COVID-19: A COUNTER ARGUMENT
By: Josiah Pensado
“We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
[Remarks on the 20th Anniversary of the Voice of America; Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, February 26th, 1962]
-John F. Kennedy.
OPENING STATEMENT
In Sidney Lumet’s groundbreaking film 12 Angry Men, a jury of twelve strangers must deliberate whether the 18-year-old defendant murdered his own father. The punishment for his suspected actions would be the electric chair, but to send him to death, the vote must be unanimous. There must be no reasonable doubt regarding the case. The result of the vote was 11-1, as one man expressed his doubt against the other eleven. His response to the other men asking about his vote was simple, “I don’t know.”
According to Wikipedia’s page on reasonable doubt, “Beyond a reasonable doubt is a legal standard of proof required to validate a criminal conviction in most adversarial legal systems. It is a higher standard of proof than the balance of probabilities (commonly used in civil matters) and is usually therefore reserved for criminal matters where what is at stake (e.g. someone’s liberty) is considered more serious and therefore deserving a higher threshold……if there is any doubt that a person is guilty, it is better that they be acquitted than to risk an innocent person being convicted.”
The single juror in Lumet’s film simply says we might be wrong. Sending an 18-year-old to death for the suspected murder of his own father is quite the burden to bear. Suppose the eleven jurors who voted for his death were right all along. Or perhaps, suppose they were wrong all along. We cannot know for sure whether the boy was innocent or not, all we can know is that we must first look at the facts. In this case, the facts expressed by the lone juror, expressed strong doubt that must be taken into consideration. This is more than just voting yes or no; this is about life or death.
Much like the character’s in 12 Angry Men, the community at the University of Oregon faces a genuine crossroads. Do we put ourselves in the electric chair that is remote learning or acquit ourselves and return to normal? The unfortunate yet fortunate thing about our scenario is that we are in control of our own case. But we must make sure that our decisions lead to the right decision.
I unfortunately believe that we may be making the wrong choice. At the beginning of COVID-19, I was not sure I could trust the narrative. I just did not know, so I began to do my own research. Simply because I raise conflicts of interests in this report does not make me a conspiracy theorist. Questioning the safety and efficacy of a vaccine does not make me anti-vax, I have never thought of myself as that. Saying that we have drastically overreacted to COVID-19 does not make me a COVID denier. Just because I believe that lockdowns are ineffective and destructive does not mean I am a threat to the health of others around me.
I hope the administration at the University of Oregon look at all the sources linked in detail. That way, we can reconsider our approach to COVID-19 and make sure that the decisions we make today will lead to the health and welfare of tommorow. I hope that we can all move forward with courage instead of fear, truth over deception. Perhaps William Cooper author of the book Behold a Pale Horse may have put it best, “The ideas and conclusions in this work are mine alone. It is possible that one or more conclusions may be wrong. The purpose of this [book] is to convince you (the reader) that something is terribly wrong. It is my hope that this work will inspire you to begin an earnest search for the truth. Your conclusions may be different but together maybe we can build a better world.”
“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and is down the path of increasingly repressive measure, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.”
[Special Message to the Congress of the Internal Security of the United States, August 8th, 1950]
-Harry. S. Truman
* Disclaimer: much of the research and almost exact formatting has come from this link. Much of the lockdown information has come almost verbatim from this reddit post. Just like everything in this document, everything will be sourced, linked and credit will be given when it is due. *
LOCKDOWN EFFECTIVENESS
“The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants.”
-Albert Camus
In this section, we will explore how lockdowns have been detrimental, ineffective, unconstitutional, and inhuman. If the University of Oregon chooses to remain under lockdown, it could pose a genuine health concern to the student body. To remain locked down means we are complicit with the deaths of despair these lockdowns bring. Just as Rod Serling said in his show The Twilight Zone, “Any state, any entity, any ideology that fails to recognize the worth, the dignity, the rights of man, that state is obsolete.”
“Because if we do not clearly articulate this principle that we’re being asked to accept, then by our silence we will consent to it. We will tacitly, implicitly consent to what is taking place right now.” -James Corbett: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmHRYzF0dyQ
The GBD is offering a more realistic approach to lockdowns, especially regarding universities: https://gbdeclaration.org/
Dr. David Nabarro of the W.H.O states, “We in the World Health Organization do not advocate lockdowns as the primary means of control of this virus…. The only time we believe a lockdown is justified is to buy you time to reorganize, regroup, rebalance your resources, protect your health workers who are exhausted, but by and large, we’d rather not do it.”
“There is no doubt in my mind, that when we come to look back on this, the damage done by lockdown will exceed any saving of lives by a huge factor.” -Professor Michael Levitt.
“During the pandemic, national leaders around the world flexed their authority and imposed airtight rules and restrictions, from the mandatory wearing of face masks to body-temperature checks at the entries to communal spaces like train stations and supermarkets. Even after the pandemic faded, this more authoritarian control and oversight of citizens and their activities stuck and even intensified.”
https://www.nommeraadio.ee/meedia/pdf/RRS/Rockefeller%20Foundation.pdf
Detrimental effects of lockdowns on public health according to the Justice Center of Constitutional Freedoms in Canada. This PDF is an absolute wealth of information, I would highly recommend that it be taken into consideration:
https://www.jccf.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/2020-12-03-Flying-Blind.pdf
Judge in Germany acquits man for breaking lockdown rules.
