The Scottish Government is contemplating the reintroduction of mask mandates and lockdowns in response to the emergence of new COVID-19 variant, Pirola. The Scottish Daily Express has the story.
Humza Yousaf’s deputy has refused to rule out a return to mask mandates and lockdowns as a new strain of Covid spreads. Shona Robison said the Scottish Government would “take advice” from scientists moving forward.
The new variant, nicknamed Pirola, is highly mutated and is believed to be behind a spike in cases. While data is not available in terms of positive tests, Scotland still monitors sewage for evidence of the virus with health experts saying it is on the rise.
Pirola is understood to be better to bypassing immunity, either from vaccines or previous infections. The Deputy First Minister, who said the Chief Medical Officer has briefed the Scottish cabinet on the situation, was asked by Martin Geissler on BBC Scotland’s Sunday Show if she could “see a scenario” where the likes of face mask mandates, social distancing and lockdowns would return.
She responded: “We would take advice clearly and work very closely with U.K. partners around any change to the advice.” Ms. Robison added: “So the advice at the moment is, of course to make sure that you get vaccinated if you’re eligible, and of course to take those precautions… hand washing, obviously really, really important and you make a very important point about the impact on on hospital capacity, so people who become ill and then are required to be admitted to hospital, that puts additional pressure on the system.”
The country was infamously put into lockdown in March 2020 when Covid first started to spread widely in the U.K. Ministers at Westminster and Holyrood banned people from leaving their homes except under certain circumstances while they were told they could not visit loved ones.
Later that year, a mandate to wear masks in certain settings was introduced. The Scottish Government clung to the mask mandate for longer than the rest of the U.K. and faced criticism for trying to make emergency Covid measures permanent.
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Pshh, eff that for a game of soldiers! Because we all know by now that this has naff all to do with a flaming virus or public health! Here’s an excellent, recently updated essay from the PANDA team; cock-up or conspiracy? I’d like to think it’s very obvious which one it is by now.
”In summation, there are multiple and readily observable signs of political and economic actors working to variously instigate, exaggerate and/or exploit the COVID-19 event. At the same time there are no signs that those promoting the claim that COVID-19 represented an unusually dangerous health crisis are conceding any ground, even as the facts become clear that it was nothing exceptional and that the responses have been a disaster for public health and well-being. Both ideology and underlying agendas appear to be influencing the dynamics of current events, all of which are occurring in the context of major shifts in the distribution of power globally: witness the BRICS block and various geo-political realignments, including the increasingly likely strategic failure for the West in relation to the Ukraine war. None of this looks like the COVID-19 response was just some innocent and incompetent blunder by our scientific and medical establishments.
For those occupying corporate or mainstream positions in politics, media or academia, the fear of being tarred with the ‘conspiracy theorist’ label is usually enough to dampen any enthusiasm for serious evaluation of the ways in which powerful and influential political and economic actors might be shaping responses to COVID-19 to further political and economic agendas. But the stakes are now simply too high for such shyness and, indeed cowardice, to be allowed to persist. There are strong and well-established grounds to take analyses along the lines of the ‘structural deep event’ thesis seriously, as set out in this article, and there are clear and present dangers to our civil liberties, freedom and democracy.
Building on the work already started, researchers must explore more fully the networks and power structures that have shaped the COVID-19 responses and which have sought to move forward various political and economic agendas. Analysing more fully the techniques used, including propaganda and exploitation of COVID-19 as an enabling event, is now an essential task for researchers to undertake. It is also important to consolidate understanding of linkages with ongoing drives related to the UN sustainability agenda – e.g. 15 minute cities – and the climate agenda, all of which potentially involve technocratic and top-down policy approaches at odds with autonomy and democracy.”
https://pandata.org/cockup-or-conspiracy/
Look out. More fear porn garbage coming out of Scotland. Why is it very few people with the title ‘Professor’ nowadays seem to be worthy of it? They talk absolute drivel!
”An infection expert has called for lateral flow tests to become free again as a new Covid variant spreads.
Unofficially called “Pirola”, the new BA.2.86 variant is a mutated version of Omicron, which triggered a surge in cases in late 2021 and early 2022.
Prof Rowland Kao from the University of Edinburgh said it was important to track the spread and some people might not be able to afford the tests.
The Scottish government said the situation was being kept under review.
Prof Kao told BBC Scotland’s The Sunday Show: “It is a very new situation.
“The important thing to remember is that Covid still has the capacity to surprise – we’re not in any kind of settled pattern.
“We have signals that are telling us, even without any new variants, that Covid might be getting worse.
“We have this variant which is quite different from the things that have happened before.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-66767409
Grrrr ….
I saw a story on MSN a couple of days ago about the threat of another pandemic due to new strains of swine flu that have been detected in Cambodia. 16 out of 16 comments called it out for being just another media scare story or attempt to justify more control over our lives. Maybe the general public have become a bit more switched on than some people think.
Prof Kao is a complete Next Tuesday.
Many thanks for that Mogs.
In the scientific world anything called a theory has been proven by replicable experimentation. A hypothesis is what requires to be proven by replicable experimentation.
