An anthropologist by background with no academic training in medicine, virology or immunology, Prof Devi Sridhar has nonetheless become a go-to person for the broadcast media during the pandemic, where she is allowed to pronounce unchallenged on all things to do with Covid, vaccines and lockdowns. This week, expert group HART has taken her to task for her misinformation about the safety of vaccinating children on Good Morning Britain. She told viewers categorically that “zero children have died because of the vaccine side-effects”, a claim at odds with the multiple reports on VAERS of fatal adverse events in children in the U.S.
Today, she told the BBC that vaccines give more robust and longer-lasting protection than from infection.
We’d rather people get immunity through a vaccine, as studies are showing that vaccine immunity is longer-lasting. You will have a more robust immune response from a vaccine than you do from natural infection.
She doesn’t specify which studies are showing this, but it is contradicted by the findings of researchers examining differing immune responses from infection and vaccination. A paper (not yet peer-reviewed) from a team at New York University in April looked in detail at the different types of immune response from vaccines and infection and found marked differences that did not generally reflect well on the vaccines. Here are some excerpts.
While both infection and vaccination induced robust innate and adaptive immune responses, our analysis revealed significant qualitative differences between the two types of immune challenges. In COVID-19 patients, immune responses were characterised by a highly augmented interferon response which was largely absent in vaccine recipients. …
Critically, induction of [interferons] by viral infection can radically reshape antigen presentation, cellular trafficking, and terminal differentiation of lymphocytes. Infection with SARS-CoV-2 potently induced [interferon] responses, but we did not observe evidence of [interferon] induction by the BNT162b2 mRNA [Pfizer] vaccine.
We observed the presence of cytotoxic CD4 T cells in COVID-19 patients that were largely absent in healthy volunteers following immunisation. … [T]hese features are indicative of protective immune responses and resolution of infection.
Other studies have indicated that the vaccines, unlike infection, do not produce mucosal IgA antibodies, which have been shown to play a crucial role in combating infection in the early stages.
Professor Sridhar also told the BBC that the Delta variant “makes Alpha look easy”. Again, this is untrue. According to Public Health England, the secondary attack rate (SAR, the proportion of contacts an infected person infects) of the Delta variant is currently 10.7% (meaning around 90% of contacts do not become infected), and it peaked at 13.5% at the beginning of May. By contrast, the Alpha variant’s SAR in December hit 15.1% and was still around 11% in March, though has declined further since. The idea that the Delta variant is far more infectious than the Alpha variant ever was and “makes it look easy” is thus a complete misunderstanding of the data.
There are so many well qualified scientists who could talk some sense and balance about COVID-19. Why do broadcasters insist on keep inviting back the under-qualified and repeatedly wrong Professor Sridhar?
Discussion
Comments
This week across the site:
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to the Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
To plagiarise Trump supporters ‘Lock her up’.
Why? Because she’s easy on the eye, the spoonful of sugar to make the medicine go down!
Why do the keep inviting her back?
Ticking boxes is why.
I am beginning to think that women in the public sphere are doing more harm than good. Of course this is a generalisation. However, it seems to me that the large numbers of women in Parliament (elected and unelected) have not improved decision making or indeed governing. It also seems to me that the very large numbers of women with Dr. Or Prof. in front of their name doesn’t mean they are highly trained in science or medicine. More likely they have a mediocre degree in counselling or soft humanities.
I think you will find that Devi Shridha is unwilling to appear on TV with anybody who is remotely qualified to debunk her nonsense. I switch off whenever she appears. I am on amlodipine tablets as it is.
Why? She ticks their pc, woke boxes. Doesn’t matter she spurts shite
This dangerous, unqualified loose canon ball should be made to debate, live on air, those eminent, extremely well qualified (actual) scientists who have an alternative point of view.
I do not suffer fools lightly and I include MSM who are giving this self appointed expert any airtime to spout her nonsense. I would like to see her in the dock.
Could it be they like her so much because she is young, females and ethnic? The fact she’s unqualified and generally wrong makes no nevermind!
……. and, therefore, her views are protected from criticism because, well, racism! (and sexism!). The Meghan Markle thing.
Can we stop calling lies “misinformation” or any other such euphemism?
Ferguson, Sridhar, Michie,
These people are a menace to society.
You can add Stephen ‘Third’ Reicher to that list.
Why are these howling jeremaiads continually given an uncritical platform when the likes of Mike Yeadon are ignored?
Broadcast media is totally corrupt.
If anyone has the time or inclination to do so, there are some pearls of vituperation in the Comments beneath the linked Beeb article that are worth reading.
Lost for words .. everyone, especially parents needs to watch this
https://vernoncoleman.org/videos/how-many-children-will-die-because-woman
The NHS website for vaccination training makes the same claim for the pertussis (whooping cough) vaccination.
