Off Topic Coronavirus - 606 tales from the Inquiry

Agreed.

Scientists are supposed to tell the truth and the whole truth.
No politically motivated silences.

 

I'd love to be a fly on the wall when Messrs Whitty and Vallance are having a private chat.

 

Two good posts on the subject and yes, black and white one, that is another good thought. The reason glasses mist up is due to the condensation which is being pushed on to them. Condensation which is basically water vapour exhaled from your lungs. And when you consider that you can see water vapour, because it is large enough, but the Covid virus is so small it can only be seen under a microscope, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that the virus also escapes the mask.

Proper air tight masks with filters are worthwhile of course in medical settings and other high risk environments but they would not be practical, desirable or worn properly by Joe Public. The sorts of masks you can buy for £4 for 5 are utterly useless. Apart of course, for those producing and selling them.

And to clarify, although I know they are pointless, I have always worn one when required by the law to do so.

 

It is absolutely clear that the sudden removal of virtually all COVID restrictions now (within a week) is designed solely to deflect anger at the behaviour of the Prime Minister and his No. 10 staff.
Both the anger of the general public, and - far more importantly in the view of Boris himself - the anger of Tory back benchers.

With infections still running at around 100,000 per day and deaths at over 300 per day, there is no scientific basis to repealing virtually every restriction immediately.
Word is that within weeks there will no longer be any requirement to isolate at all if you test positive for Coronavirus.
You can simply continue to go to school or work or visit relatives and infect everyone around you.

Does anybody believe that these changes are science based?

 

Whether they are science based, economic based, politically motivated or a combination of all three, I don’t really know, but “quite frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn”.

I firmly believe that with Omicron infection rates compared to serious illness figures we are doing more harm than good by keeping restrictions. Unless another more deadly variant comes along this should be the end of all restrictions.

We need to live with this virus now - it’s not going away but it is far less serious than it first was. About 90% of the people now getting seriously ill have chosen to be unvaccinated. That’s entirely their choice and everyone else shouldn’t be made to suffer as a result. Darwin was right - the strong will survive and the stupid will perish.

And the death figures are now hugely misleading. So many people are now testing positive that there are huge numbers of deaths being recorded ‘due to Covid’ which are nothing of the sort. People are dieing within 28 days of testing positive - they are not dieing of Covid in large numbers. In most cases they just happen to have caught Covid within 28 days, often I suspect, after they suffered from whatever it is that actually kills them.

If we were to keep restrictions now it would cause more harm than if we ditch them. More mental health problems, more cancer deaths, more businesses going bust, more financial burden on taxpayers, more stroke victims getting serious complications, more children’s education adversely affected, more suicides, continuing dreadful service from companies, government agencies, local councils, Police forces, more court cases getting dropped because the courts can’t keep up, more people suffering in agony because they can’t get their hip ops, knee ops, hernias repaired etc etc etc.

The list is almost endless. So bring it on - scrap all the restrictions and let’s get on with our lives as best we can. If a few thousand more unvaccinated morons die then in the long run the human gene pool will be better for it.

 

The NHS is in a dreadful state, and the staff are at breaking point, many are leaving. There is a ticking timebomb of doctors approaching retirement age. Their wellbeing has to be considered.

 

The argument regarding the balance of harm / good from COVID restrictions is a complex one, and I broadly accept most of what you've said there @Ubedizzy

My main point was that the sudden bringing forward of this "freedom" announcement and the swiftness of the removal of virtually all restrictions (the timing of the announcement) is entirely politically motivated; designed only to save Boris Johnson.
His anti-restriction back benchers cheered him to the rafters when they heard about this.

And to me it beggars belief that there are serious indicators that Boris will bring an end to any self-isolating after a positive test within a few weeks.
That will surely lead to an new wave of infections, and more intolerable pressure on the NHS.

Indeed, if a positive test will no longer require isolation or any other actions to protect others from infection, why should people bother to test themselves at all?
We might as well give up tracking Coronavirus infection rates.

 

I don’t think it is entirely politically motivated though. Just look at the ‘new daily infection’ charts - they are plummeting - that’s what’s leading this decision, not Boris’s errors of judgement. And the realisation about the accuracy of ‘Covid’ deaths. Yes the NHS is under strain, but it is every winter and the extra burden from Covid is now almost entirely down to the unvaccinated, so unless we want to physically force them to be jabbed against their will, there is very little we can do about that.

 

I'm convinced that if Boris was not fighting for his political life (and urgently needing to appease a huge rump of his back benchers), the easing of restrictions would be going on at a slower pace.
Perhaps only a few weeks slower, but definitely not dropped like a bombshell at a few hours notice.

And I don't believe the end of self-isolating would be on the cards in just a few weeks' time.
That is a blatant concession to the anti-restriction faction in the Tory party - only conceded because Boris is up against the ropes.

