Collateral Damage

Data from official sources show that the lockdown measures are doing more harm than COVID-19 itself.

Browse the articles related to this topic below.

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Opinion

Why I spoke out against lockdowns – Professor Martin Kulldorff, Spiked

I had no choice but to speak out against lockdowns. As a public-health scientist with decades of experience working on infectious-disease outbreaks, I couldn’t stay silent. Not when basic principles of public health are thrown out of the window. Not when the working class is thrown under the bus. Not when lockdown opponents were thrown to the wolves. There was never a scientific consensus for lockdowns. That balloon had to be popped.

…Ultimately, lockdowns protected young low-risk professionals working from home – journalists, lawyers, scientists, and bankers – on the backs of children, the working class and the poor.

https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/06/04/why-i-spoke-out-against-lockdowns/

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Opinion

Reckless Hancock left care homes to fend for themselves – The Telegraph

While two men with receding hairlines quibble over just how many care home residents the Government managed to kill last year, let me paint you a picture of how shambolic the situation actually was. Regardless of what Health Secretary Matt Hancock might have you believe, testing in care homes was a fiasco right from the beginning of the pandemic.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/05/28/reckless-hancock-left-care-homes-fend/

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Opinion

We have really good evidence that lockdowns don’t work – Dr Clare Craig, talkRadio

Diagnostic pathologist Dr Clare Craig: “We have really good evidence that lockdowns don’t work which people find very difficult to accept”.

  • Airborne viruses spread and you can’t control the spread, which is why making people hide away doesn’t have the impact that you think it has.
  • The data demonstrates lockdowns don’t work and have possibly made things worse.
  • We now have examples other than Sweden, such as US states like Florida and Texas, that demonstrate that lifting restrictions make no difference to the virus.
  • Florida and Texas prove that the lockdown advice was wrong.

Mirrors:

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News Videos

Epidemiologist Prof Sunetra Gupta welcomes news of independent inquiry to examine the government’s handling of the pandemic – talkRadio

Epidemiologist Prof Sunetra Gupta welcomes news that an independent inquiry will examine the government’s handling of the pandemic. “There was a religious belief that lockdowns and facemasks work. Let’s look at the costs of these strategies.”

Mirrors:

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News

By ditching compulsory face masks in schools, the government is finally prioritising children’s welfare – The Telegraph

Still, however, the battle for common sense over hysteria is far from won. Do we really think testing healthy children at an estimated cost of £144,564 per positive test is either “sensible” or “proportionate”? Do we really think that asking children who’ve already missed so much this year to miss further days isolating for a virus against which all vulnerable adults have been vaccinated is a drawback appropriately balanced against a benefit? And what do we think of this in the context of the looming discussion over offering the vaccine to children – at negligible risk from Covid – given the harm we should assume will ensue to a small minority of them?

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/05/11/ditching-compulsory-face-masks-schools-government-finally-prioritising/

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Opinion

Why are we being lied to about Covid? There’s no good reason – Dr Mike Yeadon, The Conservative Woman

So in recent weeks I’ve made a clear decision no longer merely to point out what it is that governments and their advisers and spokespersons around the world are doing is wrong, scientifically unjustified and harmful, but to join the dots in an attempt to provide potential explanations of why they’re doing these things.

…Why do I say this? Simply because there is no benign interpretation of the acts of commission and omission consistently imposed upon us and no explanation of the statements which are flatly wrong other than an intention to deceive the population.

…It is my deduction and conclusion that the only motivation that fits all the observations is the intention to ‘herd’ every citizen into a VaxPass system. This is a completely novel system. Never before have all individuals been represented in a single, interoperable database as a unique digital ID, accompanied by an editable health-related field. Whoever controls that database, and the algorithms which govern what it permits and denies, has literally totalitarian control of the entire population. There is no personal threshold crossing or transaction which doesn’t fall to those operating that system.

