One question I've been asking and I've yet received a definitive answer is thus:

If this new variant is more transmissible than it's cousin, then why are the restrictions nowhere near as severe as in the Spring?

I am obviously mainly referring to England/UK but the question still stands, why are many many more people allowed to be out working, out shopping, out driving, out doing anything than they were in March-June?

Surely if this thing is that deadly then the authorities would want everyone locked down properly like they were back then, yet, I see no different to every day life here, I am a key, frontline worker but apart from pubs, restaurants, some higher education and most retail places, everywhere is still open, many shops, most offices, factories etc.

We're supposed to be in a lockdown yet there's more traffic on the roads and more people out and about than since before Christmas, and people wonder why millions are just not bothering with anything Boris and his buffoons say, or do, as the case may be.
There's enough to be cynical about when even the PM doesn't stick to his own misguided and confusing rules!

I have my own thoughts on the current pandemic, but one other thing I've never had answered, and reading Crystal's last post reminds me of it.

Why would governments around the world lie and cover up? what is the purpose and what would they gain from it?

I'm not going to even ask the weird conspiracy theorists who don't think it exists at all, it clearly does exist, but as Crystal's post suggests, is it as bad as what the authorities make out?

So can anyone tell me why governments in the US, UK and Netherlands for example would lie and cover up about the virus?

If you believe this situation in UK hospitals is 'Normal' then watch this video.

Recently the BBC were allowed entry to a hospital in London to see the current situation, be warned, it's very grim viewing.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/health-55724994

The UK now has the highest number of Coronavirus deaths in Europe in this Pandemic.

According to the UK Office of National Statistics, more people have now died here in this Pandemic from Covid-19 than those killed in 1940/1 in the worst years of the Blitz and the fighting during World War 2, we were not prepared for that either, these are events that you cannot really prepare for in my opinion. We have not experienced these levels of excess deaths since the war.

I don't know the ins and outs of course, and I think only the ones who truly are in power know. And they pull on strings so it's spread out over the world, over here through the EU mostly, but also the WHO.
I've read about the WTO years ago, they're also not clean and in the pockets of the ones in power.
It is all to do with money, power, and if memory serves this entire to-do goes all the way back to Washington himself. Meaning it was already active and in play in those days.
Some idiots apparently want world domination.
Around 2008 I was busy with spreading word with a group of people about the Codex Alimentarius. That is about this stuff, about controlling and manipulating people.
The way to do that is through food and disease.
The people behind that scheme of the Codex (you can find info on this on the net btw) were the ones that created the gas that the Nazis used to kill in the gas chambers.
Big Pharma is part of all this, so was Monsanto with their GM crap, the soy planting scheme and so on. I believe they came forth from these Nazi practices.

Over here they're currently trying to ruin farmers, cattle farmers mostly. Making their work and lives so impossible that pretty soon we won't have farmers left. And I'm not exaggerating. Why, I don't know.
It will mean we won't have good, quality, healthy meat anymore, but cheaply bred crap full of antibiotics and other meds that are forbidden now. Our farmers will have to hold to these high standards when breeding. But the meat they're already planning to import does not meet those criteria...
Which leads back to controlling people with food, illnesses, and with that to Big Pharma, Monsanto-like practices etc.

Apparently some are saying it -including this Covid & vaccine- is all about reducing the number of people on the planet, because they say it's overpopulated.
This, however, has already been proven by science itself to be bull. We can grow plenty of food without GM to feed everyone. The fact not everyone has food goes back to money.
Everything always leads back to money and power.

I think it's pretty safe to say that we shouldn't trust anything that's not rooting in love and care. Which is pretty much everything, especially right now.

Some say that Amazon, Jeff Bezos, is part of this entire scheme too. He's the richest man on the planet, likely to be the first trillionaire in the near future.
But with what Amazon is offering, in more and more countries now, the regular shops are going bankrupt. Especially now with the ongoing lockdown and Covid to-do and people getting used to buying online.
And I didn't want to believe it, but there COULD be truth in it. I'm currently buying a lot of the Dutch Amazon as well. It recently is totally up to speed with the full Amazon assortment and payment option to accommodate the Dutch (we don't usually have credit cards).
It is cheaper than the online Dutch shop that offers the same basically, and that is a huge corporation. I think the largest and richest in The Netherlands. But I suspect that will go under because of Amazon. Now if this huge corporation can't hold itself against Amazon...
So yes, this could all be part of the plan to have one big shop, control, power, money.

