The evolution of the Omicron narrative


Posted On: Monday - January 3rd 2022 2:58PM MST
In Topics: 
  Globalists  Media Stupidity  Liberty/Libertarianism  Healthcare Stupidity  Kung Flu Stupidity

O μ ι c ρ o ν

Don't let the Greek letters freak you out.


Not very long ago the Establishment narrative was "OMΓ!" in regards to the newest variant of the Flu Manchu. It was just another brick in the PanicFest wall that they could pull out and throw at us. Very recently, I'd say within the last 2 weeks only, the story from Panic Leader Anthony Fauci and his minions and sackhangars has evolved.

Now, even the top dog (from what I read 2nd-hand, anyway) is saying that this new variant will not hospitalize or kill so many people. It just hits the upper respiratory tract. It's like the cold or a flu. What a change from the MUST! PANIC! MOAR! talk up near the end of last year! Why the Jim Rockford J-turn in the middle of the PanicFest car chase down the hairy mountain road from San Berdoo to Temecula?**

The pandemic has become an endemic now, we are being told, I guess the term epidemic was never scary enough, or did they use that during the initial China madness phase? From the first blurb that popped up in a search for "Covid endemic"* I got to this page from one T.H. Chan at the Harvard School of Public Health.
The expectation that COVID-19 will become endemic essentially means that the pandemic will not end with the virus disappearing; instead, the optimistic view is that enough people will gain immune protection from vaccination and from natural infection such that there will be less transmission and much less COVID-19-related hospitalization and death, even as the virus continues to circulate.
Would an email reply with the simple subject line of "NO SHIT, SHERLOCK! We told you this 2 years ago." be proper? This guy is at HARVARD, mind you.

I won't include much discussion of the vaccine again right here, but, of course, these EXPERT health officials will tell us that it's the vaccine that prevented more deaths during the transition from the pandemic to the endemic. That doesn't really seem to jive with those increased '21 excess death numbers so well (something I looked at months ago for '20). It also doesn't take into account the real worries about a vaccine with thousands of times the bad health results as any other vaccine before has given us, without being yanked off the market with prejudice, not to mention unknown long-term effects.

Most people with common sense and perspective knew 2 years ago that these type of viruses don't just get beat down dead.*** We've seen these before, mostly out of the Orient. They are deadly for a while to the most vulnerable, and then they mutate into less deadly variants. They've never before been a reason to introduce more Totalitarianism and still aren't unless, oh, that's it, now you WANT more Totalitarianism.

OK, then, why is the narrative being changed abruptly? Did all the Totalitarians just change their minds? It's not that, of which I'll write more.

Is it national politics? Frankly, I don't think these people are smart enough to be thinking long-term, to election '22. Yes, the continuation of this narrative has pissed off the multitudes, but that's 10 months away still. As Peak Stupidity has noted before, People Forget. (It's an Eminence Front, whatever the hell that even is ... doesn't matter, hypnotic keyboards, great guitar by Townsend - before he probably smashed it, and great vocals by Daltrey.****) They've been having the time of their lives scaring the daylights out of people who still fall for it.

That's the answer, though, I think. People were simply not falling for the Omicron scare in great numbers. I guess they quit being freaked out by the Greek letters (easy for you, if you haven't had a run in with quantum mechanics ...).

Oh, government people and all of the Establishment have been still pushing it (so sorry for commenter Ganderson there in the People's Republic of Mass). The average American may be waking up or just too jaded to keep falling for it after 2 years. The big lies were working, but if the masses of people are seen to be scoffing at them, that looks bad. The idea now is to change the narrative to "we handled this" (that DOES help with the national politics) and "it's almost over for now, but we're gonna keep those 'safeguards' in place, cause, you know .. like the TSA..."

However, because the very recent narrative was still filled with Panic-inducement, the Totalitarians have still been doing their thing. Australia is still a Totalitarian shit-show. In Holland there have been big anti-LOCKDOWN rallies with the cops getting violent against these protesters. Why are the Dutch getting riled up now?

Not to pick on the Dutch here, but what is happening now is that even those who bought into the whole thing for 2 years may be now wondering "hey, we flattened the curve, or at least kept wearing those masks. We wiped off the door knobs and washed our hands for 30 seconds 50 times a day. We stayed inside and shut our businesses when you told us. We, or all besides those nutcase anti-vaxxers, got our 3 shots - or is it 4 now? Why are you still trying to control us like we are in a Totalita... ohhhh!"

We anti-panickers may get help now from those who are finally hearing from the official sources that this pandemic endemic is officially over. They may be against the Totalitarianism now ... till the next time around. So what? A precedent has already been set.

The Establishment is only backing off to make the narrative match more closely with the public's own lying eyes. They've accomplished their evil by setting these precedents in Totalitarianism. Like Motherland Security and the TSA, it won't go away easily


* I tried "Kung Flu endemic" but got muddled results.

** The geography has been changed to protect the innocent Los Angelenos... if any. And, yeah, we pushed the metaphor pretty hard here, like Jim Rockford on the pedal of his Pontiac Firebird.

*** The very serious polio virus WAS eradicated for the great benefit, but I don't know what was fundamentally different about that type. Was it the method of contagion?

**** BTW, while searching for the Eminence Front video on this site, I came across a post from March 7th, in which I got on the other WHO about pushing PC regarding the terminology of contagion. The post is WHO Cares. Don't stigmatize me, Bro!. I do see that on March 7th, Mr. Hail, no, I didn't understand this thing as being overblown, yet. There was a related similar previous post entitled WHO Cares..

By March 19th, I posted The Kung Flu - SHTF or Infotainment Panic-Fest?, which leaned greatly toward the latter, and by March 30th I'd read Mr. Hail's writing and by April 2nd (almost the appropriate date!) I was already putting up Monty Python clips - as in Bring out your dead.. By mid-April Peak Stupidity was onto the whole scam.

Comments:
Corrupt
Thursday - January 6th 2022 6:01PM MST
PS

Talk about the public not buying it… Even the local Asian restaurant wasn’t complaining about customers coming in without masks (despite my states non-mandate mandate).
Ganderson
Thursday - January 6th 2022 3:18PM MST
PS I'd be a bit careful guys- one of the real successes of the Coronapanic is that there are, at least around here, many people who are absolutely convinced that they will die if we don't ... fill in the blanks- mask up, socially distance, lock down, the whole spiel, we'll all die. No amount of logic; graphs, charts, etc , will convince the Covidians otherwise. Yeah, there are evil people pushing this, but the average Panicker is impervious to reason.

Mr. Hail is correct, it's a religion.

They haven't called off the UMASS-Michigan hockey games...yet.
Adam Smith
Thursday - January 6th 2022 12:05PM MST
PS: Good afternoon, Mr. Moderator,

“Hey, Miss Jones [of the school board], hold my beer. Watch this shit!” - Lol.

I think these petty tyrants just luv luv luv their new found powers.
It will be most difficult to force them to stop with the crazy.

For a trombone, because of the whole microtonal thing, it is especially stupid, but really not much more stupid than any other wind or brass instrument. Playing any sort of wind or brass instrument is more about breathing and embouchure than anything else. If these kids are not practicing as a band there is no way they'll be ready to preform well. They should just cancel the whole thing until things return to normal. (Ha! There's that normalcy bias again.)

It's all so absurd.
PanicFest is such a charade.

Moderator
Thursday - January 6th 2022 11:03AM MST
PS: Misters Ganderson and Smith, yes those stories make you wonder if the health Commies demanding these measures are just having a blast seeing what kind of stupid acts they can force the public to do.

