That Was Quick!
News broke yesterday that the UK has approved the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for widespread use, becoming the first country in the world to do so. The regulator, Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), has said the the jab offers 95% protection against COVID-19 and is safe. The NHS plans to begin the rollout as soon as next week. Indeed, initial batches are on the way and the army stands ready to assist. The speed surprised many, not least as the timing of the decision, on the day on which the tier system came into force, was politically convenient. Ross Clark, in the Spectator, explains how the vaccine could be approved so quickly and details some of the testing:
Today’s decision has been possible thanks to the Human Medicines Regulations 2012, which allow Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency to grant temporary emergency use authorisation in circumstances such as this.
Even so, eyebrows have been raised at the speed of the MHRA’s decision. In a briefing this lunchtime, Berkeley Phillips, medical director of Pfizer, suggested that regulatory bodies had all the data they needed, but that the MHRA had been prepared to “read the individual chapters of a book” rather than wait for the whole book to be written. The full, published results are still in preparation. As Britain will be the first country to administer the vaccine, Phillips said, it will work on any problems associated with the rollout. We will have to hope we don’t suffer the curse of the early adopter.
What we do now know is that of the 41,135 participants in the study, 170 went on to catch COVID-19. Of these, 162 were in the control group given the placebo and just eight had been given the vaccine. Pfizer says that the study deliberately recruited people who were especially vulnerable to the disease, and 45% were over the age of 56. The overall efficacy rates of 95% was observed across the range of ages and ethnic groups – it was judged to be over 94% among the over-65s
This is a medical breakthrough and, on the face of it, good news. Nonetheless, many Briton’s are not yet convinced that the vaccine is safe. MailOnline has more:
One fifth of Britons are still unsure the Pfizer vaccine is safe while two thirds said Health Secretary Hancock should be given the jab live on air, according to a new survey by YouGov. Researchers asked more than 5,000 adults in Britain how confident they were that the new Pfizer vaccine is safe. In response, 20% of those asked said they were either not confident at all or not very confident that the vaccine would be safe. Just over a quarter, 27% of people said they are “very confident” it will be safe while 43% said they are “somewhat confident”.
Sceptics must be careful to avoid excessive application of the precautionary principle here. Of course, it hasn’t been definitively proved that the vaccine is safe. But then again, it can’t be proved, categorically, that it would be safe to end all Government-mandated restrictions tomorrow and we don’t regard that as a good reason not to do so. It’s about a balance of risk and we should apply that same calculus here. Provided it is left entirely up to the individual about whether to take the vaccine or not, and no efforts are made to compel people to take it, either directly or indirectly, we welcome it.
Nonetheless, there are some important concerns that need to be addressed. Not least those in the petition by Dr Yeadon and Dr Wodarg which we reported on yesterday:
– The formation of so-called “non-neutralizing antibodies” can lead to an exaggerated immune reaction, especially when the test person is confronted with the real, “wild” virus after vaccination.
– The vaccinations are expected to produce antibodies against spike proteins of SARS-CoV-2. However, spike proteins also contain syncytin-homologous proteins, which are essential for the formation of the placenta in mammals such as humans. It must be ruled out that a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 could trigger an immune reaction against syncytin-1, as it may otherwise result in infertility of indefinite duration in vaccinated women.
– The mRNA vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech contain polyethylene glycol (PEG). 70% of people develop antibodies against this substance. This means that many people can develop allergic, potentially fatal reactions to the vaccination.
– The much too short duration of the study does not allow a realistic estimation of the late effects. As in the narcolepsy cases after the swine flu vaccination, millions of healthy people would be exposed to an unacceptable risk if an emergency approval were to be granted and the possibility of observing the late effects of the vaccination were to follow.
There are also the practical issues raised by Ross Clark in his Spectator article:
While the trials have proved that the vaccine can provide immunity against COVID-19 for the person who has been vaccinated, they were not designed to show whether the vaccine stops someone transmitting the virus to others. Nor do we know how long immunity might last.
There’s another consideration: If you’ve already had COVID-19, what’s the point of getting vaccinated? At present, the Government recommends everyone getting the jab, including those who’ve had the virus. But why? Matt Hancock was asked this by Susanna Reid on Good Morning Britain yesterday (at about the 8 minute mark). The health secretary says that it’s because you can’t be sure, having had the disease, that you won’t get it again. The obvious question – if having antibodies doesn’t prevent you from getting re-infected, what’s the point of getting vaccinated? – was left unasked.
Finally, and the point most obvious for lockdown sceptics: For the majority of the population, COVID-19 presents little or no risk. Far from being a death sentence, there is ~99.75% chance of surviving it. More, if you believe the data emerging from Norway, where the infection fatality rate is just 0.12%. It’s partly because the IFR of the disease is so low that the cure has been so much worse. We hope that the vaccine isn’t rolled out in such a way that it adds to these costs, particularly when it comes to the further erosion of our liberties.
Any hint of coercion must be completely ruled out.
Is the Infection Fatality Rate for COVID-19 Really Worse than Influenza?
Research recently published in the British Medical Journal analysed the first wave of COVID-19 cases in community settings in Spain, looking to estimate the country’s IFR. Its finding, a rate of 0.8%, has been robustly challenged in the BMJ by Peter C. Gøtzsche, Professor and Director of the Institute for Scientific Freedom, Copenhagen, in a letter that’s worth reproducing in full.
Pastor-Barriuso et al. found an infection fatality rate for COVID-19 of 0.8% in Spain. They quote an unpublished review that found 0.68%, with estimates ranging from 0.16% to 1.60%. In their discussion, they mention this review again: “Our overall estimate of infection fatality risk was similar to that found in seroepidemiological surveys with a low risk of bias.”
But what about other reviews? They quote in the introduction a 2020 review by John Ioannidis, which is in press in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization but do not say what he found, only that the magnitude of the infection fatality risk is being debated. Sure, but that is not informative. Ioannidis included 61 studies (74 estimates) and eight preliminary national estimates. He reported that the infection fatality rates ranged from 0.00% to 1.63% and that the median rate was 0.27%.
Pastor-Barriuso et al. concluded that the infection fatality rate they found was about 10 times larger than those for seasonal influenza. They quoted the US Centres for Disease Control, but this agency may be a highly unreliable source when it comes to influenza.
