• 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

When It Comes to Discussing Lockdown, Politicians Are on Mute

by Richard Eldred
30 June 2024 3:01 PM

The real conspiracy of silence in this election is on the pandemic, says Liam Halligan in the Telegraph. Here’s an excerpt:

Back in June 2021 as the U.K. began to emerge from the long months of lockdown, I interviewed one of the world’s leading epidemiologists, Jay Bhattacharya, for the Telegraph’s Planet Normal podcast.

The Stanford-based Professor of Medicine told me that lockdowns “will be seen as the single biggest public health mistake in history”.

At a time when all the U.K.’s main political parties backed lockdown vehemently, with Labour’s Sir Keir Starmer and Nicola Sturgeon’s SNP incessantly calling for Covid-related restrictions to be even more punitive, Bhattacharya’s words were not universally welcomed.

On the contrary, his efforts to promote “targeted shielding” – helping the elderly and others with medical conditions that make them particularly vulnerable to Covid, while letting the rest of us get on with our lives – were widely dismissed as irresponsible.

Even in that climate, when to question lockdown was to face social ostracism, Bhattacharya was warning of the “enormous collateral consequences” of keeping people inside and isolating them from their loved ones during the Covid-19 pandemic. He was supported by two more top epidemiologists – Sunetra Gupta of Oxford University and Martin Kulldorff, then of Harvard. …

I’m shocked – but hardly surprised – that the U.K.’s lockdown policies have been barely discussed during this election campaign.

There seems to be a conspiracy of silence between the main parties to keep quiet about lockdown, seeing as all of them agreed with and helped reinforce it. This position is now, at the very least, open to serious question.

Missed operations, economic scarring, compromised schooling and very serious damage to people’s mental health – not least among children and young adults – were just some of the problems stored up for the future by shutting down the country three times in 2020 and 2021. …

Amidst the election campaign and well away from the public eye the U.K.’s ridiculous “Covid Inquiry” rumbles on. The inquiry team is touring the country as part of the “Every Story Matters” project, allowing people to speak anonymously without giving formal evidence to the inquiry.

Our Covid Inquiry is astonishingly drawn out – having started in June 2022 and scheduled to take evidence until at least June 2026. It’s a lawyers’ bonanza, paid for by us – with costs exceeding £70 million last year alone and the final bill expected to reach almost £200 million.

Rather than addressing the central question – whether, if the U.K. faces a pandemic similar to COVID-19, we lock down again or not – this Covid investigation has instead become a ludicrously expensive talking shop.

Worth reading in full.

Tags: CoronavirusCovid InquiryGreat Barrington DeclarationLockdown harmsPandemic Response

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

Parents Fury As West End Cast Member Holds Up Pro-Transgender Placard

Next Post

The Crisis of Democracy and the New Right

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.

18 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Chris P
Chris P
2 years ago

I always assumed supposed super-spreader events such as the South Dakota bikers or a crowded pub were another COVID myth used to justify restrictions.

65
0
True Spirit of America Party
True Spirit of America Party
2 years ago
Reply to  Chris P

Most likely. Gathering restrictions did literally ZILCH to stop the virus at a population level, or even slow it down once it had gathered momentum. The kernel of truth is that large gatherings may temporarily accelerate transmission at the very, very beginning, but by the time the restrictions were imposed the horse was long since out of the barn.

Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega knew that from the beginning, and actually *encouraged* mass gatherings given the futility of banning or restricting them, and their vital functions in preserving a sense of normalcy for the community. And he is a hard leftist, go figure.

Last edited 2 years ago by True Spirit of America Party
22
-1
JohnK
JohnK
2 years ago

The vast majority of lockdown policies, including lockdown itself, were based on flawed evidence, accompanied by the impression that the so-called experts had just gone back to college! We are all still suffering from it – although some have made a profit in the short term.

I’m not criticising the idea that airborne transmission of any kind of virus in poorly ventilated environments though. Although I’m reasonably confident that the last time I caught a minor respiratory infection (lets call it a common cold), in late 2019, was in such a place, I have never believed in the idea that wearing face covers etc was any good. Crass overreaction to the whole affair has been a large part of the panic.

