Myths and Misinformation in the Mainstream Media’s Reporting on the Pandemic

“The only means to fight the plague is honesty.” Albert Camus, The Plague (1947)

(Note:  All of the BLUE type in this article becomes underlined when you move your cursor onto this type, and they are hyperlinks to their reference, the vast majority to which are to very mainstream sources.)

SUMMARY:

Big Media and Big Social Media claim that certain websites and certain people should be blacklisted and censored due to “misinformation” they are spreading about the pandemic.  And yet, as this article will show, Big Media is also guilty of massive misinformation and bias.  The degree of censorship taking place in this pandemic is even more insidious because it undermines science. Actual science, by definition, allows different points of view, encourages debate, and more knowledge and insight often evolve from this push and pull of points of view.  Even when there is a preponderance of agreement on a subject in medical science, there are and always have been respected minority schools of thought and practice in the healing arts.  Furthermore, to assume that western medical science is the only source of valuable and useful information to prevent illness or to heal the sick would be a historical and international anomaly. This high degree of arrogance has no place in free societies or amongst those people who honor a healthy scientific tradition.

Background:  Big Media’s Connection to Big Pharma

            According to Marcia Angell, MD, the former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine and presently professor at Harvard Medical School, the 10 largest Big Pharma companies in the Fortune 500 made more profit in 2001 than the remaining 490 companies combined!  According to the editor of the British Medical Journal, Big Pharma is the new mafia.  This assertion is not from any wild-eyed radical but from the editor of one of the most respected medical journals in the world.

            Unless and until people understand the implications of the above assertions, we will continue to allow censorship in medicine and science, enable our civil liberties and individual freedoms to be trampled, and ignore the media’s use of fear-mongering tactics to accept Big Pharma’s narrative under the guise of science.

            Have you ever wondered why Big Pharma concentrates so much of its advertising on the TV news?  This use of advertising is a clever way to “own” the news and to influence what is and isn’t covered on it.

The most well-known and most respected critic of the Covid-19 vaccines is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.  For 30 years, Kennedy was a senior lawyer for the National Resources Defense Council, and then he became the founder of the non-profit organization, Waterkeeper Alliance, which probably has done more to make and keep America’s rivers and watersheds clean than any organization in our nation’s history.  In 2018, he led a team of lawyers to win a $289 million jury judgment against Monsanto for their Roundup product.  In 2016, he founded Children’s Health Defense, which has become a leading organization to advocate for safe vaccines.

And yet, not a single Big Media television network or major newspaper has interviewed him on the subject of vaccines.  Instead, they typically do “hit pieces” on him where they take Kennedy’s statements out of context, censor him whenever and wherever they can, and then claim Kennedy is providing “misinformation,” despite his assertions being based upon references drawn from the most respected medical and scientific journals in the world. 

Roger Ailes, the former CEO and chairman of Fox News, is an old family friend to the Kennedys. In a personal conversation with Robert Kennedy, Jr. Ailes acknowledged to Kennedy that he would be compelled to fire any of his reporters who simply chose to interview him on the vaccine issue.  The only time that Ailes allowed Robert Kennedy Jr. to be on Fox News was the day after Bill O’Reilly was fired, when Tucker Carlson engaged him in an exceedingly short interview, presumably in order to begin to attract a new audience for Carlson (also, in late 2021, Carlson had Kennedy on his program one more time after Kennedy’s new book, The Real Anthony Fauci, was published and achieved the #1 book on Amazon).

The reason for this background information on Robert Kennedy, Jr. is to highlight the degree of censorship engaged in by Big Media.  It is so common for the media to express exasperation as to why people are not getting vaccinated, and yet they refuse to invite leaders of organizations or any of the respected medical school and basic science professors who are questioning vaccine science and drug safety.  Instead, the media goes out of its way to interview a seemingly “common person” whom they can set up to attack or to embarrass.  Most commonly, they select looney people, individuals of various degrees of extremism, new age space cadets, or simply individuals who are not savvy about media interviews.

And it isn’t just Robert Kennedy, Jr. who isn’t being interviewed by major media; leading professors of medicine at Oxford, Harvard, and Stanford who also have specific concerns about important aspects of this pandemic are literally blacklisted and never interviewed. 