Infection fatality rates for virus infections depend on the infectious dose, which is higher in settings with overcrowding. We can therefore only estimate death rates approximately. In outbreaks of measles, a commonly used estimate is 0.2%, but it can be many times higher. When measles hit a non-immune population in the Faroe Islands in 1846, 78% were attacked and the case fatality rate was 2.8%, over 10 times higher than the usual rate of 0.2%.
It is therefore not surprising that for influenza, as for all viral diseases, there are huge variations in reported case-fatality rates. In a systematic review, the median was about 1% for laboratory confirmed influenza during the mild influenza pandemic in 2009 and the following years.
These data contradict the assertion by Pastor-Barriuso et al. that the infection fatality rate for COVID-19 is about 10 times larger than that for influenza. It seems to be about the same. In Denmark, when blood donors were tested for coronavirus antibodies, the death rate for COVID-19 was only 0.16%.
Pastor-Barriuso et al. concluded that their result supports existing measures, “e.g. social distancing, face masks, and educational campaigns”.
I disagree. The infection fatality rate seems to be about the same as for influenza, but we have never introduced these drastic measures before, when we had influenza pandemics. And we cannot live with them for years to come. The World Bank has just estimated that the corona pandemic has caused an increase of about 100 million people living in extreme poverty. This is not because of COVID-19. It is because of the draconian measures we have introduced. We need a better strategy.
Find the original here, together with references.
Professor David Livermore: (In)accuracy of Lateral Flow Testing
David Livermore, Professor of Medical Microbiology at the University of East Anglia, has been in touch with Lockdown Sceptics to point out a couple of issues with rapid antigen lateral flow testing, which has been trialled recently for use in mass-testing. Seems these tests might not be terribly accurate.
Rapid lateral flow tests for COVID-19 were used extensively in Liverpool a few weeks ago and are now being touted for wider use to “free populations”. But how accurate are they? In Liverpool, 700 positives were found among 140,000 people tested, which had to be set against a prediction of 560 false positives in 140,000 tests, based on the DHSC estimate of 99.6% specificity.
Others have their doubts too, including the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) and the Nevada State Health Department (NSHD). I don’t think these will surprise many reading here. They certainly don’t surprise me. We agree, I think, that there is a fundamental problem with using diagnostic tests in mass fishing trips among the asymptomatic well, in whom the ‘Pre-test probability’ (forgive me, horrible jargon for population prevalence) is low. False positives inevitably become a curse, addressed only (as with the NSHD) if one then does a second confirmatory test on every positive.
What does impress me is that these statements have come from such pukka sources rather than the usual heretics. The ASM (American Society for Microbiology) is very much the premier professional microbiology society in the United States and its statement is endorsed inter alia by the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology in America – again a highly respected professional society – and by the US Association of Public Health Laboratories. Neither is the NSHD to be sneezed at – the fact that it asserts problems with two different tests from different reputable diagnostic companies suggests that the issue is generic, not just one bad test type.
I did like that the ASM piece said: “The cost of frequent, rapid testing would be tremendous. For example, at $5 per test, testing everyone in the US three times per week would cost $4.9 billion per week. When considering an approach of 30 million tests weekly (~10% of the U.S. population), the Rockefeller Foundation estimates a cost of $75 billion in the next year. Even if a $1 test existed, it could cost up to $40 billion in increased spending. Limiting testing to school-aged children, college and university students, full- or part-time employees and other groups who could have frequent contact with multiple people, as well as continuing with medical pre-procedural testing, could still be expected to cost billions per week. It is unclear where funding would come from.“
Actually, this looks almost cheap compared with the wildest fantasies of ‘Operation Moonshot’, which comes in at £100 billion (US$133 billion) for a population of around one fifth that of the USA. That’s about 70% of the UK NHS annual budget… SAGE and the Office for Budget Responsibility might benefit from reading these. Boris and Hancock too.
Stop press: Sheffield City Council has issued an instruction to care homes “not to use lateral flow test kits… until we can gain assurances of their effectiveness” dealing a blow to plans to allow visiting. It told operators that “when used in practice, the performance… appears to show an unacceptably high risk of not correctly detecting infected individuals”. Too many false negatives, in other words. The Guardian has the details.
Postcard from New Zealand
We’ve had another postcard come in, this time from Joe Meyer, an Olympic level three day event rider who is currently cooped up quarantining in New Zealand before he can visit his family. The experience is not too bad, he says. The staff are friendly and the food is okay, but his quarantine is pricey, and he is counting down the days. His comments on Florida, where he lives, will be of interest too.
I am currently enjoying a 14-day quarantine after entering New Zealand. I’m traveling to visit my children that I have not seen since last Christmas due to Covid.
First some background. I live in central Florida. Florida is 100% open at present. We have had lockdowns at the beginning of the year and the state has opened up in stages. Yes there have been spikes in Covid which have been primarily due to large gatherings, concentration of population and irresponsibility. Lockdown was a bit like growing up in New Zealand in a rural area. Shopping was done once a week. We didn’t see a lot of people. My neighbour’s 96 year-old father is not allowed to leave the farm. I wear a gator style mask everyday where I am required to, so it is not a complete shock, encountering restrictions. Florida has pockets of some very concentrated population where there is more concern. The rest is no problem. Businesses in Florida are opening, business seems to be booming.
Flying to New Zealand, I checked in at Air New Zealand in Los Angeles. The agent at the check-in desk asked me for my Golden Ticket. The penny dropped. She was referring to my MIQ entry voucher. I laughed as I took my boarding pass. The plane was unnervingly full. I was in the very back seat and was relieved to find a space between myself and the gentleman next to me. Masks were worn at all times unless eating or drinking. The flight was uneventful and 13 hours later we landed in Auckland. Getting off the plane took some time. A long boarded up corridor has been built through the duty free shops area. We all waited patiently until we got a temperature check and a quick interview. No symptoms, go left to bus to hotel. Symptoms turn right and straight to Jet Park hotel. This is the managed isolation hotel.
The bus ride to Novotel Ellerslie took approximately 30 minutes. Our driver cheerfully told us that people behind were going to Rotorua. A short three-hour drive. On arrival at Novotel, we were briefed by a Navy Lieutenant. Long story short: Deliveries and online shopping allowed, approved masks to be worn at all times in communal areas, stay in your room as much as possible.
