Covid-19 Politics

[Stavros]

Glad you're alive and in stalwart sprits...Otherwise that would have made my last post seem a tad insensitive!

No need to worry, it is just a form of flu now with a sore throat, the prior histories of vaccination have diminished the impact of Covid. In any event, be sure to get a postcard from the other side!

[broncofan]

No need to worry, it is just a form of flu now with a sore throat, the prior histories of vaccination have diminished the impact of Covid. In any event, be sure to get a postcard from the other side!

My brother kept getting out of bed and doing work every time he felt a bit better (this only prolonged it a few days but still...)

Take it easy. I'd tell you to watch some films but we know you can get worked up about subpar cinema!!!!

[broncofan]

Anyhow, feel better!

[Ben]

Biden Declared the Pandemic Over. I Immediately Got COVID: https://www.currentaffairs.org/2022/...tely-got-covid

[Stavros]

My brother kept getting out of bed and doing work every time he felt a bit better (this only prolonged it a few days but still...)

Take it easy. I'd tell you to watch some films but we know you can get worked up about subpar cinema!!!!

Thanks for your concern, it is boring but necessary. Have you heard of Paxlovid? I believe Biden was given it when he was Covid Positive, but I am not eligible owing to pre-existing conditions.

[blackchubby38]

U.S. to end COVID-19 emergency declarations on May 11


http://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-e...11-2023-01-30/

[Stavros]

I find this an unsatisfactory claim, not least because for 'security reasons' the FBI Director cannot or will not say why he has reached what is, in any case, not a conclusion, but an official speculation-

"The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident,".
FBI chief Christopher Wray says China lab leak most likely - BBC News

I regret to say I think this is all politics, and may have more to do with the shaky relations between China and the US with regard to Taiwan. and China's support for Putin's unwinnable war in Ukraine.

It appears to dismiss the origins as a tragic transfer from animals to human, though historically this has been a key conduit in epidemics, and even though it remains for many perhaps the majority of scientists the 'most likely' explanation. I think it is a sad day if politics is once again trumping science, though it doesn't surprise me.

Thus the drip-drip revelations in the Telegraph in the UK of what was going on with Matt Hancock when he was Secretary of State for Health and Boris Johnson Prime Minister, only aggravates the feeling these people even after scientific advice were more concerned with the politics - as Johnson has often been quoted: 'let the bodies pile high' being a brutal way of doing nothing.

The mere fact that Hancock handed so much of his WhatsApp messages to Isabel Oakeshott would in itself be an epic moment of jaw-dropping stupidity, were Hancock as we now know, not an epic, jaw-dropping failure as a politician. Oakeshott -yes, a scion of that famous Tory family (eg Michael Oakeshott, Conservative philosopher) -is a partner of Richard Tice, who leads the Reform Party, that replaced the Brexit Party that was once led by UKIP Supremo Nigel Farage. In other words, 100% hostile to....Matt Hancock's party.

Now Hancock complains the quotes in the Telegraph are being made out of context. When a dickhead meets a treacherous journalist, what is the outcome, even as the official enquiry continues at its (deliberately?) glacial pace?
What do Matt Hancock’s WhatsApp messages show? Not what the Telegraph wants us to see | Devi Sridhar | The Guardian

For once I would like someone to stand up for the relatives of those who died and those who survived, not just in the UK but elsewhere too. Did Jared Kushner deliberately withhold PPE from the State of New York on the basis that the more who died there the worse it would be for the Democrats running the State? If that is true, why hasn't he been arrested and charged with a most serious crime, like Accessory to Murder- ?

Because it is not true that as Wray has claimed that the 'lab leak' led to so many deaths worldwide -advanced countries like the UK and the US had the political authority and the scientific means to halt the pandemic in its tracks -not only did they not do so, but the decisions in the US on wearing -or not wearing masks in public, and the hostility to vaccinations means they too must join Kushner in the Dock, notably that idiot in Florida.

Are we on the cusp of a reckoning, or a massive swerve by those in power to stop it?

[Stavros]

Matt Hancock and Betrayal...is he the most stupid politician in Britain?

Matt Hancock responds to leak of lockdown WhatsApp messages (yahoo.com)

[blackchubby38]

[QUOTE=Stavros;2067245]I find this an unsatisfactory claim, not least because for 'security reasons' the FBI Director cannot or will not say why he has reached what is, in any case, not a conclusion, but an official speculation-

"The FBI has for quite some time now assessed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident,".
FBI chief Christopher Wray says China lab leak most likely - BBC News

I regret to say I think this is all politics, and may have more to do with the shaky relations between China and the US with regard to Taiwan. and China's support for Putin's unwinnable war in Ukraine.

