A closed Frankfurt shoe store during lockdown.
This does not mean that lockdowns were the wrong policy, since they might have been necessary to prevent the National Health Service from being overwhelmed with COVID-19 critical-care patients. (And such measures are justified, proponents argue, on the grounds that they prevent infected individuals from harming others by inadvertently transmitting a deadly disease.) But as I will argue below, there's plenty of evidence that supports those on the other side of this issue, notwithstanding the efforts of politicians, experts, and social-media companies to paint such dissent as marginal or even dangerous.
* * *
Throughout the pandemic, the British government has assured the public that it is being "led by the science." However, a number of scientists and other commentators have disputed this claim. These "lockdown sceptics" (for want of a better term) have argued that indiscriminate, heavy-handed lockdowns are not grounded in science, and that a more focussed protection strategy is preferable. On October 4th, 2020, three scientists — epidemiologist Sunetra Gupta, medical professor Jay Bhattacharya, and biostatistician Martin Kulldorff — gave a forceful endorsement of this alternative view when they signed the Great Barrington Declaration. This is a statement by infectious-disease experts and public-health scientists who have "grave concerns" about the impacts of "prevailing COVID-19 policies." Since then, many other scientists, healthcare workers, and members of the public have added their signatures.
Comment: Jeebus, if you can't leave home to see your family even after getting the bloody vaccine then why the hell would anyone bother getting it! Good on these seniors! Enough is enough!
See also: