Will BJ restrict travelling because of  ‘deadly covid mutants’?

Today’s covid- and Brexit-reports are prime examples for receiving the label “you count make it up”. If it weren’t so serious because it affects us all, still in lockdown, it would be very funny. The headlines in this morning’s MSM are presenting us with the latest covid hysteria, namely that the Kent Covid Mutant ‘may’ be 30% more deadly than the original WuFlu. Then there’s Hancock pontificating about the South Africa mutant and getting his wrist slapped. Then there’s more on the vaccine ‘saga’. More on all that below.

Firstly, let’s take a brief look at the dire fate of businesses having to deal with the EU customs regulations after Brexit. The DM has an interesting report on French officials grinningly nit-picking ‘regulations’ to make life as difficult as possible. Read the whole thing here – showing up the Frogs for what they are is always enjoyable and above all, it aint’racist.

RemainCentral however bewails the fate of ‘small businesses’ because, thanks to the new Brexit customs regulations, their exports to the EU are hampered. Digging a bit deeper beyond their headline “Brexit red tape strangling small firms” we read:

“Industry experts believe that about 27,000 businesses involved in e-commerce exports to the EU have been affected by the new rules. “For many it probably makes up around 10 to 20 per cent of their sales,” said Richard Asquith, a vice-president at Avalara, a tax advisory firm.” (link, paywalled)

Well, that’s, ahem, staggering. We’re told nothing about how small these small firms are – some might certainly be tiny – but there’s this paragraph which makes me wonder:

“Four big UK high street fashion retailers are understood to be stockpiling returns in the EU, with one brand expected to incur charges of almost £20,000 to get the products back.”  (link, paywalled)

I’d respectfully suggest that ‘big UK high street fashion retailers’ aren’t precisely small businesses. I’d also respectfully suggest that The Times should invest in a good machine translator because EU papers report on the horrendous difficulties of fashion retailers in the EU.  Many of them need to shred or burn millions worth of ‘fashion’ clothing unsold thanks to lockdowns in their countries. Strangely enough it’s not ‘because: Brexit!’ but ‘because: lockdown!’.

And so to covid –  firstly to the ‘Kent Mutant’. BJ told the nation that ‘scientists’ have said it might be 30% ‘more deadly’.  Here’s what BJ said:

“Mr Johnson said: “It now appears that there is some evidence that the new variant may be associated with a higher degree of mortality.” (paywalled link)

One couldn’t produce a better description for ‘hedging one’s bets’ – scientific evidence it is not! – especially when we move a few lines further down, reading that:

“initial analysis by three universities suggested the new Covid variant could kill between 30 and 91 per cent more infected people than the original strain.” (paywalled link)

Oh dear. The Times has details which again show that it’s another ‘hour of the modellers’, with major hedge-betting going on. Well, it’s hard to keep us continuously  scared out of our wits, isn’t it:

“NERVTAG considered ten different models that matched people infected with the new UK variant with patients of similar ages and illness that were infected with the old one. Of these, six concluded that the new variant was more deadly, with estimates ranging from 29 per cent to 91 per cent. The others were inconclusive.” (link, paywalled)

I’m only amazed that ‘Our MSM’ went for the low ‘estimate’, not for the one going for 91% one. Perhaps they realise that we plebs have become very wary of those scare models. I shouldn’t be surprised at the covid MSM again being hell-bent on painting things as black as possible, but this next quote really takes the biscuit:

“While the models found that people in hospital with the new variant were no more likely to die, Nervtag concluded it appeared to cause more severe disease, resulting in more people being admitted. Overall, Sir Patrick suggested that people with the so-called Kent variant were about a third more likely to die. However, he stressed that “evidence is not yet strong”.” (link, paywalled)

So the models say people were no more likely to die, but are about ‘more people being admitted’  – and  Mr V goes with the ‘more likely to die’ phrase even while conceding that the evidence ain’t strong! Do we need more proof that this is about creating panic, fear and despondency, to ‘Save you-know what’? Another, nameless ‘scientist’ said that:

“[…] the finding “gives us an urgent imperative to get case rates down and that means more stringent interventions. It’s unsustainable as it is. If it gets worse the wheels will come off the NHS.” (link, paywalled)

Ah – there it is! How very predictable. This whole scare-mongering, based on shaky ‘modelling evidence’, is driven by the fear of BJ and his government of being accused by the covid MSM of not ‘saving us’ from covid early enough. You might check out this morning’s Lockdown Sceptics Newsletter (link) on the whole pitiful performance.