Why are we being lied to about Covid? There’s no good reason
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Publications

Coronavirus and depression in adults, Great Britain: January to March 2021 – ONS

1.Main points
Around 1 in 5 (21%) adults experienced some form of depression in early 2021 (27 January to 7 March); this is an increase since November 2020 (19%) and more than double that observed before the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic (10%).
Around 1 in 3 (35%) adults who reported being unable to afford an unexpected expense of £850 experienced depressive symptoms in early 2021, compared with 1 in 5 (21%) adults before the pandemic; for adults who were able to afford this expense, rates increased from 5% to 13%. Over the period 27 January to 7 March 2021:

Younger adults and women were more likely to experience some form of depression, with over 4 in 10 (43%) women aged 16 to 29 years experiencing depressive symptoms, compared with 26% of men of the same age.
Disabled (39%) and clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV) adults (31%) were more likely to experience some form of depression than non-disabled (13%) and non-CEV adults (20%).
A higher proportion of adults renting their home experienced some form of depression (31%) when compared with adults who own their home outright (13%).
Almost 3 in 10 (28%) adults living in the most deprived areas of England experienced depressive symptoms; this compares with just under 2 in 10 (17%) adults in the least deprived areas of England.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/wellbeing/articles/coronavirusanddepressioninadultsgreatbritain/januarytomarch2021

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News

Vaccinated but won’t go out? The rise of Covid anxiety syndrome – The Telegraph

Watson’s response to the easing of lockdown is not all that uncommon, say psychologists. It is not yet known how many people will be affected by residual Covid anxiety after vaccination, but it’s feared a significant minority will struggle to readjust, especially as increased unlocking allows for large groups and big, crowded events to take place again.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/mind/vaccinated-wont-go-rise-covid-anxiety-syndrome/

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Opinion Videos

Covid is the cure worse than the disease? Dr John Lee, Unlocked

Unlocked Exclusive — in a hard-hitting interview, retired NHS pathologist Dr John Lee discusses the government’s response to the pandemic, analyses why proven scientific procedures were abandoned, makes the case for ending Lockdown now, and asks the question most doctors are unable to discuss in public. Covid-19: is the cure worse than the disease?

Backup mirrors:

https://www.facebook.com/unlockedunitedkingdom/videos/506787697359395/

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Opinion

Enough is enough. We’ve got six weeks to show the government that if they don’t give us our lives back we’re just going to take them anyway – Daily Mail

We have had to watch as comparable democracies like the US get back to normal life, with its economy starting to fire, travel reopened, and social distancing and mask mandates axed altogether for those who have been jabbed.

Many of us have even reluctantly accepted there may well be an attempt to reintroduce some restrictions and even another lockdown over winter.

But on June 21, no matter what political party you support, the time has come to say loud and clear: No more!

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-9537949/DAN-WOOTTON-need-lives-back.html

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News

States with strictest lockdowns ruined livelihoods — without saving lives – New York Post

Most states with the strictest COVID lockdowns destroyed millions of jobs for their citizens, while those with modest, targeted rules are largely experiencing low levels of unemployment even for normal times.

https://nypost.com/2021/05/01/strict-states-ruined-livelihoods-without-saving-lives/

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News

Hospitality sector warns of looming crisis over billions in unpaid rent – The Financial Times

The UK government is under pressure to resolve a £6bn rent arrears crisis and prevent a deluge of legal disputes between commercial tenants and landlords, ahead of the end of a temporary ban on evictions next month.

https://www.ft.com/content/03620e72-b618-49eb-9d34-0f2a9ffef5f2

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News

Face masks in classroom risk causing children ‘physical and psychological harm’ – The Telegraph

There is a “prima facie risk” of harm to secondary school pupils from wearing masks during lessons due to the impact it has on their ability to breathe properly, according to lawyers acting for a 12-year-old girl against the Trust that runs her school.

http://archive.today/2021.05.01-013849/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/30/face-masks-classroom-risk-causing-children-physical-psychological/

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Publications

Is a Mask That Covers the Mouth and Nose Free from Undesirable Side Effects in Everyday Use and Free of Potential Hazards? – MPDI

Many countries introduced the requirement to wear masks in public spaces for containing SARS-CoV-2 making it commonplace in 2020. Up until now, there has been no comprehensive investigation as to the adverse health effects masks can cause. The aim was to find, test, evaluate and compile scientifically proven related side effects of wearing masks. For a quantitative evaluation, 44 mostly experimental studies were referenced, and for a substantive evaluation, 65 publications were found. The literature revealed relevant adverse effects of masks in numerous disciplines. In this paper, we refer to the psychological and physical deterioration as well as multiple symptoms described because of their consistent, recurrent and uniform presentation from different disciplines as a Mask-Induced Exhaustion Syndrome (MIES). We objectified evaluation evidenced changes in respiratory physiology of mask wearers with significant correlation of O2 drop and fatigue (p < 0.05), a clustered co-occurrence of respiratory impairment and O2 drop (67%), N95 mask and CO2 rise (82%), N95 mask and O2 drop (72%), N95 mask and headache (60%), respiratory impairment and temperature rise (88%), but also temperature rise and moisture (100%) under the masks. Extended mask-wearing by the general population could lead to relevant effects and consequences in many medical fields.

https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/8/4344/htm

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Opinion

Lockdown proponents can’t escape the blame for the biggest public health fiasco in history – Dr Jay Bhattacharya, The Telegraph

A year ago, there was no evidence that lockdowns would protect older high-risk people from Covid-19. Now there is evidence. They did not.

