Oxford Professor of Evidence Based Medicine Carl Heneghan told Talk Radio this morning that science has been silenced in the last few months.
The lockdown sceptic claimed that scientists are not looking back to try and explain what went wrong and what we should be doing differently as we emerge from the pandemic. According to Heneghan, this is leading to a wave of anxiety in society.
Speaking to Julia Hartley-Brewer Heneghan said:
“My concern now is we’ve set a pathway, where we’ve seen many swathes of us become highly anxious. And I think we’ve seen that split in society. Those that are highly anxious now are finding it difficult to go about their lives.
They’re putting that on their children. And the future we put in front of us is very scary if it’s going to be as anxious as it is now.
We need to free up society, become more innovative, more risk-takers and be out there in effect….
But come back next September October, respiratory pathogens will be back in the news, they’ll be back in people’s mental status and it’ll make them highly anxious again.
So somehow we’ve got to reset the population here. Because what’s happening is we’re defaulting to the most anxious person in the room all the time. That’s not good for society, for children or businesses.”
This risk aversion approach is everywhere and it’s been coming for years and somehow we need a reset away from that approach.”
“Reset the population”, said Heneghan. What an unfortunate choice of words in the current climate.
He’s absolutely right to say that we’re in the midst of an anxiety epidemic, not his exact words of course, but we are.
He’s also right to say that anxiety will peak again in late Autumn this year, when colds, flus and chest infections show up and the government warns of Winter pressures on the NHS.
And the beat goes on.
It’s two years today since the first Covid lockdown.
Professor Carl Heneghan: "We are defaulting to the most anxious person in the room all the time. This risk aversion approach is everywhere, we need a reset. We need to accept that people do die."@JuliaHB1 | @carlheneghan pic.twitter.com/yrvhsj3QXh
— TalkTV (@TalkTV) March 23, 2022
