The amount of misinformation being put out by Government ministers and senior medics about the proportion of unvaccinated people in hospital with Covid is reaching a new level that is beginning to feel disturbingly sinister.
When lockdown sceptics are joining in with the condemnation, you know the problem has ratcheted up a notch or three.
The normally reliable Philip Johnston in the Telegraph points the finger at the unvaccinated for threatening the capacity of the health service, citing a number of misleading claims.
The panacea, we are told, is to get boosted. Yet by definition the refuseniks will not get a third jab when they have not been vaccinated in the first place. I understand if someone does not want to get jabbed. It is their body and they are entitled to say they do not want to be medicated. We cannot force them to. But if the consequence of that decision is to place others at risk then it cannot be allowed to pass by default. We all understand, too, that some people for a variety of medical reasons cannot have the vaccine.
In order to persuade a greater take-up of jabs, the Government wanted to bring in vaccine passports for certain settings but watered these down to include proof of a negative test, which rather defeats the object. Scores of Tory MPs voted against even this on the grounds that such a measure was illiberal.
But the Conservative Party has never been a libertarian movement. It is supposed to believe that with rights come responsibilities. Opponents of heavy-handed state action against the citizen often quote J S Mill’s famous dictum: “The only purpose for which power can rightfully be exercised over any member of a civilised society, against his will, is to prevent harm to others.” I agree with that. I don’t see why I should have restrictions placed on me when I am unlikely to cause harm to others.
But that is not necessarily true of the unvaccinated. According to Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, nine in 10 Covid patients needing the most care are unjabbed. A similar point was made by Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, who said the “vast, vast majority” of seriously ill people were unjabbed, identifying “black Londoners, Muslim Londoners, Jewish Londoners and eastern European Londoners” as groups that are proving particularly resistant. Why is this?
In the absence of comprehensive official data, we are having to rely on anecdotal evidence, but I know several hospital consultants who tell of seriously ill patients being transferred to critical care units who are still unvaccinated, taking up emergency beds needed for other patients.
One told me that so far he had not seen anyone in intensive care who had been jabbed, suggesting that even if vaccinated people are getting sick, they’re not getting as sick. This should be good news, even with the onset of Omicron, and yet here we are again facing a lockdown to preserve the NHS from collapse.
The claims Johnston repeats here are, at best, highly misleading. Take Sajid Javid’s line that “nine in 10 Covid patients needing the most care are unjabbed”. This stat has been repeated often by the haters-of-the-unvaccinated in recent days, but their source is rarely stated. It appears to refer to the claim made by NHS England at the start of December that, as the Times reports, “between July and November more than nine in 10 patients receiving the most specialist care, in which artificial lungs were used to try to save their lives, were unvaccinated”.
That raw statistic may be true (it is not in the public domain), but any implication that it means the unvaccinated are adding considerable pressure to health service resources doesn’t withstand scrutiny since the numbers involved here are miniscule. As Dr Clare Craig points out, over recent weeks there have only been one or two new Covid admissions being put onto an ‘artificial lung’ ECMO machine each week.
What about Sadiq Khan’s claim that the “vast, vast majority” of seriously ill people are unjabbed? It is, once again, asserted without providing a source, and in this case it appears to be flatly contradicted by the published data.
According to the latest data published by the UKHSA, a minority of Covid hospital admissions in the month ending December 12th – 42.9% – were unvaccinated. According to the latest data from ICNARC, a minority of Covid ICU admissions in October – 46.7% – and a minority in the two-week period November 1st to 14th – 47.5% – were unvaccinated. ICNARC has not published any more recent data than that on the ratio of unvaccinated to vaccinated Covid patients in ICU. If it has changed dramatically since then, that data is not in the public domain.
A Telegraph editorial on Monday drew on the same set of myths and even followed it up with an implied threat.
We were assured that if we were vaccinated – and most of us answered the call – the Government would pursue a different policy, of learning to live with Covid. The main reason that this is being abandoned is not because the new strain is especially dangerous to most people but because hospitals risk being overwhelmed, mainly by people who have refused the jab. What is to be done about them?
Et tu, Telegraph?
In January, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (the organisation which includes the European Court of Human Rights), adopted a resolution urging member states and the European Union to ensure that “citizens are informed that the vaccination is not mandatory and that no one is under political, social or other pressure to be vaccinated if they do not wish to do so” and that “no one is discriminated against for not having been vaccinated, due to possible health risks or not wanting to be vaccinated”.
There are many reasons a person may choose not to be vaccinated, particularly if he or she is young, healthy, or has had Covid already, and is wary of the novel genetic technology and unusually high level of reported adverse events. This should be respected, without prejudice or discrimination. There should be no question of penalising him or her, anymore than, say, smokers, drinkers or motorcyclists should be penalised for making what is deemed by health authorities to be a higher risk choice.
Previously the haters-of-the-unvaccinated focused on infection rates and the claim that the unvaccinated spread the disease far more than the vaccinated. Once that claim collapsed they switched to hospital admissions. When the data there is lacking, they either make stuff up, use data from six months ago, or find obscure statistics involving tiny numbers of people to find something, anything, that sounds sufficiently scary to demonise the unvaccinated.
