Andrew Reid

Here we go again I'm not banning free speech. I'm trying to increase the quality of speech on this forum, which is after all a knowledge-base that is supposed to be of use to people and to help people. It is not yours to abuse for a political agenda. You are asked to leave.

😄

What are you afraid of? Said something you shouldn't?

https://www.ajc.com/news/national/scientists-worry-brain-wasting-zombie-deer-disease-could-spread-humans/rjpiryXSOn92IxD9qVx1ZL/ Time to become a vegetarian.

Ah it's that age old argument again... if it doesn't shock you, it must be ok! It seems we have found a man so apt at missing the point, that if the point was the size of Matterhorn he would still miss it. The lab in Wuhan had a range of natural viruses and the animals carrying natural pathogens. If scientists believe SARS-CoV-2 to be of natural origins, that still does not disprove the theory it spread from a lab accident or corrupt trade in exotic animals. Pangolins smuggled into China illegally have been found to contain viruses similar to the one now sweeping the world. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-52048195?fbclid=IwAR09mfAnXmBjClzGsLDiKh6PmdXJvMKSYbO4bpw_CtKYXRICw2l-jWDifwg Are you still insisting the Chinese government doesn't owe us an apology? Should this kind of thing continue after 2020?

There is a rebuttal which appears to be published on behalf of the Chinese government, and "shell" company Shanghai Shangyixun Cultural Communications... https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/22221751.2020.1733440 All part of a continued cover-up exercise? Or genuine science?

Even in the safest labs in the US, there have also been mishaps. https://www.nature.com/news/biosafety-in-the-balance-1.15447 "Anthrax is contracted by direct exposure to spores, and does not spread between people. Much more potentially dangerous are lab accidents involving agents that do. It is impossible to read about the CDC incident and not breathe a large sigh of relief that it did not involve a novel engineered pandemic influenza strain."

I should be editing my footage from the F1 However I can't get this out of my head... It's extraordinary... In 2004 Chinese researchers in a lab working on SARS coronaviruses became ill. They had become effected with the very viruses they were researching. Suddenly SARS was back out in the community. Big scandal at the time but thankfully these workers were isolated immediately and SARS doesn't have a very big contagion vector. https://www.the-scientist.com/news-analysis/sars-escaped-beijing-lab-twice-50137 In 2013 researchers in China showed that one of the coronaviruses circulating in horseshoe bats could bind to human lung cells. The Chinese government didn't really do much to stop the trade in bat meat and kept it on sale at markets. In 2015 researchers in Wuhan went further... Creation of a chimaera From the scientific journal Nature, November 2015: https://www.nature.com/news/engineered-bat-virus-stirs-debate-over-risky-research-1.18787?WT.mc_id=TWT_NatureNews "An experiment that created a hybrid version of a bat coronavirus — one related to the virus that causes SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) — has triggered renewed debate over whether engineering lab variants of viruses with possible pandemic potential is worth the risks. "In an article published in Nature Medicine on 9th November, scientists investigated a virus called SHC014, which is found in horseshoe bats in China. The researchers created a chimaeric virus, made up of a surface protein of SHC014 and the backbone of a SARS virus that had been adapted to grow in mice and to mimic human disease. The chimaera infected human airway cells — proving that the surface protein of SHC014 has the necessary structure to bind to a key receptor on the cells and to infect them. It also caused disease in mice, but did not kill them." "The findings reinforce suspicions that bat coronaviruses capable of directly infecting humans (rather than first needing to evolve in an intermediate animal host) may be more common than previously thought, the researchers say. "But other virologists question whether the information gleaned from the experiment justifies the potential risk. Although the extent of any risk is difficult to assess, Simon Wain-Hobson, a virologist at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, points out that the researchers have created a novel virus that “grows remarkably well” in human cells. “If the virus escaped, nobody could predict the trajectory,” he says." Some of my thoughts... 1. The reputable journal Nature has added a disclaimer to the original article, saying there's no proof the current coronavirus is engineered 2. However I find it an incredible coincidence that the ONLY level 4 microbiology research lab in China handling deadly coronaviruses is in Wuhan, of all places. 3. Then there's the strange reaction of the Chinese government in December and January, including towards doctors who reported the initial cases of what we now know of COVID-19. Intimidation, cover-ups, you name it. 4. Maj. Gen. Chen Wei, China's top bioweapons expert and others were dispatched to the Wuhan lab in January (According to - https://nypost.com/2020/02/22/dont-buy-chinas-story-the-coronavirus-may-have-leaked-from-a-lab/) 5. As early as 2013, the Chinese government researchers knew SHC014 and similar coronaviruses could bind to key receptor ACE2 in human lungs... But the wild animal markets stayed open. Why did China not open up about what they knew and take action on the markets? https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26552008 6. Many in the scientific community questioned the grave risks of such research at the time but China pressed on. Their government clearly wished to know if SHC014 could bind to ACE2 if it made the leap to humans. I am not suggesting they were searching for biological weapon ingredients... But damn, did they find one. From Nature: "[The study findings] move this virus from a candidate emerging pathogen to a clear and present danger”. Useful to know, but it didn't stop certain people eating the hosts of such pathogens... or potentially trading ex-lab animals on the black market. In fact some Chinese researchers have been previously jailed for doing exactly that. 7. Going so far as to make this chimera virus, an engineered bat virus tested on mice, strikes me as incredibly dangerous research, open to all sorts of abuse and accidents. 8. In Wuhan, the "gain-of-function" research on viruses seeks to understand the genetic makeup and specifics of virus-host interaction... In other words, how can we gain the function to effect other hosts like humans, and what can we learn from it? Risky science, or purposefully malign? Either way, the Chinese government owes the world a massive apology. The bat meat and wild animal markets selling bats should have stopped at least 5 years ago. The Wuhan research lab safety standards need to be transparent and any cases of corruption made public. And an agreement with the rest of the world should be signed by the Chinese military, promising never to conduct research for the production of bioweapons. Harry Patch, the last surviving British soldier of World War I said before he died - "the next war will be chemical, and they will never learn". Guess he was right.

