This year’s theme is Global Shake-up in the 21st Century: The Individual, Values and the State. The four-day programme includes over 15 in-person and online sessions.

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Ladies and gentlemen,

To begin with, I would like to thank you for coming to Russia and taking part in the Valdai Club events.

As always, during these meetings you raise pressing issues and hold comprehensive discussions of these issues that, without exaggeration, matter for people around the world. Once again, the key theme of the forum was put in a straightforward, I would even say, point-blank manner: Global Shake-up in the 21st Century: The Individual, Values and the State.

Indeed, we are living in an era of great change. If I may, by tradition, I will offer my views with regard to the agenda that you have come up with.

In general, this phrase, “to live in an era of great change,” may seem trite since we use it so often. Also, this era of change began quite a long time ago, and changes have become part of everyday life. Hence, the question: are they worth focusing on? I agree with those who made the agenda for these meetings; of course they are.

In recent decades, many people have cited a Chinese proverb. The Chinese people are wise, and they have many thinkers and valuable thoughts that we can still use today. One of them, as you may know, says, “God forbid living in a time of change.” But we are already living in it, whether we like it or not, and these changes are becoming deeper and more fundamental. But let us consider another Chinese wisdom: the word “crisis” consists of two hieroglyphs – there are probably representatives of the People's Republic of China in the audience, and they will correct me if I have it wrong – but, two hieroglyphs, “danger” and “opportunity.” And as we say here in Russia, “fight difficulties with your mind, and fight dangers with your experience.”

Of course, we must be aware of the danger and be ready to counter it, and not just one threat but many diverse threats that can arise in this era of change. However, it is no less important to recall a second component of the crisis – opportunities that must not be missed, all the more so since the crisis we are facing is conceptual and even civilisation-related. This is basically a crisis of approaches and principles that determine the very existence of humans on Earth, but we will have to seriously revise them in any event. The question is where to move, what to give up, what to revise or adjust. In saying this, I am convinced that it is necessary to fight for real values, upholding them in every way.

Humanity entered into a new era about three decades ago when the main conditions were created for ending military-political and ideological confrontation. I am sure you have talked a lot about this in this discussion club. Our Foreign Minister also talked about it, but nevertheless I would like to repeat several things.

A search for a new balance, sustainable relations in the social, political, economic, cultural and military areas and support for the world system was launched at that time. We were looking for this support but must say that we did not find it, at least so far. Meanwhile, those who felt like the winners after the end of the Cold War (we have also spoken about this many times) and thought they climbed Mount Olympus soon discovered that the ground was falling away underneath even there, and this time it was their turn, and nobody could “stop this fleeting moment” no matter how fair it seemed.

In general, it must have seemed that we adjusted to this continuous inconstancy, unpredictability and permanent state of transition, but this did not happen either.

I would like to add that the transformation that we are seeing and are part of is of a different calibre than the changes that repeatedly occurred in human history, at least those we know about. This is not simply a shift in the balance of forces or scientific and technological breakthroughs, though both are also taking place. Today, we are facing systemic changes in all directions – from the increasingly complicated geophysical condition of our planet to a more paradoxical interpretation of what a human is and what the reasons for his existence are.

Let us look around. And I will say this again: I will allow myself to express a few thoughts that I sign on to.

Firstly, climate change and environmental degradation are so obvious that even the most careless people can no longer dismiss them. One can continue to engage in scientific debates about the mechanisms behind the ongoing processes, but it is impossible to deny that these processes are getting worse, and something needs to be done. Natural disasters such as droughts, floods, hurricanes, and tsunamis have almost become the new normal, and we are getting used to them. Suffice it to recall the devastating, tragic floods in Europe last summer, the fires in Siberia – there are a lot of examples. Not only in Siberia – our neighbours in Turkey have also had wildfires, and the United States, and other places on the American continent. It sometimes seems that any geopolitical, scientific and technical, or ideological rivalry becomes pointless in this context, if the winners will have not enough air to breathe or nothing to drink.

The coronavirus pandemic has become another reminder of how fragile our community is, how vulnerable it is, and our most important task is to ensure humanity a safe existence and resilience. To increase our chance of survival in the face of cataclysms, we absolutely need to rethink how we go about our lives, how we run our households, how cities develop or how they should develop; we need to reconsider economic development priorities of entire states. I repeat, safety is one of our main imperatives, in any case it has become obvious now, and anyone who tries to deny this will have to later explain why they were wrong and why they were unprepared for the crises and shocks whole nations are facing.

Second. The socioeconomic problems facing humankind have worsened to the point where, in the past, they would trigger worldwide shocks, such as world wars or bloody social cataclysms. Everyone is saying that the current model of capitalism which underlies the social structure in the overwhelming majority of countries, has run its course and no longer offers a solution to a host of increasingly tangled differences.

Everywhere, even in the richest countries and regions, the uneven distribution of material wealth has exacerbated inequality, primarily, inequality of opportunities both within individual societies and at the international level. I mentioned this formidable challenge in my remarks at the Davos Forum earlier this year. No doubt, these problems threaten us with major and deep social divisions.

Furthermore, a number of countries and even entire regions are regularly hit by food crises. We will probably discuss this later, but there is every reason to believe that this crisis will become worse in the near future and may reach extreme forms. There are also shortages of water and electricity (we will probably cover this today as well), not to mention poverty, high unemployment rates or lack of adequate healthcare.

Lagging countries are fully aware of that and are losing faith in the prospects of ever catching up with the leaders. Disappointment spurs aggression and pushes people to join the ranks of extremists. People in these countries have a growing sense of unfulfilled and failed expectations and the lack of any opportunities not only for themselves, but for their children, as well. This is what makes them look for better lives and results in uncontrolled migration, which, in turn, creates fertile ground for social discontent in more prosperous countries. I do not need to explain anything to you, since you can see everything with your own eyes and are, probably, versed on these matters even better than I.

As I noted earlier, prosperous leading powers have other pressing social problems, challenges and risks in ample supply, and many among them are no longer interested in fighting for influence since, as they say, they already have enough on their plates. The fact that society and young people in many countries have overreacted in a harsh and even aggressive manner to measures to combat the coronavirus showed – and I want to emphasise this, I hope someone has already mentioned this before me at other venues – so, I think that this reaction showed that the pandemic was just a pretext: the causes for social irritation and frustration run much deeper.

I have another important point to make. The pandemic, which, in theory, was supposed to rally the people in the fight against this massive common threat, has instead become a divisive rather than a unifying factor. There are many reasons for that, but one of the main ones is that they started looking for solutions to problems among the usual approaches – a variety of them, but still the old ones, but they just do not work. Or, to be more precise, they do work, but often and oddly enough, they worsen the existing state of affairs.

By the way, Russia has repeatedly called for, and I will repeat this, stopping these inappropriate ambitions and for working together. We will probably talk about this later but it is clear what I have in mind. We are talking about the need to counter the coronavirus infection together. But nothing changes; everything remains the same despite the humanitarian considerations. I am not referring to Russia now, let’s leave the sanctions against Russia for now; I mean the sanctions that remain in place against those states that badly need international assistance. Where are the humanitarian fundamentals of Western political thought? It appears there is nothing there, just idle talk. Do you understand? This is what seems to be on the surface.

Furthermore, the technological revolution, impressive achievements in artificial intelligence, electronics, communications, genetics, bioengineering, and medicine open up enormous opportunities, but at the same time, in practical terms, they raise philosophical, moral and spiritual questions that were until recently the exclusive domain of science fiction writers. What will happen if machines surpass humans in the ability to think? Where is the limit of interference in the human body beyond which a person ceases being himself and turns into some other entity? What are the general ethical limits in the world where the potential of science and machines are becoming almost boundless? What will this mean for each of us, for our descendants, our nearest descendants – our children and grandchildren?

These changes are gaining momentum, and they certainly cannot be stopped because they are objective as a rule. All of us will have to deal with the consequences regardless of our political systems, economic condition or prevailing ideology.

Verbally, all states talk about their commitment to the ideals of cooperation and a willingness to work together for resolving common problems but, unfortunately, these are just words. In reality, the opposite is happening, and the pandemic has served to fuel the negative trends that emerged long ago and are now only getting worse. The approach based on the proverb, “your own shirt is closer to the body,” has finally become common and is now no longer even concealed. Moreover, this is often even a matter of boasting and brandishing. Egotistic interests prevail over the notion of the common good.

Of course, the problem is not just the ill will of certain states and notorious elites. It is more complicated than that, in my opinion. In general, life is seldom divided into black and white. Every government, every leader is primarily responsible to his own compatriots, obviously. The main goal is to ensure their security, peace and prosperity. So, international, transnational issues will never be as important for a national leadership as domestic stability. In general, this is normal and correct.

We need to face the fact the global governance institutions are not always effective and their capabilities are not always up to the challenge posed by the dynamics of global processes. In this sense, the pandemic could help – it clearly showed which institutions have what it takes and which need fine-tuning.

The re-alignment of the balance of power presupposes a redistribution of shares in favour of rising and developing countries that until now felt left out. To put it bluntly, the Western domination of international affairs, which began several centuries ago and, for a short period, was almost absolute in the late 20th century, is giving way to a much more diverse system.

This transformation is not a mechanical process and, in its own way, one might even say, is unparalleled. Arguably, political history has no examples of a stable world order being established without a big war and its outcomes as the basis, as was the case after World War II. So, we have a chance to create an extremely favourable precedent. The attempt to create it after the end of the Cold War on the basis of Western domination failed, as we see. The current state of international affairs is a product of that very failure, and we must learn from this.

Some may wonder, what have we arrived at? We have arrived somewhere paradoxical. Just an example: for two decades, the most powerful nation in the world has been conducting military campaigns in two countries that it cannot be compared to by any standard. But in the end, it had to wind down operations without achieving a single goal that it had set for itself going in 20 years ago, and to withdraw from these countries causing considerable damage to others and itself. In fact, the situation has worsened dramatically.

But that is not the point. Previously, a war lost by one side meant victory for the other side, which took responsibility for what was happening. For example, the defeat of the United States in the Vietnam War, for example, did not make Vietnam a “black hole.” On the contrary, a successfully developing state arose there, which, admittedly, relied on the support of a strong ally. Things are different now: no matter who takes the upper hand, the war does not stop, but just changes form. As a rule, the hypothetical winner is reluctant or unable to ensure peaceful post-war recovery, and only worsens the chaos and the vacuum posing a danger to the world.

Colleagues,

What do you think are the starting points of this complex realignment process? Let me try to summarise the talking points.

First, the coronavirus pandemic has clearly shown that the international order is structured around nation states. By the way, recent developments have shown that global digital platforms – with all their might, which we could see from the internal political processes in the United States – have failed to usurp political or state functions. These attempts proved ephemeral. The US authorities, as I said, have immediately put the owners of these platforms in their place, which is exactly what is being done in Europe, if you just look at the size of the fines imposed on them and the demonopolisation measures being taken. You are aware of that.

In recent decades, many have tossed around fancy concepts claiming that the role of the state was outdated and outgoing. Globalisation supposedly made national borders an anachronism, and sovereignty an obstacle to prosperity. You know, I said it before and I will say it again. This is also what was said by those who attempted to open up other countries’ borders for the benefit of their own competitive advantages. This is what actually happened. And as soon as it transpired that someone somewhere is achieving great results, they immediately returned to closing borders in general and, first of all, their own customs borders and what have you, and started building walls. Well, were we supposed to not notice, or what? Everyone sees everything and everyone understands everything perfectly well. Of course, they do.

There is no point in disputing it anymore. It is obvious. But events, when we spoke about the need to open up borders, events, as I said, went in the opposite direction. Only sovereign states can effectively respond to the challenges of the times and the demands of the citizens. Accordingly, any effective international order should take into account the interests and capabilities of the state and proceed on that basis, and not try to prove that they should not exist. Furthermore, it is impossible to impose anything on anyone, be it the principles underlying the sociopolitical structure or values that someone, for their own reasons, has called universal. After all, it is clear that when a real crisis strikes, there is only one universal value left and that is human life, which each state decides for itself how best to protect based on its abilities, culture and traditions.

In this regard, I will again note how severe and dangerous the coronavirus pandemic has become. As we know, more than 4.9 million have died of it. These terrifying figures are comparable and even exceed the military losses of the main participants in World War I.

The second point I would like to draw your attention to is the scale of change that forces us to act extremely cautiously, if only for reasons of self-preservation. The state and society must not respond radically to qualitative shifts in technology, dramatic environmental changes or the destruction of traditional systems. It is easier to destroy than to create, as we all know. We in Russia know this very well, regrettably, from our own experience, which we have had several times.

Just over a century ago, Russia objectively faced serious problems, including because of the ongoing World War I, but its problems were not bigger and possibly even smaller or not as acute as the problems the other countries faced, and Russia could have dealt with its problems gradually and in a civilised manner. But revolutionary shocks led to the collapse and disintegration of a great power. The second time this happened 30 years ago, when a potentially very powerful nation failed to enter the path of urgently needed, flexible but thoroughly substantiated reforms at the right time, and as a result it fell victim to all kinds of dogmatists, both reactionary ones and the so-called progressives – all of them did their bit, all sides did.

These examples from our history allow us to say that revolutions are not a way to settle a crisis but a way to aggravate it. No revolution was worth the damage it did to the human potential.

Third. The importance of a solid support in the sphere of morals, ethics and values is increasing dramatically in the modern fragile world. In point of fact, values are a product, a unique product of cultural and historical development of any nation. The mutual interlacing of nations definitely enriches them, openness expands their horizons and allows them to take a fresh look at their own traditions. But the process must be organic, and it can never be rapid. Any alien elements will be rejected anyway, possibly bluntly. Any attempts to force one’s values on others with an uncertain and unpredictable outcome can only further complicate a dramatic situation and usually produce the opposite reaction and an opposite from the intended result.

We look in amazement at the processes underway in the countries which have been traditionally looked at as the standard-bearers of progress. Of course, the social and cultural shocks that are taking place in the United States and Western Europe are none of our business; we are keeping out of this. Some people in the West believe that an aggressive elimination of entire pages from their own history, “reverse discrimination” against the majority in the interests of a minority, and the demand to give up the traditional notions of mother, father, family and even gender, they believe that all of these are the mileposts on the path towards social renewal.

Listen, I would like to point out once again that they have a right to do this, we are keeping out of this. But we would like to ask them to keep out of our business as well. We have a different viewpoint, at least the overwhelming majority of Russian society – it would be more correct to put it this way – has a different opinion on this matter. We believe that we must rely on our own spiritual values, our historical tradition and the culture of our multiethnic nation.

The advocates of so-called ‘social progress’ believe they are introducing humanity to some kind of a new and better consciousness. Godspeed, hoist the flags as we say, go right ahead. The only thing that I want to say now is that their prescriptions are not new at all. It may come as a surprise to some people, but Russia has been there already. After the 1917 revolution, the Bolsheviks, relying on the dogmas of Marx and Engels, also said that they would change existing ways and customs and not just political and economic ones, but the very notion of human morality and the foundations of a healthy society. The destruction of age-old values, religion and relations between people, up to and including the total rejection of family (we had that, too), encouragement to inform on loved ones – all this was proclaimed progress and, by the way, was widely supported around the world back then and was quite fashionable, same as today. By the way, the Bolsheviks were absolutely intolerant of opinions other than theirs.

This, I believe, should call to mind some of what we are witnessing now. Looking at what is happening in a number of Western countries, we are amazed to see the domestic practices, which we, fortunately, have left, I hope, in the distant past. The fight for equality and against discrimination has turned into aggressive dogmatism bordering on absurdity, when the works of the great authors of the past – such as Shakespeare – are no longer taught at schools or universities, because their ideas are believed to be backward. The classics are declared backward and ignorant of the importance of gender or race. In Hollywood memos are distributed about proper storytelling and how many characters of what colour or gender should be in a movie. This is even worse than the agitprop department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Countering acts of racism is a necessary and noble cause, but the new ‘cancel culture’ has turned it into ‘reverse discrimination’ that is, reverse racism. The obsessive emphasis on race is further dividing people, when the real fighters for civil rights dreamed precisely about erasing differences and refusing to divide people by skin colour. I specifically asked my colleagues to find the following quote from Martin Luther King: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by their character.” This is the true value. However, things are turning out differently there. By the way, the absolute majority of Russian people do not think that the colour of a person's skin or their gender is an important matter. Each of us is a human being. This is what matters.

In a number of Western countries, the debate over men’s and women’s rights has turned into a perfect phantasmagoria. Look, beware of going where the Bolsheviks once planned to go – not only communalising chickens, but also communalising women. One more step and you will be there.

Zealots of these new approaches even go so far as to want to abolish these concepts altogether. Anyone who dares mention that men and women actually exist, which is a biological fact, risk being ostracised. “Parent number one” and “parent number two,” “'birthing parent” instead of “mother,” and “human milk” replacing “breastmilk” because it might upset the people who are unsure about their own gender. I repeat, this is nothing new; in the 1920s, the so-called Soviet Kulturtraegers also invented some newspeak believing they were creating a new consciousness and changing values that way. And, as I have already said, they made such a mess it still makes one shudder at times.

Not to mention some truly monstrous things when children are taught from an early age that a boy can easily become a girl and vice versa. That is, the teachers actually impose on them a choice we all supposedly have. They do so while shutting the parents out of the process and forcing the child to make decisions that can upend their entire life. They do not even bother to consult with child psychologists – is a child at this age even capable of making a decision of this kind? Calling a spade a spade, this verges on a crime against humanity, and it is being done in the name and under the banner of progress.

Well, if someone likes this, let them do it. I have already mentioned that, in shaping our approaches, we will be guided by a healthy conservatism. That was a few years ago, when passions on the international arena were not yet running as high as they are now, although, of course, we can say that clouds were gathering even then. Now, when the world is going through a structural disruption, the importance of reasonable conservatism as the foundation for a political course has skyrocketed – precisely because of the multiplying risks and dangers, and the fragility of the reality around us.

This conservative approach is not about an ignorant traditionalism, a fear of change or a restraining game, much less about withdrawing into our own shell. It is primarily about reliance on a time-tested tradition, the preservation and growth of the population, a realistic assessment of oneself and others, a precise alignment of priorities, a correlation of necessity and possibility, a prudent formulation of goals, and a fundamental rejection of extremism as a method. And frankly, in the impending period of global reconstruction, which may take quite long, with its final design being uncertain, moderate conservatism is the most reasonable line of conduct, as far as I see it. It will inevitably change at some point, but so far, do no harm – the guiding principle in medicine – seems to be the most rational one. Noli nocere, as they say.

Again, for us in Russia, these are not some speculative postulates, but lessons from our difficult and sometimes tragic history. The cost of ill-conceived social experiments is sometimes beyond estimation. Such actions can destroy not only the material, but also the spiritual foundations of human existence, leaving behind moral wreckage where nothing can be built to replace it for a long time.

Finally, there is one more point I want to make. We understand all too well that resolving many urgent problems the world has been facing would be impossible without close international cooperation. However, we need to be realistic: most of the pretty slogans about coming up with global solutions to global problems that we have been hearing since the late 20th century will never become reality. In order to achieve a global solution, states and people have to transfer their sovereign rights to supra-national structures to an extent that few, if any, would accept. This is primarily attributable to the fact that you have to answer for the outcomes of such policies not to some global public, but to your citizens and voters.

However, this does not mean that exercising some restraint for the sake of bringing about solutions to global challenges is impossible. After all, a global challenge is a challenge for all of us together, and to each of us in particular. If everyone saw a way to benefit from cooperation in overcoming these challenges, this would definitely leave us better equipped to work together.

One of the ways to promote these efforts could be, for example, to draw up, at the UN level, a list of challenges and threats that specific countries face, with details of how they could affect other countries. This effort could involve experts from various countries and academic fields, including you, my colleagues. We believe that developing a roadmap of this kind could inspire many countries to see global issues in a new light and understand how cooperation could be beneficial for them.

I have already mentioned the challenges international institutions are facing. Unfortunately, this is an obvious fact: it is now a question of reforming or closing some of them. However, the United Nations as the central international institution retains its enduring value, at least for now. I believe that in our turbulent world it is the UN that brings a touch of reasonable conservatism into international relations, something that is so important for normalising the situation.

Many criticise the UN for failing to adapt to a rapidly changing world. In part, this is true, but it is not the UN, but primarily its members who are to blame for this. In addition, this international body promotes not only international norms, but also the rule-making spirit, which is based on the principles of equality and maximum consideration for everyone’s opinions. Our mission is to preserve this heritage while reforming the organisation. However, in doing so we need to make sure that we do not throw the baby out with the bathwater, as the saying goes.

This is not the first time I am using a high rostrum to make this call for collective action in order to face up to the problems that continue to pile up and become more acute. It is thanks to you, friends and colleagues, that the Valdai Club is emerging or has already established itself as a high-profile forum. It is for this reason that I am turning to this platform to reaffirm our readiness to work together on addressing the most urgent problems that the world is facing today.

Friends,

The changes mentioned here prior to me, as well as by yours truly, are relevant to all countries and peoples. Russia, of course, is not an exception. Just like everyone else, we are searching for answers to the most urgent challenges of our time.

Of course, no one has any ready-made recipes. However, I would venture to say that our country has an advantage. Let me explain what this advantage is. It is to do with our historical experience. You may have noticed that I have referred to it several times in the course of my remarks. Unfortunately, we had to bring back many sad memories, but at least our society has developed what they now refer to as herd immunity to extremism that paves the way to upheavals and socioeconomic cataclysms. People really value stability and being able to live normal lives and to prosper while confident that the irresponsible aspirations of yet another group of revolutionaries will not upend their plans and aspirations. Many have vivid memories of what happened 30 years ago and all the pain it took to climb out of the ditch where our country and our society found themselves after the USSR fell apart.

The conservative views we hold are an optimistic conservatism, which is what matters the most. We believe stable, positive development to be possible. It all depends primarily on our own efforts. Of course, we are ready to work with our partners on common noble causes.

I would like to thank all participants once more, for your attention. As the tradition goes, I will gladly answer or at least try to answer your questions.

Thank you for your patience.

Moderator of the 18th annual meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club closing session Fyodor Lukyanov: Thank you very much, Mr President, for your detailed remarks covering not only and not so much the current political problems, but fundamental issues. Following up on what you said, I cannot fail to ask you about the historical experience, traditions, conservatism and healthy conservatism that you have mentioned on several occasions in your remarks.

Does unhealthy conservatism frighten you? Where does the boundary separating the healthy from the unhealthy lie? At what point does a tradition turn from something that binds society together into a burden?

Vladimir Putin: Anything can become a burden, if you are not careful. When I speak about healthy conservatism, Nikolai Berdyayev always springs to mind, and I have already mentioned him several times. He was a remarkable Russian philosopher, and as you all know he was expelled from the Soviet Union in 1922. He was as forward-thinking as a man can be, but also sided with conservatism. He used to say, and you will excuse me if I do not quote his exact words: “Conservatism is not something preventing upward, forward movement, but something preventing you from sliding back into chaos.” If we treat conservatism this way, it provides an effective foundation for further progress.

Fyodor Lukyanov: Speaking of traditions, you also tend to mention traditional values quite frequently, and this is a hot topic in our society. In particular, you have proposed relying on traditional values as a foundation for bringing the world together. However, traditions are destined to be unique for every nation. How can everyone come together around the same traditional values, if they have their own traditions?

Vladimir Putin: Do you know what the trick is? The trick is that of course there is a lot of diversity and every nation around the world is different. Still, something unites all people. After all, we are all people, and we all want to live. Life is of absolute value.

In my opinion, the same applies to family as a value, because what can be more important than procreation? Do we want to be or not to be? If we do not want to be, fine. You see, adoption is also a good and important thing, but to adopt a child someone has to give birth to that child. This is the second universal value that cannot be contested.

I do not think that I need to list them all. You are all smart people here, and everyone understands this, including you. Yes, we do need to work together based on these shared, universal values.

Fyodor Lukyanov: You made a powerful statement when you said that the current model of capitalism has run its course and no longer offers a solution to international issues. One hears this a lot these days, but you are referring to our country’s unfortunate experience in the 20th century when we were actually rejecting capitalism, but this did not work out for us either. Does this mean that this is where we want to return? Where are we headed with this dysfunctional capitalist model?

Vladimir Putin: I also said that there were no ready-made recipes. It is true that what we are currently witnessing, for example on the energy markets, as we will probably discuss later, demonstrates that this kind of capitalism does not work. All they do is talk about the “invisible hand” of the market, only to get $1,500 or $2,000 per 1,000 cubic metres. Is this market-based approach to regulation any good?

When everything goes well and there is stability, economic actors around the world demand more freedom for themselves and a smaller role for the state in the economy. However, when challenges arise, especially at a global scale, they want the government to interfere.

I remember 2008 and 2009 and the global financial crisis very well. I was Prime Minister at the time, and spoke to many Russian business leaders, who were viewed as successful up to that point, and everything is fine with them now, by the way. They came to me and were ready to give up their companies that were worth tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions of dollars, for a ruble. Why? They had to assume responsibility for their workforce and for the future of these companies. It was easier for them just to keep what they earned and shift their responsibility to others.

At the time, we agreed that the state would lend them its shoulder: they kept their businesses, while the state paid off their margin loans and assumed responsibility, to a certain extent. Together with the businesses, we found a solution. As a result, we saved Russia’s largest private companies, and enabled the state to make a profit afterwards. We actually made money because when the companies were back on their feet, they paid back what they owed the state. The state made quite a profit.

In this regard, we do need to work together and explore each other’s experience. Other countries also had positive experiences in making the state and the market work in tune with each other. The People’s Republic of China is a case in point. While the Communist Party retains its leading role there, the country has a viable market and its institutions are quite effective. This is an obvious fact.

For this reason, there are no ready-made recipes. Wild capitalism does not work either, as I have already said, and I am ready to repeat this, as I have just demonstrated using these examples.

In a way, this is like art. You need to understand when to place a bigger emphasis on something: when to add more salt, and when to use more sugar. You see? While being guided by the general principles as articulated by international financial institutions such as the IMF, the OECD, etc., we need to understand where we are. To act, we need to understand how our capabilities compare with the plans we have. By the way, here in Russia we have been quite effective over the past years, including in overcoming the consequences of the epidemic. Other countries also performed quite well, as we can see.

Fyodor Lukyanov: Do you mean that we are moving not only towards an optimistic conservatism but also towards an optimistic capitalism?

Vladimir Putin: You see, we need to build a social welfare state. Truth be said, Europe, especially the Nordic countries, have been advocating a social welfare state for a long time. This is essential for us, considering the income gap between various social groups, even if this problem exists in all the leading economies of the world. Just look at the United States and Europe, although the income gap is smaller in Europe compared to the United States.

As I have said on multiple occasions, only a small group of people who were already rich to begin with benefited from the preferences that became available over the past years. Their wealth increased exponentially compared to the middle class and the poor. This problem clearly exists there, even if it is not as pressing in Europe, but it still exists.

Fyodor Lukyanov: Thank you.

I will ask the last question so that we do not keep the audience waiting. You mentioned the UN’s invaluable role. We can understand this, since the UN is a fundamental institution, and so on. However, many now criticise the UN, and you have mentioned this in your remarks.

Just a few days ago, President of Turkey Erdogan, whom you know well, said that the Security Council must be reformed because a group of WWII victor countries monopolised power, which is not the way it should be. Do you agree with this statement?

Vladimir Putin: I do not. He has recently visited Russia, as you know, and I had a meeting with him. I raised this question myself, saying that I saw his main points. I have to admit that I did not read the entire book, but I did look at some of the ideas. I agree with some of them. This is a good analysis. We can understand why a Turkish leader raises this issue. He probably believes that Turkey could become a permanent Security Council member. It is not up to Russia to decide, though. Matters of this kind must be decided by consensus. There are also India and South Africa. You see, this is a question of fairness, of striking a balance.

Different solutions are possible here. I would rather not talk about this now, getting ahead of things and preempting Russia's position on this discussion. But what is important (I just said so in my opening remarks, and I also said this to President Erdogan), if we dismantle the permanent members’ veto, the United Nations will die on the same day, will degrade into the League of Nations, and that will be it. It will be just a platform for discussion, Valdai Club number two. But there is only one Valdai Club, and it is here. (Laughter.)

Fyodor Lukyanov: We are ready to step in.

Vladimir Putin: Valdai Club number two will be in New York.

Fyodor Lukyanov: We will go and replace it with pleasure.

Vladimir Putin: But this is the point – we would rather not change anything. That is, some change might be necessary, but we would rather not destroy the basis – this is the whole point of the UN today, that there are five permanent members, and they have the power of veto. Other states are represented on the Security Council, but they are non-permanent members.

We need to think how we could make this organisation more balanced, because indeed – this is true, and in this sense, President Erdogan is right – it emerged after World War II, when there was a certain balance of power. Now it is changing; it has already changed.

We are well aware that China has overtaken the United States in purchasing power parity. What do you think that is? These are global changes.

And India? Another nation of almost 1.5 billion people, a rapidly developing economy, and so on. And why is Africa not represented? Where is Latin America? We definitely need to consider this – a growing giant there such as Brazil. These are all topics for discussion. Only, we must not rush. We must not make any mistakes on the path of reform.

Fyodor Lukyanov: The leaders of the Valdai Club will consider holding a meeting in New York. Only, they might not issue visas to all of us, I am afraid, but no problem, we will work on that.

Vladimir Putin: By the way, why not? The Valdai Club might as well meet in New York.

Fyodor Lukyanov: After you and Biden agree on the visas. (Laughter.)

Vladimir Putin: I do not think the heads of state will need to step in. Just ask Sergei Lavrov, he will speak with his colleagues there.

Why not? I am serious. Why not hold a Valdai Club session on a neutral site, outside the Russian Federation? Why not? I think it might be interesting.

We have important people here in this room, good analysts who are well known in their countries. More people can be invited in the host country to join these discussions. What is wrong with that? This is good.

Fyodor Lukyanov: Well, we have just set a goal.

Vladimir Putin: It is not a goal; it is a possibility.

Fyodor Lukyanov: A possibility. Like a crisis. It is also a possibility.

Vladimir Putin: Yes.

Fyodor Lukyanov: Please, Piotr Dutkiewicz.

Piotr Dutkiewicz: Mr President, I would like to return to the words you have just said, that Russia should rely on Russian values. By the way, we were talking about this at a Valdai Club meeting the day before yesterday.

I would like to ask you which Russian thinkers, scholars, anthropologists and writers do you regard as your closest soul-mates, helping you to define for yourself the values that will later become those of all Russians?

Vladimir Putin: You know, I would prefer not to say that this is Ivan Ilyin alone. I read Ilyin, I read him to this day. I have his book lying on my shelf, and I pick it up and read it from time to time. I have mentioned Berdiayev, there are other Russian thinkers. All of them are people who were thinking about Russia and its future. I am fascinated by the train of their thought, but, of course, I make allowances for the time when they were working, writing and formulating their ideas. The well-known idea about the passionarity of nations is a very interesting idea. It could be challenged – arguments around it continue to this day. But if there are debates over the ideas they formulated, these are obviously not idle ideas to say the least.

Let me remind you about nations’ passionarity. According to the author of this idea, peoples, nations, ethnic groups are like a living organism: they are born, reach the peak of their development, and then quietly grow old. Many countries, including those on the American continent, say today’s Western Europe is ageing. This is the term they use. It is hard to say whether this is right or not. But, to my mind, the idea that a nation should have an inner driving mechanism for development, a will for development and self-assertion has a leg to stand on.

We are observing that certain countries are on the rise even though they have a lot of unsolved problems. They resemble erupting volcanoes, like the one on the Spanish island, which is disgorging its lava. But there are also extinguished volcanoes, where fires are long dead and one can only hear birds singing.

You, please.

Piotr Dutkiewicz: Mr President, you have referred to Lev Gumilyov, who presented me with a samizdat edition of his first book in St Petersburg in 1979. I will pass this samizdat on to you.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you very much.

Fyodor Lukyanov: Samizdat, a tradition.

Dear friends, please introduce yourselves, when you take the floor.

Alexei Miller: Good afternoon, Mr President.

I am Alexei Miller, a historian from the European University at St Petersburg.

Vladimir Putin: There are two Alexei Millers. Russia is a rich country. (Laughter)

Alexei Miller: Two years ago, you were asked during a meeting at the Valdai Club about the European Parliament’s resolution, which made the Soviet Union (and hence Russia) and Nazi Germany equally responsible for the outbreak of WWII. Since then, you have commented on this issue several times in your statements and in the article published in the summer of 2020.

In particular, during the ceremony to unveil a monument to the victims of the siege of Leningrad at the Yad Vashem memorial complex in January 2020, you said you would like to propose a meeting of the Big Five leaders to discuss this issue as well, so that we could overcome the current confrontation and end the war on memory. I believe the situation has not improved since then. Or maybe you know something the general public is not aware of, maybe there have been some improvements? It would be great if you could tell us about this.

My second question follows on from the first one. When there is such confrontation in the countries that are involved in the war on memory, some forces may be tempted to join ranks and to restrict, to a greater or lesser degree, the freedom of discussion, including among historians. Such discussions always involve a difference of opinions and some risqué or even wrong views. Do you envision the threat of such restrictions in our country?

Vladimir Putin: No, I do not believe there is such a threat in our country. We sometimes see the danger of not being responsible for what some people say, indeed, but then this is the reverse side of the freedom you have mentioned.

As for my initiative to hold a meeting of the heads of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, it has been supported by everyone, in principle, and such a meeting could have been organised. The problems that arose are not connected with Russia but with some disputes within this group of five countries. As I have said, they are not connected with Russia. This is the first point.

And the second is that the pandemic began soon after that, and the situation has become really complicated.

The idea of the meeting received a highly positive response, and I hope it will be held eventually. This definitely will be beneficial. We are discussing this with our American partners, with our Chinese friends, with France – incidentally, the French President supported it immediately, as well as with Britain. They have their own ideas and proposals on additional subjects that can be discussed at such a meeting. I hope the necessary conditions will develop and we will hold this meeting.

As for historical memory, the memory of WWII, you know, of course, that I am ready to talk about this with arguments in hand. We have many complaints about the country’s leadership between 1917 and 1990, which is obvious. However, placing the Nazis and the Communists before WWII on the same level and dividing responsibility between them equally is absolutely unacceptable. It is a lie.

I am saying this not only because I am Russian and, currently, the head of the Russian state, which is the legal successor of the Soviet Union. I am saying this now, in part or at least in part, as a researcher. I have read the documents, which I retrieved from the archives. We are publishing them now in increasingly large amounts.

Trust me, when I read them, the picture in my mind started changing. You can think about Stalin differently, blaming him for the prison camps, persecution campaigns and the like. But I have seen his instructions on documents. The Soviet government was genuinely doing its best to prevent WWII, even if for different reasons. Some people would say that the country was not ready for the war, which is why they tried to prevent it. But they did try to prevent it. They fought for the preservation of Czechoslovakia, providing arguments to protect its sovereignty. I have read, I have really read – this is not a secret, and we are declassifying these archives now – about France’s reaction to those events, including regarding the meeting of the leading politicians with Hitler in Munich in 1938.

When you read this, when you see it, you understand that attempts can indeed be made to distort these facts. But you can at least read these documents. I can understand the current Polish leadership’s attitude to the 1939 events, but when you tell them: Just take a look at what happened slightly before that, when Poland joined Germany in the division of Czechoslovakia. You lit the fuse, you pulled the cork, the genie came out, and you cannot put it back into the bottle.”

I also read the archival documents which we received after the Red Army entered Europe: we have German and also Polish and French documents, we have them. They directly discussed the division of Czechoslovakia and the time for the invasion. And then to blame it on the Soviet Union? This simply does not correspond to reality and facts.

Simply put, who attacked who? Did the Soviet Union attack Germany? No, it did not. Yes, there were secret agreements between Germany and the Soviet Union. Incidentally, I would like to note that the Soviet troops entered Brest when the German troops had been already deployed there; the Germans simply moved back a little and the Red Army moved in. Do you see?

There is no point adding a political dimension here. Let us act calmly at the expert level, read the documents and sort things out. Nobody is accusing the Polish leadership. But we will not allow anyone to accuse Russia or the Soviet Union of what they did not do.

And lastly, I would like to say that there are some perfectly obvious things. Firstly, it was Germany that attacked the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, and not vice versa, and secondly, let us not forget who stormed Berlin. Was it the Americans, the British or the French? No, it was the Red Army. Have you forgotten this? It is easy to recall, for it is an obvious fact.

As many as 1.1 million of our people died in the Battle of Stalingrad alone. How many casualties can Britain claim? 400,000. And the United States, less that 500,000. A total of 75 percent, and probably even 80 percent of the German military potential was destroyed by the Soviet army. Are you a little rusty on this?

No, you are not rusty at all. These events are being used to deal with the current internal political matters in an opportunistic manner. This is wrong, because nothing good will come of manipulating history. At the very least, this does not promote mutual understanding, which we need so badly now.

Fyodor Lukyanov: Orietta Moscatelli, go ahead please.

Orietta Moscatelli: Orietta Moscatelli, Italy. Thank you for the meeting.

As you mentioned, different things have been said about Homo sovieticus over the 30 years since the Soviet Union’s disintegration. Was there really a person like that? Here is my question: Do you think it was true? Do you believe Russia has fully overcome Soviet experience as a society? What are the main features of the Soviet times that you have kept in your life?

Vladimir Putin: I, as well as many people of my generation certainly remember this idea and this formula – a new community, Soviet people, the Soviet person. Of course, all of us remember this. In reality, this definition is not at all bad. This is my first point.

The second point. Look, the whole world and the United States describe the US as a “melting pot,” in which people of different nations, ethnicities and religions are melting together. What is bad about this? They are all proud – the Irish, people of European and East European origin, you name it, as well as Latin Americans and Africans by their initial descent – many of them are proud to be US citizens and this is wonderful. This is what “the melting pot” is about.

Russia is also “a melting pot.” Since the formation of a united Russian state – the first steps were made, probably in the 8th-9th centuries, and also after Conversion of Rus’, the Russian nation and a centralised Russian state began to take shape with a common market, common language, the power of a prince and common spiritual values. The Russian state began to be established and later expanded. This was also a “melting pot.”

Nothing particularly new was created in the Soviet Union except one very important circumstance: this new community, the Soviet person, the Soviet people acquired an ideological tinge. Of course, there was nothing good about this because this narrows the horizons of the possible. This is the first point.

The second point. Positive features of the Soviet times reflected on the Soviet people. What were they? Patriotism inherent in our peoples, supremacy of the spiritual dimension over material things, all these values I mentioned, including family ones. But negative things in the life and destiny of the Soviet Union also stuck to the Soviet people. Thus, they were deprived of property as such. Private property was embodied in a household plot, but this is quite a different category. Hence, their attitude to labour, the one-size-fits-all approach and so on.

The Soviet Union had many problems. They triggered the events that led to the collapse of the USSR. However, it is wrong, crude and inappropriate to paint everything black. Yes, I know we have people that paint everything black. Hence, they deserve to be put into something that smells bad.

There are both pluses and minuses, as for “the melting pot,” I think it was good to have it because it enriches the people, enriches the nation.

You know, what is typical of Russia, something you can find in all historical documents: when expanding its territory Russia never made life difficult for the people who became part of the united Russian state. This applied to religion, traditions and history. Look at the decrees of Catherine the Great who issued her instruction in clear terms: treat with respect. This was the attitude towards those who preached Islam, for instance. This has always been the case. This is a tradition. In terms of preserving these traditions, the new community of the Soviet people had nothing bad about it except the ideologisation of this melting pot and the results of its functioning.

I think I have described everything linked with the Soviet period of our history. Now I have mentioned this again and I do not think it is worth discussing this topic again.

As for me, like the overwhelming majority of people of my generation, I faced the problems of that period, but I also remember its positive features that should not be forgotten. Being from a family of workers, yours truly graduated from Leningrad State University. This is something, right? At that time, education played the role of a real social lift. On the whole, the egalitarian approach was very widespread and we encountered its negative impact, such as income levelling and a related attitude to work, but a lot of people still used the preferences of social lifts I mentioned. Maybe, it was simply the legacy of past generations or even cultivated in the Soviet Union to some extent. This is also important.

I have now recalled my family. My mum and dad were simple people. They did not talk in slogans but I remember very well that discussing different problems at home, in the family, they always, I would like to emphasise this, treated their country with respect, speaking about it in their own manner, in simple terms, in the folk style. This was not demonstrative patriotism. It was inside our family.

I think I have the right to say that the overwhelming majority of the Russian people and the other peoples of the USSR cultivated these positive features. It is no accident that over 70 percent of the population voted for preserving the Soviet Union on the eve of its collapse. Many people in the union republics that gained independence regretted what had happened. But now life is different and we believe it is going its own way and generally recognise current realities.

As for the Soviet person, the new formation, as they said then, I believe I have already said enough on this subject.

Fyodor Lukyanov: This year’s Valdai Club meeting is special in part because we have a Nobel Peace Prize laureate here with us for the first time in our history.

I would like to give the floor to Dmitry Muratov.

Dmitry Muratov: Thank you. Good afternoon.

Mr President, Valdai Club guests, Fyodor, I want to let everyone know that the prize money has been distributed.

Thanks go to the Circle of Kindness Foundation. Furthermore, we hope that our modest contribution will help everyone realise that the Circle of Kindness Foundation helps young people under 18, but then after they are 18, they are left without guidance. It is like saying, “Thank you, we saved you, and now goodbye.” We look forward to the Circle of Kindness Foundation (they appear ready to do this) expanding its mandate. There is the children's hospice Lighthouse, the First Moscow Charity Hospice Foundation Vera, the Podari Zhizn Foundation, the Anna Politkovskaya Award, and the Foundation for Medical Aid for Media Members. That is all.

Of course, I also think that, to some extent, probably, this is a prize for our country as well, although I consider myself an impostor. I will do my best to make sure it benefits our people.

Now, if I may, a brief remark and a question.

Mr President, I have very carefully studied the answer you gave during Moscow Energy Week regarding foreign agents, where you said that we were not the first to adopt this law, that the United States did so back in the 1930s.

But, Mr President, since we do not adopt every law that is adopted in the United States, my question about foreign agents remains. After all, I believe this concerns not only dozens and dozens of journalists and human rights activists who are listed in the register, but also hundreds of thousands and even millions of readers. Therefore, I believe it is a serious matter.

