We’re publishing a review of Mark Woolhouse’s book The Year the World Went Mad: A Scientific Memoir by Guy de la Bédoyère today, a long-standing contributor to the Daily Sceptic. The book is gratifying for lockdown sceptics because it makes all the points we were making two years ago but is written by a member of the SAGE modelling team. Some will say, ‘Why didn’t you make all these points at the time?’, but to be fair to Woolhouse he has been a vocal critic of Government policy since early on. In August 2020 he called lockdown a “monumental mistake” that must not happen again. Here is an extract from Guy’s review:
Woolhouse is committed to the idea that COVID-19 is a potentially dangerous and deadly disease, and I do not dispute that. It has patently been so for huge numbers of people, even if it has been far less severe for many more. But we knew from the outset that the dangers were far from equally distributed throughout the population. Woolhouse sets this against the harms caused by lockdown, first of all as I have outlined through the “fall-off in health care provision throughout the UK”, followed by education and the impact on the economy which itself is bound to impact on the NHS. Instead, of finding a balance, says Woolhouse, many scientific advisors were “all too willing to dismiss those indirect harms” with a fixation on the belief that their sole responsibility was the minimise “the harm done by novel coronavirus and nothing more”.
In my view he could have gone further and described that for what it was: irresponsibility on a scandalous scale, a kind of true engrained crassness that it is difficult to believe could carry so much weight and force. And these are the people we permit to direct our lives?
A personal experience of the stupidity we have had to deal with came for me almost a year ago. Keen to learn and understand more, I had some correspondence with some of the nation’s most prominent scientists. One, who shall remain nameless, appeared on the World at One and I questioned why he had adopted the line he had. His reply (April 2021) included this memorable sentence: “I had a lot I might have said in addition to what [the presenter] guided me to say – I’m sure your experience as a broadcaster will tell you that you are part of a narrative and your role is to fit in with the show (to a greater or lesser extent).”
I was staggered by the naivety that scientist exhibited about declaring it is his responsibility to go along with a journalist’s narrative and what that could, and did, lead to. Having worked for the BBC for almost 20 years I was already rattled by the appalling lack of objectivity and inquiry some of its hacks (with some notable exceptions) exhibited during the pandemic. But to discover a scientist of his status could be so foolish as to believe it was his duty to “fit in” with a show’s agenda was a new one even for me.
Worth reading in full.
Discussion
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He mentions “the aftermath of a bout of insanity”. Unfortunately, the insanity continues, and will continue and recur for the foreseeable future. Woolhouse is no less to blame than any of the other public figures telling massive lies. This is simply an exercise in CYA.
Pretty simple answer. SAGE had an agenda. Its called the Great Reset. All members of SAGE work for university research facilities that receive GATES funding.
Why did they get it so wrong? It was scripted that’s why! There was no ‘science’ involved it was purely political. Now that The Fat Controller has declared war on Russia he thinks he can use that smokescreen to escape scrutiny.
Well, I’ve bought a copy, so he got something right!
The Didn’t get it wrong!! The DID EXACTLY as they had Planned ! Get got it very right in fact. The Managed to deliberately PETRIFY the population ( some irreversibly ) , They managed to Inject Millions with an unproven Vaccine ( they know ) the managed to shut down the economy ( inflation, property prices etc ) they managed to Keep everyone at home or be arrested if you went out & Most complied, they managed to censor scientists & learned how easily the MSM will do anything fro money…. etc etc etc etc … isn’t that a great success as far as they are concerned?
I believe the original mistake was down to the incompetence of the modelling exercise. The major problem with academics is that as they go higher and higher up their career poles they have to go into more and more details about an ever decreasing area of knowledge.
A friend of mine got his PhD on why one specific species of seaweed stuck to the boat hulls. Not exactly the widest hinterland that’s available and it made him effectively unemployable, other than in academia.
Having reached this pinnacle they are then seen as being worthy by their contemporaries whose judgements are also skewed. Guess what, everyone likes being told by their colleagues that they are wonderful.
