Would that journalists and broadcasters paid as much attention to places with no restrictions doing fine as they do to the latest places experiencing a Covid surge.
All eyes are currently on India and especially Delhi where, after a year of little impact, the virus is making its nasty presence felt. But as Ivor Cummins points out, India for whatever reason has a long way to go to catch up with countries in Europe and the Americas when it comes to Covid deaths. The country is not a good comparison for the UK where the virus is endemic and substantial population immunity is now present.
If only our media would spend as much time telling the population about how Florida lifted its restrictions back in September, how South Dakota never had any, and how Texas and Mississippi reopened in full at the start of March, as they do telling us about how many people are in hospital in Delhi. The latest positive-test data for these open states is in the graph above, along with two other light-restriction states, South Carolina and Georgia. Note the conspicuous lack of surge despite being basically back to normal. What more evidence do our politicians and scientists need that the threat from the virus is overblown and does not warrant social restrictions or emergency measures? Is the Government interested in data which contradict their preferred narrative?
The Telegraph today is reporting that as of June 21st – another seven weeks away – Brits will be permitted once again to attend large events without anti-social and uneconomic distancing requirements and hug one another. Our ultra-cautious scientists are advising that these things might just be okay by then. Though in case you might have thought they would then end the seemingly endless state of emergency, they have said measures such as staggering entries to venues accommodating large groups and good ventilation will still be required. What part of normal don’t they understand?
Nor is there any indication of a move to return international travel to normal, as the country faces more limitations on travel this summer – when most of the country is vaccinated – than last summer – when nobody was. What this has to do with following the science is, as ever, unclear.
What’s strange is that even in America where parts of their own country are living free and showing that the measures aren’t needed, state governments, with popular support and backed by federal agencies, just carry on with their restrictions, lifting them only very slowly and with no obvious commitment to bringing them finally to an end. It’s as though people don’t want to know. Too much has been invested in the lockdown narrative, it seems, for people to be able to cope psychologically with the trauma of facing the truth that it is fundamentally false. Too many reputations are at risk. Too many interests coincide.
Are we doomed to live forever in this Covid state of emergency? I confess it is hard to see what will prompt governments to bring it to an end, now that we live in permanent fear of the appearance of variants and believe we must continually top up the whole world’s antibodies through rolling annual programmes of vaccinations. One of the most depressing thoughts is I find it almost impossible to imagine Boris Johnson facing the camera and announcing: “My friends, our ordeal is over. The data is clear. The virus is now one among many hazards with which we daily must live. Vaccines are available to the vulnerable, as are effective treatments, and we will continually strive to find the safest ways to protect those at risk from this and other illnesses. It is time to resume our old lives. I declare the state of emergency to be over.”
Will we ever reach a point where we no longer even think about whether some activity is “Covid secure”? Where we no longer see our fellow human beings as sources of infection? It would be good to hear much more often from the Government that this is where it believes we are headed, sooner rather than later.
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Just a buncha “Neanderthal thinking.” Nothing to see here!
It’s hard to overstate the case that almost everything we’ve done in the UK has not been about following the data, the evidence, or the science. Lockdowns, masks, asymptomatic transmission, surface transmission – not a single one of these things is supported by the evidence. Yet here we are, over a year on, still in a quasi-lockdown, still wearing face placebos, still promoting the 1 in 3 nonsense, still drowning the country in disinfectant. We’ve been following something – but it sure as hell isn’t the science. The government’s role in any emergency is to steer us through it in a calm and reassuring manner. I wouldn’t describe the outbreak of covid19 as an “emergency” in any rational sense of that word. Serious, yes – but emergency, no. It’s maybe 2 to 3 times more deadly than a bad flu. Bad enough to be a bit concerned about it, put in some extra protections for the vulnerable. Not bad enough to devastate our economy, ruin the livelihoods of thousands, seriously affect our mental health, damage our kids’ education, consign thousands to long-term pain and suffering as they wait for their delayed diagnoses and treatments. What we have done borders on… Read more »
Thanks for your post.
I quite agree.
There might be increasing grumblings amonst Brits for a change to more normal times but I think we should probably look more towards increasing hardened attitudes in America (as mentioned ATL) towards lockdown as we’ll not see that with cowardly Brits and Europeans.
If the USA opens up more and is seen to make a success of it then hopefully we will follow.
It’s strange how our politicians will look across the Atlantic when it suits them and then to Continental Europe when it doesn’t.
At the moment we’ll follow France and Italy etc but the more American individual states open the better for us all.
TC and Rudolph, thank you for your sane response to this great article by Will Jones.
Just a couple more observations. You will only find an end to this insanity in non Marxist juristictions.
Boris Johnson/Corbyn is not a conservative by any stretch of our realistic imaginations so to end it he would have to admit to being wrong. I cannot recall my dictator in history admit his mistake. OTOH the Republican governor of Florida publicly stated his mistake at imposing restrictions before seeing the light.
This whole crime Iie is identical to the Great Man Made Global Warming fraud and preached by the same priests of that cult.
