Like an annoying foot fungus that just refuses to die, these quacks, armchair experts, so-called health gurus, and, yes, even doctors (interject a sad sigh at this point) have continued to issue dire warnings about the end of humanity.

We aren’t going to all perish from Covid of course (they will all tell you it actually doesn’t exist) but from the vaccines and evil Orwellian plots hatched by mad scientists and power-hungry politicians hell-bent on re-ordering the world. It is mass genocide or at best genetic re-engineering of the species, according to their siren song.

Clearly pissed that their Netflix subscriptions have lapsed, these individuals have taken it on themselves to weave their own tales of fantasy and fiction. Each new ‘series’ has its own plotline, villains, and heroes, and of course, is set in their version of a dystopian world. The same place most of us currently consider home.

The pitfall of calling tomorrow

If you’re trying to establish yourself as a seer of the future, you’re best suited to picking your predictions for a time that postdates your demise. The turn of the century, remember the impending global meltdown, and 2012 with those pesky Mayans and their calenders, just two classics that spring to mind.

Unless you’re onto a sure thing, outliving your predictions generally tends to be awkward and it’s been no different for our intrepid group of Covid naysayers and end-of-world scriptwriters. One by one, their predictions have come to naught. Nada. Nothing. Their predictions have exposed them for the true fraudsters and charlatans they really are.

Hindsight really is a bitch and in this instance, a highly effective antifungal. Rember the foot fungus analogy?

So just how have these con artists been proven wanting by the passage of time? We investigated a few of our older friends that we fact-checked months ago. It’s interesting to note how in many instances the original claims (ain’t digital history a bitch) made by many of these individuals have been subtly refined over time to accommodate for that annoying little thing called being horribly wrong.

Geert Van Den Bossche

You can read our original article on Van den Bossche here. In a simplified nutshell, Van Den Bossche’s pitch was based on selling us his version of a vaccine (the grift) after convincing us that mainstream vaccines (the competition) were going to cause a mutated virus that would end humanity. So, nearly a year later, or eighteen months on, in the case of trial candidates, where are we?

Aside from racking up an impressive amount of internet traffic from gullible and trusting souls seeking an explanation for their pandemic-induced misery, Van Den Bossche’s theory has so far proven completely unfounded. Despite having half the human population (that’s how many are now vaccinated) as incubators, Van Den Bosch’s killer virus appears to have gone golfing.

Perhaps he’d be better placed if he joined it.

Reiner Fuellmich

The punchline to possibly the worst legal joke ever constructed, Fuellmich propelled himself into popular conspiracy culture in early 2021. His rise was meteoric and his fanbase legion. We called bullshit early and have paid the price ever since, receiving literally thousands of comments and emails wishing us well (not really).

Fuellmich wanted, and we assume still does until the next best thing comes along, to sue the world for the SARS-CoV2 virus, claiming it didn’t really exist, Covid, according to Fuellmich wasn’t dangerous and lockdowns and mask had somehow managed to elevate themselves from effective countermeasures against a viral pandemic to crimes against humanity.

Not even the unfortunate Geneva Convention could escape Fuellmichs manic ambitions as he invoked ludicrously inappropriate responses to what he claimed were atrocities against humanity. You can see, of course, how people would lap this stuff up and why he’s developed such a devout following. People want a scapegoat to pin their misery on and who better than the large faceless behemoth we call modern society and all its appendages.

Eight months later and our intrepid attorney has made zero forward progress, mired as he is in the conspiracy circuit, his followers proving that the worshippers really do define the cult. Associate yourself with the chaff and the swine will feed.

Time has already eroded this deluded German’s fairytale and the lasting legacy of Fuellmich will undoubtedly be as the world’s most audacious and ambitious legal fraudster of all time. He really has raised the bar (pun intended).

