imaginingfreedom 3Speak Podcast: Recent Episodes
Natalie
Listen and watch the latest videos from imaginingfreedom. Hosted by 3Speak.tv. The free speech video platform on the HIVE blockchain.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=imaginingfreedom/viwxndkv
Few people see any reason to question the radio or TV news, especially if it's read by someone in a smart suit with an authoritative voice. But once you stop being mesmerised by the headlines and pay more attention to the "small print", a very different picture starts to emerge.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=imaginingfreedom/iqxtbhoz
In this video I explain why I don't agree with the restrictions the Scottish government is imposing on its citizens, and why I will be joining others to protest against these measures on 5th September.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=imaginingfreedom/voeiuyrv
Video transcript:
I often feel as if I'm living in an Alice in Wonderland world these days. We've had our entire lives turned upside down, supposedly to combat a virus whose effects are so mild in the vast majority of the population, that most people don't even realise they've had it! And in order to find out, they have to submit to a reportedly excruciating test.
And yet, at the same time… there does seem to be a nasty bug going round, which supposedly is Covid19. There are so many questions around this. I want to discuss some of the anomalies around this current pandemic, because I have an idea about a possible factor, which might explain some of these anomalies.
I know of two or three people who have recently had an unpleasant flu-like illnesses lasting about seven days. I say two or three, because one of them I haven't been in touch with recently, but I know that he had it, and I think that the symptoms lasted for less than a week. I know that he's recovered.
My other two friends who had it, in February and March, gave me blow-by-blow details as it was happening.
I also know anecdotally about 10 people who suffered very badly from what was probably Covid19. A few of them were relatives of friends or friends of friends. One of my friends lost two older relatives – an uncle and a more distant relative, and a younger friend of hers got it really badly and was ill for weeks.
I also know of a couple of other people through online contacts, who suffered very badly from Covid, and one of them sadly died. One of the bloggers I follow who was ill for weeks with Covid and has thankfully since recovered, is a young woman in her 20s who is very fit, a mountaineer. I don't know whether she has any underlying health issues.
Why is is that some people seem to get seriously ill from this disease, while most others who get infected seem to barely notice it? In the early days of the pandemic, we were told that it was primarily the elderly and immune-compromised people who were more likely to become very sick or dying from Covid19.
But there are also those relatively low numbers of young people who don't seem to have underlying comorbidities, but who also get really sick from Covid-19, and some of this group have tragically died from it.
Why is this, when the vast proportion of people who are infected just get very mild illnesses or don't even realise that they have it?
I started thinking about the idea of "cofounders" – this is when events point to an apparently obvious reason for something, or a correlation, but when you look further, there are other factors behind it.
And this could be the case where Covid19 is concerned.
From the early days of the crisis, the data from Italy and Spain indicated that the vast proportion of people who were dying from Covid-19 were aged over 50, and they were often people who had underlying medical conditions, or comorbities.
Initially I wondered if the reason that Italy was so badly affected might have been because it has the world's second-highest population age.
But the country with the highest population age, or number of older people, is Japan, and its fatality rate from Covid19 is much lower than Italy's or most other countries in Europe.
A couple of months ago, there was some discussion around the idea that the influenza vaccine might be an underlying reason behind some of the respiratory effects attributed to Covid19. Most of those discussions pointed to a scientific research paper entitled Influenza vaccination and respiratory virus interference among Department of Defense personnel during the 2017 to 2018 influenza season.
I read this paper, but at the time I didn't think it seemed particularly conclusive, apart from the suggestion that this "respiratory virus interference" is a phenomenon.
But I keep thinking that this possibility should not be disregarded, because so many elderly and immune-compromised people have the flu vaccine every year, and the fact that there has been a suggestion – even if it's a non-proven one – that certain vaccines could lead to "respiratory virus interference" – surely this is something that warrants further investigation at a time when this strange pandemic is leaving most people barely affected, but with a small proportion of people being severely affected or losing their life.
One way of doing this research might be to look at the number of people under 50, with no underlying health issues, who got seriously ill or died from Covid19, and to find out how many of them had recently had the flu vaccine – and if so, what specific type of flu vaccine they had.
