Allison Pearson - Covid Peak Stupid

Although many pundits in and around the press establishment hold variously eccentric views on the Coronavirus pandemic, so far we have been spared the stupidity on offer to viewers of Fox News Channel (fair and balanced my arse), where the likes of Trump lawyer and professional idiot Rudy Giuliani have ridiculed contact tracing because we don’t do that sort of thing when there are a series of car crashes.

Or rather, we had been spared that stupidity - until now. Because we now have the wisdom of Telegraph pundit Allison Pearson to enlighten us, and she is managing a Fox News level of batshit without so much as breaking sweat. Ms Pearson wants us to know that it’s cool to break the Government-mandated lockdown, because her pals are doing it.

“Two friends have told me they are unilaterally leaving lockdown today. They are furious with the Government” she declared earlier. So why are they not keeping themselves safe? “They don’t need to be “kept safe”. They’re extremely healthy women in their thirties and forties. With no existing health problems. Covid poses no threat to them. They are more likely to be in a plane crash”. YOU CAN’T CATCH A PLANE CRASH.

It got worse. Wasn’t this a teensy bit selfish? “Can you not get this? If you are a healthy, not overweight person under 50 with no pre-existing health conditions you are more likely to die in a road accident on the way to work than from [Covid 19]”. YOU CAN’T CATCH A ROAD ACCIDENT EITHER. But the idea of infection had clearly escaped her.

“Actually, If they and their kids get the virus and make a full recovery, as most will, they will be protecting the elderly and vulnerable. The more immunity we have in the country the better”. Er, no. If they and their kids get the virus, recovery or otherwise, as they are breaking the lockdown, they will in turn infect others, resulting in several hundreds of further infections and a double figure number of deaths. Still, details, eh?

Ah, but she knows that “They’re not stupid enough to go near an elderly person”. That’s not how it works, is it? They go near anyone else, the anyone else goes near family and friends, the family and friends go near elderly people, and the effect is similar. This is the kind of elementary epidemiology that a paid press pundit should be able to understand.

But this is someone who earlier in the week had proclaimed “If cafes etc are allowed to reopen from June with some distancing many could survive. The majority of their customers are at no risk whatsoever from the virus. It’s insane”. When told that many younger people had been hospitalised, and even died, from Covid-19, she sniped back “Can you not READ? The risk to any healthy person under 60 from Covid is absolutely minimal. They are more likely to die from normal flu”. And how did she know this?

“I have been steeping myself in the science. There is no risk whatsoever to any child under 14. A tiny risk -far less than normal flu to anyone under 18”. Steeping herself in bullshit, more like. She’s gone beyond Barking and is now on her way to Upminster.

What will Allison Pearson do when the Tel clears out its dead wood? Hopefully, nothing.

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