the science was a manipulation of a projection of an estimate of a guess of a shrug of a blindfolded dart game of a shot in the dark, but you better trust the experts or else
"This was the same President whose Administration disastrously stalled on obtaining N95 masks and ventilators early in the pandemic, who speculated about the curative properties of disinfectant injections, and who, dozens of times, promised the American public that the coronavirus would simply “go away.” " lmfao
Yes! And that’s the stupidity right there. The hatred of Trump is the number one reason to deny reality. because everything must be “evil Trump”. Nothing we did made Coronavirus go away. The natural (fast) evolution of viruses lead it (almost) always to become less virulent. I guess even smallpox was less virulent in populations that were repeatedly exposed to it (but still awful). Our respiratory viruses mutate fast (Coronavirus, Adenovirus, Rhinovirus, and others) and therefore impossible to create a “cure” (what we used to call vaccine immunity but were told by the CDC we were mistaken). No healthy person in body and mind is scared of the common cold. I knew from the beginning of Covid that, as the son of Phd Biologist who spent his career in medical research, that the evolutionary path would be less a less virulent illness. The fucktards at the NYT still think it’s somehow important to call out Trump for saying that, even though he was absolutely correct. He was actually following the REAL science. I remain abnormally pissed off and I apologize for getting a little hot here.
I am with ya, John. I would love to give Fauci and several others a piece of my mind. However, you don't see these salon boys out on the street, only in their covertly paid MSM fear-mongering interviews. We observed just how insane and corrupt this created pandemic was, then fast-forward to the DOGE findings. Then today I read that Linsey Graham and Blumenthal each spent 400,000 for a two-day visit to Ukraine to provoke war with Russia, reportedly without approval. There is more than one rogue section of the government. It is so unreal at this point. The USA Gov. has become a third-world Ponzi, so out of control. I believe these folks are dancing around D.C., many looking over their shoulders like Chicken Little, and the others cashing in as much as possible before their gig is up. Reportedly, Linsey is being investigated as a former CIA guy said there is money "circulating back" to Linsey via Latvia to his bank accounts. Linsey is out of control, while President Trump is trying to end this war, we have two rogue senators over there instigating war., Just 2 days later, Zelensky bombs Russia's equipment and the Crimea bridge. IT IS INSANE.
So true, I could give a five-hour lecture on the numerous lies, fraud and evil connected to the pandemic from day one. One of the first Physiology experts who inspected what was in the injections, Dr. Luc Montagnier, said "anyone who got the injections should get an HIV test". At the beginning of the pandemic, various individuals inspected the vials, some of whom did anonymous clips. I remember one nurse saying that the quantity of mRNA in the different brands varied; she said J&J had the least amount in the vial, Moderna second, and Pfizer the most in each vial., She also said that there were placebos. I have seen so many testimonies, and witnessed and read of so many harmed or passed. Just read a long dissertation from several scientists in South Korea and the testing they did of the phenomenon found in the vials, which you can find I.J.V.T.P.R. Platform "International Journal of Vaccine Theory, Practice, and Research" --Real-Time Self-Assembly of Stereomicroscopically
Diseases tend to be less virulent over time, but often they do not. When smallpox was eliminated, its more lethal variant, with a death rate of 20 percent, was the more common one. AIDS is effectively 100 percent fatal without treatment even after over a century. Cholera, yellow fever, malaria, tuberculosis, and many other diseases are very lethal diseases.
No, the problem isn’t with a disease like Covid, which is still extant and killing hundreds and crippling thousands every week in the United States, but but with a politicized healthcare system that decided to manage people’s perceptions of the disease instead of fighting it.
JBird, you are correct about a few things and not at all correct on the major thing you said, it wasn't a "politicized healthcare system managing people's perceptions of the disease instead of fighting it". There was way more than that in play, and I'm very surprised you say Covid is still extant and "killing hundreds and crippling thousands every week in the US", but you
don't mention the EUA of a basically untested mRNA vaccine forced on men, women, children, our military, colleges, pilots, health care workers, pro sports athletes, federal workers etc. etc. etc. (Oh, but not Congress?), and subsequent boosters cuz the initial jabs weren't "95% safe and effective at stopping the spread", but instead made everything, along with years of lockdowns, much worse, like the sudden deaths and turbo cancers and heart failures and strokes and blood clots and sterility and much lower birth rates, and everything else in those hidden VAERS reports etc. etc. etc. and that mandated mRNA didn't even stop Covid and I guess I know that cuz according to you "Covid is still extant and killing and crippling..." I guess you mean like seasonal flu or allergies, or do you mean like the "killer" they had touted it to be back in '20 and '21 and '22 and then... maybe it... got less problematic or was it just more clear that they were lying with that whole "died with" or "died from" and gave hospitals bonuses for every "death", or is it as you say "still extant"? Should America go back into a year of lockdowns?
Sounds to me like somebody's managed your perceptions.
