Search Result for 'great barrington agreement'

Tiers of a Clown "Where is Manchester, anyway? Is it near Scotland?" Andy Burnham accused the Prime Minister of playing a “game of poker with people’s lives” after he imposed a Tier 3 lockdown on Greater Manchester without agreeing a support package. Talks between the Government and political leaders in Greater Manchester broke down yesterday afternoon, with Andy Burnham and co holding out for £65 million and Boris and his ministers only being prepared to offer £60 million. The upshot is that Greater Manchester is now only going to get £22 million. At the 5pm presser where Boris tried to spin this to his advantage, Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Van-Tam – or JVT, as Boris insisted on calling him – produced a series of charts appearing to show that, in his own words: "Pretty much everywhere in England is now heating up to some extent." But his slide deck told a different story. For instance, the slide illustrating the geographical spread of positive cases (wrongly described as the spread of "COVID-19") showed the rate of infection falling in many parts of the country. Van-Tam made much of the fact that hospitals were admitting more and more Covid patients, particularly in the North West, as shown in the slide below. But what this chart doesn't show – and which no journalist ...

Government Was Warned About Looming Cancer Crisis Five Months Ago Lockdown Sceptics has obtained a briefing note written by Professor Karol Sikora on May 18th warning the Government about the looming crisis in cancer care and making a series of recommendations about how to avoid it. Prof Sikora even flagged up the risk that GP referrals of suspected cancer patients would fall dramatically, which Cancer Research UK said yesterday meant that 350,000 people who would normally have been referred to hospital with suspected cancer in the past six months have still not been seen. The briefing note was produced at the behest of Sir Simon Stevens, the NHS's Chief Executive, but after submitting it to a civil servant in the DHSC Prof Sikora never heard anything more. Not only did Prof Sikora identify all the risks that have subsequently materialised, he also suggested a solution: collaboration with the private sector. Here's his conclusion: The surge of cancer patients is expected by late summer 2020. The independent sector has huge resources to assist the NHS by working in partnership. Developing a plan centrally and authorising local coordination based on existing NHS cancer centres would provide the most effective structure for implementation. This will significantly mitigate against delay and strict rationing to ensure the best long-term outcomes for our patients. When the ...

Tier Drops? No Chance Matt Hancock unveiled updated tier allocations yesterday, following the first "review" of the tier system. MailOnline has the story. Matt Hancock faced fury today as he plunged another swathe of Tory home counties heartlands into draconian coronavirus restrictions and denied a downgrade to Manchester, leaving 38 million people facing the toughest Tier 3. Announcing the review of the tiers in the House of Commons, he said large parts of the South East will go into Tier 3, including Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Peterborough, the whole of Hertfordshire, Surrey with the exception of Waverley, Hastings and Rother on the Kent border of East Sussex, and Portsmouth, Gosport and Havant in Hampshire. He also dashed hopes that restrictions could be eased on Manchester, the Tees Valley and parts of the Midlands, in what local leaders branded a "kick in the teeth".  Mr Hancock did say Bristol and North Somerset will be moved down to Tier 2 in a glimmer of good news. Herefordshire is also being shifted to Tier 1 from midnight on Saturday morning. But it means around 38 million people, or 68% of the population, will now be subject to the top bracket – including the Queen at Windsor Castle.  Writing for the Telegraph, Ross Clark explains why the outcome of the "review" is so frustrating for so many: ...

Boris Self-Isolating After Fellow MP Tests Positive The Prime Minister was self-isolating last night after Lee Anderson, a Conservative MP with whom Boris had a 35-minute meeting, tested positive. But why has he got to self-isolate, given that he had COVID-19 less than six months ago and even the BMJ admits that T-Cell immunity lasts at least six months? The MailOnline has an explanation. It is possible to contract COVID-19 twice, with five confirmed cases of reinfection reported globally as of last month.Tests have shown that many people who recover from COVID-19 do have antibodies which can produce future immunity.But not enough is known about whether protection is long-term as the virus has only been known to science for less than a year.Even if a patient is asymptomatic, they may still be able to pass on the virus to people they are in close contact with. But hang on. If having had COVID-19 less than six months ago doesn't give you immunity, what hope is there for a vaccine? The BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine is already a two-parter. Will we be expected to have a booster every few months as well? As the MailOnline points out, the telephone call from NHS Test and Trace couldn't have come at a worse time for the Prime Minister who is hoping to relaunch his Government ...

