In these last few days before Christmas and the New Year, this would traditionally be a message of joy, happiness and hope. I’m sorry to say now, for the second successive Christmas, fun and merriment is in short supply.
Covid continues to dominate politics, the news and our lives. As I write this, the Omicron variant is spreading rapidly around the country but we seemingly still know little about it. Anything positive that comes out of South Africa, who have a few additional weeks of experience of it, is deemed too different to be comparable and yet anything negative is applauded as ‘fact’. I wish this particular trait of our mainstream media would change in the new year and it might indeed form one of my 2022 ‘wish list’ items. Some hope.
Whatever this variant turns out to be, and I’m obviously hoping mild, I am supporting hugely the vaccine ‘Booster’ programme, especially as a good level of protection against this and other variants is now accepted by the manufacturers. The aim now is to get all eligible adults jabbed once more before 31st December. The national booking service can be used to book a booster jab or locally simply visit the SAGA vaccination centre in Ramsgate, open for walk-ins for over 18 year-olds with extended hours: 8am-8pm Monday to Saturday. 8am-2pm Sunday and Christmas Eve. Closed Christmas Day and Boxing Day, then open 8am-8pm from 27th December. 8am-2pm New Year’s Eve. Close to a million people around the country are currently receiving their booster every day of the week, giving us some hope that normality can return once more in January. As ever, I’ll be pushing for that.
In the New Year we will face a choice. Do we pull the same lockdown levers in the face of this new strain of Covid and expect a different outcome, despite the obvious effects on other healthcare, education, mental health, businesses, jobs and the nation’s finances? Or do we keep a calm head realising that Covid will perpetually change?
Even if the Omicron variant or a subsequent one, which will surely come, is found to have more worrying traits, we need to have a serious national debate as to whether lockdowns or similar are desirable or sustainable. It is easy, if not lazy even, to revert to a ‘just in case’ argument.
We might ask the searching question as to what we’re here for? In my view, laughter forms a large part as does sharing experiences with family and friends with a good dollop of social life thrown in. Chatting to people in the street or on their doorstep is fundamentally important in my role. In short – we’re here to live, not remain in a state of never-ending fear. This is the message I will continue to impress upon ministers from the Prime Minister down in the New Year.
As we draw this year to a close, we always ask ourselves whether it’s been a good or bad one and hope for a better one in the year ahead. For those who have lost loved ones or suffered because of the more indirect effects of the pandemic, I’m sure will be pleased to see the back of 2021.
Have an enjoyable Christmas. Things can only get better in 2022!
A very well balanced and nicely positive article.
No mention of wearing facemasks or avoiding crowds. Vaccinations alone are not enough.
They’re not even real vaccinations. Not safe or effective and experimental, with recipients still catching and passing on covid, plus well-documented adverse reactions and deaths globally. Masks similarly ineffective. It’s all inverted in Sage La Land where the chief has admitted to journalist Fraser Nelson they provide models of worst case scenarios when asked to do so (which do not turn out to be true).
You need to understand that any professional, when asked to provide a worst case scenario, will do just that. The value is to enable policy and implementation to gauge the potential and so put resources in to prevent the worst case.
Over history one can see many worse case scenarios that never came about because of effective planning and resource allocation. Also one can see the worse cases that did appear, Grenfell fire, “Herald of Free Enterprise” capsize, The many train crash disasters we had in the 80’s and 90’s, the 5000+ deaths each year (still) from past asbestos exposure, etc, etc.
On vaccination, I don’t know where your information comes from but, it’s very clear that the vaccines do work for most people most if the time. Virus varients create a problem but, as with the long-standing flu vaccination programme, every year brings a new varient and so a new vaccine.
Surely scientists should be presenting several kinds of scenarios.
spot on well said
I never thought I would find myself agreeing with Craig but I do so on this.
Get your jabs/booster then live life.
Exactly. Within the last week I’ve had two meals in busy restaurants and attended a concert, and I will continue to do so (if they stay open).