Maybe you have better things to do Cinegain than make a list of my friends and imply everyone left because of a disagreement with me over politics. Many of those you mention are close friends of mine and still are. Just because they haven't got time to engage with idiots like you, doesn't mean to say they no longer read the blog. Ed David, Christina Ava, Volker, JB, Andy Lee, Neumann Films, JG Harding, Brian Caldwell, Luca Butera, all those are friends but they can't be around a forum every day for 5 years straight. Some of them will have other things going on in their lives. I'd be more than happy to see Mattias post more but he has a busy YouTube channel now that takes a lot of his time. The reason 99% of the good quality members leave is exactly because of the bullshit and Trump fanaticism. If I could leave myself at the moment I would! PS The exception was that Richard Gale was a massive Trump and Brexit fan.... tipping point for him was me being anti-Brexit on Facebook... Lost a friend there over Brexit.... He fell out with me and was never seen again here. Politics has never been more toxic online. But I can't help people when it comes to the bullshit they believe. It's up to them to overcome their delusions. Oh and by the way, the creep Jon Pais, moderator from the very early days, turned into a lunatic you may remember and his behaviour as mod was a turn off to 90% of the members of this forum. So I had to ease him out of the role and then he turned into this crazy bitter guy, a Sony fanboy, you may remember, who polluted every thread he posted on and then started posting nasty lunatic comments on his own blog about EOSHD. So he showed his true face in the end. I don't ban in a knee jerk way... This was a guy I trusted as a mod, for many years. But if someone crosses me in my own home, they are a deadman walking. You have to remember this is a community. If you want better people to join, and bigger names to engage, then we need to look at the quality of our own posts first. Is it useful? Is it interesting? Does it help people? If so, you get pros joining, talented artists joining, filmmakers and loyal people who stick around compelled to read what we say day in day out.

It's all very well being a fella in the gold rush taking what you can and not giving anything back... What about me as moderator who has to keep a positive atmosphere in the forums and track down trouble makers? Are you saying I shouldn't bother and just let the place go to shit?

If I were coming on this forum saying Great Britain was the best country in the world every day, I wonder how long people would last before they got fed up. This is what I have to put up with from certain Americans all the time. This is an appeal to them.... Shut up, or fuck off.

There is a deeply suspicious element to it with the suspect fake user campaign. Of course I am not going to stand by and let it get worse and if I lose a few 'genuine' Trump provocateurs in the process it's not a great loss to be frank. We all have a responsibility now to pull together.

In an ideal world we could agree to disagree on our politics. But seems some don't even read what I said...I don't care which way you voted, as long as you don't bring unethical toxic idiotic posts into my community. In addition there are literally people joining the forum to steer a political discussion in a topic or steer a thread off-topic, in favour of their idol Trump. This is deeply suspicious and points to a kind of fake user linked to a campaign of some sort.

No, we are not censoring ourselves because of some fuckwits. Politics are allowed. Wankers aren't.

At least with all this spare time, we can all have a clear-out. Who wants a GFX 50S?

By all means start a thread about good deals. But I am closing this one. It's bollocks.

The world is in a really dark place at the moment, but I think we need some hope. Let's assume by July or August, we'll be through the worst of it and have a Canon EOS R5 to play with. Maybe Fuji will surprise us with an X-H2 by then and Sony with an A7S III. And hopefully some sport will be back on as well. I was going to film some of it! So I think we should have one thread for the virus crisis, where we share tips about staying safe, hygienic, etc. and are free to discuss our fears too. Many will lose their income streams and they will need a place to talk and get help. But I think my role now is to boost the camera side of the forum, get some camera related blogs out and stop my own coronavirus worries taking over from that. It's very hard to turn off the news when you have loved-ones in high risk groups and places. I will now try to do that and get back down to business. Good luck to all who are trying to stay positive and trying to work without so much negative distraction in the world. I salute you. 👍

