Our “wise” Leader, guiding us into another Lockdown

Isn’t it great to have a ‘decisive’ PM! Don’t scoff! He was ‘thinking about lockdown’, wasn’t he, and he was going to ‘do something’ on Wednesday – but lo and behold, V & W scared him so much he decided with a heavy heart that from midnight today we all need to go back to where we started from, a year ago. It’s the ‘final stretch’, it’s the ‘last effort’. Well, if you believe that then you probably believe in fairies dancing at the bottom of your garden. 

From our covid MSM I gather that BJ had three reasons for his ‘decisive decision’: a ‘rise in new cases’ – don’t mention T & T! – ; a ‘collapse of our Sacred Cow’ – in three weeks if something wasn’t done right now – and that South African mutation which is ‘more infectious’. All very, very scary, innit. There’s one difference to the 1st Lockdown though: now “we” have the vaccine, and BJ’s aim is to have all the ‘vulnerable’ down to age 70 and all the frontline staff vaccinated by mid-February. Since it’ll take two weeks for the thing to work, we’ll get to wait until March before BJ, V & W decide about letting us out. 

Remember that BJ and Hancock ‘promised’ the MPs would be given the vote on any new covid measures? Well – that’s again being disregarded. Parliament is in recess but will be voting ‘remotely’ tomorrow, after the measures have come into effect. According to his Diary entry today (link), Sir John Redwood plans to raise some questions. That’s nice of him – but why doesn’t he and his colleagues raise questions about the contempt in which BJ, Hancock and the SAGEs hold Parliament by their repeated disregard of parliamentary procedures? Has he, have they, become infected by the covid fear and hysteria to such an extent that they accept this lockdown after the event, helplessly letting BJ and SAGE ride roughshod over all of us?

First, let’s have a look at this, the ‘official’ reason for lockdown:

“The chief medical officers and Stephen Powis, NHS England’s national medical director, said: “Many parts of the health systems in the four nations are already under immense pressure. There are currently very high rates of community transmission, with substantial numbers of Covid patients in hospitals and in intensive care. Cases are rising almost everywhere, in much of the country driven by the new more transmissible variant. We are not confident that the NHS can handle a further sustained rise in cases and without further action there is a material risk of the NHS in several areas being overwhelmed over the next 21 days.” (link, paywalled)

In other words – ‘Our NHS’ wasn’t actually ‘overwhelmed’ for Christmas which, as we all recall with fury, led to Christmas being cancelled and tier 4 being extended over two thirds of England. So, given this Christmas semi-lockdown, where and how are people becoming infected? It’s a valid question, especially if you look at the remarkable graph in this latest report of the Welsh situation where there were firebreaks and stuff and tier 4 and schools closed before Christmas (link). ‘Teh virus’ clearly behaves in mysterious ways in Wales …

Now let’s look at those case numbers again which are going up and up, meaning “we” must be locked down. If, as we’re told, there were 80,000 new cases, might we ask respectfully where they are to be found? Certainly not in hospitals, we’d have been shown the pictures by now. There were 3,145 covid-admissions in England on Saturday (link, paywalled).

So: where are the 75,000 other ‘cases’? Are they at home alone? How sick are they really? It couldn’t be, could it, that SAGE and BJ are regarding all +ve PCR tests for people being actually ill? A Lockdown sceptics reader has compared the numbers of cases and death numbers in the UK and some EU countries, pointing out that the death numbers are roughly similar while “we” have a vastly larger number of ‘cases’, i..e. tests (link). Very strange, that …!

But I forgot: it’s because of the new ‘highly infectious’ English and South African mutations that “we” have so many cases. How many Afrikaaners though have come to the UK during December? Were they all infected? And if this mutation is so bad – why weren’t they stopped at the airports? Was government too shy to ‘do a Macron’? 

