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saneagle

Esteemed Pedelecer
Oct 10, 2010
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I don't think lockdown had been tried before in previous epidemics ? Not disagreeing that it stopped the NHS being overwhelmed. I think the problem here is that our public health capabilities had been hollowed out over the years. South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam had much better pandemic control programs than we did without needing lockdown and it shows starkly in both the economic and health stats
e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_pandemic_in_South_Korea
There was never a chance of the NHS being overwhelmed. Every year before covid, the press and media ran stories about the NHS being overwhelmed by flu. When I was in hospital at the height of covid, the hospital was empty despite all the extra vaccine and test centres set up everywhere that needed doctors and nurses to man them and the NHS sending every doctor and nurse home for 14 days every time they came in contact with someone that was presumed to have covid.
 

saneagle

Esteemed Pedelecer
Oct 10, 2010
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Telford
Of course the vaccines are far more effective at preventing serious illness & death than treatments are at cure.
That's not true. All the countries that had the lowest death rates had the lowest excess death rates in the years since covid. Also, some of the countries with the lowest vaccine rates had the lowest death rates from covid. India was very successful in wiping out covid by using Ivermectin and vitamins.
 
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saneagle

Esteemed Pedelecer
Oct 10, 2010
7,026
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Telford
This is complete & utter foolish poisonous nonsense. Do you even know what Midazolam is without Googling & grabbing yet another article that you don't understand? People died because they had an overwhelming illness that predominantly targeted their lungs so that there wasn't sufficient oxygen exchange to sustain life. Only a small minority of those who died would have been on a ventilator.
"This medicine may cause respiratory depression (serious breathing problem that can be life-threatening), especially when used with narcotic pain medicines. Tell your doctor if you are using any narcotic medicine, such as droperidol, fentanyl, meperidine, morphine, or secobarbital."
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Midazolam was indeed given in combination with morphine to the covid patients.
 

nigelbb

Esteemed Pedelecer
Sep 19, 2019
445
378
"This medicine may cause respiratory depression (serious breathing problem that can be life-threatening), especially when used with narcotic pain medicines. Tell your doctor if you are using any narcotic medicine, such as droperidol, fentanyl, meperidine, morphine, or secobarbital."
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Midazolam was indeed given in combination with morphine to the covid patients.
Midazolam is given in combination with morphine in end of life care. It's got nothing to do with the treatment of COVID-19.
 

flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
53,284
30,660
Some government action was idiotic eg 'Eat Out to Help the Disease Spread About". Some police action was idiotic but that probably reflected the fact they were operating outside their normal parameters & didn't have the right guidance from the government.

Lockdown in particular the first lockdown (which came too late) was the only sensible response to an unknown disease that was killing people by the thousand in nearby countries. We had no idea that the chaotic scenes from Italy wouldn't be repeated in the UK. In those first few weeks in Italy well over a hundred doctors died (never mind any other healthcare workers).

Sweden is a very different country eg richer, much smaller population, far less ethnically diverse, far fewer multi-generational households etc etc What they did seemed to work for them but for thousands in the UK it would have meant a death sentence.

The initial aim of all the lockdown measures was to reduce viral transmission so reducing the number of infections & thus prevent the hospitals being overwhelmed. Without these measures the danger was there could be hundreds of thousands of severely ill people many breathing their last. The country could grind to a halt in a severe emergency with nobody to bury/cremate the dead or deliver food to the shops.
You are so blinkered by your blind acceptance of all the government said that it isn't worth trying to argue with you, no matter what proofs I have. Even the government's own excellent measurement tool proved that the claims for the efficacy of the viruses were wildly exaggerated and also that our medical experts were guessing as much as knowing.

And as for the "wonderful" NHS, I can understand your bias, given the position you hold, but for me in London totally let down by it at times, NHS on those very rare occasions I've needed it has often stood for No Health Service and I would never clap for it.
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nigelbb

Esteemed Pedelecer
Sep 19, 2019
445
378
There was never a chance of the NHS being overwhelmed. Every year before covid, the press and media ran stories about the NHS being overwhelmed by flu. When I was in hospital at the height of covid, the hospital was empty despite all the extra vaccine and test centres set up everywhere that needed doctors and nurses to man them and the NHS sending every doctor and nurse home for 14 days every time they came in contact with someone that was presumed to have covid.
Did you see the scenes from Northern Italy? We planned so that didn't happen. The NHS was not overwhelmed but had to turn into a COVID treatment service so much of the routine stuff has been delayed. That's one of the main reasons why waiting lists have gone up.
The hospitals were not empty. One issue was having to run COVID wards & non-COVID wards. Depending on the number of COVID positive patients at any particular time you could find empty beds on the COVID wards or non-COVID wards.
It's total rubbish to claim that doctors & nurses were sent home for 14 days every time they came in contact with someone that was presumed to have COVID. That's just untrue. Those who tested positive were sent home until they tested negative. Latterly testing was only done if symptomatic. The reason for sending home staff with COVID is obvious it's to stop them infecting vulnerable patients.
 
