11th June 2020
[ This article was published in Russia Today I feel I should mention that I have taken some criticism for writing articles for Russia Today, I have remained silent on the matter up to now.
However, I would like to point out that I tried to contact the BBC with regard to many of the issues I have been highlighting e.g. the COVID care home disaster in the UK – no interest. I tried to contact UK newspapers – no interest. And I have a good relationship with a lot of journalists.
In addition to this lack of interest in matters that I felt were extremely important, it concerns me that YouTube has a current policy of censoring content critical of COVID orthodoxy. Toby Young, who can be a divisive figure, wrote about this in the Spectator magazine, pointing out that Google and YouTube are using a form of censorship knowns as ‘shadow banning’, which makes content they disapprove of extremely difficult to find.
As Toby Young made clear, they shadow banned an interview with Peter Hitchens entitled ‘Lockdown is a catastrophe.’ They also removed an interview with Nobel laureate Michael Levitt called ‘the case against lockdown.’
When I criticised the modelling of Imperial College, a huge number of replies came flooding in. They attacked me, but were highly supportive of the modelling, and the Government actions. These posts were from people who have never posted before, or since. Hired guns? I watched an interview where a representative of Facebook explained that they were shutting down any posts on Vitamin C and COVID-19. Calling it fake news. As if they had any idea of the science behind it.
Currently, if people wish to point an accusatory finger at news outlets for manipulating and censoring the news, the facts, the information flow, they need to turn their attention a little closer to home. The mainstream media seem to have become what they should never, ever, be. Cheerleaders for their Governments.
And no, no-one has paid a single rouble to write this little rant. I have never written anything that I do not believe to be true. More fool me, probably. So, I would like to say thank you to Russia Today for being willing to publish my, completely unedited, thoughts. ]
COVID – will lockdown lead to a major health disaster
I fear we may be heading for a post-lockdown health catastrophe that could mirror the disaster of the post-Soviet era.
The self-inflicted damage we’ve done to our economies in the name of combating COVID-19 may end up killing far more people than the virus itself. The economic collapse that followed the communist bloc’s break-up caused millions of deaths.
There has never been a situation to compare with what we have been living through these past weeks and months. Never in the history of the world have entire countries been locked down. Never have entire countries inflicted such enormous damage to their own economies and distorted their health systems away from all other activities, to deal with a virus.
I felt, right from the start, that the potential harms from lockdown could well exceed any – speculative – reduction in COVID deaths. I began by arguing against lockdown from an economic perspective, which many people hated. They felt it was impossible to put a value on a human life, even to attempt to balance money versus health.
Perhaps they were unaware that we do this all the time. It is why NICE – the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence – was established in 2000. It is what all healthcare systems are forced to do. No country can afford to throw unlimited resources at healthcare. We all must decide what we can, and cannot, afford to do. Tough decisions to make, but essential.
Perhaps I came at the lockdown from a different viewpoint from most other people. When the pandemic took off, I was analysing the impact of economic and social upheaval on mortality. I was looking specifically at the breakup of the Soviet Union, as I knew that there had been a massive health impact from the rapid and uncontrolled “transformation” from a socialist to a market-based system.
An exhaustive study by three Austrian academics of the fallout from the dissolution of the communist bloc demonstrates the economic devastation it wrought:
“The immediate economic consequences of transformation were significant falls in gross national product. For example, between 1990 and 1993, real GDP had declined in Lithuania -18 per cent, Ukraine -10 per cent, Russia -10.1 per cent and Tajikistan -12.2 per cent. The first ten years of transformation was a period of great social disruption and chaos. The introduction of a market system of exchange led to a severe decline in gross domestic product, contraction of the labour market, and unemployment leading to social malaise including a rising death and suicide rate.”
What was the true impact on health? My main research interest is in cardiovascular medicine, and I was focussed on deaths from coronary heart disease (CHD). In lay terms, this means deaths from heart attacks. I had just put together the graph below, using Lithuania data.
As you can see, there was a dramatic increase in CHD deaths in 1989, the year that the Berlin wall fell. Lithuanians commenced their singing revolution, and there were mass demonstrations for independence, along with significant social upheaval.
The Soviet tanks rolled in, stayed for a bit, then rolled back out again, without doing much. Meanwhile, the Lithuanian GDP fell through the floor, and the rate of CHD virtually doubled over the next three years. A great mountain of increased mortality which makes anything from COVID look like a speed bump.
Of course, there were things over and above economic woes going on in Lithuania. However, I know that economic worries, by themselves, can be deadly. Perhaps the single deadliest thing of all. For instance, a study in South Africa found that people with significant financial worries were thirteen times more likely to have a heart attack:
“People who reported significant financial stress were 13 times more likely to have a heart attack than those who had minimal or no stress. Among those who experienced moderate work-related stress levels, the chances of having a heart attack were 5.6 times higher.”
Lithuania was not the only ex-Soviet country to see a massive increase in death. Not just from CHD, but in all-cause mortality. Here is a section of a report on the break-up:
“The transition to market economies in many post-communist societies of the former Soviet Union and other former eastern bloc countries in Europe has produced a ‘demographic collapse,’ Among the most serious findings is a four-year drop in life expectancy among Russian men since 1980, from 62 years to 58.
“There were also significant drops in life expectancy in Armenia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, and Romania. The immediate cause of the rising mortality is the ‘rise in self-destructive behaviour, especially among men.’ Old problems such as alcoholism have increased; drug misuse, a relatively new problem in the former communist bloc, has risen dramatically in recent years.” The report, Transition 1999, stated that suicide rates climbed steeply too, by 60% in Russia, 80% in Lithuania, and 95% in Latvia since 1989.
Behind the self-destructive behaviour, the authors say, were economic factors, including rising poverty rates, unemployment, financial insecurity, and corruption. Whereas only 4% of the population in the region had incomes equivalent to $4 (£2.50) a day or less in 1988, that figure had climbed to 32% by 1994.
“What we are arguing,” said Omar Noman, an economist for the development fund and one of the report’s contributors, “is that the transition to market economies [in the region] is the biggest … killer we have seen in the 20th century, if you take out famines and wars. The sudden shock and what it did to the system … has effectively meant that five million [Russian men’s] lives have been lost in the 1990s.”
Five million lives lost in Russia… alone. As I write this, we have reached a worldwide figure of slightly under four hundred thousand deaths from COVID, in total. COVID now seems to be on the way out, and we may never reach half a million deaths in total. The economic impact, however, is only just beginning.
Moving back to CHD again, what were the Russian figures for CHD deaths following transition? As with Lithuania, they are quite fascinating, and highly disturbing.
You may ask why there was a two-year time lag between CHD deaths between Lithuania and Russia. I think the answer is that when the Berlin wall came down in 1989, it triggered an immediate crisis in Lithuania. On the other hand, the rest of the Soviet Union limped on for a couple of years. In 1991 there was an attempted coup, which failed. However, this did signal the end, and the Soviet Union then rapidly broke up.
In late 1991, Russia became a separate country, under the leadership of Boris Yeltsin, and it quickly moved to a market-based economy. Some people became eye-wateringly rich – far more became extremely poor. This, the delayed break up, is almost certainly why the Russian death rate lags Lithuania by two years.
There is another important difference. Russia did not just have one CHD peak, but two. After rising, then rapidly falling, it changed direction and climbed back up again. Why the double peak?
I think this can be explained by the fact that, in August 1998, there was a massive banking collapse. It virtually wiped out the stock market and destroyed the value of the rouble. At the same time, unemployment skyrocketed and the savings of the common man were further obliterated. The recovery took years, as this report makes clear:
“The enormity of Russia’s financial collapse on Aug. 17, 1998 only really hit home with me the next day. “We are so f-cked,” George Kogan, one of Moscow’s most famous and longest serving equity salesmen, explained to me standing in the apartment of Simon Dunlop, one of Moscow’s most famous entrepreneurs. “The whole system has just crashed. It will take years for Russia to recover.” 5
Having seen the health impact of economic crashes, I hope you can now see why I was deeply concerned about lockdown. It was clear to me that this could mean massive financial hardship, and I feared that the deaths that followed could be catastrophic.
When our pandemic “experts” were putting together their models on death rate, did they take any of this into consideration? They did not. But what is the point of any model that does not even bother to consider the potential negative impact of what they are recommending?
As a doctor, if I were advising any form of medical treatment, I would be considered negligent if all I did was talk about the benefits. I need to inform the patient about potential downsides. The procedure may not work; you may get worse – and suchlike.
We were persuaded into lockdown with the promise that hundreds of thousands of lives could be saved in the UK – and millions worldwide. We were never warned about the many millions of lives that could – and, I fear, will – be lost as a consequence of lockdown. I consider that to be negligent. Especially as, in this case, the patient in question was the entire population of the Earth.
Dr. Malcolm Kendrick 
Dr Vernon Coleman agrees with you Malcolm
Have you approached any of the Telegraph columnists? Alison Pearson and some others have been very critical of the government’s handling of the crisis.
Try Planet Normal podcast for some sanity too.
I follow Prof Karol Sekora on Twitter and he is a breath of fresh air. Although Twitter can be an absolute viper’s nest there are lots of people with the same view as you. Don’t give up. Even though it may feel as if you are banging your head against a brick wall your views are shared by many about the way this crisis has been handled. Complete Horlivka.
Excellent data analysis of the total failure of ‘lockdown’ in the UK
Doctor,
Sadly your comments about censorship and MSM are unfortunately all too common amongst thinking people who are prepared to publically apply common sense and (trained) knowledge.
It really says a whole lot about increasing levels of controls over “speech freedom”.
This is something which you practice with a lot of patience on this blog – thank you.
I trust my comments do not cause your article to be “banned” or “blocked”
Once again a voice of sanity, following on from his many balanced and thoughtful posts about Covid (and other subjects). The prologue (or “rant” as Dr Kendrick refers to it) merely serves to confirm the suspicion that I, and many friends and colleagues, have had for months. In this case, we now hear how an NHS GP with a frontline view of real-world Covid has been shunned by those (especially publicly-funded BBC) who should be at least receptive to hearing an alternative (which he has proactively tried to share) to the government narrative. Scandalous…………..
David Urquhart, Yes, Dr Kendrick’s blog is confirmation of our thoughts during the last few months regarding the BBC. Never thought I would be pleased to hear what Toby Young has unearthed, or agreed with Piers Morgan…..(I turned to ITV after the repetitive, irritating BBC bulletins).
Malcolm thank you very much for this. Did you mean Nobel Laureate Michael Levitt? I watched these interviews they were very informative, expertly researched and presented.
Not surprised the Tory press ignored your well reasoned assessment but very surprised regarding the Guardian/Observer.
Would seem right up their street.
Keep them coming
You wouldn’t be surprised if you had tried posting about D3 or C and/or the reasons why we are deficient and what it means for the immune system of the Grauniad.
Moderated almost as quickly as a post mentioning Israel.
I don’t go to Google any more. They censor most of what I am interested in. You can find lots of the stuff Google have censored on DuckDuckGo. There are many, many articles about Vitamins C, D and Covid there. Sometimes you can even find YouTube videos that have been taken down elsewhere. And of course lots of Dr Kendrick. 🙂
May I suggest a more nuanced approach? I switched from Google Search to DuckDuckGo a year or two ago. But I quickly found that, for any topic that is uncontroversial, Google usually provides many more useful hits.
So I use DuckDuckGo by default, and stick to it for controversial matters. But if its yield is disappointing fore ancient history, mathematics, astronomy or forensic science, I switch to Google – and usually find what I want very quickly.
The Guardian is as bad as the BBC. Took the government’s bribe to be the main fearmongering propaganda machine.
However, notice how much they are begging for the donations at the moment. Presumably the 3 month “grant” has ended. Maybe the tide will turn and they’ll start to tell the truth? We can live in hope but don’t hold your breath.
THey are both funded by Gates
There’s been a huge role reversal. The Guardian is now a bastion of Establishment views and censorship along with the BBC. It’s the Telegraph that has had more questioning points of view. How weird is that?
Can I suggest you contact the Byline Times a new independent monthly not funded by media moguls or advertising. It’s the only newspaper I now read and I’ve been impressed by their journalism.
Thanks, hadn’t seen that one.
There’s also the Off-Guardian
Thank you Dr K for using whatever media is available to speak out about this catastrophe. It’s almost as though I’ve been transported to another parallel universe we’re common sense has been outlawed and the idiots have taken charge. Never in my 71 years have I felt so worried, angry, yet virtually impotent. What a legacy for our children. Keep going, we need every sane person to make as much noise as possible.
I feel exactly the same, Peter. Indeed my dreams have become quite disordered, with many overtones of Orwell, Kafka and other frightening fantasists. So much so that I really fear for people with mental disorders or borderline conditions. I have always felt that I am rock solid in that department, probably due to having very low agreeability, empathy and conscientiousness so that I am mostly quite unconcerned with other people’s emotions and states of mind. Every characteristic has its advantages and drawbacks!
Even when fully conscious, any exposure to news tends to put me on mind of Alice in Wonderland. I imagine myself confronted by the Cabinet, the Imperial College scientists, the NHS panjandrums, etc., and suddenly exclaiming, “You’re nothing but a pack of cards!”
I can no longer tell what are paranoid surreal fantasies and what is reality.
Have doctors REALLY been told to forbid antibody tests?
Did Dim Whitty actually say that we will have another lockdown in October???
Meanwhile the virus continues to disappear, presumably due to the increasing population immunity, more and more hospital trusts are reporting no deaths in 48 hours/7 days
https://www.cebm.net/oxford-covid-19-evidence-service/
yet the mainstream media is still panicking that we will all die instantly if we go outside.(unless of course we are in a BLM demonstration)
I couldn’t agree more. The whole situation has become completely bewildering.
I’m just thankful I became thoroughly familiar with certain things before the world went mad. They are few and far between sadly but I’m clinging to them for dear life.
It seems this is what going on with Gates mandatory vaccines and ID2020.org added in
https://bigthink.com/paul-ratner/34-years-ago-a-kgb-defector-described-america-today
The third stage would be “crisis”. It would take only up to six weeks to send a country into crisis, explained Bezmenov. The crisis would bring “a violent change of power, structure, and economy” and will be followed by the last stage, “normalization.” That’s when your country is basically taken over, living under a new ideology and reality.
I agree. In the UK, this is the government trying to cover its total incompetence both on health and the economy. It is spinning to distract from the neglect of the NHS and ignoring pandemic planning.
Oh Robert …. “pandemic planning.” We don’t need that; they have just unleashed that: house-arrest; plans for anti-viral drugs; silly masks; ASD (anti-social distancing); trashing kid’s educations; plans for vaccines …….. tamiflu 2009; previously failed vaccines; mad modelling; you inevitably get the Fergusons rising to the surface: the turds float to the top, as they say.
“the turds float to the top, as they say.”
Only if the body is unhealthy! I’m not a doctor but doesn’t that happen with liver damage?
Jeannette, I think the quotation you may be thinking of is Imhoff’s Law:
“A bureaucracy is very much like a cesspool, the really big chunks float to the top”.
As regards our Western governments, that is demonstrably true. Whether deliberately or not, we have wound up with a system of government that guarantees the most psychopathic, unfeeling, selfish and brutal people will find themselves in charge. It’s a simple process: to become an MP or a Minister, one has to pass all kinds of tests and satisfy various boards and panels. At every single stage, those who have morals and a conscience tend to drop out or be eliminated.
As Adlai Stevenson, US presidential contender in 1952, 1956 and 1960, explained, “A candidate has to render himself unfit for office in order to obtain it”.
If the voters were alert, well-informed, and insistent on the good moral character of candidates for office, these tendencies might be somewhat reduced. But they are not.
‘Our deep registry of historical memory reveals that American voters have never found any sort of erudite candidate appealing. The first election I recall between Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson imprinted this exchange: “Governor Stevenson, you have the vote of all the thinking people,” to which he replied, “That’s not enough, madam. I need a majority”’.
– Joseph Natoli, “Bottom-Feeders with Low Information” https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/02/09/bottom-feeders-with-low-information/
Ha yes, steatorrhea, also caused by gallstones.
“Bulky, offensive floating stools” now who does that remind me of?
Dear Dr. Malcolm Kendrick,
I believe that, in the last sentence of the introductory part (regarding Russia Today), there’s a word — thank — missing. Where it reads:
‘So, I would like to SAY YOU to Russia Today for being willing to publish my, completely unedited, thoughts.’
I believe it should be:
‘So, I would like to say THANK you to Russia Today for being willing to publish my, completely unedited, thoughts.’
I would like to thank you for all your insightful posts regarding CHD and COVID-19.
Best regards,
Victor Ferreira from Portugal.
More power to you, Dr. Kendrick. We seem to have entered an age of unmitigated ignorance and manipulation. Your informed, rational, plain speaking posts lift my spirits.
Michael Levitt?
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7229971/
A perfect storm: Root cause analysis of supra-therapeutic anticoagulation with vitamin K antagonists during the COVID-19 pandemic
Brazil
Cheer up. things could get worse, like an asteroid hitting us or something ;o)
I want to present a counter argument. Germany after WWII. It recovered very rapidly, despite massive damage to infrastructure and huge loss of life. Marshall Aid helped, of course, but I think economist J.K. Galbraith put his finger on the main reason. Quoting from memory, he said something like the Germans knew what needed doing to rebuild the country and they did it. Or to put it another way, the systems were all in place and everyone knew them, it was just a question of allocating the remaining population into the open slots in the system.
Unlike the Soviet Union where they had to figure out entirely new ways of organising society, i.e. rebuild the system from the ground up, we can just pick up the reins and say giddy-up and off we go again. Well, maybe not so easily, but with far less trauma than the Eastern Bloc.
they seemingly did NOT have a sense of entitlement Martin;
I hope that you are right.
Also, the Russians brought in American advisors. Maybe that was their big mistake.
Far more likely is a CME like the Carrington Event in September 1859 that melted telegraph cables across the US and abruptly changed the direction of wander of the North Pole. If it hit us head on now most of civilisation as we know it would be back in the Stone Age – no internet no electricity grid and everything that means. A bit less probable is an event that seems to come around every 12,000 years or so, the last time wiping out the Pleistocene megafauna and kicking us back into an Ice Age for 1300 years just as we were just leaving the last one – current theories are asteroid impact from parts of a swarm that we rarely pass through, or a micro nova of the Sun, you pays your penny and makes your choice, plenty to worry about even if a bunch of clowns weren’t intent on destroying the health and well-being of the 6.5 billion they Lord it over.
“6.5 billion”? Make that 7.8 billion. https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/
Every time your turn your head… When I was born, it was 2.5 billion. And every day since, some clever fellow assures us that population is just about to “level out”. Just as soon as everyone in the world reaches the average US standard of living.
Unfortunately, that would take the resources of another 2.5 planets exactly like Earth.
Great article Doctor and thank you.
What really surprises me is that you seem “surprised” that the media would not publish. It is laughable that some (otherwise erudite) people on here were surprised at the level of censorship in the MSM. It was amusing that the BBC and even the Gruinard were proposed as vehicles for publication. Without wishing to be rude I will ask “where have you people been for the past twenty years”?
Steve-R has a good article about the Charrington mass extension.
This is so appropriate but we do not need a natural “event” to wipe out our economic civilisation.
Has anyone on here heard of the Man Made Global warming cult/religion?
Well that is the greatest threat to civilisation, and Boris Corbyn/Johnson is a fully paid up member, as is ‘my’ Pope, and with the honourable exception of President Trump, so is every world leader, determined to drive us back to the stone age with nonsensical “green New deals” ” net zero carbon dioxide” etcetera.
If anyone wants to know what real censorship is, try getting a scientific discussion going about the merits/danger of plant food – Carbon Dioxide – at the BBC.
Fortunately there are a few realistic websites which discuss Global Warming and the Wuhan Chinese Flu with an emphasis on facts.
Whatupwiththat.com Zerohedge.com American thinker.com Joanne Nova.com and the only one in the uk apart from Notalotofpeopleknowthat.com and Breitbarteurope.com plus Thelastrefuge.com. for outstanding items which the fake news refuses to publish.
I am sure at least one of those would publish your marvellous writing Dr Kendrick.
I shall try and link to some them if you are in agreement – I visit them daily to try and get some truth in the news.
So please keep up your great realistic writings and it is incumbent on all us humble readers to spread the word.
I think it was an Irishman who said “For evil to succeed it needs good men to remain silent” or something!
Logic and evidence about the lockdown is not the only scientific enterprise which is subject to censorship by the authorities and their media lap dogs.
Dire though the consequences of the lockdown will be, the mad dash towards zero-CO2 energy is worse and would cause the complete breakdown of Western civilisation if continued to a conclusion. The only zero-CO2 energy which actually works, if that were even a desirable policy, is nuclear. But the same ignorant ninnies who think that wind and solar can solve the “problem” are also dead against nuclear.
The climate change which is actually happening, as opposed to that projected in the computer models, is modest, benign and almost completely natural. But the many scientific papers supporting this conclusion are kept from the politicians as well as being wilfully ignored by the mainstream media and censored by Wiki, Google, Youtube, Twitter, etc. The media are all culpable but, in the UK, the worst are the BBC and the Gaianurd.
David – re solar, if my own experience is anything to go by solar energy appears to hav s bright future. Steaming hot water for 9 months of the year and shower friendly for the remainder and the technology I hav is almost 10 years old. Plus modern society is great at generating waste & tat at an ever increasing rate that finds its way too often in our river systems & seas. I don’t think thatz progress never mind the air pollution prevalent in India, China, northern Italy and other countries about to join the “first world” or our progressive statin world if you prefer (where natural body elements are treated as invasive & damaging)
Jerome, I agree with you 100% on solar and renewables in general. Nuclear should have been being developed since 1950’s for sure. The research got shut down to a large extent, if I am not mistaken. I wonder why…
But solar technology is improving all the time. I believe at some point it will become more cost effective than fossil fuels. And in 2030 China and India are planning to ban sales of all new ICEs. So, it might be game over pretty soon for fossil fuels, at least I hope so. But they will not go down without kicking and screaming and spreading lots of bullshit in hopes that people believe in it. No power structure ever does…
Sasha – agreed. Though obvious fear factor with nuclear (eg. Chernobyl, 3 ml island & Fukushima). Our very own Dr. K has referred to pollution as factor in heart disease so irrespective of the carbon issue, less oil and more renewables must be a positive.
Jerome Savage and Sasha: It is complicated why nuclear is a declining part of our energy mix, but it will be an important part of the future mix. TMI and Chernobyl, of course, are the most visible part of this decline, but politics and money are the major reasons, and the necessity of a source of water for cooling the core . Nuclear plants cost vast sums to construct and to decommission, but there are new technologies which are very promising, such as heat-modulating salt cooling systems. We must expand nuclear energy production to fuel our way of life. As for fossil fuel, I cannot enjoy optimal health without the ability to drive to the national parks. About 4-5 gallons per week. In fact, many people depend upon private transportation to meet their basic needs. In major cities there are other options, but many people don’t live in major cities. In the Western States of the U.S. most cities were not built until the Twentieth Century, long after the heyday of large public transport systems such as subways. I cannot think of a major Western city in which the majority of the public uses public transport, as they do in New York City, for example.
Gary: if I remember correctly, San Francisco had good public transportation system that got dismantled and it was done on purpose.
As far as nuclear, I remember reading Freeman Dyson (right name?) and how they were doing very promising research into nuclear in the 50’s but it got shot down, according to him.
Sasha: Yes, except it was Los Angeles. In the early days of the adoption of the automobile. All the street car tracks were ripped up so that it could never be used again. I don’t know anything about what Freeman Dyson said about nuclear energy, but clearly there have been very promising and safe technologies developed. Nuclear must be part of the mix for the future. Politics and money are impediments to this. We need vast amounts of energy for our normal lives, and the renewables have downsides which are rarely spoken of.
Remember when nuclear power was going to give us electricity too cheap to meter?
The main problem is the infrastructure cost – and just the same with wind and solar. Electric cars? They’ll have to dig up the streets to put in bigger cables. And let’s not even mention the batteries, toxic chemicals and limited life.
Then there was going to be fusion, I haven’t kept up with the research there.
The other side of the coin is to reduce energy usage which is well on the way by crashing the economy and generating more have-nots.
Chris C – off main topic but Solar power is not so expensive and does not carry the maintenance risk & security costs of nuclear.
For $9billion “Once completed, the solar project will provide 38% of Morocco’s annual electricity generation. Morocco, the only African country to have a power cable link to Europe (2,100 MW [3]), aims to benefit” and its clean, no emissions & safe.
Yes I think the efficiency of solar especially, and also wind.has improved significantly.
Everything has risks and rewards. There’s the apocryphal tale of the miner in the pub holding up one and a half fingers and the landlord saying
“So that’s five pints then, Geordie?”
and of course there was pneumoconiosis and Aberfan to contrast with the nuclear meltdowns.
Some of my neighbours have solar panels which seem to work well. I was entertained when pied wagtails nested under one of the solar roofs.Several farmers have wind generators which are profitable, there are five big generators the other side of town and some huge arrays in the ocean.
