SCOTS TV historian Neil Oliver stirred up a new hornet's nest by declaring that through the Covid pandemic he has found he does not trust public information broadcasts or all doctors.

The archaeologist, author and TV presenter made his declaration about "a living nightmare that never ends, and keeps getting worse", while accusing politicians of playing politics with children's lives.

He condemned plans for ministers for the first time to defy the advice of their official vaccine advisers and push ahead with Covid jabs for all 12- to 15-year-olds, after a scientific body concluded the net health benefit in vaccinating the age group was too small.

In a statement on Friday, after days of speculation, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) said that while the health gains from vaccinating the entire age group were greater than the risks, “the margin of benefit is considered too small to support universal vaccination of healthy 12-to-15-year-olds at this time”.

The Renfrewshire-born 54-year-old who has previously stated that he and his wife will not let their three teenage children take the Covid vaccine, said in a discussion: "Unvaccinated children will receive pariah status. It won't be a choice. If children aren't vaccinated the coercion is already there."

READ MORE: Anger as Scots GB News's Neil Oliver says he won't let his teenage children take Covid vaccine

He earlier stated: "I have no inclination whatever to tell others what to do with their lives. I am, however, by nature, inclined to have real big problems with any elected official who feels empowered to tell me what to do with mine, far less with my kids."

The former National Trust for Scotland president who faced calls for him to be 'cancelled' after stating he would "cheerfully risk catching Covid" in the name of personal freedom went on to tell of his lack of trust in the establishment.

"Increasingly part of the mix is betrayal. I struggle to believe I spent nearly 54 years trusting all manner of figures. I had little time for politicians as a species, showbiz for ugly people and all that. But I grudgingly accepted there were people keen to serve the public, and who had crucially, my best interests at heart. I don't think that anymore. Not at all," he said.

In his latest monologue on the GB News channel, he added: "Much more than I trusted governments, I trusted doctors, all doctors, I'm sorry to say but I don't trust all doctors anymore, either. I feel betrayed by the media, which is ironic, given that I work in the media, but sometimes you have to be inside the tent, to see what's really going on in there.

"The mass of the mass media here in Great Britain and around the world seems to me to have been whipping up fear, and gaslighting dissenters from the get go.

"I struggle to find news I can trust. Government propaganda, though, that appears to me to be everywhere. I don't trust the headlines, I don't trust the billboards. I don't trust the public information broadcasts on TV and radio.

"For relief from the nightmare, however brief, I remind myself that Covid poses little risk to the vast majority of people. It's as simple as that. And no-one in a white coat can possibly deny it."

His commentary was slammed by many and lauded by others on social media.

The Herald:

Dr Russ Jackson wrote: "On one side - Tucker Carlson, Alex Jones, Candace Owens, Calvin Robinson, Neil Oliver, Piers Corbyn, Toby Young, David Icke, Tom Wootton, bot-accounts, selfish individualism & the desire to do whatever the f**k you like. On the other - experts, science & collective responsibility."

Iain Dear said: "Even David Icke would call Neil Oliver f***ing mental Bookworm Siars added: "I trust the epidemiologists & experts in vaccinology over Neil Oliver, Denise Welch & Bev Turner (never actually knew who the latter two were before they started spouting off). If I want my car repaired I’ll go to the mechanic not the dentist. These three all have paranoia issues."

Another who decribed himself as Brexit Buster added: "Neil Oliver, a bloke with an undergrad degree in archaeology (basically digging in s*** to find dead and broken things) suddenly becomes an expert commentator on epidemiology, immunology and world history. Journalism pays better than digging."

READ MORE: Bid to 'cancel' GB News's Neil Oliver over 'I'd risk catching Covid’ in name of freedom stance

And another said: "Neil Oliver is the least qualified person on earth to talk about vaccination and their ability to stem serious illness."

But Mr Oliver's dissenting voice struck a chord with others.

Jenny K stated: "This is terrifying, Neil. This cannot continue as a political issue; everyone has children. I don't care who you voted for - mandated vaccines are bad enough, but for our children? We need to get together on this."

The Herald:

Heather Taylor added: "Few sum up exactly how I feel At times though, both Hugo Talks & Neil Oliver sum it up perfectly. I have lost trust in all institutions. And too few have been speaking up."

His latest monologue on the GB News channel, comes after a backlash after saying he won't let his children be vaccinated.

"My wife won't let our children be vaccinated, not while we have breath with which to say no," he said.

He also stated: "If your freedom means I might catch Covid from you, then so be it.

If your freedom means I might catch Covid from you, then so be it.

"For the sake of freedom, yours and mine together, I will cheerfully risk catching Covid. That is a chance one among many that I am prepared to take and happily. Life is not safe. Freedom is not safe. For the sake of freedom, yours and mine together all freedoms being of equal value, I will cheerfully risk much else besides."

Mr Oliver has previously branded lockdown “the biggest mistake in world history”.

In 2017, the TV presenter best known as a presenter of several BBC documentary series, including A History of Scotland, Vikings and Coast revealed he quit using social media after being subjected to “vicious” abuse from pro-independence supporters. He later returned.

 

 

What Neil Oliver said in full


Am I the only person spending every hour, all but convinced I'm living through a waking nightmare that never ends, and keeps getting worse?  Am I the only one? I think not. 


