News Round-Up
- “Rishi Sunak says Freedom Day will come on July 19th” – Chancellor Rishi Sunak was speaking at a football event with schoolchildren, according to MailOnline, when he said that Freedom day will come on July 19th and he will not tolerate further lockdowns after that. In other words, not on July 5th
- “The final straw: how appeal from 80 Tory MPs sealed Hancock’s fate” – The Telegraph understands that Matt Hancock resigned after having a “fairly direct” conversation with Mark Spencer, the Government’s Chief Whip, who had been contacted by 80 Conservative MPs saying he had to go. Separately, it is understood that he is unlikely to accept his £16,000 severance package
- “Defences down: General Nick Carter among six top military commanders forced into Covid self-isolation” – The Telegraph reveals that NHS Test & Trace has ordered the Defence Secretary and the heads of the Navy, RAF and Strategic Command to self-isolate. Let’s hope Putin isn’t a reader
- “Hospitals fear cancer ‘avalanche’ as record 230k patients sent for checks” – A leaked email, sent from a London Hospital in response to another centre requesting diagnostic imaging appointments, reveals that it is fighting to cope with patient demand, according to the Express, and it warns that many of the patients needing diagnoses are “very young”
- “Report reveals 100,000 pupils failed to return to education full-time” – Analysis of official figures by the Centre for Social Justice has identified 93,514 pupils who were mostly absent between September and December, according to the Daily Mail, more than the capacity of Wembley stadium
- “Michael Gove’s wife Sarah Vine speaks of the ‘pressures’ on political marriages” – Sarah Vine has offered a perspective on Matt Hancock’s affair borne of personal experience of political marriages in her Mail on Sunday column, the Telegraph reports. His “behaviour may be shocking,” she says. “But given the context it is entirely predictable”.
- “MI5 to hold talks with officials over Matt Hancock video leak” – MI5 officials are expected to discuss the leak of Matt Hancock’s office CCTV footage with the Cabinet Office this week, according to the Times, amid mounting fears over other security breaches
- “Fear, face masks and failing immunity – has Covid damaged our children forever?” – Lauren Crosby Medlicott examines the impact of lockdown restrictions on babies and toddlers in the Metro
- “Up to seven in 10 children in some hospitals during pandemic were there because of mental illness” – “I’m struck by how so many children and young people have effectively been collateral damage in this pandemic,” writes Professor Lee Hudson of the Great Ormond Street UCL Institute of Child Health in the Telegraph, highlighting the results of his research into children’s mental health during lockdowns
- “Sajid Javid has his work cut out reversing Matt Hancock’s pitiful legacy” – Matt Hancock, says Ross Clark in the Telegraph, “will be remembered as the man who made it harder to get a GP appointment”
- “Delaying the end of restrictions comes at a price: it’s time to reopen in one big bang” – “We can’t let ourselves be habituated to authoritarianism,” writes Dan Hannan in the Telegraph. “A week of restrictions should feel as un-British today as it did in March 2020”
- “My hell at the hands of the Covid Stasi” – Dame Joan Collin’s “cry of rage” in the Daily Mail against the Covid quarantine officers who won’t leave her alone
- “The decline of the quality press” – “The media’s frequent hyperbole will leave it struggling to describe a genuine disaster,” says David Selbourne in the Critic
- “Why we don’t believe any variant will be able to defeat jab completely” – The Mail On Sunday publishes an excerpt from Vaxxers, a new book by Professor Sarah Gilbert and Dr Cath Green, two of the scientists behind the AstraZeneca jab
- “Cry God for Lozza, England and St George” – The Conservative Woman’s Kathy Gyngell salutes all who those who joined her at Saturday’s anti-lockdown march, which was the “biggest so far”
- “The great deception” – “Make no mistake,” writes Rob Slane in the Conservative Woman. We are living through “a period of immense deception with unimaginable consequences”
- “Helicopter Live Feed: Freedom March Live 26th June 2021” – Raw helicopter footage from Saturday’s march in London, presented by Dr David Bull and Richard Tice
- “France and Germany will renew attempt to force UK tourists to quarantine in EU” – Each EU state is free to impose its own restrictions on travellers but the Telegraph reports that Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel are expected to renew their bid to instil a Europe-wide quarantine rule for British visitors
