Roger, thanks, I have a Bookshare membership so I may check this out.
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Roger Loran Bailey
Sent: Wednesday, February 10, 2021 10:15 PM
To: blind-democracy <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: link to an article, we need help with this.
Yes, you can scan in a number of formats with Open Book, but the Open
Book format works best. After all, it is made especially for the
software. I get fewer scanning errors that way and the paragraphs don't
run together as much as in other formats. Then when it is converted into
another format everything pretty much remains intact. But when I was
talking about converting a PDF file that wouldn't have anything to do
with page breaks. I expect that if the document had page breaks in the
first place they would appear if I converted it into a Word document,
but if there weren't any there in the PDF document it still wouldn't.
The PDF document I experimented with doesn't seem to have page breaks in
the first place. I converted it to Open Book format because that is the
default and so it was set that way anyway. Besides, because Open Book
format Works better in Open Book that is the format I would be working
in until I was ready to submit it. Anyway, I have now had my conference
call. Steve Clark, the president of Pathfinder Press, was there. I found
out that the format that Bookshare wants publisher submitted books to be
in is ePub. I know nothing about ePub except that it is similar to
Daisy, just without most of the navigation points. Apparently Pathfinder
was not entirely ready for all the new innovations in electronic
publishing and when they converted there catalog to digital in the first
place it was not with the view of creating eBooks. It was with the view
of making them ready for the newest printing presses to instantly print
out paper books. Most of that work was done in the nineties and I knew
someone who was involved at the time. Apparently the computerized
printing presses work really good with PDF, but if you are going into
e-publishing you really need ePub format. So they are now in the process
of looking at options to make all Pathfinder books available in ePub
too. My offer of experimenting with a short Pathfinder book and
converting it to Open Book format and then to RTF and submitting it as a
volunteer submitted book was accepted, though, and I think they are
going to send me two of them. All of this will take some time though. If
you are interested in reading Pathfinder books just go to the Bookshare
advanced search and enter Pathfinder in the publisher field. Right now
the only ones you will find will be the ones I scanned myself and some
others that were submitted by a Bookshare outsource organization in
Africa, Kenya I think. But keep coming back and hopefully you will
eventually see publisher submitted Pathfinder titles.
___
Emmett F. Fields “ Atheism is more than just the knowledge that gods do
not exist, and that religion is either a mistake or a fraud. Atheism is
an attitude, a frame of mind that looks at the world objectively,
fearlessly, always trying to understand all things as a part of nature.
” ― Emmett F. Fields
On 2/10/2021 3:58 PM, Miriam Vieni wrote:
Roger,
I just remembered that you said that when you use Open Book to convert a book
you
have to convert it from Open Book format to RTF format. But when you use Open
Book, there are different choices when you scan things. I remember that if I
scanned a document, Carlos had Open Book set up so that it would
automatically convert it into a word document. A word document automatically
has page breaks. Of course, I don't know anything about scanning books.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: Roger Loran Bailey <rogerbailey81@xxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, February 10, 2021 2:52 PM
To: Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [blind-democracy] Re: link to an article, we need help with this.
I do not have Adobe Reader and I know little about it. I only remember
that back when I was trying to deal with PDF files the first time around
I came across something called Adobe Reader and that it had something to
do with reading PDF. I don't know, but the impression I got was that it
was a reader, not a converter. Anyway, my conference call is coming up
in about three hours and I will see what is said there. I do know that
PDF is convertible pretty easily if you know what you are doing. I just
don't know what I am doing. I did, though, download a PDF from the
Internet. It turned out to be from Socialist action simply because I
happened to have a window open to that web site at the time. I was able
to use Open Book to convert it to Open Book format. I didn't go further
than that, but I know from experience that every time I upload a book
that I have scanned for Bookshare I have to convert it from Open Book
format to RTF format and it converts quite readily. The trouble is that
the result is not formatted properly in the document that I experimented
with and it would at the very least require being carefully read through
to insert page breaks and other formatting requirements. But as long as
the page numbers were there I think I could submit a book converted from
PDF as a volunteer submission. I don't think that I could handle the
entire Pathfinder catalog on my own though. But as I understand it
Bookshare wants publisher submissions in some certain format and I don't
know what that is. I am just supposing that it must be something other
than RTF or else Pathfinder would have already converted it. Whatever
the case, though, I suppose I will learn more about the situation in the
conference call. Perhaps it isn't really so hard to convert after all.
It could be that the folks at Pathfinder are as ignorant as I am about
converting PDF documents. If this gets worked out, though, you could
very well see an influx of Pathfinder books to Bookshare in the fairly
near future. Most of the ones already there were added because of the
efforts of either a certain organization in Kenya that was outsourced by
Bookshare or else they were added by me. I acquired them from
Paperbackswap.com. By the way, it was because my name was on the
metadata page of a number of Pathfinder books in the Bookshare
collection as the submitter that Maurice began looking for me on the
Internet. The place where he found me that he could send me a
communication was Goodreads. It had been a bunch of years since I had
heard from him.
___
Emmett F. Fields “ Atheism is more than just the knowledge that gods do
not exist, and that religion is either a mistake or a fraud. Atheism is
an attitude, a frame of mind that looks at the world objectively,
fearlessly, always trying to understand all things as a part of nature.
” ― Emmett F. Fields
On 2/10/2021 9:49 AM, Miriam Vieni wrote:
Roger, Do you have Adobe Reader on your computer? I think that converts PDF
files. Once upon a time when my mind was young and agile, I seem to
remember very easily having to do nothing at all to convert a PDF file
except to press enter on it and wait until it was converted. And there was a
menu item which permitted me to convert it to a word document if I wanted
to. But that wasn't used for books back then, if I remember correctly. What
Frank did in about two seconds flat, I don't even understand because aside
from hearing the word, I have no idea what Java Script is and I didn't even
know it was there.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Roger Loran Bailey
(Redacted sender "rogerbailey81" for DMARC)
Sent: Tuesday, February 9, 2021 9:21 PM
To: blind-democracy <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: link to an article, we need help with this.
I am sure you have heard the proverb that says that if you give a man a
fish you feed him for a day, but that if you teach a man to fish you
feed him for a lifetime. Well, converting this document was like giving
a single fish. As a self taught computer user PDF files are something I
missed teaching myself about. Off list I have been discussing with
Maurice the subject of making Pathfinder books accessible and it looks
like converting them from PDF to some other format - I'm not sure which
- will be a part of that. I thought I might be able to do it with my
Open Book software and I experimented by downloading a random PDF from
the Internet and trying to convert it. I succeeded in converting it to
Open Book format, but I am not sure that it converted in a pristine way
that would be necessary for submitting publisher quality books to
Bookshare. Anyway, I am supposed to attend a conference call tomorrow
about this matter. So I am wondering if you could tell us how you made
the conversion so readily. Actually, when I saw Miriam's request I was
about to see if I could do the conversion with Open Book, but in the
very next message you had it already converted. If you used that file
converter software that you posted a link to on this list once before I
think that might be one of the points of discussion in tomorrow's
conference call. But even though I managed to convert one thing from PDF
I am still rather inexperienced with it and am a bit hesitant about just
jumping into dealing with PDF files. So can you teach both Miriam and me
a bit about fishing by telling us how you did it?
___
Emmett F. Fields “ Atheism is more than just the knowledge that gods do
not exist, and that religion is either a mistake or a fraud. Atheism is
an attitude, a frame of mind that looks at the world objectively,
fearlessly, always trying to understand all things as a part of nature.
” ― Emmett F. Fields
On 2/9/2021 7:19 PM, Frank Ventura wrote:
Miriam, here is the text of the .pdf:
Scientific-Fraud-in-COVID-19-Public-Health-Policies.pdf
To:
Federal Bureau of Investigation 935 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Washington, D.C.
20535
CC:
U.K. Security Service (MI5); Australian Security Intelligence Organisation;
Canadian Security Intelligence Service; Bundesnachrichtendienst; U.S.
Department
of Justice
Request for Expedited Federal Investigation Into Scientific Fraud in Public
Health Policies
We are writing this letter to request that a federal investigation be
commenced and/or expedited regarding the scientific debate on major policy
decisions
during the COVID-19 crisis. In the course of our work, we have identified
issues of a potentially criminal nature and believe this investigation
necessary
to ensure the interests of the public have been properly represented by
those promoting certain pandemic policies.
During times of crisis, citizens naturally turn to the advice of those they
perceive as experts. In early 2020, the public turned to the advice of
scientific
authorities when confronted with an apparent viral outbreak. Soon after,
most nations followed the advice of prominent scientists and implemented
restrictions
commonly referred to as ―lockdowns.‖ While the policies varied by
jurisdiction, in general they involved restrictions on gatherings and
movements and the
closure of schools, businesses, and public places, inspired by those
imposed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Hubei Province. The
intervention of
federal authorities with police power may be required to ensure that those
who have promoted these lockdown policies have done so in good faith.
This letter is meant to call the attention of federal authorities in
Australia, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States (the
―Nations‖)
to multiple points of evidence about the origin and historical precedent of
lockdowns; the scientific literature and debate behind them; the provenance
and quality of predominant COVID-19 testing protocols and models; the
motivations, biases, and qualifications of certain prominent lockdown
supporters;
and the source of public-facing communications surrounding these policies.
list of 1 items
1. Lockdowns Originated on the Order of Xi Jinping, General Secretary of
the Chinese Communist Party, and Were Propagated Into Global Policy by the
World
Health Organization With Little Analysis or Logic
list end
Lockdown proponents have frequently justified their policies by comparing
them to actions taken to combat the pandemic of Spanish influenza a century
prior.1
But a realistic examination of the mitigation efforts in response to
Spanish influenza reveals that nothing remotely approximating lockdowns was
ever imposed.
In the words of Judge William S. Stickman, ruling in Cnty. of Butler v.
Wolf,2 citing the work of preeminent historians:
1 E.g., Emily Badger and Quoctrung Bui, Cities That Went All In on Social
Distancing in 1918 Emerged Stronger for It, N.Y. Times, Apr. 3, 2020,
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/03/upshot/coronavirus-cities-social-distancing-better-employment.html.
2 Civil Action No. 2:20-cv-677 (W.D. Pa. May. 28, 2020),
https://casetext.com/case/cnty-of-butler-v-wolf-1.
3 Citing Howard Markel et al., Nonpharmaceutical Interventions Implemented
by US Cities During the 1918-1919 Influenza Pandemic, 298 JAMA 644, 647
(2007).
The total duration of nonpharmaceutical interventions imposed by state and
local mandate for Philadelphia and Pittsburgh were 51 and 53 days,
respectively.
Id. at 647, Table 1. This length was, generally, representative of the
duration of interventions in most cities. Id. Seattle had the longest
period of
restrictions, nationwide, at 168 days from start to finish. See also Greg
Ip, New Thinking on Covid Lockdowns: They're Overly Blunt and Costly, WALL
ST.
J., Aug. 24, 2020 (―Prior to Covid-19, lockdowns weren't part of the
standard epidemic tool kit, which was primarily designed with flu in mind.
During
the 1918-1919 flu pandemic, some American cities closed schools, churches
and theaters, banned large gatherings and funerals and restricted store
hours.
But none imposed stay-at-home orders or closed all nonessential businesses.
No such measures were imposed during the 1957 flu pandemic, the
next-deadliest
one; even schools stayed open.‖).
4 Citing Noreen Quails et al., Community Mitigation Guidelines to Prevent
Pandemic Influenza, United States, 2017 (Sonja A. Rasmussen et al. eds.,
2017).
Although this nation [the United States] has faced many epidemics and
pandemics and state and local governments have employed a variety of
interventions
in response, there have never previously been lockdowns of entire
populations—much less for lengthy and indefinite periods of time…3 While,
unquestionably,
states and local governments restricted certain activities for a limited
period of time to mitigate the Spanish Flu, there is no record of any
imposition
of a population lockdown in response to that disease or any other in our
history.
Not only are lockdowns historically unprecedented in response to any
previous epidemic or pandemic in American history, but they are not so much
as mentioned
in recent guidance offered by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (―CDC‖). Judge Stickman continues:
Indeed, even for a ‗Very High Severity‘ pandemic (defined as one comparable
to the Spanish Flu), the guidelines provide only that ‗CDC recommends
voluntary
home isolation of ill persons,‘ and ‗CDC might recommend voluntary home
quarantine of exposed household members in areas where novel influenza
circulates.‘
Id. at 32, Table 10 (emphasis added). This is a far, far cry from a
statewide lockdown…4
The fact is that the lockdowns imposed across the United States in early
2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic are unprecedented in the history
of
our Commonwealth and our Country. They have never been used in response to
any other disease in our history. They were not recommendations made by the
CDC. They were unheard of by the people [of] this nation until just this
year. It appears as though the imposition of lockdowns in Wuhan and other
areas
of China—a nation unconstrained by concern for civil liberties and
constitutional norms—started a domino effect where one country, and state,
after another
imposed draconian and hitherto untried measures on their citizens.
(emphasis added)
Judge Stickman‘s intuition regarding the real history of lockdowns is in
line with the opinion of the foremost infectious disease scholars. Donald
Henderson,
the man widely credited with eradicating smallpox, wrote in 2006,
―Experience has shown that communities faced with epidemics or other
adverse events respond
best and with the least anxiety when the normal social functioning of the
community is least disrupted.‖5 To our knowledge, no scientist ever publicly
supported imposing lockdowns until Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the
Chinese Communist Party (CCP), personally authorized the ―unprecedented
lockdown
of Wuhan and other cities beginning on Jan. 23.‖6
5 Thomas V. Inglesby, Jennifer B. Nuzzo, Tara O‘toole, and D. A. Henderson,
Disease Mitigation Measures in the Control of Pandemic Influenza,
Biosecurity
and Bioterrorism: Biodefense Strategy, Practice, and Science Vol. 4 No. 4,
2006,
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.552.1109&rep=rep1&type=pdf.
6 Amy Qin, China‘s Leader, Under Fire, Says He Led Coronavirus Fight Early
On, N.Y. Times, Feb. 15, 2020,
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/15/world/asia/xi-china-coronavirus.html.
7 Choi Chi-yuk, Xi Jinping‘s anti-graft drive has caught so many officials
that Beijing‘s elite prison is running out of cells, Feb. 14, 2018, South
China
Morning Post,
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/2133251/xi-jinpings-anti-graft-drive-has-caught-so-many.
8 Tom Phillips, 'Dictator for life': Xi Jinping's power grab condemned as
step towards tyranny, Feb. 26, 2018, The Guardian,
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/feb/26/xi-jinping-china-presidential-limit-scrap-dictator-for-life.
9 Austin Ramzy and Chris Buckley, ‗Absolutely No Mercy‘: Leaked Files
Expose How China Organized Mass Detentions of Muslims, N.Y. Times, Nov. 16,
2019,
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/11/16/world/asia/china-xinjiang-documents.html.
10 Tanner Greer, China‘s Plans to Win Control of the Global Order, Tablet
Magazine, May 17, 2020,
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/china-plans-global-order.
11 Sheena Chestnut Greitens and Julian Gewirtz, China‘s Troubling Vision
for the Future of Public Health, Foreign Affairs, Jul. 10, 2020,
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2020-07-10/chinas-troubling-vision-future-public-health.
General Secretary Xi is perhaps best known for the punishment of over one
million CCP officials for ―corruption,‖7 the elimination of term limits from
China‘s constitution,8 and, of course, the reeducation and ―quarantine‖9 of
over one million Uyghur Muslims and other minorities ―infected with
extremism‖10
throughout the regions of Xinjiang and Tibet, pursuant to the CCP‘s pet
hybrid of public health and security policy: fangkong—the same policy that
inspired
Xi‘s lockdown of Hubei province.11 General Secretary Xi later affirmed that
he had issued these
instructions to the CCP‘s Politburo Standing Committee on January 7,
2020,12 but his instructions have never been revealed. Chinese business
leader Ren
Zhiqiang was sentenced to 18 years in prison13 for an open letter in which
he requested Xi‘s instructions be made public.14
12 Amy Qin, China‘s Leader, Under Fire, Says He Led Coronavirus Fight Early
On, N.Y. Times, Feb. 15, 2020,
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/15/world/asia/xi-china-coronavirus.html.
13 Chris Buckley, China‘s ‗Big Cannon‘ Blasted Xi. Now He‘s Been Jailed for
18 Years, N.Y. Times, Sep. 22, 2020,
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/22/world/asia/china-ren-zhiqiang-tycoon.html.