Trouble is that so many people abuse/ignore the laws that enforced lockdowns seem to me to be the only way to protect us from the abusers…either that or police the laws properly.
Countries all over the world have found people less and less tolerant of subsequent lockdowns. During the first one I even stuck to the “1 hour per day” exercise rule, but I certainly wouldn’t now (what difference does it make to infections if I’m out walking in remote countryside for 1 hour or 6 hours?!).
Take some friends with you and say it’s a work meeting with cheese and wine 🙂 All bets are off then.
If you wear a suit all is good apparently. I cannot believe anybody is still listening to these squirming liars,cheats & con artists.
At the same time, I wouldn’t choose NOT to listen to someone because I dislike them. I’m more than capable of making my own choices regardless.
Well said Steve ,we can all talk the talk,but if the government didn’t lift every thing in June it would have been a different matter,should have kept masks and the 2m rule, l bet Craig Mackinlay didn’t wait over 4 hours for is injection.
Restrictions only delay things, so lifting restrictions in the summer was the perfect time to do so. The fact that no hospitals were overwhelmed supports this. It has even been suggested that this is why we’re doing so much better than most of Europe which kept restrictions much longer.
That in itself made no sense-why on earth should you be forced into only exercising for an hour if you want double that? You are outside, not in contact with others. It reeked of prisoners being allowed out into the exercise yard for a time limited period.
We saw the reality-those two women who got arrested for exercising in the middle of nowhere, separately under the guise they had traveled five miles. Meanwhile Cummings who was supposed to be self-isolating can load his family into his car & drive 260 miles all over the country under the guise of testing his eyesight & nothing happens.
These women were accused of having a picnic as they had a hot drink each, funny but the Downing Street not a garden party pictures that have just emerged looks suspiciously like a picnic with 15 or more people-no doubt there will be no evidence for the police to do anything of course.
Sure, but it is hard to listen to people who impose laws on the population, then flout them, lie about it etc-the moral authority evaporates. If the South African data was worrying a lockdown/more restrictions might be in order, but what we are seeing is the opposite, yet these same people are on television telling porkies about how many are in hospital with Omicron, how 6,000 a day will die etc.
There never was a one hour excercise rule.
“Guidance” then.
https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/michael-gove-tells-joggers-to-limit-exercise-stints-to-30-minutes-amid-coronavirus-lockdown
“enforced lockdowns seem to me to be the only way to protect us from the abusers”
I look to the leaders of this country for moral leadership as well as legal. They simply have lost the moral authority to tell me what I can or can’t do as far as Covid restrictions are concerned.
They can put in whatever restrictions they want after xmas. I won’t be following them. Nor will many, many others I have spoken to.
Unfortunately, you (and I) will be forced not to use pubs, restaurants, entertainment venues etc if they have to close.
True but there are still ways to meet up with friends and loved ones.
You are part of the problem then.
Surely part of the solution ? Had my jabs and booster to help protect myself and others. You have to ask yourself what is the point of getting vaccinated if it doesn’t allow you greater freedoms ?
Some of us have been saying that here for a long time. The reality is the promise has been over & over get this jab & things will return to normal, get this jab & you can see your doctor again-yet is is endless restrictions, lockdowns & GP’s refusing to see you-they love to see you to jab you-even though you are a bigger risk to them then, but only because they get paid for sticking a needle in your arm. What a racket-they can see no patients in person while collecting their full GP salary, while collecting between £15-£30 for every jab they perform. No wonder they don’t want to see anybody.
The reality is that is all lies-you will have to get jabbed until the end of time as new variants emerge & governments overreact, while having your basic freedoms removed regardless. Also all the non-vaccinated are to blame is yet another red herring like the young people partying is to blame-before people woke up that these viruses spread regardless. A vaccinated person is just as potentially contagious as a non vaccinated one-it doesn’t stop you contracting or spreading it, it is just a vague promise that it might reduce your chances of going into hospital or dying-which for most people neither happen anyway.
Not when you condone breaking the law.