- “How are German schools preparing for fall?” – Deutsche Welle takes a look at how German schools are preparing for the autumn term when, according to Health Minister Jens Spehn, face masks and smaller class sizes may still be necessary
- “Finland warns football fans returning from Russia to get COVID-19 test” – In a statement released on Saturday, according to Euronews, Finland’s health institute has warned football fans returning home from Russia to get a Covid test and to self isolate
- “Make-A-Wish refuses to grant wishes to unvaccinated children” – America’s Make-A-Wish Foundation, the organisation that creates “life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses”, has announced that it can only do so if the critically ill children, and any participating family members, are vaccinated against COVID-19, the Post Millennial reports
- “Trudeau government sues House Speaker to keep virology lab docs secret from the public” – The Post Millennial reports that the Trudeau administration is fighting tooth and nail to protect classified documents related to the firing of Dr. Xiangguo Qiu and her husband Keding Cheng from the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg
- “Singapore’s surprising new plan to live with Covid revealed” – There will be, according to news.com.au, no travel quarantine and no daily numbers, but people may need to take a test to head to the shops or to go to work
- “‘The aim is to rapidly increase the rate of vaccinations’: Ramaphosa moves South Africa to level 4” – TimesLive reports that President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced that South Africa is to move to “level 4” restrictions, meaning a curfew, a ban on alcohol sales and on all gatherings except funerals
- “What are the COVID-19 restrictions for the Greater Sydney lockdown?” – A summary of the fairly grim lockdown restrictions being imposed upon Greater Sydney and surrounding areas until July 9th, courtesy of the Sydney Morning Herald
- “YouTube and the Truman Faux Medical Show” – The latest episode of the DarkHorse Podcast sees Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying discuss their move from YouTube to Odysee
- “Truth, Science, and Censorship in the Time of a Pandemic” – Bret Weinstein is the guest on the Lex Friedman Podcast, discussing the lab-leak hypothesis, vaccines, big tech censorship any more
- “‘Astonishing’ how many ‘heartless’ things have been done to ‘keep us healthy’” – Sky News Australia contributor Caleb Bond examines the dark side of Australia’s lockdowns, “and the draconian rules that just keep on keeping on”
- “Official 2011 Chinese Government submission discusses ‘weaponising specific viruses to target races’” – Sky News Australia’s Sharri Markson covers China’s formal submission to the 2011 UN biological weapons convention which warns that a lab leak involving virus research could place the whole of mankind in great danger and discusses the possibility of creating “genetic weapons targeted at a racial group with a particular susceptibility”
- “They’re so happy with life in their garden that they’re not willing to come out!” – We are “a long way from normal”, Douglas Murray told GB News’s Dan Wootton last night, and said Lockdown won’t end unless “people have the confidence to come out again”
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” ‘Freedom day’ will come on July 19th”.
And if it doesn’t, we will be back in London.
Bet it’s a sham “freedom” anyway, even if it does come.
And I’ll say something more, I reckon we’ve been remarkably nice so far imo given the wholesale human rights abuses perpetrated against us. Perhaps the crooks responsible should not count on this continuing indefinitely if we don’t get freedom, real, old normal freedom back. Apartheid has been resisted before…
“Cattle allowed back in field July 19th”.
Spot on! Laughing at that but angry as it’s so apt.
As far as I’m concerned, all bets are off. We’ve been fed lies on top of lies for almost one and half years. What we’re witnessing is the transition into the next phase of this political crisis. I believe the Madcock fiasco was staged to cause drama for their soap opera whilst ushering in a new face to keep things fresh. Just look at how perfect that hidden camera footage was.
They cancelled Christmas and New Year – just think about that.
It’ll only be temporary, back on our heads come autumn
“Make A Wish refuses unvaccinated children”.
How low will people sink?
Killing children with snake oil so as to make themselves feel safer.
Killing their own children with snake oil, then tweeting that all other children should still get the snake oil.
“so as to make themselves feel safer”
No – so as to make astronomical profits.
Well, you see that sewer: that’s the high point!
