Do keep being afraid, very afraid …

It’s grim out there – and grim inside the heads of the workers in ‘Our MSM’. Every day there’s more proof that their aim is to keep us in a state of abject fear. If it’s not ‘death by COVID-19’, it’s ‘death by cancer’ – that’s today’s latest ‘theme’ – or, as their general fallback, it’s ‘death by ‘orrible weather’. 

The red-tops (Sun, Mirror, Express, Mail) all scream about snow, ice, rain, sub-zero temperatures, floodings … yeah but … even the BBC, never negligent when it’s about fear-mongering, has a ‘normal’ forecast (link), as does the Met Office (link). Anyway, we’re still in Lockdown, so what’s the point telling us to stay at home because of the weather? Exactly!

The EU trade talks are ongoing. We might be presented with another Barnier tantrum on Friday. Meanwhile, there are proposals by those EU member states who are ‘holiday destinations’ to issue ‘special COVID-19 passports’ and ‘corridors’ between countries where CV-19 is ‘under control’, to save their tourism industry (link).

Why such ‘special passports’ aren’t issued to the seasonal workers from Romania and Bulgaria who are whizzing across EU states to pick fruit and veg I have no idea. Don’t even ask why we in the UK are still letting people in, unchecked. Above all: never mind the people trafficking industry which keeps our Border Force on their toes, having to pick out of the Channel all those ‘refugees’ from war-torn France.

Perhaps Mr Raab could ask his French counterpart why, given the harsh lockdown restrictions in France, these dinghies, these people, are escaping the eyes of their Gendarmerie? France would surely not try and get rid of their untested ‘guests’, letting them spread infections to the UK?

So how are our locked-down neighbours doing generally? Germany, the poster child for ‘Our MSM’, is being warned that there’d be more Lockdown restrictions if the slight relaxation leads to an increase in CV-19 cases:

“Angela Merkel has warned that hospitals will be overwhelmed by the end of June if the number rises only a little. She also said a corresponding increase in infections would make a second “shutdown” unavoidable. […] Over the past week the 16 states have begun to reopen shops, schools, zoos and even some churches. But there are still strong disagreements over how fast to lift the curbs on society and business.” (link, paywalled)

Perhaps the PMs of the various German states might start installing internal border checks? Perhaps they’ll issue ‘Papiere bitte’ to stop infected Berliners from going to Bavaria? France meanwhile is going to lift some restrictions from May 11th onwards – but only if ‘people behave’ and observe all other restrictions:

“Shops and schools across France will reopen and free movement will be restored within 60 miles of homes when the lockdown is eased on May 11, the government announced last night. Alongside measures that include widespread testing and quarantine, Édouard Philippe, the prime minister, warned that substantial restrictions would remain and the easing would be delayed beyond that day, a Monday, if people breached the present rules before then.” (link, paywalled)

Beaches, museums and all what makes people want to visit France will stay closed, at least until June. Spain will keep everything beachy closed as well until the end of June, lifting restrictions slowly, depending on the incidence of CV-19. So that’s Madrid out as travel destination then (link, paywalled). Meanwhile, Austria will lift all restrictions from Friday onwards (link) while Italy’s tourist hotspots are getting very restive as restrictions on bars and cafes won’t be lifted until June:

“The collapse in spending by domestic and international tourists in Italy will cost the country €66 billion this year, according to the National Tourism Agency. The tourism sector will not recover fully until 2023, the agency said.” (link)

So that’s your summer holidays sorted then: forget sunny beaches and ‘culture’, best stay at home where Johnson surely will start lifting restrictions! However, thanks to our own bureaucrats, their ‘advice’ trickling out just shows how far removed from real life they are. Gardening centres, for example, might be allowed to open but only for ‘click-and-collect’ customers. It’s irrelevant that most of their merchandise is outdoors: ‘one size fits all’ … and never mind if some smaller centres won’t have the software to allow customers to ‘click’ ….

Also never mind that apparently government will be stockpiling ‘non-surgical’ face masks for ‘the public’, according to Michael Gove. How these are going to be distributed is his secret, the point is that “government” is being seen to be ‘doing something’ (link). Many small businesses and private people have been making such face masks – remember that fabric masks are ok. Do we now need a ‘government accredited Gove mask’ before we can go out?