Do you seriously think people are for a second year going to give up seeing loved ones-after the events of the last month or so?
As far as I am aware Iain there isn’t any law in place as of yet for him to break. Unless Bozza implements one in the next few days & frankly most are going to put two fingers up after the recent revelations.
Isn’t it funny how many see more rules, more of your rights taken away, locking people up in their homes or jails etc as the way to behave.
This country has overwhelmingly been incredibly compliant, accepted our basic freedoms/rights being trampled over etc because we thought it was all for the better good. As it turns out those making those rules & taking away our rights were sticking two fingers up & partying, driving all over the country. For anybody thinking they will behave themselves this year, highly unlikely-they will try to find ways to have parties even if they bought in a full lockdown tomorrow.
People like Iain seem to not see the irony of calling us the abusers-when the worst abusers are the ones in office-who still don’t have the decency to admit what they did-even in the face of video & photographic evidence emerging on a near daily basis. Frankly as you say enough is enough & they have no moral authority to demand anything.
Yes Iain, most of them in Downing Street & the House Of Commons.
So would you really follow Boris’s example.
Nope, but bad behaviour trickles down.
According to most politician & the media we are to live in constant fear-insane prophecies of 6 thousand deaths per day from Omicron-when all the evidence from SAF is that is is milder than Delta, that hospitalisations & death rates are low & at it’s peak in January, despite the then similar doomsday prophecies that never came close to happening UK deaths per day never reached 2 thousand-before rapidly falling down by thousand & 5 hundred per day. Yet nobody in the media questions this-probably because such nonsense sells more copies & does better ratings than good news.
Whilst the Omicron variant seems to be mild the affects of NHS (and others) isolating because of a +ve covid test will just add to the already huge NHS vacancies (112000 the latest number). If an NHS worker is isolating then the pressure on the NHS will grow causing the greatest harm to ongoing care.
London NHS is already reporting sickness levels up from 1700 to 4700 in a week.
By all means state omicron is mild but beware of caring for patients in hospital
It is a very silly system-as said the majority of people with Covid will have no symptoms or mild symptoms like a cold/bug-NHS workers don’t go off work for that, neither do workers anywhere else-for obvious reasons as if they did then everything collapses.
If somebody already has Covid then why on earth can they not be treated by fellow Covid infected doctors who are masked up etc anyway & cannot give them something they already have. Reality is a lot of them don’t want to be there-especially at this time of year & will look for any reason not to be.
As you say Steve, a third of people with the virus are asymptomatic and don’t know they have it, so if they don’t wear a mask, and are not vaccinated, they could be walking around spreading the virus! This could kill me and thousands like me, who are elderly and who have been informed by the NHS they are “Clinically extremely vulnerable”, so the message by Mackinlay should be get vaccinated, wear a mask if you go out, and self isolate as much as possible! This virus will continue to mutate, like the ‘Flu bug, but its much more lethal! And yes, I suspect we will have to have a Covid jab every year just like a ‘Flu jab that also mutates every year! So wear a mask, and get jabbed, and avoid infecting other people!
But so can people with the jabs who also decide not to wear masks & take bigger risks due to their vaccine status-not sure where this idea that being jabbed/boostered etc stops you from spreading it. People will need multiple jabs & boosters every year-it will never end.
I’m NOT an anti-vaxxer, and will likely continue having boosters etc if required… BUT, we were originally told that vaccines would stop it spreading, and now that is seemingly no longer the case I really don’t see the point of vaccinating any fully fit and healthy (ie. non-obese) under 40 year olds.
Who says Omicron is mild? Where’s the evidence?
In South Africa. They have made it quite clear the UK government are totally overreacting based on what they have witnessed.
Having the jabs lessons the strength of the virus considerably! This means should someone get Covid and they have been vaccinated, including the booster, they are less likely to end up in hospital, or die from it! Young super fit competitive athletes have become seriously ill from Covid, needing to be hospitalised, and have had a lengthy Long Covid recovery period! Don’t be a Pillock, get vaccinated, wear a mask, and self isolate as much as possible, simples!
