Nearly 4 years after the start of the Covid pandemic, key scientific & policy questions remain unanswered. Watch Collateral Global’s new video to learn more about our plans to answer these questions in 2024. CG is a unique research institute and educational charity dedicated to learning the lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic. In particular, we are concerned about the social harms of Covid policies and the politicisation of science. We support independent research that engages the totality of evidence and challenges persistent assumptions and misconceptions. Our mission is to help ensure that future pandemic policy responses are evidence-based and balance societal trade-offs to maximise the health and well-being of all people. Learn more about our work on our website: collateralglobal.org/article…

COVID Lockdowns and Liberty: What Did Britain Get Right (and Wrong)? On 19 November 2025, the Committee for Academic Freedom hosted an expert panel discussion at Worcester College, Oxford, examining how Britain handled the pandemic and what might have been done differently. Bringing together perspectives from science, medicine, history and economics, the discussion explored questions including: Could more lives have been saved through earlier and longer lockdowns? What have been the global ramifications of the pandemic and the pandemic response? Could the Great Barrington Declaration’s “focused protection” strategy inform future pandemic preparedness? And what lessons can history teach us about balancing public health, personal freedom, and societal impact? collateralglobal.org/article…

“You just need to be skeptical about information. An independent thinker, both evaluating the sources of information you get in and who's telling it to you? “All you can do is just push for what you think is right.” Ross is a TV producer living in Los Angeles who grew increasingly concerned at the impacts of COVID-19 restrictions on his children. In response to his two teenagers being kept out of school for almost a year-and-a-half he founded an organisation called LA Uprising to campaign on their behalf. This podcast explores how political polarisation and groupthink led to the imposition of some of the United States’ most stringent controls in the state of California, and how a ‘priestly’ caste of experts were deferred to throughout the period, as politicians relied on fear to engineer consent Watch and listen to the podcast ‘ LA Uprising: How Fear Shaped California’s Covid Response’ here: collateralglobal.org/article…

“Our unions and entertainment unions overstepped. They definitely made it safe to go back to work, which I appreciated. But then they kept forcing you to get more and more boosters, keep masking and force people to do things beyond what needed to be done.” Ross is a TV producer living in Los Angeles who grew increasingly concerned at the impacts of COVID-19 restrictions on his children. In response to his two teenagers being kept out of school for almost a year-and-a-half he founded an organisation called LA Uprising to campaign on their behalf. This podcast explores how political polarisation and groupthink led to the imposition of some of the United States’ most stringent controls in the state of California, and how a ‘priestly’ caste of experts were deferred to throughout the period, as politicians relied on fear to engineer consent Watch and listen to the podcast ‘ LA Uprising: How Fear Shaped California’s Covid Response’ here: collateralglobal.org/article…

“Obviously, we needed these kids back in school, and even that was a massive fight.” “I was never satisfied with how many people even joined and supported, who had kids in school who were saying, "Oh yeah, our kids are going totally south.” “They still wouldn't fight for that because it was too scary, or hard.” Ross is a TV producer living in Los Angeles who grew increasingly concerned at the impacts of COVID-19 restrictions on his children. In response to his two teenagers being kept out of school for almost a year-and-a-half he founded an organisation called LA Uprising to campaign on their behalf. This podcast explores how political polarisation and groupthink led to the imposition of some of the United States’ most stringent controls in the state of California, and how a ‘priestly’ caste of experts were deferred to throughout the period, as politicians relied on fear to engineer consent Watch and listen to the podcast ‘ LA Uprising: How Fear Shaped California’s Covid Response’ here: collateralglobal.org/article…

“Shut up and strap it on. Don't make a fuss.” Ross is a TV producer living in Los Angeles who grew increasingly concerned at the impacts of COVID-19 restrictions on his children. In response to his two teenagers being kept out of school for almost a year-and-a-half he founded an organisation called LA Uprising to campaign on their behalf. This podcast explores how political polarisation and groupthink led to the imposition of some of the United States’ most stringent controls in the state of California, and how a ‘priestly’ caste of experts were deferred to throughout the period, as politicians relied on fear to engineer consent Watch and listen to the podcast ‘ LA Uprising: How Fear Shaped California’s Covid Response’ here: collateralglobal.org/article…

