Deaths Below Five-Year Average for Sixth Week in a Row – ONS
Today’s ONS release has deaths from novel coronavirus in England and Wales continuing to fall. Here’s PA’s summary:
There were a total of 8,891 deaths registered in England and Wales in the week to July 24th, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), 161 fewer than the five-year average of 9,052, PA reports.
This is the sixth week in a row that deaths have been below the five-year average.
Of the deaths registered in the week to July 24th, 217 mentioned COVID-19 on the death certificate – the lowest number of deaths involving COVID-19 since the week ending March 20th, when there was 103 deaths.
What was all that about a “second wave” Boris?
The ONS has published a chart showing, among other things, that the number of people dying from influenza and pneumonia has been below the five-year average (the dotted lines) since mid-April. Could it be that deaths from respiratory failure that would normally be attributed to influenza and pneumonia are being falsely attributed to COVID-19? Dr John Lee warned of that risk in his first article for the Spectator. “It might appear far more of a killer than flu, simply because of the way deaths are recorded,” he wrote.
Postcard From Aldeburgh
A reader is just back from a break in the Suffolk seaside town of Aldeburgh. He didn’t have a very nice time.
Stayed a couple of days with friends (ex-Londoners) who moved full time to Aldeburgh about four years ago.
On the day I arrived, I strolled down the sea front in search of some smoked or potted fish to take home as the fishermen’s huts there have a great offering direct to the public.
Saw a hut with smoked fish and joined the queue. The man ahead of me was asked on the threshold of the hut if he had a mask. When he answered in the negative the fisherman (!) told him to stay on the edge of the door. I turned on my heel and abandoned the quest.
Locals in the town seem to be giving any visitors a wide berth, not to mention the cold shoulder. I heard a lot of grumbling about people coming in and using the beach. No thought for the fact that it is a public space, that the visitors presumably don’t live in such open surroundings and need a rest from being locked in.
First local I engaged with – middle aged chap watering his window box – immediately asked if I was visiting for the day…
Apparently, back in March a “Londoner’’ visited the newsagent and supposedly infected the newsagent, causing him and his family to shut the shop and self-isolate for two weeks. I have no idea how they knew it was this poor Londoner who infected him. Strikes me as being just as likely that it was a local returning from skiing in Italy.
Lots of locals stepping ostentatiously out into the road at the approach of an “outsider” on the (pretty wide) pavement… all very depressing.
Only mitigation was the lady in a card shop who didn’t bat an eyelid when I went in without a face nappy to buy my cards. Couldn’t have been pleasanter. But I won’t name the shop as she will probably be boycotted!
How has it come to pass that a pleasant seaside town like Aldeburgh now regards itself as a fortress to repel outsiders, rather than welcome them for the trade and money they generate?
I won’t be going back in a hurry.
Never Mind Squeezing the Brakes – Boris’s Lockdown Strategy is a Car Crash
I wrote a piece for the Telegraph yesterday trying to capture the madness of the last few days.
I’ve lost count of the number of U-turns the Government has done. First we were told that masks were unnecessary. Now they’re mandatory in indoor public spaces. Primary schools were supposed to re-open weeks before the summer holidays. Then they weren’t. You are absolutely, positively allowed to go to Spain on your summer holidays – oh no, wait a minute, you’re not. It’s hardly surprising that even members of the Cabinet are being caught out by last-minute policy shifts.
But in the last 48 hours the Government’s handling of the ongoing crisis has reached a new pitch of incoherence. August 1st was supposed to be the day that another raft of restrictions were lifted, with bowling alleys, skating rinks and casinos all allowed to re-open. Live sporting events were due to resume and weddings of up to 30 people would be permitted. It was time to turbo-boost the economy.
But on Friday Boris announced he was going to “squeeze the brake pedal” in response to a “surge” in infections across England, which meant none of these things would happen. Worse, a local lockdown was imposed in Greater Manchester, East Lancashire and parts of West Yorkshire, thanks to a fresh “outbreak” in the northwest. Matt Hancock helpfully unveiled this hodgepodge of new restrictions at 9.16pm on Twitter, less than three hours before they came into force.
So what’s the message coming out of Downing Street? That the crisis is far from over and we need to be super-vigilant if we’re to avoid a second wave? Apparently not, because the government has stuck to its plan to launch Rishi Sunak’s ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme, with diners in over 72,000 cafes, pubs and restaurants getting 50% off for the month of August.
In addition, the ‘shielding guidance’, whereby the elderly and the vulnerable were advised to take extra steps to protect themselves, was ‘paused’ on Saturday. That’s encouraging. Virus almost gone, then? Er, no. Less than 24 hours later we learned that Boris is considering extending the ‘shielding’ policy to everyone over 50.
So the Prime Minister has simultaneously slammed on the brakes, executed a U-turn and pressed the accelerator. No wonder the government appears to be drifting.
I summarised the evidence that infections have not increased, either in England as a whole or in the North West that readers of this site will be familiar with. Unfortunately, most of that didn’t make it into the piece – too much detail? – so here’s what I wrote.
The Office for National Statistics published its latest infection survey data on Friday, supposedly showing an increase in the number of infected people across England from 0.05 percent of the population to 0.09% if you compare the period June 29th to July 12th with the period July 13th to July 26th. But if you drill down into the data, you discover this is based on just a handful of people.
In the penultimate two-week period, 31,542 people were given a nose and throat swab, of whom 19 tested positive, whereas in the more recent period 28,325 people were tested, of whom 24 were positive. So the alarming “surge” in infections across the whole country amounted to a grand total of five more people testing positive. Never in the field of public policy has so much been owed by so many to so few.
Okay, there was also an uptick in the number of cases in the community over the course of July as revealed by Pillar 2 testing. But according to Carl Heneghan, the Oxford Professor of Evidence-Based Medicine, that’s entirely due to the fact that the number of people being tested has ramped up significantly in the past four weeks.
On July 1st, 43,161 Pillar 2 tests were done compared to 78,522 on July 31st, an increase of 82%. If you look at the number of people per 100,000 testing positive as opposed to the raw data, there’s no increase.
What about the alarming “outbreak” in the northwest that prompted Matt Hancock to place four-and-a-half million people under virtual house arrest on Thursday evening? That, too, is a figment of the government’s imagination, says Prof Heneghan.
In an interview in The Telegraph yesterday, he said the apparent increase in cases in Greater Manchester, East Lancashire and parts of West Yorkshire disappears if you control for: (a) the date the tests were taken rather than when the results came through; and (b) the increase in Pillar 2 testing.
My conclusion – and this will surprise no one – is that Boris doesn’t know what he’s doing.
It seems the Prime Minister was too busy conjugating Greek and Latin verbs at Eton to pay any attention in maths. When I think of his handling of the coronavirus crisis I picture a child behind the wheel of a racing car. He’s overwhelmed by the data constantly popping up on his dashboard, has no idea what any of it means, so just randomly presses different levers and pedals, spins the wheel as fast as he can, and hopes for the best.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: For digital subscribers to the Telegraph, the comments below my piece make for entertaining reading. Here’s one of the highest-rated:
In company with many I was prepared to give the government the benefit of the doubt. Unfortunately the virus has exposed what many of us suspected. The overeducated career politicians with no business or life experience are just as ineffectual, as the overpaid, over promoted seat polishers in the civil service, NHS and PHE.
How Accurate is the Government’s PCR Test?
A reader has posed some good questions about the accuracy of the PCR test the Government is using, and wonders whether the new, much-ballyhooed 90-minute test will be any more reliable.
In your blog of August 2nd you quote ONS data which show there were 19 and 24 positive test results for two concurrent 14-day periods within sample populations of roughly 30,000 each. What surprises me about these results is how can the number of samples testing positive be so low. I am not implying that there should be more positive samples from genuinely infected donors. Rather, I refer to the number of false positives among uninfected donors one would expect from such a test
I saw this quote in an article in yesterday’s Daily Mail reporting two 90 minute turnaround tests soon to be deployed:
“The Government has never disclosed how accurate its current [slow turnaround] tests are, but studies have indicated they give the correct diagnosis about 80% of the time”
The test used to determine presence of virus is the RT-PCR test. I have looked long and hard but unsuccessfully for a Government statement on how accurate their tests are. Do you or any of your readers have knowledge of the accuracy of these tests? I have seen others quote 30% for false negatives among those genuinely infected and 1-5% for false positives among those genuinely uninfected. Incidentally, to find just 20 (false) positives in a sample of 30,000 would require a specificity of 99.93%. The RT-PCR is nowhere near that accurate and indicates the numbers quoted by ONS are just noise and as such meaningless.
It would be reprehensible if such inaccurate data were used to justify further lockdowns where positive test numbers are low.
Holidaymakers – Beware False Advertising
A reader has alerted me to the fact that he wasn’t told about the appalling, North Korean-style restrictions being imposed in his Greek resort until after he’d booked the holiday. You have been warned.
