We're publishing a guest post on the Daily Sceptic by two Scottish academics asking why the Scots have proved so willing to comply with the Nicola Sturgeon's ludicrously over-the-top, draconian Covid restrictions.
by Professor Roger Watson and Dr. Niall McCrae During the Covid pandemic nurses have largely basked in praise, enjoyed being clapped for, and possibly deservedly so at some points of the crisis. Undoubtedly some, but by no means all, hospital intensive care units were overwhelmed. We heard all about that and were treated, interspersed with TikTok pranks and dances, to stories of exhausted nurses and the sacrifices they were making, followed by demands for a pay rise. Nurses were not so quick to tell us that when Covid cases were declining, that the unused Nightingale hospitals were a huge waste of resources and that, while millions were on furlough and thousands lost their livelihoods, that they were enjoying a full salary throughout the pandemic and, thereafter, continued job security. Largely speaking, nurses were ‘on message’ with the lockdowns, the face masks and vaccines. But not all nurses were, including both of us. One of us was the subject of a thinly veiled attack in the editorial pages of the Journal of Advanced Nursing, one of the oldest, most respected, and the highest cited academic nursing journal in the world. The thesis of the diatribe was that there was only one side to the Covid crisis, that the public health message must not be contradicted and that prominent members of the...
by Professor Roger Watson and Dr. Niall McCrae As scholars at leading British universities over recent decades, we witnessed the replacement of critical thinking and debate by narrative: facts are discrimination and scientific method is imperialism; truth, instead, is derived from ‘progressive’ values. This educational trend may be a major contributory factor to the ease in which society has been inculcated to the Covid ‘new normal’ of masking, testing, and repeated doses of vaccines for a disease of similar risk to severe influenza. One doesn’t need much critical reasoning to observe the flawed logic of some vaccination enthusiasts, such as people who respond to experiencing any side effects, however debilitating, by saying "at least I know it’s working", or, after contracting the disease despite their promised inoculation (over 90% effective, according to initial drug company claims), "I’d have been worse off without the jab." Perhaps these attitudes have some justifiability. But, especially in light of the fact that none of the purported Covid vaccines is greater than approximately 1% effective at preventing an individual from contracting Covid in terms of absolute risk reduction, it would make more sense to take the opposite view, that the vaccine is not working as well as it should. This week the Manchester Evening News (November 9th 2021) reported the tragic story of Neil Astle,...