I don't know which is worse, the swimming with masks on* - very unhealthy, and in fact dangerous - or telling the students to not blow into the instruments. For trumpet, clarinet, flute even, well it's just massively stupid, as it takes effort to make the sounds correctly. Fingering is not the biggest part of it. For a trombone, it goes up to ludicrous stupidity! That (along with the stringed instruments without frets) is an instrument from which one must hear sound to play the right notes even!

I can't tell about those people that make these rules - extremely hysterical or a fun-loving sort of evil. "Hey, Miss Jones [of the school board], hold my beer. Watch this shit!"


* I can always use those pictures, Adam - thank you. (I haven't checked them out just yet.)
Adam Smith
Thursday - January 6th 2022 10:45AM MST
PS: Good afternoon gentlemen,

Thank you, Mr. Kief, for the Martin Kulldorff Sweden graphic. Looks like Sweden flattened that curve...

https://i.ibb.co/MD0skqK/Flatten-The-Curve.png

Mr. Ganderson,

I did not know that about the sports masking, though I'm not surprised thanks to your updates from the Commonwealth of Moonbat.

“Not swimming as of yet, but who knows?”

What!? Do they want people to die!?

https://s3.envato.com/files/299806927/CAN33002.JPG
https://www.riversideonline.com/-/media/patients-and-visitors/healthy-you/pool-safety.ashx
https://i.ibb.co/pJYNrJW/Man-swimming-with-anti-Covid-face-mask-protection-in-a-summer-swimming-pool-safe-vacations.jpg
https://c8.alamy.com/comp/2BMH9A9/masked-man-swimming-in-a-pool-coronavirus-pandemic-sport-concept-2BMH9A9.jpg

https://media.istockphoto.com/videos/man-swimming-underwater-with-covid-face-mask-protection-in-a-swimming-video-id1263100154

https://www.vmcdn.ca/f/files/via/images/stock-images/woman-swimming-covid-19-coronavirus-face-mask-vancouver-ubc-professor-tiktok.jpg

“This innovation is another step into the new normality we are facing. It will re-enable fun on the water...”

https://www.campbusiness.com/articles/2020/6/introducing-the-worlds-first-protective-face-mask-for-water

https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/13472556

https://www.recreonics.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/95-852-wibit-neoprene-watermask.jpg
https://www.wibitsports.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/60030_60031_WaterMask_2020_003_web.jpg
https://uchealth-wp-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2020/05/21065138/Pool-with-mask-tiny.jpg
https://img.freepik.com/free-photo/man-with-mask-swimming-pool_138670-604.jpg
https://www.wibitsports.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/60029_WaterMask_yellow_2020_011_web-1400x800.jpg
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/IFedq4RVQZ8/maxresdefault.jpg
https://p.potaufeu.asahi.com/9c5a-p/picture/22015675/09f3992c5e54826d286f7b5e67d60326.jpg
https://www.marshall.edu/campusrec/files/2020/07/swim-instructor-covid-1-scaled.jpg

It should not be so easy finding photos of people swimming in face diapers.

Clown World is Uh-mazing!

Ganderson
Thursday - January 6th 2022 9:38AM MST
PS

Thanks Mr. Smith, und vielen Dank Herr Kief!

Your story from the eastern end of the Moonbat Commonwealth surprises me not a bit- did you know that any HS athletes playing indoors must be masked while playing - hockey, hoops, volleyball, indoor track, etc, etc. Not swimming as of yet, but who knows?

The annual Christmas Vespers at the Northfield Mount Herman School (We go every year save the last two since our son was in the program) was held virtually this year- and all the singers were masked!

Last spring we began the high school lacrosse season required to wear masks (outside for the love of Mike)- they backed off half way through the season, but my money is on the requirement coming back. Notice college athletes don’t have to be masked up- apparently the ‘Rona will attack unmasked high schoolers, but not college kids. I have tickets (air and game) for UMASS hockey at Michigan this weekend- 50-50 shot it happens.
Adam Smith
Thursday - January 6th 2022 9:03AM MST
PS: Good morning, Mr. Ganderson...

I too agree with Mr. Hail's covid as a religion/cult thesis.

Why now? I propose mass hypnosis as the root cause of the panic.

The other root cause? The overlords needed a good excuse for the next phase of the planned implosion of the ponzi scheme economy. They rebranded the seasonal flu and used it as an excuse to “borrow” trillions on the good faith and credit of the taxcattle and funneled most of it up the chain to the usual suspects.

https://i.ibb.co/X4XK5tg/US-national-debt-1990-2021.png

They needed a better/different excuse than the simple avarice of 2008. Seems like the “look what the evil virus did to our glorious economy” narrative has worked pretty well for them. It was also used to usher in the next level of totalitarianism that they were so eager to implement. (Rolling lockdowns, crushing small businesses, vaccine passports, mass collection of DNA, humiliating masking rituals, etc.) It's amazing how “vaccine mandates” bring out so many people's inner totalitarian.

I also agree with you about HIV/AIDS. It's not a bug-born thing, it is a political thing.
It's real purpose was to canonize homosexual men while providing taxcattle funding for bioresearch.
I read somewhere that there has been $1.2 trillion spent on “AIDS research”. While I cannot find a citation for that, I did find the following link that says there was $562 billion spent between 2000 and 2015 looking for a cure to the diseases caused by intravenous drug use and buggery...

https://www.healthdata.org/news-release/first-long-term-study-finds-half-trillion-dollars-spent-hivaids

Meanwhile, also in Moonbatville, MA...

Massachusetts school district bans children from blowing into their instruments...

Band classes in a suburban Boston school system have gotten far quieter, as administrators are requiring students to silently finger their instruments...

Students are expected to assemble their instruments, except mouthpieces, and move their fingers across the keys to simulate playing...

Percussion students will be free to play their instruments as usual.

https://www.rt.com/news/545091-school-band-fake-plays-instruments/

I guess it makes more sense than this...

https://i.ibb.co/LgLB0ww/band-class-mask.jpg

I hope you have a great day, Mr. Ganderson.

Dieter Kief
Thursday - January 6th 2022 1:10AM MST
PS

a) Ganderson, I think you're at something interesting aidswise. Id's still say though that Aids is a severe illness.

b) Omicron news - Corona news from Swiss Policy Research, as quoted by Martin Kulldorff - the Swedes still do succeed:

https://twitter.com/MartinKulldorff/status/1478842236934799362?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Kulldorff: We - the non-panic/science-types in epidemiology - knew in March 2020, what was going on. And current data shows that too.
Ganderson
Wednesday - January 5th 2022 4:48PM MST
PS

Wow! I didn’t know it was international long post day!! And a post from His Unzness himself!

Count me as one who, back in March of 2020, thought that perhaps the notion of “two weeks to flatten the curve” made sense- by the end of March I was an anti-panicker; let’s get back to school and focus on the treatment end. Of course, here in Moonbatville, MA, no such thing happened. I’ve always thought Mr. Hail’s “covid as religion” thesis made sense; my question is, why now?

As for AIDS, I was convinced in the 80s that AIDS was not a real bug-born thing, and nothing I’ve seen in the past 30+ years has changed my mind. There were other people who were arguing the same thing- Tom Bethell at the American Spectator, and Michael Fumento, although Fumento did believe there was an infectious agent. So I’ve been a crank for a long time.

What AIDS did do was legitimize, one might say sacralize male homosexuality. Part of the plan, I think.
Adam Smith
Wednesday - January 5th 2022 9:11AM MST
PS: Good morning Mr. Blanc,

With New York's policies and climate, political and otherwise, it is no surprise that they are leading the emigration race. I don't know why it didn't happen sooner. Buffalo is a great example of a rust belt city in decline. The peak population of Buffalo was in 1950, when its population was 580,132. In 1950, Buffalo was the 15th largest city in the US; now its fallen to the 86th largest city in the US. Buffalo is currently 56.0% smaller than it was in 1950. It was probably an exciting place to be... in 1880. (Though I'm sure the weather was not any less inhospitable.)

https://www.biggestuscities.com/city/buffalo-new-york/population-graph

I understand why Madame B is attached to her gardens. We live in a rental and love our friends in our gardens. When we move we plan on taking as many of our plants with us as we can. Fortunately we're looking to stay local, which makes moving plants and rocks (we have some great rocks!) much easier, we just haven't found a place worth the asking price since the prices doubled a couple years back. (We should have bought 3 or 4 houses 7 years ago and sold all but one, but our foresight is not as clear as our hindsight.)

