This thread is inspired by Adrian Mitchell's GREAT poem from 1964: the excoriating

To Whom It May Concern
(Tell Me Lies About Vietnam)​

A few stanzas, slightly modified, to address the lies, falsehoods and mendacious statements being thrown at we 'mushrooms' day by day.
And then some of that propaganda revealed:

I was run over by the truth one day
Ever since the accident I've walked this way
So stick my legs in plaster
Tell me lies about What's Going On.

So scrub my mind with Lock Downs
And chain my tongue with whisky
Stuff my nose with garlic
Coat my eyes with butter
Fill my ears with silver
Stick my legs in plaster
Tell me lies about –
What's Really Going On.

 

UK scientists condemn 'Stalinist' attempt to censor Covid-19 advice
Exclusive: report criticising government lockdown proposals heavily redacted before release

Paul Lewis and David Conn Fri 8 May 2020 14.26 BST

Government scientific advisers are furious at what they see as an attempt to censor their advice on
government proposals during the Covid-19 lockdown by heavily redacting an official report before
it was released to the public, the Guardian can reveal.

The report was one of a series of documents published by the Scientific Advisory Group on
Emergencies (Sage) this week.

However, large blocks of text in the report ... were entirely blanked out.

The Government had wanted to:
** further reduce the amount of time Britons could spend exercising or shopping,
** impose stricter financial penalties for those found to be breaking the lockdown.
** requiring people to self-validate their movements,

Experts on SPI-B, which includes professors in psychology, epidemiology and anthropology,
said they felt the proposals were too punitive and more likely to result in unfair treatment
among people in deprived economic circumstances.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...s-fury-over-attempt-to-censor-covid-19-advice

 

UK coronavirus deaths more than double official figure, according to FT study.

Chris Giles, Economics Editor APRIL 22 2020
FT = The highly prestigious Financial Times

The coronavirus pandemic has already caused as many as 41,000 deaths in the UK, according to a Financial Times analysis of the latest data from the Office for National Statistics.
The estimate is more than double the official figure of 17,337 released by ministers on Tuesday, which is updated daily and only counts those who have died in hospitals after testing positive for the virus.
The FT extrapolation, based on figures from the ONS that were also published on Tuesday, includes deaths that occurred outside hospitals updated to reflect recent mortality trends.

https://www.ft.com/content/67e6a4ee-3d05-43bc-ba03-e239799fa6ab

 

First people were meant to stay at home to save lives, and
then government sources raised the prospect of picnics with
pals and sunbathing in the park just before a sunny bank
holiday weekend.

Boris Johnson told the nation that scientists thought face masks might help stop the
spread of the disease, but no change was made to the government advice that they were
not needed outside medical and care settings.

Meanwhile, other reports suggested schools could be allowed back on 11 May (now
impossible), that the furlough scheme could be abruptly wound down (causing
anxiety for millions of workers) and that over-70s could be asked to stay at home for
longer than the rest of society, potentially more than a year (provoking a backlash).

The catalogue of confusing messaging emanating from Downing Street and its ministers
does not stop there – with even some supporters of the government beginning to question
whether No 10 is maintaining enough discipline to give the public a clear message on how
to stay safe.

“I don’t know what’s going on with the comms team but it’s obviously not the slick operation
we’re told they’re supposed to be,” says a former Tory adviser who has worked for Johnson.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...rnments-strategy-fuels-fears-of-rule-breaking

 

There is a letter from a UK alternative sage committee published in the Lancet that I posted on the other thread.

It is worth a read as it prompted the government sage committee to open up a bit!

Thinskin

 

Now that I posted, I'm sure the thread will get a lot of attention, Joe....32 views as of 9:24 AM EST

 

Hmmm I'm up for the challenge...

It's never foggy or rainy in London...
The Scottish ancestors invented kilts, being
a bit confused...
Ireland was never occupied...Winston Churchill
played no significant part during WW2...

The women are very ugly! They don't talk
funny to an American! Most important...They
won the revolutionary war....Now every resident
in the US has a portrait of the Queen!

Most important...Margret Thatcher was a joke to
the world & no woman ever looked up to her
as a role-model!

Is this what ya meant?

 

The only lie that I'm gunna say is that I understand their humor

 

Thanks for that info, @thinskin. Yes, I had read it and was going to
post a version of it.
So here goes:
Part 1


Patrick Vallance (centre) is the UK’s chief scientific adviser



Key scientific data and advice the UK government is using to guide its covid-19
response won’t be published until the pandemic ends. Documents used to make
decisions and the minutes of meetings of the Scientific Advisory Group on
Emergencies (SAGE) will only be made public when the current outbreak is
brought under control, according to Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief
scientific adviser.
The refusal to publish minutes of the advisory group meetings until the pandemic
is over also contradicts the UK government’s own guidance.
The 2011 Code of Practice for Scientific Advisory Committees
says meeting minutes should be published “as soon as possible”
written in an “unattributable form” – meaning there is no need to identify members.
Advisory committees “should operate from a presumption of openness” the code says,
and also publish meeting agendas and final advice.

Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/articl...-published-until-pandemic-ends/#ixzz6LyArqZMR

 

Evidence informing the UK's COVID-19 public health response must be transparent (The Lancet - Letter)
The UK Government asserts that its response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is based on evidence and expert modelling. However, different scientists can reach different conclusions based on the same evidence, and small differences in assumptions can lead to large differences in model predictions.
Our country's response to COVID-19 is demonstrably different from how most other countries are responding globally, including elsewhere in Europe. As the government has stressed, it is imperative to delay and flatten the epidemic curve to ensure the National Health Service can cope.
1
This is particularly essential for the UK, which only has
# 2·5 hospital beds per 1000 population,
fewer than in
#Italy (3·2 per 1000),
# France (6·0), and
#Germany (8·0).

Initial data from Italy have shown that 9–11% of actively infected patients with COVID-19 required intensive care during the first 10 days of March, 2020.

It is not clear how the UK's unique response is informed by the experiences of other countries, particularly those that have achieved relative control over the virus as a result of widespread testing, contact tracing, and state-imposed social distancing measures, such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea.

The WHO-China Joint Mission on Coronavirus Disease shows very clearly that only immediate and decisive public health responses worked to prevent or delay hundreds of thousands of cases in China, and WHO has advised that it is vital to tackle the virus at the early stages with social distancing.
We welcome the UK Government's announcement that the modelling and data considered by its Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies will be published in the future.
1
However, we request that the government urgently and openly shares the scientific evidence, data, and models it is using to inform current decision making related to COVID-19 public health interventions within the next 72 h and then at regular intervals thereafter.

Time is a luxury we simply do not have as we face this critical public health crisis. As we have already seen in other countries, a matter of a few days can prove critical in terms of saving lives and avoiding health system collapse.
As the UK was not the first country to face a COVID-19 outbreak, knowledge of the disease and evidence pertaining to effective public health interventions is increasingly available. However, this is only advantageous if we incorporate the best available evidence from observations elsewhere and use the time this affords us to refine a comprehensive response based on input and scrutiny from a broad base of scientific experts.
With the UK increasingly becoming an outlier globally in terms of its minimal social distancing population-level interventions, transparency is key to retaining the understanding, cooperation and trust of the scientific and healthcare communities as well as the general public, ultimately leading to a reduction of morbidity and mortality.
We declare no competing interests.

• Nisreen A Alwan
• Raj Bhopal
• Rochelle A Burgess
• Tim Colburn
• Luis E Cuevas
• George Davey Smith
• Matthias Egger
• Sandra Eldridge
• Valentina Gallo
• Mark S Gilthorpe
• Trish Greenhalgh
• Christopher Griffiths
• Paul R Hunter
• Shabbar Jaffar
• Ruth Jepson
• Nicola Low
• Adrian Martineau
• David McCoy
• Miriam Orcutt
• Bharat Pankhania
• Hynek Pikhart
• Allyson Pollock
• Gabriel Scally
• James Smith
• Devi Sridhar
• Stephanie Taylor
• Peter W G Tennant
• Yrene Themistocleous
• Anne Wilson
• on behalf of 36 signatories

 

From the New Statesman



Prime minister Boris Johnson during Prime Minister’s Questions in
the House of Commons, London on 6 May.

UK coronavirus official death toll passes 30,000 – the second highest in the world
The UK now has the highest recorded death toll from covid-19 in Europe and the
second highest in the world, according to the latest data.

Total deaths in the UK have reached 30,076,
compared to
29,684 in Italy,
previously the highest in Europe.

The number of deaths in care homes in the UK continue to rise, and today prime minister
Boris Johnson said he “bitterly regrets” the situation there. He said a “huge effort” had
been made to provide more personal protective equipment and he set a new target of
200,000 daily coronavirus tests by the end of May.

 

Everyone's moving to Canada to be with Harry and Meghan.

 

Allow me to show you all the fucks I give about the UK....

 

As I said ace I go off the evidence of your own words!

Thinskin

 

Rather you wish I sit here and belittle the UK every chance I get?...Thinkin' I got better things to do.

 

Really ?
You could have fooled me ..

 

London bridge is falling down, falling down

 

More criticism of Boris and his cohorts lead by Sturgeon over the new "stay alert" slogan............when ever Matt Hancock is on the TV he just looks out of his depth!

Nicola Sturgeon leads criticism of UK's new 'stay alert' coronavirus lockdown advice
Labour says government’s latest messaging risks making people think lockdown is over

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...ks-new-stay-alert-coronavirus-lockdown-advice

Thinskin