'You don't copy the losers'; a provisional list of institutions and individuals who pushed "zero COVID"
By newseditors // 2024-02-25
 

A partial list of institutions and individuals who pushed the pernicious idea that you could “suppress” or “eradicate” SARS-CoV-2 with social measures follows.

(Article by Tom Jefferson and Carl Heneghan republished from TrustTheEvidence.Substack.com)

Some of them have since apologised, but most of them are carrying on, pretending nothing happened, all is sweetness and light, the birds are singing in the trees, pigs are flying, and hopefully, they think we will all forget what they instigated.

Listing on this post is not dictated by the fact that some of the names launched personal attacks on us; we are not the Count of Monte Cristo out for revenge.

We include the names because, despite their impressive credentials (in some cases), it was quite clear to us by 8 April 2020, that “zero covid” was pie in the sky – poisoned pie. You cannot suppress an endemic respiratory virus, at least not until you have understood its ecology and routes of transmission. Neither of these boxes has been ticked.

Read more: COVID-19 – The Tipping Point, The Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, 8 April 2020

The acceptance or pushing of this folly had two catastrophic consequences.

First, it gave backing to restrictions.

Second, some or most created a witch hunt climate in which few people felt like knuckling down and studying what was going on, thus missing the golden opportunities the situation presented to solve some of the riddles.

Third, those listed below showed crass ignorance of respiratory viral epidemiology and they are likely to approach other topics with the same facile attitude in the future: small hands, long tongue. So here we go in no particular order (with thanks to the source in brackets):

