Birx as the COVID villain
This is an interesting documentary that makes the point that it was Dr. Deborah Birx rather than Fauci who set a great many of the COVID policies that hurt the nation. It also portrays Trump as a victim of Birx, helpless to effectively send a counter-message.
I see it as somewhat different: Birx was instrumental in the lockdown chain reaction, but so were many other players including Fauci and in particular many state governors (especially in blue states). Social media and the press were a big part of it, too, censoring and often ridiculing those who saw it differently. And although Trump tried to counter that, it was a relatively weak effort and not very successful – although granted, he wasn’t a health expert and was relying on those who supposedly were.
Dr. Scott Atlas was a dissenting voice of reason; I wrote about him in this post from December of 2021. Almost from the start, I was able to see that COVID fatalities were being over-hyped and were very much skewed to the elderly and already-ill, and that lockdowns longer than the first couple of weeks were dangerously counterproductive (I wrote about that, too, for example in this post from October of 2020). And even as early as February of 2020, when the best data we had were from the cruise ship Diamond Princess, I was able to write this post that made it clear the danger from COVID was not that severe.
I’m not saying I wrote these things because I’m so brilliant. I wrote them because they were obvious to anyone with a simple understanding of math. And yet, so many people acted on very different premises and under very different instructions. I’m putting this video up because I believe that Birx had an important role in all of that destructiveness, and I think it’s worth remembering:
Fauci’s rancid and entirely dishonest off-the-cuff remark about HCQ (albeit together with zinc and other supplements/vitamins)—that there was nothing more than “anecdotal evidence” WRT its effectiveness against viral infection—was toxic, setting the stage for ridiculing and denigrating ANY alternative to the HOLY vaccine narrative.
This same cavalier and criminally negligent attitude of ridicule and denigration carried over to other potentially helpful and useful alternatives—ESPECIALLY—Ivermectin, with the enthusiastic assistance of the Media, which was actively complicit in the campaign of carnage to push the vax-only stratagem of Fauci & Co.
Turned out there was a very good reason for the anti-Trump axis to conceal the efficacy and usefulness of vaccine alternatives, which, to this day, those moral and ethical monsters have been trying, if less than successfully, to cover up.
Fauci was all about short-man complex self-aggrandizing, I always thought. But: What was Birx’s motivation? She has a medical and military background, and so should have been pretty grounded and pragmatic in her thinking. Why did she choose to take the tack she did?
I mentioned the Diamond Princess results to a couple of women who were extremely motivated in the direction of doing and enforcing restrictive and stupid stuff. In other public issues, they’ve been similarly uninformed–a polite term–and they insisted the D.P. results were “lies”.
My guess is that their motivation was fear and then the satisfaction of “doing something”, and then finding out things weren’t so bad would be a disappointment.
Similar issues wrt AGW. If there’s no AGW, how can we make people do stupid stuff and feel good about it?
The above is not particularly charitable. But it, as written, does not include the “presentation”, the firm jaw, the super assertive tone, the absolute certainty that no evidence of any kind exists which could possibly contravene what makes them feel satisfied, or something.
IOW, Birx and company were playing to a really receptive audience.
Aggie:
The makers of the video seem to think it was her background in fighting AIDS as well as being quite risk-averse.
Also maybe drunk with power?
Fear is contagious, and it spreads quite easily. When the first confirmed case was identified in Everett, WA, the local news media were on it – it’s very contagious and lethal.
Grocery shelves with bleach, cleaning products, and medicinal alcohol were empty within two days. Panic buying of paper goods and other necessities turned them into luxuries in a few days. I was shocked to see it.
It was hard to fight against the fear that was spreading so quickly. Yet, as time went by and the evidence grew, it became clear that the virus was not wildly infectious, mostly ill elderly people were dying, and the masks were basically psychological crutches. Then it became clear that the Democrats were using the pandemic as a social experiment.
What’s maddening is that there has not been a wide scale analysis of what was done with an eye for identifying all the mistakes that were made and what was done well. Another new virus will come along some day, and we might be better prepared for handling it…..if we do the analysis.
“…for identifying all the mistakes…”
The problem, though, is that these were NOT MISTAKES.
This was a callous, murderous politically motivated program to instill fear in the population for political purposes…and for FUTURE USE.
