Who Is Misleading Who?

We live in a world in which media and social media companies are censoring what they call "misleading information."

For example, last week YouTube removed any videos that were critical of any vaccines--not just the Covid jab.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/oct/14/youtube-bans-misinformation-about-covid-vaccinations

YouTube had banned any negative videos about the Covid vaccines in October of last year. Interestingly, this was before the vaccines had been authorized. At that point how did they know any negative views were "misinformation"?

We seem to have reached a point that anyone who says anything that does not conform to the narrative is said to be providing "misleading information" and is subject to censorship.

Alex Berenson is a former New York Times who covered the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries for the paper while he was there.

He gained an enormous number of followers on Twitter during the pandemic for his reporting on Covid that did not conform to the narrative. He was suspended for short periods of time over the last year by Twitter that claimed he was spreading "misinformation".

Berenson was permanently suspended by Twitter in late August for this tweet which was judged to be "misleading".

What did Berenson state in that Tweet that is not supported by the facts and data?

It is very clear now that the Covid vaccines don't stop infection or transmission.

Compare cases in the summer of 2021 with over 70% of age 18+ vaccinated with the summer of 2020 when no one was vaccinated.

This chart is through August, 2021 when Benenson published his tweet.

Can it be said that these vaccines are stopping infections and transmissions in looking at this case surge?

What about the side effects reported through VAERS of these vaccines compared to the reported side effects of ALL other vaccines that have been administered in the United States for the last decade?

More troubling is this chart of CDC data on overall and Covid deaths comparing August, 2020 vs. August 2021.

Source: https://twitter.com/EWoodhouse7/status/1444406242315837440/photo/1

How could we have almost 50% more deaths from Covid this August compared to last August if the vaccines are working even as a therapeutic?

Of course, the narrative is that this year we are in "pandemic of the unvaccinated".

We heard repeatedly that 99% of hospitalizations and deaths from Covid this summer were from those who were unvaccinated.

Dr. Fauci repeated this over and over this summer.

Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2021/07/04/more-than-99-us-covid-deaths-involve-unvaccinated-people/7856564002/

The CDC Director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, was also saying in July that if you are fully vaccinated you are protected against severe Covid and death and even protected against Delta and other variants.

At the same time, Fauci was telling us that there was no need for booster shots.

What I find particularly troubling is that at the time that Fauci and Walensky were making these statements the CDC had data indicating that as far back as May 15% of all deaths from Covid were in those who had been fully vaccinated.

This was a chart that was leaked to the The Washington Post in early August that I cited in a blog post at that time. It was part of a confidential internal presentation at CDC in considering the question of whether Covid vaccine booster shots were going to be necessary.

It shows that 15% of deaths in May were from those who were fully vaccinated.

Source: https://humanevents.com/2021/07/30/breaking-leaked-cdc-slides-call-for-universal-masks-reinstating-mitigation-strategies-vaccine-mandates-for-hcp-to-stop-delta-variant/

This is what I wrote in that blog post in early August titled "Should I Be Concerned?".

Should you be concerned if you took the vaccine?

I think there is actually a bigger concern for all of us.

I believe the biggest concern is whether you can trust the information you are getting from the CDC, the Biden administration and the political class about Covid and the vaccines.

Have they given you trustworthy information in the past? Can you rely on it to make future decisions?

Are they actually trying to mislead us in order to manage the narrative they have created?

These are questions everyone should be asking.

That is where I believe our greatest concerns should be.

Who is misleading who?

Since August I have come across more data that puts the narrative into even more doubt.

Humetrix is a real-time analytics data platform used to monitor and analyze health care outcomes among 5.6 million Medicare beneficiaries.

The Department of Defense and the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center recently sponsored a study (Project Salus) to assess the effectiveness of the Covid vaccines against the Delta variant among the 5.6 Medicare beneficiaries in the Humetrix database..

Some of the information in this study was shared at the FDA meeting to determine whether Covid boosters should be recommended for this age cohort.

This is the title slide of the slide presentation. 

Source: https://www.humetrix.com/powerpoint-vaccine.html

What I found most interesting in the Humetrix data is that it found that 71% of all hospitalizations  in the age 65+ cohort recently are among those fully vaccinated.

In fact, if you look closely at the data, more than 50% of the hospitalizations since April in the age 65+ cohort have been fully vaccinated.

Does this not suggest that the claim that almost all of the deaths and severe illness from Covid were from the unvaccinated was a very misleading claim by Fauci, Walensky and the others?

To be clear, I am not suggesting that this shows that the vaccines are not offering some protective benefits to the vaccinated.

The fact that 80%+ of the age 65+ cohort is fully vaccinated but 71% of the hospitalized are fully vaccinated shows that there is likely a benefit to the vaccine for this age group.

This seems to also be true in the data I have seen from Israel and the UK that have better national reporting systems and have been more transparent in releasing their data than in the United States.

The Salus study did conclude that hospitalization and death rates were both reduced in the vaccinated age 65+ cohort compared to the pre-vaccination periods. However, the study still found that 21% (down from 31%) of breakthrough cases in the fully vaccinated age 65+ cohort were hospitalized and there was a 4% death rate in the fully vaccinated (down from 12% previously).

