New Restrictions For Oldham, Pendle and Blackburn
Yesterday, the Government announced Oldham and parts of Blackburn and Pendle are facing extra restrictions to deal with local viral outbreaks. Residents in those areas are not allowed to socialise with anyone from outside their household, as of midnight tonight. Trouble is, the case numbers in all three areas are falling as you can see from the above table.
Carl Heneghan and Jason Oke wrote a post for the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine blog on Thursday urging the Government not to introduce any more restrictions in Oldham. They argue that decisions about whether to introduce local lockdowns should be based on hospitalisation and death data, not case data.
We consider that lockdown measures should be predicated on the impact of the disease. NHS England’s COVID-19 data provides information on the number of people admitted and in a Pennine Acute or Pennine Care Hospital with COVID (these hospitals cover Oldham, Rochdale and North Manchester).
The data shows that 1,252 beds are occupied across the Pennine Hospitals of which nine are occupied by COVID patients as the 9th of August. At the peak on the 12th of April, 290 beds were occupied by COVID patients.
The data also shows that admission remains low at a 7-day moving average of 3 to 4 patients per day, which is down from the preceding week.
In addition to the entirely unnecessary restrictions in Oldham, Pendle and Blackburn, Birmingham has been added to a watchlist as an “area of enhanced support”. The BBC has more.
The Labour leader said the council would announce “as soon as possible” what this meant for people in the city.
“If our previous warnings to keep doing the basics haven’t been enough, this has to be the wake-up call for everyone,” he said. “Wash your hands, wear face coverings wherever possible, keep two metres apart from others and get tested if you have COVID-19 symptoms.”
The Labour leader said the council would announce “as soon as possible” what this meant for people in the city.
“If our previous warnings to keep doing the basics haven’t been enough, this has to be the wake-up call for everyone,” he said.
“Wash your hands, wear face coverings wherever possible, keep two metres apart from others and get tested if you have COVID-19 symptoms.”
But why? Birmingham has 31 cases per 100,000 according to the latest figures, which is lower than it is London (50/100,000), according to the latest ONS Infection Survey data. If Birmingham has been added to the watchlist, why not London?
Incidentally, the latest Infection Survey – which shows no increase in cases on the previous week – also says: “There is no evidence from this survey to say that there is a difference in COVID-19 infection rates between different regions.”
Is the R Number Increasing?
SAGE has announced the R number has climbed above one for the first time since March and, as a result, the entire country may have to go into a second lockdown. According to the Telegraph:
A second national lockdown could be imposed, senior Government advisers have warned, as the upper limit of the R rate pushed over one for the first time since restrictions were lifted.
It continues:
Public Health England surveillance showed case detections in England increased from 5,763 to 6,418 in the week to August 16th, up 11%.
Daily cases are nearly double the number at the beginning of June when lockdown measures were eased. Oliver Johnson, a University of Bristol Professor of Information Theory, said: “The major concern is that R values of this magnitude do not leave a significant margin before the epidemic starts to grow in size again, and raise the possibility that some re-openings may need to be reversed to allow schools to open safely.”
What fresh hell is this? Not only is Public Health England’s data for the week ending August 16th at odds with the ONS Infection Survey data for the week ending August 13th, but an analysis by scientists at the universities of Leeds and Oxford indicates the recent increase in cases hasn’t translated into corresponding increases in hospital admissions and fatalities, even when allowing for the time lag between infections and death. Their analysis shows there should have been 35 fatalities a day by now, but just two deaths were recorded in English hospitals on Friday and none on Thursday, according to NHS England. Admissions are also continuing to fall and consultants say hospitals are “relatively empty” even in hotspots.
It’s time to prise these lockdown fanatics away from Boris Johnson’s ear.
Boris Returns to Cancer Care Crisis
According to today’s Times, scores of MPs, including several former ministers, have written to the Prime Minister urging him to do something about a backlog in cancer care that could lead to 30,000 unnecessary deaths in the next decade.
More than 100 MPs have written to Boris Johnson after the coronavirus lockdown caused severe disruption to cancer diagnoses and treatments. They have called on him to deliver an emergency boost to treatment capacity.
One senior oncologist has claimed that in a worst-case scenario the effects of the pandemic could result in 30,000 excess cancer deaths over the next decade.
In the letter, seen by the Times, the MPs write: “We urge you to work with your ministers to ensure that the NHS reacts more quickly to restore cancer services that have been badly disrupted due to the response to Covid.
“We are particularly concerned that the NHS’s plan appears to be limited to getting cancer services back to normal by the end of the year [but] this timescale is far too long. Many cancers can become untreatable in a matter of weeks.”
