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FRA Pride march in London last year. Credit: Getty.
Around the middle of last year, researchers in several countries started noticing something disturbing: despite the fall in Covid deaths everywhere, excess deaths (compared to the pre-pandemic five-year average) were actually rising. Even more worryingly, a disproportionate number of those excess deaths were occurring in young people. This was the opposite of what you would expect in the receding phase of a pandemic — one which had largely spared young people in the first place.
Some researchers sounded the alarm, but were largely ignored by governments, public health authorities and the mainstream media. It was a curious response from those who in the previous two and a half years had justified the complete upending of human societies on the basis of “preserving life”. Throughout the second half of 2022, however, excess deaths have continued to rise at faster rates, and have continued to do so in the first weeks of 2023, to the point that the problem has become impossible to ignore.
The BBC recently reported that more than 650,000 deaths were registered in the UK in 2022 — 9% more than 2019. That’s around 50,000 excess deaths, most of which have been concentrated in the second half of the year (since July, there have been an average of 1,300 additional deaths per week). Excluding the pandemic, this represents the highest excess deaths level in 70 years — and only a fraction of these deaths are attributable to Covid. Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that excess deaths were almost 3,000 higher than normal in the second week of January alone — more than 20% above the average. Covid-19 accounted for just 5% of the total. The week before, overall deaths were 30% higher than expected.
If we break the numbers down by age groups, the results are even more surprising. While excess deaths in most age groups, even if above average, tend to be lower than they were in 2020 and 2021, as you would expect, there is one outlier: people between the age of 0 and 24 registered lower-than-average death rates in 2020 and 2021. Throughout 2022, on the other hand, they have been dying at higher rates than expected. In other words, more young people are dying today in Britain than before, or even during, the pandemic — and we don’t know why.
And yet, despite this stark discrepancy, there has been a notable lack of public acknowledgement of the non-Covid mortality crisis — let alone any meaningful explanation as for what’s driving it. Earlier this month, Health Secretary Steve Barclay told Sky News that “it’s extremely complicated as to what the drive of those excess deaths are”. Meanwhile, health experts say the causes could include anything from ambulance delays, long waits in A&E and major backlogs for routine NHS care to high flu rates and long Covid. Indeed, the consensus seems to hold that the general breakdown of the NHS is largely to blame for the increase in excess deaths.
But there is a hole in this argument: excess deaths are a problem in a number of other high-income countries, where the “NHS is broken” argument doesn’t hold. According to EuroMOMO, a European mortality monitoring activity supported by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO), many European countries are showing elevated levels of excess mortality in all age groups — around 35% above average — and did so throughout 2022. In fact, despite relatively low Covid death rates, overall excess deaths in all age groups in Europe in 2022 were as high as in 2020 and higher than 2021 — even in the oldest cohorts. Beyond Europe, the situation is much the same: Australia and New Zealand recorded, respectively, 16% and 9% more excess deaths than the historical average in 2022, while in the United States, CDC data shows that the rate of non-Covid excess deaths in the first half of 2022 was even higher than in 2020 or 2021.
In short, a significant number of Western countries are experiencing a surge in excess deaths across all age groups. And there is no single explanation for this. Rather, each country seems to have its own theory — none of which have anything to do with the NHS. In Portugal, December saw excess deaths which beat all records of the previous 13 years, including during Covid-19, which the press attributes to an ageing population, and the resurgence of other respiratory viruses alongside the summer heat waves. In France and Spain, the summer heat waves are also seen as a clear cause of the excess deaths, while in Chile one additional cause of the surge in mortality was seen as “deaths avoided during the pandemic owing to the lower risk of certain events, like traffic accidents or injuries at work”.
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SubscribeIt is the vaccines. Every single thing we have been told about Covid, the mandates and the vaccines has been a lie. 9 year olds don’t have strokes and heart attacks – or at least they didn’t before the vaccines. We are still being told they are safe for pregnant women – they were never tested on pregnant women. The mainstream press are pushing all kinds of nonsense – gardening elevates your risk of heart attacks, etc. Here is a question for you – are they having excess deaths in Africa? In Haiti? In Bangladesh? The other problem is of course that even if there was a genuine reason for this – I simply won’t believe it. I, and millions like me, simply don’t believe the physicians, university professors and other institutional ‘leaders’ anymore. Or the mainstream media. They have no credibility – or power to persuade.
Good post.
The unnecessary deaths caused by the political lies will always be the most disastrous outcome remembered by individuals. But the catastrophic loss of of credibility of governing institutions throughout the West may yet turn out to be the most far-reaching consequence.
I wonder what the next dozen elections in the West will produce. It’s hard to guess, currently. Personally I hope it will be the start of an overthrow of the WEF-based order.
Good article but slightly nutty ranting comments
There are parallels with excess mortality from the post global financial crisis (GFC) data.
When the pandemic started there was clear data on the costs of societal disruption – increased excess mortality in mental health, cardiovascular and cancer deaths post GFC.
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/economic-downturn-excess-cancer-deaths-atun/
Although it is not exactly the same as covid, the parallels are manifest:
Loss of employment, insurance, loss of social connectiveness, loss of health screening all equal increased risk of death.
Maybe we should learn from recent history rather than rant.
Would you like to address any of the issues raised by the people you criticise, or just call them names?
The prominence of the ad hominem always gives away the weakness of the position. It also reveals the author to be uninterested in a fair and civil argument – the strategy is that the target (and onlookers harbouring sceptical thoughts) will stay quiet for fear of humiliation and social rejection. These anti-rational techniques have been embraced to devastating effect in the mainstream and its disappointing to see them here on a site that exists largely to try to counteract these toxins. But once all debates have collapsed into name calling, where does that leave a society with real problems to solve? When we resort to schoolyard techniques to sort out our problems, don’t be surprised that our once-enlightened society begins to resemble “Lord of the Flies”.
No.
The problem has not been one of “toxic debate”. There has *been* no “debate” because of totalitarian neo-Marxist propaganda and censorship.
I ddn’t know the Conservative Government was neo-Markist. We now know thanks to Big Brother Watch that his Govenermnt was up to some pretty unscrupulous surveillance during the Pandemic under the 77th Brigade.Not everything can be blamed on left wing politics.
I ddn’t know the Conservative Government was neo-Markist. We now know thanks to Big Brother Watch that his Govenermnt was up to some pretty unscrupulous surveillance during the Pandemic under the 77th Brigade.Not everything can be blamed on left wing politics.
