Last week, we reported on the World Health Organization’s dogged approach to how COVID is transmitted. They said by droplets, so we always had to wash our hands and sanitize all surfaces. Handwashing and sanitizing didn’t kill us – it was hygienic theater – but panic Caused by WHO bad science Did it kill us

Previous articles in this series: Panic is a virus Part IV: Follow the Science

And people were really panicking. The COVID virus seemed to be everywhere on all sides. People were afraid to touch doorknobs and elevator buttons. It was impossible to disinfect all surfaces in the outside world, so people stayed indoors and quarantined for months.

Consider this example from my own experience. About a year after the pandemic, I visited a former secretary in her 90s. I brought her her groceries, but when I opened her apartment door, she was wearing green rubber gloves. “Give me what?” I asked.

Turns out I arrived as Peggy (I call her) was sanitize her newspaperI was amazed to see her spray every page of the paper, front and back. The print smudged badly, but Peggy didn’t mind. It turns out that every surface in that apartment had been sprayed as well, and probably re-sprayed every day.At Peggy’s age, she’s pretty sure she’s going to die if she gets COVID, and she’s taking her chances. I didn’t miss it.

I told Peggy that COVID was not spread through surfaces, but by airborne transmission from infected people.The virus could only survive on surfaces for a very short time. But Peggy had the WHO’s advice taped to her (thoroughly sanitized) refrigerator.

She was afraid to go anywhere, so Peggy never left her apartment and stayed there for 13 straight months. Three months after I visited her apartment, Peggy had a heart attack. She was almost certainly due to the stress of trying to follow WHO’s misguided guidance.

How many Peggy’s are there? A British behavioral scientist who advises the British government estimates that a third of the UK population has become ‘phobic’ since the start of the pandemic, and the US rate could be even higher. I’m guessing there is Panic is a virus. But let’s move on to other examples of bad science that most of us believed in at the time.

China’s labourique controversy

In the immediate aftermath of the pandemic, some people (mostly of red race) began to speculate that the virus did not occur naturally, but escaped from a Chinese laboratory. A Wuhan-based laboratory was known to have been involved in virus research, and it was known that the virus was first discovered in Wuhan. No natural cause of the virus has been found (and has not yet been found). Was there a cover-up?

Personally, I always thought the Laborique theory was unlikely. In the early days, the Red People and Red Press speculating about the leak, even xenophobia, may have been simply motivated by anti-Chinese sentiment.

But despite its source, the potential leak was real, terrifying, and should have been investigated. Whoever brought up the Labourique idea was a rumor-spreading COVID terrorist. prestigious magazines, lancetin fact issued a statement condemning those who suggested the unnatural origin of COVID.

Other blue media are piling up.of washington post He described the Laborique theory as “an already debunked coronavirus conspiracy theory.” Facebook has removed a post suggesting possible man-made origin. lancet, Facebook censors believed you couldn’t even discuss the matter. Most of us thought Laborique’s ideas were probably right-wing nonsense spread by QAnon.

However, one year later, the opinion has changed 180 degrees. Suddenly, “everybody knew” that there could be a leak from the lab, albeit an unlikely one. In fact, in May 2021, it was revealed that Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory had concluded that Laborique’s theory was plausible and worthy of further investigation a year earlier. However, their reports were kept secret.

But suddenly, President Biden has ordered U.S. intelligence to investigate the origins of COVID and report back on whatever it is. The EU, Japan and Australia have also called for a thorough investigation into whether the virus escaped from a Wuhan lab.

lancet Now there was an egg in its face and its credibility was in tatters. A group of eminent scientists published letters in competing journals. chemistry, May 2021, called for a “more transparent, objective, and independent inquiry” into the Laborique theory. Finally, December 2021 – almost two years after trying to stop the debate – lancet “To be clear, the Laborique theory remains a perfectly valid line of inquiry.”

Was it, as a prominent journal argued, following science to contain the debate about labourique theories, or was it following science to investigate whether the theories were correct? In this example, the latter is correct. It turned out to be the answer. It would be one thing if COVID, like other viruses, was a natural virus that made the leap from bats to humans. Killing ten million people would be a completely different thing.

As James Palmer stated, it’s probably true foreign policy, “A call for an independent public inquiry into the origins of the pandemic is a fantasy,” because Beijing obstructs the investigation. In this case, however, the investigation was thwarted not only by China, but by others, including scientists, who sought to close the debate. To their credit, most Blue people, and even some Blue media, eventually came to adopt the correct science and seek investigation.

Unfortunately, it was too late. Panic is a virus.

Next time: Panic is a virus, part 6