If you’re looking for mistakes, they were mentioned relatively early on…and those warning about them were ridiculed, canceled and in too many cases, fired.
Mistakes? Not when your intention is to hijack a country.
This should remain a shameful episode of what the administrative state can do when unchecked. But most heinous was the lockdown of our schools. The damage to kids was the worst. And we had the example of Europe that didn’t shut down and showed us schools weren’t a vector and not a danger to the kids or society.
I don’t know about the future use part. I don’t think we will ever cooperate with a shutdown again.
I watched the video earlier today, and one of the things that struck me, and indicated just how much of an uphill climb Dr. Atlas and the other “outliers” had to climb, was this (transcript formatting is the pits, sorry): beginning about 10:27.
It wasn’t obvious enough, apparently, although Sarah Hoyt picked up on exactly the same point from the Cruise Ship data and hammered it for years.
Innumeracy in the general population is bad enough; at the levels these “scientists” were supposedly operating on, it is a national scandal.
I’m not going to rehash the last few years commentary, but the failure of our “experts” is glaringly obvious (and not just at the CDC), but nobody ever gets fired.
I have a fantasy of Birx, Fauci, Cuomo, and a few other people finally getting to the “other side” to find a welcoming committee of a few million people between them and the Pearly Gates (or wherever).
Even if all they do is just tell those charlatans their stories — for eternity.
Here’s a repost of one of Sarah Hoyt’s early covid articles, in which she notes most of the things that Dr. Atlas and the others in the documentary said about the virus and the economy.
https://accordingtohoyt.com/2024/03/28/cures-and-diseases-a-blast-from-the-past-from-3-24-2020/
This is right at the end of the two weeks to save the world scam.
ABC last month:
“The WHO declared the global COVID outbreak a pandemic on March 11, 2020. Monday marks four years since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic.”
I’m reading hysterical stories about bird flu. I will be very suspicious of health “authorities” and will try to find reliable information. They’re going to do this again.
Which reminds me, on Wednesday night I came down with a head cold. Took an ivermectin which I had ordered from India, and started quecertin+zinc. I was MUCH better by late afternoon yesterday.
What will make me especially cautious about believing the CDC going forward is that the new director was our state health director (NC) in the COVID panic. Dr. Cohen was, and is, a true believer in lockdowns, masks, and mRNA shots for all.
Judging from a lot of recent videos on Youtube, they’re a lot of such “spirits” on Spirit Airlines these days.*
I wonder if the long ordeal of COVID had something to do with amping up, then turning loose a lot of “spirits,” attitudes and behaviors which had formerly been contained?
* See https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/04/i-cant-breathe-this-is-george-floyd-woman/
Kate brings up a timely warning about the CDC and avian flu. If you look at these early reports from the CDC they echo late 2019 and Covid. They are laying the groundwork for another election pandemic and lockdowns. 2 “known” human cases so far in the US. Let’s see how that number changes over the next few weeks. My guess is that it will start to look exponential as they ramp up the fear factor. Note also the timing. A month or so later than 2020, but right on track for the election.
The video understates the role the VP played in running the task force and allowing (encouraging?) Birx, et al to disregard and undermine the President. The sequel should address why the President tried to outvoice them rather than relieve them.
The bird flu panic is likely to be used to justify the widespread deployment of a taxpayer funded rapidly produced MRNA flu shot.
The press was breathlessly counting every case and every death. And of course if you died *with* covid, you were counted as dying *of* covid. I remember talking about this with the plumber when he came over and I told him to forget the mask.
I think the Left and their enablers saw a grand once in a lifetime opportunity to exercise power and control and effect the 2020 presidential election and had no qualms about destroying lives, mental health, and small businesses for the “greater good” of getting rid of “Orange Man”. To this day there are still people who wear masks all the time as if this was April, 5, 2020. I want to say to them “What will it take for you four years after the lockdowns began and how many vaccinations and boosters you have had, to put the masks away?” but then I think it is not my business and it is all virtue signaling on their part. I recall in my apartment building people getting on to the elevator and instead of pressing with their thumb the button to the floor that they want to get to they were pressing it with their key, elbow, or knee cap!
While people got sick and some died, the Diamond Princess incident was such an early gift to understanding the contagion.
