What Happened: Dr. Jay Bhattacharya on 19 Months of COVID

Click Screenshot for full video. A bit over an hour

A great talk with an expert in Public Health, Dr Jay Bhattacharya of Stanford University. Peter Robinson is a fine interviewer.

The whole talk is well worth settling down to listen to. Some key timestamps:

05:30: Difference between Case Fatality Rates and Infection Fatality Rates, for H1N1 and Covid-19. Noting that in both cases the WHO publicised the highest figures. 

10:00:  4th October 2020: Great Barrington Declaration (signed by 60,000 Public Health professionals) = Focused Protection

12:00:  Harms of Lockdown. Eg, JAMA Paediatrics estimates 5.5 million Life Years Lost, as result of school closures. 

15:00: Re "herd immunity" and the "Laptop Class”. Jay is “baffled” by Hancock saying “it’s not possible” to focus protection on the elderly. (As am I). When they went ahead and locked down the whole population. It was a “failure of imagination”. 

24:00  Discussions of Dr Fauci, "let it rip" (15 October 2021) vs "let it drip" result

28:00: Costs of Lockdown in more detail. UN estimates “hundreds of millions in poverty and millions have food insecurity” as direct result of lockdowns. UNICEF estimates (March 21) 250,000 children in SE Asia died of starvation result of lockdown.  

33:00 The Precautionary Principle and its asymmetrical application.  You should not (a) assume the worst of the risk (Covid) but then (b) assume the best of the counter-measures (Lockdowns) and that those measures have no cost. Yet that’s what happened.

36:00:  The "Noble Lie" and discussion of "unanimity of message"

42:00: Fear of Covid as part of the Public Health strategy (propaganda)

47:00: Florida vs California death rates

54:00: Vaccine Mandates. Public trust has been “squandered” 

58:00: Mask Mandates. Example: European CDC says for <12yo masks “not necessary”. American CDC says for >2yo “they are a must” ==> “the science is not settled”. Needs debate not stifling of debate. [ADDED: See my report of the Yale large-scale Random Controlled Trial, which showed marginal: at best a 0.7 percentage point decrease in likelihood of catching the virus

60:00: Final comments. Unequal harms of lockdowns. The working class vs. the laptop class.