  1. Deborah Birx from minute 7.25
  2. The Australian government (Premier of Victoria Daniel Andrews).
  3. Devi Sridhar and the Scottish government
  4. Zero Covid (Stéphane Bilodeau, Dr. Malgorzata Gasperowicz, Karl Parkinson) Dr. Irfan Dhalla
  5. Dr. Andrew Morris, author of the immortal quote: “You’re not going to be a winner if you follow the losers. You go and try and replicate, or at least figure out, what the winners do. And right now, we’re pursuing a losing strategy.”
  6. Dr. Samir Sinha
  7. Bill Gates
  8. Attendees  of the conference for Zero Covid. Supporters of Covid Action UK, formerly known as Zero Covid UK.
  9. UK Zero Covid conference attendees: Jeremy Corbyn MP, Diane Abbott MP and Jeremy Hunt MP
  10. ‘Zero Covid’ Catastrophe: Participating Nations See New Records Across the Board, Jordan Schachtel, 16 July 2021, American Institute for Economic Research
  11. America’s Coronavirus Endurance Test. To defeat the virus, we will have to start thinking in years, not months. Howard Markel, 6 August 2020, The New Yorker 
  12. Anatomy of the Hong Kong Disaster. Ian Miller, 19 March 2022:  Brownstone Institute 
  13. Inside Shanghai’s Zero Covid Camp, 7 April 7, 2022, Unherd
  14. Coping With ‘Zero Covid’. Our correspondent takes you inside Shanghai’s Covid lockdown. Ian Prasad Philbrick, 19 May 2022, The New York Times 
  15. Trudeau needs a Covid-19 Emergency Order. Here’s how to do it, Amir Attaran, 27 November 2020, Maclean’s.  Amir Attaran is a biomedical scientist, lawyer, and professor in the Faculty of Law and the School of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Ottawa. Macleans
  16. Who Pushed for Lockdowns? 101 Leading Voices, Michael Senger, 15 April 2022, Brownstone Institute (see table below).
Devi Sridhar, Public Health Professor Tom Frieden, Former CDC Director
Jerome Adams, Former Surgeon General Bill Gates, Software developer
Anthony Fauci, NIH Director Rochelle Walensky, CDC Director
Eric Feigl-Ding Michael Osterholm, Infectious Disease Professor
Ian Mackay, Virologist Angela Rasmussen, Virologist
Ellie Murray, Epidemiology Professor Lisa Iannattone, Dermatology Professor
David Fisman, Public Health Professor Irfan Dhalla, Medical Professor
Christina Pagel, Operational Research Professor Zoë Hyde, Epidemiologist
Isaac Bogoch, Infectious Disease Physician Tomás Ryan, Neuroscientist
Susan Michie, Health Psychology Professor Bruce Arthur, Toronto Star Columnist
Yaneer Bar-Yam, Physicist Mike Gibbs, Ontario Ministry of Health
Deepti Gurdasani, Epidemiologist Brian Goldman, ER MD
The New York Times Editorial Board Jacobin Magazine
John Ross, China lobbyist Chen Weihua, China Daily EU Bureau Chief
James Palmer, Foreign Policy Magazine Deputy Director Peter Daou, Democratic Campaign Strategist
Erica Joy, CTO at Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Dr. Oz
Jason Silverstein, Medical Professor Yoni Freedhoff, Medical Professor
Zubaida Haque, Equality Trust Director Daniel Andrews, Premier of Victoria, Australia
Kevin Rudd, Former Prime Minister of Australia Diane Abbott, MP
Timm Bruch, CTV Reporter Shafi Ahmed, Medical Professor
Abe Oudshoorn, Nursing Professor Ananyo Bhattacharya, Science Writer
Bloomberg Opinion Brendan Crabb, Microbiologist
Luke Bailey, iPaper Editor Paul Bongiorno, Saturday Paper Columnist
Dirk Devroey, Medical Professor Emily Deans, Psychiatrist
Ximena González, Freelance WriterOmar Ghraieb, Oxfam Policy and Campaigns Officer Zoe Daniel, Australian Politician
Diederik Gommers, Chairman of the Dutch association for ICU doctors Jay Beecher, Investigative Journalist
Femi Oluwole, Writer at The Independent Jennifer Gunter, OB/GYN
Cheri DiNovo, Canadian Politician Malgorzata Gasperowicz, Developmental Biologist
Andrew Gaffney, Sports Writer Andreas Eenfeldt, CEO at Diet Doctor
Quentin Dempster, Journalist Simon Houpt, Writer at Globe and Mail
Issa López, Film Director Rhys Jones, Public Health Doctor
 Emmett Macfarlane, Political Science Professor  Bartley Kives, CBC Reporter
 Jane Merrick, iPaper Policy Editor Virginia Heffernan, Wired Columnist
 Brian Klaas, Global Politics Professor  Andrea Horwath, Canadian Politician
 Judy Melinek, Forensic Pathologist  Chico Harlan, Washington Post Bureau Chief
 Julien Mercille, Geography and Environment Policy Professor  Paul Mason, Journalist
 Margaret Morgan, Filmmaker  Mary-Margaret McMahon, UK Politician
 Steven Newman, Floriculture Professor  Don Moynihan, Public Policy Professor
 Neel Kashkari, President at Minneapolis Federal Reserve  Kai Kupferschmidt, Science Journalist
 Shannon Palus, Editor at Slate  Umbereen S Nehal, Founder at Nehal Group LLC
 Jonathan S Perkins, UCLA Director of Race and Equity  Tyler Watt, Public Health Nurse
 Tony Blakely, Epidemiologist at Melbourne University  Alfons López Tena, Spanish Politician
 Tara C Smith, Infectious Disease Professor  André Picard, Globe and Mail Health Journalist
 Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post Columnist  Michael Schull, Medical Professor
 Stefanie Leder, TV Writer/Producer  Diana Z Berrent, Founder at Survivor Corp
 Asa Winstanley, Investigative Journalist  Jeff Sharlet, Author
 Bell Ribeiro-Addy, UK Politician  Claudia Webbe, UK Politician
 Bruce Hawker, Political Commentator  Alheli Picazo, Freelance Writer
 Charlie Stross, Author  George Aylett, UK Politician
 Jeremy Farrar, Director of the Wellcome Trust  Brianna Wu, Executive Director at Rebellion PAC
The Nation
17. Scientific consensus on the COVID-19 pandemic: we need to act now. Published online 14 October 2020, The Lancet (see image below).
  1. Signatories of the John Snow memorandum; “more than 6,900 scientists, researchers & healthcare professionals.”
  2. Endorsers of the John Snow memorandum
  3. Honourable mention to the All-Party Parliamentary Group (“APPG”) on Coronavirus, chaired by Member of Parliament Layla Moran.  A group that has now folded despite being well-funded.  [For a list of members see HERE and an archive of the website on the Wayback Machine HERE.] Conservative MP Dan Poulter, vice-chair of the APPG on coronavirus, said:
21. Depressingly, even Sponge Bob pushed for lockdown.
Run Everybody Run, Monster (2 mins)

If you have any additions to the list, Trust the Evidence welcomes them in the comments below their article HERE.

Read more at: TrustTheEvidence.Substack.com