Most importantly, you have just mentioned Leningrad University and I think your subject of study will help us understand each other well. This law does not provide for any court recourse. You are designated a foreign agent and there is no argument of the parties, no provision of evidence, no verdict. It is a stain. Let me remind you of our favourite childhood book. This is the same kind of brand Milady in The Three Musketeers had. But before Milady was beheaded, the executioner of Lille read the verdict to her at dawn whereas in our case there is no verdict whatsoever.

Furthermore, it is impossible to get away from this law. There is not even a warning that you become a foreign agent starting, say, tomorrow. For many, this status undoubtedly means they are an enemy of the Motherland. I remember from my days of army service that under the guard service regulations, the sentry first fires a warning shot in the air. Excuse me, but only security guards at prison camps shoot to kill without a warning shot.

I believe we need to sort this out, since the criteria are woefully vague. Take, for example, receiving organisational and methodological assistance. What does this mean? If I am asking a member of the Valdai Club for a comment, and they come from another country, does that make me a foreign agent? They make their announcements on Fridays. I want to remind you that tomorrow is Friday.

I would like to ask you to respond to the way this issue is presented. Perhaps, you, Mr President and, for example, the State Duma Chairman, could hold an extraordinary meeting with the editors from various media in order discuss the issues at hand.

Thank you very much.

Vladimir Putin: First, I would like to congratulate you on the Nobel Prize. I would like to draw your attention to one fact: Nikolai Berdyayev, whom I have mentioned, was expelled by the Bolsheviks on the well-known Philosophy Steamer in 1922. Nominated for a Nobel Prize more than once, he never received this award.

Dmitry Muratov: That was about literature.

Vladimir Putin: No difference, but yes, I agree. The first Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and Barrack Obama also received Nobel peace prizes. So, you are in good company. Congratulations! But we really know. You have just spoken about a hospice. I would give you a prize for that because you are doing this good work. It is truly noble work, the Circle of Kindness, and the like.

Your concern about foreign agents; I will not deviate to the right or left. Look, you said that here when these decisions are made… firstly, American laws. Do we have to copy everything from the Americans? No, we do not need to copy everything. Yet many liberals in Russia still think we should copy almost everything. But I agree with you: not everything.

You said this is not decided in court. This is not done in the United States either. They summon people to the Department of Justice. Ask Russia Today about what they are doing. Do you know how tough they are? Up to and including criminal liability. We do not have this. This is not about the position of some public figure, some public organisation, or a media outlet. Their position does not matter. This law does not ban anyone from having one’s own opinion on an issue. It is about receiving financial aid from abroad during domestic political activities. That is the point. The law does not even keep them from continuing these political activities. The money that comes from abroad, from over there, should simply be identified as such. Russian society should know what position someone comes from or what they think about internal political processes or something else, but it should also realise that they receive money from abroad. This is the right of Russian society. In fact, this is the whole point of this law. There are no restrictions in it at all.

So, when you said there is no verdict, that is right. There is no verdict. There was a verdict for Milady – her head was cut off. Here nobody is cutting off anything. So, just continue working like you did before.

But you are right about one thing. I will not even argue with you, because this is true. Of course, we probably need to go over these vague criteria again and again. I can promise you that we will take another look at them. I know it happens occasionally. Even my personal acquaintances who engage in charitable activities were telling me that cases were being made against them portraying them as foreign agents. I am aware of the fact that our colleagues discuss this at the Human Rights Council. I keep issuing instructions on that score to the Presidential Administration and the State Duma deputies so that they go over it again and again, improve this tool, and in no way abuse it.

So, thank you for bringing this up. We will look into it.

Thank you very much.

Fyodor Lukyanov: Just a quick follow-up on that. Mr President, are you not afraid of excessive acts?

Vladimir Putin: I am not afraid of anything, why is everyone trying to scare me?

Fyodor Lukyanov: Okay, then we are afraid, and you tell us about excessive acts, since you know your former security service colleagues well.

Vladimir Putin: Not everyone, this is a mass organisation, how can I know everyone?

Fyodor Lukyanov: Well, not everyone, but many.

Vladimir Putin: When I was [FSB]director, I sometimes even summoned operatives with specific cases and read them myself. And now I do not know everyone there. I left it a long time ago.

Fyodor Lukyanov: I am talking about specific cases. Their psychological makeup is that overdoing things is a safer approach than missing things. Will there be no blanket approach to identifying foreign agents?

Vladimir Putin: What?

Fyodor Lukyanov: Will they not use a blanket approach to identifying foreign agents?

Vladimir Putin: Is there anything there that looks like a blanket approach? How many do we have? Every second, or what? I believe there is no such thing as widespread branding of people as foreign agents.

I think the danger is vastly exaggerated. I believe I have formulated the underlying reasons for adopting this law quite clearly.

Fyodor Lukyanov: Good. In addition to a Nobel prize winner, we also have a foreign agent in the audience.

Margarita Simonyan, please share your experience.

Margarita Simonyan: Yes, thank you, good afternoon,

We have been foreign agents for many years now. Moreover, I was summoned for interrogation in the United States several years ago, because we did not register as foreign agents earlier, despite the fact that our lawyers, including former rather high-ranking officials from the US Department of Justice (Dima, this information is mostly for you, congratulations on winning the prize), told us – and we have these legal opinions in writing – that this law does not apply to us, because it clearly said in English “except the media.”

But when our audience started growing, and we got in their way, they told us: “We do not care what the Department of Justice is telling you, you either register or go to prison for five years.” And I have a summons for questioning because I myself failed to register earlier, before they registered me. I do not travel there anymore, just in case, because I might be jailed. This is my first point.

Vladimir Putin: There is no fence against ill fortune, Margarita.

(Addressing Dmitry Muratov) You see, in the United States, some people face a five-year sentence.

Margarita Simonyan: Yes, five. And we know people who are doing time under this law, five years.

Secondly, unlike in Russia, this law definitely has consequences and implies sanctions. For example, one’s accreditation to Congress gets instantly revoked, and if you are not accredited with Congress in the United States, you can no longer go anywhere – not a single event, nowhere (I can see people that know this nodding their heads). You actually work on semi-underground terms there. This is how we have been working for how long now? Six years. But we will continue to do this work.

Mr President, as a mother of three young children, I would like to thank you very much for your healthy conservatism. I am terrified by the thought of my 7-year-old son being asked to choose a gender, or my 2-year-old daughter being told from all mobile devices, and even at school, as is now happening in many Western countries, that her future is that of a “person with human milk who gave birth to a baby.” And the thought that these tentacles of liberal fascism, so-called liberal, will reach us and our children. I really hope that this will never be allowed in our country, despite its great openness.

You mentioned bloviating, which the so-called humanistic foundation of the European political thought turned out to be, but this so-called freedom of speech turned out to be bloviating too. Freedom of speech turned out to be a postcard made for the people we were in the 1990s, so that we could look at it and think: “Wow, it does exist. Great, we will do that too, we will not have foreign agents, and everything will be fine with us.” This freedom of speech has just strangled our YouTube channel, which was very popular, and everything was cool there, really. And you know very well that this is not a privately-run outfit, but a public project which we created not for ourselves, but for the Motherland, and we have run out of options to get this project back. And we no longer believe in anything other than reciprocal measures.

According to their own analyses, Deutsche Welle was behind us in Germany in certain rankings. It broadcasts in Russia without any problems, but we cannot broadcast there. We have already built studios, hired people, produced shows and earned an audience, but now, with the strike of a pen and without any reason, and, Mr Muratov, without a court ruling, everything fell apart in a single moment.

This is no a question actually, I am asking, pleading for protection, Mr President. I do not see any other way to protect us other than through retaliatory measures.

My question is the following. Moscow has recently hosted a Congress of Compatriots, and you sent greetings to the participants. I took the floor at this forum and asked those of my colleagues in the audience, people who are proactive in defending the Russian world and the Russian language around the world, sometimes putting their lives and freedom at risk, who wanted but could not obtain Russian citizenship, to raise their hands. Half the audience had their hands up.

We have discussed this many times. You may remember that several years ago we spoke about granting citizenship to Donbass residents. The procedure was streamlined for them. Can this be done for all Russians? Why is Russia shying away from doing this? The Jews did not hesitate about it, and neither did the Germans nor the Greeks, but we are hesitating. This is my question. Thank you very much.

Vladimir Putin: First, regarding the retaliatory measures, I think we need to be cautious when someone makes mistakes like this, and I do believe that you have suffered from them, when a channel is closed or you are unable to work. I know about the fact that your accounts were blocked and that you could not open, etc. There is a plethora of instruments to this effect.

Margarita Simonyan: More like carpet-bombing.

Vladimir Putin: Yes, to make it impossible for you to work there. I know.

On the one hand, of course, they are infringing on freedom of speech and so forth, which is a bad thing. But since they are doing this, you and I have to think about how to spread the word about the fact that they are cancelling you, and then more people will become interested in what you do.

Margarita Simonyan: The only problem is that there is no place for people to watch us. People are interested, but there is nowhere to watch us.

Vladimir Putin: I do understand, but we need to give this some thought, and explore technical and technological opportunities.

As for retaliatory measures, let me reiterate that what matters the most is that they do not turn out to be counterproductive. I do not oppose them, but I do not want them to be counterproductive.

As for your question on Russian citizenship, you are right. My position is that we need to improve this tool. There are questions here related to socioeconomic matters: clinics, kindergartens, jobs, housing, etc. Still, the citizenship laws must become increasingly liberal. This is obvious. By the way, this is what the labour market compels us to do. We are thinking about this.

Margarita Simonyan: Thank you, Mr President.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you.

Fyodor Lukyanov: Colleagues, in addition to those in this room, there are other participants who are watching us online, as they could not join us here due to the well-known circumstances.

I would like to ask – Robert Legvold, our longtime friend, member of the Valdai Research Council, professor at Columbia University.

Robert Legvold: Thank you very much, Fyodor. For me, it is a disappointment that I have not been able to be with all of the participants in the Valdai conference, but I am particularly pleased to have this opportunity to be part of this session. The topic of Valdai this year has been very transcendent and fundamental questions, and I admire Valdai for doing that.

President Putin has certainly risen to the challenge of that agenda and has addressed it in an extremely engaging and revealing fashion.

My question, however, is narrower but more specific, and I apologise for descending to this level, but it is a question that is important in my country. I think it is important in your country. Although neither your government nor the Biden administration believes that a reset of the US-Russian relationship is possible at this juncture, how do you evaluate or assess the evolution of US-Russia relations since your meeting with President Biden in June? In what areas has there been progress, if any? And what, in your view, are the obstacles to further progress? Thank you very much.

Vladimir Putin: On the whole, I have spoken about this; I have answered questions like this. I can only repeat myself now. On second thought, not just repeat – there is actually something to be said about what is happening.

The meeting in Geneva was generally productive, and it seemed to us – when I say ‘us,’ I mean my colleagues and myself – that overall, the administration was interested in building ties, reviving them at least in some important areas.

What did we agree on? We agreed to begin consultations on strategic stability, and the consultations began and are held regularly, on cybersecurity issues as well. At the expert level, cooperation has started. So we can safely say that although the scope of matters we agreed on was limited, we are on the right track nonetheless.

These are the most important matters for today. And in general, the administration (on the American side) and Russia (on the other side) are fulfilling the plans and are moving along this path. And when this happens, as we know, it is always a sign, one of a systemic nature. And now, look, our trade has already grown by 23 percent and in many areas. This, among other things, is an indirect effect of our meeting in Geneva.

So, overall, we are on the right track, although, unfortunately – I would not like to talk about sad things now, but we also see certain backslides, remember that phrase we used years ago – one step forward, two steps back – this is also happening sometimes. Still, we are progressing in line with our general agreements.

Fyodor Lukyanov: Thank you. Since we are in a new world now, for balance, I will give the floor to our kind friend Zhou Bo from Tsinghua University in Beijing.

Go ahead, please.

Zhou Bo: Mr President, it is really my great honour to ask you this question. First of all, let me thank you for this opportunity. I will ask you something about Afghanistan. Afghanistan lies in the heart of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. So, if Afghanistan has a problem, then the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation has a problem. Now the United States has withdrawn from Afghanistan. So how can the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, which is led by China and Russia, united with other countries, help Afghanistan to achieve political stability and economic development? Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: The situation in Afghanistan is one of the most urgent issues today. You know, we have just had a meeting in the appropriate format, in part, with representatives of the Taliban. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is also active in Afghanistan. This is a very serious issue for all of us because for both China and Russia it is extremely important to have a calm, developing Afghanistan that is not a source of terrorism, or any form of radicalism, next to our national borders, if not on our borders.

We are now seeing what is happening inside Afghanistan. Unfortunately, different groups, including ISIS are still there. There are already victims among the Taliban movement, which, as a whole, is still trying to get rid of these radical elements and we know of such examples. This is very important for us, for both Russia and China.

In order to normalise the situation properly and at the right pace, it is necessary, of course, to help Afghanistan restore its economy because drugs are another huge problem. It is a known fact that 90 percent of opiates come to the world market from Afghanistan. And if there is no money, what will they do? From what sources and how will they fund their social programmes?

Therefore, for all the importance of our participation in these processes – both China and Russia and other SCO countries – the main responsibility for what is happening there is still borne by the countries that fought there for 20 years. I believe the first thing they must do is to release Afghan assets and give Afghanistan an opportunity to resolve high priority socio-economic problems.

For our part, we can implement specific large projects and deal with domestic security issues. Our special services are in contact with their Afghan counterparts. For us, within the SCO, it is very important to get this work up and running because Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are right on the border with Afghanistan. We have a military facility in Tajikistan. It was based on the 201st division when it was still Soviet.

Therefore, we will actively continue this work with China on a bilateral plane, develop dialogue with relevant structures and promote cooperation within the SCO as a whole. In the process, we will allocate the required resources and create all the conditions to let our citizens feel safe regardless of what is happening in Afghanistan.

Fyodor Lukyanov: Thank you.

Mikhail Pogrebinsky, please.

Mikhail Pogrebinsky: Thank you, Fyodor. Thank you, Mr President.

I will try to ask a question, the answer to which is awaited, I am sure, by hundreds of thousands of people in my homeland.

You mentioned a Chinese proverb about living in a time of change. Our country has been living like that for almost 30 years now, and the situation is becoming more difficult in anticipation of winter, amid the pandemic, and, I would say, the situation with the Americans. A couple of days ago, we had Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin visit our country. He brought $60 million worth of weapons and promised us a bright future as a NATO member, figuratively speaking.

I will note right away that any allegations that NATO is irrelevant because Europe does not agree, are prevarication. One does not need to be a NATO member to have US or British military infrastructure deployed in Ukraine. I believe this process is already underway.

In your July article on historical unity, you wrote that transforming Ukraine into an anti-Russia country is unacceptable for millions of people. This is true, and opinion polls confirm it. Over 40 percent have good or very good thoughts about Russia. However, this transformation has, in fact, started. A rather long and very dangerous, in my opinion, distance in this direction may have already been covered. I think that if this idea with a para-NATO infrastructure continues to be implemented, the process to form what is now a not so stable anti-Russia Ukraine will be cemented for many years to come.

You wrote in your article that if the process continues unabated, it will pose a serious threat to the Russian state, and this may be fraught with Ukraine losing its statehood. People who oppose this movement are facing reprisals. You are aware that they are trying to put Viktor Medvedchuk in prison based on some outlandish charges.

How, in your opinion, can this process be stopped? Maybe, you have a timeline for when it might happen? What can be done in this regard at all?

Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: Unfortunately, I will probably have to disappoint you – I do not yet know the answer to this question. On the one hand, it seems to lie on the surface: the easiest thing is to say that the Ukrainian people must make a decision themselves, and form the bodies of power and administration that would meet their needs and expectations. From one perspective, this is indeed true.

But on the other hand, there is another perspective, and I cannot avoid mentioning it. You have just mentioned Viktor Medvedchuk, who has been charged with high treason. For what? Did he steal some secrets and illegally disclose them to a third party? No. What then? Was it his open political position about stabilising Ukraine’s internal affairs and building relations with its neighbours because those relations are extremely important for Ukraine itself? It is concerning that such people are not allowed to raise their heads. Some of them end up killed, and others locked up.

One gets the impression that the Ukrainian people are not allowed and will not be allowed to legally form the bodies of power that would uphold their interests. The people there are even afraid to respond to polls. They are scared, because the small group that has appropriated the victory in the fight for independence holds radical political views. And that group actually runs the country, regardless of the name of the current head of state.

At least this is how it was until recently: people ran for leadership positions relying on voters in the Southeast, but once elected, they almost immediately changed their political positions to the opposite. Why? Because that silent majority voted for them in the hope that they would fulfil their campaign promises, but the loud and aggressive nationalist minority suppressed all freedom in decision-making that the Ukrainian people expected, and they, in fact, are running the country.

This is a dead end. I do not even know how this can be changed. We will wait and see what happens in Ukraine’s political affairs in the near future.

For our part, we are making every effort to improve these relations. But the threat you just spoke about — not even spoke about, only mentioned — is quite important to us. And you are right that formal NATO membership may never happen, but military expansion on the territory is already underway, and this really poses a threat to the Russian Federation, we are aware of this.

Consider what happened in the late 1980s – early 1990s (I will not tell the whole story now, although you just made me think about talking more about it), when everyone assured us that an eastward expansion of NATO infrastructure after the unification of Germany was totally out of the question. Russia could be absolutely sure of this, at the very least, so they said. But those were public statements. What happened in reality? They lied. And now they challenge us to produce a document that actually said that.

They expanded NATO once, and then expanded it twice. What are the military-strategic consequences? Their infrastructure is getting closer. What kind of infrastructure? They deployed ABM (anti-missile) systems in Poland and Romania, using Aegis launchers, where Tomahawks can be loaded, strike systems. This can be done easily, with the click of a button. Just change the software – and that is it, no one will even notice. Medium and short-range missiles can also be deployed there. Why not? Has anyone even reacted to our statement that we will not deploy this kind of missile in the European part if we produce them, if they tell us that no one will do so from the United States or Europe? No. They never responded. But we are adults, we are all adults here. What should we do in this situation?

The Minister of Defence arrives, who, in fact, opens the doors for Ukraine to NATO. In fact, his statement must and can be interpreted in this way. He says every country has the right to choose. And nobody says no, nobody. Even those Europeans you mentioned. I know, I spoke to them personally.

But one official is not a security guarantee for Russia – he may be here one day and he might be replaced the next. What will happen then? This is not a security guarantee; it is just a conversation on a given topic. And we are naturally concerned.

Fyodor Lukyanov: Mr President, since you mentioned NATO…

Vladimir Putin: Yes, sorry. About the bases – I know about the corresponding clauses in the Ukrainian constitution. It allows setting up training centers. But these can be anything at all, accounted for as a training center. As I already said, and it was also said publicly: what if tomorrow there are missiles near Kharkov – what should we do then? We do not go there with our missiles – but missiles are being brought to our doorstep. Of course, we have a problem here.

Fyodor Lukyanov: We started talking about NATO. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg was interviewed just two days ago, and he announced that NATO is adjusting its strategic vision somewhat, and now views Russia and China as one common threat rather than two threats. This is an interesting approach, apparently a far-reaching one. But if this is how they see us, maybe it is time for us to unite with China and consider someone else as a threat?

Vladimir Putin: We have said many times that we are friends with China, and not against anyone else, but in each other’s interests. This is the first point. The second point is, as distinct from NATO, from the NATO countries, we are not creating a closed military bloc. There is no Russia-China military bloc and we will not create one now. So, there is no reason to talk about this.

Fyodor Lukyanov: I see.

Mark Champion.

Mark Champion: Thank you. Mr President, on the subject of the potential for sending extra gas to Europe, which, as you know, is in a gas crisis at the moment, you have talked about this before, but, you know, at times it has been quite confusing. Sometimes Russian officials indicate that there is additional gas available that can be sent if Nord Stream 2 is opened, and at other times, they have suggested that there is no gas available to send to Europe. And I just wondered if you would take this opportunity to clarify whether there is additional gas available that Russia can send to Europe, if say, Nord Stream opened tonight, or if there is not.

Vladimir Putin: Frankly, it is strange for me to hear questions like this. It seems to me I explained everything during the Russian Energy Week in Moscow. However, if these questions are being asked, we should certainly talk more about it.

Look what is happening. I believe I said at the meeting with the Government yesterday or the day before yesterday: this is not just about energy sources or gas, but also about the state of the global economy. Shortages are increasing in the leading, economically advanced countries. Take the United States, for one. It has recently made yet another decision to increase its national debt.

For those who do not deal with the economy, I can tell you what a decision to increase the national debt means. The FRS will print money and put it at the government’s disposal. This is emission. The deficit is increasing, and inflation is increasing as an emission derivative. This leads to price increases on energy sources, on electricity. This is how it works, not the other way around.

However, the situation is also deteriorating due to realities in the energy market. What are these realities? You just spoke about Europe. What is going on in Europe? Maybe I will repeat some of my ideas or maybe I will say something new, if I recall it. In the past few years, the European Commission’s philosophy was entirely devoted to regulating the market of energy sources, including gas, via a commodities exchange, through the so-called spot market. They tried to persuade us to give up long-term contracts where prices were tied to the exchange, that is, market quotes on crude oil and petroleum products.

Incidentally, this is market price formation. Since gas prices are established with a lag of six months after a change in oil prices, this is, firstly, a more stable situation and, secondly, a six-month lag allows consumers and suppliers to make adjustments along the way based on developments on world markets.

So, everything began to be brought to this spot market, but it largely holds gas on paper, not real gas. These are not physical amounts, which are not increasing (I will explain why in a minute). A figure is written on paper, but there is no physical amount, it is declining. So, a cold winter requires gas from underground storage; a wind-free hot summer means a lack of wind generation on the necessary scale. I have already mentioned the macroeconomic reasons, and these are the sector-based reasons.

What happened next on the European market? First, a decline in production in the gas producing countries. Production in Europe fell by 22.5 billion cubic metres during the first six months. This is first. Second, gas storage facilities were underfilled by 18.5 billion cubic metres and are only 71 percent full. The gas storage facilities were underfilled by 18.5 during the first six months of the year. If you look at annual consumption, this number must be doubled.

Primarily American, along with Middle Eastern companies withdrew 9 billion cubic metres from the European market and redirected the gas to Latin America and Asia. By the way, when the Europeans were formulating the principles governing the formation of the gas market in Europe, and said that all gas must be traded on the spot market, they were proceeding from the assumption that the European market is a premium market. But the European market is no longer a premium market, you see? It is no longer a premium market. Gas was redirected to Latin America and Asia.

I have already said that 18.5 billion cubic metres, plus double that amount, 9 billion (undersupplied to the European market from the United States and the Middle East), plus a decline in production of 22.5 billion – the deficit on the European market may amount to about 70 billion cubic metres, which is a lot. What does Russia have to do with it? This is the result of the European Commission’s economic policy. Russia has nothing to do with it.

Russia, including Gazprom, has increased deliveries to the European market by 8.7 percent, I believe, and deliveries to non-CIS countries by 12 percent, I think. But when we speak about non-CIS countries, we mean China as well. This is also good for the international market, because we are increasing deliveries to the global market, and increased deliveries to the European market by 8.7. In absolute terms, this represents over 11 billion cubic metres of gas. American and Middle Eastern companies undersupplied by 9 billion, while Gazprom increased its supplies by more than 11 billion.

Can everyone hear me? Not in this audience, but the so-called stakeholders. Someone out there is cutting supplies to you, while we are increasing them.

But this is not all. Today, under the so-called long-term contracts – I would like you to listen attentively and to hear what I say – the price of gas is now $1,200 or $1,150 for a thousand cubic metres. European companies that have long-term contracts with Gazprom receive it – take note – at four times less than the current price! Gazprom does not make any windfall profits. We are not concerned about this because we are interested in long-term contracts and long-term mutual commitments. In this case, we ensure the opportunity to invest in production and produce the required amounts for our consumers steadily and reliably.

You are asking me if it is possible to increase supplies. Yes, this is possible. Speaking about Nord Stream-2, its first line is filled with gas and if the German regulator issues the permit for shipping tomorrow, it can deliver 17.5 billion cubic metres of gas the day after tomorrow.

Technological work on filling the second line of Nord Stream-2 will be completed before the end of this year, in mid- or late December. The total volume is 55 billion cubic metres of gas. Considering that in our estimate the shortage of gas in the European market will reach 70 billion cubic metres, 55 billion is a decent amount.

Once the second line is filled, and the German regulator issues its permit, we can start supplies on the next day. Is this possible or not, you asked. Yes, it is possible, but one must have a responsible attitude to one’s commitments and work on this.

By the way, we keep saying: Nord Stream-2, Gazprom… But there are five European companies taking part in this project. Why do you mention Gazprom alone? Have you forgotten about them? Five major European companies are working on this project. So, this affects not only the interests of Gazprom but also the interests of our partners, primarily in Europe, of course.

Fyodor Lukyanov: Mr President, to an extent, Nord Stream 2, which is now on everyone’s lips, can be viewed as your joint achievement with Angela Merkel. Do you regret that she is leaving office? Will you miss her?

Vladimir Putin: The decision on her departure was not mine, after all, but hers. She could have run for another term. She stayed in power for 16 years.

Fyodor Lukyanov: Not a long tenure, at all.

Vladimir Putin: You cannot say that this is not long enough. Quite a tenure. Helmut Koehl, who unified Germany, also spent 16 years at the top.

As for the Nord Streams, we started this process back in the Schroeder days. At the time, when we were working on Nord Stream 1, there were similar attempts to undermine this process, just like today. It was all the same. Fortunately, today this pipeline delivers gas to Europe and Germany, and the volumes are quite high.

By the way, we are all talking about green energy. This is important, of course. If there are questions on this subject, I will try to explain how I see this. As for the Russian natural gas, let me emphasise that it has a three times lower carbon footprint compared to LNG from the United States. If the environmental activists are not guided in their efforts by a political agenda and really do care about the future of humanity, they cannot fail to hear this. They must oppose the construction of and demand that all LNG terminals are closed.

Unfortunately, the same applies to Ukraine’s gas transit system. I have already said that Nord Stream 2 is a modern, state-of-the-art pipeline that can handle higher pressure. There are absolutely no emissions involved when you deliver gas via the bottom of the Baltic Sea. The compression stations are like small factories. They are gas-fired and also emit CO2 into the atmosphere. Emissions from Nord Stream 2 are 5.6 times lower compared to Ukrainian gas transits, because the system there is old and has been in use since the Soviet times. Environmental activists should have said: “Immediately close down the Ukrainian gas transit!” But no, it is the opposite: “Go ahead and increase supplies through Ukraine.” How is that possible?

In fact, it is the same with oil. Even if we leave gas alone, since I have already talked about this at length, what is going on with oil? In think that from 2012 until 2016 annual investment in oil extraction was at about $400 billion, but in the years that preceded the pandemic investment decreased by 40 percent, and now stands at $260 million. This is a cycle that lasts for 15 to 30 years. Do you understand this?

In my opinion, what are current problems on top of what I have said? I talked about various political issues. This is one of the important topics that springs to mind. There is a lack of overlap between political and investment cycles in the leading economies, including in energy, a very important sector. How long is a political cycle? Four or five years. What do the leading political forces, parties and politicians do all this time? They make promises. They promise everything, as much as possible and at the lowest cost. This applies, among other things, to the green economy. What comes out of this? Banks stop funding investment, and investment dwindles. The time will come like what we are seeing today, when the market will need to accomplish a breakthrough, but there will be nothing to back this effort. Even today, OPEC Plus countries are increasing oil production even slightly above their agreement, but not all oil producing countries can increase output quickly. This is a long-term process, and the cycle is quite long.

Fyodor Lukyanov: Please, Raghida Dergham.

Raghida Dergham: Thank you very much, Fyodor.

Mr President, it is good to see you again in Valdai and Sochi. My name is Raghida Dergham. I am the founder and executive chairman of Beirut Institute. So I have come to you, I have come to Sochi, from Lebanon, a very wounded country. I am sure, sir, that you are aware of the explosion that took place – the fourth largest – at the port, the civilian port of Beirut. There has been an attempt to investigate what happened, the story itself. There was a Russian captain, there was a Georgian owner of the ship.

There was a request to you, Mr President, to share – the request came to you from the judiciary, and it is an independent body from the government – to share what you have, from your satellite pictures, to tell us, to help find the story, this horrible story that happened, that amounted to the assassination of the city, of the capital. My first question, sir: are you willing to share now the information you have, the satellite information, and to lend cooperation to this investigation so that, you know, the values that you spoke about are implemented where it really matters?

And secondly, your two allies, Hezbollah and Iran, have been resisting and, in fact, have been demanding the dislodging of the – not the prosecutor, he is really the investigator – the judge who is investigating the case. They have issued a warning that if – to both friends of yours, the President, Michel Aoun and the Prime Minister, Najib Mikati – that if they do not dislodge this investigator, this judge, then the government will fall. Do you support such a position, particularly given that this country is on the verge of a civil war, with Mr Nasrallah announcing that he will not back down, announcing, at the same time, that there are a hundred thousand fighters ready to launch? So, this is a civil war in the action, maybe, right next door to a prize accomplishment of yours, Mr Vladimir Putin, which is in Syria. I thank you.

Vladimir Putin: Just a minute, please. Can you explain the beginning of which war you are talking about? I do not understand.

Raghida Dergham: Civil war, because, you see, there are armed people on the streets already. You do remember the civil war in Lebanon, and right now… Hezbollah is not the only armed group, I am not claiming that. There are many armed groups, but right now the conflict is over this investigator. His name is Tariq al-Bitar. The insistence of Hezbollah is that he needs to be dislodged. And, in fact, this is interfering with the very principle of the separation of powers, and that led to confrontations on the streets and the possibility of a civil war really happening, Mr President. Do not dismiss that possibility; it is a very scary one. And I am not sure at all it would be in the interests of the Russian policy even for Syria, never mind for Lebanon, and we wish that you will pay attention to Lebanon, particularly after hearing you today emphasise these values.

Vladimir Putin: First, about the explosion in the port of Beirut. Frankly speaking, when that tragedy happened – I would like to once again offer my condolences to the Lebanese people over it, the large number of casualties and catastrophic damage – I learned about it from media reports, of course.

Many years ago, ammonium nitrate was delivered to and stored in the port; the local authorities did not give it the attention it needed, although, as far as I know, they wanted to sell it profitably. And that desire to sell at a profit came into conflict with the possibility of doing so, with the market and some internal contradictions related to who would get the profit, and so on. In my opinion, this is the main reason for the tragedy, and that is it.

As for helping with the investigation, frankly speaking, I do not understand how satellite pictures can help, and whether we even have any. However, I promise that I will make inquiries, and if we do have anything and can provide assistance to the investigation, we will do this. But first I need to discuss the matter with my colleagues who may have this information.

As for Hezbollah, Iran and so on, regarding the situation in Lebanon. Take Hezbollah: different people in different countries have a different attitude to it, which I am well aware of. Hezbollah is a serious political force in Lebanon itself. But there is no doubt that we always, including in Lebanon, call for settling any conflicts through dialogue. We have always tried to do this, one way or another. We are maintaining contact with nearly all political forces in Lebanon, and we will try to continue doing this in the future as well, so that the situation can be settled without any bloodshed. God forbid. Nobody is interested in this. The situation in the Middle East has been precarious recently as it is. Of course, we will do everything we can to convince all the parties to the internal political process to stick with common sense and to strive for agreements.

Please, take the microphone.

Raghida Dergham: President Vladimir Putin, do you support the ultimatum given by Hezbollah that either the investigator Tarek Bitar is dislodged or there is a downfall of the government? Do you support that ultimatum?

Vladimir Putin: Listen, colleague, we cannot comment on the internal political processes you have mentioned, whether we support an ultimatum of one of the sides or not, or one of the side’s positions. This would amount to taking the side of one of the conflicting parties, which would be counterproductive regarding the effectiveness of our peace-making efforts. Therefore, I would like to abstain from making such comments. As I have noted, the main thing is to find a platform that can be used as the basis for agreements, without any shooting, God willing. We in Russia are definitely interested in that.

Fyodor Lukyanov: Please, Stanislav Tkachenko.

Stanislav Tkachenko: Thank you.

Stanislav Tkachenko, St Petersburg State University.

Mr President, a question about energy. On October 13, Chief of the European External Action Service Josep Borrell first unveiled the Arctic Strategy and then sent it to the European Commission and the EU Council – a new EU document that considers a wide range of problems, including energy.

I would highlight two points in that strategy. First, the European Union believes that the mineral resources found in the Arctic – oil, gas and coal – should stay in the ground, including in the Arctic, and to achieve that, the world may even have to impose a temporary moratorium. The second point is linked to the first one. It concerns plans by the European Union and its member states to develop a series of instruments, financial and others, to prevent countries (perhaps primarily the Russian Federation), which will be selling energy resources on the global market, from selling the resources produced in the Arctic.

My question is: What is Russia’s attitude to this. Thanks.

Vladimir Putin: Right. To be honest, I try to follow what is happening there behind the European scenes, what is going on there every day, but at times, as our people say, I feel like I am missing something.

Regarding the EU's Arctic Strategy, what can I say? Russia has its own strategy for our presence in the Arctic – this is my first point. Second, we have always worked and are working quite productively; Russia is currently chairing the Arctic Council, where EU countries are also represented. Third, we have always talked about this, and I actually spoke about this at the meeting with President Biden and his team members in Geneva: we are ready to continue cooperation, in a broad sense, with all interested countries in the Arctic, within the framework of international law.

As you know, there are several conventions, on territorial waters, and on the law of the sea, from 1986, I think. We act on the basis of those internationally recognised documents, which Russia is a party to, and we are ready to build relations with all states including the European Union on the basis of those documents.

But if someone from the outside is trying to circumvent these internationally recognised documents and limit our sovereign right to use our own territory – according to international law, territorial waters are part of a coastal state’s territory – it is an infringement using mala fide means.

The same applies to the 400-mile zone, which is called the zone of preferential economic development. The rules that apply to that area are determined by international law, and we fully adhere to these requirements.

By the way, consider the Nord Stream project – in accordance with these rules, we had to request appropriate permits from the coastal states – Finland, Sweden, and Denmark – when we did not even have to enter their territorial sea, but the pipeline crossed those countries’ exclusive economic zones. This is a requirement of international law, and we abide by this law, and everyone, including Europeans, insisted that we acted within the framework of those international legal norms. Do they mean they are not going to abide by them now, or what? We are required to comply, but they can suddenly ignore them, is that it? It will not happen.

And if they want to restrict our activities, including in the energy sector, it is up to them, and they can try it. We can see what is happening in the world now, including in the European energy market. If they act like this, take categorical and poorly substantiated action, I doubt anything good will come of it.

I remember this popular fairy tale, at least with the Russian audience, where one of the characters makes a wolf fish in the ice-hole in winter using its tail as a rod, and then sits by the wolf’s side chanting quietly, ‘freeze, freeze wolf's tail.’ If the Europeans follow this path, they will find themselves in the same position as those characters in the Russian fairy tale.

Fyodor Lukyanov: Who is the wolf?

Vladimir Putin: It is not difficult to guess, I think.

Fyodor Lukyanov: I don’t get it, I really don’t. Do you mean Russia? They chant –

Vladimir Putin: The wolf is the one who has put its tail into an ice-hole in winter trying to catch some fish, in troubled water in this case – that's who. They will freeze. But of course, if they try to impose restrictions. They are already restricting investments, as I said, the investment period in the oil industry is 15–20, or even 30 years, and now banks are refusing to issue appropriate credit resources for these projects. Here you go – the shortage will be felt soon, and nothing can be done about it.

The problem is that, unfortunately, decisions in this area, in the energy sector, are made as part of political cycles, which I have already mentioned, and they are not made by experts. As one of my colleagues said, the decisions are not made by engineers, but by politicians who are not really competent in the matter, but they simply deceive their voters.

Everyone is alarmed by the climate agenda, which suggests a gloomy future unless we achieve a decrease in the temperature rise to its pre-industrial level, the level as of the beginning of industrialisation. Yes, we know. Between 1.5–2 degrees is the critical line, we know this. But this must be done carefully, while relying on a thorough and deep analysis, not on political slogans. But we can see that some countries are guided precisely by political slogans, which are not even feasible.

Still, no one can forbid us to act on our territory as we see fit. We are ready to negotiate with everyone, but we hope that it will be a professional conversation.

Fyodor Lukyanov: Mr President, you keep referring to international law, and have just mentioned it once again. So does Russian diplomacy. However, international law is not written in stone like Moses’ tablets. It results from a certain balance of power and interests, then it changes. Maybe it is time to adjust it?

Vladimir Putin: But these adjustments are always late, which applies to all kinds of law, including international norms. Social interactions and international relations change faster than the legal norms. This is a well-known tenet of state theory and law. Relations change quicker, they need to be regulated, and those in charge of setting norms usually fail to keep up with these changes.

What is international law? It is an aggregate of international norms. By the way, these are not simply rules that someone has scribbled under a blanket, thinking that everyone has to follow them. If we are discussing international public law, the norms governing interstate relations have to be coordinated and agreed upon: you sign them, assume obligations and honour them. If today’s world order hinges upon sovereignty, this means that if someone does not sign a document, you cannot demand that this state complies with something it did not subscribe to. This is called “trying to impose someone’s will on other countries.” The faster we move away from attempts to introduce such practices into international relations, the better, and this would make the world calmer and more stable.

Fyodor Lukyanov: We have another colleague from the United States – Christian Whiton, Centre for the National Interest.

Christian, you have the floor.

Christian Whiton: Hello, Fyodor. Great. Thank you so much for calling on me, and thank you for Valdai, for organising this important conference.

President Putin, I really appreciate your important comments, which I do not think we have heard from any other world leader, about culture and its importance. One person here in the United States that might be interested and supportive of what you have said is former President Donald Trump. I am not certain about that, but he has spoken of similar things. My question for you is that there is a lot of speculation that former President Trump may again run for office in 2024, and you have spoken about Angela Merkel, for example. What do you think about the idea of a second Donald Trump presidency?

Vladimir Putin: Would you vote for him? (Laughter.)

I am not kidding. Where is the joke? Please help us. Would you vote for Donald Trump as a presidential candidate in the United States of America?

Christian Whiton: I am sorry, I thought you were asking President Putin.

Yes. My view, and I worked in the Trump administration at the State Department, early in his administration. I think it is remarkable. He has redefined conservatism, perhaps, along some of similar lines that President Putin talked about healthy conservatism.

However, in our system, if you begin a second term, you are essentially a lame duck, in that you cannot run again, so people start discounting you. Also I like what Donald Trump does in challenging the vocal minority that has infected our culture, but on the other hand his administration had a lot of inefficiencies, if you will, staff in very senior levels that did not agree with his agenda. Sometimes it seemed like the authority of his presidency did not extend beyond the White House to the rest of the very large US government.

So my preference is that other conservatives step up like Ron DeSantis, the Governor of Florida, step up and run for President. But if it is a choice between Donald Trump and a Democrat, I would vote for Donald Trump, yes.

Vladimir Putin: If you allow me, I would prefer to keep my point of view on this matter to myself and refrain from commenting on what you have just said. Otherwise, you will have to register as a foreign agent. (Laughter.)

However, I do understand your idea.

Thank you very much for your participation.

Fyodor Lukyanov: Anastasia Likhacheva.

Anastasia Likhacheva: Thank you.

Mr President, when speaking about the biggest challenges of our time, you have mentioned water scarcity and food supply issues. In your opinion, what positive contribution could Russia make to addressing them within as well as beyond its borders, considering that Russia ranks second in the world in terms of its renewable freshwater resources, and has its unique Lake Baikal and great traditions in research, on top of being a major food exporter. Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: We are already doing this and will step up our efforts even more. Let me explain what this means and where the concerns about a possible food crisis come from.

As I have already mentioned, both at a recent meeting with members of the Government, and just now, there are system-wide dysfunctions within the global economy. They are attributable to growing deficits and inflation and lead to disrupted supply chains. This is not just about the Suez Canal, and the shortage of lorry drivers in Great Britain for delivering fuel to the pump. There is a general disruption, and COVID-19 did play a role in this, unfortunately.

There are other reasons, however. Where does all this lead? We were discussing rising fuel prices. This, in turn, pushes up electricity prices. If we convert our prices into euros, one megawatt-hour costs 20 euros in Russia, and over 300 euros in European countries. Of course, there is a difference in terms of income levels, but this gap is too big.

Some governments and representatives of international institutions say: “This is the right way to go, keep up the good work.” Just think about this. They are now thinking about paying out subsidies in order to offset this huge hike in energy prices. It could seem appropriate. After all, the state must lend its shoulder to its people. However, this is a one-time fix, and afterwards people will still suffer.

Why? Because the volume of primary fuel stays the same, which means that someone will not get it. People, the households who receive this subsidy will not reduce their consumption, despite all the fear mongering on German television. They will not reduce their consumption as long as they are subsidised. Why cut back? But the supply will remain the same. What does this mean? Someone will have to consume less. Who will that be? Industry. In what sector? The metals industry. This will lead to higher prices on all products containing metal and all the way down the value chain. This is a huge chain, from cars to tiepins.

Second, fertiliser producers that use natural gas are already closing their manufacturing facilities. This is already happening. There are reasons to believe that the soil fertilizer sector will be underfunded. What will this result in? There will be less food on the global market, and people will have to pay higher prices. Once again, it all falls on the people, although it all started with an initiative designed to help them.

It may seem as if it is headed in the right direction, but it is necessary to raise the question of whether it is appropriate to restrict extraction, including in the Arctic. Do we need to restrict new transit routes, including Nord Stream 2, for political reasons? These are the questions to be asked. We need to think about fundamental things.

Considering the growing risks and uncertainty, do we really have to transfer all the supplies to the spot market? Or maybe thinking about long-term investment would make more sense, and using long-term contracts instead, at least in part. This is what we must think about. This is how we can prevent crises from suddenly breaking out.

Russia is making a significant contribution to food security today. We are increasing food supplies to the world market; we are exporting over US$25 billion worth of foodstuffs. I have already said this many times and I would like to thank our agricultural producers once again. This is primarily the result of their efforts. We could never even dream about this. Now we must thank the Europeans for their agricultural sanctions. Well done. Thank you for all your sanctions. We have introduced countermeasures in agriculture and invested appropriate resources.

