The Great Testing Con

But he isn't downplaying the dead, he is highlighting the high survivability rate, and I'm sorry but it is a high survivability. We are allowed to say that without being disrespectful. 99.5% is a high percentage; 350,000 is a lot of deaths. You can say them together. But obsessive, overpriced testing, lockdowns, covid passports etc, it's crazy when you think about what has transpired.

If in January 2020 someone said that in 2 months time the country is going to completely lock down for 18 months due to a virus with a 99.5% survivability rate, businesses will be decimated, 0.5% will sadly die due to the virus but many will plunge into depression, alcoholism and poverty; lockdowns will be enforced and the government will dictate exactly what you can and can't do, and at the end of it, in order to be able to do what you did before you will need to be double jabbed and present a passport to get into a nightclub (because of a virus with a 99.5% survivability rate), people would think it absolutely bonkers. But here we are. And guilt-tripping over the number of dead when Loko is highlighting the high survivability rate in conjunction with mass, exploitative testing, is low in my opinion.

 

a bit topical. https://apple.news/A_dZovZJGQeaHsyMd2JpM9g

 

Boots charge £85 for a PCR fit to fly test but then £160 for a day 2 test!!!! Absolute utter robbing ********!!!

I asked the girl at the counter why this is and she looked just as confused as what I was

 

Exactly this. The last time we saw our Granddaughter face to face. In the flesh she was just starting to say the odd word.. She starts school this September FFS!
If anything is worth mass protests or petitions ( and I have mixed views about protests) ,Costs of tests should be at the top of the list. Economies of scale dictate that the current charges are exploitative. I am sure, even without subsidies they could easily be capped at around £20 maximum as in some countries. I found one or two private practices charging in excess of £600 for a test ( albeit in Chelsea /Westminster) totally unjustifiable.

 

We saw my partner’s grandson for only the second time a few weeks ago in Poland. No tests necessary going there and coming back a quick turnaround test at the airport cost about £23. On my return it was £145 for two at home tests. Ridiculous price but still cheaper than just under £200 for the two on returning from Spain end of March. Still a rip off though!

A footnote to that Polish trip: at Wroclaw passport control they started a lot of head shaking, staring at me, talking amongst themselves until finally telling me that I had broken “Polish laws” by breaking the ten day quarantine rule. I was heading back home after five days, as always intended, and they said I couldn’t do that. What!!?? I couldn’t reason with them or make it clear that on arrival nobody picked up on the fact that it was a five day stay. So, about 45 minutes later, they finally established that they had to fine me for breaking the law! I said “how much” and the four of them (by now) looked at each other and shrugged shoulders. The young woman there suggested 200 zlotys, almost asking me if that was alright! Cash only and one of them escorted me to a cash point to get the money which came out at £54 with exchange rate charges. We went downstairs to a quiet office where the officer painstakingly wrote out a fine notification. Then with about five minutes to go before my boarding gate closed they found all my documents and let me go.

So, it’s not just THIS country that is making it up as they go along. My four Stasi guards probably pocketed 50 zlotys each before doing the same to the next victim!

 

what if you have it again with almost no symptoms.

 

Like I said, making it up as they go along. Good job they didn’t say 2 THOUSAND zlotys. They could have done and I would have had to pay up or risk missing my flight back.

A further footnote to this: my other half was staying on four days longer than me and she was challenged at border control the same. However because she is Polish she managed to argue her case for not completing the ten days and had to pay nothing! Poland has lots of good things there but, in some ways, they’re still in the 1960s and their bureaucracy is shocking.

 

I wouldn't know.

 

Therein the problem lies.

 

I just want to pick up on the quote "the country is going to completely lockdown for 18 months."

Please can we avoid this hyperbole? Even at its worst, people weren't in complete lockdown. You have always been allowed outside, even at its worst and I'm unaware of anyone who has been arrested for leaving their front door.

Of course there have been restrictions, the worst ones for those in vulnerable groups asked to shield, but they were restrictions. And if you were to consider the strictest period of restrictions as lockdown, it was absolutely nowhere near 18 months.

