This madness has to stop. This arms race of hysteria and fear, fueled by unchecked lies, unchallenged non-sequiturs and uncontrolled manipulation is misleading an entire nation.
A whole country told it must obey the instructions of a government led by a pathological liar and cowardly fantasist, himself manipulated by a Machiavellian and Mephistophelian mentor.
An entire populus effectively under house arrest because of ‘the coronavirus’ that will kill everyone if you go outdoors when, in reality, it is effectively this year’s flu outbreak.
We are a group of individuals who believe in truth and democracy. We are not extremists or deniers or conspiracy theorists. We do not think we are invincible or immune to SARS-CoV-2. Lineage B betacoronavirus SARS-CoV-2 exists and can cause COVID-19 disease. For those who contract the virus and show symptoms and develop the disease, the consequences can be serious and there will be deaths. In exactly the same way as seasonal or winter flu A(H1N1) and A(H3N2) can cause serious health issues and death. In exactly the same way as sepsis or viral & bacterial pneumonia cause deaths. However, SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 are not the apocalyptic harbingers of death and destruction that we are supposed to believe.
We made sure that we all had SARS-CoV-2 at the earliest opportunity (ranging from early February to late March), based upon understanding what the virus is and – more importantly – what it is not. Our view is that the best strategy is for everyone not in a high risk group to catch the virus through low viral dose, as would be the case with seasonal or winter flu or even the common cold.
Once this lunacy has subsided there will be plenty of time to speculate over just how and why SARS-CoV-2 came into existence and got from A to B. There will also be plenty of time to hold to account those who have misled and petrified their citizens. Those who ruined the livelihoods of millions, now maybe even tens of millions of people and forced hundreds of thousands of businesses to fail, leading to economic carnage, mass hardship and societal destruction. Many times more people will die of cancelled operations, postponed procedures, unavailable treatments and suicides than will die from COVID-19.
The 10th man exists to challenge the consensus, especially when it is groupspeak being channelled by everyone in an orchestrated narrative. When everyone is telling you one thing, it is important to ask yourself ‘why is this?’.
The concept of the tenth man is not new and is generally credited as arising from the aftermath of the Arab-Israeli War in 1973. In the run-up to the war, clearly belligerent indicators were missed by Israel. Nobody thought that the threat was credible. To coin a phrase from movies ‘those troops massing on the border are just an exercise’. Nobody questioned the consensus. Groupthink went unchecked and unchallenged.
After the conflict, the Israelis promoted the concept that in a room of 10 people, if 9 of them all think the same then it is the duty of the 10th man to think differently. No matter how implausible or ‘out there’ their point of view, the 10th man should always be listened to because herding and confirmation bias are biases that can turn intelligent individuals into ‘yes men’, especially when politics are involved.
The consensus is usually wrong and when everyone in authority is seemingly falling over themselves to tell you how right they are and how wrong you are, something is very wrong.
Some of us have backgrounds in evolutionary biology and immunobiology, which gives us an understanding of the virus’ effect on the human immune system and the body’s innate and adaptive immune response. Other of us have backgrounds in risk management. This is not the narrow application of ‘health & safety’ risk aversion but the wider scope of risk, in particular risk perception at the individual level. How the use of language, misdirection and sleight-of-hand can cause an individual to worry unnecessarily. The relevance of the difference between frequency and severity. The importance of controllability and dread or unknown risks.
Where an individual feels they have little or no control over a risk event they will tend to overestimate its impact, especially when they are being told that the risk has catastrophic consequences. Likewise when an individual feels they know little about a risk event they will tend to overestimate its impact, especially when what little knowledge they do have is being fed to them.
Some of us have military backgrounds, the relevance being that we believe in the principle of democracy and that it is something worth fighting for and then maintaining once it has been gained. Democracy is an abstract concept and something that can take a nation centuries to evolve to a mature level. Democracy requires the losing team to take part, as well as the ability to accept that your view may not always prevail.
As English Member of Parliament Sir Iain Duncan-Smith said in the run-up to the United Kingdom general election in late 2019, “the people are sovereign“. A sentiment we echo completely: in a democracy, politicians are elected and they may form a legislature and an executive. That is how a nation is governed and long may it continue. However politicians answer to the individuals who elected them. The people are indeed sovereign.
When fundamental freedoms and basic civil liberties – fought and sacrificed for by millions of servicemen over many centuries – are removed in a flash and a populus is ordered to stay indoors or else, it is time to challenge the edicts and expose the lies. Do you honestly believe that curfews and the police & thought-police local officials – deputised and empowered under the Coronavirus Act 2020 – patrolling the streets have anything to do with stopping the spread?
You are not under effective house arrest: you can go outside without destroying the NHS or killing others. If you have to leave your house because you cannot reasonably work from home, you can go to work.
All of us have experienced the death of a loved one. Held their hand at the moment of their death, sat next to their bedside during the hours, days & weeks as the concept of life disassembles piece by piece. So while our views may at times appear to lack emotion in their clinical evaluation of fact, they are anchored in compassion.
If this crisis were a genuine medical emergency, for example a virus that killed 100% of those it infected, we would be the first group of people to support the government’s view. ‘The coronavirus’ or more accurately SARS-CoV-2 is no such event.
If SARS-CoV-2 were the killer virus of death, do you think the official advice would be to go home and stay there for 14 days, in close proximity to anyone else in your household? No, it would be ‘seek urgent medical attention’ as would be the case in the event of, say, meningitis, the possibility of a spinal injury, a heart attack, septic shock, a stroke or a nasty cut.
So if the response is ‘go home for 14 days and do your own thing’ then the stimulus – in the form of SARS-CoV-2 – cannot be that bad at all.
The UK government strategy and response has been wrong at every level and at every stage of its implementation. Not just ineffective but counter-productive, with negative outcomes that have made the situation worse. The UK government is responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of its citizens by imposing on them recklessly negligent rules and guidelines.
SARS-CoV-2 is no more dangerous than seasonal or winter flu.