Government Was Warned About Looming Cancer Crisis Five Months Ago
Lockdown Sceptics has obtained a briefing note written by Professor Karol Sikora on May 18th warning the Government about the looming crisis in cancer care and making a series of recommendations about how to avoid it. Prof Sikora even flagged up the risk that GP referrals of suspected cancer patients would fall dramatically, which Cancer Research UK said yesterday meant that 350,000 people who would normally have been referred to hospital with suspected cancer in the past six months have still not been seen.
The briefing note was produced at the behest of Sir Simon Stevens, the NHS’s Chief Executive, but after submitting it to a civil servant in the DHSC Prof Sikora never heard anything more.
Not only did Prof Sikora identify all the risks that have subsequently materialised, he also suggested a solution: collaboration with the private sector. Here’s his conclusion:
The surge of cancer patients is expected by late summer 2020. The independent sector has huge resources to assist the NHS by working in partnership. Developing a plan centrally and authorising local coordination based on existing NHS cancer centres would provide the most effective structure for implementation. This will significantly mitigate against delay and strict rationing to ensure the best long-term outcomes for our patients.
When the official inquiry begins into the unending series of cock-ups by the Government and the Civil Service, this document will be a smoking gun.
Did Tony Blair Break Quarantine Rules?
You’d be forgiven for thinking it’s one set of lockdown rules for the political elite and another for the hoi polloi, given how many times members of the political class have been caught flouting the rules. The latest addition to this ignominious list is Tony Blair. The Sunday Telegraph has devoted its front page splash to the story.
Tony Blair was last night accused of a “flagrant” breach of COVID-19 restrictions, after failing to self-isolate for a fortnight after a two-day trip to the US on a private jet.
In pictures obtained by this newspaper, the former prime minister is seen leaving a restaurant in Mayfair 10 days after his return from Washington DC last month.
The Sunday Telegraph understands that Mr Blair appealed to Whitehall officials for special dispensation from the COVID-19 rules, but that he was not issued with the formal exemption letter he would have needed to avoid the 14-day isolation period.
The Telegraph is not aware of any other exemption for which Mr Blair could qualify. He claims he was advised to follow rules on attending “international conferences”, having travelled to the US for a ceremony at the White House at which Israel signed agreements establishing formal relations with Bahrain and the UAE.
But the “international conferences” exemption to the rules applies to diplomats, staff at international bodies such as the UN and formal representatives at international conferences who have been “granted privileges and immunities”.
Mr Blair is considered a private citizen, having stepped down from his post-No 10 role as Middle East envoy in 2015.
Those taking advantage of the exemption require “an exemption letter to show at the border”.
A spokesman for the former Prime Minister said he was invited by the US Government because of the role he played in the agreement between Israel and the UAE – describing the ceremony as a “diplomatic conference”.
The spokesman also insisted Mr Blair “posed no risk to anyone” as he was tested before his departure, on arrival at the White House, and again several times since returning to the UK.
Posed no risk to anyone?
Well, I’ve had the virus and recovered and have the antibodies to prove it, so I’m not a risk to anyone either. Does that mean I, too, can disregard the rules when they’re inconvenient?
Didn’t think so.
Stop Press: The Mail on Sunday has confirmed that MPs did flout the 10pm curfew in a House of Commons bar on October 5th. Matt Hancock has confirmed that he was in the bar on the night in question, but left to vote at 9.40pm and won’t disclose whether he returned afterwards in spite of being asked the question 30 times. Things are looking a bit sticky for the Health Secretary.
Tory Grandees Ask: “What’s the Exit Strategy?”
Also on the front page of the Sunday Telegraph is a story about how senior Tories, including Sir Graham Brady, Chair of the 1922 Committee, are demanding to know what the exit strategy is.
Senior Conservatives expressed growing anger at the Government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, amid mounting concern that swathes of the country are heading for further restrictions this week.
On Saturday, Julian Jessop, an independent economist, said that another lockdown could result in a fresh hit to GDP of at least 5%.
Lord Lamont, the former Chancellor, warned that repeatedly imposing draconian restrictions and then lifting them is “deeply damaging to business and is not really a strategy”.
Sir Graham Brady, Chairman of the 1922 committee of Tory backbenchers, whose Altringham and Sale West constituency in Manchester faces being placed in the highest tier of restrictions, said constant lockdowns or “circuit breakers” to suppress the virus would be “pointless”.
“If further restrictions on people’s lives are proposed, the Government has to set a clear end date and a strategy for returning life to normal,” Sir Graham said.
Amidst all these rumblings of discontent on the backbenches, a pollster with close links to Number 10 has warned that public opinion is turning.
James Frayne, who has previously carried out focus group research for the Government, warns of a looming shift in public opinion, against further lockdowns. He also accused the Government of “playing down the obvious economic risks associated with harsher measures”.
His warning came as a poll by ORB International found that just 10% of people believe the pandemic is under control in this country – a record low.
Mr Frayne, founding partner of the Public First policy research agency, states: “Opinion will shift fast with public realisation of the economic trauma set to befall us. Oddly, politicians have mostly kept this hidden from the public to date.
“But when Government reduces personal and business support – as they must – people will see the direct trade-offs being made: essentially, health versus living standards. In this new world, the key polling question will be: ‘are you happy to pay a lot more in tax and risk your job for a national lockdown?’ For most, the answer will be a resounding no.”
Mr Frayne suggests that Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, has identified a shift in public mood, which is leading him to resist No 10’s attempts to move the city into Tier 3.
“The fact he has highlighted the relatively low growth of Covid cases there, as well as talking in stark terms about the economic damage Tier 3 would bring about, is a major step… If the Labour Party follows Burnham’s lead – not imminently likely, granted – the Government would be in a very vulnerable position politically.”
He adds: “If they are not careful, they are going to look like they are blasé about the lives of ordinary people across the country.”
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: There’s a good piece in the Sunday Times documenting the deteriorating relationship between the Government and its scientific advisors.
“We’ve begun to hate the scientists,” said one Tory MP who has supported the Government on all the votes on restrictions. “You’ve got these guys on SAGE briefing journalists, going on the telly saying the PM must bring in a national lockdown. Why are they allowed to do that? You are either part of the team or you’re not. You can be an independent scientist and say what you like. You can’t be part of SAGE and go on telly saying they need to do this.”
Report From Yesterday’s Anti-Lockdown Protest
A reader has been in touch to tell us about his experiences on yesterday’s anti-lockdown demo in London. Not all “anti-vaxxers”, as the Evening Standard would have us believe.
I’d say around two to three thousand gathered at Speakers’ Corner. There was a bit of confusion initially between the two groups leading the event, with StandUpX wanting to head down Oxford Street, and Justice UK wanting to march directly to Downing Street. It had a bit of a Judean People’s Front vs the People’s Front of Judea feel about it. The two groups split, although the Oxford Street march probably attracted about 90% of us.
There were a lot of police and Community Liaison Officers on hand, but no sign of the more thuggish variety from the Territorial Support Group that brutalised the Trafalgar Square gathering. The police behaved very reasonably, walking us down Oxford Street and through Oxford Circus. The crowd, as with the Trafalgar Square rally, was peaceful and good natured. Several bus drivers obligingly sounded their horns in support. We got talking to various people as we walked along. One lady had lost her job recently and her savings were too big to get Universal Credit. Another said many of her neighbours had told her they would be at the march, but when she got to the station it was deserted.
Several marchers engaged with passers-by on Oxford Street, encouraging them to take off their masks. The numbers of – particularly younger – people wearing masks outside was thoroughly depressing. They stood, watched and photographed the protesters filing past. No doubt behind the masks they were open mouthed. We thought there was still quite a way to go to persuade people.
Eventually, the march turned up Rathbone Place and was stopped there by police. Lots of us wondered whether we were about to be kettled, so left. We popped in to a fairly busy pub and the remaining marchers passed by. There were some dismissive reactions from some in the pub. Three couples on the table next to us bellowed about the “nutters” and how there wasn’t “a mask among them”. It’s inconceivable that they were all part of one household, but will have lied about that. People pay lip service to the rules but don’t comply when it suits.
Later we came across a much depleted march near Covent Garden, which we re-joined for a short period before heading back to our hotel. Not sure where they ended up or whether they made it down Whitehall.
Who are the Real Heirs of John Snow in the Herd Immunity Debate?
The scientific Establishment has come up with an answer to the Great Barrington Declaration which it has called the John Snow Memorandum, named after the 19th Century public health scientists thought to be the founder of epidemiology. But as we pointed out on Lockdown Sceptics a couple of days ago, John Snow was a maverick who refused to believe the consensus among the scientists of his day about the causes of infectious diseases and instead set about gathering empirical evidence like a proper scientist. And when he discovered the real cause of the Soho Cholera outbreak, he came up with a targeted intervention that stopped it in its tracks. In short, John Snow has much more in common with Martin Kulldorff, Sunetra Gupta and Jay Bhattacharya – the original authors of the GBD – than he does with the Establishment toadies who’ve signed the Memorandum.
The same point is made by Robert E Wright in an excellent post for the American Institute for Economic Research.
What the signatories of the John Snow Memorandum want you to think is that they are the John Snows of 2020, bravely following “the” science. But the fact is, the Lancet and signatories like Chelsea Clinton represent the Establishment, hellbent on maintaining current policies regardless of the mounds of evidence that lockdowns do not work to stop the spread and increase other forms of mortality. They gloss over the fact that Snow searched for a targeted intervention, not the lockdown of London.
Worth reading in full.
NHS Test and Trace Hands Over Data to Police
Just when you thought public trust in the Government couldn’t sink any lower, the Department of Health and Social Care has said information obtained by NHS Test and Trace about which individuals should be self-isolating will be shared with the police so they can ensure people are complying. Sky News has more.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) confirmed it had “agreed a memorandum of understanding with the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC)” to provide forces with the information on a “case-by-case basis”.
In a statement, a spokesman told Sky News: “It is a legal requirement for people who have tested positive for COVID-19 and their close contacts to self-isolate when formally notified to do so.
“The DHSC has agreed a memorandum of understanding with the NPCC to enable police forces to have access on a case-by-case basis to information that enables them to know if a specific individual has been notified to self-isolate.
“The memorandum of understanding ensures that information is shared with appropriate safeguards and in accordance with the law. No testing or health data is shared in this process.”
I wonder how people will feel the next time they look at that NHS Covid app on their phones? As Alistair Haimes said on Twitter, the DHSC was very keen to tell us how many millions of people were downloading the app when it was rolled out a couple of weeks ago. Can they now start telling us how many millions have started deleting it?
Covid Cases in Manchester Not “Out of Control”
Prof Carl Heneghan and colleagues from the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine have taken a deep dive into Greater Manchester’s Covid data in the Telegraph to see whether the city really does need to go into a Tier 3 lockdown.
The question on everyone’s mind is whether Covid is out of control in Manchester, or has Burnham got it right, and the Government should hold off?
First, let’s look at cases, which don’t seem to be out of control, and are, if anything, declining. They peaked on the September 30th with 596 cases and a seven-day average of 461. As of October 9th, the seven-day average has fallen from the peak by nearly 20% to an average of 374.
Nine out of the 10 Greater Manchester’s boroughs report recent increases in their Covid rates whereas Manchester’s are on the wane. But this further underpins the need to understand the context of what is actually happening.
The sweeping term “cases” hides a diverse typology of reality, apart from false positives. The only critical cases are those with serious symptoms (who may go on and be admitted to hospital) and those who are contagious (who may transmit the disease to others).
Suppose the increase is due to healthy student-age people. In that case the increase is unlikely to be reflected in either admissions or deaths, especially in the student age group, who play no part in national mortality statistics.
Contagious youngsters are unlikely to pass the pathogen on after a week from symptoms onset and if they continue to test positive with few or no symptoms, it’s likely because they are shedding pieces of dead viruses which have little or no public health significance.
Manchester University’s figures can help as the university keeps data on known positive cases among its staff and students. It includes those on and off-campus but does not indicate where someone might have contracted the virus.
These data also do not support further measures: cases peaked on the October 2nd – a spike driven by the return of over 70,000 students to the city – and have fallen significantly since. They are 75% less than what they were at the peak.
Hospital admissions may shed some light on the need for lockdown. Data from NHS England show the current seven-day average for admissions from the community is 12 a day to NHS Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, up from an average of eight a day in the previous week.
But more telling are the data from weekly and monthly mandated Secondary Uses Service (SUS) repository for healthcare data in England.
These data show a dramatic reduction for respiratory condition admissions compared with what we would normally expect at this time of year.
In short, cases are falling and hospital admissions for respiratory conditions are falling.
Leave Andy Burnham alone, Prime Minister.
The Lost Children of Covid
IRINA POLONINA
According to the Sunday Times, 750,000 children were absent from school last week, giving an 89.9% attendance rate, compared with 95% last autumn. The truly alarming thing, however, is that many of these children will never return to school.
They are the lost children of Covid. Bright teenagers are dropping out of education to turn to crime, sometimes to feed their families. Teachers spend weeks waiting for promising pupils to return, only to realise they are not coming back.
Other children are being removed from school for home education or long stays abroad for fear of the virus.
Sophie, 16, one of four children in a single-parent family, lives in Walker, one of the most deprived parts of Newcastle upon Tyne. The teenager, whose mother was a nurse before having a family, won a scholarship to start this term at the Royal Grammar School, one of the city’s private schools. She is determined to go to university and become a doctor, but some of her friends from local schools are dropping out.
Boys she grew up with, “lads who dabbled in drugs before the pandemic”, are not in school. Some are drug dealers. “Kids my age feel helpless,” Sophie said. “Some of my friends went for the induction day at sixth-form college last month and never returned. The college is trying its hardest to get them back into class, but they are just like, ‘Nah, that’s it.’”
She added: “A lot of people I went to school with have got sucked into drug-dealing. I know of kids who did it slightly before the pandemic; now it’s all they do. So many people have been made redundant… their mums and dads… their least worry is whether their kid finishes a business course at college; they [the parents] are trying to get their own lives back on track.”
Yet more evidence of the terrible collateral damage done by the lockdown policy. Worth reading in full.
French Police Raid Homes of Government Ministers
Police in France have carried out dawn raids of the homes of the country’s former Prime Minister, current and former Health Ministers, and other senior officials, as part of an inquiry into the French Government’s cack-handed response to the coronavirus pandemic. The Independent has more.
COVID-19 patients, doctors, prison and police personnel and others in France have filed dozens of complaints in recent months, notably over shortages of masks and other equipment, prompting the Paris prosecutor to order an investigation.
