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Fatties – You Don’t Need to Worry About Dying From Coronavirus
Matt Hancock has written an article for the Telegraph today in which he warns people who are “morbidly obese” that they are at a higher risk of dying from COVID-19.
Obesity is one of the greatest long term health challenges that we face as a country.
It not only puts a strain on our NHS and care system, but it also piles pressure on our bodies, making us more vulnerable to many diseases, including of course coronavirus.
The latest research shows that if you have a BMI of between 30 and 35 your risk of death from coronavirus goes up by at least a quarter.
And that nearly 8 per cent of critically ill patients with coronavirus in intensive care are morbidly obese compared at around 3 per cent of the country as a whole.
He concludes:
If everyone who is overweight lost five pounds it could save the NHS over £100 million over the next five years. And more importantly, given the link between obesity and coronavirus, losing weight could be lifesaving.
So just how great is the risk of dying from coronavirus if you’re a fatty?
According to the latest ONS infection survey data, about one in 2,300 people had COVID-19 in England in the week of July 6th to 12th. Now, that’s not very reliable because the false positive rate for the antigen test could easily be one in 2,300, so to confirm this the ONS would need to re-test anyone testing positive to confirm the result – which it hasn’t done, obviously. Nevertheless, let’s assume that’s correct – that the number of people infected with coronavirus in England is 1/2,300 or about 24,350 (56,000,000/2,300). We know that the number of new cases is declining because the R is less than one, but for the sake of argument let’s assume that after 14 days, when those 24,350 people have either died or recovered, they’ve each passed it on to one other person. So that means the total number of people infected in England over the course of a year is ~633,100 (24,350 x 26). Again, a huge overestimate, but let’s give the bed-wetters the benefit of the doubt. So if you’re an Englishman, your chances of contracting the virus over the course of the next 12 months is 633,100 in 56,000,000 or 1.13%.
Now what are your chances of dying from COVID-19 if you’re unlucky enough to get it? It varies with age, obviously, but let’s assume an IFR of 0.26%, the last-but-one CDC estimate which I suspect was a little high. Again, benefit of the doubt. That means the average chance of an Englishman catching and then succumbing to the virus are ~0.0029%. Let’s add Matt Hancock’s 25% – the increase in your chances of catching COVID-19 and dying if you have a BMI of between 30 and 35 – and it comes to ~0.0036% or one in ~27,777.78. That’s remarkably similar to your chances of dying in a road traffic accident in the UK – and remember, that’s all ages, so if you just look at under-65 year-olds your chances of dying from COVID-19 are far, far lower than your chances of dying in a road traffic accident, even if you’re morbidly obese.
Don’t worry, Mr Creosote. I think you’ve got room for one more wafer thin mint.
Teaching Unions Demand Compulsory Muzzles in Schools
It was inevitable. The General Secretary of the National Union of Bed-Wetters – I mean, the NASUWT – has called for face coverings to be mandatory in schools and colleges. The Telegraph has the story.
Patrick Roach, the General Secretary of the NASUWT teachers’ union, said: “The Government’s guidance for schools is now out of step with wider public health guidance and guidance to other employers where it is recognised that, where physical distancing cannot be assured, face masks should be worn.
“Teachers and other staff working in schools also want to be assured that, when they return to the workplace in September, they will be afforded the same level of protection as other workers, and that the guidance for schools will be brought into line with guidance for other workplaces.”
Mr Roach noted that Government advice means children over the age of 11 are required to wear coverings when they visit “a range” of facilities such as shops and banks. He said: “So there is a strong argument that face masks should also be made compulsory for children when they return to secondary schools in September.”
The teaching unions must know that only four children under the age of 15 have died from COVID-19 in the whole of the UK and no one has been able to document a single case of a child infecting an adult anywhere in the world. So why the insistence of face nappies? I can only assume it is to make it even harder for schools to re-open in September so the unions’ dues-paying members can extend their six-month holiday.
Stand firm on this one, Gavin Williamson. Make it clear that face masks won’t be required in schools and any teacher refusing to turn up for work in September will be sacked.
In the meantime, you can sign this petition started by Them For Us.
Stop Press: Some US colleges are insisting on painful nasal swab tests for all students every other day.
Track and Trace Programme is Unlawful
Lockdown Sceptics has a special correspondent who’s been following the slow-motion car crash that is Matt Hancock’s track-and-trace programme since it was first unveiled. Here’s his latest report.
The UK Government has conceded that its flagship contact tracing programme has been operating unlawfully since its May 28th launch.
Digital rights campaigners at the Open Rights Group (ORG) have forced the Government to admit that its track-and-trace programme has been operating unlawfully. The programme was not subject to a full Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) as required under GDPR. If only they had paid attention to Lockdown Sceptics on May 28th, when we warned of precisely this risk. Apparently, the Government developed the scheme “at such pace and scale” that it was not a primary focus. So going at things in a rush is now a defence?
But who cares about DPIAs and GDPR? It’s not as if contact tracers are sharing patients’ data on social media. Oh wait, what’s this? Coronavirus contact tracers have been sharing patients’ data on WhatsApp and Facebook.
Where is our indomitable UK regulator in all this? It appears the Information Commissioners Office (ICO) see themselves as “a critical friend” of the Government providing guidance and advice. Well that’s nice, but if it is not too much trouble could they please do their job and take meaningful action on behalf of UK citizens?
Cut-Out-And-Keep “Mask Exempt” Cards
A reader has got in touch to point out that “Mask Exempt” cards are available for free from this medical centre’s website. Just download the PDF and print it out. The site even provides a handy dotted line so you can cut out the card and laminate it yourself. And the upside is, you are only claiming you have a “reasonable excuse” for not wearing a face nappy and not falsely claiming to have a specific disability.
Further to your post on lanyards today, I would like to contribute my experience.
I have so far been in three big chain shops since Friday, including Co-op, Waitrose and Currys. In each case I was, depressingly, the only mask dissenter.
I am uneasy with claiming a disability when there is no such reason at all for me to not wear a mask. I was therefore pleased to find the this PDF which I printed out and placed in a holder I had in a drawer. The wording of the dark blue ones is wonderfully appropriate – I have many very reasonable excuses! And my conscience is clear in not claiming disability. Perhaps it’s worth drawing this link to the attention of our friends?
Round-Up
Here’s a round-up of all the stories I’ve noticed, or which have been been brought to my attention, in the last 24 hours:
- ‘Beer sales rose in lockdown, and yet we drank less‘ – Contrary to popular myth, alcohol consumption actually declined during lockdown
- ‘Vietnam evacuating 80,000 from city after three positive COVID-19 tests‘ – After three cases?!? Guess how many have died from Covid in Vietnam in total since the pandemic began? Zero
- ‘Holidays in turmoil as quarantine is imposed‘ – What’s the next country to be removed from the travel corridor? France? Germany? Britons are cancelling their summer holidays in droves
- ‘Angry holidaymakers vent over new 14 day quarantine rule for Spain‘ – Poor buggers
- ‘Airline passengers “panicking” over quarantine‘ – Imagine being told on landing from a safe country that you have to quarantine for 14 days, which means not even leaving your house to get essential groceries. I’d panic, too
- ‘Benidorm in shock as UK’s quarantine “hammer blow” threatens to wipe out tourist industry‘ – Does this make Dominic Raab a bed-wetting version of Thor?
