“Wearing masks in the community probably makes little or no difference.” Such was the verdict of a recent Cochrane review, a systematic assessment of all medical research on masks. How much should one trust this overarching study? Medical journals say that Cochrane reviews are “recognised worldwide as the highest standard in evidence-based healthcare”, are the “best single source of highest-quality systematic reviews”, and are “regarded as the final word in the medical debate on a topic”. One adds, “The main reason is that Cochrane reviews follow a common and specific methodology to limit bias.” If only the same could be said about the public health officials at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Specifically, Cochrane found, “Wearing masks in the community probably makes little or no difference to the outcome of influenza-like illness (ILI)/COVID-19 like illness” — or “to the outcome of laboratory-confirmed influenza/SARS-CoV-2” — “compared to not wearing masks.” Moreover, “The use of a N95/P2 respirators compared to medical/surgical masks probably makes little or no difference for the outcome… of laboratory-confirmed influenza infection.” Each of these claims was made with “moderate certainty”, the second highest of four certainty classifications. (“Moderate certainty” means that “the true effect is likely to be close to the estimate of the effect.”)
The mask advocates’ grasping-at-straws response to this review has been that Cochrane doesn’t know what it’s doing (despite its “worldwide” reputation for providing “the highest standard” of medical research). Or they say that Cochrane produced a fine study, but people didn’t read it correctly. Or randomised controlled trials aren’t to be trusted when it comes to masks (RCTs are universally considered the gold standard in medical research). Or we need more and better RCTs on masks, though 16 have already been conducted on surgical or cloth masks, none of which has provided compelling evidence that they work.
The mask advocates’ refusal to recognise that medical science does not support their steadfast belief is truly remarkable. Clearly, something more is going on here than a genuine debate about which healthcare measures work.
Part of it, perhaps, is that progressives don’t like it when they can’t control something. Masks let them feel as if they can control the virus — and other people, to boot, the next best thing to controlling the virus.
There’s also the matter of identity. For some, a mask conveys quasi-religious symbolism — we believe in Health — and serves as a sort of spiritual symbol, a totem. No one wants to be told that their totem is powerless.
Evidence suggesting masks’ ineffectiveness has remained relatively constant over time. In addition to the individual RCTs conducted across the years, which I discussed in detail in a 2021 City Journal essay reviewing the evidence, Cochrane published a review on November 20th 2020, that closely resembles its January 2023 review. Cochrane’s earlier review found that wearing a mask “probably makes little or no difference to the outcome of laboratory-confirmed influenza… compared to not wearing” a mask, and that using an N95 “compared to” a surgical mask “probably makes little or no difference for the… outcome of laboratory-confirmed influenza infection”. In fact, the 2023 review repeats all of this language verbatim.
Unlike the 2023 Cochrane review, however, the 2020 review didn’t make much of a splash. This may have been by design. Tom Jefferson, the lead author of both studies, says that Cochrane delayed the release of the 2020 study; it “held it up for seven months”. If not for that delay, the review would have appeared just a few weeks after the CDC profoundly reversed its masking guidance — from don’t wear masks to do wear masks — on April 3rd 2020, citing no meaningful new evidence on which to base that change. It’s certainly believable that Cochrane didn’t want to look like it was contradicting the CDC at that pivotal time.
The Australian investigative journalist Maryanne Demasi, who interviewed Jefferson, asked, “Are you suggesting that Cochrane was pro-mask, and that your review contradicted the narrative?” Jefferson replied, “Yes, I think that is what was going on”. He noted that Cochrane wrote a pro-mask editorial to accompany the study’s eventual 2020 release. “Waiting for strong evidence is a recipe for paralysis,” the editorial stated. Such a message, Jefferson observes, is “a complete subversion of the ‘precautionary principle’ which states that you should do nothing unless you have reasonable evidence that benefits outweigh the harms”.
Now the Cochrane executives are at it again. Facing criticism from influential mask advocates, Karla Soares-Weiser, Editor-in-Chief of the Cochrane Library, issued a statement on March 10th — about a month and a half after the 2023 review’s release — saying that “the review is not able to address the question of whether mask-wearing itself reduces people’s risk of contracting or spreading respiratory viruses”. This, of course, is exactly what the review addressed, and it concluded, with “moderate certainty,” that mask-wearing “probably makes little or no difference” in preventing the spread of viruses.
The most noteworthy thing about the 2023 Cochrane review is that it provides further confirmation that the two RCTs that took place after the release of the 2020 Cochrane study — one in Denmark and the other in Bangladesh — didn’t move the needle in favour of masks. In fact, the needle moved in the opposite direction: Cochrane now says that masks “probably” (2023), as opposed to “may” (2020), make “little or no difference to the outcome of influenza-like illness”. (This is in addition to Cochrane’s having previously reported that masks “probably” make “little or no difference to the outcome of laboratory-confirmed influenza”.) And in 2023, Cochrane explicitly added “COVID-19” and “SARS-CoV-2” to the list of things that masks apparently don’t prevent — and could even increase — the spread of.
