Why does the Herald’s health correspondent have no Scottish data or even a ‘decent’ Scottish photo to inform ‘us’

Brighton Beach? Certainly not ‘us’ on Portobello or Ayr South beaches. And, that woman (‘bottom left’) is getting changed! Crop that again!

It looks like this is meant to attract readers who want to be informed on how these ‘alarming’ results might affect how ‘we’ go about exiting lock-down.

You get an early indication, however, of where ‘we’ are going with this report:

Given that the UK’s death rate from Covid currently ranks third highest in the world behind Belgium and Spain (555 deaths per million compared to 574 per million in Spain and 815 per million in Belgium), it is hardly a success story.

Hmmm..is the death rate in Scotland just the same, so not really that important to mention, in a Scottish newspaper?

Well, it’s half the rate or even less depending on whether you use the fake UK Government data or the FT/ONS figures: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2020/05/08/englands-excess-death-rate-nearly-three-times-higher-than-in-scotland/

Might that be useful in thinking about exiting lock-down ‘here’ by ‘us?’

The report is about the ‘alarming’ failure of populations across Europe to have developed any kind of immunity to Covid-19, evidenced by the presence of antibodies in the blood. Even in countries, like Spain, with a huge death toll, only 5% seem to have developed the antibodies and so they remain alarmingly vulnerable to a second wave.

And, Scotland?

In Scotland, we are now three weeks into a randomised antibody surveillance project using blood samples collected from various health boards and analysed centrally in Inverness. No results have yet been disclosed, however.

So, in a Scottish newspaper, no data because the results are not yet published? Maybe wait until they are?

And, ‘disclosed’ eh? Not just ‘not published yet’ but ‘No results have yet been dislcosed.’ Oooooh! Do you think there might be a cover-up, eh? Have you been speaking to that Ian Murray or Jackson, eh? Eh?

11 thoughts on “Why does the Herald’s health correspondent have no Scottish data or even a ‘decent’ Scottish photo to inform ‘us’

  1. No mention of a vaccine? No results disclosed?

    “INO-4800 targets the major surface antigen Spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes the coronavirus. Inovio said the studies demonstrated that vaccination with INO-4800 generated “robust binding and neutralising antibody as well as T cell responses” in mice and guinea pigs.”

    https://www.lse.co.uk/news/inovio-says-covid-vaccine-produces-antibodies-in-animals-3juxydzgxtjy19w.html

    Liked by 1 person

    1. It is Brighton Beach. The big sticky up thing is one of those towers that you can ride up to the top on the outside in a sort of capsule contraption. A relatively recent addition to the beach side attractions.

      I think this is a stock photo.

      Liked by 1 person

  2. Many years ago, the first Lord Rothermere, who founded/owned The Daily Mail spoke of ‘giving people their daily dose of fear’. He had realised that by providing regular stories about ‘bad’ things – illnesses, crime, foreigners, etc – then a sufficient proportion of the population became anxious and would cleave to ‘strong men’ who had ‘the answer’.

    This is not to say that all of us, or even a majority of us are susceptible to being made anxious at any one time, but, that minority might be enough to stop the status quo being changed.

    Project Fear in 2014 operated on exactly that principle by getting people to worry about pensions, ‘investors’ taking their money away, oil prices falling, not being allowed to travel to see family in England or Wales, etc.

    In 2016 there were two Projects Fear and the one Mr Dominic Cummings managed convinced some people to vote against their interests. Of course people had been softened up for decades by a continual diet of anti-Europe stories in much of our media. Brexit focussed on the frightenable minority and persuaded enough to vote for Leave.

    Ditto in 2019 when a relentlessly vicious harassment of Mr Corbyn and misrepresentation of his policies over several years – aided by a huge tranche of his own party – coupled with an almost complete non-examination of MrJohnson and his policy vacuum, persuaded a chunk of people in North of England constituencies to vote against their own interests.

    This is why we need websites like this to provide different perspectives and more objective data.

    I note today President Trump is to issue an Executive Order curtailing the ability of social media sites to point out the errors in his Tweets. Last night, within minutes of BBC’s Newsnight ending the BBC management dissociated itself from comments made by the presenter, Ms Emily Maitlis. We are still waiting for an official statement regarding Ms Sarah Smith’s comments on the First Minister, although she herself issued three partial ‘apologies’. Ms Maitlis apparently had deviated from the BBC’s ‘standards’ .

    BBC Scotland’s litany of antiNHS Scotland tales is an example of project fear.

    Liked by 3 people

  3. ‘Given that the UK’s death rate from Covid currently ranks third highest in the world .’

    It isn’t a death rate, it is accumulated deaths per million.

    England is higher than Spain so the second highest in the world.

    Liked by 2 people

    1. The Financial Times has Scotland and England break down in its recent excess deaths data
      https://www.ft.com/content/6b4c784e-c259-4ca4-9a82-648ffde71bf0
      N.B. See in article.
      The UK prime minister added: “The only real comparison is going to be possible at the end of the epidemic when you look at total excess deaths.”
      Want to see him woffle is way out of question about that.
      ‘The country wants to move on’ will be his new mantra.
      See
      https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2020/05/lets-move-on-from-boris/

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Will Johnson & Cummings be able to stop the true death figures coming out.
        Currently the (gov) Care home numbers are lower in comparison to other EU countries

        Like

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