Is the public served by this degree of censorship and bias?  It must be asked:  Do you know what they call medical science that is censored?  They call it “NOT science.”  The very nature of science is debate, expression of different views, and then, an analysis of the risks and benefits of varied strategies and treatments. The media instead presents one side and assumes that there is only one side of the story. 

Science to the Rescue for a Problem that Science Created

Jon Stewart said it best in his dialogue with Stephen Colbert:

“I think we owe a great debt of gratitude to science. Science has, in many ways, helped ease the suffering of this pandemic…which was more than likely caused by science.”

Let’s get real…would Fauci and/or the Chinese EVER admit that anything they did possibly helped to create this pandemic? Of course not.  They have STRONG motivation to throw shade on any ideas or people who promulgate them to demean and dismiss them.  In fact, Fauci helped to deflect and censor discussion on the possibility of a lab leak as the initial source of the virus that started the pandemic.  Ultimately, when a group of highly respected scientists wrote an article in the Lancet in March, 2020, where they insisted that the origins of the Covid-19 virus was not the result of an escape from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, it was only recently reported that 26 of the 27 signors of this article had significant conflicts of interest due to their direct connection to the Wuhan lab.

Dr Joseph Mercola and many other leaders of the natural medicine movement were blacklisted by Google and various social media for proposing in early March, 2020, that the source of this pandemic MAY have been a result of “gain of function” research that Fauci initially funded through the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  Once Obama signed an Executive Order placing a moratorium on “gain of function” research in the USA, Fauci funded this type of research in Wuhan. 

The Motivation to Ignore Research on Hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin

Fauci seemed like a “voice of reason” during the Trump administration, but he may not really be a savior from this pandemic and may also have a Dr. Frankenstein side to him.  Although many pro-science people may be shocked to read this strong statement, we have to acknowledge that Fauci has demonized anyone who has disagreed with him or who has presented what he considered “false information,” and yet, Fauci himself is not immune to spreading misinformation and not “following the science.” And this misinformation is not simply by what he has gone on record to say but also what he conveniently chooses to ignore.

First, Fauci has chosen to totally ignore the second and equally important half of every infectious disease equation:  the immune system.  By Fauci’s obsessive focus on the virus’ role in this pandemic, he has chosen to virtually never discuss specific ways that people can strengthen their immune systems so that there are reduced chances of complications from this infectious disease.

A good and simple example of this serious omission is that it is observed internationally that the vast majority of people with complications and death rates from Covid are linked to comorbidities: especially obesity (78%), but also heart disease, asthma, and diabetes. And yet, Fauci and the media have rarely encouraged people to lose weight. Rather than create a nation-wide plan to encourage people to eat more healthfully, Fauci and the media make it seem that people simply need to get vaccinated.

It is widely known that the “Standard American Diet” (appropriately referenced as SAD) is killing us and leading to epidemics of diabetes and heart disease, and yet, according to the modern media narrative, the only important thing that people should do is to get vaccinated.  In other words, one doesn’t have to change anything about their diet and physical exercise regimen or anything else.  Such simplistic thinking is literally sickening…and the media has virtually ignored discussion of specific ways that we all can strengthen our bodies and our immune systems.[i]

Fauci has led the fight in blaming the unvaccinated for the filling of hospitals with never a word on how weight seems to play a major role in hospitalizations.  It seems that the unvaccinated are an easier target, and this strategy supports the Big Pharma agenda.

Further, Fauci’s single-minded focus on having a Covid vaccine as soon as possible has forced him to seek “emergency usage authorization” from the FDA in order to get rapid dissemination of vaccines.  However, this designation is ONLY allowable if there are no adequate, approved, and available alternatives that reduce the morbidity and mortality of the pandemic.

