In this Special Episode of the Sceptic, Laurie speaks to Doug Stokes, Professor of International Security and Strategy at Exeter University, Senior Advisor at the Prosperity Institute and author of books including Against Decolonisation: Campus Culture Wars and the Decline of the West.
Doug and Laurie discuss whether peace is on the cards in Ukraine, the effect of the war on Russia’s geopolitical position, whether MAGA is right to lament America’s position as global superintendent, the future of NATO and what the war means for Europe and Trump’s trade war and whether it will spell the end of dollar hegemony.
And in the premium section they discuss the long-term possibility of detente with Russia, whether the need to re-arm will mean the end of the Net Zero here in Britain and the roots of the free speech crisis in Britain’s universities.
Donate to the Daily Sceptic to access our premium content. Follow Laurie on X. Follow Doug on X. Subscribe to the Daily Sceptic YouTube Channel. Produced by Richard Eldred. Filmed at the Westminster Podcast Studio.
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No one ever thought before every time you had an infection you were to know exactly what it was. The answer was and is always to boost general immunity vitamin D, zinc etc.
We have, of course, lived with officials sabotaging treatments like HCQ, Ivermectin etc which would have prevented the roll out of the vaccines if they were effective as many courageous dissenting doctors have maintained. But then the powerful people would have lost a lot of money,
HCQ and Ivermectin were blocked not just because they would have made vaccine rollouts impossible, but also because big pharma immediately came up with derivates for which they could charge 1000 times more.
Strictly speaking, if ANY alternative worked, the “emergency use authorisation” for a brand new product would not have been valid.
That, I understand , is true of the US but I cannot find any similar reference to MHRA UK EUA status being predicated in the same way. Very clearly that is a massive part of the Big Lie in the US, and the Pfizer Cominarty approval appears to be part of it too. Fauci and his crony peer group have blood on their hands.
‘Fauci program’ = no treatment until in hospital, then remdesivir then ventilator. Bearing in mind the known lethality of both remdesivir & ventilation and the safety & effectiveness of Zelenko/McCullough protocols (and others), there is surely a case (!) for mass murder. Rand Paul needs to show some teeth & gangster Fauci et al need to prosecuted. If Fauci falls then a can of worms may be opened that could hole the Narrative below the water line. We can but hope that Renz (renz-law.com) and others are on this. . .
Hold the line.
And the pandemic was quietly downgraded in the UK from L4 to L3 to remove the requirement to use these effective medicines, so freeing the way for vaccine EUA.
Correct. It’s worth noting that even the official site has raised the amount of vitamin D supplement that should be used during this time of year. Tablets with more than double the recommended amount are now available off the shelf in supermarkets as well. In simple terms, the recommendations have been quietly updated.
As shingles has been mentioned in this thread of comments, it might be useful to say that I had an attack of it around week 53 in 2012. It was treated with Aciclovir – 800 mg, 5 times a day for 7 days. Incidentally, no-one worried about any risk to third parties with that one. I even sat next to one of the local GPs in a restaurant (it was a social do – remember those?) and she wasn’t worried about it.
Vit.D supplements are also now being given to care home residents. Why can’t the medical authorities be honest? They only have to recognise that they actually know very little, and are always learning, e.g. from folk like our author here, who has invested his own time and professional expertise to researching a new line of thought into something that could potentially be very important.
Clunk. Did you hear that? The sound of the ruddy obvious penny dropping for that author. ‘COVID. The gift that keeps on giving’…the excuse to perpetuate the fear mongering – every symptom is included. The next sound will be the connecting of dots. Stuff we’ve been saying for months.
I’m not sure what you are getting at. Who do you feel is fear-mongering?
The government, SAGE nudge unit, the mainstream media and the NHS. They’ve plucked out existing viruses and existing symptoms and labelled them COVID perpetuating fear of a health emergency (the generated problem) that has brainwashed the majority into accepting an unnecessary emergency treatment (the solution)…..all the while controlling the narrative and counting the money.