“Based on what has been said, there can be no doubt that the number of deaths attributable to the lockdown policy measures alone exceeds the number of deaths prevented by the lockdown many times over. For this reason alone, the standards to be assessed here do not satisfy the proportionality requirement. Added to this are the direct and indirect restrictions on freedom, the gigantic financial damage, the immense damage to health and the non-material damage. The word “disproportionate” is too colorless to even hint at the dimensions of what is happening. The lockdown policy pursued by the state government in the spring (and now again), of which the general ban on contact was (and is) an essential component, is a catastrophically wrong political decision with dramatic consequences for almost all areas of people’s lives, for society, for the state and for the countries of the Global South.”
http://enformtk.u-aizu.ac.jp/howard/weimar_ruling/
MENTAL HEALTH
Mental health has taken a drastic toll on the lives of college students: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/covid-19-coronavirus-pandemic-us-college-students-mental-health
1 in 5 adults have developed mental disorders:
1 in 4 young adults suicidal: https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/mental-health/527380-75-percent-of-young-adults-mentally-struggling-with
Effects of isolation on elderly:
(1) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25697700/
(2) https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/30/us/nursing-homes-isolation-virus.html
(3) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5847278/
Effects lockdowns have had on an individual level:
Effects of isolation on the future health of children: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/205331
Young people in HK struggling with mental illness: https://www.msn.com/en-xl/news/other/alarming-rise-in-hong-kong-young-people-struggling-with-mental-health-issues-amid-covid-19-pandemic-experts-warn/ar-BB1a7CSq
Mental illness in children rising due to lockdowns: https://newschannel20.com/news/local/hospitals-see-high-rates-of-mental-illness-in-children-during-pandemic
Half of young adults showing signs of depression: https://fee.org/articles/harvard-researchers-nearly-half-of-young-adults-showing-signs-of-depression-amid-pandemic/
The mental health of students: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-55105044
Suicidal thoughts greater in those under restrictions and unchanged in those without any: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165178120323477
Prevalence of depression before and after in the US: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2770146
Cases of depression in the US have tripled: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/us-cases-of-depression-have-tripled-during-the-covid-19-pandemic
Quote from American Virologist Robert Redfield: “But there has been another cost that we’ve seen, particularly in high schools. We’re seeing, sadly, far greater suicides now than we are deaths from COVID. We’re seeing far greater deaths from drug overdose that are above excess that we had as background than we are seeing the deaths from COVID.”: https://www.buckinstitute.org/covid-webinar-series-transcript-robert-redfield-md/
Washington Department of Health says depression will increase massively: https://www.doh.wa.gov/Portals/1/Documents/1600/coronavirus/BHG-COVID19StatewideSummaryForecastofBHImpacts-July2020Update.pdf
US Census shows 48% of WA adults have depression: https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2020/demo/hhp/hhp15.html#tables
Lockdowns pose great threat to mental health: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/dec/27/covid-poses-greatest-threat-to-mental-health-since-second-world-war
The mental health crisis caused by lockdowns: https://archive.vn/mAuWS
SUICIDES
https://abc7news.com/suicide-covid-19-coronavirus-rates-during-pandemic-death-by/6201962/
Suicides among black people spiked during lockdowns: https://www.baltimoresun.com/health/bs-hs-black-suicides-pandemic-20201216-2g46em2d2nd5vjwlu7q2uq5x6y-story.html
Suicides up sharply in Toronto: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/toronto/article-suicides-on-the-ttc-have-risen-sharply-over-the-last-eight-months/
Projected increase in suicides in Canada: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7236718/
Trends in suicide during the pandemic: https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4352
Canadians in quarantine twice as likely to have suicidal thoughts: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/quarantine-mental-health-1.5809865
Military suicides up 20%: https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2020-09-27/military-suicides-increase-covid-19-pandemic
Suicides up among children: https://dfw.cbslocal.com/2020/09/24/cook-childrens-alarming-rise-suicide-patients/
Male suicides up: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/sep/01/male-suicide-rate-england-wales-covid-19
Student suicides have driven some of Nevada’s schools to reopen: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/24/us/politics/student-suicides-nevada-coronavirus.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
More people committed suicide in October than in 10 months of COVID: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/japan-suicide-coronavirus-more-japanese-suicides-in-october-than-total-covid-deaths/#app
ECONOMY AND POVERTY
8 million Americans pushed into poverty: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/12/16/poverty-rising/
A year of lockdowns has destroyed a decade of progress: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/covid-19-development-progress-reversed-1.5849383
10k Canadian restaurants gone forever: https://www.narcity.com/en-ca/eat-drink/canadian-restaurant-closures-reach-10000-in-2020-the-job-loss-numbers-are-shocking
Black and Latino tenants more affected by evictions: https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/15/the-most-lopsided-economic-event-imaginable-wave-of-evictions-threatens-black-latino-tenants-445387
Economic importance of in-person school: https://www.nber.org/papers/w28200
The 8-month lockdown in Buenos Aires forced more people into poverty: https://archive.vn/MoaOx
150 million people forced into extreme poverty: https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2020/10/07/covid-19-to-add-as-many-as-150-million-extreme-poor-by-2021
Lockdowns driving NYC homelessness up: https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2020/12/09/covid-pandemic-driving-homelessness-in-nyc-to-record-levels-advocates-say/
Economic well-being of millennials at risk: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/201210/dq201210b-eng.htm
10k US restaurants forced to close: https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/08/business/restaurant-closures-coronavirus/index.html
Economic toll on young Americans: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/09/coronavirus-young-economy-unemployment-mental-health
2 million UK families pushed into poverty: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/dec/09/covid-driven-recession-likely-to-push-2m-uk-families-into-poverty
India’s economic recover slower for women: https://www.livemint.com/news/india/india-s-post-covid-recovery-in-employment-has-not-been-equal-for-men-and-women-11605509801472.html
