Showing posts with label Covid. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Covid. Show all posts

February 13, 2022

Medicofascist mass-formation

“El Rucio” writes on Twitter:

The challenge for those responsible for 2 years of medicofascist lockdown and coercion, now that it is increasingly recognized to have been criminally useless, is to continue rallying their compliant servants against those who did not "follow the rules" –  [cont'd]

even against those who are only now giving up on them, pushing away the fear, not listening anymore, living their lives again. [cont'd]

The psychotic mass-formation is shifting from fear to resentment. The compliant aren't getting any reward beyond a self-satisfaction that is increasingly meaningless. To compensate, they need to see the less compliant punished. [cont'd]

As if everyone has not been punished already for 2 years.) The urgency for those responsible, however, is that more and more people know that /they/ should be punished. [cont'd]

They will go to war, they will destroy the economy, they will continue to destroy people's lives and livelihoods to avoid what is their due. The medicofascists are making their last desperate stand as full-throated fascists to stop that. And so they clinch their fates. [cont'd]

The truth of "The Pandemic" is now clear to all. Or rather, it is now being spoken openly and loudly, and those who did so much harm to people, to civilization itself, can no longer suppress it. The balance of power is shifting back to the people, [cont'd]

who have been openly denigrated and dismissed and mocked and abused by their own governments – and the entire courtier class (cf Gleichschaltung) – since 2016.

May 22, 2021

Definitely a cult

Paul Joseph Watson sez:

From gamergate to orange man bad to russia gate to muh white supremacists to corona, the infantilised permajuveniles have been drunk on moral panics and rampant hysteria since at least 2014. …

Right from the very start, while you constantly droned on about it not being a political symbol, it always was and still is a political symbol. …

It’s a high status symbol, a way to differentiate yourself from the eat filthy unmasked, a way to feel superior, a way to feel smug and self-satisfied while wallowing in your saviour complex delusion. As Revolver news summarises, ‘mask cultists believe they were devotees of science, but … the only thing they were devoted to was the mask, and the regime.‘

‘The obedient always think of themselves as virtuous rather than cowardly’ [Robert Anton Wilson].


April 15, 2021

Pandemania

A Critical Analysis of the Covid Response
Eine kritische Analyse der Covid-Strategie
Un análisis crítico de la respuesta al Covid

by Dr R. Iván Iriarte, MD, MS
29 March 2021

Since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 global pandemic, many issues have arisen that run contrary to historical precedents and known and practiced public health principles of the last century. This article discusses some of these issues: assumptions made without evidence, the incorrect case definition, PCR diagnostic test problems, the impact of these two factors on morbidity and mortality estimates, school closures, facemasks, lockdowns and their effects on children.

Assumptions about SARS-CoV-2 made without evidence – the creation of panic

Panic has been spread among the general population since the beginning of the pandemic, based on the idea of “asymptomatic transmission”. This idea was strongly influenced by a case report in Germany, in which an infection was attributed to contact with an asymptomatic person. Further investigation revealed that this person had actually been sick and had been suppressing her symptoms with medication. The original misleading paper was never rectified. Based on this, and limited case reports from China, the “experts” began to promote the idea that this virus behaves differently to other respiratory viruses. All prior knowledge indicates that epidemics are not driven by asymptomatic individuals. However, the decision-makers in this epidemic determined that this does not apply to COVID-19 and every single individual we encounter could be an infectious person capable of killing us. This is contrary to conventional reasoning in medicine and public health. Decisions have always been based on prior knowledge, until there is compelling evidence to disprove what we thought we knew. Articles in the literature have found that secondary transmission by asymptomatic individuals is very low. In a cohort study with a very large sample size, no one became infected among 1,174 contacts of 300 asymptomatic subjects who had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2.

Another assumption promoted by the “experts” in this epidemic is the idea that the general population would be immunologically “naive” to this virus and thus 100% susceptible to develop the disease. This is again not consistent with previous knowledge about human immunity to viral agents. Cross-immunity is a well-known fact. It is not reasonable to assume that the entire population is immunologically susceptible to SARS-CoV-2, when in fact it is very likely that many individuals have at least partial immunity to the virus due to prior infection with similar viruses or agents with similar antigenic properties. There are several studies showing that individuals have immunity to SARS-CoV-2 by T-cell mediated mechanisms.

