The final chapter in the Journal of the Plague Year 2020-2023? Perhaps.

Posted on 05/04/2023 by Michael

The final chapter in the Journal of the Plague Year 2020-2023? Perhaps.

The expected/predicted/feared increase in covid-19 infections and deaths didn’t happen (at least in the UK) at the end of 2022 start of 2023. Or if it did then the news was kept quiet. What might have happened in the rest of the world is of no real import (especially in the now called ‘Global South’) as for the majority in the more wealthy countries those people are no more than a source of raw materials but otherwise a nuisance.

If in the UK the State didn’t have to deal with another outbreak this last winter that didn’t mean the time was spent usefully. Everyone involved in ‘managing’ the pandemic from the beginning of 2020 has been spending their time covering their backs and pushing the blame on to others – it doesn’t matter who.

The Buffoon blustered his way through yet another unconvincing litany of lies and obfuscations in an attempt to regain the premiership but, by all accounts, even the idiots who have supported his antics in the past weren’t inspired and, with luck, we have seen the end of him at the ‘top’ of British politics. However, nothing can be guaranteed. The British electorate, on more than one occasion, has shown itself more than capable of acting totally illogically and against its own interests.

If the present pandemic is no longer ‘with us’ (although it seems to have become universally accepted that we will ‘have to learn with it’) what hasn’t changed is any preparedness for the next one. There was not a scintilla of strategy in the dealing with the virus in the last three years and there’s little chance that the next one (not if but when) will be treated any differently.

If the State ‘s not doing anything it is hoped that the numerous posts that have appeared in this ‘Journal of the Plague Years 2020-2023’ (finally, definitively, named) can be used as a reference when the next one hits. Although any official ‘enquiry’ will go into thousands of pages and will cost a small fortune there is little doubt it will reach any truly useful conclusions.

If, as Karl Marx said; ‘History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce’ what’s the sequence when the first appearance was a farce?

In this last post in the Journal the references are more for interest than anything else. Some of the articles will have become outdated soon after they were published – and long before appearing on this page – but they indicate the type of thinking at the time. They are included for the potential historical worth they might provide.

Volume Two of the Journal will start to appear once the next pandemic hits. Until then this is the end.

[N.B.] Many of the links below are to articles published by The Conversation. Although I have been referencing that site and its articles since the earliest days of the pandemic I have started to question some of its assertions. This comes not from doubts I might have had about what they have published in reference to the pandemic (although I might have to add a caveat to anything I’ve pointed you to in the past, on reflection) but the almost slavish acceptance it has shown to anything coming out of the Ukrainian Propaganda Unit in Kiev. Many of The Conversation’s ‘contribution’ to the debate about the conflict has often lacked any relationship to reality (as far as I’m concerned). Now, whether they have the same approach to the pandemic I’m not sure. As always, in all these circumstances, it is necessary to follow the money. ‘He who pays the piper calls the tune’.

Pandemic UK 2020-21

The journalist-run, intelligence-linked operation that warped British pandemic policy.

Genetics might explain why some people have never had covid – but we shouldn’t be too focused on finding out.

Pandemic UK 2022-23

Our third covid Christmas – here’s how things might play out.

Covid in 2023 and beyond – why virus trends are more difficult to predict three years on.

Covid pandemic: three years on and nobody wants to talk about it – here’s why we should.

Three years on, the covid pandemic may never end – but the public health impact is becoming more manageable.

Does covid really damage your immune system and make you more vulnerable to infections? The evidence is lacking.

The Pandemic in the rest of the world

Biden ‘vax-only’ strategy of mass infection lies in ruins, destroyed by vaccine escape, immune dysregulation.

Working women helped prevent greater pandemic disaster.

What effect will lunar new year have on covid spread in China? Our modelling shows most people have already been infected.

Vaccines

Covid: unvaccinated people may be seen as ‘free riders’ and face discrimination.

Bivalent covid vaccines have now been in use for a few months – here’s how they’re stacking up against omicron

400% price hike of covid vaccine (at least in the USA, it will almost certainly be the same in the UK and the EU) – Moderna’s expected 400% hike for its covid vaccine sparked outrage on Capitol Hill.