NYC bankruptcies surge 40%: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/29/new-york-bankruptcies-reportedly-surge-40percent-during-pandemic.html
National lockdowns pushing up to 100 million people into poverty: https://www.economist.com/international/2020/09/26/the-pandemic-is-plunging-millions-back-into-extreme-poverty?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/ed/fromplaguetopenurythepandemicisplungingmillionsbackintoextremepovertyinternational&__twitter_impression=true
Statement from German Minister of Finance: https://www.handelsblatt.com/politik/deutschland/coronakrise-entwicklungsminister-mueller-an-den-folgen-der-lockdowns-werden-weit-mehr-menschen-sterben-als-am-virus/26209144.html
European small businesses closing: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-22/half-of-europe-s-smaller-businesses-risk-bankruptcy-within-year?sref=RJ2RlMrh
Lockdowns and lack of tourism may increase poverty in Africa: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/safaris-and-wildlife/africa-crisis-loss-tourism-threatens-widespread-poverty-extinctions/
Nearly half of South Africa’s small businesses closed thanks to lockdowns: https://businesstech.co.za/news/business/455100/lockdown-forced-nearly-half-of-small-businesses-in-south-africa-to-close-study/
New Zealand’s success story pushed 70k children into poverty: https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/covid-19-deals-big-blow-reducing-child-poverty-in-nz
90% of New Zealanders who lost their jobs were women: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/25/new-zealand-is-in-a-shecession-so-where-is-the-much-needed-she-covery
Thousands of Aucklanders turn to food banks: https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/423952/thousands-of-aucklanders-turning-to-food-banks
Fewer children are being born: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/12/16/covid-19-baby-bust-coronavirus-pandemic-lead-birth-decline/6507974002/
HUNGER AND STARVATION
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/food-banks-sound-alarm-child-hunger-covid-crisis-drags-n1252368
UNICEF for the first time having to feed UK children: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-devon-55348047
168,000 child hunger deaths predicted in Africa: https://apnews.com/article/africa-hunger-study-coronavirus-children-0e2a17d63163d8558d203b2824a844fe
https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-123716/v1
82% increase in food insecurity: https://www.wfp.org/news/world-food-programme-assist-largest-number-hungry-people-ever-coronavirus-devastates-poor
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/10/20/nyregion/nyc-food-banks.html
Oxfam on increased hunger deaths: https://www.oxfam.org/en/research/hunger-virus-how-covid-19-fuelling-hunger-hungry-world?cid=aff_affwd_donate_id78888&awc=5991_1602271444_d1341487f388f59fb9852d0a4261b6e3
More Americans are shoplifting food: https://archive.is/tWWWp
2 million Filipino families starving because of lockdowns: https://manilastandard.net/mobile/article/341687
UN says famine and lockdown fallout in 2021 will be catastrophic: https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/un-warns-that-2021-could-be-catastrophic-due-to-covid19-fallout-and-famine/news-story/af6ad98c72e1e6c14456df51dd3a2171
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/12/3/covid-19-fallout-for-decades-to-come-un-chief
130 million additional people will have food insecurity: https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/09/1072712
10,000 additional children a month could die of hunger: https://in.mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN26Z1VR
https://abcnews.go.com/US/coronavirus-updates-hunger-due-covid-19-killing-10000/story?id=72025029
6,000 children die thanks to lockdown hunger: https://pcpj.org/2020/10/11/6000-children-die-of-hunger-caused-by-corona-every-day/
Almost 1.2 million babies could die because of lockdowns: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/almost-12-million-babies-could-die-during-the-pandemic-but-not-from-the-coronavirus-2020-07-02
Hunger crisis to affect up to 132 million people in sub-Saharan Africa because of lockdowns: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02281-w?sf236625656=1
The impacts of childhood malnutrition and nutrition based mortality: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31647-0/fulltext
OTHER EFFECTS ON CHILDREN
Poor students suffering in online classes: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-12-21/affluent-families-ditch-public-schools-widening-u-s-inequality
Lockdowns fuel child labor: https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/rest-of-africa/lockdown-fuels-child-labour-in-zimbabwe-3230912
FGM up in Africa: https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/covid-19-school-closures-end-fgm-in-kenya/
Why school closures are catastrophic: https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202012.0199/v1
Negatives of school closures more than benefits – https://www.unicef.org/media/86881/file/Averting-a-lost-covid-generation-world-childrens-day-data-and-advocacy-brief-2020.pdf
Teen pregnancy in Kenya up: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/dec/24/sex-for-sanitary-pads-how-kenyas-lockdown-led-to-a-rise-in-teenage-pregnancy
Negative impacts of lockdowns on children: https://www.unicef.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Unicef-UK-Children-In-Lockdown-Coronavirus-Impacts-Snapshot.pdf
Sharp rise of eating disorders in children: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55468632
SUBSTANCE ABUSE
OD deaths at highest point in 12 month period – https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2020/p1218-overdose-deaths-covid-19.html
Canadian OD deaths – (1) https://edmonton.ctvnews.ca/mobile/alberta-sets-record-904-opioid-deaths-to-date-in-2020-cites-covid-19-as-factor-1.5238113
(2) https://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/overdose-deaths-reach-1-386-in-b-c-1.24245322
(3) https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/opioid-cases-increase-first-half-of-2020-1.5697199
(4) https://globalnews.ca/news/7482310/overdose-deaths-saskatchewan/
US ODs rising – https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/18/us/cdc-pandemic-fatal-drug-overdoses-rise/index.html
More people are using drugs – https://www.wsj.com/articles/more-people-are-taking-drugs-for-anxiety-and-insomnia-and-doctors-are-worried-11590411600
Fentanyl ODs up 60% – https://www.gpb.org/news/2020/09/14/fentanyl-related-overdose-deaths-increase-more-60-march
Every week of lockdowns increases binge drinking – https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/12/201207091306.htm
Quote from the article:
“Undeniably policymakers must place a large focus on mitigating the effects of COVID. However, if the country continues to ignore the collateral damage—specifically our nation’s mental health—we will not come out of this stronger,” said Benjamin F. Miller, PsyD, chief strategy officer, WBT. “If we work to put in place healthy community conditions, good healthcare coverage, and inclusive policies, we can improve mental health and well-being. With all the other COVID-related investments, it’s time for the federal government to fully support a framework for excellence in mental health and well-being and invest in mental health now.”
