Latest News
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.
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.
I will let someone else be first…
Me!!
A most ingenious paradox!
It is a far, far better thing I do today…
I’m resigned to the fact now that whoever the dark globalist forces are behind this “pandemic”, they aren’t going to let us out of it anytime soon.
Despite the overwhelming evidence that this virus is much less deadly than flu, they simply replace the death figures with apocryphal tales of people getting long term health effects from the virus instead. This keeps the propaganda susceptible masses in perpetual fear and, most importantly, compliant.
I initially thought that this might have something to do with the US election in November. Trump caused an immense amount of damage to globalists in his first term and I supposed that they would try to use this phoney crisis to depose him (they certainly won’t do it via the ballot box following the BLM communist coup). Now I’m not so sure that my initial conspiracy goes far enough to explain what is going on here.
I’ll keep resisting and spreading the word, but I can’t see any way out of this in the short to medium term.
Proud to be a covid/lockdown skeptic and many thanks to Toby for giving us this platform to vent our frustrations on!
You can bet that the green, Climate Cataclysm , Greta crowd will be cheering at the result of johnsons idiot quarantine ‘policy’ . He has forced the bulk of us to abandon the skies of our own choice without the need for taxation or air mile rationing and all he needs to do to extend that is to extend his grizzled Enabling Act next month.
The Special People will, of course, be exempt as they amble seamlessly through Covid free VIP lounges.
I haven’t yet, but I will check it out this afternoon. Thanks!
What’s it called and where can it be seen?
https://plandemicseries.com/
Your word is my command!
plandemicseries.com It was on youtube and some others but got banned within 24 hours. Many millions have seen it already.
You can download it from their site and keep it permanently on your hard drive to share. They actively encourage it
Watching it in bits and pieces when I can. Great so far!
Yes you are right, I am not sure about the dot connecting conclusion but nonetheless some astonishing evidence put together. Well worth watching !
What is it about the conclusion you can’t get to grips with.
I’ll see it… yesterday saw again Outbreak with Dustin Hoffman…spot on!
Precisely. They can’t know about any long term effects given that it has not been around long term anyway. Pure tactical scaremongering.
I forgot to mention I posted a link for Pandemic2 on Facebook and received a notice on the post from PolitiFact Ministry of Truth to stop the spread of fake news :
Fact checking “Pandemic 2” Another video full of conspiracy theories about COVID-19
Since Facebook and other media started censoring information, know one thing: If the information is censored that is exactly what we should be reading
Fact checked – what a joke. They are self-appointed and sponsored by big interests
They are Big Brother.
Brother Bill Gates.
Yes I think it’s a good way to make something go viral !
Politifact – are they the ones that admitted Susan Rosenberg is on the fundraising board of BLM, admitted she was convicted & imprisoned on weapons charges and possession of ‘hundreds of pounds’ [their words I think] of explosives – but had the gall to fact check that it is not necessarily the same as being convicted of a terror offence?
They do have an agenda against POTUS.
Not just POTUS.
Unbelievable isn’t it ?
We have to be more optimistic than that
There is very little room for optimism.
Take a look at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAZ9KCNDSek&feature=youtu.be
and other Corbett reports.
Are you referring to this one, Country Mumpkin? “Plandemic indoctornation” https://londonreal.tv/plandemic-indoctornation-world-premiere/ I was sceptical, and asked on here the other day if it’s worth watching. I watched it on Thursday. Someone suggested it was, and as per her comment, I’d dearly love it to be rubbish. I note many points it makes are similar to the Corbettreport.com work which provides more extensive research and life history of Gates’ and his foundation, just one example here: “Meet Bill Gates” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSvhPnUgyz8 …but Plandemic has intereresting details on control of narative, discussing links between fact checkers, Politifcat / Poynter, and others. As Nat notes below, links to the site result in ‘warnings’ – ironic that those producing such warnings are part of the the focus of the video. It also covers information gleaned re Corona / Wuhan Institute Research from the world of patents, some interview with Dr Judy Mikovits and various other info. It’s a really good production values, but doesn’t have the sort of links to documenation James Corbett does. Similar theories to points made by Dr Vernon Coleman etc: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhYX8RzyMC4 I’ve worked in scientific community much of my life, and I find it rather troubling that this is the first… Read more »
The only thing that made me question what they were saying was the part about the CDC patenting coronavirus, it’s detection and the kit to measure it. If that’s the case, why are the primers published for all to see? Labs all over the world are producing their own tests. Maybe I missed something.
Are your deckchairs neatly lined up?
I’m not watching Plandemic as it sounds more tinfoil hat 5g. I’m here for the practical side of the science, economic and social decay. It’s politically motivated now but I don’t think that there’s any deliberate plan and that they started with good but very misguided intentions. I don’t think that there was a cover up other than from China.
why not watch it and then come to your conclusions?
Because I’ve already read summaries and know what it’s about.
Half of me is inclined to feel similarly, Caramel. I can’t abide 5g / tinfoil hat stuff. I wish Ike would be quiet. He’ll appear at protests next weekend, and he’s what the press will report. It will make the sensible protest look ridiculous. RE plandemic, like the fact checkers that suggest it contains false information (ironically it contains information about fact checkers), if I remember correctly, it also has a section re how comedy frames all such documentaries as 5g / tinfoil hat. In fact, specifically, it showed a comedy commenting on tinfoil hat / 5g, and then turning to plandemic. Looking at Mikki Willis’s work, I’m not sure he’s about manipulation of his audience. Once in an ‘wow these are a farce’ mindset, it is easier to dismiss. I’d dearly love to dismiss it, but the triangulation with other documentaries makes me consider it might be worth considering. Like you, I’m hear for science, stats, and effects of lockdown, but part of me worries that it provides a distraction. We plot graph after graph and say ‘There. Game over Covid19’, and govt advisors can’t fail to see these figures…. yet bizarre restrictions and lockdowns continue. Within my grey… Read more »
You and your friend Caramel are beyond all hope. You are both clearly trolling. Your grey matter is a very much an endangered species.
If the tinfoil hat fits, then you should wear it. You can’t comment on something, that you haven’t seen and expect to be taken remotely seriously.
If there are any doubters about the global plan to use the Covid pandemic as cover for ‘The Great Reset’, planned by the elite (aka the 3%) at the World Economic Forum, then this 20 minute video should convince you.
https://m.facebook.com/325587657821343/posts/1171343713245729/
I believe there is a globalist agenda led by the WEF (aka Davos) which includes, of course, Big Pharma. They stand to make millions, perhaps trillions of dollars from a global vaccine programme. But the virus is dying too soon, so they have to keep up the fear and keep us subdued and compliant, hence the mask edicts (mind control). The masks, like the scaremongering, social distancing and clapping is a sophisticated system of mind control. We are being conditioned to accept more and more authority and less and less civil liberties. It may have started as a virus and public health thing, but it’s no longer about that. It’s about central government control.
I think Johnson is being manipulated. He and his Ministers are too naive and stupid to come up with a plot like this. I hear people say that they are disappointed in BoJo and expected him to have a pair of balls. He never, ever did. He’s an empty vessel, a very good example of politicians controlled by the State, Civil Service etc. May, Cameron and Major are other good examples of puppets, but Boris is in a class of his own.
God help us.
