Reader’s Links for March 1st, 2023

Here is a link to the VladTepesBlog social media Mastodon Pod. Please feel free to check it out and sign up for an account if you are sufficiently annoyed with Twitter and Facebook to try something new.

Each day at just after midnight Eastern, a post like this one is created for contributors and readers of this site to upload news links and video links on the issues that concern this site. Most notably, Islam and its effects on Classical Civilization, and various forms of leftism from Soviet era communism, to postmodernism and all the flavours of galloping statism and totalitarianism such as Nazism and Fascism which are increasingly snuffing out the classical liberalism which created our near, miraculous civilization the West has been building since the time of Socrates.

This document was written around the time this site was created, for those who wish to understand what this site is about. And while our understanding of the world and events has grown since then, the basic ideas remain sound and true to the purpose.

So please post all links, thoughts and ideas that you feel will benefit the readers of this site to the comments under this post each day. And thank you all for your contributions.

This is the new Samizdat. We must use it while we can.

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

40 Replies to “Reader’s Links for March 1st, 2023”

  1. the telegraph -THE LOCKDOWN FILES

    The Telegraph has obtained more than 100,000 WhatsApp messages sent between Matt Hancock and other ministers and officials at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.

    The conversations raise vital new questions about the handling of the pandemic ahead of a public inquiry into the response to Covid-19.

    Over the coming days we will reveal devastating details about the pandemic response that had until now remained secret.

    =================================

    The Lockdown Files:

    Matt Hancock rejected expert advice on care home testing, WhatsApp messages reveal

    Huge leak reveals conversations from 100,000 texts, showing how then health secretary did not follow Sir Chris Whitty’s tough line

    Matt Hancock rejected the Chief Medical Officer’s advice to test for Covid all residents going into English care homes, leaked messages seen by The Telegraph reveal.

    Prof Sir Chris Whitty told the then health secretary early in April 2020, about a month into the pandemic, that there should be testing for “all going into care homes”. But Mr Hancock did not follow that guidance, telling his advisers that it “muddies the waters”.

    Instead, he introduced guidance that made testing mandatory for those entering care homes from hospital, but not for those coming from the community. Prior to the guidance, care homes had been told that negative tests were not required even for hospital patients. The guidance stating that those coming in from the community should be tested was eventually introduced on Aug 14.

    Between April 17 and August 13, 2020, a total of 17,678 people died of Covid in care homes in England.

    In the first two years of the pandemic, there were more than 40,000 Covid deaths in care homes in England, as the most vulnerable in society bore the brunt of the fatalities.

    Mr Hancock himself later told MPs that transmission from the community – particularly from staff – was the “strongest route” for Covid into care homes.

    The Telegraph has obtained more than 100,000 WhatsApp messages sent between the then health secretary and other ministers and officials at the height of the pandemic.

    The messages comprise 2.3million words – three times as many words as the King James Bible contains.

    The communications span the years of the pandemic and reveal discussions between the then health secretary and those at the heart of the decision-making process, including the then prime minister, Boris Johnson.

    Other conversations involve Sir Chris, the Government’s Chief Medical Officer, and Sir Patrick Vallance, its chief scientific adviser.

    The messaging groups have names such as “Top Teams”, “Covid 19 senior group” and “crisis management” – the name of a group created to deal with the fallout from Mr Hancock’s relationship with his aide, Gina Coladangelo.

    Over the coming days, the Telegraph will reveal the messages, which lay bare the extent to which groupthink among aides and ministers affected pandemic decisions.

    The messages also reveal the often casual approach that ministers took to making major decisions, including the call to close classrooms, introduce face masks in schools and provide testing in care homes.

    They show how Mr Hancock expressed concerns that expanding testing in care home could “get in the way” of his self-imposed target of 100,000 Covid tests per day.

    =================================

    24 April, 2020

    Civil servant
    Asymptomatic testing sub is reading. Top recommendation is: That you agree to:

    Prioritise testing of asymptomatic staff and residents in care homes where an outbreak has been recorded within the past 14 days. We estimate this will result in 60,000 tests being carried out across 2000 care homes in the next 10 days.

    17:09

    Matt HancockHealth Secretary
    This is ok so long as it does not get in the way of actually fulfilling the capacity in testing =====================================

    They also contain evidence as to how Mr Hancock reached the target by including in the tally large numbers of tests that he knew might never be processed.

    The WhatsApp messages expose how, as early as April 2020, Sir Chris warned there should be “testing of all going into care homes”.

    The comments about care home testing by the Chief Medical Officer were discussed on April 14, 2020, the day before the Government published its “Covid 19: adult social care action plan” – a document that set out to fix some of the problems created by the Government at the very start of the pandemic.

    In a WhatsApp conversation about its finer details, Mr Hancock told his advisers: “Chris Whitty has done an evidence review and now recommend testing of all going into care homes, and segregation whilst awaiting result. This is obviously a good positive step & we must put into the doc.”

    One of his aides, Allan Nixon, responded that he had sent the request “to action”.

    However, by the end of the day Mr Hancock appeared to have changed his mind – and he requested the removal of the commitment to begin testing admissions from the community.

    At 6.23pm, Mr Nixon sent a message saying: “Just to check: officials are saying your steer is to *remove* the commitment to testing on admission to care homes *from the community*, but *keep* commitment to testing on admission to care homes *from hospital*. Is that right?”

    Twenty-five minutes later, he messaged again: “Update: we can say in the doc that it’s our ambition to test everyone going into a care home from the community where care homes want (‘in the comings weeks’ is the suggested timeframe I’ve been told).”

    Mr Hancock responded: “Tell me if I’m wrong but I would rather leave it out and just commit to test & isolate ALL going into care from hospital. I do not think the community commitment adds anything and it muddies the waters.”

