Just Following ‘The Science™’

An incredible time investment opportunity has arisen. Should you so desire, you can indulge yourself in nearly two hours of the incredible intellect that is Steven Bartlett pretending to engage with sincerity the obsequious grifter that is Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson. Apparently some sort of book is in the offing and the odious charlatan (to specify, Johnson, in this context) is on a “Mea culpa” tour in, I can only assume, the hope that he can sell enough books to meet his next child support payment. What a treat.

With an almost pathological lack of concern for my mental wellbeing I have listened to the second half of it, specifically the lockdown and COVID relevant sections, and I must report that it is incredible. That is to say; listening to someone who was at the center of government during those years demonstrate almost zero knowledge of the events themselves nor any of the information or analyses that have followed in the ensuing years, is incredible.

In a very endearing attempt at some “research” Steven Bartlett produces a chart (see below) which is intended to put pressure on Alexander’s claim that he didn’t “lock down too late”. Steven later fails several times to pick up on the fact that Alexander confesses that he believes the efficacy of lockdowns is itself questionable. If this is the case, why go to such lengths to defend himself from the charge of locking down “too late”?

Regardless, the presentation of the chart above shows how little either of them have honestly engaged with anything from the Covid years. Let us consider what the numbers from the Sweden row imply for Steven’s hypothesis (indeed, the hypothesis of lockdowns as an epidemic control in general) in terms of excess deaths from 2020-2023 across European countries [4].

If lockdowns control the virus and save lives, why would the one country that didn’t do lockdowns have the lowest excess mortality from 2020-2023 out of all the other European countries that did?

The closest Alexander gets to realising what has been empirically demonstrated for some time now (the first data were pointing to this in early Summer 2020) is this confused moment of sort-of-kinda-maybe hinting that he doesn’t think lockdowns actually made any difference but then immediately backtracking to say they were worth it.

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What I find very difficult to gauge now is, to what extent was it the lockdowns “what did it” and to what extent was this going to happen naturally as a result…the natural parabola…to some extent it was perhaps going to happen anyway. Perhaps…..

….the question is, did the benefits of lockdowns outweigh the very very severe damage done to kid’s life chances at school….I think we did the right thing

– Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson in 2024 discussing the UK Government COVID lockdown policies of 2020-2022

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The blinding contradiction in that statement was left to pass without comment or criticism by the host. That said, I have little expectation of Steven Bartlett to grasp even these basic details. I had hoped, however, that by now even Alexander would have maybe read something to see if what he did to this country was based on anything other than panicked, mid-wit technocrats thinking they could “science” their way out of a crisis.

The public need to understand that “following the Science™” isn’t a sign of enlightened thinking, or a Q.E.D proof that a political policy is correct. It is a phrase cretins use to excuse themselves for desecrating a nation’s constitution, imprisoning the population and violating the principles of informed consent for medical procedures.

References

• [1] Lockdowns Do Not Control the Coronavirus: The Evidence https://www.aier.org/article/lockdowns-do-not-control-the-coronavirus-the-evidence/

• [2] The effect of interventions on COVID-19 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-3025-y

• [3] “Stay at Home, Protect the National Health Service, Save Lives”: A cost benefit analysis of the lockdown in the United Kingdom https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/ijcp.13674

• [4] Impact of COVID-19 on total excess mortality and geographic disparities in Europe, 2020–2023: a spatio-temporal analysis
  https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanepe/article/PIIS2666-7762(24)00163-7/fulltext