By the way, we have boosted the so-called import substitution in industry, not only in agriculture. And I must say, the effect has been good. I did have some anxiety, I must admit, but the overall effect has been very good. We have used our brains, resumed some old projects, and started new ones, including in high-tech industries. I hope will continue to increase production in agriculture.

Climate change has also been bringing changes to Russian agriculture. What am I referring to? For example, in Russian black soil regions, the quality of the soil is changing, and things are shifting a little further north. There are also problems caused by natural phenomena and cataclysms – desertification and things like that. But Russia will adapt to this, this is quite obvious, and it will fully meet not only its own needs, but also provide our main partners in the world markets with high-quality and affordable food at world prices.

There is also something else. I just said fertiliser plants are closing, but the quality and quantity of harvests, the volume of crops depend on them. But we supply the necessary amounts of fertilisers to international markets, and we are ready to increase production further. By the way, in this respect, in terms of their impact on human health, our fertilisers are among the best in the world – our companies’ rivals are reluctant to talk about this. But I hope that after I have mentioned this, our media will show what I mean, I just do not want to waste time now.

Well, as for water resources, some say water will soon be more expensive than oil, but we are not yet planning projects to reverse rivers. This must be treated very carefully and with an understanding of the long-term consequences of the decisions we make. But in general, Russia is one of the countries whose water balance will be stable and secure for a long time. Although we must also think about it. We must think about the purity of our rivers, carefully watch what is happening with the water sector in the Far East, at Lake Baikal, and so on.

I will not go into detail now, but we really have enough problems to address. We know about them, we identify new problems. We will continue working according to the plans we have outlined in this regard. When faced with new challenges, we will try to overcome them.

Vladimir Putin: You have just mentioned the possibility of assuming the lead. You know, of course, it seems to me that one should seek to tackle the most important objectives. But it is necessary to proceed from reality. We publicly declared our aim of achieving hydrocarbon neutrality by 2060, and so we are doing this.

Incidentally (I have mentioned this repeatedly and will say so once again), Russia has a greener energy mix than that of many other industrialised countries. In Russia, 86 percent of the energy mix is composed of nuclear power generation that produces almost no emissions, hydropower generation, gas generation, and renewable sources. Eighty-six percent! The US figure is 77 percent. In Germany, if my memory serves me right, it is 64 percent, and even less so in Asian countries. Isn’t that the lead? It certainly is!

We understand, of course, that this is not enough. This is not enough even for us, because here the temperature is rising more rapidly than the global average, while in the North the rise is even faster than on average in the rest of Russia. For us, this is fraught with serious consequences, given that a considerable part of Russia’s territory is in the Far North. We certainly are thinking about this.

A few words about people’s lives.

Starting with the removal of all kinds of landfill sites, which also generate CO2 in large cities and contaminate people’s lives, something that we are working on, and ending with the situation in our large industrial centres, we have a programme for all of this. We may not be advancing as fast as we would like to, but, overall, we are on schedule with our plans.

We would have accomplished this earlier if it were not for the 2008–2009 crisis, which came to us from without, as we are all aware. But our industry simply screamed that many enterprises would keel over if we started to implement the so-called best technologies in that sphere. We had to postpone the implementation of our plans, but now the decisions have been taken at the legislative level and are being implemented.

We are giving priority attention in our programme to 12 cities that are the largest emission producers, after which we will turn our attention to all the other emission producers and all industries. This is one of the priorities of our national projects and national plans.

As for carbon neutrality in general, it should be remembered that 45 percent of carbon emissions are being absorbed, if my memory serves me well. Incidentally, in this connection we will insist that our absorption ability is taken into account, that is, the absorption ability of our forests, our seas and the territories connected with the ocean. It is an objective fact, and it should be taken into account.

Moreover, in this context we have major reserves regarding the implementation of plans, for example, in the area of housing and utilities and energy efficiency. This is definitely what we can and should work on.

In other words, what we need is not a mechanical, mindless implementation of measures formulated by others, but a result. We intend to work towards this result absolutely transparently and honestly. However, I would not like our efforts to protect nature and implement climate policy recommendations to become a covert instrument of rivalry on the global markets. This would be very bad. This would undermine trust in what we are doing for the future of humankind.

Fyodor Lukyanov: Mr President, do we have a programme of our own regarding our actions in the event the EU introduces a carbon tax and Russian producers have to pay it?

Vladimir Putin: So far, no fundamental decisions have been taken that would undermine our interests or that would be non-transparent or absolutely unfair. I have talked with some of the [Western] leaders – I will not name them now – who are aware that the requirements that are being formulated at the level of European institutions are not transparent and cannot be described as fair. All of this certainly calls for more work. We hope that this will be done through dialogue with other countries, including Russia.

Fyodor Lukyanov: Angela Stent, our veteran and scientific council member, is with us from Washington.

Angela, please, go ahead with your question.

Angela Stent: Thank you very much, Fyodor, and I am sorry I am only here virtually.

Mr President, I heard you talk about some ways in which the US and Russia are working together, and I want to ask you another question about Afghanistan.

Twenty years ago Russia and the United States cooperated to defeat al-Qaeda and to remove the Taliban from power. Twenty years later, now in the aftermath of the American withdrawal, do you believe that counterterrorist cooperation between Russia and the United States is desirable? Is it possible? Do you think we would still share some of the same goals vis-à-vis Afghanistan that we did twenty years ago?

Vladimir Putin: I think that cooperation between Russia and the United States on counter-terrorism is not only possible, but is a necessity. We have discussed this many times, including with you. It is too bad you cannot be in this room with us today.

It is obvious that this is a common threat. Unfortunately, it has not become less of a danger than it was 20 years ago. Moreover, this threat has been growing bigger and took on a global dimension on our watch. We can only be effective in countering it by working together.

I have already said that our countries’ special services maintain contact, although in my opinion they could have established an even closer relationship, but we are grateful to our American partners for the information that has enabled us to prevent terrorist attacks in the Russian Federation.

I can assure you that we will do everything we can to relay any necessary information to our American colleagues in a timely manner if it is relevant to them and if we have the information at our disposal. I would like to emphasise once again that everyone stands to benefit from this cooperation.

Fyodor Lukyanov: Mr President, on Afghanistan. The Taliban is de facto in control there. They came to Moscow, and in general communicate with everyone. How long will Russia view them as a terrorist organisation with everyone having to say it is a terrorist organisation every time it is mentioned?

Vladimir Putin: This is not about us, Russia. You can see that we work with the Taliban and invited them to Moscow, and we have been maintaining contact with them in Afghanistan.

In fact, these decisions were taken at the UN level. It is clear that the Taliban are currently in control in Afghanistan, and we expect them to bring about positive momentum. Depending on how it goes, we will come together to decide whether it can be excluded from the list of terrorist organisations. I believe that we are getting there. Russia’s position will be to move precisely in this direction.

However, we need to take decisions like this the same way they were adopted before, when we decided to designate this movement as a terrorist organisation.

Fyodor Lukyanov: Asia is clearly underrepresented.

We have Professor Shimotomai joining us. Please go ahead.

Nobuo Shimotomai: Thank you.

Mr President, I am honoured, although I was unable to come to Sochi this time.

I found your report very interesting, including your point that state borders have become an anachronism. Indeed, perhaps the most acute antagonism exists in Northeast Asia over state borders and the like. Prime Minister Abe and you made an attempt to fill this gap in search of a new peace treaty. However, over the past two years the prime minister of Japan has changed twice without meeting with you. How do you see future bilateral relations, primarily, the prospects for a peace treaty between Russia and Japan? Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: Yes, indeed, political life in Japan is structured in a way where the political scene changes quite quickly, but the interests of the Japanese and Russian people remain unchanged and are based on the desire to reach a final settlement in our relations, including the conclusion of a peace treaty. We will strive to make this happen despite the changes in figures on Japan’s political stage.

Most recently, as you are aware, on October 7, I spoke with the new Prime Minister of Japan by telephone. He is undoubtedly an experienced person and is up to date on our relations since he was engaged in international affairs. He is fairly close in a political sense to former Prime Minister Abe. So in this sense, of course, I think we will see continuity in Japan’s position regarding its relations with Russia.

Under Mr Abe, we aligned a series of joint actions and joint work to bring Russian-Japanese relations to a new level. I would very much like this work to continue in the same vein going forward.

Fyodor Lukyanov: Friends, the President has been taking our questions, just questions, for two and a half hours now. I have a suggestion to optimise our work. We will have a quick Q&A session now. Please, ask short questions, do not make statements like Ms Dergham just did, but ask short questions. The President will give quick answers like a machine-gun burst. Yes?

Vladimir Putin: I will do my best.

Fyodor Lukyanov: Ryan Chilcote, go ahead please.

Ryan Chilcote: Thank you, Fyodor.

But please, do not give me a machine-gun burst in response.

Fyodor Lukyanov: It depends on your question.

Vladimir Putin: We have it, too. (Laughter.)

Ryan Chilcote: I understand.

My question is about the pandemic. The biggest foreign agent and the greatest external threat is the continuing pandemic. The only difference between Russia and many countries is the low vaccination rate. What do you think about mandatory vaccination as a solution to the problem?

Vladimir Putin: I have already said that vaccination will become mandatory when it is listed in the National Immunisation Calendar. Vaccination against the coronavirus infection is not listed there, and in this sense, it is not mandatory. But under current legislation, the regional authorities have the right to introduce mandatory vaccination for certain categories of people in conditions of a growing epidemic on the recommendation of chief sanitary doctors. This is what is happening in our country.

But a requirement is not the point. I personally do not support it. Why? Because it is possible to get around any decision imposed from above. People will buy certificates.

Maybe it is the other way around with those who get some Western vaccine. I have heard many times how it goes: citizens from European countries come here and get a Sputnik jab and then buy a certificate that they got Pfizer. I am serious. This is what doctors from European countries say. They believe that Sputnik is more reliable and safer.

But this is not the point. I am saying this not to promote Sputnik. I am saying that it is relatively easy to get around any imposed solution. It is a well-known observation that hundreds or thousands work on the laws and millions think about getting around them. As a rule, they succeed. Therefore, it seems to me, it is necessary to convince people rather than impose something on them. We need to convince them, to prove that vaccination is a better choice. I talked about this just recently.

This applies not only to Russia but also to other countries. There are only two scenarios for almost every person: either get sick or get the vaccine. It is not possible to slip through raindrops. It is necessary to enhance the confidence of people in the actions of the authorities. It is necessary to be more convincing and to prove a point through example. I hope we will learn to do this.

Fyodor Lukyanov: Mr Sajjadpour, go ahead please.

Seyed Kazem Sajjadpour: Thank you, Mr President. My question relates to Afghanistan. How do you see the American defeat and withdrawal from Afghanistan in a broader strategic sense? Would it change the US global positioning, and what would impact on the alignment of forces that you talked about? Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: First, I would like to say that the President of the United States did the right thing by withdrawing troops from Afghanistan. Probably, he did not know the details of how this would proceed but he understood that this would be a line of attack on the domestic political scene. But he still made this decision and assumed this responsibility.

Of course, we see how this happened and probably it could have been done differently. Naturally, this will primarily affect the attitude towards the US of those countries that consider the US their ally. But I think that with time everything will fall into place and there will be no cardinal changes.

Yes, this will affect relations with allies in the near future but the appeal of a country still depends not on this but on its economic and military might.

Fyodor Lukyanov: Alexander Rahr, go ahead please.

Alexander Rohr: Mr President, when you and Gerhard Schroeder met at the first session of the Petersburg Dialogue, you said relations between Germany and Russia were the best in a hundred years.

Unfortunately, they have deteriorated a lot now. My question is: Will it be possible to resuscitate at least the Petersburg Dialogue with the new German Chancellor, in all probability, this will be Olaf Scholz.

Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: You know, Alexander, this does not depend solely on us. If the Germans display interest in this issue, we will step up our efforts in this area. That said, the Petersburg dialogue still exists, it has not disappeared and it continues in principle. Of course, it is possible to make bilateral contacts more intensive and productive. I understand this but it is necessary to depoliticise these contacts. I hope this will be done.

The coalition in Germany seems to be complicated and its various political forces are likely to have different views. Let’s see what it leads to in practice. I don’t know. But we are for it, we are ready for this.

Fyodor Lukyanov: Anatol Lieven, go ahead please.

Anatol Lieven: Thank you, Mr President, for coming. Anatol Lieven from the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

China and other countries have made a move to electric cars, a key part of their action against climate change. What are Russia’s plans in this regard? Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: I have spoken about this many times. Of course, when cars move in cities they are one of the biggest air pollutants like housing and utilities and industry. This is obvious. But on a global scale we should not forget where electricity comes from.

Let us be straight with each other. Electric vehicles are a good thing but pollution of the environment during electricity generation is not so good. Meanwhile, the coal generation in European countries, such as Germany, since Alexander just asked about this, is twice as much as in Russia. It is double there. I think it amounts to 32 percent, and here is it 15–16 percent.

But in principle this is good. In Russia, such global reserves of natural gas could make gas engine fuel an alternative. It is necessary to change the energy balance in favour of the green agenda and in this case, we will achieve the desired result.

Fyodor Lukyanov: Mr President, have you driven an electric car?

Vladimir Putin: Yes, I have, in Ogaryovo.

Fyodor Lukyanov: How is it? Is there a difference?

Vladimir Putin: I drive these cars in Ogaryovo, this is true, but I don’t feel much difference. They are good cars.

Fyodor Lukyanov: Konstantin Zatulin.

Konstantin Zatulin: Mr President, I am Konstantin Zatulin, a member of the State Duma from the city where we are meeting [Sochi]. But my question is not about this.

Vladimir Putin: But mentioning this is not out of place.

Konstantin Zatulin: Yes, certainly.

My question is about history and memory. At the beginning of this meeting much was said about “Homo Sovieticus,” post-Soviet countries and post-Soviet space today. I would like to note that on November 2 we will mark 300 years of the Russian Empire.

This year we celebrated the 800th anniversary of Prince Alexander Nevsky, and you personally unveiled a monument, which made a great impression on many people. But for some reason nothing is being said about the 300th anniversary of the Russian Empire. Is it because we are embarrassed to use the word “empire”? If so, this is a bad idea. This was a major period in our history, the continuous existence of our state, from the Russian Empire to the Soviet Union and on to the Russian Federation, even though they might reject each other in some ways.

I would like to hope – we have addressed you on this occasion – that you will receive our letter and will consider the possibility of taking a more active part in this event, even if we miss the exact date, November 2, at least we will remember it.

Vladimir Putin: I agree with you. The continuity of history is important for knowing where we are moving. I fully agree with you. If we have missed something here, please accept my apologies. The next event will be connected with your name. (Laughter.)

Fyodor Lukyanov: Yury Slezkin.

Yury Slezkin: My question concerns history as well. You have been the head of the Russian state for many years, and you certainly think a great deal about your role in Russian history. What do you regard as your main achievements and largest failures as head of state?

Vladimir Putin: You know, I never think about my role in history. As soon as you start thinking about this, you need to step down because these thoughts stand in the way of decision-making. I am speaking absolutely honestly now. As soon as you think: “What if this or that happens, and what would Princess Maria Alekseyevna say?” – the game is over, and you better step down.

As for what I have accomplished, we had 40 million people living below the poverty line. Today there are too many as well, over 19 million, or even 20 million, according to various estimates. This is too many, but not as many as 40 million. This is probably my main achievement.

Our economy has recovered. Some industries, including the defence sector, were as good as dead. If we had lost more time, we would have been unable to restore them; the production links and our scientific schools would have been lost forever. We have restored them, not to mention the fact that the statutes and constitutions of the constituent members of the Russian Federation included all manner of provisions, including the right to mint money, they even had their own state borders, but they did not mention the fact that they were constituent members of the Russian Federation. It was a very serious challenge. We have dealt with that.

Or take the fight against international terrorism. You know, I will tell you what I sometimes think, and will be honest with you. Yes, we did overcome that difficult period in the life of our country, especially when it comes to terrorism. This was by far not only my personal contribution that we did it, but thanks to the patience, courage and will of the Russian people. I am not saying this for effect but absolutely sincerely, because I saw the difficulties and suffering Russian families faced. But Russia was equal to the task, which means that this passionarity we mentioned at the beginning, has a big role to play in the Russia nation. We definitely have the internal impetus for development and it is very powerful.

Fyodor Lukyanov: Mr President, since you don’t want to talk about your role in history, I would like to try another track.

There is a popular trend to discuss the vision of the future, everyone is looking for a vision of the future. The Valdai Club is also looking for it as are many others. Mr Andrei Bezrukov is sitting here in the front row; he also does a lot in this regard.

Personally, I am afraid we will not find a vision now, because the world is incredibly uncertain. But I might be wrong.

Do you have any vision of Russia’s future, or the world’s, something you would like to see or that you would like your descendants to see?

Vladimir Putin: You know, one can talk a lot about this, and I have already answered this question more than once, one way or another, in different forms, and I do not want to repeat my old phrases.

I would start with the theme of today's Valdai meeting. What is it?

Fyodor Lukyanov: The Return of the Future.

Vladimir Putin: No, no. The slogan of today's meeting?

Fyodor Lukyanov: Global Shake-Up.

Vladimir Putin: It’s longer.

Fyodor Lukyanov: The Individual, Values. But “individual” is rarely remembered.

Vladimir Putin: Well, it should be, because this is the most important point.

I have been remembering [Nikolai] Berdyaev. As you know, he wrote several major works, and they are still popular. He wrote about the new Middle Ages, as was relevant at that time, about freedom, how it was such a heavy burden. But he also said something else – that the individual should always be at the centre of development. The individual is more important than society or the state. I would very much like to see a future where all the resources of society and the state are concentrated around the interests of the individual. We definitely need to strive for this. It is difficult to say now how effective we will be in creating such a system, but this is what we should strive for.

A young man over there has raised his hand. Go ahead, please.

Dmitry Suslov: Thank you very much, Mr President.

Dmitry Suslov, Higher School of Economics.

You noted in your remarks today that disagreements around the world – both intranational and international – have reached a level where world wars used to break out in previous eras. So far, we have not seen a world war, at least not a ‘hot’ one.

Vladimir Putin: Do you miss this?

Dmitry Suslov: I just wanted to ask if this means – we probably have not seen a world war because the world has nuclear weapons – but does this mean it cannot happen at all? And if it cannot happen, it’s like Dostoevsky wrote: if there is no God, anything is permitted. I mean, if there is no threat of a world war, it can lead to complete irresponsibility: you can do whatever you want because there will be no world war, there are no obstacles for pursuing an aggressive policy – and so on.

But, if there is a threat of a world war, if the danger of a world war is still out there, shouldn’t Russia, as a nuclear superpower, as a country that has gone through the hardest wars – you also mentioned this today – a country that knows the value of peace, and peace is probably also a universal value, shouldn't Russia declare a little more strongly that the protection of peace, strengthening peace is the goal of Russia’s foreign policy, and some practical steps should be taken here too?

Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: We say a lot of positive and important things, but our partners simply prefer not to notice many of them.

So more talk would be pointless; we must act to achieve what we are talking about. This is not an easy job, not an easy task, but we will definitely work at it.

You spoke about nuclear weapons. It is a huge responsibility that nuclear powers have. You also said a third world war may be improbable in the modern situation; but there is still a threat of mutual destruction, let’s not forget about that.

The central sector now, please.

Tatiana Kastoueva-Jean: Thank you very much.

Tatiana Kastoueva-Jean, French Institute of International Relations.

I have a question that may seem unexpected but it is very important for France. Newspapers have been asking questions these past days about the presence of Russian mercenaries in Mali. To keep it short, this is my question: can the interests of a private military company that operates outside Russian law be at odds with Russia’s state interests? Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: We have discussed this with our French colleagues on numerous occasions, including with President Macron who raised this subject with me.

You said that these are private companies, not the state. They do not represent the interests of the Russian state. If they are operating somewhere without instructions from the Russian state, this is a private business, private initiatives related, among other things, to fuel production and other resources, gold, or gems, what have you. However, if this contradicts the interests of the Russian state, which can happen, we will unfortunately have to respond, and we will definitely do something about it.

Mehdi Sanaei: Mr President,

First, thank you for this opportunity to have this conversation.

I have a question about South Caucasus. There was a ceasefire and some agreements were reached, but so far, there has been no final solution, and you know that some countries, republics in the regions, have reasons to question whether this will happen.

The three-plus-three format emerged, including with Russia’s support. However, it has yet to become operational. Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia had a platform for working on the North-South corridor. Iran, Russia and Turkey had a trilateral platform for fighting terrorism. By the way, it is unfortunate that South Caucasus has also been affected by terrorism.

Of course, Russia plays a very important role here. Other formats with the participation of Armenia and other countries are also possible.

Do we need to fast-track initiatives in order to create a format of this kind? What do you think? What format, in your opinion, would offer the most effective solution, taking into consideration the interests of the South-Caucasian republics and countries in the region?

Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: First, I would like to praise the President of Azerbaijan and the Prime Minister of Armenia for their political wisdom. After all, despite all the tragedy with the ongoing developments, they were able to rise above the political fray and make some very responsible decisions.

I do know that they have been facing criticism inside their own countries, as strange as this may seem. There are always political forces that are unhappy and believe that things could have been better. “Go ahead and do a better job” – this is what always springs to mind. After all, President Aliyev and Prime Minister Pashinyan succeeded in stopping the bloodshed.

However, there is more to it, although there is nothing more important than saving human lives. Nonetheless, there are other critical aspects to it, namely: it is vital to create proper conditions for a long-term settlement in the region. These conditions can be created only if both sides accept the existing arrangements as long-term and appreciate the advantages, I want to emphasise this, offered by peaceful coexistence, and everyone is interested in this.

Azerbaijan is interested in normal transport links with Nakhichevan. It is interested in deblocking connection lines. One of the first tasks facing Armenia is to create an effective economic life and effective interaction in the region going forward, including with Azerbaijan. Armenia is basically interested in this. Interested in unfreezing its relations with Turkey and giving them a modern dimension.

In either case, it should lead us to achieving our main goal which is to create a safe environment for the coexistence of the two states and for economic growth. Is it possible to accomplish this or not? It may well be. We did our best to stop the bloodshed, and not only this. Our peacekeepers are performing their duty in a dignified manner, and over 50,000 refugees have returned home.

Overall, the situation in the conflict zone remains as it is with no major hostilities. Unfortunately, some incidents do happen, and unfortunately, people die sometimes. Maybe it is difficult to conjure up a completely idealistic picture after so many years of confrontation. The most important thing to do now is to finally settle the situation at the border. Of course, not much can be accomplished without Russia's participation. Perhaps, we do not need anyone else but the two sides and Russia. Why? There are simple and pragmatic things, such as the maps that show where the border between the Soviet republics was in the Soviet period, which are kept by the General Staff of the Russian army.

Based on these documents, both sides should sit down and talk. There are things that require compromises on both sides: some things need to be straightened out and some exchanges could be made but both sides must recognise that a deal is beneficial for both sides. Can this be done or not? It can. But, of course, we are also in favour of establishing a multilateral format, such as, say, step up the Minsk Group’s activities. We are working on this, including with our partners.

Most importantly, we should achieve our main goal which is to ensure security and to build relations in a positive manner. So far, we have been able to achieve our goals. Of course, we need to look to the future and see what will happen next. It is not about a declaration on a possible extension of the Russian contingent’s stay; it is not about that. The point is to properly align relations between these two countries. This is what matters. I hope we will be able to get it done.

Fyodor Lukyanov: Igor Istomin. He has been holding his hand up for a long time.

Vladimir Putin: We must wrap up, it is already after 9 o’clock.

Fyodor Lukyanov: Yes, we are wrapping up.

Igor Istomin: Good evening, Mr President. Igor Istomin, MGIMO [Moscow State Institute of International Relations].

In your speech – I hope I am quoting you correctly – you said that the reforming or cancellation of some international organisations may be on the agenda. In this context, I would like to ask you about the prospects for the Council of Europe and the OSCE, as well as prospects for Russia’s participation in them. Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: In general, if these organisations work for implementing the goals that they were established for in a broad sense, there are prospects for their existence. The Council of Europe is primarily a European question. The same largely applies to the OSCE. But if they work exclusively with the post-Soviet space, trying to lecture the newly-formed independent states that appeared in the post-Soviet space, their prospects are limited. I can assure you that if Russia were to withdraw from one of these organisations it would be interesting to see what would happen with them as regards the participation of other countries.

Nobody needs moral preaching. So, we need to take a broader look at humanitarian issues and cooperation with the Council of Europe, or security issues in Europe in the broad sense of this word.

But let’s finish our session. There’s a colleague with his hand up in the centre.

Muhammad Athar Javed: Thank you very much. Dr Athar Javed from Pakistan House, Islamabad.

Actually, with all due respect, of course, the counterterrorism campaign is very important internationally, and it will continue. My question to you, Mr President, is about the ongoing negotiations in Pakistan, Iran, Russia and China. And, of course, Pakistan facilitated this Doha process as well. In the wake of NATO failing completely on almost every adventure – or misadventure – they made, including Afghanistan, of course, the mess is their responsibility. But if the Taliban manages to prevent drug trade, secures its territory against ISIS and terminates all the infrastructure, what will be the reaction or the response from Russia, China and Pakistan?

Of course, it is not about recognition only. It is, as you said very rightfully, important to empower the Taliban on the ground economically, so the continuity should award social areas, like doctors, salaries, nurses, education, teachers or anything else related to social factors.

I think I would really appreciate if you could, say, shed light on this one, on how important it is to again wrap the mess of NATO. But it is important for the region, that is why I think Russia and China should take the lead on this account as well. Thank you very much for this opportunity.

Vladimir Putin: As for the mess created by NATO, I do not think we should comment on this because everyone has already expressed his opinion on what the United States and President Biden have done. I have already said what I think about this. I think he did the right thing by deciding to withdraw the troops. But, of course, now we should look to the future. But because they were the one to create this mess, as you said, they shouldn’t shed the responsibility for what is going on there and for the future. And they have plenty of instruments, primarily financial ones, for exerting influence on the situation in Afghanistan. Europe has them, too. One shouldn’t look down at this territory, as our colleagues in the Council of Europe often do. They are also responsible for what happened there. So everyone should join in helping the Afghan people.

However, we must still avoid repeating the mistakes of the past. Nobody should impose on the Afghan people what the Soviet Union or the United States tried to inflict on them. Incidentally, the Soviet Union was even more prudent there and this is why the word “shuravi” as the Soviets were called, does not have a negative connotation. The region’s countries are even more interested in normalisation, and Russia will do all it can to achieve it.

We see the Taliban trying to fight the extreme radicals and organisations such as ISIS, which leave no doubt as to their terrorist intentions. Yes, they were their fellow travellers, we understand that – after all, we are proceeding from reality – momentary fellow travellers. Now they are attacking the Taliban.

But the thing is the Taliban needs to establish relations with all ethnic and religious groups, with all political and public organisations inside Afghanistan.

Let’s start with the ethnic component. Yes, the Taliban is mostly made up of Pushtun groups. But there are also the Tajiks – from 40 to 47 percent, according to various estimates. This is a lot, isn’t it? There are Uzbeks, the Hazara, and so on. If we look at this component, then right, I know of course that these groups have their representatives at the ruling level, in the government, but they are not playing the leading roles, and these people do aspire to take important positions in the national governance system. This balance must be found.

We are not pushing them, we are just saying how this is seen, in principle, from the outside. We are doing our best to influence them to have regard for the appetites of the people we are in contact with – and we are in contact, by the way, with all political forces in Afghanistan, and we are establishing sufficiently stable relations with everyone. But we would like acceptable compromises to be found so that the problems confronting the country are not being resolved with weapons alone, as it has been. Women’s interests should be taken into consideration as well.

After all, Afghanistan is aspiring to be a modern state. And it seems to me that Pakistan plays a no less important part in this than Russia or China. This is why we are interested in promoting cooperation, including with your country, to achieve a common, desirable result.

There is no doubt that Russia is interested in Afghanistan at long last emerging from the unending, permanent civil war. The people of that long-suffering – without exaggeration – country must feel safe within their national borders and have a chance for development and prosperity. We will seek in every way to attain this goal.

Fyodor Lukyanov: Mr President, thank you for the conversation. I will relieve you of your duties as a moderator, because it is time.

Vladimir Putin: I am not claiming your salary.

Fyodor Lukyanov: Well, just in case, pre-emptively.

I think we had an exceedingly interesting session because we covered practically all matters. Thank you very much.

In the course of this session, I was thinking that we should probably stay away from New York for a while. Next year, the Valdai Club will probably meet in Sochi again. We very much hope that everything will be good, and we will see you like this, in person, and talk – only our conversation will last about five hours then. Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you very much.

There is no need to hold the closing session in New York; I am saying this without irony. It is fun to visit New York, and some platforms there… It is good to visit Afghanistan, and it makes sense to do that. Other places, like Europe, as well, and to discuss issues that concern Europe most of all such as energy and climate. Why not? I know forums are being held one way or another.

Fyodor Lukyanov: We are holding them in many places.

Vladimir Putin: Yes. New York is an option, too.

Fyodor Lukyanov: Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: Are you laughing? Do you think this is impossible? (Laughter.)

Colleagues, I want to thank you. Indeed, you have been coming to Russia for many years now and continue to show interest in our country. This gives my colleagues and me an opportunity – I am not the only one at this forum, our ministers attend as well, such as the Foreign Minister and the mayors, and the Mayor of Moscow spoke recently – to share our vision of Russia in the modern world and where we are headed. In my opinion, this has a positive practical outcome.

Our colleagues travel abroad occasionally. A Deputy Prime Minister returned from the United States recently and had the following to say: “I was surprised to find out during my conversations with top officials from the US administration or a national security adviser that there is a lack of information.” That is strange. Maybe they do not have enough trust in the CIA, I am not sure. But, in fact, such forums are much sought after, since they provide an opportunity to have a candid conversation, to have a sense of each other and to give the people who make decisions at different levels of power an opportunity to be aware of what is being discussed, including at the Valdai Club.

Thank you very much.

Excerpt from the book Jason Louv. "John Dee and the Empire of Angels. Enochian Magic and Occult Roots of Modern World." Rochester; Toronto: Inner Traditions, 2018.

As of the twenty-first century, Drake’s Bay lies thirty miles northwest of the hyperreal technological mecca of San Francisco, California, a short drive across the Golden Gate Bridge through the low, mist-covered hills and forest of Marin County. The bay stretches along eight miles of coast, and centers at Drake’s Beach, a small cove that looks out onto the Pacific, surrounded by sandstone hills and ice plant.

Here, in 1579, a privateer named Francis Drake landed after circumnavigating the tip of South America in a clandestine mission, proving that it could be done for the first time. He named the coast he had alighted upon Nova Albion. The man who had masterminded Drake’s mission was John Dee.

While Dee’s previous work had been theoretical, in the 1570s he involved himself in Elizabeth’s geopolitical planning, laying the ideological framework for building a new world empire. This empire—which would spread the new ideals of the Reformation and lead to the birth of America—would soon grow to compete with the Spanish Catholic efforts at colonization. It was to be a cold war for a New World.

An omen of this war came seven years earlier, in 1572, when a new star appeared in the heavens, remaining visible night and day for seventeen months—we now designate it SN 1572, a Type Ia supernova that occurred in the constellation Cassiopeia.1 Dee, who rushed to make observational measurements of the supernova, thought that it confirmed that the final restoration of the world—the eschaton—was at hand.2 The astronomer, alchemist, and astrologer Tycho Brahe, for whom the supernova is now named, believed that it was the first new star to appear in the sky since the birth of Christ. Five years later, in 1577, a great comet arrived above England, also observed by Brahe—confirming for the populace that the end of the world was nigh, fears upon which Dee was called to consult by Elizabeth.3

Indeed, it was the end of the world. By Dee’s time, Luther’s Reformation had initiated sea changes in Europe that broke a centuries-long status quo. Inheriting a tiny and vulnerable country, Elizabeth had pursued a strategy of avoiding war with the Catholic powers. To do so, she had kept France and Spain out of conflict by offering to increase support for whatever country was threatened by the other; both religion and Elizabeth’s own marital status were drawn into this delicate political maneuvering. Yet the gambit could only last so long before war did break out, dragging England into the fray.4 Concurrently, the Netherlands had erupted into open revolt against the Roman Catholic King Philip II of Spain, which would result in the formation of the Protestant Dutch Republic by 1581.

England was also economically insecure, besieged by desperation, homelessness, and plague. As England still grew its own food, it was vulnerable to famine if a wheat crop failed. Although the country’s food supply never ran out, famines would later make the 1580s and ’90s miserable for many, with the poorest potentially resorting to eating bark and grass; French peasants from the same time period are recorded as feeding on unripe grain, roots, and the intestines and blood left over from animals slaughtered for those that could afford them.5 One of the primary reasons for England’s failing economy was the massive amount of silver that Spain was extracting from its New World colonies, massively tipping the balance of economic power toward Spain. By contrast, England relied on textile exports, the manufacture of which had kept its population employed, and Continental demand was now minimal, leaving much of the country out of work. Trade with Russia, the Mediterranean, and Guinea had brought in some funds, but the real prize would be wresting at least partial control of the New World from Spain.6

Fig. 1. Francis Drake. Portrait by Crispijn van de Passe the Elder, 1598.

It is in this context that Dee gave the world the concept of a “British Empire,” a phrase he coined. After Columbus’s discovery of the New World, Pope Alexander VI had divided the Americas between Portugal and Spain in the Treaty of Tordesillas, handing them dominion over the Atlantic. Dee, with his back pocket full of superior knowledge of geography, navigation, and optics, would soon suggest Elizabeth contest this, and expand into the New World not just to rival Catholic domination, but for economic growth. Dee’s knowledge of optics, as well as the geographic and cartographic information he had absorbed under Mercator and his other mentors, at a time when accurate cartographic information was largely confined to the Continent, made him invaluable in not only conceptualizing but actualizing this plan. Yet for Dee himself, exploration of the New World had little to do with mercantile or even political goals. His fascination with imperialism pertained more to his occult calculations. It was clear to Dee, if no one else, that America had been colonized by King Arthur—even that still-existing Arthurian colonies might be found in the Northwest Passage. If this was the case, England had just as much spiritual claim to America as Rome did.7

The Muscovy Company, however, was already engaged in making real profits from trading with the tsar in Russia, and wasn’t seeking to take further risks on exploring west. Martin Frobisher got Elizabeth to lean on the company, and they in turn granted Frobisher a license with the proviso that he accept a company man, Michael Lok, as his treasurer. Dee was brought in to minimize risk by examining the plans for the voyage and imparting his knowledge of geometry, cosmography, and navigational instruments to the expedition leaders; Dee had spent fifteen years planning logistics for just such a voyage.8 Lok quickly warmed to Dee after realizing Dee wasn’t interested in competing with him. Since Lok had outfitted the expedition with expensive new navigational technology, he also had to make sure that Dee explained to his men how to use it without breaking it. Two ships were next commissioned—the Gabriel and Michael, named after the archangels that Dee would later record extensive traffic with during the angelic conversations.

Despite mishaps along the way, the Michael being forced back to port, and the near loss of the Gabriel (it was only heroics by Frobisher himself that saved the ship, nearly killing him) the voyage found land—the cyclopean ice walls of what Frobisher called Meta Incognita, the Unknown Limit, which we now know as Baffin Island in Canada. While exploring the coastline, Frobisher’s expedition came into conflict with Inuits, capturing and marooning one individual on a rock. An exploratory mission of Frobisher’s men went missing shortly thereafter. After taking an Inuit as a hostage with a boat hook, Frobisher abandoned hope for the return of his men and reversed course to England. The Inuit captive would be recorded as an object of great wonder and fascination for the English, before vanishing into the annals of history and a probably unpleasant fate.9

Fig. 2. Later map of Meta Incognita by Sir Robert Dudley and Antonio Francesco Lucini, c. 1647.

Even more interesting to the Crown was a sample of black ore that Frobisher had found in Meta Incognita, and that English alchemists claimed to have found gold in. For Dee, this discovery validated that the 1572 supernova foretold the discovery of the philosopher’s stone. For the English government, it was a galvanizing reason to return to Meta Incognita for more, under the cover of secrecy, to avoid claim jumping. Funding was no longer an issue—even the cash-poor Dee, seeing the potential for return, invested £25 (about £6,000 or $7,700 in 2017 terms).10

A crew of 140 was raised, including several prisoners who were to again board the Michael and Gabriel, along with a third ship entitled the Aid, and then to be left in the New World to try and win the “good will” of the locals, in much the same way that America and Australia would later be colonized. After six weeks, the expedition reached what is now known as Frobisher’s Strait and moored in what they named Jackman’s Sound, which Frobisher claimed for England in the country’s first act of colonial conquest of the New World. Setting out to search for more of the gold ore, the crew found nothing but a dead narwhal, which they called a “sea unicorn.” Immediately thereafter, the sailors found more of the black ore, which they began loading into the ship, all while fighting off violent attacks from the now-incensed Inuits.11

In all, Frobisher hauled over 140 tons of the ore back to England, presenting news of his find to Elizabeth, along with the narwhal’s horn. The ore was put under lock, key, and security detail, and tests on it commenced, whereupon only minute quantities of gold and silver were extracted, to Frobisher’s dismay.12

Despite the low yield of precious metals, a third voyage was sent back to Canada to claim what profits could still be salvaged. The crew returned with 1,150 tons, but by this time Lok’s Cathay Company was severely over budget; as a result of the expeditions, Lok declared bankruptcy and was thrown into debtor’s prison. After countless salvage attempts, the final extracted yield from the black ore was one single pinhead of silver.13

To Dee, however, the political value of the English voyages to Newfoundland and Baffin Island was immense—and not only because they were gathering data in the search for the Northwest Passage.14 In November 1577, Dee presented a new imperial plan to Elizabeth, suggesting that England wrest control of the New World from Spain—General and Rare Memorials, a set of documents laying out plans and technical guidelines for a new era of English colonization.

The Memorials continued the occult inquiry Dee began in the Propaedeumata aphoristica and Monas hieroglyphica; as with those books, Dee thought the Memorials divinely inspired (also by the angel Michael, in the case of the Monas). For Dee, the Memorials were a revelation from the angels, divine guidance on the creating of a British Empire, through a Royal Navy that would hold the world in its sway.15

In the text, Dee argued that Britain had the greatest need of any country for a continually operational navy, and that it also had the world’s greatest supply of timber, shipbuilders, willing volunteers for shipyard labor and staffing ships, and even suitable harbors. Establishing such a navy would make Britain nigh-on invincible (it did), and expansion of the British Navy and colonization of the New World not only had historical precedent but would surely raise vast riches for the Crown (it did).16 Such a plan would establish Elizabeth as the world ruler before the end times arrived; the money raised for the naval effort, Dee later added, could also be used to help build a new alchemical institute to produce the philosopher’s stone—the final perfection of which would reestablish the empire in full.17 In his partially lost 1577 manuscript “Famous and Rich Discoveries,” Dee speaks of how he would ascend above the heavens, to look down upon the earth and divine the Northwest Passage.

The cover of the Memorials depicts Elizabeth helming a ship representing British imperialism, with the angel Michael flying before her with sword and shield in hand and the Tetragrammaton above her, the ship being drawn forth by “Lady Occasion” toward freshly conquered territories. Following this are several pages rebuking Dee’s reputation as a sorcerer—Murphyn and Prestall’s attacks had been so successful that Dee was forced to address their slander upfront.

The four volumes of Dee’s imperial magnum opus were as follows:

1. General and Rare Memorials, completed and still extant. This addressed raising funds for and constructing a Petty Navy Royal of sixty 120-ton to 200-ton “tall ships” and twenty small warships weighing between twenty and fifty tons each, staffed by 6,600 well-paid men, the funds to be raised through taxation, as the wealth gained by imperial expansion would trickle down to the English people. This navy, Dee thought, would be the “Master Key” that would solidify English dominance, a “war machine”10 to guard England against its enemies. Although Dee was not originally concerned with state affairs, court politics would later force Dee to rewrite the Memorials to encourage the support of Holland and Zealand. The combination of the Dutch and English militaries would solidify control over the Narrow Seas in the wake of Spain’s withdrawal from the Low Countries. Also disgusted by the state of the Thames (upon which Mortlake was situated), Dee added an ecological broadside against the improper use of nets to fish the river.18

   

   Fig. 3. Cover of Dee’s General and Rare Memorials, 1577.

2. A set of navigational tables, calculated using Dee’s paradoxical compass, which would have been larger than the English Bible. This was unpublished and is presumed lost. (Dee’s paradoxical compass could have been used along with these tables to keep navigation precise; unfortunately, the newly drafted sailors found it too complex, and resisted training in its use.)19

3. A volume so secret that Dee stated it “should be utterly suppressed or delivered to Vulcan’s custody” (i.e., burned).20 Also lost, this manuscript may well have dealt with angelic magic or other occult or astrological calculations relating to imperial expansion. It may also have had to do with Rome or the Spanish, which would have necessitated even greater secrecy than occult material.

4. Of Famous and Rich Discoveries, which survived, albeit in a partly fire-destroyed form. Here Dee set forth the case for English expansion and territorial claims, and suggested exploratory voyages.21

Following the exploration of Newfoundland, Dee became concerned with discovering if America was a separate continent from Asia. Abraham Ortelius had suggested that a “Strait of Anian” connected the Northwest Passage to the Pacific; however, North America was suspected to be so large that anybody who tried to discover this passage by entering Newfoundland where Frobisher had and continuing to sail west would run out of supplies and freeze to death long before hitting the Pacific. Yet if one were to sail south, rounding the tip of South America, conditions would be far more favorable to continued sailing, and an expedition could look for the outlet of the Northwest Passage on the other side of North America. In the pages of Of Famous and Rich Discoveries, Dee made a compelling case that England should do exactly that.22

To undertake this perilous voyage, Dee and Elizabeth looked to an unlikely candidate: the privateer and slave trader Francis Drake. Drake undertook the mission between 1577 and 1580, taking a fleet of six ships, including his own Pelican. The voyage was beset by storms, loss of personnel, mutiny, and ship rot—by the time Drake reached the Pacific, only the Pelican remained, which he rechristened the Golden Hind. Drake proceeded up the coast of South America, attacking Spanish settlements and capturing ships as he went, looting treasure, wine, and maps in the process. Had Drake been commanding an official English fleet, this would have been an act of war, but his privateer status lent England plausible deniability, making Drake’s raids a form of naval black ops. In June 1579, he landed at what is now called Drake’s Bay, north of San Francisco, before reversing course, and returning to England by way of the Cape of Good Hope and the Sierra Leone. Upon his arrival, the logs of the expedition, and therefore the route Drake had discovered, were immediately ordered classified.23 Drake returned to England a celebrity, and was knighted soon thereafter.

