Rules “Tough Enough” As Infections Fall
The Government appears to have noticed that infections are on the decline and pulled back from threats of stricter measures. The Telegraph has the details.
Priti Patel said on Tuesday night that the lockdown rules are tough enough as it emerged that the weekly number of people testing positive for Covid had fallen for the first time in two months.
The Home Secretary said ministers and police were focused on improving public compliance with the regulations rather than any immediate toughening of measures. It comes amid signs of lockdown fatigue and concerns about people exploiting loopholes over exercise.
A new analysis revealed that lockdown laws have changed 65 times since March, prompting warnings by lawyers and police of confusion among the public and even officers charged with enforcement.
Speaking at a Downing Street press conference, Ms Patel said police had ramped up enforcement in the current lockdown with 1,000 people a day being fined since December 30th, bringing the total to 45,000 since the start of the pandemic.
Asked why the rules were not as tough as they had been in the March lockdown, the Home Secretary said: “The rules are clear, the rules are firm in terms of staying at home.
“The rules are tough enough – you’ve already heard 45,000 fixed penalty notices have been issued just in the recent time since we’ve been in this pandemic. All rules are under review constantly within Government, but currently we are focusing very much on compliance and enforcement.”
The Department for Education has also confirmed face masks will not be compulsory in classrooms.
Fears about NHS pressure appear to have shifted away from London now, with Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, saying yesterday that pressure on the NHS is unlikely to peak until the middle of February, with problems likely to be particularly acute in the Midlands, North West and South West. One hospital in Birmingham has cancelled all elective surgery and moved 200 doctors to intensive care duties in anticipation of an influx.
Lockdown Sceptics‘ senior doctor, who reports on the state of play in hospitals, sent this missive:
1. Admissions from community falling over last four days. NB this cannot be attributed to lockdown starting on January 5th – more consistent with ZOE app data [see below].
2. Total inpatients falling less – implies they can’t discharge effectively to home/care home (see FT article the other day) or the in-hospital infection rate is higher than they are admitting (or both). Consistent patterns across all regions – not just London.
3. ICU numbers still rising a little (but virtually flat) – expected as there is a 48 hour lag between admission and need for ICU, and ICU patients stay longer so the curve takes longer to come down.
4. I expect the thing that is stressing them most now is the non-Covid stuff, which is always higher at this time of year anyway.
999 Covid triages/journeys in the capital were also down to just 12 on Monday.
The Daily Mail asks “Did England pass its peak before lockdown?” That’s certainly the impression the ZOE Covid Symptom Study App gives, with the peaks in the UK and England around January 2nd and in London around December 28th.
Stop Press: A reader with a background in submarines sent in a neat observation about the importance of looking at all the available data not just a part.
Looking at some of the recent comment, and especially the latest update to the Florence Nightingale plot, considered against the daily ‘Covid death’ figures reminds me of one of the most basic principles of navigation we were taught in the Navy. Typically you look at several different data sources to help locate your position: compass bearing fixes, echo sounder depth etc. compared with the information on your chart. You’re always looking for the different information to agree. The moment something doesn’t tie in with other information you need to have an immediate look to make sure that you are correct in your assessment of your position. These days with permanent GPS plots on electronic charts, there is probably less emphasis on the old fashioned ways, but the parallels with the data hurled at us everyday at the moment is striking. One of the most obvious being the mismatch between deaths declared as Covid and the number of excess deaths based on previous years. Other much more knowledgeable commentators are focused on this of course, but there seems to be a lack of any higher level ‘navigator’ ready to step in and ask why the data isn’t tying together. The suspicion remains, of course, that whoever is being the navigator isn’t sure quite where we are, nor what effect wind and tide are having, never mind the various steering directions and engine orders, and is simply offering data that supports a particular narrative.
2020 saw most deaths since 1918 2008
Many outlets including the BBC ran with the headline: “2020 saw most excess deaths since World War Two“. The Guardian went even further: “2020 was deadliest year in a century in England and Wales, says ONS.” This, of course, is just one way of presenting the figures published yesterday, but for some reason it’s the one most of our crisis-loving media put front and centre.
In fact, as Lockdown Sceptics has previously reported, last year was less deadly than 2008 and most years before that. The BBC actually reported this fact, but made sure it was buried beneath the hysteria.
The Covid pandemic has caused excess deaths to rise to their highest level in the UK since World War Two.
There were close to 697,000 deaths in 2020 – nearly 85,000 more than would be expected based on the average in the previous five years.
This represents an increase of 14% – making it the largest rise in excess deaths for more than 75 years.
When the age and size of the population is taken into account, 2020 saw the worst death rates since the 2000s.
This measure – known as age-standardised mortality – takes into account population growth and age.
The data is only available until November – so the impact of deaths in December have not yet been taken into account – but it shows the death rate at that stage was at its highest in England since 2008.
Lockdown Sceptics reader Mark Ellse rewrote this report for the BBC to show what it should have said.
When the age and size of the population is taken into account, despite Covid, the death rate in 2020 is below average for the last 20 years.
This measure – known as age-standardised mortality – takes into account population growth and age.
On one hand, excess deaths are at their highest since World War Two, but once age and size of population are taken into account, 2020 death rates are similar to those in the last 10 years.
Raw death rates, with 697,000 deaths in 2020 seem alarming but our population is larger and older on average and death rates continue to be much less than they were only a decade or so ago.
Death rates fluctuate significantly from year to year. With 2019 having an unusually low rate, a significant increase in 2020 was expected. The ONS figures help put the Covid death toll over the past 12 months in a wider context.
What is clear is that 2020 was not a year in which the death rate was exceptionally large and that public panic over Covid has been misplaced.
The (real) BBC went for comment to King’s Fund Chief Executive Richard Murray:
The UK has one of the highest rates of excess deaths in the world, with more excess deaths per million people than most other European countries or the US. It will take a public inquiry to determine exactly what went wrong, but mistakes have been made. In a pandemic, mistakes cost lives. Decisions to enter lockdown have consistently come late, with the Government failing to learn from past mistakes or the experiences of other countries. The promised ‘protective ring’ around social care in the first wave was slow to materialise and often inadequate, a contributing factor to the excess deaths among care home residents last year. Like many countries, the UK was poorly prepared for this type of pandemic.
Mr Murray appears to be unaware of the peer-reviewed research published in the Lancet showing that lockdown timing was “not associated with COVID-19 mortality per million people“. As for learning from other countries, perhaps we should have learned from hard lockdown countries such as Italy, France and Spain, with Covid mortality scarcely better than ours? Or alternatively from Sweden, which didn’t lock down and kept restaurants, bars, shops, leisure facilities and most schools open throughout the year.
As Lockdown Sceptics reported yesterday, 2020 in Sweden was scarcely more deadly than 2017 or 2018. Furthermore, 2019 was so mild that 2019 and 2020 added together had fewer deaths than 2017 and 2018 added together – and this is before any adjustments for age or population size. In other words, no real excess deaths at all, as this study from the University of Oslo concluded, putting the 2020 extra deaths primarily down to “mortality displacement” or “dry tinder” from 2019.
How can this be when Sweden remained largely open while the UK can’t kick its lockdown habit? Perhaps the answer is that lockdown itself kills people, as Recovery explained yesterday in a press release.
Recovery has been warning of this tsunami of excess deaths from Covid policies for months. It’s caused a deadly cocktail of fear, mental health problems, and the denial of vital services to patients in urgent need of life-saving care. For example:
- One in three cancer patients says their treatment has been affected and 70% say their mental health has suffered in consequence. Cancer Research UK says cancer screening was cancelled for three million people and there has been a 39% drop in the seven key diagnostic tests for cancer between March and July – equivalent to 3.2m fewer tests in England alone.
- British Heart Foundation says that excess death from heart disease has risen with a disturbing 13% rise amongst those under 60 even as Covid was declining in May and June. “We believe that delays in people seeking care, coupled with a reduced access to routine tests and treatments during the pandemic, have likely contributed to the rise in excess deaths.”
- A Yonder poll in December revealed that seven out of 10 people in the UK are now seriously worried about the mental health of themselves or someone close. Problem drinking – a killer – has doubled and now affects around 9 million people. Experts report that suicide amongst young people is rising. Rising domestic abuse during the Spring lockdown offences rise by 18,000 between March and June 2020 (ONS 24.11.20).
- Bristol University’s risk experts say that the lockdowns of 2020 will cost 560,000 lives in the UK “because of the deep and prolonged recession they will cause”. The Government’s own prediction last summer was that more than 200,000 will die as a result of the first lockdown alone (ONS July 2020). It has refused to provide an update showing the additional impact of the tiers and lockdowns since.
- Government figures show that even during the Spring peak, restrictions played a huge role in excess deaths. Covid killed 25,000 people but restrictions caused at least 16,000 unnecessary deaths, as 6,000 people died because they didn’t attend A&E through fear and 10,000 people died in care homes because they could not access critical care in hospitals (ONS, August 2020).
- The UN World Food Programme has warned that 270,000,000 people face starvation as a result of the global impact of lockdowns and restrictions. This alone makes the response to Covid the single most lethal policy that Governments have ever adopted, potentially killing many times more than Mao, Stalin and Hitler combined.
Now we can see the combined impact of all this: it’s clear in the figures today and it’s a timebomb – the excess death from fear and restrictions will only grow while current policies continue.
- Before the lockdowns, 9,000 people had waited more than a year for operations. Now it’s close to 200,000. These are not life-threatening conditions, but cause huge pain and misery. Worse, routine problems become life-threatening if left untreated. The problems we already have mean that the NHS will be in crisis for years.
- Each of these people is suffering: so many are in pain, misery, and worse. For many, there is no hope to an end: no indication of a way out. The spiralling backlog of undiagnosed and untreated conditions will see the NHS in crisis for years.
Recovery Campaign Director Jon Dobinson warned that tougher lockdowns, as many are calling for, would only make things worse:
The shocking excess death figures released today have seen hysterical calls for even tougher lockdowns. But that would only make these problems worse. As experts have been warning from the outset, these toxic lockdowns merely kick the can down the road – they postpone problems, they don’t fix them. By prolonging the crisis and extending the period over which deaths take place, they are creating a disaster. We’ll see another easing over the summer, but that will be blamed for worse problems in the NHS by the autumn. As Government experts are already warning, vaccination will not end this – new strains and new pressures will see the deadly cycle continue for years unless we find a better way. Even now, the problems are getting worse. We have to recognise the issue and take urgent action before it spirals even further out of control. The latest NHS data shows even fewer non-Covid patients are now being treated. We’re spending billions on failed policies which have only made the pandemic worse. It’s time for our leaders to acknowledge and address the timebomb of untreated conditions and economic devastation. They are now a terrifying threat to the health and welfare of the UK in themselves. Otherwise, the excess deaths of 2021 and beyond will dwarf even these.