- ‘Regenstrief COVID-19 Dashboard‘ – For fans of Covid dashboards, this must take first prize. Tells you everything you need to know about Covid in the good state of Indiana
- ‘Shocking moment thieves in medical face masks raid Currys PC World – snatching phones and tablets as terrified staff look on‘ – Thieves are taking advantage of mandatory face coverings to rob shops. Who could have possibly foreseen that?
- ‘Workers are leaving the restaurant industry‘ – Depressing news from across the Atlantic
- ‘Most A-level and GCSE results will be decided by computer modelling, not teachers, in major U-turn‘ – Computer modelling? What could possibly go wrong?
- ‘Use glory holes for safe, socially-distanced hook-ups‘ – Advice for Canadian homosexuals in Pink News to protect themselves from Covid. You really couldn’t make it up
- ‘Why is this Government acting like a Lib-Dem, anti-car nightmare?‘ – Telegraph editorial poses a good question. Why have local authorities turned town centres into nightmarish labyrinths of one-way systems?
- ‘The troubling rise of the Covid contrarians‘ – Handy round-up of sceptical heroes in the Standard
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Just one today: “No More Heroes” by the Stranglers.
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. 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.
Note to the Good Folks Below the Line
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 created some Lockdown Sceptics Forums, but they became a magnet for spam (apologies for mixed metaphor) so we’ve temporarily closed them. However, we can open them again if some readers volunteer to be moderators. If you’d like to do this, please email Ian Rons, the Lockdown Sceptics webmaster, here – and thanks to those who’ve already volunteered. We’ll be re-opening the Forums soon.
Shameless Begging Bit
Thanks as always to those of you who made a donation recently 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.
And Finally…
Handy guide to what wearing a mask says about you, as compiled by American cartoonist Ben Garrison.
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.
By insisting shoppers wear face coverings the government has opened the door for the teaching union to have a go.
Back from a quick shop to our nearest Lidl. First time since mask day!
Walked straight in, no one on the door, there were only my wife, myself & 2 others un masked in the shop. Nobody stared at us other than at the checkout when the masked bloke in front kept turning round giving us the evil eye! I just smiled back.
Only one young women, with a floral mask on tried to climb the shelving to get out of our way.
So a pleasant enough trip but we were in the minority.
Keep smiling
Because smiling really pisses them off!
Because smiling is human. It’s becoming a lost art.
my dog used to smile I’m sure of it
Because it is a mammalian reflex. It’s becoming a lost art.
With dogs, it’s a warning! Same with some women.
My dog smiles, then he bites.
Our dog gives the biggest grin ever! Whilst wagging his tail madly. But then, the breed is known for it (Dalmatians).
Mine too – but sadly it was usually after rolling in fox dung!
Dogs do smile.
So is conversation, discussion, testing one’s knowledge …
They really, really hate it when you smile at them.
We must all live in fear and muzzledom.
The ones in the floral masks are THE WORST
Plus they look miserable as well.
Thats been my experience too. I went my my Mum on Saturday to Marks and Spencer. Entire shop muzzled but none of the staff. No one said a word. Then we went to Sainsburys. All staff wearing them in there but one or two shoppers not muzzled. I will never wear a muzzle.
I said this the other day, but it’s worth repeating. In advertising the pictures often show people with happy smiling faces. Generally I’m a bit cynical about advertising, but it shows that a smiling face is a feel-good thing, and suppressing that option is anti-human. Advertising which tries to normalise mask-wearing disgusts me. So stay unmasked and keep smiling, folks!
The only comfort I take from this is that they are probably wearing them because they have to, not because they choose to. Hence the escalation since last Friday.
Well done, keep it up, WE HAVE FACES.
Bring back The Small Faces!
Maybe they should install one of those vertical climbing walls.
Was in the local Co-op yesterday. Three or four masked zombies roaming around and there was just the unmasked me. A very overweight masked shelf stacker was sweating profusely and seemed really pissed off. The unmasked checkout bloke though, was very helpful and totally unphased by my facial nakedness. As I walked out of the shop about a half dozen unmasked teenage girls came in, giggling and chatting loudly as teenage girls should do. That small bit of normality made my day.
Hope you are pleased with yourself…scaring the regulars! Just hope you are not responsible for a spike!
Just back from Tenerife..fabulous fortnight worth every second of the government’s timely 2 week prison sentence. Many hundreds of miles and a big ocean from Catalonia. 80-90% of locals muzzled outside as well as in, youngsters are the worst ‘twitchers’ and do gooders reminding me if mine ‘slips’ off my nose 🙄. Strangely very little distancing, I think they are brain washed into feeling ‘safe’ as they’re muzzled?
Anyway..awful to be home so as soon as paroled will be off somewhere else..’twats’ permitting.
Out of selfish interest, did you see any enforcement of masks outside? Any incidents with other members of the public regarding masks outside?
No not really. To confirm we didn’t wear in public outside with not too many bad looks. Got hauled up on a bus by couple of Gestapo, but there were other locals not wearing them who hastily complied! A ‘child’ at checkout in Primark was sterilising himself after each customer😂. He pointed at me to raise my muzzle..should have thrown clothes at him but was buying for my good lady! Much worse on mainland and bigger towns I believe. They wouldn’t serve us in hotel unless muzzled, but quite a few staff had then ‘dropped’. It’s just startling and threatening to see EVERYBODY wearing them outside..it’s really unpleasant and unhygienic in 30c!
Thanks for that. Still hoping to get out that way myself later in the year, but I draw the line at wearing masks outside.
One of the saddest sights I saw was an old man, maybe in his 80’s, shuffling along a quiet pavement…he had a muzzle hanging off one ear, and as we approached (giving him distance) he gently raised it to his face, and as I looked round he dropped it again. I wanted to hug him. What the hell have we done to these poor people.
50 years ago Spain was a fascist dictatorship, albeit more benign than some. Do they still have the Civil Guard? – they never stopped being fascists.
Compared with the present lot they were teddy bears.
Just been to a supermarket…I think I was the only customer not properly masked up…the check out woman was virtually throwing the stuff at me! She seemed v irritated – not just with me but colleagues as well – but wearing a mask as she was for hours on end would do that to you.
I’ve not witnessed that myself. Only customer not masked up but no one battered an eye lid.
Same here, been into several shops over the weekend as the only unmasked customer, no reaction from the zombies, sometimes a knowing smile from the staff (exempt card stayed in-pocket since Friday).
Same here no problems in Tescos
Same here. Only two of us in Tesco. The other was masked but had taken off his mask to speak to assistant and left it off. The checkout girl who I know wearing mask but as friendly as ever.
If they throw stuff at you down the conveyor, I find, do not say anything, but load your bag(s) reeeeaaallly slllllooooowwwly.
They do not like that, and seem to slow down naturally.
Popped into my local small Tesco today, first time shopping since the mask mandate came into effect, person entering before me had no mask on and a woman and her kids didn’t either. This store was pretty normal last time I entered but today there were zombies walking around. That’s the only way to describe them. Walking like they were lost, following signs on the ground very surreal. Felt like going back in time to March when the lockdown first happened with the nervousness of people. I had my headphones in because I didn’t want to bother with people but had to get assistance at the self service (the machines complain about your own bags, alcohol etc) the only staff member who seemed to be at the tills looked over and grinned at me when he had a chance. I have been shopping here multiple times a week for months now (avoiding big stores), and shopped there on and off before hand for a year so I expect he recognized me and found it amusing to see “a regular” being regular among the great confused. I don’t know if anyone was angry or scared of me as I didn’t really… Read more »
I note that HMG, having failed to hang the blame on SAGE, or PHE or care homes, are now moving to blame the obese. Hancock: if every overweight person lost 5lbs, it would save the NHS £100m over five years. That’s pocket money Matt, compared with the extraordinary sums you have wasted on track and trace and PPE.
Isn’t it! Like 100m has meaning from mister “I’ve just wioed out 12.5 Billion of NHS because it feels good… you all have to pay and your grand children, but a least I feel good. And now for my next trick…”
They think we are buttoned up the back.
Update. The figure is actually is £13.4 billion. Cinverted to Government Dividends Capital at 3.5%. Meaning NHS trusts will need to pay dividends to Dept of Health.
Hancock is living in a fantasy world! The wearing of masks by more than half of the population will result in a massive increase in illnesses that will cost 10x as much as his supposed saving.
We all need good levels of oxygen to be healthy especially to fight cancer (cancer loves low oxygen bodies).
I agree. Will be interesting to see if there is a spike in lung disease among those obliged to wear masks.
What are Matt Hancock’s medical credentials? Zero?
What fat people in masks don’t realise is that if my breathing is a medical issue then their weight certainly is. They are often happy to be self righteous about mask wearing but would never make any effort to lose a few pounds – something which would much more credibly “save lives” if every fat person in the land did so.
There is a real problem with this doubling-down in that it equates the eminently sensible idea that obesity is a major health issue with the fantasy health issues around Covid.
That is what is dangerous.
It’s also complete b*llocks, as they say not being obese saves money but that isn’t correct as you will most likely live longer so you would need care, maybe treatment for dementia, more pension or other benefits, housing, etc. That £100m soon gets eaten up fast.
I made that point on the Telegraph, along with the point that if people are taking drugs for diabetes before retirement age they’re probably paying more in prescription charges than the drugs cost, and was accused of giving people an excuse to live unhealthily.
Andrew diabetes is classed as a chronic illness and people with it are exempt from prescription charges.
Wasn’t aware of that. My wife has a chronic illness (PKD) and doesn’t get her prescription free. Does it matter whether it’s type 1 or 2?
My wife gets free prescriptions.
Info on here:
https://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/exemption-certificates/medical-exemption-certificates
Speak to your GPs and they will send the form to you, complete your bit then send it back to GP who will sign it.
Wasn’t trying to get a free prescription for ourselves (we can afford to pay) – it just surprised me that one chronic condition would be elligible and another not. According to the asthma society you can’t get that prescription free unless you’re already entitled to free prescriptions. I wonder what the rationale is?
There is no real rationale, it’s put together by a bureaucrat or committee.
I don’t get much for the taxes and NI paid over the past 40 years so I make a point of applying just in case or claiming if eligible regardless even if I have the ability to pay myself or not as a matter of principle – as an example I don’t qualify for any coronavirus assistance schemes so screwed but they still want my tax in full this year or else even though I’m a laid-off key-worker.
You can also do prescription pre-payment which brings the cost down instead:
https://www.nhs.uk/using-the-nhs/help-with-health-costs/save-money-with-a-prescription-prepayment-certificate-ppc/
All very helpful, thanks.
Here’s the exemptions:
Agreed.
What was the amount? 18 Billion?
A report from the field. I visited my local Tesco (other supermarkets are available), big garden centre, and Hobbycraft (other hobby shops are available) over the weekend.
Didn’t wear a mask. Tesco was fine – just walked in and did shopping as normal. I would say I saw about a dozen unmasked people. Garden centre was also fine, and I even had a nice chat with the woman at the counter who said she thought masks were pointless but was forced to wear one by her boss.
Hobbycraft were insistent on masks and there was also a queue to get in still (why??), so I we didn’t give them our custom.
One observation: masks make the atmosphere funereal. This will kill shops almost for good. I expect when there is eventually a pushback (which there will be) it will actually be from retailers.
Yes unless retailers start pushing back it will be the end of them.
I also feel very sorry for retail staff that are forced to wear masks. Why, especially as they do not have to?
Do these retailers understand that it is harmful (physical and mental) to their employees? It will lead to excess staff being off sick and a total collapse of goodwill to the employer.
I had a fairly long argument on social media with someone I was at school with yesterday. He’s now running a small shop and had posted an attack on people who were entering his shop without masks. I made the simple point that some of those people might have exemptions and he just wasn’t having it – from a starting position of expecting the disabled to have to broadcast their problems to the world he ended up arguing that if everybody followed the rules he wouldn’t have to assume that anybody who wasn’t wearing a mask wasn’t following the rules.
With the people commenting on newspapers who seem to be pushing this not as a temporary measure but a permanent change (after all, people wear them in Asia), I’m seriously worried that people with hidden disabilities are going to be othered in our society. Already, Boris has gone from claiming we’d be back to normal in November to still wearing masks next summer. When does this madness end and how much damage is it doing to the social fabric while it continues?
They don’t care about the damage because it’s all about politics. If govts really took their responsibilities seriously then the NHS would have been better prepared with some form of fever hospitals. After all, the probability of a pandemic is always 100% (the only question is when and the type of pathogen) and a pandemic is a top threat to national security according to the govt.
The only thing we have to be genuinely thankful for is that this thing isn’t a genuine pandemic. If we had more bubonic plague and less common cold, then we’d really have a situation on our hands.
Having said that, we wouldn’t be going insane because people’s fear would be justified.
History is written after the event by the victors who wish to use it as a basis from which to continue to maintain control.
Whatever the actual causes of what fear interprets and magnifies, it is the fear-mind that is contagious and this was no less true ‘back in those days’.
So we keep on resisting and don’t give in and WE will write the history and it will be the TRUTH.
But there wasn’t a pandemic!
Have a browse of the World Economic Forum.
Its not a bug – its a feature – indeed a meticulously planned future.
