Special

Article 3

Interview with Nick Hudson, Chairman of Pandemics-Data & Analytics

The False Covid Narrative: a Political
Agenda & a Global Tragedy

By Japan SPOTLIGHT
Pandemics-Data & Analytics (PANDA) was established in April 2020 by Nick Hudson, an actuary andprivate equity investor, and others, including an immunologist, a lawyer, and an economist. Its website
describes PANDA as “a group of multi-disciplinary professionals who perceived the global reaction to
Covid, and lockdowns in particular, as overwrought and damaging to the point of causing a great tear in
the fabric of society. As a politically and economically independent organization, PANDA seeks to developscience-based explanations and test them against international data. We stand for open science andrational debate, for replacing flawed science with good science, and for retrieving liberty and prosperity
from the clutches of a dystopian ‘new normal’.”Japan SPOTLIGHT interviewed Nick Hudson, PANDA’s co-founder and chairman, and here are somehighlights from our very stimulating and enlightening discussion.
(Interviewed on Nov. 1, 2021)

How It All Began

guidelines and principles of public healthabandoned in favor of previously contraindicated policies that are ineffectual and very
JS: How did PANDA begin, and how
damaging. There has been an attack on
did we get to where we are now?
conjecture and criticism, and a deliberate
move to inject fear on a global scale, leading
Hudson: From the start, we felt that the policy
to a condition of mass psychosis, andresponses to the pandemic were notwidespread suspension of critical thinking.
concordant with public health and rather were(For more on this, see Laura Dodsworth’s A
motivated by a political agenda. Objectively,
State of Fear: How the UK Government
the global response has not worked, andWeaponised Fear During the COVID-19
instead has constituted a global tragedy. In
Pandemic.) This has happened before, with
May 2020, we compiled a paper, Quantifying
the swine flu of 2009, when the predicted
Years of Lost Life in South Africa Due todeaths were dramatically overestimated by
Covid-19. There was quite a strong response
the WHO, leading to global panic and ato this. Our several hundred members now
massive vaccination campaign. We need toinclude numerous leading lights in the fields
unwrap the narrative. Our civilization is underof infectious disease and epidemiology,
Nick Hudson
threat. Will we be pushed off the cliff, or will
although many have to be involved in awe push back? To quote Nelson Mandela:
cryptic fashion because of the current“Courage is not the absence of fear, but triumph over fear.”extreme “cancel culture” and censorship.
In January 2020, Tedros Adhanom, director-general of the World
Health Organization (WHO), conflated the 3.4% case fatality rate
The Cavernous Gap Between the Media(CFR) of SARS-CoV-2 with the infection fatality rate (IFR) of
Narrative & the Data
influenza, which is 1% or less. This false comparison sparked off aglobal wave of panic, even though the IFR of Covid is actually much
JS: How do you explain the overwhelmingly strong
lower. It was clear from the beginning, with the floating petri dishsupport of the official narrative in the mainstream
experiment of the Diamond Princess cruise ship off Yokohama inmedia? Could you give us some examples of “theJapan that in fact the number of deaths was very low, and wascavernous gap between the media narrative and themostly in the older age group. Only 13 out of the 3,711 people on
emerging data”?
board died, and all were over 65.
The pandemic rulebooks have been thrown out, with all existing
Hudson: The media have been captured by corporate interests, lost
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https://www.jef.or.jp/journal/