What we have here are a lot of very angry (myself included) people expressing their anger at the whole lying covid-management debacle, and their anger at realizing that the societal institutions can no longer be believed or trusted in. When you have been brought up to trust these institutions—with fairly good reason—and then find they no longer can be believed, it is a bitter pill to swallow. Perhaps contributing to excess deaths.
No.
The problem has not been one of “toxic debate”. There has *been* no “debate” because of totalitarian neo-Marxist propaganda and censorship.
What we have here are a lot of very angry (myself included) people expressing their anger at the whole lying covid-management debacle, and their anger at realizing that the societal institutions can no longer be believed or trusted in. When you have been brought up to trust these institutions—with fairly good reason—and then find they no longer can be believed, it is a bitter pill to swallow. Perhaps contributing to excess deaths.
The prominence of the ad hominem always gives away the weakness of the position. It also reveals the author to be uninterested in a fair and civil argument – the strategy is that the target (and onlookers harbouring sceptical thoughts) will stay quiet for fear of humiliation and social rejection. These anti-rational techniques have been embraced to devastating effect in the mainstream and its disappointing to see them here on a site that exists largely to try to counteract these toxins. But once all debates have collapsed into name calling, where does that leave a society with real problems to solve? When we resort to schoolyard techniques to sort out our problems, don’t be surprised that our once-enlightened society begins to resemble “Lord of the Flies”.
Excellent comment. Expect many downvotes.
A comment only those jabbed and boosted could make or applaud.
That’s because you are wrong and weak
A comment only those jabbed and boosted could make or applaud.
That’s because you are wrong and weak
I think your comparison has some validity in the US. But very little in the UK.
It’s a fair statement, however, if we were asking the hard questions right now people wouldn’t have to “rant” as you suggest. This requires more than ranting at this stage, it requires shouting at the top of your lungs to have an independent investigative body struck that digs in, asks the hard questions, leaves no stone unturned and and does the proper data analysis. This will never happen – all manner of perverse incentives are driving our institutions to the complete opposite side of real science now. We are so far beyond a rant now.
None of this answers the question, why so many deaths in the young? Obesity? 20 pounds (even 50 pounds) overweight in the young would not be significant. Social isolation? They were not behaving like curtain twitching pensioners and carried on seeing their mates. Screening? What healthy 20 and thirty somethings spend time getting health screens?
And the 9 year olds having strokes?
Two obvious problems with drawing this parallel: the excess deaths we are currently experiencing are *much* higher than those following the GFC. And a large proportion of the deaths are sudden cardiovascular issues, not problems arising from the delayed treatment of treatable cancers.
I would also take issue with your description of ‘ranty’ comments: people have been raising concerns about excess deaths for many, many months but have been persistently censored, down-played or ignored – and so have had to shout.
One can only assume Mr Dale is an investor in Big Pharma or directly or indirectly a paid beneficiary of their ‘largesse’.
Yes indeed, the Lockdowns were not only harmful to physical health but the dire economic consequences are playing out now. We all know that one of the biggest factors in higher death rates is poverty which the lockdowns have caused in abundance. Professors and doctors who warned about the harmful consequences of lockdowns in the Great Barrington Declaration were suppressed and ridiculed. See the Twitter files.
Such a naive comment from someone sounding intelligent. This is your issue, you can’t see common sense! If it’s that obvious how can it be ignored. It’s people like you stopping us getting to the crux of the issue.
Would you like to address any of the issues raised by the people you criticise, or just call them names?
Excellent comment. Expect many downvotes.
I think your comparison has some validity in the US. But very little in the UK.
It’s a fair statement, however, if we were asking the hard questions right now people wouldn’t have to “rant” as you suggest. This requires more than ranting at this stage, it requires shouting at the top of your lungs to have an independent investigative body struck that digs in, asks the hard questions, leaves no stone unturned and and does the proper data analysis. This will never happen – all manner of perverse incentives are driving our institutions to the complete opposite side of real science now. We are so far beyond a rant now.
None of this answers the question, why so many deaths in the young? Obesity? 20 pounds (even 50 pounds) overweight in the young would not be significant. Social isolation? They were not behaving like curtain twitching pensioners and carried on seeing their mates. Screening? What healthy 20 and thirty somethings spend time getting health screens?
And the 9 year olds having strokes?
Two obvious problems with drawing this parallel: the excess deaths we are currently experiencing are *much* higher than those following the GFC. And a large proportion of the deaths are sudden cardiovascular issues, not problems arising from the delayed treatment of treatable cancers.
I would also take issue with your description of ‘ranty’ comments: people have been raising concerns about excess deaths for many, many months but have been persistently censored, down-played or ignored – and so have had to shout.
One can only assume Mr Dale is an investor in Big Pharma or directly or indirectly a paid beneficiary of their ‘largesse’.
Yes indeed, the Lockdowns were not only harmful to physical health but the dire economic consequences are playing out now. We all know that one of the biggest factors in higher death rates is poverty which the lockdowns have caused in abundance. Professors and doctors who warned about the harmful consequences of lockdowns in the Great Barrington Declaration were suppressed and ridiculed. See the Twitter files.
Such a naive comment from someone sounding intelligent. This is your issue, you can’t see common sense! If it’s that obvious how can it be ignored. It’s people like you stopping us getting to the crux of the issue.
Given that the article gives several plausible candidates for excess mortality what makes you so sure that it’s solely the vaccines?
My feeling is that for many who vehemently opposed the lockdowns they want it to be the vaccines because that would give them a weapon with which to punish the those inflicted the Covid restrictions on them.
I can understand this. Personally I feel like I was robbed of two years of my life, time we will not get back, by the lockdowns but this doesn’t mean we should throw reason out the window and adopt a kind of monomania with regards to the vaccines.
We know the vaccines can cause myocarditis but we also haven’t seen an associated increase in death rates from those diagnosed with vaccine induced heart problems, nor has a mechanism for how they would go on to cause death been identified. Given that studies find much higher rates of myocarditis in Covid patients, if there was an increased death rate due long term damage to the heart, how could it be distinguished that this was due to the vaccine and not Covid?
I still feel that the most likely explanation will be a combination of a wide number of factors: Lack of health care during the pandemic, later diagnosis, social isolation worsening health conditions or increasing deaths of despair, increased waiting lists due to backlogs in the health care system, potential immune naivety from certain viruses not been encountered for the last two years, rebounds in accidents from high risk behaviour which were suppressed by lockdown, the possibility that a disproportionate number of the very vulnerable were highly sheltered by the lockdown and now their mortality rates are returning to normal.
