The Coronavirus Discussion Thread.

I hadn’t come across Toby Young before. He sounds like just the sort of chap I’d want to get behind.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toby_Young

[Twitter comments] included what an Evening Standard editorial called “an obsession with commenting on the anatomy of women in the public eye”. He referred on Twitter to the cleavage of unnamed female MPs sitting behind Ed Miliband in the Commons in 2011 and 2012. When later challenged by Stella Creasy on Newsnight he said of the second such incident: “It wasn’t my proudest moment”. Other remarks included slurs described as homophobic, including a claim that George Clooney is “as queer as a coot”.

One tweet by Young was in response to a BBC Comic Relief appeal in 2009 for starving Kenyan children. During the broadcast, a Twitter user commented that she had “gone through about 5 boxes of kleenex” whilst watching. Toby Young replied: “Me too, I havn’t [sic] w**ked so much in ages”. He has expressed remorse for his “politically incorrect” tweets.

Young is reported to have edited his own Wikipedia page 282 times over the course of six years.[107][108]

Hi comrade @Tallyhoe, isn’t it time for your afternoon nap?

They still live amongst us.

[ no doubt they’d take their survival as proof that none of the measures that got us through the early days of the pandemic were really needed ]

Ah Toby Young I’d forgotten about him – he looks like an egg & he runs the free speech union grift…

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/24/toby-young-free-speech-union-twitter

The optometrist wore a mask this morning when I was having an eye test (I told him about hubby), this made me happy, as he has a lot of elderly customers.

Mrs_oab has had many hospital appointments this last month, today being a 6 hour stint and two appointments.

We were discussing a real split in NHS team and mask wearing. We’ve had a good few doctors and nursing staff who just mask up straight away (mrs_oab has no immune system and is pretty ill at present) and yet they are only perhaps a third of staff we meet.

I was asked by someone from the public in the hospital pharmacy queue last month why I was wearing a mask. Initially I said ‘because I need to’. He was adamant I didn’t need it and was stood really close.

So I told him that mrs_oab had covid and I wasn’t feeling best…

Funnily enough, he moved away from me…

And here we have it, a very very good and fairly comprehensive summary of the whole Covid-19 debacle.

Everything You’ve Always Wanted to Know About COVID-19 But Have Been Afraid to Ask

Nice to know that those of us they called conspiracy theorists have been well and truly vindicated.

I suppose it was too much to ask the covid virus to specifically target idiots.

I hadn’t come across Toby Young before. He sounds like just the sort of chap I’d want to get behind.

Isn’t he the dullard who refers to himself as the toadmeister?

edit:- yes he is, was on my radar a long while ago, but dropped off lately. Maybe the algorithm works?
His SM feeds were hilarious in a “WTF is going on, who reads and believes this garbage” sort of way.

Covid is a woke disease. It only affects libtards.

FiL’s been in hospital for weeks after falling off a ladder – the hospital has had a couple of covid outbreaks with some wards restricted, so I always wear a mask because it’s just not a problem fof me. Amazes me how many visitors ignore it, and staff compliance is patchy, quite a few wearing it under the nose.

My FiL was covid-free for years until he had to stay in hospital. That plus norovirus, both passed on to us. Lovely. (I avoided the latter.)

My mother-in-law ended up with covid followed by sepsis after a stay in a geriatric dementia ward which had shared toilet facilities with the covid ward next door, and zero precautions.

A more cynical mind might wonder if this is an unofficial technique for reducing the financial burden of dementia on the NHS.

Nice to know that those of us they called conspiracy theorists have been well and truly vindicated.

Finding one other deluded soul in the world must be nice. Do you feel less lonely?

quite a few wearing it under the nose.

That used to annoy me more than not wearing one. If you don’t want to wear it then fine, just don’t, rather than putting it on as a chinwarmer and thinking you’re clever because you’ve found a loophole.

this gave some cause for concern this morning.

I saw the thread on either Bluesky or Mastodon and it shows the pandemic is till here. I’ll be paying for vaccine once I get back from holiday. I’m not in an “at risk category” other than being an older human.

