The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast - January 31, 2022


222. Needle Points ｜ Norman Doidge

Topics
Needle Points and COVID-19 vaccine vaccination hesitancy tyranny of the majority censorship of vaccine science findings vaccine trials secrecy clinical trial efficacy raw vaccine data availability gain-of-function research FDA approval and Vaccine Hesitant censorship crisis vaccination hesitancy Vaccine Mandates & hesitancy
Hosted by
Jordan B. Peterson Mikhaila Peterson
Guests
Norman Doidge
Mentioned
Pfizer Moderna Norman Doidge Rochelle Walensky Marsha Engel Joe Biden Magnesium Breakthrough Aaron Kesselheim Peter Doshi Jordan Peterson Marty McCary Hallow Francis Collins Anthony Fauci Kulldorff Vaccine Vioxx Janet Woodcock John Stuart Mill Shi Zheng Li and 87 more
221. Canadian Constitutional Crisis ｜ Brian Peckford 223. Cruelty ｜ Charles Joseph

Episode Stats


Length

3 hours and 29 minutes

Words per minute

130.67

Word count

27,365

Sentence count

1,365

Harmful content

Misogyny

19

sentences flagged

Toxicity

23

sentences flagged

Hate speech

68

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Dr. Jordan B. Peterson has created a new series that could be a lifeline for those battling depression and anxiety. We know how isolating and overwhelming these conditions can be, and we wanted to take a moment to reach out to those listening who may be struggling. With decades of experience helping patients, Dr. Peterson offers a unique understanding of why you might be feeling this way. He provides a roadmap towards healing, showing that while the journey isn t easy, it s absolutely possible to find your way forward. If you re suffering, please know you are not alone. There s hope and there s a path to feeling better. Go to Dailywire.plus/JBPpodcast and start watching this new series on Depression and Anxiety, starting now. Subscribe to Daily Wire Plus now and start getting 20% off plus a 10% senior or military discount. That s a 20% discount plus a $10 discount per household. You can sign up for $10 a month or $100 a year. That'll change what you press on in Spotify or Apple Podcasts, or wherever else you listen to podcasts to the ad-free version. This is a crucial piece of journalism, and I'm glad we can put it out in front of so many of you! Dr. Norman Doidge is a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, author, and author of The Brain That Changes Itself. He was part of the research faculty at Columbia University and the University of Toronto's psychiatry department for 30 years. He was a member of the Jung Society in Montreal's Psychiatry Department for over 30 years, and was a founding member of The Jung s The Jung Society. . He's a writer, and he's also writes for The New York Times bestseller, and is a public speaker, and has been a regular contributor to The Daily Wire, and a regular guest on the New York Magazine, and his wife, and writes a blog, and hosts a podcast. and is the author, a podcast, and so much more. In this is a must-listen-listener, and you can get a copy of his work on this episode of his book, The God That Changes itself. And he's got it all. Thanks to Dr. Pajot, and it's a free copy of The Divine Feminine Feminine, coming soon. If you want an ad free experience of this podcast, check out show notes, check it out here.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
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00:01:16.880 Hey everyone, real quick before you skip, I want to talk to you about something serious and important.
00:01:21.560 Dr. Jordan Peterson has created a new series that could be a lifeline for those battling depression
00:01:27.040 and anxiety. We know how isolating and overwhelming these conditions can be, and we wanted to take a
00:01:32.820 moment to reach out to those listening who may be struggling. With decades of experience helping
00:01:37.440 patients, Dr. Peterson offers a unique understanding of why you might be feeling this way in his new
00:01:42.680 series. He provides a roadmap towards healing, showing that while the journey isn't easy, it's absolutely
00:01:48.680 possible to find your way forward. If you're suffering, please know you are not alone. There's
00:01:54.460 hope and there's a path to feeling better. Go to Daily Wire Plus now and start watching Dr. Jordan
00:02:00.480 B. Peterson on depression and anxiety. Let this be the first step towards the brighter future you deserve.
00:02:09.440 Welcome to Season 4, Episode 79 of the JBP Podcast. I'm Michaela Peterson. Dr. Norman Doidge,
00:02:16.680 an old family friend, wrote an article for Tablet Magazine that really struck chords with my dad.
00:02:22.420 He called it the most penetrating analysis he had read about COVID policies and their effect on the
00:02:28.340 general public. The article is titled Needle Points, Why So Many Are Hesitant to Get the COVID Vaccines
00:02:34.600 and What We Can Do About It. Dad decided the best way to maximize exposure, because he really wants people
00:02:39.680 to read this, would be a recording where Dr. Doidge reads Needle Points himself.
00:02:45.540 Norman Doidge is a psychiatrist, psychoanalyst, and the author of the New York Times bestseller,
00:02:50.200 The Brain That Changes Itself. He was part of the research faculty at Columbia University
00:02:54.900 and the University of Toronto's psychiatry department for 30 years.
00:02:58.520 This is a crucial piece of journalism, and I'm glad we can put it out in front of so many of you.
00:03:04.600 Please enjoy.
00:03:05.880 Again, if you want an ad-free experience of this podcast, check out show notes or go to
00:03:10.580 jordanbpeterson.supercast.com and you can sign up for $10 a month or $100 a year.
00:03:17.160 That'll change what you press on in Spotify or Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts
00:03:21.640 to the ad-free version.
00:03:24.160 Hello, everyone. I've begun to consider using my YouTube channel and podcast for material
00:03:33.960 generated by people other than myself. I recently put up a lecture by Jonathan Pajot that was delivered
00:03:42.300 to the Jung Society in Montreal. I thought it was particularly brilliant. Discussion of the
00:03:48.780 underlying narrative structure and conceptual structure of Genesis. I added that to the
00:03:55.660 sequence of my videos on Genesis. My wife is going to be releasing a series of interviews
00:04:02.280 with Jonathan Pajot as part of her investigation into the nature of the divine feminine. So that's
00:04:08.480 coming up soon. And in this instance, I asked my friend and colleague, psychiatrist Dr.
00:04:17.520 Norman Doidge, to read an essay he wrote a few weeks ago called Needle Points, which is the most
00:04:25.020 penetrating analysis that I've read about the COVID policies that have bedeviled and helped us
00:04:32.840 over the last few years. Dr. Doidge is a psychiatrist and a psychoanalyst and a solid scientist,
00:04:41.140 renowned for his writing on science and the brain. And in my opinion, Canada's most literate
00:04:46.640 physician writer. He's also a friend and colleague of mine. He wrote the introduction to 12 rules of
00:04:54.000 life. His essay Needle Points, which he's reading today, first appeared a few weeks ago in Tablet
00:05:00.060 Magazine, but it's perhaps even more relevant today. Like me, Dr. Doidge is vaccinated. He describes the
00:05:08.600 history of vaccines, praises what he calls the kernel insight, and makes a solid and intelligent case
00:05:15.000 for the utility of the technology. Then he details the COVID state of mind, describes the working in
00:05:21.660 nature of the brain circuits triggered by contagion, and helps explain why the issue of vaccination is
00:05:27.240 tearing families, friendships, professions, and even states apart. He describes why debates about
00:05:35.220 vaccination and infection policies are always emotionally radioactive on both sides of the debate,
00:05:41.560 showing us why our reason is threatened during contagion, detailing why we are then tempted to treat
00:05:47.860 each other so badly. He explains why those who hesitate in the face of the current policies surrounding
00:05:54.760 vaccination have concerns more justified by history and experience than they are often credited with,
00:06:02.880 particularly when their views are caricatured and demonized. He makes the case that the best path
00:06:08.700 through the current crisis is not through coercion, that such coercion is in fact a reliable indicator
00:06:15.700 of failed government communication and policy. Dr. Doidge describes the alternative participatory model
00:06:24.760 in which humane physicians speak to patients respectfully and as individuals with their own agency,
00:06:31.440 and explains that those who adopt this approach do much better public health work,
00:06:37.020 as would governments if they wished to enhance instead of degrade trust in public health.
00:06:44.020 I've now shared this article with conservatives and liberals alike in Canada,
00:06:48.080 and Democrats and Republicans in the U.S., many of them. All who have received it and read it in this
00:06:54.160 polarized time have expressed their appreciation for its content and its writer. Dr. Norman Doidge
00:07:01.800 did his homework as he always does. He's the author of The Brain That Changes Itself and is currently a
00:07:09.700 contributing writer for Tablet Magazine, where this article is published and where all the links to the
00:07:15.760 scientific references he quotes can be found. He's also executive director of Health and the Greater Good,
00:07:23.480 a new think tank devoted to finding solutions to health problems that respect civil liberties so that
00:07:30.460 neither health nor civil liberties need needlessly be at the expense of the other. I wanted to bring
00:07:39.420 this article to the broadest public attention possible given its importance and felt that having Dr. Doidge
00:07:46.380 read it so that people could watch it and listen to it on YouTube and in podcasts,
00:07:51.580 assuming that would be the most effective way to disseminate the information.
00:07:56.300 So, without further ado, Dr. Norman Doidge and Needle Points.
00:08:09.940 Needle Points. Why so many are hesitant to get the COVID vaccines and what we can do about it.
00:08:16.520 By Norman Doidge. Read by the author. October 27th, 2021.
00:08:24.620 Since my days in medical school, I've had a fascination with the kernel insight behind vaccination.
00:08:32.200 That one could successfully expose a person to an attenuated version of a microbe that would prepare
00:08:39.000 and protect them for a potentially lethal encounter with the actual microbe.
00:08:44.000 I marveled at how it tutors an immune system that, like the brain, has memory and a kind of intelligence
00:08:53.800 and even something akin to foresight.
00:08:57.480 But I loved it for a broader reason, too.
00:09:01.020 At times, modern science and modern medicine seem based on a fantasy that imagines the role of medicine
00:09:08.160 is to conquer nature, as though we can wage a war against all microbes with antimicrobials
00:09:14.320 to create a world where we will no longer suffer from infectious disease.
00:09:21.360 Vaccination is not based on that sterile vision, but it's opposite.
00:09:26.320 It works with our educable immune system, which evolved millions of years ago,
00:09:33.680 to deal with the fact that we must always coexist with microbes.
00:09:38.620 It helps us to use our own resources to protect ourselves.
00:09:44.120 Doing so is in accord with the essential insight of Hippocrates,
00:09:48.320 who understood that the major part of healing comes from within,
00:09:53.660 that it is best to work with nature and not against it.
00:09:58.320 And yet, ever since they were made available,
00:10:02.660 vaccines have been controversial,
00:10:04.560 and it has almost always been difficult to have a non-emotionally charged discussion about them.
00:10:10.340 One reason is that in humans and other animals,
00:10:16.940 any infection can trigger an archaic brain circuit
00:10:20.420 in most of us called the behavioral immune system, or BIS.
00:10:26.500 It's a circuit that's triggered when we sense we may be near a potential carrier of disease,
00:10:33.280 causing disgust, fear, and avoidance.
00:10:36.180 It's involuntary, and not easy to shut off once it's been turned on.
00:10:44.080 The behavioral immune system is best understood in contrast to the regular immune system.
00:10:50.720 The regular immune system consists of antibodies and T-cells and so on,
00:10:56.240 and it evolved to protect us once a problematic microbe gets inside us.
00:11:03.220 The BIS is different.
00:11:04.980 It evolved to prevent us from getting infected in the first place
00:11:09.500 by making us hypersensitive to hygiene,
00:11:13.980 hints of disease in other people,
00:11:16.240 even signs that they are from another tribe,
00:11:19.260 since, in ancient times,
00:11:21.340 encounters with different tribes could wipe out one's own tribe
00:11:24.300 with an infectious disease they carried.
00:11:26.120 Often, the foreign tribe had its own long history of exposure to pathogens,
00:11:33.780 some of which it still carried,
00:11:35.580 but to which it had developed immunity in some way.
00:11:39.420 Members of the tribe were themselves healthy,
00:11:42.040 but dangerous to others.
00:11:44.420 And so, we developed a system
00:11:46.380 whereby anything or anyone that seems like it might bear significant illness
00:11:51.780 can trigger an ancient brain circuit of fear, disgust, and avoidance.
00:11:58.860 It can also trigger rage.
00:12:01.400 But rage is complex
00:12:02.640 because it's normally expressed by getting close to the object
00:12:06.300 and attacking it.
00:12:07.500 The BIS is thus an alarm system
00:12:20.660 specific to contagion
00:12:22.500 and, I should add, to the fear of being poisoned,
00:12:25.360 which, before the development of modern chemistry,
00:12:29.420 often came from exposure to living things
00:12:31.640 and their dangerous byproducts such as venoms.
00:12:35.520 Thus, it can also be triggered by non-animate things
00:12:39.960 like body fluids of some kinds,
00:12:42.640 surfaces others may have touched,
00:12:44.660 or even more abstract ideas
00:12:46.980 like going to the grocery store during COVID.
00:12:51.320 There is one exception.
00:12:52.920 The BIS doesn't get or stay activated in people
00:12:57.980 who don't feel vulnerable,
00:13:00.400 perhaps because they have good personal protective equipment,
00:13:04.040 or because youth gives them strong innate immunity,
00:13:07.460 or because they know they're already immune,
00:13:11.160 or because they're seriously misled or delusional
00:13:13.740 about the reality of the disease.
00:13:16.740 For everyone else, though,
00:13:19.840 what might trigger the system is rather plastic,
00:13:22.920 but once triggered,
00:13:25.140 the system is involuntary.
00:13:28.880 The BIS is, I would argue,
00:13:32.200 one of the instinctual reactions
00:13:33.840 that missed appearing in medical textbooks,
00:13:36.740 perhaps because we've not had a pandemic
00:13:38.540 on this scale for 100 years.
00:13:40.240 Because it focuses on potential bearers of disease,
00:13:46.180 the BIS triggers many false alarms,
00:13:49.620 since an infected person may at first show
00:13:52.180 only the mildest and nonspecific symptoms,
00:13:55.300 such as a cough or sniffle,
00:13:57.060 before they become deathly ill.
00:13:59.220 That's why even a small exhalation
00:14:01.660 or a surface touched by a stranger
00:14:04.060 could trigger the BIS.
00:14:05.520 Were it a medical test of danger,
00:14:09.400 we would say this system tends to err
00:14:11.620 on the false positive side.
00:14:14.680 We see it firing every day now,
00:14:17.520 when someone drives alone wearing a mask,
00:14:20.680 or goes for a walk by themselves
00:14:22.440 in an empty forest,
00:14:23.880 masked,
00:14:24.960 or when someone,
00:14:26.300 say, with good health
00:14:27.360 and no previous known adverse reactions
00:14:29.740 to vaccines,
00:14:31.320 here's that a vaccine
00:14:32.320 can in 1 in 500,000 cases cause death,
00:14:35.620 but can't take any comfort
00:14:37.520 that they have a 99.999% chance
00:14:42.360 of it not happening,
00:14:44.300 because it potentially can.
00:14:47.680 Before advanced brain areas are turned on
00:14:50.400 and probabilities are factored in,
00:14:53.320 the BIS is off and running.
00:14:55.080 One of the reasons our discussions
00:14:59.740 of vaccination are so emotionally radioactive,
00:15:03.180 inconsistent,
00:15:04.200 and harsh
00:15:04.740 is that the BIS is turned on
00:15:07.340 in people on both sides of the debate.
00:15:11.820 Those who favor vaccination
00:15:13.540 are focused on the danger of the virus,
00:15:15.980 and that triggers their system.
00:15:19.300 Those who don't
00:15:20.560 are focused on the fact
00:15:21.820 that vaccines inject into them a virus
00:15:24.240 or a virus surrogate,
00:15:26.000 or even a chemical
00:15:27.000 they think may be poisonous,
00:15:28.760 and that turns on their system.
00:15:32.040 Thus,
00:15:32.920 both sides are firing alarms,
00:15:35.080 including many false positive alarms,
00:15:37.540 that put them in a state of panic,
00:15:39.860 fear,
00:15:40.780 loathing,
00:15:41.660 and disgust of the other.
00:15:44.680 And now these two sides
00:15:46.060 of the vaccination debate
00:15:47.360 are tearing America apart
00:15:49.300 at many levels.
00:15:51.640 Families,
00:15:52.620 friendships,
00:15:53.040 states,
00:15:54.320 and the federal government.
00:15:55.860 It's even affecting
00:15:56.700 the country's ability
00:15:57.720 to deal with the pandemic,
00:15:59.820 splitting hospital staffs
00:16:01.320 and sundering relationships
00:16:02.680 between the scientists
00:16:03.820 studying it.
00:16:05.920 As of this writing,
00:16:07.280 in the United States,
00:16:08.680 about 85% of people over 65,
00:16:11.860 the age group most at risk,
00:16:13.760 are fully vaccinated
00:16:14.760 against COVID,
00:16:16.420 more if you include
00:16:17.500 those who had one shot.
00:16:18.760 57% of the overall population
00:16:22.980 is fully vaccinated.
00:16:25.420 But around June,
00:16:27.000 the rate of vaccination
00:16:28.100 slowed drastically,
00:16:30.040 down to less than 1 million a day
00:16:32.040 from 3.4 million daily in April,
00:16:35.540 even though many more people,
00:16:38.320 age 12 and up,
00:16:39.500 were now eligible.
00:16:40.420 5 million people
00:16:43.760 who got the first shot
00:16:44.960 had not gone
00:16:45.780 to their follow-up appointment.
00:16:48.840 States started
00:16:49.760 sending vaccines back,
00:16:51.580 while some vaccination sites
00:16:53.280 were empty.
00:16:55.080 In response,
00:16:56.240 U.S. public health officials
00:16:57.440 appeared to believe
00:16:58.360 that the number of people
00:16:59.440 who would voluntarily
00:17:00.480 take the vaccine
00:17:01.520 had reached a ceiling.
00:17:04.200 The change could be seen
00:17:05.480 from the top
00:17:06.140 of the messaging system,
00:17:07.300 with President Joe Biden
00:17:08.660 switching from persuasion
00:17:10.100 to coercion
00:17:11.300 of the armed services,
00:17:13.420 federal employees,
00:17:14.520 and, as of September 9th,
00:17:16.020 of everyone working
00:17:16.880 for companies
00:17:17.540 with 100 employees or more,
00:17:19.920 a category that includes
00:17:21.400 about 100 million Americans.
00:17:25.700 In a way,
00:17:27.860 this should be
00:17:28.380 the least likely time
00:17:29.560 in history
00:17:30.000 for vaccine hesitancy.
00:17:32.520 For years,
00:17:33.920 vaccinologists
00:17:34.680 explained vaccine skepticism,
00:17:37.300 by noticing
00:17:38.000 that it largely existed
00:17:39.700 because few had lived
00:17:41.000 through a large-scale pandemic
00:17:42.460 and because vaccines
00:17:44.180 had already eradicated
00:17:45.840 so many serious diseases
00:17:47.880 that it gave rise
00:17:49.300 to complacency
00:17:50.460 about the threat.
00:17:53.440 But today's vaccine hesitancy
00:17:55.460 is happening
00:17:56.100 in the midst of a pandemic
00:17:57.400 in which over 700,000
00:17:59.200 Americans have died. 1.00
00:18:01.220 And a recent Rasmussen poll
00:18:03.100 found that a staggering
00:18:04.880 one-third of Americans
00:18:06.480 quote,
00:18:07.800 believe officials
00:18:08.620 are lying about vaccine safety,
00:18:10.800 close quote.
00:18:13.540 It seems to me
00:18:14.840 especially vital
00:18:15.920 that we broaden
00:18:17.040 our understanding
00:18:17.860 of the history
00:18:18.620 and current state
00:18:19.820 of vaccines
00:18:20.620 because over the summer,
00:18:23.020 many who chose
00:18:23.820 vaccination for themselves
00:18:25.360 concluded
00:18:26.440 that it is acceptable
00:18:28.020 to mandate
00:18:29.400 vaccines for others,
00:18:31.980 including those
00:18:32.780 who are reluctant
00:18:33.420 to get them.
00:18:34.020 That majority
00:18:36.360 entered a state
00:18:37.680 of crystallization,
00:18:40.100 a term I borrow
00:18:40.920 from the French novelist
00:18:42.040 Stendhal,
00:18:43.000 who applied it
00:18:44.120 to the moment
00:18:45.000 when a person
00:18:45.600 falls in love.
00:18:47.680 Feelings that may
00:18:48.540 have been fluid
00:18:49.260 become solid,
00:18:51.720 clear,
00:18:52.680 and absolute,
00:18:54.040 leading to all
00:18:55.000 or nothing thinking
00:18:56.040 such that even
00:18:57.520 the beloved's blemishes
00:18:58.640 become signs
00:19:00.200 of their perfection.
00:19:01.480 crystallization,
00:19:04.980 as I'm using it here,
00:19:06.960 happens within a group
00:19:08.360 that has been involved
00:19:09.420 in a major dispute.
00:19:11.560 For a while,
00:19:12.680 there's an awareness
00:19:14.000 that some disagreement
00:19:15.360 is in play
00:19:16.180 and people are free
00:19:17.680 to have different opinions.
00:19:20.100 But,
00:19:20.820 at a certain point,
00:19:22.620 often hard to predict
00:19:23.840 and impossible to measure
00:19:25.340 because it is happening
00:19:26.600 in the wider culture
00:19:27.740 and not necessarily
00:19:29.200 at the ballot box,
00:19:31.220 both sides of the dispute
00:19:32.580 become aware that
00:19:33.600 within this mass
00:19:35.640 of human beings,
00:19:36.900 there's now a winner.
00:19:38.980 One might say
00:19:39.880 that a consensus arises
00:19:41.980 that there is now
00:19:43.240 a majority consensus.
00:19:45.760 Suddenly,
00:19:47.140 certain ideas
00:19:48.000 and actions
00:19:48.740 must be applauded,
00:19:50.800 voiced,
00:19:51.420 obeyed,
00:19:52.000 and acted on,
00:19:53.200 while others
00:19:54.460 are off limits.
00:19:55.500 One person
00:19:59.440 who understood
00:20:00.140 how this works
00:20:01.700 intuitively
00:20:02.460 was Alexei de Tocqueville.
00:20:05.060 In democracies,
00:20:06.780 as long as there is
00:20:08.020 not yet a majority opinion,
00:20:10.140 a range of views
00:20:11.200 can be expressed
00:20:12.080 and it appears
00:20:13.080 that there is a
00:20:13.880 great, quote,
00:20:15.140 liberty of opinion,
00:20:16.380 close quote,
00:20:17.240 to use his phrase.
00:20:18.160 But once a majority
00:20:20.840 opinion forms,
00:20:22.600 it acquires
00:20:23.240 a sudden social power
00:20:24.760 and it brings with it
00:20:26.440 pressure
00:20:26.820 to end dissent.
00:20:29.360 A powerful
00:20:30.640 new kind
00:20:31.600 of censorship
00:20:32.240 and coercion 0.97
00:20:33.360 begins
00:20:34.560 in everyday life
00:20:36.260 at work,
00:20:37.820 school,
00:20:38.900 choir,
00:20:39.880 church,
00:20:41.080 hospitals,
00:20:42.100 in all institutions,
00:20:43.680 as the majority
00:20:45.040 turns on the minority
00:20:46.420 demanding it comply.
00:20:48.980 Tocqueville,
00:20:50.120 like James Madison,
00:20:51.920 was concerned
00:20:53.500 about this
00:20:54.080 tyranny
00:20:54.680 of the majority,
00:20:56.060 which he saw
00:20:56.760 as the Achilles heel
00:20:57.960 of democracy.
00:20:59.720 It isn't only
00:21:00.960 because divisiveness
00:21:01.880 created a minority
00:21:02.840 faction steeped
00:21:03.800 in lingering resentment.
00:21:05.820 It's also
00:21:06.480 because minorities
00:21:07.260 can sometimes
00:21:08.040 be more right
00:21:08.860 than majorities.
00:21:10.300 Indeed,
00:21:11.080 emerging ideas
00:21:12.060 are,
00:21:13.300 by definition,
00:21:14.100 minority ideas
00:21:14.960 to start with.
00:21:15.740 the majority
00:21:17.740 overtaking the minority
00:21:19.180 could mean
00:21:20.340 stamping out
00:21:21.120 thoughts and actions
00:21:22.420 that would otherwise
00:21:23.960 generate
00:21:24.540 progress
00:21:26.080 and forward movement.
00:21:27.400 It's a fascinating
00:21:30.020 moment
00:21:30.580 when this sort
00:21:31.520 of crystallization
00:21:32.460 happens in a mass
00:21:33.480 culture like America's,
00:21:35.380 because seemingly
00:21:36.200 overnight,
00:21:37.580 even the definition
00:21:38.460 of legitimate speech
00:21:39.820 or thought
00:21:40.600 or action
00:21:41.360 also changes.
00:21:42.680 Tocqueville observed
00:21:44.440 that quite abruptly
00:21:45.500 a person
00:21:46.520 can no longer
00:21:47.240 express opinions
00:21:48.180 or raise questions
00:21:49.280 that only days
00:21:50.660 before were acceptable,
00:21:52.660 even though
00:21:53.340 no facts
00:21:54.060 of the matter
00:21:54.520 have changed.
00:21:56.180 At an individual level,
00:21:58.080 people who were
00:21:59.140 within the bounds
00:22:00.220 can be surprised
00:22:01.480 to find themselves
00:22:02.380 quote,
00:22:03.440 tormented
00:22:03.940 by the slights
00:22:05.260 and persecutions
00:22:06.140 of daily obloquy.
00:22:08.620 Close quote.
00:22:09.340 Once this occurs,
00:22:12.040 he wrote,
00:22:12.680 quote,
00:22:13.160 your fellow creatures
00:22:14.120 will shun you 0.94
00:22:15.060 like an impure being 0.73
00:22:16.920 and those who are
00:22:18.660 most persuaded
00:22:19.480 of your innocence
00:22:20.300 will abandon you too,
00:22:22.600 lest they should be shunned
00:22:23.820 in their turn.
00:22:25.020 Close quote.
00:22:28.220 In the midst
00:22:29.200 of a pandemic,
00:22:30.700 seeing the unvaccinated
00:22:32.200 as impure
00:22:33.660 is no surprise
00:22:35.020 because of course
00:22:35.860 they could carry contagion.
00:22:38.380 But as Tocqueville
00:22:39.140 pointed out,
00:22:40.540 this also occurs
00:22:41.560 when there is
00:22:42.080 no contagion
00:22:42.920 and we begin
00:22:43.980 to experience
00:22:44.780 those who are
00:22:45.360 on the wrong side
00:22:46.440 as impure
00:22:47.320 as in failing
00:22:49.240 the purity test
00:22:50.480 and react to them
00:22:52.340 as though
00:22:53.180 they are dangerous.
00:22:55.400 That we do this
00:22:56.860 even when there
00:22:58.140 is no pandemic
00:22:59.140 suggests that there is,
00:23:01.960 along with the
00:23:02.760 realistic fear
00:23:03.680 of infection,
00:23:05.440 something else
00:23:06.460 going on here.
00:23:07.360 a sense that
00:23:09.240 those with whom
00:23:10.000 we may disagree
00:23:10.880 are impurities
00:23:12.880 in the body politic,
00:23:14.700 bad people
00:23:15.460 who need to be
00:23:16.700 taught a lesson,
00:23:18.100 even punished.
00:23:21.440 A June 2021
00:23:22.980 Gallup poll
00:23:23.960 found that
00:23:25.560 among the vaccinated,
00:23:28.040 53%
00:23:29.080 now worry most
00:23:30.840 about those
00:23:31.600 choosing
00:23:32.140 not to get vaccinated,
00:23:33.720 surpassing concerns
00:23:36.320 about lack
00:23:37.460 of social distancing
00:23:38.380 in their area,
00:23:39.340 27%,
00:23:40.420 availability of
00:23:42.060 local hospital
00:23:42.840 resources and
00:23:43.700 supplies,
00:23:44.380 11%,
00:23:45.260 and availability
00:23:46.900 of coronavirus
00:23:47.820 tests in their area,
00:23:49.160 5%,
00:23:49.920 close quote.
00:23:50.540 True to the
00:23:52.360 behavioral immune
00:23:53.400 system's impulses,
00:23:55.680 this fear
00:23:56.240 is metastasizing
00:23:57.580 into disgust,
00:23:58.740 even hatred,
00:23:59.660 of those who,
00:24:01.220 because they believe
00:24:02.080 or act differently,
00:24:03.620 are now perceived
00:24:04.600 as threats.
00:24:06.520 On August 26,
00:24:08.960 in a front page story
00:24:10.220 in the Toronto Star,
00:24:11.900 my local newspaper,
00:24:13.540 a resident was quoted
00:24:14.580 as saying,
00:24:15.480 quote,
00:24:15.720 I have no empathy
00:24:17.180 left for the
00:24:17.780 willfully unvaccinated, 1.00
00:24:19.400 let them die, 1.00
00:24:20.960 close quote. 1.00
00:24:23.080 In the midst
00:24:24.260 of such a death wish
00:24:25.820 for fellow human beings,
00:24:27.960 even the person
00:24:28.960 quoted
00:24:29.560 understood
00:24:30.440 that an important
00:24:32.320 mental capacity
00:24:33.460 has been lost,
00:24:36.040 empathy,
00:24:37.060 or the ability
00:24:37.780 to model
00:24:38.420 other people's
00:24:39.380 minds.
00:24:41.260 When we lose
00:24:42.340 that en masse,
00:24:44.000 the results
00:24:44.820 can be tragic,
00:24:45.720 not least because
00:24:47.440 getting through this
00:24:48.980 must be
00:24:50.040 a group effort.
00:24:53.320 As I understand it,
00:24:55.720 there are two
00:24:56.640 main approaches
00:24:57.580 to public health
00:24:58.420 in liberal democracies,
00:24:59.920 and both have been
00:25:00.800 tried historically
00:25:01.680 in different places.
00:25:03.840 One begins
00:25:05.100 voluntarily,
00:25:06.480 out of respect
00:25:07.160 for civil liberties,
00:25:08.940 but switches
00:25:09.620 to coercion
00:25:10.460 when some
00:25:11.240 voluntary ceiling
00:25:12.560 deemed insufficient
00:25:13.840 is reached.
00:25:16.300 Ideally,
00:25:17.260 this intervention
00:25:18.000 is based on
00:25:18.740 the principle
00:25:19.260 of least
00:25:20.500 necessary coercion. 0.98
00:25:23.560 The benefit
00:25:24.580 to this
00:25:25.100 is that it may
00:25:25.920 work to get
00:25:26.520 more people
00:25:27.060 vaccinated
00:25:27.700 in shorter order,
00:25:29.120 but it also
00:25:32.680 conveys
00:25:33.340 that the government
00:25:34.380 does not
00:25:35.120 trust its citizens
00:25:36.180 to make good
00:25:37.080 decisions on
00:25:37.740 their own,
00:25:39.460 a condescension
00:25:40.380 that in turn,
00:25:42.020 this is human
00:25:42.660 nature 101,
00:25:44.500 eventually generates
00:25:46.220 resentment,
00:25:47.160 even revolt,
00:25:48.600 and the disengagement
00:25:49.740 of significant
00:25:51.140 segments
00:25:51.720 of the population.
00:25:53.100 coercion.
00:25:54.800 The other
00:25:55.700 approach,
00:25:57.620 participatory
00:25:58.420 public health,
00:26:00.880 sees the need
00:26:01.880 for coercion
00:26:02.580 as a sign
00:26:03.400 that something
00:26:04.020 in the public
00:26:04.780 health outreach
00:26:05.780 itself has
00:26:06.900 failed.
00:26:07.340 If a ceiling
00:26:09.320 is reached,
00:26:10.980 society's leaders
00:26:11.920 should not
00:26:12.760 simply resort
00:26:13.520 to force,
00:26:14.720 but rather
00:26:15.360 confront the
00:26:16.080 flaws in
00:26:16.900 their own
00:26:17.480 leadership,
00:26:17.920 that they
00:26:19.420 should double
00:26:20.020 down on
00:26:21.020 their responsibility
00:26:22.080 to generate
00:26:22.920 trust in
00:26:24.060 the public.
00:26:25.480 The goal
00:26:26.480 of participatory
00:26:27.560 public health
00:26:28.320 is not to
00:26:29.120 crush,
00:26:30.380 but to
00:26:30.760 better engage.
