Children More Likely to Die of Flu than Covid – Deputy Chief Medical Officer
Dr Jenny Harries, the Deputy Chief Medical Officer of England, told Sky News this morning that children are more likely to die of flu or be killed in a road traffic accident than succumb to COVID-19.
“The long term harms of children not attending school significantly, we think, outweigh those potential risks,” she said.
“No environment is completely risk-free.
“Every time a parent sends their child off to school pre-Covid they may have been involved in a road traffic accident, there are all sorts of things.
“In fact that risk, or the risk from seasonal flu, we think is probably higher than the current risk of Covid.”
This message was complemented by the Times’s front page story this morning, which says, “Teachers spread virus more than pupils.”
New research from Public Health England revealed that two thirds of outbreaks arose from staff-to-staff transmission, or staff-to-pupil.
In June the number of schools open was between 20,500 and 23,400, with pupil numbers increasing from 475,000 to 1,646,000. In June and last month 200 children and staff were affected by the illness. Over the same period 25,470 cases were recorded across England as a whole.
Thirty outbreaks, defined as two or more linked cases in one school, were recorded between the start of June and the end of last month. These represented 0.01% of preschools and primary schools in England.
The figures will encourage those who have argued that school is a safe place for children during the pandemic.
Killer line: “These [outbreaks] represented 0.01% of preschools and primary schools in England.“
Stop Press: Boris issued a statement this morning saying children’s “life chances” will suffer if they don’t go back to school and in the Telegraph Iain Duncan-Smith urges the PM to show “some Churchillian spirit” to get kids back to school.
Lockdown Was a “Monumental Mistake on a Global Scale” – Sage Member
Lockdown will come to be seen as a “monumental mistake on a global scale” and must never happen again, says Mark Woolhouse, a scientist who advises the Government on infectious diseases. The Express has the story.
Mark Woolhouse said lockdown was a “panic measure” but admitted it was the only option at the time because “we couldn’t think of anything better to do”.
But it is a crude measure that takes no accounts of the risk levels to different individuals, the University of Edinburgh professor said, meaning that back in March the nation was “concentrating on schools when we should have been concentrating on care homes”.
The Professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology said that the Government must now focus on increasing testing and striving to unlock society safely rather than restricting it further.
Prof Woolhouse OBE, a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Behaviours that advises the Government, said: “Lockdown was a panic measure and I believe history will say trying to control Covid-19 through lockdown was a monumental mistake on a global scale, the cure was worse than the disease.
“I never want to see national lockdown again. It was always a temporary measure that simply delayed the stage of the epidemic we see now. It was never going to change anything fundamentally, however low we drove down the number of cases, and now we know more about the virus and how to track it we should not be in this position again.
“We absolutely should never return to a position where children cannot play or go to school.
“I believe the harm lockdown is doing to our education, health care access, and broader aspects of our economy and society will turn out to be at least as great as the harm done by COVID-19.”
He said that Sage, the government’s advisory board on dealing with Covid, needed to have members from a wider range of fields.
At last, one of the Government’s scientific advisors is talking sense. Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: According to NHS England there has only been one Covid death of someone under 40 in the past month.
NHS Ordered Care Homes Not to Resuscitate
Alarming story in the Telegraph. According to Sarah Knapton, the Science Editor, one in 10 care home staff members changed ‘Do Not Resuscitate’ plans without discussing them first with family members, nursing staff, or residents.
Care homes were asked by NHS managers and GPs to place blanket ‘Do not resuscitate’ (DNR) orders on all their residents at the height of the coronavirus pandemic to keep hospital beds free, a new report has found.
The Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI) – the world’s oldest nursing charity – discovered one in 10 care home staff surveyed was ordered to change DNR plans without discussion with family members, nursing staff, or with the residents themselves.
Half of staff members who said they had been asked to change DNRs worked in homes for the elderly, while half worked in homes for younger people with learning or cognitive disabilities.
Staff also warned that some hospitals were operating a ‘no admissions’ policy for care home residents – even for non-COVID-19 conditions such as heart attacks – and some said they had struggled to make appointments with GPs for elderly people.
Report author Prof Alison Leary MBE said the findings were ‘worrying’ and called for an inquiry.
This is a scandal. Worth reading in full.
Another Terrible Cancer Story
A couple of days ago I invited readers to send me their stories about failing to secure adequate cancer care on the NHS. They’ve been flooding in. Here’s another heart-breaking tale.
My husband has a history of Hodgkins Lymphoma and is one of the 1.5 million people who were sent a long, terribly concerned letter from the Government strongly urging him to stay at home until they decided it was safe enough to venture out again. In the first week of lockdown he discovered a lump in his neck and, after some hesitation, tried to see our local GP. The surgery was abandoned by all the doctors who we were told were “working” from home.
A doctor rang my husband the following day for a consultation – no Zoom and no access to his medical notes. However, due to his history, the doctor agreed to refer my husband to our local hospital in Chelmsford. After two weeks we discovered he had been referred back to the GP. We tried again and another referral was made which was taken more seriously.
Since then he has had a PET scan showing “areas of concern” and two biopsies, the first one on June 26th, the results of which would be discussed with us by phone on July 24th. The day came but no phone call. We rang them only to be told the wrong biopsy had been done – a fine needle aspiration instead of a core biopsy – and a new biopsy would be done on August 5th. He was now officially a “fast path” patient and we were promised a phone consultation to discuss the results on August 20th. Again, no call, no results.
My husband first made contact with the GP on April 9th. It is now nearly September and he is yet to see a medical professional and we know no more than we did in early April. The stress and anger this has caused us, me in particular, are impossible to describe. My husband is an otherwise fit and healthy 60 year-old and father of two teenage children. He hasn’t missed a day of work during this whole time keeping a small manufacturing company in Harlow going without any redundancies or furloughs.
I feel I’ve woken up in a parallel universe where the normal citizenry have been turned into obedient Stepford wives and the government and its institutions are the smug husbands. We are at sea in a sinking boat drifting further from shore whilst the lifeguards look on shrugging their shoulders before turning away to deal with a couple of cases of mild sunburn.
I don’t feel I can ever love my country again.
I know how she feels.
Twitter Thread Claims China Used Fake Media Accounts to Promote Lockdown
There’s a fascinating Twitter thread by Michael Senger about how the Chinese Communist Party launched a massive disinformation campaign in March urging governments around the world to impose full lockdowns. It links to plenty of evidence, such as this piece in the New York Times about how the CCP used fake Twitter accounts to amplify tweets praising China’s response to the pandemic in early March. The day after that Times article appeared, Twitter suspended more than 170,000 suspicious Chinese accounts. But according to Senger, many of these accounts remain active.
For instance, when the Governor of South Dakota refused to shut down her state, her Twitter feed filled up with thousands of abusive messages from these accounts. “By contrast, the accounts heap praise on governors who tighten lockdowns, like Dan Andrews, gov of Victoria, AUS,” writes Senger.
When Boris initially seemed to plump for herd immunity, the bots went to work, swarming his feed with messages comparing the policy to “genocide”.
And the disinformation campaign continued, focusing on different leaders each day, urging them to lock down. “Hard to think of any place more ill-suited to a total lockdown than Africa, but that’s exactly what CCP’s fake accounts demanded of South African President @CyrilRamaphosa on March 22,” Senger writes. “The next day, they got what they wanted, and Ramaphosa announced a total lockdown.”
After South Africa, it was India’s turn to be targetted. “On March 23, CCP’s army of fake accounts implored PM @PMOIndia to lock down India and order the army to ‘shoot on sight’ to enforce it,” writes Senger. “The next day, Modi announced a destructive lockdown.”
Senger is continuing to compile evidence and adding to his thread every day. If you’re not on Twitter, you can read the whole thread here.
Disturbing.
Stop Press: Sue Denim, who knows a thing or two about Twitter bots, says this is complete balls. Treat with extreme caution.
Covid Mortality Higher in Democratic States
A reader has been comparing the deaths per million in US states run by Democratic governors with those run by Republican governors.
On my first day of quarantine from Majorca I thought I’d amuse myself by looking at US state stats by political affiliations. Deaths 67% higher in Democrat states, deaths per million 41% higher. Cases actually higher in Republican states. All data from Worldometers.
Looser lockdowns in Republican states and the fact that many are in the south explains it I would think. However, if I were the US President it’s something I’d be flagging daily in the run up to an election. Obviously runs counter to the media narrative.
Postcard From the Dolomites
Sounds like this reader had a very different experience to me. Sorry to read this.
I know you were in the Dolomites a few weeks ago and I seem to recall that you said things were relatively relaxed at that time. My wife and I arrived in Villabassa yesterday for a weeks’ walking in the mountains and I am sad to report that we have found ourselves in muzzle central.
In our hotel you are expected to wear muzzles in all public areas unless seated at a table in the restaurant or bar and sadly everyone is complying. On stepping outside I had assumed that at least in the streets people would be largely muzzle-free but not a bit of it. Outside in the town 75 to 80% of those walking around, including those who are clearly serious mountain walkers are muzzled. Most children are muzzled, even some of about two.
Today we have walked about nine miles from the town to the Lago di Braies. This is a glacial lake which attracts a lot of tourists in coaches plus some fairly keen walkers, such as us. On the way up we passed a fair number of people walking down in muzzles. Others when they saw us approaching put on their muzzles even though there was plenty of room to pass. I reckon about 30% of those we passed (or possibly a little more) fell into this category even though we we were out in the open and they quite literally passed us in a second or so.
If that was bad enough, it was far worse when we reached the lake. This was where we encountered the coach trippers and 90% were masked even though we were high up in the mountains. We saw 2 men fully masked riding mountain bikes up quite a steep hill and a masked couple having a snog! What is it about these people that they have reached such an irrational level of fear that they spoil their enjoyment of the fresh air and beautiful mountain scenery that they feel it necessary to act in a totally irrational manner?