This 24-carat dummy is strikingly stupid. As the Speccie’s Steerpike has highlighted, she used tw@@tter to imply that Javid likened Covid-19 to the flu. But that is NOT what he did.
Stating that ‘in common with the flu, we’ll just have to get used to living with it’ does NOT mean he thinks ‘Covid-19 is like flu’, yet she, cretin that she is, described it as an ‘analogy’.
This is a similar cognitive error whereby simpletons think that if someone says ‘A is to B and C is to D’, they are stating that ‘A is similar to C’. That too is wildly wrong, yet a commonplace reasoning error.
She’s really NOT very intelligent at all. Heaven knows how she made her way in academe.
“Heaven knows how she made her way in academe.”
She isn’t physically unattractive
“She’s really NOT very intelligent at all. Heaven knows how she made her way in academe.”
She’s female and BAME
I think Ossettian and Catee are both correct.
Heck, I bet some of those academic types were so lovelorn they were more than willing to adjust young Devi’s grades upward for a big smile and the briefest of glimpses down a low-cut shirt made of the flimsiest, not quite opaque material.
Devi Sridhar is an extreme version of someone who knows little but has huge delusions of grandeur.
How she can go on TV and talk about a subject area in which she has little to no background amazes me. Pure narcissism.
She constantly lies – but like Tony Blair she probably believes the lies at the time. ‘Vaccines have zero risk’ for example. She’s not a scientist – she’s a pathetic wannabe politician and powermonger
Indeed, she’s essentially an authoritarian political activist in pseudo-scientific clothing.
Her nauseating support for the appalling Sturgeon alone should disqualify her from any public position.
Narcissists are usually male, but not all of them
Those who incite others to carry out medical experiments on children in order to ‘protect’ themselves are committing serious criminal offences
Off topic, I wrote an email to the BPS regarding the unethical use of fear by the behavioural ‘scientists’ over the past 16 months, below is there response…
The Ethics Committee of the BPS has reviewed and considered the above issue raised with the society.
On 5 February we issued a statement in response to emails detailing similar concerns. This response continues to be the BPS position.
Covid-19 is an extremely serious public health issue. The response to the pandemic is clearly a matter of social as well as individual concern. Indirect behavioural interventions are commonly employed in public health campaigns in order to safeguard the population. Given the scale of the mortality and morbidity caused by the pandemic the behavioural interventions employed by the UK Government have been proportionate and necessary.
The Ethics Committee believed that the contributions of psychologists in responding to the pandemic was entirely consistent with the BPS Code of Ethics and Conduct, demonstrating social responsibility and the competent and responsible employment of psychological expertise.
The Committee also emphasised how psychologists’ shared values of respect, competence, responsibility and integrity will be vital in supporting the long-term recovery from the pandemic at both the… Read more »
I complained about the Look Them in the Eyes campaign to the Advertising Standards Authority and took it through two levels of appeal. No joy for me either
‘The Ethics Committee believed that the contributions of psychologists in responding to the pandemic was entirely consistent with the BPS Code of Ethics and Conduct’
Read that and then read it again
Clever use of words
Note the use of the word ‘believed’ and ‘was’
The use of these words suggests at some point in the past the committee believed everything was OK
That is a far cry from saying the committee believes that now
Should be “were” anyway.
Ask them to comment on the ALL cause mortality population adjusted UK figures for 2020 and the fraudulent test that is used for the ‘scale’ of morbidity and mortality. Then tell them we do NOT need any of the talentless rubbish that are members of their society!!
Just looked up her background on Wikipedia
Rhodes Scholar
Oxford Uni “Global Economic Governance Programme”
Chatham House
World Economic Forum
Chelsea Clinton
Contributor Guardian, CNN, BBC
Says all you need to know.
Also note that she is not an actual MD or OD, and that she finished her first degree at a younger than normal age, something I feel is indicative of a socially maladapted personality.
Other than the fact she is not an actual medical doctor, her career trajectory is disturbingly similar to the equally sociopathic Leana Wen:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leana_Wen
What’s the ‘normal age’ then?
That is a list that is enough to make any sane person shudder.
And she’s really not that bright as she can’t understand basic reasoning and what analogies are and aren’t. (See my post elsewhere in the comments section).
Chris Whitty does not believe the vaccines are working or he wouldn’t be talking about not going back to normal till at least next spring. Here is a public health professor from Imperial mad keen on vaccines admitting he doesn’t really know whether they are working
https://www.bmj.com/content/373/bmj.n1605/rr
but Devi Shridhar knows.
If by “working” you mean the Absolute Risk Reduction for the vaccines is high, ie worthwhile, then it isn’t.
Big Pharma’s own data shows between 1-1.5% !!!!!
Dr Richard Fleming on The Highwire lays it all out.
They have nothing to measure: the decline in infections could easily be seasonal. They don’t know whether immunological data is meaningful, and they don’t know how long it lasts if it is.