As we checked in there was another temperature check, an interview, and we were sent to out rooms with a breakfast bag. The room itself is nice. I was lucky enough to get the car view. I have never said that before! It has a lovely row of palm trees that reminds me of home. I can see the Auckland rush-hour traffic and everyday I am reminded why I don’t live here. In the room there is a king bed, a chaise lounge, a desk with a swivel chair, a 48-inch TV with 90 channels, an en-suite bathroom with a tub and a small bar area with a fridge! Also coffee (instant sachets), tea and a kettle.
We were given the menu to fill out and hand in. There are three choices of breakfast: Hot cooked, pancakes or muesli. There is also yogurt and bread, an anti-oxidant fruit drink and coconut water. For Lunch and Dinner there is a choice of two different meals. The chef here clearly has some Indian/Asian influences. Pad Thai, Butter Chicken, Moroccan Lamb and Poached Salmon to name a few. My wife would not cope but for me it’s great. The portions are more than adequate but I’m not a huge person. There is also plenty of fresh fruit. A fairly limited room service is available for food. This costs extra. A fairly extensive wine list is also available. The evening meal is at 6pm which is a little early for me and the food can go cold quickly. I have remedied this by placing the iron upside down and putting my meal in its brown paper on top. I have found medium high is the best setting. I haven’t started any fires yet.
Next was an online shop at Countdown for items I had forgotten and a supply of adult beverages. Countdown is a local supermarket chain. There was a slot that afternoon and the goods were delivered that night.
I received two complimentary clothes washing vouchers. Items to be marked off on a list. Ten items only. Two day turnaround. No problem for me but I feel for the families of four. There is an option to purchase extra washing.
As for exercise, we are lucky to have the aforementioned car park. Some other hotels take guests on buses to an exercise area. 6am till 7am is the designated slot for heavy exercise like Running. Masks are optional. There is a shuttle run area marked off where we can have a good work out. This must be booked. Only 10 runners allowed at a time, and 20 in the static area on the grass next to it. Guests must have a towel and cool off properly before entering hotel with their mask back on. I have missed out on the heavy exercise three days in row now due to overbooking which is frustrating as some people are taking advantage of this privilege. 7am till 9pm is open for light exercise; walking and light jogging. Masks mandatory. No sweating.
The exercise regime is not too bad except on certain days. Today like other days was a transition day with more guests arriving. There was an opportunity for heavy exercise as usual, from 6am till 7am if booked in. Otherwise we were confined to our rooms till 3pm. The plane was late so we were confined until 4pm. A positive Covid test and we were in confinement for the rest of the day. So if you didn’t get out at 6am you were stuck inside all day.
After the first couple of days, I needed further supplies. By my good fortune, I have a very good friend who lives less than a mile away and a care package of wine, fruit, crackers, pate and New Zealand treats soon arrived. The real game changers, though, were the French coffee press and coffee and a sharp knife, fork and plate! It had taken me 20 min to eat my Moroccan Lamb with a plastic knife out of plastic tub the night before. Guests dropping off packages can park close to the perimeter. There is an area where we can talk across the fence.
Some people on the other side of the fence wear masks. Most don’t. There are offices across the road and people wear masks there sometimes. I can’t quiet understand this. All the Covid cases in New Zealand are in controlled isolation.
The cost of the Quarantine is NZD $ 3,100. (£1,600). New Zealanders staying longer than 90 days are exempt from this charge. There are also some waivers on compassionate grounds. The rest of us that cannot be away from our businesses for 90 days have to pay. This can’t be cheated either. Immigration is watching the airport exit. I am deeply frustrated that people are planning to stay 92 days and leave. I believe that everyone should pay with a refund given after 12 months in New Zealand
The hotel staff and nurses have been nothing short of fantastic. They are super friendly and accommodating. There are some caveats but once you know them you are ok. For example, I called room service to ask for an ice bucket. “Sorry Sir we don’t serve ice buckets but we can put ice in a bag for you.” Then housekeeping called me. I asked if they would like to clean my room. “I’m sorry Sir. We don’t do that but we can supply all you need.” So I had towels and sheets and some cleaning supplies delivered.
It’s day nine and I’m having to think up a few new ways to ease the boredom. I was told this may happen. Day 13 and 14 will be exciting I’m sure! Overall, its not so bad. I know we are getting let out eventually!
Interview: A Lifelong Nurse on her COVID-19 Experience
There is a new interview over at unmasked-doco, Robert Bowles’s film in progress. Nicky Millen, a registered nurse with 40 years experience, just didn’t feel she could do it any more after her experiences of COVID-19 in the NHS. Listen to her describe her experiences eloquently and powerfully.
Unmasked-doco is a documentary project aiming to shine a light on the hidden impact of the COVID-19 scare. It relies entirely on crowdfunding, and the final film will be free to view. Roger would appreciate any donations.
Just How High Are Excess Deaths in 2020?
Today, we’re revisiting a hardy perennial and comparing excess deaths in 2020 to excess deaths in previous years. Or, rather, Lockdown Sceptics and statistical whizz Guy de la Bédoyère is. Guy is always worth reading. Here’s an extract:
Let’s look at the beginning of 2018. For the first eight weeks of 2018, thanks to a flu epidemic, the weekly registered deaths exceeded 12,000 every week. In Week 2 of 2018 registered deaths exceeded 15,000 (15,050 actually). Indeed, for those weeks the registered deaths exceeded the five-year average by a considerable margin (as much as 14.8% in one week). The average weekly death rate for the first eight weeks of 2018 was 13,266 (1,895 per day). The tenth and eleventh weeks of 2018 were also over 12,000. The average weekly death rate for the first 11 weeks of 2018, when 142,771 people died, was 12,979 and that’s only because Week 9 came in at 10,854. In the first eight weeks of 2017 the average weekly death rate was 12,548.
Both 2017 and 2018 were considerably worse than the same couple of months in 2019 when only Week 2 exceeded 12,000, so you can’t attribute early 2018’s or early 2017’s high figures to post-Xmas delayed registration. Week 51 of December 2019 incidentally showed a total of 11,926 registered deaths, a tad under 12,000 and that’s from two months before the pandemic.