PS. On last nights Meridian 6Pm news it was reported that 90% of people in hospital with the virus had not been vaccinated, that says it all really!
PS. Here’s a thought, if those people who have been hospitalised because they have not been vaccinated, and have the virus, they could overwhelm the NHS staff, which is on its knees already, and cause another Lockdown!
We are in an infinitely better place than 12 months ago, we have a vaccine that whilst not perfect for most it is mitigating the severity of the disease. However there are still some for whom the vaccines do not work, and others who think they know better and have refused the vaccine. Reports in the press suggest this latter group is driving up hospital numbers, deaths and long covid which is a lifelong and debilitating condition.
Time to fine tune the response. There is currently no need for lockdown, and I cannot support any form of compulsory pass to enter public places, although I accept that venues as private property have a right to refuse anyone entry and may base this on vaccinated status. For those who do fall sick there are new drugs being introduced to improve their chance of survival. But, for the short term whilst the disease spread is high the wearing of face masks in public indoor places (transport, shops) is not a hardship and looks after the welfare of the staff too.
Those ,who do not choose to have the vaccine,should have to pay for any treatment,should they contract COVID.Their selfish act will put more pressure on NHS resources.
However,the civil liberties and human rights’ brigade,will come to their aid.
Eric, on that basis anybody who goes to hospital from obesity, alcoholism, drugs(all things people have entered into, rather than having a virus forced on us we didn’t choose) or even personal carelessness such as cutting their arm with a chain-saw would have to pay for their treatment as well. Either it is an NHS we all pay into, or it is private healthcare. You cannot pick & choose who you think deserves medical care-it isn’t free, we all pay for it.
Also getting the jab is impossible for many due to health issues & the jab doesn’t work on everybody-perhaps you would like to charge the vaccinated who are in hospital for not having the right antibodies & wasting their jabs while you are at it? How about charging the people who go on holiday overseas during a global pandemic & bring these strains back/ Or the idiotic government who let untold numbers of them back in until as such time they start insisting they quarantine upon arriving back? These strains are transported-it used to be by sea, now it is overwhelmingly by air travel-something this lot have let happen over & over.
Your wrong Steve, its all about the question of harm to others! If someone chooses to take drugs, drink excessively etc, they only harm themselves, what we used to call in the army a self inflicted injury (sun burn say) But anyone refusing to be vaccinated against the virus could harm others if they have the virus unknowingly and spread it around. So yes charge them the cost of their medical care if they get Covid, and are not vaccinated, its a self inflicted injury in my book!
Eric, everyone I know unjabbed (around 23.8 million in the UK at least from public health stats) is well with good immune systems firing away. If they get colds, they get over them easily. It’s the jabbed I see suffering illnesses which won’t go away, immune systems which clearly aren’t working and dying suddenly as well. The official narrative is crumbling. The funeral directors speaking out see all of this as well.
So called democrat your wrong! I swam a mile every other day for over 20 years, up until I was 73, and have been riding a bike as my sole means of personal transport for 25 years, yet I ended up with life threatening lung disease!
If Mackinlay’s party leader had spent his efforts tackling the pandemic promptly and acted on the 2015 Cygnus report, in preparing for the pandemic we may not have lost so many lives. If instead of spending the last decade running down and privatising our NHS, the government that Craig Mackinlay is part of, had invested in training Doctors, nurses and other staff our NHS needs we would have been in a much better position to tackle the pandemic when it came.
Unfortunately instead of calling for these disasterous policies to be reversed Mackinlay has been one opposing sensible precautions such as mask mandates, only making the work of those fighting the pandemic even harder. With all the sacrifice our health workers have made this rotten corrupt Conservative government has instead of rewarding them with a pay rise, is asking them to get by on a raise that does not even match inflation. Shameful.
I suspect the biggest reason (literally) for the UK’s large death toll is the country’s high rates of obesity and low levels of fitness. Of course, it is far easier to blame politicians than to cut down on calories and exercise.
