Past the Peak?!? That Was Weeks Ago
Chief Medical Adviser Professor Chris Whitty told the Downing Street coronavirus press conference yesterday that the UK is “past the peak” of the current wave. The BBC has the details.
The UK is “past the peak” of the current wave of the pandemic but infection rates are still high, England’s Chief Medical Officer says.
Prof Chris Whitty said the number of cases, hospitalisations and deaths were on a “downward slope” but that did not mean there would not be another peak.
Boris Johnson praised the “colossal” effort to vaccinate 10 million people, including 90% of those aged over 75. But he said the NHS was still under “huge pressure”.
Speaking at a Downing Street briefing, Prof Whitty said while the number of people in hospital with COVID-19 had reduced “quite noticeably”, it was still above that of the first peak in April 2020. “So this is still a very major problem, but it is one that is heading the right way,” he said.
Prof Whitty said infection rates were “coming down but they are still incredibly high”. If the rate was to increase again “from the very high levels we are at the moment the NHS will get back into trouble extraordinarily fast”, he added.
Chris Whitty seems a little late to the party here. Data from the ZOE Covid Symptom App show infections in the UK peaked over three weeks ago, on January 12th, and are now well on the way down.
New daily infections peaked in the first few days of January.
In London, it was the end of December.
The decline continues apace, headed down towards levels not seen since September.
111 Covid triage data agrees.
The peak in the triage data is December 28th. As of February 4th, then, we’re a long way “past the peak”.
Yet despite this clear evidence that the peak and decline in infections kicked in well before the start of the January lockdown, the Government and its advisers continue to assert that it is only the restrictions keeping infections down. This explains why Boris continues to take the go-slow approach to opening up, despite the immense and permanent harm restrictions cause to children, jobs, mental health and so on.
Despite coming under pressure to join Scotland and Wales in opening schools sooner than March, the Prime Minister yesterday reiterated his original schedule, saying he “hoped” schools in England would be able to “begin” reopening from March 8th, and that the Government would outline a “route map” out of lockdown on February 22nd.
Yet the idea that it is Government restrictions that are keeping the virus at bay grows more implausible by the day.
Take a look at the graph below, which shows that the decline in infections from around January 12th kicked in not just in the UK but right across the world, regardless of what non-pharmaceutical interventions governments made or the stage of their vaccination programmes.
While not every country in the world conforms to this pattern, enough do for it to be seen as a global phenomenon. There is no indication here that the UK and South African variants are prolonging the crisis in those countries.
Why the winter (and in some places like South Africa, summer) epidemic went into decline around the same point in mid-January in countries all round the world is not entirely clear, though is likely to be linked to the progress of immunity in the population.
Yet more evidence that it is not primarily human interventions that drive the ebb and flow of this virus.
Stop Press: The Mail has picked up on the global drop, asking “Why ARE coronavirus cases plummeting? New infections have fallen 44% in the US and 30% globally in the past three weeks and experts say vaccine is NOT the main driver because only 8% of Americans and 13% people worldwide have received their first dose“. The main explanation offered by “officials” is population immunity. Another suggestion is the end of the so-called Christmas surge – though even the BBC has pointed out there is no evidence for this idea.
Why Hand Sanitisers Do More Harm Than Good
We’re publishing today a new piece by regular contributor and medical historian Dr Irina Metzler questioning the public health wisdom of all this obsessive germ blitzing. Here’s a taster.
Hand sanitisers, or hand satanisers as I prefer to dyslexise, are as ubiquitous a part of the pandemic as the masks. Unlike the masks, which will cause mainly individual problems (if you wear a mask, you’re restricting your own breathing, not someone else’s), hand sanitiser use at the level we’ve been seeing for the past 10 months is going to become one helluva headache in the none too distant future. That’s because apart from destroying your own, personal microbiome we’ve got a bigger picture to consider.
Antimicrobial resistance across the board had been getting worse already before the pandemic hit. Already in 2018 it was noted that alcohol-based hand sanitisers in particular were turning bacteria into the next level of ‘superbug’, namely VRE (vancomycin resistant enterococci), one of the leading causes of infections in hospitals.
“We have to be careful about this new trend towards heavy reliance on alcohol-based hand sanitisers. Soap and water should be our number-one protection” – both in hospitals and for personal use. The next question is whether the bacteria will continue to evolve and tolerate higher and higher doses of alcohol – or even stop responding entirely. “Is it possible for these organisms to develop complete resistance to alcohol?” These questions were also raised by researchers years before the advent of SARS-CoV-2 and the ubiquitous little bottles of hand gels.
It has a permanent place on our right-hand menu. Worth reading in full.
The Government is Gambling With People’s Lives
In a new piece that we’re publishing today, philosopher Ben Hawkins takes a look at lockdown through the lens of the “trolley problem”. What should you do when faced with a peril for which you are not personally responsible – what is it acceptable for you to sacrifice to try to avert it? Ben explains:
Imagine you are walking across a bridge over a rail line. Suddenly you hear screams coming from under the bridge. You look down and see that four people are tied to the tracks. What’s worse, you look up and see what looks like a runaway train carriage hurtling towards them. The carriage doesn’t look that big – if you could push a large object over the bridge in front of the carriage, you figure that it would be enough to stop the carriage and save the four people tied to the line. Looking around for such an object, you see an incredibly fat man stood at the edge of the bridge. He looks big enough to stop the carriage. Do you push him, knowing that falling from such a height and being hit by the carriage will almost certainly kill him? Do you sacrifice one life, to save four others?
This is an example of a trolley problem, a hypothetical scenario designed by ethicists to examine how we should behave in different situations. The above example is tricky, because whilst we would usually agree that four lives are more important than one life, the positive act of killing someone goes against many of our moral intuitions. Most people, when asked what they would do in this scenario, say they wouldn’t push the fat man.
Such abstract scenarios may seem irrelevant to real life. We certainly never expect to find ourselves in situations like the one described above – we don’t live in a world where people are frequently tied to train tracks, or where runaway train carriages can be stopped by pushing fat men off bridges. But the point isn’t to understand how we would behave in this particular situation, but to understand how we should behave when analogous situations arise in real life. And, in fact, we have such a real life situation to which such considerations can be applied. Lockdown.
Worth reading in full.
Why Face Masks Don’t Protect the Wearer
“Why Face Masks Don’t Work: A Revealing Review of Their Inadequacies” is the title, not as you might think of a recent article by a lockdown sceptic, but a piece written in 2016 by dentist John Hardie in Oral Health magazine. He begins:
For at least three decades a face mask has been deemed an essential component of the personal protective equipment worn by dental personnel. A current article, “Face Mask Performance: Are You Protected” gives the impression that masks are capable of providing an acceptable level of protection from airborne pathogens. Studies of recent diseases such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and the Ebola Crisis combined with those of seasonal influenza and drug resistant tuberculosis have promoted a better understanding of how respiratory diseases are transmitted. Concurrently, with this appreciation, there have been a number of clinical investigations into the efficacy of protective devices such as face masks. This article will describe how the findings of such studies lead to a rethinking of the benefits of wearing a mask during the practice of dentistry. It will begin by describing new concepts relating to infection control especially personal protective equipment (PPE).
Hardie concludes:
The primary reason for mandating the wearing of face masks is to protect dental personnel from airborne pathogens. This review has established that face masks are incapable of providing such a level of protection. Unless the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, national and provincial dental associations and regulatory agencies publicly admit this fact, they will be guilty of perpetuating a myth which will be a disservice to the dental profession and its patients.
It would be beneficial if, as a consequence of the review, all present infection control recommendations were subjected to the same rigorous testing as any new clinical intervention. Professional associations and governing bodies must ensure the clinical efficacy of quality improvement procedures prior to them being mandated. It is heartening to know that such a trend is gaining a momentum which might reveal the inadequacies of other long held dental infection control assumptions.
Prescient, you might think, and depressing that these lessons, of the need for rigorous testing of infection control measures and of the ineffectiveness of masks, were not learned.
Too prescient, it seems. For this article has been taken down from the publisher’s website, with just a note left in its place.