    When the Government published its official guidance to care homes in England the following day, it said it would start testing all “those being discharged [into care homes] from hospital” – but only that it would “move to” testing people being admitted to care homes from the community.

    It did not make it mandatory to test residents going into care homes from the wider community – with Mr Hancock saying that “muddies the waters”. Nor did it make mandatory the testing of all care home staff, or the isolation of all new residents.

    Government guidance in its “admission and care of people care homes” document was not updated to require care homes to test new admissions from the community until Aug 14, 2020. It was early July before staff in all care homes had regular access to weekly tests.

    Mr Hancock later told the health and social care select committee that “the strongest route of the virus into care homes, unfortunately, is community transmission, so it was staff testing that was most important thing for keeping people safe in care homes”.

    In addition, Mr Hancock did not adopt Sir Chris’s advice to “recommend” segregation for everyone. The guidance stated that care homes “may wish” to isolate residents admitted from the community “after discussion with the new resident and family” – adding that the “majority” will have come from isolation at home.

    The then health secretary has since said that “the vast majority of infections were brought in from the wider community” and highlighted staff as the main source of transmission.

    An independent report by the Department of Health and Social Care has also found that there was “potential exposure to Covid-19 in care home settings” from factors including “new admissions from the community”.

    On April 24, 2020, a civil servant in Matt Hancock’s private office sent him a WhatsApp message passing on scientific advice that his department should “prioritise testing of asymptomatic staff and residents” in care homes where there had been a coronavirus outbreak.

    Mr Hancock responded: “This is ok so long as it does not get in the way of actually fulfilling the capacity in testing.”

    The WhatsApp messages also reveal how some care homes refused to test staff for the virus at the height of the pandemic in case they discovered they were positive, and they show comments by the social care minister, Helen Whately, where she warns that restrictions on visitors to care homes are “inhumane” – months before they were finally lifted.

    Ms Whately later warned Mr Hancock that the elderly were at risk of “just giving up” because they had been isolated for so long.

    Care homes were the setting for one of the biggest catastrophes of the pandemic after thousands of people were moved into them without being tested. The messages reveal Mr Hancock was repeatedly warned that care homes were becoming a problem.

    The disclosures raise questions about the position Mr Hancock has adopted publicly. He has previously said that he put a “protective ring around care homes” from the start and that he followed scientific advice.

    Mr Hancock said in his book, Pandemic Diaries, that the “tragic but honest truth” at the start of April was that “we don’t have enough testing capacity”.

    The WhatsApp messages leaked to The Telegraph include one-to-one conversations between ministers at the heart of government.

    They were handed to The Telegraph by Isabel Oakeshott, the political journalist who was given copies of Mr Hancock’s messages while working on his Pandemic Diaries memoir. She writes for The Telegraph explaining her reasons for making the information public, saying, with reference to the Covid inquiry: “We absolutely cannot wait any longer for answers”.

    Reacting to The Telegraph’s report on Tuesday night, the broadcaster Piers Morgan said: “Astonishing & utterly damning scoop. And we do deserve to know.”

    Jess Phillips, Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley and shadow minister for domestic violence and safeguarding, said: “If details about how Hancock was more bothered about hitting his target on testing by possibly wasting tests that led to less capacity in care homes is true, then imagine how those who lost loved ones in that week will feel.”

    “With this lot its always headlines before front lines.”

    The Telegraph will reveal how children’s education was sacrificed in order to avoid political confrontations; how isolation rules that brought the economy to its knees could have been lifted sooner and how the Government sought to frighten the public to ensure they complied with lockdown.

    Inquiry timing criticised
    The public inquiry into the Government’s handling of the pandemic began earlier this week, but has been criticised because it will not address the reasons for lockdown decisions until its second module – meaning any findings are unlikely to be released for years.

    The leaked cache of data will raise serious questions over how Mr Johnson’s administration handled the crisis.

    The messages will inevitably stir debate over the Government’s repeated claims it was always following the science when it took decisions about tackling the pandemic. The UK has seen a death toll of more than 216,000 to date, while the economy suffered a shock from which it is struggling to recover.

    Some health experts believe the collateral damage from hospitals cancelling and delaying treatment to focus on Covid is behind a huge spike in excess deaths, raising the possibility that lockdowns caused more harm to public health than the virus itself.

    The revelations will anger families who lost loved ones in care homes and will fuel criticism that adult social care was neglected during the pandemic.

    More than 45,000 care home residents died with Covid in England and Wales during the first two years of the pandemic, with many people feeling the sector was abandoned.

    There was also an increase in deaths from causes other than Covid. Overall mortality rates in English care homes jumped by 79 per cent in the first 16 weeks of the pandemic, and by April the risk of death for a care home resident was 17 times higher than for someone else of the same age living at home.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/02/28/lockdown-files-matt-hancock-whatsapp-whitty-care-homes-covid/

    • I haven’t watched the video but I can’t disagree with anything in the article.

  2. The leaked WhatsApp messages that expose how Britain’s elderly were failed on Covid

    Slow decision-making over testing and concerns about PPE shortages and ‘inhumane’ rules revealed in thousands of text exchanges

    Care homes bore the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic with 46,000 residents dying with Covid across England and Wales in the first two years while staff felt continually “forgotten”.

    More than a quarter of all Covid deaths in England and Wales during the pandemic occurred in care homes, a tragedy many families believe could have been avoided if ministers had made the right decisions at the start of the health crisis.

    Much of the blame has been attributed to guidance issued in spring 2020 which ordered NHS hospitals to “urgently discharge” all patients “who are medically fit to leave”. It also told care homes that “negative tests are not required before transfers”.

    Matt Hancock has since claimed that early mistakes were down to a lack of understanding that the virus could be transmitted by people without symptoms.

    But WhatsApp messages between Mr Hancock and ministers and officials show that the then health secretary was expressly warned about the issue on April 8 2020 – months before testing was mandated for everyone admitted into care homes in England. He was also warned to test staff, the very people he would later blame for carrying the virus from one care home to another.