How could masks increase the spread of viruses? Cochrane suggests the possibilities of “self-contamination of the mask by hands” and “saturation of masks with saliva from extended use (promoting virus survival in proteinaceous material)”. In March 2020, then-Surgeon General Jerome Adams said, “Folks who don’t know how to wear [masks] properly tend to touch their faces a lot and actually can increase the spread of coronavirus.” The authors of one RCT write, “The virus may survive on the surface of the facemasks” and “transfer pathogen from the mask to the bare hands of the wearer”. As for double-masking, the same authors write, “Observations during SARS suggested double-masking… increased the risk of infection because of moisture, liquid diffusion and pathogen retention.” In other words, masks are often moist, frequently dirty and sometimes virus-ridden. Having one stuck to your face could increase the spread of viruses — especially if you touch your mask, or if your young children touch theirs.
The mask zealots, however, remain unmoved. In an article at Health.com responding to the Cochrane review, Sarah Sloat essentially quotes three evidence-denying doctors and rests her case. One declares that masks “are an additional layer of protection” (RCTs be damned). Another asserts, “If you are putting on a mask, you are doing a great job of protecting yourself.” A third opines (with a striking lack of self-awareness), “At the end of the day, people will do what they want, and science is not going to move some people one way or the other.” He then proclaims, “But a mask does give you a big bang for the buck, and not just for COVID-19.”
In Vox, Kelsey Piper complains that the Cochrane review includes studies involving other viruses at other times, rather than just studies focused on Covid during the pandemic. She ignores how the inclusion of the two Covid RCTs resulted in Cochrane’s weighing in more strongly against masks’ effectiveness, as one of those RCTs (the one from Denmark) found no statistically significant difference between infection rates in its mask and non-mask groups, and the other (from Bangladesh) found very little difference and claimed that it was significant only because of myriad methodological flaws, which I detailed in a City Journal essay last summer. Piper, however, praises the highly problematic Bangladesh study as “finding very solid evidence”, while the Cochrane review is somewhat “scientifically irresponsible” and really “quite bad meta-analysis.”
Likewise, Lucky Tran, writing for the Guardian, criticises the Cochrane review because it includes other viruses in addition to Covid and because it evaluates masks’ effectiveness as they are actually worn, rather than trying to guess how effective masks might be if people wore them as diligently as public health officials would like. Tran calls the Cochrane review part of “the avalanche of misinformation” and proclaims, “Masks are magnificent.” He adds that masks “are a visible symbol that the pandemic is ongoing” — another apparent virtue.
Finally, New York Times columnist Zeynep Tufekci writes, without substantiation: “So the evidence is relatively straightforward: Consistently wearing a mask, preferably a high-quality, well-fitting one, provides protection against the coronavirus.” She dismisses the Cochrane review and asserts that the Danish study during Covid “found that masks helped.” This is false. The authors of that study plainly stated that “no statistically significant difference in SARS-CoV-2 incidence was observed” between the study’s mask group and its non-mask control group.
Other mask advocates claim that the problem isn’t with the Cochrane study at all. Instead, they suggest a deeper, esoteric meaning behind what it plainly says: “Wearing masks in the community probably makes little or no difference.” The Los Angeles Times published a column entitled, “Covid deniers claim a new study says mask mandates don’t work. They should try reading it.” A nurse wrote a letter in response asserting, “I have seen with my own eyes how masks protect people from acquisition and transmission of COVID-19.” People generally can’t see viruses with the naked eye, so this is an impressive claim.
Bret Stephens wrote a column in the New York Times entitled, “The Mask Mandates Did Nothing. Will Any Lessons Be Learned?” Times readers’ favourite of the 3,773 comments responding to the article claims that Stephens misrepresents the study, which the reader suggests yielded essentially no information. Their second-favourite comment blames people for not being diligent enough in their mask-wearing and then asks, “Notice how surgeries are still masked environments?” Surgical masks were designed to keep medical personnel from inadvertently infecting patients’ open wounds. Such masks were not designed to reduce the spread of viruses. As for N95s, they were designed to protect workers from breathing in dust, fumes, or smoke. To the extent that they were worn in hospitals pre-Covid, it was primarily to help prevent the spread of tuberculosis bacteria, not to protect against viruses. According to an article on the NIH website, published in the less-politicised, pre-Covid days, “Viruses are tiny, ranging in size from about 20 to 400 nanometers in diameter. … Billions can fit on the head of a pin.” More than 1,000 can generally fit on the period at the end of a sentence, which is roughly “350,000 nanometers, in diameter.” In comparison, “Bacteria are 10 to 100 times larger than viruses” and “are usually measured in microns” (with one micron equaling 1,000 nanometers, the usual measure for viruses).
It should be greatly disturbing, in light of the evidence, that so many hospitals and doctor’s offices continue to force patients to wear masks. It should make one wonder how many other times medical personnel don’t follow the medical studies on which they supposedly rely. Yet, New York Times readers aren’t disturbed at all but take comfort in mask mandates. Among the readers’ 10 favourite comments was one that says, “The [Cochrane] findings are basically nonsense. Common sense prevails here. … I was in a hospital today. Everyone has to wear a mask.”
In his recent City Journal piece on the 2023 Cochrane review, John Tierney asks, “Can anything persuade the maskaholics in the public-health establishment and the public to give up their obsession?” The answer, plainly, is no. Their faith transcends reason.
Jeffrey H. Anderson is president of the American Main Street Initiative, a think tank for everyday Americans. He served as Director of the Bureau of Justice Statistics at the U.S. Department of Justice from 2017 to 2021. This article was first published by City Journal.
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That he is still an advisor to the government is evidence that the “experts” are there to give the government the advice they want to hear rather than the facts. “5000 deaths a day…” what a plonker. It is the same in economics, climate change, and other areas. Pseudo science. Bad information, bad government.
