News Round-Up

A summary of all the most interesting stories that have appeared about politicians’ efforts to control the virus – and other acts of hubris and folly – not just in Britain, but around the world.

3 min read

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This week across the site:

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46 Comments
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dearieme
dearieme
4 years ago

How does anyone know what the Prophet Muhammad looked like? I mean, how can they know he’s the subject of the cartoon unless they’ve been furtively looking at old images of the aforesaid prophet?

dearieme
dearieme
4 years ago

Imperial College’s death estimates over the years have some things in common: flawed modeling, hair-raising predictions of disaster that missed the mark, and no lessons learned.

Who decided to hire the Astrologer-Royal as an advisor and why?

dearieme
dearieme
4 years ago

Sir Patrick Vallance: is he any relation to the Vallance chappy who conspired with other public health bigwigs to falsely accuse scientists of being conspiracy theorists when they canvassed the possibility of a lab leak in Wuhan?



TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
4 years ago

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/kind-hearted-boy-12-who-26590685.amp

‘Kind hearted’ boy, 12, who died suddenly from heart attack at school is namedRyan Heffernan, 12, was playing with his friends in Shoeburyness High School in Essex when he suddenly collapsed on Monday afternoon as his parents mourn their ‘kind-hearted’ son

Rogerborg
Rogerborg
4 years ago

“Nicola Sturgeon relaxes Scotland’s mask laws from Monday” 

What a peculiar headline. Surely: “Deranged despot still clings to insane muzzle theatre”.

As far as I’m aware, no member of the Scotch Toon Cooncil or Lugenpresse has put the very simple question to Her Moanjesty: “If muzzles work, why does the only mandatorily muzzled province have by far the highest rate of ‘cases’? “

watersider
watersider
4 years ago
Reply to  Rogerborg

Well I for one will be sorry for the muzzles to end (in some places) in Scotland on Monday.
It means we will have to see all of sturg-ons face. Ugh!

Mogwai
Mogwai
4 years ago

Excellent 30min video I’m re-sharing, courtesy of SteveT, from last night. Belief and Vaccines. I’m going to be sharing this around. Highly recommended. https://inproportion2.talkigy.com/vaccine_belief.html

beornwulf
beornwulf
4 years ago
Reply to  Mogwai

Thanks for that link. A very clear exposition about links between poisons (mercury, DDT, vaccine contents) and serious illnesses. Well worth recommending, as you say.

crisisgarden
crisisgarden
4 years ago

“Covid falls again as Sir Patrick Vallance says latest wave has peaked” – Daily U.K. cases have fallen week-on-week since Friday after rocketing at the start of March, the Mail reports.

Where’s Fingal? He could explain to us how this is possible with a supposedly super transmissible variant and no restrictions of any kind.

Milo
Milo
4 years ago
Reply to  crisisgarden

I’m sure he or his friend Tree would give it their best shot, much to our irritation.

JXB
JXB
4 years ago

‘
“Covid falls again as Sir Patrick Vallance says latest wave has peaked” – Daily U.K. cases have fallen week-on-week since Friday after rocketing at the start of March, the Mail reports.’

Proving – yet again – Spring is the only effective vaccine.

Jon Garvey
Jon Garvey
4 years ago

Telegraph report that Sir Patrick Vallance said Britain needed to move to a “sensible annual cycle” of immunisation which ensured the vulnerable are protected.

It’s hard to think of how a scientist could engage in science denial more than this. There is virtual unanimity on all sides that the vaccines lose their effect in weeks, and that the interval has got shorter with each booster.

And even if that were not so, the mass of Omicron cases involving mainly the recently vaccinated proves that there is no way an annual booster, certainly of the existing shots, would protect anyone. “Sensible” has been redefined to mean “a useless measure that is at least logistically conceivable.”

Just a couple of years ago nonsense like this would have been obvious: now the brain-mush caused by constant propaganda makes verbal diarrhoea seem like a policy.

Julian
Julian
4 years ago
Reply to  Jon Garvey

I believe he also said something like “booster every 16 weeks forever is not credible” though I cannot verify because of paywall. If he did say that he’s more or less admitted that boosters are useless. “Credible” is not a medical/scientific word, it’s a political one.

Encierro
Encierro
4 years ago

I have not used Pinterest for quite some time. Obviously still a register member as I have received this email.

“Pinterest already prohibits the use of our platform to share misinformation or disinformation … that may harm the public’s well-being, safety or trust … We are now broadening the scope of those prohibitions to explicitly include climate-related mis/disinformation as well.”

Oh for Fork Shake

Screenshot  pinterest tandc.png
TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
4 years ago
Reply to  Encierro

Pitnerest becomes a publisher when it censors legal content.

DanClarke
DanClarke
4 years ago

Covid Lockdowns: Never forget what’s been done”  still happening, look at the care homes and NHS, trying to get in to see your loved ones, having to book an appointment, remember when they made us wave through glass, say goodbye on a screen, never forgive

Freecumbria
Freecumbria
4 years ago

Re public satisfaction with GPs falls to worst level on record, Jonathan Engler has tweeted this message from a GP.

https://twitter.com/jengleruk/status/1509252988262666245?cxt=HHwWisC-mZbm-PEpAAAA

Engler-doctor.jpg
iane
iane
4 years ago
Reply to  Freecumbria

Sounds like a very rare committed GP – mind you he probably will now be committed!

Alter Ego
Alter Ego
4 years ago
Reply to  Freecumbria

The last sentence is critical – in more ways than one.