The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation ruled that healthy 12 to 15 year olds should not, let me repeat that for emphasis, should not get Covid injections. They went on record saying the benefit to those children's health, did not outweigh the risks of side effects. The JCVI stressed, I should add, that they had only assessed medical data. They did not balance medical concerns with wider societal concerns, such as schooling, which is not their specialty.


For me, that's cut and dried and ought to have been the end of the matter. 
Follow the science, they've told us all along.  But after weeks of political pressure, brought to bear upon an independent advisory body, its members, arguably did all they could by recommending against the injections. The JCVI recommended seeking further advice, and health secretary Sajid Javid has now asked Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty to get a second opinion. Presumably, I suspect that translates as 'find me anyone with a PhD and a white coat, who will go on record saying jabbing kids is the best way to go'.


Sajid Javid has asked Whitty to consider non-health benefits, like avoiding disruption to education. Let me once again, repeat for emphasis, the health secretary, the health secretary, wants to big up non-health benefits. 
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has said offering the medical procedure - initially given rapid authorisations thanks to a rolling review process coupled with the emergency political powers the government is getting ready to award itself for another six months -  would be, and I quote, 'deeply reassuring for parents'. 
Is that right Gavin? Deeply reassuring?


Let me at least say,  not to this parent,  not reassuring to me at all. But let's rewind a little bit.  Non-health benefits. We're talking here about 12 to 15 year old children, unformed still growing children with their whole lives ahead of them. 
I have said, and many others, though frankly not nearly enough others have said we have no data about the long term consequences of these injections. 
In July, the JCVI acknowledged that there was a risk of heart inflammation for youngsters, given the Pfizer and Moderna jabs. Covid can make children ill, I keep hearing from those with the needles in their hands.


Between March 2020 and February 2021 official figures show 6358 hospital admissions for Covid in England were for people under-18 fewer than 300 of those needed intensive care. Of the 25 under-18s who died from Covid, almost all had underlying health problems. 
And still the politicians and the so-called experts are bloody mindedly setting up to jab children, anyway. 
Follow the science. Remember that empty hollow line. Follow the science, open brackets, except when it doesn't get you what you want when you should ignore the science, closed brackets. 


The GCVI hadn't even made the recommendation before the government had recruited 1000s of jabbers, anyway, and had the schools allocate space for the vaccination of charges.
What is pathetically plain to me, pathetic in the extreme, is that our government feels left behind by the enthusiasm already demonstrated by other nations for getting needles into as many young arms as possible. 

The Herald:


Everyone else is getting to jab children so why can't we, they say to each other. Among much tried and tested advice my wife and I dole out to our kids when they complain about being stopped from doing something that everyone else is doing, is that good old line, 'just because everyone else is doing it doesn't make it right. If everyone was jumping off a cliff, would you do that too'. 


Every day, I am awash with emotions, despair, anger, anxiety, disbelief.
Increasingly part of the mix is betrayal. I struggle to believe I spent nearly 54 years trusting all manner of figures. I had little time for politicians as a species, showbiz for ugly people and all that. 


But I grudgingly accepted there were people keen to serve the public, and who had crucially, my best interests at heart. I don't think that anymore. Not at all.
Much more than I trusted governments are trusted doctors, all doctors, I'm sorry to saybut I don't trust all doctors anymore, either. I feel betrayed by the media, which is ironic, given that I work in the media, but sometimes you have to be inside the tent, to see what's really going on in there. 


The mass of the mass media here in Great Britain and around the world seems to me to have been whipping up fear, and gaslighting dissenters from the get go. 
I struggle to find news I can trust. Government propaganda, though, that appears to me to be everywhere. I don't trust the headlines, I don't trust the billboards. I don't trust the public information broadcasts on TV and radio. 


For relief from the nightmare, however brief, I remind myself that Covid poses little risk to the vast majority of people. It's as simple as that. And no-one in a white coat can possibly deny it.
I predict that when enough time has passed and other generations look back on these months, they will use this awful story to teach the children about hubris, which is to say, overconfidence. 


Along came a virus, politicians wanted to be seen to be beating it. Some scientists told those politicians they knew how it could be done. Except it seems plain to me if to no-one else that they didn't know how. And now the politicians seem to me to be playing politics with children's lives. 
I've said it before and I'll say it again. I think they want to make a wall of children, so that some grown ups can cower behind it. Where is the morality in such a move. 


Here's the thing. Let's see, for argument that children face an identical risk from Covid and from the vaccine. If a child catches Covid and dies, that is random chance, and it's tragic and it's very very bad luck, but no one has done anything to them.
If one child, just one child is vaccinated and dies of side effects, then that death is the result of a medical intervention. That's very different. That's very, very different.


I say to that for the longest time, in my opinion at least, this hasn't been a virus and public health. Too many politicians are living the dream. Awarding themselves more and more power, more and more control over our lives. 
For those who by nature enjoy telling other people what to do, this pandemic has been a boom time. Speaking for myself, I have no inclination whatsoever to tell others what to do with their lives. 


I am, however, by nature inclined to have real big problems with any elected official who feels empowered to tell me what to do with mine, far less with my kids.