14 Josh Rudolph, Translation: Essay by Missing Property Tycoon Ren
Zhiqiang, China Digital Times, Mar. 13, 2020,
https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2020/03/translation-essay-by-missing-property-tycoon-ren-zhiqiang/.
15 Sinéad Baker, China extended its Wuhan coronavirus quarantine to 2 more
cities, cutting off 19 million people in an unprecedented effort to stop the
outbreak, Business Insider, Jan. 23, 2020,
https://www.businessinsider.com/china-wuhan-coronavirus-quarantine-extended-cities-cut-off-2020-1.
16 E.g., Frances Eve, China's reaction to the coronavirus outbreak violates
human rights, The Guardian, Feb. 2, 2020,
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/02/chinas-reaction-to-the-coronavirus-outbreak-violates-human-rights;
Michael Levenson, Scale of China‘s Wuhan Shutdown Is Believed to Be Without
Precedent, N.Y. Times, Jan. 22, 2020,
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/22/world/asia/coronavirus-quarantines-history.html.
17 World Health Organization, Statement on the second meeting of the
International Health Regulations (2005) Emergency Committee regarding the
outbreak
of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), Jan. 30, 2020,
https://www.who.int/news/item/30-01-2020-statement-on-the-second-meeting-of-the-international-health-regulations-(2005)-emergency-committee-regarding-the-outbreak-of-novel-coronavirus-(2019-ncov).
18 World Health Organization, WHO Director-General's statement on IHR
Emergency Committee on Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV), Jan. 30, 2020,
https://www.who.int/dg/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-statement-on-ihr-emergency-committee-on-novel-coronavirus-(2019-ncov).
19 World Health Organization, Report of the WHO-China Joint Mission on
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), Feb. 16–24, 2020,
https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/who-china-joint-mission-on-covid-19-final-report.pdf.
When the lockdown of Hubei province began, the World Health Organization
(WHO)‘s representative in China noted that ―trying to contain a city of 11
million
people is new to science… The lockdown of 11 million people is
unprecedented in public health history…‖15 Human rights observers also
expressed concerns.16
But those concerns didn‘t stop the WHO from effusively praising the CCP‘s
―unprecedented‖ response just days after the lockdown began, and long before
it had produced any results: ―The measures China has taken are good not
only for that country but also for the rest of the world.‖17 WHO Director
Tedros
Adhanom added that he was personally ―very impressed and encouraged by the
president [Xi Jinping]‘s detailed knowledge of the outbreak‖ and the next
day
praised China for ―setting a new standard for outbreak response.‖18
By February 2020, the CCP had begun reporting an exponential decline in
COVID-19 cases. In its February report, the WHO waxed rhapsodic about
China‘s triumph:
General Secretary Xi Jinping personally directed and deployed the
prevention and control work … China‘s uncompromising and rigorous use of
non-pharmaceutical
measures to contain transmission of the COVID-19 virus in multiple settings
provides vital lessons for the global response‖19 (emphasis added).
Shortly thereafter, the WHO held a press conference during which Assistant
Director-General Bruce Aylward—who later disconnected a live interview when
asked to acknowledge Taiwan20—told the press: ―What China has demonstrated
is, you have to do this. If you do it, you can save lives and prevent
thousands
of cases of what is a very difficult disease.‖21 (emphasis added). Two days
later, in an interview for China Central Television (CCTV), Aylward put it
bluntly: ―Copy China‘s response to COVID-19.‖22 (emphasis added).
20 Tom Grundy, Video: Top WHO doctor Bruce Aylward ends video call after
journalist asks about Taiwan‘s status, Hong Kong Free Press, Mar. 29, 2020,
https://hongkongfp.com/2020/03/29/video-top-doctor-bruce-aylward-pretends-not-hear-journalists-taiwan-questions-ends-video-call/.
In April, Canada‘s parliament summoned Aylward for questioning, but the WHO
has forbidden him from testifying. Steven Chase, MPs vote to summon key WHO
adviser after global body refuses to let him testify, The Globe and Mail,
Apr. 30, 2020,
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-mps-vote-to-summon-key-who-adviser-after-global-body-refuses-to-let/;
True North, WHO forbids Canadian official from testifying before health
committee, Aug. 19, 2020,
https://tnc.news/2020/08/19/who-forbids-canadian-official-from-testifying-before-health-committee/.
21 World Health Organization, Subject: Press Conference of WHO-China Joint
Mission on COVID-19, Feb. 24, 2020,
https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/transcripts/joint-mission-press-conference-script-english-final.pdf?sfvrsn=51c90b9e_2.
22 Daniel Harries, ‗Copy China's response to COVID-19,‘ WHO expert urges
rest of the world, CGTN, Feb. 26, 2020,
https://newseu.cgtn.com/news/2020-02-26/-Copy-China-s-response-to-COVID-19-WHO-expert-urges--OnNfwORI3u/index.html.
23 World Health Organization, Report of the WHO-China Joint Mission on
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), Feb. 16–24, 2020,
https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/who-china-joint-mission-on-covid-19-final-report.pdf.
24 World Health Organization, Non-pharmaceutical public health measures for
mitigating the risk and impact of epidemic and pandemic influenza, 2019,
https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/329438/9789241516839-eng.pdf?ua=1.
The WHO‘s recommendations are notable for two reasons. First, the WHO‘s
conclusion in its February report that this ―rather unique and
unprecedented public
health response in China reversed the escalating cases‖23 exemplifies the
fallacy of post hoc, ergo propter hoc. While it was possible that a more
―flat‖
curve in Wuhan could be attributed to the CCP‘s lockdown, it was at least
equally likely that Wuhan had simply witnessed the natural course of this
―novel‖
pathogen. It should have been obvious that the mere issuance of a policy
―unprecedented in public health history‖ did not automatically mean it was
effective—especially
given the WHO‘s own 2019 guidance for pandemic influenza did not advise
border closures, mass contact tracing, or quarantine even of ―exposed
individuals‖
under any circumstance.24
Furthermore, the WHO did not even consider other countries‘ economic
circumstances, demographics, or even their number of COVID-19 cases—which
were very
few in most of the
world—before instructing the entire world that ―you have to do this.‖25
This conclusion by the world‘s foremost public health body was, at best,
criminally
negligent.26
25 World Health Organization, Subject: Press Conference of WHO-China Joint
Mission on COVID-19, Feb. 24, 2020,
https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/transcripts/joint-mission-press-conference-script-english-final.pdf?sfvrsn=51c90b9e_2.
26 Stacey Rudin, What‘s Behind The WHO‘s Lockdown Mixed-Messaging, American
Institute for Economic Research, Oct. 14, 2020,
https://www.aier.org/article/whats-behind-the-whos-lockdown-mixed-messaging/.
27 Noreen Quails et al., Community Mitigation Guidelines to Prevent
Pandemic Influenza, United States, 2017 (Sonja A. Rasmussen et al. eds.,
2017), https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/66/rr/rr6601a1.htm.
28 Neil M Ferguson et al., Report 9: Impact of non-pharmaceutical
interventions (NPIs) to
reduce COVID-19 mortality and healthcare demand, Imperial College COVID-19
Response Team, Mar. 16, 2020,
https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/medicine/sph/ide/gida-fellowships/Imperial-College-COVID19-NPI-modelling-16-03-2020.pdf.
29 Neil M Ferguson et al., Report 12: The Global Impact of COVID-19 and
Strategies for Mitigation and Suppression, Imperial College COVID-19
Response Team,
Mar. 16, 2020,
https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/medicine/mrc-gida/2020-03-26-COVID19-Report-12.pdf.
30 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Provisional Death Counts for
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19),
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/index.htm.
Lockdowns are a Xi Jinping policy, and the significance of that fact cannot
be overstated. The idea of locking down an entire state or country and
forcibly
shutting down its businesses and public places was never entertained, never
discussed, and never implemented in any pandemic literature until it was
done
by General Secretary Xi in January 2020. Lockdowns were never tried before
2020 and never tested before 2020, even on a theoretical basis.27 The idea
of
―lockdown‖ was brought into human history on the order of General Secretary
Xi; it otherwise never would have entered the collective human imagination.
Anytime anyone endorses a lockdown for any length of time, even a few
minutes, they are endorsing a Xi Jinping policy. The remainder of this
letter concerns
how lockdowns were laundered into the world‘s go-to pandemic policy.
list of 1 items
2. The Most Influential Institution for Covid-19 Models, Self-Described as
“China’s Best Academic Partner in the West,” Has Been by Far the Most
Alarmist
and Inaccurate Covid-19 Modeler
list end
In February 2020, a team from Imperial College London led by physicist Neil
Ferguson ran a computer model that played an outsized role in justifying
lockdowns
in most countries. Imperial College forecast a number of potential
outcomes, including that, by October 2020, more than 500,000 people in
Great Britain
and 2.2 million people in the U.S. would die as a result of COVID-19, and
recommended months of strict social distancing measures to prevent this
outcome.28
The model also predicted the United States could incur up to one million
deaths even with ―enhanced social distancing‖ guidelines, including
―shielding
the elderly.‖29 In reality, by the end of October, according to the CDC and
the United Kingdom National Health Service (NHS), approximately 230,000
deaths30
in the United States and 37,000 deaths31 in the United
31 National Health Service, COVID-19 Daily Deaths,
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/covid-19-daily-deaths/.
32 Yanni Gu, A closer look at U.S. deaths due to COVID-19, Johns Hopkins
News-Letter, Nov. 22, 2020,
https://web.archive.org/web/20201122214034/https://www.jhunewsletter.com/article/2020/11/a-closer-look-at-u-s-deaths-due-to-covid-19.
33 Joseph Friedman et al., Predictive performance of international COVID-19
mortality forecasting models, Nov. 19, 2020,
https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.07.13.20151233.
34 Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, SPI-M-O: Long term winter
scenarios preparatory working
analysis, Oct. 31, 2020,
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/938967/201031_SPI-M_preparatory_analysis_long_term_scenarios.pdf.
35 National Health Service, COVID-19 Daily Deaths,
https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/covid-19-daily-deaths/.
36 Andrew Scheuber, Chinese President sees UK-China academic partnerships
at Imperial, Imperial College London, Oct. 21, 2015,
https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/168497/chinese-president-sees-uk-china-academic-partnerships/.
Kingdom had been attributed to COVID-19 (though deaths from all other
leading causes—including heart disease, cancer, and influenza—mysteriously
declined,32
indicating that even these low counts from the CDC and NHS are vastly
overstated).
A study by researchers at UCLA and the Institute for Health Metrics and
Evaluation (IHME) compared the accuracy of various institutions‘ models
predicting
COVID-19 mortality.33 Across all time periods, the models produced by
Imperial College were measured to have far higher rates of error than the
others—always
erring on the side of being too high:
The 12-week median absolute percent errors (MAPE), reflecting models
produced in July and August, ranged from 22.4% for the SIK-J Alpha model,
to 79.9%
for the Imperial model… The Delphi and LANL models from July underestimated
mortality, with median percent errors of -5.6% and -8.3% at 6 weeks
respectively,
while Imperial tended to overestimate (+47.7%), and the remaining models
were relatively unbiased… The Imperial model had larger errors, about
5-fold higher
than other models by six weeks. This appears to be largely driven by the
aforementioned tendency to overestimate mortality. At twelve weeks, MAPE
values
were lowest for the IHME-MS-SEIR (23.7%) model, while the Imperial model
had the most elevated MAPE (98.8%)… In the most current models, the 6-week
MAPE
across models was 7.2%.
Imperial‘s inaccuracy continued unabated. In October 2020, Imperial
College‘s model predicted the U.K. would experience 2,000 deaths per day by
mid-December.34
In fact, deaths per day in the U.K. never reached 400, per NHS.35
Five years earlier, on October 21, 2015, General Secretary Xi personally
visited Imperial College London for the announcement of ―a series of new
UK-China
education and research collaborations‖ including ―nanotechnology,
bioengineering… and public health.‖36 This was the only trip Xi ever made
to the U.K.
as General Secretary; the trip lasted just four days and
involved just one university: Imperial College London.37 In a speech
welcoming General Secretary Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, a goodwill
ambassador to
the WHO, Imperial College President Alice Gast addressed the Chancellor of
the Exchequer:
37 Wikipedia, 2015 Xi Jinping visit to the United Kingdom,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Xi_Jinping_visit_to_the_United_Kingdom.
38 Andrew Scheuber, Chinese President sees UK-China academic partnerships
at Imperial, Imperial College London, Oct. 21, 2015,
https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/168497/chinese-president-sees-uk-china-academic-partnerships/.
39 Peter S. Goodman, In Era of Trump, China‘s President Champions Economic
Globalization, N.Y. Times, Jan. 17, 2017,
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/17/business/dealbook/world-economic-forum-davos-china-xi-globalization.html;
see also Aya Vel zquez, China Und Der Great Reset, Demokratischer
Widerstand, Nov. 27, 2020,
https://demokratischerwiderstand.de/artikel/158/china-und-der-great-resetWeitere.
40 David Lee, World Economic Forum Establishes ―A.I. Council‖ Co-chaired by
Chinese AI Expert Kai-Fu Lee, Pandaily, Jan. 24, 2019,
https://pandaily.com/world-economic-forum-establishes-artificial-intelligence-council/;
Imperial College London, China and Imperial,
https://web.archive.org/web/20201231155935/https://www.imperial.ac.uk/about/introducing-imperial/global-imperial/east-asia/china/.
41 Neil M Ferguson and Steven Riley et al., Report 11 - Evidence of initial
success for China exiting COVID-19 social distancing policy after achieving
containment, Imperial College COVID-19 Response Team, Mar. 24, 2020,
https://www.imperial.ac.uk/mrc-global-infectious-disease-analysis/covid-19/report-11-china-exiting-social-distancing/.
Chancellor, you have said that you aim to make the U.K. ‗China‘s best
partner in the west.‘ Imperial College London strives to be just that,
China‘s best
academic partner in the west… As China‘s top research partner in the U.K.,
Imperial‘s academics and students benefit from collaboration on a daily
basis.38
(emphasis added)
In 2019, Gast became part of the notably pro-China39 World Economic Forum‘s
AI Council along with Chinese AI Expert and venture capitalist Kai-Fu Lee,
and to this day, Imperial College continues to advertise itself as ―UK‘s
number one university collaborator with Chinese research institutions.‖40
In March 2020, Imperial College produced a report titled ―Evidence of
initial success for China exiting COVID-19 social distancing policy after
achieving
containment,‖ concluding:
For the first time since the outbreak began there have been no new
confirmed cases caused by local transmission in China reported for five
consecutive
days up to 23 March 2020. This is an indication that the social distancing
measures enacted in China have led to control of COVID-19 in China… after
very
intense social distancing which resulted in containment, China has
successfully exited their stringent social distancing policy to some
degree.41
Imperial College had no way of knowing if this was, in fact, true—failing
to discover cases does not mean they do not exist, particularly with a virus
that is fatal to hardly anyone except the most vulnerable, and a regime
with a long history of fraud—and its conclusion directly contradicted
that of the U.S. intelligence community around the same time that China had
intentionally misrepresented its coronavirus numbers.42 In a December
interview,
Neil Ferguson recalled how China had inspired his lockdown recommendations
to the U.K.‘s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE):
42 Sonam Sheth and Isaac Scher, The US intelligence community has
reportedly concluded that China intentionally misrepresented its
coronavirus numbers,
Business Insider, Apr. 1, 2020,
https://www.businessinsider.com/us-intelligence-found-china-misrepresented-coronavirus-stats-report-2020-4.
43 Tom Whipple, Professor Neil Ferguson: People don‘t agree with lockdown
and try to undermine the scientists, The Times of London, Dec. 25, 2020,
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/people-don-t-agree-with-lockdown-and-try-to-undermine-the-scientists-gnms7mp98.
44 World Health Organization, Clinical management of severe acute
respiratory infection
(SARI) when COVID-19 disease is suspected, Mar. 13, 2020,
https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/clinical-management-of-novel-cov.pdf.
45 Philippe Rola et al., Rethinking the early intubation paradigm of
COVID-19: time to change gears?, Clin Exp Emerg Med Vol. 7(2), Jun. 10,
2020, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7348679/.
46 Fujun Peng et al., Management and Treatment of COVID-19: The Chinese
Experience, Can J Cardiol Vol. 36(6), Apt. 17, 2020,
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7162773/.
