Sunetra Gupta, Professor of Theoretical Epidemiology at Oxford, gave an interview to BBC News last week which may be a new low in the Beeb’s one-sided coverage of the lockdown debate. The interviewer, Annita McVeigh, treated the distinguished Oxford scholar as if she was a David Icke figure whose views were completely beyond the pale. At one point, as Prof Gupta was making the case for lifting all restrictions immediately, McVeigh cut across her, saying, “Sorry to interrupt you, Professor, but multiple scientists say lockdowns have worked, the Government says so too.” Gupta patiently replied: “That doesn’t mean it’s true.”
Professor Gupta’s fellow signatories of the Great Barrington Declaration, Jay Bhattacharya, Professor of Medicine at Stanford University, and Martin Kulldorff, Professor of Medicine at Harvard, have come to their colleague’s support.
Professor Kulldorff said: “After one year of covering the pandemic, it is surprising that some journalists still do not understand basic principles of epidemiology and public health. Rather than interrupt her, BBC could learn a lot from Professor Gupta, one of the world’s preeminent infectious disease epidemiologists.”
Professor Bhattacharya added: “Dr Gupta’s comments to the BBC were correct. There is a growing scientific consensus that the lockdowns have failed to control the spread of Covid in nearly every country that has imposed them. The scientific community even more strongly agrees that lockdowns have hampered vital public health priorities along other dimensions, including cancer prevention, mental health, and health inequality. That the BBC does not know these facts indicates how narrow a set of scientific advisors they rely on.”
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“Rude, dismissive interview.”
Then goes on to rudely dismiss David Icke for being beyond the pale, even though Icke has been bang on point throughout this whole mess. The mainstream plebs refuse to acknowledge this pandemic is agenda driven because they can’t handle the truth. How many times are people like Mr Young going to rationalise what’s happening as just idiot politicians bumbling their way through a crisis? It’s embarrassing at this point.
Lockdown sceptics is just a cover for people who are too afraid to get off the damn fence.
While I respect Icke’s scepticism he presents theories thinly veiled as facts far too often for my liking. So while I agree that smearing Icke is a step too far in this instance I can’t agree that anything else is just fence sitting.
I hear what you are saying…. it is hard stuff to digest… but doesnt mean Icke is right about everything… he is too extreme… everything about that guy is a conspiracy amd nothing is what it seems… a bit too much
fair comment.
Icke is a conspiracy theorist, he is a complete and utter tube.
I see that Mike Yeadon got the fact check treatment here, trying to trash things he has said:
Lockdown sceptic Mike Yeadon: Fact checked
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJl5Ip4Egls
These Fact Checkers who come straight out of Orwell’s nightmares are shameless. They actually make themselves and their rotten agenda look super-weak in this. It’s much to Mike’s credit that they have produced this.
On the page they link to they print this regarding MIke’s warning about the vaccine:
Mr Yeadon then says: “You don’t need to be vaccinated by inadequately tested and somewhat dangerous gene-based spike protein-inducing proteins [sic].”
Three Covid-19 vaccines have been approved by the UK regulator for use at the time of writing: the Moderna vaccine, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Multiple stages of trials have proved that these three vaccines are safe and effective. Although a possible link between the AstraZeneca vaccine and an incredibly rare kind of blood clot is still being investigated, the benefits of the vaccine far outweigh the risks for most people.
The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines both use mRNA “gene” technology which, once inside the body, provides the instructions on how to produce spike proteins like those found on the surface of the Covid-19 virus, prompting the body to generate antibodies. This is not dangerous.
The last bit is priceless. It’s completely dishonest to say that. The deceit, the brazen lies, it’s all they have in their fast-disintegrating attempt to con the world with this dangerous nonsense
This fact checker won’t be thrilled to see 16👍upvotes for his hardly viewed video against 203👎downvotes for him, the prick. Monday 3rd May 13.30.
I scrolled down the first 30 or so comments and upticked all of them since they are uniformally in support of Mike Yeadon.
Go on fellow Sceptics, click the video link and make the fact checkers day worse.
209 now! Fullfact is an absolute joke. I say it’s true, they say it’s not!
Someone should tell them that’s not “fact checking”.
or as I label them -foolfuct
Did it!