Okay, I was worried that you thought that it was me that was scare mongering!
No, not at all. Apologies if it came over that way, I appreciate that you have spent the time to write up scientific/medical proof of the scam.
John, that was a very important observation and hypothesis and should be investigated. Unfortunately, I doubt many will take any notice and even if they did and if you are correct it will not stop those vaccines being rolled out to people who don’t need them. The “leaders” of our world are intent on us becoming dependent on drug companies.
I say that having read yet another study pointing out that the vaccines are not stopping the delta. The vaccines are leaky and common sense suggests we will forever be chasing new vaccine avoiding variants. I believe had we kept vaccines to the vulnerable where the balance of risks makes sense we would’ve been rid of serious problems a year ago and possibly avoided vaccine resistant strains. We would also not have damaged society, democracy, human rights and the economy. The worst is still to come in my opinion.
“we will forever be chasing new vaccine avoiding variants”, you mean like we do for flu?
Maybe future generations will rename cold sores to COVID sores…
Does Covid even exist? I mean, Flu almost disappears completely for 12 months. Come on.
It doesn’t matter what your symptoms are, a positive PCR test means you have Covid.
What are you joking!! Kary Mullis did not create the pcr test for covid! It is not supposed to be run on the amplification of 40/45. I suggest you search Kary Mullis
The inventor of PCR never said it wasn’t designed to detect infectious diseases.
The test we have now were ‘invented’ by
Christiane Drosten. I shan’t call him a doctor as there is a huge ? over his qualifications.
Stop prolonging the pcr test rubbish
Perfectly serious
Five People Shot In Washington – Die From COVID-19 | Real Climate Science
“Our current dashboard reflects anyone who died, that tested positive for COVID, irrespective of cause of death,” she said.
SEE
mwhite is saying that’s what the narrative says…
Surely that was intended to be irony.
There’s an interesting question not being asked let alone answered; what happened to flu?
I recall that in September 2020 the government (or one of its lackeys) said that the numbers of flu cases would be conflated with ‘covid’ figures henceforth. I didn’t keep the link, unfortunately. I remember thinking at the time how convenient this was going to be for prolonging the fear narrative for the Terminally Terrified.
Good article.
You may went to extend your scepticism still further against the orthodoxy.
Please find the research that shows any virus in isolation having been shown to make somebody ill.
Germ Theory is assumed to be right but it rests on a deck of cards.
My view is that Terrain Theory has far more going for it.
But modern “science” sees it as heresy.
We do not know what is really causing the diverse set of symptoms called Covid.
Even worse, our great scientists are not looking for the toxins that really make people ill.
Easier to blame viruses. .
I am in two minds about the opposing theories (actually should they not be hypotheses as a theory requires observations to confirm the hypothesis?). Rather than two opposing views are they two sides of the same coin? One may give a better explanation under some circumstances and the other give a better explanation at other times?
In fact the reactivation of the herpes viruses/HIV/HPV could be considered an example of terrain theory, where conditions exist that cause the symptoms of disease.
The latest yellow card reporting for herpes infections might interest you.
You are right. It is possible that both theories are correct. Ask any engineer how often they have chased a fault solution based on hypothesis only to find after a lot of head scratching there were actually 2 faults.
If we were doing real science, terrain theory would be thoroughly investigated and medicine would not be dismissive.
Yes, it’s this ‘dismissive’ attitude by the medical authorities that is so worrying. They think they know it all, and are the only arbiters of knowledge. They don’t, and they aren’t.
I’m sure they don’t ”think they know it all”. They know they don’t know it all, but they’re instructed/bribed/ordered/coerced not to give the game away.
“For those who wish to look further down this particular rabbit hole”
That’s the problem – it’s yet another distraction from the real issue which is that covid was/is not exceptional and there’s no evidence that any of the measures employed against it are of any use.
In a saner, more honest world, this kind of thinking would lead to useful research that might then find its way into medical and public health policy and benefit people. But the lockdown+vaxx madness is so deeply embedded now, and so political, that this kind of research will just get buried.
When you look back, it’s very often the individual who questions the consensus and investigates a new path that makes the new discoveries. Our medical authorities should be encouraging and facilitating that process, not shutting it down. Why don’t they? Normal reasons; power, prestige & MONEY.
Good article.
This goes back to a fundamental issue. There are some tests that purport to discover the presence of a virus COV-SARS-2 which may or may not work and/or may find that virus which is identified by a piece of coding used by Drosten.
COVID-19 the disease has no such test, its inferred that the positive test above demonstrates that the virus causes the disease. However over the last 20 months the symptoms of that disease have increased to cover just about anything from a runny nose to complete collapse of the immune system. Just about anything can now be classified as ‘covid’ that is not a physical injury ( and I’m not sure about that given the 28 day after aspect of the tests).
A large proportion of covid illnesses are as a result of either hospital or nursing home stays. Its very possible that the original reason for the stays and the subsequent medication etc induces stress on the body and mind of the incumbent. Prior to ‘covid’ these incidents would not be seperately identified. Now there is a large financial inducement to identify them as ‘covid’.
A virus may exist, but I remain very sceptical of the disease.
I couldn’t agree more. There may be a virus but, as described in today’s BBC news, children who seem to be the demographic in which it is currently circulating most, can test positive for it without feeling ill or even suffering any symptoms – therefore what is the “disease” or illness in that scenario? But of course no one is asking that question and instead is using that information to subject children to a campaign of mass testing before their return to school, and who knows, will it be used to justify child vaccination policy?
And as for the classification of covid deaths, as there are no post-mortems of covid deaths and doctors seem inordinately keen to include it in the death certificate for ANY death they are called on to certify, then the qualification attached to the death stats of “where covid is mentioned on death certificates” means those death statistics are of very little medical or scientific value.
I recently became aware of someone I knew who died in hospital – a post mortem was done because the death was sudden and unexpected, no cause of death could be identified as a result of the post mortem but the doctors were still VERY keen to record covid on the death cert even though the patient had not tested positive for it. That, to my mind, tells you everything.
Absolutely. We are all at risk of misinterpreting published statistics, but it’s worth understanding what the ‘glossary’ in every weekly ONS report actually implies. I can’t help thinking that the late Harold Shipman (the serial murderer) would have loved it. He had a reputation of making up the death certs himself.
May I ask if you are meaning that CV19 is not, per se, a disease but a syndrome? If SARS COV2, via the S1 spike protein invading cells via the ACE2 receptor medium, induces a clotting and /or inflammatory response in the affected cells which then cause other morbidities specific to the organs containing the affected cells and possibly,sadly, death, as a non medic I think I follow that?
In my original submission I made reference to multiple sources resulting in a piece unsuitable for this site. However if anyone is suitably inclined here is a list of sources:
Aghbash P.S., Eslami N. Shirvaloo M. Baghi H.B. (2021), “Viral coinfections in COVID‐19”, Journal of Medical Virolology.
Bostan E., Yalici-Armagan B. (2021), “Herpes zoster following inactivated COVID-19 vaccine: A coexistence or coincidence?”, Journal of Cosmetic Dermatology, 20, pp1566–1567.
