The Grand Reopening
The BBC is reporting that queues formed outside shops across the country and the research firm Springboard says that footfall, up until Noon today, was 42% higher than last week. However, worth remembering that the baseline is very low – non-essential shops weren’t open this time last week. Overall, numbers were far below the same time last year. This, in spite of John Lewis and Zara cutting prices by up to 70% and the fact that Oxfam says charity shops area a great source of great bargains at the moment due to household clear-outs during lockdown.
I travelled across London by tube today and did not get the impression the city was awakening from its long slumber. Boarding a train at East Acton at around 3.40pm, I entered a carriage that was virtually empty. That remained true when I changed from the Central Line to the Northern Line at Bank and, when I got out at Moorgate, the streets were largely deserted. As you’d expect, nearly everyone on the train was wearing a mask, although not everyone on the street. On my return, I got out at Wood Lane and was able to look over into the Westfield shopping centre. That, too, seemed pretty lifeless. I was disappointed to see two masked police officers checking people entering the station to ensure they were wearing face masks. According to the Times, 3,000 police officers have been deployed across England to enforce mandatory mask wearing on public transport.
The atmosphere in shops is far from welcoming, so perhaps the inactivity isn’t all that surprising. Carl Vernon has provided a scathing YouTube commentary on Primark’s new shopping arrangements, with floor decals, mandatory hand sanitiser, decontaminated bags, neon signs everywhere telling you to keep your distance, no fitting rooms…. it’s horrific.
If this is the way Primark intends to carry on, I can’t see it surviving until Christmas.
Simon Dolan’s Advice For People Who Don’t Want to Wear Masks
Simon Dolan has some advice for people who don’t fancy wearing a mask on public transport:
If you don’t feel comfortable wearing a mask on public transport, simply don’t wear it and if challenged say that under Part 1 Section 4 (a) of The Health Protection (CV, Wearing of Face Coverings on Public Transport) you are exempt as they cause you severe anxiety.
A Doctor’s View of Mandatory Face Masks
I got an email from a doctor today about face masks. Sounds like he’s no more of a fan than Simon Dolan.
I work at an acute NHS trust in a non-clinical role and from today it is mandatory for all staff to wear Type 2 surgical masks at all times. This includes staff who spend 99% of their day sitting at a desk staring at a computer screen. We have been coming into work every day, including during the peak of the pandemic, and in non-patient facing areas there has been no forced two-metre social distancing let alone mask wearing! People have been using their own judgement i.e. washing hands, staying slightly distanced and not breathing directly in people’s faces. There has not been a significant outbreak within our workforce throughout the pandemic, yet now the virus has practically disappeared (there have only been 3 positive patients in the hospitals since 1st June) we are being forced to wear masks!
We’ve been told this is here to stay for some time (if we’re made to wear them during summer when the virus is practically non-existent, then surely we’re going to have to wear them throughout winter when seasonal flu arrives…) and to think about how we can work differently to make wearing masks more bearable!
A lot of goodwill has been built up within the workforce over the past few months but this is likely to cause widespread frustration from staff who cannot understand why now is the time to wear masks! Personally, I will be maximising the time I can work remotely to avoid this draconian rule which is actually at detriment to getting the hospital back up and running functionally.
In case you missed it, worth reading the case against face masks by David Crowe on Lockdown Sceptics, and a review of the (fairly weak) evidence that they protect anyone from catching the virus by Dr John Lee in the Spectator.
Letter in the Sunday Times About Harmful Effects of School Closures
On Friday I mentioned that Dr Ellen Townsend, Professor of Psychology at Nottingham University, had pulled together a “we, the undersigned” letter about the effects of the continuing school closures on young people’s mental health. An abridged version was published in yesterday’s Sunday Times. Here’s the full version:
Open letter to Gavin Williamson Secretary of State for Education concerning the neglect of children and adolescents in government policy during the UK lockdown.
Dear Mr Williamson,
The recent decision of the Government to delay returning children and adolescents to school is a national disaster. As experts working across disciplines we are united as we urge you to reconsider your decision and to release children and young people from lockdown. Allow them to play together and continue their education by returning to preschool, school, college and university, and enjoy extra-curricular activities including sport and music as normally, and as soon, as possible. Undoubtedly, you already know the arguments that support this direction in decision making but we articulate some of them here nonetheless.