By calling something a conspiracy theory they are actually saying that the conspiracy is proven. Sadly as Joe & Joanna Bloggs the public are scientifically illiterate & language has been hijacked, they believe that a theory is just a fantasy.
Darwin’s theory of evolution which is taken as fact by the masses is just conjecture following the above logic. Maybe this is how we can challenge when the charge of conspiracy theory is levelled??
Nudge nudge!
Remind society that a tiny cadre of elitists that holds a Sword of Damocles over the heads of ordinary people’s freedoms! As soon as we get out of ECHR, devolution needs to be abolished to rid us of these totalitarian fiefdoms. Sturgeon’s deranged power grab led the weeds of Westminster copying every demented scheme that old trollop cooked up.
At the core is the Malthusian belief that the planet is overpopulated, the environment is in collapse and that populations have to be bagged, tagged and sheep-dipped to be controlled, in public at home and in what they’re thinking.
I agree with every word you’ve written except one. This group are not the elite, the best of the best, they’re parasites. The parasite class which live off the backs of those who work, produce & generate worth.
Let’s call them what they are – parasites.
It pays to read the article. Towards the end is some wanker-in-chief from Edinburgh university trying the New And Dangerous Virus That’s Certainly Not Endemic !!1 card again. These people are really badly itching to put us all back into house arrest again, force us to hide our faces in public again, close down all of the hospitality industry again and again start printing money like the deranged madmen they are.
The fact that we’ve got this rise now again tells us that something is going on that hasn’t happened before.
Raise of the COVID zombies to prepare for a murderous all-out attack on society has occured every autumn since 2020. How can this be Something that hasn’t happened before? And why are people working at universities free to keep trying to cause untold damage to everyone else by peddling demonstrably wrong stories?
Standard practice: report something normal as unprecedented. It reminds me of that old Jeff Daniels film ‘Checking Out’ where he’s screaming in terror ‘My heart is beating!’
It again tells us something unprecedented is happening is also very nicely worded. If it tells us this again, how on God’s f***in earth can it be unprecedented?
People working at universities only see their specialism in isolation, so it’s always scary to them.
DO NOT COMPLY!
“We would….work very closely with U.K. partners”. You’re having a giraffe, right?
FWIW, I’d be surprised if they try to pull “the main event” this winter, before the new WHO treaty/IHR are in place (though of course they could spin it to prove that “global problems require global solutions” and force the new regs through on that basis). More likely autumn 24, IMHO, once they’ve further bedded in digital id and cbdc as tools to crush dissent (and that timing would also give pretext to defer US elections, “as emergency measure”). Suspect this season will be more to identify weak links in plans, test expansion of restrictions on movement, dial up principle of energy cuts/food rationing, measure levels of non-compliance and root out main adversaries (Neil Oliver brilliant again last night- even calling out the highly resistible Stanley Johnson – but can’t believe he’ll be allowed on air much longer.) Which isn’t to say they won’t continue to do everything to make our lives as miserable as possible because ” hey, we’re the government and that’s what we do.”
If there is not a general and violent rebellion then the sheeple will earn their fate. We are at the point where a confrontation is inevitable.
“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable.”
— John F. Kennedy
“A riot is the language of the unheard.”
— Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Not to advocate violence, but those two quotes are certainly true nonetheless. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that though.
I agree, I think that is the closest that Neil Oliver has come to a general call to arms. I don’t think he will be permitted to broadcast for much longer. We are getting to the point where a violent confrontation is inevitable. Who will allow themselves to be forced at gun point, because that’s what it comes down to, to fit a smart meter and heat pump?
Neil is on Fire atm
It seems Mr Jones could have been correct in his assessment….
The great Ronnie Reagan was clearly thinking of bozos like these with his famous quote:
“The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the Government, and I’m here to help.”
If the Scots allowed this again then they are not the strong proud people I’ve always respected them for!
“Scotland still monitors sewage for evidence of the virus”
Perhaps I’ll send them mine in a jiffy bag
I’d skip the bag and go to do my business directly on the floor of Holyrood.
Top tip: Deposit in brown paper bag, place bag on target’s doorstep, set bag on fire, ring doorbell, observe from concealed position, filming, if possible…
And serve it to them on a platter, lol.
They are keeping it simmering in various ways until the WHO treaty that’s not a treaty kicks in then they will throw the kitchen sink at us .
I think what they’re doing ATM is mostly clotshot-marketing. They would obviously like to do more, though.
Worcester hospital carrying a sizeable sign in maternity dept for all pregnant woman to get jabbed etc ! HOW can this be happening
Opportunity. Pregnant women will come to hospital. In hospital, the manic perforators lie in waiting to assault them with drawn syringes the moment they let their guard down.
It’s for the good of king and country, ma’am … well … actually not quite, we hate country, would love to get rid of the king and we’ll call you possibly offspring-bearing creature because this certainly doesn’t mean we’d be willing to admit that you’re woman but you get the picture … !
Indeed, this screams “sell more jabs!” more than anything else.
