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The Daily Sceptic
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News Round-Up

by Michael Curzon
28 August 2021 12:06 AM

  • “Get ready to vaccinate kids as young as 12, Sajid Javid tells NHS” – The Health Secretary says he is putting plans in place so the country is “ready to hit the ground running” if the JCVI gives the go-ahead to ‘jab’ younger children, reports the Mail.
  • “Hopes of cheaper holidays dashed as costly Covid PCR travel tests ‘here to stay’” – Senior MPs are pushing – seemingly in vain – for the use of lateral flow tests, but just for double jabbed holidaymakers returning from ‘Amber’ and ‘Green’ countries, reports the Telegraph.
  • “Hospital-acquired Covid tends to be picked up from other patients, not from healthcare workers” – The majority of patients who contracted Covid while in hospital did so from other patients rather than from healthcare workers, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Cambridge and Addenbrooke’s Hospital.
  • “Masks to be worn in some south-west England schools amid Covid rise” – Secondary school and college pupils will need to wear face masks in communal areas outside their classrooms yet again in parts of south-west England, reports the Guardian.
  • “It’s a scandal that ‘back to school’ still won’t mean ‘back to normal’ for our kids next week” – The chaos that ended the last academic year is set to start all over again in a matter of days, with the curriculum yet to be released, writes David Blunkett in the Telegraph.
  • “Britain is sleepwalking into another lockdown” – Our chaotic Government has already overseen some of the worst health and economic outcomes, writes Jeremy Warner in the Telegraph.
  • “Unvaccinated travel ban call as cases rise” – A GP says holiday travel bans should be considered for the unvaccinated if Covid ‘cases’ continue to rise in Wales, reports BBC News.
  • “Nicola Sturgeon considering plan to ban unvaccinated Scots from pubs” – The First Minister has dismissed ‘circuit breaker’ lockdown claims but will not rule out ‘limited’ restrictions as Covid ‘cases’ surge, reports the Telegraph.
  • “BBC presenter dying from rare AstraZeneca blood clot leads to calls for risk awareness” – Lisa Shaw died in May, just over three weeks after she had her first dose of the jab, reports the Telegraph.
  • “Pfizer/FDA: 95% Deception?” – Swiss Policy Research reports how the U.S. FDA ‘fully approved’ the Pfizer vaccine without requiring product liability.
  • “What would proof of a Covid lab leak look like?” – Scientists exploring the origins of Covid are warning that time may be running out. The truth is we may never know for sure where the pandemic came from, writes David Cox in Wired.
  • “How the West Embraced Central Planning and Abandoned Human Rights” – “It appears as though the totalitarian strategies that have been embraced by formerly liberal governments will continue to persist for the foreseeable future in spite of their poverty,” writes Birsen Filip in Mises Institute.
  • “Joe Biden lashes out at China for withholding ‘critical information’ on Covid origins” – One intelligence agency believes with “moderate confidence” that the first human infection was linked to a lab, reports the Telegraph.
  • “Hysteria has consumed America” – Brendan O’Neill talks to Heather Mac Donald about the Salem-like atmosphere created by Covid, how the Biden administration has put wokeness on steroids and how racial identity politics is destroying high culture in the lastest Spiked podcast.
  • “About 40% of U.S. kids aged 12 to 17 are vaccinated against Covid” – 42.4% of U.S. teens have received at least one shot of a Covid vaccine and close to one-third of teens are fully vaccinated against the virus, reports MailOnline.
  • “New polling shows Australians won’t accept lockdowns once we hit jab targets” – “Politicians encouraging people to report their neighbours for breaching public health orders is likely to have taken a significant toll on social cohesion,” writes Robert Carling in the Spectator Australia.
  • “The Unions and the U-turns” – “No one wants to admit they made a terrible mistake,” writes Ben Irvine. “Not the Government. Not the Covid zealots. Not the unions. And not lockdown sceptics themselves – most of them anyway.”
  • “The climate scaremongers: A weekly round-up” – “Hydrogen is often represented as the answer to all our problems – clean, green, cheap, abundant and so on. It is in fact none of these things,” writes Paul Homewood in TCW Defending Freedom.
  • “Boris, here’s why net-zero emissions by 2050 just aren’t worth it” – “Net-zero just isn’t worth it,” writes Christopher Monckton in Watts Up With That. “Let us do the maths that no government seems to have done. It is not very difficult – but the results are astonishing.”
  • “The problem with the Met’s morality policing” – “It’s no wonder that officers sometimes end up finding themselves in trouble when the rules are so inconsistent,” writes Sam Ashworth-Hayes in the Spectator.
  • “Mercy Muroki hits out at the Scottish Government for urging teachers to take a ‘white privilege test’” – “The last thing I need is patronising teachers overcome by white guilt apologising to my child for their ‘whiteness’ and making her feel like a victim,” says Mercy Muroki on GB News.