It is not about getting rid of the hapless Trump, it is much much bigger than that. Those “globalist dark forces” you rightly mention have planned this game changing event for years and they won’t let it go, without one hell of a fight.
The dark forces, are fronted by the eugenicist Bill Gates, and what they want is massive global depopulation. They see this as a way of saving the planet from choking on its own pollution and so allowing those left to then have what they term as “sustainable development”. The globalists do have a good point here, but they ought to set a good example and start by eliminating themselves first.
The chosen method for carrying the cull is almost certainly the long hyped Covid-19 vaccine. It will be debilitating for most and is likely to be quickly lethal for the old and ill.
Gates used to talk about a 10-15% global population reduction, but I would suggest that it’s now a safe bet, that the targets have been revised to significantly higher levels.
There’s nothing in the film, that can be easily dismissed.
Before their recent redundancies, the Guardian would have been all over that R rate/Sage want Lockdown story. Maybe the penny is dropping- lockdown means less sales and advertisers means redundancies. They’ve buried it lower down. The Jekyll & Hyde Telegraph on the other hand makes it the main item. They really need to stop this flip flopping between scaremongering and scepticism.
The DT, like the Graun and the BBC have taken The Gates’ shilling.
Here are the links https://www.theguardian.com/info/2018/oct/02/philanthropic-partnerships-at-the-guardian
https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaaction/about/funding
https://www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We-Work/Quick-Links/Grants-Database/Grants/2017/11/OPP1179441
Is there a pie in which the Gates’ don’t have their fingers?
Yes there is – the one which was hurled into his face a few years ago.
Satisfying isn’t it.
Link please or reference?
It was in the plandemic documentary Country Mumkin mentions above.
Should have been an axe
I am not sure but we can add the world’s food supply to the list
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/08/21/food-and-agriculture-policy-bill-gates-foundation.aspx?cid_source=dnl&cid_medium=email&cid_content=art1HL&cid=20200821Z2&mid=DM627907&rid=945092389
Yes. He hugely funded the atrocious Eat Lancet report last year.
No, not if the pie filling has anything to do with world health policy.
Not many, well hardly any.
Governments have f*cked up and cause untold damage.
Many infections and few hospitalisations or deaths is the evidence.
So destroy the evidence – i.e. eliminate cases on the premise that they are too dangerous to live with.
They will never admit to it, because the reckoning would be terrible.
it’s a cover up.
Who knows.
UK government can’t move alone. It has already u-turned once away from the “Swedish” strategy and won’t flop back – it would be a disaster for them. They’ve committed to being part of the international herd and will move as the rest of the international herd moves.
Media, CDCs, WHO are all 100% invested in this and would have a lot of explaining to do if they suddenly flipped.
And worst of all the idea that COVID is really dangerous and needs to be suppressed is deeply embedded in the psyche of populations around the world, not just the UK.
The only thing that I can see derailing this is a really, really bad economy. Not exactly something you want to be rooting for, but…
Bleak times. Very bleak.
Plausible, but the problem is they are at the forefront of the herd galloping towards the cliff edge. There are many ways they could have reduced the harm if it were a matter of just not openly U-turning.
Stupidity like masks and quarantines could have been avoided, and the state propaganda machine turned to highlighting the economic costs rather than fantasy covid dangers, months ago, in order to shift opinion and allow further moves,.
a tactic used to good effect by the native americans
Here it is not so much a herd mentality ,. more a lemming mentality
And then it was used against the Native Americans by the settlers.
They could have trumpeted the success of their policies, highlighted the drop in fatalities etc and lifted lockdown weeks ago – if they’d wanted to.
Why are they prevaricating and playing for time? Nothing to do with a virus.
Just wait until next time when there is an outbreak of something that is actually contagious and dangerous. Will anyone take it seriously? We know the story of the boy that cried wolf.. Well us older ones do.. The young ones wont as it is not on the national curriculum.
Unfortunately WHO has burnt its bridges.
Do you remember pandemics being a thing growing up? I don’t.
And yet since SARS in 2003, it seems as if every few years they’ve wanted to peddle a pandemic. Bird flu in 2005, then Swine Flu in 2009, MERS in 2012 and now COVID.
You’ve bought the idea that a lethal disease is coming sooner or later. Don’t.
No – not at all ,, I dont think a lethal disease is coming and certainly not as a pandemic . However there is always the chance of an outbreak of something (whether natural or man made ) even on a local basis and the point that i am making is that once people realise that the Covid Pandemic was a fraud then any future issue will be treated with derision .
And i am old enough to have had HongKong flu in 1968 although at the time it wasnt a pandemic… it wasnt even noticed. But i agree that in recent years the authorities are continuing to cry wolf with the latest pandemic.
Good point about the possibility of a man made disease.
In my darker moments, I wonder whether this is all preparation for biological warfare. The Chinese seem to have their population fully under control and if we don’t we are more vulnerable to a biological attack that they are.
Then I snap out of it and go back to the less terrifying ‘incompetence mixed with bad actors pursuing narrow interests’ explanation.
or chemical …. Just think of another Salisbury incident on a greater scale or the various Sarin attacks around the world I can see a scenario where in a couple of years time when people realise what the covid fraud and lockdown has cost them, precautions against such a threat are treated with contempt.
But i agree with your last sentence !
Will they wake up to the fraud? It should be obvious by now.
The New World Order is not a narrow interest.
I too had Hong Kong flu, as did my mother, though interestingly we were the only two out of our family of 6 who got it. And even more interestingly out of we four siblings, I have since had flu several times, and only one other sibling has had it and she only once!! I must be an interesting case….It is only recently that I’ve realized that’s what we had, as I worked out roughly how old I must have been when we had it. I can’t even remember whether we knew at the time that it was “Honk Kong flu”, or that it was a pandemic.
If countries around the world keep fiddling about with infectious bacterias in labs then the next one might be hundreds of times more devastating. A Super/Ultra Virus.
You’ve forgotten the power of the propaganda machine already?
Didn’t Dickens write a novel with the word bleak in it?
I’m hoping for some dissent from Tory MPs and perhaps leadership contenders (Michael Gove?) once Parliament reform next month… it seems beyond insane that they’re taking a “summer break” at the minute, but everything at the minute is insane so I shouldn’t be suprised.
I suspect there will be some pushback in US Republican states, even before the election, now that the virus is starting to subside there again.
2 years of wakamole quarantine /lockdown while Johnson and his crew flail about trying to get out of the quagmire they created through ineptitude.
Yes, the DT has been running a Global Health Security section
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/
https://www.ageofautism.com/2019/10/the-id2020-alliance-the-global-totalitarian-project-hiding-behind-the-vaccine-drive.html
A commenter has pointed out they have accepted a large grant from the Gates Foundation, so no wonder.
The Covid advertising thrup’ny bit as well.
Imagine, if you can, a virus so deadly you have to be tested to know if you have had it? Well, we live in Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone everyday now thanks to stupid politicians who want more power and control and can’t admit they were both wrong and lied to us.
I recently led a training session on Zoom for German oncologists. There was quite some discussion on what sensible precautions to take to mitigate the covid infection risk in these vulnerable patients, many of whom are taking meds that specifically impact the immune system (with obviously not good implications should they get covid on top). No talk of giving up on treatment altogether, just how to switch things around.