Certainly one of the major factors-viruses etc run through the elderly, the obese & those with serious health issues-claiming their lives or sending them to hospital, sad but it is just nature. You cannot do anything about getting old, or being born with a health condition, but you sure as hell can do something about your weight.
I suspect that you are wrong.
First of all, the government took too long to lock down, leading to thousands of unnecessary deaths, old and young, fat and thin, fit and unhealthy.
Then the government relaxed the lockdown too soon, resulting in more unnecessary deaths.
Then they urged us to “eat out to help out”, encouraging us to cram into restaurants, resulting in more unnecessary deaths.
Then they ignored SAGE’s advice to implement a two week circuit breaker, resulting in more unnecessary deaths.
And still it goes on.
Craig Mackinlay says the words that people want to hear. He’s treating us like children, offering sweeties rather than nasty medicine.
“We might ask the searching question as to what we’re here for? In my view, laughter forms a large part as does sharing experiences with family and friends with a good dollop of social life thrown in.” Try telling that to the 100,000s of husbands, wives, children, parents, family, friends and work mates of those who have unnecessarily died because of Covid.
Craig Mackinlay still doesn’t understand. Catching Covid quite often makes you quite ill – like flu. Two weeks in bed with a hot water bottle and lemsips, if you’re lucky. The more people contracting Covid, the more people at home in bed instead of at work. That includes truck drivers, food production people, and front line health staff. Let it rip, and the country will cease to function properly.
Thank goodness that Mackinlay is a back benched, and not able to take important decisions.
Peter, stick to being an historian of pop music. Yes, we do have a problem over obesity and fitness, but that is not the reason for excess deaths. A poor and almost negligent response from the govt at the start of the lock down. Poor infection control in several hospitals, not least those in East Kent, dumping old people from hospitals into the care system, often being late on the uptake when it is necessary to apply restrictive measures. Listening to Craig Mackinlay and his chums, not following rules you impose on others, which means that the sensible application of measures designed to reduce infection are getting more difficult to apply by the week etc etc etc.
Most of those getting omicron or Delta are still the unvaccinated or under vaccinated. They remain a target for the virus out of stupidity, idleness or complacency, take your pick. They may also be obtuse, unfit or obese, but the virus does not care it will kill anyone, not out of malice, but because the person with the infection cannot live with virus.
Why do you think we have a problem with obesity and fitness? How about the wealth divide and equality. The USA has the same problem, but in Jumbo proportions as it does with inequality. Unhealthy high fat foods are cheaper and when your income is being squeezed with very high housing costs and rising prices, what do you do? You economise on food and by the most for the least, which often is food with a high fat content.
So don’t blame the poor for covid ,blame the system.
George Noses, I was poor for much of my life, yet still remained slim and fit (“unhealthy high fat foods are cheaper”? Strange, as I’m sure I saw very competitively priced sardines, baked beans, oranges and brown rice in my local Co-Op this morning!). It seems like everything is someone else’s thought these days, but in particular the politicians and/or the wealthy.
“Fault” (not “thought”!).
It is another excuse from the ‘healthy at every size’ brigade. You can shop around & find fruit & veg at good prices other than the supermarket. Even in the supermarket if you have the choice of a chocolate bar or a bag of carrots that will last you a week for roughly the same price, then the choice should be easy.
I have never seen the obese in the healthy isles at supermarkets-even the ones that are the first thing past the barriers like at Morrisons they drive their mobility scooters straight past to the crisps, cake etc isles.
The reality is the temptation has always been there in one form or another, but I don’t recall many obese people around in my childhood of the 1970’s & 1980’s. People have become slaves to ready meals, junk food outlets, home delivery of pizzas etc & don’t feel the shame people did back then.
George – absolute tosh, too many people are too lazy and or ignorant to bother cooking decent food, too busy consuming social media which means they have no time to prepare food. Similar attitudes when it comes to exercise. And even if you are going to buy calorie rich food , there’s no need to eat so much of it.