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nigelbb

Esteemed Pedelecer
Sep 19, 2019
445
378
That's not true. All the countries that had the lowest death rates had the lowest excess death rates in the years since covid. Also, some of the countries with the lowest vaccine rates had the lowest death rates from covid. India was very successful in wiping out covid by using Ivermectin and vitamins.
This is nonsense. Clinical trials in the UK proved Ivermectin ineffective in treating COVID. Likewise for that other old chestnut Hydroxychlorquine.
 

nigelbb

Esteemed Pedelecer
Sep 19, 2019
445
378
You are so blinkered by your blind acceptance of all the government said that it isn't worth trying to argue with you, no matter what proofs I have. Even the government's own excellent measurement tool proved that the claims for the efficacy of the viruses were wildly exaggerated and also that our medical experts were guessing as much as knowing.

And as for the "wonderful" NHS, I can understand your bias, given the position you hold, but for me in London totally let down by it at times, NHS on those very rare occasions I've needed it has often stood for No Health Service and I would never clap for it.
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Anecdotally after vaccination was available I never saw anyone severely ill with COVID who had been vaccinated. I saw plenty who were severely ill with COVID none of them had been vaccinated. Quite a few of these patients died.
Unfortunately the Tory policy of deliberately starving the NHS of funds has meant that the service is worse than it was in 2010.
 

nigelbb

Esteemed Pedelecer
Sep 19, 2019
445
378
A lot of the East Asian countries had much stronger public health testing, contact tracing , isolation regimes and a population (better educated ? ) much more willing to follow social distancing protocols that allowed them to do much better both economically and health wise during the pandemic without lockdowns.
They have had lots of practice with SARS & MERS. South East Asia is where all the new 'flu strains come from.
 

Woosh

Trade Member
May 19, 2012
20,467
16,925
Southend on Sea
wooshbikes.co.uk
Anecdotally after vaccination was available I never saw anyone severely ill with COVID who had been vaccinated.
That may be a result of natural selection. Joking aside, there are still people who still die with covid even now. Going from here, the Covid mRNA vaccines seem to be quite crude. They made a lot of money for Pfizer and Moderna for sure and they were lucky that UK government cover their product liability.
 
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saneagle

Esteemed Pedelecer
Oct 10, 2010
7,026
3,248
Telford
Did you see the scenes from Northern Italy? We planned so that didn't happen. The NHS was not overwhelmed but had to turn into a COVID treatment service so much of the routine stuff has been delayed. That's one of the main reasons why waiting lists have gone up.
The hospitals were not empty. One issue was having to run COVID wards & non-COVID wards. Depending on the number of COVID positive patients at any particular time you could find empty beds on the COVID wards or non-COVID wards.
It's total rubbish to claim that doctors & nurses were sent home for 14 days every time they came in contact with someone that was presumed to have COVID. That's just untrue. Those who tested positive were sent home until they tested negative. Latterly testing was only done if symptomatic. The reason for sending home staff with COVID is obvious it's to stop them infecting vulnerable patients.
Did you also see the hall full of coffins that was completely fake, yet shown in most of the mainstream media as covid deaths to stoke up hysteria?

I saw the scenes from our own hospitals, which is somewhat more relevant. Also my nice has a very significant communications job with a large group of hospitals. I got information from her all through 2020 & 2021. The only problems they had was running out of staff because they all got sent home when they weren't ill. There were hardly any covid patients because any that came in seriously ill got bumped off with a cocktail of morphine and midazolam, unless they got strangled by the ventilators.
 
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flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
53,284
30,660
Anecdotally after vaccination was available I never saw anyone severely ill with COVID who had been vaccinated. I saw plenty who were severely ill with COVID none of them had been vaccinated. Quite a few of these patients died.
Unfortunately the Tory policy of deliberately starving the NHS of funds has meant that the service is worse than it was in 2010.
I wouldn't argue with any of that, quite obviously the vaccine had a medicinal value in considerably lessening the ill effects of Covid infection, and I posted as such then while criticising some other aspects.

But the government's own data which said that, also inconveniently proved that areas with high vaccination rates all too often had much higher death rates than those with very low vaccination rates. Another bit of their nonsense was the ethnic vulnerability to Covid they gave early in the pandemic. Four times higher for the black population, 2.5 times for the Asian population etc.

So throughout 2021 and 2022 I used the governments own tool and data to track many areas, but in particular the three vertically adjacent boroughs of Lambeth, Croydon and Tandridge to check vaccination rates, death rates and black population proportions. These three boroughs have a very high incidence of interchange for work, shopping and travel between and across them using all means of transport.

