What on earth does the Government think it’s doing? What possible reason is there for reimposing a full lockdown on Leicester? In an act of sheer lunacy, Matt Hancock announced this morning that non-essential shops have been told to close today and schools asked to shut their doors to the majority of children from Thursday. Pubs, restaurants and hair salons that have been gearing up to re-open on Saturday have now been told to remain closed.
The rationale, needless to say, is that Leicester has seen a “surge” in cases, with over 900 new cases in the past two weeks. Confusion surrounded this figure since the published data for Leicester recorded just 80 new positive tests between June 13th and 26th. But Hancock now says there were in fact 944.
How do we know the increase in cases isn’t simply an artefact of increased testing in Leicester? We don’t, obviously. The 80 figure is based on Pillar 1 data, which are from tests done in hospitals; the 944 figure is based on Pillar 2 data, which are from tests done at Government centres or at home and processed by commercial labs. But surely the hospital data are more reliable than the community data – although these are all PCR tests and they’re all notoriously unreliable (see this Off-Guardian piece). And if the number of new cases being discovered by hospitals is low that suggests there isn’t a “surge” in new cases in the community. Deaths, too, are low, although, to be fair, if the alleged rise in cases has only happened since June 13th you wouldn’t expect to see any corresponding rise in deaths yet. On June 29th, only two people died from COVID-19 in the whole of the Midlands. According to the FT, the rise in infections is mainly among younger people (as it is in southern and southwestern US states) which means we’re unlikely to see any corresponding rise in deaths.
Let’s suppose the Pillar 2 data are accurate and there have been 944 new cases in Leicester between June 13th and 26th. That’s an average of 472 new cases/week. Assuming an infection fatality rate of ~0.25% (almost certainly an over-estimate), that means ~1 person/week will die if the infection rate remains where it is. And even that’s over-egging it, given that a majority of the new cases are among younger people.
Is it really worth reimposing a lockdown on Leicester to prevent one person/week from dying? I looked at the NHS England data for hospital deaths and of the five people who died from coronavirus on June 29th four were 80+ years’ old.
So the people of Leicester are being asked to close schools, shut non-essential shops and keep their pubs, restaurants and hair salons shuttered for two more weeks in order to prevent the deaths of two people aged 80+? Setting aside the civil liberties argument, is Matt Hancock confident that more than one person per week won’t die as a result of reimposing the lockdown? I’m thinking of cancer operations being postponed, the increased risk of suicide and domestic violence, and elderly people who may die of thirst or starvation because their relatives aren’t allowed to visit them.
What an absolute shower this Government is. If I was the Mayor of Leicester, I’d just point-blank refuse to comply. This report on Sky says the Leicester lockdown has “legal underpinning” which sounds like a mealy-mouthed way of saying its not legally enforceable.
Hector Drummond’s Graph
There’s a good piece in Hector Drummond Magazine entitled “This Is What We Shot Ourselves in the Foot For“. Hector has plotted the ONS’s figures for all-cause mortality in England and Wales dating back to 1900 on a graph and it shows a pretty modest uptick in 2020. For graphing purposes, he assumes that the number will be the five-year average for 2015-19 (531,355) + total Covid deaths. However, as he says, that’s probably an overestimate since some of the people who’ve succumbed to coronavirus would have died anyway this year. He’s also taken total Covid deaths for the UK (42,462), not England and Wales, so that too means the uptick is higher than it will be. Nonetheless, it’s still a pretty meagre increase. He concludes:
So: no gigantic, bowel-emptying spike in 2020. No jaw-dropping upwards vertical rocket-ship to match those jaw-dropping downward vertical cliffs we saw with the economic data. Just a tiny little uptick, like many other little upticks in there, indistinguishable from random noise. If you asked someone in the future who was unacquainted with the era to point to where the once-in-a-century medical disaster was, they would have no chance of picking it out.
Far from being a once-in-a-century pandemic, COVID-19 turned out to be a bad flu. We shut down the world for a bad flu. We shut down the world despite living in the safest era in the whole of history.
ONS Says All-Cause Deaths Now Below Five-Year Average
Today’s data release from the ONS for the w/e June 19th shows all-cause mortality has dropped below the five-year average. This is in addition to Week 23 having the lowest Covid death toll for 13 weeks (623).
A total of 9,339 people died of any cause in the w/e June 19th, down from an average of 9,404 for the same week over the past five years. This bears out Hector Drummond’s suspicion (see above) that the total Covid death toll for 2020 is likely to be lower than the five-year average + those who’ve died from Covid.
As one reader points out:
Since it’s inconceivable and impossible that without COVID-19 being a factor the average death figures would have been below average for Week 23 because of some magical and coincidental reduction in other causes of death, then that leaves only one conclusion, viz. that many people who have died of (or “with”) coronavirus in the UK would have done so this year anyway.
In the movie Aliens, Ripley tells Newt, the small girl and only survivor of the deserted space colony, of all the precautions she and the marines will take to protect Newt against the aliens.
Newt says: “It won’t make any difference.”
I wonder what Newt would say if you told her that, from tomorrow, we’ll have been locked in our homes for 100 days?
“It won’t make any difference.”
Rate of Decline Flattening. Oh No! Mother!
Amusing comment in the Guardian on this graph just released by Downing Street showing the declining daily death tolls:
Downing Street has updated its daily dashboard with the latest coronavirus figures. These are UK figures. Here is the graph showing the number of daily deaths. It is still going down, but now the rate of decline is flattening.
Well, yes. The rate of decline is flattening. That’s what happens when the number approaches zero. When it actually gets to zero – next week? – expect the Guardian run a story saying: “Rate of Decline In COVID-19 Deaths Worryingly Flat.”
Price Fixing
Why is the Government telling pharmacies what price to put on hand sanitiser products and face masks? Has it lost its faith in the market to price those items fairly? A reader writes:
Another nail in our freedoms: the Competition and Markets Authority and the General Pharmaceutical Council have threatened pharmacies with fines if they sold face masks and hand sanitiser at high prices. Have these two organisations heard that in a free enterprise market economy prices are not fixed by officialdom but float subject to supply and demand, the exception being where there is an abuse of a monopoly? As far as I am aware, there are multiple manufacturers and suppliers of these products, which are available in supermarkets and on-line as well as in pharmacies. Why are we allowing our freedom to be infringed by such bureaucrats?
Alternative Poem
Excellent alternative to the ghastly propaganda poem I published in the last Lockdown Sceptics update. This one is by Annie, one of the best commenters below the line.
POEM, TO BE LEARNED BY HEART BY ALL CHILDREN WHOSE PARENTS ARE NOT ZOMBIES
By Annie, Covipoet Laureate and Composer of Deathless Verse for All Occasions (fee scale sent on request)
There was a boy called Johnny
Who as a general rule
Lived a normal, quiet existence
Between home and play and school.
But when the lad was seven
His whole life turned to bad:
Some people caught a flu germ
And all the world went mad.
They took our little Johnny
And every other kid,
And slammed them in a dungeon
And then screwed down the lid.
Johnny went into the garden
But the policemen came and said
There was virus in the garden
And our John would soon be dead.
Mummy took him to the playground,
But all the slides and swings
Had hazard tape all round them
And other dreadful things.
His granny came to see him
Most secretly one day,
But the next-door neighbour dobbed them
And the police dragged her away.
John’s mummy said the police were right,
And Johnny he should not
Even dream of hugging granny
Or she’d drop dead on the spot.
When mummy went out shopping
She put a bandage round her head
It made her look so monstrous
Johnny hid under his bed.
Then she put a mask on Johnny
And to our lad it seemed
That mask was going to choke him,
And he screamed and screamed and screamed.
Then Johnny got into his bed
And turned to face the wall
And it makes no difference what they do,
He won’t come out at all.
