In the week-ending 8th November 2020, 94.9% of all Covid cases were caused by community transmission and only 1.2% were definitely acquired in hospital. The level has now fallen for two weeks in a row but there is no media coverage. As cases rose in October, BBC Scotland were most interested and Lisa Summers tweeted excitedly: BBC Scotland then reported: The Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine reported that the level in England, in October, varied between 17% and 25%, up to 12 times higher. They have not repeated their data so far. Continue reading Media silence as Hospital onset Covid cases fall again

Who owns and manages Inchmarlo care home? See if the BBC report gives you a clue? Several residents of a care home in Aberdeenshire have died following a major coronavirus outbreak, it has been confirmed. A total of 91 positive cases have been recorded at Inchmarlo Care Home, which has been closed to new admissions and visitors. A major incident was declared on Monday by health officials in charge of tackling the outbreak. NHS Grampian said it was stood down on Tuesday when “extra support” was found. The exact number of deaths has not been revealed. A spokesman for the health … Continue reading This is not a council care home (2)

Who do you think owns and manages this care home? Read the full BBC Scotland report: NHS Fife has confirmed that a number of people with Covid-19 have died at a care home in Dunfermline. Canmore Lodge Care Home has 67 positive cases – 35 residents and 32 members of staff. NHS Fife has not revealed how many people have died but said it was fewer than five. The board‘s deputy director of public health, Dr Esther Curnock, said: “Our thoughts are very much with their families’ and loved ones.” She added: “We are working alongside our colleagues in the … Continue reading This is not a council care home – BBC and Herald neglect to tell you

Once more, another ‘Scottish’ health correspondent with their gaze directed away, reveals their ignorance. In the Herald today: AS parts of Scotland exit Level 4 restrictions tomorrow, it’s worth considering what these measures achieved – and how long any gains might last. Across Scotland, the average number of Covid cases being detected each day – at 691 – has returned to levels last seen in early October. The writer correctly draws our attention to the fatal, literally, mistake made by the Labour Government in Wales to think that a two week ‘firebreak’ starting on 23rd October followed by a return to more … Continue reading What Scotland did not need to learn

This tells us everything. The Labour Party has not one currently active politician who could credibly lead their campaign to save the Union. Think back only 7 years and, for all their obvious faults, they had a reasonable cluster of MPs and MSPs with experience at a senior level in Scottish and/or UK politics – Brown, Darling, Reid, Alexander, McConnell, Chisholm, McLeish. There were even one or two Lib Dems and Tories with a bit of a reputation – Michael Moore, Annabel Goldie? I know, non were that good but at least they had candidates. They have no one at … Continue reading I knew it. He’s the best the NO Campaign has

You’ll remember the opposition parties/media pals feeding frenzy on the Covid outbreaks in student accomodation. Today with little fuss, the First Minister offered a little perspective. The outbreaks were quickly suppressed by the early days of October with two thirds of them in a three week period from the end of September. There have been no major outbreaks since then. Three quarters of the cases were in Edinburgh and Glasgow and most of this in only two locations: Pollock Halls in Edinburgh, and the Murano Halls in Glasgow. It was never much of a story. Continue reading Campus outbreaks were few and short-lived

Reporting on the decision to cancel this year’s Higher and Advanced higher exams in the interests of fairness, BBC Radio 4 this morning offered the most disgraceful example of reporting. Using two critical sources, passively accepting their tirades and neither challenging them nor interviewing any balancing sources, this contravened their published editorial guidelines and their charter requiring them to inform and to educate. We heard from Dorothy McGinty head teacher of a fee-paying girls’ school describing the situation as ‘chaotic‘ and that regular provider of anti-SNP soundbites,Lindsay Paterson, agreeing with the description. Paterson then goes on to tell us that … Continue reading BBC Radio 4 utterly imbalanced on Exam cancellations

Get me somebody who can’t count! The overall Covid infection rate per 1 m pop in England is now 43.5% higher and the death rate is 33% higher, than in Scotland: Recent Scottish Covid death rate refuses to satisfy BBC agenda: Situation Vacant: BBC Andrew Marr Show: Chief Statistician Must be able find something to suggest SNP Government failure. Accuracy is negotiable. Footnote: Response to my complaint: Continue reading SHOCK evidence SNP pandemic strategy much better

The Scottish Hospitality Group campaigns on behalf of the corporate chains of bars and restaurants and prioritises their profits over saving lives. They’ve come up with some figures suggesting they get less financial support than equivalents in Wales do. I can’t see the data so I’ll reserve judgement on that one. I’m more concerned with this, especially in Level 3 and 4 areas: We know from research that restaurants and bars can be ‘superspreaders’ of infection: First, the highly respect Nature Medicine published research in September, tracing an outbreak to four bars in Hong Kong. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-1092-0 Second, also in September, a US Centers … Continue reading What’s yours? Nothing yet pal

I missed this at the time, in The Scottish Farmer, August 16th. As far as I can see nowhere in the MSM thought it news worth sharing. Here’s what they said: SCOTLAND REMAINS the envy of its UK counterparts in its efforts to eradicate bovine Tuberculosis (bTB), however, a post-EU era presents a new farming landscape and farmers have been urged not to get complacent in their efforts to control the disease. Scotland was officially granted bovine TB free status (OTF) from the EU in 2009 and with the exception of a few isolated incidents in the south-west and north-east … Continue reading ‘SCOTLAND REMAINS the envy of its UK counterparts’ was not the news