Did the same.
Also done.
So sorry Karenovirus but I do not do anything Google as I will not facilitate a company who limits freedom of speech the ability to make money.
It’s a free country Mike.
LOL.
379 when I last looked at 08:20
429 now!
“trials have proved that these three vaccines are safe”
Trials can never prove safety. They can, at best, suggest bounds on the risks.
If it’s only a “possible link” with the “incredibly rare [amongst non-injected people]” blood clots, then it’s only a possible link with any reduction in CoViD-19 cases, hospitalisations, and deaths. He can’t have it both ways.
“Trials can never prove safety”
Yes – Even if the trials are ‘complete’ in conventional terms,that’s a massive giveaway. What you are at best left with is a reasonable probability of little or no harm thus far. Which is the way risk is always properly judged.
Clearly these ‘fact checkers’ haven’t even checked their facts about basic scientific principles.
People paid by Bill Gates beliieve other people paid by Bill Gates. Quel surprise
‘That the BBC does not know these facts indicates how narrow a set of scientific advisors they rely on’
The BBC relies on the very same socialist fascist advisers responsible for government health policy.
This appalling state of affairs, state socialist health advisers, state socialist broadcasting propagandists, will continue until both the NHS and the BBC are reformed, root and branch.
The groundwork has been done. All that is required is some political backbone; leadership:
https://iea.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Niemietz-NHS-Interactive.pdf
https://iea.org.uk/themencode-pdf-viewer-sc/?file=/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/CC71_BBC-licence_web.pdf&settings=111111011&lang=en-GB#page=&zoom=75&pagemode=
I always wonder how they find contributors for example for the Today program so quickly. Probably a quick shout in the open plan office, “does anybody have a friend who can pretend to know anything about … and wants to be interviewed?”
“The interviewer, Annita McVeigh, treated the distinguished Oxford scholar as if she was a David Icke figure….”
Atrocious grammar aside, Toby (it’s “as if she were…”, surely?) do you really not get the sense that you are shooting yourself and “Lockdown Sceptics” in the foot with this sort of remark? After all, can’t we all imagine, in the present climate of rampant lies and insanity, people on “the other side” coming out with precisely analogous statements, i.e. upbraiding critics of Patrick Vallance or Chris Whitty in such terms as “the government’s Chief Scientist cannot be treated as if he was (sic) a Sunetra Gupta / Carl Henegan / insert name of any other non-officially-approved physician or scientist here”?
At a time when circular, question-begging (non-)argument totally dominates public discourse I’m afraid that “our side” owes it to ourselves, even if to no one else, to resist applying this “but it goes without saying…” anti-reason even to David Icke. In other words, the line “David Icke is wrong about everything because….he’s David Icke” just won’t do at this present juncture. Unless you want to become the very mirror image of those you are denouncing here, Toby, whose “reasoning” runs “Whoever signed the Great Barrington Declaration is a crackpot ergo Sunetra Gupta / Carl Henegan / insert name are crackpots and need not be listened to”, you need, difficult as it may be, to set aside all the old extraneous ad hominems from the 1990s about “lizard people” and “tinfoil hats” and ask yourself the simple concrete question: “what exactly has David Icke gotten wrong about the massive suppression of civil liberties and rapid relentless imposition of an entirely new type of human co-existence that has been going on these past fifteen months?” I would submit: “very little; far less than almost anyone else”. Give the man his due, Toby. “Crazy” as the world was that he warned us was coming all through the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s, this crazy world is, quite evidently and undeniably, the world we are living in in 2021. If anyone has ever been vindicated, Icke has.
If you deny this, I’m afraid you’re not one whit better than Anita McVeigh, for whom “Sunetra Gupta is a crackpot and not to be listened to because….well, because she’s a ‘Sunetra Gupta figure’…”
The BBC is the real deadly virus …
Ah yes, as originally posted a couple of days ago; when Professor Gupta offered to discuss models that show lockdowns do not work the pig ignorant Annita McVeigh sneeringly retorts with a snorted
“A a a ‘model’ you say ?”
As though mere models count for nought when compared to the real world.
Who’d a thunk it ?
