![\"\"](\"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/290721lockdown1.jpg\")
Martin Pope via Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n
Lockdown advocates who have repeatedly cited rising infection rates as a reason to maintain restrictions are now saying that those same figures are \u201cfishy,\u201d \u201csuspicious,\u201d and unreliable after they started to drop.<\/strong><\/p>\n Who are the \u2018conspiracy theorists\u2019 now?<\/p>\n Reported COVID cases in the UK have\u00a0dropped<\/a>\u00a0by 22% since Thursday last week and cases are falling in every English local authority.<\/p>\n Up until Wednesday, official day to day statistics showed that cases had dropped for seven days in a row, despite restrictions largely being lifted on July 19th.<\/p>\n The fact that the Euro football championships, \u2018freedom day\u2019 and the delta variant haven\u2019t combined to create an explosion of new COVID cases seems to have disappointed lockdown advocates like Professor Tim Spector.<\/p>\n According to Spector, who previously called for mask mandates to remain indefinitely, the \u201csudden drop\u201d in people testing positive for the virus in the government\u2019s data is \u201cvery suspicious\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s dropped something like 30% in two days, which is pretty much unheard of in pandemics, and remember this is happening without restrictions, without lockdowns, without some sudden event,\u201d\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0Spector.<\/p>\n \u201cTo me, it looks a bit fishy. It looks as if there\u2019s some other explanation for this other than suddenly the virus has given up,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n OK, calm down Mr. tin foil hat.<\/p>\n Spector\u2019s rhetoric is particularly funny given that the media has previously demonized anyone who questions official government statistics on COVID infection rates and death tolls as dangerous conspiracy theorists.<\/p>\n Now that the numbers appear to be disproving the argument for lockdown, suddenly those numbers are \u201csuspicious\u201d and unreliable.<\/p>\n