Child malnutrition and nutrition related mortality: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31647-0/fulltext
DOMESTIC/SEXUAL ABUSE
US lockdowns trigger surge in domestic abuse – https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20200410/us-lockdowns-trigger-surge-in-domestic-violence
Child abuse up in Uganda because of lockdowns – https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jpc.15289
Child abuse up – https://www.wcvb.com/article/health-experts-note-pandemics-possible-impacts-on-child-abuse/34932582
School closures inhibit child abuse reports – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7441889/
Domestic violence up – https://www.king5.com/article/news/community/incidents-of-domestic-violence-are-skyrocketing-during-covid/281-c8d650b6-b568-437b-948c-861768e92a57
Male domestic abuse up – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-54237409
Abuse more severe during lockdowns – https://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/ts/news/canada/2020/11/25/canada-wide-survey-of-womens-shelters-shows-abuse-more-severe-during-pandemic.html
Child sexual abuse underreported during lockdowns – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-54169197
https://abcnews.go.com/US/child-abuse-risk-remains-concern-amid-continued-covid/story?id=74749711
Childline reports surge – https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/childline-reports-surge-in-contacts-during-very-difficult-year-1.4444773?mode=amp
UNDIAGNOSED DISEASES
Cancer diagnoses down – (1) https://www.cancernetwork.com/view/delay-in-cancer-screening-and-diagnosis-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-what-is-the-cost
(2) https://www.ajmc.com/view/lung-cancer-screenings-drop-biopsy-rates-rise-during-covid-19
(3) https://www.onclive.com/view/covid-19-drives-decreases-in-cancer-screening-diagnoses-and-treatments
(6) https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/is-a-delayed-cancer-diagnosis-a-consequence-of-covid-19
(7) https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2768946
(8) https://www.iknl.nl/covid-19
Cancer deaths up during lockdown – (1) https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2045(20)30388-0/fulltext
(3) https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/10/11/e043828
(5) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7462880/
(6) 35k excess cancer deaths thanks to lockdowns – https://archive.is/ZKmaj
Portion of excess deaths due to lockdowns – (1) https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/12/13/us/deaths-covid-other-causes.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
Malaria deaths to be higher in Africa – https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-malaria-who-idUSKBN28A009?taid=5fc44675585f620001e51792&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter
Disruption of other health and services – https://www.ifs.org.uk/publications/15160
In Austria more people apparently died from undiagnosed cardiac effects – https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/article/41/19/1852/5820829
Excess cardiac deaths – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7293523/
Heart attack diagnoses down – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7151384/
33% drop in heart attack patients, 58% drop in stroke patients – https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/05/dramatic-drops-in-er-visits-likely-led-to-uncounted-deaths/
Stress related heart problems up thanks to the stress of lockdowns – https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2768093
15k extra Alzheimer deaths not related to COVID – https://www.wsj.com/articles/coronavirus-pandemic-led-to-surge-in-alzheimers-deaths-11593345601
Quote from the article, “The CDC reported in late June that in the 10 weeks after the pandemic was declared a national emergency on March 13, hospital emergency department visits declined by 23% for heart attacks, 20% for strokes and 10% for uncontrolled high blood sugar in people with diabetes.
“It seems like people are afraid of getting the virus, or maybe they’re afraid of adding to the burden on the doctors and the hospital,” said Dr. Mitchell Elkind, professor of neurology and epidemiology at Columbia University in New York. “They think, ‘I don’t want to bother anybody, and I’ll be OK. Why don’t I just stay home and take care of this myself?’”
Lockdowns and supply chain disruptions threaten to erase progress made in fighting HIV, TB and Malaria: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/24/world/coronavirus-updates.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage#link-752c4fe7
PCR TESTING
“Once science has to serve, not truth, but the interests of a class, a community, or a state, the sole task of argument, and discussion is to vindicate and to spread still further the beliefs by which the whole life of the community is directed.”
-Friedrich Hayek, Road to Serfdom.
In this section of this report, we will look at how PCR is essentially useless to detect and diagnose diseases and how that has helped perpetuate this humanitarian nightmare. More cases lead to more lockdowns and restrictions, but how accurate are these tests?
