Discussion > Covid 19 stuff
That the virus is presently subsiding seems fairly obvious.
I've been travelling in the last two weeks between UK + Belgium + The Netherlands. I travel under professional exemption - something that the bureaucratic minions at airports don't as a rule understand....
I got caught with the wrong test going out (OK for Belgium but not for Netherlands - EU standard huh?) and endured a blizzard of bureaucratic bullying on the way back. KLM are employing "night club bouncers" who are doing their best to intimidate people *at the boarding gate* (and delaying the flight) and the Heathrow Border Farce girl was talking like one of those dolls with the ring pull on their chests - parroting a script... I had to repeat "I'm exempt" twice but she just sailed on with her prattle and looked a bit confused / disconcerted.
I see the UK "Gubbermint" web site changes every f*****g day (they add more categories and fiddle about with the testing "requirements" and expand the exempt categories with slightly different requirements) - the officials are absolutely busking it.... it's a shambles.
- and I see the BBC have gotten their own category of exemption.
tomo
Good article on the Speccy website challenging the claims from Imperial about the effectiveness and timing of the lockdowns. It is particularly dismissive of Ferguson's claim that locking down a week earlier last March would have saved 20,000 lives.
Much of the commentary is eerily similar to issues in the climate debate, mostly about the models and their in-built assumptions. For example:
"The model-fitting appeared to be set up in a way that attributed unusually low weight to the actual data, relative to assumptions built into the model."
The article is here:
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/covid-and-the-lockdown-effect-a-look-at-the-evidence?utm_medium=email&utm_source=CampaignMonitor_Editorial&utm_campaign=LNCH%20%2020210414%20%20House%20Ads%20%20SM+CID_accf8d8c1e2b6fbd6c82a97384334d92
MikeHig
I caught a bit of BBC "long Covid" scaremongering that ran on R2 or 5 Live this morning - it was hyperbole piled on breathless anecdote an obviously contrived to be alarming >>> "thousands", "a wave", "appalling", "no hope", yada, yada.... the studio person segueing franticly from wallowing in personal tragedy to national impact.
I didn't stay in the room long enough to hear the station ID
tomo
Heathrow says airport queues are becoming 'untenable'
Where's Willy Walsh when you need him?
... but I suppose any criticism of official provision / measures is not allowed at the BBC and other MSM unless is serves a political purpose.
Imagine waiting airside for 5 hours to get through the border.........................................
-don't complain - it's for your own safety
tomo
England's latest COVID stats:
1.63m tests conducted
2,550 positives
0.16% positivity rate
2 deaths within 28 days of a positive test
- and the MSM are still pumping Private Frazer - I see the BBC having a bit of a meltdown about India earlier
tomo
That positivity rate is well below the expected level of false positives so maybe these are confirmed positives, after a second test?
False positives were expected to be about 0.4%, aiui, which would equate to 6520.
MikeHig
Worldofdata is reporting virtually the same number of cases (2524) but 33 deaths?
MikeHig
... or - have the labs doing PCR been told to dial down the Spinal Tap amplification runs?
cynical, moi ?
tomo
There is still a huge effort going into mass testing for Covid infection but I've not picked up anything about testing for immunity.
To this bear of little brain, the latter is the way to go, especially now that sampling shows nearly 70% have antibodies. Anyone testing positive for immunity would not need any further tests for many months, if not a year at least. So the mass testing effort could be ramped down as the numbers of those proven to be immune increase. It would also spare a lot of people from the risk of false positives.
Am I being too cynical in suspecting that a huge machine has been set up at vast expense so now it is going to be used to the hilt?
MikeHig
MikeHig
testing for immunity has been the unasked question since probably March / April 2020.... I've certainly been wibbling about it since then to anybody who'd listen as it has a whole host of benefits for the handling of an infection which should be self evident.
The LAMP technology superficially looks like a candidate worth investigating ...
When it comes to the "huge machine" PHE and NHS public relations look to want us to forget how the vaccination campaign was handled and take all the credit?
tomo
The NHS testing site in town has been virtually deserted for a couple of weeks and the 3 public portakabins + 1 welfare cabin , a generator + 2000L diesel tank + the 5 or so staff look bored ....
tomo
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/travel/news/one-third-of-recent-covid-deaths-not-caused-by-the-virus/ar-BB1gnNsK?ocid=mailsignout&li=BBoPWjQ
tomo
oops...
