New UK government appoints lockdown chief as Britain’s science czar
The UK’s newly elected Labour government has appointed Sir Patrick Vallance, who staunchly advocated for lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic, as minister of state for science.
‘Earlier,’ ‘broader’ and ‘harder’
Vallance, who served as the government’s chief scientific adviser from 2018 to 2023, was a major proponent of COVID-19 mandates. In 2020, he used faulty modeling to claim that 4,000 Brits would die daily if restrictions were not implemented.
But most alarmingly, Vallance asserted as recently as November 2023 that the British government should have locked down “earlier,” “broader” and “harder.” The declaration came in response to a COVID inquiry investigating the government’s pandemic response.
The effects of lockdowns
Research has conclusively shown that lockdowns were not based on science, though authorities like Vallance falsely claimed they were. A study from Johns Hopkins University found that not only did lockdowns have “little to no public health effects, they have imposed enormous economic and social costs where they have been adopted.” The mental and emotional fallout from lockdowns — particularly on children — is still unfolding.
An Israeli study of 771,636 medical files found that lockdowns were associated with a 60% increase in patients suffering from psychiatric disorders compared with 2019. It also found a 14% increase in patients with cardiovascular diseases, an 8% increase in obese patients, a 7% increase in smoking patients, and a 6% increase in patients with high blood pressure.
The study came after a report warning of a “psychiatric pandemic” due to the harsh psychiatric impact of lockdowns and quarantines, particularly on children and adolescents.
According to another study, students who suffered through the pandemic and were subjected to lockdowns should brace for significant losses in lifetime earnings.
‘The establishment protecting itself’
Nevertheless, Lord Vallance, a former executive at pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, will lead the UK’s science apparatus under incoming Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
The decision has drawn heavy criticism due to Vallance’s support for non-scientific policies.
“I think it bodes really ominously for future pandemic policy,” UsForThem Founder Molly Kingsley told The Telegraph. UsForThem is a parental activist group that fought to keep schools open during the pandemic.
“Starmer obviously made this massive thing about how they were all for change and accountability, but he’s carrying on with the old guard. How does this mark a break from the lockdown era?
“Why are we appointing someone when the pandemic response is subject to an ongoing inquiry, and is this appropriate to appoint someone to a ministerial role before the Covid inquiry has reached its conclusion? It speaks to a mindset of interventionist policy.”
MP Richard Tice, who serves as chairman for the Right-leaning party Reform UK, said: “The reality is that we’ve been proven right on lockdowns, they were catastrophic at every level.
“What Starmer is doing is reinforcing the status quo. He’s actually, in a sense, protecting the objective of the Covid Inquiry, which is to validate the recommendations of the likes of Vallance and [Chief Medical Officer Chris] Whitty.
“Frankly, I think this appointment is a major conflict of interest and as such it’s disgraceful. There’s no change, there’s actually a doubling down of the establishment protecting itself.”
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