The offices of Health Minister Olivier Veran, as well as the private addresses of former prime minister Edouard Philippe, Veran and his predecessor Agnès Buzyn, and Sibeth Ndiaye, ex-spokeswoman for President Emmanuel Macron, were searched on Thursday, the French health ministry has confirmed.
Geneviève Chêne, Director General of the French public health agency, as well as top health ministry official Jérôme Salomon, were also targeted in the police raids, which his department said were conducted “without any difficulties”.
A source close to Edouard Philippe, who remains Mayor of the port town of Le Havre in Normandy, told AFP that he “has always said that he was willing to put himself at the disposal of the authorities”. They said that the search was carried out “in a courteous manner and with the full cooperation of the mayor”.
Come on, Cressida Dick. What are you waiting for? Time to pay a visit to Matt Hancock’s London flat.
Round-Up
- “Diet of Worms” – Good piece by Niall McCrae about the left-wing conspiracy theories doing the rounds about the Great Barrington Declaration
- “The medical community’s revolt against lockdown” – Pro-GBD piece in the Critic by Rob Sutton
- “The Fact-Free COVID Dystopia” – Thomas E Woods Jr lays out the case against lockdowns with passion and authority
- “Governor Unveils Innovative 37-Step Plan To Reopen State Over The Next 10 Years” – Amusing piece of satire in the Babylon B. Or is it?
- “Transport Secretary admits new cycle lanes are leaving roads ‘backed up’ with traffic” – Ya think?!?
- “Herd immunity could now be our least bad option” – Juliet Samuel in the Telegraph says she was wrong in thinking the Virus could be contained and has come around to herd immunity
- “The fightback against these miserable new tiers has already begun” – Michael Deacon takes the side of the Northern gyms in their stand off with the Health Secretary
- “Jacinda Ardern is no hero” – Ross Clark says the toothy tyrant’s Covid policy has been a disaster
- “Bosses revolt over lockdowns” – The Sunday Times reports that thousands of businesses have warned Boris Johnson Britain faces “mass redundancies” unless more financial support is provided
- “Read all about it – as long as the news suits the purposes of the thought police in Big Tech” – Rod Liddle rails against Big Tech censorship in the Sunday Times
- “‘We are in a truly Orwellian culture’: Amazon yanks Covid-19 skeptic’s book for ominously vague ’content violations’” – And here’s an example of it
- “Doctors ask grieving families to confirm their relative’s deaths via ZOOM so doctors don’t have to make house calls during Covid pandemic” – God forbid doctors should have to make house calls
- “Teacher beheaded by Islamist terrorist for showing his class Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons of Mohammed” – Terrible, terrible story about a Parisian teacher beheaded by an Islamist terrorist after trying to teach his class a lesson about freedom of expression
- “I’ve crunched the numbers and a herd immunity strategy would lead to a lot of deaths” – Breathtakingly feeble piece by Neil O’Brien MP. He doesn’t appear to have done even the most cursory research into this subject
- “Backing lockdown isn’t proof of caring more” – Janice Turner in the Times comes out as a lockdown sceptic
- The Price of Panic: How the Tyranny of Experts Turned a Pandemic into a Catastrophe – New book from Regnery Press condemning the lockdowns
- “David Starkey and the tyranny of the thought police” – The Spiked podcast this week touches on the police’s harassment of Dr David Starkey, as well as the Great Barrington Declaratiom
- Q&A Follow-Up to Prof Ramesh Thakur’s Presentation on Covid – The former UN panjandrum and lockdown sceptic answers questions about his masterly presentation of the case against lockdowns. He’s particularly scornful about the UK Government whom he describes as “bumbling blindly in the dark”
- “The BMJ Interview: Tim Spector on how data can arm us against COVID-19” – Good interview with Tim Spector in the increasingly sceptical BMJ
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Two today: “This is Only Making Things Worse” by the Crosstown Rivalry and “Revolution” by Spacemen 3.
Love in the Time of Covid
We have created some Lockdown Sceptics Forums, including a dating forum called “Love in a Covid Climate” that has attracted a bit of attention. We have a team of moderators in place to remove spam and deal with the trolls, but sometimes it takes a little while so please bear with us. You have to register to use the Forums, but that should just be a one-time thing. Any problems, email the Lockdown Sceptics webmaster Ian Rons here.
Sharing stories: Some of you have asked how to link to particular stories on Lockdown Sceptics. The answer used to be to first click on “Latest News”, then click on the links that came up beside the headline of each story. But we’ve changed that so the link now comes up beside the headline whether you’ve clicked on “Latest News” or you’re just on the Lockdown Sceptics home page. Please do share the stories with your friends and on social media.
Woke Gobbledegook
We’ve decided to create a permanent slot down here for woke gobbledegook. Today it’s the turn of the Cornell University English Faculty which has just voted to change its name from “the English Department” to something more… inclusive. The Washington Times has more.
The English Department at Cornell University has voted to change its name in an effort to distinguish English the language from English the nationality.
The department at the Ivy League university in New York voted to change its name to “the Department of Literatures in English” during its first faculty meeting of the fall semester earlier this month, the student-led Cornell Daily Sun reported Wednesday.
The change would help to eliminate the “conflation of English as a language and English as a nationality,” English professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies Kate McCullough told the newspaper.
The proposal, co-written by English professor Carole Boyce-Davies, was spurred by the wave of racial and political unrest following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Ms. Boyce-Davies told the Daily Sun.
“Faculty around the country – not just faculty of color, but faculty in general – began to look at the institution to see how we can help advance a discourse that challenges structural forms of racism which get reproduced in students and in teaching over and over again,” Ms. Boyce-Davies said.
“What surprised us was the fact that so many of the White faculty of the English department signed on – we were amazed,” she added. “By the time we were ready to officially take it to the department as a whole, we had over 75% of the faculty signed on.”
Ms. Boyce-Davies said English Professor and Department Chair Caroline Levine signed the proposal without hesitation.
Stop Press: The Taxpayers’ Alliance has discovered that the Government spent £416,644 on face-to-face courses teaching civil servants about unconscious bias within the last two years. The Telegraph has the story.
“Mask Exempt” Lanyards
We’ve created a one-stop shop down here for people who want to buy (or make) a “Mask Exempt” lanyard/card. You can print out and laminate a fairly standard one for free here and it has the advantage of not explicitly claiming you have a disability. But if you have no qualms about that (or you are disabled), you can buy a lanyard from Amazon saying you do have a disability/medical exemption here (takes a while to arrive). The Government has instructions on how to download an official “Mask Exempt” notice to put on your phone here. You can get a “Hidden Disability” tag from ebay here and an “exempt” card with lanyard for just £1.99 from Etsy here. And, finally, if you feel obliged to wear a mask but want to signal your disapproval of having to do so, you can get a “sexy world” mask with the Swedish flag on it here.
Don’t forget to sign the petition on the UK Government’s petitions website calling for an end to mandatory face masks in shops here.
A reader has started a website that contains some useful guidance about how you can claim legal exemption.
And here’s a round-up of the scientific evidence on the effectiveness of mask (threadbare at best).
Stop Press: This is a very good critique of masks by Roger Koops on the American Institute for Economy Research blog.
Alarming Video: A reader sent this video, which he obtained form a source in the Irish police. It purports to show a group of Romanian riot police dragging passengers not wearing masks from an underground train and brutally assaulting them on the platform. Frightening stuff.