COVID restriction policy - supposed to be for the preservation of lives and health in the country - is now just another gambling chip in the high stakes game that Boris is playing to further his own survival as Prime Minister.

I would like to see Sir Chris Whitty stand up behind a lectern in No.10 and tell the British people he supports the sudden way restrictions are being removed.
And that he supports the end of any self-isolating on a positive test.

 

Have you ever considered a job at the BBC Lardi ?

Only joking of course, I guess we’ll never know for sure. The figures and the understanding of how much less severe Omicron is, combined with the harm that is done by keeping restrictions certainly justifies relaxing or scrapping them. But equally, yes it may also give Boris a boost.

I think so much of our media coverage is biased that it is easy to be misled at times.

 

I was watching Question Time last night as I was typing some of my posts.
Granted it was broadcast from somewhere in Scotland, but not even one Scottish tory voter in the audience would say anything in support of Boris.

Douglas Ross had some support for his call for the PM to resign. Jacob Rees-Mogg was lambasted of course, Brexit was lamented over a bit (no surprise there) but the SNP also got some stick too, for the deep problems in Scottish society that have only got worse on their 15 year watch.

A lively episode...

 

Boris has always been reluctant to bring in restrictions. At the beginning of the pandemic this was a serious mistake which cost thousands of lives, just as it did at Christmas 2020. His decisions at present are consistent with his approach throughout Covid, only this time he's bragging about getting it right. With over 150,0000 deaths, a bit of humility would be in order.

I might watch this on IPlayer..................

 

Question time ? On the BBC ? From Scotland ? With someone called Bruce presenting it ? (I presume it’s still that non-entity) And the audience picked by the BBC and questions from the audience controlled by the BBC, as well as air-time and camera choice being controlled by the BBC ?

Rees-Mogg was probably the only one brave/stupid enough to appear on it.

I despise my licence fee money being given to the likes of Lineker, Raworth, Robinson, Croxall - but of course I don’t really get a choice. Why is the BBC so biased ? Perhaps the government should be trying to change the way the BBC is funded. Oh hang on a minute…..

 

Sadly Rees-Mogg was not actually on the panel - that would have been brilliant.
He just got plenty of derision (in his absence) for his insult against Douglas Ross - widely seen as a slur on the whole devolved Scottish Parliament.

PS:

I'm looking forward to these secret tapes of Tory Whips blackmailing the Pork Pie plotters
You couldn't make this stuff up...

 

The audience on Question Time is not chosen by the BBC, it's chosen by an independent body which is given the brief to select an audience which represents all sides of the political spectrum. Boris is held in low esteem north of the border by practically everyone, so this would be reflected in the audience.

 

It's not new. You have to be a total bastard to be a whip. Several years ago a former Tory whip was filmed cheerfully admitting that he knew about one of his MP's predeliction for boys, but had not reported it, but kept it in hand in case he needed it to put pressure on said MP. Even The Speaker of the House was a ruthless bastard when he was Chief Whip, and employed the same sort of methods. Comes with the territory.

 

Embarrassing sexual blackmail is one thing, and deplorable enough.
But telling an MP that funding for badly needed social projects in his constituency will be withheld if he does not toe the line is another - and even worse in my view.
If that is happening then it needs to stop - traditional or not.

 

Yes, because public money is involved. It always seems to be Angela Rayner, not Sir Keir, who makes these sort of points.

 

Ah, sorry I misunderstood. Yes, a personal appearance by Moggy would have been interesting.

The QT audience is selected from people that apply to join it via the BBC QT website. BBC researchers and producers then contact applicants and choose participants from those applicants. That’s hardly independent.

The audience is then chosen to reflect the current views of the majority of people from the location in which it is to be broadcast. Thus an edition from Scotland will be full of Scottish people who contact the BBC and ask to go on the Scottish edition and who are generally anti-Tory. This hardly produces a balanced audience. No doubt if it is broadcast from Surrey, you get an equally biased audience in favour of the Tories. Personally I don’t think this is a good end result in either case because it is not a balanced audience.

And of course it is the BBC who chooses the locations so they are controlling the audiences in my opinion.

 

France is in serious trouble now from Covid. Over 500,000 new cases today. That’s nearly two and a half times more than our highest daily figure, in a country with a smaller population.

Over six million people in France have currently got the virus and nearly 4,000 are seriously ill. Their death figures will rise proportionately over the coming weeks.

Macron should be sent to the guillotine for his handling of the pandemic. His rejection, belittling and sneering at the Oxford Astra Zeneca vaccine should haunt him forever more and ensure that he is never again trusted with the wellbeing of his nation.

Despicable, arrogant, git. And to think we are moaning because Boris had a birthday cake .