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The Daily Sceptic
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News Round-Up

by Toby Young
24 July 2021 1:16 AM

  • “Grand ambitions: Boris Johnson’s two years as Prime Minister” – It was the week that was supposed to be a turning point – as well as the second anniversary – for Boris Johnson’s premiership. But it ended up being a damp squib.
  • “Freedom Day will make or break Boris Johnson” – “This week’s ‘Freedom Day’ was Boris Johnson’s Falklands,” says Matthew Paris in the Times. And it will make or break him.
  • “Our latest Covid wave may have peaked – and at a far lower point than expected” – Figures suggest end of the third wave may be on the horizon, with virus infections largely falling since July 15th.
  • “Pingdemic chaos dealing £5 billion blow to economy” – Firms suffer disruption as hundreds of thousands of workers are told to self-isolate and economists warn of growing cost.
  • “Surge in last-minute bookings as holidaymakers race to beat travel list review” – With school year ending, a late booking surge has tour operators and airlines braced for the busiest weekend of the year.
  • “Israeli, U.K. data offer mixed signals on vaccine’s potency against Delta strain” – Local research in Israel claims Pfizer shot now only 41% effective against symptomatic Covid, while British stats have it at 88%.
  • “Sweden’s no-lockdown Covid strategy vindicated” – Alone among the advanced countries of the world, Sweden followed the sensible policy for dealing with a highly transmissible virus with a 99%+ survival rate.
  • “Will vaccine efficacy decline over time?” – Data emerging from Israel suggests that booster vaccines may be more urgent than first thought. Immunity might be waning for those who got their jab in the winter months, according to figures from the Israeli Ministry of Health.
  • “Vaccines Are All In Your Head” – “Reality is not binary, and that applies to vaccinations,” says satirist Tim Murray. “I’m a transvaxxite. This means I identify as vaccinated although I was not jabbed with a vax.”
  • “Lockdowns are killers in the global south” – A report on India’s excess mortality published on Tuesday by the Center for Global Development. The report’s authors estimated total excess deaths in India over the past 15 months at a staggering 4.9 million.
  • “Italians will need Covid ‘green passes’ to access some venues” – Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s Government approved a decree on Thursday ordering the use of the so-called ‘green’ passes starting on August 6th to allow access to leisure venues.
  • “‘It’s making me question my future’: NFL star DeAndre Hopkins hints he might retire after league announces strict vaccine plans” – Several big-name NFL superstars have voiced their opposition to league plans to harshly penalise players who may be responsible for COVID-19 outbreaks in their team, which could lead to forfeited games and players not being paid.
  • “What should we be scared of at the moment?” – Pessimistic forecasts have been proved wrong again, according to the latest bulletin from HART.
  • “‘He lied to Congress’: Sen. Rand Paul announces criminal referral to DOJ for Fauci” – “It’s a dance,” Republican Senator Rand Paul told Dr. Anthony Fauci, “and you’re dancing around this because you’re trying to obscure responsibility for four million people dying around the world from a pandemic.”
  • “Lockdown fallout emerges in excess fatality numbers” – People are now dying in excess numbers from all causes as the collateral damage of two national lockdowns begins to emerge across Scotland..
  • “The Zero Covid dream has been crushed, so why are we still indulging its extremists?” – Australia has shown the folly of obsessing over case numbers, yet Britain hasn’t learned anything either.
  • “Has the bubble burst for Covid policies that don’t work?” – A new report reveals that isolating children had little impact, so why did the Government bother when it hurt them so much?
  • “The emptiness of open letters – UnHerd” – With enough signatories, any demand in an open letter will be fulfilled.
  • “Opinion | How Science Lost the Public’s Trust” – From climate to Covid, politics and hubris have disconnected scientific institutions from the philosophy and method that ought to guide them, says Matt Ridley in an interview in the Wall St Journal.
  • “The End of “Cancel Culture”?” – Young Americans may return us to a culture of compassion and forgiveness, polling suggests.
  • “Conservative leaders say Biden admin is ‘ripping the U.S. Constitution to shreds’ in scathing open letter” – A group of conservative leaders said President Joe Biden’s administration is “ripping the U.S. Constitution to shreds” in a scathing open letter that demands the White House and federal government be fully transparent about all actions to restrict speech.
  • “Why is Jeremy Farrar targeting Sunetra Gupta?” – Prof Martin Kulldorff, one of the three original signatories of the Great Barrington Declaration, comes to the defence of Prof Sunetra Gupta, who has been blamed for the delay to the second lockdown by Jeremy Farrar. See his Twitter thread here.