The signatories include Dan Poulter, a former health minister, Sir Ed Davey, a former energy secretary, and Sir Oliver Heald, a former Solicitor-General.
Research by Cancer Research UK charity indicates that in the 18 weeks since March 23rd about three million people missed out on vital screenings for bowel, breast and cervical cancer. In the same period about 315,000 fewer people than normal received an urgent suspected cancer referral and overall there were 38,000 fewer treatments.
Karol Sikora, a senior oncologist and co-founder of Rutherford Health, a private cancer treatment company, suggested that there could be up to 30,000 excess cancer deaths in the next ten years. He cited a study published last month in the journal Lancet Oncology, looking at the decline during lockdown in urgent cancer referrals by GPs. It calculated a worst-case scenario where an average six-month delay in these referrals would lead to nearly 9,300 excess deaths in the next decade.
Karol Sikora, a senior oncologist and co-founder of Rutherford Health, a private cancer treatment company, suggested that there could be up to 30,000 excess cancer deaths in the next ten years. He cited a study published last month in the journal Lancet Oncology, looking at the decline during lockdown in urgent cancer referrals by GPs. It calculated a worst-case scenario where an average six-month delay in these referrals would lead to nearly 9,300 excess deaths in the next decade.
If any readers have stories of their own cancer care being delayed or cancelled – or that of family members – please get in touch and I’ll publish them (always protecting your anonymity). You can email me here.
Postcard From Birmingham
A reader had a depressing experience in Birmingham city centre recently.
A month or so ago I had an appointment south of Birmingham and decided to travel via New Street station in the city centre.
The initial impression was of a sad, purposeless city, with almost everybody – myself included – shuffling along in a subdued state, going through the motions of life without zip or joy.
New Street Station presents a challenge at the best of times. Expect now an experience out of Kafka laced with 1980s spoof disaster movie Airplane!
Shortly having entered the cavernous underground bunker there was a confrontation with a large masked security official in a high viz jacket.
“You can’t get out this way!” he barked.
When I told him I was actually trying to get in, he aimed an arm in an opposing direction, towards another set of gates which looked promising at first glance, but were also keenly guarded by officials indicating another detour was required.
Oh, well.
At least there was an announcement on the PA stating some passengers will be exempt from mask-wearing. (Take-up 95%+ at a rough glance; you might want to include one to protect from the noxious fumes belching from trains waiting at covered platforms.)
Having completed the return journey a few hours later there was a requirement “to leave via the Yellow Zone”.
I tried to comply, thinking of Leslie Nielsen, emerged in an unfamiliar area, and ended up missing a connection at nearby Moor Street.
And now the bedwetting local council is anticipating lockdown with cases running rampant at, er, c30 per 100,000 of a demoralised local population…
All Party Parliamentary Group Recommends a ‘Zero Covid’ Strategy
A bedwetting group of MPs, led by the Liberal Democratic leadership hopeful Layla Moran, has urged the Government to commit to a ‘zero Covid’ strategy. The Standard has more.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on coronavirus called on the Government to maintain compulsory social distancing measures across the country until zero-Covid is achieved.
The MPs said working from home should be actively encouraged and COVID-19 screening should be introduced at transport hubs, shopping centres and supermarkets, in order to meet the goal.
So we should maintain current social distancing measures – and introduce mandatory temperature screening – until the virus has been completely eliminated?
Not only is permanently wiping out the virus completely unrealistic, it’s worth reminding ourselves of a few facts to put the risk it poses in context.
- Half a million people die in the UK every year; to date, Covid has killed less than 10% of that number
- 170,000 Britons die of heart disease and stroke every year, more than three times the number that have died of novel coronavirus
- In the winter of 2017-18, there were 50,000 excess deaths in the UK due to flu and pneumonia; to date, ~46,000 have died of Covid-19
- Only two British children aged between five and 14 have died of Covid, meaning children that age have a 1:3,500,000 chance of succumbing to the virus, lower than being struck by lightning
- In Germany, 25,100 people died of seasonal influenza in 2017-18; to date, 9,328 Germans have died of Covid
- Globally, around 57 million people die each year; to date, coronavirus has killed less than a million
- Globally, in a typical year 1.6 million people die of diarrhoea; that’s twice the number that have died of Covid
- John Ioannidis, Professor of Medicine at Stanford, has estimated that if you’re under 65 you’re more likely to die in a road traffic accident than succumb to the virus. However, he may be over-stating the risk. In a typical year, there are 1.1 million road traffic fatalities; in 2020, ~800,000 people have died of Covid
Incidentally, if you look at the APPG’s website, the ‘zero-Covid’ recommendation is not minuted or documented, there is no report containing the recommendation and the group’s inquiry hasn’t actually finished. There are hearings scheduled through into September and it’s still possible to submit evidence.