This question becomes even more pertinent when we look at the new types of influenza vaccines that are introduced each season. In 2019, a new cell-based vaccine was introduced in the UK and other parts of Europe, offering protection from four strains of flu.
According to an article that appeared in the Daily Mail in October 2019, Britain was the first country in Europe to introduce this particular type of flu vaccine, which was grown in cells that originated in a dog's kidney instead of the usual chicken's eggs. Apparently this is not unusual in vaccines, because canine cells are more similar to human cells than chicken cells.
I can't say whether virus interference from this new type of vaccine is linked to the more serious aspects of Covid19. But with new types of flu vaccine being developed each year, I would have thought it's something that researchers should be looking into, especially with the northern hemisphere winter just around the corner.
So just to recap…
The vast majority of people who become infected with Covid19 suffer such mild symptoms that most of them don't even realise they've had it.
But there's a small percentage of people who get very ill from the disease, often with acute respiratory problems, and some of them sadly die.
Those people are predominately from older age groups and/or with underlying health conditions.
And those are precisely the same group of people who would normally be advised to have the flu vaccine.
The other group of people who often have the flu vaccine are health workers. They are advised to get it because they are coming into contact with infected people, and they could become infectious to others.
And it seems that health workers, NHS staff, have been disproportionately affected by the most serious respiratory effects of Covid19. I initially thought this was because they were getting exposed to a higher viral load – and that might well be the case, but I really think the possible effects of the flu vaccine should be looked into.
I'm not suggesting that the flu vaccine makes people more susceptible to Covid19. But I do wonder if the flu vaccine could potentially turn Covid19 from a very mild disease into a serious respiratory condition. If that is the case, with the northern hemisphere winter just round the corner, we are definitely going to get a second wave, and there will be many more unnecessary, preventable deaths.
I don't want to needlessly deter vulnerable people from having the flu vaccine, but I personally think this issue needs to be looked into, urgently.
SHOW NOTES
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X19313647#b0060
Could new flu jab made in dogs' kidney cells be the most effective ever?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-7573211/Could-new-flu-jab-dogs-kidney-cells-effective-ever.html
Images from whitesession, Mihai Surdu, Nabin Mewahang, Cottonbro, Geralt, Tomislav Jakupec, Andrey Kirievskiy, Why Steve, Life of Pix, Ahumada Olivares, and Александр Стасюк on Pixabay, Pexels and Videevo
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=imaginingfreedom/mjkkwaqg
These are the words that caused a political storm last week, quoted in a newspaper interview with the actress Maxine Peake. It was described as an "antisemitic conspiracy theory".
"Systemic racism is a global issue. The tactics used by the police in America, kneeling on George Floyd's neck, that was learnt from seminars with Israeli secret services."
Those words were described as "antisemitic" and "a conspiracy theory".
The interview was published in the Independent newspaper, and it led to the sacking of Rebecca Long-Bailey, who was shadow education secretary in the Labour Party, because she retweeted a link to the article, and refused to remove it when asked to do so.
This situation is very serious. I have no affiliations to left or right, and I haven't voted for any political party in a UK general election for years. I vote "NONE", because I think the whole system is corrupt.
I would rather listen to nails scraping down a blackboard than listen to the internal squabbles of the Labour Party. Or any other political party.
But this issue goes deeper than that. This action effectively silences criticism or scrutiny of a foreign country in the name of it being insulting to the people of that country. That is a very dangerous and unjust situation.
The exact wording of Maxine Peake's comment may have been slightly inaccurate – and that's actually debatable. US police have been trained in seminars with Israeli military representatives, though I don't have any proof that they were trained specifically to use the "knee on the neck" practice.
However Israeli police have been using the "knee on the neck" tactic for years, and there are many photos showing them doing this.
I would describe Maxine Peake's comments as possibly inaccurate, but not a conspiracy theory.
And to describe her comments as "antisemitic" is dangerous and unjust. It's dangerous because there should be no country that is off-limits to criticism or scrutiny. If people are prevented from criticising the practices of a country, whether it's their own or another country, then we are livnig under a tyranny.
