Why smart people believe coronavirus myths
From Apr 2020. Ironic, given that some of these "myths" have turned out to be true
Doctors sounding the alarm - Mysterious rise in excess deaths... - "many of the excess deaths are not covid related... demographer Anders Sønstebø at the Norwegian statistics bureau warns that the life expectancy might actually decrease this year, which would be a first since 1997... A new peer reviewed study by Cedars Sinai shows that there has been an unprecedented increase in fatal heart attacks in the U.S during the pandemic years, with young age groups being the worst affected. Between 1st April 2020 and 31st March 2021, in the first year of the pandemic, there was a 14% increase in heart attack deaths compared with the year before. However, in the second year of the pandemic, there was a shocking 29.9% increase in fatal heart attacks among young adults aged 25-44. So we know that heart attacks have risen significantly, but why? And why is there such a big increase among young people, an age group in which heart attacks are not very common. Well, according to Cedars Sinai there are several explanations... One is that it has something to do with the covid disease itself. Covid appears to in some cases cause heart and cardiovascular problems, something a leading cardiologist in Norway also told me to be the case (but he also said something else caused heart problems too...). I also personally know people in my family who have had cardiovascular related problems after having had covid, so I would definitely think this would explain some of the increase. And this would make sense. Something that many people have suspected for a long time now is that covid came from a lab. Of course, you were not allowed to say this. But now all of a sudden you are allowed to say it, as a new U.S senate report says that the lab-leak theory is the most likely origin of covid... I booked an appointment with on of the absolute leading cardiologists in Norway. I won't reveal his name, but I can tell you that he is one of the best in the country. So I headed to the clinic for a heart check, with echocardiogram, EKG and a workout stress test. The full works. One of the first things he asked me at the appointment was if I had taken the "you know what", as he told me that both it, and covid could cause these issues. Keep in mind that this is one of the best heart doctors in Norway that told me this, this is not something that I am saying... Back to the report from Cedars Sinai, another explanation they give is that the increase in heart problems could have to be with "psychological and social challenges associated with the pandemic". In other words, they are talking about lockdowns and stay at home orders and job losses. Weird how this is barely talked about in the news, what is the actual cost of the lockdowns? How many people got heart problems due to stress because of being locked in their houses for months, never getting to socialize or exercise? And another thing to keep in mind. If it is true that covid can cause heart problems, is there something else, something man-made that was designed to mimick covid that could cause the same issues, something that almost everyone has gotten...?... Remember when we were told we had to lockdown and stay at home to save grandma? If only it saved one life it was worth it. But now thousands and thousands more than normal are dying across Europe every week and nobody seems to care anymore, at least not the media. This is being largely ignored. People are dying, their lives are worth just as much as grandma two years ago."
Why are excess deaths higher now than during Covid? | The Spectator - "It isn’t Covid: just 27 per cent of excess deaths in England for the most recent week have Covid as the underlying cause. Instead, problems that built up over lockdowns are being keenly felt now. A report from the British Heart Foundation, published this week, found that over 30,000 people in England have died ‘needlessly’ of heart disease since the start of the pandemic. That’s 230 deaths every week that wouldn’t have happened had we not locked down. This is in part due to treatment delays during lockdowns... One in five of those heart patients say their health has gotten worse since the pandemic. And, as the below graph shows, over 7,000 patients have now been waiting over a year for a heart procedure. Heart and circulatory conditions account for nearly a quarter of the life expectancy gap between the rich and poorest. So any rise in excess heart deaths is likely to make things much worse. The BHF report pointed to failures in the ambulance service too... Those on the heart disease treatment and test waiting lists are only a fraction of the potential excess deaths. They’re just the ones who at least have a diagnosis. More data reveals a huge drop in the percentage of 40-74 year olds (those most at risk) receiving health checks during the pandemic. NHS England modelling cited by the BHF suggested the drop in people having their blood pressure checked because of lockdowns could lead to an extra 11,190 heart attacks and 17,702 strokes in the next three years. Despite increased pressure from academics, clinicians and now charities the government still displays little interest in what could be considered one of our greatest ever health crises. An investigation was promised by the then Health Secretary earlier this year but we’re onto our third government since then. An official in the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities wasn’t even aware it was something they monitored (they do) when asked earlier this week. The communications void on the issue is becoming a problem. Senior clinicians are starting to worry that the lack of attention from the government and the health service is fuelling conspiracy theories... Those concerned about possible long-term effects of the vaccine are not the only ones intrigued by excess deaths. Some followers of the data have contacted me to suggest that perhaps there aren’t any excess deaths at all. There’s a worry among some that the crude averages used by the ONS do not account for an ageing population, and other demographic changes that occur over time. But the most senior figures in statistical academia refute this"
Something weird is happening with the birth rates. - "among young mothers, the unvaccinated are extremely over represented in the number of births, and if the vaccinated had as many children as the unvaccinated in these age groups, it would more than make up for the 9% decrease in birth rates we have seen in the UK over the last year. But as we go up in age groups, this difference is drastically reduced, having almost as many vaccinated as unvaccinated mothers. Now, one explanation for this could be that among the young women who tend to be more conservative and thus likely to have more children, generally tend to be more skeptical of the vaccine compared with more left leaning young women who tend to embrace the vaccine, but they also tend to have less children. This could be part of the explanation why young mothers are underrepresented when it comes to being vaccinated."