I’m unconvinced by your argument. You’ve mixed unrelated pathogens (bacterial and parasitic) in with viruses which is either from a lack of knowledge or from intentional obfuscation. You also included a syndrome (Acquired ImmunoDeficiency Syndrome) and not the actual virus (Human Immunodeficiency Virus, HIV). HIV has a very unique lifecycle where it remains dormant and repeatedly makes its presence known, stimulating the immune system. It doesn’t overwhelm the immune system as more virulent viruses do, it wears out the immune system until it fails (recognized as AIDS) and other pathogens ultimately overwhelm the immune system resulting in death. AIDS patients die from pneumonia, Kaposi Sarcoma (Human Herpes Virus), and other opportunistic diseases. Ironically, a serous problem with non-sterilizing “vaccines” such as the mRNA Covid shots is the fear that repeated injections (stimulation of the immune system) could result in non-HIV AIDS.
I have to be honest. While I'm sure the book is great, this subject just has me so fatigued that I don't care anymore. Every day, it's being revealed that the political and public health leadership over the last few years has been corrupt. I lived through it, so I'm pretty aware of it. Until we start prosecuting people, however, I just don't care. Because most of those public health people are still in positions of power (at least at the state and local level, if not FDA, HHS, and NIAID). I want prosecutions and trials and jail time. I want firings and eliminations of bureaucratic departments. I want... accountability. Until then, none of these "OMG, you won't believe how bad the details are!" books really interest me. Yes, I believe you. It was very bad. Now prosecute somebody.
Yep, me too. So tired. Accountability now! (as George Costanza's dad might shout)
And trying to talk with people about what happened is to reason with a cult member that what they've been taught isn't true: They have that glassy eyed Mona Lisa half smile "Here we go again another conspiracy nutter that doesn't believe in science, bless their heart..." look.
I think one value of a book like this is that it records the details of the covid era. We need something we can point to in the future, to people who forgot or to people who were too young, and say, "read this to understand how crazy it was"
Right there with you David. I know how bad it was. I can't tell you how many friends I have (had) in the biological sciences that lied, lied, lied...and they know it. A book accounting this is not needed for those of us using our brains. Im tired of hearing about it. They all need to be in jail. But they won't be because they are all culpable to one degree or another. It's like trying to put the entire leadership structure (down to the ciry level) of 1947 Germany in jail.
I agree. In a sense, this crime is too big to fail. Even when everybody knows what you did, it's so big and so horrific that you get a pass. Nice work if you can get it.
Yep, I think we see things two fold, folks trying to capitalize on past sins and other folks wanting all of this to become so boring we stop listening. Given the low position on the Amazon list, I think it's clear who is winning this battle.
There is not much we don't know other than who is responsible in a major way and seeing some justice.
But let's go back to the last big deal, the financial crisis of 2008. No one held responsible either. I think if you tracked back to the beginning of time, it's all the same refrain.
Yea, that’s what I was saying in another comment. The malfeasance and incompetence was so big and so widespread that the system can’t handle it, so nothing happens.
I have a good friend who sometimes uses me to unload about his problematic relationship with his wife. (Yes, covid looms large between them). I recently realized that this unloading takes the pressure off so he doesn't have to deal with what is really happening in that relationship. As in being honest with her regarding his feelings and perceptions. And that's what these books and articles do... they make it seem as though something is being done while it's not. it's just venting, way too late, and not even at the culprits.
Yeah. And me trying hard to be supportive has been really a form of enabling. Next time, I'll just tell him to tell her. That's where the message needs to go. :-)
Everyone should read any basic book on chaos theory.
It's not that models can be predictive with better math or faster computers.
It's that they can never be predictive, because chaos is a fundamental of complex systems.
You're right Chris, it's not just COVID, it's climate change and economjc forecasting and on and on and on, a never ending tunnel of hubristic bullshit.
There is a reason leaders fake certainty, because the masses won't tolerate leaders that don't reassure them - even if falsely. Oh they might turn on them, eventually, but the backlash to not reassuring them (even falsely) is immediate.
Heck, ask any gamer or player of games involving chance of any kind - no matter the stats or your system or planning, you never can control chance or The Lady.
Hypothetically someone smart enough could understand everything a computer does, but it's so complex and specialized with the I/O devices, registers in the CPU, registers in the graphics card, random number generators, stuff flying into and out of cache, etc, etc, that no one actually does... At least not at any point in time. Then consider massive distributed systems and A.I.
And that was a system designed by human beings. The world itself is infinitely more complex.
I want to know WHY. I believe the sad reality of lies, manipulation, fakery, and corruption -- and I'm grateful for a book like Zweig’s to cement that reality into collective history-- but wtf? Why has this nation (the world?) gotten to this point? Is it grand-scale evil, a purposeful destruction by a few malignant overlords, as so many claim? Or is it just the entropy of laziness mixed with greed, stupidity, and opportunism? Or something else entirely? Because how can we even BEGIN to wrap our heads around addressing it if we don't know WHY it happened (and is happening still)?
