Return of the coronavirus cranks

In January, I wrote an article for Quillette about coronavirus cranks such as Ivor Cummins and Michael Yeadon. I've now written a follow up article to chart their descent into madness.

 

The fat lady had not just sung. She had sung, taken off her frock, had a smoke, and was in a cab home. But this produced no contrition or self-reflection from the sceptics. Instead, they just got crazier. Whether it’s using the Freedom of Information Act to find out how many cremations took place last year (a lot more than usual) or pestering authorities for details of PCR cycle thresholds, there is no barrel they won’t scrape. At the anti-lockdown protest in London on Saturday, David Icke accused “demons” of using “a fake virus, a fake test, and fake death certificates to give the illusion of a deadly disease that has never and does not exist.” The MC, a former nurse and current conspiracy theorist named Kate Shemirani, explained that “you cannot catch a virus—it was a lie manufactured by the Rockefellers.” Piers Corbyn—brother of the UK Labour Party’s last leader—emphasised the urgent need to “close the jab centres” and “take down 5G towers.” If those who attended were disappointed to find a rally against lockdowns and vaccine passports turn into a showpiece for anti-vaxxers and assorted lunatics, it was not obvious from their cheers.

Michael Yeadon now believes that COVID vaccines are being used by governments as “a serious attempt at mass depopulation.” He also appears to believe that taking the vaccine makes people magnetic. He is setting up a retreat in Tanzania called Liberty Places for “lockdown refugees” and is involved with Liberal Spring, a group that hopes to take over the Liberal Democrats. Liberal Spring’s logo is the pink flower—which has usurped the smiley-face as an indicator of online gullibility—and it calls on the Lib Dems to make 10 pledges, nine of which are related to COVID policy, such as holding “a public enquiry into the misattribution of COVID-19 deaths and data recording.” (The 10th, more sensibly, is to “avoid discussion about rejoining the EU.”)

The genuinely hilarious Naomi Wolf was suspended from Twitter in June for spreading bizarre anti-vax theories, including the idea that some COVID vaccines are a “software platform” which can “receive uploads” and that the technology exists for vaccines to make people travel back in time.

 

Do read it all.