This book should be compulsory reading

An insightful book that unspectacularly and understatedly highlights just what a total mess SAGE made of the pandemic. After reading it you are left with a modicum of sympathy for the politicians who were led like donkeys into eternal lockdown. One would hope that the judicial review will call Mark Woolhouse for evidence. What gets me is that some of the public health SMEs purposely maximised collateral damage of unimaginable size and without personal consequence.

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Mad

The year the world lost its mind more like. People arguing because one had a mask on and the other didn’t. Then come to find out they didn’t work anyway. The author sums everything up perfectly

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Fascinating

Critical thinking and a non-partisan, rational dialogue surrounding the events of the past few years is vital. I particularly like the examples of 'resulting' bias discussed e.g. Matt Hancock's gamble on vaccines coming to the rescue not necessarily being the right move even though it worked. A thought provoking book to say the least. The long-term effects of lockdowns remain to be seen...

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interesting and gives greater context

very interesting book, makes you think about how and why thr UK gov and Scottish Adminstration took their courses of action. And how odd these courses were not fully seated in scientific advice, despite being told to trust the science.

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A serious study in alternative approaches

This book suggests that we could have achieved better results during the pandemic if the authorities had acted more quickly and with precision. His arguments are persuasive and indicate that might have saved many more lives while causing much less cost and disruption. An interesting example is that he suggests that the stay at home advice during lock down rather than go to the beach or walking caused much economic and mental health damage while being pointless, with zero evidence that transmission happened in the outdoors with social distancing in place. It is an easy read and well structured.

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A good listen but I am not sure I particularly like the author

I fully support the author’s stance on lockdown, and he flags up many other shortcomings of the public health system, government reaction which I fully accept. There is however a bit of a condescending tone throughout, in that he says he knew what was going to happen all along and that he and his team knew best and were ignored. Also I think there is a bit of distancing from the Sage decisions which are now being shown to be incorrect, I ended up feeling that I didn’t really like the author. I expect he enjoyed his exposure on tv and radio as an ‘expert’

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Great book, Woolhouse calls it right

The world did go mad. And in the UK debate and dissent from the lockdown doctrine was silenced, in a rational, democratic and scientifically rich nation we all need to ask ourselves; why on earth did we allow that to happen?! Mark’s book is a clearly articulated record of a period none of us will forget - but it vehemently challenges the narrative we received.
Although the narrator was fine, I’d prefer to have heard this read by Woolhouse himself.

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story of an isolated labrat

If an isolated labrat could tell a story about how it wasted its time during the covid years looking to fight a global pandemic using only a spoon, this would be that story. Boring, no lessons learned, no doubts if the so called "vaccine" was causing deaths, just years of guessing how the world actually looks like from the inside of an ivory tower.... good insight in what today's scientists are capable of though... One thing is clear, the ones who were able to reach the news were not the ones labled "antivaxxer conspiracy theorists" who lost their credentials for speaking AGAINST the mainstream opinion fed or Big Pharma paid "scientists". If you're looking for modern scientific excuses based on all you were fed through the six o'clock news, read/listen to this book.

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More Lies & Misinformation

This book offers a tiny insight into the corruption and mismanagement involved in the pandemic but the author is ultimately still a government stooge who goes no where near far enough in revealing the truth. I recommend "The Real Anthony Fauci" and "A State Of Fear: How the UK Government Weaponised Fear During The COVID-19 Pandemic" as much truer reflections. The ultimate point to note is that honestly there was no pandemic. The global death rate barely rose in 2020 and was actually LOWER than in 2015 and in EVERY SINGLE YEAR PRECEDING!!

The real pandemic was the lies, deceit and corruption perpetrated by the big pharmas, MSM and worldwide governments that resulted in the biggest transfer of wealth the world has ever know!

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7 people found this helpful

Lockdown scepticism will become the mainstream

First of all I think any potential reader should know that despite the provocative title, robust tone and a forward by Matt Ridley this is not a new entry in the culture wars. The author is a leading scientist and while not having the profile of some of his peers he was an important figure in determining the UK covid strategy, particularly in Scotland. His main contention is that lockdowns were not justified and did not achieve much given their enormous costs and he spends most of this book justifying this point. As such it is not a particularly rewarding audiobook but does make some excellent points about the inconsistencies in the lockdown strategy.

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