Carbuncle

The spreading of misinformation needs to be addressed. I am not in favour of censorship but gullible conspirasheeple who merely relay misinformation are a menace. Delay is likely to ensure much harsher measures later. I'll reiterate: nothing too drastic, do the relatively easier things first. People should be asked to work from home where possible. Shutdown indoor sports venues and gyms. Tighten up on masking in indoor spaces. Re-emphasise social distancing. And for goodness sake stop making it all about you. You've already demanded others go unmasked because of the difficulties the mere sight of them causes you.

Pretty hypocritical given how little attention you pay to others' posts.

Yes, it is. People can take their exercise in less antisocial ways.

So @West 77 , you know Lockdoctor well, is Def Cougar indeed one his sockpuppets as @Mister M asserts?

I think we need to start taking a tougher line with the faux freedom fighters. Their misplaced petulance is costing us lives and slowing the return to normality.

Okey dokey. I have had enough of being called a pro-suppressionist when I have not advocated any tightening of UK restrictions at any point since I started posting on this thread (other than the very mild measure of quarantine for travelers from southern Africa). I would like more non pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) now or possibly in the very near future if confidence in the enhanced transmissibility of Omicron needs to be firmed up. The best guess seems to be that Omicron's doubling time is 2-4 days. It almost doesn't matter how few cases of Omicron we currently have that kind of doubling time will lead to us being knee deep in Omicron very quickly. Nothing too drastic, do the relatively easier things first. People should be asked to work from home where possible. Shutdown indoor sports venues and gyms. Tighten up on masking in indoor spaces. Re-emphasise social distancing. That kind of thing. My reasoning is that by tightening things up now we may well save on time spent in harsh lockdowns down the road. Oh and just to show I am really not so very pro-suppressionist I think the Government should be re-examining the rules on travelers arriving from abroad with a view to relaxing them. We already know we have Omicron cases in large numbers and we cannot hope to kill its spread with contact tracing so a few more Omis from abroad probably is not going to make much difference. This could be the "wrong thing to do" if Omicron turns out to be really mild but it will not be very wrong. If Omicron is really mild, invocation of NPIs now will crush Delta and save lives while we find out that Omicron really is mild. It will also probably kill any chance of us having a flu season this Winter. Then if we really can be relaxed at the spread of Omicron we'll be starting that phase from a much better position.

Oh, sorry. So back on the other question: do you believe she is laughing about a real party? In actuality, providing us with evidence that there really was a party.

I saw the Newsnight report, if that's what you mean. If it really is some kind of joke that happens to coincide with an untrue story about a No 10 party, I would expect somebody 'in the room' to come forward explaining it in that way. If they do that and provide some additional detail in a straightforward way I would tend to believe their account because the person coming forward knows there is a leaker out there who may well be able to expose lies if they tell them. But ... I am not expecting this to happen because I think the story of the party is almost certainly true.

I think had it not been for real, Stratton would have answered the Twitter question in a serious tone with something like 'I'm sorry I have not seen that and cannot comment at this time' as she would have done in a real press briefing if she really had no knowledge of an emerging story.

Sounds like Boris has been caught lying about the evacuation from Kabul too. That does not sound credible given the footage. Do you have some additional information?

Thanks. The fraud detailed is in regard to marketing rather than clinical trials. You may not see the relevance of the distinction but there are whistleblower allegations against a Pfizer contract researcher relating to work on Pfizer covid vaccine and the FDA and Pfizer have thus far been less than forthcoming.

Nonsense. Language does not work that way. You have used the terms gullible, sheep and sheeple yourself. I have noticed you bleat about name-calling but are not above behaving similarly yourself.

I am trying to give you the benefit of the doubt. You are not helping me.

Thank you ... do you have the full link?

It is horrendous. So many people have turned down a fantastically good vaccine because they do not trust the government and the media. If people felt politicians were more trustworthy we would have had a lot less death. It's not a new problem and Boris is not as awful as Trump but I do think Boris is about as bad as it gets for this country's PMs.

I have other terms like 'gullible conspirasheeple' and conspiraloons available for other occasions.

No, not in the sense of giving a precise definition. In rough terms, I chose to use this as a polite way of referring to the people who are sceptical of the (consensus) science on covid. I don't regard the term sceptic as an insult.

But that is not how the science behind mask wearing works, and yes size is important in this case. You may help reduce the viral load but you will not stop it and that is the weak link. I wasn't making a statement about mask wearing I was making a statement about how viral particles travel. Because viral particles travel in respiratory droplets the relevant size is that of the respiratory droplet.

The size of coronavirus particles is not relevant because they do not fly singly and would not infect you if they did.

I'm commenting on it being used as a tactic not necessarily in this instance, just in general 👍 Is this an example of you being humourous?

Well. Nicotine is a drug, and we all know the story of tobacco companies that sold it as safe. But as usual, you miss the thrust of the discussion. You made an assertion I found interesting. I am disappointed to find you are not able to back it up with examples. Does the paper assert fraud during the clinical trials by Roche?

Viral particles travel in respiratory droplets. It's basic, ... really, really basic. You can't blow/ exhale the individual viral particles off the moist surface of the respiratory tract. Think about how sticky insects find water surfaces and then extrapolate.

In the video, there are nine people helping Ms Stratton prepare for her interaction with the press. Are they civil servants? Are they special advisors?

It's fake news. The Joker made a joke.

Could you give some examples of outright fraud in drug testing by drug companies?