If I criticise Saudi Arabia for beheading people, does that mean I am being Islamaphobic, just because Saudi Arabia happens to be a country where most of its inhabitants are Muslim?
Of course not. My own country, Britain, used to behead people. It's nothing to do with race or religion.
I think it's outrageous that a man was shot dead by the military in Ghana for breaking the lockdown rules. Ghana's population is mostly black. Does this mean I'm being racist for making such a comment, even though I'm black myself?
I think it's shocking that we're having to fight for the right to express ideas and opinions, for the right to debate and discuss ideas without fear of retribution. Criticising or scrutinising the practices of ANY country, regardless of its race or religion, should not be subject to punishment or accusations of racism.
No country should be accorded special privileges on the basis of the race or religion of its inhabitants.
If criticism of the practices of the Israeli authorities, even if it's inaccurate criticism, is a sackable offence, then that country is being given a special privilege.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews issued a statement condemning Rebecca Long-Bailey for retweeting and praising Maxine Peake's article. The statement said that the interview contained, and I quote, "the conspiracy theory that Israel played a part in the death of George Floyd".
The President of the Board of Deputies, Marie van der Zyl, said:
"As soon as we saw that Rebecca Long-Bailey had shared this, we wrote to her detailing how this conspiracy theory is false and requesting she delete her tweet and issue an apology. Rebecca Long-Bailey's response is frankly pathetic. As someone who aspires to be the next Education Secretary, we would expect her to read and understand materials before sharing them. If she is incapable of doing this, it raises serious and immediate questions about her suitability for the role."
Actually I would say it raises serious and immediate questions about how our so-called democracy is being operated. It appears that the recently appointed leader of the Labour Party, Keir Starmer, has immediately acted on the complaint of the Board of Deputies.
Once again, the opinions of the voters seem to count for nothing.
Two hours after their tweet was posted, the Board of Deputies posted another tweet, which said,
"I would like to thank Keir Starmer for backing his words with actions on antisemitism. After Rebecca Long-Bailey shared a conspiracy theory, we and others gave her the opportunity to retract and apologise. To our surprise and dismay, her response was pathetic. Her position as Shadow Education Secretary was therefore untenable.
"Was therefore untenable" – as if they've sacked her, not the Labour Party.
I think this is a misinterpretation of Maxine Peake's words. There has been a lot of discussion online about the increased militarisation of America's police, and there have certainly been claims that some US police tactics were taught by Israeli police.
And there are many reports of Israeli representatives involved in training American police.
On the 1st June, the Morning Star online reported:
"At least 100 Minnesota police officers attended a 2012 conference hosted by the Israeli consulate in Chicago, the second time such an event had been held.
"There they learned the violent techniques used by Israeli forces as they terrorise the occupied Palestinian territories under the guise of security operations.
"The so-called counterterrorism training conference in Minneapolis was jointly hosted by the FBI.
"Israeli deputy consul Shahar Arieli claimed that the half-day session brought “top-notch professionals from the Israeli police” to share knowledge with their US counterparts.
"It is unclear whether any of the officers involved in the incident in which Mr Floyd was killed attended the conference.
"But in a chilling testimony, a Palestinian rights activist said that when she saw the image of Derek Chauvin kneeling on Mr Floyd’s neck, she was reminded of the Israeli forces’ policing of the occupied territories.
"Neta Golan, the co-founder of International Solidarity Movement (ISM) said: “When I saw the picture of killer cop Derek Chauvin murdering George Floyd by leaning in on his neck with his knee as he cried for help and other cops watched, I remembered noticing when many Israeli soldiers began using this technique of leaning in on our chest and necks when we were protesting in the West Bank sometime in 2006.
“They started twisting and breaking fingers in a particular way around the same time. It was clear they had undergone training for this. They continue to use these tactics — two of my friends have had their necks broken but luckily survived — and it is clear that they [Israel] share these methods when they train police forces abroad in ‘crowd control’ in the US and other countries including Sudan and Brazil.”
Many other publications have posted similar reports (see video for more).
There are conversations that we need to have in this country about the influence of lobby groups. I'm not talking about Jewish lobby groups in particular. There are also black interest lobby groups and Muslim lobby groups. And of course there are business lobby groups. And there are many people of all ethnicities and religious affiliations who use money to influence those in power.
