What If I am Wrong?
Questioning myself to start the new year with clean clarity
“The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest person to fool.”
― Richard P. Feynman
Biases. We all have them. Some of us are more aware of our biases than others, however, probably none of us are aware of all our biases. That’s okay. It’s a human thing.
Still, it would probably do us well to occasionally reflect on our biases and how they might be leading us down particular paths. Perhaps they are leading us or others away from truth, maybe into harm or suffering. Perhaps they are causing relationship rifts that are not necessary and thus detract from enjoyment of our life.
It is January 5th, 2023. We are three years into the 2020s and almost three years into a pandemic. What that pandemic is is dependent on who you ask.
Many would claim by its very definition a pandemic describes a near universal spreading of a virus contagion. Others might claim this pandemic is of a different sort.
Some might say it is a pandemic of fear, or government overreach, or polarization, or biosecurity proliferation, or the politicalization of science, or conspiracy theories, or, or, or.... I’m sure there are many people who could add others to this list as well.
Truth has become squirrelly, or so it seems. I do not wish to descend into the rabbit hole of postmodern theory here or some vast plurality of relativity with truth. Nonetheless, without having the positivists, fundamentalists, anti-postmodernists, reductive materialists and other radically concrete groups want to chop off my head, I will concede that life is full of subjectivity, relative understanding, and dynamic definitions.
But wait! There’s more!
Life also has some hard truths and realities that are not subject to the fanciful trends of Woke ideology. For example, 2 + 2 = 4. End of story.
While I think a lot of what the Woke-left is pushing with a gusto rarely seen outside of jihadists, crusaders, Jehovah Witnesses, and other fanatical religious missionaries is counterproductive for the fabric of society, the overall well-being of the public and our future, I do think a good portion of these folks are well intentioned. I will note that I am politically fluid and see value in some ideals both on the left and right.
Enough about political leanings though and back to biases (which are actually an undeniable part of the political spectrum). I think it behooves us all to take stock of our most cherished beliefs and see if they still hold up.
Often we come to a position because of the circumstances at the moment. We have good reason to subscribe to a perspective - which usually has to do with a blend of our personal experiences, the dynamics in the world, our upbringing and cultural programming, and our emotional zeitgeist - and we hold it as a pillar of our identity.
However, time passes. We grow and change. The world shifts. New evidence emerges. This begs the question: are we self- aware enough to recognize it?
If that is the case, there arises another perhaps more insidious factor. Can we face the dissolution of our identity - an undeniable blow to the ego - in restructuring our understanding of the world?
In light of all of this, I thought I would do a public audit on some of my beliefs from the last few years of pandemic pandemonium and see if I need to tear them down. My ego has a subtle trepidation about what might ensue. Perhaps I would be better off taking an heroic dose of five dried grams or heading to a maloca and downing three cups of a little “vine of the soul”.
I probably need to do that anyway but it isn’t happening here or now.
So…
Here. We. Go.
Here are five beliefs I held fast to from almost the very beginning of the pandemic. They helped define my identity throughout this chapter of history, and perhaps even more so for those who didn’t agree with me.
Number 5: Lockdowns are draconian, are only a measure of government overreach and authoritarianism and are not an appropriate public health measure.
Number 4: Mass vaccination during a pandemic with a “leaky” (non-sterilizing) vaccine - that is, one that does not prevent infection or transmission - will only make things worse.
Number 3: SARS-CoV-2 came from a lab, leaked or intentionally released, and should be handled with the notion of it being a bioweapon.
Number 2: The vaccines are not “safe and effective” and will not get us out of this pandemic.
Number 1: My immune system, some supplements, and a healthy lifestyle will keep me safer than the vaccines.
Now let’s see how these hold up almost three years later.
Number 5:
Lockdowns are draconian, are only a measure of government overreach and authoritarianism and are not an appropriate public health measure.