"Conventional health economics were thrown under the bus in such an extraordinary way, it's mind boggling, and I don't think anyone has really faced up to that, or is willing to do so.” Toby Green joins Frank Armstrong for a wide-ranging discussion based on his new book The Heretic of Cacheu: Struggles Over Life in a Seventeenth-Century West African Port. The book exhumes the records of a Portuguese Inquisitorial trial from 1665 into apparently deviant conduct of a half-African, female slave-trader Cacheu – the first African region to be drawn by the Portuguese systematically into the transatlantic slave trade. It also explores the role of the Djabakós - traditional healers with knowledge of local herbs and their properties. Frank and Toby discuss parallels between what occurred during this colonial period and what happened on the African continent during the Covid-19 pandemic, where a range of inappropriate policies have caused lasting harm. Watch ‘Heretical Ideas on Health in African History and Beyond’ using the link here: collateralglobal.org/article…

“Like they said during the financial crisis, the banks were too big to fail, the experts seem to be too big to fail in this instance.” Ross is a TV producer living in Los Angeles who grew increasingly concerned at the impacts of COVID-19 restrictions on his children. In response to his two teenagers being kept out of school for almost a year-and-a-half he founded an organisation called LA Uprising to campaign on their behalf. This podcast explores how political polarisation and groupthink led to the imposition of some of the United States’ most stringent controls in the state of California, and how a ‘priestly’ caste of experts were deferred to throughout the period, as politicians relied on fear to engineer consent Watch and listen to the podcast ‘ LA Uprising: How Fear Shaped California’s Covid Response’ here: collateralglobal.org/article…

"We spent £37 billion on Track and Trace... Maybe we'd have been better off building 30 hospitals." Toby Green joins Frank Armstrong for a wide-ranging discussion based on his new book The Heretic of Cacheu: Struggles Over Life in a Seventeenth-Century West African Port. The book exhumes the records of a Portuguese Inquisitorial trial from 1665 into apparently deviant conduct of a half-African, female slave-trader Cacheu – the first African region to be drawn by the Portuguese systematically into the transatlantic slave trade. It also explores the role of the Djabakós - traditional healers with knowledge of local herbs and their properties. Frank and Toby discuss parallels between what occurred during this colonial period and what happened on the African continent during the Covid-19 pandemic, where a range of inappropriate policies have caused lasting harm. Watch ‘Heretical Ideas on Health in African History and Beyond’ using the link here: collateralglobal.org/article…

“There's no out. They've never said you can put down your masks now. They've never said that. What are you doing? Just tell people like it's okay now. Let them come back.” Ross is a TV producer living in Los Angeles who grew increasingly concerned at the impacts of COVID-19 restrictions on his children. In response to his two teenagers being kept out of school for almost a year-and-a-half he founded an organisation called LA Uprising to campaign on their behalf. This podcast explores how political polarisation and groupthink led to the imposition of some of the United States’ most stringent controls in the state of California, and how a ‘priestly’ caste of experts were deferred to throughout the period, as politicians relied on fear to engineer consent Watch and listen to the podcast ‘ LA Uprising: How Fear Shaped California’s Covid Response’ here: collateralglobal.org/article…

"This power relationship has always been there in medicine, and the important thing has actually been to prescribe a cure and to get that cure accepted, however effective it is. We can see that in Covid as well." Toby Green joins Frank Armstrong for a wide-ranging discussion based on his new book The Heretic of Cacheu: Struggles Over Life in a Seventeenth-Century West African Port. The book exhumes the records of a Portuguese Inquisitorial trial from 1665 into apparently deviant conduct of a half-African, female slave-trader Cacheu – the first African region to be drawn by the Portuguese systematically into the transatlantic slave trade. It also explores the role of the Djabakós - traditional healers with knowledge of local herbs and their properties. Frank and Toby discuss parallels between what occurred during this colonial period and what happened on the African continent during the Covid-19 pandemic, where a range of inappropriate policies have caused lasting harm. Watch ‘Heretical Ideas on Health in African History and Beyond’ using the link here: collateralglobal.org/article…