Like nuclear though it’s the commissioning and decommissioning costs that are the deal breaker. I still favour using less energy, although not being vegan I can’t light my farts to heat my house.
Sasha, Freeman Dyson contrasted progress in nuclear power with progress in aircraft. Airplanes today are amazingly safe when you consider everything that could go wrong. And the reason they are so safe today is that in the early days every conceivable variation was tried out and only the most successful survived — monoplanes, biplanes, triplanes; pusher propellers, puller propellers, flapping wings; wood and fabric, aluminium, carbon fibre; piston engines, turboprops, jet engines; etc etc. If something better came along, discard the old way of doing things.
But with nuclear power the authorities were so frightened of the potential for disaster in the case of failure that they forbade experimentation and insisted on sticking rigidly to known designs and tight regulations. Our current nuclear power stations are basically 1950s designs with modern control systems. The experimental period was never allowed to happen.
You see the same thing happening today with Spacex vs Boeing. Spacex keeps pumping out rockets, blowing them up on the test stand, and incorporating the lessons learned in the next one. Boeing does everything slowly and carefully with computer simulations before testing a single piece of hardware. As a result Boeing are years behind and billions over budget compared to Spacex.
Martin, thanks for the explanation. I didn’t know these details.
Patrick, agree with you totally, and thanks for the ‘realistic’ list… didn’t know a couple of them.
For decades the “German Economic Miracle” puzzled me. My parents, who were very familiar with Germany and spent much time there in the 1930s, always assured me that it was just because the Germans worked so hard and got right down to business.
Recently, Michael Hudson provided an explanation that makes more sense to me. After WW2, the Allies passed laws that forgave all German debts (except to Nazis). A new currency was introduced, leading to the only “Jubilee” and full remission of debts in modern history.
Our countries could enjoy precisely such rebirth and such economic miracles, of all our debts were cancelled – which governments could do at a stroke of the pen.
But they won’t, because our governments are literally owned by the wealthy – to whom most of the debts are owed.
I have read that it was US money and influence – also in Japan – once they decided they needed to build a ‘wall’ against Soviet expansion and junked the immediate post-War intention to make both into ‘agricultural’ economies devoid of the industrial base that might again threaten the ‘free’ world.
Most of the debts are created by the poor, not by the wealthy. Most of the taxes (per capita) are paid by the wealthy, not by the poor.
Proof please.
If we take US economy, for example. The largest economy in the world. What are the biggest drivers of its budget deficits?
You’ll find that a lot of ordinary people’s savings is invested in government debt, or do you imagine that the state only borrows from the rich? By all means cancel the debt but be prepared for a commensurate decrease in your own wealth.
Martin,
That’s a good point, but it does not detract from the main argument, that even if we recover sooner than the Soviet Union did, there will be much loss of life from the various negative effects of the lockdown.
It took the Germans a long time to rebuild their country too.
I lived near Mühlheim am Main, just east of Frankfurt, from 1969 – 70. Much of the town was then still bomb sites, cleared and leveled, with the footprints of the former buildings visible between the weeds. Offenbach, the nearest large town was the same, especially the part near the river which was inaccessible behind hoardings. When I went back, driving with the family through Mühlheim in 1988, it had changed so much I had difficulty finding my way around.
Another thing I noticed, there was nothing much old around. When I got married in England a year later, it was easy to find pre-war furniture for next to nothing which one could use until one could afford better. But I had a work colleague in Germany, ten years older than me, newly married who had a lovely modern flat which was practically empty, as they had no choice but to wait until they could afford new.
but the plan is to rebuild it from the ground up without anything that emits CO2. Gates has called for a zero carbon world.
They are bringing about marxism
Of course we could bounce back but we will not be allowed to.
The “Hired guns” you referred to could well be the British Army’s 77th Brigade, tasked with countering “fake news” on social media. This is the country we now live in!
I am afraid the lunacy of our hysterical approach to tackling a bad (but not even one of the worst) respiratory viruses beggars belief. Plenty of mathematically literate people have modelled the expected level of mortality from COVID-19. Many of these estimates seem to make realistic predictions – as opposed to the schoolboy hysterical rubbish from Imperial College. There are many examples to choose from, but the one that speaks to the situation with the greatest clarity is the analysis by Professor Michael Levitt. Using his trusty Excel spreadsheet skills he modelled the progress of COVID-19 on the Diamond Princess cruise ship using what data was available. He saw an enclosed system in which COVID-19 ran its course – For all the ineffective confinement to cabins, the virus progressed around the ship – presumably carried by the service staff and the ventilation system. Using this data he applied it to the UK, as a closed ship with no lock down. His estimate of mortality – based on no lockdown – for the UK, as COVID-19 played itself out was . . . 60,000. This is looking dangerously close to being accurate (Jun 11 just over 41,000 and daily deaths going down)
People often talk about “No gain without the pain” . . . Here we are confronted with something quite the different . . We are getting the pain . . . and we will gain absolutely nothing . . other than a lot more pain in the future. (Malcolm is so clear on this point)
The irony is that the young – who were never a sure mortal target of the virus – are the ones who will pay the greatest price over the coming decade (NB how long it took to recover from the 2008 crash – and this is worse)
Michael Levitt conversation describing his analysis: On YouTube : “Prof. Michael Levitt | Direct | COVID-19: Choices and Consequences”
Much to his own astonishment, Andrew Mather recently discovered that the fundamental models used by all epidemiologists are a pile of steaming manure. They contain elementary mathematical errors which, as he says, would cost a schoolboy most of the marks for a given question. Such as assuming that, given 100 infected people on Day 1 and if the disease takes 10 days to run its course, there will be 90 infected on Day 2, 80 on Day 3, etc… whereas of course there will be (at least) 100 infected until Day 11 when some may have recovered.
To hammer this point home, he suggests that if 100 women conceive in Month 1, and it takes about 9 months to have a baby, 5 or 6 women will deliver perfectly healthy full-sized babies in month 2, 5 or 6 in month 3… and 5 or 6 in month 20.
I urge that everyone follow his series of videos from the URL below onward. They are fairly short, and his delivery is classic English irony. Quite entertaining, except when his sheer disbelief causes him to repeat himself.
Thank you for sharing that video by Andrew Mather. It seems like an astounding oversight and yet to a lay person his exposure makes perfect sense. I hope it stands up to interrogation.
Thank you for keeping me informed. Its a pleasure to read your work.
Simultaneously very interesting and worrying. The lockdown alone would be bad enough, but who knows what Brexit deals are being done while we are being pushed in certain directions by our leaders. Chlorinated chicken, anyone?
If only there were some way for citizens to influence “their” governments to act in the citizens’ interests… but there isn’t. You can vote (in practice) for either of two big parties, both of which will do what you don’t want. You can write to your MP, who will blandly reply explaing (as to a retarded child) the government policy of which you were complaining. You can demonstrate (oh wait, you can’t…) Or you can get angry, although I wouldn’t advise it. Not because violence is immoral, or illegal, or unwise… but because you are the one who will get hurt.
I still think that, back in the days of the USSR, some bright spark in the USA or Britain heard longingly about their elections with only one party to vote for. And then the stroke of inspiration came! “Let’s have two parties, so we can say how democratic we are – but have them both do exactly the same things when elected. That way the proles will be happy to think they have rights and can influence the government, although of course they don’t and they can’t”.
“Testing Theories of American Politics:Elites, Interest Groups, and AverageCitizensMartin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page”
Click to access gilens_and_page_2014_-testing_theories_of_american_politics.doc.pdf
“Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence. The results provide substantial support for theories of Economic-Elite Domination and for theories of Biased Pluralism, but not for theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy or Majoritarian Pluralism”.
As there, so here.
It already has. Just pick your industry if you want to classify it that way. You now have 20 suicides of crew members aboard cruise ships. The cruise industry is still trying to repatriate these workers. If you follow the circumstances, what these ships and their crews have been put throw ought to rank up there with war crimes. The CDC is probably one of the most inept and incompetent organizations in the US government and without a doubt will be responsible for more lockdown deaths than covid infection. Note that the deaths related to cruise ship infection which is mainly passengers, who may or may not have gotten the infection while on the ship is still below 100. The number does not include the suicides. I wonder how the families of the crew members are fairing healthwise considering they do not have any income. Note that these families are spread all over the world, and they are in less developed countries.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxznGIj8Ja0&t=6s (Satire)
I’m very sorry that you are having to make this post because I fear you are absolutely right. I have felt all through these last two months that the problems will not go away easily. I hope that others who are well placed to take decisions read your post and do something, but I am not optimistic.
In 2014 with the World Health Organization’s sponsorship and promotion in Kenya of a UN vaccine against tetanus which contained compounds which would effectively sterilize the girls who received it during that time of life in which they traditionally become mothers.
This accusation was made by none less than the Catholic Bishops Conference of Kenya, and it was proven by a rigorous study of the vaccines themselves in a South African laboratory.
Global Research published a summary of news regarding this crime against humanity in an article entitled, “Mass Sterilization”: Kenyan doctors find anti-fertility agent in UN tetanus vaccine. They reported:
The Kenya Catholic Doctors Association, however, saw evidence to the contrary, and had six different samples of the tetanus vaccine from various locations around Kenya sent to an independent laboratory in South Africa for testing.
The results confirmed their worst fears: all six samples tested positive for the HCG antigen. The HCG antigen is used in anti-fertility vaccines, but was found present in tetanus vaccines targeted to young girls and women of childbearing age. Dr. Ngare, spokesman for the Kenya Catholic Doctors Association, stated in a bulletin released November 4:
“This proved right our worst fears; that this WHO campaign is not about eradicating neonatal tetanus but a well-coordinated forceful population control mass sterilization exercise using a proven fertility regulating vaccine. This evidence was presented to the Ministry of Health before the third round of immunization but was ignored.” (Source.)
But what connects the dots on this story, is who was behind the funding of the vaccine which was offered for free to Kenyans:
It should be noted that UNICEF and WHO distribute these vaccines for free, and that there are financial incentives for the Kenyan government to participate in these programs. When funds from the UN are not enough to purchase yearly allotments of vaccines, an organization started and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, GAVI, provides extra funding for many of these vaccination programs in poor countries. (See: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Vaccine Empire on Trial in India.)
Follow the money. All roads inevitably lead back to the Gates.
@brainunwashed; Snopes says No.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/tetanus-vaccine-sterilization/
Snopes! pfft! About as reliable as a Cummins eye test or a Facebook fact checker. OK if you want o know whether a chap with a hook for a hand tries to break into doggers’ cars, but that’s about it. I’d be more inclined to believe a journal (eg https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12346214/) just because Catholics complained doesn’t mean it is incorrect
KJE: Thank you for posting that. A criminal act of the most abhorrent sort, giving an anti-fertility drug to unsuspecting women. No different in kind from the racial policy of the Third Reich.
More than Snopes says no – ( for those who believe Snopes are MSM derived.)
Ricke: Snopes is not a credible source of information. No more reliable than the mainstream media. It is well-documented that the anti-fertility vaccine was used in Kenya, the Philippines, and Mexico.
The biggest problem I foresee with your ‘stress’ theory of heart disease/attacks is that it can’t be treated with a drug, and if that can’t be done, Western medicine, and the NHS in particular, won’t want anything to do with it, which will mean no-one (who matters) will listen. Mental health issues have exactly this problem. If you go to the NHS with ANY mental health problem you will be given (usually) SSRIs and that’s it. You have to ask for counselling or psychiatric help and it is all ‘voluntary’ nowadays – in other words you have to find people who might treat you and pay for it yourself. So really it’s drugs or nothing, despite all the noise they make about asking for help.
As regards not being published in the UK and/or being censored, this is the new norm, because everything is judged by ‘social media’, i.e. what the populace thinks is what travels. If the populace wishes to believe in ‘the science’ propounded by govt it will disapprove of things like Vit C or Vit D treatments and social media will promptly start censoring it. You see exactly the same thing happening with pulling down statues being the way to end racism (social media spreads it and suddenly large scale monument removal is the solution to inequality), and J.K Rowling being condemned as a TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminist) for daring to suggest women menstruate, an idea which does not fit into social media’s idea of ‘inclusion’. Everything is trial by social media. Govts know this so govts use this. They give an idea a bad name, call it fake news and – Behold! – social media, and then the actual media, will jump right on that bandwagon and it becomes a fact, and to disagree with that socially prescribed ‘fact’ is to be a Flat Earther (or a TERF, or, or…), no discussion allowed.
Lastly, I doubt that your invasion of one-off commenters were “hired guns” but rather just a social media lynch mob. Someone/s will have shared or linked your article and the hive mind of ‘outraged-of-any-town-you-care-to-mention’ will have arrived in their droves to make their feelings of disgust known, then flown off again to join the next attack of killer bees on the next new outrage. It happens all the time, no conspiracy involved. Like I say, govts and commercial interests don’t need to conspire, social media will do it all for them if they play their cards right.
Chancery,
I think you have it a little backward. You are right about the killer bees, but it is the owners of the social media platforms who make the decision to actually censor things. As to who calls the shots, that is a big cabal up there of govt, big pharma, Gates / WHO / CDC, etc.
Last time I saw anyone destroying statues it was the Taliban
Great article. Thank you.The censorship of any dissenting voices is frightening.
Yes, I find Russia Today does really brilliant documentaries. Their problem is that it never involves Russia or its sphere of influence. People say the same about Al Jazeera. Again I think they do brilliant stuff also. I would imagine thought that they wouldn’t permit anything critical of Qatar.
And Toby Jones? I know it sticks in the craw – but here he’s right. Equally I suppose you’ve never really lived until you find yourself agreeing with someone your normally diametrically opposed to.
you’re not your.
“Their problem is that it never involves Russia or its sphere of influence”.
Peter, if you will select the button entitled “Russia” from the top of RT’s home page, I think you will find a plethora of stories about Russia – good, bad and neutral. Right now, for instance,
“To protect & serve: Russian National Guardsman FIRED after hidden camera films threat of false accusation”
“Criminal case opened against Norilsk mayor following massive Siberian oil spill that threatens Arctic Ocean”
“Drama around famous actor Efremov is latest example of divide between ordinary Russians & Moscow’s wealthy liberal elites”
“Leading Russian scientist says border closures ‘pointless’ as country passes 500,000 Covid-19 cases”
“Moscow recorded nearly 60% more deaths than normal in May as Covid-19 pandemic ravaged Russian capital”
“Towards herd immunity? New data suggests millions of Russians may have Covid-19 antibodies”
Thank you Malcolm
Two points
Firstly the censorship by groups for Facebook, YouTube Instagram. We have no control over this, they are corporate interests.
Secondly, the lockdown itself. In Belgium we had lockdown but in a mild form. I think of people on cruise ships, in care homes being locked in their rooms in their cabins, for days on end, was this the only solution/possible course of action? What were the aims, to spare the health services? Would it have been better to say to the over 65’s it is better to stay at home etc? If the seniors are vulnerable, is leaving them to die in a corner a solution that reflects well on our society? Would a programme of treatment of their vulnerabilities, diabetes hypertension etc be less costly for society, than stopping virtually all economic activity for two and a half months? And this turns back to question 1, if Facebook etc have decided that no debate in these matters is allowed, and parliament is muzzled, then where can it be debated?
Excellent!
How on earth has it been possible for the mainstream media to be so compliant? What forces lie behind their refusal to discuss anything but trivia? Are there any rules binding them in ‘national emergency’ situations?
They seem to have been fed target and outcome figures to keep them busily occupied so there is always new “news” and they don’t need to look for or pay attention to anything else. The public has been encouraged to supply lots of stories for them, music, dancing, praise for workers, happy clappy stuff and heroic war-time spirit. The government has fed them plenty of suspect fear-mongering doom and gloom figures. A break from talking about Brexit. They’ve been kept busy with no great effort on their behalf.
Unfortunately, there will be plenty to keep them busy in the aftermath.
“How on earth has it been possible for the mainstream media to be so compliant? What forces lie behind their refusal to discuss anything but trivia? Are there any rules binding them in ‘national emergency’ situations?”
Tish, the answer to your questions is “money”.
Proprietors who toe the government line are warmly viewed, honoured, knighted, given peerages, offered lucrative posts, etc.
Editors who do what their proprietor wants thrive; the others are rapidly fired and may never get an editorial job again.
Journalists need a very well-tuned sense of what their editors and proprietors want. (If this is not strongly enough signalled, it is usually safe to estimate what the government wants and do that).
Journalists who do what the editor, proprietor and government want tend to be praised, promoted, given bonuses, etc. They may even become editors themselves.
Journalists who try to wing it quickly find their articles spiked, their pay rises cancelled, promotion impossible.
It’s not rocket science.
Thanks Tom. So follow the money again, as usual.
They were paid off!
Has anyone seen Deborah Cohen on the BBC since May 8th, when she did the Newsnight article questioning Neil Ferguson’s maths?
The media are fully complicit in the current state of corruption. There is also a lot of friendship and fraternizing at the top, between media, politicians, entertainment celebrities, and sports figures.
Need more like you Dr K. Lots more.
I get the feeling there is no thought going by the government about the consequences of their actions. Having seen only a few short sections of the regular evening appearances of the three muppets, not only have they not thought, they do not have the intellectual competence to think.
I don’t think it’s lack of intellectual competence as such, but that they are incapable of imagining a life without money and privilege, so they really don’t understand how anyone could be bothered about what they’ve done. After all, they’ve got rid of a lot of expensive sick and elderly people, given children time off school (jolly good wheeze, wot!) and probably reduced house prices while allowing rogue tenants to live rent free, so who could possibly object to any of it?
AhNotepad,
I am reminded of the work of C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock: Essays on Theology (Making of Modern Theology)
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be “cured” against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.”
One of the attractive features of our system of “democracy” (from the point of view of politicians, anyway) is that the frequent elections mean that all accountability can be shed whenever there is a change of government. Everything wrong can then be (and is) blamed on the last lot.
The worst single fault of our system is the lack of any mechanism by which the people can censure and punish leaders who have performed badly (or, like the present lot, appallingly).
The American comedian Kinky Friedman suggested the best solution.
“I suggest limiting all elected officials to just two terms – one in office and one in prison”.
Nailing them upside down to the church door would be good. Red hot poker even better.
chris c. Your response is unacceptable….I suppose you think you are being funny.
My husband was in politics. Torture as you describe is wrong, and your statement is inflammatory. Shame on you.
I am aware of local politicians being expected to
1. Sort out satellite TV on Christmas eve night
2. Deal with depressed constituents in middle of the night
3. Fill in multiple constituent forms for all sorts of government Grants and supports
4. Prioritize a constituent for a particular public service (jump the queue effectively)
5. Listen ad nauseam to claims that they either
a. only think for themselves
b.care nothing for their constituents
And on and on.
I can think of fewer less satisfying jobs – unless you get to the top where privileges increase with responsibility and there is less confrontation with multiple local unreasonable demands.
I’d be happy to sort out those things for the salary that they get. In It, it common to be asked to sort out problems on weekends and holidays – but for a lot less money – and while being told you are a tax dodger. My MP seems very insensitive – she actually had the cheek to write to our small (closed) business suggesting that we donate unused IT equipment to schools – anything “unused” we would have to sell to raise money – certainly not going to give it away to organizations that we already fund through tax and that aren’t even doing their job of providing education. Had it been books, I might have been more sympathetic.
Sorry KJE
My references are to local representatives, let’s say, bottom of the ladder politicos. Paid a token while working full time.
Jerome. You are correct in some respects, and put your response politely, thankyou. I was barmy to even respond to the rudeness, as my family told me to let such comments flow over my head. But it’s Father’s Day, and they know what a good man their Dad is, and how hard he has worked to relentlessly do his bit to improve matters in this complicated world. That means a lot.
Jennifer – My attitude is – if you can do better then go out there and do better. Criticize policy & decisions all you like. (Subject matter now closed for me in case I have my say on the tribulations & trials of local referees.)
They certainly give that appearance – though in Shapp’s case I think no effort is involved.
Yes Dr. K. I did notice a number of sustained technically loaded attacks that appeared to me to be orchestrated, were from virgin commentators, sense of pincer attacks from all sides and fairly intense. I had assumed you had rippled certain Imperial circles and Imperious friends & cohorts went out for a scalp. Few beers in an apartment and a plan was hatched. (Remember no Imperial lockdown)
It was at this point I thought, U dont need this & I commented that u might take a break.
But it’s good that the mainstream can be dealt with by persons like your good self & seen off. Your pages are not for dummies and not for sale (fingers crossed). I also think the visit by corporate sponsored Viruses (yes thatz the plural) is a tribute to you – and other credible commentators will be jealous.
Dr Kendrick, I applaud your bravery and honesty. In my view the world has always hated truth, particularly those who claim to defend it. Please keep writing. There are more who welcome your blog than you may think.
Hi Clive Thanks for thoughts and advice on fire issues. As I said on the phone I would really like to do something else. This article sums up my views on stress related illness and in particular heart disease. I am sure it is what killed my friend David; he was always money obsessed. Kendrick knows his stuff and as certain as you can be about judging the future, the economy looks as if it will be a disaster zone. I am also noting a serious lethargy in people , young and old alike. In fact the problem of aimlessness seems even worse amongst the young. Interesting times!!! Sorry had to break off but I was needed to blend the red peppers. The lamb and cabbage dish is Turkish, uses harissa and is one of Ric Stein’s recipes. Will let you know how matters progress. Simon
Sent from my iPad
>
thanks Dr K: I have felt all along there will be terrible economic; and social consequences for the madness that has been visited on all, and perhaps by all.
Thank you again Malcolm for the common sense approach of your articles. Pity the powers that be do not listen. Facebook, Google etc are censoring, as fake news, many articles from people who write sensible articles or produce videos “Plandemic” has been hidden from view by Youtube and deleted from searches by Google, and yet is a must see video which puts the whole virus response into question. The lockdown was crazy and I am furious to discover that the “social distancing” is bogus science from a pandemic model created by a 14year old girl in 2006 as a High School science project. It was debunked by an eminent virologist and yet was adopted by the Bush Administration and passed into law! The girl in question, Laura Glass, refuses to be interviewed. The object was to save the NHS and yet the now that very service is overwhelmed with a massive waiting list of more than 7million – what a shambles!
It is anyone’s guess how many will dies as a result of this! Maybe millions!
Great analysis based on facts and logic!
And I believe it is true – future will tell. Though it is for sure a scary perspective.
What an insane world we are living in today!
Maybe your enemy’s enemy is your friend.
https://www.chathamhouse.org/expert/comment/trump-vs-twitter-battle-over-free-speech
Twitter has upset Trump and if he follows through on his promise they, and the other platforms, will either be considered publishers an responsible for everything they allow to be posted, or they will have to stop censoring posts which is what Trump wants.
It really concerns me that mainstream media no longer engages in debate. Recently the BBC interviewed a Liverpool man and his wife whose father, I think, died a couple of weeks after attending a football match. He died with COVID 19. They said that Premier league football should not go back because that’s where father picked up the virus. What was unusual about this interview was that for the first time as far as I have observed the interviewer asked how they could be sure that is where he got the virus. They were sure.
A country worth observing is Belarus. It has played all its football matches in Premier league, first and second divisions and has now started playing its cup matches. There has been no lockdown. Today’s figures (Johns Hopkins) show that 51,316 people in contracted the virus. There have been 293 deaths and the daily rate (like almost everywhere else) is falling. I suspect the criteria for collecting data varies from country to country since there seems to be no parity and when analyses start I suspect researchers will cherry-pick to support their personal biases.
Like you I fear there will be significant deaths from the diseases that unemployment and poverty create and like you I have questioned from the start the necessity for lockdown.
it was meant to say ” Today’s figures (Johns Hopkins) show that 51,316 people in Belarus contracted the virus. There have been 293 deaths and the daily rate (like almost everywhere else) is falling.” I thought that was what I had written.
Thank you Dr. Kendrick. I understand your frustration at the attitude of MSM. To me it suggests that they prefer to print lies rather than the truth coming from a British doctor. Something that worries me is that even though the virus seems to be dying out the government are giving no indication as to when the lockdown should be ending. This week I know for a fact that the Highways department have been given millions to widen pavements in town centres. Why would this happen unless the lockdown is known to be going on for sometime. I heard today that troughs are being put in a school for the children to wash their hands keeping them 2metres apart , again large amounts of money are being spent. I don’t Know if you have heard of the UK Column they broadcast at 1pm Mon, Weds. and Fri. They report on news which mostly is unreported by MSM and I don’t mean conspiracy theories. I’m sure that they would be delighted to hear from you. Once again thank you for sharing your knowledge and your dedication to improving the health of your readers.
Yes UK Column Community is uncensored news. Well worth watching. Also Crowd Justice Simon Dolan is taking legal action against the lockdown as an illegal act. Please check it out and support.
I second the vote for UK Column..
And Simon Dolan!
One of the most compelling lines of evidence for the muzzling (perhaps self-muzzling) of the press is the near absence of coverage of events in France. In the last couple of years there have been two potentially big stories from our neighbour.