Meanwhile Hancock spoke at a webinar for travel agents – by Zoom, of course, being again in self-quarantine. He told them that the vaccines would be ‘50% less effective’ against the South African covid mutant:

“He said there was ‘evidence in the public domain’ that the South African variant reduces vaccine efficacy by ‘about 50 per cent’. Although he followed up by saying: ‘We are not sure of this data so I wouldn’t say this in public.’ (link)

So our beloved health tsar says things in private, blissfully unaware that there’s no privacy online any longer, even while acknowledging that he’s on shaky ground! No wonder Mr V slapped him down, with this extraordinary remark:

“Sir Patrick Vallance insisted that “you just can’t” take laboratory studies as a sign of what would happen in people, after Matt Hancock appeared to do so in a call with travel agents.” (link, paywalled)

Oh, can one not indeed, Mr V? Then how come SAGE can and does when it’s about scaring us into lockdown compliance, when it’s about ‘preparing us’ for a continuing, rolling lockdown, not least because vaccinated plebs think this is the promised passport to freedom? See this:

“The government both needs to drive up the numbers of people taking the jab and to withhold any short-term benefit from the inoculated or wider society.”  (link, paywalled)

Words, as always, fail me! It’s: ‘get the jab but stay in lockdown anyway’! It must be lovely to live in ivory towers, cushioned from the effects of those ‘scientific’ demands, effects to which the rest of us are subjected. 

Meanwhile, this scaremongering by the PM and SAGE, their hedging of bets notwithstanding, has already real-life unintended consequences. KLM, the Dutch airline, has stopped all flights to and from the UK, for the next five days (paywalled link). Well, that’s one thing that cannot be blamed on Brexit! 

Does BJ not realise that his scare-mongering talk is at fault here, his peering myopically at scare models, his pontificating about them publicly? Other countries do listen in, drawing their own conclusions. The DM reports (link) that we’ve now in danger of becoming an ‘international pariah’ – well done BJ and SAGE!

Apparently the covid government is also pondering if travelling to and from South Africa and Brazil should be banned or at least a very strict quarantine be imposed. Just look at  the final biscuit, taken by both BJ and Mr V. – first here’s the PM who said:

“I really don’t rule out that we might take further measures. We may need to go further to protect our borders.” He said the UK did not want to put its vaccination success “at risk by having a new variant come back in”.” (paywalled link)

Aww, how very caring! And here’s Mr V – this is at the very least hair-rising if not inducing an outbreak of red-hot fury:

“Sir Patrick said this week that not shutting the borders early enough last year was his main regret of the crisis and there is already talk of how relaxation at home will have to come with a tougher line on travel from abroad. […] “When we are internally secure you’re back into contact tracing at borders,” said one source.” (link, paywalled)

I wonder how this will play in Audi Avenue or on the Islington dinner circuit where our WFH middle classes are already straining at the leash, planning their well-deserved summer holidays! Meanwhile here’s Hancock who cannot help his foot-in-mouth-itis:

“[He] has made the argument that the risk of vaccine-resistant variants arriving from abroad fundamentally changes the calculation on border restrictions, which can no longer just be about taking precautions over countries with higher infection rates.” (link, paywalled)

Yay! Once”we” are covid-clean and let out of our national lockdown we can go into an ‘international lockdown’! Who needs EU travel restrictions, punishing us for Brexit! “We” can create them all by our own lonely covid selves!

I think we can be fairly certain that travels to and from China will be exempt. After all, there’s hardly any covid in China, and they have a vaccine which they’re now donating to countries around the world even though it’s not clear if that vaccine is ‘safe’, unlike the Russians who sell their ‘Sputnik’ vaccine. ‘Putin bad – Xi good’, innit like (link, paywalled).

I leave you with one last, astounding piece of covid-vaccination ‘news’. The Times reports that:

“Hesitancy about receiving the inoculation is said to be most acute among black people, with doctors and public health chiefs concerned that poor uptake rates will prolong the pandemic, which has already hit minority communities hard. Birmingham’s public health director warned that in some parts of the city with the largest black and Asian populations, 50 per cent of people offered the vaccine said they did not want to take it.” (link, paywalled)

Now there’s a dilemma: isn’t it racist to single out those communities? What will the vaccine authorities do next? Force those communities to get vaccinated? That would be racist, innit! And worse: blaming those communities for ‘prolonging the pandemic’ – oh dear, how very racist is that!

Well, at least we’re now allowed to say ‘nitty-gritty’ without fear of being called racist because the BC has rejected a complaint that this expression is racist (link, paywalled). You really couldn’t make it up …!

KBO!