Yet, the fertility rate in Singapore with super high covid vaccine coverage went up in 2021 and apparently will go up even more for 2022
One coronavirus vaccine may protect against other coronaviruses - "Plasma from humans who had been vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2 produced antibodies that were cross-reactive (potentially providing protection) against SARS-CoV-1 and the common cold coronavirus (OC43), the study found. The study also found mice immunized with a SARS-CoV-1 vaccine developed in 2004 generated immune responses that protected them from intranasal exposure by SARS-CoV-2. Lastly, the study found prior coronavirus infections can protect against subsequent infections with other coronaviruses."
Cross-immunity is not a myth
FactCheck: A claim that Covid -19 vaccines don’t stop transmission of the virus is misleading - "Zeck claimed on Twitter that Covid-19 vaccines “don’t even stop transmission” of the virus. His initial Tweet on 23 November read: “I’m honestly asking anyone who’s willing to answer: what’s the ethical, scientific and logic [sic] justification to force the entire world to receive a product made by habitually criminal companies who aren’t liable for injury or death, when the product doesn’t even stop transmission?"
From Feb 2022. But people are still trying to gaslight us into thinking that no one ever claimed they would stop transmission
Meme - *White girl drinking at water fountain*
*Black girl drinking at water fountain*
*White girl drinking at water fountain: "vaccinated"*
*Black girl drinking at water fountain: "unvaccinated"*
RNC Research on Twitter - "Stacey Abrams says she wanted small businesses locked down and schools closed for longer: “He prematurely opened the state”"
Guy Benson on Twitter - "This is not an older clip. She just said it."
Can Fear Be Good Medicine? - Freakonomics - "The “It’s Never Just H.I.V.” campaign was meant to communicate that contracting the virus also puts people at risk for a lot of other health problems.
FAIRCHLID: So, it’s anal cancer, it’s dementia, it’s osteoporosis. And they would show images of gay men — these young gay men of color — looking confused and ashamed, not quite being willing to look at the camera. And it sparked this huge backlash amongst groups like the Gay Men’s Health Crisis and other long-standing activists, arguing that you’re not just conveying to these men what’s in their self-interest. You are building on, and you are enhancing, and you are legitimizing stigma amongst this group...
It’s generally not considered acceptable to make people afraid by lying to them; or as with H.I.V. and AIDS, to create stigma...
FAIRCHILD: The evidence on fear-based campaigns has demonstrated pretty conclusively that, in fact they do work to change behavior. That they don’t typically backfire. That the more fear you use, the bigger the effect that you have."
