COVID19: Taking Stock by Dr. Malcolm Kendrick

24th April 2021

What has happened with COVID19 has happened. All around the world Governments and their advisors have blundered about, all claiming they did absolutely the right thing. Maybe a bit slow in locking down here and there.

However, essentially, it is very clear that the COVID narrative has been written. It has been written by those in charge, who have far too much to lose if it is found to be nonsense. So, it is not going to change.

What was the narrative? I have never seen it formally written down, but I think it is pretty much as follows:

COVID19 is a new, mutated coronavirus, that is far deadlier than influenza. With an infection fatality rate of around 1%*.
In the UK, around 500,000 people were going to die from it. Around 2.5 million in the USA, unless action was taken.
It was going to overwhelm health services unless drastic action was taken. Therefore, even more people would die if we just let it run its course.
The agreed action was lockdown, which has now been demonstrated to be highly effective at lowering the rate of infection in all countries.
Masks are highly effective at reducing spread.
More generally, PPE is highly effective at reducing spread.
It can be spread by asymptomatic people to almost the same extent as those with symptoms.
It is spread by droplets, not aerosols, which is why masks are so important.
Herd immunity is not possible through allowing people to become infected naturally.
There would be far greater damage to the economy if we allowed it to spread unchecked, than would ever be caused by lockdown.
Virtually everyone recorded as dying of COVID19 has died of COVID19 – not with COVID19 – or from something else altogether.
Vaccination provides stronger immunity than catching the disease, overcoming it, and building up natural immunity.
Remdesivir is effective at controlling symptoms and saving lives.
Hydroxychloroquine, Zinc, Vitamin D, Ivermectin, Vitamin C are all completely useless and damaging and should not be given to anyone. Doctors prescribing them should be (and have been) struck off.
Steroids can dampen down the immune response and reduce mortality.

*No agreement on where it actually originated. However, China and the WHO have told us it couldn’t possibly, in any way, have been due to ‘gain of function’ research in a lab in Wuhan – so that’s been cleared up then. I am fully satisfied, and you should be too.

I have not referenced any of this, because you will all have seen these messages repeated… repeatedly. In one form or another.

How much of this is likely correct? Some of it? None of it?

I think there are two things on that list that I fully agree with. COVID19 is a new, mutated, coronavirus that is more deadly than (most forms) of influenza – in the elderly at least.

I don’t think anyone is yet arguing that COVID19 has been, or will be, deadly than Spanish flu. Whether or not the Russian flu of the 1890s was worse? Maybe.

The other major influenza epidemics of 1957 and 1967/8 were pretty bad, just as bad, possibly worse?

There were, again probably, fewer overall deaths, but the world’s population was only a half of what it is now. The figures on deaths are almost impossible to make sense of anyway.

The other thing I agree with is that steroids are effective in reducing mortality. If given at the right time. As for the rest of it? I think it is pretty much wall to wall nonsense from start to finish.

I believe that the images from China, with people apparently dropping dead in the streets, spooked almost everyone. Then, when Italy was first hit, there were the images of overwhelmed hospitals filling our television screens. At which point the glass was smashed and we hit the ‘we’re all going to die’ red button. Fear was unleashed.

It certainly all happened very suddenly. On March the 26th Anthony Fauci stated the following in the New England Journal of Medicine:

” If one assumes that the number of asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic cases is several times as high as the number of reported cases, the case fatality rate may be considerably less than 1%. This suggests that the overall clinical consequences of Covid-19 may ultimately be more akin to those of a severe seasonal influenza (which has a case fatality rate of approximately 0.1%) or a pandemic influenza (similar to those in 1957 and 1968) rather than a disease similar to SARS or MERS, which have had case fatality rates of 9 to 10% and 36%, respectively.” 1

In the UK, on the 19th of March 2020, we had the following statement from the Advisory Committee of Dangerous Pathogens (ACDP):

“COVID-19 is no longer considered to be a high consequence infectious disease (HCID) in the UK”.