I wonder how many of these pro-mask people are really prepared to wear one all the time for the rest of their lives. I guess we’re all different, but I’d have thought that would be very firmly in the weird fetish category, and even then most people with weird fetishes don’t indulge them all the time.
Me too. Give them a few weeks to realise their takings are even worse than they were before they brought it in.
Yes, doing my best to give no money to big shops.
I bought all food before mask day, and now will try and buy the bulk from markets, farms and small shopkeepers. The ‘Before’ and ‘After’ mask day should show a big decline in store profits – this should put pressure on the government to rapidly u-turn.
However, still pop into stores frequently just to browse, or buy a bag of sweets, just to show my handsome unmasked face to the idiots, and give courage to the dissenters.
Keep smiling.
It is to be hoped (for once) that national corporate money will outweigh the pressure from global capital at the root of this disaster.
Anxious about going to the shops because you are told you have to wear a mask?
If so watch this video from Carl Vernon:
https://youtu.be/WMexQjzjYTg
Its hilarious
Yes, I love his dry humour.
he’s a good chap our Carl
enjoyed his live stream last night – needed cheering up and it certainty cut the mustard
Good video, but I don’t get why people find it funny.
Anxious about going to the shops? To be perfectly frank…Yes. Since this horrendous requirement was introduced I have been suffering mental battles over whether to “Brave” the Zombies or bottle out and wear one – even though I will definitely NOT cover my nose with it. I don’t think I’ve ever been particularly risk averse – I rode motorbikes for 25 years, and set off (on my own) for a holiday “Down Under” despite having never set foot on a commercial airliner before. I also worked “aloft” for over 20 years, but I’ve not suffered anxiety like this in all my 60+ years. I do occasionally wear a mask for jobs I do, but that’s my choice (and appropriate given the environment). But the sight of hundreds of brain dead muzzle wearers, and the risk of confrontation, makes me feel really uneasy. As others have said, I just want to get on with my life, and resent being treated as some kind of diseased nut-job. I fear that if such a situation arose I would likely lose the plot (verbally, if not physically), and probably get thrown out and possibly banned. Considering my fragile mental state, wearing an exemption card… Read more »
You aren’t a fraud. The govt exemptions give anyone a get out from wearing a mask if it causes them distress.
The government card doesn’t even say why you’re not wearing a mask, it just says ‘I am exempt’.
I would just print one out and keep it in a pocket. Nobody, by law, is allowed to ask you why you are not wearing a mask; just tell any shop staff who asks you you’re exempt and that’s:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/903453/Exemption_from_face_covering_badge_to_print.pdf
‘Some people may feel more comfortable showing something that says they do not have to wear a face covering. This could be in the form of an exemption card, badge or even a home-made sign.
This is a personal choice, and is not necessary in law.
If you would like to use an exemption card you can use the PDF attachments on this page.
Those who have an age, health or disability reason to not wear a face covering should not be routinely asked to provide any written evidence of this. Written evidence includes exemption cards.’
I have an exemption card which I think is good to have just in case but my experience on the two occasions that I went into the shop was that no one was bothered! Might not bother even taking the card with me and if the need arises just say ‘exempt’. It was depressing today, I sat in town and watched sooo many people walking around in masks. It’s a beautiful day, what is wrong with people?
Personally I think you end up believing what you do. If you decide for whatever reason to wear a mask you will end up believing what you need to believe in order to carry on wearing it without all the stress. I plan to say that there is no scientific evidence that masks work, that the virus has almost gone, that if we wear masks in shops the next thing will be masks in the open air (eg Spain) and also possibly gloves.
Also that it gives a terrible example to young people to teach them to be so afraid all the time.
If you know what you’re going to say in detail before you set out then you can just keep calm and say it if challenged.
Or you can say you’re exempt because it causes you “severe distress”. Nothing in the legislation about having to prove it. But I think you will be be less stressed by sticking to your guns.
Jordan Peterson talks about anxiety. Basically, if we avoid situations that make us anxious we will get more anxious. We have to confront them, and the way to do that is bit by bit – slowly.
This is a good one of his, but I don’t think it has the bit by bit section. I can’t find that at the moment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijdr4eJcdHQ
I agree. In my case I knew if I didn’t do it (go in bare face) I would feel like I had let myself down and then it would weigh on me until I actually did it.
Dave, I would suggest some “de-sentising” first, try a small shop, a friendly local late at night. Then work up, a big busy supermarket is level 6 bare-face.
Honestly the shop staff 100% will not give you any problems. The sheeple just ignore you, it blows their minds that you are unmasked. They want you to just disappear. You almost go invisible to them.
You don’t have to justify your self to anybody, you are exempt. End of story. Everybody is.
Don’t worry, it’s bad but not as bad as you are building it up to be.
I’m with you microdave. I feel the same. I really don’t want to wear a mask, but I’m a non-confontational person and I don’t relish the prospect of being verbally abused in public. As a sceptic and a contrarian, I’ve been able to go against the flow in my own quiet way until now. But this is a real challenge.
I also take your point about the browsing experience. I live alone too, and sometimes a friendly chat with a checkout operator can make your day – as sad as that sounds!
So I’m weighing up my options. Do I reduce my opportunities for (albeit masked) social interaction even more and just shop online?
God, what a nightmare.
At least I’ve got the pub, even if I have to tolerate its ridiculous one-way system (which in a small act of resitance I have managed to flout a couple of times without incident!).
To both you and microdave;As a way of getting around the mask wearing but still being able to have some social interaction,you could try using click and collect. Order online,no hassle with queues or anyone giving you daggers and you can have a civilised chat in the fresh air with the supermarket staff.At least that way you’re sticking to your principles without any confrontation.
You might also be able to strike up a conversation with other unmasked strangers in the supermarket. That’s my intention. I don’t think normal reticence will apply at the moment!
Feel very similar to yourself; it is extremely unpleasant anticipating a possible confrontation and a real source of anxiety to do so – and over something so pointless.
Not an easy option, though unless we show our opposition, we will just get more of the same, and this nonsense will never end; it seems too many love controlling us to give it up!
From my recent experience there is no need to fear confrontation. Remember the purpose of a muzzle, it works especially on the sheep.
Gosh, I’m so glad I found this little pocket of a thread today! I feel almost identical to MicroDave’s sentiments and other commenters. My mental stress and anxiety levels have started to manifest themselves physically now – I’m slightly trembling typing this. My day is generally shot before noon now, as I contemplate with rising fear and bile my responses to the increasingly non-sensible, ever-changing government arbitrary government diktat. I have always shy-ed away from confrontation, and it’s a difficult, core trait to suddenly abandon. But I have to try. As others’ have said, I’ll attempt an approach of desensitisation first. I’ll pop into my small, local Co-op which is friendly and I know the staff there by face, if not name as well. I’ll carry my lanyard but I don’t expect to get it out, and I’ll mention to anyone who directly asks me that I have an exemption and promptly walk away, depending on the situation. And I’ll smile and make eye contact as much as possible. We’ll see. I also have a scarf, snood and ski neck warmer which I can wear come the colder months, if need be. How bloody stupid is it to be contemplating… Read more »
30 years your junior and you have summed up how I feel to a tee.
