Summary: <br> Professor <a href="https://twitter.com/profnfenton" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener external" data-wpel-link="external">Norman Fenton</a> is a professor of Risk Information Management at Queen Mary University of London.<br> <br> <br> <br> <a href="https://blog.hereshow.ie/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Norman-Fenton.png" data-wpel-link="internal"></a><br> <br> <br> <br> I want to clarify a couple of things that Norman said there. First off, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Schwab" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener external" data-wpel-link="external">Klaus Schwab</a> is the founder of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Economic_Forum" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener external" data-wpel-link="external">World Economic Forum</a>, this is basically an annual event where the captains of politics and business get together to hobnob. This organisation is the centrepiece of a whole slew of the craziest conspiracy theories, I’m not going to go into them here, but the core claim that Norman made was that Schwab and the WEF are making decisions that he doesn’t like.<br> <br> <br> <br> This is nonsense. The WEF has no legislative function, and no executive function other than to manage its own event. It doesn’t have the power to decide anything much bigger than what’s on the menu for their shindig. Now, I’m sure that Schwab is a pretty influential person, given who he probably has saved in his phone contacts, but that means soft power, access to decision makers, the ability to persuade them. Neither he nor the WEF have any authority over them.<br> <br> <br> <br> It’s certainly true that politicians meet at the WEF, it’s probably also true that to some degree they make plans there to coordinate their policies, but what Norman is claiming, that the WEF as a body is making legally binding decisions is just nonsense. It’s the equivalent of claiming that the manager of the Inchydoney Island Hotel is in control of Ireland, because political parties often have their think-ins there.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> <br> Earlier, Norman claimed that the ONS confirms that people being vaccinated makes them more susceptible to Covid. The Office for National Statistics, the ONS is the official government statistics office in the UK. It’s a really good service, it was made independent for the specific reason of not having politicians pressuring it to come up with convenient statistics, and is generally well-regarded.<br> <br> <br> <br> I contacted the ONS about that claim, and although they don’t quantify it, they said that <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/articles/coronaviruscovid19infectionsurveytechnicalarticle/analysisofpopulationsintheukbyriskoftestingpositiveforcovid19september2021" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener external" data-wpel-link="external">their latest figures available</a> indicate vaccinated people are, in fact, less likely to test positive for coronavirus, but they emphasise that there can be confounding factors, such as people who refuse the vaccine also refusing to wear masks.<br> <br> <br> <br> I also found a <a href="https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/227713/coronavirus-infections-three-times-lower-double/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener external" data-wpel-link="external">study from Imperial College London</a> that indicated that vaccinated people are three times less likely to get infected. I have emailed Norman asking him for a source for his claim, but he hasn’t responded yet. **Update** Norman has now kindly sent me some links for this, I will analyse them and report shortly.<br> <br> <br> <br> But even if what he was saying was true, and he can’t seem to back it up, and there is a lot of evidence to the contrary, this dodges the point that the purpose of the vaccine isn’t ultimately to prevent people getting infected, it is to prevent people from dying and getting seriously ill, and as even he seemed to admit, <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7037e1.%5D%5D" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer"> <title>Build Back Better</title> </a>