Censorship is Never the Answer
Toby has written a rejoinder to a piece by Conservative MP Neil O’Brien in ConservativeHome calling for the no-platforming of lockdown sceptics.
O’Brien says he’s concerned that British politics will become as polarised and venomous as American politics if the media doesn’t behave more responsibly, by which he means excluding people who express views he considers false and dangerous.
However, there are numerous problems with this censorious attitude, starting with the first question that defenders of free speech always ask: who decides? After all, one man’s conspiracy theory is another man’s inconvenient truth. It’s all very well saying we should ban ‘misinformation’, but these days that’s just a euphemism for ‘a point of view I disagree with’.
Sometimes, the would-be Lord Chamberlains use the phrase ‘hate speech’ to describe the views they think should be censored, but defining which opinions are ‘hateful’ and which merely controversial is notoriously difficult. Last year, I started an organisation called the Free Speech Union, and many of our members have been kicked off social media platforms for breaching anti-hate speech rules, even though their views would be considered perfectly reasonable by ConservativeHome readers.
To give just one example: a trans activist started a petition on Change.org last year demanding that the OED change its definition of woman from “adult human female” to something less “exclusionary” – i.e. delete the word “female”. The feminist campaigner Posie Parker responded by launching a counter-petition on the same platform, asking the OED to retain its definition. Change.org took it down, explaining to Posie that defining a woman as an “adult human female” was “hate speech”.
Lockdown Sceptics – and Toby – are in the Conservative MP’s sights.
In his article, he smears me and the contributors to the sceptical website I run as cranks and conspiracy theorists, lumping us together with Covid-deniers and anti-vaxxers. He even puts inverted commas around the word “scientists”, as if no respectable scientist could be anything other than four square behind the lockdown policy.
This is plainly ludicrous. There are plenty of mainstream scientists, not to mention psychologists, sociologists, economists, historians, philosophers, statisticians, actuaries, financial analysts and novelists – even some Conservative MPs – who believe the harm caused by the lockdowns outweighs the harms they prevent.
They’re not Covid deniers or anti-vaxxers – just people who are sceptical about prioritising saving people from COVID-19 at the expense of everything else, including other deadly diseases, mental health, children’s education, the economy and our civil liberties. Many of them are contributors to Lockdown Sceptics.
O’Brien is perfectly entitled to think this is a dangerous, irrational point of view, just as most of us think his fanatical support for lockdowns is dangerous and irrational. The difference is that we don’t think he should be kicked off Twitter or no-platformed by the mainstream media. We believe in free speech, which means we think the best way to determine when the current restrictions should be lifted – and weigh up the costs and benefits of the lockdown approach more generally – is through vigorous, open debate.
Worth reading in full.
Vaccine Passports On the Way?
The Telegraph reports on a Government-funded trial being run for an app that allows users to prove they have had the vaccine.
Thousands of Britons who have received their coronavirus vaccine are set to be offered a health passport as part of a government-funded trial taking place this month.
The passport, created by biometrics firm iProov and cybersecurity firm Mvine, will be issued in the form of a free app allowing users to digitally prove if they have received the vaccine.
The trial will be overseen by two directors of public health in local authorities and will be complete in March. However, the locations have yet to be agreed.
Innovate UK, the Government’s science and research funding agency, has pumped £75,000 into the project.
The aim of the trial is to show how the passports can be used to help the NHS keep track of the number of people that have received the first or second dose of the vaccine.
Frank Joshi, director and founder of Mvine, said the company first began working on the passes to demonstrate test results but had since acquired more funding to pivot into vaccination passports.
There are further signs the technology may be in development.
The trials come as the Ada Lovelace Institute launched an evidence review into the use of vaccination passports. The review, which is being chaired by Sir Jonathan Montgomery, will look at the ethics, science, law, and precedence of such passports.
Some fear the passports could discriminate against people who must not be vaccinated, such as pregnant women, who have been advised to date against taking the vaccine. The NHS has said that more evidence was needed on the jabs before they were offered to pregnant women. As a result, women could be restricted from travelling if the passports were to become mandatory.
United Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, Swiss International AirLines, and JetBlue, have all said they would begin offering a health passport system to customers this year. BA-owner IAG is also working on its own healthpass that’s due to launch early this year.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: Responding to the story, vaccine minister Nadhim Zahawi sent a reassuring tweet.
How Lockdowns Damage our Immunity
Today we’re publishing a piece by pharmacist and author of Stop Feeding Us Lies Charlie Spedding on the research that shows psychological stress from panic and lockdowns makes viral respiratory diseases worse. Charlie writes:
The advice of Chris Whitty, Patrick Vallance and their team has been consistent. They want to prevent or slow down the spread of the virus with social distancing, closures, restrictions and lockdowns. They originally said there was only very weak evidence for wearing masks but in June, when the virus was at its seasonal low point, face coverings became mandatory. We are now in January, and despite strict lockdowns or tiers since early November, Chris Whitty is telling us that hospitals are about to be overrun with surging COVID-19 cases. He and other members of SAGE are blaming the public for not being fully compliant with the restrictions. We are also told that a mutation of the virus is much more transmissible, and we need harder and longer lockdowns.
A world-wide search of relevant scientific literature paints a different picture. Dr Sheldon Cohen is a Professor of Psychology at the Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. He has spent over three decades studying the connection between psychological stress and its impact on viral respiratory diseases.1 His research involves a thorough psychological assessment of his volunteers before they are placed in quarantine and exposed to viruses causing influenza or the common cold. The severity of the symptoms suffered by each individual are measured and compared with their pre-infection status. Professor Cohen consistently finds that people with the highest levels of long-term stress suffer more extreme symptoms than those with low levels of stress. He also finds that smoking and low vitamin levels are linked to poor outcomes. Factors associated with decreased risk included social integration, social support, physical activity, adequate and efficient sleep, and moderate alcohol intake.
Worth reading in full.
A Brief Pageant of English Verse
A reader sent us the following poem by an unknown author, which we thought we’d share with you.
I won’t arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
I’ll sanitize the door-knob and make a cup of tea.
I won’t go down to the sea again; I won’t go out at all,
I’ll wander lonely as a cloud from the kitchen to the hall.
There’s a green-eyed yellow monster to the north of Kathmandu
But I shan’t be seeing him just yet and nor, I think, will you.
While the dawn comes up like thunder on the road to Mandalay,
I’ll make my bit of supper and eat it off a tray.
I shall not speed my bonnie boat across the seas to Skye
Or take the rolling English road from Birmingham to Rye.
About the woodlands just right now, I am not free to go
To see the “Keep Out” posters or the cherry hung with snow
And no, I won’t be travelling much within the realms of gold
Or get me to Milford Haven. All that’s been put on hold.
Give me your hand, I shan’t request, albeit we are friends
Nor come within a mile of you, until this trial ends.
More From the Legal Eagles
What follows is a guest post by Dr John Fanning, Senior Lecturer in Tort law at the University of Liverpool.
I write with regard to the ‘Question for the Legal Eagles’ you posted on Friday January 8th (‘If basic care is to be curtailed to promote vaccination programmes, can I sue the GP practice if my elderly mum doesn’t get the care she needs and then goes on to be hospitalised unnecessarily?’). I regret that the author of the anonymous reply posted on Saturday January 9th was quicker off the mark than I was. I agree with that person’s conclusions, although would like to add a few further points which may interest your readers.
One of the big unanswered questions of this crisis is whether doctors would be liable in negligence for the injury or damage they may cause by prioritising COVID-19 over everything else. The law has long held that a doctor is not liable if he/she acts “in accordance with a practice accepted as proper by a responsible body of medical [practitioners] skilled in that particular art”. This so-called “Bolam test” has always been overwhelmingly pro-doctor: as long as a doctor acts in a way which a responsible body of professional opinion would endorse, he/she is unlikely to lose. Barring instances of obvious “barn-door” negligence (the surgeon who carelessly leaves his scalpel inside the patient’s body, for example), the injured claimant has it all to do in proving that his/her doctor was negligent. The odds are already stacked against anyone who alleges that he/she was harmed by negligent medical care or treatment.
What is fascinating (and deeply troubling) about the COVID-19 crisis is the extent to which it may have shifted the dial on what “responsible” bodies of medical opinion might endorse as acceptable practice. Horror stories of delayed diagnoses and referrals and inadequate care and treatment for non-Covid conditions abound and yet all this would appear to be, by the logic of a strategy endorsed by the Chief Medical Officer, a by-product of acceptable clinical practice in extraordinary times. It is true that the courts can conclude that a particular practice endorsed by a responsible body of medical opinion is nevertheless ‘illogical’ and, therefore, negligent. But given how little appetite there is to question the logic of lockdown more broadly, this seems unlikely to be a fruitful line of argument. One need only think of the astonishing interview that Hugh Montgomery, an eminent professor of medicine, gave to the BBC – in which he said that people who fail to wear masks and observe social distancing have “blood on their hands” – to appreciate just how far beyond the realm of logic we have travelled over the last 10 months.
This “shifting of the dial” has broader implications for the law’s response to risk. I am reminded of the Latimer case, which was decided in 1953. Exceptionally heavy rains flooded a factory and formed an oily residue on the shopfloor. Faced with what one of the judges later described as an “unprecedented situation” after a “phenomenal storm”, the factory’s owners treated the worst affected areas with their finite supply of sawdust and instructed a team of staff to clean the floor. They followed, in other words, a strategy of “focused protection”. The factory’s owners did not close the factory, preferring instead to continue its operations after taking steps to reduce the risks to its staff. A few hours later, Mr Latimer, a factory employee, slipped on a greasy, untreated surface and suffered injury. He sued the factory owners and argued that a reasonably prudent employer would have closed the entire 15-acre factory site until the risk from the slippery shopfloor was eliminated. Mr Latimer’s claim failed. The court concluded that there was insufficient evidence to prove that the floor was so slippery that a reasonably prudent employer would have closed the factory.