00:26:33.840 In that
00:26:34.840 spirit,
00:26:35.700 what follows
00:26:36.500 is an attempt
00:26:37.240 by a physician
00:26:37.980 and neuroscience
00:26:38.760 writer,
00:26:39.820 and someone
00:26:40.240 who got
00:26:40.580 vaccinated
00:26:41.220 early and
00:26:42.200 voluntarily,
00:26:43.580 to understand
00:26:44.320 those who
00:26:45.100 have not
00:26:45.460 made this
00:26:45.880 choice.
00:26:47.140 This essay
00:26:48.120 is not about
00:26:48.920 COVID deniers
00:26:49.740 or anti-vaxxers
00:26:50.820 who oppose
00:26:51.740 vaccines on
00:26:52.400 ideological
00:26:52.860 grounds,
00:26:54.500 nor is it
00:26:55.980 about the
00:26:56.380 activists or
00:26:57.320 political figures
00:26:58.260 who feed off
00:26:59.620 and benefit
00:27:00.300 from the
00:27:01.060 corrosive
00:27:01.620 discourse around
00:27:02.520 vaccines.
00:27:03.960 It is instead
00:27:05.640 about the
00:27:06.800 vaccine hesitant,
00:27:08.820 those who are
00:27:09.560 concerned and
00:27:10.560 anxious about
00:27:11.280 COVID,
00:27:12.560 but also
00:27:13.220 anxious about
00:27:13.980 these new
00:27:14.560 vaccines.
00:27:16.400 These are the
00:27:17.440 people who
00:27:18.640 are not yet
00:27:19.200 vaccinated for
00:27:20.040 reasons that
00:27:20.680 the majority
00:27:21.260 may not
00:27:22.020 understand and
00:27:23.160 which are
00:27:23.640 often more
00:27:24.740 anchored in
00:27:25.460 history and
00:27:26.140 experience than
00:27:27.400 the majority
00:27:27.920 would suspect.
00:27:29.920 They are the
00:27:30.920 Tocquevillian
00:27:31.540 minority that
00:27:32.500 the majority
00:27:33.040 is threatening
00:27:33.740 with job loss
00:27:34.640 and other
00:27:35.160 restrictions.
00:27:37.260 One needn't
00:27:38.140 agree with the
00:27:38.680 decisions or
00:27:39.280 actions of the
00:27:39.900 vaccine hesitant
00:27:40.620 in order to
00:27:41.500 learn something
00:27:42.220 from them and
00:27:43.120 about them and
00:27:44.220 about society as
00:27:45.380 a whole.
00:27:46.880 They pay
00:27:47.360 attention to and
00:27:48.400 are vigilant
00:27:48.960 about different
00:27:49.840 issues than
00:27:50.380 the vaccinated
00:27:51.040 and have
00:27:52.060 strong feelings
00:27:53.040 about the
00:27:53.900 people and
00:27:54.600 institutions
00:27:55.320 involved in
00:27:56.300 our public
00:27:56.760 health,
00:27:57.800 particularly
00:27:58.260 politicians,
00:27:59.920 the drug
00:28:00.320 regulatory
00:28:00.780 process,
00:28:02.060 and pharmaceutical
00:28:02.700 companies.
00:28:04.380 For many,
00:28:05.680 vaccine hesitancy
00:28:06.680 is not simply
00:28:08.100 about the
00:28:08.540 vaccines.
00:28:09.800 It's about the
00:28:10.620 absence of faith
00:28:11.580 in the wider
00:28:12.360 systems that
00:28:13.440 brought us the
00:28:14.080 vaccines.
00:28:14.620 public health
00:28:17.700 moves at the
00:28:19.300 speed of
00:28:20.000 trust,
00:28:20.700 notes physician
00:28:22.700 and author
00:28:23.380 Rishi
00:28:23.840 Manchanda.
00:28:26.280 If we want
00:28:27.880 our public
00:28:28.600 health system
00:28:29.340 to function
00:28:29.880 better,
00:28:31.020 safer,
00:28:31.920 swifter,
00:28:33.120 in ways that
00:28:33.980 more effectively
00:28:34.700 safeguard the
00:28:35.600 lives and
00:28:36.180 livelihoods of
00:28:37.020 all citizens,
00:28:38.320 it must be
00:28:39.440 rooted not in
00:28:40.520 coercion,
00:28:41.580 but in
00:28:42.140 confidence,
00:28:42.720 and not
00:28:44.020 only among
00:28:44.680 the majority.
00:28:47.100 Chapter 2.
00:28:48.480 The kernel
00:28:48.920 brilliance of
00:28:49.640 vaccines.
00:28:50.880 The kernel
00:28:51.300 idea of
00:28:52.440 exposing a
00:28:53.180 person to
00:28:53.840 a weakened
00:28:54.300 form of
00:28:54.940 a pathogen
00:28:55.540 or toxin,
00:28:56.920 known
00:28:57.260 colloquially as
00:28:58.260 like-to-treat-like,
00:29:00.280 long preceded
00:29:01.140 modern medicine
00:29:01.900 and came in
00:29:03.440 stages and
00:29:04.180 through observation.
00:29:07.120 Paracelsus,
00:29:08.100 who was said
00:29:08.880 to have
00:29:09.160 treated persons
00:29:10.040 during a
00:29:11.160 plague of
00:29:11.680 1534,
00:29:13.480 noted that
00:29:14.480 what makes
00:29:15.640 a man ill
00:29:16.440 also cures
00:29:17.400 him.
00:29:18.580 During the
00:29:20.540 ancient plague
00:29:21.160 of Athens,
00:29:22.480 430 to
00:29:23.660 425 BCE,
00:29:26.100 the historian
00:29:26.780 Thucydides
00:29:27.540 noted that
00:29:29.100 those who,
00:29:29.960 like himself,
00:29:30.900 got the
00:29:31.460 plague and
00:29:32.000 then recovered
00:29:32.720 never got
00:29:34.320 the plague
00:29:34.780 again. 0.96
00:29:36.840 Chinese
00:29:37.560 writing alluded
00:29:38.540 to inoculation
00:29:39.520 in the 10th
00:29:40.200 century and
00:29:41.180 in the 16th
00:29:42.060 century,
00:29:43.200 Brahmin
00:29:43.520 Hindus were 1.00
00:29:44.280 inoculating
00:29:44.880 people with
00:29:45.600 dried pus
00:29:46.220 from smallpox
00:29:47.100 pustules.
00:29:49.120 Similar
00:29:49.760 practices,
00:29:50.660 which were
00:29:51.080 common in
00:29:51.600 Turkey in 0.94
00:29:52.240 the 1700s,
00:29:53.940 were brought
00:29:54.380 to England
00:29:54.920 by the
00:29:55.660 remarkable
00:29:56.180 Lady Montague,
00:29:57.500 the English
00:29:57.960 ambassador's
00:29:58.660 wife.
00:29:59.960 But when
00:30:00.740 some,
00:30:01.540 such as
00:30:02.040 King George
00:30:02.640 III's son,
00:30:04.020 died of
00:30:04.540 being inoculated
00:30:05.340 with the
00:30:05.700 smallpox,
00:30:06.360 many became
00:30:07.920 reluctant to
00:30:08.860 undergo the
00:30:09.440 procedure.
00:30:11.740 A key
00:30:12.620 advance occurred
00:30:13.460 when farmers
00:30:14.280 in England
00:30:14.900 in the
00:30:15.620 1700s
00:30:16.660 noticed the
00:30:18.040 dairy maids 0.86
00:30:18.800 who milked
00:30:19.580 cows got
00:30:20.300 cowpox on
00:30:21.440 their hands
00:30:21.960 from the
00:30:22.460 udders.
00:30:23.820 Cowpox was
00:30:24.780 a very mild
00:30:25.540 illness compared
00:30:26.320 to smallpox,
00:30:27.440 which had a
00:30:27.980 30% mortality
00:30:29.060 rate by some
00:30:30.100 estimates.
00:30:30.600 It was
00:30:32.440 observed that
00:30:33.160 the maids 0.97
00:30:33.620 with cowpox
00:30:34.460 were immune
00:30:35.520 to the
00:30:35.900 dreaded
00:30:36.240 smallpox.
00:30:37.920 An English 0.87
00:30:38.920 cattle breeder
00:30:39.660 named
00:30:40.320 Benjamin
00:30:40.960 Jesty,
00:30:42.380 who had
00:30:42.720 himself
00:30:43.220 contracted
00:30:43.720 cowpox
00:30:44.400 and was
00:30:44.780 thus immune
00:30:45.360 to smallpox,
00:30:46.720 decided,
00:30:48.200 supposedly on
00:30:48.920 the spur
00:30:49.300 of the
00:30:49.580 moment,
00:30:50.660 to
00:30:50.840 intentionally
00:30:51.400 inoculate
00:30:52.040 his wife
00:30:52.560 and children
00:30:53.020 with cowpox.
00:30:54.780 They remained
00:30:55.740 immune to
00:30:56.440 smallpox
00:30:57.140 15 years
00:30:58.220 later.
00:30:58.600 The English
00:31:02.220 physician
00:31:02.760 Edward Jenner,
00:31:03.820 learning of
00:31:04.300 this,
00:31:05.280 began
00:31:05.600 systematically
00:31:06.500 exposing
00:31:07.140 patients to
00:31:07.820 cowpox,
00:31:08.840 including an
00:31:09.420 8-year-old
00:31:09.940 boy named
00:31:10.500 James Phipps.
00:31:12.240 He exposed
00:31:13.340 James to
00:31:13.960 cowpox and
00:31:14.820 then exposed
00:31:15.420 him to
00:31:15.780 smallpox to
00:31:17.140 see if he'd
00:31:17.640 contracted,
00:31:18.880 an experiment
00:31:19.520 conducted,
00:31:20.200 quite obviously,
00:31:21.540 without informed
00:31:22.300 consent.
00:31:24.100 The boy
00:31:24.960 survived and
00:31:25.920 was vaccinated
00:31:26.660 20 times
00:31:27.680 without bad
00:31:28.460 effect,
00:31:29.240 said Jenner,
00:31:30.120 who reported
00:31:30.860 on the
00:31:31.220 benefits of
00:31:31.800 the procedure
00:31:32.340 in warding
00:31:32.900 off smallpox
00:31:33.720 in a series
00:31:34.660 of cases.
00:31:36.440 He was
00:31:37.180 initially
00:31:37.680 ridiculed
00:31:38.400 for this
00:31:38.780 idea,
00:31:39.680 but in
00:31:40.360 the end
00:31:40.800 prevailed.
00:31:42.460 The phenomenon
00:31:43.300 was soon
00:31:43.940 called
00:31:44.380 vaccination,
00:31:46.000 from
00:31:46.200 Wacinia,
00:31:47.360 the Latin
00:31:47.740 for cowpox
00:31:48.580 virus species,
00:31:50.500 Wacca
00:31:50.880 being cow.
00:31:53.380 Some have
00:31:54.260 even wondered
00:31:55.100 whether the
00:31:55.880 ancient
00:31:56.300 Western symbol
00:31:57.320 for the
00:31:57.760 medical arts
00:31:58.420 and healing
00:31:59.040 still used
00:32:00.440 today.
00:32:01.840 The rod
00:32:02.280 of Asclepius,
00:32:03.460 a serpent
00:32:04.020 wrapped around
00:32:04.920 his staff,
00:32:06.360 may itself
00:32:07.260 be an
00:32:07.600 allusion to
00:32:08.180 the kernel
00:32:08.660 idea that
00:32:09.840 something dangerous
00:32:10.980 can also
00:32:11.680 protect.
00:32:13.040 According to
00:32:13.760 the Greek
00:32:14.080 myth,
00:32:14.760 Asclepius was 0.96
00:32:15.720 said to have
00:32:16.520 healed people
00:32:17.180 with snake
00:32:17.660 venom,
00:32:19.160 which can
00:32:20.560 have some
00:32:21.100 medicinal properties
00:32:22.020 that were
00:32:22.380 written about
00:32:22.960 by Nicander.
00:32:24.540 And interestingly,
00:32:26.040 the same image
00:32:26.820 appears in the
00:32:27.520 Torah,
00:32:28.120 in Numbers
00:32:28.580 21.8,
00:32:29.540 And the
00:32:30.840 Lord said
00:32:31.500 unto Moses,
00:32:32.820 Make thee a
00:32:33.620 fiery serpent
00:32:34.420 and set it
00:32:35.300 upon a pole,
00:32:36.400 and it shall
00:32:37.280 come to pass
00:32:38.200 that every one
00:32:39.400 that is bitten
00:32:40.040 when he looketh
00:32:41.000 upon it
00:32:41.680 shall live.
00:32:43.120 And Moses
00:32:43.960 made a serpent
00:32:44.800 of brass
00:32:45.380 and put it
00:32:46.120 upon a pole,
00:32:47.400 and it came
00:32:47.920 to pass
00:32:48.400 that if a serpent
00:32:49.280 had bitten
00:32:49.820 any man
00:32:50.620 when he beheld
00:32:52.200 the serpent
00:32:52.820 of brass
00:32:53.540 he lived.
00:32:55.780 All of which
00:32:56.720 is to say
00:32:57.340 that the
00:32:58.540 heal-harm paradox
00:32:59.840 is a deep
00:33:00.740 archetype
00:33:01.500 in the human
00:33:02.020 psyche.
00:33:03.480 And it came
00:33:04.480 not from
00:33:05.060 big pharma,
00:33:06.560 but from
00:33:07.040 everyday,
00:33:07.960 often rural
00:33:08.820 observations,
00:33:10.600 one might even
00:33:11.440 call them
00:33:12.020 front-line
00:33:12.900 observations,
00:33:14.220 about how
00:33:14.680 nature works
00:33:15.460 and how the
00:33:16.540 immune system
00:33:17.420 behaves.
00:33:19.820 Among the
00:33:20.680 great triumphs
00:33:21.380 of vaccination
00:33:21.920 are the
00:33:22.720 elimination
00:33:23.060 in the United
00:33:23.780 States
00:33:24.200 of the
00:33:24.640 scourge
00:33:25.000 of polio
00:33:25.540 and the
00:33:26.260 eradication
00:33:26.940 of smallpox
00:33:27.860 throughout the
00:33:28.400 world.
00:33:29.960 Indeed,
00:33:30.960 perhaps because
00:33:31.700 of these
00:33:32.100 successes,
00:33:33.500 many of us
00:33:34.020 nostalgically
00:33:34.740 imagine that
00:33:35.780 their development
00:33:36.360 in public
00:33:36.900 acceptance
00:33:37.580 came easily.
00:33:39.520 But the
00:33:40.280 real history
00:33:40.960 shows a more
00:33:42.020 textured picture.
00:33:44.120 A number
00:33:44.500 of polio
00:33:45.040 vaccines had
00:33:45.760 to be tried.
00:33:47.200 The initial
00:33:47.800 vaccine studies
00:33:48.840 had very little
00:33:49.760 oversight and
00:33:50.660 the first
00:33:51.020 vaccines left
00:33:52.040 some children
00:33:52.720 paralyzed.
00:33:54.240 The first
00:33:55.120 truly effective
00:33:55.920 vaccine,
00:33:56.720 the Salk,
00:33:57.360 had problems
00:33:58.040 too.
00:33:59.600 In 1955,
00:34:01.180 a bad batch
00:34:02.120 of over
00:34:02.680 120,000 doses
00:34:04.320 from the
00:34:05.300 Cutter
00:34:05.560 Pharmaceutical
00:34:06.200 Company
00:34:06.800 contained the
00:34:08.060 live polio
00:34:09.100 virus,
00:34:10.220 causing 40,000
00:34:11.520 cases of polio
00:34:12.640 and killing
00:34:13.380 10. 0.94
00:34:15.780 The Cutter
00:34:16.920 incident,
00:34:17.900 as the event
00:34:18.500 is now
00:34:18.980 known,
00:34:20.260 revealed the
00:34:20.860 vulnerability
00:34:21.300 of the
00:34:21.780 systems that
00:34:22.380 produce vaccines
00:34:23.420 and remains
00:34:24.680 one of the
00:34:25.320 sources of
00:34:26.120 the nightmare
00:34:26.700 that so
00:34:27.320 haunts the
00:34:27.860 hesitant,
00:34:29.080 getting the
00:34:29.700 dreaded disease
00:34:30.440 from the
00:34:30.840 treatment.
00:34:32.040 The incident
00:34:33.060 was followed
00:34:33.860 by efforts to
00:34:34.600 improve the
00:34:35.160 regulatory
00:34:35.580 systems so
00:34:36.780 that similar
00:34:37.320 tragedies
00:34:37.900 wouldn't be
00:34:38.360 repeated.
00:34:38.800 In the
00:34:41.440 public's
00:34:41.940 mind,
00:34:42.620 perhaps the
00:34:43.080 greatest
00:34:43.400 triumph of
00:34:43.960 vaccination
00:34:44.400 was the
00:34:45.320 mid-century
00:34:45.920 worldwide
00:34:46.820 eradication
00:34:47.640 of smallpox,
00:34:49.180 a horrifying
00:34:50.020 scourge that
00:34:51.260 was lethal in
00:34:52.080 30% of
00:34:52.840 cases.
00:34:54.440 The history,
00:34:55.900 as it is often
00:34:56.640 told,
00:34:57.680 attributes the
00:34:58.300 victory solely
00:34:59.300 to vaccines.
00:35:00.880 But as British
00:35:01.980 physician Richard
00:35:03.360 Halverson has
00:35:04.640 written,
00:35:05.860 it was not
00:35:06.720 simply the
00:35:07.380 product of a
00:35:08.000 single blockbuster
00:35:09.140 vaccine or
00:35:09.840 campaign, as
00:35:10.780 it is so often
00:35:11.520 described, but
00:35:12.920 rather a
00:35:13.960 regime of
00:35:14.680 multiple public
00:35:15.880 health measures
00:35:16.780 instituted
00:35:18.140 alongside
00:35:19.120 vaccination.
00:35:21.700 The details
00:35:22.740 here are quite
00:35:23.480 interesting.
00:35:24.880 Beginning in
00:35:25.420 the 17th and
00:35:26.180 18th centuries,
00:35:27.640 there were a
00:35:28.520 number of mass
00:35:29.200 campaigns of
00:35:29.820 inoculation with
00:35:30.660 smallpox and
00:35:31.620 then vaccination
00:35:32.480 with cowpox
00:35:33.400 that led to a
00:35:34.520 decline in
00:35:35.180 smallpox in
00:35:35.920 the 19th
00:35:36.520 century.
00:35:38.160 By 1948,
00:35:39.900 some physicians
00:35:40.660 in England
00:35:41.140 thought the
00:35:41.960 illness was
00:35:42.640 sufficiently well
00:35:44.020 managed that
00:35:45.140 mass vaccination
00:35:46.020 of infants,
00:35:47.280 which carried
00:35:47.880 some risks,
00:35:49.040 could wind
00:35:49.480 down.
00:35:51.180 And so,
00:35:52.480 mass vaccination
00:35:53.320 was replaced by
00:35:54.740 a new, more
00:35:55.820 individually focused
00:35:57.100 strategy.
00:35:58.900 If a case was
00:36:00.140 reported, public
00:36:01.220 health officials
00:36:01.980 isolated the
00:36:02.980 person and
00:36:03.960 their contacts
00:36:04.820 and the
00:36:05.780 contacts were
00:36:06.520 vaccinated.
00:36:08.080 This was called
00:36:09.220 the surveillance
00:36:10.000 containment
00:36:10.760 strategy.
00:36:12.060 It worked.
00:36:13.700 After the
00:36:14.260 cessation of
00:36:14.920 vaccination in
00:36:16.580 England, a few
00:36:17.460 cases occurred in
00:36:18.640 1973 and 1978,
00:36:21.220 but both were
00:36:22.360 based on
00:36:23.040 laboratory accidents.
00:36:25.340 According to
00:36:26.300 Halverson, the
00:36:27.220 World Health
00:36:27.780 Organization came
00:36:29.320 to the same
00:36:29.940 conclusion and
00:36:30.780 also adopted the
00:36:31.820 surveillance
00:36:32.240 containment approach
00:36:33.280 elsewhere.
00:36:34.640 In 1980, the
00:36:36.060 disease was
00:36:36.680 declared eradicated.
00:36:39.160 But alongside the
00:36:40.600 public health
00:36:41.220 system's triumphant
00:36:42.540 eradication of
00:36:43.520 polio and
00:36:44.080 smallpox from
00:36:45.920 the 1940s through
00:36:47.020 the 1970s, there
00:36:48.840 was a horrifying
00:36:49.680 chapter as well,
00:36:51.440 one that included
00:36:52.420 staggering abuses
00:36:53.780 by public health
00:36:54.820 and medical
00:36:55.480 authorities.
00:36:57.080 The Tuskegee
00:36:58.260 experiment, conducted
00:37:00.040 by the U.S.
00:37:00.880 Public Health
00:37:01.420 Service from
00:37:02.280 1932 until
00:37:03.760 1972, sent
00:37:06.380 out representatives
00:37:07.280 to find African
00:37:08.860 American men with 0.66
00:37:09.840 syphilis who 0.91
00:37:11.280 were told they
00:37:12.400 would receive
00:37:12.840 treatment for
00:37:13.700 their, quote,
00:37:14.360 bad blood,
00:37:15.100 close quote.
00:37:16.840 No treatment
00:37:17.500 occurred.
00:37:19.080 The officials gave
00:37:20.620 these men a
00:37:21.440 placebo instead of
00:37:22.620 penicillin, which
00:37:24.140 would have saved
00:37:24.880 them.
00:37:26.040 This was done so
00:37:27.020 the investigators, by
00:37:28.480 watching the men
00:37:29.340 die slowly, could
00:37:30.740 study the natural
00:37:31.680 course of the
00:37:32.920 devastating disease.
00:37:36.040 During the same
00:37:37.100 period of time, the
00:37:38.880 U.S.
00:37:39.340 public health
00:37:40.300 system oversaw
00:37:41.960 70,000 sterilizations
00:37:44.140 of, quote,
00:37:45.040 mentally deficient,
00:37:46.080 close quote,
00:37:46.600 people with
00:37:48.140 learning problems,
00:37:49.040 the blind and
00:37:50.140 the poor, and
00:37:51.580 also forcibly
00:37:52.540 remove the
00:37:53.100 uteruses of 1.00
00:37:53.840 African American
00:37:54.720 and indigenous
00:37:55.360 women, all as 1.00
00:37:57.300 part of an
00:37:58.040 international
00:37:58.700 eugenics movement
00:37:59.820 that swept
00:38:00.920 through public
00:38:01.780 health.
00:38:03.760 Psychedelics and
00:38:04.500 other drugs were
00:38:05.180 given to people in
00:38:06.000 mental institutions
00:38:06.920 without telling
00:38:07.700 them, often
00:38:09.340 leading to
00:38:09.880 nightmare trips,
00:38:11.460 and dangerous
00:38:12.120 campaigns were
00:38:12.980 undertaken based
00:38:14.160 on only partial
00:38:15.280 knowledge, such as
00:38:17.260 the widespread
00:38:18.000 radiation of
00:38:19.940 healthy children's
00:38:21.120 thymus glands, a
00:38:22.820 key part of one's
00:38:24.180 immune system, which
00:38:25.680 later caused
00:38:26.280 cancers.
00:38:27.980 All of these
00:38:29.160 programs used
00:38:30.900 abstract, population
00:38:32.520 based thinking,
00:38:34.360 dehumanizing people
00:38:35.520 into numbers to be
00:38:37.400 toyed with in the
00:38:39.200 name of science
00:38:40.080 and progress.
00:38:44.880 None of the
00:38:45.960 public health
00:38:46.500 abuses during
00:38:47.680 this period
00:38:48.380 involved informed
00:38:49.760 patient consent,
00:38:51.480 and yet they
00:38:52.520 were government
00:38:53.200 sponsored,
00:38:54.400 lauded, and
00:38:55.500 justified in the
00:38:57.320 name of the
00:38:57.800 greater good.
00:38:59.700 It took the
00:39:00.740 revelation of
00:39:02.600 Nazi medical 0.53
00:39:03.320 experiments on
00:39:04.280 Jews and others
00:39:05.120 to give rise to
00:39:06.520 a new ethics of
00:39:07.600 consent for
00:39:08.300 research subjects.
00:39:10.320 The Nuremberg 0.81
00:39:11.500 Code of Ethics
00:39:12.280 of 1947, along
00:39:14.500 with the 1964
00:39:15.680 Declaration of
00:39:16.920 Helsinki, originally
00:39:18.600 developed by the
00:39:19.380 World Medical
00:39:19.900 Association, required
00:39:22.080 physicians and
00:39:23.380 scientists to
00:39:24.380 obtain the
00:39:25.200 informed consent of
00:39:26.720 all research
00:39:27.360 subjects.
00:39:28.640 This breakthrough
00:39:30.000 led to the
00:39:31.540 normalization of
00:39:32.580 patient consent not
00:39:34.040 just for research
00:39:34.920 subjects, but for
00:39:36.140 those undergoing all
00:39:37.580 medical procedures,
00:39:38.520 procedures, and
00:39:39.880 became a bedrock of
00:39:41.940 what many of us in
00:39:42.900 the medical field
00:39:43.760 now see as an
00:39:45.340 inviolable code of
00:39:47.220 ethics.
00:39:50.420 But in the late
00:39:51.440 1970s and 1980s,
00:39:54.200 there were new
00:39:54.860 controversies.
00:39:57.200 In 1976, a
00:39:58.880 swine flu outbreak
00:40:00.120 occurred in Fort
00:40:01.000 Dix, New Jersey.
00:40:03.460 Fearing that the
00:40:04.060 country was on the
00:40:04.860 cusp of a pandemic,
00:40:05.900 the U.S.
00:40:06.840 government approved
00:40:07.640 a vaccine and
00:40:08.860 undertook an
00:40:09.780 aggressive rollout
00:40:10.760 that involved 48
00:40:12.140 million people.
00:40:13.860 But there were two
00:40:14.920 unforeseen
00:40:15.640 developments.
00:40:17.300 First, the
00:40:18.340 epidemic receded on
00:40:19.380 its own and rather
00:40:20.240 quickly.
00:40:21.480 Second, 450
00:40:23.320 vaccinated people
00:40:24.520 came down with a
00:40:25.440 neurological disorder
00:40:26.560 called Guillain-Barre
00:40:27.600 syndrome in greater
00:40:29.560 numbers than would be
00:40:30.560 expected during that
00:40:31.580 period.
00:40:31.960 After producing and
00:40:34.700 distributing the
00:40:35.460 vaccine so quickly,
00:40:37.020 the government then
00:40:37.840 reacted with caution.
00:40:39.980 But the idea that a
00:40:41.220 vaccine could cause
00:40:42.580 damage stuck in the
00:40:44.560 public's mind.
00:40:45.780 Quote,
00:40:46.520 This government-led
00:40:47.660 campaign was widely
00:40:49.180 viewed as a debacle
00:40:50.160 and put an irreparable
00:40:52.080 dent in future public
00:40:53.600 health initiatives,
00:40:54.680 close quote,
00:40:55.360 wrote Rebecca Creston
00:40:56.480 in Discover.
00:40:57.920 Quote,
00:40:58.700 As well as negatively
00:40:59.780 influenced the public's
00:41:01.140 perception of both the
00:41:03.120 flu and the flu shot
00:41:04.100 in this country.
00:41:05.620 Close quote.
00:41:08.360 That skepticism might
00:41:10.780 have emerged so sharply
00:41:12.080 because the swine flu
00:41:13.900 debacle occurred against
00:41:15.120 the backdrop of another
00:41:16.760 contemporaneous event.
00:41:18.920 In the 1970s, a number
00:41:21.680 of parents began arguing
00:41:22.920 that their children were
00:41:23.920 left with serious brain
00:41:25.280 problems and seizures
00:41:27.000 after receiving the
00:41:28.720 diphtheria pertussis
00:41:29.860 vaccine.
00:41:31.140 Numerous vaccine-related
00:41:33.620 lawsuits followed,
00:41:35.360 and the parents scored
00:41:36.340 many legal victories,
00:41:37.880 costing pharmaceutical
00:41:38.800 companies millions of
00:41:40.340 dollars.
00:41:41.840 It cost 12 cents to make
00:41:43.800 a dose of the DPT
00:41:45.000 vaccine in 1982.
00:41:47.680 But, within a few years,
00:41:49.840 the cost increased
00:41:50.620 35-fold thanks to
00:41:52.240 litigation awards,
00:41:53.780 and as a result,
00:41:54.760 companies started
00:41:55.460 leaving the vaccine
00:41:56.480 business.
00:41:57.880 To this day,
00:41:58.720 there is disagreement
00:41:59.940 about the primary cause
00:42:01.440 of the brain problems
00:42:02.440 with some of the parents
00:42:03.880 insisting it was the
00:42:04.920 vaccine, and vaccine
00:42:06.600 advocates arguing that
00:42:07.800 these children actually had
00:42:09.200 a genetic condition
00:42:10.460 called Rivette's syndrome,
00:42:12.380 possibly brought to the
00:42:13.500 surface by the vaccination,
00:42:15.560 but which they would have
00:42:16.600 suffered from anyway.
00:42:17.500 There is little disagreement,
00:42:20.480 though, about what
00:42:21.480 happened next.
00:42:23.060 In 1986,
00:42:24.920 the last pharmaceutical
00:42:26.060 company still making
00:42:27.260 the DPT,
00:42:28.540 Leteral,
00:42:29.440 told the government it
00:42:30.420 would stop making
00:42:31.160 the vaccine.
00:42:33.260 Companies making vaccines
00:42:34.660 for other diseases
00:42:35.700 were also being sued,
00:42:37.220 and also stopped
00:42:38.120 production.
00:42:38.600 The government grew
00:42:40.700 very concerned,
00:42:41.840 and in 1986,
00:42:43.040 Congress passed the
00:42:43.960 National Childhood
00:42:44.940 Vaccine Injury Act,
00:42:46.860 NCVIA.
00:42:49.060 The act established
00:42:50.460 a new system for
00:42:51.580 vaccine-related injuries
00:42:52.900 or death linked to
00:42:53.940 childhood vaccinations,
00:42:55.880 wherein companies
00:42:56.780 were indemnified from
00:42:57.940 being sued for
00:42:58.700 safety problems.
00:43:01.040 Soon after,
00:43:01.620 the program was
00:43:02.260 enlarged to include
00:43:03.300 adult vaccination
00:43:04.340 injuries.
00:43:05.940 If anyone believed
00:43:07.180 that a child or person
00:43:08.300 was injured by a vaccine,
00:43:10.240 they could take the
00:43:11.000 complaint to a newly
00:43:11.960 established vaccine
00:43:13.140 court, run by the
00:43:14.640 U.S. government,
00:43:15.700 and plead their case.
00:43:17.220 If they won,
00:43:18.340 the government would
00:43:19.060 pay them damages
00:43:19.880 from a fund it created
00:43:21.060 out of taxpayer money.
00:43:23.140 This might have seemed
00:43:24.500 the best possible
00:43:25.740 solution.
00:43:27.280 The country retained
00:43:28.160 a vaccine supply,
00:43:29.680 and citizens had
00:43:30.580 recourse in the event
00:43:31.680 of harm.
00:43:33.180 But because companies
00:43:34.440 were indemnified from
00:43:35.540 any harm their vaccines
00:43:36.740 might cause,
00:43:37.560 they no longer had
00:43:39.020 a powerful financial
00:43:40.360 incentive to rectify
00:43:41.980 existing safety
00:43:43.000 problems, or even
00:43:44.480 improve safety as
00:43:45.600 time passed.
00:43:47.620 Arguably, they were
00:43:49.440 financially disincentivized
00:43:51.260 from doing so.
00:43:53.120 The solution shifted
00:43:54.600 liability for the
00:43:56.020 costs of safety
00:43:56.860 problems from the
00:43:58.100 makers onto the
00:43:59.360 taxpayers, the pool
00:44:01.100 that included those
00:44:02.040 who were arguably
00:44:02.720 harmed.
00:44:03.240 This atmosphere of
00:44:06.480 suspicion spread in
00:44:07.780 the 1990s with even
00:44:09.500 greater explosiveness
00:44:10.560 and toxicity during
00:44:12.400 the vaccine-autism
00:44:13.720 debate.
00:44:15.160 The landscape of the
00:44:17.000 vaccine discourse in
00:44:18.100 the United States,
00:44:19.580 never simple or
00:44:20.700 one-dimensional to
00:44:21.660 begin with, was
00:44:23.060 becoming even more
00:44:24.400 complicated and
00:44:25.360 hostile.
00:44:25.760 To understand the
00:44:28.260 polarized psychological
00:44:29.520 reactions to
00:44:30.380 vaccination now, as
00:44:32.480 well as what to do
00:44:33.400 about it, it's
00:44:34.300 essential to
00:44:34.940 disentangle three
00:44:36.060 things.
00:44:37.300 First, there is the
00:44:39.120 kernel idea behind
00:44:40.360 vaccination as a
00:44:41.380 treatment, arguably one
00:44:43.160 of humanity's greatest
00:44:44.560 medical insights.
00:44:46.600 Second, there is the
00:44:48.780 process by which a
00:44:50.120 particular vaccine is
00:44:51.380 produced, tested for
00:44:53.260 safety and efficacy,
00:44:54.700 and regulated.
00:44:56.080 That is, the
00:44:57.080 execution of the
00:44:58.400 core insight, which,
00:44:59.740 as we know, can
00:45:00.460 vary in success from
00:45:02.160 one vaccine to the
00:45:03.180 next or fail
00:45:04.340 completely.
00:45:05.560 We've not yet been
00:45:06.600 able to make an AIDS
00:45:07.800 vaccine, for instance.
00:45:10.500 Third, there is the
00:45:12.400 way in which those who
00:45:13.540 produce the vaccine and
00:45:15.120 the public health
00:45:15.840 officials in charge of
00:45:16.900 regulating and
00:45:17.680 disseminate it,
00:45:18.980 communicate to the
00:45:19.860 public.
00:45:20.240 Only a person who
00:45:23.960 rejects the first
00:45:25.180 kernel idea could
00:45:26.500 sensibly be called an
00:45:28.000 anti-vaxxer.
00:45:29.860 Many people accept the
00:45:31.400 kernel insight and have
00:45:32.880 been vaccinated multiple
00:45:33.980 times in the past, but
00:45:35.900 have come to doubt the
00:45:36.900 execution or necessity of
00:45:38.740 a particular vaccine, and
00:45:41.280 hence also come to doubt
00:45:43.100 the claims made in the
00:45:44.660 course of disseminating
00:45:45.700 it.
00:45:46.880 They become hesitant
00:45:48.640 about that particular
00:45:50.340 vaccine and defer or
00:45:52.160 avoid getting it.
00:45:54.600 One reason hesitancy can
00:45:56.380 take hold in relatively
00:45:58.000 low-trust societies is
00:46:00.280 that reluctant
00:46:00.900 vaccinees typically have
00:46:02.540 no direct relationship
00:46:03.620 with those mandating
00:46:04.940 vaccinations and thus no
00:46:06.900 personal evidence that
00:46:08.420 those people are
00:46:09.120 trustworthy.
00:46:10.580 For a regular
00:46:11.780 medication, a physician
00:46:13.600 needs and has the
00:46:14.740 ability to convince one
00:46:16.220 patient at a time to take
00:46:17.820 a particular drug.
00:46:19.700 This is why
00:46:20.600 pharmaceutical companies
00:46:21.680 have huge marketing
00:46:23.000 budgets to sway
00:46:24.220 individual physicians
00:46:25.460 and patients alike.
00:46:27.980 In the case of
00:46:29.200 vaccines, companies need
00:46:31.300 to convince only a few
00:46:32.800 key officials and
00:46:33.860 committees who then buy
00:46:35.640 their product and market
00:46:36.940 it for them to an entire
00:46:38.420 population.
00:46:39.100 For companies producing
00:46:41.920 vaccines, mass
00:46:43.760 marketing is replaced
00:46:45.240 almost entirely by
00:46:47.460 political lobbying.
00:46:50.400 A number of events
00:46:51.980 occurred in the 1990s
00:46:54.020 that suggested growing
00:46:55.660 enmeshment between the
00:46:56.900 pharmaceutical industry
00:46:57.940 and scientists involved in
00:46:59.320 drug production and
00:47:00.260 approval decisions,
00:47:02.260 along with the role of
00:47:03.560 profit in the whole
00:47:04.600 arrangement, was becoming
00:47:06.580 an endemic problem.
00:47:09.100 In 2005, the Associated
00:47:11.720 Press reported that
00:47:12.900 quote, two of the U.S.
00:47:14.940 government's premier
00:47:15.940 infectious disease
00:47:17.000 researchers are
00:47:17.980 collecting royalties on
00:47:19.640 an AIDS treatment they're
00:47:20.780 testing on patients using
00:47:22.340 taxpayer money.
00:47:23.980 But patients weren't
00:47:25.440 told on their consent
00:47:26.680 forms about the
00:47:27.780 financial connection.
00:47:29.280 Close quote.
00:47:31.240 One of them was helping
00:47:33.500 to develop an
00:47:34.400 interleukin-2 treatment
00:47:35.720 tested around the
00:47:36.700 globe.
00:47:37.960 The problem, as those
00:47:41.100 reports noted, was that
00:47:43.140 quote, hundreds, perhaps
00:47:44.980 thousands, of patients in
00:47:47.100 NIH experiments made
00:47:49.200 decisions to participate
00:47:50.520 in experiments that often
00:47:52.680 carry risks without full
00:47:55.080 knowledge about the
00:47:56.260 researcher's financial
00:47:57.360 interests.
00:47:58.560 Close quote.
00:48:01.560 One of the two people
00:48:03.160 running these experiments
00:48:04.440 was a researcher named
00:48:06.500 Dr. Anthony Fauci, who
00:48:08.620 first rose to prominence a
