror each morning. Our quality of life has deteriorated and we don’t deserve it. Those who don’t oppose it or agree with all this, above all the pathetic young, fully deserve their reduction of quality of life and everything that’s still coming at them.
Zero sympathy for them and any of their plight.
They are just taking the p*ss out of the sheep since day 1, and the sheep just like it that way and go on to ask for ever more and they obviously also reward them at the ballot box for it, which further accelerates and strengthens that cycle.
Men go mad in herds…..
Let’s have it right, the nation’s yourth are a traumatised generation. It’s been obvious for over 20 years that something is going very badly wrong with the nation’s youth, and they have my sympathy. Sadly, Ireland appears hell bent on making the same mistakes.
Well plotted, Steve. And let’s not forget the earlier dismissal of masks by the siamese twins – in line with established WHO guidance.
More information on Beijing’s useful idiots in Unity News Network: https://unitynewsnetwork.co.uk/revealed-massive-financial-links-to-the-ccp-at-the-heart-of-the-uk-scientific-establishment/
A final lifting of restrictions (to levels of the summer of 2020) is anticipated on 8 September 2021
https://www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/spm/covid-19/forecasting/
40 deaths a day predicted for summer 2021 – higher than summer 2020 when we didn’t have the vaccines
“Final lifting of restrictions to levels of Summer 2020” – I think they’ve got that right in so far as Summer 2020 levels are as good as we’re going to get (ever), but it will be worse in winter
“higher than summer 2020 when we didn’t have the vaccines”
I’m wary of building too much on small numbers, but, as said before, a comparison of the all-cause mortality curves of April 2020 (no vaccine) and January 2021 (vaccines) does not look good for the latter – a sharp, anomalous rise in deaths, followed by a slower natural decline.
Fraser Myers believes in the Holy Vaccine, yet admits that the US free states are doing just fine with much less jabberwocky than we have.
Fraser Myopia.
Good old jabberwocky – ’twas indeed brillig!
But, now we’ve gone down the rabbit hole, how do we get out?
I can’t se how to comment on this link https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/is-this-why-the-msm-dont-mention-sweden-any-more/
So I’m commenting here.
This article links to a Youtube video, by Ivor Cummins – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiMAq9gwxpQ
The video starts by showing that ‘excess deaths’ in Sweden. Just after 01:42, he says ‘watch the birdie’. He then shows two tiny numbers on a graph. After replaying several times, I can see he’s trying to say the excess deaths in the 2020 Oct-Sep year were 364, and in 2019 they were minus 300. Your point?
He then at 02:30 shows another graph, which shows the bursts in excess deaths in Sweden. He uses vague terminology to say “in many periods… deaths were well below…” – this isn’t mathematically precise. As far as I can see from the graphs, the total of ‘below expected’ for the whole graph is less than the total of ‘above expected’. Then he uses the term ‘very minor’ to describe the second of two surges. If you stop the video and squint, you can see that the first surge is people under 65, and the second, people over 65.
I can’t see how this shows that lockdowns and masks were unnecessary, nor that Sweden’s policy was better than… Read more »
Just based on your description, not having watched the video, it sounds as though Cummins is referring to the point raised in this piece, by a professor of public medicine:
Not a shred of doubt: Sweden was right
Using the public medicine concept of “flu years”, the appropriate period to compare is Oct-Sep, and this makes it clear that the bulk of the apparent increased deaths due to covid are actually just the rebound in deaths we would usually expect after a very good flu year, such as the one Sweden had in the previous flu year. “Dry tinder”.
Since Sweden, while it took some measures, avoided the lockdowns and masks that our clown show “leaders” indulged in on the pretext that huge numbers would die if we didn’t, the reasonable conclusion is that those measures were not in fact “necessary” to avoid some kind of mass death apocalypse.
And in fact that is born out by the numbers worldwide – the claims for its impact in the absence of “emergency” measures were hugely, grossly exaggerated and the reasonable assumption based on the evidence is that if we had avoided panic and responded calmly in accordance with past pandemic… Read more »
Go back to 77th
No need for fancy figures or justifications to show that lockdowns and masks were unnecessary: Sweden is an order of magnitude below the pre-pandemic plans maximum envisioned deathrate, and they followed their pre-pandemic plans. Our reaction was utterly disproportionate.
People were always going to die in a pandemic.
