Analysis: OFFICIAL COVID-19 CLAIMS - untouched disinformation or when fact-checking goes silent, Part 3
Analysis: OFFICIAL COVID-19 CLAIMS - untouched disinformation or when fact-checking goes silent, Part 3
Those in power, who have declared "the fight against disinformation" to be a key challenge for humanity, have spread a lot of it during the Covid crisis.
Key messages:
According to many respected doctors and scientists, the authorities turned out to be the main source of disinformation during the Covid crisis.
The WHO, the European Commission and the US administration declared Covid-19 to be a danger to everyone, even though scientists had shown early on that this claim was false and harmful.
For several years, the WHO claimed that SARS-Cov-2 was also surface transmitted, although early studies had clearly pointed to airborne transmission.
Opinions suggesting the lab-made origin of the SARS-Cov-2 virus were censored and labelled as "misinformation" and "conspiracy theory", though it has emerged that the non-zoonotic origin was ridiculed by scientists and public officials linked to the Wuhan Institute in China.
The effects of vaccines were the subject of disinformation and inflated assessments by the powers and medical authorities, on the basis of which the freedoms of millions of people were violated and coercion imposed.
The authorities systematically belittled or denied immunity from previous infection, even though many studies have shown the superiority of natural immunity and its role in providing recovery from the crisis.
Both the first and the second part of the analysis have shown that free speech is one of the main casualties when a society is plunged into a crisis or when an ongoing crisis is evoked. Pretexts for restricting differing opinions from the power lines are found and enforced, but the disinformation from the authorities is spread without limit and leads to no accountability. The censors' actions were vividly demonstrated during the Covid crisis, when critics were stigmatised by fact-checkers and subsequent attempts at cancellation.
Disinformation by the powers
In the Covid crisis, people were hungry for factual information because they were not getting adequate and reasonable answers from the authorities. According to Vinay Prasad, a Professor of Epidemiology at the University of California in the US, the authorities lied about many aspects of Covid-19, such as natural immunity, masks and vaccine mandates. Dr Martin Kulldorff, a Professor of Medicine at Harvard University in the US, has pointed out how Big Tech has been instrumental in spreading misinformation from the authorities about Covid-19, including the denial of natural immunity. Marty Makary, a Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University, has repeatedly pointed out that during the Covid crisis, many tragic mistakes were made by those in power, from school closures and mandatory masking of children to the denial of natural immunity and compulsory vaccination of the healthy. According to Jayanta Bhattacharya, a Professor of Medicine at Stanford University, governments have been a primary source of misinformation, especially regards to public health and science.
Prof Jayanta Bhattacharya:
“Governments are a primary source of misinformation, especially about public health and science. The academic discipline purporting to police disinformation selectively ignores government disinformation. As such, their primary purpose is to promote the propaganda of the powerful. There is no shortcut for scientists arguing with each other to inch towards scientific truth. Anyone or any group claiming to be the sole arbiter of scientific truth is very likely promoting propaganda.”
Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook and head of Meta, the company that owns the platform, has also admitted that the authorities misrepresented a whole series of facts and sought to censor many things on social media that, in retrospect, turned out to be disputable or untrue.
The above examples come from the most powerful country in the western world, which has had a significant impact on all the smaller countries in Europe and beyond. In what follows, we look at the disinformation disseminated by the authorities during the Covid crisis, the effects of which exacerbated the direct and indirect damage caused by the crisis.
Dangerousness of Covid-19
The European Commission:
“The coronavirus is exceptionally dangerous and affects our way of life. /.../ Anyone can be infected and this can lead to severe complications, even among the otherwise young and healthy.”
At the beginning of 2020, information of a viral outbreak in Wuhan, China, soon sparked an unprecedented wave of fear that would not be contained. The events in Wuhan culminated in the communist dictatorship's decision to lock down Wuhan and the whole of Hubei province. Such an unprecedented reaction was soon adopted by many European countries, further exacerbating fears of an 'unknown' virus.