their independence, and are focused on where their funding comesfrom. Legacy media has been hollowed out, with massive
concentration of media assets and widespread censorship, and theestablishment of creepy groups such as the Coalition for Content
Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) and the Trusted News Initiative.
I have listed 15 myths that have been promulgated by governments,
regulatory agencies and the media.
1. SARS-COV-2 is new, when in fact it is closely related to the 2003
SARS virus and several other existing coronaviruses.
2. There is universal susceptibility. This is false and ignores age
gradation. We are not all equally susceptible. There is a risk
factor of more than 1,000 for older age groups compared toyounger. Also, there have been large regional differences. For
example, in Africa, Asia and Oceania, there have been relatively
few deaths per million.
3. The virus is “deadly”. According to the largest study, published ina WHO bulletin, the mean IFR for Covid-19 (the percentage of
infected people who will die) is less than 0.2%. For healthy
under-70-year-olds, the death per infection rate is less than one
in 10,000 (below that of the flu), while for all over-70s, including
those with comorbidities, the survival rate is about 95%.
4. We must wear masks to reduce transmission. In June 2020, withno evidence, the WHO made a sudden about-turn on its previous
advice on masks and started recommending them for use in thispandemic. However, since the Covid virus is transmitted not by
droplets and fomites, but by aerosols, which pass through or
around the materials of masks, all high-quality research finds thatmasks do little to prevent transmission, and can cause serious
harm. Their use is largely political and symbolic. Other less
spectacular measures, such as ventilation in hospitals, which
would have been helpful but were not newsworthy, have not been
widely promoted.
5. We had to endure lockdowns until vaccines arrived. There has
been extreme propaganda about the lockdowns, and almost no
cost-benefit analysis. In February 2020, Bruce Aylward, senioradvisor to the director-general of the WHO, led a joint WHO
mission to China to study the country’s measures in response to
Covid and, based on the faulty doctrine of universal susceptibility,
came to the incorrect conclusion that lockdowns work. In fact,
lockdowns not only come at an enormous cost, such as theinterruption of the education of close to one and a half billion
children, but they may actually be pro-contagion, because theyinterrupt the acquiring of immunity among the non-vulnerable.
The evidence is unequivocal – in places such as Texas, Florida,
and Scandinavia where lockdowns were not implemented, orwere stopped, there have been no differences in rates of death.
For example, Sweden did very little to try to stop the virus. It did
not lock down, Swedes did not wear masks, most schools
remained open, and few businesses were shut. For more than a
year, Sweden’s demise was predicted. But it was not Sweden thatwas conducting an experiment. Sweden followed the plans that
had been prepared all over the world for dealing with respiratory
pandemics, and ended 2020 not with carnage, but with negligible
excess mortality. Lockdowns are the experiment. Sweden’s
economy has performed better than any other in Europe in 2020and shows spectacular growth in 2021. That performance has
not been at the expense of lives. Some believe that the lockdowns
are actually the training wheels for greater surveillance and evenmore coercive measures.
6. Asymptomatic transmission is a strong driver of the disease. Thisview is based on flaky models and incorrect science.
Asymptomatic transmission is not a major driver and it isdistinctly possible that asymptomatic transmission is more adriver of immunity than one of disease.
7. PCR testing is effective. We should not diagnose a case without
symptoms. This has never happened before and constitutes
medical malpractice. These tests detect nucleotides that can befound (i.e., you can still test positive) up to 11 weeks after
infection, but are clinically meaningless. Depending on how highyou set the number of cycles, almost all positives may be false
positives when the prevalence rate is low.
8. Covid-19 is untreatable. This is not true. The vast majority ofdeaths could have been prevented with standard protocols. There
has been vilification of anyone who suggested early treatment,even though effective, safe, low-cost treatments have been
available from the start. My grandfather was a physician andwould have been horrified at what’s been happening.
9. The vaccines prevent transmission. In fact, they have no
mechanism for achieving sterilizing immunity (the ability toprevent infection). This was never claimed by the manufacturers.
10. The vaccines are unconditionally safe and effective. The “95%effective” figure that has been used is based on manipulated trial
protocols. The manufacturers bypassed many of the trials one
would want to see for a new class of therapies. The nanoparticles in the vaccines go all round the body and can evencross the blood-brain barrier. There have been unprecedented
reports of post-vaccine serious adverse events, including deaths.
With successive vaccines, there may be breakdowns of theimmune system.
11. There was an emergency, and legislation and the vaccine rollout
had to be rushed through. It is highly questionable that there wasactually any “emergency”, other than the one created by thepolicy response.
12. Covid-recovered people need the vaccines. This ignores naturalimmunity, which is much more robust and longer-lasting thanany protection provided by the vaccines.
13. Science is an authority that should not be questioned. In
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contrast, our view is that science is not an institution, but rather aprocess that gradually brings us closer to the truth.
14. Elimination or containment of a respiratory virus (the zero-Covid
policy) should be sought. We should have the humility to realizethat large-scale interventions in complex systems are dangerous,and carry them out with great caution.
15. Humans will be exposed to more and more dangerous
pandemics. This notion of “pandemicity” is based on two false
ideas: 1) that people will have more contact with animals, and 2)
that there will be more contact between people. But in fact,urbanization takes us away from animals, and so the strength of
this driver diminishes. Likewise, industrial farming gives us lesscontact with animals, not more, making zoonotic spillover events
less likely. Moreover, the universal spread of mild viruses
everywhere means that our immune systems are becoming lessnaïve. The idea that we need to do a lot of costly things on a
global scale to prevent further pandemics is false.