Dr. Kary Mullis speaking about Dr. Anthony Fauci and PCR: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4hsqdBKYgI
WHO admits that PCR has created false positives: https://www.who.int/news/item/14-12-2020-who-information-notice-for-ivd-users
Mass PCR testing can cause a false epidemic: https://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/22/health/22whoop.html
Quote from this research study: “In light of our re-examination of the test protocol to identify SARS-CoV-2 described in the Corman-Drosten paper we have identified concerning errors and inherent fallacies which render the SARS-CoV-2 PCR test useless.” https://www.researchgate.net/publication/346483715_External_peer_review_of_the_RTPCR_test_to_detect_SARS-CoV-2_reveals_10_major_scientific_flaws_at_the_molecular_and_methodological_level_consequences_for_false_positive_results
More on Mullis’ work with PCR and how it is not meant to be used in a setting to diagnose disease: https://archive.vn/G7kgw
More examples of faulty and inconsistent testing: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-tanzania/president-questions-tanzania-coronavirus-kits-after-goat-test-idUSKBN22F0KF?utm_source=reddit.com
Fauci himself explains how PCR test can be deceitful saying quote, “”It’s just dead nucleoids, period.”
Fauci can be seen dodging the question here at 11:40: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isFcKdnqi7k
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST: FOLLOW THE MONEY TRAIL
“Unless we put medical freedom into the Constitution, the time will come when medicine will organize into an undercover dictatorship to restrict the art of healing to one class of Men and deny equal privileges to others; the Constitution of the Republic should make a Special Privilege for medical freedoms as well as religious freedom.”
Benjamin Rush
Many people seem to criticize big pharma for corruption, and rightfully so. Perhaps no NGO has a worse track record than big pharma, and the COVID-19 money trail makes this incredible clear. To understand the motives of the actions laid out in this report, we must follow the money trail. The link below may be the best way to articulate just exactly the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation stands for.
Since Microsoft’s anti trust lawsuit, Bill Gates has continued to stay relevant and impactful through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Many initiatives have received direct funding from this NGO, as well as grant money. What is quite concerning is that much of this has led to a global health cartel as seen in the table on the next page. Curiously enough, we see massive amounts of funding going towards the GAVI Alliance, World Health Organization, John Hopkins University, University of Oxford, and the Population Services International among others. Interestingly enough, the University of Oxford has worked in collaboration with Astra-Zeneca to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. So, while many in the public eye view the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as philanthropy, that may not actually be the case. The Bill and Melinda Gates also has a vetted interest in funding the BBC.
A strong conflict of interest would be with factcheck.org. The coronavirus page on their website is responsible for debunking and fact checking certain stories and claims about COVID-19. According the factcheck.org, they receive a substantial amount of funding from the Annenberg Family. The conflict of interest becomes apparent once we learn that the Annenberg Family has connections to Dr. Anthony Fauci, and Bill Gates Sr. Walter Annenberg, has crossed paths with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation before. Actually, several times before. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has also been linked to funding other fact checking sites, such as trust.org, and africacheck.org. These fact checking outlets which receive direct funding for the B&M.G Foundation essentially function as PR machines to save the foundation’s face. Just as USA today fact checked Event 201. And so, while the coronavirus outbreak wasn’t technically predicted by Event 201, it does have striking similarities to reality. Thankfully for us, factchecking has never lead us astray, except for when they do.
ASYMPTOMATIC TRANSMISSION / HERD IMMUNITY
“The one things man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well-being granted to them by a World Government, a New World Order.”
-Henry Kissinger
This section will attempt to rethink our common idea regarding asymptomatic transmission and herd immunity. Asymptomatic transmission plays a key role in the COVID-19 response, but does it hold water?
Conclusion for the study below: “Conclusion: In summary, all the 455 contacts were excluded from SARS-CoV-2 infection and we conclude that the infectivity of some asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 carriers might be weak.”
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32513410/
Quote from the study below: “Here, we describe a city-wide SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid screening programme between May 14 and June 1, 2020 in Wuhan. All city residents aged six years or older were eligible and 9,899,828 (92.9%) participated. No new symptomatic cases and 300 asymptomatic cases (detection rate 0.303/10,000, 95% CI 0.270–0.339/10,000) were identified. There were no positive tests amongst 1,174 close contacts of asymptomatic cases. 107 of 34,424 previously recovered COVID-19 patients tested positive again (re-positive rate 0.31%, 95% CI 0.423–0.574%). The prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Wuhan was therefore very low five to eight weeks after the end of lockdown.”
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-19802-w
Quote from the article: “From the data we have, it still seems to be rare that an asymptomatic person actually transmits onward to a secondary individual,” Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, head of WHO’s emerging diseases and zoonosis unit, said at a news briefing from the United Nations agency’s Geneva headquarters. “It’s very rare.”
The WHO changed its definition of herd immunity from, “Herd immunity is the indirect protection from an infectious disease that happens when a population is immune either through vaccination or immunity developed through previous infection,” to, “‘Herd immunity’, also known as ‘population immunity’, is a concept used for vaccination, in which a population can be protected from a certain virus of a threshold of vaccination is reached. Herd immunity is achieved by protecting people from a virus, not by exposing them to it.”
https://www.aier.org/article/who-deletes-naturally-acquired-immunity-from-its-website/
As of April 2nd, 2020, there have been no recorded asymptomatic transmission. A quote from the article says:
“An asymptomatic laboratory-confirmed case is a person infected with COVID-19 who does not develop symptoms. Asymptomatic transmission refers to transmission of the virus from a person, who does not develop symptoms.
