6/28/22
So I’ve been asking this question for more than two years now but, alas, have yet to get an answer. The question is, what “science” EXACTLY “changed” in early 2020 that sent the world (except those evil Swedes) down a rabbit hole that turned out to be a toilet that made your worst nightmare of a porta-potty at Burning Man look like a fine white-linen restaurant dinner plate? I have on more than several occasions referred to the World Health Organization’s report on “Non-pharmaceutical public health measures for mitigating the risk and impact of epidemic and pandemic influenza”. This report was an update to the previous report published back in 2009. That means this report was the result of 10 years of updated “science” and was published in October of 2019; a mere few months before the world went completely to hell.
The stated purpose for these guidelines is, amongst other things (always my bolding for emphasis), “Assess the body of evidence on the effectiveness of each of the NPIs.” (NPIs stands for “non-pharmaceutical interventions”). Some of the things listed under the title “Not recommended in any circumstances” are “Contact tracing, Quarantine of exposed individuals, Entry and exit screening, Border closures” yet we did all of them. Again, these are practices which decades of accumulated “science” showed to be useless or worse.
Anyway, looking at ALL the real-world data on various interventions, the WHO states, as to hand hygiene “…RCTs have not found that hand hygiene is effective in reducing transmission of laboratory-confirmed influenza…” and as to respiratory etiquette (stuff like sneezing into a tissue and immediately throwing it out, sneezing into the crook of your arm, etc) “…there is no evidence that this is effective in reducing influenza transmission…” Hey how about face masks? They certainly work; no less than Anthony Fauci has told us so. “…there is no evidence that this is effective in reducing transmission…A disposable surgical mask is recommended to be worn at all times by symptomatic individuals when in contact with other individuals. Although there is no evidence that this is effective in reducing transmission…” Anybody see a mention of everybody wearing a mask all the time? How about wearing “N95” masks (my research confirms that in fact N95 masks were around BEFORE March of 2020)? No? Me neither. Same thing for surface and object cleaning (Remember when you were washing your mail and groceries? C’mon man, you know who you are.) “…there is no evidence that this is effective in reducing transmission…” Contact tracing? “Active contact tracing is not recommended in general because there is no obvious rationale for it…” Good times. How about quarantining “exposed individuals”? SURELY it makes “scientific” sense that you should hide in your bedroom for a week or two and have people slip your food under the door and you poop in a bucket in the corner if your mother’s friend’s sister’s gardener heard about somebody who tested positive, no? “Home quarantine of exposed individuals to reduce transmission is not recommended because there is no obvious rationale for this measure…”
And before you true believers go apoplectic and start screaming that these recommendations are for “flu” and not “COVID” please get over yourselves. It’s a respiratory virus, full stop.
Now to be fair (I try to always be fair), for hand hygiene, respiratory etiquette, and face masks, the WHO does say “there is mechanistic plausibility for the potential effectiveness of this measure.” We have discussed this several times before. “Mechanistic plausibility” refers to laboratory studies (like strapping two masks on a dummy, no not Anthony Fauci, an actual mannequin, and blowing some air through its “mouth” to see what happens) but as even Tiny Tony himself pointed out in Congressional testimony, laboratory data almost never translates into real world efficacy. And that was true in this case as well.
In any event, I’m just curious as to EXACTLY what “new science” appeared between October of 2019 and say March of 2020 that would lead our government authorities and especially our medical “experts” to basically turn 180 degrees away from what ALL the accumulated evidence on planet earth had found up until that very moment; not only recommending things that had never shown any real world efficacy, but MANDATING them. Was it a power grab? Stupidity? Plain old fashioned hysteria? Your guess is as good as mine. Whatever it was, it certainly WAS NOT “science”. By the way, several dozen papers looking at actual data have shown that lockdowns were not only ineffective at saving lives but were extremely harmful, and masks were just plain silly. But we already knew that before we started. So there’s that.
If anyone can point to any actual “science” that says that anything we did was somehow warranted (or effective) I’d appreciate it if you sent it along. I’m always looking to learn. But remember to remember this sort of thing when President Joe “Lance Armstrong” Biden tries to scare the excrement out of us come fall. NONE of what we did over the last almost 30 months has made a bit of difference. Somebody smart (or maybe just sane) once said the virus is gonna virus no matter what we do to try to "control" it. Your best bet to protect yourself is to actually get healthier. But as there's no money in empowering people to take control of their own health destinies, erase, erase...