Talk to health professionals about the commonest denominator amongst hospitalised covid patients , the answer will invariably be excess weight. Wether its the weight alone or the often attendant low levels of fitness, no doubt we’ll eventually work it out.
As a nation we’ve crippled an economy and health service largely as a result of over eating. The effects of covid would have been much reduced if we were in better health, that would have left far more resources to have protected the elderly and those at risk through no fault of their own.
But its a subject that no one wants to tackle , we all have friends / family who are unhealthily overweight and people don’t want to offend them. But there seems to be no such restraint towards the unvaccinated who mny would have excluded from many of lifes activities, can we also prevent the overweight from the sweetie aisle, cake stand, coke dispenser, take away restaurants? Of course not. But there needs to be a proper discussion.
It is one of the reasons, along with others you mentioned for excess deaths & hospitalisations-if you remember back to the pictures of NHS workers who died of Covid the one thing nearly all had in common regardless of gender, race or age was their obesity.
I think the reality is still the majority in hospital & dying are the elderly-jabbed or not. This is primarily a serious effects virus of the elderly, unfit & compromised. The average death age from it is 83 plus. The young are mostly unaffected by it-either no symptoms or the usual cold/winter bug symptoms. Let us not forget the mortality rate from this is minuscule. Outside of the elderly 99.7% of those who contract it survive.
you cannot grasp why people would not get vaccinated? Let’s see-prior reactions to vaccines & other things? History of blood clots. Dodgy pharma companies with abysmal track records of hiding negative trial data & other offences-Pfizer currently in cahoots with the FDA are trying to suppress their data being fully released until 2076, or even 2097 if possible-a judge is ruling on it-does that sounds like a company with nothing to hide to you?
The same Pfizer who got indemnity from the UK government against any death or serious life changing adverse side effects, you or your family will have to hope the government help you if the worst should happen-do you trust them? That is is basically an untested vaccine being tested on the world population with no idea (even if you believe the companies aren’t hiding data etc) of what the side effects might be years down the line such as autoimmune diseases being triggered as there are no long-term studies.
https://img.ifunny.co/images/220b5e3c84fa9e93b8c6017aac95377249dc7cb36ad76962d6d56326ec01529d_1.webp
The figure of 99.7% survival is just not true. You are showing survival as a fraction of the whole population, whether they caught CV or not.
If you compare survival numbers with numbers infected, you’ll see a very different figure emerge – nearly 30 times larger.
And what is the problem if the overwhelming majority of people do not die or have serious side effects?
You might like to put that most callous of questions to the family, friends and relatives of those 170,000 who have died of Covid in the UK so far.
There are other consequences. Covid makes you sick, even if you don’t die. It gives you flu like symptoms. Well, I’ve had flu once in my life. It was grim. I was in bed for a week, and off work for a fortnight. If similar things happen to many of the 100,000 a day catching CV, then huge numbers of workers will be off quite sick. Fire fighters, train drivers, logistics personnel, checkout staff. Doctors and nurses. Maybe they won’t die. But they won’t be at work, and there will be consequences for all of us, even the young and slender.
And don’t forget the ravages of long covid.
I understand that people want this to end. But it is childish to seize a snippet of information out of context and then cry out “Hallelujah! We’re saved” when clearly we’re not. It it beyond childish – it is the hight of irresponsibly – for some politicians (such as Mackinlay) to trivialize this grave situation.
A quick look at worldometers shows that for the uk the death rate is around 1.28% of infections. Given the somewhat dubious “ died within 28 days of a positive test” and that there will have bben many more cases that went untested/ reported , perhaps in uk a fair figure would be 1%, but as we all know its those with other risk factors that are at greater risk. How many would have survived had they been less overwight and fitter? Just because covid was the final straw why isi it any more important in someones demise than the other conditions they had? It’s the reason we have “with covid” and not of.
The use of statistics has been less than honest through put allthis.
Too many people on this thread making excuses for dangerous behaviour. I’m off to do something more worthwhile. Bye all.