(i) The scale and persistence of the Gilets Jaunes protests.
(ii) The action of the French government in having the army burn large stocks of Personal Protection Equipment just as its utility was becoming clear.
It’s not that these stories have had zero coverage, just that the coverage seems minuscule compared to their importance.
“One of the most compelling lines of evidence for the muzzling (perhaps self-muzzling) of the press is the near absence of coverage of events in France.”
You have a very tendentious view of events in France, which is why perhaps your version has been “muzzled”.
1) The Gilets Jaunes movement died a long time ago, two years, I think, and everyone has forgotten it. I remember a sort of reunion programme on the tv, where former members had a get together to recall what they did at that time.
2) It’s well known that the French government did not renew its supplies of PPE when they expired sometime after 2009, but it was not Macron, but Sarkozy or Hollande, who did it. In fact they did the same as the British policy. Like Hunt, said in 2016, we can source on the international market, if we need them. Same error, for reasons of austerity.
There have been a lot of comparisons to the 1918 pandemic, but what about the Hong-Kong flu pandemic where I understand the UK death rate was around 80,000. I would have been 12 years old but do not remember it, even though my older sister tells me that myself and my mother had it.
No lock down then.
Thanks
Thank you, Dr. Kendrick. It is a horror show which has only begun. Love the red print! I guess we’re all commies now since we disagree with the anointed ones.
Dr. Kendrick, you omitted the word “thank” in the last sentence of your intro.
Hi Malcolm,
Have you heard of UK Column?? They are an independent alternative news channel who look for the truth in all aspects of news and would be very interested in what you have to say, we could perhaps put you in touch with Brian Gerrish, the host, and he’ll publicise your concerns and newsletters to the wider public. UK Column is on every Monday, Wednesday and Friday take a look if you might be interested. http://www.ukcolumn.org
I am 72 with 23 years of heart problems – multiple MI’s, surgeries, pacemaker ,etc. So when this blew in, I realised that if I get it I die, so there is nothing for it but to enjoy what I have, as far as possible.
What saddens me so much is the way we are being used as pawns by those we trusted, once.upon a time. I just don’t trust what they might be planning to do. It is as though they have pushed Nanny out of the window, and think they can make new rules for all, with no real idea of what they may be doing. I hope they feel they are having a good time now, because it will hurt them muchly when it turns around and bites them on the bum. (Old Rural saying)
I think I have become an anarchist. In future, I will decide what is best for me. Well, I did anyway – I would not have survived this long without a healthy scepticism toward cardiologists with their cabinets full of pills which make me iller.
As for the flu vaccine – I have had my last of that – some years ago I described a full -blown MI which I had suffered in the wee small hours, and all he could think of was to tell me to let “them” know about the event (no help as to who “them” might be) and I’d better have my flu shot, and did it there and then.
Like you, my original view was that we had far more to fear from the authorities’ reactions to the virus than the virus itself. Economically we were already approaching the edge of the cliff with the huge amounts of debt in the system, and the virus induced collapse in employment combined with the injection of a few trillion dollars of ‘free money’ will only make things far worse than they would have been.
But the insanity of the herd is a marvel to see. A whole new batch of day traders with free govt. money piling into bankrupt companies like Hertz, airlines and cruise companies pushing stockmarkets to new highs in the midst of the biggest collapse of all time ……. until last night.
“The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help’”.
– Ronald Reagan (actually that’s 11 words but his heart was in the right place)
Outstanding.
WRT the media – your point about your own first hand treatment is well received here. I stopped watching BBC news & current affairs years ago. Likewise the radio. And I stopped reading newspapers about the same time. All because of distortion & misrepresentation that I had witnessed personally. I don’t trust any of them. Pretty boys and bimbos reading from an autocue whilst practising their various faces (serious/worried/shocked/frightened . . . etc.) can go whistle. If they know how.
You and a few other bloggers have particular expertise, real jobs or past careers and a superb ability to write. To me, you are a far better source of informed observation & commentary. Some, like Craig Murray, I don’t necessarily agree with, but there is a degree of honesty in his reportage that is worthy of respect. It is only a matter of time before the dead hand of censorship is applied to you & your kind. It’ll be done on the back of some other nonsense such as ‘fake news’ or ‘fat wives batter’ or whatever. When that happens, please continue with a mailing list or other form of communication. Bags I a place on your mail-out file.
The only thing that makes no sense to me in this perspective is its neglect of the threat–the principle motivation of lockdowns, I think–that COVID 19 would quickly render hospitals and health care systems fully non-functional. Even if the threat was exaggerated, and I suppose we can not know, it ought to be considered.
Isn’t the point that the threat is actually minimal to most people? What we need is good treatment and good advice of maintaining the immune system (both of which have been totally neglected in the UK). We’ve already seen that it does not overwhelm the health service or only as much as flu does every year when everything else is working as normal – new hospitals have been built and hardly used. What may overwhelm it is the huge backlog of non-virus-related treatments that have not been carried out while the NHS waited for virus patients – even the private hospitals were forced to stop treatment just in case.
The only reason hospitals were not overwhelmed is that beds were cleared of elderly patients out to care homes, and all sorts of nurses and doctors were dragooned in to deal with the anticipated tsunami. It was the running down of bed numbers and specialist/all nursing staff and doctors that lead to what can be clearly seen now as a crisis caused by the Tory Austerity programme and general mismanagement of a public service they had no intention of keeping safe in public hands.
Don’t tell us that the nhs is underfunded when they can spend thousands and thousands of pounds every day on non-jobs like diversity officers. The nhs is not under-funded; there has been no austerity only a terrible, terrible mismanagement at all levels. Tax payers’ money is wasted every single day in the nhs, and has been since it’s inception, (although it is many, many times worse now) under every government red or blue. Tory austerity! The nhs is a big, bottomless pit of waste and stupidity.
Maybe you live in England where you have the ‘internal market’ on top of hospital trusts to deprive the NHS of front line funding. I live in Wales where the internal market was eschewed.
But as McEnroe said, “you cannot be serious” to ignore the shocking number of unfilled nursing and other posts in the whole NHS that resulted from a failure to permanently employ during the last ten years of Tory misrule, compounded by the crazy waste of money when agency staff were recruited on a temporary basis to plug the holes, at a far greater cost than filling permanent posts they weren’t allowed to fill due to budget constraints.
Just heard the WHO spokesperson warn that the second wave is coming and that we should be even more vigilant.
And they know that… how?
Do they have a crystal ball?
Or are they making sure there will be a second wave?
It is all a ploy to break the US election. If the US cannot withstand this assault, the rest of you haven’t much hope.
If we have a civil war it will be long and bloody. Those who say that the American people won’t fight have another think coming.
MedCram channel had some videos blocked by Youtube. ICU doctor who produces video series to help educate doctors. Each video references the research and goes through major findings, so it’s not a snake oil sales enterprise. They have mentioned supplements, but not as a marketing device for products. The doctor was responding to questions about how he keeps safe and what supplements he takes. Finally Youtube has relented and they’re all available again. (Meanwhile it takes a HUGE amount of effort to get videos that incite violence, racism, xenophobia etc removed. Big tech has found that hate sells.)
Thanks for that. I quite understand why you wrote in RT as it is clear that truth is a stranger to the UK media and monopoly suppliers of video and twitter streams. I note the latest excess mortality figures from EuroMOMO are now showing that virtually all of Europe has returned to normal death rates meaning that the pandemic is essentially over and yet we hear nothing of this on the main media outlets.
Have a look here
https://www.cebm.net/oxford-covid-19-evidence-service/
spot the increasing number of hospitals recording no deaths in the past 48 hours/7 days
Not mention one in the MSM
Stress whatever the source leads to coronary events. Not surprising
Dr. K, just a short note of support and thanks for yet another excellent article. I’ve been following your blogs for several years. Both you and fellow bloggers have helped many of us make sense of this nonsense and take control and responsibility for our own health. I hope your posts continue for many years to come.
You are right and thank you for sticking your neck out for all the test of us. C
It IS all about Love. Carol ATMortillaro Parker 307.690.3888
>
The MSM has been in full lockstep with the Covid/Lockdown agenda, especially the obedient lapdog BBC. Apparently, the Beeb receives Bill’s cash. In a previous blog post, you asked “what is the endgame? .” With the continuing lockdown, the question just gets louder. In my opinion it
is all about ” the vaccine”, there is too much money to be made. Just look at the utter destruction of the merits/safety profile of a decades old drug – HCQ, perhaps one of the most widely used pharmaceuticals in history. Today, its reputation is in tatters thanks to the deliberate efforts of the pHARMa lobby, aided and abetted by the shameless publication of a very dubious “analysys” it seems, by the ghastly Lancet and NEJM before being shamelessly retracted. But the damage was done. In fact any treatment is ridiculed, buried or banned. Opposing viewpoints are ignored, marginalised, censored, shadow banned and given derogatory labels such as “fake news”, “misinformation”, “conspiracy theories”, “flat earthers”, “tin foil hatters”, “anti-vaxxxers” etc. Meanwhile the WHO can categorically state that asymptomatic carriers are NOT spreading the virus and masks should NOT be worn by healthy persons, before calmly and unapologetically stating the opposite view.
The lies and inconsistencies are in open view but the sheeple are oblivious or choose to ignore; in the words of John Heywood “there are none so blind as those who cannot see”. All the while the “temporary” lockdown measures appear to be taking on an air of permanence. Pavements are being widened, mask wearing mandated, social distancing normalised, social bubbles used in schools (and now for singletons), some retailers refusing entry without masking, “social/2m” signage on street furniture etc etc.
I think the psychological damage to some individuals will be long lasting, perhaps irreversible. Will the idiots who wear masks whilst in their cars or in the park jogging or walking ALONE, ever be able to stop? What has happened to common sense? Do you really need to wear a mask in your car, when you are alone and the windows are up and you are moving at 70mph? Yes, I really do see this! Then you have the poor souls who suffer from cleanliness/hygeine OCD, this is a catastrophe for their recovery. And what about the younger members of society, our children whose behaviours are so easily manipulated into a norm or should I say the “new normal” ( excuse me while I vomit!). How will they get back to the real normal?
I could go on but you get the idea.
Wizard:
It seems you are right about Gates funding the BBC!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaaction/about/funding
The Wizard,
Yes, all very true and sad.
With respect, one little thing you and most on here, fail to understand. That is there is an election due in a certain far away country in November.
The opposition (MSM, the Marxists, the Chinese Communist party, the Democrats) have tried every trick in the book to legitimise the incumbent president. All their efforts so far have failed. This present economic suicide pact with Satan, is their last throw of the dice as they realise he cannot be removed in a fair vote.
Anyone who thinks this is not a predetermined effort at insurrection in the U.S. – but which affects the whole western world – I have first rights on a bridge across the Forth Estuary which I will sell you.
“Delegitimise
analysis……
This anti science movement started before the virus. Greta Thunberg and the extinction rebellion rabble who have now morphed into BLM have taken over logic into we now have an insane groupthink that is supported by government, mainstream and social media. Keep up the good work and keep spreading the truth.
Who profits from large chunks of the world population locked down (prison terminology?) and small to medium business going to the wall ?
My employer, transport industry, had TENS of thousands of $$$s cancellations in the last 2 weeks before lockdown… all due to Panic & Terror. Other companies nearby lost similar amounts. Part of my non-existant wages are being subsidised by the Australian Government, – very nice, but eventually will need to be paid back via taxes etc.
If people were more realistic, we – and other types of business – could have continued trading at a reduced rate, but still viable.
And don’t mention the STRAIN of households balancing a near-zero budget, Our restrictive firearms regulations are surely saving lives at this time !
PS, found this which puts it succinctly… https://www.breitbart.com/health/2020/05/07/report-suicide-rise-from-lockdowns-to-kill-more-than-coronavirus-in-australia/
https://theconversation.com/the-costs-of-the-shutdown-are-overestimated-theyre-outweighed-by-its-1-trillion-benefit-138303
Hi jnorton: how using bad assumptions overestimates benefit of lockdown
“Given a population of 25 million people and assuming a fatality rate of 1%, this would produce 225,000 deaths.”
Only really really sick people with life expectancy measured in months fared the worst with covid-19. The average person does not exist.
Excellent piece as usual; pity about where you placed it, as that will reinforce any establishment prejudice. I too have been unable to get my proposals across, either to politicians, high-ups at DoH or journalists, but the British Medical Journal has published all my Rapid Responses and put some in the print version.
In my view the key is to stop Covid-19 from killing people. That requires either some form of isolation or treatment when you get it. As increasing evidence shows that a much larger number of infected people are asymptomatic than first expected, which makes contact tracing impossible and some spread inevitable. What has dismayed me is the lack of focus on treating severe disease. If it didn’t kill people would anyone be bothered with lockdowns or indeed any preventative measures?
“Excellent piece as usual; pity about where you placed it, as that will reinforce any establishment prejudice”.
You have missed the point, abamji – the establishment are prejudiced against people like Dr Kendrick precisely because they tell the truth.
That is why his articles do not appear in The Times and The Guardian or on the BBC.
Today RT gives Western citizens the modern equivalent of a “samizdat” medium.
Yet more suggestions that ‘Official’ figures are being fiddled… upwards.
https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19/86967?comment=true
I’ve found your covid-19 posts a ‘hard pill to swallow’ right from the start. Uncomfortable reading. However, I truely now believe your analysis and foresight is spot on. God help us all.
Great post, but the restrictions, done properly seem to have worked in China and South Korea; here they were done far too late. Yet, here in Devon, there have been relatively very few cases. The Lockdown must have been behind this. For me restrictions now don’t make sense.
We do have to realise that the Economy, as it was pre-COVID was well on track for destroying the environment and any prospects we have for a decent future. Indeed, the root cause of the spillover of the virus into our habitat lies in some pretty terrible developments in China who are embracing the worst of factory farming, forcing peasants and small farmers to hunt bats for example. Social inequality is racing ahead there too.
We have to change society radically to have any chance for survival, and using GDP as any measure of success is rather like using measuring how many times you go to the toilet as a guide to health.
With this in mind, I hope, for instance, the airlines never recover, that needless consumption takes a big hit. We must all use all our resources to live and buy local. A green recovery plan might save far more lives than COVID ever claimed.
We ignore the lessons of COVID at out peril.
But how does dumping all those single use masks and gloves and hand sanitiser bottles (probably in the ocean or landfill) help the environment? How does having everyone at home eating junk and drinking too much while using wifi help the environment? How does being told not to use public transport help the environment? At least if we have an income we have a bit of a choice. Many so-called “green” things are not good for the environment (eg smart meters)
Hi colin: re lessons of COVID
Pre-Covid were the good old days, they will never return. Get used to the new normal. Urgently need to itemize the lessons to avoid further destruction.
Lesson 1- restrictions and lockdowns work and need to be applied early. Second wave is coming.
Lesson 2- Economy has to be brought under control to save the environment.
Lesson 3- Society needs radical change to ensure survival of species
Lesson 4- restrict needless consumption
Lesson 4- restrict bat hunting by peasants and small farmers
I have see absolutely no scientific or logical evidence for any of your “lessons”. If anything, we now know that we need to curtail the power of the rich so they don’t spread disinformation and redistribute their wealth around the rest of people who actually make out lives better through their work. The economy is already f-ed so no need to control it or destroy it any further. Get rid of most tech, esp wifi, to save the environment and get back to the days of horses and carts to make things more labour intensive and save jobs. Bats are a protected species already. Or do you mean that only lowly peasants and small farmers should be stopped from culling them and rich people can do what they like?
KJE, I think you have been spoofed. andy was probably being ironic.
The difficulty with irony nowadays is that nothing you invent – no matter how absurd – looks any more ridiculous than what has actually been said and done.
Hi Tom & KJE: re “lessons”, they have to start somewhere. I do not want to take credit for them, they were a summary of what preceded my remark.
Next lesson: rich people can be bad, take their money and give it to working poor people
Perhaps we have to wait until the pandemic is over before lessons can be formulated about the Covid disaster.
I know you are being facetious, but where I live in the good ole USA, the states that are opening or did not much of a lockdown to being with are now getting hammered. AZ and Texas are both getting their hospitals full. Follow a doctor in a “smaller” town in Texas, and he says they are running out of ICU beds and hitting records for hospital (covid and non-covid) patients.
And the real bummer is these states are freaking HOT right now. Phoenix, Arizona in the summer is not for the faint of heart, yet it’s not stopping covid. That does not bode well.
Here’s one example, from 10 days ago now:
https://www.azfamily.com/news/continuing_coverage/coronavirus_coverage/new-arizona-covid-19-hospitalization-data-shows-record-high-metrics/article_9c741496-a869-11ea-8e58-4369e3f9109e.html
Will they survive without getting overwhelmed? It’s unclear (this is from today):
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-health/2020/06/15/executing-hospital-plans-patient-surge-not-simple-process/5330483002/
And I have friends who live in AZ, and no one is doing anything anymore, not even masks. Of course, it could just be those friends, too.
Hi Bob: Arizona will survive (the media hype)
Lot of new cases discovered because of testing blitz, but people dying less
https://www.azdhs.gov/preparedness/epidemiology-disease-control/infectious-disease-epidemiology/covid-19/dashboards/index.php
Tons more plastic pollution from PPE! You know, the magic plastic pinnies and gloves. Viruses are very clever apparently they don’t land anywhere else on your body, even better if it’s a red plastic pinky. Fluid resistant masks….. hand washing improved…. great.. but also millions gallons more water down the drain. If we really want to save the planet then as Lierre Keith puts it, don’t have children, don’t have a car, eat food that grows where you live and for goodness sake eat grass fed meat. PS I have a car and can’t wait to travel again…..
colinbannon wrote
“Great post, but the restrictions, done properly seem to have worked in China and South Korea; here they were done far too late. Yet, here in Devon, there have been relatively very few cases. The Lockdown must have been behind this. For me restrictions now don’t make sense.”
The problem is that many real epidemiologists have pointed out that epidemics only start off exponentially, before other (perhaps somewhat mysterious) effects cut in to moderate their growth.
One possible mechanism (has it ever been proved rigorously?) is that virulent bugs don’t spread as well as less virulent ones, and so viruses evolve to become less damaging. The less damaging versions effectively immunise those who catch them.
Thats true, but it doesn’t apply to the COVID situation where the virus is slowly mutating if mutating at all. It certainly applies to the situation in factory farming of chickens and pigs where less virulent strains are reduced by biosecurity and the short lifespan of the animals, leading, as you suggest, to opportunities for the more aggressive strains to take hold. With this accelerating n China, and soon here, I am certain there will be more epidemics. We have ben lucky this time, but look at the damage it has done to our fragile economy, forever on the edge of collapse.
Please keep up the good work Dr Kendrick.
I note Prof Fergusson is quoted by the BBC as telling a committee of MPs (there’s probably a collective noun for such a thing) that ‘Earlier lockdown would have halved death toll’.
I wish that they had asked him (and the BBC had reported) if in his opinion would introducing a lockdown earlier have increased or decreased compliance from the general population and specifically how it would have influenced his own behaviour? Also, how would that compliance change have affected Imperial’s mathematical model? ie If lockdown had been imposed earlier but 10% fewer people complied how does that affect the predictions of the model?
Fergusson is just desperately trying to prove that his model was correct all along. ‘See, without lockdown deaths would have doubled every week.’ He also said he assumed that Care Homes would be protected – because he now knows that lockdown drove elderly COVID patients into care homes, and killed tens of thousands. Thus, his model created all those deaths. Did his ‘assumption’ appear in his model? No, it did not. It was not mentioned anywhere. Many other assumptions appeared in his model but not this one – probably the most critical. The man is in full self denial Cover My Arse mode. He appears not to have an ounce of humanity, or humility, in his soul.
Yes, I gather ‘Social Distancing’ isn’t in that model either. Having broken the lockdown rules himself he has the gall to tell MPs that imposing them earlier would have saved lives. Hypocrisy at its worst.
“He appears not to have an ounce of humanity, or humility, in his soul”.
Apparently his ego leaves no room.
He doesn’t have a soul, just a computer model of one
I always said that extraordinary measures require extraordinary evidence. Any scientist would know that when you repeat an experiment you ought to get the same (or at least a comparable) result. Even more so when one simply runs a bunch of mathematical formulae (as in a statistical model) with the same initial inputs (numbers). Yet, a team at Edinburgh seems to have stumbled upon an issue that exposes Ferguson’s model as a simple pseudo-random number generator: https://github.com/mrc-ide/covid-sim/issues/116
This together with the historical evidence that Ferguson got every other “major” prediction wrong (and not just slightly, we’re talking orders of magnitude, especially his vCJD fear-mongering), one is left to ponder on an ancient Roman maxim: “who benefits?”
As for the main article, Dr K, great timing given that the ONS released data that in April GDP plummeted over by a fifth! Of course it was easily foreseeable, here’s what I posted back on 26th April to an article from TruePublica about “seizing the NHS for privatisation” that was shared on Facebook (of course with such an extended “lockdown” and “social distancing” measures, Chart 2 of [1] is now going to be obliterated into non-existence):
“Of course, and that’s exactly the point, the media here pretty much contradicts the official statistics when the ONS reports “COVID-19 mentions” on the death certificates but the media presents same data claiming causality.
I fear that post-“lockdown” there simply will be no NHS because the lockdown has screwed up the economy so much that there simply will be no money left, literally. Think about it this way, according to the 2020 budget [1], the entirety of the public sector spending for Health is budgeted at £178bn, while the “business aid” due to the lockdown is £350bn [2], and I very much doubt that’s even a significant protion of the true economic loss… The most ironic thing that could happen is that the “lockdown” was supposed to relieve the (over-?)guestimated pressure on the NHS but it would end up buring it in the long-term.
1. Chart 1 of https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/budget-2020-documents/budget-2020
2. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/mar/17/rishi-sunak-pledges-350bn-to-tackle-coronavirus-impact
“
I’m not sure if you are familiar with John Ward, he lives in France (as you will see from reading the article), has an excellent blog called The Slog and this post is about the Government’s leading body for Covid19 drug trials – led by Professor Peter Horby – being accused of grossly misleading negative trial results for Hydroxychloroqhine. Probably no surprises there. A team at France Soir has been following this and published a piece called ‘Recovery Fraud’. Horby claimed that trials using H were unsuccessful, however it sounds like the trial was a complete fraud.
He is really spot-on with his comments as well:
“Whitehall keeps on wheeling out truly appalling duds when it comes to “advice” on Covid19. From Neil Ferguson onwards, they are tainted by oddities and incompetence….Why?”
“Blatant Times, Guardian, BBC and SkyNews bias towards critiques of ‘Tory’ policy, support for Lockdown, zero investigation of dubious data and using “experts” who turn out to be anything but (frequently via Andrew Marr) ”
And this:
“we need to ask why French MSMs like France Soir and Libération (or even retired wrinklies in Aquitaine) seem able to investigate mendacity in high places….while the British media seem barely able to tie their own shoelaces”
https://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2020/06/16/explosive-more-uk-covid-experts-facing-serious-data-manipulation-charges/
I think it’s an “ignorance” of MPs. Or perhaps a “pomposity”.
Since they are forever passing motions maybe it is a ‘sphincter’ of MPs?
It’s a ‘bumble’ of MPs. A small gathering is a ‘buffoon’.
Mike – the noun you are looking for is “A thicket” of MP’s
Excellent article Malcolm. I do feel though that rather than the press pandering to the government we find ourselves in a position whereby its a case of the people who control the press also control the government. I appreciate this lends itself to a globalist conspiracy theory but its the only rationale that makes sense to me of late.
Mike Smith,
have you seen where George Soros’ is ‘close’ to Downing Street?
Whilst I support almost every thing you say, might not the worldwide number of deaths be only 400,000 because of country’s lockdown processes?
Regards
Chris McG
I can only think of one way to answer the question about whether lockdown has had the effect of limiting deaths to only 400,000 worldwide:
Compare results between otherwise similar places which have taken different measures. Trouble is, you can only do this retrospectively. Many tout Sweden as an example but that may be cherry-picking of the worst sort.
To test the predictive quality of the mathematical models which informed government responses worldwide I can suggest re-running the same code with different ‘countermeasures’ entered as inputs. So, different distancing rules (closing schools, pubs, restaurants, transport etc etc). Out of this, rather than publish a single ‘OMG 500,000 could die and 80% of the population be infected’ the various predictions of the model could be preserved and compared with reality – unfortunately, again, only after the real outcomes become clear.
Before anyone asks ‘who would pay for the computer resource to run all these models?’ I’d like to point to an indicator of the economic cost so far: ‘UK economy shrinks record 20.4% in April due to lockdown’ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53019360 .
Mike, I think you have way too much faith in academia. I think this crisis shows that we would be better to rely on common sense.