German cancer patients are still being diagnosed and treated. Why is it, apparently, so difficult in the UK?
That’s encouraging news to hear from Germany. My wife is a consultant anaesthetist in the NHS and I can confirm that she spent four months doing absolutely nothing.
They put all the anaesthetists and surgeons doing onto specialist covid teams, where my wife’s job was to roll patients over from their side to their front. She treated a grand total of 3 covid patients in four months (at a usually extremely busy London hospital) Meanwhile, her usually packed oncology lists were empty.
They are resuming with life threatening surgery now, but in order to catch up or even stand still with the elective surgeries, it will take around 3-5 yrs.
Modern medical practice cannot be a one disease only lane. There is always a trade off. It is shocking to hear your description .A disastrous response to the pandemic in all its aspects.
Not many stories coming out of empty wards, especially those co-opted from other departments.
Absolutely. Does anyone suspect that the innumerate Oxbridge PPE graduates in charge of the country are assuming that you can do nothing for 4 months, but not a problem because you can just do it twice as fast for 4 months afterwards and Bob’s your uncle.
You can see the realisation dawning in the cabinet room: “Cripes, you mean a service that runs at 98% capacity isn’t capable of running at twice its usual speed? But how can that be?”
Ha! Absolutely spot on! They are throwing money at them to work overtime on extra lists, but it’s a bit like trying to stop the tide coming in.
They commandeered my local Nuffield for the Covid, never used it, now being used for non Covid backlog work.
maybe they finally find a use for all the nightingale ward capacity which they never used… Can the government quickly train all the soon to be unemployed retail workers to be doctors ? That may be a government plan !!!!
I had a look at my nightingale, style may not be important but it’s all held up with scaffolding and held together with sellotape.
But they did promise us 40 new hospitals …..
My wife is a senior nurse. There has been a scaling up of external (private agency) services to break the backlog. Yet the guidance on PPE is still idiotic.
It seems to be controlled by management rather than sense. She deals with aerosol generating procedures, of which for many years and with patients with various conditions, masks were not worn unless the specific procedure required it.
But now it’s like the past experience never happened.
The guidance is ramping down but not fast enough. The hose of money has been turned on for private agencies ( a lot of which are good). But the thinking seems to be throw as much money as possible at something. And this is when the national debt is now over 150% GDP.
Madness
My mum was a lifelong nurse who was delighted when nationalised in 1946 but became so disillusioned when the bean counters took over she retired early and spent 5 years ignoring ‘Return To Nursing’ begging letters.
Hi. My wife began, like most of the NHS, believing that this virus was a sort of bubonic plague. This – we now know – was as a result of hysterical reporting coming out of Italy by media and their own health service. The situation in Italy was never as serious as it was initially portrayed. She very quickly realised that this was not another 1918 flu type situation and the only people that appeared to be at risk were elderly obese men, many of whom had darker skin tone. It did kill some of these people in her hospital when their only treatment strategy was to put people suffering from the virus on ventilators (my wife thinks this treatment method probably killed them although they didn’t know it at the time). They now use anti inflammatory drugs and zinc to manage this and nobody has died from covid in months. Now she is just angry at what the government is doing and the myriad of overreactions we’re seeing. She isn’t political at all, she genuinely just wants to help people and make them better and, ironically, the government is hellbent on making this much harder than it needs to… Read more »
Is there no way that all these excellent NHS people can get together and exert some
pressure?
No, from care assistants to senior consultants they have been threatened with career ruination if they spill the beans about what is and is not going on.
And what happened to whistleblowers being protected?
This needs some serious and organised documentation. These people need to be talked to, their stories taken down, and published, under aliases if necessary, and then circulated to all in authority and the media. Just seen Karenovirus post .. I stress . Under aliases with identity confirmed for genuineness but anonimity guaranteed
There is a new website listed in today’s roundup called questioningcovid. Lots of whistleblowers there, including an ICU doctor from NY, claiming the ventilators were killing patients
Some people were saying that ventilators were dangerous as early as last April.
Yes it was a while back that the NY doctor was claiming that.
Erin Marie Olszewski is her name btw.
They mean Dr Cameron Kyle-Sidell.
This one is a nurse from a Devon hospital speaking out anonymously.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOIbqIRkD6w
Mmm I think it is time for me to add my pennyworth.It is six months since I last attended a large doctors educational meeting. These are generally very agreeable and as well as some good lectures you do catch up on the local gossip. At the time in the MSM news we had three main stories; Idlib ( whatever happened there in the end ? ) , the Diamond Princess starring David and Sally Abel , and the Trump impeachment attempt . I do remember at the meeting with about 60 other doctors the Covid19 issue was never mentioned and ” lockdown ” belonged to repressive Chinese regimes. My scepticism dates from this period as we already had the data from the Diamond Princess and also Iceland soon after. it was never going to be the Bubonic plague. The pantomine since then which has been media generated There are quite a few medics who covertly add their contribution to the skeptics site and I thought the community psychiatrist ‘s from yesterday was a pleasure to read, There are some commentators who ask why aren’t the medical profession speaking out. From my conversations there are large numbers of us who are… Read more »
A few months agoI would have felt understanding of this viewpoint. Now I just wish someone on the inside had the balls to stand up and tell it like it is, forego the comfortable consultant salary and put the poor sods who are literally dying because of this first.
Would you really throw your career away if you had done years of training ?I suspect not .Three interesting medics to follow are Prof Karol Sikora , Prof Carl Heneghan and Dr Ron Daniels . They chip away at the hysterical media lies and are effective at combatting the narrative . All three cop a lot of abuse on social media.
Suspect away. I’m familiar with the specialists you mention of course, I just wish all doctors had the same integrity.
There are Ivor Cummings and Suneetra Gupta as well.
The Italians are such an excitable people.
Well half-Italian myself I wonder is Panda’s wife Italian by any chance??
Thanks for the insight into an NHS professional’s true views.
Would be good if more of them made their views known.
Whatever is really going on at the moment, it’s terrifying.
Same here in SW, some emergency oncology, clinical work eye ( but no in patients ), no orthopaedics or haematology etc. A&E still deserted.
German children have to wear masks in school. All day. As young as 8.
Swings and roundabouts.
German healthcare providers are not subject to government diktat in quite the same way as the NHS. The schools are (and yes, the mask rules, differing in different parts of the country at different times, at different places in the school, are causing as much confusion in the UK).
As usual the problem is when government sticks its oar in.
Have a friend whose 8 year old is masked all day in school. (Teachers can be unmasked so they can be heard, apparently). He is livid and desperate.
It depends where in Germany you live. Most countries are considering/mandating it for upper schools, and then not during lessons, as it does influence the intake of oxygen and the ability to concentrate.
Vey active parent organisation working against it, for example reporting head teachers for assault/causing actually bodily harm.
Child abuse!
Really? F Merkel!
I know someone who goes for Dialysis 3 times a week so equally vulnerable. His treatment and routine have continued exactly as before except that he was once given a single mask, two months after lockdown.
Protecting the National Covid Service.
That’s because we have the No Health Service!
I have been appalled on so many levels by the spinelessness of our medics. They appear to have stood by while their profession & reputation has been trashed. Professionals need to be very careful when they lose trust. Teachers lost trust when they started going on strike in the 70s. Once you stop behaving like a professional you stop being treated like one. Doctors will never recover from abandoning their patients.