Apart from anything else, whatever happened to simply being a decent human being?
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Yes it’s a continuing win for Amazon Prime… and the WEF B3 globalist agenda of crushing local community SMEs.
Here’s what being a human automaton is like working for dear ole Jeff:
https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/news-opinion/amazon-worker-describes-warehouse-job-5589687
Which allows him to own/operate this:
https://www.imperial-yachts.com/charter/superyachts-for-charter/flying-fox
How far does the BBC have to sink before Johnson stirs himself?
By
Michael St George
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/how-far-does-the-bbc-have-to-sink-before-johnson-stirs-himself/
Stand in South Hill Park Bracknell every Sunday 10am meet fellow lockdown sceptics, keep yourself sane, make new friends and have a laugh.
Join our Stand in the Park – Bracknell – Telegram Group
http://t.me/astandintheparkbracknell
As the man said “You ain’t seen nothing yet”. The destruction of SME businesses in retail, hospitality and several other areas has barely started. Quite apart from the scorched earth policies on commerce and business of all kinds, the massive damage done to society and the resulting changes will also reflect in our journey “down the pan”.
And soon the prices for deliveries will rise…
“Market dynamics” What mealy-mouthed crap. Government imposed lockdowns. That’s NOT the market. Even in closing down these business refuse to risk looking heartless in the eyes of the mad public by naming the real culprits.
And why is the Mail reporting that “Boris is ‘pushing for” the removal of masks they all know don’t work? Toad is Dictator. He can simply decide.
Unfortunately, being the weak-kneed, pliable adulterous liar that he is, the only decisions he makes are on his choices of Ugandan Discussions (pace Private Eye). Any others in which he’s poked his grubby hands e.g. NI Protocol, have turned out rather poorly.
On and on it rolls. Johnson and accomplices are working well for their masters.
Mind the Gap
Between Democracy and…
now
Market dynamics? No, this is the result of communism, lockdown is communist.
Soon there will be one non-food shop, the online retailer known as SHOP (formerly Amazon), and food will be delivered to your door, according to your assessed needs, by your local FOOD agency.
You will own nothing, and you will be happy.
Anyone who is not happy is encouraged to report to your nearest railway station where straw-lined transportation will be made available to you. For your safety and comfort please remove all jewelry and gold teeth before travel.
Your cooperation is appreciated.
The removal of GAP from the high street results in more gaps in the high street than ever!
This is where out of control ‘scientists’, corporate behemoths and globalist politicians get you…
Is the bulk of the population really going to just sit idly by, whilst all around them there is carnage underway? Really?
Yes they will sit idly by
When the gas, electricity, water and internet are turned off they may wake up but I wouldn’t count on it
Equally when there is no food I doubt if they will raise a finger, they will just slink off to die where they are told
If it saves just one life…
This current nonsense hasn’t helped but GAP has been losing market share for a long time. Anyone who works in that field knows that by its very nature fashion is a very fickle business. Things can change in both directions very quickly and just like the hospitality field, being in the middle market you are always the most vulnerable to changing conditions.
Boo Hoo
Shopping in store is meant to be an ‘experience’. That’s true enough at present except it is very unenjoyable being served by someone in a gimp mask and made to feel guilty just for being there. Why would you go!
It has got slightly better- at least now we can try on clothes in some stores, but there may be quite a wait for a changing room as they have closed off every second one so there is no risk of you catching Covid from the person in the next changing room to you. Never mind that they’re separated by a wall or a curtain from you, the danger is still too great to have you that close to each other.
A non story. GAP lost the plot years ago and failed to move with the times. Not doing well in North America either. It won’t be missed.
If it were just GAP, I would agree, But it is loads of shops and businesses over a very short time period – a very different level of casualty.
The people who worked there might miss it, or miss their jobs. Not every shop deserves to survive, and I personally feel there is a place for both online and in-person shopping, but it’s undeniable that in-person shopping has been artificially handicapped. I have not been in a shop since masks were introduced and will probably never go back, unless I move somewhere with some sceptical shopowners.
Like lots of things about lockdown, it feels like changes that were going to come anyway (but over a longer timescale) have been accelerated. People probably won’t notice until M&S starts closing its clothing stores. Perhaps this winter?
Another triumph for the Fascists.
How far does the BBC have to sink before Johnson stirs himself?
By
Michael St George
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/how-far-does-the-bbc-have-to-sink-before-johnson-stirs-himself/
Stand in South Hill Park Bracknell every Sunday 10am meet fellow lockdown sceptics, keep yourself sane, make new friends and have a laugh.
Join our Stand in the Park – Bracknell – Telegram Group
http://t.me/astandintheparkbracknell
Blames “market dynamics”?? Oh, come on! If a big company like Gap doesn’t blame the government, as it should, for forcing its stores shut then what hope do we have?
Closing their shops in a ‘phased manner’ in ONE month. Is phased closure over 30 days supposed to sound caring? Or just the speed at which their boarding-up crew can drive their Transit around the country?
Good luck Gap employees.