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How Did a Small Group Do This?
Brownstone Institute ^ | June 12, 2024 | Jeffrey A. Tucker

Posted on 06/12/2024 1:23:43 PM PDT by Heartlander

How Did a Small Group Do This?

A very interesting study appeared last week by two researchers looking into the pandemic policy response around the world. They are Drs. Eran Bendavid and Chirag Patel of Stanford and Harvard, respectively. Their ambition was straightforward. They wanted to examine the effects of government policy on the virus. 

In this ambition, after all, researchers have access to an unprecedented amount of information. We have global data on strategies and stringencies. We have global data on infections and mortality. We can look at it all according to the timeline. We have precise dating of stay-at-home orders, business closures, meeting bans, masking, and every other physical intervention you can imagine. 

The researchers merely wanted to track what worked and what did not, as a way of informing future responses to viral outbreaks so that public health can learn lessons and do better next time. They presumed from the outset they would discover that at least some mitigation tactics achieved the aim. 

It is hardly the first such study. I’ve seen dozens of such efforts, and there are probably hundreds or thousands of these. The data is like catnip to anyone in this field who is empirically minded. So far, not even one empirical examination has shown any effect of anything but that seems like a hard conclusion to swallow. So these two decided to take a look for themselves. 

They even went to the next step. They assembled and reassembled all existing data in every conceivable way, running fully 100,000 possible combinations of tests that all future researchers could run. They found some correlations in some policies but the problem is that every time they found one, they found another instance in which the reverse seemed to be true. 

You cannot infer causation if the effects are not stable. 

After vast data manipulation and looking at every conceivable policy and outcome, the researchers reluctantly come to an incredible conclusion. They conclude that nothing that governments did had any effect. There was only cost, no benefit. Everywhere in the world. 

Please just let that sink in. 

The policy response destroyed countless millions of small businesses, ruined a generation in learning losses, spread ill health with substance abuse, wrecked churches that could not hold holiday services, decimated arts and cultural institutions, broke trade, unleashed inflation that is nowhere near done with us yet, provoked new forms of online censorship, built government power in a way without precedent, led to new levels of surveillance, spread vaccine injury and death, and otherwise shattered liberties and laws the world over, not to mention leading to frightening levels of political instability.

And for what? 

Apparently, it was all for nought. 

Nor has there been any sort of serious reckoning. The European Commission elections are perhaps a start, and heavily influenced by public opposition to Covid controls, in addition to other policies that are robbing nations of their histories and identities. The major media can call the victors “far right” all they want but this is really about common people simply wanting their lives back. 

It’s interesting to speculate about precisely how many people were involved in setting the world on fire. We know the paradigm was tried first in Wuhan, then blessed by the World Health Organization. As regards the rest of the world, we know some names, and there were many cohorts in public health and gain-of-function research. 

Let’s say there are 300 of them, plus many national security and intelligence officials plus their sister agencies around the world. Let’s just add a zero plus multiply that by the large countries, presuming that so many others were copycats. 

What are we talking about here? Maybe 3,000 to 5,000 people total in a decision-making capacity? That might be far too high. Regardless, compared with the sheer number of people around the world affected, we are talking about a tiny number, a mico-percent of the world’s population or less making new rules for the whole of humanity. 

The experiment was without precedent on this scale. Even Deborah Birx admitted it. “You know, it’s kind of our own science experiment that we’re doing in real time.” The experiment was on whole societies. 

How in the world did this come to be? There are explanations that rely on mass psychology, the influence of pharma, the role of the intelligence services, and other theories of cabals and conspiracies. Even with every explanation, the whole thing seems wildly implausible. Surely it would have been impossible without global communications and media, which amplified the entire agenda in every respect. 

Because of this, kids could not go to school. People in public parks had to stay within circles. Businesses could not open at full capacity. We developed insane rituals like masking when walking and unmasking when sitting. Oceans of sanitizer would be dumped on all people and things. People were made to be afraid of leaving their homes and clicked buttons to make groceries arrive on their doorsteps. 