Problems with the “case” definition

Over centuries of epidemic management, a case always constituted a sick individual who presented a series of established clinical criteria, confirmed – if deemed necessary – by a laboratory test. In the COVID-19 pandemic, a “case” has been redefined as anyone with a positive PCR test result, independent of clinical signs and symptoms. There is no historical precedent for defining a symptomless infection with a respiratory virus as a medical case.

The practice has been to report “new cases” every day based on positive test results and including asymptomatic individuals. Any person with even a rudimentary understanding of epidemiology knows that this is not how the incidence (new cases) of an illness is measured. Only the prevalence of positive test results is being measured every day. As we will see below, these results do not necessarily relate to infectiousness. The number of reported positive test results depends on the number of tests administered. When a high volume of tests are being administered, there will be a high number of positives. These positive test results are not “new medical cases” with the disease.

The correct way to estimate the disease incidence is to have doctors count and report subjects who are ill with characteristic symptoms and are then confirmed as COVID-19 cases through a positive test result. Incidence of hospitalizations should be reported in the same manner.

Problems with the PCR test

There are serious problems with the use of the PCR test on asymptomatic individuals. There is extensive literature that shows that the PCR test is not a “gold standard” for defining a case of disease and that it can have a high percentage of false positive results. It remains a well-known epidemiological principle that even with a highly sensitive and specific test, if the test is administered in a population with low disease or infection prevalence, there will be a relatively high percentage of false positive results.

This becomes even more problematic in light of the studies showing that at a high number of amplification cycles (as have been used during this pandemic) the PCR test detects RNA fragments that do not represent a viable virus. Authorities managing this epidemic have been identifying individuals who are healthy and do not present a risk to the community.

The research paper used by WHO at the beginning of 2020 to establish the PCR test as the primary criterion to diagnose COVID-19 was written by Corman, Drosten and several others. An independent panel of scientists found this work to contain a large number of flaws in its methodology and in the validity of the results. In addition, it was accepted for publication in a most irregular manner without the standard peer-review.

In a notice written on January 13, 2021, and published on January 20, 2021, WHO confirmed that PCR tests should not be used as the sole method of diagnosing COVID-19; they should only be used where clinical signs and symptoms are present; and they can yield false positive results at high amplification cycles. The package inserts accompanying PCR test kits state that the test should be administered only to patients with signs and symptoms suggestive of COVID-19.

Problems with estimates of morbidity and mortality indicators

It is evident that COVID-19 “cases” are being defined incorrectly. The logical conclusion is that there may be major errors in all reports of incidence, deaths and hospitalizations attributed to this disease. In the United States, anyone who dies with a recent positive PCR test for SARS-CoV-2 (up to 30 days prior to death) is counted as a COVID-19 death. CDC guidelines published in April 2020 encourage the reporting of COVID-19 as the underlying cause of death in circumstances where it played a role in the death, even without laboratory confirmation. It is unclear to what extent this was done in other countries as well. It is very important to investigate this matter, as the reported number of deaths attributed to COVID-19 is likely to be inflated.

Mitigation measures

World leaders believe – without evidence – that the way to mitigate the effects of the epidemic consists of imposing confinement measures, the generalized use of masks, restrictions on social activities, restrictions on mobility, business closures, curfews, school closures and more, including contact tracing and the quarantining of asymptomatic individuals. In the past the WHO established that the latter two measures should not be used under any circumstances. These measures were theorised to be effective without any evidence, and the potential harms caused by these policies were not calculated or taken into account. This goes against the fundamental principles of public health and medicine, which require the implementation of any intervention to be supported by evidence of its effectiveness. Any intervention should attempt to minimize the impact on the population’s daily life. The stated goal of all public health policy is to reduce total harm to the population, while considering a wide range of health, economic and social factors. The goal is not to reduce harm from a single disease only.