The reason is to maximise rent-seeking (transferring cash from wealth creating workers to those connected to the government).
Absolutely, the entire purpose of the Tories (and Labour) is to financially rape the public by any means available to them.
All under the guise of ‘saving us’. Same goes with the climate scam.
“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.”
― H.L. Mencken, In Defense Of Women
Yes, there is much more safety for the rulers in being feared than in being loved. Although nowadays the populace have little clue who the rulers are.
For sure that’s the next phase Cornubian…
Gates plandemic modelling stooge Prof. Ferguson’s – he who was shagging open-marriage bint Ms. Staats… both breaking carefree those lockdown mandates – pushed allegedly in place for the safety of the greater-good… PMSL
Who could have ever guessed that she worked for Avaaz that leftie International NGO so no clash at all with New Normal interests there?
Here’s what’s instore for us if these Reset crazies win… these coming months…
https://www.bitchute.com/video/mnSnWYnaaHV2/
And BTW Neil… for sure Moronic variant cases may be plateauing… but in Australia booster shot damage is exponentially soaring… not sure the term rare and 79,000 victims so far makes any logical sense. Then again… its not meant to.
https://twitter.com/OzraeliAvi/status/1477620619034304512?s=20
Brought to you by GloboCap & Pfizer.
‘Acquired immune deficiency’ anf its dire consequences generated by the battle being fought by the over-worked immune system against the synthetic spike proteins manufactured in the ‘occupied’ cells of the vaccinated would be of ‘concern’ if their were any honest politicians, Imperial College ‘scientists’ ( sic) and Globalist Billionaire funded medics left in the world.
But there aren’t …so there isn’t.
Just a title for Whitty – reward for job well done! Can we ask, exactly what was the job spec?
To promote biomedical terrorism by every possible means.
@MrTea – Basically I agree with you, but I think your identification of the perps could be improved. If we could look at the Tory and Labour HQs and get the same impression that we get when we look at the towering City of London, I wouldn’t say this.
And the Damm BBC keep introducing him as an Epidemiologist which he is not qualified as >His only qualification is for being a useless cnut….
BBC =Lies – so don’t pollute your mind by watching it!
I turned on radiodoom 4 this morning in error at the wrong time!!!!
All BBCTV not watched anymore as its all Multi Culti hysterical drama etc
Toby says Fergusons “grim modelling spooked ministers into introducing draconian curbs last spring“.Uhhh no Toby.
Imperial College, and Ferguson in particular, are the governments No1 goto source for fear-mongering dodgy dossiers – of which there have been many.
They include predictions of 50,000 deaths from BSE when in fact just 177 occurred.
Ferguson also suggested 150 million would be killed by Bird Flu when just 282 died. He also
predicted 65,000 would die from the Swine Flu but just 457 died.
Now the government are deploying his talents to drive the covid fear narrative that they, and Gates, pay create.
Absolutely. Simple question : Would any competent politician continue to take advice from someone who is consistently wrong to an absurd degree?
Which, of course, depends on what the said politician’s aims are.
I sometimes wonder which is rarer, hen’s teeth or honest politicians!
Hen’s teeth. Look at it this way. Say you are a young person and you aim to be an honest politician. How far will you get?
They all say that.
Yes, because they have an agenda to push and Ferguson is willing to provide the pseudo academic mumbo jumbo that can be used to justify moving the agenda forward.
competent politician seems an oxymoron.
They are chosen to run and “represent” because of their incompetence.
See seem very competent at piling up their own fortunes.
Yes, because they know power resides with Ferguson’s paymasters and politicians know nothing if not to cosy up to power.
Because they share his dark agenda!
@Cornubian – Excellent info about Ferguson’s background as a mouthpiece during other epidemics. That makes it very clear. He deserves the photo that this site put with this article.
If I may generalise: the thing about scumbags, including professional ones who have found a niche publicity role, is that if they’ve done some dirty stuff successfully and not gone to jail, or even ended up pilloried, but on the contrary they’ve been promoted and thanked and given new and bigger contracts, THEY WILL DO IT AGAIN. They will do it bigger and worse.
As for your first quote, that’s from the Mail article bylined to their staffers, not TY.
Don’t forget the decimation of the livestock farming industry do to his foot and mouth wank predictions.
That he is still an advisor to the government is evidence that the establishment is completely corrupt.
@JohnnyBAd – Yes. I’m not keen on letting science (a reasonably good research method for a few limited types of investigation) out of its box. Those who think it means “truth” are silly boys who don’t know how silly they are. HOWEVER, that said, there IS actually a lot of “pseudoscience” about, including, as you rightly say, in “economics” and the study of “climate change”. Another heap of absolute garbage that is classic pseudoscience (as Nassim Taleb rightly says) is IQ.
Talking of economics: has Ferguson got quant envy? His predictions about infection rates sound like the scribblings of some idiot kid of a bullshitting financial journalist who talks of “support levels” and “resistance levels” and “Fibonacci”. I hope for Ferguson’s own sake that he isn’t heavily invested in Bitcoin
Or has the Government told him to admit that lockdowns are plateauing? Where is Britain’s DeSantis? All we get it DeSturgeon, DeDrakeford and DeKhan.