Exactly. One can only stroll down WEF and globalization conspiracy theories but so many times.
The big questions have not been answered. I fear that the big questions have been tucked away in Langley.
Big question: why did the U.S. engage in gain of function research?
Big question: why did the U.S. contract with a known adversary, China, to perform gain of function research?
Big question: why did the U.S. citizens not learn about the virus until months after first cases were detected?
Big question: why did the government(s) lock the citizenry in their homes for close to two years (all told)?
Big question: why did the government offer immunity almost coextensive with that of the federal government to pharmaceutical entities to develop a vaccine?
Big question: why did the government withhold from the citizens knowledge that there was no vaccine but there was genetically altering treatments?
Big question: why were people so docile?
Some think that the pandemic was a complete bioweapons operation, from release to infection to disease management (or not) to vaccination (or more accurately, genetic treatment). Some think this was just a test drive. Proof of docility may have been as significant as many of the other factors.
And there are many other questions but these will do for a start.
It was one Giant Psy-Op designed to disrupt, destroy, and put all in a “state of fear and chaos” over a “fake virus”. And permanently disrupt society as we knew it.
Those ARE the questions. Leading to WHY was it so important (of such value) to train people to be totally afraid, and now too tired of it to do anything—including to read a book. A non sequitur, or perhaps not, how can people be murdered in cold blood on city streets, and be cheered by anyone.
The modern Left comprises lots of mentally ill petty tyrants who engage in a lot of group-think. Most are quite fearful of the real world and construct their own reality to help avoid the fear that shakes them to their core. Is that grand-scale evil? Probably not, at least not consciously. But it’s more than just laziness, greed, stupidity, and opportunism, though there is more than enough of that out there. I mean, you still see people driving cars and wearing masks to this day. The only explanation for that at this point is fear and mental illness. It’s not rational, even for people who claim to be immunocompromised. A mask that doesn’t work also doesn’t work for immunocompromised people, too.
Yes. Those of us who didn’t fall for it at all are still utterly baffled by the massness of the hysteria.
My daughter got pregnant in March of 2020 and I reassured her confidently and repeatedly not to worry about the hospitals still being lunatics when the baby was born because it was all over hyped and it would absolutely blow over in a few months.
As the song says, “Wrong Again!” When he was born, the hospital was still in the “laboring mothers have to wear a mask” crazy and she had to fight that. Alone. Because they were also in the “no one is allowed in here because we’re all gonna die and only us heroes are safe” crazy.
Grand-scale evil, indeed. Why? Church people know that Satan is the father of lies. There's a great battle going on, so much more deadly and evil than what's happening in Ukraine or Israel/Gaza.
I think topical fatigue is exactly what is being relied upon by the infatigable who are coincidentally the antagonists in this story. I can understand it, and everyone has to make their own choices.
Buy the book or not, but do consider that the culpable idiots may be in the shadows right now, but they are not gone, not punished, and although they may be out of vogue at this ephemeral moment--they are by no means fatigued.
They are trying to determine how to do it all "better" next time. Let that sink in and note it is not just about public health. The playbook is broad.
Buy the book, if for no other reason than to make the numbers go up and alarm (scare the sh*t out of) the perps. Read it, talk about it, create an identifiable buzz. If we don’t, the New Yorker ilk will win the day. It’s time.
I am buying this book. May I also recommend the Michael Crichton lectures on climate change that one can find in the Kindle Edition of his book “A State of Fear”? They are excellent
I'm with you. Is the one-word answer "depopulation"? That would go back to the Club of Rome and their user-friendly storefront the WEF? They were the patrons of Paul Ehrlich's "The Population Bomb". Global Warming, Overpopulation ... that's where it all came from. No?
Anecdote 1, working as the Econ Officer in a US Embassy in a 3rd or 4th world country, in the '80s: The World Bank sent two Serious Dudes to collect data for their World Stats Book, the holy book of international development data at the time. Over beers, they could hardly tell the story for laughing about the Minister of Fisheries who made up numbers right in front of their faces. "What did you do?" "We recorded the numbers; they'll be in our report."
Anecdote 2, went back to grad school in the early '90s: Versus the 'ineluctably democratizing' wave, a rising star & chair of a friend's committee had published a methodologically impressive analysis of all sorts of data to tease out relationships related to regimes, coups, and so forth. We all went out to dinner, where I pressed him to explain how he had gathered and used data to measure his single-most critical variable -- I hadn't been able to figure it out from his article. "We had some beers and assigned values."
My diss ended up being comparative case studies of land tenure reform, based on a year of primary fieldwork, talking to villagers living through it. It may have had errors, but I didn't make anything up.
I bought the audio version of this book to listen on my 75-minute commute. I can only listen to about a half hour at a time before I start driving dangerously. It's just maddening to re-live.