I think people‘s sense of what is possible in terms of control changed
quite dramatically between January and March… It‘s a communist one party
state,
we said. We couldn‘t get away with it in Europe, we thought… And then Italy
did it. And we realised we could… If China had not done it, the year would
have been very different.43
In a time of panic, it‘s natural for the public to focus on the worst
possible outcomes. Thus, a prestigious institution producing particularly
alarmist
models can have an outsized impact on political discourse. In this case,
the institution in question not only consistently and egregiously erred in
just
one direction—the ―tendency to overestimate mortality‖—but also had a
special relationship with China as its ―best academic partner in the west.‖
list of 1 items
3. Deadly Recommendations for Early Mechanical Ventilation Came from China
list end
In early March 2020, the WHO released COVID-19 provider guidance documents
to healthcare workers.44 The guidance recommended escalating quickly to
mechanical
ventilation as an early intervention for treating COVID-19 patients, a
departure from past experience during respiratory-virus epidemics.45 In
doing so,
they cited the guidance being presented by Chinese journal articles, which
published papers in January and February claiming that ―Chinese expert
consensus‖
called for ―invasive mechanical ventilation‖ as the ―first choice‖ for
people with moderate to severe respiratory distress,46 in part to protect
medical
staff. As the Wall Street Journal later reported:
Last spring, doctors put patients on ventilators partly to limit contagion
at a time when it was less clear how the virus spread, when protective masks
and gowns were in short supply. Doctors could have employed other kinds of
breathing support devices that don‘t
require risky sedation, but early reports suggested patients using them
could spray dangerous amounts of virus into the air, said Theodore
Iwashyna, a
critical-care physician at University of Michigan and Department of
Veterans Affairs hospitals in Ann Arbor, Mich.
At the time, he said, doctors and nurses feared the virus would spread
through hospitals. ―We were intubating sick patients very early. Not for
the patients‘
benefit, but in order to control the epidemic and to save other patients,‖
Dr. Iwashyna said ―That felt awful.‖47 (emphasis added)
47 Melanie Evans, Hospitals Retreat From Early Covid Treatment and Return
to Basics, Wall Street Journal, Dec. 20, 2020,
https://www.wsj.com/articles/hospitals-retreat-from-early-covid-treatment-and-return-to-basics-11608491436.
48 Jordan Schachtel, ‗First Choice‘: How China and the WHO created mass
ventilator hysteria, Sep. 30, 2020,
https://jordanschachtel.substack.com/p/first-choice-how-china-and-the-who.
49 Cameron Kyle-Sidell, From NYC ICU: Does Covid-19 Really Cause ARDS??!!,
YouTube, Mar. 31, 2020,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9GYTc53r2o&feature=youtu.be.
50 Silvia Aloisi et al., Special Report: As virus advances, doctors rethink
rush to ventilate, Reuters, Apr. 23, 2020,
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-ventilators-specia/as-virus-advances-doctors-rethink-rush-to-ventilate-idUSKCN2251PE.
51 Sharon Begley, With ventilators running out, doctors say the machines
are overused for Covid-19, Stat, Apr. 8, 2020,
https://www.statnews.com/2020/04/08/doctors-say-ventilators-overused-for-covid-19/.
In New York and other cities, early and often ventilator use became a
common theme, and it had devastating consequences for patients.48 On March
31, 2020,
Dr. Cameron Kyle-Sidell, who had been caring for ICU patients at one of the
hardest-hit hospitals in New York City, acted as an early whistleblower,
sounding
the alarm about the ventilator issue in a widely-shared video:
We are operating under a medical paradigm that is untrue… I fear that this
misguided treatment will lead to a tremendous amount of harm to a great
number
of people in a very short time… I don‘t know the final answer to this
disease, but I‘m quite sure that a ventilator is not it… This method being
widely
adopted at this very moment at every hospital in the country … is actually
doing more harm than good.49
An April Reuters interview with dozens of medical specialists made it clear
that mechanical ventilator overuse had become a global issue: ―Many
highlighted
the risks from using the most invasive types of them - mechanical
ventilators - too early or too frequently, or from non-specialists using
them without
proper training in overwhelmed hospitals.‖50
By May 2020, it was common knowledge in the medical community that early
ventilator use was hurting, not helping, COVID-19 patients, and that less
invasive
measures were in fact very effective in assisting recoveries.51 A New York
City study found a 97.2% mortality rate among
those over age 65 who received mechanical ventilation.52 The ―early action‖
ventilator guidance that the WHO distributed to the world killed thousands
of innocent patients; the WHO obtained that guidance from China.
52 Safiya Richardson, MD, MPH, et al., Presenting Characteristics,
Comorbidities, and Outcomes Among 5700 Patients Hospitalized With COVID-19
in the New
York City Area, JAMA 2020 323(20), Apr. 22, 2020,
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2765184.
53 Victor Corman and Christian Drosten et al., Diagnostic detection of
2019-nCoV by real-time RT-PCR, World Health Organization, Jan. 17, 2020,
https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/protocol-v2-1.pdf.
54 Victor Corman and Christian Drosten et al., Diagnostic detection of
2019-nCoV by real-time RT-PCR, Eurosurveillance European Communicable
Disease Bulletin
Vol. 25(3), Jan. 23, 2020,
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6988269/.
55 Victor Corman and Christian Drosten et al., Diagnostic detection of
2019-nCoV by real-time RT-PCR, World Health Organization, Jan. 13, 2020,
https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/protocol-v2-1.pdf.
56 Victor Corman and Christian Drosten et al., Diagnostic detection of
2019-nCoV by real-time RT-PCR, Eurosurveillance European Communicable
Disease Bulletin
Vol. 25(3), Jan. 23, 2020,
https://www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.3.2000045.
57 Victor Corman and Christian Drosten et al., Diagnostic detection of
2019-nCoV by real-time RT-PCR, World Health Organization, Jan. 17, 2020,
https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/protocol-v2-1.pdf.
58 Eurosurveillane, Editorial Board,
https://web.archive.org/web/20201224033649/https://www.eurosurveillance.org/board.
59 Victor Corman and Christian Drosten et al., Diagnostic detection of
2019-nCoV by real-time RT-PCR, Eurosurveillance European Communicable
Disease Bulletin
Vol. 25(3), Jan. 23, 2020,
https://www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.3.2000045.
60 World Health Organization, Archived: WHO Timeline - COVID-19, Apr. 27,
2020, https://www.who.int/news/item/27-04-2020-who-timeline---covid-19.
list of 1 items
4. The World’s Predominant, Wildly-Inaccurate PCR Testing Protocols Are
Based on Incomplete, Theoretical Genome Sequences Supplied by China
list end
Virologists Victor Corman and Christian Drosten led the exceptionally-rapid
creation of the first COVID-19 PCR test (the ―Corman-Drosten Protocol‖);53
it is now the most commonly-used testing protocol in the world for
detecting the SARS-CoV-2 virus which may, in certain cases, lead to the
disease COVID-19.
(As discussed infra, the Court of Appeal of Lisbon concluded that this PCR
test was producing as many as 97% false positives). Corman and Drosten were
provided with the in silico (theoretical) genome sequences used to create
their PCR protocol by Chinese scientists including Yong-Zhen Zhang and Shi
Zhengli,
Director at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.54 (These genome sequences were
then posted to the open-source depository Virological.org on January 10,
2020).
The Corman-Drosten Protocol was submitted to the WHO on January 13,55 eight
days prior to the date it was submitted to the medical journal
Eurosurveillance
for ―peer review.‖56
The WHO released the Corman-Drosten Protocol on January 21, the same day it
was submitted to Eurosurveillance.57 Drosten sits on the board of
Eurosurveillance,
a conflict of interest.58 The Corman-Drosten Protocol was accepted59 by
Eurosurveillance the very next day, January 22 (the same day the WHO
confirmed
human-to-human transmission),60 an extraordinarily quick
turnaround; peer review for scientific journals is an intensive process
requiring identification of, and action by, external reviewers, which
typically
takes weeks to months. Of all 1,595 publications at Eurosurveillance since
2015, not one other research paper was reviewed and accepted in fewer than
20
days.61 Eurosurveillance‘s peer review process also requires an author
declaration that no conflicts of interest exist, which was, in this case, a
false
statement.62 This extraordinarily quick turnaround made it impossible for
any other PCR protocol to be published before the Corman-Drosten Protocol,
which
was published on PubMed on January 23,63 giving it a valuable ―first-mover‖
advantage ensuring that it became the predominant PCR protocol in the world.
61 @waukema, Twitter, Nov. 30, 2020,
https://twitter.com/waukema/status/1333612453561831428.
62 Eurosurveillane, Evaluation and review process,
https://www.eurosurveillance.org/evaluation.
63 Victor Corman and Christian Drosten et al., Diagnostic detection of
2019-nCoV by real-time RT-PCR, Eurosurveillance European Communicable
Disease Bulletin
Vol. 25(3), Jan. 23, 2020,
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6988269/.
64 Pieter Borger et al., External peer review of the RTPCR test to detect
SARS-CoV-2 reveals 10 major scientific flaws at the molecular and
methodological
level: consequences for false positive results, Nov. 27, 2020,
https://cormandrostenreview.com/report/.
65 Citing New China virus: Warning against cover-up as number of cases
jumps, BBC, Jan. 21, 2020,
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-51185836.
66 Citing Google Analytics – COVID19-deaths worldwide,
https://archive.is/PpqEE.
The molecular biologist Pieter Borger and his team submitted a retraction
request for the Corman-Drosten PCR protocol.64 According to Borger‘s report,
the Corman-Drosten PCR test workflow contains multiple, fatal errors. The
most glaring issue is the fact that, at the time the protocol was submitted,
there was no good reason to believe widespread PCR testing would even be
necessary:
The authors introduce the background for their scientific work as: ―The
ongoing outbreak of the recently emerged novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV)
poses a
challenge for public health laboratories as virus isolates are unavailable
while there is growing evidence that the outbreak is more widespread than
initially
thought, and international spread through travelers does already occur.
According to BBC News65 and Google Statistics66 there were 6 deaths
world-wide on January 21st 2020 – the day when the manuscript was
submitted. Why did
the authors assume a challenge for public health laboratories while there
was no substantial evidence at that time to indicate that the outbreak was
more
widespread than initially thought? (emphasis added)
Borger‘s report goes on to specify ten major flaws with the Corman-Drosten
protocol, the biggest issue being the fact that the entire test is based on
in silico (theoretical) sequences supplied by China:
The first and major issue is that the novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (in the
publication named 2019-nCoV and in February 2020 named SARS-CoV-2 by an
international
consortium of virus experts) is based on in silico sequences, supplied by a
laboratory in China,67 because at the time neither control material of
infectious
(―live‖) or inactivated SARS-CoV-2 nor isolated genomic RNA of the virus
was available to the authors. To date no validation has been performed by
the
authorship based on isolated SARS-CoV-2 viruses or full length RNA thereof.
67 Citing Victor Corman and Christian Drosten et al., Diagnostic detection
of 2019-nCoV by real-time RT-PCR, Eurosurveillance European Communicable
Disease
Bulletin Vol. 25(3), Jan. 23, 2020,
https://www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.3.2000045.
68 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Division of Viral Diseases,
CDC 2019-Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Real-Time RT-PCR Diagnostic Panel,
Feb.
4, 2020,
http://web.archive.org/web/20200227050956/https://www.fda.gov/media/134922/download.
69 Sibyle Etievant et al., Performance Assessment of SARS-CoV-2 PCR Assays
Developed by WHO Referral Laboratories. J Clin Med Vol. 9(6), Jun. 16, 2020,
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7355678/.
70 World Health Organization, Summary table of available protocols in this
document,
http://web.archive.org/web/20200909015002/https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/whoinhouseassays.pdf.
In addition, the primers and probes in Drosten‘s protocol are incomplete
and non-specific; the primer concentrations are four to five times too
high; the
GC content (connection strength) is far too low; the annealing temperature
difference in primer pairs is up to five times too high; the PCR products
have
not been validated at the molecular level, rendering the test useless as a
specific diagnostic tool to identify SARS-CoV-2; and—given the protocol was
accepted for publication just one day after it was submitted to
Eurosurveillance—it was obviously never subjected to any meaningful peer
review.
Corman and Drosten‘s PCR protocol thus has every indication of being
fraudulent.
In June, a peer-reviewed study was published comparing the accuracy of the
COVID-19 PCR test protocols on the short list recommended by the WHO. The
PCR
protocol developed by the CDC (the N2 US CDC protocol)68—likewise based on
in silico genome sequences supplied by China—fared little better than the
Corman-Drosten
protocol:
The E Charité [Corman-Drosten] and N2 US CDC assays were positive for all
specimens, including negative samples and negative controls (water).69
Together, these two PCR protocols account for the majority of COVID-19 PCR
tests conducted in the Nations.70 Both rely on in silico sequences from
China,
and both produce wildly inaccurate results, testing positive for all
specimens including negative samples and plain water.
list of 1 items
5. Predominant, Excessive PCR Testing Protocols Came from China
list end
In accordance with recommendations by the WHO and other public health
authorities, countless laboratories have engaged in mass PCR testing for
the SARS-CoV-2
virus.71 Fundamental to PCR testing is the concept of ―cycle thresholds.‖
The PCR test amplifies genetic matter from a virus in cycles; the fewer
cycles
required, the greater the amount of virus, or viral load, in the sample.
The greater the viral load, the more likely the patient is to be
contagious. Thus,
the higher the PCR cycle threshold, the lower the amount of viral load
needed to trigger a positive PCR test.
71 World Health Organization, Laboratory testing for coronavirus disease
(COVID-19) in suspected human cases, Mar. 19, 2020,
https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/331501/WHO-COVID-19-laboratory-2020.5-eng.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y.
72 Daniel Payne, In little noticed July interview, Fauci warned that widely
used COVID tests may pick up 'dead' virus, Just the News, Dec. 10, 2020,
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/coronavirus/newly-surfaced-video-july-fauci-tests-dead-virus.
73 World Health Organization, Laboratory testing for coronavirus disease
(COVID-19) in suspected human cases, Mar. 19, 2020,
https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/331501/WHO-COVID-19-laboratory-2020.5-eng.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y.
74 Qun Li et al., Early Transmission Dynamics in Wuhan, China, of Novel
Coronavirus-Infected Pneumonia, N Engl J Med Vol. 382(13), Jan. 29, 2020,
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7121484/;
Clinical Characteristics of Coronavirus Disease 2019 in China, N Engl J Med
Vol. 382, Feb. 28, 2020, https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMoa2002032; Wei
Zhang et al., Molecular and serological investigation of 2019-nCoV infected
patients: implication of multiple shedding routes, Emerg Microbes Infect
Vol.
9(1), Feb. 17, 2020, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7048229/.
75 Qun Li et al., Early Transmission Dynamics in Wuhan, China, of Novel
Coronavirus-Infected Pneumonia, N Engl J Med Vol. 382(13), Jan. 29, 2020,
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7121484/.
If the PCR cycle threshold indicating a ―positive‖ is set too high, a
positive result may not even indicate any meaningful amount of live viral
particles.
As Dr. Anthony Fauci mentioned in a July 2020 interview, a cycle threshold
of 35 or more should not be considered a positive result:
What is now sort of evolving into a bit of a standard … if you get a cycle
threshold of 35 or more ... the chances of it being replication-confident
are
minuscule… So, I think if somebody does come in with 37, 38, even 36, you
got to say, you know, it's just dead nucleotides, period.72 (emphasis added)
The WHO published its currently-outstanding guidance on laboratory testing
for COVID-19 on March 19, 2020.73 The WHO‘s guidance contained only three
studies
discussing PCR cycle thresholds. All three studies74 are from China and use
cycle thresholds from 37 to 40: ―A cycle threshold value (Ct-value) less
than
37 was defined as a positive test, and a Ct-value of 40 or more was defined
as a negative test.‖75
As described by the New York Times, most laboratories and manufacturers in
the United States now set their cutoff for a positive PCR test from 37 to 40
cycle thresholds: ―Most tests set the limit at 40, a few at 37. This means
that you are positive for the coronavirus if the test process
required up to 40 cycles, or 37, to detect the virus.‖76 At 37 cycles, any
viral RNA or DNA will have been amplified over 68 billion times, and at 40
cycles
it will have been amplified over 500 billion times.
76 Apoorva Mandavilli, Your Coronavirus Test Is Positive. Maybe It
Shouldn‘t Be., N.Y. Times, Aug. 29, 2020,
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/29/health/coronavirus-testing.html.
