Mark Dolan: Majority of media don't want Covid restrictions to end, but they don't decide - you do

Covid cases are up, but hospitalisations and tragic deaths are a fraction of where they were this time last year.

But don't let the facts get in the way of a good story, don't spoil the fun of the most of the media, who are desperate to see us locked down and restricted once again.

The most recent government press conference, chaired by health secretary Sajid Javid was harder and more painful to watch than the Nightmare on Elmstreet.

It was the nightmare on Downing Street. Following a chilling performance from a ghoulish Health Secretary telling the public they must “play their part” in order to enjoy Christmas with loved ones.

Warning that Covid cases could reach 100,000 a day this winter – a figure disputed by many - Sajid Javid urged those offered booster jabs to come forward “not just to save lives, but to keep your freedoms too”.

How sinister is that? Forget about Christmas, it looks like Halloween has come early. You would expect the media to push back against this hellish megalomania, but oh no, journalist after journalist from all of the major TV channels and newspapers wanted to know why we're not already masked up and locked down.

The medical establishment, perhaps understandably are pushing for more measures.

Top palliative care doctor Rachel Clarke has tweeted the following:

An excellent and committed doctor, no doubt. But there is a widespread assumption that these unprecedented measures work and are without significant harm.

Except the science on this is not settled at all and Professor Jay Bhattacharia from Stamford Medical School has called lockdowns the biggest public health cock-up in history and Professor Sunetra Gupta has argued against mask mandates since day one.

She’s one of the best virologists in the world. So when it comes those pushing for Plan A, B or C, shall you tell them or shall I that these measures are not simple and low key. Shall you tell them or shall I that they are not without harm.

Shall you tell them or shall I that evidence of the efficacy of masks is debatable at best and that countries that didn't lock down or have mask mandates often have a lower per capita death rate from Covid than those who did.

Shall you tell them or shall that the UK government is being accused of being wilfully negligent for not implementing the restrictions Wales has, except Wales has the highest infection rate in the UK.

It could just be, that virus gonna virus. So when will this lockdown mania end? When will we see a challenge to the cozy Covid consensus that equates these tough, economically ruinous, socially damaging interventions with the control of this disease.

In country after country and in graph after graph, the case for all of these measures is crumbling and the case for letting people exercise common sense and make a judgement for themselves getting stronger and stronger. And don’t get me started on the perpetual junk modelling we’ve seen for the last year and a half. I’d rather put Mystic Meg in charge frankly.

I believe any future Covid measures will be a smoke screen for a smokescreen for a different, man-made crisis - the 12 million people on an NHS waiting list.

The NHS will come under pressure this winter, as it always does, but it will be far worse this year not due to Covid but to the ignored other illnesses, that have been a direct result of the NHS closing its doors to the public for a year and a half.

I don’t blame our brilliant NHS frontline doctors and nurses, I blame SAGE, the government and NHS managers. Since April 2020 I’ve been saying these measures will kill many more than the virus.

What IS beyond doubt is that these measures wreck lives – I’m not sure why it's ok to wreck lives, but it's now clear that economic damage and untreated other illnesses pose a far greater threat than the virus itself. So where do we go from here? As always, freedom has to be the answer.

I just want people to have the choice. As they have in Sweden and elsewhere. In fact the whole of Scandinavia have now declared a pandemic over.

I'm interested by this tweet from the excellent comedian Nick Dixon who sent the following message.

In the end, one of the main reasons why the government have inflicted these measures on us is because of opinion polls - they've known they will get away with it.

Well if the public mood changes, which I believe it will this winter, with more people worried about cancer than Covid, more worried about their job, their livelihood, their business and their kids education than this largely non-fatal virus, then the game will be up.

This doesn't end until we say it does and if enough people wake up and form that opinion, that's when the pandemic ends.

The truth is so many of these commentators live in large comfortable houses with sprawling gardens. They can afford future lockdowns, as they await their Ocado delivery and have drunk wine-tasting sessions on Zoom with their Hampstead Pals on Zoom. But most people can't afford further Covid measures this winter. And the country can't afford it either.

And some of this is political. Look at the pathetic hypocrisy of Labour MPs as pointed out by my brilliant colleague Tom Harwood.

Masked up in the commons and mask free at their conference. What does that tell you.

Even rock star Billy Bragg has said that his mask is now a political choice.

Why are so many supporters of lockdowns voices from the left?

Because they are reckless about the economy, don't place any value on freedom and personal responsibility and just love controlling people and telling them what to do. Stop telling us what to do. It’s enough now.

The vast majority of the media and many on the left just don't want this to end. They don't want this to end. They don't want this to end, but they don't decide when this ends. You do.