At 11a.m. this morning Professor Chris Whitty and Sir Patrick Vallance held a press-briefing where they attempted, again, to frighten the public with wild stories, predictions (that they insisted weren’t predictions) vague analysis about the NHS being overwhelmed, and the spectre of death lurking outside, all in order to ‘soften up’ the British public for a second lockdown.
As they told us that ‘cases were rising’ and hospital admissions too, they failed to tell us the actual numbers, or that deaths from Coronavirus remain in the handful and have been for months, or that their calculations thus-far have been wildly inaccurate at best, and more likely, entirely fraudulent.
Their ‘case’ for project fear 2.0 all hinged on one graph showing what ‘could’ happen but, they made a point of saying, this was not a prediction. Well, if it wasn’t ‘actual’ data and it wasn’t ‘predicted’ data then what exactly was it? Lies? Fantasy? Scaremongering? What exactly IS the point of showing this graph if not to frighten us all into another lockdown?
All of the data in red is fictitious, based on a theory of what the virus could do if it had a mind say Whitty and Vallance. The very same theory that was sold to us as ‘fact’ six months ago and most probably calculated using the same duff algorithm that we exposed as faulty in July. A theory that proved wrong for the first lockdown, and so in all likelihood will be wrong again.
The difference between March and now, in terms of understanding this virus, is that we have had six months to see what has actually happened, and not what the experts told us had.
This was a press 'briefing' and not a press conference so the two scientists were not challenged on any of their theories. That said, even if the press had been allowed to ask questions they would have failed to do so as the mainstream media appear to have abandoned their role as investigators of fact, happy to promote the doomsday scenarios as the gospel truth.
Whitty and Vallance were blatantly ramping-up fear in order for another lockdown (now called a Circuit Breaker) to be announced later this week. All of this appears to be creating another crisis at the very time Parliament is due to vote on whether to renew the Coronavirus Bill or not. Whitty and Vallance are the crisis actors of this piece, claiming that we are seeing a ‘second wave’ when in reality, Deaths, literally the only metric worth looking at, remain in the handful. Today’s briefing was much more to do with the political needs of the Government than any plague.
We know that the original data model was for a different virus and didn’t work; we know that Neil Ferguson (who is STILL producing these models despite his public resignation) has an appalling record of making wildly inaccurate predictions on death rates for every virus outbreak in two decades; we know that the supposed death figures have been falsified with any number of other causes, from seasonal flu to being run over by a bus, all being classed as Covid-19; and we know that any lockdown is unnecessary as we have complete data on what actually happens without a lockdown from Sweden.
This briefing comes on the same day as Thirty-two academics warn Boris Johnson to think twice about an ‘unneeded’ second lockdown. The scientists and doctors have written to the Prime Minister urging him not to opt for a second lockdown and to stop presenting Covid-19 as a mortal danger. Thirty-two top academics have called on Boris Johnson and his scientific and medical advisers to avoid a knee-jerk reaction to rising cases and hospitalisations. They said the debate about coronavirus is 'unhelpful' because it is divided between people who want total lockdowns and people who want no restrictions at all. Calling for decision-makers to 'step back' and think carefully about what to do next, the researchers said there had not yet been any 'readily observable pattern' between tight social distancing rules and the numbers of people dying of coronavirus. The open letter was written by Oxford's Professor Sunetra Gupta and Professor Carl Heneghan, by the University of Buckingham's Professor Karol Sikora, and by Sam Williams, director of the consultancy firm Economic Insight.
The Prime Minister is expected to hold a public briefing again tomorrow when he is set to lay out his plans for more restrictions and a second lockdown.