In short – the first two months of 2018 were worse than the last couple of months this year.
Worth reading in full.
The Growing Community Below the Line
It is always good to see healthy debate below the line and it never seems to stop. Lockdown Sceptics is now averaging over 1,500 comments a day. A heartfelt thanks to our team of moderators, who work tirelessly (and entirely for free) to keep the porn spammers out.
Round-up
- “Real Normal Podcast, Episode 14: We’re no strangers to ‘R’” – In their latest episode, the boys get together on Zoom to talk about the R number, anti-lockdown protests in London, the Danish mask study, censorship, plus their favourite biscuit. There are also some marvellous songs
- “‘COVID-19 got me’: The heart-breaking suicide note financial adviser left his family” – From MailOnline, the sad story of Nick Gunnell who drowned himself in the River Ouse after lockdown destroyed his business. Not an isolated case
- “‘Do Not Resuscitate’ orders are being illegally put on files of adult patients with learning difficulties” – Learning disability charity Dimensions UK has told the the Commons Health and Social Care Committee that they have seen the orders placed on people they support without any consultation. This was flagged for us by a reader who saw it happen to her sister
- “COVID-19 Liberation Day is coming, and Britain should be the first to declare it” – Allister Heath’s take on the arrival of a vaccine for the Telegraph. Boris must accelerate the rollout, he says, and end the lockdown and all restrictions
- “Could we be asked to self-isolate if we catch flu?” – Isabel Hardman ponders a horrid thought in the Spectator
- “Europe will pay a high price for vaccine bureaucracy while nimble Britain breaks free” – Ambrose Evans-Pritchard says that it is Britain’s freedom from the EU policy orbit that is to be thanked for our first place in the vaccine rollout race
- “Donald Trump ‘livid’ with US regulator as UK approves COVID-19 vaccine first” – The outgoing President is angry that the UK approved a vaccine before the US
- “GCSE and A-level exams will be made easier in 2021 after ‘unprecedented disruption’ to learning caused by coronavirus pandemic” – The ongoing fall out from the lockdowns on the education of the young
- “Poverty is soaring under lockdown” – A massive 690,000 people have fallen into poverty, despite Government assistance, according to Spiked
- “India coronavirus cases stay below 50,000 for 25th straight day” – COVID-19 cases have been falling in India since September, defying the expected rise in Diwali
- “On Her Majesty’s Secret Furlough! 007 producers’ got £100k from the taxpayer during lockdown” – Sebastian Shakespeare in the Daily Mail on the healthy bonus for the producers behind the James Bond movies
- “Austin Mayor Who Told Citizens To ‘Stay Home’ Was Vacationing in Mexico with Extended Family” – A bold new entry in the COVID-19 hypocrisy stakes
- “Piers Corbyn avoids fine after being found GUILTY of breaking coronavirus restrictions at anti-lockdown protest in Hyde Park in May” – Another penalty which didn’t stick when tested in court. From Mailonline
- “Boris Johnson could be given COVID-19 vaccine on live TV” – The PM says he’ll be happy to take the vaccine on telly provided it doesn’t involve queue crashing
- “Viruses, Lockdowns, and Biomic Learning” – Out of a population of 24 million, Taiwan registers only 573 cases and seven deaths. George Gilder wonders why on the AIER blog
- “EU criticises ‘hasty’ UK approval of COVID-19 vaccine” – The European Union criticised Britain’s rapid approval of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine yesterday, saying its own procedure was more thorough
- “Boris’s clash over masks” – Jonathan Van-Tam suggests masks might continue to be needed and Boris appears to differ. Kate Andrews in the Spectator has the details
- The doughty Desmond Swayne tells the Commons that vaccines cannot be made mandatory
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Just one today: “Don’t Take Me For A Fool” by Captain Crimson.
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 so you can share it. To do that, click on the headline of a particular story and a link symbol will appear on the right-hand side of the headline. Click on the link and the URL of your page will switch to the URL of that particular story. You can then copy that URL and either email it to your friends or post it on social media. Please do share the stories.
Social Media Accounts
You can follow Lockdown Sceptics on our social media accounts which are updated throughout the day. To follow us on Facebook, click here; to follow us on Twitter, click here; to follow us on Instagram, click here; to follow us on Parler, click here; and to follow us on MeWe, click here.
Woke Gobbledegook
We’ve decided to create a permanent slot down here for woke gobbledegook. Today, from Spiked, the news that Nike, Coca-Cola and Apple, who have all been keen to prove their woke-ness in the past, have reportedly been lobbying against a US ban on imports from the Xinjiang region of China, where Uyghur Muslims face severe repression and are used for forced labour.
The Uyghur Forced Labour Prevention Act has already passed the House of Representatives, and is expected to pass the Senate. It demands that companies exporting to the United States analyse their supply chains and possibly ditch Chinese suppliers. In cases where companies cannot prove goods produced in Xinjiang were not made by forced labour, the act bans those goods. But it seems not everyone is happy with this attempt to combat modern slavery. Many firms are worried about potential threats the act poses to their supply chains.
In the recent past, Nike, Coca-Cola and Apple have been keen to parade their wokeness. In the aftermath of the death of George Floyd, Nike released an Instagram video featuring a perverted form of its slogan, which read, “For once, Don’t Do It.” This was followed by statements such as “Don’t turn your back on racism” and “Don’t make any more excuses”.
And yet, for all their performative moralising, these companies are now trying to water down action against the extreme oppression of Uyghur Muslims in China. The New York Times reports that lobbyists seek changes such as the “easing [of] disclosure requirements” that would be put in place by the act. Apple, it says, has proposed extended compliance deadlines, and is not keen on the idea of giving supply-chain information to the public, preferring to release this information to Congress instead.
Nike claims it has not lobbied against the act, but merely had ‘constructive discussions’. It also said it does not source products from Xinjiang, though reports contradict this. Coca-Cola says it does not permit forced labour in its supply chain and that one of its sugar suppliers which was linked to forced labour has since been audited. And Apple says it has found “no evidence of forced labour” on its production lines.
But disclosure documents are revealing. Though not explicit about the ultimate aims of the expenditure, they show both Nike and Coca-Cola have paid for lobbying in relation to the Forced Labour Act, while Apple has also paid for lobbying on what the New York Times describes as “Xinjiang-related legislation”.