00:48:10.280 decade before in the AIDS
00:48:11.400 crisis.
00:48:13.480 Not only was the
00:48:14.840 assertion about royalties
00:48:16.140 true, it was also
00:48:17.860 perfectly legal.
00:48:20.280 Royalties for public
00:48:21.220 service scientists were
00:48:22.440 first allowed under the
00:48:23.660 Bay-Dole Act of 1980,
00:48:26.200 which had attempted to
00:48:27.300 remedy two related
00:48:28.480 problems.
00:48:30.000 The lack of
00:48:30.560 reimbursement for
00:48:31.380 government-funded
00:48:32.060 research,
00:48:33.160 and retaining top
00:48:34.380 scientists who were
00:48:35.360 being lured away from
00:48:36.360 public work by the
00:48:37.660 private sector.
00:48:39.160 This act and other
00:48:41.140 federal regulations
00:48:42.260 permitted the NIH, for
00:48:43.880 instance, to collect
00:48:45.140 proceeds if its research
00:48:47.800 made money in the
00:48:48.640 private sector and
00:48:50.060 allowed individual
00:48:51.040 government scientists to
00:48:52.600 collect up to $150,000 a
00:48:55.440 year in royalties on
00:48:57.740 treatments they
00:48:58.580 developed.
00:48:59.020 At the time, Fauci said he
00:49:03.480 tried to alert patients to
00:49:04.860 his royalties, but his
00:49:05.980 agency rebuffed him, arguing
00:49:07.600 that he couldn't do so under
00:49:08.780 the law.
00:49:10.360 The non-disclosure of the
00:49:12.060 researcher's interest was
00:49:13.980 changed after the scandal, but
00:49:16.220 the damage had been done.
00:49:17.860 In the minds of some elements
00:49:19.540 of the public, there was
00:49:20.800 something fishy going on between
00:49:22.520 the government and the
00:49:23.440 pharmaceutical industry, and it
00:49:25.300 had something to do with money
00:49:26.820 and a willingness to
00:49:28.000 disregard or dilute
00:49:29.520 informed consent.
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00:51:10.760 These suspicions heightened
00:51:12.720 in the 2000s as key physicians
00:51:15.180 began revealing to the public
00:51:16.880 that Big Pharma had been
00:51:18.280 involved in a number of major
00:51:19.920 abuses of its relationships
00:51:21.240 with government, patients,
00:51:23.280 physicians, and journals.
00:51:26.060 One of the first to break
00:51:27.360 this story was Marsha Engel,
00:51:29.520 who had been editor of the
00:51:30.860 New England Journal of
00:51:31.940 Medicine, arguably the most
00:51:33.480 important medical journal in
00:51:34.760 the United States at the time.
00:51:37.140 In her 2004 book, The Truth
00:51:40.180 About Drug Companies, How They
00:51:42.000 Deceive Us, and What to Do
00:51:43.380 About It, she argued that the
00:51:45.940 companies spent far more on
00:51:47.480 marketing, administration, public
00:51:49.560 relations, and rebranding than
00:51:51.900 they did on research, and that
00:51:53.940 they actually discovered very
00:51:55.560 few new effective drugs.
00:51:58.540 Instead, they used, quote,
00:52:00.460 lures, bribes, and kickbacks,
00:52:03.640 close quote, to get drugs taken
00:52:06.400 up by physicians.
00:52:09.000 Engel showed how these companies
00:52:11.440 penetrated medical schools,
00:52:13.280 conventions, and organizations,
00:52:14.940 often passing off marketing as,
00:52:17.660 quote, education, close quote,
00:52:20.060 which they provided free of
00:52:21.620 charge.
00:52:23.520 More to the point, Engel argued
00:52:25.620 that government agencies were
00:52:27.400 highly compromised.
00:52:29.480 She demonstrated how conflicts of
00:52:31.240 interest permeated the U.S. Food and
00:52:33.280 Drug Administration, which gave
00:52:35.460 expedited reviews and approvals for
00:52:38.440 drugs with major side effects like
00:52:40.400 heart attacks and stroke, such as
00:52:42.980 Vioxx and Celebrex, and some with
00:52:46.180 no serious benefit.
00:52:48.640 Engel also revealed that, quote,
00:52:50.700 many members of the FDA advisory
00:52:53.380 committees were paid consultants for
00:52:55.540 drug companies, although they were
00:52:57.860 supposed to excuse themselves from
00:53:01.180 decisions when they have a financial
00:53:02.760 connection with a company that makes
00:53:04.580 the drug in question.
00:53:06.260 That rule is regularly waived,
00:53:08.700 close quote.
00:53:09.340 She documented multiple instances of
00:53:13.120 committee members discussing decisions
00:53:14.920 on safety violations committed by the
00:53:17.480 very companies that paid them, from
00:53:19.780 which they did not recuse themselves.
00:53:23.840 Engel's book, which was published to
00:53:25.860 great acclaim, was impossible to
00:53:27.940 dismiss as fringe.
00:53:30.380 Quote, Dr. Engel's case is tough,
00:53:33.180 persuasive, and troubling, close quote,
00:53:35.180 claimed the New York Times.
00:53:37.000 Publishers Weekly wrote, quote,
00:53:39.340 In what should serve as the fast food
00:53:41.580 nation of the drug industry,
00:53:43.120 Engel presents a searing indictment of
00:53:45.720 big pharma as corrupt and corrupting,
00:53:47.860 close quote.
00:53:49.780 Over the next few years, the kinds of
00:53:52.780 abuses she documented made it to the
00:53:55.460 courts.
00:53:56.660 As these trials became public,
00:53:58.720 Americans who suffered from serious
00:54:00.260 side effects caused by the drugs
00:54:01.720 involved took notice.
00:54:03.320 In 2012, physician Ben Goldacre of Oxford
00:54:08.760 University published Bad Pharma, in which
00:54:12.080 he explored fraud settlements for
00:54:14.160 pharmaceutical companies covering up
00:54:15.940 known adverse events, including lethal
00:54:18.600 ones, and hiding information, including
00:54:21.760 about safety.
00:54:23.480 The book's subtitle, How Drug Companies
00:54:26.100 Mislead Doctors and Harm Patients, was
00:54:28.740 key.
00:54:29.100 Physicians often didn't know the wool was
00:54:32.820 being pulled over their eyes, or what had
00:54:35.360 been kept from them.
00:54:37.220 But when the practices of large pharmaceutical
00:54:39.560 companies were examined in the courts, with
00:54:41.920 internal documents reviewed, one illegal activity
00:54:45.480 after another was revealed.
00:54:48.140 Goldacre's list makes one shudder.
00:54:50.300 Pfizer was fined $2.3 billion for promoting the
00:54:57.120 painkiller Bextra, later taken off the market over
00:54:59.820 safety concerns, at dangerously high doses,
00:55:03.580 misbranding it with the intent to defraud or
00:55:07.520 mislead, the largest criminal fine ever imposed in
00:55:12.420 the U.S. until it was beaten by GSK,
00:55:15.600 KlaxoSmithKline.
00:55:17.740 End of quote.
00:55:19.540 Quote, in July 2012, GSK received a $3 billion
00:55:24.420 fine for civil and criminal fraud after pleading
00:55:28.080 guilty to a vast range of charges around unlawful
00:55:31.140 promotion of prescription drugs and failure to
00:55:34.280 report safety data.
00:55:35.520 Close quote.
00:55:36.840 Quote, Abbott was fined $1.5 billion in May 2012
00:55:40.800 over the illegal promotion of Depakote.
00:55:43.520 Close quote.
00:55:44.020 Quote, Eli Lilly was fined $1.4 billion in 2009.
00:55:48.660 Close quote.
00:55:50.020 Quote, AstraZeneca was fined $520 million in 2010.
00:55:53.820 Close quote.
00:55:55.400 Quote, Merck was fined $1 billion in 2011.
00:55:58.520 Close quote.
00:56:00.520 After Goldacre's book was published, the fines kept
00:56:03.700 coming.
00:56:05.040 Johnson & Johnson was made to pay $2.2 billion in
00:56:07.820 2013, which included, according to the Justice
00:56:11.500 Department, quote, criminal fines, close quote, for
00:56:15.120 having, quote, jeopardized the health and safety of
00:56:18.660 patients and damaged the public trust, close quote.
00:56:22.500 In 2019, the company was fined another $572 million for
00:56:26.600 its role in the opioid epidemic and then fined a
00:56:29.760 whopping $8 billion by a jury in a different case, an
00:56:33.480 amount that will no doubt be reduced, but which signals
00:56:35.980 public outrage at the violations.
00:56:37.740 These huge fines, year after year, involve popular drugs
00:56:45.560 taken by tens of millions of patients with negative effects,
00:56:48.940 including death.
00:56:51.440 Stories of devastation have become lore in many families and
00:56:55.000 communities.
00:56:56.740 The circle of concern is even wider if you include those who may
00:57:01.280 not have been personally affected, but are aware of this
00:57:03.940 problematic legal history.
00:57:05.360 When you personally take a medication, you tend to notice
00:57:09.560 news about it, especially bad news.
00:57:13.180 Whether or not you've experienced any negative effects
00:57:15.760 yourself, you are naturally alert to their existence.
00:57:20.340 Each time a big pharma company is in the courts and in the
00:57:24.020 media because of some problem, the seeds of skepticism are
00:57:27.400 planted in the minds of many Americans.
00:57:29.800 The transgressions mentioned above were only possible on such a
00:57:42.620 scale because of a textbook case of regulatory capture consisting of
00:57:48.180 a mixture of perverse incentives and priorities, a tolerance for
00:57:53.220 non-transparency, and in some cases, a culture of collusion.
00:57:57.680 The FDA bills big pharma $800 million a year, which in turn helps pay FDA
00:58:05.740 salaries.
00:58:07.780 Regulators also often get jobs in the pharmaceutical industry shortly
00:58:12.940 after leaving the FDA or similar bodies.
00:58:16.780 There is a huge incentive to impress and certainly not to cross a
00:58:22.020 potential future employer.
00:58:23.360 It's useful to see how this works by examining a case that became famous as a
00:58:32.260 tale of epic greed and corruption and which patients and physicians were
00:58:36.460 misled and deceived.
00:58:38.800 Only after patients, families, activists, and even whole communities yelled
00:58:43.800 themselves hoarse about it for years.
00:58:46.080 In 1995, the FDA approved OxyContin for short-term serious pain, like terminal cancer or post-operative
00:58:55.820 pain.
00:58:56.980 This approval was based on legitimate scientific studies related to these narrow experiences.
00:59:03.680 The FDA then made it available for minor pains with around-the-clock daily usage in 2001.
00:59:11.100 That approval for long-term use was not based on any studies.
00:59:18.960 According to a 60 Minutes report in 2019,
00:59:22.620 quote,
00:59:23.000 equally suspicious but legal
00:59:25.880 was the large number of key FDA regulators
00:59:30.740 who went through the revolving door
00:59:33.500 to jobs with drug manufacturers, close quote.
00:59:36.880 The opioid epidemic has, to date, left half a million Americans dead.
00:59:45.140 This same compromised regulatory system allows big pharma to pay for and play a key role in
00:59:52.620 performing the very studies that lead to the authorization of its own products.
00:59:58.860 For decades, it was not just common for authors of studies to receive payments from the very
01:00:04.200 companies making the medicines being tested.
01:00:07.740 It was also systematically hidden.
01:00:11.860 Drug companies secretly ghost-wrote studies of their own drugs.
01:00:16.380 Goldacre shows how they conscripted academics to pretend they had authored them.
01:00:21.280 The papers were then submitted to mainstream journals,
01:00:24.740 whose imputure would give the studies credibility,
01:00:28.080 allowing these drugs to become, quote,
01:00:30.440 the standard of practice.
01:00:31.680 16 of the 20 papers reporting on the clinical trials conducted on Vioxx,
01:00:39.180 the anti-inflammatory and pain medication that got FDA approval in 1999,
01:00:44.120 then was taken off the market in 2004 for causing heart attacks and strokes,
01:00:49.620 were ghost-written by Merck employees,
01:00:52.280 then signed by respected scientists.
01:00:56.020 Merck ultimately agreed to pay out $4.9 billion in Vioxx lawsuits.
01:01:01.680 The academics who lent their names to the studies could then stuff their CVs with these articles,
01:01:08.260 receive promotions and higher salaries within academia,
01:01:11.980 and ultimately get more consulting fees from pharmaceutical companies,
01:01:16.320 at which point they are seen as, quote,
01:01:18.520 experts by a trusting public.
01:01:20.620 In the current regulatory environment,
01:01:25.820 companies run the studies of their own products.
01:01:29.000 A Danish study found that 75% of drug company self-studies assessed were ghost-written.
01:01:36.540 A leading U.S. editor of a specialist journal estimated that 33% of articles submitted to his journal
01:01:43.840 were ghost-written by drug companies.
01:01:45.780 These impostures don't get adequately investigated by Congress
01:01:50.500 because the pharmaceutical and health industries are now the highest-paying lobby in the country,
01:01:56.460 having doled out at least $4.5 billion in the last two decades to politicians of both parties.
01:02:04.280 Quote,
01:02:04.540 While Goldacre's book shows the many ways that drug studies have been rigged to deliver certain outcomes,
01:02:29.100 one doesn't always have to rig a study to get the same result.
01:02:33.760 Among the most common techniques is to delay the reporting of medication side effects
01:02:38.620 until after the patent runs out,
01:02:41.140 and then use the bad publicity to sell a new replacement medication,
01:02:45.960 which is still on patent.
01:02:48.580 Polls repeatedly show that the chief concern among the vaccine hesitant is about side effects,
01:02:54.600 or at least effects that don't show up right away.
01:02:58.100 The latest edition of the standard textbook in the field, Plotkin's Vaccine,
01:03:03.980 has an excellent chapter on vaccine safety which notes,
01:03:06.940 quote,
01:03:08.000 Because reactions that are rare, delayed, or which occur in only certain subpopulations
01:03:14.140 may not be detected before vaccines are licensed,
01:03:18.220 post-licensure evaluation of vaccine safety is critical.
01:03:22.040 Close quote.
01:03:23.960 Post-licensure first requires FDA approval,
01:03:26.960 So, for most vaccines, that means more follow-up after the typical two-year approval process,
01:03:33.480 at least several years of it.
01:03:35.800 In 2018, the New York Times pro-vaccine science writer Melinda Wenner-Moyer
01:03:41.380 noted with shock that she learned it was not uncommon among vaccine researchers
01:03:47.360 to take the attitude that censoring bad news about their research was necessary,
01:03:52.820 and that some who didn't were ostracized by their peers.
01:03:56.840 Quote,
01:03:57.560 As a science journalist,
01:04:00.200 I've written several articles to quell vaccine angst and encourage immunization.
01:04:05.100 But lately, I've noticed that the cloud of fear surrounding vaccines is having another
01:04:11.840 nefarious effect.
01:04:13.260 It is eroding the integrity of vaccine science.
01:04:17.480 In February, I was awarded a fellowship by the nonpartisan Alicia Patterson Foundation
01:04:23.040 to report on vaccines.
01:04:24.620 Soon after, I found myself hitting a wall.
01:04:30.320 When I tried to report on unexpected or controversial aspects of vaccine efficacy or safety,
01:04:37.840 scientists often didn't want to talk with me.
01:04:41.080 When I did get them on the phone, a worrying theme emerged.
01:04:46.320 Scientists are so terrified of the public's vaccine hesitancy that they are censoring themselves,
01:04:51.460 playing down undesirable findings,
01:04:54.600 and perhaps even avoiding undertaking studies that could show unwanted effects.
01:05:01.540 Those who break these unwritten rules are criticized.
01:05:05.160 Close quote.
01:05:07.780 Moyer went on to quote authorities who argue that smaller studies,
01:05:11.960 and even inconclusive ones,
01:05:14.220 often give us the first glimpse of an insight or problem.
01:05:18.520 And this is to say nothing of the wider issue.
01:05:23.040 If scientists play down their undesirable findings in potentially mandated medicines,
01:05:28.860 as Moyer found them to be doing,
01:05:31.540 they are not just missing opportunities for good science.
01:05:35.280 They are potentially generating anti-scientific misinformation.
01:05:39.480 Quote,
01:05:39.840 By the time Moyer published her article in 2018,
01:05:56.380 many Americans were already long in the habit of questioning certain elements of their public health,
01:06:02.740 in part because of this hornet's nest of corruption and regulatory capture.
01:06:07.060 But this habit could also be explained in part by the general trend in medicine over the past two decades
01:06:14.840 towards recognizing the superiority of individually tailored interventions or personalized medicine,
01:06:21.780 which acknowledges that different people have different risk factors, genetics,
01:06:27.520 medical histories, and reactions to medical products.
01:06:30.560 It is now commonplace for people to take responsibility for their own health
01:06:35.740 because this is precisely what we have been telling them to do,
01:06:40.080 encouraging them to get to know their own unique risk factors for disease
01:06:44.240 based on their own individual histories and genetics.
01:06:48.740 Vaccines, in contrast, are a one-size-fits-all intervention 0.53
01:06:52.820 administered en masse by those who know nothing specific about the vaccinees or their children,
01:06:59.100 and when political and medical authorities change policies from day to day
01:07:05.420 and public health recommendations in one jurisdiction or country differ from those in others,
01:07:11.500 questions will be asked.
01:07:13.820 The public has been assured that we in health care recognize that the era of medical authoritarianism
01:07:20.880 and the ugly practices that led us to require informed consent are behind us.
01:07:25.700 This means that whenever there is a treatment on hand,
01:07:31.080 the burden of proof to demonstrate that it is safe and effective must fall on those who offer it.
01:07:40.420 It means we must never stifle questions or shame people for being anxious.
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01:09:41.380 Did you know approximately half of all Americans are magnesium deficient?
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01:10:57.680 I'm a psychiatrist and a psychoanalyst, and I deal with people's anxieties, and their paranoia too.
01:11:07.280 Many people think the anxious are necessarily weak.
01:11:11.540 One medical colleague calls the vaccine hesitant wimps.
01:11:14.640 But this is, if not entirely wrong, a superficial way of understanding anxiety.
01:11:23.060 Anxiety is a signal.
01:11:25.340 It evolved to get us to pay attention to something, sometimes an external threat, and sometimes an internal one,
01:11:33.140 such as an ignored feeling or forbidden thought threatening to emerge from within.
01:11:37.820 Anxiety can be neurotic.
01:11:41.740 It can even be psychotic.
01:11:43.780 It can also save your life, because dangers do exist.
01:11:47.380 When people don't experience enough anxiety, we say they're in denial.
01:11:52.660 Thus, in some situations, the capacity to feel anxiety can be an advantage,
01:11:57.600 which is likely why it's preserved in evolution in so many animals.
01:12:02.040 Aristotle understood this very point long ago.
01:12:05.040 As he noted, the courageous person, say a soldier, can and should feel anxious.
01:12:12.600 He is facing danger, after all, and his wisdom tells him there is risk.
01:12:17.620 What distinguishes the courageous person from the coward is not that they don't worry or fear,
01:12:22.900 but they can still manage to move forward into the dangerous situation they cannot avoid facing.
01:12:29.020 All of which is to say that the presence of anxiety alone is not dispositive of sanity or insanity.
01:12:37.700 It alone does not tell you whether the anxiety is well or ill-founded.
01:12:42.840 The same goes with distrust.
01:12:45.540 Sometimes distrust is paranoia, and sometimes it's healthy skepticism.
01:12:50.300 As of a September 2019 Gallup poll, only a few months before the COVID-19 pandemic,
01:12:59.200 Big Pharma was the least trusted of America's top 25 industry sectors, number 25 of 25.
01:13:07.520 In the eyes of ordinary Americans, it had both the highest negatives and the lowest positives of all industries.
01:13:15.780 At number 24 was the federal government, and at number 23 was the healthcare industry.
01:13:24.820 These three industries form a neat troika, though at number 22 was the advertising and public relations industry,
01:13:33.280 which facilitates the work of the other three.
01:13:35.380 Those inside the troika often characterize the vaccine hesitant as broadly fringe and paranoid.
01:13:43.640 But there are plenty of industries and sectors that Americans do trust.
01:13:50.240 Of the top 25 industry sectors, 21 enjoy net positive views from American voters.
01:13:57.280 Only pharma, government, healthcare, and PR are seen as net negative.
01:14:02.880 Precisely the sectors involved in the rollout of the COVID vaccines.
01:14:10.200 This set the conditions, in a way, for a perfect storm.
01:14:18.460 Chapter 3. A New Plague Descends
01:14:21.640 In February and March 2020, it became clear that the disaster that had swept through Wuhan
01:14:28.100 was becoming catastrophic in Bergamo.
01:14:30.540 As frontline healthcare workers were dying in both China and Italy,
01:14:35.780 the virus had also spread throughout Western Europe and arrived in North America.
01:14:41.420 Early reports of the case fatality rate reached over 14.5% in Italy in the spring,
01:14:48.780 and in Spain, Sweden, and other hotspots, it was over 11%,
01:14:53.420 devouring the elderly in every affected country.
01:14:57.280 PPE often didn't exist for frontline healthcare workers.
01:15:02.840 Bodies were stored in refrigerated trucks.
01:15:06.100 Citizens were told masks would not protect them,
01:15:08.840 and there were no known outpatient treatments.
01:15:12.120 While hospitals could provide oxygen, this was often insufficient,
01:15:16.460 and so victims were put on ventilators,
01:15:18.700 which may have made some cases worse and was a horrible way to die.
01:15:23.400 While much of the United States was terrified, there was some light.
01:15:30.740 Dr. Anthony Fauci, the physician-scientist now running the country's pandemic defense,
01:15:37.180 seemed able to answer most press questions,
01:15:40.240 projected an affable, avuncular persona,
01:15:43.320 and spoke in ways people could understand,
01:15:46.160 which is what the nation required.
01:15:47.740 Even skeptics had hopes.
01:15:51.380 Fauci seemed steady when events took unexpected turns,
01:15:55.620 explaining that we were learning as we went along.
01:15:58.780 He said the lockdown would be for 15 days to flatten the curve.
01:16:03.200 When that didn't work, he explained why,
01:16:06.260 argued that it should be extended,
01:16:08.260 and much of the nation went along.
01:16:09.960 In a United States exhausted by its hyper-polarized political scene,
01:16:16.620 here was someone who had worked with both parties,
01:16:19.840 advising every president since Ronald Reagan.
01:16:23.500 For those on the right,
01:16:24.920 he could be seen as an employee of and messenger for President Donald Trump.
01:16:29.420 For those on the left,
01:16:31.180 he was a longtime public servant,
01:16:33.500 who had headed the same institution,
01:16:35.100 the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease,
01:16:38.780 NIAID,
01:16:40.820 since 1984,
01:16:42.400 and played vital roles in the fights against AIDS and Ebola.
01:16:47.780 There was a widespread sense that Fauci was the right man at the right time.
01:16:54.380 But then there were flip-flops on masks.
01:16:57.460 After claiming the science showed the masks were unnecessary,
01:17:01.260 Fauci later said they were absolutely necessary.
01:17:03.840 But wouldn't be for the vaccinated,
01:17:07.840 until, eventually, they were.
01:17:11.160 There were also disputes about lockdowns,
01:17:13.900 initially introduced as temporary to flatten the curve.
01:17:17.320 They were later extended to become a new way of life,
01:17:20.440 in order to save lives.
01:17:22.860 But then some states, like Florida,
01:17:25.600 which didn't impose long and severe lockdowns,
01:17:28.520 had lower age-adjusted mortality
01:17:30.840 than states like New York,
01:17:32.680 which did.
01:17:34.720 Then another issue emerged
01:17:36.920 that was not simply scientific,
01:17:39.420 but also political.
01:17:42.580 Since the earliest days of the pandemic,
01:17:45.860 many regular people struggled to make sense of its origins.
01:17:49.720 The Chinese Communist Party
01:17:51.660 had claimed the virus emerged from a wet market,
01:17:55.120 while denying any connection
01:17:56.660 to virology labs located nearby.
01:17:59.180 There was obviously a cover-up unfolding in China,
01:18:04.260 with arrests of citizen journalists
01:18:06.020 and detentions and disappearances
01:18:08.020 of Wuhan physicians who witnessed the first cases,
01:18:11.920 and who would have had ideas about where it started.
01:18:17.260 Various observers argued that there was reason to consider
01:18:20.540 that COVID may have leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology,
01:18:24.200 and perhaps even may have been engineered
01:18:26.280 by gain-of-function GOF research,
01:18:29.780 in which a natural virus is made more contagious and lethal,
01:18:34.560 ostensibly to see if the scientists can get ahead of nature,
01:18:38.080 and to study it,
01:18:39.740 how it operates,
01:18:41.080 in order to make new vaccines or medications,
01:18:43.280 or for biological warfare.
01:18:47.320 GOF is so controversial
01:18:48.980 that in 2014,
01:18:51.520 President Barack Obama
01:18:52.780 put a moratorium on it.
01:18:55.380 In 2017,
01:18:57.420 Drs. Fauci and Francis Collins,
01:19:00.100 then Director of the NIH,
01:19:02.260 who had opposed the moratorium,
01:19:04.600 succeeded in having it lifted.
01:19:07.880 But Fauci asserted
01:19:09.500 that the scientists who were in a position
01:19:11.700 to judge the COVID situation
01:19:13.620 concluded its origin was natural.
01:19:17.420 The media followed suit
01:19:18.700 and called those who thought otherwise
01:19:21.480 conspiracy theorists.
01:19:23.780 The New York Times,
01:19:25.220 The Washington Post,
01:19:26.420 and others
01:19:27.120 called the possibility of a lab leak
01:19:29.380 a conspiracy theory
01:19:30.720 that had been debunked.
01:19:33.940 In the meantime,
01:19:36.240 a master narrative
01:19:37.360 began to emerge.
01:19:40.080 Once upon a time,
01:19:41.700 life was relatively normal
01:19:43.940 and safe.
01:19:45.480 And then the pandemic came,
01:19:47.660 and life as we knew it
01:19:49.140 suddenly changed in awful ways.
01:19:52.100 The only way out,
01:19:54.360 the only path
01:19:55.560 back to a world without COVID,
01:19:58.220 would be to make a vaccine
01:19:59.680 as quickly as possible.
01:20:03.080 Until then,
01:20:04.920 everyone would have to do their part
01:20:06.580 to stop the spread,
01:20:07.880 which meant
01:20:09.120 that basic social functions
01:20:11.240 would have to cease,
01:20:13.020 including school
01:20:13.780 for millions of children.
01:20:16.360 Thousands of small businesses
01:20:17.780 would have to close,
01:20:19.700 and civil liberties
01:20:20.740 rolled back.
01:20:22.620 It would be a difficult time,
01:20:25.000 but eventually
01:20:26.340 we would have the vaccine,
01:20:28.100 and COVID would be over,
01:20:29.740 as long as everyone
01:20:32.300 got it.
01:20:33.560 Of course.
01:20:34.340 But then,
01:20:36.120 who wouldn't want to?
01:20:38.520 On this point,
01:20:39.720 Bill Gates of Gavi,
01:20:40.980 the Vaccine Alliance,
01:20:42.600 and the largest private contributor
01:20:44.220 to the WHO,
01:20:45.880 was very direct.
01:20:47.400 Quote,
01:20:48.080 The ultimate solution,
01:20:50.480 the only thing
01:20:51.580 that really lets us
01:20:53.060 go back
01:20:53.600 completely to normal
01:20:55.080 and feel good,
01:20:56.620 is to create a vaccine.
01:20:58.760 Close quote,
01:20:59.380 he said.
01:20:59.800 If you asked researchers
01:21:02.260 or most physicians
01:21:03.480 in the spring of 2020
01:21:04.840 how long it normally takes
01:21:07.020 to produce a vaccine
01:21:08.120 safe enough
01:21:08.780 to administer to patients,
01:21:10.840 many would have pointed out
01:21:12.040 that the average
01:21:12.960 fast vaccine
01:21:14.160 takes 7 to 10 years,
01:21:16.600 and that the first vaccine
01:21:17.960 might just be
01:21:18.820 one of several
01:21:19.680 required
01:21:20.240 to end a given crisis,
01:21:22.240 because often the first
01:21:23.640 is not the best.
01:21:25.980 This seemed too long.
01:21:28.740 Gates predicted
01:21:29.340 that there would be
01:21:29.980 problems moving quickly
01:21:31.140 because companies
01:21:31.960 would have to produce
01:21:32.740 a one-size-fits-all vaccine
01:21:34.840 that could have
01:21:35.920 different effects
01:21:36.660 on different groups,
01:21:37.840 including pregnant women, 0.98
01:21:39.260 the undernourished,
01:21:40.380 and people with
01:21:41.060 existing comorbidities.
01:21:42.660 Quote,
01:21:43.620 People like myself
01:21:44.880 and Fauci,
01:21:46.360 Gates said,
01:21:47.820 are saying 18 months
01:21:49.200 to make the vaccine.
01:21:51.260 If everything went perfectly,
01:21:53.400 there will be a trade-off.
01:21:55.120 We'll have less safety testing
01:21:56.820 than we typically would have.
01:21:58.180 We just don't have the time
01:21:59.700 to do what we normally do.
01:22:01.540 Close quote.
01:22:02.800 The solution,
01:22:04.120 he noted,
01:22:05.020 was that,
01:22:05.680 quote,
01:22:06.580 governments will have
01:22:07.420 to be involved
01:22:08.080 because there will be
01:22:08.900 some risk
01:22:09.540 and indemnification needed.
01:22:11.420 Close quote.
01:22:13.260 In August,
01:22:14.580 that solution was reached.
01:22:16.960 As the Intercept reported
01:22:18.440 on August 28th,
01:22:19.820 quote,
01:22:20.060 an amendment
01:22:21.020 to the PrEP Act
01:22:22.420 stipulates
01:22:23.440 that companies,
01:22:25.140 quote,
01:22:25.540 cannot be sued
01:22:26.520 for money damages
01:22:27.460 in court,
01:22:28.020 close quote,
01:22:29.120 over injuries
01:22:30.060 caused by medical
01:22:31.140 countermeasures
01:22:31.840 for COVID.
01:22:33.080 Such countermeasures
01:22:34.260 include vaccines,
01:22:35.860 therapeutics,
01:22:36.520 and respiratory devices,
01:22:38.000 close quote.
01:22:39.600 The only exception
01:22:41.100 to this immunity
01:22:41.960 would be if death
01:22:43.120 or serious physical injury
01:22:44.860 is caused by
01:22:46.200 willful misconduct.
01:22:48.480 Indemnification
01:22:49.920 for vaccines
01:22:50.860 was,
01:22:51.820 as discussed above,
01:22:53.000 not unique.
01:22:54.400 What was new
01:22:55.120 was that the companies
01:22:56.280 producing them
01:22:57.120 were indemnified
01:22:58.640 before the vaccine
01:22:59.660 was even made
01:23:01.020 and fully assessed,
01:23:02.640 knowing it would
01:23:03.300 all be done
01:23:04.060 faster than ever before.
01:23:08.260 As the nation
01:23:09.480 agonized
01:23:10.200 over mounting deaths,
01:23:11.680 the race for a vaccine
01:23:12.760 was moving quickly,
01:23:14.180 if too opaquely
01:23:15.160 for some.
01:23:16.700 In September 2020,
01:23:18.480 a number of scientists
