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Trust the Evidence has started a list of people and institutions who pushed the harmful and destructive idea that you could “suppress” or “eradicate” SARS-CoV-2 using social measures, for example, “lockdowns.”

“Those listed below showed crass ignorance of respiratory viral epidemiology, and they are likely to approach other topics with the same facile attitude in the future,” Dr. Tom Jefferson and Professor Carl Heneghan said. 

“Some of them have since apologised, but most of them are carrying on, pretending nothing happened.”

‘You don’t copy the losers’; A provisional list of institutions and individuals who pushed “zero covid”

By Dr. Tom Jefferson and Professor Carl Heneghan

A partial list of institutions and individuals who pushed the pernicious idea that you could “suppress” or “eradicate” SARS-CoV-2 with social measures follows.

Some of them have since apologised, but most of them are carrying on, pretending nothing happened, all is sweetness and light, the birds are singing in the trees, pigs are flying, and hopefully, they think we will all forget what they instigated.

Listing on this post is not dictated by the fact that some of the names launched personal attacks on us; we are not the Count of Monte Cristo out for revenge.

We include the names because, despite their impressive credentials (in some cases), it was quite clear to us by 8 April 2020, that “zero covid” was pie in the sky – poisoned pie. You cannot suppress an endemic respiratory virus, at least not until you have understood its ecology and routes of transmission. Neither of these boxes has been ticked.

Read more: COVID-19 – The Tipping Point, The Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, 8 April 2020

The acceptance or pushing of this folly had two catastrophic consequences.

First, it gave backing to restrictions.

Second, some or most created a witch hunt climate in which few people felt like knuckling down and studying what was going on, thus missing the golden opportunities the situation presented to solve some of the riddles.

Third, those listed below showed crass ignorance of respiratory viral epidemiology and they are likely to approach other topics with the same facile attitude in the future: small hands, long tongue. So here we go in no particular order (with thanks to the source in brackets):

1. Deborah Birx from minute 7.25
2. The Australian government (Premier of Victoria Daniel Andrews).
3. Devi Sridhar and the Scottish government
4. Zero Covid (Stéphane Bilodeau, Dr. Malgorzata Gasperowicz, Karl Parkinson) Dr. Irfan Dhalla
5. Dr. Andrew Morris, author of the immortal quote: “You’re not going to be a winner if you follow the losers. You go and try and replicate, or at least figure out, what the winners do. And right now, we’re pursuing a losing strategy.”
6. Dr. Samir Sinha
7. Bill Gates
8. Attendees  of the conference for Zero Covid. Supporters of Covid Action UK, formerly known as Zero Covid UK. 
9. UK Zero Covid conference attendees: Jeremy Corbyn MP, Diane Abbott MP and Jeremy Hunt MP
10. ‘Zero Covid’ Catastrophe: Participating Nations See New Records Across the Board, Jordan Schachtel, 16 July 2021, American Institute for Economic Research
11. America’s Coronavirus Endurance Test. To defeat the virus, we will have to start thinking in years, not months. Howard Markel, 6 August 2020, The New Yorker 
12. Anatomy of the Hong Kong Disaster. Ian Miller, 19 March 2022:  Brownstone Institute 
13. Inside Shanghai’s Zero Covid Camp, 7 April 7, 2022, Unherd
14. Coping With ‘Zero Covid’. Our correspondent takes you inside Shanghai’s Covid lockdown. Ian Prasad Philbrick, 19 May 2022, The New York Times 
15. Trudeau needs a Covid-19 Emergency Order. Here’s how to do it, Amir Attaran, 27 November 2020, Maclean’s.  Amir Attaran is a biomedical scientist, lawyer, and professor in the Faculty of Law and the School of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Ottawa. Macleans
16. Who Pushed for Lockdowns? 101 Leading Voices, Michael Senger, 15 April 2022, Brownstone Institute (see table below).

