COVID-19 conspiracy motherlode

[Martin Y]

Thanks. It seemed profoundly unlikely, though there's always the likelihood he'll have some dodgy stats to hand "proving" his claim.

[sTeamTraen]

Got in an ill-advised argument on FB with an anti-vaxxer who insists the UK govt website says 1,419 vaccine deaths since 5th Jan. I presume he's talking about yellow cards but he keeps blustering and insisting I'm just too stupid to read the data and to be frank FB is so sh.t for searching back through even not on a phone...

It seems to me that if someone is making the claim that "There is a UK government website with 1419 vaccine deaths on it", it is not unreasonable to ask for either the URL or a screenshot, or some equally basic evidence that that website in fact exists. I also find myself occasionally arguing with morons on Facebook, but my minimum threshold for joining in is that when a trivially verifiable claim is made, that the claimer does the verifying.

[jdc]

Correction: 1143 "vaccine deaths". He also says 2020 was 37th out of the last 50 years for deaths so it sounds as if he has done his crank homework.

1143 is the correct, updated number*, even if that's not the correct description of the deaths in question.

https://fullfact.org/online/1102-vaccine-adr-death/

Since we started vaccinating people in the UK, about eight people a day or 1,102 overall have died a short while after getting the vaccine. These are not “vaccine deaths” and the number is in line with how many we would expect from other causes in that time period.

*(At the time of writing the most up-to-date figure as of 5 May 2021 was 1,143 deaths, which is still about eight a day.)

[Herainestold]

Correction: 1143 "vaccine deaths". He also says 2020 was 37th out of the last 50 years for deaths so it sounds as if he has done his crank homework.

1143 is the correct, updated number*, even if that's not the correct description of the deaths in question.

https://fullfact.org/online/1102-vaccine-adr-death/

Since we started vaccinating people in the UK, about eight people a day or 1,102 overall have died a short while after getting the vaccine. These are not “vaccine deaths” and the number is in line with how many we would expect from other causes in that time period.

*(At the time of writing the most up-to-date figure as of 5 May 2021 was 1,143 deaths, which is still about eight a day.)

You are excellent, sir

[Martin Y]

Many thanks for finding the statistic he was misquoting. I was insisting they would not be "vaccine deaths" as he repeatedly claimed so it's particularly splendid to see the quote "these are not vaccine deaths".

He seems to have disengaged after I dropped Jimbob's statistic about 2020 being the deadliest year in E+W since 1918, rather than 37th out of the last 50 as he claimed. Otherwise I would certainly have pointed out he was trying to reverse the burden of proof by insisting I find the place on gov.uk where it doesn't say there have been 1,149 vaccine deaths.

[jimbob]

Correction: 1143 "vaccine deaths". He also says 2020 was 37th out of the last 50 years for deaths so it sounds as if he has done his crank homework.

That's bollocks. I can link to tweets with credible data on that.

The previous time there were 600,000 deaths in a year was 1918.

https://twitter.com/NickStripe_ONS/stat ... 6857502724

For longer term context we can compare annual deaths back to 1900

Deaths have been rising recently as life expectancy improvements have stalled, but the jump this year to over 600k is clear

Only one previous year has topped 600k – 1918, the year of the “Spanish” flu

5/11

And nicely done by jdc too

[JQH]

Interesting. Although there is a huge jump in deaths last year I note that the number of deaths have been rising since 2010. Did something significant happen that year which would have a significant long term effect on the nation's health? What could it have been?

[bagpuss]

Interesting. Although there is a huge jump in deaths last year I note that the number of deaths have been rising since 2010. Did something significant happen that year which would have a significant long term effect on the nation's health? What could it have been?

sh.t, that was the year the bagkitten was born. Sorry everyone, didn't realise her existence would have such an impact on everyone else.

[headshot]

Interesting. Although there is a huge jump in deaths last year I note that the number of deaths have been rising since 2010. Did something significant happen that year which would have a significant long term effect on the nation's health? What could it have been?

I got married that year.

[jdc]

Interesting. Although there is a huge jump in deaths last year I note that the number of deaths have been rising since 2010. Did something significant happen that year which would have a significant long term effect on the nation's health? What could it have been?

Given the similarity across many countries, it is unlikely that the UK's stalling LE can be fully attributed to adverse consequences of political economic austerity, as not all countries pursued such strident policies following the global economic crisis in 2008, but it is likely to have been a contributing factor. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lane ... 5/fulltext

[snoozeofreason]

Yet more disappointing news about the vaccination program.

False. The vaccine does not make any part of you magnetic.

I've spent the last few weeks pointing my fingers at ferromagnetic objects and concentrating hard. I feel like a complete idiot now.

[raven]

This is effing atrocious...

I was checking to see if they'd closed any schools in Bedford like the nice public heath lady said they might need to* and came accross this in the local news: https://www.bedfordindependent.co.uk/pa ... ool-gates/

Parents have reacted angrily after leaflets, claiming that under 16s will be targeted for Covid-19 (coronavirus) vaccines, were handed out to pupils as they left Goldington Academy on Wednesday (26 May).

The sheet was produced by a group calling themselves, Safer To Wait – a collective of ‘concerned parents, teachers, doctors, and lawyers’.

What the hell is wrong with people.



(*They have - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england- ... s-57194285 - what else can you do when you've got 350 pupils self-isolating? )

[Chris Preston]

During day 2 of the lockdown in Melbourne, anti-vaxxers decide to stage a demonstration in Central Melbourne. A small crowd of conspiracy theorist turned up and were issued $1495 fines for breaking the lockdown and 14 who decided to take on the police were arrested.

This conspiracy theory stuff is hard on the pocket.

[Brightonian]

You forgot the time travelling nanoparticles.

Naomi Wolf is f.cking full on conspiracy theorist now. Covid denier, Bill Gates/Apple is/are evil, vaccines are designed to download software into your body full blown gonzo nonsense.

I was sad for a bit then I realised I was thinking of somebody else

The other one is well aware of this issue...

She's now done a book on following the Wolf down the rabbit hole: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/ ... y-theories