That group of Zero Covid MPs should go to Madagascar to demand to know why it isn’t bubonic plague and the get Ferguson to tell them how to do it, he’s the expert after all.
We come into contact with all sort of viruses that we can’t even measure every day.
We are all germ carriers and the insides of our bodies are full of weird and wonderful stuff. Like the digestive tract.
Yes, about a fistfull as I happily informed someone years ago.
Should read “why it (Madagascar) isn’t bubonic plague free…”
You cannot eradicate this virus. How difficult is out to understand?
Apparently it doesn’t even mean eradication:
https://twitter.com/devisridhar/status/1290959396642656257
“People misunderstand Zero COVID/elimination strategy -> it’s about stopping community transmission within borders & quickly identifying imported clusters to keep numbers low. Less virus = more normality.”
Zero Covid actually means “some covid”, or, as I would normally call it, “endemic covid”, or “herd immunity”. It turns out Devi has been agreeing with me all along. We’re just arguing over semantics.
So they call it “Zero COVID/elimination strategy“, but it doesn’t involve elimination or zero? Are these people willfully perverse?
Seems more plausible they got ridiculed and are now backtracking frantically, but to check you’d have to plough through too much of their turgid nonsense.
Yes. It’s Stalinism at its most cynical. It reminds me of Zero Carbon. This gives me an idea. How about Covid Credits? The rich could pay the poor to be locked up and wear masks and this could generate wealth for everyone. What could possibly go wrong?
LOL! I’d love to see the Labour and LibDem parties turning intellectual and moral somersaults on that one
“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that’s all.”
The team of Bill Gates funded witchdoctors “advising” Her Majesty’s Dictatorship, understand perfectly well that you cannot “eradicate” a virus. However, their Pharma bought-and-paid-for careers, and their forthcoming gigantic backhanders from the Gates Foundation provide the reason for them deliberately pretending to not understand elementary microbiology. As for HM Dictatorship itself, Boris and the other puppets have no option but to go along with Agenda 2030, as demanded by their globalist Overlords. The strategy for this Agenda requires the usual abandonment of reality e.g. there are now 57 genders and a specific virus can now be completely eradicated. Oh, and Elvis is still alive on Mars.
They can’t understand because they’re idiots and lack even basic common sense. How they got into Parliament is a bleeding mystery although they’ve had their share of imbeciles, morons and idiots for the last 800 years!
Layla Moran is a Class A idiot who should be held up as an example to all young girls and women that they should NOT be like her.
This group of tossers should be eradicated
I no longer consider myself British.
I now have no affiliation with the country that my parents and grand parents literally fought for
In one week in March we became Nazi Germany in the 1930’s. This is a wrong that can never be righted
I no longer consider I have an obligation to obey any of the laws of the land.
I feel no obligation to contribute to this country in any way
I consider myself British. I don’t consider those who have implemented these rules or who acquiesce to these rules as British. I consider it the duty of all British people to resist, disobey and right the wrongs forced upon us.
Jeanette Rankin was a Representative in the US Congress. She is famous as twice have voted against US wars (World War 1 and World War 2).In the World War 1 she had 50 more on her stand but after the Pearl Harbour attack she was the only one voting against Roosevelt’s war declaration.
But in UK 2020 not a single one voted against the Corona Act. I thought the British would have at least a few mavericks around and vote against. No. The Reichstag parallel must be a national embarrassment.
Well, I do consider myself British: it is just that Britain no longer exists. Quite a paradox!
Britain exists here – on Lockdown Sceptics! I regard this site as our green and pleasant land, while we are in temporary exile.
Hear, hear. True Britain has gone underground.
TEMPORARILY.
We’ll be back.
How?
Andrew Marvell ‘The Garden’
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44682/the-garden-56d223dec2ced
Was on the school syllabus back in the day, no longer I fear.
Great poem.
We are still British,it’s just that we have become political dissidents through no fault of our own.We have been subject to a coup and if the government gets its extension of 2 years in September,then its goodbye to the Britain that we knew.
Could you point me to details on the extension, if you can, please? I need to write to my MP about it, and need to be armed with the facts – I’ve tried searching on t’Internet, but to no avail.
I think it is to do with whoever is organising the protest in London next week. It was a claim on their flyer. Others have picked up on it and run with it, myself included. But other than that, I can find nothing.
I first read it in regards to one of the reasons as to why the Simon Dolan’s case was dismissed but I think is embedded in the Corona Act 2020 section 98 ‘Six month parliamentary review’ (I’m no lawyer)
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2020/7/section/98
Unfortunately, every country is just as bad or worse. Every country bar Sweden, Belarus and perhaps one or two others we don’t know about are committed to this insanity of eliminating COVID by any means and at whatever cost.
Some US states as well plus there are many other countries not going so crazy.
But yes many are are quite a bit worse.
They think that eliminating the people will get of the coronavirus. You know, it might just work.
That’s a tad bleak Cecil. Britain isn’t just the current crazed loons in government. Many people have been opposed to them from Day 1.
“The King and the Land are one !”.
I work in a cafe, and sometimes have a -short – opportunity to talk with customers about C. I try to avoid it to not bring the mood down. I always point out that we are recording positive PCR tests, not illnesses. Most people do not have a clue what the difference is, and sadly there is not enough time or inclination to get educated (by me).
As well, as most of my information is from German sources (my home country), i sometimes lack the vocabulary, so I look forward to get the english version of Sucharit Bhakdi’s book, Corona Fehlalarm, in September. Although I still need to find a non Amazon distributor.
Ask Toby Young or James Delingpole if they can give you some names.
Just back from the Costcutter/Post Office on the corner. About half a dozen customers, 3 staff, and absolutely not a mask in sight! Big smile from the lady behind the Post Office counter. Ha! In your face, SAGE people
100% maskless in my convenience store,
Chicken or egg? Do the mask averse drift there or the locals unmasking?
I saw one maskless person in the Co-op today, but none in Waitrose (Oxfordshire). I actually think that it’s the wealthier and more highly educated people who are complying the most. I only have one A-level, and only just….
Yes, same here in our local convenience store/post office. No masks, or social distancing, been a haven of normality (mostly) for months thank goodness.
More lockdowns.
The government’s malice and stupidity is relentless.
THE VIRUS ISN”T ESPECIALLY DANGEROUS AND IT CAN’T BE CONTROLLED.
When the hell are these people going to get these two crushingly obvious facts into their thick skulls?
It’s like the politicians and generals in the first world war continuing to throw body after body at enemy guns when the tactic had long been shown to be pointless.
The cretins just won’t admit they got it wrong and other people’s lives just don’t matter enough to them.
If they admit it was wrong then the full financial impact will be on them. And no-one wants that. This is the problem. As long as you can fight an imaginary foe and have people convince themselves that mandated mask wearing and the like are fine then the misdirection can continue.
Just don’t forget.
Not just financial, also the deaths caused by lockdown.
Interesting point about the zero covid story was that the vaccine is no longer being presented as the light at the end of the tunnel, even though that did seem like the logical end of the narrative. Maybe they have realised the politics of that may be more difficult than hoped.
