April 17, 2020 - 2:36pm
That was one of the more extraordinary interviews we have done here at UnHerd.
Professor Johan Giesecke, one of the world’s most senior epidemiologists, advisor to the Swedish Government (he hired Anders Tegnell who is currently directing Swedish strategy), the first Chief Scientist of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, and an advisor to the director general of the WHO, lays out with typically Swedish bluntness why he thinks:
- UK policy on lockdown and other European countries are not evidence-based
- The correct policy is to protect the old and the frail only
- This will eventually lead to herd immunity as a “by-product”
- The initial UK response, before the “180 degree U-turn”, was better
- The Imperial College paper was “not very good” and he has never seen an unpublished paper have so much policy impact
- The paper was very much too pessimistic
- Any such models are a dubious basis for public policy anyway
- The flattening of the curve is due to the most vulnerable dying first as much as the lockdown
- The results will eventually be similar for all countries
- Covid-19 is a “mild disease” and similar to the flu, and it was the novelty of the disease that scared people.
- The actual fatality rate of Covid-19 is the region of 0.1%
- At least 50% of the population of both the UK and Sweden will be shown to have already had the disease when mass antibody testing becomes available
Freddie Sayers is the Editor-in-Chief & CEO of UnHerd. He was previously Editor-in-Chief of YouGov, and founder of PoliticsHome.
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Subscribe“It would be easy just to sneer at these as yet more instances of millennial self-infantilisation:”
And great fun too
And entirely appropriate
”“Hard times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. And, weak men create hard times.””
The internet is full of 4th Turning stuff where quasi science explains the cyclical turning of societies from weak to strong to weak.
Rockerfeller #1 began his life on the Docks where he was always getting into fist fights with the toughest men there, both to give him his reputation, and for fun. He was the archetype of the hard man. His tough son parlayed the Millions he made into Billions, and his business Grandson son grew it to the ordered trillions – and a couple sons later they were 8 years in aimless university and driving their Lamborghinis into trees at 100 mph wile drunk and Over Dosing on drugs and partying like Hunter…..
Walstreet is in the drunk Lamborghini stage now, and the Politicians are the ones who were too drunk to drive that night so survived…..
As a firm believer of the phrase “men don’t grow up, their toys just get more expensive”, I personally see the main difference being that the men of my generation and older would take advantage of parenthood to satisfy their inner child. My dad would read all our Rupert Bear annuals before wrapping them on Christmas Eve and we only got Rupert annuals because he wanted to read them!
Another aspect worth considering is that since Tony Blair insisted that everyone had to stay in education or training until at least 18 and to push as many into uni as possible, our young people since, have remained institutionalised longer than ever. Fear of dealing with the real world is rife and are now actively protesting against it and, in some cases, in complete denial of it!
All good points however they are bastardizing what was great culture. As someone who actually watched the original series as it happened, and loved it, ‘Velma’ is an abomination.
Ditto that for Rings of Power, an increasing number of adaptations of Western historical figures and parts of Star Wars since Disney bought the franchise. Hard to say if they’re trying to degrade and diminish these once great franchises deliberately, but I am coming around to that way of thinking. It’s too much of a coincidence for it to be anything else. Everything that is or was good about our youth is now being made worse by these people and I’m increasingly hating them for it.
It’s mostly a result of Environmental, Social Governance (ESG) ratings. Introduced after the financial crash, it was supposed to be a means of allowing investment into companies for reasons beyond a pure measurement of return on investment.
What this has led to is corporations pursuing policies that lower their ESG risk, such as hiring diversity officers. In the entertainment industry, this has created a self-perpetuating cycle of hiring people with a “particular” outlook, who in turn produce the content that appeals to them, or hire more like minded people.
Rings of Power was a result of changing the producer in charge of Amazon Prime content – this was post me too decision. She immediately cancelled the pre production of a Conan series pitched as an adult fantasy (presumably in keeping with Howard’s original Conan books) series. It was her who decided to replace this with the adaptation of Wheel of Time, a show which removed the books theming of feminine and masculine balance. She’s also the head producer of rings of power.