Could it be that Layla Moran is just grandstanding in the hope of shoring up her leadership credentials?
Beware: Plastic Shark
A reader spotted the above muzzled shark above a fish and chip shop in Oxford. She writes:
I snapped this in Oxford as mask-wearing customers queued into the street. Presumably the owner’s concerned that since cricket balls, flip-flops and cats are deemed deadly, it’ll only be a matter of time before his six feet model shark is listed as a killer vector too.
Care Home Cruelty
I received this heart-breaking email from a reader today. When will this needless cruelty end?
I am desperate and besides myself having received some information from my father’s care home today. It is only allowing one member of his family to visit him for 30 minutes once a fortnight. Full PPE, outdoors and at two metre distance.
What is most upsetting is that it is a reduction in what we have been managing to do to try to support him since March. We have been allowed by the care home to see him through double glazed patio doors for 30 minutes, twice a week. So down from four visits a fortnight to one.
I cannot see an end to these restrictions in care homes and I am now, more than ever, certain I will never see my father in person again before his natural death. There must be more to the end of a person’s life than this loneliness and being deprived of family support and love.
Please do print any aspects of this on the website as you feel fit.
A very very sad day for my family today.
Meanwhile, another reader has got in touch saying he’s been told by his friend’s care home that he’s not even able to send flowers. The guidance issued by the home includes the following gem: “We are unable, unfortunately, to accept any flowers, due to the inability to sanitize them.”
Round-Up
- ‘No lockdown, no masks, no hysteria… NO PROBLEM: Sweden didn’t go into a corona coma – and it’s living in glorious normality‘ – Great piece in the Mail by historian Dominic Sandbrook
- ‘Hypocrite hector‘ – Excoriating review of White Fragility, the snake oil bestseller, by Anthony Daniels in the New Criterion
- ‘Did female leaders trump men in dealing with the pandemic?‘ – Ross Clark dissects the World Economy Forum study that purports to show female leaders have managed the coronavirus crisis better than male leaders. Complete balls, obviously. They’ve all handled it equally poorly
- ‘Which country will be removed from the “green list” next?‘ – Boris and his Downing Street chums continue to play quarantine bingo
- ‘The odds of catching COVID-19 on an airplane are slimmer than you think, scientists say‘ – Unusually for CNN, this piece is not alarmist
- ‘COVID-19 excess deaths, “dry tinder”, and the winter deaths seesaw‘ – Typically thorough analysis of the excess deaths statistics by Hector Drummond
- ‘Questioning Covid‘ – New international website for sceptics
- ‘Health and safety has replaced the coronavirus as the new pandemic‘ – Excellent sceptical piece by Rachel Johnson, the PM’s sister. Can you knock some sense into your brother, please?
- ‘Pseudo-epidemics: part II‘ – Follow up by Mike Hearn to his great blog post about false positives
- ‘Coronavirus protest held as Leicester children prepare to go back to school‘ – Not what you think. These parents in Leicester were protesting against schools re-opening in full next month
- ‘Nanny Sturgeon tightens the straitjacket‘ – Good piece by Gary Oliver in the Conservative Woman
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Two today: “Ignorance is Bliss” by The Divine Comedy and “What a Fool Believes” by the Doobie Brothers.
Love in the Time of Covid
We have created some Lockdown Sceptics Forums that are now open, including a dating forum called “Love in a Covid Climate” that has attracted a bit of attention. We’ve also just introduced a section where people can arrange to meet up for non-romantic purposes. 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.
Small Businesses That Have Re-Opened
A few 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 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. If they’ve made that clear to customers with a sign in the window or similar, so much the better. Don’t worry if your entries don’t show up immediately – we need to approve them once you’ve entered the data.
“Mask Exempt” Lanyards
I’ve created a 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 Oct 5th to Oct 15th). 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 £3.99 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 (now over 29,500).
A reader has started a website that contains some useful guidance about how you can claim legal exemption.
And here’s a round-up of the scientific evidence on the effectiveness of mask (threadbare at best).
Shameless Begging Bit
Thanks as always to those of you who made a donation in the past 24 hours to pay for the upkeep of this site. Doing these daily updates is a lot of work, although I have help from several people. If you feel like donating, please click here. And if you want to flag up any stories or links I should include in future updates, email me here. If you want me to link to something, don’t forget to include the HTML code, i.e. a link.
And Finally…
I was on Any Questions last night. You can listen again at 1.10 pm today and on the BBC’s website here. Tried my best to put across the sceptical point of view although, needless to say, the other three panellists were not of the same mind.
Discussion
Comments
This week across the site:
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Regarding Any Questions, you’re up against skilled and experienced orators, well practiced in debating. With many questioning the impartiality of the BBC, could it be you were invited on to be publicly shot down?