America’s Frontline Doctors

I’ve included these grifters as a simple example of training wheels. They are by no means in the class of Fuellmich or Van Den Bossche, as their motives and narrative are simplistic and as transparent as daylight, but it doesn’t make them any less dangerous and as doctors, sworn to uphold the best interest of their patients, their actions are reprehensible.

Essentially, the group is a collection of morally bankrupt doctors who have clubbed together to fleece the public during the pandemic by selling them unproven treatments.

They aren’t alone and there are other similar groups that operate, but this group is perhaps most prominent on social media, thanks to its more than dubious membership, which includes the January 6 revolutionary, Dr. Simone Gold, currently under FBI investigation.

Their claims are simplistic – Buy Hydroxychloroquine or Ivermectin from us online. It works to cure Covid and the government and the media don’t want you to know about it. They have partnered with an equally unethical pharmaceutical supplier called Ravkoo Pharmacy and the two parties grift their merry way through the pandemic, fleecing gullible and vulnerable patients online.

Sadly, many bought into their lies, but time has exposed just how dodgy their business model is, false claims aside. You can read the reviews here from dissatisfied customers who lose their money and never receive anything.

In terms of their actual claims about these drugs treating Covid we now know beyond a reasonable doubt, they don’t help. Here’s the latest on Ivermectin and how we’ve been fooled into thinking the drug has benefits against Covid.

How have vaccine fairy tales faired?

Elon Musk is advertising for vaccinated astronauts with cellphones to man his Mars mission. Apparently, the vaccines boost reception.

Complete nonsense of course, but believed by many. People have, over the course of the pandemic proven themselves more than capable of believing in pretty much anything, no matter how ‘out there’ it sounds, and much of what floats about in the conspiracy ecosphere really is ‘out there’. Way out. The fact that much of this nonsense has been amplified by seemingly sane medical professionals doesn’t help.

In no particular order, here are some of the insane theories that have proven to be completely unfounded over time. Keep in mind we’ve just vaccinated half the world’s population.

• the vaccines will magnetize your body (this actually sounds useful)
• the vaccines contain trackers that allow the government to monitor your movement
• The vaccines interact with 5G cell towers
• We are all going to turn into genetically modified lizards
• The vaccine will render all women sterile (arguably not a bad thing if you consider the stupidity above)

My most recent favorite comes from a doctor, Ben Marble, whose license to practice was revoked in one state in 2012 and he has now resumed his less than illustrious career in Florida (where else).

Where to start. Aside from the fact Twitter clearly isn’t policing anti-vax posts aggressively enough, a simple observation. “All Americans” would, I assume include almost every race-based classification of humanity that exists on the planet. Ergo, everyone will die. It’s this kind of stupidity that almost beggars belief. Who would set about wiping out the entire human species? Doesnt really leave you with anyone to exploit, does it?

Does Marble think the virus does a nationality check first, weighs its intended victim, and then checks for skin color? Do you hear that knocking at the door doctor? It’s the men with the white coats and they’ve got a cozy, padded 3 x 3 waiting just for you.

Not one, in other words, NONE of the ridiculous claims made over the vaccines have come to fruition, despite them being administered in billions, and yet, people still choose to believe they pose a risk to us. People still choose to believe the virus does not pose a threat.

I’ll leave you with a very succinct line I saw recently on a Twitter profile.

𝚈𝚘𝚞 𝚌𝚊𝚗’𝚝 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚘𝚗 𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚊 𝚙𝚘𝚜𝚒𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚢 𝚍𝚒𝚍𝚗’𝚝 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚘𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚖𝚜𝚎𝚕𝚟𝚎𝚜 𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚘…

Apparently, hindsight is equally useless.

The post Calling Tomorrow. Has Time Proven Covid Quacks and Conspiracy Theorists Right or Wrong? appeared first on Medika Life.

In late March of 2021, I wrote an article that highlighted the problems with Vanden Bossche’s theories (there are numerous) about the runaway evolution of the coronavirus if we continue with widespread vaccination. My article debunked numerous points, for instance, an immunology faux-pas he made that would make a first-year immunology student cringe in shame(he shows a dendritic cell activating an NK cell via antigen presentation) and more. You can read said article here.