This is an issue that has been concerning me for some time. I did a video recently about Bill Gates and his financial influence over the World Health Organisation, which would see a significant drop in its finances if he withdrew his stake. Our government has been taking a lot of instruction from the World Health Organisation recently, instruction that has had a direct and overbearing influence on my life and the lives of everyone in this country.
I don't want to be a pawn at the mercy of the whims of people with money and influence. We're meant to be a so-called advanced democracy, a free country. But we seem to be rapidly transforming into a kind of oligarchy where money talks and the people are expected to shut up and do what they're told.
The press would normally be expected to investigate issues of political influence. But the press has been muzzled. The ordinary general public doesn't have a voice, except when it surprises the establishment by voting the wrong way, and then "the people" are chastised and patronised as racist or populist.
This is why people turn to independent journalism. Of course we don't all think the same way on every subject, and there's a battle going on for freedom of expression on several online platforms.
The Hate Crime Bill is currently going through the Scottish Parliament, and it will create a new crime of "stirring up hatred" against anyone on the basis of disability, race (and related characteristics), religion, sexual orientation and transgender identity. On the face of it, these seem to be laudable aims. But how do you define "stirring up hatred"? That definition could be stretched to fit all kinds of unintentional behaviour, and it could be easily open to abuse.
We've already had the conviction of a man, Mark Meechan, who was fined £800 for making a comedy video where he taught his pug dog to do a Hitler salute.
The law does not understand satire.
The conviction went ahead despite another video that Meechan made with his girlfriend, profusely apologising for any unintentional offence caused. He was convicted of being "grossly offensive" under the Communications Act 2003. He also lost his job.
The effect of all this is to stifle discussion and debate. And maybe now, more than at any time, people really need to talk to each other.
SHOW NOTES
Independent interview with Maxine Peake:
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/maxine-peake-interview-labour-corbyn-keir-starmer-black-lives-matter-a9583206.html
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/minnesota-cops-trained-israeli-forces-restraint-techniques
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180607-concern-as-us-police-officers-are-trained-in-israel/
https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-for-u-s-police-refusing-israeli-training-is-not-bds-it-s-common-sense-1.6718491
https://www.amnestyusa.org/with-whom-are-many-u-s-police-departments-training-with-a-chronic-human-rights-violator-israel/
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200609-us-city-bans-brutal-israeli-military-training-of-police-forces/
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/04/durham-city-ban-police-training-israeli-military-180419135856501.html
Man shot dead in Ghana for breaking lockdown
https://xbitgh.com/breaking-news-man-shot-dead-by-military-men-in-ashaiman-for-defying-lockdown-directive/
Debate: Larken Rose vs Tom Willcuts on Tragedy and Hope channel
Bill Gates is WHO?
http://imaginingfreedom.co.uk/videos/bill-gates-is-who/
Hate Crime Bill (Scotland)
https://beta.parliament.scot/bills/hate-crime-and-public-order-scotland-bill
Meechan apology video
Independent journalist Dan Dicks Assaulted then Arrested after being attacked by mob
Image credits
Peake and Corbyn by Rwendland
Rebecca Long-Bailey
By Rwendland
Mosque sunset by chiplanay
https://pixabay.com/illustrations/muslim-mosque-islam-islamic-5261111/
Keir Starmer
by Rwendland
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=imaginingfreedom/olqvwjrh
I have no idea whether Bill Gates is an evil genius or a flawed but well-meaning person. I've never met the guy.
I have no idea whether Bill Gates is part of the Illuminati or a shape-shifting reptilian, a power-crazed psychopath or just an exceptionally wealthy person who hasn't realised how much power can corrupt.
What I do know is that Bill Gates's enormous fortune is having a direct impact on my life, and potentially on my health and well-being.
Me and Bill Gates see things differently. Neither of us have medical qualifications, but Bill Gates believes that vaccines are the best way for everyone, including me, to beat Covid-19 and that everyone should be vaccinated against it.