As soon as Drake returned, plans for another voyage began to coalesce. In September 1580, Humphrey Gilbert and Dee drew up a plan that, should Gilbert gain control of the northern New World, Dee would receive everything above the fiftieth parallel—granting him Alaska and the majority of Canada.24 Two years later, Dee still suspected that a Northwest Passage existed across the top of North America, and drew a map for Gilbert depicting it, in which he placed the West Coast of North America only 140 degrees west of England.25

Meanwhile, on February 5, 1578, Dee had married Jane Fromoundes. Supported by Elizabeth, he had proposed only a few months after the death of his first wife, Kathryn Constable, in March 1575. Jane was a member of court, a gentlewoman servant to Lady Katherine Howard, Elizabeth’s best friend. Fromoundes’s Catholic family hardly approved of the “arch-conjuror”; her father, Bartholomew Fromoundes, died of a stroke the day after John and Jane Dee’s son Arthur was born.26 Dee may have had one eye on securing a better position for himself by marrying into court. Unfortunately, to Dee’s lifelong disadvantage, there was no patronage for scientists during Elizabeth’s reign—unlike the Continent—explaining Dee’s quest for patronage abroad. The best Dee could hope for in England was an academic or Church position, and even these he was regularly frustrated in attaining.27

In the meantime, sectarian conflict was only intensifying. Over the previous decade, the Protestant Low Countries had exploded into open revolt against Spain’s Catholic rule, which would soon result in the formation of an independent Dutch Republic, and suggest strategic alliances with England. This added to the backdrop of war between the Protestant and Catholic spheres. Dee was soon called upon to defend Elizabeth from Catholic magical attack yet again, when wax images of Elizabeth and members of the Privy Council were discovered in a dunghill—as the dunghill melted the wax, by the logic of sympathetic magic, so would Elizabeth and her council come to harm.

Though the Council was as alarmed by Dee’s countermagic as they were by the original sorceric attack, Dee found himself well positioned: Dudley needed him to dig up as much evidence as possible on Catholic magical attacks, as this would assist Dudley against his Catholic rivals at court. Those captured thanks to Dee’s detections were held and tortured.28 Among those arrested on Dee’s cue was John Prestall, who was tied to a suspected Catholic conspiracy to magically attack the queen. Elizabeth was indeed ailing, but the cause was probably poor dental hygiene, not the occult. Prestall—whom Dee may have had arrested at least partially out of desire for revenge—was tortured for over a month, but no information on any conspiracy was forthcoming. The Council subsequently fetched Prestall’s cosaboteur Vincent Murphyn for interrogation.29

While Dee was sent to seek a cure for Elizabeth’s ailment from the German alchemist Leonhard Thurneysser, Dudley whipped up a propaganda war against Catholic sorcery, which could be lurking around any corner. But Dee and Dudley’s occult pogrom collapsed when it was revealed that the magician Thomas Elkes had made the wax dolls as part of a love spell for a client. Dee was revealed to have been wrong the entire time.30

After long decades of theoretical work, Dee was now turning his attention to actual operative magic—he had embarked on a series of alchemical experiments with an assistant named Roger Cook, as well as attempts at angelic contact with Humphrey Gilbert’s brother Adrian.31 The court, perhaps impressed with any magic Dee had performed to alleviate perceived attacks against the queen, also furnished Dee with a new scryer, Bartholomew Hickman.32

In the meantime, Dee’s enemies were plotting their revenge against the “arch-conjuror.” Prestall was now locked in the Tower under a death sentence, where he would stay until 1588; this left Murphyn to counteraccuse Dee of being a Catholic conspirator who was himself working magic against the queen. Dee’s occult experiments at Mortlake would furnish Murphyn with new ammunition. Dee sued in response.33

So alarmed was Elizabeth with Dee’s absence from court that on September 17, 1580, she traveled to Mortlake to roust him from his studies herself, riding by coach and appearing in his garden; as Dee recorded in his diary, “She beckoned her hand for me. I came to her coach side: she very speedily pulled off her glove and gave me her hand to kiss: and to be short, willed me to resort to her Court.”34 Two weeks later, Dee arrived at court to hand deliver a new manuscript, the Brytanici imperii limites or “Limits of the British Empire.”

Addressed solely to Elizabeth and her Privy Council, the Limits sought to establish a spiritual mandate not only for giving Elizabeth control of both the Low Countries and America, but for establishing her as the sovereign of a new global order. Dee now privately elaborated the occult and esoteric dimensions of the Memorials that he had wisely withheld from the general public.35 Just as he believed the Memorials to have been divinely inspired by angels, Dee thought he had been moved to write the Limits by the Holy Trinity itself. The same angelic idea that had inspired him, he believed, had inspired Edgar I’s naval expansion in the tenth century.36

Dee argued that during his reign King Arthur had held dominion not only of America, but of thirty countries.37 If this was indeed the case, then England had at least as much of a spiritual claim to world power as Rome, and all Elizabeth had to do was assume his mantle and become the Arthurian world empress. Even Charles V, the Holy Roman emperor, whose court circle Dee had connections with during his time at Louvain, had long seen Arthur as the model on which the future world ruler would be based. After the Dutch Revolt, it was hoped that Elizabeth would claim Dutch sovereignty—and that she, and not a Habsburg, would become the Arthurian world emperor, uniting the globe under the banner of a reformed Christendom.38

Mercator himself had written to Dee that King Arthur had sent an expedition of four thousand men into the seas near the North Pole, and that some of the members of the team had survived, with their descendants appearing at court in Norway in 1364. Also of interest was the Welsh legend of Madoc, a prince who supposedly explored the New World in 1170; Dee not only feverishly sought to discover evidence of Madoc’s existence in Spanish records of America, but believed that he was descended from the prince. Claims by Dee that Arthur had ruled over “Hollandia” only added to the case for Elizabeth becoming the world emperor of Christendom. Maps drawn up by Dee on the foundation of the Arthurian claim to the New World sprawled from Florida to Novaya Zemlya in the Arctic Ocean.39

Save the Arthurian angle, this was not a new idea—the hope for a last world emperor had long been part of Catholic eschatology, with the long-expected monarch reestablishing a new Roman Empire with dominion over the entire globe, as a bulwark against the Antichrist. This final emperor had been predicted in the widely known seventh-century Syriac text Apocalypse by Pseudo-Methodius, a product of Eastern Christianity, which prophesied that Christendom would be savaged by Muslim invaders as God’s retribution for widespread sexual licentiousness, including homosexuality and even transgenderism. This onslaught would be overcome by the final Roman emperor, who would push back the forces of the Antichrist to come, who would be born in the village of Chorazin.*11

An earlier individual who had connected this apocalyptic prophecy with European exploration of the New World was none other than Christopher Columbus. After the completion of his voyages, Columbus composed a religious text entitled El libro de las profecias, the “Book of Prophecies,” which suggested (following Joachim of Fiore) that four critical events were necessary to prompting the Second Coming. These were the Christianization of the planet, the discovery of the physical Garden of Eden, a final Crusade to recover Jerusalem from Islam, and, ultimately, the election of a last world emperor to ensure the crushing of Islam, the retaking of the Holy Land, and the return of Christ to the world.40

While Columbus had held out for Ferdinand and Isabella to assume this world emperor role, Dee’s plan marked a radical departure by suggesting that the world emperor should be Protestant, not Catholic—Elizabeth. Where the Catholic and Protestant vanguards of exploration differed was not in their goals, but in jockeying for control. As a result, Dee set to work building a case for Elizabeth-as-emperor, using the Arthurian claim to the New World.

Dee was further encouraged in his belief that Elizabeth should assume world power by Trithemius,41 whose De septem secundeis concerns itself not with terrestrial empires but rather with the course of history. For Trithemius, history was ruled by seven angels corresponding to the seven planets, each of which held regency over a period of 354 years and 4 months, beginning with Genesis and ending with Revelation. Trithemius’s scheme held a deep appeal for Dee, who nevertheless recalculated the senior initiate’s math, assigning the Elizabethan period to the angel Anael, Venus, on account of the great number of female leaders in Europe, as well as the 1572 supernova. And though Elizabeth’s regency was currently guaranteed by the angel of Venus, a shift to the age of Jupiter was imminent. Dee felt it his sacred duty to initiate British expansion before Jupiter arrived and the window passed.42

Like Dee’s later Monas, De septem secundeis had been addressed to the Holy Roman emperor—in this case Maximilian I, not II; Trithemius’s introduction to the work suggests that he was delivering it to the emperor not as his own work but as an emissary of a body of initiates who concurred that, indeed, seven spirits corresponding to the seven planets, proceeding from the first Intellect, ruled the world in successive periods. This concept was not unique to Trithemius—some early Gnostics held to a doctrine of seven Archons, or evil “rulers” of reality, who were arguably related to the seven planets.[43][43] In the nineteenth century, the dispensationalist evangelical John Nelson Darby would propose that there were seven distinct periods or dispensations of world history, beginning with the Fall and culminating with the Second Coming, a belief system now adhered to by the majority of American evangelical Christians.

Just as with the similar Hindu system of Yugas,44 Trithemius’s scheme outlines rising and falling curves in the quality of the overall consciousness in humanity, with debased periods marked by witchcraft, the worship of multiple gods, and even the worship of princes and rulers as gods. The great drama of history, for Trithemius, hinges on celestial events as well as terrestrial political shifts, with comets and other events in the skies marking the progress of history—like (as Dee did not fail to note) the supernova of 1572 and the Great Comet of 1577.

Remarkably, De septem secundeis, composed in 1508, predicts “the institution of some new Religion,” that “a strong sect of Religion shall arise, and be the overthrow of the Ancient Religion. It’s to be feared least the fourth beast lose one head.”45 The fourth beast is the fourth beast of Apocalypse from Daniel, a world kingdom that devours the earth. As Trithemius was writing the Septem, Martin Luther had only just been ordained a priest. It was not until 1517 that he would post the Ninety-Five Theses and spark the Reformation. Even if Trithemius was extrapolating future events from pre-Luther European sentiment, his prescience was outstanding. And thanks to Dee, a world kingdom was indeed about to arise to devour the world.

If Dee’s calculations were correct—and Elizabeth had both a legal mandate for imperialism, following Arthur, and an astrological one, following Trithemius—then this opened the way for the true apocalyptic goal of establishing an evangelical British Empire: converting the entire world to Christianity, and thereby assuring that the souls of the world’s inhabitants were accounted for prior to the Second Coming. While the new empire would be a Protestant one, Dee was not exclusively Protestant in his imperial scheme, suggesting that Elizabeth convert the American Indians partly to Protestantism, partly to Catholicism. The idea that Elizabeth would convert the world to Christianity and lead it into the eschaton as its reigning sovereign was not unique to Dee; it was broadly circulating in English society at this time, with the end of the world predicted for 1588 by the author and translator James Sandford.46

As payment for his intellectual contribution, Dee requested free reign in the dominions under Elizabeth’s absolute protection, to fulfill unspoken services for the empire—not for Elizabeth, but under the direction of God himself.47 This would have meant the expansion (or recovery) of the now-named British Empire, including America. Dee’s use of the term British Empire long predated the use of the word British to mean the British Isles; it referred instead to Arthur’s legendary Britain, reaching to North America.48

Though Dee’s occult expansionism captivated the Privy Council, including Dudley and Philip Sidney, Cecil was underwhelmed. Despite the grandiose patriotism of Dee’s plan, Cecil scoffed at Dee’s claims of Elizabeth’s Arthurian genealogy, and, most of all, the foreign policy disaster that overtly pushing Elizabeth as the world sovereign would create. Part of the reason Cecil may have soured on Dee was that shortly before their meeting he had entertained Vincent Murphyn, and heard the cunning man’s concocted story of Dee’s Catholic plotting. Whether he believed Murphyn or not, enough of a germ of suspicion was raised that Cecil decided he was unable to take even the slightest security risk. Patiently sitting through Dee’s arguments, Cecil grew irritated and finally stonewalled Dee altogether.49

Dee, now fifty-three, had offered up the fruit of his youth and of his Great Work; the Memorials and Limits had been the culminating achievement of his laborious studies, his burning patriotism, his far travels, and even the tortures he had endured for staying loyal to England. He had given everything to advance the cause of his country. Despite little to no recognition or recompense, Dee had continued toiling in Elizabeth’s service for decades, producing the imperial plan that would save his nation from poverty and conquest, for which Dee regarded himself a “Christian Aristotle.”50 Yet the response from Elizabeth’s court in general, and Cecil in particular, had been to say “thank you very much,” take his work, and show him the door. Dee must have been heartbroken.

Returning to Mortlake in defeat, Dee found his mother seriously ill. She died soon thereafter, compounding the sorrow of one of Dee’s darkest hours. Elizabeth visited him personally the same day to console him, telling him that all was not lost, and that she would study his plan in greater detail—even that Cecil had been impressed by his historical reasoning. Cecil later sent Dee a joint of venison—small payment for the gift of an empire. Yet no reversal of Cecil’s (apparent) decision to shut Dee and his plan out would be forthcoming, and Dee, who shrank in fear from Cecil, would find himself progressively estranged from court. Shifting European politics would make Dee’s apocalyptic imperial thinking less relevant, and further voyages to the New World would fail to turn up any evidence of Arthurian settlements, undermining Dee’s claims. In the midst of this, Murphyn attacked Dee yet again, although Dee now had an ally in Elizabeth, as Murphyn was later brought up on charges for slandering the queen.

While Dee himself was shut out of Elizabethan geopolitical strategizing, his plan itself would soon be enacted. England would develop great naval might, take the New World, triumph over the Spanish, and establish a British Empire. But Dee, the initiating magus, would enjoy no part of it, not even as a commercial partner; Dee’s place in the “Fellowship of New Navigations Atlantical and Septentional” would be taken by the younger Sir Walter Raleigh.51 History itself would forget Dee’s role in establishing the empire, passing over his legacy in favor of that of Richard Hakluyt, Francis Drake, and Raleigh—despite the fact that Dee was far more central to planning.52 Dee’s contribution was providing the justification and story behind why expansion was important, christening the nascent British Empire and giving his child a life script and ideology.53

In time, this single idea of a British Empire, dreamed up by an eccentric English academic—or given to him by the archangel Michael, as Dee believed—would come to dominate the planet. Following World War I, the “Empire on which the sun never sets” claimed over 458 million subjects, somewhere between one-fifth and one-fourth of the world’s population,54 and covered a full fourth of the land on Earth as well as most of the world’s oceans.55 What had once been a tiny nation that would today be considered developing—wracked by poverty, hunger, religious terrorism, and fearful superstition—now dwarfed the achievements of Alexander, Caesar, or the Khans. During its time, the empire controlled Canada, the eastern colonies in America, parts of the Indies and British Guiana, a large swathe of Africa, much of the Middle East including Palestine and Iraq, India, Burma, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Antarctica, and many more territories around the world.

If we are to consider the American empire to be the logical successor of the British one, to which global power was transferred when its progenitor began to collapse due to financial overextension, then we must also hold John Dee as the great-grandparent of the modern world. This Anglo-American world order is ruled not by a single world sovereign but by a bureaucratic centralization of power, united not under the banner of Protestantism but under that of its crowned and conquering child, the single world religion of global capitalism, yet with the exact same Protestant eschatology operating in the background.

And if all of this can be said to stem from revelations given to Dee by Michael, it fires the imagination to consider that the Islamic world stems from the utterance of Michael’s companion Gabriel, who gave Muhammad the Quran, and would also be present at Dee’s later angelic conversations. It is also Gabriel who told Mary of the coming birth of Christ. Angels guided Abraham and were present at the delivery of the Law to Moses, creating Judaism; Michael is said to safeguard the state of Israel. Yet if all of these things were indeed created by the same beings, why do they consistently come into conflict with each other?

If geopolitics are a “grand chessboard,”56 as former U.S. National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski famously said, then the players are the angels, and they play multiple sides. God works, we are told, in mysterious ways, though God’s workers should look to store up for themselves “treasures in heaven,”57 rather than this world, if Dee’s payment with a single haunch of meat is any indicator.

Can all of this be said to serve a greater good? It depends on whether one accepts a teleological view of history. If, like Teilhard de Chardin or John Dee, you believe that time is moving toward an Omega Point or eschaton—the Second Coming of Christ—it all comes into focus.58 After all, the angels who exiled mankind east of Eden also, through the British occupation of Palestine, laid the groundwork for the modern state of Israel east of the Mediterranean, upon which both Judaic and evangelical Christian eschatology, and the final redemption of mankind, thereby hangs.

As to the empire itself—how to even begin assessing the effects of Dee’s creation on the world?

The archly conservative English historian Niall Ferguson has argued that the British Empire was the best of all possible empires; it was considered a leading light in the world, the “global policeman” before America inherited the mantle, and by comparison, its rival empires—the French, German, Portuguese, Dutch, Japanese, and others—were even more monstrous. Indeed, Ferguson argues, the British Empire was a liberal one, built on the principles of Edmund Burke, with occupied territories expected to come to self-governance.59

But the empire was not without its atrocities. Among them were the ongoing rape of India under the Raj and tens of millions of continual starvation deaths, including the 1760s Bengal famine in which one-third of the Bengali population died (with some victims resorting to cannibalism) while England grew fat on the spoils,60 and the nineteenth-century policies that resulted in the hunger deaths of twenty-nine million Indians.61 There were the massacres of the indigenous peoples of the Americas by British colonists, including the use of smallpox blankets as biological warfare during the Siege of Fort Pitt—an estimated two to eighteen million Native Americans died during European colonization of North America, in part thanks to English settlers.62 In the Oceania region, Tasmanians and Australian aborigines were genocided by the English en masse.

Then there was the role of the slave trade in building the empire—until the 1807 British abolition of slavery, the English transported over 3.5 million Africans to the Americas to be used in forced labor, one-third of the total transatlantic slave traffic.63 Once colonies were established, British efforts toward crushing rebellions were severe, as in the Sudan, Ceylon (where 1 percent of the population was killed in a single retribution), Jamaica, Burma, the detainment of almost the entire Kenyan population in camps (in which thousands were beaten to death or died from disease, including almost all of the children),64 South Africa (where one-sixth of the Boer population died in English concentration camps, primarily children), Afghanistan, and Iraq.

These are, of course, only some of the crimes we know about. Many of the archived records detailing the abuses committed during the final years of the empire were intentionally and illegally destroyed by the Foreign Office before they could be moved into the public domain, allegedly including records of the torture and murder of Mau Mau insurgents; the massacre of unarmed Malayan villagers by the Scots Guard; records of a secret torture center in Aden, Yemen; and all of the sensitive records pertaining to British Guiana.65 While the empire spread across the globe, racism, cruelty, and genocide followed in its shadow.

Perhaps the nineteenth-century British politician Lord Salisbury summarized the empire best when he quipped, “If our ancestors had cared for the rights of other people, the British Empire would not have been made.”66

[43]: #0xx0oA “On the Origin of the World, Nag Hammadi Codex 2, 5, in Barnstone and Meyer, The Gnostic Bible, 416–37."

Peter McCullough speaks at the 78th Annual Meeting of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons on October 2, 2021.

Anne McCloskey retired from her job as a general practitioner two years ago. When COVID hit, the authorities appealed for additional medical personnel and she answered the call in Derry, Northern Ireland.

After she released this video in August 2021, McCloskey was suspended pending an investigation. The Chief Medical Officer of Northern Ireland declared himself “appalled” by her remarks.

Please watch, listen, and make up your own mind.

Life

Konenko was born in the town of Orsk in the Orenburg region of Russia. His family later relocated to Kazakhstan. Konenko received a degree in technical architecture from The Omsk College of Civil Engineering. In 1982 he graduated from Omsk State Pedagogical University with a degree in graphic design. He has worked as a designer of eye-surgery instruments.[1]

Microminiatures

Grasshopper playing the violin.

Konenko began to create miniature works in 1981. Konenko's works often reference Russian fables and fairy tales; some of his most famous creations include "The Savvy Flea", "The Grasshopper Violinist" and "A Caravan of Camels in the Eye of the Needle".[2] Since 2007, his son has worked with him.

Konenko works in a variety of media, using human hair, poppy seeds, and rice as surfaces.[3] Some of his works include living animals. In 2011, he created a miniature aquarium to house a living tiny fish, complete with a net. It contained just two teaspoons of water, two fish, and some algae.[4] He can shoe a flea.[5]

Miniature books

Konenko has published more than 200 miniature books. His edition of Chekhov's Chameleon, issued in 1996 in Omsk, is printed on paper and includes 30 pages, 3 color illustrations, and a portrait of Chekhov, and measures 0,9 x 0,9 mm. It was published in an edition of 100 and is bound in gold, silver, and leather.[6] Anatoly Konenko has been listed in Guinness Book of Records for creating the book.[7] In 2010 Konenko issued a collection of miniature book volumes of Pushkin, Koltsov, Evtushenko.

• 

  Supermicrobook. Size 0,8 x 0,8 mm.

External links

Media related to Anatoly Konenko at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website
• Prague Museum of Miniatures, which houses some of Konenko's works.

It is probably prudent to start with a clear affirmation that the pandemic is real, that COVID-19 has taken many lives, and that public health measures have been necessary to try to limit the devastation of the disease. No denying here.

But it is also evident that the messaging by health authorities has often been confusing, and that has undermined their own credibility: for example, in the shift from initial advice against wearing masks to the current (if inconsistent) mandate to do so. If the science on a particular question is not fully settled, it might be better for the authorities to be honest about that indeterminacy rather than to lay claim to an infallibility they cannot maintain. That clarity, however, would mean a willingness to trust the public to think on its own and to act in the spirit of individual responsibility, instead of issuing orders and vilifying critics.

Communication concerning COVID-19 was exacerbated in the United States by the context, as the pandemic erupted onto a highly polarized political landscape just prior to a national election. As a result, every coronavirus policy immediately turned into a target of partisan crossfire, whether at the federal, the state, or the local levels. When governors and mayors were caught disobeying their own ordinances, public doubt could only grow. Similarly, the remarks by then vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris that she would not take a vaccine developed under the Trump administration has likely contributed to anti-vax sentiment in minority communities. And the ups and downs of fatality rates under Democratic and Republican governors are given more or less prominence in the press, depending on the partisan orientation of the respective newspaper. No wonder the expectations about objective journalism are so low.

Yet the coronavirus debate is not only an American phenomenon. Overseas, notably in France, the Netherlands, and especially Germany, there have been robust and often polemical debates—although never as clearly party-political as in the United States—concerning the character of the restrictions imposed on society in the name of slowing the spread of the disease or “flattening the curve.” There have been plenty of different strategies, and, in the future, there will be ample room for political scientists, civil rights advocates, and epidemiologists to review data in order to ask which country got it right: too much or too little lockdown of the economy, too severe or insufficient the suspension of education, religious services, or other public gatherings, and so forth. In earlier texts published here, we have seen German philosopher Otfried Höffe prioritize liberty over excessive restrictions, while novelist Thomas Brussig controversially proposed “more dictatorship.” Clearly the pandemic required some policy response, but we are still a long way away from a nonpartisan evaluation of the different sorts of strategies and their effectiveness. That necessary discussion is still pending. We are likely to be able to determine, sometime in the future, that some leaders got it all terribly wrong.

German historian and author Gérard Bökenkamp, in an essay translated here, approaches the problem from a different angle. He sheds important light on what we have been living through, including the heated polemics around coronavirus policies—but he links it all to the phenomena of climate politics as well. Yet instead of asking which policies were effective and which failed, he reflects on a widespread (but surely not uniform) willingness of the public to embrace them. Why has so much of the public willingly submitted to restrictions on their freedoms, and why have they responded with such animated hostility toward the minority of opponents to the coronavirus prevention regime or to climate policies? In other words, his argument is not an attack on the scientific legitimacy of the public health measures adopted, about which he maintains a distanced agnosticism here. Nor does he cast doubt on the claims about climate change. He does not even present an argument about the dramatic power grab by political authorities, their utilization of the crises to introduce new strategies of societal control. Instead Bökenkamp proposes a hypothesis concerning the motivation underlying the willing and often eager public acceptance of restrictive orders: not why this or that policy was right or wrong but why the German public largely acquiesced. What makes obedience so attractive?

Drawing on the work of anthropologist Mary Douglas and the scholar of religions Walter Burkert, Bökenkamp argues that the public’s proactive embrace of the various strictures associated with policies linked to the pandemic (e.g., mandatory social distancing) and climate change (reduced energy consumption) repeats some recognizable patterns that he associates with certain religious phenomena. These include expectations of sacrifice, in the form of self-denial or self-punishment; the prioritizing of moralistic arguments (pandemic or floods as punishments for wrongful behavior); rhetorics of denunciation targeting heretics (anti-vaxxers and climate deniers); and the emergence of prominent figures who, in Bökenkamp’s view, play the roles of saints or priests. The participation in coronavirus and climate policies, he argues, involves the repetition of atavistic behavior patterns otherwise familiar from traditional religions but now, in a largely secular society, played out under the aegis of scientific authority. Hence his suggestion that science has been operating as a substitute religion.

Bökenkamp provides a convincing description of the phenomena, the rapid willingness of much of the public to accept limitations on their exercise of freedoms previously assumed to be unquestionable. Presumably some of this participation might, of course, be reasonably attributed to the assumed credibility of science: rightly or wrongly, the public “believes” in science. Some of it might also be explained in terms of an inclination to obedience, in the sense of a noncontroversial willingness to respect the law, whatever it is. With those alternative explanations in mind, one can ask whether Bökenkamp’s insistence on an analogy between aspects of public behavior and anthropological aspects of religion is credible and whether it suffices to prove that a religious substance is at play.

There are no doubt some apparent similarities between, on the one hand, public behavior facing the crises, COVID and climate, and, on the other, aspects of traditional religion—sacrifice, guilt, and the denunciation of heretics are Bökenkamp’s main points. Yet other parts of religion, perhaps the most vital parts, seem to be absent: the centrality of numinous or holy experiences, the role of miracles (which would of course be at odds with the priority of science), and the absence of any possibility of transcendence. The simulacrum of religion at stake in the embrace of crisis politics is at best an impoverished religion or the eviscerated substitute for religion in a largely secular culture. With that limitation, Bökenkamp is surely on to something important.

In any case, Bökenkamp does describe convincingly the emergence of a repressive conformism, legitimated in the name of public health crises—whether or not one can describe this adequately as a form of religion is almost secondary. While his examples draw on the specific German example, the account rings true for the United States as well, where, however, the twin crises of COVID and climate have been compounded by the cultural moment around BLM and the emergence of cancel culture censorship. Actually Bökenkamp’s religion thesis might find supporting evidence in parts of the American experience, especially the pseudo-religious liturgical moments: the taking the knee ritual at athletic events and the insistence on reciting the names of the dead. Germany and other European countries also have had their versions of American neo-anti-racism, but it was rarely as overwrought as in the United States, from which ultimately it was imported. (Indeed the dissemination of this American discourse can be viewed as a new form of American soft power in the present, even as it purports to be critical of the U.S. past.) Whatever the particular religious dimension of this current development—and this depends a lot on how one evaluates religion as such—Bökenkamp is certainly right to point out this new wave of repressive conformism as a culturally distinct event, with transatlantic common denominators despite some specific national distinctions.

The net effect of these three arenas—public health responses to the pandemic, new regulations associated with global warming, and the various formulations of cancel culture—has been an acceleration of the management of public opinion: from above, through media and employer mandates, and from below, through social pressure, including threats of violence. How so? In the end, we are facing greater monitoring of mobility in the interest of contact tracing, heightened security at various buildings (greater frequency of the need to swipe into buildings that were previously open to the public), a generalized kind of biopolitical surveillance through extensive testing, social ostracism directed at dissenters, and especially the pervasive prospect of censorship on social media. Merely by calling out censorship or doubting the infallibility of government scientists, this text may by endangered. Read it while you can.

How to explain this transformation? The space of unmonitored freedom has been reduced considerably. Yet the public responds with a gleeful renunciation of its previous lifestyle, a willingness to accept policing (even as police forces are to be defunded!), and a particular fanaticism in the denunciation of heterodox viewpoints. We have long ago lost the expectation of a space of public debate in which one could claim to disagree with an opponent on the basis of reason and evidence: at stake now is the vilification of antagonists in order to silence them. Voltaire’s promise to defend the right of one’s opponent to speak has been abandoned.

The steps taken to respond to real crises, like the pandemic, are increasingly a matter of prohibitions and mandates, with little value placed on individual responsibility. That distinction however may help understand what is going on. Modern societies are undergoing a quantum leap increase in social control. Bökenkamp’s concluding explanation—leaving the religion question aside—is alarmingly credible. We have been living in societies with deficient social cohesion. The social-political disciplining that ensued from the Cold War ended decades ago. Traditional cultural ties that can bind and that may have existed in the past are gone, and this structural disruption has surely been amplified by the experiences of globalization, as well as the protest against it, populism. The new forms of social control, legitimated by pandemic and climate change, should be understood as a response to that instability: manage opinion and monitor behavior in order to limit dissent. Meanwhile the new technologies and their transformation of the public sphere provide the infrastructure for surveillance and censorship. The social system has been able to take advantage of the genuine challenges to public health, whether from the virus or from climate change, in order to impose a new regime of control. The crises have been turned into opportunities that are not going to be wasted. Welcome to the new panopticon.

Already in the 18th century, British economists of the nascent capitalism were questioning the sustainability of this system around David Ricardo. What was initially very profitable would eventually become commonplace and no longer enrich its owner. Consumption could not eternally justify mass production. Later on, socialists, around Karl Marx [1], predicted the inevitable end of the capitalist system.

This system should have died in 1929, but to everyone’s surprise, it survived. We are approaching a similar moment: production no longer makes money, only finance does. All over the West, we see the standard of living of the mass of people falling, while the wealth of a few individuals is soaring. The system is once again threatening to collapse and never rise again. Can the super-capitalists still save their assets or will there be a random redistribution of wealth following a generalized clash?

Only after expelling Leon Trotsky and his dream of world revolution could Joseph Stalin build the USSR without having to face the White armies.

The 1929 crisis and the survival of capitalism

When the 1929 crisis hit the United States, the entire Western elite was convinced that the goose that laid the golden eggs was dead; that a new system had to be found immediately, or else humanity would perish from hunger. It is particularly instructive to read the US and European press of the time to understand the anguish that gripped the West. Huge fortunes had disappeared in a day. Millions of workers were out of work and experiencing not only misery, but often starvation. The people revolted. The police fired live ammunition at the angry crowds. No one thought that capitalism could be amended and reborn. Two new models were proposed: Stalinism and fascism.

Contrary to the image we have a century later, at that time everyone was aware of the flaws in these ideologies, but the most important, vital problem was who would best be able to feed their population. There was no longer any right or left, just a general "sauve-qui-peut". Benito Mussolini, who had been the editor of Italy’s leading socialist newspaper before the First World War and then an agent of British MI5 during the war, became the leader of Fascism, then seen as the ideology that would give bread to the workers. Joseph Stalin, who had been a Bolshevik during the Russian revolution, liquidated almost all of his party’s delegates and renewed them to build the USSR, which was then seen as the embodiment of modernity.

Neither leader was able to bring his model to fruition: in the end, economists must always give way to the military. Arms always have the last word. So it was the Second World War, the victory of the USSR and the Anglo-Saxons on the one hand, the fall of fascism on the other. It so happened that only the United States was not devastated by the war and that President Franklin Roosevelt, by organising the banking sector, gave capitalism a second chance. The US rebuilt Europe without crushing the working class for fear that it would turn to the USSR.

Klaus Kleinfeld is the director of the Neom Project. He sits on the boards of the Bilderberg Group (Nato) and the Davos Forum (NED/CIA).

The crisis after the disappearance of the USSR

However, when the USSR disappeared at the end of 1991, capitalism, deprived of a rival, found its old demons. Within a few years, the same causes caused the same effects, production began to decline in the US and jobs were relocated to China. The middle class began its slow decline. US capital owners felt threatened. They tried several approaches to save their country and maintain the system.

• The first was to transform the US economy into an arms exporter and to use the US armed forces to control the raw materials and energy sources of the non-globalised part of the planet used by the rest of the world. It was this project, the adaptation to ’financial capitalism’ (if this oxymoron makes sense), the Rumsfeld/Cebrowski doctrine [2], that led the US Deep State to organise the 9/11 attacks and the endless war in the wider Middle East. This episode gave capitalism a twenty-year respite, but the domestic consequences were disastrous for the middle classes.

• The second attempt was Donald Trump’s curbing of international trade and return to US production. But he had declared war on the men of 9/11 and no one would let him try to save the US.

• A third development was considered. It would have involved ditching the Western populations and moving the few multi-billionaires to a robotic state from where they could fearlessly direct their investments. This is the Neom project that Prince Mohamed bin Salmane began building in the Saudi desert with the blessing of Nato. After a period of intense activity, the work has now stalled.

• Donald Rumsfeld’s former team (including Dr Richard Hatchett [3] and Dr Anthony Fauci [4]) decided to launch a fourth option during the Covid-19 pandemic. The idea is to continue and generalise in the developed states what was initiated in 2001. The massive containment of healthy populations has pushed states into debt. The use of teleworking has prepared the relocation of tens of millions of jobs. The health pass has legalised a society of mass surveillance.

Klaus Schwab organises the Davos Forum like Louis XIV organises his court of Versailles: he monitors all the multi-billionaires on behalf of the NED/CIA.

Klaus Schwab and the Great Reset

It is in this context that the president of the Davos Forum, Klaus Schwab, published Covid-19: The Great Reset. It is not a programme, but an analysis of the situation and a forecast of possible developments. This book was written for the members of the Forum and gives an idea of their lamentable intellectual level. The author uses clichés, quoting great authors and the abracadabratic figures of Neil Ferguson (Imperial College) [5].

In the 1970s and 1980s, Klaus Schwab was one of the directors of Escher-Wyss (absorbed by Sulzer AG), which played an important role in apartheid South Africa’s atomic research programme, a contribution that took place in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 418. So he has no morals and is afraid of nothing. Later he created a circle of business leaders which became the World Economic Forum. This name change was done with the help of the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE); the business arm of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED/CIA). This is why he was registered in 2016 with the Bilderberg Group (Nato’s influence body) as an international civil servant, which he was never officially.

In his book, Klaus Schwab prepares his audience for an Orwellian society. He envisages anything and everything up to the death of 40% of the world’s population by Covid-19. He proposes nothing concrete and does not seem to prefer any option. We just understand that he and his audience will not decide anything, but they are willing to accept anything to keep their privileges.

Conclusion

We are clearly on the threshold of a huge upheaval that will sweep away all Western institutions. This cataclysm could be avoided in a simple way, by changing the balance of remuneration between labour and capital. This solution is unlikely, however, because it would mean the end of super fortunes.

With these facts in mind, the West-East rivalry is only superficial. Not only because Asians do not think in terms of competition, but mainly because they see the West dying.

This is why Russia and China are slowly building their world, with no hope of integrating the West, which they see as a wounded predator. They do not want to confront it, but to reassure it, to give it palliative care and to accompany it without forcing it to commit suicide.

[1] Zur Kritik der politischen Ökonomie, Karl Marx, Franz Duncker Verlag (1859).

[2] “The Rumsfeld/Cebrowski doctrine”, by Thierry Meyssan, Translation Roger Lagassé, Voltaire Network, 25 May 2021.

[3] “Covid-19 and The Red Dawn Emails”, by Thierry Meyssan, Translation Roger Lagassé, Voltaire Network, 28 April 2020.

[4] “Covid-19: noose is tightening around Doctor Anthony Fauci”, Voltaire Network, 7 October 2021.

[5] “Covid-19: Neil Ferguson, the Liberal Lyssenko”, by Thierry Meyssan, Translation Roger Lagassé, Voltaire Network, 20 April 2020.

El gato malo does more intelligent analysis in a week than the idiots in our governments do in a year.

Today’s analysis suggests Dr. Geert Vanden Bossche was correct in predicting that applying a leaky vaccine effective at preventing sickness in the middle of a pandemic was a very bad idea.

https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/are-leaky-vaccines-driving-delta

all a virus wants is to replicate. “make a copy of me and pass it on.” that’s the biological imperative of the selfish gene. excel at it, you win. fail, you disappear. simple as that.

killing or harming the host is maladaptive to viral spread. it’s like burning down your own house with your car in the garage. now you have nowhere to live and no way to get around. that’s not a recipe for reproductive fitness.

so viruses evolve to become less, not more virulent. they do not want to kill you. ideally, they’d like to help you. figure out how to be a useful symbiote, and you get a huge boost in propagation. (mitochondria were probably bacteria that were so useful, all our cells incorporated them.)

so seeing case fatality rate (CFR) rise in a variant of a virus is like watching water flow uphill. it’s not supposed to do that and when it does, you need to suspect some external force acting on it.

and we’re seeing water flow uphill here.

Key points:

• Case Fatality Rate (CFR) is rising for Delta and is probably not caused by Antibody Dependent Enhancement (ADE) or Original Antigenic Sin (OAS) because CFR is rising in both vaccinated and unvaccinated, and is not rising in previously infected, and Vaccine Efficacy (VE) for deaths remains good.
• The most probable explanation is Vaccine Mediated Evolution (VME) in which a leaky vaccine that keeps the host healthy causes the virus to evolve to a more deadly variant.
• Vaccine Efficacy (VE) on spread is negative (bad) because infected people don’t know they’re infected which accelerates spread.
• Everyone is harmed but unvaccinated are worse off creating the illusion that the vaccines are a good idea.

it’s just simple math. if we do something to one group that makes their death rate rise from 1 to 2 per 100 but that also makes the death rate in another group rise from 1 to 4 per 100, that looks like a VE of 50%. in reality, it’s killing 100% more vaxxed people and 300% more of the unvaxxed.

mistaking that gas pedal for the brake and pushing ever harder when you fail to slow would represent an accelerating disaster curve.

I like that el gato malo seeks to prove himself wrong. That’s a strong signal for someone with integrity and intelligence that we should trust.

it’s still, or course, possible that i’m wrong, but this is looking more and more like it has to be the answer. i can find nothing else fits the facts and the facts themselves are weird enough that “it’s just normal” does not look like a satisfying explanation either and we have enough features here that we can really start testing our puzzle pieces. this one aligns in an AWFUL lot of places.

for something this odd to happen, it takes a truly uncommon exogenous stressor.

i’m just not seeing what else it could be than vaccine mediated selection for hotter variants driving pernicious delta evolution.

so, i’m putting this out to you all to see if you can find some other explanation for what’s going on that fits these facts.

looking forward to the peer review as, honestly, i hope i’m wrong here. this is not an outcome that anyone wants. it’s the nightmare scenario both as a pandemic and as a political horror in the making as if this was an “own-goal”, what would the experts and politicians that pushed this plan not be willing to do to avoid accepting the blame?

because this is career or pharma franchise polonium, and that’s if you’re lucky.

I also very much like that el gato malo does not subscribe to crazy conspiracies that lack evidence. I would of course augment el gato malo’s explanation by including an element of genetic reality denial in our leaders.

“But what is the end game if purposefully designed this way?”

i don’t think it was. i think these fools really thought mRNA and adenovirus carrier vaccines would be sterilizing.

they pushed them as herd immunity.

having it all fall apart cornered them but by the time they knew it, they were “pot committed” and had already vaxxed 100’s of millions of people.

this has been this shiny tech they have been trying to make work (and recoup money on) for decades and failing over and over.

i doubt this was deliberate. it was just stunningly arrogant and reckless.

So now the million dollar question:

Assuming a better explanation does not emerge, what should an unvaccinated person do?

Prioritizing self-preservation this analysis suggests one should either:

• get vaccinated, or
• acquire natural immunity by deliberately getting infected before the variants become more deadly, and apply early treatment protocols to maximize the probability of a successful recovery.

Choosing to get vaccinated makes the most sense if:

• you are in a high risk group (old or obese)
• you do not care about worsening the overall outcome for both vaccinated and unvaccinated.

Choosing natural immunity makes the most sense if:

• you are in a low risk group
• you are concerned about the yet to be established long term health effects of the novel vaccines
• you want to be a good citizen and do what is best for everyone.

I’m old but not obese which makes the choice difficult.

I’m going to watch the data and hope for a better explanation to emerge for a while longer before making a decision.

You can’t make this shit up: observe that our “leaders” are pushing hard in exactly the opposite direction of what wise leaders would do if this VME hypothesis is correct:

• stop further vaccination of low risk people
• start collecting the data necessary to prove or disprove this hypothesis
• promote healthy immune systems (vitamin D, weight loss, etc.)
• aggressively evaluate and deploy promising early treatment protocols (Ivermectin etc.)
• aggressively investigate root causes and modify policies to prevent a recurrence.

One more observation to make you admire our “leaders” even less:

the same NIH that was funding the GoF research in wuhan miraculously had the viral code to drop into the moderna mRNA vaccine in under 2 weeks.

that always smelled like a sushi bar dumpster.

https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/were-some-folks-a-little-too-prepared

17-Oct-2021 Addition

In a paper today, Dr. Geert Vanden Bossche argues that boosters will probably boost the virulence of Delta rather than long term protection from severe disease.

Israel is misreading their booster results by only tracking booster effectiveness for 12 days.

https://www.geertvandenbossche.org/post/what-happens-if-israel-fails-the-stress-test

“Vexilla regis prodeunt Inferni”

– Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy: The Inferno

Try to look ahead and see if you can see what’s been coming for decades. Try to climb higher and see the beautiful things that Heaven bears, where we came forth, and once more see the stars and raise a banner of resistance to the King of Hell and all his henchmen. For they are here, and working hard as usual, and indifference will only strengthen their resolve. Don’t be deceived by these digital demons. They want to make you think they don’t exist. They wish to get you to suspend your disbelief and get lost in the endless looping movie they have created to conceal their real machinations.