Milo
Milo
4 years ago
Reply to  Alter Ego

And he read my mind when I thought to myself, perhaps those NOT offering secondary care (in a timely manner at all) are actually hoping that patients will die while waiting ergo make them wait even longer

Lowe
Lowe
4 years ago

One thing I learned from the last piece on the News Round-up: Lladany’s note 10 demonstrates that Bruce Aylward, pretending to not hear a question asking about Taiwan, is a liar. Wikipedia notes that some suggest the interview indicates Chinese influence over WHO. But to me, it shows he lies – nothing he now says is to be trusted.

As a corollary: WHO employs liars.

TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
TheyLiveAndWeLockdown
4 years ago
Reply to  Lowe

Falsus in unum falsus in omnibus.

Hypatia
Hypatia
4 years ago

Public satisfaction with GPs falls? No sh*t, Sherlock!

I last saw my GP in person in August 2020. Before that it was the summer of 2019. Never seen her since, spoken to her on the phone once. That’s it, the sum total of my interaction with my GP. Before the current sh*tshow, it was a minimum of 4 weeks for a routine appointment, goodness knows what it is now. They see patients as little as possible, I’ve even had a physiotherapy assessment by phone!

And if you do get in, it’s still all masks and hand sanitiser and one way systems. Plus the evil eye of the receptionist ( that hasn’t changed).

If I need a GP in future, I’m going to seek out a private one; although they are getting booked up. More and more people are coming to the conclusion that the GP service in this country is no blo*dy good!

pjar
pjar
4 years ago
Reply to  Hypatia

Like you, I’ve had no interaction with my actual GP for years… I’d have to say though that the practice nurses and HCAs are picking up the slack admirably… to the extent that I have wondered what the GPs themselves are actually for?

huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
4 years ago
Reply to  pjar

A good nurse will always look after and advise you better than a GP.

smithey
smithey
4 years ago
Reply to  Hypatia

If you use a private GP and they turn out to be no good you are free to stop paying them and take your money elsewhere. With an nhs GP you are forced to pay for them through tax whether you need a GP or not and cannot take your money elsewhere if they are useless.

DevonBlueBoy
DevonBlueBoy
4 years ago
Reply to  Hypatia

Al the power these days sits with the Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG) who tell the GPs what they can and cannot prescribe. They will even try to avoid implementing NICE guidelines; all in the name of Cost cutting. They have to cut costs as the many Directors on the CCG are all paid 6 figure salaries! I recently had a spot of fun with our local CCG re the requirement to wear face masks in surgeries. The things you have to do to have fun when you’re retired!!

My email to them:
“I am sure you will be aware of and agree with the need for medical treatment to be provided based on empirical evidence? 
“I had to visit the XXX Medical Practice in XXX Health Centre yesterday and was very surprised to see that face mask wearing was required; given that the Government mandates for wearing face masks in public places were withdrawn at the end of January.
Can you please provide me with the empirical evidence supporting this decision to ignore the Government advice?”

Their reply to me:
“Although it is no longer a legal requirement to wear a face covering in public settings, there are different requirements… Read more »

Steve-Devon
Steve-Devon
4 years ago

With regard to the issue of trans athletes competing in women’s sport, it does seem ironic, given all the controversy over drugs in sport, that these trans athletes are using testosterone reducing drugs to supposedly achieve the status of women. I think you could make the argument that sport should be as natural as possible and that testosterone reducing drugs should be added to the list of drugs banned in sport.

Deborah T
Deborah T
4 years ago

Could someone at ‘The Daily Sceptic’ delve into the ‘facts’ behind The Times front page headline this morning? The Times announces: Childbirth ‘is not safe for women in England’.

huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
4 years ago
Reply to  Deborah T

It probably refers to those ‘women’ who have neither cervix nor vagina.

maggie may
maggie may
4 years ago
A passerby
A passerby
4 years ago

Sturgeon humiliated as Cambo oil field gets green light – UK to slash Russia reliance.

Too late, as per.

iane
iane
4 years ago
Reply to  A passerby

Yep – I am feeling truly fracked off.

Alter Ego
Alter Ego
4 years ago
  • “Imperial College’s Fear Machine” – Before hurrying into policy decisions, policy-makers should have been aware that Neil Ferguson’s Imperial College team had a history of defective modelling, write Steve Hanke and Kevin Dowd in the National Review.

Either Ferguson and his team were chosen in spite of their track record, or because of it.

TC
TC
4 years ago
Reply to  Alter Ego

My money would be on the latter.

huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
4 years ago
Reply to  Alter Ego

So this is another article stating the obvious after the event.

RedhotScot
RedhotScot
4 years ago

“Nicola Sturgeon has been left red-faced after the U.K. gave the Cambo oil and gas field a licence extension in the face of Russian energy threats”

Couldn’t happen to a more deserving person.

huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
4 years ago

On a roll.

Morning campers.

gavinfdavies
gavinfdavies
4 years ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

Evening all 🙂 (it’s not officially morning til after I’ve had some shuteye)

RedhotScot
RedhotScot
4 years ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

What’s on a roll? Bacon?

huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
4 years ago
Reply to  RedhotScot

Apologies. Dialect. An amusing thread on TCW set me off.

Alter Ego
Alter Ego
4 years ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

Somebody has downticked this. What did you say, hp? Wait – was it the reference to “campers”? Or have rolls become offensive.

I try to keep up, but it’s difficult.

Skippy
Skippy
4 years ago
Reply to  Alter Ego

You just misgendered #breadcakes!

Alter Ego
Alter Ego
4 years ago
Reply to  Skippy

Bugger! Must try harder.

Milo
Milo
4 years ago
Reply to  Alter Ego

looks like the phantomdownticker of Old London Town is doing the rounds again!

crisisgarden
crisisgarden
4 years ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

Hi-de-hi from snowy Yorkshire!

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