Covid Day of Reflection - We Should Reflect On The Facts, Not Fantasy Narratives

Daniel Hannan, 5 years on, still doesn’t understand what happened in the UK in March 2020.

He identifies us, the public, as the lockdown fanatics and he blames the Ferguson Imperial College paper published on March 16th for convincing the government to lock down with the public’s full blessing, if not insistence. Historical facts do not concur with this narrative. Let’s look at the timeline. First, the statements made by Jenny Harries on March 11th:

Dr Harries – who has since become Dame Jenny, and been put in charge of the UK Health Security Agency – was impressively level-headed. She explained that, “for most people, it really is going to be quite a mild disease”.

She advised against wearing facemasks unless told otherwise by your doctor. She explained why Britain, unlike many countries in Europe, was not banning large meetings or sporting events. There was, she reminded us, a plan in place, and it provided for the gradual spread of the disease through the population in a way that would not overwhelm hospitals. Try to suppress the spread too vigorously, she said, and there would be a peak later on (which, indeed, is exactly what happened).

Dr Harries was absolutely right, but she was only repeating the global consensus. A little earlier, the WHO had looked at lockdowns and concluded that they were “not demonstrably effective in urban areas”. Its researchers had carried out a study of 120 US military camps during the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic, and found “no statistical difference” between the 99 camps that had confined men to quarters and the 21 that had not.

As recently as 2019, the WHO had declared that lockdowns as a response to respiratory diseases were “not recommended because there is no obvious rationale for this measure, and there would be considerable difficulties in implementing it”.

Dr Harries knew all this. And so did Boris, who spoke what was, in retrospect, the most telling line of the entire interview: “Politicians and governments around the world are under a lot of pressure to be seen to act, so they may do things that are not necessarily dictated by the science,” he said. Dr Harries responded that she was proud that Britain’s response had remained scientific.

Five days later, Boris took to the airwaves to tell people “to stop non-essential contact and travel”. A week after that, we were in lockdown (a term borrowed from prison, which I held out against using for as long as I could). What changed? Well, on March 16, Neil Ferguson and the team at Imperial College published an apocalyptic report based on modelling that estimated that if no measures were put in place deaths over the following two years could reach more than half a million.

Why was Ferguson taken seriously? A quick Google search would have revealed that he had a history of making ludicrously alarmist claims, including over BSE and swine flu. His study, far from being a cutting-edge simulation, was a rehash of a model he had published in 2006 using rough and ready estimates (home quarantine would mean a 75 per cent reduction in contacts with a 50 per cent compliance rate, social distancing would mean a

75 per cent reduction in outside contacts, offset by a 25 per cent increase in at-home contacts, and so on).
The grisly truth is that we wanted to believe Ferguson. Although we sometimes now imagine that Boris wrenched our freedoms from our unwilling hands, it was the other way around. We have forgotten the “Go Home Covidiots” banners, the terrified phone-ins, the YouGov poll showing that 93 per cent of voters wanted a lockdown.

Not for the first time, people were demanding, against all reason, that their politicians do something – anything.

That’s not what happened. Here is what really happened. Up until March 16th, scientists and the British government were fairly relaxed about the threat from Covid and advocated for a ‘herd immunity’ approach whilst protecting those most vulnerable, similar to what was ultimately successfully pursued by Sweden. But then Professor “Pantsdown” Ferguson published his scary epidemic modelling paper (using indecipherable computer code) and the government got jittery. So on the same day that the paper was published (March 16th), Boris “Pol Pot Belly” Johnson addressed the British public, advocating a series of advisory and voluntary measures to help stop the spread, along with an advisory ban on large gatherings:

Boris Johnson has announced mass gatherings will no longer be supported by emergency workers to help stop the spread of coronavirus.

Giving a press conference this evening, the Prime Minister said: ‘From tomorrow we will no longer be supporting mass gatherings with emergency workers the way that we normally do.’

Asked whether pubs, restaurants and theatres were being ordered to close, he said: ‘What we are doing is giving very strong advice that public venues such as theatres should no longer be visited.

‘The proprietors of those venues are taking the logical steps that you would imagine, you are seeing the change happen already.

‘As for enforcement, we have the powers if necessary but I don’t believe it will be necessary to use those powers.’

The PM set out the need for ‘drastic action’ to tackle the ‘fast growth’ of coronavirus across the UK as increased social distancing measures are introduced for the population.

He added: ‘We want to ensure that this period of shielding, this period of maximum protection, coincides with the peak of the disease and it is now clear that the peak of the epidemic is coming faster in some parts of the country than in others.’

As part of the measures, anyone living in a household with somebody who has either a persistent cough or fever must now also isolate themselves for 14 days.

All people should avoid gatherings and crowded places, while people who are vulnerable – including those are elderly – will need to undertake even more drastic measures.

It wasn’t a lockdown and in fact Johnson was ‘following the science’ (such as it was in Ferguson’s dodgy Covid pandemic modelling paper). In this respect, it is important to note that the Ferguson Imperial College paper did not advocate for full scale lockdowns, just some fairly stringent containment measures. If you were living in the UK at that time, you will know that the public were also fairly relaxed about the supposed threat from Covid and in fact, they were so relaxed that they ignored most of Boris’ advice! People went about their daily lives more or less as normal. It was the media and the workers’ unions which freaked out, with the media expressing horror for instance that groups of cyclists were meeting for bike rides in Richmond Park plus numerous other ‘Covidiot’ irresponsible public behaviour. If anyone forced the government’s hand into lockdown, it was the media and the frit unions. However, especially in the case of the mainstream media, I think it is fairly obvious that they were not the prime motivators, they were just equally complicit - along with the establishment - in pushing the pre-ordained lockdown narrative.

Hence, a week later, on March 23rd, Johnson announced a full mandatory, legally enforceable lockdown. Again, if you were living in the UK at the time, you will know that it was at that precise moment that a switch mysteriously flicked on inside the heads of the British public and the vast majority complied with their sudden and unprecedented house arrest. I didn’t - and to this day it disturbs me greatly what I witnessed happen. The UK went from being a normal, liberal, democratic country to being a mass totalitarian prison overnight - and barely anyone raised a murmur of dissent. Same thing happened again when the mask mandates were introduced. That is mass formation psychosis in action.

The ‘science’ did not change between March 16th and March 23rd. What did change is the politics. And the politics was dictated to by Big Pharma who had a ‘vaccine’ to sell - and lockdowns were the way they planned to sell it.

The masses joyfully embraced the miraculous shots and jumped aboard the cattle trucks.

Impfung Macht Frei! read the sign above the Gates (Bill, that is).