I don't know where you're planning on moving to, but depending on where that is you could take some of the descendants of her grandmother’s iris and daffodils and your grandmother’s peonies and lilacs. It's more work, but probably worth it.

I just looked at your weather forecast. (Good God it's cold the next few days!) I hope you and Madame B are staying warm and happy.

And I hope you have a great day, Mr. Blanc.

Adam Smith
Wednesday - January 5th 2022 9:02AM MST
PS: Good morning Mr. Moderator,

Thanks for your understanding. I'm glad I cleared this up before you asked Mr. Unz about it. I don't know what he would think of such things as he comes across as such a serious guy. Maybe he has a sense of humor in his private life.(?)

The "I'm not a sodomite or a junkie" combined with the run on sentence was the joke. I can't really imagine Mr. Unz writing the first part, though I can imagine him writing overly run on sentences as he is so impressed with word counts. (My example was a little ridiculous.)

I too wondered a little about the PS thing. Would Mr. Unz catch that on the first pass?

I didn't think you came across as “kissing ass”, just a gracious host welcoming a guest of honor. It would be interesting if he or Mr. Sailer ever left a comment. I'm sure they've heard of PeakStupidity.

Messrs. Alarmist and Robert, many thanks to you both.

“so you’re channeling your inner rapscallion.”
Yes, apparently, though I was trying to channel my inner Unz, albeit with a mischievous twist.

Robert, the parts of Kentucky that I have seen are beautiful. Good demographics too.
“Not enough "services" for the "refugees"/too rural for the "urban" folks” is good advice when looking for a new place to settle. Thanks.

I hope you guys all have a great day.

Moderator
Tuesday - January 4th 2022 9:22PM MST
PS: Also, Adam, perhaps I came across as kissing ass, but I really wanted to be polite, as the guy is super touchy.

Robert, I have been to Taylor County, KY (Campbellsville), and that area of the country is beautiful - I've been all over and central KY/TN, north central Florida - Gainesville/Live Oak/Lake City, and eastern TX have the best "lay of the land". I do know that the demographics there in central KY are some of the Whitest, errr, best. We would like it somewhat warmer, but we can't be so choosy. Thank you for reminding me.

There used to be a grill and gun shop combined in Campbellsville. Do you know if it's still there?
Moderator
Tuesday - January 4th 2022 9:15PM MST
PS: Haha! Mr. Smith, no problem. I didn't know if he normally wrote run-on sentences worse than I do, so maybe that should have been the give-away. I have no problem with practical jokes.

Oh, and that "i'm not a sodomite or a junkie" line was funny to me, but I didn't know, as that guy can be kind of strange.

Anyway, nice job! I am just glad I didn't write Mr. Unz on some thread to ask him if that was him. He'd probably go insulting the site, which he is definitely in a position to do - I mean rag on the usability and such.*


* I thought "hey, I wonder if Ron Unz caught the capital PS thing or did he have to write his comment over again?"
Robert
Tuesday - January 4th 2022 7:57PM MST
PS: Mr. Smith, Thanks both for the 'Ron Unz' comment, and then coming clean. It did get me for a moment, but I thought the use of "sodomite" and "junky" (along with the overly long run-on sentence) were a good clue. Well done, dude.

Mr. Moderator, If it is not too far, South-Central Kentucky or North-Central Tennessee are pretty good. Any city with fewer than 10,000 or 20,000 or so still seems pretty reliable (mine is about 5,000) --- not enough "services" for the "refugees"/too rural for the "urban" folks.
The Alarmist
Tuesday - January 4th 2022 7:41PM MST
PS

Good evening, Mr. Smith ... so you’re channeling your inner rapscallion.

I glossed right over the denial of being a sodomite, which should have been a red flag, but otherwise it sounded like something RU might write.
Moderator
Tuesday - January 4th 2022 7:13PM MST
PS: Mr. Blanc, we are not in the Rust Belt, but we are in an area that, as I put it to Mr. Derbyshire, is "demographically unsound". I'm putting lots of thought as to where to go. For logistics we don't want to go 1/2 way across the country or anywhere that far. It's not an easy decision and I've lost out on one piece of land by being hesitant.

My hesitancy wasn't about the location though, just trying to do some due diligence, but then, gone ... People are coming and buying up anything in an area that they haven't themselves (some of the time) spoiled yet.
MBlanc46
Tuesday - January 4th 2022 7:02PM MST
PS You sure aren’t the only one who has decamped for warmer climes, Adam Smith. Places such as Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee were established and boomed for a reason. But that reason is now long in the past. The Negro invasion only hastened and exacerbated the inevitable decline, although it is a shame for those places that they were still population magnets at the time in the 1940s and 1950s that black sharecroppers were being displaced in the Deep South. Illinois has been hemorrhaging people for decades, but I recently read that New York is now leading the emigration race on a percentage basis. Madame and I will probably be deserting the Chicago suburbs within a few years. If it were up to me, we’d already be gone, but she didn’t want to leave the plantings that we’ve invested a lot of time and labor in. The descendants of her grandmother’s iris and daffodils and my grandmother’s peonies and lilacs. But when I’m no longer able to put in a garden, then we’ll be leaving the land of our births.
Adam Smith
Tuesday - January 4th 2022 6:52PM MST
PS: Good evening everyone.
Mr. Alarmist, Mr. Moderator,

[BTW, Is that last comment real? Sure reads like his style.]
Mr. Unz, I humbly thank you very much for leaving a comment here...

I need to come clean before this ill conceived joke goes too far...

I should not have posted that comment as Ron Unz. I really thought that certain language in my comment was a dead giveaway that this comment was not drafted by Mr. Unz. It was meant in jest. I thought your logs were more easily accessible to you and that you'd notice that it came from my ip. I should not have made that assumption.

I'm truly sorry if I offended anyone, especially you, Mr. Moderator. I should have realized how exciting it would have been for you, Achmed, to get a comment from Mr. Unz. I did not mean to get your hopes up just so I could tear them down. That was never my intention. Just a poorly thought out, poorly executed joke. I'm very sorry. I should have been more thoughtful before I hit the submit button.
Won't happen again.

Please accept my apologies,
Adam

The Alarmist
Tuesday - January 4th 2022 6:17PM MST
PS

I believe it’s the bigger corps and chains buying ... dare I say it? ... black-lists from people like the $PLC. I had UR blocked in American Airlines Admirals’ Clubs in a number of places, and I can’t remember which, but a US national brand of hotels.

BTW, I wasn’t trying to burst your bubble ... I was over the moon for you that RU would come visit mere mortals. Since he cut off the diet discussion on his last AP thread, I hope he takes my suggestion to do an AP piece on the deadly USDA food pyramid.
Moderator
Tuesday - January 4th 2022 5:35PM MST
PS: Adam, no, I think it'd be more like an email to employees like this: "To protect our brand and server our customers better, blah, blah, we have a "tool" for you to use if you find anything HATEFUL on the internet browser on any computer on any of our properties." (They like that term "properties".) "Just do these two things in Chrome, and drag and drop the ___ into our HATE program ..."

Maybe someone sat down, starting surfing the web, and didn't like what he saw. Like we both agree though, the history, cache, and all gets wiped as soon as one's session (15 minutes usually, but extendable) is done, so I don't know...