If you are looking for “Why Face Masks Don’t Work: A Revealing Review” by John Hardie, BDS, MSc, PhD, FRCDC, it has been removed. The content was published in 2016 and is no longer relevant in our current climate.
Please note that the content from Oral Health Group is primarily intended to educate and inform dental professionals.
Censorship and erasure of the past to try to shore up the flimsy case for face masks. Not exactly a sign of confidence in the evidence.
Lockdown Sceptics is pleased to make the article available to the public again. You can find it here.
SAGE Admits Masks Do Little to Help
SAGE quietly released a document on January 13th which admits that masks are no protection for the wearer, and though intended to protect others aren’t even very good at that. An independent researcher has taken a closer look for Lockdown Sceptics and explains further.
SAGE released a document in January prepared by a sub-committee, which it endorsed, saying that masks were primarily a source control (cloth and surgical masks are thought to offer the wearer little protection) and citing an estimate for their typical impact on transmission of 6-15% (possibly as high as 45%).
That document says in relation to source control: “Analysis of regional level data in several countries suggest this impact is typically around 6 – 15% (Cowling and Leung, 2020, Public Health England 2021) but could be as high as 45% (Mitze et al., 2020).”
A 6 – 15% reduction seems to be a lot lower than NERVTAG, SAGE and the Government have previously suggested – barely relevant. Moreover, the Cowling & Leung paper says: “While most research on face masks has involved surgical type face masks, it should be presumed that reusable cloth masks could provide similar benefits if they have a sufficient number of layers and preferably a filter.” So the 6 – 15% estimate seems to be for surgical masks. Cloth masks in reality usually have few layers (maybe only one) and no filter. So their effect is likely smaller still.
The Cowling & Leung paper is here. It is an editorial not a research paper in its own right.
The 6 – 15% estimate actually comes from a December 2020 review paper by Brainard et al.
They say: “Conclusion: Wearing face masks may reduce primary respiratory infection risk, probably by 6-15%. It is important to balance evidence from RCTs and observational studies when their conclusions widely differ and both are at risk of significant bias. COVID-19-specific studies are required.” They also say “The environmental and economic costs of regularly using face masks are notable, and only partly abated by reuse.”
Not exactly strong support for wearing masks!
Round-up
- “Capt Tom donations: What was the £33m spent on?” – BBC report explaining it went on snacks, tea breaks and a “well-being wing” for hospital staff. Perhaps some more ICU nurses might have been a better buy…
- “What the latest vaccine news means for lifting lockdown” – Kate Andrews in the Spectator writes that Government worries over ICU occupancy among the under-65s are keeping the brakes on the lockdown easing
- “Rishi Sunak concerned scientists are ‘moving goalposts’ on Covid lockdown” – Camilla Tominey in the Telegraph on the battle within Government to prioritise opening up over eliminating all risk
- “COVID-19 rarely spreads through surfaces. So why are we still deep cleaning?” – Nature feature by Dyani Lewis querying another Covid myth
- “No Hugging, No Kissing” – Latest episode of the GoodFellows podcast from the Hoover Institute where GBD co-author Professor Jay Bhattacharya joins John H. Cochrane, Niall Ferguson, H.R. McMaster and Bill Whalen to talk Covid and the future
- “Immunity & COVID-19” – New briefing note from the British Society for Immunology that is worth bookmarking
- “The Pandemic That Changed Nothing” – Left wing criticism of lockdown policy by Leila Mechoui and Alexander Davidson on the Bellows for how it penalises workers and benefits the wealthy
- “Move over, Dictator Dan: Marshal Mark is the new laughable Lord of the Lockdown” – Rocco Loiacono in Spectator Australia on the new tyrant in town
- “Coronavirus: no going back to normal” – Disturbing report from the Institute for Government by Bronwen Maddox arguing that “life after coronavirus will not feel like life before. It is best that Governments acknowledge that and start planning now… while not raising expectations that life will suddenly snap back to an almost forgotten normal”
- “Gab Lockdown Sceptics” – Join the new group here
- “Covid-19 pandemic causes a global democracy slump” – The 2020 edition of the Economist‘s Democracy Index finds the average global score fell from 5.44 to 5.37 – the worst score since the index began in 2006. And still pretty generous I would say
- “HS2 contractors to use social distancing hard hats” – Report from Construction Enquirer that a contractor on the project is to issue workers with hard hats that sound an alarm if they get too near each other
- “Understanding the drivers of transmission of SARS-CoV-2” – Comment piece in the Lancet by Laura Cornelissen and Emmanuel André expounding a study that confirms infectiousness is predicted by viral load and thus asymptomatic infection is not a major driver of transmission. They also note (with a hint of embarrassment) that mask-wearing has no relationship to risk of transmission
- “Californians Disapprove of Gov. Lockdown” – James Freeman in the Wall Street Journal on a new survey that indicates why Governor Gavin Newsom is now trying to reopen fast
- “Northern Ireland NHS cancels 4,000+ red flag cancer patients” – BBC reports on yet more collateral damage from the anti-Covid measures
- “No evidence of change in symptoms from new coronavirus variant” – Report from King’s College London drawing on ZOE app data confirming there are no significant differences in symptoms, severity or duration of disease from the Kentish variant
- “Dear Captain Tom: Rest in peace – not applause” – Emily Hill says he deserves more respect than this virtue signalling festival
- “UK seeing a ‘lack of appetite’ for regaining freedoms” – Brendan O’Neill tells Sky News Australia host Chris Kenny he’s worried about the “unwillingness of society to say ‘listen freedom is important and we need an actual date for when it’s going to be returned to us’”
Theme Tunes Suggested by Readers
Eight today: “Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow” by Fleetwood Mac, “Strange Days” by the Doors, “Strange Town” by the Jam, “Ghost Town” by The Specials, “Enough is enough” by Donna Summer/Barbara Streisand, “What a fool believes” by Doobie brothers, “Know Your Rights” by The Clash and “Where Did All The Good Times Go” by Donnie Osmond.
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 Lockdown Sceptics 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.
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: The US Federal Government is stepping up its mask requirements with new, stricter rules on public transport – which in America includes giving someone a lift. Breitbart News has the details.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) latest order, requiring individuals to wear masks when using public transportation or residing in transportation hubs, will be “further enforced by other federal authorities”, the agency announced in its order, which went into effect this week.
Under the order, individuals are required to wear masks while using public transportation, which includes “awaiting, boarding, disembarking, or traveling on airplanes, ships, ferries, trains, subways, buses, taxis, and ride-shares as they are traveling into, within, or out of the United States and U.S. territories”, per the CDC.
There are exemptions, but they are not generous, and notably children of three and up do not escape.
The order exempts those under the age of two, as well as individuals with certain disabilities. Individuals are also not required to wear a mask while eating or drinking “for brief periods of time” or communicating “for brief periods of time” with someone who is hearing impaired.
The CDC also specifies that individuals do not have to wear a mask if unconscious “for reasons other than sleeping”, or if they are “incapacitated, unable to be awakened, or otherwise unable to remove the mask without assistance”.
The order also permits those who are “experiencing difficulty breathing or shortness of breath or are feeling winded” to remove the mask “temporarily until able to resume normal breathing with the mask”.
“Persons who are vomiting should remove the mask until vomiting ceases,” the order states.
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.
Scottish Church leaders from a range of Christian denominations have launched legal action, supported by the Christian Legal Centre against the Scottish Government’s attempt to close churches in Scotland for the first time since the the Stuart kings in the 17th century. The church leaders emphasised it is a disproportionate step, and one which has serious implications for freedom of religion.” Further information available here.
There’s the class action lawsuit being brought by Dr Reiner Fuellmich and his team in various countries against “the manufacturers and sellers of the defective product, PCR tests”. Dr Fuellmich explains the lawsuit in this video. Dr Fuellmich has also served cease and desist papers on Professor Christian Drosten, co-author of the Corman-Drosten paper which was the first and WHO-recommended PCR protocol for detection of SARS-CoV-2. That paper, which was pivotal to the roll out of mass PCR testing, was submitted to the journal Eurosurveillance on January 21st and accepted following peer review on January 22nd. The paper has been critically reviewed here by Pieter Borger and colleagues, who have also submitted a retraction request.
