Just in case anyone doesn’t understand why you can, or should, be skeptical about the severity of the alleged threat from the corona virus.
As it played out between early 2009 and late 2010, the ‘swine flu’ pandemic is estimated to have infected up to 1.4 billion people around the world and killed anywhere between 150,000 and 575,000 (‘the flu’ is almost never recorded as the cause of death on certificates).
While many governments did, at the time, talk up the threat from that virus, there was nothing like the level of hysteria that we are seeing today in relation to ‘corona virus’.
Today, many political leaders are talking in overwrought, impassioned terms about the corona virus that are completely disconnected from the actual infection rates and fatalities it has caused.
Consider UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s statement today that this is “the worst public health crisis for a generation” and that “this disease is more dangerous and it’s going to spread further … more families are going to lose loved ones before their time.”
UK PM Boris Johnson: "This is the worst public health crisis for a generation. Some people compare it to seasonal flu, alas, that is not right … this disease is more dangerous and it's going to spread further … more families are going to lose loved ones before their time." pic.twitter.com/xtz4WvbLtG
— Axios (@axios) March 12, 2020
Johnson’s statement is patently false. The corona virus is NOT, as of now, “the worst public health crisis for a generation.”
There have been a total of two, yes, TWO, deaths from the virus in the UK (with 116 people infected).
By July 2009 (after which routine testing was discontinued) there were more than 24,000 laboratory confirmed cases of swine flu in England and Scotland and 392 deaths.
Just a few months previously, the British government claimed that 65,000 people could die.
Yes, it is likely that more British people (the elderly and those with underlying health issues) will succumb to the corona virus, but many more will die as an indirect result of the seasonal flu.
Why is the seasonal flu not being characterized as the “worst health crisis in a generation?”
Is it simply because it happens every year? Or is it because there is already a well-oiled system providing big-pharma produced flu shots that are given to 1.5 million Britons every year?
While Johnson’s comments could be construed as ‘responsible leadership’, they are in fact highly irresponsible, and most likely the product of cynicism and opportunism.
Virus Hysteria Means Big Pharma Banks Your Cash
In January 2010, Wolfgang Wodarg, a German deputy who trained as a physician and now chairs the health committee at the Council of Europe, claimed major firms had organised a “campaign of panic” around swine flu to put pressure on the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare a “false pandemic” to sell vaccines.
Wodarg said the WHO’s “false pandemic” flu campaign is “one of the greatest medicine scandals of the century.“
He said that the “false pandemic” campaign began in May 2009 in Mexico City, when a hundred or so “normal” reported influenza cases were declared to be the beginning of a threatening new pandemic, although he said there was little scientific evidence for this.
Nevertheless, he argued that the WHO, “in cooperation with some big pharmaceutical companies and their scientists, re-defined pandemics,” removing the statement that “an enormous amount of people have contracted the illness or died” from its existing definition and replacing it by stating simply that there has to be a virus, spreading beyond borders and to which people have no immunity.
In March 2010, the Council of Europe launched an inquiry into “the influence of the pharmaceutical companies on the global swine flu campaign.”
Paul Flynn said to the Guardian, “The tentacles of drug company influence are in all levels in the decision-making process. It must be right that the WHO is transparent because there has been distortion of priorities of public health services all over Europe, waste of huge sums of public money and provocation of unjustified fear.”
Although the experts consulted made no secret of industry ties in other settings, declaring them in research papers and at universities, the WHO itself did not publicly disclose any of these in its seminal 2004 guidance.
In its note, the WHO advised: “Countries that are considering the use of antivirals as part of their pandemic response will need to stockpile in advance.“
A 2010 investigation by the British Medical Journal and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism showed that WHO guidance issued in 2004 was authored by three scientists who had previously received payment for other work from Roche (Tamiflu), and GlaxoSmithKline (Relenza; another anti-flu drug).
Pharmaceutical companies are estimated to have banked more than $7bn as governments stockpiled drugs to combat swine flu.
On 12 April 2010, Keiji Fukuda, the WHO’s top influenza expert, stated that the system leading to the declaration of a swine flu pandemic led to confusion about the virus circulating around the world, and he expressed concern that there was a failure to communicate in regard to uncertainties about the new virus, which turned out to be not as deadly as feared.