However, in a strange sort of way “we” are being reassured by the V & W duo that this latest mutation is ‘very infectious’ but doesn’t make us very ill:

“Even if the new variant is more infectious, it may not cause more severe disease. England’s chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, and chief scientific officer, Patrick Vallance, are believed to have briefed Boris Johnson, claiming they are not overly concerned about the new variant.” (paywalled link)

If I understand the reasoning of Messrs V & W correctly, their ‘concern’ isn’t about more people becoming so ill they need to go to hospital, they’re only concerned about more people catching it. That, of course means rising ‘case numbers’, and thus ‘ moar lockdowns’: result! Then there are reassuring noises about the vaccines still going to work – we can’t have BJ’s mass vaccination drive being questioned, can we! Not when this is the ‘way out of lockdown’:

“And even if the South African variant becomes more widespread and dominant, both vaccines can be modified to be more effective against this variant in as little as six weeks. Most scientists believe that existing vaccines will still work to some extent, even if the new variant lowers the overall efficacy.” (paywalled link)

So even if the vaccines won’t be as effective – don’t ask if giving only one instead of two jabs mightn’t also lower the ‘protection’! – they must still be given! Meanwhile, interest groups are scrambling to get onto that vaccination list as quickly as possible, in addition to the old and the NHS frontline staff and care workers. You’ll be surprised that another group has been ‘hit’, just as the NHS whose staff is being ‘off sick’ because of self-isolation due to T&T and +ve PCR tests:

“Up to one in six police officers are now off work because of coronavirus, a policing chief has said, as he appealed for the service to be prioritised for the vaccine or risk it becoming “unsustainable”. […] John Apter, chair of the Police Federation, warned that police were being stretched to the limit by high absentee rates, a resurgence in crime and their responsibilities for policing the pandemic. He said he “genuinely feared” forces would not be able to police in the way they want to, and in order to maintain law and order, […]” (paywalled link)

And why do we get this wail now? Because, what a surprise, he wants plod to get prioritised access to ‘teh vaccine’, just as NHS frontline staff. The comments on that report are scathing, as are those on the actual article written by Mr Apter (paywalled link). I understand you’re able to read comment posts below the DT’s paywalled articles – have fun! 

There’s also something strange going on in regard to schools. Lockdown Sceptics Newsletter has several important segments on the effect of school closures (link). Meanwhile, the DM has a report throwing around ‘findings’ from Public Health England, according to which our schools are the hotspots of covid infections (link). Interesting but not worth a particular mention in the DM is that ‘universities’ were included in this PHE analysis. Well, I suggest that if one makes the grab bag of ‘covid infections’ big enough one can get all sorts of results. The aim however is obvious: provide ‘scare statistics’ to justify BJ’s lockdown. That game is given away in this paragraph:

“The figures suggest schools — which remained open under November’s lockdown — may fuel England’s spiralling infection rate, which has almost trebled in a month because of the rapid spread of a highly-infectious mutation.” (link)

Are we now to assume that our toddlers and kids were the culprits for spreading this ‘highly infectious’ English covid mutant? Does this mean schools must stay closed because the much-praised vaccines may not really protect the ‘vulnerable’? Is this a hint, dropped inadvertently, that lockdown and tiers will be with us until the SAGEs have reached their goal of ‘eradicating’ the virus, never mind that this is impossible, never mind that new mutations can and will occur? Does nobody think of the economy, the small businesses and shops going bankrupt, the inevitable rises in taxes, the possibility of inflation? Clearly not! 

Here’s a Brexit bonus though which our Remainers would rather not mention: Madam Merkel has scuppered rapid vaccination in the EU by ordering Ms vdLeyen to take over the general ordering of vaccines for the whole of the EU. So – not sufficient doses were ordered. On top of which, Macron demanded that the French vaccine be allocated a large contingent, thus reducing a ‘dependency’ on the Pfizer and Oxford vaccines. Since the French one isn’t even in trials yet, the two M’s and the EU have not just egg on their faces, they are feeling the ire of their citizens. Now just imagine what would’ve happened if we’d still have been ‘In’ …

I leave you with news that in regard to vaccination it’s ‘everybody for themselves and the devil take the hindmost’ – globally. India is accused by ‘global health experts’ of stockpiling the Oxford vaccine. They were given the licence for the Oxford vaccine but India gave the green light for production only on the understanding that Indians would get it first. Clearly it’s not okay to vaccinate your own people first, even if India suffered the world’s ‘second worst’ epidemic. India must be shamed into handing over vaccines regardless of the well-being of their own people (paywalled link).

Are we seeing the start of the next global hysteria, this time about ‘vaccination for all’? So far, we’ve been spared the comparisons with Asian nations who did so well with T & T and mask wearing. When will we read about how exceedingly well China is doing, accompanied by the inevitable wails of ‘why can’t we be like China’ …?

KBO!