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
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And Finally…
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First.
Second.
Third
This is outrageous…
Nigel Farage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKa0q4Xh_Ds
I have been drawing attention to Napier Barracks and other such camps for some time. You won’t believe what’s happened now…
Write to Priti Patel, the Home Secretary here: withammp@parliament.uk
when the whole ship is sinking and going under, I think we hardly need to worry that a few deluded morons have decided to climb aboard…..that is so yesterday’s news
They may well be used as useful morons, in some specific role….
Could be tomorrow’s news.
Beware the media distraction
The Hydroxychloroquine coverup
https://rumble.com/vdibv5-the-hydroxychloroquine-coverup.html
As far as I’m concerned everyone that helped cover up the hydroxychloroquine story is guilty of murder. Thousands of people could have been cured and instead died
vv
Doctors and Nurses Giving the Covid-19 Vaccine Will Be Tried as War Criminals
https://brandnewtube.com/watch/doctors-and-nurses-giving-the-covid-19-vaccine-will-be-tried-as-war-criminals_7tNEBnZogbdlEXu.html
In recent months, Dr Coleman’s videos have been targeted by trolls spreading lies, libels and misinformation and because of this, Dr Coleman has had to disable comments. We hope you understand.
In an emotional video, Dr Vernon Coleman MB ChB DSc FRSA, explains why doctors and nurses giving the covid-19 vaccine will be tried as war criminals.
For more unbiased information about other important matters, please visit http://www.vernoncoleman.com
„I was only following orders“
“I was only following profit”.
Oh sorry, that’s the faceless crooks in big pharma who have been pushing all this.
The poor man has spent the best part of 50 years trying to bring the corrupt medical establishment to account. He is visibly distraught in this video but a comment made elsewhere was ‘why take any notice of what he says as he is a fruitcake!’ Is he, is he really? Maybe, just maybe there is a grain of truth in what he says.
More than a grain I venture.
“Being in a minority, even in a minority of one, did not make you mad. There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad.” George Orwell – “1984″
No medals for 1st here, we’re all winners at st lockdown sceptics.
Hear hear! But the Race to the Top always makes me smile.
Well, sort-of, actually of course we are all (except the politicians and super-rich) losers in the UK (and most of the West)!
Speak for yourself, guy.
Excellent edition today. Great articles. Thanks to the team.
TESCO https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/13.0.1/svg/1f92c.svg “Leave 2 Kids Outside” @ Single Mother
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yc77ZYjHRLM
Alex Belfield – THE VOICE OF REASON
231K subscribers
This is breathtaking!
Katie Hopkins: Beware the media distraction
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPClrAElg9g
Remember the good old days when social services would take your kids away for that. Now actively instructed by a supermarket
Just shows how poorly trained and poorly paid staff are more hazardous to one’s health more than a virus.
They are in-fucking-sane and this just needs to stop, and now.
I can’t believe people still buy this crap and support lockdowns, with some idiots wanting more stricter lockdowns
Global Warming Is a Lie, Scientist Reveals (See Proof)
https://w3.ultimatewealthreport.com/Finance/ULT/LP/UWR-Dark-Winter?ns_mail_uid=f3e940a5-4bbb-41f0-8c78-54dff30e0933&ns_mail_job=DM187984_02032021&s=acs&dkt_nbr=010101a0vjx1
Hmmm well no “global warming” is a fact, it has been warming for the last 15,000yrs. Anthropogenic global warming is a much more contentious argument. I’m halfway between the 2. We may be adding a tiny fraction to it but doesn’t justify the alarmism of the speculative modellers.
As I said last night you get the research & conclusions you pay for.
My 11 year old is of the same view, despite the attempted brainwashing of the education system and the bbc. He’s of a scientific bent, and knows when something doesn’t stack up.
Your comment about your son has cheered me up enormously!
nullius in verba. An enquiring mind, the way science should be practised.
Lockdowns mate, not global warming, wokes, whatever they are, or any other right/left tosh. Lockdown scepticism!!! Got it?
The Greenhouse Effect is nonsense because higher levels in the atmosphere cannot re-radiate thermal energy back to earth as they are colder than the earth’s surface. This would contradict the second law of thermodynamics.
‘The Sky Dragon Slayers: Victory Lap’ by George Chilingar (Author), Derek Alker (Author), John O’Sullivan (Editor)
Yes indeed, a robust approach and good material, far better than the recent tosh.
Here are some interesting recent links on global warming:
The latest pause in global warming has lasted for 5 years and 6 months:
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/02/03/the-new-pause-lengthens-from-5-years-4-months-to-5-years-6-months/
The failure of climate models to predict global temperatures – they substantially overestimate by a factor of almost 3x:
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/02/02/climate-model-failure/
How the temperature data is manipulated – almost a perfect correlation between adjustments to the surface temperature record made and the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/02/03/the-shocking-climate-graph-climateofgavin-doesnt-want-you-to-see/
Yes, much better but still on about cases and covid symptoms which are the same as flu symptoms
Hear, hear!
The ability to believe what it is in one’s interests to believe and call it science has been starkly revealed by the responses to the coronavirus. For months Chris Whitty, the UK government’s senior medical advisor, expressed the view that there was no benefit from wearing face masks by general population. In June the government changed its policy and mandated face masks on public transport. It subsequently extended this to indoor public spaces generally. Whitty was asked by the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee for the evidence for this reversal. He told the Committee: “The data have not changed. What changed was our interpretation.” This one example is illustrative of how “the science” has been exploited as a rhetorical device. The responses to the virus are pseudoscience. The status of science is invoked to provide policy decisions with a specious authority that is beyond challenge. Of course should anyone present a serious credible critique that might influence a significant audience, they are immediately simply censored and denounced. No one is allowed to challenge the narrative. Anyone who does challenge the narrative is labelled as mad, bad and dangerous. This demonising of critical voices allows the supporters of the… Read more »
Sounds remarkably like the Catholic Church’s historical response to heresy, particularly the Lollards and the Protestant Reformers. OK, dear sceptic, I know that if you are godless then the entire Reformation upheaval will appear to be eggs in moonshine, but that only makes the parallel with the present bollox even closer. The persecutors of today have no more backing from hard, objective truth than the persecutors of the sixteenth century.
One consolation emerges. The Protestant view eventually triumphed in Britain, and the erstwhile persecutors, with a few exceptions, immediately espoused it, though ready to swing back the instant it became unprofitable. There’s a story, in Foxe I think, of an interrogator who asked a heretic who had taught him such damnable doctrine. ‘Why, my Lord, you did,’ replied the heretic, with perfect truth.
Give Whitless and Co. a bit of time and they will be proclaiming the exact opposite of what they are proclaiming now, because to them it’s not science, and it’s not religion: it’s what keeps their skins whole, their influence on the powers-that-be irresistible, their pockets full, and their foul faces on TV.
There’s an old song “The Vicar of Bray” in which the vicar changes his views in accordance with the prevailing orthodoxy through its various phases.
And whatsoever ‘science’ may reign,
SAGE will continue to bray, Sir.
Watch this, Annie… says EXACTLY that
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cUfQFs7P5po
that particular Church, I understand, is now very cautious about making such pronouncements, and declaring an opinion on scientific matters whilst it is a matter of debate among scientists – it has still not condemned (neo) Darwinism, for example. And now, of course they are instead accused of moving very slowly.
just because they stick the label ‘science’ on it does not make it any less tosh. Tosh called by any other name doth stink as foul…
We should always remember that when asked if there was any scientific basis for the muzzling, Wancock himself admitted that the mandate was more to convince the scared to go out and about. So no concern about the side effects of wearing masks but simply trying to carry on with the scaremongering.
From day one in the sage meetings minutes they talk about keeping fear levels high to ensure compliance. You don’t have to convince everyone. Just the gobby know nothing twitter brigade and the mumsnet granny savers. They will keep everything in order because if you disagree you “dissappear”. In the good old days of oppressed regimes this was literally, now its only virtually. Whatever way you look at it you are silenced and it stops others expressing their opinion.
