The people who benefitted most were the likes of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bernard Arnault, Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Ballmer and Warren Buffett, because governments pumped billions into supporting the markets in which they are the massive shareholders. Chinese sales of masks and gowns were very significant, but in the grand scheme of thing, they were a piss in the ocean.
Have you forgotten how much other goods China continued to supply worldwide whilst everywhere else shut down ? It wasn’t about masks only , and I can’t argue with the usual global suspects doing well but I’ve said it before on here IMO China was struggling to fight Trumps US economy and he was fighting’ them toe to toe - their economy was in recession by their standards until this pandemic happened . China is about the whole not the few - for now - and is about long term at any cost. The west etc doesn’t rock the China boat much because it’s in hock to it for investments , pensions etc like we are to the Arab countries
I'm just pointing out that all the articles about the super-rich doubling their wealth during COVID, is referring to the sort of people I mentioned and not factory owners in China (some of whom will clearly have done very well out of the orders they got, but it didn't make them all billionaires).
Unlike the current trend wasnt having a pop just expressing that as you’ve pointed out there are bigger activities going on economically that people can be so naive over and not maybe appreciate . I’m not insulting peoples intelligence except it’s easy to live in a small world .
Sometimes not forgetting the wheres and why (or various theories, counter theories etc), people are still getting ill and will continue... https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-67726685
At the time when a PPE shortage was announced, my thought was, that didn't take long to clean out ARCO. FFS indeed.
They had loads They did supply NHS, presumably through existing contracts, but I’ve a feeling they were even selling abroad because our Govt weren’t buying from them. Something odd anyway
https://www.shponline.co.uk/ppe/arco-helps-secure-supply-of-140m-face-masks/ says ARCO was supplying the NHS throughout the pandemic
"Whilst we appreciate there was an urgent requirement for PPE for frontline responders at the beginning of the pandemic and that the Government was facing unprecedented and challenging circumstances, we still believe that, with our track record in sourcing, emergency planning and distribution of PPE, the Government could have engaged more proactively with Arco to benefit from our expert knowledge to support the process." The response to the announcemt that £8.7 billion of PPE is being written off. https://www.arco.co.uk/news/respons...e;jsessionid=B5EF3551B2247CB5F47370ABE70F5EB4 Or put another way, ya tried to wing it and f****d up.
They were, but the point was they had to do it direct through their own contracts, as opposed to being used by central Govt to supply the whole through that arrangement (basically central Govt bought PPE and they distributed it across the country.) ARCO weren’t part of that huge volume buying, and yet people like Michelle Mone’s husband were given vast contracts despite having no experience in that market. Ones the Govt bought were on average 80% higher price than normal and of course millions of items had to get destroyed, at a cost, because they weren’t fit for purpose. ARCO should have been the first port of call, instead of companies with no track record who made millions in profit. This was ARCO’s position paper. You have to read between the lines a little because of course they couldn’t come out and be overly critical, because they’ll want future Govt contracts. https://production-content-media.ar...S2*MTcwMjgxMDE2Mi4xLjEuMTcwMjgxMDE5OC4wLjAuMA..
Watched zKuenssburginterview the Anne’s today , husbands an arrogant hit , she looked less so - got a contract of £250millmade £60 mill profit all moved into trusts for the family ! He showed no shame embarrassment or anything - a f*** you , so what attitude
Do all people under investigation for fraud get to be interviewed on telly to protest their innocence? Must be a thing now…
If it is, it's a thing that makes your situation a hundred times worse. Absolute ****show of a car crash interview.
I noticed on Twitter (X) yesterday, that the Kuenssberg show was getting an absolute pasting for having them on.
Project fear was just a conspiracy theory I was told…..well….. BBC 'misrepresented' Covid risk to boost lockdown support, says top scientist Corporation accused of reporting rare deaths as the norm during pandemic Simon Johnson, SCOTTISH POLITICAL EDITOR25 January 2024 • 11:47am please log in to view this image The BBC was allowed to “misrepresent” the risk posed by Covid to most people to boost public support for lockdown, the UK Covid Inquiryhas heard. Prof Mark Woolhouse, an eminent epidemiologist and government adviser, lambasted the corporation for having “repeatedly reported rare deaths or illnesses among healthy adults as if they were the norm”. He said this created the “misleading impression” among BBC News viewers at the start of the pandemic that “we are all at risk” and “the virus does not discriminate”. In reality, he said it was known at the time that the risk of dying from Covid was 10,000 times higher in the over-75s than the under-15s. But Prof Woolhouse told the Covid Inquiry the BBC did not correct its reporting, saying: “I suspect this misinformation was allowed to stand throughout 2020 because it provided a justification for locking down the entire population.” please log in to view this image Prof Mark Woolhouse said BBC coverage during the pandemic led to a 'misperception' of the risk of Covid CREDIT: UNPIXS He said further evidence of this was provided by a briefing dated March 22 2020 by a sub-group of the UK Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) that focused on the public’s behaviour. This stated that “a substantial number of people still do not feel sufficiently personally threatened; it could be that they are reassured by the low death rate in their demographic group ... the perceived level of personal threat needs to be increased among those who are complacent, using hard-hitting emotional messaging”. Advertisement Prof Woolhouse said the “misperception” created by the BBC’s coverage that everyone was at risk was a “barrier to targeting interventions at the vulnerable minority who truly were at high risk from Covid”. In his written submission to the inquiry about the impact north of the Border, he said: “I fear that Scottish Government’s pandemic response was compromised as a result.” He also concluded that lockdown had been “least effective at protecting the most vulnerable precisely because of their need to have contacts with health care and social care workers — self-isolation was not an option.” The expert added: “This should have been recognised from the outset.” ‘Climate of fear’ in BBC during pandemic Prof Woolhouse is professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh and was an adviser to the Scottish Government during the pandemic, although his submission said his advice was often not heeded by Nicola Sturgeon. He also sat on the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling, which was another sub-group of SAGE. Advertisement The submission was published after he gave evidence to the inquiry on Wednesday. It is sitting in Edinburgh to examine the Scottish Government’s handling of the pandemic. The Telegraph spoke last year to current and former BBC journalists who described a “climate of fear” existing in the corporation during the pandemic, with experienced reporters “openly mocked” if they questioned the wisdom of lockdowns, or called “dissenters”. Some complained to senior managers about the BBC’s blinkered stance, but were ignored. Others communicated via secretive WhatsApp groups to share their frustrations, like members of a resistance movement. Prof Woolhouse said the public was “not given accurate information” about Covid in the early stages of the pandemic. “Some media sources — notably the BBC television news — did repeatedly misrepresent the risk posed by Covid,” he said. “One example is that they gave the impression that hospitals were being overwhelmed during the first wave. Some (mainly in London) were, but overall hospital bed occupancy was at an all-time low during that period. “A second example is that they routinely reported deaths of healthy young adults, thereby giving the impression that these were common. In reality, such deaths were extremely rare; the great majority of Covid deaths occurred in the elderly, frail and infirm.” Advertisement He concluded: “Possibly, this kind of coverage was an attempt to back up government public health messaging; for example, the hugely misleading claim that ‘we are all at risk’.” The BBC was approached for comment https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/01/25/covid-inquiry-bbc-misrepresented-risk-pandemic/
Every single person in this country should stop paying their Licence Fee and say 'what are you going to do about it'... the BBC needs liquidating, its just a tax and for what..?