“The 4 nations public health HCID group made an interim recommendation in January 2020 to classify COVID-19 as an HCID. This was based on consideration of the UK HCID criteria about the virus and the disease with information available during the early stages of the outbreak. Now that more is known about COVID-19, the public health bodies in the UK have reviewed the most up to date information about COVID-19 against the UK HCID criteria. They have determined that several features have now changed; in particular, more information is available about mortality rates (low overall), and there is now greater clinical awareness and a specific and sensitive laboratory test, the availability of which continues to increase.

“The Advisory Committee on Dangerous Pathogens (ACDP) is also of the opinion that COVID-19 should no longer be classified as an HCID.

“The need to have a national, coordinated response remains, but this is being met by the government’s COVID-19 response.2”

However, the doomsters had already managed to grab the narrative, and all attempts at scientific discussion were blown away. Fauci rapidly and completely changed his mind. COVID19 was, in fact, absolutely deadly and we must do absolutely everything possible to control it. At which point no-one else dared say anything else. Within a week the UK began, what is now called, Lockdown. An enormous, world altering decision had been made.

I find it slightly weird that, on March the 16th, Sir Patrick Vallance was recommending lockdown. Three days before this, the Advisory Committee of Dangerous Pathogens decreed that COVID-19 should no longer be classified as a high consequence infectious disease. Make your minds up guys.

Anyway, at some point in late March 2020, across the world the narrative had spread across the world like an iron curtain. There was to be no dissent from the party line. In the UK the BBC turned into the communications department for the Government, with health correspondents telling the public what they now needed to do. No longer reporting…instructing.

There was not, and has not been, the slightest attempt by the mainstream media to ask any serious questions about lockdown, or any other aspect of the actions taken. The opposition parties have all been falling over themselves to push more, ever tighter lockdowns, more punishment of offenders.

A ten-year jail sentence for making a mistake filling in a COVID questionnaire form. Yes, that is in place, although I very doubt anyone is ever going to be prosecuted for it. UK parliamentary democracy has been replaced by a dictatorship. No parliamentary scrutiny – at all.

In another sinister development, various agencies and fact checkers sprang into action. If you dared to question the narrative, you were subjected to the modern-day equivalent of the Spanish Inquisition. Accounts suspended, posts removed, access denied. Attacks raining down. At least you didn’t get burned at the stake – only your reputation went up in flames.

In stark contrast, a company called Surgisphere managed to publish an article in the Lancet, no less, claiming that hydroxychloroquine was useless. Which suited the narrative. It turned out they had simply made up their figures. In addition, they were closely financially connected with the pharmaceutical company that makes Remdesivir 3.

Where were the fact checkers on this …yes, completely silent, as they have been about anything in support of the narrative. On the other hand, dare to question the validity of, say, mask wearing, and they are down on you like a ton of bricks.

Levels of censorship like this have never been seen before in the West. Ever. Even the President of the US was being censored – by unelected and faceless individuals. Whatever you may have thought of The Donald, the office of President should command respect and it should have been several steps too far to shut him down.

In amongst all this censorship, where is the truth? Where are the facts? I am finding it very difficult to know. I consider myself pretty good at finding out what is going on, digging down to the truth. Analysing papers, sifting the evidence and suchlike. Helping others make sense of data. It’s kind of my thing.

Unfortunately, when I look to the voices on ‘the other side’ for balance they seem to have gone just as mad in the opposite directions. ‘Vaccination will kill hundreds of millions, women will be made sterile, it will drive the virus to mutate into a deadly, deadly, deadly, killer.’ Look, I am perfectly willing to accept that these vaccines were rushed through and may cause some significant health problems – some deaths. Which have already happened. But nothing destroys credibility faster than screaming blue bloody murder.

In my last blog I commented on a strategy known as OODA. Observe, orientate, decide, act. I have done a lot of observing. As for orientating. My current orientation is that everything we see around us has led from one error. As often happens.

The decision to lockdown was so massive, that it became impossible to question. If it was the wrong decision, all of those involved in making it would inevitably be held responsible for economic chaos, hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths, massive job losses and unprecedented social upheaval.

‘What was your legacy Boris’.