When the shit does eventually hit the fan and we are pointing fingers these people will play the I was only doing what the government said. Its really, really important we never let this happen. Otherwise this will be happening every year.
It was also the start of active persecution of the non-compliant. Remember Fetida Dick encouraging the zombies to set upon people with faces?
The evidence was fixed around the policy. – Some UK Govt dude regarding the premeditated war of aggression against Iraq.
John Scarlett head of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) was charged with providing the evidence for justifying the invasion of Iraq. In this role Scarlett worked closely with Blair’s right hand conman Alastair Campbell, who made sure that the JIC chief actually came up with ‘the goods’.
Excellent post.
‘Anyone who does challenge the narrative is labelled as mad, bad and dangerous.’
Indeed. And of course, they’re addressing a mirror. It’s a self-appraisal at this point.
‘This demonising of critical voices allows the supporters of the narrative to represent themselves as morally and intellectually superior, creating a vested interest in continuing to believe in the narrative, creating belief that is impervious to evidence and reason.’
Exactly, and the muddled masses strut around parroting this absurd pseudoscience, pointing the finger and shouting down calm, rational unbelievers and calling for them to be burned at the stake. We are experiencing a New Inquisition.
Fantastic post. You’ve nailed it down.
Thinking I might just title the book: The Madness of Whitty
Didn’t some people in Germany’s National Socialist regime of 1933-1945 claim to be following the science? Didn’t the likes of dr Mengele claim to ber doing serious medical research?
Didn’t these types used to try and persuade psychiatrists to define people who disagreed with them as mad (or words to that effect)?
And didn’t the pharmaceutical industry (I. G. Farben?) play a disreputable part in that regime?
I suppose its an improvement on yesterday, still had a picture of an irritating old man that made me want to put my fist through the screen. I’m both reluctant & saddened to say the graphs at least upon first glance do seem to show lockdown having an affect (if you believe the stats aren’t manipulated, i don’t). A more infectious variant surely isn’t the reason for the bactrian double hump? Do seasonal infectious diseases behave like this. Surely if its “highly” infectious then it would sweep through the country quicker & be all over, unless something prevents its spread? The only reason its likely to reappear is because of the delaying factor of lockdown & no one can seriously be suggesting we stay in lockdown forever. No i’m NOT advocating or defending lockdowns, life should be measured in quality not quantity. Never used hand sanitiser I actually think its more harmful than masks & its pretty bloody obvious inhibiting your the intake of oxygen isn’t beneficial to an air breathing mammal! I’m all for nature, shock horror, I don’t even use shampoo, your body has evolved to coexist quite healthily without man made chemicals. No your hair doesn’t smell… Read more »
Told ya there was plenty of woke gobbledygook about Church of England clergyman apologises after saying clapping for
Capt Sir Tom Mooreold propagandist was ‘cult of white British nationalism’ No it was just covidian worship.That is indeed a beauty. Gobbledygook squared. And exactly what one would expect from the Zombie Pseudochurch.
If the CofE had saints, Captain Dupe would now be undergoing the fastest canonisation in ecclesiastical history. Maybe, in his holy shrine, they would paint his face white, black, brown and yellow, in stripes.
He’s already a secular saint. I walk past a 25-foot mural of the man every time I go to Sainsburys.
He could even beat the record of Catholics under JP 2 canonising saints as if they were off a conveyor belt. A practise that Benedict put a stop to.
Tell yer wot. Instead of horrible zombie leaders, let’s all send in a Consoling Picture to head a day’s issue. We could even feature a photo competition. Let’s have some fun. Or let’s choose beautiful and inspiring landscapes. Somebody, I forget who (sorry) posted some beauties BTL a while back..
Good idea. They should reveal the horror of the msm slowly to us, this time of day.
No unessential sitting!
Mask?????
There is usually a bactrian double hump in winter: one for Influenza A then other for Influenza B. There will also be ones for Beta-coronaviruses and Alpha-coronaviruses. Flu has of course been reclassified as a Beta-coronavirus infection now. If we ignore Covid then it looks fairly normal if a little earlier than normal.
No, the graphs don’t show lockdown working. Cases and deaths are falling almost everywhere, including in no-lockdown Sweden. Cases of an infectious disease don’t just rise forever in the absence of human intervention. There are many natural causes that have far more of an impact.
Did you know there are people out there who actually believe that the government are doing the right thing?
Did you know that there are people out there who have done no independent research and believe everything the government says?
I think that is one of the worst things about this. We have to live in a society with people who think this is all a reasonable response.
How can we trust anyone again?
I very much doubt this as the majority of people who apparently believe the government line know very little of what government ministers and their experts have actually said. Rather than believing everything the government says, it seems they believe the headlines/soundbites of the corporate media.
A fair correction.
But a distinction without a difference just now.
Yes indeed.
Very true, the headlines are what stick in people’s minds, even when they’re not an accurate summary of the story below.
‘If you’re doing nothing wrong then you’ve nothing to worry about.’
Yeah.
Everything I do is wrong according to them because I support the many little people not the rich few!
It makes no sense. I have a friend who’s always hated the tories because of his grandfathers views even though he’s benefitted immensely from Tory policies since Thatcherism. He’s never believed a word they’ve said in the past, but for the last year he’s been hung on every diktat and stat.
The odd thing is many of the most rabid lockdownistas I know have a hatred of Johnson & the Tories that’s verging on the pathological and deranged.
You would have thought they would be fighting all this tooth & nail. Instead they’re the biggest cheerleaders.
What other position can they take when their Great White Hope, the Kneeler is even more rabid than Fat Boy and his chums/controllers.
Shared statist mindset. A low opinion of the plebs and a belief that central levers can be pulled from the control room and these will somehow translate the wish into fact via some mass cattle prod.
Yep. It’s the inner authoritarian showing – it’s for their own good and I know best.
Also that anyone would think there is actually a tracking device in it. When we voice concerns that the vaccine is a control mechanism, people take it literally.
While not suggesting there are tracking devices in the current round of unnecessary “vaccines”, there are no sensible grounds for ruling them out. If not now, they will nevertheless be here before too long.
An in body in tracking device is not at all outlandish, when we consider the overall enormity of the current corona scam and the tracking of our every move is certainly one of the globalists aims. Also it makes the headlong rush to roll out the dangerous and unneeded 5G much more understandable.
And yet government ministers and advisers have repeatedly asserted that even when vaccinated one has to follow all the rules.
Indeed, people are just conveniently not hearing this. Why?
I suspect it is because they are not paying attention, and just hear the headlines/soundbites and the emotional tone and have a tendency to make stuff up to fill in the gaps. Apparently, the general public know almost nothing about the virus. For example, on average people believe that seven percent of the population have died of Covid 19. Another example is that bookings for holidays in the UK are at record levels even though going on holiday is currently illegal and listening to ministers and their experts there is no reason to assume the law will be repealed anytime soon.
I agree, and I most certainly don’t understand the enthusiasm people have for booking holidays under the current circumstances. If 2020 was anything to go by, there are going to be an awful lot of people fighting to recover their deposits from the airlines and tour operators in a few months time. (I wonder how many of this year’s bookings are actually people who were encouraged to accept vouchers after last year’s cancellations, and were told in January that they had to use them or lose them?)
Why the hell should we take experimental ‘vaccines’ which only ease symptoms when instead we could take ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine which are proven to be safe, cheap and effective in protecting against and treating early stage Covid? Maybe the reason is that word ‘cheap.’
Though maybe the reason is depopulation.
Well there’s provably about 10 million of them in this country – minus those blackmailed into the vax by their employers (there’s doubtless some of them already) and those not mentally competent to make the decision for themselves (eg through dementia) and someone has made that decision for them and differently to the one they themselves would have made all else being equal.
I don’t suppose someone like that would even care if it was known what they were thinking and feeling even – and so not even any privacy within their own head.
they might start to care when they find they can’t go on holiday this summer.
It will be our fault! I have just met someone in town who asked us if we’d had our vaccines yet. I said I would never have one. She said it there were a lot of people who thought like me we will all be killed (by covid). FFS this is how they think. They can’t even think that they have had the ‘vaccine ‘ so they will be saved allejulah and leave us alone.
I think my answer would be if this was true, why are we not all dead? We have lived with this for over a year. Why is everyone who works in a supermarket not dead. From Feb to July. Height of the pandemic, no masks, no plastic screens, all sneezing and coughing over the goods. How can they still be able to carry on working and more to the point why did none of them die. Hardly the zombie apocalypse is it?
It’s the same poison propaganda as applies to face knickers. I can force you to comply because you’re doing it for ME ME ME, not for yourself.
“are you saved”?
now where have i heard that before?
Did you know there are governments out there who trust that their people will not (can not) independently research? Infantilism demands and parental prison provides. This arrested development has deeper causes that rational thinking in either its fearful ‘children’ or controlling ‘parents’. Fear and control are two sides of one coin or false currency. That you cant join with lies is an honesty of being that is made clear to your awareness of such in others as a deeply disturbing experience. Fear – if not faced and lived through – splits the mind. I regard this observation as spiritual or integrative awareness – because it is not merely thinking about, but directly present as the willingness to be with what is to the recognition of what is true, rather than mask in ‘protections’ from what is truly going on under narrative illusion seeking reinforcement. I hold that learning to trust ourselves, rather than think ourselves into narrative identity, is what spirituality is and does, and nothing to do with ‘spouting beliefs’ or wearing our heart on our sleeve as signalling for social virtue or indeed for anti-anything virtue. The capacity to accept our self where we are now with what… Read more »
“Nothing to hide, nothing to fear” was a phrase launched into the public’s minced-up minds by that slimy evil bastard Michael Howard when he was Home Secretary under that other slimy bastard John Major.
This bit of brainwashing was used to persuade the sheeple that we needed CCTV camera’s EVERYWHERE in the UK.
The sheeple lapped it up.
I always explain that I have heaps to hide. Not because I’m doing anything illicit, just naturally furtive.
Have you tried counting all the spy cameras in your town centre?
Take forever.
are those the ones that have had no discernible effect on crime?
I considered sending a bunch of links to the very nice lady from Waitrose customer services who listened to my (polite) rant about sanitizers and how it affects people with allergies yesterday.
We now know so much more, but big businesses, I guess because govt has not changed their message, has not moved on.
Big business is a big part of government.
https://dailyexpose.co.uk/2021/01/30/investigation-100k-covid-deaths/
The above article uses Office for National Statistics data to effectively demonstrate the falsity of the reported Covid 19 death figures. The analysis clearly shows:
Great link thanks
Thanks — so 5 yr Dec average of flu-resp-pneum dead is over 11K. But in Dec 2020 only 1.1 K died from these causes…..and the fake news and covidiots say what? Flu was cured from the diapers? But the other categories are the same. 5 yr Dec month avg for Dementia – 28K dead. But only 5 K in Dec 2020….did the diapers cure Dementia?
Actually I did similar analysis. The ONS data for Dementia+Alz is wrong….28 K do not die in December from Dem+Alz it is more like 5.000. So you need to understand that some of their data sets are inaccurate. Heart disease all varieties, as well is inaccurate. So some of the numbers in this article are incorrect. I had the same issue. Flu +resp dead are accurate. But the other categories are not – if you add up their table for Dec 2020 you come to 120 K dead that month which is 40K above normal figures, so does not add up.
So if the Office for National Statistics death figures (which are collated from death certificates) what source do you prefer?
Yes. The argument is starkly clear: most ‘covid’ deaths are mis-attributed illnesses from other cause of known prevalence that just ‘vanished’ in the 2020 death numbers. ‘Known prevalence’ is the proof. The absence of evidence is…. the ‘evidence of absence [of true covid deaths]’: death numbers are the one thing that cannot be hidden (or inflated) in this exercise. The authorities know this.. they know we [a rump] know this.. they know that we know that they know… It’s the general public that they are relying on to not pick this up.
…. it is indeed the ‘Crime of the Century’
Excellent. Just sent link to Sir Graham Brady.
This from the BBC’s report on Tom Dupe’s misspent millions.
“For Cath [ a nurse] the hardest part of the pandemic has been caring for patients cut off from their families. Initially staff used their own mobile phones so patients – especially the elderly ones – could, in some cases, say their final goodbyes. Now the wards have iPads, bought with the appeal money.”
You can say good-bye to a dying relative via an iPad.
Thank you soooooo much, Captain Dupe.
Did you say good-bye via an iPad, Captain Dupe?
Grrrrr……….
Sorry just the thought of this BS makes me steam.
Yes, I started reading the BBC report too. First 2 examples of spending of money raised was on pop up cafes and shops to allow nurses to get snacks and coke (the picture showed the results of this diet)! No wonder the NHS is struggling if this is thought the best use of the money.
At the hospital where my wife works, there was a similar initiative to provide IPads to enable relatives to keep in touch with Covid patients during the Spring 2020 initial Covid crisis. During the summer, when the virus seemed to have gone away, so had all the IPads. Apparently, no-one had bothered to record who had received them, and sure as hell, no-one was keen to bring them back! (This is Yorkshire, after all.)
Some place local to me where nurses hang out (may be a vaccination centre or a testing centre, I don’t know and don’t care) put out an appeal on a local community facebook page for ‘sandwiches and snacks to be donated to them on a daily basis as there were no canteen facilities and there wasn’t enough food provided when management ordered supplies from outside caterers’. Diddums.
I’m sorry and call me old-fashioned but is there some problem in suggesting that NHS staff might like to consider bringing in their own food. I worked for the civil service for nearly 25 years and, apart from the occasional conference catering, staff were responsible for supplying their own sustenance however they saw fit.
Sooooo. ‘cases’ deaths and infections are pretty much all down in the same fashion all over the world.
Perhaps because it isn’t a ‘natural’ virus after all?
When a virus can spread as fast in hot countries as it does in cold ones then something is a bit amiss.
I doubt it’s even a virus, natural or otherwise. it’s pure propaganda: a Big Fat Lie, the Biggest Fattest Lie the world has ever seen
It didn’t do that
In response to the objective Swedish success some people are saying Anders Tegnell (the greatest public health leader in the world) was fired. Does anybody know if this is true?
As far as I know he is alive and well! And continuing to do a great job. This man deserves a Nobel prize for sticking to his guns despite the enormous pressures put upon him.
Think that was just msm wishful thinking.
As noted above, it appears that the reductions in the levels of COVID 19 are now becoming so apparent that even Chris Whitty has noticed. Of course they claim credit for this due to lockdowns, and the latest one was so effective that the virus clearly got scared as it started to disappear in London and the South East a few days before the lockdown even started ! Even Boris may soon see the blindingly obvious and possibly let schools back before 8 March, but let’s not set ourselves unrealistic expectations, after all 17 people of school age (5-19) died of COVID last year. Looking back, the hysteria over a virus that’s raised the death rate by under 0.1% of the population and 85% of the dead were over 75 is stunning. My guess is that, over the coming months, we will find many people who agree with what we have been saying for the past year and believe they always did – the capacity for self delusion is always surprising. Which brings me on to an article in the FT magazine this weekend: ‘How we fool ourselves’. The article covers an ‘emperor has no clothes’ type hysteria in the 1930s… Read more »
Dear Lawrence, you are talking sense.It’s a dangerous thing to do in Zombie Britain.
There are still such things as gridirons, you know.
A tremendously clear summation. You cannot control truth anymore than a virus. Time will out. The tide is certainly turning.
Tide turning? I’ve lost count of the times we have said that. The tide of stupid is still flowing strongly, alas.
Just stick it out.
The tide comes in and out everyday.Thats how I have felt about this whole manufactured crisis.Some days up and some days when I cannot see a way out.
The governments own dodgy figures are falling so they are reduced to going door to door to try to generate some more like a desperate double glazing salesman.
That is a cause for optimism but they have a lot more variants to go through.