The Great Barrington Declaration
The Great Barrington Declaration, a petition started by Professor Martin Kulldorff, Professor Sunetra Gupta and Professor Jay Bhattacharya calling for a strategy of “Focused Protection” (protect the elderly and the vulnerable and let everyone else get on with life), was launched last week and the lockdown zealots have been doing their best to discredit it. If you Google it, the top hits you get include two smear pieces from the obscure Leftist conspiracy website Byline Times, and one from the Guardian headlined: “Herd immunity letter signed by fake experts including ‘Dr Johnny Bananas’.” (Freddie Sayers at UnHerd warned us about this hit job the day before it appeared.) On the bright side, Google UK has stopped shadow banning it, so the actual Declaration now shows up in the search results – and my Spectator piece about the attempt to suppress it is the top hit – although discussion of it has been censored by Reddit. The reason the zealots hate it, of course, is that it gives the lie to their claim that “the science” only supports their strategy. These three scientists are every bit as eminent – more eminent – than the pro-lockdown fanatics so expect no let up in the attacks. (Wikipedia has also done a smear job.)
You can find it here. Please sign it. Now has over half-a-million signatures.
Stop Press: The GBD is provoking a lot of debate, most of it poor, but occasionally quite good. Here is Tyler Cowen’s critique in Bloomberg. And here is David Henderson’s reply for the American Institute for Economic Research.
Judicial Reviews Against the Government
There are now so many JRs being brought against the Government and its ministers, we thought we’d include them all in one place down here.
First, there’s the Simon Dolan case. You can see all the latest updates and contribute to that cause here.
Then there’s the Robin Tilbrook case. You can read about that and contribute here.
Then there’s John’s Campaign which is focused specifically on care homes. Find out more about that here.
And last but not least there’s the Free Speech Union‘s challenge to Ofcom over its ‘coronavirus guidance’. You can read about that and make a donation here.
Stop Press: A Berlin court has suspended an order for bars and restaurants to close from 11pm to 6am. The Mail has the story.
Samaritans
If you are struggling to cope, please call Samaritans for free on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email [email protected] or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch. Samaritans is available round the clock, every single day of the year, providing a safe place for anyone struggling to cope, whoever they are, however they feel, whatever life has done to them.
Shameless Begging Bit
Thanks as always to those of you who made a donation in the past 24 hours to pay for the upkeep of this site. Doing these daily updates is hard work (although we have help from lots of people, mainly in the form of readers sending us stories and links). If you feel like donating, please click here. And if you want to flag up any stories or links we should include in future updates, email us here. (Don’t assume we’ll pick them up in the comments.) Thanks to all those readers who wished me happy birthday yesterday.
Special thanks to graphic designer and Lockdown Sceptics reader Claire Whitten for designing our new logo. We think it’s ace. Find her work here.
And Finally…
Andy Shaw, one of the co-hosts of Comedy Unleashed, has written a short piece for Lockdown Sceptics about his heroic efforts to put on live comedy at a pub in Bethnal Green in spite of all the ludicrous restrictions. I went last Tuesday and it was bloody marvellous. Well done to Andy for not letting the ongoing lockdown madness defeat him.
On Monday October 12th we re-opened Comedy Unleashed at the Backyard Comedy Club, East London. We had three fantastic nights. We worked closely with the venue and it took an enormous amount of organisation. We split one gig over three nights, with 1/3 of the usual audience; implemented social distancing without killing the atmosphere; found a way for people not to wear masks during the performance; the venue introduced a plethora of processes, from instructions to be included with ticketing information and a limit on the number of comedians allowed in the green room; the venue stocked up on beer and pizzas and introduced table service. The staff had to get everyone served in record time and were amazing. We had to increase the ticket price and still lost money. But we were back and it worked. On Thursday morning, the Tier 2 Covid measures were announced for London, which means that the audience size would have to be halved. The venue is now scrambling to work out if they can keep things going and they may have to lay off their staff (again) and pour the beer down the drain (again). Anyway, we recorded one of the nights and the comics had lots to say about the lockdown madness. (See highlights of Geoff Norcott’s performance.)
Discussion
Comments
This week across the site:
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to the Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
This may seem harsh to those who have yet to experience it. But those who have cared for elderly parents until their deaths will recognise that for many over-80s with dementia, who make up 25% of Covid deaths so far, death is a blessed release. Here are 2 comments in response to a Guardian article by a man who styled himself ‘The reluctant carer,’ although he sounded like a lovely chap. (January 2019):
‘My mother is 92, has Alzheimer’s, acute vascular dementia and is doubly incontinent. Until 8 months ago she was still living at home and I pretty much did everything for her. She did have a care package, but with the best will in the world the carers can only do so much. Finally she went into hospital (again) and they decided she needed “end of life care” in a nursing home . The hospital told us she had less than three weeks to live, that was eight months ago, she’s still hanging on, a vegetable, and I hope to God she doesn’t know how she is. -Jim
‘I feel for you. One of my parents died recently from advanced Alzheimer’s. They proved to be physically resilient despite… Read more »
A touching and thoughtful post. As a society I believe we ought to think about these things a lot more deeply, instead of pushing them aside as we do.
Covid has highlighted our wilful myopia.
It is my understanding, based on what I’ve seen around me, that the covid loneliness has exacerbated the onset of dementias. As a society we’ve pretended we’ve been protecting the elderly: I think we’ve been extremely cruel to them.
What has been presented as virtue is, I believe, in large part cowardice on behalf of middle-aged people. What makes it worse, I think, is that in some respects that fear of covid is in some ways justified: many people who should be in the prime of life are in fact extremely unhealthy owing to life style choices, and thus vulnerable to covid complications.
Not sue you’ll see this post now.
Agree 100% particularly your final paragraph to which could be also having to endure the inhumane restrictions being applied in hospitals as a result of the current debacle. My brother’s partner died in hospital on Saturday after a stay of 17 days. If he had not forced them to avoid interfering, his partner’s last days would have been of just 2 loved ones (i.e. the ‘nominated visitors, a status that was not transferable), masked at all times. But he stood up to them and made it plain that he would remove his mask and kiss his dying partner on each arrival and departure, and when a life-long friend wanted to visit to say final a goodbye, she was forbidden to enter the room until my brother emphatically stated that the friend was going to go to the bedside. Human dignity trumps the risk of catching a virus; NHS staff who inflexibly apply the rules are clearly in the wrong job. We need to remember this when the omnishambles is over.
Our duty as human beings far, far outweighs any obligation to adhere to arbitrary rules.
There is much to be thought about when this omnishambles is over.
Just watched that Geoff Norcott video, tears are streaming down my face! Bloody brilliant!
https://twitter.com/StabellBenn/status/1317439661233606657
“Puzzled. People, who judge it unethical to contemplate herd immunity from natural infection, argue it’s uncertain how long immunity lasts. But natural immunity is probably better than vaccine immunity. If natural immunity doesn’t last, then vaccines won’t work either. What then?”
That is a strong argument. Can anyone tell me of a vaccine more effective that a natural immunity?
There is no vaccine that is superior to natural immunity. Doctors and scientists know this, so they are either experiencing collective amnesia or are beholden to/have investments in big pharma. I vote for the latter explanation.
shingrix. 95pct reduction in shingles vs one in three lifetime chance if you’ve previously had chicken pox.
“If natural immunity doesn’t last, then vaccines won’t work either. What then?”
That’s the beauty of vaccines. It’s the gift you have to keep on giving and receiving.