Round-Up
And on to the round-up of all the stories I’ve noticed, or which have been been brought to my attention, in the last 24 hours:
- ‘EasyJet to sack up to 4,500 staff and close its bases at Stansted, Southend and Newcastle‘ – Another airline in trouble
- ‘GCSE and A-level pupils can sit exams if they don’t like coursework grade‘ – Er, so why couldn’t they have just sat the exams anyway?
- ‘Christian leaders invoke Magna Carta and sue the government over church lockdown‘ – At last, some red-blooded Christians we can get behind. Christian Concern is suing the Government over the decision to close churches. May God be with them
- ‘LOCKDOWN LUNACY 2.0: Second wave? Not even close‘ – Comprehensive debunking of “second wave” balls by JB Handley
- ‘Flatten the Fear‘ – Excellent new sceptical initiative by US docs
- ‘The Real Pandemic Was a Nursing Home Problem‘ – Great post on the American Institute for Economic Research blog
- ‘The lockdown is causing so many deaths‘ – Dr Malcolm Kendrick interviewed in Spiked
- ‘Boris Johnson could quickly come unstuck‘ – The always sensible Matthew Goodwin in the Spectator. Ya think?
- ‘A minority opinion on Covid deaths‘ – The peerless Lionel Shriver in the Spectator
- ‘Welby must look to future, not fuss over past‘ – Trevor Philips in the Times says Welby should stop fretting about the church’s past and start worrying about its future, particularly if he remains at the helm
Theme Tune Suggestions From Readers
Two suggestions today: “Beyond Belief” by Elvis Costello and “It’s Time to Get Away” by LCD Soundsystem.
Small Businesses That Have Re-opened
A few weeks ago, Lockdown Sceptics launched a searchable directory of open businesses across the UK. The idea is to celebrate those retail and hospitality businesses that have re-opened, as well as help people find out what has opened in their area. But we need your help to build it, so we’ve created a form you can fill out to tell us about those businesses that have opened near you. Now that non-essential shops have re-opened – or most of them, anyway – we’re now focusing on pubs, bars, clubs and restaurants, as well as other social venues. 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. Don’t worry if your entries don’t show up immediately – we need to approve them once you’ve entered the data.
Note to the Good Folk Below the Line
I enjoy reading all your comments and I’m glad I’ve created a “safe space” for lockdown sceptics to share their frustrations and keep each other’s spirits up. But please don’t copy and paste whole articles from papers that are behind paywalls in the comments. I work for some of those papers and if they don’t charge for premium content they won’t survive.
And while I’ve got you, any holiday tips? Mrs Young thinks Greece is too risky – sensible, given that they’ve just extended their quarantine for another two weeks. We’re now looking at Italy, Austria and Switzerland, but can go further afield. All tips gratefully received. The little male Youngs are keen on a swimming pool that’s actually open and Mrs Young is happy with anything sunny provided she doesn’t have to cook. Miss Young (16) would ideally like to be near a beach.
Shameless Begging Bit
Thanks as always to those of you who made a donation in the last 24 hours to pay for the upkeep of this site. It usually takes me several hours to do these updates, along with everything else, which doesn’t leave much time for other work. If you feel like donating, however small the amount, please click here. And if you want to flag up any stories or links I should include in future updates, email me here. (Please don’t email me at any other address.) I’ll try and get another update done on Thursday.
And Finally…
I was interviewed by Stephen Knight, otherwise known as Godless Spellchecker, for his YouTube channel on Monday. We were supposed to be talking about the Free Speech Union, but I got a bit sidetracked when he asked about Lockdown Sceptics and launched into an epic rant against the Government.
Worth watching in full, obviously.
And, for the die-hard fans, there’s always London Calling, the weekly podcast with James Delingpole and me. Quite a lively one this week, with both of us getting steamed up about Britain and America’s Maoist moment.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
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I had a dream So, I caught coronavirus. I was whisked away into hospital where, somehow, they found out that I had never once clapped our ‘NHS heroes’. Accordingly, I was treated even worse than normal for a person my age, and within a few hours I was dead! Now you understand that I am a lockdown sceptic, but that scepticism is as nothing compared to my disbelief in the tenets of religion. The word ‘atheist’ just does not do it justice. So you can understand my amazement when, after my ‘passing’, I found myself in a queue, even longer than that at my local Asda, outside the pearly gates of heaven! There was no social distancing and nobody wore masks, but hey I suppose you can’t really die twice, so what does it matter? Eventually I reached the head of the queue and St. Peter read out from a long ‘charge sheet’ of the many sins I had committed during my life. There were so many I didn’t even remember most of them. I could rapidly see how this was going to go, and I didn’t like it. I hate the heat so much that during the ‘beach protest’… Read more »
love your dream. yup got it in one, we are not suppose to follow or obay Satan’s crap, brought on by men in power after raping children then eating them…you go on and rebel all you have to and God will save you..Blessings
Toby – thank you for the update and for the robust comments on Leicester. I know you read the comments (though god knows how you find time). The Leicester lockdown must not stand. This is a disgrace. This is such an obvious and manufactured lie that I cannot even begin to imagine what kind of fools the government take us for, that they think we’re going to swallow it.
Please do anything you can to publicise this and if there’s anything we, or I, can do, please let us know.
Absolutely right. It can’t be anything but criminal what this government is imposing on the good people of Leicester. Surely we have some readers on here from there? What can they think of this nonsense? Meanwhile, the BBC continues to try and maintain the fear in the rest of us. This, earlier today:
“Flu virus with ‘Pandemic Potential’ found in China” The circus continues….
Local lockdowns would be harsh, and potentially pointless, penalties https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/06/29/local-lockdowns-would-harsh-potentially-pointless-penalties/ …………… Local lockdowns have become the latest concept in the lexicon of Covid 19. The thinking goes that as the number of cases nationally declines, eruptions of the disease are still like to occur here and there, and the government should clamp down on them by sending individual villages, towns or cities back into the stringent restrictions which existed everywhere in April. It might sound a ‘smart’approach – in the jargon of public policy – but it threatens further damage to the economy in the places which can least afford it. In March and April, the epicentre of Covid 19 was London. Cases there then declined sharply but rose elsewhere as the epidemic rippled out of the capital. It is rather like our mad house price booms, which always start in London and then spread out to infect the rest of the country. ………………… It isn’t hard to imagine what will happen if we have individual towns and cities ordered back into lockdown: short of roadblocks on every entry and exit point, people are going to head out elsewhere for their shopping and fun. Either that or these towns… Read more »
Surely as sites like this continue to expose the myth and efficacy of lockdowns, people will be less inclined to return to confinement. Surely the government know this yet carry on regardless. What the h*ll is going on?
Sadly I think people are still compliant.
You’d have hoped they would have seen that lockdowns are pointless, when there were no spikes after the BLM protests..
Not pointless if they are for political reasons and coercion.
The odd thing, though, is that the Left-wing Labour MP is egging on the Tories to be tougher in her own backyard. One struggles to see the strategy here.
Labour has thoroughly bought into the lockdown, except that they think it should have been imposed sooner and that we’re coming out of it too fast. And they would like to remind everyone that there were operational problems with PPE and testing.
Add to that the fact that Leicester is among the most ethnically diverse cities in the country and that we all know that the virus is racist, thanks to Boris.
Of course she supports it. She thinks the national lockdown should never have been relaxed in the first place.
Backstabbing.
Common in politics and sod the poor devils who voted for you to look after their best interests.
According to the media there are horrible spikes all around usa actually
They are. And suitably terrified. People I know are still convinced the virus is everywhere and rampant.
funny how it all happened during the flu/cold season…😕😉😂😂😂💖 coronviriouse derives from the word Coryza Greek/Latin…meaning mucous… common cold/flu…do the research…. this was established back in 1635.
