Pandemic/My Story

2020

2020 was a year like no other.

In Australia the year began with devastating bushfires in the eastern States. News of a growing number of cases of a novel coronavirus in China was in the background until there was graphic video and the lockdown of Wuhan in January. But international travel enabled the disease to spread and on 11 March the Director General of the World Health Organisation, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, declared the outbreak a pandemic. I've never lived through a pandemic before. My grandparents did - the Spanish Influenza scare from 1918 to 1920 - but they never talked about it, so apart from reading I had no insight on what it was like a hundred years ago. I hoped that this one would not be as devastating.

Currently, I use a news aggregator to collect information from around the world but by April I reached an information overload and restricted my intake. The rest of the year went by like a roller-coaster and is just a blur. The world changed suddenly, and Australia changed with it. I can recall incidents like the huge explosion in Beruit, and a conflict in Armenia, which were tragic, local, and independent of the pandemic. But then, despite the dangers of the pandemic, social justice protests by Black Lives Matter and climate change activists like Extinction Rebellion found a voice that resonated globally. Riots, protests, violence and wars continued or flared in spite of the pandemic.

Lockdowns, implemented as a method to control the spread of the coronavirus, caused an economic slowdown but, paradoxically, temporarily led to cleaner air in some cities which showed people what action to protect our atmosphere and environment could achieve. However, lockdowns also enabled police and other authorities to exercise repressive powers under Emergency provisions that threaten freedom and liberty.

While the rest of the world was getting sicker, China seemed to have relatively few cases of the coronavirus and escalated military tension in the Asia-Pacific region. Residents of Hong Kong lost their freedoms and perhaps Taiwan will be next. It's like a new kind of cold war and has also been likened to the tension before WW II.

People not directly affected by the coronavirus couldn't escape an economic hit. Adults lost businesses, jobs, income or homes; many developed mental health problems and some chose suicide. Students' education was disrupted and they became socially isolated. Younger children became anxious; domestic violence and abuse increased. The very elderly, confined to nursing homes and prevented from having visitors suffered from the lack of contact, some had a lower standard of care, and many died from Covid or just gave up. The virus didn't do these things; the response did.

2021

New Years Eve celebrations were subdued and 2021 began as a continuum of 2020 but with the roll-out of vaccines took a new direction. Although case numbers and deaths continued to rise in most countries the promise of vaccines provided hope of a way out and an end to the cycle of lockdowns and economic collateral damage. And an end to the emergency provisions, wider police powers, military controlled roadblocks, and a return of civil liberties.

It hasn't worked out like that.

'Vaccines are a safe and effective means to save lives and bring the pandemic to an end. The benefits outweigh the risk.' That is a summary of the official narrative and I believed it.

The cracks in the narrative started to appear when people died in Norway after being vaccinated. Others developed blood clots. Considering the high number of people being vaccinated it was not surprising that a few would experience adverse reactions. However, through a private Facebook group focussed on reactions to mRNA vaccines I learnt that a lot of incidents were neither reported nor publicised. The turning point for me, however, was the day that Group simply disappeared. Facebook removed it. No explanation, no warning. Gone. As if it had never existed. And that, more than anything else, led me to research and find out what I ought to have known.

For the record, I knew that during 2020 the pandemic had been called a 'plandemic', partly because it was preceded by Event 201, and I dismissed that notion because governments and organisations routinely plan for disasters like a pandemic; they don't plan to implement a pandemic. Not unless it is a biowarfare situation. The Chinese vehemently denied that, and accused the USA of releasing the virus at the World Military Games in Wuhan. But the USA wouldn't be that stupid when they didn't have a cure, so it was most likely an accident. Doctors did find some effective treatments for Covid-19 and the America's Frontline Doctors did get some publicity but their story went into the background. Then there was talk of a 'reset'. I read The Great Reset and dismissed Klaus Schwab as an egocentric opportunist and the World Economic Forum as a self-appointed body that no-one (me) had heard of. Bill Gates' name cropped up a lot, often by protesters who our police called the 'tin-foil hat brigade'. I've used computers since the 1970's and Microsoft products since the beginning. So I knew how Bill Gates made a fortune and decided long ago that if he wanted to put his billions into a Foundation and do philanthropic works that was a noble thing to do. I was a bit concerned about the speed with which the vaccines were produced, and remain wary of the new mRNA technology, but the pharmacy companies can't just create something and market it without undergoing testing and then evaluation by government authorities who wouldn't let a product go to millions of people unless they truly believed it was safe, would they?

