Yes, Kids Can Get Covid. But They’re More Likely to Die of Flu
Last week, there was a hysterical story in the New York Times about how hundreds of children had become infected at a summer camp in Georgia. It led to crazy, paranoid “guidance” being written by bedwetting journalists, such as this piece for the NPR website advising parents to “look for” things like “consistent, mandatory mask usage for kids and adults” and “6 feet between desks, small class sizes and cohorts”.
As Gummi Bear said on Twitter: “Nobody said children don’t get COVID-19 so not sure what the breaking news is. A 12 year-old child has a 1 in 55,000 chance of dying IF they get it. That same child is 25x more likely to die from other causes. As a society, we have lost all commonsense in terms of risk assessment.”
The above IFR data from the huge seroprevalence survey in Spain – and which almost certainly overstates the IFR in every age category – says children under the age of 10 have an IFR of 0.0029% and those aged 10-18 0.0018%.
The negligible risk to children is also mentioned in this piece in today’s Telegraph by Science Editor Sarah Knapton entitled “How the danger of coronavirus compares with the risks of everyday life”. She writes:
Children have a greater chance of being hit by lightning than dying from coronavirus with the death rate for five to 14-year-olds in England and Wales currently just one in 3.5 million. For under-fives, it is one in 1.17 million.
Not surprisingly, these data cut no mustard with the teaching unions. The Telegraph has obtained a recording of a Zoom meeting with Mary Bousted, joint head of the National Education Union (NEU), in which she advises her lieutenants that the Government “won’t be able to carry out their threats” against schools that refuse to re-open in September.
She said: “The latest iteration of Government guidance is so unworkable that you can’t trust it. Local authorities and schools should take the confidence to do what they can do and that will mean for many schools that they cannot have all children fully back in September.
“Now, the Government’s making threatening noises about that. But in the end, they won’t be able to carry out their threats.”
She said that it might be “simply impossible” to follow the guidance “and have all children back” and schools “should have the confidence to be looking at what is possible in your area and make those arrangements”.
The Government is in a hole of its own making. If it hadn’t insisted schools comply with a plethora of utterly pointless social distancing measures, the teaching unions wouldn’t be in such a powerful position. In effect, the Department for Education has handed its most ruthless enemies a loaded gun. It can’t really complain if that gun is now being pointed at its head.
Did Dominic Cummings Make Second Trip to Durham?
Two of four people who claim to have seen Dominic Cummings on what would have been a second visit to the north-east of England have complained to the police watchdog, accusing the Durham force of not fully probing their claims, according to the Guardian.
Cummings has consistently denied returning to Durham on April 19th, days after he came back to London from a trip that was subsequently exposed in a joint investigation by the Guardian and the Daily Mirror.
The Prime Minister’s chief adviser has said that phone data and potentially CCTV would prove he was in London – and the Guardian has been told of one sighting of him on Hampstead Heath that afternoon.
However, neither he nor Downing Street has gone public with the evidence they say they have – and which Boris Johnson says he has seen – and pressure is mounting again for full transparency to answer lingering questions about his movements.
Apologies if I can’t get too worked up about this. Who gives a stuff if Dominic Cummings broke the lockdown rules? When will the Guardian and Daily Mirror‘s journalists start doing their jobs and ask why Cummings and co placed the entire country under virtual house arrest on March 23rd without having done any due diligence about the damage it was likely to do?
Lockdown Easing Caused a Fall in Infections
According to new research done by Imperial College and Ipsos Mori, who carried out the largest swab testing survey in the country, infections fell when lockdown restrictions were eased. The Telegraph has more.
Although there are fears that releasing measures too soon has led to localised spikes in some areas, new data suggests that there was no overall rise after primary schools returned and non-essential shops reopened.
According to Imperial College London and Ipsos Mori, community prevalence actually fell after lockdown measures were relaxed, decreasing from 12 infections per 10,000 people in May to eight in 10,000 by mid-June to early July.
