I see articles all the time saying that we must get rid of COVID misinformation. And I couldn’t agree with the concept more. COVID misinformation is hurting our ability to fight the effects of this pandemic, and worse yet, it is corroding our readiness to handle the next issue that comes our way. We are hearing lies that lead many to disregard the words of experts. The CDC, other health agencies and media platforms really need to stop it.
Yes, I am talking about the lies and misinformation that have come from experts such as Dr. Fauci. We have been told that masks are absolutely not necessary. Then we were told that the science was 100% that masks are absolutely necessary, but any mask would do. Then we were told to double mask. Then we were told that cloth masks won’t work anymore and we should be using N95s. One lie followed by another followed by another. It is no wonder they needed a campaign telling us to trust the experts. The experts have lied time and time again, so that anyone who is halfway awake instead of woke is wary of believing them.
Then there were the lies about the effectiveness of the vaccine. We have gone from the vaccine makes you safe, to the vaccine makes you much less likely to get hospitalized, to you need a booster (or 2, or annually). Claims that 99% of those getting sick were unvaccinated were shown to be false. Next they claimed that 99% of those who are hospitalized are unvaccinated. They said that break-through infections were possible, but that they were mild. Then famous people who were famously vaccinated died of COVID and not just with COVID. The story started falling apart. Not that I didn’t expect it would. As I have posted before, the case and death numbers during the rollout did not support the CDC claims of vaccine effectiveness.
We were told that the vaccine would end this. Then we were told we needed to get 60% vaccinated to end this. Then 70, then 80, then 100. We were told that vaccine mandates would not be used. Then mandates were used. We were told that the only reason the virus was still spreading was because of the vaccine holdouts. Now, anyone who reads the science knows that the vaccine will not end the virus, nor will it end the pandemic, nor are the vaccine holdouts the reason for pandemic continuing. The vaccinated can just as easily get and spread the virus as the unvaccinated. That makes having to prove vaccination status at venues useless. This is what the science says. But we still require vaccines, claiming to be following the science.
We have seen smear campaigns against most drugs that show promise to help save lives. Especially for inexpensive, widely available drugs. Research studies forcibly cut off, drugs that are used commonly and safely for other purposes suddenly being called extremely deadly, and then new studies quickly accomplished in order to “prove” that the promise was all snake oil. It becomes blatantly obvious that decisions being made by the taxpayer funded experts are designed to financially assist the pharmaceutical industry, not to best meet the health needs of the taxpayers.
Yes, there have been misinformation on both sides. The idea that the vaccine is designed to kill us, combined with an over emphasis of VAERS reports, without reminding that these reports only show correlation and not causation, were being pushed by the other side. But I have to blame the officials, rather than those fighting the obviously biased official view. First off, the lies and tactics to scare and control the populace from the official side give credence to those pushing lies on the other side. Second, officials have the power, and we need to be able to trust they are doing their best, for the right reasons. When that trust is damaged, their ability to lead is also damaged. If the officials had acted properly, there would have been much higher compliance rates. Whether higher compliance rates would have saved lives during COVID is a subject of speculation. We can never truly know. But we do know that when the next crisis comes along, more people will have difficulty trusting the experts. And that time, the results could be much more catastrophic than anything we have seen with COVID.