I now think most of those beliefs cannot be supported by evidence which is hidden in plain sight. That statement reads as though I have fact-checked my own paragraph! Just quickly, what follows is a summary of what I now believe to be true, or at least closer to the truth. For greater detail and references please follow links or read the relevant articles.

Summary

The novel coronavirus first appeared in China and although the wet market in Wuhan could have been a place where it spread it seems likely that somehow it is linked to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. The spread of the disease to the rest of the world was either deliberate or irresponsible. Either way, the rest of the world was not prepared for it. Doctors in the U.S. did find that some low cost medications, in combination and if administered early, could stop the disease from developing to a second, more deadly stage. However, pharmaceutical companies saw the pandemic as an opportunity to develop vaccines which are financially more profitable. But a vaccine could only be approved for use in an emergency if there was no other effective treatment. So the low cost options were discredited. The WHO ended any rational discussion by terminating support for trials (of low-cost treatments) and consequently thousands of people died prematurely.

When the pandemic was declared in March 2020 the WHO also identified an 'infodemic' and sought cooperation from the social media platforms to stop the spread of disinformation and misinformation. Mainstream media also joined the trend and, to be responsible, either fact-checked items themselves or used external fact-checking organisations. An organisation called the Centre for Countering Digital Hate conducted a survey and determined that twelve individuals or organisations were responsible for the majority of false information on the Internet or social media, so these entities were targeted and censored by Facebook and others. Lockdowns restricted civil liberties and the actions by, or for, the WHO limited free speech.

Consistent with the official narrative that the vaccines are safe, any information to the contrary was fact-checked and assessed as partially valid, or censored. Exceptions were the few occasions when public health experts admitted that a causal relationship existed between a person's death and a vaccine, although usually it was because of an undiagnosed health condition and no fault of the vaccine itself. Unfortunate, regrettable and our thoughts are with the family at this time...

In any country where the risk of contracting the coronavirus is high and death is likely because of factors including age, obesity, diabetes etc., it makes sense to get vaccinated because even if there are risks of adverse reactions (including death), the risk of serious illness or death after contracting the disease is probably higher. As the experts say, the benefits outweigh the risk. But my interpretation of that phrase now is that mass vaccination benefits the society or economy as a whole while the risk is borne by the individual. Each of us have to be informed and evaluate our own risk level. However, vaccination is becoming mandatory, enforced by law, policy or coercion.

The enthusiasm for vaccinating everyone has grown beyond the original need - the most vulnerable in the community were the elderly. People aged over 70 were most at risk from the original strain. Young people were not greatly affected. But politicians now want to achieve herd immunity through vaccination rates of 70% or 80% of the population, require vaccination for some occupations such as health care workers and staff in aged care facilities, may require a vaccination passport for admission to events or use of public transport, and the individual is thus coerced. A whole city can be held in a lockdown and told that it would not be necessary if the target vaccination rate had been achieved. Again, putting pressure on the individual. Even children are being vaccinated!

How is the vaccination record or passport going to be recorded? By a digital identity system. In Australia we have a Digital Transformation Agency. There will be something similar in most countries. There may not be an actual agenda or playbook for the whole scenario but it sure looks like it! I have called it a Confluence of ideas and agendas.

So, apart from being annoyed by Facebook for de-existing our Group, what has really motivated me to research and write is a growing belief that the 'truth' - the official narrative and the fact-checking scripts - is actually a lie, lots of them actually; and what is being dismissed as false, misleading or disinformation is more likely to contain the real truth. I don't like being lied to. The evidence is in the relevant articles - please see the Menu. I hope they will be helpful.

Grant
July 2021

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messenger RiboNucleic Acid

a pre-planned pandemic

World Health Organization