It’s either new infections or, even more potentially worrying, the effects of repeated, previous ones. Or maybe more NHS staff are just psychologically and physically burned out after the last decade of cuts/no pay rises/understaffing with the pandemic as the final straw. It’s been utterly relentless, and not just in the front line.

We should get out there and bang some more pans. That will sort it.

mrs_oab has no immune system and is pretty ill at present

Sorry to hear your wife isn’t feeling too well at the moment my friend and hope that changes very soon.

I was asked by someone from the public in the hospital pharmacy queue last month why I was wearing a mask. Initially I said ‘because I need to’. He was adamant I didn’t need it and was stood really close.

Ive been asked a couple of times in shops too as I still wear them. I usually hit them with the L-Bomb to see if they squirm. Squirm or not they usually shut up. In truth I’m wearing it to keep my old mum safe, not due to the leukemia really but that’s quicker to say and kills the conversation quicker.:-)

I’ve considered saying I have a disease that made my penis rot but there might be kids around. Lol

I forgot to add to the graph that it’s wholly sickness rates. The dead or medically retired due to the pandemic do not show at all.

I’ve considered saying I have a disease that made my penis rot but there might be kids around. Lol

Imagine the mask compliance!

no doubt they’d take their survival as proof that none of the measures that got us through the early days of the pandemic were really needed

Except that if you look at the mortality data for almost all countries for the whole of 2020, there never was a dangerous pandemic.  What there was, was a massive over-reaction to a man-made virus that escaped from a lab in Wuhan.  A virus who’s mortality rate among the general population was so low, that it was no longer considered a ‘high consequence infectious disease and was downrated as such by the UK Government on the 19th March 2020.  The downgrading of C-19 from a high consequence infectious disease

The Diamond Princess petri dish showed us early on how the virus spread and who exactly was susceptible to it.  The obese, the vitamin D deprived, the already seriously unwell, and of course most of all by a huge margin, the extremely elderly.  And no, healthy kids, were never ever in any danger from it.

 

Yet despite knowing all of this, and with cases already falling, just 4 days later on the 23rd of March 2020 the UK was locked down.  And our government, it’s modellers, it’s behavioural scientists, and our media, all insisted on scaring us shitless for the best part of two years with terrifying granny killing propaganda.  Destroying businesses, livelihoods, mental health, children’s education, cancelling operations and routine cancer screenings, making it hard to see a GP face to face, and generally trashing the economy and creating an inflation driven cost of living crisis by spending around 3 times the entire annual NHS budget on just trying to stop people catching Covid – which all of us then caught anyway, however many useless masks we wore or vaccines we took.

 

But why you might add?  For who’s benefit? 

 

Covid lockdown policy has overseen the biggest transfer of wealth from poor to rich in the history of mankind.  It has overseen the biggest transfer of power from small to big business in the history of mankind.  It has overseen the biggest increase in surveillance, legislation, authoritarianism, data capture and censorship by governments in generations.  Pfizer is rumoured to have made around $80 billon from their vaccine sales, Moderna close to $40 billion, with the taxpayer picking up the bill and the liability for the frequent vaccine injuries caused by these rushed, dangerous and ineffective treatments.  Social media and traditional media companies made a fortune whilst everyone sat at home consuming media.  The highly paid laptop class (champagne socialists) sat at home with free cash while those people who actually have to work for a living still went out and about.  Apart for the nurses who had time to perform dances for TikTok.  The WHO, the WEF, and other unelected, unaccountable, influential, international bodies have jumped at the opportunity created by a ‘pandemic’ to seize new powers that further their globalist agendas.  ‘My body my choice’ types insisted that bodily autonomy didn’t apply to people refusing to get vaccinated.  And trumped up tin pot dictators in every government department and local council revelled in their temporary power trip.

 

And among all of this, the flu apparently totally disappeared for two years.  Yeeeaaah right, of course it did! 