As I wrote, I usually don't bother with those computers at all, as you can't do much on them that the tablet can't do, but their wifi was down the whole time. I can't do too much on the little phone but read, and, oh, yeah, call people up, haha!
Moderator
Tuesday - January 4th 2022 5:29PM MST
PS: Alarmist, I gotta assume that's my mentor there. I haven't checked server logs (via a "tool") in a long while, but more politely, I could ask the man on his site sometime.

I look forward to reading the article you linked to on the drastic changes in insurance claims. That's a way to find out a lot - follow the money!

I had a few posts long ago, I'd say Summer, if not still Spring, of '20, in which I discussed the big incentives that were being given not necessarily for death claims, but for all sorts of treatments. I read the email - to me and many others - no copay, no deductible - either could be a decent sum - for treatment under our health plan if, how to put it, in my words, COVID-19 was somehow involved. There was every reason for patient, doctor, and billing department to want to stamp COVID-19 on anything they could - shotgun wounds and skydiving accidents, well it's tough, but hey, if you test positive ...

I appreciate the info from all here on the Polio vaccine and the decline of that virus over the years. I asked because I really didn't know much about it. I have but one family member I can ask about the situation from in-person accounts.
Adam Smith
Tuesday - January 4th 2022 5:21PM MST
PS: Greetings,Mr. Hail...

I too am happy to hear you're feeling better.
Sounds like you had a real case of the flu... or something.
My wife caught something last year (after Christmas of 2020). She was sick for several days, though she tested negative for the most sinister of viruses. Her cough persisted for more than a week. She thinks her test was a false negative. We'll never know what she had.

I'm glad to hear you're recovering well.

Kudos to Almost Missouri for his early comment urging sanity. Well done indeed!

His comment got me wondering and prompted me to look back at my early panicfest comments on unz...
https://www.unz.com/comments/all/page/22/?commenterfilter=adam smith

While anti-panic from the start, I too misunderestimated the panic that was brewing in our midst. On March 7th, I assured some Anon of the effectiveness of Vitamin C when dealing with viral infections. On March 11th, I encouraged Mr. Sailer to get out of the closet for some sunshine and Vitamin D. On March 22nd, I wrote my first truly anti-panic comment...

https://www.unz.com/isteve/age-and-symptoms/#comment-3787218

Which I began with...

Dear everybody,
Please stop panicking. The coronapanic is a mass hypnosis event.
Trauma based mind control.
So snap out of it… Turn off your Telescreen… Get out in the sun for a little while…
Take a deep breath… Relax… Have a juniper berry liquor and quinine water…
Or whatever you do to relax…

A little later that day I posted this comment...
https://www.unz.com/wwebb/us-intel-agencies-played-unsettling-role-in-classified-and-9-11-like-coronavirus-response-plan/#comment-3787435

Where I also called it a mass hypnosis event.

The next day I posted this one...
https://www.unz.com/anepigone/rock-and-a-hard-place/#comment-3789657

Which began my correspondence with Achmed E. Newman, who by then was also clearly anti-panic and pro-common sense.

And just for fun, I found this one from October 30th, 2019, well before the start of PanicFest...
https://www.unz.com/isteve/the-lame-strike-back/#comment-3531239

Cheers to your health, Mr. Hail.

Moderator
Tuesday - January 4th 2022 5:19PM MST
PS: Mr. Unz, I humbly thank you very much for leaving a comment here.

I have no argument with the idea of A.I.D.S. being a catch-all term for a plethora of viruses, with their real problem being whatever had given the victims the low immunity to begin with. (Very obviously that kind of behavior is part of the mechanism.)

I also don't have a problem with your investigations into the origin of the COVID-19, as has been your "quest" for quite a while - I don't necessarily agree, as the issue seems muddled, with both America and China having collaborated on "gain-of-function" research, which is no different but in wording from bio-weapons research.

What I have written to you many times is that I think the big increase in Totalitarianism that has been introduced, whether planned or just "not letting a 'crisis" go to waste, is the much bigger story here, regarding this 2-year pandemic.

Anyway, this is a bad time, as I made some crack lower down (earlier, for this site) in the thread. The commenters here are almost solely those who comment on your site too, so there's lots of reference to your site, the writers there, and comments and commenters.

I don't believe any discussion on Peak Stupidity will take away from the discussion on The Unz Review in the least, as you can see that Peak Stupidity software is low class and low budget, at this point, as compared to your well-oiled machine.

(I want to do a software update, but I have been more into the writing for 4 years. Gotta get my local server/dBase "sandbox" back up again first.)

Anyway, it means a lot to me that you replied right here. Thanks again!

Adam Smith
Tuesday - January 4th 2022 5:11PM MST
PS: Good evening, Mr. Moderator,

“I am writing this here as the previous thread has gotten so long. Haha, I've been waiting 5 years to write that!”

The Peak Stupidity mega-comment extravaganza thread. Congratulations!

“I say "chain", as in "brand", I guess. These days lots of these brands are owned by 4 or so big companies. It might be interesting if even another brand of the same big hotel corp. had the same blocking message...”

Indeed. A big hotel corp. may use the same vpn/proxy servers and Hate Filter software across their many brands.
I'd be a bit surprised if they didn't.

“I ran into Unz Review pages that were blocked before. It was almost as if, no, not trying to do an iSteve sarcastic thing here, but almost as if someone had to send in the URL for each page. Some Paul Kersey ones (of all posts!) would show up, others might not. Some iSteve ones would, others not, etc.”

Interesting. I suppose they could have some sort of blacklist for URL's deemed inappropriate. But, what big hotel corp hires people to read the unz review all day and decide which pages to manually add to the blacklist? (are they hiring?) It would likely be easier to run some sort of Hate Filter and let it do the deciding. Strange that the Hate Filter would flag some pages and not others.
So. Many. Questions.

“I've always had this nagging thing in my mind about Polio. Obviously, vaccinating people for that one worked out well and saved lots of lives and/or quality of lives.”

I'm not so sure that vaccinating did anything to help eradicate or even reduce polio infections, as Mr. Alarmist and Mr. Anon have already pointed out. I think there were other, more important, factors like better hygiene/sanitation and in the developed world things like central heat and a/c. Most cases of polio in the world today are vaccine derived.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-02501-3

“What's different from this COVID and the others that have come and not been eradicated but just mutated to less deadly strains?”

I don't think there is anything that different or unusual about the so called COVID. Coronaviruses and influenza viruses are known to mutate and avoid vaccine induced immunity. That's why there has never been a successful coronavirus vaccine before and why the flu vaccine is advertised as being 30-40% effective in a good year. Pfizer says “Studies to date estimate that the novel coronavirus mutates at a rate approximately four times slower than the influenza virus, also known as the seasonal flu virus.” for whatever that may be worth.

If polio is indeed “eradicable” I think that it not having any other reservoirs or vectors aside from humans would be an important part of that possibility. As Mr. Anon points out, not playing with or ingesting polio contaminated feces likely has done more to eradicate polio than any vaccine ever has.

“Poliovirus is usually spread from person to person through infected fecal matter entering the mouth. It may also be spread by food or water containing human feces and less commonly from infected saliva. Those who are infected may spread the disease for up to six weeks even if no symptoms are present.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polio

Asymptomatic people spreading Polio! Don't let the pro-panic half of Sailer's commentariat know.

Adam Smith
Tuesday - January 4th 2022 5:04PM MST
PS: Good evening everyone,

Mr. Blanc, I grew up in one of those sorts of places which I have described as a formerly prosperous rust belt city by a lake. Fortunately, I never had to deal with the area's negroes, but I can honestly say that (in my opinion) Western New York is a frozen shithole and I could not imagine living my life there. I left one cold winter's day with a full tank of gas in my 1987 Chevy Cavalier, a bag of clothes, some tools, a guitar, some snacks and $300 in my pocket. I headed south, toward the sun, and I've never looked back.