During the Covid crisis, the European Commission consistently spread claims that the virus (Covid-19) was exceptionally dangerous and that the young and old alike are both at risk if they ignore the official warning advice.
However, scientists had already shown very early on, in studies carried out in the spring of 2020, that such a claim of exceptional danger was a blatant exaggeration. Also, by then there was already enough scientific data on Covid-19 to make rational and effective decisions and not to implement unnecessary and coercive measures to “contain the virus”.
According to a compelling study by Prof. John P. A. Ioannidis, published in the WHO's official journal in October 2020, the median infection fatality rate of Covid-19 was tens of times lower than WHO's previous assumptions, at just 0.23-0.27%, and for people under 70 years old it was as low as 0.05%.
In addition, it was also known very early on that there was a thousand-fold difference in the risk from Covid-19 across age groups. The underestimation of this disparity has been considered by several researchers as one of the major flaws in the response to the Covid crisis, amplified by the WHO, the EU Commission and national authorities.
The scare-mongering about the overall dangerousness of Covid-19 is just one example of the disinformation about Covid-19 that was systematically spread by power authorities and agencies in the Western world, i.e. in Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Disinformation was unfortunately also disseminated and kept for a long time on issues such as the Covid-19 spread, origin, vaccines and the concept of natural immunity.
The spread of Covid-19
Misleading information about the spread of the virus was also provided to the public by both the WHO and the authorities in Europe and the US during the crisis. For a long time, it was claimed that the coronavirus was spread substantially also through surfaces and that therefore disinfection and cleaning of surfaces should be a constant activity. Tens of millions of taxpayers' money were spent on such a disinfection drive, in Communist China both streets and roads were systematically sprayed and drones even sprayed synthetic substances into the air to 'get rid of pathogens'.
However, early studies showed that the airborne transmission route of those ultra tiny virus particles is the dominant for the spread of Covid-19, making it very difficult, if not impossible, to effectively prevent the spread of the virus. Similar problems were highlighted early on by a number of experts regarding face masks, but this did not lead most authorities to change their stance on the introduction of mask mandates.
In the autumn of 2022, WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan regretted that they had ignored the relevant evidence on the airborne spread of the coronavirus and had long held the view that the virus could spread primarily through surfaces:
"We should have done it much earlier, based on the available evidence, and it is something that has cost the organization. /.../ But at the same time, we were not forcefully saying: “This is an airborne virus.” I regret that we didn't do this much, much earlier."
The origin of Covid-19
Public statement from 27 scientists in The Lancet, published on February 19, 2020:
“We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin. /.../ Conspiracy theories do nothing but create fear, rumours, and prejudice that jeopardise our global collaboration in the fight against this virus.”
From the start, there were more questions than answers about the origin of the SARS-Cov-2 virus that causes Covid-19. However, a theory was put forward very early on that this 'novel' virus had been passed from animals to humans and was linked to an animal market in Wuhan, China.
In retrospect, it is worth noting how quickly and in what ways such conclusions were inculcated in the general public. As early as March 2020, two seminal articles appeared in respected medical journals establishing the natural origin of the virus for the mainstream media and fact-checkers. As a reminder, the WHO declared a global pandemic of Covid-19 on March 11, 2020. Just six days later, an article by five scientists on the origin of SARS-Cov-2 was published in the journal Nature Medicine, claiming that the analyses they had carried out showed that it was not a laboratory-created or manipulated virus. A few days earlier, however, The Lancet had published a public petition from 27 prominent scientists "strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that Covid-19 does not have a natural origin.". It also set a propagandistic tone on the issue and gave fact-checkers the argument they needed to label any scientist, researcher or doctor who asked critical questions as a purveyor of misinformation.