Of course, in covid messaging, stigma is good - because liberals imagine that those who don't follow the recommendations are just those they hate
Study: COVID booster may increase risk of reinfection - "A COVID-19 booster, specifically a third vaccine dose, may lower protection against getting infected with the omicron variant again for some people — and there’s a reason why, new findings suggest. In contrast, two vaccine doses, followed by an initial omicron infection, may protect more against a second omicron infection than an extra jab, according to a preprint study published Nov. 1 to medRxiv, a server run by Yale, BMJ and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. This is due to a specific reaction within the immune system, researchers concluded. Here’s what the findings mean. “If you got infected with Omicron at any time, a third vaccine dose actually doubles your risk of reinfection compared to 2 doses only,” Dr. Daniele Focosi, who specializes in hematology and works at Pisa University Hospital in Italy, wrote on Twitter in response to the findings. “Amazing immune imprinting at work.”... A prior study that examined immune imprinting and updating COVID-19 vaccines hypothesized “repeatedly updating” the shots “might not be fully effective” due to the limitations that immune imprinting can present... “There is no question that the booster dose reduced infection incidence right after its administration…Nonetheless, findings indicate that short-term effects of boosters may differ from their long-term effects”"
Clearly, we need to mandate a second booster to "protect" other people
Humza Yousaf’s Covid fake news - "The Scottish health secretary, Humza Yousaf, has been spreading scare stories about children going to hospital after catching Covid-19... Of course, as has been clear since the start of the pandemic, when children get infected with Covid they tend to have milder symptoms or none at all. Very few have been hospitalised or have died. Backing this up, leading paediatrician Steve Turner said there was no evidence of an increase in the hospitalisation rate among children. Yousaf’s figures included children who were hospitalised for things other than Covid, but who then tested positive. Yousaf eventually apologised, saying he didn’t mean to cause ‘undue alarm’. But his claims are consistent with his party’s attempts to inflate fears around Covid. In fact, SNP deputy leader John Swinney seemed to back Yousaf, suggesting that new ‘variants’ could become ‘acutely challenging’ for children, though he provided no evidence of this. This shameless scaremongering has to stop."
From 2021. Obviously shows how governments need to crack down on "misinformation"
Getting second Covid-19 infection not more dangerous, say S’pore experts rebutting US study - "An American study suggesting that people who are infected with Covid-19 for a second time are at higher risk of organ failure and death is questionable, with inherent limitations and overstated conclusions... The reinfection and first-time-infected groups were very different. From the study data, those in the reinfected group were “three times more likely to be immunocompromised and nine times more likely to be in long-term care”... the patients in the VA study tend to be older male patients, with more who smoke or have serious medical problems, so the results may not apply to the general population."
Biden's Support for COVID Protests Hinges on What Country They're In - "The White House has been quick to support the rights of Chinese demonstrators taking to the streets in opposition to the country's "Zero COVID" policy and the seemingly endless lockdowns needed to enforce it. Recent revelations show that closer to home, the administration actively encouraged a civil liberties-violating crackdown on Canadian protests against vaccine mandates... Certainly, the statement is a lot more criticism than the White House ever offered of the Canadian government's harsh crackdown on truck drivers protesting a requirement that they be vaccinated in order to reenter their country. Quite the opposite. The Biden administration urged the Canadian government to use whatever means it had to reopen border crossings barricaded by the so-called "Freedom convoy" and get a handle on the protests. That's according to revelations of an ongoing Canadian inquiry into Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's unprecedented invocation of Canada's Emergencies Act. Trudeau's use of the act in February 2022 allowed his government to freeze the bank accounts of protest participants (even if they hadn't been charged, convicted, or even suspected of committing a crime), demand financial information of protestors be turned over to police, and ban even peaceful, non-disruptive public demonstrations. It was an unquestionably authoritarian move that received criticism from across the political spectrum. Conservative Fox News host Tucker Carlson accused Trudeau of declaring a dictatorship. The progressive Canadian Civil Liberties Association called the prime minister's actions "unnecessary, unjustifiable and unconstitutional." Reason's J.D. Tuccille said Trudeau had a "bad case of China-envy."... The truckers' blockade of U.S.-Canada border crossings stopped billions of dollars of goods from entering the U.S. That threatened more shortages and price hikes, areas that have been continual political headwinds for Biden. China's "Zero COVID" policy has much the same effect. Its end would be of economic benefit to America, and of political benefit to Biden. That would be reason enough for the White House to look more favorably on the Chinese demonstrations than the Canadian ones. The Canadian protests against the country's vaccine mandate also came right as the Biden administration was defending its own vaccine mandate for employees of larger businesses from legal challenges. It would have been awkward indeed for the White House to domestically defend its own, far more sweeping vaccine while urging Canada's government to accommodate the demands of truckers to drop its industry-specific vaccine requirement. Instead, it heartily endorsed some incredibly repressive measures to end anti-mandate protests"
The covid hystericists who claim public health can justify any restriction on civil liberties are in an awkward position
China protests: Trudeau expresses support for protesters - "His comments come just after weeks of testimony over Trudeau's invocation of the Emergencies Act to clear out-of-hand protests in Canada last winter, which ranged from discontent over vaccine requirements to rage fuelled by conspiracy theories"
Luckily they're not truckers
PeterSweden on Twitter - "If you are not allowed to question the science, then it is not science. It is a cult."
