BRAINS BEHIND MELBOURNE'S EXTREME LOCKDOWNS NOW HEADS NEW ZEALAND COVID INQUIRY

Guest post by SAMANTHA COSTELLO from Counterspin Media

As you've probably heard by now, the Chairman of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into New Zealand's Covid-19 Response, is a man by the name of Tony Blakely.

But who is Tony Blakely?

Blakely was born and raised in New Zealand. He was educated at St Pauls Collegiate in Hamilton, and went on to receive a PhD in Epidemiology from Otago University.

He co-directed the "Burden of Disease Epidemiology, Equity and Cost-Effectiveness Programme (BODE³)", which was funded by the Health Research Council (a Crown agency of the NZ government).

The primary goal of BODE³ was to build infrastructure (eg, linked datasets) and capacity (eg, epidemiological and economic simulation modelling) to assess the health impact and cost effectiveness of a range of public health interventions.

In 2019, Blakely moved to Melbourne, taking up the post of a Research Professor at Melbourne University. He was appointed as Head of the Population Interventions Unit, of the Centre for Epidemiology and Biostatistics, at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health.

In association with Melbourne University colleagues, he co-wrote "An integrated epidemiologic and economic model to assess optimal COVID-19 pandemic policy", which was the scientific modelling used to justify Victoria's extreme lockdowns, and horrific enforcement measures.

Victorian Senator Dan Andrews named Blakely as his "expert behind the Australian 'Zero-Covid' elimination strategy", which was similar in many ways to China's horrific Zero-Covid strategy.

Blakely's modelling was used to justify keeping Victorians in lockdown for over 260 days in 2021 - thereby subjecting them to more lockdowns in that year, than any other city in the world.

Despite the fact that the 2021 Covid-19 lockdowns devastated Victoria's economy, as well as the mental health of its residents, Blakely pushed to have those lockdowns extended throughout 2022.

Blakely's lockdowns appeared to achieve their goal. Covid-19 vaccination was touted as Victoria's path to freedom and the only way back to normalcy.

Unsurprisingly, Melbourne soon became the first Australian state to reach 90% vaccination rate.

Blakely's modelling was also used to push the Covid vaccination of children, harder than in any other state.

Blakely himself encouraged Covid vaccination operations to be undertaken at schools and at sports stadiums - wherever the largest groups of children could be gathered together and mass-vaccinated.

In early 2021, he called the vaccination of young children "the greatest covid suppression strategy" available to us and was quoted as saying; "As shown by others, herd immunity will be hard - if not impossible - to achieve, without vaccinating children."

While still at his post at Melbourne University, Blakely also made his voice heard here in New Zealand. In a Radio New Zealand interview from the 22nd September 2021, he emphatically stated that he hoped to see the vaccination of all NZ children (aged 5 years and above) underway by the end of 2021.

In late 2022, it was announced that Tony Blakely would be chairing New Zealand's Royal Commission Covid-19 Inquiry, and he returned to New Zealand a few months later.

In November 2023, he was reported by RNZ as emphasising that he and the other Commissioners will "not be looking to lay blame or to dig out what went wrong, in the NZ Covid-19 response".

He detailed the opportunity that the Inquiry provides NZ with insights into better ways to respond to future emergencies - "be they climate emergencies, earthquakes, or threats to our cyber security".

He has also defended the need for the 'confidentiality' being afforded to the Covid Inquiry - 'confidentiality' that would be far more accurately defined as 'secrecy'.

Tony Blakely is a man who has provided the intellectual justification to the governments of both New Zealand and Australia for lockdowns, mask wearing, and the government pressure to take the so-called vaccines.

As we know, this was never a vaccine. It was a bio-weapon, intended to harm and kill. It has cost at least 37,000 lives here in New Zealand - a toll that increases daily.

How could someone who has played such a pivotal role in the Covid-19 response, ever be objective enough to judge that response impartially?

Is this not a momentous conflict of interest?

Is this not a case of allowing the criminals to run their own trial?

Is it not ridiculous to expect justice to be served, when one of the Chief Designers of the mass murder of New Zealanders resides as judge at the trial of his own crimes?

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