Every year my partner and I who happens to be of Portuguese descent travel to her home in the Algarve to see family and friends and enjoy what I’ve come to know as a wonderful part of the world. This year it won’t be feasible due to this air bridge scheme which seems to be a randomly selected group of countries rather than those with the least infections, etc. It’s an expensive trip and to be honest neither my partner nor I want to see the Algarve a shadow of what it is every other year we visit.
Therefore, we decided we’d try Greece instead. After some research, it appeared that this is one of the only places without the bed wetting rituals in many other parts of the world, they also happen to have an air bridge.
We booked an all inclusive family resort with multiple bars and restaurants, with baby sitters on site and a children’s play area which would give us some respite from our two year old twin boys who have vast amounts of stored energy having been prevented from visiting our local parks, play areas, soft play, etc.
I’ve since discovered more details which made me wretch. Only one restaurant is open, the kids areas are shut, no babysitters, staff in PPE and forced hand sanitation on entry, among many other ridiculous measures including restricted pool access. I can’t even serve myself at the buffet. I consider it abhorrent that a man of 27 with two kids will be charged hard-earned money to go to a resort where I can’t even be trusted to serve myself my own dinner, let alone be given free reign of the pool, gym and kids areas. etc. that were all listed in the booking.com advert.
I had hoped for a break from this nonsense but it appears that’s not possible and that holidays in 2020 are merely an expensive stay in a hotel.
Diversity Training Horror Story
“Diversity training” horror stories have become a thriving genre. But this is the only one I’ve come across in which the trainer was actually Robin D’Angelo, author of White Fragility and America’s leading shill for this snake-oil – the PT Barnum of the $8 billion-a-year “diversity training” industry. You can hear the entire story in this podcast, but here is a summary sent to me by a reader.
Overview of the diversity sensitivity training
* Each training session was 4 hours long, and the program went on for over a year(!).
* All staff members took part, no exceptions, with mandatory attendance.
* The course was led by DiAngelo (who many people seem to assume is black, but is actually white) and a black co-presenter.
* Participants were told by DiAngelo that the more they tried to resist what she was saying, the more it was evidence she was doing the right thing.
* If anything she said made participants feel uncomfortable, that was just proof of their fragility.
* If people denied they were racist, that was simply more proof of their racism.
The net effect was that anything DiAngelo said was, by her own ground rules, unfalsifiable.
* The goal of the training seemed to be to get white people to admit they were racist.
* In terms of helping people of different colour get along better, the training may actually have been counter productive.
The organization the woman worked for
The woman worked at a non-profit theatre company. As such, most of the staff were already progressive liberals who generally believed in racial equality. But the employees were predominantly white and therefore, according to DiAngelo, guilty of systemic racism.
The incident that led to the need for diversity training
The company was rehearsing a play about the African-American experience in New York neighbourhoods. It included several black actors, perhaps a sign in itself the company was already towards the less racist end of the spectrum. At one point, a stagehand who was miked into the backstage sound system wasn’t sure what an actor had said. He therefore asked in his headset “Did he just say ‘n-word’?”, except he actually said the word out loud. This caused much internal turmoil, eventually leading the company to launch the sensitivity training program. As was explained to everyone, whatever the stagehand’s intent had been when saying the word didn’t matter – apparently it was the moral equivalent of having actually directed the word at someone. The dollar cost of the program is unknown, but presumably wasn’t cheap, and presumably a significant burden for a non-profit company.
The moment when the woman being interviewed started to turn on the presenters
The woman being interviewed was a designer and had created a poster for The Odyssey. As part of her research, she found an interlocking geometric pattern on some ancient Greek pottery that she decided to incorporate that into her poster. After about 30,000 copies of the poster were printed, an anonymous co-worker pointed out that the intersections of the pattern, which was continuous, looked like swastikas. There was much internal consultation before it finally made its way up the chain of command to the Executive Director. As it turned out he was Jewish, and he was fine with it.
News of the incident got to DiAngelo, though, who made it the subject of one of her training sessions. At the beginning of the session, she specifically asked participants to refrain from making any comments and just to practice listening. She then went on to describe the incident and called the “Nazi imagery” a great example of sub-conscious racism. The woman who designed the poster knew otherwise, but the rules of the session were such that she wasn’t allowed to say anything.
The woman was upset on several levels. For a start, she knew there was no unconscious racism involved since she was just trying to be culturally authentic in her design. And although she wasn’t identified as the person who designed the poster (and DiAngelo made a point of saying it wasn’t important who did), she felt that most of her co-workers knew it must have been her. The whole thing was therefore very embarrassing without the opportunity to defend herself.
After this, she started to question other aspects of the training as well.
An anecdote from the training
At one point, DiAngelo took a moment to apologize to her co-presenter. Apparently she’d interrupted her earlier, and whenever this is done by a white person to a black person, it’s a way of perpetuating racism by reinforcing traditional power relationships. It presumably didn’t matter that the two knew each other well, or that interruption is a normal part of human relationships.
In the process, DiAngelo also gave advice on the proper way to apologize to a black person. For example, it should be done unemotionally, otherwise it would place too much of a burden on the black person.
There’s a companion podcast in which the pure hokum of White Fragility is laid bare. And in case you missed it, Matt Taibbi took the book apart in this entertainingly furious review.
Answers to Questions About Legality of Remote GP Appointments
I have received a very thorough, comprehensive answer to the questions posed by a reader yesterday about the legality of her local GP practice refusing to book a face-to-face appointment with her 85 year-old father suffering from memory loss. Probably not what she wanted to hear, I’m afraid.
I’m ex-Dept of Health, 30 years including Head of GP Training, GP access, etc. and had therefore a fair amount to do with GP provision over the years. Retired 2017. Unfortunately, the system probably allows for all this. We did have a detailed GP contract but that was got rid of in 2003 in favour of a much more general arrangement that incidentally handed GPs tons more money for doing much less work. That contract was the one that removed the need for GPs to provide “out-of -hours” care for patients, amongst other things.
By and large the system exists to promote conformity in services. There is still huge variation in both the quality of care and the patient experience. Many practices are very good, especially in the country and small towns: London is generally poorly served and there are a number of very bad practices which perform poorly on all measures.
Your GP is not obliged to offer you an appointment just because you want one. The GP is supposed to give appointments to the practice’s patients where there is a clinical necessity. The GP judges what is clinically necessary. In practice these decisions are usually delegated to receptionists working to a script.
Telephone appointments have been in use for years and are often convenient for patients alongside standard face to face appointments. Things such as “opening times” of the practice are not mandated – I can bitterly recall the huge problem it was to get even some practices to open in the early mornings, evenings and weekends so that working commuters could see a GP.
So the question is whether all this shutdown of local primary care services, taken to these extremes, is “reasonable” in current circumstances. The first and most important arbiter will be the local Primary Care group – made up of the local GPs plus a few others, so if they’re all doing it there is no possibility they’ll criticise themselves. NHS England is next in line and I am assuming that they have sanctioned all this, so they won’t cut their own throats. The Department of Health has no longer any real say in what GPs do. Simply put, Hancock can’t make it stop or change.
The General Medical Council would be a possibility to look into a specific accusation that a doctor has failed to deliver an adequate standard of care. The GMC has a booklet called “Duties of a Doctor” but this is also non-specific – it talks in terms of principles rather than separate actions. I don’t know if the GMC has issued any guidance in the current nonsense amounting to a blanket absolution in advance.
Sorry not to be more helpful. You might find individual variations between GPs saying different things about what happens in different practices – this is perfectly normal. But the short answer is that there isn’t a prescribed form of “how a GP practice shall be run” and if they all do it and follow the guidance they will be officially in the clear.
A GP has written to me, saying she believes that refusing to make a face-to-face patient with an 85 year-old man suffering from dementia could be unlawful and suggests complaining to the practice and the GMC:
I am a GP and have been seeing patients face to face throughout this whole time, as has the rest of the practice team. There has been a big shift to dealing with a lot of problems remotely where possible/even preferable for some patients, but there are some situations which can only be dealt with via a face-to-face appointment and the GP is obliged to do this under the contract. Failure to offer this is in my opinion not only grounds to make a formal complaint to the practice but may also warrant a referral to the GMC.
However, one reader did precisely that – complained to the GMC – and got back this rather discouraging response.
The General Medical Council regulates doctors and provides ethical guidance on a range of issues. However, we are not responsible for guidance on personal protective equipment, social distancing or the provision of services – which are managed by the Government. The Department of Health and Social Care would be best placed to answer most of your questions.
Another GP has written to say it isn’t the fault of GPs, although the medical profession has the same share of bedwetters as most others. Rather, it’s the fault of the ridiculous rules GP practices have been forced to comply with since March.
The problem for General Practice since March 2020 has at its centre the fear engendered by the Government.
GPs were told to do telephone consults at the same time as hospital consultants were instructed only to do telephone consultations. We were told that any contact with a stranger could spread the deadly virus.
To start seeing patients face-to-face we had to follow the guidelines which are policed by the CQC. Here are the guidelines.
The waiting room had to be “COVID-secure, using social distancing, optimal hand hygiene, frequent surface decontamination, ventilation and other measures where appropriate”, everyone has to wear a muzzle, etc., etc.