Normally I love a holiday in the mountains but I fear that my experience of the last 24 hours is making me feel that it is one I shall quickly wish to forget.
Submitting Evidence to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus
A reader has come up with a sensible suggestion:
I am not sure how important the work of the APPG on Coronavirus will be to the Government’s ongoing approach but I assume it may have some relevance. This is obviously very worrying. Unfortunately, I do not fit into any of the categories from whom they would like evidence and the list of those that have provided evidence thus far does not inspire confidence that they will hear a balanced view. Hence, I would suggest you give more prominence to this issue in a future edition of Lockdown Sceptics and encourage some of your readers that do have the relevant expertise to submit evidence as soon as possible!
If you’d like to submit evidence to the Group, click here.
Italian Philosopher Becomes Lockdown Sceptic, Shunned by Colleagues
There’s in interesting article in the New York Times about Giorgio Agamben, a radical, left-wing philosopher whose been shunned by his Italian colleagues after coming out as a lockdown sceptic.
The part of the Italian intellectual establishment that calls itself “radical” has been Mr. Agamben’s milieu for half a century. His position on the coronavirus has cost him its support. Paolo Flores d’Arcais, the influential editor of the bimonthly MicroMega, accused Mr. Agamben of “ranting.” The newspapers La Repubblica, Corriere della Sera and Il Foglio all called him a negazionista regarding the coronavirus, using a word generally reserved for those who deny the Holocaust happened. Just as unexpected as these repudiations was the sudden receptivity to Mr. Agamben’s recondite philosophy in the pages of La Verità and Il Giornale, newspapers more often sympathetic to Mr. Salvini’s League.
A member of the radical Left, Agamben was very critical of the West’s “War on Terror”. In 2004, he was so alarmed by the U.S.’s new fingerprinting requirements for foreign visitors that he gave up a post at New York University rather than submit to them. He warned that these measures were only passing themselves off as temporary; they would inevitably become a normal part of peacetime life.
His argument about the coronavirus runs along similar lines: The emergency declared by public-health experts replaces the discredited narrative of “national security experts” as a pretext for withdrawing rights and privacy from citizens. “Biosecurity” now serves as a reason for governments to rule in terms of “worst-case scenarios.” This means there is no level of cases or deaths below which locking down an entire nation of 60 million becomes unreasonable. Many European governments, including Italy’s, have developed national contact tracing apps that allow them to track their citizens using cellphones.
Agamben has written a series of critical pieces about the Italian authorities’ response to the virus and they’ve been published in a single volume called Where Are We Now? The Epidemic as Politics. It hasn’t yet been translated into English, but it should be. Many of his sentiments will strike a chord with sceptics around the Anglosphere.
The politics of the pandemic expose a deeper ethical, social and even metaphysical erosion. Mr. Agamben cites Italians’ most beloved 19th-century novel, Alessandro Manzoni’s “The Betrothed,” which describes how human relations degenerated in Milan during the plague of 1630. People came to see their neighbors not as fellow human beings but as spreaders of pestilence. As panic set in, authorities executed those suspected of daubing houses with plague germs.
When a society loses its collective cool this way, the cost can be high. Rich, atomized, diverse, our society has a weak spot, and the coronavirus has found it. “For fear of getting sick,” Mr. Agamben writes, “Italians are ready to sacrifice practically everything – their normal living conditions, their social relations, their jobs, right down to their friendships, their loves, their religious and political convictions.”
In fact, “the threshold that separates humanity from barbarism has been crossed,” Mr. Agamben continues, and the proof is in Italians’ treatment of their dead. “How could we have accepted, in the name of a risk that we couldn’t even quantify, not only that the people who are dear to us, and human beings more generally, should have to die alone but also – and this is something that had never happened before in all of history from Antigone to today – that their corpses should be burned without a funeral?”
Worth reading in full.
Sir Humphrey Writes…
A retired Civil Servant has been in touch to take issue with last week’s post, “The Covid Civil Servant“, which in part blamed the Civil Service’s poor response to the coronavirus crisis to a lack of numeracy and scientific literacy.
As someone who worked in the Treasury for 21 years, in the final period of my working life, I don’t quite buy the line from your anonymous senior civil servant last week lamenting lack of civil service numeracy and scientific knowledge. During my time, the place acquired vastly more trained economists than when I had first arrived, the majority with postgraduate qualifications in the subject, along with more staff with graduate/postgraduate qualifications in other disciplines requiring sophisticated numeracy such as accounting and statistics. And although I never myself formally acquired any such expertise, I would not have survived a month without being very comfortable with handling numbers. Does this history mean that we became progressively wiser as a department? Does it hell. People who revel in numbers tend to be very uneasy with anything that can’t be captured in numbers, so narrowness, rigidity and sheer lack of imagination increasingly prevailed. The influence of the Treasury right across Government remained immense throughout my time there, and in that time it certainly imposed more widely than hitherto its own version of greater discipline in financial management across Whitehall departments and their related bodies. That didn’t make for better governance overall – there’s no panacea to be found in that direction. Also, the Senior Civil Service are not well paid by comparison with swathes of senior management with far less onerous responsibilities right across the rest of the public sector – that’s a big part of the problem.
Sweden’s Declining Case Numbers Are Due to Herd Immunity
Sweden is doing better than many other European countries when it comes to case numbers thanks to the fact that it didn’t impose a lockdown. The Times has more.
Figures from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control show that the infection rate in France is more than 60 per cent higher than that of Sweden. France implemented a strict lockdown in the spring and requires masks to be worn in many public areas but has a fortnightly infection rate of 60 cases per 100,000 people.
Sweden, which decided not to implement compulsory measures at that time and which rejected the use of masks, has a rate of 37 cases per 100,000 people. The government is recording between 200 and 300 new cases a day, with deaths down to three last Friday.
Anders Tegnell, the Swedish state epidemiologist leading the response to the pandemic, has noted, based on the statistics, that infection rates have increased in countries such Spain, Belgium and France during and following the mandatory wearing of masks in many public areas. “The belief that masks can solve our problem is very dangerous,” he said last week.
Worth reading in full.
A Left-Wing Reader Responds to Yesterday’s Letter From a Liberal Sceptic
I love getting emails like this.
I was so pleased that you published the email from the left-leaning lockdown sceptic in your latest update. This was really heartening to read, and made me feel more like I’m a legit sceptic. I have been reading Lockdown Sceptics since you started it but I have wondered from time to time whether I really belong, as I’m a Labour-voting Remainer. (I used to be a Guardian reader, too, but I knocked that on the head in early April when I cancelled my subscription because of the lamentably biased and narrow-minded nature of their coronavirus coverage).
I say I’m Labour-voting but if there was a general election tomorrow I don’t think there’s anyone I could vote for with a clear conscience. What a ship of fools.
Thanks for all you do. I would think I disagree with you on just about everything but scepticism about coronabollocks unites us all.
If you missed the “Letter From a Liberal Sceptic” yesterday, you can read it here.
Postcard From Munich
A reader writes to tell me about his recent trip to Munich. Could have been better…
I’ve just returned from a weekend visiting a friend in Munich. It was… just ok. The German stereotypes of following the rules were very much in show: facemasks when moving around in any indoors or outdoors restaurant/bar area – so if you are coming in from the street to an outdoors restaurant area, you have to wear a mask from the street to the table. And everyone obeys: I barely saw anyone not wearing a mask where required (over mouth and nose) throughout my whole weekend. The beer halls were very much open though; apart from having to wear a mask for the regular loo trips it was relatively normal and we had some good conversations with men in leather shorts. Slightly odd that some tables in the beer hall were cordoned off, meaning that people were crammed into the tables that were available.
Had an interesting experience at a “seesauna” (lake sauna) the next day to try and get rid of the hangover from the beerhall. Very strict social distancing rules (although thankfully no masks in the sauna areas) – the two of us went into one sauna with an eight-person limit (there were seven there already) and got shouted out. A lot of rules which, combined with the experience of being in your natural state of dress with members of both sexes, made for a relatively stressful experience.
All in all, I was pleased to come home to our comparatively liberal (and increasingly ignored) covid rules!
Round-Up
- ‘A second lockdown? Most English neighbourhoods haven’t had a Covid case for a month, says academic‘ – Prof John Clancy, of Birmingham City University, warns current fears of a second wave are based on “dodgy data”
- ‘Three jailed on Isle of Man for breaking Covid quarantine rules‘ – The Manx Chief Minister, Howard Quayle, is giving Dan Andrews a run for his money as a mini-dictator. This should do wonders for the Isle of Man’s tourism industry
- ‘“Selfish few” put Birmingham on brink of local lockdown‘ – Depressing piece in the Times accepting that a second lockdown in Birmingham is inevitable (even though the infection rate is lower in Birmingham than London)
- ‘The generation betrayed by Boris‘ – Hard-hitting piece by Louise Perry in UnHerd
- ‘We’re stuck in a coronavirus time warp‘ – Good article in the Spectator by Dr Waqar Rashid
- ‘“We can’t keep living like this”: COVID-19 state of emergency opens political divide‘ – There are rumblings of discontent in Victoria against Kim-Jong Dan’s iron rule. But will they develop into an effective opposition movement? I think it was Clive James that said the problem with Australians isn’t that they’re descended from convicts, but too many of them are descended from prison officers (h/t Christopher Snowdon)
- ‘An Epidemic of Depression and Anxiety Among Young Adults‘ – Alarming piece in Bloomberg Opinion by Andreas Kluth
- ‘Kenyans forced to hunt giraffe for food‘ – Terrible story about the toll the lockdown has taken in Kenya
- ‘Patients will have to book a spot at A&E by autumn‘ – Just when you thought the NHS couldn’t get any more dysfunctional. To state the obvious, how can you book an “emergency” appointment?