Mr. Alarmist, thanks for another interesting insurance article. It's a sort of supplemental to your previous insurance article. Guess they won't be able to hide the carnage forever.

MBlanc46
Tuesday - January 4th 2022 3:28PM MST
PS Alarmist: That’s the way it’s always been. People from here who make it, depart pretty quickly. It’s a declining Rust Belt city with some of the nastiest Negro ghetto in the country, and the violence which goes along with that.
The Alarmist
Tuesday - January 4th 2022 2:54PM MST
PS

Insurance companies are indeed the canaries in the coal mine.

“The scan of the following insurance companies confirms the initial report. For Prudential, they have had a massive 87% increase in death benefits paid comparing the third quarter of 2020 to the third quarter of 2021. Such a detailed breakdown wasn't available for New York Life, but their 2021 year to date (1 Jan to 30 Sep) death benefit payout is up by 27%. Examining Pacific Life documents identifies multiple units. For Pacific Life, the year-to-date claims are up by only 12%. But for a subsidiary, Pacific Life and Annuity, claims are up by over 80%. This is an opportunistic search; more data may be forthcoming.“

source: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/01/more_preliminary_evidence_that_the_vaccines_have_led_to_a_spike_in_deaths.html

[BTW, Is that last comment real? Sure reads like his style.]

Ron Unz
Tuesday - January 4th 2022 1:38PM MST
PS https://www.unz.com/runz/aids-and-the-revival-of-the-duesberg-hypothesis/

I didn't pay much attention to the HIV/AIDS crisis at the time, as I'm not a sodomite or a junkie and I lack expertise in medicine and microbiology although I have a strong scientific background, and my views remained entirely mainstream while I busied myself with various software projects, but I was surprised to learn the disease known as “AIDS” doesn’t actually exist, but is merely the official label attached to a group of more than two dozen different illnesses, all of which have a variety of different causes, with only some of these being infectious agents. Indeed, most of these illnesses have been known and treated for many decades, but they are only designated “AIDS” if the victim is also found to test positive for the HIV virus, which probably has nothing to do with the condition.
The Alarmist
Tuesday - January 4th 2022 11:56AM MST
PS

95% of the reduction of polio occurred between 1850 and 1945, before the deployment of vaxxes, largely due to improvements in public health and sanitation measures.

A few years back, WHO was caught trying to take credit for a reduction to nearly zero cases of “wild” polio, but conveniently ignored the 47k vaxx-induced cases that year. Did you ever wonder why the Indians hate Bill Gates? This is just one example among many of the chickens of his “philanthropy” coming home to roost, no doubt with Marek’s.

More people have been killed by measles vaxxes in the past twenty years than by measles itself. Must mean the vaxxes are really working.

The vaxx industry is vastly overrated, and has consistently demonstrated a total disregard for actual science and safety where these might compromise profits.

Bummer to hear the Art Institute continues its slide downhill to DIE Hell. Remember a couple years ago that they fired all their White docent volunteers to make way for moar hired diversity.

BTW, Chicago hasn’t been the same since Peter Cetera left.
MBlanc46
Tuesday - January 4th 2022 11:27AM MST
PS Here in Chicago, anyway, there is no climb down by Those Who Rule Us. I just got an email from the Art Institute of Chicago that you must have proof of vaccination in order to enter. The City of Chicago has just ordered similar restrictions for restaurants and bars. I believe that such restrictions are also imposed in New York City. My guess is that as long as one person is diagnosed with this ailment, such restrictions will be in force. There’s no doubt in my mind that the CPD will do whatever they are ordered to do to enforce these orders. Now that they are pretty much prohibited from whaling on Negro felons, they’ll be only too happy to apply their skills to some white guys. The elites now have the bit between their teeth. And they’re seeking revenge for 2016. I would not be surprised to see ever more draconian rules placed on us until the whole rotten edifice finally collapses.
BC
Tuesday - January 4th 2022 10:39AM MST
PS: Sorry, I won’t omit the hyphen.
BC
Tuesday - January 4th 2022 10:19AM MST
PS: Mr. Anon, re: “public health beatings”, I hope you don’t mind if I borrow that phrase.
Moderator
Tuesday - January 4th 2022 9:03AM MST
PS: Mr. Kief, thank you very much for the plug on Unz Review news links.

A couple of things about that:

I really meant to use that page as a new Drudge, as Drudge went to hell years ago. When I wrote this, either Mr. Unz himself or a commenter directed me to that "News links" area, yet I haven't gotten in the habit yet. I ought to do so.

Now, if I had thought about putting links to my site myself, I can honestly say I'd feel like a cheater for doing that. (That doesn't mean I wouldn't have for sure though!)

I also hope Mr. Unz doesn't mind. We've clashed before on there, but it's not all the time. I've written to him many times that I appreciate the great forum, both in content and usability.

Again, thanks, Dieter!
Moderator
Tuesday - January 4th 2022 8:58AM MST
PS: Mr. Smith, I am writing this here as the previous thread has gotten so long. Haha, I've been waiting 5 years to write that!

Anyway, thanks for the info on the IP numbers and such. I may not get to another of that hotel chain for a month or so, but I'm going to try hard to remember to check it out. I say "chain", as in "brand", I guess. These days. lots of these brands are owned by 4 or so big companies (just going by the ones I've stayed at). It might be interesting if even another brand of the same big hotel corp. had the same blocking message

As I wrote long ago on iSteve threads, I ran into Unz Review pages that were blocked before. It was almost as if, no, not trying to do an iSteve sarcastic thing here, but almost as if someone had to send in the URL for each page. Some Paul Kersey ones (of all posts!) would show up, others might not. Some iSteve ones would, others not, etc.

Here's what I can chalk this up to - the URLs with the post numbers can't be copied and pasted easily (not a feature, but maybe more of a bug). So, I suppose all my posts are blocked if anyone pastes in the basic URL, which is what they would naturally do. On The Unz Review, someone would have to do lots of work to keep up with each page, but then, why NOT block "unz.com" directly and "www.unz.com" too, of course? Hell, just thinking out loud, or, in writing, here.
Moderator
Tuesday - January 4th 2022 7:42AM MST
PS: Mr. Anon, I wrote one post with some happiness about Mr. Unz seeming to have come around on the Kung Flu Panic issue. The problem is that he still wants to fixate on his pet issues, which are not the main problem with it all.

Yeah, he is promoting the RFK, Jr. book (lots of it is on HIV/AIDS, I read) heavily, saying the media was trying to squash it. I told him that many of the people that I discuss this PanicFest with have brought up the guy's name (from videos, I guess) for a year or more. That includes the Nobel Prize winner Kary Mullis too.

"I just realized .." Yeah, no shit, Ron, but you've called us names for bringing up the stuff for the last 2 years!
Moderator
Tuesday - January 4th 2022 7:37AM MST
PS: Mr. Hail, I am glad you are doing better now. I look forward to your review on "Pandemia" on your site.

I went to your link and I wish I had bragging rights like the commenter Almost Missouri does, and you too. From looking at my Peak Stupidity posts (but not comments on Unz Review yet), I'd say this was my feeling in mid-late Feb of '20: I already was tired of hearing the overbearing and conflicting advice, but I did think there could really be something drastically different about this new disease. That's not because I know anything about viruses, but only because I fell for the hype to some degree. When they talked about closing the schools (in some places, early March, I think - mid-March where I am), I caught on from that that this was overbearing. The kids had all been fine with this virus.

Back to the iSteve site, I looked around past the post you linked us to, "Coronavirus Prepping" and most of Mr. Sailer's post in that last week of February were still on other topics. (A few days later there was one "Panic in the Streets" - Steve didn't predict this, just worried about it.)