I have between 50 and 60 patient telephone contacts of which I see face-to-face about 15 in the surgery. I would much rather see 36 patients a day in the surgery and have only 15 phone calls.
Some GP surgeries especially those in London have been reluctant to see patients face-to-face; there are as many bedwetters among GPs as any other profession. As regards video consults and patients sending in a picture of their rash I think they can be quite useful. I have seen thousands of rashes in my career and will tell you what it is from a clear photo just as easily as seeing the patient in the surgery.
For the gentleman with dementia he would need a quick consultation with a mini mental test along with a few blood tests. He would then be referred to the Psychiatric Dementia Service. Unfortunately, the Dementia Service, along with the whole of the UK psychiatric service, has been missing in action since March. Psychiatrists are rivalling teachers and podiatrists in their aversion to returning to work.
Anyway Toby give GPs a break as most of us are seeing and examining patients in the surgery. I would love to not wear a face nappy, bin bag, face visor and rubber gloves, but there are Stasi-like martinets enforcing the rules in every surgery.
I think you should aim towards secondary care and ask why hospital consultants are still reluctant to see patients face to face.
One reader has referred the complainant to the Citizen’s Advice Bureau:
A good place to start is the NHS Constitution that sets out patients and professional rights and duties. A very useful and informative source that is well explained and tabulated is via Citizens Advice website. I think that you may find most of the info that you require to form a basis of complaint.
Another thinks there’s no point in challenging this guidance in the courts, even if remote appointments are unlawful.
Not being a lawyer, I cannot help out as to what the statute books and case law suggest. What I DO know, based on watching how the courts have operated over the past twenty years or so, is that whatever the law says, even if it is crystal clear, judges will hand down the politically correct decision, justifying it with references either to nebulous law such as the Human Rights Act, or previous, highly dubious, legal judgements.
And finally a reader has a suggestion that just might work:
Regarding GPs, I don’t have the answers but I do have a suggestion. If everyone who needs a GP just goes straight to A&E (they are apparently quiet anyway) and sees a doctor there, surely the Government will get the message? And a great media story “A&E’s Overwhelmed by Patients Wanting to See a GP.” Handcock might get the message then.
Round-Up
- ‘Pseudo-epidemics: Why COVID-19 is guaranteed to never end‘ – Brilliant blog post my Mike Hearn, comparing the coronavirus crisis to a pseudo-epidemic of whooping cough that broke out at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in 2006. Absolute must read
- ‘Daniel Andrews announces permit system for Melbourne‘ – Kim Jong Dan has announced that people outside their homes for legitimate reasons in Greater Melbourne will need to show a permit if stopped by authorities
- ‘The COVID-19 Science and Policy Symposium‘ – Covid Plan B, a sceptical group in New Zealand, has organised a symposium with some top scientists, including Professor Sunetra Gupta, on August 17th that’s free to attend if you register here. Numbers are limited to 150 people
- ‘Policewoman attacked by anti-masker‘ – A woman in Melbourne attacked a police officer when she was challenged for not wearing a mask
- ‘Get Britain out of the Covid coma now‘ – Excellent column by the Mail‘s Richard Littlejohn: “In the end, we’re all going to die of something. We can’t spend the rest of our lives trying to postpone the inevitable.”
- ‘No, the Woke won’t debate you. Here’s why‘ – James Lindsay explains why the Woke avoid debates and don’t believe in free speech
- ‘“LIKE THE MARY CELESTE” Just one in 20 civil servants have returned to their desks sparking fury from Cabinet Ministers‘ – Alarming report in the Sun
- ‘Testing and tracing “key to schools returning”, scientists say‘ – Shockingly uncritical article on BBC News by the Health and Science Correspondent, blithely accepting every conceivable excuse for not re-opening schools in September. Accompanied by picture of schoolchild wearing a mask, as if that’s inevitable
- ‘The threat to free speech is universal‘ – Summary of the Cato Institute report showing that 62% of Americans are afraid to speak their minds
- ‘The “woke” have won – it’s too late for our unis if academics need to hide their views‘ – Pessimistic piece by Celia Walden in the Telegraph, drawing on the findings in yesterday’s Policy Exchange report
- ‘How have we allowed our universities to become such intolerant places?‘ – Daniel Johnson in the Article digest the Policy Exchange report
- ‘Johnson isn’t listening to the right scientists‘ – No, really? Good piece by Will Jones in Conservative Woman
- ‘The British public has been terrorised‘ – Spiked columnist Tim Black tries to get to grips with the polling data showing 68% of Brits are “very concerned” about the threat the virus poses to their health
- ‘Cities face blockades to contain a second wave of coronavirus‘ – Cheery piece in the Times. As Richard Littlejohn says (see above), will the state be placing police snipers on motorway bridges on the M25 to stop people leaving London?
- ‘Israeli-modified erectile dysfunction drug shows some promise treating COVID-19‘ – A chance to kill two birds with one stone for older readers
- ‘The dangerous pursuit of safety‘ – Unusually sceptical article in the Boston Globe by Jay Rosens
- ‘An Improved Measure of Deaths Due to COVID-19 in England and Wales‘ – Interesting paper from a group of academics at Sheffield University suggesting that we’re over-counting Covid deaths. They also conclude that over the lockdown period Government policy has increased mortality rather than reduced it, thanks to reduced A&E attendance, reduced cardiac and cancer treatments, etc.
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Just one today: “Society Is Brainwashed” by Ill Bill.
Small Businesses That Have Re-Opened
A couple of months ago, Lockdown Sceptics launched a searchable directory of open businesses across the UK. The idea is to celebrate those retail and hospitality businesses that have re-opened, as well as help people find out what has opened in their area. But we need your help to build it, so we’ve created a form you can fill out to tell us about those businesses that have opened near you.
Now that non-essential shops have re-opened – or most of them, anyway – we’re now focusing on pubs, bars, clubs and restaurants, as well as other social venues. As of July 4th, many of them have re-opened too, but not all (and some of them are at risk of having to close again). Please visit the page and let us know about those brave folk who are doing their bit to get our country back on its feet – particularly if they’re not insisting on face masks! Don’t worry if your entries don’t show up immediately – we need to approve them once you’ve entered the data.
Forums Back Up and Running
I enjoy reading all your comments and I’m glad I’ve created a “safe space” for lockdown sceptics to share their frustrations and keep each other’s spirits up. But please don’t copy and paste whole articles from papers that are behind paywalls in the comments. I work for some of those papers and if they don’t charge for premium content they won’t survive.
We have created some Lockdown Sceptics Forums that are now open. Initially, they became a spam magnet so we temporarily closed them. However, we’ve found a team of people wiling to serve as moderators so the Forums are back up and running. Any problems, email the Lockdown Sceptics webmaster Ian Rons here.
“Mask Exempt” Lanyards
I thought I’d create a new permanent slot down here for people who want to buy (or make) a “Mask Exempt” lanyard/card. You can print out and laminate a fairly standard one for free here and it has the advantage of not explicitly claiming you have a disability. But if you have no qualms about that (or you are disabled), you can buy a lanyard from Amazon saying you do have a disability/medical exemption here (now showing it will arrive between Sept 9th to 18th). The Government has instructions on how to download an official “Mask Exempt” notice to put on your phone here. You can get a “Hidden Disability” tag from eBay here and an “exempt” card that looks like as if it’s been issued by the NHS for just £2.79 from Etsy here.
Don’t forget to sign the petition on the UK Government’s petitions website calling for an end to mandatory face nappies in shops here.
A reader has started a website that contains some useful guidance about how you can claim legal exemption.
Meanwhile, mandatory face nappies have unfairly placed supermarket workers in the firing line, according to the Telegraph.
Shameless Begging Bit
Thanks as always to those of you who made a donation in the past 24 hours to pay for the upkeep of this site. If you feel like donating, however small the sum, please click here. And if you want to flag up any stories or links I should include in future updates, email me here.
And Finally…
This is brilliant. It’s a trailer for a new horror movie called Corona Zombies. No need to hold the Oscars next year. We already know which film is going to win Best Picture. (Warning: contains gory imagery some readers may find upsetting.)
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
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Hahaha, in your face Hawk Anal Cyst!!!!!!!!!
Let’s start the day off with a repeat of what I said:
So, according to the ONS, deaths for week 30 of 2020:-
Total: 8891 (up from 8823 prev. week, down from 5 year average of 9052)
‘flu/pneumonia: 958 (up from 879 prev. week)
COVID-19: 217 (down from 295 prev. week)
‘flu/pneumonia:COVID-19 ratio is over 4.14:1 (guessing masks aren’t stopping regular ‘flu/pneumonia?), COVID-19 deaths as a proportion of all-cause deaths: 2.44%, ‘flu/pneumonia: 10.77% (guess we’re going to be self-isolating due to ‘flu soon!)
— https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/deathsregisteredweeklyinenglandandwalesprovisional/weekending24july2020
I like that.
I am astounded they can differentiate between flu/pneumonia! I thought they would just chuck that in with c deaths.