Just like the flu shot..
https://www.thieme-connect.com/products/ejournals/pdf/10.1055/a-1174-6591.pdf
Mund-Nasen-Schutz in der Öffentlichkeit: Keine Hinweise für eine Wirksamkeit
Masken nicht Evidence-based
This a very long article going through published evidence. The publication was 18th Aug on line pdf available but unfortunately in German. Analyse ECDC,CDC and WHO guidelines. Highly critical of RKI(German CDC)recommending face masks for the public as there is no evidence it works.
That’s Altrincham and Sale West in Cheshire, not Altringham and Sale West in Manchester.
Sorry, couldn’t resist it! Still my pick for PM if BJ goes. Not going to happen though….
Brady certainly seems to be a good man. No obvious globalist ties. He’d be a good man to lead our country.
Sorry to ask such an obvious question but I want to send some university emails to Toby and his co editors and explain their context but there doesn’t seem to be an email address for content . Does anyone know what it is.? Thanks
[email protected]
Thank you!
You’re welcome. 🙂
I’m sure most have by now seen the Swiss Cheese Defence image attached.
To me this is little more than an elaborate way to boost a weak argument. Think of a salesman trying to sell you something with a fault. They’ll add many layers of “goodness” hoping you won’t notice the fault. After all if it was a car and it still drove well then what’s a little fault when everything else works, it’s still a car right?
Forgot to say, immunity woud replace every layer if it could be shown to be effective. The more people with immunity the less layers you would need.
Get em while stocks last!
https://www.poppyshop.org.uk/products/poppy-print-face-covering
They died for this! FFS!
Absolutely sick and disgusting when you think about the gas attacks in WW1.
If you are sceptically minded, take a look at the British Legion’s s accounts online – you won’t have a clue where all the many millions go (apart from feathering the nests of Legion employees).
Might be nice to, instead of a mask, have a poppy bearing the label (instead of a leaf): “they died for liberty, we risk this cough to honour their memory”
https://postimg.cc/TpLTdqps
That’s about it, really.
SAGE document in September: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/925854/S0769_Summary_of_effectiveness_and_harms_of_NPIs.pdf
By which time most of Britain would be eating their neighbours
Unfuckingbelievable. All they are telling us is what we already knew: this is a highly infectious virus…but on top of that they want us to cower before it and destroy our economy, our health service, our education system and our culture. Are they doing all that in China? Of course not!
If it is highly infectious, why was it downgraded as a HCID in March prior to lockdown, and remains in that status. Pity some journslist has never thrown that little morsel into the discussion.
Welcome to the club Sir Tom
https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/captain-sir-tom-moore-second-lockdown-disaster/
Well, if Sir Tom is saying it, it must be right.
I feel sorry for that poor old sod. All he wanted to do was help and then became a poster boy of government propaganda. Cue loads of articles saying “Captain Tom (sorry, I mean sir – personally I wouldn’t want that title given some of the other people they’ve given it to) May Have Raised £357 billion-squllion-trillion for the NHS, but he’s not a scientists, so should be ignored”
I believe his daughter and son-in-law creamed a lot of that off the top through the “charity” the cash was laundered through.
Sir Tom? After that he needs to be ennobled! 🙂
The argument against targetted protection is that it would be unethical and immoral yet here we are with people like Sir Tom telling us it’s already that way.
I wonder if Piers Morgan will have Sir Tom on GMB this week to argue the anti-lockdown case with Dr Hilary. Dr Hilary daren’t give National Hero Tom the nasty treatment meted out to poor Piers Corbyn. If The Doctor is horrible to poor Sir Tom, that would really be the turning point for the Nation towards our cause.
Wonder if there would be a way to contact Tom and encourage him to publically support the Great Barrington declaration.
I think this has been signalled before, but worth a reminder:
Series of ‘Irreverend’ podcasts by The Reverend Thomas Pelham and The Reverend Doctor J.A. Franklin ( beware other podcasters using similar name), discussing lockdown etc. from a Christian viewpoint. Worth a listen even if you’re not a Christian. The latest one is a devastating critique of lockdown policy in both a national and an international perspective. Starts a bit vague and chatty, but soon picks up.
Good news, bad news today …
I was told that our local C of E church had its first choir practice since March today ! 🙂
Masks were compulsory. 🙁
“Blessed are the maskwearers…”
Forgive the blasphemy.
Lovely communal singing in Liverpool today!
F the Reds and F the Blues?
Ffs. How is that possible?
BBC, The Papers, reviewing one paper – can’t remember which – with headlines stating that hospital (ICU) beds in Manchester are “almost full”. Presumably this is based on official government data. No pressure on Burnham then.
We have confirmation from the Guardinot…
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/18/revealed-some-manchester-area-hospitals-already-full
Must be true.
Is there anyone bored in Manchester who lives near the hospital that could have a wonder round to see how packed it is? I bet you can’t even get a parking space.
You can say a hospital is ‘full’ in a few ways.
Yep. Like Christmas. “I’m full”. Before you tuck into the Christmas pud, the cheese board and a box of chocolates.
I read in a BTL comment this morning (DT I think) that the beds definitely aren’t full.
No but they nearly are – if R doubles again in the next 3 seconds, everyone in the country will die.
It depends how fat each occupant is. A thin one might leave a bit of room.
🙂 Hope I don’t get covid, I probably count as 4 cases
I read somewhere the other day, Twitter I believe, that full can mean the alloted beds specifically for COVID are nearly all taken up but there’s still capacity for other things.
I’m sure Mike Yeadon also posted a chart showing COVID beds made up a tiny proportion of bed usage in hospitals.
If the government wants to confess that despite 10 months’ notice it still can’t cope with the number of Covid patients that’s for them to say and for us as an electorate to decide what we think of them at the next available opportunity. Bye bye Boris.
The cognitive dissonance is astounding. Pick a year, any year, where this was much different.
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/bed-availability-and-occupancy/bed-data-overnight/
As if by magic…
Well. Things are picking up. Despite the lovely Tier 2 nonsense, most of my mates are now sceptics. Maybe abiding by the daft laws, but all are against them.
Few drinks this evening at our local pub, and pretty much every law was ignored. And most folk correctly describing why the laws are nonsense.
We’ll win this one 👍
Things are moving our way…the Mail on Sunday is clearly getting cold feet about perpetual lockdown lunacy and is looking for an exit strategy. Sir Graham Brady is doing good work pressing for that exit strategy as chair of the 1922 Committee.
Whereas in March the Lockdown lunatics could play on people’s fears freely because we only had limited info on the virus, now that is no longer possible. Essentially this resolves down to v low death numbers (on whatever drfinition) and the Lockdown Lunatics are struggling to explain why they are so low.
You massively underestimate how much people actually believe the made-up figures.
These things build and then the dam breaks.
It really doesn’t matter how much people “believe” the figures once politicians, commentators, celebs and all the rest break cover and start saying we need to stop the Lockdown Lunacy.
Support for the lunacy will crumble in days once people are given permission to disbelieve it.
This isn’t a war situation where surrenduring to the enemy means an uncertain future for the masses. Here, stopping the “war” means 95% of the population can return to happy normality.
I heard that 250,000 people are dying every day and the rate DOUBLES every 30 seconds
Nah…I heard from someone on the street that it’s actually 950,000 dying everyday in the UK & that the rate is QUADRUPLING every second…
We are all doomed…..lol.
I might wear two masks tomorrow then if that’s what’s happening
Lol.
Death is “baked in” from the moment we’re born.
Shame on you! The actual figure is 250,001. But you didn’t care about that one life did you…?