Fauci therefore has STRONG motivation to ignore or attack any alternative drug that seems to provide these benefits…and he is even more motivated to do this if the drug is cheap and widely available worldwide because these generic drugs don’t serve the economic interest of Big Pharma.  Because Fauci has a long history of a cozy relationship with Big Pharma, he prefers to work with drug companies that create patented drugs and that charge excessive amounts of money for them.  Evidence of this follows…

It is no surprise that Fauci and his troops have strongly attacked hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin.  In fact, the way that Fauci and the media have attacked these drugs is strong indication that they are not truly interested in “following the science.”  For example, ivermectin is a good and clear example of how the media is spewing misinformation about the drug and repeating the meme that this drug is a “horse dewormer.” In fact, ivermectin is primarily a drug made for humans. Further, the media continually claims that this drug makes NO medical sense at all, when there is abundant evidence that it can be an effective early treatment as well as preventive.

It is again not surprising that the media rarely mentions that the scientist who discovered this drug, ivermectin, won the Nobel Prize for doing so.  Would the Nobel Committee have given this scientist this prestigious award if it ONLY provided benefits to horses?  And it was hard to not notice that literally no media reported on the fact that ivermectin is what is called a zinc ionophore, that is, it has the capacity to help the body to absorb zinc.  Further, it has been found to have significant antiviral effects.

Why is zinc important for helping us fight viruses?  Zinc helps the body create thymulin, a hormone made by the thymus gland, and it is responsible for helping to create T-cells.  T-cells are the MOST important defense the body has to fight viruses!

Big Media has shown its total obsession with the meme that this drug is a “horse dewormer.”  Interestingly enough, the #1 drug of the 1990s was a drug called Premarin, a hormone-filled drug given to women during menopause that is made from the urine of a pregnant horse. Does anyone here remember Big Media repeatedly referring to the drug in this derogatory manner? Of course not! 

The Big Media’s repeated assertion that people who took overdoses of ivermectin were overflowing emergencies rooms has now been uncovered as a complete fabrication.  The hospital that was reported to have such problems has now claimed that the doctor who made such claims hadn’t worked at the hospital for two months and that the hospital’s emergency rooms have not turned away any patients.  Despite this hard evidence that this news story was “fake news,” no news outlet to date has retracted their stories or admitted that they were fooled.

Fauci chooses to be silent on this issue and on many others whenever facts do not support the mainstream Big Pharma narrative.

By the way, hydroxychloroquine is another drug that is a zinc ionophore…and this explains why it too can be helpful for people with Covid.  And yet, once again, the media consistently ignores this important scientific fact.  (For the record, there is a nutritional supplement called quercetin that is another zinc ionophore…and THIS nutritional supplement is typically preferrable to natural medicine-oriented people.) 

Hydroxychloroquine experienced a “full-court press” of attacks.  We all remember hearing about the “many” studies that showed that it didn’t work and/or that showed that it was “dangerous.”  First of all, the vast majority of studies that showed that it didn’t work “just happened” to NOT include zinc as a part of the protocol (in other words, these studies were set up to DISPROVE the benefits of this drug).

Further, the studies that “showed” that hydroxychloroquine was dangerous “just happened” to use 2 to 3 times its proper dosage!  It is no wonder that this drug was found to be dangerous at the dosages that were used. (To readers who wish to read this study, it is helpful to note that the study by Raoult represents the most common doses used by physicians who claim to get the best results, while the other studies here use 2 to 3 times Raoult’s recommended results, thereby explaining how and why the side effects are so high in these studies, as compared with the very low side effect rate in the Raoult study.)

One of the basic studies that supposedly “proved” the dangers of hydroxychloroquine on hearts simply used high doses of this drug on guinea pig and rabbits’ hearts, though most news reports happened to avoid mentioning that this was not a study on humans.

The largest study that “proved” that hydroxychloroquine didn’t work was published in the prestigious medical journal, Lancet.  One week after it was published, the World Health Organization went on record declaring that this drug does NOT work…and that doctors that use it are harming people.  HOWEVER (!), one further week later, the Lancet “retracted” this study because they discovered that the data was deemed to be fraudulent.  The worldwide media had earlier reported on the Lancet study the final nail in the coffin of HCQ, and yet, the media virtually ignored reporting on the fact that the Lancet discovered that it was based on fraudulent data.  The fact that the W.H.O. ignored this retraction and has never commented on it is an integral part of biased science and conflicted media from organizations that are captured by Big Pharma.