I suspect it’s ones where COVID-19 test returns negative
I went for my first supermarket shop since the mandatory masks came into effect. As I was walking towards the entrance the member of staff who stands on the door asked if I had a face covering and I said “I’m exempt” and he said no problem, gave me a thumbs up and I walked through. Nobody in the shop said anything or even looked in my general direction.
Sadly, I was the only customer in the entire shop without one. I’d say 75% of staff wore one too.
I posted a very similar comment on yesterday’s. Main difference was that all (yes, every single one) of the staff had masks – and I reckon I saw/passed 100 or more, all with masks except me, i.e. 99%+ compliance! Why, just, bloody hell, why?
My experience was the same as Morrisons, was hoping people would be getting wise to this sham , but sadly not just me unmasked.
I know I keep banging on about this people I see people in every supermarket who should not be restricting their air supply. Some plod along, but still have masks on.
Because people don’t know about exemptions, and think they’ll be either fined by the police if they don’t wear one, or don’t want a row with other shoppers.
That’s the sad thing. I’ve told people who have health conditions like asthma and heart procedures that they should not suffer in silence and get a lanyard but my appeal falls on deaf ears as apart from the fear of being fined or having a row with other shoppers, they also believe that old chestnut of wearing a muzzle to protect others. They don’t believe me when I point out that they’re ineffective and they’re doing more harm to themselves.
Have you tried one about underwear not keeping farts in, Covid particles are a lot smaller than farts.
No I haven’t. That’s a good idea and makes sense.
I shop unmasked without a lanyard, my health is not their business.
Agree. I keep mine in my pocket as I’m not comfortable showing it off.
Same again for me and my wife who were the only unmasked customers in a busy Lidl’s supermarket. Most people haven’t a clue that this all about control and nothing at all to do with an infectious disease, which if it ever existed has now vanished. The next major task will be avoiding Bill Gates’s genocidal vaccines.
Did my regular shop – Aldi. Staff all nice as ever.. those not on tills forced to wear masks and still looking uncomfortable. No door guards. I was maskless. A couple of other ladies were also maskless. everyone else masked but no comments, looks etc .
Went into shopping centre. Too many people walking round outside the shops with masks on . wanted to complain at bank, but queue of 10 people waiting for it to open. Then tried to phone – on hold for ages and gave up. Why are these banks become so bad. they are using lockdown as a reason for a huge reduction in service levels.
I work in a coffeeshop, where we greet people at the door and advise of the new procedures. If they do not already wear their muzzle, I tell them they do not need it, and there are plenty of smiles and relieved faces. Neither do I make them use sanitizer.
Good to hear.
At last a positive, sane example of virtue signalling. We need to continue dismantling its current negative form. Our Woke is Freedom, not Tyranny. We are the real woke folks. We are The Champions. Woke R Us.
I asked an off duty Tesco worker if was obliged to wear a mask by the company he said ‘no not obliged but strongly advised’.
This is fabulous reading https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/04/commentary-masks-all-covid-19-not-based-sound-data Very interesting the updated comment of this original article which showed that face masks were not effective Now the authors have come under enormous pressure to withdraw or correct the article so they now say they support masks but do they? “Is wearing a face covering better than nothing?“Wearing a cloth mask or face covering could be better than doing nothing, but we simply don’t know at this point. We have observed an evolution in the messaging around cloth masks, from an initial understanding that they should not be seen as a replacement for physical distancing to more recent messaging that suggests cloth masks are equivalent to physical distancing. And while everyone appears to understand that this messaging suggests that a cloth mask is appropriate only for source control (ie, to protect others from infection), recent CDC and other guidance recommending their use by workers seems to imply that they offer some type of personal protection.” Do we support cloth mask wearing where mandated?“Despite the current limited scientific data detailing their effectiveness, we support the wearing of face coverings by the public when mandated and when in close contact with people whose infection status they… Read more »
Yes, medieval times. Second Dark Age.
I take issue with this because at least the medievals were following the science of the time. Our lot aren’t even doing that! If anything they’re more superstitious and treat “science” like it is some kind of magic that defies rationale and logic.
That’s because our New Bosses are MediEvil.
It’s not that they are scared or frightened of science. It’s just that the science doesn’t fit in with their control and depopulation agenda. We are in deep trouble.
And the government plan is to make it a lot darker still.
I actually spelled out the fallacy of the “evidence” to the President of the Royal Society and the man who (I am guessing) was involved in “amassing” Royal Society’s argument for face masks when it first came out (just before masks were mandated), all I got back was “thanks for feedback and critique.” Let’s put it this way: that paper by the Royal Society was not meant to be scruitinised in the slightest!
Contrast this with recently published FAA report on the 737 MAX flight JT610 and the recommendations for MCAS use and software changes.
Great amount of detail about specific things and what has to be mitigated and shown to be airworthy.
The evidence of masks is at the suggests stage. The peer review stage is still just a possible.
To anyone here who doesn’t know it: peer review does not mean something is correct. It just means it’s deemed suitable to enter the scientfic discourse. Being correct means that it has been tested, retested, all the time trying to break it, to falsify it and still it seems to work.
Or what most people think means correct.
There are different levels of “experiments” in medicine, most of the “for” evidence comes from Case-Control Studies what are badly designed and not entirely honest (in one, for example, they were using oseltamivir phosphate and didn’t take it into account whatsoever), most (if not all) were done in China. Several levels of “confidence” above Case-Control Studies, are Randomized Controlled Trial (if that trial is multi-site it’s even better). The thing is, all RCTs, and there have even been multi-site RCTs say masks are useless and, on occasion, counter-productive.
Following RCTs is normally periods of application with strict guidance to see the efficacy. That’s essentially the “qualification” stage before things become procedure. My OH is in medicine.
That’s the hard bit. Seeing how all other day to day factors affect your procedure.
On a sidenote I have heard that some specialised units are doing trials without PPE. These are units that generate aerosols. The point being that the guidance on PPE was so woeful and wasteful they want to see what evidence there is. Better late then never I guess.
They did a comparative N95 vs mask for ‘flu in hospitals and just published last September (and their mask adherence was better than “joe public’s”): no difference between masks (8.2% vs 7.2%) — https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2749214
With masks (either regular or N95) they still were closer to the upper bound of regular US infection rate (3–11%): https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/keyfacts.htm
Yes indeed, the proper science says masks have no measurable on the transmission of airborne respiratory infections. The scientists know that, but they still lie and so are obviously under great pressure. This is just another indication of the very sinister nature of this whole sorry business.
Do they use I Ching?
HSE on their site, say, only surgical masks work
They forgot the study they did themselves:
https://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrhtm/rr619.htm
They lie and change their tune so often they can’t remember where they are anymore.
‘Liar, liar, pants on fire’ … ‘your nose is longer than a telephone wire’…
(3) the article is being used by individuals and groups to support non-mask wearing where mandated This says it all really. Mask-wearing is basically an article of faith for the Covid-zealots. Only “the wrong sort of people” (nasty irresponsible libertarians and right-wingers*) would think to question the science and look up the evidence for themselves. Right-thinking, caring, responsible people should do as they’re told, why would you question something that’s To Save Lives? I chanced on a Twitter thread yesterday (think it was from one of the comments on Ivor Cummins’ page) where the posters were all complaining about non-mask-wearing shoppers in England, how they’re risking a second wave and how they should be forced to dig graves for Covid victims! I wouldn’t think you’d need many people to do that job now, the rate at which deaths are declining… Apologies for the rant but this tribal politicisation of issues like masks really makes me despair. If people are that self-righteously ignorant I can’t think they’ll ever admit that they were wrong. *I don’t normally consider myself either, but this pan(dem)ic has turned my political allegiance upside-down. Most of the people online I might normally more or less agree with… Read more »
I would totally dig those graves if they were willing to pay me what contact tracers are getting 😆
Same amount of work – well maybe a bit more but hey – same amount of money. Plus exercise.
There is clearly something very sinister going on. The UK government like many others, is clearly working to Bill Gates’s depopulation by vaccine agenda. We are in deep trouble.
How about this bit?
‘We know of workplaces in which employees are told they cannot wear respirators for the hazardous environments they work in, but instead need to wear a cloth mask or face covering. These are dangerous and inappropriate applications that greatly exceed the initial purpose of a cloth mask. We are concerned that many people do not understand the very limited degree of protection a cloth mask or face covering likely offers as source control for people located nearby.’
Saving lives?!?
‘when we observe’. The surveillance State.
Bad experience of Ocado delivery to Castle Ethelred yesterday. Doorbell rang, outside was an unmasked Ocado operative, busy unloading boxes of groceries into the Castles keep (ok, front porch). I was initially amused As he has the look of a thin, but slightly aged,Rick Wakeman. As I approached him through the front door with a cheery “how are you Doing?” And approached to start picking up my bags of groceries, he shied backwards, dancing a little jig. I actually thought he might be having a little fit of some kind. Then as I approached my bags a second time, he spasmed once again , this time uttering the words “no, no”…and fumbling in his pocket for a mask. “It’s my wife” he said, “she would be very vulnerable if she caught the virus”. I was a millimetre away from telling him to pick up the groceries and F right off.