Needless to say, Matt Hancock has tried to spin this as proof that the lockdown was effective.
“This research highlights how, thanks to everyone’s efforts and sacrifice, alongside targeted measures to counter the spread of this virus in health and care settings, we were able to keep rates of infection low as some restrictions were lifted.
“However, we must not be complacent. I urge everyone to get a test if you have symptoms, self-isolate and provide your contacts to NHS Test and Trace so we can continue to keep the virus at bay and get back to normal.”
You’ve got to give him points for shamelessness. No matter how conclusive the evidence is that the lockdown was completely ineffective, he’d try and spin it as a vindication of Government policy.
Car Salesman More Trusted Than Prime Minister
Amusing anecdote sent to me by a reader:
Thought I’d share my experience in a car showroom today. I’d already told the saleswoman I wouldn’t be masked and she was absolutely fine with it but there was a steady stream of masked people coming in as they currently have a 0% finance offer on. They all were clearly uncomfortable and took them off as soon as the sales staff told them it was OK. It seems we now live in a country where people trust car salesmen more than they do the Prime Minister!
Breakin’ the Law, Breakin’ the Law – in Melbourne
A spirited resident of Melbourne has got in touch to reveal how often he now finds himself breaking the law in the course of his daily routine.
I’m a 53 year old married father of three, running a small business. In the space of 24 hours my life went from low key, bordering on boring, to law breaking and risky. And I didn’t change a thing I did.
Leaving at 4.20am each morning, I run from my home to the city, about 12-14km (depending on which station I run to), then catch a train to work, getting to work at 6am. This boring routine now violates many new laws in Chairman Dan Andrews’ nightmarish socialist dystopia. By leaving at 4.20am I’m breaking the 8pm-5am curfew, by running for more than an hour I’m breaking the 1 hour exercise a day rule, by running more than 5km from my place of residence, I break the 5km rule, if I forget to carry my mask, that’s another rule broken and if I forget to carry work permit papers, allowing me to travel to work (ludicrously signed by me as a worker & signed again by me as the co-owner of the company), then I’m breaking another edict brought in last Sunday.
I now run at my usual time, but only around my area, still for the same time and distance, with my Garmin switched off, my location services on my phone also switched off, clad entirely in black. The first 40 minutes of my run is spent avoiding main roads (police might find me out before curfew is over), avoiding shopping areas (maybe a camera might catch me), and ducking up peoples driveways, or standing still behind a tree, whenever I see a set of headlights. Maybe it might be the cops?
My formerly law abiding a mild mannered wife and children now also find themselves breaking several laws a day. Maybe we need something at the supermarket, but we’ve already been out once that day for shopping? Go out again and you’re breaking a law. One shopping trip a day is allowed, and only for one hour. Going for a small jog, find yourself out of breath and slow to a walk? Put that mask on! If you’re not actually jogging/running, a mask must be on at all times! There’s suddenly a lot of people going for very slow jogs, looking like it’s the first time they’ve run since school, all for the freedom of not wearing a mask.
Last weekend, I wanted to take my two youngest kids out to get an ice cream. Such frivolity is not a permitted reason to be out. To get around this edict, I asked my 13 year old daughter to write out a fake shopping list, so that if questioned by police on the reason we were out, we could produce the fake shopping list and plead that we were out in order to shop for vital supplies at the supermarket across the road from the ice cream shop. So my daughter is caught up in my law breaking lifestyle too.
I haven’t even mentioned the myriad laws and rules my brother & I must now keep in mind in trying to run a little hardware company with 16 staff. Including who we sell to, when we sell, where we allow goods to be collected from and what the customer is going to do with the goods. I’ll save this saga for another time.
This is life in Melbourne in August 2020.
I had to point out that by taking his two youngest kids out for an ice cream he was almost certainly breaking another law. As I understand it, only two people are allowed out of their house at any one time.
