One question I've been asking and I've yet received a definitive answer is thus:

If this new variant is more transmissible than it's cousin, then why are the restrictions nowhere near as severe as in the Spring?

I am obviously mainly referring to England/UK but the question still stands, why are many many more people allowed to be out working, out shopping, out driving, out doing anything than they were in March-June?

Surely if this thing is that deadly then the authorities would want everyone locked down properly like they were back then, yet, I see no different to every day life here, I am a key, frontline worker but apart from pubs, restaurants, some higher education and most retail places, everywhere is still open, many shops, most offices, factories etc.

We're supposed to be in a lockdown yet there's more traffic on the roads and more people out and about than since before Christmas, and people wonder why millions are just not bothering with anything Boris and his buffoons say, or do, as the case may be.
There's enough to be cynical about when even the PM doesn't stick to his own misguided and confusing rules!

Ohio researchers identify 2 new COVID-19 strains with possible US origins

Researchers in Ohio announced on Wednesday that they’ve discovered two new variants of the coronavirus that likely originated in the U.S., one of which has become the dominant strain in the state’s capital within a three-week timeframe in late December into January.
http://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/13/ohio-researchers-say-theyve-identified-two-new-covid-strains-likely-originating-in-the-us.html

The researchers stated that the U.S. mutations appear to make the virus more contagious, but it does not seem like the vaccines will be less effective against them at the moment, according to CNBC. While the one strain appears similar to the U.K. variant, the “Columbus strain” includes three other gene mutations that haven’t been seen together in SARS-CoV-2. “This new Columbus strain has the same genetic backbone as earlier cases we’ve studied, but these three mutations represent a significant evolution,” Dr. Dan Jones, vice chair of the division of molecular pathology at Ohio State and lead author of the study, said in a statement. “We know this shift didn’t come from the U.K. or South African branches of the virus.”
~Adriana Navarro
, AccuWeather staff writer

I have not heard anyone say it's more deadly. Not that the other 'normal' one was all that deadly btw. But this one was said to be more contagious, not more deadly. At least, I haven't heard anyone say that.

Personally, I think we do need more restrictions in England to bring this pandemic under control, it seems the main cause of infections is people socialising in close proximity to one another. France has recently brought in a 6.00pm curfew to reduce socialising, it does not apply to workers or students education, this should be introduced in England in my opinion to help reduce the continuing increase in the number of infections.

The 'World Health Organisation' (WHO) has sent a team of medical forensic experts to Wuhan in China in an attempt to discover the source of the Covid-19 disease, in establishing how it came about may help in reducing the likelyhood of further novel viruses.

Again an article in which a number of ICU nurses speak up to say that the situation in hospitals isn't at all as unusually and dire as government is telling us.
All these nurses have worked ICU for 20+ years and all say that it is normal this time a year that ICU is busy and difficult to get patients placed. This is due to the normal flu EACH YEAR.
They always have to try and fit in patients, often times in Germany.
So that this is happening now is nothing unusual at all.
They all say we are being lied to.
One says she's worked as a nurse in hospital and care homes for 34 yrs now and she never ever will get vaccinated.
They're begging people to NOT get vaccinated because things we're being told and the truth of the hospital situation does not add up.

They say that in a mere few years time the number of ICU beds has been halved while the population has increased.
That's what I've been saying all along: we should not lock people up in their homes and fill them up with some dubious substance. We have to address the source of hospital problems. More ICU beds, equipment and staff!

These nurses say there is no reason whatsoever to get a vaccine because something weird is going on. Things don't add up.

I could post the link but it's a Dutch article. No doubt everyone should be able to find this info, as long as you do not search government-fed sources as these don't know any better OR are forced to tell what government wants.


In the meantime I've also heard from a US young woman in Colorado who wished she could openly speak her mind about this chit. But she said, "If I do that here I'd get lynched!"
I was shocked to hear that. Just goes to show how high pressure on people is. This is not via media or hearsay, but someone I know. So much for freedom of speech...
I'm happy we can at least have and voice our own opinion here.

I have my own thoughts on the current pandemic, but one other thing I've never had answered, and reading Crystal's last post reminds me of it.

Why would governments around the world lie and cover up? what is the purpose and what would they gain from it?