'The last thing I need is patronising teachers overcome by white guilt apologising to my child for their ‘whiteness’ and making her feel like a victim.'

Mercy Muroki hits out at the Scottish government for urging teachers to take a 'white privilege test'. pic.twitter.com/96FSFuog8T

— GB News (@GBNEWS) August 27, 2021
Tags: News Round-Up

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75 Comments
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OnceIWasARemainer
OnceIWasARemainer
3 years ago

Here’s something more you might post a warning of:
https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/25/ibm_20m_test_trace/

contracts for track and treason related services extended to November 2023! Smells like this government is planning for more tyranny this winter, and then for ever more.

Last edited 3 years ago by OnceIWasARemainer
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Lockdown Sceptic
Lockdown Sceptic
3 years ago
Reply to  OnceIWasARemainer

Why Vaccine Passports Are Far Worse Than You Think 
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2021/08/28/vaccine-passports.aspx?ui=1fb065e0c4152b58bd4ed94cf29c7cbfad40307fb723460ddabacd55f3c58b0c&sd=20210518&cid_source=dnl&cid_medium=email&cid_content=art1HL&cid=20210828_HL2&mid=DM965530&rid=1247800273

Stand in South Hill Park Bracknell every Sunday from 10am meet fellow anti lockdown freedom lovers, keep yourself sane, make new friends and have a laugh.
(also Wednesdays from 2pm)

Join our Stand in the Park – Bracknell – Telegram Group
http://t.me/astandintheparkbracknell

12
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Amtrup
Amtrup
3 years ago
Reply to  Lockdown Sceptic

Thank you v much for mercola article link!

4
-1
Think Harder
Think Harder
3 years ago
Reply to  OnceIWasARemainer

I’m certain they want to have us all tracked 24×7. When that’s done we can expect geo-fencing under the guise of climate change.
So, eyes open for forced chipping like dogs or making it illegal to go out without your phone!

0
0
Monro
Monro
3 years ago

‘This is an essay about the driving role that public sector unions have played during the coronapanic debacle in Britain.’

‘During the coronapanic debacle, the government has acted indecisively and indeed capriciously.’

‘There are two main theories as to why this has been the case.’

‘I find the plandemic theory deeply implausible, indeed ridiculous.’

‘By focusing on the plandemic theory, lockdown sceptics have overlooked the first theory’

‘……it goes without saying that the NHS was pressurising Boris into lockdown.’

‘…at least one teaching union called for the government to take draconian measures. The National Education Union wrote an open letter on March 14 calling for all schools to be closed. The NEU is the largest teaching union in Britain, with around 450,000 members.’

http://whistleblowerphilosopher.blogspot.com/2021/08/the-unions-and-u-turns.html

This whole ongoing weird out was created by the increasingly overmighty and unbalanced, internationally orchestrated, public sector. That is a powerful argument as to why ‘pandemic’ responses by so many governments in the developed world have been so similar.

The SNP directed Scottish public inquiry commencing in December will be led by a credible figure of unimpeachable integrity. Why would it not be? The SNP has nothing to fear from the inquiry……and the bovine idiocy, lethality, of the Johnson government’s covid response offers a massive open goal……

Last edited 3 years ago by Monro
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Monro
Monro
3 years ago
Reply to  Monro

The chorus:

‘The idea that Western countries could successfully import and apply an artificial order that took the People’s Republic of China more than seven decades to master was not only misguided, it also exposed the poverty in the thinking, judgment, knowledge, policymaking, caring, and imaginations of Western leaders and their handpicked medical experts, who have taken it upon themselves to violate the fundamental principles of liberalism, democracy, and human rights.

After more than eighteen months, there is no scientific evidence to suggest that the artificial order imported from China has eliminated the virus, nor has it improved the social and economic conditions or the healthcare systems in formerly “open societies.”

Unfortunately, it appears as though the totalitarian strategies that have been embraced by formerly liberal governments will continue to persist for the foreseeable future in spite of their poverty.’

https://mises.org/wire/covid-how-west-embraced-central-planning-and-abandoned-human-rights

‘….when people were committed to the idea that in the field of religion only one plan must be adopted, bloody wars resulted. With the acknowledgment of the principle of religious freedom these wars ceased.’

https://mises.org/library/socialism-economic-and-sociological-analysis

Things will have to get worse, probably much worse, before an appetite for real reform of the public sector can return.