Just follow the money
I read rational analysis, and then I come across this sort of brainless fodder for 77th Brigade :
“You will only find an end to this insanity in non Marxist juristictions.”
Christ! we’re having enough problems getting the message out there without internal sabotage from the barmily wild-eyed.
Listening to the use of the term ‘marxist’ in this t0tally disconnected and illiterate way is like listening to a toddler who’s just discovered the word ‘fuck’ and keeps repeating it
Watersider uses Marxist here as shorthand for totalitarian regimes that cannot tolerate any dissent which would undermine their authority, a shorthand refrence to Soviet, Maoist and South American totalitarian regimes all of which used Marxist methods to sieze and hold onto power. Functional democracies do not have this vulnerability, they instead rely on support for their policies by the people they govern and can tolerate a measure of error and doubt untl the next election cycle when it is contextualised into overall choices.
Unfortunately for some reason I see the UK as the driver of the whole thing – the rest of the world adopted our hysterical over-reaction and for some reason, despite other countries success with unlocking and despite vastly declining mortality here, the media and the government seem to want to perpetuate it indefinitely without scientific justification for doing so and corral us all into a “new normal”, when other countries are going back to the old normal – or very close to it – and they seem to be focusing on India almost in the HOPE that its variant spreads to the UK to back up their approach.
was china
I think you’re right, UK & USA acting in concert. My hunch is that China knows but is not a major actor in this at all.
If parts of America open up and live as real normal without the expected surge in deaths, it won’t be reported here and no one will know, any more than they’ve known about Florida or Texas, etc.
Or if they were told, they’d refuse to believe it, and predict the upcoming catastrophe, like: any minute now….
Great post, and good article. Feeling particularly angry this morning after an evening out with people I haven’t seen in a year who have completely bought into this bullshit. Sitting outside for dinner in the freezing cold, there were seven of us so we had to be split over two tables. One of them who told me my views were reckless was sitting there smoking, not that I would dream to tell him he shouldn’t. I doubt I will be seeing any of them again soon.
yet they dont close the economy down for smoking do they?
Very much the opposite, tobacco is hugely taxed so it;s all right that it kills people. Tobacconists were essential shops. In a way the covid economy is similar, huge profits from teats, masks and vaccines justifies their continuation. Around now there will be more vaccine deaths than “covid” deaths but they are still following the original playbook, lockdown until the vaccine and ignore all countries doing Bad Things like reopening
You can’t catch smoking from inhaling smoke and it’s a lifestyle choice. It does kill far, far more than 0.23% tho!
One of the gravest aspects has been your experience multiplied many thousands of times over. Friendships have been destroyed by the cult of Covid in ways that even political differences were not able to do. It is the smugness of the Covid converts that rankle me. They have got everything they wanted and more yet still they bleat things like your views being ‘reckless’. Relationships with friends and even family are strained beyond repair in may cases.
adam b and dave me too only strained conversations with oldest friend , hardly speak
That’s ok, smoking has a protective effect against Covid.
For real cognitive dissonance, next time ask a smoker if they are smoking to ward off Covid?
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20200615/An-inverse-relationship-between-smoking-and-COVID-19.aspx
Great post. I’ve got a lot of friends who are on that plane and are screeching that they are going to die unless everyone parachutes out. A friend is getting married today; he had to postpone the wedding last year. I was invited last year but not today because of the 15 people thing. Later on in the year he’s got a reception and post wedding stag do that we can all attend. Heading over to the wedding venue with some friends who aren’t able to attend either because of the 15 people thing. We will appear to wave briefly as the bride and groom go in and then off for a beer and back for when they come out again. Travelling there with a friend who has known throughout it is just turbulence and won’t be taking up the offer of the parachute. But all the others who will be there are still screeching India, and when I or my other friend point out the data and science and point out Texas and Florida and so on, we are deemed conspiracy theorists for daring to say it’s just turbulence. It doesn’t matter if we explain the movement of air… Read more »
That’s rather optimistic.
Fair point!
The stag do has already been postponed twice and the reception has been postponed twice.
Agree absolutely!!
Yes thank you for that a good comment. Next week I’m having lunch with some ex work colleagues. To test the water I sent them one of the many videos of the March for Freedom saying I was proud to have been there with my fellow human beings. Silence, not one reply! Mind you last time we met up my ex boss was talking very enthusiastically about QR codes! Although they are seemingly intelligent people they have swallowed this hook, line, sinker and fishing rod. Not sure whether I’m looking forward to next week. It’s certainly an uphill battle.
It just removes any pleasure when meeting up with people like this. I have not seen my siblings for 9 months, but to be honest I don’t care any more. Their complete brain dead response to this and belief in the government and MSM, makes seeing them a painful experience.
yes – in similar boat – total unwavering faith placed by them in output of BBC
Because the BBC are so trustworthy.
Like their behaviour over the Jimmy Saville affair. Or the fake letters by Martin Bashir to get Princess Diana to spill the beans on her marriage.
Or their truthful coverage over the huge protest last Saturday.
Stick to your guns. Don’t back down, but be reasonable and understanding.
