Coronavirus: Thread

[grarpamp]

We Must Have The Truth

https://quoththeraven.substack.com/p/we-must-have-the-truth
https://quoththeraven.substack.com/p/quoth-the-raven-301-dr-peter-a-mccullough/comments
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-04-03/paddle-boarder-arrested-in-malibu-after-flouting-coronavirus-closures
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/12/mask-guidelines-cdc-walensky/621035/
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/pdfs/mm7032e1-H.pdf
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7104e1.htm
https://www.foxnews.com/media/la-times-columnist-anti-vaxxer-kelly-ernby-death-covid
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/06/29/world/covid-19-mandates-vaccine-cases
https://www.independentsentinel.com/jim-jordan-gets-dr-birx-to-admit-that-they-lied/
https://quoththeraven.substack.com/p/the-cure-for-covid-is-turning-off
https://quoththeraven.substack.com/p/a-nationally-televised-example-of
https://quoththeraven.substack.com/p/cdc-quietly-revises-covid-deaths
https://quoththeraven.substack.com/p/wuhan-whistleblower-former-ecohealth
https://quoththeraven.substack.com/p/covid-much-more-easily-explained
https://quoththeraven.substack.com/p/its-official-us-senate-report-concludes
https://quoththeraven.substack.com/p/fauci-was-untruthful-powerful-new
https://quoththeraven.substack.com/p/the-hysterical-joe-rogan-ivermectin
https://slate.com/technology/2021/07/noble-lies-covid-fauci-cdc-masks.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/24/health/herd-immunity-covid-coronavirus.html
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/nih-admits-to-funding-gain-of-function-research-in-wuhan-says-ecohealth-violated-reporting-requirements/
https://thefederalist.com/2020/07/31/anthony-fauci-refuses-to-say-whether-mass-protests-should-be-limited-to-stop-coronavirus-spread/
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/31/trump-study-coronavirus-rallies-433760
https://www.healthline.com/health-news/black-lives-matter-protests-didnt-contribute-to-covid19-surge
https://www.businessinsider.com/nyc-contact-tracers-not-asking-people-attend-george-floyd-protest-2020-6
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56275103
https://www.flgov.com/2021/04/12/governor-ron-desantis-holds-roundtable-with-public-health-experts-to-discuss-big-tech-censorship/
https://www.sfgate.com/coronavirus/article/bay-area-mask-mandate-results-17271294.php
https://www.newsweek.com/deathsantis-sign-creators-say-florida-governor-letting-coronavirus-flourish-1519454
https://www.bioinformaticscro.com/blog/states-ranked-by-age-adjusted-covid-deaths/
https://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/government-relations/advocacy/achieving-a-fair-and-effective-covid-19-response-an-open-letter-to-vice-president-mike-pence-and-other-federal-state-and-local-leaders-from-public-health-and-legal-experts-in-the-united-states/
https://www.who.int/news/item/06-12-2021-more-malaria-cases-and-deaths-in-2020-linked-to-covid-19-disruptions
https://time.com/5864803/oxfam-hunger-covid-19/
https://www.ama-assn.org/system/files/issue-brief-increases-in-opioid-related-overdose.pdf
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/12/tis-the-season-for-shame-and-judgment/617335/


I have been trying to tackle the “fringe” issues (read: the issues the
mainstream won’t give way on) regarding Covid since the pandemic first
began in 2020. So far, I think I’ve done a decent job in helping flesh
out many “conspiracy theories” about Covid that instead, have turned
out to be “conspiracy facts”.

Among them, I’ve written about managing our Orwellian response to
Covid, the notoriously sensitive nature of PCR testing, the CDC moving
its data goalposts, the likely nature of Covid coming from a lab leak
(here and here and here) and the U.S.’s role in said leak and the
media’s hysterical coverage of ivermectin.

Additionally, for those that haven’t heard it yet, in an attempt to
continue the “other side” of Covid discourse, I published a new
podcast with Dr. Peter A. McCullough, who has dozens of peer-reviewed
publications on Covid-19 and has commented extensively on the medical
response to the COVID-19 crisis in The Hill, America Out Loud, and
cable networks like ABC and Fox News.

