I’m so sick of hearing about C****.
Are two face masks better than one?
Who cares? It’s never going to go away. It’s been around for a year already.
My own view is that it’s yet another exaggerated threat, like tobacco smoke or Global Warming. It seems to be a characteristic of our time to amplify any threat. Perhaps this is simply in order to sell it better to more people. Or perhaps because there is a single news culture that tells the same story to everyone.
But the result of crying wolf at every small threat is that people like me stop believing what they’re being told, and greet every new claim with automatic immediate scepticism.
I grew up in a world where everyone smoked everywhere. They smoked in pubs. They smoked in restaurants. They smoked in trains – which even had their own built-in ashtrays. About the only places they didn’t smoke were churches. Smoking was normal, and it had been normal for hundreds of years.
And then one day they started telling us that Smoking Kills. And smoking started being banned in more and more places, until smoking was banned almost everywhere.
But smoking doesn’t kill. It doesn’t kill like bombs or bullets kill. And it’s an exaggeration to say that it does, And anyone can see this. And so thst’s where disbelief starts. And that’s how disbelief spreads. If they’re lying about tobacco smoke, what else are they lying about? They probably lying about everything.
I was asked today if I wanted to be vaccinated against C””””. I said No. I don’t want protection against an exaggerated threat. And the vaccinations seem to kill quite a few of their recipients. And also I don’t believe that any effective vaccination is possible anyway. Microbiologist Legiron:
Decades of research have not come up with a single effective coronoavirus vaccine.
The War On Smoking began a long time ago, but it gained its greatest momentum in the aftermath of WW2. And WW2 was accompanied on both sides by a great deal of propaganda. And propaganda always entails exaggeration. Propaganda is untruthful. Propaganda aims not to inform, but instead to shape opinion in desired directions.
It would seem that the propaganda wars of WW2 were immediately replaced at war’s end by the propaganda Cold War and a propaganda War On Smoking, with the propaganda machine retasked to new purposes.
Propaganda: Information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote a political cause or point of view.
The propaganda never ended. And now it is ubiquitous. And everybody knows they’re being propagandised. Everybody knows that they’re being lied to, all the time, about everything.
And when that happens, the propaganda stops working.
Brexit may well have been aa propaganda failure. Britons were being told by the mainstream media that they should remain in the EU. That was the propaganda message. So it was expected that when they were given a vote on the matter, they would vote to remain in the EU. It was a tremendous shock when they didn’t. But perhaps it was simply a rejection of propaganda. Told to think one way, they responded by thinking the other way.
Same maybe with Donald Trump. Told repeatedly how awful he was, Americans responded by voting for him,
We can expect more of this. The propaganda isn’t working any more.
Perhaps it’s time to do something unthinkable: like simply tell the truth.
Frank Davis 
That would be a relief.
strikes me that you have been telling the truth all along👍
I got myself vaccinated, because – thanks to my pro-smoking activities – I have a lot of medical friends, so I had a chance to call them and ask: should I do it? Meaning that the people who made that vaccine are only two calls away from me.
And I’m not wearing a mask, ever, since I’ve accumulated heaps of medical documents about harm of mask-wearing, and about mask’s absulute uselesness against viruses. What’s funny, there are very few documents that say masks work, and they have emerged very late and been refuted and ridiculed by other research.
Totally accurate as usual Mr Davis, esq…extract from my recent correspondence with those who lack scepticism about “experts” below. Similar to rampant tobacco prohibitionist policies, the CV19 situation is breaking friendships and stressing families…I was also rather horrified to note recent proceedings in the House of Commons on TV, with NO SMOKING signs on the benches – since when has anyone ever smoked in the Parliamentary chambers, like church…beyond belief.
This lengthy article on masking, a sign of obeisance to appease the evil CV19 god, may also be thought provoking… https://www.aier.org/article/the-year-of-disguises/
“I dispute the view that lockdowns, aka placing the entire population under almost certainly illegal and disproportionate house arrest “works”…sure does if a life of cringing hermitry is the preferred model, going forward (I mean backwards, doubling or tripling down on failed CV19 “countermeasures)…refuse to be terrorised.