I've listened to several of Zweig's interviews on this topic as well. I would have thought this book would be a best-seller; he is so passionate about the subject and also so clear and orderly in his thinking.
But there is just a huge group of people who will never, ever admit they were wrong on this subject, because they will then become aware of the abyss of wrongness of so much that they have founding their lives on, and that really is terrifying. I did exactly what David did in early 2020- tried to understand what was happening with Covid in real time, starting with a good-faith belief in the CDC etc, and found my world utterly turned upside-down.
Ultimately it was a good thing, the best possible thing that could have happened to me. But it was a dark couple of years there, realizing just about everything I'd believed in was wrong. I would hope this book could be a bridge for a lot of people. Maybe it will over time?
I'd say this is what happens when faith replaces thinking, instead of co-existing with it.
Any faith, and any -ism or such that's become a faith.
Meanwhile, unrelated, June marks the third year in which the local town council has failed to build a twenty meter fence, due to bureaucracy and rules.
Science is a methodology. It is all about the hypothesis, the testing, the dis-confirming (or not), the replication, the modification, and so on until, perhaps, at some point something can be said to be true. But that takes a good while and even that which is 'known' is -- and should be -- open to challenge.
And yes to all those folks who are “fatigued”- I get it. I am too. But buy the book. Support this man’s research. Spread the word in reviews. If we let this shit go, the fraud will go unpunished.
Throughout the pandemic period, Michigan’s Governor, Gretchen Whitney, would stride to the microphone after donning her face mask, lower the mask and intone new restrictions based on, and I quote, “The Science”.
Not once did she cite who or what The Science was.
I’ll never forget when Whitmer told the people of Michigan NOT to travel to Florida because of the high number of Covid cases there because they didn’t follow the CDC’s lockdown recommendations.
It wasn’t a week later when she was caught on camera vacationing there. When confronted, she claimed to be busy visiting her sick, elderly father. Then she was confronted with pictures of her father making his daily rounds on his favorite golf course.
The best part was she flew to FLA on a private jet provided by one of her largest campaign contributors in order to avoid having her name listed on any commercial flight logs. When confronted by state Republicans she was forced to pay for the trip to avoid getting charged with accepting illegal campaign contributions.
She is one of the most duplicitous, disgustingly sorry excuse for a politician I’ve ever seen. Her actions have made FJB look like an altar boy.
There truly is nothing new under the sun - these experts are just ancient priests reading the entrails of owls and pronouncing on what and who the gods favor. And the modern masses are absolutely no less gullible than the ancient masses.
Pro tip: Go to your local public library website, see if Zweig’s book is in the system or on order and if not, put in a purchase request. Our own local library system will initially order 4 copies of a book requested by a patron. They’ll then order more copies if significant holds are placed. This helps the author in three immediate ways—the publisher sells more copies, your fellow local readers find it, and the author’s work is added to the library’s catalog if it’s not there already. Our library here has 4 copies of Zweig’s book on preorder and 27 holds. Make it happen in yours!
For a look at the way the gatekeepers are responding to Zweig's book, read the aggressively stupid review in the New Yorker:
https://archive.is/uhiXo
The Left very, very frequently declares that they were forced to lie because to tell the truth would have aligned them with Trump.
"This was the same President whose Administration disastrously stalled on obtaining N95 masks and ventilators early in the pandemic, who speculated about the curative properties of disinfectant injections, and who, dozens of times, promised the American public that the coronavirus would simply “go away.” " lmfao
Yes! And that’s the stupidity right there. The hatred of Trump is the number one reason to deny reality. because everything must be “evil Trump”. Nothing we did made Coronavirus go away. The natural (fast) evolution of viruses lead it (almost) always to become less virulent. I guess even smallpox was less virulent in populations that were repeatedly exposed to it (but still awful). Our respiratory viruses mutate fast (Coronavirus, Adenovirus, Rhinovirus, and others) and therefore impossible to create a “cure” (what we used to call vaccine immunity but were told by the CDC we were mistaken). No healthy person in body and mind is scared of the common cold. I knew from the beginning of Covid that, as the son of Phd Biologist who spent his career in medical research, that the evolutionary path would be less a less virulent illness. The fucktards at the NYT still think it’s somehow important to call out Trump for saying that, even though he was absolutely correct. He was actually following the REAL science. I remain abnormally pissed off and I apologize for getting a little hot here.
I am with ya, John. I would love to give Fauci and several others a piece of my mind. However, you don't see these salon boys out on the street, only in their covertly paid MSM fear-mongering interviews. We observed just how insane and corrupt this created pandemic was, then fast-forward to the DOGE findings. Then today I read that Linsey Graham and Blumenthal each spent 400,000 for a two-day visit to Ukraine to provoke war with Russia, reportedly without approval. There is more than one rogue section of the government. It is so unreal at this point. The USA Gov. has become a third-world Ponzi, so out of control. I believe these folks are dancing around D.C., many looking over their shoulders like Chicken Little, and the others cashing in as much as possible before their gig is up. Reportedly, Linsey is being investigated as a former CIA guy said there is money "circulating back" to Linsey via Latvia to his bank accounts. Linsey is out of control, while President Trump is trying to end this war, we have two rogue senators over there instigating war., Just 2 days later, Zelensky bombs Russia's equipment and the Crimea bridge. IT IS INSANE.