I'm not going to even ask the weird conspiracy theorists who don't think it exists at all, it clearly does exist, but as Crystal's post suggests, is it as bad as what the authorities make out?

So can anyone tell me why governments in the US, UK and Netherlands for example would lie and cover up about the virus?

Headlines (last 4 days) accuweather COVID-19 Tracker
https://www.accuweather.com/en/health-wellness/live-news/covid-19-vaccine-usa-cases-and-daily-news-and-information/878319

Dollar General to encourage employees to get vaccine by promising extra pay

US jobless claims soar to highest levels in months

Lebanon institutes strict new curfew

40 million coronavirus vaccines go unused in the U.S.

New studies suggest pandemic lockdowns had little effect on pollution

Appointments for vaccine booked for months

HSBC threatens to close bank accounts of those refusing to wear facemasks

Biden announces $1.9 trillion economic relief package

Germany hits 2 million cases, plans for ‘mega-lockdown’

Israel to broaden vaccine eligibility

Vaccination rates lagging in southern US

Pfizer to reduce vaccine shipments to Europe

Brazil identifies new variant of coronavirus

Portugal keeps schools open despite new lockdown

Older Americans without internet are struggling to make vaccine appointments

Florida residents rush to book vaccination appointments

When will Americans see the next $1,400 stimulus check?

“The Resident” joins number of medical TV dramas to acknowledge coronavirus pandemic

Britain starting new COVID travel regulations on Monday

American Airlines issues first health passport

Indonesia boosts social media influencers to front of vaccine line alongside healthcare workers

U.K. coronavirus strain could be dominant strain in U.S. by March

Ontario issues stay at home order

Coronavirus variants will worsen the state of the pandemic, CDC says

Moderna CEO says coronavirus will be around ‘forever’

Hospitals struggle with extra vaccine doses going to waste

The Netherlands extend COVID-19 lockdowns by three weeks

Tennessee doesn’t check I.D. for age requirement to get vaccine

Crowds flock to beaches in Rio de Janeiro

‘Winter placemaking’ helping companies survive the cold winter

Some states begin to reopen as others still struggle to manage coronavirus cases

Long-term COVID effects on lungs worse than smoking, surgeon says

Coronavirus found on ice cream

Los Angeles County tops 1 million cases, forced to lift limit on cremations

Case increases in China worry officials ahead of Lunar New Year

US sees drastic drop in flu cases amid coronavirus safety measures

New coronavirus variant popping up across California

Nurses refuse to give COVID-19 vaccines in Kansas

US is weeks away from approving more coronavirus vaccines

WHO chief airs frustrations at vaccine inequalities

here are the latest global coronavirus numbers from Johns Hopkins University:

Confirmed cases: 95,668,817

Fatalities: 2,043,713

Recoveries: 52,774,818

Double, forum is hiccupping.

I don't know the ins and outs of course, and I think only the ones who truly are in power know. And they pull on strings so it's spread out over the world, over here through the EU mostly, but also the WHO.
I've read about the WTO years ago, they're also not clean and in the pockets of the ones in power.
It is all to do with money, power, and if memory serves this entire to-do goes all the way back to Washington himself. Meaning it was already active and in play in those days.
Some idiots apparently want world domination.
Around 2008 I was busy with spreading word with a group of people about the Codex Alimentarius. That is about this stuff, about controlling and manipulating people.
The way to do that is through food and disease.
The people behind that scheme of the Codex (you can find info on this on the net btw) were the ones that created the gas that the Nazis used to kill in the gas chambers.
Big Pharma is part of all this, so was Monsanto with their GM crap, the soy planting scheme and so on. I believe they came forth from these Nazi practices.

Over here they're currently trying to ruin farmers, cattle farmers mostly. Making their work and lives so impossible that pretty soon we won't have farmers left. And I'm not exaggerating. Why, I don't know.
It will mean we won't have good, quality, healthy meat anymore, but cheaply bred crap full of antibiotics and other meds that are forbidden now. Our farmers will have to hold to these high standards when breeding. But the meat they're already planning to import does not meet those criteria...
Which leads back to controlling people with food, illnesses, and with that to Big Pharma, Monsanto-like practices etc.