    Residents at risk of ‘giving up’
    It was not the only time the Government was slow to act, according to these disclosures.

    They also reveal that in Oct 2020 Helen Whately, the social care minister, expressed the view to Mr Hancock that rules preventing visits to care homes were “inhumane” and that residents were at risk of just “giving up” and dying as a result of the impact on their mental health.

    One of the most fateful decisions for care homes came on March 17 2020, the day after Boris Johnson, the then prime minister, urged the public to stop non-essential contact and travel.

    It was on that day that NHS hospitals were instructed to discharge thousands of patients into adult social care in order to free up beds. Just over two weeks later, on April 2, government guidance to care home providers was that “negative tests are not required”, and that patients without Covid symptoms or a positive test could be safely cared for “as normal”.

    On April 8, two weeks after the first lockdown came into force, Ms Whately warned Mr Hancock that “lessons learned internationally” showed the need to begin testing all care home staff and residents who had been exposed to the virus – regardless of who had symptoms:

    By April 14, the advice to test all residents and staff who had “had Covid contact” was widened by Prof Sir Chris Whitty, England’s Chief Medical Officer:

    Later that day, Mr Hancock made it clear he had decided to ignore the advice – a decision that Allan Nixon, one of Mr Hancock’s special advisers, queried:

    Around 40 minutes later Mr Hancock gave his reply:

    Care homes were not able to start testing residents or staff without symptoms until the end of April – and the Government did not implement regular testing until early July. By the end of that month, four in every 10 care homes had experienced an outbreak.

    On April 15, the day after Mr Hancock declined to order blanket testing for care home admissions, the Government published its social care action plan, which restated the policy of discharging hospital patients into care homes “to free up NHS capacity”. It caused divisions between Mr Hancock and Ms Whately.

    Before the document was published, Ms Whately told Mr Hancock: “The discharge policy [is] my biggest concern.”

    When she was asked by Mr Hancock if she had agreed a discharge policy with NHS England, she replied:

    Later that night, after considering the matter further, Ms Whately shifted her position:

    As well as being let down by the testing policy, care homes also struggled to get hold of personal protective equipment (PPE). Some were reduced to begging local nail bars for face masks and other items.

    Ms Whately knew PPE supplies to social care were “all over the place” in early April and that there was no one in the supplies team dedicated to overseeing the task full-time. Ministers still failed to get a grip on the situation. A month later, Ms Whately asked Mr Hancock whether he “minded” if she pushed harder on PPE, because she did not “want to take up too much of your time”.

    Twelve days later, Ms Whately warned Mr Hancock again about shortages:

    The following day, Ms Whately tried to secure a meeting with Mr Hancock to discuss the problem:

    Early in May, Ms Whately again raised concerns around PPE:

    As Britain entered its second wave in late 2020 and the Government drew up plans for its new “tiers” system of local lockdowns, Ms Whately told Mr Hancock that keeping spouses apart was “inhumane”.

    Under the new system in England, care home residents who lived in Tier 1 – the level with the most relaxed restrictions – were told that they could only have one consistent visitor. Those unlucky enough to live in tiers with tighter restrictions were banned from having visitors at all, unless there were “exceptional circumstances” like “end of life”:

    By January 2021, Ms Whately was warning Mr Hancock again that the impact on residents’ mental health could itself be fatal – and that they had to balance the Covid risk of opening up care homes against the death toll from people “just giving up”:

    By late spring 2021, Covid cases were finally coming down again. On the morning of May 10, Ms Whately and Mr Hancock discussed how restrictions on visiting in care homes could be loosened.

    Ms Whately pushed back against him and asked him to explain the rationale for his caution. The rules for care homes were significantly relaxed one week later, with residents allowed to name five regular visitors. Mr Hancock appeared to turn on a dime and told Ms Whately: “Ok you win.”

    A few months into the pandemic, testing capacity was increasing. But not every care home was willing to use the tests available. Ministers discussed how nearly 100 care homes had refused to test for Covid – including 10 in the north of England – amid fears that Covid-positive staff would have to stop working:

    ===================================================
    the telegraph – The Lockdown Files: Matt Hancock rejected expert advice on care home testing, WhatsApp messages reveal

    Huge leak reveals conversations from 100,000 texts, showing how then health secretary did not follow Sir Chris Whitty’s tough line

    Matt Hancock rejected the Chief Medical Officer’s advice to test for Covid all residents going into English care homes, leaked messages seen by The Telegraph reveal.

    Prof Sir Chris Whitty told the then health secretary early in April 2020, about a month into the pandemic, that there should be testing for “all going into care homes”. But Mr Hancock did not follow that guidance, telling his advisers that it “muddies the waters”.

    Instead, he introduced guidance that made testing mandatory for those entering care homes from hospital, but not for those coming from the community. Prior to the guidance, care homes had been told that negative tests were not required even for hospital patients. The guidance stating that those coming in from the community should be tested was eventually introduced on Aug 14.

    Between April 17 and August 13, 2020, a total of 17,678 people died of Covid in care homes in England.

    In the first two years of the pandemic, there were more than 40,000 Covid deaths in care homes in England, as the most vulnerable in society bore the brunt of the fatalities.

    Mr Hancock himself later told MPs that transmission from the community – particularly from staff – was the “strongest route” for Covid into care homes.

    The Telegraph has obtained more than 100,000 WhatsApp messages sent between the then health secretary and other ministers and officials at the height of the pandemic.

    The messages comprise 2.3million words – three times as many words as the King James Bible contains.

    The communications span the years of the pandemic and reveal discussions between the then health secretary and those at the heart of the decision-making process, including the then prime minister, Boris Johnson.