So true, I could give a five-hour lecture on the numerous lies, fraud and evil connected to the pandemic from day one. One of the first Physiology experts who inspected what was in the injections, Dr. Luc Montagnier, said "anyone who got the injections should get an HIV test". At the beginning of the pandemic, various individuals inspected the vials, some of whom did anonymous clips. I remember one nurse saying that the quantity of mRNA in the different brands varied; she said J&J had the least amount in the vial, Moderna second, and Pfizer the most in each vial., She also said that there were placebos. I have seen so many testimonies, and witnessed and read of so many harmed or passed. Just read a long dissertation from several scientists in South Korea and the testing they did of the phenomenon found in the vials, which you can find I.J.V.T.P.R. Platform "International Journal of Vaccine Theory, Practice, and Research" --Real-Time Self-Assembly of Stereomicroscopically
Visible Artificial Constructions in Incubated
Specimens of mRNA Products Mainly from Pfizer and
Moderna: A Comprehensive Longitudinal Study
Diseases tend to be less virulent over time, but often they do not. When smallpox was eliminated, its more lethal variant, with a death rate of 20 percent, was the more common one. AIDS is effectively 100 percent fatal without treatment even after over a century. Cholera, yellow fever, malaria, tuberculosis, and many other diseases are very lethal diseases.
No, the problem isn’t with a disease like Covid, which is still extant and killing hundreds and crippling thousands every week in the United States, but but with a politicized healthcare system that decided to manage people’s perceptions of the disease instead of fighting it.
JBird, you are correct about a few things and not at all correct on the major thing you said, it wasn't a "politicized healthcare system managing people's perceptions of the disease instead of fighting it". There was way more than that in play, and I'm very surprised you say Covid is still extant and "killing hundreds and crippling thousands every week in the US", but you
don't mention the EUA of a basically untested mRNA vaccine forced on men, women, children, our military, colleges, pilots, health care workers, pro sports athletes, federal workers etc. etc. etc. (Oh, but not Congress?), and subsequent boosters cuz the initial jabs weren't "95% safe and effective at stopping the spread", but instead made everything, along with years of lockdowns, much worse, like the sudden deaths and turbo cancers and heart failures and strokes and blood clots and sterility and much lower birth rates, and everything else in those hidden VAERS reports etc. etc. etc. and that mandated mRNA didn't even stop Covid and I guess I know that cuz according to you "Covid is still extant and killing and crippling..." I guess you mean like seasonal flu or allergies, or do you mean like the "killer" they had touted it to be back in '20 and '21 and '22 and then... maybe it... got less problematic or was it just more clear that they were lying with that whole "died with" or "died from" and gave hospitals bonuses for every "death", or is it as you say "still extant"? Should America go back into a year of lockdowns?
Sounds to me like somebody's managed your perceptions.
“I'm very surprised you say Covid is still extant and "killing hundreds and crippling thousands every week in the US"
I say it because it is. Unfortunately. Propaganda is a powerful weapon.
I’m unconvinced by your argument. You’ve mixed unrelated pathogens (bacterial and parasitic) in with viruses which is either from a lack of knowledge or from intentional obfuscation. You also included a syndrome (Acquired ImmunoDeficiency Syndrome) and not the actual virus (Human Immunodeficiency Virus, HIV). HIV has a very unique lifecycle where it remains dormant and repeatedly makes its presence known, stimulating the immune system. It doesn’t overwhelm the immune system as more virulent viruses do, it wears out the immune system until it fails (recognized as AIDS) and other pathogens ultimately overwhelm the immune system resulting in death. AIDS patients die from pneumonia, Kaposi Sarcoma (Human Herpes Virus), and other opportunistic diseases. Ironically, a serous problem with non-sterilizing “vaccines” such as the mRNA Covid shots is the fear that repeated injections (stimulation of the immune system) could result in non-HIV AIDS.
"Aggressively stupid"— I think that apt as a general description for the NYT.
I'm gonna buy the book if only to spite Jessica Winter and "The New Yorker."
"...This was the same President whose Administration disastrously stalled on obtaining N95 masks and ventilators early in the pandemic..."
The idea that these people believe masks work and that ventilators were necessary in 2025 despite evidence to the contrary is fucking mind blowing.
And inexcusable.