Apparently some are saying it -including this Covid & vaccine- is all about reducing the number of people on the planet, because they say it's overpopulated.
This, however, has already been proven by science itself to be bull. We can grow plenty of food without GM to feed everyone. The fact not everyone has food goes back to money.
Everything always leads back to money and power.

I think it's pretty safe to say that we shouldn't trust anything that's not rooting in love and care. Which is pretty much everything, especially right now.

Some say that Amazon, Jeff Bezos, is part of this entire scheme too. He's the richest man on the planet, likely to be the first trillionaire in the near future.
But with what Amazon is offering, in more and more countries now, the regular shops are going bankrupt. Especially now with the ongoing lockdown and Covid to-do and people getting used to buying online.
And I didn't want to believe it, but there COULD be truth in it. I'm currently buying a lot of the Dutch Amazon as well. It recently is totally up to speed with the full Amazon assortment and payment option to accommodate the Dutch (we don't usually have credit cards).
It is cheaper than the online Dutch shop that offers the same basically, and that is a huge corporation. I think the largest and richest in The Netherlands. But I suspect that will go under because of Amazon. Now if this huge corporation can't hold itself against Amazon...
So yes, this could all be part of the plan to have one big shop, control, power, money.

It is difficult what to believe, but if you think about this all... it is scary! The ones in power clearly still are very powerful while I thought they were over their prime.

The power could be with the people, but then we'd need a critical mass and unfortunately it looks like the scared non-thinking group is larger.

If you believe this situation in UK hospitals is 'Normal' then watch this video.

Recently the BBC were allowed entry to a hospital in London to see the current situation, be warned, it's very grim viewing.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/health-55724994

The UK now has the highest number of Coronavirus deaths in Europe in this Pandemic.

According to the UK Office of National Statistics, more people have now died here in this Pandemic from Covid-19 than those killed in 1940/1 in the worst years of the Blitz and the fighting during World War 2, we were not prepared for that either, these are events that you cannot really prepare for in my opinion. We have not experienced these levels of excess deaths since the war.

Not every person who has died during this pandemic has "died of covid" the figures are for every death where a positive test was recorded within 28 days, that means someone could have had a positive test, fully recovered from covid/coronavirus and then died of a heart problem, cancer, tumour etc.

It's why I don't particularly like the figures given out, it has a 98-99% recovery rate, I'd rather focus on that positive aspect rather than a negative death toll that's used to justify the governments actions.

And let's be honest, the BBC are mainstream media, who are happy to only show one aspect to fit an agenda.

Interesting stuff, although I don't go with the notion that the governments around the world are somehow in cohorts by using this virus as a way of controlling its people.

I do believe, however, that certain aspects of it are being manipulated, although I'm not sure what for exactly, I don't believe lockdowns or some of the restrictions are good or that they have done much good, for the economy, mental well being and general morale of the people, surely, that's too much of a danger for the governments to instil some kind of blanket wide plot on it's people.

I don't know what for either.
It is interesting what my daughter said the other day: Everyone that gets the vaccine now are the ones we need to help us: nursing & medical people, police, teachers etc.
Now that could mean nothing, but again, who can tell? Certainly not common people as we aren't given the correct info. That much I do know.



OT - In the meantime we have a curfew now, officially from Saturday onwards. No more going outdoors after 8. WTF for I don't know. It's not like people are running around by the hundreds at night to visit others. Yet they do want to limit us from visiting people as they say that's why numbers don't go down.

Then they make it even worse... we are allowed to receive ONE visitor only. WTF?
This is beginning to feel like a WW2 concentration camp.
I was going to my stepmother with my kids the 28th. Now we can cancel that trip.

I just watched the funeral of my aunt via live stream. It was beautiful but also rather shocking to see that even in church they have to wear face masks. And not that it'd be crowded as that's not allowed.
Priest doesn't wear one, altar man doesn't either.
And when my nieces do their eulogy behind a stand and mic they take it off too otherwise you can't hear them properly.
Then why do they have to wear them in the pews?

All this is going way way way too far.

You have to produce statistics in some way, my understanding is that to be included in the Covid-19 death figures, Covid-19 must be specified as a cause of death on the 'Death Certificate', OR they have tested Positive witin 28 days of a test which implys Covid-19 as a cause of death.