I agree it is a very confusing video. It makes more sense if you read the Shahar paper that he links to. The point seems to be that excess all cause mortality in Sweden in the period Sep 2019 to Sep 2020 was not nearly as high as some have predicted (Cummins ascribes this prediction to Ferguson although Shahar just says “some predictions” and Ferguson denies having made this prediction). This isn’t news.
I can’t see what the Ireland data has got to do with it.
I can’t see how it is “Possibly the most important Covid video you will ever see”.
“Ferguson denies having made this prediction“
Clearly the fact that someone with Ferguson’s established track record says something is no evidence that it is true, and arguably should be regarded as evidence to the contrary, but regardless:
The Failure of Imperial College Modeling Is Far Worse than We Knew
Yes, the Imperial College predictions for Sweden (76K-90K deaths if no lockdown) are here: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/mrc-global-infectious-disease-analysis/covid-19/report-12-global-impact-covid-19/
Uhm, the article you attach confirms Ferguson didn’t make the prediction. It was a team from the university of Uppsala “using the same model”. This is pretty meaningless as “the same model” can mean all sorts of things.
The article then digs up a line in a spreadsheet that shows that at some point Ferguson’s team calculated about the same as the Uppsala team. However, the authors don’t appear to have read the paper for which this is an appendix. Had they done so they
“Uhm, the article you attach confirms Ferguson didn’t make the prediction. It was a team from the university of Uppsala “using the same model”. This is pretty meaningless as “the same model” can mean all sorts of things.“
You seem determinedly dishonest here in your attempt to protect Ferguson.
The relevant fact is that it was Ferguson’s nonsense model that fantastically exaggerated the risks of covid, and did so when applied to other countries such as Sweden as well as here. His evasion by personalising it, which you repeated in your comment, is irrelevant and self-serving, intentionally misleading pedantry.
The obvious question is why are you using such pedantry to distort the truth to protect someone as thoroughly undeserving as Ferguson?
Accidentally pressed enter before I had finished….. here’s what I meant to write:
The article you attach confirms Ferguson didn’t make the prediction. It was a team from the university of Uppsala “using the same model”. This is pretty meaningless as “the same model” can mean all sorts of things.
The article then digs up a line in a spreadsheet that shows that at some point Ferguson’s team calculated about the same as the Uppsala team. However, the authors don’t appear to have read the paper for which this is an appendix. Had they done so they would have discovered the data is not based on Ferguson’s model, applies over the whole epidemic not just one year, and is not a prediction of any sort but simply examples of what would happen under certain assumptions.
Anyhow this is kind of a sideshow. Some academics somewhere predicted much higher mortality than has actually happened under some assumptions. That is hardly news. It doesn’t determine whether the Swedish strategy was a good one or whether it would have been successful elsewhere.
“Anyhow this is kind of a sideshow. Some academics somewhere predicted much higher mortality than has actually happened under some assumptions. “
Not a “sideshow” because these grossly misleading numbers were at the heart of the panic that drove policymaking.
But you knew that.
That is hardly news. It doesn’t determine whether the Swedish strategy was a good one or whether it would have been successful elsewhere.
It confirms that the scaremongering that was used to create the panic and justify the emergency response was false, and that Sweden was correct not to panic and to broadly follow pre-existing pandemic planning. As we should have done.
But I suspect you knew that, as well.
Mark
You seem to think that your opinions are so obviously correct that anyone who presents an opposing view doesn’t really believe what they are presenting and is being dishonest. It makes it very hard to conduct a civilised discussion.
I am not convinced that the Ferguson’s original numbers were either grossly misleading or at the heart of policymaking. In any case they are not the same numbers or the same model as the one’s in Shahar’s article.
The discussion at to whether Sweden’s strategy was a good one and whether we would have done better to follow it is complicated and subtle. I certainly don’t know the answer.
However, you presumably don’t believe I sincerely hold either of these positions so there’s not much pointing in discussing it – is there?
No, I don’t believe it is nowadays possible to disbelieve that Ferguson’s original numbers were grossly misleading or that they played a huge part in the fearmongering and the panic, other than out of sheer ignorance. Maybe early on, but not for some time now.
And the way you tried to weasel out of the point by making a disingenuous distinction without a real difference between his model and what he personally might or might not have said (exactly what he himself did to evade the truth when questioned), tells me you are unlikely to be an honest actor in this.
It’s a shame, because back when I used to post here regularly I supported the few genuine “lockdown scepticism sceptics” who used to post here, because diversity of opinion is a good thing, provided it is based on honesty.
“I can’t see how it is “Possibly the most important Covid video you will ever see”.”