- ‘Four million people could be tested daily for COVID-19 by early next year‘ – Matt Hancock discovers yet another way to spunk taxpayers’ money up against the wall
- French Professor Exposes the Casedemic Hysteria – Professor Jean-Francois Toussaint lets rip about Covid hysteria on French television
- ‘We now have the best evidence yet that everyone develops long-term coronavirus immunity after infection — and it’s not just about antibodies‘ – Good piece by Aylin Woodward in Business Insider
- ‘BBC considers dropping Rule Britannia from Last Night of the Proms‘ – I spoke to Julia Hartley-Brewer about this on TalkRadio this morning. Link here
- ‘Generation Z feels intimidated by full stops, experts find‘ – How dare you call them “snowflakes”!
- ‘Slaves to R‘ – Good bit of scepticism about the R number from John Redwood
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
A bonanza of songs today: “Anything You Say Now I’ll Believe” by the Flaming Lips, “Complete Control” by the Clash, “Land of Fear” by Julian Cope, “Turnstyled, Junkpiled” by Townes Van Zandt, “F.E.A.R.” by Ian Brown and “Look out There’s a Monster Coming” by the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band (trigger warning: all the band members are wearing black face).
Love in the Time of Covid
We have created some Lockdown Sceptics Forums that are now open, including a dating forum called “Love in a Covid Climate” that has attracted a bit of attention. We’ve also just introduced a section where people can arrange to meet up for non-romantic purposes. We have a team of moderators in place to remove spam and deal with the trolls, but sometimes it takes a little while so please bear with us. You have to register to use the Forums, but that should just be a one-time thing. Any problems, email the Lockdown Sceptics webmaster Ian Rons here.
Small Businesses That Have Re-Opened
A few months ago, Lockdown Sceptics launched a searchable directory of open businesses across the UK. The idea is to celebrate those retail and hospitality businesses that have re-opened, as well as help people find out what has opened in their area. But we need your help to build it, so we’ve created a form you can fill out to tell us about those businesses that have opened near you.
Now that non-essential shops have re-opened – or most of them, anyway – we’re focusing on pubs, bars, clubs and restaurants, as well as other social venues. As of July 4th, many of them have re-opened too, but not all (and some of them are at risk of having to close again). Please visit the page and let us know about those brave folk who are doing their bit to get our country back on its feet – particularly if they’re not insisting on face masks! If they’ve made that clear to customers with a sign in the window or similar, so much the better. Don’t worry if your entries don’t show up immediately – we need to approve them once you’ve entered the data.
“Mask Exempt” Lanyards
I’ve created a permanent slot down here for people who want to buy (or make) a “Mask Exempt” lanyard/card. You can print out and laminate a fairly standard one for free here and it has the advantage of not explicitly claiming you have a disability. But if you have no qualms about that (or you are disabled), you can buy a lanyard from Amazon saying you do have a disability/medical exemption here (now showing it will arrive between Oct 3rd to Oct 13th). The Government has instructions on how to download an official “Mask Exempt” notice to put on your phone here. You can get a “Hidden Disability” tag from ebay here and an “exempt” card with lanyard for just £3.99 from Etsy here.
Don’t forget to sign the petition on the UK Government’s petitions website calling for an end to mandatory face nappies in shops here (now over 29,500).
A reader has started a website that contains some useful guidance about how you can claim legal exemption.
And here’s a round-up of the scientific evidence on the effectiveness of mask (threadbare at best).
Shameless Begging Bit
Thanks as always to those of you who made a donation in the past 24 hours to pay for the upkeep of this site. Doing these daily updates is a lot of work (although I have help from lots of people, mainly in the form of readers sending me stories and links). If you feel like donating, please click here. And if you want to flag up any stories or links I should include in future updates, email me here. If you want me to link to something, don’t forget to include the HTML code, i.e. a link.
And Finally…
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https://www.lockdowntruth.org/post/please-help-select-top-10-facts-to-promote-to-non-sceptics
Please give your thoughts! Thanks
The DELVE report being used to justify masks when it goes on about masked hamsters and no human RCTs performed.
The CMO Whitty quote on 21 July 2020 debunking the need for the lockdown.
The deliberate easing of standards for reporting deaths so that nearly any death could be used to boost covid-19 numbers.
It all becomes clear. When I read masked hamsters before I thought it some kind of joke. You do actually mean masked hamsters, hamsters in masks.
Long, very silent pause.
Do they put monkeys in masks because I’m betting the amount of mask touching I see would be better replicated with monkeys masks rather than hamsters in masks.
Hamsters in masks to prove mass human wearing is a point to pass on to all mask wearers.
I know, I had to read it a few times before it sunk in.
I even checked the links as I thought it was a piss take at first.
They’ve updated the report but it still contains the classic:
A series of controlled experiments in a hamster SARS-CoV2 transmission model
And I’m guessing hamsters don’t stuff their masks into their handbags or bottom drawer when they get home. Why isn’t there a public outcry against this nonsense. I’m so tired of it.
It’s no joke. Every hamster death is a tragedy and if hamster masks save just one hamster life then it will have been worth it.
I forgot masks on my list! Hamsters…FFS! Thanks
Maybe we should all wear hamster sized masks? Maybe size matters? Ahem.
Hamstering (“hamster wheeling”) is a term used to describe how someone makes up all sorts of excuses to avoid the obvious and have accountability for things. Like a hamster running on a wheel wondering why it isn’t going anywhere.
Fitting that these rodents were used in a mask trial
Are you sure they weren’t government ministers?
How would you tell the difference?
Interesting – in Swedish the verb which we would translate to mean ‘to hamster’ means to hoard!
‘att hamstra mat’ means ‘to (hamster) ie, hoard, food’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamster#Etymology
The world is a very strange place!
The stuff about T-cells Toby links to is definitely useful. Non-sceptics with often either bring up the relatively small number of people testing positive for antibodies or the stuff about how quickly they decay. Now we know that (nearly?) everyone develops T-cell immunity, even after a mild infection and, based on research on SARS, people can still have T-cell immunity seventeen years later.
Will often, I should have said. Can we have an edit facility please?
There is an edit option (for a few minutes after posting) – mouse over the lower right-hand corner of your post and click on the “Manage Comment” small gearwheel icon which appears.
Hamster over…
Thanks
Well some of them have T-cell immunity before they were infected.
Part of the problem is that Covid antibody tests are deliberately designed to be as specific as possible, to show if someone has had Covid, not just if they have immunity to it (which they might have without having had it).
The T-cell testing is more to see if people have any immunity to Covid (which at least half, probably more, do, without even being exposed). That immunity is both humoral and cell-mediated.
It’s not so easy to test whether somebody had Covid without making assumptions about what their immune response was. You’re looking for a 19mm spanner and find a 3/4 inch. That’s called a “false positive”. But the 3/4 inch spanner fits the nut and might have actually been what they used.
Indeed – and, in fact, stressing the cross-immunity is useful. People who don’t think they’ve had Covid might be more likely to be scared, but pointing out how they may have immunity due to (some) strains of common cold (important to point out that not all strains are coronaviruses) may help to reassure them.
Some people have a degree of cross-immunity from being exposed to SARS-COV-1 back in 2003 – which seems to debunk the “no long-term immunity” story.
Definitely agree that T-cell immunity is one of the most important points – probably the single most important point given its effect on the number of susceptible people and on the herd immunity threshold. Many of the pro-lockdown arguments are based around the idea that around 70-80% of the population would have to be infected in order to reach herd immunity.
A related topic is the many poor/Third World nations which didn’t implement a full lockdown and where the virus appears to have reached herd immunity and “burnt out” usually with quite low death tolls – most of these nations showing identical epidemic curves. https://twitter.com/Covid19Crusher is the best source I’ve found for wordwide graphs + data relating to this issue.
Another related subject is the % of asymptomatic cases and their probable low infectiousness. Many media stories depict asymptomatics as something that makes the virus more, rather than less, dangerous.
And many of them were using HCQ – often for protection against malaria.
Please not the Koch Postulate thing! That’s rubbish and makes us look like cranks. The virus has been isolated, cultured, electron-microscope photographed, sequenced tens of thousands of times, and it does cause COVID-19, which can be severe. And RT-PCR tests work (with some caveats about how they’re applied, as with anything).
Don’t compare vaccines to flu jabs. They’re different vaccines for very different viruses and have a different set of potential issues, which are certainly worth pointing out.
They have material they’re calling SARS-COV-2, but it can’t be SARS-COV-2 because the virus has not been isolated. Nevertheless, useful idiots come along and say, but they’ve got all these genomes…
And PCR tests go off like a fire alarm positioned over an old toaster.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7045880/
https://www.niaid.nih.gov/news-events/novel-coronavirus-sarscov2-images
And to see what this virus does to monkeys and mice:
https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.13.093195
As for unique symptoms, what law or postulate says that any disease has to have unique symptoms?
BetaCoV/Korea/KCDC03/2020? That old chestnut?
http://www.frombehindenemylines.org.uk/2020/06/sars-cov-2-doesnt-exist-but-dont-take-anyone-elses-word-for-it/
The pictures are nice, but what do they really show? What’s the other material in them?
Check out the Flickr photos from the Rocky Mountain Labs guys. They have some scanning electron microscope photographs in which you can see apoptosing cells, coronaviruses, and nothing else.
“This appears to say that the virus was observed through the medium of the Vero cells that were infected with it. And indeed, images inserted in the paper are ones of Vero cells. The problem must be obvious: there is no proof that the Vero cells were inoculated with SARS-COV-2.”
So basically he’s calling them liars? This argument is a bit self-defeating because why should we believe P. W. Laurie?
I made the point about that. And it was not regarding postulates,but how you act. For Covid there’s a lockdown and panic. For other respiratory issues we do nothing of the sort. If we are to say that this is Covid then you have to eliminate other things otherwise you are now panicking and doing a lockdown for the common flu.
Basic logic and Karl Popper’s principles apply.
There is an asymetry in response and action hence the systematic risk of impacts due to misdiagnosis are high. The risks may be small medically but large societally, which then have secondry medical impacts.