Again, What Were the Benefits of Locking Down?
https://www.aier.org/article/again-what-were-the-benefits-of-locking-down/
With the evidence coming in that the lockdowns were neither economically nor medically effective, it is going to be increasingly difficult for lockdown partisans to marshal the evidence to convince the public that isolating people, destroying businesses, and destroying social institutions was worth it.
We know that and some with the necessary expertise know that but how do we get out of this inertia?
The evidence might be available, but not much of its making its way into the mainstream narrative.
Agree 100%. Couldn’t feel more strongly on this one.
If it’s the case (and it is) that relaxing the lockdown thus far hasn’t seen huge rises in cases anywhere else, except Leicester, isn’t it more likely that there is something particular about Leicester that warrants looking at, rather than slapping it back into lockdown rather lazily.
If a public health measure has little effect when being lifted (as opening shops and schools have both shown) surely it’s likely that it won’t have any effect being reimposed. Or if you do the same thing in two places with two different results it’s likely that the thing isn’t having the effect you think it is.
Leicester is substantially less hard hit than London thus far, I’d expect cases to grow until saturation is hit at about 0.05% death rate.
If it were the case that Leicester were showing an exceptionally high infection rate without an obviously engineered testing programme, I would completely agree with you.
If anywhere should be experiencing a “second wave” it’s London but all seems pretty hunky dory there, despite the recent mass-gatherings.
Could Leicester be another smokescreen?
Will Doncaster be next – keeping the focus further North – and in predominantly Labour seats:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/29/36-cities-counties-covid-19-cases-rising-risking-local-lockdowns/
The local Labour MP, Claudia Webbe, was positively demanding a new lockdown this morning. I hope she really gets in the neck when it becomes clear that it’s finally killed off all the businesses in Leicester that might otherwise have survived.
I’d noticed that. I think she’s really backstabbing the mayor. What a bitch!
Seems the mayor has caved and welcomed the measures because they go further than the current restrictions! Only hope is that the good folks of Leicester kick him out and stand their ground. Alas I doubt neither will be the case.
The government have dirt on the mayor because he broke the original lockdown..
We need to ask what have those businesses and organisations done about it themselves? Almost every business class has a trade body with thousands of members. All the parents with children going uneducated, again thousands in Leicester alone. Almost nothing is the unfortunate answer. Unless people wake up to this farce they will suffer the consequences of their own inertia. I am at the point of no longer trying to convince the muzzlers of their stupidity but to suggest when things start to go wrong and they get fired or lose their house that they are in no position to protest. Sad but true. The victims are those that battled for change and where shot down by the panic stricken masses.
Inappropriate! When you say “gets in the neck” I sincerely hope you are not suggesting that she should be unlawfully stabbed by an illegal immigrant (Bolton, Reading, Glasgow, somewhere else).
London bears watching. We’re a city of 9 million people and we live on top of one another.
On the one hand, if the projection of 15-20% as herd immunity is correct, then London is there, or so nearly as makes no odds. So what happens next in London will be interesting.
On the other hand, significant chunks of normal have disappeared – most of the employment is service sector, with no need to go to an office and much of the office real estate has become unusable because its high rise, not to mention the public transport issues. People aren’t moving around London the way they used to.
I’ve seen Hackney on a list of potentials for the next example to be made, by the way. Speculation, I’m sure.
Another Labour stronghold. Hmmmm.
Oh God. I live in a London Labour constituency…
Maybe lucky for you, it’s not Diane Abbot’s.
Diiiiiiiiiiiiiaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnn ABBOT!
Not her. Somebody who stays well below the radar, thank goodness.
Locking down selected London boroughs would take this to new levels of the absurd.
It would be meaningless. Takes me about ten minutes to get to three neighbouring boroughs. Unless they are going to set up border posts on all of the hundreds of connecting roads, paths and alleyways it would be a futile gesture. People will simply go do their supermarket shopping or visit pubs in neighbouring boroughs.
Further to my reply below, it could be rather a good wheeze to keep fooling opposition MPs into demanding new lockdowns that will destroy the economies of their constituencies. Let’s go for Ed Miliband’s place next.
They only pretended to lift lockdown 15 days ago. Why did they suddenly decide to do extra testing in Leicester about 10 days ago? Why wouldn’t they keep the mayor in the loop?
All this has clearly been fabricated for political means and to send a powerful message to the rest of the country.
Because they need to demonstrate at Simon Dolan’s judicial review that lockdowns are justified?
I agree that Toby’s analysis of the dodgy figures is good and that it is disgraceful what is being done to Leicester but I’m not sure that his rhetorical approach to analysis cuts it on this occasion. What on earth does the Government think it’s doing? What possible reason is there for reimposing a full lockdown on Leicester? In an act of sheer lunacy etc “Oh why oh why?” Well, I’ve not exactly been scratching my head as to why the Government would start imposing selective lock-downs, beginning with a Labour-controlled city with a large South-Asian-origin population. Earlier, along with others, I posted that it was obvious that they were sending all of us a message by inventing a ‘spike’, ‘surge’, whatever in poor old Leicester and getting it faithfully whipped-up by their paid-off media – ‘The first local lockdown’. Of coure, now everyone’s shitting themselves that their town/city will be next. Toby’s post almost suggests that this is just silly old Boris and Handjob losing the plot again. Disgraceful, definitely but, really, nothing to see here. I’m sorry Matt (and Toby) but the cock-up/panic/incompetence theory holds less and less water every day. They know bloody well what they are doing and… Read more »
I’ve adapted my weakness and incompetence theory and I’m now adding craven cowardice and desperate self-justification. The Leicester lockdown exists to (speciously) show that the government has a grip on where infections are happening in the country and to prove that lockdown was right.
I agree with all that, Matt, but I don’t believe it goes far enough. The same policies have been replicated in too many countries and states for it to be coincidental.
Maybe, but stupidity is contagious. And these politicians are constantly looking at each other: what is he doing, should I do that too, nah, I shouldn’t, hm, well, hang on, is he going into lock down, is that lock down, oh my god, lock down, we are going into lock down now!
Exactly. Look at the response to Sweden not doing so.
Sweden is a “difficult” case in that they didn’t do so well either when it comes to COVID-19 deaths, they are also pretty much in the top 10 (per million inhabitants) worldwide, just like many lockdown nations. But yes, at least they did not chose a path which essentially was the socio-economic version of “scorched earth” tactics. If you want to see some truly successful countries have a look at Japan, South Korea and even more so Taiwan. No lockdowns as in: the government orders/forces you to stay home, or else you can/will get a fine/punishment. They did do other things (but different things, these are not identical countries of course) and if the UK had done whatever it is they have done, the UK would now be so much better off. As a matter of fact, the UK would now have had resp. 543, 407 or (and this one is truly utterly amazing but oh so very real) 20 deaths. TWENTY deaths for the whole of the UK if the UK had done as Taiwan. Or the other way around: if Taiwan had followed the British “experts” in the UK they would now have had a total of 15.399… Read more »
All-cause mortality in Sweden this year is within normal parameters. They could have done better with care homes. The Asian countries you mention are interesting and seem anomalous. Genetics may play a part. Or climate. In no country has the effect of the virus been such that it justified the actions taken by many countries. While it’s obviously desirable to take proportionate actions that reduce suffering, I think we need to get away from the idea that the aim of eradicating the virus or reducing deaths to zero is achievable or desirable, at all costs.
As with Matt’s views, I agree that this is definitely part of what’s going on but not all of it. I hope that I’m wrong (it wouldn’t be the first time!)
Local lockdowns were mooted by the unexperts & government puppets at the time of putting the nation under house arrest in late March. It was refered to as switching areas off and on.
Pretty brutal really, never one to wish ill health on anyone but I suspect some of the unexperts might be haunted in years to come by their actions now. No matter, it is all being done in a cold calculated manner.
I am pretty much with you on this one: it is just another incompetent way of incompetent people trying to avoid the (inevitable) moment their incompetence will be found out by all.
