Beyond COVIDphobia: Why Together, Vermont Must End The Assault On Herd Immunity (V4VERMONT.NET)

Publisher’s Note: COVIDphobia?” An irrational fear of a virus.” Share far and wide. See you OUTSIDE.

When considering viruses and human history, everyone agrees on two basic fundamental truths.

1. All viruses follow a predictable pattern – viruses arrive, quickly spread through the human population, and then disappear once we develop antibodies. Herd immunity.

• All viral pandemics end.

Except, it seems, for COVID-19. 

What follows are 11 reasons to end COVIDphobia – an irrational fear of a virus – here in Vermont.

• 1.     The COVID “catastrophism” model proved dead wrong: UK Imperial College London’s Neil Ferguson created March 2020 “catastrophic” COVID modeling data used to justify near-global lockdown policies, modeling he admitted one week later was 2400% overinflated. On May 16^th, the London Telegraph stated that “Neil Ferguson’s Imperial model could be the most devastating software mistake of all time.”

• The COVID “lockdown” policy failed: “Lockdowns haven’t proved they’re worth the havoc,” observes a May 2020 Bloomberg article, noting that “as of May 12, the U.S. had 237 deaths per million people. Taiwan, a no-lockdown country, had 0.3 deaths per million. No-lockdown Sweden has had 347 deaths per million; lockdown Belgium, with a similar population, has had 763 deaths per million. Ethiopia, with a population of 109 million, had no lockdown — and a death rate of 0.04 per million.” Notably, Sweden’s BOTH/AND COVID policy – a) isolate a country’s most vulnerable groups and b) issue clear, consistent and voluntary viral social protocols for the rest of the Swedish herd – has at once protected their society’s most fragile and accelerated the natural evolutionary “herd immunity” process. And! Sweden, like Vermont, is a country where a) the “communitarian impulse” (a high level of commitment to one’s neighbors) as well as b) the level of trust in fellow citizens are both quite high. Vermonters would do well to take note of Sweden’s BOTH/AND viral policy for future viral planning. 

• US policymakers neglected COVID protection in nursing homes: The one demographic group EVERYONE agreed we ought to isolate from COVID? The elderly. Yet, in many US cities, policymakers neglected to lock down nursing homes and eldercare facilities. Note: In Vermont to date, the majority of our 55 COVID deaths occurred in two Vermont nursing homes. 

• COVID “social distancing” is speculative and unscientific: In addition to the psychological trauma it imposes, this widely adopted 2 meter / 6 feet protocol grew out of a 14-year-old Albuquerque high school student’s lab experiment, according to an April 12, 2020 New York Times article entitled “The Untold Story Of The Birth Of Social Distancing.” To date, there exists no definitive scientific proof of “social distancing’s” efficacy. In fact, it slows down herd immunity, which moves us as a species towards viral immunity. 

• COVID mask wearing is ineffective and unhealthy: The CDC, the WHO, and the NIH’s Dr. Fauci himself on a March 8, 2020 “60 Minutes” episode are all on record as stating that wearing masks does nothing to protect wearers from viruses, “like trying to use a chain link fence to protect from a mosquito.” Lab scientists working with actual viruses wear N95 respirators and entire hazardous materials (HAZMAT) suits. Wear a mask if you choose, and require masks in your business if you wish, but don’t legislate mandatory mask wearing for your fellow humans, as it makes us hypoxically less healthy, and may cause us pass out in Vermont post offices or crash our cars into Vermont telephone poles. 

• COVID remedies politicized: Numerous COVID remedies – from increasing vitamin C intake to using hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) – have been dangerously politicized into ridiculous “pro v. anti Trump” talking points. HCQ, an anti-malarial drug successfully used for more than seven decades, shows successful promise in treating COVID, as more than 200 published scientific studies and more than 600 surveyed doctors have attested. 

• COVID medical protocols missed the mark: Early emphasis on expensive and hard-to-procure hospital equipment (ventilators) resulted from misdiagnosing COVID symptoms, and more US doctors are speaking out, observing that COVID often seems to present as a patient’s increasing inability to effectively “uptake” oxygen. A finger-clip’able $20 oximeter measures both pulse rate and blood oxygen saturation level – a recommended and inexpensive health device anyone can use. 

• COVID promised vaccine a “unicorn”: History teaches us that viral pandemics always work their way through human populations in approximately two years’ time. Even as Bill Gates and Co. “rush” a COVID vaccine to global markets, the virus is weakening through our natural evolutionary “herd immunity” process. And herd immunity costs no one a single cent.  

• COVID death rate mirrors seasonal flu: Ferguson’s original COVID modeling predicted more than two million US COVID deaths. Even with inflated COVID US death numbers due to a) US Dept. of Health mandated expansive viral labeling protocols; b) unclear viral testing results, c) ginned up viral US death certificate co-morbidity classifications, d) for-profit US hospital remuneration incentives, and e) constant 24/7 COVID MSM news “fear porn,” we’re looking at US death rates that mirror a rugged seasonal flu.

• COVID cure is worse than the disease: As summer approaches and Vermont begins to “open,” Vermonters are wrestling with the myriad consequences of COVID lockdown – unemployment, business collapse, anxiety, stress, isolation, anomie, mental anguish, physical abuse, and the 24/7 fear of potentially “contagious” family, friends and neighbors. 