10
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JayBee
JayBee
3 years ago
Reply to  Monro

I have said from the start that this is a war between the public/big corporations sector and the true private, aka independent, one.
The relatively successful reforms and economic developments in conjunction with the former’s existing and looming huge deficits made it necessary for them to reassert power and go on a destructive spree, which was enabled by MMT&co.
Otherwhise, the private sector would have gained further in size and power and demanded more cutbacks in the public one.
Ultimately, its further bloating can and only will end in a catastrophe, of course, but they can either not see that or don’t care/think they’ll be OK/still be better off relatively.

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Pavlov Bellwether
Pavlov Bellwether
3 years ago

Template letters, information, resources, positive news and useful links: https://www.LCAHub.org/

8
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Steve-Devon
Steve-Devon
3 years ago

” She’s a Ph. D in ‘I told you so’,
you’ve a knighthood in ‘I’m not listening’.”

Some good and interesting articles noted in the news round-up albeit that some are long and a challenging read. And maybe that is one of the problems; the case for lockdowns, climate change action and vaccinations have been presented in a single simple straightforward way that plays to basic human emotions of fear and guilt. Whereas the case against, the sceptics case, is hard to make and tends to be complex and academic and is not hard hitting or simple.
You do not have to go in for conspiracy theories, with all of these issues the official figures alone are enough to challenge the narrative but is seems that much of the world is not interested in the figures nor in logical rational argument. In a world that is acting this way, what can be done?

”Is there anybody there who’ll listen to my story”

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Dave Angel Eco Warrier
Dave Angel Eco Warrier
3 years ago
Reply to  Steve-Devon

Quite. Only yesterday I was labelled a fully paid up conspiracy theorist simply for saying the Covid response was a massive global over-reaction.

27
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Sandra Barwick
Sandra Barwick
3 years ago
Reply to  Dave Angel Eco Warrier

It makes people feel superior – I’m rational, you’re not.”
I love the little smile men give (it’s always men) when they say: “Read it on the internet, did you?”
While betraying their own smug ignorance.

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Dave Angel Eco Warrier
Dave Angel Eco Warrier
3 years ago
Reply to  Sandra Barwick

Quite. Us sceptics only get our information from thirty-nine year old Wayne sitting in his mum’s basement in Ohio, don’t we?

8
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Think Harder
Think Harder
3 years ago
Reply to  Sandra Barwick

Try heard it on the BBC did you? Guffaw and say “sucker”.

1
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Think Harder
Think Harder
3 years ago
Reply to  Dave Angel Eco Warrier

I wonder if call the COVID worriers conspiracy theorists might be the answer?
Probably, not as we don’t have the media on our side.

0
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JayBee
JayBee
3 years ago
Reply to  Steve-Devon

The case against is also easy and simple:
EVERY discrimination and EVERY infringement upon ones inalienable individual rights, in particular ones bodily autononmy, is simply WRONG.

13
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Mark
Mark
3 years ago
Reply to  JayBee

Indeed, but the evidence of the past 18 months is that this simple and powerful case loses out to the equally simple and powerful mutually supporting cases of fear and authority-worship, at least when the big money and big power is backing the latter.

It might be that the former can only win out in the context of a power shift at the top and in the aftermath of some catastrophic horrors (much worse and more violently visceral than those inflicted by following the latter over covid, so far).

The exception in history was the liberal natural rights-based social order based on European post-reformation thinking, not the authoritarian societies common in most other civilisations.

9
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Think Harder
Think Harder
3 years ago
Reply to  Mark

I think Herman Goering explained it; irrational fear. The bogey man is coming. Not helped by frankly stupid people and the innate religious tendency the human race has. People believe it like they believe in God without solid evidence. Which also results in manipulation, abuse and killing.

Last edited 3 years ago by Think Harder
1
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Think Harder
Think Harder
3 years ago
Reply to  Steve-Devon

“You do not have to go in for conspiracy theories”
I think you do!
Lawyer friends are appalled at the laws that have been pushed through without publicity because the MSM are onside with it all. Some in large firms have tried to get their companies to challenge and been told not possible as it would be detrimental to business. It’s not theory I’m afraid we are on the edge of totalitarianism. We may not know for certain until 2024 and the general election. At the current progress there either won’t be one or it’ll be fake.