‘Well, harrumph, I made millions of people unemployed. In addition, by terrifying the public, I caused tens of thousands to stop attending hospital, who died unnecessarily. I blew four hundred billion, or thereabouts. I crushed personal freedoms. I prevented cancer diagnoses and treatments, and increased waiting lists by years – so people continued to suffer for years to come.’

‘Yes, but apart from that. How was lockdown?’

‘Well, to be quite frank, it achieved bugger all. Anyway, do you like my hairstyle. It does make people think I’m a bloody good chap.’

Can’t quite see anyone admitting to having made the greatest mistake in the history of the world. So now, everything is directed to the cause of ensuring that lockdown was seen to be the best thing to do, the only possible action that could have been taken. We had to the stop the infection spreading or everything would have been worse.

Anything, or any country, that does not follow that narrative has been attacked or explained away. For example, Sweden didn’t lockdown as much as the UK, or most other countries in Europe, and their actions have been ruthlessly attacked from all sides. They could not possibly be seen to have done better – than anyone. They have actually done far worse…look how badly it is going in Sweden… say what?

Standing in direct contradiction, but never commented on, it is simultaneously stated that they actually did lockdown. In fact, because the Swedes are so naturally law abiding, they locked themselves down. Suddenly everyone was a world leading expert on Swedish psychology.

Japan didn’t lock down. Ah, but they all wear masks, and don’t interact in the same way. Belarus didn’t lock down. Ah, but we don’t believe their figures. But we do believe the Chinese figures?

A randomised controlled study from Denmark showing that masks don’t really work was dismissed as useless and stripped apart by the Fact Checkers.... Studies from the US demonstrated that states that locked down tightly did no better than those that didn’t…. Oh, it was population density, atmospheric pressure, ethnic make-up, temperature. Throw whatever made-up evidence free explanation you like into the air.

This is the scientific equivalent of a fighter plane releasing chaff into the air to confuse and misdirect an incoming missile. You no longer have one target, you have thousands.

It is something I have been battled against in my cardiovascular research. Attack the ‘cholesterol hypothesis’ and it disintegrates into hundreds of different pieces in front your eyes. HDL, LDL, particle number, small dense LDL, light fluffy LDL, dyslipidaemia…. On and on it goes. A lifetime can be fully wasted examining each piece of chaff in minute detail. My advice, don’t bother, just learn to recognise chaff when you see it.

Which all gets us where?

Where, is that nothing is going to alter the direction of the narrative right now. It has the support of everyone in positions of power, almost everywhere around the world. Science is being bent to fit the narrative, and you can see it happening, if you know what to look for. Recently Boris Johnson stated that vaccination hasn’t really made any difference to falling rates in the UK, lockdown did the heavy lifting.

Why is he saying this? Because the pro-lockdowners are building the narrative fortress higher and higher to protect it from the inevitable future attacks. The likes of Imperial College London, and Neil Ferguson, who have massive responsibility for lockdown, can see there are now more and more scientists who are readying the evidence against lockdown. And it is starting to look strong.

A battle will be fought, and the pro-lockdowners are trying to get politicians to nail their colours fully to the lockdown side. They know that politicians around the world will happily throw all the pro-lockdown scientists to the wolves the moment it begins to look politically expedient. ‘They made us do it. We just followed their advice. Boo Hoo, it wasn’t my fault. Don’t be nasty to me.’

Yes, we have realpolitik in place. Maybe we should call it realscientik. Neil Ferguson, and his ilk, pressed the emergency red button. It is a button they have been itching to press for years, decades. It is the ‘Here is the infection that is going to kill us all’ button. That infection may turn up at some point. COVID19 isn’t it. The button should never have been pressed.

The truth about the actions taken, and the true effectiveness of lockdown, and the damage of lockdown. This will not emerge for many years. By which time, the likes of Boris and Angela and Emmanuel, and Scott and Jacinda will be long gone, and won’t care. In my opinion there should be a reckoning. However, there won’t be.

1: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejme2002387

2: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/high-consequence-infectious-diseases-hcid?fbclid=