Sunday 1 November 2020

What's behind the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic

What's behind the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic

A spectacular pan-global cock-up is the most likely explanation for the situation but in the spirit of keeping an open mind, ideas such as these are circulating (which I merely report, without belief or support)

Some key phrases:

  • following the science - which has not happened
  • letting the virus rip - smearing opponents of lockdown (the Big Lie technique)
  • conspiracy theorists - smearing opponents of lockdown (whether medical professionals or 5G mast nutters)
  • convergent opportunism - interested parties using opportunity of covid to advance own agendas
  • concatenation of interests - various interests finding common ground

An Unconscious Conspiracy by Sinead Murphy is a good starting point. A common reference in thinking about this is to The Great Reset, which may be a factor.

The single most striking aspect is that decades of evolution of best practice in handling epidemics, as set out in W.H.O. policies, was set aside in a wave of 'me too' madness across governments in March 2020.

Subsequently, governments have seemed incapable of admitting any mistake and carry on, disregarding consequences. In particular they seemingly ignore most of the huge body of new knowledge about Covid-19 and stick to March 2020 concepts. This appies particularly to the use of modelling in preference to up-to-date facts.

Prof. Neil Ferguson at Imperial College and his epidemic modelling appear to have been a huge influence on multiple governments in March 2020 and again in October 2020. His previous successes (quoting from "[Ferguson]" links below):

  • In 2001, Ferguson was involved in “modelling” for Foot and Mouth disease. Because of that some six million sheep, pigs and cattle were slaughtered that needn’t have been.
  • In 2002, Ferguson predicted that up to 50,000 people would die from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, better known as “mad cow disease”, increasing to 150,000 if the epidemic expanded to include sheep. The reality is: “Since 1990, 178 people in the United Kingdom have died from vCJD, according to the National CJD Research & Surveillance Unit at the University of Edinburgh.” (2017)
  • In 2005, Ferguson claimed that up to 200 million people would be killed by bird-flu or H5N1. By early 2006, the WHO had only linked 78 deaths to the virus, out of 147 reported cases.
  • In 2009, Ferguson and his team at Imperial College advised the Government that swine flu or H1N1 would probably kill 65,000 people in the UK. In the end, swine flu claimed the lives of 457 people in the UK.

Public Health England and other agencies have been sloppy in gathering statistics, leading to even worse decision-making: double-counting, non-Covid treated as Covid, etc.

The Mainstream Media have been crucial in transmitting and maintaining the panic, though some have switched sides from government hysteria to medical reality. As of October 2020, I judge they line up thus (though not necessarily 100% in either camp):

Pro-factsPro-hysteria
Daily TelegraphBBC
Daily MailGuardian
Daily ExpressITN/C4 News
The SunSky News
The Times

Another factor is that Google, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have been actively censoring anyone disagreeing with the offical line, no matter how eminent, even when agreeing with the W.H.O.

OfCOM issued guidance to broadcasters in March 2020. This seems reasonable but in practice it has constrained broadcasters reporting on any views disagreeing with the official government/SAGE line.

Links