77 Id.
78 Natasha Donn, Judges in Portugal highlight ―more than debatable‖
reliability of Covid tests, Portugal Resident, Nov. 20, 2020,
https://www.portugalresident.com/judges-in-portugal-highlight-more-than-debatable-reliability-of-covid-tests/.
79 Court of Appeal of Lisbon, judgment of 11-11-2020 in Proceedings No.
1783/20.7T8PDL.L1-3,
https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=&sl=pt&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dgsi.pt%2Fjtrl.nsf%2F33182fc732316039802565fa00497eec%2F79d6ba338dcbe5e28025861f003e7b30.
80 Id.
Doctors interviewed by the New York Times agreed with Dr. Fauci that
anything above 35 cycle thresholds is too sensitive. ―A more reasonable
cutoff would
be 30 to 35,‖ said Juliet Morrison, virologist at UC Riverside. Dr. Michael
Mina, epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said
he would set the figure at 30, or even less. Using current testing
standards with 37 to 40 cycle thresholds:
In three sets of testing data that include cycle thresholds, compiled by
officials in Massachusetts, New York and Nevada, up to 90 percent of people
testing
positive carried barely any virus, a review by The Times found… In
Massachusetts, from 85 to 90 percent of people who tested positive in July
with a cycle
threshold of 40 would have been deemed negative if the threshold were 30
cycles, Dr. Mina said. ‗I would say that none of those people should be
contact-traced,
not one,‘ he said.77 (emphasis added).
In a recent ruling, the Court of Appeal of Lisbon concluded: ―In view of
current scientific evidence, this test shows itself to be unable to
determine
beyond reasonable doubt that such positivity corresponds, in fact, to the
infection of a person by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.‖78 The two most important
reasons
for this, said the judges, are that, ―the test‘s reliability depends on the
number of cycles used‘‘ and that ―the test‘s reliability depends on the
viral
load present.‖79
The court cited a study conducted by ―some of the leading European and
world specialists,‖ showing that if someone tested positive for COVID-19 at
a cycle
threshold of 35 or higher, the chance of that person actually being
infected is less than 3%, and that ―the probability of… receiving a false
positive
is 97% or higher.‖80
To summarize, based on guidance issued by the WHO citing three studies from
China, laboratories and manufacturers across the United States and many
other
countries are using a PCR cycle threshold of 37 to 40 for COVID-19 PCR
tests that were created using in silico
genome sequences supplied by a laboratory in China, pursuant to which
positive COVID-19 case counts have been inflated as much as ten- to
thirty-fold.81
81 Id.
82 World Health Organization, Transmission of SARS-CoV-2: implications for
infection prevention precautions, Jul. 9, 2020,
https://www.who.int/news-room/commentaries/detail/transmission-of-sars-cov-2-implications-for-infection-prevention-precautions.
83 World Health Organization, Report of the WHO-China Joint Mission on
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), Feb. 16–24, 2020,
https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/who-china-joint-mission-on-covid-19-final-report.pdf.
84 Pien Huang, What We Know About The Silent Spreaders Of COVID-19, NPR,
Apr. 13, 2020,
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/04/13/831883560/can-a-coronavirus-patient-who-isnt-showing-symptoms-infect-others.
85 Noreen Quails et al., Community Mitigation Guidelines to Prevent
Pandemic Influenza, United States, 2017 (Sonja A. Rasmussen et al. eds.,
2017), https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/66/rr/rr6601a1.htm.
86 World Health Organization, Transmission of SARS-CoV-2: implications for
infection prevention precautions, Jul. 9, 2020,
https://www.who.int/news-room/commentaries/detail/transmission-of-sars-cov-2-implications-for-infection-prevention-precautions;
Lei Luo et al., Modes of contact and risk of transmission in COVID-19 among
close contacts, Mar. 26, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.03.24.20042606;
Lei Huang et al., Rapid asymptomatic transmission of COVID-19 during the
incubation period demonstrating strong infectivity in a cluster of
youngsters
aged 16-23 years outside Wuhan and characteristics of young patients with
COVID-19: A prospective contact-tracing study, J Infect Vol. 80(6), Apr. 10,
2020, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2020.03.006; Quan-Xin Long et al., ;
Clinical and immunological assessment of asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2
infections, Nat
Med Vol. 26, Jun. 18, 2020, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-020-0965-6.
87 Hao-Yuan Cheng, MD, MSc et al., Contact Tracing Assessment of COVID-19
Transmission Dynamics in Taiwan and Risk at Different Exposure Periods
Before
and After Symptom Onset, JAMA Intern Med Vol. 180(9), May 1, 2020,
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7195694/; Shin Young Park et ;
al., Coronavirus
Disease Outbreak in Call Center, South Korea, Emerg Infect Dis Vol. 26(8),
Apr. 23, 2020, https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/8/20-1274_article.
list of 1 items
6. Studies Showing Significant Asymptomatic Transmission, the Only
Scientific Basis for Lockdowns of Healthy Individuals, Came from China
list end
Underpinning the policy of ―lockdown‖ is the scientific concept of
―asymptomatic spread.‖ According to the WHO, ―Early data from China
suggested that people
without symptoms could infect others.‖82 This idea of asymptomatic spread
was reflected in the WHO‘s February report.83 According to this concept,
healthy
individuals, or ―silent spreaders‖ might be responsible for a significant
number of SARS-CoV-2 transmissions.84 The idea of setting out to stop
asymptomatic
spread was a significant departure from prevailing public health guidance
and experience during prior respiratory-virus pandemics.85
The concept of significant asymptomatic spread was believed to be a novel
and unique feature of SARS-CoV-2 based on several studies performed in
China.86
Multiple studies from other countries could not find any transmission of
SARS-CoV-2 from asymptomatic individuals.87
A paper from McGill University concluded that ―transmission in the
asymptomatic period was documented in numerous studies,‖ but every one of
those studies
was conducted in China; where
studies outside of China have tried to replicate these findings, they have
failed.88 An Italian study concluded that two asymptomatic individuals who
tested
positive had been infected by two other asymptomatic individuals, but this
was based on 2,800 PCR tests; given the false-positive rate discussed above,
the conclusion is dubious.89 An influential study from Brunei Darussalam
found significant asymptomatic spread,90 but its findings are considerably
weakened
by a poor case definition; its two findings of asymptomatic spread were
that of a young girl with no symptoms who allegedly spread SARS-CoV-2 to
her teacher
who had ―a mild cough on one day,‖ and a father who remained asymptomatic
but whose wife briefly had a runny nose and whose baby also had a mild cough
one day.91
88 Mercedes Yanes-Lane et al., Proportion of asymptomatic infection among
COVID-19 positive persons and their transmission potential: A systematic
review
and meta-analysis, PLoS One, Nov. 3, 2020,
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0241536.
89 Enrico Lavezzo et al., Suppression of a SARS-CoV-2 outbreak in the
Italian municipality of Vo‘, Nature Vol. 584, Jun. 30, 2020,
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2488-1.
90 Liling Chaw et al., Analysis of SARS-CoV-2 Transmission in Different
Settings, Brunei, Emerg Infect Dis Vol. 26(11), Oct. 9, 2020,
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/11/20-2263_article.
91 Justin Wong et al., Asymptomatic transmission of SARS‐CoV‐2 and
implications for mass gatherings, Influenza Other Respir Viruses Vol.
14(5), May 30,
2020, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7300701/.
92 Christian Drosten, M.D. et al., Transmission of 2019-nCoV Infection from
an Asymptomatic Contact in Germany, N Engl J Med Vol. 382, Jan. 30, 2020,
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2001468.
93 Kai Kupferschmidt, Study claiming new coronavirus can be transmitted by
people without symptoms was flawed, Science, Feb. 3, 2020,
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/02/paper-non-symptomatic-patient-transmitting-coronavirus-wrong.
94 Brendan McFadden, Coronavirus: Infected people seen ‗dead in streets‘ in
Chinese city dubbed ‗zombieland‘, Daily Mirror, Jan. 24, 2020,
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/infected-people-seen-dead-streets-
A German study co-authored by Christian Drosten claimed to have found
―Transmission of 2019-nCoV Infection from an Asymptomatic Contact in
Germany,‖92
but the researchers didn‘t actually speak to the woman before they
published the paper, and officials later confirmed that she did, in fact,
have symptoms
while in Germany.93
Absent this concept of significant asymptomatic spread, there is no
scientific case for locking down healthy persons. This concept of
significant asymptomatic
transmission of SARS-CoV-2, and the studies backing it, came from China.
list of 1 items
7. The CCP Engaged in an Early, Broad, Systematic, and Global Propaganda
Campaign to Promote Its Lockdown Response
list end
After concluding the CCP‘s lockdowns had ―reversed the escalating cases‖ in
China, the WHO was not alone in imploring the world to ―Copy China‘s
response
to COVID-19.‖ Beginning the same day the CCP locked down Hubei province,
―leaked‖ videos from Wuhan began flooding international social media sites
including
Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube—all of which are blocked in China—purporting
to show the horrors of Wuhan‘s epidemic and the seriousness of its lockdown,
in scenes likened to Zombieland and The Walking Dead.94 Official Chinese
21347952; Simon Osborne, ‗Like Walking Dead‘ Coronavirus hell as corpses
litter hospitals while people drop dead, Daily Express, Jan. 24, 2020,
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1232931/coronavirus-outbreak-wuhan-hospital-footage-corpses-corridors-china;
Li Yuan, A Generation Grows Up in China Without Google, Facebook or
Twitter, N.Y. Times, Aug. 6, 2018,
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/06/technology/china-generation-blocked-internet.html.
95 Jane Lytvynenko, Chinese State Media Spread A False Image Of A Hospital
For Coronavirus Patients In Wuhan, BuzzFeed News, Jan. 27, 2020,
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/janelytvynenko/china-state-media-false-coronavirus-hospital-image.
96 Raymond Zhong et al., Behind China‘s Twitter Campaign, a Murky
Supporting Chorus, N.Y. Times, Jun. 8, 2020,
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/08/technology/china-twitter-disinformation.html.
97 Laurence Dodds, China floods Facebook with undeclared coronavirus
propaganda ads blaming Trump, Daily Telegraph, Apr. 5, 2020,
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2020/04/05/china-floods-facebook-instagram-undeclared-coronavirus-propaganda/.
98 World Health Organization, Coronavirus disease (COVID-19): Serology,
Jun. 9, 2020,
https://web.archive.org/web/20201105013101/https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/coronavirus-disease-covid-19-serology;
Wikipedia, Herd Immunity,
https://web.archive.org/web/20201230030556/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herd_immunity.
99 @HuXijin_GT, Twitter, Mar. 14, 2020,
https://twitter.com/HuXijin_GT/status/1238864397713305600.
100 David Hutt, Sweden-China ties grow ever icier over Hong Kong and
coronavirus, Nikkei Asia, Jun. 11, 2020,
https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-relations/Sweden-China-ties-grow-ever-icier-over-Hong-Kong-and-coronavirus.
101 Leng Shumei, Sweden‘s herd immunity strategy coldblooded, indifferent:
netizens, Global Times, Apr. 25, 2020,
https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1186720.shtml.
accounts widely shared an image of a hospital wing supposedly constructed
in one day, but which actually showed an apartment 600 miles away.95
Then, beginning in March 2020, the entire world was bombarded with
propaganda extolling the virtues of China‘s heavy-handed approach.96
Chinese state media
bought numerous Facebook ads97 advertising China‘s pandemic response (all
of which ran without Facebook‘s required political disclaimer), and began
erroneously
describing ―herd immunity‖—the inevitable endpoint of every epidemic either
by naturally-acquired immunity98 or vaccination—as a ―strategy‖ violating
―human
rights.‖99 Sweden, whose leaders were unique in foregoing lockdowns, became
a primary target of the CCP‘s propaganda campaign.100 In the words of
China‘s
state-run Global Times:
Chinese analysts and netizens doubt herd immunity and called it a violation
of human rights, citing high mortality in the country compared to other
Northern
European countries. ―So-called human rights, democracy, freedom are heading
in the wrong direction in Sweden, and countries that are extremely
irresponsible
do not deserve to be China's friend …‖101
That was, of course, before the WHO adopted the bold, contradictory
strategy of attempting to rewrite the historical definition of herd
immunity wholesale.
As recently as June 2020, the WHO‘s definition of herd immunity had
properly included ―immunity developed through
previous infection‖—but on October 15, 2020, the WHO effectively erased the
eons-long history of naturally-acquired immunity from its website:
‗Herd immunity‘, also known as ‗population immunity‘, is a concept used for
vaccination, in which a population can be protected from a certain virus if
a threshold of vaccination is reached.
Herd immunity is achieved by protecting people from a virus, not by
exposing them to it.102 (emphasis added)
102 World Health Organization, Coronavirus disease (COVID-19): Herd
immunity, lockdowns and COVID-19, Oct. 15, 2020,
https://web.archive.org/web/20201214195732/https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/herd-immunity-lockdowns-and-covid-19,
contra World Health Organization, Coronavirus disease (COVID-19): Serology,
Jun. 9, 2020,
https://web.archive.org/web/20201105013101/https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/coronavirus-disease-covid-19-serology.
103 @SpokespersonCHN, Twitter, Apr. 5, 2020,
https://twitter.com/SpokespersonCHN/status/1246665952139198464.
104 Raymond Zhong et al., Behind China‘s Twitter Campaign, a Murky
Supporting Chorus, N.Y. Times, Jun. 8, 2020,
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/08/technology/china-twitter-disinformation.html.
105 @Mr_Zaheed, Twitter, Mar. 16, 2020,
https://twitter.com/Mr_Zaheed/status/1239494611497889795?s=20.
106 @PolySarkcess, Twitter, Mar. 18, 2020,
https://twitter.com/PolySarkcess/status/1240209649024016384.
107 @SipheleleQalaba, Twitter, Mar. 22, 2020,
https://twitter.com/SipheleleQalaba/status/1241634533176377344.
108 @jaysibalatani, Twitter, Mar. 15, 2020,
https://twitter.com/jaysibalatani/status/1239363614722621446?s=20.
109 @King_Mindu, Twitter, Mar. 14, 2020,
https://twitter.com/King_Mindu/status/1238765666053865473?s=20.
110 @LDNSOM, Twitter, Mar. 15, 2020,
https://twitter.com/LDNSOM/status/1239127435532255232?s=20.
111 @juanitoalimagna, Twitter, Mar. 15, 2020,
https://twitter.com/juanitoalimagna/status/1239154669743738881?s=20.
112 @chez_art, Twitter, Mar. 15, 2020,
https://twitter.com/chez_art/status/1239224144308420609?s=20.
113 @dedeteodoro, Twitter, Mar. 14, 2020,
https://twitter.com/dedeteodoro/status/1238914168251723779.
114 @Loukasz_, Twitter, Mar. 19, 2020,
https://twitter.com/Loukasz_/status/1240811202214875136.
115 @yycjfl_yycguy, Twitter, Mar. 13, 2020,
https://twitter.com/yycjfl_yycguy/status/1238481375356784640?s=20.
116 @cxrdelias, Twitter, Mar. 16, 2020,
https://twitter.com/cxrdelias/status/1239520104687099904?s=20.
117 @DheerajShah_, Twitter, Mar. 15, 2020,
https://twitter.com/DheerajShah_/status/1239202305976619009?s=2.
118 @dirkregido, Twitter, Mar. 13, 2020,
https://twitter.com/dirkregido/status/1238566874503413760?s=20.
119 @DeanTweets_, Twitter, Mar. 25, 2020,
https://twitter.com/DeanTweets_/status/1242829376447746049.
120 @MoToTheMO94, Twitter, Mar. 16, 2020,
https://twitter.com/MoToTheMO94/status/1239729692325773312.
China‘s official spokesperson, Hua Chunying, posted a video of a 7-year-old
girl reciting the importance of strict social distancing among children.103
Simultaneously, hundreds of thousands of clandestine social media posts,
which were later flagged as state-sponsored, expressed admiration for
China‘s
lockdowns and longed for governments around the world to emulate them,
while denigrating governments and world leaders who failed to follow
suit;104 governments
including, but not limited to: Nigeria,105 Ghana,106 South Africa,107
Namibia,108 Kenya,109 France,110 Spain,111 Colombia,112 Brazil,113
Argentina,114
Canada,115 Australia,116 India,117 Germany,118 the United Kingdom,119 and
the United States.120 Not only is this very poor global citizenship, but
especially
in light of the dubious science discussed above, it‘s worth
wondering whether these social media posts were intended to popularize
lockdowns as the end in themselves.121
121 Michael P. Senger, China‘s Global Lockdown Propaganda Campaign, Tablet,
Sep. 15, 2020,
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/china-covid-lockdown-propaganda.