Information from the UK [see http://www.lockdownsceptics.org] tends to indicate such imprisonment is an ineffective countermeasure, using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. I however remain open to superior argument, and unlike politicians and panicking medical experts, wrong in their silly models projecting mortality by a factor of at least 12, will change my views when presented with such reasoning…although it seems to be “choose your preferred expert” time, and heretics are ignored or suppressed (the same CV19-climate-capnophobia [thanks Frank, great phrasing] underlying prohibitionist tobacco control, they just “know better” – supremely astounding arrogance, and who put them in charge, and consented to relentless official intrusion into every aspect of daily life and civil society).
When assessing the Government’s claim that the Covid death toll would be roughly twice as high absent the three lockdowns, it’s worth remembering that Sweden’s deaths per million in 2020 were bang on the EU average in spite of not imposing any lockdowns last year. That suggests the lockdowns imposed in every other EU member state did nothing to reduce Covid mortality.
The report itself goes into more detail.
“Under our central scenario there is a loss of approximately 1.3 million QALYs as a consequence of this pandemic induced recession. These health losses are largely accrued in the medium to long-term, with the morbidity affects largely falling in the medium term and the resultant mortality impacts falling in the longer-term. Under the upside scenario, there is an estimated 0.23 million QALY loss in the medium and long-run and under the downside scenario, there is an estimated 2.7 million QALY loss in the medium and long-run from COVID-19
Overall, our analysis suggests that the recession resulting from COVID-19 and restrictions on activities to contain it could have large effects on lives through unemployment, mental health impacts, loss of income and increased financial uncertainty. These impacts are likely to have medium and long-term consequences on population health in terms of increased morbidity and mortality
This analysis also presents an increase in the impact of the recession on medium and long-term health compared to our previous update. This is because more recent economic forecasts suggest the bounce-back and recovery are likely to be at a slower pace than previously predicted, and therefore the health impacts from the economic downturn accumulate over a longer period of time than previously considered.
Worth reading in full.”
Like the Yecch (X) Files and Mouldy and Skulky, the truth is out there (well, somewhere)…
😉
Lockdowns cost lives
I was disappointed to read Nick Cohen’s article, in which he blamed lockdown sceptics like me for the death of Mr Matthews. I have never denied that COVID-19 can be deadly, never suggested that “5G causes cancer” and never urged anyone not to get vaccinated. True, I have suggested that those varieties of the common cold caused by coronaviruses could provide people with some immunity to COVID-19, but that claim is based on reputable research.
I don’t think it’s fair to accuse sceptics of endangering lives. There have been at least 30 research papers, the most recent by a team led by Professor John Ioannidis at Stanford, showing that lockdowns imposed across the western world last March had little or no impact on reducing Covid mortality. However, there is an equally voluminous amount of research showing that the lockdowns have caused catastrophic damage, not just to economies, but to people’s mental and physical health. The number of deaths caused in the developing world by the economic recession triggered by the lockdowns will likely be far greater than the number of lives saved in the west. The UN predicts the coming recessions will plunge 420 million people into extreme poverty.
Based on these findings, it is those promoting lockdowns who are killing people, not those expressing reservations. But I would never accuse lockdown advocates of being murderers because such emotive hyperbole is not conducive to sensible debate.
Toby Young
London W3
Las Vegas high schools reopened after 18 suicides among high school students .Lockdowns have
horrible side effects. What about all the smokers that have been in lockdown for 15 years ?
The smokers who didn’t throw themselves off cliffs in the early years are probably doing relatively well.
Taxman kills himself ‘over smoking ban’
Dec 4 2008
“A taxman killed himself after the smoking ban left him a virtual recluse, an inquest heard yesterday.
“Lawrence Walker, 61, barely went out when cigs were barred from his local pub.”
Friend Robert Lye said: “He felt insulted to have to stand outside and smoke.
“We think the ban killed him. He was so depressed about it he hardly went out.
It made him very solitary.”
Mr Walker, of St Columb, Cornwall, leapt to his death from cliffs at Porth beach, Newquay, in June. Coroner Dr Andrew Cox recorded a verdict of suicide.”
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/taxman-kills-himself-over-smoking-363784
I certainly took it very badly for a while, but I’d only just started going out to the pub after years of staying at home looking after children, with only Radio 4 for adult company most of the time, same as my mother before me.
Lots of smokers died from exposure or other dangers enforced by the Anti-smoking fanatics. But that was OK, right? And now non-smokers are having to cope with lockdown – Cry me a river!
