Toby Young’s Lying Becomes Dangerous

The Coronavirus pandemic is A Very Real Thing. Tens of thousands of Britons have already died as a result of being infected by the Covid-19 virus; many others have been left with a long and slow road to recovery, perhaps never again to achieve the level of fitness that they possessed beforehand. But even when presented with these facts, there are some out there on the right who are prepared to claim it’s not really so bad.

And, as with other issues du jour, they call themselves Sceptics, in this case Lockdown Sceptics. Sadly, just as Climate Sceptics are usually climate change deniers, and Eurosceptics usually europhobes, Lockdown Sceptics are not in “show me” mode about the lockdown, or progress of Covid-19. They have already made their minds up, and in at least one case are prepared to lie shamelessly about the issue.

Which brings us to the loathsome Toby Young, taking a break from claiming that criticism of racist bigotry is an example of “Cancel Culture” (another invention of right-wingers intended to stop their opponents legitimately calling them out) to spread a pack of lies about the Coronavirus. In the pages of a national newspaper, thus demonstrating just how completely cancelled he has been. Or, perhaps, not.

To no surprise at all, Tobes’ thoughts have been published by the increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph, where the paper’s Twitter feed has told “‘As it becomes clearer that the British population will soon achieve herd immunity, people will begin to ask tough questions of the Government’, writes [Toby Young]”.

Tobes himself appears to have also Tweeted out this sentiment, but showing that no man is of perfect courage, it has been deleted. Sadly for him, the deletion did not come fast enough to stop James Felton from passing severely adverse comment on the totally untrue, and dangerously so, claim about “Herd Immunity”.

“I’m blocked. Somebody tell Toby: - a study in Spain found 5% of the population had antibodies - in Sweden where there was virtually no lockdown it is just 7.3% - to get to herd immunity without a vaccine would involve many thousands more deaths - his head looks like an egg … Really stress the last bit”. A little egg-cist, but to the point.

There was more in the same vein, with Jack Bernhardt musing “In some ways it's hard to blame Toby Young - we've created a system where the loudest, most shameless lies from ignorant sociopaths get the most coverage. Making up facts about herd immunity during a pandemic for clicks is the logical conclusion of that system”. Others were less sanguine.

“Toby Young, after moaning about being cancelled, writes in a national newspaper, a pack of dangerous lies. Fuck's sake. The absolute state of it”. Jonn Elledge added “Now that Toby Young has said that Britain has acquired herd immunity, we must face the sad truth that this means that Britain is an extremely long way from acquiring herd immunity”.

And Charlie Stross put the lid on it: “On current infection levels, the British population will achieve herd immunity with only another 400,000-600,000 deaths over 2-3 years. This is your weekly reminder that Toby Young is a medical illiterate and clueless political bullshit artist”. Tobes shouts “Fire” in a crowded theatre. But for money. That’s bang out of order.

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