A fair point but a chancellor leaking concerns of economy over CV is a new frontier. However small the progress it is progress. Suggests there is burgeoning mass of MPs beneath to give requisite confidence. Maybe. Maybe
Maybe King Boris can control the tide…
The trouble is most people lead by the frighteningly deranged Hancock have their fingers in their ears and are chanting ‘vaccine, vaccine vaccine’. To my mind SARS-Cov2 is not really much better or worse than the range of human respiratory disease viruses.
What it does seem to have done is in this age of social media and celebrity it has managed to establish itself as the ‘Kim Kardashian’ of the virus world. vacuous and of little more real consequence than anything else but with a tremendous PR ability, doing very little but managing to scare the bejeezus out of a public whose points of reference are Strictly Come Dancing and the Kim Kardashian show. And we have been ‘lead’ into this by a P.M. who came to public fame by appearing on a TV comedy panel show. No wonder our response to all this has been conducted like the script for an over the top TV soap opera.
But where do we go from here? what can we do? I am afraid at this point I run out of ideas?
My inclination is to stuff the zombies full of snake oil and hope they start to act like something approximating to human beings, because lots of them still believe that the snake oil will enable them to do just that.
I’m beginning to WANT the zombies to take the vaccine simply to shut them up because I now feel such contempt for their stupidity, if it made them dissolve before my eyes I would almost cheer. Not very Christian, I admit.
The masses are kept happy by bribe money and Netflix. The former isn’t going to last any longer and there’s only so much Bridgerton crap they can take.
Don’t forget too that the largest cheerleaders for this lockdown are those still on cushy well paid jobs and those with generous pension schemes. When redundancy & bankruptcy catches up with them they will have no choice but to wake up.
Precisely! Beer and circuses. You are a poster that always talks sense imo.
The greatest supporters of continued school lockdowns are those sufficiently well paid to be able to afford to pay moonlighting teachers for personal tuition for their own brats.
Indeed and even teachers have been paid all through out this shit show.
The trolley problem article suggests that the government cannot lift restrictions or stop inflating the numbers until many more people have sadlidied than their predictions show will die due to lockdown.
Yes we knew that 105000 people would die due to lockdown but 200000(more?) people died of the virus.
My blood ran cold reading that article. The author was arguing for the release of lockdown but if the Government releases it now then the “colateral” damage is too high.
Excellently put. I don’t know how anyone with a reasonable IQ could read that and not at least start to doubt what they have been told.
“if you compare the famously no lockdown Brazil” Where does this come from? With the exception of Rondonia and Roraima every other Brazilian state has seen lockdowns. Our famously gobshite president might be vocally anti-lockdown but the supreme court passed the decisions on Covid measures to the individual state governors, much like the USA. Bolsonaro can say whatever he wants, he has NO power to do anything. Here in São Paulo we went into lockdown a week before the UK, to flatten the curve and protect the health service (sound familiar?). We haven’t been out of lockdown since. Schools might reopen next week, but the teachers union is in court trying to block that, sitting at home on full salary is so much easier. Yesterday our governor decreed that shopping centres can open at weekends with capacity limits and other measures in place. Masks are mandatory, no exemptions. https://g1.globo.com/sp/sao-paulo/noticia/2021/02/03/governo-de-sp-suspende-endurecimento-da-quarentena-aos-finais-de-semana-e-no-periodo-noturno.ghtml It’s in Portuguese but it’s pretty self explanatory. We have suffered the same problems with lockdowns as the UK, mass unemployment, bankrupt businesses, and more families living on the streets. The auxiliary Covid payments and the local version of the furlough ended in December, and our unemployment benefit is for a… Read more »
Great post. Just one small quibble, don’t expect Boris to see the light, ever.
of course there were also people who should have known better who believed in the Cottingley fairies. And the Piltdown fraud.
It is, of course, the same today.
One phrase jumped out at me from the Beeb’s report about cancelled cancer ops. ‘Colonic cancer’. I react to that because my mother died of colonic csncer. She was 61, with a happy marriage, a host of hobbies and interests, and was looking forward keenly to a productive retirement.
Colonic cancer kills and it kills fast. Two months from diagnosis to death, in my mother’s case. Only the fastest possible intervention can offer the slightest hope.
To refuse such intervention, when it might save a life, is murder.
Whose life is more valuable, eh? My mother’s, or that of some stooge who just MIGHT get ill from Covid?
We have been used to being treated as children these last 10 months,now we are being treated as infants.
“Being coughed over can increase your chances of catching infections!!!”
Now let me think?
When I want to walk, now do I put my left leg first or would it be my right leg?, Difficult decision??
Ah, but can you tell the difference between an arm and a leg?
Left or right??
Don’t confuse an old man, Annie.
At the bottom of my back, I’ve got an elbow
Don’t worry Annie. At the end of this we’ll all be so poor we’ll not have an arm or leg to stand on.
Miss, miss, Billy keeps doing the okey cokey!
Next we’ll be treated as pets, then just livestock, theres no denying many have been well & truly domesticated.
Any chance of a bonio?
We’ve been treated like children for years now… creeping infantilisation has come from America, where people have been in linguistic arrested development for most of my life.
American English is full of infantile euphemisms, and we know that our lexicon circumscribes our higher order thoughts.
I’ve come to the conclusion over recent years that USA has poisoned the well of the Anglosphere irreversibly.
Anyone on here following the progress of Michael O’Bernicias PCP against the Gov? I did notice yesterday on his main post that ‘apparently’ Sky actually filmed Captain Tom Moore having his ‘vaccination’ a few days before he died and it is now being denied. I would find this complete ‘cover up’ hard to believe as many people would have been present from cameramen to Sir Toms family. But then again there is a complete media blackout on anything adverse reaction related. And more and people are picking up on the correlation between the vaccine roll-out and the near 50% spike in all cause mortality of the over 50s. Interesting to see how this plays out.
Family denies that Tom took the magic vaxx. Apparently he was too old and frail.
It makes sense politically as well. Don’t you think that the Tomster would have been right up there with the 91 going on 61 yr old Irishwoman and the Bard of Warks getting his jab pour encourager les autres?
Yes. I find it hard to believe that he went to Barbados, whilst as fit and healthy as a 100 year old can expect to be, a couple of days before Christmas and two weeks after the fanfare of the first jabs, and we are supposed to believe that he hadn’t been given the jab. Doesn’t ring true to me, unless he himself had the sense to refuse it.
During the miners’ strike in 1984 the corporate media reported that the miners had attacked the police at Orgreave. The broadcast media showed film of it as the lead news item. The representation was completely false. Yet it took a decade before the corporate media was prepared to present the true story.
A comment here a few days ago suggested Moore was given the jab, but when searching recently no news can be found. The same as your post suggests.
Archive.org?
https://web.archive.org/web/20210115104151/https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9149803/JANET-STREET-PORTER-Im-not-afford-fly-Dubai-jab.html
Philosophy Phursday
Big Think: Camus on why accepting absurdity is the start of a fruitful life.
https://bigthink.com/culture-religion/camus-fruitful-revolt
I’m instinctively resistant to Camus, but I cannot honestly say I think he’s wrong.
News from the BBC.Pic and mix vaccines on the way.Its being trialled to see if a mixture of different vaccines for each dose work.As the science bends to fit government policy then we can expect it to happen soon.
The news yesterday was that the vaccine second dose is just as effective after 3 months which exactly mirrors government policy on that too.
“As the science bends to fit government policy” – it stops being science, is the new voodoo!
Science ceased on March 23 2020
A valid point, although I would suggest James Hansen’s testimony to congress in June 1988 as a contender.
Reminds me of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead:
Ros. Consistency is all I ask.
Guil. Give us this day our daily mask.
‘and forgive us our asymptomatic spreading, as we forgive those who spread and murder against us….and lead us not to rational thought….but deliver us from freedom’
There was an article in the Torygraph this morning which said they were going to trial these mix-and-match vaccines on young people. Unfortunately it has been removed from the site. Possibly because of comments saying pointless as virus barely affects young and other issues.