School closures – children are “granny killers”

The impact the epidemic response has had on children is one of the greatest disgraces in history. At the beginning of the COVID-19 epidemic, it was established that children mostly have a mild or asymptomatic presentation of the disease. However, decision-makers relentlessly promoted the idea that children, although they rarely get sick, are capable of infecting others. This unsupported idea was enough to order school closures and keep children away from their grandparents, as if they were potential “granny killers”. Studies show that children do not significantly transmit infection. Yet we already see the adverse effects that confinement and school closures have had on the mental health of children and adolescents. Sweden’s experience demonstrates that keeping schools open does not result in any excess morbidity or mortality in children or teachers. A recent article found that adults living in households with children actually have a lower risk of getting sick with COVID-19 than adults who live in households without children.

Mask use

There are many studies that show that masking is not effective in preventing infection transmission, except possibly in settings where there are sick individuals. A recent document published by WHO – in December 2020 – states that there is very inconsistent evidence proving the effectiveness of mask-wearing in the community for the prevention of respiratory virus infections, including COVID-19. When we compare the epidemic curves in places with and without mask mandates, the curves look similar. In fact, we observe a higher number of infections per 100,000 of the population in places with mask mandates.

The most important argument against the compulsory use of masks is simply the lack of evidence that anyone without symptoms walking around the community will be a contagious person. In public health management, sometimes it is appropriate to impose a certain measure upon an individual, for the common good, when there is evidence that the individual represents a major risk to the rest of the population. It is not acceptable, however, to restrict or impose a behavior on individuals without evidence that the individual represents a significant risk to the community, and that this measure will not harm the individual. It is very unlikely that an asymptomatic person is infectious. Therefore, it is unjustified to require everyone to wear a mask in the community, even if masks have shown some benefit when worn by individuals with symptoms. This argument becomes even stronger when we take the potential adverse effects of masks into consideration. These include symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, shortness of breath and other problems including psychological impact, acne, respiratory infections and dental problems.

Lockdowns

“Without lockdowns, the situation would have been worse”. This is the claim of lockdown advocates. However, this is the equivalent of administering treatment to a patient and claiming that despite a negative outcome the treatment is effective, because without the treatment the patient’s condition would have been even worse. Never in past epidemics or pandemics have lockdowns been imposed as a mitigation strategy over a large area or for a long period of time. Studies have shown that lockdowns cause unintended negative consequences to social well-being, mental health, physical health, mobility, employment, education, and the economy at large while undermining fundamental rights. Lockdown-induced deaths occur in younger people, causing an increase in total years of life lost. The comparison of epidemic curves in places with strict lockdowns and those with less stringent measures shows no significant differences in COVID-19 indicators. A simple cost-benefit analysis would clearly show that lockdown harms greatly outweigh any claimed benefits.

Summary

It is inexplicable that world governments and the “experts” advising them have chosen to completely ignore this information as if it did not exist, and persist in doing the following:

  1. Reporting “new cases” on a daily basis, using only PCR test results.
  2. Doing mass PCR testing, including asymptomatic individuals.
  3. Imposing quarantines on asymptomatic individuals based on a positive test result or history of exposure.
  4. Requiring the use of masks despite lack of evidence to support this mandate.
  5. Insisting that lockdowns are the way to mitigate the pandemic.

A course-correction in the management of this epidemic is urgently needed. The response to the COVID-19 epidemic should be based on reliable data and sound public health principles that have been practiced successfully for over a century. The following measures should be adopted immediately:

  1. Provide the public with accurate information about COVID-19 risk in order to reduce the fear.
  2. Cease the mass administration of diagnostic tests on asymptomatic individuals.
  3. Define cases according to clinical criteria – confirmed by laboratory tests. The determination of a case should be the decision of a duly licensed medical doctor.
  4. Use the case definition listed above to determine indicators such as new cases (incidence), hospitalizations and mortality.
  5. Establish measures to protect vulnerable individuals.
  6. Encourage the population to take hygiene measures such as hand washing, covering the mouth when coughing and staying at home when sick.
  7. Open schools, businesses and travel.

These measures are described in a published document by Pandemics Data & Analytics titled: “Protocol for Reopening Society”.

[References are available at the original.]