I bonded with covid vaccine sceptics over saunas and Mother Earth rituals – this is what they taught me.

Antibiotics are being inappropriately prescribed for covid, increasing the threat of antimicrobial resistance.

Why the UK needs to rethink its decision to stop boosters for young and healthy people.

Raises for Moderna, Pfizer CEOs highlight continuing trend.

Immunity?

Could the common cold give children immunity against covid?

Origin of the virus

What to make of new findings linking the virus to raccoon dogs.

Covid, bird flu, mpox – a virologist on why we’re seeing so many viruses emerge.

Vaccine mandates

The ethics of covid-19 vaccine mandates: where do we stand and where should we go regarding social and biomedical responses to pandemic?

Infection survey

The ONS has published its final covid infection survey – here’s why it’s been such a valuable resource.

Variants

Where is the next covid variant, pi? A virologist explains why omicron is continuing to dominate.

The ‘kraken’ covid variant XBB.1.5 is rising quickly in the US – here’s what it could mean for the UK.

‘Collateral’ damage

How covid can disturb your sleep and dreams – and what could help.

Children lost one-third of a year’s learning to covid, new study shows – but we need to think about the problem differently.

How covid lockdowns triggered changes in peregrine falcon diets – and what this means for urban pest control.

Covid drugs

Covid drugs: the UK’s treatment and prevention options and how vulnerable people are being forgotten.

Poverty in Britain

Going under and without: Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s cost of living tracker, winter 2022/23, full report.

Tory MPs’ rent expenses soar as they inflict real-terms housing benefit cut.

How Boris Johnson raked in £5m in 6 months after leaving office.

Long covid

Long covid stemmed from mild cases of covid-19 in most people.

Here’s what it’s like trying to access healthcare for the condition.

Supporting a child with long covid – tips from parents of children living with the condition.

A range of diets are said to help manage symptoms – here’s what the evidence tells us.

Long covid: what we know about how the condition affects mental health.

Long covid linked to air pollution exposure in young adults.

The BBC helps to move the second hand closer to midnight

Posted on 10/02/2023 by Michael

Earlier anti-Russian propaganda

View of the world – up to end of 2022

View of the world – 2023

Ukraine – what you were’nt told – 2022

Ukraine – what you’re not told – 2023

The BBC helps to mover the second hand closer to midnight

We all know that the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) is impartial. Why is that? Because the BBC is always telling us that’s the case.

In Britain the BBC is constantly involved in a ‘debate’ with the two main political parties of whether it takes a ‘right-wing’ or a ‘left-wing’ stance – but that’s just smoke and mirrors. There’s little (or no) significant difference between the the British Labour and Conservative parties when it comes to domestic issues and they are totally indistinguishable when it comes to foreign matters – especially when British ‘interests’ worldwide are involved.

Unfortunately many within the British labour movement have yet to understand this. Domestic policies of the Tory (Conservative) Party which would have brought workers on to the streets in their tens of thousands in the 1970s are to the left of the policies of the present day Labour Party. And yet activists will continue to support the Labour Party in elections and expect others on the ‘left’ to do likewise.

But that’s going off the main point.

The BBC, when it comes to Britain’s imperialist ambitions/aspirations/pretensions is always fully on board and vomits out the racist, jingoistic and xenophobic rhetoric on the orders of its imperialist masters.

In recent years the BBC will ‘fact check’ certain claims – as if it is the world’s arbiter of truth. But if we go back into the past, to the likes of the Malvinas War of 1982 and the so-called ‘First Gulf War’ of 1991, we see that British Government reports are taken at face value and its only years later that the actual truth comes out.

Although the term ‘fact check’ wasn’t in vogue then the concept, when it comes to the BBC, supposedly was. However, when claims were made by US government officials at the UN that there there were ‘weapons of mass destruction’ in Iraq and when Tony Blair stated that Iraq could send those weapons over to Britain ‘within 45 minutes’ there was no ‘fact checking’ by the BBC then. No, they just trotted out whatever was written for them by the warmongers in the Ministry of Defence.