01:23:19.740 began openly worrying
01:23:21.340 about the non-transparency
01:23:23.460 of the vaccine trials
01:23:24.640 and whether this
01:23:26.100 could wind up
01:23:26.760 affecting vaccine hesitancy.
01:23:29.140 The New York Times
01:23:30.640 ran several articles
01:23:31.640 on this,
01:23:32.520 reporting that
01:23:33.120 AstraZeneca,
01:23:34.140 Pfizer,
01:23:34.640 and Moderna
01:23:35.160 had each withheld
01:23:37.100 their study protocols
01:23:38.460 from outside scientists
01:23:39.840 and the public.
01:23:42.060 Withholding protocols
01:23:43.240 guarantees
01:23:44.280 that outside researchers
01:23:46.020 can't know
01:23:47.040 how participants
01:23:47.760 are selected
01:23:48.440 or monitored
01:23:49.080 and how effectiveness
01:23:50.580 or safety
01:23:51.660 are defined
01:23:52.700 so that they
01:23:53.860 can't really know
01:23:54.980 what exactly
01:23:56.440 is being studied.
01:23:58.480 Pharma companies
01:23:59.560 have traditionally argued
01:24:00.740 that not only
01:24:02.400 the trial patients,
01:24:03.960 but the clinical trial data
01:24:05.860 belong to them,
01:24:07.240 that it's proprietary,
01:24:08.960 even though the study's results
01:24:10.800 impact millions.
01:24:11.860 This is part of a kind
01:24:14.500 of traditional secrecy
01:24:16.140 in the field.
01:24:17.880 Delaying protocol release
01:24:19.380 conveniently means
01:24:20.800 that it is a company's
01:24:22.220 press releases,
01:24:23.660 not the verified science,
01:24:25.940 that dominate the public's
01:24:27.320 all-important initial impression
01:24:29.320 of its product.
01:24:32.200 That the government
01:24:33.460 regulatory agencies
01:24:34.740 go along with all this,
01:24:36.720 it is, in fact,
01:24:37.840 standard practice,
01:24:39.720 doesn't assuage the public
01:24:41.260 for many.
01:24:42.120 It makes the whole process
01:24:43.680 appear corrupt.
01:24:45.660 And it doesn't help that,
01:24:47.100 according to the conflict
01:24:48.180 of interest disclosures
01:24:49.460 of the authors
01:24:50.200 of the Pfizer
01:24:51.320 and Moderna vaccine
01:24:52.400 clinical trials,
01:24:54.000 some of the authors
01:24:55.040 are employed
01:24:55.640 by these companies
01:24:56.540 and often have
01:24:57.680 stock options.
01:25:00.620 The essence
01:25:01.860 of the scientific method
01:25:03.260 is conducting experiments
01:25:04.860 that everyone
01:25:05.880 can objectively
01:25:06.780 see and verify.
01:25:08.340 transparency
01:25:10.440 is the bedrock
01:25:11.880 of experimental science
01:25:13.500 and the means
01:25:14.680 to ultimately
01:25:15.440 dispel doubt.
01:25:17.240 Moreover,
01:25:18.160 in terms of the scale
01:25:19.640 of public involvement,
01:25:21.500 the experience
01:25:22.120 of the summer
01:25:22.740 and fall of 2020
01:25:23.960 was unlike any other
01:25:25.800 in the history
01:25:26.580 of medicine.
01:25:28.180 Never before
01:25:29.260 had studies
01:25:29.920 of this size
01:25:30.800 and consequence
01:25:31.600 been run so quickly
01:25:33.260 or a medicine
01:25:34.800 been produced
01:25:35.740 so quickly
01:25:36.420 to be given
01:25:37.260 to hundreds
01:25:38.020 of millions
01:25:38.540 of people.
01:25:41.140 These studies
01:25:42.160 were called
01:25:42.840 phase 3
01:25:43.540 clinical trials
01:25:44.500 and if they
01:25:45.420 had positive results,
01:25:46.860 then the vaccine
01:25:47.560 could be given
01:25:48.100 to hundreds
01:25:48.660 of millions
01:25:49.180 of people
01:25:49.720 on the basis
01:25:50.420 of an FDA
01:25:51.840 emergency use
01:25:53.320 authorization.
01:25:55.620 But how long
01:25:56.880 were the patients
01:25:57.560 followed
01:25:57.980 in these two studies
01:25:59.440 after their second dose
01:26:00.660 to assess
01:26:01.540 safety and efficacy?
01:26:03.260 two months.
01:26:06.680 On that basis,
01:26:09.060 the vaccines
01:26:09.680 were given
01:26:10.180 to over
01:26:11.180 100 million people.
01:26:13.860 One must not
01:26:15.220 confuse
01:26:15.800 the perhaps
01:26:16.820 immaterial fact
01:26:18.160 that the vaccines
01:26:19.400 were made quickly
01:26:20.360 from the arguably
01:26:21.960 more important fact
01:26:23.380 that they were
01:26:24.400 tested on people
01:26:25.380 for only a short time.
01:26:28.060 These vaccines
01:26:29.220 were developed
01:26:29.780 so quickly
01:26:30.340 in part
01:26:31.040 because the new
01:26:32.480 mRNA technology
01:26:33.860 allows quicker
01:26:34.800 production
01:26:35.320 and because
01:26:36.440 parts of the
01:26:37.180 production lines
01:26:38.080 that in the past
01:26:38.980 were staged out
01:26:39.720 over time
01:26:40.420 were in this case
01:26:42.640 set up simultaneously
01:26:44.140 with the help
01:26:45.260 of huge cash infusions.
01:26:46.900 All else
01:26:49.240 being equal,
01:26:50.560 there's a serious
01:26:51.360 argument
01:26:51.880 that it might
01:26:53.100 be hugely
01:26:53.720 advantageous
01:26:54.720 to be able
01:26:55.240 to produce
01:26:55.740 new vaccines
01:26:56.620 so quickly.
01:26:58.620 Quote,
01:26:59.080 if you can intervene
01:27:00.160 with, let's say,
01:27:01.200 a 40% effective vaccine
01:27:02.980 four months
01:27:03.920 before you can
01:27:04.840 intervene
01:27:05.280 with an 80%
01:27:06.760 effective vaccine,
01:27:08.320 you save more lives
01:27:09.460 with the 40% 0.90
01:27:10.500 effective vaccine
01:27:11.460 that's delivered
01:27:12.160 four months earlier.
01:27:13.680 Close quote.
01:27:14.240 Barney Graham
01:27:15.280 of the National
01:27:16.020 Institutes of Health
01:27:17.220 pointed out.
01:27:19.100 Quote,
01:27:19.480 being fast
01:27:20.180 in an outbreak
01:27:20.800 setting
01:27:21.240 in some ways
01:27:22.240 is more important
01:27:23.060 than being perfect.
01:27:24.400 Close quote.
01:27:26.180 Still,
01:27:27.040 it was obvious
01:27:28.200 as early as the fall
01:27:29.660 that some testing
01:27:31.140 steps would be skipped.
01:27:33.220 Quote,
01:27:33.620 we'll have less
01:27:34.420 safety testing
01:27:35.220 than we typically
01:27:35.960 would have.
01:27:36.740 Close quote.
01:27:37.600 Gates noted.
01:27:39.340 Quote,
01:27:39.700 we just don't
01:27:40.680 have the time.
01:27:42.200 Close quote.
01:27:42.700 Must that be
01:27:45.240 a problem?
01:27:46.960 Why,
01:27:47.760 especially
01:27:48.240 during a pandemic,
01:27:49.840 wouldn't we want
01:27:50.620 to quickly distribute
01:27:51.580 any vaccine
01:27:52.560 that appears
01:27:53.100 to work,
01:27:54.140 even somewhat
01:27:55.700 effectively,
01:27:56.800 to those who
01:27:57.760 are willing
01:27:58.160 to take on
01:27:58.900 any potential risks
01:28:00.140 that may go
01:28:01.140 with less
01:28:01.820 safety testing?
01:28:03.740 Some people
01:28:04.760 might even
01:28:05.800 decide for themselves
01:28:06.780 that a raging
01:28:07.480 pandemic
01:28:08.040 is a dangerous
01:28:09.240 enough threat
01:28:10.000 to outweigh
01:28:11.200 every other
01:28:12.140 possible concern.
01:28:15.420 But what we
01:28:16.520 shouldn't do,
01:28:17.820 if we want
01:28:18.740 to maintain
01:28:19.460 public trust
01:28:20.440 and cohesion,
01:28:21.740 is act as though
01:28:23.240 there is no chance
01:28:24.360 that any legitimate
01:28:25.360 concern could
01:28:26.560 ever possibly emerge,
01:28:28.460 or that we know
01:28:30.140 more than we really
01:28:31.180 do after only
01:28:32.480 two months of study.
01:28:34.880 With complex
01:28:36.160 biological systems,
01:28:37.460 we simply
01:28:38.980 can't presume
01:28:39.920 that just
01:28:40.760 because we
01:28:41.280 have a fantastic
01:28:42.060 idea for a
01:28:43.040 treatment,
01:28:44.000 the safety
01:28:44.980 we hope for
01:28:45.920 and see
01:28:46.980 at the start
01:28:47.900 will necessarily
01:28:49.600 hold over time.
01:28:52.540 Take the
01:28:53.460 classic example
01:28:54.360 of thalidomide.
01:28:55.660 It was originally
01:28:56.620 a sedative
01:28:57.340 used for anxiety
01:28:58.780 and later
01:28:59.760 tried for nausea.
01:29:01.420 It worked,
01:29:02.840 leading some
01:29:03.480 to theorize
01:29:04.860 that it could
01:29:05.720 prevent nausea
01:29:06.680 in pregnant
01:29:07.480 mothers.
01:29:08.740 In practice,
01:29:10.440 once on the
01:29:11.400 market,
01:29:12.220 it did.
01:29:13.900 But it also
01:29:15.100 caused serious
01:29:16.000 birth defects
01:29:16.800 in children.
01:29:18.420 It took longer
01:29:19.400 than nine months
01:29:20.320 and enough
01:29:21.700 cases to realize
01:29:23.120 that these
01:29:24.140 side effects
01:29:24.800 came from
01:29:25.340 the drug
01:29:25.920 and even more
01:29:27.500 time to overcome
01:29:28.500 the drug company's
01:29:29.660 opposition to the
01:29:30.720 facts.
01:29:31.080 The same
01:29:33.760 applies to
01:29:34.440 any of the
01:29:35.080 major drugs
01:29:35.800 pulled off
01:29:36.400 the market
01:29:36.860 for causing
01:29:37.420 cancer,
01:29:38.300 heart attacks,
01:29:39.240 and diabetes.
01:29:40.880 They don't
01:29:41.720 always cause
01:29:42.400 dire consequences
01:29:43.380 immediately
01:29:44.000 or in everyone.
01:29:46.840 Sometimes
01:29:47.280 these drugs
01:29:47.980 set a process
01:29:48.900 in motion
01:29:49.440 immediately,
01:29:50.500 but it takes
01:29:51.120 scientists a year
01:29:52.340 or many years
01:29:53.360 to pick up
01:29:54.080 the trend
01:29:54.540 in a population
01:29:55.380 at large.
01:29:57.640 Working from
01:29:58.720 first scientific
01:29:59.720 principles,
01:30:01.080 and based
01:30:01.860 on what we
01:30:02.420 already know,
01:30:03.940 we can often
01:30:04.900 develop a neat
01:30:05.860 theory about
01:30:07.040 what might
01:30:07.800 work.
01:30:09.160 But because we
01:30:10.320 don't know
01:30:11.020 what we don't
01:30:11.840 know,
01:30:12.840 it often doesn't
01:30:14.060 turn out as
01:30:14.600 we expect.
01:30:16.480 That is why
01:30:17.640 empirical science
01:30:18.780 developed as a
01:30:20.740 way to test
01:30:21.620 our theories.
01:30:23.420 Empirical science
01:30:24.540 is always,
01:30:25.900 by definition,
01:30:27.720 science after
01:30:28.800 the fact.
01:30:29.380 This is
01:30:32.840 especially
01:30:33.360 important given
01:30:34.440 the specific
01:30:35.120 kind of
01:30:35.640 vaccine that
01:30:36.240 was being
01:30:36.740 approved in
01:30:37.340 the United
01:30:37.680 States,
01:30:38.620 the mRNA
01:30:39.200 vaccine,
01:30:40.540 which was a
01:30:41.260 first of its
01:30:41.800 kind.
01:30:43.080 Instead of
01:30:43.840 exposing a
01:30:44.580 person to
01:30:45.000 the virus
01:30:45.460 itself in
01:30:46.220 attenuated
01:30:46.840 live form,
01:30:48.160 like the
01:30:48.580 MMR, 0.85
01:30:49.520 or killed
01:30:50.320 form,
01:30:51.240 like the
01:30:51.860 polio shot
01:30:52.500 or flu shot,
01:30:54.060 which is how
01:30:54.560 many of the
01:30:55.560 other vaccines
01:30:56.380 we've come to
01:30:56.980 know work.
01:30:59.000 In the
01:30:59.320 mRNA vaccine,
01:31:00.660 a person is
01:31:01.240 exposed to an
01:31:02.080 artificially made
01:31:03.220 genetic messenger,
01:31:05.140 mRNA,
01:31:06.100 that goes into
01:31:07.400 their cells and
01:31:08.580 directs them to
01:31:09.680 make part of
01:31:10.980 the virus,
01:31:11.820 which then
01:31:12.500 triggers antibodies.
01:31:15.180 Early on in
01:31:16.540 the rollout,
01:31:18.260 both the
01:31:18.720 pharma PR
01:31:19.480 industry and
01:31:20.820 the press
01:31:21.360 emphasized how
01:31:22.860 novel these
01:31:23.640 vaccines were
01:31:24.500 and how
01:31:25.360 this unique
01:31:26.020 technique would
01:31:26.760 produce a
01:31:27.280 vaccine so
01:31:28.060 quickly.
01:31:29.700 But when
01:31:30.480 some side
01:31:31.020 effects started
01:31:31.620 to emerge
01:31:32.260 and people
01:31:33.760 got nervous,
01:31:36.480 officials and
01:31:37.300 the company's
01:31:37.840 own PR teams
01:31:38.860 changed their
01:31:39.660 message.
01:31:41.120 These techniques
01:31:41.740 were now
01:31:42.200 presented as
01:31:42.840 not new at
01:31:43.500 all, but as
01:31:44.200 having been
01:31:44.600 around a
01:31:45.360 long time.
01:31:47.380 The hesitant
01:31:48.020 noticed flip-flops
01:31:49.380 in communication
01:31:50.160 like this.
01:31:51.620 At best,
01:31:52.440 it makes them
01:31:52.960 wonder about
01:31:53.620 the lasting
01:31:54.240 veracity of
01:31:55.040 public health
01:31:55.640 messages.
01:31:56.560 At worst,
01:31:57.720 it makes them
01:31:58.340 deeply suspicious.
01:32:01.060 Over the
01:32:01.880 course of the
01:32:02.500 summer of
01:32:03.000 2020, while
01:32:04.680 the clinical
01:32:05.120 trials were
01:32:05.760 ongoing,
01:32:06.880 outside scientists
01:32:07.780 still had no
01:32:08.620 access to what
01:32:09.540 exactly was being
01:32:10.480 measured and
01:32:11.220 hence studied,
01:32:12.360 so there was
01:32:13.040 no external
01:32:14.160 check on or
01:32:15.600 observation of
01:32:16.520 the process,
01:32:17.900 despite much of
01:32:18.920 the research
01:32:19.440 having been
01:32:19.980 funded by
01:32:20.500 government.
01:32:21.860 Marketing and
01:32:22.560 distribution would
01:32:23.380 be done by
01:32:24.100 the government.
01:32:25.560 The government
01:32:26.100 would be providing
01:32:27.060 the customers,
01:32:28.400 and the government
01:32:29.060 would even pay for
01:32:30.240 the consequences of
01:32:31.700 safety problems that
01:32:32.740 might arise.
01:32:34.900 Withholding
01:32:35.380 protocols, rather
01:32:36.780 than disseminating
01:32:37.780 them as widely as
01:32:38.760 possible, was,
01:32:40.300 under such
01:32:40.900 circumstances, a
01:32:42.700 sign of outlandish
01:32:43.780 chutzpah.
01:32:45.000 And the
01:32:45.700 governmental agencies
01:32:46.680 that are supposed to
01:32:47.740 advocate for the
01:32:48.580 public, in this
01:32:49.680 case, the FDA, CDC,
01:32:51.800 and NIH,
01:32:53.220 countenanced it.
01:32:54.640 In September 2020,
01:32:57.080 one bit of
01:32:57.700 secrecy was
01:32:58.540 lifted.
01:32:59.880 It turned out that
01:33:00.920 AstraZeneca had
01:33:01.940 stopped its clinical
01:33:02.880 trial twice.
01:33:04.860 The first pause was
01:33:06.120 not even announced.
01:33:07.600 The second one was,
01:33:09.460 but neither the UK
01:33:10.400 public, nor the
01:33:11.560 FDA, nor scientists
01:33:12.960 were immediately
01:33:13.760 told why.
01:33:14.540 Before they ever
01:33:16.920 found out, however,
01:33:19.220 AstraZeneca CEO
01:33:20.520 Pasquale Soriad did
01:33:22.320 privately disclose
01:33:23.360 the reason, two
01:33:24.900 cases of serious
01:33:25.900 neurological damage,
01:33:27.580 to the J.P.
01:33:28.620 Morgan Investment
01:33:29.620 Bank.
01:33:31.140 To some, this said
01:33:33.320 much about who,
01:33:34.460 exactly, this process
01:33:36.160 was designed to
01:33:36.980 benefit.
01:33:38.520 Quote,
01:33:38.960 The communication
01:33:40.100 has been horrible
01:33:41.140 and unacceptable,
01:33:42.360 close quote,
01:33:43.000 vaccine advocate
01:33:43.840 and virologist
01:33:44.560 Peter Hotez said,
01:33:46.360 quote,
01:33:47.200 This is not how
01:33:48.020 the American people
01:33:48.880 should be hearing
01:33:49.460 about this,
01:33:50.400 close quote.
01:33:52.020 Scientists started
01:33:52.920 to demand to see
01:33:53.900 the protocols.
01:33:55.360 Hotez and others, 0.87
01:33:57.060 quote,
01:33:57.360 criticized obtuse
01:33:58.740 statements released
01:33:59.760 by government
01:34:00.340 officials,
01:34:01.540 including UK
01:34:02.360 regulators,
01:34:03.900 who, he said,
01:34:05.340 failed to supply
01:34:06.220 a rationale for
01:34:07.200 resuming their
01:34:07.980 trials,
01:34:08.620 close quote.
01:34:09.940 Government
01:34:10.300 officials and
01:34:11.160 the regulators,
01:34:12.180 who most citizens
01:34:13.180 assume,
01:34:13.840 are there to
01:34:14.580 keep the process
01:34:15.400 honest,
01:34:16.660 seemed instead
01:34:17.740 to be partners
01:34:18.820 in the obfuscation.
01:34:22.300 In November 2020,
01:34:24.680 the exciting news
01:34:25.940 arrived.
01:34:27.140 We had vaccine
01:34:28.680 liftoff.
01:34:30.160 Phase 3 trials
01:34:31.160 of the Pfizer
01:34:31.840 and Moderna vaccines
01:34:33.120 were said to be
01:34:33.960 95%
01:34:35.060 and 94.5%
01:34:37.320 efficacious,
01:34:38.560 as Fauci
01:34:39.700 and the company
01:34:40.420 press releases
01:34:41.180 announced,
01:34:41.740 and the emergency
01:34:43.200 use authorization
01:34:44.480 was granted
01:34:45.360 on the basis
01:34:46.540 of these two-month
01:34:47.500 studies,
01:34:48.680 allowing distribution
01:34:49.740 of the vaccines
01:34:50.860 to millions.
01:34:53.700 Efficacious
01:34:54.540 is the term
01:34:56.340 used to describe
01:34:57.300 how effective
01:34:58.120 a treatment is
01:34:59.160 in the artificial
01:35:00.200 situation
01:35:01.340 of a clinical
01:35:02.180 trial
01:35:02.700 with volunteer
01:35:03.860 patients,
01:35:04.520 a group
01:35:05.840 not always
01:35:06.900 representative
01:35:07.620 of the wider
01:35:08.480 population.
01:35:10.620 Effective
01:35:11.340 is the term
01:35:12.500 used to describe
01:35:13.360 how a treatment
01:35:14.000 works in the real
01:35:15.040 world.
01:35:16.400 The media
01:35:17.360 quickly assumed
01:35:18.400 the two were
01:35:19.440 the same.
01:35:20.440 To them,
01:35:21.340 hearing that a vaccine
01:35:22.360 was 95%
01:35:23.800 efficacious
01:35:24.640 meant it was
01:35:26.000 practically perfect,
01:35:27.020 which the press
01:35:28.480 repeated over
01:35:29.620 and over.
01:35:31.460 But what
01:35:32.520 exactly were
01:35:33.380 the vaccines
01:35:34.100 efficacious
01:35:35.200 at doing?
01:35:36.680 Stopping
01:35:37.440 viral transmission?
01:35:39.620 Preventing
01:35:40.420 severe illness
01:35:41.280 or reducing
01:35:42.240 hospitalization
01:35:43.280 or ICU
01:35:44.680 admissions?
01:35:46.260 Preventing
01:35:47.020 death?
01:35:48.720 Efficacious
01:35:49.240 for how long?
01:35:51.060 And efficacious
01:35:51.840 in whom?
01:35:53.040 In the elderly
01:35:54.100 who were
01:35:54.520 most vulnerable
01:35:55.640 to death?
01:35:57.020 Without
01:35:57.780 clear definitions
01:35:58.840 and answers
01:35:59.500 to these
01:35:59.980 questions,
01:36:01.420 typical of
01:36:02.060 much of the
01:36:02.560 coverage,
01:36:03.880 Americans only
01:36:04.700 had a limited
01:36:05.980 idea,
01:36:06.740 really,
01:36:07.740 of what these
01:36:08.320 vaccines had
01:36:09.100 been shown to
01:36:09.760 do in the
01:36:10.760 narrow universe
01:36:11.560 of clinical
01:36:12.120 trials,
01:36:13.280 let alone
01:36:14.060 what they do
01:36:14.860 when given
01:36:15.300 to the public.
01:36:17.000 In fact,
01:36:18.280 they didn't
01:36:19.040 receive answers
01:36:20.140 to a single
01:36:21.260 one of these
01:36:22.120 questions.
01:36:23.980 Moreover,
01:36:25.120 there was
01:36:26.000 still a cloud
01:36:26.600 mystery surrounding
01:36:27.980 the trials.
01:36:29.520 After pressure
01:36:30.140 mounted in the
01:36:30.800 wake of the
01:36:31.300 AstraZeneca
01:36:31.980 revelation in
01:36:32.980 September,
01:36:34.200 the four major
01:36:35.340 Western vaccine
01:36:36.580 manufacturers
01:36:37.420 finally released
01:36:38.720 their protocols,
01:36:39.920 each over 100
01:36:40.720 pages long.
01:36:42.920 After the
01:36:43.820 protocols were
01:36:44.480 released,
01:36:45.440 Peter Doshi,
01:36:46.760 an associate
01:36:47.420 editor at the
01:36:48.820 British Medical
01:36:49.460 Journal,
01:36:50.280 who does research
01:36:51.220 into drug
01:36:51.880 approval processes
01:36:52.980 and how
01:36:53.980 results are
01:36:54.580 communicated to
01:36:55.320 the public,
01:36:56.400 tried to
01:36:56.880 sound an
01:36:57.460 alarm.
01:36:58.200 Quote,
01:36:59.320 none of the
01:36:59.900 trials currently
01:37:00.820 underway are
01:37:02.280 designed to
01:37:03.000 detect a
01:37:03.760 reduction in
01:37:04.520 any serious
01:37:05.420 outcome,
01:37:06.500 such as
01:37:06.880 hospital
01:37:07.360 admissions,
01:37:08.440 use of
01:37:08.900 intensive care,
01:37:09.840 or deaths.
01:37:10.360 Close quote,
01:37:11.320 he said.
01:37:13.340 Only one of the
01:37:14.540 studies of the
01:37:15.440 Oxford-AstraZeneca
01:37:16.820 looked at whether
01:37:18.100 vaccinated
01:37:18.780 individuals were
01:37:20.000 less likely to
01:37:20.860 transmit virus by
01:37:22.500 doing weekly
01:37:23.280 PCR swabbing.
01:37:25.640 Vaccinated 1.00
01:37:26.140 people had
01:37:26.820 lower viral
01:37:27.620 loads, were
01:37:28.540 less likely to
01:37:29.320 have a positive
01:37:29.980 COVID test, and
01:37:31.620 were positive for
01:37:32.540 shorter durations.
01:37:34.120 Very good news
01:37:34.920 indeed, though not
01:37:36.560 automatically
01:37:37.240 applicable to the
01:37:38.140 other mRNA
01:37:38.860 vaccine studies.
01:37:41.140 So, what were
01:37:43.380 these clinical
01:37:44.040 trial studies that
01:37:45.660 showed 95% and
01:37:47.140 94.5% efficacy
01:37:49.020 looking at?
01:37:50.000 If not saving
01:37:51.280 lives and viral
01:37:52.540 transmission.
01:37:54.780 Consider that
01:37:56.380 researchers can set
01:37:57.320 up a study to
01:37:58.040 examine whether a
01:37:58.940 vaccine prevents a
01:37:59.980 person from
01:38:00.500 experiencing any or
01:38:01.820 all of the
01:38:02.520 following events,
01:38:03.820 sometimes called
01:38:04.640 endpoints.
01:38:06.640 An asymptomatic
01:38:07.940 infection, the
01:38:09.660 patient is carrying
01:38:10.400 the virus, but the
01:38:12.060 case is so mild that
01:38:13.180 they don't know it,
01:38:14.100 even though it is
01:38:14.720 shown to be present
01:38:15.500 by a positive virus
01:38:16.640 test.
01:38:17.000 A clinically
01:38:19.820 symptomatic infection
01:38:21.300 that is mild and
01:38:22.900 might be confused
01:38:23.720 with a common cold.
01:38:25.940 A clinically
01:38:27.060 symptomatic infection
01:38:28.180 that is moderate.
01:38:30.340 A clinically
01:38:31.160 symptomatic infection
01:38:32.380 that requires hospital
01:38:33.860 admission.
01:38:35.380 A clinically
01:38:36.480 symptomatic severe
01:38:37.720 infection requiring
01:38:38.900 ICU admission and
01:38:40.480 even a ventilator.
01:38:41.420 a clinically
01:38:43.700 symptomatic severe
01:38:45.000 infection that ends
01:38:46.200 in death.
01:38:47.800 What were the
01:38:48.940 events or the
01:38:49.960 endpoints that the
01:38:51.440 Phase 3 Moderna and
01:38:53.200 Pfizer studies claimed
01:38:54.680 to be examining?
01:38:55.460 They said they looked
01:38:57.400 at any clinically
01:38:58.720 significant infection
01:39:00.020 quote, of
01:39:01.280 essentially any
01:39:02.360 severity as the
01:39:04.020 primary endpoint.
01:39:05.900 But therein lies
01:39:07.100 the rub.
01:39:08.440 As Doshi explained,
01:39:10.900 quote, severe
01:39:11.580 illness requiring
01:39:12.580 hospital admission,
01:39:14.580 which happens in
01:39:15.700 only a small
01:39:16.560 fraction of
01:39:17.240 symptomatic COVID-19
01:39:18.500 cases, would be
01:39:20.220 unlikely to occur in
01:39:21.580 significant numbers
01:39:22.460 and trials.
01:39:23.120 Because most
01:39:25.020 people with
01:39:25.540 symptomatic COVID-19
01:39:26.920 experience only
01:39:27.880 mild symptoms,
01:39:29.820 even trials involving
01:39:31.160 30,000 or more
01:39:32.720 patients would turn
01:39:34.200 up relatively few
01:39:35.360 cases of severe
01:39:36.440 disease.
01:39:37.600 Close quote.
01:39:39.520 How few serious
01:39:40.880 cases in terms of
01:39:42.140 deaths were there?
01:39:43.800 In the Pfizer trial,
01:39:45.820 not a single person
01:39:46.880 died of COVID-19 in
01:39:48.920 either the vaccine
01:39:49.840 or the placebo
01:39:50.740 group.
01:39:51.680 The report that
01:39:52.960 Moderna gave to 0.93
01:39:53.760 the FDA on
01:39:54.700 December 17,
01:39:55.820 2020, on its
01:39:57.540 trial, specifically
01:39:59.020 said it considered
01:40:00.120 death, quote, a
01:40:01.480 secondary endpoint,
01:40:02.700 close quote, and
01:40:04.040 added that, quote,
01:40:06.400 there were no
01:40:07.040 deaths due to
01:40:07.640 COVID-19 at the
01:40:08.920 time of the
01:40:09.480 interim analysis to
01:40:11.080 enable an
01:40:11.700 assessment of
01:40:12.520 vaccine efficacy
01:40:13.700 against death
01:40:14.920 due to COVID-19,
01:40:16.840 close quote.
01:40:18.080 By publication
01:40:19.260 date, one person
01:40:21.340 had died in the
01:40:22.480 placebo group.
01:40:24.580 Go over that
01:40:25.700 again.
01:40:27.200 In the study
01:40:28.280 period for the
01:40:30.120 two new mRNA
01:40:31.360 vaccines, only
01:40:33.220 one person out
01:40:34.980 of 70,000 died
01:40:37.300 a COVID death.
01:40:39.020 Now, ask
01:40:40.340 yourself, without
01:40:42.040 knowing the
01:40:42.680 demographic markers
01:40:43.700 of the trial
01:40:44.560 participants, but
01:40:46.380 knowing for a
01:40:47.140 fact that hundreds
01:40:48.540 of thousands of
01:40:49.380 people were dying
01:40:50.200 from the virus,
01:40:52.220 does this seem
01:40:52.980 to you like an
01:40:53.800 appropriate way to
01:40:55.220 study severe
01:40:56.140 illness?
01:40:58.120 Moderna told the
01:40:59.800 British Medical
01:41:00.520 Journal in August
01:41:02.080 2020, quote,
01:41:03.840 you would need a
01:41:04.520 trial that is
01:41:05.400 either five or
01:41:06.440 ten times larger,
01:41:08.240 or you'd need a
01:41:09.220 trial that is five
01:41:10.220 to ten times longer
01:41:11.500 to collect those
01:41:12.960 events, close
01:41:14.600 quote.
01:41:14.920 In a talk
01:41:18.140 based on her
01:41:19.460 Lancet article
01:41:20.380 given to the
01:41:21.180 British Medical
01:41:22.100 Journal's COVID-19
01:41:23.640 Known Unknowns
01:41:25.020 Vaccines
01:41:25.980 webinar in
01:41:27.660 February 2021,
01:41:30.020 Dr. Suzanne
01:41:30.800 Hodgson,
01:41:32.400 National Institute
01:41:33.400 for Health
01:41:33.900 Research Academic
01:41:35.000 Lecturer in
01:41:35.800 Infectious Diseases
01:41:36.780 at the University
01:41:37.700 of Oxford,
01:41:38.640 stated, quote,
01:41:40.560 the current
01:41:41.360 RCTs,
01:41:43.380 randomized control
01:41:44.200 trials that are
01:41:45.320 ongoing are not
01:41:47.060 powered to assess
01:41:48.240 efficacy against
01:41:49.920 hospital admission
01:41:50.960 and death,
01:41:52.240 close quote.
01:41:54.180 In the same
01:41:55.280 seminar, Doshi
01:41:56.480 presented on the
01:41:57.320 transparency issue.
01:41:59.320 Having read the
01:41:59.920 protocols and then
01:42:01.380 the phase three
01:42:02.120 trial studies of
01:42:03.120 the Pfizer,
01:42:03.920 Moderna,
01:42:04.740 AstraZeneca,
01:42:05.780 and Sputnik
01:42:06.340 Russian vaccines,
01:42:08.700 he wanted to
01:42:09.320 check the raw
01:42:10.000 data from the
01:42:10.980 studies in order
01:42:12.180 to verify it.
01:42:13.100 That is,
01:42:14.840 he wanted to
01:42:15.480 see not just
01:42:16.120 the final charts,
01:42:17.760 tables,
01:42:18.460 averages,
01:42:19.120 percentages,
01:42:19.860 and conclusions,
01:42:21.140 but to look over
01:42:22.240 the individual
01:42:22.880 cases.
01:42:24.900 Most of the
01:42:25.560 studies had a
01:42:26.180 line in them
01:42:26.760 that claimed
01:42:27.300 such data was
01:42:28.080 available upon
01:42:28.940 request.
01:42:30.600 According to
01:42:31.160 Doshi, he wrote
01:42:32.420 to the drug
01:42:32.940 companies that
01:42:33.560 had authored the
01:42:34.480 studies and
01:42:35.080 asked to see
01:42:35.680 it, but he
01:42:36.940 wasn't permitted.
01:42:38.880 Quote,
01:42:39.300 each time a
01:42:40.680 trial is
01:42:41.120 published,
01:42:42.060 there is this
01:42:42.580 data-sharing
01:42:43.320 statement and
01:42:44.000 everything sounds
01:42:44.720 good until you
01:42:45.520 read the fine
01:42:46.120 print, close
01:42:46.760 quote, he
01:42:47.180 said.
01:42:48.060 Quote,
01:42:48.620 Pfizer, for
01:42:49.240 example, says
01:42:50.640 that it is
01:42:51.100 sharing data
01:42:51.800 upon request.
01:42:53.680 I asked.
01:42:54.960 The same for
01:42:55.540 Moderna.
01:42:56.760 The same for
01:42:57.520 Oxford-AstraZeneca
01:42:58.960 and the Russian
01:42:59.680 vaccine.
01:43:00.880 They all said
01:43:02.000 they will be
01:43:02.480 sharing the
01:43:03.000 data, just
01:43:03.880 not yet.
01:43:05.440 And most are
01:43:06.100 tying the data
01:43:07.140 release to the
01:43:07.880 end of the
01:43:08.420 trials, so
01:43:09.640 we have a
01:43:10.100 situation where
01:43:11.160 the vaccines
01:43:11.740 are being
01:43:12.100 administered to
01:43:13.080 the masses, but
01:43:14.380 the data isn't
01:43:15.200 being shared
01:43:15.940 because the
01:43:16.580 sponsors say
01:43:17.300 the trials are
01:43:18.240 ongoing, close
01:43:19.180 quote.
01:43:20.600 Pfizer data, he
01:43:21.660 learned, might
01:43:22.640 arrive in
01:43:23.440 January 2025.
01:43:26.240 Moderna said
01:43:27.020 it may be
01:43:28.400 available once
01:43:29.140 the trial is
01:43:29.740 complete, sometime
01:43:31.260 in 2022.
01:43:33.340 Other companies
01:43:34.140 were similarly
01:43:35.060 vague.
01:43:36.180 To date,
01:43:36.860 approximately
01:43:37.640 4 billion
01:43:38.480 people have
01:43:39.140 already got
01:43:39.920 these vaccines,
01:43:41.440 many receiving
01:43:42.260 a first-of-its-kind
01:43:43.340 mRNA genetic
01:43:44.680 formulation without
01:43:46.200 outside sources
01:43:47.400 reviewing the
01:43:48.240 raw study data.
01:43:50.180 Given that the
01:43:51.160 companies won't
01:43:51.780 release this data
01:43:52.660 in a timely
01:43:53.280 manner, it is
01:43:54.280 reasonable to
01:43:55.120 assume that
01:43:56.180 public health
01:43:56.800 officials in
01:43:57.700 different countries
01:43:58.520 that approve
01:43:59.440 the vaccines have
01:44:01.080 not seen the
01:44:01.940 raw data either
01:44:02.980 or run
01:44:04.040 verification checks.
01:44:05.300 given all
01:44:07.600 this, it is
01:44:09.240 difficult to
01:44:09.860 assuage those 0.99
01:44:10.720 who distrust
01:44:11.380 the systems
01:44:11.980 that delivered
01:44:12.560 the vaccines.
01:44:13.860 At least one
01:44:14.980 of these
01:44:15.280 vaccines, the
01:44:16.060 Moderna, was
01:44:16.900 supported by the
01:44:17.700 NIH and
01:44:18.940 NIAID, which
01:44:21.400 may have joint
01:44:22.180 ownership in
01:44:22.880 intellectual property
01:44:23.900 that undergirds
01:44:24.860 the vaccine.
01:44:26.360 That means their
01:44:28.000 budgets stand to
01:44:29.300 benefit from sales
01:44:30.340 and individual
01:44:31.640 government employees
01:44:32.720 may get royalties
01:44:33.820 for them.
01:44:35.120 Though it would
01:44:35.900 fall to the FDA
01:44:36.880 to officially
01:44:37.700 approve the
01:44:38.660 vaccines, the
01:44:40.340 advice to enact
01:44:41.980 vaccine mandates
01:44:43.100 would come from a
01:44:44.240 small network and
01:44:45.840 would be based on
01:44:46.820 studies that were
01:44:47.460 authored in some
01:44:48.560 instances by people
01:44:49.900 who are employees
01:44:51.100 of the companies
01:44:51.780 themselves and
01:44:53.240 which were testing
01:44:54.000 their own products.
01:44:55.760 And when a
01:44:56.880 remarkably trusting
01:44:58.060 public and a few
01:44:59.720 scientists requested
01:45:01.560 to look at the
01:45:02.560 raw data, they
01:45:03.940 got stiffed.
01:45:06.480 One can only
01:45:07.420 imagine how
01:45:08.360 enriched our
01:45:09.040 knowledge would be
01:45:09.860 if it were
