Coronavirus

[Mudface]

This is a sad and infuriating story. All this bullshit destroying people's lives because a few 'libertarian' grifters see an opportunity to keep themselves relevant and make a few quid. Evil cunts.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/23/gary-matthews-duped-by-lying-anti-vaxxers-his-death-is-at-their-door

 

Mourn Gary Matthews and recognise that Covid conspiracies endanger life

One man’s tragic tale reveals much about the reach and harm of anti-science propaganda
Gary Matthews: ‘He was a gentle guy. He wanted a better world.’

Gary Matthews fell headlong into a subterranean world haunted by vicious fantasies. But he wasn’t vicious himself. “I knew him since he was 19,” his friend Peter Roscoe told me. “He was a gentle guy. He wanted a better world. I am so sorry in recent times he became convinced that Covid was some kind of hoax.”

The “hoax” killed him, his relatives said. He had a positive Covid-19 test and went home to isolate. He died, aged 46, alone in his flat in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, on 13 January.

His short life and lonely death seem as far from the overindulged world of London’s anti-scientific right as it is possible to get. Matthews was hard up and all but unknown. He could never have been a Toby Young or Julia Hartley-Brewer. The Telegraph would never have let him write columns declaring with no evidence whatsoever that the common cold could provide “natural immunity” to Covid-19. Talkradio would never have paid him to shout that the “virus isn’t causing excess deaths any more” even as the corpses piled up in mortuaries. No local Conservative association would have thought of adopting Matthews in the hope he would become the next Steve Baker. None of them would have given him the time of day.

Roscoe said he met the young Matthews when he was selling Socialist Worker and that rings true. People who began with vaguely greenish, vaguely leftish politics and ended up believing that 5G causes cancer and big pharma wants to kill you are a large part of the anti-vaxx movement. Assuming they are not just cynics milking the perennially profitable stupidity market, the crank rightwingers in the media and politics appear to be their opposites. An ultra-conservative hatred of the state drives them. How dare it tell us to wear “face nappies”? How dare it restrict my freedom and build its tyrannical power by feeding me the lie that lockdowns save more lives than they destroy? They claim to be respectable “lockdown sceptics” rather than weirdo conspiracy theorists. But, as we shall see, that is a distinction without difference.

It is worth remembering Matthews and not only because so many are dying around us without even a paragraph in their local paper to mark their passing. His creepy conspiracy sites are not so far from the newspaper columns and radio shows of the London right. Not far at all.

Covid can’t have killed him. No hard fact can be allowed to break through the defensive walls of an enclosed ideology
Matthews left few traces online. Pretty much all you can see is that he made a bit of money as an artist and amateur photographer. His acquaintances in Shrewsbury described an inaccessible man. He had “this rather guarded manner and just seemed very uncomfortable”, said one. “But he found his ‘tribe’ in this very murky world which is, of course, longing for people to join its ranks.”

The kingpin of Covid denialists in Shrewsbury is called Charlie Parker. Attention-seeking and self-assured, he was everything Matthews was not. Videos on one of the thousands of private Facebook groups that spread so many lies show a bearded man in middle age confronting Jacob Rees-Mogg and declaring: “We know the British [Covid] figures are being inflated.” Meanwhile, the Shropshire Star reported that Parker was arrested after a pointless anti-lockdown protest on the roof of a local college.

Parker said that Matthews was a co-founder of his “Shropshire Corona Resilience Network” Facebook group. I managed to join and could find no trace of Matthews. All I could see was the pornography of the paranoid. There were quack posts on how vaccines may kill you. Anti-NHS posts accusing doctors of “fear-mongering”. Racist posts saying that Jews deserved to be persecuted. Pro-Putin posts from his RT propaganda station. But nothing by or about Matthews, until he died, that is, when a grotesque struggle over his body began.

Covid can’t have killed him, it just can’t. No hard fact can be allowed to break through the defensive walls of an enclosed ideology, even after the death of a friend. “The cause of death is currently listed as Covid-19,” Parker told his followers. “It is now the duty of those he has left behind to ensure that his name is not used to further this gargantuan fraud.” Parker hinted that Matthews had asthma and it might have killed him. (This is news to his family.) Others suggested he took his own life. I’ve seen screenshots of a WhatsApp conversation where a Shrewsbury conspiracist says he “could have been murdered” by shadowy figures – Bill Gates, maybe, or the head of an intensive care unit – because he was “part of the movement, one of us”.

Matthews’s cousin Tristan Copeland said he had begged him to wear a mask and maintain social distance. “But he and his friends had the mindset that they needed to go out and meet people to show they didn’t believe the government.” Perhaps his posturing killed him.

How mad and how different from what passes for respectable opinion. But shift the conversation just a little and the conspiracy theories are not so different from the propaganda pouring out of rightwing radio stations and newspapers. Their claims that masks and lockdowns don’t work, that Covid is no more deadly than the flu, that 91% of so-called Covid cases are false positives and that there are no excess deaths are as false as imagining Gates wants to microchip the world and just as deadly. It’s not that they are made by people who know nothing that makes them so objectionable. They are made by people who can never know anything. Just as the anti-vaxxers of Shrewsbury had to deny the reason for the death of their comrade, so the presenters on Talkradio and LBC and the columnists on the Telegraph must maintain their ignorance and scream down all who try to enlighten them or their audience will look elsewhere.

Throughout this piece, I have tried to emphasise that Gary Matthews’s true friends said that he may have been an unlucky and limited man but he wasn’t a bad man. He deserved better than to have his life endangered by a flood of fake news – and so do millions of others.

[easytoslip]

10 hours ago, Caramac said:

Its fine to not know what to say mate. I find myself in that position a lot recently. Difficult times.

It is, I can barely imagine what it's like to lose your Mum, as some also have on here, so best wishes and look after your Dad, take care. 

[YorkshireRed]

12 hours ago, Caramac said:

I lost my mum to the virus yesterday. She was 86 and had been in a care home for just coming up to six years suffering from alzheimers.

The care home seemed to be keeping the virus at bay up until a couple of weeks ago and then my mum tested positive around ten days ago. She seemed to be doing ok but then in a space of less than 24 hrs she deteriorated quickly.

We got a call from them saying she was really poorly so we hurried up there and myself, dad and brother were allowed in separately for 15 mins to say our goodbyes. Within a couple of hours she had passed away :(

Sorry to read your news. Thoughts with you and all your family. 

[Section_31]

What are people's thoughts about this new variant? Isn't it dubious that the only people who talk about it being easier to catch or now more lethal are johnson and his cronies, swiftly followed by a load of stories along the lines of 'scientists not sure', 'more data needed'. Is this simply an easy bogeyman to take the fall for all their countless mistakes?

 

I suspect also they're trying to sow doom via their media contacts to get you prepped for the worst case scenario, so that when they pull the throttle back it's actually a relief. I.e, if they'd told you at Christmas lockdowm will last until Easter you'd be gutted, but if they drip  drip it "may last until summer', but then it does in fact only last until Easter, you're out with the neighbours Morris dancing, linking arms and singing we are the world, we are the children.

[Brownie]

Just now, Section_31 said:

What are people's thoughts about this new variant? Isn't it dubious that the only people who talk about it being easier to catch or now more lethal are johnson and his cronies, swiftly followed by a load of stories along the lines of 'scientists not sure', 'more data needed'. Is this simply an easy bogeyman to take the fall for all their countless mistakes?

 

I suspect also they're trying to sow doom via their media contacts to get you prepped for the worst case scenario, so that when they pull the throttle back it's actually a relief. I.e, if they'd told you at Christmas lockdowm will last until Easter you'd be gutted, but if they drip  drip it "may last until summer', but then it does in fact only last until Easter, you're out with the neighbours Morris dancing, linking arms and singing we are the world, we are the children.