The parallels with COVID-19 and lockdowns are obvious: at the core of the lockdown sceptics’ argument is the same principle that there is insufficient evidence to prove that lockdown is commensurate with the risks posed by COVID-19. Mr Latimer’s case has long been authority for the proposition that defendants in negligence cases can escape liability if they show that they took reasonable steps to minimise risk. In light of the COVID-19 crisis, it is difficult to resist the conclusion that an entirely different calculus now informs our public policy and that, against that backdrop, Latimer is wrong. By the logic of the post-COVID era, the factory should have been closed and perhaps extensively remodelled with drainage designed to cope with extraordinary rainfall and new, non-slip flooring. The factory’s workforce should have been laid off or furloughed until such time as any risk of a slipping injury was eliminated and only allowed to return if they attended work in suitable protective gear. The factory owners should have taken extensive and exhaustive steps, risking bankruptcy for themselves and redundancy for their staff, to eliminate the risk entirely. Until recently, this degree of risk-aversion would rightly have been regarded as overkill; in 2021, it appears to have been recast as the hallmark of reasonable prudence.
Round-up
- “In the Asian Flu of 1957-58, They Rejected Lockdowns” – Jeffrey A. Tucker in AIER takes a look at history to find lockdowns were considered but rejected in the mid-20th century because they wouldn’t work and would be too disruptive
- “Lockdowns Don’t Prevent Coronavirus Spread” – When the mink Covid scare in Denmark caused some municipalities in North Jutland to go into lockdown while others resisted, scientists were provided with the first controlled experiment on the impact of restrictions on COVID-19. The result? No observable difference, say Joakim Book and Christian Bjørnskov in AIER
- “The underlying cause of death” – Antonia Stephens in the Critic says WHO guidance has set the bar very low in recording COVID-19 as a cause of death, making official figures misleading in their picture of the coronavirus death toll
- “Orwell’s Dystopian Novel ‘1984’ Soars To Top Of Amazon’s List Of Best-Selling Books” – A sign of the times from Joseph Curl on the Daily Wire
- “It is not the police’s job to enforce the lockdown whims of ministers” – Lord Sumption in the Telegraph says that in the British police state “the lockdown regulations confer powers of enforcement which no policeman should have in a society with even the most basic standards of governance”
- “The law of lockdown 3.0 (from January 6th)” – The Law or Fiction blog attempts to untangle the actual law from the guidance and the myth
- “Measuring the impact of stay-at-home lockdown measures” – Ross Clark discusses the new peer-reviewed study by Professor John Ioannidis, Professor Jay Bhattacharya, et al showing that lockdowns aren’t necessary to bend the curve
- “Malaysia declares Covid state of emergency amid political turmoil” – The Guardian suspects ulterior motives for the latest measures
- “Cressida Dick calls for law limiting exercise travel” – The Met chief demands the “clarity” they have in Wales and Scotland, where the law stipulates how far you can travel, reports the Times
- “They’re playing politics with children’s lives – and letting down our heroic teachers, too” – Molly Kingsley in the Mail castigates the teaching unions for obstructing education for the sake of short-term political gain, in spite of the risk to children
- “Dame Joan Bakewell threatens Government with legal action over second Pfizer jab” – The journalist is unimpressed by the last minute delay, reports Yahoo! News
- “Lateral flow Covid tests picked up just 3% of cases in Birmingham students before Christmas” – More maligning of the LFT reported in the Telegraph because it doesn’t live up to the supposed “gold standard” of the PCR, i.e., it doesn’t give so many false positives. Also, an editorial in the BMJ makes the case against LFT, though in this case also raising concerns about the whole idea of a population-wide national testing programme for COVID-19
- “Andrew Cuomo Makes an Infuriating Declaration for Those Living in His COVID-19 Dystopia” – Stacey Lennox in PJ Media analyses the Governor’s recent epiphany that “we simply cannot stay closed until the vaccine hits critical mass“
- Tweet by South Dakota leader Kristi Noem reminding the world there is another way
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Three today: “Back in the USSR”, by the Beatles, “Don’t Believe Everything You Read” by Eve Arden and “Stop The World, I Want To Get Off” by Millicent Martin.
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 as well as post comments below the line, 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 so you can share it. To do that, click on the headline of a particular story and a link symbol will appear on the right-hand side of the headline. Click on the link and the URL of your page will switch to the URL of that particular story. You can then copy that URL and either email it to your friends or post it on social media. Please do share the stories.
Social Media Accounts
You can follow Lockdown Sceptics on our social media accounts which are updated throughout the day. To follow us on Facebook, click here; to follow us on Twitter, click here; to follow us on Instagram, click here; to follow us on Parler, click here; and to follow us on MeWe, click here.
“Mask Exempt” Lanyards
We’ve created a one-stop shop down here for people who want to obtain a “Mask Exempt” lanyard/card – because wearing a mask causes them “severe distress”, for instance. You can print out and laminate a fairly standard one for free here and the Government has instructions on how to download an official “Mask Exempt” notice to put on your phone here. And 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 masks in shops here.
A reader has started a website that contains some useful guidance about how you can claim legal exemption. Another reader has created an Android app which displays “I am exempt from wearing a face mask” on your phone. Only 99p.
If you’re a shop owner and you want to let your customers know you will not be insisting on face masks or asking them what their reasons for exemption are, you can download a friendly sign to stick in your window here.
And here’s an excellent piece about the ineffectiveness of masks by a Roger W. Koops, who has a doctorate in organic chemistry. See also the Swiss Doctor’s thorough review of the scientific evidence here and Prof Carl Heneghan and Dr Tom Jefferson’s Spectator article about the Danish mask study here.
Stop Press: A reader reminded us of this letter in the BMJ in April from UCL epidemiologist Antonio I. Lazzarino and colleagues headed “Important potential side effects of wearing face masks that we should bear in mind“. It includes: “If face masks determine a humid habitat where the SARS-CoV-2 can remain active due to the water vapour continuously provided by breathing and captured by the mask fabric, they determine an increase in viral load and therefore they can cause a defeat of the innate immunity and an increase in infections.” The same reader also sent us an interesting study from 2018 on the dangers of masks, entitled: “Surgical masks as source of bacterial contamination during operative procedures.”
Stop Press 2: If you’re accosted by a member of the public asking why you’re not wearing a mask, you should point out that the Government has issued official advice telling people not to challenge non-maskers.
The Great Barrington Declaration
The Great Barrington Declaration, a petition started by Professor Martin Kulldorff, Professor Sunetra Gupta and Professor Jay Bhattacharya calling for a strategy of “Focused Protection” (protect the elderly and the vulnerable and let everyone else get on with life), was launched in October and the lockdown zealots have been doing their best to discredit it ever since. If you googled it a week after launch, the top hits were three smear pieces from the Guardian, including: “Herd immunity letter signed by fake experts including ‘Dr Johnny Bananas’.” (Freddie Sayers at UnHerd warned us about this the day before it appeared.) On the bright side, Google UK has stopped shadow banning it, so the actual Declaration now tops the search results – and Toby’s Spectator piece about the attempt to suppress it is among the top hits – although discussion of it has been censored by Reddit. The reason the zealots hate it, of course, is that it gives the lie to their claim that “the science” only supports their strategy. These three scientists are every bit as eminent – more eminent – than the pro-lockdown fanatics so expect no let up in the attacks. (Wikipedia has also done a smear job.)
You can find it here. Please sign it. Now over three quarters of a million signatures.
Update: The authors of the GBD have expanded the FAQs to deal with some of the arguments and smears that have been made against their proposal. Worth reading in full.
Update 2: Many of the signatories of the Great Barrington Declaration are involved with new UK anti-lockdown campaign Recovery. Find out more and join here.
Update 3: You can watch Sunetra Gupta set out the case for “Focused Protection” here and Jay Bhattacharya make it here.
Update 4: The three GBD authors plus Prof Carl Heneghan of CEBM have launched a new website collateralglobal.org, “a global repository for research into the collateral effects of the COVID-19 lockdown measures”. Follow Collateral Global on Twitter here. Sign up to the newsletter here.
Judicial Reviews Against the Government
There are now so many legal cases being brought against the Government and its ministers we thought we’d include them all in one place down here.
The Simon Dolan case has now reached the end of the road. The current lead case is the Robin Tilbrook case which challenges whether the Lockdown Regulations are constitutional. You can read about that and contribute here.
Then there’s John’s Campaign which is focused specifically on care homes. Find out more about that here.
There’s the GoodLawProject and Runnymede Trust’s Judicial Review of the Government’s award of lucrative PPE contracts to various private companies. You can find out more about that here and contribute to the crowdfunder here.
And last but not least there was the Free Speech Union‘s challenge to Ofcom over its ‘coronavirus guidance’. A High Court judge refused permission for the FSU’s judicial review on December 9th and the FSU has decided not to appeal the decision because Ofcom has conceded most of the points it was making. Check here for details.
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. (Don’t assume we’ll pick them up in the comments.)
And Finally…
Watch Episode 1 of the new Common Sanity podcast with Andrew Doyle, Simon Evans, Giles Fraser and Konstantin Kisin, filmed pre-lockdown in Il Portico Restaurant in Kensington High Street.
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Faust!
You can run, you can run
Tell my friend boy Willie Brown
Run, you can run
Tell my friend boy Willie Brown
And I’m standing at the crossroads
Believe I’m sinking down
Robert Johnson! I have been listening to a lot of blues recently – helps to keep you sane.
Mind you that might be the Cream version? With LS Eric on vocals.
Robert Johnson’s lyrics as far as I know. Heard an excellent version by Lutes & Ukes on their Wolves of St Elvis tour featuring a 1938 Gibson for fans of authentic instruments (a little late but close enough).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MM4Rs5Hg7rc
Also includes a little music by Robert Johnson (1583 – 1634)
I think creams might be a combo of two songs? I’ll have to dig out my Robert Johnson cd and have a listen.
Cream Whisky a Go Go 1967
The back of the head facing Ginger Baker is mine. To the right, my brother, Trevor, is examining two of Baker’s drumsticks that went airborne and landed at his feet.
Those were the days, where are they now? they’re gone …
Love the original RJ – also love Me & Mr Johnson by Clapton
Robert Johnson. Elmore James. Hellhound on my trail.
Bob Willie Brown- Robert Johnson’s mentor.
Hot Tamale and the red hots. Malted Milk. Great stuff.
Blues and scepticism – love this site! I got a personal message from Boobby Rush at my birthday last November as well as a copy of his new Rawer than Raw cd. Interstingly Bobby is in his late 80s and made a full recovery from Covid.
I worked as a doorman at a hotel in Montreal in the late 70s. All the musicians that came to perform in that city stayed at our hotel. I met Long John Baldry, Elvis Costello, Buddy Guy, B.B. King, John Lee Hooker and Rod Stewart. Bob Dylan stayed there as well but he must have sneaked out the back door because I didn’t see him walk out the front door during my evening shift.
Shempal buddha.
Ship on a better sea.
