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Original poster

The WhatsApp message leak

836 replies

Mycatsgoldtooth · 02/03/2023 10:35

So, we’ve had the FBI saying it was a lab leak, the leaked messages showing many of the restrictions were for show, stats on the reality of masks being mostly useless unless N95s. Where are all the people that were so upset about anyone saying anything against the government now.

It’s almost as if no one care where the virus came from and how the government reacted. If I’d spent years being terrified and washing my shopping I’d be really pissed off.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/01/untruth-untruth-peddled-justify-great-lockdown-disaster/

OP posts:
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bronzepig · 02/03/2023 17:17

I also think it's well worth appreciating it was specifically leaked to lockdown/Covid skeptics who are in the pockets of the Tories.

It's totally predictable that they are focussed on pushing the idea that lockdowns and other measures were unncessary, and reignite that whole debate. Which provides a nice distraction from more pertinent issues like billions of pounds given to Tory contacts, and many more examples of neoptism and corruption @Mycatsgoldtooth

I would be far more interested in reading the Whatsapp transcripts myself, rather than seeing picked apart, out of context statements used to drive a specific agenda by journalists at the telegraph.

bronzepig · 02/03/2023 17:25

To put it in context - Oakeshott was given 2.3 million words worth of whatsapp correspondance. She said she released this to the telegraph as a matter of public interest.

I would suggest making the entire transcript publicly available would show more integrity. Instead she (an avid anti-lockdown campaigner) and telegraph are leaking little scraps in order to push a specific narrative.

Original poster
Mycatsgoldtooth · 02/03/2023 17:25

@bronzepig im disgusted at the nepotism and saw lock down as a massive cash making enterprise for big companies, elites and cronies. Lockdown skeptics come from all walks of life, to say its a Tory perspective is a bit silly. It’s mostly people who could weigh up that there would be costs and would they be worth sacrifices.

As a front line worker with vulnerable women my skepticism was started by wondering wtf the government was going to do to help people in those situations. As it turned out nothing, just lock them in their flats, stop their mental health support and conduct parenting assessments that decided if they would keep their children or not, over WhatsApp video.

OP posts:
Oblomov23 · 02/03/2023 17:27

I don't think the messages are that bad are they? They don't change how I feel. I obeyed everything. But, I sometimes questioned the use of masks myself, and I didn't bleach shopping. Reading the messages changes nothing, doesn't make me think the messages are that awful.

BashirWithTheGoodBeard · 02/03/2023 17:39

Lockdown skeptics come from all walks of life, to say its a Tory perspective is a bit silly.

I think the issue is that right wing lockdown scepticism has much more of an institutional base than left and centrist lockdown scepticism. There are individuals on the left who were against lockdown or at least questioned it, some of them with some degree of a platform, but there's no equivalent to there being right wing anti restrictions MPs in Parliament. There are a few books from that cohort, but nothing akin to the Telegraph's stance and reach. It's all much more fragmented.

Periornot · 02/03/2023 18:35

'A lot of people still testing for cold symptoms have clearly got health anxiety and PTSD from all the propaganda and fear we've been subjected too.'

Do you think the only reason people test for covid is because they have health anxiety and PTSD? Can you think of any other reasons at all?

lljkk · 02/03/2023 20:52

Most the terrified ppl who spent years washing their shopping are angry that control measures weren't harsher and lockdowns longer, no?

EmmaEmerald · 02/03/2023 21:00

lljkk · 02/03/2023 20:52

Most the terrified ppl who spent years washing their shopping are angry that control measures weren't harsher and lockdowns longer, no?

Still? Tbh I think you're right, but there's definitely a school of thought saying people don't want to recognise the awful treatment by govts worldwide.

hamstersarse · 02/03/2023 21:04

The lab leak hypothesis was suppressed because the US was funding the Wuhan lab’s gain of function research. It’s not just a China problem, it’s the murky stuff that Fauci was involved in

I’m amazed these WhatsApp messages are barely registering with people. Already on this thread, people are calling out ‘horrendous right wing anti lockdown types’, yet at the same time ignoring these messages that literally incriminate the right wing government - who lied about the care home situation, lied about the need for masks (in schools in particular), called in favours from the press ( ES) and we’re more concerned about public opinion than their famous Science (tm)

it’s a pretty confusing situation as if you hate the ‘right wing’ here is the perfect opportunity to bring them down / humiliate them / protest / anything!