If contact with the public was too dangerous for – his wife – , he was in the wrong job! Ethelred is not in the business of being treated like a leper on his own doorstep!
I have heard similar about Waitrose
Waitrose are part of the problem and won’t stand up to government stupidity.
I used to be a regular twice weekly shopper there pre March and was on good terms with all the staff but I stopped going quite early on when they seemed to have bouncers on the door who just seemed quite aggressive and who would occasionally shout down the aisles, reminding us to keep 2m apart. It all felt a bit over the top. I’ve been a couple of times since, each time having to queue for 10 mins to half an hour. The regular staff look quite downcast (as the footfall is a fraction of pre-Covid levels) but the local M&S appears to be the winner with vastly increased footfall and a rather more friendly and laid back approach. There are always winners and losers I guess but I love Waitrose/John Lewis so hope they get back to treating us like normal customers and ditch the door guys.
The likes of Waitrose need to be told by their customers, “If you treat us like shit, we won’t be back”. Tell them in-store & online (as they would say) and by email to their head office, and tell your friends and family.
I did mention to a couple of friends that I wasn’t shopping there atm but they said they loved it and how it made them feel “much safer” as social distancing wasn’t ever a problem because Waitrose limited the numbers going in. I guess the stores are having to navigate these times as best they can, trying to keep everyone happy.
People and businesses need to stand up to government tyranny before it’s too late.
So take your business elsewhere.
In my experience, yes.
We did Waitrose until the masks. They had the queue system but it wasn’t over the top with social distancing. Generally you just use courtesy and common sense. Haven’t been back since Mask Day
a slightly aged Rick Wakeman?? Have you not seen him recently (he does a lot of TV) . Great guy, very witty… .. but he certainly looks his age now
Well at least the Ocado guy wasn’t playing ‘The Gates of Delerium’ whilst eating a takeaway curry off his bank of key board I guess…😂
Yeah. And trying to take over Phil’s job on Car SOS. Dastardly Rick.
I made a point of asking what the policy was going to be in my local branch of Waitrose a few days before the Friday in question. I was told staff could choose whether or not they wore a face-covering, and that they’d been told they were not to attempt to enforce anything with customers. Goodo, I thought. But when I went in a week later, all the staff in there were wearing black masks (so sinister-looking), apart from those behind the thick polythene curtains at the checkouts. When I asked one of the kids what had happened, he gave me to understand that they were now under orders to wear them. Meanwhile, a friend told me that staff in the Surbiton branch weren’t wearing masks… Had a couple of run-ins with the same ‘COVID chaperone’ at my local branch soon after lockdown. Throwing her weight around verbally, playing to an audience, etc.. Everything about Waitrose started going downhill after the 2008 financial crash. It’s fallen a long way since then.
I think the full face black masks are quite sexy, in a nazi/antifa kinda way.
Inappropriate.
The people that are diehard black mask wearers today were probably among the people who were frightened out of their wits watching TV coveraqe of Anarchist groups wearing black masks at demonstrations ten years ago. Go figure.
She should go to acting school, then audition for a role in a new woke TV series for ITV or the BBC.
The Hyacinth Bouquets of retail….
Lovely remark! Thanks very much!
Time for an Indoor/Outdoors Barbecue.
Waitrose totally suck.
They have easily been the worst for mental covid measures,
Their Care Worker priority is obnoxious and they love it, their staff are PPE crazy their security guards in the stupid visors are ludicrous. Their prime demographic of shopper is a Guardian reading covophobic in later years who really think that venturing outside of their lovely country homes for food could kill them.
They haven’t replied to my email that I wrote to them complaining about their mental covid measures.
So Waitrose, just fudge off.
My local Waitrose is fine. Staff are friendly and the few I talked to (cashiers) think this is all a hype. Most do not wear a muzzle. Hardly any queues anymore, there are even times when no-one on the door.
All the local Lidl and Aldi branches have given up on the queueing supervision now. The markers are there, but we’re in-round-pay-and out so fast that the branches are never crowded anyway. Lovely staff.
Sorry to hear that. Funny as I’ve been to two Waitrose branches in London and have not had any problems.
As for John Lewis, have been boycotting them especially as they refused to sell a kitchen knife online and never replied to my email about my boycott. Did 2 purchases online but that’s about it.
Here in Wales masks are not compulsory in shops. I live in a tourist area (Snowdonia) and I estimate mask wearing to be about 35% in supermarkets, mostly by visitors who don’t know the rules here. Except Waitrose. Far higher compliance with mask-wearing in Waitrose. A lot of this is middle-class virtue signalling.
My favourite character from Tom Jones A Foundling!
Or middle-class stupidity.
Local convenience stores gave up on mask enforcement after a couple of days. Compliance is now less than 50-50.
They have more to lose and more to gain.
A couple of links regarding virus testing including an interview with the inventor of PCR.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/manufactured-pandemic-testing-people-any-strain-coronavirus-not-specifically-covid-19/5707781/amp?__twitter_impression=true
https://uncoverdc.com/2020/04/07/was-the-covid-19-test-meant-to-detect-a-virus/
Mmm, I wouldn’t set too much store on that second link. The (late) Kary Mullis may indeed have disapproved of using PCR to detect viruses, but he was a few pieces short of a chess set. I stopped reading when it became clear that he didn’t think AIDS was caused by the HIV virus (Hint: By effectively supressing HIV in infected individuals we have eliminated AIDS as a cause of death in the West).
There is absolutely no technical reason why PCR cannot be used to detect SARS-CoV2. There are certainly valid questions as to how sensitive it is (false negatives), and we cannot assume that someone who has tested possitive will either get sick or be infectious. However, arguing that COVID-19 is a mirage is akin to denying the moon landings or claiming the earth is flat. COVID-19 is real, just not nearly as scary as most people seem to believe.
There are major questions over the validity of the testing procedures being used to determine the presence in the UK population of the putative ‘Covid19 virus’
specifically relating to the throat swab (RT-PCR test) and evidence of previous
infection using antibody tests.
The disease-causing effects of any virus are scientifically verified using Koch’s
Postulates of which four conditions must be met. Currently the virus thought to cause Covid-19 does not meet any of them.
Fulfillment of Koch’s Postulates requires that the so-called Covid-19 virus must be isolated and purified. This has not been done – therefore the accuracy of the tests authorized by Public Health England is unknown.
In summary, the tests for the Covid-19 virus are of unknown accuracy, scientific
procedures for viral isolation and purification have not been followed and neither
have any of the Koch methods for determining any disease causing effects.
How did the film in the Hasselblad cameras cope with the vacuum of space, Tim ?
Some interesting snippets on the ONS July 24th deaths info: The number of deaths in care homes, hospitals and other communal establishments remained below the five-year average in Week 30, while the number of deaths in private homes continued to be higher than the five-year average (727 more deaths). Would these be collateral lockdown deaths by any chance? The coronavirus (COVID-19) has had a large impact on the number of deaths registered over the last few months and is the main reason for deaths increasing above what is expected (the five-year average). The disease has had a larger impact on those most vulnerable (for example, those who already suffer from a medical condition) and those at older ages. Some of these deaths would have likely occurred over the duration of the year but have occurred earlier because of COVID-19. These deaths occurring earlier than expected could contribute to a period of deaths below the five-year average. Nice of them to admit it. Wonder if whoever sneaked that gem in will be fired? Region name Number of deathsFive-year average DifferencePercentage above average North West 1197 1210 -13 -1.1 Yorkshire and The Humber 817 888 -71 -8.0 So why the localised lockdown… Read more »
I think the arguments of Levitt & others who suggest that there won’t be a second wave where we’ve had a first wave is persuasive. There maybe a continuation of a 1st wave where the 1st wave has been frustrated, Australia, New Zealand, rural Britain. But I have this suspicion that a vaccine will be rolled out everywhere, we’ll continue to have virtually no cases & victory will be declared, regardless of whether it was the vaccine wot won it or not!
I’m 90% confident Levitt, Gupta etc. are right, we’re at least close to herd immunity. But I fear a fabricated “second wave” or series of “local spikes” will be used to push for more lockdowns and authoritarian screw-turning.
I know there are some restrictions in Sweden, and I believe there was quite a lot of voluntary distancing there, at least earlier on, but isn’t Sweden basically living proof that the herd immunity threshold is MUCH lower than thought? The only slight unknown is the extent to which the summer has contributed to the virus dying out there. Other than that, it looks like there are more or less there, now.
I agree about Sweden. But that’s science, as opposed to The Science (TM), frozen in March.
The virus is just hanging around, hovering in the air, waiting to swoop down on some unprotectected pedestrian.
SWARM! SWARM! SWARM!
Watch Belarus (never locked down) and Pakistan (had to give up because of the economic pain) too
In 2 weeks’ time the Swedish schools open for the autumn term, plus the sixth forms and universities that were closed (but did online classes instead).