When faced with this Gordian knot of potential causes, the temptation might be to say, it’s all down to the vaccines, and cut it but expedient answers rarely are the correct ones.
“My feeling is that for many who vehemently opposed the lockdowns they want it to be the vaccines because that would give them a weapon with which to punish the those inflicted the Covid restrictions on them.”
Surely such people would blame the lockdowns, if that’s what they opposed? I can speak as one myself: I opposed the lockdowns on the grounds of their potential human cost, and it looks as if I was right. Why would I need to blame the vaccines, even if I also believe that the vaccines may well have had serious side-effects outweighing their benefits for certain groups?
Whatever combination of vaccines, lockdowns, or any of the other interventions or their economic consequences it might be, it’s clear that political and other authorities across the world and in the UK threw a generation of young people and children under the bus in a desperate, blind moral panic to protect, or be seen to be protecting, the elderly and the “vulnerable”.
Why don’t they try and find the humility and courage to try and learn lessons from this catastrophe, instead of burying their heads in the sand or trying to find someone else to blame? Truth and reconciliation is desperately needed.
Well said. But they will not. They cannot for fear of criminal sanction . Everyone in authority is complicit in the NHS First catastrophe. Everyone. But our media/BBC – to its eternal shame a guilty lead propagandist party in inducing public hysteria – will protect themselves, all the craven political parties and the authoritarian health Industrial complex with censorship and lies. And our supposed protector – the law – remain silent and unused. Human rights?? Yeh right. Magna Carta did ut better. It is like living under communism. They speak one false truth after another. Covid. Net Zero. Climate Emergency. Equality mania. We know it is a State ideology and riddled with lies. But we cannot remove the unelected technocracy which holds the levers of real power. So are are mute frustrated disempowered. And they get away with it.
Because the Blob doesn’t do humility and courage, or truth or reconciliation.
Well said. But they will not. They cannot for fear of criminal sanction . Everyone in authority is complicit in the NHS First catastrophe. Everyone. But our media/BBC – to its eternal shame a guilty lead propagandist party in inducing public hysteria – will protect themselves, all the craven political parties and the authoritarian health Industrial complex with censorship and lies. And our supposed protector – the law – remain silent and unused. Human rights?? Yeh right. Magna Carta did ut better. It is like living under communism. They speak one false truth after another. Covid. Net Zero. Climate Emergency. Equality mania. We know it is a State ideology and riddled with lies. But we cannot remove the unelected technocracy which holds the levers of real power. So are are mute frustrated disempowered. And they get away with it.
Because the Blob doesn’t do humility and courage, or truth or reconciliation.
Because it was always known on some level, even if the if governments failed to quantify it, that lockdown would cause harms. However, it could be argued that lockdown was to protect the most vulnerable therefore can be justified as an act of solidarity, whether you agree with that or not.
The vaccines, whilst they reduced the rates of deaths and serious illness failed in the end to prevent transmission, meaning that the mass vaccination of the under 50’s has no such justification. If it was to emerge that as well turning out to have been unnecessary, they also caused harm, this would be far more damaging for authorities. That’s why I think vaccines are the preferred target.
I am far more outraged about the pointless loss of my freedom – and I had it pretty easy – than a vaccination programme which actually was not coerced in the UK.
If you wanted to keep your job as the wage-earners in thousands of family had to do, you were coerced into having a vax.
Andrew this is inaccurate. There were many way in which the uptake was enforced. I could not travel to help my elderly father who was unwell and in need of urgent care as he lives – now lived – in another country if I did not take it. I have thus been coerced. Many would have lost their jobs.
As a person over 70 I had 2 emails 3texts and 2 phone calls trying to get me to be vaccinated. As a former biology teacher/lecturer I was aware that having contracted Covid (very mildly) before the vax was released I would have natural immunity. I was thrown out of my choir, my discussion group and slurred as an “anti-vaxxer” by many. Had I been less secure in my knowledge of immunology (and less bolshie) I would have submitted. 150,000 health care workers (mostly working class women)were sacked for refusing the vaccine (probably most had already got natural immunity from infection) and it was only when highly paid consultants in the NHS refused that the mandate was removed. One reason for the bed-blocking in hospitals at the moment……..
All this is coercion-not as bad as the USA (most congressmen have shares in Big Pharma) but coercion nonetheless.
I would never have submitted. Two reasons spring to mind:
A ‘safe and effective’ vaccine that the manufacturers insisted on being held unaccountable for.
No long-term effects of multiple mRNA jabs are known. Nor will be for some years yet. I thought I’d be fit enough to survive covid (true as it turned out) but didn’t think embracing an unknown was in my own interest.
I suppose a third (rather more latterly) would be the unfathomable drive to inject all those over 6 months of age, some of whom were at almost zero risk from covid.
“unfathomable drive”? As per the best advice in the history of journalism – follow the money. There’s no money in natural immunity.
“unfathomable drive”? As per the best advice in the history of journalism – follow the money. There’s no money in natural immunity.
All health workers are equal. It’s just that the consultants are much more equal than others. What did those consultants know that made them reluctant to get jabbed?
I would never have submitted. Two reasons spring to mind:
A ‘safe and effective’ vaccine that the manufacturers insisted on being held unaccountable for.
No long-term effects of multiple mRNA jabs are known. Nor will be for some years yet. I thought I’d be fit enough to survive covid (true as it turned out) but didn’t think embracing an unknown was in my own interest.
I suppose a third (rather more latterly) would be the unfathomable drive to inject all those over 6 months of age, some of whom were at almost zero risk from covid.
All health workers are equal. It’s just that the consultants are much more equal than others. What did those consultants know that made them reluctant to get jabbed?
There was coercion. If you wanted to preserve your freedom to travel, for example, you had to give into the coercion to get jabbed and show the certificate on demand.
I agree about the pointless loss of freedom. But as for: “… vaccination programme which actually was not coerced in the UK”. I did not get the vaccine and was not actually coerced in the sense of being forced to march to a vaccination centre. But I was certainly conscious of continual pressure from all sides. At the top, it was the repulsive Boris urging us to get jabbed. And the late Queen describing vaccine refusers as selfish. And the BBC ‘s ceaseless propaganda. At local level, it was the near horror from family and friends that I was unjabbed.
If you wanted to keep your job as the wage-earners in thousands of family had to do, you were coerced into having a vax.