122 Huffington Post, ―Ci sono ancora troppe persone per strada e
comportamenti da migliorare‖, Mar. 14, 2020,
https://www.huffingtonpost.it/entry/ci-sono-ancora-troppe-persone-per-strada-e-comportamenti-da-migliorare_it_5e6cc3b5c5b6dda30fc9dcd0.
123 James Patterson, Italy Coronavirus Lockdown 'Not Enough,' Says China,
Healthcare Staff Stop Counting Bodies, Int‘l Bus. Times, Mar. 20, 2020,
https://www.ibtimes.com/italy-coronavirus-lockdown-not-enough-says-china-healthcare-staff-stop-counting-2943402.
124 Zachary Evans, Chinese Company Suspected of Spying on U.S. Citizens
Donates Police Drones to 22 States, Nat‘l Review, Apr. 20, 2020,
https://www.nationalreview.com/news/chinese-company-suspected-of-spying-on-u-s-citizens-donates-police-drones-to-22-states/.
125 Bureau of Industry and Security, Addition of Entities to the Entity
List, Revision of Entry on the Entity List, and Removal of Entities from
the Entity
List, U.S. Dep‘t of Commerce, 15 CFR 744 Docket No. 201215-0347, Dec. 22,
2020, https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2020-28031.pdf.
126 Christopher Wray, The Threat Posed by the Chinese Government and the
Chinese Communist Party to the Economic and National Security of the United
States,
FBI, Jul. 7, 2020,
https://www.fbi.gov/news/speeches/the-threat-posed-by-the-chinese-government-and-the-chinese-communist-party-to-the-economic-and-national-security-of-the-united-states
127 Chrissy Clark, A Rundown Of Major U.S. Corporate Media‘s Business Ties
To China, The Federalist, May 4, 2020,
https://thefederalist.com/2020/05/04/has-china-compromised-every-major-mainstream-media-entity/.
When Italy became the first country outside China to lock down, Chinese
experts arrived on March 12 and two days later advised a tighter lockdown:
―There
are still too many people and behaviors on the street to improve.‖122 On
March 19, they repeated that Italy‘s lockdown was ―not strict enough.‖
―Here in
Milan, the hardest hit area by COVID-19, there isn't a very strict lockdown
... We need every citizen to be involved in the fight of COVID-19 and follow
this policy.‖123
Chinese company DJI donated drones to 22 U.S. states to help enforce
lockdown rules.124 Months later, DJI was blacklisted by the U.S. for having
―enabled
wide-scale human rights abuses within China through abusive genetic
collection and analysis or high-technology surveillance, and/or facilitated
the export
of items by China that aid repressive regimes …‖125 On July 7, FBI Director
Christopher Wray disclosed that the CCP even specifically approached local
politicians to endorse its pandemic response:
[W]e have heard from federal, state, and even local officials that Chinese
diplomats are aggressively urging support for China‘s handling of the
COVID-19
crisis. Yes, this is happening at both the federal and state levels. Not
that long ago, we had a state senator who was recently even asked to
introduce
a resolution supporting China‘s response to the pandemic.126
China has financial stakes in virtually every top media outlet.127 With
regard to complex issues like lockdowns, China‘s influence can collectively
tip
these media entities in a dangerous
direction, such as encouraging countries to copy China‘s response to
COVID-19.128 The CCP has shaped the media‘s scientific narratives by
consistently
promoting the falsehood that ―China controlled the virus,‖129 which is, of
course, a baldfaced lie.130 Nonetheless, by encouraging mainstream
publications
to repeat the lie that ―China controlled the virus,‖ the CCP has normalized
this lie and ensured its forged data remains integral to scientific
discourse.131
Meanwhile, the CCP began closely monitoring Chinese academic publications
on COVID-19.132
128 Donald G. McNeil Jr., To Take On the Coronavirus, Go Medieval on It,
N.Y. Times, Feb. 28, 2020,
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/28/sunday-review/coronavirus-quarantine.html;
Gerry Shih, Locked down in Beijing, I watched China beat back the
coronavirus, Wash. Post, Mar. 16, 2020,
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/locked-down-in-beijing-i-watched-china-beat-back-the-coronavirus/2020/03/16/f839d686-6727-11ea-b199-3a9799c54512_story.html;
David Brennan, Should Trump Copy China's Aggressive Coronavirus Strategy?,
Newsweek, Mar. 12, 2020,
https://www.newsweek.com/should-donald-trump-copy-china-aggressive-coronavirus-strategy-covid-19-outbreak-1491909.
129 Peter Hessler, How China Controlled the Coronavirus, New Yorker, Aug.
10, 2020,
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/08/17/how-china-controlled-the-coronavirus.
130 Keith Naughton, Coronavirus: It's time to get real about the misleading
data, The Hill, Apr. 1, 2020,
https://thehill.com/opinion/technology/490541-coronavirus-its-time-to-get-real-about-the-misleading-data.
131 Kaylee McGhee White, Don‘t trust China's coronavirus numbers, Wash.
Exam‘r, Mar. 30, 2020,
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/dont-trust-chinas-coronavirus-numbers;
Michael Meyer-Resende, How reliable is WHO coronavirus data?, EU Observer,
Mar. 19, 2020, https://euobserver.com/opinion/147776.
132 Stephanie Kirchgaessner et al., China clamping down on coronavirus
research, deleted pages suggest, The Guardian, Apr. 11, 2020,
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/11/china-clamping-down-on-coronavirus-research-deleted-pages-suggest.
133 Sonam Sheth and Isaac Scher, The US intelligence community has
reportedly concluded that China intentionally misrepresented its
coronavirus numbers,
Business Insider, Apr. 1, 2020,
https://www.businessinsider.com/us-intelligence-found-china-misrepresented-coronavirus-stats-report-2020-4.
The significance of China‘s global lockdown propaganda campaign is the
intent behind it. While the scientific issues described above—criminal
negligence
by the WHO, alarmist mortality models, dubious PCR tests, and bad studies
on asymptomatic transmission—could theoretically be attributed to
incompetence,
the CCP‘s propaganda is evidence of deliberation. Sloppy science may be
professionally shameful, but it is neither a crime nor a moral failing. The
possibility
of corruption and fraud, on the other hand, is another matter.
list of 1 items
8. Many Prominent Pro-Lockdown Scientists Show Conspicuous Pro-China Bias
list end
Not only were lockdowns laundered into science with a shocking lack of
scientific debate, but many scientists have shown an unusual deference to
China
in evaluating the continuation of lockdown policies. These scientists have
continuously praised China, and many appear to be operating on the
assumption
that China has, in fact, eliminated domestic COVID-19 cases as the CCP
claims, when in fact this claim is a lie, as confirmed by the intelligence
community.133
Needless to say, promoting major public policy decisions based on this
mistaken assumption can have devastating consequences.
In a May 2020 interview for China Central Television, Richard Horton,
editor-in-chief of the esteemed medical journal The Lancet, emphatically
praised
China‘s lockdowns:
It was not only the right thing to do, but it also showed other countries
how they should respond in the face of such an acute threat. So, I think we
have
a great deal to thank China for …134
134 Global Times, China shows world the right way for pandemic response:
The Lancet chief editor, May 2, 2020,
https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1187265.shtml.
135 @richardhorton1, Twitter, Jul. 7, 2020,
https://twitter.com/richardhorton1/status/1280617079960371200.
136 Richard Horton, This wave of anti-China feeling masks the west's own
Covid-19 failures, The Guardian, Aug. 3, 2020,
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/aug/03/covid-19-cold-war-china-western-governments-international-peace.
137 Talha Burki, China's successful control of COVID-19, The Lancet Vol.
20(11), Oct. 8, 2020,
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)30800-8/fulltext.
138 @chenweihua, Twitter, Oct. 16, 2020,
https://twitter.com/chenweihua/status/1317014216532963330.
139 Shen Libing et al., The Early Cryptic Transmission and Evolution of
SARS-CoV-2 in Human Hosts, SSRN, Nov. 16, 2020,
https://europepmc.org/article/ppr/ppr241540.
In July, Horton reiterated his gratitude toward China, tweeting: ―Indeed.
China should not be ‗blamed‘. In my view, we should thank Chinese scientists
and health workers for their incredibly selfless commitment to attacking
this outbreak. They deserve our unconditional gratitude.‖135 And in August,
Horton
doubled down again in a full-throated piece that had surprisingly little to
do with health:
The ―century of humiliation,‖ when China was dominated by a
colonially-minded west and Japan, only came to an end with the Communist
victory in the civil
war in 1949 … Every contemporary Chinese leader, including Xi Jinping, has
seen their task as protecting the territorial security won by Mao and the
economic
security achieved by Deng.136
On October 8, the Lancet published a ringing endorsement of China‘s
pandemic response: China's successful control of COVID-19.137 This article
was met
with high praise by Chen Weihua, China Daily EU Bureau Chief:
Despite ignorance by many in the West, this article by The Lancet is a
powerful endorsement of China‘s successful pandemic response. Hate to read
stories
by those paparazzi journalists who are experts at spinning but have little
knowledge of science.138
Chinese scientists later submitted an article to The Lancet arguing that
SARS-CoV-2 originated in India, in the midst of ongoing border skirmishes
with
India.139 Just weeks later, however, the
party line changed again amid economic tensions with Australia, and Global
Times claimed the coronavirus may have come from Australia.140
140 Charlie Moore, China claims coronavirus may have started in AUSTRALIA
and travelled to Wuhan's wet market via frozen steak exports - and attacks
US
alliance with insulting new cartoon, Daily Mail Australia, Dec. 6. 2020,
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9024311/China-claims-coronavirus-started-AUSTRALIA.html.
141 William A. Haseltine, Herd immunity will not defeat COVID-19, China
Daily, Oct. 12, 2020,
https://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202010/12/WS5f8392dba31024ad0ba7df2a.html;
Worldometer, COVID-19 Coronavirus Pandemic,
http://web.archive.org/web/20201012071325/https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/.
142 @WmHaseltine, Twitter, Mar. 25, 2020,
https://twitter.com/WmHaseltine/status/1242870021422034944?s=20.
143 @WmHaseltine, Twitter, Mar. 25, 2020,
https://twitter.com/WmHaseltine/status/1242887061310443521?s=20.
144 @WmHaseltine, Twitter, May 20, 2020,
https://twitter.com/WmHaseltine/status/1263158816365064194?s=20.
145 @WmHaseltine, Twitter, Jun. 4, 2020,
https://twitter.com/WmHaseltine/status/1268578282573889539?s=20.
William A. Haseltine, Chairman of the Board of the US-China Health Summit
since 2015, has also reserved great praise for China. In October 2020, China
Daily syndicated a column from Haseltine in which he towed the CCP‘s party
line on Sweden, chastising the country for choosing to ―forego lockdowns‖
and
base its strategy on ―herd immunity,‖ for which he erroneously states that
Sweden's ―COVID-19 infection and fatality rates were among the world‘s
highest‖:
But to base a pandemic-response strategy on the assumption that herd
immunity is inevitable－vaccine or no vaccine－is to afford a virus a path of
least
resistance. That was the case in Sweden, where policymakers decided to
forego lockdowns and business closures in favor of more lenient advisories
on mask-wearing
and social distancing. Unsurprisingly, Sweden's subsequent COVID-19
infection and fatality rates were among the world‘s highest.141
Early in the pandemic, on March 25, Haseltine also praised China‘s measures
in contrast to the United States, most of which had yet to impose lockdowns:
―The measures the US is taking to control Covid-19 are far inferior to what
was done in China according to @JNBPage in @WSJ - http://ow.ly/BS5R50yVDV2.
For more details see an interview quarantine of an American in Shanghai -
http://ow.ly/nz3050yVDXO.‖142 Later that day, Haseltine continued: ―Two ;
months
of lockdown in Hubei province in China has been lifted, although Wuhan
remains under quarantine until April 8. This is an important moment, and
testament
to the effectiveness of containment measures.‖143 Haseltine praised China
again on May 20: ―It is possible to eliminate Covid without effective drugs
or
vaccines. This is how they did it in Wuhan, China.‖144
On June 4, Haseltine again compared the U.S. negatively to China: ―The
steps China has taken to protect its population through testing and
tracking is
truly impressive. The US, on the other hand, is failing.‖145 And again on
September 15: ―Has the US has done [sic] all it can to control Covid-19?
Covid
can be contained without a vaccine or drug. China now has near zero new
infections. ACCESS Health & the @RockefellerFdn explored how they did it
with the use of digital technologies. http://ow.ly/I4Ch50BrEpJ.‖146
146 @WmHaseltine, Twitter, Sep. 15, 2020,
https://twitter.com/WmHaseltine/status/1305927462795214851?s=20.
147 Xinhua, China, US eye cooperation in fighting global epidemic diseases,
Global Times, May 13, 2015, https://www.globaltimes.cn/content/921533.shtml.
148 Helen Branswell, WHO elects Ethiopia‘s Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus as
its new director general, Stat, May 23, 2017,
https://www.statnews.com/2017/05/23/who-director-general-tedros/.
149 Donald G. McNeil Jr., Candidate to Lead the W.H.O. Accused of Covering
Up Epidemics, N.Y. Times, May 13, 2017,
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/13/health/candidate-who-director-general-ethiopia-cholera-outbreaks.html.
150 Jonathan Ames, Tedros Adhanom: WHO chief may face genocide charges, The
Times of London, Dec. 14, 2020,
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/who-chief-tedros-adhanom-ghebreyesus-may-face-genocide-charges-2fbfz7sff;
Frank Report, The Ethiopian Terrorist in Charge of the World Health
Organization — Dr. Tedros Adhanom, Apr. 14, 2020,
https://frankreport.com/2020/04/14/the-ethiopian-terrorist-in-charge-of-the-world-health-organization-dr-tedros-adhanom/.
151 @DrTomFrieden, Twitter, Nov. 7, 2018,
https://twitter.com/DrTomFrieden/status/1060229543762554881?s=20; ;
@DrTomFrieden, Twitter, Jun. 21, 2019,
https://twitter.com/DrTomFrieden/status/1142073802723119109?s=20.
152 Dr. Tom Frieden, Former CDC director: A coronavirus pandemic is
inevitable. What now?, CNN, Feb. 25, 2020,
https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/25/health/coronavirus-pandemic-frieden/index.html.
153 @cgtnamerica, Twitter, Apr. 8, 2020,
https://twitter.com/cgtnamerica/status/1248028432618999808.
Tom Frieden, former director of the CDC, is another prominent advocate of
COVID-19 lockdowns. In 2015, ―Frieden praised the public health partnership
between
China and the United States,‖ according to Global Times.147 In 2017,
Frieden joined China in backing Tedros Adhanom as director of the WHO over
the United
Kingdom‘s eminently-qualified David Nabarro: ―Tedros is an excellent choice
to lead WHO. He succeeded in Ethiopia, making remarkable health
progress…‖148
To the contrary, as was widely-known at the time, Tedros had helped
Ethiopia‘s regime cover up three cholera epidemics during his time as
Ethiopia‘s Minister
of Public Health.149 As a senior member of the Tigray People‘s Liberation
Front (TPLF), designated a terrorist organization by the United States in
the
1990s, Tedros ―was a crucial decision maker in relation to security service
actions that included killing, arbitrarily detaining and torturing
Ethiopians‖
and was ―personally responsible for brutal repression of the Amhara people,
using aid money selectively to starve them out and deny them access to basic
services,‖ —war crimes for which charges of genocide have recently been
submitted against him at the International Criminal Court at the Hague.150
Frieden traveled extensively throughout China in 2018 and 2019 for public
health collaborations, and he has heaped praise on China since the COVID-19
crisis
began.151 Frieden praised China‘s response early on, writing for CNN on
February 25: ―China‘s extraordinary cordon of Hubei province and other
areas bought
the world at least a month of lead time to prepare.‖152 In an April
interview, Frieden told China Global Television (CGTN): ―There‘s a lot the
world can
learn from China on stopping COVID-19.‖153
On March 17, Frieden urged the U.S. to emulate China‘s expansion of
hospital capacity: ―When @voxdotcom posted this yesterday I thought
hospitals might
need to triple their beds and
ventilators for pts with #COVID19. Now data suggests we may need as much as
10x more. China built 1K bed hospitals in 8 days, urgent action needed in US
now.‖154
154 @DrTomFrieden, Twitter, Mar. 17, 2020,
https://twitter.com/DrTomFrieden/status/1239988987604983808?s=20.