Winning a debate is not at all the same as being right but the impression the panellists are right is what casual listeners will remember.
New Update available ——–>>>>>
https://twitter.com/BallouxFrancois/status/1297313593340440576
“Median time to reinfection likely >1-2 years; reinfection -> milder symptoms. Sequelae bad, but similar other pathogens. Vaccines likely imperfect but could help. Pain ahead until
SARS Cov2 goes endemic (as the other >200 respiratory bugs).”
Quite a good summary.And why not look for our known coronaviruses? Why not something similar for C-19?
https://academic.oup.com/jid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/infdis/jiaa392/5868459
Direct Observation of Repeated Infections With Endemic Coronaviruses
“Here we used data from proactive sampling carried out in New York City from fall 2016 to spring 2018.
This study provides evidence that reinfections with the same endemic coronavirus are not atypical in a time window shorter than 1 year and that the genetic basis of innate immune response may be a greater determinant of infection severity than immune memory acquired after a previous infection.”
All of which amounts to :
“Get over it!”
… as with any other pathogen.
Just had a courtesy call from the hotel at which we are staying next week. OH asked about the Dine Out to Help Out which is advertised on their web-site. Was told that this didn’t apply to hotel guests but to walk-ins only and that it also only applied to lunches. No, it says “dinner” on their face-book page. OK, said OH, we will cancel the reservations we have made for the four of us for dinner each night of our stay (16 meals in total) and eat somewhere else instead.
They soon did a U turn.
Well done Margaret’s OH. Public refusal to accept nonsense is a huge part of reversing this.
Abso-pigging-lutely!
I wonder if it’s possible for unscrupulous businesses to charge full price and somehow claim half of it anyway from the government.
I’m way past the stage of biting my tongue. We need an uprising, violent if necessary to remove these monsters. Just how much crap are we expected to swallow?
We need to up our game. Writing to these cockroach MPs has zero effect!
Your problem with this is the fearful compliance of the larger part of the population.
That needs turning around before the government will feel the political wind – particularly in the situation where there is no political opposition worth the name.
Although The Groan is a compliant rumour mill, it is sometimes still useful, particularly when it contradicts its main editorial line.
One of the dire effects of social destruction emerge in this article :
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/aug/23/calls-to-mental-health-helplines-double-in-manchester-under-covid-restrictions
Not good news, David Icke will be speaking at the protest on Saturday. MSM will have a field day.
No disrespect to David at all but they will pull out all the stops to discredit the whole thing
Very bad strategy.
Whose numbskull idea was that? We need to keep Icke, Piers Corbyn and any of the wild conspiracy theorists as far away as possible. Can’t we have sane people like Sumption, Toby, Fox, Hitchens, O’Neill and Hannan fronting it up?
Fuck off with the ‘wild’, Chris.
I’ve read David’s books for nearly 30 years, agree with most of what he says, and even I don’t think he should be speaking on Saturday.
You maybe don’t want to assist the msm on here ?
Likewise, I have read his books and he is spot on with many things but should not be speaking due to his reputation in the MSM and public.
Got to agree, not good news. Stick to core subject, do not give MSN any rope.
Agree, but they are quite capable of creating rope out of thin air. As are the Met Plod regarding trouble/violence.
Swedish Disease Expert Calls WHO’s COVID-19 Warning ‘A … https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/ip3/www.npr.org.ico https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/06/26/883931594/swedish-disease-expert-says-who-covid-19-warning-is-a-total-mistake
Jun 26, 2020Sweden’s top disease expert says a surge in new coronavirus cases is a result of more testing. Here, people enjoy the sun and water at a bathing jetty in Malmo, Sweden, on Thursday alongside a …
Simple, isn’t it? Not for some people.
I think that we are seeing more and more evidence of the political capture of the WHO.
Sad.
This was back end of June and the WHO did a U-turn within days. Unsurprisingly this wasn’t widely reported despite the hullaballoo the media made about Sweden being on the list in the first place.
It appears to be who Boris & Co are listening to= Blair in the Shadows= Ferguson, Imperial College and F&M debacle,= The Blair Foundation=The Gates Foundation.
Education minister posted snaps of holiday in French Alps as exam fiasco unfolded
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/education-minister-posted-snaps-holiday-22564674
This makes my blood boil. As per animal farm, some pigs are obviously more equal than others. This government are utter bastards.
As my wife and I are mere serfs in this modern feudal system, we had to cancel our holiday in France due to the 14 day quarantine. My wife works at the head office of a high street brand who are fighting for survival. Everyone there is expected to be in the office if at all possible, aka all hands to the pump. As my own business is customer facing, I couldn’t afford to close it for 14 days as I was only able to reopen late July.
