2020/10/27

The Daily Mail poses the question, noting that "influenza cases nosedive by 98% across the globe"!

I would ask if it's more a question of 'has Covid killed off those susceptible to flu?'. If that's the case then we would expect flu+covid together to look like the flu does most years - but does it?

The figures are tricky to interpret. The Public Health England Report for week 43 (up to week 42 - download here) provides interesting reading. There are reams of analysis concerning the "cases" identified by testing - but we know that the PCR tests are not reliable, a positive result is not a medical "case" until diagnosed by a doctor, and to talk of increasing "cases" in absolute numbers is not based upon

2020/10/27

The Mail On-Line reports "thousands of angry demonstrators called on their governments to reconsider a second-round of lockdown restrictions".

Milan and Turin saw "vast crowds" protesting "freedom-limiting restrictions". In Barcelona "riot police intervened to bring the chaos to an end".

2020/10/25

Protests against Covid restrictions reprised this week-end in London, Naples, and Rome.

Daily Covid deaths in the UK have risen to around 175 (7 day avg) (1 in 325,000 population), as against 1335 expected deaths from all causes week 41. Covid admissions to hospital, and to intensive care / high dependency units in England were both running at 1 per 200,000 population in the same week (PHE week 42 flu/Coronavirus report).

In Italy the latest deaths per day number 106 (7 day avg) or 1 in 570,000 population (

2020/10/23

The Free Speech Union has had its application for permission to apply for a Judicial Review of Ofcom's 'coronavirus guidance' refused. 

Now they are applying for an "oral permissions hearing" where their barrister can present the case in person before a judge.

We wish them God Speed - and you can donate to their fighting fund here.

2020/10/23

The Gazette reports on the action taken by the Night-time Industries Association, which has instructed lawyers to press for a Judicial Review of the arbitrary "Covid suppression" measures that confront their members.

"We have been given no tangible scientific evidence to merit a full closure of hospitality and entertainment sectors and have been left with no option than to escalate the matter with legal action"  https://t.co/lG4TYSumId.

Quite so.

Read more here.

2020/10/23

"John’s Campaign - a voluntary, not-for-profit movement - speaks for people with dementia and their family carers. We are members of One Dementia Voice and work closely with other charities."

The "pre-action" letter was sent to Matt Hancock (Secretary of State for Health and Social Care) on 9th September - read the full details here.

There is no doubt that the policy to clear NHS beds of the elderly by sending them back to care homes in the early stages of the pandemic regardless of being possibly "Covid positive" cost lives, but what is less obvious is the number of lives lost through separation from famliy members and what amounts to imprisonment within care homes under Covid distancing rules - which may in some cases effectively amount to solitary confinement.

Since that time, Covid distancing has been

2020/10/23

Simon Dolan's challenge (commenced 3rd May) and the People's Brexit challenge (commenced 1st June) (not sure where Brexit comes into this, other than Robin Tilbrook is leader of the English Democrats) both cover similar ground - the "disproportionate" measures brought in by the Government in response to Covid-19.

Both challenges cover the legal grounds upon which many of the ever-changing Covid regulations have been imposed, as well as the legality of indovidual regulations that seem to be based on no science whatsoever (some not even on the "science" offered by their "scientific" experts.

"We have now established that The Coronavirus Act 2020 is null and void. There are many reasons for this, the main one being that S1(1) of the

2020/10/22

The Daily Mail reported (13 October) that the authors of the Great Barrington Declaration profoundly disagree with the assertions made in Parliament about the protection against Covid-19 likely to be offered by "herd immunity" - the health secretary is criticised for 'not having a basic understanding of infectious disease'.

Perhaps they are being a little hard on him; after all, he is only the (temporary) minister in charge whose speciality is likely not in the field of epidemiology - isn't he relying on his civil servants to give him appropriate advice?

Or perhaps it isn't thought appropriate for a minister of the Crown to display a little less arrogance and perhaps more humility?