This article won’t deal with his erroneous claims, we’ve done that already, but rather seek to examine how a literal nobody in the world of science has managed to propel himself to stardom (albeit notorious) in the space of a few weeks on the back of a clearly flawed paper, intentionally withheld from the peer review process for obvious reasons. Vanden Bossche isn’t out to save the world, he’s out to fleece it. Academia doesn’t pay enough.

Vanden Bossche, the marketing monster

In a self-marketing feat that would have left the likes of Apple and Samsung spinning their wheels in his dust, Geert Vanden Bossche has managed to create an iconic brand literally overnight. He portrays the image of a gentle, yet friendly and always reasonable scatterbrained professor. His hair is always a little unkept, a tip of the hat to his rebellious, but carefully controlled nature and his meticulously managed public persona just yells “trust me, I’m a doctor”.

And people apparently do, buying into both his image and his version of science. By the millions. Americans love him and well they should, given their established proclivity for drama, conspiracy, and anti-establishment propaganda. Canada follows hotly on their heels. Vanden Bossche has human nature on his side and is well aware of it. Everything he does, the language he uses, and the way he presents both himself and his theories, suggest he is all too well aware.

If he’d published his paper, created a furor, and then disappeared back into the academic obscurity from whence he came, we may even have credited him with possibly believing in the work he had published, flawed though it is. BUT HE HAS’NT. and that speaks volumes. It raises serious questions about the man, his motivation, and his plans for book deals, speaking appearances, and perhaps, dare he dream it, a movie offer. I can see the title now, “The Virologist that broke American Healthcare”.

Remember, just in case you’re tempted to confuse Vanden Bossche with a world-class microbiologist/virologist, he is actually board certified in Veterinary Virology, Microbiology, and Animal Hygiene, hasn’t published a research paper since 1995, and appears to have forgotten the basic activation mechanisms for an NK cell. But he’s not letting these minor obstacles stand in his way.

geertvandenbossche.org

Lo and behold, what should pop out of the digital ether this March but none other than Geert Vanden Bossche. His domain, geertvandenbossche.com was registered on the 14th of March 2021. Suddenly, and very coincidentally, his sudden interest to develop a website coincided with the release of his controversial “paper”. What follows is nothing short of spectacular and his epically flawed “scientific” dissection of mass vaccination pales in comparison.

From Zero to Anti-Hero in the blink of an eye. Vanden Bossche has managed to propel his previously non-existent website from total obscurity, 0 out 30 million websites to an Alexa ranking globally of 454,315. Even more impressive is the time scale. In less than two months, he now boasts being the 129,013 most read website in the US and in Canada, that figure shoots up to 32,015. Apparently, the only people who are bigger suckers than the Americans for a good Covid conspiracy are the Canadians.

To put the achievement below into proper context, he has skipped right past 29 646 000 other websites to achieve his current ranking, such is the volume of traffic he currently enjoys, traffic that mostly originates from Northern America.

Want to know where his traffic specifically comes from? Available statistics show Google sending him 31% of his traffic and Twitter accounts for 14.3%. Where do his visitors primarily go after spending an average of 1 minute 27 seconds on the site? Youtube, of course, 21.2% of his visitors head straight for his videos. The rest of his traffic, which equates to millions of views daily, isn’t available, isn’t analyzable, that how recent his success has been. Most platforms need at least three months of data to generate figures.

We have a pretty good idea where the other traffic is coming from though, having run a few backlink checks on his domain. Almost every single anti-vaxx website, alternate health website, covid conspiracy website, and even radical, Republican funded qanon styled sites have adopted Vanden Bossche, propelling him overnight to international digital stardom and enabling (which is their actual goal) the dissemination of his divisive articles and videos to a large audience. They believe they’re using Vanden Bossche to further their own agendas.