When the famed Nature magazine published their review of clinical trials on hydroxychloroquine, they showed their intentional bias by not even discussing the subject of zinc in any shape, way, or form in their review.

As for “evidence” for ivermectin, there are over 60 studies published in peer-review medical journals.  A smaller review of clinical trials from a journal published by Oxford University Press found that there was a 56% reduction in mortality as well as reduced inflammatory markers and faster viral clearance by PCR.

And as for hydroxychloroquine, a Yale professor of epidemiology reviewed early studies on HCQ in preventing hospitalizations.  Additional studies that included HCQ with zinc further confirmed positive benefits from this protocol.  Further, early in the pandemic in March, 2020 before HCQ became such a political hot subject, a highly respected basic science journal acknowledged that HCQ has a long history of safety in proper doses. Other more recent studies have also verified safety.

If the above body of information about ivermectin doesn’t adequately convince you that Big Media is actively and purposefully providing misinformation about this drug, this excellent and more detailed summary of information about ivermectin, along with Big Media’s examples of misinformation can be found here.

Who is Spreading This Disease?

The media tries to make people think that the “anti-vaxxers” are the “cause” of the variants, but there is only inadequate or biased evidence of this.  In fact, the National Geographic magazine asserts that vaccinated people are just as likely to spread the Delta variant as the unvaccinated.  Numerous other solid sources confirm this observation.

The Delta variant actually began just as the first vaccines were beginning to be used (December, 2020, and January, 2021).  The pandemic had just exploded in India…and yet, when this pandemic virtually disappeared in India starting in the spring, the media ignored the fact that millions of people in India were treated with hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) and ivermectin.  Although Big Media insists that HCQ has “nothing” to do with the successful reduction of the pandemic, an article in the esteemed journal, Science, shows that this drug is extremely popular in the government of India, and that this drug has played a part in rapidly reducing Covid infections in India.

Today, the recurrent media mantra is that this pandemic is a “pandemic of the unvaccinated.”  However, currently, the country that has one of the highest percentage rates of infection is Israel, which is the most vaccinated country in the world.  In fact, both Sweden and Portugal have now outlawed Israeli citizens from entering their country.

According to the famed scientific journal, Nature (April 12, 2021), “Now, reports from various countries seem to confirm what scientists feared after the variant tore through India with alarming speed in April and May: Delta is more likely than other variants to spread through vaccinated people.”  

A further quote from the above article: "Data from COVID-19 tests in the United States, the United Kingdom and Singapore are showing that vaccinated people who become infected with Delta SARS-CoV-2 can carry as much virus in their nose as do unvaccinated people. This means that despite the protection offered by vaccines, a proportion of vaccinated people can pass on Delta, possibly aiding its rise."

As reported by the Wall St. Journal on July 23, 2021, the Pfizer vaccine has been found to be only 39% effective in preventing infection by Delta. Normally, any vaccine that has this low of an efficacy at preventing a disease would not be legal.  And yet, it is therefore both shocking and confusing that this and other vaccines are being mandated. That is, they are being required for people to enter many types of indoor experiences from restaurants, to concerts, and to parties and weddings.

Big Media wants people to believe that anti-vaxxers are primarily Trump supporters…and yet, according to professors at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, one of the largest group of people who have not gotten vaccinated are people with PhD degrees (and who are primarily usually ANTI-Trump people)

What About the Flu Vaccine?

Despite Big Media’s inaccurate claims about the efficacy of the yearly flu vaccine, there is actually a real paucity of good research to show that the annual flu vaccine provides significant results in preventing the flu in children, the elderly, and adults.  There is also evidence that while there may be a very small reduction in rates of the flu in children who get vaccinated, these children have FOUR times the rate of other respiratory tract infections!

Further, the Department of Defense conducted a similar study on adults and found that adults may have slightly smaller incidences of the flu but they get higher rates of other respiratory infection. This study was published in one of the most respected vaccine journals in the world.

Despite the media’s frequent emphasis on the efficacy of flu vaccination in preventing the flu in the elderly, the best research reviews on this subject claim that this is simply not true.

What About Other Vaccines?