The point that it’s not much different from other similar illnesses is a perfectly valid one.
But the Koch Postulate one is not needed for the skeptical argument, increases the attack surface, and also weakens the argument a lot.
If the virus doesn’t cause the disease and we can’t test for the virus then almost all of our knowledge about the epidemic and when it was over goes out of the window.
It’s just occurred to me that the obsession with purifying the virus and not having other cells in the picture may be because when Koch postulated his famous postulates, viruses had not been discovered yet. A virus can’t do anything on its own without a host cell so no virus will ever strictly satisfy the postulates.
the love of truth is lost to the marketing campaign. The Scientific principles that Koch postulated are to establish a causal agent of a specific disease condition. That these cannot be established led corporately invested science to shift to a probability fudge – under Rivers – and then to abandon empirical science for computer modelled constructs of reconstituted but ultimately unidentified genetic fragments that have neither been truly identified, classified or functionally understood, not proven to solely cause a specific disease. That fireman can be sampled from a fire scene is not establishing cause – though they can be truly identified and their function determined. FEAR seeks an object of displacement – a scapegoat that can be driven out, eradicated, attacked, demonised and used as a foil to moral self-rightous virtue signalling, funding and authoritative controls. To the controller class – fear of Disclosure or unmasking runs the ingenuity of maintaining and reinventing or restating the core thems of the deceit by which fear is protected, hidden and seemingly made ‘War’ on as every kind of funding crusade to save us from (insert terror symbol or hateful outcome here). That we can each observe this pattern of split consciousness in… Read more »
Do you really think there wouldn’t be some cover story to satisfy those who WANT to believe ‘Authoritative’ Bollox? Where you can make up a disease entity to account for a toxic cluster, state that you have isolated and show photos of extracellular debris, model fragments of debris into a the ‘whole virus’ – defined and patented and protected and controlled, without any demonstration of cause – apart from lots of hazmat theatre, then there IS NO DISEASE. The novel can then be assigned ANY common symptoms to be seen to spread, and any capacity to mask, hide, mutate – or run DISEASE-LESS as a hidden vector of CONTROL. For the virus that is active is not the biological response to stress and toxicity, but the virus of ‘self-will’ operating fear-control-protection, and I use ‘self-will’ here for the denial or blocking of the symbiotic and cooperative alignment of communication – for the operation of a locked down private masked agenda – in all its socially isolated but lockstepped parts. If there is no specific disease as a clinical condition – there is not ONE disease vector. Covid is thus a BRAND or catch all – like ‘Commie’ or ‘Terrorist’ that… Read more »
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2020.01800/full
“Complete viral genome sequences have been
made rapidly publicly available to the research community and
have recently surpassed the 48,000 units, thanks to the worldwide
effort of scientists and to the GISAID consortium”.
That’s rather a lot of useful idiots who are in on the conspiracy.
That’s great. But they don’t have any SARS-COV-2.
That’s rather a lot of useful idiots who are in on the conspiracy.
I thought that was the problem. We’re practically the only ones who aren’t falling for the hype, whether it’s an actual conspiracy or not. What you say above is almost word for word what Rod Liddle says.
I would still recommend avoiding potentially controversial issues like this (I know arguably all sceptical arguments are “controversial”!) when there are so many other, more straightforward points (like T-cell immunity); there are so many people, especially in the media, eager to dismiss sceptics as cranks and conspiracy theorists, that it’s probably better to avoid giving them ammunition!
I agree. Useful debate here but not for general consumption yet.
Underlying the ‘arguments’ are Trillion dollar interests. The controversy of calling out ‘industrial interests’ that distort and capture the regulatory, political, media and educational sectors, is not a matter of ‘conspiracy’ but of extraordinarily disproportionate wealth and leverage. Your argument is the definition of a ‘captured opposition’, for you self-censor anything that undermines your own support within a corrupted structure – and so can War on the (bad thing) while feeding and supporting and protecting the underlying mindset of which ‘bad things’ are the symptoms – but attacked or worshipped as ’causes’. I don’t say this in blame. I understand the rock and hard place. But the underlying theme I read in your post is of identity politicking replacing an willingness to address the issues. It is perfectly possible to include reference to lack of established causality for the ‘defined’ viral ‘code packet’, with respect to the original Wuhan cases from which it was sampled – or any cases since – anywhere – or any other set of conditions or or no clinical conditions. In fact the original ‘discoverers’ of the novel virus stated that they had not established causality. If you neglect the small print, you jump the gun… Read more »
What are the unique symptoms of Covid-19? And how can you tell it from other ailments?
The only unique conditions I have seen as the very small subset of people who have lung (and other organ) damage and even that is not conclusive. But it actually doesn’t matter as the numbers are way less than the flu. Hence it can be handled.
As for RT-PCR it is a qualitative test – it absolutely can be used in support of other evidence but it is low resolution and low information.
You still need a gold standard.
Covid-19 is an illness that requires intensive care treatment. I had this confirmed again to me by a “health professional”:
A twitter encounter with a zealot from the cult at the forefront of tyrannising the country (an equivalent of the Nazi SS)
However, ICU admission numbers do not relate to a situation where there have been 50,000 supposed Covid-19 deaths.
Goes to show how little that health professional knows, they’ve totally bought into the scaremongering.
Interesting reading, isn’t it?
Was talking to my brother, who works in care homes, over the weekend and I happened to mention that under 65’s are more likely to die in a car accident than from covid. He was shocked – had no idea the risk was this low. It seems people outside this enlightened community are completely unaware of the age profile of the disease, so I would start with making the relative risk much clearer to people in a way they can understand.
That’s simply extraordinary!! This whole thing is about risk.
I know, it’s nuts how many people have no idea about the true risk. I suppose we can blame the MSM for that, but even so people ought to be able to compare their own personal experience (e.g. how many people do you know, or people you know know, who have got sick from covid – likely not many, if any at all) to what they are being told in the media.
Yes that’s a biggy alright!
“Rise in cases” (aka rise in number of positive tests) vs. rise in % of positive tests is a very important one, given all the local lockdowns as a result of the goverment (apparently) confusing the two!
Similarly the effect of false positives on testing results (another factor in the above)
Also, some reference to similarities with the 2009 swine flu epidemic (in terms of the way society and the media behaved, not in terms of the virus itself) in particular the aggressive push for a vaccine and the side effects (narcolepsy) caused by the latter; this is one of the clearest arguments that concern over a rushed, possibly unsafe vaccine does not make you an “anti-vaxxer”!
I would place as Number 1 on the list the average age of a Covid death exceeds the normal lifespans of citizens. That single fact stops people in their tracks.
I talk to various people numerous times throughout every single day and address any number of the various Covid lies or inconsistencies (I keep a notebook with me at all times that has lots of data for proof) and that one single item above has proven to be the best inroad to get them questioning this swindle.
The 2nd one that has been most effective (connected to the first) is the percentage of “covid deaths” that occurred in nursing homes/care centers. For that one I add that this was due to radical and deliberate policy changes not some unique viral event.
Hi Allen
Have you “converted” anyone?
If so, where were they already on the sceptic scale? 0 = Jacinda Ardern 10 = Peter Hitchens…!
Thanks
Here’s my penn’orth, hope it’s useful for you: Stress negative impacts on the NHS and potential impacts on children’s education; When discussing deaths, use official figures. I know they’re inflated, you know they’re inflated, many of those who’ve bought into this think they understated. Besides, the official stats don’t do the sceptics’ cause any harm; Point out the age profile of deaths, underline the lack of risk of death for adults under 70 and, especially, for children. Compare with flu, which kills babies. Avoid anything which says or suggests that “these people were about to die anyway”. If anyone is in the room who happens to have lost one of “these people”, there may be violence; Compare UK & Sweden death numbers using FERGUSON’S PROJECTIONS, especially expressed as a percentage of the population. I know it sounds like dancing with the devil, but Sweden still comes out well. It’s the best dismantling of Ferguson’s model I know that’s simple to put across; Point out the relentless fear-mongering by the MSM, use examples of where they have only reported worst-case scenarios as fact, the fallacy of reinfections, etc; Do explain how vaccines are developed and the various levels of testing they… Read more »
Using Ferguson’s predictions for a sceptical argument.
Ferguson predicted 510k deaths in the UK, from a population of 66.65 million, assuming they did nothing. We got 41,433 which means we “saved” 468,567 souls, with a lockdown. Or 0.7% of the total population.
Ferguson predicted 96k deaths for Sweden, from a population of 10.28 million, assuming they did nothing. They got, with NO lockdown, 5,813, meaning they “saved” 90,187 souls. Or 0.88% of the total population.
Sweden saved a greater percentage, according to Ferguson’s model WITHOUT a lockdown, than the UK managed WITH a lockdown.
Oh new page, took me by surprise. Found this while mooching the interweb, don’t know if it’s still valid but interesting reading: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201012/cmcode/1885/188502.htm I think most MPs are ignoring it. Few good lines: III. Duties of Members 6. Members have a general duty to act in the interests of the nation as a whole; and a special duty to their constituents. Accountability Holders of public office are accountable for their decisions and actions to the public and must submit themselves to whatever scrutiny is appropriate to their office. HA HA HA – wonder if this can be used to get investigations going under this bit: VI. Upholding the Code 18. The application of this Code shall be a matter for the House of Commons, and particularly for the Committee on Standards and Privileges and the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards acting in accordance with Standing Orders Nos 149 and 150 respectively. 19. The Commissioner may investigate a specific matter relating to a Member’s adherence to the rules of conduct under the Code. Members shall cooperate, at all stages, with any such investigation by or under the authority of the House. No Member shall lobby a member of the Committee in a manner calculated or intended to… Read more »
Found this on the petitions page about MPS having to represent their constituent’s views:
https://petition.parliament.uk/archived/petitions/252142
Quite interesting the reasoning on why the petition was rejected:
“It’s about something that the UK Government or Parliament is not responsible for.
