1/. All the claims about our preparations & how everything was in order were basically completely hollow, but we didn’t figure this out until the back end of February”

#Cummings claims he was lied to by Hancock & others about the preparedness for COVID

These were not “mistakes”
2/. “Lots of COBRA meetings are just a bunch of PowerPoints & not very useful”

#Cummings explains why he didn’t bother to attend any of the 5 Crucial COBRA meetings in Feb 2020 & didn’t advise @BorisJohnson to attend either

He sent ‘his friend’ 33-year-old Ben Warner, instead.
3/. #Cummings has referred to Ben Warner a dozen times

Ben isn’t an epidemiologist, virologist or public health expert

His 2014 thesis was “Engineering the properties of magnetic molecules through the interaction with the surface

#Cummings has now mentioned his brother, Marc👇
4/. WTAF!

“Attempts to reach out to people who ran the government, such as himself, seem to have met with total neglect....The overwhelming impression is that we have been led by a bunch of raging inadequates. While hardnut talk is sadly understandable” @MarinaHyde on #Cummings
5/. @DawnButlerBrent asks #Cummings about #FacultyAI & #Palantir who both have links to #CambridgeAnalytica🔥

@amnesty say the govt quietly granted access to millions of UK health data records including to controversial data-mining firm Palantir – to build a Covid19 Datastore”
6/. The @amnesty quote is from this article👇

They also say
“We could close our eyes & pretend that contrary to all the evidence, #Palantir is a rights-respecting company or we can call this façade what it is: another company placing profit over people, no matter the human cost”
7/. #Cummings claims he doesn’t know anything about #Palantir

He does

He claims all data is anonymised

It isn’t

He claims it’s very complicated

It isn’t

Govt contracts with #FacultyAI & #Palantir reveal an unprecedented transfer of personal NHS info to private tech firms
8/. In Sept 2020, the UK launched a ten-year strategy, #GenomeUK, which will transform the NHS & put genomics at the heart of the PM’s programme for govt

Incredibly it was launched quietly (on a Saturday!) & received no media coverage

#Palantir appear to have a central role.👇
9/. Seven months the launch of #GenomeUK journalists are still managing to ignore it!

Seven months after the govt began to seize - & sell access to - the health data of every person in the UK, the @FT finally reported it yesterday!

Patients aren’t asked & can’t opt out #COVID19
10/. “What I’m sure of is that #FacultyAI do not have personalised data at all” #Cummings

Faculty are LITERALLY running the #COVID Data Store - a lake of NHS data - with #Palantir

Thanks to @DawnButlerBrent for asking this question. It leads to many more
11/. The #JointBiosecurityCentre (#JBC) took over responsibility for the UK’s #COVID19 strategy in July 2020

SAGE advice is fed to the JBC

They don’t published minutes

Its run by a senior GCHQ staffer

It’s membership is secret but now we know #Cummings attended #JBC meetings!
12/. In Dec, the PM was asked why the country wasn’t in lockdown

He passed the question to @uksciencechief who said:

“The Tier decisions aren’t for me”

If lockdown decisions aren’t for Vallance/Whitty/SAGE, who are they made by?

Is the answer the #JBC?
13/. The #JointBiosecurityCentre, was launched as a £9 billion directorate of @DHSCgovuk, on 1 June 2020

It was set up by counter-terror chief, Tom Hurd (son of Douglas) who was at Eton & Oxford with the PM who was replace by Claire Gardiner, a senior cyber expert from GCHQ👇

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Stefan Simanowitz

Stefan Simanowitz Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @StefSimanowitz

26 May
1/. When far-right activists descended on a French Alp town in 2018 to prevent refugees & migrants crossing the border, residents joined forces to stop them

7 of them - the #Briançon7 - were convicted under anti-smuggling laws!

Tmw, they're back in court
amnesty.org/en/latest/news… Image
2/. The far-right group, Génération Identitaire, who blocked the mountain were banned in France last March after the govt found that it was a private militia & incites "discrimination, hatred & violence"

But Generation Identity are still active elsewhere
3/. Generation Identity - part of the far-right Identitarian Movement & whose members have been described as “hipster fascists” - has been banned on Facebook

But they & other neo-Nazi groups are recruiting predominantly online & have done for some time. abc.net.au/news/2021-03-2…
Read 5 tweets
26 May
On Friday, @BorisJohnson welcomes Viktor Orban, a populist leader who speaks of "Muslim invaders" & has pushed #Hungary into what @freedomhouse calls a 'grey zone' between democracy & pure autocracy”

Downing St insists good relations with Budapest "vital"
hungarytoday.hu/orban-johnson-…
“We don't want #Hungary to be a diverse country. We want to be how we were 1,100 years ago," said #Orban in 2019, harking back with nostalgia to that golden era...known as the Dark Ages!

