Coronavirus

[Witton Park]

Last night I saw another Open Letter (I know they aren't submissable as evidence)

It was mostly from Public Health academics/practitioners.

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2020/09/21...ent-5079217714

A brief appraisal was given by a Dr Zoe Harcombe PhD

1) We support the idea of indefinite lockdown with no exit strategy.
2) Forget 'normal'
3) The virus is more important than anything.
4) Let's do more stuff.
5) Let's say routine medical stuff is back (even though it isn't & can't be given 1-4).
6) ?!
7) Don't worry about facts.

I don't think she agrees with them.

[Dave_Mole]

Last night I saw another Open Letter (I know they aren't submissable as evidence)

It was mostly from Public Health academics/practitioners.

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2020/09/21...ent-5079217714

A brief appraisal was given by a Dr Zoe Harcombe PhD

1) We support the idea of indefinite lockdown with no exit strategy.
2) Forget 'normal'
3) The virus is more important than anything.
4) Let's do more stuff.
5) Let's say routine medical stuff is back (even though it isn't & can't be given 1-4).
6) ?!
7) Don't worry about facts.

I don't think she agrees with them.

Another thing you noticed after it being pointed out to you?

Nice to see a detailed critique by Dr Zoe Harcombe PhD (nutrition/public health/dietary guidelines) who shares your inability to summarise a document accurately and who thinks that covid is "essentially over here...but the powers that be don’t know that or won’t accept it".

[Muddy Retriever]

Last night I saw another Open Letter (I know they aren't submissable as evidence)

It was mostly from Public Health academics/practitioners.

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2020/09/21...ent-5079217714

A brief appraisal was given by a Dr Zoe Harcombe PhD

1) We support the idea of indefinite lockdown with no exit strategy.
2) Forget 'normal'
3) The virus is more important than anything.
4) Let's do more stuff.
5) Let's say routine medical stuff is back (even though it isn't & can't be given 1-4).
6) ?!
7) Don't worry about facts.

I don't think she agrees with them.

I thought her follow up points were even better:

Also implicit in this is:
1) We don't know the difference between positive tests & cases &
2) We don't know that 12 times as many people are dying from flu & pneumonia than Covid right now &
3) We forgot that 1,700 people die in the UK every day... over 600,000 a year

[Fellbeast]

I thought her follow up points were even better:

Also implicit in this is:
1) We don't know the difference between positive tests & cases &
2) We don't know that 12 times as many people are dying from flu & pneumonia than Covid right now &
3) We forgot that 1,700 people die in the UK every day... over 600,000 a year

One of the most telling stats that I've learned since covid all kicked off is that something like 450 people die each and every day of cancer. That said covid is an infectious disease which can therefore be 'treated' by stopping people getting infected so, at a very base level, it has a "treatment" that works. I think though its covid's ability to multiply super fast if left unchecked that makes deciding any course of action very scary to quantify and, given the government's previous track record with it, they just can't afford to be to libertarian with their dealings with it right now. Another screw up will surely lose Boris his job?

[Flem]

Whatever one's opinions of the lockdown in general, Neil Ferguson's role in the lockdown, and Neil Ferguson as a person, Jim Al-Khalili's interview with Ferguson on this morning's The Life Scientific on Radio 4 was interesting and, in my view, well worth listening to.

[Flem]

A brief appraisal was given by a Dr Zoe Harcombe PhD

Would that be this Dr Zoe Harcombe PhD?

https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Zo%C3%AB_Harcombe
http://carbsanity.blogspot.com/2013/...ntials-ii.html
https://www.badscience.net/2011/01/how-to-read-a-paper/

You seem to have a bit of a thing for people who have (or claim to have) a PhD and who agree with you, regardless of the topic of their PhD. It seems to me that PhDs are two a penny in some disciplines. What is it with you and PhDs?

[Fellbeast]

And irony of ironies did Michael Gove say that we should now 'listen to the experts?"

[Fellbeast]

Whatever one's opinions of the lockdown in general, Neil Ferguson's role in the lockdown, and Neil Ferguson as a person, Jim Al-Khalili's interview with Ferguson on this morning's The Life Scientific on Radio 4 was interesting and, in my view, well worth listening to.

Neil Ferguson though has called wolf a few times in the past and got it wrong. What I worry about is Neil Ferguson calling wolf again, being right..... but everyone ignoring him

[Dave_Mole]

Would that be this Dr Zoe Harcombe PhD?

https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Zo%C3%AB_Harcombe
http://carbsanity.blogspot.com/2013/...ntials-ii.html
https://www.badscience.net/2011/01/how-to-read-a-paper/

You seem to have a bit of a thing for people who have (or claim to have) a PhD and who agree with you, regardless of the topic of their PhD. It seems to me that PhDs are two a penny in some disciplines. What is it with you and PhDs?

He has zero capacity for critical thought. If someone tweets something it's true.

[Muddy Retriever]

Whatever one's opinions of the lockdown in general, Neil Ferguson's role in the lockdown, and Neil Ferguson as a person, Jim Al-Khalili's interview with Ferguson on this morning's The Life Scientific on Radio 4 was interesting and, in my view, well worth listening to.

It amazes me that anybody still gives any credence to what Neil Ferguson says. The man has a track record of abject failure when it comes to pandemic predictions.

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/...hould-be-asked

When Uppsala University adapted his Imperial model to Sweden it came out with a prediction of 96,000 deaths by the end of May if there was no lockdown. Current tally 5,865.