“Helicopter footage from Saturday’s march”.
At least 100,000, according to Reform UK’s helicopter. I’d like to think so. Can anyone (realist) confirm this?
(And of course it is perfectly possible that I didn’t get a full sense of the scale of it on the ground).
And while we’re at it, the reform UK broadcast says that over 80% of adults have had at least one “vaccination”. Any estimates on how many millions will not be “vaccinated”?
(P.S. $$$$$$$$$$$ kerching)
If you can find any archived footage of FA cup final day in the 1960’s or 1970’s at Wembley with the crowds approaching the stadium that will give some indication as an FA cup final crowd was 100000.
There’s a time lapse film of Wembley way on cup final day, 2011 on YouTube for comparison
Bill Gates item from Conservative Woman
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/bill-gatess-stranglehold-on-the-msm-part-1/
“Bill Gates’ stranglehold on the msm” (conservative woman).
Now there’s something that’s worth reading in full. I’m not sure I want anything to do with Gates’ Comic relief.
‘Experts have warned that Britain should not ‘rush’ into freedom in July.’ (DM)
Rush? Rush? Rush? Rush???!!!!
(Rush Limbaugh. He was a red herring too…
Yes, the exit from lockdown has been glacial and these bastards pretend it’s been faster than a souped-up Concorde.
And we all know what happened to Concorde.
Massive support or Joan Collins in the DM comments.
And yet she started as a lockdown sucker, banging pots and pans for the National Hell Service.
If even luvvies can show a glimmering of sense, maybe there is hope.
“NHS”. Death by doctoring. Or so I heard. They’re too close to big pharma anyway.
The whole thing needs sorting out, honestly.
NHS Doctators have killed more British people than Foreign Dictators
She’s been an opponent of lockdown for some time.
I have limited sympathy for Ms. Collins. As a multi millionaire, still able to find lucrative ‘work’, I doubt whether her lockdown experience shares much with many. However one part of her account does fill me with alarm. If someone in a ‘Mettalica T shirt and hoodie’ demanded to see my passport and to access my phone they’d get very short shrift indeed. These powers have traditionally been granted to those in official positions, and who have signed suitable legally binding documents. If the government wishes to persist in this it should ensure that a properly trained and legally empowered organisation is formed.
The above was not intended to be sarcastic. However it did occur to me that the new unit could be called the ‘Surveillance Specialists’. If a uniform proves too expensive, maybe an armband with the initials would suffice?
“Trudeau gov fights to keep virology lab docs secret”.
You know, perhaps it wouldn’t be a bad thing to release Julian Assange….
… and lock up Justin Trudeau.
And too many others. Could be a long battle though, look at the Hillsborough victims…
OK, a long battle. Keep fighting.
Where do us sceptics apply for our £16,000?
Wankcock’s severance pay for breaking the social distancing rules.
Quite so – though he says he won’t take it: probably because his pockets are so stuffed with brown envelopes that there is no room for any more!
So, he won’t be able to play “Pocket billiards” then?
I’m struck by how so many children and young people have effectively been collateral damage in this pandemic,”
It was the unnecessary lockdown, not the pandemic.
‘His “behaviour may be shocking,” she says. “But given the context it is entirely predictable”.’ It’s a character thing. Most on here would not have been shocked, just surprised that it took so long to get this oaf bang to rights. His character was rumbled over a year ago, and the suspicion is that he has been the driving force behind all of this nonsense, revelling in what he no doubt considered to be a ‘political opportunity’ to make his name. His replacement, Mr Javid’s stance/emollient comments so far on cessation of lockdown are revealing. Mr Trevor Phillips sums up the indictment of the disgraced former health secretary brilliantly: ‘“The pictures that we saw were of an encounter on 6 May. On 11 May, my family buried my daughter who had died, not of Covid, but during the lockdown.’ “Three hundred of our family and friends turned up online. But most of them were not allowed to be at the graveside, even though it was in the open air, because of the rule of 30. Because of the instruction by Mr Hancock.’ “Now the next time one of you tells me what to do in my private life … explain… Read more »
Just how many have suffered because of the rules that Hancock imposed that he himself failed to keep? The harm he has done is monumental.