I live on my own too and it has played havoc with my own mental state.
Hi microdave, I can identify completely with the emotions you are going through re ‘to wear or not to wear’. I too had a similar experience on Monday. Was not planning to do any shopping, ever, whilst the abhorrent face mask measures are in place (like you online is what I will be doing) but the need to pop into the local pharmacy (Superdrug) arose. I walked into town after work on Monday and was feeling a mixture of doubt, nerves, anxiety, lunacy, -do I wear a scarf or not – actually started giggling out loud such was my nervousness. Decided that I would feel bad if I didn’t just go in bare face and so went for it. It was quite quiet, about 3.30pm/4pm, said hello to a member of staff (who was not in mask) and was dealt with by pharmacist – no problems, neither of them said anything. Came out elated…except I had to go back the next day as the medication was not in stock! Felt even more nervous the second time as it was really busy, Tuesday lunchtime. Followed an unmasked man in and again it was fine. Phew. Not something I am going to… Read more »
Great video. Should be circulated more widely.
“Apparently, the Government developed the [vaccine] “at such pace and scale” that [citizens’ rights and protections] were not a primary focus.”
Replace the words and it gets scary.
Quick trip out to the greengrocer and the dog food shop this morning.
Greengrocer “do you have a mask, buddy”?
Me “I can’t wear one” (pretty much true, though ‘principles and standards’ aren’t strictly included in the official list of exemptions)
Greengrocer: “no problem”
NB – I’ve been shopping there for 15 years. Otherwise I’d object to “buddy” but it’s fine.
Dog food shop – nobody said a word about me being unmasked. I did actually _need_ to get dog food as we’d completely run out and I didn’t realise we had until yesterday. My dog has had a raw food diet since he was tiny, which isn’t always easy to buy, so if I’d ended up having to leave empty handed, the only alternative would have been Pets at Home, which I’ve been boycotting since long before the corona nonsense, so phew.
Amusing anecdote though – the two young guys in the shop floor were both wearing masks. The one serving me pulled down his mask to shout to his colleague across the floor that the customer before me needed help carrying stuff to his car. Protecting me, you see.
What an absolute tool Patrick Roache General Secretary of NASUWT is for suggesting that masks are worn in school. Have just sent Him an email expressing my annoyance. So so annoyed.
Face masks were made mandatory on public transport from June 15th. Between then and July 23rd most people didn’t wear a mask in shops, but now the govt has mandated them some people think that anyone not wearing one is some kind of selfish Typhoid Mary. If they believe masks are so necessary then why didn’t they wear one before?
This country, and the rest of the world, continues to descend into ever weirder mass neuroses with previously sane people suddenly showing moral outrage at others doing something they were also doing up until now.
All this nonsense is strengthening my misanthropic streak.
Just after the announcement was made that masks would be made mandatory in shops, I was at a shop behind a couple in the queue. They were having a chat with the girl at the till, and I was listening in. I heard the man say “They should have been made mandatory a long time ago if you ask me!” while his wife nodded sagely along. But, the thing was….. none of these people were wearing masks.
It was all I could do to stop myself tapping him on the shoulder and saying, “What is going on inside your brain? If masks are so brilliant and making them compulsory is a wonderful idea, why aren’t you wearing one?”
I think I would have tapped him on the shoulder and said “if they are so bloody wonderful and you are so smart you could have worn one voluntarily before now, it wasn’t illegal”.
I hate sanctimonious wankers like that.
Misanthropy is the plan so when the vaccine murders millions we will laugh in relief at all the Karen’s killed.
Peter, please stop using my name in this way. My parents chose to call me Karen in 1963 and I cringe every time I see comments like yours. I dislike masks, and everything about this new rule, and visit these pages for the same reason you do.
A 45 min video on Facebook.
A load of doctors in the US ranting about the political fear stored up over CV.
Better watch it before it gets removed!
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1376146442759558&id=95475020353&sfnsn=scwspwa&extid=zXus6YYjDPsnMn5G&d=w&vh=e
Yes, but GRANT SHAPPS is among them, so there is that consolation.
No, politicians are exempt form quarantine
O really? Drat!
waaaaat?
C’mon think it through. You are corona virus, would you choose to crawl all over a politician, especially a sweaty one freshly back from a hot country. The point resteth there. Proof politicians are the lowest form of life.
Could this be a political stunt? Even if Grant Shapps has to quarantine it is hardly an imposition as he can work from home with no possibility of loss of pay. But it gives the impression of MPs being caught up in the effects of government diktats (ie. we are all in it together).
Others in Spain are less lucky and may return to loss of pay if they have to stay home for 14 days.
As some holidays are cheaper in Spain than the UK (from what I can see) this directly impacts many who are lower income earners and may have been working right through the crisis (eg. NHS, supermarket, delivery workers) and in need of a holiday.
Of course it is a political stunt…
It has frequently been observed that terror can rule absolutely only over people who are isolated against each other and that therefore one of the primary concerns of tyrannical government is to bring this isolation about. Isolation may be the beginning of terror; it certainly is its most fertile ground; it always is its result. This isolation is, as it were, pretotalitarian; its hallmark is impotence insofar as power always comes from people acting together, acting in concert; isolated people are powerless by definition.
— Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism —
https://off-guardian.org/2020/07/27/the-ultimate-divide-and-conquer/
It is also interesting that a tenet of totalitarianism is a charismatic leader .
Well we don’t have one of them.
Well, thanks be to God, we are not isolated. We have one another. We know sanity exists, and what it is.
“The General Secretary of the National Union of Bed-Wetters – I mean, the NASUWT – has called for face coverings to be mandatory in schools and colleges.“ Let’s just remind ourselves here that this coronapanic is, we are told by fellow sceptics here, a “far right” agenda pushed on us by some apparently “far right” people secretly running the government (contrary to all the appearances that make them look like a bunch of snivelling, NHS-worshipping apologists to woke political correctness). So let’s look at this particular pusher of this “far right” agenda: NASUWT leader Patrick Roach. A former “equal opportunities officer” (surprise, surprise), teacher of politics and sociology to 16- to 19-year-old students in FE colleges, and university lecturer on social policy issues, with a PhD in sociology. All well known hotbeds of fascism and breeding grounds for far right ideology. Let me guess: he’s an MI5 plant? A (very enthusiastic) dupe for the fascists on this issue? Or perhaps, just perhaps, the coronapanic that’s been and continues to be so enthusiastically pushed by the lefties at the Guardian and BBC, is actually not a “far right” agenda at all, and this supposedly “Conservative” government are actually just the bunch… Read more »
Is it an effect of CoranaPanic that rationality goes out the window.