My middle child is due to start back at her Saturday Japanese school the first wk of Sept. Today there was an online meeting for all parents & staff. We were taken through several pages of insanity that they are going to implement to make the school
safe.Do these
guidelinesthat they are following have any basis in law? Will their funding/insurance be affected if they don`t implement masks (for staff, kids (as young as 6) and parents!), hand poison, excessive deep cleaning, bubbles, tests if kids are poorly etc etc?Guidance isn’t law – although I’m not sure where the present boundary between regulation and guidance lies.
The nonsense that you are citing falls within the right of an institution to specify restrictions for those attending. You then get into a morass of legal argument about reasonableness, I think.
Insurance adds another layer of possible complication.
Obviously, masks for children amounts to child abuse – but that is an issue of publicity and pressure on the institution – rather than law.
It’s difficult dealing with this sort of insanity when the basis is officially sanctioned in general terms and people have been frightened out of their senses.
thank you for your responses
Seems to me that some schools make it up on the hoof. They are not aware of exemptions and other details that are important. In some schools parents might want to offer their assistance in devising a mask policy for the school
basically and simply:
anything listed as guidance or guidelines in England has NO force of law and is not enforceable Councils can impose measures under Public Health legislation but there is a legal process to go through and they become liable for paying compensation so they are not using that route businesses must run their operations under a risk assessment they have done themselves and measures and mitigations must be documented with evidence to show the mitigations are valid and will work – problem here is that neither government nor councils can supply this evidence especially for social distancing (conjured up out of nowhere is the quote from Prof Dingwall) and make wearing (quote from DELVE recently “There are no human controlled trials on the efficacy of universal mask use in stemming SARS-CoV2 transmission.” if you do not have evidence something will work it should not be used in a risk assessment riska assessments are to bring the risk down to As Low As Reasonably practicable – ALARP – this does not mean bankrupt the company to achieve zero risk until you get to court and a judge rules on your measures and mitigations it is just a matter of your opinion… Read more »
https://www.euractiv.com/sections/the-capitals
News on Europe. Useful or not, that’s for you to decide.
This from a group in Baltimore just published
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343797723_Emerging_of_a_SARS-CoV-2_viral_strain_with_a_deletion_in_nsp1
In short, in multiple countries they have found a deletion in the genome of Sars-Cov-2 which might translate into decreased viral pathogenicity
“We identified SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences, from several Countries, carrying a previously unknown deletion of 9 nucleotides in position 686-694, corresponding to the AA position 241-243 (KSF). This deletion was found in different geographical areas. Structural prediction modelling suggests an effect on the C-terminal tail structure. Conclusions: Modelling analysis of a newly identified deletion of 3 amino acids (KSF) of SARS-CoV-2 nsp1 suggests that this deletion could affect the structure of the C-terminal region of the protein, important for regulation of viral replication and negative effect on host’s gene expression. In addition, substitution of the two amino acids (KS) from nsp1 of SARS-CoV was previously reported to revert loss of interferon-alpha expression. The deletion that we describe indicates that SARS-CoV-2 is undergoing profound genomic changes. It is important to: i) confirm the spreading of this particular viral strain, and potentially of strains with other deletions in the nsp1 protein, both in the population of asymptomatic and pauci-symptomatic subjects, and ii) correlate these changes in nsp1 with potential decreased… Read more »
This of course could be another factor, together with population immunity, to the increased “cases” /no increase in ICU admissions or deaths that we have observed
Mirror Online: At least 13 clubbers crushed to death as police raid venue breaching coronavirus rules.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/breaking-least-13-clubbers-crushed-22564740
It was in Lima Peru
According to this website, Euroactiv, the Czech Republic has been the victim of cyber attacks on their hospital databases. Could it be going on all over the world?
Pandemic cyber attacks
The number of cyber incidents increased by one-third during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Czech Republic, said Karel Řehka, director of the Czech National Cyber and Information Security Agency (NCISA) during a Security Conference held on Thursday (25 June) in Prague.
About half of these cases involved data encryption through blackmailing programs (ransomware), the director added.
According to Řehka, the Czech Republic has so far been lucky to avoid being hit by serious global cyberattacks and other incidents but he cautioned that “it will not last forever.”
In his view, the pandemic was useful in drawing the attention of managers and politicians to the issue of cybersecurity, as hospitals in Czechia are often targeted by cyberattacks.
Another twist in the plot?
In 2018, there was a total of 160,597 casualties of all severities in road traffic crashes; I guess when they get bored of Covid, this could be offered up as the next new Cult
It wouldn’t carry the same weight to bring down the government as Covid though!,,,,
Only because the muzzled still want to use their cars
They’re trying. Driverless cars to be the next big thing I hear.