The relative shortage of expert and scientific input on SAGE specifically covering young people’s mental health and education is an important and dangerous omission. The lockdown exacerbates key risk factors known to increase the risk of self-harmful thoughts and feelings including defeat, entrapment, loneliness/social isolation, hopelessness and anger. Mental health problems also contribute to self-destructive thoughts and behaviours and sadly, a national survey in 2017 indicated that these were increasing, particularly among teenagers. Since lockdown, we are seeing increases of these issues in young people through surveys at the University of Oxford, the Mental Health Foundation, and rapid reviews (e.g. from the University of Reading) indicate these trends are likely to persist. Suicide is already the leading cause of death in 5-19 year olds in England and the second leading cause of death in young people globally; thankfully, COVID-19 will never claim this many young lives.
A risk-benefit approach must be taken when making decisions about children’s social interaction and play in schools, and public health protection. Children learn through play, which is vital for their wellbeing, and their social and emotional development. The lockdown has created an environment where they cannot play together with their friends. It is crucial that social distancing measures are minimised, or removed as far as possible, to enable in-person play.
The impact of the lockdown on learning is incredibly harmful, creating a huge attainment gap, and the most vulnerable and marginalised in society (including those from a BAME background, with special educational needs or disabilities, and children in the lowest income homes), are likely to be most affected by this. Children remaining out of school will create a generation with increased educational poverty. Other countries in Europe (e.g. Denmark, Norway and Greece) have returned children to school with no evidence of a ‘second wave’ of COVID-19. We advise the Government to prepare teachers and to discuss their anxieties in order to enable children to come together.
The evidence to date is that children are at low risk from COVID-19 and may not play a significant role in transmission. As Alistair Haimes (writing in the Critic) recently put it: “With no serious pre-existing conditions, the young-ish and healthy are far more likely to be hit by lightning than to die of COVID-19.”
We recognize that the pandemic and lockdown have been a national tragedy for everyone. However, children and adolescents have sacrificed so much in this crisis for a disease that they neither suffer from nor spread. We must now prioritise children and adolescents in the release from lockdown as a matter of utmost urgency in order to prevent a national crisis and the decimation of their futures. Specifically, the Government must change social distancing advice in such a way that summer play schemes and education providers of all types are able to open, and that does not infringe human rights, which the current rules appear to do. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (article 3) states: “In all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private social welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative authorities or legislative bodies, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration.”
Young people must be included meaningfully in decision making moving forward on policies involving them. They have been neglected in this crisis and their rights and futures must now be given priority. We need to recognize the sacrifice that children have already made for others and we should not ask for that sacrifice to continue. When many of this cohort enter adulthood, we will be deep in recession, so they will need mental resilience and educational preparedness. Instead we are damaging both, with lifelong consequences for them and society.
We are not the only group concerned for the rights and welfare of children in this global crisis. The number of open letters to governments on this issue is growing.
It then links to three other open campaigns to get schools to reopen (here, here and here) and includes the names of more than 100 academics who’ve signed the letter. You can see a list of them here and if you’re an education academic who wants to add your name, you can do that by emailing Ellen. The BBC also ran a news story about the letter.
Well done Ellen.
The letter is particularly timely, given that University College London has just published research showing that two million schoolchildren have done virtually zero schoolwork during lockdown. Around one in five pupils have carried out no schoolwork, or less than an hour a day, since schools closed in March. Meanwhile, only 17% of children put in more than four hours a day. And, in general, the more disadvantaged a child’s background, the less schoolwork they’ve done. Only 11% of children in receipt of free school meals spent more than four hours a day on schoolwork, compared to nearly a fifth (19%) of their peers. Other figures revealed that nearly a third (31%) of private schools provided four or more online lessons daily, compared with just 6% of state schools.
Hard to believe Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary “welcomed” the news that schools wouldn’t reopen last week.
Listen to Me Talking to Joel Kotkin
In the latest Quillette podcast, I talk to the American public intellectual Joel Kotkin about the pandemic and its riotous aftermath in the US. Joel recently wrote a piece for Quillette on this subject called “Pandemics and Pandemonium” which is well worth reading.
Surviving a Hospital Stay
As regular readers will know, my view is that SARS-CoV-2 is a predominantly nosocomial disease – that is, the majority of infections have occurred in hospitals and care homes. Which makes visiting hospital a risk, particularly if you’re immunocompromised or have any life-threatening co-morbidities.
