On March 31st, Toby Young argued for ending the lockdown on April 12th. This turned out to be 4 days after the peak in English COVID deaths
"the country is well on its way to acquiring herd immunity and the much-ballyhooed “peak” that we’re trying to avoid by locking ourselves down won’t materialise." The peak did materialise, the herd immunity, as we now know from seroprevalence surveys, did not.
"Some people reading this will think, “I bet he changes his tune if he gets the virus.” In fact, I’ve got the virus."
He did not have the virus. He tested negative after making this claim. He has not given much attention to that fact in subsequent articles.
He did not have the virus. He tested negative after making this claim. He has not given much attention to that fact in subsequent articles.
Article here: thecritic.co.uk/has-the-govern…
Two days later, in a ham fisted and rather sad effort to respond to critics (which ignored most of the claims he raised), he added this: "more ventilators probably won’t save many lives as they’ve proved largely ineffective." This claim was incorrect then, even more so now.
Young was arguing for letting people die for lack of access to ventilators because he believed, based on a single outdated and incorrect study, that giving them access to ventilators was pointless.
Presumably, as reality stubbornly failed to conform to Young's confident predictions, he changed course and apologised? It seems not. Here he is on 28th April arguing, once again, for ending lockdowns because evidence! thecritic.co.uk/come-on-boris-…
The evidence in question? Sweden! Young claims Sweden achieved the same declines in infection and death without lockdown. We now know that isn't true. Sweden has the highest per capita infection and death rates in its region. Its own policymakers have admitted error & apologised
It would be nice to imagine Young taking a leaf of their book but I won't hold my breath. Given Young's inability to hold himself accountable, it would be nice if those who still pay him to opine on matters of life and death did so once in a while.