Hancock’s no Douglas Bader (of the Famous rules quote).
Hancock was definitely a Fokker
Let’s face it, the whole political system is corrupt. It needs flushing out and a return to a system based upon English common law would not be a bad thing, in my opinion. Party politics is rotten to the core, so why not create a system or council with ‘independents’ only allowed? The individual would then be judged on their performence and comptency, be held directly accountable to the voters, and would not be able to hide behind the Party machine…
It sounds great and I agree. Except that the people voting are almost all gullible fools, who will make their vote based upon attractiveness, bribes, unimportant attributes such as race, wokeness, football club support etc, or because the BBC subconsciously tells them to.
Sortition is the only solution for that.
At least until the yet unborn all became natural Libertarians and then had finished their march through the institutuons.
‘the people‘ (as a collective notion) currently are no solution. They are actually the root of the problem in terms of the willingness to allow gullibility, ignorance and hypocrisy to dominate. It’s a general conclusion, the bluntness of which I have resisted, but the shit-show establishes it as fact. Yes – the initiative comes from elites and their tools, and consent is manufactured and shaped. But Camus’ definition of rebellion by saying ‘No’ – Yossarian’s refusal to comply – is completely overwhelmed by dumb compliance. So complaining about the ‘political system’ is totally beside the point. The ‘people’ allow the corruption – are happy to go along with it as long as their sleep isn’t disturbed and they don’t have to think too hard. Most are quite happy to let the constitutional framework of our tattered system to just drift on. Over the years, I’ve noted the way in which disengagement from active politics is lauded as a viewpoint ‘They’re all the same’ … ‘I never vote’ … etc.. etc. Not brave, independent thought – just bovine assent to the cattle prod. The Yellow Brick Road that is formed by irrelevant witterings about the evil of political parties etc. are… Read more »
I don’t have simple solutions either. I have always voted, often holding my nose for the least bad candidate/party, often tactically. I am starting to come round to Hitchen’s view that this isn’t a good idea and that while no party will ever be perfect, there comes a point where the choices are so bad that you shouldn’t vote for any of them. I think that approach makes sense – the hope that parties will fill the gap, if people do this in sufficient numbers. And at the same time don’t disengage from the political process – keep talking to people about this stuff, write to your MP, do whatever you can.
Essentially, I agree with you, Julian. My only confession is that, in the local elections, for the first time, I spoiled my ballot paper – because I could not, even on the basis of ‘least worst’, endorse anyone.
But I think my essential point holds good – laziness and disengagement disguised as a political view has ultimately created a situation that is its own reflection. The ascent of Johnson – the ultimate windy turd floating on the sewage was a forewarning of this – a working majority of the electorate actually voted for what they affect to despise in politicians.
I had an anti-lockdown candidate to vote for on one ballot paper, the other ones got spoiled.
The Greeks knew this – you cannot have a large government, a welfare state, AND the universal franchise. People simply vote for bread and circuses. If we restrict the franchise to net tax contributors only we’ll immediately solve many of our problems.
“If we restrict the franchise to net tax contributors only …”
I fell about laughing at that burst of illogic – as if stupidity and venality is gauged by tax payments.
Your problems maybe!
The problem is funding. If all national funding of political parties was prohibited, making all funding and all issues local, the nepotistic power of parties would wither and the potential for corruption would dwindle proportionately. Representative politics isn’t necessarily the problem, but *party* politics is.
That doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. La La Land diversion.