I think you may have missed my point: The models need to be tested by recording exactly what they predicted and not allowing their authors to change the prediction or claim ‘ah yes, but we assumed that care homes would be isolated…’ or whatever other weasel words they claim. If the models predicted 500,000 deaths without some action, then they must have predicted something else _with_ some action. So, what were those predictions and actions? Where is the code that was actually used? What parameters were fed into it? If actions were taken which were not covered by the modelling then why not re-run the model with the new parameters and compare the outputs with reality?… we suspect we know why of course. The code has been changed since the initial dire predictions.
Mike,
Yes I think I did miss your point.
I think I wanted to register my disgust with academia. I mean they don’t run a system that is trustworthy any more.The country would have been far better to use a group of people with practical medical experience of coping with crises like this, and gone with some sort of rolling consensus. The conceit that a crude computer simulation can properly incorporate all the factors involved, was absolutely breathtaking. As It was, even the raw data was badly contaminated in a variety of ways.
I no longer have any faith at all in the concept of computer modelling – not least because these models can be endlessly tinkered with.
I agree with him. (^David Bailey). Clearer phrasing too.
I’m sorry to hear of your struggles to be heard Dr K. Have you been in touch with Private Eye? They have a regular “MD” feature, which has been given more page space during the Covid crisis. Might be worth a try.
Brilliant, as always. The real fear is not a virus but the even more insidious nature of media control. The power of Facebook (Instagram etc) and Google (YouTube etc) to control the message, and control our lives. Since every journalist uses Google, there is only the Google truth. If people like Dr Kendrick, Simon Dolan, Dr John Lee, Peter Hitchens, Toby Young and others are shut out of the debate, we are doomed. We cannot let the tech giants, often led by sociopaths, dictate our news channels and, effectively, our reality. We’ll survive a viral pandemic but a digital lockdown seem inescapable. Listen to Joe Rogan, folks; he may have his faults but he is one of the few free-thinking individuals with enough clout to stand up against invisible censorship. Ben Shapiro too, even if you disagree fundamentally with his orthodoxy. We cannot shut down those with a different opinion. The battle for freedom of expression is the real war here. Unfortunately, I don’t believe any UK politicians have the balls to do anything about it.
Just listen to the very last bit of this and hear David Starkey’s pre-lockup prediction!
In the final few minutes of the above video a man wonders about the effects of Artificial Intelligence, genetically modified human beings, drones, robots, etc., because he believes it all to be coming.
These are David Starkey’s final sobering words in response (all before the world locked down):
“Well, but the trouble is that ‘Brave new World’ in the 1930s envisaged the world you’re describing brilliantly. We are within a whisker. We are now creating, we’ve just created, the feelies and the smellies. You all know ‘Brave new World’, don’t you? Infinitely more compelling than ‘1984’. It is an horrific vision which we are within a whisker of. A society driven by consumerism, by travel, by leisure, by pleasure….. The idea of freedom in that world is non-existent. It’s a managed world and unless we fight, unless we have that freedom of speech which so many want to take away, we’ll go there.”
I just listened to Joe Rogan’s interview of Elon Musk. I greatly respect Musk for solar, e-cars, and Space X but he’s now seriously talking about neural link. And I think it’s nuts.
Thank you
Thank you Malcolm, you have my full support and sincere appreciation for the views you fearlessly express. Long may you keep up the good work.
It is refreshing to have an alternative view of the crisis. However, I am sure that no-one can really believe that the Guardian newspaper is a cheerleader for the government. I don’t get to read it every day these days but when I do, it is anything but supportive of the government and in a reasoned, evidence- based way. Very early on in the crisis it published an article by the editor of The Lancet, which tore to bits their management of the pandemic. In addition to giving a voice to other public figures who disagree with government handling of the pandemic their regular writers such as Polly Toynbee, George Monbiot and of course Jonathan Freedland have all been very critical. I don’t bother to read the other papers, so you could well be right about the rest of the press, but please don’t tar them all with the same brush.
________________________________
Oh! you poor being Christine The Guardine Newspaper – shurely shome misthake The ultimate oxymoron The Guardian newspaper!.
I’m aghast that you can’t see what the Guardian is . . .
The Guardian, Speaking Power To Truth
Jimmy Wales was on the board, don’t know if he still is. That would explain the lockstep between the Guardian and Wikipedia on for example veganism and statins
Good article.
Shame on non-russian media.
I watched the episode 9 of the “Perspectives on the Pandemic” series, by Libby Handros and John Kirby. A few commentaries about vitamin c there. Nurses are a totally different animal from Doctors, but I knew that before watching.
One thing I do have learned is that the “Precautionary Principle” is evil. As Professor Briggs explained a few years ago. Many people I used to respect a few months ago stated that full lockdown was in order because of the PP. Now we know they have been fooled by their own hubris, their intellectual pride, their need to impress lesser people.
I suspect this idiots with over 165 IQ who still today (June 12) are obsessed with they huge mortality that is about to appear any minute, will never apologize, they will never come out publicly in recognizing their mistake, and they will claim that anything bad that happens from now on is due to the virus, not due to the wrong actions taken by the Rulers which the intellectuals stupidly support.
In my unhumble opinion, those who know too much about Mathematics should never again speak about political decisions or public health. They are always wrong and mislead others.
“In my unhumble opinion, those who know too much about Mathematics should never again speak about political decisions or public health. They are always wrong and mislead others”.
Do you think that is because they are prone to unjustified sweeping generalisations?
Brilliant piece – I totally agree.
Malcolm,
Please do not apologise for communicating via Russia Today! When our ‘free society’ started to rely on censorship to hide the truth, it is only natural that Russia Today should take over, as the West did over the Cold War. The remedy is obvious – re-open up the media in all its forms to all opinions again, and nobody need rely on RT.
I rather hope that this economic slump will not be quite like those previous ones, because the demand is still there in the economy, and as restrictions ease we may see a V-shaped curve. In particular, I think parts of the US are already starting to recover.
However I don’t know, and I don’t think anyone else knows for sure.
What I find truly shocking is that despite all the think tanks and money spent on models and COBRA, blah blah blah, we were totally unprepared for this situation and nobody knew what to do. We ended up relying on a man who was not a medic, but a builder of computer models.
I’d opt to “defund the computer modellers” in every area of academia – climate change, epidemiology, cosmology, etc.
If the relevant facts are well known – well solve the corresponding partial differential equations, and publish the result (with error bars) in a form that others can check the result, if they aren’t known, or there are just too many variables – just say “We haven’t a clue”!
Having read the Guardian since the News Chronicle folded in the late 1950s, I am so disgusted by their coverage of the Covid crisis that I am thinking of cancelling my subscription. Admittedly, the coverage is gradually improving, but even their justified criticism of the government has mainly had the effect of ratcheting up the panic rather than looking at the issues more soberly.
Ending lock-down is becoming more urgent by the day. The government needs encouragement from all the press to end it quickly, and support for this action, if there are more ? new cases when this happens. With more widespread testing, given the inevitable false positives, even if they are as few as 1 – 2 % as claimed, there will still be thousands of these cases found after the virus has departed. My analysis of some charts published in the rag yesterday, suggests that the epidemic is largely over, though many people still remain seriously ill in hospital after several weeks treatment. Now experienced doctors can recognise any new, serious cases, testing should be largely abandoned and the epidemic allowed to fade away.
Life needs to go back to normal while aiming for better, especially for the sake of those young people who will have the unenviable task of getting us all out of this mess. But, at present, their education is being completely disrupted so they will be at a disadvantage throughout their lives. The economic losses will be staggering, nothing like anything I have experienced in my lifetime, and this will be compounded by no deal with the EU.
Most of us have only got our families to rely on in the hard times ahead. But, this wretched government seems intent on weakening these ties when we need them most, and then they have the nerve to pretend it is for our own protection!
shirley3349,
Yes do close your subscription! Also consider stopping paying your TV license fee, because the BBC are just as bad as The Guardian. There isn’t that much worth listening to on the TV nowadays, so it isn’t so hard to do. If you pay on the internet, just wait till the next license is due, and click on the option to say you do not require another license and explain that you no longer intend to watch TV (I wouldn’t add anything political at that point). We did that last November,and so far we have heard nothing further from them. Our TV stands in the corner completely unplugged, waiting to see what might change in the future (you aren’t obliged to get rid of it).
David B.
I rely mainly on our TV to watch DVDs, largely my collection of film classics of the 1960 s, many of which I first saw in the cinema, sneaking in to watch x-rated features with my first boy-friend.
But I do still watch the odd documentary and some nature films, because I do not want my world to narrow down too much. But the BBC news is largely unwatchable, though Channel 4 is sometimes acceptable.
Still, if further economies become necessary …..
Giving up your TV license was not an economy for us – we felt it was a patriotic duty incurring a minor hardship.
Yep
Thank you Malcolm I have been suspicous from the start that there is very little media space for alternative views on the way the virus is being handled in the UK. We have a government who follows the questionable science from their hand picked scientists as and when it suits them. I have several elderly neighbours and relatives who have been itching to get on with their lives. They are responsible adults with sound minds who want to have responsibility for their own choices.
I’m disappointed by this posting.
I don’t see how it’s constructive at this time to attempt a criticism of past decisions that suggests no changes to future plans.
It may or may not have been correct, sub-optimal or wrong to enter lockdown when we did, as opposed to earlier or not at all or something else. But the fact is we did, and the full consequences will not be known until after the pandemic is over and the world has returned to ‘normal’ (producing CO2 at excessive rates etc). So any criticism now is premature, IMHO. Better to wait until the facts are known. That is unless you wish to bring about a change in policy, such as was the case with care homes etc. But this article seems to be entirely about history.
As regards Russia Today, I’d say that publishing on it was likely to detract from your reputation rather than contribute anything positive. It’s sometimes interesting to look at for a different point of view, but one always has to remember its funding sources. You don’t find it necessary to publish your heart-cholesterol-etc thoughts there, so why for COVID-related stuff?
Dave: frankly, I’m disappointed at your posting; IMHO. My views may be sub-optimal, or wrong; and I do emit CO2, for which I am profoundly apologetic. Please see my views as constructive, and not attempting to criticise the past. I hope my comments are not premature.
Terry Wright,
You obviously forgot the sarcasm tag when you mentioned breathing out your 40,000 ppm lung contents of plant food with each breath. Tut tut.
I heard the expression that if something is too stupid to be stupid, then it is something else. It’s not that they didn’t consider that quarantining the world would be devastating economically. It’s that this was another benefit that they wanted.
Something very sinister is afoot.
Maybe mandatory vaccinations for everyone for everything…
“It really concerns me that mainstream media no longer engages in debate. ”
The hour indeed is late. The deep state is deep, deep and wide, world wide.
Wake up everyone! Keep your eye on the ball!
a friend who follows finance sent me this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQY_6oScCnA
financial folks analysing current trends;
at 9mins 43 secs, Raoul Pal; seemingly a rather wealthy person; with some pride says
“luckily I was on a call with Neil … with a very small, select group .. and somebody that Neil knows from Imperial College … talking about vaccines .. as he is a developer of vaccines …… and is an adviser to Neil I believe … so we were talking yesterday about exactly this … and it struck me firstly that Neil had gone and spoken to all of the professors who have studied pandemics ……. back to Roman times ………and his idea is that generally … the pandemics stick around for two years ”
Readers of this forum will of course believe everything that is written above.
Readers of this forum might have thought that NF might be a bit “niffy”: that folks would not be associating too keenly with him; but to my surprise; the naive are still attracted to talk of “Professors” … “experts” …… “scientists” ……….. as Yogi Berra would have said “deja vu all over again” ……….. it is statins and Professor Collins all over again .. “experts warn …” ….
One could say “turds float to the top” and the Fergoid has the most extraordinary buoyancy: a helium-filled life-jacket, as he floats away from the Titanic. He just keeps floating to the top and rising into the air; funding from the GGates FFoundation for near to $500million; what’s not to like about talking up vaccines …………. hob-nobbing with financial folks who seem to believe him!!
If you are not blind you can’t fail to see that this influenza, Covid 19, is not very much different than an “ordinary” one and that there is so very much hypocrisy about the “caring for the elderly” who have always died at an “alarming” rate during influenza periods.
In my eyes neither can you avoid realizing that there must be an international agenda behind the ongoing official scaremongering and the crazy policy of lockdown.
Basically, the only ones who benefit from inducing scare on a wide scale are the globalists who can rule behind the scenes without serious opposition.
We met one of all these innocent victims yesterday on a bike tour when we sat down for a rest on a park bench and a man then shouting from a distance claiming that he was the one who had occupied the bench with his bike nearby. He wondered if we were not aware of the Corona epidemic.
We told him that we were not believers in the present fear and besides that there was a good ‘social distance’ opportunity to the other side of the bench.
I am currently reading the book “Virus Mania” by Torsten Engelbrecht and Claus Koehnlein. The authors maintain that very little is known about viruses, and that a huge amount of bluffing goes on. They think that the decisive consideration is always profits, so the latest drugs must be prescribed. But as antiviral drugs are so powerful and have such dangerous side-effects, they believe that the treatments kill more people than the diseases.
Some of that fits in with what I have been able to learn about “Covid-19”. I have read that the SARS-COV-2 virus has been sequenced and blamed for the epidemic. But it seems there is no way of diagnosing whether a patient has the virus or not. The three methods are diagnosis of symptoms, RT-PCR and antibody tests.
But the symptoms overlap hugely with other conditions such as the common cold, flu, pneumonia and even TB, while some symptoms can even be caused by allergies. Now it even seems that a majority of those infected may show no symptoms at all.
RT-PCR is explicitly not suitable for diagnosis, and is very unreliable. Moreover, even if the virus has been sequenced, RT-PCR apparently uses only small fragments of RNA which might come from other viruses or even human cells.
And antibody tests cannot even be started without a knowledge of the relevant antigens, which depend on the structure of the virus! Researchers have speculated that Covid-19 can be averted or defeated by antibodies against other coronaviruses, possibly including the common cold! Yet most people probably get the common cold every year.
Because of the issues with RT, can I suggest that you try Private Eye. Dr. Phil Hammond, another GP, who writes there under the name MD, is open to all rational argument.
If the Eye ever gets it wrong, they do say sorry and apologise, unlike some papers.
Good luck.
Norman. Thanks, I do know Phil personally, but never really thought about Private Eye
The gagging of the NHS
https://www.ier.org.uk/comments/is-gagging-nhs-workers-lawful-coronavirus-and-freedom-of-speech/
The further our publicly funded ‘institutions’ move away from BATNEEC* towards CATNAP** the more that whistleblowers are being constrained in their attempts to protect and inform the public who depend on the services being provided with their taxes.
* = Best Available Technology Not entailing Excessive Costs
** = Cheapest Available Technology Narrowly Avoiding Prosecution
NB for ‘technology’ read practices, processes, and procedures.
Time for something to lighten the mood a bit? It is Saturday, after all.
On 10 April 2020 Matt Hancock admitted that the government had not made any attempt to assess how many people would die as a result of the lockdown measures. This was an admission that the government had adopted an irrational, irresponsible and incompetent approach to policy-making on this issue. It ought to have provoked howls of indignation. Yet the corporate media were almost entirely silent.
When the government published the SAGE minutes, it was revealed that the scientific advisory group had not advised the government to introduce the lockdown measures. This revealed that the constantly reiterated claims by government ministers that they were following “the science” was false. And this too ought to have provoked howls of indignation. But yet again, the corporate media were almost entirely silent.
When this case of collective madness is over, there ought to be a public inquiry, which looks at who made the decision to lockdown the country and why.
The levels of censorship and distortion in the UK media are indeed remarkable. I used to read the Guardian; but since the paper sold itself to the intelligence agencies at the end of Rusbridger’s tenue, it has faithfully followed their line. One only notices this if one knows enough about the topic to recognise nonsense when one sees it. The paper offered particularly grievous misinformation on topics such as Assange (where they behaved despicably in releasing passwords, and then blaming Wikileaks); the Skripals; Syria; Corbyn; and Russiagate. Now that their coverage of Covid falls into the same category, maybe a few more people’s eyes will be opened . . .
[There are some great comments, etc., on here which I resist from commenting on so not to clog up the blog (which I’m now shooting myself in the foot albeit with this one comment).]
I will add that at times I am ashamed of the BBC, & Sky {to a slightly lesser extent}, for their reporting of covid (and other things currently occurring). Regarding RT (and Al Jazeera), I appreciate what they are / motives / biases & I don’t take things at face value but both can provide informative content (aside – can’t resist this dig: on the odd occasion that I’m watching the news at lunchtime and wee Krankie comes on both BBC & Sky – it is a no-brainer to switch to either RT or AJ).
On the subject of this blog about whether lockdown will lead to a major health disaster – I’m looking out for an acquaintance (I’m in the UK) who lives on her own that has an eating disorder & mental health issues. She has immediate family nearby that Bozo & his scientific chums have scared s&^£less to such an extent that they have been petrified to go near each other these last few weeks to the detriment of all. At least from today they have been able to form a ‘bubble’ but who knows at what additional long term damage (while at the same time 00’s/000’s can & have gathered at various events to fight or protest about whether objects should be on a plinth, in a museum, in a river or bleached).
[One last thing, in the hope that Neil Ferguson (or Rory Collins) has time to trawl blogs like this {as he doesn’t spend it on modelling} – I’d nicely ask him (/them) to shut up & slink away {… self deleted content to avoid any naughty words …}.
You Brits are concerned that being a member of the EU may decrease your national sovereignty but the recent display of global power with covid, and even the Europeans demonstrating over one case of police brutality in a far off land – how was that induced? – this should concern you a lot more. It certainly did me but also opened my eyes even wider to see that this “deep state” that we talk of in the US is not a US problem but a world problem! Sovereign? Ha!
Anna, I know what you mean, but as someone who helped to campaign for Brexit (in a small way), I think you need to realise that we were progressively losing our democracy to the EU, which isn’t democratic at all.
Nobody had even heard of Ursula von der Layen until she became the president of the EU commission. The existence of such blocks of countries run in a secretive manner, just makes it easier for the ‘deep state’ to operate.
This LCHF Eye Surgeon (Chris Knobbe) talked on the Seed Oils at the recent Low-Carb conference in Denver. I have heard him speak on macular degeneration; hint: he thinks it has all to do with our diet.
In this talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kGnfXXIKZM he identifies linoleic acid, omega-6, as the issue: saying we cannot easily metabolise an omega-6 load; it accumulates in fat cells; and shows strong associational data on omega-6 intake, and health issues.
Why tell you this? Because in the recent crona panic, many were distressed by reports of inflammation; thrombosis (blood clotting) and other issues in unwell people. Chris Knobbe confronts the audience that omega-6 oils are: inflammatory; thrombogenic; atherogenic; mutagenic (cancer-provoking); up to 35% of an SAD may be omega-6; folks are laden with it.
so like a dry forest with much tinder waiting to explode; an omega-6 laden soul; bloated and overloaded with omega-6, will explode with minor provocation into an inflammatory and thrombotic fire. (Hint: it ain’t the organism, it is the host).
It has now been multiply pointed out; … if you have high Vit D levels: (ie are healthy!!)
the innate system is UP-regulated;
the adaptive system is DOWN-regulated; so fewer cytokines, less inflammation and fewer antibodies produced;
reduce your inflammation; and thrombotic tendencies by ditching the RS (refined seed) oils, ie the vegetable oils, and hopefully improve your health. I commend the video to all fellow parishioners of Dr K
Hi Terry: more benefits of vitamin D, tight junctions
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21688370.2018.1540904
“The permeability and integrity of the alveolar wall depend on the junctions between alveolar epithelial cells and capillary endothelial cells. Importantly, injury severity is directly related to the level of lung epithelial barrier dysfunction. Adherens junctions (AJs) and tight junctions (TJs) are intercellular junctions that play a crucial role in the formation and maintenance of epithelial and endothelial barriers.”
“Our data showed the altered expression of TJ and AJ components in VDR-/- mouse lung tissues and significant decreases in claudin−2, −4, −12, and −18 protein and mRNA levels; the changes in these four claudins closely correlate with airway epithelial barrier destruction in chronic pneumonia because of Vitamin D/VDR deficiency.”
“Lower 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) levels are associated with a higher frequency of respiratory infections in healthy adults and more frequent asthma exacerbations in children. Moreover, asthma, COPD, interstitial lung disease and cystic fibrosis show correlations between severity and low vitamin D status, as do the incidences of pulmonary infections and lung cancer.”
thanks Andy
That dissenting voices are given exposure in arenas that can be used as smear by association is part of the way censorship works against freedom to share.
If you cant hide a fallacy in virtue – hide its exposure in vice.
For this reason it is wise to consider that when ANY ideas are thus publicly associated with smear or invalidating contexts – to NOT immediately obey the conditioning mind, but look there BECAUSE the ‘fear agenda’ says (effectively) STOP! KEEP OUT! DANGER!
This pattern is being globally enacted. And to a large extent it works – but at huge cost.
While such taboos or boundary conditions are not to be trivialised – because our fears ARE real to us unless and until reevaluated or resolved to practical outcomes, the infant is MEANT to want to explore beyond the parameters of a childhood protection when our willingness to explore grows new levels of responsibility. It is life to grow, expand and integrate discovery.
The infantilising and retarding of the population by ‘parents’ who have no real sense of who we are, is where the ‘parent’ feeds upon the life of the child to maintain their illusion of who they are and what their world is, because if they were truly in their own lives – they would recognise other lives and share in life.
I see no Jove to overturn a mad Chronos, unless the ‘younger’ is the capacity to live from an expanded level of responsibility despite or because of persecutions and deceits that seek to lock down the mind and suppress expression – as if we are the pathogenic viral reaction that must be eradicated or reduced to manageable symptoms.
But the virus runs the medical system.
Lunatics run the asylum.
Foxes run the henhouse.
If everything is backwards, perhaps our headset has been configured to it as a ‘normal’ – in which case we need those ‘sunglasses’ in the film ‘They Live’
(coronavirus version of short clips from the movie).
Lockdown can have varying degrees of success depending on how early and how broadly they are instituted, along with testing rates etc. And the economic management of the impacts of business and people, both during and after with have a huge impact on how well countries fare, and hence longer-term health impacts.
It will be interesting to compare countries that moved early and strongly to successfully lockdown contagion (New Zealand, Taiwan, Australia, etc.) and also applied extensive low-level (i.e. direct to the people and small businesses) stimulus, income support etc. In Australia, unemployment benefits were doubled for the period to 30th Sept, small businesses that had lost 30-50% of their profits have wages subsidised up to $750/week per worker, even if there is no work! Unfortunately, these measures might be wound back too quickly for ideological reasons, resulting in more pain than is necessary. Time will tell.
But my point is, “lockdown” isn’t a singular concept. And its impacts on people will vary hugely depending on how well their country/s manage it, concurrent economic measures, and how successful the lockdown is. Also, post-CV mortality will be impacted by the availability and cost of health care. In countries such as the USA where health insurance is linked to employment, and the unemployment rate skyrockets, this is likely a recipe for disaster.
“moved early and strongly to successfully lockdown contagion (New Zealand, …, Australia, etc.)”
sadly, that is absolute rubbish to ascribe low illness there to a human action. Total rubbish. They are both in the Southern Hemisphere, lest anyone was unaware of this.
Corona is of the family of respiratory viral illnesses; you have been exposed to its family often as the common cold; these waves of illness are profoundly seasonal;
There are endless charts of how these things strike in late winter/early spring in temperate latitudes.
It was as likely to have serious illness in Australia (and NZ) in Feb/March as it was for them to have snow: it is as stark as that. You don’t get snow in late summer; you don’t get respiratory viral issues then either. Both countries had long hot summers; flu does not strike then. Full Stop.
Dr. Mercola interviews Dr. Meryl Nass. Worth reading or watching:
Click to access Interview-MerylNass-WhyAreInfluentialVirologistsInsistingontheNaturalOriginofSARSCoV2.pdf
Here is the Dr. Meryl Nass interview (I earlier posted the transcript):
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/06/14/how-did-coronavirus-originate.aspx?cid_source=dnl&cid_medium=email&cid_content=art2HL&cid=20200614Z1&et_cid=DM567259&et_rid=893887806
I haven’t seen this mentioned here yet, but maybe I missed it so everyone should realize that Google is a pharmaceutical company. See this: https://thefedupdemocrat.home.blog/2019/07/07/google-is-now-a-pharmaceutical-company/?fbclid=IwAR29HrYGhivu1GGaZUJIYxeuIYHaPZA3aN9OfciC0H3LPYZO8_s-GPeGXwo
That will explain why everything that discusses or promotes natural health and does not promote the for profit pharmaceutical health care gets shadow banned.
Also, the way Google steers the search engine makes many people leery of using Google at all, even dropping gmail accounts. See here: https://healthimpactnews.com/2020/google-search-is-the-greatest-mind-control-brainwashing-tool-in-the-history-of-mankind/.
In the US, the pharmaceutical industry has captured the major news media since 1997 when Congress granted the industry direct to consumer pharmaceutical advertising, one of only two countries allowing this. New Zealand is the other. Many board members of news organizations are also on the board of pharmaceutical companies and vice versa. This happens in other countries of the world. One can understand where the censorship of anything that challenges the official dogma originates.
