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Why Was a Graph That the Government Knew to Be Wrong Used to Justify the Second Lockdown?

by Will Jones
9 November 2023 11:16 AM

In the hundreds of pages of statements submitted to the U.K. Covid Inquiry, important questions are being raised which Baroness Hallett shows little interest in answering, says Michael Simmons in the Spectator. Such as: was lockdown based on a false premise, conjured up by poorly drafted models? And why did the Government put out a ‘graph of doom’ to justify the second lockdown that it knew to be wrong?

On October 31st 2020, some 14 million British TV viewers sat down to watch an emergency press conference in which Boris Johnson, flanked by Sir Patrick Vallance and Chris Whitty, announced a second lockdown. Sir Patrick presented a slideshow giving the data that justified the restrictions.

It was terrifying. The argument was summed up by a graph saying that if there were “no changes in policy or behaviour”, there could be up to 4,000 deaths a day, three times the number from the first wave in the spring. …

The graph that justified the second lockdown

But the graph was wrong. It was out of date and based on flawed information, as was later pointed out by academics including Cambridge’s David Spiegelhalter and by the U.K. Statistics Authority itself. Might this have been a genuine mistake? In the rush and the panic – news of the lockdown had already leaked to the press – surely officials would have published a wrong graph only if they believed it to be right?

In his testimony, Warner remembers seeing a graph being circulated among scientists two days before lockdown that was  “screen-shotted out of a SPI-M [the modelling group] working paper”. …

Angela McLean, now Chief Scientific Adviser but then at the Ministry of Defence, sounded the alarm. The graph had been based on a rate of virus growth – the R number – that was by then known to be incorrect. …

Warner testified that he went into the cabinet room to raise the alarm to the Prime Minister and his officials. The Covid peak might be half of that forecast, he said. Having flagged corrupt data, he thought the graph would be taken out of circulation. …

Only later did Warner find out that this graph had been shown on national television.

Worth reading in full.

Tags: Baroness HallettCovid InquiryCOVID-19Graph of DoomLockdownPropagandaThe Science

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31 Comments
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wokeman
wokeman
1 year ago

The cow manure that was exponential growth that was the pseudo science bs that fertilised the original scam. In the real world viruses do not spread exponentially due to obvious limiting factors, specific risk factors and human behaviour. Don’t believe that then why did the Diamond Princess cruise ship not have a 100% infection rate.

Last edited 1 year ago by Hardliner
180
-1
wokeman
wokeman
1 year ago
Reply to  wokeman

* not have a 100% infection rate.[TEXT IN YOUR COMMENT HAS BEEN CORRECTED]

Last edited 1 year ago by Hardliner
52
-1
JXB
JXB
1 year ago
Reply to  wokeman

82% NOT infected in fact.

48
0
JXB
JXB
1 year ago
Reply to  wokeman

A slight quibble. The spread pattern starts low level for weeks, builds and suddenly becomes exponential, quickly peaks, then steadily declines. (Gompertz curve trajectory)

However that does not mean it spreads exponentially throughout the population. Clearly it doesn’t otherwise the trajectory would be exponential until nearly all had been infected, then stop abruptly dropping to zero immediately.

The fact it is self-limiting because the more infected, the fewer new victims and the farther apart. Also the more virulent a virus, the more self-limiting and not best adapted.

The virus hadn’t got the memo (like the climate) and followed natural activity, and not following The Science™️ – only the Government and its advisor quacks follow that.

50
-1
wokeman
wokeman
1 year ago
Reply to  JXB

Yep you will get these rapid spikes but no virus would spread through a population exponentially otherwise humanity would have been long extinct. Remember there were very few homo sapiens for around 100,000 years, so if disease spread exponentially populations would be far too easily wiped out. In any population ppl will have various forms of immunity plus some ppl will simply not catch certain infections for reasons science does not fully understand, various human infection studies still baffle scientists.