I, on the other hand, believe that building up a healthy immune system is the best way for me to beat Covid-19 and I think it's wrong to force or coerce people to be vaccinated against their will, even though I do sometimes have vaccines.
Bill Gates's enormous financial fortune is allowing him to force his will directly on my life, to overpower my opinions – even though he doesn't know me and has never met me – and potentially to influence what I put into my body, into my bloodstream.
This goes against everything that I have been brought up to believe in.
I was brought up to believe that Britain and the United States and other democratic countries had fought a great war to overcome the powers of fascism and tyranny.
After that great war, the United Nations was created to prevent future wars by bringing all the nations in the world around the table to talk, instead of fight.
The UN launched several specialised agencies in order to help it carry out its duties.
One of these agencies was the World Health Organisation, which was founded in 1948, with its stated aim as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of health".
The problem with the World Health Organisation, as I see it, is that it can be bought out by private interests – interests that could potentially profit from its policies.
The biggest donor to the World Health Organisation is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Until April 2020, the United States was the biggest donor, but when Donald Trump decided to withdraw funding, that left the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as the biggest funder, of the World Health Organisation, followed by GAVI, the Global Vaccine Alliance, an organisation that was founded with finance from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The World Health Organisation has a very significant impact on governments all over the world, especially during a global pandemic.
YouTube has a policy of deleting videos whose message is not in accordance with World Health Organisation guidelines. And that policy has seen interviews with doctors and scientists who have solid credentials, being taken down from YouTube.
Most of those doctors and scientists would not get coverage in the mainstream press or broadcast media anyway. The Nobel prizewinning Professor Michael Levitt has not been banned from YouTube, but his thoughts on Covid-19 have had hardly any coverage in the mainstream press, presumably because they go against the World Health Organisation narrative.
Some of the pharmaceutical companies that are racing to find a vaccine for Covid-19, are also financial contributors to the World Health Organisation. If a vaccine is found, it will be paid for through our taxes, at a time when our economy is already reeling from the effects of lockdown.
So it seems to me that there are some serious conflicts of interest here, at the very least.
The UK government has repeatedly said that there will be no mandatory vaccination for Covid-19. However, there may be a lot of coercion, and for people like me, who choose not to have the vaccine, our lives might not therefore, return to normal. We might be prevented access to places of work, leisure facilities, public transport, and even health and dentistry services.
Coercing people to accept a vaccine, who are healthy and who would prefer to take the risk of getting ill with Covid-19, rather than risk taking a questionably tested vaccine that will yield enormous profits to those who are using their financial influence to bring it about, is forcing people into a position of rebellion.
Many of us suspect that we may have to fight for our right to return to a normal life.
There is a good reason why Bill Gates is the figurehead in this struggle. He is the person who is wielding the biggest amount of influence in this unjust situation.
There are very good reasons why a democratic system has evolved in most of the world's developed countries; why we no longer allow ourselves to be ruled by monarchs or dictators, or the wealthiest people.
It's because humans are fallible. People who think they are doing the best they can are often making huge mistakes.
The European missionaries who took Christianity to the South Pacific in the 19th century and taught the islanders not to dance, thought that they were saving their souls.
The authorities in Australia who performed "forced adoptions", removing babies from unmarried mothers against their will, thought they were doing the best they could for the children.
And Josef Mengele, the Nazi doctor who did so-called medical experiments on unknown numbers of Jewish children in concentration camps, which caused many of them to endure terrible suffering, often resulting in death, was never captured after the war. At the end of his life he told his son that he had never harmed anyone and had only carried out his duties as an officer.
Mengele genuinely believed that the Jewish people were inferior, and that therefore he was doing good in working to exterminate them, and while doing so, conducting research that would benefit the people that he thought were more valuable.
There are still people who think that way today! What if those people became enormously wealthy, so wealthy that they were able to buy influence over our governments and institutions?
It doesn't bear thinking about. We need to stop arguing about left and right and black and white. And instead we should focus on cleaning corruption and financial influence out of our governments and institutions.
If it isn't already too late.