DeSantis wants Florida’s state retirement funds to not invest in China-linked companies
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/desantis-wants-florida-retirement-funds-to-not-invest-in-china-linked-companies/
The Republican governor wants the Florida Retirement System to serve the state, not the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
By Matt Lamb
When you are demonised for speaking the truth you are living in tyranny. Please come and join our friendly events.
Saturday 8th January 2pm – Marlow
Berks & Bucks Freedom Day
Higginson Park corner of High Street & Pound Lane
Marlow SL7 1NF
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““And then the vaccines – as we always expected they would – are holding up against severe disease and against severe outcomes well.”
Sophistry. There are hardly any severe cases of omicron AT ALL so we have no way of judging whether the vaccines are holding up or not.
We do, however, that the vaccines are useless at protecting against omicron infection, given the avalanche of “cases” we saw before Christmas in an overwhelmingly fully vaccinated population.
The BMJ and Lancet both carried reports demonstrating that the injections have ZERO efficacy. But now a Swedish total population cohort study conducted by the University of Umea and published in Lancet Preprints (25/10/21) concludes that Covid 19 vaccine efficacy “declines below zero and then to negative efficacy territory at approximately 7 months, underscoring that the vaccinated are highly susceptible to infection and eventually become highly infected (more so than the unvaccinated)”.
This means the injected are more likely to become very ill compared to the uninjected.
Please could you post links if you happen to have them (I’m not fact checking you; just want them in my burgeoning evidence folder!)
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3949410
Heres one for your evidence folder. The UK Health Security Agency ‘Covid 19 Weekly Surveillance Report’ (Week 42) states: “N antibody levels appear to be lower in people who acquire infection following two doses of vaccination.” (page 23) This means that the injections interfere with the body’s innate ability
after infection to produce antibodies against not just the spike protein but other pieces of the virus. In other words, injected people will be far more vulnerable to mutations. The same report shows that double injected people are showing significantly higher infection rates than the uninjected – especially in the 30 years and above groups (page 13).
It doesn’t mean the injected are more likely to become very ill because it’s very hard to get ill from a mild cold, even if you’ve been injected with death juice.
The paper:
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3949410
The authors’ conclusion on the crap (and what they admit is sometimes the negative) “effectiveness” of the “vaccines”? Why, it’s get a booster! (Seriously.)
They all have to say that, otherwise no funding and no job. All they can hope to do is slip some truths in amongst the propaganda.
Untrue! You can get very ill with any virus or bacterial infection if you have had your natural immune system destroyed!
Exactly
Yes … the vaccines are now thought to dramatically reduce the natural immune system – in effect they create ‘AIDS’, opening the door to any infection becoming very serious!
The warnings were out there a year ago – smeared and shut down by politicians and of course, the MS Media.
Have you seen the UK Health Security Agency ‘Covid 19 Weekly Surveillance Report’ (Week 42) where it states: “N antibody levels appear to be lower in people who acquire infection following two doses of vaccination.” (page 23) This means that the injections interfere with the body’s innate ability to produce antibodies against not just the spike protein but other pieces of the virus. In other words, injected people will be far more vulnerable to mutations. The same report shows that double injected people are showing significantly higher infection rates than the unvaccinated – especially in the 30 years and above groups (page 13).
“As we always expected they would” – from the guy who predicted 5000 omicron deaths per day. Not infections, but deaths.
Not only that, but the vaccine makers say they’re only just starting to repurpose them to Omicron, but also the likelihood of getting infected rises in step with the number of shots you’ve had, which basically means the vaccines are having the *opposite* effect of their purpose (of stimulating immunity and protecting you).
These admissions, in my mind are only to create juxtaposition in anticipation for the Real Variants of Concern
A grim interpretation. However, to me it feels like they’ve thrown so much at Moronic it’ll be hard to appear credible if they pull one out of the hat at this stage…..
Keep an eye on
Watch France. And not just metropolitan France.
Some of us recall Jacques Chirac’s dramatic use of shooty shooty death death to try to get a boost in the second round of the presidential election in 1988.
Chirac was prime minister at the time – a more important position than it is at the moment, because there was “cohabitation” between the president and parliament.
So it was Prime Minister Chirac, not President Mitterand, who got his name on the order to storm a cave in Ouvéa, New Caledonia.
Chirac’s play was unsuccessful. He was a tough nut for sure, but Mitterand was a formidable opponent, whose skill at hardball had been manifested for example in his “surviving” a fake assassination attempt (that he himself set up) in 1959 (the “Observatory Affair”).
This time, there are likely to be some memorable fun and games, and they may well have a strong pandemic flavour.
Emmanuel Macron’s now former health minister Agnes Buzyn has been charged with “endangering the lives of others”. That offence carries a possible prison sentence.
So you can see that “46” may well have legs.
It is not the variants that should concern us, it is the “vaccines”! They wreck the natural immune system so anything can get you!
Professor Ferguson stated that immediate lockdown and social isolation should be imposed, asked why he was nuts deep in another man’s wife at the time of making the statement he declared he was relying on the Boris Johnson exemption principle.
Love it.
“Professor Ferguson – nicknamed ‘Prof Lockdown’” he was nicknamed Professor Pantsdown for breaking the lockdown regulations, which he was instrumental in drafting, so that he could meet and shag his married girlfriend. Which seemed hard to believe until the moronic Health Secretary of the time, Matt Hancock, took it as a personal challenge and did the same thing with his taxpayer funded advisor, an old friend who he personally recruited. The Prime Minister had full confidence in him of course, right up until he resigned.