The one part that always still surprises me even though I have often personally observed this behaviour of postponing the inevitable among senior civil servants and politicians how long it always takes. You’d think “well, just a couple of months” but it is always “estimated time times 2 or 3”, meaning the damage will be so much larger every time this happens than you would have estimated originally.
I think you overlook how ruthless and callous they are, weak or otherwise.
Oh, I don’t. They’re ruthless, calculating bastards as it turns out.
PEOPLE OF LEICESTER
REBEL! !
They can’t arrest you all…..
And we need you to set an example!
Show the government people will not accept more lockdown. Please.
Do it for us?
What kind of ‘person’ says ‘awwww bless’? I’d stop wearing that muzzle if I were you, you’re depriving yourself of oxygen (though I do think you probably get off on that)
I think Toby said we’d had several milion unique page views, including over 300K on one specific day.
Don’t feed the troll!
But we only have one troll. If we don’t fed him, he might die!
Well, that might be one way to deal with it, matt
Matt, you need to get out more! 😉
I USED TO BE ALLOWED TO! 😉
Fuck off you twat
Well you’re here, aren’t you?
Trolls can live on comments boards for up to 72 hours!
Every site needs someone like GrantM. They are popping up all over the place at the moment like a bad rash.
Gives all us thinking individuals a “sheeple” to look and jeer at like the village idiot in the stocks.
Unless he’s a paid troll of some sort then it’s even better winding them up as then they are just brainwashed goons of the big boys who supply the money..
If it’s AI then the more anti-programming they read the programming breaks down if the AI programme is sufficiently advanced enough. That was interetsing reading about the Russian experiment of putting 2 AIs together and seeing what happened. Within hours they developed their own language so no-one knew what they were discussing and they had to be turned off. I think it was an American AI experiment that went awry when then AI decided man was it’s enemy and had to be destroyed, just like in Terminator, and that had to be turned off as well. Not to self – find these papers again nd read again out of interest if they are still on the internet and not “buried” or 404’d.
I’m starting to get the impression from reports this morning that the ‘new spikes’ and local lockdowns are actually intended to turn public opinion against BLM, as the blame is being placed firmly on the protests.
If that works, then I have to say I’m all for it, even if there’s a short-term localised economic impact.
I am still not for it. Mostly because of the destruction it does to people’s lives. Recently I discussed BLM with a black relative in his 50’s and I think his viewpoint on it was a rational one; the core message is laudable. A lot of stuff around it is clearly people taking advantage of it to push their own agendas around politics etc. He had never had a truly bad experience with police in the UK, the worst being bad looks/attitudes when he was a teenager in the 70s (no stops or arrests though). And maintains the idea that “people were made of tougher stuff back then” citing some of the comedies at the time that explored race, presenting racists as bigoted stupid fools within them, being quite popular among his family and friends. Such shows now would be cancelled for containing such characters. We both agreed it seemed context was ignored in a lot of situations these days including incidents with police in the US. Although we both agreed they are far to quick to violence there… A work colleague thinks that a lot of the BLM movement’s tactics are counter-productive and a sure fire way to reverse… Read more »
Balmoral pleads with public not to use estate grounds as a toilet after human waste and loo roll found
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/balmoral-estate-toilet-dont-use-plea-rangers-a4482721.html
I saw that on their Facebook page – one person complained about the toilets being shut and fair play to the Balmoral estate for replying but they said that the toilets are the responsibility of Aberdeenshire Council. They also put this on their post:
However looks like you’ll need to bring your own shovel then.
Catch 22 here. Local authorites are not legally bound to provide public toilets. You’d think under health regs they would be responsible for this essential part of public sanitation but evidently not.
This comes back to the need for people to lobby their local councils to do something for their constituencies because our lazy MPs clearly won’t bother.
It’s ironic that lack of sanitation is a much bigger threat to public health than any bad cold virus.
Time the royal family did a bit of lobbying. If they cab’t, who can?
Well the Queen’s not allowed to vote. Or have a political opinion. Maybe she can’t lobby either?
People can write to her and her office can forward these letters to the government or the relevant authorities.
Not much help writing to the Queen when her eldest son is all for the global reset and her granddaughter Zara and husband Mike are supporting the covipass..
Vernon Coleman had a good vid about the consequences of no toilets – UTI, IBS, kidney infections and don’t forget Hepatitis A and cholera.
The abovementioned are a bigger threat than Covid 19 in my opinion.
Seriously, my guy. Do you not have anything better to do with your time?
No. He’s a troll.
Trolls love the lockdown. Notice that?
Miserable, twisted loners who want everyone else as miserable as they are.
Pretty sad.
Please get a life. And what he’s said about the consequences of the lack of toilets is basic science.
Yer!
This is what you can catch from human excretions:
Diseases Involving Sewage
Campylobacteriosis, Cryptosporidiosis, Escherichia coli Diarrhea, Encephalitis, Gastroenteritis, Giardiasis,Hepatitis A, Leptospirosis, Methaemoglobinaemia,
Salmonellosis, Poliomyelitis, Shigellosis, Paratyphoid Fever, Typhoid Fever, Yersiniosis
https://www.in.gov/isdh/22963.htm
Interestingly you can probably get covids from the public’s poop too.
What the actual hell IS Public Health England actually FOR again?
They want to return us to the Middle Ages. It appears they are determined to add cholera to the mix of disease.
Agree. The Greens want us to return to the Stone Age, the government wants us to return to the Middle Ages. At this rate we might end up with a rerun of the Thirty Years’ War.
I’d been wondering if we’re already in the middle of some bizarre 21st century cold war.
We probably are.
Whose turn is it to win this time? 😉
LOOL!!!
Seriously neither. We should resist this Great Leap Backwards at all costs.
I think the last sensible thing to come out of epidemiology was when John Snow knocked out a cholera outbreak in 1854. Gone downhill a long way to plumb the depths Ferguson has taken that profession to.
Ah but John Snow worked clinically, through empirical observation and definitive proof, not by throwing some random numbers into a dodgy computer program.
Quite. There’s a video circulating on Twitter of a clearly-angry Michael Levitt laying into “scientists” and their lazy methodology of relying on models over observation.
Its on youtube actually, here is the direct link, top quality stuff:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=-ZIX0ymg6wk&feature=emb_logo
shame he criticises “scientists” though, plenty of scientists haven’t been involved in this shameful affair, such as nearly everyone in fields outside epidemiology. Would be a shame to lump geologists, astrophysicists and plan biologists in with the contaminated profession of epidemiology.
He does criticise the scientific community, but he makes it pretty clear that his ire is focused on the epidemiologists.
Omi god, this is class.
Absolute class.
Oh, it’s brilliant, yes.
Watched this is and it was so spot on. The video should be circulated more widely.
That had crossed my mind.
And the Thatcher regime’s stated agenda was to “put the peasants back in their place.”
I had a vision of Thatcher looking at people in third world countries living on rubbish tips and thinking
“Why don’t we have this here?”
Coming shortly . . .
Nick, have you dipped your toes back onto Guido recently. Jesus 90% of that site think Boris could do no wrong. Any comment about how insane the cabinet are and how damaging this is to the country get down voted and gets you blocked 🙂
Media-Induced Fear Of COVID-19 Is Starting To Cause A Second Wave Of Severe Economic Panic
http://themostimportantnews.com/archives/media-induced-fear-of-covid-19-is-starting-to-cause-a-second-wave-of-severe-economic-panic
Fear of a virus has turned our economy completely upside down, and thanks to the mainstream media much of the population is going to remain deathly afraid of this virus for the foreseeable future.
Not me!
Let them. But also let us get on with our lives. When the pants-wetters realise we’re not dropping dead in the streets, it might tempt them out. Or they can starve to death in their homes. It’s their call really.
