When the "Experts" get it Wrong
The arrogance and control that has been displayed throughout the pandemic is unprecedented.
For physicians, the art of medicine is to uncover and address the fear. Once this is addressed, the next step is to unlock and use our superpowers as physicians: education and reassurance…Patients didn’t sign up to understand a complex virus and become experts in transmission, prevention, and treatment.
-Diana Londoño, M.D. in Los Angeles, 10-05-21
You don’t have to be a medical scientist to understand the data. You just have to be a critical thinker.
-Dr. Scott Atlas, May 2021, Senior Fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution
One of the most frustrating aspects of the pandemic response has been the almost reverential treatment given to certain “experts” in medicine and science, while other equally qualified voices have been sidelined. Maybe even worse is the prevalent, and arrogant, idea that people without a medical or science degree can’t tell what is happening, or make decisions for their own health and safety.
I recently asked a friend to just give me her gut reaction, “positive or negative toward Dr. Anthony Fauci, and the CDC.” She replied without hesitation that she felt positive toward them, and said, “I can’t imagine that they would purposefully be harming people.” I replied, “Sometimes it’s not the intent to ‘purposefully harm,’ but rather to protect reputation or power, or to get money. So the motivator might not be to harm another, but the selfishness leads to harm.”
During the pandemic there has been a lot of posturing and politics, from government leaders, public health experts, and medical professionals. Dr. Fauci recently inaccurately said, “It is the people who are unvaccinated who are putting themselves at risk, at danger, their families, and indirectly the entire community by allowing the virus essentially free rein among tens of millions of people to spread and perhaps, even open the gateway to get more variants. That’s the reason why you’re seeing local mandates. For example universities and colleges which are saying that if you’re not vaccinated you’re not going to be able to attend class in person …and many, many organizations and businesses are doing the same thing. I know there is always this pushback against mandates, but sometimes really for the good of the community…and society you really have to do that.”
Really? Have you read Dr. Fauci, Pres. Biden, CDC Director Walensky, or any number of other experts adequately explain why so many people who have been vaccinated are getting Covid? That might be relevant when considering requiring everyone to take the jab.
Have you even once heard Dr. Fauci acknowledge that in addition to the millions of people who have been vaccinated, there are millions in the U.S. who have natural immunity due to recovery from Covid infection? What would be the purpose of hammering one narrative “Get vaccinated!” while ignoring other aspects of Covid immunity? If only we were back in the days when the goal was to keep the medical system from being overwhelmed; we met that goal long ago.
In Israel, they are rushing headlong into required third and fourth injections of Covid vaccines, yet the majority of their Covid cases are in the vaccinated. In fact, the Israeli study of 778,658 patients (posted Aug. 25, 2021) found that “natural immunity affords longer lasting and stronger protection against infection, symptomatic disease and hospitalization due to the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, compared to the [Pfizer] two-dose vaccine-induced immunity.”
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.24.21262415v1
When Senator Rand Paul questioned Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra on October 1, 2021, Becerra said he wasn’t familiar with the Israeli study. “We follow the facts and the science at HHS. We use the expertise of the medical professionals, the scientists at HHS to make decisions...” Becerra said. He seemed comfortable ignoring the largest real world study ever conducted on natural immunity versus vaccinated immunity, in favor of advice from HHS scientists. Paul accused him of arrogance, and he was right.
Pres Biden said on September 9, 2021, that he would “take on” elected officials in states that aren’t implementing masking in schools and requiring vaccinations. “If they will not help, if these governors won’t help us beat the pandemic, I’ll use my power as President to get them out of the way.” Have you ever before heard a president threaten to remove governors elected by the citizens in their individual states?
Not content to threaten federal actions against state governors, Biden also doubled the fines on travelers who refuse to wear a mask on airplanes. Did you know that the rate of exchange on a large commercial jet aircraft is 20 air exchanges per hour during cruising? The only place with a comparable rate of air exchange is an operating room. Improved circulation is one of the best ways to fight Covid-spread in indoor environments.
There has not been one outbreak of Covid among passengers on an airplane, but the Federal government is busy regulating what everyone wears on their faces. Not only that, but they ridiculously and religiously require travelers to be six-feet apart as they wander through spacious airports, before packing them like sardines in the airplanes while they travel together for hours. Good thing they’re wearing those ineffective masks.
The arrogance and control that has been displayed throughout the pandemic is unprecedented. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki admitted in an October 12, 2021 press conference, “The President wants to make fundamental change in our economy, and he feels coming out of the pandemic is exactly the time to do that. And if we don’t do it now…we’re not going to have the same opportunity to do it for some time.” Wanting to make “fundamental change in our economy,” is a threat, not a promise of good things to come. Psaki essentially requoted the infamous phrase, “Never let a crisis go to waste.”
Candace Owens, in a recent piece for the Daily Wire, said her husband has family in Australia. Despite the lockdowns and face mask requirements, cases rose the highest they’ve ever been during the pandemic in September this year. But Australia, population 26 million, has had a 7-day moving average of Covid deaths below 15 for over a year. The increased cases did not increase hospitalizations or deaths. No matter. Australia remains a police state.
One family member recently wrote Owen’s husband about the decline in mental health of those around her, due to the pandemic mandates. She listed Covid regulations that are being enforced in Queensland:
Limited number of people allowed in your house
At various times, they are told no visitors
Funerals limited to between 5-10 people. Families have been refused access to attend funerals across state borders.
Curfews, with helicopters patrolling for violators
Not allowed to go past 5 kilometers from your home
Not allowed to sit down at many parks, beaches, and public spaces
No dancing
Only one person per household is allowed to go shopping for essentials, with the police checking purchases
International borders are closed. No one is allowed to leave the country.
Small businesses are shut down while big businesses are allowed to operate.
Citizens locked out of their home state are not allowed to return unless they get a vaccine or go through a slow, restrictive, exemption process.
Protests have been declared illegal, and police are allowed to pepper spray, tear gas, or fire rubber bullets at violators.
Owens asks, “Can anyone explain to me…in simple sentences why the Australian government is any better or any nobler than the Taliban? Both groups believe they have a right to oppress and imprison people for their own good.”
Owens states, “We all know the truth – that what is happening in Australia was meant to happen here in America. That this current totalitarian administration is fighting tooth and nail to trample state rights and federalize America. If it weren’t for Republican governors standing in the way – we’d be similarly stripped of our most basic individual freedoms.” Owens’ statement is not hyperbole, as we’ve observed in New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, New Orleans, and other areas where the decision-makers are acting like kings or warlords, not elected officials.
In addressing the pandemic response, public health policy expert Dr. Scott Atlas states, “We are in a country here that is founded on individual liberty. You have the liberty, the freedom to protect yourself, and that means you get the vaccine if you want, or you isolate yourself from large group events…You are welcome to wear six masks and stay at home, but the people who want to live in a free country they have rights…The selfish side are the people who are trying to tell other people what to do to protect them. What’s not selfish is to allow people to live freely.”
In summary, I’ll finish with another quote from Candace Owens: “We are in the midst of an ideological and psychological global war. It is a war being waged by governments all over the world, from here to Australia – against the very citizens they govern...Welcome to World War 3.”
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Edited 10-19-21 for clarity