    Other conversations involve Sir Chris, the Government’s Chief Medical Officer, and Sir Patrick Vallance, its chief scientific adviser.

    The messaging groups have names such as “Top Teams”, “Covid 19 senior group” and “crisis management” – the name of a group created to deal with the fallout from Mr Hancock’s relationship with his aide, Gina Coladangelo.

    Over the coming days, the Telegraph will reveal the messages, which lay bare the extent to which groupthink among aides and ministers affected pandemic decisions.

    The messages also reveal the often casual approach that ministers took to making major decisions, including the call to close classrooms, introduce face masks in schools and provide testing in care homes.

    They show how Mr Hancock expressed concerns that expanding testing in care home could “get in the way” of his self-imposed target of 100,000 Covid tests per day.

    ==================================

    24 April, 2020

    Civil servant
    Asymptomatic testing sub is reading. Top recommendation is: That you agree to:

    Prioritise testing of asymptomatic staff and residents in care homes where an outbreak has been recorded within the past 14 days. We estimate this will result in 60,000 tests being carried out across 2000 care homes in the next 10 days.

    17:09

    Matt HancockHealth Secretary
    This is ok so long as it does not get in the way of actually fulfilling the capacity in testing =====================================

    They also contain evidence as to how Mr Hancock reached the target by including in the tally large numbers of tests that he knew might never be processed.

    The WhatsApp messages expose how, as early as April 2020, Sir Chris warned there should be “testing of all going into care homes”.

    The comments about care home testing by the Chief Medical Officer were discussed on April 14, 2020, the day before the Government published its “Covid 19: adult social care action plan” – a document that set out to fix some of the problems created by the Government at the very start of the pandemic.

    In a WhatsApp conversation about its finer details, Mr Hancock told his advisers: “Chris Whitty has done an evidence review and now recommend testing of all going into care homes, and segregation whilst awaiting result. This is obviously a good positive step & we must put into the doc.”

    =======================
    14 April, 2020

    Matt HancockHealth Secretary

    Chris Whitty has done an evidence review and now recommends testing of all going into care homes, and segregation whilst awaiting result. This is obviously a good positive step & we must put into the doc
    =============================

    One of his aides, Allan Nixon, responded that he had sent the request “to action”.

    However, by the end of the day Mr Hancock appeared to have changed his mind – and he requested the removal of the commitment to begin testing admissions from the community.

    At 6.23pm, Mr Nixon sent a message saying: “Just to check: officials are saying your steer is to *remove* the commitment to testing on admission to care homes *from the community*, but *keep* commitment to testing on admission to care homes *from hospital*. Is that right?”

    Twenty-five minutes later, he messaged again: “Update: we can say in the doc that it’s our ambition to test everyone going into a care home from the community where care homes want (‘in the comings weeks’ is the suggested timeframe I’ve been told).”

    Mr Hancock responded: “Tell me if I’m wrong but I would rather leave it out and just commit to test & isolate ALL going into care from hospital. I do not think the community commitment adds anything and it muddies the waters.”

    When the Government published its official guidance to care homes in England the following day, it said it would start testing all “those being discharged [into care homes] from hospital” – but only that it would “move to” testing people being admitted to care homes from the community.

    It did not make it mandatory to test residents going into care homes from the wider community – with Mr Hancock saying that “muddies the waters”. Nor did it make mandatory the testing of all care home staff, or the isolation of all new residents.

    ==========================
    14 April, 2020

    Matt HancockHealth Secretary
    Fine. Tell me if I’m wrong but I would rather leave it out and just commit to test & isolate ALL going into care from hospital. I do not think the community commitment adds anything and it muddies the waters. Have that for a Q&A response.

    ============================

    Government guidance in its “admission and care of people care homes” document was not updated to require care homes to test new admissions from the community until Aug 14, 2020. It was early July before staff in all care homes had regular access to weekly tests.

    Mr Hancock later told the health and social care select committee that “the strongest route of the virus into care homes, unfortunately, is community transmission, so it was staff testing that was most important thing for keeping people safe in care homes”.

    In addition, Mr Hancock did not adopt Sir Chris’s advice to “recommend” segregation for everyone. The guidance stated that care homes “may wish” to isolate residents admitted from the community “after discussion with the new resident and family” – adding that the “majority” will have come from isolation at home.

    The then health secretary has since said that “the vast majority of infections were brought in from the wider community” and highlighted staff as the main source of transmission.

    An independent report by the Department of Health and Social Care has also found that there was “potential exposure to Covid-19 in care home settings” from factors including “new admissions from the community”.

    On April 24, 2020, a civil servant in Matt Hancock’s private office sent him a WhatsApp message passing on scientific advice that his department should “prioritise testing of asymptomatic staff and residents” in care homes where there had been a coronavirus outbreak.

    Mr Hancock responded: “This is ok so long as it does not get in the way of actually fulfilling the capacity in testing.”

    The WhatsApp messages also reveal how some care homes refused to test staff for the virus at the height of the pandemic in case they discovered they were positive, and they show comments by the social care minister, Helen Whately, where she warns that restrictions on visitors to care homes are “inhumane” – months before they were finally lifted.

    ==============================
    12 October, 2020
    Helen WhatelySocial Care Minister
    I’m hearing there’s pressure to ban care home visiting in tier 2 as well as tier 3. Can you help? I really oppose that. Where care homes have covid secure visiting we should be allowing it. To prevent husbands seeing wives because they happen to live in care homes for months and months is inhumane.

    10:33

    Matt HancockHealth Secretary
    Hearing from whom? Tier 2 was agreed yesterday as far as I’m concerned

    10:35
    Helen Whately
    It was wrong for care homes. I told michael and Simon Ridley during/straight after covid O
    =============================================

    Ms Whately later warned Mr Hancock that the elderly were at risk of “just giving up” because they had been isolated for so long.