Much later, however, the real motive for such early and forceful intervention became clear - the lab-origin was ridiculed by scientists directly linked to the Wuhan Institute. Of the 27 scientists who signed the petition, 26 had professional links to the Wuhan research laboratory where the virus was likely to have originated. It also emerged that the public letter was secretly organised by Peter Daszak, president of the EcoHealth Alliance, who had worked for many years with Shi Zhenggli, a famous bat researcher at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Investigative journalist Ian Birrell has highlighted the collusion between high-ranking officials and biased scientists to cover up the possible emergence of the virus in the laboratory and publicly denigrate anyone who raises critical questions or hypotheses about the virus' origins. In his view, almost all Western media failed in their duty to challenge powerful players and vested interests on the crucial issue of the pandemic origins.
Associated Press fact-check in September 2020:
“CLAIM: Covid-19 is a man-made virus intentionally manufactured in a lab and released to the public. AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. Scientists say the molecular structure of SARS-CoV-2 rules out the possibility that the virus was created in a lab.”
Thus, quite from the beginning of the Covid crisis, efforts were regularly made to discredit the hypothesis that the Covid-19 virus could be of human origin.
Such a hypothesis was put forward by a number of scientists and experts, including Nobel laureate Prof Luc Montagnier (1932-2022), as early as spring 2020. It has been considered highly plausible by Prof Jeffrey Sachs, Chairman of the Covid-19 Commission of medical journal The Lancet, who has concluded in his work that dangerous biotechnological research has been hidden from the public. Along with Prof. Neil L. Harrison, Sachs has called on the authorities to investigate this important issue without delay. Virologist Dr Robert Redfield, who headed the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at the start of the coronavirus crisis, has long held that SARS-Cov-2 was caused by the laboratory.
Science journalist Nicholas Wade, whose in-depth analysis published in May 2021 partially broke the silence in the mainstream media about the origin of the virus, has presented further evidence in his March 2023 testimony to the US Congress that has led him to believe that humans were involved in the creation of the virus, e.g. references to the biology of SARS-Cov-2 furin cleavage site. At least two US government agencies have also concluded that the Covid virus is more likely to have originated in a laboratory than to have spread from animals to humans. But still, the Wikipedia article on Covid-19 refers to the "scientific consensus that the virus is most likely of zoonotic origin, from bats or another closely related mammal".
The Covid-19 vaccines have been subjected to similar suppression of debate and official misinformation as that surrounding the origin of the virus.
Covid-19 vaccines
In the midst of the Covid crisis, on 21 July 2021, President J. Biden, the highest ranking official of the most powerful country in the Western world, appeared on CNN to comment on current events and answer questions from viewers. On the subject of vaccines, among other things, he declared that if a person has been vaccinated, he will not get infected with Covid-19. According to him, vaccinated people also do not end up in hospital or intensive care unit and they also do not die from Covid-19. In the same presentation, he added that even if vaccinated people do "catch the virus", they are "unlikely to get sick".
A day later, CNN's own editorial staff assessed that, on Covid-19 vaccines and other issues, J. Biden had spread a lot of misinformation, misrepresented data or made inaccurate assessments in this broadcast. However, CNN's critical assessment was incomplete, because in fact most of the claims made by Biden in a firm tone about the effects of vaccines were false.
The head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Rochelle Walensky, has repeatedly misled the public by claiming that vaccinated people cannot spread the virus:
At the same time as J. Biden and others unleashed such a torrent of disinformation on society, officials in his administration pressured social media companies to censor and disavow many respected doctors and scientists who corrected him on social media about these claims. Some of these doctors and scientists have had to prove in US courts the existence of such censorship and its detrimental effect on their freedom of expression. But the disinformation of J. Biden and others escaped the censors because it was presented in the name of power. These allegations have been used as a basis by those in power in many smaller countries. On the basis of this disinformation and misconceptions, restrictions were imposed on hundreds of millions of people, and mRNA vaccines were imposed on the majority, with incalculable damage to human health.
The European Commission:
“Covid-19 vaccine side effects, if any, tend to be very mild and temporary.”