We can’t accept your petition because MPs are accountable to their constituents and how they choose to represent their constituency is their responsibility and not the responsibility of the UK Government or Parliament as a whole.”
This:
Episode 2 is here! https://open.spotify.com/show/4TvMounXNnJPuycMbn3kj7?si=l2lA5rbET-K3GpVVyb6B8A
Thanks for this! Great work. The 4291 figure was worldwide deaths at the time a pandemic was declared. It was in the WHO DG’s briefing on 11th March https://www.who.int/dg/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19—11-march-2020.
Love the logo 👌
I felt it might be useful, save our LS readers time, and save them from intrusive pop up ads, to show a small snippet of the top comments on various news stories recently. Just helps to give a very general “feel” of what the UK population deem to be the most sensible comments at present! Telegraph 24/8 – A second lockdown? Most English neighbourhoods haven’t had a Covid case for a month, says academic “The pandemic is over. But no one is prepared to say so. Especially the ‘experts’ and those heavily invested in producing a vaccine. Don’t expect Whitty, Oxford, Imperial or any other financially interested parties to announce it. They will be praying every night for ‘just a few more months’ to keep the money rolling in.” Daily Mail 24/8 – Huge Covid outbreak shuts Dundee school as seventeen staff and two pupils test positive: “May as well just shut the country down forever then because this is going to happen everywhere if you test the hell out of everybody. If people aren’t getting sick from this is it really necessary to continue this hysteria?” “Oh, for crying out loud! Are any of them actually ill? If not, get into school. This… Read more »
I seem to recollect our ‘boys in blue’ were not too keen on this, when first mooted.
Thanks. Appreciate the snipped summary.
I wonder how many companies would suspiciously reduce to 249 employees.
Not suspicious, just sense. Stupid laws and regulations should be treated with the utter contempt that they deserve. Who of us has worn a mask today?
Oh! Exciting moment today – you just reminded me.
I went to the dog food shop today. When I walked in, that made 5 people in the shop – 2 staff and 3 customers. 100% mask noncompliance. (3 customers unmasked, when they were supposed to be masked and 2 shop assistants masked when they don’t need to be).
Then a bloke walked in behind me, wearing a mask and spoiled it a bit, but I’m taking it as a win.
Should have pointed at him and laughed…
I gave him a funny look and a raised eyebrow instead.
That sounds about right.
A heartwarming tale, we need many more of them.
I was thinking more because management were taking cocaine rather than simply trying to avoid red tape.
I was actually thinking much more generally. Compliance with these outlandish mandates will lead us ever closer to the full control police state, that the government clearly craves.
Good work!
Huge outbreak – tests not cases – anybody actually ill? two pupils … did it mention how many pupils the school had? And how many staff?
I really enjoy reading the comments on some of these articles – it gives me hope that common sense will eventually prevail.
“Dan Andrews, gov of Victoria, AUS”
Dan Andrews (Kim Jong Dan) is the Premier of Victoria, not the Governor. In Australia, Governors are just figureheads, and can’t do any harm. On the other hand, Dan has demonstrably done enormous harm to Victoria and all of the neighbouring states with his insane lockdowns and arbitrary border closures.
I think we’ve just dodged a bullet with this latest virus (Covid19). Can I suggest that a biological warfare agent, ‘accidentally’ released from an American sponsored Level Four Biological Warfare facility in a place in China that nobody had heard of before this year may not have been accidental? Can I also suggest that this virus has ‘evolved’ five thousand years since its discovery in 2004? Yes five thousand years is how long it’s estimated for the virus to have mutated naturally to the point where it would infect human beings. Hmm… On paper this is one hell of a nasty virus. No cure either. You have to be a bit clever with biological agents, after all you want to kill the enemy without killing yourself! In this case the remit was just to kill off the weakest 90% of the population. What could possibly go wrong?.. One of the problems was that this ‘cure’ for many of the world’s ills (climate change, over population, lack of resources, etc.) was that those who wanted it implemented are not in the top 10% of health in the population. This meant that the virus had to be fast acting but have a… Read more »
Yes, that sounds about right, and arrived on the scene in time to introduce the New World Order, the Big Reset! The timing is too perfect to be an accident.
I wish that was all nothing more than fancible nonsense. But it has too much of a ring of truth about it.
But the ‘government’ is plans to extend the lockdown for two years in September.
Politicians lack the guts to admit severe pressures being placed on kids: Alan Jones, Sky News Australia
Large numbers of children commiting suicide down under. The LOCKDOWN is now a crime against humanity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=czXYjln2hSI
Scandalous!
On a positive front, it looks like it has doctors over there in Australia have just been given the green light to use a treatment protocol that Mercola (see mercola.com) has also been recommending. That could mean pressure on our government to also allow it…
I have heard that this Australian news reporter is very critical, watched it for the first time. WOW!
If every country had just ONE reporter who dared to say what he does, we would be better off.
Ignore the Infowars bit …
https://www.infowars.com/frontline-doctor-silenced-by-youtube-and-facebook-speaks-out-about-hydroxychloroquine/
I think one unintended consequence of the whole nonsense will be the emasculation of public sector unions, the teacher’s unions & the BMA (the doctor’s union). They’ve witheld their labour for months on end & we’ve survived, the threat of them striking has lost all power.
They’ve also lost the public’s goodwill and trust, they will never get it back.
I think it will go further as unions become enabling agents of top down change.
Very true. Bless ’em! In a twisted way I’m looking forward to the kids going back to school, not just us parents questioning everything our kids are doing it now too! If the worst comes to the worst we’ll take them out of school & home educate them like we have been all year.
Not sure it’s true to say the teacher’s unions have lost all power. Schools have not reopened yet, and if and when they do, teacher’s unions will probably have a lot of influence over what measures are put in place. Also didn’t they effectively scupper schools reopening towards the end of the summer term?
As for the doctors, the NHS seems to be firmly esconced as the new religion, so not sure how the doctors have been weakened.
In both cases I get the impression that they enjoy broad public support currently
Spot on. If anything they are now enjoying more power than they’ve ever had!
I was thinking about that with the railways. The perfect time for massive reform? Last time there was a strike our hourly train went down to 3 a day (run by management). That would be about right for current demand.
They’ve fired their bullets, if the government could find a spine & stand up to them they’d destroy them.
Maybe. No evidence of any spine, though, sadly.
“if the government could find a spine & stand up to them“
I think you’ve highlighted the flaw in your own argument there…
One interpretation of events is that the lockdown has essentially been the public sector talking to itself.
Mark Woolhouse said lockdown was a “panic measure” but admitted it was the only option at the time because “we couldn’t think of anything better to do”.
All he had to do was ask anyone on this site. We’d have supplied him with plenty of excellent options.
It like flying into the side of a mountain because there means seem to be a bit of a strange noise coming from one of the engines.
The pilot said it was a “panic measure” but admitted it was the only option at the time because “we couldn’t think of anything better to do”
Nothing would have been better. How hard is that to see.
Doing nothing would have also saved many thousands of lives in nursing and care homes Also patients requiring necessary and sometimes life saving attention would have been treated properly, instead of receiving utter contempt.
Ludicrously, much of the craven NHS is still sheltering in place even though Covid-19, whatever it actually was, had clearly packed up and left around the middle of May.
The sheer depth of this scandal is yet to be plumbed, but it will involve all of the following, UN Agenda 21, Bill Gates, genocidal vaccines, massive global depopulation, and the corruption of governments, not least our very own.
The cracks are appearing, and the blame game has started. This is gonna be fun
It’s great that he’s changed his mind, but he was all for it at the beginning. I remember some time around May or June he started to get antsy, saying that he’d only supported lockdown as a temporary measure lasting a few weeks, not the never-ending shambles it has become. Funny, because I could see right from Day 1 that it would be lasting a long, long time. It was obvious, surely?
Obvious indeed. Ferguson admitted as much. Giesecke pointed it out.
Ferguson has a face that I would never tire of punching. It is only that I don’t believe in violence as a method of persuasion that deters me.
Yes, it seems that Woolhouse has not been made privy to what’s really going on and he’s now getting rather nervous, as so he should. Woolhouse will have to do much better if he doesn’t want to end being branded and jailed as a coup collaborator.
Woolhouse is just another of the bloody fools, who ludicrously label themselves as being SAGEs. These “wise” people and the government are criminally responsible for tens of thousands of deaths and should be charged accordingly. Let’s start with the arrest of Johnson and Hancock and an international warrant for the vaccine tsar himself, Bill Gates. Are you ready to do the decent thing Cressida Dick? It would be a long overdue but welcome change.
How I so want to see Ferguson, Hancock, Gates (and his wife) and the odious Whitty and Cressida all in the dock for manslaughter. If I was on the jury, the decision would take less than a minute.
At least he is honest and does not advocate these measures again. I hope this gets widely reported.
No doubt it will be headline news on the BBC.
1 Relatives are told they are no longer allowed to have contact with their loved ones in care homes
2 Gov/ PHE issue orders for hospital patients to be decanted into care homes whether they are infectious or not
3 NHS issue instructions that residents of care homes are not to be resuscitated (a highly illegal act)
4 GP’s and ambulances refuse to attend care homes
5 Care home managers allowed to sign death certificates as ‘covid’ even when there is no test
6 Bodies buried or cremated without post mortem examination
7 Doctors, Police, and Coroner involvement in the investigation/certification process abolished
As Tony Hancock once put it ‘Very clever innit”
As Herr Hancock will say at his trial:
“I vas only following Ze Science, ja!”
Although maybe their lining up the “we was spooked by China” defence.
Showing my age, I’m referring to the real Tony Hancock in Twelve Angry Men
More like ” Ve ver only following ze orders, clicks heels, Sieg Heil”!
When listed like that it’s an absolutely astonishing crime they’ve committed
It’s impossible for children to die of Covid-19.