You can’t lock down a country such as India or indeed South Africa which I know well. The politely known informal or more accurately put subsistence economy is depended upon by huge numbers of people. Prevent them working and they starve to death. Some choice eh?
Hi Carrie, how’s it hanging?
I wish there were emoji buttons on this thing. 😀
As regards fact checkers:
Breaking News
BBC Fact Checkers investigate London march
Fact Checkers from the BBC have investigated the march in London yesterday and have established the following
1 The march was a pro lockdown march
2 The march was infiltrated by a small number of far right anti vaxxers carrying anti lockdown banners
3 The march was a spontaneous event triggered by the threat of the new super triple Indian scariant.
4. The March was encouraged by a combination of the Russians, believers in realworld evidence and Drumpf- Wah!
One of the marchers said ‘I just pray to god that they do not open the pubs or allow people to go on holiday, we might as well get it over with and all kill ourselves’
Some of marchers had less positive views one saying ‘Everyone should have been annihilated well before Christmas, this is putting our leaders to an awful lot of trouble’
It’s important to remember your TV licence costs you less than a bag of mung beans a day.
Given the choice, I’ll have the beans.
Same here!
The BBC would embarass the Chinese.
It sums up how far down Orwell’s 1984 Road we have travelled.
I wished I could find the whole interview. Annia Mcveigh behaved disgracefully. We have to get the BB defunded. Many tory MPs are in favour of defunding the bbc, we might gewt it done, with a bit of luck.
They threatened Galileo.
They mocked at Darwin.
Prof.Gupta is in good company.
The same treatment is being given to articles and comments made on TCW. Whenever an article is based around vaccines; lockdowns or health passports, there arise a team of abusers and contrarians to mock and make personal unpleasant comments. Any that purport to supply ‘evidence’ neither completely understand what they are showing, when questioned, take umbrage, change tack avoiding the question or demand peer reviewed proof of a comment made. Yet on articles around the spat of who pays for what decorating in No.10 – nothing.
When over the target – expect flack.
Annita McVeigh and the BBC made lockdown happen (several times). They probably know about the harms but think it is for the greater good. Anything that threatens that will make them defensive.
Imagine thinking you are a ‘good person’ and then it turns out you have been a core part of the greatest and most murderous fraud ever committed against humans by humans.
You’d expect McVeigh to be tetchy.
Hoess thought he was a good person. The commandant of Auschwitz.
They hanged him.
Exactly. They can’t back down now. They can’t actually say, “Well, never mind.” Or, “It looks like our side might have been wrong about that.”
Or, I guess they could … if they were big and honest people.
Studies on “human nature” probably show that once you are wedded to a big idea – where your self-identify is at stake – you won’t change views.
Richard Sharp (BBC chairman)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Sharp_(BBC_chairman)
Richard Simon Sharp (born 8 February 1956) is the current Chairman of the BBC, a role he has held since February 2021. A former banker, he worked at JP Morgan for eight years, and then for 23 years at Goldman Sachs. Sharp was an advisor to Boris Johnson during his tenure as London Mayor, and to Rishi Sunak as Chancellor. He has donated more than £400,000 to the Conservative Party.
The BBC is currently in the hands of Tory Party placemen and funders – even tho’ I saw some comments on the DM site claiming it was all a ‘left-wing’ plot! Such is the crassness of the political dinosaurs who try to apply decaying political definitions. 🙂
Our chance to do something about it: Select Committee taking evidence until May 3rd on vaccine passports. Charlie Ward Telegram reposted this:
Forwarded from Jaclyn Dunne (Jaclyn Dunne) and CW
“COVID PASSPORTS ALERT
Last time they got 50,000 responses. Because of the massive response they launched another call for evidence hoping this one will go unnoticed !
How many will they get this time? Please do not underestimate this action. Send your response as soon as possible. Link to the call below. We have hours to respond.
Let’s amplify our voice.
ParlIament call for evidence on COVID passports! Deadline 3rd of May
https://committees.parliame…
Call for evidence – Committees – UK Parliament
Written Evidence – Covid 19 Vaccine Certification
I’m furious about this as I spent an entire evening on my submission the first time. When I tried to do another one yesterday (Monday) a m, they had made it more difficult e.g, not understanding that I’m self-employed and don’t work for a ‘company’.