Round-Up
- ‘The Leicester lockdown was not necessary‘ – Good analysis by David Paton in UnHerd
- ‘Travellers from Belgium, Andorra, and the Bahamas must quarantine in UK‘ – Three more countries have been removed from the travel corridor. Grant Shapps announced this on Twitter at 8pm last night. And France could be next, according to the Telegraph
- ‘Universities pay for security teams to check if students are following coronavirus guidelines‘ – One more reason not to start university this year if you can possibly help it. Any uni paying a security team to enforce Covid rules should not be given bail-out money. If they want to put themselves out of business, let them
- ‘Outcry over £150m of worthless facemasks prompts spending inquiry‘ – Labour demands inquiry after 50 million masks bought by Ayanda Capital on behalf of the Government turned out to be useless
- ‘Victoria: State of Despair‘ – Blog post by RJ Smith about the dismal situation in Victoria
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Two today: “Harder to Breathe” by Maroon 5 and “The Bug” by Paul Weatherhead.
Small Businesses That Have Re-Opened
A couple of months 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 re-opened, 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.
Now that non-essential shops have re-opened – or most of them, anyway – we’re now focusing on pubs, bars, clubs and restaurants, as well as other social venues. As of July 4th, many of them have re-opened too, but not all (and some of them are at risk of having to close again). 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 – particularly if they’re not insisting on face masks! Don’t worry if your entries don’t show up immediately – we need to approve them once you’ve entered the data.
Forums Back Up and Running
I enjoy reading all your comments and I’m glad I’ve created a “safe space” for lockdown sceptics to share their frustrations and keep each other’s spirits up. But please don’t copy and paste whole articles from papers that are behind paywalls in the comments. I work for some of those papers and if they don’t charge for premium content they won’t survive.
We have created some Lockdown Sceptics Forums that are now open. Initially, they became a spam magnet so we temporarily closed them. However, we’ve found a team of people wiling to serve as moderators so the Forums are back up and running. Any problems, email the Lockdown Sceptics webmaster Ian Rons here.
“Mask Exempt” Lanyards
I thought I’d create a new permanent slot 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 (now showing it will arrive between Sept 11th to 22nd). 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 that looks like as if it’s been issued by the NHS for just £2.79 from Etsy here.
Don’t forget to sign the petition on the UK Government’s petitions website calling for an end to mandatory face nappies in shops here.
A reader has started a website that contains some useful guidance about how you can claim legal exemption.
And the reader who managed to travel all the way to Corfu without wearing a face nappy, thanks to a “Mask Exempt” lanyard, reports he was able to travel back again too.
Just a quick note to say I used the Lanyard again on the way back from Corfu. No questions asked. The Greeks, who are getting strict on face coverings, clearly appreciate the validity of the lanyards too.
Shameless Begging Bit
Thanks as always to those of you who made a donation in the past 24 hours to pay for the upkeep of this site. If you feel like donating, however small the sum, please click here. And if you want to flag up any stories or links I should include in future updates, email me here. I may not be able to manage an update every day over the next few days as I’m in Wales doing some walking in the Brecon Beacons.
And Finally…
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.
https://off-guardian.org/2024/08/02/uk-riots-the-agenda-becomes-clear/
Kit Knightly, a superb analysis of the state’s reaction to the riots. Yes, we are being played.
“For the cost of one broken wall and a burnt out police van, the new “Labour” government have just won public approval for new police powers and open season being called on what remains of our free speech – and they get to distract from the now-inevitable tax raises too.
Not a bad trade.”
Did you notice that the yellow Southport Police Riot vans were really old 03 plates ,the whole thing is starting to whiff ! One month of Starmergeddon & it’s been a full on indigenous stoke up before & after the 27/7/24 gathering in Trafalger Square !!