You don’t have to pamper complicit idiots running unions to know that this is – pure and simple – a TORY disaster, perpetrated by a right-wing TORY government, under a lying psychopathic TORY leader, elected by TORY Party members to his position.
Anything else is as big a distortion as the evidence suggesting that masks are a good idea.
Get real.;
Yes, yes, all those complicit lefties in the trade unions, at the Guardian, the BBC, the Independent and all the other lefty publications vigorously pushing the fear agenda, all those Democrat Trump-haters in the US, all those establishment “long march through the institutions” types such as the Lancet editor Richard “Extinction Rebellion” Horton, and the hordes of “woke” social media coronapanickers – they’ve all been fooled by those sneaky government fascists.
My issue is not with the suggestion that this “Conservative” government has full leadership responsibility for the catastrophic decisions they’ve taken and for all the consequences. I think I’ve made that pretty clear, repeatedly. My issue is with this grossly implausible idea that the drive for it is coming from some secret “far right” government faction. That is, frankly, pretty stupid.
Yes indeed. Pretty sure all the BLM protestor would have been arrested on the spot if this gvt. was in any way fascist.
I mean they are. But not in any traditional sense of the word.
Damned sure no “far right” government would have let senior policemen “take the knee” to such nonsense.
Fascist in the limited and apolitical sense of authoritarian, perhaps. Or in the way juvenile lefties have for generations now slung the term at anyone whose politics they disagree with even slightly.
The thing is, to some extent I’d actually be reassured if I thought there were any truth at all in these rather silly claims. At least it would indicate a so far unimaginable level of actual basic competence, self discipline and moral fortitude in some individuals involved in government, and hold out the potential for some kind of long term plan to roll back the woke political correctness nonsense. Since the left has abandoned even a pretence at protecting dissent and freedom of speech in exchange for the evil rationalisation that is “hate speech”, I am forced to take seriously now the issue of whether the authoritarian right might actually be the least bad option, out of those available.
Johnson the Marxist. Another Covid delirium?
No more delirious than people who believe Anthony Blair was “right wing”.
Did someone call Johnson a “Marxist”? I certainly didn’t – but you knew that.
I did call him what he is – soft left, which is the correct term for someone who is so obviously in favour of collectivised healthcare, welfarism, political correctness in all the various forms still funded and promoted by the government he runs, and all the rest of the stuff imposed by the left through the long C20th and enthusiastically adopted by the hierarchy of the “Conservative” Party.
Nothing ‘secret’. My simple point is that *here and now* it’s coming from the right wing Tory government, via the will of the Tory Party.
Just a fact. But, hey-ho, a government run by the irresponsible Johnson and a Party that has been in power for a decade has to have some excuse, I suppose.
You won’t find me gullibly excusing obvious culprits who I might nominally agree with on some issues.And apologias for totalitarian behaviour *are* about excusing it and being complicit.
And …beyond poor ickle victim Mr Toad …. if not ‘the far right’ – where in general is this monstrosity coming from? Left wing global capital represented by Big Pharma? Or marxist Big Data? Do tell – I’m interested in sophistry.
Quite. Labour and the LibDems wanted a harder lockdown, earlier. Every bit as complicit in the disaster as the Conservatives. The *entire* establishment, whether of left or right or centre, is equally guilty. No hiding place for them.
I think you’re spending too much time in this vile far-right nest of Tory vipers.
Funny that you’re here instead of on one of your favourite ‘Left-Wing’ sites, isn’t it?
I’m just intrigued by the sophistry going on here, and not much interested in anything aimed at excusing the obvious culprits for the current authoritarian regime because of party political; loyalties – let alone the right wing one actually in power.
In case you haven’t been reading very well- nobody is excusing anyone for anything here.
So why has government reaction to coronovirus been variations of the same thing all over the world from ‘liberal democracies’, Corporate Communists, gangster kleptocracies, religious dictatorships to absolute monarchies ?
Looks like globalist totalitarianism. Big pharma, big tech (working together with government & their ‘Health Passport’ tracking/surveillance, the state combining with multinational corporations, call it communism, call it fascism, the end result is the same: crush the individual
I agree. Waste of time arguing left and right about it. It’s much bigger than that and totalitarian whichever way it leans.
Is Soft Totalitarianism a thing ? How about Totalitarianism By Consent ? Dunno but maybe that’s the plan.
They’re not left, they’re not right, they’re just bloody idiots.
Exactly they’re neither and that’s a big part of the problem.
The article in the Standard referred to in the Round Up section carries an advertisement for face masks from a company called Smug, which is beyond satire.
Our bodies need oxygen to thrive. Masks not good
Dropped car off at garage this morning. Customer infront of me donning a mask before entering (from his pocket) looking very uncomfortable. I obviously entered without a mask and so were the friendly staff. No signs at the door and there won’t be any in future.
£100 million over 5 years if each of us fatties lose 5 lbs. Is he joking?
To save a lot more than an accounting rounding error of £20 million year all he has to do is get rid of the known incompetents:
http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/news/gp-topics/legal/cost-of-nhs-clinical-negligence-payouts-continues-to-soar/20037086.article
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-51180944
and this was 2 years ago so now it’s more than £2.3 billion a year for negligence payouts plus legal fees
And I know it’s the Daily Mirror:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/nhs-sets-aside-56-billion-8481673
What’s £100million these days anyway…. 1 additional day of locking down an entire region?
Bored so number crunching.
Estimated NHS budget for 2019/20 before the pandemic was £134 billion.
https://fullfact.org/health/spending-english-nhs/
£20 million is equal to 38 minutes of NHS budget.
If I was him I wouldn’t bother annoying us anymore.
Probably took him longer to get ready for his announcement.
Quebec’s annual health budget is over $40 billion Canadian dollars a year. Its population is 7 times smaller (8,500 million) than Great Britain.
Eliminate Public Health England, save 4 billion.
I’ve been thinking about the mask wearing from another angle.
I’ve ordered a military grade gas mask. Once I’ve test drove it in the home to ensure I don’t die from crabon monoxide poisoing i’m gonna pick up a T-Shirt with ‘Biohazard’ emblazened on the front and stitch on some Biohazard badges on the sleeves etc.
I’m on the lookout for some ‘elderly crossing’ road sign stickers so I can stick a few on my back to be displayed as confirmed kills like the RAF used to do in WWII.
Last up, to complete the effect, I’m gonna pick up a red, revovling emergency light to strap on my head.
It’s not like any bed wetters can pull me up for not taking it seriously is it? Will probably have to attach the light when i’m passed the poor security guy though lol.
Mrs Biggles had an unfortunate incident yesterday at the local Sainsbury’s. Although a sceptic, she now has a mask for the supermarket shop but hadn’t put it on when getting a trolley. Another woman wearing a homemade mask came up really close and glared at her. No attempt at social distancing and all very intimidatory. How long before someone gets assaulted because of this ridiculous ruling?
