Open Letter Criticizes 'Biases' of UK COVID Inquiry

Open Letter Criticizes 'Biases' of UK COVID Inquiry
Photo: Matthew Horwood/Contributor/Getty Images News via Getty Images

The Facts

  • Dr. Kevin Bardosh, of the University of Edinburgh, and Prof. Sunetra Gupta, of Oxford University, wrote a letter accusing the UK government's COVID Inquiry of being biased in favor of "bereaved family groups" and against those who were harmed by pandemic policies.

  • The letter, signed by 55 academics, claims the inquiry lacks "neutrality," resulting in "predetermined conclusions, for example, to lockdown faster next time." It says the government has neglected to hear evidence from victims of pandemic policies or scientists who opposed them.


The Spin

Establishment-critical narrative

Not only has this inquiry ignored world-leading epidemiologists critical of lockdowns, but its treatment of the few it has called upon has been confrontational. COVID infection rates were falling before lockdowns, which shows what little scientific rigor the government has and continues to put into this issue. What's worse, the inquiry didn't originally plan to include the topic of children until parents protested.

Pro-establishment narrative

This inquiry has been rigorous and detailed in its socially- and medically-focused scientific pursuits. While some still claim that the government did too much in response to the virus outbreak, what this investigation has found is that leaders such as former Prime Minister Boris Johnson were too slow to act and thus left the elderly population at fatal risk. The public health community followed the best available science at the time.

Nerd narrative

There's a 50% that at least 140K people will be reported to have died per year of COVID-19 on average during the years 2022-2025 in the United States, according to the Metaculus prediction community.


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