As a key architect of UKs deadly and inefficient lockdowns, @wellcometrust director @JeremyFarrar is now trying to blame the fiasco on @SunetraGupta and @carlheneghan, for having had one meeting in which @BorisJohnson ignored their advice. Ridiculous! 1/5

— Martin Kulldorff (@MartinKulldorff) July 23, 2021
Tags: News Round-Up

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50 Comments
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Brett_McS
Brett_McS
3 years ago

The article on Sweden is the truth that has finally got its boots on while the hysterical lies have been orbiting the planet like a fleet of Elon Musk’s satellites.

With the benefit of hindsight, Sweden could also have protected its vulnerable (elderly) better, as the Swedes admit, and they could also have promoted the use of effective treatments (Ivermectin etc). With that they would have been an even better example, and an unanswerable repudiation of the lockdown madness.

We must make that hindsight our foresight, and expunge the lock-downers from any power, political or commercial.

37
0
JayBee
JayBee
3 years ago
Reply to  Brett_McS

Swedes are also the only people that don’t have the blood of millions of people suffering or killed in the 3rd world through our lockdowns on their hand.
The UK alone is responsible for at least 5 million of those.
That used to count for something and concern some people here, especially the self-anounted do-gooders and ‘progressives’.

0
0
Annie
Annie
3 years ago

Round up?
Mostly a very short walk around the DT.
I’m not a subscriber, having cancelled when they started running articles on how to make yourself face knickers out of old T shirts.
Not much bloody good in a DT round up for most of us, I fancy.

17
0
SilentP
SilentP
3 years ago

A very interesting selection of items above.

On the face of it, one could get the impression that the tide has turned and that we will soon be on the path back to sensible normality.

I do not feel so optimistic. What we have is a growing body of evidence that nearly every measure taken over the last 18 months has been ineffective and harmful.

That evidence in itself is not enough to deter the forces of evil from pursuing their goals. That will only happen when the compliant, brainwashed, terrified, vaccinated masses start to perceive the reality of what has been happening.

Much work still to be done to make that happen.

33
0
RickH
RickH
3 years ago
Reply to  SilentP

“I do not feel so optimistic.”

I empathasize – and I would love to be proved wrong.

The effects of the fear campaign have made a terrible impact on the collective judgment – a fact that we face every day. And you are right – it will take a lot of undoing. At the moment the official effort is in finding more reasons to generate more fear. The result affects even those who remain essentially rational, trying to avoid enhancing the fear of those who are credulous.

It is actually not news that truth and evidence are bit players in this. The battle is emotional, and emotion crushes rationality – otherwise the absurd continuing wrongness of SAGE would have imploded long ago.

8
0
Julian
Julian
3 years ago
Reply to  RickH

Well, the battle is emotional but I don’t think one should completely discount truth, evidence and rationality. A bit part of the problem is that we have been simply outspent and outgunned in the propaganda war, by a ridiculous margin (factor 1,000, 10,000, 100,000?? more???) and the fact that there is an active, growing sceptic movement is slightly miraculous. Against us we have the emotional investment and people not wanting to admit they are wrong, with us we have human social instinct, and the facts. But what’s lacking is the firepower to push the truth into people’s minds incessantly, to push out the lies.

12
0
Monro
Monro
3 years ago

Why is Jeremy Farrar targeting Sunetra Gupta?