Clearly a child protection issue
If she has children of her own a referral should be made to social services
It would be for a multi disciplinary team to decide if the children should be placed on the ‘At risk’ register
Please join me by sending an email to her university to complain (as someone else here suggested). If enough people complain it will have an impact. Early on in the first lockdown Dr Simon Clarke a microbiologist from Reading University did a Radio show with Nicky Campbell. The way he spoke to callers who dared to question his authority was really shocking. He was so rude, condescending and even said to one man he was talking out a hole in his head. I called the BBC there and then to complain and he disappeared from the BBC for a very very long time, he used to have a regular slot with Simon McCoy.
So sometimes complaining does work, this woman needs to feel the consequence of her words…
She is a Professor of Global Health at the Usher Institute Edinburgh University
The Director of the Institute is Professor Aziz Sheikh [email protected]
The head of her Faculty of Global Health is Professor Harish Nair [email protected]
& Professor Igor Rudan
[email protected]
Just to add the university must be condoning the utter garbage she spouts as on her bio page
https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/devi-sridhar
It says…
Professor Sridhar is receiving a large number of requests from the media at the moment. If you are a journalist, please contact [email protected]. University of Edinburgh students can still contact Professor Sridhar directly using details in the Outlook directory.
Is it just me or does the word ‘collaborating’ seem very appropriate.
Hopefully the same fate awaits them as is usually reserved for collaborators.
https://www.ed.ac.uk/usher/about-us/who-collaborating-centre
Ever considered that the BTL aimless ranting at Sridhar, of which there is much here, is a useful diversion as far as the Covid pushers are concerned?
The real problem is the decay of journalism.
The real problem is that every institution is rotten with crony-communists, from top to bottom.
Look at their funders. Follow the money.
It’s certainly true that the journalists allowing people like her to get away with this are as guilty or more guilty than she is
After all she is there to push her views whereas the journalists are supposed to question things
Words fail me
https://vernoncoleman.org/videos/how-many-children-will-die-because-woman
The people promoting these experimental injections are on a one way trip to hell .. those pushing for children to have them will have reserved a special place ..
Whose payroll is she on, and how much is she earning from peddling them?
I’m sure she has received quite substantial funding from an organisation called the ‘Gates Foundation’
Sridhar has *clearly* been installed as a UI for the covid cult in the UK. Woman, “minority”…all useful for deflecting challenges as “racist misogynistic attacks”. She’s dangerous and must be relentlessly challenged.
Broadcasters go to Devi because she feeds the fear agenda!
She is either woefully thick and unknowledgeable or evil .. either way hell awaits her and her ilk.
Sorry forgot to post this link
https://vernoncoleman.org/videos/how-many-children-will-die-because-woman
I was thinking more about Devi. She has constantly compared covid to measles and the vaccines to the measles vaccine. Covid is caused by a coronavirus, it is not measles, the vaccines won’t give life long immunity. As Francis Balloux has said recently we will catch covid many times in our lives, like other coronavirus and it will be like the colds they cause in years to come. Devi wants to continue with her measles conflation and as she has been zero covid she wants to continue with the belief this virus can be eradicated. I would like to ask her how she feels about Scotland’s progress to eradication.
Did you know there is a sane parallel universe where the likes of Sridhar and Michie are still allowed to spout their gibberish nonsense, but only from the confines of their padded cells.
It’s a much happier universe as well.
The poster girl for some of the worst fallacies of “technocracy” and “meritocracy”. The “crats” in practice are often not the ones with the greatest technical expertise or merit, but the ones with the best personal pr, the best skills at ingratiating themselves to power, the best personal and family contacts, or just good fortune at fitting what fashion or elite dogma says are desirable personal qualities to be promoted – gender, race, politics etc.
Well put and an important point. Sridhar herself is more media-friendly than the average real boffin with a background in epidemiology or virology, and has also strained every sinew to suck up to the appalling Sturgeon. She knows which side her bread is buttered on.
They are both being ‘played’ by Gates.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InUU_lN0fvE
https://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/2148444/nicola-sturgeon-bill-gates-microsoft-edinburgh-meeting/
Devil Shridar – write to the university which employs this evil creature.
We have already but received no reply.
Nurembourg 2 awaits this murderous monster. She will join the many other conspirators in these multiple crimes against humanity.
Say, it’s currently still 80/20 between either knighthood or Nuremberg 2, for her and all the others.
First the knighthood, then the rope.
NO! To incite violence is to stoop to the authoritarians’ level.
Flagged.
To be fair, he might be calling for a fair trial on a charge commensurate with international standards of justice, and just basing his prediction on his understanding of the available evidence.
Dream on.
She should, but she won’t.
They are all acting on the orders of the same people who would both try them, and then hang beside them. How likely does that sound?