[repeat add infinitum]
I see what you did there. 👍🏻
Our Chicom friends have introduced health QR code scans for Uber passengers:
Beijing Orders Passengers To Scan QR Health Codes Before Entering Uber | ZeroHedge
The writer seems to be unaware of Chinas Social Credit screening which monitors a great deal more than a persons physical health.
Not just CCP’s any longer, Big Tech/Big Shiny enforcing their rules too, increasingly worldwide as Merkel, Micron and now Uganda have spotted.
I feel as though Big Tech is working with the CCP.
At some point Xi will declare them redundant and liquidate them too.
Pauvre Micron. He’s going to get a taste of his own medicine.
Dan Hicks: Cheaters don’t win
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZffILfGqerM&list=RDZffILfGqerM&start_radio=1
What?! Get screwed Chicoms. Are Rickshaws next? And all the other low end means of conveyance to be found in Asia and elsewhere? No more bicycles built for two? Sorry Princess N N.
My apologies to Black Sabbath…
Children of tomorrow live in the tiers that fall today
Will the sun rise up tomorrow bringing peace in any way?
Must the world live in the shadow of COVID-19 fear?
Can they win the fight for truth or will they disappear?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U39EiI-NR4I – it even has an NHS rainbow
STOP PRESS 1: It’s all going to end on the 14th of March, 357 days after it started. The longest three weeks in history. 17 times longer than a regular three weeks.
STOP PRESS 2: It probably won’t, I just made that up
I cannot even begin to imagine how the Woke would respond to this: https://youtu.be/WrOeTSAu7Is
Any ideas?
From the top of the main article.
Someone posted the other day about likes/dislikes on YouTube sites such as the Telegraph and Sky News that do not allow comments.
This is what Telegraph YouTube viewers think of Priti Patel
Just wish she could pronounce he ‘ings’. Collectin, damagin, – its very annoying and I find it hard to listen to her.
It’s irritatin’ beyond belief
Yep, I first noticed it a couple of years ago. It irritates me so much I actually don’t listen to what she is saying but how she says it, waiting for her to enunciate every ‘ing’ word. Another one who also does it is Beth Rigby of Sky News.
They know it’s wrong, why don’t they just say it right? I can say “in” or “ing”, and I’m sure they can too…
Alf Ramsey used to do that, omit his g’s. Where is he now? Could he come back and run Dept Justice, NHS, Education…?
And very incorrect English; I was told in the Army, very firmly, that the only correct usages of -in’ are huntin’ shootin’ fishin’ and poachin’. None of which she is likely to do.
Hindoo Home Sec pretty damn useless. I have decided to be the Anglo White Home Sec over in India. Just for giggles and to see if that is racist or not.
Just keep an eye out for chaps in dhotis running through the night clutching chapatis.
I looked her up in Wiki and actually found much to admire about her previous political beliefs and record . She claimed to be an admirer of Mrs Thatcher which will annoy many here no doubt, but it represents a clear distinction from the majority of current Tory MPs who all , following the example of the pathetic Cameron, aspire to be “heirs to Blair”.
I doubt if the current restrictions are to her liking , but she does not yet have the power to influence the malign lobbying from the Whitty- Hancock – media alliance.
We should remember that in her early political career as a minister Mrs Thatcher had to oversee the destruction of the grammr schools at the orders of the disgusting and discredited Heath, against I am sure her basic instincts.
Thatcher also presided over the ending of the provision of free milk in schools earning her that famous nickname. People forget however that plans to end free milk in schools was already in the pipeline long before Thatcher became Education secretary.
Yes I remember that too kh….I used to get the blame as I was a milk monitor lol!
Also Labour closed more mines than the Tories
They just finished it brutally rather than softly softly
Warm milk made me vomit when I was a child, after I’d done it a couple of times in the classroom, I was not required to drink it! No doubt these days I’d’ve been declared lactose intolerant. I’ve always enjoyed a glass of ice cold milk though with no ill effects.
There was a child in my class who did that – in Dorset.
Of course you may not have been the only one I guess!
Lol!
It certainly put me off drinking milk as a drink, still hate it. Vividly remember at the age of 5 in the school yard being told I had to drink that 1/3 pint of the stuff that I just didn’t want to. Of course in those days wartime rationing still was to some extent around and it was thought the milk provision was good.
It was good for kids whose parents couldn’t afford, or couldn’t be arsed, to feed them.
remember that too. Can’t drink milk except a bit in coffee and tea
Yes, in Summer the full fat milk was warm, in winter it had lumps of ice, many brought Nesquik milk shake powder to disguise the taste.
I’ve heard of stories like that. Plus milk by then was affordable and the government didn’t see why it had to waste money providing something that households could afford. But as always it takes ages to get things done and once they get on with it, its the sitting minister who has to carry the can.
I can’t drink milk, it makes me heave and vomit. The struggle not to have the vile stuff forced down my throat is a vivid childhood memory. I was expelled from nursery school for absolutely refusing to drink hot milk.
and the smell of the empty unwashed bottles at the end of a day in the sun – eeeww!
Oh gross. They tried to foist off fat free milk on us too as kids. I refused to drink it and took calcium tablets instead. The only milk I’d drink was that nice whole milk banana flavored sweetened stuff they had in the school vending machines right next to the soda!
She is a nasty little authoritarian and not very bright to boot as well as sounding like a moron with her ‘g’ dropping. I suspect she got selected for her seat because she made ‘Right’ sounding noises in the face of a swamp of leftist Tory hopefuls. Maybe she was just about bright enough to work this out but when the chance came to be a demagogic hard line Home Secretary it was too much to resist.
Anyone who votes for her, whatever their political views are, must be completely mad.
story I heard was that she got the Home sec job as she was the constituencies aka swivelled eyed loons choice for leader
Anyone who votes for a mainstream party MP at this point are completely mad. There is no legitimate opposition in Westminster. The only option for me is to enjoy spoiling my paper with a well-worded condemnation of the ‘British’ political system.
I agree I dont see any difference between any of them. Its not a govt with an 80 seat majority its a coalition of Tories,Labour,SNP,Lib Dem and Green without a rice paper of difference between them.
The top ones are all selected by the same interests. There then can be an ‘open and free election’ with no fear of their interests being harmed. This is a variation on the “it’s not the votes that count, but who counts the votes” approach.
I suspect she thinks that if she throws her weight about, it will make her like her heroine.
However, she’s unlikely to come even as close as dePiffle with his pathetic emulation of Churchill.
Thatcher also declared that the rise of Tory Bliar and New Labour was her proudest achievement – the epitomy of TINA There Is No Alternative.
More flattering images of Priti can be found here:
https://youtu.be/ulj8GqOJCpE
Tony Heller briefly compares places that imposed mask mandates with places that didn’t, and finds no evidence for the claim that masks reduce transmission of the virus. Democrats Listen To The Scientists
http://newtube.app/TonyHeller/0lGWgF4
Has anyone done a league table as per Covid deaths/million inhabitants for the second half of the year only yet? That or ones that go up until now/from the introduction of mask mandates should indicate a correlation and even causation that masks and lockdowns actually increased Covid deaths as I would expect Tanzania, Belarus and Sweden to be among the least deadly countries in H2 based upon the recent figures and lack of noise from there.
Yesterdays ONS end of year figures showed that for England & Wales in 2020 there were 14% more deaths than the 5 year rolling average. 10.6% of those were in April/May and we know what happened then. For the remaining 10 months of 2020 deaths above the 5 yer average (sometimes called excess deaths) were 3.4 % above the 5 year average. This in itself is hardly significant but if you take into account ageing populations etc. that % comes down to not very much.
So my conclusion is that outside of April/May 2020 the English&Welsh death figures are nothing extraordinary one way or the other.
Steve.
You asked yesterday if I had further information on plans to move Covid patients from the East of England to the S/W.
I was told of this by an NHS frontline worker on Monday.
A LS reader posted on Tuesday that it was already happening at his local hospital in, I think, Somerset.
My Devon MP also confirmed in her reply to me last week that this was already being done (she didn’t specify from which region they had been transferred)
Yep that was me. One in our hospital at the moment.
Let’s play spot the pandemic
That is an excellent presentation.
A better caption might be “Spot the Second Wave”
Agreed. Ciorrecting for age and popuklation is important.
No idea why my post on age & population corrected figures has disappeared. I shared my calculated excess deaths (using ONS age/population corrected figures for the 12 months up to November). The figure is 37000. When the data for december becomes available this will rise to – perhaps- 45000. Way less than the comparison with uncorrected average figures used in the weekly data.
Not the black death by any stretch of the imagination – of course the zealots will assert this is all because of lockdown.
I give up.
LD killed 45.000.
Gov’t estimates are that due to LDs 200.000 may die.
Don’t give up. LDs kill.
Real CV deaths is about 30.000. Rest are with CV if you believe the tests which I don’t.
In Quebec the government claims that 8,300 + have died so far from Covid, out of a population of 8.5 million. That equals 0.001 percent.
One thousandth of one percent.
45.000 died from the LDs but the Fake News does not report on that.
Also the raw data does not add up. Nov 13th they said 529K dead in the UK. Now, for the year, 697K….this means 3300 died per day from Nov 13 to Dec 31. This did not happen. So the total number is also wrong.
Deleted
I was talking about Covid deaths only, a league table not showing the total, but the total from 1.7.20 or the start of the mask mandates.
This should show a very positive picture for Sweden versus e.g
Germany, and a disaster for masks.
These masks look more and more stupid by the day.
Is it true hancock is going to mandate compulsory triple layers of underwear to combat rectal atmospheric discharge of Coronovirus ?
Chill everyone, Le Comité de Salut Public is in charge to protect us from all harm.
Guillotine everybody. No head – no breathing – cannot pass on infection.
But Starmer considers this to be a half-measure. The heads should be impaled on spikes afterwards, with masks on of course.
The spikes will of course be sanitised first.
With new and improved Handiwipes.
The ‘science’ says that asymptomatic transmission from the falling head to the executioner and watching public is ‘real and dangerous’ given the new ‘variant’ (which can fly for hundreds of miles)…..
I did suggest wearing a second set of underwear to my Dandelion parents many months ago – they weren’t impressed.
Tell anyone who willingly gets a PCR test outside of being an inpatient that they are the reason we are f**ked as a nation.
If less get tested the magical ‘R’ number will be less significant.
Mike Yadon was correct in saying that mass testing is what will keep us in this situation.
The forcing of NHS patients to have a Covid 19 test is unethical.
If, for example, I broke my wrist and went into hospital to have it looked at and refused a covid test – would they refuse to treat me? Has this scenario cropped up yet?