50
0
True Spirit of America Party
True Spirit of America Party
2 years ago
Reply to  JohnK

Indeed, the fact that poor ventilation accelerates transmission of airborne viruses was known for nearly a century, even before viruses themselves were discovered. Back then, they simply called it “vitiated air”, and central heating systems then were literally designed to be operated with the windows open. That’s why in very old buildings with old-style steam boiler heating, the temperature always feels significantly hotter than the thermostat says, unless you open the nearest window (or if there’s a draft). That’s a feature, not a bug.

Last edited 2 years ago by True Spirit of America Party
12
0
transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
2 years ago

Perhaps in some cases things were done based on flawed evidence in the sense that those doing them genuinely believed the evidence was solid. But in a lot of cases restrictions and decisions were not based on evidence at all – what actually happened was decisions were made and then evidence found or fabricated that appeared to justify the decision.

37
-1
1984imminent
1984imminent
2 years ago

One of the lesser reasons I will never believe or respect anything any government says again, ever, this is one of the finer ways in which the government cried wolf. It’s almost as if they were actively searching for petty things to ban, to “appear to be doing something”, along with the taped up benches and playgrounds.

Is there an army removing any remaining signs about masks and social distancing? There ought to be.

56
-1
ellie-em
ellie-em
2 years ago
Reply to  1984imminent

Although each government takes ultimate responsibility for engineering and promoting the claptrap around a hyped up ‘killer virus’, the opposition parties were just as bad – if not worse, ie Labour – encouraging and egging them on to do their worst.

edit spelling

Last edited 2 years ago by ellie-em
25
0
Unutterably Pistoff
Unutterably Pistoff
2 years ago

That period was so dystopian. I went for a walk with my wife. People (all in masks) jumped off pavements. We sat on a bench, were glared at, and wondered what hell we were in. I used to admire the people I shared this country with. Now I pity and, generally speaking have no trust in them. I’m ill.

Masks were things worn by actors in Greek plays. You found yourself in a myth. You could hardly communicate. You were atomised, stereotyped, and thrown apart. God help me recover.

53
-1
True Spirit of America Party
True Spirit of America Party
2 years ago
Reply to  Unutterably Pistoff

So true.

11
0
Gefion
Gefion
2 years ago
Reply to  Unutterably Pistoff

There are still people out there who leap back from you if you get too close. people also get off the pavement to avoid getting too close. Masks are still in evidence where we live. Shops still have signs about social distancing which are ignored for the most part but are still there. Some people will never get over the nonsense we were fed.

16
0

NEWSLETTER

View today’s newsletter

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

DONATE

PODCAST

Episode 36 of the Sceptic: Karl Williams on Starmer’s Phoney Immigration Crackdown, Dan Hitchens on the Assisted Suicide Bill and Tom Jones on Reform’s Local Council Challenge

by Richard Eldred
16 May 2025
0

LISTED ARTICLES

  • Most Read
  • Most Commented
  • Editor’s Picks

Chinese ‘Kill Switches’ Found in US Solar Farms

15 May 2025
by Will Jones

News Round-Up

16 May 2025
by Richard Eldred

Spy Agency Report on the Alleged “Extremism” of AfD Turns Out to Be So Stupid That it Destroys all Momentum for Banning the Party

16 May 2025
by Eugyppius

The Folly of Solar – a Dot on the Horizon Versus a Blight on the Land

16 May 2025
by Ben Pile

Civil Servants Threaten to Strike Over Trans Ban in Women’s Lavatories

16 May 2025
by Will Jones

The Folly of Solar – a Dot on the Horizon Versus a Blight on the Land

29

Civil Servants Threaten to Strike Over Trans Ban in Women’s Lavatories

25

Spy Agency Report on the Alleged “Extremism” of AfD Turns Out to Be So Stupid That it Destroys all Momentum for Banning the Party

19

News Round-Up

18

Chinese ‘Kill Switches’ Found in US Solar Farms

27

Trump’s Lesson in Remedial Education

16 May 2025
by Dr James Allan

Spy Agency Report on the Alleged “Extremism” of AfD Turns Out to Be So Stupid That it Destroys all Momentum for Banning the Party

16 May 2025
by Eugyppius

The Folly of Solar – a Dot on the Horizon Versus a Blight on the Land

16 May 2025
by Ben Pile

Renaud Camus on the Destruction of Western Education

15 May 2025
by Dr Nicholas Tate

‘Why Can’t We Talk About This?’

15 May 2025
by Richard Eldred

POSTS BY DATE

June 2024
M T W T F S S
 12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
« May   Jul »

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