It is a mistake to put science on a pedestal. Science is performed by scientists and like all other human activity it’s liable to fall victim to things like greed, vanity, and dishonesty.

I read ‘The real Anthony Fauci ‘ by Robert F Kennedy. This is a jaw-dropping exposé of how all research, labs and journals are dependent on money from Big Pharma, both here, in the US and worldwide. We simply can’t take anything these experts say at face value. I’m no conspiracy theorist, but I’ve a feeling the truth about the pandemic, it’s origins, the lockdowns and the ‘remedies ‘ will be far far worse than any conspiracist could dream up.

China will never allow the truth to come out on this. What we can acknowledge however is that the WHO has been thoroughly corrupted by China and Big Pharma, and we must resist the current push to make its pronouncements mandatory.

It is ironic that the man who coined the phrase and created the imagery of the pale blue dot that is now used by an elite to frighten us into submitting to their control had this to say in his book titled Pale Blue Dot:

“I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time – when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness…”

– Carl Sagan, astronomer, planetary scientist, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist.

And we are expected to believe scientists when it comes to global warming!

We owe Ian Birrell a debt of thanks. He’s been one of the very few journalists who’s been onto this from the get-go (even if I think he’s rather grudging in his acknowledgement of the work done by the individuals who comprise DRASTIC, who uncovered and published much of the evidence in the teeth of massive headwinds). The NY Times is still in denial and publishing rubbish and the rest of the MSM has shown little interest until very recently, if at all. So thanks, Ian. You, Alina Chan, Matt Ridley and the DRASTIC crew are the only people to come out of this with honour. As for the scientists . . .

Many of us fought tooth and nail to give credence to the lab leak theory being explored. Why? Because it was logical. We were called conspiracy theorists and racists.

As Winston Spencer Churchill put it so well, “scientists should be on TAP not on TOP.

Despite being caught out with written evidence that they lied to the U.S Congress, nothing will happen to any of these people. Modern scientists are a disgrace.

This is just the tip of the iceberg of politicized science. An unholy alliance of social engineering radicals, journalists, and compliant grant-seeking scientists has been pushing loaded scientific studies for decades on the environment, education, poverty, health care, sexuality and other fields. People have noticed that studies seem to mutate and even contradict themselves as political fashions change, with the result that trust in science is in the cellar.

Newton was independent because he was financially supported by his farm and Darwin had a private income. Once a scientist depends upon funds not of their own they are not independent. Or to put it bluntly does the scientist have Foxtrot Yankee money?

Science, at heart, is the disinterested and impartial pursuit of understanding, knowledge, and ultimately truth about how the universe and everything in it works. Everything from the smallest subatomic particles to the largest black holes and galaxies. It is a noble and honourable pursuit, showing mankind at its finest.
Unfortunately, science is practised by scientists, who are flawed and imperfect creatures like the rest of us. And too often since 2020 we have seen scientists at their worst: jealous of colleagues, intolerant of dissenting opinions, subject to groupthink and confirmation bias, and most shockingly, willing to prioritise politics and ideology above the scientific method in a toxic mix of activism and Lysenkoism.
It’s about time we subjected scientists to the same level of scrutiny and scepticism that we routinely apply to politicians. Scientists and other experts now wield a huge amount of power and influence over the public, and they need to be held to account.

Thank god this info is finally coming to light. Myself and other “conspiracy theorists” have known this for years. Still, as the saying goes “The truth is like a lion; you don’t have to defend it. Let it loose; it will defend itself.”

Just another example of corporate and political interests using science as a drunk uses a lamppost ie more for support than illumination. We see it everywhere from dodgy science used to support the “Trans debate” to climate change / net zero.
Proper science using the scientific method relies on being continually questioned, so that the answers it provides can evolve to be less wrong over time. This does not sit easily alongside political and corporate objectives where the imperative is to try to control the masses with their version of “truth”.
Sadly politics and money always trumps scientific integrity.

Looks like science is not a Nevil Shute novel after all. It’s more like a Michael Crichton or P.K. d**k – all cynicism, cover-ups and fame whores.

The louder they say “I’m following the science” the more worried you should be.
Absolute consensus is rare and even “scientific facts” like Newton laws are later challenged/ updated by further research (Einstein)
Challenging “the science” is what good science does.

Fauci’s organisation NIAIDS was set up as an arm of NIH right after 9/11 and the less remembered anthrax envelopes sent to Washington politicians. Its remit was to defend against chemical and biological attacks. Of course in researching how to defend against virus attacks the organisation soon involved itself in GOF (creation of offensive weaponry). The groundwork was outsourced to Wuhan. These were still the days of imaginary cooperation between the US and the CCP against ‘terror’. Peter Daszak’s group had the stated aim of discovering all possibly lethal viruses in the wild. (it has, since covid, become the organisational version of a non-person).
Defense/Offense? The Department of Defense is better understood as the War Ministry. ‘Minipeace’ as per Orwell.
Things went t#ts up – they do this in our human world. The sh#t hit the fan and the partygoers were nowhere to be seen (what, me guv?). This also can occur in our nobler than the apes society.
Look cold and hard and cynical at whatever our rulers and explainers come up with now. Assume that many conspiracy theories will be tomorrow’s truths. Use reason to distinguish between these theories and lizard people stuff. (OK even lizard people stuff is a metaphor).

“This murky affair appears to be the most terrible betrayal of science.”

