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What Can We Learn From The Biggest Lies People Believed About COVID?

What Can We Learn From The Biggest Lies People Believed About COVID?

Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us,

At the very beginning of…

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What Can We Learn From The Biggest Lies People Believed About COVID?

Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us,

At the very beginning of the covid event in late 2019 to early 2020 the public had little to no information on the details surrounding the outbreak in Wuhan, China and what kind of virus the world might be facing. The virus was coming to western shores and so the public had to prepare for the potential consequences.

People were supposedly dying en masse in China, but the communist country refused to give accurate data on the situation and to this day their reported covid death rate is highly suspect. After a period of uncertainty, suddenly, there was a rush by the media and by government officials to predict the worst case scenario. The WHO was calling for a SARS-like death rate of at least 3% or more – That would mean a global tally of over 240 million+ fatalities.

For those of us in the Liberty Movement, this was seen as the “big one”; the kind of event that crashes economies and leads to an authoritarian society. It almost became that…

From the very beginning certain narratives being promoted in the mainstream did not meet logical or scientific standards. It became obvious that fear was the goal, rather than safety. But in order to create fear, establishment elites and governments had to LIE BIG. Here are some of the biggest lies told to the public about the pandemic:

Wuhan Wet Market Bat Soup Ground Zero?

To this day there is no hard evidence that Covid-19 was gestated within the Wuhan wet market or that it was contracted by people eating bat soup. This lie was the reason I immediately began to suspect all information related to covid in the early days of the event.

In January of 2020 at the onset of the outbreak I published an article titled ‘How Viral Pandemic Benefits The Globalist Agenda’. In that article I outlined evidence surrounding the Level 4 Biolabs in Wuhan, China and their specific work in SARS and coronaviruses. The labs are right down the street from the “wet market” which was haphazardly labeled “ground zero.” Bizarrely, the mainstream media absolutely denied any validity for the Wuhan Lab theory and immediately began accusing anyone who mentioned it of conspiracy theory.

The Wuhan Lab should have been suspect #1, yet the MSM was busy blaming bat soup and social media companies were busy banning anyone that mentioned the claim. Mounting evidence continues to suggest that the virus came from the lab in Wuhan.

Why was this information ignored by the corporate media? It might be due to the American officials deeply involved in research at Wuhan. In 2020, evidence began to surface that Anthony Fauci, the lead figure handling the coronavirus response for the Trump Admin and later the Biden Admin had extensive ties to the Wuhan Lab. NIH documents prove that Fauci and his partners were involved in gain of function research on coronaviruses at Wuhan – Fauci has consistently lied about these ties and his level of involvement.

It’s rather suspicious that the very same man who was using covid as an excuse to enforce sweeping restrictions that violated nearly every aspect of the US constitution was also the man that potentially funded the creation of the virus in the first place.

The Pandemic Was Unexpected?

I also pointed out in 2020 that a little over two months before the pandemic the WEF, Bill Gates and Johnson and Johnson held a “simulation” of a viral pandemic called “Event 201.” The outbreak they were simulating? Coronavirus. What a coincidence.

The one thing that I believe was unexpected for the globalists, the thing that derailed a large part of their agenda, was the low Infection Fatality Rate of covid. The Event 201 simulation predicted a minimum of 60 million deaths from a coronavirus outbreak in the initial stages of the crisis. This obviously did not happen. They seemed to be operating on the assumption that many more people were going to die than actually did.

Covid Death Rate Of 3% Or More?

The manner in which the media, CDC and the WHO exaggerated the threat of covid cannot be forgiven. There was no evidence whatsoever to support the original claim that covid’s death rate would be 3% or more, and these organizations continued to lie about the threat covid presented long after numerous contrary studies were released.

As early as 2020, data showed that the median Infection Fatality Rate of the virus was a mere 0.23% (officially). Our government REFUSED to mention this number to the public and I do not think I have ever seen it mentioned in the media.

That’s right – The official survival rate for covid was always 99.8% or greater. Yet, people were led to believe that there would be bodies piled in the streets because no official agency and no mainstream journalists were willing to report on the real IFR. They WANTED people to remain afraid.