Speaking of the serious consequences of vaccinating against one disease but then increasing problems in other diseases, a study published in a cardiology journal found that people who were vaccinated against mumps and measles were less likely to survive a heart attack later in life than those people who got these childhood infections.  Likewise, children who get chickenpox are less likely to have brain tumors later in life.  For those of us who believe in evolution, these childhood diseases seem to provide evolutionary benefit by strengthening our cardiovascular and immune systems.  It is too bad that the average medical doctor today apparently doesn’t really believe in evolution and instead only gives lip service in this scientific fact.

The More Effective and Longer-Term Benefits from Natural Immunity

Fauci was asked recently why people who had Covid already are being required to vaccinate, even though they’re much more protected than vaccinated people.

“That’s a really good point…I don’t really have a firm answer for you on that.”

It seems that Fauci’s deep obsession with getting a vaccine to market blinded him to the fact that another way to create deeper and longer-term immunity is through natural immunity.  Fauci’s biases created deep animosities to various non-patented drugs that may not have been “cures” for Covid but which do in fact reduce the need for hospitalization and decrease death rates.

New research shows that getting Covid-19 provides better and longer-lasting immunity to future infections with the Delta variant than does the Pfizer vaccine.  This research also showed that people who received two doses of the Pfizer vaccine had a 13.06-fold (!) increased risk for breakthrough infection with the Delta variant compared to those previously infected with the alpha variant of Covid-19.  Here’s a link to 29 studies (and growing) that also shows the benefits of natural immunity is “robust, long-lasting, and broadly effective even in the case of mutations, generally more so than vaccines.”

CDC estimated that over 120 million people in the US got infected with Covid from February 2020–May 2021. That number is much higher today.  And yet, many places are requiring vaccination and are ignoring whether the person previously had Covid or not.  Further, many places will not allow a person to enter if they haven’t been vaccinated, even if they just received a NEGATIVE test reading.  When you consider that a vaccinated person is just as likely to have asymptomatic Covid as an unvaccinated person, the person who was just tested “negative” is more safe than a vaccinated person, yet this person is still not allowed to enter restaurants or clubs or indoor events in an increasing number of major cities.  Until and unless health policy chooses to truly “follow the science,” we are dooming ourselves to increased infections and their subsequent complications and hospitalizations. 

Homeopathic Strategies

Homeopathic medicine is Europe’s leading alternative treatment method amongst medical doctors, and it is estimated that 29% of the European population has used homeopathic medicines.

Homeopathy has been a long-time recognized component of what the World Health Organization calls “traditional medicine.”  In the foreword to a 2019 World Health Organization report on Traditional and Complementary Medicine, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the WHO, presents his position as follows:

“Traditional and Complementary Medicine (T&CM) is an important and often underestimated health resource with many applications….  Many countries are seeking to expand coverage of essential health services at a time when consumer expectations for care are rising, costs are soaring, and most budgets are either stagnant or being reduced. Given the unique health challenges of the 21st century, interest in T&CM is undergoing a revival.”

Medical historians acknowledge that homeopathic medicine became extremely popular during the 19th century in large part due to the fact that these natural medicines were particularly effective in treating people suffering from various serious epidemics of cholera, typhoid, scarlet fever, yellow fever, pneumonia, and influenza (page 169). 

Of special interest to people interested in homeopathy, it is important, even vital, to know about homeopathic doses of Thymulin.  Thymulin is a hormone from the thymus gland that is responsible for creating T-cells, which are the most important part of our immune system’s defense against viruses.  Although I cannot formally say that this medicine is effective in preventing or treating people with Covid, basic science research does show that it increases T-cell activation.  I personally recommend one dose per week for potential preventive benefits, and I recommend taking it four times a day if and when a person has what may be a viral infection, including symptoms of a congested nose, sore throat, headache, fever, and/or generalized fatigue. 

If a dear friend or family member got Covid, I would recommend seeking the care of a professional homeopath who can provide individualized treatment of your unique pattern of Covid.  I also recommend that anyone who gets vaccinated and who suffers from some long-term side effects from the vaccine, also should contact a homeopath.  Finally, if you have some symptoms that persist after having Covid, you too should seek homeopathic care.

