Looking back over the past year and a half, the number of conflicting stories about every aspect of the 2019 SARS Coronavirus is staggering. Many claims were repeated ad nauseam in the mainstream press while the counterclaims were mostly given the “move on, nothing to discuss here” treatment. What follows is by no means a comprehensive list of this conflicting information but it gives you a sense of what Americans encountered. So here we go:

Regarding the virus in general I’ve read that:

• There’s a virus that would cause mass death throughout the world.    
• Viruses don’t cause disease.
• No one knows where in China the virus came from.
• There’s a lab in China that created the virus using American funds.
• The virus was identified.
• The virus was never isolated.
• The virus can be seen with an electron microscope.
• Plato’s "The Allegory of the Cave" described shadows on the wall.
• Someone once said, “Follow the science.”
• Someone once said, “Trust but verify.”

Regarding the government’s view on addressing the situation I’ve read that:

• Hospitals are being overwhelmed or may become overwhelmed.
• So many hospitals were empty that staff had to be laid off.
• There’s a great need for hospital tents, ventilators, and medical ships.
• None were needed and the ventilators shipped abroad.
• Businesses needed to be closed until it was determined that they could reopen.
• Big box stores were exempted since all the smaller stores were to close.
• Any mask works and two are better than one.
• Even masks used in a sterile operating room have limitations.
• Three feet or six feet of social distancing limits the chances of becoming infected.
• No distance is safe or unsafe and there’s nothing about being social in being distant.
• Children will spread the virus and we must save the children.
• Child spread is rare as is their severe illness or death. 

Regarding testing and illness, I’ve read that:

• The PCR test is the gold standard test for diagnosing SARS CoV-19 illness.
• The test has been misused.
• A positive test plus the more than 50 signs and symptoms make you a positive case.
• The test is often a false positive and the signs and symptoms are common to other respiratory illnesses.
• A negative test means you may not have the virus.
• Though still sick, you aren’t checked for any other viral illness.
• Whether you have symptoms or not you could be highly contagious.
• If you have no symptoms there’s nothing to spread.

Regarding the vaccine, I’ve read that:

• The only hope of long-term control is for a vaccine to be developed.
• There are medications that, when taken together, keep people from dying or being hospitalized 85% of the time.
• There are multiple vaccines being used in the world against the virus.
• Authorities are not using the medical dictionary definition of a vaccine.
• The vaccine commands the body to make a protein and it’s the same one made by the virus that makes you sick.
• In some people, the vaccine may make other proteins that may make you sicker.
• The vaccines are effective.
• Effectiveness is all in how it’s defined.
• The vaccines are safe and side effects are mild and to be expected.
• People are dying shortly after getting the vaccine.
• There’s a reporting system if negative effects are encountered shortly after getting vaccinated.
• After 30 years of reporting, these vaccines have in mere months exceeded the combined in deaths from all other vaccines.
• The deaths in the US from the virus are nearly 600,000.
• Deaths normally attributed to influenza have essentially disappeared.
• Autopsies aid in determining one’s cause of death.
• Autopsies are optional if death ensues after a vaccine was recently received.

But then I’ve read that:

• People will become immune if they tested positive or had the disease.
• The best immunity comes from vaccination.
• Variants of the virus are of grave concern.
• The original vaccine protects against the variants.
• After 1 or 2 shots you’re good to go.
• A booster may be needed throughout the year or every year.
• The vaccine should be mandatory.
• The use of the vaccine should be a crime against humanity.

And when it comes to where this all leads, I’ve read that:

• There are discussions of instituting vaccine passports.
• The Constitution outlawed creating more than one class of people.
• Discrimination by government is illegal.
• Government will discriminate via business.
• The Supreme Court is the final arbiter of legality.
• The Supreme Court has been known to take a pass on cases that lie within their sole constitutional jurisdiction.

Despite this massive information flow, what I have not read about is the possibility that combinations of medication, such as a cocktail of HCQ/Ivermectin, Zinc, prohormone D, Vitamin C, and Aspirin, could become the go-to initial treatment for other respiratory viral infections. And I don’t expect that I’ll ever read that considering organized medicine’s disdain for alternative approaches to address health or treat disease since these approaches don’t generate wealth. 

It’s no wonder that CoViD mania, in the form of mask mandates, shutdowns, lockdowns, social distancing, pro-vaccination, vaccine hesitancy, etc. exacerbated mental illnesses. Across America, there was a marked increase in depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, paranoia, phobias, and delusional thinking not normally seen in peacetime but, instead, associated with war zones or post-traumatic illness.

It’s also no wonder that CoViD mania fed a huge increase in anger. Hostility began with the nostril Nazis’ screaming (“cover your nostrils!”) and may in the future be directed at those failing to provide proof of vaccination. Do we want to live in a society where public shaming from one political party and its adherents is the norm?

We are in an age of talking past each other. There is no vigorous debate to help us understand what is true, what is false, and what are shadows on the wall. There is something, however, that many of us clearly see, and that’s our society being purposely destroyed before our eyes. If enough people dare to turn around and really look at the past year-and-a-half in America, they too may see it. Even then, though, we still must convince them to believe their own eyes.

IMAGE: Mountain of Books by Alicia Martin (with added text by Andrea Widburg). CC BY-SA 2.0.

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