Interview with an NHS Nurse: “Where’s the challenge? Where’s the crisis? Where’s this Covid?”
Today’s newsletter is a special edition featuring an exclusive interview with a nurse who worked in an NHS hospital throughout the pandemic and says she has never had so little to do. Now she feels compelled to speak out against the “most wilful of lies” she has witnessed, in the hope that “such a grave miscarriage of justice for health can never be allowed to happen again”.
The interview was conducted by Gavin Phillips. The nurse has to remain anonymous because if she’s named she’s likely to lose her job, given the NHS’s draconian policy about not talking to the media. But Lockdown Sceptics has confirmed she is indeed a registered nurse – we’ve seen her NHS id and spoken to her.
She is 100% genuine.
Interview with a Registered Nurse
This is an interview with a nurse with over 20 years’ experience. Jessica (pseudonym) has worked in a large NHS hospital for the majority of the time from February through September.
I have met with Jessica and have verified that she is a registered nurse. She wishes to remain anonymous at this time.
Q. Do you work in the same hospital most of the time?
Answer: Yes
Q. What size is the hospital, how many beds are there?
Answer: Over 800
Q. Different nurses often have different areas where they work in a hospital. In which departments do you usually work?
Answer: All departments. Care of the Elderly, Medicine, Surgical and Emergency area. As well as specialities like Stroke, Gynae, etc.
Q. Please walk us through a typical shift for you. The types of patients you would help and what you would be doing.
Answer: After handover from the night staff lasting about half an hour, I would then begin my morning medication round. This would probably finish between 9am and 9.30am, by which time doctors would be on ward. I would prioritise and attend to my most unwell patients first, making sure they had the fluids or other products they need, like blood transfusions or antibiotic infusions.
If on a surgical ward I would prepare my patients for theatre, liaising with anaesthetists and surgeons to make sure they were prepared safely and all checks completed. After this I would help care assistants with washing other patients and making sure they were comfortable. A round of observations would also need to be done in the morning of blood pressures, temperatures, etc.
My lunchtime drug round would then begin and after lunch it would generally be very much about completing processes for patients’ discharges, care rounds and initiating changes doctors may have made to patients’ care. If on surgical wards, I would then go and collect my patients from theatre and monitor them closely during recovery back on the ward. An evening drug round and copious amounts of paperwork would then complete my day.
Q. I know that different hospitals offer different treatments and surgeries. What types of surgeries does your hospital offer?
Answer:
– All types of orthopaedic surgery. Plastic surgery, usually from a traumatic wound or a cancerous skin lesion
– General surgery such as appendicectomy and cholecystectomy
– Mastectomies and surgery for breast cancer
– Gynae surgery
– Vascular surgery
– General day surgery where invasive diagnostic procedures may be done like endoscopies and biopsies. Also stenting, usually for urology purposes
– Chemotherapy department
– Dialysis department
Q. Generally, how busy was your hospital?
Answer: Very busy.
Q. What was your hospital’s busiest time of year?
Answer: I absolutely find the type of patients and the workload the same all year round.
Q. Do you recall any particular winter that was very busy and with what?
Answer: Norovirus is generally more common in winter. So, this would impact on the general hospital workload as, similar to Covid, the wards would be shut to all visitors, no other patients could be admitted to prevent contamination and therefore many beds on norovirus wards would be empty.
Q. When did you first start hearing about COVID-19?
Answer: End of February
Q. What did your superiors say about it early on?
Answer: There wasn’t a great deal of information, other than what was on the news and other media. I think staff’s biggest concern was for their own safety, the main issue being PPE. Certainly, there was some unnecessary hysteria, but generally I think the wards took things day by day. I did not see any superiors.
It seemed to be that whoever was in charge of a shift (this could be a staff nurse, not necessarily a ward sister or manager) would attend a brief Covid daily meeting, but little information would be relayed on their return, maybe just how many Covid patients were in hospital or PPE advice.
Q. Was Covid expected to overwhelm your hospital?
Answer: Staff were generally overwhelmed with fear of what to expect. The world had been warned of this new killer virus and I think many must have felt like lambs fed to the lions.
Conflicting information on PPE, different countries around the world seeming to have more adequate protection and the dilemma of whether staff should separate from their own families to protect them from this transmissible threat to life that was Covid.
Nurses had fewer patients now as there were fewer patients overall and many redeployed staff, so I don’t think staff could have felt overwhelmed from a workload point of view. But working with the pressure that life was no longer as we knew it took its toll on everybody
Q. At what date (approximately) did you start seeing Covid patients?
Answer: Beginning of March.
Q. What were their symptoms?
Answer: Low oxygen levels, sometimes a higher temperature but often no symptoms that would distinguish differently from their other underlying conditions. I did not come across any patient reporting more unusual symptoms like loss of smell or taste. Neither did I see any patients that developed any associated clotting problems.
Any deteriorating patient would develop worsening function in all body organs and systems but these cannot be called symptoms of Covid. It’s just more the fact that a patient was dying in the same way every other failing bodied patient has died.
Q. Were their symptoms any different to other serious respiratory viruses that you had seen and treated in the past?
Answer: The Covid patients presented no differently to any other respiratory illness, which most Covid patients already had a history of anyway. Previous to Covid we would see patients with the same symptoms in conditions like exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, community acquired pneumonia, hospital acquired pneumonia, some types of heart failure, sepsis and general frailty.
Any infection, as we all know, could present with a high temperature and quite understandably if a patient was admitted with a chest infection, we could also see deteriorated respiratory function which would be low oxygen levels. A simple chest infection in the main could look identical to Covid.
Q. Did you see any Covid patients under 20 years old?
Answer: No
Q. Did you see any Covid patients under 50 years old?
Answer: No
Q. What was the general age range of the Covid patients?
Answer: Over 70
Q. Were the elderly moved to Care Homes?
Answer: Not immediately. Most were detained in hospital for a long time, absolutely unable to see any of their family. These patients would not be for resuscitation so essentially their treatment would be palliative. I do not think that hospitals are the best places to find comfort, dignity and symptom control so it was distressing that many patients could not be discharged sooner.
Q. As you mentioned, this virus mainly attacks the elderly. With the lockdown rules and the elderly unable to see their family for months, what effect has this had on their mental health?
Answer: It has affected their mental health enormously. Bewilderment, loneliness and isolation. I know many elderly people who have had to choose between obeying the fear and seeing their own grandchildren, with many hearts creakingly choosing the first.
They should never have been put in this impossible situation, compounded all the more by the fact these could be the final months or years of their lives.
Q. Approximately what percentage of the Covid patients had other serious pre-existing conditions?
Answer: 100%
Q. Please give us some examples of those pre-existing conditions?
Answer: Heart failure, Parkinson’s, strokes, leg cellulitis and leg ulcers, diabetes, kidney disease and general anopia are some examples.
Q. Is it true that other viruses like flu and pneumonia mostly kill the elderly who have at least one pre-existing condition?
Answer: Yes
Q. In your over 20 years of experience, did you see a specific difference between Covid patients and other patients you have treated that had a severe viral infection?
Answer: No
Q. What were the treatments you gave to Covid patients?
Answer: Oxygen therapy and IV fluids. Often antibiotic therapy also.
Q. During the height of this alleged pandemic in April, how many Covid patients were in your hospital?
Answer: I am not sure, maybe 100 to 125.
Q. Was there a point at which you thought that this was not a pandemic?
Answer: I did not think this was a pandemic from the start. I think people were being intentionally frightened and this is what captured my attention. So, I decided to sit back and observe for differences between Covid and normal health problems. But no differences whatsoever were revealed to me.
Q. Were there any other patients in your hospital from April through August?
Answer: A very minimal amount.
Q. How empty was the hospital during those months?
Answer: Extremely empty. Bays that were normally full were completely empty. On several occasions I have had no patients at all for an entire 12-hour shift.
The hospital has speciality wards for medical emergencies such as strokes, which were always full (before Covid). An emergency episode like a stroke can be easily diagnosed and treated with thrombolytic therapy, a hugely vital service preventing death and worsening brain injuries. The stroke ward was virtually empty.
I know there is some belief that hospitals were empty because our usual patients were too afraid to come to hospital because of the pandemic. However, the majority of patients never brought themselves into hospital anyway, being so ill that somebody would need to call an ambulance for them as they had suffered a stroke or an epileptic fit or a fall.
In the main it would be a carer, district nurse or kindly neighbour that phoned for an ambulance on their behalf, but it seems that these calls just weren’t being made. It makes me shudder to think that these people, mainly the elderly again, collapsed and likely died at home as coming into hospital for treatment no longer seemed an option for them.
It is a simple observation and I would welcome any government official to compare hospital records from this year to every other year and examine why this category of patients were suddenly missing.
Q. Were all other serious surgeries postponed during this time?
Answer: I believe all other surgeries were cancelled apart from some orthopaedic trauma and general trauma. I am not sure about chemotherapy but I think all services were very limited if not ceased completely.
I nursed a 50-year-old lady last week who was diagnosed in January with aggressive breast cancer. Her mastectomy was planned for early March but was then cancelled. She had no contact with the Oncology Team and only just had her mastectomy three weeks ago. When I met her, she was waiting on the results of her recent MRI to see if her cancer had spread anywhere else. She has really experienced a lot of fear this year.
Q. What were you and the other nurses doing on your shifts in a hospital that was virtually empty?
Answer: Nothing. Although I did busy myself on one occasion doing an incident form as the stock supply of basic equipment was unacceptable.
Q. Were any other nurses or doctors questioning this?
Answer: No
Q. Could your hospital have coped with the Covid cases and carried on offering regular health care as they have done in previous epidemics?
