An Imperial College professor whose discredited computer modeling prompted Britain to lock down earlier this year is finally admitting where the inspiration behind the draconian measure originated. Hint: it's the same place the virus originated.
In a Saturday interview with the Times of London, Professor Neil Ferguson said the inspiration for the lockdown measure came from Communist China. Ferguson said he was first doubtful, then surprised to see lockdowns implemented in Europe and then the UK.
(Via The Times of London)
Back in 2019, about the time someone was getting infected by a bat, no European country’s pandemic plans seriously entertained the prospect of putting a country on pause.
Then, that’s what China did. “I think people’s sense of what is possible in terms of control changed quite dramatically between January and March,” Professor Ferguson says.
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“They claimed to have flattened the curve. I was sceptical at first. I thought it was a massive cover-up by the Chinese. But as the data accrued it became clear it was an effective policy.”
Then, as infections seeded across the world, springing up like angry boils on the map, Sage debated whether, nevertheless, it would be effective here. “It’s a communist one party state, we said. We couldn’t get away with it in Europe, we thought.” In February one of those boils raged just below the Alps. “And then Italy did it. And we realised we could.”
They saw the opportunity to grab power and they took it.
Ferguson published a report in mid-March using modeling that predicted 2.2 million Americans and half a million Britains would die if the two countries didn't implement strict lockdowns. The faulty modeling played a critical role in the two countries' decision to implement lockdowns earlier this year.
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