From what I’ve seen and read, the scientists and public health experts talk a lot about it as well, so it doesn’t seem like just a political excuse at this point. 

[Section_31]

2 minutes ago, Brownie said:

From what I’ve seen and read, the scientists and public health experts talk a lot about it as well, so it doesn’t seem like just a political excuse at this point. 

I've seen no definitive declarations from the scientific community though, have you? Genuine question.

 

Always seems to be heavily caveated. Seems unusual for a government to present this kind of stuff as read before the facts are known. His big fat fucking mouth did land us with a load of travel bans though.

[Brownie]

2 minutes ago, Section_31 said:

I've seen no definitive declarations from the scientific community though, have you? Genuine question.

 

Always seems to be heavily caveated. Seems unusual for a government to present this kind of stuff as read before the facts are known. His big fat fucking mouth did land us with a load of travel bans though.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/transmission/variant.html

[Section_31]

3 minutes ago, Brownie said:

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/transmission/variant.html

 

"Currently, there is no evidence that it causes more severe illness or increased risk of death."

 

Thing on CNN saying they've asked the UK government for the data so they can study it themselves.

 

Also:

 

https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-too-early-to-know-if-uk-variant-is-more-deadly-say-scientists-12196650

 

As I say, it may be true, problem is that these people lie so often nobody knows what is up or down.

[suzy]

On 24/01/2021 at 10:08, Section_31 said:

What are people's thoughts about this new variant? Isn't it dubious that the only people who talk about it being easier to catch or now more lethal are johnson and his cronies, swiftly followed by a load of stories along the lines of 'scientists not sure', 'more data needed'. Is this simply an easy bogeyman to take the fall for all their countless mistakes?

 

I suspect also they're trying to sow doom via their media contacts to get you prepped for the worst case scenario, so that when they pull the throttle back it's actually a relief. I.e, if they'd told you at Christmas lockdowm will last until Easter you'd be gutted, but if they drip  drip it "may last until summer', but then it does in fact only last until Easter, you're out with the neighbours Morris dancing, linking arms and singing we are the world, we are the children.

I’m sure it was originally said it was more contagious but not so “deadly “ but now they’re saying the opposite?! All very odd. My husband’s case was more like flu but he’s never had 2 weeks off in his life before ill. So it was bad for him but nowhere near as bad as some poor people.

[Brownie]

Just now, Section_31 said:

 

"Currently, there is no evidence that it causes more severe illness or increased risk of death."

 

Thing on CNN saying they've asked the UK government for the data so they can study it themselves.

I’m talking purely about it being more transmissible. That link mentions in several parts that the new variants are.

 

The comments about them being more deadly were only made yesterday, so I wouldn’t expect there to be any concrete evidence either way yet.

 

[Moo]

The BMA have now wrote to Whitty urging him re reconsider the 12 week interval on the Pfizer vaccine and reduce it to 6 weeks (in line with the WHO advice of 4 weeks or 6 in exceptional circumstances)

[Section_31]

I just think it's all very suss.

 

"Hey Hancock, scientists said the tier system doesn't work and you need a proper lockdown, is that way cases didn't go down?"

 

"No it's the new variant isn't it, it's like the terminator and can pass through walls."

 

"Hey Hancock, these death rates are obscene, is this because you let everyone go Christmas shopping?"

 

"Well actually, funny you should say that, as we think this new variant is actually more deadly too."

[Brownie]

1 minute ago, Section_31 said:

I just think it's all very suss.

 

"Hey Hancock, scientists said the tier system doesn't work and you need a proper lockdown, is that way cases didn't go down?"

 

"No it's the new variant isn't it, it's like the terminator and can pass through walls."

 

"Hey Hancock, these death rates are obscene, is this because you let everyone go Christmas shopping?"

 

"Well actually, funny you should say that, as we think this new variant is actually more deadly too."

It will all come out in the wash. The new variants being more transmissible is what the scientists are saying.

 

Any increase in death rate will too.

[YorkshireRed]

19 minutes ago, Section_31 said:

I just think it's all very suss.