• COVID “trusted experts” are all Big Pharma partners:  The CDC, the WHO, US MSM news channels, and digital media corporations are all financially “bedfellowed” with the pharmaceuticals industry and their global “nonprofit” partners. This reality creates an obvious 24/7 conflict of interest whenever COVID “news” is reported on our TVs, computers, and mobile phones.

We Vermonters are neighborly, compassionate, and resilient.

Moving forward, let’s end COVIDphobia and the assault on herd immunity, and get back to being fully human.

See you OUTSIDE. 

Dr. Rob Williams is the publisher of Vermont Independent. This Op/Ed is based on eight weeks of crowdsourced research. Reach him at publisher@vermontindependent.net.

SOURCES:

1. COVID catastrophism model: See part 1 of our COVID EMPIRE series.
2. COVID lockdown: Many non-CDC/WHOster epidemiologists and virologists are on record here. See part 2 of our COVID EMPIRE series.
3. COVID and nursing homes: NYC governor Andrew Cuomo embodies the most egregious example of this “neglect.” The Hill’s Rising’s Krystal Ball breaks down the grotesque Cuomo story here.
4. COVID and “Social Distancing”: the New York Times story provides links in their story that any reader can examine. Plenty of modeling done, but very little in the way of measurable conclusive scientific evidence for the efficacy of “social distancing.”
5. COVID and masks: We’ve collected much of the peer reviewed science on the pros and cons of mask wearing and viruses here. Seems clear that mask wearing is counterproductive, unless you are 1) a medical professional in a clinical setting; 2) visiting a hospital housing a vulnerable population; or 3) a sick person who may be contagious but still MUST go out in public.
6. COVID remedies politicized: So many sources. Researching HCQ in the medical literature is a good place to start.
7. COVID medical protocols: again, so many sources here from US public health professionals on the front lines, many of them “scrubbed” from YouTube and other social media sites. See parts 2 and 3 of COVID EMPIRE.
8. COVID and the vaccine “unicorn”: “The High Wire’s” Del Bigtree coined this wonderful term. As we were finishing our Top Eleven list last week, he dropped his own – remarkably similar to ours in some ways. Big shout out to their vital weekly work!
9. COVID and seasonal flu: Tony Fauci made this prediction in the New England Journal of Medicine back in the winter of 2020, and he proved prescient, as Reason magazine just noted, with an approximately 0.3 percent death rate.
10. COVID cure: 41 million Americans have now filed for unemployment as of late May 2020. An economic catastrophe, the consequences of we will be dealing with for years to come.
11. 11. COVID conflicts of interest: They are legion. See all three parts of our COVID Empire series.

SNIP – Thanks to our Vermont neighbor Amy Todisco for her rebuttal, below. Our rebuttal in CAPS.

Rob, though I wasn’t planning on engaging with you further on this topic (as I said on Facebook), I decided to fulfill your wish that I take the time to research each of your points and share my perspective. I thought it might be helpful for your audience as I’m sure most of us are confused about what’s really going on and I wanted to lend another perspective to the discussion. Why haven’t you responded to my multiple requests?

I’VE BEEN BUSY WORKING, AMY, AND YOU MADE IT CLEAR SEVERAL WEEKS BACK THAT YOU WEREN’T INTERESTED IN DIALOGUE, AFTER SPENDING WEEKS IMPUGNING MY CHARACTER, ACCUSING ME OF HAVING “AN AGENDA,” CALLING ME “SLIPPERY” ETC – THIS IS NO WAY TO CONDUCT A RATIONAL AND RESPECTFUL DISCUSSION. I HOPE YOU AGREE. A FEW MUTUAL FRIENDS REACHED OUT AND URGED ME TO ENGAGE – SO HERE I AM.

Unlike you, I do not suggest that I know all of the answers to this COVID 19 virus issue. As I’ve said before, you have an opinion (you call it research) and you have cherry picked information to support those beliefs. 

YOU ARE CONFUSING “OPINIONS” WITH RESEARCH. THROWING UP A LINK TO A “NEWS” STORY FROM A MAINSTREAM CORPORATE COMMERCIAL NEWS SOURCE IS NOT “RESEARCH.” ONE MUST TAKE TIME TO WEIGH CLAIMS, EVALUATE SOURCES BASED ON EVIDENCE, ETC.I DON’T AND HAVE NEVER CLAIMED TO HAVE “ALL OF THE ANSWERS” TO COVID 19, BUT I AM REASONABLY CONVINCED, BASED ON SEVERAL MONTHS OF RESEARCH AND CONVERSATION WITH TRUSTED COLLEAGUES, THAT OUR 11 OBSERVATIONS ABOVE ARE ACCURATE.

It took me no time to find contradictions to many of your points. 

FUNNY. IT TOOK US SEVERAL MONTHS OF RESEARCH ON COVID TO TRY AND FIGURE OUT WHAT MAY BE GOING ON. YOUR CLAIM THAT IT “TOOK ME NO TIME AT ALL” IS CURIOUS.

Before I share my response to your 11 points regarding COVID 19, in the spirit of transparency, I’d like to know a few things that you’ve claimed. 

Please answer these questions. Your integrity and transparency depend upon it.

REALLY?

