John Bye Profile picture
Jul 18, 2021 13 tweets 6 min read Read on X
The British Grand Prix is running at full capacity this weekend, supposedly as a "scientific, data-gathering exercise".

I'm there, and it doesn't really look that way to me.

More like a festival where everyone forgot we're still in a pandemic. 😬

theguardian.com/sport/2021/jul…
For starters, anyone who is under 11 or fully vaccinated over 2 weeks ago doesn't have to be tested for covid before, during OR after the event.

Everyone else needs a lateral flow test every 48 hours to maintain their NHS Covid Pass .. but don't have to do any after the event.
It's also not clear how many people who test positive after the race will be linked back to the event.

When PHS did this they identified almost 2,000 Scottish cases related to Euro 2020.

Has anyone seen any data from England games or Wimbledon yet? 🤔

The Silverstone checklist page does say that "attendees can provide some basic data" for the Event Research Programme to help link any covid tests they may take after the event to their attendance.

But it's entirely optional.

silverstone.co.uk/events/formula…
As for enforcing entry rules, just like at Wembley, staff at the gates are only doing a visual check of covid passes.

They're not scanning QR codes or (contrary to what it says on the Silverstone website) checking anyone's ID to make sure it matches.

Once you're in, masks aren't required. Apparently PHE asked for this because "they want to understand what happens"!

A couple of months ago, when cases were low, that *might* have made sense. IF this was a genuine trial.

With cases now sky high it seems rather cavalier.
Silverstone's MD says "the view is that in a large-scale, open-air, outdoor venue it is not necessary to wear masks".

But those rules also apply to the indoor museum and merch stores and crowded grandstands. Hardly anyone is wearing a mask anywhere.

My own seems appropriate:
The event is also using the same ticketing rules as any other year, with no assigned seating except on Sunday.

Which means you were free to sit in a different grandstand every session on Friday and Saturday if you wanted.

Great for spreading the virus as widely as possible. 🙄
So we don't know how many people came here with covid, because kids and double vaccinated adults didn't need to be tested at any point.

And we won't know how many people caught it here, because PHE don't seem to care, and we've not been asked to take any tests after the event.
Quite how this equates to a "scientific, data-gathering exercise" isn't clear.

There's also no sign of any "special consideration to reduce risk of transmission", as the Event Research Programme promises.

Quite the contrary, in fact!

gov.uk/government/pub…
The only ERP information we have so far is a report on the first wave of trial events, which took place in April and May. When case numbers were 20 times lower than they are now.

Even these found some evidence of likely transmission at trial events.

gov.uk/government/pub…
The Executive Summary claims the Event Research Programme is a "world-leading study" which would gather "large amounts of data before, during and after" events.

But the Observations say the study design was "insufficient" and few people took tests both before *and* after events!
But instead of making the study design more robust, later events seem to have thrown out any pretence of science, and don't even ask people to take tests after the event!

It all looks like a flimsy excuse to let major events go ahead as planned before restrictions are lifted.

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More from @_johnbye

Dec 21
After the horrific attack on the Christmas market in Magdeburg, all the people you'd expect immediately blamed Islam and called for Muslims to be deported en masse for one man's crime. Just one problem... Apparently the suspect isn't a Muslim. 🧵 Image
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The apparent suspect in the attack on the Magdeburg market is a Saudi refugee who denounced Islam, accuses Germany of a "secret project to Islamize Europe", and regularly shared posts by far right accounts using similar language to the people who assumed he was an Islamist. Image
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Even after the suspect's identity and beliefs were reported, racists and bigots on X were still blaming Islamists for the attack, or even claiming it was an attempt to "gaslight us" and "we all know why the terrorist carried out the attack".

Obviously we *don't* know why yet. Image
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Read 5 tweets
Aug 22
Proving once again that he'll do anything that gives him an opportunity to promote himself, Aseem Malhotra is appearing at an online "Long COVID masterclass" .. run by a homeopath and featuring several notorious anti-vaxxers, quacks and conspiracy theorists. 🧵
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The online event which Aseem Malhotra is taking part in and helping to promote is hosted by an American homeopath and "expert in silver and copper therapeutics", who claims he can cure diseases with herbal medicine and "belief in the Holy Spirit"!

Or in layman's terms, a quack.

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Speaking alongside Aseem Malhotra:

1) Judy Mikovits, who's spent the last decade blaming everything from ME and autism to cancer on a retrovirus which she falsely claims is found in vaccines. More recently she starred in the Plandemic series, promoting covid conspiracy theories. Image
Read 8 tweets
Aug 18
Good start to Nigel Farage's life as an MP, as he claims that he gave incorrect information to the Register of Interests. 🤦‍♂️ His first entry in the register says he's paid "£97,928.40 a month" by GB News. But now he claims that sum was for "several months of work". 🤷‍♂️
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Nigel Farage is also the only employee of the "company" that GB News pays him through. So the whole setup is just a tax dodge, and any "significant expenses" it generates are likely to be Farage's own personal spending.

Which sounds so much better.

…te.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/076507…
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The other highlight of Farage's first Register entry is the £32,836 of travel costs a donor paid for him to fly to America to "support a friend who was almost killed". He is, of course, talking about Donald Trump.

It's not clear how this "represented Clacton on the world stage". Image
Read 6 tweets
Jul 28
Racist thug Tommy Robinson and racist mug Laurence Fox held an ironically named "unite the kingdom" rally in London this weekend. Unsurprisingly lots of conspiracy theorists turned up to support them. 🧵

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Alan Miller interviewed Laurence Fox. In the clip Miller defended Tommy Robinson, and claimed that him almost causing a trial to collapse by breaching reporting restrictions was a "free speech" issue. 🤦‍♂️

Miller leads a group of anti-vax and climate change conspiracy theorists.
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In another Miller interview, Norman Fenton described former football hooligan Tommy Robinson as a "great heroic patriot", and said he's been "following him for years".

Fenton is a member of anti-vax misinfo group HART, and has accused the ONS of lying to cover up vaccine deaths. Image
Read 7 tweets
Jul 14
Conspiracist X went into overdrive after the attempt on Trump's life yesterday. Within minutes they'd already misidentified the shooter and blamed everyone from the CIA and Mossad to the "Deep State" for the shooting, which sadly claimed the life of a bystander at the rally. 🧵 Image
Conspiracy theorists quickly identified the shooter as "antifa extremist" Mark Violets, saying he posted a video before the attack and had been arrested. None of which was true.

The photo is of an Italian football blogger, and the real shooter was dead.

reuters.com/fact-check/ita…



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Several also shared footage of the shooter's body being removed from the stand behind Trump. The actual shooter was on a rooftop 120m away.

Meanwhile one fringe politician randomly speculated that the shooter was close to Trump and using some James Bond-esque poison dart gun.

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Read 9 tweets
Jun 29
Last week Andrew Bridgen claimed Ukraine might be working on a dirty bomb to use in a "false flag" attack in Europe. Unsurprisingly his comments have now been amplified by the Russian military and state media, and echoed back by Russian assets and useful idiots here in the UK. 🧵


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Andrew Bridgen had an "incredibly productive" meeting with the Russian ambassador in London earlier this year.

Since then he's claimed Rishi Sunak called the election to avoid being a wartime PM, and that Ukraine's planning a "false flag" nuclear attack in Europe "like 9/11". 😳

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Meanwhile Russian assets and useful idiots here in the UK have been amplifying these claims of false flag attacks and dirty bombs.

John and Irina Mappin at least are known to have visited the Russian embassy recently, and all frequently share Russian propaganda on social media.


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Read 4 tweets

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