While against all logic (and human decency) some people still cling to the belief that lockdowns helped and are not a devastating force on society with negative consequences for years to come, the very fact that our lockdown trigger-happy governments have refrained from reimplementing them is extremely telling. Even the dictatorial CCP has backed down from lockdowns. The Chinese failed experiment of covid-zero is clearly a cautionary tale for the world.
The more-often-than-not government kowtowing legacy media - so much for the fourth estate and journalistic integrity - has published many pieces on the damages of the lockdowns since late 2021. It took them way too long but the harm could no longer be ignored. Their complicity should not either.
Government data showing overdose deaths, mental health spikes, increase in alcohol consumption, and the massive elephant in the room, a precipitously higher all-cause mortality, all speak to lockdowns as a medieval mechanism. In fact, they are exactly that - medieval torture brought to the 21st century to remind us of why we advanced with constitutions and human rights. When you consider calling Amnesty International to help you be free of your own ‘Western democracy’ government, you know things are out of hand.
There is actually so much evidence - in case you didn’t have common sense - but I think that will suffice. I will just add the economic disaster that was seeded by business closures, supply chain disruption, and the then (un)necessary unfettered printing of currency that is directly connected to runaway inflation and all its harms.
Steel man argument:
Lockdowns were necessary to stop the spread and keep hospitals from being overwhelmed.
Rebuttal:
Lockdowns could never be complete as a society needs access to goods, food, etc. and this necessitates a portion of the population will be ‘breaking the seals’. Also, public health is about total harm minimization and thus, one cannot keep people protected by locking them away from harm A while sacrificing people to harm B to Z and claim success or humane methods.
I’d also like to note that hospitals are always overflowing in the winters, there were mobile hospitals created and not used, there were also clinics that were shuttered instead of being modified into becoming covid wards.
If a virus or infectious disease is truly that horrific, people will voluntarily shelter in place. The government does not need to place healthy people under house arrest. It is unconstitutional, unethical, unscientific, illogical, and barbaric.
Verdict:
Has this belief changed for me? As you can clearly see, that’s a resounding NO.
Number 4:
Mass vaccination during a pandemic with a ‘leaky’ (non-sterilizing) vaccine - that is, one that does not prevent infection or transmission - will only make things worse.
Again, so much can be said to support this statement and, again, I am surprised it wasn’t obvious to everyone. In my article, Being Pfollowed and Pfressured, I cite numerous references and include evidence that was available in November of 2020 - prior to the “vaccine” rollout - that just about anyone could have accessed. Even without this information, it was logical to anyone who has a rudimentary understanding of scientific R&D, pre-market trials, and a grasp of basic evolutionary biology that this was not a winning formula.
Those who were vaccinated believing they were safe from infection or to spread the virus, had a false sense of safety. They could very well be more likely to take chances and ignore other precautions. With symptomatic suppression and/or delay, they were more likely to not know they were infected while carrying higher viral loads and interact with more people.
The main issue here is that the ‘leakiness’ of this so-called vaccines creates selective evolutionary pressure. The virus meets a singular defense, (i.e., the spike protein antigen) and adapts to work around it. The fact that the “vaccine” does not stop transmission gives the virus many opportunities to learn and adapt, all the while feeling the pressure to do so from a limited defense.
Geert Vanden Bossche was one of the champions warning of this phenomenon. Luc Montagnier, the Nobel laureate virologist, was another. They were both vocal about this vaccination campaign turning a manageable virus into a less manageable one. Even if we haven’t seen the full story of how this virus evolves, we have seen enough to recognize it did not attenuate as quickly as it might have - the more virulent Spanish Flu dissipated into an endemic state within two years with no vaccine. We have also witnessed a surge of variants and mutations occurring with SARS-CoV-2.
Even the legacy media is catching on… a year and a half later than the GVB warning.
Steel Man argument:
Any vaccine is better than no vaccine. It will still save lives.