Answer: Yes
Q. For clarification. Your hospital was nearly empty for five-plus months. People who desperately needed surgeries and other treatments were postponed for many months. Was this necessary in your professional opinion?
Answer: No
Q. Have you spoken to other nurses in different hospitals? What have their experiences been?
Answer: They all agree that hospitals have been empty, but most believe this was necessary to protect the public. But many never question it at all.
Q. While the country was clapping for the NHS, you were sitting in a nearly empty hospital. How did this make you feel?
Answer: I felt a terrible fraud when the whole country was clapping the NHS. Once, when I was on duty at the allocated clapping time, the staff that had had a rather quiet day, then insisted that everybody stand up and clap themselves as well.
I have to say this rather turned my stomach, and I had to make my excuses and lock myself in the toilet. I felt rather desperate to find colleagues that might be questioning it all, like myself, but it was clear to see that everybody was believing the media narrative.
I also felt despairing for my patients. Many were very alone and afraid, unable to see their loved ones. I think my saddest experience in all my nursing career was back in March when I had to lend my mobile phone to a dying man so he could say goodbye to his daughter. It felt utterly unfathomable that myself, this man and his remotely present daughter could find ourselves in this situation, and we all cried.
Q. Has your hospital started to help people in September?
Answer: Yes, services have been reintroduced gradually.
Q. Were you ever told by your superiors not to speak to anybody in the media about the fact your hospital has been virtually empty for five months?
Answer: No, not directly, but that has been my understanding.
Q. In recent weeks the government has been mentioning increasing cases of Covid. Cases of a disease are more serious than someone who only tests positive, but has little or no symptoms at all. But the government has not made it clear to the public the difference between the two, or whether they count all people who test positive as a new ‘case’. Have you seen an increase in Covid patients being admitted to your hospital in the past six weeks?
Answer: No
Q. The Government has been saying that Covid is an unprecedented threat to public health and is a national crisis. It has implemented the most draconian restrictions on people’s liberty this country has ever seen. But your experience tells a totally different story. Was it strange seeing the stories in the mainstream media of a supposed Spanish Flu (1917-1918) type killer virus, but you are seeing nothing like this in your hospital?
Answer: Yes, it felt completely surreal. A wave of disbelief that I found really quite crippling at first. Many people in my family were asking my opinion on the coronavirus in the week or two before lockdown. I confidently reassured them that everything was okay and although much news was being made of it, this was really nothing that new. As always, we should be a little more mindful of the elderly and vulnerable, but compassion and common sense would eventually prevail. How wrong I was.
My partner was furloughed, the schools and high street closed immediately. Any forms of normal recreational escapism disappeared overnight, compounding the fear suddenly unleashed on our lives. I knew far greater health threats were occurring as a side-effect to all the unforgivably irrational management measures of Covid.
I really cannot call them safety measures. Rather than protecting health I in fact saw greater neglect as fearful staff were told to limit their time with patients and the care that these people deserved in the last days and weeks of their lives simply wasn’t there.
Many patients I see now will have stories of how they could not access any services, follow-up appointments or GP appointments. This is not what I became a nurse for and if healthcare has failed them in any way, all I can give them now is my sincerest apology.
Q. What are your reasons for taking part in this interview?
Answer: As a nurse, acting in the best interests of patients and the wider general public has always been the most integral part of nursing for me. Sometimes my views may be opposed by other health care professionals, but I will always advocate for my patients to ensure they have the fairest and best treatment.
When the pandemic began, I certainly did not see action taken in the patients’ best interests. Keeping relatives away from their dying loved ones in hospital must surely be an infringement on basic human rights.
Scared staff were told to limit the amount of care given to patients, all very elderly, thereby compromising their personal hygiene, care and dignity. Doctors paid much less attention to all other health conditions as patients were not for resuscitation and considered “end of life”.
This hospital formula in response to the alleged Covid pandemic I believe is a direct link to increased deaths. If Covid produced different symptoms to other viruses, it would be an undeniable new and frightening virus, but life in hospitals looked exactly the same. If the stories of “this unprecedented new virus” were not constantly flooding all news and media, we would never even have known of its existence.
We must also not forget the patients who have been denied healthcare for many months. The many, many patients that have been unable to access services, outpatient clinics were no longer open, a crucial service of reassurance and possible detection of changes to their health conditions.
This would have caused enormous anxiety to those denied. I have met patients that have had surgery cancelled. A lady that broke her arm in February has had it hanging limply by her side since, losing muscle tone, good circulation, affecting her life and ability to work. She has attended A&E twice begging for surgery, even saying she would sign a disclaimer if she contracted an infection. But of course, she was refused and her despair and desperation ignored.
So, depression sets in. Depression, anxiety and general loss of confidence in our public bodies will all lead to serious mental health problems and therefore increased suicides. Loneliness and isolation experienced in lockdown can affect us all, healthy or otherwise, this too will undoubtedly have devastating consequences on the mental health of individuals.
The speed at which I could see my colleagues buckling against the fear and brainwashing was also hugely unsettling. Orders were simply followed without question, which in turn fills me with fear, as a healthy world can only be achieved where ideas and instructions are studied, challenged and debated.
I can only say the most wilful of lies were being told during the height of the pandemic and continue today. Chief nurse Ruth May has said that nurses were at the forefront of the COVID-19 response and have worked so hard. She has said she is proud of how nurses have stepped up to the challenge. I do not consider this to be truthful at all. Some wards were full, but with no more patients than any other times and lots of redeployed staff. The workload was definitely less. Other wards were rather empty. Where’s the challenge? Where’s the crisis? Where’s this Covid?
I know there are figures upon figures, statistics upon statistics, that the Government is picking and choosing to endorse the fear and create scare tactics, but for me, the numbers do not account for much. They’ve ‘cooked the books’ and the masses have been manipulated.
For me, it’s over 20 years of experience, professional and human instinct and being on the front lines for over six months. I have seen confusion, avoidable suffering and death with my own eyes, so I have no need for the numbers.
I consider this interview to be the greatest practice of patient advocacy I can ever demonstrate. I will do whatever I can, I must raise awareness to the real truth so that questions can be asked and enquiries may begin. My real hope is that such a grave miscarriage of justice for health can never be allowed to happen again.
Q. Thank you for taking part in this interview, I appreciate it and I’m sure many others will appreciate it as well.
Answer: Thank you for giving me an opportunity to inform people about what I have seen over the last six months.
Closing thoughts
As “Jessica” has stated, she has been sitting in a nearly empty hospital throughout this alleged pandemic. Other seriously sick patients have been deprived of medical attention for six months. The entire country has been scared witless by a massive fear campaign orchestrated by this government and spread by the mainstream media.
The suffering that the people of our country have endured is incalculable and unprecedented. This Government needs to be held accountable for its actions. If any police, lawyers, nurses or doctors want to tell their story during this Covid period, or want to help in any way, please contact me at gavinph@protonmail.com, Twitter: @photopro28 . The truth must be brought to light.
Round-Up
- “What price lockdown? That’s the multi-million pound question” – Excellent analysis by George Cooper in Conservative Woman, calculating that “on a generous assessment” lockdowns “may be extending life at a cost of £1,000,000 per QALY”
- “Did the Government waste £161m in Moonshot money?” – Tom Chivers asks some probing questions in UnHerd
- “How Europe’s second wave could be taking a dangerous turn” – More terror in the Telegraph, with a conspicuous lack of evidence
- “UK economy slows further in August despite Eat Out to Help Out” – From Yahoo. Now what was introduced in August that might have changed the atmosphere and got everybody scared?
- “One in 20 staff at tech company Coinbase leave after boss makes ‘no politics at work’ pledge” – One brave Silicon Valley company takes a bold stand against corporate woke culture
- “Chancellor ‘to announce local furlough scheme’ ahead of Covid closures” – More magical money tree in the Telegraph
- “Data shows the average age of death from coronavirus is 82.4 years” – Good sceptical piece by David Rose in the Mail
- “How close to the edge is the NHS?” – The Mail attempts some perspective, pointing out that “at the peak of the crisis, 27% of all beds in the country were taken up by people with Covid-19” while in London it peaked at 40%
- “Increased testing responsible for the higher COVID figures” – More scepticism from the Mail, looking at the situation in Europe
- “Boris Johnson will never defeat the coronavirus pandemic and must learn to live with it, says Iain Duncan Smith” – From the Telegraph. Can we make IDS leader again please?
- “The Covid testing trap” – The latest from Dr Waqar Rashid in the Spectator
- “Is the Guardian planning an attack on the Great Barrington scientists?” – Freddie Sayers in UnHerd has been alerted to a possible Guardian smear-by-association. Because that’s the right way to approach questions of science and fact
- “Parents fear speaking out on cruel ‘teacher first’ Covid rules” – The latest warning from UsforThem founder Christine Brett in Conservative Woman. Also, Kathy Gyngell explains why she signed the GB Declaration
- “A shortage of loos” – Desmond Swayne MP reveals that Nightingale hospitals are currently unable to assist with winter NHS overload as they don’t have enough toilets
- “THE Important Lesson from Sweden – Short, Sharp and Viral!” – Latest from Ivor Cummins
- “Daily UK Covid cases fall by almost 4,000 in 24 hours as 13,864 test positive but deaths at highest for three months” – The Sun highlights that cases went down again yesterday, putting them even further from the graph of doom. Remember, Witless and Unbalanced forecast 50,000 by October 13th
- “Ministers accused of justifying pub closures with ‘cobbled together’ statistics” – MPs were not impressed with Chris Whitty’s presentation on Thursday, according to the Telegraph
- “The Week in 60 Minutes #6 – with Andrew Neil and WHO Covid-19 envoy David Nabarro” – Latest episode of Spectator TV, where Nabarro from the WHO comes out against lockdowns: “We in the World Health Organisation do not advocate lockdowns as a primary means of control of this virus. The only time we believe a lockdown is justified is to buy you time to reorganise, to regroup, rebalance your resources, protect your health workers who are exhausted. But by and large, we’d rather not do it.”
