“Our grave concerns about the handling of the Covid pandemic”

“Our grave concerns about the handling of the Covid pandemic by Governments of the Nations of the UK” [22 August 2021]:

We write as concerned doctors, nurses and other allied healthcare professionals … We are taking the step of writing this public letter because it has become apparent to us that:

• The Government (by which we mean the UK government and three devolved governments/administrations and associated government advisors and agencies …, hereinafter "you" or the "Government") have based the handling of the COVID pandemic on flawed assumptions.

• These have been pointed out to you by numerous individuals and organisations.

• You have failed to engage in dialogue and show no signs of doing so. You have removed from people fundamental rights and altered the fabric of society with little debate in Parliament. No minister responsible for policy has ever appeared in a proper debate with anyone with opposing views on any mainstream media channel.

• Despite being aware of alternative medical and scientific viewpoints you have failed to ensure an open and full discussion of the pros and cons of alternative ways of managing the pandemic.

• The pandemic response policies implemented have caused massive, permanent and unnecessary harm to our nation, and must never be repeated.

• Only by revealing the complete lack of widespread approval among healthcare professionals of your policies will a wider debate be demanded by the public.

In relation to the above, we wish to draw attention to the following points. Supporting references can be provided upon request.

1. No attempt to measure the harms of lockdown policies. …
2. Institutional nature of Covid. …
3. The exaggerated nature of the threat. …
4. Active suppression of discussion of early treatment using protocols being successfully deployed elsewhere. …
5. Inappropriate and unethical use of behavioural science to generate unwarranted fear. …
6. Misunderstanding of the ubiquitous nature of mutations of newly emergent viruses. …
7. Misunderstanding of asymptomatic spread and its use to promote public compliance with restrictions. …
8. Mass testing of healthy children. …
9. Vaccination of the entire adult population should never have been a prerequisite for ending restrictions. …
10. Over-reliance on modeling while ignoring real-world data. …

“The UK's approach to Covid has palpably failed. In the apparent desire to protect one vulnerable group – the elderly – the implemented policies have caused widespread collateral and disproportionate harm to many other vulnerable groups, especially children.

“Moreover your policies have failed in any event to prevent the UK from notching up one of the highest reported death rates from Covid in the world.

“Now, despite very high vaccination rates and the currently very low Covid death and hospitalisation rates, policy continues to be aimed at maintaining a population handicapped by extreme fear with restrictions on everyday life prolonging and deepening the policy-derived harms.”

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Also see: “Six Covid facts we’re in danger of forgetting”:

• The infection fatality rate
• Animals carry the virus
• Sweden
• Israel and waning immunity
• The recovered
• Nonvaccinated versus vaccinated

Tuarisc leabair bhig: Fatwa, le Proinsias Mac A’ Bhaird

Roinn Olaf Errwigge an tuarisc seo ar Facebook leis an grúpa Gaeilge Amháin. Léigh mé an leabhar le gairid agus aontaím leis faoi. Fiú nuair go bhfuil an gníomh lán le teannas, bhí go minic a raibh mé ag gáire amach, agus ar an iomlán is leabhar tuisceanach agus daonna é. Chomh maith, déanann an t-údar spraoi le “Google Translate”, fiú leis an teideal ar an leabhar diamhaslach atá i gceist.

Go hiontach an úrscéal Fatwa le Proinsias Mac A’ Bhaird (Coiscéim, 2019). Leannainn an leabhar an ábhar den úrscéal dá chuid, Tairngreacht, a raibh foilsithe an bhliain roimh, is é sin antoisceachas creidimh. I dTairngreacht, bhí cumann rúnta dílse don chreadimh a smaoinigh siad a raibh an fíorchreadamh Críostaí mar Colm Cille, agus rún atá acu an pápa agus a chairdinéal san Róimh a chur ina gcríochnaithe. I bhFatwa, ar ndóigh, is éadulaingt iad na Moslamach ar maslaí lena bhFáidh Mahamad.