“How long before someone gets assaulted because of this ridiculous ruling?”
Already happened on day one, apparently. Well done, Johnson.
Also, how long until someone with glasses has an accident because the mask caused their glasses to steam up?
Who cares?!
We are living in times and countries where 1 person who died with Covid is apparently worth to society as much as 100 people who died of cancer, and as much as 10.000 people who died of hunger.
“Are people thick?” Some people certainly are, but not all. What has happened is that people have gone MAD – they cannot see reality any more, they are delusional. Covid is a belief, not a rational opinion.
Well, they don’t have the C of E any more.
NHS?
Wake up!
Its the CHS!
MAD used to mean Mutually Assured Destruction. Maybe it still does.
MHRA has apparently cut short the clinical trial requirements etc for covid-19 related trials:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/clinical-trials-applications-for-coronavirus-covid-19
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/mhra-regulatory-flexibilities-resulting-from-coronavirus-covid-19
So that’s alright then, can be fast tracked through but it’s still safe(ish).
The UK government has, like many other governments, shown a lamentable inability to understand science and has thereby been unable to work with the science to establish a balanced sensible policy. With this vaccine they are like Harry Potter looking for a magic potion that will solve all our problems. The governments actions over recent months have shot their credibility to pieces and so it will not be surprising if there is some skepticism about this vaccine, if it comes into use.
Flu vaccines have a checkered history and we have never had a vaccine for the common cold, so you would be right to wonder if this vaccine is effective and if it is worth the risk for Coronavirus unless you are in a very vulnerable category. Even then I am a pensioner and thus vulnerable and I will take some convincing!
One might also point out that if you are in a very vulnerable category for covid, you are, a fortiori, in a very vulnerable category to any downside side effects of any early-released vaccine! I foresee a very major global medical scandal in the making.
History might repeat … google swine flu 1976 vaccine 60 minutes.
“The UK government has, like many other governments, shown a lamentable inability to understand science” Possibly at the start, they didn’t court opinion widely enough. Now they just don’t care about science.
If it goes wrong it could be another cause of their undoing.
It will be much harder to hide this time as well. It’s easier to hide the mistake of lockdown by ratcheting up the fear and measures to make it look justified, but if there ever was such a medical scandal it would surely be the largest in history (if they really do want to vaccinate a massive portion of the world population with an experimental vaccine) and impossible to avoid blame for millions if not billions of vaccine-damaged people.
Indeed, they all seem to me like high rolling gamblers on an unbelivable streak. Aside from the ran-up debts (furlough, NHS backlog deaths etc.) going ‘all in’ on this collosal bet might be one too many.
Could the Vaccine Mongers include a Corporate non liability clause against side-effects for the slush they provide?
My mum is 74 and refuses the flu vaccine every year. She’s against this wonderous new vaccine too.
Good for her.
“ I am a pensioner and thus vulnerable and I will take some convincing!”
I would hope so : it at least proves that your brain is functioning and that it’s not clinically dead like that of a large proportion of the population.
It’s surreal that, having taken “safetyism” and the precautionary principle to the extreme with Covid-19, to the exclusion of any other short- and long-term risks, society seems to have thrown any concept of risk and caution out of the window when it comes to the vaccine.
Having read the article on the 2009 swine flu panic ( https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/reconstruction-of-a-mass-hysteria-the-swine-flu-panic-of-2009-a-682613.html ) I have an uncomfortable feeling that “big pharma” may be behind the whole “the vaccine is the only way out of this” narrative. This is getting uncomfortably close to conspiracy theory for me, but it is a worrying plausible theory, based on the straightforward factors of money and greed.
It’d argue that’s not conspiracy, just huge political/financial investment and vested interests.
This comment suggests the WHO’s recommendation of masks was influenced by “political lobbying”: https://twitter.com/Tolstoy36538752/status/1287474574918025223/photo/2
It seems disturbingly plausible that the sudden push for mask-wearing in so many countries, is an attempt by “big pharma” to maintain the fear and abnormality until a vaccine is available by the end of the year, via lobbying/string-pulling in the WHO and possibly national governments.
In this case I wonder if money might also be a factor in so much of the media immediately and unquestioningly becoming pro-mask, as well as not asking awkward questions about the safety and efficacy of the vaccine.
I agree with this but big pharma/WHO/govt corruption is no secret, probably seen as “just business”.
But they don’t don’t talk to each other ?!
That’s the only thing which explains the volte-face from SAGE. When the lockdown started some of them aligned their financial interests so that now any lifting of the panic is a threat to them. I don’t think the Government themselves are involved, but with the way they have been “captured” by one group of experts they are basically serving their wishes. That’s why they were shocked by the representations from the hospitality industry about potential job losses and why they were thrown by the CEBM’s report on statistical deaths (which they didn’t even notice until the newspapers picked it up).
Just ordered this on eBay. Looks pretty good and plastic/credit card sized.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/402338254095
My plan is to go about my daily activities unmasked and only present the card if challenged.
It’s great.
I look to the day when nine out of ten people have one. I suspect that nine out ten people really don’t want fo wear nappies, but dare not resist. . At the moment.
“That’s remarkably similar to your chances of dying in a road traffic accident in the UK – and remember, that’s all ages, so if you just look at under-65 year-olds your chances of dying from COVID-19 are far, far lower than your chances of dying in a road traffic accident, even if you’re morbidly obese.”
knowing the above, which of the following is most the likely explanation for the increasingly ludicrous measures being inflicted on the people of this country?
Or 5 – the government see the majority of the population have been terrified by the media and that draconian policies – lockdowns, face masks etc – are popular and make them look like strong leaders who will then be reelected when the time comes. If the majority of other governments are doing the same then it’s easier to do what they do, rather than stick their necks out and do a Sweden.
They can’t lose. If there is no second wave then they can claim it’s because of the strong measures they took. If there is a second wave then they can say – but it would have been much worse if we hadn’t taken all these measures and now we need to take even stronger measures.
So the question isn’t why are they taking all these measures, but why wouldn’t they?
3 and 5. People are mad and the government are taking advantage (having helped them go mad in the first place, and are now helping keep them mad, quite deliberately)
I would say 5 with a bit of 3, another possibility (not totally incompatible with either) is that they are aware they made a lot of wrong decisions – and have been for some time – but admitting to them by now would mean the end of a lot of people’s career and reputation (not least the PM), so the only thing they can do is attempt to keep the narrative going for as long as possible until a vaccine is available.
Put in other terms, the government have dug themselves such a deep hole that all they can do is to keep digging in the hope they’ll emerge on the other side, as soon as they stop the opposition and media are going to get their shovels out and well and truly bury them. Though this might be giving too much credit to the latter!
I read some comment yesterday along the lines of “The great wait for a vaccine is just leaders hiding in the herd from their big mistakes.”
Re vaccines, this is worrying: https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/strong-legal-basis-for-making-covid-19-vaccinations-mandatory-1.4313941?mode=amp&s=09
Norway’s PM apologised for Lockdown many weeks ago, it would be only fair if he survives politically while johnson! and his nobodies sink.