- “We’re back to where we were in March, warns Jonathan Van-Tam” – The Deputy Chief Medical Officer makes the ludicrous claim to MPs that we’re in no better position now than we were in the spring, from the Times
- “The irony is that following the polls on Covid has now damaged No 10’s approval ratings” – Patrick O’Flynn in the Telegraph on how following the crowd doesn’t make you a leader
- “Four in ten extra deaths in Lombardy not linked to COVID-19” – From the Medical Xpress. That’s a similar proportion of lockdown victims in the UK
- “Why does the fawning media let Nicola Sturgeon get away with Scotland’s Covid failure?” – An excellent question from Tom Harwood in the Telegraph
Love in the Time of Covid
We have created some Lockdown Sceptics Forums, including a dating forum called “Love in a Covid Climate” that has attracted a bit of attention. 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.
Sharing stories: Some of you have asked how to link to particular stories on Lockdown Sceptics. The answer used to be to first click on “Latest News”, then click on the links that came up beside the headline of each story. But we’ve changed that so the link now comes up beside the headline whether you’ve clicked on “Latest News” or you’re just on the Lockdown Sceptics home page. Please do share the stories with your friends and on social media.
“Mask Exempt” Lanyards
We’ve created a one-stop shop 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 (takes a while to arrive). 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 £1.49 from Etsy here. And, finally, if you feel obliged to wear a mask but want to signal your disapproval of having to do so, you can get a “sexy world” mask with the Swedish flag on it here.
Don’t forget to sign the petition on the UK Government’s petitions website calling for an end to mandatory face nappies in shops here.
A reader has started a website that contains some useful guidance about how you can claim legal exemption.
And here’s a round-up of the scientific evidence on the effectiveness of mask (threadbare at best).
Stop Press: Douglas Murray in this week’s Spectator tells the tale of his visit to New York, where people shout at you in the street if your mask even slips from your nose.
In New York everybody wears masks outdoors as well as in. If you do not wear one, people shout at you. Anyone who knows New York well will know that innocent pedestrians are quite often shouted at in the street. But traditionally the shouting is done by members of the city’s thriving homeless community.
The Great Barrington Declaration
If you Google “Great Barrington Declaration”, the top hit you get is a smear piece in the Byline Times, an obscure, online magazine that traffics in left-wing conspiracy theories. One of the three videos linked to at the top of the results page is an interview with Devi Sridhar telling Channel 4 News that the Declaration is not “scientific”. That’s rich, considering the three main signatories – Professor Sunetra Gupta, Professor Martin Kulldorff and Professor Jay Bhattacharya – are all eminent scientists, whereas Devi has a PhD in social anthropology. If you continue scrolling through the Google search results, you cannot find it. It has been shadow banned.
You can find it here. Please sign it. It now has over 200,000 signatories – no thanks to Google.
Samaritans
If you are struggling to cope, please call Samaritans for free on 116 123 (UK and ROI), email jo@samaritans.org or visit the Samaritans website to find details of your nearest branch. Samaritans is available round the clock, every single day of the year, providing a safe place for anyone struggling to cope, whoever they are, however they feel, whatever life has done to them.
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 hard work (although we have help from lots of people, mainly in the form of readers sending us stories and links). If you feel like donating, please click here. And if you want to flag up any stories or links we should include in future updates, email us here.
And Finally…
Take the “The Great Covid Quiz” by Andy Shaw in Spectator Life:
From the comfort of your own home, you can take part in The Great Covid Quiz and win! The Government is giving away billions and billions of pounds in prizes. Simply answer 10 questions correctly and you could win prizes ranging from a furlough to a wheelbarrow of Rishi cash. Get one wrong and you risk being quarantined and your team sent into lockdown.
You have 60 seconds to answer nine questions. Go!
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
Is it me?
It is! Well, this weekend’s not going to get any better.
The sun’s shining. What more do you want?
A simple question to write to your MP – ( it’s better than doing nothing)
A couple of weeks ago Boris Johnson said a second lockdown would be a catastrophe for the British economy.
Why then is he so keen to have one?
His plan must be to bring a catastrophe to the British economy.
Ah, but he’s not keen, is he? Like any wife-beater he keeps telling us that he “doesn’t want to do this” but that we make him by being disobedient.
It would be a convenient cover for the economic consequences of the impending Brexit in January.
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/disease/california-doctor-treated-over-1700-covid-patients-0-deaths/
Californian doctor gets 100% cure with hydroxychloroquine
Donald Trump has been advocating hydroxychloroquine since March. It is cheap as chips and has been around for 70-80 years.
Well, well
Hang in there guys
We are. Not going to give in now. Hell no.
Hearty congratulations to the nurse who has told all. She will be a star witness when Wancock and the other Fascist brutes are in the dock.
Wow – need more to be so brave – there must be thousands feeling the same
Hopefully she will be the first of many!
Can you put her in touch with us?
mail AT covid19assembly.org
Thanks
Thanks
Most people whose test returns positive don’t have true covid anyway! Regardless of the issue of what is being tested for, such as fragments ofDNA from long defeated viral challenge on the patient, the key factor is the ratio of the accuracy of the test (specifically, the percentage of false positives) to the prevalence of the virus (that is the actual percentage of “real” covids in the general population). The lower the prevalence, the more likely it is that a positive test is false. If the prevalence is 0.11%, and the accuracy is 95%, then the Positive Predictive Value is about 2%: that is, there is a 98% chance that the positive test is false. Taken to the extreme, if the virus were extinct tomorrow its prevalence would be zero, but a test with 5% false positives on a population of 70,000,000 people would produce around 3,500,000 positives, all of them false, which would keep the track’n’testers in business for decades!
True – does anyone remember the supposed whooping cough outbreak? That exact thing happened – all tested positive, all negative on retesting. Can’t recall it being brought up throughout this whole farce.
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/22/health/22whoop.html
But they need to speak out publicly. I really have no sympathy for them, no more than I would to a mother who knowingly allows her partner to abuse and batter her child to death.
I’m not so sure. Maybe (hopefully) there are some, but as she says, most have followed and or swallowed the official narratve.
That I find that to be bewildering.
Do they not believe what their own eyes tell them??
It’s okay to give, but not in.
What’s really getting to me Ann, is the compliance. I find it frankly terrifying. The tyranny is bad enough but that can be confronted . But the sheer apathetic docility of the vast majority of the population is another matter. I fear that if the Great dictators came out from behind the curtain and announced that this was a all just a ruse for ensuring we cut CO2 emissions the great British public would say: “That’s OK.” If they went further and said that democracy was a luxury we can no longer afford the great British public would say: “ That’s fine.” Something has happened! I am find it bewildering.
I agree. There are far too many who shrug and are prepared to take the ‘it is what it is’ approach with no questions asked. It is bewildering and indeed very terrifying.
I’d say they had put something in the water but then we’d think like them too!
Highland Spring only for me, since decades.
Highland Park for me.😊🥃
The same is true on this side of the pond. I realize Brits may have a different view of the American Revolution, but we have been taught that our ancestors willingly sacrificed their lives to guarantee for themselves and their posterity the rights, embodied in our Bill of Rights, to life, religion, speech, assembly, freedom from unreasonable searches (privacy) and arbitrary imprisonment. Those rights have been under attack since well before 2001, but they are now being stripped away completely. We fought a Civil War with enormous casualties to extend those rights to those who were slaves at the time, and many risked their lives in the 1960s to recover those rights from Jim Crow.
I am 73, and I will not willingly sacrifice the few remaining rights of my children and grandchildren out of fear that my long life might be shortened by a month or two or even a few years. I am dismayed by my fellow retirees, comfortable with their pensions, paid for housing and dividend checks from monopolies, unworried that they’ll lose their job or their small business will be bankrupted, who call me irresponsible because I question the media narrative and seek out alternate viewpoints.
Me too. I can be angry and shout at overbearing politicians but this collective, submissive docility is truly terrifying. How do we fight that?
Every MP should be locked in a room and made to read her account.
I don’t trust myself to make any further comment except that I suppose most of us here have suspected as much.
The people making these decisions are not human.
Charley, There is nothing stopping us emailing this account to OUR MP’s?
Sadly, I don’t think it will make any difference. I haven’t had a reply from my MP to three emails, even though in the past she has replied to all of them. Just seems to think I am a nutter. I have found it impossible to persuade anyone about the truth of this, with the exception of a 20 yr old student friend.
One wonders who is yanking Wancock’s chain. Boris’ too.
2 weeks ago when they tried increasing hospitalizations to produce the fabled Second Wave my local hospital went from 0-1 cases for many weeks to 6.
All those people have now left hospital as Covid Survivors.
There is now one Covid patient and they came into the hospital for something unconnected but was found to be Covid positive during the routine test.
What will they try next ?
Mass propaganda.Sage,Independent Sage all clamouring for another lockdown,never thinking if the first one didn’t work then why will the second one.
Cue libertarian Boris,I really don’t want to do this but you know.um,ah um,as he condemns millions more to unemployment and misery.
This is like a bad film plot.It is so obvious yet millions still fall for it
Alexander Johnson is a monster.
Don’t you know that an increase from 1 to 6 patients is a 500% increase! /sarc
Combining all deaths from all types of coronavirus and flu and declaring them all to be due to ‘Covid’…
And not being able to face the fact that older people are more likely to die, and that somehow death at 81 should be regarded as a failure…..