Yes it has. There was a report on here of a chap who fell of his bike and was taken to hospital and refused treatment until he agreed to be tested for Covid with the PCR test.
Yes. I have had this experience. I fell off my bike and broke my hip. The hospital would not treat me until I submitted to a Covid 19 test. You can read my observations here: https://viewsandstories.blogspot.com/2021/01/admitted-to-hospital-in-time-of.html
Just read it. Awful experience. Truly sorry – both for the broken hip and also for the ridiculous treatment re Covid test.
One consoling factor – the test was probably done in house and not by a for-profit testing company with no desire to see its business plan disappearing into the ether.
Who cares where it was done? That was blackmail.
But universal.
The big man.there are many people who have no choice in the matter .healthcare is one and many other employers insist..job or test..you have to think about that as I know given the choice it would be no. There are plenty of sheep who queue up I know sadly.
Very true – that employers aren’t helping here and it’s not just individuals at fault – of demanding all these darn tests. One does think of the tale of someone being told to jump (ie when it’s unreasonable expectation) and the response being “How high?”
Indeed. My son is being tested constantly at his place of work.
Of course, it will be the vaccine or your job very soon. Now that really needs resisting at all costs.
Download the vaxx letter here
https://freedomtaker.com/
and get your work/GP to sign it (hint – they won’t)
I have a sister in law who is a hypochondriac. So far she has had herself, husband and son go for about 4 covid tests even when one of them had just a brief sneeze of sniffles. In all cases negative but I’ve no doubt it’s people like her that are part of the issue.
When the hysteria stops (call me a wild optimist but the Salem witch-hunts, manic dancing outbreaks etc. all ended eventually) she may feel nostalgic for the days nearly everyone was a hypochondriac too.
Thanks Waldorf for your wild optimism. I keep telling myself that too. I’ve been to Salem – lovely place, nice to tourists, no risk of being burned as a witch.
Yes, witches are now tolerated but non-mask wearers are not, so watch your step.
My cleaning lady arrived yesterday in a black spangly mask as she had a cold. She had been to Canterbury to be tested by Gurkhas (very efficient). Got the negative LFT result minutes later on her phone. She has quite a few elderly (more than me) clients so I felt that was fair enough. Her daughter a midwife is being LFT tested by NHS as a work requirement. LFT test use suggests HMG want to get the numbers down now (as with students at St Andrews and Cambridge and truck drivers at Manston).
My son was tested a couple of times in hospital recently, I was pleased to see it was LFT. Negative both times. They tested everyone in A&E once they got beyond the swing doors.
If she has a cold she should stay away. I’d have told her to come back when she’s well. Were the spangles snots? Common sense should be keep yourself to yourself if you are coughing, sneezing and runny nose. Beats me what people think a test achieves. Basic rule, if it doesn’t affect what you do about it, no point doing it. If it’s coronavirus, rhinovirus, RSV, etc etc so what. They all need treating the same. Stay out of circulation until you aren’t spraying it about and smearing door handles (if you can). All these bugs can make the vulnerable poorly. Elevating this one is religion. …and breathe….
I noticed a lot of social media / MSM noise yesterday trying to discredit the LFT as worthless in that it misses too many “cases” and that only PCR should count. Obviously I disagree but it’s clear “they” aren’t getting the results they want.
They mean LFT misses too many false positives lol.
Love it.
Yes a gradual switch from PCR to LF is the way out for the government. Then in March they can claim that lockdown + vaccines did the trick.
The government doesn’t want a way out unless it includes jabbing us all with one of Bill Gates’s terminator vaccines.
The memo should be circulated far and wide: STOP GETTING TESTED!!!
Maybe if the Beast from the East arrives later next week, folk won’t be able to go and get tested.
Makes we wish we do have a Beast From the East!
The biggest problem is the worried well although in my opinion they’ve always been a big drain on the NHS and doctors simply collude with them.
At my workplace and in the NHS trust I previously worked for all testing for staff is voluntary. However I believe there’s only me and one other colleague ( another sceptic) who’ve refused to submit to this.
Yep!
Did all that. The local police, yes police, had written to people I know telling them to get tested. Having never been invloved with the policing and living life as though in the 1950s they complied.
One of their results came back as inconclusive. Yes inconclusive. So they tested you again surely I said, the police contacted you to protect life, you are in their vulnerable category afterall. Not a bit of it – the NHS test centre couldn’t give less of a care about health. Simply another human unit converted into data.
So, two ‘vulndrable’ may or may not have the virus just told to return as you were. Well the result is the 1950s are gone and they get me now – an awakening.
they should start charging for the tests – even a nominal £10 would reduce the number of idiots being tested for a sniffle. For those whose employers require it they would pay for the test for employees, or get free e.g. care homes/hospitals (which i think is a reasonable to test when caring for elderly)
Do you not know that they are offering INCENTIVES to people?! In the summer, any parent taking their child for a test was being offering £150 in amazon vouchers. If you are struggling to feed your kids, that’s what you’re gonna do. It’s sick!
A now ex-friend of mine volunteered to be tested on a regular basis and is getting £400 in vouchers. The government clearly wanted as many cases as it could possibly get and people still think it is basically well intentioned.
Mercola on PCR today: It’s accurate only up to a ct of 17!
My sentiments exactly. Why the hell get tested when you have no symptoms?? Absolute madness!
I did wonder, when they came up with c. 50,000 positive PCR on Christmas Day? That must mean 100s of 1000s of tests: on Christmas Day? Where did all those punters come from?
I got a covid swab done because of some dumb procedure. God it’s unpleasant. I was wincing in pain throughout and my eye teared up.
Forced or coerced medical procedures are unethical. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/consent-to-treatment/
The principle of consent ….is an important part of human rights laws they state. Could masks not be considered medical interventions in that they are interventions in response to claimimg mitigating harms from a virus. There are also robust protections detailed for vaccinations with regard to consent and coercion, I think more people need to start quoting back what is clearly stated in their own policies and procedures, particularly with forced PCR swabs.
My daughter has an exam today.She was told she could only attend after having a test.
The most ridiculous example of them forcing these tests onto us yet. Surely they could have kept their officious little selves happy by doing anti-social distancing?
Which sort of exam was it btw?
Yes, unpleasant. They rummaged for a good 10 seconds which left me with the feeling when you accidentally inhale water up your nose swimming, next day sinuses congested and I haven’t even had a cold in 4 years. Those working in care homes being forced to endure this twice a week should challenge the authorities with potential compensation claims if damage or chronic conditions occur from frequent testing. Pain is an indication of harm, your body’s warning sign, so if these swabs hurt then an element of tissue or some damage is occurring. Once is one thing but twice plus times weekly for … months.
Don’t allow anyone to do the up-the-nose part of the test for you. It is very easy to cause damage. If they insist, then tell them that any injury which causes a nose-bleed will cause them to be personally sued.
Strange the virus chooses to lodge on brain wall and not closer to the outside wall.
Didn’t you find it inspiring to have a similar procedure done to that which egyptian pharaohs had? Removing their brian via nose to pop in a little keep sake jar by their sarcophagus. You even did it live! Something those pharaoh chickens never did.
The efficient Gurkhas at Canterbury had sick bags ready (see above). On their way to Falklands on Canberra they trained finding their way round the ship in blindfolds in case the lights went out in an attack.
If Donald Trump would have fully embraced lockdowns in March 2020, demanding masks and curfews for the whole of the USA, I guarantee that millions of trendy, middle-class liberals would be protesting for their freedoms right now.
Unfortunately, like everything else these days, Covid-19 has been completely absorbed into the black hole that is the culture wars. This has nothing to do with science or busy hospitals. It’s entirely political.
Initially some of the biggest Covid hysteric media were shocked by the measures the Chinese were taking in Wuhan. They must have got the memo later.
Initially the good people were opposed to travel bans – at the only time they might have had some benefit – because that would be xenophobic. The WHO was against them for that reason. It was claimed that Covid was not the major problem. Racism was the greater danger, and any measure that might be construed as such should be resisted.
Those same people shortly afterwards were demanding house arrest for all.
That’s true – I had forgotten that one. Around February 2020 anti-Chinese racism was seen as the main danger from covid.
It’s rainy today, but I may force myself to go out later, to ensure that I breach the “stay at home” injunction.
Or plain envelopes.
It’s an interesting what if.
I think even more confused would be what if Corbyn had won here and then Covid came along.
Given that his own party were intent on labelling him a dangerous anarchist before he ever even opened his mouth and conspired against him even more than the opposition, what would have happened?
My guess is, he would have gone down the lockdown route initially too, caving to pressure, whilst labour and the conservatives would have taken the moment to accuse him of dictatorial powers and essentially the same overreach and harm to society that hasn’t been our anti-lockdown message since day one, and removed him from office
not unless he took advice from his brother.
As a side note when they were trying to smear Corbyn I was surprised that no enterprising journalist ever asked him “do your share the same views as your brother Piers on climate change?”
Yes Corbyn would likely have buckled. However, they couldn’t take any chances, so he had to be neutralised well before the election, which he well and truly was.
What is clear is that the politicians are not in charge.
The world has been taken over by digital technocrats.
They have captured national governments through supranational organisations (like the WHO, IMF) and through national institutions (like the NHS, Imperial College in the UK).
They control the media to make sure politicians and population stay in line,
Politicians aren’t deciding a thing here.
Remember he voted against the second lockdown. If you want to see what the press did to him, look at the report done by the LSE. 70% or news articles were either inaccurate or insulting.
Pelosi etc. protested the initial travel ban from China and were filmed encouraging people to visit a ‘China Town’ district for New Year.
And told people to go hug someone from Chinatown to prove how wrong orange man was. I wonder what sleepy Joe or Hilary would have done?
Anything that Trump suggested doing they denounced. Including HCQ and other potential cures. Hypocrites.
when he cancelled transatlantic flights in April preventing my family from a reunion they were definitely cursing Trump’s name.
Totally! This is EXACTLY the point! Lockdowns are ENTIRELY political. Every western leader hated DT (IMO with good reason) but fell into the trap. When he said DON’T DO IT… it was the big push for them to do the opposite. That is populist politics in action and we are all the victims. There is NO science behind lockdowns and masks, it is ALL political. Those 16 Tory MPs who voted against this horrific (far worse than 1.0 and 2.0) lockdown are the only ones willing to recognise and stay strong and not fall into the populist trap.
Yes indeed well said. A friend from North Carolina just pointed out how New York suddenly wants to open up now that Biden is president-elect… after months of shut downs and extreme lock downs… now that they feel their goal is in reach, they can stop the farce that is Covid19. Never mind the thousands of people they killed along the way. By the way… the nurse video from Journeyman Pictures that filmed undercover in a NYC hospital is NOT to be missed.
