• Login
  • Register
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletter
  • Premium
  • Donate
  • Log In
The Daily Sceptic
No Result
View All Result

“We Were Never Asked to Model the Harms of Lockdown or How to Avoid It,” Says SAGE Modeller

by Will Jones
18 October 2023 1:00 PM

Professor Mark Woolhouse of the University of Edinburgh, a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (SPI-M-O) that modelled Covid outcomes for SAGE and the Government, has told the Covid Inquiry his team was never asked to model the harms of lockdown or how to avoid it. Madeline Grant has more in the Telegraph.

Professor Mark Woolhouse of the University of Edinburgh, a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (SPI-M-O), was a rare voice of reason throughout the hysteria. It was he who rubbished the notion that elimination was ever possible, and the SNP’s Anglophobic claim that Covid was “reseeded” into Scotland from the Typhoid Marys of England when the first lockdown ended. He repeatedly warned that using worst-case predictions (those ‘graphs of doom’) to shock people into compliance could trigger a general loss of scientific credibility. All this proved prescient.

This week, while giving evidence to the Covid Inquiry, Prof Woolhouse made a particularly damning declaration. Though lockdown was often framed as a last resort which no one wanted to impose, he begs to differ. “The harms of the social distancing measures – particularly lockdown, the economic harms, the educational harms, the harms to access to healthcare … societal wellbeing … mental health – were not included in any of the work that SPI-M-O did and, as far as I could tell, no one else was doing it either,” he told the inquiry.

So his team was never even asked to model the harm lockdown might inflict. Nor were they asked to consider alternative ways of mitigating health risks. “The question of how to avoid lockdown was never asked of us,” he added, “and I find that extraordinary.” Too right. This ought to be a national scandal. Saying “hindsight is always 20/20” doesn’t cut it; not only were many people warning about collateral harms at the time, expert authorities weren’t even being asked to consider such warnings.

Myopic decision-making was accompanied by an equally damaging tendency to view the public as a faceless bloc, ignoring the risk levels different individuals faced. So back in March 2020, the nation was, in Woolhouse’s words, “concentrating on schools when we should have been concentrating on care homes”. 

This led to two of the pandemic’s most colossal mistakes – the neglect of vulnerable elderly patients and lengthy school closures, even though children were 10,000 times less likely to die from Covid than the elderly and the evidence for school transmission was patchy at best. We are still counting the cost, especially to less privileged pupils.

Worth reading in full.

Tags: Covid InquiryCOVID-19LockdownMark WoolhouseModellingSPI-MThe Science

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

Munich Doctor Earns Nationwide Press Coverage With Call for Germans to Wear Face Masks Every Winter

Next Post

New Peer-Reviewed Vaccine Study Shows How Hearts Get Damaged

Subscribe
Login
Notify of
Please log in to comment

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.

35 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
zebedee
zebedee
1 year ago

Just because he wasn’t asked didn’t mean he couldn’t have modelled the harms.

98
-1
JXB
JXB
1 year ago
Reply to  zebedee

Had they modelled the harms there would have been none, just as they modelled without lockdowns zillions would have died.

Modelling supports any policy they like.

64
0
JaneDoeNL
JaneDoeNL
1 year ago

As with everything else to do with the scamdemic, they did not ask what they did not want to know. This seems to underscore the idea that lockdowns were coordinated across the world – lockstep, as it were. Decision makers were not asking how best to handle the situation, they were asking for models and arguments to support a decision they had already made (or rather, that had already been made for them).

Next time, perhaps scientists can stand together and speak a little louder. Had one major scientific/public health face publicy resigned, that alone would have spoke volumes. It is clear that quite a few had their doubts.

152
0
Ron Smith
Ron Smith
1 year ago
Reply to  JaneDoeNL

Next time the WHO and the IHR will decide everything so these poor hard up MP don’t have to, just like the good old days of the EU.

55
0
iconoclast
iconoclast
1 year ago
Reply to  Ron Smith

I can only dream of Ursula von der Leyen deciding everything for us.

She is going to take over NATO – can you believe it – with President Sleepy Joe’s approval.

After what she did to Germany’s Bundeswehr as Defence Minister [nearly destroy it as members of her own party acknowledge] I hear she is going to outsource NATO to a Putin’s favourite company – The Wagner Group.

And it is not corruption. She actually thinks it is a good idea.

Last edited 1 year ago by iconoclast
3
0
iconoclast
iconoclast
1 year ago
Reply to  iconoclast

Only joking – [but only half – I think she would do it if no one was checking up on her].

3
0
JXB
JXB
1 year ago
Reply to  JaneDoeNL

It’s hard to get somebody to disagree with something their job depends on.