Today I’m publishing a piece by Nicholas Booth, a health journalist who found himself in exactly that position. He has bowel cancer and Pyoderma Gangrenosum and, for that reason, had been advised not to leave his house for 12 weeks under any circumstances. But circumstances changed and he ended up in Croydon University Hospital, known locally as “Maydie Hospital” because it has been treating so many patients with COVID-19.
On April 3rd the Government had texted me an instruction not to leave the house for twelve weeks, even to go into the garden. As someone who is at high risk of severe illness if I were to catch the virus, I was told it was too dangerous even to leave the window open for more than three hours a day. I was judged to be so vulnerable that I had to practice social distancing in my own home.
But then I managed to injure myself so badly that a hospital admission was unavoidable. First I had pumped my veins with blood thinner, so any injury would bleed excessively. Then I tore my thigh muscle by doing too many squats.
A PICC Line in my arm, a necessary aid for chemotherapy, had to be supported with daily injections of the blood thinner Fragmin in order to stop the blood from clotting around the plastic tubing within my veins. While preventing deep vein thrombosis (DVT) it also encourages internal bleeding. The opiates made me oblivious to the torn-muscle pain, so I only noticed something was wrong when it created a severe swelling in my left leg. The upshot was that, despite my known vulnerability to infection and the high incidence of death among new patients, I had to be admitted to hospital.
Why did I survive? There are a number of possible reasons.
Nick believes that if he can survive this ordeal, people with no underlying health conditions really don’t need to worry about returning to work.
Worth reading in full.
Round-Up
And on to the round-up of all the stories I’ve noticed, or which have been been brought to my attention, in the last 24 hours:
- ‘Special Episode: Heather Mac Donald‘ – Interview between the National Review‘s Rich Lowry and Heather Mac Donald
- ‘Seniors are becoming COVID-19 collateral damage. They’re dying because of it, not of it.‘ – Two doctors have written a piece in USA Today, pointing out that social isolation is killing many elderly people
- ‘We’re in the middle of a moral panic‘ – Coleman Hughes interviewed for Triggernometry. Hughes was a columnist for Quillette (where I work as an Associate Editor) and is now a columnist for City Journal
- ‘UK Government continues to mislead about the trend in COVID-19 cases‘ – Good post in InProportion2 about the difference between the Government’s data on infections and the National Audit Office’s data, arguing that the latter (which paints a better picture) is more accurate
- ‘Boris Johnson confirms his race equality commission will also look at issues faced by working class white boys‘ – Boris has announced that he will appoint a commission to look into the prevalence and causes of racial equality
- ‘UK announces 38 more coronavirus deaths‘ – Daily death toll is 66% lower than two weeks ago and no deaths have been recorded in the last 24 hours in Scotland or Northern Ireland
- ‘Retracted Coronavirus Papers‘ – Retraction Watch, a website that keeps track of academic papers that have been retracted, has compiled a list of all those on the subject of Covid that have been pulled
- ‘NI’s hotels and bars can reopen from July 3rd‘ – Northern Ireland is set to reopen
- ‘Low rate of daily smokers in patients with symptomatic COVID-19‘ – New preprint based on French study confirming that smoking does indeed protect you from COVID-19
- ‘Economist Gigi Foster questions lockdown decision on Q+A‘ – Very succinct case against lockdowns made by economist Gigi Foster in less than two minutes on Australian television
- ‘Keep quiet on two-metre rule, SAGE experts told‘ – Interesting story in the Telegraph saying that a senior member of the Government has told SAGE members to stay off the airwaves
- ‘Britain’s Dangerous Moment‘ – Professor Doug Stokes in the Critic warns that the combination of the pandemic and the BLM protest movement, as well as a looming no-deal Brexit, means we’re sitting on a tinderbox
- ‘Culture warriors want control, not equality‘ – Former anti-discrimination tsar Trevor Philips warns that social justice warriors have no regard for free speech
- ‘Another Judge Rules That Ohio’s COVID-19 Lockdown Is Illegal‘ – The decision says the “unbridled and unfettered consolidation of authority in one unelected official” violates due process and the separation of powers
- ‘The Modellers Thought of Everything Except Reality‘ – Good piece in the American Institute for Economic Research blog
- ‘French cheesemakers accidentally discover new best-selling cheese thanks to COVID-19‘ – Munster cheese left festering in a cellar for a month because of lockdown turned into something else – and it’s surprisingly tasty!