01:45:10.240 otherwise, if, to
01:45:11.960 take just one
01:45:12.620 example, the raw
01:45:13.540 data were available
01:45:14.460 and verified by
01:45:15.960 the hive mind of
01:45:16.960 world scientists
01:45:17.900 who, drilling
01:45:18.900 down, could see
01:45:20.420 for whom the
01:45:21.020 vaccine was most
01:45:21.960 effective and who
01:45:23.420 was most at risk
01:45:24.660 of serious side
01:45:25.420 effects in order to
01:45:26.820 follow them longer
01:45:27.700 than two months and
01:45:28.680 to protect those
01:45:29.480 groups of people in
01:45:30.360 the future.
01:45:31.620 The confidence this
01:45:32.780 would have inspired
01:45:33.520 in a vaccine
01:45:34.200 produced so quickly
01:45:35.200 might have been
01:45:36.280 astonishing, a
01:45:37.220 miracle not only of
01:45:38.260 human scientific
01:45:39.040 advancement, but of
01:45:40.740 the human capacity
01:45:41.640 for persuasive
01:45:42.620 communication and the
01:45:44.040 social progress it
01:45:45.040 can generate.
01:45:46.780 Alas, that's not
01:45:48.040 what we got.
01:45:49.440 The train was
01:45:50.180 already barreling out
01:45:51.520 of the station.
01:45:53.000 When the first
01:45:53.580 vaccines were rolled
01:45:54.780 out in December
01:45:55.820 2020, Fauci received
01:45:57.980 his Moderna shot,
01:45:59.480 announcing that he
01:46:00.280 wanted to get
01:46:00.920 publicly vaccinated
01:46:02.040 as a symbol,
01:46:03.740 quote, for
01:46:04.740 everyone in the
01:46:05.380 country.
01:46:06.300 Quote, I feel
01:46:07.300 extreme confidence
01:46:08.700 in the safety and
01:46:10.080 the efficacy of
01:46:11.000 this vaccine,
01:46:11.940 close quote, he
01:46:12.540 said.
01:46:13.880 As to the question
01:46:14.860 of how sick the
01:46:15.780 patients in the
01:46:16.400 study were, he
01:46:17.240 said, with regard
01:46:18.600 to Pfizer, it was
01:46:19.540 95% efficacious,
01:46:21.500 not only against
01:46:22.260 disease that is just
01:46:23.220 clinically recognizable,
01:46:24.760 but severe disease,
01:46:26.060 close quote.
01:46:27.100 And he said much
01:46:27.760 the same was found
01:46:28.720 for the Moderna
01:46:29.360 vaccine.
01:46:30.280 It prevents
01:46:30.840 severe disease.
01:46:33.560 By the spring of
01:46:34.700 2020, the master
01:46:36.500 narrative, the
01:46:37.800 necessity of using
01:46:38.780 one main tool, the
01:46:40.100 vaccine, to vanquish
01:46:41.560 the enemy, was
01:46:42.940 working brilliantly.
01:46:44.680 Government data from
01:46:45.860 Israel and the UK
01:46:46.740 showed that the
01:46:47.600 vaccines weren't just
01:46:48.540 efficacious in
01:46:49.540 clinical trials, but
01:46:51.120 also effective in the
01:46:52.500 real world.
01:46:53.160 An April 28th article
01:46:56.060 in the Harvard
01:46:56.660 Gazette was titled,
01:46:57.680 vaccines can get us
01:46:59.100 to herd immunity
01:46:59.880 despite the variants.
01:47:01.960 Dr. Ugar Sahin,
01:47:03.260 the chief executive
01:47:04.060 of BioNTech, which
01:47:05.980 developed the mRNA
01:47:07.060 vaccine for Pfizer,
01:47:08.340 was quoted saying
01:47:09.840 that Europe would
01:47:10.580 reach herd immunity
01:47:11.720 in July or August.
01:47:14.260 The virus would
01:47:15.300 no longer be able
01:47:16.240 to spread.
01:47:16.760 In the UK, Freedom
01:47:20.100 Day was set for
01:47:21.080 June 21st, later
01:47:22.920 changed to July
01:47:23.760 19th, and the
01:47:25.640 return to normal in
01:47:26.680 other vaccinated
01:47:27.500 countries seemed not
01:47:28.600 far behind.
01:47:29.320 On April 22nd, Israel
01:47:32.340 considered the world's
01:47:33.700 most vaccinated
01:47:34.640 country, except for
01:47:35.980 some tinier nations,
01:47:37.640 for the first time
01:47:39.100 recorded no daily
01:47:40.860 COVID deaths.
01:47:42.900 Pfizer's CEO, who
01:47:44.780 called Israel, quote,
01:47:46.040 the world's lab,
01:47:47.360 close quote, not only
01:47:49.120 because it was highly
01:47:49.960 vaccinated, but because
01:47:51.580 it was vaccinated
01:47:52.440 early, giving the world
01:47:54.340 a glimpse of its future,
01:47:56.320 announced in February
01:47:57.440 that the experiment was
01:47:58.920 going marvelously,
01:48:00.120 saying, quote, the
01:48:01.140 current data shows
01:48:02.260 that after six months
01:48:03.460 the protection is
01:48:04.580 robust, close quote,
01:48:06.580 and, quote, there are
01:48:08.360 a lot of indicators
01:48:09.300 right now that are
01:48:10.720 telling us that there
01:48:11.700 is a protection against
01:48:12.860 the transmission of
01:48:14.180 the disease, close
01:48:15.640 quote.
01:48:16.860 The UK, the second 0.95
01:48:19.300 most vaccinated large
01:48:20.840 nation, had a terrible
01:48:22.680 death count in January,
01:48:24.240 but on May 10th, there
01:48:26.200 was not a single COVID
01:48:27.420 death in all of
01:48:28.580 England, Northern
01:48:29.740 Ireland, and
01:48:30.780 Scotland.
01:48:33.000 President Biden assured
01:48:34.780 the American people
01:48:35.760 confidently, quote,
01:48:37.520 if you're vaccinated,
01:48:38.880 you're protected.
01:48:39.960 If you're unvaccinated,
01:48:41.740 you're not, close quote,
01:48:43.840 reiterating that being
01:48:44.940 vaccinated, quote,
01:48:46.820 is a patriotic thing to
01:48:48.620 do, close quote.
01:48:50.920 This was a riff on CDC
01:48:53.120 director Rochelle
01:48:54.140 Walensky's statement,
01:48:55.780 quote, if you have two
01:48:56.780 doses of the vaccine,
01:48:58.460 of the mRNA vaccines,
01:49:00.280 you're protected.
01:49:01.500 You don't need to wait
01:49:02.340 for a booster.
01:49:03.440 You're protected.
01:49:04.860 Close quote.
01:49:07.180 Over the spring,
01:49:08.500 Walensky became an 0.98
01:49:09.440 increasingly prominent
01:49:10.420 face.
01:49:11.620 In the months since
01:49:12.820 Biden was inaugurated,
01:49:14.500 a slew of officials who
01:49:15.680 advised the Trump
01:49:17.100 administration were out
01:49:18.360 of the picture.
01:49:19.660 Dr. Robert Redfield,
01:49:21.280 as head of the CDC,
01:49:22.940 Dr. Deborah Birx,
01:49:24.460 and Dr. Scott Atlas,
01:49:26.220 and a new cohort
01:49:27.900 was ushered in.
01:49:29.560 More and more,
01:49:30.600 Walensky became a 0.92
01:49:32.160 visible voice of
01:49:33.800 public health.
01:49:36.760 In April, during a
01:49:38.340 White House press
01:49:39.160 briefing, barely four
01:49:40.360 months after distribution
01:49:41.500 of the first vaccine
01:49:42.700 doses began,
01:49:44.140 Walensky announced
01:49:45.000 that the, quote,
01:49:47.400 CDC recommends that
01:49:49.180 pregnant people receive 0.99
01:49:50.760 the COVID-19 vaccine,
01:49:52.720 close quote.
01:49:53.280 But if you checked
01:49:56.220 the CDC website that
01:49:57.520 day, as many
01:49:58.660 pregnant women and 0.94
01:49:59.500 their physicians of
01:50:00.300 course did, you would
01:50:02.040 have found something
01:50:02.700 different.
01:50:04.020 Quote, if you're
01:50:04.940 pregnant, you may 1.00
01:50:06.540 choose to receive a
01:50:07.940 COVID-19 vaccine,
01:50:10.280 but, quote, there are
01:50:13.040 currently limited data
01:50:14.440 on the safety of
01:50:15.420 COVID-19 vaccines in
01:50:17.060 pregnant people,
01:50:18.080 close quote.
01:50:19.340 In the press briefing,
01:50:21.140 Walensky had cited a
01:50:22.480 study from the New
01:50:23.260 England Journal of
01:50:24.060 Medicine, about which
01:50:25.280 she said, quote,
01:50:27.040 no safety concerns
01:50:28.180 were observed for
01:50:28.860 people vaccinated in
01:50:30.060 the third trimester or
01:50:32.260 safety concerns for
01:50:33.320 their babies, close
01:50:34.240 quote.
01:50:36.040 The study did claim
01:50:37.520 that there was no
01:50:38.360 increased instance of
01:50:39.820 fetal death or
01:50:40.600 neonatal death, which
01:50:41.780 was very reassuring.
01:50:43.900 But it was unable to
01:50:45.360 answer one of the main
01:50:46.420 questions many pregnant
01:50:47.580 women are concerned 0.98
01:50:48.460 about.
01:50:48.800 quote, will these new
01:50:50.180 vaccines have adverse
01:50:51.440 effects on my baby's
01:50:52.580 development after birth?
01:50:54.580 The study's authors made
01:50:56.400 clear that they didn't
01:50:57.680 have enough longitudinal
01:50:59.100 data on women in the 0.96
01:51:00.460 first or second trimester
01:51:01.720 of pregnancy to draw
01:51:03.500 conclusions about women
01:51:04.760 vaccinated in those two
01:51:06.220 trimesters when different
01:51:08.020 organ systems develop,
01:51:09.700 and that their study was
01:51:10.960 therefore, quote,
01:51:12.000 preliminary.
01:51:13.720 Quote, preliminary findings
01:51:15.800 did not show obvious
01:51:17.280 safety signals among
01:51:18.420 pregnant persons who 0.99
01:51:20.460 received RNA COVID-19
01:51:23.000 vaccines.
01:51:24.320 However, more longitudinal
01:51:26.620 follow-up, including
01:51:27.980 follow-up of large numbers
01:51:29.900 of women vaccinated
01:51:31.040 earlier in pregnancy, is
01:51:33.080 necessary to inform
01:51:35.060 maternal, pregnancy, and
01:51:36.740 infant outcomes.
01:51:39.740 Recall that the vaccine
01:51:41.740 rollout began in December
01:51:43.240 2020 for older people.
01:51:45.800 This study only looked at
01:51:48.440 safety data on women in
01:51:50.000 various stages of
01:51:51.100 pregnancy from December
01:51:52.820 14, 2020, to February
01:51:54.860 28, 2021, a two-and-a-half
01:51:57.980 month period.
01:52:00.080 Many women become more 1.00
01:52:01.940 vigilant in pregnancy about
01:52:03.220 what they eat and what they
01:52:04.660 put into their bodies.
01:52:06.560 So, it should come as no
01:52:08.400 surprise that more than one
01:52:10.540 woman who was either
01:52:11.560 pregnant or trying to 0.81
01:52:13.080 conceive began wondering 0.71
01:52:14.920 about a question that one of
01:52:16.640 my colleagues asked me.
01:52:19.160 If, at the time of the
01:52:20.600 study, the vaccine had only
01:52:22.640 been available for two and a
01:52:23.880 half months, wouldn't that
01:52:25.560 mean, if it's still true that
01:52:27.720 human gestation is
01:52:28.800 approximately nine months,
01:52:30.660 that literally no one who
01:52:32.540 had been vaccinated early in
01:52:34.140 pregnancy had yet followed
01:52:36.580 through to a full-term
01:52:38.060 pregnancy?
01:52:38.620 None of this is to insinuate an
01:52:43.420 opinion about the use of
01:52:44.820 vaccines in pregnancy.
01:52:46.600 We are here discussing how
01:52:48.220 simplifications of what
01:52:50.240 scientific studies actually
01:52:51.860 show at a particular moment,
01:52:54.260 even when they turn out
01:52:55.500 ultimately to be right, can
01:52:57.300 generate distrust.
01:52:59.460 I would venture that what
01:53:01.740 young families wanted to hear
01:53:03.240 was something both reassuring
01:53:04.720 and reflective of whatever
01:53:06.280 trustworthy data was available
01:53:07.820 to date, like, we are
01:53:09.520 working on a longer study and
01:53:11.220 feel hopeful about it, but for
01:53:12.640 now we at least know, if
01:53:14.580 vaccinated in the third
01:53:15.720 trimester, there is little
01:53:16.880 chance the vaccine will lead to
01:53:18.380 a death.
01:53:20.340 That, I believe, would have
01:53:22.160 quelled anxiety, but the
01:53:24.080 government and its messaging
01:53:25.320 partners chose a different
01:53:26.600 posture, one that suggested
01:53:28.540 certainty when important data
01:53:30.360 was still yet to come.
01:53:32.580 A lesson in human nature.
01:53:35.740 When public health officials
01:53:37.060 distrust the public, the public
01:53:39.440 will come to distrust them.
01:53:44.200 Take, for example, an article by
01:53:47.060 Kimberly Atkins Storr, senior
01:53:49.500 opinion writer and columnist for
01:53:51.120 the Boston Globe, who got the
01:53:53.100 Johnson & Johnson vaccine in
01:53:54.520 April, a week before the FDA put a
01:53:57.060 pause on it because of blood clot
01:53:59.260 complications.
01:54:00.000 As Atkins indicates, the FDA
01:54:03.880 admitting that there might be a
01:54:05.280 problem, as opposed to hiding it,
01:54:07.880 made her more, not less, likely to
01:54:11.160 believe that the institution is on
01:54:13.240 top of monitoring the vaccines.
01:54:15.560 Quote,
01:54:16.400 I want others to view this pause not
01:54:18.560 as a reason to doubt the drug, but a
01:54:20.820 reason to believe in it.
01:54:21.960 Close quote, she writes.
01:54:24.660 The mainstream media in the United
01:54:26.540 States also often downplayed
01:54:29.680 potential problems and even
01:54:31.540 demonized those who took them
01:54:33.020 seriously, portraying white
01:54:34.920 Christian Republicans as the last 0.99
01:54:36.840 redoubt of COVID vaccine skepticism
01:54:38.960 in America.
01:54:40.340 But if white Americans in red states
01:54:42.380 have had high rates of hesitancy,
01:54:44.700 African Americans and Latinos have
01:54:46.660 too.
01:54:47.560 As we've seen in the case of
01:54:49.740 African Americans, hesitancy is based, 0.98
01:54:52.620 at least in part, on well-earned
01:54:54.960 distrust.
01:54:56.580 In the UK, in March 2021, vaccination
01:55:00.020 rates were very high in the, quote,
01:55:02.180 white British, close quote, group,
01:55:04.640 91.3%, and British Christians had the
01:55:08.600 least hesitancy, whereas vaccination
01:55:10.820 rates were lower in the Black African
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01:55:23.000 In Canada, the typical vaccine-hesitant
01:55:26.940 person is a 40-year-old woman who 1.00
01:55:29.220 tends to vote liberal.
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01:57:57.160 A January Gallup poll showed that 34% of U.S.
01:58:05.040 frontline health care workers said they did not
01:58:08.200 plan to get vaccinated, and an additional 18% were not
01:58:12.200 sure what they would do.
01:58:14.320 Given the WHO's own definition of the vaccine hesitant,
01:58:19.080 people who delay or are reluctant to take a vaccine,
01:58:22.160 one could say that 52% of frontline U.S.
01:58:26.300 health care workers were vaccine hesitant at the
01:58:29.020 beginning of the year.
01:58:30.920 It was hard to argue that these were people who got all
01:58:33.880 their information from a few rancid conspiracy websites.
01:58:38.360 In fact, many of these professionals are vaccinated for
01:58:42.000 other illnesses.
01:58:43.640 Nor can we argue that frontline workers are overly anxious
01:58:47.020 and cowardly.
01:58:47.860 Many are exposed to active COVID regularly.
01:58:52.840 At other times, we are told that the hesitant are only those
01:58:56.140 with the least education.
01:58:58.340 But a Carnegie Mellon and University of Pittsburgh study showed
01:59:01.620 that by May 2021, quote,
01:59:03.760 PhDs were the most hesitant group, close quote.
01:59:07.360 In May, Senator Richard Burr of the U.S.
01:59:10.740 Senate Committee on Health asked Fauci how many employees of
01:59:14.620 the NIH, the nation's premier health science research
01:59:18.220 institution, had been vaccinated.
01:59:20.960 I'm not 100% sure, Senator, but I think it's probably a little
01:59:24.400 bit more than half, probably around 60%, he said.
01:59:28.600 The Senator asked the same question of Dr. Peter Marks,
01:59:32.280 director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research
01:59:35.420 at the Food and Drug Administration, about the FDA employees'
01:59:39.560 vaccination.
01:59:40.980 Quote, it's probably in the same range, close quote, he answered,
01:59:44.460 In studies in the West, the hesitant repeatedly expressed
01:59:50.720 as the top reason for their reluctance to get vaccinated
01:59:54.180 concerns about what we might call future unknown effects.
01:59:59.200 In a May study of Britain, for instance, 42.7% cited this
02:00:05.560 as their biggest fear.
02:00:08.120 The hesitant were not particularly concerned about trivial
02:00:11.180 short-term side effects like sore arms, fatigue, or a passing
02:00:14.500 fever or headache.
02:00:16.580 Only 7.6% were distrustful of vaccination generally.
02:00:22.280 In the United States, a multi-university study of over
02:00:26.640 20,000 people found safety concerns or uncertainty of the risk
02:00:31.640 as the top reason given for vaccine hesitancy, 59%.
02:00:36.180 Only 33% agreed that vaccines are thoroughly tested in advance
02:00:42.860 of release.
02:00:44.440 The authors reported, quote,
02:00:46.580 massive differences between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated
02:00:49.980 in terms of their trust of different people and organizations,
02:00:53.360 close quote, including the CDC and the FDA.
02:00:56.420 An Ipso World Economic Forum survey of 15 countries showed that
02:01:03.440 in all 15 countries, the leading reason the reluctant gave was fear
02:01:08.080 of side effects, exceeding all other concerns by far.
02:01:12.700 In all countries surveyed, the number of people who said they were,
02:01:17.460 quote, against vaccines, close quote, in other words,
02:01:21.000 the anti-vax position, was generally a minor fraction of those who hadn't
02:01:27.140 yet been vaccinated.
02:01:30.020 A common theme in France, Britain, and the United States, in fact,
02:01:33.760 is distrust of the vaccine troika, big pharma, government, and public health,
02:01:38.040 and the healthcare industry, and an insistence that individuals should have
02:01:42.580 the right to decide whether to get vaccinated.
02:01:44.940 These similarities are worth paying attention to because they suggest that
02:01:51.080 the attempt to explain the phenomenon by using the group identifiers American
02:01:55.980 media is so fond of, sex, race, religion, and political affiliation,
02:02:01.160 falls short and shifts attention away from the real issues creating distrust.
02:02:08.940 On May 11th, Fauci appeared in front of a Senate hearing.
02:02:12.920 Quote, the NIH and the NIAID categorically has not funded gain-of-function research
02:02:20.820 to be conducted in the Wuhan Institute of Virology, he said.
02:02:25.620 Yet, in a circumvention of the Obama administration's 2014 moratorium,
02:02:32.320 and to the disapproval of many in the U.S. scientific community,
02:02:36.900 Fauci's agency did fund a U.S. company called EcoHealth Alliance,
02:02:41.400 which then facilitated gain-of-function research in collaboration with the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
02:02:48.720 Indeed, from June 2014 to May 2019,
02:02:54.200 Fauci's agency funded EcoHealth and Peter Daszak,
02:02:57.940 a well-known gain-of-function researcher who subcontracted the grant to the Wuhan lab,
02:03:02.840 where gain-of-function research on bat viruses was conducted and led by Dr. Shi Zhengli,
02:03:10.600 and which wasn't subject to the U.S. government moratorium.
02:03:15.740 Dr. Francis Collins, then head of the NIH,
02:03:19.660 had told the House Appropriations Subcommittee that the NIH did not fund gain-of-function in Wuhan.
02:03:26.340 But later, after Fauci reversed his prior claim and said it was possible,
02:03:33.020 Collins also backtracked.
02:03:34.980 Quote,
02:03:35.900 We of course do not have internal insight as to what was going on in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
02:03:41.280 Close quote, he said.
02:03:43.960 Both reversals came only after the plausibility of the lab leak theory
02:03:48.540 started to gain mainstream acceptance and public pressure mounted.
02:03:52.860 While Fauci's denial in the Senate might have been technically accurate, it was misleading.
02:04:01.620 Neither agency directly funded this kind of research, but did do so through a third party.
02:04:07.780 As it turned out, Fauci himself wrote in 2012 that he, like gain-of-function critics,
02:04:14.540 could imagine, quote,
02:04:15.920 An important gain-of-function experiment involving a virus with serious pandemic potential,
02:04:23.940 quote,
02:04:24.680 whereby, quote,
02:04:27.440 An unlikely but conceivable turn of events,
02:04:30.780 close quote,
02:04:31.420 leads to an infection of someone in the lab,
02:04:34.400 quote,
02:04:35.120 and ultimately triggers a pandemic,
02:04:37.500 close quote.
02:04:39.000 Nonetheless, he wrote,
02:04:41.500 For, quote,
02:04:42.580 the resulting knowledge,
02:04:44.140 close quote,
02:04:45.100 such research might yield,
02:04:47.220 it was worth the risk.
02:04:50.300 In June,
02:04:51.520 the question of what Fauci knew,
02:04:53.660 and when he knew it,
02:04:54.780 came up in his emails,
02:04:56.460 which showed that,
02:04:57.720 although he denied to Congress that his organization funded experiments
02:05:00.940 at the Wuhan Institute of Virology,
02:05:03.360 it had.
02:05:04.600 On February 1st, 2020,
02:05:06.980 Fauci sent two emails to his staff about a,
02:05:09.760 quote,
02:05:10.320 gain-of-function,
02:05:11.920 close quote,
02:05:12.540 study,
02:05:13.740 the NIH had approved,
02:05:15.340 in which he referred to,
02:05:16.820 quote,
02:05:17.240 SARS gain-of-function,
02:05:18.600 close quote.
02:05:20.620 His denial of gain-of-function ultimately proved unconvincing,
02:05:24.780 since funding of it was already part of the NIH Committee and Grant paper trail.
02:05:31.400 Shi Zheng Li,
02:05:32.220 the head of the Wuhan Institute of Virology,
02:05:34.400 co-authored a paper
02:05:35.340 about constructing a super-lethal virus,
02:05:38.420 which appeared in Nature Medicine in 2015,
02:05:42.240 and specifically thanked the NIH and EcoHealth for funding her work.
02:05:48.340 A 2017 research article,
02:05:52.380 also with Zheng Li as co-author,
02:05:55.300 not only qualifies as gain-of-function research,
02:05:58.580 but epitomizes it,
02:06:00.360 and specifically states that it was funded by an NIH-NIAID grant.
02:06:06.460 All of this was important
02:06:09.240 because it was part of the larger story that the public was following.
02:06:14.600 Learning that the agencies and officials charged with leading Americans out of the pandemic
02:06:19.760 in fact had links to a Chinese lab with a history of safety violations,
02:06:25.620 and which also appeared to be involved in dangerous experiments
02:06:28.920 that might be linked to the outbreak in Wuhan was, for many, profoundly unsettling.
02:06:36.760 Meanwhile, the enmeshment between the FDA and pharma was becoming more relevant.
02:06:42.380 In June, it was announced that Stephen Hahn,
02:06:45.980 who had led the FDA from December 17, 2019,
02:06:50.120 until January 20, 2021,
02:06:53.340 during which time the agency approved the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines,
02:06:58.200 became chief medical officer of Flagship Pioneering,
02:07:02.280 the venture capital firm that launched Moderna in 2010
02:07:06.260 and now owns $4 billion of Moderna stock.
02:07:10.880 On June 27, Scott Gottlieb,
02:07:14.360 who headed the FDA before Hahn,
02:07:16.920 joined the board of Pfizer.
02:07:19.460 On June 3, three scientists from an FDA advisory committee,
02:07:24.180 Dr. Aaron Kesselheim,
02:07:25.960 professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School,
02:07:28.880 Joel Perlmutter, MD,
02:07:30.540 a neurologist at Washington University in St. Louis,
02:07:33.340 and David Naughtman, MD,
02:07:36.000 a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic,
02:07:38.000 resigned because of the way an Alzheimer's drug,
02:07:41.020 Aduhelm, was approved.
02:07:43.060 In a letter,
02:07:44.060 Kesselheim claimed that the authorization of Aduhelm,
02:07:47.480 a monthly intravenous infusion
02:07:49.080 that BioGem is priced at $56,000 per year,
02:07:53.260 which some worry could bankrupt Medicare,
02:07:56.100 was wrong, quote,
02:07:57.380 because of so many different factors,
02:07:59.560 starting from the fact that there's no good evidence that the drug works,
02:08:02.720 close quote.
02:08:03.940 That it was, quote,
02:08:05.320 probably the worst drug approval decision in recent U.S. history,
02:08:08.900 close quote,
02:08:09.760 and that this, quote,
02:08:10.860 debacle highlights problems,
02:08:12.900 close quote,
02:08:13.880 with the FDA advisory committee relationship.
02:08:19.160 It's worth translating this episode into plain English.
02:08:22.840 In the middle of the biggest vaccine rollout in U.S. history,
02:08:26.820 which the government determined to be the only way out of the pandemic,
02:08:31.840 but which also faced stiff headwinds of deep-seated popular hesitancy,
02:08:36.300 the FDA approved a drug that would line a pharmaceutical company's pockets with billions of taxpayer dollars,
02:08:44.320 even though studies showed the drug did little but raise false hopes.
02:08:49.240 In 2016, the director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Dr. Janet Woodcott,
02:09:05.460 approved a drug called Etaplersin over the objections of all the main FDA scientific reviewers.
02:09:13.920 The grounds for the approval were not that patients got better, they didn't.
02:09:19.740 Rather, a kind of lab value, which can function as a biomarker or indicator of disease, improved.
02:09:26.360 Another pharma trick.
02:09:29.320 That was taken as good enough evidence to approve their drug.
02:09:34.080 As Kesselheim and co-author Jerry Avron later warned in the Journal of the American Medical Association,
02:09:40.320 quote,
02:09:40.940 Speeding drugs to market based on such biomarker outcomes can actually lead to a worse outcome for patients.
02:09:49.680 Soon after Kesselheim's departure in June,
02:09:52.360 the FDA's two top vaccine officials announced they were also leaving.
02:09:58.500 Reports explained that Dr. Marion Gruber,
02:10:01.400 director of the FDA Office of Vaccines Research and Review and a 32-year agency veteran,
02:10:08.300 and Dr. Philip Krauss, a 10-year veteran,
02:10:11.440 were leaving because of outside pressure by the Biden administration to approve boosters
02:10:16.340 before the FDA had completed its own approval process.
02:10:20.640 Meanwhile, Pfizer, doing more science by press release,
02:10:26.860 a technique that often jacks up a company's stock,
02:10:30.260 was calling for boosters while, quote,
02:10:32.700 hailing great results with COVID-19 boosters and shots for school-age children, close quote.
02:10:38.000 In a piece in the Lancet, on September 13th,
02:10:43.720 Gruber, Krauss, and multiple international colleagues raised a red flag about pushing through a booster in the general population.
02:10:52.580 Quote,
02:10:52.900 There could be risks if boosters are widely introduced too soon or too frequently,
02:10:59.280 especially with vaccines that can have immune-mediated side effects,
02:11:04.460 such as myocarditis, which is more common after the second dose of some mRNA vaccines,
02:11:10.120 or Guillain-Barré syndrome, which has been associated with adenovectored COVID-19 vaccines,
02:11:17.060 like the AstraZeneca or Johnson & Johnson.
02:11:21.320 If unnecessary boosting causes significant adverse reactions,
02:11:25.660 there could be implications for vaccine acceptance that go beyond COVID-19 vaccines.
02:11:31.580 Thus, widespread boosting should be undertaken only if there is clear evidence that it is appropriate, close quote.
02:11:38.220 The Pfizer study was surprisingly tiny.
02:11:43.460 Only 306 people were given the booster.
02:11:47.260 As vaccine researcher David Wiseman, who did trials for rival Johnson & Johnson,
02:11:53.240 pointed out at the FDA meeting,
02:11:55.820 quote,
02:11:56.400 There was no randomized control, close quote, in the Pfizer study.
02:12:00.860 The subjects were younger, 18 to 55,
02:12:03.700 than the people who were at most at risk of COVID death or serious illness,
02:12:09.180 and were followed only for a month.
02:12:11.980 So we didn't actually know how long the booster would last,
02:12:15.360 or if adverse events might show up after the 30 days.
02:12:19.780 They were not followed clinically,
02:12:21.580 so there was no information on infections, hospitalizations, or deaths.
02:12:25.460 Rather, only their antibodies were measured,
02:12:28.720 precisely the kind of shortcut that was taken with a person.
02:12:33.700 The study was too small,
02:12:36.860 and the FDA panel held two votes on approval.
02:12:40.280 In the first, it voted overwhelmingly, 16 to 2,
02:12:43.760 against approving Pfizer boosters for all ages.
02:12:47.800 In the second vote,
02:12:49.140 the panel supported boosters only for people over 65,
02:12:52.740 or special at-risk groups.
02:12:55.780 And yet, in mid-August,
02:12:59.040 Biden began publicly supporting boosters for all.
02:13:02.520 Why?
02:13:02.880 On September 16th,
02:13:05.220 the Los Angeles Times reported
02:13:06.780 that the president was following the advice
02:13:08.960 of Fauci and the NIH
02:13:11.220 with the help of Dr. Janet Woodcock,
02:13:14.060 the same FDA official
02:13:15.720 who overrode FDA reviewers
02:13:17.740 in the Etipler-Sun incident.
02:13:21.580 Woodcock was by that point
02:13:23.160 acting FDA commissioner,
02:13:25.220 and was going around the FDA committee once again.
02:13:28.100 It was not only the Pfizer booster study that was weak.
02:13:34.440 A New England Journal of Medicine study,
02:13:36.800 based on Israeli Ministry of Health data,
02:13:39.200 claimed that third-shot boosters
02:13:40.640 give 11 times the protection of two.
02:13:43.440 But the entire study lasted only a month,
02:13:46.180 and thus showed it was protective for that period,
02:13:48.980 but not whether it would last as long
02:13:51.360 or longer than the second shot's protection.
02:13:56.700 During the spring of 2021,
02:13:59.540 another wrinkle had emerged.
02:14:02.020 Along with the widespread attacks on scientists
02:14:04.540 who had criticisms of the simplified master narrative,
02:14:08.140 including ones from major universities
02:14:09.940 like Harvard, Yale, Stanford,
02:14:12.480 Rockefeller, Oxford, and UCLA,
02:14:14.440 many average Americans learned
02:14:17.380 that certain major stories
02:14:19.000 weren't as widely known as they might have been,
02:14:21.940 thanks in part to censorship by big tech.
02:14:25.580 In May, Facebook announced
02:14:27.540 that it would no longer censor stories
02:14:29.480 about the lab leak theory,
02:14:31.240 which was how many people found out
02:14:32.840 that it was in fact a viable scientific theory
02:14:35.120 in the first place.
02:14:36.900 Facebook's idea of transparency
02:14:38.540 is telling you when it stops censoring something.
02:14:42.180 The same goes for YouTube.
02:14:43.620 But in July, the WHO itself admitted
02:14:47.800 that it had been too hasty
02:14:49.280 in ruling out a lab leak.
02:14:51.900 Nicholas Wade's excellent May 2nd article,
02:14:54.480 by contrast,
02:14:55.660 showed the technical virological reasons
02:14:57.800 for why the virus might well have come
02:15:00.600 from gain-of-function research.
02:15:03.240 We also learned more about big tech's motives
02:15:05.820 when it was revealed
02:15:06.960 that Google's charity arm
02:15:09.360 had funded the same gain-of-function researcher,
02:15:11.920 that the NIH had funded,
02:15:14.440 Peter Daszak of Equal Health.
02:15:17.260 At times, big tech's censorship of, quote,
02:15:20.160 misinformation, close quote,
02:15:22.300 coincides with its financial interests.
02:15:25.160 Amazon, which has banned and unbanned,
02:15:27.660 books critical of the master narrative,
02:15:29.940 has been looking into developing
02:15:31.240 a major pharmacy division.
02:15:32.860 Meanwhile, three U.S. medical boards,