I think adult ed (which moved online) is also re-opening. It will be interesting to see if any of this causes a ‘spike’…
The problem with Levitt’s approach is that is assumes the underlying data is correct. We know it’s not because:
a) the symptoms are not exact
b) the test is not specific enough or calibrated against a specific standard
c) health policy has been to err on the side of positive attribution
d) attribution is being made due to symptoms even in cases with negative tests
So before you track any virus through a population (in fact any phenomenon) make sure you are actually measuring it and it primarily. Rather than seeing the cumulative effects of noise or systematic reactions to believing there is a virus i.e. compensation effects.
I feel like Mugatu sometimes. Doesn’t anyone learn the scientific method these days
These days is more statistics… with scientific methods they could be wrong.
Ehhhh, I think that is Levitt’s view!
https://blog.plan99.net/pseudo-epidemics-7603b2da839
I couldn’t open the link to Mike Hearn’s article in Tobys update today so posted this link for quick read. The most interesting is the description of the pseudo epidemic of whooping cough in US 2006 based upon PCR where they forgot the old fashioned culture the bacteria. This article about the pseudo outbreak could not be read behind NYT’s paywall so good quotes in his article.
The rest of Haern’s article perhaps not that brilliant. I think he is wrong as the virus has been cultured, at least in Korea, where their big study showing RNA fragments 12 weeks later was PCR positive but not infectious ,so they had cultured the virus to prove this. It’s another thing that culture has been done astonishingly rarely. There are parts of the article to agree with but not that well written or edited.
Wow that is interesting reading and reminds me of the recent article from NERVTAG, the new SAGE committee about the possibility that some of these spikes we are hearing about could be due to what we used to call, mass hysteria. Has anything more been heard about this?
Does anyone remember school assemblies where you had to stand for ages? One child in a row would keel over or run out of the hall and before long the entire row was feeling ill.
I’d be happy to take feedback on how to have written or edited it better.
I’m not aware of the Korea study you mention. Is it this one? https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-19/covid-patients-testing-positive-after-recovery-aren-t-infectious
I don’t see any discussion in the Bloomberg writeup of having purified or cultured the virus. There have been a lot of claims about the failure to do this, but I’ve never looked in to the purification issue in depth. The writeup by the journalists at Off-Guardian does go into that issue though.
A statement clearly aimed directly at Toby, from Dr Gideon Micropenis, Professor of Sociology, Gender Studies, Racial Justice, Witchcraft, Shadow Puppetry and Interpretive [sic] Dance:
The myth of censorship in academia
Dr. Micropenis is my fave character 😂
He needs a Viagra microchip.
“So the Prime Minister has simultaneously slammed on the brakes, executed a U-turn and pressed the accelerator. No wonder the government appears to be drifting.”
Very good!
“When I think of his handling of the coronavirus crisis I picture a child behind the wheel of a racing car. He’s overwhelmed by the data constantly popping up on his dashboard, has no idea what any of it means, so just randomly presses different levers and pedals, spins the wheel as fast as he can, and hopes for the best.”
Also fine stuff!
It does conjure up the most brilliant image in my head.
Well written and expressed Toby 👍
Yes love it!
Nice analogy! But some of us expect there’s also some shady voices on his radio.
Sounds like Destruction Car Derby. My favourite TV as a teenager growing up in Hollywood, California. Much better than Roller Derby.
Strange first letter about Aldeburgh. I guess its writer must have been very unlucky – I visit and swim there quite often and have not observed the slightest sign of covid derangement (other than standard mask requirements in shops). Indeed, it is much more relaxed about the whole thing than most other places round here, including Southwold, which has one-way pavement signs on the main street (mostly ignored however with no consequence) along with some extremely irritating sensitives!
Southwold was always a bossy place.Had more notices telling you not to do things than anywhere else I know. I’m surprised they could squeeze the antisocial distancing signs in.
If anybody is bored with Netflix box sets have a look at Torchwood Children of Earth or Torchwood Miracle Day on the iplayer
The Torchwood series are excellent, Children of the Earth is the best of all, very well written, lots of real moments. Miracle Day is a sell out to the American market.
“At one point, DiAngelo took a moment to apologize to her co-presenter. Apparently she’d interrupted her earlier, and whenever this is done by a white person to a black person, it’s a way of perpetuating racism by reinforcing traditional power relationships. It presumably didn’t matter that the two knew each other well, or that interruption is a normal part of human relationships.
In the process, DiAngelo also gave advice on the proper way to apologize to a black person. For example, it should be done unemotionally, otherwise it would place too much of a burden on the black person.”
I might feel sorry for those subjected to this kind of abusive forced ducking in concentrated idiocy, but it’s pretty clear that woke bullshit generally is the prevailing official truth of our society and so they are more likely than not to have mostly either committed to believing in it or failed to stand up for those resisting it in the past, whilst its zealots were marching through the institutions over the past few decades. So a large proportion of them basically deserve what they get.
For the minority who bear no culpability, my sympathy.
I was contracting for a company that tried to foist this on us contractors.
First minute we complained about the automatic assumption we were condemned racist without evidence or being able to defend ourselves.
Then we complained that no-one other than whites were in the course so the course was itself racist.
Then we asked the “dear leader” how much time and they spent living and working in Africa/Middle East/India etc cheek by jowl with locals in local conditions for months on end and how many contacts of “minorities” and they worked with.
Answer on both counts – none.
By such we all left and said if they carried on we’ll walk s we were contractors and didn’t need to listen to this idiocy.
Company backed down and we finished the contract.
Our local staff thought it was a great laugh as they could not be doing with it all anyway and just wanted to work and get money to feed their families and did not care what colour we were.
The reality is that ordinary folk just get on with the job, mostly, without much problem, until the “woke” come along and stir things up. As the old lefty Taibbi wrote in the article Toby linked demolishing this new lefty nonsense:
“White priests of antiracism like DiAngelo seem universally to be more awkward and clueless around minorities than your average Trump-supporting construction worker“
The average age of coronavirus related deaths (even taking the obviously inflated figures at face value) is over eighty years. Average life expectancy is under eighty years. This year there were fewer than the five yearly average deaths for the corresponding weeks until the lockdown was introduced. When the lockdown measures were eased, deaths again fell to fewer than the five yearly average for the corresponding weeks. The clear implication of these facts is that the responses to the virus are more harmful than the virus. And this was entirely predictable. This means either those responses are a case of collective madness or the elites have an ulterior motive(s). I incline to the former explanation, but there is abundant evidence that various groups are exploiting the hysteria around the virus to promote their interests. When there is an inquiry, it needs to examine why policies were implemented that would cause more harm than the virus. Unfortunately, I doubt that any official inquiry would even consider the question because far too many people would be implicated in what at best is unintended killing on a mass scale, the decimation of the economy, and the violation of the rights and liberties of… Read more »
Conspiracy or not, I think we can agree this has been a multi-purpose crisis.
Very well put. I doubt we’ll see any meaningful inquiry for decades, sadly. Many are guilty, but I think there is precedent – Nuremberg. I’m not saying this is equivalent, or advocating hanging, but many were guilty but the most guilty were punished. I think you’ve got to say the Cabinet are those most responsible. As for the media and the “scientists”, they ought to be ejected from their own associations for professional misconduct, there not sure how many journalists would be left….
The reference to the Nuremberg Tribunal is apposite. Julius Streicher, a journalist, was tried and found guilty of crimes against humanity on the ground that his hysterical, fear-mongering propaganda contributed to deaths on a mass scale.
Precedent!
Streicher was a really foul guy. But he now has some worthy rivals.
Send it to Matt Hancock. Every day. All hours of the day and night. Automatic robot.
The editors of all the national newspapers and TV channels and 95% of columnists deserve a bullet for this scam.
The main players in this MUST face a reckoning. People who have instigated and perpetuated this horror-show must be brought to account for the damage they have caused.
Bulgarians speaking out yet again:
https://bpa-pathology.com/covid19-pcr-tests-are-scientifically-meaningless/
They are going to give their country a bad reputation for being far too sensible at this rate.
So true. I am personally most offended by how sensible the Dutch have been. In my former, industrial research days, I always thought we had them licked!
Maybe the Dutch are now proof of what us Brits said about them when I worked over there regularly – wooden shoes, wooden head, wouldn’t listen.
I’m sure that Bulgaria is near the bottom of the EU’s favourite country list so anything they might contribute would be easily dismissed.
Another mask narrative debunk:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=181&v=8pr7nirqOzA&feature=emb_logo
The video of the guy with a mask as posing pouch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=17&v=HUq_oE-mAVw&feature=emb_logo
He will be mine.
Oh yes.
He will be mine.
Funny, I was looking at the mask my son insisted he left with me (even though I told him I wouldn’t wear it) and wondering what it reminded me of. Took me a while, but eventually realised it reminded me of a posing pouch.
This imo should be forcibly tattooed on the foreheads of every single current MP, of every party, as a warning to any future politicians who might be tempted to follow the example of our contemptible Parliament:
“The finding that the Government’s lockdown policy increased mortality in net terms is likely to be of particular interest, but is unremarkable. As noted, the lockdown rationale was not to reduce mortality in the first place, but rather, to ‘flatten the curve’. When one then considers the possibility that the policy might cause mortalities through unintended consequences, such a result is entirely plausible. ”
Source
An Improved Measure of Deaths Due to COVID-19 in England and Walesposted here yesterday by Swedenborg(?)