- ‘Lockdowns Hit Minority Businesses‘ – the Wall St Journal says that 41% of black business owners have disappeared from the business data thanks to lockdown
- ‘The old normal is alive and well in Paris‘ – Reassuring blog post by Stephen Heiner in Front Porch Republic
Theme Tune Suggestions From Readers
Just the one suggestion today: “Killing in the Name” by Rage Against the Machine.
Small Businesses That Have Reopened
A few weeks ago, Lockdown Sceptics launched a searchable directory of open businesses across the UK. The idea is to celebrate those retail and hospitality businesses that have reopened, as well as help people find out what has opened in their area. But we need your help to build it, so we’ve created a form you can fill out to tell us about those businesses that have opened near you. Please visit the page and let us know about those brave folk who are doing their bit to get our country back on its feet.
Shameless Begging Bit
Thanks as always to those of you who made a donation in the last 24 hours to pay for the upkeep of this site. It takes me many hours every day, which doesn’t leave much time for other work. If you feel like donating, however small the amount, please click here. Alternatively, you can donate to the Free Speech Union’s litigation fund by clicking here or join the Free Speech Union here. And if you want to flag up any stories or links I should include in future updates, email me here.
And Finally…
Is wokeness a cult? That’s the view of New Discourses, a group set up by James Lindsay and others to explore the dynamics of what one American journalist has described as “the successor ideology”. Also known as Woke-us Dei.
I find this analysis persuasive.
One of the best things about the New Discourses website is the “Social Justice Encyclopaedia” which translates woke gobbledegook into plain English. First it gives the meaning of the word or phrase as understood by adherents to the Social Justice cult, then it explains what it means in practice. For instance, here is the New Discourses explanation of “Cancel/Cancel Culture”:
“Cancellation” or “Cancel Culture” is largely understood as an aspect and, indeed, an escalation of “Call-Out Culture”, in which a public figure is found to have said or done something problematic and is then called out for it, most commonly on social media. This leads to mass outrage and demands for a boycott of the individual’s work, their firing from their job or work opportunities, or the retraction of invitations to events (or an outright cancellation of their event). One would be immediately forgiven for identifying it with what it is: a modern, social-media-driven instantiation of Maoist-style struggle sessions in which problematic individuals are subjected to mass public shame, forced to apologize, and then shamed further.
In case you aren’t aware of this, that’s exactly what happened to me at the beginning of 2018. I wrote about it in a piece called “The Public Humiliation Diet” in Quillette.
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.
“U.K. health chiefs warn new Covid variant may be rapidly spreading” – The new Covid variant ‘Pirola’ may already be spreading across the world, according to a panel of Government ‘experts’ including ‘Professor Lockdown’ Neil Ferguson, according to the Mail. Ooh, mother!
(Yawn)
“YouTube prepares for new Covid lockdowns with gaslighting ‘misinformation’ rules” – If you thought that YouTube had relaxed its medical ‘misinformation’ rules around Covid, then you’re in for a nasty surprise, says Phillip James in Vision News.
That said, it still does NOT follow that they are planning another lockdown. That specious idea was from Alex Jones’s site Infowars, which should be taken with at least a grain of salt, if not a whole pound. It would truly be the height of political and career suicide for anyone in power to do anything like that now, as the majority of people have already been red-pilled and will not fall for that again.
Sadly, I think quite a few people enjoyed being locked down and paid to stay at home and do nothing, so they live in hope of another one. Seeing the government has just about bankrupted the country by doing it once, I don’t see how they could ever, financially, do it again, and yes, most people would just ignore it.
Hmm. As Hancock stated clearly at the inquiry, he would lock down again and lock down harder. They’d do it at the drop of a hat. Get real. Things have changed, and not for the better.
But the difference is that this time they will be met with fierce resistance from a critical mass of people, God willing. Most people have achieved “herd immunity” to their lies after being red-pilled the hard way for so long.
“Wearing masks in hospitals may have had little impact on COVID-19 transmission during Omicron wave” – According to new research, mask requirements in a London hospital during the first 10 months of omicron made no discernible difference to reducing hospital-acquired SARS-CoV-2 infections, reports Medical Xpress.
In other news, water is wet and the sun rises in the east. And another study finds that bears in fact do their business in the woods.
But seriously. If they don’t work in hospitals, combined with all the other strict precautions, that means they really don’t work anywhere.
I’ve just had a shouty letter from the NHS inviting me for a “free” health screening appointment. With the demand that I wear a ‘face covering’ during the procedure. I sent them a shouty reply.