I have to be honest. While I'm sure the book is great, this subject just has me so fatigued that I don't care anymore. Every day, it's being revealed that the political and public health leadership over the last few years has been corrupt. I lived through it, so I'm pretty aware of it. Until we start prosecuting people, however, I just don't care. Because most of those public health people are still in positions of power (at least at the state and local level, if not FDA, HHS, and NIAID). I want prosecutions and trials and jail time. I want firings and eliminations of bureaucratic departments. I want... accountability. Until then, none of these "OMG, you won't believe how bad the details are!" books really interest me. Yes, I believe you. It was very bad. Now prosecute somebody.
Yep, me too. So tired. Accountability now! (as George Costanza's dad might shout)
And trying to talk with people about what happened is to reason with a cult member that what they've been taught isn't true: They have that glassy eyed Mona Lisa half smile "Here we go again another conspiracy nutter that doesn't believe in science, bless their heart..." look.
I think one value of a book like this is that it records the details of the covid era. We need something we can point to in the future, to people who forgot or to people who were too young, and say, "read this to understand how crazy it was"
Fair enough. Maybe my kids will read it a decade from now. But for me? I don't care.
Or to point to and say, "Read this book. It tells the truth of the insanity of what was pushed on us."
Exactly!
Amen. I feel the same way. Except I want these people to face a firing squad on live tv. It’s the only way to prevent this from happening again.
Nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure. :-)
lololololol
Like!
Right there with you David. I know how bad it was. I can't tell you how many friends I have (had) in the biological sciences that lied, lied, lied...and they know it. A book accounting this is not needed for those of us using our brains. Im tired of hearing about it. They all need to be in jail. But they won't be because they are all culpable to one degree or another. It's like trying to put the entire leadership structure (down to the ciry level) of 1947 Germany in jail.
I agree. In a sense, this crime is too big to fail. Even when everybody knows what you did, it's so big and so horrific that you get a pass. Nice work if you can get it.
Too Big to Fail - Public health edition.
nailed it. Even Nuremburg was really a joke.
Agreed. It was obvious at the time and the lack of accountability in America is a disaster.
Yep, I think we see things two fold, folks trying to capitalize on past sins and other folks wanting all of this to become so boring we stop listening. Given the low position on the Amazon list, I think it's clear who is winning this battle.
There is not much we don't know other than who is responsible in a major way and seeing some justice.
But let's go back to the last big deal, the financial crisis of 2008. No one held responsible either. I think if you tracked back to the beginning of time, it's all the same refrain.
Yea, that’s what I was saying in another comment. The malfeasance and incompetence was so big and so widespread that the system can’t handle it, so nothing happens.
But they are valuable to send to the ‘normies’!
On the plus side, this book will be very useful for future generations looking back to understand this period of time. I'll leave it to them to read.
You won't get prosecution and jail time precisely because everyone who would pursue them is "so fatigued that I don't care anymore".
That's what ensures that these things repeat.
Couldn’t agree more.
I’m buying it because I think they’re doing it again and I’m going to be armed with proof of their malfeasance when they try it.
I have a good friend who sometimes uses me to unload about his problematic relationship with his wife. (Yes, covid looms large between them). I recently realized that this unloading takes the pressure off so he doesn't have to deal with what is really happening in that relationship. As in being honest with her regarding his feelings and perceptions. And that's what these books and articles do... they make it seem as though something is being done while it's not. it's just venting, way too late, and not even at the culprits.
Yes, this. It’s cathartic without accountability.
Yeah. And me trying hard to be supportive has been really a form of enabling. Next time, I'll just tell him to tell her. That's where the message needs to go. :-)
you've expressed my feeling exactly
Chaos theory makes a mockery of models.
Everyone should read any basic book on chaos theory.
It's not that models can be predictive with better math or faster computers.
It's that they can never be predictive, because chaos is a fundamental of complex systems.
You're right Chris, it's not just COVID, it's climate change and economjc forecasting and on and on and on, a never ending tunnel of hubristic bullshit.
Hubris
This is the point I neglected.
You did mention unmerited certainty, a term I'd been searching for.
Yes, that is an excellent term. I have marveled for years at the certainty some people have in areas where there can be none.
There is a reason leaders fake certainty, because the masses won't tolerate leaders that don't reassure them - even if falsely. Oh they might turn on them, eventually, but the backlash to not reassuring them (even falsely) is immediate.
That's something those primitive Greeks believed in, they didn't have SCIENCE!!!
Heck, ask any gamer or player of games involving chance of any kind - no matter the stats or your system or planning, you never can control chance or The Lady.
No need to get all "Jurassic Park" on everyone.
Hypothetically someone smart enough could understand everything a computer does, but it's so complex and specialized with the I/O devices, registers in the CPU, registers in the graphics card, random number generators, stuff flying into and out of cache, etc, etc, that no one actually does... At least not at any point in time. Then consider massive distributed systems and A.I.
And that was a system designed by human beings. The world itself is infinitely more complex.
Better math helps a lot.