Buzzinwithbez · 02/03/2023 21:15

EmmaEmerald · 02/03/2023 21:00

Still? Tbh I think you're right, but there's definitely a school of thought saying people don't want to recognise the awful treatment by govts worldwide.

Show quote history

If only we'd locked down sooner......

FrostyFifi · 02/03/2023 21:15

Oh god yes how RUDE people were when the lab leak thing was mooted, sneery condescending cunts. And we're already now getting people earnestly explaining zoonotic diseases as if the FBI haven't just said that the lab leak is the most likely source.

BashirWithTheGoodBeard · 02/03/2023 21:34

I’m amazed these WhatsApp messages are barely registering with people. Already on this thread, people are calling out ‘horrendous right wing anti lockdown types’, yet at the same time ignoring these messages that literally incriminate the right wing government - who lied about the care home situation, lied about the need for masks (in schools in particular), called in favours from the press ( ES) and we’re more concerned about public opinion than their famous Science (tm)

it’s a pretty confusing situation as if you hate the ‘right wing’ here is the perfect opportunity to bring them down / humiliate them / protest / anything!

Why are you amazed? It's pretty obvious this is damaging to a particular school of thought. Because the criticism of lockdown from the right has been more visible and institutional than that from the left, and let's be honest has achieved more (I'm on the left but it has) it's suited some people to gloss over the fact that it was a right wing government with a thumping majority that implemented lockdown.

I was interested to see Ian Dunt trying to downplay the significance of the leak. He's an example of a left winger who remains firmly on the Indy SAGE crack, so he's going down the nothing much to see here folks route. There are others like him.

EmmaEmerald · 02/03/2023 21:39

Bashir but are people really that heavily involved with their politics?

on a human level, I just expected so many more people to say "we've been conned and I'm angry". My mum said the same - it's mostly radio silence with her friends and the only guy who is furious ended up feeling like me - kind of isolated. He responded to mum's messages because we honestly got worried that something had happened to him - he wasn't home for months.

I just cannot believe there's a very low number of angry people, unless they all tuned out after the press conferences finished.

BashirWithTheGoodBeard · 02/03/2023 21:51

It's a mixture, I think.

Some people are in the cohort I've described. Some pay no attention at all, some let it wash over them and think it's only to be expected of politicians. And I think also there are people who just don't want to engage with anything from that time and would rather forget about it all. There are probably more than a few trauma responses going on there too.

AlecTrevelyan006 · 02/03/2023 22:02

Few people like to admit they were wrong. Even fewer people like to admit that they were conned.

bronzepig · 02/03/2023 22:05

hamstersarse · 02/03/2023 21:04

The lab leak hypothesis was suppressed because the US was funding the Wuhan lab’s gain of function research. It’s not just a China problem, it’s the murky stuff that Fauci was involved in

I’m amazed these WhatsApp messages are barely registering with people. Already on this thread, people are calling out ‘horrendous right wing anti lockdown types’, yet at the same time ignoring these messages that literally incriminate the right wing government - who lied about the care home situation, lied about the need for masks (in schools in particular), called in favours from the press ( ES) and we’re more concerned about public opinion than their famous Science (tm)

it’s a pretty confusing situation as if you hate the ‘right wing’ here is the perfect opportunity to bring them down / humiliate them / protest / anything!

I'm guessing that's aimed at me, however as usual, it's a complete fabrication of what I actually said.

I want to see the entire whatsapp trancript (2.3 million words of it) and if Oakeshott actually cared about transparency and public interest, she would release it. Then everyone, including other news outlets, journalists, scientists, could read and comment.

Instead she (an avid anti-lockdown campaigner) and the telegraph are leaking little scraps in order to push this specific narrative.