I have been in touch with hundreds of homeopaths throughout the world. The one common thread that I have heard is that people who undergo professional homeopathic treatment rarely, if ever, need hospitalization.  That said, homeopaths insist that there is no one single medicine that is known to help everyone.  Instead, as per the very method of homeopathic treatment, a homeopathic medicine has to be individually customized for the individual based on his or her own unique syndrome of symptoms.

In addition to homeopathic medicines, there are various other natural medicines to consider.  I wrote an article on this subject, entitled The Other Half of the Infectious Disease Equation: What About the Immune System?  We all must remember that the rate of and the complications from infectious disease depend greatly upon a person’s immune system.  This is why 80+% of people who’ve died from Covid have been both overweight and often have two or more morbidities. 

In Fauci’s and the media’s obsession with vaccination, they have gone out of their way to ignore even discussion of various ways to strengthen a person’s immune system.  Over the past 18 months, Fauci only once (!) mentioned that he personally takes vitamins C and D in order to keep his immune system healthy.  Can you imagine how many hospitalizations and deaths could have been prevented if the media considered reporting on various natural treatments that have the potential to provide tangible benefits?  Because so many of these natural treatments are remarkably safe, one would think that health and medical personnel would extend to these the Hippocratic dictum, “First, do no harm.” 

Instead, Big Media harps on “misinformation” and has named the “twelve dirty dozen” who are sources of this “misinformation.”  I have consistently found, however, that these sources actually reference research from the high-impact conventional medical and scientific journals.  These sources also honor the scientific method of asking questions and providing critique of mainstream narratives which are quite deserving of critique. 

Big Media’s concentration on misinformation is a clever strategy to demonize these points of view…and like the media’s attacks on hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, these attacks are often ad hominem personal attacks that are clever but are often themselves misinformation.

And then, there is a high degree of medical and scientific censorship.  There are numerous professors from Stanford, Oxford, Harvard, and numerous other medical schools who have provided critique of the mainstream narrative on Covid.  There are now 850,000 (!) scientists and medical and public health professionals who have signed the Great Barrington Declaration and who have expressed many of the same serious concerns expressed in this article. Yet the media pretends that the scientific community speaks with one unified voice (which is itself misinformation).

Big Media is creating a fear-based narrative that just happens to be the message that their largest advertiser, Big Pharma, prefers.  “How convenient,” says the Church Lady.

DANA ULLMAN, MPH, CCH, received his Bachelor’s degree (1975) and his masters in public health from UC Berkeley (1978).  UC Berkeley’s alumni magazine published a feature interview with Dana Ullman here.

He is one of America’s leading advocates for homeopathy. He has authored 10 books, including The Homeopathic Revolution: Why Famous People and Cultural Heroes Choose Homeopathy, Homeopathy A-Z, Homeopathic Medicines for Children and Infants, Discovering Homeopathy, and (the best-selling) Everybody’s Guide to Homeopathic Medicines (with Stephen Cummings, MD). Dana also created an e-course How to Use a Homeopathic Medicine Kit which integrates 80 short videos with his famous ebook that is a continually growing resource to 400+ clinical studies published in peer-review medical journals testing homeopathic medicines. This ebook is entitled Evidence Based Homeopathic Family Medicine.

Dana Ullman has also authored chapters on homeopathic medicine that included in medical textbooks published by Oxford University Press, the American Academy of Pain Management, and Mosby.

He is the founder of Homeopathic Educational Services, America’s leading resource center for homeopathic books, tapes, medicines, software, and correspondence courses. Homeopathic Educational Services has co-published over 40 books on homeopathy with North Atlantic Books.

Dana previously wrote a regular column for the popular website, www.huffingtonpost.com (to access these articles, click HERE!)

Other blogs at Substack.com worthy of your attention:

Diane Perlman, PhD, CoronaWise

Charles Eisenstein Essays on Civilization, Myth, Politics, Ecology

Michael Capuzzo, Rescue

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[i] This discussion of obesity does not mean to even insinuate that obesity is only the result of poor diet or inadequate will power.  Genetics and even exposures to certain toxic substances can influence metabolism and lead to obesity.  That said, only the willfully ignorant would ignore the real and serious problems with the Standard American Diet.