Then stir into the mix all the publicity and praise they received from politicians and the ignorant MSM and it’s no wonder they kept on pumping out the same old rubbish.
Finally, the politicians liked the extra powers they could use and as the old saying goes “power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely”
“Woolhouse is committed to the idea that COVID-19 is a potentially dangerous and deadly disease, and I do not dispute that. “
I do. Govt figures show that less than 7000 died FROM Covid between Feb 2020 and Dec 2021
That’s an average of 10 a day. Anything BUT deadly
https://www.ons.gov.uk/aboutus/transparencyandgovernance/freedomofinformationfoi/covid19deathsandautopsiesfeb2020todec2021
Scientists. Modellers. Pardon me if I am repeating pervious comments, but should we not question Sir Patrick Vallance’s role as CHief Scientific Advisor, especially in light of his skewed espousal of the (now debunked) RCP 8.5 climate scenario to the PM?
Yes. Any public policy based on computer models needs to be binned. That’s ALL outputs from “climate pseudo-science”.
“They” did not get anything wrong, their intentions was to exterminate us all and the virus and the vaccines were their bio-weapons to do just that and they are very close to having succeeded in doing that: 1) Official Biochemical and Statistical Evidence 100% confirms Moderna created Covid-19 patented in 2013
Covid-19 means: 19 nucleotide sequence and not 2019 at all.
By The Exposé on March 3, 2022
Evidence has emerged which proves beyond a reasonable doubt that the pharmaceutical giant Moderna, the company that has made billions through the sale of an experimental Covid-19 injection, actually created the Covid-19 virus.
They cited a Paper by Scientists in India, Switzerland, Italy and the US (cautiously entitled: MSH3 Homology and Potential Recombination Link to SARS-CoV-2 Furin Cleavage Site) in which they calculated that the chances of a 19 nucleotide sequence patented by Moderna randomly appearing in Covid-19 in circumstances where it does not appear anywhere else in nature are 1 in 3 trillion.
Furthermore they did not merely apply for a patent on 2016 February 4 with US9587003B2: as reported in the Daily Mail. They actually applied on 2013 December 16 for 4 patents with US9149506B2, US9216205B2, US9255129B2, US9301993B2:as well.
So… Read more »
Don’t worry at the mere sight of the next “wave” or “pandemic” the sheep will mask up and lockdown as told to by our glorious leaders. IT’S PATHETIC.
They won’t need to mask up, as they will still be wearing masks judging by a good chunk of the population, now terrified of catching a cold.
Why are people still wearing masks? It was over before it 3ve4 began. NHS surgeries will be doing this for eternity. Scandalous and crim8nal.
Why Did So Many Scientists Get COVID-19 So Wrong?
Simply because these people are immoral and basically evil, governed only by money.
Potential side effects of jabs include chronic inflammation, because the vaccine continuously stimulates the immune system to produce antibodies. Other concerns include the possible integration of plasmid DNA into the body’s host genome, resulting in mutations, problems with DNA replication, triggering of autoimmune responses, and activation of cancer-causing genes. Alternative COVID cures EXIST. Ivermectin is one of them. While Ivermectin is very effective curing COVID symptoms, it has also been shown to eliminate certain cancers. Do not get the poison jab. If you want to get Ivermectin you can visit https://ivmpharmacy.com
Not to mention the dangers of the extremely toxic PEG in the Lipid Nanoparticles
Because they are technicians with PhDs, not scientists? Because they put their careers ahead of the sole objective of science, the pursuit of knowledge?
Woolhouse is committed to the idea that COVID-19 is a potentially dangerous and deadly disease
Yep. As is the common cold. Depending on the circumstances, it can become dangerous, especially for a suitable definition of dangerous, and even deadly. ATM, I have slight (hearing impeded) middle-ear inflammation. That, too, is a potentially dangerous and even deadly disease. As I had this for upteempth times already, including one where my eardrum – thankfully, as this meant the pressure could get out which stopped most of the pain – perforated, I’m not planning to do anything about it beyond wait (and occasionally curse) until it’s over.
