Neil Ferguson, possibly the most laughable inept scientist, is back. He recently predicted that dairy herd outbreaks of avian influenza will continue to be a significant public health challenge.
Dr. Vernon Coleman recalls what he said about Ferguson early in 2020. “Why is anyone listening to this bozo?” he asks.
Neil Ferguson, the man I think of as possibly the most laughably inept scientist in the world, is back with a prediction that dairy herd outbreaks of avian influenza will continue to be a significant public health challenge. There is, inevitably, a call for urgent biosecurity interventions and targeted surveillance schemes. Doubtless, there will be calls for cows to stand 12 feet apart in fields and socialising for cows will be banned completely. Cows with feathers, or those which fly around in the evenings, will be quarantined. Schools for calves will be shut.
But this is what the Government knew about Ferguson when they decided to put their trust in him and his team:
– In 2001, the Imperial team did the modelling on foot and mouth disease which led to a cull of six million sheep, pigs and cattle. The cost to the UK was around £10 billion. But the Imperial’s work has been described as “severely flawed.”
– In 2002, Ferguson predicted that up to 50,000 people would die from mad cow disease. He said that could rise to 150,000 if sheep were involved. In the UK, the death total was 177.
– In 2005, Ferguson said that up to 200 million people could be killed by bird flu. The total number of deaths was 282 worldwide. That’s 282, not 282 million.
– In 2009, Ferguson and his chums at Imperial advised the Government which, relying on that advice, said that swine flu would kill 65,000 people in the UK. In the end, swine flu killed 457 people in the UK.
– Finally, Ferguson admitted that his model of the covid-19 was based on undocumented 13-year-old computer code that was intended for use with an influenza epidemic.
No one seemed to question Ferguson’s work on covid-19 – despite the fact that if he was wrong again (which I believed he was) the nation would be pushed back into the Dark Ages as a result of his work.
So, what are the odds of Ferguson being wrong again?
And, more importantly, why is anyone listening to this bozo? Why isn’t he cleaning drains and digging ditches for a living?
Ferguson, the reliable purveyor of garbage science, is, remember, also infamous for breaking his own lockdown rules.
And, curiously, Ferguson was invited to give evidence to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry. (It should be noted that Ferguson was invited after getting everything wrong. I got everything absolutely right and although I offered to give evidence I was ignored.)
On past history, Ferguson can be expected to provide reliably inaccurate figures which can be used to spread fear and terror, push up food prices and do further damage to the economy.
Why would anyone listen to such a man?
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