April 3, 2021

Covid, fetishism, fear → hatred

I am so sick of the masking charade. I am not diseased. You are not diseased. (No more than usual.) It’s like people just learned about the germ theory and something they've lived with forever is now seen as a deadly threat. It's pathetic and idiotic. The people pushing it are simply evil: manipulative psychopaths insisting that people fear each other. And demonize those who don't play along.

It’s particularly appalling that so much of the health care industry has participated in the panic. They have destroyed any good reputation they have had.

Even if Covid-19 were an especial threat, masking and distancing are almost completely useless. But after a few weeks in 2020, it was clear that it was not a threat at all for most of the population – particularly the young – and effective prevention and treatment were soon established for the rest, though denied and still denigrated by the opportunistic psychopaths who prefer to keep people living in fear. The mask is today’s version of a string of garlic. It is a fetish, a talisman.

And now the vaccines (of unknown efficacy, for just one of the thousands of viruses we live – yes, live – with) are clinching the whole charade’s purpose of separating an imagined unclean class from the clean, the blessed, those who walk in grace. The vaccine is another fetish. Instead of determining actual need – like, maybe you’re at virtually no serious risk if you contract the virus, or maybe you’ve already carried the virus and therefore already have the antibodies that the vaccine is supposed to stimulate production of (and a reminder here that asymptomatic people don’t spread it, and that even symptomatic people don’t spread it except with longer close contact than passing someone in the grocery aisle or even chatting with them for a few minutes) – instead of determining actual need, or weighing risk vs theoretical benefit, for each potential recipient, the vaccine has become a salvatory elixir. And those who refuse to take it will be pariahs, shunned from society, barred from jobs, shopping, dining and drinking and entertainment, travel, etc, life itself.

It’s all so sickening: the barriers both literal and figurative that have been thrown up between us all.

August 19, 2020

Fear and Loathing

There are two kinds of totalitarianism: that modeled by Orwell’s 1984, and that model by Huxley’s Brave New World. Each of them justifies itself as bulwark against the other, against (to oversimply) decadence on one hand and deprivation on the other. The consumerism of the West (decadence!) has indeed ushered us in the direction of a Huxleyan technocracy, but it seems to have taken a diabolic turn with the exploitation of victimhood as a supreme marker of social worth.

Victimhood is thus eagerly embraced as a means of removing anyone who stands in the way of one’s advancing in an institution (academia, business, politics). But it also condemns one to continued victimhood: The Huxleyan machine offers protection, salvation, validation, just sign over your privacy and freedom, both physical and of thought.

And that’s how MeToo, BLM, and Covid lockdown/mask/vaccine mania intersect with globalist neoliberalism and imperial neoconservatism. We’re just demographics in their ad and PR campaigns, their nonsensical consultancies.

Classic advertising plays to status anxiety – that you’re losing out, but you can buy in – and political advertising often plays to outright fear – that you’re losing out owing to the actions of others. With Brexit, Trump, and other successful uprisings against globalism, the ruling elites and their courtiers have panicked. Their fear of losing some of their power, their sense of superiority, has been transferred to a campaign of public fear-mongering that has continued to intensify over the years, especially as Trump’s reelection and the actual implementation of Brexit loom.

In addition to redirecting their own fear to social issues, they have engaged in a campaign of hate, transferring their own status fears to smearing the supporters of Brexit and Trump and anyone who questions the neolib/neocon program of the past four decades, to blaming and mocking the victims of globalism for being at all angry about their privilege (their one-time sense of economic security). And so, lest they be aligned with the losers, so many people align with their victimizers, cheering on their own debasement.

It has succeeded in its goal of making people increasingly more hysterical, irrational, filled with rage and fear. All of us dying in 10 years because of climate change wasn’t enough: now we’re all going to die if you don’t wear a mask! (and even then, stay at least 2 meters away!) Above all, Trump wants you to die! And everyone who does not denounce Trump is your mortal enemy, an agent of sexist and racist hate and genocide.

They have pathologized social interaction and economic life. They have revived racism as a driving force of unrest. They have made a mockery of true grievance and injustice. They have debased politics as well as themselves.

And they will take us all down with them. They have made us hate and fear not only each other, but ourselves as well.