After reshaping the Constitution, judiciary & electoral system, he launched a culture war.
If this sounds eerily familiar, that’s ‘’cos it is

In 2017, Steve Bannon asked @Nigel_Farage be part of a "convening authority" to "knit together a populist nationalist movement around the world"

He mentions Modi, Orban, Sisi, Duterte

We can add Trump, @BorisJohnson, Bolsonaro
Read 5 tweets
25 May
"UK intelligence agencies unlawfully spied on @amnesty Intn'l"

The ECtHR human rights court confirmed UK surveillance regime was unlawful for 8 years

We brought the litigation in the wake of @Snowden revelations in 2013 with @privacyint @libertyhq etc amnesty.org.uk/press-releases…
‘The unfettered harvesting & processing of millions of people’s private communications must end’ Kate Logan @amnesty

@Snowden’s 2013 revelations included details of an operation which tapped into & stored huge volumes of data drawn from fibre-optic cables
"Indiscriminate mass communications surveillance has proven to be ineffective for the prevention of terrorism

"To treat everyone as a potential suspect, data must be stored, analysed & profiled"

"A society built upon such foundations is more akin to a police state" Judge Pinto Image
Read 4 tweets
24 May
1/. In 2009, I there was a commotion in the small Tuareg compound where I was staying near Aueglhok, northern Mali

3 boys had chased a deadly snake into a nearby rocky outcrop

Men gathered with sticks & takobas (swords) pushing dry grass into holes & crevices around the outcrop ImageImageImageImage
2/. The men positioned themselves around the outcrop, waiting by each hole with their weapons raised

They then lit the grass

Snakes are v sensitive to smoke & before long the horned viper emerged from rocks to be swiftly battered to death

And I learned how to smoke out a snake ImageImageImageImage
3/. I've been smoking out snakes ever since

Like everything in life, the answers we seek are usually in front of our noses all along

But sometimes - if something is being concealed - you have to smoke it out

Which brings me on to #DominicCummings!
#Cummings #CummingsTestimony Image
Read 5 tweets
24 May
@Dominic2306 FACT: I acknowledge that in the next tweet, Dom (Tweet 10)

FACT: There was a SPI-B meeting on 12/3/20 (attendees not listed)

FACT: There was a SAGE meeting on 13/3 & some of the docs are marked 12/3

FACT: The redacted ‘minutes’ were only released in May gov.uk/government/pub…
@Dominic2306 FACT: The claim in the Sunday Times was that you changed your mind on #HerdImmunity in mid-March

This tallies with your own claim: “we stared to figure out plan B”

FACT: @ShippersUnbound says the “if pensioners die too bad” comment was “at a private meeting” at the end of Feb.
@Dominic2306 @ShippersUnbound @BylineTimes @BBCNewsnight @maitlis @jonsnowC4 @cathynewman @TanDhesi @justinmadders @mrjamesob @DawnButlerBrent @Keir_Starmer FACT: On the day the PM was telling @Schofe that “one of the theories was we could take it on the chin”, you were attending the SAGE meeting that - bizarrely - concluded social distancing wasn’t necessary

On the same day, a 70yr old woman became the first Briton to die of COVID
Read 10 tweets
23 May
With #Cummings’ admission of what has been obvious from the start & is what me & a handful of journalists have been saying all along, it’s surely time for @peston to come clean & tell the nation who in No.10 briefed him on 12/3/20 that #HerdImmunity was the UK’s #COVID19 strategy
2/. But #Cummings’ thread raises more questions than it answers

We KNEW #HerdImmunity was the strategy & the govt didn’t “pivot away” from it

In Feb, @Dominic2306 rprtdly said the strategy was “herd immunity to protect the economy & if that means some pensioners die, too bad."
3/. Every epidemiologist or virologist will tell you #HerdImmunity is an “outcome” never a “strategy”

Without a vaccine it would involve “sacrificing the vulnerable on the altar of the economy in truly vast numbers”

It was clear this “strategy” would ALSO devastate the economy.
Read 13 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(