A twitter encounter with a zealot from the cult at the forefront of tyrannising the country (an equivalent of the Nazi SS)
Last night of the Proms (from the Grauniad report):
“The final concert will be conducted by Dalia Stasevska, 35, from Finland, only the second female conductor to preside over the Last Night of the Proms.
“Dalia is a big supporter of Black Lives Matter and thinks a ceremony without an audience is the perfect moment to bring change,” a BBC source told the Sunday Times.”
A concert of classical music performed live by actual top-class musicians with no audience. Perfect.
AG
“a bbc source”
A bit of light relief: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sAYv2XQ8ZE
Brilliant! And every word is true.
very good
Yes, they’ve managed to work in a female conductor (almost certainly not appointed on merit), a “celebration” of BLM, and no audience with their outdated flags, to boot. You couldn’t make it up! It’s about time the BBC was disbanded. I refuse to watch this objectionable propaganda. Do you remember that nauseating woman last year, banging on about how she was queer, and then waving that rainbow flag at the end; virtue signalling at its worst – and virtue signalling is nasty by default.
Her predecessor was also Finnish, so certainly equally likely to have been ‘almost certainly not appointed on merit’ (in 2012).
I don’t see why Finnish women can’t be great conductors. Anyway as Strauss advised von Karajan, sometimes it’s best to just wave your stick around a bit.
Who cares what they do on the last night. The good news here is that they are going ahead with the whole season albeit without audiences. This will be a welcome change for the orchestras from picking strawberries to pay the bills.
Me neither! I took exception to the overt misogyny that regrettably infests some comments here by John Tench and others, and meant to imply you were just as likely or unlikely to have been appointed on merit if you were Finnish, as if you were female.
‘I don’t see why Finnish women can’t be great conductors’ Quite so. What is it about women conductors and Finnish nationality that has brought this stream of misogyny, xenophobia and homophobia out of the woodwork on this thread? Surely the nationality and sex of the conductor is beside the point! We agree with what you say, Guy, that the content of the jingo-fest that is the Last Night of the Proms is not the big issue. Sadly, it was always going to a target for the ‘woke’ brigade and Cheezilla is right that they do not understand the content, surprise, surprise! Some orchestral musicians are currently furloughed so not too badly off and many are teaching. The freelancers are undoubtedly struggling as they will only have what they can earn from teaching – often via Zoom or Skype which is not satisfactory (as MW knows!) For musicians, the lack of an audience for what would normally be a crowded and exuberant event will make for a sterile and unrewarding experience, normally associated with recordings which aim for technical perfection and no ‘noises off’. The Last Night of the Proms, like it or loathe it, is as much a community occasion… Read more »
And no ‘Land of Hope and Glory’. What a surprise.
Not that there’s any hope or glory in today’s Coward Britain.
Mother of the face-nappied doesn’t have the same ring does it
The Mothers of the Face-Nappies have replaced The Mothers of Invention.
The BBC would never have got away with not having these classic songs included if there was going to be a paying audience- they’d not have been able to sell tickets. If they get away with it this this time, then whenever (if ever) there is a ‘Last night of the proms’ with an audience again, a precedent will have been set and the songs will not be reinstated…
Very Last Night of the Proms?
I saw a PBS doc about Mozart several years ago and one lesbian dyke went to Salzburg with her girlfriend. She claimed that she was the reincarnation of W. A. Mozart.
I found the comments about Rule Britannia from the BAME orchestra founder very puzzling.
She said:The lyrics are just so offensive, talking about the ‘haughty tyrants’ – people that we are invading on their land and calling them haughty tyrants – and Britons shall never be slaves, which implies that it’s OK for others to be slaves but not us
Checking out the lyrics for myself, I’m not sure she’d actually referred to them, as I interpret them completely differently:
The nations, not so blest as thee,
Must, in their turns, to tyrants fall;
While thou shalt flourish great and free,
It’s about the defense of the realm and not its expansion. The same applies to Heart of Oak. Songs that were relevant at a time when we were frequently at war with France.
Not just woke but ignorant.
But let me guess – her only objection to any of the words of any revolutionary, punk, rap etc songs is if they feel a bit sexist to her….
Oh get fucked! Okay?! That’s what immediately popped into my head. Automatic writing. Surrealist.
Wait until someone tells her about Trafalgar Square, and Nelson’s column, and how they relate to a certain period of history….. 🙂
Bullshit! No audience, no fun.
Irony alert! AG
Just a quick comment re. mask-wearing in Italy. Regional governments have issued their own decrees on this. So in Northern regions like Alto Adige and Lombardy worst hit by the epidemic the regulations tend to be stricter than further south. It’s presented as a civic duty. But as of August 17 even nationwide there is a requirement to wear a facemask outdoors between 6pm and 6am.
Intelligent virus part 94 – not dangerous before 6pm outdoors
it’s a vampire virus – only creeps out after dark….:-)
May I draw your attention to this rather humorous webpage I came across recently. It’s brilliant!
https://www.suffolkgazette.com/category/news/
I liked ” Woman visiting the beach complains too many people are visiting the beach”
and ‘Norfolk – where Bob is not necessarily just your uncle.’
Bit random, but anyone know the origin of the phrase ‘Bob’s your uncle’?
Norfolk has a certain reputation in comedy circles for inbreeding. Whether there is (or was) any truth in it I don’t know, but it doesn’t surprise me that people in Suffolk would latch onto it for local rivalry.The origin of “Bob’s your uncle” apparently dates back to Robert Cecil’s nepotism in appointing Arthur Balfour to the role of chief secretary for Ireland.
An alarming number of locals in Lowestoft look the same… I’m speaking from experience.
Sounds fishy to me, Andrew.
Oh, don’t start on the fish puns. I get enough of that at work.
Good laughs!
Some laugh-out-loud ones. Thanks!
I’m thinking of putting a mask on the front of my car, like they do for Red Nose Day with something like “Stuff the NHS” or Get back to Work you lazy sods!
New height of stupidity today, have got members of parish council coming round to explain themselves about approving the latest bit of garden infilling next to us. They are prepared to meet to subject to outdoors only, masks and social distancing !! Have informed them that there is absolutely no chance of me wearing a mask – compete idiots …
We must fight this at every opportunity. Never give up, never give in!
bozos.
are you planning to attend?
maybe you should film it…
I mean if you turn up sans-muzzle what’ll they do?
turn away from you?
maybe slowly back up to a ‘safe’ distance?
run off?
lynch you?
perhaps they’ll spray you down until you’re ‘safe’..
Indeed ! Well it’s them attending us – the idea is to stand in our garden point and essentially say in a firm but fair way “what have you fu&@ers agreed to now?”. Am trying to decide whether or not to put in a one way system, lots of tape marking out 2m and every other chair at the table. Possibly also a hazmat suit and ww2 gas mask if I can locate quick enough !! I’ll think about the filming idea too … 10am on Wednesday !
ah I see
maybe you could get out an old weed killer pump / spray type thing and start pumping
”please let me spray you down before you enter my garden” you could holler as you look up to the traffic light you have installed into the one way system you mentioned you were thinking about also installing
good luck! haha
I like that idea with the spray – will see what can russle up – perhaps map out three boxes on the grass for them to stand in and then have the lawn sprinkler aimed Over them to suppress any emissions !!
What about making a video of the visitation.
Your garden hose is your friend …
Need some choreography for next Saturday’s demonstration in Trafalgar Square.
perhaps they’ll spray you down until you’re ‘safe’…
Like Sean Connery and Ursula Andress in Dr. No.
Excellent response. Official stupidity, at any level, is always the worst.
Ask them how many times in the last week they have gone into a supermarket [or other retail premises] & touched the chip & pin machine, or touch screen in a library, or self service checkout somewhere, which is not sanitized, in the overwhelming majority of places, between people smearing their hands on it. Saw this in Asda the other day – someone asked about people touching the card machines, reply was simply, “Oh well we can’t clean it that often really can we,” to which a few other lightbulbs appeared to go off in the queue from other shoppers, “Oh that’s a good point, I haven’t thought of that, been touching these things for weeks” heard a couple of people say.
Or re-run the Lemsip commercial “Stop snivelling and get back to work”.
Big thumbs up Bella!
Genius!
Excellent meme. I agree I would not want to revisit this year again, ever!
I went to church yesterday and was heartened matters had improved since a fortnight ago. The person who took me no longer asked me to cover my face in his car. I’m medically exempt from masks. No one bothered me about and many people took theirs off after the service when e chatted as normal, last time we had to go straight out after the service. We were allowed to sing quietly and children in the congregation allowed to play with the toy box. Apart from masks and lack of cups of tea, it felt like a normal service. On the way home, I spotted a masked man in a totally deserted street. The person driving remarked,, “Some people are afraid of their own shadow.” I’m grateful my church is still enjoyable . Another local church posted this yesterday. “There are two services on offer on Sunday 1. In church . 10.45am. Remember that seating is limited, that you must wear a face mask and that social distancing will need to be maintained throughout. Please do not feel under any pressure to attend. We will be attempting to live stream it which you can find on our youtube channel. 2.… Read more »
God is with your church, alleluia!
“Report author Prof Alison Leary MBE said the findings were ‘worrying’ and called for an inquiry.” It’s more than worrying. It’s criminally irresponsible and negligent. What has taken the authorities so long to realise all this was happening. Anecdotal evidence was available at least back in early April, but no one in authority was paying any attention. At least the same scenario in NYC and elsewhere in the US was being highlighted by Tucker Carlson on his show. Who here in the UK was speaking out about it, and raising awareness? All our supine media were doing was encouraging he weekly NHS worship. They should be ashamed of themselves, but I don’t suppose any of them were. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/coronavirus-andrew-cuomo-donald-trump-nursing-homes-a9535691.html “New York State quietly deletes controversial Cuomo order that forced nursing homes to admit coronavirus patients ‘He didn’t reverse or rescind anything. The order is still in effect’ ” https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/local/2020/06/16/michigan-gov-whitmer-defends-placing-covid-19-patients-in-nursing-homes-with-healthy-residents/ Michigan Gov. Whitmer defends placing COVID-19 patients in nursing homes with healthy residents Health officials say more than one-third of state’s COVID-19 deaths came in nursing homes Anyone else notice a pattern here??? If Hancock didn’t know what was going on in the UK, he should have been aware of it and… Read more »
Ireland has the largest % of deaths in care homes I believe. Had to be following the same policy of culling the frail.