Worth reading in full.
“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.
If you’re a shop owner and you want to let your customers know you will not be insisting on face masks or asking them what their reasons for exemption are, you can download a friendly sign to stick in your window here.
And here’s an excellent piece about the ineffectiveness of masks by a Roger W. Koops, who has a doctorate in organic chemistry.
Stop Press: The World Health Organisation (WHO) has updated – and tightened – its guidance on wearing masks. In areas where there is high transmission of COVID-19, people over the age of 12 should wear masks in health care facilities and for all indoor interactions in buildings with poor ventilation, including schools and office. Reuters has the details:
In June, the WHO urged governments to ask everyone to wear fabric masks in indoor and outdoor public areas where there was a risk of transmission of the virus. In more detailed advice published on Wednesday, the WHO said that, where places with high transmission, including children and students aged 12 or over, should always wear masks in shops, workplaces and schools that lack adequate ventilation, and when receiving visitors at home in poorly ventilated rooms. Masks should also be worn outdoors and in well-ventilated indoor spaces where physical distancing of at least one metre cannot be maintained. In all scenarios, masks, which protect against transmission of the virus rather than infection, need to be accompanied by other precautions, the WHO said. In areas of COVID-19 spread, it also advised “universal” wearing of medical masks in health care facilities, including when caring for other patients.
For more information on the (in)effectiveness of masks, see our round-up here.
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 in October and the lockdown zealots have been doing their best to discredit it ever since. If you Googled it a week after launch, the top hits were three smear pieces from the Guardian, including: “Herd immunity letter signed by fake experts including ‘Dr Johnny Bananas’.” (Freddie Sayers at UnHerd warned us about this the day before it appeared.) On the bright side, Google UK has stopped shadow banning it, so the actual Declaration now tops the search results – and Toby’s Spectator piece about the attempt to suppress it is among the top hits – 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 over 700,000 signatures.
Update: The authors of the GDB have expanded the FAQs to deal with some of the arguments and smears that have been made against their proposal. Worth reading in full.
Update 2: Many of the signatories of the Great Barrington Declaration are involved with new UK anti-lockdown campaign Recovery. Find out more and join here.
Update 3: You can watch Sunetra Gupta set out the case for “Focused Protection” here and Jay Bhattacharya make it here.
Update 4: The three GBD authors plus Prof Carl Heneghan of CEBM have launched a new website collateralglobal.org, “a global repository for research into the collateral effects of the COVID-19 lockdown measures”. Follow Collateral Global on Twitter here.
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.
There’s the GoodLawProject’s Judicial Review of the Government’s award of lucrative PPE contracts to various private companies. You can find out more about that here and contribute to the crowdfunder here.
The Night Time Industries Association has instructed lawyers to JR any further restrictions on restaurants, pubs and bars.
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.
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.
Quotation Corner
We know they are lying. They know they are lying, They know that we know they are lying. We know that they know that we know they are lying. And still they continue to lie.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
It’s easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.
Mark Twain
Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one.
Charles Mackay
They who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Benjamin Franklin
To do evil a human being must first of all believe that what he’s doing is good, or else that it’s a well-considered act in conformity with natural law. Fortunately, it is in the nature of the human being to seek a justification for his actions…
Ideology – that is what gives the evildoing its long-sought justification and gives the evildoer the necessary steadfastness and determination.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
No lesson seems to be so deeply inculcated by the experience of life as that you never should trust experts. If you believe the doctors, nothing is wholesome: if you believe the theologians, nothing is innocent: if you believe the soldiers, nothing is safe. They all require to have their strong wine diluted by a very large admixture of insipid common sense.
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
Nothing would be more fatal than for the Government of States to get into the hands of experts. Expert knowledge is limited knowledge and the unlimited ignorance of the plain man, who knows where it hurts, is a safer guide than any rigorous direction of a specialist.
Sir Winston Churchill
If it disagrees with experiment, it’s wrong. In that simple statement is the key to science.
Richard Feynman
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
C.S. Lewis
The welfare of humanity is always the alibi of tyrants.
Albert Camus
We’ve arranged a global civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.
Carl Sagan
Political language – and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists – is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.
George Orwell
The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane.
Marcus Aurelius
Necessity is the plea for every restriction of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.
William Pitt the Younger
Shameless Begging Bit
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And Finally…
Discussion
Comments
This week across the site:
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Here’s the Pfizer vaccine testing data so far, from
https://www.pfizer.com/science/coronavirus/vaccine
Italics is my comments – the rest is from their site.
What leaps out at me is that the testing started on July 27th, but the field was enlarged to 44,000 only in September and expanded again in October. I don’t know big the original field was.
Is this really long enough to test efficacy? They are continuing to check the participants for two years – what updates will they give us?
Apologies if the attachment doesn’t work – it seems impossible to post Word or Excel docs onto this site.
No, and one of our former regulators was interviewed last night saying we were quick off the mark because we had been viewing the data since June. Either incompetence or just an outright lie, because the Phase I didn’t report until end August.
You will note overnight various information on the Moderna Phase III, and serious adverse reactions, buried in this article:
Philadelphia Priest Dies After Participating In Moderna COVID Vaccine Trial | Zero Hedge
Re ‘the vaccine’. We must all ask our doctors and whoever else is commissioned to do vaccinations, if they have already had it themselves, and if not, why not. Some will lie, but suspect the doctors will be less likely to. Judge their reaction. I requested a mammogram several years ago before the age limit was lowered to 50. Female GP in the surgery (around 50) said no, I was not eligible and was ‘worrying too much’. She went absolutely spare when I asked her if she had just had one – because she had!
I have a plan that the English tier restrictions should be based on the snow line this morning. The briefest analysis will reveal that there is hardly any covid in the the areas where there is now, as I write, snow on the ground.
We are just inside that line down here in Devon, so I look forward to the lifting of all restrictions here.
When the number of reported death were announced yesterday I saw them as confirming that mortalities are now declining, as this week’s highest day’s total is almost certain to be Wednesday’s which was lower than the highest day’s total for the previous week.
This is the first time it has happened since September that the highest day’s total has been less than the previous week’s. A decline!