Thanks john Q – Extract “Google’s president of Customer Solutions Mary Ellen Coe now sits on Merck’s Board of Directors. Merck is one of the world’s “Big Four” vaccine manufacturers. Pharmaceutical companies have realized the need to co-opt social media platforms” – is noted.
I think it was in a BBC news bulletin about two days ago that I saw the front cover of the unpublished part of the PHE report into the excess deaths in the BAME community from Covid-19. I’ve searched for the image but cannot find it. However the BBC has published a brief summary at:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-53035054
from which the relevant part is:
“The report concluded: “The unequal impact of Covid-19 on BAME communities may be explained by a number of factors ranging from social and economic inequalities, racism, discrimination and stigma, occupational risk, inequalities in the prevalence of conditions that increase the severity of disease including obesity, diabetes, hypertension and asthma.”
Recommendations include:
* Better data collection about ethnicity and religion, including having this recorded on death certificates to accurately monitor the impact on these communities
* Making it law for health risk assessments to be done for BAME workers and giving them better representation in the health service
* Culturally sensitive public health messaging so that people, particularly those who may not speak English as a first language, understand the advice on how to protect themselves
* Continuing work to tackle racism and discrimination within the health service with a clear commitment to increase diversity in leadership at all levels.
The draft report from Public Health England says questions remain on the role of diet and vitamin D and makes clear no work has been done to review this evidence yet.”
To me, that last sentence is conclusive proof for what I have suspected for some time, that the Government wishes to keep the link between low Vitamin D levels and poor Covid-19 outcomes from the Public for as long as possible. The reason is best given by modifying a weel-known phrase from the Clinton 1992 presidential election campaign: It’s the vaccine, stupid.
Has anyone thought that these protests are best evidence (given how long they’ve been going on) that the “lockdowns” are unjustified, to put it mildly?
New information from the Swiss Doctor.
There is a large collection of new findings from the Swiss doctor – too long for me to post here, so please go to
https://swprs.org/a-swiss-doctor-on-covid-19/
thanks David: very helpful
From there, I found this https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091014111549.htm
a 2009 article pointing out severe flu predisposes to pulmonary emboli:
Swiss Doctor site says you can go back 50yrs to find this was known then.
Yes! It was obvious to so many of us who have an inkling about mortality rates in the 21st Century that the lockdowns would result in an explosion of the predominant causes of mortality: ie, cardiovascular deaths and cancer deaths.
It was shocking how quickly social media and curated blog sites such as Medium acted to censor the information about it when we posted it.
We are living in a terrifying era of censorship and encroaching totalitarian control. That the entire planet could be so thoroughly bamboozled by a fear campaign while saner voices were silenced in the name of “public health” bodes poorly for our global future.
Back to heart disease. Choline:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1753-4887.2009.00246.x
Hi Gary: re importance of dietary choline for immune system
http://arh.amegroups.com/article/view/4858/html
Novel insight on the impact of choline-deficiency in sepsis
“This review focuses on (I) the role of choline as an essential substance in the control and modulation of different immunological and inflammatory pathways in multiple models of sepsis (animal and human); (II) the consequences of choline-deficiency on the immunological and inflammatory response, and ultimately; (III) the importance of the nutritional status in septic patients.”
andy: I don’t know if this has been posted before, but some good info on vitamin K2 (We have no biological need for K1, as K2 does everything K1 does and more):
https://academic.oup.com/jn/article/134/11/3100/4688389
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19179058/
Well said Malcolm, it is very sad that you are blackbanned from discussing reality by western media. The other chap I notice getting a platform on RT was Max Keiser. I have no problems with you publishing on RT. We just saw a huge manipulation of the direction of covid research with the fantasy AI Lancet article against hydroxychloroquine.
and Larry King… and Afshin Rattansi, fact is lots of people who are fed up being plain stenographers of “the message” are jumping ship… And compare how RT treated Salmond during his trial vs how he would’ve been treated by the “legacy” media!
Your blog is a glimmer of sanity & hope for me – I am one of the patients sidelined due to CV. I have a piece of carpet backing, sorry, surgical hernia mesh, doing the opposite of what it was tacked into me for, causing me excruciating pain and feckin up my digestive system and life! I had finally found a surgeon willing to look at removing it, and literally just received my ‘Choose & Book’ details when I was ‘kicked into the long grass’ for who knows how long again. Never mind the physical pain, I can’t even get help for the extra mental pain this has caused me; I was just about to start counselling for the pre-CV emotional problems I have due to my physical health, that help is lurking next to my surgical appointment! Oh how I wish you were my GP, a bit like the fictional Doc Martin, who, for all his bad bedside manner, always tells his patients the truth, and that’s all I for one want 🙌🏻
I’m so sorry for you, Patricia. I live with a surgical hernia because I had heard about cases like yours and am not prepared to take the risk. I expect you have tried everything but my mum used to swear by finding the top man and crying on the phone. Best of luck and I hope it will all be sorted for you soon XX
Unbelievable. I’m hearing more and more about various law suits here and there that are being won. Can you threaten to sue the NHS?
Have they not eased up on the lockdown over there?
https://www.zeit.de/wissen/gesundheit/2020-04/statistisches-bundesamt-coronavirus-tote-sonderauswertung
Excess mortality data for Germany. The graphs are pretty self-explanatory. Excess mortality was about 5200 as of April 19th, i.e. pretty much on par with the official covid count of 4699 at the time, so other causes (delayed treatment, suicides) were probably not signficant. Traffic mortalities (about 800 / month in normal times) may even have compensated.
What is interesting:
– the peak is much smaller than the flu peak of 2018
– it happened almost exclusively in the 75+ age group
– it can be seen in the states of Bayern and Baden-Württemberg, which border on Austria and had a week of “ski holidays” in the first week of March
– it is barely discernible in the state of Nordrhein-Westfalen which had the early outbreak after Carnival
dazm@mail.com
On Thu, 11 Jun 2020 at 17:59, Dr. Malcolm Kendrick wrote:
> Dr. Malcolm Kendrick posted: “11th June 2020 [ This article was > published in Russia Today I feel I should mention that I have taken some > criticism for writing articles for Russia Today, I have remained silent on > the matter up to now. However, I would like to point out that I t” >
More evidence that face masks are useless, this time from the USA’s CDC:
“We did not find evidence that surgical-type face masks are effective in reducing laboratory-confirmed influenza transmission, either when worn by infected persons (source control) or by persons in the general community to reduce their susceptibility (Figure 2).” — https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/5/19-0994_article
More evidence that face masks are the most useful protection against COVID-19.
https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/06/10/2009637117
Identifying airborne transmission as the dominant route for the spread of COVID-19
“Our results show that the airborne transmission route is highly virulent and dominant for the spread of COVID-19. The mitigation measures are discernable from the trends of the pandemic. Our analysis reveals that the difference with and without mandated face covering represents the determinant in shaping the trends of the pandemic. This protective measure significantly reduces the number of infections. Other mitigation measures, such as social distancing implemented in the United States, are insufficient by themselves in protecting the public.”
if this were true, you’d expect the number of cases in China to be far less than in other countries, yet it isn’t so. That “conclusion” seems to be suffering from causation vs correlation problem—they took three diverse population (Wuhan, Italy, and the NYC) with wildly different habits and ways of life, focused in on masks *alone* while ignoring everything else, and then said it must be the masks, c’mon! That compared to a controlled experiment from the UoHK (good catch, @Eric!), which is in line with a 12 year old experiment from HSE [1] and a controlled clinical study [2]. What you’ve dug up is at best a poor observational study that doesn’t even consider that there could be any confounding variables.
1. https://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrpdf/rr619.pdf
2. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2749214
The UoHK study wasn’t a “controlled experiment”, it was a systematic review of other people’s experiments regarding influenza, not COVID-19. I’m not a big fan of systematic reviews. They often cherry-pick their data, and given the WHO was supporting it, they probably knew what results their masters wanted to see. (Masks and other PPE are useless, so we don’t have to spend money on supplying them, yippeeee!)
A nearby university, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), reaches a different conclusion, based on real-world observation rather than easily-manipulated laboratory studies:
https://www.ust.hk/newsresearch-and-innovation/hkust-co-led-study-suggests-universal-face-mask-wearing-urgent-against
HKUST Co-led Study Suggests Universal Face Mask Wearing is Urgent Against Second Wave of COVID-19 Outbreak as Social Distancing Lifts
Martin
Thank you for that.
I have to admit to a strange example of confirmation bias. I wear two hearing aids as does my wife. We find that taking off masks dislodges them. We have already lost one. Any ideas anyone?
I won’t wear a mask because I have hearing aids and glasses and emphysema. Loops on mask actually rub against hearing aids and cause feedback, glasses steam up and I start to get a headache and, I assume, hypoxia, quite quickly. So I’m going to try a clear visor with a headband instead of ear loops for situations at work (if we ever go back) where I have to wear something.
Mr Chris – I have the same problem. You need a mask where the two elastics go right round the head. I made one myself.
How about a neckerchief that can be pulled up over the nose and mouth as needed?
In reply to Mr Chris: “I have to admit to a strange example of confirmation bias. I wear two hearing aids as does my wife. We find that taking off masks dislodges them. We have already lost one. Any ideas anyone?”
Use a mask extender. See e.g. https://www.boystownhospital.org/knowledge-center/wearing-hearing-aids-with-face-mask
That has to be one of the most useless videos ever. I already carry a pencil and paper to the shops but everyone is too scared to touch it, and none of the suggestions actually work for communicating with door marshalls or shop assistants wearing masks as you can’t tell that they’ve spoken to you (if you don’t see their lips move) so you can’t ask them to repeat what they said. I tried the elastic round the back of your head for a mask but it just worked its way down my head to my neck and fell off – it needs to be round the top of the head above eye level to stay on. Not all heads are the same shape. I think we should be getting opaque masks banned under Disability laws
IMoz,
I’m confused. With a death rate of some 5000, China has about 1/100th the death rate of the US, UK, and Italy.
It has to do with the way that the UK accounts for death rate. If you don’t take the “legacy” media at its word and do own reseach (for example, visit the ONS) you’ll discover that the “deaths” here count any mention of COVID-19 on the certificate, not necessarily the cause, and you will further find that the even those mentions contain a conflation of those that are laboraty confirmed and merely clinically (because COVID-19 presents so uniquely, right?!), and even worse epidemiologically (there are two distinct ICD-10 codes for “lab-confirmed” and “clinical/epidemiological” diagnosis). The truth is that the “toll” here is artifically super-inflated. As for Italy, early on, the Italian National Institue of Health did an early review of COVID-19 morbidity and found that merely 12% of COVID-19-attributed deaths were causally linked [1]. There are also other issues such as “low saturation?!”—“we know, stick them on the ventialtor” which was a … well, you can find out, another factor, believe it or not, the Chinese are generally healthier: how many obese (let alone morbidly obese) Chinese do you see, for example, their diet is not full of simple carbs that spike their blood sugar every time they have a “good meal”… There’s a whole plethora of factors, simply saying “it must be the masks” when *empirical* evidence doesn’t support it in the slightest is very naive.
1. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-disease/have-many-coronavirus-patients-died-italy/
Interestingly China is the country with the highest number of diabetics worldwide, with around 116 million people suffering from the disease. By the year 2045, it is predicted that India will have around 134 million people with diabetes at Dec 2019. Per head of pop that is similar to the US
https://www.statista.com/statistics/281082/countries-with-highest-number-of-diabetics/
@Jerome Savage, and diabetis is ranked at what risk of co-morbidity? How does that compare to CVD?
Incidentally, you’re looking at the wrong metric: you’re looking at “absolute count” nor per capita, you see the problem with that, right? If you want, we can do maths properly: 116mln diabetics in a population of 1439mln in China, cf. (as of 25 Feb 2019) 4.7mln diabetics [1] out of 66.65mln for the UK. That makes it (current count) 116/1439=8.06% in China vs (year-old count) 4.7/66.65=7.05%… What’s this point you’re trying to make again?..
1. https://www.diabetes.org.uk/about_us/news/new-stats-people-living-with-diabetes
Imoz – Exactly – see my last comment “Per head of pop that is similar to the US”. Without hitting a calculator its obvious the average incidence level is not so dissimilar, compared with middle east or polynesian countries. From my uninitiated & naive point of view , I had a view that America = obesity = D2 = high morbidity/metabolic syndrome = hi CVD.
Formula yet to b peer reviewed. But China with similar D2 rates would be similarly disposed ?
No ?
I’d like to see some data about how far the breath an various aerosols go on the outbreath of mask wearers versus non mask wearers. Because, while it makes sense that a mask will decrease the distance and perhaps velocity of the outbreath particles, I also note that when I put on a mask I immediately begin to breathe more heavily. And, we all know that for the particles in question, masks are a very open barrier.
You do realise that once you stick a mask on you tend to breathe heavier than without one, how else are you going to force the air through a respiratory moisture saturated mask?! Oh, guess what that moisture would contain if you were infected?! The fact that clinically controlled experiments say that mask is useless pretty much junks your thesis, I’m afraid.
No, from School of Public Health, University of Hong Kong. Reputable, but with no involvement of CDC in the study or endorsement of its findings. The CDC is just the publisher of the magazine.
Also, this is all about flu. Remember that flu is also a strong “stomach bug” and that infections may be food borne or aquired from surfaces, hands, etc. There are no known cases of food borne Covid, and “touch” infections seem to play only a small role in Covid.
Good catch that it’s in a CDC publication vs CDC-proper! Nonetheless, it’s a controlled experiment that aligns with previous controlled experiments (that I cited above).
“Regular” flu virions are not that structurally different from SARS-CoV-2, in fact had the outbreak occured several years ago, the disease would’ve been most likely called Wuhan ‘flu. Both ‘flu and COVID-19 (as well as common cold) are all caused by coronaviruses (by same logic EBOV and MARV are *that* distinct). Secondly, while the ‘flu-“flavour” coronaviruses are 85–120nm [1], SARS-CoV-2 virions are sub-100nm [2]. Thirdly, even a paranoid immunologist uses ‘flu research to justfiy mask-wearing [3] (although effectiveness of the said masks is not considered at all in the post, and he rounds down exhaled virions by ~40% which makes his calculation of risk way-off in the “wrong” direction)*. Of course if you think that ‘flu is not a good base model, then there’s some devastating news: Ferguson used ‘flu model to scaremonger COVID-19 deaths [4]. But the fact remains, surgical masks were never designed to stop viruses, here’s a practicing surgeon on masks: https://youtu.be/SLPRBCNIkCY?t=32
So I’d say unless someoene comes up with a repeatable controlled experiment to show that masks do stop active virions passing in either direction the subject is well covered. This reminds me of all the observational studies that were proclaiming that caffeine was bad for the heart, until someone realised that smoking was a huge confounding factor in those studies, and when that confounder got removed, caffeine was “good” all of a sudden!
The thing with observational studies is that they need to be followed by controlled experiments, and all controlled experiments say that masks don’t stop active virus particles… The only plausible (to my mind, at least) explanation I found for making sure everyone wears a mask is that “it reminds people of the invisible danger that the virus poses,” and that sounds to me like “we need to keep the fear going.”
1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2135376/
2. https://www.rt.com/news/479057-chinese-authorities-share-coronavirus-photos/
3. https://www.erinbromage.com/post/the-risks-know-them-avoid-them
4. https://twitter.com/neil_ferguson/status/1241835454707699713
*based on his assumptions but doing the maths properly, if the person is not talking, nor sneezing, nor caughing, you need to literally be doing mouth-to-mouth breathing (i. e. inhale every single exhaled virion) with an infected person for half an hour (1000 virions divided by 33 virions per minute giving you 30.3 minutes) to stand a chance of catching the infection.
Agreed that a mask cannot stop a lone flu virus particle. But how dangerous are free-floating virus particles i.e. aerosols? It seems that you either need to get them on your fingers and rub them into your damp membranes, or inhale virus-containing droplets, to get an infective load. And masks will stop droplets. (And stop you licking your fingers to open those tear-off plastic bags down at the greengrocer ;o) )
A surgical mask is supposed to stop sepsis-causing bacceria, not viruses, AFAIK.
* bacteria, dammit.
Where on earth did you get the idea that flu viruses are corona viruses? They are both RNA viruses, but that is as close as they get on the family tree:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthomyxoviridae
Good read from Anthony Colpo:
https://anthonycolpo.com/scientific-evidence-indicates-covid-19-was-almost-certainly-made-in-a-laboratory/
I have come to the conclusion that we will only escape this lockdown situation when enough people refuse to comply. Clearly, if CV-19 is now killing the very vulnerable, it is doing the ‘job’ that ordinary flu used to do. On Saturday 181 people died due to CV-19 – a small fraction of the1600 people who die every day because they reach the end of their lives.
There may be no way to push the remaining cases much lower without an effective vaccine – which may well not happen – and a steady rate of CV-19 will give us R=1. Thus people must simply refuse to comply with this any longer. I would not accept a rushed vaccine in any case – I have had quite enough of Big Pharma’s side effects.
In some respects I think the revolt is already happening. I was out cycling with a close friend and his family last Saturday, and nobody really made any effort to socially distance – even though he himself is a doctor! Somehow the food kiosk and toilets were also open – I won’t say where, so that no jobsworth can go and close them down. Last week I went for a walk in a nearby wood, and met a couple of police. One of asked me where the path I was on went – so I told them – and they then explained that they were assessing how to thwart a rave that they had heard might happen in the wood. I also said the lockdown was absurd and both of them readily agreed with me. As far as I know, this rave did not take place, but others clearly did.
If I get talking to anyone on my walks, I now ask them what they think of the lockdown (rather as I used to raise the subject of statin side effects) – most have heard at least some of the truth, and almost all want the lockdown stopped.
I support any young people who wish to rave together – they will only be young once and they want some fun.
“There may be no way to push the remaining cases much lower without an effective vaccine…”
While I completely agree with the thrust of your comment, David, I fear that the above sentence is inconsistent with your first paragraph.
How can a vaccine possibly prevent people from dying when, as you so rightly say, they reach the end of their lives?
Ironically (but unsurprisingly) the risk of taking a vaccine increases for the old and vulnerable. So it is possible for the vaccine itself to push them over the edge.
As most scientists and doctors point out – and Andrew Mather in his excellent video briefings – the graph of cases of any infectious disease goes up, then down. It does not “go sideways”.
When the graph of cases or deaths appears to go sideways, it means only one thing: someone is fiddling the numbers.
Some countries seem to go sideways, looking at the FT’s interactive graph. Iran, Sweden, Indonesia, Poland. Could be explained by a slow geographical spread of the virus resulting in a series of overlapping up-and-down curves in each new area which combine to give an overall plateau effect.
https://ig.ft.com/coronavirus-chart/?areas=usa&areas=gbr&areasRegional=usny&areasRegional=usnj&cumulative=0&logScale=1&perMillion=0&values=deaths
“Some countries seem to go sideways,”
but Martin: is this people who are unwell?
Or just positive results from a test?
The more tests you do, the more positives you will find; and the more false positives you will find; and the more negatives; and the more false negatives; and like the Sorcerer’s Apprentice, you will go crazy like a whirling dervish ……..
For those that insist on continuing to play with “positive” results, a useful thing is to divide NUMBER of positives, by NUMBER of tests done that day: you usually end up with a flat or declining line; rather than the rising curve the MSM so adore
Terry, the graph I linked to showed deaths. You can choose between Deaths/Cases and New/Cumulative.
Tom wrote:
“How can a vaccine possibly prevent people from dying when, as you so rightly say, they reach the end of their lives?”
Well in principle it could stop the virus circulating, so they would die of something else – e.g. flu, which doesn’t matter, it would seem! However, without a vaccine, we may be stuck with a low level of CV-19 that nevertheless totally messes up people’s lives, and does dire things to the economy.
“However, without a vaccine, we may be stuck with a low level of CV-19 that nevertheless totally messes up people’s lives, and does dire things to the economy.”
that is just fantasy David: we have a gazillion viruses etc all around; all the time; continually; we continually cope .. we have to stop this fatalistic rubbish that we spout; as though we can isolate ourselves; our bowels are full of bacteria; we cope; we do well; we all need to get overselves.
“stuck with a low level of CV-19” …. those sentiments are just rubbish. These respiratory viral waves come .. as waves; they are profoundly seasonal; they come, they go. We are all exposed to the family of corona; our T-cells recognise bits from previous exposure.
for anyone wanting to read more: please get the Hope-Simpson pdf from Ivor Cummins twitter feed; much useful discussion on how these respiratory viral waves come through; like a storm from the Atlantic; and pass through; in winter.
Terry, I realise that it is fantasy, but we are talking politics here not medical sense!
“Mask Science.”
Some very terse observations on the nature of mask science! – –
” . . . the CDC/WHO bureaucrats and other imbeciles”
” . . . the usual idiots calling themselves “evidence based” scientists.”
Etc.
But read it through. Really.
The real kicker is in the notes at the end.
View at Medium.com
The difficulty is that Taleb, clever and street-smart is he is, has (to my knowledge) no medical expertise. So he doesn’t know whether a single virus getting through a mask is enough to start an infection.
Although maybe that’s unfair to him; from what I have seen, no one knows.
In general, the biggest learning opportunity from this epidemic has been the astonishing amount of bluffing and lying going on. It has become a really serious challenge to test every statement, every claim, every hypothesis – and especially every model.
His argument is speculative.
It doesn’t make sense to me why for decades all of the experts have said masks don’t work in the community (unless you are symptomatic), and then they would change their mind in a highly charged political environment. I highly question their motive for doing so, especially since now we are told we must wear masks until we are all vaccinated. I really do think we need to rely on real world unbiased studies on this. The many that I have read mostly show that masks don’t work well in the community for a variety of reasons.
Vitamin D is the best public health measure that I have heard of, which would eliminate the need for masks, etc. Combine this with effective inexpensive treatments like the MATH+ Protocol for those few that get really sick, and problem solved.
Gates estimates 700,000 people will get adverse reactions to his vaccine (which I am sure in reality will be significantly higher) and he wants a guarantee from all the world governments that no one involved will be held liable. Watch this 1 minute video of him saying just that:
A tiny genetic mutation in the SARS coronavirus 2 variant circulating throughout Europe and the United States significantly increases the virus’ ability to infect cells, lab experiments performed at Scripps Research show. “Viruses with this mutation were much more infectious than those without the mutation in the cell culture system we used,” says Scripps Research virologist Hyeryun Choe, PhD, senior author of the study. https://www.scripps.edu/news-and-events/press-room/2020/20200611-choe-farzan-sars-cov-2-spike-protein.html
Magnesium and K2 as essential co-factors with D3 supplementation:
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/06/15/vitamin-d3-k2-and-magnesium.aspx?cid_source=dnl&cid_medium=email&cid_content=art1HL&cid=20200615Z1&et_cid=DM567263&et_rid=894636726
And Vitamin A, according the the Weston Price Foundation.
https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/vitamin-a-mazing/
Dr. John H: Yes, as I recall Chris Masterjohn wrote a piece about the symphony performed by the biochemical inter-realtionship of these three fat-soluble vitamins. Easy enough to get vitamin A from liver.
“Shocking”: Nearly all who recovered from Covid-19 have health issues months later https://nltimes.nl/2020/06/12/shocking-nearly-recovered-covid-19-health-issues-months-later
“Nearly all who recovered from Covid-19 have health issues months later”
…. the problem Randall is this happens with the flu: except we don’t make a big deal out of it; folks just keep going; we have stopped the world in our indulgent “poor old us” mentality: and boy, are we going to pay for this self-indulgence …
and it is host issues: if in the US, 45% of the population is T2 diabetic, or prediabetic; as Ivor Cummins would say, folks are getting sicker and more vulnerable by the year;
As Gary Fettke said in March “are you going to be in ketosis with crona arrives?”
The more you look, the more you find; the more tests you do, the more positives you get etc etc
Someone called covid “a cold with an agenda”
Good description as it appears to target certain specific people. Well there’s not much you can do about getting old, but there is sure as hell a LOT you can do about keeping healthy. Unfortunately most of it is the exact opposite of what you are told.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/sg6i5lteijd3b5g/Radio%205%20Live%20-%20Emma%20Barnett%20with%20Hugh%20Osmond%20-%2008.06.2020.m4a?dl=0
a comment on the innate immune system: Dr K initially pointed us to this: https://virologyj.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/1743-422X-5-29
We make (amongst other things) AMPs .. anti-microbial peptides, that can destroy invading bugs, crucially, without having met them before.
Sporting friends from NZ made the comparison to Jonah Lomu in his prime:
He did not need to have seen or studied before; those players who attempted to tackle him: they were brushed aside as he thundered down the pitch; no lasting memory was created of those dispatched into the turf.
Another example would be shopkeepers in NY: boarding up shops to prevent rioters destroying their premises. As the rioters sweep by; like a respiratory viral storm; no lasting memory is created inside the shop: no flame damage on concrete; no water damage to flooring etc.
