Ramesh Thakur

From fake alarmism to flawed models, the two ‘crises’ of Covid and climate change have much in common, writes former UN Assistant Secretary-General Ramesh Thakur.

The WHO claims India has missed 90% of its Covid deaths, attributing to the country nearly 5 million deaths, almost a third of the world total and 10 times the official count of 481,486. That is simply not credible.

India's Supreme Court has ruled that owing to "bodily integrity and personal autonomy" and because the Covid vaccines don't prevent transmission, no individual can be forced to get vaccinated.

Models are neither science nor data but a set of assumptions that generate their own tautological conclusions. More than a war on the virus, lockdowns proved to be a war on the poor to protect the laptop class.

Why have infections, ICU admissions and deaths been hugely higher in Australia after the vaccine rollout than before? What does this tell us about the efficacy of the vaccines?

by Ramesh Thakur A 16 year-old's impression of the COVID-19 response in Alberta, Canada Unable to prosecute their case on data and logic, Zero Covid zealots have descended to discredit-by-labelling. One Australian columnist berated “commentators who often have more opinions than brains”. No, he wasn’t looking into a mirror but referring to ‘reactionary’ critics of Australia’s lockdown and financial profligacy. Another believes “the extreme right of the ‘give me liberty or give me death’ variety is taking its lead from… publications such as The Spectator’”with a ‘let it rip’ strategy. “Its commentary borders on the deluded.” Oh dear! An occasional Spectator Australia writer, I’m a centrist on some issues, right-of-centre on others and left-of-centre on still others. A popular witticism in Mao’s China defined a deviationist as someone who kept going straight after the Party veered sharply left or right. Once-progressive views – people should be judged on character and not skin colour, the only race that matters is the human race, the way to end racial discrimination is to stop discriminating on the basis of race, all lives matter equally – are now a reactionary credo of right-wing white supremacists. Being non-white is no defence. Human rights are under attack both from the right, fighting Islamist terrorism, and the left, promoting identity-based anti-discrimination. The rule of law, due process...

by Ramesh Thakur The evidence for the effectiveness of lockdowns is underwhelming; for the harm they cause to lives, livelihoods, mental health and civil liberties is overwhelming. Neither claim needs further substantiation for readers of this site. Still the relentless march of lockdown folly continues, causing a growing sense of helplessness and despair. What has become clear over the course of the year is just how impervious the lockdownistas are to data, evidence, reason and – yes – even science. Part of the explanation, I suspect, is that Western democracy has been captured by self-absorbed careerists who occupy all key positions in political parties. They have no interest in using power to advance any particular vision or achieve lofty social purposes, which is why the Australian prime minister can reject calls to defend free speech with the dismissive comment that it never created a single job. Nor do many have any experience outside of politics, putting comprehension of the real-world consequences of their decisions beyond them. Even so, the ease with which so many well-established democracies have succumbed to pandemic fearmongering, and surrendered freedoms hard-won over centuries, is astonishing. The sickening video of a pregnant Mum handcuffed in the presence of her child for posting on Facebook about a peaceful, socially-distanced protest in a regional town in Victoria, produced victim-shaming...