32
0
JaneDoeNL
JaneDoeNL
1 year ago
Reply to  JXB

I think for a lot of people this went beyond keeping their jobs. The head of the ICUs here, the head of the public health authority, they wouldn’t have lost their jobs (they’re both top doctors in a country with a chronic shortage). PM Rutte forever uses the “we’ve agreed”, “we can disagree, but we must show a united front” crap, it takes backbone to stand up to that and be the odd man out. That is the real reason no one spoke up here, no one had the guts to take the flack that Tegnell did.

45
0
Elizabeth Hart
Elizabeth Hart
1 year ago
Reply to  JaneDoeNL

“This seems to underscore the idea that lockdowns were coordinated across the world – lockstep, as it were.”

That’s right…lockdowns were coordinated.
In Australia we were put into lockdown based on modelling out of the Doherty Institute, which was influenced by the notorious Ferguson modelling.
It is absolutely stunning to think about how the world was turned upside down by the likes of Ferguson and others who colonise the universities, the power these people exercised over our lives…without our informed consent.
It’s time for accountability for this diabolical shambles…

71
0
iconoclast
iconoclast
1 year ago
Reply to  Elizabeth Hart

“without our informed consent”

Without any shred of democracy.

Our elected representative are cowards almost to a man, transman, woman and transwoman.

Don’t vote. The government always wins.

Don’t vote. It only encourages them.

12
0
WyrdWoman
WyrdWoman
1 year ago

There were enough organisations, charities and support groups screaming about the risks of lockdown before they were implemented for even the most obtuse ‘scientist’ – and I use that word very loosely – not to miss the signals. It was deliberately implemented and all this ‘not me guv’ schtick is utterly sickening.

102
0
Ron Smith
Ron Smith
1 year ago
Reply to  WyrdWoman

The Human Rights groups must’ve been self isolating because they did sweet FA over the fascist Lockdown.

74
0
JayBee
JayBee
1 year ago

The ‘I was just following orders.” defense.

75
-1
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
1 year ago

I’m sure there were not asked. But then neither were any of us. That didn’t stop lockdown sceptics from speaking up to whoever would listen, repeatedly, while being told we were Literally Hitler etc. Weak. Like Sunak and Truss piping up after the event. All big grown up boys and girls quite capable of speaking up for themselves.

79
-1
JohnK
JohnK
1 year ago

It appears that he followed the tactic of only answering the barrister’s questions, and avoided adding any titbits, as it were. He has made a profit from it though – I actually bought a copy of his book, “The Year the World Went Mad” published in 2022, via A.

24
0
Ron Smith
Ron Smith
1 year ago

Was giving people eight times the recommended dose of HQC in the Oxford study, where vulnerable patents were killed, just a mistake? or how about the Morphine & Medazolam ‘Pathways’ that were supposed to be stopped — They were called the Liverpool Pathways before, but they just changed the name and carried on as usual.

61
0
iconoclast
iconoclast
1 year ago
Reply to  Ron Smith

Naturally Lady Hallett will be calling for the death penalty when her inquiry ends [in 2155].

4
0
iconoclast
iconoclast
1 year ago
Reply to  iconoclast

Only joking.

1
0
JXB
JXB
1 year ago

It was in the Government’s Pandemic Plan – don’t lockdown as it will have no benefit but will have harmful social, economic and health ill-effects.

Why didn’t they just read the damned plan and follow its recommendations?

Are these folk so brain-dead they need to ‘model’ what happens when you shut a society and economy down for months on end?

I think these people are mentally ill.

69
0
JohnK
JohnK
1 year ago
Reply to  JXB

So specialised that they have a kind of academic tunnel vision. No clue of the big wide world.

26
0
JaneDoeNL
JaneDoeNL
1 year ago
Reply to  JXB

They read the plan, they were told not to follow it.

Sweden followed the original plan, the Netherlands did to a great extent – until November 2020, when it changed course (imo on instruction from Brussels). The head of the public health authority always maintained that masks were pointless – they were forced on us by the tw*t who was minister of health – a former primary school teacher with zero scientific background. Even then the advice of the RIVM was that masks did nothing.

In November 2020 the same head of the RIVM tried to get parliament to agree to a night curfew, even though Spain’s disastrous incarceration had proven not to work – even that of next door Belgium, far more strict than NL, could show no better infection, hospital or death rates. When Wilders pushed the head of the RIVM as to what good a night curfew was supposed to be, he just muttered something about getting people to take things more seriously. In other words, he had absolutely nothing to support the human rights violation in terms of public health. He is one of the people I am certain knew full well a lot of this was nonsense – had he publicly, loudly stepped down it would have sent a signal. I doubt it would have changed anything, but he could have held his head high and maintained scientific standards instead of joining in with a public health response more suited to the Middle Ages. This was not the time to be a team player.

44
0
Boomer Bloke
Boomer Bloke
1 year ago
Reply to  JXB

You’re being kind. They were and are and continue to be evil.