Andrew this is inaccurate. There were many way in which the uptake was enforced. I could not travel to help my elderly father who was unwell and in need of urgent care as he lives – now lived – in another country if I did not take it. I have thus been coerced. Many would have lost their jobs.
As a person over 70 I had 2 emails 3texts and 2 phone calls trying to get me to be vaccinated. As a former biology teacher/lecturer I was aware that having contracted Covid (very mildly) before the vax was released I would have natural immunity. I was thrown out of my choir, my discussion group and slurred as an “anti-vaxxer” by many. Had I been less secure in my knowledge of immunology (and less bolshie) I would have submitted. 150,000 health care workers (mostly working class women)were sacked for refusing the vaccine (probably most had already got natural immunity from infection) and it was only when highly paid consultants in the NHS refused that the mandate was removed. One reason for the bed-blocking in hospitals at the moment……..
All this is coercion-not as bad as the USA (most congressmen have shares in Big Pharma) but coercion nonetheless.
There was coercion. If you wanted to preserve your freedom to travel, for example, you had to give into the coercion to get jabbed and show the certificate on demand.
I agree about the pointless loss of freedom. But as for: “… vaccination programme which actually was not coerced in the UK”. I did not get the vaccine and was not actually coerced in the sense of being forced to march to a vaccination centre. But I was certainly conscious of continual pressure from all sides. At the top, it was the repulsive Boris urging us to get jabbed. And the late Queen describing vaccine refusers as selfish. And the BBC ‘s ceaseless propaganda. At local level, it was the near horror from family and friends that I was unjabbed.
“The vaccines, whilst they reduced the rates of deaths and serious illness”
The evidence says otherwise, but don’t let that trouble you.
Since they managed to kick all those elderly patients out of hospital (untested) and back to their care homes, the argument for protecting the most vulnerable looks rather weak. It would have been kinder to shoot the ‘bed blockers’.
Add to that all the weak and vulnerable elderly who were locked up to die alone and unvisited.
I am far more outraged about the pointless loss of my freedom – and I had it pretty easy – than a vaccination programme which actually was not coerced in the UK.
“The vaccines, whilst they reduced the rates of deaths and serious illness”
The evidence says otherwise, but don’t let that trouble you.
Since they managed to kick all those elderly patients out of hospital (untested) and back to their care homes, the argument for protecting the most vulnerable looks rather weak. It would have been kinder to shoot the ‘bed blockers’.
Add to that all the weak and vulnerable elderly who were locked up to die alone and unvisited.
Speak for me, too. Sums up my position as well.
Aside from the creeping totalitarianism, I’ve not said much of anything regards to the vaccines.
I opposed both the lockdowns and the vaccines. Even if the vaccines were perfect the lockdowns were completely overdone especially for children. They achieved nothing in the end and people who tried to say so were suppressed on social media and in the press. For 2 years we were told that no sacrifice was too high if we could save just one 83 year old life. The drumbeat of alarm was beaten relentlessly. But suddenly there is a glaring lack of interest in excess deaths – including the very young. The media doesn’t talk about it at all. When young people literally stroke out live on TV – the response is a shrug. “Hey $@&$ happens – chill out.”
I remember the totally deranged comment from a guy interviewed on BBC radio in 2020. He declared that no price was too high to save one life from COVID… “a trillion pounds….” Which is about seven years expenditure on the whole of the NHS.
Which reminds me of the often repeated comment that the NHS is the nearest thing to a national religion in the UK. In our local Waterstones a few days ago, there was the history of 70 years of the NHS. It was in the religious books section between the Synod of 1559 and C S Lewis.
I remember the totally deranged comment from a guy interviewed on BBC radio in 2020. He declared that no price was too high to save one life from COVID… “a trillion pounds….” Which is about seven years expenditure on the whole of the NHS.
Which reminds me of the often repeated comment that the NHS is the nearest thing to a national religion in the UK. In our local Waterstones a few days ago, there was the history of 70 years of the NHS. It was in the religious books section between the Synod of 1559 and C S Lewis.
Too many people in my eyes aren’t able to do as you say unfortunately, they’re far too tribal. They didn’t like lockdowns (which I didn’t) therefore everything that was done in regards to Covid must have been wrong. We see the same in politics, where they believe everything one side says is right and the opposition always wrong when most of us know that’s nonsense
Everything that was done in regards to Covid *was* wrong.
But some people are just too cowardly to form an evidence-based opinion. They’d rather believe the garbage fed to them by the BBC and corrupt politicians.
Everything that was done in regards to Covid *was* wrong.
But some people are just too cowardly to form an evidence-based opinion. They’d rather believe the garbage fed to them by the BBC and corrupt politicians.
Whatever combination of vaccines, lockdowns, or any of the other interventions or their economic consequences it might be, it’s clear that political and other authorities across the world and in the UK threw a generation of young people and children under the bus in a desperate, blind moral panic to protect, or be seen to be protecting, the elderly and the “vulnerable”.
Why don’t they try and find the humility and courage to try and learn lessons from this catastrophe, instead of burying their heads in the sand or trying to find someone else to blame? Truth and reconciliation is desperately needed.
Because it was always known on some level, even if the if governments failed to quantify it, that lockdown would cause harms. However, it could be argued that lockdown was to protect the most vulnerable therefore can be justified as an act of solidarity, whether you agree with that or not.
The vaccines, whilst they reduced the rates of deaths and serious illness failed in the end to prevent transmission, meaning that the mass vaccination of the under 50’s has no such justification. If it was to emerge that as well turning out to have been unnecessary, they also caused harm, this would be far more damaging for authorities. That’s why I think vaccines are the preferred target.
Speak for me, too. Sums up my position as well.
Aside from the creeping totalitarianism, I’ve not said much of anything regards to the vaccines.
I opposed both the lockdowns and the vaccines. Even if the vaccines were perfect the lockdowns were completely overdone especially for children. They achieved nothing in the end and people who tried to say so were suppressed on social media and in the press. For 2 years we were told that no sacrifice was too high if we could save just one 83 year old life. The drumbeat of alarm was beaten relentlessly. But suddenly there is a glaring lack of interest in excess deaths – including the very young. The media doesn’t talk about it at all. When young people literally stroke out live on TV – the response is a shrug. “Hey $@&$ happens – chill out.”