Busto-Leis et al (2021) Letter, “Pityriasis rosea, COVID-19 and vaccination: new keys to understand an old acquaintance”,Journal of European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology, 35, e489-e491
Cabrera Muras et al (2021), “Bilateral Facial Nerve Palsy associated with COVID-19 and Epstein-Barr Virus co-infection”
Carfì A, Bernabei R, Landi F, for the Gemelli Against COVID-19 Post-Acute Care Study Group (2020), “Persistent Symptoms in Patients After Acute COVID-19.” JAMA, 324, 6, pp 603–605
Char Leung (2021) Guillain-Barre syndrome should be monitored upon mass vaccination against SARS-CoV-2, Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics
Chen T., Jiayi Song J., Liu H., Zheng H., Chen C. (2021), “Positive Epstein–Barr virus detection in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) patients”, Scientific Reports, 11
Chow et al (2020) Acute transverse myelitis in covid-19 infection
Ciccarese et al (letter) (2020) “SARS-CoV-2 as possible inducer of viral reactivations”
Drago et al (2021) “Human herpesvirus‐6, ‐7, and Epstein‐Barr virus reactivation in pityriasis rosea during COVID‐19”
Ertugrul and Aktas (2020), “Herpes zoster cases increased during COVID-19 outbreak. Is it possible a relation?”
Gold J.E., Okyay R.A., Licht W.E., Hurley D.J. (2021), “Investigation of Long COVID Prevalence and Its Relationship to Epstein-Barr Virus Reactivation”, Pathogens, 10, 6, pp 763-778
Im J.H., Lee J-S, Kwon H.Y., Chung M-H, Baek J.H. (2021), “Epstein–Barr Virus and Cytomegalovirus Reactivation in Patients with COVID-19”, preprint available online at https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-52829/v1 (last accessed 12th July 2021)
Im J.H., Nahm C.H., Je Y.S., Lee J.S., Kwon H.Y., Chung M-H., Jang J-H, Kim J.S., Lim J.H., Park M.H., Baek J.H. (2021), “The effect of Epstein – Barr Virus Viremia on the Progression to Severe COVID-19”, preprint available at https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-432640/v1 (last accessed 12th July 2021)
Jellinge, M. E., Hansen, F., Coia, J. E., Song, Z. (2021). “Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1 Pneumonia—A Review.”, Journal of Intensive Care Medicine.
Leoni et al (2021), “COVID-19 and HHV8 first spotted together: an affair under electron microscopy”
Lin D., Liu L., Zhang M., Hu Y., Yang Q., Guo J., Guo Y., Dai Y., Xu Y., Cai Y., Chen X., Zhang Z., Huang K. (2020), “Co-infections of SARS-CoV-2 with multiple common respiratory pathogens in infected patients”, Science China Life Sciences, 63, 4, pp 606–609
Nirenberg M.S. and Herrera M.M.R. (2021),”Foot manifestations in a patient with COVID-19 and Epstein-Barr virus: A case study”, The Foot, 46
Nofal et al 2020 letter “Herpes zoster ophthalmicus in COVID-19 patients”
Simonnet A., Engelmann I., Moreau A.S., Garcia B., Six S., El Kalioubie A., Robriquet L., Hober D., Jourdain M. (2021), “High incidence of Epstein-Barr virus, cytomegalovirus, and human-herpes virus-6 reactivations in critically ill patients with COVID-19.”, Infectious Diseases now, 51, 3, pp 296-299
Solomay T.V., Semenenko T.A., Filatov N.N., Vedunova S.L., Lavrov V.F., Smirnova D.I., Gracheva A.V. Faizuloev E.B. (2021), “Reactivation of Epstein-Barr Virus (Herpesviridae: Lymphocryptovirus, HHV-4) Infection Against the Background of COVID-19: Epidemiological Features”, Voprosy virusologii, 66, 2, pp152-161 (In Russian)
Verma D., Church T.M., Swaminathan S.(2021),“Epstein-Barr Virus Lytic Replication Induces ACE2 Expression and Enhances SARS-CoV-2 Pseudotyped Virus Entry in Epithelial Cells”, Journal of Virology, 95, 13, ppe00192-221
Wallukat G., Hohberger B., Wenzel K., Fürst J., Schulze-Rothe S., Wallukat A., Hoenicke A-S, Müller J. (2021),
“
Functional autoantibodies against G-protein coupled receptors in patients with persistent Long-COVID-19 symptoms”, Journal of Translational Autoimmunity, 4
Werner J., Reichen I., Huber M., Abela I.A., Weller M., Jelcic I. (2021), “Subacute cerebellar ataxia following respiratory symptoms of COVID-19: a case report”, BMC Infectious Diseases, 21, pp 298-304
Wu CT, Lidsky PV, Xiao Y, Lee IT, Cheng R, Nakayama T, Jiang S, Demeter J, Bevacqua RJ, Chang CA, Whitener RL, Stalder AK, Zhu B, Chen H, Goltsev Y, Tzankov A, Nayak JV, Nolan GP, Matter MS, Andino R, Jackson PK. (2021), “SARS-CoV-2 infects human pancreatic β cells and elicits β cell impairment.” Cell Metabolism, 33, 8, pp1565-1576
John an eldery relative [double vaxxed] has just been diagnosed with shingles, having had an earlier bout of the same illness about a decade ago. They are due to be booster jabbed shortly – would this be a case where a booster jab would not be a good idea?
