72866
  • Log in
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Forum
  • Donate
  • Newsletter
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result

Neither Zero Covid nor Vaccinations will Allow us to Return to Normality: We Must Learn To Live With Covid

by Toby Young
29 July 2021 12:29 PM

We’re publishing on original essay today by Dr. Lee Jones, a reader in International Politics at Queen Mary. He argues that trying to suppress a virus that has an infection fatality rate of 0.05% for the under-70s is pointless and the sooner we learn to live with it, the better. Here is an extract.

Lockdowns and other societal restrictions were never recommended in pre-Covid pandemic planning by the World Health Organisation or national governments, because they were of unproven and dubious efficacy and came at tremendous cost. That most countries collapsed into some form of lockdown, throwing out their existing pandemic planning, thus indicates decisions taken in moments of panic, amid mounting, media-induced fear among the general public.

In most (though not all) countries, governments lacked the necessary authority to resist such pressure and hold to existing plans, which focused on delaying the spread of new diseases and mitigating their impact. Crucially, moreover, in many places, including Britain and Australia, the state was also very poorly prepared to do even this. Successive governments failed to invest in necessary capacities, outsourcing planning and preparedness to local authorities and private companies. Consequently, existing systems soon collapsed, adding to the sense of panic. As the U.K.’s Deputy Cabinet Secretary told the Prime Minister’s chief adviser on March 12th – the day that test-and-tracing was secretly abandoned because the U.K. could only handle five tests per week – “I’ve been told for years there’s a whole plan for this. There is no plan… I think we are absolutely fucked.”

Lockdown was thus the result of panic and state failure. It appealed to politicians because it gave the public what they seemed to be clamouring for, and bought time to organise a better response. The trouble is that justifying and securing compliance with such draconian measures entailed a colossal propaganda effort that has permanently skewed public perceptions of the virus, and inverted the proper relationship between state and citizen. As Laura Dodsworth chronicles in A State of Fear, the U.K. Government deliberately mobilised behavioural psychology to instil fear into the population to increase compliance with lockdown measures. The media has followed suit for its own purposes.

A conformist culture ensued in which dissenting voices – even among world-leading scientists – have been silenced, censored, or subjected to abuse. Sceptics are derided as “Covidiots”, “selfish morons” and people who want to “kill granny”. The proper relationship between citizen and state in a democracy has been turned on its head, with the Government telling the public what to do, rather than vice-versa, and demanding that people stay home to “protect the NHS”, when the NHS’s job is actually to protect us.

Worth reading in full.

Tags: VaccinesZero Covid

Donate

We depend on your donations to keep this site going. Please give what you can.

Donate Today

Comment on this Article

You’ll need to set up an account to comment if you don’t already have one. We ask for a minimum donation of £5 if you'd like to make a comment or post in our Forums.

Sign Up
Previous Post

Record 689,313 ‘Pings’ Sent Out by NHS Covid App in One Week

Next Post

Students Must Wait Until September to Find Out Whether They Need Proof of Vaccination to Go to University, Says Dominic Raab

Subscribe
Login
Notify of
Please log in to comment

Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.

35 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

NEWSLETTER

View today’s newsletter

To receive our latest news in the form of a daily email, enter your details here:

 

DONATE

PODCAST

Nick Dixon and Toby Young Talk About the Fall of Russell Brand, the BBC’s Trans Rights Activism and Graham Linehan Topping the Bestseller List

by Will Jones
19 September 2023
5

LISTED ARTICLES

  • Most Read
  • Most Commented
  • Editors Picks

News Round-Up

21 September 2023
by Richard Eldred

“You’d Have to Pay Me to Buy an Electric Car”

20 September 2023
by Will Jones

Generation Z Can’t Work Alongside People with Different Views and Don’t have the Skills to Debate, says Channel 4 Boss – as She Blames the Lockdowns

21 September 2023
by Will Jones

Why Are UN Human Rights Advocates Obsessed With Legalising the Sex Trade?

20 September 2023
by Dr David McGrogan

The Post-Truth Anti-Bullshitters are Just Producing a More Sophisticated Type of Bullshit

20 September 2023
by Dr James Alexander

News Round-Up

54

“You’d Have to Pay Me to Buy an Electric Car”

29

Generation Z Can’t Work Alongside People with Different Views and Don’t have the Skills to Debate, says Channel 4 Boss – as She Blames the Lockdowns

26

Rumble Rejects MPs’ “Dangerous” Demand to Cave into Russell Brand “Cancel Culture Mob”

22

Rishi Sunak to Ditch 2030 Ban on Petrol and Diesel Cars and Slow Phase-Out of Gas Boilers in Latest Net Zero Back-Down

63

Spikes in Heart Deaths Among Japan’s Working-Age Men Support the ‘Hot Lot Hypothesis’ – That Some Covid Vaccine Batches Are Much Worse Than Others

21 September 2023
by Guy Gin

There’s Only One Way to Halt the Spread of Pernicious Trans Guidance: the ‘Public Sector Equality Duty’ Must Go

21 September 2023
by Caroline ffiske

Why Are UN Human Rights Advocates Obsessed With Legalising the Sex Trade?

20 September 2023
by Dr David McGrogan

Nigeria is in No Fit State to Look After Precious Artefacts

20 September 2023
by Mike Wells

Education is Much More Expensive Than We Are Prepared to Admit

20 September 2023
by Mark Ellse

POSTS BY DATE

July 2021
M T W T F S S
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031  
« Jun   Aug »

SOCIAL LINKS

Free Speech Union
  • Home
  • About us
  • Donate
  • Privacy Policy

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

RSS

Subscribe to our newsletter

© Skeptics Ltd.

No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Forum
  • Donate
  • Newsletter

© Skeptics Ltd.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Create New Account!

Please note: To be able to comment on our articles you'll need to be a registered donor

Already have an account?
Please click here to login Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
wpDiscuz
You are going to send email to

Move Comment