[Video] Necessarily So...
Episode 3, Norman Fenton
Professor Norman Fenton is a mathematician and expert on the statistical analysis of risk. Much of his work has been in the field of quantitative risk assessment for medical risks.
When the Covid19 crisis consumed government and academic attention in 2020 and 2021, his reasoned and analytical, evidence-based approach to the statistical evidence on risk and safety made him number-one leper in many academic and government circles.
But undaunted, he continues to speak accurately and with great expertise on the risk and statistical evidence for (or against) government policy prescriptions.
In this interview, he also discusses at length the nature of academia and the world-views and beliefs common in universities which are having a profound effect on what presently passes for “expert opinion”. He concludes that group-think has replaced intellectual rigour and debate and, as a result, competence and integrity are in serious decline.
Prof Fenton is a great source of evidence-based observation of these issues. When watching the slow but unmissable shift in opinion on these issues, I can't help thinking of Mattias Desmet's take in his excellent book 'The Psychology of Totalitarianism' - that the first and foremost task is to keep speaking out. Everything stands or falls with the act of speaking out. He adds that the totalitarian system is intrinsically self-destructive and always destroys itself in the long run.
Research showing almost perfect correlation of deaths with the use of Midazolam here:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/377266988_Excess_Deaths_in_the_United_Kingdom_Midazolam_and_Euthanasia_in_the_COVID-19_Pandemic