Today, furious MPs slammed Neil Ferguson’s ‘Professor Lockdown’ for his ‘hysterical predictions’ which have led to a national scandal.
Conservative Bob Seely called on a debate about scientific modelling in the context of the pandemic. He accused forecasters for making inaccurate predictions.
Winston Churchill’s words were echoed by Mr Seely about the modeling: “Never before had so much damage been done so many times by so few.”
SAGE epidemiologist Professor Ferguson was blasted by him for presenting ‘doomsday scenario’ which were repeatedly proven false.
The prediction by Professor Ferguson that 500,000 people would die each day if the virus spreads is widely believed to have scared Boris Johnson, who announced the first lockdown on March 2020.
Mr Seely argued this prediction followed a long line of inaccurate models produced by Imperial College London — where Professor Ferguson works — that have caused radical policies, starting with the mass culling of millions of animals during the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in 2001.
Steve Baker, Covid Recovery Group vice chair Steve Baker joined him. Baker accused the modellers in the pandemic of trying to turn No10 into restrictive measures.
However, the controversy erupted after Brendan O’Hara (SNP MP) accused politicians of not wearing facial masks in the hall. Following an angry shouting match between MPs, they were instructed to restrain themselves.
Conservative Bob Seely (right), called for a discussion on scientific modeling during the pandemic. He accused forecasters and other experts of making wildly incorrect predictions. Steve Baker (left), Covid Recovery Group deputy Chair, joined the conversation and said that modellers had bailed No10 out of restrictions all through the pandemic.
They criticised ‘Professor Lockdown’ Neil Ferguson (pictured), for his ‘hysterical predictions’ which have led to a national scandal.
According to Mr Seely, “Thanks to some questionable modeling, badly presented, and frequently misrepresented, I believe it is accurate to state that so many have been hurt by so few people based upon so little, doubtful, or potentially flawed data.”
“I think the data use is almost a national scandal.
‘This is not just the fault of the modellers but it’s how their work was interpreted by public health officials, by the media and yes, by politicians and sadly by Government too.
Modeling and forecasting are the tools that created fear and lockdown.
“I consider that the creation of fear was very despicable. It is unforgivable.”
He said Professor Ferguson’s models back in 2001 — which have since been harshly criticised by other experts — led to millions of animals being unnecessarily slaughtered because of the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in Britain.
According to him, the second stage in the “scandal” was Ferguson’s intervention before the March 23 lockdown 2020.
Ferguson’s modelling group released a paper March 16, stating that Covid deaths would rise to 500,000 per hour if no restrictions were implemented.
Imperial released later studies indicating that lockdown could have saved thousands of lives. Mr Steely stated, “Marking your own homework.”
He mentioned experts from Sweden, who said that the modeling was ‘almost absurd’.
The third stage was reached this winter, when Ferguson’s and other modellers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and University of Warwick predicted that the Omicron variant would cause further deaths and collapse of the NHS.
Baker stated that Mr Johnson was locked down because of Professor Ferguson’s death projections.
He said: ‘This is no way to do policy, but the reason someone — we won’t speculate who — bounced the Prime Minister is because they’d been shown those terrifying death projections.
They can’t be tolerated [but]They were mistaken.
When he called the Conservative MPs a libertarian heap-on, O’Hara stirred tensions within Westminster Hall.
He stated that he would not participate in libertarian squabbling led by those who, despite being in such a small chamber, do not wear face covers.
O’Hara declined to respond to Baker’s rebuttal, saying that ‘I feel the libertarian right had enough of being kicked around in this discussion.’
Tory MPs yelled “shame” at Sir Edward Leigh, who had to remind them to relax after his speech.