It was a global science experiment without any foundation in evidence. And the experience utterly transformed our legal systems and lives, introducing uncertainties and anxieties as never before and unleashing a level of crime in major cities that provoked residential, business, and capital flight. 

This is a scandal for the ages. And yet hardly anyone in major media seems to be interested in getting to the bottom of it. That’s because, for bizarre reasons, looking too carefully at the culprits and policies here is regarded as being for Trump. And the hate and fear of Trump is so beyond reason at this point that whole institutions have decided to sit back and watch the world burn rather than be curious about what provoked this in the first place. 

Instead of an honest accounting of the global upheaval, we are getting the truth in dribs and drabs. Anthony Fauci continues to testify for Congressional hearings and this extremely clever man threw his longtime collaborator under the bus, acting like David Morens was a rogue employee. That action seemed to provoke ex-CDC director Robert Redfield to go public, saying that it was a lab leak from a US-funded lab doing “dual purpose” research into vaccines and viruses, and strongly suggesting that Fauci himself was involved in the cover-up. 

Among this group, we are quickly approaching the point of “Every man for himself.” It is fascinating to watch, for those of us who are deeply interested in this question. But for the mainstream media, none of this gets any coverage at all. They act like we should just accept what happened and not think anything about it. 

This great game of pretend is not sustainable. To be sure, maybe the world is more broken than we know but something about cosmic justice suggests that when a global policy this egregious, this damaging, this preposterously wrongheaded, does all harm and no good, there are going to be consequences. 

Not immediately but eventually. 

When will the whole truth emerge? It could be decades from now but we already know this much for sure. Nothing we were promised about the great mitigation efforts by governments turned out to achieve anything remotely what they promised. And yet even now, the World Health Organization continues to uphold such interventions as the only way forward. 

Meanwhile, the paradigm of bad science backed by force pervades nearly everything these days, from climate change to medical services to information controls. 

When will evidence matter again?


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Government
KEYWORDS: badscience; bigpharma; censorship; civilrights; coverup; covid; lockdowns; masks; policestate; politicalinstability; surveillance; tyranny

1 posted on 06/12/2024 1:23:43 PM PDT by Heartlander
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To: Heartlander

So, it was a “Hold muh test tube and watch this!”...............


2 posted on 06/12/2024 1:28:09 PM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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To: Heartlander
But, it did give Fauci and others a lot of money and power they otherwise would not have had, and they gave a lot of people vaccines that didn't do much good, as well.

And that social distancing thing, well, it was a lot of fun and you got to see people die without relatives allowed to see them.

On the whole, it was one heck of a fun ride, for sadists.

3 posted on 06/12/2024 1:40:20 PM PDT by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: Heartlander

Nuremberg II will provide the answers and the remedy.


4 posted on 06/12/2024 1:46:04 PM PDT by eyeamok
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To: Heartlander
They should do a study of the CCP propaganda that was distributed around the world in early 2020 and on; to scare the world population and governments….

Welding doors

Check points & dog catchers for runners

People falling dead in the streets.

Many here at FR ate it up and did not recognize it for what it was.

5 posted on 06/12/2024 1:46:57 PM PDT by Deaf Smith (When a Texan takes his chances, chances will be taken that's for sure.)
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To: Heartlander

It’s called a sucker punch ... no way to prepare ... it is their method ... over and over again ...


6 posted on 06/12/2024 1:46:58 PM PDT by bankwalker (Repeal the 19th ...)
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To: Heartlander

Since the days of the first “sars” virus two decades ago, it’s been clear to me the media’s fear tactics have been leading up to something.

This is partly how I knew it was a scam in January or February of 2020.


7 posted on 06/12/2024 1:47:59 PM PDT by reasonisfaith (What are the personal implications if the Resurrection of Christ is a true event in history?)
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To: All

The answer to how did they do it is complex, but it mostly comes down to how they manipulate fear.


8 posted on 06/12/2024 1:48:39 PM PDT by reasonisfaith (What are the personal implications if the Resurrection of Christ is a true event in history?)
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To: Deaf Smith

How about pulling back the curtain on American propaganda? And Nancy Pelosi propaganda as she returned from China in December 2019 and she was on TV telling everyone to “go to Chinatown, go to the theater” and spread the virus.