(1) Who is your team of researchers? Names and background? Why should we trust what they (if there really is a they) and you are telling us? Why are they not listed on your Vermont Independent website under “About Us”? Why isn’t there an “About Us” link on your website? Kinda hard to trust anyone who doesn’t tell you who they are and how they feel they are qualified to advise. It seems hypocritical when you criticize “mainstream media” (many of whom you source too) for having agendas, lack of credibility, etc. Time for you to come clean.

WE TALK ON A REGULAR BASIS WITH DOZENS OF RESEARCHERS ALL OVER THE WORLD. WHEN WE PUBLISH A STORY FROM ANOTHER SOURCE VIA CROSS-POST, WE GIVE THEM EXPLICIT CREDIT AND LINK TO THEIR STORY IF THEY ARE WILLING. IF WE CITE A SOURCE, WE LINK TO IT. YOU CAN FIND OUR VERMONT COMMONS EDITORIAL BOARD LIST IN OUR ARCHIVES. IN MANY OF OUR PUBLISHED SOURCES, WE PROTECT THE PRIVACY OF RESEARCHERS WHO PREFER TO REMAIN PRIVATE – GIVEN THE “AGE OF SURVEILLANCE CAPITALISM” AND THE REPERCUSSIONS FOR SOME WHO SPEAK OUT, WE ARE TRYING TO BE JUDICIOUS.

(2) Where’s the link to your crowdfunding campaign where you allegedly raised money to do this “research”? Couldn’t find anything on Indiegogo, GoFundMe, or Kickstarter, except for this unsuccessful campaign for Vermont Independent in 12/2016. (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/108159091/plan-v-the-story-of-the-2nd-vermont-republic?ref=discovery&term=Rob%20Williams%2C%20VT).

WE NEVER CLAIMED TO “RAISE MONEY” FOR RESEARCH. OUR “PLAN V” DOCUMENTARY FILM IS ONGOING AND YOU CAN WATCH THE FIRST TWO INSTALLMENTS ON OUR OUR YOUTUBE AND VIMEO SITES.

Here’s what I found from a cursory search relative to your points.

You (Rob) say:

“(Rob)1.  The COVID catastrophism model proved dead wrong: UK Imperial College London’s Neal Ferguson created March 2020 catastrophic COVID modeling data used to justify near-global lockdown policies, modeling he admitted one week later was 2400 percent overinflated. On May 16, the London Telegraph stated that “Neil Ferguson’s Imperial model could be the most devastating software mistake of all time.”

(Response) Though there is no question that the “Stay Safe Stay At Home” Order has been difficult for some people and businesses, others have thrived. There are always silver linings. This catastrophe has actually helped policy makers (at least in VT) think about and take action towards systemic changes to problems such as what to do about the homeless population (they’ve been in motels in Burlington-and they don’t want to throw them back on to the streets). This would not be possible without the lockdown. There have been numerous environmental benefits: “Pollution and greenhouse gas emissions have fallen across continents as countries try to contain the spread of the new coronavirus. Is this just a fleeting change, or could it lead to longer-lasting falls in emissions?” https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200326-covid-19-the-impact-of-coronavirus-on-the-environment

Some people are reconnecting with their family, spending more time in nature, exercising and eating home cooked meals. The list goes on. I don’t want to minimize the difficulty that some folks are facing, but I disagree that you think it’s not been worth the havoc. Most importantly, it’s kept the numbers of sick people, and therefore deaths down-and not overwhelmed the medical system in many places.

HERE’S NEAL FERGUSON HIMSELF ADMITTING THE LOCKDOWN POLICY WAS A MISTAKE ON JUNE 2. I APPRECIATE YOUR POINTS ABOVE, HAVING LIVED IN A “COVID CAVE” FOR 2 1/2 MONTHS – BUT THROWING 45 MILLION AMERICANS OUT OF WORK, DESTROYING THE US ECONOMY, AND DEALING WITH ALL OF THE CONCOMITANT CONSEQUENCES – SEE THE 600 US DOCTORS CALLING THE LOCKDOWN A “MASS CASUALTY INCIDENT” HAVE PROVED DISASTROUS. RE: THE “MEDICAL SYSTEM” – HOSPITALS ARE GOING BANKRUPT, PROFESSIONAL DOCS AND NURSES ARE LOSING THEIR JOBS OR MOVING TO “TELEMEDICINE AND REDUCED HOURS,” AND CITIZENS IN NEED OF MEDICAL CARE ARE EITHER DENIED IT OR TOO AFRAID TO GO TO HOSPITALS. IF YOU ARE HEALTHY, COUNT YOURSELF LUCKY.

(Rob) The COVID lockdown policy failed: “Lockdowns haven’t proved they’re worth the havoc,” observes a May 2020 Bloomberg article, noting that “as of May 12, the U.S. had 237 deaths per million people. Taiwan, a no-lockdown country, had 0.3 deaths per million. No-lockdown Sweden has had 347 deaths per million; lockdown Belgium, with a similar population, has had 763 deaths per million. Ethiopia, with a population of 109 million, had no lockdown – and a death rate of 0.04 per million.” Notably, Sweden’s both/and COVID policy – (a) isolate a country’s most vulnerable groups and (b) issue clear, consistent and voluntary viral social protocols for the rest of the Swedish herd – has at once protected their society’s most fragile and accelerated the natural evolutionary herd immunity process. And, Sweden, like Vermont, is a country where (a) the communitarian impulse (a high level of commitment to one’s neighbors) as well as (b) the level of trust in fellow citizens are both quite high. Vermonters would do well to take note of Sweden’s both/and viral policy for future viral planning.