It has occured to me that with all these years of social isolation and now not even passing people in the street, I haven’t had a cold in years, so my immunity may be a little rusty.
When everything opens up again but without social distancing and masks, that Oxford vaccine with dead germs might be a blessing.
Until I get called, like the politicians, I am currently following the science when going for my weekly shop.
I chew very strong crystallised ginger, before I leave the house to protect against other peoples winter bugs especially sore throats. Ive been doing it every winter for a few years.
I had a hunch it worked so I eventually looked it up.
Ginger and its active ingredient 6-gingerol down regulate pro-inflammatory cytokine release by macrophages
2006
https://www.journalofsurgicalresearch.com/article/S0022-4804(05)01027-9/fulltext
As smoking is frowned on nearly everywhere these days, I have a nice cup of coffee and a cigarette as soon as I get home.
Nitric oxide dosed in short bursts at high concentrations may protect against Covid 19
1 October 2020
“It is not generally known that mainstream smoke from cigarettes contains NO at peak concentrations of between about 250 ppm and 1350 ppm in each puff [18,19]. The wide variation depends primarily upon the brand.
The very high NO concentration in cigarette smoke as compared to medicinal use of no more than 80 to a maximum of 160 ppm, is presumably tolerated only because it is present for a single puff and then followed by numerous breaths of fresh air before the next puff. NO given as a single burst provides a similar NO intake over time, as a lower dose given continuously, since for example, 1000 ppm given for 1 breath followed by 10 breaths of air between doses is equivalent to 100 ppm given continuously.
Moreover, the diffusion of NO through the cell wall to reach the virus should be significantly more effective with bursts at the very high NO concentration in the smoke, according to classic laws of physics.
The only oxide of nitrogen in the mainstream smoke is NO, and the NO2 concentration that is inhaled is very low or undetectable [20], therefore it’s well-known airway irritating effect is absent or minor.”
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1089860320301610
Frank, you are so right, and everyone is tired of this virus. Health Authorities are failing to save lives from a real threat (this virus). But not the imaginary threat of smoking. And now people are loosing faith in the Health Authorities (is it any wonder?):
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/us/major-exodus-among-public-health-officials-during-pandemic/ar-BB1dpyft?ocid=msedgdhp
Just needed Time…
https://time.com/5936036/secret-2020-election-campaign/
The 2020 election wasn’t stolen, no, no, no – the result was ‘fortified’.
You weren’t supposed to tell them that, Joe!
That’s quite extraordinary, Roobee, and very much reminds me of Deborah Arnott and Ian Gillmore’s apparent need to confess on the Guardian after securing the English Smoking Ban.
Smoke and mirrors
Deborah Arnott and Ian Willmore
“The campaign showed the importance of sound strategy, sharp tactics and a lot of luck,….”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2006/jul/19/health.healthandwellbeing
Its as if after doing something so wicked and sly they need some kind of absolution.
In fact I was so shocked at what I read onThe Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That Saved the 2020 Election, I checked the address really was TIME.
It seems so.
Medicine: Pellagra Cure
Monday, Aug. 22, 1938
“Over 1,000,000 families in the rural South eat nothing but salt pork, corn meal and molasses. Their members are frequent victims of that painful deficiency disease, pellagra, with its attendant diarrhea, dementia, dermatitis. Physicians have known for nearly 25 years that small amounts of green vegetables and milk will forestall the disease. But still pellagra continues. In its advanced stages it has been considered incurable, since the patients are unable to ingest the necessary kinds of food.
Last week the Journal of the American Medical Association printed two articles on pellagra† showing the startlingly beneficial results of a new treatment.
Nicotinic acid, a distant relative (about second cousin once removed) of tobacco’s nicotine, is found in yeast, wheat germ and liver. When considerable quantities were fed to some 300 patients with pellagra, their sores healed, their cramps disappeared.
Even patients who were violently insane dramatically regained their wits within 48 hours. In a few days they were able to eat pellagra-preventing foods.
The dose is not yet standardized, some patients requiring more of the drug than others, and its precise effects are not perfectly known. Only unpleasant reactions were flushing, itching and sensations of intense heat in various parts of the skin. There are many relapses, mostly because the patients, when convalescent, have to return home, where once again they tuck in to the old bill-of-fare: salt pork, corn meal, molasses.”
http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,788409,00.html
Some of the older small aeroplanes still have armrest ashtrays. I wonder what the youth think they are for?