Boris Johnson can’t prove ball spreads the disease so expect clubs back in July
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/sport/boris-johnson-cant-prove-ball-spreads-the-disease-so-expect-clubs-back-in-july-5bjpndmkg
One of the comments:
Andrew Davies
Johnson’s whole approach to coronavirus policy has throughout been that of a tail end batsman – not really quite knowing what to do. Sometimes having a swish and hitting, sometimes missing altogether, and generally not knowing whether to attack or defend but by some miracle still continuing at the crease.
This was so ridiculous, I couldn’t be more pleased. I’ve had a horrible day, and this has cheered me somewhat, marginally at least…
Swedish Covid Expert Says the World Still Doesn’t Understand https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-28/sweden-s-covid-expert-says-the-world-still-doesn-t-understand Key bits ……………. Over the past week, the epidemiologist has made headlines by lashing out at the World Health Organization and labeling as “mad” countries that opted for strict lockdowns. Throughout it all, Tegnell has argued that the world is only in the first stage of dealing with a long, uncertain battle with Covid-19. That’s why Sweden’s strategy — keep much of society open, but train people to observe distancing guidelines — is the only realistic way to cope in the long run, he says. “I’m looking forward to a more serious evaluation of our work than has been made so far,” Tegnell said in a podcast published by Swedish public radio. “There is no way of knowing how this ends.” ………………… Side Effects Tegnell’s main concern is that strict lockdowns may temporarily contain the virus, but won’t prevent it from returning. He also says lockdowns come at an avoidable cost. “In the same way that all drugs have side effects, measures against a pandemic also have negative effects,” he said. “At an authority like ours, which works with a broad spectrum of public health issues, it is natural to… Read more »
So you scoffed at second wave fears i see……..idiots!
Please do bless us with your wisdom and irrefutable evidence of a second wave. We welcome all opinions here.
Even the daft wrongheaded bolleaux from Grunt
Don’t hold your breath…..
Oh dear, screeching brain-dead nut-job alert
What do you call Grant Mitchell in a suit?
The defendant
here, take 24 paracetamol and a bottle of gin sweetie 🙂
I want one of those Tegnell T shirts
and hire him to work for us!
More news from here in Sweden today: they are surveying those 70+ about their experiences during the last few months. Also they are telling people who have had a positive antibody test that they can safely meet with people in risk groups. Karolinska institutet says that they estimate a higher level of immunity to Covid 19 than tests have shown thus far.
Thanks for all your efforts, Toby.
Could I throw an idea into the ring and see what others make of it? Notwithstanding our own governments utterly hopeless handling of the situation, many other countries have done fairly major interventions into peoples lives. I’ve wondered for some time if this would have happened had Covid originated somewhere other than China? Is this massive overreaction solely due to distrust of that regime?
The massive over-reaction is solely due to China’s evil regime being the first exmaple that others could copy. In China covid-19 crosses species to humans, and then the doctor who discovers it is arrested by commie party authoritiees. While he is being threatened it spreads and escapes any hope of ever being contained. China jumps at the hance to test its new tools of tyranny and eclares Wuhan locked-down. The virus naturally burns itself out locally, and declines, this would have happened whether they locked down or not. But by that time the rest of the world hs been inevitably seeded with a few covid cases per country, and they’re all seated on the 70 day rollercoaster of cases. As they see China’s cases, naturally, decline they assume lockdown caused the decline. Then they suffer politicians logic “we must do something”,”that is something”,”hence we must do that” (shortly after proving that by virtue of both having four legs my dog is a cat). Tegnell in Sweden, being above politics doesn’t fall into this trap, health authorities and governments almost everywhere else do though. If the pandemic had started anywhere which didn’t have the infrastructure of tyranny already widespread, and the… Read more »
Agree. Why the hell the West chose to ape a brutal communist tyranny is beyond me.
If the BBC, a year ago, had discovered a country in Africa that was being brutalised in this way by white, or even Chinese, rulers, can you imagine the squawks of outrage?
You know what – with all the impressive civil engineering that the Chinese do, and their ability to manufacture carbon copies of other countries’ cars, and so forth, that a lot of people in the formerly free world are secretly in awe of them.
I think it may have been a case of “imitation is the most sincere form of flattery!”
There have been suggestions that the original virus escaped from a biotech lab in the US. It was sent to the lab in Wuhan, by none other than Fauci, for further development.
Another rumour suggests that it was deliberately spread by US troops at the military games out there.
I guess we’ll never know but the US is no saint and it’s obviously gunning for China.
The most suspicious thing is the fact that, no matter when and where the lockdowns were implemented, the spikes all follow pretty much the exact same timing and trajectory, even down to the number of days.
Yes Farr curve, lockdown or not it does its thing and departs.
It seems to act like an amplifier: people who are going to die soon die sooner, people who are already ill become more ill.Most everyone else is little affected. Perhaps more attention should be paid to simple things like not being obese, diabetic or lacking in vitamin D, Eating the opposite of the Food Pyramid would be a start.
Your amplifier suggestion makes a lot of sense.
What doesn’t make sense in that case, is to lockdown if you’re aware it could amplify the Farr curve.
Precisely!
PS. I totally agree about reversing the food pyramid.
Unfortunately, if friend Bill gets his way ……
Holiday Suggestion
Faliraki – last week in August/first week in September. If you do make it over, the beers are on me. Plenty of all inclusive hotels with pools, aqua parks and sport inside the complexes.
Surge of cases in Australia as government admits tracing app has not found any new contacts
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/29/surge-cases-australia-government-admits-tracing-app-has-not/
The Australian government has admitted its Covid-19 contact tracing app has not identified a single contact not already known as the country recorded its highest number of daily new cases since April.
The surge was largely in the state of Victoria where 75 new cases were recorded in 24 hours, making up the vast majority of the 85 new infections recorded across the entire country.
………………..
The surge in cases has come as the Australian government has been forced to admit that its CovidSafe app, which has been downloaded by six million people, has not yet uncovered a single contact who had not already been found by its manual contact tracing teams.
…………………
The data showed it only worked 25 to 50 per cent of the time during locked iPhone-to-iPhone testing on May 26. One month prior to that, the testing results were worse, working 25 per cent of the time, or less, for contact between locked iPhones. Testing also found the app worked poorly when running in the background.
Hahahaha! Serves them right!
The Environmental health people have been telling them all along that manual tracing is the only way.
Unfortunately, it still doesn’t remove the track us all threat when there’s no viral excuse.
Ringing the changes at post-lockdown weddings
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/ringing-the-changes-at-post-lockdown-weddings-rfk0krkkh
Couples should whisper their vows during wedding ceremonies and wash their hands before and after exchanging wedding rings, official guidance suggests.
Fathers will be barred from walking their daughters under social distancing rules while receptions are “strongly advised” against and should be limited to two households.
From July 4 up to 30 people will be able to attend weddings or civil partnerships in licensed venues in England, but they will have to be conducted in the “shortest possible time”.
…………………………………………
On rings, the guidance says they should be handled by as few people as possible. He said: “Where the exchanging of rings is required or desired for the solemnisation of the marriage or the formation of the civil partnership, hands should be washed before and after. The rings should be handled by as few people as possible.”
Any ceremonies with rituals that involve washing can no longer be done at the venue itself and should be done before arriving. The guidance states people should not wash the bodily parts of others.
Levels of insanity beyond words. Every day these fckwits in government reach new heights. The opposition as well should hang their heads in shame for a total lack of sane actual opposition. Wa*)3rs
‘Volunteer’ Hawaiians Turn “Paradise On Earth” Into An Island Of Snitches
I am convinced that Matt Hancock is actually Joseph Goebbels reincarnated. If he were to donate blood to the NHS, his blood type would register as type E, that’s E for pure Evil.