With that background it’s no surprise that the BBC, since 24th February 2022, has been publishing whatever spews out of the mouths of Ukrainian government representatives without any pretence of checking what is claimed is correct or not. Added to that the BBC is very adept at the use of words and/or English grammar. Take, for example, the different approach to the reporting of two similar incidents of Ukrainian and Russian claims on the numbers of deaths following missile strikes around 9th January this year.

There are other examples of supposed BBC ‘impartiality’ throughout 2022 and a few (of many more) examples can be seen here.

Bringing matters up to date; on 8th February 2023 the Ukrainian President Zelensky arrived in the UK begging for a greater escalation of the conflict in the Ukraine (by asking for NATO aircraft) and pushing the Doomsday Clock a few seconds closer to midnight.

Coincidently[?] there was a flurry of reports on the BBC website that day with even more negative comments on Russia. The BBC (as the rest of media in general in the UK), for just under a year, has been pushing Russophobia but on 8th February they went on overdrive.

Articles on the BBC website 8th February 2023

Notorious Russian nationalist Igor Mangushev shot dead in Ukraine.

This is quite a bizarre article in the way it reports what is, in effect, an assassination. But instead of coming to the conclusion that if someone was fighting against the Ukrainians the main ‘suspect’ of the killing would be a Ukrainian the BBC decides that it must be infighting amongst the Russians – without giving a shred of evidence.

Also, near the beginning it makes reference that Mangushev ’emerged from a neo-Nazi movement’ (again with no more details) but since 24^th February 2022 any mention that groups (such as the Azov and Krakon Battalions) in the Ukraine are Nazis is never mentioned. Although the members of such groups wear Nazi inspired insignia, have Nazi -inspired Tattoos, follow a Banderista ideology and have been filmed in the past marching through the streets of Kiev with Nazi banners this is all forgotten now. They have some how ‘reformed’.

Borrowed time for Bakhmut as Russians close in.

For months the fighting in Bahkmut (and before that Soledar) where the British media have been claiming the Ukrainians are winning and the Russians are losing thousands of dead in wild frontal assaults when the Ukrainian President comes begging for more western weaponry the BBC, all of a sudden, sends a correspondent to the area (after months when very few, if no, western mainstream media reporters were anywhere near the front line) and reports that the Ukrainians are struggling.

Just what Zelensky wants. The impartial BBC to back up his arguments for modern jet fighters.

MH17: Putin probably supplied missile that downed plane – investigators

This plane was shot down in July 2014. Why does this report, or so-called investigation, appear on the 8^th February 2023?

Here we have an example where the BBC’s use of words implies one thing although the rest of the article has no evidence to substantiate it. It depends on the reader making an assumption based on their own prejudices and the information (or mis-information) that has been fed to them by the ‘oh so holy than thou’ BBC.

A few paragraphs in it is stated that there is no evidence that Putin had any hand in ordering the plane be shot down but that is not the implication from the headline – and we must remember that most people these days will read the headline and then skim read the article, if that.

There is supposed to be ‘evidence’ that Putin had a hand in this event – but no reference to where such evidence can be read, no link to the report.

What we have is innuendo, quotes from ‘impartial’ Ukrainian Prosecutor and quotes from relatives of those who dies – who are obviously emotional and (I would suggest) being manipulated by all the anti-Russian elements in the EU who have now come out of the woodwork in the last eleven months. (we must remember that both Merkel and Hollande have admitted that they were not acting in good faith when it came to the Minsk Accord in 2015. They signed just to give more time for the west to provide Ukraine with armaments and time for the Ukraine to prepare its defences – hence the long drawn out battles in places such as Soledar and Bahkmut.)

SNP MP Stewart McDonald’s emails hacked by Russian group.

Another strange one, this.

I know nothing of hacking but if I were to get in such a practice I would make sure that I would hide my identity. If these hackers are so clever that they can get through sophisticated firewalls and the like why can’t they hide their location? Or are they clever when it comes to computers but stupid generally and always sign off with ‘da svidania’?

When there’s an an attack on computer system in the west then it is always either the Russian, the North Koreans or the Iranians – all depending who is the bogeyman at the time.

But obviously the ‘west’ doesn’t indulge in such techniques. So why does Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), which is the size of a small town, exist?