IMO, the bullyboys ‘yob’ element were bought, paid for and shipped in to create as much carnage as possible. Purpose, to avert any sympathies towards ‘regular’ people who are quite rightly publicly protesting that ‘enough is enough’.Yobs = Government dirty tricks brigade in action, again.
I agree. These riots play right into the hands of people wanting more State control.
I understand the argument, but it’s a paradox. It basically goes like this: We are being driven against our will into a tolatarian state. The emerging tolatarian state will not put up with the masses resisting the inevitable outcome of a tolatarian state and will, therefore, enact a tolatarian state.
The tolatarian state has 100% chance of being without the masses revolting, but has less than 100% chance of being with the masses revolting. Of course, they do not want you to think like this. Only dumb peasants revolt.
https://www.thomasfazi.com/p/the-most-important-speech-of-the
And here is the Global Research version:
https://www.globalresearch.ca/orban-insight-global-systemic-transition-hungarian-grand-strategy/5864348
https://www.globalresearch.ca/there-never-was-a-virus-there-never-was-a-pandemic/5841105
As Dr Mike Yeadon keeps pointing out…there never was a pandemic.
Climate Change Lies Lies Lies – latest leaflet to print at home and deliver to neighbours or forward to politicians, your new MP, your local vicar, online media and friends online.
Start a local campaign. We have over 200 leaflet ideas on the link on the leaflet.
The most important speech of the decade?
‘Comrades of the Central Committee, comrade students, comrade members of the
party, members of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, of the
leadership of the……. .Women’s Federation, of the unions–workers all,
gathered here tonight:
It appears that the steps are not large enough for all the representatives
of the revolutionary forces who are attending this event. I wish to begin
by telling you that the speech tonight is going to be a boring speech. It
is going to be a boring speech because we find it necessary to enumerate a
series of facts and figures for the purpose of showing what we intend to
do. It will be necessary for all of you to pay the greatest attention
because always, when one deals with figures and numbers, it is necessary to
concentrate one’s attention if one does not wish to become too bored or to
not understand…………’
Errr…..sorry, Comrades…..bit of a mix up…….that was, in fact, Fidel Castro in 1968 but, don’t worry, Orban used the same text and I must have nodded off….anyway, here it is so you can read it for yourself….worth reading in full……..
http://lanic.utexas.edu/project/castro/db/1968/19680314.html
Are you OK?
This crept in under the radar but I was surprised that it was not mentioned in the DS. Predicable I know but Mark Steyn loses his case against Ofcom https://www.steynonline.com/14498/ofcom-wins
I saw it , he was doomed probably for highlighting our new Prime Minister Starmers non intervention in the groom ing scandal back when he was DOPP !
Bots sleep late! Sorry , there handlers don’t keep human hours!
Am I alone in thinking it’s very strange that Kemi Badenoch of all people should be arguing that integration doesn’t work?
She is a politician. Logic doesn’t apply.
I can’t read the article but the headline is that she says we should stop pretending it has worked (probably what she means is that we should stop pretending it has happened). Strange? Ironic? In some ways maybe – but given the current political climate it’s much easier for an immigrant, especially a non-white immigrant, to get away with saying that. As it is she’ll probably get called an Uncle Tom or whatever that other insult is that they use (black on the outside, white on the inside).
What has Sunderland done to deserve all this attention?
From the horse’s mouth a week ago.
“Syrskyi is Ukraine’s new commander-in-chief. His unenviable task is to defeat a bigger Russian army. Two and half years into Vladimir Putin’s full-scale onslaught, he acknowledges the Russians are much better resourced. They have more of everything: tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, soldiers. Their original 100,000-strong invasion force has grown to 520,000, he said, with a goal by the end of 2024 of 690,000 men. The figures for Ukraine have not been made public.