The Boris Johnson regime is a communist dictatorship. The worst cabinet ministers ever to run this country in its history. And that’s saying something. Urrrrghh. Johnson, Hancock, Gove, Patel, Williamson…all of them out now!
But, didn’t you hear, Johnson has told us that he is Not a communist – and you must know that you can trust him!
“people have gotta know, whether or not their [primeminister] is a [communist], well I’m not a [communist], I’ve earned everything I’ve got”
That means he’s been asked!
Nazi comparisons!?!
If the cap fits ….
Watch Allo allo hes a dead ringer for one of the german officers!
Lieutenant Gruber??? Personality wise he’s more Herr Flick of the Gestapo.
Spot on!
If they impose another lockdown in the area I live I will ignore it and simply drive out of the area for non essential.shopping a bite to eat and even a pint.i mean unless they put road blocks up how can they stop.me ?
Which is fine, but not for the poor business people in Leicester who are open, or were hoping to be from 4 July. This is unhinged. The economic damage is scary, as is the resentment it will engender. And the mayor’s U turn – how on earth has he been so effectively nobbled?
I can’t understand (perhaps the medics here can tell me) why we aren’t encouraging the under 65s to mingle as much as possible and get some immunity whilst they’re fit enough to recover? Appreciate that lots of people in our developed Western setting live with the old and frail, but let them be paid to temporarily stay at home, or if children, be educated in segregated quiet rooms in school? Surely it’s not beyond the wit of man to look after those who need it, while letting the rest of us get on with our lives?
Agree with you totaly particularly as I’m in hospitality.
Maybe the Leicester residents should do the opposite. Have a within-borders unlocked down.
“Surely it’s not beyond the wit of man”
No, but it does seem to be beyond the wit of your average politician.
You’d better get thinking about how to overcome roadblocks, because that what our government are heading towards, and what the zealots (the same ones who’ve seriously proposed that every lockdown violator be made to wear a yellow virus shaped patch) are supporting.
Wales has had road blocks in its borders throughout. Quackduck hates the English, you see. After all, apart from paying for everything, what do the English ever do for us?
I hear another couple were stopped in Pembs and “escorted out of Wales” recently. I’ve had another recce of the Flints/Denbs car parks, and they’ve still got them and the laybys chained or cordoned off.
Another irritant are the number of “roadworks” that have cropped up on the back roads (ie, the ones without average speed or apnr cameras), further inhibiting movement by car.
I say this with a heavy heart, but I’m thinking of leaving Wales when this BS is all over.
I HAD a little dream of living in Wales for phase two of my life. That’s out the window. Same for Scotland.
I was born in Wales, grew up in Wales, live in Wales and work in Wales. I’ve worked and lived on the other side of the Marches too. But I’m not putting up with the BS that the idiot running Wales keeps coming out with. Not decided yet. This is home, after all.
My brother and his wife came from England to stay with us here in Wales a couple of weeks ago – M4 in and out – no problems. My late sister-in-law’s house in Liverpool has been sold and my wife and I travelled up there last week to do a final clearance of the property. Travelling there and back through the Borders, we expected to be challenged, but nothing…
Encouraging!
Aside from local lockdowns being disgusting and ridiculous.
Surely they are also pointless? (Even MORE pointless than a blanket lockdown that is!)
Simply for the reason that what happened in italy happened in italy. Local lockdowns drove people out of the affected cities and down south. Into other cities. Where they spread the dreaded lurg.
Cue all the Leicestarians (?) driving out of their local environs to shop, pub, etc. and really the police can do nothing about about it without setting up proper Soviet road blocks.
lol, I don’t know if people from Leicester really have a nickname.
I think that at the weekend especially people might be tempted to stray out of the zone and into the semi-free world beyond.
They won’t like that. I think road blocks are being discussed !
“lol, I don’t know if people from Leicester really have a nickname.”
“Foxes” will do nicely, thank you – and we’ll need some of that native cunning to get out of this fox-hole!
Well, I’m just speaking as a native, but I suppose the football team’s nickname is okay 🙂
Missed you x
Your entitled to your opinion.
Slight correction: “your entitled to you’re opinion”
Isn’t it: “You’re entitled to your opinion”
It should be, but I doubt Grant could get there.
lol, that’s not opinion, he’s just trolling.
Time for your meds before mummy puts you to bed
I think it’s satire, TT
Went into the local hospital yesterday which is like breaking into Fort Knox . As readers know both staff and visitors are now obliged to wear face masks. Staff have been asked to social distance when on the ward . The problem you see we are told is that during behind the doors clinical meetings staff would often huddle together to look at an x ray etc.
The people who have dictated these new rules are probably the same type of people who have written the new rules for weddings which include such crazy suggestions as the bride and groom need to wash their hands before and after the exchange of rings. I imagine a group of misanthropes who ” dont get out much ” got together to make these rules.
Within the hospital setting they probably don’t realise that all these junior doctors leave the hospital and share hospital accommodation with tiny living rooms and galley kitchens,
I assure you they don’t wear masks at home and close living and often sleeping is effectively rendering their insane rules ineffective.
It’s a nightmare. We’ve got a whole one way system now in our hospital, entrances are exits only, meaning in order to get in in the first place, you have to walk around outside. I did query as to whether we could be permitted to break the one way system in the event of a crash bleep, but nobody could answer me. The people who dictate this sort of nonsense don’t trouble themselves with things like crash bleeps. I’m finding it all very intrusive and claustrophobic, particularly having to wear a mask constantly. They have matrons on patrol, ready to shout down any poor maskless doctors. In the NHS I’ve often felt like a number, like a cog in a machine. But my powerlessness over the last few months, my inability to help patients, whilst my colleagues have sat back and done nothing is ever more wearing. I can’t even speak out properly because of the effect of the GMC and because all media communication is banned by my trust. Meanwhile there are rainbows on every wall as an ever present reminder as to the cult of the NHS. I can’t understand how these people who have so little clinical… Read more »
These types of micromanagers used to work in industry. But they destroyed it so have turned to the NHS.
My father and one of his brothers worked for the NHS from its inception until they retired, but in those days “admin” was a support service and the medical personnel made the clinical decisions.
Secret film the nonsense and get it posted. Please.
I’m going to feed the troll.
Engage, Grant. Make an argument. Try it – it might feel good.
Having Grant is rather like having a pimple on your bum, isn’t it? Irritating, but unimportant.
Yes, but I’m up for a fight today and all I have is you guys and We mostly agree with each other. Sad times.
Have you thought of invading a few zombie sites and stirring them up? I can’t do that myself, because zombie talk makes me physically sick.
Worth a thought. Care for a sweepstake on how quickly I get banned? Also – any specific suggestions?
Try the Telegraph comments!
It’s one extreme to the other in there.
There are some great lockdown sceptics but you might enjoy responding to the self-righteous bedwetters. Be warned, I can only stomach so much of them.
I’d have to pay to subscribe… may give it a look.
I got a three month trial subscription for a grand total of £3, just so I could follow the links being posted on here.
Yes, I know it’s not difficult
Any post I make with a link goes straight into moderation on Guido now. Mind you, I did lay into their hero (Boris) yesterday after the Leicester Lock was announced. Almost as good as the reaction I got when the original lockdown was announced.
Guido is another thought.
Ha just wrote above to you a similar thing. Guido comments thread must be just the entire cabinet and family posting.
San Sebastián
There has been a lot of (proper) interest in schools and their bizarre disinterest in providing a high standard of education in a pleasant environment to their charges, but what about health?
Almost every branch of health service we have had contact with during the last 100 days (too many unfortunately) has been disabled, disinterested or just not working at all. Tried to contact a UCHL department today, on their direct line, and still got the answerphone message that they would not speak on phone due to the high volume of work from Covid…is their a secret second wave?