That wasn’t reported on Radio 4. The News focussed instead on the total deaths now going above 60,000.
No,no: look, if it’s cold, it is just weather; if it’s warm, it is global warming. Simples!
Ah that’s why they changed it to climate change so any incident of weather is proof of said change.
And because those ‘up north’ said they’d quite like it a bit warmer!
Welcome back all for your daily hit of dystopia!
No snow in my neck of the woods but its freezing here!
I really hate adverts like that.
And the Greens have been really hypocritical especially when it comes to their stance on littering and more waste generated by the current “safety” procedures.
Kids being kids remain the one bright spot at the present.
Two thousandth four hundred and forty fifth
Congratulations, it may be a record!
Short-lived though!
As far as I can tell, the day with the most comments was 2020-11-03.
The lead article was Professor David Livermore: 4,000 Deaths a Day Implausible and there were 2,886 comments posted.
Off-topic I know, but this is an interesting resource on the US election – it seems it’s not over yet.
https://joannenova.com.au/
There were major changes at the Defense dept right after the election. This included sacking the Defense Secretary and putting all special operations forces under a civilian, taking them away from the Army, Navy and Air Force, and making them into a fourth branch f equal standing with the others. Then, just two days ago Trump appeared to invoke certain provisions of the Insurrection Act relating to a foreign power stealing an election. In this case, China.
it is most definitely not over yet – the real action is only just about to begin….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-7E-71Av0k&ab_channel=SkyNewsAustralia
Definitely not over – CCTV footage of suspected fraud.
I’ve just played that video. If it’s what it seems to be (and I’m sure there are ways of faking it) then it’s quite shocking. But surely anyone in that position would know there’s CCTV?
You would think so but it seems that Democrats (and i’m sure republicans also) have got a way with cheating for quite some time. They may have become complacent.
They weren’t necessarily employing the brightest buttons in the box, and it was all done in a frantic hurry overnight when they realised by how much President T was winning, from all I’ve read!
Sky News Australia is a good source of news for the US – according to many American readers too! There’s also Newsmax, NTD and Front Page on Youtube. (CNN is firmly on the Dems’ side.)
There isn’t a shadow of a doubt they cheated. Biden is a child sniffing weirdo and part of the Pizza cabal. They know we know all about them but since only a few brave souls are prepared to break the programming and speak out it don’t matter. It’s like when people say Obama was the best president and you point out how many people he dropped bombs on from drone strikes so he’s a mass murderer their eyes glaze over and don’t hear you say that they hear you calling Obama a nigger and you’re a racist. I believe these lefty people should be sectioned, they are a clear and present danger to civility and freedom.
And yet the narrative over here is that Trump has no evidence of cheating. I am so looking forward to this scandal blowing up .
Why would I trust a study by Pharma and Gov’t of only 40K people? And where is the raw data to support any claims of efficacy? I want the raw data sources. Where? Cui Bono?
How long were these people observed? 94% effective for over 65s? How about >65 with other conditions? Vaxx injuries can occur weeks or months after injection. What injuries did the 6% suffer and why? Why is a 6% injury level acceptable? Acceptable to whom exactly? Killing or maiming 6% is okay? What if the real number is 40%? Still okay?
What precisely was the injected cocktail, does it contain CV19, mercury and aborted fetal tissue? Why would I inject poison if I am perfectly healthy? Doesn’t all of this (if forced) contravene Unesco, WMA and Nuremberg laws and signed declarations?
Who the hell are these people with their flu-vaxx fascism?
Injury rates are not the 1 in a million propaganda. They are many times higher.
“What we do now know is that of the 41,135 participants in the study, 170 went on to catch COVID-19. Of these, 162 were in the control group given the placebo and just eight had been given the vaccine. Pfizer… Read more »
Parliament will debate the ‘if forced’ mandatory vaccine issue on 14 December. Time for more pressure on MP’s to uphold our liberty.
Waaaa,haaaa? I haven’t heard about this December 14th parliament debate? Any further details?
I signed the petition and this was just a brief notice from the gov website.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/323442
Link?
I had an email earlier in response to signing a petition.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/323442
I think that petition has been around for quite a while and many of us will have signed it. It seems to have picked up pace for some reason!
In my inbox this morning:
“Parliament is going to debate the petition you signed – “Prevent any restrictions on those who refuse a Covid-19 vaccination”.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/323442
The debate is scheduled for 14 December 2020.
Once the debate has happened, we’ll email you a video and transcript.”
Jesus, from the petition link, reading the full text, it seems to me very likely that non-voluntary measures will be enacted if uptake is not considered high enough.
“However, the Government will carefully consider all options to improve vaccination rates, should that be necessary.”
…
There is also a claim:
“All vaccines used in the UK are thoroughly tested, meet strict safety criteria and are carefully monitored after they are introduced into the national programme.”
This claim can and should be easily refuted.
I will email Desmond Swayne (he seems most likely to stand up and let both barrels rip in a debate), and ask him to pose the simple questions:
1/ What are precisely the vaccination rate figures – per vulnerable demographic – the government considers sufficient for take up, and to forgo any mandatory vaccination mandates?
2/ Please precisely define what constitutes a “thoroughly tested” vaccine.
3/ Please outline the long term possible side effects taking the Covid-19 vaccine may bring about.
4/ Please outline the possible side effects taking the Covid-19 vaccine may bring about for those on existing medications.
I feel there are too many mask/lockdown/vaccine zero-risk zealots out there to not defy logic, common-sense, morality… Read more »
Where is a 6% injury rate reported, Ferd?
Feeling like a junkie scrabbling for his fix this morning. Where’s my morning injection of Toby, without which I can’t start the day!
PS – this makes me realise what a sterling effort he and his team are doing in the stilly watches of the night, every night – the treadmill grind must seem relentless.
Maybe poor Toby is slumped asleep in his shed.
Speak softly, all, and go on tiptoe.
It’s snowing round my way and in the interest of safety i’ve come up with a list of people who must stay in to be safe
that should keep us all safe.
Actually I think we should all hide under the bed until a snow vaccine is on offer.
We need some sort of global warming initiative to fight against the dangers of snow.