0
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Dave Angel Eco Warrier
Dave Angel Eco Warrier
3 years ago

I found The Unions and U-Turns something of an eye-opener. I had suspicions and thought along similar lines but not to the level the essay lays out. Unfortunately, it does fill me with much optimism.

14
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RickH
RickH
3 years ago
Reply to  Dave Angel Eco Warrier

It’s basically an excuse for government incompetence. No more. (I’ve always been critical of the pathetic role of the unions, but primary blame belongs where blame rests – with the government).

Last edited 3 years ago by RickH
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Dave Angel Eco Warrier
Dave Angel Eco Warrier
3 years ago
Reply to  RickH

Oh yes, I am under no illusions on that score.

0
0
ScepticSteve
ScepticSteve
3 years ago

“Dr [Mair] Williams, who works at a practice in Skewen, Neath Port Talbot, said people not getting vaccinated were ‘the biggest problem’ and the only way to bring down case rates was to “restrict” what unvaccinated people do.”

I’d like to restrict what Dr Williams does, by having her permanently struck off from practising, and hauled off to a Nuremberg 2.0-style court to be tried and sentenced for crimes against humanity.

73
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Annie
Annie
3 years ago
Reply to  ScepticSteve

One thing’s for sure: the horrid bitch is no doctor. Or knows nothing about medicine – which obviously isn’t incompatible with being a doctor these days.

50
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JayBee
JayBee
3 years ago
Reply to  Annie

This is exactly the point.
The discrimination demanding and confirming articles today are a depressing confirmation that medical evidence is continued to be ignored and that the gene therapies have already destroyed the souls and moral integrity of the vast majority of people.

20
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helenf
helenf
3 years ago
Reply to  ScepticSteve

The bbc have pulled the page! Must have been lots of complaints. I saw and commented on the piece after watching bbc Wales news last night. I don’t appreciated being lectured to by some obese GP who clearly knows very little about health and personal responsibility. She didn’t go as far as saying that the unvaccinated should wear ankle tags, but she may as well have!

23
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SweetBabyCheeses
SweetBabyCheeses
3 years ago
Reply to  helenf

There’s some bizarre stuff for her online if you google her.

02A7F658-A5F1-4AF5-BFFA-872B629CA4B3.png
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helenf
helenf
3 years ago
Reply to  SweetBabyCheeses

Wow, I’m guessing that might help to explain why the piece has been pulled!

8
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helenf
helenf
3 years ago
Reply to  helenf

Update: article back, as pointed out by John below

1
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helenf
helenf
3 years ago
Reply to  SweetBabyCheeses

If it’s the same GP, it looks like she also played a part in the swine flu public health shitshow in 2009.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/8086870.stm

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thefoostybadger
thefoostybadger
3 years ago
Reply to  helenf

A staggering evidence of outspoken nonsence and controversy on the most cursory of internet searches……and this person doesn’t even have the wit, humility,or intelligence to keep her bigoted views “under the radar”.

Like anyone is going to give anything she thinks any credence…..Oh, wait a minute, the BBC just did; whilst at the same time solidly blocking any sceptical narrative like they have done for the past 18 months.

TLDR….fuck this GP and fuck the BBC.

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Lowe
Lowe
3 years ago
Reply to  helenf

But if she is the same doctor, then now she’d be aged 78 or so. The BBC story has her aged 66 in 2009.

Perhaps she is hanging on at work and likes the press attention?

0
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helenf
helenf
3 years ago
Reply to  Lowe

I think it is the same GP. The article is back up, and has photos of her.

1
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Sandra Barwick
Sandra Barwick
3 years ago
Reply to  helenf

Very good work…

1
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Encierro
Encierro
3 years ago
Reply to  SweetBabyCheeses

she contracted Swine Flu.
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/health/gp-who-contracted-swine-flu-2098914

1
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milesahead
milesahead
3 years ago
Reply to  Encierro

Aptly named in her case!

5
0
John
John
3 years ago
Reply to  helenf

The page hasn’t been pulled, I’ve just accessed it.

2
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helenf
helenf
3 years ago
Reply to  John

Thanks. The link is working now, but wasn’t when I tried it earlier, and I couldn’t access it via an internet search either, so I’m guessing that they’ve changed something about the piece?

2
0
thefoostybadger
thefoostybadger
3 years ago
Reply to  helenf

Helen, No comments section now, so if you made a comment earlier that’s maybe what’s changed?

If the comments have simply been removed in response to this GP’s past controversies being raised, rather than just pulling an article that’s discredited, that would be typical.