I am always happy to welcome new content from The Brownstone
Institute, one of the last few beacons of common sense left in the
world of actual journalism.

This week they published a new piece on Covid and our response to it,
called We Must Have The Truth. I reached out to the publication last
year and requested permission to share their content when I enjoy it,
in full, with my readers, which they kindly granted. If you’re
interested in the topic - or simply just having a grasp on the
objective truth - I believe it is a “must read”.

The article is written by Pat Fidopiastis, who is a Professor of
Microbiology at California Polytechnic State University.

On April 2, 2020, a paddle boarder was chased by authorities and taken
into custody. This event should have caused unanimous outrage over the
absurdity of what happened – law enforcement arrested a lone paddle
boarder on Santa Monica Bay for the crime of “flouting coronavirus
closures.”

Traditional voices that could have questioned unscientific
authoritarian policy instead provided cover. The Los Angeles Times
justified law enforcement’s ridiculous response by quoting a scientist
who made the claim (presumably with a straight face): “..[SARS-CoV-2]
could enter coastal waters and transfer back into the air.” Setting
aside the absurdity of this and every other justification for closing
beaches, hiking trails, and parks, think of the narrative it
perpetuated — the virus is so insidious that even those who dared to
paddle board alone on the ocean might somehow spread it to the rest of
us.

The paddler’s arrest was an early indication that something had
changed in our country. A “new normal” was spawning from the chaotic,
unscientific, politicized pandemic messaging mainly coming from biased
news media and the once venerable Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention and Dr. Anthony Fauci. The result was bitter contempt
between two sides of the COVID-19 debate that metastasized into a deep
distrust for science.

In an understatement of the century, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky
recently summed up her agency’s role in promoting distrust in science
by stating that they did not “reliably meet expectations.” Thus, it’s
pretty clear that for their part, nothing much will change. Dr. Fauci
proclaimed that because he “represents science” any criticism of him
is a direct attack on science. Translation, we shouldn’t expect any
productive capitulation from him either.

Although the CDC acknowledged playing a role in the growing distrust
in science, none of their professed forms of atonement, such as
promising to share data faster and doing a better job of translating
science into policy will restore trust without a process that includes
honest debate.

Over the past two years, the CDC cherry-picked data from articles
rushed to print in their own journal (Morbidity Mortality Weekly
Report) to justify a lot of bad policy, including masking
schoolchildren, which is still happening today, or pushed the
completely unscientific assertion that vaccine immunity is superior to
natural immunity.

On the other hand, they buried data showing that upon reinfection,
vaccinated people without prior COVID-19 diagnosis were at greater
risk of hospitalization than the unvaccinated with prior COVID-19.

Dr. Walensky also boldly stated that, “Our data from the CDC today
suggests that vaccinated people do not carry the virus, don’t get
sick.” The untruthful messaging that vaccination stopped infection and
transmission was justification for an appalling trend of people
mocking the COVID-19-related deaths of the unvaccinated.

It’s unlikely the families targeted by such attacks will hear any
apologies, even though Dr. Fauci’s four shots did not protect him from
reoccurring COVID-19, or that Dr. Birx admitted that inflated vaccine
efficacy claims were based on hope, not science.

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At the start of the pandemic, Dr. Fauci told us not to buy masks
because they do not work. When the politics changed, Fauci reversed
himself and became the proponent of wearing not just one mask – but
several. Dr. Fauci’s excuse for the flip-flop was his only truth on
the matter – he admitted that he lied, albeit “nobly.”

For his encore, Dr. Fauci confidently opined on the level of vaccine
uptake required for herd immunity. Eventually he admitted to guessing
at numbers to frighten people into compliance. To be clear, Dr. Fauci
used deception, not science, to support his version of public health
policy.

Anybody who was “on the fence” about trusting Fauci, the
self-proclaimed embodiment of “the science,” should have been
forcefully pushed off after his attempts to obfuscate when testifying
to Congress on whether the US government funded “gain of function”
research that very likely created SARS-CoV-2.

The loss of trust was greatly amplified by activist scientists and
most of the news media. Dr. Fauci refused to say anything critical of
the nationwide social justice protests that might have discouraged
people from participating in behaviors known to spread respiratory
viruses.