So the adaptive immune system: where we create cytokines etc; and have systemic signs of illness: fever; low BP, high heart rate; high breathing rate etc ……. sort of like rioters damaging a shop ….. the fever etc are the damage within ………. and then the antibodies are the memory: photos of those who committed the damage; they can be spotted again in the future, maybe.
So as a shop-keeper: would you go for boarding-up the shop; (the INNATE system)
….. or leave doors and windows open (the ADAPTIVE system)
. and then attempt to belatedly cope with the internal damage ……………..
.. the Healthy exposed to corona are often showing no antibodies; no memory; they brushed it aside …… but the “EXPERTS WHO WARN …….”
are trying to continually scare all and say that is bad? No antibodies measureable? Do you agree?
What could possibly go wrong??
Here’s a really juicy shopping list if you’re worried about COVID-19 treatments and/or vaccines:
https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2020/06/15/what-might-go-wrong
It is my supposition that those with the most serious disease from the ‘Rona have low cholesterol, thus low LDL. Are lipid panels routine in hospitalizations? What sorts of tests do they routinely do with respiratory diseases? Will we ever know if such a correlation exists? The media surely would suppress this.
Gary: these respiratory viral diseases come as waves; and move on; like a storm from the Pacific NW, crona has arrived; impacted; gone; moved on; departed; disappeared; evaporated; gone; left;
“where have you gone Joe DiMaggio: a nation turns its lonely eyes to you …..”
it is all over folks: you have been duped; conned; misled; lied to; manipulated; it is all over; gone; you are just left with dreams destroyed ……………
Michael Levitt agreeing that counting “cases” of crona is nonsense;
like collecting cards out of tobacco packs …………………….. or plucking petals off flowers …
Dr. Meryl Nass on the WHO HCQ trials. Designed to fail. Designed to kill.
https://www.ageofautism.com/2020/06/who-solidarity-and-uk-recovery-clinical-trials-of-hydroxychloroquine-using-potentially-fatal-doses.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ageofautism+%28AGE+OF+AUTISM%29.
This is very disturbing! I would be very interested in Dr K’s opinion about this. I confess I haven’t read Doctoring Data but I imagine studies designed to fail are rare. Designed to fail with dangerous high dosing even rarer. Surely the Recovery study is just not unethical but malpractice and requires to be investigated by the GMC or any other relevant bodies?
“The HCQ dosing regimen used in the Recovery trial was 12 tablets during the first 24 hours (800mg initial dose, 800 mg six hours later, 400 mg 6 hrs later, 400 mg 6 hours later), then 400 mg every 12 hours for 9 more days. This is 2.4 grams during the first 24 hours, and a cumulative dose of 9.2 grams over 10 days.
Even more disturbing than this, babies weighing 5 kg could be given a dose of 300 mg HCQ in the first 24 hours in the Recovery trial, which is 233 mg of the base, nearly 4 times the recommended maximum”
There are not many studies designed to fail. Who would bother funding them? The COVID situation, however, has opened to door to those who wish to see various cheap interventions fail, so that expensive interventions can be used instead. We will see failed vitamin C (not a high enough dose used), failed hydroxychloroquine (too high a dose), Vitamin D, given at the wrong time and the wrong dose etc. This is classic clinical trial design.
If you want to prove your drug is better than a competitor drug, find an adverse effects of the other drug and set your drug up against that specific adverse effect. Or give the other drug at the wrong time, or at too high a dose etc.
It is a brutal game they play – with people’s lives.
At least the dexamethosone seems to work – but I suspect it would be a disaster if given too early
Not sure that ‘work’ is a conclusion I would jump to, the number surviving on late stage treatment with dexamethosone was (I think) 1 in 8, so 7 still died.
On the other hand the hydroxychloroquine treatment used by Didier Raoult’s group ‘worked’ on 9 in 10 (I think that was what he reported), provided it was started soon enough.
Dr. Kendrick: What of this:
https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/ATVBAHA.106.134080
If LDL cannot pass through the endothelium, does it enter the intima via the vasa vasorum, which I recall is fenestrated?
Something I hadn’t seen before (on the damaging effects of dietary PUFA): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14739118/
Yet they conclude: “The question of whether the changes observed in the present study are, in fact, pro-atherogenic or anti-atherogenic remains to be solved” So the paper really just increases the awareness of our ignorance.
colinbannon: Both the Sydney Heart Study and the Minnesota Coronary Experiment make it abundantly clear that a high-PUFA diet will kill faster than a high-SFA diet.
I have no doubt that a high PUFA diet, or a high SFA diet both involve eating some terrible foods.
Gary. PUFA influence on health really interests me. I consume plenty of saturated fats and do so because I think it is the right thing to do. I also consume nuts and seeds in their natural state, i.e. uncooked, but occasionally processed in raw recipes. I cannot find anything which distinguishes between the PUFA in my diet as opposed to industrialised extracted PUFA oils, which I have always avoided.
Can anyone please enlighten me?
Jennifer: I’ve just finished reading “The Carnivore Code,” by Paul Saladino, M.D. I highly recommend it! PUFA from nuts and seeds or any real food are certainly less likely to be oxidized. All food sources of fatty acids contain all three types of fatty acids: saturated (SFA), mono-saturated (MUFA), and polyunsaturated (PUFA), in different proportions. We do do need some PUFA in our diets, specifically the Omega 3 and 6 fatty acids in fatty fish, although we don’t need very much. But industrially produced seed oils, rich in PUFA, should be avoided at all costs, as well as industrial food, especially things like mayonnaise, nearly all of which is made with soybean oil. I’ve long been an eater of nuts, but no longer. Doctor Saladino makes a compelling case for drastically reducing or eliminating sources of foods from plants, due to the anti-nutrients they contain. Animal foods, with the exception of dairy, have no negative health impacts. Also, no more coffee or wine. Rats. Whisky is OK, though.
I found this book too. Its one thing to say that factory grade PUVA (most cheap vegetable oils) is bad for health, probably quite right, but to recommend an animal only diet is nonsense. For one thing, the quality of American meat is terrible (95% intensively produced, I heard) but also what of the planet?? Small mixed farms have been destroyed in the US, and we are about to be flooded with cheap low quality US food. Don’t be taken in. Just eat quality food.
Thank you Gary. I will certainly look up the book you recommend. I have been gradually reducing my consumption of nuts and seeds to a more reasonable level, so that is a good idea, I think. I have been over indulgent with nuts and seeds since I removed staple grains from my diet a number of years ago. However, I have reintroduced best quality organic grains over the last year, and find them acceptable for my glucose readings,( taking into account the way I prepare the food—steeping for hours, and watching the quantity).
Reducing dairy, coffee and wine is rather more difficult, I think. I have reduced coffee intake this year, so inevitably my cream consumption is reduced, and wine is only for the occasional treat nowadays. So, The Carnivore Code may help me to improve a little more, without being silly. it all goes back to eating a good range of real foods. Thanks for your tips and book recommendation.
“Also, no more coffee or wine”.
Hahahahahahahahahahahaha!
When hell freezes.
Tom Welsh: Actually not too difficult. I did two weeks of this in January prior to my surgery, and didn’t mind much. Felt better, too. Good thing is, whisky is OK on the carnivore diet, so I may just switch my poison!
IMO it’s a question of quantities. Omega 6 is proinflammatory, Omega 3 is antiinflammatory and we need both in balance to have an operational immune system.
We evolved on diets with O6 – O3 somewhere between 1:2 and 4:1. Modern diets may be 30:1 or even more, completely nonphysiological.
Nuts may be a good source of O6 in physiological quantities and unoxidised. Probably a good idea to eat fish for the O3 too. I like toasted almonds and salmon.
Israel and Bulgaria have some of the highest concentrations of seed oil. How are they doing disease-wise? Not too good for heart disease I believe.
There are at least 2 differences between eating nuts and seeds, and “industrialised extracted PUFA oils”:
1. When the oil is contained within the cells of nuts and seeds, they are protected from oxidation. But refined PUFA is not so protected and will oxidise readily. This is accelerated at the high temperature phase of extraction. I read a report by a manufacturer of flax-seed (linseed) oil which showed that it was already quite highly oxidised at room temperature just 2 weeks after production. Sorry, I can’t quickly find the reference. At that rate, you can guarantee that what you buy in the shop has already had time to oxidise. Other PUFAs will probably be similar in characteristic, though not so quick to oxidise.
2. When the oil is extracted, part of the process involves high temperature, which results in a certain amount of transfat production. I’ve not discovered just how much is produced in these oils, only that it takes place.
MartinM. I am pleased to have your explanation, and do not worry about the references.
In the dim and distant past I came to the same conclusions that you describe, but had not recorded where I read them. Because there is so much condemnation regarding PUFAs in general, I was beginning to wonder if I had misunderstood. I have always considered industrialised oils to be a health concern, along with so many forms of other processed foodstuffs, and avoided them at all costs. But because there is very little reference to PUFAs in their natural, organic form, I was beginning to think I must be wrong. There is so much sloppy and imprecise journalism around, (and even some research texts that leave a lot to be desired) that it can be difficult to reach a decent conclusion. I feel better that you have confirmed my thoughts.
It is just incredible!
Today we have a world that is “ruled” by twisted medical dogmas and a medical establishment with absolutely no interest in any refutations but only profits.
I am just now reading the very serious book “Conjectures and Refutations, The Growth of Scientific Knowledge” by the philosopher of science Karl R. Popper.
Basically he claims (and I here believe Popper), when there is no interest in any refutations of a theory or hypothesis it is very far from science and must be about dogmas. With the present Corona I would say that is just a gigantic fraud.
With apologies if I have posted this here before. It is something that I wish all my fellow citizens understood thoroughly.
“There is one feature I notice that is generally missing in cargo cult science. … It’s a kind of scientific integrity, a principle of scientific thought that corresponds to a kind of utter honesty — a kind of leaning over backwards. For example, if you’re doing an experiment, you should report everything that you think might make it invalid — not only what you think is right about it; other causes that could possibly explain your results; and things you thought of that you’ve eliminated by some other experiment, and how they worked — to make sure the other fellow can tell they have been eliminated.
“Details that could throw doubt on your interpretation must be given, if you know them. You must do the best you can — if you know anything at all wrong, or possibly wrong — to explain it. If you make a theory, for example, and advertise it, or put it out, then you must also put down all the facts that disagree with it, as well as those that agree with it. There is also a more subtle problem. When you have put a lot of ideas together to make an elaborate theory, you want to make sure, when explaining what it fits, that those things it fits are not just the things that gave you the idea for the theory; but that the finished theory makes something else come out right, in addition.
“In summary, the idea is to try to give all of the information to help others to judge the value of your contribution; not just the information that leads to judgement in one particular direction or another”.
“Cargo Cult Science”, adapted from a 1974 Caltech commencement address; also published in Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!, p. 341
Very much “Popperian”!
Göran, many are chiding Sweden over its handling of coronavirus, see for example Sweden, where no lockdown was ordered becomes second most-infected country: https://www.newsweek.com/sweden-where-no-lockdown-was-ordered-becomes-second-most-infected-country-1511885
I presume those who supported drastic lockdowns will want to justify their stance, and that it was worth the resulting economic and social damage, and so will be keen to denigrate the Swedish approach.
What’s your take on the Swedish situation now, e.g. re their handling of the elderly in aged care facilities?
Why do you think there were more reported cases and deaths in Sweden than in neighbouring countries such as Norway and Finland?
Are coronavirus infections and associated deaths being reported in the same manner across Scandinavian countries do you think, i.e. is there a standard form of reporting?
This graph was prepared on 10 April, so extend the dark blue line at bottom left to the 5,053 mark on June 19 to see the real difference.
Thanks Martin. I’m in Australia, where deaths attributed to COVID-19 currently stand at 102 (not 103 as noted in article below), according to Worldometers. The majority of deaths have been reported in males aged between 70 to 89 years, see breakdown here: https://www.health.gov.au/resources/covid-19-deaths-by-age-group-and-sex#:~:text=This%20bar%20chart%20shows%20the,between%2070%20to%2089%20years.
What do you think about this comparison between Australia and Sweden? Has Australia really avoided 14,000 coronavirus deaths? https://theconversation.com/has-australia-really-avoided-14-000-coronavirus-deaths-139465
If we want to compare death rates between Australia and Sweden, we need to calculate the cause-specific mortality rate. The cause-specific mortality rate for COVID-19 is the number of deaths from COVID-19 divided by the population. For Sweden, the cause-specific mortality rate for COVID-19 is 4,220 divided by 10,343,403, which is equal to 40.8 per 100,000 population.
If we now apply this to the Australian population of 25,700,995, we arrive at 10,486 expected deaths from COVID-19, assuming we had taken the same approach as Sweden.
Take away the 103 deaths we actually have, and we have saved 10,383 COVID-19 deaths as a result of our strategy.
Australia appears to have done remarkably well, judging by Covid deaths. By a broader measure which includes damage to the economy and non-Covid deaths, I can’t comment.
I think that the point of the tweet is that the models have proven to be so inaccurate as to be practically useless, and need to be substantially revised. Sweden did everything wrong according to conventional ideas, and still had far fewer deaths than even the most optimistic projections of the models.
It is only once we get improved models that better approximate observed reality that we can really start analysing who did well and who didn’t, as far as their response to the coronavirus is concerned.
Martin,
“Had”?? “Did”??
You make it sound like it’s over. Do you really believe it’s over?
Sure, nobody WANTS to perpetually live a nasty inconvenient life to accommodate a nasty inconvenient pandemic, but wanting will effect its course only in how that wanting effects your behavior.
It’s not over.
One factor which might influence the disease in Australia is that it arrived at the start of the antipodean autumn. Dr Kendrick has previously published a chart for the UK indicating that vitamin D levels for UK residents are at their highest in September. If this result is transferable to other countries then Australians would have their maximum vitamin D levels in March, exactly when the coronavirus arrived.
The virus is also known to be more transmissible in indoor and crowded environments than outdoors. If Australians spend more time outdoors in the March – June period then this would have depressed the transmission rate.
JD, point taken. Yes, there may be a few more nasty surprises in store, but I do believe the peak has passed in most countries.
David, it’s winter in Australia now. Not sure if people will be maintaining vitamin D levels? I haven’t noticed any public health announcements recommending vitamin D supplementation.
What do you think about the Australian situation Martin?
We were told at first the plan was to ‘flatten the curve’, but this seems to have morphed into suppression… There’s great agitation whenever a ‘case’ is reported.
Are they deliberately hindering the spread of the virus here to facilitate ‘the vaccine’?
Keep in mind Australia is a major player in the international vaccine industry, via CSL/Seqirus and the University of Queensland.
And there’s a clique of academics here who are in bed with the vaccine industry (e.g. via the Immunisation Coalition and via participation in industry-funded vaccine trials), and some are directly influential with the WHO (e.g. Terry Nolan and Peter McIntyre).
Who can we trust to independently and objectively evaluate what is happening…?
My guess is that once a vaccine becomes available, everyone will be forced to take it whether they’ve had the virus or not, so hindering the spread of the virus will have no effect on vaccine uptake.
I believe politicians are anxious to look good on the world stage by having fewer Covid deaths, never mind damage to the economy. Deaths are something you can count and compare. Economic damage is much more subjective and less easily quantifiable.
Elizabeth, I can’t find anything about “flattening the curve” anymore, but from memory the aim was to get “cases” down to about 10,000 per month. How quickly everyone forgets. Given the current hysteria about a few dozen cases in Victoria, the new target seems to be zero per month. Curious eh? It’s hard to make any sense of this other than a hidden agenda to prevent herd immunity and promote a vaccine solution.
Regardless, I read all the time what a great job Australia has done. But let’s look where we stand. No community immunity, it’s fragile, we’re all exposed, a few cases and all the billions of dollars already sacrificed, loss of employment, collateral lives lost and affected, and it could all be for nothing. Time will tell but I really feel Australians are in a much worse situation than our pollies and health “experts” would have us believe.
Hi Deb, I understand Australia’s initial approach was based on this paper:
Modelling the impact of COVID-19 in Australia to inform transmission reducing measures and health system preparedness
Click to access McVernon_Modelling_COVID-19_07Apr1_with_appendix.pdf
For discussion on deaths in the elderly in Sweden, see this article:
Sweden: COVID Discrimination against the Elderly | National Review
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/deadly-covid-discrimination-against-the-elderly-in-sweden/
More criticism of Sweden…
Sweden’s Failure to Protect Its Elderly Population from Coronavirus Started Long Before the Pandemic
Really looking forward to some objective analysis of this in the future…
Meanwhile, Anders Tegnell is sticking to his guns:
Sweden’s Covid Expert Says ‘World Went Mad’ With Lockdowns – Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-24/sweden-s-epidemiologist-says-world-went-mad-imposing-lockdowns
At the moment, I agree with Anders Tegnell, the world went mad with lockdowns…now what?
A major health disaster that could result from lockdown is the consequences of a fast-tracked vaccine…
Speaking of which, they already have an app to identify the vaccinated:
Imagine a world where 40,000 screaming fans are packed shoulder to shoulder in a stadium where their favorite teams clash in head-to-head combat, and everyone knows that everyone else has been vaccinated against Covid-19. Businesses have opened their doors to something that resembles business as usual, only their employees have all proved their own vaccination, as has every customer who enters the building. That’s the world Civic Technologies is working to build, and the world the company today took a big step towards making real.
The San Francisco-based startup that raised $43 million in a 2017 initial coin offering, similar to an IPO, has formed a partnership with Circle Medical, a well-connected affiliate of UCSF Health, a San Francisco hospital, that will let employees prove to their employers the results of their most recent Covid-19 tests, and when a vaccine is developed, whether or not they’ve received it. Far from a theoretical blockchain application that might be of value at some future date, the app, which lets users prove a wide range of personal information, as well as spend bitcoin, ether, a version of the U.S. dollar issued on the ethereum blockchain, and Civic’s own token is available today on both Apple’s App Store and Google Play.
Apple and Google Admit Ethereum App To Let Employees Prove They’ve Been Vaccinated:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeldelcastillo/2020/06/16/apple-and-google-admit-ethereum-app-to-let-employees-prove-theyve-been-vaccinated/#421705bb40f7
New bike sales are huge. Virtually all the frames are made in China.
Just saying.
Interesting twitter feed from Brazil
Watch it before it disappears for good:
Scottish Government looking into Vitamin D?
“Coronavirus: Push to prescribe vitamin D to people at highest risk from Covid in bid to curb ‘second wave’ of virus”
https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/18521442.coronavirus-push-prescribe-vitamin-d-people-highest-risk-covid-bid-curb-second-wave-virus/
Why restrict it to only those “at highest risk”?
P.S. Question was rhetorical, of course 🙂
As Thomas Sowell has so often said, there are no solutions in life — only tradeoffs. It is my own observation, possibly a bit hyperbolic, that the left does not recognize the real world nor tradeoffs. It inherently looks for solutions instead. This forces the mind of the left to learn not to believe “their lyin’ eyes” — i.e. confirmation bias to the point of ostrich-like head burying.
Another thing intrinsic to the left is the mass media and a mob mentality. The latter comes from an extreme (to me, anyway) need to fit in with a preceived “correct” orthodoxy. This goes along with present-day virtue signaling (used to be called “holier than thou” behavior), which I have always found 100% fake and two-faced.
Anyway, this novel virus is interesting immunologically, but that is an academic or intellectual thing from my own point of view. From a social and practical point of view it appears that IFR is about 1 in 1000. The virus spreads quite slowly in comparison to flu which is the standard of reference for respiratory viral infections. Last I scanned the literature estimates of serial interval appear to be about twice that for flu. But once significant herd immunity develops I suspect this figure may actually increase further.
Unlike flu which potently infects the entire respiratory tract (upper first, and later lower depending upon how quick recovery is) there is a short-lived and weak cellular replication of virus in upper tract (throat seemingly being strongest but nevertheless not strong) and potentially a much longer and stronger (if virus gets a foothold) replication in lower tract — this can be the dangerous pathogenesis leading to ARDs in the weak.
Comments like the one from Dr. Alberto Zangrillo, the head of Milan’s San Raffaele Hospital, that viral load is now “infinitesimal” in cases seen in-hospital in Milan compared to those from one or two months ago, are most interesting from my own point of view with respect to the epidemiological nature of this virus.
There has been way too much reliance upon an assumption that this virus is like flu. Inasmuch as it is a virus and transmits mainly from respiratory tract to respiratory tract, yes. But otherwise mainly no.
The press has (for the most part) played an ignorant and malign role, amplifying the voices of the most self-interested and incorrect polemicists. Institutions such as the Beeb are merely propaganda arms of various institutions that provide the so-called “journalists” with effortlessly generated “content”.
The only legitimate and effective role the gov’t can and should arguably play is to develop and help implement protective measures in care homes. But even this will not matter much in the big picture — those who are dying do not have much life left to live. At a personal and family level it is a shame, but at the societal level it is less consequential. Although its impact upon healthcare workers, who are on average much younger, is a problem.
If most of society wants to rely upon a craven and incompetent and self-interested bunch of politicians and bureaucrats instead of themselves, so be it. Some of them will die earlier than they might have as a result.
The frightening thing, to me, is not this relatively weak novel pathogen but its effect upon almost every nation on earth. It has illustrated how, in just a century or so, most of the people in the world have gone soft. And that, for one living in a modern urban society, is truly dangerous.
That’s a fascinating idea, Ken – that left-wing thinking focuses on ideas rather than recognising the real world. As Phillip K. Dick – a card-carrying left-winger if ever there was one – was quick to admit, “Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away”.
But isn’t there a fascinating parallel there? Isn’t the worship of models just a special case of preferring abstract ideas to reality? Unfortunately, as Dick warned, just because your model contradicts reality, that won’t make it go away.
I don’t have a political alignment, although I am temperamentally conservative. Although I live for ideas, I hope I can recognise their limitations. Of course, the feedback loop between ideas and reality is exactly what science consists of. You look at reality, think up a theory about how it works… test it, test it, test it, test it… if you can’t refute it, accept it as possibly correct.
Failing to test his theories is where the ivory-tower wonder fails. And I see, to my surprise, that this is equally true of politics, science, and more important matters such as friendship.
A character in a Philip K Dick novel bought an 18 speed bike, but when he got it home he realised there were only three gears on the front and six gears on the back, so he wanted to know where the other nine speeds had gone. I suspect some politicians and “scientists” follow the same kind of logic.
Ah Pandora’s Box there Chris.
There is more than one type of 18-speed bicycle, and some are more genuine than others;
Three chain rings and six sprockets can make 18 ratios, but with potentially much overlap depending on choice of numbers of teeth on the aforesaid rings and sprockets.
On the other hand, owners of e.g. Rohloff rear-hub geared bikes, or in my case a Pinion bottom-bracket geared bike can have a clean set of non-overlapping 18 gear ratios.
No wonder politicians and ‘scientists’ are easily confused.
P.S. Dr. Kendrick, you certainly have my approval for writing in RT. And the sooner op’s like BBC shrink or disappear the better IMO.
Damn straight, Ken! On the lunchtime “UK Column” program today, I heard with great enthusiasm that The Grauniad has issued a snivelling appeal for “resources” (i.e. money) while bragging of its “millions of readers”. Readers who, sensibly enough, are apparently unwilling to pay for The Grauniad’s poisonous rubbish.
The sooner all those MSM presstitutes go out of business, the better. There are far better “alternative” sources for everything except government and corporate propaganda.
Dogs trained to detect people with Covid-19 – had a 95% overall success ratehttps://www.iol.co.za/capetimes/news/dogs-trained-to-detect-people-with-covid-19-49252203
At 12:51 today (17th June 2020), the Guardian published an exclusive by Mattha Busby titled:
“UK public health bodies reviewing vitamin D’s effects on coronavirus
Exclusive: emerging evidence studied to see if ‘sunshine nutrient’ could lower Covid-19 risk”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/17/uk-ministers-order-urgent-vitamin-d-coronavirus-review
For obvious reasons I cannot quote the entire piece but, for the purposes of review, it begins
“Public health officials are urgently reviewing the potential ability of vitamin D to reduce the risk of coronavirus.
It comes amid growing concern over the disproportionate number of black, Asian and minority ethnic people contracting and dying from the disease, including a reported 94% of all doctors killed by the virus.
A delayed Public Health England review into the reasons why BAME people are disproportionately affected, which pointed to historical racism, did not review the role of diet and vitamin D.
The Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) began this work last month and is considering recent evidence on vitamin D and acute respiratory tract infection in the general population. Evidence will be considered on specific population groups, including those of different ages and BAME groups. ”
This appears to be a breakthrough for all those trying to persuade the Government to look into the potential for Vitamin D to be a powerful factor in the control of Covid-19. Quite how ministers will defend accusations of, until now, a deliberate cover-up of the evidence will be interesting, to say the least. Although this is really good news for a change, the danger is that the investigation will conclude that, ‘whilst the initial evidence appeared promising, nothing has been found to support the use of Vitamin D in the treatment of Covid-19.’ The only long term solution, of course, will be The Vaccine.
I hope today’s news will be a turning-point..