Last edited 1 year ago by wokeman
23
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zebedee
zebedee
1 year ago
Reply to  JXB

Never exponential and Gompertz models life expectancy not epidemics

3
0
zebedee
zebedee
1 year ago
Reply to  wokeman

The growth rate would be exponential if it wasn’t multiplied by a number between zero and one drawn from a logit-normal distribution. Average it and you get the non-linear growth term from the standard SIR model from 1927. Strange how many supposed experts say epidemics grow exponentially given that the prior art almost certainly predates their births.

6
0
stewart
stewart
1 year ago

It was all a terrible cock up.

The enquiry is also a cock up. It looks like a whitewash, but it’s just another cock up.

Last edited 1 year ago by stewart
93
-23
wokeman
wokeman
1 year ago
Reply to  stewart

Yeah the graph was totally wrong by accident.

106
-4
JohnK
JohnK
1 year ago
Reply to  stewart

Some might say that it’s doing it’s job, attempting to defend the culprits. Not the same thing as learning how to do a proper job on another occasion, and not necessarily in the interests of the general public; follow the money.

40
-3
stewart
stewart
1 year ago
Reply to  JohnK

It seems to me that all official enquiries are whitewashes. The Chilcot enquiry certainly was. It led to nothing. Blair walks a free man after being one of the main participants in the death of thousands and the wrecked lives of millions.

As far as the chart goes, obviously the jabs were about to cone out and our “public health” leaders, who are basically agents of the pharma industry, made sure the covid jab project could be executed as planned.

I can’t prove it but I saw it all unfold in front of me as did everyone else and I know what I saw.

78
-3
GroundhogDayAgain
GroundhogDayAgain
1 year ago
Reply to  stewart

Yes, everyone saw it. Most, however, paid attention for about 5 seconds and then promptly memory-holed it.

It’s only because I, and no doubt most here, were already very suspicious that we still actually remember this detail.

I was voracious for anything that might let me escape house-arrest, posting madly on FB.

I think most of my ‘friends’ ignored everything thinking I was a touch crazy, despite that I was trying to tread a fine-line and only post stuff I could prove.

22
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
1 year ago

https://off-guardian.org/2023/11/09/russias-finance-ministry-says-again-that-the-digital-ruble-will-replace-cash/

A short piece about Russia’s push for the digital ruble. The Russians are pushing this as safe and convenient – that sounds familiar.

53
0
10navigator
10navigator
1 year ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

Not only convenient, but “outrageously convenient.” For whom I wonder?

32
0
Judy Watson
Judy Watson
1 year ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

I have frequently asked what hapens in a power outage? I guess that if you can’t pay then no food, transport, etc.

Also this happened to my friend two nights ago. We were in a bar and I paid for my drinks in cash. He wanted to use the banking app on his phone – an error message came up that;

due to a high volume of bank requests we are unable to process your payment.

Thankfully the bamaid knew us both and said it was ok to pay tomorrow. The problem is what would have happened if we were in a different town or city where no-ne knew us?

16
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
1 year ago
Reply to  Judy Watson

Exactly. My father has been without Internet access for over a week because BT are ending all copper connections but not all areas are up-to-date with fibre connections. My Dad is housebound. His bills are not being paid.

BT of course CGAF.

7
0
jsampson45
jsampson45
1 year ago

The article is inaccessible.

6
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
1 year ago
Reply to  jsampson45

I’ve just checked the link and it works. It might be your browser.

4
0
soundofreason
soundofreason
1 year ago

Wait… Angela ‘Fuckwitt’ McLean sounded the alarm about incorrect/obsolete data used to justify another lockdown? Pull the other one, it’s got bells on.

44
0
soundofreason
soundofreason
1 year ago

The article concludes:

The Covid Inquiry might have uncovered the biggest question in politics: how did broken models make their way through Whitehall without proper scrutiny? But we should not expect the Hallett Inquiry to pursue this argument.

No. We should expect the inquiry to pursue this argument. We fear that it won’t.

Different uses of the word ‘expect‘.