Cé mar scéinséir a raibh Tairngreacht go hiomlán, is scéinséir i gcuideanna é Fatwa, ach is aoir é fosta, aoir ar chreadeamh, ar litríocht Ghaeilge chomhaimseartha agus na hirisí liteartha, ar an nGaeltacht féin, agus ar stócaigh ag fás go fóill agus a dtreoir á aimsiú. Ach is scéal tuisceanach é, é báúil le laige an duine agus na streachailte leis an slí bheatha a fháil. Ceann de na ceachtanna ná ní hea an jiohád an chlaímh dóigh maith girseacha a chur in aithne nó go teacht amuigh mar duine aerach. Tá giota tragóid ann leis na stócaigh sin.

Ach tá go minic atá an scéal greannmhar ar fad, fiú nuair atá sé lán le teannas agus le contúirt. Is é an príomhdhióc nach léite ag duine ar bith an scéal fá Mahamad a raibh scríofa i nGaeilge – ní idir na daoine maslaithe ná na daoine ar son an saoirse léirithe.

Chomh maith, mar i dTairngreacht le caibidlí don faoistin Colm Cille a raibh faighte i dtochailt seandálaíochta, tá sleachta as “Ridire an Fhásaigh” i bhFatwa. Sin é an teideal ar an úrscéal maslach i gceist, an scéal fán iarraidh na treibheanna Araibis ina n-aointaigh faoi dhia amháin. Ar bhealach, is ionnan an scéal seo agus an scéal fán stócach a shlí a bheith ag aimsiú.

New York Times’ authoritarian nonsense about coronavirus vaccines and freedom

“El Rucio” writes on Twitter:

Using the nonvaccinated as cover for continued restrictions and lockdown: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/10/opinion/biden-covid-vaccine.html [“Biden Is Right: Vaccine Refusal ‘Has Cost All of Us’” by The Editorial Board, The New York Times]

“Vaccines were developed in record time, and have proved to be both *incredibly safe* and *stunningly effective*. Nearly two-thirds of eligible Americans *have accepted these facts* and *done their part* by getting fully vaccinated.”

“Yet tens of millions more have not, allowing the more contagious Delta variant to sweep across the country …” — infecting and even killing the vaccinated!

“But as long as the virus continues to spread widely, it can and will evolve in ways that put everyone at risk.” — delta arose with as vaccination increased, pretty obvious the vax caused its evolution and spread

“Faced with this avoidable catastrophe, President Biden is right to order tighter vaccine rules” — to /increase/ vaccination, the cause of the catastrophe, instead of focus on the actually vulnerable!

“As incursions on bodily autonomy go, this is pretty mild stuff.” — but unprecedented and unnecessary*, not to mention counterproductive (see above).

*Most people are not at serious risk from c19, and for those who are at risk or do get sick, there are effective preventive and early treatments.

“Yet vaccine resisters carry on about violations of their freedom, ignoring the fact that they don’t live in a bubble, and that their decision to stay unvaccinated infringes on everyone else’s freedom …” — How? Because the vaccines don’t actually work?

“Refusers’ hollow appeals to “freedom” are especially hard to take considering that Americans already accept countless restrictions in the name of safety …” — that’s actual, mutual, safety, not a coerced monomaniacal directive that ignores actual safety

“A small number of people have a legitimate reason to decline the vaccine … Beyond these, it’s hard to understand any arguments against getting the shot.” — that is to say, the editorial board declines to consider any analysis that does not support “the shot”

“Mr. Biden’s vaccine rules are not simply about protecting lives, but rebuilding the economy …” — by means of more restrictions and more illness! Instead it seems like the plan is actually to continue destroying the economy and people’s lives.

… … … “Was all that heroic suffering for nothing?” Yes. Or rather, it was for getting rid of Trump, and populism in general, by destroying the economy and people’s lives, to enslave people to complete autocratic corporate control, for their own protection.

“… show some patriotism and humanity and get the shot.” — no, patriotism and humanity demand refusal

[Down with all kings but King Ludd!]