For we are living in a world of endless propaganda and simulacra where vast numbers of people are hypnotized and can’t determine the difference between the real world of nature, the body, etc. and digital imagery. Reality has disappeared into screens. Simulation has swallowed the distinction between the real world and its representations. Meaning has migrated to the margins of consciousness. This process is not yet complete but getting there.

This may at first seem hyperbolic, but it is not. I wish to explain this as simply as I can, which is not easy, but I will try. I will attempt to be rational, while knowing rationality and the logic of facts can barely penetrate the logic of digital simulacra within which we presently exist to such a large extent. Welcome to the New World Order and artificial intelligence which, if we do not soon wake up to their encroaching calamitous consequences, will result in a world where “we will never know” because our brains will have been reduced to mashed potatoes and nothing will make sense. The British documentary filmmaker, Adam Philips, has said in his recent film, Can’t Get You Out of My Head: An Emotional History of the Modern World, that it’s already “pointless to try to understand the meaning of why things happen” and we will never know, but this is a nihilistic claim that leads to resigned hopelessness. We must get such sentiments “out of our heads.”

We do not, of course, live in the middle ages like Dante. Hell, purgatory, and heaven seem to be beyond our ken. Our imaginations have withered together with our grasp on reality. Up/down, good/evil, war/peace – opposites have melded into symbiotic marriages. Most people are ashamed, as the poet Czeslaw Milosz has said, to ask themselves certain questions that the seething infinity of modern relativity has bequeathed us. Space and time have lost all dimensions; the experience of the collapse of hierarchical space and time is widespread. For those who still call themselves religious believers like Dante, “when they fold their hands and lift up their eyes, ‘up’ no longer exists,” Milosz rightly says. The map and the territory are one as all metaphysics are almost lost. And with its loss go our ability to see the advancing banner of the king of hell, to grasp the nature of the battle for the soul of the world that is now underway. Or if you prefer, the struggle for political control.

One thing is certain: This war for control must be fought on both the spiritual and political levels. The centuries’ long rise of technology and capitalism has resulted in the degradation of the human spirit and its lived sense of the sacred. This must be reversed, as it has fundamentally led to the mechanistic embrace of determinism and the disbelief in freedom. Logical thought is necessary, but not mechanistic thought with the deification of reason. Scientific insight is essential, but within its limitation. The spiritual and artistic imagination that transcends materialist, machine thinking is needed now more than ever. We emphatically need to realize that the subject precedes the object and consciousness the scientific method. Only by realizing this will we be able to break free from the trap that is propaganda and digital simulacra, whose modi operandi are to dissolve the differences between truth and falsity, the imaginary and the real, facts and fiction, good and evil. To play satanic circle games, create double-binds, whose intent and result is to imprison and confuse.

It is akin to asking what is the antonym to the word contronym, which is a word having two meanings that contradict each other, such as “cleave,” which means to cut in half or to stick together. There are many such words.

“What is the opposite of a contronym?” I asked my thirteen-year-old granddaughter, a great reader and writer raised far away from the madding crowd of flickering and looping electronic images. To which, after thinking a few minutes, she correctly replied, “The antonym to a contronym is itself, because it has two opposite meanings. It contradicts itself.”

Or as Tweedledee told Alice: “Contrariwise, if it were so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn’t, it ain’t. That’s logic.”

And that’s the logic used to trap a sleeping public in a collective hallucination of media and machines. A grand movie in which all “opposites” are integrated to tranquilize all anxieties and amuse all boredom so that the audience doesn’t realize there is a world outside the Wonderland theater.

A Place to Start

Let me begin with a little history, some fortieth anniversaries that are occurring this year. In themselves, and even in their temporal juxtapositions, they mean little, but they give us a place to anchor our reflections. A sense of time and the progression of developments that have led to widespread digital cognitive warfare and twisted simulations. Widespread unreality rooted in materialist brain research financed by intelligence agencies. Spectacles of spectacles. As Guy Debord puts it in The Society of the Spectacle:

Where the real world changes into simple images, the simple images become real beings and effective motivations of hypnotic behavior.

In 1981, Ronald Reagan was sworn in as the U.S. President. He was a bad actor, of course, which meant he was a good actor (or the reverse of the reverse of the reverse…) in a society that was becoming increasingly theatrical, image based, and dominated by what Daniel Boorstin in his classic book, The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America, had earlier termed “pseudo-events.” Reagan was the personification of a pseudo-event, a walking illusion, a “benign” Orwellian persona presented to the public to conceal an evil agenda. He was a masked man, one created by Deep-State forces to convince the public it was “morning in America again,” even as the banner of an avuncular good guy concealed, right from the start with the treacherous “October Surprise” involving the Iranian hostage crisis, an evil opening act to start the charade. Reagan received overwhelming popular support and served two terms as the acting president. The audience was enthralled. In crucial ways, his election marked the beginning of our descent into hell.

Halfway through his two terms, Gary Wills, In Reagan’s America: Innocents at Home, introduced Reagan as follows:

The geriatric ‘juvenile lead’ even as President, Ronald Reagan is old and young – an actor, but with only one role. Because he acts himself, we know he is authentic. A professional, he is always the amateur. He is the great American synecdoche, not only a part of our past but a large part of our multiple pasts. This is what makes many of the questions asked about him so pointless. Is he bright, shallow, complex, simple, instinctively shrewd, plain dumb? He is all these things and more. Synecdoche, just the Greek word for ‘sampling,’ and we all take a rich store of associations that have accumulated around the Reagan career and persona. He is just as simple, and just as mysterious, as our collective dreams and memories.

A few weeks after Reagan was sworn in, his newly named CIA Director William Casey (see Robert Parry’s book, Trick or Treason: The 1980 October Surprise Mystery), made a revealing comment at a meeting of the new cabinet appointees. Casey said, as overheard and recorded by Barbara Honegger who was present, “We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.”

Thirdly, in August of 1981, the French sociologist Jean Baudrillard published his seminal book, Simulacra and Simulation, in which he set out his theory of simulation where he claimed that a “hyperreal” simulated world was replacing the real world that once could be represented but not replaced. He argued that this simulated world was generated by models of a real world that never existed and so people were living in “hyperreality,” or a totally fabricated reality. This was a radical notion, and his claim at the time that this was already total was no doubt an exaggeration. But that was then, not now. Forty years have allowed his nightmarish theory to take on reality. I will return to this subject later.

Technology and the Trap of the Machine Mass Mind

In his classic work, Propaganda, Jacques Ellul writes that “An analysis of propaganda therefore shows that it succeeds primarily because it corresponds exactly to a need of the masses…just two aspects of this: the need for explanation and the need for values, which both spring largely, but not entirely, from the promulgation of news.” He wrote that in 1962 when news and world events were rapidly speeding up but were nowhere near as technologically frenzied as they are today. Then there were radio, many newspapers, and a handful of television stations. And yet, even in those days, as the sociologist C. Wright Mills said, the general public was confused and disoriented, liable to panic, and that information overwhelmed their capacity to assimilate it. In The Sociological Imagination he wrote:

The very shaping of history now outpaces the ability of people to orient themselves in accordance with cherished values. And which values? Even when they do not panic, people often sense that older ways of feeling and thinking have collapsed and that newer beginnings are ambiguous to the point of moral stasis. Is it any wonder that ordinary people feel they cannot cope with the larger worlds with which they are so suddenly confronted? That they cannot understand the meaning of their epoch for their own lives? That – in defense of selfhood – they become morally insensible, trying to remain altogether private individuals? Is it any wonder that they come to be possessed by a sense of the trap?

This trap has been progressively closing ever since. To say this is false nostalgia for the good old days is intellectual claptrap. The evidence is overwhelming, and honest minds can see it clearly and a bit of self-reflection would reveal the inner wounds this development has caused. There are various reasons for this: many intentional, others not: political machinations by the power elites, technological, cultural, religious developments, etc., all rooted in a similar way of thinking. Whereas the wealthy elites have always controlled society, over the recent decades the growth in technological propaganda has increased exponentially. But the machines have been built upon a technical way of thinking that Ellul describes as ‘the totality of methods rationally arrived at and having absolute efficiency in every field of human activity.” This way of thinking is the opposite of the organic, the human. It is all about means without ends, self-generating means whose sole goal is efficiency. Everything is now subordinated to technique, especially people. He says:

From another point of view, however, the machine is deeply symptomatic: it represents the ideal toward which techniques strives.The machine is solely, exclusively technique; it is pure technique, one might say. For, wherever a technical factor exists, it results, almost inevitably, in mechanization: technique transforms everything it touches into a machine.

If only cell phones shocked the hands that touched them!

I think it is beyond dispute that this sense of entrapment and confusion with its concomitant widespread depression has increased dramatically over the decades and we have come to a dark, dark place. Lost in a dark wood would be an understatement. In the inferno would perhaps be more appropriate.

Who will be our Virgil to guide us through this hell we are creating and to show us where it is leading?

The massive use of psychotropic drugs for living problems is well known. The sense of meaninglessness is widespread. The shredding of social bonds with the journey into a vast digital dementia has resulted in panic and anxiety on a vast scale. The fear of death and disease permeates the air as religious faith wanes. People have been turned against each other as an hallucinatory cloak of propaganda has replaced reality with the black magic of digital incantations.

I remember how, in 1975, when I was teaching at a Massachusetts university and, sensing a vast unmet need in my students, I proposed a course called “The Sociology of Life, Death, and Meaning.” My colleagues balked at the idea and I had to convince them it was worthwhile. I sensed that the fear of death and a growing loss of meaning was increasing among young people (and the population at large) and it was my responsibility to try to address it. My colleagues considered the subject not scientific enough, having been seduced by the positivist movement in sociology. When the enrollment for the course reached 220 plus, my point was made. The need was great. But it was a small window of opportunity for such deep reflections, for by 1980 the Cowboy in the white hat had ridden into Washington and a rock star was enthroned in the Vatican and all was once again well with the world. Delusory orthodoxy reigned again. Until….

For the last forty-one years there has been a progressive dissolution of reality into a theatrical electronic spectacle, beginning with the push for computer generated globalization and continuing up to the latest cell phones. Science, neuroscience, and technology have been deified. Cognitive warfare has been waged against the public mind. The intelligence agencies, war departments, and their accomplices throughout the corporations, media, Hollywood, medicine, and the universities have united to effect this end. Neuroscience and medicine have been weaponized. The objective being to convince the public that they are machines, their brains are computers, and that their only hope is embrace that “reality.”

After the actor Reagan rode off into the sunset, his Vice-President and former Director of the CIA (therefore a supreme actor), George H. W. Bush, took the reins and declared the decade of the 1990s the decade of brain research, to be heavily financed by the federal government. In 1992, boy wonder William Clinton, straight out of the fetid fields of Arkansas politics, was elected to carry on this work, not just the brain research but the continuous bombing of Iraq and the slaughters around the world, but also the work of dismantling welfare and repealing the Glass-Steagall Act, reuniting commercial and investment banking and opening the door for the rich to get super rich and normal people to get screwed. So Clinton fulfilled the duties of the good Republican President that he was, and the right-wing played the game of ripping him for being a leftist. It’s funny except that so many believed this game in which all the players operated within the same frame (and of course still do), the play within the play whose real authors are always invisible to the fixated audience.

What is the antonym to a contronym?

When George W. Bush took over, he continued the brain research project with massive federal monies by declaring 2000-10 as the Decade of the Behavior Project.

Then under Obama, whose role model was the actor Reagan, and under Trump, whose role model was the guy he played on reality television and whose official role was playing the bad guy to Obama’s good guy, the money for the mapping of the brain and artificial intelligence continued flowing from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Office of Science and Technology Project (OSTP).

Three decades of joint military, intelligence, and neuroscience work on how to understand brains so as to control them through mind control and computer technology might suggest something untoward was afoot, wouldn’t you say?

Create the Problem and Then the “Solution”

If you are still on this twisted path with me, you may feel an increased level of anxiety. Not that it is new, for you have probably felt it for a long time. We both know that free-floating anxiety, like depression and fear, has been a stable of life in the good old USA for decades. We didn’t create it, and, as C. Wright Mills has said, “Neither the life of an individual nor the history of a society can be understood without understanding both.” For our biographies, including anxiety and meaninglessness, take place within social history and social structures, and so we must ask what are the connections. And are there solutions?

There are drugs, of course, and the caring folks at the pharmaceutical companies who want to see us with Smiley Faces, perky in mind and body, are always glad to provide them for an exorbitant price, one often well hidden in the ledgers of their insurance company partners-in-crime. But still, there is so much to fear: terrorists, viruses, bad weather, bad breath, my bad, your bad, bad death, etc.

Is there a place upon which to pin this anxiety that floats ?

Professor Mattias Desmet, a clinical psychology professor at the University of Ghent in Belgium, has some interesting thoughts about it, but they don’t necessarily lead to happy conclusions. I think he is correct in saying that for decades there has been a situation brewing that is the perfect soil for mass formation with a hypnotized public embracing a new totalitarianism, one that has now been made real through COVID 19 with the lockdowns and loss of liberties as we descend with Dante to the lowest depths of the Inferno.

These background developments are the breakdown of social bonds, the loss of meaning making, its accompanying free-floating anxiety, and the absence of ways to relieve that anxiety short of aggression. You can listen to him here.

These conditions didn’t just “happen” but were created by multiple power elite actors with long range plans. If that sounds conspiratorial, that’s because it is. That’s what the powerful do. They conspire to achieve their goals. The average person, without the awareness, will, inclination, or ability to do investigative sociological research, often falls prey to their designs, and through today’s electronic digital media is mesmerized into feeling that the media offer solutions to their anxieties. They provide answers, even when they are propaganda.

As Ellul says, “Propaganda is the true remedy for loneliness.” It draws all lost souls to its benevolent siren song. CNN’s smiling Sanjay Gupta sedates many a mind and The New York Times and CBS soothe untold numbers of Mr. and Mrs. Lonelyhearts with sweet nothings straight from the messaging centers of the World Economic Forum and Langley, Virginia. They draw on the need to obey and believe, and provide fables that give people a sense of value and belonging to the group, even though the group is unreal. These media can quite easily, but usually subtly, turn their audiences’ frenetic, agitated passivity into active aggression towards dissidents, especially when those dissidents have been blamed for endangering the lives of the “good” people.

As has occurred, censorship of dissent is necessary, and this must be done for the common good, even when it is carried out in allegedly democratic societies. In the name of freedom, freedom must be denied. Thus Biden’s declaration of war against domestic dissent.

Mattias Desmet it right; we are far down the road to totalitarianism.

Simulation and Simulacra

When I was a boy, I did certain boy things that were popular in my generation. For a short period I constructed model ships and planes from kits. It was something to do when I was constrained to the house because of bad weather. These kits were replicas of famous battle ships or planes and came with decals you could paste on them when you were done. The decals identified these historical vehicles, which were very real or had been. I knew I was making a miniature double of real objects, just as I knew a map of New York City streets corresponded to the real Bronx streets I roamed. The map and my models were simulacra, but not the real thing. The real things were outside somewhere. And I knew not to walk on the map for my wanderings.

When Baudrillard wrote Simulacra and Simulation, he was telling us that something fundamental had changed and would change far more in the future. He wrote:

Today abstraction is no longer that of the map, the double, the mirror, or the concept. Simulation is no longer that of the territory, a referential being, or a substance. It is the generation by models of a real without origin or reality: a hyperreal. The territory no longer precedes the map, nor does it survive it. It is nevertheless the map that precedes the territory – precession of simulacra – that engenders the territory….

Translated into plain English (French intellectuals can be difficult to understand), he is saying that in much of modern life, reality has disappeared into its signs or models. And within these signs, these self-enclosed systems, distinctions can’t be made because these simulacra contain, like contronyms, both their positive and negative poles, so they cancel each other out while holding the believer imprisoned in amber. Once you are in them, you are trapped because there are no outside references, the simulated system of thought or machine is your universe, the only reality. There is no dialectical tension because the system has swallowed it. There is no critical negativity, no place to stand outside to rebel because the simulacrum encompasses the positive and negative in a circulatory process that makes everything equivalent but the “positivity” of the simulacrum itself. You are inside the whale: “The virtual space of the global is the space of the screen and the network, of immanence and the digital, of a dimensionless space-time.”

So if that plain English (Ha!) doesn’t do it for you, here’s Baudrillard again:

It is a question of substituting the signs of the real for the real, that is to say of an operation of deterring every real process via its operational double, a programmatic, metastable, perfectly descriptive machine that offers all the signs of the real and short-circuits all its vicissitudes. Never again will the real have a chance to produce itself – such is the vital function of the model in a system of death, or rather of anticipated resurrection, that no longer gives the event of death a chance. [my emphases]

In the case of my model airplanes, there were real planes that my replicas were based on. I knew that. Baudrillard was announcing that the world was changing and children in the future would have a difficult time distinguishing between the real and its simulacra. Not just children but all of us have arrived at that point, thanks to digital technology, where to distinguish between the real and the imaginary is very hard. Thus the purpose of video games: To scramble brains. Thus the purpose of all the brain research funded by the Pentagon: To control brains via the interface of people with machines. This is a fundamental reason why the ruling elites, under the cover of Covid-19, have been pushing for an online digitized world through which they can amass even greater control over people’s sense of reality. Are we watching a video of the real world or a video of a model of the real world? How to tell the difference?

The weather report says that there is a 31% chance of rain tomorrow at 2 P.M., and people take that seriously, even though only a genuine blockhead would not realize that this is not based on reality but on a computer model of reality and a reality that is unreal a second degree over since it has yet to occur. Yet that everyday example is normal today. It’s a form of hypnosis. The map precedes the territory.

But it gets even weirder as a regular perusal of the news confirms. A very strange warped sense of reality unconnected to digital technology is widespread. There recently was a news report about the sale of a Mohammed Ali drawing that sold for $425,000. The drawing could have been done by a child with a marker. It depicts a stick figure Ali in a boxing ring standing with arms raised in victory over a fallen opponent. From the fallen boxer’s head a speech bubble rises with these words: “Ref, he did float like a butterfly and sting like a bee.” It is factually true that Ali knocked many opponents on their asses and raised his arms in victory. So when he drew his stick drawing he was probably remembering that. Therefore his drawing, a representation of his memory of reality and imagination, is two degrees removed from the real. For no opponent uttered those words from his back on a canvas. They are Ali’s signature words, how he liked to present himself on the world’s stage, part of his act, for he was a quintessential performer, albeit an unusual one with courage and a social conscience. Obviously his drawing is not art but a crude little sketch. Whoever spent nearly half a million dollars for it, did so either for an investment (which raises one question concerning reality and illusion) or as a form of magical appropriation, similar to getting a famous person’s signature to “capture” a bit of their immortality (the second question). Either way it’s more than weird, even though not uncommon. It is its commonness that makes it emblematic of this present era of copies and simulacra, the mumbo jumbo magic that disappears the real into simulated images.

Take the recent case of the TV actor William Shatner, who played a space ship captain named Captain Kirk on a very popular television series, Star Trek, a show filled with kitsch wisdom loved by hordes of desperadoes. All unreal but taken close to the fanatics’ hearts. He’s been in the news recently for taking a ride into earth’s sub orbit on a spacecraft owned and operated by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos. Bezos gave the ninety-year-old actor a comp ride up and away supposedly because he was a big Star Trek fan. In keeping with the pseudo-spiritual theme of this business venture and PR stunt, the spacecraft was called the New Shepard, presumably to distinguish it from the Old Shepard, whom we must assume is dead as Nietzsche said a few years ago. Sometimes these billionaires are so busy making money that they forget to tune in to the latest news. Bezos was announcing his new religion, a blending of P. T. Barnum and technology. Anyway, pearls of “spiritual” wisdom, like those uttered on the old TV series, greeted the public following Shatner’s trip. Ten minutes up and down isn’t three days and nights, but he was up to the task. A guy playing an actor playing a space ship pilot playing a TV personage on a public relations business stunt flight. “Unbelievable,” as he said. Who is copying whom? Tune in.

Baudrillard offers the example of The Iconoclasts from centuries past :

…whose millennial quarrel is still with us today. This is precisely because they predicted the omnipotence of simulacra, the faculty the simulacra have of effacing God from the conscience of man, and the destructive annihilating truth that they allow to appear – that deep down God never existed, even that God himself was never anything but his own simulacrum – from this came their urge to destroy the images.

We are now awash in epiphanies of representation, as Daniel Boorstin noted in The Image in the 1960s and which everyone can notice as those little rectangular boxes are constantly raised everywhere to capture what their operators might unconsciously think of as a world they no longer think is real, so they better capture it before it fully evaporates. Such acquisitive image taking bespeaks an unspoken nihilism, secret simulations that signify the death sentence of their referents.

So let’s just say simulacra are traps wherein the real is no longer real but a hyperreal that seems realer than real, while concealing its unreality.

This goes much further than the use of digital technology. It involves the entire spectrum of techniques of mind control and propaganda. It includes politics, medicine, economics, Covid-19, the lockdowns and vaccines, etc. Everything.

Let me end with one small example. A trifle, you’ll agree. I began by noting the election of the actor Ronald Reagan in 1980. Then the quote from the CIA Director Casey: “We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.”

Then came the CIA actor George H. W. Bush, the two-faced Bill Clinton, George W. Bush the son of the CIA man, Obama, Trump, and Biden. Rather shady characters all, depending usually on your political affiliations. Suppose, however, that these seven men are an acting troupe in the same play, which is a highly sophisticated simulacrum that plays in loops, and that the object of its architects is to keep the audience engaged in the show and rooting for their favorite character. Suppose this self-generating spectacle has a name: The Contronym. And suppose that at the very heart of its ongoing run, one of the lead characters, who had been reared from birth to play a revolutionary role, one that demanded many masks and contradictory faces that could be used to reconcile the personae of the other six actors and perhaps reconcile the Rashomon-like story, suppose that character was Barack Obama, and suppose he was reared in a CIA family and later just “happened” to become President where he became known as “the intelligence president” because of his intimate relationship with the CIA. And suppose he gave the CIA everything it wanted.

Would you think you were living in a simulacrum?

Or would you say Jeremy Kuzmarov’s report, “A Company Family: The Untold History of Obama and the CIA” was a simulation of the most scurrilous kind?

Or would you feel lost in the wood in the middle of your life with Dante? Heading down to hell?

“’I was thinking,’ said Alice very politely, ‘which is the best way out of this wood. It’s getting so dark. Would you tell me, please?’

But the fat little men [Tweedledee and Tweedledum] only looked at each other and grinned.”

Yet it is no laughing matter. If we want to get through this hell we are traversing, we had better clearly recognize those who are carrying the Banner of the King of Hell. Identify them and stop their advance. It is a real spiritual war we are engaged in, and we either fight for God or the devil.

STATE OF MAINE SUPERIOR COURT
KENNEBEC, ss. CIVIL ACTION
DOCKET NO. CV-21-158

COALITION FOR HEALTHCARE
WORKERS AGAINST MEDICAL
MANDATES, et al,

Plaintiffs

v.

JEANNE M. LAMBREW and
NIRAV D. SHAH,

Defendants

AFFIDAVIT OF DR. MERYL JAE NASS, M.D.
IN REBUTTAL TO NIRAV DINESH SHAH, M.D., J.D.

(The graphics and footnotes are missing. I will try to provide them later.)

BEFORE ME, the undersigned person, duly authorized to administer oaths, personally appeared, Dr. Meryl J. Nass, M.D., J.D., who, after being first duly cautioned and sworn, deposed and stated as follows:

1. My name is Meryl Jae Nass, M.D. I practice internal medicine in Ellsworth, Maine.

2. I have a Bachelor's degree in Biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

3. I attended New Jersey Medical School and transferred to the University of Mississippi Medical School when my husband became a professor there. I received my medical degree from the University of Mississippi and did a residency in internal medicine there.

4. I am board certified in internal medicine.

5. In addition to a 40 year career practicing medicine, I developed expertise in the identification, response and amelioration of bioterrorism and pandemic diseases, Gulf War syndrome, anthrax, and in the evaluation of vaccines and vaccine safety.

6. I am the first person in the world to have investigated an outbreak and proved it was due to biological warfare. The outbreak occurred in Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia) during its civil war in 19978-80, and my research was published in 1992. I have been referred to as a "biowarfare epidemiologist" ever since.

7. I was a consultant to the Ministry of Health of Cuba in 1993 regarding an epidemic of optic and peripheral neuropathy, correctly diagnosing it as the result of cyanide exposure coupled with nutritional deficiency and advising on mitigation strategies.

8. I am considered an expert on the anthrax letters attacks of 2001 and the anthrax vaccine. I consulted for the World Bank's Interamerican Development Bank in 2002 regarding the evaluation and amelioration of anthrax and other potential bioterrorism and chemical weapon events.

9. I consulted for the U.S. Director of National Intelligence regarding the prevention and identification of domestic terrorism events, in 2008.

10. I have given requested testimonies to six different Congressional committees between 1999 and 2007.

11. I have provided expert testimony to two National Academy of Science committees and to a UK committee headed by its Law Lord investigating Gulf War syndrome.

12. While I have testified to state legislative committees on a variety of medical issues, in recent years I have testified in Vermont, Massachusetts, New Brunswick and Maine on the specific issue of vaccine mandates.

13. Since the 2020 start of this pandemic, I have been providing almost daily information and analysis to the public on all aspects of the pandemic, the pandemic response, potential COVID-19 treatments and vaccines. This information is posted on my website. Many of my articles have been reposted on other websites. I have also written original articles for websites and magazines. I have written the most comprehensive article on the deliberate suppression of hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of COVID, to date. I edited one Citizen Petition to the Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") regarding the polymerase chain reaction ("PCR") tests that have been used to diagnose COVID-19, and I coauthored another Citizen Petition to the FDA challenging its response to the pandemic and its issuance of Emergency Use Authorizations ("EUA") for COVID-19 vaccines.

14. I have been interviewed by all major US newspapers and TV networks, as well as by many alternative media.

15. I am listed in Who's Who in America and Who's Who in the World.

16. The COVID-19 pandemic is due to a coronavirus which most likely was developed at the Wuhan Institute of Virology laboratory, in collaboration with Professor Ralph Baric of the University of North Carolina. This research was partly funded by U.S. federal agencies, especially the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, which has devoted up to 51 million dollars/year to coronavirus research over the past 20 years, preceding the current pandemic.

17. I was asked to review and comment on Dr. Nirah Shah's affidavit and the following remarks provide my response to his statements. Unless stated otherwise, when I use the term "CDC" in the following discussion, it refers to the federal Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, GA and not the Maine CDC, which Dr. Shah directs.

18. Dr. Nirav Shah is incorrect in his discussion of the means of spread (#17) of SARS-CoV-2, the virus said to cause the disease called COVID-19. He has omitted aerosol spread, in which particles much smaller than droplet size can travel across a building and cause infection at a distance far greater than six feet. This is well known in the scientific literature, and it is the reason the CDC advised improved ventilation and opening windows to reduce the burden of virus suspended in air, potentially for hours. Even coughing and sneezing have been shown to spread droplets over a distance exceeding 20 feet.

19. The so-called Delta variant (#22) is defined differently in different countries. There is not just one Delta variant, because coronaviruses are continuously mutating. It is true that current variants, which the CDC defines as one entity, are more contagious than earlier variants. While some cases are indisputably very severe, detailed information from the United Kingdom ("UK") regarding 7 different variants that are being closely observed has revealed that overall, the Delta variant has the lowest mortality rate of all. For most individuals it is less severe. For some it is more severe than earlier variants.

20. It is true that the CDC has claimed that unvaccinated Americans are much more likely to be hospitalized than vaccinated Americans. However, data from the UK and Israel fail to confirm this. In fact, Israeli statistics show that both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals are approximately equally likely to be hospitalized for COVID at the present time.

21. This Israel Ministry of Health graph makes this clear. While the number of cases was approximately the same in the vaccinated and the unvaccinated, there were nearly twice as many vaccinated Israelis hospitalized as unvaccinated Israelis. Israel used the Pfizer vaccine almost exclusively.

22. The UK data tracks the Israeli data, and can be found at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1018547/Technical_Briefing_23_21_09_16.pdf

23. How is it that the federal CDC and Dr. Shah can claim otherwise? Unfortunately, the CDC is captured by pharmaceutical companies, which donate to the CDC Foundation.

24. CDC produces data that invariably support Executive branch policies. Dr. Shah is a liaison representative for CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and hews closely to the CDC's talking points.

25. CDC has employed several strategies to reduce artificially the number of reported breakthrough cases, and I have written about most of these. On May 1, 2021, the CDC stopped accepting reports of breakthrough (fully vaccinated but infected) cases from states and hospitals unless these cases died or were hospitalized and had been proven to be positive for COVID by using a PCR test with a strict cycle threshold of 28 or less. Unvaccinated cases, however, could be diagnosed using a highly permissive cycle threshold of 40 or even 45, even though Dr. Tony Fauci himself pointed out early in the pandemic that at cycle thresholds over 35, all you were finding were "dead nucleotides" rather than evidence of live virus.

26. Furthermore, CDC defines patients as fully vaccinated only two weeks after their final vaccination. Americans who developed COVID-19 between vaccine doses or before two weeks had elapsed after their last dose were defined as not fully vaccinated, and in some circumstances as unvaccinated.

27. CDC also employs a leaky method of collecting cases from hospitals, as described in a recent article in Politico.

28. Unless patients have their vaccination status clearly listed in their hospital record, they are probably going to be classified as unvaccinated. Hospital reporting of breakthrough cases to CDC is extremely patchy.

29. Unfortunately, while over 6,000 reports of U.S. deaths following vaccination have been submitted to the VAERS system, managed jointly by the FDA and CDC, 80% occurred within 2 weeks of a vaccination. It seems the CDC may be defining them as deaths in the unvaccinated. Otherwise it is difficult to understand how CDC claims none have been proven to be caused by vaccination. This CDC conclusion flies in the face of studies by a prominent pathology professor in Germany who found, based on autopsy studies he conducted, that 30-40% of deaths occurring soon after a COVID-19 vaccination were due to the vaccine.

30. Dr. Shah (#27) stated that the treatment of COVID-19 consists mainly of supportive care. While the federal CDC and recent NIH guidelines have made this claim, it is not supported by the medical literature, including the literature generated by these two agencies. CDC and NIAID have known about the benefits of chloroquine drugs for coronaviruses for many years. Hydroxychloroquine, chloroquine and ivermectin are very effective treatments for COVID when used early, during the first week of illness. The effectiveness of chloroquine antimalarial drugs (chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine and mefloquine) against coronaviruses, especially SARS-1 and MERS, was known by the CDC and NIH long before the current pandemic, since papers were published beginning in 2004 through 2014 about their success, in vitro, using acceptable doses against these deadly viruses.

31. Remdesivir (#28) is a controversial drug that the US Department of Veterans Affairs found did not improve mortality and extended length of hospital stay in a recent study.

32. Remdesivir was ushered through its pivotal trial by NIAID Director Tony Fauci, and only succeeded because the desired endpoint was changed during the study, not once but twice.

33. The NIH Guidelines committee, formed by NIAID, included 16 members with financial conflicts of interest with Gilead, the maker of Remdesivir. This is the most likely explanation for why this committee supported the use of Remdesivir but failed to support its competitors ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine.

34. The W.H.O. recommends against the use of Remdesivir for COVID.

35. Hydroxychloroquine (#32), as I noted above, was known to be effective against SARS coronaviruses since 2004. Vast efforts were put in place at the start of the current pandemic to prevent its use for COVID-19. These efforts included using borderline lethal doses of the drug in several large clinical trials, and using too low a dose in others. Starting the drug in hospital, when viral replication was already over and the disease process was later due to autoimmunity, cytokine storm and thromboses, was a guaranteed way to demonstrate lack of efficacy, since the drug only acted to stop the growth of virus. The NIAID promised a large study of outpatient use in 2,000 patients early in the illness, then inexplicably cancelled the trial after only 20 subjects had been enrolled.

36. Early treatment works, as evidenced by the forest plot meta-analysis below:

37. Importantly, there is suggestive evidence that hydroxychloroquine is also effective for prophylactic use. The biggest study in this regard is COPCOV MORU, undertaken by Oxford University professor Nicholas White in countries around the world. The study is not yet completed. The principal investigators felt it important to dispel the myth that hydroxychloroquine was ineffective for prevention of COVID, and posted a critique of the flawed methodologies used in studies that claimed this.

38. Dr. Shah claims (#34) that Vitamin D has failed to show effectiveness in the treatment of COVID. However, a compilation of the studies (which can be found at vdmeta.com) on Vitamin D shows otherwise:

39. Ivermectin (#35-37) is a very useful drug in the treatment of COVID that I use regularly. It is highly effective, as shown in the following meta-analysis for early treatment, in which only 4 of 28 studies failed to show benefit. While Dr. Shah correctly notes that Merck, which developed the drug and got a Nobel prize for it in 2015, has advised against its use, he failed to tell you that Merck has developed a new drug for COVID, Molnupiravir, which will compete with ivermectin for market share. Ivermectin is a cheap, off-patent generic drug. According to the Washington Post, "The U.S. government made an advance purchase of 1.7 million treatment courses of the drug [Molnupiravir] at a cost of $1.2 billion."

40. It should be obvious from the forest plot below that ivermectin shows strong evidence of efficacy for COVID-19.

41. Ivermectin is on the WHO list of essential drugs. Over 3 billion doses have been used, and Merck has donated most of them to Africans in a joint venture with the WHO to prevent onchocerciasis, or River Blindness. It is used over the counter and is an exceedingly safe drug.

42. Only because Americans have been stopped from obtaining the drug through normal means have some sought to buy a veterinary version over the counter in farm stores. There has not been a single reported death in the US from such irregular use of the drug, nor from its use as prescribed.

43. Dr. Shah is probably aware that the Maine Board of Pharmacy recently encouraged pharmacists to refuse to dispense ivermectin. Dr. Shah was perhaps instrumental in encouraging the Maine Board of Pharmacy to interject itself and interfere with the doctor-patient relationship when it comes to doctors prescribing human ivermectin.

44. A few overdoses by consumers of animal ivermectin became the justification to refuse legitimate prescriptions for the pharmaceutical drug ivermectin. This does not make sense. FDA has used the same rationale to discourage physicians from prescribing it. Apparently conflating safe physician prescriptions with overdosing on over-the-counter horse paste was the best excuse CDC and FDA could come up with to issue warnings and proscriptions for legitimate prescriptions.

45. It seems ingenuous of Dr. Shah to note that ivermectin "carries a risk of side effects when not dosed properly." So do all drugs:

    "Nearly 500 years ago, Swiss physician and chemist Paracelsus expressed the basic principle of toxicology: “All things are poison and nothing is without poison; only the dose makes a thing not a poison.”

46. It is the actions of public health officials such as Dr. Shah to prevent patients from obtaining effective COVID-19 drugs that have led patients to seek out inferior veterinary products, because they cannot obtain this potentially life-saving medicine from their physicians and pharmacies due to interference by public health authorities. It has now become impossible for me to obtain the drug for my patients in a timely manner when they develop COVID-19. This is criminal negligence or worse, in my opinion.

47. U.S. public health professionals, including Dr. Shah, created an artificial shortage of a drug that is most effective at treating COVID-19. Then they used the fact that desperate patients have purchased the animal medication as their justification for stopping use of the drug. I am not an attorney like Dr. Shah, but this seems to me to be criminal behavior, which will predictably result in patient deaths.

48. Regarding the prophylactic use of ivermectin (#37), the data are highly supportive. Many US physicians have used it to prevent infection in themselves. A meta-analysis of prophylaxis studies of ivermectin reveals that using ivermectin reduces your risk of developing COVID-19 by 86%. Why did Dr. Shah say "there are no data supporting the use of ivermectin as a prophylactic for those who have been exposed" unless he was aware that there is a plethora of literature regarding the benefit of the drug in those using ivermectin before they were exposed--and he wished to avoid including these studies? Should we refer to his carefully chosen verbiage as legalese or sophistry? Regardless, neither befits a physician who has taken the Hippocratic oath and whose primary responsibility is to heal patients, not hinder their care.

49. Dr. Shah claims that taking ivermectin "does not reduce the risk of transmission of COVID-19 in the way a vaccine does." This is a spurious claim, since I have shown that the drug is about 86% effective in preventing infection. Preventing infection prevents transmission.

50. The COVID vaccines, on the other hand, do not claim to stop transmission. Currently the head of the federal CDC says they prevent severe illness but no longer prevent infection or transmission.

51. A large outbreak of COVID-19 in July in Banstable County, MA that was well documented in the CDC publication Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Review revealed that 74% of COVID cases were fully vaccinated according to the CDC definition. Cycle thresholds, used as a surrogate for viral titers and infectivity, were the same in both vaccinated and non-vaccinated cases. Breakthrough cases (a.k.a. vaccine failures) had received each of the 3 vaccines types authorized for use in the US.

52. This extremely well done study provides solid evidence that vaccination did not and cannot break the chain of transmission and cannot generate herd immunity. Surely Dr. Shah is familiar with this widely read report by CDC, MIT, Harvard and the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

53. Regarding calls to poison control centers, it appears that the Associated Press was given false information. It claimed that 70% of calls to the Mississippi poison control center were about ivermectin. However, the story was later corrected, when Mississippi's state epidemiologist said ivermectin calls only accounted for about 2% of total calls.

54. Additional false information regarding overdoses of ivermectin in Oklahoma made the international news, only to be later corrected as false news.

55. Both ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine are WHO essential drugs that are used over the counter in much of the world. Both are considered extremely safe when taken at recommended doses. Hydroxychloroquine is even recommended during pregnancy.

56. Dr. Shah makes an interesting point in #38, in which he compares ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine prophylaxis with the prophylaxis gained through COVID-19 vaccination. Why compare them to each other? Dr. Shah is in fact addressing a statutory problem for the vaccine EUAs that was posed by the 2 mentioned drugs. Each of these drugs has an extremely long half-life in tissue (probably greater than a month) and therefore each is used routinely for prophylaxis of (respectively) river blindness and malaria. Were they to be used in this way to prevent COVID-19, and if their success at preventing and treating COVID-19 was acknowledged, no EUAs could have legally been issued for other, more expensive on-patent drugs and vaccines. In order to issue an EUA there must be "no adequate, approved, and available alternatives."

57. Had our federal public health agencies acknowledged that ivermectin and hydroychloroquine were effective prophylactics and treatments for COVID-19, no EUAs for remdesivir, monoclonal antibodies, other drugs, convalescent sera, and vaccines could have legally been issued. This appears to be the primary reason that knowledge about and use of these drugs has been suppressed. The fact that Dr. Shah raised the issue suggests he is well aware of this legal matter and is actively involved in these drugs' suppression.

58. In #39, Dr. Shah admits foreknowledge about these drugs before promulgating the Emergency Rule, Immunization Requirements for Healthcare Workers, 10-144 Code of Maine Rules, Chapter 264. One wonders what information he used to draw his conclusions, when the bulk of the published literature, as I have shown, suggests he should have drawn a very different conclusion about the respective benefits of these drugs versus COVID-19 vaccines. His claims are belied by the evidence.

59. In #38, Dr. Shah alleges that the drugs produce more side effects than the vaccines. This is untrue. One need only look at reports of myocarditis in boys aged 12-17 after COVID-19 vaccination: they report myocarditis cases at a rate 50 times that of men over 65. FDA's Doran Fink noted at the last CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices meeting that we do not know the rate of subclinical myocarditis caused by the COVID-19 vaccines. Furthermore, FDA admitted in its letter to Pfizer on August 23, 2021 that it was unable to determine the extent of myocarditis from Pfizer's vaccine, and would be unable to do so in future as well.

60. We also do not know the rate of thrombosis, heart attacks and strokes after vaccination, but reports to VAERS suggest they are high following COVID-19 vaccinations. We do know that anaphylaxis rates after the mRNA vaccines are about 100 times higher than expected from other vaccines, based on a Harvard study of employees at Mass General Hospital and the Brigham Hospital. No wonder the vaccines must be given only when resuscitation equipment and staff are on site.

61. I agree that safe and effective vaccines are a marvelous achievement of mankind and have made a huge difference in our quality of life and our longevity.

62. Herd immunity is achieved when a population is sufficiently immune (due to cross-immunity from related infections, recovered immunity from having had the disease, or vaccine-induced immunity) that it no longer supports continuing transmission of an infectious agent and an outbreak ends or never gets started. The definition of immunity inexplicably changed in the past year in some places to exclude the first two types of immunity I mentioned. This definitional change, used by Dr. Shah in #41, is duplicitous and unscientific. The definitions in my medical textbooks accord with what I have written above.

63. In number #43, Dr. Shah reveals he is not very cognizant of the details regarding vaccine induced immunity. Immunity from the Mumps and chickenpox vaccines probably never reaches 90-92%, or if it does, does not remain there for long. Most chickenpox cases in the U.S. occur in vaccinated children whose immunity has waned over time. The same is true for mumps. Rubella vaccine is probably more effective, as there is no transmission of rubella within the U.S. Measles vaccine was thought to provide very high protection, but it too wanes over time. That is why we now give 2 or 3 MMR vaccines to children, when initially it was believed one alone would convey life-long immunity.

64. If COVID-19 vaccines provided strong and long-lasting immunity from infection and transmission, and were very safe, then Dr. Shah would be correct in statement #44. But unfortunately, the vaccines fail to prevent transmission, as admitted by federal CDC Director Walensky and a recent CDC publication.

65. Their protection wears off quickly, and they have profound safety problems. Had they undergone the normal FDA approval process rather than a "warp speed" simulation of a rigorous approval process, they would never have been licensed or used beyond the clinical trials. The asymptomatic spread of COVID-19 was the basis for locking down and restricting the basic liberties of all of Maine's citizens, even the healthy, for over a year. But the makers of the COVID-19 vaccines state that they only reduce symptoms, rather than conferring immunity, or preventing infection or transmission. Vaccines for COVID-19 provide us with a charade of protection and a charade that the vaccinated cannot be asymptomatically infected and transmitting virus to patients. If the vaccines reduce symptoms but not infection or viral load (as suggested by a rigorous study in a hospital in Vietnam) then vaccinated individuals may actually be more likely to spread the disease than the unvaccinated.

66. We simply do not know if this is the case in the U.S., due to CDC's successful efforts to corrode the statistics on cases, hospitalizations and deaths.