(Response:)

And yet, since you do not trust the information that conflicts with your beliefs, you’ve suggested that Vermonters should interact without social distancing and masks, and that we should never have shut down at all. This is not trust inspiring, nor does it suggest a high level of commitment to one’s neighbors.

CORRECT. “HERD IMMUNITY.” WE REVIEWED 20 YEARS OF PEER REVIEWED SCIENTIFIC STUDIES RE: THE INEFFECTIVENESS OF MASKS IN DEALING WITH VIRUSES. LINKS IN OUR OP/ED ABOVE. THIS IS NOT “OPINION.” THIS IS IS SCIENCE.

Taiwan’s success not due to lack of lock down.

“Taiwan’s Central Epidemic Command Center was activated on Jan. 20, and between then and Feb. 24, it took 124 actions based on assessments gathered from the country’s integration of big data and technology. They included:

• Border control from the air and sea, including travel restrictions and cruise ship bans
• Case identification (using new data and technology), patients’ 14-day travel history integrated into the National Health Insurance Administration and Immigration Agency database
• Quarantine of suspicious cases and electronic monitoring of quarantined individuals via government-issued cell phones
• Proactive case finding
• Resource allocation (assessing and managing capacity), such as setting up test sites and taking over production of surgical and N95 masks (more than 10 million per day)
• Reassurance and education of the public while fighting misinformation; investigated rumors that started a toilet paper panic and prosecuted a man for claiming cyanide wards off coronavirus
• Negotiation with other countries and regions
• Formulation of policies toward schools and childcare relief to businesses”
  
  https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Why-Taiwan-s-COVID-19-death-rate-is-shockingly-low-15130341.php
  
  There were many things done in Taiwan that were not being done here, nor would our country or population probably go along with them.
  
  https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/what-taiwan-can-teach-world-fighting-coronavirus-n1153826
  
  Sweden:
  
  “Michael Ryan, who runs WHO’s health emergencies program, recently said that Sweden may represent “a future model” for “a new normal.” The idea is that even after enforced lockdowns, governments will need to trust citizens to adhere to social-distancing recommendations, as Swedes have largely done…As for the economic effects of a looser policy, countries that are seeking to limit damage by emulating Sweden’s strategy shouldn’t expect any miracles. The export-dependent economy has been unable to withstand the global shock triggered by widespread lockdowns elsewhere, and a slew of service-sector companies are at risk of going bankrupt as customers stay away.”
  
  “An unequivocal failure in Sweden has been its inability to protect the elderly. As of late April, about half of those over 70 years old who had died from Covid-19 had been infected in nursing homes. Government agencies have blamed the staggering death rates among elderly under care on poor routines and an unexpected lack of preparedness to deal with the pandemic. Critics argue that a strict lockdown early on would have given caregivers and authorities breathing room to ensure that protective equipment was available and that guidelines were being followed.”
  
  https://www.bloomberg.com/news/storythreads/2020-05-21/sweden-shows-the-way-forward-from-coronavirus
  
  “Sweden’s controversial approach to fighting the coronavirus pandemic has so far failed to produce the expected results, and there are calls within the country for the government to change its strategy…”We have a very vivid political debate,” Karin Olofsdotter, Sweden’s ambassador to the United States, told NPR. “I don’t think people are protesting on the streets but … there’s a very big debate, if this [strategy] is the right tEarlier this month, Tegnell admitted he is not sure Sweden’s strategy was the right call. “I’m not convinced at all — we are constantly thinking about this,” he told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet.hing to do or not, on Facebook and everywhere…Unlike its Nordic neighbors, Sweden decided against instituting a strict lockdown. The government has enforced social distancing rules but decided to keep most bars, restaurants, schools and retail shops open. The country’s approach relies on public cooperation to slow the spread and not overwhelm the hospital system…The study’s results have provided further fuel for the critics of the Swedish approach. With 39.57 deaths per 100,000, Sweden’s mortality rate is not only higher than that of the U.S. (30.02 deaths per 100,000) but also exponentially higher than those of its neighbors Norway (4.42 per 100,000) and Finland (5.58 per 100,000), which both enacted strict lockdown measures, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University…Earlier this month, Tegnell admitted he is not sure Sweden’s strategy was the right call. “I’m not convinced at all — we are constantly thinking about this,” he told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet.”
  
  (https://www.npr.org/2020/05/25/861923548/stockholm-wont-reach-herd-immunity-in-may-sweden-s-chief-epidemiologist-says)
  
  Ethiopia:
  
  “”Because the coronavirus pandemic is getting worse, the Ethiopian government has decided to declare a state of emergency under Article 93 of the constitution,” Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said in a statement on Wednesday. “I call upon everybody to stand in line with government bodies and others that are trying to overcome this problem,” he added, warning of “grave legal measures” against anyone who undermines the fight against the pandemic…Authorities have already taken a series of measures to stem the spread of the virus, including closing schools, banning public gatherings and requiring most employees to work from home.”
  