 

But despite all of this, it seems like most people fell for it, and even 4 years down the line despite irrefutable evidence to the contrary, many people continue to fall for it.  There’s a word for that I’m sure?

^^New Alt alert. 😀

He’s been doing his own research again. 😉

Oh god, another one.

pondo
Full Member
Oh god, another one.

Same one to be honest.

I’m howling with laughter at the accusation that Netflix etc were behind it all to boost subscribers

I’m must be so tiring living every day in a state of total paranoia

“Daily Sceptic,” that’s a good thing to be, right?

Sounds like a website to be treated with some scepticism

Do latest strains still show up on older tests?

Not all / not always

I’ve somehow managed to test positive twice this year, and have a 3rd bout of “really awful flu” in-between which didn’t. Could have been a novel strain, could just be that flu is still pretty crap even if it doesn’t come from a COVID-19 strain of flu.

Yet despite knowing all of this, and with cases already falling, just 4 days later on the 23rd of March 2020 the UK was locked down.

If true it’s because Boris was a f****** imbecil and it seemed like most offices had already shut down to work from home.  I remember because our company has the same Victorian workhouse mentality as Boris and it felt like we were the only people in town by that Monday.

Do latest strains still show up on older tests?

I googled this out of curiosity and the conclusion seemed to be that they do, but ‘it may take longer’ in the sense that you may not show positive early in the infection apparently because our immune systems are now better at fending off the virus, so you may test negative initially, but positive after three or four days.

I’m not about to claim this is some sort of definitive answer, but it makes some sort of sense. Of course, it could just be a ruse by ‘Big Test-Kit Pharma’ to sell countless billions of useless lateral flow tests to the sheeple and perpetuate the myth that covid actually exists…  :-/

Can we come up with a classification system for all the various different strains of the same poster which keep popping up? Helpful to know which parts of the tired old Covid conspiracy are being expressed more virulently on each occasion to help the forum tailor an effective response.

this gave some cause for concern this morning

@Sandwich

We had the ‘fun’ of three A&E or Acute Clinical Assessment visits in one week over half term.

First day – 7.5hr overall A&E wait with a very over busy staff team on a Saturday night open about the fact that 10% of the team were unwell.

Second day – 14.5hr overall A&E wait, a tearful nurse lead for A&E with half her staff not in and busiest night on record.

Fourth day – 16 hours wait in acute clinical assessment unit. Absolutely crammed with people, our bay for one person had 5 seated patients and any visitors were kicked out. Half the room complaining of viral like symptoms, a LOT of elderly in there (many more than when we have been in there before).

We’ve been back another 5 times since to get scans etc. It’s usually busy, but yesterday all car parks were full before 9am, the corridor felt busier, and the scan foll had one of two staff off ill with COVID…

The usual autumnal wave of all illnesses seems huge, and many staff seem worn down so more susceptible to illness perhaps?

(All anecdotal, but very real it seems)

Apart for the nurses who had time to perform dances for TikTok.

Oo… if you ever have to have a catheter fitted, please repeat that witty line to the nurse before she gets down to business.

If true it’s because Boris was a f****** imbecil and it seemed like most offices had already shut down to work from home.  I remember because our company has the same Victorian workhouse mentality as Boris and it felt like we were the only people in town by that Monday.

I travelled through Euston at about half four on the 11th, it was like a ghost town – the Avanti to New St used to be standing room only, there were two of us in the carriage.

this gave some cause for concern this morning

I’d like to see a source for that and labels on the axes, presumably the Y-axis is days/year? Not that I’m doubting it, rather if I’m quoting it to someone else I’d like to be able to back it up.

I’d like to see a source for that and labels on the axes, presumably the Y-axis is days/year? Not that I’m doubting it, rather if I’m quoting it to someone else I’d like to be able to back it up.

@Cougar2 It’s percent of available staff days lost to sickness over a set period. Don’t know the source of the graph, but the ultimate source is the NHS’ own monthly reporting. eg

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-sickness-absence-rates/june-2024

Anxiety/stress/depression/other psychiatric illnesses was the most reported reason for sickness, accounting for over 555,850 full time equivalent days lost and 26.6% of all sickness absence in June 2024.