I realise someone else has commented on this, but let’s flag it up as much as poss. BBC News homepage has a picture of two young children in school uniform, clearly well under 12, or whatever the required age is, seemingly in a queue, anti-socially distanced, both wearing masks. There is no requirement for such young children to be wearing masks. This is outrageous fear-mongering by the BBC. I would complain, but there’s no point, as the BBC fobs off complaints, as I documented on here a couple of days ago.
BBC really have been atrocious throughout all this.
Sadly the WHO are now pushing masks for children 6+.
From the Guardian “Its guidance says ages six to 11 should wear masks on a risk-based approach. Factors such as transmission rates, the child’s ability to use the mask and adequate adult supervision should all be taken into account.” I think this will be sufficient grist to the mill for an outbreak of masks in primary schools across the land.
The Scottish Government have not honoured their stated date for making public the risk assessment they carried out before mandating face coverings across the nation. They were chased for the risk assessment by a contributor to UK Column, David Scott. The Scot Gov gave a date of first week in August iirc. Now silence from the government.
Quelle surprise
Yes. Worth remembering the things they need us to forget. Toilet rolls for example.
Until the first child is seriously taken ill (or worse God forbid!). Then what will the reaction be ? Especially the MSM…
Oh, you are right, Alan. I hadn’t even thought that far. And it won’t matter if the first child is only mildly unwell, actually has tonsillitis or falls off their bike at the weekend. The hysteria will rocket and we’ll be back to square one. There seems to be no way out.
Same people involved from Imperial as well wasn’t it?
Yes, modelling from Ferguson et al was responsible for the culling of millions of animals costing billions of pounds on Blair’s watch. Their model assumed airborne spread of the virus (despite practising and academic Vets telling them this was false) so they advised the slaughter of animals on contiguous farms and the Government listened to the nonsense. Sound familiar?
I don’t understand how Ferguson has kept his job. But I also blame whoever is advising Boris, would that be the oh so super intelligent Dominic C? If they had any intelligence they would listen to Carl Heneghan now before the fall out on them is too great.
Blair, in the Shadows, advising for the Blair Foundation for Global Change linked to the Gates Foundation for Global Change
I loathe that slug with a passion. If there was any justice he’d be dead and buried!
Too late for no10 inmates IMO. I’ll never believe a word ‘they’ say ever again.
Johnson deserves everything he gets. Cummings and Ferguson have both presented him with gilt edged opportunities to be chucked under a bus, along with all this nonsense, and he had failed to use them, admit they misled him and the whole strategy has been complete bollocks.
They knew Ferguson would give the worst possible scenario, so they went with him knowing he was useless.
People should wake up to this being deliberate! This was no cockup!
https://twitter.com/BaizuoBu/status/1297442345919504384/photo/1
A very nice graphic presentation in 3d of pandemics in the US with C-19 in perspective
An excellent contextual graphic.
I take it it didn’t come from the BBC? 🙂
Definitely not
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EgFwFPAU0AM-m8Z?format=jpg&name=large
sorry can’t post the graphic but the link above takes you to it. Brilliant analysis and gives the lie to Covid-19 being out of the ordinary!
Just remember folks, we are not alone!
This site is a great resource for like minded people to share and support each other but I must tell you that **nothing** beats mixing face-to-face with fellow sceptics.
My story…
I achieved a first yesterday and travelled from Cork to attend my first ever protest – the Time for Change meet up in Dublin. I went alone and did not know what to expect. There was a heavy Gardai/Police presence when I arrived at Custom House and they had already erected metal barriers across the main road leading to the meeting point. Many protesters must have arrived earlier as they were already outside the building entrance. I found the heavy police presence intimidating. A man just ahead of me was causing a stir and got bundled into the back of a van, so I stayed well clear. To be fair I don’t know if police actions were aimed at preventing a small but rabid group of antifa hoodlums (which they had kettled in) from causing chaos, or an attempt to prevent the peaceful protest going ahead – may be is was a mix of both?
Anyway, word quickly filtered through the crowd… Read more »
Smurfs- Well Done!! I’ve been debating going to the Scottish event as I too have never been to a protest. Your post has inspired me – bring it on!!
There is one on 5th Sept at holyrood. I don’t know more offhand. Try searching social media. I think this board could stand more protest dates and places being posted.
Great news, great post, congratulations to you and to all those involved.
Good report, glad it was a peaceful event, the last thing needed is trouble.
Carl Heneghan and his team at Oxfords CEBM have done some work on estimating IFR which they give as 0.49 to 0.3. And it looks like they expect it to go down as they will update the research.
