Lockup/ lockdown. How to end it?

[Mrs Ex-Ascot]

Interesting post BM here's an interesting read from the DM; https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/arti ... e-end.html

Here in Bots we are slowly returning to normal but a lot of government decisions have to be made bearing in mind what is going on in the surrounding countries. While we can operate pretty normally within our zones, travel permits are required to go outside your zone. The borders are closed apart from freight and medivac; the truck drivers are all tested at the border and indeed the most recent new cases here have been truck drivers from ZA, Zambia and Zim. Businesses are opening for local tourism, but the camps in the Delta can't open until ZA allows international travel as most foreign tourists travel here via JNB. Most companies are predicting being closed until September, which means this years tourism season is destroyed. I suspect that the hope is that people will want to travel in what is usually the mid to low season. One option some companies are looking at, is the possibility of bringing in tourists via Namibia if the border is opened before ZA opens up.

While our Lockdown seems to have been totally over the top, it was probably sensible taking into account our proximity to ZA and the dearth of medical facilities. At least good sense seems to have prevailed with the alcohol ban being lifted; just tobacco to follow hopefully soon.

[probes]

The nature of a plague, as the nature of a war, is such that there is loss and diminution of life. Once plague or war begin, it is inevitable that people die.
***
...the effects of Covid-19 not on the elderly, but on younger people. Patients may recover less completely than imagined, with long-lasting organ damage. But, it must be said, these cases are numerically not so significant that they alone would justify the drastic response there has been to the pandemic.
...the misfunctioning of policy formation within the apparatus of government (politicians and civil service).
... the role of the mass media. The MSM have been complicit in nurturing fear and panic.
... psychological effects of the lockdown on vulnerable souls and the fact that these effects may be long-lasting. He mentions also the loss of trust in the powers that govern us.
***
Let me address now a most fundamental matter, one which Herr Kohn deals with more implicitly. It is maintained that life is the highest good and therefore it is lives that must be saved. This is wrong.
***
Herr Kohn is right: It has indeed been a false alarm.
***
... damage done above and beyond the initial aims of lockdown and the unfortunate harvest we are about to reap by trashing economies for such an aim. ... I am still honing another cutting edge for the longer term...

ok, but let's suppose it had been treated as 'any flu'. Some people wouldn't even have noticed it, some would have been more seriously ill and staying home, some (or quite many) ended up in hospitals. That's what happened in Italy, when it started. Life would go on as normal, the elderly and vulnerable (incl the cancer patients, for example, and others in hospitals and care homes) would die en masse, schools would have shortage of teachers, as the 50+ were ill, several businesses would close (staff sick). It's rational, of course, that everybody has to die, but most societies are not prepared to accept it being preventable but not prevented. Even the Swedes are having doubts, and they did practice social distancing.

But I totally agree that people were harmed by the panic in mass media and political ambitions of some govts.

[barkingmad]

Here's another snippet of common sense lurking amongst the hype and the exaggeration of the normal MSM contributors' army;

https://news.sky.com/story/after-the-pa ... r-12000147

Project Fear Mk2 is currently working very well, far better than HMG originally hoped. Probably heaving a sigh of relief at the relative submission of the great UK public as THEY knew THEY didn't have enough Plod to properly police the "guidelines" if most had said "feckoff we're going to live normally".

[AtomKraft]

Well said Shriver.
Bollocks to the new normal.
I'm not joining in with any of that nonsense.

[barkingmad]

Help ! I'm in a strange place, just heard on MSM, the good old BBC Radio4 lunchtime news politico-baiting show, a Prof who has been querying the lockdown for weeks has now said "enough, stop it now, should have protected the old but the young not as vulnerable"! (My summary, not exact quote).

Sorry about the sources, trigger was BBC item and the reference is K&C's favourite paper, but nevertheless;

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/ ... etra-gupta

[barkingmad]

Some more of Sunetra Gupta's debunking of the current mess in UK and elsewhere;

https://lockdownsceptics.org

It really is a shame we have to ferret around in rabbit holes to find some sanity and a challenge to the discredited Imperial College cabal of Prof Pantsdown Ferguson.

[Boac]

Prof Pantsdown Ferguson

Is he still involved in SAGE?

[barkingmad]

Prof Pantsdown Ferguson

Is he still involved in SAGE?

According to this he still is, though 2 other members have asked for their names not to be published-great to know they are proud of their product;

https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus- ... y-11982941

P S. It's an awful lot of homo sapiens in one committee arguing over a virus...

[Boac]

Indeed - thanks for the info. A miracle if they can get any 'concensus' out of that horde!

[ian16th]

Prof Pantsdown Ferguson

Is he still involved in SAGE?

South African Gold Exchange?

[G-CPTN]

Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies.

[Boac]

Interesting - I wonder if SKY is working on an out-of-date list? C4 tonight had him 'resigned' from Sage.

[ian16th]

Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies.

Thanks.

[llondel]

Run by a chap called Basil when he has spare Thyme.

[Undried Plum]

A committee of 52, overseen by BoJo's equivalent of Rudolf Hess.

No wonder we've got the omnishambles that we have.

[Boac]

What is it that 'Nookie Neil' actually 'resigned' from?

From The Telegraph, 5th May
"...........The scientist whose advice prompted Boris Johnson to lock down Britain resigned from his Government advisory position............." - yet still listed as a member of Sage?

I note with some interest en passant in the same article that his (occasional) 'mattress' was described as a 'left wing activist'.

[barkingmad]

Here are some hot-off-the-press thoughts on the lockdown and how we got into that quicksand from which it is so difficult to extricate ourselves.
‘Fans’ of BoJo &Co will be pleased to hear this right-winger’s opinion of them and their handling of the disaster of the ‘lergy;



One major problem with lifting and escaping from the lockdown is the degree to which the populace has been terrified into submission and subsequently into realising they’ve got a total lack of trust in anything which is promulgated by officialdom.
This is typified by the shambles of Hancock’s HalfHour and also the lack of the smack of firm leadership following the BLM criminality and lockdown contraventions.
Obviously “bombarding us with death porn” has been a surprisingly effective means of controlling the populace, especially as UK Plod has long ago lost control of the streets.
I wonder if they’ll keep that strategy of Project Fear Mk 94 in reserve in case the peasants start making rumbling noises and appear revolting in the foreseeable future...

[barkingmad]

More thoughts on the lockdown topic from this august publication, not submitted for argument's sake but just to provide food for thought;

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/co ... oronavirus

It does not look like a good prospect and I for one do not want to drag on until I am 80+ in such a world so maybe Covid-1984 will remove me from the food chain by way of relief?

[barkingmad]

One more grumpy ould man sitting in a chair imitating Victor Meldrew, reminding me of
many on this forum, including myself;



If it’s all a con, how long before the peasants wake up, smell the coffee and then how bad will be the backlash?

[barkingmad]

Some horrendous non-Covid-1984 death rates are being touted on this morning’s MSM so is this the result of a measure taken in a panic and not really thought out?

This from 3 months ago indicates the possible causes, I don’t expect any info from the BoJo Hancock’s HalfHour team anytime soon as it’s their actions which will come under scrutiny in the reportedly ‘in-private’ inquiry to come;

https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/why-a ... -the-rise/.

The Daily Torygraph is credited with quoting a ‘government report’ which is mysteriously impossible or difficult to locate so maybe info has slipped out which is uncomplimentary to the Downing Street Circus.

Just as a reminder of where we are and where we’ve been I will repeat for comparison the winter 1968-69 EXCESS deaths due to HongKong/Mao ‘flu was 80,000 and no one remembers it...