Because this is going to turn into ‘The Hitler Diaries’ and the early adopters of ‘pandemic’ panic and ‘lockdown’ mania, mask imbecility, will become laughing stocks.

One chart is all that is required to achieve this.

I am sending it to GB News (with many thanks to its author).

which-one-is pandemic year 2020.jpg
25
-1
Adamb
Adamb
3 years ago
Reply to  Monro

Very good!

2
0
Brett_McS
Brett_McS
3 years ago
Reply to  Monro

Excellent! The great Tom Woods has created a questionnaire on that theme based around the different strategies used by the states and regions in the US. Try to pick the ones that did and didn’t impose mask mandates, lockdowns, stay-at-home orders etc etc. Fun for all the family!

https://www.covidchartsquiz.com/

If you get even one correct answer you are doing well!

7
0
Monro
Monro
3 years ago
Reply to  Brett_McS

Brilliant! Priceless! ‘Carry on covid’, the movie, will be well worth waiting for…..Trump…..Biden….Fauci…..Johnson…..Hancock…..Ferguson…..Farrar….I’ve got to stop now….the ribs….

4
0
Julian
Julian
3 years ago
Reply to  Monro

“will become laughing stocks.” Maybe, but not in our lifetimes. Too many powerful entities with too much invested in this, and hundreds of millions of people jabbed who are not going to want to admit they’ve been had.

11
-1
RickH
RickH
3 years ago
Reply to  Julian

This is precisely the problem. Not many have laughed so far. They don’t even understand the language of the joke.

They shake – but with fear. Not laughter.

4
-1
artfelix
artfelix
3 years ago
Reply to  Monro

Just out interest which one is it? I’m assuming slight upper middle levels so I’d go O or Q?

1
0
Monro
Monro
3 years ago
Reply to  artfelix

E

0
0
RickH
RickH
3 years ago
Reply to  Monro

“One chart is all that is required to achieve this”

Sorry to be a party pooper, but it won’t. That and its equivalent have been available for almost eighteen months.

1
-1
Phil Shannon
Phil Shannon
3 years ago

ITEM: “The Zero Covid dream has been crushed, so why are we still indulging its extremists?” – Australia has shown the folly of obsessing over case numbers, yet Britain hasn’t learned anything either.”

Well, here we are with 60% of the Australian population in home detention anxiously awaiting the latest melodramatic press conference about ‘case’ numbers from our turnkeys. The Covid Taliban blueshirts are out in force here in South Australia checking that outdoor solo exercisers have not strayed more than 2.5 kilometres from home and that food shoppers are not doing any ‘browsing’ thereby aiding and abetting the virus enemy. Cowed and terrified of the ‘Delta Variant’ (which is always described as ‘highly infectious’ but never as ‘highly innocuous’) wishing on more masochistic lockdown – the latest opinion poll on NSW’s lockdown found that just 10% of the population weren’t impressed by it but that the rest thought it was just tickety-boo or not early or hard enough. ‘Zero Covid’ = Zero critical thought. Australia’s wheels are still spinning in lockdown mud. 

20
0
Brett_McS
Brett_McS
3 years ago
Reply to  Phil Shannon

Send the COVID Charts Quiz to the politicians. See how they go!

https://www.covidchartsquiz.com/

3
0
Annie
Annie
3 years ago
Reply to  Phil Shannon

Is anybody actually ill, Phil? Anybody died?
Keep your heart up!

9
0
Phil Shannon
Phil Shannon
3 years ago
Reply to  Annie

The usual: a couple of deaths (both aged well over 80) in hospital for other conditions but testing positive for Covid. A dozen others (all of them ‘wrinklies’) are in hospital, again with Covid, not because of it. Everyone else testing positive is doing just fine (i.e. asymptomatic, assuming they aren’t false positives), otherwise we would have heard about it, endlessly, on top of the routine ‘case’ numbers. Much ATL (see how I’m learning the lingo!) on this website, and you lot BTL, are responsible for stopping me lose heart and hope – humans who can still think and can pen a pithy, pointed comment on the coronadoom madness.