He also has an article in The Spectator on whether the PCR tests showing positive are really showing an infectious person. He talks about weak positives.
The other thing of interest is there is all this ranting in the media about increased infection rates and yet the ONS infection survey is not showing an uptick.
When schools go back and if no uptick, no increase in hospital admissions and no increase in deaths, well no significant increases anyway, let’s hope there will be a turning point.
And Carl Heneghan is in the Express today, putting the case well.
Oh, thanks for that, I will take a look. He makes my day much happier.
Here’s the link
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1326293/coronavirus-death-rate-UK-fatality-rate
It’s very encouraging his message is getting out. I so hope there will be a turning point soon as so many people are continuing to suffer from lack of medical care and from the terrible restrictions in care homes, as well as lots more
They should get rid of Whitty and install Heneghan as Chief Medical Officer forthwith!
I hate to be cynical but it is more likely they will try to get rid of Heneghan. MW
I think you might be right. Heneghan’s piece should be all over the news – it’s good news! It’s what people need to hear, “things are getting better”. But no, it’s just quiet Sunday filler.
Meanwhile, they say the R rate is ‘soaring’, and has ‘surged’ past 1…
Also, I’ve just seen a dramatic 100% increase in cups of coffee drunk this morning.
Perhaps we can all forward the express piece to as many people as possible?
Well he’s quite well connected BMJ and Oxford. I surely hope it would be hard to dismiss him.
Oh yes please. That would do the job!!
Fancy : in the ‘Express!”
What a refreshing breath of sanity.
The Dictator announces 10k fines for the organisers of ‘illegal’ gatherings
Who decides what is legal or illegal, yes you guessed it, the dictator
All forms of protest involving more than thirty people are now banned
Worse here than Belarus
A very irritating article in the Observer.
Why do Covid fatalities remain low when infection numbers are rising?
<blah, blah>
Does that indicate that the worst may be over?
No. Other researchers point to the situation in the US where there was a recent spike in cases among people in their 20s and 30s – but which was then followed by a spike in cases in older people who picked up the disease from younger people. As a result, there has been a jump in deaths.
<blah, blah>
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/23/why-do-covid-fatalities-remain-low-when-infection-numbers-are-rising
First thing, it’s written in that style the BBC uses all the time: answering its own ‘questions’. It implies that the reader may not be able to formulate their own questions, so they have to do it for them. Or that the reader might ask the ‘wrong’ questions, so the paper answers its own, instead – politicians do it in interviews, a lot.
Or someone, somewhere, has decided that this style is less ‘pedagogical’ than simply making statements – which was probably triggering some people, and discriminating against women. Or something.
Second, it’s the wording above that does the opposite of remaining open to question. There was, apparently a spike… Read more »
Agree. Any one on LS can answer this
That question and answer style is very irritating and patronising. It puts me off bothering to ready the article as it feels quite dumb down.
I found this petition on Simon Dolan’s Twitter feed – it has presumably been flagged here, but just in case …
It’s to stop restrictions being placed on those who didn’t take the vaccine:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/323442
Up to near 90,000 signatures.
Aha. Thought I’d signed that one, but it must have been another one. So, done!
Signed. I also thought I had done that one already, must be another very similarly worded one.
At 100,000 they have to debate it in parliament. Will be soon.
It’s ‘considered’ for debate. Their answer to petitions asking them to stop something is always “We’re not going to do that”. And the debates consist of “Well, we’ve talked about that now, and we’re still not doing it”.
Remember, these are the people who ignored the biggest democratic exercise ever, because they didn’t like the result. But just four years later (while still ignoring that result), they really upped their game…
Intrigued at the number of signatures on that petition, considering there is only 30K on the “mask in shops” one.
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/331430
… over 90,000 now and climbing steadily today.
If it comes up for debate it may at least raise some public awareness of the risk of making the vaccine ‘mandatory by the back door’
I’ve just caught the end of an interview with Richard Madeley on the Kevin O’Sullivan programme on Talk Radio today (Sunday) at 10.15am ish. Totally in agreement with our views. Could he be the high profile celeb we need? I’m in no state mentally to chase this. Anyone fancy trying to contact him? He’s on holiday just now in France, but clearly still doing interviews.
Think I’ll spend the afternoon sending an e-mail to this bunch of tossers asking them about their advice to their members and also what they think of the DELVE analysis into asked hamsters as science.
https://www.bma.org.uk/about-us/contact-us/get-in-touch/contact-us
Plus a pic attached below, any ideas what it means?
I know aha I thought the first time I saw it but want to know if I’m alone on this or others think the same, bit like a survey.
On that not has anyone filled in this survey?:
https://wh.snapsurveys.com/s.asp?k=159774515689 – for the House of Lords
I did, let rip in the comments.
