Covid-19 is not a game you can “both sides” and win. You don’t debate with it. It kills people, and because of all the contrarian idiocy, it has most likely killed a lot more.
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Wednesday, 28 October 2020
367 Reasons Covid “Sceptics” Should Butt Out
367 deaths. 367 people dead within 28 days of a positive test for Covid-19. 367 individuals with brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, parents perhaps. That was yesterday’s grim statistic from the Gov.UK dashboard. It was backed up by more grim statistics.
22,885 people had tested positive for the virus. There were 9,199 infected patients in hospital. 1,152 had been admitted in the past 24 hours. 852 of those in hospital were occupying a ventilator bed - on current trends, more than half of those will die.
The whole of the UK is likely to be subjected to Tier 3 restrictions - as close to lockdown without actually going there - very soon as infections take hold. Yet there are still those who are in denial - some of whom have been given a platform by broadcast media.
There is no “both sides”. But try telling that to the loathsome Toby Young, who has airily brushed away the 367 deaths with “‘The numbers of deaths in hospitals remained below the five-year average in Week 42…’ Latest [ONS] bulletin”. It wasn’t. Still, he had time to troll Rachel Clarke, who had passed adverse comment upon his pal James “saviour of Western civilisation” Delingpole, demanding she engage in “the discussion”.
And while Carole Malone has gone quiet, Desperate Dan Wootton has not. He’s not talking about 367 dead, but blaming the media, well, that part of it that does not include himself. “Dan Wootton thinks the media bias covering Covid-19 is ‘out of control’ and says the ‘scaremongering’ at Sky News is ‘extraordinary’”. Then he consulted terminally inept form-filler Darren Grimes on breaking Covid-19 regulations at Christmas.
On went the Look Over There brigade: former Murdoch editor Andrew Neil wanted us to look at “Seven-day moving average of daily Covid deaths in Sweden”, then telling us “For comparison, UK figs for same dates (UK population over 6 times Sweden’s)”. He forgot to mention that (a) positive test numbers are ramping up in Sweden, and (b) that Sweden’s population density is less than 10% that of the United Kingdom.
But worst of all is the haughty idiocy of self-promoting TalkRADIO host Julia Hartley Dooda, who sneered at the end of last month “Is this when they announce the plague of locusts? Or do you think Whitty and Vallance might admit their ‘not a prediction’ of 200 deaths a day wasn't a very honest ‘example scenario’…?” and left the Tweet live.
Worse still, she then promoted the views of retired pharmacist Michael Yeadon, who said last Friday “It’s my very carefully considered opinion that THE PANDEMIC IS OVER. Without seeming immodest, I doubt there is anyone else in U.K. who has studied the pandemic more closely & has all the knowledge, experience & judgement I have in all aspects relating to this ghastly episode”. He hadn’t finished, although he was.
“I welcome any non hysterical responses & objective facts which refute this contention. I’m not spending more time here now than needed to create a post. So I may not check replies for hours”. And that’s without the interventions of Sarah “Vain” Vine, mercenary pundit Isabel Oakeshott, and Dan, Dan the Oratory Man. All of whom got it spectacularly wrong.
Covid-19 is not a game you can “both sides” and win. You don’t debate with it. It kills people, and because of all the contrarian idiocy, it has most likely killed a lot more.
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Covid-19 is not a game you can “both sides” and win. You don’t debate with it. It kills people, and because of all the contrarian idiocy, it has most likely killed a lot more.
https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/zelostreet7
It's slightly unfair to characterise Michael Yeadon as a "retired pharmacist". His article at Lockdown Bullshitters tells us that he "is the former CSO and VP, Allergy and Respiratory Research Head with Pfizer Global R&D".
ReplyDeleteThat, presumably, is the same Pfizer that the U.S. government has charged with health care fraud. The same company that a Reputation Institute report ranked last among the top 17 drug makers for reputation. And the same company that was fined a record £84.2m over NHS overcharging.
In order to evaluate "the knowledge, experience & judgement" that Yeadon has claimed, perhaps he could tell us the role he had in these activities.
https://www.drugwatch.com/manufacturers/pfizer/
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/dec/07/pfizer-fined-nhs-anti-epilepsy-drug-cma
They have one thing in common, apart from the fact that they're all fucking idiots - they're all Brexit supporters. Or maybe there's a link..............
ReplyDeletePerhaps they should try out their clever theories on the families of those who succumbed to the virus.
It has become almost impossible to describe these people. "Despicable" doesn't even come close.
ReplyDeleteOver time they have got worse and worse and worse.
Our sad, spiritually poor, decaying country...that we should have such miserable wretches pushed forward by establishment puppeteers.
It's all too obvious where this is all headed. Has this country completely lost its head?
Find me six people who would willingly spend Christmas with Darren Grimes.
ReplyDeleteA quick read of any covid article in the Mail/Express/Telegraph followed by a look at the comments shows how orchestrated this nonsense is. The vast majority of comments are bots/trolls/PR plants saying typically inept meme talking points. Said papers won't do a thing to reduce such comments, nor will they impose any sort of fact-checking.*
ReplyDelete*has been like that a long time, remember how many BNP comments used to feature in the tabloids before they all skipped to UKIP?
"But anon, the papers can't fact-check and censor comments, is too expensive and time-consuming to read everything".
I did an experiment the other day, posted a few comments on the Express, all of which were polite, but one comment featured a dig that could be construed as an attack on the unnamed Tory accused of nasty stuff. No names, no swearing, just a comment along the lines of we generalise poor people as bad because of accusations again a small percentage but don't apply that same principle to MPs who are accused of sex crimes.
The comment was moderated within a few minutes and removed.
So....
You can go on the DE and lie about flu v covid, covid tests, call scientists names, say is all a lefty Marxist conspiracy, stir up trouble, egg on anti-lockdown protesters and just flat-out lie about the biggest health issue currently facing the planet.
But a bit of political snark is gone in moments.
And this is why the media knows exactly what they're doing and why we should never forget how their lies and misinformation damaged the country.
Especially do not forget the shady campaigns such as 'Maureen from Barnsley' who is 83 and knows all about the Barrington Declaration but seemingly little about the success of NZ & other Asian countries in handling the pandemic. Despite being an annoying Tory type she was interviewed in much of the media and presented as a 'voice of the people'. Though in this case the people didn't fall for it. Am sure there'll be lots like her in the coming months - sparky pensioners demanding a 'return to normality' while the land falls to bits, accompanied by hundreds of comments from fellow 'oldies' apparently willing to sacrifice themselves 'for the young people'. All bollocks, all manufactured.