In June 2010, Fiona Godlee, editor-in-chief of the BMJ, published an editorial which criticized the WHO, saying that an investigation had disclosed that some of the experts advising WHO on the pandemic had financial ties with drug companies which were producing antivirals and vaccines.
Margaret Chan, Director-General of the WHO, replied stating, “Without question, the BMJ feature and editorial will leave many readers with the impression that WHO’s decision to declare a pandemic was at least partially influenced by a desire to boost the profits of the pharmaceutical industry.”
Because there were already drugs available to treat swine flu, there was little need to prolong the hysteria about that particular virus beyond the initial propaganda, and governments around the world spent $billions stockpiling what big pharma had to offer.
Coronavirus is different in that there is, as yet, no ‘cure’ for the illness (just wait a while). As a result, the hysteria must be artificially prolonged until the likes of Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer can cobble something together.
Until then, many countries are taking ridiculously extreme measures like banning all public events, closing schools for months, and insisting that entire populations stay indoors (or ‘shelter in place’ if you prefer) until further notice.
You may have noticed the Trump administration’s recent announcement of a ban on all travel from the EU, except for the UK and Ireland.
This was likely a calculated political ploy in an attempt to court the local governments and peoples and enhance the perception of a ‘special relationship’ between the two (or three) countries, specifically as it relates to health care.
It is no secret that the British government is in the process of negotiating an ‘awesome’ trade deal with the US in the aftermath of ‘Brexit’. It is also no secret that part of that trade deal will include US big pharma access to the UK’s National Health Service and, most likely, a many-fold increase in the price of UK prescription drugs to match their exorbitant cost in the US.
In the interest of bringing some perspective back to the current alarmism over corona virus, check out this graphic of the illnesses that are the major causes of deaths, per day, around the world and, if you must, prioritize protecting yourself from yellow fever before taking action on corona virus.
To conclude, I’ll leave you with a piece of satire from The Onion that, sadly, isn’t really satire at all.
“In response to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, top U.S. health experts warned the nation Thursday to hold onto their fucking seats, because this bitch hasn’t even thought about starting yet.
“We’ve been getting a lot of questions surrounding Covid-19, and, well, you all better buckle the fuck up, because this shit is about to kick into high gear,” said Stanford professor of health research and policy Richard Mason, throwing all his papers in the air and warning the nation that they better strap in tight, because this motherfucker will knock you on your goddamn ass.
“If you think it’s bad now, just fucking wait, because this son of a bitch is gonna go into full-fledged annihilation mode. Seriously, wash your hands, cut off your hands — it doesn’t fucking matter. You poor bastards are going to get absolutely fucking destroyed.” At press time, Mason knocked over his podium, curled up in a ball on the floor, and started screaming, “Steel yourselves!”
Big Pharma helped drive the opioid crisis… Now are they behind the Coronavirus pandemic? This great article was by Joe Quinn and featured on SOTT.
Djelari Ghana Amen to you. I am agree 100 percent. Why not move to Canada come as tourist and ask political asylum. Will American be refugees to Canada?
the regular folks will never know if it’s manmade or not. hell it could be manmade and then nature mutated it. when you play god you have to expect to lose. nature always wins because she doesn’t need us to survive. we need her but the arrogance of the leaders and corporations will never heed any warnings. the result……..we die. when you’re doing something that kills the planet you’re supposed to stop that so you don’t die. we refuse to stop and so we die…..with all that money just sitting there. you can’t eat money. you can’t breathe money. we just don’t get it because we have so much self-hatred we think money is more important than life itself. haha…..
Corona is leaving Iran and will take the incompetent government with him! Manche Amir
Corona came and showed that there was nothing called Dar al-Islam and Dar al-Harb. The whole globe is one and cannot be subdivided as such.
Corona has proven to have no East and West, no Asia and Europe, no Iran and Israel, no advanced and backward, no rich and poor and even no men and women.
Corona has shown that everyone is the same and that when it does, even if it is in Wuhan, China, it can spread all over the world.
Corona proved that all are equal, all are equal, and all share good and bad.
This is the great message of a virus that has infected more than 100,000 people worldwide, killed more than 5,000 people, and is still hacking and moving at a faster pace.
Corona proved Saadi, an Iranian poet and thinker who said: “Bani Adam are members of one another and said:” Cho is a member of the pain of the day.
