The BBC was allowed to “misrepresent” the risk posed by Covid to most people to boost public support for lockdown, Government adviser Professor Mark Woolhouse has told the U.K. Covid Inquiry. The Telegraph has the story.
Professor Mark Woolhouse, an eminent epidemiologist and Government adviser, lambasted the corporation for having “repeatedly reported rare deaths or illnesses among healthy adults as if they were the norm”.
He said this created the “misleading impression” among BBC News viewers at the start of the pandemic that “we are all at risk” and “the virus does not discriminate”.
In reality, he said it was known at the time that the risk of dying from Covid was 10,000 times higher in the over-75s than the under-15s.
But Prof. Woolhouse told the Covid Inquiry the BBC did not correct its reporting, saying: “I suspect this misinformation was allowed to stand throughout 2020 because it provided a justification for locking down the entire population.”
He said further evidence of this was provided by a briefing dated March 22nd 2020 by a sub-group of the U.K. Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) that focused on the public’s behaviour.
This stated that “a substantial number of people still do not feel sufficiently personally threatened; it could be that they are reassured by the low death rate in their demographic group… the perceived level of personal threat needs to be increased among those who are complacent, using hard-hitting emotional messaging”.
Prof. Woolhouse said the “misperception” created by the BBC’s coverage that everyone was at risk was a “barrier to targeting interventions at the vulnerable minority who truly were at high risk from Covid”.
In his written submission to the inquiry about the impact north of the Border, he said: “I fear that Scottish Government’s pandemic response was compromised as a result.”
He also concluded that lockdown had been “least effective at protecting the most vulnerable precisely because of their need to have contacts with health care and social care workers — self-isolation was not an option.” The expert added: “This should have been recognised from the outset.”
Worth reading in full.
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.
“BBC journalist says her family will pay slavery reparations”
But presumably not so generously that they can’t afford their homes and a new BMW..?
Indeed
Trillions have already been transferred to descendents of slaves in the US through welfare, probably here too, and trillions in aid to African countries. How many more trillions will be needed before people realise that it’s not going to work. The only way Africa will become as prosperous as Europe is if Europe impoverishes itself. Ah, hold on….
Three downvotes already – looks like I’ve hit a nerve!
Six now. Loving the quality of these counterarguments.
I have upticked tof simply because you are right.
Thanks! I don’t mind people disagreeing with me – in fact I think a bit more intelligent, constructive and even heated to and fro here would be a good thing – but simply downticking without saying why seems kind of lame to me.
“Proposed ban on importing fur and foie gras will be dropped”
As our personal freedoms are eroded day by day, I applaud the government for ensuring that the few people who can afford to buy foie gras can still do so.
“Ron DeSantis is the future of conservatism”
I’m very much of the mind that DeSantis needs to stay in Florida and build up his power and support rather than going toe to toe with the blob until the tide begins to turn on woke. Where that leaves Trump is another matter. Four more years of the Democrats is unthinkable.
Surely the silent (vast) majority are anti-woke and just waiting for someone to legitimise and enable their expression of that. The trouble in the US is that the Democrats have stitched up the voting apparatus to such an extent that persuading a majority of the people is not enough in itself to win.
“Nicola Sturgeon’s approval rating plunges in wake of trans row”
Inept and corrupt, but as in England, the opposition is even more hopeless than the administration.
“Nicola Sturgeon’s approval rating plunges in wake of trans row”
Couldn’t happen to a nicer chap.
5G: from the makers of Covid and Climate Hoax.
We do not need 5G.
Stand in the Park Make friends & keep sane
Sundays 10.30am to 11.30am
Elms Field
near Everyman Cinema & play area
Wokingham RG40 2FE
Looking at the photos in the Mail’s piece on the Let Women Speak event in Glasgow and the opposition event, it looks as if the age demographic is quite different.
Regarding ChatGPT, no-one should be under any illusions. The teams who design and train all this stuff will doubtless be woke as hell, as will their bosses and their firms, and they will either actively want woke results or they will be paranoid about their AI tool speaking uncomfortable truths. Either way, you can bet money that it will be very hard to find an AI tool that is anything other than woke, left-wing and on-message about all the hot topics. Control of AI will give the left even more power than they already have.
If ChatGPT were a human, one might be very tempted to answer its pontifications by suggesting it broadens its reading. But like politicians, it seems only able to “think” popular consensus, not truth. You won’t find it saying, “I read an article by Philosopher X that really changed the way I see the world.”
It’s an interesting question – on what basis does an AI form an “opinion”. It can either be based on “consensus” or on some motivating criteria designed by those that “train” it. Either way it’s going to end up woke.
Why haven’t we joined the panic about intercontinental magically-steered weather balloons dropping dirty bombs on cows in Montana? Every other news outlet is full of it, and urging war with China on their Chinese-built computers.
Just a quick aside, the UK will ban the sale of new ice cars in 2030.
Being as they cannot control production and sales in other countries what’s stops us importing an ice car? Only a ban from uk roads would stop that and that would be a massive mistake and almost impossible to achieve!
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11714955/Proposed-ban-importing-fur-foie-gras-dropped.html
Foi-gras is required as a necessary food supplement for the ‘elites.’
Fur will be used in the manufacture of fake ‘meats.’
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/will-this-5g-challenge-fall-on-deaf-ears-too/
Michael Mansfield in court challenging the legitimacy of 5g roll out. This should be an interesting test of our judiciary.
https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/02/05/the-lethal-cost-of-lockdowns/
What about the 2,332 deaths registered on the MHRA Yellow Card system and the many more thousands of deaths reported on VARS System in the USA not to mention those in Europe again tens of thousands of deaths, then there’s Australia,Canada and New Zealand? Funny how they are all in the most “vaccinated” countries in the world. African countries on the other hand…..
Apparently African countries will suffer the initial onslaught of Billy’s “Catastrophic Contagion,” as an initial levelling up exercise.
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/its-what-big-brother-watch-doesnt-tell-us-that-counts/
A cracking article from James Delingpole demolishing the “leaks” from 77 Brigade et al. I am sure this will appear in tomorrow’s Round-Up but anyway here it is.
As James says, an article which includes Kneel as a purveyor of disinformation decidedly stinks.
The balloon story in proper perspective:
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/spy-balloons-flights-of-fancy/
And here’s Off-G ‘s decidedly blunt take on the matter:
https://off-guardian.org/2023/02/05/offg-on-the-chinese-spy-balloon/
The stupidity of TPTB gets more ridiculous by the day. The Alt Media simply has to –
Pop their balloons.
Oh look. Head of CBDC Job Advert.
Get your applications in, you have only until 7th February.
Some frantic back peddling by a councillor in Southend with regard to ’15-minute cities’.
https://www.southend.gov.uk/news/article/2794/statement-regarding-recent-15-minute-cities-and-oxford-trial-local-media-article
I congratulate the people of Southend. Keep up the pressure.
Here we go. No mention of blockchain technology and programmability. In other words, the totalitarian control of people the technology enables. I’ll keep using cash where I can.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-64536593