"accidental leak"
yeah....
Chinese language document shows Chinese PLA associated crew were discussing weaponising Covid 5 years ago - and it's embarrassingly detailed
tomo
Excellent article on the Spectator website highlighting how the government's policy has been over-cautious due to highly pessimistic modelling by the Sage tem (including, still, the bonking boffin!). The conclusion:
"Focusing on the advice of a handful of particular scientists, who all broadly agreed with one another, has meant that the PM has received inaccurate estimates of the R-number throughout the pandemic, despite it being an easy figure to measure. As we move forward, having defeated this pandemic, it is vital that lessons are learnt for next time."
Full article:
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/How-did-Sage-get-it-so-wrong?utm_medium=email&utm_source=CampaignMonitor_Editorial&utm_campaign=LNCH%20%2020210511%20%20House%20Ads%20%20SM+CID_d7654e9e77ffe774ba922c4ff72e80db
MikeHig
MikeHig
thanks for the link
Having looked at the Sage group and the various sub committees it's easy to see imho that beyond the obvious PHE "plants" they are for the most part not practicing medics who have to take responsibility for their recommendations being acted on - there's no negative feedback - and THAT in this scenario is an obvious and fatal flaw. Add that to the absurd (in the case of the psychology committee just poisonous) suggestions that they're regularly pushing out and I feel that how things get done needs to change.
If one uses the war analogy favoured at the start by say M. Macron - it's the equivalent of armchair generals. We are also regularly regaled with how the NHS has saved us blah, blah ...
I've a grump on wrt to virus testing today - there's an NHS testing site in town, ½ mile away, 3 portacabins, some vinyl marquee style awnings, orange plastic barriers, a diesel tower light, a separate generator, a 1000L bunded steel diesel tank, 2 security guards and I think 4 testers / form fillers. I have not seen anybody using it for over two weeks....
I have to travel to Italy in a few days and have to PCR test - the NHS won't test me - so that involved a 12 mile round trip and £175 - what the absolute cretins "managing" the NHS are doing just beggars belief.
tomo
Tucker: Media is frantically updating their lies
clipe
The Scottish variant.
clipe
What did they know and when did they know it?
F
https://youtu.be/32V-e7saq60
.
indeed ...
elsewhere, and away from particularly BBC attention is this:
What did they know and when did they know it?
https://youtu.be/32V-e7saq60
edit-beat me to it
tomo
Dr. Robert Malone is the inventor of mRNA Vaccine technology.
Mr. Steve Kirsch is a serial entrepreneur who has been researching adverse reactions to COVID vaccines.
Dr. Bret Weinstein is an evolutionary biologist.
Bret talks to Robert and Steve about the pandemic, treatment and the COVID vaccines.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_NNTVJzqtY&ab_channel=BretWeinstein
husq
Dr. Fauci on COVID lab leak theory: “We’ve always said ‘keep an open mind and continue to look.’ So I think it’s a bit of a distortion to say that we deliberately suppressed that.”
https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1405159051219156994
.
Inventor of mRNA vaccines and RNA as a drug, Bench to Bedside vaccines and biologics consulting.
https://twitter.com/RWMaloneMD?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor&fbclid=IwAR3PepMjGBnCu8yavByBGBfUgCGuyZTCGQgXHpor_hpKdBobdqiv8g6--fE
husq
Now Boris is downplaying the role of vaccines and claiming most of the credit for the lockdown measures. W. T. F.??
The Spectator analyses his lates utterances here:
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-is-boris-talking-down-britain-s-vaccine-success-again-?utm_medium=email&utm_source=CampaignMonitor_Editorial&utm_campaign=BLND%20%2020210413%20%20House%20Ads%20%20SM+CID_ca360d75e1696583669f6f9b80fb6e98
The article makes it very clear that his comments are contradicted by the evidence.
So why?
Cynical old me suspects this is cover/justification for the stupefying sums spent on various government efforts, especially Track & Trace. They've built this huge, expensive machine much of which is no longer needed. They are now offering free test kits - two per week - when infection rates are so low that false positives will probably outnumber genuine results.