Sir Patrick Vallance does not emerge from this with much credit. He said during the pandemic that “science is self-correcting”. But it is only self-correcting if the scientific method of challenging hypotheses is permitted. And it wasn’t. It was suppressed. And the real reason, as this article illustrates, was concern for the careers of scientists fearful for their funding. A total disgrace. Rather than prioritising their fear of the “sh*t show” that would ensue from giving credence to the lab leak theory, the likely consequence of reckless gain of function research and lax bio security, they should have stuck to the principle “let justice be done, though the heavens fall”. The deaths of 15 million people should demand nothing less.

Did anyone follow the money? These conspiring scientists must be the recipients of a shitload of grant money from various sources, enough to make worthwhile risking exposure .

One overlooked issue relating to Covid, and AMR (antimicrobial resistance) is that there will always infectious agents around and however much we know about them, they will always tend to cause illness. There is far too little interest in looking what to do to make people and animals more resilient to infectious agents. Much illness is caused by our immune systems not acting appropriately to normal daily infectious pressures: acting too much or in the wrong way (or in some cases acting insufficiently). This is about developing a societal outlook on fostering health and achieving resilience (of the people, not just the health systems). (note vaccinating, although can play its role in medicine = not the same as fostering health)
The research into this is less technical (as in laboratory technical) and therefore less exciting (les sexy…) and does not promise good financial returns for firms to invest in.(lab equipment, medicines, …) also, when people get healthy they do not need to take medication…
As long as we let most medical research being directed by investment funds (with an investment-return priority approach) there will be more covid histories. Good for the ‘health’ (illness) industry and media…., less so for us…

Brilliant paper, many thanks! If the position of the CEO of NatWest is considered to be untenable after a breach of confidentiality involving a single customer, how can Farrar continue in his current role with the WHO?

What is the ultimate power available to man? It isn’t nuclear weapons or modern warplanes or even communications technology. Those are just tools. The ultimate power is the power to decide what is ‘true’ and what is ‘false’. It is the ultimate wish of every tyrant who has ever lived, the ability to make declarations that carry the force of absolute, unquestioned, truth and have everyone march in lock step to those decrees. It doesn’t matter that the earth is actually round if everyone believes it to be flat. People will fear sailing off the edge of it whether it’s possible or not. It doesn’t matter if the climate is changing or not or what the actual consequences of a changed climate are. If everyone believes that the climate is changing and that it will lead to great catastrophe, they will embrace policies like NetZero. The reason science became what it is and was placed on the pedestal it has is because it relied on speaking truth to power, using gathered evidence to disprove the pronouncements of priests and tyrants. It required little more than the ability to read. Science was egalitarian. Anyone could do science. The experiments that schoolchildren can do at home with easily available materials were at one time cutting edge science that changed our civilization. In other words, those first few centuries of the scientific method was essentially gathering a lot of low hanging fruit. What counts as cutting edge science these days requires a high level of intelligence, near genius level mathematical aptitude, expensive computers, exotic materials, and/or a dozen or so other things I could name. In short, it requires a lot of money and resources, and those things generally have to come from powerful people or governments, who always have agendas of their own. Further, the processes used, the conclusions drawn, and the knowledge gained (if any) are far too complex for the average person to understand or critique. Even interpreting the science and understanding how the results actually affect people relies on expert opinion, and experts are as human and as susceptible to corruption as anyone else. Thus science becomes yet another tool of the powerful to exercise subtle and less than subtle control over the great mass of humanity. In short, science has been corrupted by human nature as thoroughly as organized religion has been and still is. It has become a de facto state religion with the added bonus of not having any sacred text to limit what the powerful can get away with and no higher power to appeal to. Scientists become what priests and prophets were to earlier civilizations, a source of information control that could be influenced or controlled in the same way as any other human being. Somewhat ironically, science may be able to supply our rulers with a power organized religion could not, the ultimate power, the ability to declare something, and have it be, for all intents and purposes, true, but only if science retains its image of incorruptible truth in the minds of the public, and that’s looking rather doubtful at the moment. Corrupted as it is, complex as it is, ‘science’ is bound to start making some pretty colossal errors that shatter the illusion of its infallibility.

Sociopathic spin doctorates weaponizing their PhDs are wreaking havoc.

We are doomed to repeat the covid disaster again and again until we learn something about humans. Humans have a touch of evil in them, and they are curious little monkey.’s, who love to tinker in the lab. There is big money to be made from spreading disease and killing competitors, extortion, and generally monopolizing the use of violence or the means of violence. See the work of signore Machiavelli if you need further elucidation. Now we will be blackmailed by every idiot-terrorist with a cell culture facility who can afford some ms level biological technicians, with a few years of education. How to defend ourselves? We will need a total survelance state where the government controls our every move.

Thanks for your report. Long story short, it’s a clusterfurin. As writers, we find ourselves in a Mary Shelley moment, with far too many choices about whodunit, who cleaved this, who inserted that . . . to produce the Furinestein monster of 2020.
This is a timely read for me, as I am now laid low by the covid escapee, two years after the fateful lab-leaking strike. I can testify that whatever this micro-monster is, it is no walk in the park.
Let us hope and pray that, however this pandemic has originated, our scientists who tinker with such bio-constructs will have learned a lesson or two about the frightful potentialities of gain-of-Frankenfunction research.

It’s amazing to me that anyone thought the lab leak idea was a conspiracy theory. Wuhan is a Chinese Communist facility (though it was funded in this instance by Fauci and his gang). Communists are reliably bad at doing stuff (think Lada’s, and most of the junk you can buy in dollar stores) and deeply, profoundly dishonest. These two facts alone pretty much scream “lab leak”. There was a time when we all knew this (OK maybe not Walter Duranty and the NYT, but everyone else).

Great article, except for the bit about Oppenheimer. It’s a shame he wasn’t ‘felled’ by ‘sinister events’ before he started working for the government.