Meme - MartinC2Janssen @zauberb...: "Dr. Aaron Kheriaty
"The characteristic feature of science is warranted uncertainty, which leads to intellectual humility. The characteristic feature of scientism is unwarranted certainty, which leads to intellectual hubris.""
I remember when people were claiming scientism was a straw man
Flu and pneumonia deaths now 10 times higher than Covid
From June 2021
PANDEMICS, LOCKDOWN AND ECONOMIC GROWTH: A REGION-SPECIFIC PERSPECTIVE ON COVID-19 - "This study examines the impacts of COVID-19 induced factors and country specific health-care infrastructure and co-morbid factors on economic growth between January 1, 2021, to May 31, 2021 for 19 South and South-east Asian (SSEA) economies. Our findings indicate that COVID-19 related mortality negates growth, while vaccination and testing have no significant impact on growth during this period. We further quantify the effects by instrumenting government policy measures and vaccination drives in terms of testing, tracking and mortality. Our findings show a negative effect of lockdowns on growth, while vaccination has a positive impact on growth and controls fatality rate considerably."
So much for the early research claiming that lockdowns didn't depress the economy, or claims that lockdowns improve the economy by controlling covid. In the very short term, people can stay home but eventually they need to return to normal life
Strep A surge linked to lockdown, health officials admit for first time - "The surge in Strep A cases killing schoolchildren is linked to lockdown, health officials have admitted for the first time. It comes as the tally of primary-school-aged children to die from the bacterial infection climbed to seven following the death of a child at Morelands Primary in Waterlooville, Hampshire. Other cases in under-10s have been found in Surrey, High Wycombe, Wales and Ealing... A 12-year-old child in Lewisham, London, has also died of the disease, taking the total known tally of children to have died from Strep A in recent weeks to eight. An alert was issued by the UKHSA on Friday as data showed the rate of severe Strep A cases called invasive Group A Strep (iGAS) is up four-fold compared to pre-pandemic levels... Scientists argued over the weekend over whether a so-called immunity debt – where there are more people without immunity to various diseases – brought about by Covid lockdowns and social distancing was to blame. But on Monday, Dr Susan Hopkins, chief medical advisor at UKHSA, confirmed for the first time on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that lockdown did play a role."
Time for more lockdown!
Fact Checking the BBC Fact Checkers - "Rachel Schraer is a senior reporter for the BBC, covering health and misinformation. During the pandemic she was in charge of the health team, highlighting misinformation about vitamin D and ivermectin. She was then appointed as the first specialist health and disinformation reporter on the BBC’s fact-checking team... She’s correct that the trials did not look at whether the vaccines stopped transmission but is wrong when she says they looked at whether they reduced people’s chances of catching Covid. What the trials actually looked at was whether vaccines reduced people’s chances of getting symptomatic infection... a trial showing that the vaccine “seemed to” prevent infection sounds like more anti-science and certainly not the definitive conclusion people were told about. The one they used to segregate society, remove people’s livelihoods and bring in Covid passports... If public health messaging was so clear why were there public health messages saying to get vaccinated to protect others? Why were care home staff sacked because they were supposedly a risk to their patients?... In December 2020, in Nature magazine, it said “[no trial] has demonstrated that it prevents infection altogether, or reduces the spread of the virus in a population. This leaves open the chance that those who are vaccinated could remain susceptible to asymptomatic infection - and could transmit that infection to others who remain vulnerable. In the worst-case scenario, you have people walking around feeling fine, but shedding virus everywhere,” says virologist Stephen Griffin at the University of Leeds, UK.”... It’s not the vaccines, it’s the variants, just don’t say the sacred vaccines didn’t work. It seems, we have come to a new phase in the pandemic…backtracking. The latest catchphrase is “I was correct at the time but the facts changed”. Facts don’t change. The fact is, the vaccines never prevented infection or transmission. Facts from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) showed you were more likely to get infected if you were vaccinated (and that was pre Omicron when they hastily stopped publishing the data)... The UKHSA data was clear for months that infection rates were higher in vaccinated people but still they got sacked. The only reason vaccine passports were dropped is that enough people were kicking up a fuss and the NHS was about to lose a massive amount of staff. That and revelations that politicians had been partying during lockdown. Furthermore, the Dutch MEP wasn’t addressing the UK. All around the world people were discriminated against, lost their jobs, couldn’t travel and couldn’t see their family. In many countries, mandates are still in place. Was the idea your vaccine protects others based on a lie? 100% it definitely was. If it didn’t prevent infection and transmission, how could it protect others? *lots of examples of public health messaging lying about protecting others*... BBC fact checking at it’s finest. They should be renamed to the BBC backtracking department or better still the BBC gaslighting department."