Another interesting slide in the Salus study was this one which showed the relative risk factors for hospitalization of breakthrough Covid infections in the fully vaccinated.

Who are those at greatest risk of a breakthrough infection that will result in hospitalization among the fully vaccinated?

Those with End Stage Renal Disease, those hospitalized more than once previously, Native Americans and those who are morbidly obese.

Who are those at least risk of a breakthrough infection?

Is it any surprise that the lowest risk is those who had a prior case of Covid-19 and had acquired natural immunity?

However, Dr. Fauci and the experts continue to deny any benefits and protection from natural immunity that might have been conveyed by prior infection.

Fauci was recently asked the question about natural immunity on CNN by its medical expert Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Fauci, who is President Joe Biden's chief medical adviser, was asked on Friday by CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta whether people who have tested positive for the virus should still get a shot. He cited data from Israel in August suggesting people who recovered from COVID-19 had a lower risk of contracting the delta variant than those who got a full Pfizer vaccine.

"I don't have a really firm answer for you on that. That's something that we're going to have to discuss regarding the durability of the response," Fauci said.

 

We are 18 months into this pandemic and the guy who is supposedly the top expert on the subject does not have an answer to that fundamental question? 

However, in May he stated that the vaccines were "proving to be extremely effective, and may provide long-lasting protection".

Who is misleading who?

This Humetrix data, consistent with other studies, also shows almost a direct correlation between age and the risks of hospitalization even when considering breakthrough infections.

Those over age 85 had a much higher risk of hospitalization than those ages 75-84 and the 75-84 age group had a step up in risk compared to other Medicare beneficiaries between the ages of 65-74.

Another area of the narrative that looks to me to be clearly misleading involves the manner in which the "approval" of the Pfizer vaccine is being portrayed.

It is important to remember that it would have been completely unethical to argue for a vaccine mandate without FDA approval.

The Moderna and J&J vaccines are still only available under an "Emergency Use Authorization" but this distinction seems to have been purposely lost in the push for vaccine mandates.

More troubling is the fact that the FDA approval only applies to the Pfizer vaccine manufactured and distributed under the brand name Comirnaty.

However, that vaccine is not even available in the United States right now!

The only Pfizer vaccine being offered is the EUA version.

Why was the Comirnaty brand version approved but the product being pushed for people under the vaccine mandate in the United States is limited to the EUA version?

What is going on?

It is a bait and switch according to Senator Johnson.

SEN. RON JOHNSON: We do not have an FDA-approved vaccine being administered in the U.S. The FDA played a bait and switch. They approved the Comirnaty version of Pfizer drugs. It’s not available in the U.S. They even admit it. I sent them a letter three days later going "What are you doing?" What they did is they extended the emergency use authorization for the Pfizer drug vaccine that’s available in the U.S., here that’s more than 30 days later, they haven’t asked that very simple question. If you’re saying that the Pfizer drug is the same as the Comirnaty, why didn’t you provide FDA approval on that? So, there’s not an FDA-approved drug and, of course, they announced it so they could push through these mandates so that people actually think, "Oh, OK now these things are FDA approved." They are not and again, maybe they should be, but the FDA isn’t telling me why. 

Who is misleading who?

From the beginning of the pandemic I have consistently gone where the facts took me.

It did not take me long to see that the facts often did not match the narrative.

The problem is that most people have never been exposed to the facts.

They have only heard the narrative.

The narrative drives public policy.

It also drives most public opinion.

We are taught from a young age to trust authority and follow the instructions that the authorities give us (Parents, Teachers, Police, Bosses etc).

We naturally assume they have our best interests at heart.

Therefore, this recent poll from Fox News does not surprise me which shows that large majorities support vaccine and mask mandates.

To understand that poll you also have to see the results of this Gallup survey which recently asked people to estimate what percentage of unvaccinated people who are infected with Covid will need to be hospitalized.

The correct answer is less than 1%.

However, the most common answer was 50% or higher!

Source: https://news.gallup.com/opinion/gallup/354938/adults-estimates-covid-hospitalization-risk.aspx

In particular, note how far removed the views of Democrats are from the actual facts.

41% of Democrats believe that more than half of those infected with Covid are going to need to be hospitalized. 26% of Independents and 22% of Republicans also believe that.

Only 2% of Democrats know the actual facts compared to 16% of Republican voters. However, the narrative is that those Republican voters are ignorant, no-nothings when it comes to Covid.

Is it any wonder that we are getting the policies we are and there is not more pushback to the unprecedented violation of individual liberties that are being implemented?

Who is misleading who?

What do the facts say?

Unfortunately, right now those who are the on the pathway trying to find and analyze the facts are on a lonely and unforgiving journey.

I don't know what the facts will reveal in their totality when this journey ends.

It is also beyond me to understand why there is such a concerted effort to mislead the people and to censor those who are merely pointing out facts that run counter to the narrative.

However, if the accepted facts in the end do not support the narrative we have been told, we will have done irreparable harm to our trust in our authorities and institutions that will last for years.

I can hope they know what they are doing.

Every indication is they do not.