I agree, mostly 3 & 5. Also the general public aren’t very good at assessing and comparing relative risks, and they swallow the nonsense being pumped out by most of the media.
I vote for 3.
Definitely 3
If it were only Britain that was going mad you could move somewhere else. But it’s the same everywhere. On French radio this morning we were treated to Dr Arnaud Fontanet of the Institut Pasteur ratcheting up the fear. The Institut Pasteur is hand in glove with Imperial College by the way. Fontanet belongs to the Scientific Council that gives poor Macron bad advice. The numbers of people testing positive are going up – in fact there are as many people infected now as at the end of the house arrest on the 11th May. So even though we have been going about our business without masks since then, we must put masks on now in order, he hints, to avoid another confinement. The man is an idiot. He says that most of the new infections are among younger people who don’t usually have a severe form of the disease, but they could pass it on to granny. 150,000 people died in old folks’ homes in France in 2015 and there wasn’t a peep out of Fontanet. Then he reminds us of how hospitals in Paris and the Grand Est were overflowing in March. He doesn’t mention that most hospitals… Read more »
I live between Ireland and France and have lived in the UK and the one thing that I can’t get my head around is how so amazingly similar their governments’ responses have been to this when they are usually poles apart. I read lots of criticism on here of the UK government but it’s not like they are acting differently from the majority of other countries. It’s eerie. Is it because of blind obedience to WHO guidelines?
More evidence for 4.
WHO is an unelected body. It has formally no authority over sovereign governments. It is funded mainly by money from Bill Gates’ organizations and big pharma. Yet it is undeniable that governments the world over are indeed implementing its recommendations (orders?).
So any thinking person will rightfully wonder who’s really calling the shots on the response to this ‘pandemic’?
I would go for 4 with a dollop of 3.
https://corona-transition.org/jetzt-wegen-rhinoviren-osterreich-fuhrt-die-maskenpflicht-wieder-ein
Austria’s heath minister says that recent increase of isolation of rhinovruses (one of the common cold viruses) makes a good excuse to increase mask wearing among the public.At least he doesn’t hide his motives“Of course it is about a psychological effect, and I say this honestly and openly. It’s about to increase at the moment a too much reduced risk consciousness. We need to increase this so we don’t have any surprises this autumn and we can really stop a second wave”.
Good grief!!!!!
Does this man have a brain?
Not if he’s anything like our health minister!
Took my Dad (85) to the hospital nearly two weeks ago for an eye injection. These are the steps
1 Sun – early morning drive to hospital testing centre – swab taken
2 Self isolate at home till Wednesday
Attend appointment if we hear nothing.
Drive to hospital
Walk to Desk in foyer
Dad needed to put mask on (I had chatted with him that he did not need to but he wanted to)
Temperature taken
So even if you have been tested and been in self isolation after the test you still need to wear a mask just in case!
Proceed with care to department
I wait outside the hospital.
The positive – there is no messing now – in and out in under 40 minutes, it used to be anything from 60-120 minutes!
Yes.
My recent dental x-ray: Needed no appointment, was sent to wrong department, found the right location – in a disused room at the other side of the hospital. Short wait. In and out in 20 minutes.
Thank goodness because I had to wear a face nappy!
Our supposedly autonomous Eye Hospital got turned over to ICU for Covid 4 months ago, never used. Still is, waiting for the elusive ‘second wave’ apparently.
Seriously thinking of going into my local bank today just to see if they ask me to mask up. If they do, I’ve a mind to ask them if it’s OK to bring in my sawn off shot gun seeing as traditionally the two go together.
Have a mask made saying ‘ this is a hold up, hand over the money’. Bet that would go down a treat.
Balaclava.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/six-times-boris-johnson-criticised-the-nanny-state
What on earth has happened to him? (rhetorical question)
Well, it would be interesting to know, if it could help us when next faced with a choice of leader. I am sure his natural inclination is not towards a nanny state, but the inclination to save his political career and try to appear glorious and save us from covid have overridden this. I guess we have to conclude he is a man of weak principles and character.
And intellectually more slippery than an eel soaked in KY jelly!
Surely that’s Gove?
Actually I think no one in govt is more slippery than Johnson. I’m glad about what he’s done with Brexit but I think he’s more untrustworthy and has even less integrity than any other PM in decades.
Not so sure about their Brexit negotiations. We hear very little and I think lots of this virus noise is a ruse for us not to question what is going on.
Wouldn’t surprise me.
Mason Mills is now protecting his tweets so I cannot see what he posts. He has been accurate on everything so far, whoever he is..
I have signed upt o the Patreon site out of curiosity and I have some specific travel related questions I want answering. Some really interesting stuff. Condition of membership is not to disclose info in the public domain though unfortunately.
Conclude?
His character and principles were obvious during the election campaign – if you hadn’t spotted it before then!
He got power but realised he doesn’t know how to wield it.
Nothing. He always was a pathological liar, wastrel and blusterer, with the narcissist’s characteristic of saying anything that would be to his own advantage.
Why anyone would have thought he was suited to leadership, I really can’t imagine – given his plain track record.
There was a psych op on him – Carrie.
What is so great about the internet is the totally useless information you can find, such as this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Cates – grandfather of Ms Arcuri.
Now what was it Rod Liddle wrote in The Times a few months ago – something about Boris and his ‘inquisitive p….’!
What you write re Carrie actually sounds plausible… I see parallels here with Meghan Markle – trap a guy, have his child, persuade guy to follow your agenda…
That’s my thinking too – oldest trick in the book.
What do we know about when and how they met?
After she left her Theatre Studies course (Warwick University) in 2009 she joined CCHQ as a Press Officer then campaigned for Boris Johnson in the 2010 London Conservative Party mayoral selection. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrie_Symonds
Interesting.. so she’s a luvvie… Must look up her family background, usually informative…
Luvvie-duvvie.
CIA
I visited the open-air market in Abingdon this morning. Not as many stalls as usual but the fruit & veg seller was doing a lot of business. Insisted on payment in cash, which was great. The downside was that quite a few people were wearing muzzles.
When will the bed-wetters in general and the teachers in particular get it into their thick heads that no amount of ‘self-isolating’ or masks or gloves is going to Save Them from The Covid.
It will come and go annually having another go at those vulnerable (into which group we all go closer with each passing year) which it missed last time.
The only justification for Lockdown was to save the NHS from being overwhelmed. Well we did that and now the NHS is underwhelming Us as is johnson and his unlikely crew.
Teachers have been a disgrace
I doubt that they are all genuinely scared, for the unions it’s just a good ruse to make it as difficult as possible to go back to work, so they can stay home (and still get paid). Especially now the government has awarded them a nice pay rise. Those union barons are certainly earning their dues.
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.
They have less reason than most to fear Covid since most of them are young(ish) and female(ish).