  “The government has so far refrained from imposing a lockdown similar to those in effect elsewhere in the region, including in Rwanda, Uganda and Mauritius. William Davison, senior Ethiopia analyst for the International Crisis Group, said, ‘There is a quite a lot of uncertainty about the extent to which the coronavirus may have spread so far in Ethiopia.’ Not too much testing has been done, but the government has steadily increased that, accrediting other laboratories to do so,” he told Al Jazeera from the capital, Addis Ababa. ‘But certainly, there’s not been a huge amount of testing that’s going on – maybe that’s partly why there is not a huge amount of infections.’
  
  And, no lockdown wasn’t because they didn’t think it was a good idea, but…
  
  ‘But Abiy said over the weekend that a harsher lockdown would be unrealistic given that there are ‘many citizens who don’t have homes’ and ‘even those who have homes have to make ends meet daily.”
  (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/04/ethiopia-declares-state-emergency-fight-covid-19-200408142519485.html)
  
  
  
• Italy: “Within weeks, army vehicles would be transporting corpses to other cities and hospital doctors were warning that the situation in Bergamo was “catastrophic” and out of control.
  
  Now in the mourning city and province, many people in Bergamo have abandoned their former quiet pragmatism.
  
  In the absence of work and the rational, efficient world they knew, blind anger is creeping in at what they see as official negligence. The most important failing, they believe, was not to impose a lockdown sooner, to shut the factories and businesses and keep people in their homes.”
  
  https://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2020/apr/06/coronavirus-bergamo-work-ethic-lockdown
• EVERY COUNTRY AND EVERY CULTURE HAS IT OWN UNIQUE ATTRIBUTES. YOU ARE MISSING THE MAJOR POINT HERE – LOCKING DOWN A POPULATION AND DESTROYING THEIR DAILY ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES TO INTERACT BY CHOICE IS TO RENDER THEM LESS THAN HUMAN. SEE FERGUSON ARTICLE ABOVE.
  
  (Rob says) S. policymakers neglected COVID protection in nursing homes: The one demographic group everyone agreed we ought to isolate from COVID? The elderly. Yet, in many U.S. cities, policymakers neglected to lock down nursing homes and elder care facilities. Note: In Vermont to date, the majority of our 54 COVID deaths occurred in two Vermont nursing homes.
  
  (Response) No, One-third (not the majority) of VT, as well as All U.S. Coronavirus Deaths Are Nursing Home Residents or Workers. People of all ages have gotten the disease. Check the statistics from the https://www.healthvermont.gov/sites/default/files/documents/pdf/Weekly-Summary-of-Data.pdf
  
  https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/05/09/us/coronavirus-cases-nursing-homes-us.html
  
• OF COURSE. HUMANS GET DISEASES ALL THE TIME. WE LOSE 1% (THE OFFICIAL US MORTALITY RATE) OF THE US POPULATION EVERY YEAR TO “DISEASES.” WELCOME TO BEING HUMAN. HAVE WE EVER LOCKED DOWN AN ENTIRE POPULATION AND DESTROYED A NATIONAL ECONOMY BECAUSE OF A VIRUS? WE HAVE NOT. UNTIL NOW.
• 
  (Rob) “COVID social distancing is speculative and unscientific: In addition to the psychological trauma it imposes, this widely adopted 2 meter/6 feet protocol grew out of a 14-year-old Albuquerque High School student’s lab experiment, according to an April 12, 2020, New York Times article titled “The Untold Story of the Birth of Social Distancing.” To date, there exists no definitive scientific proof of social distancing’s efficacy. In fact, it slows down herd immunity, which moves us as a species toward viral immunity.”
  
  (Response🙂
  Not true. You’ve minimized it to a ridiculous level.
• Here are more details:
  
  “Fourteen years ago, two federal government doctors, Richard Hatchett and Carter Mecher, met with a colleague at a burger joint in suburban Washington for a final review of a proposal they knew would be treated like a piñata: telling Americans to stay home from work and school the next time the country was hit by a deadly pandemic…How that idea — born out of a request by President George W. Bush to ensure the nation was better prepared for the next contagious disease outbreak — became the heart of the national playbook for responding to a pandemic is one of the untold stories of the coronavirus crisis.
  
  It required the key proponents — Mecher, a Department of Veterans Affairs physician, and Hatchett, an oncologist turned White House adviser — to overcome intense initial opposition.
  
  It brought their work together with that of a Defense Department team assigned to a similar task.
  
  And it had some unexpected detours, including a deep dive into the history of the 1918 Spanish flu and an important discovery kicked off by a high school research project pursued by the daughter of a scientist at the Sandia National Laboratories.
  
