PURELY POLITICAL
Censoring factual information was what the Biden administration was doing during the pandemic; it continues to this day.
The Great Barrington Declaration Re-visited
First of all, readers of Jim’s Journal should know that it’s chief writer and editor (that’s me) is in the middle of a major move. My family and I have lived in Montecito for nearly 40 years but have sold our home – the same one we lived in for the entire time we’ve lived in Montecito – in March and have been renting it for the past four months. We’ll be moving out at the end of July and have taken up residence in Santa Ynez Valley nearby. We have yet to find the perfect home to purchase, so will be renting for at least the next eight months. We will, however, continue our search for a more permanent abode.
I tell you this because there are so many things to do in preparation of this move, that finding the ability to turn out a weekly column has become difficult, but in order to keep the flow going, I’m revisiting some of my early columns and some columns I’ve written for others.
What follows is a re-cap of how collusion among the Misinformation Mainstream Media, Social Media, the Deep State, the entertainment lobby, the medical establishment, academia, Biden administration and others, censored any thoughts or opinions that didn’t perfectly align with the desires and flow of misleading information promulgated by this insidious cabal.
The Declaration appeared as a full-page ad in various newspapers, was posted online, and was authored and signed on October 4, 2020 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts by: Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, professor at Stanford University Medical School, a physician, epidemiologist, health economist, and public health policy expert focusing on infectious diseases and vulnerable populations; Dr. Sunetra Gupta, professor at Oxford University, an epidemiologist with expertise in immunology, vaccine development, and mathematical modeling of infectious diseases, and Dr. Martin Kulldorff, professor medicine at Harvard University, a biostastician, and epidemiologist with expertise in detecting and monitoring of infection disease outbreaks and vaccine safety evaluations.
If any sentient being had been in doubt as to which side virtually all the major media and social media companies were on, non-coverage of both the Hunter Biden laptop e-mails and the Great Barrington Declaration has now been shown to be proof positive of which side they were on. When presidential candidate Joe Biden told debate moderator (in this case, Chris Wallace, then of FOX News) that the story surrounding Hunter Biden’s $83,000-a-month payment on the board of directors of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company, had been “debunked,” and Mr. Wallace didn’t have a follow-up question nor any inclination to pursue the truth of that matter, it was obvious that had taken a side too.
Why, you may ask.
He just didn’t care. And, truth be told, Wallace was probably absolutely ignorant about the issue. He simply wasn’t interested nor curious – as is true about nearly all note-takers in today’s media establishment – they, to a man and woman, simply don’t care what the truth is.
Their careers and hefty salaries were on the line. And, perhaps even more importantly, their social lives would also be negatively impacted.
But, let’s get to the Great Barrington Declaration itself.
“As infectious disease epidemiologists and public health scientists,” the public pronouncement began, “we have grave concerns about the damaging physical, and mental health impacts of the prevailing COVID-19 policies.”
The Declaration went on to “recommend an approach we call Focused Protection,” and then outlines some of the damaging results of lockdown policies that were in place, including, “devastating effects on short and long-term public health… lower childhood vaccination rates, worsening cardiovascular disease outcomes, fewer cancer screenings and deteriorating mental health – leading to greater excess mortality in years to come, with the working class and younger members of society carrying the heaviest burden.”
The Declaration also suggested that “keeping students out of school is a grave injustice,” and that keeping such measures in place until a vaccine is available “will cause irreparable damage, with the underprivileged disproportionately harmed.”
Another tidbit worth chewing over: “We know that vulnerability to death from COVID-19,” it reads, “is more than a thousand-fold higher in the old and infirm than the young. Indeed, for children, COVID-19 is less dangerous than many other harms, including influenza.”
The signing doctors and scientists encouraged trying to reach “herd immunity,” along with opening up businesses of all kinds, sending children back to schools, and most importantly, taking additional measures to protect the most vulnerable as the central aim of the public health response to COVID-19.
The Declaration’s final paragraph said it all: “Those who are not vulnerable should immediately be allowed to resume life as normal. Simple hygiene measures, such as hand washing and staying at home when sick should be practiced by everyone to reduce the herd immunity threshold. Schools and universities should be open for in-person teaching. Extracurricular activities, such as sports, should be resumed. Young low-risk adults should work normally, rather than from home. Restaurants and other businesses should open. Arts, music, sport and other cultural activities should resume. People who are more at risk may participate if they wish, while society as a whole enjoys the protection conferred upon the vulnerable by those who have built up herd immunity.”
The Declaration had garnered support from over 15,000 other doctors, scientists, and individuals.
Wow!
One would think that such a declaration, signed by leading health professionals from around the world, would at the very least have set off a series of discussions debating the subject.
One would have been wrong.
The Declaration was given short shrift by the same crowd that actively stifles any news of alleged Biden family corruption and other news that may negatively affect their candidate. The Declaration was “Shadow Banned” by Google (as well as Facebook, Twitter, and others), censored by Reddit, and mocked by The Guardian, which chose to point out a couple dozen fake names on the over 15,000 signatories; fake, mainly because the online Declaration invited anyone to sign on, and some of those who’ve signed on have used phony (and sometimes funny) names.
A publication called Science-Based Medicine compared Great Barrington Declaration supporters to “creationists,” “HIV/AIDS denialists,” “climate science deniers,” and the doctors who wrote it, “grifters.”
As this 2024 presidential election season progresses, don’t expect any soul-searching or even more honesty from the crowd that sponsored and supported a federal Ministry of Truth. It’s going to get really ugly, really quickly, no matter who the candidates turn out to be.
The response to Covid-19 directly caused the dumbing down of students at every grade level, the crushing of the U.S. economy, the current inflationary period we are now experiencing, and any number of additional serious negative consequences.
On that point, even if you believe Joe Biden has been a great president and that his anti-Covid policies were spot on, shouldn’t both the wisdom behind and the efficacy of those strategies have been at least a topic of discussion, rather than a cause for charges of apostasy or worse?
Just asking.
Keep it coming Jim👍