People will have been deliberately frightened into their viewpoints, i.e. it’s an emotional reaction not an intellectual one. It’s very difficult to change their minds via data and graphs, because that’s not how they arrived at their views in the first place. The exception might be the Whitty/Vallance graph “predicting” 4,000 deaths a day, which they later rowed back on, unlit most people will only have seen that, not the ridicule and dismantling of their non-prediction prediction.
Excellent summary of the current state of play, thank you.
Superb post, thank you very much for this well reasoned reproach to all the state hysteria. The only person who will be allowed to announce “The emergency is over” is Princess Nut Nut, after Johnson has been committed under the Mental Health Act
Think about it: Each government policy and restriction had only one main effect: reducing the plebs life expectancy.
Absolutely true. Nothing this evil government has done was for our benefit either mentally or physically. If ever Judgement Day arrives I hope these monsters are made to suffer!
Wrong. Each of muzzling, lockups and social distancing has the very real and immediate effect of closing down personal communication.
Closing down any disagreement and dissent about the relentless propaganda. Removing our RIGHT OF ASSOCIATION !!
Your life expenctancy has not been impacted, they need you to continue working to pay off your debt, to generate their wealth, to produce and provide for more ants in the global ant farm.
Too much has been invested in this enterprise for politicians and “the science” to ever concede that this has been the biggest overreaction to an epidemic in modern history. As the evidence mounts that this is indeed the case, the facts will either be ignored or suppressed assisted by a compliant media.
One of the best summaries I’ve seen. Thanks!
I suspect that the push for vaccines for children and having children wear masks at school – completely contradictory to any science – is an effort to instill these measures permanently into the coming generations.
So very, very sad but it does feel like it.
This morning I saw teenage children, walking to school, totally on their own, each wearing a mask. Nobody else in sight for a quarter of a mile around each child (in the highlands, so not exactly heavily populated in any case). Who is brainwashing these kids? How can you even walk briskly and still get enough oxygen in through one of the damn things? It is utterly tragic.
https://rumble.com/vgaabx-masks-destroying-lives-kids-scared-to-breathe-outside.html
killing them one brain cell at a time – and if you kill the brain cells then they cannot think independently and push back against what is being done to them
Agreed. But for what purpose? Surely only totalitarian control can make the cost in lives ‘worth it’?
Ingraining obescience in the young and gullible to Scientism over real science.
Intensely enraging to me.
Dehumanisingly oppressive.
Brave New World.
not really any restrictions here – nobody takes any notice and nobody asks. Had 40 round for a party a couple of weeks ago. – not a hint of masks or distance
maybe those state governments with popular support for lockdown have shares in tech companies which show billions in additional profits due to to lockdown… maybe
Yes there is money to be made for some from continuing to generate fear
I have never gone anywhere/done anything and thought ‘is this covid secure’
I am sure i am not the only one who thinks like this but trying to get it through to the sheeple is nigh on impossible.
My friend in England(I am in Thailand) told me the other day that she thought it was compulsory to have the ‘vaccine’. She was totally unaware of the known side effects and deaths. I despair.
It’s hard to feel pity for people who never ask questions but dutifully comply. Being fed a diet of BBC bullshit is harmful to our health!
I am afraid spreading the good news does not fit with the narrative, and what is truly horrifying is the complete and utter level of corruption, openly on display, from the political class. A root and branch clear out is required. Then we need to start again. A Peoples Reset.
A good start would be to remove the lifelong communist Michie from the group advising our government and Ferguson also.
Michie the multi millionaire communist
Sharing of wealth for the masses but not for her?
Stop obsessing about Michie – she is a symptom, not a cause.
She’s an enabler, she’s a useful idiot, she’s one of the ones who knows she’ll be in charge afterwards so she can allow her sociopathy full reign.
Don’t agree, she is one of, if not the main architect of ‘Project Fear’, which doubtless has caused untold damage to people’s mental health.
Susan Michie is part of the managerial intelligentsia class; her communist affiliations are of secondary importance, if that. She has more in common with her fellow SAGE members, whether they are left-wing, liberal or right-wing, than she has with the proletariat or any other class or social group. A policy as anti-human and irrational as ‘lockdown’ could only be conceived of by people utterly removed from the wellsprings of social and economic reality.
Now we appreciate how it might have been that the Germans were taken over by the Nazi party. Too few people protested when wrong things happened,
Yes, one of the saddest things for me about this last year is that I no longer wonder about how the Holocaust came to happen. It was something that always puzzled me. How could such hatred and division emerge?
I am no longer puzzled.
In a real crisis wouldn’t we expect our government to give us hope (‘we will never surrender ‘ type of thing) not scare the living daylights out of us (‘act as if you have the virus’!)? It’s counterintuitive and should be the clearest evidence that they’re up to no good. In the Carry on Corona world, stoicism in the face of disaster has been replaced by cowering in corners caused by widespread fear-mongering. What happened to the ‘Britain never shall be slaves’? More like ‘Give us our chains forever!’ I despair of the people of this country…
Me too, the last year has shown that the vast majority of people are mindless unthinking cowards. Even more than that, it is now clear that they don’t want to be free. They will happily live in captivity with the state telling them who they can see, when they can leave the house, where they can and can’t go and what jabs they should have and when. I despair.
