Buy our cough drops, they will protect you against covid or the alternative narrative, don’t get vaccinated unless you want your cell reception to improve. Both are equally dangerous statements and while the first is actively policed and even prosecuted in the US, the second passes with only slight censorship. This needs to change!
I’ve just come off a DM chat on Twitter with my Medika Life co-founder Dr Jeff Livingston. The subject of our quick chat was Covid, or more accurately, the stupidity surrounding it. The misinformation. We made it one of our missions when we founded Medika to combat quacks and charlatans who take advantage of an unsuspecting and often vulnerable public. We’ve been relatively successful in drawing people’s attention, via our Quack Scale.
Then, on a rainy day, along came Covid, and with it a sea of people who suddenly felt qualified to express opinions on subjects in which they have no formal training. They do, however, possess a plethora of agendas. none of which have anything to do with public safety.
We’re used to this. We deal with it every day in relation to “health experts” misquoting published papers and appropriating data for use in a way in which it was never intended. There is a playbook, common ploys like stating a fact that lends credence to the fiction you then begin to sprout. Establishing fear in your target market and then offering an out, 99% of the time, via something you’re selling.
What we weren’t prepared for when covid struck was the sheer scale. Combatting this sea of covid misinformation has become both emotionally and physically draining. It’s the same thing, over and over with no foreseeable end in sight. You could almost prepare a xeroxed response and just change the names.
These misinformation strategies feature attacks on the actual validity of the virus and its origins, conspiracy theories surrounding medical staff killing off people in hospitals for payment, mask-related rubbish to convince people to “go commando” in public, and of late, the vaccines. The vaccines, the vaccines, the vaccines.
I am in the process of writing an article fact-checking the latest misguided medical voice, Geert Vanden Bossche, who is suggesting vaccines will end humanity, but never fear, he has a solution, his type of vaccine strategy. Color me surprised (not really). His clear agenda and total transparency of motive make the article painful to write, but it needs to be done. Persecution will follow rapidly on the heels of publication.
Dealing with the fallout
The price you pay for attacking these “covid experts” differs dramatically from the normal quacks we deal with. I use the term “attacking” rather than “discrediting” intentionally because this is how their supporters view any opinions that are critical of their work.
The responses to an article, for instance, on a run-of-the-mill quack like Joseph Mercola, are timid in comparison to the types of responses we get for discrediting the covid crowd.
The quack responses are often polite, questioning, point to legitimate research, and ask pertinent questions with a view to pursuing further debate or supporting their opinion. Where there is a willingness to engage in discourse, there is an opportunity to engender change, to educate, and to foster patient safety.
Covid conspiracy theorists and vaccine debunkers are an entirely different species. They are militant, aggressive, unpleasant, and threatening from the get-go. These are the same individuals who would not look out of place in a red MAGA cap, toting automatic weapons in public at a Trump rally, heaven forbid we are ever exposed to that again.
And this time, they’re spread across the globe, with rapidly emerging clusters or powerbases forming. Canada, you’re so guilty you’re smoking. Their desire is not to raise valid, science-based concerns to enable free and open discourse. They exist solely to destabilize the public narrative, at any cost and it is for this reason they need to be de-platformed.
There is no interest in public health, they seek only to further destabilize and fragment our societies.
Any article we now publish looking to discredit covid debunkers is met with a froth of very unpleasant vitriol, threatening, and personal attacks. Most we don’t read and simply bin as the trash they are. The first few lines always indicate the intent. These cells of supporters are on a Holy Crusade and we’re the unfortunate disbelievers.
Don’t get me wrong, we don’t take these to heart. It comes with the territory and we accept it as a known risk for trying to deplatform these misinformed misinformationists. It is however the sheer volume of new dissenters willing to step into the breach that’s depressing, and it’s reflective of our society’s inability to deal with its own frailty and seeking sense and scapegoats for the perceived misery.
They’re pissed at the “Man” and as the vaccine is the “Man’s” product, it’s the easiest place to attack him. Hit him where it hurts and be remorseless. The fact they are endangering their fellow human beings is lost on them. It is a war and they see an exposed flank They are circling, like ravenous hyenas, and every now and then one steps forward to attack, egged on by the baying hounds behind him.
As always, the easiest targets are government, the establishment, and big pharma. Big brother. While I’m the first to hold up a hand and admit these power bases do nothing to elicit trust in the general public, this simple fact does not make them guilty of a global campaign to re-engineer humanity.
Pharma is simply a financial machine looking to maximize their profits, and the current pandemic has saved the fortunes of many pharma companies and in some cases spectacularly reversed them for the better.
No one, except an idiot, makes a profit once and in doing so destroys their future market. Pharma needs you alive and very much kicking so they can continue to sell to you, so they can continue to profit. To suggest any other agenda is to suggest complicity on a scale that we have proved ourselves hopelessly incapable of.
Seriously. We can’t even agree on a decimal or imperial system but suddenly the whole world is onboard to change our human physiology? Get a life!
A little help here?
To get back to the cough drops I opened with. It is against federal law to advertise products that offer treatment or cure for Covid. The FDA and DOJ have issued dozens of warnings over the last few months, instructing companies and individuals to remove the misleading statements and advertising from their websites and marketing, or else.
There is an obvious danger here they’ve sought to address. Telling someone they are safe when in fact, the mechanism you’ve sold them to ensure their safety is unproven and untested. Victims of these blatant cons are as prone to contracting covid as any one of us.
I would argue that making false statements suggesting the vaccines contain tracking chips, interact with 5G, and will make you spout a tail and horns are in fact as dangerous, if not more so than the cough drop scenario. Discouraging one person in an at-risk category to avoid taking the vaccine because of your wild and unproven claims is potentially murder. You may as well have shot the person yourself. It is that simple.
We live in a world where respect is an outdated concept. Respect for life and for individual choice. Actively trying to enforce a point of view that places life and limb at mortal risk is irresponsible and, despite my inclination towards open and uncensored media, needs to be addressed with harsh penalties and possible imprisonment.
In the meanwhile, while the snail we call the government struggles to keep pace with social media, the responsibility of calling out these dangerous purveyors of falsehoods falls on the shoulders of the medical profession. They are ill-suited caretakers, their profession engendering a sense of caution and avoidance of public confrontation. Many have bravely broken free of this mold and are speaking out, trying to counter the lies with science-based facts and evidence.
The responsibility should not be left to these few souls. The media have been far too quiet in condemning medical charlatans. Ignoring them isn’t the answer and simply allows their bases to grow. They need to be publicly and loudly disavowed. Government, mainstream media, and common-sense need to come to the party. NOW.
