2020/11/22
With so much written already about Covid we might be forgiven for wondering whether there is any possibility that there remain new truths to learn, but that would be to assume that true scientific endeavour has been carefully used to try to understand it.
However, It would seem that in many people's eyes the official bodies so beloved of governments world-wide may not have been so unbiased. How else to explain the manifest failure of our UK government to undertake and publish any kind of risk assessment on the downsides of their beloved and ever-changing lock-down strategies?
So I offer no apologies for drawing attention to two new offerings via (but not originating from) Lockdown Sceptics:
a) Asymptomatic Positive Test Results do Not Significantly Spread the Virus.
b) Covid Immunity Does Not Evaporate That Quickly
This report in the Telegraph confirms that the La Jolla Institute for Immunology (part of the University of San Diego) has come to a similar conclusion.
As always, Lockdown Sceptics provide links to the original articles (both in Nature).
Also, in the Annals of Internal Medicine, we can read about a Danish Study (that it is alleged other journals were unwilling to publish), conducted in April-May, into the efficacy of mask-wearing in preventing the spread of the virus to the mask-wearer, other conditions such as social distancing being equal.
3030 participants were randomly assigned to the recommendation to wear masks, and 2994 were assigned to control (no mask). After one month the participants were assessed for catching the virus "by antibody testing, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), or hospital diagnosis".
The results were not statistically significant, being compatible (with 95% confidence limits) with either a reduction in transmission of up to 46% or an increase in transmission of up to 23%.
So - more work required!
And lastly, the AIER reports on an Irish "White Paper" by medical and public health professionals who after presenting a cost/benefit analysis, conclude that lockdowns incur excessive costs compared with their expected benefits.
Whilst many of us may have reached that conclusion through our own logic, it's good to have some confirmation from a more expert body of informed opinion.
"In its conclusion, the White Paper recommends four overarching strategies consistent with the 2019 WHO and Irish pandemic guidelines, including the removal of lockdowns and a focused protection of the vulnerable"
Read the full AIER comment and download the original paper here.