There are few reports of laboratory-confirmed cases who are truly asymptomatic, and to date, there has been no documented asymptomatic transmission. This does not exclude the possibility that it may occur. Asymptomatic cases have been reported as part of contact tracing efforts in some countries.”
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Dlb52zwkddgCNqYEAFth6UYpDy6AoLhG/view
Dr. Anthony Fauci moving the goalposts on herd immunity: https://nypost.com/2020/12/24/fauci-covid-herd-immunity-requires-90-to-be-infected-or-vaccinated/
“I’d bet my house that COVID isn’t as contagious as measles.”
Dr. Fauci also backed coronavirus research in Wuhan, China: https://www.newsweek.com/dr-fauci-backed-controversial-wuhan-lab-millions-us-dollars-risky-coronavirus-research-1500741
FACE MASKS
“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.”
-Jiddu Krishnamurti
Masks have been a hot topic of debate and contention amidst this pandemic. To wear or not to wear, that is the question. However, to say that the science regarding masks is settled does not make any sense. Science is hardly ever settled, and scientists typically find themselves disagreeing on many things. To say that we must trust the science without question is a flawed way of thinking. The science behind the effectiveness of masking wearing in the public is iffy at best.
“Half your crew’s not wearing them.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKCqTnd7doE&feature=youtu.be
What ever happened to this narrative? Dr. Anthony Fauci says that “people shouldn’t be walking around with a mask,” and that, “the risk is low for the American public. Admittedly in it, we see Fauci say that things would change, but was it health policy or political policy that changed?
Dr. James Meehan, MD followed by warning that mask wearing has “well-known risks that have been well-studied and they’re not being discussed in the risk analysis.
“I’m seeing patients that have facial rashes, fungal infections, bacterial infections. Reports coming from my colleagues, all over the world, are suggesting that the bacterial pneumonias are on the rise.
“Why might that be? Because untrained members of the public are wearing medical masks, repeatedly… in a non-sterile fashion… They’re becoming contaminated. They’re pulling them off of their car seat, off the rearview mirror, out of their pocket, from their countertop, and they’re reapplying a mask that should be worn fresh and sterile every single time.”
Dr. Meehan adds:
“New research is showing that cloth masks may be increasing the aerosolization of the SARS-COV-2 virus into the environment causing an increased transmission of the disease…”
In conclusion, Dr. Meehan states:
“In February and March we were told not to wear masks. What changed? The science didn’t change. The politics did. This is about compliance. It’s not about science… Our opposition is using low-level retrospective observational studies that should not be the basis for making a medical decision of this nature.”
“The majority of deaths during the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919 were not caused by the influenza virus acting alone, report researchers from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. Instead, most victims succumbed to bacterial pneumonia following influenza virus infection. The pneumonia was caused when bacteria that normally inhabit the nose and throat invaded the lungs along a pathway created when the virus destroyed the cells that line the bronchial tubes and lungs.”
“The State of Ohio has consistently lied to and manipulated its citizens from the earliest stages of this pandemic,” Gargasz explained. “We insist that this nonsense end, our rights be restored, and that the actual truth be shared.”
Recently, the CDC confirmed that 94 percent of the deaths attributed to the coronavirus were from people who had as many as two to three other serious illnesses. The majority of those deaths are individuals 75 and older. Six percent of the deaths are directly from COVID-19, according to the CDC.
“The entire U.S. economy was shut down based on fraudulent models that predicted 2.2 million American deaths,” Renz said. “The State of Ohio violated the U.S. Constitution with an emergency declaration that ignores the fundamental rights of all Ohioans. As a result, millions of Ohioans are suffering financially, physically, and mentally.”
The recommendation to wear surgical masks to supplement other public health measures did not reduce the SARS-CoV-2 infection rate among wearers by more than 50% in a community with modest infection rates, some degree of social distancing, and uncommon general mask use. The data were compatible with lesser degrees of self-protection.
https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/full/10.7326/M20-6817
Dr. Michael Osterholm on masks (June 12th, 2020): https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=3CglBhn0znM&t
“Unless you have a tight face fit, its kind of like fixing three of the five screen doors on your submarine.”
“Masks are not a major issue.”
“Unfortunately, we have come to make judgements not on science, but on basically emotions.”
“Face masks should be used only by individuals who have symptoms of respiratory infection such as coughing, sneezing, or, in some cases, fever. Face masks should also be worn by health care workers, by individuals who are taking care of or are in close contact with people who have respiratory infections, or otherwise as directed by a doctor. Face masks should not be worn by healthy individuals to protect themselves from acquiring respiratory infection because there is no evidence to suggest that face masks worn by healthy individuals are effective in preventing people from becoming ill. Face masks should be reserved for those who need them because masks can be in short supply during periods of widespread respiratory infection. Because N95 respirators require special fit testing, they are not recommended for use by the general public.”
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2762694
“The use of surgical face masks to reduce the incidence of the common cold among health care workers in Japan: a randomized controlled trial”
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19216002/
“Although N95 respirators appeared to have a protective advantage over surgical masks in laboratory settings, our meta-analysis showed that there were insufficient data to determine definitively whether N95 respirators are superior to surgical masks in protecting health care workers against transmissible acute respiratory infections in clinical settings.”
https://www.cmaj.ca/content/188/8/567
How aerosols can still be dispersed from masks: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GcEE0gJf_fkh9e-QZ-JPjouMy8mHXDUd/view
COVID-19 NUMBERS, DO THEY HOLD UP?