However, if you look at the March '20 "Teasers", here:

https://www.unz.com/author/steve-sailer/2020/03/

it's 90% panic. I counted 18 in a row, going backwards from the end of March. I wrote "panic", but Mr. Sailer does get fixated on certain small issues, and if there are statistics involved, Katy bar the door. Let's say that almost all posts were on the Kung Flu, meaning he did think the virus itself was the most important issue of the time by far. I guess it was mid-March or late March (I suppose I can check for my comments) in which I almost completely gave up on that blog for a month or two.

This is not something like JFK being shot or 9/11 in which we just want to say "this is what I was doing that day. I remember everything." It's first of all good to know you were right, but this may turn out to be a matter of telling people (in the camps, later?) that "I knew by early March of '20 that we were going Totalitarian. How 'bout you?"

BTW, on that score, Totalitarianism in America in general. I claim the date of 1995! I've got posts to prove it, but unfortunately I was not often on the internet in 1995, so these 2 posts on "When did the Feral Gov't get OUT OF CONTROL?" were written based on my memory. I can't prove it.

Part 1:

https://www.peakstupidity.com/index.php?post=365

Part 2:

https://www.peakstupidity.com/index.php?post=366
Dieter Kief
Tuesday - January 4th 2022 6:58AM MST
PS: Omicron gives full immunity against the Delta variant - thus this variant "has nowheree to go" and will be eradicated by Omicron.

- New studies from South Africa presented by the tirelessly and great Dr. John Campbell - very good news, Mod., don't you think so?

Dr. Campbell mentions one social fact: This very good scientific news from South Africa are mostly ignored by the maintream media... they have a hard time to leave the panic mode, it seems... - It .d.i.d. bring them masses of readers and listeners... - And now what?!...

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=dr.+john+campbell&qpvt=dr.+john+campbell&view=detail&mid=CF2E4AD3FC5E67797CDECF2E4AD3FC5E67797CDE&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Ddr.%2Bjohn%2Bcampbell%26qpvt%3Ddr.%2Bjohn%2Bcampbell%26FORM%3DVDRE


Moderator
Tuesday - January 4th 2022 6:54AM MST
PS: UsNThem, Mr. Anon, and Alarmist, it seems that cops everywhere have the same "just doing my job" mentality that was supposed to have been the big German/Nazi thing. I give the Nazis a little more credit at least, as some of them had more to lose than just their jobs if they didn't comply. Nowadays, it's just "I got 12 years in already, don't want to lose that pension. If they say beat down these people that just want to be free to walk around their own city, then that's what we do."

Mr. Anon, sorry, I just now read your post on Polio. Thank you for historic information on that vaccine.
Moderator
Tuesday - January 4th 2022 6:45AM MST
PS: Adam and Robert, I've always had this nagging thing in my mind about Polio. Obviously, vaccinating people for that one worked out well and saved lots of lives and/or quality of lives. What's different from this COVID and the others that have come and not been eradicated but just mutated to less deadly strains?

I suppose some of the vaccine pushers believe this thing can be handled like Polio was. I don't agree, of course. I think of China and how they give the impression they have "defeated" this thing. Well, I don't think so. As globalist as the world is, it'll come in and people will have to deal with it. Perhaps the idea is to suppress it until there are nothing but the Omicron-style strains left? I also know that we don't get the story of what really goes on in that place.
Dieter Kief
Tuesday - January 4th 2022 3:56AM MST
PS

Mod. - you were right early on in that this Covid thing was way overblown in the western public sphere. Kudos!

And you were right that this Mr. Hail man had something going insights-wise too. Kudos as well. (I read his stuff too and did think it over. I once replied to Mr. Hail at the Unz Review).

Australia avoided the deaths of a serious flue wave. Claire Lehmann, elegant and intersting founder of Quillette - still is with her government and thinks it was worth it. Since they now get Omikron, they might be through with it. This is a story that is not told / understood in its entirety yet. I hope Martin Kulldorff or somebody else of the Brownstone Institute  or the Great Barrington Declaration will have a close look at the Australian story.

Mr. Hail - since you came up with the word war. And that we lost it. - -

- - Let me refer to two poets, if you please. The first one had been at war in person - much to the surprise of many of his admirers such as Lady Gaga and Madonna methinks - - - the other one took part in a revolt, that cost 100+ lives while happening in Germany: I'm talking about the 68 movement and the terrorism that came with it.
The second poet / intellectual ist Hans Magnus Enzensberger. Civil War is one of the subjects he focuses on. He's been to Africa quite often and traveled all of it (every one of it's countries at leats once) to study Civil War and came up with - a 60 pages short! essay and a few poems about this subject. And that was it. he summed up his numerous African travels and experiences in a few pages. His book Notes On Civil War I highly recommend reading.
His most dire insights and conclusions are those two: a) In times of Civil War reason is the first thing to disappear.
b) Civil Wars don't end for reasons - be they good or bad, but because of exhaustion.

Now Rainer Maria Rilke, who was at the front in WW I - if not fighting, but he was a medical nurse and his position was good for very intense experiences.

Rilke's (for a time well known) take away line of WW I was: Who is talking about victory - to endure is everything (Wer spricht von Siegen? - Übersteh'n ist alles.)

And - remember: The first anti-panickers were the Governments in the US and in the West throughout. The German minister for health Jens Spahn stood in front of the press and (he has an a tad narcissistic Rock Hudson aura and he is 1,90 m tall - all older women in Gemany l.o.v.e. him (of course he is (openly) gay) - health minister Jens Span stood in front of the German Press/Television crews and - with a smile - declared: Nothing to worry about! This was early February 2020. This China virus, Spahn said again and again, is mild and we are prepared and it will not do  much here at all (that version was kept up by the authorities through February 2020). Professor Christian Drosten, who developed the PCR test for Covid at the Charité in Berlin and became Merkel's soft-voiced top adviser (and rich...) said: Don't ya worry! We work closely together with the Chinese health experts and this thing will neither be strong nor will it cause much damage! - Those panickers (= the mildly right wing Geman party AfD) will not be able to confuse us. We stand firm, they - as always - don't know what they are talking about (they were asking for a special parliamentary session and they early on asked to stop flights from China and  - close the borders...Alice Weidel, the (lesbian) head of the AfD had worked for McKinsey in China and is fluent in Chinese and thus said, she has informations, that there is something not quite right going on in China which might well turn out to be hazardous...). 


Short Interplay - The Retarding Section - The Swine Flu Panick and what happened shortly after that with journalism (= the invasion of the womenfolk)


Professor Drosten had been a panicker some ten years before during the Swine Flew.
Interesting: Things were still normal then in that the very influential German magazine DER SPIEGEL stopped the Swine Flu Panic together with a handful of prominent German intellectuals and even show-biz people like the practicing catholic late night talker and comic Harald Schmidt - for all of Europe!

In the end virologist Professor Christian Drosten had to take quite a bit of blame for panicking in that process - and left the field defeated. Ivor Cummins came across the (quite lengthy) SPIEGEL cover-story, which ended the Swine Flu panic in Germany (and tehn Europe) and said that this was the best  - and most influential! - piece of science journalism he has come across in his entire life. - High praise. And rightfully so. As a side note: In the years after 2010, there was something happening to journalism - and to DER SPIEGEL too, that made me quit reading it, which I had done for decades - every week.

