The Virus: Prof Robert Endres Imperial College London 31.5.20

31 May 2020 — Youtube

Robert: I am a fundamental research scientist who uses his quantitative physics background to analyse biological data and to develop predictive models, mostly for processes at the cellular scale. In this interview I discuss the importance of a broad public debate of the Covid-19 health crisis, which should encompass the various scientific opinions, as well as their implications for our society and economy. Regarding scientific approaches, I would like to see the same rigorous scientific criteria applied as the ones we expect our students to use on a daily basis, in particular the critical assessment of the limitations of the methods and obtained results. For additional clarification, key scientific approaches to virus pandemics include virology (the study of viruses at the microscopic structural level), immunology (the study of our very complex innate and adaptive immune systems protecting us from pathogenic infections), and epidemiology (the mathematical modelling of disease outbreaks such as epidemics and even larger pandemics).
Continue reading

We’re all in the big numbers now

20 May 2020 — The Critic

Adding up the damage Britain’s Covid-19 policies have caused

It is the end of the affair.  We are no longer at epidemic levels of covid-19 prevalence in the UK (0.27% of the population infected, where 0.4% is the low end required to be “epidemic”), and all-cause deaths have slipped back below average.

Source: Office for National Statistics, 15 May 2020

It seems a good time to look back on the extraordinary past few weeks and try and draw conclusions.

Continue reading

Is the chilling truth that the decision to impose lockdown was based on crude mathematical guesswork?

10 May 2020 — Matt Ridley

Professor Neil Ferguson of Imperial College “stepped back” from the Sage group advising ministers when his lockdown-busting romantic trysts were exposed. Perhaps he should have been dropped for a more consequential misstep. Details of the model his team built to predict the epidemic are emerging and they are not pretty. In the respective words of four experienced modellers, the code is “deeply riddled” with bugs, “a fairly arbitrary Heath Robinson machine”, has “huge blocks of code – bad practice” and is “quite possibly the worst production code I have ever seen”.

Continue reading

The Models, the Tests and Now the Consequences

28 April 2020 — F. William Engdahl

By F. William Engdahl

Neo28Apr2020

Since late in January the world has undergone staggering changes which in many cases may be irreparable. We have given decisions over every aspect of our lives to the judgment of tests and to the projections of computer models for the coronavirus first claimed to have erupted in Wuhan China, now dubbed SARS-CoV-2. With astonishing lack of transparency or checking, one government after the other has imposed China-model lockdowns on their entire populations. It begins to look as if we are being led like sheep to slaughter for corrupted science .
Continue reading

Covid-19: Neil Ferguson, the Liberal Lyssenko

20 April 2020 — Voltaire Network

by Thierry Meyssan

In the past, European political leaders yielded to the orders of their astrologers. Today, they refer to them identically to the statisticians of the Imperial College. In the past, the latter have provided them as much justification as they needed for their liberal hospital policy. Today, they predict millions of deaths without any scientific rigour. Thierry Meyssan reveals how these charlatans have taken control of the policies of the European Union, the United Kingdom and certain states of the United States.
Continue reading