Rebuttal:
As you can see from my initial logic above, this is not true. I haven’t even delved into the mismanagement of treatment, (i.e., iatrogenic harm), therapeutic nihilism, and the options for prophylactic prevention and early treatment. Nonetheless, a vaccine which doesn’t stop the spread and causes more variants is prolonging and potentially worsening the situation.
Also, by banking on a vaccine and only a vaccine as the way out, other options were ignored, suppressed, or vilified unnecessarily and with harmful consequences. Therapeutics should always have been in the fray.
Consider that regular childhood vaccination strategy is done to ‘catch up’ the children to the adults who have either had naturally acquired immunity or had their own vaccination. It does not entail attempting to vaccinate an entire population in the midst of a pandemic. In other words, the evolutionary selective pressure is not the same intensity as it would be amidst widespread infection. That’s a very different story.
The rapidly waning efficacy of the jabapeños is also a factor that makes them more of a liability than a fix. Then we can get into the long list of adverse events and the poor risk-benefit ratio for a good portion of the population (if not all of it).
Verdict:
Has this belief changed for me? Not really. I am still confident the vaccines have been ineffective and we would have probably been better off without them but I am not sure if the variants are getting worse. Perhaps nature is helping us and doing its own attenuating mutations, maybe there was another mechanism at play, maybe it was the unvaccinated, the early treatment meds, or maybe we haven’t seen the big fallout yet.
Want more juice on this topic? Joe Rogan’s podcast with Bret Weinstein just dropped. I started it this morning, so I am only one hour in, but this subject is touched on in depth and detail. Bret also gets into the next subject on my list.
Number 3:
SARS-CoV-2 came from a lab, leaked or intentionally released, and should be handled with the notion of it being a bioweapon.
While this has not been definitively settled - and it may never be - this theory has migrated from a scorned and scoffed fringe idea into the limelight as the most likely scenario. The furin cleavage site is conspicuously unique to this virus and has never been found in the wild.
The Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) was working on Gain-of-Function research modifying coronaviruses to be capable of infected human ACE2 receptors. This is quite the ‘coincidence’ already.
It has clearly been established that the NIAID through the NIH funded Peter Daszak’s EcoHealth Alliance to perform GoF research at the WIV.
The big question remain if the China was responsible for the leak, if it was a US-China collaborative mistake (or effort), a US alone, or another iteration of such.
There is compelling evidence - much more so than a weak statement that it comes from a wet market and made a still unidentified zoonotic leap - in the following articles:
NIH DOCUMENTS PROVIDE NEW EVIDENCE U.S. FUNDED GAIN-OF-FUNCTION RESEARCH IN WUHAN
NIH Officials Worked with EcoHealth Alliance to Evade Restrictions on Coronavirus Restrictions
Did the coronavirus leak from a lab? These scientists say we shouldn’t rule it out.
Covid origin: Why the Wuhan lab-leak theory is being taken seriously
COVID's Smoking Gun - the Furin Cleavage Site
WHO advisor: COVID-19 pandemic likely started via lab leak: Calls wet market origin story a lie
New Analysis of COVID Virus Suggests Fauci and Baric’s Fingerprints on Pandemic Bug
If you read through these and the FOIA revealed emails to and from Fauci, Daszak et al., it would be stunning to me if you did not think it reasonable to seriously consider the lab leak hypothesis as plausible and more likely than any other competing hypothesis.
You might agree but scoff at the term bioweapon. Well, firstly, do you really think that Chinas under the CCP is not researching bioweapons? The US is. Why wouldn’t China. It’s obvious and common sense.
Here is the US Department of State’s Fact Sheet on Activity at the Wuhan Institute of Virology taken directly from their website. It is plain as day. End of story.
Steel Man argument:
This has not been proven. SARS-CoV-1 was found to have a zoonotic connection.