17
0
Annie
Annie
3 years ago
Reply to  Phil Shannon

We’re with you, and we’ll never give up.
The world is upside down in Australia. We always knew it, now it’s proven. Put it right way up again!

7
0
Fingerache Philip
Fingerache Philip
3 years ago
Reply to  Phil Shannon

From one Phil to another: Keep the faith, we will be victorious.

4
0
Monro
Monro
3 years ago

We have not witnessed a ‘pandemic’.

We have, instead, witnessed the first really serious deleterious effects of ‘Democratic Socialism’

A massive ‘do something’ government machine/public sector finding pointless, useless, counterproductive work for itself to justify its existence, feeding off a shrinking private sector.

‘Democratic Socialism’ in the USSR imploded because of its economic incompetence………it took 70 years to implode…..

This is a long game…..but the issue is not in doubt………

Last edited 3 years ago by Monro
21
-1
Julian
Julian
3 years ago
Reply to  Monro

It will indeed be a long game.

Global corporations have either gone along with or enthusiastically promoted the coronamadness. Their role should be examined.

Sadly I think the model that will be followed is not the USSR but the CCP. The CCP seem to understand better the need for bread and circuses, and consequently I think will outlast the USSR.

7
0
RickH
RickH
3 years ago
Reply to  Monro

“We have, instead, witnessed the first really serious deleterious effects of ‘Democratic Socialism’”

What’s the weather like on Planet Zog? Is it the temperature that’s affecting the brain?

2
-3
Moist Von Lipwig
Moist Von Lipwig
3 years ago

Yes, this is the Falklands for Boris Johnson and he has been General Galtieri

13
0
Fingerache Philip
Fingerache Philip
3 years ago
Reply to  Moist Von Lipwig

Actually, he resembles Benito Mussolini, but without the charm.

7
0
Moist Von Lipwig
Moist Von Lipwig
3 years ago
Reply to  Fingerache Philip

Benito Mussolini died 37 years before the Falklands war.

0
0
Norman
Norman
3 years ago

You always know when a wave is over when the msm start talking about a different scary number. Have you noticed the big number that they claim is growing is the number being pinged.

18
0
peyrole
peyrole
3 years ago

Connor Kelly has written a trio of good articles in the LeftLockdownSceptic , the last one I link below as its a powerful piece about the unvaxed discrimination and where it can go.
https://leftlockdownsceptics.com/2021/07/collaboration-or-resistance-part-3-scapegoats/?doing_wp_cron=1627115152.0143680572509765625000

9
0
Hypatia
Hypatia
3 years ago
Reply to  peyrole

That’s a brilliant article you have linked to. Clear, frightening and passionate. Thank you.

3
0
artfelix
artfelix
3 years ago

Looking at the Twitter feed on the Aussie protests I can only conclude that the entire middle class of Australia have a collective case of Stockholm Syndrome. Will make a fascinating case study one day Im sure.

The posts all say essentially the same thing “I can’t believe people are going to force our masters to reluctantly punish us more.”

It’s like an entire country had a lobotomy and orchidectomy at the same time.

Last edited 3 years ago by artfelix
10
0
Fingerache Philip
Fingerache Philip
3 years ago

Just left Sainsburys in Kidderminster, perhaps 10 normal people apart from Mrs FP and yours truly.
But ain’t it great to be glared at by the sheep.

10
0
SJR
SJR
3 years ago
Reply to  Fingerache Philip

I’ve just got back from Morrisons in the People’s Republic of South Yorkshire. Only a very few customers unmasked (including me of course) but I didn’t see any staff members wearing masks.

The checkout lady was quite chatty and happy not to have to wear a mask, and hoping things go back to normal soon.

13
0
BurlingtonBertie
BurlingtonBertie
3 years ago
Reply to  Fingerache Philip

Have you tried giving them a blast of a megawatt smile as a riposte to the glare? Normally results in a sheepish look & muffled tutting from said sheep. You can’t be accused of being rude & the moral victory is yours.

