Toby Young’s Covid Disinformation

Of all those on the fringe of the media establishment pumping out disinformation on the Covid-19 pandemic, none is so determined to mislead the public than the loathsome Toby Young, who has dedicated a website to his denialism, called Lockdown Sceptics. This is in the same vein as Eurosceptics and Climate Sceptics: there is no scepticism.

As Eurosceptics are in reality Europhobes who have long ago made up their minds and are not about to change them, and Climate Sceptics are actually climate change deniers whose mindset is likewise set in stone, so Lockdown Sceptics exists only to grasp at any straw to convince anyone not yet asleep that it’s not really happening.

What might be called the zenith of Tobes’ latest venture into denialism came in June, when he triumphantly declared the virus to be in full retreat. “Day by day, the Coronavirus edges ever closer to extinction” he told in an article for the increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph, concluding “The much ballyhooed ‘second spike’ has refused to materialise. The virus has all but disappeared”. There was more.

“Across the UK, epidemiologists, public health officials and local bureaucrats are stamping their feet and gnashing their teeth. They’re furious about the fact that daily deaths from Covid-19 are continuing to decline at a precipitous rate”. Adam Lemon mused “I do wish you tweeted more about your past virus predictions and compared them to what actually happened”. We can now compare Tobes’ predictions with reality.

He also claimed that there was “no ‘second wave’ in Spain”. Put that on the charge sheet. Add this from late June about the USA: “Because most of the people getting infected since those states re-opened have been young people. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis says the median age for new cases in his state is 37, while in Texas Greg Abbott says a majority of new cases are from people under 30. And as we know, the infection fatality rate for people under 50 with no underlying health conditions is close to zero”. Long Covid, anyone?

And this, also from late June, about Leicester: “I looked at the NHS England data for hospital deaths and of the five people who died from coronavirus on June 29th four were 80+ years’ old. So the people of Leicester are being asked to close schools, shut non-essential shops and keep their pubs, restaurants and hair salons shuttered for two more weeks in order to prevent the deaths of two people aged 80+?”. Tobes says let them die.

Yesterday, more than 21,000 people tested positive for Covid-19 across the UK. Moreover, there were 241 Covid-19 related deaths recorded. The trend is inexorably upward. Over in the USA, more than 220,000 citizens have now died after becoming infected. And as for all those younger people becoming infected, I have news for Tobes.

This from Science Focus: “As many as 1 in every 10 COVID-19 patients could end up with symptoms lasting for longer than three months, with sufferers around the world terming this ‘long COVID’ … it seems long COVID can strike anyone, of all ages and backgrounds”. Maybe Tobes would like to tell some of them that it’s no big deal.

Toby Young is entitled to his opinion, and to disseminate it freely. That does not entitle him to spread disinformation for the hell of it. If only he were big enough to say sorry.

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