  The concept of social distancing is now intimately familiar to almost everyone. But as it first made its way through the federal bureaucracy in 2006 and 2007, it was viewed as impractical, unnecessary and politically infeasible…”
  
  (https://news.abs-cbn.com/spotlight/04/23/20/the-untold-story-of-the-birth-of-social-distancing)
  
  https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/how-covid-spreads.html
  
  “The World Health Organization and other experts have said SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is spread mainly by large droplets sprayed when people cough or sneeze, contaminating surfaces. So that degree of separation, combined with frequent hand-washing, was thought to be enough to halt or at least slow the spread of the virus…But new evidence suggests six feet of distance may not be enough. If SARS-CoV-2 is airborne, as scientists think it may be, people could be infected simply by inhaling the virus in tiny aerosol droplets exhaled by someone talking or breathing. What’s actually safe is unknown. It may depend on many factors, including whether people are inside or outdoors, how loudly people are speaking, whether they are wearing masks, how well-ventilated a room is, and how far the virus can really fly. “
  
  https://www.sciencenews.org/article/coronavirus-covid-19-why-6-feet-may-not-be-enough-social-distance
  
  CDC says, “Limit close contact with others outside your household in indoor and outdoor spaces. Since people can spread the virus before they know they are sick, it is important to stay away from others when possible, even if you—or they—have no symptoms. Social distancing is especially important for people who are at higher risk for severe illness from COVID-19.”
  
  https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/social-distancing.html
  
  Can you trust the science?
  
  “Whether you personally believe COVID-19 is dangerous or not, our society has been disrupted to an unprecedented degree. Is it all worth it? While most people appear to be heeding the advice of epidemiologists and other medical professionals and it is having a positive impact, there are still a lot of people who think all this is overblown, or stronger yet, that the scientists making extreme recommendations are wrong altogether. Every year, I have conversations with my research students about why and when they should trust scientific evidence. Sometimes it’s difficult to accept scientific findings when your eyes and ears are telling you something different from the data. In order to know why and when you should believe scientists about coronavirus or any other issue, it’s important to know what science does and how scientists draw our conclusions, and thus, why scientific findings weigh more than opinion or even personal experience.”
  
  “Could a funding corporation come in and try to demand we produce certain results? They can demand all they want, but unless you’re committing fraud, the data say what they’re going to say, like it or not. As with any area of life, there are a few bad apples who do commit outright fraud, but it’s rare, and when they get caught, the consequences inside and outside the academic community are severe.”
  
  (https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/people-are-strange/202003/why-should-we-believe-the-science-behind-social-distancing)
• WE REPEAT – THERE IS LITTLE ACTUAL SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT “PHYSICAL DISTANCING” AS AN EFFECTIVE STRATEGY FOR DEALING WITH A VIRUS. PLENTY OF MODELING, BEGINNING WITH OUR ABQ 14 YEAR OLD’S SCIENCE EXPERIMENT – BUT MODELING IS NOT REALITY. SEE NEAL FERGUSON’S “MODELING” ABOVE.
  
  (Rob): COVID mask wearing is ineffective and unhealthy: The CDC, the WHO and the NIH’s Dr. Fauci himself on a March 8, 2020, “60 Minutes” episode are all on record as stating that wearing masks does nothing to protect wearers from viruses, “like trying to use a chain link fence to protect from a mosquito.” Lab scientists working with actual viruses wear N95 respirators and entire hazardous materials (HAZMAT) suits. Wear a mask if you choose and require masks in your business if you wish, but don’t legislate mandatory mask wearing for your fellow humans, as it makes us hypoxically less healthy and may cause us to pass out in Vermont post offices or crash our cars into Vermont telephone poles.”
  
  (Response): It’s not about whether or not a healthy person should wear a mask for themselves, it’s been about protecting others from us if we are asymptomatic. Two days before you have symptoms we can transmit the virus. Some places require masks to go inside. Confusing issue though. Where are your O2 levels while wearing a mask, btw?
  
  From the Time Magazine article (4/6/2020), “If you have no symptoms of the coronavirus, should you wear a mask? It’s one of the most-asked questions during this pandemic, and until recently, one of the most easily answered—if you follow the guidance of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC’s answer, up until April 3? No.On April 3, President Trump announced that the CDC now recommends that the general population wear non-medical masks—meaning fabric that covers one’s nose and mouth, like bandanas or cut T-shirts—when they must leave their homes to go to places like the grocery store. …In the next few weeks, experts’ tones became more equivocal, suggesting that a supply shortage, not necessarily a complete lack of efficacy, may have partly driven the U.S. government agencies’ earlier guidance…Scientists now know that people who are infected with the new coronavirus can spread it even when they don’t have symptoms. (This was not known in the early days of the current pandemic.) Up to 25% of infected people may not show symptoms, said CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield in a recent NPR interview. They’ve also learned that people who are symptomatic shed the virus up to two days before showing symptoms. “This helps explain how rapidly this virus continues to spread across the country,” Redfield said.
  
  (https://time.com/5815251/should-you-wear-a-mask-coronavirus/)
• THE WHO JUST ADMITTED THAT “ASYMPTOMATIC CARRIERS OF A VIRUS RARELY INFECT OTHERS.” WE ARE NOT SURPRISED. THE WHO’S “COVID-19” STORY IS UNRAVELING. MAYBE YOU ARE? THE MSM IS NOW ACCUSING FAUCI AND CO OF “LYING” IN MARCH 2020 TO ENSURE ENOUGH MASKS WOULD BE AVAILABLE FOR MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS. WE DISAGREE. A FEINT. MASKS DON’T WORK FOR VIRUSES – SEE MASK RESEARCH ABOVE.
• 
  
  (Rob) COVID remedies politicized: Numerous COVID remedies – from increasing vitamin C intake to using hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) – have been dangerously politicized into ridiculous pro vs. anti Trump talking points. HCQ, an antimalarial drug successfully used for more than seven decades, shows successful promise in treating COVID, as more than 200 published scientific studies and more than 600 surveyed doctors have attested.
  
