Lord Sumption: We now have an entirely man made economic, educational, moral and social crisis.

“We have moral reasons for ... not wishing to be like China, even if it works.”

Full transcript:
In this country, professor Neil Fergon, responsible for some of the most doom-laden statistical prophecies which have been issued in any time in any country about the pandemic, most of which have been found to be exaggerated, gave a most-revealing interview to a national newspaper in which he said, "Well, we never really thought about lockdowns because we never imagined that it was possible. We thought this was unthinkable and then China did it, and then Italy did it, and we realized we could get away with it." That's almost a quote.

Now, actually the reasons why we did not behave like China before March 2020 were not just pragmatic reasons, it wasn't that we thought it wouldn't work. The reasons were essentially moral. These were fundamentally contrary to the whole ethos on which our societies are built. There is absolutely no recognition in people who speak like professor Ferguson spoke in that interview, no recognition of the fact that we have moral reasons for not behaving in a despotic fashion, for not wishing to be like China, even if it works.

Well now there disputes about whether it does work, but even if it works, there are moral limits and they have been transgressed in a really big way in the course of this crisis. The result has been that what began as a public health crisis is still a public health crisis, but it's an economic crisis, an educational crisis, a moral crisis and a social crisis on top of that. The last four aspects of this crisis, which are much the worst aspects, are entirely man-made.

Source: https://twitter.com/thelucyjohnston/status/1461999432665341957