 

"Hey Hancock, scientists said the tier system doesn't work and you need a proper lockdown, is that way cases didn't go down?"

 

"No it's the new variant isn't it, it's like the terminator and can pass through walls."

 

"Hey Hancock, these death rates are obscene, is this because you let everyone go Christmas shopping?"

 

"Well actually, funny you should say that, as we think this new variant is actually more deadly too."

I’ve no conclusive data to back this up but my hunch is that the new variant probably does do what they’re saying it does on its tin. No doubt though, that it’s been jumped on as a way to let them off the hook for mistakes made in the last quarter of last year. Something of a convenient crisis. 

[Rushies tash]

28 minutes ago, Brownie said:

I’m talking purely about it being more transmissible. That link mentions in several parts that the new variants are.

 

The comments about them being more deadly were only made yesterday, so I wouldn’t expect there to be any concrete evidence either way yet.

 

An increase from 10 in 1000 to 13 in 1000 in over 60s men I think the data was. So naturally the headlines scream "30% More Deadly!!!"

[Brownie]

7 minutes ago, Rushies tash said:

An increase from 10 in 1000 to 13 in 1000 in over 60s men I think the data was. So naturally the headlines scream "30% More Deadly!!!"

Yeah, just highlights that people’s understanding of maths isn’t the best is it?!

[Tj hooker]

Haven't been near this thread for a while , So sorry for your loss @Caramac I can only add my sincerest condolences mate 

[Rico1304]

Bloke from Sage on the radio saying they are starting to see younger people in ICU. Average age of death hasn’t changed yet.  

[Rushies tash]

9 minutes ago, Rico1304 said:

Bloke from Sage on the radio saying they are starting to see younger people in ICU. Average age of death hasn’t changed yet.  

I suppose the more older people who get vaccinated, the average age of those being hospitalised will come down too, sadly.

[Bjornebye]

My chest has only gradually got better. I'm shitting myself about getting again because I reckon if I get it now with my chest as it is I'm defo ending up in hospital. I'm quite a fit guy as well usually. Obviously people are far more at risk but this virus is a threat to everyone no matter how much of a Karen cunt you are. 

[Harry's Lad]

15 hours ago, Caramac said:

I lost my mum to the virus yesterday. She was 86 and had been in a care home for just coming up to six years suffering from alzheimers.

The care home seemed to be keeping the virus at bay up until a couple of weeks ago and then my mum tested positive around ten days ago. She seemed to be doing ok but then in a space of less than 24 hrs she deteriorated quickly.

We got a call from them saying she was really poorly so we hurried up there and myself, dad and brother were allowed in separately for 15 mins to say our goodbyes. Within a couple of hours she had passed away :(

I'm really sorry to hear that mate, awful.

Take care of yourself and yours.

You're in my thoughts.

[Rushies tash]

59 minutes ago, Bjornebye said:

My chest has only gradually got better. I'm shitting myself about getting again because I reckon if I get it now with my chest as it is I'm defo ending up in hospital. I'm quite a fit guy as well usually. Obviously people are far more at risk but this virus is a threat to everyone no matter how much of a Karen cunt you are. 

I was quite lucky in that it didn't really affect my lungs, but my guts have been all over the place since November. I'll wake up some days like I've had food poisoning. Weird.

[Harry's Lad]

14 hours ago, sir roger said:

Best wishes Caramac , I know this thread is the covid one , but what a horrible illness Alzheimers is.

It's a cruel, wicked disease which is really hard on the family which although they do their absolute best, they have to watch their loved one slowly being taken by it.

Dreadful.

 

[Caramac]

9 minutes ago, Harry's Lad said:

It's a cruel, wicked disease which is really hard on the family which although they do their absolute best, they have to watch their loved one slowly being taken by it.

Dreadful.

 

It is, and as you say its such a slow progressive disease. It must be getting on for nine years since my dad first noticed that something wasn't quite right with my mum.

[Stickman]

I never realised Matt Hancock was a Utd legend