They know the vaccine isn’t coming any time soon.
WHO announced yesterday they hoped this crisis would be over within 2 years.
Boris Johnson is looking to get a 2 year extension of his COVID laws.
Pharma needs more time…
The government also have a sniff of a chance of convincing the utterly credulous that they are responsible for stopping the “second wave”. It would necessitate even more damage to the economy and our health systems but when the country is already so deep in the mire what is another 50 billion on the national debt, or another 30000 collateral deaths.
I think that is exactly what they are doing. Realising that they totally messed up, the idea is to portray themselves as ‘saviours’ by preventing the mythical ‘second wave’. They are also trying to ferment discord by blaming those who ‘didn’t comply’ as being the cause of the problem. I find it all disgraceful and unforgivable.
Stop giving them excuses. They don’t deserve any. None.
I posted yesterday about a chat with a long term music events promoter. I expressed doubts about the speedy arrival of an effective and safe vaccine.
He told me that his industry was in close talks with the government who insist that such a vaccine is nearly with us.
“I hope so or my industry is dead”
I replied ‘you should tell the government that a mosh pit is the ideal way to create herd immunity and so help the vulnerable long term.’
Nice chap but living wishful thinking.
They are swatting at invisible flies.
Rachel Johnson’s article is fantastic, except for a slightly sour note at the end where she undermines her earlier enthusiasm for “adventure”.
By his mid-twenties, her father had “taken an iron-ore carrier to Brazil, ridden a motorbike from Oxford to Afghanistan”, but apparently Brexit is going to deny her children such opportunities – which is odd, seeing as her father’s escapades all took place before we joined the EU.
Post-Brexit, her kids might have to fill in a form before travelling through Europe or something, so clearly it’s now out of the question.
She also says she would block Toby Young on twitter, but I am pretty sure he wouldn’t block her. Why can’t these people be nice?
I didn’t fill in any forms when travelling widely through Europe pre Common Market except for the Socialist Republics and they only did it make sure they got my hard currency.
The only time you saw a queue at Passport Control was when a coachload of school kids all wanted their passports stamped.
I remember Nothing to Declare and Freddy Laker.
Amusing contrast between the idiocy about brexit supposedly meaning people can’t do things they did before the EU existed (well highlighted, by the way) and the intelligent approach to the safety obsession problem we have.
This latter attitude is one I would have hoped was part of Johnson familial culture and would be Boris Johnson’s core approach as well, before he was faced with the decision and went the other way.
I still suspect he knows on some level that he panicked and failed his country, and just can’t see a way out of it that doesn’t involve admitting the truth.
Hopefully it grinds his conscience for the rest of his days, as I hope Blair’s lies do his.
Yes, Blair definitely looks to me like a man who has trouble sleeping at night, as opposed to, say, a smug, self satisfied egotist with a messiah complex and no sense of remorse.
Hope springs eternal. On the one hand, your latter description does seem apt. On the other, I have seen him looking pretty haggard at times.
Does Ms Moran now support the only migration policy consistent with zero covid?
Can someone point out a politician or journalist who actually understands what R means?
How it is arrived at, what is its significance and how easy is it to make it up to suit your agenda. A statistic plucked out of someone’s Rsole.
If the R number has been dangerously above 1 all this time, why has the proportion of positive tests been steadily decreasing this entire time? Another dodgy computer model? I can scarcely contain my shock!
Another depressing shopping trip this morning, although the sunny and windy weather on my bike ride into town woke (in the proper sense…) me up well and truly. I went in Waitrose and the Co-op and still can’t believe how many people are complying and wearing masks. I saw just one person in the Co-op not wearing one. The assistant at the till was masked, face-shielded and was wearing gloves!! I had a job to hear what he said. We live in a hamlet in Oxfordshire, and after I got home, with the sun shining and the wind blowing and the back door and windows open, a lady I know who used to live in the neighbouring village, came to said back door and asked if I was still doing sewing jobs (I am). I couldn’t believe she was standing there in the sunshine wearing a mask, and also was clearly keeping her distance from me. Sadly she told me her husband has got cancer, so perhaps she has some strange idea that she must be super duper careful, but I thought that actually for her own health she would have been better off breathing in the fresh air of… Read more »
The link is a nurse in a Devon hospital speaking out about Covid, how wearing masks can make you feel ill, and the empty beds etc.
Thanks for the link, currently listening
Thanks for posting the link to the video. the channel is a new one for me.
If someone in a mask tries to talk to you, always – always! – ask them to remove it, claiming you cannot understand them. If they refuse, cut off the conversation.
It’s these little bits of resistance and non-compliance that we need to start utilising now.
Mr Dee, you talk plenty sense, keep on posting!
When I’m in the supermarket I always talk to as many masks as possible. I smile and do all the small talk and chit-chat that I always did as it is they that have changed, not me
Matches exactly what I know to be the situation in my local main hospital.
This brave nurse might have added that they were not required to wear masks all day long until the government made that decision, without consulting the NHS, 2 months after the danger, such as it was, had passed.
Masks as articles of faith. I’ve been looking at articles and Tweets by Prof Trish Greenhalgh (referenced by Swedenborg yesterday as a prominent ‘masker’). There is a trail of argument and counter-argument ** between her and Carl Heneghan, and her and Graham Martin, and it seems to me that the science is ambivalent. It comes down to a school playground ‘whose side are you on? I do not choose the side of TG, who proudly boasts a BLM hashtag on her Twitter name, and seems strident and unlikely to brook dissent. There is now an article in BMJ by one of her acolytes, Helene-Mari van der Westhuizen, which says in brief that we should move away from medical arguments and focus on making mask-wearing the cultural norm. https://www.bmj.com/content/370/bmj.m3021 “For a policy of public masking to succeed, negative depictions of the social meaning and moral worth of face coverings need to be actively reframed. Given that the main purpose of face coverings by the public is source control, wearers could be depicted as altruistic or even as protectors. This could create new symbolism around wearing, making, and distributing face coverings that is based on social responsibility and solidarity against a common… Read more »
The references in my note above:
Redfield – 14 July
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2768532?guestAccessKey=950260ad-620b-40e1-a9a8-9db2293ef17e&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social_jama&utm_term=3601763795&utm_campaign=article_alert&linkId=97486210
Wang =- ref’d in Redfield – 14 July 2020
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2768533
Greenhalgh – initial BMJ article 9 April
https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m1435
Martin – rebutting Greenhalgh 22 April
https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m1435/rr-43
Greenhalgh – rebuttal of Martin 26 May
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jep.13415
Heneghan 17 April
https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/covid-19-masks-on-or-off/
Greenhalgh – rebuttal of Heneghan 27 May
https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/face-coverings-for-the-lay-public-an-alternative-view/
Like burkas. A symbol of oppression.
It is almost funny how so many politicians hated and wanted to suppress the wearing of burkas before they hit on this great way to shut everyone up! MW
All the Quebec political parties were ranting and raving abouit face coverings 6, 7 years ago. They even wanted to ban people wearing sunglasses from using bus transport.
How many feminists who were screaming about the subjugation of Muslim women are now pro mask?