I suspect exactly the opposite is true. I think, and I’m not alone in this assumption, that Vanden Bossche has an ulterior motive and its financial. As we’ve already stated, he is intelligent and driven, but not by an altruistic desire to save his fellow man from the impending vaccine catastrophe he has prophesized.

Rather, it is to sell the world an alternative vaccine, designed and developed by none other than Vanden Bossche himself.

If you think this is a ridiculous proposition, we suggest your read up on the disgraced Andrew Wakefield, the king of the vaccine con and arguably the founder of the anti-vaxx movement. Ironic that both mens’ attempts to enrich themselves have led to a slavelike following of individuals apparently devoid of independent thought. In fact, Wakefield may very well have provided a blueprint for Vanden Bossche’s scam, the two appear similar.

The Fool-Proof Con

Vanden Bossche has created the ultimate medical con, one that is sufficiently complex to prevent his victims (the general public) from understanding it and they are therefore dependant on accepting his individual and professional credentials which on the surface appear beyond reproach. Vanden Bossche maintains an air of absolute conviction and professional dependability throughout, selling himself and by association, his ideas.

It would have been possible for him to explain his concept in far simpler terms, but it’s noticeable that these simpler phrases are retained for the shock statements, the warnings, and the “dire consequences”. The paper he created was never intended for professional dissemination and would have been ripped to pieces by his colleagues. It was designed entirely for you, dear reader. for the general public, to flummox and confuse, and judging by the interest he has generated, it’s been a spectacular success.

When it comes to this kind of work, never trust the man, trust the science. And science has proven him to be an incontrovertible fake.

Time is fleeting

And Vanden Bossche has a limited supply of it. In another six -12 months, the glaring flaws in his arguments are going to become apparent as the world does not succumb to his predicted supervirus. Also, his new conspiracy fans are a fickle mob, driven by whatever is trending on social media. In two months’ time, he’s going to be old news and it may very well be this aspect that has prompted America to do almost nothing to counteract his wild claims.

The statistics shown above indicate just how mistaken the American approach to Vanden Bossch has been. Since early April and probably well into June, he will continue to spread disinformation and distrust in the vaccines at an unprecedented rate, encouraging millions to reconsider getting vaccinated and contributing to the American failure to reach herd level immunization. Of course, Vanden Bossche can’t be credited with single-handedly contributing to America’s vaccine hesitancy.

There has been a continuous and sustained attack on vaccines almost since the idea for rapid vaccine development was first floated in early 2020. What we do know is that Vanden Bossche offer s a unique opportunity to study this model of medical quackery that is driven by greed and personal enrichment. His website and strategy show just how vulnerable international medical strategies can be to a concerted and well-supported propaganda attack.

America is about to discover just how much money they are going to have to fork out to try and undo the impact of one, Geert Vanden Bossche. Money that could have spent on healthcare, saving lives. Ensuring a mother from a disadvantaged community received enough pre-delivery care to save her and her child. Somehow, I doubt Vanden Bossche has trouble falling asleep at night. He just doesn’t seem the type.

Whoever is tasking with holding these quacks and con-artists accountable in a post-pandemic society (people will demand it), may not view him as kindly. He has blood on his hands and his words and advice continue to claim lives.

The post How Geert Vanden Bossche is Destroying American Herd Immunity appeared first on Medika Life.

World renown vaccine specialist, Geert Vanden Bossche, gave a groundbreaking interview this week risking his reputation and his career by bravely speaking out against administration of #Covid19 vaccines. In what may be one of the most important stories ever covered by The Highwire, the vaccine developer shared his extreme concerns about these vaccines in particular and why we may be on track to creating a global immunity catastrophe.

We aren’t going to bother linking to the “brave, reputation-risking” Vanden Bossche article. If you want to waste your time reading it, you can always find it on his 12-day old Twitter account, if it hasn’t been suspended by now, or on one of the many channels promoting anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theories, just scroll down to A for Alien-Abductions and Anti-Vaxxers.