155 @DrTomFrieden, Twitter, Apr. 1, 2020,
https://twitter.com/DrTomFrieden/status/1245428638809575425?s=20; ;
@DrTomFrieden, Twitter, Apr. 1, 2020,
https://twitter.com/DrTomFrieden/status/1245428166413484033?s=20;
@DrTomFrieden, Twitter, Apr. 1, 2020,
https://twitter.com/DrTomFrieden/status/1245427587440148480?s=20.
156 @DrTomFrieden, Twitter, Aug. 14, 2020,
https://twitter.com/DrTomFrieden/status/1294339295747215362.
157 @DrTomFrieden, Twitter, Aug. 15, 2020,
https://twitter.com/DrTomFrieden/status/1294787213331398657?s=20.
158 @DrTomFrieden, Twitter, Aug. 18, 2020,
https://twitter.com/DrTomFrieden/status/1295773328523825158?s=20.
159 @DrTomFrieden, Twitter, Aug. 18, 2020,
https://twitter.com/DrTomFrieden/status/1295777614016262145?s=20.
160 Jeffrey Mervis, Fifty-four scientists have lost their jobs as a result
of NIH probe into foreign ties, Science, Jun. 12, 2020,
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/06/fifty-four-scientists-have-lost-their-jobs-result-nih-probe-foreign-ties.
161 Office of Public Affairs, Harvard University Professor and Two Chinese
Nationals Charged in Three Separate China Related Cases, U.S. Dep‘t of
Justice
Press Release No. 20-99, Jan. 28, 2020,
On April 1, Frieden tweeted the same words three times, praising China and
urging the U.S. to ramp up its response: ―I'm angry. Friends & neighbors
sick
& dying. 2.9: days Wuhan's action bought China: https://bit.ly/3bCxFJg. ;
2.9: number of MONTHS squandered by US not ramping up protection of HCW,
critical
care, testing, contact tracing, isolation, quarantine. Roadmap:
https://bit.ly/2R3RtgW.‖155
In August, Frieden praised China several times, contrasting its ―success‖
with that of the U.S. On August 10: ―Meanwhile in China. They report they
can
now do 4.8M PCR tests/day. Schools are opening and staying open.
Mask-wearing is, where appropriate, nearly universal. Last week, they had
an average of
34 cases/day. That's a case rate less than 1/5,000th that of the US.‖156 On
August 15: ―This reflection from an American teaching in Chengdu—where Covid
lockdowns were strictly enforced—examines the nuances of life in China and
how the country was able to crush the curve.‖157 And on August 16: ―Thoughts
about huge, unmasked crowds at festivals in Wuhan!? Well, that's the reward
for crushing the curve - you get back to near pre-Covid reality. But that's
probably not a reasonable goal for most places, where simmering control is
a realistic best-case scenario.‖158 And on August 18: ―China reported a case
rate less than 1/5,000th of the US‘. It‘s possible for us to control Covid
too if Americans work together and fully support public health.‖159
While these individuals are unique in their pro-China, pro-lockdown bias,
as scientists they‘re far from alone in their apparent ties to the CCP. In
June,
the National Institutes of Health (NIH) disclosed that 189 of its grantees
had received undisclosed funding from foreign governments.160 In 93% of
cases,
including that of Charles Lieber, chair of Harvard‘s chemistry department,
the undisclosed funding came from China.161 The co-founders of CanSino
Biologics,
a Chinese
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/harvard-university-professor-and-two-chinese-nationals-charged-three-separate-china-related.
162 Sam Cooper, Chinese vaccine company executives worked in program now
targeted by Western intelligence agencies, Global News, Dec. 2, 2020,
https://globalnews.ca/news/7483970/cansino-nrc-covid-vaccine/.
163 Guillermo S. Hava, The Other Chan: Donation Sanitization at the School
of Public Health, The Harvard Crimson, Oct. 19, 2020,
https://www.thecrimson.com/column/for-sale/article/2020/10/19/hava-the-other-chan/.
164 @DrEricDing, Twitter, Jan. 25, 2020,
https://threader.app/thread/1220919589623803905.
165 Tom Bartlett, This Harvard Epidemiologist Is Very Popular on Twitter.
But Does He Know What He‘s Talking About?, The Chronicle of Higher Educ.,
Apr.
17, 2020,
https://www.chronicle.com/article/this-harvard-epidemiologist-is-very-popular-on-twitter-but-does-he-know-what-hes-talking-about/.
166 Global Shapers Community, Taipei Hub,
http://web.archive.org/web/20201024004411/https://www.globalshapers.org/hubs/taipei-hub.
vaccine company collaborating with Canada, were found to be members of the
CCP‘s Thousand Talents Plan for co-opting and incentivizing scientists to
transfer
research and knowledge to China.162 According to the Harvard Crimson, the
largest gift in the history of Harvard‘s Chan School of Public Health came
in
part from a ―pawn of the CCP,‖ a ―cheerleader for a government responsible
for significant humanitarian crises‖ through a series of shell companies,
the
largest of which was named in the Panama Papers.163
There is nothing immoral or illegal about merely being wrong. But given the
magnitude of the decisions being made during the COVID-19 crisis, if even a
handful of influential scientists are cross-incentivized to support
lockdowns regardless of any real data or results, this can have an outsized
impact
on both public opinion and policy.
list of 1 items
9. Many Other Influential Lockdown Supporters Are Both Woefully Unqualified
to Be Advising World Leaders on Pandemic Policy and Often Show Conspicuous
Pro-China Bias
list end
In addition to the many scientists with ties to China, a number of woefully
unqualified individuals have held themselves out to the public and
politicians
as experts with regard to COVID-19 epidemiology and lockdowns, when in fact
their backgrounds reveal them to have no such expertise. Many of these, too,
have shown unusual deference to China.
On January 25, 2020, Eric Feigl-Ding, an epidemiologist in Harvard‘s
nutrition department with little background in infectious disease, wrote,
―HOLY MOTHER
OF GOD, the new coronavirus is a 3.8!!! How bad is that reproductive R0
value? It is thermonuclear pandemic level bad.‖164 This was the first of a
months-long
series of dubious, but widely-shared, alarmist tweets by the previously
unknown Ding, by virtue of which he gained hundreds of thousands of Twitter
followers
and became one of the leading advocates of strict COVID-19 mandates,
despite his evident lack of qualifications.165
Ding is an alumnus of the World Economic Forum‘s Global Shapers, a group of
young people that considers Taiwan a part of Greater China166 and has
campaigned
during the COVID-19
crisis to share ―their personal experiences of combating the coronavirus in
their cities and of adapting to a new normal.‖167 His enormous Twitter
following
irked many of his colleagues, prompting prominent Harvard epidemiologist
Marc Lipsitch to denounce him as a charlatan: ―OK lots of people think this
is
an intramural tiff. In the sense that we have been working @CCDD_HSPH for a
decade and at @HarvardEpi for 25y to establish ID epidemiology as a field of
excellence & we don‘t like a charlatan exploiting a tenuous connection for
self-promotion, yes.‖168
167 World Economic Forum, Global Shapers Community Annual Report 2019–2020,
https://weforum.ent.box.com/v/gsc-report-2020.
168 @mlipsitch, Twitter, Mar. 19, 2020,
https://twitter.com/mlipsitch/status/1240846136589660165.
169 @angie_rasmussen, Twitter, Apr. 14, 2020,
https://twitter.com/angie_rasmussen/status/1250240307037233153.
170 @DrEricDing, Twitter, Oct. 20, 2020,
https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1318693240309223424.
171 Tomas Pueyo, Coronavirus: Why You Must Act Now, Medium, Mar. 10, 2020,
https://tomaspueyo.medium.com/coronavirus-act-today-or-people-will-die-f4d3d9cd99ca.
172 @sapinker, Twitter, Mar. 11, 2020,
https://twitter.com/sapinker/status/1237761514989289472.
173 @tomaspueyo, Twitter, Mar. 25, 2020,
https://twitter.com/tomaspueyo/status/1242711009254506497?s=20.
Columbia virologist Angela Rasmussen agreed with Dr. Lipsitch‘s assessment:
―Eric Feigl-Ding is a charlatan. If Dr. Lipsitch sounds condescending, it‘s
because EFD has repeatedly claimed expertise he doesn't have in order to
get attention. He sensationalizes data and distributes outright
misinformation.
He‘s harmful to public health and I disdain that too.‖169
These denunciations by Drs. Rasmussen and Lipsitch are noteworthy in that
both have supported limited lockdowns and criticized both pro- and
anti-lockdown
scientists and commentators. However, their denunciations of Ding have not
slowed down his Twitter campaign, and he has continued to present himself in
attire worn by a medical doctor, completely inappropriate to his background
as a nutritionist.170
Tomas Pueyo is an engineer and MBA with no background in health or
epidemiology who came to sudden fame for a March 10 article on the
self-publishing site
Medium titled ―Coronavirus: Why You Must Act Now,‖ in which he implored
leaders around the world to implement lockdowns on China‘s model to counter
rising
COVID-19 cases. ―The total number of cases grew exponentially until China
contained it. But then, it leaked outside, and now it‘s a pandemic that
nobody
can stop.‖171 (emphasis added)
Pueyo‘s article quickly went viral and was shared hundreds of thousands of
times, including by many celebrities.172 After it went viral, Pueyo went on
tour advising state legislators on implementing lockdowns.173
Not only was Pueyo unqualified to be dispatching this type of
epidemiological advice to world leaders, but Pueyo‘s March 10 article
contains a number of
red flags. First, Pueyo several times refers to the coronavirus as a
―pandemic.‖ However, as of March 10, the WHO had not yet
declared the coronavirus a pandemic,174 and per the article, cases
accounted for less than 0.0015% of the world‘s population. In the article,
Pueyo then
goes on to implore leaders:
174 World Health Organization, Archived: WHO Timeline - COVID-19, Apr. 27,
2020, https://www.who.int/news/item/27-04-2020-who-timeline---covid-19.
175 Tomas Pueyo, Coronavirus: The Hammer and the Dance, Medium, Mar. 19,
2020,
https://tomaspueyo.medium.com/coronavirus-the-hammer-and-the-dance-be9337092b56.
176 Parliamentwatch, Das interne Strategiepapier des Innenministeriums zur
Corona-Pandemie, Apr. 7, 2020,
https://www.abgeordnetenwatch.de/blog/informationsfreiheit/das-interne-strategiepapier-des-innenministeriums-zur-corona-pandemie.
177 Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community, Wie wir
COVID-19 unter Kontrolle bekommen, Strategiepapier des
Bundesinnenministeriums, FragDenStaat,
Mar. 22, 2020,
https://fragdenstaat.de/dokumente/4123-wie-wir-covid-19-unter-kontrolle-bekommen/.
178 Google Trends, Hammer and Dance,
https://web.archive.org/web/20201230074513if_/https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=%22hammer%20and%20dance%22;
Google Trends, Hammer and the Dance,
But in 2–4 weeks, when the entire world is in lockdown, when the few
precious days of social distancing you will have enabled will have saved
lives, people
won‘t criticize you anymore: They will thank you for making the right
decision. (emphasis added)
Not only was the coronavirus not yet a pandemic, but as of March 10 there
were fewer than 200 cases in the entire developing world outside China.
Pueyo
had no good reason to call the coronavirus a pandemic, no good reason to
believe the entire world would be in lockdown in two to four weeks, and,
above
all, no good reason to be advising world leaders to lock down.
On March 19, Pueyo posted another Medium article titled ―The Hammer and
Dance,‖ which again went viral, explaining the strategy Pueyo described as
―the
Hammer‖—quick, aggressive lockdowns when outbreaks occur—followed by ―the
Dance‖—tracing, surveillance, and quarantine measures.175
On March 22, three days after Pueyo‘s ―The Hammer and Dance‖ was published,
a strategy paper by the German Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI)
entitled
―How to get a grip on COVID-19‖ (later dubbed ―the Panic Paper‖) was
secretly distributed to members of German parliament and leaders of certain
media
outlets—this paper played an outsized role in encouraging the German
government to implement a nationwide lockdown in March.176 After the BMI
refused to
release the Panic Paper to the public under the Freedom of Information Act,
it was leaked by FragDenStaat, a whistleblower site.177
Despite being published just three days after Pueyo‘s article, the Panic
Paper relied heavily on Pueyo‘s work, referring to the strategy of
intermittent
lockdowns and surveillance as the ―Hammer and Dance‖ without citing Pueyo.
The term ―Hammer and Dance‖ has no history in epidemiology—Tomas Pueyo
invented
it for his March 19 article.178
https://web.archive.org/web/20201230074618if_/https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=%22hammer%20and%20the%20dance%22.
179 Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community, Brief:
Informationsfreiheitsgesetz Strategiepapier des Bundesinnenministeriums
―Wie wir COVID-19
unter Kontrolle bekommen‖, Jun. 9, 2020,
https://clubderklarenworte.de/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/BMI-Dokument-incl.-Autoren.pdf.
180 Université de Lausanne Faculté des lettres Section d'allemand, Kölbl
Otto,
https://web.archive.org/web/20201230040127/https://www.unil.ch/all/fr/home/menuinst/mitarbeitende-1/assoziierte-mitarbeitende/kolbl-otto.html.
181 Otto Kölbl, Hong Kong – An extreme example of parasitic development,
https://web.archive.org/web/20201230040346/http://rainbowbuilders.org/china-development/hong-kong-economy.
182 Otto Kölbl, Have Tibetans benefited from recent economic development?,
https://web.archive.org/web/20201230040016/http://rainbowbuilders.org/tibet-development/tibet-development-aid.
183 Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Community, Brief:
Informationsfreiheitsgesetz Strategiepapier des Bundesinnenministeriums
―Wie wir COVID-19
unter Kontrolle bekommen‖, Jun. 9, 2020,
https://clubderklarenworte.de/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/BMI-Dokument-incl.-Autoren.pdf.
184 Munich Center for Technology in Society Technical University of Munich,
Dr. Maximilian Mayer,
https://web.archive.org/web/20201230034459/https://www.mcts.tum.de/en/people/maximilian-mayer/.
185 Id.
186 Universität Bonn Institut für Politische Wissenschaft und Soziologie,
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Maximilian Mayer,
https://web.archive.org/web/20201230034212/https://www.politik-soziologie.uni-bonn.de/de/personal/jun.-prof.-maximilian-mayer.
187 @yaneerbaryam, Twitter, Feb. 2, 2020,
https://twitter.com/yaneerbaryam/status/1224050641443704838?s=20.
Otto Kölbl is one of the authors of the Panic Paper.179 Kölbl has been
―researching socio-economic development in China and (comparatively) in
other developing
countries as well as their presentation in the Western media‖ since
2007.180 From 2005 to 2006 he was a language teacher at Northwestern
Polytechnical
University in Xi‘an, China. He now runs his own blog called
―rainbowbuilders.org‖ in which he has described Hong Kong as ―parasitic‖181
and praised China‘s
exemplary development of Tibet.182 Like Pueyo, Kölbl is extraordinarily
unqualified to be advising world leaders on any aspect of epidemiology,
infectiology,
or public health, fields in which he has no background.
Maximilian Mayer is another co-author of the Panic Paper.183 Mayer taught
at the University of Nottingham in Ningbo China and Tongji University in
Shanghai,
and was a research fellow at Renmin University Beijing.184 Mayer‘s research
interests include China‘s foreign and energy policy, climate politics, and
international relations, and he edited Rethinking the Silk-Road: China‘s
Belt and Road Initiative and Emerging Eurasian Relations.185 He has since
returned
to Bonn University as a junior professor of international relations.186
Like Pueyo and Kölbl, Mayer lacks any apparent qualification in
epidemiology, infectiology,
or public health, the fields on which he advised Germany‘s leaders via the
Panic Paper.