Too many people in my eyes aren’t able to do as you say unfortunately, they’re far too tribal. They didn’t like lockdowns (which I didn’t) therefore everything that was done in regards to Covid must have been wrong. We see the same in politics, where they believe everything one side says is right and the opposition always wrong when most of us know that’s nonsense
Just to correct you somewhat. (a) In young men age 18-50 the frequency of myocarditis post-vaccination vastly surpasses that post-covid. (b) from a purely biological perspective, covid, in the vast majority of cases, is not a systemic disease but limited to the respiratory tract so the spike protein does not circulate in the blood; in the case of vaccination, the spike protein (synthesized within cells from the mRNA or DNA for the AZ vaccine) circulates throughout the body and is found in virtually every organ. That’s a completely different situation.
As for the causes of excess deaths one has to look at the age group and demographic where you don’t expect people to die of cardiovascular disease. i.e. very few people less than 50 are going to be on statins, for example, so Whitty’s argument/proposal is just idiotic (Not to mention that statins have absolutely no effect on mortality for those who haven’t yet experienced a cardiovascular event, except in very rare cases of inherited hyperlipidemias.
The virus has also been shown to cause myocarditis, so seeing as almost the entire population would have had at least one of the strains by now woukd that not also explain the rise rather than just the vaccines?
Yes indeed, but only in very rare cases does a covid infection result in myocarditis. That’s because the infection has to systemic and general it isn’t. For the vaccine, it is always given systemically.
Totally correct, but that doesn’t fit with the conspiracy.
Nope! https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9025013/
Nope. Why no excess deaths in Africa and India where the vast majority of the population got Covid and herd immunity eventually kicked in?
Yes indeed, but only in very rare cases does a covid infection result in myocarditis. That’s because the infection has to systemic and general it isn’t. For the vaccine, it is always given systemically.
Totally correct, but that doesn’t fit with the conspiracy.
Nope! https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9025013/
Nope. Why no excess deaths in Africa and India where the vast majority of the population got Covid and herd immunity eventually kicked in?
Your initial strong assertion isn’t supported by this article:
https://www.heart.org/en/news/2022/08/22/covid-19-infection-poses-higher-risk-for-myocarditis-than-vaccines#:~:text=Myocarditis%20is%20the%20inflammation%20of,keeps%20the%20heart%20pumping%20normally.
Yes but it’s supported by many papers in the literature including the recent studies out of Switzerland and thailand. As Vinay Prassad has pointed out, you cannot just put everybody in the same pot and compare 85 year olds to 18-29 yr olds! probably a good idea to understand the medical literature.
I’m not quite sure what to make of this study.
It compares the incidence of myocarditis in those who had Covid BEFORE receiving the ‘vaccine’ with those who contracted Covid AFTER the shot, reporting a higher incidence of myocarditis in the former.
Surely what is required is simply a comparison of the incidence of myocarditis in the UNVACCINATED with those who have received the ‘vaccine’, either before or after contracting Covid?
All along, I believed the forceful coercion, including the mandates, were a desperate bid to eliminate a most useful control group – the unvaccinated!
We have a control group – Africa!
We dont have a control group in Africa as coronovirus infections (non SARS) are quite common so there may well be a natural cross-over immunisation.
We dont have a control group in Africa as coronovirus infections (non SARS) are quite common so there may well be a natural cross-over immunisation.
We have a control group – Africa!
Yes but it’s supported by many papers in the literature including the recent studies out of Switzerland and thailand. As Vinay Prassad has pointed out, you cannot just put everybody in the same pot and compare 85 year olds to 18-29 yr olds! probably a good idea to understand the medical literature.
I’m not quite sure what to make of this study.
It compares the incidence of myocarditis in those who had Covid BEFORE receiving the ‘vaccine’ with those who contracted Covid AFTER the shot, reporting a higher incidence of myocarditis in the former.
Surely what is required is simply a comparison of the incidence of myocarditis in the UNVACCINATED with those who have received the ‘vaccine’, either before or after contracting Covid?
All along, I believed the forceful coercion, including the mandates, were a desperate bid to eliminate a most useful control group – the unvaccinated!
“Next slide, please”.
The virus has also been shown to cause myocarditis, so seeing as almost the entire population would have had at least one of the strains by now woukd that not also explain the rise rather than just the vaccines?
Your initial strong assertion isn’t supported by this article:
https://www.heart.org/en/news/2022/08/22/covid-19-infection-poses-higher-risk-for-myocarditis-than-vaccines#:~:text=Myocarditis%20is%20the%20inflammation%20of,keeps%20the%20heart%20pumping%20normally.
“Next slide, please”.
Obviously when faced with problems arising in complex systems, we grasp at simplistic solutions. The answer is unlikely to be simple – inconvenient as that may be for our need to understand. The problem the authors identify is a serious one – the vaccines have been prematurely ruled out as a cause of anything by our governments without anything near a sufficient level of study. And they are actively silencing and shaming anyone who wants to do those studies. The conspiracy theorizing around vaccines will only start to subside when the actual conspiracy to silence all criticism of the vaccines subsides.
You mean simplistic solutions like the contention that the entire global temperature is controlled by one variable – man made CO2? I can guarantee you that most people who believe fervently in vaccines – believe that simplistic story as well. I guess I am old fashioned and tend to believe in things that I have witnessed – like my child being vaccine injured – like the fact I don’t know anyone who has died from Covid who wasn’t old and sick – like the fact that I have had Covid three times despite being vaccinated. We have reached a certain intellectual nihilism where we literally don’t know who to believe anymore. I am as interested in hearing what a crackpot handing out flyers on a street corner has to say these days as I am in hearing what the head of the CDC is saying. They are both about equal in credibility – except one of them hasn’t already intentionally lied to the public to my knowledge.
Sometimes simple solutions are actually correct! We’ve known CO2 is a greenhouse gas for 150 years, (it’s why Venus is so much hotter than it ‘should’ be at its distance from the Sun), we know we are producing more and more of this gas, and we know world temperatures are rising. That doesn’t prove the case but makes a pretty strong ‘case to answer’. I’m rather mystified as to how anyone who has for example visited the Alps or any other mountain area with glaciers couldn’t be aware of the warning tendency. No one is saying that world climate is ‘controlled by one variable’, just that the one that has changed the most quickly happens to be man-made emissions of CO2.
None of that of course means that the world is going to end, humanity will become extinct or that current Net Zero policies are sensible (almost certainly not in my view). Bjorn Lomborg has a very balanced view
Clown. You’re seriously comparing the Earth’s atmosphere to Venus?
https://johnsullivan.substack.com/p/the-dummies-guide-to-uk-net-zero
Don’t be discouraged by the downvotes! The science is there, I was teaching about “global warming “ from 1968 onwards but the fat controllers wouldn’t listen and didn’t act soon enough. Always follow the money!