Clearly, for the propagandised, deluded bulk of the population, any video that helps to persuade them out of the lie far too many have had indoctrinated into them, that covid is a “once in a lifetime pandemic” in terms of its scale, is a candidate for the most important covid video they will watch.
That wouldn’t be true if our media and elites had been honest and diverse on the topic. But they were the opposite, which is why opinion is where it is.
“I can’t see how this shows that lockdowns and masks were unnecessary,”
Arse-about-tit scientific illiteracy. Whatever the detail, lockdowns and masks, on a scientific basis, are treatments that have to be shown to be effective, not the converse within accepted levels of probability.
They conclusively haven’t been – the null hypothesis stands i.e. they are specious, illegitimate measures.
And actually, as an addendum, Sweden did OK in the death league – well below the British idiocy. This – remember – within a context were there never was any ‘unprecedented’ emergency. The UK experience suggests that its relatively high-ish level of deaths were likely to have been generated by the brainless extreme lockdown measures, not a virus.
Not sure what to make of Sebastian Rushworth’s article on asymptomatic transmission. To me this has always been one of the biggest nonsenses of the whole episode, to admit it is likely gives some kind of rationale for quarantining the healthy.
Agree. The Swiss doctor also thinks presymptomatic is a big thing, not asymptomatic though.
No one is perfect….
A figure of 7% of infections from ‘presymptomatic’ people seems to be the most often quoted. As for asymptomatic, virtually every study or comment is clear. It either doesn’t exist or does so in a tiny minority of events.
Yes – that’s an accurate summary.
Obviously some individuals may infect others in the short periods when genuine infection isn’t obvious. But it won’t be many.
‘Asymptomatic’ = a blue cheese moon.
But is it obvious that some individuals may infect other, regardless of whether it’s just before OR during a symptomatic phase? I have yet to hear of definitive proof of Person A catching “covid” (something that has yet to be isolated) from Person B. Let’s face it, given the extremes to which we’ve been lied to throughout this phoney pandemic, isn’t it possible that there is no truly infectious “killer virus” out there, just lots of people getting sick and dying as they do every year (from old age, poor diet, environmental factors, stress etc etc etc)? Not to mention severely restricted access to medical help. If lockdowns and all the associated measures hadn’t been put in place, would the excess deaths in spring last year even have looked anything special?
Except at a rhetorical level, I don’t think asymptomatic transmission diminishes the case for selective/voluntary Great Barrington-style measures. On the contrary, a full lockdown forces people in mixed-generation households to go out to buy food because they can’t get deliveries, increasing risk.
If we assume that his figures are correct and asymptomatic transmission is about 1/5th of symptomatic transmission, then there is no argument for lockdown: If natural R (R0) is about 5 which is possibly a bit high, (i.e. on average, in a 100% susceptible population each case infects 5 people) then (roughly) asymptomatic transmission would be accounting for 1 of those 5, so the “R” in the subset of asymptomatics would be 1, i.e. each asymptomatic person on average infecting 1 other person. If people who were symptomatic actually quarentined, which imo would be a reasonable ask (and they have not been) R of asymptomatic people on its own is not high enough for exponential growth. So according to Rushworth’s analysis what Fauci said at the beginning of the pandemic is true – asymptomatic transmission is not enough to drive a pandemic.
So quarantining everyone in case of asymptomatic transmission is still pointless – it doesn’t pass any sort of cost/benefit analysis. It would have been far better to have properly supported those who are symptomatic to have stayed at home – two weeks full pay and compensation to the employer. This would still have been cheaper!
Lets keep it simple – don’t play the imaginary numbers game.
Asymptomatic spread = total fictional bollocks
R number = modelling fiction, based on dodgy data
Pandemic = widespread, not deadly. The definition was altered to suit the narrative.
Just keep looking for the bodies in the street and note the all-cause mortality figures.
Spot on!
“Segregated dining in NYC”. Maybe they’ll have separate seats on buses too. Heard that somewhere before…
So in a century’s time, will the politically correct be celebrating heroic Jenny Bloggs, the first unvaxxed to sit in a vaxxed-only seat?
Rona Parks
So the Lancet and Nature had a “desire to appease China” (Beijing’s useful idiots).
Therefore, I call on the government to to urgently detail what they plan to do about such corruption of science. Let’s be clear, this is a matter of huge concern and importance if true.
No use expecting a government guided by corrupt science to do something about the corruption of science.
Beautifully put, Annie
“Those with plant-based and pescatarian diets less likely to get Covid”. A lot of vitamin D in some of those fish (and look how well Norway is doing).