5
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helenf
helenf
3 years ago
Reply to  thefoostybadger

No, I made a comment on DS last night, not on the bbc website. Do the bbc actually allow comments? Surely that would undermine their one-sided narrative.

3
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thefoostybadger
thefoostybadger
3 years ago
Reply to  helenf

Some “articles” allow comments, (think it’s called Have Your Say), but they are a hard, hard read for people that think differently about Covid.

I dip in sometimes just to see how mad it’s getting, but the opinions are so extreme I often wonder if the majority of them are written by the 77th.

2
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Encierro
Encierro
3 years ago
Reply to  helenf

I can still read it.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-politics-58341534 Plus there is a Welsh language version.
and it is also here in a Welsh Newspaper.

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/unvaccinated-people-wales-should-not-21418970 with 208 comments at the time of me writing this.

0
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I am Spartacas
I am Spartacas
3 years ago
Reply to  ScepticSteve

‘… the only way to bring down case rates was to “restrict” what unvaccinated people do.”

It didnt work for Israel – the most vaccinated nation on earth where cases skyrocketed. These experimental vaccines were not designed to stop people getting the virus or spreading it – these vaccines were manufactured to alleviate the symptoms should you get the virus.

Contrast Israel (one of the most vaccinated nations on earth) with Sweden.

E90TkxMWYAgeXun.jpg
Last edited 3 years ago by Ember von Drake-Dale 22
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Think Harder
Think Harder
3 years ago
Reply to  ScepticSteve

This whole narrative is bringing out the Nazis lurking among us.

0
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Monro
Monro
3 years ago

Mercy Muroki, Patrick Christys, legends both.

Last edited 3 years ago by Monro
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Phil Shannon
Phil Shannon
3 years ago

ITEM: “The Unions and the U-turns” – “No one wants to admit they made a terrible mistake,” writes Ben Irvine. “Not the Government. Not the Covid zealots. Not the unions.” 

The unions in Australia, which have been as affected by Covid hysteria as much as other sectors of society (supporting lockdowns, masks, etc because this allegedly keeps workers safe from a ‘deadly pandemic’), are at least starting to get it right. And about time.

Two weeks ago, the peak union body (the Australian Council of Trade Unions) and the peak big business group (Business Council of Australia) issued a joint statement to oppose employers mandating the vaxx for their staff, saying that vaccination “should be free and voluntary” (which is the current federal government’s position, for what that’s worth). The BCA have the ear of the Liberal Party government and the ACTU have the ear of the Labor Party Opposition. So that may be a cross-class pincer movement that slows the ‘No Jab, No Job’ momentum to vaxx our way out of lockdown.

There is much more that the unions could do – opposing all the Covid-related OHS nonsense requiring workers to wear masks all day, for example. As a former shop steward in Australian schools and the public service, this would have been a decent fight to have with the bosses, and one that workers would have been enthusiastic about supporting because masks are just so god-damned awful as well as pointless.

Phil
South Australia

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Gregoryno6
Gregoryno6
3 years ago
Reply to  Phil Shannon

Statement from the CFMEU on mandatory vaccination.
https://me.cfmeu.org.au/news/covid-vaccination-mining-and-energy-workplaces
It’s a bit of an each way bet but the overall message is they don’t support making it mandatory. Which means they’re putting it on the same level as the annual flu jab, I suppose.

4
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SilentP
SilentP
3 years ago

Bombshell: CDC Counts People Who Have Died within 14 Days of Taking a Covid Jab as Unvaccinated!
https://needtoknow.news/2021/08/bombshell-cdc-counts-those-who-die-within-14-days-of-a-covid-jab-as-unvaccinated/

23
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JayBee
JayBee
3 years ago
Reply to  SilentP

Show me an official Covid stat or pharma trial that hasn’t deliberately been manipulated to get there.

19
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Gregoryno6
Gregoryno6
3 years ago
Reply to  SilentP

These people eat treachery for breakfast and shit it out all day.

11
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Sandra Barwick
Sandra Barwick
3 years ago
Reply to  SilentP

That’s been true from the beginning.

2
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Mark
Mark
3 years ago

“Politicians encouraging people to report their neighbours for breaching public health orders is likely to have taken a significant toll on social cohesion,”

Gee, ya think?

Yet another catastrophic cost of the authoritarian panic response that isn’t eve recognised as a cost by most.

17
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Gregoryno6
Gregoryno6
3 years ago
Reply to  Mark

My neighbours are Pha Quiu, Gofar Kiorsalf, and Shavita Puraz.