And anyone who says “if it saves one life” in public should get the same treatment.
Clarification,I didn’t post that article
Fair enough. Was just a guess on my part because I was too lazy to check.
They might not enjoy that as much as most of us here though!
I particularly liked the ending on where the evidence points!
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/08/04/need-schools-back-pupils-parents-sake-even-means-shutting-pubs/ (paywall) but he says that he only visited the pub once last year. It’s like me stating that all football stadia should shut as it would make no difference to me.Totally unobjective article.
This will get messy. I quite excellent piece of divide and conquer by the government.
Most won’t notice the false dilema being offered.
You’re right. I work in a well-known independent school, and this false dilemma was lost even on the librarian (considered to be the brainiest person around at the moment). She expressed the view that the virus was just “one of those things”. What hope…?! I thought.
It’s like they’re saying only so many of the available population can be ‘active’ at any one time in any arena. Like a bloody countrywide wrestling match – tag the kids in, tag the pubs out.
Beyond ridiculous.
State education is that abysmal and they learn that little the kids would be better off going to the pub with their parents. They will almost certainly learn more.
They might also actually learn social skills like polite conversation and how to behave when drinking (like an old fogey like me was taught sitting in the snug of the local with the women) rather than being arses like now.
I agree with the shutting down football, not been since George best played for Hibs so no difference to me.
One thing football showed over F1 the other day though – F1 all with their team muzzles, sanctimonious weaker presenters doing social distancing and so on and was sickening to watch. Football – Hartlepool got promotion, lots of non-social distancing, good hearted fun and whole families and kids involved an all enjoying the moment.
Good to see especially as it was directly after the F1 report.
I have been watching the F1. They are being virtue signaling arses to a man and woman. Everyone has tested negative, several times a week, or they wouldn’t be there, so why wear the masks? The number of times they touch their masks to adjust the position makes a total mockery of any protection they give.
I have followed F1 since the days of Graham Hill, Jim Clark, Jack Brabham and Jackie Stewart, to mention a few. Since the advent of the Hybrid F1 era my enthusiasm and passion has died and might never return. Lewis Hamilton appointing himself F1’s Ambassador to Black Lives Matter has made it even worse.
It’s amazing how the drive to greater diversity (White Fragility) is married to complete intolerance of diversity of opinion.
The perversity of diversity.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7263814/ “Physical distancing, face masks, and eye protection to prevent person-to-person transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis” Funded by WHO. This is the type of hack work commissioned to get a fast result by doing a so called meta-analysis quickly to be shown for politicians. “For the general public, evidence shows that physical distancing of more than 1 m is highly effective and that face masks are associated with protection, even in non-health-care settings, with either disposable surgical masks or reusable 12–16-layer cotton ones, although much of this evidence was on mask use within households and among contacts of cases.” In short no evidence of use in public areas? And the evidence is anyhow not based on randomised control trials, which should be the gold standard. Then this explanation in the Table facemasks-no facemasks “The effect was very large, and the certainty of evidence could be rated up, but we made a conservative decision not to because of some inconsistency and risk of bias; hence, although the effect is qualitatively highly certain, the precise quantitative effect is low certainty.” Which means?? I think the only sentence worth mentioning in this article is this “No randomised trials… Read more »
“ not to protect ourselves, but protect others” It’s the perfect cover – pretend it’s not about you but about others, meaning you can’t argue you should manage your own risk. Anyone understand how it works though? If it stops things going one way, but not the other, how can it stop anything? Has this been explained?
WHO/UK/CDC naturally blurs the message. But all the fanatic peddling of face masks now is to stop the spread of the asymptomatic carriers. They can cover it up with phrases “it might give you a protection etc” but this is wrong. It has not protected the mask covered masses in the countries mentioned. There is not a shred of scientific evidence that asymptomatic carriers stop spreading with masks.
If you asked the mask carrying public why they have masks, I assume 99% would say to protect themselves. They will be surprised to know that they are carrying this altruistically to protect others. This public health fraud with mixing messages will in the end backfire.
You could argue the other way around that mask wearing would stop a beneficial asymptomatic spread of a minimal dose of virus to your fellow humans giving them a low dose and most likely asymptomatic infection, that is a natural vaccine. Of course, I cannot prove this but they cannot prove they can stop asymptomatic spread with face masks.
I understand it’s very common for folk to mask up as a matter of courtesy in Asian countries, as well as to mitigate the effects of air pollution. So if masks are effective, why have we had a good run of Swine Flu, Bird Flu, SARS 1 and SARS 2 from that part of the world? They don’t do handshakes or kissing/hugging in social interactions much, either.
There’s a reason technicians wear specialist suits with their own air supply when working with viruses.
Yes – “sacrifice yourself so that others can live” – so everyone sacrifices themselves. Cunning plan, my lord.
I’ve been asking the same question and haven’t got a good answer. The mask is a two-way “street” is it not? I do not understand why the same sized particle that can get in can’t also get out. And if the virus is spread via aerosolized particles vs. droplets then the mask is even more useless. Nothing about masking passes the logic test. But of course logic left the building a long time ago. Like Julian, I have also said that the “protect others” rationale is insidious and evil. It’s the only way the psychopaths and idiots can force it on the masses.
Maybe I’m a bad person (actually I am definitely a bad person) but if you said to me that I had to wear a mask everywhere for the rest of my life, otherwise let’s say one person would definitely die because of this, over the next 25 years, I might say “that’s a shame, but that’s life”. I really do think at the heart of this, beyond the lies and the twisted stats and the fact that the virus isn’t all that dangerous, relatively, is that saving lives at all costs is immoral and unnatural. We cause pollution that costs lives. It’s a tradeoff. We’ve lost the plot.
Exactly. You’re not a bad person. You’re just a person with a life.
If someone told you something this stupid, you wouldn’t believe them. Sadly, looking around the streets at the moment, you’d be almost alone in being able to use the sniff test.
Sign me up to the bad person club! If I have a chance, I will tell any maskholes I come across that they probably killed a fair few people all the years they weren’t wearing masks during flu season. On second thought, they’ll agree and lobby for mask wearing every winter in perpetuity. Heads they win, tails we lose. I’m in a shit mood today…
IT’S A FUCKING PSY-OP
It’s not working on me. Guess I had a conscience bypass!
I AM IMMUNE
This seems to be what it is *really* about – terrifying…
https://youtu.be/NMZRBU2t7dc
‘although the effect is qualitatively highly certain, the precise quantitative effect is low certainty’
Can somebidy put that into English for me?
No but I am not English
Bring back Johnny Rotten!
Translated means “it’s all bullshit but hope you don’t notice as it uses lots of long words and sounds impressive plus we’ve been to university nd have a common purpose degree so yah boo sucks”.
“I’m going to pontificate that it’s highly certain (for my own political ends) but there is no data to support it.”
Actually I’m wrong with my translation. It should be, “I’m going to pontificate that it’s highly certain (for my own political ends) but the data shows the opposite.”
I think it means “we know it works because obviously, everyone knows it works. However, we can’t actually find any evidence that it works”
I think it means they’re sure there is an effect but not sure how much of an effect.
= “We don’t really know”
“Face masks are associated with protection” sounds like a VERY weasel-worded phrase.
More or less like “horseshoes are associated with good luck”! i.e. what they’re actually saying isn’t that masks offer protection, but rather that people believe they do.
Protection.
And anonymity.
And crime.
And horror, and dystopian fiction…
I see Professor Pantsdown (née Ferguson) has dusted off his computer to amuse us with another of his highly regarded ‘models’. Personally I’d place more faith in the predictions of Paul the Octopus whose psychic powers entertained us all during the World Cup. (Assuming he’s still around and has not long since been grilled and served with a glass of chilled white wine to a hungry tourist somewhere.)
He sadly died but there was even a conspiracy around that. Our friends at the Graun:
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2010/oct/26/paul-octopus-dead-psychic-world
Blackadderish ‘Prof. Cockup’ seems a better pseudonym (or Sue Denim even).
Since Paul the Octopus is gone, I think even Mystic Meg would have more credibility than Professor Pantsdown.
I think Ferguson should be grilled and fed to Hannibal Lecter with a glass of nice chianti
Professor Pantsdown will be so bad that even Hannibal Lecter won’t want him.
Q: What is the difference between Professor Pantsdown-Ferguson and Gipsy Rose Lee?
A: Gipsy Rose Lee’s clients are credulous and working class, whilst “Prof” Ferguson’s are credulous middle-class arts graduates. The former do pay with their own money though, whilst the latter pay (through the nose) with the public purse.
From this afternoon’s Spectator email. This picture sums up why I think the arts are finished – and deservedly so. The sector has completely caved in to the prevailing panic. Pull the plug on the lot. I despair.
wtf?
like some sort of twisted sick programming
what on earth do these people think they are doing?!