I want to know WHY. I believe the sad reality of lies, manipulation, fakery, and corruption -- and I'm grateful for a book like Zweig’s to cement that reality into collective history-- but wtf? Why has this nation (the world?) gotten to this point? Is it grand-scale evil, a purposeful destruction by a few malignant overlords, as so many claim? Or is it just the entropy of laziness mixed with greed, stupidity, and opportunism? Or something else entirely? Because how can we even BEGIN to wrap our heads around addressing it if we don't know WHY it happened (and is happening still)?
Exactly. One can only stroll down WEF and globalization conspiracy theories but so many times.
The big questions have not been answered. I fear that the big questions have been tucked away in Langley.
Big question: why did the U.S. engage in gain of function research?
Big question: why did the U.S. contract with a known adversary, China, to perform gain of function research?
Big question: why did the U.S. citizens not learn about the virus until months after first cases were detected?
Big question: why did the government(s) lock the citizenry in their homes for close to two years (all told)?
Big question: why did the government offer immunity almost coextensive with that of the federal government to pharmaceutical entities to develop a vaccine?
Big question: why did the government withhold from the citizens knowledge that there was no vaccine but there was genetically altering treatments?
Big question: why were people so docile?
Some think that the pandemic was a complete bioweapons operation, from release to infection to disease management (or not) to vaccination (or more accurately, genetic treatment). Some think this was just a test drive. Proof of docility may have been as significant as many of the other factors.
And there are many other questions but these will do for a start.
It was one Giant Psy-Op designed to disrupt, destroy, and put all in a “state of fear and chaos” over a “fake virus”. And permanently disrupt society as we knew it.
Those ARE the questions. Leading to WHY was it so important (of such value) to train people to be totally afraid, and now too tired of it to do anything—including to read a book. A non sequitur, or perhaps not, how can people be murdered in cold blood on city streets, and be cheered by anyone.
The modern Left comprises lots of mentally ill petty tyrants who engage in a lot of group-think. Most are quite fearful of the real world and construct their own reality to help avoid the fear that shakes them to their core. Is that grand-scale evil? Probably not, at least not consciously. But it’s more than just laziness, greed, stupidity, and opportunism, though there is more than enough of that out there. I mean, you still see people driving cars and wearing masks to this day. The only explanation for that at this point is fear and mental illness. It’s not rational, even for people who claim to be immunocompromised. A mask that doesn’t work also doesn’t work for immunocompromised people, too.
I think almost the whole Left would score very high on the Neuroticism trait of the Big Five personality traits.
Yes. Those of us who didn’t fall for it at all are still utterly baffled by the massness of the hysteria.
My daughter got pregnant in March of 2020 and I reassured her confidently and repeatedly not to worry about the hospitals still being lunatics when the baby was born because it was all over hyped and it would absolutely blow over in a few months.
As the song says, “Wrong Again!” When he was born, the hospital was still in the “laboring mothers have to wear a mask” crazy and she had to fight that. Alone. Because they were also in the “no one is allowed in here because we’re all gonna die and only us heroes are safe” crazy.
It was all so crazy I still can’t believe it.
Grand-scale evil, indeed. Why? Church people know that Satan is the father of lies. There's a great battle going on, so much more deadly and evil than what's happening in Ukraine or Israel/Gaza.
I think topical fatigue is exactly what is being relied upon by the infatigable who are coincidentally the antagonists in this story. I can understand it, and everyone has to make their own choices.
Buy the book or not, but do consider that the culpable idiots may be in the shadows right now, but they are not gone, not punished, and although they may be out of vogue at this ephemeral moment--they are by no means fatigued.
They are trying to determine how to do it all "better" next time. Let that sink in and note it is not just about public health. The playbook is broad.
Buy the book, if for no other reason than to make the numbers go up and alarm (scare the sh*t out of) the perps. Read it, talk about it, create an identifiable buzz. If we don’t, the New Yorker ilk will win the day. It’s time.
The attention span of the public has been steadily reduced until one of these days it will pale in comparison to that of a fruit fly.
and...the infatigable:
https://brownstone.org/articles/peter-daszaks-smokescreen-attack-on-dr-bhattacharya/
I am buying this book. May I also recommend the Michael Crichton lectures on climate change that one can find in the Kindle Edition of his book “A State of Fear”? They are excellent
I feel like my whole life has been about being told one official lie after another, starting with that day in 1963.
I'm with you. Is the one-word answer "depopulation"? That would go back to the Club of Rome and their user-friendly storefront the WEF? They were the patrons of Paul Ehrlich's "The Population Bomb". Global Warming, Overpopulation ... that's where it all came from. No?
Rulers have always seen the people at the bottom of the pyramid as cattle to be herded and/or slaughtered.
I'm going to pre-order Fauci's book "They Lied to Us All", with a forward by Karine Jean-Pierre. That shit is going to be a banger.