SHOW NOTES
WHO advised UK against herd immunity plan
https://metro.co.uk/2020/03/14/world-health-organisation-questions-uk-coronavirus-approach-12397312/
YouTube deletes videos that contradict WHO on Covid
https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/youtube-ceo-well-delete-anything-that-contradicts-word-health-organization-on-covid-19
WHO advises wearing masks in public
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52945210
Keep Britain Free website
https://www.keepbritainfree.com/
IMAGE CREDITS
Bill Gates with Skype eyes (changed to $s)
By Surian Soosay
Bill Gates looking smug
By Sebastian Derungs
Bill Gates in armchair
Illuminati
by Comfreak
https://pixabay.com/illustrations/adler-illuminati-conspiracy-1090948/
Reptilian eye
By Evren Ozdemir
https://pixabay.com/illustrations/alien-crocodile-eye-reptilian-3144944/
Piggy banks
by QuinceCreative
https://pixabay.com/videos/piggy-bank-finance-money-business-12923/
Vaccine the globe
By Caniceus
https://pixabay.com/photos/corona-covid-covid-19-coronavirus-5198347/
Fruit salad
https://pixabay.com/videos/fruit-salad-bowl-fruits-fruit-1019/
Drinking water
By Lademenorca
https://pixabay.com/videos/water-health-nature-healthy-8281/
Chalkboard
By BUMIPUTRA
https://pixabay.com/videos/animate-teacher-class-student-22182/
WHO committee on malaria, 1947
By Wellcome Images
Drugs
tommyvideo
https://pixabay.com/videos/pills-medical-drug-health-medicine-5449/
Pills dropping
https://www.videvo.net/video/pills-dropping-in-slow-motion/4926/
Handshake
By Edmond Dantes
https://www.pexels.com/video/two-men-shaking-each-others-hand-4428752/
Ghengis Khan statue
By Francisco Anzola
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chinggis_Khan_(Genghis)_(6228087785).jpg
"Nobody is perfect"
By Alexas Fotos
https://pixabay.com/photos/nobody-is-perfect-motivation-4393573/
Mengele
Auschwitz children
Anti-semitism photo
By Beny Shlevich
Hollywood protestors arguing
By Videvo
https://www.videvo.net/video/hollywood-protesters-arguing-with-police-during-protest-/531459/
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=imaginingfreedom/jxiscuxr
Why do countries that are next door to each other have such vastly different experiences of Covid-19, despite having similar climates and demographics? In this video I look at some neighbouring countries that have had significantly different numbers of fatalities from the disease, when taken as a percentage of the population. I've looked at Israel and Palestine, Norway, Sweden and Finland, Spain and Portugal and France and Germany.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=imaginingfreedom/ylsnvbul
This excellent interview with Professor Knut Wittkowski, an expert in epidemiology of 35 years, was one of two interviews with the Professor by Journeyman Pictures. Both of these videos were included in their excellent Perspectives on the Pandemic series, and both of them were deleted from YouTube last week.
I hope that by uploading this version, the Professor's words will continue to be spread.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=imaginingfreedom/awzsdoqd
Recent research from the UK Office of National Statistics found that Black people were four times more likely to die from Covid-19 than Whites.
After the findings were adjusted for socio-demographic factors like deprivation and living conditions, the research still found that Black people were almost twice as likely to die from Covid-19, with death rates of people of Bangladeshi and Pakistani ethnicity more than 1.5 times higher than Whites.
This research concerned me. I'm not worried about catching the disease myself, as I'm fit and healthy, so I think my risk of dying from it is very low, and there are many risks in life.
But I was concerned about my relatives in the Bahamas. I have many elderly relatives in the Bahamas, and some of them have underlying health conditions like diabetes and obesity.
I phoned a cousin to find out how they were. "We're all fine!" she said, thankfully. After the phonecall, I looked online for the number of Covid-19 deaths in the Bahamas, and found that it was 11. I hope it doesn't go any higher.
The population of the Bahamas is 385,000, so 11 deaths gives a fatality rate of 0.00286% of the population.
I decided to compare this with an island community of similar population size. Iceland's population is 365,000, and they have had 10 deaths from Covid-19, giving a fatality rate of 0.00274% – very similar to the fatality rate in the Bahamas.