Agreed. I find it insulting that Professor Lockdown is too often used in place of his true nomenclature of Pantsdown.
The headline writer at the Heil surely had “Pantsdown” in mind and deliberately triggered thoughts of that name among some readers.
It’s possible to sympathise with Professor Pantsdown on a personal level, given that his unusual surname suggests he has a family connection with a former SBS and SIS guy who went on to lead the Liberal Democrats.
Because as they keep telling us, the science, and presumably the nomenclature, is settled.
OT, but this seems the least bad place to post.
I read this morning that there are no cinema listings after this Thursday. I’ve checked the nearest 4 cinemas to me – Northants/Rutland border -, and with the exception of a solitary “autism friendly” performance next Sunday, which I suspect they simply forgot to remove, this is true.
Is this the case everywhere?
odeon and cineworld seem to “stop” on thursday.
I can confirm that my local 11-screen Cineworld in Flintshire has no listings beyond Thursday in a section entitled “[Films] This Week” and no listings for subsequent weeks other than one or two one-off special ballet or drama productions scheduled during the next few months which “may be subject to change”.
Still got listings into next week in my part of the world.
My local independent has listings. It was probably (hopefully) just a holiday related delay by the distributers.
My local independent has listings stretching into February, albeit they are currently closed due to a “staff shortage”.
Just checked Vue in my area – nothing after Thursday…
Same here in torbay.
At a guess, this might be more to do with seasonal reporting and box office feedback. Early Jan is usually the cut off for the previous years films, which includes the Christmas releases. Either that or we’re going in to lockdown.
‘And then the vaccines – as we always expected they would – are holding up against severe disease and against severe outcomes well.’
In the real world –
Triple-Vaccinated More Than FOUR Times As Likely to Test Positive For Omicron Than Unvaccinated, Data Showshttps://dailysceptic.org/2021/12/22/triple-vaccinated-more-than-four-times-more-likely-to-test-positive-for-omicron-than-unvaccinated-data-shows/
Doesn’t this data indicate that the vaccine has seriously weakened the immune system of the vaxxed?
If omicron was more pathogenic wouldn’t they be dropping like flies?
That would be a fair assumption.
The vaxxed may have dodged a bullet.. for now.
That’s something I’ve never understood. How they can claim on the one hand that the vaccines are effective against the high viral load needed to cause an illness, while at the same time they’re ineffective against the low viral load needed to trigger just a positive test.
https://dailyexpose.uk/2022/01/02/german-gov-data-suggests-fully-vaccinated-developing-ade/
Let’s hope and pray that as the vaccines’ effectiveness wanes over time, so does their toxicity, enabling their immune systems to regain its effectiveness. In the meantime, maintaining Vitamin levels D is essential (it’s the hormone that maintains and regulates the immune system), which for us in the UK essentially means supplements.
Early trend for 2022.Not living in fear.
Always makes me laugh when you bring out the crystal ball pic!
I keep remembering the old joke about why gypsies walk funnily!
This whole farce is being driven by mad levels of testing.Just been in my Local Boots branch and staff are offering LFlow kits willy nilly even when not requested .
Madness.We should have a system where you can only test if you have symptoms and express any” case “rates in any statistics as a percentage of tests completed to keep things in balance
Even the DailyWail had a headline saying it was madness to test those without symptoms.
My exercise class started up again today after the Xmas break. Over the weekend I had an e mail from the instructor saying could we all take LFT’s before coming to class. Never having taken a test for covid, I declined and said that testing the healthy/well is unecessary and is driving the current isolation chaos with false results etc etc – you know the gist I am sure. This also meant that she would not be getting any money from me either. I have never seen someone backtrack so completely! ‘It was a suggestion, not a demand’ she said, which isn’t true. Anyway, no test done, class attended, no problem. We have to make a stand against this sort of crap or everywhere will be demanding tests before you do anything – just think… your gp surgery, the dentist, optician, chiropodist the list is endless. In fact, I bet some are already demanding it.
Great work – perhaps the only way to dismantle this stupid nonsense is piecemeal – and to take it on locally. We’re dealing with people who have been hypnotised, a good (non physical) slap in the face is usually enough to wake them from their bewildered groupthink.
Indeed CG. I was mulling this over last night and wondered if ALL of us on here got the same T shirt printed – with the same message (I am sure we have access somehow to a T shirt printing facility) and just wore it around our local area on a regular basis – almost like a silent protest movement – it might wake some people up. I’m not sure of the message – I was thinking something like “Covid is a con” on the front supplemented with a message on the back that might direct people somewhere online – where they could read further. Anyone have ideas about the message?
I’m thinking that soon this will be the only way to protest legally when all the new legislation comes in.
I think the means by which to change minds is to follow BIRD Groups advice and write to both your GP’s surgery and your MP with the proforma letters they have on their website.
It gives doctors the information on how to prescribe ivermectin. I’ve done it but the surgery wrote back, refused and referred me to my local health authority to ‘complain’.
But that’s not the point. What I think we should be doing is naming and shaming both GP’s surgeries and MP’s who refuse to cooperate.
Given enough momentum we might persuade Toby to dedicate a web page to record all those that refuse to prescribe the safest drug known to mankind, instead, expecting us all to take an unlicensed, experimental drug with no safety data, which skipped animal trials, delivered with no informed consent.
Had any doctor in the UK administered a drug under those circumstances pre covid they would have been struck off and probably jailed.