GRANT: Stop blaming people for the behaviour of a virus | Toronto Sun - "Some is hypocritical: Blaming communities of essential workers for not staying at home when it is precisely because they go to work in factories, deliver online orders and maintain infrastructure that well-heeled critics are able to stay at home. And then, some is deplorable: Blaming children for the deaths of their grandparents, as tweeted by the Peel Region paramedics union (The post is mercifully now deleted). The blame narrative assumes that people aren’t following the rules or that the rules aren’t good enough. Both are wrong. People are being remarkably compliant with all orders from public health, almost all are wearing masks as instructed and drastically reducing social interactions. Data show there is 80-90% compliance across the board for all the rules. This is remarkable compliance and asking for more is asking for subjects other than humans. The rules also can’t get much stricter without impacting basic needs such as food and water. It is already impacting our social, mental and societal health, as I will explain below. Viruses that are successful, in an evolutionary sense, survive because they propagate themselves through things that humans cannot refrain from doing... We have been locking down for over a year. Some places, including the hardest-hit Peel in Region, have been locked down without reprieve since October, with no hint of control. This isn’t because the policies haven’t been strict enough or that people haven’t been following them. It’s because SARS-CoV-2 is a remarkably well-adapted virus. To the criticism that officials should do more – locking people in their homes or further limiting business or movement – the answer is that we have pushed people to their limits already. The greatest punishment historically was banishment: We are a social species and without human contact, we suffer. A human alone is unnatural. The last year of forced isolation has left many of our friends and neighbours in pain. Distress that expresses itself in self-harm, increased substance abuse, overdose deaths and physical violence in homes... To borrow the most iconic phrase from the early HIV/AIDS epidemic: It’s a virus, not a moral issue. SARS-CoV-2 isn’t spreading because of our moral failure, COVID is spreading because it has evolved to do so, inexorably. To think we can control 4 billion years of evolution is the height of hubris. Buying into the delusion that somehow we can “win” this game, if only we try hard enough, will bring nothing but pain."
From 2021
NY Department Of Health Prioritizes People Of Color For Oral COVID-19 Therapies - "the New York Department of Health published an announcement to health care providers and health care facilities regarding two COVID-19 oral antiviral therapies: Paxlovid, created by Pfizer, and molnupiravir, from Merck, and apparently discriminated against whites."
From Dec 2021 - they were still doing this even then
Tenants Told to Get Double Vaccinated or Get Out - "An example of this occurred last week in Queensland, Australia... The notice read: “December 17th COVID Rules – 80% Double Vaxxed. No entry to the building for anyone not double vaccinated. [This] includes residents, guests, staff, and trades people.”... if segregation is enforced by overzealous owners, acting on the arbitrary words of bureaucrats plastered all over social media, could tenants be facing a “get vaxxed or get locked out!” discrimination, or unfair eviction?"
From 2021
Pfizer boss refuses to testify to EU Parliament COVID panel — again - "Pfizer Chief Executive Officer Albert Bourla has once again declined to testify before the European Parliament’s special COVID committee. That’s strike two... Bourla previously pulled out of an appointment to testify before the committee in October, at which he was expected to face tough questions on how secretive vaccine deals were struck. That decision followed an audit report into the EU's vaccine procurement strategy that raised new questions about contact between the pharma CEO and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen that preceded a multibillion-euro vaccine contract... the company’s president of international developed markets, Janine Small, faced repeated questions from the committee on Bourla's absence, one of which was even taped to some MEPs' laptops. She also took questions on vaccine contract negotiations and the jabs themselves, including one from Dutch MEP Robert Roos (ECR group) about whether the vaccine was tested for its ability to prevent transmission before entering the market."