And I don’t mind if they want to live like fearful sheep, masked and vaxxed, but they are dangerous because they want the rest of us to be fearful and controlled and vaxxed.
But aren’t you watching the advertising?? They are giving us hope – you must just be missing it. This morning in an ad break the government had one where they told us each vaccine administered gave us hope. [irony intended]
Please recognise that our government created the sense of severe danger, then took measures to counter it, all the telling us that the danger was even worse then they first thought.
They aren’t helpless actors, they with SAGE are it’s active drivers. There’s no 3rd party.
From the very beginning in the UK the MSM did not report on the figures of those recovered from Covid…. as that would have decreased their given objective of raising and maintaining the fear. Reporting on those countries or States doing well would also counter the fear porn so is hardly surprising. MSM should take note, contrary to the usual agenda of bad news selling copy, in these strange times they would sell far more with some good news.
In propaganda terms, the Indian mutant wave is a double win. A “look over here”, to detract from the open states and countries and a scare tactic for the vaccine hesitant.
Very well put!
This government is simply the worst in history, and as a – previously – lifelong Tory, I helped vote the b*****rs in🤬. But who else have we? Slimy Starmer and Co? I despair of this country, it’s corrupt politicians, and its lemming-like populace who’ve succumbed to the dumbing down of our freedoms with ne’er a question, willingly hurtling over a cliff of seemingly no return. Our forefathers who fought for those freedoms and paid dearly with their lives, must be spinning in their graves.
Absolutely. Couldn’t have put it better.
That’s the problem, there is no credible political opposition …
Of course Corbyn was the other choice and he has consistently voted against the government and the Labour Party on covid legislation, including the crime and justice bill and vaccine passports.
Corbyn was for radical change and challenged the mainstream narrative over the middle east, Israel, globalisation and big finance. He spooked the western political establishment with his surprise showing in 2017. Nearly winning that election cost him his career and his entire reputation.
The same thing happened to Trump.
Whatever your political leanings are, the moral of this story is that if you dare to seriously challenge the status quo there will be many powerful people who want to destroy you.
I have continued to meet and hug my family and those friends who had the same feelings as me- to hell with the interfering politicians!
I think the most disgusting thing that was pushed by this governing lowlife was preventing family from comforting their dying family members, that was the turning point and the start of my rebellion
I really don’t think covid is that bad in India though is it? I think it’s just that life can be pretty shitty there. 2k people also die if diarrhoea every day, I assume most children, and yet no ones been losing their heads over that have they. Similar with TB – 28million have it in India, over a quarter the drug resistant type. You can only be vaccinated in childhood yet the suspended it because of covid!
They don’t need covid vaccines. They need a proper healthcare system. And to pay for it they need their economy to keep running.
India is not in the top 100 countries in terms of Covid-19 deaths per million.
Exactly. You have to be pretty brainless if you can’t dig out that simple fact.
No it really isn’t. There was a really good article in Left Lockdown Sceptics about it. And Indian news has a far more diverse take on it, depending on where the source lies politically. But the twittering idiots can’t make clothes bags for nurses any more (I wonder what happened to all those) or keep posting on fb about how much they’re helping shielding old people, so now their pointless virtue signalling can all be about raising money for ventilators in India or whatever. What a heap of shit.
This is the link:
https://leftlockdownsceptics.com/2021/04/indias-current-covid-crisis-in-context/?doing_wp_cron=1619811503.2803161144256591796875
I think we all know by now that we must take back our freedoms as the government will not give them back. We must live the best we can with like minded people. Surely it is nonsense to ask the government if you can hug your family?
Perhaps going to events and having a test and sitting in a mask will suit some people but it doesn’t suit me – I won’t be going to their controlled events. Can we organise our own events?
That is going to be the only way out. Administrative power is never given up voluntarily.
We can definitely organise our own events. I can only influence what is going on in my area and where I volunteer, so I am starting with that. For example, getting car boot sales going again – we did them last year & they were v. popular. People couldn’t get out to socialise again fast enough. Just do it & lead by example.
Great article, Will J.
And I see on the news today that a study has recommended that ALL adults (all!!) take a blood pressure tablet each day ‘to reduce the risk of a heart attack’. You know, if my heart decides it’s necessary to beat a little more forcefully for some reason, I reckon there’ll be a good reason for that and don’t want to take a pill each day to stop it doing so ‘in case I get a heart attack’.
The blood pressure tablet thing is a reminder that some people view human beings as faulty, they must be made better. If we can keep away from the medical profession and keep ourselves fit and well that will be the best thing for us. And also if we don’t want to do healthy things, drink, smoke, take drugs, we must stay away from the state … after this covid cr.p I don’t believe the state has our wellbeing as it’s priority. The more we allow ourselves to become dependent on the state to medicalise our wellbeing the worse our lives will be and the more they will take away.
😂😂😂😂😂 They won’t be happy until we’re popping pills and injecting our bodies all day long. Say no and take a more natural approach to your well-being, take responsibility for your own health rather than rely on your GP, who frankly doesn’t give a toss about your health.