Clash of Ideologies: the Battle Between
Authoritarianism & Democracy
JS: Even among the democratic nations, somecountries such as New Zealand and Australia aresteadily implementing increasingly authoritarianpolicies and strict vaccine mandates. Meanwhile,
Japan has been observing individual human rights
more and implementing a much less authoritarian
way to contain the pandemic, which has occasionallybeen severely criticized such as in the case of the
Olympics and Paralympics 2020. What do you think
about these various policies?

Hudson: I feel very sad seeing how Australia and New Zealand,
formerly homes of liberal values, are turning into draconian,authoritarian states. In Austria, around one-third of the population is
unvaccinated and they are all currently under lockdown. And in
Lithuania, the unvaccinated cannot even buy food! This is based on“Homo Sapienophobia” – the idea that everyone is dangerous until
proven safe. Of course, less coercion is better.
Our public health officials, most of whom sadly now carrywater for pharmaceutical companies, justify mandates on the basisthat the injections are safe and effective, ignoring the absence oflong-term safety experience and unprecedented adverse event
reports, featuring thrombotic events, heart inflammation andreproductive system irregularities, among many others. Even absent
the latter, this is shamefully – maybe even scandalously – poor logic.
A banana could be called safe and effective, but that does not mean
you should be forced to eat one at whatever interval for the rest of
your life, especially when the only people telling you to do so arebanana farmers. This cultish behavior was presaged by the Global
Vaccine Action Plan, ratified by 194 governments back in 2012. In
light of this “plan”, it is not surprising that in several countries
mandates and vaccine ID or passport systems have been
58 Japan SPOTLIGHT • January / February 2022

implemented, despite the lack of any logic for such measures.
In the 1960s, experiments by Stanley Milgram, a psychologist at
Yale University, found that, under the direction of an authority figure,the majority of people will obey just about any order they’re given,
even when they believe that what they were doing could prove lethal
to someone else. Especially in a less spiritual world, people look to
authority figures, who these days tend to be wearing white coats.
This is not about a virus. It’s about the battle between
authoritarianism and real ground-up democracy, between centralism
and localism. It’s convenient for those who like a military approach.
A vision for our future is being implemented outside of any
democratic scrutiny, and it is a dangerous vision.

The Role of the WHO & of China
JS: The Independent Panel on Pandemic

Preparedness and Response (IPPPR) recommends
that the WHO should be reformed. Is such reform
possible?

Hudson: This, and the other recommendations of the IPPPR, focuses
mostly on implementing more global solutions and structures,
whereas, in my view, we need less centralized power and more
localized solutions. This is called “subsidiarity”, the idea thatsociopolitical issues should be dealt with at the most local level thatis consistent with their resolution. This permits the diversity anddecentralization necessary to foster both knowledge growth andeconomic growth. It respects autonomy, thus limiting dominationand injustice. It can appeal to both civil liberty defenders from the
non-authoritarian left, and to libertarians from the non-authoritarianright. The IPPPR is chockfull of people fully wedded to the notions ofpandemicity and centralization. They want to do more of all thesethings, while in fact the problem is over-centralization. Local
communities, freedom and cooperation are preferable.
In my opinion, the WHO does not have the wherewithal to selfcorrect. The means of error correction has been destroyed. The WHO
has probably done some good in the past, and there are probably
some people who work there who are sincerely trying to do good. If
the organization went back to foundational documents, such as theAlma Ata Declaration, the Siracusa Principles, and the Nuremburg
Code, and actually followed what they say, that would be beneficial.
Treaties where nations have to do what the WHO says should be
scrapped. I do not believe pandemics require global solutions; very
few things do.
JS: How do you see the current and future role of

China?

Hudson: The Chinese Communist Party has influenced and infiltrated
not only the WHO but also governments, universities andsupranational organizations. However, there is not only one bad
actor, but many. Some are working to plan, some are opportunistic,some esoteric. There has been destructive propaganda and very
enthusiastic support for the measures implemented. One lesson of
Covid: beware of rich men with a plan for the entire world! We haveto reduce their power. Centralization is the enemy. Humans tend to
do more with less – as long as centralists don’t get in their way.
Some of the key actors may well be sincere in their beliefs, but theiractions are based on an incorrect understanding. As well as theWHO, other supranational organizations such as the World Economic
Forum, Atlanta Council on International Relations, Common Purpose
and the Bilderberg Meetings uniformly offer centralized global
solutions for non-problems. They share a common ideology (which
is why it appears conspiratorial) and envisage a world without
problems. They also tend to have an affinity for intensive surveillancemethods such as those used by the Chinese Communist Party.
There’s a strong commitment to a political agenda; they control the
propaganda in their own country.