Millions Died In The US From Covid

This may be one of the biggest lies of all. Scientists and doctors are now admitting what many of us knew for a long time – That hospitals were declaring people dead from covid who had died by other causes. Studies now show that around 60%-70% of all covid deaths were “incidental”, meaning the patients had covid but died from a different cause, and they were marked as covid deaths anyway.

Does this mean that all doctors were in on a conspiracy? No, it just means that they were following systemic policies being implemented by the CDC. Even CNN’s top medical propagandist has admitted that covid deaths have been over-counted…she just admitted it two years too late.

Masking Works?

Masking makes no difference in the spread of covid. This should have been obvious from the fact that the states in the US with the strictest masking rules also had high rates of infection. However, while media outlets like the New Yorker were publishing articles making the case for “mask mandates forever,” an array of peer reviewed studies prove that masks are essentially useless against covid.

The debate is over, the science is in. The leftist mask cult can shut up now. They were wrong.

Masking And Social Distancing Outside Is Necessary?

One thing that I thought was utterly mind boggling was the implementation of mask mandates, distancing and lockdowns in outdoor places like beaches and parks. This defies everything we know about virology. UV light from the sun is a natural disinfectant and transmission of viruses in open air is incredibly low risk. Basically, it’s not going to happen.

I don’t think I saw a single doctor or scientist in the media bring up this fact, which has been known for decades. Some media outlets even lied about the effectiveness of sunlight in killing viruses like covid, arguing that the idea was false.

Why did governments and the media want people to believe that wearing masks outside was necessary? It makes no sense, unless you understand that it was not about science, it was about control. If you spent your days jogging, bike riding and walking in the park wearing a mask, you were well and truly duped.

Large Scale Lockdowns Work?

There is no evidence that lockdowns were effective it stopping the spread of covid. States with the harshest lockdowns also in many cases had the highest infection rates. Studies show that the effects of lockdowns on viral spread were negligible. China, a nation with some of the most draconian lockdown policies in the world, has encountered multiple widespread covid outbreaks in the past couple years. It’s time to take a hint.

Pandemic Of The Unvaccinated?

There was never a pandemic of the unvaccinated, this was leftist media and White House hype. Breakout cases, meaning deaths of vaccinated people, have been present ever since the vaccines were introduced. In fact, studies now show that the vaccinated make up the majority of covid deaths.

The Vaccines Reduced Infection And Death Rates?

There is no concrete evidence that the vaccines made any difference in the spread of the virus or in saving lives. The most aggressive infection and fatality rates from covid plunged in early 2021, months BEFORE the vaccines were widely distributed to the public. This suggests that the population was already developing herd immunity before the vaccines were introduced.

The majority of covid vaccine studies do not use the unvaccinated as a control group to show the effectiveness of mRNA products. So, vaccine efficacy is nothing more than a guess based on incomplete data. Studies outside of the pharmaceutical industry continue to show that natural immunity is far superior to the vaccines.

Covid Causes Heart Failure?

This is a lie spread by the mainstream media through their “covid heart” narrative. There is no such thing as covid heart and studies prove this claim to be false.

What Can We Learn?

The hailstorm of lies surrounding the covid pandemic teach us a number of things – We now know beyond a shadow of a doubt that future crisis events will be used as an excuse for the erasure of our freedoms. We have seen it first hand. The insidious measures we witnessed in western countries in response to people who refused to comply with mandates or vaccination on scientific and moral grounds showed us how precarious our civil stability truly is.

We learned, in the US at least, that conservative states were willing to stand up to the federal government and defy lockdown policies. This was after millions of people (mostly conservatives) put pressure on states to act, but we did prove that the public still has influence and that some states are willing to defend our rights.

To be fair, no one knew for sure what danger covid presented in the early days of the outbreak, but after it became clear it was a nothing burger, any political leader that continued to fear monger should be watched carefully.

Sadly, we also learned that there are millions of people who are willing to believe anything the government tells them as long as that government is aligned with their ideological biases. In America the majority of constitutional violations occurred in leftist controlled blue states and cities. Red states were mostly free, blue states were not. Red states abandoned mandates quickly while blue states tried to keep them permanently. This is just a cold hard fact.