My first thought as well – destruction of America in 2020.
I get 2, D2, funny blue arrow, suppose it means 20, D 20, Democrat 20, that means the funny splat must be America. Then I think, the fucks Alaska and Hawaii gone? Then after minutes away I return and wonder why is the blue arrow overlaying a white arrow.
See macdonalds M think burger.
See that above and know its a failure as a logo coding a message. Why are democrats wanting to confuse their message – this will be deliberate.
I’m off topic again and will stop wandering off.
🍺 Hi guys, it’s in it’s infancy, but hopefully you like my podcast ‘Bedwetters’ although I might change the name (as proposed by others on this excellent forum) please reply with any suggestions. Also email us your stories at [email protected] HERES THE LATEST EPISODE: https://open.spotify.com/show/4TvMounXNnJPuycMbn3kj7?si=Cn3CuJopTsS-epleLTHDGw (will be listed on itunes in a week or two)
Enjoyed your first episode. I agree the name should be changed; at the moment you are preaching only to the converted but I hope you might be aiming to gently re-educate some of the “bedwetters” and “sheeple” who have swallowed the propaganda churned out by the Government and the MSM. Insulting them is no way to get them to listen. To be fair, most people believe what they are told and this has given a fascinating insight into how propagandists like Goebbels were able to convince their target populations to swallow the lies they were telling.
Devi moaned that she had spent another saturday working on Covid policy and scientific advice. Devi wanted people to think she had spent most of her Saturday looking at the situation of 1 billion children out of school worldwide with ~400 million children no longer getting free school meals. It was as if they didn’t realise hunger for children must be virtue signalled. Could they not be hungry on a week day? It was a Saturday and devi resented that.
If nothing else devi was going to make damn sure people knew she was afflicted by having her Saturday taken, once again.
Earlier in the day devi had enjoyed putting her name to a letter Gordon and wife [yes] Brown had written on behalf of 274 odd world leaders. She had squeezed her name in and had been told wasn’t there to bulk out the numbers, afterall she was a nice person, people followed her on twitter and so that is virtually the same as being elected by the public. Signing her name hadn’t been so bad, it had taken little time from her Saturday. It was a little naughty to skim the letter before signing but there were… Read more »
I must admit I have come to hate Devi. I am so glad for all Carl Heneghan has done as it all shows how wrong she is
Lovely.
I never thought the day would come but I’m missing the continuous mirth and merriment that the test and trace service used to offer us almost daily. The days when ALL of the staff at a test centre tested positive for the outbreak, and the trace service couldn’t handle the caseload because the outbreak occurred in the same location. Laugh, I nearly pi55ed myself:
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/covid-19-cases-lanarkshire-track-22395671
I’m sure that like me you’ll be much happier that the tracking element is now in the hands of our fantastically skilled local authorities, in Greater Manchester it’s being headed up by ‘eyeliner’ Andy Burnham, the man who’s only just discovered that the majority of ‘homeless’ beggars in Manchester City centre actually have homes. Who’d have thought it? According to the WHO we’ve only got to put up with this for another 2 years as long as we have our ‘regular’ vaccination every 3-6 months ………..
Love the ‘eyeliner’ thing. He’s got Action Man hair, too (the original painted kind). Oh, and annoyingly, he’s still breathing.
14 cases would shut down a whole university in America.
My cousin lives in the US,in a small town in northern Oregon.Two weeks ago the couple who live next door decided they wanted to have a Covid test,god knows why.They went to Portland on the appointed day for the tests but when they got to the test centre there was a huge queue and they were told the wait would be at least an hour and a half,they judged the wait would probably be twice that so they gave up and went home instead.
A couple of days ago they both received letters saying they had tested positive for CV !.This is what I have been thinking for a long time,they can claim anyone is positive even without a test,how could you prove they are lying ?.My GP surgery keeps pestering me that I am months past the due date of my annual full blood tests and I keep telling them I am not giving a sample of anything to anyone at the moment,I don’t trust any of the bastards.
I think that the reminder from your surgery will be OK (I am a regular pin-cushion). But you’re quite right to avoid a PCR test, which is as useful as an udder on a bull – but collectively as dangerous as a herd of cows with calves.
But I understand where you’re coming from. This shambolic panicdemic has eroded trust in the most fundamental areas of society – not least of which is the breakdown of normal working relationships with GPs, who have been drawn into this collective madness of hysterical risk assessment.
Read an article the other day confirming these positive Covid tests in the US when people abort the wait and go home. This is clearly fraud, a test was not done, how could it be positive?
They urgently need to contact Dr Pam Popper via her website. She is looking for cases in the US exactly like those experienced by your cousin’s neighbours. She will be able to help them.
great name!