But this technically accurate interpretation of potentially dangerous and deadly is not what people think of when they see potentially dangerous and deadly. That would be more akin to high probability of seriously unpleasant symptoms and kill lots and lots of people. It’s unlikely that Woolhouse isn’t aware of that and that he isn’t using the term intentionally in order to make COVID-19 appear much more serious than it actually is.
I haven’t read the other comments yet, but I’ll take a swing at answering that.
a) they got it so wrong because there was an agenda in place, to gauge levels of citizen compliance with ridiculous restrictions – or –
b) they got it so wrong because they’re not ‘scientists’ in the true sense of the word. Anyone who is happy to refer to settled science should be laughed out of the room.
There’s also the possibility that the intent was to check public compliance and the best way to do that was to have some ‘pretend scientists’ at the helm.
Rather than being knighted, they should be in market-place stocks, receiving the ridicule they deserve.
I think Jail would do fine.
I am glad to see that Mark Woolhouse has gathered even more courage since publishing this book, which I recently reviewed for The Salisbury Review. But if were one of the Covid orthodox it would have felt to me like being savaged by the proverbial dead sheep. I found it very disappointing and even disingenuous in places. He does ‘come out’ – using the phrase – as a ‘lockdown sceptic, but does not identify in any way with others of us, no less the Editor in Chief of The Daily Sceptic, who do not get a mention. However, we should be grateful for small mercies and, other than my general criticism, the book is both readable and informative. I hope that Prof Woolhouse continues to speak out.
The Salisbury Review – recommended reading for all free thinkers.
Once again, for the umpteenth time, the anti-lockdown position is vindicated. This brings me no joy, no pleasure. I just want the politicians, their advisors and the unthinking/complicit media to face a reckoning. They all have a serious amount of blood on their hands.
There are no lamp-posts high enough for them.
And not enough piano wire
Why? Because it was politically expedient to be, in essence, Trofim Lysenko junior.
A large part of the public demanded action so action was taken, for show.
A large section of the political class wants to micromanage the population so action was taken, for show and as an end in itself.
Easy. Because science is broken as the climate change nonsense amply demonstrated. Government funded and government led by the nose “science” is not science. Hence the renaming to “The science” which means “a baseless belief system”
Go read Ike’s farewell address – he specifically warns against this corruption happening.
https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/president-dwight-d-eisenhowers-farewell-address
“Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.
In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.
Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been over shadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.
The prospect of domination of the nation’s scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present… Read more »
The reviewer’s conclusion is interesting:
But for those who contributed to this site, especially in its early days, Woolhouse’s book provides some vindication that we were not off our heads in being profoundly concerned about the nation turning into one run by headless chickens.
I don’t doubt that the monomania re: covid was indulged in by many UK public health and other scientists. I don’t doubt that groupthink made many of them run round like headless chickens, believing the modelling, absorbing the nightly terrors crafted by the media. But this conclusion of ‘fowl play’ will not wash. The most instructive section is when the Professor talks about the agenda being peddled during a BBC interview: he means something much broader here, something the writer here does not catch.
I don’t doubt we will see a lot more of these self-exculpatory memoirs. These tomes will be presented as the scientific equivalent of an officer of the Titanic showboating his futile struggle to wrest the wheel from the captain. I tried, God knows I tried. But we all know deep down that the first year’s response to Covid across much of the globe involved a small cadre on the bridge setting… Read more »
A fully referenced story of genocide – and all funded by tax payers.
He must not be allowed to profit from this. He should be in the dock with all the others.
I think I saw somewhere that Woolhouse said that masks were effective. So in at least that regard he’s a dud too.
The point was to allow them to say, later, ‘Look at all the lives we saved.’
They have been playing a long game all along, and they still are.
People ask whether the lockdowns ‘worked’ – they don’t consider whose definition of ‘worked’ matters, or what that definition might be.
https://dailyexpose.uk/2022/03/09/pcr-disparities-btw-claims-and-actual-performance/
Why did so many ‘scientists’ get CoVid so wrong?