Nick
PHE 21 July 2016 para 5
People whose skin has little or no exposure to the sun, like those in institutions such as care homes, or who always cover their skin when outside, risk vitamin D deficiency and need to take a supplement throughout the year.
Ethnic minority groups with dark skin, from African, Afro-Caribbean and South Asian backgrounds, may not get enough vitamin D from sunlight in the summer and therefore should consider taking a supplement all year round.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/phe-publishes-new-advice-on-vitamin-d
Study – SARS-CoV-2, showing that the virus remains infectious in aerosols for hours… Face covering prevents both airborne transmission by blocking atomization and inhalation of virus-bearing aerosols and contact transmission by blocking viral shedding of droplets. On the other hand, social distancing, quarantine, and isolation, in conjunction with hand sanitizing, minimize contact (direct and indirect) transmission but do not protect against airborne transmission. https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/06/10/2009637117
….em ….Randall ………… em ………. um …………….
one might think the way you write it, that someone had actually studied these topics; maybe in a laboratory; done experiments; measured things; controlled for things; isolated single factors;
instead this paper just seems a sort of monstrous Fergoid type sweep across several countries; vacuuming up data like a road-sweeper; it reads a bit like the Lancet hydroxychloroquine paper: gigantic amounts of data; modelled; analysed; chopped; diced; reconfigured; reassessed … it is sort of “gone with the wind” and “lawrence of arabia” all swept into one gigantic blockbuster.
and patsy pieces of summary to be fed to MSM and the compliant populace.
Terry Wright: By the way, both “Fear of the Invisible” and the followup “The Vaccine Papers” are essential reading to understand the madness of vaccine policy. Virology is indeed bizarre. Very poorly understood, to put it kindly.
thanks Gary for the pointer to “The Vaccine Papers”: I will get a copy. It is marvellous the help one gets in this forum, pointing to useful and interesting stuff. Is California still under house arrest? Where will it end.
“Virology is indeed bizarre.” I think it is the wild west: anything goes; you can make up whatever you like; and like Ancel Keys, the force of your personality carries the day, and if you have enforcers, as Keys had Jeremiah Staedler (of Chicago appropriately!!), then even more gets put over folks.
Terry Wright: Actually, California is no longer under house arrest, although just yesterday our moron governor suggested that everyone join the mask brigade. This has no force of law, but the sheep will obey it. However, anyone with a medical condition is free to decline. Since everyone has a medical condition, quaintly called “the need to inhale oxygen and exhale CO2” (don’t tell Greta about this!), everyone has a valid excuse. Hear, hear! Meanwhile, we’re all having fun every chance we get. Going on a hike today up the south fork of the Kings River. Saw a sow with two tiny cubs and a rattlesnake there last year. Bears are expert climbers, even when tiny.
Your throat doesn’t sound to good, you should have have it looked at.
There is certainly a blizzard of ‘studies’ out there taking advantage of the lack of ‘peer review’ to rapidly get into print. Some might suggest that it is a deliberate exercise to keep anyone trying to get a grip, off balance.
In that vein;
Anyone else seen the ‘study’ suggesting that low humidity promotes the spread of the virus because smaller aerosol particle size result from the low humidity that occurs in colder weather? And higher humidity thus restricts aerosol transmission by creating larger particles that fall to the ground in a shorter distance from the spreader.
So 2m is ok in nice humid summer weather, but not so good in drier colder weather.
Also, you might need a better finer mesh mask in winter than summer.
Two outbreaks recorded today in meat processing plants in Germany and Anglesey.
Meat processing plants keep humidity low (45%-60%) and temperature low (10-12 centigrade or lower), both requirements to keep meat fresher for longer on the shelf.
Christian Drosten said the same thing many weeks ago that the cold air in those plants might be the culprit. The general discussion in Germany has been that it is the crowded accomodation and transportation of contract workers. However, today some articles pointed out that there are outbreaks around the world in meat processing plants, and e.g. in the US, they tend to employ locally rather than ship in workers. Not sure if this is true.
Eric: Yes, the meat factories in the U.S. employ local people, mainly immigrants from Mexico and Central America. The main outbreaks in the U.S. have occurred in the central states, where most of these horror shows are located. No outbreaks in the western states. My beef and pork are processed at custom-slaughter facilities, which have only one or two butchers working at a time. It is no wonder workers in the factories have become sick. Hundreds are on duty each day, doing one specific, repetitive job, as the animals come down the line at high speed. High rate of repetitive-motion injuries, too.
I’m sorry that I believe very little about covid anymore. It makes sense that there are outbreaks in cold and crowded conditions, but there is also a world wide effort to stop peoplle from eating meat.
Anna M: There is indeed, and it is so completely misguided. Herds of ruminants, properly managed, are the salvation of our damaged grasslands, an essential component of the carbon cycle, and produce the most nutrient-dense food of all. But the oligarchs find it much more difficult to control than a shiny great building producing food-like substances in pretty packages.
Cows may belch methane but they crap soil
Great comment!
And those of us who say we’d prefer to come into contact with the virus (if we haven’t already done so) in order to get natural immunity, preferably before the winter, continue to be ignored or judged. We are accused of possibly killing people, of being selfish. Yet I am finding most of the general public, in their fear, very self-interested. There is no way that I will wear a mask. I shan’t go anywhere where one is required. I am sick of so much disgusting behaviour and erosion of freedom.
People are busy discussing problems created by the lockdown and the media encourages the analysis and worry. It is easy for the truth to be side-lined.
So we have bacteria and viruses that live in and around us; our bowels are full of so many bacteria, and yet we seem to get around each day and be fine. The science of bacteriology seems fairly stable and settled; we can see bacteria in a light microscope; we can grow bacteria in petri dishes, and we can kill some with antibiotics, and see the result in the petri dishes.
As I have read about “virology”, I worry greatly; such books as “Dissolving Illusions” are to me, alarming for the false narratives we are fed. We were fed the same sort of false narrative from the 1950s over fats and heart disease.
I am now reading through “Fear of the invisible” by Janine Roberts; as a journalist, she started researching vaccines and contamination; her concern was after reading of the early contamination of polio vaccines, by monkey viruses (everybody know about that, do they?) … after the sv40 polio vaccine contamination, she set off on the trail of: could HIVV (misspelt) have been a side-product of vaccine productions; what she stumbled onto, was … did they really find a retrovirus; did it exist, and was it really responsible for anything; pgs 100-120 are … mind-blowing; the details; it really sounds like a re-run of the Keys/Staedler shenanigans. If you are attracted to facts, this book is for you.
So many seem to accept that “The Science” is settled in all sorts of areas of HIVV, and vaccines etc; this book will shake any comfortable assurances you feel about vaccines and the “science” of virology;
I now suspect that bacteriology is to virology, as astronomy is to astrology.
Terry,
Reading what you say, I am reminded of Henry Bauer’s blog:
https://hivskeptic.wordpress.com/
This tells a frighteningly plausible story about HIV, in which the supposed symptoms of this disease changed over time, and there even seems to be uncertainty as to whether this virus has ever been isolated in pure form. The HIV test apparently comes up with false positives in a variety of medical conditions including pregnancy.
When I watched the warnings in the 1980’s about the dangers of HIV, I really thought it would decimate humankind – I mean a fatal disease that is passed on by sex and incubates for 10 years would be practically unstoppable – particularly in the Third World.
The fact that this has not happened, and people seem very relaxed about sex these days, means there simply has to be some rotten science buried in there somewhere.
I joined this blog to discuss statins because I had suffered some very nasty effects in my right leg, which was previously weakened by polio, and then messed up by Simvastatin (fortunately I am well over that now). It is strange how the threads come together in this blog. We lived on the edge of town, and there was a corn field behind the house, so a chemical spray could have been responsible for what happened to me back then.
I loathe the expression “The science is settled”, people never say that about scientific facts that are really settled – the very phrase says just the opposite to me.
Good points Terry! I thought I had a basic idea about viruses, but the more research I do on them, the more of a mystery they have become!
Dr. John H said,
” I thought I had a basic idea about viruses, but the more research I do on them, the more of a mystery they have become!”
Can you recommend a reasonably reliable place (that is accessible to someone with a non-medical scientific background) to read about that?
Virolution by Frank Ryan
colinbannon: Thanks. Sounds like a good read.
David Bailey: I would suggest two of Janine Roberts’ books, “Fear of the Invisible,” and “The Vaccine Papers.” Also (and there is much, much more, including a talk given by a researcher at Washington University at St Louis by the name of “Skip,” which I don’t have a link to.):
https://preventdisease.com/news/17/012717_Biologist-Proves-Measles-Isnt-Virus-Wins-Supreme-Court-Case.shtml
https://www.tetyanaobukhanych.com/blog/should-you-be-afraid-that-measles-gives-you-immune-amnesia
David,
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about aerosol transmission of viruses. Did you see this paper “Masks Don’t Work, A review of science relevant to COVID-19 social policy”?
The author makes some very interesting points on this!
Oops, here’s the link:
Click to access Rancourt-Masks-dont-work-review-science-re-COVID19-policy.pdf
Terry,
Thanks for the suggestion!
Sounds interesting; like what Dr. Mikovits has written in “Plague” and her latest book “Plague of Corruption” (I have read both).
“Fear of the invisible” I have now ordered to arrive in my mailbox soon.
Further to Nick Turner’s comment on the Guardian/vitamin D story…
…today (18 June) it was the Daily Mail (UK newspaper), with their headline:
“Vitamin D new hope in the war on coronavirus – urgent review into anti-viral powers”
with the article beginning “Health chiefs are urgently reviewing the use of vitamin D as a coronavirus lifesaver…”.
Hardly news with the likes of Dr Kendrick, Ivor Cummins at al. highlighting vitamin D throughout this hysteria, and going way back over the years too.
Not sure what these nebulous health chiefs have been up to all this time, but better late than never, I suppose.
I’d love to be a fly on the wall in one of those urgent reviews! My guess is we would hear them be discussing some or all of the following:
1) How to stop the public reaching the obvious conclusion that they have worsened the crisis substantially by their inaction.
2) How to minimise the public’s recognition that it might be beneficial to take a little harmless D regularly to avoid flu and other infections.
3) Whether to advise people to do what most of us with any sense are doing already. If everyone does it, it might become clear just what useless Health Chiefs we have.
4) How to stop a more general review of the possible benefits of vitamins in preventing and fixing disease, with particular reference to the possibility that sales of pharmaceutical products might be reduced.
5) Would more censorship have been useful in preventing the public becoming aware of the value of a ***** vitamin!
Replace the asterisks as you think appropriate.
Important question asked here: Why are infants and children dying at a much lower rate during the lockdown?
https://www.ageofautism.com/2020/06/lessons-from-the-lockdown-a-white-paper-from-health-choice.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ageofautism+%28AGE+OF+AUTISM%29
Delayed vaccinations?
No wonder Hancock was stressing the importance of not missing out on the childhood vaccine programme today. But he won’t be advising GPs and practice nurses to check for underlying conditions before rushing through the jabs to catch up with the programme.
What the techno-tyrants are planning is orders of magnitude worse than we thought:
https://blog.nomorefakenews.com
From Simon Dolan
https://www.keepbritainfree.com/
Dr. Kendrick,
How about lives “saved” due to COVID-19?
OK, it’s not simple, but consider the iatrogenesis that’s not happening – as well as needed treatment – because people are staying away.
(AEMT = Adverse Events of Medical Treatment)
Also consider that fewer people are maiming themselves on the roadways.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-pandemic-us-california-michigan-illinois-fatal-car-crashes/
Also not simple. Numbers of deaths have gone down, but the rate per mile has gone up. To me, that could well mean that the reckless among us, as would be in their nature, have not stayed home.
My sad observation is that the typical rule following medical doctor causes far more harm than good.
I doubt the government were ever concerned about this virus.
As people were denied being able to see dying loved ones I should like to know how Boris Johnson was able to spend his Coronavirus isolation in Downing Street and to recover at Chequers. Isn’t this against lockdown rules? Does he regularly split his time between the two places?
If you are able to watch and pay particular attention to the Robert Peston Q&A session at Dominic Cumming’s outdoor press conference tell me how was DC able to do what I think he suggested he did after his return to London from Durham?
To quote Gary’s comment dated 15 June: “Back to heart disease”.
Which is exactly what Ivor Cummins has done too with his latest podcast no. 83 – an interview with pathologist Prof. Vladimir Subbotin and a look his hypothesis that LDL cholesterol gets into the arterial wall from the outside, as opposed to the mainstream/conventional/orthodox view that it’s from the inside (i.e. bloodstream/lumen side).
The podcast is 1 hour and 8 mins long but it’s split into 2:
(1) 1st 20 minutes Ivor explains Prof. Subbotin’s hypothesis with slides then
(2) It’s the interview.
Ivor’s presentation is excellent and understandable with great slides – there are even microscope photos at 8 mins showing the LDL and also macrophages in the various arterial layers! Bet you didn’t know that LDL could jump – well, it can’t really.
Surely another in a long line of wrecking balls to demolish the cholesterol hypothesis, or at least for more cracks to appear?
Here’s the link:
https://thefatemperor.com/ep83-professor-subbotin-ldl-cholesterol-invades-your-arteries-bad-science-or-what/
Charles – very interesting. Thanks. Though in some instances sub titles would hav appreciated in the interview. Some of it is very intriguing.
LDL as the culprit is the orthodox view.
Prof. Subbotin’s outside in LDL hypothesis
You post a comment, go away and have a think and here’s my basic summation of the podacast:
(1) There is arterial damage (or, as Ivor says, the “intima is insulted” through various root causes)
(2) Repair process starts: vasa vasorum/vasora generated and penetrates into the intima and brings in the cholesterol, from the outside in.
Regulars here will be familiar with Dr Kendrick talking about (1) the damage/repair process and (2) from which direction the cholesterol can or can’t get in.
and Ivor’s podcast no. 83 is more compelling and supporting food for thought.
.
Hi Charles Gale: angiogenesis in the wrong places creates problems; macular degeneration, CVD, cancer, covid-19 lung damage etc.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3504989/
Cannabidiol inhibits angiogenesis by multiple mechanisms
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25356537/
Cannabidiol Improves Lung Function and Inflammation in Mice Submitted to LPS-induced Acute Lung Injury
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7187842/
SARS-CoV2 induced respiratory distress: Can cannabinoids be added to anti-viral therapies to reduce lung inflammation?
“Although Remdesivir reduced the mortality rate of seriously ill COVID-19 patients needing invasive ventilation (Zhang et al., 2020), similar studies in rhesus macaques revealed minimal subpleural inflammatory cellular infiltrates in the lungs of clinically recovered Remdesivir treated RMs at necropsy (Williamson et al., 2020). This suggests persistence of inflammation and may partly explain the 20–30% reduction in lung function in COVID-19 patients after recovery, which if left unresolved may lead to pulmonary fibrosis. Collectively, these findings support the investigation of cannabinoids as a plausible option to be added as an adjunct to Remdesivir or any new antivirals on SARS-CoV2 induced lung inflammation.”
Dr Kendrick’s pod no 67 Nov last, covers this and worth a re-read – the BBB.
Meanwhile, the people of New York are as thoroughly pissed off at their governor as we are of ours:
Dr Vernon Coleman has just released the most humorous yet true video of the state of censorship that surrounds the whole Covid experience, and the extent that we no longer have free speech……enjoy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5zZwQW-wZU
I have just watched this video and recommend others to do so! In 20 odd minutes he’s gathered together all relevant info concerning covid 19, I’m sure he’s left nothing out. If only he was featured on MSM we would probably be living in a different world to what we have been pushed into. All done with humour too!
We couldn’t agree more. This is a PLANDEMIC organised by Fauci and Gates and the government (also funded by Gates) are in cahoots. All set to make billions when the vaccine is mandatory. Also, the longer the lockdown goes on, the more they can re-structure the government (basically a coup) and re-structure society. 77th Brigade is trolling and commenting on the public’s emails, social media etc., 4,000 people already deployed with another 20,000 waiting (General Nick Clark’s words), regarding addressing so called “misinformation & disinformation on COVID” (in other words, it is not the official narrative), so it could well be them attacking you on social media. The government uses the Behavioural Insights Team to mind control the masses via the mainstream “fearmongering” media. Most people are asleep but they have a rude awakening coming!
UKCOLUMN is providing invaluable coverage of the current politically disastrous situation, see:
https://www.ukcolumn.org/
Browsing around there as a member, I’ve come across this document, which is freely accessible on the web:
A DISPROPORTIONATE INTERFERENCE WITH RIGHT AND FREEDOMS
THE CORONAVIRUS REGULATIONS AND THE EUROPEAN CONVENTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Click to access Francis-Hoar-Coronavirus-article-on-ECHR-compatibility-20.4.2020-2.pdf
The article was written by Francis Hoar of Field Court Chambers:
Click to access Francis-Hoar-Coronavirus-article-on-ECHR-compatibility-20.4.2020-2.pdf
Francis Hoar is the junior counsel – leading counsel is Philip Havers QC – acting for Simon Dolan in his application for judicial review of the coronavirus regulations. Full details of the application and legal documents are here:
https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/lockdownlegalchallenge/
I have read through the documents and am rather concerned that the team is missing an open goal with regard to the way that the Government has justified the lockdown regulations. I have written to Michael Gardner at Wedlake Bell, the instructing solicitor, suggesting that the case would have a greater chance of success if the Government’s failure to give elementary public health advice (Vitamin D supplementation and reasons) were to be included in the application. Although I have sent two e-mails, I have had no response to either of them. As far as I can ascertain, the application is being argued on points of law only. My feeling is that, unless the scope of the applciation is expanded, it will fail.
I’m not a solicitor but have read many legal documents in my time.
Plant or animal based diet for health?
I don’t think Dr Mike Eades needs an introduction and he posted a Twitter comment that his Lowcarb Denver 2020 presentation was now available.
Here’s a link to the 47 minute presentation:
Dr Eades examines the diet and health of our ancestors. A bit off topic you might think but it’s a topic of great interest to many of us here.
It’s professionally filmed i.e. good quality visuals and sound and it is fascinating stuff. I loved the old menus.
Did I say off topic? Not completely: At 39 minutes heart disease in ancient Egyptian mummies is looked at and at 42 mins calcium scores in ancient Egyptian mummies is looked at.
And what the plant based people blame it on!
It’s not often this happens but I felt no need to scroll forward or miss any of it all.
But no more acorns!
Charles, thanks for this Dr. Eades talk.
Great stuff – scientific to me. Carbs make people sick!
Basically I am myself on very low carb eating (since 10 years now). Still I love the bread but am today usually able to abstain from it. Due to a bad character I though can get “trapped” at restaurants now and then as e.g. yesterday where my two low carb (teasing) friends also put their toasted bread on to of the one on my plate.
I have to improve in character for sure 🙂
Very good Charles. Thank you.
Came across this article while searching for information relating to medicinal plants and viruses.
This concept could be an alternative to lockdown.
Click to access 2003.12444.pdf
Possibility of Disinfection of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) in Human Respiratory Tract by Controlled Ethanol Vapor Inhalation
I do like the suggestion of using whisky to kill of the virus. Perhaps Laphroaig would be best – neat of course – as it combines the cleansing powers of whisky and TCP.
Hi Tom: re whiskey protocol for covid,
The study suggests inhaling the fumes before swallowing. This is real science that can be applied several times per day during flu season or even during all seasons since the viruses apparently like to hang around. The ethanol also might work by disrupting viral communication.
Powerful interview with front line NY COVID nurse Erin Marie Olszewski, where:
Everyone is diagnosed with COVID.
Everyone is put on a ventilator.
Everyone dies.
Effective treatments are banned.
More on the d**n mask controversy!! :
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1274036544387477504.html
Patients were administered oral vitamin D3 1000 IU OD, magnesium 150mg OD and vitamin B12 500mcg OD (DMB) upon admission if they did not require oxygen therapy. Conclusions: DMB combination in older COVID-19 patients was associated with a significant reduction in proportion of patients with clinical deterioration requiring oxygen support and/or intensive care support. https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.01.20112334v2
More bullocks from the BBC, an article about people dying from other causes being blamed on Covid. NO it’s the fault of the LOCKDOWN!!! Wake up at the back there
The latest from Nic Lewis:
Back to coronavirus with…
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
I’m re-reading the above named James Bond novel. Towards the end of the novel the experts figure out what Blofeld is up to. The chapter is called “Something called ‘BW'”:
“M said, “Thank you, Mr Franklin. Am I right in thinking that you conclude that this man Blofeld is mounting Biological Warfare against this country?”
Earlier in the novel, Blofeld’s location is discovered via the Royal College of Arms and the plan is for Bond (undercover as an emissary of the Royal College of Arms) to meet with Blofeld, establish it is Blofeld and try and get Blofeld out of Switzerland.
The prompt for this comment came from an earlier chapter called “Fancy Cover”:
“Instead, a new code-word for the operation, known only to an essential handful of senior officers, would be issued. It would be ‘Corona'”.
Well. well. well.
Andy; all these respiratory viruses are profoundly seasonal;
they arrive in late winter, like a storm out of the Atlantic; they do their thing; and they are gone.
Please have a read at this article that Dr K drew our attention to a couple of months ago;
https://virologyj.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/1743-422X-5-29
all these things come as waves; they move on; it doesn’t matter what sort of hat you wear; what sort of trumpet you blow (I favour a tiger horn to keep the tigers away); what colour your trousers are; if you cross the street 3 times;
people need to move on: you keep healthy by getting sunshine and having good Vit D levels, and eating real food; we need to stop obsessing about “disinfecting”; we breathe in maybe a trillion viral particles a day; get over it. A trillion viral particles a day.
everyone is going mad; obsessing about avoidance and crazy concepts of “disinfection”; get outdoors; bump into people; give them a hug; cough over them; be human; stop being so precious; the bad are taking over the streets; while the scared cower indoors; reclaim the streets from the bad; CBW as some say: covid-bed-wetters, that is what so many have become.
Thank you, Terry – A breath of fresh air (full of virus particles as always)
Jean
Hi Terry: re information on “disinfection”, might be useful to someone with a stuffy nose during the flu season.
What if someone developed a protocol for disinfecting blood to cure covid-19 with IV ethanol injections similar to chemotherapy for cancer? One idea leads to another.
Why is ‘bed-wetter’ suddenly a term of insult? Both my kids used to wet the bed, we dealt with it without calling them names. They’re in their fifties now and have (I think) grown out of it.
be prepared to be shocked: your nose is like a farmyard; lots of things live there. (Quick: run away screaming …….. you thought your nose was a veritable temple ….)
“The human respiratory tract hosts a community of viruses that co-circulate in time and space, and as such it forms an ecological niche”
from here https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/116/52/27142.full.pdf
The article is entitled “Virus–virus interactions impact the population dynamics of influenza and the common cold” from a very well-regarded group in Glasgow. Data from 2005-2013.
They say ” evidence for the occurrence of virus–virus interactions remains scarce and the potential mechanisms are elusive, demanding greater research attention. The occurrence of such interactions may have profound economic implications, if the circulation of one pathogen enhances or diminishes the infection incidence of another”
When you read articles like this https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-01880-6 and you hear how viruses communicate with each other, one senses: perhaps we don’t know everything!!
I have found an archive of 26 documents under the title ‘History of Vaccination: 25 Books On Vaccination.’ The author is listed as Trung Nguyen but he appears fo have collected works by others and added a common chapter at the beginning of all of them. They span well over 100 years. Go to:
https://archive.org/details/history-of-vaccination/page/n11/mode/2up
Scroll to near the end of the page to see a list of download options. ‘PDF’ indicates 25 (26) files and selecting it gives the following list; this is the order in which they appear.
1. The Poisoned Needle.pdf download 9.5M
10. Vaccination a Curse and a Menace to Personal Liberty.pdf download 8.6M
11. Evils of vaccination.pdf download 7.3M
12. Vaccination question in the light of modern experience.pdf download 10.2M
13. Jenner and Vaccination-A strange chapter of medical history.pdf download 8.0M
14. Horrors of vaccination-exposed and illustrated.pdf download 9.8M
15. Story of a great delusion.pdf download 9.9M
17. Mandatory vacccination plan-1976.pdf download 7.8M
18. The fraud of vaccination.pdf download 7.1M
19. Vaccination a Curse.pdf download 7.3M
2. A century of vaccination and what it teaches.pdf download 11.1M
20. Vaccination-a medical fallacy.pdf download 7.2M
21.Dream and Lie of Louis Pasteur.pdf download 7.3M
22. The vaccination problem.pdf download 7.2M
23. Fallacy of vaccination.pdf download 7.5M
24. Case against vaccination.pdf download 7.4M
25. Catalogue of anti-vaccination literature.pdf download 7.2M
26. Vaccines-biggest medical fraud in history.pdf download 9.9M
3. Vaccination–Proved Useless and dangerous.pdf download 7.6M
4. Vaccination-Its Fallacies and Evils.pdf download 7.2M
5. Compulsory vaccination-a crime against the school child.pdf download 7.4M
6. Truth about vaccination and immunization.pdf download 7.4M
7. Sanitation vs vaccination.pdf download 15.3M
8. Vaccination Question.pdf download 8.1M
9. Vaccination a delusion.pdf 9.6M
Labour MP David Lammy on vitamin D
BBC Breakfast was on the telly in the staff canteen this morning (Tuesday 22 June) with an interview with Labour MP David Lammy.