If ever an enquiry was needed. This is it. Who exactly was providing advice that said to issue DNR orders without consulting, releasing positives back into Care Homes etc. I want to know names and faces.
They need to be rooted out immediately
If this was intentional – and it was certainly deliberate policy, then surely it’s murder, not manslaughter.
en masse too
Like the Nazis with the Jews. N’est-ce pas?
Prosecute all of them for manslaughter.
Yep, same story in other states. California (to a lesser extent, I believe they at least attempted to roll back the policy after a while). Plenty of other states did the same thing WRT Nursing homes. inc. Pennsylvania, who played a blinder by having a Trans Woman as the Chief Health Secretary; people who didn’t necessarily like what she did to their relatives, after moving her own family out of a nursing home, in some instances now are subject to hate-crime investigation:
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2020/05/15/state-official-requires-nursing-homes-to-admit-covidpositive-residents-then-moves-own-mother-out-of-similar-facility-n2568874
From your left winger: “I used to be a Guardian reader, too, but I knocked that on the head in early April when I cancelled my subscription because of the lamentably biased and narrow-minded nature of their coronavirus coverage).”
You beat me to it by a few weeks but I also cancelled my membership for the same reason.
I didn’t always agree with their take on things (especially Corbyn, but also blaming anything bad on Brexit), however overall I was willing to forgive them that.
But their refusal to report responsibly on Covid-19 and look at the situation practically baffled and infuriated me. One thing they do have is good investigative reporters, but either they furloughed them or silenced them.
I’m curious. Are you at all excited by the possibilities for, effectively, a socialist revolution on the back of Covid?
The thought terrifies me.
Without wanting to go too deeply into traditional political debate, this whole affair has pretty much thrown everything I thought I knew up in the air.
It’s quite disorientating.
Your situation exactly mirrors my own. It seems I’m actually quite right wing after all 🙂
Count me in too. I was always very socially liberal and slightly right of centre on economic issues, but I’ve realized that freedom is the only thing that matters to me now. My long-buried libertarian instincts have come to the fore and I’m keeping some strange company these days…well, strange for the old me!
Same. I follow a local politician who was a bit of a hero, always an outlier, sticking it to the corporations and politicos.
They are still doing good stuff, picketing a local factory who have laid off a third of their staff but they are all wearing masks in the open air, posting it on their FB page and calling for all school kids to be made to wear them. I won’t be voting for them any time soon.
On that point, pics of people on social media sending kids back to school and include a photo of them in a mask. Awfully depressing.
Exactly likewise but replace Guardian with Telegraph in my case.
A message to all the lord mayor chief people who scour LS to work out where it all went so badly wrong on your watch.
Realising it’s not about public health is your first step to success.
Then follow Aberdeen Council’s example. Tell the old boot cow moo or Boris or other fuhrer to fuck off and then open up your city as you please. Here we see evidence of weak Nippy having to back the council or look like the jumped up pencil topper fraggle she actually is.
https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/aberdeen/2431222/coronavirus-restrictions-relaxed-in-aberdeen-after-hours-of-talks/
Wondered if they read the letter I sent to them last week? Be nice to think so.
It was a damn good letter anyway.
Well done, Aberdeen!
But she’s made her point and other towns will take note:
Mike Wilson, whose Epic Group runs a number of venues, including Prohibiton, said: “The licensed trade is now in no doubt what is expected of them. We have had a tough lesson…..
“I think the main thing people will find is much stricter enforcing of bookings and the three-household-rule.”
Sent to the BMA part 1: I have been reading your press release dated 04th June 2020 on the use of face coverings. Some of the quotes from BMA council chair Dr Chaand Nagpaul: “it is right that people should be required to wear face coverings on public transport.”“Given there remains a considerable risk of infection, with thousands of new cases every day, wearing masks can reduce the spread of the virus.”“These important measures should not be restricted to public transport but to all areas where social distancing is not always possible – the risk will be much less if the public adopts this now”“The BMA believes that the Government should ensure a supply of face coverings for the public…..It is vital that these face coverings are not the same as the medical-grade masks that have been in short supply and must be reserved for frontline staff whose job is dependent upon having them for adequate protection.” There are no justifications quoted, no science quoted, no studies quoted, no facts or figures quoted and so on so I have a few questions to ask so that I can understand your stance that has been widely quoted in the mainstream media and… Read more »
Sent to BMA part 2: So basically, as admitted by the DHSC, they are using tests that are “unreliable” to say the least, have no reference standard to double check the accuracy against and that have results that means nothing medically so why worry and use to spread fear and uncertainty on how many people may or may not be found to be “positive” based on an unreliable test? Why mention social distancing, a policy that has no scientific evidence proving it’s efficacy and as admitted by Professor Dingwall “it was conjured up out of nowhere”? Why does the BMA believe that lower grade masks which do not offer adequate protection are acceptable for the general public when they face the same virus as medical staff? The Royal Society DELVE report initially published in April 2020 but released in June 2020 and that has received recent MSM interest as supporting the policy of face coverings and masks has some very strange quotes in it that do not support the generally accepted conclusion. Based on these quotes from the report how can this report be justified as accepting masks as a serious mitigation in stopping or slowing the spread of a virus? These quotes… Read more »
Amazing AG, as usual. You are a star, sir.
Light relief after doing online training for days that I’ve put off for months due to lack of interest. Mojo coming back and getting ready to go back to work at some point soon and rebuild the business.
legend!
Re: the hamster, I think this episode of Tales from the Riverbank might need to be renamed…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NxlvfXmkzs
Nostalgia trip!
Awkward Git for Prime Minister! Elected by LS acclaim!
I love the last sentence!!!
Also: My sister once owned 2 hamsters. I am very curious as to how a scientist got a mask onto a hamster as they tend to wriggle all the time… Sedation?
Also hamsters don’t have big enough ears to hook any securing elastic over. What does a hamster face mask look like and how the heck did they attach it and get it to stay on???? The mind boggles!
I don’t think scientists are quite as gentle with their hamsters as little girls would be.
But I think when I looked at that study, the actually used “mask material” (what’s that? Whatever you want it to be!) slung between cages, rather than actual masked hamsters.
Which, by the way, is one (but only one) of the reasons the study was clearly stupid – the air and fluid dynamics are obviously different.
Kinky!
Thank you so much for a fantastic letter. Please can you provide the link to the 15 academic studies showing masks are ineffective in medical settings. I want to send a version of your letter to send to my golf club: If masks aren’t effective in a medical setting what use do you think they are in a golf club? … I am not a hamster so I should be allowed to use the changing room…
James Delingpole’s June 1, 2020 interview with Dr. John Lee is worth watching again. Dr. Lee just said, around minute 37:10, that there are a hundred thousand million times more viruses than the number of cells in our body.
Let us know if you get an answer!
If they tested all of us for other viruses and bacteria they would probably find hundreds of them. They are just fixated on one in particular and they won’t let go, like a dog on a bone.
It looks like the overseer in the school pictures mask is not being worn in a compliant manner. If this is seen again it will result in a loss of 100 social access credits. Stay safe.
What is truly scandalous is that Dr Jenny Harries et al. are only now admitting that children are at very low risk from Covid-19. The evidence was there months ago. Good to hear Prof Woolhouse speak up. The ICL modelling that led to the lockdown will eventually be regarded as the biggest scientific scandal in decades.
Not as far as the BBC are concerned!
China controls the public policies of country after country by using Twitter to express opinions.
This has got to be the most laughable nonsense of the century, and there is plenty of serious competition.
Well, if you substitute “attempts to influence” rather than “controls” is it so implausible? I am sure we attempt to influence what happens in other countries – say Belarus, or Ukraine.
I do not know who the “we” is in your comment, but I know I do not attempt to influence the public policies of other countries.
However to the substantive point: I was referring to the story which claims that China used twitter accounts promoting the lockdown response and these accounts persuaded political leaders across the global to introduce the lockdowns. The notion that the world’s political leaders introduced such obviously self destructive policies on the basis of some anonymous twitter posts is beyond absurd.
unfortunately governments are influenced by public opinion and they think that what they see on twitter and in the MSM is public opinion. We already know that governments have been influenced by the media – Remember the old Sun proclamation of “we won it ”
I am currently involved in an issue where the organisers request a twitter storm be generated at appropriate times to influence MPs. So do not be so dismissive of what effect tens of thousands of tweets – and not anonymous – the bots have “identities” will have.
The “we” was the UK. Whether any of this attempted influencing is effective I do not know, but I think there’s strong evidence it happens.
The government of the United Kingdom has for decades made it perfectly clear that it is opposed to any attempted foreign meddling in domestic politics. Surely you are not suggesting that they are lying hypocrites?
i think some of us take the view that if a politicians lips are moving , they are lying .
And maybe they are opposed to foreign meddling but can they actually do anything about it?. I am vehemently opposed to a meteor landing on the UK. But i don’t think i can do much about it..
Surely not!
There is much more in the Chinese Italian connection than these twitters.Large Chinese population in Northern Italy especially from Wuhan in leather industries to produce Made In Italy shoes.Lots of Chinese medical teams in the beginning being shocked not seeing face masks.I would not easily dismiss Chinese influence in the Italian handling.The other governments just imitated Italy.
