Anyone who has been to college will recognize that course number. Freshman courses start at 100, and the numbers get larger as you progress. Numbers below 100 mean that you need to make up for what you didn’t learn in high school. A lot of Americans simply can’t get to the starting blocks. They know they don’t trust the government and they don’t trust the media, but then they watch PMSNBC and take the CDC at its word. It’s clear that their cognitive isn’t connected, so they can’t even develop cognitive dissonance. Their brains are off and their transmission is stuck in Park. Let’s see if we can at least turn the key.
There is one absolute truth that must be understood as we begin. As Ayn Rand famously said, something cannot be both “A” and “not-A” at the same time. This is the Law of Non-Contradiction. A proposition cannot be both true and false at once. Another fallacy is simply presenting the word of another as gospel. This “Appeal to Authority” is a way for the person making the assertion to avoid confronting any information that might contradict the “authority’s” statements.
With Anthony Fauci as the face of the CDC (He’s at NIAID, but few notice the distinction.), we must ask a simple question. Has Anthony Fauci been consistent in his advice and practices? Many on the Left simply take his latest pronouncement at face value, never remembering that he has been all over the map on masks. In the beginning he said, in concert with CDC recommendations, that public masking was of no benefit. Then he flipped back and forth, making excuses for his earlier positions.” Once we get the vaccine, we won’t need masks.” Now CDC Director Walensky says the vax doesn’t matter. You have to wear a mask. Critical Thinking tells us that Fauci and the CDC are not to be trusted because they can’t keep their story straight. Were they wrong before, or are they wrong now? Were they lying? Heaven forbid! All we need to do is check the data. Masks in public don’t help. The CDC is stuck on stupid.
One example isn’t enough for this crew. Fauci told us that we needed 60% of people to get vaccinated for us to have “herd immunity.” Wikipedia notes that this is “indirect protection” that everyone gets when enough people become immune. It’s a concept, not a number, and it doesn’t say how that immunity arrives. But as more people got jabbed, suddenly the number crept up to 70%, 80%, and now everyone has to get the shot to get a “vaccine passport.” Critical analysis tells us that, since the goalposts are changing, this diktat from a government agency is suspect. But there’s more.
We’ve been lectured that the best immunity comes from the shot. Now CDC Director Walensky tells us that it’s not that good. Fully vaccinated people can readily spread the Delta Variant. The immunity it confers is waning, and we’ll need a booster. So the critical thinker has to ask if there’s another way to become immune. What if I have already had COVID? Believe it or not, Wikipedia, provides an answer. The concept of herd immunity was developed from naturally acquired measles immunity in the 1930s. Is it possible that the same is true for COVID?
A large Israeli study shows that getting the Wuhan Flu and recovering confers “durable immunity,” thirteen times better than the vaccine. The National Institutes of Health leans on a modeling study to say that the vaccine is better. But both can’t be true. So the critical thinker must ask why the results conflict. The NIH funded study looked at mechanisms, but the Israeli study looked at people. Mechanisms don’t get sick, people do. So the NIH proclamation doesn’t fit with the facts on the ground. Another government agency has lied to us. How long have they been lying? And about what subjects?
Every night for about a year, the Drive-by Media ran chirons with COVID case and death tickers. These stopped when Joe Biden occupied the White House. That alone should raise our antennae. Now with the Delta Variant, we’re getting panic porn about huge case increases. “Hospitals are being overcrowded” is the line, and the message is “Delta will kill you, get the shot!”
By now, the critical thinker will ask why hospitals are being overcrowded. This time, the answer is a bit harder to find, in that the MSM has simply not reported it. They have instead followed the CDC line that Hydroxychloroquine is hocus-pocus. They trumpeted a study that Lancet had to withdraw supposedly proving that doctors who prescribe HCQ are quacks. And a number of states prohibited the use of this safe and effective drug. The same thing is happening with Ivermectin. On August 26, ABC News trumpeted the fact that some people were getting problems from veterinary doses of Ivermectin. They didn’t report the fact that people had to resort to veterinary medications because of roadblocks thrown up by the powers that be.
Tracing this a bit farther, we have to ask why those roadblocks exist. At the risk of being a conspiracy theorist, we have to note that Anthony Fauci has been on the inside of coronavirus vaccine development for decades. He also helped develop remdesivir for AIDS, only to discover it was no help. The only treatment protocols Fauci and CDC have approved are for after people are so sick they have to come to the hospital. But there are at least thirteen effective protocols for at-home therapy.
It would be possible to go on into the wee hours with examples of how our “betters” at government agencies tell us to do things that are opposite to what the data shows. The very best face we can put on this is that there is disagreement. But the government insists that it is right, and all dissent must be suppressed. This should again suggest that the government is incorrect. After all, if the best argument that can be made is to shout us down, they the people shouting are almost certainly wrong.
Vigorous scientific dissent and discussion are excellent ways to reach truthful answers. Dictatorial responses only demonstrate a desire for power. Careful thinkers should rise up in firm opposition to petty dictators. For every complicated question, there’s a simple answer that’s wrong. Diktat’s are those simple answers. We must be free to make our own decisions.
Ted Noel MD posts on social media as DoctorTed and @vidzette.