I think your missing sufficient government regs:-
That only applies if you’re in tier one, and you can only be in tier one if you’re in the royal family, the rest of us must stay in and avoid getting even the slightest bit cold. You could get a cracked lip, or a cold nose, maybe even wet jeans. No stay in and save lives.
https://uk.yahoo.com/news/nhs-staff-no-longer-front-180240027.html
Oh dear! Some clever soul has worked it out that if you give NHS staff the jab and it makes them ever so slightly ill, they are going to be off work after both the first and second jabs. Who will look after patients then?
You’ll hardly notice them not being there, maybe even it will be a bit quieter since you won’t hear the fat nurse eating at their station all fucking shift long.
Exactly. And the perpetual ‘at home more than at work’ piss takers have one less rock to hide under. Get the fucking thing rolled out FFS
To fucking right, the day of reckoning is long overdue for some of these lazy bastards ,
I do wish they would crack on with it.
I appreciate the hatred of the NHS, I really do as I share it. But let’s not confuse that with all the people who work in it. I do not want the vaccine forced on my family members who worked hard on the frontline in the first (only) wave. Two of them even caught the disease – properly diagnosed the old fashioned way i.e symptoms followed by a confirmatory test.
I think I was quite precise with my criticism. Those turning up doing a job deserve credit, those phoning it in, interpreting the law/guidance to suit their self, those transferring their anxieties to all and sundry, those virtue signalling on Facebook whilst eating free dominoes pizza – can all fuck themselves
It’ll give them something to do!
Well said sir hit the nail on the head..
Yes, but you seem to be advocating rolling out the vaccine to the NHS indiscriminately. How would you say just those lazy fekkers come and get it? I’m not sure I understand what you are saying. I’m pretty fed up of hearing that and having to counter it day after day so please forgive me if you don’t mean my ICU doctor son and his wife (who had the disease), nor my district nurse niece who also had the disease should be forced to be the next stage of the clinical trial. If you don’t mean that then I apologise but it’s getting pretty raw and close for me now after being terrified for their lives in March. I’d just like the whole bloody shit show to stop.
you do know that anyone on here claiming what you’ve claimed in this post looks like a lying fucker?
I just don’t believe your son is an ICU doctor and all the rest of the pish you’ve posted. It’s always the same with you shills you take it too far and it’s obvious
Neil Clark – How highly paid, job-secure, lockdown zealots have helped kill off the British high street:
https://twitter.com/NeilClark66/status/1334179173431119873?s=20
There is a rebellion brewing when I read that. People won’t continue to listen to these scientists telling them we need to stay safe from the comfort of their bedrooms.
Excessive mask-wearing and the resulting oxygen deprivation can cause brain cell death and early onset dementia, it is reported.
That explains a very great deal.
I believe there was a German scientist who did explain the danger of oxygen deprivation from wearing masks with brain development on children and young people. IIRC she did allude to early onset demential but not explicitly.
Here she is:
https://www.sott.net/article/442455-German-Neurologist-Warns-Against-Wearing-Facemasks-Oxygen-Deprivation-Causes-Permanent-Neurological-Damage
A horrible image of a ‘mother placing a Mask with Exceptional Breathability ‘ on a young boy on this site! WTF! Why is Toby Young advertising masks ?
Mask adverts are everywhere, including on sites where you’d expect them not to be. I had them invading my Pinterest boards, where I used to place my art and craft work. I had not only mask adverts but government stay-safe propaganda. I pulled the plug on Pinterest and left. We are all being subjected to massive, massive brainwashing.
I couldn’t believe when ‘reignite’, a pro Brexit campaign forum, directly sent a promotion to purchase some ghastly hard plastic, transparent mask moulded to the shape of face. Needless to say, a kurt reponse and unsubscribed. These, who months ago were talking of sovereignty and freedom.
It’s obviously a program that homes in on the word ‘mask’. Nothing to do with Toby.
I don’t get these ads. How did I manage to block them?
The ad is an admission that other masks impede breathing.
It won’t hurt zombies. No brain cells to kill.
Well done, kh!
Where did you get the measles fatality rate of of 1.45% in the chart? Goetzsche mentions 0.2% but that is probably a wild over-estimate at least for a developed nation.
It was about 0.02% perhaps in this country when measles vaccine was introduced 50 years ago. Tens of children dying a year is not good but actually a few children still die of chickenpox in this country every year but it is not mentioned because it is policy (for once they have taken the view that the net impact of a vaccine would be negative). But the big impact on child mortality was improved living conditions, nutrition, sanitation.
For someone who has otherwise been sceptical Julia HB on talk radio is ludicrously up-beat about this vaccine. Surely anyone who looks at the facts would at least be a bit hesitant and cautious. I can only think that lockdown has so addled people’s brains that they will do anything to end this hoo-haa. But I am not sure it is going to end? there is as expectation that the Government will announce huge climate change targets today, so you wonder if we will have lock-down travel restrictions until all our cars are taken away and we cannot go anywhere in any case?
I imagine all media organisations are having the thumb screws applied when it comes to vaccination. It won’t last though, especially as the petition on vaccines has sailed through 270,000!!!!
Yes, thumb screws from HMG is the answer to this riddle. All broadcasters are state broadcasters if they want to stay in business.
Link please, I have missed this one!
Thanks in advance.
Arnie.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/323442
I’m past caring about people’s health and wellbeing. Get the zombies jabbed up and let’s get on with it.
It won’t stop at the zombies though I fear.
JHB isn’t very bright, that is the problem.
The anti vax thing is heavily enforced in the media. Even scepticism is the end
Although most of the media do only seem very pro this vaccine right up until they get asked if they will have it?
this isn’t really the second wave of the virus
its the second season
first season came late to naive populations and ended up as a bad flu season in overall deaths but a mild one in terms of Life Years lost
second season is probably doing similar damage as the other coronaviruses – ie killing the soon to be departed – not a lot overall
the government should stop giving us overall deaths and give deaths for this season – start treating it like it is – a seasonal bug
I just heard the Devi bitch defending the MHRA. That is scraping the barrel….
NO
POLITICAL
VACCINATIONS
This one might be interesting:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/323442
Debate on the total tack (!!!) of government plans to persecute the un-jabbed.
It went up by 30 votes to 270k in two minutes.
Not bad for 6.30 in the morning.
Thoroughly depressing cursory look at the headlines this morning.
so we have Biden “urging” all Americans to wear masks for the first 100 days of his presidency.