Nerd alert. Regarding the article (lockdown sceptics today) on ONS age standardised deathrates. I had already done this same analysis and would like to point out that you can calculate an age standardised “excess deaths” figure too. All data is for England and Wales only. To see why correcting for this is important note the change in population over 5 years: 0-74 75+ Total Jan 2015 48,324,589 4,755,534 53,080,123 Jan 2020 52,426,617 5,219,054 57,645,671 Using 5 year average death totals (as in the ONS weekly data) and trumpetted by the media shows excess reported deaths – for 53 weeks ending 1st Jan 2021 is 75031. They are also reporting “Deaths where COVID-19 was mentioned on the death certificate” as 80830 Whereas (using 5 year average mortality data and thereby correcting for population and age profile) we see the excess deaths for 12 months ending in November 2020 is 37032. This will rise (I estimate 45000) when the data for December 2020 becomes available but it is clear that excess deaths for 2020 are substantially lower when corrected for population and age profile. I suppose a figure of 40000 is not as headline grabbing as 80000 but is much nearer the… Read more »
Comports with the 45.000 dead from LD’s not from CV. So your analysis is sensible.
Hyperbole on steroids since last March.
I see in the DM, an outraged story in Hollywood about Bruce Willis being asked to leave a shop for refusing to wear a muzzle.
The comments beneath the article are quite reflective of where we are. For every single comment essentially applauding, there are 10 denouncing him as the anti-Christ.
I am trying to imagine the response of Butch in Pulp Fiction to all the Covid hysteria. Fabienne would have gone nuts.
“The Gimp as societal role model – discuss”.
I think that will be my face gear of choice in Morrisons from now on
The reactions will be priceless
V. good!
I’ve just imagined Shitty donning black-face and an afro wig playing Jules and us poor fucks being represented by Brad…
Jules: “There’s an unprecedented pandemic on, where’s your fuckin mask?”
Brad: “What? But the masks don’t stop the virus as the virus is smaller than the filtration capabilities of the mask. ”
Jules: “People dropping like flies cause mother-fuckers like you ain’t wearing your shit and you getting all dimensional on me?”
Brad: “What?”
Jules: “What fuckin dimension are you from?
Brad: “What?”
Jules: “They speak English in what?
Brad: “What?”
Jules: “Mother-fucker say what one more time and I’ll see if the virus can get through the holes I’m gonna put in your sorry ass. Now, do you know who my granny is?”
Brad: “Wh, no, no, I’ve never had the pleasure.”
Jules: “Oh you’re learning real fast. My granny makes lemonade to die for and fried chicken so good you don’t lick your fingers, you chew them mother-fuckers right off. Now I can see you ain’t met my granny as you appear to have all your fuckin fingers, so enlighten me. Why the fuck are you trying to kill her?”
Brad: “Whaat?”
Booooom
How about Schwarzenegger shooting out his mouth this week? Compared what happened in D.C. last week to Cristalnacht in 30s Germany.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump late today. Ten Republicans voted with the Democrats.
The comments below DM articles are schizophrenic. Lockdown mask wearing zealots beneath article and sceptics the next. I suspect it depends whether the 77 get there first.
I’ve noticed that too. It’s really odd!
…and, again, the use of the word “ask” – when they weren’t asking at all = they were ordering him to or one could use the word “telling”. “Ask” means making a request the listener is free to either agree or disagree with.
Great. Bruce Willis!!!
Oh bummer!
Good man, Bruce!
Lots of paid trolls infest the DM comments.
I was born in North Hollywood. Hung out on the Sunset Strip with my two brothers and lots of friends in ’66, ’67 and ’68. Good times. High Times. If you’re a viper.
“The government appears to have noticed infections are falling” – these are the first words of LS today,totally accepting the official narrative. Can you please get back to being sceptical. Viruses do what they do;we have no idea how many infections/cases there are as there isn’t a reliable test; we’re not really interested either – what we want to know is whether those who wish to be protected are being protected and that there are enough beds and nurses for those who have poor immunity or are unlucky! And please,please get rid of this ‘woke gobbledegook’ – I log on to support sceptics not to be attacked.
Being sceptical and reporting events are not incompatible. Also the word ‘appears’ indicates the statement is being qualified.
By we who do you mean? All of us, some of us, your good self?
Lastly if you feel attacked by the ‘woke gobbledegook’ segment that is indeed regrettable. ‘We’ think it is valuable and indicative of a greater malaise.
I share your feelings about the ‘woke gobbledegook.’ But I care about freedom of speech, too, so I accept it as something the writers of this site want to talk about. I think that my own discomfort with it is something I will put up with, expecting that people here will put up with aspects of my views that they may reject too.
We’ll put. However I’d venture it’s more than ‘something that the writers want to talk about’. Given the freedom loving and inquisitive nature of those on this forum it’s probably something they want to be informed about.
Freedom of Speech is under attack from many quarters. These attacks share much in common, perhaps summed up by ‘if you’re not part of the solution you’re part of the problem’.
As you correctly say live and let live.
“The government appears to have noticed infections are falling” – these are the first words of LS today,totally accepting the official narrative. ”
Eh? This opener is a slightly arch remark and not an acceprance of the narrative at all. The infections are falling anyway, irrespective of their pulling levers not connected to anything but the Govt were busy ranting and screaming because Trusts have over-egged their status. Suddenly, they have looked around and gone oo-er, actually things aren’t getting worse, hold the spittle flecked screaming. I really don’t see how you can read this any other way.
(If you are offended by the gobbledegook then scroll on by and practice the forebearance that the woke singularly fail to exercise. Practice makes perfect.)
Agree, but this is the reality of where we are.
We aren’t fighting on the frontier, we are fighting well inside our territory.
All the ground was ceded in a few days in March – the virus is super dangerous, all essential freedoms can be suspended etc. – and we’re having to reclaim all that ground.
That is why I have no respect or sympathy for anyone who thought it was the right thing to do back in March but have since changed their minds, or thought it has gone on for too long.
If you supported locking down last March you are part of the reason we are where we are now.
Moral dilemma questions on vaccination;
This is a horrible dilemma with no easy answer. You fight all year for sanity and life with family etc to be normal. They take it away from us and then demand you get the vaccine, meaning a refusal will stop you ever getting back to that normal that you fought to keep.
I really don’t envy you. I suppose, if it means being barred from family, I would take it. That, or find an airline that would accept you, and definitely wait and long a seat possible as I do think this will get dropped (eventually).
Good luck and hope that helps.
That phrase “a hostage to fortune” sounds very apt if someone that has decided not to have the vaccine feels forced to choose between vax or miss seeing the family (ie because they live abroad).
I do not see what it is that you consider to be the moral dilemma. If you want to see people and your desire to do so is greater than the cost of doing so and you can afford the cost, surely there is no dilemma?
We can’t be sure of the cost right now. The vax is untested.
On point 2, still UK law as per the gov websites are clear that vaccinations have to be given with informed consent, no coercion. On this basis, I can’t see that individual bodies could force this – I know this probably sounds nieve in light of the last 10 months, but I feel the more these rules are challenged with the law, policies available, the more chance we have of not spiralling further into a state of no return. If such a scenario did happen, I would attempt to find other families with relatives in the care home and group fund a lawyer. Uganda will probably want to keep its attraction to foreign workers, tourism etc., so most likely won’t want to deter people.
This is a great vaccine consent form from UK Medical Freedom Alliance COVID-19 Vaccine Info – UK Medical Freedom Alliance (ukmedfreedom.org)
Guidance on visiting care homes was updated yesterday. The main point is that visiting being allowed should be the default position (unless there is an outbreak).
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/visiting-care-homes-during-coronavirus/update-on-policies-for-visiting-arrangements-in-care-homes
life for the unvaccinated is going to be shit. never mind not travelling overseas or entering carehomes: we are going to be asked to forego our jobs, education, access to medical care, housing, to public transport of all kinds; eventually we will just be locked permanently in our houses, and further down the line, who knows, probably the gulag, or summary execution. How many will hold out against this kind of pressure? most will just think, ‘how bad can it be?’ considering that the unvaccinated life is scarcely worth living, most will cave. I ain’t caving. my position is that if they want to kill me, they are going to have to do it openly, and without my co-operation.
Thankfully I don’t need a home (I own my own), don’t need education, don’t need a job (I’m retired) – but I am concerned in case I am prohibited from using some facilities when they open again (in my case medical and organised social events). So I have more leeway to “hold out” than students and those needing jobs and, if it comes to it (which I hope it never will) then I took the precaution of ordering the committing suicide book someone on here mentioned yesterday that Amazon sells just-in-case. Thankfully, I’m in a part of the country where some of my social group are amongst the “hippies in the woods or up in the hills” and so we can socialise amongst ourselves if need be and doubtless there’ll be some of that. But it is very worrying indeed that “Things might Come Back – but not for us (ie the unvaccinated)” and we might get discriminated against.
The vaccine emergency use certicates have numerous exceptions – not to be used for individuals younger than 16 years, pregnant women, immunocompromised, etc, etc. Mandatory vaccination of ‘everybody’ would be a Dr Mengele act. The documents also note that the vaccine may not protect everybody. Relying on vaccination alone as a ‘proof of safety’ is totally flawed (not that mere technicalities like that will bother the technocrats).
It is enshrined in Human Rights Law that the individual has ultimate choice, in order to counter the state imposing drugs on individuals. The key is informed consent and benefits outweighing the side effects. For covid, ~90% of the population are at minimal risk, so the vaccine itself is a greater hazard than the disease. For pneumonic plague, everyone is at risk, so a vaccine en masse would be justified and people would actually not need to be coerced into taking it. There would literally be people dying in the streets, and no, social distancing/mask wearing won’t help.
Absolutely correct.
Totally agree with your sentiment, the shysters aren’t going to inject their agenda into me either.
I am not caving soon either, even if that means I cannot get back to UK. My hope is that enough people will resist, which will mean such discrimination/apartheid will probably not be possible. That, IMO, is why it is vital for as many people to resist for as long as possible.
If you have a UK passport, I don’t think they will be able to bar you from entering. The problem will be finding a carrier, but I am sure that there will be a market for those that want to be outside this dreadful system.
Would you have a leg cut off?
Vaccinations for several proper diseases required for Uganda I expect. Perhaps Covid one will get lost in all the paperwork.
I fell you as I’m in the same dilemma. My parents live abroad and in order for my daughter to see their her grandparents I will probably require a vaccine. I against this untested vaccine but I feel that in awhile the pressure will be too great.
