"closing international borders will not stop new mutations of the SARS-CoV-2 virus circulating in the UK population. It is a futile endeavour with no scientific basis." 1/n @hartgroup_org
“We are seeing the same variants popping up all over the world and that is what you would expect.” @uksciencechief
If the variants are all over the world, there is no point in closing borders, PVR testing or quarantining upon entry of a country. 2/n
"once a virus is established in a population, as is the case in the UK, it will mutate slowly over time, irrespective of
borders." @hartgroup_org 3/n
If I get COVID-19, am I immune to new variants?
"Natural immunity to SARS-CoV-2 is gained in the immune system by the body ‘cutting up’ the virus into hundreds of
pieces. Multiple pieces are used to develop a suitably diverse immune response to many parts of the virus." 4/n
"Specialised immune cells will launch an immune response if exposed to the same ‘learned’ viral fragment in the future. Prior immunity gained from the original SARS-CoV-2 should work perfectly well against any new ‘mutant variant’, given the 99.8% sequence similarity." 5/n
Should I be worried about the new variants?
"There has to date been no robust scientific evidence provided that any variant so far identified is more transmissible or deadly than the original." @hartgroup_org 6/n
Will the vaccine protect me from the new variants?
"It is highly unlikely that a variant with minor structural changes in the sequence will evade the acquired immune response [from the mRNA vaccines]." @hartgroup_org
7/n
Is there pre-existing immunity to the COVID-19 virus?
"infection with one of the other seasonal human coronaviruses responsible for common colds
confers a cross-reactive T-cell immune
response to SARS-CoV-2 [C19 virus]" @hartgroup_org
In other words, yes. Relax.
8/n
"At least six studies have reported T cell reactivity
against SARS-CoV-2 in between 20% to 50% of people with no known exposure to the virus." @hartgroup_org
=>Up to 50% of the population is not susceptible to the C19 virus. Again, relax.
9/n
Democracy is the culprit.
For those of you who are not too happy with lockdowns and mandates, know that your oppression was caused and is sustained by the majority rule.
Don't ask for democracy. Ask for a new system of governance. 1/n
The general public has very limited knowledge in science and statistics- a perfect prey for big interests.
It can be easily scared with misinformation and as a result demand illogical solutions.
Your oppressor is the scared and misinformed populace.
2/n
Here's how the story goes...
There is a virus in town.
Why let a crisis go to waste!
Big Pharma don't mind cashing in.
A little nudge to counteract V hesitancy and sell some V. Why not?! It's just part of a business plan.
3/n
“History will thus record lockdowns as the product of pseudoscientific ideology, manifestations of an unprecedented mass hysteria ... & reminders that we must always defend vital freedoms against panicking and power-drunk politicians”@NickHudsonCT
1 citizen.co.za/news/opinion/o…
“In taking up the lockdown baton from China, the world was conducting a dangerous experiment. That experiment involved tearing up the public health policy guidelines for respiratory virus epidemics” @NickHudsonCT
2/n
“The lie that lockdowns worked spread as a social contagion, persisting among petrified citizens and ideological opinion-makers who continued to use overblown models as their alternative “what if” scenarios.” @NickHudsonCT 3/n
"We should be grateful for small mercy" - Dr John Lee
In order to determine what we need to do, we should: 1) how serious is the C19 virus 2) effectiveness of measures (lockdowns + masks) 3) costs of measures 1/n
"The threat of the virus and the effectiveness of the measures have been systematically exaggerated while the costs of the measures have been systematically underestimated." Dr John Lee
2/n
"some scientists seem to have made a career out of being doommongerers" Dr John Lee
3/n
The Vatican getting its hands dirty now!!
This is blatant guilt-tripping.
“It is an ethical choice because you are gambling with your health, with your life, but you are also gambling with the lives of others,”- Pope Francis 1/n reuters.com/article/us-hea…
But how are you gambling with the lives of others? Doesn't the vaccine protect the people who are taking them?
How about humans stay out of this and let God punish those who refuse to take the vaccine? Isn't that what heaven and hell are for? 2/n
Fearmongering had its birth in religions.
Religious leaders use fear and guilt to control people. The whole pavlovian approach of reward and punishment has its roots in religion. This bit is human-made to serve human interests. 3/n
School closure, is it to keep kids safe?
"The irony in such language is that children are safe at school already. The CDC states that of the first 68,998 U.S. deaths from COVID-19, only 12 have been in children under age 14" Scott Atlas & Paul Peterson 1/n thehill.com/opinion/educat…
"only ten of the 16,469 confirmed coronavirus deaths in New York City were among those under the age of 18."
To place things in perspective...
"600 children in the United States died from seasonal influenza in 2017-18, according to CDC estimates" 2/n
“Our data indicate that children are at far greater risk of critical illness from influenza than from COVID-19.”
So why is it we keep schools open during influenza seasons but we have decided to close them for COVID-19? 3/n
Definitions matter. @WHO defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”
Is "COMPLETE" health a realistic expectation?
Does it lead to irrealistic strategies like #ZeroCovid?
1/n
Aiming for 'COMPLETE' has its own ills.
1)"medicalisation of society"=>MASS testing
"New screening technologies detect abnormalities at levels that might never cause illness and pharmaceutical companies produce drugs for “conditions” not previously defined as health problems."3/n