It appears to dismiss the origins as a tragic transfer from animals to human, though historically this has been a key conduit in epidemics, and even though it remains for many perhaps the majority of scientists the 'most likely' explanation. I think it is a sad day if politics is once again trumping science, though it doesn't surprise me.

/QUOTE]

Or maybe its not political. Maybe the lab leak theory is a viable one and should be treated as such. If anything to prevent another lab leak from happening again. As is explained in this video.



I also think the lab leak theory doesn't dismiss the animal to human transfer one either. When the pandemic first started, I was neutral on the origins of Covid-19. I believed either theory was possible. But as time has passed, I'm leaning more towards to the lab leak one. As I stated in post that I made on 05/26/2021:

"I think it coming from a lab is a credible theory. But I don't think it was something that China developed as a weapon or if they did something they released intentionally. Because if they did, I think that is a legit reason for a declaration of war or some sort of military action. Not only by the United States, but some other countries as well. I do think that once it was leaked, China wasn't as forthcoming about it as they should have been.

I think if it was leaked from a lab, it was something that happened purely by accident. Either due to negligence or someone making a very costly mistake."

That doesn't mean I don't believe in the animal to human transfer theory. I'm still going to keep an open mind about that. Every viable theory should be on the table and should be discussed without fear of backlash. Like Jon Stewart said last week:

Jon Stewart recalls outrage after he backed COVID-19 lab leak theory: ‘F–k you, I’m done’

http://nypost.com/2023/02/28/jon-ste...k-you-im-done/


Also IF (I can't stress those two words enough) this turns out to be true, it gives people another reason to not trust cable news networks:

CNN ex-boss Jeff Zucker told staff not to probe ‘lab leak’ theory because it was ‘Trump talking point

http://nypost.com/2023/03/06/cnn-ex-...b-leak-theory/

[Stavros]

I can't disagree with you Blackchubby, I don't think we will ever have a definitive explanation, because the Chinese will not allow it.

At the moment, the focus is on Covid Management, and I think that will or should be more fruitful if it informs Govt strategy going forward. What will happen when the next pandemic occurs?

"The Lockdown Files" in the Telegraph are thus a rearguard action that is designed by people with names like Barclay, Koch and Murdoch whose mission in life is to discredit Govt and thus to discredit the actions the UK Govt took when the pandemic began.

Of course in a panic, Govt is going to make mistakes, and the UK was as cursed with incompetent fools like Johnson and Hancock, as the US was by Trump and Kushner. In the latter case, so venal is Trump, so soaked in crime and lies, nobody outside his fanbase even wants to believe what he said or says, and that is the casualty of the war on truth that is now becoming, via Ron De Santis, a war on reality which is what his vengeance on Critical Race Theory -which he doesn't understand- has become, together with the full frontal assault on Free Speech, Trans and Women's Rights. A lot in the US depends on whether or not the Republicans can mount a serious challenge to Biden, who appears set for the 2024 nomination, because they no longer believe in the Union of 50 States.

Thus, via the Telegraph for all its sins, what do you think now, of the Lockdown Strategies that were imposed on citizens, and the 'Mask Mandates'? The Telegraph wants to depict these as mistakes in terms of health policy, finance and politics, but has not in my view offered any alternative to the initial response of Boris Johnson: do nothing, set the virus free, and 'let the bodies pile high'.

The official Covid review is still in progress in the UK, nobody knows when its report will be published. I don't know if there is one in the US, but I think the arguments, pre-vaccination will focus on Masks, PPE, and Lockdowns, and then the vaccine roll-out and which States have a better record than others - this list suggests Republican run States did not do as well as Democrat States, but that judgment is based on stats.
The Best and Worst States to Work in America – during COVID-19 (oxfamamerica.org)

On the Politics Trump got it wrong, but did De Santis also get it wrong?

More to the point, how does one combat an airborne virus? With Masks for sure, with social distancing, with vaccines. But as the Telegraph has shown, time and again, politicians were told by the scientists they employed what to do, and then did something different. Hancock was convinced his stewardship at Health was the start of even better things, which seems to have occupied his mind more than the fate of the people.

Covid exposed bad management, but have we learned from the experience, and will citizens trust the Govt the next time an epidemic or a pandemic threatens public health?