Objectifying, dehumanising
I do not agree that this is ‘playground’ stuff. We’re not talking about two arguments of equal merit and there is far too much at stake. Professor Greenhalgh and her students are participating in and perpetuating a nasty government psy-op that is keeping those they have brainwashed in masks, not for their health but to keep them compliant and fearful. Professor Heneghan is almost a lone voice trying to inject sanity into a sea of propaganda.
It does not help that Johnson recently announced the fake news that not wearing a mask carries a £3200 fine. It’s another clever psy-op because the fine is still £100, reducing to £50 if you pay up. The fine would double for ‘repeat offences’ up to the maximum. Of course, nobody needs to be fined in the first place if they have 2 brain cells to rub together and reports are that very few actually have been.
I agree that masks are a symbol of a cult but we shouldn’t fall into the trap of becoming victims. We are currently in a minority but we keep fighting. MW
I think we discussed this before, MW; the plebs now really think you get fined £3200 for not wearing a mask. Just like you need a doctor’s note for exemption and ‘common law wife’ is a real thing.
Yes, I’m sure it has been mentioned before but I thought it worth repeating for anyone new who’s not aware. We have now met a few people who have been feared by the big fine into mask compliance. Your other examples are good by the way! MW
This “social conformity” aspect of mask wearing has been discussed right from the start, I remember a BBC article (this was back when I could bear to read the BBC) about why some countries have a history of mask-wearing during epidemics and Westerners don’t.
I was unconvinced by the effectiveness of masks anyway (knowing how small viruses are) but reading this sort of paternalistic “the little people ought to be persuaded what’s best for them” BS totally and irrevocably convinced me that I would never wear one, as a matter of principle.
The new site Toby links to, Questioning Covid, seems pretty good. My eye was caught by this article:
https://kellybroganmd.com/masks-have-you-been-captured-by-this-psyop/
Someone was questioning the provenance of the site earlier on this thread. It appears to be a platform for dissident views. I doubt it gets much funding from ‘Pearly’. MW
The Quebec government has already initiated this approach and are now putting up posters around the streets of Montreal showing proud Mask Wearers, full of Solidarity, Respect, Conviction and Courage. And we’re paying for them.
It’s all very sinister. Someone posted on here yesterday about a TV ad in UK showing masked families, with voiceover – “This is not a mask, it is a sign of solidarity” and so on.
More shared vocabulary. Internationally co-ordinated psy-op.
Makes me want to vomit. You know an argument is on thin ground when you can’t convince people based on logic/rationality and must resort to virtue-signalling and shaming those who don’t comply.
We help a Syrian family to learn English & assimilate. The father told me that with all the masks he felt almost at home. He also commented on how English people all followed the government rules & seemed scared. I wasn’t quite sure if he was joking or not?
I have totally gone off Radio 4, but will get off here now and go and listen to Toby!
I am sitting on a plane in Luton airport. I went through security and boarding without a mask. Nobody said anything about it.
Everyone was wearing masks except in cafes. Virus is avoiding cafes.
I was asked to put mask on on the plane but it is on my chin. Nobody cares.
Have a good trip! Get a good tan on your chin!
Same at Bristol, but then mask Karen flight attendant policed it like a hawk on the easyJet flight!
The flight wasn’t too bad as I took the mask off after a few minutes having it on my chin until we landed. The crew couldn’t care less.
Passengers were taking their masks off for food and drink so nobody cared about anyone’s masks.
Use it as an eye mask to help you doze off, if it’s a long flight.
Update from Norfolk coast ! Compliance still too high but interestingly the tone of a lot of the signs in shop windows has changed a lot – from screaming “no mask no entry” to please wear a mask but we know there are medical exceptions (often taking a couple of goes to get there). Local farm shop today none the staff masked – number of customers allowed into shop has doubled and worker on the till couldn’t have been friendlier. Just a guess but suspect they have all seen the reduction in footfall / trade since introduction and are now trying to soften message to get people in. Maybe the odd sceptic has got to them too.
You rock Julie!!
Interview with Mr Bhakdi. https://youtu.be/u0cIaQwAw2A
Sucharit Bhakdi über COVID-19 Impfung und Immunität – Untersuchungsausschuß ACU-www.acu2020.org2
https://yt3.ggpht.com/a/AATXAJx_tfVH36FhTovH0ZoQRo9eGOQ5zTIQzvu54WSy=s88-c-k-c0xffffffff-no-rj-mo
Prof. Dr. med. Sucharit Bhakdi
Warum sind über 80% der nordeuropäischen Bevölkerung von vorn herein gegen SARS-CoV-2 ausreichend geschützt? Menschen unter 65 Jahre sind zu über 99% immun. Eine Impfung birgt für sie ausschließlich Risiken und keinen Nutzen. Gen-basierte Impfstoffe sind für alle Menschen brandgefährlich.
Es handelt sich hier um ein Interview für den Außerparlamentarischen Corona Untersuchungsausschuss (ACU), dem ich angeboten habe, als Sachverständiger zur Verfügung zu stehen. Es ist ein Re-Upload von der Originalquelle: Außerparlamentarischer Corona Untersuchungsausschuss (ACU) https://acu2020.org/hearings/
Die Aktualisierung der Buches “Corona: Fehlalarm?” zum Thema Immunität/Impfung ist in der neuen englischen Version erhalten, welches auch zusätzliche Quellenangaben und noch mehr Details enthält. In der deutschen Version wird dieses Kapitel in der nächsten Auflage aktualisiert.Die Zusammenfassung der Themen Immunität und Impfung wird demnächst auch auf der Homepage unseres Buchverlages Goldegg kostenlos als pdf zum download bereitgestellt werden.
Google translation (please do feel free to improve any dodgy aspects of the machine translation):
“Why are over 80% of the Northern European population sufficiently protected against SARS-CoV-2 from the start? People under the age of 65 are over 99% immune. Vaccination bears only risks and no benefits for them. Gene-based vaccines are extremely dangerous to everyone.
This is an interview for the Extra-Parliamentary Corona Investigation Committee (ACU), to which I have offered to be available as an expert. It is a re-upload from the original source: Extra-parliamentary Corona Investigation Committee (ACU) https://acu2020.org/hearings/
The update of the book “Corona: False Alarm?” on the subject of immunity / vaccination is available in the new English version, which also contains additional sources and even more details. In the German version, this chapter will be updated in the next edition. The summary of the topics of immunity and vaccination will soon be available as a free PDF download on the homepage of our book publisher Goldegg.”
NHS data shows in the UK about 300 people under 60 with no known medical conditions have died with/from covid19.
Statistics on reported road casualties in Great Britain for the year ending June 2019 shows there were: 1,870 reported road deaths.
So, if my maths is right, an under 60 healthy person in the UK is SIX TIMES MORE likely to die in a road collision than from covid 19
Let’s push a few swerving zombies under buses and help keep the
statistics favourable.
No need to push. In my experience, they seem perfectly happy to jump.
One swerved towards my car, as I was leaving Chester about 40 minutes ago, swaying onto the road to avoid a group of pedestrians in front him. I played chicken with him. It was his choice between me and the Covids, and I won.
Earlier this summer one woman panicked when she saw me and swerved into the bicycle path to avoid me just when a bus turned the corner. Three seconds later and she would have had a far worse shock. I was sitting down on a concrete step at the time, drinking espresso laced with O’Casey’s Irish Cream and listening to Wes Montgomery and Jimmy playing ‘Night Train’.
