Please could someone explain the blog rules to me regarding Covid issues (preferably a mod)e.g. The Virus, the illness, the treatments, lockdowns, masks, statistics and vaccines etc
Is scepticism of the official government line / advice not allowed? If a contributor is allowed to voice dissent with reasoned argument and evidence is it ok for others on the blog to insult and abuse if they happen to disagree with the views put forward?
I was shocked when I saw that a Scottish doctor (Malcolm Kendrick) was branded as a crank by one of the mods here when someone quoted his work / opinion. I looked up Dr Kendrick’s blog and read his last comment on Covid (end of December) and could find nothing cranky about it, what it did was set out the many of the difficulties that the public and experts have in interpreting the data and the inherent weakness in some of the data.
It is perfectly reasonable given the lack of certainty that both experts and lay people form opposing opinions. That does not mean one side are deniers, conspiracy theorists, anti-Semites, liars etc and the other side are 100% correct. The anti-Semite one really did puzzle me as to how someone who uses the term “they” can be suspected of referring to a particular religious group / state or person associated with it.
If no questioning and debate regarding opposing opinion to the government’s line is allowed here then for goodness sake please state so. The same goes for the high level of ad hominem abuse that appears in the blog, if allowed and stated as such (I understand it is contrary to the main blog rules) then people will know and be able to choose if they want to be a part of that type of discussion group. But if no opposing views are allowed it is not really a Discussion Group is it?