although I am no longer a registered nurse I am loathe to give direct advice, however in general terms.
How old is your relative? There is a shingles vaccine available but is limited to those aged 75+.
Which vaccine did they have originally?
If your relative is still having symptoms of shingles when their booster is due then that’s a definite no.
Personally I would not have the booster under those circumstances, as it is the Pfizer mRNA rather than the AstraZeneca.
Sorry to put you in difficult position John and the reply is very much appreciated. GP was very good when she saw elderly relative [82yo], prescribed 7 day course of aciclovir (not sure I spelled that correctly) and she is improving, but gave no advice re the flu and booster jab. She hasn’t had shingles vaccine. Not sure which jabs she has had but she is double jabbed. She is very keen to get the flu jab and booster jab but I would be reluctant to see her get that combination of jabs until much further into her recovery. Thank you for your help.
Not a problem, I try and answer in general terms rather than specifics. Acyclovir or aciclovir can be given within 72 hours of symptoms of shingles, it’s effectiveness diminishes after that. I think you’re right about any vaccinations in the immediate future. Also, whilst there’s a rash your relative is still infectious to other people unless the rash is covered with clothing.
L-lysine is very effective in reducing the viral load in shingles, chicken pox, cold sores and also Covid – therapeutic dose, at least 500 mg x 3 per day. In addition, to reduce arginine type foods such as chocolate, coffee etc whilst fighting to recover.
Last April 2020I was testing people for COVID. A large number were convinced they had COVID, but tested negative. It occurred to me that if I was going to deliberately spread a lab based gain of function corona virus I would release more than one.
Could it all be down to a test-demic (i.e. it’s NOT SARS2 causing problems it’s merely widespread and say flu is causing the problems or something else we aren’t testing)?
Is it possible to know?
It’s possible, would be hard to determine in normal circumstances. Right now impossible. Unless the sheeple revolt things will keep getting worse, in fact they’re going to keep getting worse whatever but could be somewhat mitigated.
“all double-vaccinated” “It’s just strange” “Now they are recovering from COVID-19, one of their teammates dead, wondering if this tragedy could have been averted.”
“all double-vaccinated” “It’s just strange” | Real Climate Science
Covid 19 sweeps through mens hockey league
this is a great article there too
https://realclimatescience.com/61-fake-data/
a model that’s useful only because it doesn’t tell the truth… Sounds familiar somehow…
Very apt Feynman quote on that site; “Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts.”
In this study of covid era excess mortality in the US, Denis Rancourt et al suspect that a great deal of bacterial pneumonis is being misdiagnosed as covid.
https://denisrancourt.ca/entries.php?id=107&name=2021_10_25_nature_of_the_covid_era_public_health_disaster_in_the_usa_from_all_cause_mortality_and_socio_geo_economic_and_climatic_data
I have been wondering if there are small number of localised clusters where the virus for some reason is particularly virulent for people not usually at high risk. The Newcastle United footballers seemed to get hit very hard, and some families also.