Blow back from this policy is starting to hit some studios as they’re discovering that ESG investment is not replacing viewership. Netflix is in a state of panic and trying desperately to overhaul its offering and internally are now threatening staff that if they don’t like Netflix’s offerings to work somewhere else.
I don’t think any of this is necessarily deliberate (although I’m not one to rule anything out completely), just the unintended consequence of a stupid idea aimed at patching the mistrust between global corporations and a cynical public.
Interesting spin on the Scooby-Do “transition” to LBG(etc)-land. But, wasn’t Scooby-Do a show for kids? – is the idea that those (millenials?) who watched it as kids, now, as adults, want to see a Black-Lesbian Velma struggle with adolescence?
When I first heard about the new and transitioned Velma, I thought it was merely yet another attempt to indoctrinate children. But based on Mary’s interesting take, it’s target audience is now grown “children” who still live with their parents?
Either way, it’s still painful to watch Western Civilization falling on its sword to show how “radically chic” its elites can be, while the rest of the world continues to prosper, largely due to technology and ideas that originated in the West.
“recently Femi Oluwole, one-time Remain campaign youth activist, declared that “When my generation takes over this country we will not be swearing an oath to the king”.”
Would I be right in thinking that this twerp still lives with his parents?
As someone born about a year or so after Femi, the notion of him and people like him taking any authority away from the Crown and giving it to themselves is a terrifying thought.
I am reminded that during the last war, men of 21 commanded regiments, fighter and bomber squadrons and fighting ships, attaining ranks of Wing Commander, Lieutenant Colonel and Commander…
Steve Bannon always says everyone under 30 has had their future spent by us now. They will be renters, pension less, and likely not in a conventional family because of it.
This is your covid plandemic and adventures in Ukraine.
But people under 40 really will the same thing but a bit less as they got over a decade of the fat times; but again the two Globalist agendas above inflating away their pensions and causing the 22% increase in housing. They may have gotten on the ladder before 2020 when interest on a mortgage was 2.8% and not the 8% it soon will be, and houses were not so inflated – but many did not. They did get in years of pension contributions as well – if they survive the recession.
Attn all under 40 – – We just spent your future (Gov Debt to GDP 90% to 150% depending on which place you are from) on Bio-Pharma corruption, Military Industrial Complex, crazy Social Programs, Waste, and siphoning your wealth off to the Global Elites. Hope you do not mind, and pardon the inflation, which is how it is to be paid for.
Good observations. However, there’s likely to be a house price crash coming which eventually would make it easier to get on the housing ladder for young people.
“Is it really true that millennials refuse to grow up?”
Yes it is. Why should they grow up? Humans do not grow up until the realities of maintaining their existence require them too. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the problem is self-rectifying, as their childishness will prove an inadequate response when they find themselves confronted with adults who refuse to indulge them, as sooner or later they will. Our millennials will then grow up overnight.
Pet cats are pretty much the same: My two, supposedly adult cats, are, in essence, still kittens because I don’t force them to fend for themselves.
Just observe how often cartoons are used in commercials.
One wonders who Femi will be swearing loyalty to, Klaus?
Millenials refuse to grow up because otherwise we will have to give up on blaming boomers for our own shortcomings
Older generations grow old and die.
Younger generations make their own bed then have to lie in it.
The world created by the young is hell for the old.
But, in the end, none of this really matters.
Bluddy “ell Bill, that is a depressing way of looking at it. Do as I do and take comfort in the sure knowledge that today’s young will themselves grow old, and will get what the voted for, and they will get it good and hard.
Bluddy “ell Bill, that is a depressing way of looking at it. Do as I do and take comfort in the sure knowledge that today’s young will themselves grow old, and will get what the voted for, and they will get it good and hard.
Older generations grow old and die.
Younger generations make their own bed then have to lie in it.
The world created by the young is hell for the old.
But, in the end, none of this really matters.
“Millennials who refuse to grow up”… isn’t that redundant?