Question time: Former president of Pizza Express criticized for claims ‘pandemic is propaganda’

The former president of Channel 4 and Pizza Express has been criticized for suggesting that the pandemic is “propaganda” for the government and the resulting “double recession” will kill more than the virus.

Entrepreneur Luke Johnson caused controversy by implying that the Thursday episode of BBC Question Time Britain could have avoided the blockade entirely.

Nicknamed ‘Cool Hand Luke’ by the Paul Newman movie from the 1960s, the 58-year-old claimed that only 350 people under the age of 60 and without “other morbidities” died from Covid-19 in the UK.

“He is more likely to drown. There are 400 people a year who drown. We have to put things a little in context.

“Every death is tragic, but trust me, we are already in the biggest recession in 300 years.”

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“In fact, it is not a recession, the Bank of England has said that the economy will shrink by 14%. That equates to two recessions. It is a depression,” he continued.

“And I wouldn’t be surprised if we have two million more unemployed people within the year.

“Imagine the agony of two million more people. How many deaths could result from that?

“How many deaths have been flowing because we have half the A&E quotes right now?

“Cancer patients are not seen, people with heart disease are not seen, and the collateral damage from this campaign of fear and confinement must be taken into account.

“Very soon I think the blockade will cause more deaths than the virus,” he added.

When asked by host Fiona Bruce if he believed the UK should not have closed, Johnson said Sweden had “done well.”

He said Boris Johnson’s claims Sunday in Britain had prevented half a million deaths thanks to measures taken “alarmism”.

And he said it was “ridiculous” to suggest that the UK had avoided “10 times” the number of deaths from Sweden.

Ms Bruce said economic forecasts suggest that Sweden’s economy is likely to shrink by 6-9%, and that they had a blockade “of some kind”.

Johnson said it is still better than the United Kingdom, whose economy is “in the bath.”

Ms. Bruce clarified that the total number of coronavirus-related deaths of people under 65 years of age is more than 4,000 and emphasized that just because people have morbidity does not mean that “they will die anyway, they just have other conditions that they live with. ”

Global Public Health professor Devi Sridhar said: “We continue to put the economy in front of public health and I think it is a mistake.”

“They are both on the same side. Containment and public health are good for the economy.”

She said that has been proven by countries that acted early and “quickly blocked, that they actually took drastic measures to contain the virus and now they can open up.”

Professor Sridhar went on to say that Sweden actually has “one of the highest death rates per million in the world and much higher than neighboring countries.”

She said the country’s government even admitted that “they have not protected vulnerable and elderly people.”

“We have had an estimated 60,000 deaths, we are probably 10% of our way if we believe that we achieve some kind of 80% immunity,” he continued.

“We basically have to lose eight times that amount. Actually, the numbers are slightly lower than estimated, but they are still incredibly high.”

“We would lose a lot of people if we took that strategy instead of trying to suppress the outbreak, wait for treatment, wait for a vaccine.”

He added that the key to stopping the virus is to monitor where exactly it is and effectively share information about where it is worst, as many other nations have done.

“People are afraid because they don’t know where the virus is and they are looking at their neighboring countries and seeing that other countries seem to be on top.”

Writing on Twitter in response to Mr. Johnson, Umaar Kazmi said: “This is irresponsible and a lie.

“I will listen to doctors and health experts, not a venture capitalist who, it seems, just wants to make money regardless of the tragic human cost.”

“Human life is worth more than its earnings.”

Alvin Brennar said: “Thinking of his own bank balance.”

Another Twitter user said: “What he means is that I am losing money and I don’t want to!

“I don’t care how many people die as long as my businesses make a profit.”

However, some agreed with Mr. Johnson.

One person said, “Finally, someone made the point that I’ve been hitting on for weeks.

“The human misery of economic depression and mass unemployment will greatly outweigh anything the Coronavirus can inflict.”