And don’t forget the statins! Shut down the entire mevalonate pathway just to reduce LDL cholesterol.
Drugs for diseased people are just so old hat. Well people make a much larger target market
Good point!
Big Pharma were driving healthcare before Covid1984.
By dissing Ivermectin, HCL+zinc and Quercitin they protect their ‘new’ and highly expensive ‘..vir’ therapies.
Enriching themselves and pushing the narrative that Covid is so serious it requires really expensive vaccines and drugs and our innate immunities are defenceless agaisnt it. So angry about these corporate lies repeated by SAGE and Johnsons’ idiots!!
You must include masked and locked down ND whenever you present data on its neighbour SD.
Without it, too many lazy, uninformed an unable to think for themselves idiots will conclude that SD did poorly and that lockdowns made a difference.
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2021/04/30/ronnie-cummins-truth-about-covid-book.aspx?ui=c9e6f918d64140ab9ffc66dfce8c4c03fe9ef2c9607b5ca673888e51f429ba9d&sd=20201112&cid_source=dnl&cid_medium=email&cid_content=art1HL&cid=20210430_HL2&mid=DM861138&rid=1145256689
It’s all about following the Event 201/Great Reset plan.
The Left is again too stupid to realize that they are enabling the Fascist takeover.
The former will, again, be the first to be incarcerated once the latter are in full control.
Klaus’ ‘You will own nothing’ was the fake bait to get them on board.
Do you seriously think that property rights can and will be abolished wholesale and that the billionnaires above all will consent to this?!
Yes the ‘left’ has been unbelievably naive in this. It’s been like turkeys voting for Christmas, screaching away wanting lockdowns which have only worsened already massive inequalities and will continue to erode the rights of most whilst enriching the very very few. Same with environmentalists: all the ridiculous ‘lockdown helping the planet’ – of course it bloody isn’t. It’s doing its best to destroy small local businesses who often do the right thing and who can be influenced to be more sustainable, it’s impoverished public transport even further, it’s created even more of a mound of bloody plastic. And massive wealth in the hands of the very few is never a good thing ffs. How can they (used to be ‘we’) not see it. Absolute fucking shameless thoughtless morons.
“ the ‘left’ has been unbelievably naive in this”
Definitely – or large sections of what is commonly so described have been.
But so has the right. The proportion of useless MPs was much the same on both sides in the last vote. This is not an issue that bows to simplistic old-time political definitions.
But, there again, those outdated descriptions were always questionable. I heard Lisa Nandy warbling incoherently yesterday (the Julia Hartley-Brewer interview), and had to check that I wasn’t listening to a government spokesman.
I was brought up with part of the definition of ‘left’ implying opposition to the rule and privileges of the establishment – inherently rebellious and questioning. George Orwell’s contrarianism was the marker. So the term now has little meaning if it is used to describe people like Starmer and Nandy.
I find most people don’t think too deeply. Life today is about instant gratification! I want it and I want it now! As a result we are all in a dark place.
couldn’t agree more – they have been conditioned to let their I-phones and their alexa’s do their thinking for them
Yes that is the bit about the whole GR thing I struggle to get my head around – unless of course you accept that there will be two strata – the masses and the elite and the billionaires will be in the elite and allowed to retain their wealth and priveleges because how else do you get them to sign up for this and it must be why so many of them seem to think it is such a good thing.
Stooges like Hancock, Whitty, Starmer, VanTam and TVNews/ Whitehall panjandrums and have been bought off by the GR, they may even think technocracy is a great idea!
I suspect in their heart of hearts they realise they isnt really place in the elite’s lifeboats for them – but going along with the GR charade is a useful if compulsory career move.
They are betraying us into trading our freedom to choose our leaders, freedom to be economically active and our freedom of speech and association for a Utopian Teechnocratic dream sponsored by the world’s billionaires and bein pensant erstwhile leaders.
“What more evidence do our politicians and scientists need that the threat from the virus is overblown and does not warrant social restrictions or emergency measure” There are two different questions which merit different types of evidence. Do lockdowns work – in the sense of reducing cases dramatically? There is very strong evidence for this. It is hard to think of a single case where lockdowns have been introduced and the numbers carried on going up, and the mechanism by which they work is well understood – regulations => people avoid contact with each other => reduces transmission Are lockdowns necessary – in the sense that other factors will bring the numbers down anyway? The answer is sometimes yes and sometimes no but it is not easy to tell when. Your examples show that other factors have made lockdowns unnecessary sometimes. This is apparent in retrospect. But in other cases such as Brazil and India other factors have not saved the situation. At least not in time to prevent a lot of suffering. In the absence of lockdowns something will kick in eventually – change in the weather, local herd immunity, change in behaviour not based on regulations etc. But… Read more »
“What more evidence do our politicians and scientists need that the threat from the virus is overblown and does not warrant social restrictions or emergency measure” There are two different questions which merit different types of evidence. Do lockdowns work – in the sense of reducing cases dramatically? There is very strong evidence for this. It is hard to think of a single case where lockdowns have been introduced and the numbers carried on going up, and the mechanism by which they work is well understood – regulations => people avoid contact with each other => reduces transmission Are lockdowns necessary – in the sense that other factors will bring the numbers down anyway? The answer is sometimes yes and sometimes no but it is not easy to tell when. Your examples show that other factors have made lockdowns unnecessary in some cases. This is apparent in retrospect. But in other cases such as Brazil and India other factors have not saved the situation. At least not in time to prevent a lot of suffering. In the absence of lockdowns something will kick in eventually – change in the weather, local herd immunity, change in behaviour not based on regulations… Read more »
“lockdowns are pretty much guaranteed to do the job”
What’s the name of that planet you’re on? You know – the one where the gravity of evidence doesn’t exist, prior strategies spontaneously combust, and viruses are many times more deadly than they are on earth?