I heard about that too. They all celebrated New Year in Wuhan and then hightailed back to Northern Italy. Happy New Year!
could be the country we’re not allowed to mention you might think to mean possibly once upon a time in a land far away or something
A continuation of my post earlier about my friends birthday bbq in his garden where he has told us all that masks are compulsory if we go (even when sat in the garden)
Somebody asked me if I tried to make them aware of what the law actually says. I did but I was told by the host and another friend that the government rules did not go far enough given the severity of the disease.
I tried to talk sense but no luck. These are healthy people in their 20s who are still petrified at the thought of catching this.
I am sorry to hear that
We’ve cut ties to certain friends who don’t share our sceptical views
Are they really scared, as opposed to just posturing?
They’re terrified they arent just doing it to look virtuous. Even if you dont die the first time, they still think you can get reinfected or you suffer from severe lung damage.
In the past we were able to avoid clashing by avoiding the topic but now we’ve hit a wall.
There is a certain section of the population that will remain frightened, until the wonderful day that BBC says it’s safe to come out. Of course, this will only happen once we’ve all been vaccinated with Gates’s Agenda 21 depopulating special brew. Hey ho.
in their 20s … gawd what on earth are they crapping themselves about. If they were in their 70s fair enough to be cautious. Those youngsters need a good dose of reality!
Can you imagine these twots being called up to fight a real war, not this sorry ” virus” thing?
Given that some freaked out at the mere presence of a Military recruiter in uniform within 500 metres of them on campus (Cambridge, was it?) I think I can pretty confidently guess what the outcome would be…
Send them to all the care homes.
Can I be nursey.
That was me. How do they know how severe it is? Who has told them? If the same people told them it was safe now, would they believe it? I fear not; you wonder just what these people want – what do they need to see, to change their minds?
Will a vaccine do it? Probably only if it brings the dead back to life in front of them.
The CMO is saying it’s safe for kids to go to school, but the great unwashed aren’t going to believe it…
Your friends are your friends, Ricky, but I think I would have to leave them behind, because they are so stupid. That would apply to anybody, in any situation, where the evidence against their argument is so abundant and so clear.
The only thing keeping me from totally cutting ties is the notion that such friends have always just skimmed issues such as these.
The tide is definitely turning. They’ll catch up soon enough
That cartoon is very very good. Worth leafletting, I would suggest.
sounds like a dull party
I’m my 20s we fucking rocked! masks? haha maybe we saw some i mean after dropping some lsd we saw all sorts
these guys sound boring as fuck.
Sort of related. One of my duties at my church is the preparation of our steward’s rota. I had just distributed the latest rota for the forthcoming three months and immediately got an email back saying one of our stewards and his wife won’t be able to do any duties until things get back to normal ‘as we are not keen to resume physical interaction in the church building under current circumstances’. 40-ish couple, of African descent so maybe think they are more vulnerable, but clearly still scared stiff of going out and meeting people. I imagine this is far from unusual and it is going to be a hurdle to get past this fear mania. In our town 1-2 ‘cases’ a week and no deaths in local hospitals for ages.
From the wording, I took it to possibly mean they didn’t want to come back if it is all face masks and social distancing? Maybe they’re sceptics?
From the rest of the email it was clearly fear of catching the virus. The friend’s party is the same mindset, as is one of my other friends and his wife. Totally scared of even going out, they go out walking late evening because there are few people around, but gosh he managed to go into a paper shop the other day.
Don’t go.
Have your own party in your own garden.
Maybe the other guests will swap to your garden!
Lost cause then I’m afraid.
The Doors. Strange Days.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DI76mRtSD9g
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7430289/ “Three months of loneliness during the COVID-19 lockdown” Perhaps obvious things in this article by psychiatrists but a good quote speaking of the opening up after lockdown “We speculate that this is because the “new normal” is not normal. Even in communities that have reopened, typical social interactions remain profoundly altered, as people maintain social distance, avoid congregating in groups, refrain from handshakes, hugs, and pats on the back, and wear masks that hide subtle facial expressions of emotion and muffle vocal intonations. Many of the social behaviors that have evolved for generations as ways to express closeness, friendship, and a sense of community have been radically altered in the wake of the pandemic.” Indeed. Not understood that a legal challenge has not been made on discriminatory grounds for mask wearing for the 5% of population with heard of hearing relying on lip reading. And the discussion about mask wearing in children and teenagers in education and not discussing the devastating effect of masks for autistic children. You would think such discrimination of vulnerable groups should be addressed by the left wing medical establishment type Trisha Greenhalgh etc the fanatics for facemasks. Not a word although they could attack… Read more »
I was talking to a young man the other day who is mildly autistic, he works in a customer facing role. He told me that masks make it very difficult for him because he can’t pick up non-verbal signals & keeps misreading situations, he found it very upsetting because he feels he can’t do his job anymore.
Very sad.
https://www.cell.com/cell-reports-medicine/fulltext/S2666-3791(20)30102-6
Another newly published report on this from California about T cells immunity
“Our results suggest that long-lived and robust T cell immunity is generated following natural SARS-CoV-2 infection, and support an important role for SARS-CoV-2-specific T cells in host control of COVID-19.”
This study contains some interesting new information. It was only 9 people, but they looked in much greater detail at exactly what kinds of T-cells they had. They were looking for SARS2-specific T-cells. Lots of T-cells can fight SARS2. They were looking for ones that are specifically adapted to SARS2. To use my earlier analogy, they were looking for the 19mm spanners and excluding the 3/4 inch ones that also fit, do the job, but weren’t originally designed for SARS2. They found these only in the nine convalescent COVID-19 patients and not in the uninfected ones, confirming that they were SARS2-specific. Those SARS2 specific cells were all “Th1” which means their job is not to kick off B-cell proliferation and make new SARS2-specific antibodies. But one of their jobs is to help with “affinity maturation”, which is the process of selecting and evolving B-cells to make effective antibodies. Interestingly they seemed to find adaptations that are believed to specifically wake up memory cells for similar pathogens. In other words, the T-cells that had found 19mm bolts were looking to see if they had any 3/4 inch spanners lying around rather than rushing out to Halfords to buy a 19mm spanner.… Read more »
Thanks for the clarification. The amount of articles now published about the T cells response is increasing rapidly as this might be the clue to the epidemiological features of the C-19.We need lot more to convince Fergusson et al that 60-80% herdimmunity might not be needed.
We may even have close to 60%. It’s just that the antibody tests are only looking for one specific thing that’s part of a much bigger picture. As Gupta and others have shown less than perfectly uniform mixing of the population also lowers the real world HIT quite a bit. Both things are probably true of other viruses as well.
The immune system is truly amazing
Better than most, if not all, vaccines. And less costly as well.
Yes the more I learn about it the more I am in awe. It has a lot of intelligence for something that isn’t a brain, all driven by cytokines turning genes on and off that result in more cytokines.
Didn’t notice this before on the DELVE report:
“This paper has drawn on evidence available up to 28 June 2020 and has not been subject to formal peer-review. Further evidence on this topic is constantly published and DELVE may return to this topic in the future. This independent overview of the science has been provided in good faith by subject experts. DELVE and the Royal Society accept no legal liability for decisions made based on this evidence.”
Oh well that’s OK then.
Zero credibility.
BBC R2 today, Jeremy Vine was asking listeners their views on the schools going back next week.
Woman caller ” it ain’t safe Jeremy, I got two kids and we’re shielding “.
JV ‘since lockdown, wow’
WC “I took ’em out of school 2 weeks before lockdown because nan’s got diabetes”.
(Was diabetes a known co-morbidity 2 weeks before lockdown? Jeremy didn’t ask).
JV ‘ so you’re still shielding now ?’
WC ” It’s not safe for the kids to go back coz nan this and nan that…”
JV ‘so how is nan ? Is she alright ?’
WC “no Jeremy she passed away in April”.
Even Jeremy lost interest at that point having established that nan died 4 months ago without the Covid.
And these people have bank accounts, hold down jobs, have mortgages, drive cars and EVEN more worryingly have reproduced!
I have searched my lexicon very hard, but can only offer “Fuck me.”
It’s subtle, yet erudite and captures my similar response too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anLDf3qdVFA
There are times when one is lost for words. How can these people be so “blue-pilled” that they can’t see the obvious in front of their noses? Perhaps these muzzles are having more effects than we think.
Not anymore they don’t
Yes, it’s sad. Mentally dead, morally dead, but still capable of copulation and conception.
Wonder how they manage to get even that one right.
They got it right at the second attempt.
Possibly teachers, six months paid holiday is not enough.
Yes, my wife and I both think that the stress of teaching “the difficult” children is greater than the stress of being locked up. They simply want to avoid going back to work for as long as they are paid 80 percent of their already-generous wage.
Public Sector = 100%
Very understandable, you should hold out from returning to school at all costs.
Yes; it’s quite a concern.
Comedy gold. This is a spoof. Right? … Right?!
No sadly, word for from memory, posted within an hour of the broadcast.
if this is real… caller is trolling right?
Probably not.
No, just thick as shit.
re comments about this being spoof or trolling.
we have seen how gullible the public are regarding the MSM output and the guidelines re distancing, masks etc . And this is among millions of people, so if this is this average, how stupid are the stupid ones. Never underestimate the stupidity of people who watch daytime tv.
Think how stupid the average person is. Then consider that half of all people are even more stupid than them.
That now includes teachers, of course.
But you can never be too careful and it’s still only four months, so safety first for the little ones.
I really do hope that you are being sarcastic.
None so dangerous as Nan-Covid.
I think we have discovered why eugenicists exist!
Got the below from Southern Rail today. I’m trying very hard not to electrically swear at the morons. ‘This’ is no longer new, and it’s definitely not normal. I shall probably not dignify the ‘children’s television’ tone of the email with even a vitriolic reply. Plus #AskAngie appears to be a Realtor’s handle in Orange County Calif.
Why do these clowns insist on referring to passengers as “customers”? It’s almost as bad as HMRC referring to tax payers as customers.
corporations no?