My GP is now allowing a favoured few into the building, which suddenly feels like a fortress to keep ill people out, but ill people must stand whilst waiting, and be barked at by officious nurses instead of friendly receptionists. A woman in her 80s was sent back out into the rain as she was ‘too early’ for her appointment! The quantity of inadequate or unavailable health care over these last 100 days is too distressing to consider…and as for dentistry, don’t get me started.
Just shut up, me-dear, and clap them as they deserve.
In jail, would be my choice.
Just thought of this scenario: when the UK (and other European governments) panicked in March hospitals were emptied and treatments were stopped. Now imagine you were told you had cancer at the beginning of March. Terrible news of course, but at least your oncologist offered a treatment. However, that offer was retracted just a few weeks later, because all of a sudden your oncologist (and all his mates) decided they no longer had a commitment to cancer patients. In Korea they did not lock down. They had (and have) all sorts of anti-COVID-19 policies, but no lock down. They have been very successful at fighting the virus, after 6 months they have a mere 282 deaths for 51.5 million people! (Note that Taiwan, with an unbelievably good score of 7 deaths for 23.8 million people, did even better!) The Koreans (and the Taiwanese) did not make the mistake of emptying their hospitals. To the contrary, everything went on as planned, any patient was helped. My wife (who happens to be South Korean) and I started to notice in March/April that something was being done very wrong in Europe. So we thought “what if we want to go to Korea right… Read more »
And they do love a good street protest in Seoul, I assume the usual plethora of gatherings has been continuing as usual?
‘Walking the streets of Seoul on any given day, it is impossible to avoid scenes of protest. In particular Gwanghwamun Square in the central Jongno district has become an area of focus for protesters, with semi-permanent tents erected for long-term protests, and usually with counterprotests located on the opposite side of the road. Mass protests, like those currently taking place over Japanese trade restrictions, or those that led to the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye in late 2016, form easily and are able to comprise of a wide cross-section of South Korean society….’
If so, doesn’t seem to have dented their good response to Covid.
There weren’t large scale demonstrations in the last 6 months. Not because they were illegal (they weren’t!), but apparently at the moment they simply don’t have too much to complain about. They did have a BLM demonstration some time ago in Seoul, but funnily enough just 100 people turned up (seems Koreans don’t care much about BLM…). But 100 or 1 million people, nobody in Korea suggested at the time that demonstrations could lead to spreading of COVID-19. Given that they only have 282 COVID-19 deaths they must be on to something, right? Same in Taiwan: for historical reasons (they used to have, like Korea, a right-wing military dictatorship) Taiwanese loath the idea of culling civil rights, including the right to demonstrate. So on 25 March the government “suggested” (literal translation of term used) to not have outdoor activities (incl. demonstrations) with more than 500 people, but that was just a guideline, not a law/rule. And since then even the suggestion has already been retracted. A Taiwanese friend of mine, a doctor in Taipei, wrote this in an email to me a few days ago: “The situation of Taiwan is a little different from Europe: since Taiwan didn’t have too… Read more »
AFAIK, the main difference between Japan, S Korea Taiwan & increasingly Honk Kong is the prevalance of bidet toilets.
All these countries have very strong strictures on handwashing using soap&water not shaking hands, not touching face etc.
If there is a strong element of fecal transfer (like Polio) then these countries have managed to retard it with their strong public hygeine.
I have heard that one S Korean hospital instituted compulsory handwashinng between patients / rooms for all people in the hospital by adding loads of extra sinks. Result was No Covid.
Similarly one reason old peoples homes are hotbed of infection is the high % with toilet issues and or dementia almost guaranteeing fecal transfer.
Similarly countries like Austria are noted for greater public hygeine then inner city UK
Our towns and cities often have appalling public loos.
I was in Japan on holiday not that long ago and they didn’t have any soap in the public toilets in Tokyo. Unless you went to shopping centres and other areas that have a high concentration of foreign tourists.
Same happened in Kyoto and that’s why our guide provided us with handwipes because there was no soap in the public toilets located in the temples and shrines that we visited.
I’ll take your advice on that, having never been to Japan
However 75% of Japanese toilets are bidet toilets I.e. no toilet paper, drastically reducing probability of fecal contamination for majority of population. Similar in S Korea as a legacy of narrow gauge waste pipes.
It does mean that toilets can be more hygeinic. ( Note can be not necessarily will be)
Soap still useful for a bidet!
The toilets themselves might be more hygienic but users’ hands sound like a nightmare.
They do provide loo rolls even in bidet toilets.
I have lived in Korea before (2,5 years total), and although there are many good things to be mentioned about the place, their toilets definitely aren’t part of that.
Also, when eating in restaurants you all eat from the same bowls of side dishes, even in large groups of relative strangers, using chop sticks which go between the food in the bowls and your month (and back and forth). So no points for that either. (The food is great by the way!)
And the (older) men still have the tendency to spit on the floor, I have seen them do it sometimes even in a subway carriage…
So they are a high-tech country, which is probably what helped them (and which means we could very probably use their solutions as well), but hygienically speaking I wouldn’t give them more (or less) points than us over here.
Sorry, forgot about your point of old people homes. In Korea, unlike Britain and the Netherlands, people weren’t kicked out of hospitals in March. Instead, whenever they were going to be discharged (under normal circumstances, as in: there are always people going in and out of hospitals) they were tested on two consecutive days and if tested negative twice for COVID-19 they would then be discharged (if not, they were quarantined of course). This alone must already have avoided a lot of deaths.
So the job losses are mounting thousands going at easyjet and Airbus.
Maybe instead of a briefing giving covid deaths every day they could change it to daily job losses.
Hand job could deliver it backed up with expert opinion from Witty and Vallance,
It would be useful if the MSM did that, rather than trumpeting pointless covid “cases”.
Agree. They should change their record its getting boring now.
Daily job losses should also include a daily briefing of businesses going bust.
That should wake up the public from their furloughed induced torpor.
And for the self-righteous I’m All Right Jacks, details of how the economic problems are going to have a knock-on effect that hits them.
Well said. As for those drawing lovely pensions, just wait until Sunak announces a tax on their pensions to pay for all of the government’s spending – that should wake them up too.
‘Hits them’ is crucial. It’s awfully easy to bleat ‘Saving lives is more important than the economy’ when you are sprawling on a couch of unearned furlough money and cosily expect it to go on forever.
‘Prolonging the lives of a handful of elderly people I don’t personally know or care a bean a out is more important than me keeping my job, or my children having the slightest hope of a decent career’ sounds a bit different.
Video footage from Sweden. Looks amazing! Not a muzzle or crazy unjustifiable rule in sight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFxfs5X126M
Muzzle…….f off with that please!
Aw, bless.
Says Grant the ‘Masked Moron’.
Surely we must forgive him all things because of his coruscating wit and majestic command of the English language?
For some reason I feel sorry for it..
Even Noel Coward and George Bernard Shaw made mistakes.
Dont feed the troll!
True, it’s too easy…
Try actually contributing with anything actually supporting your view.
Can you actually defend the masked morons you see walking around with masks around their chins smoking. Hopefully they get a mention in the Darwin awards.
Wow! I’m pinioned by the blinding brilliance of the reasoning at the heart of that meticulously constructed logical proposition. You truly are the thinker of our Age. The shades of Aristotle, Plato, Voltaire, Kant et al prostrate themselves at your feet in awe. Oh wait…
News from Sweden – numbers in intensive care down to 155 (from 200 last week – a month ago it was 400) and numbers in hospital with CV19 (but not in intensive care) down by 81. And Tegnell seems to be ruling out introducing face masks 🙂
Can I move to Sweden please? I’ve spent a lot of time in Stockholm in my life and I do love it.
Any wiggle room on the tax rate?
You have until 31st December to move here!
Not necessarily – I have an Irish passport, as does my wife.
Enjoyed my last trip to Sweden. I would consider going if I could persuade my family. Terrible at languages though, other than French.