Did it give a reason for this approach? Can’t fathom why you would mess around with treatments like this if you think the existing protocols ‘work’. Surely it is just another waste of time and money to add to the pile?
Doesn’t AIDS treatment mix and match different anti-virals to increase the effect? I have no medical knowledge whatsoever and not sure if this works for “vaccines” as opposed to treatments but maybe they are hoping for a similar effect, I recall that many amateur cyclists I knew used to mix aspirin, caffeine and decongestants for a barely legal and pretty crazy pre competition boost, each working to enhance the other.
I heard on Planet Rock news about pick and mix jabs. I think they said 800 people. Did not hear very well as I was swearing at the previous item. Sorry.
They don’t need to do trials. They just do what they like anyway.
Exactly so.
Slightly harder hitting update today, though it’s a shame that the lead article uses the word “wave”, mirroring Whitty. Isn’t it settled science that in general viruses don’t do waves?
Love the Daily Mail being puzzled over how come covid “cases” are dropping in many places, and their desperation to find explanations that fit the narrative
I’d wondered why they’d softened us up over ‘asymptomatic’ spread … because isn’t that what the ‘vaccines’ will do? Suppress symptoms, but not suppress – or, rather, encourage – spread?
A glimmer of hope?
The Mail reports that Rishi Sunak is stirring into action and accusing SAGE etc of moving the goalposts………… it’s the economy stupid.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9221155/Rishi-Sunak-fears-scientific-advisors-moving-goalposts-lockdown-end.html?ito=push-notification&ci=74315&si=25332643
I also notice the Carl Heneghan has started to be a bit more active lately. It is as if the hysterical febrile atmosphere since Christmas has meant that many have kept their heads down. But a bit like the army commander who waits until the enemy has run out of petrol before launching an attack, these people have now recognised that the tide is starting to turn………….we live in hope?
Carl Heneghan did that great interview in Talk Radio where he did challenge that O’Brien loser to a debate. He’s still waiting for a response.
Bizarrely, O’Brien responded in a tweet to Julia Hartley Brewer, saying that he “didn’t believe that CH needed any more publicity”. Everything I have read about Neil O’Brien makes it obvious he comes from the most loathsome part of the Tory Party; Oxford Educated, former SPAD (to Theresa May, of all people) and now a grandstanding coward. He’ll obviously go far in politics!
He’s like Uriah Heep. Possibly angling for a promotion but he deserves a P45.
Mate, you’ll love our Carl Henghan/NOBrien top trumps in the latest episode: https://therealnormalpodcast.buzzsprout.com/1268768/7584277-ep-18-politics-science-europe-and-hope
That was so funny. Next up Piss Morgan and Dr Hilary vs Mike Yeadon.
If last year is anything to go by, they’ve now got a solid 8 month window to dislodge those in situ before nature causes another uptick in cases.
I think it’s because the vaccinations will see a sudden drop in hospitalisations in the next few weeks. This will create space for a fresh debate about re-opening again. Sunak is trying to ensure that the aim does not creep from save the NHS to Zero-Covid. Boris will try to thread the needle by setting an ultra-slow normalisation pathway. The opposite of boiling frogs if you like.
Needless to say my household never locked down since we have to protect our sanity – not doing so is well known to literally take years off your life. But we can only live as normal a life as others around us are prepared to. Perfectly rational friends of mine have been reduced to quivering jellies with this latest lockdown and are no longer prepared to ignore the ‘rules’ in the way they were previously. So I would welcome official re-opening that stops them being so fearful.
Fishi’s everlasting furlough shows how much he cares about the economy.
If Rishi can find the goalposts do you think he could tell us where they are?
i heard the vaxx minister with JHB just now on Talkradio and they were on about vaccines and he was saying needed the ‘whole world’ to be vaccinated before get back to normal.
So I think they are setting the scene that they will reduce restrictions nationally in coming months, but internationally I think they will continue to crack down. I saw somewhere about extending the countries needing hotel imprisonment being extended, so you can see where this is going that all international travel will require imprisonment on return like NZ and Australia.
Or the introduction of the main aim of the show – a ”covid passport” which will allow miraculous passage through the quarantine portals. So bleedin’obvious what the game is.
What a fucking moron. How many people died of flu last year? How many people did you vaccinate? How many did not die? Why would you want to vaccinate the under 40’s? You do understand we can still spread and catch the disease after i am jabbed? You do know i have fuck all chance of dying of it? Like over 99% chance of not dying. I am sorry I do not consent to be part of your experimental vaccine and I hope you burn in hell for the deaths your jab and lockdowns have caused.
Sunak is a bit like Albert Speer, the Nazi who gave the most convincing impression that his heart wasn’t quite in it.
Morning all! Excellent update as usual Will.
If you’ve not listened yet, here the latest episode from our podcast:
Ep 18. Politics, Science, Europe and Hope
Should politicians persecute scientists? We explore the European Unions response to COVID and the vaccine rollout. We keep an eye on the UK’s excellent progress whilst exploring 1984 themes today.
We finish with a brief essay on the history of Soviet Russia and how we could be repeating the repressive mistakes of the past.
https://therealnormalpodcast.buzzsprout.com/1268768/7584277-ep-18-politics-science-europe-and-hope
Dr Claire Craig on aysomptomatic.
https://twitter.com/ClareCraigPath
Oh my using science and common sense. The Twaturd and Farcebook mobs will be baying for her blood.
Why are cases suddenly dropping around the world? Perhaps because the WHO recently recommended reducing the PCR cycle threshold. Smoke and mirrors, but most will swallow it.
Undoubtedly. There has to be a strategic reason for their recommendation…the challenge is to work out what the tactic is intended to achieve at this stage! It has to be something underhand.
Reiner Fuellmich’s lawsuit complaining about the (mis)use of PCR tests
Yes, you’re most likely right. I’ve been following events on that front quite closely. Here’s hoping it achieves something significant.
The legacy: £33m for sweets and fizzy drinks.
Wonder how many cokes tested positive.
Makes you wish that Captain Tom shouldn’t have bothered. Or just stuck to his £100 target.
Should have set it up as a bursary to train new ICU nurses.
That would have been better and there’s a specific purpose. So they can’t touch the money other than for training ICU nurses.
Damn fine idea – too late now. (Saddest words in the English language)
I tend to avoid tv nowadays, but as Peston was talking to Anders Tegnell (my hero) I felt compelled to watch.
Tegnell was good! Calm and measured.
Two points really struck me though.
As you know Sweden kept schools open and infection amongst teachers is no different from the general population. Anders made that point and a minute or so later Peston asked David Davies, if schools were going to open on March 8th. Davies said that this was still to be seen…..
So in my opinion any journalist worth their soul would have asked ‘why not? Look at Sweden’. But Peston didn’t …
Secondly there was a Labour MP advocating zero Covid. It was clear from several comments she made she is not a scientist and clearly does not understand the concept of an endemic virus. My bood started to boil!
Unfortunately it meant another sleepless night…..
Journalists have souls?
Try audio books for the sleepless night, they divert your thoughts. Just put a sleep timer on them, or let them run their course.
Virus 101 facts
1) it is impossible to eradicate a virus
2) all viruses mutate
3) if asymptomatic you cannot infect others
an ‘asymptomatic illness’ – it’s Orwellian doublespeak. ‘a living death’ – now that’s an oxymoron, and we can all recognise how real that is
Can cancer not be asymptomatic?
Not for long
I have Morgellons disease and cannot wear a a mask
You’d be surprised how often that works
I would love to know who started this zero covid cobblers? We carry it around with us. Are they going to start culling us?
The trolley thought experiment that is used ATL as a way of thinking about the government’s response to the coronavirus is rather misleading. It suggests that the government has decided to sacrifice one life to save four. However, what the government has done is decide to sacrifice an unknown number of actual lives in order to save an unknown number of hypothetical lives. In terms of the trolley thought experiment, the four people on the line are merely figments of imagination, but the fat man is a real flesh and blood human being, and the government has thrown him under the trolley and is now desperately pretending that the four imaginary people are real and there are sixteen of them, no two hundred and fifty-six, no… (everything is exponential in this narrative).