Thank goodness we have an MP that is sensible enough to stand up for his beliefs and is not afraid to rebel against the never ending lockdowns being imposed by his party bigwigs with the absolute backing of Labour. Labour would lock us down immediately without any thought of the untold damage that would cause.
Yes. He has gone up a lot in my estimation.
And how much damage has been caused by not locking down? The NHS is on its knees.
What Mackinlay “believes” and reality are worlds apart. He’s playing to the gallery, telling you the things you want to hear.
I want this to end.
I want to resume all the social activities I had to abandon when the pandemic struck.
I want to live a “normal” life again without having to mess about with masks and hand gel and social distancing and so on.
But I can’t yet, because there’s still a lethal pandemic around.
When I want lessons on misleading Parliament, I’ll consult Mackinlay. When I want advice about Covid, I’ll listen to Witty and Valance.
Hospital admissions and deaths are both going down. The NHS is “on its knees” because they’ve been ignoring other diseases and illnesses, cancelling routine check-ups and making it almost impossible to see a GP for the best part of two years. THIS will almost certainly eventually kill more people than Covid.
The reality Andrew is you are believing ridiculous headlines & people drunk on trying to stay in power & who have enjoyed becoming television stars like Whitty & Van Tam-with their ridiculous prophecies of crazy death totals that ended up being a fraction of that.
Ignoring what has happened in South Africa with the new strains-doubling time already gone from every 2 days down to 9 days, few hospitalisations & deaths, mild symptoms for most etc. Instead our government & experts are saying 6,000 a day dying-when the highest daily death total at the peak of Delta was under 2,000-despite them making similar prophecies then. All the while they cannot even get their lies straight about how many are in hospital with Raab claiming 250 when the figure was 10 etc.
Whitty, like Boris, likes the power of control over people, he realises if he said what the actual reality is then the panicdemic would evaporate & he would go back to being a footnote-a do you remember that odd looking guy with tales of doom & gloom from years back? The national media are bending over backwards to print this propaganda to put fear into people as it sells more copies & gets more viewers than the reality.
It’s a pandemic not a panicdemic. Can’t say I’ve noticed an atmosphere of fear when I’ve been out and about- has anybody else?
“The reality Andrew is you are believing ridiculous headlines & people drunk on trying to stay in power”
Absolutely not.
I read the underlying science.
The ones “drunk on trying to stay in power” are the likes of Mackinlay, who ignores the science, and tells the gullible and feckless what they want to hear.
Andrew: it’s the folk rushing to take experimental jabs, which aren’t safe and effective, and still allow the recipients to catch and pass on covid, and receive serious side effects (or death) who are gullible. Sadly they’ve fallen victim to the weaponised fear campaigns employed by some of the behavioural scientists for governments world-wide and the relentless lies of the mainstream media. Science is never fixed. Tens of thousands of top level scientists do not believe the official narrative. They publish regularly on all of this away from the shameful censors. This is all way above the old left vs right politics, with a cowardly and silent opposition. Fascinating what will happen in the New Year when things start to unravel badly on some of the lies.
Here’s why I despise anyone who doubts that vaccination, wearing a mask, and self isolation works. The Thanet Council website for the last 5 weeks shows on the 25th November there were 578 cases of covid reported. On the 30th November there were 653 cases reported. The 6th December there were 657. On the 14th December there were 826. And this week there were 807. Note the trend, there was a steady increase week on week, until this week, why was that? Probably because people were getting Boostered, or were taking it more seriously, and self islotaing more! The message is get jabbed, wear a face mask, and self isolate, that way we may beat the virus yet, the same as we did Cholera, Typhus, Diphtheria, TB, Scarlet Fever, Cow Pox, Chicken Pox, Polio, and many other once killer diseases due to vaccinations!