Also, you appeared to have to write the submission and upload the file, which I couldn’t easily do on a phone, so decided to do it later. And then I forgot.
Bloody Gove had this well worked out.
First, it’s amazing they even booked her as a guest in the first place. But it is not surprising she was treated like she was once on the show. As far as I can tell, there is not ONE journalist in the “mainstream media” who does not agree with the COVID “narrative.” That is, there is not one who possesses an “open mind” and would allow that these dissenting scientists might be making valid points. This in itself is a chilling commentary on the diversity of thought that exists in our press corps today.
The situation has been developing for a long time. As I’ve mentioned before – if you’re interested, Flat Earth News by Nick Davies (a genuine investigative journalist) is a really good history of this decline from journalism to what he names ‘churnalism‘.
The other term is “pack journalism.” They all follow the pack.
The BBC, in line with other MSM outlets and major social media platforms, has signed up to the global Trusted News Initiative (I know, don’t say it!!). It commits them to uphold their Govts’ narrative in respect of C-19. No dissent, no challenge, no doubt to be expressed. For me, it means that no news outlet signatory who has signed up is to be in any way trusted. The global agenda to control the narrative is clear. It is a Goliath but David is fighting back. Let’s hope David wins this one.
The BBC, along with the majority of its staff, if not all, is “not fit for purpose”. This also applies to most of the rest of the print and broadcast media, who are incapable of understanding and analysing any facts or arguments which do not fit their Government-defined narrative. The fact that they rely on strawman argument and ad hominem abuse and attack instantly reveals the weakness and dishonesty of all they say or produce.
It’s not that they incapable I believe, it’s that they have a very different agenda. That agenda is to dismiss alternative points of view (often supported by hard facts) and to publicly denigrate them. Whilst they serve the needs of their puppeteers, they do not serve the needs of the general public to whom they are doing a great and harmful disservice. People are walking away from them. They are the architects of their own demise.
Mike made dozens of claims throughout that interview yet fact checker only disagreed with three, especially the 3% differences in the variants which means no need for top up vaccines and the last one, their malign intent, oops!
Annita McVeigh has a degree in English and Politics from Belfast. No scientific credentials of any kind. Sunetra Gupta is Professor of Theoretical Epidemiology at Oxford, and one of the world’s most eminent scientists in the relevant discipline. Had I been the good Professor, I would have pointed this out, adding that McVeigh’s venturing an opinion on the matter is as ridiculous as a child telling a Grandmaster how to play chess.
Full interview anyone?
Sorry to all the people who are defending David Icke. I don’t know much about Icke but I know he is no authority on the science. Gupta is an academic authority on mathematical epidemiology and she is being dismissed and downgraded by someone who wouldn’t knows much more about sonnets than statistics. The fact is had it been the science correspondent it would have been even worse . The BBC and all the other broadcasters are hating the end of Covid aware the self important non scientists like Michie and Bauld who have been making hay while the sun doesn’t shine. The shocking lack of context of all reports is the real issue. Nothing about false positive, underlying conditions, zilch about modelling assumptions. This whole debacle will ruin the communication of science and expose us to unwarranted scepticism about real issues of threat like climate change.
The BBC are disgusting. I hope to live long enough on this earth to see the total demise of this dinosaur.
When unchained information is confused with fact, transferred to scientifically ignorant journalists who are incapable of critical analysis: the public is exposed to propaganda not knowledge. The greatest casualty of the pandemic is not health but “the scientific method “.
It shows the poor level of understanding of Anita McViegh and the total lack of respect for such a brilliant person who, has been prepared to come forward and speak about what she knows is scientifically and morally wrong. I applaud Sunetra Gupta for have the courage to speak out on the BBC who are clearly following the government mantra because of all the funding and want the gravy train to continue. I hope many more find the integrity and courage to do the same
Clearly racism from the BBC
Time to defund and privatize the BBC?
I’ve been searching for this Annita McVeigh and Professor Gupta interview on YouTube, it doesn’t seem to be there.
For what it’s worth I did complain to the BBC over McVeigh’s appalling behaviour. She constantly interrupted Professor Gupta spouting the Government narrative. As McVeigh is incapable of carrying out a competent interview I would suggest she seek out a new career – perhaps a government spin doctor!