21
0
iconoclast
iconoclast
1 year ago
Reply to  Boomer Bloke

Evil is a much underused and much needed word these days.

8
0
Marcus Aurelius knew
Marcus Aurelius knew
1 year ago

In my job, if I see a problem highlighted by the data, or a problem with the data itself, or a problem with the way the data is collected, and I don’t draw attention to it, I have FAILED.

I go out of my way to disprove my assumptions and those of others.

It’s called…. SCIENCE!

Professor Mark, you should have done more. You did a lot, but you had the means, the motive and the opportunity to do more. A lot more.

The simplest thing you could have done was point out that it wasn’t a goddamn pandemic in the first place. Instead, you blithered about it not being feasible to eliminate SARS-CoV-2. You’re a loser, I’m afraid, a loser.

Last edited 1 year ago by Marcus Aurelius knew
57
0
Valerie_London
Valerie_London
1 year ago
Reply to  Marcus Aurelius knew

I can’t argue with that. If he clearly saw what a disaster the policies were, he should have fallen on his sword and resigned. That way he could genuinely hold his head high now.

29
0
Jabby Mcstiff
Jabby Mcstiff
1 year ago

I don’t think we should be surprised by this, the last few hyears have taught us that many people will carry about their job despite misgivings because it suits them to do so.In a lot of cases the misgivings would’ve been drowned out instantly by the ‘protect my own ass’ instinct.. How many people refused the death jab when threatened with loss of employment. Less than half I would wager. We shouldn’t insult such people. We don’t have some ideal or normative level of courage. The essence of our culture likes to keep this away from us. This propaganda model has existed since the Boer War and was powerful for seventy years before that. What would an average Englishman living in 1700 have made of this centralisation? It was more about your town and your county and the people close to you. We should be grateful that there is any dissent left at all given the onslaught. Most of these people aren’t nasty they are just utterly overwhelmed.

9
0
iconoclast
iconoclast
1 year ago
Reply to  Jabby Mcstiff

We cannot even rely on good old-fashioned corruption where people did it for suitcases full of cash.

These days they just do it.

So dishonest IMHO.

2
0
iconoclast
iconoclast
1 year ago
Reply to  iconoclast

Just joking.

1
0
Jabby Mcstiff
Jabby Mcstiff
1 year ago

You either see a path of circumventon or you don’t. We all know tha these types run our world and we don’t really know what to do about that but we know that it is an urgent situation. Many arch atheists have changed a lot in recent years, people such as Susan Blakemore and others have embraced the idea of pan-psychism. This is halfway to the realm of the spirit and these were the most arch atheists. I can say with confidence that despite a rocky road we are moving to something much higher.

6
0
sskinner
sskinner
1 year ago
Reply to  Jabby Mcstiff

Very interesting viewpoint. I thought I was atheist but although not religious I am not atheist I think there is malevolence, and like all forces, is capable of coalescing and becoming organised. Looking at the Nazi party, or the Bolsheviks under Lenin and Stalin, they behave like a group of Fred Bundies, only with nice uniforms.

6
0
iconoclast
iconoclast
1 year ago
Reply to  Jabby Mcstiff

There is a scientific basis [modern physics] for pan-psychism but not a lot of people know that.

And it has its origins ~400 years ago incredibly.

0
0
sskinner
sskinner
1 year ago

Professor Mark Woolhouse of the University of Edinburgh, a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (SPI-M-O).
Considering how this has all turned out, how much money did the learned professor spend on his education? This question applies to all who are pushing net zero, ESG, Gender ID, The Great Reset, or any UN global policy. I get the strong impression that many treat education as a means to get qualifications, which is not the same as knowledge and does not replace experience, but those qualifications confer status and a kind of ‘access all areas’ pass, which on the face of it seems logical, but how is that turning out?. Klaus Schwab has a long list of qualifications, such as a Doctorate in Engineering, a Doctorate in Economics, a Master of Public Administration, and he also has 17 honorary Doctorates, 16 National Distinction Awards from various countries and 14 selected awards. Not bad for someone who spent 4 years on the shop floor of several German factories and 3 years as assistant to the Director-General of the German Machine-building Association (VDMA). He hasn’t made anything, managed his own business or made a fortune, and yet he is revered.

Last edited 1 year ago by sskinner
13
0
Jabby Mcstiff
Jabby Mcstiff
1 year ago

You can trace a post-war boomer psychopathy starting with the dubious parenting practiced of Dr Spock and then the instant fulfilment of consumerism and the idea that it was perfectly acceptable to dodge the draft. Not conscienscious objection but using certain techniques to dodge the draft that only affluent draftees knew how to navigate. You can get away with this for a while, during the supremacy of the Anglo-Americans. Not any more. I try to alert people of the situation.