72
0
YouDontSay
YouDontSay
1 year ago

A few days earlier, on 27 October, the French government did something similar to bounce their country into lockdown. There was a report that 523 people had died in 24 hours which was later revised down to 288 hospital deaths in 24 hours and 235 care home deaths in the previous 4 days.

35
0
JXB
JXB
1 year ago
Reply to  YouDontSay

And BFM TV – French News Channel – reported earlier that sewer samples being monitored in Belgium, Netherlands, France showed a steady reduction of viral particles starting in September through into October, showing viral activity was declining… hence lockdown was too late – not that they do any good.

France then went on to introduce curfews – French CoV 2 only came out at night. and more interesting, the curfews were at different times in different parts of France… very strange virus.

38
0
JXB
JXB
1 year ago

“Might this have been a genuine mistake? In the rush and the panic…”

And a pig sang in Berkeley Square.

Why Oh why (©️ BBC Points of View) do people still ponder whether what Government did was ‘panic’ or ‘error’?

When ‘panic’ and ‘error’ are serial, a feature of policy for over two years, and still running with the mRNA jollop, and with over a century of accumulated knowledge and experience of respiratory infection AND a Pandemic Plan on the shelf, the ONLY conclusion is – deliberate, malicious, evil… as with Climatism and Net Zero.

70
-2
WyrdWoman
WyrdWoman
1 year ago
Reply to  JXB

They panicked and made errors so often they nearly upset a plate of nibbles at one of their many parties….

31
0
Tyrbiter
Tyrbiter
1 year ago

It was used to cover up the strike threats from the public sector unions if a new lockdown was not announced. In a similar manner in January 2021 a mass online meeting of the NEU was used to threaten the total closure of schools and so lockdown number 3 was ordered because the government didn’t think it had the ability to face them down.

30
-1
GroundhogDayAgain
GroundhogDayAgain
1 year ago
Reply to  Tyrbiter

I think you could be right on this. The beeb, grauniad and the unions had their own view of what should happen and screeched like banshees until the govt caved.

Similarly with the climate models. We know they’re scenarios based on assumptions but everyone is treating the most extreme scenario as fact. Calling us conspiracy theorists doesn’t alter this fact, but it does stop people from taking what we say seriously.

Even today, I get the ‘yada yada yada, I’m not listening’ whenever I brush up against the topic.

People don’t like being told that they’ve been had.

35
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
1 year ago
Reply to  Tyrbiter

The Union leaders had been bought. Note that the principal unions calling for “harder, faster, stronger, longer,” were public sector. The teaching unions never need an excuse to strike. The government did not face them down because it suited them not to. It is complete and utter BS to suggest that the government could not face the unions down. Absolute carp.

The NEU threatened the total closure of schools so the government caved in and shut down the schools.

What am I missing?

One month without pay would send 90% of striking public sector workers straight back to their jobs.

22
0
Tyrbiter
Tyrbiter
1 year ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

I didn’t say that they couldn’t face down the unions, I said that the government was not confident that it could without losing support from the public given the uncertainty of the situation.

Ben Irvine has written a book about this, it’s well researched and argued.

7
0
RW
RW
1 year ago

The simple answer is Because f***ing everything employed by the COVID propagandists was wrong. Sorting out the finer points, This was a wrong wrong! (they were lying and knew it) vs This was a right wrong! (they were lying, knew this and additionally f***ed up their own data interpretation unintentionally), really isn’t necessary.

Last edited 1 year ago by RW
18
0
RTSC
RTSC
1 year ago

All three stood there and LIED to the British people …. which in turn led to destruction of businesses, deaths from suicide and despair and further wreckage of the economy.

They should all be charged with Malfeasance in Public Office. But that’s the whole purpose of the “Inquiry” ….. to find that “mistakes were made” and to point the finger at Handcock and Johnson …. whilst exonerating the $cientists and everyone else involved.

20
0
Simon MacPhisto
Simon MacPhisto
1 year ago

I remember well that the DS, or rather LDS as it was then flagged this up the day after the press conference. The graph dates from the beginning of October 2020. Jail the lot of them. Utter b’stards each and every one.

2
0

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