The population of the Bahamas is 85% Black African. The population of Iceland is at least 95% White. So it seems that ethnicity is not a factor here.
What's going on?
I then looked at the fatality rate from Covid-19 in the UK, which has a population of 67,886,000, and has had 33,998 deaths from Covid-19 so far. That gives a fatality rate of 0.05%, which is more than 17 TIMES the fatality rate of the Bahamas and Iceland.
My guess is that vitamin D is an important factor here. Vitamin D is not actually a vitamin, but a hormone, which is made from the action of sunlight on the skin. And it is believed to play an important role in protecting from a range of diseases, from the common cold to cancer.
The sun has to be fairly strong to allow vitamin D to be created.
Dark skin is protective of UV rays from the sun, which means that in cooler climates, dark-skinned people like myself don't get enough vitamin D. This has been known by the medical community for decades, and because of this, I take vitamin D supplements (and I get outside as much as I can, to soak up the few sun's rays that we get here in Scotland!).
I take high-dose vitamin D – 5000 IU daily – and that seems to be just enough for my needs. When I had a blood test a couple of years ago, my vitamin D level was "normal", not "high normal", even though I'd been taking 5000 IU of vitamin D every day for years.
Even if you have white skin you may benefit from taking vitamin D supplements if you live in a cold climate, especially if you work indoors and if you're the type of person that tans easily in warm climates. Blood tests to check your vitamin D levels are quite inexpensive.
If vitamin D is a factor in Covid-19, it would explain why Chinese people were found to have the same fatality rate from the disease as White people, as Chinese people have light skin.
But in hot climates, people with dark skin get the full benefits of the sun's rays, and therefore get vitamin D naturally.
It's interesting that an interview with Dr David Brownstein on The High Wire with Del Bigtree was banned from YouTube recently. In the interview, Brownstein described how he was treating people who had bad cases of Covid-19 with intravenous vitamin C and vitamin D.
David Brownstein also advocates the "High Dose Iodine Protocol" which helped me cure my underactive thyroid a few years ago, and which is considered controversial by the medical establishment. You can't make big profits from natural treatments like vitamin C, iodine and sunlight.
SHOW NOTES
Black people are four times more likely to die/Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/07/black-people-four-times-more-likely-to-die-from-covid-19-ons-finds
Black people are four times more likely to die/Telegraph:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/05/07/black-people-four-times-likely-die-coronavirus-white-people/
Black people are four times more likely to die/Forbes:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/isabeltogoh/2020/05/07/black-people-are-four-times-more-likely-to-die-from-coronavirus-uk-statistics-show/#2a6967e324fd
https://www.ons.gov.uk/releases/coronavirusrelateddeathsbyethnicgroupenglandandwales2march2020to10april2020
The Tribune: One in seven suffering from diabetes
http://www.tribune242.com/news/2019/oct/25/one-seven-suffering-diabetes-bahamas/
The Bahamas leads the world in diabetes prevalence
https://www.familymedicinecenter.org/2015/10/bahamas-leads-the-world-in-diabetes-prevalence/
The coronavirus pandemic in the Bahamas
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_pandemic_in_the_Bahamas
Number of deaths in UK
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51768274
Dr Brownstein interview on The Highwire, banned on YouTube
https://3speak.online/watch?v=krnel/gpatgaey#
Image credits
Thumbnail photo:
https://pixabay.com/photos/girl-black-afroamerican-model-1868930/
Goitre pic
Vitamins pic by Steve Buissinne
https://pixabay.com/photos/vitamin-b-effervescent-tablet-871135/
Sunshine video by AndersonCampos
https://pixabay.com/videos/nature-forest-rays-of-sunshine-31621/
People on street by Coverr-Free-Footage
https://pixabay.com/videos/people-shopping-crowd-many-bokeh-3626/
People in Brixton:
Rekyavik by MariaMichelle
https://pixabay.com/photos/iceland-reykjavik-hallgrimskirkja-4436790/
Geyser by lars_greft
https://pixabay.com/videos/geyser-iceland-water-nature-flow-4822/
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=imaginingfreedom/pqnuqiqx
The curve has been flattened, but the Scottish Government is changing the goalposts. Now the lockdown has to be extended because the "R number" is not considered low enough.