With so many Covid-19 deaths, it is obvious that lockdown strategies failed to protect the old. Holding the naïve belief that shutting down society would protect everyone, governments and scientists rejected basic focused protection measures for the elderly. While anyone can get infected, there is more than a thousand-fold difference in the risk of death between the old and the young. The failure to exploit this fact about the virus led to the biggest public health fiasco in history.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/24/lockdown-proponents-cant-escape-blame-biggest-public-health/

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Opinion

Much to Forgive – City Journal

Adults have failed children in foisting unnecessary, harmful Covid-19 restrictions on them.

There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul,” Nelson Mandela famously said, “than the way in which it treats its children.” By that standard, our society now has the soul of an abusive parent. The pandemic has turned American adults, or at least the ones who make the rules, into selfish neurotics who have been punishing innocent children for over a year—and still can’t restrain themselves.

http://archive.today/2021.04.22-072614/https://www.city-journal.org/masking-children-unnecessary-and-harmful

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Publications

Is a Mask That Covers the Mouth and Nose Free from Undesirable Side Effects in Everyday Use and Free of Potential Hazards? – Europe PMC

On the one hand, the advocacy of an extended mask requirement remains predominantly theoretical and can only be sustained with individual case reports, plausibility arguments based on model calculations and promising in vitro laboratory tests. Moreover, recent studies on SARS-CoV-2 show both a significantly lower infectivity and a significantly lower case mortality than previously assumed, as it could be calculated that the median corrected infection fatality rate (IFR) was 0.10% in locations with a lower than average global COVID-19 population mortality rate. In early October 2020, the WHO also publicly announced that projections show COVID-19 to be fatal for approximately 0.14% of those who become ill—compared to 0.10% for endemic influenza—again a figure far lower than expected.

On the other hand, the side effects of masks are clinically relevant.

…We not only found evidence in the reviewed mask literature of potential long-term effects, but also evidence of an increase in direct short-term effects with increased mask-wearing time in terms of cumulative effects for: carbon dioxide retention, drowsiness, headache, feeling of exhaustion, skin irritation (redness, itching) and microbiological contamination (germ colonization).

https://europepmc.org/article/MED/33923935

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News

Closing playgrounds during Covid has fuelled ‘pandemic of mental health problems’ among children – The Telegraph

Closing playgrounds has helped to fuel “a pandemic of mental health problems” among children, a parliamentary committee has warned.

The All Party Parliamentary Group on a Fit and Healthy Childhood is calling for practical measures to help children recover from repeated lockdowns, which have left too many confined for long periods at home. 

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/18/closing-playgrounds-covid-has-fuelled-pandemic-mental-health/

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News Publications

Seven Peer-Reviewed Studies That Agree: Lockdowns Do Not Suppress the Coronavirus – Lockdown Sceptics

There have been at least seven peer-reviewed studies which look at the question of lockdowns from a data point of view, and all of them come to the same basic conclusion: lockdowns do not have a statistically significant relationship with Covid cases or deaths. Here is a list of them with a key quote for ease of reference.

https://lockdownsceptics.org/2021/04/15/seven-peer-reviewed-studies-that-agree-lockdowns-do-not-suppress-the-coronavirus/

Categories
Opinion

On Covid, No10 is treating the public like fools – The Telegraph

Meanwhile, the disconnect between what ordinary people can see with their own eyes and the Covid regulations only confirms the idea that Government pronouncements are no longer to be taken literally. The rules are starting to seem symbolic and removed, subject to broad reinterpretation. While the polling shows that people are content with the official pace of reopening, the mobility data (what people are actually doing) shows they have been quietly reopening their lives since January. Apple data now shows use of public transport in London up to nearly 70 per cent of normal from nearer 30 per cent at the start of this lockdown.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/15/covid-no10-treating-public-like-fools/