From the earliest possible date, physicist Yaneer Bar-Yam has urged the
entire world to emulate China‘s strategy of attempting to eliminate
COVID-19 entirely
through the adoption of strict social distancing measures. On February 2,
Bar-Yam praised China‘s supposed rapid construction of a hospital: ―Hospital
built in days in China is now operational.‖187 On February 28, Bar-Yam
quoted the WHO‘s report from its China Joint Mission which sent the world
into
lockdown: ―China‘s uncompromising and rigorous use of non-pharmaceutical
measures to contain transmission of the COVID-19 virus in multiple settings
provides
vital lessons for the global response.‖188 That same day, Bar-Yam continued
―We should all acknowledge and thank China for their aggressive response to
the Wuhan coronavirus. This includes stopping almost all travel of their
citizens to the world to prevent contagion elsewhere.‖189 In February,
Bar-Yam
launched the website www.endcoronavirus.org, which was quickly translated
into 17 languages, urging countries around the world to implement
Wuhan-style
lockdowns.190
188 @yaneerbaryam, Twitter, Feb. 28, 2020,
https://twitter.com/yaneerbaryam/status/1233386860958887936?s=20.
189 @yaneerbaryam, Twitter, Feb. 28, 2020,
https://twitter.com/yaneerbaryam/status/1233388113512292354?s=20.
190 @yaneerbaryam, Twitter, Apr. 26, 2020,
https://twitter.com/yaneerbaryam/status/1254455465200816134?s=20.
191 @yaneerbaryam, Twitter, Jul. 18, 2020,
https://twitter.com/yaneerbaryam/status/1284585257761734656?s=20.
192 @SophieHRW, Twitter, Jul. 18, 2020,
https://twitter.com/SophieHRW/status/1284566661597671425?s=20.
193 @yaneerbaryam, Twitter, Mar. 8, 2020,
https://twitter.com/yaneerbaryam/status/1236803093561520131?s=20.
194 @yaneerbaryam, Twitter, Mar. 14, 2020,
https://twitter.com/yaneerbaryam/status/1238828417187012610?s=20.
195 @yaneerbaryam, Twitter, Mar. 29, 2020,
https://twitter.com/yaneerbaryam/status/1244115730129465345?s=20.
196 @yaneerbaryam, Twitter, Aug. 3, 2020,
https://twitter.com/yaneerbaryam/status/1290153813903577088?s=20.
Bar-Yam has spent the better part of a year admiring China‘s
lockdowns—including the CCP‘s murderous lockdown in Xinjiang—and promoting
the use of China‘s
data despite allegations of fraud. On July 18, Bar-Yam praised China‘s
―wartime‖ lockdown in Xinjiang: ―17 new cases, shut the city down. Don't
give it
a chance. China coronavirus: ‗Wartime state‘ declared for Urumqi in
Xinjiang.‖191 This same lockdown simultaneously caused tremendous concern
among human
rights watchers and activists due to the CCP‘s concomitant acts of genocide
in Xinjiang against Uyghur Muslims and other Turkic minorities.192
On March 8, Bar-Yam defended China‘s data, in contrast to the U.S.:
―Actually, the numbers in the US are underreported because of limited
testing. This
is known. Many said the numbers in China are underreported, nobody has
shown evidence. If you have it show it or take a seat.‖193 Bar-Yam
reiterated this
sentiment on March 14: ―Speculations about the problems in China with data
are projections.‖194 On March 29, Bar-Yam encouraged the U.S. to emulate
China:
―We need a much wider restriction. Still, China used such a strategy
effectively.‖195 And, on August 3, Bar-Yam congratulated China: ―Successful
outbreak
response: China‘s manufacturing activity surges in July.‖196
During crises, citizens trust experts with major policy decisions. For
individuals to hold themselves out to the public and their leaders as
experts in
a crisis when they lack the necessary qualifications is bad enough; if they
are somehow cross-incentivized to do so, it‘s much worse.
list of 1 items
10. Several Top National Health Officials Among the Nations Are Woefully
Unqualified and Show Conspicuous Pro-China Bias
list end
Canada‘s top health minister, Patty Hajdu, has no apparent background in
infectiology or epidemiology, her only public health experience being in
substance
abuse and injury prevention.197 Hajdu‘s admiration for China goes back some
time—in 2014 she advised: ―Don't believe everything you read. Chinese sunset
story pure propaganda,‖ sharing an article arguing that stories of China
broadcasting a sunset in Beijing were false.198 Hajdu first earned the
praise
of Chinese foreign spokesperson Hua Chunying in early February 2020 for
refusing to ban travel from China: ―Canada believes the ban of entry has no
basis,
which is a sharp contrast for the U.S. behaviours.‖199
197 Joan Bryden, Nothing prepared Patty Hajdu for this, Canada‘s Nat‘l
Observer, Apr. 6 2020,
https://www.nationalobserver.com/2020/04/06/features/nothing-prepared-patty-hajdu.
198 @PattyHajdu, Twitter, Jan. 20, 2014,
https://twitter.com/PattyHajdu/status/425431767290376192?s=20.
199 Christy Somos, China praises Canada, slams U.S. over coronavirus
response, CTV News, Feb. 3, 2020,
https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/china-praises-canada-slams-u-s-over-coronavirus-response-1.4795270.
200 Graeme Wood, Questioning WHO and China virus data feeds conspiracy
theories: Health Minister, Richmond News, Apr. 2, 2020,
https://web.archive.org/web/20200409133450/https://www.richmond-news.com/questioning-who-and-china-virus-data-feeds-conspiracy-theories-health-minister-1.24111603.
201 Id.
202 Robyn Urback, Canadians have been gaslit on China, The Globe and Mail,
Apr. 30, 2020,
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-canadians-have-been-gaslit-on-china/.
203 True North, Hajdu stands by praise for Chinese government and wanting
to keep borders open, Apr. 30, 2020,
https://tnc.news/2020/04/30/hajdu-stands-by-praise-for-chinese-government-and-wanting-to-keep-borders-open/.
204 CGTN, Canada's health minister praises China's handling of COVID-19,
Sep. 16, 2020,
https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-09-16/Canada-s-health-minister-praises-China-s-handling-of-COVID-19--TPrDfplKJq/index.html.
In April, Hajdu defended China‘s COVID-19 case data: ―There is no
indication the data that came out of China in terms of their death rate and
infection
rate was falsified in any way.‖200 When a reporter pointed out a U.S.
intelligence report to the contrary, Hajdu scolded: ―I would say your
question is
feeding into conspiracy theories that many people have been perpetuating on
the internet.‖201 After that early April exchange, Hajdu was excoriated in
Canada‘s press for ―effectively trying to gaslight her own citizens about
the conduct of a habitually oppressive and untruthful regime.‖202 But Hajdu
ignored
that coverage and quickly doubled down just one month later, praising
China‘s ―historic containment efforts.‖203
Hajdu continued into September, again earning aplomb from CGTN for
defending China: ―very early on China alerted the World Health Organization
to the emergence
of a novel coronavirus and also shared the sequencing of the gene which
allowed countries to be able to rapidly produce tests to be able to detect
it in
their own countries.‖204 For this, Chen Weihua, China Daily EU
Bureau Chief, praised Hajdu: ―Canadian Health Minister Hajdu is a role
model. She is a disappointment to those paparazzi journalists and
fearmongers.‖205
205 @chenweihua, Twitter, Apr. 3, 2020,
https://twitter.com/chenweihua/status/1245987548717035520?s=20.
206 Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People‘s Republic of China, Foreign
Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin's Regular Press Conference on September
18,
2020, Sep. 18, 2020,
https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/mfa_eng/xwfw_665399/s2510_665401/t1816244.shtml.
207 Spencer Fernando, Propaganda Patty Defends Communist China Yet Again,
Sept. 13, 2020,
https://spencerfernando.com/2020/09/13/propaganda-patty-defends-communist-china-yet-again/.
208 True North, Hajdu slanders journalist as ―dangerous‖ and ―fake news‖,
Nov. 26, 2020,
https://tnc.news/2020/11/26/hajdu-slanders-journalist-as-dangerous-and-fake-news/.
209 Denis Campbell, Who‘s Matt Hancock? The health secretary‘s only legacy
will be how quickly he‘s forgotten, The Guardian, Jul. 24, 2019,
https://www.theguardian.com/society/commentisfree/2019/jul/24/matt-hancock-health-secretary-legacy-quickly-forgotten-nhs.
210 @MattHancock, Twitter, Jan. 19,
2018,https://twitter.com/MattHancock/status/954405324814979073?s=20.
211 David Lee, World Economic Forum Establishes ―A.I. Council‖ Co-chaired
by Chinese AI Expert Kai-Fu Lee, Pandaily, Jan. 24, 2019,
https://pandaily.com/world-economic-forum-establishes-artificial-intelligence-council/.
212 @MattHancock, Twitter, Sep. 19, 2018,
https://twitter.com/MattHancock/status/1042404125022072832?s=20.
213 @MattHancock, Twitter, Sep. 17, 2018,
https://twitter.com/MattHancock/status/1041692833994993665?s=20.
Hajdu even earned a special nod from China‘s Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
―We noticed relevant reports and applaud the Canadian health minister's
objective
and fair remarks.‖206
As commentator Spencer Fernando pointed out, ―Propaganda Patty … appears to
be one of the only people on Earth who actually believes China‘s official
virus
numbers.‖207 Apparently unrepentant, Hajdu again scolded a journalist
questioning data, echoing her April sentiments: ―Mr. Speaker, do you know
what will
help Canadians‘ lives? If the member opposite and the leader of the
opposition stop their members from sharing fake and dangerous news like the
member
from Lethridge and the member of Carleton stay focused on saving lives of
Canadians instead of spreading conspiracy theories.‖208
Matt Hancock is a former economist and civil servant who had little to no
background in public health or natural science before becoming health
secretary
of the United Kingdom. Prior to COVID-19, Hancock reportedly showed little
interest in his role: ―For him, it‘s all about promoting himself and using
it
as a stepping stone to his next job,‖ said another NHS chief. ―Tech is the
only area in which he‘s made a mark… But his belief that tech can solve many
of the NHS‘s difficulties had led to him being derided by people he needs
to respect him.‖209
Hancock has been especially keen on the adoption of technology from China,
meeting with Kai-Fu Lee, CEO of Chinese venture capital firm Sinovation
Ventures,
in January 2018.210 (In 2019, Kai-Fu Lee became part of the World Economic
Forum‘s AI Council along with Imperial College President Alice Gast).211 In
September 2018, Hancock led a ―British business delegation talking
healthtech in China‖:212 ―I‘m in China this week to look at collaborating
with our Chinese
counterparts to harness the power of tech & innovation in healthcare.‖213
In April 2020, China‘s National Health Commission reported that Hancock and
his Chinese counterpart, Ma Xioawei, had spoken over the phone to discuss
future
collaboration during the COVID-19 crisis: ―Hancock spoke highly of China‘s
commitment to fighting COVID-19 and China-UK cooperation during the
pandemic,
and said that the UK is willing to enhance exchanges and collaboration with
China …‖214 Three weeks later, CGTN reported that Hancock and Ma held a
digital
meeting of high-level health officials from China and the UK in a bid to
increase cooperation amid the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, including
discussing
―lockdown-lifting strategies:‖
214 National Health Commission of the People‘s Republic of China, NHC
minister speaks on phone with UK health secretary, Apr. 23, 2020,
http://en.nhc.gov.cn/2020-04/23/c_79551.htm?bsh_bid=5572099213.
215 CGTN, Public health experts from China and UK move to develop greater
cooperation, May 16, 2020,
https://newseu.cgtn.com/news/2020-05-16/Public-health-experts-from-China-and-UK-move-to-strengthen-ties-QwmBNLjJp6/share_amp.html?__twitter_impression=true.
216 Tim Loh, Germany Has Its Own Dr. Fauci—and Actually Follows His Advice,
Bloomberg Businessweek, Sept. 28, 2020,
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-09-28/christian-drosten-germany-s-dr-fauci-worries-about-second-wave-of-covid.
217 Damon Johnston, Daniel Andrews‘s BRI broker praises China on virus, The
Australian, Jun. 12, 2020,
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/daniel-andrewss-bri-broker-praises-china-on-virus/news-story/eb8f6f79682e859331eb4393215ba31d.
218 Rachel Baxendale, Daniel Andrews staffer Nancy Yang did Chinese
Communist propaganda course, The Australian, Jun. 29, 2020,
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/daniel-andrews-staffer-nancy-yang-did-chinese-communist-propaganda-course/news-story/eb49801365855bda4904c1a25a85650d;
Alison Bevege, Labor
Hancock said he appreciated the cooperation so far between the two nations
in their joint response to the epidemic, and expressed that the UK is
willing
to strengthen anti-epidemic cooperation with China and to use the epidemic
prevention and control agreements as an opportunity to deepen bilateral
health
and global health cooperation… They held in-depth discussions on topics
including lockdown-lifting strategies and reiterated their willingness to
strengthen
experience sharing and technical cooperation to jointly safeguard the
people of the two countries.215 (emphasis added)
During the COVID-19 crisis, Christian Drosten assumed the role of Germany‘s
most influential health official, though as a virologist he has little
background
in epidemiology, infectiology, or public health.216 Drosten‘s central role
in creating the wildly-inaccurate COVID-19 PCR test has already been
discussed.
In a May 14 press conference, Drosten referred to: ―this concept in the
pandemic research of ‗The hammer and the dance,‘‖ but this is not true—as
discussed
above, the term has no history, it was invented by Tomas Pueyo on March 19.
Daniel Andrews, Premier of Victoria, Australia, employs several advisors
with ties to the CCP who have been involved in his strict pandemic
policies. Danny
Pearson, the MP who led Andrews‘ Belt and Road negotiations, lauded China's
handling of the coronavirus.217 Andrews‘ long-time staffer, Nancy Yang,
attended
a course in propaganda at a high-level CCP academy and helped spread
COVID-19 disinformation early in the COVID-19 crisis.218 Both Yang and
staffer with Chinese Communist Party links pushes bizarre conspiracy theory
coronavirus was created by the U.S. and spread around the globe by its army,
Daily Mail Australia, Jun. 1, 2020,
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8376701/Labor-staffer-Chinese-Communist-Party-links-pushes-bizarre-coronavirus-conspiracy-theory.html.
219 Advance Australia, How CCP Influence Runs Deep in Oz, Jun. 12, 2020,
https://www.advanceaustralia.org.au/how_ccp_influence_runs_deep_in_oz.
220 Tom Minear, ‗Community ambassadors‘ linked to Chinese Community Party,
Herald Sun, Dec. 1, 2020,
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/community-ambassadors-linked-to-chinese-community-party/news-story/d5ce8fc1f27465f74a25e3ceaa3f4980.
221 ABC News, Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Victorian Premier Daniel
Andrews clash over China deal, Nov. 6, 2018,
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-07/scott-morrison-daniel-andrews-clash-over-china-deal/10472026.
222 Richard Baker, ‗China's gateway‘: Daniel Andrews' Belt and Road pitch
to Beijing, The Age, Oct. 3, 2020,
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/china-s-gateway-daniel-andrews-belt-and-road-pitch-to-beijing-20201002-p561b9.html.
223 Kaeli Conforti, Melbourne Begins Strict Stage 4 Lockdown This Week
After Another Covid-19 Spike, Forbes, Aug. 3, 2020,
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kaeliconforti/2020/08/03/melbourne-begins-strict-level-4-lockdown-this-week-after-another-covid-19-spike/?sh=4ae9aa3150f9;
Victoria Department of Health and Human Services, Victoria's restriction
levels,
https://web.archive.org/web/20200804100544/https://www.dhhs.vic.gov.au/victorias-restriction-levels-covid-19.
Andrews‘ senior advisor on China, Marty Mei, are members of the Chinese
Community Council of Australia, the foremost United Front organization in
Victoria.219
Two senior figures in organizations linked to the Chinese Communist Party‘s
foreign influence operation, Arthur Wu and Su Junxi, were chosen as COVID-19
―community ambassadors‖ in Andrews‘ government.220
Andrews previously signed onto Xi Jinping‘s Belt and Road initiative
without consulting Prime Minister Scott Morrison, for which he was publicly
rebuked.221
Internal documents obtained under the freedom of information act show
Andrews pitching for money and expertise from Chinese state-owned companies
in his
trip to China in October 2019, with a promise to ―facilitate‖ their access
to Victoria and ―collaborate‖ on the state's biggest projects. Victoria, he
said, would become ―China‘s gateway to Australia.‖222
In August 2020, the city of Melbourne in Victoria became the first
Australian city to implement Stage 4 lockdown—the strictest restrictions,
with curfews
and stiff fines.223
list of 1 items
11. Prominent Lockdown Supporters Have Proven Unusually Indifferent to the
Devastating Consequences of Their Policies
list end
In addition to their pro-China bias, lockdown proponents have proven
strangely stubborn in their support of these policies, continuing to
promote economically-
and socially-destructive measures seemingly without concern for their
terrifying real-world consequences; tragically, these consequences are all
too real.