    Care homes were the setting for one of the biggest catastrophes of the pandemic after thousands of people were moved into them without being tested. The messages reveal Mr Hancock was repeatedly warned that care homes were becoming a problem.

    The disclosures raise questions about the position Mr Hancock has adopted publicly. He has previously said that he put a “protective ring around care homes” from the start and that he followed scientific advice.

    Mr Hancock said in his book, Pandemic Diaries, that the “tragic but honest truth” at the start of April was that “we don’t have enough testing capacity”.

    The WhatsApp messages leaked to The Telegraph include one-to-one conversations between ministers at the heart of government.

    They were handed to The Telegraph by Isabel Oakeshott, the political journalist who was given copies of Mr Hancock’s messages while working on his Pandemic Diaries memoir. She writes for The Telegraph explaining her reasons for making the information public, saying, with reference to the Covid inquiry: “We absolutely cannot wait any longer for answers”.

    Reacting to The Telegraph’s report on Tuesday night, the broadcaster Piers Morgan said: “Astonishing & utterly damning scoop. And we do deserve to know.”

    Jess Phillips, Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley and shadow minister for domestic violence and safeguarding, said: “If details about how Hancock was more bothered about hitting his target on testing by possibly wasting tests that led to less capacity in care homes is true, then imagine how those who lost loved ones in that week will feel.”

    “With this lot its always headlines before front lines.”

    The Telegraph will reveal how children’s education was sacrificed in order to avoid political confrontations; how isolation rules that brought the economy to its knees could have been lifted sooner and how the Government sought to frighten the public to ensure they complied with lockdown.

    Inquiry timing criticised
    The public inquiry into the Government’s handling of the pandemic began earlier this week, but has been criticised because it will not address the reasons for lockdown decisions until its second module – meaning any findings are unlikely to be released for years.

    The leaked cache of data will raise serious questions over how Mr Johnson’s administration handled the crisis.

    The messages will inevitably stir debate over the Government’s repeated claims it was always following the science when it took decisions about tackling the pandemic. The UK has seen a death toll of more than 216,000 to date, while the economy suffered a shock from which it is struggling to recover.

    Some health experts believe the collateral damage from hospitals cancelling and delaying treatment to focus on Covid is behind a huge spike in excess deaths, raising the possibility that lockdowns caused more harm to public health than the virus itself.

    The revelations will anger families who lost loved ones in care homes and will fuel criticism that adult social care was neglected during the pandemic.

    More than 45,000 care home residents died with Covid in England and Wales during the first two years of the pandemic, with many people feeling the sector was abandoned.

    There was also an increase in deaths from causes other than Covid. Overall mortality rates in English care homes jumped by 79 per cent in the first 16 weeks of the pandemic, and by April the risk of death for a care home resident was 17 times higher than for someone else of the same age living at home.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/02/28/lockdown-files-matt-hancock-whatsapp-whitty-care-homes-covid/

  3. John Kirby On If Biden Backs Gain-Of-Function Research: “A Fancy Way Of Saying Yes”

    Comments were made on 2/27/23

  4. At Least 36 Dead In Greece After Horrifying Head-On Train Crash

    In a devastating accident on Tuesday night, two trains collided head-on in northern Greece, resulting in the deaths of at least 36 people and leaving dozens more injured, AP News reported. The accident occurred near the town of Tempe in northern Greece.

    According to reports, a passenger train carrying 350 passengers and a freight train collided on the same track. Rescue workers and emergency services arrived on the scene and found a mangled mess of carriages and freight cars.
    […]

    Survivors said the impact threw several passengers through the windows of train cars
    ==================================
    reuters – live
    https://twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1vAxRAbnLgqJl
    ==================================
    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/least-36-dead-greece-after-horrifying-head-train-crash

    =======================

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53Tb-zyNtfo

    ===========================

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u2o5A-OFWk
    ============================

  5. Biden : “I had a nurse…”!

    “I had a nurse. […] She’d come in & do things I don’t think you learn in nursing school. She’d whisper in my ear, I couldn’t understand her, but she’d whisper & she’d lean down & actually breathe on me […] She went home & brought back her pillow from her own bed…”

    • Unbelievable – – Feckless Freak -perverted old, goofy pig and he is the leader of what? Just how low can you go? where is the guy with the hook?

    • Does Your Department Have A Problem With Anti-Catholic Bias?’: Hawley Laces Into Merrick Garland

    • Grassley Confronts Garland About Hunter Biden’s Potential Criminal Activity

    • Ted Cruz And Merrick Garland Have Fiery Clash In Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing

  6. Good news – great news, awesome news

    Lori Lightfoot, the mayor of Chicago lost her race to remain mayor. Good riddance. There will be a runoff election in April, but she did not get the number of votes to participate.

  7. Leftist Group Caught Running Massive Election Bribery Scheme in Wisconsin Supreme Court Race – An Alleged Felony Punishable by Up to 3 Years in Prison
    By Jim Hoft Mar. 1, 2023 8:00 am91 Comments

    On Tuesday Dan O’Donnell from NewsTalk 1130 in Wisconsin broke a huge report on a leftist bribery scandal operating in Wisconsin before the upcoming state Supreme Court race.

    Liberal groups are paying voters $250 to sway their friends to vote for the leftist Supreme Court candidate Janet Protasiewics.

    This amounts to election bribery, a felony in Wisconsin punishable by up to three years in prison.

    ** Please keep evidence of this crime if you see this in your community.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/03/leftist-group-caught-running-massive-election-bribery-scheme-in-wisconsin-supreme-court-race-a-felony-punishable-by-up-to-3-years-in-prison/

  8. Democrat Congressman Mocks God During Congressional Hearing – Makes Social Media Gaffe Afterward
    By Cullen Linebarger Mar. 1, 2023 8:45 am78 Comments

    In a Congress full of morons, Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) certainly fits right in.