I can read Swedish OK, because I know German and English. But the rhythm of the spoken language baffles me. I’d get there in the end though, I’m sure.
I’m no christian, I’m no fan of any religion. But the freedom to go into a church is just like the freedom to go to your job, or to a pub, or out walking, or to see your family and friends… It is not up to government to decide what freedoms can and can’t be permitted, all must be allowed to get on with life. Well done to those christians who are suing, hope they will be followed by others who’ll sue other organisations which went quisling and collaborationist with illegal ministerial lockdown decrees.
Agreed. I read they are reopening but the regulations are onerous. No communion, no songs, no responses or shared prayers, no loud talking, no wind instruments, no coffee, perspex screen in front of any musicians if possible etc…
With such restrictions, I think some Christians will wonder what the point of going to church would be.
And where are the churches? The pope stood up to the Italian government and insisted that mass should return before hairdressing, but he’s been silent here, as has Nichols. Welby is too busy worrying about which knee to bend and whether Jesus was white.
For shame.
No wind instruments. ffs.
I think Jesus himself would weep at all this insanity being propagated in His name.
Enjoy the second wave you who harras old women who choose to wear masks
Hope you enjoy it too!
Don’t you get the feeling that this numpty is ecstatic at the thought of a second wave? It must want a job at the BBC when it grows up.
Arrested development, no doubt. Some mothers do ‘ave ’em.
Yes. Not sure why I was downvoted for that, but I will take it on the chin, because I know I shouldn’t feed the troll.
It…….it!?!…….you refer to me as it?………you cretins are so kind!…………….not really
Wow, just wow!
Look up cretins…it’s an abusive non PC term when used pejoratively. But in its original meaning it just means you are referring to us as Christians.
Live by the ad hom, die by the ad hom. Hoist by your own petard. Or, as Cpl Jones was wont to opine, “They don’t like it up ’em!”. Chin chin.
He’s a troll.
Probably is a BBC staffer…one of those sad shadowy figures you see on the news backdrop staring at a screen and doing very little else.
i reckon a teacher who is getting bored sitting in the garden all day
Dur! It’s ‘harass’.Been off little school too long eh?
Please aquaint yourself with some science, not bedwetting:
https://www.sott.net/article/434796-The-Science-is-Conclusive-Masks-and-Respirators-do-NOT-Prevent-Transmission-of-Viruses
I have assisted two elderly people who were suffering lack of oxygen while wearing a mask.
Separately.
Another sceptic kindly wrote to alert a mask maker of the dangers of wearing a mask. The mask makers legal dept agreed that their masks ought to have warning notices stitched to them.
These are actions of responsibility and compassion. Have you been busy shopping for the locked up as I have? Keeping your eye out for others who are struggling? Good for you well done.
We’ve lived through worse – Hong Kong Flu for instance. Phone mummy or maybe granny and ask her about it. She won’t remember it….that’s how important something like this is, or should be.
Ah, our Philosopher-King once more graces us with his infinite wisdom. Compared to GrantM Descartes is like unto Chubby Brown. Oh wait…
Job losses are mounting now all the pro lockdowners are in for a nasty shock.
And we will.be proved right.
We will. We will.
The “bounce back” plan today didn’t exactly fill me with confidence. Things I’ve already heard before about more nurses, police officers and spreading opportunity. Although the denial of being a communist was not expected.
So the bounce back fund is £5billion? That’s 5% of the expected bill for HS2, or to put it another way, about 3 days of lockdown damage. I would not be at all suprised if vast sums are on the way in the first of Sunak’s emergency budgets.
Horror stories from the High Street. Indeed that boycott list is growing longer and longer and longer:
https://twitter.com/simondolan/status/1277936623318110210
Given that 9 out of 10 stores were unable to pay their rent last 24 June, I don’t see many of these surviving especially if they treat customers like dirt and behave like KGB commissars or the Gestapo.
From Dolan’s tweet thread:
I went to the mall on Saturday. I was the only one without a mask. When people saw that I could get away with it, they started to take their masks off. It was nice to see smiling faces again. Boycott shops who want you to wear a mask that cannot prevent the spread of this virus.
Just keep being an example, to the best of your ability!
Free the smile!
Hash tag that if you like it is my gift to the world!
This is great. Many people responded to Simon’s tweet with their own dire experiences when shopping (many challenged, walked out and vowed that they won’t go back). Interestingly a few big brands’ PR people responded to some of these tweets and asked them to send them a Private Message or Direct Message with the details so that they can investigate.
Continue challenging and vote with your feet if you are not happy with the way you were treated.
Exactly. Hope the public do the same with pubs, restaurants, museums and heritage sites.
Any body that says white lives matter is considered fat right now
Free speech is free speech. I may not like what you have to say, but I defend your right to say it. Well done, by the way for digging up an article from a site nobody has ever heard of, which has an opinion piece about the general secretary of the free speech union defending the right to free speech.
Well its not like anyone has heard if this site. What a failure this movement has turned out to be. Just the same 50 people who post over and over again
GrantM, look outside your window. Or go in to town. Count all the people who aren’t paranoid, who don’t cower as you step towards them. Everyone who has been to a beach, or a protest (about anything). They might not all know it, but they’re with our movement. They’re out living and violating lockdown, they might not talk of it in the same terms we do, but they’ve mae up their mins not to tolerate any more abusive ministerial decrees. The lockdown might not collapse under crowds waving the sceptic banner, but when it’s collapse is complete we’ll have won. You’ll have just spent months cowering.
For the record, ive never been in fear or cowered. Im not a sheep who believes the MSM
Then enlighten us with some facts instead of coming here to insult. It just makes you sound stupid.
You constantly down talk people who choose to wear face masks cause you believe it will lead to the lockdown lasting forever………imagine if social media/internet was a thing during the spanish flu
Have you paid any attention at all to the science on whether or not face masks make any difference?
And you’re opposed to every aspect of the lockdown and “new normal” except for facemasks and hand hygiene?
Sounds like you’ve had one spliff too many. You’re not making sense any more.
“You constantly shit talk people who choose to wear face masks cause you believe it will lead to the lockdown lasting forever”
Wrong. If people choose to wear face masks then that’s up to them. I would object though of being forced to wear one when the ‘science’ on the wearing of them is unclear. If you choose to, have a look at this section “On the effectiveness of masks”in the link below. Then maybe you can come back and have a grown up debate (although I very much doubt it).
https://swprs.org/a-swiss-doctor-on-covid-19/
You probably don’t even know the derivation of cretin, you poor sap. Look it up.
I thought it was overdope speech…but you could be right. Or maybe both – too much alcohol and too much cannabis as he/ze tries to dissociate from reality.
Talking through his m-arse-k.
So… what are you saying? You believe in the horror of SARS-CoV 2 and Covid 19 because you’ve done independent research? Please share it if so n
So you oppose the lockdown? Believe civil libertes are worth whatever riks they bring? Recognise that economic damage and cancellation of elective surgeries will kill many more than the virus ever could? Just answer those three questions, a yes or no for each.
77th brigade know to ignore the MSM – unless they’re contributing to it.
You’ve never heard of apostrophes either
So sounds like you are Antifa then and are just intent on getting your own way by violence.
Antifa love face masks for obvious reasons! They were trend-setters as far as face masks go!
How stupid are you?! You’re one of the 50! If you don’t like it here, go and infest somewhere else
That’s 23 down votes. Another 27 to go if your theory is correct.
Come on, everyone vote to prove more than 50 come to this site.
Immunity to COVID-19 is probably higher than tests have shown
New research from Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital shows that many people with mild or asymptomatic COVID-19 demonstrate so-called T-cell-mediated immunity to the new coronavirus, even if they have not tested positively for antibodies. According to the researchers, this means that public immunity is probably higher than antibody tests suggest. The article is freely available on the bioRxiv server and has been submitted for publication in a scientific journal.
(…)