Today, we see that the Iranian government is reaching out to China, Turkey, Russia, Japan and European countries to confront Koruna. But it excludes a country that is the United States that is impure from the Iranian government’s perspective and could contaminate Islam and Iran.
But it is even quoted by Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi that when the Israeli-made vaccine comes to market, there is no obstacle for Muslims in Iran and the world to use it. Of course, the Ayatollahs publication denounces the publication, and claims that Makarem Shirazi did not say such a thing.
Corona has shown that humanity is one and that if human beings want to achieve prosperity, prosperity, and excellence, they must unite.
They throw away hatred and create a seal.
This biggest positive message was one of the most catastrophic inhumane phenomena.
It showed that in this world, everyone needs each other and everyone can turn to one another and help each other.
Tell the Islamic State of Iran to abolish hatred. Give up the slogan of death on America and do not give up on Israel.
Let them shake the hand of friendship and make a treaty with them and stop sedition.
But their first step should be to reconcile with the Iranian people. Give up Iran’s anti-Semitism and end their futile struggle against Iranian culture.
To know that even if they have ruled and oppressed this nation for a thousand years, they will not be able to destroy the supreme Iranian culture and replace it with foreign culture.
Learn a lesson from Corona and go for the sake of reason and humanity and humanity and stop the current practices.
Corona had another message, once again proving that the leaders of the Islamic State were inexperienced, inexperienced, and incompetent. Left and right lie and see every image of the enemy and fear their own shadow.
The consecutive days kept the virus from reaching Iran.
How could they explain to people that the outbreak started from a shrine where people went to seek healing and became infected with a virus that endangered their lives and the lives of humanity?
They committed crimes because they hid the virus from the public. Khamenei was aware that such a virus had reached Qom. He would no longer allow the intruders to arrest or approach him.
In the early days, people constantly lied and covered up, trying to pretend that nothing had happened and that life was back to normal.
The world had stopped traveling to China, but the Revolutionary Guards, which owns the land and the government, ordered Mahan’s flights to China to continue. They needed spare parts and they didn’t care about the Iranian people dying. Making missiles is more important.
Khamenei committed a crime by not allowing the news of the Koruna outbreak in Qom to reach the Iranian people.
The government betrayed the Iranian people because they refused to close the shrine and refused to quarantine Qom. As a result, the virus spread rapidly throughout Iran, and this ancient homeland became the center of export of Koruna to far and near countries, from Turkey to Australia and from Iraq to Canada.
This is treason and it has no name but treason.
Hassan Rouhani betrayed the Iranian people when he described the virus as a phenomenon that is coming today and going tomorrow. He told Putin that the regime was in complete control of Corona and announced in the media that things would be back to normal in three days.
Instead of warning people to stop traveling and take the risk seriously and to take all precautions, he claimed that something had come and it was going to happen tomorrow.
They were terrified that because they did not recognize this tragedy and its dimensions and were not able to manage it organically, the foundations of their government were shaken.
So they did their best to hide the danger from the public eye, and Ali Khamenei referred to Corona as “that fatal disease.”
Now they have devised a new trick to distract the Iranian people and cover up their inadequacies and disguise their ignorance and ineptitude in their affairs.
Ali Khamenei now claims that this is not a virus but a microbial attack launched by the US. In a kindergarten argument, commanders of the Revolutionary Guards also claim that the US produced the virus that would plunge the Iranian economy into bankruptcy. That is to say, America claims to have both
n the 2008 book, Browne wrote: ‘In around 2020 a severe pneumonia-like illness will spread throughout the globe, attacking the lungs and the bronchial tubes and resisting all known treatments.
‘Almost more baffling than the illness itself will be the fact that it will suddenly vanish as quickly as it has arrived, attack again 10 years later, and then disappear completely.’
Theorists have been drawing attention to her description of a ‘pneumonia-like illness’ that attacks the ‘lungs and bronchial tubes’ and claimed it matches that of the respiratory illness today.
If we do not know Disease X is how come Israelis making soon vaccine for it and muslims will put it on the body? I thought any thing Israeli is Nagis or Nages means dirty. There is no vaccine be made this virus came from an asteroids hit planets recently small or medium size still part of it landed ?
We are going toward Martial Law in North America and PM of Canada and his wife was exposed to disease X we ask for all
recovery. Still Canada is has less problems but suddenly increase in Canada CV will be seen shortly. We ask Canada also close all borders lines and preparation for Martial Law.