It’s so sad, our government has betrayed this group of workers.

Apart for the nurses who had time to perform dances for TikTok.

This kind of commentary always marks out the utter bellends, who have no concept what most frontline staff went through shift after shift, and the small things they did in a desperate effort to lift their spirits.

Wrong thread, sorry.

I used to read the daily skeptic when it started, on the grounds that scientists should be skeptical. It got off to a reasonable start and then went all tin-foil hat and largely abandoned rationale investigation.

Lateral flow tests all detect the nucleocapsid protein, not the spike. This protein is the packaging of the genetic material and is under much less immune selection pressure and far better conserved. (it’s also used to separate infections from vaccinations). However different strains may present with different viral burden over time, and that might change the sensitivity (false negative rate). If the tests detected spike protein, they would be out of date pretty quickly.

As someone who’s wife had to go into work in a hospital throughout covid, with her predisposition to respiratory tract infections (from childhood bronchitis), in totally inadequate PPE (thanks largely to shits like Michelle Mone) and to be confronted occasionally by utter asshats refusing to follow rules…

My contempt for covid deniers is total. But then I imagine they’re OK with that as it is a reaction. And a reaction is what they crave as they can’t get any attention otherwise in their insignificant lives.

fenderextender
Free Member
As someone who’s wife had to go into work in a hospital throughout covid, with her predisposition to respiratory tract infections (from childhood bronchitis), in totally inadequate PPE (thanks largely to shits like Michelle Mone) and to be confronted occasionally by utter asshats refusing to follow rules…

My contempt for covid deniers is total. But then I imagine they’re OK with that as it is a reaction. And a reaction is what they crave as they can’t get any attention otherwise in their insignificant lives.

I can’t begin to imagine how worrying that must have been, particularly at the start, with no vaccines, poor PPE etc. and a fat evolving knowledge of the virus.

I share and understand that contempt you mention.

I travelled through Euston at about half four on the 11th, it was like a ghost town – the Avanti to New St used to be standing room only, there were two of us in the carriage.

We had to come in on the Tuesday morning because no preparation had been done for a lockdown where we couldn’t go top the office. It was like those scenes you saw at Enron or Lehman brothers with people walking out the building with the contents of their desks.  We were so woefully unprepared for the concept of WFH that almost no-one had a laptop so we had to carry our desktops and monitors out.  There weren’t enough headsets to go around (haha, remember when a work meeting didn’t automatically mean teams?), we didn’t even have wi-fi dongles.

I’m not sure how, but somehow management managed to make Boris look ahead of the game.

I can’t begin to imagine how worrying that must have been, particularly at the start, with no vaccines, poor PPE etc. and a fat evolving knowledge of the virus.

I share and understand that contempt you mention.

I ended up losing my job and going back to TV work, which was the BBC ambulance series filmed in Liverpool towards the end of the year.  It was weird / tough in equal measure.

I can’t begin to imagine how worrying that must have been, particularly at the start, with no vaccines, poor PPE etc.

This will sound melodramatic but it was the kids that made me more worried than anything. My wife is very conscientious when it comes to work and the NHS as a whole. I asked her to overstate her level of risk, and similar to hopefully avoid being dragged in. Quite properly, she refused. I felt a tosser for putting that on her.

PPE was a joke. Nothing more than what a dental nurse would wear in normal times. In those first few weeks many of the fatalities were NHS staff.

To have **** (who were probably shitting themselves at the time) come out with denial bollocks safely after the event is disgusting. But then there have always been people like that.

It gives me comfort to know that their motivation is shame at how scared they really were in those first few weeks/months and a need to erase it from their memories to feel ‘big’ again.

I like the way @Pertwee squeezes multiple conspiracy theories into one bonkers post and manages to include not a whit of actual evidence

Tbe rise of the Joe Rogan expert is now endemic