Sorry the Science isn’t there. There’s a lot more to it than CO2, not to mention that the effect of CO2 saturates rather quickly. Interestingly, a recent study published in one of the Nature Journals noted that the temperature in the alps was much much higher in the middle ages than it is now (based on tree line level, bison grazing, etc…).
Sorry the Science isn’t there. There’s a lot more to it than CO2, not to mention that the effect of CO2 saturates rather quickly. Interestingly, a recent study published in one of the Nature Journals noted that the temperature in the alps was much much higher in the middle ages than it is now (based on tree line level, bison grazing, etc…).
Clown. You’re seriously comparing the Earth’s atmosphere to Venus?
https://johnsullivan.substack.com/p/the-dummies-guide-to-uk-net-zero
Don’t be discouraged by the downvotes! The science is there, I was teaching about “global warming “ from 1968 onwards but the fat controllers wouldn’t listen and didn’t act soon enough. Always follow the money!
Sometimes simple solutions are actually correct! We’ve known CO2 is a greenhouse gas for 150 years, (it’s why Venus is so much hotter than it ‘should’ be at its distance from the Sun), we know we are producing more and more of this gas, and we know world temperatures are rising. That doesn’t prove the case but makes a pretty strong ‘case to answer’. I’m rather mystified as to how anyone who has for example visited the Alps or any other mountain area with glaciers couldn’t be aware of the warning tendency. No one is saying that world climate is ‘controlled by one variable’, just that the one that has changed the most quickly happens to be man-made emissions of CO2.
None of that of course means that the world is going to end, humanity will become extinct or that current Net Zero policies are sensible (almost certainly not in my view). Bjorn Lomborg has a very balanced view
You mean simplistic solutions like the contention that the entire global temperature is controlled by one variable – man made CO2? I can guarantee you that most people who believe fervently in vaccines – believe that simplistic story as well. I guess I am old fashioned and tend to believe in things that I have witnessed – like my child being vaccine injured – like the fact I don’t know anyone who has died from Covid who wasn’t old and sick – like the fact that I have had Covid three times despite being vaccinated. We have reached a certain intellectual nihilism where we literally don’t know who to believe anymore. I am as interested in hearing what a crackpot handing out flyers on a street corner has to say these days as I am in hearing what the head of the CDC is saying. They are both about equal in credibility – except one of them hasn’t already intentionally lied to the public to my knowledge.
The few studies I’ve seen seem to show that the vaccines increase the risk of myocarditis by an extra 10 people per million. By contrast catching Covid appears to show an increase of myocarditis by around 40 people per million.
Maybe you actually need to read more carefully. The best studies and data out of Israel, Thailand and Switzerland all indicate a rate of overt myocarditis in 18-29 yr old men of between 1 in 2000 to 1 in 10000, with a risk of sub-clinical myocarditis pegged at 1-2 orders of magnitude higher. You’ve got to read the literature a little more carefully and actually understand what you’re reading. You cannot lump 85 yr old women with 18-29 yr old men. That’s garbage science.
Maybe you actually need to read more carefully. The best studies and data out of Israel, Thailand and Switzerland all indicate a rate of overt myocarditis in 18-29 yr old men of between 1 in 2000 to 1 in 10000, with a risk of sub-clinical myocarditis pegged at 1-2 orders of magnitude higher. You’ve got to read the literature a little more carefully and actually understand what you’re reading. You cannot lump 85 yr old women with 18-29 yr old men. That’s garbage science.
Thanks for your measured comments Matthew, but those who ‘vehemently oppose lockdowns’ might be better placed to directly blame lockdowns!
I am personally far more outraged at having my liberty removed for no good reason – and I had it pretty easy – than a vaccination programme, though I tend to agree that was probably directed at far too great an age range (Denmark now doesn’t recommend vaccination below the age of 50).
Ostrich.
The most important point is to get your fact right. It is absolutely not the case that the rate of myocarditis following covid is greater than that following vaccination. You have to look at the appropriate age group and you cannot mix up 80 yr old ladies with 18-30 yr old young men. The risk of myocarditis in your men between the ages of 15-50 post-vaccination is real and very well established now (and varies anywhere from 1 in 1000 to 1 in 5000 depending on the study). The risk of sub-clinical myocarditis is 10-100 fold higher in young men. This was found both in the studies out of Switzerland and Thailand.
The second key point is not to throw out straw men arguments. Death in the less than 30s, other than by car/motorbike accidents, is just very very rare. For sure, young people can die from sudden arrythmias but this is super super rare.
“My feeling is that for many who vehemently opposed the lockdowns they want it to be the vaccines because that would give them a weapon with which to punish the those inflicted the Covid restrictions on them.”
Surely such people would blame the lockdowns, if that’s what they opposed? I can speak as one myself: I opposed the lockdowns on the grounds of their potential human cost, and it looks as if I was right. Why would I need to blame the vaccines, even if I also believe that the vaccines may well have had serious side-effects outweighing their benefits for certain groups?
Just to correct you somewhat. (a) In young men age 18-50 the frequency of myocarditis post-vaccination vastly surpasses that post-covid. (b) from a purely biological perspective, covid, in the vast majority of cases, is not a systemic disease but limited to the respiratory tract so the spike protein does not circulate in the blood; in the case of vaccination, the spike protein (synthesized within cells from the mRNA or DNA for the AZ vaccine) circulates throughout the body and is found in virtually every organ. That’s a completely different situation.
As for the causes of excess deaths one has to look at the age group and demographic where you don’t expect people to die of cardiovascular disease. i.e. very few people less than 50 are going to be on statins, for example, so Whitty’s argument/proposal is just idiotic (Not to mention that statins have absolutely no effect on mortality for those who haven’t yet experienced a cardiovascular event, except in very rare cases of inherited hyperlipidemias.
Obviously when faced with problems arising in complex systems, we grasp at simplistic solutions. The answer is unlikely to be simple – inconvenient as that may be for our need to understand. The problem the authors identify is a serious one – the vaccines have been prematurely ruled out as a cause of anything by our governments without anything near a sufficient level of study. And they are actively silencing and shaming anyone who wants to do those studies. The conspiracy theorizing around vaccines will only start to subside when the actual conspiracy to silence all criticism of the vaccines subsides.
The few studies I’ve seen seem to show that the vaccines increase the risk of myocarditis by an extra 10 people per million. By contrast catching Covid appears to show an increase of myocarditis by around 40 people per million.
