With Brits being threatened with fines if they are caught outside their homes without a legitimate reason under the country’s second wave lockdown, 500 academics have accused the British government of exaggerating the COVID risk in order to justify its actions.

The Daily Mail explains:

Official data is ‘exaggerating’ the risk of Covid-19 and talk of a second wave is ‘misleading’, nearly 500 academics told Boris Johnson in open letter attacking lockdown.

The doctors and scientists said the Government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic has become ‘disproportionate’ and that mass testing has distorted the risk of the virus.

They said tests are likely to be producing high numbers of ‘false positive’ results and the Government must do more to put infection and death rates within the context of normal seasonal rates.

The letter criticised the Government’s handling of coronavirus for ‘causing more harm than good’.

READ: Official data is ‘exaggerating’ the risk of Covid and talk of a second wave is ‘misleading’, 500 academics tell Boris Johnson in open letter attacking lockdown

Of course, this is not the first time we have seen accusations of exaggeration:

READ: Report: 45% of Florida ‘COVID-19 deaths’ misclassified

READ: THIRD of UK Covid victims in July and August ‘died from OTHER causes’ – including cancer or being hit by a car – Oxford University scientists reveal

And now others are suggesting there is a significant cost to these lockdowns because of a link between poverty and life expectancy.

The Daily Mail writes:

Lockdowns will end up claiming the equivalent of more than 500,000 lives because of the health impact of the ‘deep and prolonged recession it will cause’, a leading expert claimed last night.

Studies show a link between a country’s wealth and the life expectancy of its citizens.

That means the ‘long, drawn-out flat slump’ likely to be caused by Covid measures will reduce each person’s life by a few months on average, according to Professor Philip Thomas of Bristol University.

Multiplied across Britain’s population, that would be the equivalent of 560,000 whole lives, he calculated. 

READ: Lockdown will claim the equivalent of 560,000 lives because of the health impact of the ‘deep and prolonged recession it will cause’, expert warns