The Women in Journalism

One thing that happened was that women took over lots of positions in these mediums, and in the science-departments too - and that did not turn out perfectly well. The science department of DER SPIEGEL (the mirror) did suffer from this tendency as did other major German news outlets (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Die Welt, Süddeutsche Zeitung) - and the New York Times. Women are less principled, as Jordan Peterson pointed out tirelessly. And this is a good thing and an evolutionarily seen necessary thing, but it is not good throughout and is poorly understood. We have to learn a bit about this stuff, in order to get our public discourses in a reasonable and highly effective/ competent mode (back again). some adjustments (- Corrections...) are necessary here (this is the blind spot of one of the most productive - and thrilling at times! - writers in the US - Jonathan Franzen - he just does not get this social fact - not so that is, that he could reflect about it.
He is blinded by the feminist light in this regard (but that is not true for his novels. I love The Corrections, Freedom and Purity etc. ... - his feminist-blindness is only true for his essays (the more conscious part of his writing)).

So - I'm on board here with Mr. Hail, who did mention this women-aspect in the staff of the New York Times science-writers// Covid-coverage above too - and, to say it again: Rightfully so. There is something that has to be - corrected here, please, everybody (the womenfolk too).


Back on the covid track for the last few curcves

 
So - back to Italy: In early 2020 they - like the German government (and AlmostMissouri...) - wanted to mark the big difference and declared: We will not panic!
Lets learn from our successful fight against Aids the Italians said and the government and a whole bunch of the usual leftist lions of the public sphere started a huge and successfull! .c.a.m.pa.i.g.n. and asked everybody in Italy to HUG A CHINESE!! - In public! - And the Italians did hug 'em! It happened big scale: They publicly hugged Chinese workers/ managers and tourists in the streets of Milano and Bergamo and Parma and Lucca and Pisa and Maranello nad Bologna (note: all in northern Italy) - to show that they are Not Racist and Do Not Panic...! - To fight panic right from the start (there are quite  a few Chinese in - northern Italy -  - - since there are a whopping 2500 Chinese businesses there. There were daily flights from Wuhan to Milano - not least from Wuhan, of all places, filled with business people  - - - and Chinese workers who - this is the 21st century - are air-commuting between China and Italy to work there, not least for joint-verntures with the world famous Italian fashion industry.

Bergamo

Then came Bergamo. And the claim that Bergamo and the onslaught of the pandemic there was fake news, Mod. - is not right, I'd hold. - The regional newspapers did run out of capacities for obituary notices - something that had never happened in their (centuries long!) history. There was an onslaught of sudden deaths - quite a few preachers died who had given the last sacraments to the many dying - in hospitals and emergency care facilities, in schools and gyms etc. pp. .. and it obviously had something to do with China...
Trump decided to stop flights from China - and got grilled for that from the left all over the world because that was read as a sign that he - you know: Hates foreigners and is showing now his fascist side openly and clearly  - and that he - as the born science-ignorant - PANICKED for no reason at all but maybe because he feared for his own fat ass - - - etc. - - - - pp.

The first bottom line:

I think, that's what happened. The later pro panic people were in the beginning strongly anti-panic. Including Professor Drosten and Dr. Fauci and the Democrats and Liberals .i.n. .g.e.r.n.e.r.a.l. all over the Western sphere.


CODA - Stadler, Giesecke, Ioannidis, Kulldorff, Levitt


Data-based anti-panic began in March 2020 with the two stone-faced Swedes Anders Tegnell and Johan Giesecke and: A first rank man: Michael Levitt.

Epidemiologist Martin Kulldorff, another born Suede, followed in their footsteps with his colleagues Sunetra Gupta and Jay Bhattacharya - and John Ioannidis.. - These were the men (and women)! A little later joined by Ivor Cummins and Professor Beda M. Stadler - the best performer of all of them. His self-ironic appearances in the most viewed - and respected! - Swiss (and Austrian (note: Not in : the women-dominated German talk-shows)) - Stadlers pitch-perfect self-ironic and playful and earnest performances - at political TV talk shows and on regular news formats should (and will be) analyzed separately. Seen from the standpoint of anti-panic effectiveness the God knows benign self-ironic plus scientific approach of the retired virologist Professor Stadler was peerless.

Ivor Cumins got that right (right away!) by calling Stadler the European Covid Pope! - He was. He is the European anti-panic Covid Pope! Irony of ironies in this regard: Stadler is an atheist...

Cummins made  a documentary film that features Stadler prominently - it can be bought and viewed online for 8 bucks (I haven't done so - but I will).  Ahh - I want to add: Michael Levitt posted a short analysis in March 2020 which stands to this day saying: The risk of dying from Covid is not the risk of dying from natural causes in the next year, as the british health service officials claimed, but the risk of dying from natural causes one .m.o.n.t.h. early.

Michael Levitt retweeted this 200 word (!) article from as I said March 2020 again this week - and rightfully so. - I recommend to go to his twitter account and read it. This coool and - ironic - well written 2oo word gem is well worth the time of those inclined to -öh - truly get the vibe and the scientific core of this Covid-story.
Hail
Tuesday - January 4th 2022 12:06AM MST
PS

"I do see that on March 7th [2020], Mr. Hail, no, I didn't understand this thing as being overblown, yet."

I started writing a review of Alex Berenson's book PANDEMIA last week. In the process came across some writings of my own from Feb 2020, related to early-stage Corona-Panic, and set about to integrate one of them into the review. I was reacting to (criticizing) some early Panic-pushing.

None of us, or very few of us, knew or realized there was a Corona-Panic at the time, thinking rather what we were seeing was just a series of observations of reality. We didn't appreciate that something above reality, above AND detached from reality, was going on, was in the process of forming. That was the late Jan 2020 and Feb 2020 period. Maybe by late Feb 2020 some began to sense it. I don't know when I started to sense it, though the late-Feb2020 domestic panics in South Korea and Italy were no doubt turning points, both in Panic-skepticism and full-on Panic-embracing, the latter the more powerful and still in the driver's seat even today.

The comments I highlight and plan to use in the PANDEMIA book review were from on or about Feb 25, 2020. Mine and others' show some clear proto-AntiPanic attitudes but also a good deal of naivete. Some others showed they were basically Pro-Panic at the time (as was Alex Berenson himself, as he reveals in the boo), others were Neutrals, though nobody hanging around Steve Sailer's blog could really be a neutral, for at some point the majority, and then for a while the entirety, or his posts were CoronaPanic-related.

Positions shifted a lot in coming weeks and months, of course. It was interesting to revisit those pre-March2020 comments.

I realize that I saw, or sensed, the basic mechanisms of how something like the Corona-Panic could work, could spread (and WAS THEN spreading fast), and even by whom it could/would spread and by what methods, using what vectors of panic-transmission. (The Feb 25, 2020, comment was in reaction to a predictable-politics-having 40-ish female science reporter for the New York Times; she was pushing rumors about impending doom, citing unnamed experts, over Twitter, and getting huge attention for it.)

Some of my Feb 2020 comments show that I was, if I can judge my own positions of the time, Neutral leaning Anti-Panic, but quite often was most interested in making best-guess calculations from available data. All those calculations we were making tended to point towards the Anti-Panic position. That's the process I followed throughout much of 2020, until realizing what a waste of time it was, as our Pro-Panic friends generally thought it all so much witchcraft to talk numbers or datasets.

I think I was greatly worried for a time, but it was at least as much with vague visions of civil unrest as with the garden-variety Corona-Panic virus-apocalypse visions, the Panic-prolefeed consumed by the loyally Pro-Panic legions heroically staying at home and applauded when Pro-Panic local authorities dismantled basketball hoops and blocked off playgrounds in 2020. My more decisive turn against the Panic came in mid-March, which, in my later appraisals of the Panic timeline, was too late to have stopped it no matter who got on board. They acted first, and won. It often happens in war. We lost, but might have won had we acted near the same time, or even first.