I never once clapped. But I’m quite happy to stand up and clap for ‘Jessica’ now.
We need more Jessicas.
Jessica, the antidote to Karen!
Hang on, we have a Karen on here!
My partner is a nurse in a smaller more specialised hospital, that is always busy. It was turned into a covid hot hospital and she treated covid patients. She has been saying the same things as “Jessica” all along. I could tell you a few horror stories of wasted money, huge errors and mass evictions of old patients into care homes. Unfortunately if she spoke up it would be too easy to identify her and she would lose her job.
My brother is a nurse in one of the hospitals in the North East of England; has been for thirty years. He said exactly the same as Jessica. Unfortunately, as 99% of the media and search engines are bought and paid for, this will never got out to the sheeple who have 0% critical thinking. I do believe we are all fooked.
Great post!!
Indeed. She and the others who are trying to counter the official narrative need our support.
Excellent LS today – I hope there are some hospital staff who have kept daily/weekly diaries of events – these could be used as evidence in any future proceedings….
I found Jessica’s interview very moving.
We need more Jessicas.
Indeed we do. But from what she says her colleagues were, and still are, largely unquestioning of what was right in front of them and how that contrasted with the narrative. Was this perhaps the personal threat message doing its filthy work among NHS staff who were completely manipulated by the media obsession with PPE?
I think everything Jessica says is true but no doubt the media will pull it to bits. The couple opposite are nurses in a non-covid hospital. I have not spoken to them but it was very apparent during most of the lockdown that they were not going to work as often so preumably nobody to nurse. They seem to be getting back to more normal shifts now.
A big part of the problem is that for many people – particularly on the pro-lockdown side – this long since stopped being an argument about science and became a proxy war for left vs right.
The Guardian’s childish attack on the GBA is a classic example.
The Blairite left – having lost Brexit and seen Trump win in America – is desperate to get is own back and has falsely equated Covid scepticism with the populist right.
Because of that it is not actually engaging with facts, data or science and is sticking to an entirely dogmatic approach.
God knows how insufferable they will be when they eventually “lose” this one as well (though of course we are all going to lose)
Left and right are united here. We may disagree over some things from time to time, but we all know who our real enemies are.
It is about being anti-dishonesty.
Things I believe unite us are :
– Free speech
– Democracy
– Intelligence
Feel free to add to this.
A nice red uniform?😁
Adherence to the truth.
Critical thinking (they don’t teach that in schools these days)
That’s why I like this website. We have Corbynites, Thatcherites, Trump fans, Trump detesters, Remainers, Brexiteers – but we’re all able to put our differences aside and support each other’s stories. (I am a centre-leftie Remain voter for the record.) I wish more websites like this existed in that respect!
Huzzah for that. I’m a Corbyn voter who now wants Trump to win the US election. I still haven’t worked out how that happened in such a short space of time.
Yes, I love this site for exactly the same reasons. Bravo to you all!
Yes, I wasn’t a Corbyn voter but I am definitely Old Labour, and I now think Trump is definitely the lesser evil so if I were able to I would vote for him myself.
Seeing cities burn this summer did it for me.
And I’m a right wing Brexit voter, but you and me – we’re companions in arms!
Voted Remain. Left-ish. I used to be a Green Party member (30 years ago).
And 30 years a Vegan (and 9 years Vegetarian before that). But in the old days we didn’t do identity politics. I was brought up on a factory farm and I loved animals (ate enough of them in the first 20 years of my life to last a lifetime!) So I have always (when asked) said that I am Vegan for “sentimental reasons”. It makes me laugh when listening to some of the new Vegans – who are so trenchant and critical of others. I never forget that I used to eat meat and have no moral highground.
And yes, I want Trump to win. Never thought I would say that until recently.
I was about to say the same thing, Ann. I am a left-wing refugee from the Guardian. There is no left and right now in any meaningful sense.
The other axis of politics seems more important in this matter: authoritarian versus libertarian.
We are libertarians of both right and left, but we share a wish for the best outcome for the most people.
How to get there differentiates us economically, but that is less important at present.
Left vs right is not very useful as categories any more.
It’s the pro-free speech, small government, pro-democracy versus those who are anti.
There are the classic liberals who now find themselves at odds with those who are called liberals but are anything but. They’re liberal in the anything sexual goes sense, and say anything they please, but don’t allow any opposition.
I’ve been saying for some years that the old left / right divide was defunct. The current political fault line is between the rationalists (who inhabit these hallowed halls) and the magical thinkers who are only too happy to accept The Narrative as revealed truth.
Plenty of lefties here and very welcome they are too👋
Indeed – I don’t think of myself as either left or right, but am well aware there are pro and anti on both sides.
But there is a large element – particularly in the BBC and The Guardian’s coverage – of framing scepticism as a populist movement.
It’s funny how populism has come to be seen as a right-wing thing. Populism simply means stoking prevailing attitudes and then responding to them for electoral advantage and it strikes me that can be applied to anything. If lots of people think the railways are rubbish and a politican pushes the idea of nationalisation and promises to deliver it, that is populism – but it’s not right wing. Even immigration is not really a right-wing issue – it frequently benefits the rich at the expense of the poor, which would suggest it should be an issue for the left – but the terms left and right wing have been systematically abused in recent years such that right wing has come to mean something close to evil, thus tarnishing those who are genuinely right wing, whether small state or culturally conservative, by association.
“It’s funny how populism has come to be seen as a right-wing thing.”
Not really surprising when you recognise that we now have an establishment that is very left wing, in objective terms, in the sense that almost all the issues that were left wing causes a hundred years ago are now pretty much government policy and received elite opinion. Clearly, they have to have a way of discrediting issues that are popular but not what they want to see, because they cannot easily just admit what they think – that the lower orders are ignorant and stupid and wrong.
So “populist” is used for that purpose.
Sometimes they admit what they think. Here’s Michael Wendling of the BBC Misinformation Unit responding to my criticism of the biased coverage of one of the central London anti-lockdown protests:
“We have no obligation to give a platform to erroneous ideas. We don’t, to take an extreme example, broadcast the manifestos of mass murderers alongside police statements so that people can “make up their own minds”.
I’m not saying the people there were violent. Some of them were (as the story reflected) were drawn by legitimate concerns. But the speakers (Mr Icke and others) were not expressing mainstream views that would benefit from airing and debate. “
“We have no obligation to give a platform to erroneous ideas. “
Yes, that reflects the arrogance of an established elite.
(I’m sure you’ve already noted the sheer dishonesty of using a false equivalence with criminal action to rationalise suppressing and smearing legitimate dissent.)
Well, yes, comparing David Icke et al to mass murderers is a bit of a stretch, I’d say.
Or comparing mass murderers with peaceful protesters…..
And as for mass murderers, they have Boris and Hancock on the BBC for interviews, don’t they?….
He did me the rare courtesy of responding to me promptly and actually addressing my points – I suspect born of arrogance that his position was right. The fact that his unit exists and that he feels comfortable sharing opinions like that with random members of the public is a clear demonstration of how bad the BBC is.
I remember the MSM on the Berlin protest.’ A lot of conspiracy theorists, anti vaxxers and.. FREE THINKERS!
Don’t forget: the BBC will never, ever admit it might have got something wrong. Working for the BBC means never having to say sorry.
To take a prime example, look at their coverage and collusion with the police when Cliff Richard’s property was being searched.
He took them to court. The police apologised. The BBC never did.
“We don’t……. broadcast the manifestos of mass murderers” Ha! Unless they`re Tony Blair or George Bush of course. Im another lock down sceptic left-wing Corbynista/Bennite by the way. This site is great
I’ve observed that in recent years, right wing, or should I say, far-right extremists seem to be used to describe anyone not far left, or anyone the media or politicians want to discredit.
Only on Saturdays 😂
Thank you.
The irony is that Gupta,Bhattcharya and Kulldorf are all on the left. They have even had interviews in the Jacobin, the Sanders backed publication.Kulldorf’s view is that lockdown is the biggest attack on the working class ever. They are all epidemiologist and Public health minded understanding a total approach to the pandemic. What is not normal is the mainstream left adopting prolockdown mainly in a childish antiTrump antics instead of realizing that the big winners are Big Pharma and Gates/Bezos etc and the worst outcome among the poorest. I am absolutely stunned that the opposition has stopped opposing as they have a golden chance to make life very difficult for Johnsson considering the big fractures appearing in Tory party.
It’s incredibly dim some of the attacks on them as you point out. They don’t even read the detail these lockdown fanatics and dismiss it as right wing.
These fanatics couldn’t overplay their hand if they tried and are completely conflicted now.
Indeed. I also think there’s a criminal lack of focus on the consequences for the world’s poor.
We have the likes of the Guardian actively cheerleading a policy that is estimated to be pushing 120 million people in the developing world into severe poverty and killing up to a million children in Africa.
Black lives apparently don’t matter if they live far enough away.
Or brown lives. I saw a report about school kids in India having to go scrap picking at the local tip since their school was closed. How can anyone on the left say that that acceptable?
A few years ago the guardian printing plant was destroyed in the IRA Canary Wharf bombing.Instead of rebuilding they had the paper printed at a nearby works which also printed the telegraph.All but 6 trainees lost their jobs.
I have never listened the Guardians faux concern for the working man ever since.
“The irony is that Gupta,Bhattcharya and Kulldorf are all on the left. “
This is why I’m pretty relaxed about the smears being attempted by the likes of the Guardian. The GBD leaders are pretty much bulletproof as far as being smeared by association with “far right!” “holocaust deniers” etc is concerned.
Though it’s dangerous to dismiss this kind of nonsense too easily, because this kind of intolerance is nowadays deeply embedded in our culture, thanks to decades of success achieved by routine smearing of people as “islamophobes”, “racists”, “antisemites” etc. as a political tactic.