“Lockdowns are a tool for addressing outbreaks.”
Some f.ing ‘outbreak’ – mostly of normal (or below) mortality!
I think you got the graph of lockdowns v. mortality upside-down.
P.S. India : Here’s the real news. Death rates are not amongst those of the top hundred countries.
RickH Thanks for reading my comment (which I accidentally posted twice). “lockdowns are pretty much guaranteed to do the job” Can you name a single example where a lockdown has been implemented and the cases have carried on going up? Can you explain how the virus can keep on growing if people are isolated for each other? (As I hope I explained in my comment, examples where cases went down without lockdowns are not evidence against this specific proposition) Some f.ing ‘outbreak’ – mostly of normal (or below) mortality! I don’t think this is true. Almost every country shows significant excess deaths (deaths in excess of what is expected for the time of year) during outbreaks. I would be happy to hear about counterexamples. P.S. India : Here’s the real news. Death rates are not amongst those of the top hundred countries. If you look at India as a whole, death rates are relatively low. But that is not a reasonable comparison. India is vast and the outbreaks are concentrated in a few states – where each state has populations exceeding most countries. It would be better described as a Maharashtra crisis or a Delhi crisis. The official daily death rate in Maharashtra… Read more »
Jeez, how many times are we going to have to beat this one to death.
See article on lockdown sceptics:
https://dailysceptic.org/2021/04/15/seven-peer-reviewed-studies-that-agree-lockdowns-do-not-suppress-the-coronavirus/
See evidence from.the US:
https://thepostmillennial.com/reopened-states-with-low-covid-case-counts-show-that-lockdowns-are-a-farce
Sooner or later people will have to give up the religous faith in lockdowns “cos it’s common sense innit” and allow rationality & real world evidence into their mind.
Ness, I’m not really sure what MTF is doing on this site other than trying to make a pro-lockdown case for some reason or another – you will get nowhere with people like that. you’d be wasting time and precious energy.
Milo
I am trying to have a constructive debate and offer alternative opinions. Is this site only for people that agree with the message? I am sorry I didn’t know.
No, you’re not. If you were in nodding acquaintance with the 30 or so peer reviewed journal articles you’d be convinced that lockdowns do not attenuate epidemic spreading nor deaths. If anything the trend is slightly more deaths.
We even know the reason why lockdown doesn’t work.
But I’m wasting my time on the 77th.
Mike Yeadon
I am impressed that you have read 30 or so peer reviewed articles!
I don’t understand what it is I am not doing. I am certainly offering alternative opinions. I hope I am open to other views and the evidence for them. I have already been given a link to seven peer reviewed articles which is as much as I can manage – but I will look at least at the abstract of all them and if the abstract suggests it is worth it, then I will read more …. provided they not behind a pay wall. What else should I be doing to have a constructive debate short of saying I agree with you before it begins?
Nessimmersion
Thanks for the links. The second one is a political polemic with little value. But the first is really interesting. They are chunky papers. It would take a long time to properly understand them all. Can you recommend one or two from your reading?
“Can you name a single example where a lockdown has been implemented and the cases have carried on going up?”
How about vast areas of the UK where cases rose during the second half of the November lockdown?
Or Peru? I believe they stayed in lockdown and saw a huge rise in cases.
Finally, lockdown simply isn’t an option in India. In a place like that, you are condemning god knows how many people to death by starvation if you implement anything like a full lockdown. The consequences could make your 1k deaths a day out of 9 million folk seem like a picnic.
What a complete liar you are.
For example?
They, (the globalists) have no intention of setting us free. We must free ourselves. Defy every Covid rule or regulation, insist on taking your freedom back.
Great question from this article: “Is the Government interested in data which contradict their preferred narrative?”
The answer is obvious.
And a great point that explains why no one in government (or the mainstream press) will contradict the authorized narrative:
“Too much has been invested in the lockdown narrative, it seems, for people to be able to cope psychologically with the trauma of facing the truth that it is fundamentally false. Too many reputations are at risk. Too many interests coincide.”