ITEM: “What are the COVID-19 restrictions for the Greater Sydney lockdown?” – A summary of the fairly grim lockdown restrictions being imposed upon Greater Sydney and surrounding areas until July 9th Pretty draconian restrictions, which has discombobulated wishy-washy lockdown opponents who support the state Premier, Gladys Berejiklian, for being a lockdown ‘moderate’. Their dubbing of her as our ‘Glorious Gladys’ hasn’t aged too well. Sydney’s blind panic is being matched in other states (Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory) whose authorities are fouling themselves over ‘outbreaks’ of single-digit ‘cases’- “Greater Darwin lockdown extended by 72 hours as NT records one new case of COVID-19” shouts the ABC News headline, apparently unaware of the disconnect between cause (one ‘case’) and response (three day lockdown). Even my home state (South Australia) with zero ‘cases’ has flow into a ‘pre-emptive’ panic tizz. The “envy of the world’ in our light-touch restrictions, according to the SA Premier, has, after being relatively restriction-free, reimposed mandatory masks in ‘high-risk settings’ (including indoor entertainment venues) and is ‘strongly recommending them on public transport’, and has gone to the well again on venue capacity limits (including weddings and funerals) whilst banning singing in them (“organised singing – we’re talking about… Read more »
We are being ‘acclimatised’ into lockdown’s by stealth
It was always clear that OZ and NZ faced a similar future as North Sentinel Island.
But the people there live more freely on their island.
Heart of stone stuff!!!
Welcome to Winter. They should have learned from this side of the planet that it doesn’t work, and avoid starting their own troubles.
Just keep calm and buy toilet paper.
Ned Kelly was a nasty bit of work. But not as bad as Victoria’s ruling thugs. Or yours either, by the sound of it.
Re the story in the metro about children. Last summer a young baby was brought in to the urgent care centre, I took my mask off so that I could assess the child. The mother immediately pulled back and wouldn’t let me examine the baby. She then put in a complaint. Last autumn a child of about 6 was brought in by his mother, this was after we’d closed and had no slots available, but as it was a possible head injury I decided to give the child a quick check. Again, as it was the end of the day I didn’t wear a mask. The child was fine, but mum complained that I hadn’t worn a mask despite the fact that I didn’t have see the child and I could have sent them down to A&E.
So sad. Children need to see faces to learn how to communicate with facial expression; to see the mouth to help with learning about how to produce the sounds of speech. The pre-schoolers are going to have so many speech, language & social communication issues that the impact on their education is going to be incredibly long lasting & Speech & Language Therapists (already a shortage profession for decades) won’t be able to treat these issues in a timely manner.
This generation of children have been shafted. Makes my blood boil!
A frightening illustration of the power of brainwashing. I no longer think of 1930s Germany as simply an aberration.
This us called gratitude.
I really find it hard to understand how anybody who deals with the public on a daily basis can retain any faith in human nature.Or, as it is now, zombie nature.
The final straw: how appeal from 80 Tory MPs sealed Matt Hancock’s fate. He was told by Chief Whip, where was Johnson this weekend, not having a weekend away ‘somewhere in Europe’, surely not
Someone posted on here a couple of days ago that the fat khunt was spotted in Portugal. Haven’t investigated myself but his absence is notable.
Heard that too, seen in a restaurant. Looks more of a wreck today
I haven’t seen this news item here or in the comments, maybe I missed it?
On Friday, whilst all attention was on Handjob, Gove was having his arse kicked by the courts for yet another dodgy contract..
https://twitter.com/DChristieProf/status/1409036159334879232
Also why did Hancock get 16k for resigning, that’s a new one
I have just been reading Double Star – an early and disappointingly dull sci-fi novel by Robert A. Heinlein. Its one stand-out feature is that it is probably the most unbelievable sci-fi novel ever written due to the fact that it all revolves around an honest, decent and thoroughly principled politician!
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/bill-gatess-stranglehold-on-the-msm-part-1/
“His “behaviour may be shocking,” she says. “But given the context it is entirely predictable”.” (Handoncock by Mrs Gove)
I agree – a self-seeking, lying streak of slime behaves in character.
GB News frustrates the hell out of me. It is undoubtedly false opposition -I never expected otherwise- but watching as it increasingly eases itself into mainstream/left-wing narrative is still depressing. They look and behave more like the BBC/Sky every day.
Although they do welcome conversation in small bites about the danger of this fake vaccine, they’re overwhelmingly pro-double-jab. You can not oppose lockdown/masks and support the jab – the two positions are incompatible. Anyone who has allowed themselves to believe the ‘vaccine’ is a way out of lockdown have effectively given up the fight. The ‘vaccine’ is the new normal and with it vaxports – another flavour of lockdown cranked up several notches.
GB News knows this, which is why they promote it.