9 posted on 06/12/2024 2:02:21 PM PDT by subterfuge (I'm a pure-blood!)
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To: Deaf Smith

I got sucked in with the... Two weeks to ease pressure on the hospitals...at two weeks and one day I knew it was crap....


10 posted on 06/12/2024 2:25:48 PM PDT by joe fonebone (And the people said NO! The End)
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To: Heartlander

“ That’s because, for bizarre reasons, looking too carefully at the culprits and policies here is regarded as being for Trump. And the hate and fear of Trump is so beyond reason at this point that whole institutions have decided to sit back and watch the world burn”

I did basically nothing except COVID from March 2020 - January 2023.

The point about Trump cannot be stated too strongly. It was impossible to have a policy discussion at the beginning without his name coming up in the first 60 seconds. And it’s not really clear, even now, what that was all about.


11 posted on 06/12/2024 2:58:12 PM PDT by Jim Noble (Assez de mensonges et de phrases)
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To: Heartlander; All
And for what?

Apparently, it was all for nought.

Hard to believe they are so blind to reality.

It worked. The left was able to change election law so as to manipulate the result to get rid of President Trump.

From the viewpoint of the plotters, it also kept some of them from being blamed, others out of jail, and made others very rich.

12 posted on 06/12/2024 3:25:24 PM PDT by marktwain (The Republic is at risk. Resistance to the Democratic Party is Resistance to Tyranny. )
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To: Heartlander

The CDC and FDA are run by the pharma companies.

Interesting court case and definition of the mRNA shots.
I do not agree with the number of Americans that got the shot. Some people got the shot and boosters.

High Court Rules the Covid mRNA Jab Is Not Even a Vaccine, so What Exactly Is It?
https://thelibertydaily.com/high-court-rules-covid-mrna-jab-is-not/
_______________________________

It is nice to know our medicines are made under spotless conditions.... 🤢

More than 130 CVS own-brand drugs recalled by FDA - after horrifying truths about how meds are made
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-13522105/cvs-store-brand-recalls-linked-factories-bacteria.html

The reasons for the CVS recalls included drugs being infested with bacteria, mold growing in factory ventilators, peeling paint and barefoot workers in factories and pills containing incorrect doses.

Recalled products were manufactured by companies based in China and India, as well as some in the US — including Tennessee and Florida.

CVS has seen its recalls rise in recent years, recording less than ten a year from 2014 to 2018 but above this number for four out of six years since then.

This is due to a loophole in FDA rules which makes CVS not responsible for the quality of generics manufactured by third-party factories, even when the products carry a red heart and the words ‘CVS Health’.

Dr Kevin Schulman, a medicine expert at Stanford University, told Bloomberg: ‘The best way to make a low-price product is to skimp on quality, and that’s what we’re seeing over and over and over again.’

In one instance from January this year, allergy medications made for CVS by an Indian company were recalled after FDA inspectors found stagnant liquid — growing yeast and mold — inside an air purification unit at the drugmaker’s facility in India, reports show.


13 posted on 06/12/2024 7:28:32 PM PDT by minnesota_bound (Need more money to buy everything now)
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To: Heartlander

When you socialize (i.e. eliminate risk ) from decision making, you privatize the gains. You get jab mandates, closures, etc that have no effect because there is no risk to the person making that decision. that was the flaw in Trumps policies around covid.


14 posted on 06/13/2024 6:24:18 AM PDT by kvanbrunt2
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To: Heartlander
It was a global science experiment without any foundation in evidence.

It was a global third grade science fair experiment. And the kid who made the baking soda volcano got a better grade than Fauci and Birx for scientific accuracy. :)

15 posted on 06/13/2024 6:31:36 AM PDT by Mr. Jeeves ([CTRL]-[GALT]-[DELETE])
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To: Heartlander

Bttt.

5.56mm


16 posted on 06/13/2024 8:15:53 AM PDT by M Kehoe (Quid Pro Joe and the Ho have got to go. )
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