First it was about protecting the NHS and flattening the curve and saving lives.
Next, it was all about R. It must never go above 1! Meaningless and made up though it is.
But cases! Look at all these cases! Test everyone, I mean everyone, right away!
And now… we’ll use real world cases and deaths again if they get high enough. But at the moment they’re not, so we’ll just tell you that there are tens of thousands more cases out there than we know about. Honestly! The computer told us so. Tomorrow we might decide that there are millions infected which means that it’s doubling every 5 minutes and 100,000 will be dying every day by November. You can’t prove that won’t happen, so…
Lockdown.
Very accurate precis of government statements!
Spot on, especially the R bollocks.
Christina Pagel was on Sky News last night practically hysterical that we must lock down now because deaths were already baked into the figures. In other words, these people are effectively already dead.
Even if she is right, which I don’t think she is, she just came across as a real life Chicken Licken and not somebody I would consider as particularly rational. I certainly wouldn’t cross her palm with silver if she came up to me in the street asking if I want to buy some lucky heather.
I heard that some stores have installed cctv that closes the doors on customers without masks.
How the hell could this work?
Surely just wait and enter with another customer!
Walk in backwards.
Or hook up your mask with your finger as you enter and then take it off once you’re in…
Re shops I came across one that requires the maskless to wait outside in the cold and rain to be served. Clearly illegal discrimination against people with disabilities. Response of our virtue signalling media to such outrageous discrimination? Nothing.
It wouldn’t surprise me. There’s an unhealthy obsession with surveillance and spy cameras in this country.
Yep – we think CCTV makes us better people. Really? A culture of rectitude would probably have better results. King Alfred called it right first time round.
A garden centre near me (mentioned on the comments yesterday) has installed a machine that scans your face on entry and detects if you are not wearing a mask. According to the manager: “this is what our customers want”.
They’re welcome to it!!
Or just carry a shopping bag or even your coat and covet your face as you enter. No law that says you have to appear on some random CCTV screen.
Sorry, auto correct. Should be cover your face. To covet your own face would be a little narcissistic!
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s face, nor his ox’s or ass’s face.
Some entertainingly bad science I came across on Twitter:
“Multi-organ impairment in low-risk individuals with long COVID”
https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.10.14.20212555
Sounds bad right? They studied 201 individuals with presumed long Covid and found 70% of them had mild organ impairment (in various different organs).
In other words these were people who were initially selected on the basis of: they had probably had Covid, and they had been feeling like crap for the last few months.
The control group they forgot to add to the study is another 201 people who had also been feeling awful for months but hadn’t had Covid.
We also don’t know what the state of any of their organs were before they had Covid.
I believe “long covid” exists but have still seen no evidence to reject the null hypothesis that it’s no different to what you might get with any severe viral infection.
AFAIK, all viruses leave a small % of survivors feeling like crap.
Previous names for it include ME, yuppie flu etc.
I am puzzled though why no one was previously upset about the known effects of Long Flu.
Indeed. It’s amazing how various things previously ignored have suddenly gained a focus when it suits.
That’s right. I had a bout of pneumonia last year and it left me physically weak. I couldn’t walk properly for at least 3 months after and I had to use a walking stick until I could build up my strength again. With that said, unlike these ‘long COVID’ attention-seekers, I worked through it without complaining and expecting the world to stop for me.
Exactement.
All illnesses take their toll. A virus basically attacks or tries to attack every cell in the body, so it’s not surprising it can take weeks or even months to recover. Sometimes damage is permanent. IIRC flu can cause long term rheumotoid conditions including of the heart ie cardiac disease.
We should expect similar with Covid.
You know, I was close to the end in 2017 when I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis. Lost a lot of weight quickly and had to have my large intestine removed. So now I have permanent stoma and life is good. God bless the NHS.
During that time I never once posted on social media about my experience, most people I now work with and exercise with (football, running) have no clue I have a stoma bag.
Since Covid has come along I see people I know posting endless updates of their experiences after testing positive. Most no more interesting than high temperatures and feeling tired a lot.
Everytime I think back to 2017 and feel sick.
Quite. The media, for propaganda reasons, are focusing on mildly unpleasant symptoms while ignoring people denied surgery for really painful conditions like ulcerative colitis.
Glad to hear you are doing well now. 🙂
Long Flu would be difficult for the people who control WHO to pronounce.
Wong Foo…
A previous report I saw indicted that 80% of the reports of long covid were female, if that is genuinely the case then it begs out for some medical investigation and the development of some alleviating treatments.
There is a very long history of the medical profession denying, obfuscating and gaslighting women about problems mainly suffered by them: period pains, ( most young girls used to get the ‘take more exercise, try not to focus obsessively, dear, think about something else, you don’t really like being female, do you?’ talk, until along came the pill and hey presto,there was a cure for the crippling pains), endometriosis, miscarriage, ME, and a host of other, often auto immune conditions for which they had no answers.
I think chronic fatigue/ME type illness is more common in females anyway.
Yes. Because female immune system is more reactive. We have same hormones but in different proportions to men, so our bodies work differently.
I saw a study referred to on the BBC site which supported Long Covid arguments. The study was a survey of people from a Long Covid Facebook support group.
Jesus wept
Long Covid Facebook group. FFS, these people want putting down.
Yes, exceedingly bad.
If this study group had acute SARS-CoV-2 infection, why were only 18% hospitalised?
Who clinically assessed them as having acute Covid?
How do they know if the ‘mild organ impairment’ wasn’t there before the Covid infection?
In any group of individuals with a median age of 44, some will have pre-existing mild organ impairment!
If they did suffer from acute Covid, what treatments did they receive?
They noted a correlation between hospitalisation and organ impairment…
Remdesivir is known to cause liver and kidney toxicity…
Perhaps if these subjects had had HCQ available to them, they wouldn’t have experienced ‘acute’ Covid in the first place.
Two authors from Perspectum who sponsored the study, and one received funding from AZN.
If you randomly selected 201 people off the street, I wonder what proportion would show similar? And what does “mild” impairment mean anyway…
That would be worth doing as well. 201 people who are fine, 201 with long covid, and 201 with long non-covid.
Long Covid is just post viral syndrome by another name. It’s not bogus but for the vast majority of people it passes after a few months.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/oct/18/covid-herd-immunity-funding-bad-science-anti-lockdown
I’ve seen the light now. All of you GBD lot are just “bad scientists”.
I’ll now go and don a mask and never see my parents ever again.
Me too. I want to live in a sterile bubble, never meet friends or family again. Communicate only on line and have no social life. I will wither away like a pale maggot, enjoying nothing ever again in case I get a virus that I have a 99.8% chance of surviving.
A pale maggot? You mean, like a Grauniad reader?
Correct.
Agree with your despisal of them, even though I used to be one before they went pro-lockdown.
Hi Trish,
Thanks for your article that rubbishes any way of anyone ever getting the stab at being human again.
I see that you are a professor of primary care health sciences at Oxford University.
Can you please list the advantages to primary care of:
* Shutting down the entire NHS and making it become the Covid 19 fear mongering service?
* Ignoring 300,000 people who may now die of cancer because you’re happy to let the government commit economic genocide
* Psychologically torturing children by imposing bonkers rules on them (You must wear masks that won’t be effective against a virus that is 1000x smaller than a human hair, forcing them not to see their granny because it will kill them, stopping people from socialising and shutting down national and international travel)
Thanks,
– Another prole
She may be a brilliant scientists (if you agree with her 100% that is), but what an awful human being.