“The simple step of a simple courageous man is not to take part in the lie, not to support deceit.”
-Aleksander Solzhenitsyn
It seems as if we cannot escape the constant reminder of how terrible the COVID-19 numbers are. And how the only deaths that seem to matter are those who die from COVID-19. We must stay home to save lives, but what about the lives lost in the collateral damage of trying to flatten the curve? This section will attempt to show us how the death numbers have been manipulated and inflated to manufacture consent in the public.
In 2015, Bill Gates released a video and a blog post describing a book that he had read that year. The name of the book is How to Lie With Statistics by Darrel Huff. In it, Huff does exactly that, he showcases just how people can lie with stats, and how to get away with it. To quote his book, “A remarkable instance of this came out in connection with a test of a polio vaccine a few years ago. It appeared to be an impressively large-scale experiment as medical ones go: 450 children were vaccinated in a community and 680 were left unvaccinated, as controls. Shortly thereafter the community was visited by an epidemic. Not one of the vaccinated children contracted a recognizable case of polio. Neither did any of the controls. What the experimenters had overlooked or not understood in setting up their project was the low incidence of paralytic polio. At the usual rate, only two cases would have been expected in a group this size, and so the test was doomed from the start to have no meaning. Something like fifteen to twenty-five times this many children would have been needed to obtain an answer signifying anything. Many a great, if fleeting, medical discovery has been launched similarly. “Make haste,” as one physician put it, “to use a new remedy before it is too late.”
The guilt does not always lie with the medical profession alone. Public pressure and hasty journalism often launch a treatment that is unproved, particularly when the demand is great and the statistical background hazy. So it was with the cold vaccines that were popular some years back and the antihistamines more recently. A good deal of the popularity of these unsuccessful “cures” sprang from the unreliable nature of the ailment and from a defect of logic. Given time, a cold will cure itself.””
One could say that it was models and predictions that lead us to where we are, and you would be correct. An epidemiologist from the Imperial College estimated 2.2 million COVID-19 deaths. These same conclusions were changed in weeks’ time, then these same Imperial College models were discarded soon after.
Don’t Believe the COVID-19 Models: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/04/coronavirus-models-arent-supposed-be-right/609271/.
To the attentive reader, one may be scratching their head. Why would you trust a man who openly admitted that he read a book on how to lie with statistics, fund the Imperial College London, and fund the John Hopkins COVID-19 model? Of course, this question will need to be answered by the reader.
To help the reader answer that internal question, I hope they look at these.
https://www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We-Work/Quick-Links/Grants-Database/Grants/2020/10/INV-023013
https://www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We-Work/Quick-Links/Grants-Database/Grants/2020/07/INV-016635
https://www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We-Work/Quick-Links/Grants-Database/Grants/2019/11/INV-003863
Information regarding the 2019-2020 Influenza numbers: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/weeklyarchives2019-2020/Week08.htm
The CDC admits that, “Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, this system will suspend data collection for the 2020-21 influenza season. Data from previous seasons are available on FluView Interactive.”
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/overview.htm
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/index.htm
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/provisional-tables.htm
Quote from the article: “These data analyses suggest that in contrast to most people’s assumptions, the number of deaths by COVID-19 is not alarming. In fact, it has relatively no effect on deaths in the United States.”
CDC revealing new numbers: https://nypost.com/2020/08/31/94-of-americans-who-died-from-covid-19-had-contributing-conditions/
Quotes from the article:
The idea that we are going to allow people to massage and sort of game the numbers is a real issue because we are going to undermine the [public] trust. And right now, as we see politicians doing things that aren’t necessarily motivated on fact and science, their trust in politicians is already wearing thin.”
“They’re infected, yes, but “COVID-19” refers to a clinical diagnosis of someone who exhibits severe respiratory illness characterized by fever, coughing, and shortness of breath. If you’re asymptomatic, you do not “have COVID-19.” The worst that could be said is that you’re infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, but if you’re not actually ill, you do not have COVID-19.”
https://consciouslifenews.com/cdc-admits-hospital-incentives-drove-up-covid-19-deaths/
https://humansarefree.com/2020/10/who-accidentally-confirms-covid-is-no-more-dangerous-than-flu.html
Striking similarities between past seasonal numbers: https://humansarefree.com/2021/01/florida-same-hospitalization-level-as-2018-flu-season.html
ADDITIONAL SOURCES
“In health there is freedom. Health is the first of all liberties.” – Henri Frederic Amiel
These three websites hold a wealth of information, everything from how contact tracing is a failure, mortality rates are much lower than previously thought, how masks don’t really do anything, and how school closures have been an absolute failure. To put every single study and graph into this article would make this report incredibly lengthy and potentially unreadable, so I would highly recommend that you the reader explore these on your own.
https://collateralglobal.org/studies
https://swprs.org/facts-about-covid-19/
VACCINE EFFECTIVENESS AND ETHICACY
“There will be, in the next generation or so, a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude, and producing dictatorship without tears, so to speak, producing a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies, so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them, but will rather enjoy it, because they will be distracted from any desire to rebel by propaganda or brainwashing, or brainwashing enhanced by pharmacological methods. And this seems to be the final revolution.”