“ I find it almost impossible to imagine Boris Johnson facing the camera and announcing: “My friends, our ordeal is over. The data is clear. The virus is now one among many hazards with which we daily must live. Vaccines are available to the vulnerable, as are effective treatments, and we will continually strive to find the safest ways to protect those at risk from this and other illnesses. It is time to resume our old lives. I declare the state of emergency to be over.” I’m starting to suspect this is exactly what Boris wants to say but is being crushed by those around him. As we’re already in an unscientific situation let’s all try something not scientifically proved – the idea of mind over matter. Everybody commit those words to your minds and find time everyday to vividly imagine Boris standing at the podium saying those exact same words and let’s see if we can move universal forces to create that reality. Here we all are reinforcing what we don’t want. Time to create what we do want! You have to believe it can be done. Let’s face it, we’ve been asked to believe endless drivel this year… Read more »
How many of the “experts” in Sage, or the regular players on Corona TV have actually worked on the front line – saving patients lives? Anyone know? And why, throughout this whole “pandemic” was there no provision made for early-use, life-saving PREVENTATIVE treatment? Hundreds died probably because of low levels of vitamin D. India appears to have exactly the same problem: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6060930/ Then there is Hydroxychloroquine used EARLY with great success by front-line doctors who testified to the US Senate Homeland Security Committee. Ivermectin is another life-saver. But there is no profit for Big Pharma in these life-savers. But billions of pounds for no-liability experimental vaccines that are still in phase three of the trials. And now comes the vaccine passport – a method of control which could not be achieved with an Ivermectin tablet. So Big Tech – with track and trace and Big Pharma with money for old rope vaccines and no responsibility for side effects are making a killing. Top lawyer Robert F Kennedy Jr has called out Dr Fauci for failing to use HCQ and delaying on Ivermectin while at the same time personally profiteering from the vaccines. Fauci could take him to court – but… Read more »
Great article!
‘Where we no longer see our fellow human beings as sources of infection?’
I hadn’t really considered others as sources of infection all through this so-called pandemic until I read an article on the vaccine spike protein possibly being shed by those who have been vaccinated. If there is any truth in that it is a tad scary given that I have chosen not to be vaxxed, in contrast to most of my friends and family!!
As a prominent critic, I have lost all clients & all but one friend. Most of the family are on side but one sister & her husband think I’m a conspiracy theorist.
I’ve been in biological sciences 40 years this year. I’d been a VP in big pharma & CEO of my own biotech. So not a complete idiot.
But they’ve decided the best interpretation is I’m mad.
The reality is that literally nothing govt & advisors have told us is true and/ or accurate.
Given they’re not stupid, it’s self deception to argue it’s all a mistake.
Given the “errors” are almost identical almost everywhere, it is a plan. A conspiracy. Nothing theoretical about it,
As to motives, I’m not sure, but aims definitely include totalitarian control through vaccine passports,
If they’re permitted to start in U.K., I see absolutely no way back.
My hunch is that most who are in the know think this is about preventing global warming.
My fear is that it kinda is, but that the solution is mass depopulation.
Why else accept the human & economic costs?
You’ve got a friend here Mike. From the beginning, I’ve been singing your praises from the rooftops here in Spain, (Facebook have suspended my account).
It’s nothing short of a tragedy that you, Carl Heneghan, Sunetra Gupta etc are sidelined in favour of the ‘Gov’t Covid narrative,’ so I decided a year ago today to not listen to any MSM broadcast of written. Instead, I get my news from peripheral sources such as LS, Fox News, Epoch Times, Breitbart, Spiked etc.
Keep up the good work and shout it loud Mike. As we used to say in the RAF “Nil carborundum illegitemi.” (Incidentally, I’m 72, and fit, so I won’t be having the jab).
Robert E Lee.
Thank you, Robert!
What I ask of everyone, who has the slightest doubt about what is the official position, is that they do a little research themselves and then go and convince a few others.
A technique I commend is see if you can catch them out in a direct lie, especially one which is in an important area (eg our PM recently lying into the cameras about lockdown being the most important cause of reduced cases & deaths)
Point out to others that this is a lie.
Ask that, if they’re lying in your faces about something so central, why would you expect them to be telling the truth about anything?
Lack of probity regarding anything spouted by official sources beggars belief Mike.
Good grief, it’s 53 years since I passed ‘A’ level biology and I still retain a sufficiently inquisitive mien to question what is patently tosh.
If you saw the so-called UK ‘vaccine tsar’s’ dismissive reply to a GP’s queries earlier in the week in LS the man’s sloppiness and superficiality makes me weep in frustration. It’s a measure of how deep our putative leaders have sunk.