Rebuttal:
No, there is not definitive proof but it is too coincidental and too logical to ignore completely. It is also prudent to treat it as such since documented lab leaks have happened and as agencies continue to mess around with GoF in less than optimal settings with dangerous pathogens, we should be cognizant of the hazards involved. It does not harm anyone to investigate this seriously and even continue to regulate it or place a moratorium on it even if SARS-CoV-2 did not come from a lab.
Verdict:
Has this belief changed for me? No. I am more confident than I was in April of 2020 when I publicly postulated this and took a lot of criticism for such. I would bet on it but I would not bet on us gaining certainty. The CCP and the usual suspects have too much to lose and are too familiar with coverups.
Number 2:
The vaccines are not “safe and effective” and will not get us out of this pandemic.
Well, it is obvious the “vaccines” will not get us out of the pandemic. After all, people are on their fifth booster, need Paxlovid - which is not very effective itself - and are getting covid multiple times.
You can refer to everything I wrote in Number 4 for more fodder as to why these jabapeños are ineffective and thus, be ineffective at getting us out of the pandemic alone (and perhaps contribute to making this whole thing drag on).
Then there’s the safety…
This open letter has been deleted but I was able to find it in the internet archives: Urgent Open Letter from Doctors and Scientists to the European Medicines Agency regarding COVID-19 Vaccine Safety Concerns
The CDC has slowly, bit by bit, conceded greater and more diverse adverse events as shared on their own website here. Their reluctance to give an inch but their continuing to do so merely tells me that they knew all along and they know that it is still much worse than they are admitting.
As of a year ago (January 20, 2022), there was a thousand peer-reviewed studies questioning the safety of these “vaccines”. That should be more than enough to shut the door on any claim of “safe”… but it wasn’t because we have regulatory agency capture and legacy media collusion.
It is undeniable that these jabs are causing significant harm if one reads the data collected CDC’s own V-Safe app. Here is ICAN’s hosted dashboard which required pushing the CDC to release this data through multiple FOIA legal requests.
Steel Man argument:
Billions of doses were given and it is extremely rare for these adverse events to happen. Adverse events happen with all medications and vaccines.
Rebuttal:
Yes, a lot of doses were given but the noted adverse events (which include many serious one - refer to the V-Safe breakdown) are a mere tiny fraction of the magnitude of harm. First, a Harvard-Pilgrim study showed that VAERS is underreported to a magnitude of 1-10 percent of actual AEs. Whether this is completely accurate for the covid jabs doesn’t really matter. That underreporting is extreme. At 1 percent, we need to multiply injuries and deaths by 100 times to get a more accurate measure. At 10 percent, it would be 10 times. Even if we didn’t multiply at all, we are seeing significant numbers. Numbers that are way beyond what has been used to halt previous vaccine rollouts.
This is all happening in an atmosphere where reporting anything negative about these jabs is tantamount to treason, career suicide, and will have the cancel culture on you like a pack of hyenas on a discarded giraffe carcass.
It might be excusable if some AEs took place, if there was transparency but instead we have gaslighting and the repetitive mantra of the pfaithful parrot perseverating on the phrase of “safe and effective”-CAW-“safe and effective”-CAW-“safe and effective”-CAW…
Also, and most important, many of those getting injured are at low risk from covid but higher risk from the jabs. This is inexcusable and unconscionable. It goes against the Hippocratic oath and any measure of biomedical ethics.
I recommend anyone still holding onto the notion of the risk being worth it, check out the citations and evidence I provided in the section “The Resistance’s Yield” in my article The Psychological Warring Twenties.
Verdict:
Has this belief changed for me? Not in the slightest. There is no way I would take that thing or let my family. If anything, I am more sure than I have ever been. The evidence seems to grow every week and it was overwhelmingly compelling in early 2021.
Number 1:
My immune system, some supplements, and a healthy lifestyle will keep me safer than the vaccines.
Yup, I stand by what I said in September of 2022 and likely a few times before that in 2021 and even 2020. Guess what? Trillions of viruses fall from the sky each day. We handle that. Humans are neurobiologically identical to our ancestors of 200,000 years and they had no jabapeños to save them but they managed to survive and give rise to us.