02:15:36.820 the American Board of Family Medicine,
02:15:39.820 the American Board of Internal Medicine,
02:15:41.940 and the American Board of Pediatrics,
02:15:44.440 went beyond censorship
02:15:45.700 by threatening to revoke licenses
02:15:48.060 from physicians who questioned
02:15:49.600 the current but shifting line
02:15:51.260 of COVID thinking and protocols.
02:15:54.100 This forced doctors,
02:15:55.800 who had any doubts about the master narrative,
02:15:58.380 to choose between their patients
02:15:59.860 and their livelihoods.
02:16:02.640 Things got so bad globally
02:16:05.120 that Amnesty International
02:16:06.680 eventually issued a report on this crisis.
02:16:09.960 Quote,
02:16:11.280 Across the world,
02:16:12.860 journalists, political activists,
02:16:15.200 medical professionals,
02:16:16.940 whistleblowers,
02:16:17.820 and human rights defenders
02:16:18.900 who expressed critical opinions
02:16:20.980 of their government's response
02:16:22.260 to the crisis
02:16:23.000 have been censored, harassed,
02:16:25.880 attacked, and criminalized.
02:16:27.780 Close quote.
02:16:28.400 It noted.
02:16:31.320 The typical tactic,
02:16:33.120 the report's authors say,
02:16:34.500 is, quote,
02:16:35.300 Target one,
02:16:36.360 intimidate a thousand.
02:16:37.820 Close quote.
02:16:39.020 Whereby censors justify these actions
02:16:41.100 as simply banning misinformation
02:16:43.180 and preventing panic.
02:16:45.980 The report goes on,
02:16:47.180 quote,
02:16:48.260 Evidence has shown
02:16:49.240 that harsh measures
02:16:50.380 to suppress the free flow
02:16:51.900 of information,
02:16:53.320 such as censorship
02:16:54.280 or the criminalization
02:16:55.540 of fake news,
02:16:56.820 can lead to increased mistrust
02:16:59.100 in the authorities,
02:17:00.740 promote space
02:17:01.420 for conspiracy theories to grow,
02:17:03.700 and the suppression
02:17:04.520 of legitimate debate
02:17:05.920 and concerns.
02:17:06.800 Close quote.
02:17:08.660 Censorship nourishes
02:17:09.920 the weed it purports
02:17:11.460 to exterminate.
02:17:13.020 It is, of course, 0.71
02:17:15.020 vital that public health officials
02:17:16.800 be able to lead in a crisis,
02:17:19.180 convey consistent messages,
02:17:20.960 and even ask citizens
02:17:22.520 to change their behaviors.
02:17:23.800 But the only way
02:17:26.140 public health
02:17:26.780 can legitimately ask
02:17:28.080 for such changes
02:17:28.960 is because the policies
02:17:30.720 it recommends
02:17:31.460 are based on
02:17:32.560 a scientific process
02:17:33.760 that is solid enough
02:17:35.480 to withstand
02:17:36.240 scientific criticism
02:17:37.520 and debate.
02:17:39.540 Why else should anybody listen?
02:17:42.340 Science is not itself
02:17:43.820 dogma
02:17:44.920 or an authoritarian discipline,
02:17:46.980 but the opposite,
02:17:48.580 a process of critical inquiry,
02:17:51.060 and the method
02:17:52.440 requires
02:17:53.480 ongoing debate
02:17:54.580 about how to interpret
02:17:55.680 new data
02:17:56.300 and even what constitutes
02:17:58.380 relevant data.
02:18:00.980 Science,
02:18:01.780 as the Nobel Prize-winning
02:18:03.540 physicist Richard Feynman
02:18:04.860 pointed out,
02:18:06.160 requires questioning assertions.
02:18:08.480 Quote,
02:18:09.340 Learn from science
02:18:11.140 that you must
02:18:12.600 doubt the experts.
02:18:14.220 When someone says
02:18:15.380 science teaches
02:18:16.180 such and such,
02:18:17.260 he's using the word
02:18:18.280 incorrectly.
02:18:19.740 Science doesn't teach it. 0.98
02:18:21.400 Experience teaches it.
02:18:23.160 If they say to you
02:18:24.320 science has shown
02:18:25.200 such and such,
02:18:26.240 you might ask,
02:18:27.280 how does science show it?
02:18:28.860 How did the scientists
02:18:29.800 find out?
02:18:30.880 How?
02:18:31.440 What?
02:18:31.860 Where?
02:18:32.880 Not science has shown,
02:18:34.460 but this experiment,
02:18:35.620 this effect,
02:18:36.500 has shown.
02:18:37.560 And you have as much
02:18:38.840 right as anyone else
02:18:40.040 upon hearing about
02:18:41.120 the experiments,
02:18:42.380 but we must listen
02:18:43.560 to all the evidence,
02:18:45.020 to judge
02:18:45.760 whether a reusable
02:18:47.280 conclusion has been
02:18:48.420 arrived at.
02:18:49.740 Close quote.
02:18:51.940 Note how emphatic
02:18:53.380 Feynman is,
02:18:54.520 that it's not just
02:18:55.300 the few who conduct
02:18:56.380 the experiments,
02:18:57.760 or even just the experts,
02:18:59.440 who have the right
02:19:00.160 to discuss
02:19:00.840 and judge the matter.
02:19:03.020 This is especially
02:19:04.260 true in public health
02:19:05.400 because the field
02:19:06.380 is so broad
02:19:07.260 and composed
02:19:07.980 of many disciplines,
02:19:09.420 from those that deal
02:19:10.400 narrowly with the viruses
02:19:11.600 to those that deal
02:19:12.980 with mass behavioral changes.
02:19:14.600 When public health
02:19:17.320 and allied medical
02:19:18.480 and educational organizations
02:19:20.400 censor scientists
02:19:21.880 and healthcare professionals
02:19:23.240 for debating
02:19:24.500 scientific controversies,
02:19:27.460 thus giving the public
02:19:28.460 the false impression
02:19:29.480 that there are
02:19:30.240 no legitimate controversies,
02:19:32.880 they misrepresent
02:19:34.340 and grievously harm
02:19:36.300 science,
02:19:37.860 medicine,
02:19:38.920 and the public
02:19:39.860 by removing
02:19:41.040 the only justification
02:19:42.620 public health has
02:19:44.060 for asking citizens
02:19:45.580 to undergo
02:19:46.440 various privations.
02:19:48.920 But these requests
02:19:50.040 are based on
02:19:51.240 a full,
02:19:52.240 unhampered,
02:19:53.220 and open
02:19:53.800 scientific process.
02:19:56.780 Those who censor
02:19:58.320 or block
02:19:59.380 this process
02:20:00.660 undermine
02:20:01.760 their own claim
02:20:03.060 to speak
02:20:03.700 in the name of science
02:20:04.880 or public safety.
02:20:06.380 If we didn't get
02:20:09.880 to have
02:20:10.500 a properly
02:20:11.200 open scientific process,
02:20:13.520 what did we get
02:20:14.620 instead?
02:20:16.820 Government enmeshment
02:20:18.400 with legally
02:20:19.360 indemnified corporations,
02:20:21.900 public health officials
02:20:23.060 misleading Congress,
02:20:25.820 multiple honest regulators
02:20:27.440 leaving the FDA
02:20:28.740 because of
02:20:29.600 inappropriate approvals,
02:20:32.560 FDA heads
02:20:33.640 taking big pharma jobs
02:20:35.320 directly related
02:20:36.540 to products
02:20:37.120 they had just
02:20:37.740 been involved
02:20:38.300 in improving,
02:20:40.280 a possible lab leak
02:20:41.580 that couldn't be
02:20:42.240 discussed as such
02:20:43.420 for more than a year
02:20:44.840 so that it couldn't
02:20:45.880 be clearly disconfirmed,
02:20:48.560 faceless social media
02:20:50.000 platforms
02:20:50.760 admitting that
02:20:51.920 they control
02:20:52.540 what we see
02:20:53.400 and don't see,
02:20:55.620 and institutional
02:20:56.560 censorship
02:20:57.220 of many kinds.
02:21:00.680 If you were
02:21:01.700 trying to create
02:21:02.540 the perfect conditions
02:21:03.760 for public skepticism
02:21:05.640 about vaccines
02:21:06.840 in the midst
02:21:08.020 of a pandemic,
02:21:09.760 could you have
02:21:10.260 done any better
02:21:10.900 than this?
02:21:15.280 Over the summer,
02:21:16.860 the master narrative
02:21:17.780 began to show cracks.
02:21:20.120 By August 18th,
02:21:21.740 Israel had the world's 1.00
02:21:23.020 third highest number
02:21:24.440 of new cases
02:21:25.300 per capita.
02:21:26.820 The health ministry
02:21:28.180 retroactively
02:21:29.100 released numbers
02:21:30.120 showing that
02:21:31.020 by mid-summer,
02:21:31.900 the Pfizer vaccine,
02:21:32.840 which had been
02:21:33.960 used in Israel
02:21:34.640 extensively,
02:21:36.140 was only 39%
02:21:37.360 effective in
02:21:38.760 preventing COVID
02:21:39.520 infections,
02:21:40.840 though much more
02:21:41.560 effective in
02:21:42.080 preventing severe
02:21:42.840 disease.
02:21:44.000 But additional
02:21:45.500 data showed
02:21:46.760 that at a time
02:21:47.420 when 62%
02:21:48.460 of the entire
02:21:49.260 Israeli population
02:21:50.260 had been vaccinated,
02:21:52.180 over 60%
02:21:53.260 of Israel's
02:21:54.000 400 hospitalized
02:21:55.240 COVID cases
02:21:56.380 were patients
02:21:57.760 who had been
02:21:58.080 fully vaccinated.
02:21:59.100 vaccinated.
02:22:00.320 This meant
02:22:01.320 that the vaccine
02:22:02.180 was much more
02:22:03.300 leaky than
02:22:04.000 expected.
02:22:06.400 By September 14th,
02:22:09.320 Israel's health
02:22:10.200 ministry director
02:22:11.120 general,
02:22:12.380 Nachman Ash,
02:22:13.400 reported that
02:22:14.040 the country,
02:22:15.340 even more heavily
02:22:16.260 vaccinated than it
02:22:17.240 had been in the
02:22:17.860 summer,
02:22:18.980 with 3 million,
02:22:20.320 mostly elderly,
02:22:21.380 of its 9 million
02:22:22.180 citizens already
02:22:23.220 having had a third
02:22:24.340 shot,
02:22:25.440 was now recording
02:22:26.580 10,000 new
02:22:27.740 COVID cases a
02:22:28.660 day.
02:22:29.420 That is a record
02:22:30.840 that did not
02:22:31.680 exist in the
02:22:32.280 previous waves,
02:22:33.820 Nachman said.
02:22:36.240 It was also
02:22:37.360 the highest number
02:22:38.340 of COVID cases
02:22:39.560 per capita of
02:22:40.460 any country,
02:22:41.820 beating out
02:22:42.460 Mongolia and
02:22:43.600 making Israel 0.77
02:22:44.360 the COVID
02:22:45.660 capital of the
02:22:46.540 world just
02:22:47.620 months after
02:22:48.420 leading the
02:22:48.980 charge on
02:22:49.520 vaccines.
02:22:52.120 Many argued
02:22:53.460 correctly,
02:22:54.720 yes,
02:22:55.060 these breakthrough
02:22:56.380 cases do
02:22:57.100 occur,
02:22:58.040 but they are
02:22:58.780 usually mild
02:22:59.480 and the
02:22:59.780 vaccines are
02:23:00.380 very good at
02:23:01.040 protecting people
02:23:01.740 from severe
02:23:02.400 illness and
02:23:02.980 death.
02:23:04.020 But then
02:23:04.920 conflicting
02:23:05.460 statistics began
02:23:06.460 to emerge.
02:23:08.280 Israeli
02:23:08.640 hospitals were 0.89
02:23:09.680 so overloaded
02:23:10.680 they were
02:23:11.000 turning away
02:23:11.680 COVID patients.
02:23:13.800 400 died in
02:23:15.240 the first two
02:23:15.800 weeks of
02:23:16.180 September.
02:23:17.680 Hospital staff
02:23:18.540 were worn
02:23:19.040 out and in
02:23:20.120 a traumatic
02:23:20.640 state,
02:23:21.820 with one
02:23:22.260 hospital director
02:23:23.060 describing the
02:23:23.800 situation as
02:23:24.620 catastrophic,
02:23:26.780 adding that
02:23:27.420 the public
02:23:28.840 knows absolutely
02:23:29.880 nothing about
02:23:30.740 it.
02:23:32.360 The Israeli
02:23:33.320 Ministry of
02:23:33.920 Health Statistics
02:23:34.600 from August
02:23:35.380 showed that of
02:23:36.560 those deaths
02:23:37.140 that had been
02:23:37.600 classified,
02:23:39.300 more than
02:23:39.620 twice as many
02:23:40.400 who died
02:23:41.000 were fully
02:23:41.840 vaccinated,
02:23:42.900 272,
02:23:44.580 as opposed to
02:23:45.540 those who
02:23:45.900 were not
02:23:46.320 vaccinated,
02:23:47.380 133.
02:23:48.940 By late
02:23:49.840 September,
02:23:50.920 the data was
02:23:51.560 in for the
02:23:52.180 fourth wave,
02:23:52.860 and Dr.
02:23:53.980 Sharon Alroy
02:23:54.800 Price of
02:23:55.660 the Israeli
02:23:56.220 Ministry of
02:23:56.840 Health revealed
02:23:57.500 to the FDA
02:23:58.320 Vaccine Advisory
02:23:59.820 Committee that
02:24:00.600 quote,
02:24:02.420 what we saw
02:24:03.080 prior to our
02:24:03.940 booster campaign
02:24:04.940 was that 60%
02:24:06.700 of people in
02:24:07.620 severe and
02:24:08.620 critical condition
02:24:09.640 were immunized,
02:24:11.260 doubly immunized,
02:24:12.920 fully vaccinated,
02:24:14.460 and as I said,
02:24:15.840 45% of people
02:24:17.340 who died in the
02:24:18.300 fourth wave
02:24:18.960 were doubly
02:24:20.080 vaccinated,
02:24:21.280 close quote.
02:24:21.920 Israeli
02:24:24.700 vaccine czar
02:24:25.760 Salman Zarka
02:24:27.000 doubled down
02:24:27.860 and said the
02:24:28.420 country now
02:24:29.000 had to
02:24:29.320 contemplate a
02:24:30.100 fourth dose
02:24:30.880 in another
02:24:31.820 five months,
02:24:32.700 quote,
02:24:33.400 this is our
02:24:33.940 life from
02:24:34.380 now on,
02:24:35.120 in waves,
02:24:36.160 quote,
02:24:36.420 he said.
02:24:37.720 Israeli
02:24:38.280 Prime Minister
02:24:38.980 Naftali
02:24:39.640 Bennett echoed
02:24:40.540 this on
02:24:40.900 September 13th,
02:24:42.580 blaming six
02:24:43.420 patients who
02:24:43.960 were hospitalized
02:24:44.660 because they
02:24:45.480 were,
02:24:45.960 quote,
02:24:46.260 not fully
02:24:46.720 vaccinated,
02:24:47.660 quote,
02:24:48.100 by which he
02:24:48.740 meant they
02:24:49.640 had only had
02:24:50.260 two jabs.
02:24:51.920 Divisive terms
02:24:53.060 are easily
02:24:53.840 turned on
02:24:54.360 those who
02:24:54.860 recently used
02:24:55.560 them.
02:24:56.560 Now the
02:24:56.960 stigma that
02:24:57.520 attended the
02:24:58.180 unvaccinated
02:24:59.080 also applied
02:25:00.660 to the
02:25:00.980 vaccinated but
02:25:01.800 not vaccinated
02:25:02.680 enough.
02:25:05.800 Throughout the
02:25:06.780 pandemic,
02:25:07.780 Israel had 1.00
02:25:08.540 extensive
02:25:09.160 lockdowns.
02:25:10.700 In contrast,
02:25:11.640 Sweden became
02:25:12.340 famous for
02:25:13.080 never having
02:25:13.720 lockdown.
02:25:15.400 Israel and
02:25:16.340 Sweden have
02:25:17.060 about the
02:25:17.480 same size
02:25:18.020 population,
02:25:19.200 9 million and
02:25:19.940 10 million
02:25:20.440 respectively,
02:25:21.380 and have
02:25:22.580 almost identical
02:25:23.580 rates of
02:25:24.100 double vaccinated
02:25:24.860 people if you
02:25:26.440 take in all
02:25:27.140 ages, including
02:25:27.900 children, 63%
02:25:29.680 Israel, 67% 0.66
02:25:31.260 Sweden.
02:25:32.740 But if anything,
02:25:33.920 Israel has the 0.99
02:25:34.500 edge over
02:25:35.020 Sweden because 0.78
02:25:36.000 43% of
02:25:37.300 Israelis are 1.00
02:25:38.240 also triple
02:25:38.860 vaccinated.
02:25:40.680 Yet the
02:25:41.480 difference in
02:25:42.680 the number of
02:25:43.400 hospitalized
02:25:43.940 patients is
02:25:44.800 staggering.
02:25:46.280 For the week
02:25:46.840 of September
02:25:47.360 12th, 2021,
02:25:48.640 Israel had 1.00
02:25:50.140 1,386
02:25:52.620 COVID
02:25:53.040 hospitalizations,
02:25:54.300 which was
02:25:54.660 four times
02:25:55.280 that of
02:25:55.640 Sweden,
02:25:56.280 340.
02:25:58.380 Israel had 1.00
02:25:59.360 a rolling
02:25:59.960 70-day
02:26:00.700 average of
02:26:01.480 2.89
02:26:02.220 deaths per
02:26:02.860 million compared
02:26:04.080 to a much
02:26:04.620 lower number
02:26:05.220 of deaths
02:26:05.620 in Sweden,
02:26:06.880 0.15.
02:26:09.880 What can
02:26:10.660 account for
02:26:11.240 this?
02:26:12.860 Many argue
02:26:13.780 that because
02:26:14.220 Sweden, where
02:26:15.080 public health
02:26:15.640 works on a
02:26:16.300 voluntary,
02:26:17.080 participatory
02:26:17.800 basis, never
02:26:19.140 locked down,
02:26:20.760 many more
02:26:21.320 people there
02:26:22.400 were exposed
02:26:23.460 and got
02:26:23.940 natural
02:26:24.380 immunity.
02:26:26.020 The Swedes
02:26:27.000 had hoped
02:26:27.800 to protect
02:26:28.620 the most
02:26:29.200 vulnerable in
02:26:29.820 nursing homes,
02:26:31.060 which they
02:26:31.500 failed to do
02:26:32.140 because of
02:26:32.580 poorly trained
02:26:33.180 staff.
02:26:34.400 But in this,
02:26:35.040 they were no
02:26:35.400 different from
02:26:35.960 most Western
02:26:36.740 nations that
02:26:37.800 did lock
02:26:38.440 down.
02:26:40.200 Sweden also
02:26:41.280 suffered more
02:26:42.040 deaths per
02:26:42.480 100,000 than
02:26:43.380 Israel overall.
02:26:45.400 But through
02:26:46.180 the summer of
02:26:46.820 2021, Sweden
02:26:48.780 dropped to
02:26:49.280 about 1.5
02:26:50.500 deaths a
02:26:50.940 day from
02:26:51.340 COVID.
02:26:52.480 Its hospitals
02:26:53.140 were never
02:26:53.680 overwhelmed,
02:26:55.160 suggesting that
02:26:56.720 once Sweden's 0.90
02:26:58.160 natural herd
02:26:58.980 immunity was
02:26:59.620 established,
02:27:01.000 combined with
02:27:01.640 its vaccines,
02:27:02.920 it was now
02:27:03.920 more protective
02:27:04.740 than Israel's 0.89
02:27:05.820 largely vaccine-based
02:27:07.280 immunity.
02:27:09.980 This wasn't
02:27:11.620 what the
02:27:11.980 master narrative
02:27:12.740 had promised.
02:27:13.580 Israel was 0.98
02:27:15.640 the world's
02:27:16.360 lab experiment
02:27:17.260 because being
02:27:17.920 so early to
02:27:18.720 complete a
02:27:19.220 vaccine rollout
02:27:20.040 on a large
02:27:20.640 scale, about
02:27:22.100 three months
02:27:22.780 ahead of the
02:27:23.260 United States,
02:27:24.480 it was supposed
02:27:25.420 to be a glimpse
02:27:26.180 of everyone
02:27:26.720 else's future.
02:27:28.660 Its people did 0.99
02:27:29.460 seem to be among
02:27:30.260 the first to
02:27:30.840 break free of
02:27:31.380 COVID, but they
02:27:32.920 were now the
02:27:33.440 first to show
02:27:34.180 that the vaccine
02:27:34.940 could wane.
02:27:36.540 It's not that
02:27:37.360 the vaccinated
02:27:37.900 in the United
02:27:38.480 States weren't
02:27:39.100 doing better than
02:27:40.000 the unvaccinated
02:27:40.880 in terms of
02:27:41.540 hospitalization for
02:27:42.580 COVID.
02:27:43.360 They definitely
02:27:43.980 were.
02:27:45.200 The fear,
02:27:45.980 rather, was that
02:27:47.120 this might only
02:27:47.940 prove to be a
02:27:48.700 short-term benefit.
02:27:50.980 In the summer,
02:27:52.400 the CDC, behind
02:27:54.240 on reporting of
02:27:55.060 its own U.S.
02:27:56.080 data in real
02:27:56.780 time, had been
02:27:58.040 advised that the
02:27:58.820 Pfizer vaccine was
02:27:59.820 leading to
02:28:00.300 breakthrough cases
02:28:01.100 in the vaccinated
02:28:01.900 in Israel.
02:28:03.180 But it did not
02:28:04.300 share this hole
02:28:05.200 in the master
02:28:05.760 narrative with
02:28:06.400 outside public
02:28:07.260 officials until
02:28:08.220 one month later,
02:28:09.660 as the Washington
02:28:10.420 Post reported,
02:28:11.340 quote, what is
02:28:13.020 very concerning
02:28:13.840 is that we're
02:28:15.240 not seeing the
02:28:16.020 data.
02:28:16.460 It needs to
02:28:17.000 come out,
02:28:17.660 close quote,
02:28:18.200 said former
02:28:18.720 head of the
02:28:19.180 CDC, Tom
02:28:19.960 Frieden.
02:28:21.020 Quote, what
02:28:22.640 you can
02:28:22.960 criticize the
02:28:23.680 CDC for
02:28:24.680 validly is
02:28:26.140 why aren't
02:28:26.700 you talking
02:28:27.500 about the
02:28:28.040 studies you're
02:28:28.560 doing of
02:28:29.040 breakthroughs,
02:28:29.820 close quote.
02:28:31.240 Because there
02:28:31.960 had been such
02:28:32.440 a lag time,
02:28:33.460 some people
02:28:33.900 wondered if
02:28:34.460 the CDC was
02:28:35.180 hiding something,
02:28:36.280 quote, and
02:28:37.300 these are the
02:28:37.920 people who are
02:28:39.040 potentially friendly
02:28:40.040 to the CDC,
02:28:41.360 quote, said
02:28:41.840 Frieden.
02:28:43.440 Quote, so you
02:28:44.500 know you're in
02:28:45.060 trouble when even
02:28:45.980 your friends are
02:28:46.720 suspicious of your
02:28:47.640 motives, close
02:28:48.580 quote.
02:28:49.900 In the United
02:28:50.860 States, a Mayo 1.00
02:28:52.120 Clinic study found
02:28:53.180 the Pfizer vaccine
02:28:54.220 was 42% effective
02:28:56.080 at stopping people
02:28:57.160 from getting
02:28:57.620 infected between
02:28:58.860 January and
02:28:59.800 July.
02:29:00.980 In the UK,
02:29:03.040 nearly 50% of
02:29:04.320 new COVID cases
02:29:05.180 in the summer
02:29:05.800 were among the
02:29:06.680 vaccinated.
02:29:07.260 each day,
02:29:09.580 there were
02:29:09.900 about 15,000
02:29:11.220 new symptomatic
02:29:12.480 cases in
02:29:13.200 people who
02:29:13.760 had been
02:29:14.100 partially or
02:29:14.820 fully vaccinated.
02:29:17.060 As of July
02:29:18.200 15th, new
02:29:19.500 cases among
02:29:20.300 the unvaccinated,
02:29:22.120 17,581,
02:29:24.580 were falling,
02:29:26.180 and new
02:29:26.680 cases among
02:29:27.500 the fully or
02:29:28.500 partially vaccinated,
02:29:30.460 15,537,
02:29:32.980 increasing,
02:29:34.760 and set to
02:29:35.660 overtake the
02:29:37.640 unvaccinated.
02:29:39.920 According to
02:29:40.860 the CDC,
02:29:42.380 of the 469
02:29:43.700 attendances at
02:29:44.600 Provincetown,
02:29:45.320 Massachusetts
02:29:45.880 celebrations in
02:29:46.920 July that tested
02:29:47.900 positive for
02:29:48.660 COVID, 74% had
02:29:51.380 been fully
02:29:51.900 vaccinated.
02:29:53.620 Scientists
02:29:53.980 determined that
02:29:54.960 those with such
02:29:55.820 vaccine breakthrough
02:29:56.740 infections can
02:29:57.600 carry viral
02:29:58.400 loads as big
02:29:59.920 as infected
02:30:00.980 unvaccinated
02:30:01.840 people.
02:30:03.620 Vaccinated 1.00
02:30:04.100 people were not
02:30:04.940 just infecting
02:30:05.680 others.
02:30:06.820 They were also
02:30:07.600 clearly not
02:30:08.500 completely immune
02:30:09.320 themselves,
02:30:10.520 though perhaps
02:30:11.440 they were
02:30:11.740 infectious for a
02:30:12.520 briefer period.
02:30:13.880 The CDC also
02:30:15.540 emphasized this
02:30:16.500 study to support
02:30:17.340 its new policy
02:30:18.300 of asking the
02:30:19.160 vaccinated to
02:30:20.100 wear masks.
02:30:21.720 On CNN,
02:30:22.800 Wolf Blitzer
02:30:23.300 asked Walensky if
02:30:24.440 she got the
02:30:24.880 messaging wrong
02:30:25.680 and hadn't been
02:30:26.820 nuanced enough.
02:30:28.400 She answered that
02:30:29.200 the breakthrough
02:30:29.660 infections tended
02:30:30.640 to be mild.
02:30:32.280 Blitzer then
02:30:32.800 asked whether
02:30:33.400 those who were
02:30:33.920 vaccinated and
02:30:34.700 had breakthrough
02:30:35.360 infections could
02:30:36.620 pass the virus
02:30:37.440 on to older
02:30:38.280 people or more
02:30:40.180 vulnerable people.
02:30:41.680 Walensky answered,
02:30:43.880 quote,
02:30:44.700 our vaccines are
02:30:45.640 working exceptionally
02:30:46.560 well.
02:30:47.640 They continue to
02:30:48.480 work well for
02:30:49.100 Delta with regard
02:30:50.240 to severe illness
02:30:51.100 and death.
02:30:52.060 They prevent it.
02:30:53.340 But what they
02:30:54.200 can't do anymore
02:30:55.160 is prevent
02:30:55.860 transmission.
02:30:56.880 Close quote.
02:30:58.440 She said so to
02:30:59.700 suggest to people
02:31:00.540 who were vaccinated
02:31:01.380 that if they were
02:31:02.420 going home to
02:31:03.080 people who were
02:31:03.660 immunosuppressed
02:31:04.620 or frail or
02:31:05.740 with comorbidities,
02:31:07.100 they should wear
02:31:07.580 a mask.
02:31:08.960 It was a nuanced
02:31:09.840 response and
02:31:10.760 admitted a problem.
02:31:12.600 A performance
02:31:13.080 like that might
02:31:14.140 have, because it
02:31:15.160 was honest,
02:31:16.300 enhanced vaccine
02:31:17.160 confidence.
02:31:18.920 Unfortunately,
02:31:19.760 the mainstream
02:31:20.200 media was so
02:31:21.220 overcommitted to
02:31:22.180 a master narrative
02:31:23.080 that promised 95%
02:31:24.600 effectiveness for
02:31:25.460 the vaccines,
02:31:26.800 which it also
02:31:27.540 believed implied
02:31:28.220 stopping transmission,
02:31:29.240 that it was
02:31:30.540 caught off guard.
02:31:32.380 Instead of asking
02:31:33.080 whether scientists
02:31:33.800 had compared the
02:31:34.540 infectiousness of
02:31:35.420 the vaccinated
02:31:36.080 with that of
02:31:36.620 the unvaccinated,
02:31:38.080 the media took
02:31:39.020 Walensky's statement
02:31:40.000 to mean that
02:31:40.600 vaccinated people
02:31:41.600 with breakthrough
02:31:42.200 infections were
02:31:43.380 just as likely to
02:31:44.380 infect others as
02:31:45.660 those who were
02:31:46.100 not vaccinated
02:31:46.880 and now had
02:31:47.660 COVID.
02:31:48.840 In this way,
02:31:50.300 the episode
02:31:50.840 transmitted more
02:31:51.820 reasons for the
02:31:52.480 vaccine hesitance
02:31:53.360 to have doubts.
02:31:55.620 Internal documents
02:31:56.720 showed that at
02:31:58.600 this point,
02:31:59.280 the CDC was
02:32:00.100 scrambling to
02:32:00.940 change its
02:32:01.480 messaging,
02:32:02.720 moving from
02:32:03.220 the master
02:32:03.720 narrative
02:32:04.040 simplification
02:32:04.800 that,
02:32:05.640 quote,
02:32:05.960 vaccines are
02:32:06.580 effective against
02:32:07.360 disease,
02:32:08.000 close quote,
02:32:09.340 to the idea
02:32:10.000 that vaccines
02:32:10.660 are essential
02:32:11.340 because they
02:32:11.860 protect against
02:32:12.580 death and
02:32:13.080 hospitalization.
02:32:14.680 The agency
02:32:15.780 even changed
02:32:16.640 its official
02:32:17.320 definition of
02:32:18.340 what a vaccine
02:32:19.040 does from
02:32:20.060 producing immunity
02:32:20.980 to a specific
02:32:22.560 disease to
02:32:24.020 producing protection
02:32:25.200 from it.
02:32:25.760 The FDA had
02:32:28.700 originally said
02:32:29.700 that a vaccine
02:32:31.160 less than 50%
02:32:32.520 effective,
02:32:33.520 defined as
02:32:34.180 reducing the
02:32:34.860 risk of having
02:32:35.420 to see a
02:32:35.900 doctor,
02:32:37.080 would not be
02:32:37.780 approved by
02:32:38.440 regulators.
02:32:40.040 Now,
02:32:40.880 something that
02:32:41.440 appeared to the
02:32:42.080 public to be
02:32:42.740 significantly less
02:32:43.880 effective was
02:32:45.220 being not just
02:32:45.980 approved,
02:32:47.060 but mandated.
02:32:49.280 According to
02:32:50.140 Israel's health
02:32:50.820 ministry,
02:32:52.000 the Pfizer vaccine
02:32:52.980 data showed that
02:32:53.920 in those who
02:32:54.560 were vaccinated
02:32:55.280 as early as
02:32:56.100 January,
02:32:57.180 about five
02:32:57.800 months prior,
02:32:59.260 it was only
02:32:59.920 16% effective.
02:33:02.920 A large study
02:33:04.280 in Qatar
02:33:04.940 showed that the
02:33:06.000 vaccine was
02:33:06.660 waning at five
02:33:07.620 months.
02:33:08.600 In the United
02:33:09.160 States,
02:33:10.080 a Mayo Clinic
02:33:10.740 found the
02:33:11.240 Pfizer vaccine
02:33:11.940 had dropped
02:33:12.300 to 42%
02:33:13.360 effectiveness,
02:33:14.380 while the CDC
02:33:15.200 found it dropped
02:33:15.920 to 66% in
02:33:17.860 just under
02:33:18.460 four months
02:33:19.100 of use.
02:33:20.760 U.S.
02:33:21.240 statistics showed
02:33:22.120 that the
02:33:22.460 vaccinated were
02:33:23.260 still overall
02:33:24.280 far less likely
02:33:25.240 to get infected
02:33:26.020 than the
02:33:26.360 unvaccinated
02:33:27.140 or to get
02:33:28.020 serious illness.
02:33:29.760 But Israel 0.66
02:33:31.280 had been
02:33:31.660 vaccinated earlier
02:33:32.760 than the
02:33:33.160 United States,
02:33:34.220 so what lay
02:33:35.440 ahead for
02:33:36.000 America?
02:33:37.960 It is
02:33:38.740 noteworthy
02:33:39.400 that this
02:33:40.540 was the
02:33:40.980 moment that
02:33:42.260 U.S.
02:33:42.960 government
02:33:43.220 officials and
02:33:44.660 the media
02:33:45.200 chose to
02:33:46.100 assert,
02:33:47.700 soon on a
02:33:48.460 daily basis,
02:33:50.300 that the
02:33:50.640 country was
02:33:51.240 now in
02:33:51.920 a, quote,
02:33:52.880 pandemic of
02:33:54.240 the
02:33:54.400 unvaccinated,
02:33:55.520 close quote,
02:33:57.080 even though it
02:33:57.920 was now clear
02:33:58.680 that the
02:33:59.240 vaccinated could
02:34:00.020 get infected
02:34:00.680 and transmit
02:34:01.340 the virus.
02:34:02.960 Every day,
02:34:04.160 famous Americans,
02:34:05.280 including
02:34:05.560 entertainers,
02:34:06.660 athletes,
02:34:07.200 and politicians
02:34:07.880 who had been
02:34:09.040 doubly vaccinated
02:34:10.060 were having
02:34:10.680 breakthrough
02:34:11.340 infections.
02:34:12.920 The message
02:34:13.880 that this is
02:34:15.140 only an epidemic
02:34:15.940 of the
02:34:16.280 unvaccinated
02:34:17.020 is falling
02:34:17.740 flat,
02:34:18.380 close quote,
02:34:19.540 noted Harvard
02:34:20.280 epidemiologist
02:34:21.280 Michael Minna.
02:34:23.560 By this
02:34:24.320 point,
02:34:25.320 the hesitant
02:34:25.840 were no longer
02:34:26.500 the only ones
02:34:27.360 who had
02:34:27.680 doubts.
02:34:29.060 There were
02:34:29.400 many anecdotal
02:34:30.220 reports of
02:34:30.920 great worry
02:34:31.560 about breakthrough
02:34:32.180 cases among
02:34:32.940 the vaccinated,
02:34:34.280 including among
02:34:34.960 those who put
02:34:35.560 much faith in
02:34:36.280 vaccines because
02:34:37.020 their immune
02:34:37.500 systems were
02:34:38.160 compromised by
02:34:39.100 age or
02:34:39.620 illness.
02:34:41.300 Headlines
02:34:41.820 about waning
02:34:42.440 vaccines expressed
02:34:43.640 despair that
02:34:44.840 this pandemic
02:34:45.480 might never end.
02:34:47.620 Instead of
02:34:48.460 addressing how
02:34:49.020 this disappointment
02:34:49.720 might affect
02:34:50.420 people,
02:34:51.700 U.S.
02:34:52.100 public health
02:34:52.620 talking heads
02:34:53.420 and Twitter
02:34:54.040 certified human
02:34:54.960 nature experts
02:34:55.940 turned now to
02:34:57.340 behavioral psychology,
02:34:59.020 a very American
02:34:59.820 form of psychology,
02:35:01.380 to deal with
02:35:01.960 the crisis,
02:35:03.140 treating their
02:35:03.600 fellow citizens
02:35:04.320 like children 0.99
02:35:05.060 or lab rats 0.72
02:35:06.220 to be given
02:35:06.660 rewards when
02:35:07.460 good and
02:35:08.200 punishments when
02:35:09.000 bad.
02:35:10.160 Some seemed
02:35:10.820 to relish
02:35:11.380 telling people
02:35:12.040 that if they
02:35:12.520 didn't just do
02:35:13.340 what the experts
02:35:13.960 told them to do,
02:35:15.160 they'd lose
02:35:15.640 their jobs,
02:35:16.320 their place
02:35:17.140 in school or
02:35:18.360 some other
02:35:18.800 basic need like
02:35:20.140 mobility.
02:35:22.420 Other more
02:35:23.260 data-driven
02:35:23.880 thinkers,
02:35:24.700 including pro-vaccine
02:35:25.880 physicians like
02:35:26.620 Eric Topol,
02:35:27.820 head of Scripps
02:35:28.460 research and a
02:35:29.680 man who regards
02:35:30.300 the production of
02:35:31.060 the mRNA vaccine
02:35:32.760 as, quote,
02:35:33.720 one of science
02:35:34.420 and medical
02:35:34.880 research's
02:35:35.720 greatest achievements,
02:35:37.040 close quote,
02:35:38.300 now seem quite
02:35:39.140 concerned about
02:35:39.840 the Israeli data.
02:35:41.760 Topol assembled
02:35:43.140 many articles
02:35:44.000 showing how
02:35:44.600 vaccinated
02:35:45.140 populations
02:35:45.920 still fare
02:35:46.540 much better
02:35:47.200 relative to
02:35:48.180 unvaccinated
02:35:48.900 populations in
02:35:49.800 the United
02:35:50.120 States.
02:35:51.560 But he also
02:35:52.140 pointed out
02:35:52.740 that breakthrough
02:35:53.340 infections can't 0.67
02:35:54.460 just be written
02:35:54.980 off as simply
02:35:55.900 caused by the
02:35:56.940 new Delta
02:35:57.400 variant escaping
02:35:58.820 vaccine protection.
02:36:01.180 Israeli data
02:36:01.900 showed that the
02:36:02.660 potency of the
02:36:03.400 vaccines was
02:36:04.140 fading after five
02:36:05.340 months, contrary
02:36:06.740 to what Pfizer
02:36:07.640 claimed.
02:36:08.860 Thus, the data
02:36:09.680 showed that the
02:36:11.160 earlier one was