67. The bottom line is that even if everyone in the U.S. was vaccinated, the flaws in the vaccines and the leaky protection they convey would prevent us ever achieving high levels of population immunity. Dr. Shah pretends that the COVID-19 vaccines work as well as the measles vaccine. But they most certainly do not. The massive numbers of "breakthrough" cases (which used to be called "vaccine failures") in the UK and Israel, with vaccination rates in their populations higher than ours, make clear that high rates of vaccination are not the solution to the spread of COVID-19. This is why the U.S. government just spent 1.2 billion dollars on Merck's Molnupiravir pill. For treatment. Federal agencies have begun to acknowledge that vaccinations will not end the pandemic. It seems Dr. Shah has not kept up with recent policy changes.

68. Regarding #52, I have reviewed the Pfizer filing to the European Medicines Agency and the Japanese agency. In them, I learned that Pfizer's lipid nanoparticle contains two novel ingredients, not used previously in any vaccines. I believe Dr. Shah is grossly mistaken regarding his assurance that these ingredients are commonly used. While PEG is commonly used, it is also the cause of life-threatening anaphylactic reactions, which Dr. Shah fails to acknowledge.

69. Furthermore, FDA and CDC have access to over a dozen databases from which calculations of vaccine safety should be derived. However, the public has only been given information from VAERS, V-safe and the VSD. Inappropriate algorithms have been employed by CDC and FDA to analyze the data.

70. As I noted earlier, FDA instructed Pfizer on August 23, 2021 that its surveillance systems are unable to assess the risk of myocarditis from Pfizer's vaccine, and therefore FDA asked Pfizer to assess the risk. Pfizer has reported anticipated earnings from its COVID-19 vaccines in 2021 of $33 billion dollars. Do you think Pfizer will identify a problem with myocarditis under these circumstances?

71. Regarding #54-63, it is certainly true that COVID-19 continues to spread in Maine, although given the federal CDC's idiosyncratic method of counting breakthrough cases in the vaccinated, there are doubts about the veracity of the statistics Dr. Shah provides. I agree that the methods that have been employed for the past 1.5 years, including injection with the COVID-19 vaccines, have not worked very well. Why are we continuing to use them?

72. Why are we continuing to prevent the use of medications that appear to be much more effective than the COVID-19 vaccines?

73. Why are so many healthcare workers still unvacccinated? The simple answer is that they are the people seeing the side effects from these vaccines. Healthcare workers are required to be vaccinated with many vaccines. They have never refused in large numbers like this before. They get yearly flu shots, and must have had the childhood shots and a hepatitis B series.

74. Why do 10-15% of those who got the first mRNA shot fail to return for the second shot? This does not happen with other vaccines. Clearly, thousands of Maine healthcare workers have direct knowledge of something that is being denied by our public health professionals. Why else would so many healthcare workers give up their careers, when they will go to less prestigious and remunerative jobs instead?

75. The Emergency Rule was promulgated in the absence of science, common sense, and a review of the existing literature on COVID-19. This is what happens when there are no checks and balances in the system, no legislative involvement, and our unelected public health professionals (who do not treat patients and may not even be physicians) are allowed to rule by fiat.

76. While they may, as Dr. Shah has, try to hide behind claims that they are acting to protect patients, healthcare workers, the healthcare infrastructure and reduce facility outbreaks, all 4 claims are fraudulent.

77. Clearly the infrastructure will be hard hit when 10 or 20% of healthcare workers are fired from their jobs. How does Maine CDC propose to ameliorate this mess and keep the infrastructure functioning?

78. How does Maine CDC propose to rebuild relationships with healthcare workers after imposing this draconian and scientifically insupportable mandate on them? Trust is gone.

79. Why has the administration of Governor Janet Mills made it impossible to use hydroxychloroquine for prophylaxis of COVID-19? Why has it warned pharmacists not to dispense ivermectin? Are these the acts of an administration concerned with the health of the public and its healthcare workers? Or are these political acts that resulted from backroom deals to promote expensive but poorly effective drugs and vaccines--and the only way to do so is to suppress the already licensed, safe, cheap and effective treatments?

80. Furthermore, the FDA has allowed COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers to use antibody tests to determine immunity from previous infections in subjects in clinical trials. FDA accepts these results as valid. However, regular Americans are not being allowed to use a single test (and there are dozens available) to demonstrate that they are already immune, and would obtain no benefit from vaccination, only risk of an adverse event. The new technical procedural rulemaking being undertaken by Maine's Department of Health and Human Services to finalize the Emergency Rule expressly eliminates "proof of immunity" as a basis for exemption from the COVID-19 mandate. Why have the federal government and the Maine CDC and DHS adopted a new definition of immunity, reminiscent of Orwell's book 1984, that precludes immunity from prior infections? 2 + 2 = 5? This is nonsensical. It only makes sense if the inexorable drive to vaccinate everyone, regardless of their immune status, is being done for an ulterior motive. That motive might be to gain obeisance. It might be to justify vaccine passports. We simply do not know why it is being done. But we must not ignore these vitally important questions, simply because they are uncomfortable or run counter to a prevailing narrative.

81. #72, which claims that prior immunity resulting from a COVID-19 infection is uncertain, is a gross falsehood. There are now dozens of studies that show immunity after COVID-19 infection is strong, durable and long-lasting. There are just as many studies showing that the immunity obtained from existing vaccines is neither durable nor long-lasting.

82. But what we do know is that forcing immune Americans to be vaccinated with a risky vaccine is not medicine. It is the antithesis of medicine.

83. Testing alone is not the solution either. The tests are not perfect. One UK study showed that rapid tests might be only 58% accurate and it was suggested that they are not ready for use. However, they were rolled out anyway, in the UK and here, despite widespread knowledge of their flaws. Why were millions of tests thrown away at the Abbott plant in Westbrook? We have not been told the reason, and only learned of this when concerned employees told the press about it.

84. The solution to the pandemic has been known since 2004. It was demonstrated by CDC scientists in 2005, and by NIAID scientists in 2014. No doubt they have access to chloroquine and/or ivermectin drugs for their families. Recall that during Senate testimony 2 months ago, we learned that only about 60% of CDC, FDA's CBER and NIAID employees had been vaccinated.

85. Dr. Shah's affidavit is a tissue of lies that are consistent with the lies promulgated by federal agencies. Perhaps that is why he failed to cite a single reference to back up the claims in his affidavit. Unfortunately, these lies have created a huge rift between our patients and our medical establishment. They are about to create a crisis in healthcare when many healthcare workers have their employment terminated. These lies have led to a prolongation of the pandemic and a steep increase in morbidity and mortality.

    Maine deserves and can do a lot better than this.

This is an anonymously posted document by someone who calls themselves Spartacus. Because it’s anonymous, I can’t contact them to ask for permission to publish. So I hesitated for a while, but it’s simply the best document I’ve seen on Covid, vaccines, etc. Whoever Spartacus is, they have a very elaborate knowledge in “the field”. If you want to know a lot more about the no. 1 issue in the world today, read it. And don’t worry if you don’t understand every single word, neither do I. But I learned a lot.

The original PDF doc is here was here: Covid19 – The Spartacus Letter

See also: References for "Spartacus" Anonymous COVID9 whistleblower document

Hello,

My name is Spartacus, and I’ve had enough.

We have been forced to watch America and the Free World spin into inexorable decline due to a biowarfare attack. We, along with countless others, have been victimized and gaslit by propaganda and psychological warfare operations being conducted by an unelected, unaccountable Elite against the American people and our allies.

Our mental and physical health have suffered immensely over the course of the past year and a half. We have felt the sting of isolation, lockdown, masking, quarantines, and other completely nonsensical acts of healthcare theater that have done absolutely nothing to protect the health or wellbeing of the public from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Now, we are watching the medical establishment inject literal poison into millions of our fellow Americans without so much as a fight.

We have been told that we will be fired and denied our livelihoods if we refuse to vaccinate. This was the last straw.

We have spent thousands of hours analyzing leaked footage from Wuhan, scientific papers from primary sources, as well as the paper trails left by the medical establishment.

What we have discovered would shock anyone to their core.

First, we will summarize our findings, and then, we will explain them in detail. References will be placed at the end.

Summary:

• COVID-19 is a blood and blood vessel disease. SARS-CoV-2 infects the lining of human blood vessels, causing them to leak into the lungs.
• Current treatment protocols (e.g. invasive ventilation) are actively harmful to patients, accelerating oxidative stress and causing severe VILI (ventilator-induced lung injuries). The continued use of ventilators in the absence of any proven medical benefit constitutes mass murder.
• Existing countermeasures are inadequate to slow the spread of what is an aerosolized and potentially wastewater-borne virus, and constitute a form of medical theater.
• Various non-vaccine interventions have been suppressed by both the media and the medical establishment in favor of vaccines and expensive patented drugs.
• The authorities have denied the usefulness of natural immunity against COVID-19, despite the fact that natural immunity confers protection against all of the virus’s proteins, and not just one.
• Vaccines will do more harm than good. The antigen that these vaccines are based on, SARS-CoV-2 Spike, is a toxic protein. SARS-CoV-2 may have ADE, or antibody-dependent enhancement; current antibodies may not neutralize future strains, but instead help them infect immune cells. Also, vaccinating during a pandemic with a leaky vaccine removes the evolutionary pressure for a virus to become less lethal.
• There is a vast and appalling criminal conspiracy that directly links both Anthony Fauci and Moderna to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
• COVID-19 vaccine researchers are directly linked to scientists involved in brain-computer interface (“neural lace”) tech, one of whom was indicted for taking grant money from China.
• Independent researchers have discovered mysterious nanoparticles inside the vaccines that are not supposed to be present.
• The entire pandemic is being used as an excuse for a vast political and economic transformation of Western society that will enrich the already rich and turn the rest of us into serfs and untouchables.

COVID-19 Pathophysiology and Treatments:

COVID-19 is not a viral pneumonia. It is a viral vascular endotheliitis and attacks the lining of blood vessels, particularly the small pulmonary alveolar capillaries, leading to endothelial cell activation and sloughing, coagulopathy, sepsis, pulmonary edema, and ARDS-like symptoms. This is a disease of the blood and blood vessels. The circulatory system. Any pneumonia that it causes is secondary to that.

In severe cases, this leads to sepsis, blood clots, and multiple organ failure, including hypoxic and inflammatory damage to various vital organs, such as the brain, heart, liver, pancreas, kidneys, and intestines.

Some of the most common laboratory findings in COVID-19 are elevated D-dimer, elevated prothrombin time, elevated C-reactive protein, neutrophilia, lymphopenia, hypocalcemia, and hyperferritinemia, essentially matching a profile of coagulopathy and immune system hyperactivation/immune cell exhaustion.

COVID-19 can present as almost anything, due to the wide tropism of SARS-CoV-2 for various tissues in the body’s vital organs. While its most common initial presentation is respiratory illness and flu-like symptoms, it can present as brain inflammation, gastrointestinal disease, or even heart attack or pulmonary embolism.

COVID-19 is more severe in those with specific comorbidities, such as obesity, diabetes, and hypertension. This is because these conditions involve endothelial dysfunction, which renders the circulatory system more susceptible to infection and injury by this particular virus.

The vast majority of COVID-19 cases are mild and do not cause significant disease. In known cases, there is something known as the 80/20 rule, where 80% of cases are mild and 20% are severe or critical. However, this ratio is only correct for known cases, not all infections. The number of actual infections is much, much higher. Consequently, the mortality and morbidity rate is lower. However, COVID-19 spreads very quickly, meaning that there are a significant number of severely-ill and critically-ill patients appearing in a short time frame.

In those who have critical COVID-19-induced sepsis, hypoxia, coagulopathy, and ARDS, the most common treatments are intubation, injected corticosteroids, and blood thinners. This is not the correct treatment for COVID-19. In severe hypoxia, cellular metabolic shifts cause ATP to break down into hypoxanthine, which, upon the reintroduction of oxygen, causes xanthine oxidase to produce tons of highly damaging radicals that attack tissue. This is called ischemia-reperfusion injury, and it’s why the majority of people who go on a ventilator are dying. In the mitochondria, succinate buildup due to sepsis does the same exact thing; when oxygen is reintroduced, it makes superoxide radicals. Make no mistake, intubation will kill people who have COVID-19.

The end-stage of COVID-19 is severe lipid peroxidation, where fats in the body start to “rust” due to damage by oxidative stress. This drives autoimmunity. Oxidized lipids appear as foreign objects to the immune system, which recognizes and forms antibodies against OSEs, or oxidation-specific epitopes. Also, oxidized lipids feed directly into pattern recognition receptors, triggering even more inflammation and summoning even more cells of the innate immune system that release even more destructive enzymes. This is similar to the pathophysiology of Lupus.

COVID-19’s pathology is dominated by extreme oxidative stress and neutrophil respiratory burst, to the point where hemoglobin becomes incapable of carrying oxygen due to heme iron being stripped out of heme by hypochlorous acid. No amount of supplemental oxygen can oxygenate blood that chemically refuses to bind O2.

The breakdown of the pathology is as follows:

SARS-CoV-2 Spike binds to ACE2. Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2 is an enzyme that is part of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, or RAAS. The RAAS is a hormone control system that moderates fluid volume in the body and in the bloodstream (i.e. osmolarity) by controlling salt retention and excretion. This protein, ACE2, is ubiquitous in every part of the body that interfaces with the circulatory system, particularly in vascular endothelial cells and pericytes, brain astrocytes, renal tubules and podocytes, pancreatic islet cells, bile duct and intestinal epithelial cells, and the seminiferous ducts of the testis, all of which SARS-CoV-2 can infect, not just the lungs.

SARS-CoV-2 infects a cell as follows: SARS-CoV-2 Spike undergoes a conformational change where the S1 trimers flip up and extend, locking onto ACE2 bound to the surface of a cell. TMPRSS2, or transmembrane protease serine 2, comes along and cuts off the heads of the Spike, exposing the S2 stalk-shaped subunit inside. The remainder of the Spike undergoes a conformational change that causes it to unfold like an extension ladder, embedding itself in the cell membrane. Then, it folds back upon itself, pulling the viral membrane and the cell membrane together. The two membranes fuse, with the virus’s proteins migrating out onto the surface of the cell. The SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid enters the cell, disgorging its genetic material and beginning the viral replication process, hijacking the cell’s own structures to produce more virus.

SARS-CoV-2 Spike proteins embedded in a cell can actually cause human cells to fuse together, forming syncytia/MGCs (multinuclear giant cells). They also have other pathogenic, harmful effects. SARS-CoV-2’s viroporins, such as its Envelope protein, act as calcium ion channels, introducing calcium into infected cells. The virus suppresses the natural interferon response, resulting in delayed inflammation. SARS-CoV-2 N protein can also directly activate the NLRP3 inflammasome. Also, it suppresses the Nrf2 antioxidant pathway. The suppression of ACE2 by binding with Spike causes a buildup of bradykinin that would otherwise be broken down by ACE2.

This constant calcium influx into the cells results in (or is accompanied by) noticeable hypocalcemia, or low blood calcium, especially in people with Vitamin D deficiencies and pre-existing endothelial dysfunction. Bradykinin upregulates cAMP, cGMP, COX, and Phospholipase C activity. This results in prostaglandin release and vastly increased intracellular calcium signaling, which promotes highly aggressive ROS release and ATP depletion. NADPH oxidase releases superoxide into the extracellular space. Superoxide radicals react with nitric oxide to form peroxynitrite. Peroxynitrite reacts with the tetrahydrobiopterin cofactor needed by endothelial nitric oxide synthase, destroying it and “uncoupling” the enzymes, causing nitric oxide synthase to synthesize more superoxide instead. This proceeds in a positive feedback loop until nitric oxide bioavailability in the circulatory system is depleted.

Dissolved nitric oxide gas produced constantly by eNOS serves many important functions, but it is also antiviral against SARS-like coronaviruses, preventing the palmitoylation of the viral Spike protein and making it harder for it to bind to host receptors. The loss of NO allows the virus to begin replicating with impunity in the body. Those with endothelial dysfunction (i.e. hypertension, diabetes, obesity, old age, African-American race) have redox equilibrium issues to begin with, giving the virus an advantage.

Due to the extreme cytokine release triggered by these processes, the body summons a great deal of neutrophils and monocyte-derived alveolar macrophages to the lungs. Cells of the innate immune system are the first-line defenders against pathogens. They work by engulfing invaders and trying to attack them with enzymes that produce powerful oxidants, like SOD and MPO. Superoxide dismutase takes superoxide and makes hydrogen peroxide, and myeloperoxidase takes hydrogen peroxide and chlorine ions and makes hypochlorous acid, which is many, many times more reactive than sodium hypochlorite bleach.

Neutrophils have a nasty trick. They can also eject these enzymes into the extracellular space, where they will continuously spit out peroxide and bleach into the bloodstream. This is called neutrophil extracellular trap formation, or, when it becomes pathogenic and counterproductive, NETosis. In severe and critical COVID-19, there is actually rather severe NETosis.

Hypochlorous acid building up in the bloodstream begins to bleach the iron out of heme and compete for O2 binding sites. Red blood cells lose the ability to transport oxygen, causing the sufferer to turn blue in the face. Unliganded iron, hydrogen peroxide, and superoxide in the bloodstream undergo the Haber-Weiss and Fenton reactions, producing extremely reactive hydroxyl radicals that violently strip electrons from surrounding fats and DNA, oxidizing them severely.

This condition is not unknown to medical science. The actual name for all of this is acute sepsis.

We know this is happening in COVID-19 because people who have died of the disease have noticeable ferroptosis signatures in their tissues, as well as various other oxidative stress markers such as nitrotyrosine, 4-HNE, and malondialdehyde.

When you intubate someone with this condition, you are setting off a free radical bomb by supplying the cells with O2. It’s a catch-22, because we need oxygen to make Adenosine Triphosphate (that is, to live), but O2 is also the precursor of all these damaging radicals that lead to lipid peroxidation.

The correct treatment for severe COVID-19 related sepsis is non-invasive ventilation, steroids, and antioxidant infusions. Most of the drugs repurposed for COVID-19 that show any benefit whatsoever in rescuing critically-ill COVID-19 patients are antioxidants. N-acetylcysteine, melatonin, fluvoxamine, budesonide, famotidine, cimetidine, and ranitidine are all antioxidants. Indomethacin prevents iron-driven oxidation of arachidonic acid to isoprostanes. There are powerful antioxidants such as apocynin that have not even been tested on COVID-19 patients yet which could defang neutrophils, prevent lipid peroxidation, restore endothelial health, and restore oxygenation to the tissues.

Scientists who know anything about pulmonary neutrophilia, ARDS, and redox biology have known or surmised much of this since March 2020. In April 2020, Swiss scientists confirmed that COVID-19 was a vascular endotheliitis. By late 2020, experts had already concluded that COVID-19 causes a form of viral sepsis. They also know that sepsis can be effectively treated with antioxidants. None of this information is particularly new, and yet, for the most part, it has not been acted upon. Doctors continue to use damaging intubation techniques with high PEEP settings despite high lung compliance and poor oxygenation, killing an untold number of critically ill patients with medical malpractice.

Because of the way they are constructed, Randomized Control Trials will never show any benefit for any antiviral against COVID-19. Not Remdesivir, not Kaletra, not HCQ, and not Ivermectin. The reason for this is simple; for the patients that they have recruited for these studies, such as Oxford’s ludicrous RECOVERY study, the intervention is too late to have any positive effect.

The clinical course of COVID-19 is such that by the time most people seek medical attention for hypoxia, their viral load has already tapered off to almost nothing. If someone is about 10 days post-exposure and has already been symptomatic for five days, there is hardly any virus left in their bodies, only cellular damage and derangement that has initiated a hyperinflammatory response. It is from this group that the clinical trials for antivirals have recruited, pretty much exclusively.

In these trials, they give antivirals to severely ill patients who have no virus in their bodies, only a delayed hyperinflammatory response, and then absurdly claim that antivirals have no utility in treating or preventing COVID-19. These clinical trials do not recruit people who are pre-symptomatic. They do not test pre-exposure or post-exposure prophylaxis.

This is like using a defibrillator to shock only flatline, and then absurdly claiming that defibrillators have no medical utility whatsoever when the patients refuse to rise from the dead. The intervention is too late. These trials for antivirals show systematic, egregious selection bias. They are providing a treatment that is futile to the specific cohort they are enrolling.

India went against the instructions of the WHO and mandated the prophylactic usage of Ivermectin. They have almost completely eradicated COVID-19. The Indian Bar Association of Mumbai has brought criminal charges against WHO Chief Scientist Dr. Soumya Swaminathan for recommending against the use of Ivermectin.

Ivermectin is not “horse dewormer”. Yes, it is sold in veterinary paste form as a dewormer for animals. It has also been available in pill form for humans for decades, as an antiparasitic drug.

The media have disingenuously claimed that because Ivermectin is an antiparasitic drug, it has no utility as an antivirus. This is incorrect. Ivermectin has utility as an antiviral. It blocks importin, preventing nuclear import, effectively inhibiting viral access to cell nuclei. Many drugs currently on the market have multiple modes of action. Ivermectin is one such drug. It is both antiparasitic and antiviral.

In Bangladesh, Ivermectin costs $1.80 for an entire 5-day course. Remdesivir, which is toxic to the liver, costs $3,120 for a 5-day course of the drug. Billions of dollars of utterly useless Remdesivir were sold to our governments on the taxpayer’s dime, and it ended up being totally useless for treating hyperinflammatory COVID-19. The media has hardly even covered this at all.

The opposition to the use of generic Ivermectin is not based in science. It is purely financially and politically-motivated. An effective non-vaccine intervention would jeopardize the rushed FDA approval of patented vaccines and medicines for which the pharmaceutical industry stands to rake in billions upon billions of dollars in sales on an ongoing basis.

The majority of the public are scientifically illiterate and cannot grasp what any of this even means, thanks to a pathetic educational system that has miseducated them. You would be lucky to find 1 in 100 people who have even the faintest clue what any of this actually means.

COVID-19 Transmission:

COVID-19 is airborne. The WHO carried water for China by claiming that the virus was only droplet-borne. Our own CDC absurdly claimed that it was mostly transmitted by fomite-to-face contact, which, given its rapid spread from Wuhan to the rest of the world, would have been physically impossible.

The ridiculous belief in fomite-to-face being a primary mode of transmission led to the use of surface disinfection protocols that wasted time, energy, productivity, and disinfectant.

The 6-foot guidelines are absolutely useless. The minimum safe distance to protect oneself from an aerosolized virus is to be 15+ feet away from an infected person, no closer. Realistically, no public transit is safe.

Surgical masks do not protect you from aerosols. The virus is too small and the filter media has too large of gaps to filter it out. They may catch respiratory droplets and keep the virus from being expelled by someone who is sick, but they do not filter a cloud of infectious aerosols if someone were to walk into said cloud.

The minimum level of protection against this virus is quite literally a P100 respirator, a PAPR/CAPR, or a 40mm NATO CBRN respirator, ideally paired with a full-body tyvek or tychem suit, gloves, and booties, with all the holes and gaps taped.

Live SARS-CoV-2 may potentially be detected in sewage outflows, and there may be oral-fecal transmission. During the SARS outbreak in 2003, in the Amoy Gardens incident, hundreds of people were infected by aerosolized fecal matter rising from floor drains in their apartments.

COVID-19 Vaccine Dangers:

The vaccines for COVID-19 are not sterilizing and do not prevent infection or transmission. They are “leaky” vaccines. This means they remove the evolutionary pressure on the virus to become less lethal. It also means that the vaccinated are perfect carriers. In other words, those who are vaccinated are a threat to the unvaccinated, not the other way around.

All of the COVID-19 vaccines currently in use have undergone minimal testing, with highly accelerated clinical trials. Though they appear to limit severe illness, the long-term safety profile of these vaccines remains unknown.

Some of these so-called “vaccines” utilize an untested new technology that has never been used in vaccines before. Traditional vaccines use weakened or killed virus to stimulate an immune response. The Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines do not. They are purported to consist of an intramuscular shot containing a suspension of lipid nanoparticles filled with messenger RNA. The way they generate an immune response is by fusing with cells in a vaccine recipient’s shoulder, undergoing endocytosis, releasing their mRNA cargo into those cells, and then utilizing the ribosomes in those cells to synthesize modified SARS-CoV-2 Spike proteins in-situ.

These modified Spike proteins then migrate to the surface of the cell, where they are anchored in place by a transmembrane domain. The adaptive immune system detects the non-human viral protein being expressed by these cells, and then forms antibodies against that protein. This is purported to confer protection against the virus, by training the adaptive immune system to recognize and produce antibodies against the Spike on the actual virus. The J&J and AstraZeneca vaccines do something similar, but use an adenovirus vector for genetic material delivery instead of a lipid nanoparticle. These vaccines were produced or validated with the aid of fetal cell lines HEK-293 and PER.C6, which people with certain religious convictions may object strongly to.

SARS-CoV-2 Spike is a highly pathogenic protein on its own. It is impossible to overstate the danger presented by introducing this protein into the human body.

It is claimed by vaccine manufacturers that the vaccine remains in cells in the shoulder, and that SARS-CoV-2 Spike produced and expressed by these cells from the vaccine’s genetic material is harmless and inert, thanks to the insertion of prolines in the Spike sequence to stabilize it in the prefusion conformation, preventing the Spike from becoming active and fusing with other cells. However, a pharmacokinetic study from Japan showed that the lipid nanoparticles and mRNA from the Pfizer vaccine did not stay in the shoulder, and in fact bioaccumulated in many different organs, including the reproductive organs and adrenal glands, meaning that modified Spike is being expressed quite literally all over the place. These lipid nanoparticles may trigger anaphylaxis in an unlucky few, but far more concerning is the unregulated expression of Spike in various somatic cell lines far from the injection site and the unknown consequences of that.

Messenger RNA is normally consumed right after it is produced in the body, being translated into a protein by a ribosome. COVID-19 vaccine mRNA is produced outside the body, long before a ribosome translates it. In the meantime, it could accumulate damage if inadequately preserved. When a ribosome attempts to translate a damaged strand of mRNA, it can become stalled. When this happens, the ribosome becomes useless for translating proteins because it now has a piece of mRNA stuck in it, like a lace card in an old punch card reader. The whole thing has to be cleaned up and new ribosomes synthesized to replace it. In cells with low ribosome turnover, like nerve cells, this can lead to reduced protein synthesis, cytopathic effects, and neuropathies.

Certain proteins, including SARS-CoV-2 Spike, have proteolytic cleavage sites that are basically like little dotted lines that say “cut here”, which attract a living organism’s own proteases (essentially, molecular scissors) to cut them. There is a possibility that S1 may be proteolytically cleaved from S2, causing active S1 to float away into the bloodstream while leaving the S2 “stalk” embedded in the membrane of the cell that expressed the protein.

SARS-CoV-2 Spike has a Superantigenic region (SAg), which may promote extreme inflammation.

Anti-Spike antibodies were found in one study to function as autoantibodies and attack the body’s own cells. Those who have been immunized with COVID-19 vaccines have developed blood clots, myocarditis, Guillain-Barre Syndrome, Bell’s Palsy, and multiple sclerosis flares, indicating that the vaccine promotes autoimmune reactions against healthy tissue.

SARS-CoV-2 Spike does not only bind to ACE2. It was suspected to have regions that bind to basigin, integrins, neuropilin-1, and bacterial lipopolysaccharides as well. SARS-CoV-2 Spike, on its own, can potentially bind any of these things and act as a ligand for them, triggering unspecified and likely highly inflammatory cellular activity.

SARS-CoV-2 Spike contains an unusual PRRA insert that forms a furin cleavage site. Furin is a ubiquitous human protease, making this an ideal property for the Spike to have, giving it a high degree of cell tropism. No wild-type SARS-like coronaviruses related to SARS-CoV-2 possess this feature, making it highly suspicious, and perhaps a sign of human tampering.

SARS-CoV-2 Spike has a prion-like domain that enhances its infectiousness.

The Spike S1 RBD may bind to heparin-binding proteins and promote amyloid aggregation. In humans, this could lead to Parkinson’s, Lewy Body Dementia, premature Alzheimer’s, or various other neurodegenerative diseases. This is very concerning because SARS-CoV-2 S1 is capable of injuring and penetrating the blood-brain barrier and entering the brain. It is also capable of increasing the permeability of the blood-brain barrier to other molecules.

SARS-CoV-2, like other betacoronaviruses, may have Dengue-like ADE, or antibody-dependent enhancement of disease. For those who aren’t aware, some viruses, including betacoronaviruses, have a feature called ADE. There is also something called Original Antigenic Sin, which is the observation that the body prefers to produce antibodies based on previously-encountered strains of a virus over newly-encountered ones.

In ADE, antibodies from a previous infection become non-neutralizing due to mutations in the virus’s proteins. These non-neutralizing antibodies then act as trojan horses, allowing live, active virus to be pulled into macrophages through their Fc receptor pathways, allowing the virus to infect immune cells that it would not have been able to infect before. This has been known to happen with Dengue Fever; when someone gets sick with Dengue, recovers, and then contracts a different strain, they can get very, very ill.

If someone is vaccinated with mRNA based on the Spike from the initial Wuhan strain of SARS-CoV-2, and then they become infected with a future, mutated strain of the virus, they may become severely ill. In other words, it is possible for vaccines to sensitize someone to disease.

There is a precedent for this in recent history. Sanofi’s Dengvaxia vaccine for Dengue failed because it caused immune sensitization in people whose immune systems were Dengue-naive.

In mice immunized against SARS-CoV and challenged with the virus, a close relative of SARS-CoV-2, they developed immune sensitization, Th2 immunopathology, and eosinophil infiltration in their lungs.

We have been told that SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines cannot be integrated into the human genome, because messenger RNA cannot be turned back into DNA. This is false. There are elements in human cells called LINE-1 retrotransposons, which can indeed integrate mRNA into a human genome by endogenous reverse transcription. Because the mRNA used in the vaccines is stabilized, it hangs around in cells longer, increasing the chances for this to happen. If the gene for SARS-CoV-2 Spike is integrated into a portion of the genome that is not silent and actually expresses a protein, it is possible that people who take this vaccine may continuously express SARS-CoV-2 Spike from their somatic cells for the rest of their lives.

By inoculating people with a vaccine that causes their bodies to produce Spike in-situ, they are being inoculated with a pathogenic protein. A toxin that may cause long-term inflammation, heart problems, and a raised risk of cancers. In the long-term, it may also potentially lead to premature neurodegenerative disease.

Absolutely nobody should be compelled to take this vaccine under any circumstances, and in actual fact, the vaccination campaign must be stopped immediately.

COVID-19 Criminal Conspiracy:

The vaccine and the virus were made by the same people.

In 2014, there was a moratorium on SARS gain-of-function research that lasted until 2017. This research was not halted. Instead, it was outsourced, with the federal grants being laundered through NGOs.

Ralph Baric is a virologist and SARS expert at UNC Chapel Hill in North Carolina. This is who Anthony Fauci was referring to when he insisted, before Congress, that if any gain-of-function research was being conducted, it was being conducted in North Carolina.

This was a lie. Anthony Fauci lied before Congress. A felony.

Ralph Baric and Shi Zhengli are colleagues and have co-written papers together. Ralph Baric mentored Shi Zhengli in his gain-of-function manipulation techniques, particularly serial passage, which results in a virus that appears as if it originated naturally. In other words, deniable bioweapons. Serial passage in humanized hACE2 mice may have produced something like SARS-CoV-2.

The funding for the gain-of-function research being conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology came from Peter Daszak. Peter Daszak runs an NGO called EcoHealth Alliance. EcoHealth Alliance received millions of dollars in grant money from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (that is, Anthony Fauci), the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (part of the US Department of Defense), and the United States Agency for International Development. NIH/NIAID contributed a few million dollars, and DTRA and USAID each contributed tens of millions of dollars towards this research. Altogether, it was over a hundred million dollars.

EcoHealth Alliance subcontracted these grants to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a lab in China with a very questionable safety record and poorly trained staff, so that they could conduct gain-of-function research, not in their fancy P4 lab, but in a level-2 lab where technicians wore nothing more sophisticated than perhaps a hairnet, latex gloves, and a surgical mask, instead of the bubble suits used when working with dangerous viruses. Chinese scientists in Wuhan reported being routinely bitten and urinated on by laboratory animals. Why anyone would outsource this dangerous and delicate work to the People’s Republic of China, a country infamous for industrial accidents and massive explosions that have claimed hundreds of lives, is completely beyond me, unless the aim was to start a pandemic on purpose.

In November of 2019, three technicians at the Wuhan Institute of Virology developed symptoms consistent with a flu-like illness. Anthony Fauci, Peter Daszak, and Ralph Baric knew at once what had happened, because back channels exist between this laboratory and our scientists and officials.

December 12th, 2019, Ralph Baric signed a Material Transfer Agreement (essentially, an NDA) to receive Coronavirus mRNA vaccine-related materials co-owned by Moderna and NIH. It wasn’t until a whole month later, on January 11th, 2020, that China allegedly sent us the sequence to what would become known as SARS-CoV-2. Moderna claims, rather absurdly, that they developed a working vaccine from this sequence in under 48 hours.

Stephane Bancel, the current CEO of Moderna, was formerly the CEO of bioMerieux, a French multinational corporation specializing in medical diagnostic tech, founded by one Alain Merieux. Alain Merieux was one of the individuals who was instrumental in the construction of the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s P4 lab.

The sequence given as the closest relative to SARS-CoV-2, RaTG13, is not a real virus. It is a forgery. It was made by entering a gene sequence by hand into a database, to create a cover story for the existence of SARS-CoV-2, which is very likely a gain-of-function chimera produced at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and was either leaked by accident or intentionally released.

The animal reservoir of SARS-CoV-2 has never been found.

This is not a conspiracy “theory”. It is an actual criminal conspiracy, in which people connected to the development of Moderna’s mRNA-1273 are directly connected to the Wuhan Institute of Virology and their gain-of-function research by very few degrees of separation, if any. The paper trail is well-established.

The lab-leak theory has been suppressed because pulling that thread leads one to inevitably conclude that there is enough circumstantial evidence to link Moderna, the NIH, the WIV, and both the vaccine and the virus’s creation together. In a sane country, this would have immediately led to the world’s biggest RICO and mass murder case. Anthony Fauci, Peter Daszak, Ralph Baric, Shi Zhengli, and Stephane Bancel, and their accomplices, would have been indicted and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Instead, billions of our tax dollars were awarded to the perpetrators.

The FBI raided Allure Medical in Shelby Township north of Detroit for billing insurance for “fraudulent COVID-19 cures”. The treatment they were using? Intravenous Vitamin C. An antioxidant. Which, as described above, is an entirely valid treatment for COVID-19-induced sepsis, and indeed, is now part of the MATH+ protocol advanced by Dr. Paul E. Marik.

The FDA banned ranitidine (Zantac) due to supposed NDMA (N-nitrosodimethylamine) contamination. Ranitidine is not only an H2 blocker used as antacid, but also has a powerful antioxidant effect, scavenging hydroxyl radicals. This gives it utility in treating COVID-19.

The FDA also attempted to take N-acetylcysteine, a harmless amino acid supplement and antioxidant, off the shelves, compelling Amazon to remove it from their online storefront.

This leaves us with a chilling question: did the FDA knowingly suppress antioxidants useful for treating COVID-19 sepsis as part of a criminal conspiracy against the American public?

The establishment is cooperating with, and facilitating, the worst criminals in human history, and are actively suppressing non-vaccine treatments and therapies in order to compel us to inject these criminals’ products into our bodies. This is absolutely unacceptable.

COVID-19 Vaccine Development and Links to Transhumanism:

This section deals with some more speculative aspects of the pandemic and the medical and scientific establishment’s reaction to it, as well as the disturbing links between scientists involved in vaccine research and scientists whose work involved merging nanotechnology with living cells.

On June 9th, 2020, Charles Lieber, a Harvard nanotechnology researcher with decades of experience, was indicted by the DOJ for fraud. Charles Lieber received millions of dollars in grant money from the US Department of Defense, specifically the military think tanks DARPA, AFOSR, and ONR, as well as NIH and MITRE. His specialty is the use of silicon nanowires in lieu of patch clamp electrodes to monitor and modulate intracellular activity, something he has been working on at Harvard for the past twenty years. He was claimed to have been working on silicon nanowire batteries in China, but none of his colleagues can recall him ever having worked on battery technology in his life; all of his research deals with bionanotechnology, or the blending of nanotech with living cells.

The indictment was over his collaboration with the Wuhan University of Technology. He had double-dipped, against the terms of his DOD grants, and taken money from the PRC’s Thousand Talents plan, a program which the Chinese government uses to bribe Western scientists into sharing proprietary R&D information that can be exploited by the PLA for strategic advantage.

Charles Lieber’s own papers describe the use of silicon nanowires for brain-computer interfaces, or “neural lace” technology. His papers describe how neurons can endocytose whole silicon nanowires or parts of them, monitoring and even modulating neuronal activity.

Charles Lieber was a colleague of Robert Langer. Together, along with Daniel S. Kohane, they worked on a paper describing artificial tissue scaffolds that could be implanted in a human heart to monitor its activity remotely.

Robert Langer, an MIT alumnus and expert in nanotech drug delivery, is one of the co-founders of Moderna. His net worth is now $5.1 billion USD thanks to Moderna’s mRNA-1273 vaccine sales.

Both Charles Lieber and Robert Langer’s bibliographies describe, essentially, techniques for human enhancement, i.e. transhumanism. Klaus Schwab, the founder of the World Economic Forum and the architect behind the so-called “Great Reset”, has long spoken of the “blending of biology and machinery” in his books.

Since these revelations, it has come to the attention of independent researchers that the COVID-19 vaccines may contain reduced graphene oxide nanoparticles. Japanese researchers have also found unexplained contaminants in COVID-19 vaccines.

Graphene oxide is an anxiolytic. It has been shown to reduce the anxiety of laboratory mice when injected into their brains. Indeed, given SARS-CoV-2 Spike’s propensity to compromise the blood-brain barrier and increase its permeability, it is the perfect protein for preparing brain tissue for extravasation of nanoparticles from the bloodstream and into the brain. Graphene is also highly conductive and, in some circumstances, paramagnetic.

In 2013, under the Obama administration, DARPA launched the BRAIN Initiative; BRAIN is an acronym for Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies®. This program involves the development of brain-computer interface technologies for the military, particularly non-invasive, injectable systems that cause minimal damage to brain tissue when removed. Supposedly, this technology would be used for healing wounded soldiers with traumatic brain injuries, the direct brain control of prosthetic limbs, and even new abilities such as controlling drones with one’s mind.

Various methods have been proposed for achieving this, including optogenetics, magnetogenetics, ultrasound, implanted electrodes, and transcranial electromagnetic stimulation. In all instances, the goal is to obtain read or read-write capability over neurons, either by stimulating and probing them, or by rendering them especially sensitive to stimulation and probing.

However, the notion of the widespread use of BCI technology, such as Elon Musk’s Neuralink device, raises many concerns over privacy and personal autonomy. Reading from neurons is problematic enough on its own. Wireless brain-computer interfaces may interact with current or future wireless GSM infrastructure, creating neurological data security concerns. A hacker or other malicious actor may compromise such networks to obtain people’s brain data, and then exploit it for nefarious purposes.

However, a device capable of writing to human neurons, not just reading from them, presents another, even more serious set of ethical concerns. A BCI that is capable of altering the contents of one’s mind for innocuous purposes, such as projecting a heads-up display onto their brain’s visual center or sending audio into one’s auditory cortex, would also theoretically be capable of altering mood and personality, or perhaps even subjugating someone’s very will, rendering them utterly obedient to authority. This technology would be a tyrant’s wet dream. Imagine soldiers who would shoot their own countrymen without hesitation, or helpless serfs who are satisfied to live in literal dog kennels.

BCIs could be used to unscrupulously alter perceptions of basic things such as emotions and values, changing people’s thresholds of satiety, happiness, anger, disgust, and so forth. This is not inconsequential. Someone’s entire regime of behaviors could be altered by a BCI, including such things as suppressing their appetite or desire for virtually anything on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

Anything is possible when you have direct access to someone’s brain and its contents. Someone who is obese could be made to feel disgust at the sight of food. Someone who is involuntarily celibate could have their libido disabled so they don’t even desire sex to begin with. Someone who is racist could be forced to feel delight over cohabiting with people of other races. Someone who is violent could be forced to be meek and submissive. These things might sound good to you if you are a tyrant, but to normal people, the idea of personal autonomy being overridden to such a degree is appalling.

For the wealthy, neural laces would be an unequaled boon, giving them the opportunity to enhance their intelligence with neuroprosthetics (i.e. an “exocortex”), and to deliver irresistible commands directly into the minds of their BCI-augmented servants, even physically or sexually abusive commands that they would normally refuse.

If the vaccine is a method to surreptitiously introduce an injectable BCI into millions of people without their knowledge or consent, then what we are witnessing is the rise of a tyrannical regime unlike anything ever seen before on the face of this planet, one that fully intends to strip every man, woman, and child of our free will.

Our flaws are what make us human. A utopia arrived at by removing people’s free will is not a utopia at all. It is a monomaniacal nightmare. Furthermore, the people who rule over us are Dark Triad types who cannot be trusted with such power. Imagine being beaten and sexually assaulted by a wealthy and powerful psychopath and being forced to smile and laugh over it because your neural lace gives you no choice but to obey your master.

The Elites are forging ahead with this technology without giving people any room to question the social or ethical ramifications, or to establish regulatory frameworks that ensure that our personal agency and autonomy will not be overridden by these devices. They do this because they secretly dream of a future where they can treat you worse than an animal and you cannot even fight back. If this evil plan is allowed to continue, it will spell the end of humanity as we know it.

Conclusions:

The current pandemic was produced and perpetuated by the establishment, through the use of a virus engineered in a PLA-connected Chinese biowarfare laboratory, with the aid of American taxpayer dollars and French expertise.

This research was conducted under the absolutely ridiculous euphemism of “gain-of-function” research, which is supposedly carried out in order to determine which viruses have the highest potential for zoonotic spillover and preemptively vaccinate or guard against them.

Gain-of-function/gain-of-threat research, a.k.a. “Dual-Use Research of Concern”, or DURC, is bioweapon research by another, friendlier-sounding name, simply to avoid the taboo of calling it what it actually is. It has always been bioweapon research. The people who are conducting this research fully understand that they are taking wild pathogens that are not infectious in humans and making them more infectious, often taking grants from military think tanks encouraging them to do so.