Finally let me add that the commenter Almost Missouri was right from the start. I commend him for being a firm and reliable Anti-Panicker from the start, getting correct Anti-Panic points which in 2022 will become near-universally acknowledged, but he's got the timestamps to prove it. His instincts were right, or whatever it was. He was Anti-Panic long "before it was cool." I recall this in general from his comments, but this is the one I recently rediscovered (posted late Feb 25, 2020, US time):

https://www.unz.com/isteve/coronavirus-prepping/#comment-3737094

Well done, Almost Missouri, wherever you are.

The Feb 2020 comment of my own, to which I referred, will appear in the PANDEMIA review, when published. Maybe tomorrow.

I was interrupted from writing said PANDEMIA review when I, ironically, went down with a flu, which I assume was Wuhan-corona.

For those interested I can lay out the facts:

I am happily unvaccinated. I am in, I dare say, pretty excellent health. I had reason to believe in about Aug 2020 that I had had contact with a coronavirus either "from" or "to" a household member, though I didn't get sick in Aug 2020 and assumed it just passed through me asymptomatically. Didn't test in Aug 2020, and didn't test this time.

I was sick 24-36 hours this past week, post-Christmas. By sick I mean: too weakened to do much except look after health and get pity; rest, lots of sleep, lots of water because of curiously persistent dehydration---where does the water *go*? Fever, but no sore throat; inability to sleep the first night except in fits and starts and with dreams or nightmares of an unusual intensity, like being tormented by a devil (as our ancestors from a much more religious culture might put it), but I guess it happens with flus.

Then another 36-48 hours weakened but what I would describe as "walking wounded," with body aches but able to do any normal thing just at a slower pace (and, e.g., suddenly disinclined to walk stairs). I somehow expected a fuller and more rapid recovery, but we can't be too greedy. At the 72-hour mark, I was still a little noticeably weakened, but slept the night and woke up feeling 100%.

Thereafter and currently (nearing 72 hours after that 100%-feeling moment), nuisance symptoms which wander in and out but no real impairment of activity, i.e., not "sick" in the classic sense. An occasional cough now, but never during the actual sickness.

At its worst, it did knock me down, but we have all had flu at some time, and it happens. I remember having a flu about the same time of year in 2013 which was worse in intensity and duration, but strangely don't remember lockdowns, masks, or angry vaccine campaigns or any of the rest from 2013, just normality, which I rejoined after recovery.

I couldn't help but think throughout even the worst of it: "They stole two years from us for THIS"?

Had there never been a Corona-Panic, I'd have lost a day or two or three depending on how the cards fell, and then done, and never thought about it. Instead, we lost significant portions of two years, and got a worse world on the other end.

In the process, though, I lost momentum on the PANDEMIA review. Oh, and I was re-reading a portion of PANDEMIA just as symptoms onset, which may fit a fair definition of 'ironic'...
Hail
Monday - January 3rd 2022 10:22PM MST
PS

"The Establishment is...backing off"

There are lots of types of Anti-Panicker. One type likes or wants to believe or argue that the Pro-Panic position takes orders from a central Panicker Headquarters somewhere, that the Pro-Panic activists operate like a global intelligence agency, or better stated as a form of the aliens in "They Live," except using a virus-apocalypse delusion to keep the people stupid and quiet, but in any case operate under tight discipline and don't break ranks from Panicker Command's instructions.

I am not going to say this is entirely a position without merit, even after just having caricatured it there. However, I think there is good evidence to suggest the Panic is more uncontrolled than controlled, and that if there were a Corona-Panicker Central Command in some sinister underground lair out there, they long since lost control.

The Peak Stupidity mega-comment extravaganza thread (#2150) has some about Chicago Public Schools Teachers Union's ongoing fights, right now, with the mayor over whether to close schools over virus fears, with D-Dday coming tomorrow (the union looks likely to vote to strike, refusing to work in person). There are insinuations about possibly mandatory vaccines to attend school down the line.

There are some Panic-loyalist MDs out there predicting mass school shutdowns by mid-January whether anyone likes it or not. It's the same recycled, regurgitated Corona-Panic info-terroristic gruel they always put up. The odious Doctor Eric Fingle-Dingle is parading around shouting about a new variant he claims to have discovered while looking at French data.
usNthem
Monday - January 3rd 2022 8:55PM MST
PS
Re those Dutch cops - they seemed a pretty minor presence comparatively speaking. If one of those crowds collectively decides they're not taking anymore s***, those boys will be toast. That'd be a real Rubicon crossed - what then?

On another note, a number of guys on substack are doing yeoman's work exposing this covid BS - Steve Kirsch, Eugyppius, Alex Berenson, Robert Malone among others. If you haven't checked out some of that stuff, it's well worth while.
Mr. Anon
Monday - January 3rd 2022 8:31PM MST
PS

@The Alarmist

I think it is dawning on some of the CE that they need to step back a little because people (even the brain-washed) are beginning to tire of the COVID regime. And as you say, Omicron gives them the cover. But, as our host pointed out, the precedent is set, and even if the machinery is put in stand-by mode, it isn't going to be dismantled. The wheel has turned and the ratchet has clicked. This is just the beginning of the tyranny they wish to impose on us.

Those Dutch coppers can always be sent back out to administer more public-health beatings when the globalist overlord class and their technocrat minions deem it to be necessary.
Mr. Anon
Monday - January 3rd 2022 8:19PM MST
PS

"The very serious polio virus WAS eradicated for the great benefit, but I don't know what was fundamentally different about that type. Was it the method of contagion?"

My understanding is that Polio is spread through contact with fecal matter, which means that it is often water-born. I have seen some argue that the benefits of the Polio vaccination campaign have been overstated; that Polio was already declining due to better hygeine and water treatment.

The first (injected) Polio vaccine campaign killed a half dozen kids and permanently paralyzed a couple hundred (some live-virus accidentally mixed in with that supposedly dead virus). The second campaign, with the oral vaccine, exposed millions of people to SV40, a simian virus that can cause cancer. Our public health establishment (NIH, NIAID) of course assures us that SV40 can't/won't/hasn't caused cancer in humans. But I don't exactly trust them anymore.

I don't know if any of you have been following Ron Unz's latest obsession (which I admit has become mine too over the Holiday), that perhaps the whole HIV/AIDS narrative is a load of crap too. At the heart of that is - of course - the ubiquitous Anthony Fauci. I'm not sold on the idea, but I must admit that some of the arguments are quite interesting - compelling even.

I am now far more willing to believe that the World's medical and public health authorities could be massively and persistently wrong (even for decades) than I was two years ago, for what most people here would consider obvious reasons.
Robert
Monday - January 3rd 2022 7:11PM MST
PS: Mr. Moderator, Mr. Smith,

While we (USA!, USA!) (and Europe) did a good job getting rid of Polio, it is still out there in third-world caca-hole (pardon my frogish) countries. Just more evidence that it can be dangerous to be in certain countries, and why we must import more foreigners.
Adam Smith
Monday - January 3rd 2022 4:56PM MST
PS: Good evening,

“The very serious polio virus WAS eradicated for the great benefit, but I don't know what was fundamentally different about that type. Was it the method of contagion?”

People are the only reservoir

Hundreds of diseases can be transmitted between insects, animals and humans. One of the things that makes polio eradicable is the fact that humans are the only reservoir. No poliovirus has been found to exist and spread among animals despite repeated attempts to document this.

The Alarmist
Monday - January 3rd 2022 4:45PM MST
PS

Omicron gives the Criminal Elite a chance to climb down. The handling of the protesting crowd by the Dutch Politie over the weekend suggests there is no intent to use this opportunity. The CE apparently think they can avoid the fate of Mussolini, which I guess is true as long as the Politie keep stepping up to beat the people down. Even the DDR Stasi and Polizei knew the gig was up at some point, fortunately before the people started firebombing them. The Dutch Politie may not be as bright or lucky.

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