That “treaty” is poison, and must NEVER be allowed to be ratified.
I’ve an uneasy feeling that the “creatures within”will already have ratified it & we’ll get it as a matter of course , signed sealed & delivered
Well this doesn’t bode well does it? Especially with ‘flu season right around the corner. There’ll likely be a lack of jab junkie staff to look after the jab junkie patients, who will inevitably be more in need of hospital treatment due to them knackering their bodies and health. So when we predictably hear that the NHS is on its knees in coming months, and so they’ll have to all reinstate mask mandates and cut back on operations/patient care/visitor access, this might be something to do with it. Imagine a ‘key prevention strategy’ so effective that 35% of your staff have to go on the sick? I think it just means it’s working…<FFS!>
”Objectives: COVID-19 vaccination is a key prevention strategy to reduce the spread and severity of SARS-CoV-2 infections. However, vaccine-related inability to work among healthcare workers (HCWs) could overstrain healthcare systems.
Study design: The study presented was conducted as part of the prospective CoVacSer cohort study.
Methods: This study examined sick leave and intake of pro re nata medication after the first, second, and third COVID-19 vaccination in HCWs. Data were collected by using an electronic questionnaire.
Results: Among 1704 HCWs enrolled, 595 (34.9%) HCWs were on sick leave following at least one COVID-19 vaccination, leading to a total number of 1550 sick days. Both the absolute sick days and the rate of HCWs on sick leave significantly increased with each subsequent vaccination. Comparing BNT162b2mRNA and mRNA-1273, the difference in sick leave was not significant after the second dose, but mRNA-1273 induced a significantly longer and more frequent sick leave after the third.
Conclusion: In the light of further COVID-19 infection waves and booster vaccinations, there is a risk of additional staff shortages due to postvaccination inability to work, which could negatively impact the already strained healthcare system and jeopardise patient care. These findings will aid further vaccination campaigns to minimise the impact of staff absences on the healthcare system.”
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37562083/
I’m not sure if this is good or bad.
On the one hand, the jab is clearly brutally dangerous
On the other hand, people will do almost anything for an excuse not to go to work…
Hard to tell which way all these healthcare workers will go.
One reason why they probably won’t bring back full lockdowns is quite simple: they literally cannot afford to at this point. To paraphrase a famous former Prime Minister, the problem with lockdowns is that you eventually run out of other people’s money.
Sure, you can always print more money, as money is infinite. But goods and services are NOT infinite. So printing ludicrous amounts of money to paper over the economic damage of lockdowns (to prevent a full-blown depression or worse) while at the same time shutting down supply chains and thus reducing goods and services only guarantees inflation sooner or later. And they need more inflation like they need a hole in the head.
Plus, what isn’t mentioned above ( though I didn’t click to read the full article ), it was shared on here a while back that the report from the Scottish Covid Inquiry concluded that the lockdowns made no difference and were shown to be pointless but also harmful. So I think this is just mere bluster and fear porn to try and rally the zombie hordes to line up for more jabs. They can’t seriously consider bringing lockdowns back due to their own contradictory evidence. Nobody’s going to go for that again and I think any politician that dares will be committing career suicide.
“Pirola is understood to be better at bypassing immunity, either from vaccines or previous infections.”
Pirola’s chicane manoeuvrability is on the verge of becoming legendary.
As each newly invented version is always “more transmissible” you’ll only need to see an infected person on social media to become infected yourself!
I hurt my back last week. It must be Covid or Climate Change, …or possibly kayaking.
The latest Tom Woods podcast ( “The State is making you mentally ill”) goes through how propaganda is designed to create or exacerbate damaging thought patterns (“Cognitive distortions” such as over-generalizing) that are commonly seen in cases of depression etc., all in the service of The Agenda.
No one in government can be this stupid. And if they are, they do not belong in these jobs of responsibility of their constituents safety. Covid is the flu. Nothing has changed. Masks do not work, every scientist with a brain knows this. Lockdowns caused physical, mental and financial damages. Now why would anyone even suggest either of these measure be reinstated? I am sorry but this makes no sense.
I live in Scotland. The two members of the Scottish government the picture don’t have a brain between them. They and most of the Ministers are actually quite stupid but love the perceived power. They want to control the population and have us all living in the Dark Ages again. Everything they touch falls apart. They’d have us in masks in a minute having given no thought to the consequences.
“make sure that you get vaccinated if you’re eligible”
And how exactly would that help anyone given the fact that it’s already been admitted that the EGTTs unsurprisingly don’t stop infection, death or transmission? Apart from Albert Bourla’s bank account swelling once more I can see no advantage to anyone.
How much more crying “WOLF!!!” do we need before these absurd, ignorant, self serving politicians give up? Ridiculous doesn’t even cover it anymore.
I think we rational people on DS find it hard to believe that politicians, and a great number of “experts”, can truly be as stupid as they appear and act. Don’t give them the benefit of the doubt!
Will someone please sit Humza Yousaf & Shona Robison down with a copy of the Cochrane Report. That would be the honest thing for them to do.