Vanden Bossche has gone to great lengths to explain to us in his opening statement that he is definitely not anti-vaccine. No sir, not in a month of Sundays. Not little old me. Our response? Thou doth protest too much. Here’s an exert of just how much he in fact protests.

I am all but an antivaxxer. As a scientist I do not usually appeal to any platform of this kind to make a stand on vaccine-related topics. As a dedicated virologist and vaccine expert I only make an exception when health authorities allow vaccines to be administered in ways that threaten public health, most certainly when scientific evidence is being ignored. The present extremely critical situation forces me to spread this emergency call. As the unprecedented extent of human intervention in the Covid-19- pandemic is now at risk of resulting in a global catastrophe without equal, this call cannot sound loudly and strongly enough.

As stated, I am not against vaccination. On the contrary, I can assure you that each of the current vaccines have been designed, developed and manufactured by brilliant and competent scientists. However, this type of prophylactic vaccines are completely inappropriate, and even highly dangerous, when used in mass vaccination campaigns during a viral pandemic. Vaccinologists, scientists and clinicians are blinded by the positive short-term effects in individual patents, but don’t seem to bother about the disastrous consequences for global health. Unless I am scientifically proven wrong, it is difficult to understand how current human interventions will prevent circulating variants from turning into a wild monster.

Racing against the clock, I am completing my scientfic manuscript, the publication of which is, unfortunately, likely to come too late given the ever increasing threat from rapidly spreading, highly infectious variants. This is why I decided to already post a summary of my findings as well as my keynote speech at the recent Vaccine Summit in Ohio on LinkedIn. Last Monday, I provided international health organizations, including the WHO, with my analysis of the current pandemic as based on scientifically informed insights in the immune biology of Covid-19.

Sadly for Vanden Bossche, this is an all too familiar tactic employed by almost every single critic of the covid vaccine and laughably, even some anti-vaxxers. In fact, his whole concept looks and sounds suspiciously plagiarized. Perhaps Dr.Hooman Noorchashm might consider legal action if he doesn’t have his hands too full right now.

Take these points raised by David Gorski on his blog, in an article that thoroughly eviscerates our European “expert”.

Like Dr. Noorchashm, Dr. Vanden Bossche has not published his concerns in the scientific literature. Like Dr. Noorchashm, Dr. Vanden Bossche bases his concerns not on data, but theoretical “basic science” concerns about immunology. Like Dr. Noorchashm, Dr. Vanden Bossche has sounded his “warning” to various health authorities. Like Dr. Noorchashm, Dr. Vanden Bossche has taken to social media to air his concerns, and his message has been enthusiastically embraced by anti-vaxxers:

Vanden Bossche has published a scant amount of work, and tellingly he chooses predatory publishers like Longdom, owner of the Journal of Vaccines & Vaccination. It’s a dubious publication at best and is listed as predatory on Beals List. Longdom Publishing enjoys no credibility as a medical publisher, and articles are not peer-reviewed or exposed to scrutiny. 

Why not choose recognized and peer-reviewed journals to publish into? Well, if the work you’re publishing is dubious, not based on evidence but rather wild conjecture you’ve formulated in your own mind and not scientifically tested in the real world, well then Predatory publications are the way to go, followed by the hugely reliable, science-based platform of social media and the anti-vaxxer vlog circuit.

Here is an open question to Vanden Bossche. If you’re so eager not to be perceived as an anti-vaxxer why have you climbed into bed with them, why do you align yourself with people like Bigtree, Wakefield, and Robert F. Kennedy, Jnr, who actively seek to undermine the science of vaccines? I’m really interested to know? Are they simply using you and you’re too stupid to see it or was their bus the only one that stopped to pick you up? I suspect the latter.

I’ve decided to opt for a different approach on this article and will, instead of trying to disassemble the fictional ramblings of Vanden Bossche, allow others, more knowledgable in the field, to step into the breach. Many experts (real ones) have already taken the article to pieces, explaining in scientific (real science) terms why Vanden Bossche is deluded. 