On the following day those ‘big’ stories dropped out of sight on the BBC website. But that’s OK. Once the BBC had done its job reporting on the conflict in Ukraine went back to normal, i.e., ignoring anything that might interfere in the western narrative.

(For a discussion with Noam Chomsky about propaganda in the Ukraine war go here.)

View of the world – up to end of 2022

View of the world – 2023

Ukraine – what you were’nt told – 2022

Ukraine – what you’re not told – 2023

Is the pandemic going to plague us for a third year?

Posted on 07/12/2022 by Michael

Is the pandemic going to plague us for a third year?

Considering the covid pandemic dominated so many peoples’ lives for so long things, at least in the UK, have been very quiet in the last few months. Occasionally there will be a report by some ‘expert’ reminding people that covid is still around but there is definitely the general idea that ‘we are over the worse’. Whether or not that is the case time will tell. And if the clock is ticking the sound will get noisier from now on as winter definitely takes grip in the northern hemisphere and all the elements that the virus likes will come into play.

If there is any real mention of covid at the moment it is in relation to how the Chinese government has dealt with the matter. It’s ‘zero-covid’ policy is being used, by the western governments and its slavish media, as a stick to beat the Chinese authorities. As with the war in the Ukraine it’s regime change that the west is more concerned about and western governments rub their hands with glee in the hope that opposition to the strict lock down policy in China will rock the government and its leadership there.

Although considering the policy adopted in China has now been going on for too long and lacks an imaginative approach to the future (to a virus that has not gone away) it’s important to remind people what that policy has achieved. A little more than 5,000 people have died of covid in China – out of a population of 1,500,000. Many more than 100,000 have died in the UK – out of a population of 60 million. And it is estimated that in the region of a million people have died in the USA – out of a population of 300 million. These high levels of fatalities are similar in many countries in the so-called ‘developed world’. If the numbers speak then they are saying that the Chinese policy has been more concerned about the lives of its population that all the countries of the ‘west’.

Ever since I started the ‘Journal of the Plague Years 2020-20??’ the aim was to provide a record of how the challenge of dealing with the pandemic was being met throughout the world. When I started in early 2020 I, like most people, I’m sure, didn’t think it would go on for so long. That assumption was based upon ignorance. But even when we all had the ability to understand this virus more fully it still seems it has been around longer than it really should have been.

The flu pandemic that swept through the world in 1918-19 (mis-named Spanish Flu) was able to do its worst not least because a world war had made any attempts to deal with it that much more difficult (in the industrial countries) and the poverty that existed in so many countries as a consequence of colonialism had made what we now call the ‘Global South’ unable to cope with such a biological tsunami.

Surely, a hundred years later the sophisticated and technologically driven capitalist system would be able to cope with a simple virus much more effectively? But that wasn’t going to happen as it was a capitalist system which was in control. What we do know what happened is that huge amounts of money was put into the pockets of gangsters, thieves and fraudsters – only the exact quantity is unknown. And at the start of the third year of the pandemic most countries still haven’t come up with a workable strategy.

In the UK those aspects of life that were identified as being crucial in the spread of the virus, as well as the incidents of death, are still with us – probably even more so as we approach 2023 as we did at the beginning of 2020.

ALL diseases and pandemics will always effect the poor and the vulnerable the most. The levels of poverty in Britain were, in many ways, hidden prior to March 2020 but as the pandemic swept through the population it became obvious who were most at risk. (Many of the posts published here attempted to point out that situation in one of the richest countries in the world.) In the last two years that situation has only gotten worse for all the reasons that everyone should be aware. On top of that the NHS in Britain is probably less well equipped to deal with another major outbreak if it should occur in the next few months – that is despite the expensive vaccination programme (although not for the vast majority of the people in the ‘Global South’) and the vastly increased knowledge about how the virus functions.

In this present post I publish a number of articles I have come across over the quiet interregnum of the last few months. The aim of these posts was never to be an up-to-date story of the pandemic, more a place to find a record of what was said, what was done and the mistakes and failings that were made by those we have foolishly allowed to rule us.

Time and events might have made some of these links a little antiquated or irrelevant but are included here for the above reason.

The future frequency of these posts will depend upon how well the virus has been able to circumvent the aimless and uncoordinated antics of the world’s governments.