And so to the true scandals: one is that there might be an ‘extra death toll’ for cancer patients:

“The major study shows that on average attendance for chemotherapy has fallen by 60 per cent, with a 76 per cent drop in urgent referrals of suspected cancer. As a result, forecasts by University College London suggest that the annual death toll from cancer will soar by around a fifth. Researchers […] said the trends suggest the total cancer death toll could rise from 89,576 to 107,491 in just one year. And the forecasts suggest that more than 6,000 of the extra deaths will be among newly diagnosed cancer patients, as a result of delays accessing care.” (link)

That is grim – and the death toll for patients with other life-threatening illnesses hasn’t yet been investigated either. This makes the slogan of ‘stay home – protect the NHS – save lives’ so utterly dreadful. Which lives are being ‘saved’? Not those of non-CV-19-patients, it seems.

And so to the other scandal: the way the NHS and ONS are manipulating the death numbers as demonstrated by the news that more people are dying of CV-19 in care homes than in hospitals. The Times asks:

“According to the latest figures, fatalities in care homes tripled between the end of March and middle of April, passing 7,000 a week. […] Yesterday, statisticians confessed it was not clear from the data, which only goes up to April 17, whether total care home deaths had stopped increasing. Could it be that now, 12 days on, the daily toll may even exceed that from hospitals?” (link, paywalled)

‘The data are not clear’ – again. The Times doesn’t ask however how come care homes know these elderly people in their care died of CV-19. It’s only about scary numbers  and never mind that they are not just confusing but being confused as the goalposts are being changed before our eyes. See, to give just one example, this DT report: 

“Tuesday’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures reveal that deaths from all causes doubled in care homes in the two weeks up to April 17, up to 7,316 a week. Meanwhile a new stream of data from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) showed that between April 10 and 24 there were 4,343 Covid-19 deaths in care homes.” (link)

There are thus different sets of numbers depending on the weeks these numbers were reported and where these deaths occurred.  Pick the ones which suits best … for example here, a few paragraphs down in the same DT report:

“The figures [of the ONS] reveal that more than 6,500 deaths involving coronavirus have occurred outside of hospitals – those classed as “in the community” by the ONS. Of these, only 1,220 were outside care homes, with 883 taking place in private homes and 190 in hospices.” (link)

So first juggle the weeks for which stats have been released – then juggle the points about where those deaths occurred – don’t ask where the roughly 200 deaths occurred which were ‘outside care homes’ and hospices  – and don’t even ask how NHS and ONS officials know that these people all died ‘because of’, not just ‘with’ CV-19?

We urgently need clarity, we don’t need ‘scare numbers’ produced by those who are still trying to ‘protect the NHS’. Therefore, look at this brief report by our friends at facts4eu who actually understand how to read stats properly. The title speaks for itself:

“The top 10 killers in the UK – Comparison of usual causes of death – and the Coronavirus” (link)

Those are the numbers you need to know! Facts4eu also quote the latest remark from the ONS:

“A doctor can certify the involvement of COVID-19 based on symptoms and clinical findings – a positive test result is not required.” (link)

‘A positive test result is not required’ … let that sink in! Do read the whole – short – report! And remember: there are no tests, no post-mortems, just the ‘finding’ of one doctor – not two, as demanded pre-Lockdown – is sufficient.

And how did the care home inmates become infected? Weren’t those homes the first to be totally isolated? Matthew Lesh of the Adam Smith Institute, writing in the DT, has an inconvenient explanation:

“The Adult and Social Care Action Plan released in mid-March ordered the “timely discharge” of patients “in order to maintain capacity for acutely ill patients”. Until recently, this was done without testing for Covid-19. In other words, thousands of elderly patients in hospitals – perhaps the most likely place to encounter Covid-19 – were released into care homes full of other vulnerable people.” (paywalled link)

That’s what happens when government suspends its collective brains and falls to its collective knees to ‘Save Our Sacred Cow’.  Allowing just one doctor to sign a death certificate, without tests or post-mortems, was deemed to be necessary because ‘Our NHS’ expected to become overwhelmed.

That this measure means that we do not have any reliable numbers for modelling useful infection rates: irrelevant. That this means doctors will have no reliable data to study the effects of that virus: irrelevant. As for Matthew Lesh’ s conclusion – with which I concur – I humbly suggest it’s now too late:

“We must not allow protecting the system to become an end in itself. Lives must come before the NHS.” (paywalled link)

Was it all ‘worth it’? You be the judges …

KBO!