I was just looking at those figures earlier. It’s an average of 5 deaths per day, plus 70 ‘serious injuries’ per day. So, they are more worried about catching a bad cold than getting a real injury or maybe losing a limb.
Sent my FOI request answers about PCR tests to the City Mayors/Councils of Oldham, Leicester, Birmingham, Walsall, Manchester and Aberdeen.
Not one reply so they are all playing along with the game no matter what the “mayor” says.
I even called the leader of Walsall’s appearance on Central News an embarrassment to the council.
No answer about the open letter to Boris Johnson nor from the Parliamentary Committee on Health and Social care.
No answer from WTTC, FSB, Trentham Estates, Cunard/Carnival, BBPA, Fox, Sky Australia, the newsaccess or OFCOM, ITV, BBC, Sky News with official complaints etc so no-one gives a flying fuck they are being suckered.
I think they are all part of it now.
Toby was sidelined and basically ignored yesterday, no surprise there.
Not even our Universe is forever.
I thought the Oldham council leader was very sound in an interview this morning. He said testing had gone up!
It’s driving me mad that no one is being held to account over any of this.
Oh boy here we go with another ‘expert’ keeping the doom and gloom going
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8653639/Covid-present-FOREVER-warns-SAGE-scientist.html
Comments section impressive though
Piles and piles of likes for sceptical comments – more than 1000 in one instance.
I like this one:
Tony Benn once said always ask this when dealing with people in a position of power. “What power have you got. Where did you get it? In whose interests does it serve? To whom are you accountable? And how do we get rid of you?”
I think he gave the example of Bill Gates in that quote . How can we get rid of him?
Know any snipers?
heh heh !
These pseudo-scientific twats are undermining their own case. If Covid wee to be ever-present, then we need to shrug our shoulders at this mild disease and just get on with life without wasting time with pie-in-the-sky vaccines that aren’t merited by such an infection.
Indeed. There’s a kind of intellectual momentum that carries these people forward with one obsessive focus, to pile idiocy upon foolishness, even as the facts change to make it openly absurd (or in this case, even more patently absurd than it always was).
“When the facts change, I change my opinion” is all too rare an approach.
I know, right? There’s no shame in it….”what? Well this new information changes EVERYTHING!” Is an understandable reaction.
It’s a travesty when people become wedded to an idea contrary to all emerging evidence. You see it often enough with the police, determined to prove people guilty, and now with politicians….but it should never happen with scientists.
Turns out scientists are human beings too…
But as you suggest, it’s kind of against the fundamentals of science in a way that it isn’t for other areas. It really is worse for supposed scientists to be that way, surely?
Here’s the problem: science has been hijacked by big business and politics.
It’s the new system of “religious” control. Just as the Church hijacked the beautiful teachings of Yeshua ben-Yosef, bastardised them, and thereby built itself an empire of wealth and power, so has the scientific method been kidnapped by those who seek profit and control.
In generations gone by, “what the priest says” or “what the Pope says” was taken as unchallengeable Truth.
Now the same tactics are used when “science says” whatever Big Business or Big Government wants it to say in order to fleece our hard-earned income or remove our civil rights.
In this scamdemic, I have ONLY trusted the findings of independent scientists. Any scientist in the pockets of Big Pharma, Big Tech and especially the Gates Foundation, is bought and paid for and NOT to be believed without doing your due diligence. These people ultimately work for a clique of multibillionaire shysters who either want to make money off all us mugs, or take away our freedom.
Nah, climate science has been doing it for 30 years or more, it’s the norm now – concensus dontcha know (= groupthink = fr**d)
” Science ” can never be as objective as it wants you to believe, it will always be a mess of subjective bias..
‘This is a virus that is going to be with us forever in some form or another and almost certainly will require repeated vaccinations,’ he said.
‘So, a bit like flu, people will need re-vaccination at regular intervals.’
The scientist also warned that it is ‘possible’ the virus will get ‘out of control’ again, but said more targeted measures can now be used instead of a generic lockdown.
GRRRR!
No, people do not “need” re-vaccination at regular intervals – the Pharma industry “needs” to sell us their product at regular intervals.
We already have a flu vaccine. In 2017-18 we had 50,000+ excess UK deaths, attributed to flu. In a population where most people get the flu jab. Wow. Impressive. The wonders of “science”.
Perhaps what people really “need” is to get their vitamin D levels optimised, get out in the sunshine, breathe fresh air, and stop eating junk food.
Not a profitable line of advice, unfortunately.
SAGE numpty says Covid is here for ever.
MPs and Krankie say Covid must be eliminated.
Impasse.
“Residents in those areas are not allowed to socialise with anyone from outside their household, as of midnight tonight.”
Utter tosh. I wouldn’t be told what I can or can’t do if I were those residents. In fact, I would organise gatherings of big males in anticipation of the police sticking their Nazi noses in.
A twitter encounter with a zealot from the cult at the forefront of tyrannising the country (an equivalent of the Nazi SS)
there is a big rally on sat 29 aug in Trafalgar Square as part of an international protest
Piers Corbyn will be speaking and Dolores Cahill amongst others
Invite standup comics as well.
I have been looking at Questioning Covid, the new international website for sceptics, posted in today’s roundup. It has a large collection of video testimonials from doctors, nurses and other health experts and whistleblowers. I have seen many of them but to see them all in one place is very powerful. A great place to send those who are starting to question …
How did you tag the link so it opens in a new window?
I just cut and pasted it from the round up above.
Right click on it and select ‘open in new tab’. MW
For Windows? Right click the link and you have a menu. The top option is to open the link in a new tab.
It does seem to have some interesting material (although not much there yet), but I question characterising it as “international”. All the links I’ve opened have been to videos by Americans. For those who aren’t familiar with it, OSHA stands for Occupational Safety and Health Administration, part of the US federal government. American is not the world.
Oh, apologies if any of the speakers are Canadian, but I checked most of the links and the speakers I followed up on are American.
Okay I was being lazy -I just cut and pasted Toby’s description of the website.
Maybe because it’s new and starting to grow?
Lots of interesting videos but nowhere does it say who runs this site.
That’s true. I wonder if it is supposed to be anonymous ? I know in Melbourne two lockdown protest organisers were arrested before the event and charged with incitement. There is a huge effort worldwide to quash dissent.
Fantastic! Thanks! Another link to add to my growing library.
Guess where Layla Moran “studied” mathematics before coming an MP?
You got it: Imperial College London. No link to our favourite billionaire there then is there?Also Brunel University which is linked to Bill Gates in 2013.
Dad worked for the EU his whole life.
From what I can tell she’s never had a job except teaching physics for a few years she never meant to do from what I can tell in this interview:
https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/17-from-17-layla-moran-on-her-anarchism-and-the-demise-of-british-politics_uk_5a142720e4b0c335e99742ac?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9lbi53aWtpcGVkaWEub3JnLw&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAA1YueMXfh1TI5JUflqs9ZEbpf5TgKRk09wrDPItXbmYERd0pY2BmtXl8HJsYZuf4UVMwxuFF4R–J6BQmJAO3p3tffD2-9SOxEeKcwWdIO34mz3uxMJHVXijFtjNSJleo7tw9Qmy5v6QrsksNwB8AKc90SlDnwCv4iNfA_Z3mh5.