Another thing the I found extremely irksome, was that continuing practice of hyping every new mutation as being more contagious, with no mention of the severity. While I’ve never read one, but I’m sure reliable textbooks on viral infectious diseases exist. And I think covid pretty much followed the understood trends. But nooo… This contagion is new and novel and ever so unique. Pay no attention to those textbooks.
I finally caught covid several months ago. It was about as severe and long lasting as a modest hangover.
crazy, they know what this bird flu is. If they start now they can add it to the fall flu shot, and I’ll get one. No need for an mRNA.
I guess we could call this a socio-political plague. Shame on all of us — the experts who weren’t, and the public who followed like sheep. The last four years made fools of scientists, public health officials, and us in general.
My own experience:
I was commander of a Civil Air Patrol squadron in northern Nevada. We were obviously concerned with the health of our cadets (11-18 years) and our Senior Members with complicating health issues or over about 70 years. So I tried to learn what I could in order to give the best guidance to the members of our squadron.
Early guidance from the national and state officials was tentative and not very reassuring. We went from in-person meetings to video meetings, and stopped flying. It soon became obvious ending flight ops was a likely death sentence to the organization, so we moved to limited flight ops with masks and disinfecting the controls of the aircraft. And when the vaccines became available, we mandated vaccines.
But I was skeptical about what we were being told to do, especially since I had read the Diamond Princess case very early on, and masks and disinfecting surfaces seemed less important than we were telling our members. I did insist on frequent hand-washing, though, as it certainly doesn’t hurt.
A squadron of 60 or so people lost half its members to disinterest in 18 months, but experienced no deaths. I put down the decline in membership first to the loss of the social aspect of our face-to-face meetings, followed quickly by the loss of flying privileges.
I had be vaccinated to keep my commander’s job. I probably would have done so anyway in the early days, but when masks and vaccinations didn’t appear to stop infection over the first two years, I lost my respect for those interventions.
Reflecting on the experience four years hence, I think the squadron weathered the storm reasonably well. But we were irrevocably changed and I am deeply disappointed in a whole lot of people from Dr. Birx to leaders of our organization. And I am saddened too, that so many of us followed the poor guidance.
I hear you Kate, but can we trust those who pushed the Covid vax to not sneak a little mRNA into the flu syringe?
That said, excellent post, excellent video, my Covid work here may very well be done.
“Mistakes? Not when your intention is to hijack a country.” – Barry M.
It certainly appears that using the pandemic for political gain was in the minds of many Democrat politicians. But what about the scientists? I think that their opinions weren’t necessarily political. Why they wouldn’t consider the opinions of Scott Atlas and others who had excellent scientific backgrounds is puzzling. Birx and Fauci as closet Marxists? Or anarchists. Or was it primarily TDS? Or just an honest difference of opinion? Only an investigation will reveal the answers.
I’m hoping that if Trump is elected, he will appoint a group to study this, and create a game plan for dealing with future pandemics. It’s the practical, smart thing to do. If Birx and Fauci’s reputations suffer, so be it.
Fauci was the front man. Whoever the mastermind was — if there was one — Fauci was the one who convinced most of the public to go along. Being the face of COVID, it was easier for Fauci to get the media and local officials to fall in line than it would have been for some unknown figure whispering directions from behind the scenes. For many in the public, he was the kindly old GP who wouldn’t lie to you. For DC and the media, it was enough that he was anti-Trump.
Some want to blame Pence for all the COVID problems, but I suspect he was just an empty suit who went along with what Fauci, Birx, Collins and others were telling him. He wasn’t going to intentionally doom Trump’s campaign — and his own career.
I read Atlas’ book. He seems to think that Kushner, who was running the re-election campaign, was the one who would not fire Fauci and Birx. Trump is too dependent on his family but everybody else in DC has stabbed him in the back.
Dr. Michael Osterholm is Minnesota’s epidemiologist. His department has tracked down contaminated food and other problems when CDC could not. He wrote a book in 2017 that laid out the Covid scenario almost perfectly.
The book also included the guidelines that leading epidemiologists had devised for when such an outbreak happened. Protect the vulnerable. Don’t mask. Don’t close schools. Let it pass through.
And then they threw all of those out the door and went into panic mode.
Osterholm thought his big chance for the brass ring (head of CDC) was at hand. He signed on to Biden’s campaign. His well-earned reputation for being non-political was gone. Sadly for him, he was the wrong color and sex.
