Escape From Lockdown is a podcast produced by Alexander McCarron, a British film producer who found himself out of work earlier this year. Since his first podcast interview in April he has spoken with 25 people from different walks of life, all in relation to different aspects relating to England’s, and a lesser extent Europe and the West’s lockdowns.
Every episode I’ve heard so far has been educational and captivating. Today I heard Claire Wills, a lawyer and human rights campaigner fighting for care home residents and sharing some seriously heart rending stories. Other interviews have been with data experts, authors, pathologists, private business leaders, sociologists, researchers and many more. Today he published his latest interview with Sebastian Rushworth MD, self described as “a physician practising in Stockholm, Sweden. My primary interests are evidence based medicine, medical history and medical ethics”. I haven’t heard it yet but he speaks of his experiences treating Covid patients in Sweden.
I recently had communication with a private school in Cambodia where I have sponsored two children for about five years. Some months ago the school closed in response to fears about the pandemic, offering online learning instead. I stopped sponsorship and have not agreed to continue since their reopening because of my strong opposition to the harmful political decisions being made, combined with a need to send money for food in horrifically desperate times. Assuming incorrectly that I had fears about virus transmission amongst school children (who carry no risk anyway, in a country with no transmission anyway), the school wrote to me with information about the measures being taken “to protect the children”. Some of these measures are anti-public health and so much expense is going towards a non existent issue in places where people are starving to death!
We purchased a thermographic camera (like airports have) to check temperatures on arrival;
We have hand sanitizer available throughout the campus that is automatically dispensed;
We have 12 contactless taps with automatic soap dispensers;
We have indicated in the playground places for kids to play to remain at a distance; (an especially harmful imposition to childhood development)
We have contactless doors;
We have 1.5m distancing between students in classrooms with maximum class numbers at 25 students (in huge classrooms);
Students and staff must always wear a mask whilst on the school grounds;
Students are reminded to wash their hands and reminded not to share food by our school nurse;
We have outsourced our cleaning to a professional cleaning company.
He then went on to praise the “success” of the government in “protecting” the population through these measures. As has become usual in 2020, Covid harm is the entire focus – to the point that masses starving or childhood development being irrevocably harmed is an irrelevance!
Over the months I have developed a sense that there must be some sort of population immunity in parts of Asia, including Cambodia, where local transmission of Covid simply has not established. Yesterday this idea was supported by an article published in Nature Magazine: Coronaviruses closely related to the pandemic virus discovered in Japan and Cambodia. “The viruses, both found in bats stored in laboratory freezers, are the first SARS-CoV-2 relatives to be found outside China”. So whilst authoritarian governments take credit for imposing harmful draconian demands on many millions of people in order to “save” them from one single virus, the real credit appears to be … nature?
The following thought provoking video recites an essay written by Stacey Rudin, comparing pro-lockdown and anti-lockdown with each other and with events in history.
Lockdown: the right side of history
alicespringstomind 