Let's be fair all ways.

 

So do you have no concerns about the testing regime, and who profits by it?

 

Okay maybe not consistently for 18th months, but let's not downplay lockdowns either. Being allowed outside for an hour of exercise per day, or to go to the nearest shop, I would consider a lockdown. The psychological impact will be felt for many years.

 

I'd say the first phase for a couple of months you could consider a lockdown. But after that absolutely not. Limited restrictions, some of which will have adversely impacted businesses, but I just don't want it to be painted as something that it absolutely hasn't been.

 

The one in November felt very much like the first. Worse in a way because it was winter. The only change was that schools/unis and offices were open. My main point still stands however (not just about lockdowns).

 

It's all relative I guess. In my experience, November didn't look much like a lockdown at all, and the way Christmas was handled was absolutely scandalous, and that was with London in Tier 4, so as extreme as you could get, but you could do plenty if you chose to.

Plenty of people had long since ditched abiding by rules too. Plus you'd had plenty of time for businesses to pivot their operations (those who could at least) so you had much more in terms of deliveries/takeaways than the initial phase in March 2020 when we didn't really have any idea what we were dealing with.

 

It is relative but I still think we shouldn't play down the restrictions. Speaking personally, in that lockdown the pubs and restaurants were closed, I was told I could bubble with one other but they couldn't come into my one bedroom flat (it was November, cold, so apart from the odd walk for exercise together it didn't really cut it), I couldn't leave my local area so couldn't visit any family (they are all up north). I went days without seeing anyone, my only 'trips out' were to the local tesco and for solitary walks (apart from the aforementioned with my bubble), I drank to excess and I gradually got worse with depression. It was a lockdown, and because it was winter it was worse. Obviously that is my experience but the restrictions were there. And as I said before, if we'd have been told this is what's going to happen in say January 2020, and that we will need to get double jabbed and use a covid passport to do the things that we did before to 'get our freedoms back' at the behest of the government, for a virus with a 99.5% survivability rate, we would have said it was crazy.

 

It shows how information can be expressed in so many ways.

You could equally say, with a sliding doors moment, ... if anyone had told us half a million people would die and circa 6m would be affected by a virus for the rest of their lives, and we did nothing. That would be absolutely crazy.

Whatever we did, even with an honest competent leader, there would be downsides. There would be sacrifices, there would be trade offs. Because of my personal situation, I'll take a few restrictions to save some additional lives. Thats not a slight on anyone, thats the consequence of lifting restrictions.

I'm sorry to hear of your personal situation. It's been tough for so many in so many different ways. And of course, as more people get back to a more usual pattern of life, there are still over 3.5m people who are affected by covid and life can't get back to "normal" for a still lengthy period of time. Not to mention the additional millions of carers and those in the family bubbles.

Hopefully for everybodys sake, we're nearer to the end than we are the start.

 

Yes, I don't think anyone however is saying we should have 'done nothing.'

I just think the way it's been handled has been shocking and the future proposed laws (to 'get our freedoms back') are draconian. There should be more of a middle ground, going forwards and looking back.

There also isn't enough emphasis put on those that don't show up in the statistics. The suicides, the many that have lost their businesses and homes, those in limbo because of previous measures that were put in place etc.

I hope you're right about the end being in sight, I just worry what that end looks like with this lot in charge.

 

It's quite opaque what the alternatives might be and sadly it all too often gets into a toxic polarised stance fuelled with hyperbole and happenstance.

The group I seldom hear care for are the 3.5m. Sadly, my wife is in that category and the complete lack of guidance support and sometimes compassion is galling.

I've said before in other threads. It's not the rules around passports that pose the greatest threat to true liberty. But if thats what helps people to see through this disgraceful ruling party with a majority far too big to be healthy, then so be it.

Sadly, and completely through a complete guess, I don't think we're close to "normality", whatever that is. I also don't think we'll have learnt very much as a society or adapted in a positive way either.