Mackinlay has consistently downplayed and been wrong about the effects of Coronavirus since it became known.Nearly 150,000 people have died of it and he rarely points out that this number would have been lessened if restrictions had been introduced earlier but his gang of right wing Tory so called libertarians have continually fought against any restrictions.Mackinlay is an accountant and yet he seems to think he knows better than the vast majority of doctors and scientists who are now arguing for tighter restrictions to save lives and allow NHS hospitals to continue to function. If he really is concerned about issues such as education and mental health then perhaps he should have spoken out against the Tory cuts and privatization that have dominated the last decade. Lockdowns have not been never ending and of course nobody wants them but they become more likely and necessary when other restrictions are delayed as we have seen. Mackinlay and his well off Tory mates always prioritize their own interests first and remember it wasn’t long ago he was lauding Boris as the new Tory leader. How times have changed. At least Gale spoke out against the evasions, deceptions and posturing of the PM. Whatever my doubts about Starmer I certainly believe this country would have been better governed and its people better protected during the pandemic with a Labour government.
If labour were in charge of dealing with covid, it’d have been corbyn and co. Whom the electorate decided decisively should be let nowhere near the levers of power. So perhaps your faith is a little misplaced.
But it’s the tories who are in charge, and have been for over a decade.
It is on their watch that the NHS has been run down and sold off. It is on their watch that the consequences outlined by “Operation Cygnus” were ignored. It was the Tory government that locked down too late, and opened up too soon.
What is all this “opened up too soon” nonsense? They opened up in the summer when they new hospitals wouldn’t be overwhelmed. This is why we didn’t have the autumn surge that much of the rest of western Europe had.
*knew*!
Democrat: you said “experimental jabs, which aren’t safe and effective, and still allow the recipients to catch and pass on covid, and receive serious side effects (or death)”.
In the UK, fewer than a dozen people are recorded as having died as a direct consequence of having a Covid vaccination., out of a total number of vaccinations exceeding 80,000,000. By contrast, over 170,000 people have died of CV.
It is far far safer to get vaccinated and boosted than not.
Nope, 170,000 have died WITH Covid. There’s a big, big difference.
Not to the deceased.
Rubbish. Many people know that the real reason for many deaths of loved ones are cancers, heart decease, alzheimers and a variety of other dreadful illnesses – despite what it says on their certificates. Some people in care homes weren’t even tested for Covid, with over-worked Drs putting it on their death certificates regardless.
The Tories seem more interested in helping the businesses which give them lots of money than in behaving like sensible adults by introducing- and keeping in place- regulations which would help control this pandemic.
It doesn’t need “controlling”. It needs “ending”, and that can only be done without endless restrictions.
Please let us know how you intend to end this pandemic. The world’s medical scientists would love to know.
Again, stop endless restrictions. That only delays the inevitable.
Again ..Please let us know how you intend to end this pandemic. The world’s medical scientists would love to know.
On a more serious note, delaying is *exactly* what restrictions do. They spread out the number of infections, thus easing the load on our hospitals, thus giving our medical staff a fighting chance.
Yet you complain about the easing of restrictions during summer months when hospitals weren’t overwhelmed? If they’d taken your advice we’d be in a far worse state – as indeed are many other countries that locked down for too long.
Meanwhile in Wales, people will get fined for going to work, yet they can go to the pub. The world has truly gone mad.
Peter can barely end a sentence Andrew. He believes whatever suits his own narrative to hell with anyone else. His posts prove that over and over. Selfish people always all to happy to watch thousands die as long as the can go to spoons on Xmas day.
Spoons’?! What an insult!
We live in fear because you are “representing” us. You are neither qualified or care.
The sooner you are not the voice of south Thanet the better
I live in North Thanet (and I respresent only myself).
I like Wetherspoons pubs, why are some people so disapproving of them?
I use them very occasionally, but I prefer to put smart clothes on and go somewhere a little classier.
Craig Mackinlay is, it seems, an existential philosopher.
“We’re here to live …” he says.
Does that imply that there’s a Creator who put us “here”, with a specific reason in mind (“to live”)?
Is it Craig’s intention to do away with Darwin and Evolution?
Mackinlay doesn’t seem to give a toss about global warming.