By extension, while some people have expressed regret, it has become clear that a large number of leftists STILL refuse to admit they were wrong despite all the evidence that debunks their covid beliefs. In the end, for them, covid was about “winning” rather than being factually right.

The truth is, there is a sizable percentage of people who live vicariously through tyranny. They feed on scraps from the tables of authoritarians. These are the useful idiots we have long warned about in the liberty movement, and they were definitely on parade during covid, applauding the end of our country as we knew it and joyfully embracing Big Brother. When the next crisis erupts it’s not just the globalists we have to worry about, it is also the horde of leftist cultists and Karens anxious for another taste of power and willing to do anything to get it.

*  *  *

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Tyler Durden Mon, 02/13/2023 - 03:30

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International

Beloved mall retailer files Chapter 7 bankruptcy, will liquidate

The struggling chain has given up the fight and will close hundreds of stores around the world.

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It has been a brutal period for several popular retailers. The fallout from the covid pandemic and a challenging economic environment have pushed numerous chains into bankruptcy with Tuesday Morning, Christmas Tree Shops, and Bed Bath & Beyond all moving from Chapter 11 to Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation.

In all three of those cases, the companies faced clear financial pressures that led to inventory problems and vendors demanding faster, or even upfront payment. That creates a sort of inevitability.

Related: Beloved retailer finds life after bankruptcy, new famous owner

When a retailer faces financial pressure it sets off a cycle where vendors become wary of selling them items. That leads to barren shelves and no ability for the chain to sell its way out of its financial problems. 

Once that happens bankruptcy generally becomes the only option. Sometimes that means a Chapter 11 filing which gives the company a chance to negotiate with its creditors. In some cases, deals can be worked out where vendors extend longer terms or even forgive some debts, and banks offer an extension of loan terms.

In other cases, new funding can be secured which assuages vendor concerns or the company might be taken over by its vendors. Sometimes, as was the case with David's Bridal, a new owner steps in, adds new money, and makes deals with creditors in order to give the company a new lease on life.

It's rare that a retailer moves directly into Chapter 7 bankruptcy and decides to liquidate without trying to find a new source of funding.

Mall traffic has varied depending upon the type of mall.

Image source: Getty Images

The Body Shop has bad news for customers  

The Body Shop has been in a very public fight for survival. Fears began when the company closed half of its locations in the United Kingdom. That was followed by a bankruptcy-style filing in Canada and an abrupt closure of its U.S. stores on March 4.

"The Canadian subsidiary of the global beauty and cosmetics brand announced it has started restructuring proceedings by filing a Notice of Intention (NOI) to Make a Proposal pursuant to the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (Canada). In the same release, the company said that, as of March 1, 2024, The Body Shop US Limited has ceased operations," Chain Store Age reported.

A message on the company's U.S. website shared a simple message that does not appear to be the entire story.

"We're currently undergoing planned maintenance, but don't worry we're due to be back online soon."

That same message is still on the company's website, but a new filing makes it clear that the site is not down for maintenance, it's down for good.

The Body Shop files for Chapter 7 bankruptcy

While the future appeared bleak for The Body Shop, fans of the brand held out hope that a savior would step in. That's not going to be the case. 

The Body Shop filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in the United States.

"The US arm of the ethical cosmetics group has ceased trading at its 50 outlets. On Saturday (March 9), it filed for Chapter 7 insolvency, under which assets are sold off to clear debts, putting about 400 jobs at risk including those in a distribution center that still holds millions of dollars worth of stock," The Guardian reported.

After its closure in the United States, the survival of the brand remains very much in doubt. About half of the chain's stores in the United Kingdom remain open along with its Australian stores. 

The future of those stores remains very much in doubt and the chain has shared that it needs new funding in order for them to continue operating.

The Body Shop did not respond to a request for comment from TheStreet.   

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Government

Are Voters Recoiling Against Disorder?

Are Voters Recoiling Against Disorder?

Authored by Michael Barone via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The headlines coming out of the Super…

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Are Voters Recoiling Against Disorder?

Authored by Michael Barone via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The headlines coming out of the Super Tuesday primaries have got it right. Barring cataclysmic changes, Donald Trump and Joe Biden will be the Republican and Democratic nominees for president in 2024.