Pandemic Preparation Through Better
Science Education
JS: Proper science education is crucial so that eachindividual can be empowered to be better preparedfor future pandemics. How can we achieve this?

Hudson: There are two aspects to this. The first is awareness ofhealth – to some degree, individuals can improve their immunity
themselves in various ways, such as by controlling their weight,
getting sufficient sunshine and exercise, and taking Vitamins D andC, zinc and supplements when necessary. Advice on such healthmatters has been noticeably absent. The second factor is theeducation syllabi, which in the last few decades have brought anincreasingly authoritarian approach to science, education, and evenmoral and spiritual knowledge. We need to restore creativity andevaluation. There is a deficiency of epistemology (the theory ofknowledge). For all kinds of knowledge, we proceed by continuallycreating new ideas, and then evaluating them. Again, science is an
evolving process of conjecture and criticism in which debate anddissent are essential, bringing you gradually closer to the truth – not,as in the prevailing narrative, an institution in which no debate isallowed and the science is considered settled. Good science needs
an evolutionary approach, and the means for error correction. The
effort to avoid teaching children a good theory of knowledge could
be because, if you do, then they might question your authoritarianplans.
JS: Building up relevant “big data” that are neutral,

objective, and theory-based, and conducting
quantitative analysis are very important. How can wedo this as efficiently as possible?

Hudson: I have a divided mind on this. Having more information is
helpful, but if you ignore the information, it is almost worse. We
need to develop a culture of information-sharing. We need to remindourselves why the epidemiological guidelines exist and how to follow
them, instead of being diverted by political agendas. Globally,
people’s health was improving. The definition of poverty had to bechanged to having under $2 per day, from $1 per day. New viruses
will likely be subtle changes to existing pathogens, rather thancompletely new ones. Rules on transparency would be useful. But
we are often barred from access to data. There should be stronger
protocols to provide more equal access to data, and less asymmetry.

Finding a Way Forward: the Protocol for
Reopening Society
JS: You have suggested a way forward. Can you

summarize this for us?

Hudson: PANDA believes that the science is quite clear on what key
policy responses should be – or should have been. The cure should
not be worse than the disease. It is critically important that societies
are reopened, whilst protecting those who may be vulnerable toserious illness from SARS-CoV-2. Human agency must be upheld,
and individuals should be empowered to make their own choices.
PANDA’s Protocol for Reopening Society builds upon existing
pandemic frameworks and incorporates current scientificunderstanding of Covid-19, to provide a roadmap out of thedamaging cycle of lockdowns. The key points are:• Lift all Covid-19 specific restrictions and mandates.
• Offer protection to vulnerable individuals.
• End mass testing, contact tracing, quarantining and lockdowns.
• Ensure public transparency of all efficacy and safety data ofvaccines.
• Reassert open scientific debate and freedom of speech, opinion
and choice.
To save humanity, we should question the dogma of pandemicity
theory, remember that knowledge is evolutionary, and de-centralize;
restore human agency to our values; and undo the destruction of themeans of error correction.
PANDA is not alone in its findings. For example, the Great
Barrington Declaration, begun on Oct. 4, 2020, now has over
870,000 signatures, including numerous infectious disease
epidemiologists and public health scientists who “have grave
concerns about the damaging physical and mental health impacts ofthe prevailing Covid-19 policies”, and recommend a focusedprotection approach. There are many other groups who alsoquestion the mainstream narrative, such as the World Council for
Health, the Brownstone Institute, Rational Ground, Children’s HealthDefense, Voices for Freedom, the Health Advisory and Research
Team, the Covid Medical Network, Data Scientists, the British
Ivermectin Recommendation Development group, the Canadian
Covid Care Alliance, the Truth for Health Foundation, the Front Line
Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance, Doctors for Covid Ethics andCetiCov19. For more on PANDA, see: pandata.org

Written with the cooperation of Jillian Yorke, who is a translator, writer andeditor who lived in Japan for many years and is now based in New Zealand,
where she is the Curator of the Japan Library: Pukapuka.

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