  Response: Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), is it safe for treating COVID-19?
  
  Rob, where are some links to those surveyed docs and published studies?
  
  “Hydroxychloroquine is being used to try and stop coronavirus from spreading inside your body. It is not yet known if hydroxychloroquine is a safe and effective treatment for COVID-19, and this use is still experimental…Taking hydroxychloroquine long-term or at high doses may cause irreversible damage to the retina of your eye. ” (https://www.drugs.com/hydroxychloroquine.html)
  
  ‘“Hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine, often in combination with a second-generation macrolide, are being widely used for treatment of COVID-19, despite no conclusive evidence of their benefit. Although generally safe when used for approved indications such as autoimmune disease or malaria, the safety and benefit of these treatment regimens are poorly evaluated in COVID-19.”
  
  (https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31180-6/fulltext)
  
  Hydroxychloroquine Is Ineffective In Treatment Of Patients Hospitalized With Covid-19, According To Small Controlled Trial From Shanghai.
  
  (https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamhaseltine/2020/03/25/hydroxychloroquine-is-ineffective-in-treatment-of-patients-hospitalized-with-covid-19-according-to-small-controlled-trial-from-shanghai/#12f7d8456092)
• WE LINKED TO HCQ STUDIES IN PART 2 OF “COVID EMPIRE.” A QUICK SEARCH ONLINE WILL INDICATE PLENTY OF MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS HAVING GOOD RESULTS USING HCQ TO TREAT COVID. A SHAME, THAT HCQ HAS BEEN POLITICIZED AS SOME SORT OF PRO-TRUMPIAN THING. SO MANY LIVES COUD BE SAVED….
  
  (Rob says) “COVID medical protocols missed the mark: Early emphasis on expensive and hard-to-procure hospital equipment (ventilators) resulted from misdiagnosing COVID symptoms, and more U.S. doctors are speaking out, observing that COVID often seems to present as a patient’s increasing inability to effectively “uptake” oxygen. A finger-clipable $20 oximeter measures both pulse rate and blood oxygen saturation level – a recommended and inexpensive health device anyone can use.”
  
  Response: I’ve seen that too and also this suggestion for a non invasive technique that might work for some.
  
  (https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20200506/turning-patients-prone-helps-fight-covid-19#1)
• GOOD. WE AGREE.
  
  (Rob says) “COVID promised vaccine a unicorn: History teaches us that viral pandemics always work their way through human populations in approximately two years’ time. Even as Bill Gates and Co. rush a COVID vaccine to global markets, the virus is weakening through our natural evolutionary herd immunity process. And herd immunity costs no one a single cent.”
  
  (Response): Don’t want any rushed vaccines. There has been some question as to whether or not natural herd immunity works for this virus.
• GOOD. WE AGREE. AND, “HERD IMMUNITY” HAS ALWAYS WORKED FOR VIRUSES OVER TIME. IS THE “COVID-19” SOME SORT OF EXCEPTION? THAT WOULD BE ODD, ESPECIALLY GIVEN CURRENT LOW DEATH RATES AND “COVID PHOBIA.”
  
  “The threshold for achieving herd immunity — the fraction of the population that needs to be immune to a disease to make person-to-person transmission extremely unlikely or even impossible — varies from virus to virus. With measles, for example, that threshold is high: 93% to 95%.
  
  Some have argued it could happen naturally as the virus makes its way through our communities, but without a vaccine to supercharge immunization, infectious disease experts point out that any pursuit of herd immunity through natural infection could come at a tremendous cost. Allowing many people to get sick quickly could cause a spike in infections that could place enormous stress on the healthcare system, and many people would die…Many have also been wondering: Do people develop some immune protection after they recover from COVID-19? Experts think that may be the case, but nothing is proven. And even if it is true, no one is sure just how long that immunity may last.”
  
  (https://abcnews.go.com/Health/herd-immunity-protect-us-covid-19/story?id=70801834)
• SEE ABOVE.
  
  (Rob) “COVID death rate mirrors seasonal flu: Ferguson’s original COVID modeling predicted more than 2 million U.S. COVID deaths. Even with inflated COVID U.S. death numbers due to (a) expansive viral labeling vagueness, (b) unclear viral testing results, (c) ginned up viral U.S. death certificate co-morbidity classifications, (d) for-profit U.S. hospital remuneration incentives, and (e) constant 24/7 COVID news fear porn, we’re looking at U.S. death rates that mirror a rugged seasonal flu.”
  
  (Response) Not so. The flu #’s are ESTIMATES, not actual #’s like COVID. There is some information suggesting that there are numbers of people that had COVID and recovered, never having been tested, and thus are not included in the numbers. I know people personally who believe that they had it.
• YES, AND WE STAND BY OUR CLAIM. “COVID” HASN’T EVEN BEEN ISOLATED AS A “VIRUS.” SEE “COVID EMPIRE,” PART 2. PROFESSIONALS ADMIST THAT “PCR TESTING” RESULTS ARE MORE FALSE THAN TRUE. WE STAND BY OUR OBSERVATION ABOVE.
  