For complete information on the hows and whys the statistics are prepared see

http://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/covid-19-daily-deaths/

"These figures do not include deaths outside hospital, such as those in care homes. This approach makes it possible to compile deaths data on a daily basis using up to date figures."

I cannot agree with you on the BBC reporting, I have found them to be one of the most reliable and unbiasedsources of news media reporting on both the Internet and TV. The BBC is not owned by one of the media moguls, and receives most, if not all of its financing from the licence fees we all have to pay here in the UK. They are not operated by the government and are a completely independent organisation, and completely free of advertisements, recognised throughout the world for their standards in reporting reliable and accurate news reports, in my opinion.

When we first got in touch with our UK friends, we found out that they knew nothing about what was going on in the rest of the world and/or the mainland. And these are people who do follow the news.
You have no idea how much ALL media is influenced and censured. That includes the BBC.

It happens in all countries, including the UK, and also the US.

Interesting thing... Unicef posts on FB that they're working on vaccinating ppl in Africa.
The reactions to that news are quite amazing. Apart from the arrogant stuff Americans come up, which I find disgusting, it becomes clear that US cannot get hold of the vaccine?
Now isn't that weird?
They ARE giving it to Africans but apparently not to (parts of) America.

Some American reactions:
"What in the HELL are they doing that for? These people can and DO GET the therapeutics that our US Senior CANNOT GET! "
.....

"They can't get them to Bell County, Texas, and I'm pretty sure we're higher on their priority list."

The thing is, Africans aren't as prone to getting it as white and Asian people due to a genetic thingie. So why put in all the effort to get Africans vaccinated? While the US can't get hold of it? Why not send it there as the US is allegedly the worst of?

The BBC are still mainstream media, who want to keep in with politicians and the likes, they aren't going to send a camera crew into a normal functioning hospital and show the world what it's really like, if that's what it's really like, of course they're going to run with the common theme.

What I'm trying to say is, that the number of deaths is for any person, regardless of any other condition who have died within 28 days of a positive test, that's not the amount of people who have suddenly contracted covid and died due to it, it's every death, although covid could be on the death certificate, so could any number of conditions, if someone had the flu but died due to cancer, we don't say it's the flu that killed them, but yet we include covid for these statistics, why?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_the_press

Freedom of the press applies in the UK in addition there are 'Sunshine Laws' regarding the freedom of information. I do not believe the UK government controls our press/media in any way, outside of possible national security issues where legal procedures would be required to suppress information..

"Many governments are also subject to "sunshine laws" or freedom of information legislation that are used to define the ambit of national interest and enable citizens to request access to government-held information."

There has to be a reason why we suddenly have very high numbers of excess deaths in the UK population, the highest numbers for nearly 80 years according to our Office of National Statistics. (ONS). What has recently been introduced in to the UK population which has caused this extra ordinary increase in the number of deaths? It is Covid-19. We have not had a sudden massive increase in victims dying from other diseases, if there were, investigations in to the causes would be underway.

Yes, older people do die as a result of more than one illness, and more than one cause of death does appear on the death certificate, but this does NOT change the fact that there has been a very significant increase in the number of excess deaths in the UK population. In my opinion caused by Covid-19, as a direct cause of death or contributing to the cause of death, all as reported in the press releases.

If it isn't Covid-19 killing all these people, in far greater numbers than in past decades, what is it? Doctor's do not put Covid-19 on a death certificate without cause.

Statistics tell us how many people sadly die each year in total, this past year has seen far higher numbers of people dying than ever before in one year, there has to be a cause.

The doctors HAVE to put covid on the death certificate IF THEY DIED WITHIN 28 DAYS OF A POSITIVE TEST.

That isn't the same as someone dying of covid, that isn't covid killing them, that means they could have died from a long term or a terminal illness, but unfortunately had a positive covid test, they could have had no symptoms or may not even have been poorly with the coronavirus/covid.

I'm not saying covid doesn't exist or isn't a danger, I'm saying, the death figures aren't 100% deaths due to contracting covid as is being made out.

If I was to be diagnosed with and die from a serious heart failure or brain tumour, but had a positive covid test 3 weeks ago, does that mean covid killed me or does it mean the heart failure or tumour killed me?

It's all a bit ambiguous, but it's what people want to believe that matters I suppose?