My laymans opinion:
The care home has no right to know about your medical situation, that includes vaccinations. How will they check? The NHS right know has 2 different systems recording the vaccination on patient records.
Same with the airline. They could ask you, and you lie. At the moment there is no system in place – legal and practical – for them to check what you tell them.
Personally, I would not worry about it, but keep campaigning for this NOT to come into force.
Perhaps being accused of misinformation and being briefly taken off Youtube got to them. Still better than most other outlets but RT is better on many issues as well – but none of them are really any damn good.
I’m listening to Radio 4. Absolutely sickening – they are broadcasting various peoples stories of compliance today, rather than talking about those flouting the rules. The interviews are being inserted throughout the programme.
In the first piece a man describes in a flat voice how the rules were meticulously followed at his wife’s funeral. After the family left the church to go to the burial the others all went home. He therefore didn’t get to speak to a single of their friends and could not even thank them for coming. ‘ Because it was not allowed’ There was no wake. He wants to say this because others are flouting Covid rules and he has suffered so much. Yes I don’t doubt that, but the tone of his voice was so mean spirited, chilling almost, the way he is blaming others …. well let’s face it – all of us – for his pain. Worth listening to if anyone has BBC Sounds it was 6:45am. No perhaps don’t, there’s no reason to depress ourselves further. Why don’t people like this put the blame where it lies – with the bloody rule makers!
I used to be a supporter of the BBC but no longer, if any organisation had the expertise and the position to carry out a proper full in context analysis of the situation and the statistics it was the BBC but there whole handling of this virus hoo-ha has been less objective and more scaremongering than the Sun.
It has a chance to partly row back this morning as the ‘More or Less’ programme comes back for another series at 9 this morning. It is usually a bit more objective but not sceptic, I will listen and see?
They have been horrendous. From my interactions with the most zealous individuals (at work), they invariably parrot BBC headlines I have seen the night before.
Well, they did nothing to put a leash on Jimmy Savile so I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for them to do the right thing. Behind closed doors they probably know the Covid response is BS but Savile seems to have been no big mystery either.
SAGE Minutes reveal that all the MSM have been co-opted into ramping up the fear to encourage compliance with arbitrary rules. They have also be co-opted into denigrating opponents of the state position.
Numerous people have committed suicide because of the fear levels. I personally know, via relatives and close friends, of three suicides. The school-age daughter of my sister’s friend fortunately failed in her attempt. I can’t imagine the psychlogical scarring this has induced.
Hard hitting emotional messaging just as in the first lockdown.They have nothing else except fear propaganda.
I have just heard that John Lewis are suspending click and collect.That will show the virus who’s boss
No click and collect, we are alright now, baby, we are alright now…
The government have run out of things to ban.All meaningful social contact outside the home has been made illegal.What else can they do?
I’ve heard Sturgeon wants to ban takeaways as well.
Noo! Not the deep fried Mars bars, that will start a revolt if nothing else.
They are only suspending click and collect to the stores. You can still click and collect to Waitrose stores, and to other designated places.
They are busy doing a thorough stock check in the stores. Usually, it’s a bit of a hasty one, carried out over 4 weeks or so. This year it is going to be a proper thorough stock check. Much easier to do if you close the store to the public.
I think you’ve missed the point.
Banning C&C means you have to rely on things being delivered, rather than leaving your home to go and pick them up.
David Kurten warned heart string propaganda was next after attending a London assembly meeting. The psychhologist cooks obviously think it best.
David’s pinned tweet says Lions don’t wear masks.
Most Brits these days resemble the Lion in the Wizard of Oz.
This is 1960s style Russian propaganda. Don’t people understand yet?!! This is all you are getting from MSM,24h a day,365. My MIL called my wife yesterday and told her that she went to park near her house and…the horror..it was full of children. How dare they , they are killing people? That is why I can’t talk to her anymore, I will not let her say shit like that and then my marriage would probably be over quite soon.
My wife has only one friend who is a believer. They had to leave a restaurant in August because the waiter was “getting too close” and she had a panic attack. It goes without saying I am NOT allowed to talk to her at all. She only ate out at places with outdoor dining. Because the virus can’t get you outside? I think the question to ask MIL is you are okay with children not killing old people even though there has not been a single case of this happening, but you are saying nothing about the scientific evidence that 560,000 people will die due to lockdown.
I heard that too. thoroughly depressing as to what people put up with. On the plus side More or Less was back at 9am. Worth a listen. I’m sure Matt Hancock doesn’t.
Why hate others who choose to do the RIGHT thing. You choose to go against every fibre of you being and your understanding of human rights and decency to not be comforted and to give comfort at you wife’s fucking funeral! Just so you can be heard on the radio by other moronic believers. Where is your humanity, where is your courage, where is your soul. There really needs to be a new level of hell added to accommodate all of these idiots. We will call it the BBC 77th level. Here they will be forced to watch people running free, cuddling, kissing and doing what humans have done for thousands of years. Then every hour they will be forced watch a half hour presentation by the fat pig dictator interspersed with a staring contest with Twatty.
The BBC is truly revolting.
It’s a shameless propaganda machine.
I feel we have gone just past ‘peak moron’. Priti saying rules are tough enough while the daily new infections are rapidly falling and are now 15% below the peak.
The evidence shows lockdowns do not work – in that they don’t change the R-value – obvious from the graph below from the Royal Society. But this sort of data gets hidden when they are in a blind panic. The narrative being lockdown is working. When infections have fallen and pressure come off the NHS (this is the peak of normal winter pressure) then the facts will come out and we will be proved right.
Interesting data. The coherence of the data across multiple countries up to mid April shows something that could be called a pandemic. After that, each country goes its own way. Interestingly, the SAGE minutes stopped mentioning pandemicMay/June and since then they only use the term epidemic.
That is interesting because the government committment for mass purchase of vaccines and emergency use is contingent on there being a pandemic.
She has always been like that about masks. I think some people just think they are no big deal (for them) so what’s the problem? and lack the insight to realise that for some people they are a Very Big Deal Indeed, for a variety of reasons.
My reasons are that they are dehumanising and I refuse to be coerced into to what amounts to no more than a superstitious belief. To force me would cause me severe distress, so not going to wear one.
The interesting thing is that being distressed about being forced to wear a mask is not socially acceptable.
But being distressed by the fear of catching a coronavirus is not only socially acceptable but aggressively encouraged.
Clearly not all distresses are created equal…
The law regarding face coverings allows for a ‘reasonable excuse’ for not wearing a face covering. It is not limited to a ‘medical exemption’.
A women who was raped with the man holding his hand over her mouth/nose would likely experience severe trauma if forced to wear a mask. She would have a (more than) reasonable excuse for not wearing one. SImilarly someone who is claustrophobic, someone with reduced breathing capacity.
Only police officers, PCSOs, TfL officers and persons specifically designated by the Secretary of Stae for Health are legally allowed to query a person not wearing a mask. Any one else is commiting a potentially unlawful act. An employee doing so also exposes their employer to action, as does any other customer in the premises which acts similarly.
https://laworfiction.com/2020/09/face-covering-some-pretend-law/
Those masks have that Eyes Wide Shut thing going.
More bleeding! More bleeding! It must work eventually.
It never fails. Ask John Keats.
Italians have been cooking with garlic ever since.
Given that my major regional hospital has its own dedicated vaccination station and my local GP surgery is about to roll out vaccinating for its own list and 4 surrounding practices.
I can only think that the 7 Regional Super Vaxxing Stations are for the purpose of generating large queues for press photo opportunities.
Yes a bit like the nightingale hospitals.
Hancock lied to the House a couple of weeks ago.The excell one in London had been dismantled and he got up and said it was ready to receive patients.
A couple of days ago a news report showed it had reopened with 64 beds.
Anyone who is aware of the size of the excell knows it is a huge exhibition space.
If we still had a functioning media instead of government organs this charade would end in5 mins.
Yes. Put 64 beds in the Excel and you’d signs to find them.
Now that is what you call social distancing. I bet the staff have to use Segways to get around efficently.
The hub is the opposite of isolation. It is a contradiction I can’t begin to understand. The Freak Outs so freaked out they are willing to gather in one place to exchange virons. How and but why?
Did you see the YouTube video of the queue outside a jab centre where they were made to queue outside for up to three hours. No organisation, nobody pulling the people with zimmer frames and the people struggling to walk to the front. And it was the day it was freezing cold. There also appeared to be a lit of younger obese people, is that a priority Why? Why are they not using the 10,000 pharmacist? You know the place that does all the flu jabs every year? Its like we have taken common sense, knicked his lunch money, given him a wedgie and left him locked in the toilet. (I know in todays woke societyI should not be giving thing’s a male perspective but did girls do this stuff to other girls at school?)
Anyone who thinks the population isn’t going to vaccinate en masse has not been paying attention for the last 10 months.
They have all the information machinery at their disposal, and short of the vaccine killing large numbers of people, everyone will be herded into the vaccinate abattoir.
Following that, it will be discovered that the vaccine is only good for the current strains, but new strains will appear and it will become an annual vaccine like the flu, except this one will be quasi compulsory.
Perfect result for big pharma.
The whole scaremongering is reaching new heights.The mirror trying to kickstart panic buying in a particularly bad article accompanied with a couple of pictures of empty boxes with full ones next to them.Also a picture of a man obviously at cost co or a cash and carry where you do buy in bulk.’
This is so transparent why can the majority not see they are being lied to.
Have to drive 8 miles to Whitstable for my Sainbury’s click and collect this week, no slots at all at Bysing Wood.
Can you get it again? Most people in the know say that there are only five known cases in the world.
If its almost certain that you can’t get it again, then how can you prove that you’ve had it? The best way seems to be a blood test to show that you have Covid-19 T cells or B Cells. A certificate for that should allow you to be free, without the need for an invasive ‘vaccine’ [that suppresses the symptoms but doesn’t produce the T&Bs].
Why is no-one campaigning for this route? What have I got wrong?
Bill’s Boomerang.
I understand that a full test of your immune system is tricky, expensive and not always fully conclusive. It is a sort of fundamental question, what does immunity mean? like a lot of things in biology it does not seem to be black & white. After all most people will regularly be exposed to a range of respiratory viruses but not get ill. However, sometimes if you are ‘under the weather’ a cold or a flu virus that you would normally have fought off will manage to take hold.
Personally I think that vaccinations are only worth considering for the vulnerable. I think they are wasting shed-loads of money vaccinating everybody. They are also guilty of not putting money and effort into developing treatments for serious covid, with better treatments the whole steam could have been taken out of this mess and the bulk of the population would not have to worry about vaccinations or immunity.