These virologists conducting this type of research are enemies of their fellow man, like pyromaniac firefighters. GOF research has never protected anyone from any pandemic. In fact, it has now started one, meaning its utility for preventing pandemics is actually negative. It should have been banned globally, and the lunatics performing it should have been put in straitjackets long ago.

Either through a leak or an intentional release from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a deadly SARS strain is now endemic across the globe, after the WHO and CDC and public officials first downplayed the risks, and then intentionally incited a panic and lockdowns that jeopardized people’s health and their livelihoods.

This was then used by the utterly depraved and psychopathic aristocratic class who rule over us as an excuse to coerce people into accepting an injected poison which may be a depopulation agent, a mind control/pacification agent in the form of injectable “smart dust”, or both in one. They believe they can get away with this by weaponizing the social stigma of vaccine refusal. They are incorrect.

Their motives are clear and obvious to anyone who has been paying attention. These megalomaniacs have raided the pension funds of the free world. Wall Street is insolvent and has had an ongoing liquidity crisis since the end of 2019. The aim now is to exert total, full-spectrum physical, mental, and financial control over humanity before we realize just how badly we’ve been extorted by these maniacs.

The pandemic and its response served multiple purposes for the Elite:

• Concealing a depression brought on by the usurious plunder of our economies conducted by rentier-capitalists and absentee owners who produce absolutely nothing of any value to society whatsoever. Instead of us having a very predictable Occupy Wall Street Part II, the Elites and their stooges got to stand up on television and paint themselves as wise and all-powerful saviors instead of the marauding cabal of despicable land pirates that they are.
• Destroying small businesses and eroding the middle class.
• Transferring trillions of dollars of wealth from the American public and into the pockets of billionaires and special interests.
• Engaging in insider trading, buying stock in biotech companies and shorting brick-and-mortar businesses and travel companies, with the aim of collapsing face-to-face commerce and tourism and replacing it with e-commerce and servitization.
• Creating a casus belli for war with China, encouraging us to attack them, wasting American lives and treasure and driving us to the brink of nuclear armageddon.
• Establishing technological and biosecurity frameworks for population control and technocratic-socialist “smart cities” where everyone’s movements are despotically tracked, all in anticipation of widespread automation, joblessness, and food shortages, by using the false guise of a vaccine to compel cooperation.

Any one of these things would constitute a vicious rape of Western society. Taken together, they beggar belief; they are a complete inversion of our most treasured values.

What is the purpose of all of this? One can only speculate as to the perpetrators’ motives, however, we have some theories.

The Elites are trying to pull up the ladder, erase upward mobility for large segments of the population, cull political opponents and other “undesirables”, and put the remainder of humanity on a tight leash, rationing our access to certain goods and services that they have deemed “high-impact”, such as automobile use, tourism, meat consumption, and so on. Naturally, they will continue to have their own luxuries, as part of a strict caste system akin to feudalism.

Why are they doing this? Simple. The Elites are Neo-Malthusians and believe that we are overpopulated and that resource depletion will collapse civilization in a matter of a few short decades. They are not necessarily incorrect in this belief. We are overpopulated, and we are consuming too many resources. However, orchestrating such a gruesome and murderous power grab in response to a looming crisis demonstrates that they have nothing but the utmost contempt for their fellow man.

To those who are participating in this disgusting farce without any understanding of what they are doing, we have one word for you. Stop. You are causing irreparable harm to your country and to your fellow citizens.

To those who may be reading this warning and have full knowledge and understanding of what they are doing and how it will unjustly harm millions of innocent people, we have a few more words.

Damn you to hell. You will not destroy America and the Free World, and you will not have your New World Order. We will make certain of that.

References:

See References for "Spartacus" Anonymous COVID-9 whistleblower document

References completing the "Spartacus" Anonymous COVID-9 whistleblower document"

COVID-19 is not a viral pneumonia — it is a viral vascular endotheliitis:

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30937-5/fulltext

https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/article/41/32/3038/5901158

https://www.embopress.org/doi/full/10.15252/embr.202152744

COVID-19 is not just a respiratory disease — it can precipitate multiple organ failure, including hypoxic and inflammatory damage to various vital organs, such as the brain, heart, liver, pancreas, kidneys, and intestines:

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01693-6

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/the-hidden-long-term-cognitive-effects-of-covid-2020100821133

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41422-020-0390-x

https://www.embopress.org/doi/full/10.15252/embj.2020106230

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2776538

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32921216/

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41575-021-00426-4

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32553666/

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-23886-3

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34081912/

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41581-021-00452-0

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7438210/

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-92740-9

Some of the most common laboratory findings in COVID-19:

https://www.uptodate.com/contents/covid-19-clinical-features

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7426219/

COVID-19 can present as almost anything:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0968-3

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmed.2020.00526/full

COVID-19 is more severe in those with conditions that involve endothelial dysfunction, such as obesity, hypertension, and diabetes:

https://www.dovepress.com/obesity-related-inflammation-and-endothelial-dysfunction-in-covid-19-i-peer-reviewed-fulltext-article-JIR

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2772071

https://mdpi-res.com/d_attachment/cells/cells-10-00933/article_deploy/cells-10-00933.pdf

The vast majority of COVID-19 cases are mild and do not cause significant disease:

https://www.webmd.com/lung/covid-recovery-overview#1

https://academic.oup.com/ofid/article/7/9/ofaa286/5875595

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33289900/

In those who have critical COVID-19-induced sepsis, hypoxia, coagulopathy, and ARDS, the most common treatments are intubation, injected corticosteroids, and blood thinners like heparin, which often precipitate harmful hemorrhages:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7548860/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7448713/

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2103417

The majority of people who go on a ventilator are dying due to COVID-19 mimicking the physiology of ischemia-reperfusion injury with prolonged transient hypoxia and ischemia, leading directly to the formation of damaging reactive oxygen species:

https://www.journalofsurgicalresearch.com/article/S0022-4804(14)00176-0/fulltext

https://www.nature.com/articles/nature13909

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4625011/

https://www.atsjournals.org/doi/full/10.1164/rccm.201401-0168CP

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18974366/

The end-stage of COVID-19 is severe lipid peroxidation, where fats in the body start to “rust” due to damage by oxidative stress:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7768996/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7357498/

https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/ars.2021.0017

Oxidized lipids appear as foreign objects to the immune system, which recognizes and forms antibodies against OSEs, or oxidation-specific epitopes:

https://ard.bmj.com/content/annrheumdis/early/2020/08/04/annrheumdis-2020-218145.full.pdf

https://ard.bmj.com/content/80/9/1236

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7256550/

https://www.hss.edu/conditions_top-ten-series-antiphospholipid-syndrome-coronavirus-covid-19.asp

In COVID-19, neutrophil degranulation and NETosis in the bloodstream drives severe oxidative damage; hemoglobin becomes incapable of carrying oxygen due to heme iron being stripped out of heme by hypochlorous acid:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7757048/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7436665/

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41418-021-00805-z

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221249262030052X

SARS-CoV-2 Spike binds to ACE2. Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2 is an enzyme that is part of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, or RAAS. The RAAS is a hormone control system that moderates fluid volume and blood pressure in the body and in the bloodstream by controlling sodium/potassium retention and excretion and vascular tone:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK470410/

https://www.merckmanuals.com/home/multimedia/figure/cvs_regulating_blood_pressure_renin

This protein, ACE2, is ubiquitous in every part of the body that interfaces with the circulatory system, particularly in vascular endothelial cells and pericytes, brain astrocytes, renal tubules and podocytes,

pancreatic islet cells, bile duct and intestinal epithelial cells, and the seminiferous ducts of the testis, all of which SARS-CoV-2 can infect:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7167720/

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmed.2020.594495/full

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fneur.2020.573095/full

SARS-CoV-2 infects a cell as follows:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41401-020-0485-4

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abb2507

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1931312820306211

SARS-CoV-2 Spike proteins embedded in a cell can actually cause adjacent human cells to fuse together, forming syncytia/MGCs:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41418-021-00782-3

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33051876/

SARS-CoV-2’s viroporins, such as its Envelope protein, act as calcium ion channels, introducing calcium into infected cells:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41422-021-00519-4

https://virologyj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12985-019-1182-0

The virus suppresses the natural interferon response, resulting in delayed inflammation:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s12276-021-00592-0

https://mdpi-res.com/d_attachment/viruses/viruses-12-01433/article_deploy/viruses-12-01433.pdf

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8310780/

SARS-CoV-2 N protein can also directly activate the NLRP3 inflammasome:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-25015-6

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2020.01021/full

SARS-CoV-2 suppresses the Nrf2 antioxidant pathway, reducing the body’s own endogenous antioxidant enzyme activity:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-18764-3

https://ctajournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13601-020-00362-7

https://mdpi-res.com/d_attachment/ijms/ijms-22-07963/article_deploy/ijms-22-07963.pdf

The suppression of ACE2 by binding with Spike causes a buildup of bradykinin that would otherwise be broken down by ACE2:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7834250/

https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/is-a-bradykinin-storm-brewing-in-covid-19–67876

This constant calcium influx into the cells results in (or is accompanied by) noticeable hypocalcemia, or low blood calcium:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7292572/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8041474/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1871402121000059

Bradykinin upregulates cAMP, cGMP, COX, and Phospholipase C activity. This results in prostaglandin release and vastly increased intracellular calcium signaling, which promotes highly aggressive ROS release and ATP depletion:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S089158490700319X?via%3Dihub

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1218972/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2156053/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/bradykinin-b2-receptor-agonist

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/bradykinin

NADPH oxidase releases superoxide into the extracellular space:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4556774/

https://www.pnas.org/content/110/21/8744

Superoxide radicals react with nitric oxide to form peroxynitrite:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8944624/

https://www.pnas.org/content/115/23/5839

Peroxynitrite reacts with the tetrahydrobiopterin cofactor needed by endothelial nitric oxide synthase, destroying it and “uncoupling” the eNOS enzymes, causing nitric oxide synthase to synthesize more superoxide instead (this means that every process that upregulates NOS activity now produces superoxide instead of nitric oxide):

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24353182/

https://academic.oup.com/cardiovascres/article/73/1/8/316487

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/bi9016632

This proceeds in a positive feedback loop until nitric oxide bioavailability in the circulatory system is depleted:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7276137/

Dissolved nitric oxide gas produced constantly by eNOS serves many important functions, but it is also antiviral against SARS-like coronaviruses, preventing the palmitoylation of the viral Spike protein and making it harder for it to bind to host receptors:

https://journal.chestnet.org/article/S0012-3692(20)34397-X/fulltext

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7111989/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7754882/

The loss of NO allows the virus to begin replicating with impunity in the body (clearly, the virus has an evolutionary incentive to induce oxidative stress to destroy nitric oxide):

https://scitechdaily.com/nitric-oxide-a-possible-treatment-for-covid-19-only-substance-to-have-a-direct-effect-on-sars-cov-2/

Those with endothelial dysfunction (i.e. hypertension, diabetes, obesity, old age, African-American race) have redox equilibrium issues to begin with, giving the virus an advantage:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41392-020-00454-7

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphys.2020.605908/full

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7430889/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19004510/

Due to the extreme cytokine release triggered by these processes, the body summons a great deal of neutrophils and monocyte-derived alveolar macrophages to the lungs:

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2021.652470/full

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2021.720109/full

Phagocytic cells of the innate immune system are the first-line defenders against pathogens. They work by engulfing invaders and trying to attack them with enzymes that produce powerful oxidants, like SOD and MPO:

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2012.00174/full

https://jlb.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1189/jlb.0809549

Superoxide dismutase takes superoxide and makes hydrogen peroxide, and myeloperoxidase takes hydrogen peroxide and chlorine ions and makes hypochlorous acid, which is many, many times more reactive than sodium hypochlorite bleach:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/superoxide-dismutase

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/myeloperoxidase

In severe and critical COVID-19, there is actually rather severe NETosis:

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphar.2021.708302/full

https://insight.jci.org/articles/view/138999

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7184981/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7488868/

https://ashpublications.org/blood/article/136/10/1169/461219/Neutrophil-extracellular-traps-contribute-to

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221249262030052X

Hypochlorous acid building up in the bloodstream begins to bleach the iron out of heme and compete for O2 binding sites. Red blood cells lose the ability to transport oxygen, causing the sufferer to turn blue in the face:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7757048/

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0120737

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3863623/

Unliganded iron, hydrogen peroxide, and superoxide in the bloodstream undergo the Haber-Weiss and Fenton reactions, producing extremely reactive hydroxyl radicals that violently strip electrons from surrounding fats and DNA, oxidizing them severely:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0753332221000135

https://sites.kowsarpub.com/ans/articles/60038.html

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0300483X00002316?via%3Dihub

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/chemistry/fenton-reaction

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Fenton-and-Haber-Weiss-reactions-are-a-source-of-oxidative-stress-The-generation-of_fig1_330729897

This condition is not unknown to medical science. The actual name for all of this is acute sepsis (but without the traditional hallmarks of sepsis, like shock):

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4056356/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7886971/

https://www.futuremedicine.com/doi/10.2217/fmb-2020-0312

https://www.global-sepsis-alliance.org/news/2020/4/7/update-can-covid-19-cause-sepsis-explaining-the-relationship-between-the-coronavirus-disease-and-sepsis-cvd-novel-coronavirus

We know this is happening in COVID-19 because people who have died of the disease have noticeable ferroptosis signatures in their tissues, as well as various other oxidative stress markers such as nitrotyrosine, 4-HNE, and malondialdehyde:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ehf2.12958

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7264936/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213231721001300

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/354129433_Preliminary_Findings_on_the_Association_of_the_Lipid_Peroxidation_Product_4-Hydroxynonenal_with_the_Lethal_Outcome_of_Aggressive_COVID-19

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8180845/

https://rupress.org/jem/article-abstract/218/6/e20210518/212093/Ferroptosis-in-infection-inflammation-and?redirectedFrom=fulltext

When you intubate someone with this condition, you are setting off a free radical bomb by supplying the cells with O2. It’s a catch-22, because we need oxygen to make Adenosine Triphosphate (that is, to live), but O2 is also the precursor of all these damaging radicals that lead to lipid peroxidation:

https://www.nature.com/articles/pr2009174

The correct treatment for severe COVID-19 related sepsis is non-invasive ventilation, steroids, and antioxidant infusions:

MATH+ Protocol

https://journals.lww.com/ccmjournal/Abstract/2007/09001/Antioxidant_supplementation_in_sepsis_and_systemic.25.aspx

https://mdpi-res.com/d_attachment/medicina/medicina-56-00619/article_deploy/medicina-56-00619-v2.pdf

Most of the drugs repurposed for COVID-19 that show any benefit whatsoever in rescuing critically-ill COVID-19 patients are antioxidants. N-acetylcysteine, melatonin, fluvoxamine, budesonide, famotidine, cimetidine, and ranitidine are all antioxidants:

https://www.hindawi.com/journals/omcl/2018/6581970/

https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/62672

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6708076/

https://www.karger.com/Article/Abstract/88623

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/000629529390218L?via%3Dihub

Indomethacin prevents iron-driven oxidation of arachidonic acid to isoprostanes:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0161463079900442

There are powerful antioxidants such as apocynin that have not even been tested on COVID-19 patients yet which could defang neutrophils, prevent lipid peroxidation, restore endothelial health, and restore oxygenation to the tissues:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10787-020-00715-5

Scientists who know anything about pulmonary neutrophilia, ARDS, and redox biology have known or surmised much of this since March 2020:

https://www.researchgate.net/post/NADPH_oxidase_Covid-19_Oxygen_treatment

In April 2020, Swiss scientists confirmed that COVID-19 was a systemic vascular endotheliitis:

https://www.usz.ch/en/covid-19-also-a-systemic-endotheliitis/

By late 2020, experts had already concluded that COVID-19 causes a form of viral sepsis:

https://www.healthleadersmedia.com/clinical-care/expert-severe-covid-19-illness-viral-sepsis

They also know that sepsis can be effectively treated with antioxidants:

https://jtd.amegroups.com/article/view/34870/html

https://www.evms.edu/about_evms/administrative_offices/marketing_communications/publications/issue_9_4/has-sepsis-met-its-match.php

None of this information is particularly new, and yet, for the most part, it has not been acted upon. Doctors continue to use damaging intubation techniques with high PEEP settings despite high lung compliance and poor oxygenation, killing an untold number of critically ill patients with medical malpractice:

https://ccforum.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13054-020-03049-4

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2765302

Because of the way they are constructed, Randomized Control Trials will never show any benefit for any antiviral against COVID-19. Not Remdesivir, not Kaletra, not HCQ, and not Ivermectin. The reason for this is simple; for the patients that they have enrolled in these studies, such as Oxford’s ludicrous RECOVERY study, the intervention is too late to have any positive effect (i.e. these RCTs are designed in such a way that the use of antivirals is futile, therefore, these studies are deceptive and unethical by their very nature):

https://www.mdpi.com/1999-4915/13/6/963/htm

The clinical course of COVID-19 is such that by the time most people seek medical attention for hypoxia, their viral load has already tapered off to almost nothing. If someone is about 10 days post-exposure and has already been symptomatic for five days, there is hardly any virus left in their bodies, only cellular damage and derangement that has initiated a hyperinflammatory response:

https://www.the-hospitalist.org/hospitalist/article/234869/coronavirus-updates/state-inpatient-covid-19-care

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0753332220306867

It is from this group that the clinical trials for antivirals have recruited, pretty much exclusively (i.e. they do not test prophylaxis/early treatment, only changes to the mean duration of hospitalization for those already hospitalized):

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmoa2023184

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2022926

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34318930/

India went against the instructions of the WHO and mandated the prophylactic usage of Ivermectin. They have almost completely eradicated COVID-19:

Ivermectin Wins in India

https://ivmmeta.com

The Indian Bar Association of Mumbai has brought criminal charges against WHO Chief Scientist Dr. Soumya Swaminathan for recommending against the use of Ivermectin:

https://indianbarassociation.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/IBA-PRESS-RELEASE-MAY-26-2021.pdf

Ivermectin is not “horse dewormer”. Yes, it is sold in veterinary paste form as a dewormer for animals. It has also been available in pill form for humans for decades, as an antiparasitic drug:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3043740/

The media have disingenuously claimed that because Ivermectin is an antiparasitic drug, it has no utility as an antivirus. This is incorrect. Ivermectin has utility as an antiviral. It blocks importin, preventing nuclear import, effectively inhibiting viral access to cell nuclei. Many drugs currently on the market have multiple modes of action. Ivermectin is one such drug. It is both antiparasitic and antiviral:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0166354219307211?via%3Dihub

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7539925/

In Bangladesh, Ivermectin costs $1.80 for an entire 5-day course:

https://journals.lww.com/americantherapeutics/fulltext/2021/08000/ivermectin_for_prevention_and_treatment_of.7.aspx

Remdesivir, which is toxic to the liver, costs $3,120 for a 5-day course of the drug:

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/06/29/884648842/remdesivir-priced-at-more-than-3-100-for-a-course-of-treatment

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7386240/

Billions of dollars of utterly useless Remdesivir were sold to our governments on the taxpayer’s dime, and it ended up being totally useless for treating hyperinflammatory COVID-19:

https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/gilead-s-1-5b-remdesivir-sales-help-buoy-greater-than-expected-declines-for-mainstay-hiv

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jvchamary/2021/01/31/remdesivir-covid-coronavirus/?sh=7e6034e666c2

COVID-19 is airborne. The WHO carried water for China by claiming that the virus was only droplet-borne. Our own CDC absurdly claimed that it was mostly transmitted by fomite-to-face contact, which, given its rapid spread from Wuhan to the rest of the world, would have been physically impossible:

https://www.thelancet.com/article/S0140-6736(21)00869-2/fulltext

https://www.pennmedicine.org/updates/blogs/penn-physician-blog/2020/august/airborne-droplet-debate-article

The ridiculous belief in fomite-to-face being a primary mode of transmission led to the use of surface disinfection protocols that wasted time, energy, productivity, and disinfectant:

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00251-4

The 6-foot guidelines are absolutely useless. The minimum safe distance to protect oneself from an aerosolized virus is to be 15+ feet away from an infected person, no closer. Realistically, no public transit is safe:

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.03.20167395v1

What We Know About the Airborne Spread of the Coronavirus

Surgical masks do not protect you from aerosols. The virus is too small and the filter media has too large of gaps to filter it out. They may catch respiratory droplets and keep the virus from being expelled by someone who is sick, but they do not filter a cloud of infectious aerosols if someone were to walk into said cloud:

https://ajicjournal.org/retrieve/pii/S0196655305801439

The minimum level of protection against this virus is quite literally a P100 respirator, a PAPR/CAPR, or a 40mm NATO CBRN respirator, ideally paired with a full-body tyvek or tychem suit, gloves, and booties, with all the holes and gaps taped (in a pinch, surgical masks can be modified or worn a specific way to increase filtration):

https://www.epa.gov/sciencematters/epa-researchers-test-effectiveness-face-masks-disinfection-methods-against-covid-19

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7409952/

Coronavirus Protection Made Easy with the MaxAir CAPR®

Live SARS-CoV-2 may potentially be detected in sewage outflows, and there may be oral-fecal transmission:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969720325936

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0249568

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41587-020-0684-z

During the SARS outbreak in 2003, in the Amoy Gardens incident, hundreds of people were infected by aerosolized fecal matter rising from floor drains in their apartments (there is some valid concern that COVID-19 may also spread the same way, given its similarities to SARS):

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16696450/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC539564/

https://www.neha.org/sites/default/files/jeh/JEH5.06-Feature-Environmental-Transmission-of-SARS.pdf

https://www.cleanlink.com/news/article/COVID-19-Could-Spread-Through-Dry-Floor-Drains–25600

The vaccines for COVID-19 are not sterilizing and do not prevent infection or transmission. They are “leaky” vaccines. This means they remove the evolutionary pressure on the virus to become less lethal. It also means that the vaccinated are perfect carriers. In other words, those who are vaccinated are a threat to the unvaccinated, not the other way around:

https://www.healthline.com/health-news/leaky-vaccines-can-produce-stronger-versions-of-viruses-072715

https://www.realclearscience.com/articles/2021/08/23/lets_stop_pretending_about_the_covid-19_vaccines_791050.html

https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2021/s0730-mmwr-covid-19.html

https://www.businessinsider.com/cdc-fully-vaccinated-new-guidelines-wear-masks-indoors-delta-2021-7?utm\_source=yahoo.com&utm\_medium=referral

All of the COVID-19 vaccines currently in use have undergone minimal testing, with highly accelerated clinical trials. Though they appear to limit severe illness, the long-term safety profile of these vaccines remains unknown:

https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/accelerated-covid-19-vaccine-clinical-95853/

https://www.nebraskamed.com/COVID/were-the-covid-19-vaccines-rushed

Some of these so-called “vaccines” utilize an untested new technology that has never been used in vaccines before. Traditional vaccines use weakened or killed virus to stimulate an immune response. The Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines do not. They are purported to consist of an intramuscular shot containing a suspension of lipid nanoparticles filled with messenger RNA:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5439223/

https://cen.acs.org/pharmaceuticals/drug-delivery/Without-lipid-shells-mRNA-vaccines/99/i8

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/different-vaccines/mrna.html

https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/understanding/therapy/mrnavaccines/

The way they generate an immune response is by fusing with cells in a vaccine recipient’s shoulder, undergoing endocytosis, releasing their mRNA cargo into those cells, and then utilizing the ribosomes in those cells to synthesize modified SARS-CoV-2 Spike proteins in-situ:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2622-0

https://coronavirus.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/coronavirus/page\_content/attachments/Cartoon%20Explainer%20How%20the%20Moderna%20and%20Pfizer%20Vaccines%20Work.pdf

These vaccines were produced or validated with the aid of fetal cell lines HEK-293 and PER.C6, which people with certain religious convictions may object strongly to:

https://www.health.nd.gov/sites/www/files/documents/COVID%20Vaccine%20Page/COVID-19\_Vaccine\_Fetal\_Cell\_Handout.pdf

The Ethics of the SARS-CoV-2 Vaccines Revisited

SARS-CoV-2 Spike is a highly pathogenic protein on its own. It is impossible to overstate the danger presented by introducing this protein into the human body:

https://mcusercontent.com/22e41db63deaf4a84be439c0f/files/6a33980b-683f-4ee4-67d4-cc98dc7fcd37/20210601_Guide_to_COVID_19_vaccines_for_parents.pdf

https://rightsfreedoms.wordpress.com/2021/06/16/researcher-we-made-a-big-mistake-on-covid-19-vaccine/

It is claimed by vaccine manufacturers that the vaccine remains in cells in the shoulder, and that SARS-CoV-2 Spike produced and expressed by these cells from the vaccine’s genetic material is harmless and inert, thanks to the insertion of prolines in the Spike sequence to stabilize it in the prefusion conformation, preventing the Spike from becoming active and fusing with other cells:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-20321-x

https://cen.acs.org/pharmaceuticals/vaccines/tiny-tweak-behind-COVID-19/98/i38

However, a pharmacokinetic study from Japan showed that the lipid nanoparticles and mRNA from the Pfizer vaccine did not stay in the shoulder, and in fact bioaccumulated in many different organs, including the reproductive organs and adrenal glands, meaning that modified Spike is being expressed quite literally all over the place:

https://files.catbox.moe/0vwcmj.pdf

These lipid nanoparticles may trigger anaphylaxis in an unlucky few:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8441754/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7862013/

Messenger RNA is normally consumed right after it is produced in the body, being translated into a protein by a ribosome. COVID-19 vaccine mRNA is produced outside the body, long before a ribosome translates it. In the meantime, it could accumulate damage if inadequately preserved. When a ribosome attempts to translate a damaged strand of mRNA, it can become stalled:

https://elifesciences.org/articles/61984

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fgene.2018.00431/full

Certain proteins, including SARS-CoV-2 Spike, have proteolytic cleavage sites that are basically like little dotted lines that say “cut here”, which attract a living organism’s own proteases (essentially, molecular scissors) to cut them. There is a possibility that S1 may be proteolytically cleaved from S2, causing active S1 to float away into the bloodstream while leaving the S2 “stalk” embedded in the membrane of the cell that expressed the protein:

https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cid/ciab465/6279075

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-021-00908-w

https://www.life-science-alliance.org/content/3/9/e202000786

SARS-CoV-2 Spike has a Superantigenic region (SAg), which may promote extreme inflammation:

https://www.pnas.org/content/117/41/25254

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41577-021-00502-5

Anti-Spike antibodies were found in one study to function as autoantibodies and attack the body’s own cells:

https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-612103/v2

Those who have been immunized with COVID-19 vaccines have developed blood clots, myocarditis, Guillain-Barre Syndrome, Bell’s Palsy, and multiple sclerosis flares, indicating that the vaccine promotes autoimmune reactions against healthy tissue:

Summary: Covid-19 Vaccine Concerns

https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/coronavirus-covid-19-update-july-13-2021

https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19vaccine/94061?xid=nl\_mpt\_DHE\_2021-08-17

SARS-CoV-2 Spike does not only bind to ACE2. It was suspected to have regions that bind to basigin, integrins, neuropilin-1, and bacterial lipopolysaccharides as well:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-021-00958-0

https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/22/3/992/pdf

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acschemneuro.0c00619

https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.abd3072

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0253347

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7799037/

SARS-CoV-2 Spike, on its own, can potentially bind any of these things and act as a ligand for them, triggering unspecified and likely highly inflammatory cellular activity:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7827936/

SARS-CoV-2 Spike contains an unusual PRRA insert that forms a furin cleavage site. Furin is a ubiquitous human protease, making this an ideal property for the Spike to have, giving it a high degree of cell tropism. No wild-type SARS-like coronaviruses related to SARS-CoV-2 possess this feature, making it highly suspicious, and perhaps a sign of human tampering:

https://journals.asm.org/doi/full/10.1128/JVI.01751-20

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7457603/

https://yurideigin.medium.com/lab-made-cov2-genealogy-through-the-lens-of-gain-of-function-research-f96dd7413748

SARS-CoV-2 Spike has a prion-like domain that enhances its infectiousness:

https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202003.0422/v1

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0023664

The Spike S1 RBD may bind to heparin-binding proteins and promote amyloid aggregation. In humans, this could lead to Parkinson’s, Lewy Body Dementia, premature Alzheimer’s, or various other neurodegenerative diseases:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7988450/

This is very concerning because SARS-CoV-2 S1 is capable of penetrating the blood-brain barrier and entering the brain. It is capable of increasing the permeability of the blood-brain barrier to itself and other molecules by injuring and disrupting it directly:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-020-00771-8

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41392-021-00719-9

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33053430/

SARS-CoV-2, like other betacoronaviruses, may have Dengue-like ADE, or antibody-dependent enhancement of disease:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7943455/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7454712/

https://www.journalofinfection.com/article/S0163-4453(21)00392-3/fulltext

https://sharylattkisson.com/2021/08/study-why-so-many-vaccinated-people-are-getting-sick/

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-020-00789-5

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1201971220307311

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31826992/

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.22.457114v1

There is something called Original Antigenic Sin, which is the observation that the body prefers to produce antibodies based on previously-encountered strains of a virus over newly-encountered ones:

https://www.jimmunol.org/content/202/2/335

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_antigenic_sin

In ADE, antibodies from a previous infection become non-neutralizing due to mutations in the virus’s proteins. These non-neutralizing antibodies then act as trojan horses, allowing live, active virus to be pulled into macrophages through their Fc receptor pathways:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antibody-dependent_enhancement

https://www.cdc.gov/dengue/training/cme/ccm/page57857.html

It is possible for vaccines to sensitize someone to disease. There is a precedent for this in recent history. Sanofi’s Dengvaxia vaccine for Dengue failed because it caused immune sensitization in people whose immune systems were Dengue-naive:

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcimb.2020.572681/full

https://news.unchealthcare.org/2021/06/scientists-discover-how-dengue-vaccine-fails-to-protect-against-disease/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3739535/

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-the-worlds-first-dengue-vaccination-drive-ended-in-disaster/

In mice immunized against SARS-CoV and challenged with the virus, a close relative of SARS-CoV-2, they developed immune sensitization, Th2 immunopathology, and eosinophil infiltration in their lungs:

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0035421

We have been told that SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines cannot be integrated into the human genome, because messenger RNA cannot be turned back into DNA. This is false. There are elements in human cells called LINE-1 retrotransposons, which can indeed integrate mRNA into a human genome by endogenous reverse transcription:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33330870/

https://rightsfreedoms.wordpress.com/2021/08/13/mit-harvard-study-suggests-mrna-vaccine-might-permanently-alter-dna-after-all/

The Injection Fraud – It’s Not a Vaccine

The vaccine and the virus were made by the same people. In 2014, there was a moratorium on SARS gain-of-function research that lasted until 2017:

https://www.phe.gov/s3/dualuse/documents/gain-of-function.pdf

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/u-s-lifts-moratorium-on-funding-controversial-high-risk-virus-research/

https://www.nih.gov/about-nih/who-we-are/nih-director/statements/nih-lifts-funding-pause-gain-function-research

Ralph Baric is a virologist and SARS expert at UNC Chapel Hill in North Carolina. This is who Anthony Fauci was referring to when he insisted, before Congress, that if any gain-of-function research was being conducted, it was being conducted in North Carolina:

Ralph S. Baric, PhD

Ralph Baric: On the Front Lines of Coronavirus for Three Decades

Ralph Baric and Shi Zhengli are colleagues and have co-written papers together:

https://www.nature.com/articles/nm.3985/

Ralph Baric mentored Shi Zhengli in his gain-of-function manipulation techniques, particularly serial passage, which results in a virus that appears as if it originated naturally. In other words, deniable bioweapons. Serial passage in humanized hACE2 mice may have produced something like SARS-CoV-2:

https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/06/29/1027290/gain-of-function-risky-bat-virus-engineering-links-america-to-wuhan/

Items from coronavirus expert Ralph Baric‘s emails

https://www.paul.senate.gov/newsweek-op-ed-congress-must-pursue-answers-about-origin-covid-19

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/coronavirus-lab-escape-theory.html

The funding for the gain-of-function research being conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology came from Peter Daszak. Peter Daszak runs an NGO called EcoHealth Alliance:

https://peterdaszak.com/

https://peterdaszak.com/interceptdocs.pdf

https://theintercept.com/2021/09/09/covid-origins-gain-of-function-research/

https://nationalfile.com/bombshell-fauci-kept-funding-peter-daszaks-wuhan-gain-of-function-experiments-with-7-5-million-after-trump-canceled-grant/

EcoHealth Alliance received millions of dollars in grant money from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (that is, Anthony Fauci), the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (part of the US Department of Defense), and the United States Agency for International Development. NIH/NIAID contributed a few million dollars, and DTRA and USAID each contributed tens of millions of dollars towards this research. Altogether, it was over a hundred million dollars:

https://www.independentsciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/EcoHealth-Funding-as-of-01_10_2020-Fed.-Grants-Contracts.pdf

EcoHealth Alliance subcontracted these grants to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a lab in China with a very questionable safety record and poorly-trained staff, so that they could conduct gain-of-function research:

https://www.algora.com/Algora_blog/2021/09/22/ecohealth-alliance-darpa-toyed-with-infecting-wild-chinese-bats-with-covid-leaked-docs-allege

https://nypost.com/2021/07/01/pentagon-gave-millions-to-ecohealth-alliance-for-wuhan-lab/

Judicial Watch: New Documents Show Wuhan Lab Asked NIH Official for Information on Disinfectants; Nine Fauci Agency Grants for EcoHealth Bat Coronavirus Research

JW v NIH Wuhan June 2021 00696

https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/kleelerner/files/20200414_wapo_-_state_department_cables_warned_of_safety_issues_at_wuhan_lab_studying_bat_coronaviruses_-_the_washington_post.pdf

https://www.businessinsider.com/us-officials-raised-alarms-about-safety-issues-in-wuhan-lab-report-2020-4?op=1

Chinese scientists in Wuhan reported being routinely bitten and urinated on by laboratory animals:

https://img-prod.tgcom24.mediaset.it/images/2020/02/16/114720192-5eb8307f-017c-4075-a697-348628da0204.pdf

https://web.archive.org/web/20200214144447/https:/www.researchgate.net/publication/339070128\_The\_possible\_origins\_of\_2019-nCoV\_coronavirus

In November of 2019, three technicians at the Wuhan Institute of Virology developed symptoms consistent with a flu-like illness:

https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20210524/wuhan-lab-researchers-illness

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/556815-fauci-calls-on-china-to-release-medical-records-of-wuhan-researchers

December 12th, 2019, Ralph Baric signed a Material Transfer Agreement (essentially, an NDA) to receive Coronavirus mRNA vaccine-related materials co-owned by Moderna and NIH:

https://rightsfreedoms.wordpress.com/2021/06/26/confidential-documents-reveal-moderna-sent-mrna-coronavirus-vaccine-candidate-to-university-researchers-weeks-before-emergence-of-covid-19/

https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/6935295/NIH-Moderna-Confidential-Agreements.pdf

It wasn’t until a whole month later, on January 11th, 2020, that China allegedly sent us the sequence to what would become known as SARS-CoV-2:

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/01/china-releases-genetic-data-new-coronavirus-now-deadly

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/01/200131114748.htm

Moderna claims, rather absurdly, that they developed a working vaccine from this sequence in under 48 hours:

https://www.businessinsider.com/moderna-designed-coronavirus-vaccine-in-2-days-2020-11

Moderna designed its coronavirus vaccine in 2 days — here’s how

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/12/moderna-covid-19-vaccine-design.html

Stephane Bancel, the current CEO of Moderna, was formerly the CEO of bioMerieux, a French multinational corporation specializing in medical diagnostic tech, founded by one Alain Merieux:

https://www.biomerieux.com/en/board-directors-biomerieux-chaired-alain-merieux-has-appointed-stephane-bancel-directeur-general

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St%C3%A9phane\_Bancel

https://www.himss.org/global-conference/speaker-stephane-bancel

Alain Merieux was one of the individuals who was instrumental in the construction of the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s P4 lab:

https://www.fondation-merieux.org/en/news/alain-merieux-receives-the-prestigious-chinese-reform-friendship-award/

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-04-wuhan-lab-core-virus-controversy.html

http://english.whiov.cas.cn/ne/201712/t20171212_187624.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20210921133410/http://english.whiov.cas.cn/ne/201712/t20171212\_187624.html

The sequence given as the closest relative to SARS-CoV-2, RaTG13, is not a real virus. It is a forgery:

https://nerdhaspower.weebly.com/ratg13-is-fake.html

RaTG13 – the Undeniable Evidence That the Wuhan Coronavirus Is Man-Made

https://www.peakprosperity.com/forum-topic/scientific-history-of-ratg13/

The animal reservoir of SARS-CoV-2 has never been found:

https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/03/26/1021263/bat-covid-coronavirus-cause-origin-wuhan/

https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/detail/how-who-is-working-to-track-down-the-animal-reservoir-of-the-sars-cov-2-virus

The FBI raided Allure Medical in Shelby Township north of Detroit for billing insurance for “fraudulent COVID-19 cures”. The treatment they were using? Intravenous Vitamin C. An antioxidant. Which, as described above, is an entirely valid treatment for COVID-19-induced sepsis, and indeed, is now part of the MATH+ protocol advanced by Dr. Paul E. Marik:

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/macomb/2020/04/28/allure-medical-spa-shelby-covid-vitamin-c/3038801001/

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/macomb-county/2020/05/15/doctor-got-loan-while-peddling-phony-covid-19-cure-feds-say/5197315002/

MATH+ Protocol

https://covid19criticalcare.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/FLCCC-Alliance-MATHplus-Protocol-ENGLISH.pdf

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31978969/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0883944119316107?via%3Dihub

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2019/10/01/766029397/mixed-results-for-a-test-of-vitamin-c-for-sepsis

https://www.nutraingredients.com/Article/2020/01/28/Ethically-and-morally-unacceptable-Reaction-to-vitamin-C-for-sepsis-trial

The FDA banned ranitidine (Zantac) due to supposed NDMA (N-nitrosodimethylamine) contamination:

https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-safety-and-availability/fda-updates-and-press-announcements-ndma-zantac-ranitidine

https://www.raps.org/news-and-articles/news-articles/2021/6/fda-studies-no-post-ingestion-ndma-from-ranitidine

Ranitidine is not only an H2 blocker used as antacid, but also has a powerful antioxidant effect, scavenging hydroxyl radicals. This gives it utility in treating COVID-19:

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1472-8206.2009.00810.x

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1347861319342203

The FDA also attempted to take N-acetylcysteine, a harmless amino acid supplement and antioxidant, off the shelves, compelling Amazon to remove it from their online storefront:

https://www.fda.gov/inspections-compliance-enforcement-and-criminal-investigations/warning-letters/les-labs-593764-07232020

https://www.naturalproductsinsider.com/regulatory/us-senator-npa-press-fda-nac-supplements

https://www.nutraingredients-usa.com/Article/2021/05/11/CRN-This-is-not-the-final-word-on-NAC

https://www.naturalproductsinsider.com/regulatory/amazon-confirms-plans-removing-nac-supplements

On June 9th, 2020, Charles Lieber, a Harvard nanotechnology researcher with decades of experience, was indicted by the DOJ for fraud:

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/harvard-university-professor-and-two-chinese-nationals-charged-three-separate-china-related

Charles Lieber received millions of dollars in grant money from the US Department of Defense, specifically the military think tanks DARPA, AFOSR, and ONR, as well as NIH and MITRE:

Research Sponsors

His specialty is the use of silicon nanowires in lieu of patch clamp electrodes to monitor and modulate intracellular activity, something he has been working on at Harvard for the past twenty years:

https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2011/01/virus-sized-transistors

He was claimed to have been working on silicon nanowire batteries in China, but none of his colleagues can recall him ever having worked on battery technology in his life; all of his research deals with bionanotechnology, or the blending of nanotech with living cells:

https://www.science.org/news/2020/02/why-did-chinese-university-hire-charles-lieber-do-battery-research

Reading life’s building blocks

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/07/harvard-researchers-present-nanowire-devices-update/

The indictment was over his collaboration with the Wuhan University of Technology. He had double-dipped, against the terms of his DOD grants, and taken money from the PRC’s Thousand Talents plan, a program which the Chinese government uses to bribe Western scientists into sharing proprietary R&D information that can be exploited by the PLA for strategic advantage (this risk has been known for a very long time):

https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/harvard-university-professor-indicted-false-statement-charges

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/06/us/chinas-lavish-funds-lured-us-scientists-what-did-it-get-in-return.html

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00291-2

https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/2019-11-18%20PSI%20Staff%20Report%20-%20China’s%20Talent%20Recruitment%20Plans.pdf

https://www.research.psu.edu/sites/default/files/FBI_Risks_To_Academia.pdf

https://www.chinacenter.net/2020/china_currents/19-3/scholars-or-spies-u-s-china-tension-in-academic-collaboration/

https://www.drdavidzweig.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Zweig-Kang-TTP.pdf

Charles Lieber’s own papers describe the use of silicon nanowires for brain-computer interfaces, or “neural lace” technology. His papers describe how neurons can endocytose whole silicon nanowires or parts of them, monitoring and even modulating neuronal activity:

http://cml.harvard.edu/assets/Nanowire-probes-could-drive-high-resolution-brain-machine-interfaces.pdf

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6531316/

https://spectrum.ieee.org/human-cells-eat-nanowires

Charles Lieber was a colleague of Robert Langer. Together, along with Daniel S. Kohane, they worked on a paper describing artificial tissue scaffolds that could be implanted in a human heart to monitor its activity remotely:

They’ve got the beat

https://cml.harvard.edu/assets/Cyborg-tissues_-Merging-engineered-human-tissues-with-bio-compatible-nanoscale-wires.pdf

Robert Langer, an MIT alumnus and expert in nanotech drug delivery, is one of the co-founders of Moderna:

https://www.modernatx.com/modernas-board-directors

His net worth is now $5.1 billion USD thanks to Moderna’s mRNA-1273 vaccine sales:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/giacomotognini/2020/11/12/mit-scientist-bob-langer-becomes-a-billionaire-thanks-to-moderna-stock-rally/?sh=41c3819a3a90

Moderna’s Stock Rally Makes Bob Langer a Billionaire

Both Charles Lieber and Robert Langer’s bibliographies describe, essentially, techniques for human enhancement, i.e. transhumanism:

Home

Home

Klaus Schwab, the founder of the World Economic Forum and the architect behind the so-called “Great Reset”, has long spoken of the “blending of biology and machinery” in his books:

https://invesbrain.com/klaus-schwab-great-reset-will-lead-to-fusion-of-our-physical-digital-biological-identity/

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/598250/shaping-the-future-of-the-fourth-industrial-revolution-by-klaus-schwab-founder-and-executive-chairman-world-economic-forum-with-nicholas-davis/

Since these revelations, it has come to the attention of independent researchers that the COVID-19 vaccines (and even some surgical masks) may contain reduced graphene oxide nanoparticles:

https://ambassadorlove.wordpress.com/2021/08/09/confirmed-graphene-oxide-main-ingredient-in-covid-shots/

https://www.thelibertybeacon.com/graphene-oxide-the-vector-for-covid-19-democide/

https://www.orwell.city/2021/06/vaccination-vial-analysis-explained.html

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41428-020-0350-9

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6141029/

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/masks-early-pulmonary-toxicity-quebec-schools-daycares-1.5966387

https://humansarefree.com/2021/04/bombshell-disposable-blue-face-masks-found-to-contain-toxic-asbestos-like-substance-that-destroys-lungs.html

Japanese researchers have also found unexplained contaminants in COVID-19 vaccines:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/japan-suspends-1-6m-doses-moderna-shot-after-contamination-reports-n1277669

https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/contaminant-moderna-covid-19-vaccine-vials-found-japan-was-metallic-particles-report

https://www.theburningplatform.com/2021/08/27/japan-suspects-contaminant-in-moderna-vaccines-is-metallic-reacts-to-magnets/

Graphene oxide is an anxiolytic. It has been shown to reduce the anxiety of laboratory mice when injected into their brains:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0142961221001058

https://graphene-flagship.eu/graphene/news/soothing-the-symptoms-of-anxiety-with-graphene-oxide/

Indeed, given SARS-CoV-2 Spike’s propensity to compromise the blood-brain barrier and increase its permeability, it is the perfect protein for preparing brain tissue for extravasation of nanoparticles from the bloodstream and into the brain:

https://www.templehealth.org/about/news/sars-cov-2-spike-proteins-disrupt-the-blood-brain-barrier-potentially-raising-risk-of-neurological-damage-in-covid-19-patients

https://www.croiconference.org/abstract/neuromodulatory-effects-of-sars-cov-2-on-the-blood-brain-barrier/

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-75253-9?utm\_source=xmol&utm\_medium=affiliate&utm\_content=meta&utm\_campaign=DDCN\_1\_GL01\_metadata\_scirep

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsanm.8b02056

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168365916303236

Graphene is also highly conductive and, in some circumstances, paramagnetic:

https://www.livescience.com/graphene-hides-rare-magnetism.html

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0008622319305809

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6474003/

https://www.naturalnews.com/2021-07-19-graphene-based-neuromodulation-technology-is-real-inbrain-neuroelectronics.html

BRAIN is an acronym for Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies®. This program involves the development of brain-computer interface technologies for the military, particularly non-invasive, injectable systems that cause minimal damage to brain tissue when removed:

https://www.darpa.mil/program/our-research/darpa-and-the-brain-initiative

Various methods have been proposed for achieving this, including optogenetics, magnetogenetics, ultrasound, implanted electrodes, and transcranial electromagnetic stimulation. In all instances, the goal is to obtain read or read-write capability over neurons:

https://www.darpa.mil/news-events/2019-05-20

Wireless brain-computer interfaces may interact with current or future wireless GSM infrastructure, creating neurological data security concerns:

https://neuralink.com/

Neuralink and the Brain’s Magical Future

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2019.00112/full

https://www.intechopen.com/chapters/44252

https://www.brown.edu/news/2021-03-31/braingate-wireless

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-future-brain/202107/ai-and-vr-transform-thoughts-action-wireless-bci

A BCI that is capable of altering the contents of one’s mind would theoretically be capable of altering mood and personality, or perhaps even subjugating someone’s very will, rendering them utterly obedient to authority:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11023-012-9298-7

Mind reading and brain computer interface technology: the future is coming, fast

BCIs could be used to unscrupulously alter perceptions of basic things such as emotions and values, changing people’s thresholds of satiety, happiness, anger, disgust, and so forth:

http://www.buffalo.edu/news/releases/2010/07/11518.html

Brain-machine interfaces may be used to study and regulate mood

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-019-0488-y

For the wealthy, neural laces would be an unequaled boon, giving them the opportunity to enhance their intelligence with neuroprosthetics (i.e. an “exocortex”):

https://www.adforum.com/agency/6664937/press-releases/70226/opinion-the-last-humans-and-the-next-brands

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6893912

The people who rule over us are Dark Triad types who cannot be trusted with such power:

https://www.egonzehnder.com/de/insight/can-dark-triad-leaders-be-a-good-choice-for-a-leadership-position

https://www.sakkyndig.com/psykologi/artvit/babiak2010.pdf

https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2012/07/the-startling-accuracy-of-referring-to-politicians-as-psychopaths/260517/

https://medium.com/world-issues-politics-economics-and-more/the-rise-of-the-psychopath-and-sociopath-to-political-power-b67ef9073477

https://fortune.com/2021/06/06/corporate-psychopaths-business-leadership-csr/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/on-small-business/wp/2016/09/16/gene-marks-21-percent-of-ceos-are-psychopaths-only-21-percent/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackmccullough/2019/12/09/the-psychopathic-ceo/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathy_in_the_workplace

#PR POPULAR RATIONALISM COVID-19 HERO SERIES

Meet Dr. Harvey Risch (Photo: Yale.edu)

Harvey Risch is a brilliant contributor to the knowledge base of biomedical research. Dr. Risch was the first to publish on hydroxychloroquine, very early in the pandemic, summarizing in the American Journal of Epidemiology evidence that hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) was associated with lowered mortality risk in a dose-dependent manner. He advocated very strongly that the world should not wait for the outcome of long-term randomized clinical trials, showing a correct understanding of the level of evidence required for off-label prescription during emergencies. This publication has had more than 140,000 views. You can read his, and the world’s first review of the clinical evidence of hydroxychloroquine here.