“We still have people who are continuing to mask and say we are still in the pandemic, and they are permanently damaged.” “It should be on the ledger for these public health people, you made them afraid to the point where they are afraid of bugs you can't see, so now they're permanently damaged because they can't live in the life we all used to live in.” Ross is a TV producer living in Los Angeles who grew increasingly concerned at the impacts of COVID-19 restrictions on his children. In response to his two teenagers being kept out of school for almost a year-and-a-half he founded an organisation called LA Uprising to campaign on their behalf. This podcast explores how political polarisation and groupthink led to the imposition of some of the United States’ most stringent controls in the state of California, and how a ‘priestly’ caste of experts were deferred to throughout the period, as politicians relied on fear to engineer consent Watch and listen to the podcast ‘ LA Uprising: How Fear Shaped California’s Covid Response’ here: collateralglobal.org/article…

“How many people died because of alcoholism, murder, poverty, suicide, distress?” “Going back to the priesthood of the experts, you know that if you shut things down, if you make people hopeless, you're going to have unintended consequences.” Ross is a TV producer living in Los Angeles who grew increasingly concerned at the impacts of COVID-19 restrictions on his children. In response to his two teenagers being kept out of school for almost a year-and-a-half he founded an organisation called LA Uprising to campaign on their behalf. This podcast explores how political polarisation and groupthink led to the imposition of some of the United States’ most stringent controls in the state of California, and how a ‘priestly’ caste of experts were deferred to throughout the period, as politicians relied on fear to engineer consent Watch and listen to the podcast ‘ LA Uprising: How Fear Shaped California’s Covid Response’ here: collateralglobal.org/article…

“If you look at the history of Covid, the very people who analysed the DNA of COVID, and came up with a diagnosis, are also some of the people who then invested and financed the vaccination program to cure or treat COVID.” “Medical professionals in all societies, however accurate their diagnoses and prescribed cures maybe have always had a powerful role.” Toby Green joins Frank Armstrong for a wide-ranging discussion based on his new book The Heretic of Cacheu: Struggles Over Life in a Seventeenth-Century West African Port. The book exhumes the records of a Portuguese Inquisitorial trial from 1665 into apparently deviant conduct of a half-African, female slave-trader Cacheu – the first African region to be drawn by the Portuguese systematically into the transatlantic slave trade. It also explores the role of the Djabakós - traditional healers with knowledge of local herbs and their properties. Frank and Toby discuss parallels between what occurred during this colonial period and what happened on the African continent during the Covid-19 pandemic, where a range of inappropriate policies have caused lasting harm. Watch ‘Heretical Ideas on Health in African History and Beyond’ using the link here: collateralglobal.org/article…

“There were structural reasons why journalism in my country (Ireland) was very much supportive of the government.” “Newspapers and the television stations became increasingly reliant on government ads and direct funding, people in the arts were often on government grants and given decent payouts in that period. If you spoke out, that could be potentially withdrawn or jeopardised.” “So there were very serious financial incentives for people to avoid speaking out.” Ross is a TV producer living in Los Angeles who grew increasingly concerned at the impacts of COVID-19 restrictions on his children. In response to his two teenagers being kept out of school for almost a year-and-a-half he founded an organisation called LA Uprising to campaign on their behalf. This podcast explores how political polarisation and groupthink led to the imposition of some of the United States’ most stringent controls in the state of California, and how a ‘priestly’ caste of experts were deferred to throughout the period, as politicians relied on fear to engineer consent @frankarmstrong2 Watch and listen to the podcast ‘ LA Uprising: How Fear Shaped California’s Covid Response’ here: collateralglobal.org/article…

“Francis, how did you self-reject from the groupthink?” “I was thinking this is probably coming to the US, but I was wondering to myself, how is this going to work? It's clear that it's spread so many different places, meaning that the chances of stamping it out entirely are very, very remote.” “It just seems completely fanciful to me what was being proposed, and of course the costs were obviously gigantic. I was very depressed during the pandemic, thinking, have I lost my mind?” In this episode of CG Podcasts, Professor Toby Green (King’s College, London) discusses the new book ‘In Covid’s Wake’ with authors Stephen Macedo and Frances E. Lee of the Politics Department of Princeton University. They discuss the economic and political fallout, the connections between the Covid policies and Trump’s election in 2024, and the future for academic and public discussions around the impacts of the Covid years. Watch ‘In Covid’s Wake: A Discussion of Covid Policies in the US’ here: collateralglobal.org/article…