    Recall Cohen is the same genius who deemed it a good idea to bring a bucket of KFC to a House Judiciary Committee hearing back in May 2019 to mock then-Attorney General William Barr for not showing up.

    Cohen only made himself look disgusting.

    Redstate.com reported that during Tuesday’s Judiciary Committee hearing, Rep. Cohen denigrated Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and other conservative justices by mocking the fact our rights come from God.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/03/democrat-congressman-mocks-god-during-congressional-hearing-makes-social-media-gaffe-afterward/

  9. ANOTHER TRAIN DERAILMENT: Train Carrying 30,000 Gallons of Propane Derails Near Florida Airport (VIDEO)
    By Jim Hoft Mar. 1, 2023 10:02 am235 Comments

    The Florida Department of Transportation is investigating after at least five railcars and two propane tankers derailed near the Sarasota County-Manatee County line in Florida on Tuesday.

    Multiple authorities including Hazmat Crews responded to the train derailment which carried sheet rock and propane. One of the tankers is carrying over 30,000 gallons of propane fuel.

    Southern Manatee Fire Rescue Chief Robert Bounds told WFLA that the tanker carrying 30,000 gallons of propane was not leaking, and the accident scene was safe. No injuries were reported.

    “The scene is as safe as it can be right now. Short of that tank being on its side, there is no problem,” Bounds said.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/03/another-train-derailment-train-carrying-30000-gallons-of-propane-derails-near-florida-airport-video/

  10. Florida GOP State Lawmaker Pitches Bill That Would Eliminate Democrat Party
    By Cristina Laila Mar. 1, 2023 11:59 am42 Comments

    A Florida GOP state lawmaker on Tuesday pitched a bill that would eliminate the Democrat party.

    “The Ultimate Cancel Act,” filed by state Senator Blaise Ingoglia, would “cancel” any filing by any political party that supported slavery during the Civil War.

    “The Democrat party adopted pro-slavery stances in their party platforms and this bill says that if you have done that in the past, then the Secretary of State shall de-certify and get rid of the party,” Ingoglia said.

    Nikki Fried, the chairwoman of the Florida Democrat Party, lashed out at Ingoglia for speaking the truth about the Democrat party’s past

    A Republican in Florida’s state Legislature has filed a bill that, if enacted, would eliminate the Florida Democratic Party.

    “The Ultimate Cancel Act,” filed on Tuesday by state Sen. Blaise Ingoglia, would require the state’s Division of Elections to “immediately cancel” the filings of any political party whose platform had “previously advocated for, or been in support of, slavery or involuntary servitude.”

    The bill, called S.B. 1248, would require Florida officials to notify all registered voters who belong to any canceled parties that their party no longer exists. It would also change their voter registration to “no party affiliation” and “provide procedures” for those voters to update their affiliation to “an active political party.”

    The bill would allow any canceled political parties to re-register with the Florida Department of State — but only under the condition that the party change its name to something “substantially different from the name of any other party previously registered” with the agency.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/03/florida-gop-state-lawmaker-pitches-bill-that-would-eliminate-democrat-party/

  11. Hunter Biden-Linked Company Developing Technology For ‘Slave Labor’ Camps In Xinjiang.
    BY: Natalie Winters

    A Chinese energy company financially linked to Hunter Biden, the son of the President of the United States, developed technology to improve cotton harvesting in Xinjiang, an industry that relies on Chinese Communist Party forced labor.

    The invention – a thin film to cover fields – was created by the Biden-linked Chinese state-owned enterprise Sinopec and helped defend cotton from unfavorable climate conditions and weeds, according to The Global Times.

    The development comes amidst controversy over the use of forced labor in Xinjiang’s cotton fields, prompting many Western clothing brands to halt their use of cotton from the region. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBO) also banned American companies from importing cotton from Xinjiang based on information that “reasonably indicates” the use of forced labor within China’s so-called “re-education” camps.

    https://warroom.org/2023/03/01/hunter-biden-linked-company-developing-technology-for-slave-labor-camps-in-xinjiang/

  12. THE TIMING OF THE DOE LAB LEAK ANNOUNCEMENT: WHY NOW?

    And just like that, after censoring or labeling as a racist conspiracy theorist anyone who dared question whether the virus that crippled the world came from a Wuhan lab, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday that the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has concluded that the COVID-19 pandemic most likely emerged from a mishap at a Chinese laboratory. Until now, the Energy Department, a branch of the U.S. Intelligence Community, has been undecided on the origin of the pandemic. However, the WSJ reports that the agency’s new shift, which aligns with that of the FBI, concludes that the coronavirus likely spread due to an accident at a Chinese lab and “is noted in an update to a 2021 document by the Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines’s office.”

    For Haines, who generally stays behind the scenes, the likelihood of a catastrophic global pandemic wasn’t far-fetched, whether caused intentionally or not. An ally of Joe Biden, Haines was at Event 201, practicing for a Bill Gates-funded “true-to-life” coronavirus pandemic in New York City on October 18, 2019, while the virus was apparently creeping out of a lab and the superspreader military games were commencing in Wuhan. In 2010, Haines followed Biden to the White House when he became Vice President to work

    https://thehighwire.com/editorial/the-timing-of-the-doe-lab-leak-announcement-why-now/

  13. Prank with Bolton. Vovan & Lexus

    ( 22 min )

    Full video-prank with Former United States National Security Advisor John Bolton

    In world politics, this man has repeatedly become a participant in political tensions and planned coups around the world. Therefore, who will tell all about the political games of the West if not him?

    During the revelations for Petro Poroshenko, John Bolton revealed the secret of Baker’s promise not to expand NATO, said that the West should have trained the Ukrainian military better over the past eight years, told about plans to separate Minsk from Moscow and, in addition, gave his «good to go» for terrorist acts of Ukraine on the territory of Russia. The politician opened up and expressed his opinion about Dmitry Medvedev, and also said that at one time he supported opposition movements in Belarus.

