The above-named citizen of South Africa, the United States, Israel, and Great Britain is preeminently a Fool, a Crackpot, and a Public Nuisance. Unfortunately he is currently being kept under close observation at Stanford University where he holds a professorship. His statements on the Trump Plague have been amplified from that platform and by his Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2013.
-On Feb. 7 Professor Levity claimed that "by 14-Feb. [China] will have reached 95% of the eventual death count of 928." At post time there have been 4,634 COVID-19 Deaths in China.
-On March 18 in an interview with an Israeli radio station the Nobel Fool said that fears in Israel over the coronavirus were disproportionate to the threat, and, "I will be surprised if the number of deaths in Israel surpasses 10. There is a lot of unjustified panic in Israel. I don't believe the numbers here, everything is politics, not math. I will be surprised if number of deaths in Israel surpasses ten, and even five now with the restrictions." [685 Israelis have been killed by the virus at post time.]
-On March 23 the Los Angeles Times published an article based on an interview with Levity in which Levitt said that what we needed to do was not control the pandemic,
“What we need is to control the panic.”
“We’re going to be fine.” [On March 23 there were a cumulative 43,850 Cases in the U.S. At post time there have been 5,435,908 Cases. ]
Worldwide the “numbers are still noisy, but there are clear signs of slowed growth. A consistent decline means there’s some factor at work that is not just noise in the numbers.”
But he also blames the media for causing unnecessary panic by focusing on the relentless increase in the cumulative number of cases and spotlighting celebrities who contract the virus. By contrast, the flu has sickened 36 million Americans since September and killed an estimated 22,000, according to the CDC, but those deaths are largely unreported.
“The real situation is not as nearly as terrible as they make it out to be.” [On March 23 there had been 798 cumulative Deaths; at post time there have been 170,453.]
“I think lockdown is a very crude, medieval-sounding phrase. I think closing schools, closing business and places of work is not such a great idea and causes huge damage to the economy... There are lots of ways of doing a gentle lockdown or distancing, so I think a lockdown is very, very crude and shouldn’t have been used in this century. [that might be a typo for “country.”]... I also don’t really think it helped.”
“Many people are concerned about [Arizona, Texas, Southern California and Florida] and the number of cases that are shooting up. The newspapers are saying Florida has record cases, but the truth is that if these cases aren’t actually killing people, they’re actually very good. If you can get cases without killing people, that’s wonderful. And the last thing you should do is lock down because you want people to get infected if they are not dying. Also, I don’t think they’re really spikes. I think they didn’t have enough infection before.“
-On Feb. 7 Professor Levity claimed that "by 14-Feb. [China] will have reached 95% of the eventual death count of 928." At post time there have been 4,634 COVID-19 Deaths in China.
-On March 18 in an interview with an Israeli radio station the Nobel Fool said that fears in Israel over the coronavirus were disproportionate to the threat, and, "I will be surprised if the number of deaths in Israel surpasses 10. There is a lot of unjustified panic in Israel. I don't believe the numbers here, everything is politics, not math. I will be surprised if number of deaths in Israel surpasses ten, and even five now with the restrictions." [685 Israelis have been killed by the virus at post time.]
-On March 23 the Los Angeles Times published an article based on an interview with Levity in which Levitt said that what we needed to do was not control the pandemic,
“What we need is to control the panic.”
“We’re going to be fine.” [On March 23 there were a cumulative 43,850 Cases in the U.S. At post time there have been 5,435,908 Cases. ]
Worldwide the “numbers are still noisy, but there are clear signs of slowed growth. A consistent decline means there’s some factor at work that is not just noise in the numbers.”
But he also blames the media for causing unnecessary panic by focusing on the relentless increase in the cumulative number of cases and spotlighting celebrities who contract the virus. By contrast, the flu has sickened 36 million Americans since September and killed an estimated 22,000, according to the CDC, but those deaths are largely unreported.
“The real situation is not as nearly as terrible as they make it out to be.” [On March 23 there had been 798 cumulative Deaths; at post time there have been 170,453.]
-On July 25 Levitt with that certainty not of one who knows, but of one who doesn't know that he doesn't know stated on Twitter:
"The real situation" is that Trump killed his 170,000th victim on August 16.
"The real situation" is that Trump killed his 170,000th victim on August 16.
-On August 2 in The Stanford Daily Laughing Boy hedged a bit but it was still all good to him:
“I think lockdown is a very crude, medieval-sounding phrase. I think closing schools, closing business and places of work is not such a great idea and causes huge damage to the economy... There are lots of ways of doing a gentle lockdown or distancing, so I think a lockdown is very, very crude and shouldn’t have been used in this century. [that might be a typo for “country.”]... I also don’t really think it helped.”
“Many people are concerned about [Arizona, Texas, Southern California and Florida] and the number of cases that are shooting up. The newspapers are saying Florida has record cases, but the truth is that if these cases aren’t actually killing people, they’re actually very good. If you can get cases without killing people, that’s wonderful. And the last thing you should do is lock down because you want people to get infected if they are not dying. Also, I don’t think they’re really spikes. I think they didn’t have enough infection before.“
TSD: What do you predict to happen in the coming months regarding COVID-19 in the U.S.?
ML: “I think it’s going to end up with less deaths than what I thought. In March, I thought there would be a total of 220,000, but there will be less than that. Right now it is around 155,000 in the U.S., and I am expecting it to end up under 170,000 or maybe 175,000...My feeling is that it really is going to be gone on this side of 2020. I think that when we come to look back, we’re going to say that wasn’t such a terrible disease.”
Levitt is ruined. He has disgraced himself. He stands now humiliated and shunned by the world scientific community that seven years ago hailed his award of its highest honor. He is an embarrassment to Stanford which now has a tenured Nobel Crackpot on its payroll for life. He is an imbecile in epidemiology. He is a Public Nuisance in the United States. The undersigned will personally pay for a one-way ticket for Michael Levitt to his birth place in South Africa.