There could be a lot of contributory factors such as diet. Also, if athletes are in a period of intense training or too many matches it could be lowered immune system from too much stress. I’ve seen it in serious amateurs who are trying to hold down a job and train every day as well.
Yes, cold & flu. They disappeared in 2020, so must have been re-branded Covid. Scamdemic based on a +99.5% survival rate.
More than one virus?…Why are the ingredients of all the jabs out there all different? Four jabs at the moment, with another two- Novamax and Valneva waiting in the wings.. Are they different because they are all experimental…and the phase 3 trials are, in effect a race…winner takes all ?
Because if the ingredients were not different, it would be a patent infringement?
Novavax is more traditional, it doesn’t use your own cells to produce the spikes, it contains them. Supposed to have adverse reaction level the same as other common vaccines. But seeing as the spike is thought to be the damaging part of the virus … who knows. However, it isn’t the whole virus so it still has questions.
You’ve cracked the case, Sherlock. (Nobel prize committee wants to know your location.)
Who bloody knows? Who bloody cares?
I don’t know how it works, but I know that the first vaccination gave me shingles, it flared up again after the second, and I am reluctant to have a third.
Excellent article John Collins. It makes a lot of sense.
Could it? I wonder. Could it be that those of us who have said from the start of the hoax that ‘Covid’ is simply an invented catch-all term for any and all non-lethal respiratory infections, the sort of thing my GPs have, over the years, described as ‘non-specific respiratory infection’ and nothing to be alarmed about, even when it seemed I had pneumonia, were right?
Interesting article. Back in August I was ill and, if I go by the traditional symptoms, it was influenza. I ran a 40-degree temperature, no appetite at all, diarrhoea, insomnia, a non persistent and wet cough (clear phlegm) and nausea. My wife also came down with it as well at the same time but she ran a lower temp then me and both our temperatures were normal after seven days. Her main issue after a week was intense nausea for which she required medication. My main issue, which was driving me mad, was insomnia and I did not sleep for two weeks. My wife had no trouble sleeping. The second week we also lost our sense of taste and smell. We did LFT’s and also PCR. I did an LFT immediately after doing the PCR and it was clearly negative. The PCR result came back positive the next day as I knew it would. I did wonder if it was possible to have more than one virus active at the same time. Weeks three and four we spent recovering very well.
We went back to our normal lives which for me is an active one. I study and teach karate and play 5 aside footy and after a couple of weeks of easing myself back in to these activities to regain some lost fitness and energy I felt fine and I’ve had no lingering adverse post viral issues until recently that is. Or at least that’s the possibility, I don’t know. At the beginning of last week I picked up a stomach bug out of nowhere but it wasn’t a typical one, ie, I had loose bowls but no diarrhoea and no vomiting. I was also experiencing strange waves of something coming over me now and then and I wasn’t confident that I wouldn’t keel over at some point which fortunately I didn’t. I didn’t have a temperature either. The real alarming thing for me was that my blood pressure shot up and my heart felt at times it would burst out of my chest. My blood pressure hit 157/96 at one point and I’m always a rock steady 120/70. It fluctuated around the 140/80 for the rest of last week but did not return to normal until earlier this week. I don’t drink or smoke. I’ve been eating very plainly and in greatly reduced amounts and I’m hoping I’m past it but this week I’ve been having a day when I feel ok then feel a bit ropey the next. I did wonder if this was a post viral episode.
By the way both me and my wife are unjabbed and have had no illness over the past 18 months prior to August.
A good medical axiom is not to seek two cause where one will do.
Many viruses have a final common path of creating a cytokine storm. This is all laid out in “Cytokine Storm Syndrome” by Cron and Behrens, published in 2019. I remain amazed by how few (if indeed any) people have read this. That said, now the question has been asked it should be answered, or there will be ongoing debate..