The complete article makes pretty much the same point.
Yes & the pragmatic decision was to sacrfice the fat man for the healthy young ones (i’m assuming they were healthier). This shit-show is what happens when you let emotive nonsense get in the way of common sense.
I’d argue they pulled the lever to save their own careers
yep, they’d chuck anyone on the line just as long as it isn’t one of them
On the behalf of fat men everywhere, I just want to note rather pedantically that the value of his weight is in its ability to halt an on-coming train, not in its intersection with COVID susceptibility.
But with reference to this idea, I would moot that in fact we have been running over 4 healthy people to save the fat man. Possibly because it’s harder to hide the remains of one fat man than it is 4 healthy people especially once he’s derailed the train and there’s too many witnesses. In fact I’d go so far as to say, the government and SAGE have shoved 4 healthy children on the tracks and rescued the fat man.
it was never about saving lives, or any moral dilemma
How can anyone take these people seriously?
Guessing that’s from the confidence interval. E.g. I think danmask study was plus 46% to minus 23% effective, with a 95% confidence.
Try that at the bookies. Score prediction 0-0 possibly 9-9. And all points in between.
Run as many hares as you can
Morning children. Today we will be looking through the round window
Today smiling Ted is going to tell us a fairytale about mixing magic potions. His potions have always been magic, but if you mix them together they become super dooper magic
Ted decided to do this when the evil Swiss Gnomes started saying one of his potions wasn’t magic anymore
Anyway I’ll let Ted tell it
Izzy whizzy let’s get busy,
Snake oil mixes make me dizzy.
There are continuing announcements that the latest Oxford team report states that the AZ vaccine prevents 66% of transmission. Zahawi just made this statement to Talk Radio. I cannot find this data in the preprint. Can anybody else?
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3777268
Ask him to bend over. Then you’ll find it.
It reduces instance of positive PCR swabs in those vaccinated by 67%, suggesting it will reduce transmission – they didn’t test for actual transmission.
Only 2% for asymptomatics though. That’s a messed up head scratcher for the Covid zealots now. So if 1 in 3 have Covid without symptoms, as Hancock wants us to believe, this vaccine is pointless. Something has to give, but no media are calling them on this contradiction
Well, let’s assume that’s true – and to me it seems plausible – let’s think about this. We know the “vaccine” doesn’t make you “immune” necessarily, just reduces symptoms. At least that is what the makers claim. If this is the case, how on earth does it prevent transmission. Could it be that aymptomatic transmission is not actually a thing at all? Like to see at least one journalist ask how both these things could be true at once.
I’m afraid that level of thinking is beyond them.
Therein lies the answer.
Even those ‘experts’ who claim it has happened in a few cases are basing their conclusions on people who may have had false positive results at their initial PCR test or at their subsequent one.
Ooooh shocking no!! Oh no I’m melting, melting, what a world!
Wonderful snow up here in Scotland – the best for a decade. But we are forbidden to travel to enjoy it!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-55903349
Quite apart from any ‘risk of virus transmission’, were I skiing today or any day, other skiers would be well advised to stay well more than 2m away from me!
This was the argument I tried to use about golf.
My ball was quite good at ensuring that I self distance from every other golfer, particularly on fairways and greens.
‘Covid – little impact on the death rate, but a big impact on the birth rate:
“Research has concluded that the US will experience 500,000 fewer births in 2021, as couples choose not to have children because of the coronavirus fallout.
The findings by the Brookings Institute were published last week in the Wall Street Journal, which noted that there will be “between 300,000 to 500,000 fewer births in the U.S. next year, compared with a drop of 44,172 last year.”
The numbers equate to a 13% drop from the 3.8 million babies born in 2019.”
Read in full:
https://summit.news/2020/11/30/killing-the-future-covid-madness-will-lead-to-half-a-million-fewer-u-s-births-in-2021/
so the plan is working a treat.
In fairness, if the options are population control by bumping people off or population control by reducing new arrivals, I’d opt for the latter.
The only breeding going on was by government advisors.
A much better update than the last few ones. Thanks to the team!
The article about hand sanitiser is so spot on and should be circulated more widely. Even when they were first introduced, I remember an acquaintance who was a medical student then warning us that they’re not good for the immune system long term and advised us that they should be used sparingly and only if there are no proper handwashing facilities.
More than 20 years later, her advice is still one that should be heeded.
We’ve seen photos of children’s hands on social media showing the effects of too much sanitiser. It’s criminal what they’re doing to kids – not only are they messing up with their mental health but also with their immune system. No wonder they catch every cold and bug going.
When my workplace was open I was amazed at the number of people who would sanitise their hands every time they saw a sanitising point. Or even after they’ve gone to the toilet where they’ve presumably washed their hands.
Jesus wept. How people have regressed quickly.
I went to a Catholic Church a few months ago for a funeral. The holy water had been replaced with hand sanitizer.
Holy hand sanitizer
Yes it can be blessed too
What???
“Holy hand sanitiser, Batman!”.
Just shows that Covid has become the new religion.
Well said. The only time I ever use hand sanitsier is when I’m on trains and the toilet facilities have no soap available. Sanitiser should not be a substitute for ordinary soap and water and should not be forced on us as often as it has been this past year. Not only that, but it feels and smells vile.
Ditto. I haven’t used the gunk since this shit show happened and only used it when the toilet facilities either have no soap (like in Japan believe it or not) or they’ve ran out of soap.
I remember nearly gagging when I was in a supermarket and the couple before me have slathered industrial quantities of the gunk in their hands.
Had that as well. One sanitising point was empty so I radioed for refills to be brought. A visitor was waiting so I directed her to the toilets so she can wash her hands but she refused and said that she would rather wait for the refill to arrive.
Jesus wept.
I’ve been a long term user of sanitiser, way before this all started, but ONLY carried it for situations where I couldn’t wash my hands, particularly if eating or drinking straight after being on public transport. Have you seen what your fellow passengers do? Yuk. But, one tiny bottle would last a very long time.
I’ve always carried one as well but one bottle can last me years since I would rather use soap and water.
Just before Christmas I was refused entry to the swimming pool where I have an annual membership because I refused to use the hand gel at the entrance and said I would use soap and water instead. That wasn’t good enough, so after an argument I turned around and went home.
By the time I’d had it out with the manager and established that soap and water was indeed acceptable, the current lockdown was upon us so I still can’t swim.
Oh well, by about April it will be warm enough to get back in the sea …
Crazy world.
I think some people like to use it because the slight burning sensation it causes makes them ‘believe’ that it is more effective than hand washing.
Agree. I wonder if they will change their tune if they’re told that the “burning” sensation is actually bad for them.
Perhaps if they tried it on their faces they might realise that?
Or on their arses. Don’t ask how I know.
no, their tune will only change if they’re told it can give them covid
We’re supposed to use hand sanitiser on entering any of the buildings at work.
I won’t use it unless there is someone actually standing by the hand sanitiser bottle. And yes we have had this policed by senior management.
Personally I’d rather have a few germs to protect my immune system.
I’ve heard of anecdotal evidence where school kids have found a way of dodging the hand sanitiser at the school gates. One is where they would make vigorous hand rubbing movements as they enter to say they’ve sanitised on the way in. Two is where they carry their own bottle and say they’re allergic to the one the school uses so they have their own.
I’ve done that too at work, pretend to use the sanitiser. Rebel that I am.
Sadly the 7 year old did not yet get it ….
I do that all the time at shops!
My county’s website for attending the registry office says you MUST sanitise your hands on entry AND EXIT.
WHY? WHY?
A few weeks ago I had to sit for about half an hour in a veterinary practice’s waiting room where they had a sanitiser dispensing machine. One of the nursing staff must have come out of one of the consultation rooms literally every five minutes to get a squirt of the concoction. It was clear that he was loving the whole drama. He may well live to regret it.
I have avoided using any hand sanitiser, and at the vets I was going to pretend to use it when they asked me to, but it was automated and came out as soon as you placed your hand underneath so I was thwarted!