The Last Post

This is probably the last post where I will talk about anything covid related, which actually is a bit ironic because I’ve had something to say about the management of covid since the mystery illness first appeared. Of course, during the first two years, it was impossible to question the dominant narrative of fear, death and Big Pharma. Now that some (not all) of the censorship has been rolled back, and we can finally speak about the ‘rona years, there’s so much to say, and also so much fatigue about the whole issue that it’s quite hard to write anything coherent that sums up two years of madness in a page or two.

Canada's Chief Public Health Officer, who has advised to skip kissing, while insisting on wearing a mask during sexual activities in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19

In leiu of coherence, which I don’t have even in my own mind, I’m going to put down a bunch of bullet points and leave the topic forever. This does not mean I am in favour of a “covid amnesty.” Enormous mistakes were made and leaving those mistakes unexamined means we will simply repeat them next time the WHO (a conflicted if not outright captured agency) cries “virus”. If you trace, historically, the public health/government response to similar health scares, it’s obvious that as time passes, the government response has become more and more extreme without a consequent increase in public health. In fact, public health has deteriorated markedly in the last 50 years. At this point, if you are not questioning how public health functions, you probably need to sit in the corner for a bit and do some serious thinking.

1. The Keskt CNC Insitute tracks public opinion on the ‘rona. In July 2020, they surveyed European populations and found that the general population overestimated both the spread of ‘rona (number of infections) and the fatality rate due to ‘rona, by factors ranging from 4 to 300 times greater than those numbers actually were. Death rates across all European countries were overestimated by, at a minimum 100 times and at a maximum 300 times. Fear porn works.

2. John Ionnaidis of Stanford University (pre-pandemic one of the world’s pre-eminent epidemiologists – he was knocked off that peg because he wanted science not hysteria to prevail) noted that the average age of death due to ‘rona during the pandemic equaled the average age of death pre-pandemic. All but the most bleary thinkers should be able to understand what that means.

3. Over half a million scientific papers have been published about ‘rona. Almost all of those would be better used to paper the bottom of the budgie cage than used to guide public policy. I’m almost, but not quite (the budgie cage is my addition) quoting Ionnaidis. There has been a deluge of extremely poor quality papers that show nothing at all but are trotted out to suit whatever bias the purveyor of such junk believes.

4. Medicine is not a bias free field. Huge financial incentives govern what gets studied, what gets published and what makes it’s way into the public space. Bizarrely, medicine, science, the public all ignore the effect of incentives even though we all know that incentives are one of the most effective ways to influence human behavior.

5. Medical science is almost completely dominated by Big Pharma and industry who fund not only the trials that get done but the regulatory agencies. Regulatory agencies in the developed world are, at this point, completely captured and dependent on Big Pharma for funding. The staff rotate between staff positions on the various regulatory boards and the boards of Big Pharma, the very industry they are supposed to regulate. If you don’t believe this, you are probably going to wander down to the back garden tonight to look for leprechauns.

6. Big Pharma has an appalling history of corruption and malfeasance. It’s hard to imagine that 2020 was the watershed year when all that changed.

7. Absolute false-hoods – your Mum called them lies and gave you a clip across the ear – are being told by both sides in the ‘rona wars. Very often these are easily disproven, often in mere minutes. This has recently made the Twitter rounds. It’s not true, or at least the statement is unable to be shown to be true because the five pages that deal with masking in the report have been redacted. Don’t believe me. I mean, really don’t believe. Check for yourself. Always check for yourself.¹

8. Among the most egregiously poor studies are the modelling studies. Unfortunately, we are still swamped with modelling studies. Many, maybe even most claims about the prevalence of long covid are based on modelling. Note that I am not saying long covid does not exist. Long term symptoms/syndromes have been known historically to follow many viral infections; there is every reason to believe that the ‘rona, like other viruses will result in long duration symptoms in some individuals. Modelling, however, provides no information about the true prevalence. Most of the modelling done to date has been shit.

9. Marcia Angell, former Editor in Chief at the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine wrote in 2009: "It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of The New England Journal of Medicine." Things have got worse.

10. There was massive collusion and censorship among the big tech companies (think Metaverse, Google, Twitter), main stream media (MSM) and the government to shut down any dissenting voices during the height of the ‘rona crisis. This included shutting down not only on theories that most of us would deem a “bit out there” (like 5G chips being implanted) but also the voices of highly respected scientists (for example, John Ionnaidis) who called for caution when implementing highly destructive policies to curb the spread of ‘rona. Jacinda Arden is famously remembered for her chilling statement that “we will continue to be your one source of truth.” There is no truth in science, and even if there was, it’s highly unlikely that the New Zealand Government (or any government) is in possession of that truth. Science is about testing, questioning and retesting. We are all the poorer for two years of outrageous censorship. Adults have lost the ability to think for themselves, people have been scared out of proportion to the actual risk (see points one and two above), and we’ve all lost any confidence at all in public health and government officials (admittedly, I had little to start with).

I have been astonished at the things people have come to believe during the ‘rona times, but also astonished by the echo chamber people have deliberately decided to live in. One of the key capacities which should separate adults from children is that we are able to consider opposing ideas, sometimes, even hold two opposing ideas at the one time, and most of life, deal with uncertainty. It is comforting to rush into the proverbial arms of the Blue Check covid-warriors who pronounce with utter certainty that “masks stop the spread” (unlikely given what we know), or that Hepa works, long covid is a pandemic itself, there are no vaccine injuries, lockdowns are effective etc., etc. Conversely, not every sudden death is due to the vaccine, no-one has been micro-chipped, mRNA vaccines are not gene therapy, etc. etc.

If you are an adult, part of being an adult is taking a critical look at the latest crazy idea to cross your field of vision. It is tiring, always being on guard against misinformation and the legions of vested interests whose goal is manipulation, mostly for profit, sometimes for actual malfeasance. Consider this intellectual investment akin to exercise done for the body, only it is exercise for the mind.

1There is a similar story going around about the ‘rona being the third leading cause of death in Australia. It’s not and again, it is very easy to check as the government publishes the statistics regularly.