Coronavirus restrictions: some thoughts and comparisons

12 Jan

I thought I’d try and make a few comparisons.

The first thing I want to mention is the ridiculous situation where, when we are in lockdowns, the case numbers and death tolls spiral out of control, whereas when we’re not, the numbers dwindle to practically nothing. Don’t you think this is just a bit ironic, and hardly proof that lockdowns are effective? I appreciate some people will say that if we didn’t go into lockdown, the figures would be even worse, but I disagree with that. In my view, the numbers are simply a means of justifying the measures implemented, not the other way around, so if we did not go into lockdown, I am almost certain the numbers would not be anywhere near as high.

This leads me to my first comparison. If you’ve ever been on a speed awareness course, you’ll know that the main emphasis is on encouraging you not to speed as speeding can cause deaths. But the ironic thing for me is that if you are travelling at say, 80mph on a motorway, you are around ten times less likely, or something like that, of causing an accident than if you are going at 40mph in a 30mph zone. So this shows that it’s not the speed you’re travelling at that’s the issue, but the situation and circumstances.

And just as during lockdowns, there’s nothing actually stopping you from travelling anywhere, meeting friends etc. there’s nothing stopping you from going over the speed limit, with just the off chance of being stopped by police.

You could even bomb along the motorway at 150mph if you wanted to, and had a powerful enough car. Many people would say this is extremely irresponsible – although it’s legal in Germany of course – but it’s less irresponsible to speed if you are a very competent and experienced driver. Just as it’s hardly irresponsible, in my view, to go against lockdown measures if you are perfectly healthy. In my view, the notion of asymptomatic transmission is a complete fiction – when have we ever thought that if there is nothing wrong with you, you could then bump into someone who will subsequently drop down dead of pneumonia or something?

And so equally, I don’t think it would be irresponsible to have a party with say twenty friends if they are all completely asymptomatic.

If you think that’s wrong, bear in mind that you’ve now become accustomed to accept the fact that every weekend, perhaps around a couple of hundred groups of 22 men and women come into very close contact with each other when they meet to play football.

And now to change the subject a bit, I thought I’d talk a bit about what the constant daily news broadcasts, propaganda, whatever you want to call it, feel like to me. To me, it’s like being played “Baby Shark” constantly on repeat for months on end, almost like a form of torture, but it becomes acceptable to the extent that you might even begin to think that “Baby Shark” is actually a good song. Even in the brief respites when we’ve been out of lockdown, what do we get instead?

It’s then something like the equivalent of the WAP song, ie. a change, but still pretty awful – you’re allowed to go to the pub, but you’re not supposed to meet friends, there are other regulations, etc. And then back to “Baby Shark” again.

And to make another comparison about what the constant ramming down our throats of the mainstream narrative on TV etc. is like. Philosophers will know about Plato’s Cave analogy. To put it briefly, Plato, who lived around 400BC, in a sense predicted TV, and also the idea of people being deceived.

The analogy can be applied to life in general, but essentially, he speaks of prisoners in a cave being shown a series of shadows which are projected onto the back of the cave wall.

The prisoners, knowing nothing else, believe these shadows to be real, not knowing that behind them are people holding up objects to cause the shadows that are projected to intentionally deceive. It’s only once the prisoners free themselves, and get out of the cave, that they are able to then see life and the world for what it really is, although Plato also says that anyone who does escape will still have difficulty in believing they’ve been deceived.

We are used to seeing photoshopped photos, edited videos, etc. etc. which can be deceitful, intentionally or not – why have we become far less inclined to believe that what politicians and their advisors say, which is subsequently broadcast on TV, is not a true reflection of the situation?

But of course, many people say, surely the politicians and news broadcasters would not want to deceive people? What I think they do quite effectively is not lie specifically, but distort reality. If for example in Wales, they broadcast that there have been 5000 cases (whatever a case is) and 50 deaths. How exactly those numbers are added up, and by whom, to give an apparently precise figure every day is another matter (in a typical tragedy where perhaps twenty people have died, it usually takes days to establish exact numbers etc.).

But, assuming those cases are 5000 people who have had a positive test – although that is not made clear – 4000 of those might just have very mild symptoms, perhaps another 500 or more might be completely asymptomatic. Which then leaves quite a low number, and besides, as we’ve been told so many times, the test results are very unreliable anyway.

And as for the numbers of people dying, again, we know that this includes people dying of any cause, that it is mostly the very elderly with pre existing conditions.

So is the alarmism really appropriate, and are lockdown measures which apply to an entire population really necessary?

And finally, I come to, why would there be any deception – who does it benefit? To answer this, I’d like to make a comparison with online poker. All poker players know, from frequent ridiculous situations that you see far less frequently in live poker, that online poker is rigged. But it’s difficult to see how it is rigged in favour of one player or another.

Well one theory I have is that with all players seeing how weaker hands can regularly beat stronger hands, this will encourage them to play weaker hands more often. Not so sure about that, but the bottom line is, the people the system favours are of course the website owners – pokerstars or whoever.

And in the case of the coronavirus, regardless of people saying that we’re all in this together, I believe the lockdowns and restrictions must be favouring the very small group of people who are keeping the restrictions in force.

It is just a very small group of people who are dictating to vast numbers of people how to behave, and I’m sure it must be to their benefit. You only have to look at Chris Whitty, who has received £30m in funding from Bill Gates for example, but I won’t go into that now.

I have already decided that I will never vote in an election again because as I see it, politicians on all sides have been complicit in allowing the lockdowns and restrictions. So what would I propose instead?

I honestly think it is about time, and I would only vote for a politician who proposed the following:

1. That we simply stop talking about the coronavirus, new strain or not (and by the way – has one single piece of evidence been shown for the so called new strain? Perhaps it’s hardly necessary as people are now more inclined to believe just about anything they’re told), If the coronavirus is a problem for the NHS, well unfortunately, that’s just something they’ll need to deal with. I’m sure they’ve had difficult situations in the past, and they will have difficult situations again. As I’ve said before, we do not shut down the whole of society when Sony brings out a new playstation in order to help people working in a playstation factory. We do not need to be constantly reminded, every single day, by the media etc. about how apparently problematic the situation is for the NHS (unless, for some reason, it’s been decided that we do need to be constantly reminded).

2. I think people should be encouraged to stop wearing masks as soon as possible – after all, bear in mind, practically nobody wore masks during the first lockdown.

3. I think all businesses should be encouraged to re-open, to remove all the ridiculous plastic screens and signage, and to allow people back in, to each venue’s capacity.

You might think that’s extreme – but can I remind you that all I’m talking about there is going back to normal? A normal that back in March 2020, most people would have expected we would have been approaching come around May or June time.

Just look at Wuhan, where the outbreak was supposed to have started and was supposed to have been pretty horrific initially – back to normal after a couple of months, with no apparent second wave.

Surely we cannot put up with this for much longer? This situation whereby, just because a very tiny number of people say so, we cannot plan holidays, cannot look forward to weddings or summer festivals, cannot go to football matches and cheer our teams on instead of having to listen to fake crowd noises, cannot go to a packed out Moon Bar to watch a new up and coming band, cannot go to Live Lounge, have a bit of a dance and a laugh – whatever it is you enjoy. I do not believe that simply allowing the narrative to run its course is the solution and particularly, I don’t believe that the carrot dangled in front of us, the vaccine, is the way out.

So finally what would I say to people? Ordinary, decent, law-abiding people of the world, unite, don’t be afraid to go a little over the speed limit from time to time, step out of your caves and stop listening to Baby Shark! We should unite – you have nothing to lose but your masks.

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