Exercise is one of the best strategies for just about everything, including keeping you safer from covid.
“Compared with the most active people in the study — those who exercised 150 minutes or more every week — patients with COVID-19 who were "consistently inactive" were 226% more likely to be hospitalized, 173% more likely to be admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU), and 149% more likely to die in the study.
"We strongly believe the results of this study represent a clear and actionable guideline that can be used by populations around the world to reduce the risk for severe COVID-19 outcomes, including death," study author Deborah Rohm Young, PhD, told Medscape Medical News.
Closing the gyms, locking people down, encouraging alcohol consumption and sedentary lifestyles - wittingly or unwittingly - was the exact opposite strategy than the one public health should have taken. Remember when they closed the beaches and outdoor playground? I do. No bueno. Stupid. Cruel.
Another major risk factor for severe covid and death from the virus are metabolic disorders. Once again, even walking 20-30 minutes a day will help control blood sugar levels, insulin sensitivity, and lead to lower risks. Imagine if the government agencies had told everyone in March or April of 2020 to take up healthy movement and eating. Three years later we would not only have had less covid fatalities but also less fatalities and morbidities from everything else. This could have been the healthy revolution that saved our healthcare system.
Of course there were other tactics that were effective - much more so than the immune system destroying gene therapy that was pushed as the holy grail - Vitamin D, C, zinc, magnesium, the (unnecessarily) controversial ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, and more. I won’t go into these here but I personally know the ones I used helped me.
I had covid… for three days. Imagine if I had taken the “vaccine”…
Steel Man argument:
You took a risk. You got lucky. Modern medicine saves many more lives than was possible before with just the reliance on our immune system.
Rebuttal:
I’d like to just say, “whatever. Talk to the hand.” Modern medicine was the third leading cause of death in the US, year in and year out. It is probably number one after the pandemic.
Iatrogenic harm and/or death is a warning to not rely on modern medicine to deal with chronic disease and certainly not prevention. Don’t get me wrong. I think medicine is great and have used the system for surgery on my broken leg and other things. However, acute injuries and emergency medicine aside, pharmaceutically-driven ‘care’ does not cure. Show me I am wrong. Name me a single disease which is cured through pharmaceutical interventions. There are some reasonable management tools and symptomatic suppressants but these are not cures.
I did a risk-benefit analysis through a online medical risk calculator which had my age and health status punched in. My odds of having severe covid and dying were slim enough for me. I do many other things that are more dangerous and have a variety of other risks that are more likely to kill me than covid. Taking an experimental gene therapy jab with a precarious track record against coronaviruses would be more risky than relying on the great health I have invested in for many decades.
Verdict:
Has this belief changed for me? No, sir! I love my immune system. I deeply respect evolution. I think it is hubris to pretend that a rapidly developed jabapeño is superior to the exquisite design of billions of years of evolution.
Did I really check my biases?
Maybe. Maybe not. Are they gone? Probably not. Maybe I self-selected beliefs that were more likely to hold up to this exercise. I’m sure I can find a few that have shifted and there’s likely a bunch that I haven’t even realized are outdated and incorrect.
I happily invite you to call me out on any you see. I am open to learning and adjusting. You will have to be convincing and civil but I will strive to maintain an open mind. If not maybe they’ll be gone by next year.
That being said, I have been wrong and will continue to be wrong about many things. I feel like my track record through the pandemic has been really good though. Maybe I should chalk it up to divine intervention, or trusting my instincts. Maybe it was karma. I don’t know but I believe if we quiet ourselves from the noise and listen to our own body, mind, spirit, and the whispers that come from somewhere beyond our ego and cultural program, we can receive invaluable direction.
Great article. I totally agree with what you wrote. Bravo.
You swallowed the woke pill. No longer a reliable source of information. People are changing, you are no exception I see.