Mr Michael Yeadon is one of a few scientific minds speaking out against the Covid vaccine, and the virus in general. Despite there being a few similar minds besides him, they are all in the vast minority in the scientific community, and for good reason as we’ll see in his video.
He’s famous for his unsubstantiated and false claims that the Vaccine will cause infertility in women or cause problems for pregnant women. These have since been proven false.
He was also famous for his statement in October 2020 that the UK covid death rate would fizzle out and so lockdowns should stop. Since then the death toll has quadrupled.
He has encouraged people to not wear masks and to not socially distance despite these being common-sense and proven ways to reduce the spread of air-borne diseases.
Early in his twitter profile, he seemed supportive of a covid vaccine saying “Covid 19 is not going away until we have a vaccine or herd immunity”.
What he says in this video:
Lockdown - isn't going to work. Reason: only people who are ill and have symptoms and really strong infectious risks. And if you're ill you'll stay home. He says he's sure that cutting contact will not reduce spread of disease. He doesn't give evidence to support this claim, and this claim is contrary to the mounds of evidence that show asymptomatic can easily spread the disease. (CDC shows that 50% of transmission happens BEFORE people develop symptoms, and 30% of people infected stay symptom free). He repeats that it's a myth that there is asymptomatic transmission. He says if it occurs at all it's under 1%. Obviously, this is false as the research all over the globe shows that asymptomatic people are contagious, and that you can be contagious for several days before the onset of symptoms.
He says he knew he was being lied to by the govt, though doesn't give any evidence to support his claim. But the reason becomes clear later in the video - and that is because he is a nutter.
He is critical of the Covid PCR tests. He says we don't know how many false positives there are and therefore we should ignore completely any infection rate stats. However, there are plenty of studies on this, they all show low rates of false positives, with most of the studies giving ranges from <0.4% up to 4% false positive rates (depending on region, brand etc).
He claims most of his colleagues agreed with him. Yet later he explains how most of his colleagues are distancing themselves from him. So he contradicts himself.
He claims we've never used lockdown before. To hear him say something that is so easily refuted is shocking. Social isolation or "lockdown" if you will, has been widely used for millennia. This statement of his really reveals his shocking ignorance on the subject. He's just factually wrong. (see here)
He says without evidence that lockdowns don't work because he says someone needs to be symptomatic to spread the virus. This simply repeats what he said earlier, and it’s incorrect. He says our intuitions are enough to tell us if someone is infected. This is not true, people can present with no symptoms at all and still spread the virus to you unwittingly.
He says the tests don't work, which is factually false. They work quite well. They are particularly specialised for accurate positive results. False negatives are very rare.
He says wearing masks have never been used and doesn't work. Which is again just stupendously false. They have been shown time and time again to limit the spread of a respiratory disease, and it’s why they HAVE been used in many countries for decades.
He claims Covid is less of a threat than influenza. Which is false. There are many complications with Covid, including long-term taste loss or sense-of-smell loss. Also lungs, heart, kidney and brain damage can result from severe Covid infections. These long-term complications occur in about 30% of infection survivors. Aside from being vastly more contagious than influenza, the mortality rate is also about 10 times more than influenza (see here).
He repeatedly says governments are lying, without any evidence to substantiate that. All he has actually done is show either his own ignorance, or else spread outright untrue things of his own.
He says "if you want to check any one of the things that I've said you'll find it is true", yet so far the number of false statements is huge and I'm not even half way through. He then says if you find even one thing false being said then you should no longer assume what you're being told is true. Ok - sure - I no longer assume what he is saying in this video to be true.
He says we should not trust the people who are in the scientific professions because they are being paid and so will simply say whatever they are told to say. He says we should rather trust people like him who are not in the scientific community anymore. Hahaha I kid you not.
He says immunity to viruses doesn't depend on antibodies at all. He later says that he's not saying antibodies play no role. He says the emphasis on antibodies in respect of respiratory viral infections is wrong. I’m not sure what he’s specifically responding to here. I haven’t heard an emphasis on antibodies with respect to viral infection immunity. Antibodies are merely the things the body makes that attach to the pathogen marking it for attack. Antibodies are produced in the body and part of what vaccines do is teaching the body how to make those antibodies so that the rest of the immune system can respond to the pathogens they attach to and help prevent the virus from entering our cells.