(Left) President Joe Biden delivers remarks on canceling student debt at Culver City Julian Dixon Library in Culver City, Calif., on Feb. 21, 2024. (Right) Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump stands on stage during a campaign event at Big League Dreams Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nev., on Jan. 27, 2024. (Mario Tama/Getty Images; David Becker/Getty Images)

With Nikki Haley’s withdrawal, there will be no more significantly contested primaries or caucuses—the earliest both parties’ races have been over since something like the current primary-dominated system was put in place in 1972.

The primary results have spotlighted some of both nominees’ weaknesses.

Donald Trump lost high-income, high-educated constituencies, including the entire metro area—aka the Swamp. Many but by no means all Haley votes there were cast by Biden Democrats. Mr. Trump can’t afford to lose too many of the others in target states like Pennsylvania and Michigan.

Majorities and large minorities of voters in overwhelmingly Latino counties in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley and some in Houston voted against Joe Biden, and even more against Senate nominee Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas).

Returns from Hispanic precincts in New Hampshire and Massachusetts show the same thing. Mr. Biden can’t afford to lose too many Latino votes in target states like Arizona and Georgia.

When Mr. Trump rode down that escalator in 2015, commentators assumed he’d repel Latinos. Instead, Latino voters nationally, and especially the closest eyewitnesses of Biden’s open-border policy, have been trending heavily Republican.

High-income liberal Democrats may sport lawn signs proclaiming, “In this house, we believe ... no human is illegal.” The logical consequence of that belief is an open border. But modest-income folks in border counties know that flows of illegal immigrants result in disorder, disease, and crime.

There is plenty of impatience with increased disorder in election returns below the presidential level. Consider Los Angeles County, America’s largest county, with nearly 10 million people, more people than 40 of the 50 states. It voted 71 percent for Mr. Biden in 2020.

Current returns show county District Attorney George Gascon winning only 21 percent of the vote in the nonpartisan primary. He’ll apparently face Republican Nathan Hochman, a critic of his liberal policies, in November.

Gascon, elected after the May 2020 death of counterfeit-passing suspect George Floyd in Minneapolis, is one of many county prosecutors supported by billionaire George Soros. His policies include not charging juveniles as adults, not seeking higher penalties for gang membership or use of firearms, and bringing fewer misdemeanor cases.

The predictable result has been increased car thefts, burglaries, and personal robberies. Some 120 assistant district attorneys have left the office, and there’s a backlog of 10,000 unprosecuted cases.

More than a dozen other Soros-backed and similarly liberal prosecutors have faced strong opposition or have left office.

St. Louis prosecutor Kim Gardner resigned last May amid lawsuits seeking her removal, Milwaukee’s John Chisholm retired in January, and Baltimore’s Marilyn Mosby was defeated in July 2022 and convicted of perjury in September 2023. Last November, Loudoun County, Virginia, voters (62 percent Biden) ousted liberal Buta Biberaj, who declined to prosecute a transgender student for assault, and in June 2022 voters in San Francisco (85 percent Biden) recalled famed radical Chesa Boudin.

Similarly, this Tuesday, voters in San Francisco passed ballot measures strengthening police powers and requiring treatment of drug-addicted welfare recipients.

In retrospect, it appears the Floyd video, appearing after three months of COVID-19 confinement, sparked a frenzied, even crazed reaction, especially among the highly educated and articulate. One fatal incident was seen as proof that America’s “systemic racism” was worse than ever and that police forces should be defunded and perhaps abolished.

2020 was “the year America went crazy,” I wrote in January 2021, a year in which police funding was actually cut by Democrats in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Denver. A year in which young New York Times (NYT) staffers claimed they were endangered by the publication of Sen. Tom Cotton’s (R-Ark.) opinion article advocating calling in military forces if necessary to stop rioting, as had been done in Detroit in 1967 and Los Angeles in 1992. A craven NYT publisher even fired the editorial page editor for running the article.

Evidence of visible and tangible discontent with increasing violence and its consequences—barren and locked shelves in Manhattan chain drugstores, skyrocketing carjackings in Washington, D.C.—is as unmistakable in polls and election results as it is in daily life in large metropolitan areas. Maybe 2024 will turn out to be the year even liberal America stopped acting crazy.

