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A Defence of the Great Barrington Declaration

by Toby Young
22 March 2021 7:28 PM

Today we’re publishing a point-by-point rebuttal of the criticisms of the Great Barrington Declaration set out in Anti-Virus: The COVID-19 FAQ, Neil O’Brien’s website devoted to attacking “Covid sceptics”. It’s by George Dance, a former chairman of the Ontario Libertarian Party. Here are the first three paragraphs:

The Great Barrington Declaration (GBD), under which thousands of scientists and medical practitioners have called for a end to lockdown policies, was drawn up last October 1st-4th, was announced on October 5th, and was already being denounced on October 6th. Over the next month, the GBD and its message were virtually buried beneath an “avalanche of scathing criticism condemning it as ‘very dangerous, unscientific, unethical, total nonsense, dangerously flawed, conspiratorial and grotesque’. Among the critics were prominent role-players such as World Health Organization director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, British chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance, and US infectious diseases expert Anthony Fauci”. Defenders of the lockdown consensus released a counter-manifesto, the John Snow Memorandum, ironically named for epidemiology’s most famous dissenter from a scientific consensus.

At the time I read everything I could on the topic and made copious notes, hoping to write my own perspective on the GBD. Long before I was in a position to do that, though, the debate had moved on, and I never had an opportunity to revisit the subject.

Fortunately, there is a new FAQ in town: Anti-Virus: The COVID-19 FAQ. This new FAQ may not be the best place to go for scientific advice about the disease; the ‘doctors’ behind it seem to mainly have doctorates in economics and psychology (though I have read that there is an anonymous scientist involved), and some of their claims, such as “Covid still has a high fatality rate among younger people”, seem supported more by semantics than by science. (“Younger” in context turns out to be “younger than 65”). But at least the FAQ has revived the Declaration and assembled a ‘best of’ the criticisms levelled against it, making it worthwhile to revisit the debate.

This is an excellent, very thorough demolition job. Worth reading in full.

Tags: Anti-Virus: COVID-19 FAQGreat Barrington Declaration

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3 Comments
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zebedee
zebedee
1 year ago

Flattening the curve means extending the duration of the epidemic and reducing acquired immunity so that when you unlock you get another wave.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4kWbYlopN4

78
0
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
1 year ago
Reply to  zebedee

I seem to remember the UK’s lockdowns were so effective that they caused “cases” of “covid” to plummet in Sweden.

70
0
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
1 year ago

“What will it take to dispel that deadly myth?”

A few generations. Very few people have anything to gain by public recognition of the truth, including a large proportion of the general public. I tend to think most people must have known it was bollocks from at least the time of scotch eggs.

115
0
wokeman
wokeman
1 year ago

Actually Belarus did precisely f all wet to Rona and had a comparable result to everywhere else in western Europe, this is the true control group. Football matches continued there and nothing was shut. Sweden is still an example of medical tyranny just not as bad as the rest of the west, Belarus is the true model of liberty. For defending liberty the hateful CIA tried to start a revolution in Belarus in August 2020, remarkably the large crowds didn’t cause mass deaths. Go figure.

Last edited 1 year ago by wokeman
115
-3
Monro
Monro
1 year ago
Reply to  wokeman

What evidence do you have that the CIA tried to start a revolution in Belarus in August 2020?

‘In a long speech to top officials, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko ranted against the alleged U.S.-led plan to destabilize the country and claimed that American allies in Europe have participated in the effort that took years to prepare, part of his attempts to cast the opposition as Western stooges.

Lukashenko didn’t provide evidence to back his claim that the U.S. had any involvement in the demonstrations.

His main challenger in the election, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, dismissed his comments as an attempt to divert public attention from rigging the vote and the violent crackdown on protests.

“There is just one reason behind the protests in Belarus and it’s known to everyone: Lukashenko has lost the vote, but he doesn’t want to step down,” Tsikhanouskaya told The Associated Press in a written comment. “People have denied Lukashenko their trust and support and demand that he leave.”

Ah! That would be none at all, then………..

Last edited 1 year ago by Monro
4
-11
AlexJ08
AlexJ08
1 year ago
Reply to  wokeman

Yes it was utterly ridiculous that football continued while the rest of us were locked away and restrained. And we all know why: because the greedy useless men in governments around the world LOVE football and the NBA etc.

What a clown world we live in, and we absolutely deserve the chaotic mess we currently find ourselves in. We get the governments and media that we deserve, for sure

13
0
Free Lemming
Free Lemming
1 year ago

Every time I see Spiked, or the DT, or w*nkers like Piers Morgan, or any of that previously lockdown-loving, ‘vaccine’ promoting, antivax-shaming, democracy-destroying ilk, spout their sudden wisdom, I feel physically sick. The whole lot should be hanging from a tree somewhere as far as I’m concerned. I’ll never forgive, I’ll never forget.

122
0
Solentviews
Solentviews
1 year ago
Reply to  Free Lemming

Brendan O’Neil was pretty solid from the beginning and couldn’t see the point of Lockdowns. Unfortunately others like Fraser ‘vax everyone’ Myers was an absolute disgrace and gave Piers Morgan a run for his money. I can’t ever look at Spiked in the same way now.

16
0
RTSC
RTSC
1 year ago
Reply to  Solentviews

Myers, and his tyrannical enforced vax everyone policy, is the reason I no longer subscribe to Spiked!

8
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
1 year ago

Come on Will, how often are we going to repeat this?

10
0
Jabby Mcstiff
Jabby Mcstiff
1 year ago

It was always a reflection of the neurosis of the country that succumbed to such measures and so the Swedes demonstrated themselves to be especially level-headed especially given the trends over the rest of the globe. And then you get examples of very nasty totalitarianism in places like New Zealand, erstwhile the most innocuous country in the world perhaps. And then beautiful anomalies like Belarus. And those valiant African leaders who tried to warn the world but who were shortly dispatched. If you meditate on that period you will see that it was a time when the psyche of the nation was laid bare in stark relief.

31
0
Safedthinker
Safedthinker
1 year ago

‘What will it take to dispel that deadly myth?’
The words ‘The Diamond Princess’.

6
0

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