You just know that they will try to link one of the scientists to the far right, and then destroy their credibility in the process just be childish smears.
Already underway, as the Unherd story linked by Will above notes:
Is The Guardian planning an attack on the Great Barrington scientists?
Yes, blithely throwing under the bus the very people they used to represent.
I’m am American but live in the UK. I saw a Biden ad today that referred to covid as “Trump’s virus”. Ready to throw the computer across the room for that one, and I am no Trump supporter.
I am also left-wing and a lifelong Democrat. I’ve said before on this forum that I will not be voting in the election next month. Seeing that ad confirmed that that was the correct decision.
Walk Away campaign:
https://www.walkawaycampaign.com/the-road-to-2020
https://www.walkawaycampaign.com/about-more
I’d link to an article on Medium written by Dr.Karlyn Borysenko but the link no longer works. Can’t think why. 😕
She was a lifelong Democrat voter, voted for Hillary, but who left the Left after witnessing some SJWs in action, driving one poor chap to near suicide, and all he’d done was ask for everyone to be considerate and kind to one another.
She’s now a confirmed Trump voter and supporter.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mTcViL8Udo0
Unfiltered: ‘The democratic plantation really is worse than the plantation I grew up on.’
Sympathy to you, ConstantBees! I’m an American living in Ireland, also very much a lefty. I voted for Obama with incredible hope and have regretted it ever since as his administration was one big charade of right-wing nasty hidden by progressive ‘woke’ words. As soon as Clinton got the nomination in 2016, I knew Trump would win. Biden disgusts me on just about every metric… my protest vote against both parties will have no effect in NY.
Absolutely correct. That deserves its own article. How the left have jumped on this to try and draw the traditional line of left vs right wing trump loving fascists. As if this has anything to do with it.
They’ve ended up tying themselves in knots because they are doubling down and actually clapping the onset of authoritarianism and globalist agendas. That’s not the case for all Leftist people, myself included, but the polticial bodies and parties certainly have set their own trap on this trying to gain political capital. This is no more evident in the US with the upcoming election. I’ve never wanted a US president to win more than Trump this time around, I can’t believe I am typing that but that’s how lost the left have become. I don’t think I’ll ever look at them the same.
Our local socialists where I live (People Before Profit) and the most pro lockdown, pro mask, pro close work places and schools, and blame the government for still not going further. All the while looking for more and more government handouts to deal with this deadly virus.
The problem is that essentially we have a nationally agreed pro-lockdown policy with very little open disagreement
From the right or left. The right has been coming out more openly in the past week or two, but it was crickets before that.
Unfortunately, the right are not so well organised, but more significantly, don’t control the levers of power.
Right now, I do not include Boris Johnson as being on the right. I see no difference in what he and his cabinet are doing with regards to CV19 to Andrew Cuomo, Gretchen Whitmer or Gavin Newsome.
I’m not sure its left and right. I think it’s people who want safety above liberty and people who want liberty and accept risk.
We all lie somewhere on the safety risk spectrum. In the context of health it may not translate over to left and right.
I think the whole left/right thing that’s currently being played out at the expense of the people in the North of England is pure politics and certainly has nothing to do with the safety and welfare of the electorate.
I’d say the same applies to Scotland too.
I posted this on yesterdays thread before it closed this morning, but it is very appropriate currently:- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AijNCV_JWMs
Very apt indeed.
One of the most striking and frustrating things is that the safety these people want is not being and cannot be delivered
I was a bit of a lefty who was starting to have my doubts about the left before this nonsense. I’m totally finished with all of them now. The so called left disgust and horrify me in equal measures.
IThe real poltical dividing line on this is globalism.
Globalists are pro-‘lockdown.
The real devide is a class one .The middle classes have big homes and gardens and many work in the public sector ,So imagine someone offers you a seven month holiday with pay ,wouldn’t you be happy with another lockdown ?.It’s always the working class that suffer because the very rich and the middle classes are insulated .Also before anyone objects i know there are some people from all classes that are against lockdown but as a general rule i think this still stands .
It’s not so much a Left/Right division as an Authoritarian/Libertarian division. The Authoritarians place great weight on having a powerful force that can impose the most draconian and rights-violating measures, if it is “for the good of the state”; the Libertarians place great weight on freedom of choice, even if it means that some individuals have misfortunes. This division won’t go away and, IMHO, is insoluble. It comes to the fore when people from the two camps argue about whether Karen wearing a mask in Aisle 3 in Truro saves granny in Thurso.
But then I don’t think those on the authoritarian side as you say know that they inhabit that space, do they? So they see the problems the world faces and want to believe that if only everyone listened to them and just allowed them to get things done, we’d all be grateful. It’s a kind of seductive trap when dealing with complex global issues, the strongman appeals as he, or she, provides what appears to be a simple answer.
They cannot see, for example, that the Coronavirus Act, is a draconian measure, a power grab in a time of manufactured crisis, that will never be given up. That’s why the globalists now see this as the perfect opportunity for change, with democracy and freedom out of the way. They can now implement sweeping changes, cause untold harm in the process, while keeping the majority in line through fear.
One point I just wanted to make looking at a regular occurring comment online. “No wonder you want lockdown, you are unaffected with a secure job.” I am, by and large, unaffected by Covid. I have worked from home for nearly 10 years, and am secure to the extent that my family company has a long-running extensive client base in an unaffected industry. I am thankful of this. I have a young child who is at school, and we have a normal family life and can pass the company baton down. We have switched to 100% online shopping, but to be honest, we were gradually morphing towards that anyway these last few years. Naturally, I miss normality, I miss travel, but I quite like my own company anyway, and so from my own perspective, never mind. But that being said, I would like to say I am a selfless person. I am always making my views heard that I disagree wholeheartedly with everything that is happening in the world. I am expressing these views mainly because I can see what is going to happen to other people, the economy, their jobs, their livelihoods, their future mental health, their physical health.… Read more »
Great comment, I’m in a fairly similar position and feel much the same.
Police Scotland apparently had to deal with 350 illegal household gatherings on Friday (?) and they are just the ones that got snitched. Scots triggered, in a good way.
Good. Let’s hope it’s contagious!
My household was one of them. Not a party, per se; my eldest daughter arrived home with a colleague to enjoy a refreshment after a long, hard, shift together, and some curtain-twitching knob saw fit to report the breach. Just like every preceding day this week, they worked side by side for 10hrs yesterday. I feel like I’m back in my psychologically abusive marriage and being gaslighted to breaking point.
I was in an abusive relationship for a few years myself. The government’s gaslighting is obvious to those of us who have gone through it on a personal level.
Spot on CB. Irrespective of the dynamic- friendship, romantic partner, or indeed government- when one side wishes to control and indignify the other, the underhand tactics are always the same. Once your eyes are finally opened, you spot it from a great distance forever thereafter. It’s the behaviour of narcissists and sociopaths. I truly despair that we’ve come to this. My childish sense of morality keeps screaming, “It’s nae fair!”
Exactly how I feel. I have a job which seems to be secure (we depend on international sales more than British so Boris can only do so much damage), I can work from home, I’m not that sociable and I hate shopping. I do miss theatre and travel, and I’m now limiting myself to restaurants where I have a good personal relationship with the owners so that I don’t have to keep justifying my mask exemption. Basically, I could ride this out and – inevitable tax rises aside – probably do fine. However, that doesn’t make me pro-lockdown, because I think it’s wrong to judge situations based on what is convenient or liveable for yourself and ignore everyone else. Back in February, when the media started hyping this all up, I started researching, trying to get a handle on the facts. The Diamond Princess situation was particularly useful in this regard. My reading was that this wasn’t a big risk. Our company sent us to work from home a week before lockdown started – to make sure it all went smoothly so they could tweak anything – and I told them then we were less likely to die from Covid… Read more »
I sincerely hope and wish your assessment is right. Every time I hear comments like yours there seems to a rabid pack of lockdowners and mask-ists springing up all over the MSM.
we must do all we can to spread the sceptics message and (like Blackadder said) “tweak the nose of terror and throw ice cubes down the vest of fear!”
Some of those lockdowners are shills. I’ve identified at least two on the Telegraph comment trails who work for vested interests, so I’ve no doubt they’re being paid to troll. What’s heartening is that they’re getting much more pushback than they were a few months ago.
They’re best completely ignored. Answering results in a long thread filled with rubbish and people stop reading, so many good comments get missed.
Dear right, Cheezilla. Their job is to waste people’s time and energy and derail the argument – as you say, people stop reading these interminable threads (I do) and that’s what they want. Every time someone tries to reason with a shill or a troll they are playing their game. Don’t forget many of them are paid to do it; we’re working voluntarily! MW
I’ve had five different tradesmen call recently and every one of them knew this is a complete scam and not about a virus.
They see a lot of different people in a week ……
Iv noticed this too – all along builders etc seem to have completely ignored it all. Youd think that they ought to have the highest incidence of covid-19 if the lockdown did any good
Most tradespeople I know are smart, rational and no nonsense…
Agree, but those responsible need more than punishment at election time. They need to spend the rest of their lives behind bars.
If there’s a way to achieve that then I’m all for it.
In this kind of situation, where basically the entire establishment are complicit, the only way that ever happens is via revolutionary overthrow of the established order.
Consider the fact that nobody went to prison or suffered appropriate consequences for the Iraq crime and blunder.
I could get behind that!!
Great post!
… the stupidity or corruption of our politicians (I’m still not sure which it is)
Such psychopathic cruelty is definitely due to corruption.
