BBC ‘MISREPRESENTED’ Covid risk

… Prof Mark Woolhouse, an eminent epidemiologist and government adviser

… for having “repeatedly reported rare deaths or illnesses among healthy adults as if they were the norm”

… created the “misleading impression” among BBC News viewers

… that “we are all at risk” and “the virus does not discriminate”

… In reality … was known at the time that the risk of dying from Covid was 10,000 times higher in the over-75s than the under-15s

… “I suspect this misinformation was allowed to stand … because it provided a justification for locking down the entire population.”

… a briefing dated March 22, 2020 of the UK Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage)

… stated that “a substantial number of people still do not feel sufficiently personally threatened”

… “it could be that they are reassured by the low death rate in their demographic group”

… “the perceived level of personal threat needs to be increased among those who are complacent, using hard-hitting emotional messaging”

… “the BBC television news – did repeatedly misrepresent the risk posed by Covid,”

… “they gave the impression that hospitals were being overwhelmed during the first wave”

… “but overall hospital bed occupancy was at an all-time low during that period”

… “they routinely reported deaths of healthy young adults”

… “thereby giving the impression that these were common”

… “In reality, such deaths were extremely rare”

… “the great majority of Covid deaths occurred in the elderly, frail and infirm.”

… “was an attempt to back up government public health messaging”

… “for example, the hugely misleading claim that ‘we are all at risk’.”