Mike, I’m a theoretical physicist with over 30 years’ worth of research experience. Abstract stuff with weird squiggly equations – so definitely not a medical expert. But I’ve known almost from the beginning that something was very deeply wrong with the “official” narrative. One of the first things I did was to do a quick check of the 2nd derivative of the UK’s mortality curve – it goes negative about a week after the 1st lockdown. In other words, the brakes were on before lockdown could have had a significant impact. Couple this with Sweden and the only feasible explanation is that biology, not policy, has been the main driver of disease dynamics. The government, for some reason, was being somewhat duplicitous. So many other things since then have only confirmed my view. The whole asymptomatic transmission thing, for example, was, and is, deeply concerning – it was definitely not right – and I knew that even with my limited biological knowledge. Try saying to your boss “I’ve got a really bad case of the flu but no symptoms” to get a day or two off! I’ve watched a lot of your interviews (thank you for these – they are… Read more »
Mike great to see you posting on the site and you are among many supporters here. Thanks for all you have done and continue to do – there are many awake to what’s happening so it is neither in vain nor unappreciated. Most here know and value the cost that there has been to you in speaking out but again you have many friends and supporters here and among other sceptics sites. With your track record they cannot ignore nor undervalue your opinion so like they do, they demonise and marginilise. That is the price of speaking out and for you it has been a high one. But others here also are paying there own price in lost family members and those who want it all to go away. Many are too afraid to speak out and speak up that is why your voice is so important. There are many ordinary folk who are not bad people per se they have just been subjected to the probably the greatest mass hypnosis in the history of our country so must be given some slack. Ultimately it is those that are responsible for this ‘program’ that must be held accountable. Again let… Read more »
I think a problem lies with the general public not realising they have a right to say no to the medical profession. I was once a midwife and know about general physiology, clinical trials, medical ethics and informed consent so have been immune to the pandemonium. My husband on the other hand didn’t even know of the concept of informed consent until I started harping on about it. He claims to have never given informed consent to anything and just turns up and takes what he’s told.
This combined with the cult of the NHS has made people blind. The whole Brexit debacle showed that the masses will do anything for the NHS and self interested demagogues are taking advantage of that.
I’m interested to see what they will do with the rest of us. Will they let us be providing we don’t go around pointing out the enslavement of those enslaved or will they crush us?
So, a fake ‘virus’, fake vaccines, fake stats, fake causes of deaths etc….. all to cause depopulation for a fake global warming?! What are they….deluded psychopaths? It’s quite difficult to see just how the technology can bring about depopulation on such a grand scale as has been intimated elsewhere. Especially if one takes the stance that exogenous viruses do not exist. That just leaves the shots to change fundamental biology….. also hard to fathom.
And who is really behind it all….. The Crown Corporation in City of London? And if so, it can’t really be about global warming can it? Saving the planet? Oh my brain!
PS The only nefarious route I can see is through a gain of function pathogen designed to be transmissible between humans (mammals) that needs to be coupled with one of these shots…. leading to some depop, and given that children by and large do not seem to contract the G of F doobry then one of the shots alone would be achieving ‘submission’ of the next generation.
However, as someone said, we need to take back and maintain our freedom first and foremost before getting into debate based on one’s belief system. Apologies for my ramblings.
Expect multiple & substantial distraction stories while they establish the vaccine passports system,
Please keep your eyes peeled,
There is nothing more important than preventing this happening in U.K.
If it starts up, we’re irretrievably lost, and I shall emigrate with a view to helping save countries not yet lost.
The Spanish Government is mirroring UK’s draconian power trip. Valencian region, six to a table (outdoors). Bars close at 10pm. Curfew commences at 10pm. Masks to be worn everywhere unless exercising, so living by the Med’ as we do, we have the surreal sight of lone folk walking on the beach, masked up without another soul within 400 metres. Lunacy!
Mike,
Thank you for everything you have done to try to bring this horrible situation to the public’s attention. You are such an asset to the dissenter’s cause.
I cannot emigrate. I’m stuck here in a country I once revered but which has now become alien to me. I am sick to my soul and I am angry from the moment I open my eyes in the morning. I come to this site, and its mirror on Reddit, for the company of a handful of loyal resistance fighters. We are outnumbered and maybe our campaign is a forlorn hope but i am sure we are right and I must believe we will prevail. With you, Fuellmich, Heneghan, Craig et al, we must surely win against ignorance, deceit and authoritarianism?
Hey, it starts with you. Take the mask off. Go out and do what you like we have almost managed to get into a uk hotel, we are not giving up. Travel where you can just start taking back your own life. Tell everyone they are crazy for taking experimental biologicals, they are now part of an experiment. Let them know there are now thousands of people dying post vaccine and many more thousand experiencing serious adverse events including strokes, heart attacks, myocarditis, menstrual issues, anaphylaxis, GB, Bell’s palsy and serious neurological problems. Why isn’t MSM reporting this? Read cdc VAERS. The numbers are STAGGERRING and they just keep rising 4 short months. Horrific. Look at the risk for under 50’s, under 60’s and under 70’s. Why are you taking something with NO long term safety or efficacy data. You must have been really frightened by doctors and the government and not given a thorough explanation of your risk, and the risks of taking an experimental biological.
Welcome to the Orwellian dystopia that is Britain in 2020 and 2021.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fdzW-S8MwbI
The Manufacturing of a Mass Psychosis – Can Sanity Return to an Insane World?
Those living under Communist occupied Eastern Europe found the only way to defeat the totalitarianism was to ignore it as best as they could and live within parallel cultures. See this video.
“Is the Government interested in data which contradict their preferred narrative?”
No. They haven’t been interested in that for a long time.
As someone else said: the government isn’t even on nodding terms with the truth.