Thanks for your measured comments Matthew, but those who ‘vehemently oppose lockdowns’ might be better placed to directly blame lockdowns!
I am personally far more outraged at having my liberty removed for no good reason – and I had it pretty easy – than a vaccination programme, though I tend to agree that was probably directed at far too great an age range (Denmark now doesn’t recommend vaccination below the age of 50).
Ostrich.
The most important point is to get your fact right. It is absolutely not the case that the rate of myocarditis following covid is greater than that following vaccination. You have to look at the appropriate age group and you cannot mix up 80 yr old ladies with 18-30 yr old young men. The risk of myocarditis in your men between the ages of 15-50 post-vaccination is real and very well established now (and varies anywhere from 1 in 1000 to 1 in 5000 depending on the study). The risk of sub-clinical myocarditis is 10-100 fold higher in young men. This was found both in the studies out of Switzerland and Thailand.
The second key point is not to throw out straw men arguments. Death in the less than 30s, other than by car/motorbike accidents, is just very very rare. For sure, young people can die from sudden arrythmias but this is super super rare.
Folks seem so certain it’s the vaccine yet there is no evidence. Maybe it’s just ingrained bias?
You’re right, there’s no evidence.
At least, not if you squeeze your eyes tight shut and stick your fingers in your ears.
Maybe you should read the article again
Maybe you should read the article again
You’re right, there’s no evidence.
At least, not if you squeeze your eyes tight shut and stick your fingers in your ears.
At 72 years of age not taking the COVID vax and not buying into the governments masks,social distancing,lock downs,forced inoculations and all the other BS they were peddling at the time was the wisest choice I eve made in my life.I’m in excellent health and feel as good as when I was 40.I have been to far to many funerals of people younger than me by decades who have dropped dead for no good reason and most of them were fully vaxed and boosted! I’ll never trust our government ever again for as long as I live because if you do so its at your own peril.
You see, I find this hard to believe personally. I’m a few decades younger than yourself and presumably know a lot more people of that age group than a retired man would through friends, work and coming from a large family, and yet the only person in that age group that I know who has died in the last few years did so because of a car crash. It seems rather convenient that you know lots of vaxxed young people who have died unexpectedly when it just so happens to prove the point you’re trying to make about the vaccines.
You see, I find this hard to believe personally. I’m a few decades younger than yourself and presumably know a lot more people of that age group than a retired man would through friends, work and coming from a large family, and yet the only person in that age group that I know who has died in the last few years did so because of a car crash. It seems rather convenient that you know lots of vaxxed young people who have died unexpectedly when it just so happens to prove the point you’re trying to make about the vaccines.
I’m not quite sure why you are so outraged about vaccinations but don’t even mention the imprisonment of the population in own own homes for months on end. I’m actually far more outraged about that, and it is very likely to have adverse medical effects.
Please stop this misinformation and baseless conspiracy theories! Follow the science!
Its a well known fact, that the “vaccines” give 100% (!!) IMMUNITY!
That is, it gives legal immunity to the producers, so no risk (for them) AT ALL!
A totally safe product!
The data on age adjusted mortality rates for never vaxed and at least one vax are available from the ONS. The main graph (which shows all-cause mortality among the never vaxed was higher than than the vaxed over 2021 and 2022) and a list of the and the ways that data can be misued by anti-vaxers are at https://twitter.com/PaulMainwood/status/1549170827354062849
The latter part of this article is an odd mix of links to papers and conspiracist websites, and would be better with those sites removed. Google “HART leaks” if you want a laugh, but otherwise ignore Fenton, Yeadon and the rest.
In Africa, we had very little vaccine and minimal lockdown. Where it was tried, it was shambolic. There has been no mention or discussion of excess deaths.
For Herd (funded by a Tory supporting millionaire) to survive it has to pander to Covid-Vaccine sceptic commentators who often make unsubstantiated assertions. If interested read this very carefully with an open mind: ‘Covid-19: Study provides further evidence that mRNA vaccines are safe in pregnancy’
https://www.bmj.com/content/378/bmj.o2013
Just read that article and it has to be the stupidest commentary ever on an article in the Lancet aimed at showing that the vaccine is safe in pregnancy.For heaven sake, even ibuprofen or a glass of wine isn’t safe in pregnancy and should be avoided. Moreover, since the vaccine currently fails to prevent infection or transmission, one might very well ask why subject oneself to double the risk: the risk from the vaccine and the risk if one catches covid.
The truth of the matter is that during pregnancy you want to avoid taking any type of medication if at all possible. Of course, that may not be possible, but one should always proceed with great caution, especially during the 1st trimester.
Just read that article and it has to be the stupidest commentary ever on an article in the Lancet aimed at showing that the vaccine is safe in pregnancy.For heaven sake, even ibuprofen or a glass of wine isn’t safe in pregnancy and should be avoided. Moreover, since the vaccine currently fails to prevent infection or transmission, one might very well ask why subject oneself to double the risk: the risk from the vaccine and the risk if one catches covid.
The truth of the matter is that during pregnancy you want to avoid taking any type of medication if at all possible. Of course, that may not be possible, but one should always proceed with great caution, especially during the 1st trimester.
Good post.
The unnecessary deaths caused by the political lies will always be the most disastrous outcome remembered by individuals. But the catastrophic loss of of credibility of governing institutions throughout the West may yet turn out to be the most far-reaching consequence.
I wonder what the next dozen elections in the West will produce. It’s hard to guess, currently. Personally I hope it will be the start of an overthrow of the WEF-based order.
Good article but slightly nutty ranting comments
There are parallels with excess mortality from the post global financial crisis (GFC) data.
When the pandemic started there was clear data on the costs of societal disruption – increased excess mortality in mental health, cardiovascular and cancer deaths post GFC.
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/economic-downturn-excess-cancer-deaths-atun/
Although it is not exactly the same as covid, the parallels are manifest:
Loss of employment, insurance, loss of social connectiveness, loss of health screening all equal increased risk of death.
Maybe we should learn from recent history rather than rant.
Given that the article gives several plausible candidates for excess mortality what makes you so sure that it’s solely the vaccines?
My feeling is that for many who vehemently opposed the lockdowns they want it to be the vaccines because that would give them a weapon with which to punish the those inflicted the Covid restrictions on them.
I can understand this. Personally I feel like I was robbed of two years of my life, time we will not get back, by the lockdowns but this doesn’t mean we should throw reason out the window and adopt a kind of monomania with regards to the vaccines.