It is difficult what to believe, but if you think about this all... it is scary! The ones in power clearly still are very powerful while I thought they were over their prime.

The power could be with the people, but then we'd need a critical mass and unfortunately it looks like the scared non-thinking group is larger.

Interesting stuff, although I don't go with the notion that the governments around the world are somehow in cohorts by using this virus as a way of controlling its people.

I do believe, however, that certain aspects of it are being manipulated, although I'm not sure what for exactly, I don't believe lockdowns or some of the restrictions are good or that they have done much good, for the economy, mental well being and general morale of the people, surely, that's too much of a danger for the governments to instil some kind of blanket wide plot on it's people.

Not every person who has died during this pandemic has "died of covid" the figures are for every death where a positive test was recorded within 28 days, that means someone could have had a positive test, fully recovered from covid/coronavirus and then died of a heart problem, cancer, tumour etc.

It's why I don't particularly like the figures given out, it has a 98-99% recovery rate, I'd rather focus on that positive aspect rather than a negative death toll that's used to justify the governments actions.

And let's be honest, the BBC are mainstream media, who are happy to only show one aspect to fit an agenda.

You have to produce statistics in some way, my understanding is that to be included in the Covid-19 death figures, Covid-19 must be specified as a cause of death on the 'Death Certificate', OR they have tested Positive witin 28 days of a test which implys Covid-19 as a cause of death.

For complete information on the hows and whys the statistics are prepared see

http://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/covid-19-daily-deaths/

"These figures do not include deaths outside hospital, such as those in care homes. This approach makes it possible to compile deaths data on a daily basis using up to date figures."

I cannot agree with you on the BBC reporting, I have found them to be one of the most reliable and unbiasedsources of news media reporting on both the Internet and TV. The BBC is not owned by one of the media moguls, and receives most, if not all of its financing from the licence fees we all have to pay here in the UK. They are not operated by the government and are a completely independent organisation, and completely free of advertisements, recognised throughout the world for their standards in reporting reliable and accurate news reports, in my opinion.

You have to produce statistics in some way, my understanding is that to be included in the Covid-19 death figures, Covid-19 must be specified as a cause of death on the 'Death Certificate', OR they have tested Positive witin 28 days of a test which implys Covid-19 as a cause of death.

For complete information on the hows and whys the statistics are prepared see

http://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/covid-19-daily-deaths/

"These figures do not include deaths outside hospital, such as those in care homes. This approach makes it possible to compile deaths data on a daily basis using up to date figures."

I cannot agree with you on the BBC reporting, I have found them to be one of the most reliable and unbiasedsources of news media reporting on both the Internet and TV. The BBC is not owned by one of the media moguls, and receives most, if not all of its financing from the licence fees we all have to pay here in the UK. They are not operated by the government and are a completely independent organisation, and completely free of advertisements, recognised throughout the world for their standards in reporting reliable and accurate news reports, in my opinion.

When we first got in touch with our UK friends, we found out that they knew nothing about what was going on in the rest of the world and/or the mainland. And these are people who do follow the news.
You have no idea how much ALL media is influenced and censured. That includes the BBC.

It happens in all countries, including the UK, and also the US.

The BBC are still mainstream media, who want to keep in with politicians and the likes, they aren't going to send a camera crew into a normal functioning hospital and show the world what it's really like, if that's what it's really like, of course they're going to run with the common theme.

What I'm trying to say is, that the number of deaths is for any person, regardless of any other condition who have died within 28 days of a positive test, that's not the amount of people who have suddenly contracted covid and died due to it, it's every death, although covid could be on the death certificate, so could any number of conditions, if someone had the flu but died due to cancer, we don't say it's the flu that killed them, but yet we include covid for these statistics, why?

There has to be a reason why we suddenly have very high numbers of excess deaths in the UK population, the highest numbers for nearly 80 years according to our Office of National Statistics. (ONS). What has recently been introduced in to the UK population which has caused this extra ordinary increase in the number of deaths? It is Covid-19. We have not had a sudden massive increase in victims dying from other diseases, if there were, investigations in to the causes would be underway.

Yes, older people do die as a result of more than one illness, and more than one cause of death does appear on the death certificate, but this does NOT change the fact that there has been a very significant increase in the number of excess deaths in the UK population. In my opinion caused by Covid-19, as a direct cause of death or contributing to the cause of death, all as reported in the press releases.

If it isn't Covid-19 killing all these people, in far greater numbers than in past decades, what is it? Doctor's do not put Covid-19 on a death certificate without cause.