Executive Summary: Would a scientist of Ferguson's professional reputation put it in jeopardy to help his girl friend's favorite cause?
A couple of weeks ago I asked a friend, a fairly clue-enabled fellow, don't cha know?, who was it who first suggested, as a strategy for confronting THE VIRUS, that we just "shut down the economy?" He thought the idea came from The White House, from Donald Trump hisself. I took this under advisement, so to speak, since my friend never had any but harsh words for the President.
This very question was raised this afternoon on talk radio, in light of the fall from grace of the British scientist Neil Ferguson, already infamous for his hugely erroneous first estimates of the death tolls to be expected from THE VIRUS (if I recall correctly, 2.2 million Americans and 500,000 Britons).
Now we are treated to the datapoint containing the identity of his current mistress; she is a high-level (opera-star quality, a diva) activist in progressive politics (notably global-warming).
So one theory is that many, like Mr. Trump, were sufficiently impressed by that 2.2. million figure to agree to harsh wide-ranging curtailment of all forms of economic activity, all in the name of supporting the "social distancing" claimed by experts like Mr. Ferguson to be the only effective response to the outbreak.
Aye but therein's the rub, because the expert had some days later to revise downwards his casualty estimates; it seems he had not added into his calculations the beneficent effect a thorough-going campaign of social distancing would produce.
Since the Global Wackadoo Environmental Mania holds that the only hope for saving the earth is to clamp down on 1) the number of humans roaming around the planet, and also on 2) all the noxious activities in which they engage solely for the sake of creating HUGE piles of legal tender, one should ask, as many conspiracy theorists already have, would said wackadoo activists put out bogus "scientific" projections in order to frighten the rest of us into accepting their huge social engineering of our lives to Save The Earth?
Would a scientist of Ferguson's professional reputation put it in jeopardy to help his girl friend's favorite cause?
Afterthought
Here's what I think really happened; the girl friend (a German blonde veritable bombshell of a babe) whispered in Neil's ear, "You know honey, I'd be very happy to not just blow you every day, but also TO SWALLOW when I do it, IF you'd be kind enough to put some really terrifying projections out there for the novel bug. How about that?" At which point Neil would already be hobbling across the room trying to get his pants off at the same time...