You can not oppose lockdown/masks and support the jab – the two positions are incompatible.
Why? Suppose you think lockdowns aren’t justified but the vaccines do work and are safe?
I already answered your question in the following text.
Your answer seems to be more about being loyal to the cause than discovering the truth. To repeat – suppose you think lockdowns aren’t justified but the vaccines do work and are safe – what do you recommend that someone with these two beliefs should do?
Loyal to the cause? What cause? Freedom? Freedom is not a cause, it is a birthright.
To repeat; I did answer the question. The ‘vaccine’ and passport era is another form of lockdown. You can’t oppose lockdown while supporting lockdown. Anyone who has opposed lockdown up to this point know that the whole thing is a fraud, so there’s no reason they would allow themselves to victim to the fraud unless they’ve given up trying to push back against it.
Good answer. What’s more the whole premise is based on LIES, LIES and more LIES, whether it is the need for masks, the need for lockdowns or the need for dodgy so-called vaccines to prevent yet another massive great phenomenal LIE – the lethality of the c19 virus.
Why insist that people adopt all your beliefs or none? Consider this set of beliefs:
No doubt you disagree with the second belief, but there is nothing inconsistent in the four beliefs. By treating everything as one position you prohibit people from exploring the evidence for each belief on its own merits. It stops being an enquiry into the truth and becomes yet another tribal internet conflict based on slogans and loyalty.
You’ve split up one belief into 4 parts and framed it as separate but consistent views. And no, I don’t agree with your opinion, though I support your right to it.
But let’s be clear about something: I don’t hold the keys to freedom, I don’t get to tell people how they should think and behave – it is the government and it’s complicit criminals who have been doing that for 17 months. I don’t insist on anything, I can only try and persuade people to wake up out of their stupor.
And there again at the end of your rant is the assertion that my position is based on some kind a loyalty. You’ve got a weird comprehension of the meaning of basic freedom.
The first two are not ‘beliefs’ – they are evidence-based factual summaries.
From those facts flow the rational ethical opinions contained in the latter two.
The experimental gene therapy (doesn’t fit the definition of vaccine) is only effective when judged against the very narrow parameters of it’s trials. Manifestly none of them are ‘safe’ by any reasonable measure.
At a stretch they are consistent though I would love to know where you found reliable data that the rewards outweigh the risks given the poor quality of data that’s available
And you have to take a leap of faith regarding the long term effects
I would add some more caveats regarding the vaccines: there has to be informed consent, no coercion or bribery or blackmail, and a recognition that lockdowns followed by hastily developed vaccines are not the way out of this or future similar events- they are a bonus, not a strategy, and that alternative treatments must be honestly investigated as a matter of urgency
Given all that I think a pro vaccine position is theoretical rather than actual
I would also add caveats about vaccinating in a pandemic and the possible unintended consequences of this extremist “vaccinate everyone” approach. It looks like panic/hysteria/worse to me. I was never anti-vaxx and was willing to consider a covid vaxx, but nothing I’ve seen so far has persuaded me it’s wise.
Then you’re a bit thick.
By definition vaccines cannot be labelled ‘safe’ under accepted testing protocols.
As to ‘they work’ – ARR ~1%
Given the extremely high vaccination rate, it appears that the vast majority of the British public is a bit thick. It is only a small elite such as yourself that knows better.
By the way – for the umpteenth time – ARR (and NNTV) depend on the prevalence. It makes sense to quote the ARR if you are dealing with a relatively stable prevalence or a prevalence that is acknowledged as being the one that matters. Otherwise it is a meaningless figure.
>>>it appears that the vast majority of the British public is a bit thick
correct.
Have you read this? https://www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/9/7/693/htm?fbclid=IwAR0V2XUp33Xpgz3WeYeAJHSe6MwZEYAgSF1btShYu2Pr0aA5JTpw0-in6GI
Quote:
” Currently, our estimates show that we have to accept four fatal and 16 serious side effects per 100,000 vaccinations in order to save the lives of 2–11 individuals per 100,000 vaccinations, placing risks and benefits on the same order of magnitude.”
Yes.