-Aldous Huxley
Aside from masks, the vaccine discussion has become very heated and polarizing. There seems to be no middle ground, you are either anti-vax/anti-science or, you are eager to receive the vaccine. I would not consider myself an anti-vaxxer (I received the flu-shot before Fall term of 2020), however we must look at vaccine efficacy, especially regarding the stakes. Many talking heads have repeated that we must make a vaccine available to all, a narrative that has been wildly accepted by the public. Serious questions must be raised, a key one being: Will the vaccine end the pandemic? The influenza vaccine obviously has not ended influenza since its introduction to the public. If we are to force a rushed vaccine upon the public with never used technology, we must take it very seriously.
https://www.modernatx.com/sites/default/files/RNA_Vaccines_White_Paper_Moderna_050317_v8_4.pdf
https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMoa2027906
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.17.20176651v2
https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMoa2028436
https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMoa2022483
https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMoa2022483
https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4058
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03219-y
https://www.bmj.com/content/370/bmj.m3260
https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m4037
https://pfe-pfizercom-d8-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/2020-11/C4591001_Clinical_Protocol_Nov2020.pdf
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-risks-of-rushing-a-covid-19-vaccine/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X08015053
http://www.cirp.org/library/ethics/nuremberg/
https://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CCPR.aspx
https://principia-scientific.org/californias-forced-vaccinations-a-violation-of-nuremberg-code/
https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2020-12-12/why-fda-didnt-approve-pfizer-covid-19-vaccine-eua
https://principia-scientific.org/californias-forced-vaccinations-a-violation-of-nuremberg-code/
https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/01/health/eua-coronavirus-vaccine-history/index.html
CONCLUSION
“If people let government decide which foods they eat and medicines they take, their bodies will soon be in as sorry a state as are the souls of those who live under tyranny.”
-Thomas Jefferson
It is in the interest of the would-be dictators, and their political and media machine to silence any sort of opposition. To demonize any alternative perspectives and make sure the public has little to no access to dissenting voices. This then begs the question: Why? In the book Brave New World Revisited, Aldous Huxley says, “… but big Government and Big Business already possess, or will very soon possess, all the techniques for mind-manipulation… the rulers of tomorrow’s over-populated and over-organized world will try to impose social and cultural uniformity upon adults and their children… If this kind of tyranny is to be avoided, we must begin without delay to educate ourselves and our children for freedom and self- government…In their anti-rational propaganda the enemies of freedom systematically pervert the resources of language in order to wheedle or stampede their victims into thinking, feeling, and acting as they, the mind-manipulators, want them to think, feel and act. And yet children are nowhere taught, in any systematic way, to distinguish true from false, or meaningful from meaningless, statements. Why is this so? Because their elders, even in the democratic countries, do not want them to be given this kind of education.” An educated society is a threat to any authoritarian principle anywhere. Ignorance on the other hand, is the slogan of every authoritarian state. One of the mass media’s job’s is to manufacture consent, as highlighted by Noam Chomsky in his book Manufacturing Consent, “The mass media serve as a system for communicating messages and symbols to the general populace. It is their function to amuse, entertain, and inform, and to inculcate individuals with the values, beliefs, and codes of behavior that will integrate them into the institutional structures of the larger society. In a world of concentrated wealth and major conflicts of class interest, to fulfil this role requires systematic propaganda.”
Much of what is going on in our world has pushed people to their extremes. Hypocrisy from our political leaders has left us disillusioned, demoralized, confused and angry. Rules for thee, but not for me. Leaders are supposed to lead by example, and leaders are supposed to have character, and true character is doing the right thing, especially when nobody is looking. You should not have to worry about getting caught, then trying to cover your tracks. This of course extends to medical leaders* as well. Last time I checked; Bill Gates does not have a medical degree of any sort yet can continue funding certain initiatives under the guise of “public health”. If the government really cared about the public’s health, more measures would be taken to ensure the wellness of our children, instead many young people find themselves in a helpless position due to disproportionate lockdown policies. If the government really cared about our health and well being how come nothing was done to mitigate the deaths and infections that tuberculosis causes each year? If this was really about health, why are gyms closed, preventing people from getting in shape? How come the importance of Vitamin D is not being broadcasted to the mass public? If this is about health, why are so many dying deaths of despair while locked down in their homes? Why are health initiatives leading us down this nightmare? Why would we trust a government that has a long laundry list of atrocities in the past and is adding more now in the present? From what I have concluded, this is simply about control. To say that the science is settled and that these measures are absolute is madness.
The point of this report is this point and this point alone. The point being that if my mind can change, perhaps another person’s mind may change. I am not claiming any absolute truth in this report, but rather presenting the fact that we may be wrong about COVID-19. All I aim to do is present room for reasonable doubt, even if much of that doubt is reactionary. We must move forward together and end this nightmare with a more balanced approach. It is not going to if the same people who took away your livelihood via lockdowns continue to have their way. This madness ends with us, right now declaring our independence and sovereign rights as individuals.
“Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once? Men generally, under such a government as this, think they ought to wait until they have persuaded the majority to alter them. They think that, if they should resist, the remedy would be worse than the evil. But it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to anticipate and provide for reform? Why does it cry and resist before it is hurt? Why does it not encourage its citizens to be on the alert to point out its faults, and do better than it would have them?”
-Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience.
*unfortunately, this was the only video I could find where Fauci removes his mask after the cameras are done rolling. The original post was scrubbed from twitter, so please ignore the words said towards Fauci and Biden. They do not accurately represent how I feel about these men.