8
0
Phil Shannon
Phil Shannon
3 years ago
Reply to  Mark

Like the fine, upstanding citizen in the nation’s capital, Canberra, who called the police to report two children for not wearing masks while they were jumping on a trampoline in their own back garden. Strike me pink! The Corona neurosis has hit some people real hard.

12
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JayBee
JayBee
3 years ago

https://swprs.org/die-gefahrlichen-geimpften/
The article underneath the Pfizer one by the Swiss doctor is far more important.
He now shares our assessment, namely that the vaccinated are far more dangerous than the unvaccinated, especially if tested, and that the sole reason for the continued vaccination drive and the discrimination must therefore be the introduction and proliferation of vaxx passports to install a social credit system.

15
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caipirinha17
caipirinha17
3 years ago

Utterly outraged to see that the Beeb published a story about some study they dug up from nowhere supposedly showing blood clot risk from infection is much greater than from the jab, on the same day the news about Lisa Shaws cause of death broke. So angry.

19
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Mark
Mark
3 years ago
  • “The Unions and the U-turns” – “No one wants to admit they made a terrible mistake,” writes Ben Irvine. “Not the Government. Not the Covid zealots. Not the unions. And not lockdown sceptics themselves – most of them anyway.”

Irvine’s piece is probably accurate in most of its assertions, and much of its analysis. I find it objectionable mostly in two aspects. First, it’s too forgiving of Johnson’s personal responsibility, and second it’s too condemning of those tempted by the “conspiracy” end of the “cock-up/conspiracy” range. Nevertheless the points he makes even on these issues are relevant and important.

“Plandemic theorists aren’t the only lockdown sceptics who are reluctant to focus on the role of the unions in the coronapanic debacle. Almost all lockdown sceptics are focusing too much of their anger on the government or on international organisations.”

I fit into neither of Irvine’s categories, of lockdown sceptics whom he holds partially responsible here, so perhaps I can view his assertions reasonably objectively. I was never a supporter of panic, was always a supporter of the “herd immunity strategy” (aka following time honoured wisdom and strategies, keeping calm, and carrying on), and I’ve also always preferred the cock-up end of the range of analyses, largely for many of the reasons Irvine himself sets out.

Taking the Johnson issue first, he isn’t just some average Joe being asked to give his opinion on national policy – he’s the man entrusted with supreme executive power, and therefore responsibility (the days when a PM was genuinely just “first among equals” are long gone). He didn’t have this position thrust upon him, he fought and scrabbled and back-stabbed and lied to achieve it – much like most such climbers of the greasy pole.

The buck stops on his desk, and while it’s fine to list all the explanatory contributing factors to his failure, they cannot be exculpatory. In the end, this has been a disaster sufficiently massive that Johnson should have gone down fighting if he had to. Let leaders get away with excusing caving in on such huge issues because they are supposedly too important to go down fighting – essentially Irvine’s position here – and you give them a free rein to do whatever they see fit. And had he been strong from the first, he might have found more allies. Weakness does not inspire people to take your side.

Johnson’s entitlement to any respect whatsoever ended the day he caved to lockdown, as Blair’s did the day he acceded to the US invasion of Iraq, Cameron’s when he bombed Libya, etc. There’s no going forward under a newly reinvigorated supposedly sceptical Johnson regime for sceptics. He has to go, and we have to work with his replacement. (It’s not as though he’s much use in any other area, after all, given his government’s craven submission to the other key issues facing us – climate alarmist panic, woke zealotry, censorship and suppression of dissent, ongoing mass immigration, etc.)

Turing to the issue of blaming lockdown sceptics, this seems to be a case of what the wokeists call “blaming the victim”, when they are trying to excuse some member of a favoured special group for doing something wrong. In this case, the victims have done nothing really wrong, merely apparently adopted a tactic Irvine sees as unhelpful or counterproductive. He might be correct, but it’s open to question whether his alternative shows any possibility of having worked at any time. My impression is that sceptics have been so marginalised, so excluded from the levers of power and manipulation, so demonised, that to suggest that they might have changed things if only they had adopted a different strategy is rather fatuous. And much of the energy on the resistance side has come from the plandemic wing. Maybe as Irvine suggests their theories have put off others from supporting scepticism, but most likely without them we wouldn’t have seen some kind of huge popular sceptic surge, but rather just general submissive silence.