Leaving aside arguments about whether the vaccines work, and the risks vs rewards, I don’t think using the Great British Public as an argument is very convincing. They look pretty thick to me given they have supported the lockdowns.
Welcome to the elite! (I remember being labelled elitist because I supported Remain and thought 52% of the public were wrong.)
Well I would argue that fundamental rights trump the will of the majority in a free society
I think the government are breaking many laws and what they are doing unconstitutional
And I am not seeking to impose my views on the majority. If they want to lock themselves down, they are welcome to.
… which underlines the fundamental point that this use of ‘elite’ is the same sort of linguistic blagging as is seen in the term ‘anti-vaxxer’. You have just adopted the Brexiteer use for your own ends.
Your petticoat is showing.
Yes, it tends to mirror education, and the efficacy of political campaigning by the usual suspects, like the one who moved from a polling firm (YouGov) to a nice little earner in HMG.
” It is only a small elite such as yourself that knows better”
Sadly true. But I don’t see myself as part of ‘an elite’ – just one of the minority that is free of the real virus – brainwashed delusion.
Your comments on ARR are woefully ignorant. The ratio determining effectiveness will stay the same whatever the prevalence. Go back to school.
Your comments on ARR are woefully ignorant. Go back to school.
In what respect are my comments wrong? Do you deny that ARR varies with prevalence?
https://adc.bmj.com/content/90/1/54
“Despite the obvious advantages of absolute risk measures, it should be noted that because they are dependent on baseline risk, they are of limited generalisability and it would, for example, be inappropriate to extrapolate published absolute risk measures from one population to another population with a different baseline risk. The calculated ARR and NNT apply only to populations whose baseline risk (in our example, the incidence of hospitalisations due to RSV infection in high risk infants) is similar to the study population.“
BMJ. That’s all right then. Like The Lancet. The simple fact is ARR cannot be ignored.
Have you only just noticed how thick (or perhaps more correctly how unthinking) the vast majority of the British public are?
A crime within itself is the deliberate dumbing down of the public since the days of Tony Blair. We didn’t reach this state of Idiocracy without political intervention and perfectly primed for the great covid fraud.
No. No Again no. ARR and RRR have to be viewed holistically.
I am not sure what you are saying “no” to! I agree you need to be aware of both. Are you denying that ARR varies with prevalence?
The vaccines aren’t safe. We don’t really know what their efficacy is at the moment but it’s probably not that good.
However, the vaccines have been allowed to be rolled out by the suppression of properly “safe and effective” cheap treatments so a considerable number of the people who did actually die of Covid could have been saved. It’s a bit like denying antibiotics to people in hospital with an infection – yes, you can lie in bed while your infection gets worse, but we’ll wait for a vaccine for the infection. By my reckoning, any vaccine that has this history is totally unethical.
Jo
That’s a long and separate debate from my point – which is simply about whether the one opinion requires the other.
I am pretty sure that linking anti-vax with anti-lockdown has damaged both cases. Whether it is justified or not, many people view anti-vax as crackpot and unscientific, while an another overlapping (but different) group views anti-lockdown as a quirk of some right-wing extremists. The two views than get merged in public perception, so the whole movement is widely dismissed as a crackpot, unscientific, quirk of right wing extremists (despite Piers Corbyn). I am not saying that either view is right or wrong. Simply arguing that they are different views which do not help each other by being linked.
What do you mean by “anti-vaxx”?
For reasons set out elsewhere, I think the covid vaccines are probably a mistake at this stage. But I have been vaxxed and so were my kids, with all the other standard vaccines, and I’ve never had an “anti-vaxx” thought in my life before covid.
The “anti-vaxx” smear has worked well, but that doesn’t mean it’s not a smear. If people like me, who think the covid vaxxes are not a good idea, genuinely think this, then we have to say so, because it’s part of the wider issues around the coronamadness. If that weakens our case with the general public then I guess we have to live with that/find ways around it. The whole mad narrative needs to be defeated, though I’ve always argued that the starting point is that covid was never demonstrably an emergency, and once you’ve established that, everything else follows.