Devi Sridhar, Public Health Professor	Tom Frieden, Former CDC Director
Jerome Adams, Former Surgeon General	Bill Gates, Software developer
Anthony Fauci, NIH Director	Rochelle Walensky, CDC Director
Eric Feigl-Ding	Michael Osterholm, Infectious Disease Professor
Ian Mackay, Virologist	Angela Rasmussen, Virologist
Ellie Murray, Epidemiology Professor	Lisa Iannattone, Dermatology Professor
David Fisman, Public Health Professor	Irfan Dhalla, Medical Professor
Christina Pagel, Operational Research Professor	Zoë Hyde, Epidemiologist
Isaac Bogoch, Infectious Disease Physician	Tomás Ryan, Neuroscientist
Susan Michie, Health Psychology Professor	Bruce Arthur, Toronto Star Columnist
Yaneer Bar-Yam, Physicist	Mike Gibbs, Ontario Ministry of Health
Deepti Gurdasani, Epidemiologist	Brian Goldman, ER MD
The New York Times Editorial Board	Jacobin Magazine
John Ross, China lobbyist	Chen Weihua, China Daily EU Bureau Chief
James Palmer, Foreign Policy Magazine Deputy Director	Peter Daou, Democratic Campaign Strategist
Erica Joy, CTO at Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee	Dr. Oz
Jason Silverstein, Medical Professor	Yoni Freedhoff, Medical Professor
Zubaida Haque, Equality Trust Director	Daniel Andrews, Premier of Victoria, Australia
Kevin Rudd, Former Prime Minister of Australia	Diane Abbott, MP
Timm Bruch, CTV Reporter	Shafi Ahmed, Medical Professor
Abe Oudshoorn, Nursing Professor	Ananyo Bhattacharya, Science Writer
Bloomberg Opinion	Brendan Crabb, Microbiologist
Luke Bailey, iPaper Editor	Paul Bongiorno, Saturday Paper Columnist
Dirk Devroey, Medical Professor	Emily Deans, Psychiatrist
Ximena González, Freelance WriterOmar Ghraieb, Oxfam Policy and Campaigns Officer	Zoe Daniel, Australian Politician
Diederik Gommers, Chairman of the Dutch association for ICU doctors	Jay Beecher, Investigative Journalist
Femi Oluwole, Writer at The Independent	Jennifer Gunter, OB/GYN
Cheri DiNovo, Canadian Politician	Malgorzata Gasperowicz, Developmental Biologist
Andrew Gaffney, Sports Writer	Andreas Eenfeldt, CEO at Diet Doctor
Quentin Dempster, Journalist	Simon Houpt, Writer at Globe and Mail
Issa López, Film Director	Rhys Jones, Public Health Doctor
Emmett Macfarlane, Political Science Professor	Bartley Kives, CBC Reporter
Jane Merrick, iPaper Policy Editor	Virginia Heffernan, Wired Columnist
Brian Klaas, Global Politics Professor	Andrea Horwath, Canadian Politician
Judy Melinek, Forensic Pathologist	Chico Harlan, Washington Post Bureau Chief
Julien Mercille, Geography and Environment Policy Professor	Paul Mason, Journalist
Margaret Morgan, Filmmaker	Mary-Margaret McMahon, UK Politician
Steven Newman, Floriculture Professor	Don Moynihan, Public Policy Professor
Neel Kashkari, President at Minneapolis Federal Reserve	Kai Kupferschmidt, Science Journalist
Shannon Palus, Editor at Slate	Umbereen S Nehal, Founder at Nehal Group LLC
Jonathan S Perkins, UCLA Director of Race and Equity	Tyler Watt, Public Health Nurse
Tony Blakely, Epidemiologist at Melbourne University	Alfons López Tena, Spanish Politician
Tara C Smith, Infectious Disease Professor	André Picard, Globe and Mail Health Journalist
Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post Columnist	Michael Schull, Medical Professor
Stefanie Leder, TV Writer/Producer	Diana Z Berrent, Founder at Survivor Corp
Asa Winstanley, Investigative Journalist	Jeff Sharlet, Author
Bell Ribeiro-Addy, UK Politician	Claudia Webbe, UK Politician
Bruce Hawker, Political Commentator	Alheli Picazo, Freelance Writer
Charlie Stross, Author	George Aylett, UK Politician
Jeremy Farrar, Director of the Wellcome Trust	Brianna Wu, Executive Director at Rebellion PAC
The Nation

17. Scientific consensus on the COVID-19 pandemic: we need to act now. Published online 14 October 2020, The Lancet (see image below).

18. Signatories of the John Snow memorandum; “more than 6,900 scientists, researchers & healthcare professionals.”
19. Endorsers of the John Snow memorandum
20. Honourable mention to the All-Party Parliamentary Group (“APPG”) on Coronavirus, chaired by Member of Parliament Layla Moran.  A group that has now folded despite being well-funded.  [For a list of members see HERE and an archive of the website on the Wayback Machine HERE.] Conservative MP Dan Poulter, vice-chair of the APPG on coronavirus, said:

The OECD data is very concerning and helps show the danger of thinking that the coronavirus pandemic presents us with a binary choice between saving the economy or saving lives.

This is a false dichotomy, and the truth is that minimising community transmission will allow a faster and stronger economic recovery. This is why the APPG on coronavirus has been pushing government to aim to reduce Covid-19 transmission to as close to zero as possible in preparation for the difficult winter months ahead.

Saving lives or UK economy from Covid a ‘false choice’, MPs warn, The Guardian, 26 August 2020

21. Depressingly, even Sponge Bob pushed for lockdown.

If you have any additions to the list, Trust the Evidence welcomes them in the comments below their article HERE.

About the Authors

Carl Heneghan is a professor of Evidence-based Medicine at the University of Oxford, Director of the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine (“CEBM”) and NHS Urgent Care general practitioner (“GP”) who regularly appears in the media. Tom Jefferson is a clinical epidemiologist and a Senior Associate Tutor at the University of Oxford.  Together they write articles on a Substack page titled ‘Trust the Evidence’.