Yep first question should be, have you had the virus, I mean had proper symptoms not a stupid pcr test. If yes you don’t need a vaccine especially if you are under 60. Most epidemiologist say you can’t get reinfected with the same disease and if you are your immune system recognises it and deals with it and it won’t cause a problem. Most of the reinfected proofs that the media use have all been scientifically disproved. That does not mean you can’t be hit by a new strain as the flu proves every year, but the body will only have to deal with the new element not the whole new virus as again your immune system will have already kicked the ass of the bits it recognises. Jesus who knew ten months ago I would be having discussions about immune systems. Not an expert this is just what I have gleaned from Yeadon, Lee and Gustav et al.
There’s more than one human coronavirus so my bet is they had 2 different strains within a short period of time
Unlucky – I doubt the 2nd was any more than a sniffle as the T cells are pretty good at cross referencing coronas
“If its almost certain that you can’t get it again, then how can you prove that you’ve had it?”
I would have thought that having an antibody test should prove it.
Not enough profit in common sense.
Can I ask a little advice? Unfortunately my company have now joined everyone else and mandated ‘face coverings’ away from the desk in the office.
Now I work from home mostly and pop into an empty office twice a week so it’s no bother. I’ve got a ‘mask exempt’ lanyard and will say I’m exempt if challenged or if it gets back to the powers that be through the grapevine.
Does anyone think it would be prudent to have it noted on my medical record in case of such escalation? Not ask for an exemption you understand, but just tell the doctor I can’t wear one. I think the conversation will be logged on my record as it seems every little detail of my health is.
Would it better to pre-empt the situation by telling HR you are exempt before anyone asks?
I feel that has a certain amount of ‘waking the beast’ to it. We’re a tiny little satellite office on the fag end of the network and the staff (3 of us but 1 furloughed) are more of a rounding error.
Ooh, ooh, not HR. Speak to your boss first.
Mine has done the same. I’ve told them as I won’t wear a mask, I will be working from home for the foreseeable.
I think it’s the duty of your company to educate your staff on mask exemptions. You are not obliged to say why you are exempt: quote The Equalities Act, 2010. Further more, imo a challenge can be interpreted as a micro aggression and a hate crime. A hate crime is what YOU perceive it to be and the Police have to record it.
I don’t wear one for health reasons; wearing a mask triggers panic attacks, and common sense says they don’t protect me, or anyone else!
If I were you, I would have a chat with your line manager. That’s what I did and it was logged into their records that I was exempt. There was no need to go to HR
Good thinking. My line manager is the only other person assigned to that office, and he’s a friend and colleague of 15 years and only took the manager job cos I didn’t want it. It’s more of a fall guy position, we both get paid similar salaries. I’ve let him know I’m exempt so if there’s any blowback he can in full confidence say that I’ve alerted him.
Thanks for the array of replies, if you knew the internal workings of our company you’d know that alerting HR wouldn’t be beneficial. 🤣
You’re welcome. At the end of the day, its your immediate line manager and department who should be informed. HR has a lot on their plate and exemptions are an internal matter.
My department was very supportive and helpful and thankfully I’ve not had problems with our visitors, in fact I get asked where I got my lanyard and information about exemptions.
ourany company …Have a look at this legal information site. It covers employee/employer interactions. The exemption is also based ‘reasonable excuse’ not on ‘medical exemption’.
https://laworfiction.com/2020/09/face-covering-some-pretend-law/
The face covering bs is a legal minefield, with plenty of opportunity for employers exposing themselves to civil action.
Loved the poem. Put a lump in my throat.
Update on our large regional hospital here in the East Midlands courtesy of my daughter in law who is a scientist working in pathology. For the record she is in her 20s and though she wears a mask to reassure others she is a sceptic because she reads the evidence. Among the scientists and lab staff scepticism seems to be rife! She says their hospital is not in any sense overwhelmed. The cancellation of outpatient clinics and elective procedures has, like last year, left things unusually quiet. During the first lockdown it was so quiet she worked from home doing paperwork for much of the time. As far as the vaccine is concerned she has been sent a date for her first jab but like most of her department she says she probably won’t take it up. She says everyone feels pressured to have it because NHS staff are expected to “set an example” but her colleagues all feel concerned about 1) deviation from the 2nd vaccination protocol that doesn’t comply with the terms under which it was licensed 2) unknown impact on fertility (they intend to try for a baby soon) 3) being young and fit not at high… Read more »
Rather than cancelling elective procedures why don’t NHS managers just not book anything for the first two weeks of January each year? Then if they get a lull in flu patients they could phone up people on the waiting list and say “Could you pop in tomorrow for your op?”.
I’m sure its not that simple but they can hardly act surprised as this NHS overwhelm happens every year.
This is so right. How people whose ONLY job should by our welfare are using this sudo crisis to get more government money is disgusting. I heard on the radio on this mornings news 50% of nhs staff are reporting mental issues! If every day someone is telling you, you are overloaded and under pressure it must take its toll?
Please congratulate her on still having her critical thinking intact… and to keep up the saying NO. Since she works in pathology… does she know if the government is conducting any kind of autopsies at the moment to learn more about this horrible virus that keeps mutating..? So that we can actually understand scientifically what we are dealing with? Or are we still in that pathology lala land where no autopsies are allowed because the virus is jus tooooo dangerous? I’d love to know what she says and if she can research this given the access she has. And maybe post anything relevant to Toby re: autopsies to strengthen scientific research on the virus.
Gab groups
Vaccine injuries & deaths https://gab.com/groups/6054
Lockdown sceptics https://gab.com/groups/7848
Having been round the block a few times I have always noticed that the first two weeks in January are the busiest for respiratory illnesses, both in terms of morbidity and mortality. I do remember one recent year when the local undertaker had to get additional storage space , although it never made the media as it would do today. This current ” surge ” will pass and no doubt the media will claim it is due to the vaccine or the lockdown. I doubt either of those claims would be true.
January is usually the coldest month of the year in the northern hemisphere, just as July is in the southern hemisphere. I was struck by how Covid seemed to be taking off in Greece at about the time it was no longer warm enough to go outdoors without a jacket.
Indeed, and how it stopped in the UK as soon as you could take yours off.
In 2-3 months it is going to go down whatever they do just because the weather is warmer. They will give lockdowns the credit, natch.
but will be proved wrong just as they were proved wrong for lockdown 1. It just hasn’t made it into the official narrative yet
I post on other sites and have read threads discussing the interventions, rates etc with individuals pontificating about masks and pubs and Tiers. You can get 100 posts into the conversation before someone suggests winter might be a factor. Bizarre behaviour. Really…a lot of people’s heads are in the bin.
yes, 5th Jan is the peak death day and second week jan peak week (traditionally)
we are on the downslope of respiratory illnesses of which covid is just one amongst 200
Why is it that the bat cold has hardly done anything in Africa whilst hot steamy Asian countries seem to be riddled
Maybe ignoring it is the answer
Because the majority of Africans take Hydroxychloroquine routinely as an anti-malarial prophylactic measure.
But, when the media has no headline grabbing death and CASES numbers to get people buying or clicking. Where do you think they will go for their headlines? Mmmmm! Let me look into my crystal ball. I see, “Deaths from affects of lockdown outweigh covid deaths”. Then, “ministers chose to move vulnerable back to care homes condemning them to death and killing others”. Or what about “Thousands have dental and respiratory and facial fungal issues caused by face masks! ”
Come on get your 🔮 out and let’s hear your predictions??
Get yer ya ya’s out
Now we are not sure yet if the vaccine actually stops transmission. Surely then until we know the answer to this vaccine passports are no use to anyone as surely thats the whole point of them. Airlines, hospitality venues, countries want to know if you are infectious. Of course the Gov may already know that it stops transmission but dont want to tell us just t keep the control going.
The producers of the (so called) vaccines do not claim their products do anything other than reduce the severity of the symptoms.
Unfortunately sense no longer prevails. It will be just like masks, no real use but will be enforced anyway. I am waiting for gloves to be the next stage or compulsory goggles – Michie already calling for education on not touching your face.
Vaccine passports are keeping the control going.
More importantly what if you are under 20 why the hell do you need a vaccine. And what if you are at the back of the queue for vaccination. Why should you be stopped doing things when its a timing issue?
The manufacturers admit that it doesn’t.
The test criterion for a ‘successful’ vaccine is slight reduction of some symptoms in mild cases.
Nice comments in the DM – one saying he is on the edge with non mask wearers and wants his life back to normal and this is what is stopping us getting back to normal, plus all non mask wearers are practically murderers. So nothing to do with gov policy that his life is not worth living, just us non mask wearers – well the behavioural lot have done a splendid job in diverting blame for the government’s ruinous policies over to the non compliant. Only a matter of time before people start getting attacked, all endorsed by the likes of Dick, Haddock, Johnson and the silence of our MPs.
Witchfinder General springs to mind. “You are all of you confessed Covid sceptics.”
Jews were less than 1% of the population of Nazi Germany.
How did they succeed in killing 6 million? There was an international conference in Evian, France, in 1934, to discuss what to do about the Jews in Germany and elsewhere. Look it up. Read it and weep. Watch ‘The Sorrow and the Pity’.
3 weeks to flatten the curve. Seems like the right sentence to mention to the guy. Then point out the masks came in in July?June long after he himself had spent months milling about without a mask. Was he doing that because he is a killer?
Yes – I think the normal DM readers are very sceptical. There seems to have been a recent upsurge in new accounts suddenly countering this – but seem to only have the resources to do it on one or two stories, as the others remain 90% sceptical. I think The Fear is growing – cf: the upsurge in emotional stories and attacks on prominent sceptics.
Now we are at the point of having actual data, not speculative models, it is getting very, very hard to hide the truth. Now is the time to push on and redouble our efforts – they have pushed all their resources into this attack, now its time to do a Stalingrad on them and let them burn out the last of their armoury before we counterattack. They can’t kill people in order to keep the rate up, the PCR legal challenges will come in and people are wising up to the failure of the vaccine in stopping transmission. They are scared – and they should be. Careers will be ending.
Not so sure. They did last year by moving people into care homes.
Actually I find the opposite. I generally run about 10:1 pro/against comments I make, and I am not afraid you speak out againstbeither the article or other commenters.
Tim Spector looks through and answers his twitter thread. I wonder if someone with twitter could ask him ‘when do you think you will be able to judge the efficacy of the vaccines now you collect both vaccine and symptom data?’
I’ll pop the question on there later
thanks!
Posted so I’ll give feedback as and when I get it.
great – I do see from his twitter feed that he’s quite busy trying to flog his new fad diet book 😉