Wow
It would have been interesting to see how they’d reply if you asked for the scientific evidence which underpins this muzzling request. Actually I’d be interested to see what a FOI request would produce. When I had my Hull Infirmary experience on a previous visit home all they kept repeating, parrot fashion, was ”It’s guidelines, Trust guidelines”, nobody could offer me the scientific rationale, they were just demonstrating that they were pig-ignorant, automaton Covidian cultists. Guidelines trump evidence – based practice apparently. The laugh was, and I pointed it out to them, that Scarborough down the road had zero mask regs. Bloody retards.
“The lab leak illusion” – The laboratory accident hypothesis of COVID-19’s origins is a bust, says Jamie Palmer in Quillette, but the popular consensus is unwilling to accept it.
Michael P. Senger has been saying this for years now. The lab leak theory is the “Scooby Doo” narrative that the powers that be wanted us to discover. Regardless, whether it was natural or a lab leak, the virus really wasn’t all that special after all. A super-flu at worst, which happens from time to time, and a pretty humdrum virus overall, that is now devolving into the new common cold, basically. The mad scientists’ GOF abilities are (thankfully) quite inferior.
NEW PODCAST OUT FROM THE REAL NORMAL PODCAST!
We’re back on the airwaves talking about the ‘Bibby Stockholm’ and her massive hull…plus we’re picking the bones out of light fingered museum curators. We cover the awful story of Lucy Letby, whilst also chatting about the usual madness that swirls around the woke, namely Graham Linehan.
https://therealnormalpodcast.buzzsprout.com/1268768/13442825-ep-53-get-your-big-bibby-stockholm-s-out
PLUS SILLY SONGS you unfortunate proles!
More on the Lucy Letby case here. The site linked in Clare’s tweet is very comprehensive and casts reasonable doubt on everything, furthering the case for a retrial for Lucy, in my opinion.
”Based upon published peer-reviewed research, and with the guidance, advice, and insights of other scientists, it is the view of Science on Trial that the scientific information put before the court by the expert witnesses is very simply inaccurate, misleading, and in many places false. The expert witnesses in this case are likely aware that the claims they have made lack necessary scientific findings, and if they were to write these claims up and attempt to submit them for publication, their submission would be quickly rejected.”
https://twitter.com/ClareCraigPath/status/1693550419727835414
I didn’t see the interview with Graham Linehan on Talk TV, in which the interviewer was allegedly rude and gave her other guest ( somebody who wants to legalize paedophilia ) way more respect, but it all makes sense now. I guess Clown World logic dictates that deviants and paedos deserve sympathy and understanding while those who raise concerns about child welfare and stick to biological facts are persecuted.
”A notorious trans activist known for sending pornographic images to woman critical of gender ideology reportedly prepared Talk TV presenter Rosanna Lockwood for her disastrous interview with Father Ted creator Graham Linehan. Rosanna Lockwood drew ample controversy after conducting what many described as an “ambush.”
Lockwood was blasted on social media following her interview with Linehan, a critic of transgender ideology, in which she called his views “extreme.” Linehan had appeared on Talk TV under the purported intention of discussing the cancellation of his comedy show due to his criticism of gender ideology.
Many noted that Lockwood did not treat other guests during the segment the same way, allowing infamous LGBT activist Peter Tachtell to speak uninterrupted. Despite calling into question the validity and appropriateness of Linehan’s views, Lockwood did not interrogate Tatchell on his history of pro-pedophilia sentiment.
Tatchell infamously called for lowering the age of consent, wrote chapters in two books where he argued that laws criminalizing adults for sexually abusing children do more harm than the abuse itself, and said during an interview that not all sex between adults and children is “harmful.” Tatchell has also been linked to members of the Pedophile Information Exchange, a now-defunct pedophile rights group.”
https://reduxx.info/trans-activist-defending-violent-trans-inmate-reportedly-prepped-talk-tv-journalist-for-interview-with-graham-linehan/
“The pain of Net Zero is coming sooner than you think” – The U.K.’s proposed bans on boilers and petrol cars will be economically devastating, warns James Woudhuysen in Spiked.
‘Any fines that firms incur will almost certainly be passed on to the consumer through price hikes’. No, no. Surely Vauxhall will swallow a £15k fine per car in order to keep selling £20k entry level Corsas?
I think these are the policies of a government which does not think it can win at the next General Election. It will leave poisoned policies which the new incumbents will either have to repeal or carry through – and either way lose the public’s approval.