Either way, it does illustrate the dreadful dysfunctionality that seems to permeate our parliamentary system.

2020/10/21

Politico reports: 

"People told to limit movements to within a five-kilometer radius of their homes and to stay out of each other’s houses".

Obviously the Prime Minister Micheál Martin has not been listening to his compatriot Ivor Cummins, who seems to me to speak more good sense than all the medical advisors of the world combined:

Like / Dislike this video here.

Sadly Ireland isn't alone - here in the UK Boris is busy trying to ram more lock-downs down the unwilling throats of the Northern regions of England, and Wales has just imposed a

2020/10/21

Carl Vernon reports a small victory over the lock-down Gestapo in Liverpool. I would say that a bunch of free citizens made a difference by supporting one man who had the courage to stand firm in the face of what amounts to intimidation by the Police.

Like / Dislike this video here.

2020/10/21

"Those of you who, unaccountably, still believe that your Gov't is being straight with you, " might wish to read this Yardley Yeadon Twitter thread which takes one Patrick Vallance to task for becoming "a political tool, used by others" . . .  Well worth five minutes of your time to read.

2020/10/20

Now pay attention - Computing Forever brings up a very difficult prediction that we probably should not ignore:

Like / Dislike this video here. If/when censored, try here.

Read

2020/10/18

The AIER reminds us that "there's nothing more permanent than a temporary government policy". Read Joakim Book's article.

2020/10/18

The WHO in 2019 published guidance that Lock-downs were undesirable options for dealing with a pandemic, along with Test and Trace.

In 2020 The WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reversed that advice following China's actions in Wuhan, but Dr David Nabarro (Britain's envoy to the WHO) reiterated the original guidance (Oct 2020) emphasizing that the effect of locking down is disproportionately felt by the poor and needy.

He was promptly contradicted by Tedros the following day. The AIER has the low down.

2020/10/17

We are all busy, but whilst some might think that the list of Sage's errors is probably too long to bother perusing, this article by Dr Mike Yeadon ('30yrs of experience within "Big Pharma"') is a readable and well-presented deconstruction of their efforts so far.

"SAGE made – and continues to make – two fatal errors in its assessment of the SAR-CoV-2 pandemic, rendering its predictions wildly inaccurate, with disastrous results. These errors led SAGE to conclude that the pandemic is still in its early stages, with the vast majority (93%) of the UK population remaining susceptible to infection and that, in the absence of more action, a very high number of deaths will occur . . .

. . .  Both of these points run entirely counter to known science regarding viruses and to a significant amount of evidence, as I will demonstrate"

...

2020/10/16

So says Chris Green, MP for Bolton West and Atherton, writing in Conservative Home, after resigning as Parliamentary Private Secretary in the Department for Education.

Sadly it isn't those who carry little responsibility for setting government policy who should be going, but those who wilfully pursue a failed stratagem that hasn't any support even from the supposedly all-knowing W.H.O.

2020/10/15

On current form by the time we get the next unviable choice of parliamentary candidates all crowbarring us with their largely unwanted and irrelevant party politics, our economy may be in ruins, inflation could well be rampant and much of our population may be destitute.

The Daily Telegraph asks the question - why do we in the UK get told what we must do (and if we don't like it, we can go lump it) whilst the Swiss have another option?

More here.

2020/10/15

You may or may not agree with this sentiment, but herd immunity has been a standard part of the scientific understanding of infectious disease (I nearly wrote "syllabus" but realised my mistake in time) for many years.

Professor Sunetra Gupta explains why the Covid-19 coronavirus may not be the same as influenza, for which herd immunity is indeed problematic.

2020/10/15

Download this article here.

2020/10/15

Ivor Cummins reviews the Swedish experience with a Swedish hospital Emergency Room doctor. As Sweden did the least of most countries in terms of non-medical counter-measures, their experience is important and provides a yardstick against which our own experience may be compared.

As ever, Ivor delivers a very calm, methodical, accessible presentation that makes many important points. Outstanding.

Like / Dislike this video here.