Absolutely – I don’t hestitate to tell people that I will not participate in any of the rituals of the Covidian Cult, including testing.
Boots I’m sure have had a great plandemic.
And Tesco – the pharmacy counter in my local one is even offering clotshot injections.
Other than those in hospital and with specific symptoms, where testing may inform treatment decisions, there is no need to test anyone at all. If someone feels a bit shit they can stay at home until they feel better, as most would do with any cold or flu infection.
In the city centres they try to capture you at crunch points in train stations and shopping centres. Usually it is LFTs, sometimes alcohol gel. I’ve perfected a disapproving eye roll that I am very pleased with. Once, one of them started to chase me through the station because I had clearly hurt his feelings with my eye roll. I just left my music playing and ignored him, he was too slow to match my pace and gave up. I worry for the sanity of these people if they ever learn they were part of the biggest crime against humanity.
Who seriously gives any credence to what this utter fraud has to say?
the government.
My thoughts on the learned professor….
Pity it doesn’t have the pig dictators face on it.
He “thinks he’s cautiously optimistic”, does he? Unless he’s been misquoted, that expression says just about everything you need to know about the charlatan’s woolly thinking and rubbish “modelling”. Either he’s optimistic, or he’s not; no “thinks” about it. Heaven knows why he’s still hanging on the apron-strings of Johnson and the medicos, but at least my New Year wasn’t wholly blighted by him being knighted or some other undeserved nonsense.
Zooming out: does anyone feel like they’ve lost control of their own narrative interpretation of this saga? Something has changed and there are now so many inconsistencies and incoherences that it has become frankly mystifying. My pet thesis (that the entire fraud has been a CIA-style destabilisation effort used to engineer a controlled economic collapse and disguise decades of financial malfeasance) kind of holds. I’ve thought all along that if technocracy/digital slave system was the objective, this could have been achieved incrementally; many of the pieces were already in play. This feels much more like a tale of two parallel crises – the one we are subjected to and the real (economic) one that sits behind it. If this is so, it’s done its job: society is now divided, politically disempowered, the economy is ravaged, our last remaining assets stripped. As to what happens next… answers on a cryptopostcard.
I still hold with the perfect storm scenario, which is a tale of multiple crisis, that doesn’t exclude the odd conspiracy, or a number of cock ups.
Yes, a completely reasonable interpretation – with a healthy dose of ass-covering, as Robert Malone put it.
“Conspire: to plan secretly with other people to do something bad, illegal, or against someone’s wishes” (Cambridge dictionary)
The only conspiracy I can see is every government in the world conspiring together to tell the public that vaccinations are “Safe and Effective”.
Anything else is just a theory.
The master plan behind the Covid crisis
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/the-master-plan-behind-the-covid-crisis/
Yes – I’ve been on the Ernst Wolff interpretation since he gave his speech in August. He gave a good interview on Jerm Warfare too more recently – also recommended. Didn’t have an English transcript through so thanks for the link.
There is no clear logic to any narrative they are offering. They know that most people do not follow the daily micro level in the media. They know most people have now settled on their side or attitude. I am not sure even the gov knows what is going on or what to say. Blatant contradictions make no difference to their survival. I am now entertaining the view that they really think it is just a virus they believe they have to tackle. There is nothing more to say and maybe wr have to row back from reinforcing theories to fighting concrete tyranny, e.g. masks, coercion etc.
‘I am now entertaining the view that they really think it is just a virus they believe they have to tackle.’
Radical!
Ockham’s razor, I guess. Just as most people wear masks out of peer pressure (nothing else in it), so the government truly believe they are tackling a killer disease.
Both notions are balls, but sadly reality is full of disappointing banalities.
But how do you square that with all the legislation recently analysed by Iain Davis in an article someone posted on here recently, all due to come into law shortly, which will make all protests of any kind [apart from ER] illegal, where you can be imprisoned for “causing someone to catch a disease” (in essence being unvaxxed) etc etc etc – all of that legislation points towards tyranny which wasn’t done by accident and which isn’t necessary to “fight a virus” which a blind man could tell you is nothing more than re-purposed flu
If they bring in prison for being unvaccinated, I was wrong. Don’t get me wrong: the above was a half-arsed thought experiment on my part. It’s just hard to fathom that everything is a conspiracy from day-to-day; so I was being reductive, no doubt. There are a number of possibilities:
1). They really think it is a serious disease – and every new policy is a genuinely held solution
2). They do not think it is serious, but cannot now alter policy because they must save face
3). They can alter policy, but choose not to
4). There is another agenda altogether
5). They are simply morons/cruel/indifferent/incompetent and cannot keep up with developments
6). All part of a globalist/elite plan
7). Any of the above in various combinations
And so we can continue down a list any one of us could put together.
I suspect the basic core of the issue is corruption/making money/receiving bribes, plus being trapped by their own dislogic. The theme of a real pandemic is the touchstone they have to keep touching base with, despite numerous errors, fallacies, mistakes, over-reaches.
Time will tell, and this is just another on-the-hoof first-draft description.
Somehow, I try to keep sane by resorting to an objective ‘phenomenological’ approach which is difficult because I’m living in this tyranny myself.
1 and 5.
Remember these people include Raynor and Abbott.