Although how they work that out without mass testing is beyond me.
There are clear signs of a resurgence of poverty and demand at food banks. Influential voices are calling for a Universal Basic Income, which sounds caring and egalitarian on the surface, but it will actually lead to a nefarious dependency on the State, where people will not be allowed to receive their payments unless all their "papers" are in order, including their vaccination record.
It will be yet another means of exerting control.
All the signs point in this direction. Businesses are teetering on the brink of collapse. Jobs are going to be lost. Poverty is on the increase. Control and surveillance is on the increase.
We are turning into Eastern Europe before the fall of the Berlin Wall. And people are cheering it on. The Scottish Government held a bizarre two-day public feedback exercise before the extension of the lockdown was confirmed. Most of the comments asking for the lockdown to be partially or fully lifted were "locked by a Moderator".
So although there are many people cheering this enforced house arrest on, there are also many voices opposing it. But those voices are being silenced.
SHOW NOTES
How R0 is calculated
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1804098/
Wired on R0
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/coronavirus-r-number-uk
New £43m Louisa Jordan hospital is empty
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-52350867
Prof Michael Levitt interview
Telegraph: Government scientist Neil Ferguson resigns after breaking lockdown rules to meet his married lover
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/05/05/exclusive-government-scientist-neil-ferguson-resigns-breaking/
Prof Neil Ferguson interview
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=imaginingfreedom/nhbmhasv
Most people think that when the Berlin Wall fell down 30 years ago, the people in Eastern Europe finally won the freedoms that most of us in the "western world" take for granted.
Yet due to a pandemic that has taken around the same number of lives as a regular flu outbreak, people in the UK and other countries are seeing the rights and freedoms we take for granted unravel at an unprecedented rate.
Whatever we think about the severity of the coronavirus crisis, we should not allow it to usher in a police state – not a national one, nor a global one, from which there would be no Berlin Wall to escape over.
A campaigning group in the UK called Big Brother Watch recently released a report on the extent to which liberties have been taken – literally – in the UK over the past few weeks.
It's telling that the mainstream media appears to have completely ignored this important report, which details the way our civil liberties are being trampled on in the UK due to misinterpretation by the police, and dismantled by new "emergency" legislation, which may not even have been necessary, as there was already legislation in place to deal with outbreaks of infectious diseases.
This is a fairly long video, but I think it's something that needs to be put on record. I might split it into sections to highlight certain points later.
https://3speak.tv/watch?v=imaginingfreedom/fkejdiny
I'm Natalie, and I've been on Steemit for 3 years, under the name Natubat. But I decided to set up a different account called imagining Freedom to post my thoughts about our rights and freedoms, especially in the UK where I live.
Imagining Freedom is also the name of a new podcast I've set up.
When the lockdown happened, I really felt the need to speak out. Lockdown is a prison term. I understand that there are valid reasons for it, eg, preventing the hospitals from being overwhelmed. I have accepted that, and I've been following the lockdown and social distancing rules to the letter.
However I don't think the lockdown is the best approach. I would prefer the strategy proposed by Dr David L Katz, as described in an opinion piece in the New York Times in March (see link below).
There have been worrying warnings of recessions and even famine from the UN and the IMF, due to the coronovirus crisis.
Even before the coronavirus crisis I was concerned about the attacks on our rights, such as freedom of speech. Now this crisis has brought all of this into even sharper focus, and I want to make sure that this doesn't become a kind of creeping tyranny.
I go into all these issues in more detail in my podcast, which is called Imagining Freedom. You can down this podcast from several podcatchers, or at my website:
imaginingfreedom.co.uk.
SHOW NOTES
David L Katz op-ed in New York Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/20/opinion/coronavirus-pandemic-social-distancing.html
David L Katz interview on YouTube:
IMF warns of the worst recession since the Great Depression:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-14/imf-says-great-lockdown-recession-likely-worst-since-depression
UN's Head of Food warns of a famine of biblical proportions
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-52373888
UK Coronavirus Bill
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-bill-what-it-will-do/what-the-coronavirus-bill-will-do