While this book was published in Sept 2023 and the COVID pandemic has slipped from the attention of most, this book is important as it gives a retrospective on much of what happened through that period. Most importantly, critical information was withheld from the citizens and the epidemic was much worse than it should have been. As well, it seems likely that the follow-on effects will be significant.
The government handling of the "pandemic" violated the fundamentals of western democracy including freedom of speech, openness of government, independence of regulators, and the avoidance of corruption in government and corporations. The epidemic revealed shortcomings in all of these areas. If they are not corrected, the same deficiencies will arise in future events.
Much of what the citizens were told turned out to be false. Contrary to government advice it turned out that there were:
- cheap and effective treatments worked: HCQ and Ivermectin
- masks were of little use
- the vaccines did not prevent COVID, nor did they stop transmission
- the vaccines had significant side effects
- those at risk were primarily the elderly with co-murbididies; there was no reason to vaccinate the young
- little testing of the safety of the vaccines was done, and the results were covered up
- early indications of harm were available from VAERS and should have halted the use of the vaccines
"Pfizer's 5.3.6 ninety-day post marketing experience report, which tracked adverse event data from December 1, 2020 to February 28, 2021, showed its COVID-19 mRNA "vaccine" to be the deadliest drug ever rolled out in U.S. history."
It has become clear that Pfizer and other vaccine manufacturers were guilty of fraud and were assisted by the FDA and other governmental organizations that were responsible for the protection of the citizens.
It is also evident that the government controls the flow of information through the Trusted News Initiative (TNI) and have co-opted Big Tech (Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter) to provide all possible assistance in supressing any information or opinion that does not agree with their narrative.
With COVID over for now, we are left with some major deficiencies in our society including government censorship, media which not longer provide investigative reporting, violation of citizen rights and the influence of Big Tech. As Trish Wood notes, "We can no longer trust that government, and the media that keeps them in power, have our best interests at heart."
Moreover, if no changes are made, the same process will be repeated for the next pandemic.
Lord Sumption, a retired Senior UK Supreme Court Judge provides a startling perspective: "In modern conditions, risk-adversion and the fear that goes with it, are a standing invitation to authoritarian government." "Until March 2020, ... It was unthinkable that a whole population should be subject to criminal penalties for associating with other human beings and answerable to the police for the ordinary activities of daily life." "It is widely assumed that this is a phase which will pass when Covid-19 disappears (if it ever does). I am afraid that this is an illusion. We have turned a corner, and it will not be easy to go back."
Science is a way of working through complex information. The government approach of fact checking and reliance on "experts" prevented the normal process of science to work toward the truth. Ironically, this was referred to as "The Science". It is important to realize that government suppressed the process of science.