Lambeth is an inner South London borough extending from the Thames down to Croydon borough. With just over 30% black population overall and 46% in the North Brixton area I measured, they have a very low vaccination rate, 54.5% first and second doses and 38.5% first booster. Their weekly death rate throughout the two years was between 0 and 0.5%, reported at the time in my frequent posts then. Negligible in effect

Croydon where I live is an outer London Borough, having 8.8% black population and a lowish mid level vaccination rate of 72.7% both first doses and 55.8% first booster. The weekly death rate throughout was centred around 1.5%, very rarely dropping below 1% and often rising well beyond 2%.

Tandridge below Croydon is a Surrey fairly rural borough with a peak of 2.1% black population and a very high vaccines conformity, 87.7% first and second doses, 77.4% first booster. The death rates throughout were always much higher than Croydon's and very frequently over 4.5%.

The median ages rise across the three north to south from Lambeth to Tandridge but nowhere near enough to account for these results. And as mentioned above, I didn't confine my measurements to these. I even went as far as comparisons in the far north of England where the government had been concerned about the stubborn failure of the vaccines to perform well enough there.

Sorry to disappoint, but the government's own data and their own tool leave the claims of the vaccine efficacy and their ethnic vulnerability claims in tatters. Eventually they woke up to the fact that smart cookies like me were able to use what they provided to disprove what they were saying, so they started to disable the tool going into 2023.

However, you can still check my statements of the vaccination rates in the three boroughs by entering the below postcodes into the box provided at the foot:

North Brixton: SW9 7QD. Scroll down when in the page to see the whole of Lambeth.

Croydon: CR0 9HL , my area, scroll down for the whole of Croydon.

Tandridge: RH8 0PG , Oxted the populated centre, scroll down for the whole borough.

The past death rates are no longer present of course, and the rest has been deliberately sabotaged now as said, by omitting much of the precise data necessary to carry on measuring accurately.

The tool, what's left of it now:

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flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
53,284
30,660
That may be a result of natural selection. Joking aside, there are still people who still die with covid even now. Going from here, the Covid mRNA vaccines seem to be quite crude. They made a lot of money for Pfizer and Moderna for sure and they were lucky that UK government cover their product liability.
An answer posted on 29th December 2021:

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nigelbb

Esteemed Pedelecer
Sep 19, 2019
445
378
Did you also see the hall full of coffins that was completely fake, yet shown in most of the mainstream media as covid deaths to stoke up hysteria?

I saw the scenes from our own hospitals, which is somewhat more relevant. Also my nice has a very significant communications job with a large group of hospitals. I got information from her all through 2020 & 2021. The only problems they had was running out of staff because they all got sent home when they weren't ill. There were hardly any covid patients because any that came in seriously ill got bumped off with a cocktail of morphine and midazolam, unless they got strangled by the ventilators.
I worked all through the pandemic 2020-2023 I had COVID in March 2020 & was off work for three weeks. Several of my colleagues were hospitalised with COVID. A couple died.

At times we were swamped with people seriously ill with COVID gasping for breath & dying. We did not run out of staff. It's true that staff with COVID got sent home but that was to protect patients & other staff.

Seriously ill COVID patients were not euthanised. We treated with oxygen, CPAP & some ended up on ITU on a ventilator & recovered.
 
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Peter.Bridge

Esteemed Pedelecer
Apr 19, 2023
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An answer posted on 29th December 2021:

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Are we sure that figure excludes patients that are already in hospital for other reasons and tested positive ?
 

Peter.Bridge

Esteemed Pedelecer
Apr 19, 2023
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I worked all through the pandemic 2020-2023 I had COVID in March 2020 & was off work for three weeks. Several of my colleagues were hospitalised with COVID. A couple died.

At times we were swamped with people seriously ill with COVID gasping for breath & dying. We did not run out of staff. It's true that staff with COVID got sent home but that was to protect patients & other staff.

Seriously ill COVID patients were not euthanised. We treated with oxygen, CPAP & some ended up on ITU on a ventilator & recovered.
Just watched Breathtaking on ITV - sounds depressingly like your experience
 

soundwave

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May 23, 2015
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flecc

Member
Oct 25, 2006
53,284
30,660
Are we sure that figure excludes patients that are already in hospital for other reasons and tested positive ?
Oh dear, any attempt to discredit a simple inconvenient fact! What I posted then proved beyond any doubt that statements that the great majority of ICU covid patents had not been vaccinated were bunkum, which wouldn't be altered by inclusion of a few patients with such a test.
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nigelbb

Esteemed Pedelecer
Sep 19, 2019
445
378
Oh dear, any attempt to discredit a simple inconvenient fact! What I posted then proved beyond any doubt that statements that the great majority of ICU covid patents had not been vaccinated were bunkum, which wouldn't be altered by inclusion of a few patients with such a test.
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Some will still get ill even if vaccinated so when we have very high rates of vaccination some of those who are vaccinated will fall ill but it's less likely & if they do fall ill they will have a milder illness.

Let's say we have 100 patients who all catch COVID with 90% of them vaccinated. If 50% of the 10 ICU beds are occupied by unvaccinated that means the chance of ending up in ICU with COVID if unvaccinated is 1:2 whereas for the vaccinated it's 1:18.