02:36:12.140 vaccinated, the
02:36:13.200 less protection
02:36:14.040 one had against
02:36:15.060 Delta.
02:36:16.280 That finding was
02:36:17.280 crucial because it
02:36:18.460 meant that the new
02:36:19.200 wave in Israel was
02:36:20.640 not simply caused
02:36:21.880 because of a new
02:36:22.860 variant that came
02:36:24.200 along.
02:36:25.160 The vaccines were
02:36:26.440 losing potency over
02:36:27.980 time.
02:36:30.260 Fauci and Surgeon
02:36:31.280 General Vivek Murthy
02:36:32.540 stuck to their guns,
02:36:34.360 continuing to
02:36:35.040 emphasize to the
02:36:35.880 public that the
02:36:36.980 vast majority of
02:36:38.000 all COVID deaths,
02:36:39.680 99.2 percent
02:36:41.180 according to Fauci and
02:36:42.820 99.5 percent
02:36:44.320 according to Murthy
02:36:45.200 were among the
02:36:46.340 unvaccinated, a
02:36:48.140 narrative that was
02:36:48.800 picked up by news
02:36:49.780 outlets, which
02:36:51.100 started reporting
02:36:51.920 obsessively about
02:36:53.040 states with high
02:36:53.920 unvaccinated rates
02:36:55.060 and filling the
02:36:56.120 news cycle with
02:36:57.160 one story after
02:36:58.240 another about 1.00
02:36:59.400 stupid retrograde 1.00
02:37:00.580 Americans succumbing 1.00
02:37:02.040 to COVID, their
02:37:03.240 final wish not
02:37:04.540 being for those
02:37:05.320 they loved, but
02:37:06.460 for their medical
02:37:07.100 practitioner to
02:37:07.960 broadcast to the
02:37:08.740 world their
02:37:09.440 vaccine regret.
02:37:10.320 But, as David
02:37:13.300 Wallace-Wells showed
02:37:14.580 on August 12th in
02:37:15.960 New York Magazine,
02:37:17.860 Fauci's and
02:37:18.500 Murthy's numbers
02:37:19.400 were not rooted in
02:37:21.420 what was currently
02:37:22.140 happening in
02:37:22.720 America.
02:37:23.720 They were instead
02:37:24.960 based on the
02:37:26.060 COVID death data
02:37:27.080 from January 1st,
02:37:28.380 2021 to date.
02:37:30.680 If you think this
02:37:31.980 through, you'll see
02:37:33.280 what's obviously
02:37:34.140 wrong.
02:37:35.120 For the first
02:37:36.180 months of the
02:37:36.760 year, few Americans
02:37:38.600 were yet vaccinated.
02:37:40.600 So, of course, most
02:37:41.800 deaths would
02:37:42.760 technically be among
02:37:43.860 the unvaccinated.
02:37:46.460 Quote, two-thirds
02:37:47.920 of 2021 cases and
02:37:49.820 80% of deaths
02:37:51.060 came before April
02:37:52.500 1st when only 15%
02:37:54.740 of the country was
02:37:55.660 fully vaccinated,
02:37:56.620 close quote,
02:37:57.500 Wallace-Wells
02:37:58.200 wrote.
02:37:59.240 Quote, which means
02:38:00.500 calculating year-to-date
02:38:01.940 ratios means
02:38:03.660 possibly
02:38:04.320 underestimating the
02:38:05.860 prevalence of
02:38:06.500 breakthrough cases
02:38:07.400 by a factor of
02:38:08.940 three and
02:38:09.660 breakthrough deaths
02:38:10.860 by a factor of
02:38:12.020 five, close quote.
02:38:14.560 What we desperately
02:38:16.100 needed was a
02:38:17.220 comparison of
02:38:18.020 vaccinated to
02:38:18.680 unvaccinated people
02:38:19.900 by each month.
02:38:21.480 But as Wallace-Wells
02:38:23.120 noted grimly,
02:38:24.160 quote,
02:38:24.400 unfortunately,
02:38:25.880 more accurate
02:38:26.740 month-to-month
02:38:27.500 data is hard to
02:38:28.720 assemble because
02:38:30.500 the CDC stopped
02:38:32.340 tracking most
02:38:33.320 breakthrough cases
02:38:34.320 cases in early
02:38:35.720 May.
02:38:38.540 Wallace-Wells
02:38:39.560 cited a New York
02:38:40.380 Times analysis
02:38:41.200 that claimed the
02:38:41.940 vaccines were
02:38:42.560 working to
02:38:43.060 suppress severe
02:38:43.720 outcomes from
02:38:44.360 COVID infection
02:38:45.180 by more than a
02:38:46.580 factor of a
02:38:47.140 hundred for some
02:38:48.000 states.
02:38:49.080 But as Topol told
02:38:50.640 Wallace-Wells,
02:38:51.720 quote,
02:38:52.720 the breakthrough
02:38:53.300 problem is much
02:38:54.480 more concerning
02:38:55.160 than what our
02:38:55.780 public health
02:38:56.340 officials have
02:38:57.060 transmitted.
02:38:58.220 We have no
02:38:59.400 good tracking,
02:39:00.760 but every indicator
02:39:02.200 I have suggests
02:39:03.840 there is a lot
02:39:05.380 more under the
02:39:06.200 radar than is
02:39:07.840 being told to
02:39:08.540 the public so
02:39:09.260 far, which is
02:39:10.460 unfortunate,
02:39:11.420 close quote.
02:39:12.640 The result,
02:39:13.680 Topol said,
02:39:14.520 was a widening
02:39:15.440 gap between the
02:39:16.820 messaging from
02:39:17.480 public health
02:39:18.040 authorities and
02:39:19.340 the meaning of
02:39:20.140 the data emerging
02:39:21.480 in real time.
02:39:22.860 Quote,
02:39:23.360 I think the
02:39:24.640 problem we have
02:39:25.420 as people,
02:39:26.240 whether it's the
02:39:26.860 CDC or the
02:39:28.120 people that are
02:39:28.680 doing the
02:39:29.080 briefings,
02:39:30.120 their big concern
02:39:31.060 is they just
02:39:32.720 want to get
02:39:33.140 vaccinations up
02:39:34.160 and they don't
02:39:35.280 want to punch
02:39:35.840 any holes in
02:39:37.060 the story about
02:39:37.960 vaccines.
02:39:39.380 But we can
02:39:40.220 handle the
02:39:40.660 truth, and
02:39:41.920 that's what we
02:39:42.560 should be getting,
02:39:43.740 close quote.
02:39:47.540 On August
02:39:48.320 23rd, FDA
02:39:49.980 approval of the
02:39:50.860 Pfizer vaccine
02:39:52.000 came through.
02:39:53.440 It was based on
02:39:54.680 the same patients
02:39:55.580 who were in the
02:39:56.300 study that
02:39:56.760 previously included
02:39:57.720 only two months
02:39:58.580 of follow-up,
02:39:59.760 but which now
02:40:00.420 had six months
02:40:01.200 of follow-up.
02:40:02.640 With the
02:40:03.300 approval,
02:40:04.680 Pfizer officially
02:40:05.680 stopped the
02:40:06.780 randomized control
02:40:07.760 trials and
02:40:08.580 informed the
02:40:09.180 controls they
02:40:10.140 never got the
02:40:10.840 vaccine.
02:40:12.620 Now that they
02:40:13.500 know they are
02:40:13.880 not vaccinated,
02:40:15.180 the controls
02:40:15.700 may well choose
02:40:16.960 or be mandated
02:40:18.140 to get vaccinated,
02:40:19.780 so we won't be
02:40:21.160 able to follow
02:40:21.760 them as a
02:40:22.340 control group
02:40:22.920 anymore.
02:40:24.560 That means
02:40:25.520 the only
02:40:26.660 randomized control
02:40:27.620 trials we have
02:40:28.440 of these vaccines
02:40:29.420 are just six
02:40:30.600 months long.
02:40:32.560 Should some
02:40:33.020 new independent
02:40:33.720 party, not a
02:40:34.620 drug company,
02:40:35.600 want to do a
02:40:36.240 new randomized
02:40:36.740 control trial of
02:40:37.740 the vaccine,
02:40:39.060 they will find it
02:40:39.940 almost impossible
02:40:40.860 to do so,
02:40:41.820 because it will
02:40:42.160 be hard, if not
02:40:43.380 impossible, to
02:40:44.120 find people who
02:40:45.280 are not vaccinated
02:40:46.220 or not already
02:40:47.460 exposed to COVID.
02:40:51.100 This is especially
02:40:52.560 important because
02:40:54.040 we don't yet,
02:40:55.140 we can't yet
02:40:56.800 have any good
02:40:58.000 randomized control
02:40:59.020 trial data to
02:41:00.600 rule out long-term
02:41:01.960 effects.
02:41:03.740 Vaccine supporters, 0.71
02:41:05.100 including government
02:41:05.820 officials, will say,
02:41:06.940 quote, there's not
02:41:08.280 been a serious
02:41:08.880 side effect in
02:41:09.700 history that hasn't
02:41:10.760 occurred within six
02:41:11.800 weeks of getting
02:41:12.600 the dose, close
02:41:13.620 quote.
02:41:14.660 But, as Doshi and
02:41:16.740 others argue, there
02:41:18.300 are examples of
02:41:19.340 long-term problems
02:41:20.280 that come to light
02:41:21.720 after two months.
02:41:23.320 For example, Doshi 0.98
02:41:24.460 points out that it
02:41:25.920 took nine months to
02:41:27.000 detect that 1,300
02:41:28.420 people who received
02:41:30.200 GlaxoSmithKline's
02:41:32.000 pandermix influenza
02:41:33.100 vaccine after the
02:41:34.880 2009 swine flu
02:41:36.440 outbreak developed
02:41:37.760 narcolepsy, thought
02:41:39.480 to be caused by the
02:41:40.300 vaccine.
02:41:43.380 Myocarditis,
02:41:44.440 inflammation of the
02:41:45.740 heart tissue, is a
02:41:47.020 rare but real side
02:41:48.300 effect in young
02:41:49.000 males, about ages 1.00
02:41:50.940 16 to 29, that did
02:41:52.920 not show up in the
02:41:53.940 two-month-long trials
02:41:55.160 that led to the
02:41:55.900 emergency youth
02:41:56.720 authorization, even
02:41:58.620 though those studies
02:41:59.540 included males as
02:42:00.580 young as 16.
02:42:02.480 It was not generally
02:42:03.800 recognized by the
02:42:04.860 scientific community
02:42:05.860 or our safety report
02:42:07.400 systems until four
02:42:09.000 months into the
02:42:09.680 vaccine rollout.
02:42:11.100 And we are still
02:42:12.280 learning about how
02:42:13.200 this manifests in
02:42:14.240 vaccinated males.
02:42:16.000 In general, severe
02:42:17.420 myocarditis can lead
02:42:18.820 to scarring and even
02:42:19.940 cause death, so it
02:42:21.320 must be taken
02:42:21.960 seriously and followed
02:42:23.320 long-term.
02:42:25.060 Right now, Paul
02:42:26.120 Offit, professor of
02:42:27.580 vaccinology at the
02:42:28.520 University of
02:42:29.140 Pennsylvania, says
02:42:30.680 that most cases are
02:42:31.680 mild and resolve on
02:42:32.960 their own.
02:42:34.980 The actual FDA
02:42:36.500 approval for the
02:42:37.440 Pfizer vaccine
02:42:38.300 acknowledges higher
02:42:39.580 rates of myocarditis
02:42:40.700 and pericarditis in
02:42:41.820 males now and states
02:42:43.480 the obvious, quote,
02:42:44.640 information is not
02:42:47.280 yet available about
02:42:48.440 potential long-term
02:42:49.840 health outcomes.
02:42:52.360 The Comirnaty, the
02:42:53.540 new name for the
02:42:54.220 Pfizer vaccine,
02:42:55.540 prescribing information
02:42:56.740 includes a warning
02:42:58.380 about these risks,
02:42:59.740 close quote.
02:43:01.740 An Israeli study
02:43:03.140 found that in boys
02:43:04.100 aged 12 to 15,
02:43:06.240 myocarditis occurred
02:43:07.360 in only 162 cases
02:43:09.280 out of a million,
02:43:10.900 but this rate was
02:43:12.100 four to six times
02:43:13.120 higher than their
02:43:14.500 chances of being
02:43:15.280 hospitalized for a
02:43:16.960 severe case of
02:43:17.800 COVID.
02:43:20.800 But to get a sense
02:43:21.980 of the complexity of
02:43:23.040 the decision facing
02:43:23.980 parents, in the
02:43:25.520 United States, the
02:43:26.320 situation keeps
02:43:27.140 changing, with more
02:43:28.520 and more cases of
02:43:29.300 children now showing
02:43:30.100 up in hospitals for
02:43:31.180 COVID.
02:43:32.260 The decision is
02:43:33.360 further complicated by
02:43:34.480 the crucial fact that
02:43:36.000 COVID can cause
02:43:36.760 myocarditis as well,
02:43:38.580 and we're just now
02:43:39.700 learning that different
02:43:40.420 vaccines seem to
02:43:41.360 cause myocarditis at
02:43:42.620 different rates.
02:43:44.480 As of October,
02:43:45.760 several countries,
02:43:46.760 including Norway,
02:43:47.820 Sweden, and Denmark,
02:43:49.300 have put the Moderna
02:43:50.100 vaccine, which is
02:43:51.200 especially potent, on
02:43:52.940 pause for younger
02:43:53.940 people, and Iceland has
02:43:55.980 suspended it for all
02:43:57.500 ages.
02:43:59.380 But these countries are
02:44:00.700 not ending childhood
02:44:01.780 vaccination, just
02:44:03.120 recommending different
02:44:04.300 vaccines.
02:44:05.520 We're lucky to have
02:44:06.660 options, but we could
02:44:07.700 use good studies
02:44:08.620 comparing the COVID-induced
02:44:10.040 myocarditis rates, and
02:44:11.860 the vaccine-induced
02:44:12.760 myocarditis rates by
02:44:14.400 age and sex.
02:44:16.180 Which is why it's so
02:44:17.740 unfortunate that the
02:44:18.840 RCTs were not much
02:44:20.400 larger and that they
02:44:21.440 didn't go on longer.
02:44:23.700 Had they continued, and
02:44:25.060 if their data ever
02:44:25.960 became transparent, it
02:44:27.860 could really help us in
02:44:28.980 assessing long-term
02:44:30.000 safety in a more
02:44:31.300 reassuring way.
02:44:32.540 That's what RCTs are
02:44:33.820 good at.
02:44:34.960 One can more
02:44:35.940 persuasively demonstrate
02:44:37.060 that a vaccine doesn't
02:44:38.260 have these effects if
02:44:39.200 there's a proper
02:44:39.860 vaccine-free, COVID-free
02:44:42.360 control group.
02:44:43.600 But if vaccines
02:44:44.740 continue to be pushed
02:44:46.020 as the one and only
02:44:47.100 answer, we will never
02:44:48.640 know if certain health
02:44:49.860 problems emerge, because
02:44:51.440 there will be no normal
02:44:52.780 vaccine-free group left
02:44:54.420 for comparison.
02:44:56.260 It's a development that's
02:44:57.640 quite disconcerting, for
02:44:59.280 it suggests a wish not to
02:45:01.520 know.
02:45:03.420 When the pandemic first
02:45:04.980 broke, many were certain
02:45:07.140 that the developing
02:45:07.980 countries, with their
02:45:09.580 inability to afford
02:45:10.740 vaccines, malnutrition,
02:45:13.040 crowded cities, and
02:45:14.620 lower numbers of
02:45:15.420 healthcare workers, would 0.90
02:45:16.920 be universally
02:45:17.680 devastated.
02:45:19.600 But that prediction
02:45:20.860 turned out not to be
02:45:22.120 true.
02:45:23.580 The population of
02:45:24.920 Ethiopia is about 0.99
02:45:25.880 119 million, just
02:45:28.180 over one-third of the
02:45:29.300 United States.
02:45:31.360 COVID vaccination rates
02:45:32.920 are very low there.
02:45:34.060 2.7% have had at
02:45:36.140 least one shot, and
02:45:37.880 0.9% have had two.
02:45:41.740 As of September 28,
02:45:43.600 2021, the country
02:45:45.460 recorded only 5,439
02:45:48.740 COVID deaths over the
02:45:50.340 course of the entire
02:45:51.400 pandemic.
02:45:53.200 If the United States had
02:45:54.780 such a death rate per
02:45:55.740 capita, it would have
02:45:57.300 lost just over 16,000
02:45:59.300 people, rather than
02:46:01.000 over 700,000.
02:46:02.680 Why does Ethiopia have 1.00
02:46:06.600 such comparatively low
02:46:07.760 numbers?
02:46:09.660 It's not that the
02:46:10.780 country was late to the
02:46:11.860 pandemic.
02:46:12.980 It recorded its first
02:46:14.320 case in March 2020.
02:46:16.740 It had three
02:46:17.760 comparatively small
02:46:19.040 waves in July and
02:46:20.440 August 2020, April
02:46:22.380 2021, and most
02:46:24.620 recently in August-
02:46:25.800 September 2021.
02:46:28.140 During these waves,
02:46:29.940 the daily deaths
02:46:31.040 averaged about
02:46:32.260 37, 47, and 48
02:46:35.960 people a day.
02:46:37.800 The country had
02:46:38.920 very brief lockdowns
02:46:40.340 in select harder-hit
02:46:41.600 towns at the beginning
02:46:42.580 of the pandemic, and
02:46:44.460 brief periods during
02:46:45.520 which large gatherings,
02:46:47.300 schools, stadiums, and
02:46:48.880 nightclubs were
02:46:49.540 closed.
02:46:50.880 Then, during the
02:46:52.060 second wave of April
02:46:53.020 2021, hospital
02:46:54.900 capacity and oxygen
02:46:56.780 supplies were stretched.
02:46:58.080 But by June 2021,
02:47:01.760 Ethiopian physician
02:47:02.840 friends with whom I
02:47:04.040 was in weekly contact
02:47:05.540 told me that they
02:47:07.280 could see the second
02:47:08.080 wave receding as
02:47:09.800 numbers were
02:47:10.360 decreasing and
02:47:11.240 hospital occupancy
02:47:12.420 with COVID cases
02:47:13.420 was going down.
02:47:15.680 All this occurred
02:47:17.200 with only about 1%
02:47:19.180 of the country
02:47:19.740 vaccinated, mostly
02:47:21.740 the country's
02:47:22.320 health care workers,
02:47:23.900 the elderly in key
02:47:24.800 hotspots, and the
02:47:25.960 vulnerable.
02:47:26.340 Now, the third
02:47:28.740 wave appears to be
02:47:29.900 receding, especially
02:47:30.820 in the capital,
02:47:31.760 Addis Ababa.
02:47:33.180 The Ethiopian
02:47:34.220 physicians I know,
02:47:35.580 extremely skilled,
02:47:37.300 are also more
02:47:38.160 accustomed to serious
02:47:39.160 infectious disease
02:47:40.180 than many Western
02:47:41.500 physicians and have a
02:47:43.020 different attitude
02:47:43.800 towards herd immunity.
02:47:45.760 When they saw that
02:47:47.100 the death counts were
02:47:47.940 low compared to other
02:47:49.040 countries, they didn't
02:47:50.680 advocate to keep the
02:47:51.660 country closed,
02:47:52.560 observing, as one put
02:47:53.680 it, it's running
02:47:54.900 through, taking its
02:47:56.180 natural course, and
02:47:58.040 lockdowns will only
02:47:59.220 delay resolution,
02:48:00.380 close quote.
02:48:02.160 For part of the
02:48:03.280 COVID period, there
02:48:04.300 has been armed
02:48:05.040 conflict in one
02:48:05.980 Ethiopian province,
02:48:07.080 which could be
02:48:07.680 affecting numbers.
02:48:09.220 Still, how are
02:48:11.020 numbers anywhere close
02:48:12.580 to this low even
02:48:13.840 possible, and what
02:48:15.560 might be learned?
02:48:17.640 Interestingly,
02:48:18.540 neighboring Kenya 1.00
02:48:19.260 also reports a
02:48:20.680 similarly low death
02:48:21.920 rate.
02:48:22.220 clearly, what
02:48:24.620 determines the death
02:48:25.580 count in at least
02:48:26.800 some countries is
02:48:28.320 far more than
02:48:29.040 vaccination rates.
02:48:31.080 There is the average
02:48:32.180 age of the population.
02:48:34.080 In Ethiopia, the
02:48:34.900 median age is 19.5
02:48:36.580 years, in the United
02:48:37.900 States, 38.3
02:48:39.320 years.
02:48:40.600 Population density.
02:48:42.580 Ethiopia is about 0.99
02:48:43.360 80% rural.
02:48:45.600 Travel within the
02:48:46.400 country.
02:48:47.720 Ethiopians rarely 1.00
02:48:48.980 travel outside their
02:48:49.980 own province or far
02:48:51.400 from their villages.
02:48:53.200 Ventilation.
02:48:54.700 Most Ethiopians live
02:48:55.760 in thatched huts, and
02:48:57.500 even in the cities,
02:48:58.440 homes are draftier and
02:48:59.580 more open.
02:49:00.840 Sun exposure, hence
02:49:02.540 vitamin D levels
02:49:03.480 protected.
02:49:04.760 Exercise.
02:49:06.260 Ethiopians are always 1.00
02:49:07.460 walking with three cars
02:49:08.860 per a thousand people,
02:49:10.580 and possible seasonal
02:49:11.680 effects.
02:49:13.060 They also had fewer
02:49:14.420 lockdowns, and so they
02:49:16.560 may have more natural
02:49:17.500 immunity.
02:49:18.920 Crucially, levels of
02:49:20.580 obesity, being
02:49:22.360 overweight, and type 2
02:49:23.760 diabetes are almost
02:49:26.020 non-existent in Ethiopia,
02:49:27.780 but epidemic in the
02:49:28.940 United States, the UK,
02:49:30.900 and Australia.
02:49:34.120 Staggeringly, none of
02:49:36.140 these factors is even
02:49:37.640 mentioned in the master
02:49:38.880 narrative, yet their
02:49:40.520 cumulative potency in
02:49:42.020 protecting a population
02:49:43.200 seems in Ethiopia for the
02:49:45.280 last 18 months until now
02:49:47.260 to have been very
02:49:48.640 protective.
02:49:50.580 A study of 160 countries
02:49:53.080 in 2020 showed that the
02:49:55.860 risk of death from COVID
02:49:57.180 is 10 times higher in
02:49:59.400 countries like the United
02:50:00.480 States, where the majority
02:50:02.220 of the population, 67.9%,
02:50:06.220 is overweight or obese.
02:50:10.180 CDC data shows that a
02:50:12.580 whopping 78% of all
02:50:14.880 hospitalized cases in the
02:50:16.120 United States, and
02:50:17.020 therefore, most at risk
02:50:18.820 of death, suffered from
02:50:20.420 obesity or being
02:50:21.600 overweight.
02:50:23.760 By lowering immunity,
02:50:25.740 obesity increases the
02:50:27.020 chance of severe
02:50:27.820 illness and also
02:50:29.320 decreases vaccine
02:50:30.460 efficacy, as has been
02:50:31.600 shown in studies of the
02:50:32.780 flu vaccine.
02:50:35.440 Another key element left
02:50:37.220 out of America's master
02:50:38.480 narrative is the role of
02:50:40.360 natural immunity.
02:50:41.220 After 18 months of near
02:50:44.820 total silence about it,
02:50:47.220 Fauci was asked by CNN's
02:50:48.940 Sanjay Gupta about a
02:50:51.200 study that showed natural
02:50:52.340 immunity provides a lot of
02:50:53.660 protection, better than the
02:50:55.640 vaccines alone.
02:50:57.640 Gupta asked Fauci if people
02:50:59.280 who already had COVID needed
02:51:01.200 to get vaccinated.
02:51:03.000 Quote,
02:51:03.280 I don't have a really firm
02:51:05.760 answer for you on that,
02:51:07.540 close quote, Fauci said.
02:51:09.560 Quote,
02:51:09.880 that's something we're going
02:51:10.820 to have to discuss,
02:51:12.180 close quote.
02:51:14.080 Instead,
02:51:14.980 the U.S.
02:51:15.760 administration and media
02:51:16.920 still maintain,
02:51:18.920 with a kind of
02:51:19.660 ideological fervor,
02:51:21.580 that everyone must get
02:51:22.840 vaccinated, even the
02:51:24.300 already immune.
02:51:26.260 On the face of it,
02:51:28.180 this is a strange
02:51:29.480 assumption,
02:51:29.960 because vaccines work
02:51:31.880 by triggering our
02:51:33.480 pre-existing immune
02:51:35.060 system and by exposing
02:51:37.120 it to part of the
02:51:38.480 virus.
02:51:39.540 If our bodies can't
02:51:40.780 produce good immunity
02:51:41.840 by exposure to the
02:51:43.040 virus, they won't
02:51:44.340 usually be able to
02:51:45.320 produce it by exposure
02:51:46.340 to a vaccine, which
02:51:48.040 happens in immunocompromised
02:51:49.660 people all the time.
02:51:51.740 Vaccine immunity 0.96
02:51:52.700 relies on the body's
02:51:54.660 ability to produce
02:51:55.880 natural immunity.
02:51:57.060 An epidemiologist
02:51:59.960 named Dr. Martin
02:52:01.060 McCary of Johns
02:52:02.100 Hopkins University
02:52:03.160 showed that about
02:52:04.540 half of unvaccinated
02:52:06.000 Americans have been 1.00
02:52:07.340 exposed to the virus
02:52:08.500 and therefore are
02:52:10.060 already immune.
02:52:11.700 By December 2020,
02:52:13.440 over 100 million
02:52:14.480 Americans had been 1.00
02:52:15.500 exposed to the virus
02:52:16.580 and 120 million by
02:52:18.480 January 31st,
02:52:20.340 according to a
02:52:21.020 Columbia University
02:52:21.940 study.
02:52:23.340 Now, 10 months
02:52:24.520 later, with the
02:52:26.080 more infectious
02:52:27.020 Delta variant, the
02:52:28.420 number is probably
02:52:29.200 closer to 170 million
02:52:31.060 or half the country.
02:52:34.080 Are the immune
02:52:35.480 unvaccinated safe for 0.67
02:52:37.220 others to be around?
02:52:39.540 According to
02:52:40.500 McCary, we have more
02:52:41.940 than 15 studies showing
02:52:43.340 that natural immunity
02:52:44.340 is very strong and
02:52:45.840 lasts a long time, so
02:52:48.320 far the length of the
02:52:49.240 entire pandemic, and
02:52:51.300 it is effective against
02:52:52.380 new variants.
02:52:53.180 The reinfection rate
02:52:55.220 for someone who had
02:52:56.160 COVID was shown to
02:52:57.260 be 0.65% in a
02:53:00.220 Danish study or 1% in
02:53:02.640 a British study and
02:53:03.460 some others.
02:53:04.740 A number of studies
02:53:05.660 suggest it may last
02:53:06.860 for years.
02:53:08.080 Even when antibodies
02:53:09.020 go down, cells in the
02:53:10.340 marrow are ready to
02:53:11.360 produce them.
02:53:12.720 There is one CDC
02:53:14.340 study often used to
02:53:16.000 justify vaccinating
02:53:17.140 the already immune,
02:53:18.620 but it is an
02:53:19.360 outlier.
02:53:19.800 To its credit, the
02:53:22.300 study begins by
02:53:23.520 stating that, quote,
02:53:25.120 few real-world
02:53:26.400 epidemiological studies
02:53:27.860 exist to support the
02:53:30.180 benefit of vaccination
02:53:31.500 for previously infected
02:53:33.120 persons.
02:53:34.620 Close quote.
02:53:36.120 It then purports to
02:53:37.200 show that COVID vaccine
02:53:38.440 immunity is 2.3 times
02:53:40.160 as protective as
02:53:41.260 natural immunity based
02:53:43.180 on a single two-month
02:53:44.260 study from Kentucky.
02:53:46.580 McCary says that the
02:53:47.580 study was, quote,
02:53:48.760 dishonest, close
02:53:49.940 quote, and asked why
02:53:51.160 the CDC chose just
02:53:53.120 two months of data to
02:53:54.220 evaluate when it had
02:53:55.680 19 months' worth on
02:53:56.900 hand and, quote,
02:53:58.600 why one state when you
02:53:59.800 have 50 states, close
02:54:01.040 quote.
02:54:02.040 But perhaps the key
02:54:03.440 weakness, as Harvard's
02:54:04.900 Martin Koldorf points
02:54:06.360 out, is that they used
02:54:08.120 a positive PCR test to
02:54:10.640 measure whether someone
02:54:11.600 was infected and not
02:54:13.840 whether the person
02:54:14.600 actually experienced a
02:54:16.160 symptomatic infection,
02:54:17.620 the key point.
02:54:18.760 The problem with the
02:54:20.460 PCR test is it is good
02:54:22.460 at detecting viral
02:54:23.620 DNA, but can't
02:54:25.600 distinguish whether the
02:54:26.940 materials are intact
02:54:28.020 particles, which are
02:54:29.600 infectious, or merely
02:54:31.540 degraded fragments, which
02:54:33.340 are not.
02:54:35.860 But when actual
02:54:37.500 symptomatic infection has
02:54:39.060 been looked at, natural
02:54:40.980 immunity comes out
02:54:41.960 better.
02:54:42.940 A huge Israeli study of
02:54:44.840 about 76,000 people, the
02:54:47.220 largest on the subject, has
02:54:49.320 compared the rate of
02:54:50.360 symptomatic reinfection in
02:54:52.420 those who had been
02:54:53.180 vaccinated, the
02:54:54.440 breakthrough infection
02:54:55.300 rate, with the
02:54:56.880 symptomatic reinfection of
02:54:58.340 those who had COVID.
02:55:01.380 The data has been
02:55:03.100 circulated, though not yet
02:55:04.460 peer-reviewed, and it is
02:55:05.840 consistent with other
02:55:07.000 studies showing better
02:55:08.120 protection for the
02:55:09.120 previously infected.
02:55:10.060 It found that people who
02:55:13.320 had a previous COVID
02:55:14.460 infection and beat it with
02:55:16.120 natural immunity in
02:55:17.800 January or February 2021
02:55:19.980 were 27 times less likely
02:55:23.800 to get a symptomatic
02:55:25.440 reinfection than those who
02:55:27.640 got immunity from the
02:55:28.600 vaccine.
02:55:29.120 A Washington University
02:55:32.080 study showed that even a
02:55:34.080 mild infection gives
02:55:35.280 long-lasting immunity.
02:55:37.860 Along with McCary of
02:55:39.360 Johns Hopkins, among those
02:55:41.660 on record willing to
02:55:43.200 question the need for
02:55:44.580 vaccination of the
02:55:45.620 already immune are
02:55:47.140 Drs.
02:55:47.640 Kulldorff, the Harvard
02:55:48.840 epidemiologist, Vinay
02:55:50.940 Prasad, a hematologist
02:55:52.420 oncologist and associate
02:55:54.460 professor of epidemiology and
02:55:56.100 biostatistics at the
02:55:57.540 University of California,
02:55:58.720 San Francisco, Harvey
02:56:00.840 Rich, a Yale
02:56:02.400 epidemiologist, and
02:56:04.080 Jayanta Bhattacharya, a
02:56:05.520 Stanford epidemiologist.
02:56:08.440 Offit, who is on the
02:56:09.740 FDA Vaccine Advisory
02:56:11.500 Committee, is an
02:56:12.680 interesting case, as he
02:56:14.440 both argues for mandates
02:56:15.820 but concedes that it's
02:56:17.260 reasonable for the
02:56:18.120 already immune to not
02:56:19.720 want to be vaccinated.
02:56:22.640 Asked by the pro-vaccine
02:56:24.480 Zubin Damanya, a
02:56:25.900 Stanford-trained internist
02:56:27.380 who goes by the
02:56:28.120 pseudonym ZDoggMD, on his
02:56:30.300 viral interview show, what
02:56:32.720 he would say to someone
02:56:33.700 who asks, why should I be
02:56:35.540 forced, compelled,
02:56:36.780 mandated to get a
02:56:37.600 vaccine when I've gotten
02:56:38.620 natural COVID?
02:56:40.120 Offit answered, I think
02:56:41.800 that's fair.
02:56:43.180 I think if you've been
02:56:44.000 naturally infected, it's
02:56:45.140 reasonable that you could
02:56:46.000 say, look, I believe I'm
02:56:47.860 protected based on studies
02:56:49.120 that show I have high
02:56:50.100 frequencies of memory
02:56:51.200 plasma blasts in my bone
02:56:53.040 marrow.
02:56:53.500 I'm good.
02:56:53.960 I think that's a
02:56:55.140 reasonable argument, close
02:56:56.320 quote.
02:56:57.340 The problem, as often
02:56:58.740 noted in another
02:56:59.700 interview, quote, is
02:57:02.140 that bureaucratically it's
02:57:03.700 a nightmare, close
02:57:04.980 quote.
02:57:06.700 But a bureaucratic problem
02:57:08.540 is not a scientific one,
02:57:10.640 which is how this is
02:57:12.320 widely presented.
02:57:13.500 And the question is, a
02:57:15.340 problem compared to what?
02:57:17.440 Several million immune
02:57:19.160 people fired and now
02:57:20.480 resentful of public health?
02:57:21.780 When asked by Demania
02:57:23.700 whether there might be a
02:57:25.120 test that can prove a
02:57:26.560 person has had COVID and
02:57:27.880 recovered and thus has
02:57:29.080 natural immunity, Offit
02:57:30.860 explained that there is a
02:57:32.080 blood test for antibodies
02:57:33.260 to the nuclear protein of
02:57:34.520 the virus, which could
02:57:36.120 show up if someone had
02:57:37.980 had the virus and is now
02:57:39.160 immune.
02:57:40.660 Imagine how much mental
02:57:41.800 anguish and needless
02:57:42.900 societal disruption might be
02:57:44.540 relieved if, among the
02:57:46.680 billions we are spending,
02:57:47.980 we spent enough to make
02:57:48.960 such tests widely
02:57:50.040 available.
02:57:51.780 Indeed, the very fact that
02:57:54.540 we frame the threat
02:57:55.660 debate between the
02:57:56.820 vaccinated and the
02:57:57.840 unvaccinated has always
02:57:59.760 been peculiar.
02:58:01.860 Some epidemiologists
02:58:02.900 point out that the
02:58:03.640 categories we should be
02:58:04.720 thinking of instead are
02:58:06.440 the immune and those who
02:58:07.900 are not immune.
02:58:09.560 The European Union has a
02:58:11.460 digital COVID certificate,
02:58:13.220 which is not limited to
02:58:14.520 proof of vaccination.
02:58:15.980 You can get one and
02:58:16.900 travel if you've been
02:58:17.820 vaccinated or if you've
02:58:19.600 recovered from COVID-19.
02:58:20.920 This allows travel among
02:58:23.520 all EU member states.
02:58:26.680 American officials always 1.00
02:58:28.700 proclaim they're following
02:58:30.100 the science, but
02:58:31.600 obviously, if the science
02:58:33.640 gave clear orders, then
02:58:35.680 European scientists would
02:58:36.960 have received them too.
02:58:39.740 Let's say, for the purpose
02:58:41.860 of argument, that you
02:58:43.340 accept natural immunity as
02:58:45.540 equally good or better than
02:58:47.440 vaccine immunity.
02:58:49.700 What are the ethical
02:58:51.040 consequences?
02:58:53.900 Vaccinating people who've 0.96
02:58:55.640 had COVID without
02:58:56.700 informing them that the
02:58:58.120 data says they don't
02:58:59.240 need it overrides both
02:59:01.420 informed consent and the
02:59:03.860 classical medical ethic of
02:59:05.840 not treating without a
02:59:07.240 medical necessity.
02:59:08.120 When one gives any
02:59:11.460 intervention that is not
02:59:12.760 medically necessary or
02:59:14.600 especially beneficial, then
02:59:16.840 the cost-benefit analysis of
02:59:19.040 risk versus little or no
02:59:20.800 benefit is weighted in favor
02:59:23.040 of risk, which overrides the
02:59:25.720 first principle of
02:59:27.000 Hippocratic medicine.
02:59:28.800 First, do no harm.
02:59:30.940 It's also arguably selfish to