Data from the website yelp.com has shown that over 60% of business closures
during the COVID-19 crisis are now permanent, amounting to more than 97,000
businesses lost in the
U.S.224 Nearly half of black-owned small businesses have been wiped out.225
Unemployment in the United States reached as high as 14.7% and highways
jammed
with thousands of vehicles awaiting their turn at food banks.226 Nearly 5%
of the population of the United Kingdom went hungry during the first three
weeks
of lockdown.227
224 Anjali Sundaram, Yelp data shows 60% of business closures due to the
coronavirus pandemic are now permanent, CNBC, Sep. 16 2020,
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/16/yelp-data-shows-60percent-of-business-closures-due-to-the-coronavirus-pandemic-are-now-permanent.html.
225 Pedro Nicolaci da Costa, The Covid-19 Crisis Has Wiped Out Nearly Half
Of Black Small Businesses, Forbes, Aug. 10, 2020,
https://www.forbes.com/sites/pedrodacosta/2020/08/10/the-covid-19-crisis-has-wiped-out-nearly-half-of-black-small-businesses/#2fc8c8334310.
226 Jack Healy, It‘s ‗People, People, People‘ as Lines Stretch Across
America, N.Y. Times, Apr. 12, 2020,
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/12/us/coronavirus-long-lines-america.html.
227
Bethan Staton and Judith Evans, Three million go hungry in UK because of
lockdown, Fin. Times, Apr. 10, 2020,
https://www.ft.com/content/e5061be6-2978-4c0b-aa68-f372a2526826.
228 Morganne Campbell, Canadians reporting higher levels of anxiety,
depression amid the pandemic, Global News, Oct. 10, 2020,
https://globalnews.ca/news/7391217/world-mental-health-day-canada/.
229 American Medical Association, Issue brief: Reports of increases in
opioid- and other drug-related overdose and other concerns during COVID
pandemic,
Dec. 9, 2020,
https://www.ama-assn.org/system/files/2020-12/issue-brief-increases-in-opioid-related-overdose.pdf.
230 Lauren M. Rossen, PhD et al., Excess Deaths Associated with COVID-19,
by Age and Race and Ethnicity —
United States, January 26–October 3, 2020, U.S. CDC MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly
Rep Vol. 69(42), Oct. 23, 2020,
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/pdfs/mm6942e2-H.pdf.
231 Cory Stieg, More than 7 in 10 Gen-Zers report symptoms of depression
during pandemic, survey finds, CNBC, Oct. 21 2020,
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/21/survey-more-than-7-in-10-gen-zers-report-depression-during-pandemic.html.
232 Amanda Prestigiacomo, New CDC Numbers Show Lockdown‘s Deadly Toll On
Young People, The Daily Wire, Oct. 22, 2020,
https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-cdc-numbers-show-lockdowns-deadly-toll-on-young-people.
233 Id.
A survey found that 22% of Canadians were experiencing high anxiety levels,
a four-fold increase from before the COVID-19 crisis, while the number
reporting
symptoms of depression doubled to 13%.228 More than 40 U.S. states have
reported increases in opioid-related mortality.229 And, according to the
CDC, despite
mass PCR testing and the enormous number of false positives, at least
100,947 excess deaths in 2020 were not linked to COVID-19 at all.230
Though at little risk from the virus itself, young people bore an outsized
share of the burden of lockdown. More than seven in ten adults aged 18-23
said
they experienced common symptoms of depression.231 The CDC revealed that
young adults aged 25-44 saw the largest increase in ―excess‖ deaths from
previous
years, a stunning 26.5% jump,232 despite accounting for fewer than 3% of
deaths from COVID-19. This increase literally surpassed the increase in
excess
mortality of older Americans, who are at much higher risk of COVID-19
fatality. Since young people are at very low risk for COVID-19
fatality—20-49-year-olds
have a 99.98% chance of surviving the virus, per CDC data—this shocking
increase in deaths is largely attributable to deaths of ―despair,‖ in other
words,
deaths by lockdown.233
Suicides jumped to unprecedented levels around the world. ―We‘ve never seen
numbers like this in such a short period of time,‖ said Walnut Creek‘s Dr.
Mike deBoisblanc. ―I mean we‘ve seen a year‘s worth of suicide attempts in
the last four weeks.‖234 ―September of 2020 has been the highest month ever
that we‘ve seen suicidal patients admitted to our medical center,‖ said Dr.
Kia Carter, medical director of Psychiatry at Cook Children‘s Hospital.235
In Japan, government statistics show suicide claimed more lives in October
than Covid-19 has over the entire year to date.236
234 Amy Hollyfield, Suicides on the rise amid stay-at-home order, Bay Area
medical professionals say, ABC 7 News, May 21, 2020,
https://abc7news.com/suicide-covid-19-coronavirus-rates-during-pandemic-death-by/6201962/.
235 SBG San Antonio, HOSPITAL: 37 children attempted suicide in September,
highest number in five years, CBS Austin, Oct. 27th 2020,
https://cbsaustin.com/news/local/cook-childrens-hospital-admits-alarming-rate-of-suicide-attempts-in-children.
236 Selina Wang et al., In Japan, more people died from suicide last month
than from Covid in all of 2020. And women have been impacted most, CNN, Nov.
30, 2020,
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/28/asia/japan-suicide-women-covid-dst-intl-hnk/index.html.
237 Save the Children, ‗Children at risk of lasting psychological distress
from coronavirus lockdown‘: Save the Children, UN OCHA Reliefweb, May 8,
2020,
https://reliefweb.int/report/world/children-risk-lasting-psychological-distress-coronavirus-lockdown-save-children.
238 Save the Children, ‗Children at Risk of Lasting Psychological Distress
from Coronavirus Lockdown‘: Save the Children, May 8, 2020,
https://www.savethechildren.net/news/%E2%80%98children-risk-lasting-psychological-distress-coronavirus-lockdown%E2%80%99-save-children.
239 Sally Weale, Children regressing and struggling mentally in lockdown,
says Ofsted, The Guardian, Nov. 9, 2020,
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/nov/10/children-regressing-and-struggling-mentally-in-lockdown-says-ofsted.
240 The Economist, Lockdowns could have long-term effects on children‘s
health, Jul. 19 2020,
https://www.economist.com/international/2020/07/19/lockdowns-could-have-long-term-effects-on-childrens-health.
241 Perry Stein, In D.C., achievement gap widens, early literacy progress
declines during pandemic, data show, Wash. Post, Oct. 30, 2020,
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/data-indicate-worsening-early-literacy-progress-and-widening-achievement-gap-among-district-students/ar-BB1ay8vc.
And, despite being at virtually no risk from COVID-19, as a result of
lockdowns, children have suffered the most of all. Nearly one in four
children living
under COVID-19 lockdowns, social restrictions, and school closures are
dealing with feelings of anxiety, with many at risk of lasting
psychological distress.237
In recent surveys of children and parents in the U.S., Germany, Finland,
Spain and the U.K. by Save the Children, up to 65% of the children
struggled with
feelings of isolation.238
Children‘s health and intellectual development has regressed. Some who were
potty-trained before lockdowns have reverted to diapers, and others have
forgotten
basic numbers or how to use a knife and fork.239 According to the
University of Wisconsin, during the COVID-19 crisis American children over
the age of
ten have engaged in 50% less physical activity.240 Achievement gaps have
widened, and early literacy progress has declined.241 Per CDC, the
proportion
of mental health–related emergency visits for children aged 5–11 and 12–17
years
increased approximately 24% and 31%, respectively.242 And, most horrifying
of all, a study found a 1493% rise in the incidence of abusive head trauma
among
children during the first month of lockdown in the U.K.243
242 Rebecca T. Leeb, PhD et al., Mental Health–Related Emergency Department
Visits Among Children Aged <18 Years During the COVID-19 Pandemic — United
States, January 1–October 17, 2020, U.S. CDC MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep Vol.
69(45), Nov. 13, 2020, https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6945a3.htm.
243 Jai Sidpra et al., Rise in the incidence of abusive head trauma during
the COVID-19 pandemic, Archives of Disease in Childhood, Jul. 2, 2020,
http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2020-319872.
244 The Economist, The pandemic has eroded democracy and respect for human
rights, Oct. 17, 2020,
https://www.economist.com/international/2020/10/17/the-pandemic-has-eroded-democracy-and-respect-for-human-rights.
245 Rajesh Roy, India Tries to Stem Migrant Worker Exodus Amid Coronavirus
Lockdown, Wall St. J., Mar. 29, 2020,
https://www.wsj.com/articles/india-tries-to-stem-migrant-worker-exodus-amid-coronavirus-lockdown-11585499312.
246 Reuters, Miles-long lines for food in South Africa, YouTube, Apr. 30,
2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pl-R7KeUm5o.
247 Will Brown, Investigation: African migrants ‗left to die‘ in Saudi
Arabia‘s hellish Covid detention centres, Daily Telegraph, Aug. 30, 2020,
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/climate-and-people/investigation-african-migrants-left-die-saudi-arabias-hellish/.
248 Fiona Harvey, Coronavirus pandemic ‗will cause famine of biblical
proportions‘, Guardian, Apr. 21, 2020,
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/apr/21/coronavirus-pandemic-will-cause-famine-of-biblical-proportions.
249 UNICEF, COVID pushes millions more children deeper into poverty, new
study finds, UN News, Sep. 17, 2020,
https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/09/1072602.
250 John P A Ioannidis, Infection fatality rate of COVID-19 inferred from
seroprevalence data, Bulletin of the World Health Organization, Oct. 14,
2020,
https://www.who.int/bulletin/online_first/BLT.20.265892.pdf.
251 CNBC, WHO says 10% of global population may have been infected with
virus, Oct. 5, 2020,
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/05/who-10percent-of-worlds-people-may-have-been-infected-with-virus-.html.
These are not statistics. They‘re friends, neighbors, and citizens, whose
lives have been needlessly destroyed by government policies. But while these
statistics among the Nations may be horrifying, they pale in comparison to
the suffering of untold millions in the developing world, cast into
starvation
and poverty as a result of our lockdowns. Autocracies grew more oppressive,
and democracies took on autocratic characteristics.244 In India, millions of
stranded workers lost their livelihoods and marched in exodus to far-off
villages.245 In South Africa, food lines stretched for miles.246
Quarantined migrants
in Saudi Arabia were left to die. ―The guards just throw the bodies out
back as if it was trash.‖247
The United Nations forewarned of a ―famine of biblical proportions‖ with
265 million people ―literally marching to the brink of starvation,‖248 and
later
estimated that the crisis had ―pushed an additional 150 million children
into multidimensional poverty—deprived of education, health, housing,
nutrition,
sanitation or water.‖249 All this for a virus that the WHO‘s peer-reviewed
data250 now reveals to have an infection fatality rate of 0.23%—0.05% in
those
under age 70—and which the WHO estimates might have already infected one in
ten people worldwide by October.251
According to the International Monetary Fund, the economy of just one G20
country grew during 2020: China.252
252 International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook, October 2020: A
Long and Difficult Ascent, Oct. 2020,
https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WEO/Issues/2020/09/30/world-economic-outlook-october-2020.
253 International Commission of Jurists, Siracusa Principles on the
Limitation and Derogation Provisions in the International Covenant on Civil
and Political
Rights, Jul 1, 1984,
https://www.icj.org/siracusa-principles-on-the-limitation-and-derogation-provisions-in-the-international-covenant-on-civil-and-political-rights/.
254 Francis Fukuyama, What Kind of Regime Does China Have?, The American
Interest, May 18, 2020,
https://www.the-american-interest.com/2020/05/18/what-kind-of-regime-does-china-have/;
Robert C. O‘Brien, The Chinese Communist Party‘s Ideology and Global
Ambitions, White House National Security Council, Jun. 26, 2020,
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/chinese-communist-partys-ideology-global-ambitions/.
255 Adam Schiff, The U.S. Intelligence Community Is Not Prepared for the
China Threat, Foreign Affairs, Sep. 30, 2020,
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2020-09-30/us-intelligence-community-not-prepared-china-threat.
That lockdown supporters may not want to acknowledge these facts does not
make them any less real. The suffering caused by these policies cannot be
undone,
but it can at least be prevented going forward, and justice can be obtained
if these policies were imposed in bad faith.
Under the United Nations‘ Covenant on Civil and Political rights, it is
incumbent on any government imposing disease control measures to utilize
the ―least
restrictive means‖ available to effectively achieve the public health
goal.253 With the examples of Sweden, Florida, South Dakota, Belarus, and
others
successfully deploying means far less restrictive than China‘s lockdowns to
manage COVID-19—without incurring any excess mortality or results worse than
lockdown areas—it is difficult to understand how any world leader can
continue to impose these measures in good faith.
CONCLUSION
In the 20th century, the term totalitarian was born to describe certain
regimes that used modern technology to control every aspect of citizens‘
lives,
binding them to the state by breaking all pre-existing social bonds. One
such regime was the Soviet Union, and there is a growing expert consensus
that
China today is likewise totalitarian.254 Totalitarian regimes utilize any
and all means in the pathological monopolization of power. Though they
deliver
an exceptionally low quality of life to their citizens, totalitarian states
are advanced political organisms, punching above their weight in geopolitics
with their unparalleled ability to keep secrets and execute complex
operations—the archetypal example being the clandestine rearmament of
Germany in the
1930s. In the wilds of geopolitics, the lion underestimates the snake at
its own peril, and with lockdowns, the CCP appears to have delivered the
world
a hefty dose of snake oil.
Both intelligence agencies and scientists may be forgiven for overlooking
the CCP‘s lockdown fraud. The scientific concepts involved are complex
enough
to elude defense officials,255 while
the geopolitical implications of China‘s turn toward totalitarianism are
certainly convoluted enough to have deceived scientists.
Throughout 2020, lockdown measures have been quite popular, but that
popularity is deceptive. For the general public, the idea that anyone might
accept
some outside incentive to support such devastating policies while knowing
them to be ineffective—needlessly bankrupting millions of families and
depriving
millions of children of education and food—is, quite simply, too dark.
Thus, the public supports lockdowns because the alternative—that they might
have
been implemented without good cause—is a possibility too evil for most to
contemplate. But those who know history know that others with superficially
excellent
credentials have done even worse for even less.
Furthermore, most of the public believes that if there were anything
untoward about the science behind lockdowns, intelligence agencies would
stop them.
For obvious reasons, those who work at intelligence agencies do not have
the luxury of such complacency. Given the gravity of the decisions being
made,
we cannot ignore the possibility that the entire ―science‖ of COVID-19
lockdowns has been a fraud of unprecedented proportion, deliberately
promulgated
by the Chinese Communist Party and its collaborators to impoverish the
nations who implemented it.
This letter is to be construed only as a recommendation that the above
matters be investigated by law-enforcement authorities as a matter of
national security.
This is not a formal criminal complaint, nor are these facts necessarily
indicative that any crime may have been committed by any individual named
herein,
a determination that can be made only by appropriate legal authorities.
(Signatures appear on the following page)
Respectfully submitted this 10th day of January, 2021, by: Michael P.
Senger, Attorney Stacey A. Rudin, Attorney Dr. Clare Craig FRCPath,
Consultant Diagnostic
Pathologist Robert Spalding, retired U.S. Air Force Brigadier General Randy
Hillier, MPP Lanark, Frontenac & Kingston Francis Hoar, Barrister at Law
Sanjeev
Sabhlok, PhD, former Commissioner in an Indian State Government Brian
O‘Shea, Chief Operating Officer, Centurion Intelligence Partners Maajid
Nawaz, Activist,
Author & Broadcaster Simon Dolan, Business Leader & Entrepreneur
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On Behalf Of Miriam Vieni
Sent: Tuesday, February 9, 2021 6:54 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] link to an article, we need help with this.
Please, some computer skilled, kind, patient person, in order for some of
us to read this article, we need your help. If this link works, you'll see
that imbedded in the article, there's a long PDF document which is
complicated to access. We need someone to put it into a simple word
document and send it as an easily accessible attachment to an email, to
this list.
https://www.mintpressnews.com/disarticulation-china-pandemic-war-propaganda/
275182/
Miriam