Looking at recent posts objectively, it is always the same users who end a perfectly good discussion on this forum with toxic bullshit. I am coming after you. It is a cull. It isn't about politics. It's about values! To protect a community I love... I have no choice. To be clear, it is none of my business which way you vote. What matters is behaviour, character, values. If you've been a good contributor here and kind to people you get to stay. If not, then you are going to be asked to leave and I will pursue people who return under a different name. This is purely because there are now far too many posts being trashed and too much arguing driven by people with the wrong values which I despise. I am going to use this week to draw up a list of people who strongly align themselves with Trump's politics of America First. And I will be getting rid of the lot of you. Yes you can say it's a political purge but I prefer to think of it as purely about values and about protecting users who DO contribute positively to the forum. If these idiots are allowed to get away with bringing Trump idolising bullshit into this community then all our work will be for nothing and Russia with their fake-user farms will have won too, because I am 99% sure at least a few of the idiots are completely made-up shill users whose role is to divide us politically and weaken our online communities. At a time when we must pull together as a camera-community, as filmmaking industry, even as a country, indeed as a world - to get through tough economic times ahead - dumb arguments which ignore factual data are a waste of time. What has happened to the world in recent weeks is stressful enough and I personally do not need to hear from certain people in every thread. I will not be providing a platform for Red cap wearing idiots who haven't contributed a single shot or image to this forum. I get that EOSHD has a big US readership, in fact the US contribution to my site is the largest in the world and I want to keep as many of you as possible and not lose any friends who just happen to disagree with me on politics. But if you are going to be a shill for Trump's politics or somebody who is a complete shit-stirrer and troll, then I will no longer be turning a blind eye to it and the cull starts now... Have fun on your way out.

Seems some people ignore warnings from the site owner. I said before that unethical views aren't allowed in the forum. For me it is not about politics, it's about character, it's about what kind of person you are and how you take part in this community. Because I don't value your contributions or your views, I have banned you and you're not welcome back. The same warning goes for others. I don't care who you support but if you are going to bring unethical and stupidly toxic views into my front room, you can fuck right off.

The change in CEO is smoking gun for me. You do not sack your CEO if you just came up with a Coronavirus vaccine. You sack your CEO if he tried to take it to the US in informal (possibly even corrupt) exclusivity deal, and in process piss everyone off in your home country including the government.

A person can't close an airport on their own, you do need the government for that... You do realise this don't you... It is not all about our own little worlds. A person can't supply an entire city with masks and hand sanitiser, or call off large public gatherings like they did in Japan, saving thousands of lives in the process. A person doesn't set the national agenda in a war-type situation, or bailout the economy. Unfortunately a government can massively cock up all of the above, which is what is happening in UK & US. Nobody is 100% prepared but some countries dealt with it a lot better than others. It's all there in the data and public hygiene methods. After some pandemics people stopped believing in God and turned to science. Fingers crossed this time. Nothing wrong with the thread, it was just a duplicate topic to the popular and long-standing lenses sticky. No point having two.

No need to be insulting or personal. I am not a government. I don't need to have pandemic readiness! My government does, however. I got out of Barcelona last Thursday. Back in the UK now. There were no rescue flights for those still there, to repatriate people. Most airlines gave up and grounded their fleets, while governments sat on their hands over that too.

Strikes me as a cover-up by Curevac "Adding to the confusion, the company is now on its third CEO within the past seven days. The first CEO, Daniel Menichella, attended a March 2 White House meeting of pharmaceutical executives. Without CureVac giving a reason at the time, he left the company, effective immediately, on March 11." The German government is probably very unhappy that the company was even so much as entertaining the idea of Trump's offer. There will be other companies in Europe developing solutions. I am sure the German government will be on the phone to them instead in the coming weeks. I see nothing so far to suggest that the story isn't true. I think Trump and CureVac did try to get into an exclusive bed together, with a mattress made entirely of dollar notes, and pillows stuffed with the ashes of a million dead Europeans.

Again shows the power of basic public hygiene in Japan and early preparedness for influenza epidemics. The reason Italy and Japan have such large elderly populations is that their health is superb, their diets and lifestyle are the healthiest in the world. The best food and lovely weather, wealthy places. France and Spain are not far behind. They are healthy and civilised countries. Indeed smoking does seem higher in Italy, Spain and France than in other countries. But a good majority... 30-40% I think... of Italians in hospital with serious CONVID19 illnesses are in their 20s,30s,40s and 50s. Actually Germany has a very similar percentage of society to Italy who are 70+.... Only around 1% fewer. But it's besides the point... The numbers of elderly aren't the main factor. It's that they were not protected. Italy's government did not hand masks and sanitiser early enough, or in any coordinated way, and they still aren't. But the biggest tragedy to come may be in the US where the health care sucks balls on thousands of levels. It leaves millions without any at all. It leaves far more underlying conditions untreated due to financial reasons which European systems don't. The USA is now seeing a 13,000 leap in coronavirus cases, in one day.

No scientists can truly say but the common sense aspect is undeniable. If 90%+ of the population are wearing masks and 100% of those with a cough, then you prevent the spread. If you have hand sanitiser at every public space, again you prevent the spread. Ask yourself why this isn't the situation in the US and Europe. No preparedness, no plan, no clue. Instead, a risk that millions could die and a brutal economic collapse. There is no sugaring it. This MAY happen, and all because of our governments.