However, scientists and news sources eagerly reported alleged death
tolls purportedly caused by Trump rallies, while claiming “no evidence
of protest spread.”

How could scientists determine whether the protests caused any disease
transmission or death if contact tracers were not allowed to ask if
someone attended a protest?

The weaponization of science to censor, persecute, delegitimize, and
threaten those who had differing opinions has never happened on this
scale in this country.

Fig. 1. Comparison of daily per capita cases between Texas (orange),
which lifted its mask mandate in March 2021, California (red), and New
York (Green), which continued their masking policies.

Even President Biden capitalized on the politicization of mask-wearing
by accusing the elected leader (and by extension the citizens) of
Texas of “Neanderthal thinking” for removing the mask mandate in 2021.
Meanwhile, states such as California and New York were praised for
“following the science.”

A simple comparison of the epidemic curves between these states did
not justify the divisive rhetoric (Fig. 1). But rather than have these
conversations, it was easier to just slander dissenters and censor
intelligent discussion.

As the old saying goes, “a lie is halfway around the world before the
truth gets its boots on.” Thankfully, the truth finally has its boots
on and is catching up on many fronts, such as the questionable
effectiveness of mask mandates.

The “Neanderthal thinking” jab was uttered around the time the news
media, outraged by Governor Ron DeSantis’ steady leadership in
Florida, hoped to get “Ron DeathSantis” trending on social media.

Not surprisingly, the data told a different story about Florida (Fig.
2). It’s clear that “follow the science” was just a slogan. Politics,
lies, and vindictive moral superiority are baked into our nation’s
COVID-19 policy.

Fig. 2. Age-adjusted COVID-19 deaths in Florida and California. The
circles are proportional to state population. Although these states
adopted dramatically different policies, they had comparable outcomes.

Trust in science might never be restored in people who lost their
livelihood to unscientific lockdowns or vaccine mandates. But, here’s
some advice for people like Dr. Walensky and Dr. Fauci to get back
some of the trust.

1) Go back to the basics of Public Health: “Voluntary measures are
more likely to induce cooperation and protect public trust than
coercive measures, and are more likely to prevent attempts to avoid
contact with the healthcare system.”

2) Invite dissenting experts to the table for open policy debate.
Excess malaria and opioid deaths in young people, while millions of
children were thrusted into acute starvation, are examples of
significant COVID-19 policy failures. Great Barrington Declaration
scientists warned about such collateral damage, but were maligned and
censored. At the very least, the public would have benefitted from a
different perspective on the risk of catching COVID-19 from ocean
spray.

3) Vindictive moral superiority is terrible public health messaging.
Heed the advice from an article in The Atlantic: “Viruses are not
moral agents, and infection is not a personal failure.”

4) Sincerely apologize to people who were fired, maligned, censored,
or physically harmed, then tell us your justification for ignoring
counter data and continuing policy that encouraged these unnecessary
outcomes.

5) none of the above will matter if public health officials do not
tell the truth, including the nuance, and trust that the American
people can handle it. George Santayana famously said, “Those that
cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Let’s hope we’ve
learned from our mistakes, because given the state of the world right
now, we cannot afford to repeat them.

About The Brownstone Institute

The Brownstone Institute is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization founded
May 2021. Its vision is of a society that places the highest value on
the voluntary interaction of individuals and groups while minimizing
the use of violence and force including that which is exercised by
public or private authorities. This vision is that of the
Enlightenment which elevated learning, science, progress, and
universal rights to the forefront of public life. It is constantly
threatened by ideologies and systems that would take the world back to
before the triumph of the ideal of freedom.

The motive force of Brownstone Institute was the global crisis created
by policy responses to the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020. That trauma
revealed a fundamental misunderstanding alive in all countries around
the world today, a willingness on the part of the public and officials
to relinquish freedom and fundamental human rights in the name of
managing a public health crisis, which was not managed well in most
countries. The consequences were devastating and will live in infamy.

About the Author

Pat Fidopiastis is a Professor of Microbiology at California
Polytechnic State University.