Maybe the apartheid twits who want proof of “vaccination” or a negative test from those watching the Euros at Wembley should also ask them if they are fat old bastards with vitamin D deficiency? I thought discrimination was a crime. And if they’re claiming exemption because of an emergency, that’s a lie for a start.
(Nb pescatarian is a seafood diet).
Something fishy going on, as usual.
The study that came from is deeply flawed. Even if the results are taken at face value, it fails to show that having a vegetarian or piscetarian diet helps the general population, just that of those hospital staff getting Covid infections those groups claim reduced effects. Given that those groups are typically more health conscious, fitter and younger than the average person then that result is hardly unexpected.
95% were Physicians, 70% being male, with a possibility that many not that bothered listing accuracy in their own diets on a survey. It’s assumption after assumption, fed into dubious models that are looking for an outcome.
I do suspect confounders. Despite the large total number of participants, some of the numbers are quite small, and it may be for example that the plant-based people were mostly much younger, making comparisons very difficult, whether adjusted for age or not. It would be nice to see the raw data. It would be interesting to know hb1ac scores, low carb is often adopted as a way to treat type II diabetes which is a major risk factor for COVID.
And just to say, “diet can help to prevent COVID”, absent a deficiency, is the sort of claim that the fact checkers would normally reject with glee.
I do suspect confounders
Yes – the seafood diet being a clue, e.g. Anti-inflammatory and Vitamin D.
At a guess, which can’t be verified without a better view of the data, what this study actually tells us is that young people are far less likely to get severe COVID and they are far more likely to eat plant-based diets. The number of older plant-based eaters may be tiny.
Vegans were – and proably stil are – only a single figure percentage of the population, yet they control the narrative in all mainstream media, especially the BBC and Guardian.
Probably they don’t catch covid because no-one will go near them
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxJdzsjoYLs
This is part of the segue from Covid into Climate. The study is laughable. Most previous studies show vegans are more vulnerable to some infections. Balance, as in all things. As has been mentioned, what was the age profile? Most over 70s probably will be traditional eaters.
https://www.transportxtra.com/publications/local-transport-today/news/62997/every-airport-and-port-must-close-for-climate–academics/
Here’s an article showing how the segue is being lauded. A government funded study.
(Nb pescatarian is a seafood diet).
Quite – so there are potentially confounding factors, e.g. vitamin D. As I note you’ve already mentioned. Sorry about that.
“Department of Health says it will be guided by experts on ‘vaccinating’ children”.
Sorry but this is not good enough. They must be guided by genuinely independent experts, not people with a conflict of interest such as those linked to big pharma and their proxies. (And I note that someone from ICL is on JCVI). If “experts” who may be influenced by those producing the vaccines are giving the guidance, then it is worthless.
And then ultimately leave it down to the parents.
Trouble is, too many moronic parents will still push for their children to be vaccinated. So who will be there to protect our nation’s children? We need a blanket ban on injecting kids with potentially deadly experimental gene therapies.
Putting a blanket ban on something is as tyrannical as making it compulsory. It’s down to educating as far as possible and then letting the individual decide.
These “vaccines” are unnecessary for children and potentially lethal. How is protecting them from such a substance “tyrannical”? It’s like saying they should have continued prescribing thalidomide to pregnant women and just let them decide if they should take it.
My point is that it should be parents who decide and that a governing body taking over that role is what is tyrannical. The point with thalidomide is that parents were not informed. One could point to the concept of non informed consent in relation to many of today’s harmful oil based prescription drugs. The more decision-making that is taken away from the individual the more easily they are confounded and duped and controlled.
You don’t have to be any sort of plastic ‘expert’. The principles behind the Nuremberg protocols and international law are crystal clear to all but total morons and the Mengele Memorial Brigade.
“Covid deaths at lowest level since before first lockdown”.
Aside from the fact that deaths are overcounted (40% would appear to be a conservative estimate), the official figures appear little different to last Summer (once they stopped counting anyone who’d ever had a positive test in August). And like last Summer, we are seeing local “guidance”. Never mind, back to normal on June 21st. Or two weeks after that. Or four weeks. Or something – because the “vaccines are so effective. If they carry on with restrictions in August and September or beyond, will they really still be able to pretend that “vaccines” have been a success? Especially if children start dying from the “vaccine”.
Hmm, if children start dying from the jabs it will turn out to be due to a new strain of covid!
I think we know two things now that we had suspected :