Chaos and disorder work against incumbents, as they did in 1968 when Democrats saw their party’s popular vote fall from 61 percent to 43 percent.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.

Tyler Durden Sat, 03/09/2024 - 23:20

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Government

Veterans Affairs Kept COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate In Place Without Evidence

Veterans Affairs Kept COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate In Place Without Evidence

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The…

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Veterans Affairs Kept COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate In Place Without Evidence

Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) reviewed no data when deciding in 2023 to keep its COVID-19 vaccine mandate in place.

Doses of a COVID-19 vaccine in Washington in a file image. (Jacquelyn Martin/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

VA Secretary Denis McDonough said on May 1, 2023, that the end of many other federal mandates “will not impact current policies at the Department of Veterans Affairs.”

He said the mandate was remaining for VA health care personnel “to ensure the safety of veterans and our colleagues.”

Mr. McDonough did not cite any studies or other data. A VA spokesperson declined to provide any data that was reviewed when deciding not to rescind the mandate. The Epoch Times submitted a Freedom of Information Act for “all documents outlining which data was relied upon when establishing the mandate when deciding to keep the mandate in place.”

The agency searched for such data and did not find any.

The VA does not even attempt to justify its policies with science, because it can’t,” Leslie Manookian, president and founder of the Health Freedom Defense Fund, told The Epoch Times.

“The VA just trusts that the process and cost of challenging its unfounded policies is so onerous, most people are dissuaded from even trying,” she added.

The VA’s mandate remains in place to this day.

The VA’s website claims that vaccines “help protect you from getting severe illness” and “offer good protection against most COVID-19 variants,” pointing in part to observational data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that estimate the vaccines provide poor protection against symptomatic infection and transient shielding against hospitalization.

There have also been increasing concerns among outside scientists about confirmed side effects like heart inflammation—the VA hid a safety signal it detected for the inflammation—and possible side effects such as tinnitus, which shift the benefit-risk calculus.

President Joe Biden imposed a slate of COVID-19 vaccine mandates in 2021. The VA was the first federal agency to implement a mandate.

President Biden rescinded the mandates in May 2023, citing a drop in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations. His administration maintains the choice to require vaccines was the right one and saved lives.

“Our administration’s vaccination requirements helped ensure the safety of workers in critical workforces including those in the healthcare and education sectors, protecting themselves and the populations they serve, and strengthening their ability to provide services without disruptions to operations,” the White House said.

Some experts said requiring vaccination meant many younger people were forced to get a vaccine despite the risks potentially outweighing the benefits, leaving fewer doses for older adults.

By mandating the vaccines to younger people and those with natural immunity from having had COVID, older people in the U.S. and other countries did not have access to them, and many people might have died because of that,” Martin Kulldorff, a professor of medicine on leave from Harvard Medical School, told The Epoch Times previously.

The VA was one of just a handful of agencies to keep its mandate in place following the removal of many federal mandates.

“At this time, the vaccine requirement will remain in effect for VA health care personnel, including VA psychologists, pharmacists, social workers, nursing assistants, physical therapists, respiratory therapists, peer specialists, medical support assistants, engineers, housekeepers, and other clinical, administrative, and infrastructure support employees,” Mr. McDonough wrote to VA employees at the time.

This also includes VA volunteers and contractors. Effectively, this means that any Veterans Health Administration (VHA) employee, volunteer, or contractor who works in VHA facilities, visits VHA facilities, or provides direct care to those we serve will still be subject to the vaccine requirement at this time,” he said. “We continue to monitor and discuss this requirement, and we will provide more information about the vaccination requirements for VA health care employees soon. As always, we will process requests for vaccination exceptions in accordance with applicable laws, regulations, and policies.”

The version of the shots cleared in the fall of 2022, and available through the fall of 2023, did not have any clinical trial data supporting them.

A new version was approved in the fall of 2023 because there were indications that the shots not only offered temporary protection but also that the level of protection was lower than what was observed during earlier stages of the pandemic.

Ms. Manookian, whose group has challenged several of the federal mandates, said that the mandate “illustrates the dangers of the administrative state and how these federal agencies have become a law unto themselves.”

Tyler Durden Sat, 03/09/2024 - 22:10

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