If you really cared about freedom of thought etc etc, you want to see the original source, and not just blindly trust what the telegraph is feeding you. Just my two cents!

Woolandwonder · 02/03/2023 22:07

Mycatsgoldtooth · 02/03/2023 11:57

I got called a Qanon racist for suggesting it may have been a lab leak rather than a person eating a live pangolin (or whatever balls was being peddled at the time) on here so… just interested to see where those people are at. 🧐 Still masking their five year olds and doing lat flows before they wash the car on the drive probably.

Well to be fair how the virus came about makes very little difference to the mitigations you'd want to use to protect yourself from catching it.
I was very cautious about covid, less so now, and rightly so as it's massively exacerbated a prev health condition so I can barely function, but I also believe it was a lab escape (accidental)

BashirWithTheGoodBeard · 02/03/2023 22:12

Oakeshott and the Telegraph are clearly milking this for all they can get, that's a certainty. If it was only about transparency I agree we'd be seeing all the messages.

Hawkins003 · 02/03/2023 22:13

Mycatsgoldtooth · 02/03/2023 10:35

So, we’ve had the FBI saying it was a lab leak, the leaked messages showing many of the restrictions were for show, stats on the reality of masks being mostly useless unless N95s. Where are all the people that were so upset about anyone saying anything against the government now.

It’s almost as if no one care where the virus came from and how the government reacted. If I’d spent years being terrified and washing my shopping I’d be really pissed off.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/03/01/untruth-untruth-peddled-justify-great-lockdown-disaster/

On the flip side this could all be propaganda .

Hawkins003 · 02/03/2023 22:15

The leak etc could be real but the people behind it all could of planted the information knowing it would be leaked and the Lakers, thought they were leaking proper material but it was all staged so to speak ?

FamilyLife2point4 · 02/03/2023 22:18

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Yulelogs · 02/03/2023 22:22

I always believed that the virus leaked from a lab. I was also sure the western world was involved otherwise there would have been some action taken against the lab where the leak occurred….think of how much this has cost the world financially!

Everyone I know refuses to believe this and thinks I’m some crazy conspiracy theorist. Even now with the latest news articles people I know still refuse to believe it.

Sometimes I think everyone around me has been brainwashed! Or maybe I am just crazy?

I was also shocked by relatives who wiped down their shopping with antibac wipes etc. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing…:the same people would eat takeaway that was delivered to them! I mean, it’s like common sense died during covid times. People will just believe anything they are told.

TinaYouFatLard · 02/03/2023 22:31

Some people will defend lockdowns, school closures, mask theatre and all the other lunacy until their last breath. It’s too much to accept that you were lied to, conned, deliberately terrified and treated like a fool. It’s too much to acknowledge that you were one of the ones who rolled over, accepted authoritarianism without a second thought. You were one of the ones who spat bile at anyone standing up against it.

rockly · 02/03/2023 22:32

On the lab leak - currently the available evidence is strongest for SARS-COV-2 originating in the Wuhan wet market

The FBI say they have changed their mind, but have not yet released the evidence that has made them think this.

Presumably no-one wants to blindly take the word of some big authority, and you'll want to wait to find out what has made them think this, before making up your own mind?

I'm perfectly happy to change my opinion on this, but I do find it odd how quickly this has just been accepted by those that have "anti-mainstream" views on COVID without any actual evidence (yet).

TobeLeRone · 02/03/2023 22:36

Someone upthread asked if people are angry - I am. I am angry at the lack of transparency, the fear mongering, the blatant transfer of wealth, the deception to the population.

I’m also angry at posters here for continually shutting down every reasonable discussion, calling any dissenting voices “Trumpist racists”, for helping to discredit outspoken drs - speaking out against the accepted script about lockdown. MNers tried to discuss this topic, and were literally called idiots, conspiracy theorists and worse. Any link that didn’t contain approved material was quickly deleted. It’s almost Orwellian.

TBH I wonder if we’ll be having these same discussions about the vaccines in the not too distant future.