I was thinking this morning:
When Wankock first became Health Minister, he developed a weird habit of dropping his jaw slightly, which I assumed was a tip from the nudge unit to try help him look as if he wasn’t lying.
He doesn’t do that any more. Just trots out the pre-rehearsed nonsense with a completely straight face or, in the case of threats, with obvious relish.
That’s exactly how I feel. Lockdown doesn’t affect me personally nearly as much as it does other people, because I’m self-employed and live in a rural area that hasn’t been badly affected by the virus. But the destruction of everything that makes life worth living makes me so angry. I have a young friend who is a phenomenally talented musician. He was in the middle of a university course when this all started, and now he’s been left in limbo and the industry he was hoping to work in has more or less disappeared. He is now working as a barista. What a waste! I filled in an online survey by parkrun the other day (just one of the normal things we’re not allowed to do anymore), and at the end there was a box where you could write any comments, and I found myself writing this: “I used to be a sunny and optimistic person, but now I’m depressed, angry and frustrated all the time”. If I feel like that – with my comfortable life in a pleasant location – I can only begin to imagine the desperation of the people who have had their family life and livelihoods… Read more »
I’m in the same boat as you, though my family are affected in various ways so I suppose it is personal for me. But I’d be angry anyway. I am especially angry with people like us who support lockdown, who are intelligent enough and have enough time to research this, but cannot be bothered. I’m all right Jack – we’re NOT all in this together.
We have several friends (some of them becoming ex) who are comfortably pensioned, can’t wait for the vaccine and their health passport so they can resume their 4-5 foreign holidays a year. Lockdowns are such a nuisance but what’s the problem when you can order everything online and Skype your kids? Masks are a bore but it’s a law, after all. They really don’t give a fuck about what’s going on and refuse to see anything wrong. You are so right – we are absolutely not all in this together and whoever is running this show knows it. MW
Well said. People certainly need a wake-up call or they’ll find out what’s really been going on when it’s far too late.
I share your frustration.
I was talking about this to my mum the other night. I come from a fairly deprived town where the job prospects are dire and everything’s quite run down. I’m lucky in the sense that my parents are high earners (I receive the minimum maintenance loan allowed for uni and thankfully they make up the difference) and haven’t been affected financially at all. My mum said she had quite enjoyed lockdown and being at home (particularly being able to spend time in the garden), but she agreed that she’s in a privileged position compared to most locals. Both of my parents seem to be coming round to my frustrations RE: locking down everyone for the benefit of a few which is great to hear.
‘Most of all, I am simply angry that more people are not angry’
I find that completely maddening and have never been so angry. I am the same as you – we could carry on if I wasnt working. What I cannot bear is the looming prospect of the suffering and grief that will be coming very soon – how can they not see?
I’m semi-retired, have worked from home for years. My income has actually gone up a bit because the work I do has benefited from everyone being online. The worst impact of the restrictions for me personally is the impact on public transport.
While my personal situation is fine, I am totally imposed to the government deliberately destroying everything with its insane policies. I feel angry every day as I look around at what’s happening.
I don’t accuse any individual for favouring lockdown because they are secure. Nevertheless I think it must be a huge factor for many if not most. In fact, I realised the teachers had a point. It was most unfair that they had to go back to work when most of the public sector did not. What bad luck to pick a safe job where you actually have to go to work! Now, if they had become GP’s instead, they would be able to stay safely at home.
Economies around the world are being destroyed on purpose so the World Economic Forum can rebuild society and the world. We will be enslaved by tech and poverty for the Great Reset. I wish it were a conspiracy theory. See Agenda 2030
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/oct/10/continual-local-lockdowns-answer-covid-control
Even Devi Sridhar is turning. She is touting T&T but not for lockdowns. The edifice is starting to crumble.
She’s just trying to avoid prosecution …
She said this a few days ago but then banged on about Great Barrington being wrong and impossible so I don’t know what she actually thinks we should do, if indeed she does think much.
She’s just a mouthpiece for the continuing psyop. Not a woman of brain or integrity.
Devi need to fuck off back to America.
I’m not sure what to make of the article. She asks a lot of good questions but makes no attempt to answer them. eg. How are these countries keeping Covid-19 under control, their health services running, and their economies and societies afloat? She doesn’t answer the question at all – unless she’s trying to say that we should completely close our borders, like New Zealand? How would that work, given how our economy functions? There’s a reason why Heathrow is so busy. There’s a reason why we’re frantically turning large swathes of Kent into a giant lorry park. She obliquely trashes the GBD suggestion of shielding the vulnerable, claiming we don’t know who’s vulnerable, while listing those who are! I notice there’s a push for long covid but I’m not sure what she’s playing at by bashing lockdown, given that her boss is very keen on total stranglehold. She concludes: At what point will we learn from their playbook: suppressing the virus, opening up the economy and regaining a semblance of normality in our daily lives? But as long as you pursue the impossible task of suppressing a virus by means other than herd immunity, (which she carefully fails to… Read more »
You’ve uncovered the signs of faulty logic in her thinking. Nothing holds from one context to the next. If she’s wants to be right on lockdowns til vaccines then how do we prevent mass starvation around the world (1.3m already baked in according to Oxfam)?
They always seem to want to have their cake and eat it. Bleeding heart stuff for the plebs while they would like to live their own life in comfort and prestige.
I picked this out as one of the better comments on this article:
I was willing to forgive your naivety in believing the figures from China, maybe you have never been there. I was almost with you (in spite of a deep seated distrust of governments who track their citizens like the paragons of virtue you hold up) until this line “Another problem is that immunity to coronaviruses wanes quickly and reinfection is possible.”
That is just not true and I would love to see your evidence. There have been a handful of possible re-infections worldwide, just as there are with measles, chickenpox etc., and there is no evidence to suggest that immunity wanes quickly. Indeed, I’m somewhat horrified that a “chair of global public health” has apparently no medical background and does not understand ‘cell memory’ and the role of T-cells.
It’s incredible that this woman has no medical qualifications at all. However she has massive power over all the people in Scotland and to a lesser extent England. How does a person with no medical qualifications get so powerful? How dare she question some of the most eminent Virologists, Epidemiologists and Doctors in the world? Might as well have me on there giving medical advice!! WTF
I just spent an increasingly angry 20 minutes on the comment section. Full of people worshipping the ground she walks on. Once I hit a comment that said people with exemptions should be confined to their homes, well, that was it for me. Have to do something else now until my blood pressure returns to normal.
Yes, on the one hand (according to them) our selfish ideas will hurt or kill the vulnerable because it’s apparently beyond the wit of families and local communities to protect their loved ones but on the other hand (again according to them) the vulnerable or disabled should stay home if they can’t/won’t wear a mask.
A couple of choice links today:
Young person vlogger with positive tested dog and pavement https://youtu.be/NhwVRSZs8_8
HSE Ireland admits to 40-45 PCR amplifications https://mobile.twitter.com/fionamflanagan1/status/1314688167212089345
That second one needs to be tweeted widely!!!
Oh no! Ban dogs! Pavements kill!
New guidance today was released by The Government, people are now advised NOT to lick pavements or dogs.
Stop licking the pavement!
Brilliant to see a YouTuber revealing the scan – and one who was clearly a believer until he got these test results! I’ve thought of doing this myself, but his video will be much, much, much more effective (hopefully).
Great video – show to your children and their friends
Q. As you mentioned, this virus mainly attacks the elderly. With the lockdown rules and the elderly unable to see their family for months, what effect has this had on their mental health?
Answer: It has affected their mental health enormously. Bewilderment, loneliness and isolation. I know many elderly people who have had to choose between obeying the fear and seeing their own grandchildren, with many hearts creakingly choosing the first.
A good place here to link to this study posted here yesterday by the sterling Swedenborg.
Risk Factors for Excess Deaths Among Older Adults Without Confirmed COVID-19 During Lockdown: A Retrospective Cohort Study
Believe it or not, it’s World Mental Health Day today.
Pity they didn’t celebrate that by letting us all out of mockdown!
In case it’s of any use to anyone, here’s a chart comparing the number of weekly “with-COVID” deaths against all-cause deaths. The chart is based on the ONS weekly death data up to week ending 25 September. This is the latest data I can find that reports actual registrations, rather than estimates. I have not applied any smoothing; these are the raw weekly totals as reported by the ONS. In an attempt to avoid any distortions that might be caused by time-of-death-registration issues, I have used the data based on time-of-death-occurrence. The chart clearly shows that even using the government’s own flawed classification of death-with-COVID-19, the proportion of deaths is practically irrelevant at a national level. There’s an up-tick in September, but the shape of curve hardly suggests impending disaster. It’s a pity that the ONS is not more timely in producing its reports, although it is hardly surprising that the death figures are slow to appear, considering that they undermine the government’s testdemic-driven narrative. I created the chart so that I have some evidence to back up my claim that COVID-19 is no longer any kind of threat to the general population. Apologies if this post is a duplicate… Read more »
I have tried to work out why they are advocating more lockdown, with data like that. The answer is shockingly simple. If you believe the same infection rate and the same fatality rate as in March, then virtually ANY hospitalisation is the inevitable (I mean mathematically) prelude to armageddon.
We are taking it for granted that the disease fatality is not what it first appeared to be in Feb/March. SAGE are not taking that view at all.
It’s important to understand this. In the model, life CANNOT get better. It is mathematically impossible. All that can be done is to calibrate different types of restriction e.g. schools open so pubs closed. That’s what SAGE said, and they meant it. It’s only the dumb public who thought there was a way out of lockdown. There isn’t, in the model.
The virus is the same as it was in March. The fatality is a bit less mainly because we aren’t killing people with ventilators as much.
