Michael Tomlinson

The two narratives about the Covid-19 pandemic continue to clash as evidence mounts about the actual outcomes of the extraordinary strategies governments deployed to try and contain the epidemic. Has the emerging evidence vindicated the decisions governments have been making over the past three years? In particular, were they ethically justified in imposing harsh mandates on their populations?

At the outset, of course, there was actually no evidence whatsoever that lockdowns would work – zero. Because they had never been tried before, there was no accumulated knowledge to go on.

There was only theory and modelling, and it is important to stress that modelling is not empirical evidence.

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