Boris “hoping” to allow proper weddings by next summer.
and best of all, the first real direct mention of…. yep, the third wave.
apparently NHS staff are very worried about it.
so despite the miracle elixir wonder drug that will be forced on everyone from next week, 2021 looks identical to 2020.
you just know that people soon will start talking in hushed tones about a third wave. About the selfishness of meeting up at Xmas and how we all now have to pay. About how we can’t come out of lockdown or take off masks now, not when we are so very close to victory. Just 20 more monthly jabs to go per person, and then we might be free from the Rona in time for 2030.
I really do despair.
Oh, fine, Despair and let evil rip.
You’re welcome. Go join the zombies.
A little harsh! I have no intention whatsoever of joining them thanks. Just found drip fed “third wave” stories first thing in the morning wearying beyond belief in their Groundhog Day, patronising insanity.
No wish to offend fellow sceptics.
I agree with you – nothing wrong with feeling the occasional hopelessness in the face of all that is being put upon us. If this “community” means anything it should mean we support each other through this never ending dark night.
I can i say while not giving a fuck if i offend you or not, we’re not a community of anything. If you’re looking for a community i suggest you go join some left wing mung bean eating hippy tossers over at the Guardian. Individuals here, except Bono, he’d have you in his community i’m sure.
My thoughts exactly. I was with him up until the last line.
Sorry. But that word ‘despair’ really gets my goat.
A lot of people in Churchill’s cabinet ‘despaired’ after the fall of France,and were all in favour of coming to terms with Hitler.
It’s a bloody good thing Churchill didn’t despair.
Despair no; anger yes.
I suggest you question what happened with Churchill because if he’d listened to Hitler when he told him they were coming for the British empire, we might still have an empire. Churchill fought a war he couldn’t win without getting the American army into Europe, where they promptly invaded, sorry came to the rescue and took over. They’ve been here very since. They set up the EU and they bankrupted Britain and took most of the Empire from us. Yet to this day everyone thinks Churchill was great and the Americans saved us. You couldn’t be more wrong. The 2nd world war is the hardest brainwashing to remove from peoples minds and most will forever think they know what happened when they don’t
The third wave will be flu.
The third wave will be the flu.
You’ve only done two waves there
https://mobile.twitter.com/teamtrump/status/1334569329334083586
Watching some 1980’s football (including Gordon Durie, Chelsea v Blackpool, 87/8, on VHS no less) just to remind me of when things used to be normal – crowds (remember them?), singing, no face masks, no antisocial distancing, even in the depths of winter – however did we survive! (And Bernie Slaven lovin it for Boro!)
When will we get our rights back? And what will happen to people’s immune systems with all this excessive sanitising and stuff?
Thinking you may have to just TAKE your rights back. Maybe start with a small singing group? Christmas carols at the park? The excessive sanitizing is useless or even harmful. The only thing we sanitize is shopping cart handles and occasionally our phones.Everything else IMHO is overkill
You’re wise about the phones.. Look at what happened on. Golgsfrincham when they got rid of the telephone sanitisers.
Living on my own, husband abroad, with minimal real human contact the last few weeks thanks to lockdown and masks, I need to keep my immune system challenged so avoid the excessive shop sanitising including trolleys. Never did it before, why start now. Just from memory there was some research some time ago, showing that over use of anti bacterial sprays in homes was having a negative effect on immune systems, particularly children. If this carries on for months or years plus any negative effects of the vaccine, the simplest virus is likely to have consequences.
Oh great, we’ll never get back to normal, and the world will be bankrupt.
Phones can be pretty filthy to be fair. And now we have face masks as well!
The damage will become apparent in the near future. Just as we were becoming aware of the microbiome and the danger of being to “clean”, the Covid Crap hit the fan.
I now carry a bottle of water and spray my hands with my “sanitizer” when I enter shops.
To hell with them…
Seen in a petrol station shop yesterday.
‘Stylish hands free sanitizer station complete with batteries (?). Ideal for around the home or office’
Was that in the days of Jonah Lomu? A tremendous player and another sad loss.
I was reading an artile that the Dutch have sadly now mandated masks but they seem to have more caution than the UK about vaccines.
“Dutch Health Minister Hugo de Jonge said on Tuesday that the country aimed to start vaccinations in the week of January 4, if the EU medicines agency approves the first vaccines by then.
“But here’s a word of caution: this really is the most favourable scenario,” he said, adding that “safety comes before speed”.
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-12-dutch-mask-wearing-law.html
The rest of the world will be waiting to see if vaccinated Brits start keeling over.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RAksGg34jk
If it turns out to be like the poisoned squishee, or like Jonestown, they will know it is not safe…
The first people vaccinated will be given a placebo to fool the rest of the population that it’s safe. Remember this covid-19 is all but dead now, it’s over.
This vaccine is not one size fits all. No human being is the same. To make it mandatory and pretend that it will be an effective cure for every living man, woman and child on the face of the Earth has not been proven without a shadow of doubt.
A related point is that the population’s response to the virus is not one-size-fits-all. In fact, to assume that the virus has an R0 or an IFR is to profoundly misunderstand how the population-wide immune system works. Low level exposure to the virus enhances resistance to the virus, even if it is grey area whether it counts as ‘infection’ or not. So a measurement of R, or IFR in a population today will give a different result next year even if no one has caught ‘Covid’. IFR, R0 etc. are not fixed. The ‘science’ and modelling assume that they are fixed.
Imperial College assumes that 95% of the population is still as ‘susceptible’ as they were last March, but this is not true despite the government’s best efforts to prevent people from mixing.
Britain to compensate against severe COVID-19 vaccine side-effects
https://twitter.com/ReutersUK/status/1334569395797028867
What do HMG know?
Is there anything HMG are not spending our taxes on. All the risk and zero benefit
As far as I know Covid-19 has not yet been isolated. So what the @#$@# is this Pfizer vaccine all about?
Indeed.
We are in for an interesting 2021.
Just a quick note of appreciation for all of the Twatter virtue signallers who updated their account with a picture of themselves wearing a mask. Outstanding work. Just….. outstanding.
‘virtue signalling’
conspicuous and disingenuous expression of moral values with the intent to enhance one’s own image.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtue_signalling