The only justification for continuing is the blind faith that the first lockdown saved 450,000 lives. To anyone who has looked at the numbers or the facts at all that claim is absolutely ridiculous. The lockdown saved almost no lives but cost several tens of thousands.
And because we are no longer being told to stay home and only bother 911 if we become really Ill and so unable to benefit from early intervention.
We aren’t actually being told to stay home, but there are few places left to visit, other than work and the supermarket.
To be fair to Ferguson, I remember him saying we’d need recurring lockdowns until we had a vaccine or everyone had had it. The media and the government chose not to mention that.
Fuck that cunt
Not my type thanks!
Oh yes indeed, he certainly is
Kendrick explains why there won’t be a vaccine till 2023 at the earliest.
Yes, you are right. It is baked into the model. Anyone suggesting that lockdown is temporary, while following the model, is lying.
Yes – that illustrates the point that all the talk of ‘Covid’ deaths is finger-in-the-air fiction.
The only thing that I would add, having done similar exercises over the last six months, is that your red line of weekly all-cause mortality follows the curve of the lowest year in 27! (Apart from the April spike)
That April surge did lift the cumulative mortality for the season towards the maximum of those years (still not ‘unprecedented’), but the cumulative trend line is now distinctly diverging downwards from that point.
One feature is that temporary peak is clearly to do with additional mortality resulting from vulnerable people surviving the low infection rate of 2019. Thus (partly) the high age of average death. It’s hard to estimate the effect on the 2020 figures, but it is probably quite a high proportion of the deaths, given that the mortality for the two-year period is at the average.
It’s the scale of this fraud that is frightening – not the deaths.
That’s brilliant. Very clear, thanks.
Unfortunately, as you note, the results are slow to be published, so “they” can claim that was then and now it’s spiralled rapidly out of all control …….
The results are slow to be published, because unlike the NHS daily death toll (assembled manually and reported in XL), these numbers undergo rigorous Quality Control by the ONS, with spurious data followed up and data cleaned properly. You should actually be surprised the lag is so short (about 10-14 days). The US data is up to a month behind.
With the Governments like of ramping up numbers and the use of spreadsheets perhaps they should be using this : https://www.pcjs.org/software/pcx86/app/other/visicalc/1981/
And on a lighter note watch this : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUOtCLOXgm8
Have a nice day, the sun is shining lovely here in darkest Devon.
Torquay is quite sunny today. However, the black shirts at the town hall are making ominous noises about roundups and lockdowns following the recent sad death of an old lady: https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/tough-new-measures-warning-torbay-4593689
Councillor Steve Darling, a Lib Dim (opportunist’s). Shame really as this council has a group of Independents who could make a real difference to Torquay, but they do not?
Someone will come up with a better Blackadder joke than I can manage …
Don’t laugh, but they did use it; at local government level, anyway.
I remember using it when at Glasgow District Council 30-odd years ago.
It is clear that the Government is full of the sickest puppies. The levels of suffering being inflicted on citizens must never be forgiven. Criminal trials and retribution in line with those seen for war criminals will be the only appropriate outcome.
Dream on.
Hancock and Boris will be in the House of Lords before this is all paid for.
Listen to this.
https://youtu.be/kr04gHbP5MQ
Thanks. Most heartening.
I thought the same during the WMD debacle. It didn’t quite work out the way I’d hoped.
Yes – still waiting for Bliar’s trial!
Great interview with ‘Jessica’ and I’m truly grateful to her for speaking out. It’s one thing posting the interview on this site where everyone can see this debacle for what it is but that interview really needs to be circulated amongst the less aware members of the general public. Please Toby, or anyone else running this site who has an in with the MSM do your utmost to get this interview as widely published as possible.
I have put links on some the Telegraph and a couple of other places. I have been seeing a lot of interviews form nurses saying this for several months
I’ve been pondering this interview, which largely corresponds to my observations. Although I have never suffered from a ‘denial of service’ (except in terms of a personally inconsequential 3-month delay in a review,) or seen it directly, two things particularly ring true : the way in which medical staff have been brainwashed into accepting the government narrative and the necessity of not questioning it. This has resulted in many examples of them having to do things contrary to the basics of medical ethics. The degree of compliance is, perhaps even more frightening than in the population as a whole – the classic example being the retreat of GPs behind castle walls against all previous experience and any medical knowledge. The capacity issue. The separation/removal of beds on the basis of the need for distancing required only basic maths to work out that capacity was being massively reduced – even a month since. It was simple observation that generally activity in hospitals was massively below capacity, even though things are returning to a more normal level. Now, my experience comes from an exceptionally good teaching trust (this judgment comes from six years of ‘frequent flying’ across several disciplines). So if all… Read more »
From speaking to friends, quite a few hospitals are now keeping an active record of personnel so that it’s easy to track who took the flu jab. The jab is primarily about reducing staff sick days. They didn’t do this before as it would be addressed if you were off a lot.
The issue though is that some are worried that this year’s jab will include a bit of something else. It may be unfounded but considering what has been going on it may not be.
I think it’d be good if it was hosted on another website too. It might put people off if it’s featured on a website called ‘Lockdown Sceptics’ particularly for those who are not sceptical in the slightest.
On the whole I believe that actions should be taken to deal with a threat but I think they should be proportionate. I don’t consider an IFR of less than 1% particularly deadly, I know it’s probably less but I’ll stick with this for easy working. Out of 100 people you might know, if one of them died, would/should you really be terrified? Of course if you take 1% of a larger population the number will be larger but the proportion will still only be 1%. As the global population grows the absolute number for 1% grows accordingly, but the actual threat does not change, 1 person out of 100 you may know could die. What I’ve found particularly troubling is what those in control have been willing to do and how they’ve gone about doing it. I could list a whole host of things but it would just be regurgitating things we’ve been discussing on this site for months. All people need to do is go back through everything on this site, and other sites if they wish and ask the following: “If this is what they’re prepared to do for a virus that isn’t particularly deadly then what… Read more »
If the IFR was 1% and everyone were to get it, then yes, personally I would consider that particularly deadly.
Thankfully I think it’s far lower.
As reported here yesterday, the WHO reported the actual IFR as being a benign 0.14%, lower than that of the flu.
The same day, Germany’s Devi and alleged inventor of the useless and criminal PCR test talked about the IFR being 1%.
You obviously can’t reason with such people.
I guess we all have a view on where the cutoff is that would merit the kind of interventions we’ve seen, but I think one really needs to consider that 1% in relation to lost years of quality life. NICE use QALYS to decide what to spend healthcare budgets on here in the UK. There’s no perfect measure, but it is what we’ve used. There has to be some measure. Even at 1%, using QALYS shows that the cost side far exceeds the benefits, even without considering loss of liberty as a cost, which it surely needs to be.
Sure, but I don’t feel this is an either/or thing. I think we could have pursued – and still could pursue – certain (opt-in, not forced) measures to protect the old/vulnerable.
I don’t think we can win a purely QALYs based argument, even though it’s a factor I like to consider myself, because for people who don’t get it they just hear that it’s condemning the old/vulnerable to death and that won’t wash with the masses in my view.
I think you need to advise the old and vulnerable and those who care for them (family or otherwise) of the risks and let them make their own decisions. In cases where those old and vulnerable are not in control of their situation, either because they are not compos mentis or they are in shared accommodation, it is more awkward. For example, if you live in a care home you don’t really want workers or visitors bringing the virus in but neither should you impose blanket isolation. But I expect a way could be found – imperfect, but much less imperfect than the crap we have now.
I agree it seems to be a hard argument – it will take time and reeducation. I think a lot of people had never really thought about healthcare rationing very much before. Someone posted yesterday about adults and children. People who believe saving lives at all costs is either feasible or morally defensible are not proper adults IMO.
Fully agree.
Around 1% of the population die every year (all causes). That is just the normal circle of life. So for a population of 60 million or so, that is around 600,000 deaths a year. It is roughly same proportion of the global population.
In people under 70 there have been around 20,000 documented infections and a bit over 30 deaths. We have had nearly 8 million tests performed so our epidemic has been very thoroughly delineated with likely relatively small percentage of infections missed. In any case the upper bound for IFR in those under 70 in our population is 0.15%.
In over 70s we have had about 5000 documented infections and 850 deaths but all but 170 of these have been in nursing homes.
Community IFR is around 6% over age 70 but around 30% in care homes!
https://www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/2020/10/coronavirus-covid-19-at-a-glance-8-october-2020.pdf
When it comes right down to it the IFR is irrelevant. The question is whether lockdowns work (and they don’t) and whether they cause unacceptable harms (they do). End of story.
Think this is such good news, I’m going to post it again (with the right link)
World Health Organization Tells Leaders To End The Lockdowns
https://youtu.be/W4PuvmWqp4k
https://mobile.twitter.com/davidnabarro
I’d love a printable statement of this from the WHO.
They are doing this to undermine the lawsuit from Germany accusing them of crimes against humanity.
The thing is, this is really just a nudge towards the next stage of their plan – ie compulsory health passports, which is a big part of what their original aim was…
They have successfully made everyone so fed up with lockdowns, that they will accept ANYTHING that gets rid of them.. Whereas the whole aim of the WEF/World Bank /World Economic forum et al, was to introduce mass tracking and surveillance, along with being able to reduce the world’s population via mandatory vaccines.
Notice top tweet is the UN Agenda 2030 and sustainable development goals – where it’s been planned to go all long for a long, long time.
It is good news, but Hancock is insane and shows no sign of stopping now, and the WHO will come out tomorrow and say it was taken out of context and they didn’t really mean it, or some such nonsense.
BMJ Rapid Response by retired Welsh GP Janet Menage yesterday:
e: Covid 19: “The best science”?Re: Covid 19: NEJM and former CDC director launch stinging attacks on US response Janice Hopkins Tanne. 371:doi 10.1136/bmj.m3925
Dear Editor
“The best decisions are based on the best science”, the article quotes.