Why can't we talk about it? - "It’s stunning how the entire world is only being told one side of the narrative by the mainstream media. While we can’t change that, what we can do is to make everyone aware that nobody on the pro-vaccine side will engage in an open, public civil discussion or debate on the relevant issues. I intend to do just that through non-stop advertising all over the world... my attempt to have a discussion about COVID policies with Michael Laws on The Platform was denied. The message I received read as follows, “He isn’t interested in having his views tested by yours.” So effectively, I’ve been “de-platformed” by The Platform which bills itself as “New Zealand's only independent media site giving you unbiased coverage, commentary, and opinion and the chance to have your say.” Wow... Everyone on our side of the narrative is denied an opportunity for an open, public discussion about any issues regarding the COVID response including mandates, masking, vaccines, early treatment, lockdowns, VAERS reporting rates that are off the charts, safety signals deliberately being ignored, trust in public health officials such as ACIP committee chair Grace Lee who doesn’t want to see the Israeli safety data, etc... I predict that no one in the world will accept our offer to have a discussion/debate on the key issues. Their lack of interest in a fair public discussion is very hard to justify. For them, this is the easiest way to show the world that the “misinformation spreaders” are wrong which will reduce vaccine hesitancy and, according to them, save lives. They always tell us they want to reduce vaccine hesitancy: this is their golden opportunity. Why wouldn’t they seize it?...
One way or another, this will ultimately lead to a massive loss of trust in:
Congress (and other federal legislative bodies all over the world)
State and local lawmakers
The medical community worldwide, both in academia and in medical practice
Medical organizations (AMA, IDSA, CMA, etc)
Government agencies including the FDA, CDC, NIH
Medical regulators including state licensing boards and certification boards
The mainstream media
Local public health officials
COVID alarmists are now the ones spreading misinformation - "As a physician who has watched the pandemic unfold on chest X-rays and CT scans, I’ve seen the many waves of COVID wreak havoc on my patients. I have tried my best to speak over the cacophony of misinformation on social media to paint a realistic picture of what’s been happening in our hospitals, in the hopes of encouraging vaccination and accurate risk assessment. But sadly, I’ve come to the realization that not even the unyielding reality of ebbing COVID cases will quiet the voices of committed alarmists on social media. Research from the World Health Organization shows a 90 per cent reduction in global mortality from COVID since February. In clinical practice at Humber River Hospital in Toronto, I have noticed a massive drop in the number of COVID-related pneumonias. This experience is shared by radiologists across North America and reflects the high seropositivity to SARS-CoV-2 and our high levels of vaccination resulting in strong hybrid immunity, which protects against COVID pneumonias. In Ontario, hospital admissions have been dropping since mid-October. Nowadays, cases in those under 60 rarely result in hospitalization and deaths occur almost exclusively in frail elderly patients. The COVID of today simply isn’t the COVID of 2020... It’s estimated that 70-80 per cent of Canadians under 20 and 60-70 per cent of those between 20 and 59 years of age have some infection-acquired immunity. While immunization is always preferable to infection-acquired immunity, research shows that the hybrid immunity from infection and vaccination confers robust protection lasting six months or longer. Research from South Africa shows the dominant BA.4 and BA.5 variants of Omicron are less virulent than previous variants. But for many pundits, the messaging hasn’t changed. We have entered a new, unfortunate, phase of persistent alarmism. In a competitive market with tight deadlines and an insatiable demand for news, producers often scour Twitter to find opinion leaders to act as expert voices. Unfortunately, opinions are common, but expertise is less so. Many of these so-called experts are hobbyists with no background in public health, epidemiology, immunology, virology or infectious diseases. They operate in the vacuum of online echo chambers, far removed from actual clinical care. Sadly, some of their misinformation has leaked from social media into the newscasts of major networks. One of the more persistent unsubstantiated theories making the rounds is that the COVID virus has somehow attacked and injured our immune systems, thereby causing the current rise in RSV cases among children. This has been roundly rejected by the infectious disease community. Infectious disease specialist Dr. Allison McGeer, in an interview with TVO, for example, explained that the spike is due to reduced rates of previous exposure in a large cohort of children who are now getting exposed all at once. Another more outlandish claim is that Omicron causes brain tissue loss in children. This is based on a single study showing atrophy in adults over the age of 51 who were infected by the Alpha strain of COVID. Extrapolating the results to children infected with the much-less-virulent Omicron strain is dubious at best. Making declarative statements absent empirical evidence is simply irresponsible. With 70-80 per cent of children already infected, brain atrophy and cognitive impairment would be hard to overlook if it was indeed occurring as claimed... As alarmists push for more restrictions based on fringe theories, the gap between what they’re saying and what people are experiencing widens. With this, we see an erosion of public confidence. Facing increasing vaccine hesitancy and organized efforts to undermine public health, we simply cannot afford to squander trust."