Julian
I recognise that having doubts about some or all of the Covid vaccines is not the same as anti-vaxx in general. However, although unjustified, the smear exists in practice and by linking your concerns with Covid vaccines to the anti-lockdown movement you extend the smear to anti-lockdown.
You may believe that the “ The whole mad narrative needs to be defeated” but those who are anti-lockdown but pro-Covid vax may not thank you.
Well, I’m fine with looking at the best tactics to achieve objectives, step by step, but the vaccine business seems pretty grotesque to me and not something that could be compromised on.
I’m not sure why people who are pro-Covid vax wouldn’t thank me – I’m not advocating stopping them from having theirs, if they really want it. Just leave the rest of us alone please.
‘Anti-vax crackpot’, ‘right-wing extremists’ (but thank god for leftie Corbyn), ‘unscientific’ (as if SAGE and co have proven their ‘science’ yet).
Honestly, put down your Daily Mail rag, turn off the BBC/Sky and take a walk, learn about the real world around you, because everything you’re spouting is mainstream bullsthit.
I am afraid I haven’t explained myself clearly enough. I am not saying that you guys are ‘Anti-vax crackpot’, ‘right-wing extremists’ or ‘unscientific. I am just saying that is how you come across to a large section of the public – quite possibly because the MSM report you that way. And one of the reasons for that is association (not necessarily justified) with anti-vax.
I assure you I loathe the Daily Mail and distrust everything it prints/displays. I actually get most of my news re Covid via this website. Although there are other sources. Yes – I do get out and talk to lots of people – when lockdowns come up as a subject I usually have to explain that you are not all a bunch of crackpots.
‘You are not a bunch of crackpots’. Shouldn’t that be ‘we’. If not then you’re in the wrong place.
I don’t agree with most of the opinions of people who subscribe to this forum – does that make it the “wrong place” for me? In the “about” section Toby Young writes “The critical thing is that we should have an informed public debate”. There isn’t going to be much of a debate if everyone with different views is excluded.
No I understood you clearly. You’re parroting MSM bollocks, demonising anything that doesn’t fit mainstream narrative. You don’t want people on this site to talk about themes that could expose the government and their cronies, because if they do they could -god forbid- be described as a right-winger, or anti-vax, etc. as if any of those TERRIBLE labels could make you also look bad!
I have a bridge across the Thames for sale.
They do promote the jabs, has Mr Gates moved in on them already
Unfortunately, Julia Hartley-Brewer falls into this category. I’ve generally admired her push back against lockdowns but sadly it seems vaccines are a ‘way out’ for her and a price worth paying to go abroad on holiday.
Yes, I saw the very moment she switched her argument to being pro-double-jab passport. It was a fiery interview with Grant Shapps where she demanded he copies other countries that allow people to go on holiday only if they’ve had both injections. I too gave a big sigh of disappointment.
Ditto of course TY and, it seems, most of the ATL writers.
My impression is that it is improving, but we’ll see.
The comments (including “most respected”) on the SMH article are shocking. If they’re representative, then Australia really is finished. They all want more lockdown. One of the top comments calls for childcare to be shut down because “children transmit the new variant”. The place has disappeared down the rabbit hole. I don’t see how it can ever recover.
Much like here (the UK) then, I guess!
Australia is one big rabbit hole. Has been for decades, ever since some moron liberated a pair of fornicating bunnies (doubtless related to Pantsdown and Wankok).
Don’t go there, ever.
I’m told they have a camel problem too, as well as roos. The miners brought them over to help with transporting stuff and then they got out of hand, thousands of them running around in the desert.
It’s the gimpy gimpy leaves that scare me!
I had to Google that. Somehow I can’t see myself ever going back to Aus. Shame – it seemed decent enough when I was there, but so did many other places.
42 degrees in North Western USA.
Footage shows no masks and no social distancing.
Presumably the virus doesn’t like the heat.
Or it demonstrates that those wild ideas never worked in the first place! One hopes that their air con kit is properly maintained, though, when they spend a lot of time inside.
Air con eh? Not a lot of that will be allowed by the new eco-terrorists running the planet.
I don’t believe any of the Australian propaganda about them wanting more restrictions etc, its the same as the propaganda polls in the UK, saying the same thing. Gates is controlling the MSM