Must-Read Article: "Reconstruction of a Mass Hysteria: The Swine Flu Panic of 2009."

As I was reading this article, I seriously wondered how many pieces like this will be written a year or two from now.

“None of these diseases receives more attention than influenza. Researchers in more than 130 laboratories in 102 countries are constantly on the lookout for new flu pathogens. Entire careers and institutions, and a lot of money, depend on the outcomes of their work. ‘Sometimes you get the feeling that there is a whole industry almost waiting for a pandemic to occur,’ says flu expert Tom Jefferson, from an international health nonprofit called the Cochrane Collaboration. ‘And all it took was one of these influenza viruses to mutate to start the machine grinding.’

Now turned up, the machinery was set into motion. Researchers got to work examining the molecular structure of the virus. The pharmaceutical industry started to develop vaccines. Government agencies laid out disaster plans. There was only one thing that everyone was ignoring: The new pathogen was, in fact, relatively harmless.

How did all this happen?”

From “Reconstruction of a Mass Hysteria: The Swine Flu Panic of 2009.”

As I was reading this article, I seriously wondered how many pieces like this will be written a year or two from now. The conflicts of interest of health organizations, pharmaceutical companies, and media networks—and individuals with ties to these entities—should be considered by everyone living today. The whole article is worth your time, but let this excerpt from the above quote really sink in:

“Entire careers and institutions, and a lot of money, depend on the outcomes of their work. ‘Sometimes you get the feeling that there is a whole industry almost waiting for a pandemic to occur.’”

A few notes and disclaimers:

I believe that Covid-19 is real and that it has resulted in illness and death. But based on the opinions of many epidemiologists from around the world (and the data they have examined), I do not believe that the threat posed by Covid-19 is nearly as grave as some have claimed. More specifically, while I personally believe Covid-19 is more dangerous than the swine flu was in 2009, I don’t believe it is anywhere near as dangerous as the Spanish Flu of 1918 to which the virus is often compared. In my view, the best comparison would likely be to the severe seasonal flu we experienced in 2018.

One further note: My reason for sharing this article (and all the thoughts I’ve shared on Covid-19) is because I care deeply about the many, many people who have been harmed (and are still being harmed) by government responses to the virus. I hope that’s clear from my prior posts, but I want to reiterate that here as well.