If anyone’s interested, I just made a two-and-a-quarter hour video that shows how the same people responsible for the scamdemic also orchestrated WWII and 9/11. But I’m sure anyone who hasn’t carried out the ~12 years of research I did on this subject will not like all that I have to say on it
https://whiteavenger.wistia.com/medias/dgwb9u407q
For me this is all about Agenda 2030.
Far too straightforward. A bit of misinformation to distract everyone.
I think you have got part of it, but what about the genocide/democide – it is hard to avoid that now with the actuaries data from the US insurance industry coming out and the warnings about vaccine induced AIDS
Not good news. Since he is always wrong, Omnicon is a massive threat to our communities, guys.
He has a habit of backtracking when it’s clear he was wrong…so every time basically.
Maybe. But he’ll agree with the next restrictions nonetheless.
It was irony, for the slow ones, by the way.
Hellooooo!
After being cast as worldwide pariahs after discovering that Covid had turned into the common cold we are feeling neglected at the tip of Africa. My UK friends and relatives tell me our numbers are low because it is summer and our population is young. Never mind that last summer(when I was a year younger) average daily deaths peaked at 150 in the Cape. We now peaked at less than 10, most of which were likely Delta leftovers. Currently down to 4. Is nobody north of the equator listening? Oh, and vaccines are gathering dust in the clinics and no one knows what a LFT is.
Nobody on this forum is neglecting you! South African voices have been instrumental for many of us, I’m thinking of Jerm Warfare, Dr Shankara Chetty and PANDA. As a person whose family hail from SA, I’m very proud!
It’s a Lousy F***ing Trick to convince someone that they are terminally ill.
Thank you for joining us, your input will be welcomed.
Lucky you – LFTs are handed out like smarties here in UK
“Professor Ferguson-nicknamed Professor lockdown…” Ahemmm.
“That’s quite a turnaround from Ferguson’s earlier prediction that Omicron could result in 5,000 deaths a day.”
Indeed. He’s making it up as he goes along. Making a week-level prediction is ridiculous. I askked WHY he is doing this. His words may be aimed at the Daily Mail market in particular, with the subliminal message “Keep on spending”. But that might be “overthinking”. He may just want to keep his name and face in the headlines with an eye to a book contract – and I don’t mean an academic book.
“Academic book?”
Not really Ferguson’s field.
Academia I mean.
Are you suggesting he can read?
It may be plateauing but the madness continues. Just had a team meeting and noticed one of the guys was in a different room to normal. The reason? The rest of his fully jabbed family have come down with the wuflu so “they’re isolating upstairs and I have to stay downstairs”. wtf?
I have two problems.
1. Why is he allowed anywhere near government?
2. As you write we should now expect worse
Ive read and reread this a number of times but I cant see the mea culpa, ‘I got it wrong’ statement or grovelling apology. Have I missed a bit?
Surely the headline should be ‘My models a piece a shit and isnt worth the paper (code?) its written on. Never listen to me again’ says Prof Lockdown
Followed by statements from SAGE and the government reassuring the public that he will never be allowed to advise them again.
If Imperial want to dismiss him for being useless at his job thats up the them, but I suggest they make sure hes privately funded rather than spunking away my taxes.
In updated news, Professor Ferguson said, it’s time to do the decent thing. He downed the shot of whisky, took the revolver and headed into the back office, closing the door behind him. A few minutes later, we heard the shot and a muffled thud. England was free at last from the insane tyrant’s maniacal crazy prophecies.
Sadly, he missed. Again.
He obviously “modelled” the trajectory
Why is anyone listening to this attention-seeker?
This reminds me of that old saying: even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in a while.
Neil Ferguson, a Professor of Mathematical Biology at Imperial College London?
In early 2020 Neil Ferguson’s modelling forecast that Sweden would pay a hefty price for rejecting a lockdown. The modelling predicted there would be 40,000 Covid deaths by 1 May, and almost 100,000 by June.
As of 14:22 p.m. today, Sweden has had 15,286 COVID-19 related deaths. Subtract those that actually died from other causes and this number would be much lower.
John Fund writes:
Ferguson’s COVID-19 predictions were based on a 13-year-old computer code. Can you believe that? Thirteen years ago in the digital world is pre-Stone Age. This, in itself, has to be a clear-cut case of criminal negligence.
How can a dunce like Ferguson have the position of Professor of Mathematical Biology at Imperial College London? The answer lies in the “Long March through the Institutions”.
Marxist’s believe the bourgeoisie (ruling classes) use cultural institutions to maintain power. So, they took over these institutions and filled them with craven dunces like Neil Ferguson.
All craven dunces have one thing in common, and that is, they are very easy to manipulate and control. Thus, in this way, the Marxist’s take power from the bourgeoisie.
“Professor” Neil Ferguson proves the Long March through the Institutions was wonderfully successful in the UK – as it has also been in the US.
He is no dunce he will be amply rewarded by his sponsors. He knows exactly what he is doing
No, I still think he’s a dunce. He’s one of these progressive woke types that can’t actually see the nose on their own faces.
If he did know where his idiot modelling was leading society, he’d have baulked at it. But he didn’t know, because he’s a dunce devoid of the ability to think or question critically.
Anyone lying or twisting for money/fame/whatever is a dunce.
Psychopaths, not the brightest and best, tend to reach the summit in academe.
According to many reputable virologists, serious levels of ‘Immune deficiency’ are being generated in the vaccinated – who are far more likely be suffering from ‘omicron’ and with weakened immune systems as a direct result of the demands made on their immune response by the spike proteins being generated in their cells, are increasingly more likely to have difficulty in resisting it as their immune deficiency increases.