  14. CBC – Attempted interference in 2021 election did not compromise the result: report

    Report recommends lowering the threshold to alert voters to election interference

    A panel of top civil servants has concluded that attempts to interfere with the 2021 federal election did not affect the results, according to a report released Tuesday.

    But the report also says Ottawa should consider changing the rules to allow the panel to alert Canadians to “potential” impacts on election integrity.

    The federal government established the Critical Election Incident Public Protocol in 2019 to monitor and alert the public to credible threats to Canada’s elections. The team is a panel of top public servants tasked with determining whether incidents of interference meet the threshold for warning the public.

    The government released a redacted independent report assessing the panel’s work on Tuesday.

    “In 2019 and 2021, the panel, as part of the Protocol, determined that the Government of Canada did not detect foreign interference that threatened Canada’s ability to have free and fair elections,” the report says.

    While the report notes there were attempts at interference, it says those attempts didn’t compromise the integrity of the election.

    “National security agencies saw attempts at foreign interference, but not enough to have met the threshold of impacting electoral integrity,” the report says.

    The report specifically notes that there is no evidence to suggest that attempted interference targeted Elections Canada itself.

    Dennis Molinaro, a professor of legal studies at Ontario Tech University and a former national security analyst, said Canada needs to remain diligent despite the report’s findings.

    “We definitely shouldn’t be taking this as a sign that everything is fine,” Molinaro said. “If someone is continually trying to break into your home and they keep getting better at it every time, that doesn’t mean that there’s no threat to be worried about.”

    The report did make a number of recommendations for the government to consider.

    The panel is tasked with alerting the public to any attempts at electoral interference that would have a demonstrable impact on the outcome of an election. But the report says that the government should consider amending the threshold so that an alert is issued when there is evidence of a “potential impact.”

    “How [is the panel] to assess, within the brief period of an election campaign, what the impact is?” the report says.

    “How are they to determine how many Canadians have been exposed to false information? How are they to distinguish the impact of interference or disinformation from the variety of other factors that voters take into account?”

    The report also recommends that the panel’s scope be expanded to include the period leading up to an election campaign.

    Speaking to CBC News Network’s Power & Politics, Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc said the government is prepared to move forward with the recommendations.

    “We need to be ready to put all of the safeguards in place to reassure Canadians,” LeBlanc told host David Cochrane. “That’s what we’ve done, but we’ll continue to look at ways we can improve it.”

    Concerns about Beijing
    The report notes that security agencies, including the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), have raised concerns about China’s attempts to interfere in the electoral process.

    “CSIS stated that China uses many techniques, including threats to the Chinese community in Canada. However, the use of proxy agents makes it difficult to know that China is behind it,” the report says.

    The report recommends that the relationship between diaspora communities in Canada and their former home states be analyzed. But the report cautioned against stirring up a backlash against specific communities.

    “There are risks that concerns about foreign interference from a particular country can result in resentment and backlash against members of these communities,” the report says. “Strategies to counter foreign interference need to guard against marginalizing diaspora communities.”

    While some examples have been redacted, the report cites a 2021 editorial in the Global Times — a tabloid with connections to the Chinese Communist Party — which blasted the Conservative Party election platform and suggested that the party would break off relations with China.

    The report also points to an article that circulated on WeChat — a Chinese-owned messaging app — falsely claiming a bill introduced by former Conservative MP Kenny Chiu would unfairly target the Chinese community.

    Prior to the 2021 election, Chiu introduced a private members’ bill that would establish a foreign agent registry which would require non-elected individuals to declare when they receive money from foreign governments. Chiu lost his seat in that election.

    Despite these instances, LeBlanc said he didn’t believe that the results of any specific ridings were affected.

    But Canada’s former ambassador to China Guy Saint-Jacques said there are still lingering questions about election integrity.

    “There’s still a cloud on the integrity of the election,” Saint-Jacques said in a separate interview with Power & Politics. “Canadians have lots of questions and we need to get to the bottom of this.”

    The Liberal government has been under pressure to respond to a number of media reports that allege China sought to interfere in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections.

    Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said on more than one occasion that those news reports are false or contain inaccuracies.

    But Saint-Jacques suggested that the news reports warrant a more thorough look at the 2019 and 2021 elections.

    Conservatives call report into question

    Tuesday’s assessment was written by Morris Rosenberg, a former senior public servant for more than 30 years.

    From 2014 to 2018 he also served as CEO of the Trudeau Foundation, which funds and promote academic and public interest research. His tenure was marked by controversy when it was revealed that Zhang Bin, an adviser to the Chinese government, attended a private fundraising dinner with Prime Minister Trudeau and donated thousands of dollars to the charity that bears his father’s name.

    Even before Rosenberg’s report was made public Tuesday, the Conservative Party said those ties discredit his work.

    “The Trudeau government must ensure that the very credible reports on election interference are investigated in a meaningful and impartial manner, rather than trying to spin them as unimportant as they clearly have tried to do here,” the party said in a media statement.

    “This discredits the report and proves we need a separate investigation, and the government should fully cooperate with the House committee studying this very issue. They must cease their obstructionism, and the NDP must stop protecting the Liberals in committee so Canadians can finally discover the extent of [Chinese Communist Party] interference.”

    LeBlanc brushed the Conservatives’ assertions off, calling them a “gratuitous smear.”

    Opposition parties have been calling on the government to strike a public inquiry to study foreign election interference. So far, the Liberals have resisted.

    https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/election-interference-report-2021-1.6763333

    ==================================
    twitter @RealAndyLeeShow

    Guess what I found? Who was present at the donation signing when a million dollars was given by Niu Gensheng to the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation?

    The man who wrote the report on foreign election interference and found that our election wasn’t compromised.