However, the CDC states on page 39 of its 13th July 2020 document entitled,’ CDC 2019-Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Real-Time RT-PCR Diagnostic Panel For Emergency Use Only Instructions for Use’ (1) :
“Since no quantified virus isolates of the 2019-nCoV are currently available, assays designed for detection of the 2019-nCoV RNA were tested with characterized stocks of in vitro transcribed full length RNA (N gene; GenBank accession: MN908947.2) of known titer (RNA copies/μL) spiked into a diluent consisting of a suspension of human A549 cells and viral transport medium (VTM) to mimic clinical specimen”.
What does this mean? And is it the “best science”?
(1) https://www.fda.gov/media/134922/download
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/disease/california-doctor-treated-over-1700-covid-patients-0-deaths/
Just read this interview with “Jessica”. The most powerful and moving thing I have read in years. Boris and Matt Hancock should be forced to read this although I suspect they already are aware of this.
The account given by the nurse gets to the heart of the problem. What she describes is the terminally ill dying of the things they usually die of, but compounded by neglect and DNR. My view is that this is exactly what the figures show. The health professionals could provide the public with the analysis, but they won’t do it. For some reason they are unable to admit that 90-100% of Covid-related deaths were of the terminally ill, that much of it was by the action of the NHS, and that hardly anyone else was affected any more than normal.
What strikes me, when listening to the public health professionals like Sir Mark Walport, is that they do not rebut these arguments. They do not address them and explain why they are wrong. They just bat them aside with a model, and even discuss the topic of suppressing dissent in case it causes non-compliance. It is shocking that they don’t even feel the need to persuade.
But still obvious to many, that that is what happened.
Googling “great barrington declaration transcript” filters out many of the nay-sayers
Tried ‘great barrington declaration’ using Google – appalling shite. DuckDuckGo is better.
I had no problem via a link on DT a couple of days ago.
https://gbdeclaration.org/
Yes, much better, one is less ‘the product’.
Attached is what I see on Google with prominent attention on the Scottish Gov’t advisor highlighted yesterday.
https://drmalcolmkendrick.org/2020/10/10/a-sars-cov2-vaccine-dont-hold-your-breath/
Tune suggestion –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L08uxunfLi4
good article in ’round up’; irony – following polls damages no. 10 approval
doesn’t sound a particularly Churchillian form of leadership Boris
LS comments been pointing this out for months – shows common sense can predict the future..
So the Boris is lead by the people – the people are led by the MSM scaremongering agenda – so who leads the MSM? (certainly not investigative journalism)
The people are lead by the Fear. Its imperative to keep up the Fear, the ID passports are the end game.
But if the people want all these harsh restrictions and further lockdowns, why are the government having to hector and berate us for living normally, seeing granny etc, and why do they need to impose such ruinous fines for doing simple everyday things that were perfectly legal this time last year?
It seems like the more the backlash grows, the tighter the restrictions and the enforcement becomes, so it doesn’t seem to me like public opinion is leading them any more, even if it was at the start of this thing.
Yes. This is not a bottom up movement. It is very clearly top down and manipulative.
Don’t fall for the polling. I meet (still) quite a few people in my line, and the balance of opinion is sceptical.
The YouGov poll is the one most often cited and it’s completely rigged.
Certainly the thumbs up/down for comments on article in papers suggest most are sceptics. But when I sit maskless in the Chinese waiting for food to deliver I feel many are tutting my granny killing ignorance.
But the politicians thinking they are in touch but actually being out of touch is quite common. I believe that a very sceptic opinion poll/focus group would cause a change gov policy – they genuinely believe they are doing a good job….(clueless fcukers)
maybe the focus group organiser/s or polsters have an agenda.
the tail is wagging the dog…
The reason polls seem to suggest that most people are pro lockdown is because certain groups in our society have a lot of paid time on their hands The good news is the furlough scheme ends this month and those people will no longer get most of their wages paid and will soon change their tune if it’s not extended .The other problem is those working in the public sector of which there are over 5 million ,how many are working or off on full pay is anyone’s guess ? .These are the people voting in polls and vocally pro lockdown .After alls said and done if the government offered you a seven month holiday with pay would you want it to end ?. The sooner people realise that these people’s comfort is prolonging the lockdown the sooner things start to make sense .It’s not fearful people walking around in silly masks that is keeping this going, but childish people who want to spend their whole life in their pajamas watching netflicks and eating popcorn .
I’m afraid you’ve put the horse in the cart.
its the modern way, we tow horses behind our 4x4s nowadays
Also – I’ve just heard an advert for a superdoopermarket – they are keeping their staff and customers safe, apparently – with masks…
I don’t believe they are trying to educate us – more like they believe most of their customers believe the MSM propaganda and are irrationally fearful in their ignorance…
johhnson is a cowardly little shit, at the first sign of significant civil disobedience he will back down, run away to hide in a corner blaming everything on ferguson and the wanker.
I am shocked to see the Twitbook comment by an “Independent SAGE” person comparing the Great Barrington Declaration with right wing libertarianism. It is an explicit statement of a totalitarian mindset. “If you disagree with me, you are a bad person”. It is that kind of mindset that we fear lies behind the actions of the health professionals, and then they tell us directly that it is!
As I said below, this is the problem – it’s not about science, it’s about politics. People, more often on the left, who are smart enough to understand other people’s ideas but not smart enough to formulate their own tend to equate everything with politics so that it can fit into a mental framework they can understand: “good people think this, bad people think that”.
Unfortunately that kills reason and debate. And, it turns out, kills people too – who’d have thunk it
This “pandemic” has been about politics rather than science since it became clear, at the beginning of April, that the left had backed the wrong horse and goal posts would have to be shifted and shifted and shifted until they managed to cover up the catastrophe.
Boris the spaffing Johnson is hardly ‘the left.’
Twitter looks to me like a battleground where different factions get together to play out personal grudges.
it takes all sorts on twitter. I don’t have an account (by choice) but I bookmark and read a number of accounts.
I would say your opinion about twitter is not quite correct. Not everyone takes part in these infantile exchanges.
It’s just a smear.
“Independent” Sage are basically a bunch of self-serving shills.
Great interview with a brave nurse who speaks the truth.
However, it is clear that…
… the – (A) Incompetent OR (B) Intentionally Duplicitous – government has no interest in truth or facts and is hell bent on stringing this out for as long as it takes to…
… (A) cover its backs OR (B) to fully ensure the ‘nonviable’ parts of the economy/population are disposed of and the foundations of the new ‘green’ society/economy are firmly in place.
Whether you are in the (A) or (B) crowd will determine how you choose to spend your thoughts and energy in opposition to what is happening and where we are going.
The “government” is a handful of public representatives being briefed by civil servants. I doubt they have the time or the inclination to analyse data. The civil servants are the leaders of a bureaucracy whose aim is, not to develop good policy, but to avoid blame in the media. Somewhere down in the depths of hospitals are people who know what is going on, but they are so far removed from “the government” that they could be on Mars.
Public representatives??
Defeating Covid is a smokescreen, they actually want to keep up the Fear to bring on the Health Passport
I think it has more to do with vaccines.
Covid has MORE TO DO WITH a lot of things all of them aren’t virus related.
You’ve done sterling work providing us that insight. Absolutely great to see but infuriating to read a first hand account as it is. My only question is :
As in the first ‘wave’ we see social media posts from nurses saying they are run off their feet, posting images of them in full PPE, imploring us all to wear a mask, stay home and don’t visit our parents. Why such a contrast with the account here?
Is it because these are isolated areas that are experiencing the run on services?
Is it because they are pushing propaganda?
Is it just virtue signalling when behind the scenes they are not busy at all?
Are they actors (one for teh conspiracy heads)?
Or are they being coerced and feel that relaying the fear message they are doing the right thing so that people follow the guidance?
Absolutely top marks to this Nurse. If she ever suffers from speaking out in terms of her job, get a gofundme on here and I’d happily donate. We need more like them, now!!
It is propaganda combined with sanctions against anyone who speaks out against the Government’s narrative. There is a petition to try to life the gagging orders here, might help:
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/550598
You’re right. It is all too easy – although it shouldn’t be by now – to underestimate the dire effect of a massive brainwashing campaign, even on those who have the testimony of their own eyes.
I don’t think any of us would have expected Orwell’s insights to be so precisely accurate, rather than an illustrative fiction.
I think most of them are fakes. Some people just have too much time on their hands and make fake posts to suit their own agendas. Nobody who works in the public sector is allowed to make social media posts on behalf of their employer, regardless of content. That’s why they’re always anonymous.
Thank you for the excellent edition today which I will forward to family and friends. Also your excellent article in Conservative Woman today Will.
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/why-calls-for-yet-more-covid-lockdowns-are-so-wrong/
Yes. Brilliant article!
Some of the pro-lockdown claims really are outrageous but Will quietly and effectively demolishes them.
Tierney concludes: ‘The lockdowns may have been justified in the spring, when so little was known about the virus and the ways to contain it. But now that we know more, there’s no ethical justification for continuing this failed experiment.’
Yet ministers are once again faced with calls from their ‘scientific advisers’ to impose illiberal and ruinous restrictions on the nation so as not to ‘jeopardise the NHS’s ability to cope’ and to ‘avoid them struggling with large numbers of elderly Covid patients at the height of winter’. Isn’t this what the Nightingale hospitals are for? Why are they being mothballed? It would certainly be far cheaper and proportionate to expand the winter health service capacity than force tens of thousands of businesses to close – with many going bankrupt as a consequence – and once again imprison the entire population in their homes.