And to explain and excuse them, in the way he seeks to excuse Johnson (but it’s legitimate for them, unlike Johnson, because they in general are not in positions of direct power and responsibility), when the world acts in openly irrational ways, when authorities and institutions lie to you, when the world seems to move in a coordinated manner towards goals held by powerful groups and organisations, it is hardly unreasonable to infer malign organisation.

Finally, Irvine is certainly correct that this has been driven by the trades unions and the organised and ideologically internationalist and collectivist left. Some sceptics would prefer to call it “left”, but that’s mostly wishful thinking on their parts. The sooner they end their denial on this score, the sooner they can perhaps start recapturing their former political movement from the zealots and power-mongers who captured it during the C20th.

Last edited 3 years ago by Mark
8
0
Mark
Mark
3 years ago
Reply to  Mark

“There’s one final advantage of being honest about one’s role in the mass panic that precipitated this disaster. By being honest in this respect, you can extend an olive branch to Covid zealots. Talk to them about the mass panic. Have enough humility and strength to admit that you panicked too. Give them a way out. There is too much stubbornness on all sides. No one wants to admit they made a terrible mistake. Not the government. Not the Covid zealots. Not the unions. And not lockdown sceptics themselves – most of them anyway. We all make mistakes. We’re all human. If lockdown sceptics are the enlightened ones in all this, they need to start leading a process of clearing the air. Unleash the awkward truth, and this whole sorry saga will unravel.”

That’s Irvine’s theory about what should happen and how it might get us to some sunlit uplands. Maybe he’s right. For sure, there needs to be a movement broad enough to include both plandemic believers and former panickers – at least those not directly responsible for the most disastrous decisions. But only those who are prepared to accept that they were wrong.

Myself, I think it would just lead to the Iraq War settlement – lots of obfuscation, the guilty elites excusing themselves while confessing to minor misdemeanours (“errors in execution”) and the Guilty Men swanning off into luxurious retirement, to serve as exemplors to their successors to try the same thing again, but get the details right next time. And hence the Iraq disaster was followed by the Libya and Syria disasters – same military interventionism, in different flavours.

And that, my pessimistic and misanthropic but quite experienced self suspects, will be the most likely outcome anyway.

Last edited 3 years ago by Mark
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0
Julian
Julian
3 years ago
Reply to  Mark

Yes, that’s by far the likeliest outcome in the short to medium term. In the long term, one hopes that historians look back on it as the madness that it is, but I think we’ll be long gone before that happens.

Regarding extending an olive branch to covid zealots, it’s tricky.

I tend to think that many in positions of power know they are lying and no olive branch should be extended, nor would it do any good. They are simply the enemy.

Then there are the ordinary folk who are on a spectrum from true covidian, of which I think there might be 10-15%, with the rest somewhere in the middle, going along with stuff they probably know is silly or wrong. If we are to win this war, those people (the ones bumping along in the middle) must be won over. I would say the right tactics to employ are ones that work. Some may be open to rational argument, mixed with empathy, some to blatant propaganda, and some to righteous anger.

The righteous anger approach is tempting for a lot of reasons, but I tend to think it more often than not ends up pushing people into the opposite corner.

The sad truth is that now we have the vaccines, which have general popular support, I am not sure this war is winnable. While we just had lockdowns, there was always a strong chance that the authorities would turn the heat up too much or for too long and people would push back.

9
0
Mark
Mark
3 years ago
Reply to  Julian

Agreed.

There’s still the chance somewhere will try to push too far, or that negative consequences of the vaccines will become too obvious to lie and obfuscate over.

But it’s a long shot at this stage.

6
0
Felimi
Felimi
3 years ago
Reply to  Julian

We have everything in the spectrum; true covidian, vaxxed, not-vaxxed, vax-injured, anti-vax, anti-covvax etc. But how many actually know what it is to know in this Covid polemic? Unfortunately only a few truly have in a conscience of how dangerous this current situation is.

To many are willingly blind and there is no talking to them, as if they were hypnotized. It is dangerous because of the divide brought by ignorance. The same divide which historically brought down many human atrocities. In my view, the only way to get out of the rot is to educate as many people as possible ( kind of like a mass deprogramming thing).

I navigated through many information website on the matter, trying to educate myself. And I came upon Minoritycheck.com, which does just that. We should stop trying to convince people into our reasoning and send them do the work for themselves. This would be done in an organized way through their course” Cov-awareness vs Cov-Friction”. Go for yourself https://www.minoritycheck.com/?s=review . Send everyone you know.
We need to do everything we can to bridge the divide in a compassionate and constructive way.
Sharing the knowledge is my personal contribution.