This is the shocking conclusion of virologists analysing the vaccination stats from Germany and the UK and comparing them to the incidence and seriousness of “omicron” infection principally among the fully vaccinated .
Let us hope they are wrong – but they predict serious consequences of developing AIDS ( immune deficiency acquired from the vaccines) by the end of January as people are less and less able to fight off season infections.
Worth serious attention? But of course no interest whatever from politicians and the bought-out MSM – just following the WEF narrative. However, the smears and shut downs on social media will surely follow.
Latest shutdown: Robert Malone banned from You Tube today for telling the truth.
Question: Why are UK cinemas not allowing bookings or showing films from the 7th of January onwards? And it appears not to be just this country either. What is going on? Do they know something we do not? Is another
imprisonmentlockdown imminent?Wow. I just looked. You are correct not one cinema chain has a full offering of content past Thursday.
Very strange – what’s going on?
My local cinema is showing ‘Covid: A Year of Victories’ this Thursday.
How long is it since Pantsdown was certain sure that Omnicon would be causing 5000 deaths a day by now?
“I think I am cautiously optimistic”. That’s double speak from the fucker! I know exactly what I would like to do to him.
I understand the pig dictator is making another statement tonight (as I have never watched any, I wont be watching this one either). But shall be play Covid Bingo. Words that the fat pig will be vomiting out for the bingo, heavy heart, booster, lockdown, vaccine, variant. Please feel free to add words to the bingo list.
Last time; one last push; reviewed instantaneously; be patient; I’m antichrist
And of course that classic: ‘our communities’!!
By which they mean all imported ones and not the indigenous who are unrepresented as a distinct community
No doubt. Not that there are any real ‘communities’ left; it’s just a marketing slogan.
Oh god no. No no no no no….just fucking stop. Been out and about today Masking is at epic levels. It’s so depressing. This clown show just won’t stop will it. And society loves it.
‘alas’
Save the NHS [a phrase not a word I know but I am 100% sure it will feature]
Mask
Social Distancing
Hands Face Space
Vaccine passports?
Could go on but we have been here so many times already
Sir Neil Ferguson, as he will be known very soon.
A rare bird: a useless idiot
Surely now is the time to be terrified. If Ferguson says we are plateauing that must mean the equivalent of a mustard gas/smallpox etc release by Friday
Perhaps of little interest but The Mail have elevated Prof Pantsdown from a ‘Mathematical Modeller’ to an ‘Epidemiologist’
Says more about The Mail’s poor journalism than about the credibility of anything this teflon-coated, ivory tower-dwelling clown spouts.
He’s only a physicist, one with a very inflated sense of self importance, and a total lack of self awareness and common sense. Exactly the sort of idiot to provide advice to the Government
Ferguson’s thesis was “Continuous interpolations from crystalline to dynamically triangulated random surfaces”.
Says it all as to his qualification to be an epidemiologist. I notice Wikipedia has changed his page to call him an epidemiologist!
MSM is trying to make fun of people wanting to protect themselves with cheap and proven drugs. Ivermectin has been FDA approved for human use since 1996. It also beats Pfizer’s new wonder drug hands down, and costs next to nothing. Ivermectin doesn’t make tons of money. So they know the Covid shot is on its final gasp, so they take it add something different to it, rebrand under another name and charge 20 times what they would for ivermectin. I cannot wrap my head around this nonsense. When I explain this to my relatives they label me as crazy and ask me if I know better than science. I don’t make up these information out of my ass. All this information is true and proven. For some people it is near impossible for them to wake up. They are comfortable in their clown world life. If you want to get Ivermectin you can visit https://ivmpharmacy.com
Given that the bastard is always wrong, that is not reassuring
Does anyone know why Neil Ferguson is still employed by the government. I guess for the same reason vallance, whitty and van dam.
Yes, my thought entirely.
So, what happened to his projections for 5,000 OmiCON deaths per week if we did not lock everything down immediately (which we didn’t)?
And then he says this :
“And then the vaccines – as we always expected they would – are holding up against severe disease and against severe outcomes well”
I’d very much like to know what he bases that claim on because ALL the latest UK official data shows that a) the vaccinated are 5-15X more likely to contract OmiCON than the unvaccinated (a/k/a negatitive efficacy) and b) 70% of hospitalisations are in the vaccinated as are 85% of the Covid deaths since August.
Apart from that, yes he’s wonderful………
That photo says it all – he is holding a crystal and basically prophesies the future for us poor sheep! The sentences sound more like a failed fortune teller than a qualified medical person. If this is the kind of ‘advice’ an expert gives to BJ then God help us all.
Since when did Ferguson get back on SAGE? News to me.
The bloke has spent his whole career causing mayhem with his wonky modelling.
He’s a complete tosser.
Ferguson is the very essence of one of the guiding rules of upper civil service echelons, to quote Dylan – “There’s no success like failure” and reward for failure is the name of the game for him.
“There’s no success like failure, and failure’s no success at all”
If Ferguson was working in the private sector he would be unemployed. He is either completely incompetent or simply supplying Government with what it asks for. Or both. He’s heavily funded by The Gates Foundation so he probably doesn’t care – and that might throw further light on the situation!
Even prof Lockdown cannot alter nature itself, and eventually, nature wins. It always does.