“When it comes to equipment, there is a ratio of 1:2 or 1:3 in their favour,” he said. Since 2022 the number of Russian tanks has “doubled” – from 1,700 to 3,500. Artillery systems have tripled, and armoured personnel carriers gone up from 4,500 to 8,900. “The enemy has a significant advantage in force and resources,” Syrskyi said. “Therefore, for us, the issue of supply, the issue of quality, is really at the forefront.”
It is this man and machine superiority that explains recent events on the battlefield. Since last autumn Ukraine’s armed forces have been going steadily backwards.”
Guardian July 24th
Ah – the Guardian is just a Putin stooge. We all know the Russian forces, like their economy, are in tatters.
Russia’s latest large-scale offensive in Ukraine has been underway for 10 months now. It has not led to the collapse of Ukrainian defenses, and the Kremlin’s territorial gains fall well short of the campaign’s desired aims.
‘In 10 months of slow advances, Russian troops have achieved only modest successes. A breakthrough with strategic consequences has proved impossible…….At the offensive’s current pace (which has remained almost unchanged since its early days), it would take roughly 15 years for Russia to achieve President Putin’s declared goals: the capture of Ukraine’s entire Donbas, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions.
‘They kept saying everything was going well and that Ukrainian soldiers were being captured in droves…..Everyone in my room just laughed at such nonsense.’
Kyiv’s forces intend to exhaust the Russian army, inflicting as many losses as possible.’
Meanwhile, Ukraine is capable of producing more than three million drones per year. The country has sufficient production capabilities for that quantity already……
‘…..a massive overnight drone assault targeted critical military facilities in Russia’s Rostov region early morning on Saturday, August 3, striking the Morozovsk military airfield and fuel tanks at the Atlas plant. drones targeted an aviation ammunition depot at the Morozovsk airfield, resulting in multiple detonations and fires.’
Oops! Treble hard hats all round, comrades…….
Clearly Syrskyi sees it differentely, and he has just a minor role as head of the Uke armed forces, whereas of course Munro is the fount of all knowledge, especially that which exists in the mind of Putin.
‘Year of resilience: If Ukraine holds out in 2024, experts believe Russia will never be able to achieve victory in the war
Experts from the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), Jack Watling and Nick Reynolds, believe that Russia expects to achieve victory in the war during 2024–2025……..Currently, Moscow is managing to replenish its arsenal with reserves of weapons and equipment being repaired and modernised at defence industry enterprises. However, by 2025, this resource will be largely depleted. At the same time, by then, the West will have deployed new production of ammunition and military equipment. If the West helps Ukraine to withstand 2024, the experts believe that Russia is unlikely to achieve its victory strategy in 2025. By this time, Kyiv may have prepared significant professional military reserves, including junior command reserves, which will largely neutralise Russia’s numerical manpower advantage…….
Prominent military experts Michael Kofman, Rob Lee, and Dara Massicot also believe that 2024 will determine the future trajectory of the war…….if the West continues to provide assistance, Ukraine will be able to effectively resist Russian forces this year and will gain battlefield advantages for conducting large-scale offensive operations in the next year.’
‘In principle, the enemy has not made any significant progress…….But I know that we will win. I know how I have to do it. And I’m sure that we will do it……We will do everything we can to reach the internationally recognised borders of 1991 [when Ukraine voted for independence from the USSR]. We have to win … to liberate our citizens who are in the occupied territories, who are suffering.’
Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi
03 Aug. 2024
‘The latest operation involved missile units and the Naval Forces of Ukraine, resulting in significant damage to four S-400 “Triumph” launchers. In addition, the attack targeted the Russian Black Sea Fleet submarine “Rostov-on-Don” in the port of Sevastopol. The submarine sank on the spot following the strike.’
I wonder how they managed to do that?
Haven’t you noticed it is a war. Both sides have losses in war. The side that ends with least losses generally wins.
What would be terminal for Russia would be if these incidents were happening regularly. They are not.
Welby ‘Ending Israel’s occupation of Palestine is moral necessity’.Has he got a Bible?
Has he read it?