I am an artist and am fuming at how weedy the arts sector has been. How the artists who went, sometimes through 2 world wars and continued to create, amazing art would laugh at the lily livered tossers calling themseves artists nowadays.
Telling you, the first people to break ranks and put on any sort of show without pandering to this nonsense will make a fortune and secure hero status forever.
I felt the same when I saw that today. Depressingly, a friend of mine who seems quite a sceptic when we speak and says she hates wearing a mask has just spent stupid money on 2 hand painted face masks at £35 a pop. This lady has no money so WTF? She has clearly given in to Cov-insanity as well.
We need professional musicians and concerts. It will be a scandal if the RAH has to close.
I just cancelled my spectator subscription.
A few days ago beneath a daily emAil article from them saying we need a vaccine to get back to normal, was a “message from our sponsor” Facebook.
The specie has some good articles but also a lot of subservient toe the line shite.
The data is so clear it’s like accepting you are paying for a magazine that is promoting the earth is flat or the sun rises in the west.
Apart from our hosts articles, I couldnt take anymore
I think that’s a shame. They have a reputation for being unashamedly far right and I’ve had people sneer at me for reading it before, but they’re not that at all. They’re very good at providing balance and though they’re right leaning, they don’t shy away from having left-leaning people write for them.
By the same token, they’ve had some of the most sceptical articles I’ve seen in print. The fact that they print articles on the other side is to be welcomed, not criticised. Personally, I don’t think we should fall into the trap of only reading things that agree with us. That way madness lies.
I agree. Dr John Lee and Lionel Shriver have been on absolutely top form.
I agree whole heartedly about balance in the articles and they have had some great articles.
The issue I have is the data on this while shamdemic is so obvious that if you read a paper where they were in all seriousness discussing you can sail west and eventually fall off the earth you would write it off and a joke.
This is where we are now with this.
The fact that most the population still support the lunatics in charge is because of media.
This is pure political theatre now to save the Con party.
As some one who voted for BJ with enthusiasm and utterly dismayed.
Jesus wept.
That will be the final nail in their coffin and like retail, hospitality and heritage, they deserve to die for their cowardice and inability to defend the continued existence of their sector.
The government has spent 33 billion pounds paying furloughed workers.
Spending a fraction of that amount on shielding and improving care for the old and vulnerable would have been a far far better solution.
This crisis has been caused by a colossal failure in governance. And the useless scumbags in government are now just simply covering up their hideous incompetence by overreacting and posturing with extreme measures.
33 again eh?
anyone been keeping a tally?
One of those magic numbers.
Estimated cost ranges from £200bn to £550bn. Divide that by the number of lives saved by the lockdown & you’ll end up with a number north of £10m min per life saved. That ignores the projected 200,000 lives that in the long term will be lost due to lockdown.
Exactly this, it’s disgraceful what we’ve done to the old, and the largely lovely, low paid people who do their best to care for them.
Can anyone answer these questions?…
Do the SAGE minutes – or any other minutes for that matter – evidence ANY consideration that things might not be that bad? The many, many scientific papers we read on this site – are they read and discounted? Is anyone offering anything different, or is it all one big circle jerk?
It’s one big circle jerk. It’s clear and obvious to everyone who has the courage to confront it that it’s nothing (I wouldn’t necessarily say those who believe in it are stupid, but they are too scared to consider the option that it’s all nonsense because to do so would utterly shatter their world view). The governments of the world are often incompetent, but not to this degree, which means it’s actively malicious. If this happened in the 1600s we wouldn’t even know about it because it would be too minor to have even been recorded. Therefore, the only conclusion is – there’s something more going on.
I don’t really know how far this site delves into things, and it’s quite nice to visit a site where we just discuss the lockdown and masks on a surface level, so I don’t want to go too OTT, but the agenda of it all is quite clear.
Robert Dingwall is a member of NERVTAG, is he not? Are those meetings minuted?
From what I’ve read nothing concrete. BUT the tone right up until March 16th (and before Fergy threw his bilge into the fray) was one of measured calm. They were heavily in with all the nudge programming stuff which implies they never thought the policies would work so well- but this was BEFORE, again, they panicked and ran for the lockdown hills. So basically, they actually were counting on having to do some sort of project fear even without lockdown- but when you think about it this makes sense. No enforcement, so project fear necessary.
As it turns out, they went for enforcement in the end but ALSO project fear. It’s as if they just threw the whole book at it at once, when pre-Fergy-Italy they were only going for project fear in order to get people to voluntarily do antisocial distancing.
So basically we got the worst of both worlds.
They are now indexed and searchable on law or fiction website.
Thanks Bec
No, the sage minutes specifically advised NOT locking down. The link here is an article Toby wrote months ago
“Boris Johnson and his advisors were not following “the science” when they took the decision to lock down the country on March 23rd – they weren’t acting on any specific recommendations by SAGE.
Nor can the Government claim this is one of the options that was discussed at SAGE meetings and it was basing its decision, in part, on SAGE’s analysis of the impact of a full lockdown. That option was not discussed at any of the meetings before March 23rd. In this respect, it was a political decision.”
”SAGE advises that the measures already announced should have a significant effect, provided compliance rates are good and in line with the assumptions. Additional measures will be needed if compliance rates are low.
Minutes of the 17th SAGE meeting on COVID-19, March 18th 2020”
“
https://dailysceptic.org/2020/05/31/latest-news-47/
Could you possible share the image I’ve posted? I cannot believe my eyes
Didn’t know churches were large enough to accommodate cars? 😂😂
Or are you supposed to stay in your car for the service?
It’s all very bizarre.
Drive-in churches exist in the U.S.A.
I’m afraid that no idiocy is now unbelievable when it comes to the CofE.
Christ and his saints wept.
The churches have betrayed Christianity by their useless acquiescence.
C of E maybe – a lot of others have found ways to keep going via online services, drive-in ones (think drive-in movies). Christian Concern have started a court case invoking our Magna Carta rights…
i am not a religious person. But doesnt communion include eating and drinking and if so doesnt this require the removal of a mask .
You can only take bread now, no wine, wine used to come in a communal cup.
You sanitise your hands, you remove your nappy, you sanitise your hands, you take communion, you sanitise your hands, you replace your nappy, you sanitise your hands. Yes, you do.
Or, like me, you stay away and weep and pray.
Is that Church of England? Free churches aren’t like that at all – in my church we have small pieces of bread (as we always had) and (non-alcoholic) wine in individual cups (again, as always). Mask wearing is up to the individual – most of us don’t. We do some social distancing – every other chair is left empty. Actually, my church is full of lockdown sceptics! Peter Hitchen’s blog sees popular…
Minchinhampton Baptist Church. So probably not. 🙂
I’m sorry, I couldn’t see the small print. Going to the optician in two weeks time – mask compulsory!
But mask wearing mandatory from next Sunday. So that’s me not going to church again.
flippin heck that’s a faff for a bit of dry wafer!! good job i never did the communion even though i went to a convent school! 🙂
WTF???
At this rate you’re better off just resurrecting the DIY house churches from before Constantine’s conversion.
Perhaps this is the time for Christians (CoE, Catholic, etc) to take back control of their faith. The hierarchy have been worse than useless during this crisis.
Can i have fries with my wafer please?
The communon wine is taken intravenously.
Thanks to a good friend for guiding me to this site.
Welcome!
Welcome to the sane world, good to have you here.
From “The Matrix”:
“welcome to the world of the Real”.
Delighted to have you! We need more emperors.
As long as they’re not the kind that fiddle while Rome burns
Hello! We’re a broad church, but we all agree on this. Dive in!
Hi Tiberius; is it you I have been recommending on the Times site all this time? This place feels like home!
Welcome!!!!
The Daily Mail reporting that Blair is trying to convince people that if you don’t get tested there will be a devastating 2nd Wave, the logic defeats me.
Good.
Anything BLiar says, people tend to mistrust immediately.
(So much so I’m starting to think TPTB are beginning to use our hatred of him as a political tactic)
A virus so deadly that it’s afraid of being tested.
Testing seems to be fashionable among people who want to offer alternative solutions to lockdown. They never explain to my satisfaction how it would work. Months ago there was a paper in the US that concluded millions of tests a day would be needed, more or less forever, in order to properly control the virus – test everyone in frequent contact with the public DAILY and the rest of the population every couple of weeks. I think it was something like 25 million tests a day in the US, which would be maybe 5 million here. So 50 times the best we have managed. Forever. No exit strategy except a vaccine. By the time you’ve ramped up to that level, you’ve either got herd immunity or you’re all dead, depending on who you believe.
I think this stems back to the period in late March where Germany and Korea were both seen to be doing exceptionally “well” in terms of death figures and the only thing in common anyone seemed to be able to find was large scale testing. Nobody seemed to be able to say _why_ this made any difference, but then – nobody seemed to be trying to anyway.
Wasn’t Blair trying to convince people that had the UK not attacked Iraq, Saddam would send his WMD to destroy the UK?
The only logic is that they need people to be tested to create the second wave themselves as the virus is unlikely to co-operate.
Exactly.