    Morris Rosenberg.

    https://twitter.com/RealAndyLeeShow/status/1630715365214003200

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FqF2-pHaEAAnAi4?format=jpg&name=medium

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FqF2-pHagAA8Dhr?format=jpg&name=medium

    ========================================================

    CBC – Attempted interference in 2021 federal election did not affect the results: report

    The federal government released an independent panel report which says that attempts to interfere in the 2021 election did not compromise the results.

  15. I have always relied on the opinions of Canadians on the streets. Today I felt relief. Justine is in really big trouble. When you talk to 19 people and they all say Justine Trudeau should be arrested, you know something big is coming.

    Today I heard how stupid do these assholes think we are? Enough. He is a continuation of his commie father. Oh dear, what is wrong with people, this man is evil. We have been played big time. The SOB should be hung. All politicians are liars and Trudeau is the king. Trudeau should be locked up with Freeland. Please do not talk to me about the SOB. All politicians are bastards, Trudeau is a new evil breed of bastards.

    Oh dear anger is everywhere.

  16. Order Tucker Carlson… to Stop Spreading the Big Lie” – Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer Demands Rupert Murdoch Silence Fox News Hosts
    By Cristina Laila Mar. 1, 2023 2:59 pm1105 Comments

    What First Amendment?

    Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (NY) on Wednesday demanded Rupert Murdoch silence Tucker Carlson and other Fox News hosts.

    “Order Tucker Carlson and other hosts on Fox News to stop spreading the Big Lie.” Schumer said.

    Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries sent Rupert Murdoch a letter demanding he censor Fox News hosts.

    As noted in your deposition released yesterday, Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and other Fox News personalities knowingly, repeatedly, and dangerously endorsed and promoted the Big Lie that Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election. Though you have acknowledged your regret in allowing this grave propaganda to take place, your network hosts continue to promote, spew, and perpetuate elections conspiracy theories to this day,” the Democrat wrote in a letter to Rupert Murdoch referring to the Dominion lawsuit.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/03/order-tucker-carlson-to-stop-spreading-the-big-lie-democrat-senator-chuck-schumer-demands-rupert-murdoch-silence-fox-news-hosts/

  17. BREAKING: 3 Republicans Just Helped Democrats to Hammer First Nail Into Coffin of Religious Freedom In Michigan
    By Patty McMurray Mar. 1, 2023 5:30 pm73 Comments

    On Wednesday afternoon, Senate Democrats took up legislation to ‘expand’ the Elliot-Larsen Civil Rights Act in Michigan.

    The bill currently prohibits discrimination based on qualities such as race, sex, and religion.

    100 Percent Fed Up reports – Democrats made it one of their top legislative priorities to expand the legislation to include sexual orientation and gender identity.’

    Under the new bill’s language, “gender identity or expression” is defined “as having a gender-related self-identity or expression whether or not associated with an individual’s assigned sex at birth.”

    Republicans, ultimately powerless to stop the bill in the long term, attempted to include at least an amendment that would ensure people’s religious liberties were not infringed on.

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/03/breaking-3-republicans-just-helped-democrats-to-hammer-first-nail-into-coffin-of-religious-freedom-in-michigan/

  18. WATCH: Mother Who Lost Two Children To Fentanyl Poisoning Blisters The Federal Government For Coddling Illegal Aliens In Heartbreaking Testimony To Congress

    A mother of two sons killed by fentanyl scorched the federal government for pampering illegal aliens during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing on Tuesday.

    As Breitbart reported, Rebecca Kiessling, the mother, opened the hearing telling the infuriating story of how her sons Caleb, 20 and Kyler, 18 died from fentanyl poisoning along with a 17-year-old girl named Sophia Harris back in July 2020.

    The drug dealer was saved by Narcan. He received a soft 8-15 years jail sentence despite being responsible for three deaths

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/03/watch-mother-who-lost-two-children-to-fentanyl-poisoning-blisters-the-federal-government-for-coddling-illegal-aliens-in-heartbreaking-testimony-to-congress/

  19. This Is Not America vs America. This Is America’s Enemies + Woke Regime vs America” – Retired American General Spalding
    By Joe Hoft Mar. 1, 2023 1:30 pm

    Michele Tafoya shared a tweet this week that retired US General Spalding could not resist but comment to.

    Michele Tafoya is recognized by individuals who used to watch the NFL on Sundays. Her website says:

    Michele Tafoya is a former American sportscaster. From 2011 to 2022, she was a reporter for NBC Sports, primarily as a sideline reporter for NBC Sunday Night Football. Today, she hosts the Sideline Sanity Podcast and makes television appearances on talk shows discussing the state of American politics and culture.

    Tafoya is not afraid to take on topics of the day. One example is her pinned tweet where she shares common sense. Tafoya’s pinned tweet is as follows:

    Tafoya tweeted out the current state of politics in America sharing the following:

    We don’t see how you can beat an enemy you cannot name…The enemy is the ‘woke regime.’ The word “regime” is important, because it suggests an all-out, comprehensive assault on the American way of life. . . . Why “Americanists” vs. “woke revolutionaries” and not, say, “conservatives” vs. “progressives”? These latter names suggest we are in a normal policy dispute within the traditional context of American politics, in which both sides accept the legitimacy of the American regime. We are not in such a context. We are not living in the bygone world of Reagan vs. Mondale. We are in a war.” John Fonte and Thomas Klingenstein

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/03/this-is-not-america-vs-america-this-is-americas-enemies-woke-regime-vs-america-retired-american-general-spalding/

  20. REBEL NEWS – German MEP Christine Anderson discusses Pierre Poilievre’s criticism, Islam, and freedom

    In response to Poilievre’s criticism towards her, Anderson responded by saying, ‘Mr. Poilievre has no business being the leader of the opposition because he’s actually doing Mr. Trudeau’s bidding, and he should seriously reconsider.’