Vaccines

Better covid vaccines are on the way. What do they do? And what technology might we see in future?

Five reasons why young people should get a covid booster vaccine – keep on vaccinating the rich whilst ignoring the rest of the world.

An annual booster like the flu shot could be the way forward – and the rest of the world has still yet to be fully vaccinated ONCE.

What next-gen covid-19 vaccines might look like.

Inhalable and nasal vaccines could offer more durable protection than regular shots.

We measured vaccine confidence pre-pandemic and in 2022 – it’s declined considerably.

Should people under 50 in the UK be offered a fourth dose?

Vaccine policy worldwide

Pfizer REFUSES to share vaccines with other researchers.

EU hypocrisy hits dizzying new heights as Commission’s scandal-tarnished President pledges to wage global fight on corruption.

The origins of the pandemic

US biotech cartel behind covid origins and cover-up.

Coronavirus origins: the debate flares up, but the evidence remains weak.

Testing

Covid-19 rapid tests can breed confusion – here’s how to make sense of the results and what to do, according to 3 testing experts.

Unintended consequences of covid and/or the vaccines

Covid or covid vaccination can cause dermal fillers to swell up

The economic impact of covid in the UK depended on where you live.

The pandemic worldwide

The covid debacle rolls on.

The scientific response to covid-19: what does the biomedical literature say?

Covid pandemic created immunisation gaps in Africa. Over half a million children are at risk.

The WHO has advised against the use of two antibody therapies against covid – here’s what that means.

How Bill Gates and partners used their clout to control the global covid response — with little oversight.

The Lancet Commission on Lessons for the Future from the covid-19 Pandemic: A Critical Review.

Mask wearing – the experience of

Maskstravaganza: mask fit, mask manufacturing, masks on the movie set.

Effects of the ‘first waves’

Has the pandemic changed our personalities? New research suggests we’re less open, agreeable and conscientious.

Covid has taken a greater toll on mental health among people from ethnic minorities – sadly this is no surprise

The risk of seizures and epilepsy is higher after covid than after the flu.

Young people without access to a computer had poorer mental health during the pandemic.

High blood pressure linked to 22% greater risk of severe covid.

Six common covid myths busted by a virologist and a public health expert.

The Pandemic in the UK in 2020-21

How Intensive Care Units (ICUs) in England were stretched to cope with the pandemic.

Austerity led to twice as many excess UK deaths as previously thought – here’s what that means for future cuts.

Covid inquiry: the UK government’s pandemic response was often not ‘guided by the science’ – yet now scientists are under fire.

Parental beliefs, perceived health risks, and time investment in children: evidence from covid-19. Working paper from the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

The Pandemic in the UK in 2022 – 23

Covid cases are rising in England – here’s how things might play out as we move towards winter.

Covid and the cost of living crisis are set to collide this winter – the fallout will be greatest for the most vulnerable.

Covid, flu, RSV – how this triple threat of respiratory viruses could collide this winter.

Variants

Another new covid variant is spreading – here’s what we know about omicron BA.4.6.

XBB and BQ.1: what we know about these two omicron ‘cousins’.

Alert level

UK’s covid alert level downgraded – the move makes sense for now but things can always change.

‘Long’ covid

New cases of severe long covid appear to be dropping – and vaccination is probably key.

Long covid stigma may encourage people to hide the condition.

Overweight women may be at highest risk of long covid.

NHS Waiting lists

Forget the pandemic, ‘NHS decline is to blame’ for record waiting lists.

The Buffoon (now fortunately gone) and the pandemic

Boris Johnson’s pandemic legacy – where he went wrong managing covid (and some things he got right). [But not many ‘right’ – included due to the bizarre attitude in Britain to ‘impartiality’.]

Excess deaths

Summer 2022 saw thousands of excess deaths in England and Wales – here’s why that might be.

We were told to ‘stay home’ to stop covid. Then our homes became disease hotspots.

The next pandemic

5 virus families that could cause the next pandemic, according to the experts.

Poverty in Britain

Thousands of children treated for malnutrition in Scotland.

Universal free school meals would make a huge difference to the cost-of-living crisis.

Health inequalities.