We know the vaccines can cause myocarditis but we also haven’t seen an associated increase in death rates from those diagnosed with vaccine induced heart problems, nor has a mechanism for how they would go on to cause death been identified. Given that studies find much higher rates of myocarditis in Covid patients, if there was an increased death rate due long term damage to the heart, how could it be distinguished that this was due to the vaccine and not Covid?
I still feel that the most likely explanation will be a combination of a wide number of factors: Lack of health care during the pandemic, later diagnosis, social isolation worsening health conditions or increasing deaths of despair, increased waiting lists due to backlogs in the health care system, potential immune naivety from certain viruses not been encountered for the last two years, rebounds in accidents from high risk behaviour which were suppressed by lockdown, the possibility that a disproportionate number of the very vulnerable were highly sheltered by the lockdown and now their mortality rates are returning to normal.
When faced with this Gordian knot of potential causes, the temptation might be to say, it’s all down to the vaccines, and cut it but expedient answers rarely are the correct ones.
Folks seem so certain it’s the vaccine yet there is no evidence. Maybe it’s just ingrained bias?
At 72 years of age not taking the COVID vax and not buying into the governments masks,social distancing,lock downs,forced inoculations and all the other BS they were peddling at the time was the wisest choice I eve made in my life.I’m in excellent health and feel as good as when I was 40.I have been to far to many funerals of people younger than me by decades who have dropped dead for no good reason and most of them were fully vaxed and boosted! I’ll never trust our government ever again for as long as I live because if you do so its at your own peril.
I’m not quite sure why you are so outraged about vaccinations but don’t even mention the imprisonment of the population in own own homes for months on end. I’m actually far more outraged about that, and it is very likely to have adverse medical effects.
Please stop this misinformation and baseless conspiracy theories! Follow the science!
Its a well known fact, that the “vaccines” give 100% (!!) IMMUNITY!
That is, it gives legal immunity to the producers, so no risk (for them) AT ALL!
A totally safe product!
The data on age adjusted mortality rates for never vaxed and at least one vax are available from the ONS. The main graph (which shows all-cause mortality among the never vaxed was higher than than the vaxed over 2021 and 2022) and a list of the and the ways that data can be misued by anti-vaxers are at https://twitter.com/PaulMainwood/status/1549170827354062849
The latter part of this article is an odd mix of links to papers and conspiracist websites, and would be better with those sites removed. Google “HART leaks” if you want a laugh, but otherwise ignore Fenton, Yeadon and the rest.
In Africa, we had very little vaccine and minimal lockdown. Where it was tried, it was shambolic. There has been no mention or discussion of excess deaths.
For Herd (funded by a Tory supporting millionaire) to survive it has to pander to Covid-Vaccine sceptic commentators who often make unsubstantiated assertions. If interested read this very carefully with an open mind: ‘Covid-19: Study provides further evidence that mRNA vaccines are safe in pregnancy’
https://www.bmj.com/content/378/bmj.o2013
It is the vaccines. Every single thing we have been told about Covid, the mandates and the vaccines has been a lie. 9 year olds don’t have strokes and heart attacks – or at least they didn’t before the vaccines. We are still being told they are safe for pregnant women – they were never tested on pregnant women. The mainstream press are pushing all kinds of nonsense – gardening elevates your risk of heart attacks, etc. Here is a question for you – are they having excess deaths in Africa? In Haiti? In Bangladesh? The other problem is of course that even if there was a genuine reason for this – I simply won’t believe it. I, and millions like me, simply don’t believe the physicians, university professors and other institutional ‘leaders’ anymore. Or the mainstream media. They have no credibility – or power to persuade.
I was supportive at the start of the first lockdown and the first vaccines. But I think that everything that happened after that was both wrong, and unforgivable.
The problem was that our political class along with others in the West did not dare to consider changing course. A “sunk cost – bet the farm” mentality took over and cowardice prevented any questioning of it. That is the “wrong” part.
Meanwhile governments harnessed every resource at their disposal (along with some that should not have been at their disposal) to terrorise the populations into belief, while they bankrupted whole countries as their “easier softer route” rather than being honest and rigorously questioning their advisors, the evidence, and their own actions. That is the “unforgivable” part.
It really is unforgivable, and authorities should remain unforgiven until they apologise fulsomely, wholly and personally, to their populations for the weakness, dishonesty and cowardice that they have shown, and the countless thousands or millions of deaths they have deliberately caused..
We’ll, that’s not going to happen. I agree with you though.
At one time the opposition opposed and different points of view were voiced in parliament but there is little difference now between the political parties and no politician wants to take a controversial stance which could be exploited by the press,causing aggro. Too fatiguing!
As a result, we have lost the benefits of being a democracy. Freedom of speech is curtailed and decisions are taken through the strength and publicity given to all sorts of pressure groups( which only have minority followings.
It is a sorry state of affairs and we are lucky to have Unherd where different viewpoints can be aired. Unfortunately they don’t reach the mainstream media.
Expecting a few brave people to speak out was our wish but that was rare. When did nearly all our leaders become so sensitive? Perhaps because we wouldn’t proclaim “Let them speak”. Too many of us allowed the press to attack. We accepted cancelling and mocking attacks. OTOH, our governments have become quite skilled at using PsyOp tools that we are ill trained to deal with. Our press needs to identify and call out the use of those tools so we might learn.
Expecting a few brave people to speak out was our wish but that was rare. When did nearly all our leaders become so sensitive? Perhaps because we wouldn’t proclaim “Let them speak”. Too many of us allowed the press to attack. We accepted cancelling and mocking attacks. OTOH, our governments have become quite skilled at using PsyOp tools that we are ill trained to deal with. Our press needs to identify and call out the use of those tools so we might learn.
Deliberately caused? Baffling, this seems to be the ranting of a drunk in the street.
I have not known one person who has died from Covid. What I have personally experienced in my community, three suicides, multiple overdoses, failed marriages, financial ruin, anxious and overwrought kids and teens, future potential decimated. I could go on and on. I feel fortunate that Covid took no one I know, but do I turn a blind eye to all the rest that was a direct consequence of our response and hence deliberate? And after all this, we still have no leads on where Covid came from? The person who doesn’t think something is seriously amiss here is not only drunk but willfully blind.
You truly believe the government murdered thousands of people? Ok.
The government went ahead with a course of action involving lies deception and propagandising of the population knowing perfectly well from its own advisors that lives would be lost as a result of their actions.
So yes – deliberately killing…