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# Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?
- URL: https://goodoil.news/quis-custodiet-ipsos-custodes/
- Published: 2021-07-06T20:30:00.000Z
- Updated: 2021-07-06T07:18:37.000Z
- Author: Reproduced with permission
- Tags: COVID-19, Media, NZ, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2024-07-17 01:54

**Rodney Hide**  
[bassettbrashandhide.com](https://www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/quis-custodiet-ipsos-custodes?ref=goodoil.news)

*Rodney Hide is former ACT Party leader, and Minister in the National-ACT Government from 2008 to 2011*

Dr **Siouxsie Wiles** MNZM recently [detailed](https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/300347048/how-to-spot-covid19-misinformation?ref=goodoil.news) the “Red Flags” identifying false and misleading information.

You just know this has to be good.

Her red flags:

**Are they downplaying the seriousness of the pandemic? Are they claiming that most people survive Covid-19 just fine? That it’s just a bad flu?**

Well, there are numerous studies to draw on. For example, Stanford Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology John P. A. Ioniddis [estimates](https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/eci.13423?ref=goodoil.news) the global infection fatality rate at 0.15-0.20% (0.03-0.04% in those <70 years).

> Most people do survive Covid-19 just fine.

For the USA covid-19 is worse than the 1957 ’flu but [not as bad as 1936](https://academic.oup.com/epirev/article/18/1/64/447194?ref=goodoil.news). The IFR for the Spanish ’Flu was 2 per cent with 99 per cent of excess deaths aged under 45.

The median age of death from Covid-19 in Western Countries is 80 plus years.

The[ risk ](https://www.bmj.com/content/370/bmj.m3259?ref=goodoil.news)of catching and dying from Covid-19 varies 10,000-fold according to age.

For the young and the healthy, it’s a bad ’flu.

**Are they emphasising your personal choice and freedoms over acting for the collective good?**

Tyrants always appeal to the collective good. And dictate what is required. It’s no surprise those advocating lockdowns, masks, social distancing and quarantine promote the “collective good’. Or that those wary of government advocate freedom and choice.

**Are they pushing some supplement as a cure or treatment for Covid-19?**

As just one example, according to Dr Wiles, Dr Stephanie F. Ling and her colleagues peddle disinformation with their [study ](https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/12/12/3799?ref=goodoil.news)finding a correlation between vitamin D and reduced risk of mortality.

It’s just a study amongst the multitude but it hardly classifies as misinformation.

**\[I\]s the information presented in a way that seems designed to make you angry or scared. Good information put out to help you make an informed choice won’t do that.**

The irony is that *Stuff* and their experts make me angry and many people scared by reporting apocalyptic predictions with no grounding in fact. Too many of their stories report what “could” happen rather than what has happened.

Mentioning facts reminds me that Dr Wiles doesn’t produce any.

This from *Stuff* begging for a dollar; “The safety of all New Zealanders relies on everyone getting important information — based on science and facts”. *Stuff* is invariably deficient in both. Hint: science is not a person, organisation, or prediction; it is the method of critically testing ideas.

Those who would have us Follow the Science are the new totalitarians. It’s not just that they don’t distinguish “ought” from “is”, they don’t even care for what “is”.

**Please share this article so that others can discover *The BFD***.