Anecdote 1, working as the Econ Officer in a US Embassy in a 3rd or 4th world country, in the '80s: The World Bank sent two Serious Dudes to collect data for their World Stats Book, the holy book of international development data at the time. Over beers, they could hardly tell the story for laughing about the Minister of Fisheries who made up numbers right in front of their faces. "What did you do?" "We recorded the numbers; they'll be in our report."
Anecdote 2, went back to grad school in the early '90s: Versus the 'ineluctably democratizing' wave, a rising star & chair of a friend's committee had published a methodologically impressive analysis of all sorts of data to tease out relationships related to regimes, coups, and so forth. We all went out to dinner, where I pressed him to explain how he had gathered and used data to measure his single-most critical variable -- I hadn't been able to figure it out from his article. "We had some beers and assigned values."
My diss ended up being comparative case studies of land tenure reform, based on a year of primary fieldwork, talking to villagers living through it. It may have had errors, but I didn't make anything up.
I bought the audio version of this book to listen on my 75-minute commute. I can only listen to about a half hour at a time before I start driving dangerously. It's just maddening to re-live.
I've listened to several of Zweig's interviews on this topic as well. I would have thought this book would be a best-seller; he is so passionate about the subject and also so clear and orderly in his thinking.
But there is just a huge group of people who will never, ever admit they were wrong on this subject, because they will then become aware of the abyss of wrongness of so much that they have founding their lives on, and that really is terrifying. I did exactly what David did in early 2020- tried to understand what was happening with Covid in real time, starting with a good-faith belief in the CDC etc, and found my world utterly turned upside-down.
Ultimately it was a good thing, the best possible thing that could have happened to me. But it was a dark couple of years there, realizing just about everything I'd believed in was wrong. I would hope this book could be a bridge for a lot of people. Maybe it will over time?
"It's models all the way down"?
I'd say this is what happens when faith replaces thinking, instead of co-existing with it.
Any faith, and any -ism or such that's become a faith.
Meanwhile, unrelated, June marks the third year in which the local town council has failed to build a twenty meter fence, due to bureaucracy and rules.
The simple fact is “Trust The Science” is a contradiction in terms - only a person who’s income is based in fraud would utter such a thing.
Science is the opposite of trust - science is about proof.
Science also does not pronounce Truth. It isn't ever really Settled. I'm always amused when someone says "don't you BELIEVE in science"?
Science is a methodology. It is all about the hypothesis, the testing, the dis-confirming (or not), the replication, the modification, and so on until, perhaps, at some point something can be said to be true. But that takes a good while and even that which is 'known' is -- and should be -- open to challenge.
Yup. The only belief that should exist in science is in the ignorance of experts (after R.P. Feynman)
And yes to all those folks who are “fatigued”- I get it. I am too. But buy the book. Support this man’s research. Spread the word in reviews. If we let this shit go, the fraud will go unpunished.
Throughout the pandemic period, Michigan’s Governor, Gretchen Whitney, would stride to the microphone after donning her face mask, lower the mask and intone new restrictions based on, and I quote, “The Science”.
Not once did she cite who or what The Science was.
I’ll never forget when Whitmer told the people of Michigan NOT to travel to Florida because of the high number of Covid cases there because they didn’t follow the CDC’s lockdown recommendations.
It wasn’t a week later when she was caught on camera vacationing there. When confronted, she claimed to be busy visiting her sick, elderly father. Then she was confronted with pictures of her father making his daily rounds on his favorite golf course.
The best part was she flew to FLA on a private jet provided by one of her largest campaign contributors in order to avoid having her name listed on any commercial flight logs. When confronted by state Republicans she was forced to pay for the trip to avoid getting charged with accepting illegal campaign contributions.
She is one of the most duplicitous, disgustingly sorry excuse for a politician I’ve ever seen. Her actions have made FJB look like an altar boy.
I see spell check entered my comment as Gretchen Whitney when I meant Whitmer.
She also ordered people to not visit their elderly parents. They didn't. I know some who died alone due to her EO. Yet she visited her father.
And she paid $880 for the plane, a value of about $20,000.
There truly is nothing new under the sun - these experts are just ancient priests reading the entrails of owls and pronouncing on what and who the gods favor. And the modern masses are absolutely no less gullible than the ancient masses.
Pro tip: Go to your local public library website, see if Zweig’s book is in the system or on order and if not, put in a purchase request. Our own local library system will initially order 4 copies of a book requested by a patron. They’ll then order more copies if significant holds are placed. This helps the author in three immediate ways—the publisher sells more copies, your fellow local readers find it, and the author’s work is added to the library’s catalog if it’s not there already. Our library here has 4 copies of Zweig’s book on preorder and 27 holds. Make it happen in yours!
That is indeed a pro tip. Excellent.
I’m sure the Guardians Of Decay don’t like that book.
The Guardians of Decay get positive performance evaluations for writing negative book reviews on books like this. Just ask Wormtongue.
Nailed it