Repealing such nonsense after the GE would secure a 10/15 year term for any party.
I take your point. I should have said lose some of the public’s approval if they carry through – and, of course, some others and the WEF if they repeal.
Just another statistic for TPTB to ignore.
”College basketball was mourning the loss of former University of Houston forward Reggie Chaney on Monday night.
Chaney passed away at the age of 23, according to multiple reports, though the cause of his death was not immediately known.
He had been set to join the AE Psychiko — a professional basketball team in Greece — according to the Houston Chronicle.
Chaney played two seasons for the Arkansas Razorbacks before he transferred to the University of Houston, where he played three seasons.
This past season had been his final one with the Cougars and he was named American Athletic Conference’s Sixth Man of the Year.”
https://nypost.com/2023/08/22/former-houston-cougars-basketball-star-reggie-chaney-dies-at-23/
Why the hell do the MSM keep referring to Ferguson as an ‘epidemiologist’? An academic with 2 physics degrees, who shows zero self awareness of all his previous forecasting errors, driven by schoolboy coding, does not an epidemiologist make.
Agreed..found this in my ‘archive’ from 2020…..so it’s still the same question, why, after all these wrong, egregious and utterly banana’s ‘predictions’ does anyone give him the time of day? Who should we ask?
https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2020/05/08/so-the-real-scandal-is-why-did-anyone-ever-listen-to-this-guy/
[Imperial College epidemiologist Neil] Ferguson was behind the disputed research that sparked the mass culling of eleven million sheep and cattle during the 2001 outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease. He also predicted that up to 150,000 people could die. There were fewer than 200 deaths. . . .
In 2002, Ferguson predicted that up to 50,000 people would likely die from exposure to BSE (mad cow disease) in beef. In the U.K., there were only 177 deaths from BSE.
In 2005, Ferguson predicted that up to 150 million people could be killed from bird flu. In the end, only 282 people died worldwide from the disease between 2003 and 2009.
In 2009, a government estimate, based on Ferguson’s advice, said a “reasonable worst-case scenario” was that the swine flu would lead to 65,000 British deaths. In the end, swine flu killed 457 people in the U.K.
…that’s before we get to the great Convid scam?? Nice work if you can get it!!?
Have 10,000 virtual up-votes
For the same reason that lifelong communist and clinical psychologist Susan Michie was never off our screens (YouTube in my case, not MSM) during the pandemic pontificating about Covid and spreading lies and misinformation.
Both Professor Pantsdown and Hatt Mancock are really far too disgraced to be taken even remotely seriously at this point. A heckler’s veto and a two-finger salute (or one finger, in the USA) is the only appropriate response when they open their big mouths.
If I didn’t already believe from the very beginning that something was seriously wrong with the American narrative on Ukraine…and didn’t make sense…this would make me go huh!
WTF!
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/08/hawaii-announces-plans-ukraine-independence-day-raise-money/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=hawaii-announces-plans-ukraine-independence-day-raise-money
Hawaii is holding a “Ukraine Independence Day Event” on Aug 26th at Magic island to raise money and awareness for the War in Ukraine.
They are still digging up the charred remains of victims in Lahaina. There are over 1,000 people missing.
Maybe they should put a pause on the Ukrainian fundraiser? At least until they find all the bodies of the missing children.
But it is a committed leftist state – so it won’t matter.
““The West is losing the plot”. Too late, that happened some years ago. Around about the time of the invasion of Iraq I would say, and those illusive WMDs.
or elusive, take your pick
No surprise. They don’t work in stopping the spread of infection.
https://brownstone.org/articles/studies-and-articles-on-mask-ineffectiveness-and-harms/
And the tweet by a UK Surgeon below tells us all we need to know. The use of masks was to oppress us.
Nice one, and very timely, I’ve saved it in case I get a response from the NHS consultant that I’ve just shouted at. He started it.
To be fair, here is a quick demo of just how effective masks are at preventing respiratory virus spread;
https://twitter.com/susantananda3/status/1598935763823243264?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1598935763823243264%7Ctwgr%5E713f4f8e406e8fd085af570a6ad774968b89e64a%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.indiatimes.com%2Ftrending%2Fanimal%2Fvideo-of-deer-gracefully-crossing-gate-586736.html%3Futm_source%3Dmsn.com
Did somebody say a new variant called PAYOLA ?
LOL. Right up there with MONEYPOX.