Yeah, Bill Gates donated $79 million to Imperial College this year – it’s done a lot to improve the quality of our lives hasn’t it ?
Hey I studied at Imperial and I’m a sceptic. Back in the day, they did train us to be proper scientists. Open minded, analysing the data and constantly questioning.
I am not sure when it all went wrong. I graduated over 25 years ago.
I think ICL as an institution will rue the day it took the Gates vaccine shilling in much the same way as neighbour LSE did for the Gaddafi shilling. Some great people and departments at both, but the senior management team just a little too fond of money!
They made a pact with the devil and I think they’re credibility is shot.
Defund Imperial College!
Moles are no longer a problem of the secret service. Now they’re everywhere.
Just listening to TalkRADIO, I do not know who the presenter is but the guest is Robert Rinder of “Judge Rinder” TV show? who apparently had cv19 early on in the pandemic.
These are not exact words he said that the illness was not nice, but you would not wish it on your worst enemy, but the media talking up the death rate every day was worst than the illness.
He then went on to say that “anti-vaxers” are dangerous.
My grandma is still yet to be given any clear treatment or care plan for the pancreatic cancer diagnosis she received 1 month ago.
The diagnosis came off the back of some scans and tests done when she self-admitted to A&E 2 months ago, feeling extremely unwell.
She had in fact been feeling unwell for months, deterred from seeking medical attention to ‘protect the NHS’. My grandfather and Aunty finally forced her to go.
She wants to visit family in Japan (and have the holiday that was stolen from her in March) but this will mean that any chance of chemo cannot begin until late October due to the 2 weeks of quarantine she will have to have, both when she arrives there and when she comes back.
I don’t know how different things would be if things had been picked up sooner without the ‘crisis’, we never will.
I have tried to wake her up so she can live a little in the short time she has left instead of cowering in isolation, but she is too brainwashed to see that. It is heartbreaking.
From an old Dr Who story I read as a child:
‘There is no dishonour in dying, but there is a terrible shame in giving up life.’
Yes – a good quotation as an indictment of our present society.
A thousand thumbs up from me. Exactly how I feel
Sorry to hear about your grandma. Is she Japanese? As far as I’m aware they are not letting any foreigners into the country at the moment. How is she getting around that?
The links to useful resources which are posted on here need a permanent location, perhaps I brief description and the link, so that these very useful references can be referred back to without having to search past LS pages.
Maybe in the forum, or on a separate blog or web page?
Someone needs to step up and volunteer to do the cataloguing. Perhaps you, DoubtingDave, since you’ve mentioned the need?
Posting from an Android I am very selective when clicking links as the return normally takes me back to Toby’s page and I have to work my way to back where I started.
If you post a useful resource here, you should also post it in the forums so it can easily be found.
This seems like a really good moment to mention that when I have donated to this site I’ve always had a personal message from Toby (sent from an iPhone, so presumably his own) which suggests to me that they run this site on a shoestring so just a hint to anyone considering it, I’m sure all financial contributions would be very grateful received. Go to the SHAMELESS BEGGING bit at the bottom of the latest page. It is really simple.
In response to your comment, I expect they’re run off their feet with this but it sounds like a good idea.
“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.“
A selection of our “elite” (in status terms alone) who seemingly have never heard of diminishing returns and have no understanding of the concept of cost versus benefit.
cv19 is here, and here to stay, whether real or make-believe it is here and we have to live with it.
Maybe we ought to be paying more attention to the likes of TB, which is on the rise but the population are no longer inoculated to get protection against it.
Who could ever trust a politician or anyone with a position of power after the last few month?
Layla Moran interview with Iain Dale on LBC I listened to it live when it was broadcast and something shocked me at the time, not related to cv19, will have to watch the video to remind me. I know I should never be shocked by anything any politician has to say.
Found it she is a supporter of Universal Basic Income, but only after the start of cv19.
I had a TB jab at school and remember it being spoken of with fear by the oldies but as something in theit recent past.
It was far more serious than Covid attacking all and sundry regardless of age, gender, ethnicity but it got the poor more because of still squalid living conditions.
My city still has its TB isolation hospital (re-functioned) and so probably does yours.
It took two generations to get rid of TB by a determined policy of rigid isolation.
It is not ‘re-emerging’ in this country it is being reintroduced from distant lands.
Interestingly it was claimed those who had the BCG vaccine for TB was shown to have some immunity from Covid. Also of note the USA didn’t vaccinate against TB. Note Boris was born in New York so wasn’t vaccinated against TB perhaps if he had been he wouldn’t have caught Covid?
That should be easy enough to check, if they still know how to trawl through paper records.
Remember the scab well still carry the scare
Who could ever trust authority of any kind.
I never would again. Its not great waking up and realising its all one big scam and I’m not just talking about Covid here, the whole Establishment thing is a scam. Life, religion, justice. A scam to make the little people malleable so we’ll cause less trouble.
There are many in Layla’s constituency with links to various parts of the University of Oxford research base (medical and scientific), including world experts in TB. Try getting your kid vaccinated against TB, though, because ‘it’s been eradicated’. We paid to have it done privately. I will use this in my defence when they round me up as one of the CV vaccine refuseniks!
Viruses (virii) don’t have Going Zero done to them but they can both fade away all by themselves (to be replaced by yet another, ) or mutate all by themselves into something more benign like the Common Cold and thus become the Most Successful Virus In The History Of The World.
If you want to be super-pedantic, the plural of virus is virus (short u in the singular, long u in the plural).The original meaning was ‘poison’.
Like sheep not sheeps!
“zero Covid” (or “Covid zero”) is surely a total dead-end now the virus has become more or less endemic worldwide. But it seems like a dead-end rabbit hole that “progressive” “elite” political and media elements are starting to fall into.
It can’t possibly work, but how much longer this nightmare will be drawn out, and how much more damage done in the progress, by attempts to implement it, God only knows!
And after reading this https://twitter.com/CarolineLucas/status/1296831401187319808
I may never vote Green again… The only positive is that a lot – more than half – of the comments are very sceptical, not least this one “Absolute travesty. Wake up call for any who considered the Greens an alternative voice”
You shouldn’t have voted Green in the first place. They are part of the problem. Zero this, Zero that. When I was in the U.S. Army in Georgia, all the Dixie Cups/Styrofoam Cups had ‘Zero Defects’ printed on them. Zero has been around for a long time, even though it’s an impossible goal for anyone, or anything, to ever achieve.
At least you’ve woken up!
It’s kind of depressing that intelligent people should be so divorced from reality as to tweet this stuff.
Although it was very ‘surprising’ to see the make up of the cross-part group she chairs (David Davis – he needs to get out more!), for Layla this is a no-lose situation if you know anything of the constituency she represents. Sadly, I do!
David Davis – a real disappointment in this coronapanic test. Though not as much for me as it was for our MIA farinances, iirc….
The creep creeps on.
from Edinburgh live today.
A high school in Edinburgh has made it compulsory for all pupils and staff to wear face coverings, according to reports.
In a memo to parents, the school said face coverings will be compulsory from 8am on Monday morning for all pupils and staff.
Government coronavirus guidelines say that pupils and teachers should be supported to wear a face covering if they wish to do so, but they are not mandatory.