He says if you're over 70 and already ill it's a slightly bigger risk than flu. And if you're under 70 and healthy it's less of a rush than influenza. This is demonstrably false. The rush is actually massive. Huge. What a barbaric statement. So he says it's absurd to let the economy and civil society be smashed for a far less risky thing than influenza. Again, as said above, this is false. Covid is far deadlier than Influenza, and in those that survive about 30% have long-term effects that persist even after the infection is long gone.
He says we didn't need to do anything. This is obviously false. The wave of people hitting hospitals and dying was overwhelming and would only get worse. Honestly, this advice is murderous.
He says there are multiple drugs at least as effective as vaccines such as inhaled cortico steroids reduced symptoms by 90%. This was found by one study so much more testing is needed. Currently though the WHO does not recommend any specific drug as a Covid treatment.
He says ivermectin is effective, reducing fatality by 90%. This is false, but there is ongoing study into the efficacy of this treatment. So far though, the results are not supportive that it does anything at all.
Even if both of those medicines prove effective treatments, that’s still not an argument to produce a vaccine. For starters, at least 30% of covid infection survivors present with long-term symptoms and complications. It’s like saying we don’t need seat-belts in cars because now we have air-bags. One doesn’t negate the need for the other.
He says slight variations don't present as different viruses. But this is obviously false. EG Every year we have different varieties of influenza and they all have their own vaccine even though they are nearly identical. That’s why each year the specific variants in the flu vaccine are different year by year. So once again, he's not telling the truth.
He says that this is an attempt at mass depopulation. So basically a wild conspiracy theory. Yet there is no evidence of this at all, and given the level of untruth in the speech so far, there is no reason to believe this.
He says that the virus only kills people who are elderly or ill. This is false (I’m tired of saying this). Getting covid is far more likely to be lethal the older you are, true, but that doesn’t mean those under a certain age are safe. 30% of deaths were under 64 years of age.
He says it’s an illegal thing for your government to force any medical treatment. This is false at least in Australia, but also many other countries. The Government has some ability to override an individual's wishes for the greater good when there is an urgency to do so. But generally, free liberal democratic governments are not in the business of overriding the wishes of the people who can elect them out. That’s why it’s called representative government after all.
He says it’s against the Nuremberg Code to coerce people to take experimental therapies because now it’s them taking part in a medical experiment against their will. This is false on multiple accounts. Firstly, it’s not experimental, Eg Pfizer has passed all phase three clinical trial data points that are required for a treatment to go to market, and it completed them last year! The technology is not new, it’s been under research for decades, and because of the nature of the treatment, it’s safer and faster to manufacture than other vaccines. Secondly, it’s not done on people unwittingly, all the test subjects were volunteers and fully aware of what they were doing. This ties back to my previous article here.
Next he outlines a bizarre doomsday scenario (including mass executions!!!) about vaccine passports, again, completely without any evidence to support these outlandish claims. It’s simply a figment of his imagination. He’s clearly delusional and simply using his status as a former scientist to prop up his credibility as he spews some of the most incredulous and ridiculous lies I’ve so far heard.
He claims that the Covid vaccines are not approved. He says that they are approved only for emergency use. In actual fact, the vaccines have passed all the standard clinical tests - the Phase 3 trials - that are required for a treatment to go to market. Phase 4 is simply monitoring the treatment once it has gone to market. The approval was simply an exercise in red-tape which many governments sped-up. And in fact, Pfizer is now approved even apart from emergency use.
This speech from Michael Yeadon contains misleading and false information about Covid and the vaccine. Despite his former credentials, he demonstrates a profound ignorance of even the most basic principles of pandemic management. His predictions of mass executions and that this is a mass population reduction exercise are not only unfounded, but they are ridiculous fabrications of his own imagination.
His misinformation is dangerous because it will cause many people to not take the vaccine, and thus increase their risk of death or permanent side effects from Covid. The reason this is important is demonstrated by this video I encourage you to watch. https://youtu.be/pd8P12BXebo