CodyyyGardner Categories Government
U.K. needs to confront
— Esther McVey (@EstherMcVey1) January 2, 2021
\u2018The challenge that faces us is to decide - are we going to try to pursue the elimination of Covid-19 regardless of the costs or decide on a tolerable level of deaths (like we do with the flu) in order to return to a normal life?\u2019
https://t.co/9hWbHIPJUq
Had we adopted an elimination strategy early on, rather than one of tolerating a certain level of infection, we wouldn't be here now. The reason we're here is because the govt never committed to elimination.
We eased lockdown in May when infection levels were much higher than when other countries in Europe did this. The govt was warned about this, but did this to 'help the economy'. Not only did this lead us into the 2nd wave, the need for further lockdowns harmed the economy further
It's very clear from global evidence that we cannot 'tolerate a level of community transmission' and maintain 'R at or just below 1', which has been our governments policy for a long time. This isn't sustainable & very rapidly gets out of control, leading to exponential rises
Coupled with late action to contain these surges, not only does this lead to many more deaths, and much more morbidity with Long COVID, it also creates a fertile ground for viral mutations to accumulate with a greater risk of adaptation, which is exactly what happened in the UK
1/ Allison claims that the government had been "Captured by tunnel-visioned autistic scientists" [Tweet later deleted]
2/ "It’s time the scientists went back to their labs and hobbit holes and left Earth to the humans."
https://t.co/R6gc4MRZOM
It\u2019s time the scientists went back to their labs and hobbit holes and left Earth to the humans.
— Allison Pearson (@allisonpearson) December 2, 2020
They have delighted us long enough. https://t.co/kceoE8qeDi
3/ "The swivel-eyed scientist John Edmunds [...] These scientists are not trustworthy."
https://t.co/LeEjSfHvJW
@BBCr4today has been talking to the swivel-eyed scientist John Edmunds. Thumps radio.
— Allison Pearson (@allisonpearson) October 13, 2020
Edmunds started off advocating herd immunity in March - why not press him on that?
Now he wants the hardest possible lockdown.
These scientists are not trustworthy.
4/ "[...] those shifty government scientists"
https://t.co/oTtVeVtBlA
Why can\u2019t we have David Paton doing the TV briefings rather than those shifty government scientists? @cricketwyvern https://t.co/hHZ1T47loT
— Allison Pearson (@allisonpearson) October 12, 2020
5/ Deputy CMO Jonathan Van-Tam is "revolting".
https://t.co/9cyJdZcjDZ
How revolting are those men with their matey \u201cJVT\u201d and \u201cSteve\u201d?
— Allison Pearson (@allisonpearson) October 20, 2020
It\u2019s a game to them. Destroying people\u2019s lives with pointless lockdowns for what?
And Manchester looks to have passed the peak of this swell. Epic stupidity.
Wait wait wait...
OKAY LISTEN!
It's not the # to the Foundation
BUT.....
https://t.co/epks5lfocZ https://t.co/bVZeYyZ3vd
From the Clinton Foundation website today. You\u2019re making the assumption that Q said that was the CF number. Maybe he was telling us to report the CF. Or maybe it was the CF number and was changed. Many possibilities exist but digging and discernment needed. \U0001f44d pic.twitter.com/cfYgAuGxrJ
— Skoup Questions Everything \U0001f1fa\U0001f1f8\u2b50\ufe0f\u271d\ufe0f\U0001f337 (@Skoup) January 2, 2021
2/ America's Newest Reality Show: Portlandia Nights (Originally posted 7/17/2020) I had watched the riots going on for more than 50 days when I decided to start covering them. #PortlandRiots
https://t.co/27jTk2QcDG
3/ Portlandia Nights: Barricade & Burn, Attack on the Portland Justice Center (Originally posted 7/18/2020) #PortlandRiots
https://t.co/QV5bvqFM11
4/ Portlandia Nights: Divide & Conquer. (Originally posted 7/19/2020) #PortlandRiots
https://t.co/bmZyseNf9C
5/ Portlandia Nights: Missing in Action. (Originally posted 7/20/2020 #PortlandRiots
https://t.co/sM69nkOZiZ
What's the back story about why so many former air force people are coup friendly?
— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) January 10, 2021
Given the size of the US military in WW2, afterwards there was a spike in concern that some of these demilitarized veterans would be amenable to radicalization and supportive of insurrection. These fears heightened after the coups in France/Algiers in 1958 and 1961.
This was the peak era of the Cold War, so anti-communist anxiety was layered over top. The Right feared that communist infiltrators in the government would subvert the Republic. The Left feared that anti-communist military officers would launch a preemptive, paranoid coup.
Note as well that the foundation for these fears was rooted in a novel concept that journalist Edward Hunter had recently coined, "brainwashing." The idea was that US POWs held by North Korea had been brainwashed into accepting communism & might act as a fifth column back home.
You can see that particular paranoia in cultural artifacts from the time like "The Manchurian Candidate," novel in 1959 and the hit 1962 movie starring Frank Sinatra and the incomparable Angela Lansbury. Those sneaky commies nearly infiltrated the Oval Office itself, oh no!!
And I said, when that "response" - which you can read here https://t.co/gLEJzuqoAx - was published that every single notional rebuttal by Government of a claim made by the New York Times was false, misleading or both.
And it's time for me to make good.
Here's the first "rebuttal" by Government to the New York Times' claim that: "The government handed out thousands of contracts to fight the virus, some of them in a secretive V.I.P. lane."
A number of points might be made.
(1) Government cannot say the NYT got it wrong. (2) the NAO found the VIP lane (later renamed the high-priority lane) "sat alongside" the normal lane. And I have shown elsewhere VIP contracts were handled by different teams all the way through.
(3) Although Govt says "offers of support raised by Opposition MPs were dealt with expeditiously" the NAO report does not record any referrals made by an Opposition MP leading to a contract - and the Government response telling does not say any did.