Trish Greenhalgh 10:26 PM (41 minutes ago)
to me
Auto reply because I’m overwhelmed with messages!
If you’re emailing me about your long covid, I am so sorry I can’t get into correspondence with individuals about this but am trying to help with my research and policy influence. I hope you feel better soon.
…
[Message clipped]
If anyone doubts the current role of the Groan as an establishment propaganda sheet – here’s the proof : ‘House Journal of MI6’.
So they are talking about shadowy funders of the GBD. That could almost be conspiracy theory territory.
Of course, when the funders of pro lockdown institutions (ICL, Wellcome Trust etc) are questioned, its just tin foil.
OK.
Je suis un bad scientist.
Moi aussi.
The guardian now opening hell’s gates. You can only expect to get utter infantile garbage from a rag that grabs funding from Gates then grovels for people to donate their fast disappearing wherewithal to keep it churning out propaganda to hasten the complete demise of the country and the world.
The vaccine is on its way, folks! Hip, Hip … Hooray? The Telegraph (paywall):
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/10/18/uk-could-get-coronavirus-shots-new-year-pharma-giant-pfizer/
Forty million coronavirus vaccines could be heading to the UK in the next two and a half months, it has emerged, after US multinational pharmaceutical corporation Pfizer revealed it had started the manufacturing process.
The pharmaceutical giant, which already has “hundreds of thousands” of doses ready at its Belgian production plant, is committed to delivering 100 million in 2020, of which 40 per cent are earmarked for Britain.
The two-dose vaccine could potentially enable 20 million British patients to be inoculated before the New Year.
‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘
Traditional vaccines work by injecting a deactivated or weakened form of the pathogen into the body in order to train it to recognise and defeat the active virus.
However, Both the Oxford and Pfizer vaccines seek to introduce into the body a genetic sequence that prompts human cells to churn out parts of the Sars-Cov-2 virus [what could possibly go wrong], so the body can learn to deal with it that way.
However, see the comments (not behind the paywall).
One helpful commenter posted these links. I especially recommend the Nature article from 2005 ….
… Read more »
Thanks, Tenchy; I’ll pass, mate. 😉
You first, Doris and co!
Two of my family work in the local NHS hospital. They’ve said they won’t take any vax but they’ll surely be under immense pressure
Haven’t the Dutch found 87,000 nurses who won’t take it? We need more vocal NHS employees to be brave and speak up. They can’t sack all of them.
More importantly than standing against a vaccine (which might maybe help, if help were needed for this mild virus), they should be speaking out against lockdowns (which have never helped anyone, but killed more than covid, already and produce effects which will keep killing long after covid is forgotten)
Some cracking suggestions for Adam HIll.
Amazingly good investigative work by the Daily Mail on Hunter Biden.
I think we all knew about Burisma and the Ukraine, but more slime here about his dealings with a Kazakhstan oligarch, and a business link with John Kerry’s daughter.
Anything that leads to a US health lobby headed by Scott Atlas and not Fauci serves everyone’s cause. Yes, that means I’m rooting for Trump.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8849097/As-GUY-ADAMS-uncovers-links-suspect-regime-just-damage-Hunter-Biden-cause.html
Expect a lot more to come out every single day on this up until the election, Steve Bannon is driving the schedule and release of everything, so I fully expect it to build in intensity every single day to an almighty crescendo.
https://www.twitter.com/stranahan/status/1317913118291361792
I used to despise the Mail but it suddenly keeps sneaking up in my estimation!
It’s generally trash for sure, but they are about the only outlet left that actually still employs some real journalists who like to break a real story.
That German ad with the woman giving the finger to “anti-maskers”. You’re wearing a mask. The claim is that this mask offers you solid protection against Covid-19. Then why on earth should you care what other people decide to do? You’re protected. You’re wearing the mask. Leave others alone.
Actually, thinking about it…
Saw this on Reddit:
That was The Flaming Lips concert from several years ago I believe
Oh OK, it’s just there was something similar on a recent Carl Vernon video. And the basic point still stands.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54592112
explain in plain terms otherwise we will ignore
Quite right, cm.
Making it up as they go along to fit their propaganda.
I keep waiting for the general public to say:
“So let me get this straight: tens of thousands of people are getting infected every single day, and yet almost nobody is dying, and those who are dying are really old and pretty knackered anyway. Sounds like most of us are immune. Let’s go back to work.”
I guess I’m going to be waiting for a little while longer.
Problem is, Mabel, the only people saying that is us, i.e. the ungeneral public. 🙁
They are using the Whittyomics exponent to calculate.
Nitwhittyomics.
How convenient that it’s exactly 50,000. Exactly the same number “predicted” by Whitty. What a coincidence.
So the best data is so unreliable that the figure needs to be doubled so as to get a reliable estimate?
Doh.
It’s just never ending priming. Telling us things before they happen so that people aren’t so shocked when it does happen. Look how early they started doing it:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-8045003/Thousands-Britons-face-mass-coronavirus-testing.html
(No clue why the URL says about mass testing. The headline is from back in February with a warning about shutting down “ENTIRE towns” if coronavirus hits the UK.)
Quite telling in itself.
Funnily enough exactly the same as Canada’s plan (local lockdowns then vaccines early next year)
The only “tough” thing about this Christmas, is that’s what my reply will be to anyone telling me I can’t see my family.
In addition to trying to understand why so many people have been panicked by gov.uk propaganda (see my earlier contribution today at around 16:30) I have been attempting to fathom the wearing of masks outdoors and I got a clue just the other day. My wife told me that our window-cleaner wears a mask everywhere. He’s probably in his 40s and as far as I know enjoys good health. At any rate he didn’t justify his ultra caution on the grounds of being vulnerable.
He told my wife his reasoning for staying masked walking down the street is that as he can smell the vapour from someone using e-cigarettes then the Sar-CoV-2 virus must also be able to enter his airways if infected persons are in the vicinity.
Sounds plausible? Yes, but misguided. I have a background in engineering but I am not an expert on our olfactory system or the dimensions of a virus so a quick search on the internet informed me that we can sense molecules that are around 1 nanometre in diameter; and that a single Sars-Cov-2 virus is approximately 50–200 nanometres in diameter.
Virus being exhaled are attached to water droplets whereas the molecules we… Read more »
You should see my vape clouds.
I’d be amazed if he couldn’t still smell the vape with mask on.
sure he could and vape goes right through a mask and out the sides
Simple solution, change your window cleaner
Fatima the ballet dancer is looking for something to do
For brevity I didn’t make that point but of course you’re right. The window cleaner knows it as well but he’s obviously not worried about vaping fumes. He’s using being able to smell vaping in the street (whether he, the window cleaner, is masked or unmasked), as proof that virus-laden droplets in the street air could be entering his body.
An education campaign means teaching physics to people with half your IQ or 1/4 of your motivation. Probably pointless.
Someone ought to point out the proven disinfectant power of oxygen and UV light.
Applying a gimp gag to your airways will not stop you catching or spreading the rona, though it may increase the likelihood of both, and it is likely to cause other known health problems (fungal face rot, respiratory infections, mask mouth, to name but three). Beyond that simple point, I would not recommend getting drawn into the theology of whether the little covids are free flying or attached to droplets (probably both). By the time you’ve finished, you’ve conceded that masks are useful in some circumstances (actually very unlikely), and your interlocutor has banked the concession while scrabbling for more talking points to push you further.