02:59:35.080 vaccinate those in wealthy
02:59:36.420 countries who already have
02:59:38.480 natural immunity, for it
02:59:40.420 deprives poor countries, short
02:59:42.140 of vaccines, of protection for
02:59:44.660 their vulnerable populations.
02:59:46.920 It's not lost on the vaccine
02:59:48.840 hesitant that vaccine
02:59:50.200 exemptions for those who
02:59:51.760 already had COVID would
02:59:53.700 immediately slash the projected
02:59:55.360 profits of big pharma.
02:59:57.520 Pharma knows that poor
02:59:58.740 countries might not be able to
03:00:00.920 afford the leftovers at full
03:00:02.460 fee.
03:00:05.520 Vaccination is a tool, a means
03:00:08.080 to an end, immunity.
03:00:10.780 But the American government has
03:00:12.680 made the means, vaccination,
03:00:15.620 the new end.
03:00:17.660 This strange substitution, or
03:00:20.460 reversal, reveals the master
03:00:23.160 narrative to be the expression
03:00:24.480 not of science, but of a new
03:00:27.300 kind of scientific ideology,
03:00:29.200 technology, which we might call
03:00:31.220 vaccinism.
03:00:33.520 But vaccinism is not a
03:00:35.440 treatment.
03:00:36.660 It's a mindset, one that takes a
03:00:39.280 wonderful invention, which, if
03:00:41.760 used properly and carefully, can be
03:00:44.420 outstandingly productive, and makes
03:00:47.220 it the only tool worth having until it
03:00:50.060 becomes, at times, counterproductive.
03:00:53.120 It makes no exceptions.
03:00:56.260 Indeed, it's insulted by the idea of
03:00:58.880 any exemptions.
03:01:01.400 In its all-or-nothing approach, it is
03:01:04.400 the ideological mirror of
03:01:06.480 anti-vaccism.
03:01:08.400 Chapter 4.
03:01:09.940 Getting Out
03:01:10.580 Science has had many surprises for us
03:01:13.520 in this pandemic.
03:01:14.260 We've learned that while the
03:01:17.780 vaccines don't always stop the
03:01:19.560 spread, they do protect the
03:01:21.860 vaccinated from getting severe
03:01:23.180 disease and death for a number of
03:01:25.360 months.
03:01:26.880 We've learned, as the New York Times
03:01:29.480 points out, that, quote, an
03:01:32.200 unvaccinated child is less at risk of
03:01:35.340 serious COVID illness than a
03:01:37.440 vaccinated 70-year-old, close quote.
03:01:40.220 Though we learned that Emily Oster, the
03:01:43.400 author and academic who first called
03:01:45.800 that fact to our attention, was
03:01:48.140 mistreated for months because she was
03:01:50.760 off-narrative.
03:01:53.340 We've also learned that you're safer
03:01:55.340 in a room, or even on a plane, with
03:01:59.140 people who have recovered from COVID
03:02:00.800 than you are with people who were
03:02:02.440 vaccinated, especially over four
03:02:05.260 months ago.
03:02:06.820 In other words, the immunity of those 0.98
03:02:09.900 who suffered COVID is holding up so
03:02:13.060 far.
03:02:14.680 So, why doesn't good news like this
03:02:17.720 sink in?
03:02:20.600 I submit it's because of our old
03:02:23.100 friend, the behavioral immune system.
03:02:26.500 Many people's mental set for the 0.94
03:02:28.500 pandemic was formed early on when the
03:02:30.560 behavioral immune system was on fire,
03:02:32.980 and they were schooled by a master
03:02:34.620 narrative that promised there would be
03:02:36.760 only one type of person who would not
03:02:38.640 pose a danger, the vaccinated person.
03:02:43.360 Stuck in that mindset, when confronted
03:02:45.760 by unvaccinated people, about half of
03:02:48.140 whom are immune, they respond with BIS
03:02:52.200 generated fear, hostility, and loathing.
03:02:55.920 Some take it further and seem almost
03:02:58.080 addicted to being scared, or remain
03:03:01.160 caught in a kind of post-traumatic
03:03:03.060 lockdown nostalgia, demanding that all the
03:03:06.840 previous protections go on indefinitely,
03:03:09.980 never factoring in the costs, and
03:03:12.400 triggering ever more distrust.
03:03:14.960 Their minds are hijacked by a primal,
03:03:17.940 archaic, cognitively rigid brain circuit,
03:03:21.520 and will not rest until every last person
03:03:24.640 is vaccinated.
03:03:25.460 To some, it started to seem like this is the
03:03:30.360 mindset not only of a certain cohort of
03:03:33.020 their fellow citizens, but of the government
03:03:35.520 itself.
03:03:37.560 Moreover, because COVID vaccine hesitancy is
03:03:40.780 based in significant part on distrust of the
03:03:43.020 government and related institutions, it has to be
03:03:46.500 understood not only in terms of vaccines, but in the
03:03:50.580 context of the pandemic more broadly, first and
03:03:53.660 foremost, in other words, of the experience of
03:03:57.100 lockdowns.
03:03:58.440 For many, trust was broken by the lockdowns, which
03:04:02.340 devastated small businesses and their employees, even
03:04:05.780 when they complied with safety rules, such that an
03:04:08.920 estimated one-third of these businesses that were open in
03:04:11.960 January of 2020 were closed in April of 2021, even as
03:04:18.180 we kept open huge corporate box stores where people crowded
03:04:21.920 together.
03:04:24.120 These policies were arguably the biggest assault on the
03:04:28.180 working classes, many of whom protected the rest of us by
03:04:32.000 keeping society going in the worst of the pandemic in
03:04:35.500 decades.
03:04:37.620 That these policies also enriched the already incredibly
03:04:41.700 wealthy, the combined wealth of the world's 10 richest
03:04:45.760 men, the likes of Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and
03:04:49.200 Larry Page, is estimated to have risen by $540 billion in
03:04:54.820 the first 10 months of the pandemic, and that various
03:04:58.840 politicians who instituted lockdowns were regularly caught
03:05:02.440 skirting their own regulations, solidified this distrust.
03:05:07.760 And yet, it is the unvaccinated who many leading officials
03:05:12.080 still portray as recklessly endangering the rest of the
03:05:15.340 country.
03:05:16.940 Quote, we're going to protect vaccinated workers from 0.95
03:05:20.320 unvaccinated co-workers, President Biden has said.
03:05:24.880 The unvaccinated are now presented as the sole source of
03:05:29.000 future variants, prolonging the pain for the rest of us.
03:05:33.620 For those in favor of mandates, the vaccine is the only way out
03:05:38.160 of the crisis to them, the vaccine hesitant are merely 0.90
03:05:42.480 ignorant and defy science. 0.93
03:05:45.120 We tried to use a voluntary approach. 0.99
03:05:48.100 They believe, but these people are Neanderthal who must now be 1.00
03:05:52.440 coerced into treatment or be punished.
03:05:56.400 Among the punishments called for is not just loss of
03:05:59.220 employment, but also of unemployment insurance, health
03:06:03.000 care, access to ICU beds, even the ability to go to grocery
03:06:08.120 stores.
03:06:10.280 It's not trivial to override the core felt sense in a democracy
03:06:15.380 that if anything is one's own, it's one's body.
03:06:20.440 The idea of the state or a doctor performing a medical procedure
03:06:24.940 forcibly on a person or drugging them into compliance without
03:06:29.260 their consent is an abiding, terrifying theme of many
03:06:34.040 science fiction dystopias, and it's a fear that runs very
03:06:37.780 deep in the modern psyche.
03:06:40.120 This fear runs deeper in some people than their fear of the virus
03:06:44.120 or losing their jobs or pensions, as we are seeing.
03:06:48.220 History shows that these are not just fantasies.
03:06:52.100 Past medical and public health abuses really did make use of
03:06:56.060 forced injections of drugs, operations, sterilizations, and
03:07:00.680 even psychiatric abuses in totalitarian and democratic
03:07:04.820 societies both.
03:07:07.060 Moreover, to say to the unvaccinated, but it's in the name of the 0.99
03:07:11.360 greater good, is to make the utilitarian argument that we must
03:07:15.360 strive for the most good for the greatest number of people.
03:07:20.000 Aversion of utilitarianism is often the governing philosophy of
03:07:24.620 public health, but this raises a series of questions.
03:07:30.280 How are we measuring the good?
03:07:32.780 Is it the same for all people?
03:07:36.120 Should it be up to your 89-year-old grandmother, who has
03:07:39.380 little time left, to decide whether to spend the remaining years
03:07:43.060 of her life in total isolation or risk COVID but see her loved
03:07:47.800 ones?
03:07:48.140 Can you explain how you are helping the group when, by overriding
03:07:56.480 individual rights, you degrade the group as a whole by weakening each
03:08:01.200 individual within it?
03:08:03.300 Are you aware that the greatest evils in history have also always been
03:08:09.020 done in the name of that abstraction, the greater good?
03:08:12.440 Without first answering such questions, utilitarianism is but a shallow form of
03:08:20.060 arithmetic, one passing itself off as moral philosophy.
03:08:26.400 It is not irrational for people to insist that public discourse seriously engage
03:08:32.020 questions like these, and that any state compulsion related to people's bodies be
03:08:37.880 based on a flawless, airtight argument that is well communicated.
03:08:43.440 That has not happened.
03:08:47.760 What, in rational political and public health terms, is the state's best justification for
03:08:54.640 mandating that people be injected en masse with a medicine?
03:08:58.280 The first justification for mandates is that they get us to herd immunity faster.
03:09:05.740 But, as Stanford epidemiologist Jay Bhattacharya and Arizona State University
03:09:11.340 economist Jonathan Ketchum note, quote,
03:09:14.740 We have good reason to doubt that if most everyone got vaccinated, we'd achieve herd
03:09:20.960 immunity, close quote.
03:09:22.680 This is because, as we've seen, current vaccines are fading at about five months.
03:09:30.580 Even scientists who believe vaccines will help get us to herd immunity are divided on what
03:09:35.620 percentage of the population needs to be vaccinated to get us there.
03:09:40.060 Early in the pandemic, Fauci said we needed as low as 60 to 70 percent to reach herd immunity,
03:09:46.460 but as time went on, he increased the numbers.
03:09:48.860 In December 2020, when the New York Times noticed Fauci was, quote,
03:09:54.260 quietly shifting the number upward, close quote,
03:09:57.600 he explained he was generating these percentages based on a mix of the science
03:10:01.720 and what he felt the public was ready to hear, admitting, quote,
03:10:06.100 We really don't know what the real number is, close quote.
03:10:10.100 President Biden recently said we could need 98 percent of Americans to be vaccinated to reach the goal.
03:10:15.720 Is there a scientific consensus behind the 98 percent claim?
03:10:22.580 In fact, a number of epidemiologists and infectious disease experts and officials dispute that we need a number anywhere near it.
03:10:30.720 Even those who are pro-mandate, like Dr. Monica Gandhi,
03:10:34.500 professor of clinical medicine at the University of California, San Francisco,
03:10:38.100 believes that, quote,
03:10:40.080 There is no evidence that we need that high of a vaccination rate, 98 percent,
03:10:45.320 to get back to normal, close quote.
03:10:48.200 Other countries, like Denmark,
03:10:50.580 have opted for a 74 percent vaccination rate as acceptable in order to lift certain restrictions,
03:10:56.660 especially if the most vulnerable are vaccinated at a higher rate.
03:11:01.460 Norway lifted all restrictions when it got to a 67 percent vaccination rate.
03:11:05.900 The point here is that the science is shifting, sometimes by the day.
03:11:13.420 It is reasonable for people who notice this to feel concerned about it,
03:11:17.700 and it is, at the very least, churlish to present them as merely irrational.
03:11:24.400 The second justification for mandates is that the state has an obligation to protect those who cannot protect themselves
03:11:31.340 from an infectious disease passed on to them by others,
03:11:35.900 i.e., the unvaccinated do not have a right to, quote,
03:11:39.900 recklessly endanger, close quote, and infect others.
03:11:44.640 But as many have pointed out,
03:11:46.340 it is hard to describe our current moment quite this way,
03:11:50.400 since vaccines, and now boosters,
03:11:52.800 are freely and widely available
03:11:54.440 so people can protect themselves if they wish.
03:11:57.160 Of course, this reveals the real problem,
03:12:01.800 which is that vaccinated people do not, in fact, get comprehensive immunity,
03:12:07.040 as in the case, for example, of the polio or measles vaccines.
03:12:12.220 And on this, there is increasing scientific agreement.
03:12:17.720 We can't eradicate this mutating virus at this point.
03:12:21.180 It is likely not a case like smallpox,
03:12:25.200 which was eradicated because both the virus and the vaccines met a host of criteria.
03:12:32.260 Donald Ainslie Henderson,
03:12:34.360 who directed the WHO smallpox eradication campaign,
03:12:38.600 wrote that smallpox was uniquely suited for eradication
03:12:41.820 because it didn't exist in animal reservoirs,
03:12:44.780 it was easy to identify cases in even the smallest villages by its distinctive awful rash,
03:12:51.980 so a test for it wasn't needed.
03:12:54.220 The vaccine gave immunity that lasted a decade,
03:12:57.600 and natural immunity was easy to identify by the scars smallpox left.
03:13:03.400 COVID satisfies none of these conditions.
03:13:07.960 Quote,
03:13:08.340 He and five other scientists have since argued together that COVID is not going away
03:13:32.600 because it's growing in a dozen animal species,
03:13:36.460 and variants allow it to pop up in places that once beat it back.
03:13:41.140 Indeed, this is the reason that some scientists argue we need over 90% of people vaccinated
03:13:46.340 to keep America safe from a virus that will ping-pong around the unvaccinated parts of the globe for years.
03:13:53.400 As Brilliant and colleagues wrote recently,
03:13:55.680 So, if it's correct that we can't eradicate the virus
03:14:12.700 and we can't get lasting vaccine-induced herd immunity,
03:14:16.920 what is our goal?
03:14:18.840 It would be, to use Monica Gandhi's phrase, 0.97
03:14:22.840 to get back to normal.
03:14:24.100 It would mean accepting some natural herd immunity
03:14:28.020 and putting more focus on saving lives by other means alongside vaccines,
03:14:34.060 including better outpatient medications to catch COVID early
03:14:37.940 and keep people out of the hospital,
03:14:41.080 lowering our individual risk factors,
03:14:43.940 and speeding delivery of vaccines to the highly vulnerable when an outbreak occurs
03:14:48.860 and prioritizing them over people who are already immune.
03:14:54.100 That the justifications originally given for mass public mandates are so weakened
03:15:01.020 is one of COVID's many unexpected challenges,
03:15:05.200 one that requires flexible thinking,
03:15:08.220 new kinds of planning,
03:15:09.880 and above all, acknowledgement,
03:15:12.820 lest its denial becomes yet another example of bungled trust.
03:15:17.480 In tackling the trust problem generally,
03:15:22.600 we can return to the two kinds of public health systems,
03:15:26.680 the coercive and the participatory.
03:15:30.400 The United States has all sorts of mandates,
03:15:34.320 but also continues to have significantly high rates of vaccine hesitancy and vaccine avoidance.
03:15:39.340 In contrast, Sweden is the leading example of a participatory public health model.
03:15:47.120 Quote,
03:15:48.060 Sweden has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world
03:15:51.400 and the highest confidence in vaccines in the world,
03:15:54.460 but there's absolutely no mandate.
03:15:57.180 Kulldorff, again, one of the world's leading epidemiologists
03:16:01.900 and a specialist in vaccine safety
03:16:04.360 and consultant to the ACIP COVID-19 vaccine safety technical subgroup, notes,
03:16:10.480 If you want to have high confidence in vaccines,
03:16:16.320 it has to be voluntary.
03:16:18.460 If you force something on people,
03:16:20.180 if you coerce somebody to do something,
03:16:22.180 that can backfire.
03:16:24.260 Public health has to be based on trust.
03:16:27.500 If public health officials want the public to trust them,
03:16:32.040 public health officials also have to trust the public.
03:16:37.820 Close quote.
03:16:38.740 Just as pharma's indemnification removed its incentive to improve safety,
03:16:45.740 so do mandates remove public health's incentive
03:16:48.700 to have better, more consistent communication,
03:16:52.300 to listen, understand, educate, and persuade,
03:16:56.620 which is what builds trust.
03:17:00.360 Kulldorff is echoed by Demania,
03:17:03.200 who is by my estimate one of the most effective persuaders of the vaccine hesitant.
03:17:06.940 Quote,
03:17:07.660 I've been so wrong in the past about things.
03:17:10.940 Close quote.
03:17:11.440 He noted in a video.
03:17:13.780 Quote,
03:17:14.660 I actually, at one point in my career,
03:17:18.100 felt that shaming anti-vaxxers was a good idea 0.99
03:17:20.920 because they were so dangerous to children.
03:17:24.100 This was pre-pandemic stuff,
03:17:25.860 and it never works to convince anti-vaxxers.
03:17:28.300 I would rarely ever get emails from people saying, 1.00
03:17:32.080 hey, I was on the fence and you convinced me with your crazy rant about how stupid anti-vaxxers are. 1.00
03:17:37.380 Then I started to wake up a bit. 1.00
03:17:39.920 Why is it people feel the way they do?
03:17:42.680 And when you really dig into it, you go,
03:17:45.960 I can empathize with that.
03:17:49.700 Actually, we share the same goal, which is our kids should be healthy.
03:17:54.000 And you really think this is going to help.
03:17:57.080 So of course you're going to.
03:17:58.620 In fact, I should love you for trying to do the right thing for your kids.
03:18:04.020 Close quote.
03:18:06.120 Indeed, demonizing people for having doubts is the worst move we can make,
03:18:10.740 especially since there are serious problems in our drug and vaccine regulatory systems.
03:18:16.400 Some health organizations have become concerned enough about the effects of non-transparency
03:18:21.600 that a group has formed made up of the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto,
03:18:27.960 Transparency International, and the WHO Collaborating Center for Governance,
03:18:33.400 Accountability, and Transparency in the Pharmaceutical Sector.
03:18:38.100 In a report released recently, the Alliance analyzed 86 registered clinical vaccine trials
03:18:45.360 across 20 COVID vaccines and found only 12%
03:18:50.160 have made their protocols available as of May 2021.
03:18:56.400 Scores of key decisions affecting the public were never made available.
03:19:00.920 The U.S. government should immediately give the public and outside scientists
03:19:06.240 access to raw data on which studies are based
03:19:10.000 and the minutes of meetings where major decisions are made on policies like mandates.
03:19:16.300 We need the kinds of transparency Peter Doshi has asked for
03:19:20.140 from pharma and Kesselheim did from the FDA.
03:19:23.640 Doshi and some colleagues from Oxford have asked, for instance,
03:19:27.900 what the rationale was for the regulatory agencies to allow pharma companies
03:19:31.940 not to choose hospitalization, death, or viral transmission as endpoints in the authorization studies.
03:19:39.560 Let's see the internal deliberations.
03:19:41.920 Let's see the minutes of crucial meetings.
03:19:45.320 All these researchers are doing is being true to the motto of the Royal Society,
03:19:51.180 the first national scientific institution ever established.
03:19:55.560 Nullius in werba.
03:19:57.720 Take nobody's word for it.
03:19:59.680 Acknowledging severe problems in regulatory agencies or within pharma
03:20:05.460 doesn't mean believing that everything that system produces is tainted
03:20:09.820 or that all the people in those institutions are corrupt.
03:20:13.780 In fact, it defends those with the most integrity
03:20:18.420 because it is they who are the most frustrated by a system
03:20:22.300 that requires radical restructuring and new leadership.
03:20:26.800 Even if, especially if,
03:20:30.580 we think of ourselves as pro-vaccine,
03:20:33.060 we should want to rescue this extraordinary technology
03:20:36.260 from the flawed and broken system of poor regulation,
03:20:40.580 insufficiently transparent testing,
03:20:43.200 and manipulative messaging.
03:20:45.180 But now, many are choosing instead to replace this conversation
03:20:49.880 about the system underlying the vaccine rollout
03:20:52.740 with vaccine mandates,
03:20:55.100 a strategy that troubles even some of those
03:20:57.300 who have been very invested in the success of the vaccines.
03:21:01.320 Quote,
03:21:02.040 Right now, with these vaccine mandates and vaccine passports,
03:21:07.840 this coercive thing is turning a lot of people away from vaccines
03:21:11.560 and not trusting them for very understandable reasons,
03:21:15.620 Kaldorf says.
03:21:17.320 Quote,
03:21:18.480 Those who are pushing these vaccine mandates and vaccine passports,
03:21:22.560 vaccine fanatics, I would call them,
03:21:25.080 to me, they have done much more damage during this one year
03:21:28.660 than the anti-vaxxers have done in two decades.
03:21:31.280 I would even say that these vaccine fanatics,
03:21:36.020 they are the biggest anti-vaxxers that we have right now.
03:21:39.560 Close quote.
03:21:41.300 Those congratulating the United States on mandates working
03:21:44.500 conveniently leave out that each of those wins
03:21:47.660 is potentially a recruit for a resentful army
03:21:51.120 that does not believe in vaccines.
03:21:53.560 Imagine a scenario already unfolding in Israel 0.98
03:21:56.460 in which regular boosters are deemed necessary.
03:21:59.400 How easy do you think it will be
03:22:02.800 to drag those people into this action
03:22:05.660 every six months?
03:22:08.220 Wouldn't it have been more effective
03:22:09.660 to have enabled them to own these actions
03:22:11.940 for themselves much earlier,
03:22:14.560 thereby making it more likely
03:22:16.060 that they would sustain them?
03:22:17.260 There are ways for all of us,
03:22:21.920 medical professionals or not,
03:22:23.880 to stop the bleeding,
03:22:25.760 beginning with changing our orientation
03:22:27.980 to those who are skeptical.
03:22:30.880 I have to return here to Demania, 1.00
03:22:33.480 whose widely watched videos have attempted
03:22:35.360 to persuade the hesitant to get vaccinated.
03:22:38.020 Quote,
03:22:38.240 I love the coronavirus vaccines,
03:22:40.600 he has said.
03:22:42.040 Quote,
03:22:42.440 they work,
03:22:43.260 they save lives,
03:22:44.080 they prevent severe disease.
03:22:45.960 Immunity is our only way through a pandemic,
03:22:48.960 whether it is naturally being infected
03:22:50.720 or being vaccinated.
03:22:52.220 Close quote.
03:22:53.640 And yet he too believes that mandates are,
03:22:56.140 quote,
03:22:56.220 going to set back the cause of vaccination
03:22:58.520 and increase tribal division.
03:23:00.920 Close quote.
03:23:02.460 Instead of coercion,
03:23:03.580 he offers engagement.
03:23:06.100 When a viewer in the chat
03:23:07.360 or in a personal email to him
03:23:09.040 raises concerns,
03:23:10.720 Demania doesn't minimize it
03:23:12.220 or go around the problems.
03:23:14.020 He works through them.
03:23:15.880 He addresses conflicting studies,
03:23:17.700 bringing on some of the world's
03:23:18.880 finest epidemiologists
03:23:20.160 and public health experts,
03:23:21.940 and shows us the real world
03:23:23.660 of physicians and scientists
03:23:25.200 agreeing and disagreeing.
03:23:28.240 He acknowledges when the science
03:23:29.980 is not as airtight
03:23:30.900 as officials present it.
03:23:32.160 And he doesn't use
03:23:33.900 a one-size-fits-all approach
03:23:35.400 if he can avoid it.
03:23:36.940 If a person raises
03:23:37.760 a personal health issue,
03:23:39.400 an allergy,
03:23:40.540 or an immune issue,
03:23:41.920 or cardiac problem,
03:23:43.520 he factors it in.
03:23:45.080 And sometimes a person decides
03:23:46.600 to get the shot.
03:23:48.340 Sometimes they decide not to.
03:23:50.820 And he wishes them well.
03:23:52.960 As a result,
03:23:54.820 people feel listened to
03:23:56.000 and in turn become more open
03:23:57.740 to listening to what he has to say.
03:23:59.640 Whether one agrees
03:24:01.940 with his advice or not,
03:24:03.780 I often agree 0.71
03:24:04.720 or come to agree,
03:24:06.220 but not every time.
03:24:08.260 His respectful approach
03:24:09.740 seems to me irreproachable
03:24:12.180 and, to judge from the results,
03:24:15.000 effective.
03:24:15.880 In addition to primary care physicians,
03:24:18.600 those who are pro-vaccine
03:24:20.080 but not professionals
03:24:21.320 also have a role to play here
03:24:23.360 in acknowledging
03:24:24.680 that some of their fellow citizens'
03:24:26.820 distrust is utterly warranted.
03:24:30.060 The seemingly bottomless lining
03:24:32.100 of pharmaceutical pockets,
03:24:34.200 the unconscionable censorship
03:24:35.860 of scientists,
03:24:37.600 the grotesqueness
03:24:38.600 of seeing the rich
03:24:39.540 unmasked at a Met Gala
03:24:41.140 waited on
03:24:42.140 by a masked servant class,
03:24:44.880 the downsides of
03:24:46.800 and controversy
03:24:48.000 around masking school children,
03:24:50.180 and more.
03:24:50.720 If they are not listened to
03:24:53.180 when they are obviously right,
03:24:55.380 why would they listen to others?
03:25:00.660 Some might come to the end
03:25:02.080 of this essay
03:25:02.780 and wonder why I,
03:25:04.100 so cognizant
03:25:05.000 of all the problems
03:25:06.040 with the U.S. regulatory process
03:25:07.900 and study transparency,
03:25:09.840 got vaccinated.
03:25:12.440 I did so when I had time
03:25:13.920 to think through
03:25:14.540 my own situation,
03:25:15.980 as many physician friends did.
03:25:17.640 We knew that COVID
03:25:19.900 was for many
03:25:20.720 a beast not taken lightly.
03:25:23.800 Like them,
03:25:24.800 I used an individualized approach,
03:25:27.160 which ideally
03:25:27.800 everyone should be able
03:25:29.220 to do with their own physicians
03:25:30.560 if they have
03:25:31.860 special health issues.
03:25:33.800 For me,
03:25:35.480 this meant
03:25:36.040 taking into account
03:25:37.380 how prevalent the virus was
03:25:39.060 at the time
03:25:39.740 in my area,
03:25:41.340 its lethality
03:25:42.260 and possible long-term effects
03:25:44.020 in someone
03:25:44.540 my own age, 0.70
03:25:45.600 sex with my own 0.74
03:25:47.420 health history
03:25:48.100 and the probability
03:25:49.480 of side effects
03:25:50.460 known at the time
03:25:51.460 and my own response
03:25:53.040 to vaccines in the past
03:25:54.400 and the fact
03:25:55.520 that I had no allergies
03:25:56.760 to the additives.
03:25:59.480 There were transparency problems
03:26:01.280 with the clinical trials,
03:26:02.700 which meant
03:26:03.080 there was a lot
03:26:03.780 we did not know.
03:26:05.340 But already,
03:26:06.140 by the time
03:26:06.600 I got my own shot,
03:26:07.840 we did have some knowledge
03:26:08.980 that the vaccines
03:26:09.800 were lowering deaths.
03:26:11.900 While factoring
03:26:12.800 in my own risk tolerance,
03:26:14.240 I tried not to pretend
03:26:15.820 I knew more
03:26:16.440 than I really did
03:26:17.340 about COVID
03:26:18.720 or the vaccines.
03:26:22.280 Of course,
03:26:23.040 governments will not
03:26:23.760 want to rely
03:26:24.440 on a system
03:26:25.000 in which everyone
03:26:25.740 is encouraged
03:26:26.340 to go to their physician
03:26:27.420 for some kind
03:26:28.100 of individualized discussion.
03:26:30.400 But we are not
03:26:31.300 talking about everyone here.
03:26:33.500 We are talking
03:26:34.440 about people
03:26:35.020 who remain unconvinced
03:26:36.420 after our public health system
03:26:38.340 has done its best
03:26:39.260 at a mass-marketed
03:26:40.500 vaccine campaign.
03:26:41.820 It is a minority 1.00
03:26:43.640 of citizens,
03:26:44.600 but a sizable one.
03:26:46.560 We can either choose,
03:26:48.220 as we have,
03:26:49.260 to coerce them
03:26:49.920 with economic
03:26:50.580 and social deprivation,
03:26:52.160 or we can work
03:26:53.640 to better engage them.
03:26:56.880 For Tocqueville,
03:26:58.560 the tyranny
03:26:59.120 of the majority
03:26:59.820 over the minority
03:27:00.700 is the ever-present
03:27:02.340 danger in democracies,
03:27:04.340 the remedy for which
03:27:05.380 John Stuart Mill argued
03:27:06.880 was a protection
03:27:08.220 of minority rights
03:27:09.300 and, above all,
03:27:10.200 the right to continue speaking,
03:27:13.140 even if a majority opinion
03:27:14.840 seemed to be crystallizing.
03:27:17.820 Mill, in the end,
03:27:19.240 was influenced
03:27:19.960 and changed
03:27:20.700 by Tocqueville's notion
03:27:21.880 of the tyranny
03:27:22.660 of the majority
03:27:23.360 and pointed out
03:27:24.940 that the tyranny
03:27:26.100 unique to democracy
03:27:27.280 gave rise to,
03:27:28.980 the peculiar evil
03:27:30.500 of silencing
03:27:31.460 the expression
03:27:32.300 of an opinion,
03:27:33.200 close quote,
03:27:34.280 in the social sphere,
03:27:36.020 in our so-called
03:27:37.580 free societies.
03:27:38.200 It moved him
03:27:41.320 to write his great plea
03:27:43.060 for free speech
03:27:44.120 in On Liberty.
03:27:46.380 Quote,
03:27:46.940 Protection, therefore,
03:27:50.140 against the tyranny
03:27:51.040 of the magistrate
03:27:52.000 is not enough.
03:27:54.080 There needs protection
03:27:55.040 also against the tyranny
03:27:56.600 of the prevailing opinion
03:27:57.940 and feeling,
03:27:59.960 against the tendency
03:28:00.840 of society
03:28:01.600 to impose,
03:28:03.160 by other means
03:28:04.020 than civil penalties,
03:28:05.880 its own ideas
03:28:06.920 and practices
03:28:07.860 as rules of conduct
03:28:09.780 on those
03:28:10.780 who dissent from them,
03:28:12.160 to fetter the development
03:28:14.400 and, if possible,
03:28:15.600 prevent the formation
03:28:16.760 of any individuality
03:28:18.380 not in harmony
03:28:19.580 with its ways
03:28:20.560 and compel
03:28:21.840 all characters
03:28:22.700 to fashion themselves
03:28:24.400 upon the model
03:28:25.660 of its own.
03:28:27.920 There is a limit
03:28:29.320 to the legitimate
03:28:30.160 interference
03:28:30.860 of collective opinion
03:28:32.160 with individual
03:28:33.200 independence,
03:28:34.460 and to find
03:28:35.740 that limit
03:28:36.380 and maintain it
03:28:37.840 against encroachment
03:28:38.940 is as indispensable
03:28:40.960 to a good condition
03:28:42.280 of human affairs
03:28:43.260 as protection
03:28:44.680 against political despotism.
03:28:47.580 Close quote.
03:28:48.920 To find that limit
03:28:50.000 and maintain it
03:28:51.120 becomes the difficult
03:28:52.740 but essential task
03:28:54.060 when a plague
03:28:55.000 besets a democracy,
03:28:57.360 especially one
03:28:58.240 that wishes to remain
03:28:59.400 in good enough condition
03:29:00.920 to survive it.
03:29:02.900 Thank you.
03:29:08.940 Needle Points
03:29:18.080 the article
03:29:18.800 plus all the links
03:29:20.520 to the references
03:29:21.280 is available
03:29:23.740 at tabletmag.com