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Herd immunity letter signed by fake experts including 'Dr Johnny Bananas'

Sqrt

Sqrt

Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,880
Open letter calling for new Covid-19 strategy also signed by 'Prof Cominic Dummings'

An open letter that made headlines calling for a herd immunity approach to Covid-19 lists a number of apparently fake names among its expert signatories, including "Dr Johnny Bananas" and "Professor Cominic Dummings".

The Great Barrington declaration, which was said to have been signed by more than 15,000 scientists and medical practitioners around the world, was found by Sky News to contain numerous false names, as well as those of several homeopaths.

Others listed include a resident at the "university of your mum" and another supposed specialist whose name was the first verse of the Macarena.

Sky News discovered 18 self-declared homeopaths in the list of expert names and more than 100 therapists whose expertise included massage, hypnotherapy and Mongolian khoomii singing.
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www.theguardian.com

Herd immunity letter signed by fake experts including 'Dr Johnny Bananas'

Open letter calling for new Covid-19 strategy also signed by ‘Cominic Dummings’
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
Dyle

Dyle

One Winged Slayer
The Fallen
Oct 25, 2017
29,944
This is clearly bullshit if Dr. Spaceman didn't sign it.
 

FormatCompatible

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,071
Is Johnny Bananas a cousin of James Banana?

images
 
Qikz

Qikz

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,491
Nothing surprises me anymore about the lengths this government will go to hurt people in the UK.
 
Soda

Soda

Member
Oct 26, 2017
8,873
Dunedin, New Zealand
I work with infectious disease scientists and doctors. Heck, I am an infectious disease scientist. I've yet to meet even one that thinks a natural herd immunity approach is a good option. There's no way anyone can support that approach without knowing how long antibodies stay at high enough levels to prevent reinfection, and we don't have solid data on that yet.
 
Absent

Absent

Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,045
However, the declaration's website allows anyone to add their name to the list if they provide an email address, home city, postcode and name.

Signatories also tell the site whether they are a medical and public health scientist, a medical practitioner or a member of the general public – of whom almost 160,000 claim to have signed.
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I have no reason to doubt any of this.
 
WinniethePimp

WinniethePimp

Member
Oct 26, 2017
2,399
EU
Soda said:
I work with infectious disease scientists and doctors. Heck, I am an infectious disease scientist. I've yet to meet even one that thinks a natural herd immunity approach is a good option. There's no way anyone can support that approach without knowing how long antibodies stay at high enough levels to prevent reinfection, and we don't have solid data on that yet.
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Even IF you knew they'd stay at high enough levels for long enough, what about all the people that wouldn't make it? Tough luck for them? Just because the rest cannot be expected to be inconvenienced long enough until a vaccine is here?
 
WedgeX

WedgeX

Member
Oct 27, 2017
13,200
Slightly more believable than some producer named Speed Weed.

But of course these non-scientific chumps tried to boost their numbers.
 
Flannel_and_Assam

Flannel_and_Assam

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Jun 21, 2020
256
United Kingdom
They removed the 'search signatories' function on the open letter's website!

I had a wee search when it was there this morning and there was a Professor Jimmy Savile, a Hugh Jass, and a Doctor Dre, among many others.
 
steejee

steejee

Member
Oct 28, 2017
8,618
Wonderment said:
There is a guy in the US who calls himself Johnny Bananas, but he's totally not a doctor.
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I saw him on 'Celebrity' Worst Chefs in America, and weirdly once it got past the first episode and he toned down his schtic he was pretty serious about learning to cook proper and do a good job.

So he'd probably be a better doctor than a lot of the people touting this letter.
 
Plasma

Plasma

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,638
The BBC didn't even check the names when they published an article on this, just said it was signed by medical experts.
 
Binabik15

Binabik15

Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,621
The joke signers are not as bad as homeopaths and alternative medicine quacks that actually believe that they know more about this shit than people who have actual science and/or medical degrees.
 
takriel

takriel

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
10,221
So the "doctors" that launched this are done for, right? There's no way any one will respect them in the scientific community.
 
Soda

Soda

Member
Oct 26, 2017
8,873
Dunedin, New Zealand
WinniethePimp said:
Even IF you knew they'd stay at high enough levels for long enough, what about all the people that wouldn't make it? Tough luck for them? Just because the rest cannot be expected to be inconvenienced long enough until a vaccine is here?
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There's a cost-benefit analysis that could probably make for an argument to support a herd immunity approach, but that analysis is absolutely unjustified in even considering without knowing if herd immunity even works. IMO, yeah, the cost far out weighs any benefit, but my point is that even trying to make that consideration isn't possible right now due to the lack of concrete data regarding antibody longevity.
 
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