Hancock Refuses to Commit to Opening Up After the Most Vulnerable Have Been Vaccinated Matt Hancock at yesterday's Covid Briefing Health Secretary Matt Hancock led yesterday's Covid press conference from Downing Street and struck a non-committal note regarding any timetable for exit from restrictions. Katy Balls in the Spectator has more. As ministers voice their hope that the country can start to lift restrictions from early March, questions are being asked as to when restrictions can go altogether and normal life resume. Members of the Tory Covid Recovery Group have argued that most restrictions should go as soon as the vulnerable are protected. While officials remain tight-lipped on the issue, Matt Hancock did offer an insight in today's press conference as to the key factors the Government will consider when making that decision. Announcing that over four million people have now been vaccinated in the UK, the Health Secretary urged the public not to blow it as the route out was clear. In the Q&A, he pointed to the factors that will decide when restrictions can go.The first clue came when Josh from Newcastle asked how much it would matter if there were a high surge of cases among young people once the vulnerable were vaccinated. This gets to the crux of the matter: once the most vulnerable are protected (the 20% of the population who account for ...

Today's update on Lockdown Sceptics is here. Includes more on Gibraltar's surging Covid death toll – is it vaccine related? – a Postcard From London by a law prof and news of another victory for the Free Speech Union.

A Scandal Brewing in Germany Professor Dr Christian Drosten Global Research has published an article about the growing pressure on the scientific journal Eurosurveillance to retract the critical paper by Christian Dorston entitled “Detection of 2019 novel coronavirus by real-time RT-PCR”, which laid the groundwork for the use of PCR tests to detect COVID-19. First, it reports on the criticisms of the original study, levelled by Dr Mike Yeadon, among others: To begin with, as the critical scientists reveal, the paper that established the Drosten PCR test for the Wuhan strain of coronavirus that has subsequently been adopted with indecent haste by the Merkel government along with WHO for worldwide use – resulting in severe lockdowns globally and an economic and social catastrophe – was never peer-reviewed before its publication by Eurosurveillance. The report's critics point out that: “the Corman-Drosten paper was submitted to Eurosurveillance on January 21st 2020 and accepted for publication on January 22nd 2020. On January 23rd 2020 the paper was online.”The critics point out that Drosten and his co-author Dr Chantal Reusken, did not disclose a glaring conflict of interest. Both were also members of the editorial board of Eurosurveillance. Further, as reported by BBC and Google Statistics, on January 21st there were a world total of six deaths being attributed to the Wuhan virus. They ask, “Why did the authors assume a challenge for ...

Lockdown 3.0 – If at First You Don't Succeed... Boris Johnson gave a televised address to the nation yesterday in which he announced a new national lockdown, instructing the population yet again to "stay home, protect the NHS, save lives". The Telegraph has the details: Boris Johnson has plunged England into a third national lockdown to try to curb the rapid spread of coronavirus, as the country moved to Covid Alert Level 5.The lockdown means people will only be able to leave their homes for limited reasons, with measures expected to stay in place until mid-February.In an address to the nation, the Prime Minister said the new coronavirus variant – which is 50 to 70% more transmissible – was spreading in a "frustrating and alarming" manner."As I speak to you tonight, our hospitals are under more pressure from Covid than at any time since the start of the pandemic," he said.The regulations are expected to be laid before Parliament on Tuesday, January 5th, with MPs retrospectively being given a vote after they are recalled early from the Christmas break on January 6th.The third national lockdown, the strictest since last spring, begins immediately. The new rules include: Everyone living in England has been told to stay at home, and only to go out for specific reasons. Mr Johnson said: "You may only leave home for limited ...

Today's update on Lockdown Sceptics is here. Includes details of the Govt's estimate of the collateral damage (over 100,000 non-Covid deaths), a reader's account of his mask battle with the NHS and a dodgy YouGov poll.

A "Careful and Limited" Christmas Christmas decorations covered by tape in a Cardiff Home Bargains, from Wales Online Image: Matthew Horwood Ministers from all the UK nations met yesterday to agree plans for the festive period. According to the Cabinet Office, they haven't yet reached an agreement, although it tried to spin this as "progress": Welcoming the good progress made by all administrations over the past few days to design a single set of arrangements that can apply across the UK, Ministers reiterated the importance of allowing families and friends to meet in a careful and limited way, while recognising that this will not be a normal festive period and the risks of transmission remain very real.As such, Ministers endorsed a shared objective of facilitating some limited additional household bubbling for a small number of days, but also emphasised that the public will be advised to remain cautious, and that wherever possible people should avoid travelling and minimise social contact.  The Sun was one of several papers briefed on the plans under discussion: What Brits can do this Christmas:It is believed a limited number of households will be able to meet up indoors including at the pubThis effectively scraps the rule of six over the five-day periodThe relaxed rules will likely come in on Christmas Eve through to the Bank ...