Mark Dolan: Sage have caused damage to Britain Vladimir Putin could only dream of

What's the difference between someone evil, and evil actions? Not much really, you could fit a cigarette paper between the two. Which takes me to Sage who, it gives me unprecedented joy to tell you, have disbanded this week, effectively ending the pandemic.

Let me spell out what Sage stands for - Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies. But Sage stand for so much more besides.

Sage stands for coercion.

Sage stands for the manipulation and control of human behaviour.

Sage stands for economic, health and societal damage.

Sage stands for damaged, diminished and as a result of economic impacts, shortened lives.

Not my words, those of the University of Bristol who calculate a death toll from economic damage, of half a million people.

I've got no doubt that Sage is populated by decent, intelligent and obviously highly qualified individuals. And any attacks on them, or harassment, are completely unacceptable.

Accountability though, is another story.

Be clear, this board of boffins have blown it. How can experienced experts in infectious diseases tell us at length that masks don't work and then change their minds and we've all got to wear one. It was more about behaviour than science, that’s why. How can experts in infections disease, discard decades of established pre-pandemic planning for the unprecedented, and experimental policy of locking healthy people in their homes for months on end. Ironically Sweden, with their light touch approach actually admit to have used the British pre-pandemic plan. If only we’d followed it ourselves. Sage’s pandemic measures were not in tune with the philosophy or methodology of western science or western society. Lockdowns, a very unwestern idea, were in lockstep with the totalitarian ideology, of the Chinese Communist Party. Lockdowns are just not a western way of doing things, given their impact on civil liberties and economic freedom, but we did them anyway. All at the behest of Sage. To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, to have had one lockdown could be deemed unfortunate. Two looks careless and three is, in my view, the crime of the century.

What is the difference between an evil person and someone whose actions are evil? You tell me. A peer reviewed study by Professor Simon Wood suggests fatal Covid infections were falling before each of the three lockdowns was imposed. But we did them anyway, with the resultant human damage. Sage advised against Freedom Day on the 19th of July and it was called reckless by Sir Keir Starmer.

Sage voices urged the prime minister to cancel Christmas, with a projection of 6000 Covid deaths a day from Omicron, a variant milder than a night out with Cliff Richard and Sue Barker. That’s unfair – Sue likes a drink.

And with no cost benefit analysis of these measures in the first place, and no compelling signs, to this day, that overwhelmingly demonstrate masking kids or anyone else for that matter, introducing vaccine passports, or having lockdowns made a blind bit of difference. An in depth study from the world renowned Johns Hopkins University in America, states that 0.2% of lives may have been saved. 0.2% of lives. Wow. Here’s a simple question. Why isn't everyone in Sweden dead? Asking for a friend.

How are they doing on the graph of per capita Covid deaths?

Where’s Sweden? At the bottom. Number 59.

Sage's advice has been the worst investment in history, and Fauchi was just as bad in the States.

America spent $18 trillion on the pandemic - $50,000 for every American. You would expect a bit more bang for your buck wouldn’t you – borrowing all that money, on behalf of future generations? Masking kids in the classroom all day long, closing once-viable businesses and stopping people, in many cases the poorest in our society, from going out and earning a living and feeding their families.

What's the difference between an evil person and actions that have an evil outcome? You tell me. And don't get me started on the modelling. It was the prediction of half a million deaths from Imperial College and the discredited randy Prof Neil Ferguson, which spooked the prime minister into acting in the first place. Sage’s policies have cost the British economy half a trillion quid and the rest – the final bill of course isn't with us yet. Their policies have given us a non-Covid death toll made up NOT of 80 year olds with multiple comorbidities, who succumbed to Covid. No no no. The NON Covid death toll, the Sage Lockdown death toll, is a young mother with a lump which turned out to be cancer and who will widow her husband and orphan her kids.

We may ultimately have an NHS waiting list of 14 million people – you tell me that isn’t a greater threat to public health than a nasty virus, yes, but one non fatal to almost everyone. How dare we look down on and laugh at previous generations who said the Earth was flat. I feel flat earthers have been in charge of science policy for the last two years. Non Sage medics and scientists who have questioned the efficacy of lockdowns, masks and even the vaccine, have been vilified, belittled, and in some cases cancelled.

Well Sage are no more. They are shutting up shop. And shut up, is what I hope they will continue to do.

In any future pandemic, God forbid it happens, the plan must be clear, given the carnage we have brought upon ourselves this time round, with, in my view, a failed, arrogant and naive attempt to stop the spread of a highly infectious, seasonal respiratory virus. On any future occasion, the government must inform the public of the risks and what options are available and let the people decide. The Great Barrington Declaration famously offered that solution, letting healthy people at low risk from the virus go about their business and acquire natural immunity, instead focusing money, resources and time on focused protection of the vulnerable.

We should handle any future outbreak in the spirit of a western liberal democracy, not a twisted Communist regime. I predict there will be a push for future measures every Winter, for many years to come. But the cosy Covid consensus is falling apart. Voices pushing for masks and lockdowns are like rats leaving a sinking ship. The damning data around both of those measures will haunt these cheerleaders of state control for the rest of time. If they were right, we would know by now and the evidence, the data would back them up. It ain’t there. These people speak of their readiness to snap into action again. But how many more lockdowns do these well-paid public servants, with a job for life and a cushy pension, think the country can afford? Surely we're just a few more lockdowns away from being so financially ruined, we'll be debating which of our children to eat first.

How much more debt do you want? Three trillion, four trillion, five trillion - do you see the problem here?

In my view Sage have caused damage to Britain Vladimir Putin could only dream of. They are the worst thing to have happened to this country I can think of in recent times. And we’ve had the Spice Girls.

So good riddance to these so-called experts, who may not be evil, but whose actions were. I will sleep easier in my bed at night, knowing this group has disbanded, effectively ending the pandemic.

In the end, Sage has proved to be a turkey and now they can get stuffed.