Ali C

I feel there’s a mass psychosis happening. The government says we should be scared, the media says we should be scared and the general public are whipped up into a frenzy of fear and segregation. For me it’s not *just* that we don’t know long term data, it’s the way it’s been handled by people who seemingly have no clue what they’re doing, or only doing things to benefit them (I’m sure Boris will have all his failings forgotten when he’s triumphantly claiming that under his party he “got the country vaccinated and out of the pandemic”) or their pals. I worry this is a the start of a yellow star type situation, we’re the frogs sat in a slowly boiling pot of water. “It’s just a lockdown” “it’s just a Covid passport” “it’s just a curfew” “it’s just barbed wire” etc. it’s maybe a bit of a jump to get to that conclusion but ever since Brexit was suggested I’ve lost all of my trust to these people in power and I personally find the whole vaccine thing fishy, my lack of long term data point still stands and I still think there’s other routes that could be looked into if it wasn’t so taboo but on top of that I simply don’t want any part of what the government is doing or saying. Covid is no longer a public health topic but is now totally politicized

We've finally had our potential house valued, at first they estimated the value from looking online at other houses and how they've sold in the past. They came back with £385k which was far too high (we have to pay half to buy out Jane's brothers share). I think they assumed we wanted a higher number as usually when a house is left in a will the family will sell it but we want it lower so we can actually live in it. This house is the smallest in the area (2 bed bungalow compared with 4-5 bed houses) although it does have more land. They sent someone round to look in person and have now said the value is £320k...We thought it was a £300k house but everythings taking so long we will just accept it. Apparently it doesn't even matter it turns out, we can just agree a price between family rather than having to go by the valuation so according to Jane her brother will accept the 300k number if it means we can get a house to ourselves, he's a workaholic electrician and not short on cash and just wants to pay off his mortgage so we're going to set up our own mortgage and he gets the £150k share. We're happy as this means we get a £300k+ house for £150k. At the moment we're still waiting on lawyers to finalise things but we're hoping we can get all the paperwork done by next year and start actually making this house ours.

This is something I’ve brought up with friends, the government has seemingly done everything it can to make us unhealthy during the pandemic when they should’ve put all-round health as a number one priority. Lockdowns might have helped but there shouldn’t have been any restriction on how long you can go out and exercise or where you can exercise (I got kicked off a pumptrack by the police despite not being near anyone else). Gyms should’ve opened sooner than they did, especially in winter when some people can’t go out and exercise due to the weather or darkness, keeping them shut as long as they did caused physical and mental health deterioration. The whole “eat out to help out” was just encouraging people to eat fast food, not ideal when exercising is limited. Im shocked when I go into towns and see how large everyone is, it’s far more common to see overweight people than it is a lean person. If health is a help in fighting off Covid then there’s been a lot of wrong steps during this pandemic

No it’s the same here, there’s free kits that can be sent out and loads of centres you can go to, my issue is that they seem woefully inaccurate (I know lots of people who’ve tested positive while having zero symptoms). There are more accurate tests but I believe they cost around £70 (the type needed of you want to travel abroad).

I’m not going to pay for a proper test and the number of people who get a positive test with zero symptoms from the free ones makes me question their accuracy. I’m going to just see how it develops, I just feel like I’ve got a very slight cold

Don’t think I’d do anything unless there was damage done?

Fair enough, I did think it would’ve been odd if they included last years stats too. I had wondered if I had finally contracted Covid as I felt pretty rough yesterday but I’m confident it’s just a cold as I don’t have any of the symptoms so I’m just gonna see how it goes. I did hang out with someone who had a cold given to him by his young kid and then I was outside in the cold for a long time yesterday so I’m pretty sure it’s not Covid

Personally it’s never been something that “wore off” if I tried to endure it out, I had to find components that lessened the effect. If you can find a foam grip in a firmness you like it’s pretty easy to skim off some material (I used a knife, other methods may work too). I rather liked some cheap foam grips from eBay that the name escapes me (they were kinda Richey copies) but they were a bit inconsistent, they were cheap enough that you could buy a few and chuck the ones you don’t like though.

I read somewhere (top research there Ali) that hospital case figures used both this years AND last years figures, this would obviously include the whole time people were unvaccinated. Take that with a pinch of salt unless I/you can find proof though. I’ll totally come back and admit I was an idiot if I end up seriously ill, that hat will get eaten but until then I still don’t think it’s worth it personally. I’m not here to convince anyone to not take the vaccine, people can do what they like, this is how I personally feel about it.

You mean from a spreading it point of view or catching it? (Or other?)

Hopefully this means easier travel in the future, especially if they get rid of Covid passports but I guess this might apply only to vaccinated people? edit: apparently they’re thinking of scrapping vaccine passports by winter, I wonder if other countries will follow suit?

Oh? I didn’t think they were spamming!

Lol! It was such a small case study that it was far from conclusive (fewer than 40 people if I remember correctly and 7 needed looking at closer). From other sources it seems similar to taking certain supplements, the body will stop producing certain things if it is being provided it from an outside source but when that source is taken away the body will return to producing its own (creatine for example).

Not sure, they weren’t controversial just showed a study from a Nigerian university around ivermectin and effects on sperm.

Looks like some got deleted

Ah my bad, I missed that. Sadly I agree that people would happily shout those same stats if the shoe was on the other foot, I’m trying to take emotion out of it (hence calling Joe Rogan out despite him promoting my viewpoint) and look at things scientifically but at the moment there’s still a lot of conflicting test results on both sides, we’re still trying to figure things out and my mindset is that I’d like way more data on both the virus and the vaccines before I would be happy to get vaxxed myself

I don't think that's too much cause for concern. The test was done in a third world country (harsh but it counts) that isn't as reputable as other sources. They didn't test specifically for Sars Cov 2, they didn't mention if it's in conjunction with other drugs or solely Ivermectin, they didn't say the dosage amount and the sample size was small (they didn't/couldn't give a percentage result). Ivermectin has been around for ~50 years and been used millions/billions of times...if it caused sperm count issues it's not been a big enough issue to be brought up. As it stands, the worst result you could really get from using Ivermectin is that it doesn't work...that's the worst that can happen and worth more discussion and research.

as much as I would like Ivermectin to be more open to discussion and have more funding for tests I think it's a bit rich of Joe to be jumping to conclusions that is instantly cured him when he also took every other drug available if you're rich and can afford it. I'm not a huge fan of Joe in general (I think he has a little superiority complex) but it'll be interesting to see if Ivermectin becomes less taboo after this.

I dunno, there’s something I can’t put my finger on with him. He’s almost too quiet, I get such weird vibes from him…but maybe that is because Trump was so loud like you say.

What’s the deal with president Biden? Trump got so much hate (I wasn’t a huge fan either) but no one seems to be saying anything about Biden? Do people think he’s actually doing a good job? He seems to hide away and is scared of answering live questions and when he does make a speech his words seems slurred like he’s on some pretty heavy meds. He seems really quite weird and is making some pretty sketchy decisions.

When I say clued up I mean if you’re a scientist familiar with the subject or know someone that is (in my case my fiancée who was a biomedical scientist working in infectious diseases labs and studied virology). I totally agree that it can be dangerous to self medicate if you’re not knowledgeable about meds etc.

Agreed unless they are clued up on the subject or know someone who is

I usually flex the chain sideways by hand focusing on the stiff link, not the most scientific but I’ve done it for the past ten years and not noticed any ill effects

sounds like they’re taking the version meant for animals rather than humans?

I’m not anti-vax but… In related news, seen the anti vaccination passport protests in France? Seems people aren’t keen on the idea