7
0
Fingerache Philip
Fingerache Philip
3 years ago
Reply to  BurlingtonBertie

Good advice to use reverse psychology.

3
0
iane
iane
3 years ago
Reply to  Fingerache Philip

Tesco at Martlesham this morning: 4 others unmasked; previous best over last 12 months – 1 plus me. Well, it is progress, just very slow.

7
0
Hypatia
Hypatia
3 years ago
Reply to  iane

In a big Sainburys today, more unmasked people than before…about 10 or so, plus me. Doesn’t sound much, but it used to be just me! So a small advance.
Sad but also amused to see a young couple in their 30’s masking up, and scrubbing down a trolley with sanitiser and lots of paper before entry. The whole trolley, not just the handle. Some people need a good slap.

6
0
Fingerache Philip
Fingerache Philip
3 years ago
Reply to  Hypatia

And Psychiatric treatment.

5
0
peyrole
peyrole
3 years ago

The Yellow Vests are organising the protests in Paris today, Whilst Macron swans around in Tokyo, his capital may go up in flames.
An amendment to the ‘health pass’ was voted down by his supporters. It asked for them not to be used at next years election ballot stations. This has inflamed people across the board they see it as flagrant election rigging. This is no longer about vax/non-vax or indeed health passes; this is about democracy.

18
0
HelzBelz
HelzBelz
3 years ago

Have the Covid vaccines actually been approved? I thought they were not due for full, non-emergency approval until earliest Jan 2023, but I can’t find anything on this now – everything indicates that full approval has already happened. Did I miss something?

0
0
Julian
Julian
3 years ago
Reply to  HelzBelz

Still emergency in most places. Long term trials not finished yet.

1
0
CynicalRealist
CynicalRealist
3 years ago
Reply to  Julian

And probably never will be finished – haven’t the trials been unblinded and the control groups offered the vaccines?

1
0
HelzBelz
HelzBelz
3 years ago
Reply to  CynicalRealist

What control groups? The ones in the trials I think got vaccinated. The only control group left is the the No-Vaccine-Adamant.

1
0
Julian
Julian
3 years ago
Reply to  HelzBelz

Yes the trials are in part now invalidated. All we’re going to see now is if there any any obvious effects on health by seeing if certain problems became notably more prevalent than before, but you can’t rule out other causes.

That, and the lack of trust, and the difficulty of getting hold of any reliable data on efficacy vs covid risk, means I will probably never have the vaxx now.

2
0
HelzBelz
HelzBelz
3 years ago
Reply to  Julian

https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-detail/pfizer-and-biontech-conclude-phase-3-study-covid-19-vaccine

This reads like it’s a done deal but if you go through very carefully it does refer to the emergency use. It is very misleading though.

Last edited 3 years ago by HelzBelz
0
0
CynicalRealist
CynicalRealist
3 years ago
Reply to  HelzBelz

Makes a farce of the whole approvals process – there simply hasn’t been enough time to tell what long-term adverse effects there may or may not be.

1
0
JayBee
JayBee
3 years ago
Reply to  Julian

Pfizer has filed for expedited proper approval on the basis of 6 month ‘long term’ trial data, instead of the previous two months.
Proper long term data will never influence their approvals, only their likely then sudden withdrawals.

1
0
JayBee
JayBee
3 years ago

Good tweets under Kulldorff’s.
Shocking news on Gibraltar, excellent news on ‘judge me in a year’ Tegnell’s Sweden and nice footage from protests in Trieste and Paris!

2
0
Fingerache Philip
Fingerache Philip
3 years ago

GOV.UK: COVID UPDATE:Due to technical difficulties, we can’t bring you the latest daily numbers.
It wouldn’t be that there aren’t any, would it?

1
0
Fingerache Philip
Fingerache Philip
3 years ago

Metro: Ministers worried that Covid could be spread through “farting”.
Always knew that the whole thing was a bum rap.

2
0

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