Over 600 mentions of Jerusalem.
Jesus, a Jew, was born, lived and ministered in Judea and Samaria.
King David effectively founded Israel in Jerusalem, Solomon built its first permanent Temple 3000 years ago.
Biblically, historically, archaeologically, morally, Welby is wrong.
As the curse says in the Maker’s Handbook, ‘may all who hate Zion be ashamed and sent backward’.
Welby is a “Wrong un” more like ! Another globalist install !
Hear, hear.
The remnants of the Ottoman Empire weren’t colonialists, apparently.
A detailed explanation of the state of the middle-east in the late Ottoman period, untainted by modern politics, is W. M. Thomson’s The Land and the Book, of 1881. It demolished the idea of a unified Arab state called Paelestine, and accounts for those seldom-mentioned minorities like the Druze, native Christians, Maronites, Bedouin and, of course, Jews, all of whom had their stake in the land, and most of whom have been displaced by the Arabs.
Now, how about returning to the 21st century or do you want all the world’s occupants to retrace the footsteps of their forefathers from 2,000 years ago?
Jews left Palestine, dispersing in the “Diaspora”, two thousand years ago. Most settled comfortably around the world and it was not until the Zionist movement appeared at the end of the 19th century, that there was any claim for a restoration of the Jewish State. At first, any sufficiently large area was considered, including Argentina, Cyprus, East Africa and the Congo, but new leadership of the Zionist Organization demanded it should be Palestine.
In 1917, it was Palestinian or Arab people, whether Christian or Muslim, who comprised over 90% of the population of Palestine, and who owned about 97% of its land. But the goal of Zionism, with clear approval of the British administration responsible for the area after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, was to establish a Jewish State in Palestine, and the rights of the people of Palestine themselves received no attention in these plans. A disaster waiting to happen.
What the political concept of a Jewish State in Palestine needed to give it reality was to transfer people to Palestine. And this is exactly what happened. In the 1920s, between 2,000 and 34,000 Jews emigrated to Palestine per year, peaking in 1925, and thus doubling the Jewish population – rising from below 10% to over 17%. A strict policy of what in today’s terms would be described as racial discrimination was maintained by the Zionist Organization in this rapid advance towards the “national home”. Only Jewish labour could service Jewish farms and settlements. And a number of Jewish organizations were actively engaged in acquisition of land both for individual immigrant families as well as for the Jewish settlements.
Jewish settlement in Palestine increased radically during the rise of the Nazis in Germany in the 1930s, increasing to 630,000 in 1947, sharing the country with 1.3 million Arabs.
Over the years there were countless clashes between the two groups until the British washed their hands of the whole affair and handed over responsibility for the country to the UN. General UN indecisiveness and inability to enforce resolutions resulted in today’s situation: a strong Israel with Palestinian Arabs literally locked away in two areas of the country: Gaza and the West Bank.
And if you do not believe me when I maintain that today Israel is practising genocide against the remaining Palestinian Arabs in Gaza and the West Bank, while at the same time stirring up a suicidal war with Lebanon and Iran, then perhaps you can believe the vastly better educated Prof. Mearsheimer in his recent video broadcast here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4opzJiXAz0.
“Is Farage already sick of being an MP?”
Please correct me if I’m mistaken, but I read that MPs from the smallest parties are routinely ignored by the Speaker if they attempt to ask questions or speak in Parliament. If so, it seems logical that Nigel wouldn’t waste his time in futile attempts to speak there, but instead try to reach the public in other ways, as he is doing.
“All of us should join the Free Speech Union” Hats off to David Starkey!
“Scrapping of universities cancel culture law faces legal challenge”
And hats off to Toby Young!
I bet even Hux will begrudgingly agree with this post?
🫠
Thanks Dinger 👍
I found it illuminating to look at all the things Davey has said in the new parliament. He has spoken a few times and none of them had any substance, but that is the LDs in a nutshell.