So on April 29, 2022, Dr. Robert M. Califf, the Commissioner of the FDA and a genius if ever there was one, tweeted (my bolding for emphasis) “…I believe that misinformation is now our leading cause of death, and we must do something about it.” He then goes on CNN (where else?) where the interviewer asks him “Why do you think misinformation is now the leading cause of death in the US?”
Now before we get to the good doctor’s answer, let’s address some semantics. When one says “leading cause” of anything, that means it is the number one cause. Can we all agree on that? If something is in the lead that means it is ahead of everything else with which it is competing or to which it is being compared, correct? That makes it number one, yes? I realize that in the Bizarro world we live in today many people simply cannot acknowledge self-evident truths, but I hope we can all at least agree on this simple definition. If you disagree, then just get lost. If you’re still with me, then to say something is the “leading cause” makes it number one, which is an absolutely quantifiable figure. “Quantifiable” meaning countable as in 1, 2, 3, and so on. There can only be one number one and you’re either number one or you’re not. Everyone knows second place is just first loser; moving on…
The doctor’s answer to the interviewer’s question was…now remember, this guy is the HEAD of the FDA, the government body responsible for amongst many other things approving and pushing COVID vaccines (also responsible for shutting down the largest baby formula facility in America back in February and not having the foresight to think there might be shortages down the line), and his answer was “First of all…I have to acknowledge there’s no way to quantify this…”
Wait, wut? So this rocket scientist is all over media claiming “misinformation” (whatever exactly that is) is the leading cause of death in the US, but then says he can’t quantify this claim? Really? THIS is who is running our national health strategy?!? THIS???
Just to be clear:
Looks to me like heart disease is the number one cause of death in the US. Califf is a cardiologist by the way, so he's doing a bang-up job. I don’t see anything called “misinformation” on this list, do you? Interestingly, drug overdoses for 2020-2021 were estimated (by the CDC) to be 100,306 (about twice as many as gun deaths) but for reasons I’ll leave to your imagination, drug deaths are counted from April to April and then somehow don’t make it on to the “yearly” list of leading causes of death. I guess that figure would be an inconvenient truth or something.
Again remember, these are the people who told us the “novel” coronavirus wasn’t seasonal, that masks work (I’m going to return to this topic one more time soon), that lockdowns are for your own good, that keeping kids out of school was the right thing to do, that masking children doesn't cause any harm, that the vax didn’t cause myocarditis, that the vax was better than natural immunity, that the vax is "safe and effective" and now most recently they just approved the booster for kids 5-11. Sweet (I’ll be writing about this insanity maybe tomorrow). And THESE are the people telling us of the dangers of “misinformation”? It would appear that in a rather ironic twist of circumstance completely lost on yet another woefully self-unaware dictocrat, that the guy warning about the dangers of misinformation is actually spreading misinformation. You can't make this stuff up.
But in the broader picture, the good doctor is right. For the last 40 years the FDA and CDC have scared us out of the sun. This has led to epidemic levels of low Vitamin D which is now pretty conclusively implicated in a worse interaction with COVID (and probably regular seasonal viruses as well). By the way, why hasn’t the government encouraged people to get out in the sun to increase Vitamin D levels and maybe improve their protection against the ‘vid? After all it’s free, it’s easy...Hey look, Putin!
The FDA has also spent the last 40 years telling us to stop eating red meat and fat and encouraged us to eat more “healthy whole grains”. During those years, per capita beef consumption has gone down about 25% while coincidentally during that same time the country has gotten fatter and sicker with increased levels of obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease. By the way, what are some of the biggest comorbidity risk factors for COVID death again?
How about exercise? There are now at least seven published studies showing exercise is protective against the ‘rona yet has Tiny Tony or President "No Joke" Mumbles encouraged exercise? Oh no, that's right, they shut down gyms and arrested you if you walked in the park.
So maybe old Doc Califf is right after all. Idiots, liars, idealogues all.