6
-1
Jabby Mcstiff
Jabby Mcstiff
1 year ago

The stuff that is being purveyed to use really is destined to fail. How many have any understanding or anticipation of this? Frankly I speak to very few these days. There is nothing for me to say to dulled minds These were fine minds not that long ago.

5
0
Scunnered
Scunnered
1 year ago

They weren’t focusing on school
closures because they thought children were at risk. What’s the average age of teachers? What % had to shield themselves? In a country where only 8% live with someone vulnerable did the teaching profession live with shielders in disproportionate numbers? Charlatans and self-serving cowards; some professions have a higher purpose than self-preservation. I do know a small number of teachers and doctors who thought the whole thing was bollocks; they’d have been targeted in the staff room. Most people are not brave or principled enough.

6
0

NEWSLETTER

View today’s newsletter

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

DONATE

PODCAST

The Sceptic | Episode 46: Ofcom’s Ill-Fated Imperialism, One Year of Two-Tier Keir and Phoney Green Jobs

by Richard Eldred
1 August 2025
3

LISTED ARTICLES

  • Most Read
  • Most Commented
  • Editor’s Picks

‘Vigilante’ Force to Begin Patrols in Crime-Hit Bournemouth

7 August 2025
by Will Jones

News Round-Up

7 August 2025
by Toby Young

Homelessness Minister Threw Out Her Tenants – Then Increased Rent by £700 a Month

7 August 2025
by Will Jones

Ten Awful Covid Studies Funded by Taxpayers

7 August 2025
by Charlotte Gill

The Return of the Unfashionable Gods

7 August 2025
by Michael Rainsborough

News Round-Up

46

Spanish Town Bans Muslim Religious Festivals After Nearby Town Was Rocked by Riots

35

How Have We Ended Up Paying For Everything While Doing All the Work Ourselves?

38

‘Vigilante’ Force to Begin Patrols in Crime-Hit Bournemouth

24

Ten Awful Covid Studies Funded by Taxpayers

20

The Return of the Unfashionable Gods

7 August 2025
by Michael Rainsborough

Even Lib Dems Back Brexit Now

7 August 2025
by Gully Foyle

Coral on Great Barrier Reef at Fifth Highest Level Since Records Began – but Mainstream Media Still Spin ‘Tipping Point’ Narrative

7 August 2025
by Chris Morrison

Ten Awful Covid Studies Funded by Taxpayers

7 August 2025
by Charlotte Gill

How Have We Ended Up Paying For Everything While Doing All the Work Ourselves?

6 August 2025
by Guy de la Bédoyère

POSTS BY DATE

October 2023
M T W T F S S
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031  
« Sep   Nov »

SOCIAL LINKS

Free Speech Union

NEWSLETTER

View today’s newsletter

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

POSTS BY DATE

October 2023
M T W T F S S
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031  
« Sep   Nov »

DONATE

LISTED ARTICLES

  • Most Read
  • Most Commented
  • Editor’s Picks

‘Vigilante’ Force to Begin Patrols in Crime-Hit Bournemouth

7 August 2025
by Will Jones

News Round-Up

7 August 2025
by Toby Young

Homelessness Minister Threw Out Her Tenants – Then Increased Rent by £700 a Month

7 August 2025
by Will Jones

Ten Awful Covid Studies Funded by Taxpayers

7 August 2025
by Charlotte Gill

The Return of the Unfashionable Gods

7 August 2025
by Michael Rainsborough

News Round-Up

46

Spanish Town Bans Muslim Religious Festivals After Nearby Town Was Rocked by Riots

35

How Have We Ended Up Paying For Everything While Doing All the Work Ourselves?

38

‘Vigilante’ Force to Begin Patrols in Crime-Hit Bournemouth

24

Ten Awful Covid Studies Funded by Taxpayers

20

The Return of the Unfashionable Gods

7 August 2025
by Michael Rainsborough

Even Lib Dems Back Brexit Now

7 August 2025
by Gully Foyle

Coral on Great Barrier Reef at Fifth Highest Level Since Records Began – but Mainstream Media Still Spin ‘Tipping Point’ Narrative

7 August 2025
by Chris Morrison

Ten Awful Covid Studies Funded by Taxpayers

7 August 2025
by Charlotte Gill

How Have We Ended Up Paying For Everything While Doing All the Work Ourselves?

6 August 2025
by Guy de la Bédoyère

SOCIAL LINKS

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

Facebook

  • X

Instagram

RSS

Subscribe to our newsletter

© Skeptics Ltd.

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

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

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Articles
  • About
  • Archive
    • ARCHIVE
    • NEWS ROUND-UPS
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletter
  • Premium
  • Donate
  • Log In

© Skeptics Ltd.

wpDiscuz
You are going to send email to

Move Comment
Perfecty
Do you wish to receive notifications of new articles?
Notifications preferences