There another reason for this approach. Vanden Bossche bases his claims on well-established and accepted vaccine science. He is intimately familiar with his topic and if you wish to understand exactly why his statements and warnings are completely fanciful, you will need a far more detailed explanation than we are able to provide here. Fortunately, very qualified individuals have stepped forward and provided exact and specific deconstructions of his fanciful theories. Here then, in no particular order

Dr. Zubin Damania provides a fantastic video with a simplified explanation of why Vanden Bossche is wrong. If you’re not that technically inclined, this video will provide a far clearer understanding than the articles listed below which focus on the specifics of vaccines.

Geert Vanden Bossche is to COVID-19 vaccines as Andrew Wakefield is to MMR

An essential read by respectfulinsolence.com, well written and referenced, for those looking to understand the more technical flaws in Vanden Bossche’s theories. The article also highlights how Vanden Bossche has borrowed and plagiarized his concepts from well-known anti-vaxxers and other vaccine skeptics.

Addressing Geert Vanden Bossche’s Claims

A detailed deconstruction offered by Edward Nirenberg. Orac describes this article fittingly as Nirenberg’s demolition of Vanden Bossche’s nonsense about “innate immunity,”. Definitely for the more technically minded, the arguments posed by Nirenberg conclusively bury Vanden Bossche.

Who is Geert Vanden Bossche?

Still think Vanden Bossche is a renowned vaccine expert? This article will expose him for who he really is. Discover the real Vanden Bossche in this article on Vaxopedia by Vincent Iannelli, MD. If you were wondering why you’d never heard about Vanden Bossche before today, this article will put you dead to rights.

The final word

Is Vanden Bossche merely deluded, or simply misguided in his interpretation of vaccine science. His level of education and experience in the field tend to suggest another agenda, as does his regurgitation of existing vaccine rhetoric, notably those offered by Andrew Wakefield and Hooman Noorchashm. He is rebranding their narratives for his own agenda, but what is that agenda?

Wakefield, if you didn’t know, is the disgraced and disavowed author of a retracted, fraudulent paper on MMR vaccines, supposedly linking autism to the MMR vaccine. Despite the best efforts of many, Wakefield continues to seek the spotlight and frequently pens misleading drivel. He has become one of the roach poster-boys for anti-vaxxers.

On the topic of grift, let’s turn to another article that seeks to expose Vanden Bossche’s not-so-hidden agenda.

In an article published in the Defender, Rosemary Frei, MSc, outlines what she says are “a few of the dozens of clues” suggesting that Bossche’s argument “is a continuation of the overall COVID deception.” There be gold in them thar hills!

There’s abundant evidence that Vanden Bossche has a not-so-hidden agenda. For example, just before the three-minute mark in the video interview of Vanden Bossche by McMillan, Vanden Bossche indicates he’s a long-time vaccine developer. He adds he’s now focusing on vaccines that “educate the immune system in ways that are to some extent more efficient than we do right now with our conventional vaccines.” Clearly he’s got significant conflicts of interest. Therefore he has zero credibility when it comes to advising the public or anyone else about how to avoid negative effects of mass vaccination.

We’ll accord the honors of the closing paragraph to David Gorski, who echoes our sentiments on Vanden Bossche.

You know what? I think that grifters recognize fellow grifters, and Frei recognized that Dr. Vanden Bossche is stoking fear of existing COVID-19 vaccines to produce a sales rationale for his own NK-based vaccine, just as Andrew Wakefield stoked fear of the MMR in order to support his own measles vaccine. Grifters of a feather, and all that, and, of course, grifters gonna grift. Always.

UPDATE: May 8, 2021, We’ve added a new piece on Geert Vanden Bossche’s disinformation campaign. You can read the article here

The post Fact-Checking Geert Vanden Bossche. Cashing in on Covid Misinformation appeared first on Medika Life.