Now he’s back in Minnesota and has another book coming out. It will be interesting to see if he issues a mea culpa for abandoning his principles.
Kate, as I understand it there is no human vaccine for bird flu (H5N1) that could be added to this year’s seasonal flu shot.
Efforts continue to move to MRNA vaccinations. For example, Moderna just announced 3 new MRNA shots for Epstein-Barr, Varicella-Zoster and Norovirus. In addition, NIH began clinical trials of a MRNA universal flu vaccine last May. A bird flu pandemic, if there is to be one, would provide an ideal opportunity to brew one up and rapidly produce and roll it out since this year’s flu shot is already in production. Let’s hope neither happens.
https://www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/hpai/hpai-interim-recommendations.html#recommendations-farmers
https://pjmedia.com/benbartee/2024/04/05/moderna-announces-mrna-injections-to-prevent-potential-side-effects-of-covid-mrna-injections-n4927932
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/clinical-trial-mrna-universal-influenza-vaccine-candidate-begins
@ crasey > “The video understates the role the VP played in running the task force and allowing (encouraging?) Birx, et al to disregard and undermine the President”
That jumped out at me immediately from the video (probably inserted for exactly that reason), but still – Pence’s response to Birx should have been, “Let’s both go see the President and get his instructions.”
I also wondered if Pence was ever included in Trump’s conversations with Atlas and the other “outliers” (IOW actual scientists), and if not, why not?
“The sequel should address why the President tried to outvoice them rather than relieve them.”
Indeed.
J.J. on April 4, 2024 at 11:33 pm
“What’s maddening is that there has not been a wide scale analysis of what was done with an eye for identifying all the mistakes that were made and what was done well. Another new virus will come along some day, and we might be better prepared for handling it…..if we do the analysis.”
I concur 100%. And not just for the medical aspects, but also to cover the legal pros and cons of the state and federal level police powers. If something much more serious than Covid comes our way, those powers may need to legitimately be more pronounced than is usual, but subject to frequent review and countervailing controls.
Chases Eagles on April 5, 2024 at 12:41 am said:
“I don’t know about the future use part. I don’t think we will ever cooperate with a shutdown again.”
We will hopefully be much more critical of the rules and forces being arrayed against us “for our own good”, but we can hope this past experience will lead to better and wiser counsel and enforcements if/when something more severe does appear.
But 20 years from now those lessons may well be forgotten.
Plus the comments here about Bird flu are not encouraging, either.
BrooklynBoy on April 5, 2024 at 11:03 am
“… instead of pressing with their thumb the button to the floor that they want to get to they were pressing it with their key, elbow, or knee cap!” At least they did not try to use their tongue!!
If we are to believe Rand Paul, then Fauci and Collins were both neck deep in funding gain of function research, essentially “sourcing” Covid with US $? It seems somehow Collins, who had a solid scientific reputation, is still relatively free of any stain from this connection.
People never seem to learn that honest mistakes can and will be forgiven, but trying to cover up the mistake is what leads to their eventual downfall, in reputation, wealth, criminality, etc.
The answer to just one of the questions about why did they…
Literally criminalize the use of HCQ and IVM, and not just their use but even the discussion of them as potential therapeutics: to preserve the EUA. There can be no other reason.
I have no answers for the other why’s though I expect they involve the following:
Birx as a one trick pony.
Academics defending their early, and early disproved models.
Turf protection.
Politics and TDS.
Greed.
Incompetence.
The one why that cannot be answered by any of these is: why did they stuff covid positive patients into nursing homes? That just seems murderous.
They were not mistakes they were criminal malfeasance that wrecked the world fauci was just the most significant player although the british and french health ministries had equal influence
I just heard a persuasive argument from Deborah Lerman, Brownstone contributing author, that the Deep State is, at its core, an alliance of the security apparatus (including the miliary) with corporations. Multiple other layers of government and non-government organizations are affiliated and/or cooperative, but we are talking about today’s iteration of the Military Industrial Complex that President Eisenhower warned us about.
Re: Deborah Birx. According to Scott Atlas, it was she who was calling (or relaying) the shots at the White House/Federal gov’t. And the origin of Birx’s rise to that position is murky and dubious—officials say she just kinda appeared on the scene despite not having a strong background in public health, virology, or epidemiology. And her most recent background was linked to….the security state.