“Everyone's a rebel until you really have to pay the price.” “Almost nobody likes saying no to the mob, because you get destroyed.” Ross is a TV producer living in Los Angeles who grew increasingly concerned at the impacts of COVID-19 restrictions on his children. In response to his two teenagers being kept out of school for almost a year-and-a-half he founded an organisation called LA Uprising to campaign on their behalf. This podcast explores how political polarisation and groupthink led to the imposition of some of the United States’ most stringent controls in the state of California, and how a ‘priestly’ caste of experts were deferred to throughout the period, as politicians relied on fear to engineer consent Watch and listen to the podcast ‘ LA Uprising: How Fear Shaped California’s Covid Response’ here: collateralglobal.org/article…

“How did you self-eject from the groupthink?” “I realised that COVID was more than a large enough topic unto itself, but I did have concerns, which is that, in the academy and elite professions, journalism, science, and so on, there's just a kind of dismissiveness of arguments that are associated with the other side and it’s to our detriment, I do think it's worse than it used to be.” In this episode of CG Podcasts, Professor Toby Green (King’s College, London) discusses the new book ‘In Covid’s Wake’ with authors Stephen Macedo and Frances E. Lee of the Politics Department of Princeton University. They discuss the economic and political fallout, the connections between the Covid policies and Trump’s election in 2024, and the future for academic and public discussions around the impacts of the Covid years. Watch ‘In Covid’s Wake: A Discussion of Covid Policies in the US’ here: collateralglobal.org/article…

“There are a number of people from Eastern Europe living in Britain, and during 2020 2021, I met a number of them in various contexts who said, it (pandemic policy measures) reminded them of what it was like to live under communism, so they were not happy about it.” Toby Green joins Frank Armstrong for a wide-ranging discussion based on his new book The Heretic of Cacheu: Struggles Over Life in a Seventeenth-Century West African Port. The book exhumes the records of a Portuguese Inquisitorial trial from 1665 into apparently deviant conduct of a half-African, female slave-trader Cacheu – the first African region to be drawn by the Portuguese systematically into the transatlantic slave trade. It also explores the role of the Djabakós - traditional healers with knowledge of local herbs and their properties. Frank and Toby discuss parallels between what occurred during this colonial period and what happened on the African continent during the Covid-19 pandemic, where a range of inappropriate policies have caused lasting harm. @frankarmstrong2 @toby00green Watch ‘Heretical Ideas on Health in African History and Beyond’ using the link here: collateralglobal.org/article…

“Certainly the authoritarian frameworks which came into liberal democracies in 2020 and 2021 did feel, for a number of people, oppressive.” Toby Green joins Frank Armstrong for a wide-ranging discussion based on his new book The Heretic of Cacheu: Struggles Over Life in a Seventeenth-Century West African Port. The book exhumes the records of a Portuguese Inquisitorial trial from 1665 into apparently deviant conduct of a half-African, female slave-trader Cacheu – the first African region to be drawn by the Portuguese systematically into the transatlantic slave trade. It also explores the role of the Djabakós - traditional healers with knowledge of local herbs and their properties. Frank and Toby discuss parallels between what occurred during this colonial period and what happened on the African continent during the Covid-19 pandemic, where a range of inappropriate policies have caused lasting harm. Watch ‘Heretical Ideas on Health in African History and Beyond’ using the link here: collateralglobal.org/article…

“There’s just not enough scrutiny.” “You could say the covid response was an extreme case, but there are echoes in other areas, and we're more vulnerable to this kind of problem than we used to be given that assumptions go unquestioned in an environment where people think too much alike.” In this episode of CG Podcasts, Professor Toby Green (King’s College, London) discusses the new book ‘In Covid’s Wake’ with authors Stephen Macedo and Frances E. Lee of the Politics Department of Princeton University. They discuss the economic and political fallout, the connections between the Covid policies and Trump’s election in 2024, and the future for academic and public discussions around the impacts of the Covid years. Watch ‘In Covid’s Wake: A Discussion of Covid Policies in the US’ here: collateralglobal.org/article…