Maybe better to remind them of the original stated reason for mandatory masking: to create confidence among the public so they would flood back into shops and save the high street. When that didn’t happen (retail footfall dropped signifantly), the original justification was memory holed. We know our rulers want us masked, but they have given no credible reason why, and none that is likely to coincide with their real motive (which, given the situation in the Summer, was probably just to keep up the panic).
Would you employ a windowcleaner with fungal face rot?I wouldn’t.
Surely no problem as long as he isn’t licking the windows clean?
‘the theology of whether the little covids are flying free’: quotation of the day, I’d say
You are very kind. Have a like 🙂
I have a sneaking suspicion that this whole viral spread phenomenon is down to flatulence. Wouldn’t that be just awesome? Farting spreads Covid!! Mask yo’ ass!!!
And having to prove you’re wearing one on entry to premises …..!
Catch Scott Atlas giving the US Public Health cabal both barrels on Del Bigtree’s weekly Highwire.
He doesn’t hold back… (“Crimes against humanity..”)
https://thehighwire.com/videos/the-covid-narrative-unravels/
Atlas at about 28.30.
Also Johnson and Johnson unexplained trial hold at about 12.00
Nabarro statement at 25.00.
CDC data showing no stat sig benefit from masks at 47.00!
And CDC saying at no time have they suggested masks protect the wearer!
Then Robert Redfield (Director of CDC) saying that his mask protects himself more than a vaccine (at the same as holding up his mask with fingers all over the inside of the mask!
Whole show is a must if you have the time.
Sorry but I’m asking for your help and prayers yet again.
DiL’s BP is such that there’s a serious threat she might have to have the baby 11 weeks premature.
Can’t imagine what it must be like for her and my son who aren’t allowed to be together at this time because of “covid rules”
Sending all my positive thoughts and prayers for your family xxx
My thoughts and prayers with you all, Cheez.
I’m so sorry. This is barbarism. Thoughts with all of you.
So very sorry Cheezilla. Sending you all my thoughts and prayers.
No excuse. No ifs or buts. A patent, perverted monstrosity. I feel for you and your family.
Makes my tussle with PCR testing small beer.
Babies born that early can survive and thrive. Keep hope.
Will pray, all the best for your DiL and family
I don`t do praying but my thoughts are with them, and you.
thinking my best thoughts towards you all
In my thoughts very much, Chee Zilla.
Sending you all my support and best wishes. My daughter was born 12 weeks early ( and is now a healthy 19 year old) but I do remember what a worrying and stressful time it was. Xx
My son born 7 weeks early 30 years ago; now a strapping six-footer.
Your son and DIL in my thoughts, Cheezy. xx
I will add my best wishes. I had 2 preemies, but at 5 and 6 weeks early. I hope they are able to get her BP under control and can hold off on delivering the baby. I also hope your son is able to be there for his wife. I’d raise holy hell; it’s absolutely unconscionable.
I’m not sure whether this has been posted before – sorry if it has. Part of this was quoted on the Yeadon thread to Chris Green from the other day. It’s fascinating
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1317009458325786624.html
Great stuff. Definitely worth a read even for those of us who read the Twitter thread.
Thanks, most interesting and in line with my own investigation BUT as I noted in my earlier post today, facts are now irrelevant. What the Government are about is wholly a political ploy intended to snatch ‘victory’ from defeat. They know there’s not going to be a second wave but are manufacturing one so that they will appear to have saved the country. By so doing, Johnson and his cronies hope that they will deflect the wrath of the electorate when the masses finally realise what a diabolical mess his Government has created.
I think I’ll risk a second excessively long post this evening. I wrote here a few weeks ago about my experiences teaching at an independent secondary school. Teenagers are not paranoid, and they don’t understand covid rules (and unlike the rest of us, they don’t pretend to either). There’s little social distancing, masks are constantly forgotten, no fear, and no harm to anyone. Everything should be like it was in 2019 as far as they’re concerned. They have no inhibitions about saying it’s all stupid. I make a point of greeting the ones who have forgotten to wear masks especially warmly.
A receptionist screamed “Where’s your mask?” at me a few weeks ago. “I’m wearing it”, I said. She looked confused and said nothing. I was walking so fast it might have been hard to tell, but I suppose my reply was technically what is known as gaslighting. It was perhaps a two-yard walk between two outdoor areas and she was behind a layer of perspex and a visor. She apologised later, saying she thought I was a pupil. I’d hoped things would relax as the term went on, but the bossy types, who love this virus and who I’m… Read more »
The teachers need a course in population statistics. Perhaps you could set the students the task of collecting ONS statistics and making pretty charts out of them. Like the chart that shows if you are under 60 and have no comorbidities your risk of Covid death is tiny. Post them on the walls.
Are all teachers nowadays ( yourself excepted) complete morons?
I do still think the hypochondriacs are a minority. A desire not to offend is the biggest pressure on most people and it’s impossible to have a conversation about whether we might not be overreacting without risking an explosion from the other person.
… and beyond that is not just fear, hypochondria and social pressure. The power of brainwashing through propaganda can’t be underestimated – feeding totally information.
Hmm – if I were a Maths teacher I would be setting my kids a project to surf the net looking for evidence of covid not being as harmful as the media say!
Great project for basic A-level Statistics : give them some raw historical ONS data and a few questions.
We live in La La land now. Way too much power has been given to neurotic hypochondriacs.
Yes. We can no longer say ” pull yourself together “.
How would these people have got through 1940?
Quite possibly they would have fared relatively well because they wouldn’t have been brainwashed into believing their own family and friends were a mortal danger.
“she now seems to spend much of her day roaming the school looking for pupils who will put her life in danger so that she can scream at them”
Wanted to repeat it because it gave me a genuine laugh.
She needs slapping, and sacked, in that order.
See above. 😉
She wears her mask in bed.
If she didn’t she’d be dead.
There’s nothing in her head
Except panic, fear and dread.
If she popped her clogs tomorrow
There’d be precious little sorrow.
A very welcome second act, Quodcumque. I particularly like the bland plonking malice of ‘I have moved this to a special folder called “Extremely important” ‘.
Unless this barking hysterical version of the world is dismantled quick smart, please do post again as your term progresses further. You’re lucky: you’re unlikely to lose all your pupils overnight. I teach in a university dept and my union is screaming for lockdown.
Thanks Alethea. Yes I’m hearing the same from others I know who teach in universities. Independent school teachers at least realise their jobs aren’t secure if they remain closed. Many academics seem now to have the option to eliminate all personal interaction with students, which if we’re honest is what some have wanted all along.
Excellent post Q. It’s great to hear the young ‘uns don’t give a damn for the most part
I loved this post! I am a seventh grade teacher in a charter school in the states. Like you, I had hoped that things would relax after several weeks. Last week, we started our first week of full classes (they can only come three days per week.) I and my fellow middle school recess monitors thought it would be the end to social distancing on the playground. Unfortunately, no. We received an email stating that kids would only be allowed to remove masks if they were six feet apart and SITTING. It boggles the mind.
https://twitter.com/plaforscience/status/1317907773431185409
“Spain, Surrealism Home
Madrid region has bars&restaurants opened, but city border is closed so you can’t travel. Catalonia region has bars&restaurants closed, but as all borders are open, some catalonians are traveling to Aragón for weekend and enjoying bars Result: bars&travel”
It is getting almost farcial. Johnson’s byzantine rules will overtake this