David Lammy was asked about the covid-19 death rate compared to white Britons and here is part of his reply:
“…there is a lot of chat about vitamin D. We’ve had no official position from the government as to whether they should be taking vitamin D supplements and, if so, how much…”
It’s on the BBC iplayer at the moment and this extract is at approx. 2 hrs 42 mins.
Great to see some mainstream media exposure from a prominent MP and he’s right, but I’m slightly disappointed that, again, the sheeple looking to the government for guidance. And their track record on vitamins, RDAs and so on isn’t too comforting or reliable or accurate and so on.
“There is a lot of chat about Vitamin D…”
That is a typical example of the speaker’s underlying attitude leaking through their words.
“Chat”.
Clearly connoting idle, worthless, uninformed gossip.
Yet how would an MP, of all people, know anything about the subject of vitamins or biochemistry or cellular biology – let alone medicine?
They are far too busy plotting and scheming and back-stabbing ever to learn anything useful.
Slightly off your topic, but see this about excess dementia deaths in April
I now say that to talk of “protecting the elderly” is a chant; full of seeming goodness; but I would suggest it is a madness; a piece of seductive sophistroy; as one of our forum members said early on: her mother said, that if she couldn’t see her daughter each week, life was not worth living”; simple; true; stark.
I saw a similar article from Holland; old folks just turning their face to the wall to die; as no-one could visit them; how mad we have all become; stripped of our humanity: I lasted 10secs into watching the Concertgbouw orchestra do a stream of a concert; to an empty hall; how horrible; how soul-destroying; how stupid we are all being over a respiratory virus that has done its thing, and gone. Flu does this every year people.
100% agree with you
Its completely inhuman.
I think this accounts for the high death rates in care homes
In my experience with three care homes where my father was, even though the residents are not diagnosed with dementia they all have elements of it presumably they wouldn’t need to be there otherwise. There are fewer places for dementia care and so residents end up in the ‘normal’ facility which is also cheaper.
Staff are all foreign and not trained in dementia. My father was confused by it. He thought he wasn’t living in England. He had only ever been to two countries in Europe in his life and couldn’t relate to them. I know this is another issue but my visits were crucial to his mental and physical health. He had problems every day and would wait for me to come in to ask for help
He is dead now and luckily as it turns out for this situation would have killed him.
I remember the lady epidemiologist from Oxford saying she did think there will be a ‘second wave’. If it does happen it will be the fault of the stupid lockdown. It would have been far better to get the thing over and done with in the warm weather and with far less commentary. The ridiculous fear has and continues to wreak havoc and threaten our liberty. Without this fear I feel sure there would have been fewer deaths.
If people weren’t expecting a wonder vaccine, wouldn’t they have questioned the actions more?
The fact that we are drawing out a natural process in a very unnatural way? Would they be happy being on their guard indefinitely?
My father’s brother, aged 25, was in the SAS and tortured and shot on the orders of the Gestapo. His father had died in flames when his boat was torpedoed. Many will have similar stories. I am glad these men don’t have to know what a self-centred, controlled and pathetic population we have turned into.
Terry,
How i agree with you!
Hi Goran
“I have to improve in character for sure”
Alternatively, we all need our treats in life.
To quote cardiologist Dr. Aseem Malhotra:
“…you can eat healthily on a budget. And it doesn’t have to be that you’re denying yourself treats…you can still save them up and have them on an occasional basis but you should not be having them everyday…you don’t need to…”
Taken from a Steve Bennett podcast called “Food and our immune system”.
Ooops – It’s Monday 22 June today not Tuesday as I wrote in my David Lammy comment.
More on the dangerous HCQ sham trials, courtesy of John Rappaport
https://blog.nomorefakenews.com/2020/06/22/bill-barr-hcq-clinical-trials-intentionally-murdering-people/
Back to LCHF – The 80th Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association featured Sarah Hallberg, DO, medical director, who presented data that favor high saturated– and total-fat diets compared with lfhc diets. Barbara Corkey, PhD, professor of medicine at Boston University, suggested added ingredients in modern carbohydrates was the problem, basically carbohydrates of old was/were ok. On the other side Kevin Hall, PhD, National Institutes of Health, argued that the low carb high fat hypothesis was false after 2 months testing on 17 obese patients alternating between the 2 diets over a few weeks or so. Looks like the latter study would be worthy of further analysis, least of all the sample population base, the time period for testing and any strings that might be attached.
But then maybe I’m biased, maybe the other 2 studies deserve the same attention.
I haven’t seen the data, but the usual drill in such studies is that the “LCHF” diet is only about 40% carbs, and the fat is largely dangerous vegetable oils.
Tom Naughton has often done a number on such fake “studies” in his blog https://www.fathead-movie.com/ (Warning for snowflakes: Tom is very serious, very well-informed, and very funny; but he is not politically correct. For instance, his latest article is entitled “The Bed-Wetter Awards: Best Performance By A Media Organization”.
Tom Welsh –
This is Dr. Kevin Hall speaking on a camera phone in front of his spiel.
Ketogenic diets reduce hunger, so requiring people to clean their plates in a study will blunt that effect. Elevated insulin blocks lipolysis.
Tom Welsh: Thanks! he’s good.
Why is ‘bed-wetter’ suddenly a term of insult? Both my kids used to wet the bed, we dealt with it without calling them names. They’re in their fifties now and have (I think) grown out of it.
Shirley
Everyone has to be classified these days, you can’t just be Shirley or me Chris, you have to à usually derogatory epithet
instead of “Experts warn ….” we briefly had “Experts are excited ..”
They had injected steroids into people with the crona; and seemed to do a little better.
With a bacteria, the antibiotics are intended to get into the cell wall or some such of the bacteria; and then like a balloon rupturing, the bacteria will die;
With a virus, that lives inside a cell; things are different. We can’t “kill” viruses in the same way.
The point of this post is to say that all the drugs that have been discussed for our crona chum; all seem to depress the adaptive immune response: ie the side that makes cytokines and also makes antibodies; so no viral killing; instead the mediator response of the body is dampened.
so if you had researched hydroxy-chloroquine; in Nov 2019; … you would have been told it was just used for rheumatoid arthritis; that it was very safe; very few side-effects; very cheap; and it worked by depressing the immune response. So does the dexamethasone work; so does another drug that has “experts excited..” …tocilizumab; an anti-rheumatoid drug; these “anti-rheumatoid” drugs are grouped together as DM-ARD agents: disease-modifying anti-rheumatoid arthitis drugs.
So you”treat” by turning down the inflammatory mediators that the body produces; nothing to do with “killing viruses”: however in these carb-loaded days, you can find that by following the “Eat Badly” advice of govt agencies, the population is primed with inflammatory mediators already: so primed to explode at any provocation; loaded with inflammatory mediators.
So: carb-loaded; and also omega-6 overloaded from the RS oils they are advised to consume: which causes inflammation: refined seed oils, aka vegetable oils: by the way, which vegetables do they come from?
Those that eat keto drop their inflammatory markers and are far less primed “to explode”
PS viruses are everywhere
The drug that seem to work better and with a single dose. Without the permanent damage that steroid can cause is ivermectin. But is cheap so very little interest.
US Trial Finds Drug Cuts Coronavirus Mortality 40%
https://www.newsmax.com/us/ivermectin-covid/2020/06/09/id/971417/?oRef=mixi
Studies note more at-home heart attacks, delayed ED visits in pandemic
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/06/studies-note-more-home-heart-attacks-delayed-ed-visits-pandemic
May everythings gets settled. Does having a fever indicates to virus? its necessarily not. https://healthvector.wordpress.com/2020/06/22/is-sore-throat-a-covid-19-symptom-or-having-a-fever-makes-you-a-covid-19-vector/ a lighter note for review. Thank you
WordPress has stopped notifying me when comments are approved for about the last week. Anyone else had the same?
These people have no idea what they’re doing: Ex-Supreme Court judge Lord Jonathan Sumption gives a devastating verdict on our political leaders’ handling of the crisis | Daily Mail Online
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8443747/LORD-JONATHAN-SUMPTION-people-no-idea-theyre-doing.html
elizabethhart: Thanks. Even greater incompetence than we have in Washington, D.C.
It fascinates me how unwilling “The Authorities” in the UK are: to talk about Vit D.
…. the same “Experts who warn ……… ” now seem to dismiss taking an effective dose;
So when this article vacuums up data; and looks at latitude; and crona deaths;
… and mentions Vit D: it says ” We agree that very high vitamin D doses >4000IU/day should only be taken in the context of clinical trials1″ ….. very high dose …….. what ???
from here https://nutrition.bmj.com/content/bmjnph/early/2020/06/14/bmjnph-2020-000110.full.pdf
As Hollis and others say: after 20mins in midday sun, you can make 20,000 IU !!??!!
Our leader, Dr K, confessed he takes 4000 IU a day https://drmalcolmkendrick.org/2020/04/28/covid-update-focus-on-vitamin-d/
I know someone who is a doctor in the RAF. They were advised to take Vitamin D as a precaution!
There seems to be no recognition that taking harmless precautions is worth doing in a situation like this, even though there may still be doubts over its efficacy. Does anyone get the feeling that they actually don’t want people taking Vitamin D in case it ends the outbreak?
Our leader. Sounds ominous. He is just a guy with some common sense. Ok he is a bit more than that but our leader?
Told my daughter this morning I’d seen a Corona beer truck. She replied, “The second wave will be Budweiser-20.”
Dear Dr Kendrick, did you try off-guardian, Breibart, conservative woman or Peter Hitchens, UK Column or lockdown sceptics?
So much of what they claim is just more mind pollution. Careful with this stuff – its all very Victorian.
Thanks Chad
I thought his tone was remarkably glib. With just 17 in the study base & 2 months of testing he could discount the lchf hypothesis just like that. Possibly he was introduced to the schedule for balance, bringing up the rear after 2 lchf or virtually 2 lchf advocates’ presentations. Talking points and controversy being driving the agenda?.
Short report on Medscape.
I think Peter Hitchens makes some very relevant points. The others have fixed agendas – old style preachers !
Is Covid19 being made use of for some national restructuring and for accelerating the use of Artificial Intelligence?
Published 15 June 2020!
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/joint-statement-from-founding-members-of-the-global-partnership-on-artificial-intelligence/joint-statement-from-founding-members-of-the-global-partnership-on-artificial-intelligence
These may be of interest too:
https://www.strategy-business.com/blog/Is-AI-the-Next-Frontier-for-National-Competitive-Advantage?gko=9bfef
https://www.pwc.co.uk/issues/data-analytics/artificial-intelligence.html
Not sure what sort of fixed agendas. Maybe they do but at least they are questioing the lockdown and allow comments which is more than the MSM do
Thought they may Take Dr Kendrick’s article
Our own good Dr Kendrick spoke about the importance of being able to change, having the capacity to see the other side is how I interpreted his comments. I just think Breitbart for example has a religious foundation with Steve Bannon. Nothing wrong with religion but I look at the raison d’etre and if it’s a religion or a mantra or born of spiritual beliefs then facts & evidence can be put aside if it doesnt suit the narrative. By the way, I can find nothing wrong with Fox News.
From what I see of UK column it is a bit loud and maybe nationalistic. (I was gonna say smacks of little England but that might be seen as unreasonable & discriminatory language in the current climate – so I won’t)
Well I judge the media by its actions not what it says its objectives are
If they try to get to the truth and ask questions and allow uncensored comments then that is what is important.
UK Column ask questions and don’t accept the MSM narrative without evidence. As a result whistle blowers send them info as they know it wil get aired unlike the MSM.
Sam – within the mainstream blurb, wells statins at the very least, we know where it’s wrong, its the devil we know. When we go looking for the truth, a cacophony opens up which can take us down a multitude of rabbit holes and down many different paths. In effect when we go off on the hunt for truth, censorship does not exist and we will come across many novel ideas & be encouraged to swallow all sorts of snake oils before we find a rational well developed approach that’s not a corporate based financial bonanza based solution. Can be exhausting. Some sources will refuse nothing so long as it supports their beliefs. That’s not good. Must try harder with UK column.
Why masks don’t help:
https://vixra.org/abs/2006.0044?fbclid=IwAR3plvtQzCa3SDwAPTkjJy7EwYA_EBMJ5WmaNEqZ1rboFDrKBa2ICfRfWwQ
Also see:
Why Face Masks Don’t Work: A Revealing Review – Oral Health Group
https://www.oralhealthgroup.com/features/face-masks-dont-work-revealing-review/
elizabethhart: Thank you very much for that link. This gem: “. . .coughing, sneezing, nasal hairs, respiratory tract cilia, mucous producing lining cells, and the phagocytic activity of alveolar macrophages provide protection against inhaled foreign bodies including fungi, bacteria, and viruses. Indeed, the pathogen laden aerosols produced by everyday talking and eating would have the potential to cause significant disease if it were not for these effective respiratory tract defenses.” A formidable defense system, I would say. Better than anything the Pentagon could provide.
The main stated reason for mandatory masks is asymptomatic transmission, which now the WHO says is rare, based on contact tracing.
“WHO Says Asymptomatic Transmission Is Rare, Then Backtracks”
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2020/06/23/who-says-covid-19-asymptomatic-transmission-is-rare.aspx
Watch the 3 minute video at the top. Very telling.
They are assuming that people with symptoms will be good little citizens and stay at home so they won’t infect anyone else. But what about people who cannot afford not to work, or need something urgently at the shops, and suppress their symptoms with cough mixture and what have you and mingle with the rest of us? If they don’t self-isolate, they should at least wear a mask for our sakes.
We have no idea of the quality or effectiveness of a mask anyone is wearing. I don’t care if people don’t wear masks, and they can have a cough or sneeze as well. The bit that I can trust is to look after my immune system (or try to), and if I can’t be bothered to do that, why should I inflict wearing a mask of very questionable effectiveness on anybody?
Fascinating discussion of the possible link between mycobacteria (TB), the BCG vaccine, and the ‘Rona:
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2020/06/no_author/how-bcg-vaccination-trials-might-finally-unlock-the-many-mysteries-of-covid-19/
Does anyone here think there is any truth to the idea that the COVID-19 virus does not actually exist?
Click to access CoronavirusPanic.pdf
Hi David. Yes it does exist. We have sequenced the RNA of various strains from different countries and they are similar which is good evidence. Doesn’t mean our response to it has been good though.
OK – but have the virus particles been isolated – i.e. fully separated from other material in the body? The paper I quoted claims this has never been done. I am quite unable to answer this question myself, but is there a paper that describes this isolation?
If there is no such isolation, can you know for sure what you are sequencing?
Hi David: you say “Does anyone here think there is any truth to the idea that the COVID-19 virus does not actually exist?” and then post the link to David Crowe’s article.
In an organ of thr MSM, one might assume that the two are actually casually related;
one might assume “does not actually exist” is the sole thesis of the article. .. actually I disagree.
What he does say early on is “If the virus exists, then it should be possible to purify viral particles”; and to some, that would seem a reasonable position: after all, you see endless images of the crona: if I were say these were all entirely figments of the artists’ imaginations, would you believe me? All are just figments of the imagination? No-one has seen an intact virus: do you believe me when I say that?
In bacteriology, folks can grow bacteria; see them; kill them with chemicals in those growth dishes in the lab; (antibiotics!); and they fulfil Koch’s postulates; virology zoomed off about 1980s where “old-fashioned” ideas like: you could see it: (electron microscopy) etc ….. side-turned into short-cuts: all surrogate markers; if a test I have invented says it exists; then it IS there: OK? and if all your mates agree, you are home and hosed.
I would suggest folks should be allowed to read views of folks like D Crowe; in a supposedly free society.
eg: think about this:
for crona; the initial (PCR) test is to detect fragments of the crona virus: these can be spooled up from miniscule fragments into large counts by the PCR test; “from small things mama, big things one day come …” so PCR was meant to be qualitative; asking: is it present: yes/no? Now it becomes quantative; but to some extent, it is only meant to be testing for bits of a virus …… yes/no
if you then move on to do crona serological testing; for antibodies to crona; if you get a positive, most would say that is good news; you have antibodies; you are alive; if further exposed, you should be immune to illness from this. Can we generalise? Antibodies=immunity: agreed?
however: there was a virus identified/invented in the 1980s for which there is a test: do you believe it tests for the presence of the virus? Well; no actually; it is an antibody test: so if you get a strongly positive test for this, this would mean you have lots of antibodies, you would agree? However for this case, it is interpreted as being really bad: you are going to die of this disease, unless you take expensive antiviral drugs? If someone could please explain why this disease is so different: remember; the virus itself cannot be detected; it is an antibody test.
I make these points just to show that reading views of someone like Crowe can lead one to useful insights. Perhaps “experts who warn ……” should protect us from free speech and thinking for ourselves: slavery is freedom; war is peace; poverty is wealth; love Big Brother.
possibly
Apparently the virus has not been properly isolated. In China they took a sample form the lungs of some infected people and found viral material and assumed it was covid. However that material could have been anything.
Also there is the exosome theory.
However whatever it is it has shown itself to be no more dangerous than the annual flu and no need to totally destroy the economies of the west.
They are acting as though it was the black death that killed 1/2 the population
If anyone doesn’t think the covid-19 virus exists as a new entity, I suggest they read this :-
View at Medium.com
It’s a long read even for a scientist well versed in the subject. For a lay person, it’s a very long read. But the article leaves little doubt about the similarities and differences between the covid-19 virus and other known viruses.
Useful summary of info here:
The evidence – Evidence Not Fear
https://evidencenotfear.com/evidence/
I saw this article of yours posted on RT.com today. Perplexing death numbers inconsistent with other countries CV 19 deaths. Truthfully I only read about half of it.
Proclaimed Covid Symptoms: a sneeze; a cough: a rash; shortness of breath. These fall into many diagnoses.
With the onset of the USA lockdown, Dr. Birx stated they will count a covid death when someone had it, but didn’t die from it. A hunch is, more people may test positive, in the world, than one would expect. Dying WITH vs dying FROM are two different things. Perplexing Numbers? What countries are NOT recording dying with as a covid death?
So what doesn’t make sense?
“This is so weird that I can’t fathom it: Why did deaths in those aged 15–44 spike during lockdown, but only in England?”
Check out this article in The Guardian:
Covid-19 vaccine may not work for at-risk older people, say scientists | World news | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/23/covid-19-vaccine-may-not-work-for-at-risk-older-people-say-scientists
A vaccine against Covid-19 may not work well in older people who are most at risk of becoming seriously ill and dying from the disease, say scientists, which may mean immunising others around them, such as children.
Prof Peter Openshaw, from Imperial, one of the members of the UK’s Sage scientific advisory sub-group Nervtag, told the House of Lords science and technology committee it was this week considering a paper on targeting different groups in the population with vaccines.
“Sometimes it is possible to protect a vulnerable group by targeting another group and this, for example, is being done with influenza,” he said. “In the past few years, the UK has been at the forefront of rolling out the live attenuated vaccine for children.”
Giving the nasal spray flu vaccine to children who do not often get severe flu protects their grandparents, he said. Immunising health and care workers – who are likely to be the first to get the vaccine – would also help protect older people who have the most contact with them.
Wow!
elizabethhart: Truly creepy. What evidence, I wonder, is he relying on for his statement that vaccinating children protects the elderly from influenza? Sounds like a foot in the door to expanding the childhood schedule.
There is a lot of discussion about deaths related to Covid19 but there seems to be little clear information as yet about strokes ascribed to it, especially as young people can suffer them.
In early May, he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, and his physician, Tim Hollstein at the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein in Kiel, suggested that the sudden onset might be linked to the viral infection. In Gnadt’s case, Hollstein suspected that the virus had destroyed his β-cells,… https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01891-8?error=cookies_not_supported&code=dcc06624-09bd-4683-b672-9a2609e54881
Vaccines!
(This speaks for itself. Volumes. Try it on. Does it fit?) :
https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2020/06/25/vaccine-derangement
JD, you keep posting these. Just out of curiosity, what are you trying to accomplish? Do you think that people who have seen vaccine injuries first hand are going to believe some guy’s blog?
For those of us who have suspected the lock-downs were a matter of closing the barn door after the horses had run wild:
https://www.lifezette.com/2020/06/new-data-shows-8-7-million-americans-likely-had-coronavirus-in-march-lockdowns-were-worthless/
https://news.psu.edu/story/623797/2020/06/22/research/initial-covid-19-infection-rate-may-be-80-times-greater-originally
I’ve recently wondered why the lock-downs didn’t just chop the growing bell curve of infections more or less in half, bringing them to a near-screeching halt. Instead, infections seemed to trickle off or wane over time. An estimated 2/3 of NY hospitalizations were of people who stayed home. The Penn State study might explain some of that.
We are so damned ignorant, in the great scheme of things, of how the world really works. And yet so ready to pontificate about it.
LA bob
I too expecited lock down to stop the infection dead in its tracks and after the incubation period plus one half, it would dwindle to around 0 .
What went wrong
We only had a partial lockdown, eg non-essential construction workers were still expected to go to work as well as essential workers. Infection spread in hospitals, there was a lack of PPE to protect staff, and it spread particularly particularly in care homes, which absolutely didn’t get the “ring of steel” round them that they were promised. One London consultant described it as like the Siege of Caffa in 1346, during the Black Death, when the Mongol Army catapulted plague ridden bodies over the walls into the city. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2020/05/12/governments-handling-covid-19-british-disaster/ Unfortunately the article is behind a paywall
A lockdown doesn’t affect everybody. You still need people for food supply, garbage removal, police, medical, etc to move about. Many people stay at home in the normal course of the day e.g. homemakers, young children, the elderly. It is estimated that at the height of the lockdown about 18% more people stayed at home. Currently it’s about 7% more in the US.
https://www.safegraph.com/dashboard/covid19-shelter-in-place?s=US&d=06-18-2020&t=counties&m=index
I thought this an interesting chart
from here
https://twitter.com/hector_drummond/status/1276092772936822785 if needed;
Folks may well disagree that what is classified on the chart as “non-crona” is indeed that; that would be great, as this forum engenders interesting debate and illuminating comments and research: more strength to it! Keep the discussion and reflection going!
Similarly this chart of overall UK stats https://twitter.com/hector_drummond/status/1276100323883573248/photo/1
might spur some reflection; also shown here https://twitter.com/hector_drummond/status/1276100323883573248
Regarding: “When I criticised the modelling of Imperial College, a huge number of replies came flooding in. They attacked me, but were highly supportive of the modelling, and the Government actions. These posts were from people who have never posted before, or since.”
From personal experience, I think the reason you got a lot of new posters on that topic, is because on other topics such as heart disease, you have spent a long time developing your ideas and intuitions. So your posts on such topics are well thought out and generally consistent. So a lot of “lurkers” read such posts, and do not feel compelled to reply. Whereas on epidemiology models, you have not spent as much time developing your ideas and intuitions, so your posts are not as well thought out. So people read those posts, notice some flaws, and feel they can contribute by pointing them out.
Eg, your post on “How does COVID kill people?” was great, but I have nothing to contribute there.
I really don’t know who to trust anymore either. I think it’s a bad sign that Russia continues to encourage “our” dissidents because it shows our unwillingness to engage in meaningful debate on important issues. Somehow our news media missed entirely the poisoning of democracy that corporations have carried out over decades since probably around the 1960’s. I think the first thing we need to do is make it illegal to borrow stock. Stock may be owned, but never borrowed. So that will stop a lot of shenanigans. Then the shell company game could be ended. No company may own a company that owns other companies. So that makes companies two deep. No more shell games. Fully funding the IRS (in each respective country) and modernizing it would go a long way toward stopping tax evasion. Now we’d have a robust system for stopping the system from being gamed. I doubt if you could accomplish very much if you just tried to regulate the corporations to keep their grubby fingers out of scientist’s experiments. You need to actually reign in their money games. They’ll still be plenty rich, but now we’ll be able to tax it properly and it will be much harder to hide any nonsense.
perhaps the problem lies not so much with the corporations but with career politicians that are bribed by them not to investigate.
We have enough regulations and laws to stop corruption but when those who are supposed to investigate are run by the wolves then that is the issue.
As can be seen today the government is above the law and has gone awol!
Simon Dolan’s legal case has simply been dismissed with littl consideration of the points.
We have a corrupt judiciary and governemnt which has conspired against the people.
Brilliant as usual. You remain one of the lone voices of reason and intelligence amidst the madness. Political correctness, fear, ignorance, corruption and expedience have led the way in our country’s (south africa) response, and yes, the same media who previously criticized our government have indeed become cheerleaders (but only on Covid related matters of course). No shades of grey are permitted. It reminds me of your thoughts on vaccination. Question anything about any single vaccination and you must be an anti-vaxer! Thank-you for your razor-sharp thinking. Now needed more than ever.