  “I decided to call colleagues around the country who work in other emergency departments and in intensive care units to ask a simple question: how many patients could they remember dying from the flu? Most of the physicians I surveyed couldn’t remember a single one over their careers. Some said they recalled a few. All of them seemed to be having the same light bulb moment I had already experienced: For too long, we have blindly accepted a statistic that does not match our clinical experience…
  
  The 25,000 to 69,000 numbers that Trump cited do not represent counted flu deaths per year; they are estimates that the CDC produces by multiplying the number of flu death counts reported by various coefficients produced through complicated algorithms. These coefficients are based on assumptions of how many cases, hospitalizations, and deaths they believe went unreported. In the last six flu seasons, the CDC’s reported number of actual confirmed flu deaths—that is, counting flu deaths the way we are currently counting deaths from the coronavirus—has ranged from 3,448 to 15,620, which far lower than the numbers commonly repeated by public officials and even public health experts.”
  
  (https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/comparing-covid-19-deaths-to-flu-deaths-is-like-comparing-apples-to-oranges/)
  
  “Coronavirus has killed at a much faster rate.
• REALLY? HOW DO YOU KNOW, GIVEN OUR OBSERVATIONS ABOVE?
  
  
  From October 2019 to early April 2020, the flu killed an ESTIMATED 24,000 to 62,000 people in the US, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those numbers are preliminary, and the CDC said it stopped updating its preliminary estimates for this flu season on April 4.
  
  If 62,000 people died from the flu between October 1 and April 4, that means the US had an average of about 331 flu deaths a day.
  
  By contrast, coronavirus killed more than 62,850 people in the US from the first known death in February through the end of April, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
  
  So from February 6 through April 30, an average of more than 739 people died per day from coronavirus in the US.”
  
  (https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/01/health/flu-vs-coronavirus-deaths/index.html)
  
  And, “COVID-19 has been compared to the flu. Experts say that’s wrong.”

“RATES” ARE BEING COMPARED. NOT “COVID” TO “FLU.” AND AGAIN, WHAT IS THE COVID-19, ACTUALLY?

(https://abcnews.go.com/Health/covid-19-compared-flu-experts-wrong/story?id=69779116)

And, Coronavirus vs. flu: Here’s how you can tell the difference.

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-health/2020/03/12/coronavirus-covid-19-compare-flu-differences-in-death-rate-symptoms-spread/5018395002/

(Rob) “COVID cure is worse than the disease: As summer approaches and Vermont begins to open, Vermonters are wrestling with the myriad consequences of COVID lockdown – unemployment, business collapse, anxiety, stress, isolation, anomie, mental anguish, physical abuse, and the 24/7 fear of potentially contagious family, friends and neighbors.”

(Response:) How do you make this assumption? Based on what metrics? What would have happened if the majority of our state governments hadn’t curtailed activity?

TIME WILL TELL, WON’T IT? AGAIN, SEE 600 U.S. DOCTORS’ “MASS CASUALTY INCIDENT” LETTER TO THE WHITE HOUSE.

Look at the countries that have had success that have done things differently than the U.S. (https://reasonstobecheerful.world/countries-defeating-coronavirus-bhutan-australia-senegal-slovakia-uruguay/?utm_source=Reasons+to+be+Cheerful&utm_campaign=6f84cb9787-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_06_08_07_35&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_89fb038efe-6f84cb9787-383107113)

(ROB) “COVID trusted experts are all big pharma partners: The CDC, the WHO, U.S. mainstream media news channels, and digital media corporations are all financially bed-fellowed with the pharmaceuticals industry and their global nonprofit partners. This reality creates an obvious 24/7 conflict of interest whenever COVID news is reported on our TVs, computers and mobile phones.”

(Response:) While I’m no fan of the pharmaceutical industry, or the federal gov’t, or some of the mainstream news sources, who are you gonna trust? How do you know that the sources that you are quoting, some of them are the very same ones as you just mentioned, are any more reliable, honest, free from conflict of interest, etc.?

WE PUT OUR TRUST IN INDEPENDENT RESEARCHERS FREE OF CONFLICTS OF INTEREST, AND THE LEGION OF MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS AROUND THE WORLD WHO ARE BEGINNING TO SPEAK OUT AGAINST COVID PHOBIA. JUST A FEW NAMES TO SEARCH AND LISTEN TO, ALL MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS: ANDREW KAUFFMAN, DEL BIGTREE, ROBERT F KENNEDY JR, SCOTT LARSEN, SHERRY TENPENNY, RASHID BUTTAR, DOLORES CAHILL, AND JUDY MIKOVITS. START THERE. WE’VE ALSO PROVIDED PLENTY OF LINKS IN OUR THREE PART “COVID EMPIRE” SERIES.

(Rob)“We Vermonters are neighborly, compassionate and resilient. Moving forward, let’s end COVID-phobia and the assault on herd immunity and get back to being fully human. See you outside.”

In conclusion, as a self proclaimed “Independent Journalist” I would have hoped that you would do something like this-presenting both sides and letting people decide for themselves. Please answer the questions I asked initially as to who your team is, what their qualifications are, and the link to your crowd sourced funding for research.

IN CONCLUSION, A STORY HAS MANY SIDES, NOT JUST TWO.

I HOPE OUR RESPONSES HERE ARE HELPFUL.

Thanks.

THANK YOU.