Regarding the effects of rapidly developed vaccines, both the US and EU authorities have consistently presented misleading information to the public in strong tones, for example that vaccine side effects, if any, tend to be very mild and temporary. However, this assessment is not supported by clinical trial data from the vaccine manufacturers, where more detailed analysis by researchers has found that trial participants were more likely to suffer a serious adverse reaction to the vaccine than to be hospitalised for Covid-19. In addition, studies have consistently highlighted concerns about the safety of vaccines and the reduced immunity associated with the injections. Thousands of scientists and doctors have warned against the side effects of vaccines, mass vaccination and the introduction of vaccine marketing.
The numerous problems with vaccines have recently led a politician in a major European country to change their stance on vaccine damage, and some have recognised the damage done to the many who were forced to take them, for instance Danielle Smith, the premier of Alberta, Canada.
However, there has been no apology from e.g. the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen - neither for her ominous statement in December 2021 calling for the introduction of compulsory Covid-19 vaccination in the EU, nor for the secrecy of vaccine contracts and text messages exchanged with the vaccine manufacturer Pfizer.
Concealing natural immunity
The European Commission:
“Natural immunity to Covid-19 after infection is temporary and people who were previously infected should still get vaccinated after consulting with their doctor. /.../ Be cautious when reading unverified claims about natural immunity to Covid-19 after infection.”
The existence of natural immunity unexpectedly became one of the bitterest disputes during the Covid crisis. Unexpectedly, because the emergence of a strong natural immunity after a viral respiratory illness had been generally accepted until then. However, during the Covid crisis, it became clear that a number of authorities (including the WHO) wanted to systematically downplay or even deny the immune protection resulting from previous infection, and not to take it into account when implementing public measures.
Both the EU Commission and the US CDC have for a long time spread the disinformation that the immunity gained from Covid-19 recovery is only temporary and inferior to vaccines, and that recovered patients should therefore be vaccinated anyway.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2021:
“It is a myth that the natural immunity someone gets from being sick with Covid 19 is better than the immunity from the Covid 19 vaccine. Getting sick with Covid-19 can offer some protection from future illness, sometimes called “natural immunity,” but the level of protection people get from having Covid-19 may vary depending on how mild or severe their illness was, the time since their infection, and their age. Getting a Covid-19 vaccination is a safer way to build protection than getting sick with Covid-19.”
At the same time, a number of studies since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis have shown that a significant proportion of the population may have already been immune to Covid-19, as SARS-Cov-2 is one of many coronaviruses.
Many scientists and doctors consider immunity from previous infection to be the longest lasting and most effective solution to the consequences of Covid-19. Individuals with natural immunity develop the strongest protection against the disease and should not have been subject to travel, occupational, medical or social restrictions. Transmission of the disease by healthy members of the community also leads to 'herd immunity' in the community, which is necessary to reduce the spread of the virus.
Several renowned scientists pointed out early on that the breakthrough creates a strong natural immunity that protects against further severe illness and death, probably permanently. By October 2021, the mid-point of the mass vaccination campaign, at least 81 studies had already been published confirming the strong immunity to Covid-19 acquired by previous infection.
Therefore, there was no need to vaccinate those who had been infected with and recovered from Covid-19. Nevertheless, in many countries the pressure to vaccinate was extended to those who had recovered and even to adolescents and young children. In this context, scientists who, unlike the authorities, emphasised the importance of natural immunity and the need to take it into account in national policies, were not only ignored but systematically censured and dismissed.
In conclusion,
the Covid crisis was a significant crisis of trust and discourse. Largely on the basis of disinformation and ignorance, the authorities in many countries imposed authoritarian restrictions and violated the individual freedoms of tens of millions of people. Various methods were used to silence critics and avoid scientific debate. As a result, trust in those in power, and unfortunately also in science and medicine, has been undermined, as the slogan 'follow the science' was used to justify the mis- and disinformation disseminated by the authorities. Thoughtful people of good heart should draw important conclusions from the above in order to prevent something similar from happening again in the future.