Same reason they get Climate change wrong – they are a corrupt, venal bunch of mediocre, low grade, poor quality scientists, who don’t get it ‘wrong’ they get what is ‘right’ to serve their own interests and those of their paymasters.
‘It has patently been so for huge numbers of people…’
The all important question: compared to what?
The huge number who were going to die anyway, because they were old with comorbidity. The point is the huge nulber who dust die or need treatment.
Just over 17 300 died from CoVid from January 2020 to September 2021… that is not a ‘huge’’ number.
I wonder when the Commentariat will stop parroting the official lie… I suppose when they start telling the truth about the other great lie, Climate change.
‘The point is the huge nulber who dust die or need treatment..’
Should read: The point is the huge number who didn’t die or need treatment.
The big question, of course, is why SAGE persisted in the madness despite voices like Woolhouse in attendance pointing out the errors? I think it is clearly that SAGE was a body stage-managed by those with a fixed agenda, and one that (as Kennedy’s book makes clear) originated in the gangster organisation of Fauci and Bill Gates.
That is obvious even from the revelation of SIR Jeremy Farrar’s role in the lab-leak cover up, and the fact that SIR Patrick Vallance was in on the same conference call. There you see the axis explaining the lockstep errors of not just the British government, but the world’s.
[M]any scientific advisors were “all too willing to dismiss those indirect harms” with a fixation on the belief that their sole responsibility was the minimise “the harm done by novel coronavirus and nothing more”.
It’s far less mysterious when you discover that Fauci not only gave exactly the same line out in the US, but had done so repeatedly when called out on other cost-benefit issues over the 50 years at NIAID. It’s a lot easier to have such an irrational fixed belief if you’ve been instructed and paid to do so.
So when… Read more »
One thing they did change their tune on is the Masks. Probably after realising the psychology of fear they produce, and then there is the profits.
Dame – never but should be – Tess Lawrie has skewered Andrew Hill, shown how Unitaid bought him off and how they knackered his tenured position at the University of Liverpool with 40 million little reasons why the BMGF/Fauci/WHO narrative should never be questioned – result? IVM never got official approval despite unequivocal evidence of its effectiveness in treating infected patients.
A brave and principled lady if ever I saw one.
“Woolhouse seems to be keen to mark out his position, and distance himself from the recriminations to come. One can hardly blame him, but I expect there will be a lot more of this to come, while others retreat into the long grass, never to be heard from again.”
This cannot be allowed to happen – the consequence of their actions will be felt by generations to come and its only correct that the those involved feel the full weight of the damage they have done for at least as long.
None of the ‘I resign and thats the end of the matter’ nonsense we see time and time again from politicians, the police etc – pursue to the grave like we hoi poloi would be be.
If its shown that those involved were simply useless, incompetent, blinded by their own (usually political) biases or negligent, then their careers, reputation, livelihoods and presence in public life should be openly and loudly shredded with no remorse or restraint. Public humiliation, dismissal from posts, stripping of any ‘honours’ and disbarment from working in the same industry ever again
If its shown that those involved had conflicts of interest, personal skin the… Read more »
I realised quite early on, when cronyism began to be reported, that the R number way yet another wheeze that the elites were enjoying at our expense.
R has nothing to do with the viral spread and everything to do with the plundering of the state by the pirates running the government, so less “R” more “Aaaaarrr me hearties”
so that mindset is still about and being applied to the conflict in Russia, many especially the media and BBC are looking at the now and not the immediate past or future.
If they stop Russia, then what?
How can Russia be stopped if they are mad and as irrational as stated?
the answer of course is that Russia will only stop when its demands are met which are the neutrality of Ukraine and protection of its relations in the regions Russia has recognised as independent states.
As far as things go its not the end of the world but could be if they somehow think they can stop Russia. As a note, many are claiming Russia wanted control of the whole of Ukraine which it doesn’t.
There are many parallels with the media view of this invasion & how cv19 was handled, taking wrong assumptions of the scale and over reacting, not looking at the data or overreacting to the observed data etc.
“many are claiming Russia wanted control of the whole of Ukraine which it doesn’t.”
Says who? The same guy who promised there would be no invasion?