The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast - 222. Needle Points

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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.

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

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

00:22:15.060 like an impure being

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,

00:24:19.400 let them die,

00:24:20.960 close quote.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

00:37:09.840 syphilis who

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

00:37:53.840 African American

00:37:54.720 and indigenous

00:37:55.360 women, all as

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

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

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

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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

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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01:10:57.680 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,

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%

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,

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,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

01:52:13.080 conceive began wondering

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

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,

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

01:55:13.000 and Black Caribbean communities, 58.8%

01:55:16.540 and 68.7% respectively, and among

01:55:20.060 Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs, and Hindus.

01:55:23.000 In Canada, the typical vaccine-hesitant

01:55:26.940 person is a 40-year-old woman who

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,

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.

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

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

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

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

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%

02:25:31.260 Sweden.

02:25:32.740 But if anything,

02:25:33.920 Israel has the

02:25:34.500 edge over

02:25:35.020 Sweden because

02:25:36.000 43% of

02:25:37.300 Israelis are

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

02:35:05.060 or lab rats

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

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

02:36:59.400 stupid retrograde

02:37:00.580 Americans succumbing

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,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

02:48:43.360 80% rural.

02:48:45.600 Travel within the

02:48:46.400 country.

02:48:47.720 Ethiopians rarely

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

03:05:42.480 ignorant and defy science.

03:05:45.120 We tried to use a voluntary approach.

03:05:48.100 They believe, but these people are Neanderthal who must now be

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

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,

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

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,

03:17:32.080 hey, I was on the fence and you convinced me with your crazy rant about how stupid anti-vaxxers are.

03:17:37.380 Then I started to wake up a bit.

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

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,

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

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,

03:25:45.600 sex with my own

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

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

The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast - January 31, 2022

222. Needle Points ｜ Norman Doidge

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