Theres a video out there that claims to show a scientist being silenced by the government.
I keep seeing people share it while saying things like What do you think of this?
or I dont know if this is right, but its worth listening to.
For one: money runs a lot of things in this country.
And Big Pharma has more power than it probably should.
We are living through something truly unprecedented, and a lot of things about it dont make sense.
Thats unavoidableits truly a new thing on this earth.
But as weve discussed here before,the real experts discuss the uncertainty of the facts about our situation.
Were hungry for anything that can make this moment in our lives feel a little bit less weird.
Some important background
The video is professionally, expertly produced.
It looks like a documentary.
By the time she starts talking about COVID-19, weve gotten to know her and were on her side.
Who paid for this?
Itsfrequently asked questions pagecalls herd immunity absurd and says its debatable whether vaccines save lives.
These are flatly untrue statements.
So is this anti-vaxxer propaganda?
To the average viewer, that might seem reassuring.
But if youve spent any time listening to anti-vaxxers, you know its a huge red flag.
Sometimes people ask me wheremymoney comes from.
Ive been accused of being a shill for various interests when I write about controversial topics.
So to be clear: About 98% of my income comes from being a writer for this website.
The rest is from an occasional book royalty check.
My books are onhistorical epidemicsandbasic genetics.
My stance on controversial topics doesnt affect sales numbers either way.
I have no dog in this fight.
I just want people to be healthy and well-informed, and I follow the facts where they take me.
Now I am sharing them with you.
How much of Mikovitss backstory is true?
There is no evidence for her claims.
Other elements of her story are exaggerated (or worse) by the storytelling in the video.
(There is no reason to believe that a publication delay here cost lives, as she claims.)
But enough about Mikovits.
Is what she is saying true?
Does the COVID-19 virus show signs of having been created in a lab?
Theres no reason to believe, as Mikovits says, that it would take 800 years of evolution.
Several pandemic viruses have emerged as a result of animal-to-human spillover.
Yes,there is a lab in Wuhan, China, that studies coronaviruses.
Theres nothing fishy about this.
Scientists haverepeatedly debunkedthe idea that the virus was artificially made.
Its genome shows its clear relation to animal viruses, andnot to coronavirus samples from the Wuhan lab.
Is Dr. Fauci really a mastermind behind everything?
Listen carefully for his name throughout the video and youll see what I mean.
Its never actually connected to anything.
But then she clarifies that she means researchers labs got funding from NIAID.
Thats not a payoff.
Thats the normal way a lot of science is funded.
Do the FDA and Big Pharma ban cheap drugs as a money making ploy?
If a drug works, the obvious move is to enjoy the increased demand and charge more.
I mean, we know this.
Remember daraprim, the drug whose price Martin Shkreli infamously jacked up?
Epinephrine isnt patented either, but look at the price of Epi-Pens.
Charging a ton for drugs is business as usual, and completely legal.
You dont need a conspiracy theory to explain it.
As for her specific claims: Mikovits mentions a cheap, older drug called suramin that supposedly treated autism.
The actual results of that trial werenot as she describes.
She also mentions hydroxychloroquine as a potential COVID-19 treatment that is being squelched.
Actually,there are 169 trials of it ongoing right now.
And despite her claims in the video,there isnt any solid evidence that it worksjust hope.
No conspiracy needed: That is literally the way our system is set up.
Does wearing masks make us more susceptible to the coronavirus?
The video says that masks activate the virus.
Wheres the evidence for that?
Does staying inside weaken our immune systems?
Does the flu vaccine make you more susceptible to the coronavirus?
Not that we know of.
Are COVID-19 death counts inflated?
Still, this is an easy question.
Yes, because hospitals charge more for treatments that require more resources.
Hospitalized COVID-19 patients tend to be sicker and stay longer in the hospital than patients with other conditions.
Its the price tag for their care.
Does this conspiracy theory even hold together?
Heres the funny thing: no.
Its gotta be good, right?
This is all we get.
Mikovits says:
The game is to prevent the therapies until everyone is infected, then push the vaccines.
What kind of grand master plan is that?
Once everybody is infected, nobody needs a vaccine.
On the flip side, if you had effective therapiesnow, literally everybody would buy them.
Ifyouwere unleashing a virus as a get-rich-quick scheme, wouldnt you start selling a drug ASAP?
How do you even getonegovernment to put forth a united front on an issue?
The White House and the CDC cant even agreeon whether we need a coronavirus task force.
Once you think about it, youll see right through this in a second.
Did they really use a closing shot of Fauci predicting a pandemic to imply that he started it?