1
0
Dave Angel Eco Warrier
Dave Angel Eco Warrier
3 years ago
Reply to  Mark

Like you, I have NEVER supported lockdowns simply because I knew we would end up where we are now. There was very ltiile we, as average citizens, could do to fight them given the overwhelming onslought by the lockdown advocates and zealots.

7
0
Mark
Mark
3 years ago
Reply to  Dave Angel Eco Warrier

It was always obvious to me that the numbers did not support the panic reaction, and that opinion was being driven by fear propaganda. I think there was genuine shock amongst early sceptics like us at the sheer pace and extremity of events in March, though. (After all even some of the perpetrators, such as Ferguson, admitted to having been shocked at what it turned out they could get away with).

February and early March was when the first crucial battle was fought. The panickers basically politically terrorised the weak sisters amongst the rational (which then included some now senior panickers) into caving in to the fear agenda.

7
0
CynicalRealist
CynicalRealist
3 years ago
Reply to  Mark

I think the role of the media also needs to be taken into account. Irvine makes the point about union self-interest, but the same applies to the media albeit for different reasons – in their case, it’s that panic and bad news sells, and the MSM has accordingly been relentless in ramping up the hysteria and presenting a one-sided view. This has undoubtledly been the main driver of public support for coronapanic measures.

12
0
Julian
Julian
3 years ago
Reply to  CynicalRealist

I think it’s more than just “bad news sells”. Good news also sells, after a spell of bad news. There’s been little sign of any desire to push good news from most of the MSM. I think it’s pretty clear there are agendas at work and that pushing coronapanic suited the agendas of those controlling and working in major news and social media organisations worldwide.

9
0
Mark
Mark
3 years ago
Reply to  CynicalRealist

“the role of the media also needs to be taken into account“

That’s a fair point. Big tech social media as well.

10
0
CynicalRealist
CynicalRealist
3 years ago
Reply to  Mark

Lockdowns are definitely good for social media companies – loads of people stuck at home with nothing other to do than post shit, and read shit posted by their “freinds” (that word has become as debased as “vaccine”). And that, of course, equals loads of lovely advertising revenue!

2
0
Mark
Mark
3 years ago

‘F*** Trudeau!’ Canadian PM’s rally cancelled after furious crowd humiliates leader
This is what we need, for all the lockdowners and coerced vax pushers.

31
0
Gregoryno6
Gregoryno6
3 years ago
Reply to  Mark

Sent this as reponse to an email from our Liberal party. They haven’t got back to me so far.

6
0
Sandra Barwick
Sandra Barwick
3 years ago

So now we know whether Javid is any better than Hancock.

6
0
DanClarke
DanClarke
3 years ago

“Get ready to vaccinate kids as young as 12, Sajid Javid tells NHS” – ‘Raring to go to vaccinate says Sturgeon. They sound disgusting

11
0
Gregoryno6
Gregoryno6
3 years ago

The Other Side, one of our newly emerging news sources, doing what the MSM never will: describe Dan Andrews as a petulant child.

5
0
Sweyn Forkbeard
Sweyn Forkbeard
3 years ago

Hooray! ‘Boosters’ every five months.
https://nypost.com/2021/08/27/biden-and-fauci-discuss-covid-19-booster-shots-every-5-months/
How sick does it need to get before people wake up to this insanity?
But the way, wasn’t the suggestion that boosters would be required every six months deemed to be a deplorable conspiracy theory until about two minutes ago?

Last edited 3 years ago by Sweyn Forkbeard
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0
Gregoryno6
Gregoryno6
3 years ago
Reply to  Sweyn Forkbeard

In the not too distant future mental health issues among the vaccinated will soar. Imagine signing up for one, maybe two shots… sorry, looks like you’ll need three… actually, here’s our user guide to creating a lifetime appointment plan.
And if it makes you sick, just keeping saying the magic words. ‘Oh, but it would be so much WORSE if I hadn’t got vaccinated!’
You’re in a hole of your own making and nobody can get you out. Enjoy your life.

16
0
CynicalRealist
CynicalRealist
3 years ago
Reply to  Sweyn Forkbeard

I’m sure it’s nothing at all to do with trying to counteract the risk of ADE…

8
0
Think Harder
Think Harder
3 years ago

The end goal is totalitarianism as a minimum. It might be worse.
Who’s driving is the question I’d like answering. One thing’s for sure, even if they are not driving this, China will end up running the world if it isn’t stopped. All the silly idiots playing their part expecting a reward will be disappointed. Some will find the reward is deadly.

4
0

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