Dr. Risch also served as the principal scientist in the large Brazil hydroxychloroquine trial, published in Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease. That study found day 6 use of HCQ, prednisone or both significantly reduced hospitalization risk by 50–60%. It is inconceivable that in the review of the evidence Dr. Risch presented that individuals like Anthony Fauci could not have known about what the studies were truly indicating. You can read the large Brazil HCQ study here.

Dr. Risch has also worked tirelessly to educate the public on hydroxychloroquine and other aspects of COVID-19, such as this piece in Newsweek in July, 2020 “Tireless” does not truly capture his efforts; he has appeared in interviews on television at least 76 times to date, and had provided testimony for important proceedings, giving decision makers no reason not to see and understand the value of HCQ for outpatient care for COVID-19.

It is a near universal truth that academic training, especially in the medical and biological sciences, attempts to force specialization. When individuals in academia continue to gather new skills via formal training, they break the mold. In addition to his medical training, Dr. Risch obtained a PhD in mathematical modeling of infectious epidemics and has actively published on that challenging topic. He is Professor of Epidemiology at Yale School of Public Health, widely recognized as one of the premier public health institutions in this country, and has published over 350 peer-reviewed scientific research papers. His publications have generated over 41,000 citations of those papers in the medical and scientific literature.

One of the distinctions that Dr. Risch carries is that he has no financial conflicts of interest in HCQ or any early treatment for COVID-19. Dr. Risch’s early vision has been supported by the clinical experience of many physicians - and he is co-author on the landmark “Pathophysiological Basis and Rationale for Early Outpatient Treatment of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) Infection” with world-renown COVID-19 authority Dr. Peter McCollough.

Critics of Dr. Risch accuse him of weakening the standards for clinical adoption of treatment for COVID-19. These critics are hazards to public health in part because they fail to respect that off-label use is allowed when no standard of care exists (such as with COVID-19), and that Emergency Use Authorization (EUAs) do not require the same high level of evidence that clinical options require for success in translational efforts for medical options during non-emergencies. They apparently are unaware that the rules have changed for COVID-19 related studies: Real World Data and Real World Evidence can now be given full consideration by regulatory agencies (See FDA Guidance, 9/30/2021).

One of Dr. Risch’s interviews was with Dr. Naomi Wolf on The Daily Clout. Co-guests included Dr. Howard Tenenbaum, and Dr. Paul Alexander.

And here is a highly informative academic presentation (aired June 25, 2021) that tells the story of hydroxychloroquine and its abuse by false accusations and fake studies. He also highlights the Bradford-Hill Criteria for causality, a topic we’ll be reviewing in courses at IPAK-EDU.

NIAID Director Anthony Fauci has rejected hydroxychloroquine using language like “all the credible studies”. There are limitations to the available science on hydroxychloroquine, not the least of which have included faked studies conducted and published to cast dispersion on the inexpensive drug. Other limitations include small sample sizes of some studies; however, if Fauci and Francis Collins had prioritized large, well-conducted studies of hydroxychloroquine, this would not be a limiting issue. The massive number of studies to date that find an effect place hydroxychloroquine high among the candidates for likely to succeed in a thorough, objective analysis.

The fact that people are still dying without any ambulatory in-home care is the crime of the century.

Related

Alexander, P et al., Early Multidrug Outpatient Treatment of SARS-CoV-2 Infection (COVID-19) and Reduced Mortality Among Nursing Home Residents

Who Are the World's Leading Authorities in COVID-19 Treatment?

COVID-19 early treatment: real-time analysis of 1,013 studies

The following essay first appeared in Achgut.com on September 18, 2021, and appears here with the permission of the author. Translated by Russell A. Berman, with comments here.

From the very start of the pandemic, corona and climate change have always been mentioned in the same breath. Indeed, the parallels are unmistakable. In both cases it is a matter of invisible threats from natural phenomena. In both cases, the discussion is shaped by scientists with data and modelings that are difficult to follow, as they demonstrate the need to limit personal freedoms. In both cases, large parts of the population submit to these prohibitions and limitations on freedom. In both cases, we have seen radical movements emerge, like Fridays for Future, Extinction Rebellion, and Zero-Covid, that demand even more extreme measures, reminiscent of charismatic conversion cults and chiliastic sects. In both cases, “deniers” and “skeptics” are denounced as dangers who stand in the way of preventing a catastrophe. After the COVID lockdown, a climate lockdown will take place, with the one transitioning into the other seamlessly.

Niklas Luhmann distinguished between system and environment. The social system “society” only includes what is communicated inside the social system. “Climate” and “corona” are in themselves not part of society, but the communication about them certainly is. The manner in which they are discussed tells us as much about the society that addresses them as do the communications concerning natural phenomena. The communication about climate and corona displays religious elements. In the climate and corona politics we find four classical figures from the history of religion:

• moral guilt
• religious sacrifice
• the distinction between pure and impure
• divine revelation

Corona and Climate Change in the Service of Morality

Corona and climate have found such a strong resonance because they fill the vacuum that classical religions have left behind. The Bible already named catastrophes and plagues as punishments for moral failings, most prominently the ten plagues that God imposed on the Egyptians to punish them for enslaving the Israelites. This ancient narrative has lost none of its epic strength. When the rivers in the Rhineland overflow their banks or the pandemic infection numbers rise, the explanation is sought in moral failings

Inattention to the wearing of the obligatory mask or not maintaining social distancing, as well as unnecessary long-distance air travel for recreation and leisure or excessive electricity consumption, or in general our “false living” in the West—it is all wrong because of the inherent enjoyment of life, the “materialism” and the consumption that characterize it. In addition, there is heresy, the falling off from the “true belief” by “skeptics and “deniers,” who undermine the grand moral purification through their doubts. For this we are punished by God, i.e., in the pantheistic understanding of our time, by “nature,” that sends us viruses and diseases, floods and droughts.

Because corona and climate are treated as divine punishments for sin, these problems cannot be approached pragmatically or practically. It is pointless to try to avoid corona fatalities or to avert the climate catastrophe without simultaneously extirpating the “sin.” Morality is not at the service of the fight against corona and climate change, but on the contrary, corona and climate change serve morality. Pragmatic initiatives, such as protecting at-risk groups with tests in nursing homes or the expansion of a carbon credit system or the development of nuclear energy might reduce the fatalities and carbon dioxide emissions; but they do not contribute to reaching the real goal: the moral purification of society—and for this reason, such practical steps are largely ignored in Germany.

Simple Solutions are Immoral

Obligatory masks outdoors, the speed limit on the Autobahn, and the surfeit of prohibitions and climate regulations are, in comparison, relatively ineffective, but they serve the genuine purpose: forcing the individual to repent. To put it bluntly: simple solutions are immoral solutions. For a solution to be regarded as a moral one, every individual must bear a burden and participate in the suffering. The only possible rescue from certain destruction—so that we do not face divine punishment, as did Sodom and Gomorrah, and that we are not forced into the long march through the wilderness of the desert, as were the people of Israel after the dance around golden calf—the only path is submission to the societal injunction, the subordination of individual desires and needs to the interest of the community, the path of renunciation and repentance.

The politicians’ call for willing sacrifice, exertion, denial, and subordination falls on psychologically fertile ground in the face of the catastrophe. For there is a universal phenomenon of humans who, in the face of a threat, respond by imposing limitations on themselves and inflicting themselves with pain. This ritualized masochism can take various forms: the flagellation processions of the Middle Ages in response to the Black Plague or the so-called finger sacrifices, in which people underwent amputations to ward off catastrophe. To use a mask to deny oneself fresh air outside, to avoid human contact, and to put oneself under house arrest, cut off from social life—these all meet the criteria of a religious sacrifice.

The Same Behavioral Patterns as Our Ancestors

The positive response to the lockdown in large parts of the populations is indicative of the fact that in our secular, post-heroic society there is an unfulfilled desire to offer sacrifices because sacrifice is simultaneously a form of self-exaltation and revaluation. This primitive religious-psychological mechanism is operating in Western societies. No matter how we try to convince ourselves that our civilization rests on the rational foundation of the Enlightenment, the political practice and social behavior of broad sectors of our society prove otherwise. We are caught up in the same atavistic behavioral patterns as our ancestors; we have just given them a somewhat different form.

The scholar of religions Walter Burkert even claims that the widespread character of these rituals of penitence plausibly points to a sociobiological basis. Humans have an inner need for renunciation, limitation, and self-punishment, all the way to physical and psychic mutilation, that becomes active when we face danger, be it real or invented. The corona restrictions and climate politics are not supported by such a majority of the population despite their limitations on normal life but rather precisely because they do limit it. They thereby satisfy the deep-seated spiritual need for “sacrifice,” “repentance” and “submission.”

Absolute, No Longer Questionable Truths

These genuine causes of the catastrophes, the moral failings and the transgressions against divine commandments, are, as Burkert puts it, apprehended by the “knowing” mediators with a transcendent diagnosis. They in turn provide the rationale for the religious rituals. These “knowing mediators” are, for example, saints, prophets, and priests. We find these archetypical figures again today. There is the “pure virgin” in the form of the saintly Greta Thunberg; the world-renouncing ascetic Karl Lauterbach; and the priesthood represented by Christian Drosten and Hans-Joachim Schellnhuber.[1] Instead of appealing to divine revelation, they invoke science, which however practically fulfills the same function. Franz Werfel’s novel about the prophet Jeremiah bears the title Hearken Unto the Voice.[2] For Greta Thunberg this turns into “listen to the science.” The religious echoes are evident.

That science today is viewed as the source for the justification of existing morality and not as a tool for the pursuit of disinterested knowledge is shown by the fact that its results are only widely accepted when they legitimate existing political and moral convictions, not however when they call them into question. When Thilo Sarrazin, for example, based his theses on the hereditability of intelligence on current scientific research—even submitting it for review by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, which in turn confirmed that he had described the science correctly—he could not have his claims accepted; on the contrary, the science was called into question.[3] “Science” will always be invoked as an authority when its results support the hegemonic discourse, not however when it challenges it.

Politics and the public do not expect “science” to provide new knowledge nor to examine existing assumptions—and certainly not to overturn them—but rather to confirm existing views and norms. The “scientist” in the corona and climate crises is not playing the role of a researcher, reporting results in a value-free manner, following Hume’s dictum that the ought should not be derived from the is, i.e., that ethical norms should not be derived from scientific knowledge. Instead the “scientist” has become the herald, the warner, and the voice of conscience, that is, those functions that in another age were carried out by priests. “Science” in the Western world has become a substitute religion. Climate and corona models, as the ultimate justification for the rules of social order, lay claim to the role of divine revelation, the source of absolute, unquestionable truths.

Dividing the World into Pure and Impure

In addition to the search for “moral guilt” and religious sacrifice, climate and corona politics include a third universal psychological mechanism, the separation between “pure” and “impure.” In 1966, the British anthroplogist Mary Douglas (1921–2007) published her famous book Purity and Danger. Douglas believes that the “imaginations of separation, cleaning, limiting and punishing transgressions had the function above all of systematizing an un-ordered experience.” The separation of the world into pure and impure produces order in a disordered world. It is typical that this separation of pure and impure refers to invisible dangers. The threat comes from an imperceptible world that reaches into the world of visible phenomena.

The parallels to the predominant corona and climate angst are clear. Both COVID-19 and CO2 are invisible phenomena, associated with the ideas of pollution and contamination. In place of spirits and demons, we now have viruses and greenhouse gases. As in archaic societies, the answer involves purification rituals for the whole society. The separation of the vaccinated from the unvaccinated is a matter of separating the pure from the impure. The same holds for the differentiation between the “clean energy” of the wind and the sun and, on the other hand, fossil fuels and nuclear energy. Similarly vegan diets, separating types of trash, disinfections, and masks all belong to today’s omnipresent purification rituals.

The corona crisis and climate change are enabling new forms of social disciplining and the imposition of the priorities of the collective over and against the individual, including ostracism, exclusion, punishment, and the marginalization of all those who resist this social disciplining. Western societies are no longer held together through kinship relationships as in traditional tribal societies, nor are they based on coherence via the identification with an ethnic-national collective. The legitimacy of social rules no longer involves reference to a classic religion. Corona and climate policy together represent the ambitious effort to provide the de-nationalized and increasingly atomistic global society with a new goal, direction, and order on the basis of an expectation of salvation and apocalyptic versions of the end of times, all with a pseudoscientific grounding.

Notes

1) Greta Thunberg is the Swedish environmentalist activist, born 2003, who has been especially influential in Germany through the “Fridays for Future” movement. Karl Lauterbach, since 2005 a member of the Bundestag from the Social Democratic Party, is an epidemiologist who often advocated against loosening the steps taken to prevent the spread of the pandemic. Christian Drosten is a prominent German virologist whom the Guardian called Germany’s “face of the coronavirus crisis.” Hans-Joachim Schnellnhuber, a German climatologist, is the former chair of the German Advisory Council on Global Change.

2) Franz Werfel was an Austrian novelist, born 1890 in Prague (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire) and died in exile, in 1945 in Beverly Hills. Höret die Stimme or Jeremias appeared in 1937.

3) Thilo Sarrazin is a German politician, formerly a member of the Social Democratic Party and until 2010 a member of the Executive Board of the Bundesbank, became a controversial figure with the publication of his book Deutschland schafft sich ab (Germany Abolishes Itself), critical of immigration policies and multiculturalism.

KünstlerInnen und WissenschaftlerInnen im Dialog über die Corona-Krise

Mit zunehmender Sorge beobachten wir die Entwicklung des politischen Handelns in der Corona-Krise. Viele ExpertInnen wurden bisher in der öffentlichen Corona-Debatte nicht gehört. Wir wünschen uns einen breit­gefächerten, fakten­basierten, offenen und sachlichen Diskurs und auch eine ebensolche Auseinander­setzung mit den Videos.

Beiträge zu

• Angst
• Angstkommunikation und ihre Folgen
• Antidemokratische Sprache
• Behandlung von Risikogruppen
• Corona Angst
• Corona-Maßnahmen für Kinder
• Corona Schutzimpfung
• Covid Therapie 1.Teil
• Corona Schutzimpfung 2.Teil
• Corona Schutzimpfung für Kinder
• Corona und die Rolle der Medien
• Corona und Kinder
• Corona und Kinderrechte
• Corona und Rechtsstaat
• Corona-Zahlen
• Demokratie und Eigenverantwortung
• Die Expertise in der Krise
• Digitaler Impfpass
• Ethik in Zeiten von Corona
• Evidenzbasierte Medizin
• Faktenchecker
• flatten the curve
• freie Impfentscheidung
• Fremdbestimmung
• Gehorsam
• gekaufte Forschung
• Geldsystem
• Geraubte Kindheit
• Geschlossene Gesellschaft
• Gesundheitskommunikation
• Grundrechtseinschränkungen
• Immunität
• Impfpflicht
• Impf-Solidarität
• Informationspolitik
• Inzidenz
• Kindeswohl
• Kollektive Angststörung
• Künstler im politischen Diskurs
• Kulturkrise
• Masken
• Meinungsfreiheit
• ökonomische Effekte der Pandemie
• Panda (Alternativen)
• Pandemie Definition 1. Teil
• Pandemischer Imperativ
• Peer-Review Drosten-Test
• Rechtsstaat und die Grundrechte
• Risikobewertung 2. Teil
• Risikokommunikation
• Schweden
• soziale Ausmaße der Pandemie
• Spaltung der Gesellschaft
• Spike Proteine
• Virusgefahr
• Wahrheitsdefinition
• zurück zur Rationalität

Im pathologischen Institut in Reutlingen werden am Montag, den 20.09.2021, die Ergebnisse der Obduktionen von acht nach COVID19-Impfung Verstorbenen vorgestellt. Die feingeweblichen Analysen wurden von den Pathologen Prof. Dr. Arne Burkhardt und Prof. Dr. Walter Lang durchgeführt. Die Erkenntnisse bestätigen die Feststellung von Prof. Dr. Peter Schirmacher, dass bei mehr als 40 von ihm obduzierten Leichnamen, die binnen zwei Wochen nach der COVID-19-Impfung gestorben sind, circa ein Drittel kausal an der Impfung verstorben sind. Im Rahmen der live gestreamten Pressekonferenz werden mikroskopische Details der Gewebeveränderungen gezeigt. Prof. Dr. Werner Bergholz berichtet über die aktuellen Parameter der statistischen Erfassung des Impfgeschehens.

Auf der Pressekonferenz wird zudem das Ergebnis der Analyse von COVID-19-Impfstoffproben einer österreichische Forschergruppe vorgestellt, das sich mit den Erkenntnissen von Wissenschaftlern aus Japan und den USA deckt. Es haben sich im Impfstoff undeklarierte metallhaltige Bestandteile feststellen lassen. Optisch fallen Impfstoffelemente durch ihre ungewöhnliche Form auf.

Aus den Untersuchungsergebnissen resultieren rechtliche und politische Forderungen so zum Beispiel nach unverzüglicher Informationssammlung durch die Behörden, um die gesundheitliche Gefährdungslage der Bevölkerung durch die COVID-19-Impfstoffe bewerten zu können. Z.B. können durch Einsichtnahme in die IVF-Register frühe Signale eingeschränkter Fruchtbarkeit der Geimpften geprüft werden. Über das Krebsregister können Erkenntnisse über das Entstehen von Krebs durch die gentechnischen Veränderungen der Virus-RNA gewonnen werden. Eine Aussetzung der COVID-19-Impfungen ist zu erwägen.

Teil 1:

Odysee:
https://odysee.com/@de:d/Pressekonferenz--Tod-durch-Impfung-Undeklarierte-Bestandteile-der-COVID-19-Impfstoffe:b

Teil 2:

Odysee:
https://odysee.com/@de:d/Pathologie_Konferenz_Reutlingen_Teil_2:7

Todesursache nach COVID-19-Impfung Präsentation Prof. Dr. Arne Burkhardt

Download PDF 12 MB 20.09.2021, Reutlingen

Undeklarierte Bestandteile von COVID-19-Impfstoffen Scanning Electron Microscopy Analysis einer deutschen Hochschule

Download PDF 9 MB 20.09.2021, Reutlingen

Prof. Dr. Arne Burkhardt

Prof. Dr. Arne Burkhardt blickt auf langjährige Lehrtätigkeit an den Universitäten Hamburg, Bern und Tübingen zurück sowie auf Gastprofessuren/Studienaufenthalte in Japan (Nihon Universität), USA (Brookhaven National Institut), Korea, Schweden, Malaysia und der Türkei. Er hat 18 Jahre lang das Pathologische Institut in Reutlingen geleitet, war danach als niedergelassener Pathologe tätig. Prof. Burkhardt hat über 150 Artikel in Fachzeitschriften und als Beiträge in Handbüchern veröffentlicht. Er hat zudem pathologische Institute zertifiziert.

Prof. Dr. Walter Lang

Prof. Dr. Walter Lang war von 1968-1985 als Pathologe an der Medizinischen Hochschule Hannover tätig. Danach leitete er 25 Jahre lang ein von ihm gegründetes Privatinstitut für Pathologie in Hannover mit den Schwerpunkten Transplantationspathologie, extragynäkologische Cytologie, Schilddrüsentumore, Lungen/Pleurapathologie. Er führte Konsultations-Diagnostik für 12 große Lungen-Kliniken durch und nahm Leberpathologie-Untersuchung für zahlreiche Kliniken vor. Im Zeitraum 1985-2020 führte er Konsultations-Untersuchungen für die Pathologie der Lungenklinik in Herner durch.

Prof. Dr. Werner Bergholz

Prof. Dr. Werner Bergholz ist ehemaliger Professor für Elektrotechnik mit Schwerpunkt Qualitäts- und Risikomanagement an der Jakobs-University Bremen. Vor seiner Berufung war Prof. Bergholz 17 Jahre im Management der Chip-Produktion bei der Firma Siemens tätig.

Our resident physician John Day in Texas comes with an update on his situation. It seems his clinic no longer seeks to fire him for refusing to be vaccinated, they now claim it’s for cause (it’s not). A doctor who has been free to decide medical treatments for and with his patients for many years, all of a sudden cannot decide that for his own body.

And of course it’s not just America, and it’s not just doctors, it’s also pilots and nurses and soldiers and police men and women, and vaccine mandates are being introduced in many countries. That will deprive many fields in our societies of their leaders, and leave them occupied by followers only.

People who think for themselves, and wish to decide for themselves (as is their right), are being put out by the curb, and by the thousands. The resulting changes in society will be devastating. Losing all those years of experience and wisdom and kindness and intelligence will make us all a lot poorer. And why? It’s obviously not about logic, and it’s not about health. John:

John Day MD: Precariously Supported,

Yesterday was an odd day in several aspects. I had worked a long Friday at the clinic again, which did not go badly. I left nothing unfinished. We drove to the Yoakum homestead Friday night and got a good night of sleep.

Somehow, I felt very heavy and slow on Saturday and Sunday, so I trudged through three to four hours of pushing the little Honda mower, and did work in the garden, but ploddingly. I planted garlic for the winter/spring season, and tended the garden.

I continued to feel a weight of unease, and as we started the drive back to Austin, Sunday afternoon, I had a sense that I should really buy winter veggies to put in at the clinic garden, which I started in 2016, and tend for my coworkers. Putting things off until the end of the month, in my last two weeks of work there, seemed awkward.

We picked up a lot of winter greens and salad starts in little pots on our way into Austin, some for our Austin kitchen garden, but most for the clinic garden. I did a last harvest of the blackeyed pea row, then cut down the vines, and took them to some chickens that a friend of Jenny’s raises.

Yesterday (Monday) morning I worked in our kitchen garden again, preparing the beds for fall and winter, cleaning up the summer debris, and also planting an orange seedling in the bed in front of the house, where the February freeze had killed the one fruitful tree.

After eating, I went over to the clinic with an orange seedling, to replace the two that the February freeze had killed, and all of the winter salad and cooking-green seedlings to fill a couple of rows. I went through the entrance, put on a mask, and went through to the garden in the break area, with shovels and clippers, saying “hi” to a few people and smiling with my eyes. I went out through the garden gate, and brought in the orange tree, then the veggie starts.

The orange tree needed to go in the large bed, which has a Mexican avocado seedling tree, and a banana plant that actually survived February. Mainly it has a lot of sweet potatoes. It’s a fairly large bed, and this has been a very good year for sweet potatoes. I filled the three gallon bucket that the tree was in with sweet potatoes, from just a few square feet that I cleared and dug up, before planting it, maybe one percent of that bed.

While I was digging up the sweet potatoes and digging the hole to put the orange tree in, my flip phone rang. I figured it was Jenny. I brushed some of the dirt off my hands and answered it. It was the nice and very well-mannered youngish man, who is currently Director of Human Resources, telling me that my last day of work had been changed from the last Friday of October to the Friday just passed, which was different from what I had been told last week, when the reason for my firing was changed from vaccine-mandate non-compliance, to all of the wrongs I have committed in the period of time since that mandate was announced.

It was a lousy spot for him to be put in, and he seemed uncomfortable having to put it into polite words. He had been trying to call me while I was working on our home garden, but I had not been carrying the phone. I told him that I was at the clinic garden, putting in some things for winter, and that he could talk to me in person. My presence in the garden was unanticipated, though I have worked on my day off frequently in the past couple of months.

We talked as I planted the orange tree and put the big sweet potatoes in the pot, handing it over to a couple of nurses taking their lunch. They had helped dig sweet potatoes last year, and I knew they wanted some. He politely explained that I was not to re-enter the building, and that my desk would be cleared out and boxed for me. The explanation was so polite that I sought clarification. I did negotiate that I could pick up a few notes at my desk with his presence and supervision, which we then did. My badge didn’t let me in this time. He had to use his. As we walked through the clinic to my desk, most people had their eyes down. A few coworkers looked me in the eyes, and I smiled with my eyes. I was comfortable in myself, and emanated that (I think).

We grabbed a few boxes and made short work of the packing-up. I got everything, and we carried the three boxes to my little twenty four year old Ford Ranger pickup truck together. We went back to the garden and break-area through the gate, He thought it best that I just leave without planting the vegetables, but I prevailed upon him to keep his agreement to let me clean out the rows and do the planting.

He actually had a fair number of gardening questions, which I answered as I cleared the rows and planted for winter. I worked expeditiously, taking about twenty to thirty minutes, as I explained the quality of the soil, and how building soil is one of the main objectives in successful gardening. If you don’t have enough garden to out produce what the squirrels, birds and other critters can eat, they will eat it all. You need a big enough garden patch.

We walked back to the truck with shovels and clippers, talking about what’s next. The clinic will still pay me for these last two weeks of October, but my patients who are scheduled will not get to see me for a last visit. I have been doing everything possible to avoid leaving loose ends, and to write thorough chart notes, so it will be easy for the next doctor. I have tried to make suggestions for which doctor or practitioner might best match the needs and personality of each patient. I passed my list to give to the Director of Adult Medicine, who has been working hard and well on this transition. It’s not a complete list…

I am left to wonder why the clinic took surprise action to remove me from patient-care, while still paying my salary for two weeks. I suspect there was free-floating anxiety about what I might say or do. I had been informing people of the actual circumstances of my leaving, being fired for non-compliance with mandatory vaccination. The management has been consulting with attorneys the whole time, and somebody else is contesting her firing for non-compliance with that mandate, I am told. Governor Abbott did say that vaccine mandates are not tolerable in Texas, Monday of last week. I suspect that my being fired-for-cause, other than non-compliance with COVID vaccination might be more plausible when the date of my firing is moved forward from the prior date of my termination for non-compliance

I do not intend to contest my firing through recourse to the law. The only law I am really, currently concerned with is the Law of Karma, and I am very concerned with that law. I am constantly aware of the implications of Karma as we wade further into this rip-tide of history.

Human Horticulturist

Third part of a timeline of ivermectin-related events in theCOVID-19 pandemic

See Part 1 and Part 2

Mika Turkia M.Sc.
mika.turkia@alumni.helsinki.fi
September 30, 2021

Abstract

This review presents a third part extending two previous parts of a timeline describing ivermectin-related events in the COVID-19 pandemic, with this third part covering a period from July 2021 to September 2021.

Among the most notable developments during the period were allegations that a clinical trial about prophylaxis and late treatment of COVID-19 with ivermectin by Elgazzar et al. carried out in Egypt in mid-2020was fraudulent, with some of the introduction plagiarized and the patient data claimed to appear fabricated.

The government of Egypt initiated an investigation on the issue, the results of which were not available bythe end of the period.

Ivermectin skeptics noted that the retraction of the Elgazzar et al. trial, along with suspicions about failed randomization in another trial by Niaee et al., seemed to invalidate the various meta-analyses which had included these trials. Ivermectin proponents argued that the retraction did not affect the conclusions of their meta-analyses. Later, the validity of an Argentinian prophylaxis trial by Carvallo et al. was questioned; as an observational trial it had not been included in the meta-analyses.

Among new trial results were the results of ’Together’ trial led by a Canadian university but carried out in Brazil. The primary endpoint was extended emergency room observation or hospitalization, and the secondary endpoint was mortality. Fluvoxamine produced a statistically significant result for the first endpoint but not for the second. In 677 treated patients vs 678 controls ivermectin indicated some risk reduction but the differences were not statistically significant. One of the authors concluded that ivermectin had ’noeffect whatsoever’ on their endpoints. On the other hand, a intervention program in La Pampa province of Argentina with 3,269 treated and 18,149 untreated indicated mortality rates of 1.5% vs 2.1% (p=0.029),and in subjects over 40 years 2.7% vs 4.1% (p=0.005). A Cochrane meta-analysis concluded that all aspects regarding ivermectin’s efficacy for either treatment or prophylaxis were currently unknown.

After a 24-fold increase in ivermectin prescriptions from US pharmacies compared to the pre-pandemic baseline, US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), American Medical Association, American Pharmacists Association and American Society of Health-System Pharmacists campaigned against ivermectin, calling for‘an immediate end’ to prescribing, dispensing and using it. However, this campaigning also resulted in an increased public awareness of ivermectin.

A prominent social media figure with over ten million followers revealed that he had been prescribed ivermectin for COVID-19. The fact was subsequently propagated internationally by the news media which represented ivermectin as a dangerous ‘horse dewormer’. Several international news outlets published a false story about emergency rooms in Oklahoma being full of people having overdosed ivermectin, blocking out other patients including gunshot victims.

A Japanese doctor who had treated 500 patients with ivermectin reported having received death threats after telling about his methods on a television program. A group of British scientists which had published a meta-analysis about ivermectin reported having received death threats after questioning the efficacy of ivermectin. An ivermectin discussion forum was flooded with pornographic images and incoherent babbling.

A hospital was harassed for not administering ivermectin.

An Indian physician claimed that due to the World Health Organization’s opposition to ivermectin, India’s second wave had been countered by an almost nationwide covert use of early treatment protocols including ivermectin. Another physician reported that in one city in Amazonas, Brazil, a mass distribution of ivermectin had resulted in the city having no hospitalized COVID-19 patients during the surge of the gamma variant in the first half of 2021.

Frontline COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC) faced criticism for its ivermectin advocacy and communication style. With regard to treatment protocols, the addition of dual anti-androgen therapy to FLCCC’sMATH+ hospital treatment protocol was said to have restored the protocol’s efficacy against the delta variant in intensive care unit patients. FLCCC also published a scoping review of the pathophysiology ofCOVID-19, emphasizing the role of platelet activation with the release of serotonin and the activation and degranulation of mast cells contributing to the hyper-inflammatory state.

In an overview, the period from April 2020 to March 2021 could be characterized as a period of argumentation and attempted rationality, the period from April 2021 to June 2021 as a period of emotion and campaigning,and the period from July 2021 to September 2021 as a period of chaos.

Current best practices for meta-analyses were found to be unsound. A new approach based on individual patient data analysis was proposed.

Introduction

The period covering the first part of the timeline from April 2020 to March 2021 [1] could be characterized as a period of research, argumentation and rationality. During the period, smaller-scale research and experimentation of ivermectin for COVID-19 was pursued and eventually, alliances and groups of clinicians and researchers were formed to promote combination treatment protocols that included ivermectin. However, at the end of the period, first the European Medicine Agency (EMA) and second the World Health Organization(WHO) advised against the use of ivermectin except in clinical trials.

The second period from April 2021 to June 2021 [2] could be characterized as a period of emotion and campaigning. During the period, a failure of the approach based on argumentation led to a disillusionment of clinicians and researchers in favor of ivermectin treatments and stopped communication between the proponents and administrative agencies. Instead, ivermectin proponents turned directly to the public and the clinicians. The analysis related to the second part of the timeline focused on possible structural corruption and the role of the WHO.

The third period from July 2021 to September 2021 covered in this paper might best be characterized as a period of chaos, initiated by accusations of plagiarism and data fabrication in one of the early ivermectin trials [3]. As the trial was included in published meta-analyses of ivermectin’s efficacy [4,5,6], the allegations undermined the believability of these meta-analyses, although the authors of the meta-analyses at first stated that the exclusion did not essentially change the results of the analyses. Later, one of the groups diverged from this view.

The history, indications and safety of ivermectin have been described in the previous parts. Some events preceding July 2021 not included in the previous parts of the timeline have been included.

March 2020

On March 25, Waltner-Toews et al. wrote that COVID-19 requires a new approach to science [7]. They referred to ‘post-normal science’ (PNS) developed in the 1990s by Silvio Funtowicz and Jerome R. Ravetz which represented a novel approach for the use of science on issues where ‘facts are uncertain, values in dispute, stakes high and decisions urgent’ [8]. As an example, PNS recommended that models to predict and control the future should be replaced by models to map our ignorance about the future; it also stressed the importance of trust, participation and transparency, all of which had been lacking during the COVID-19pandemic. Waltner-Toews et al. wrote that ‘everywhere, we are seeing a total breakdown of the epistemic consensus required to make normal science “work”. This is happening not only in the fields you might expect– behavioral psychology, sociology, and ethics – but also in virology, genetics, and epidemiology. In other words, when “applied scientists” and “professional consultants” are no longer in their comfort zones but find themselves in a post-normal context, fitness for purpose changes meaning. And even in established fields, disagreements can’t be hidden (or consensus enforced) from broad audiences: are the present draconian measures justified or not? More data (even “reliable data”) and better predictive models cannot resolve the“distribution of sacrifice” which involves, among other things, the arbitration of dilemmas that appear at every scale. Hiding behind some general notion of science or the “lack of data” – as if data had the power to resolve these dilemmas – is feckless, feeble and confused’.

November 2020

On November 29, an article by Cherkes et al. in the clinical practice guidelines and recommendations section of an Ukrainian journal Proceedings of the Shevchenko Scientific Society – Medical Sciences gave a detailed description of FLCCC’s MATH+ hospital treatment protocol [9].

April 2021

On April 14, an article by Seet et al. described an open-label randomized trial (n=3,037) describing a 42-day prophylaxis regimen with four different medications, one of which was povidone iodine throat spray(n=735), compared to 500 mg per day of oral vitamin C (n=619), indicated 44.7% lower risk of severe disease (5.7% vs 10.3%, RR 0.55, p=0.05) and 31.1% lower risk of infection (46.0% vs 70.0%, RR 0.69,p=0.01) [10,11]. A single 12 mg dose of ivermectin (n=617) did not produce a statistically significant difference. Hydroxychloroquine produced a slightly smaller risk reduction than povidone iodine.

May 2021

On May 11, two Norwegian doctors presented data on ivermectin trials to the Norwegian government [12].

On May 26, an investigational monoclonal antibody for mild to moderate COVID-19, sotrovimab, was issued an emergency use authorization by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Sotrovimab was to be administered as a single intravenous infusion of 500 mg over 30 minutes within 10 days of symptom onset [13].

The wholesale price of a single dose was USD 2,100 [14].

On May 28, Bloomberg Law discussed YouTube’s censorship practices [15]. YouTube chief executive officer Susan Wojcicki commented that ‘the complex nature of misinformation online presents a number of challenges for platforms such as YouTube and I welcome your suggestions as to what we can do better’.

June 2021

On June 1, a commentary by Chosidow et al. asked whether ivermectin would be a potential treatment forCOVID-19 [16].

On June 4, an article by Payne et al. about evidence-based approach to early outpatient treatment considered zinc gluconate, melatonin and vitamin D feasible options but repeated the usual objections to ivermectin[17].

On June 7, an article by Sajidah et al. discussed the host nuclear transport machinery in detail [18].

On June 10, Kumar et al. discussed the role of vitamins and minerals as immunity boosters in COVID-19, pointing out for example the protective roles of calcium, magnesium, copper, iodine, selenium, manganese,cobalt and sulfur, and the possibly harmful effect of iron [19].

On June 14, an article by Duru et al. described an in silico study suggesting that ivermectin bound well toSARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein [20].

On June 17, an article by Yanagida et al. concluded that ivermectin had low proarrhythmic risk [21].

On June 18, an article by Mart´ınez investigated the antioxidant properties of several pharmaceuticals, positing the idea that oxide reduction balance might help explain the toxicity or efficacy of these drugs, and noting that ivermectin and molnupiravir, two powerful COVID-19 drugs, were not good electron acceptors,and the fact that they were not as effective oxidants as other studied molecules might be an advantage [22].

On June 18, a commentary by Taibbi discussed politicization and censorship of ivermectin in the US [23,24].

On June 18, a Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten interviewed two Norwegian proponents of FLCCC protocols, one of whom was FLCCC founding member Eivind Hustad Vinjevoll [25] and the other Anders Bugge.

The Norwegian Medicines Agency remained unconvinced, stating that it was not their task to assess unapproved treatments: they only followed the recommendations of US National Institutes of Health and the World Health Organization.

On June 21, referring to lack of evidence and low quality of trials, eleven Norwegian senior physicians disagreed with Vinjevoll’s and Bugge’s views [26].

On June 22, Huang et al. summarized recent advances in the exploration of ivermectin’s anticancer properties [27].

On June 27, Salvador et al. published a protocol of a prospective observational study aiming to evaluate the effectiveness and safety of a single-dose ivermectin for treatment of uncomplicated strongyloidiasis in immunosuppressed patients [28].

On June 28, Bugge replied to the Norwegian senior physicians [29].

On June 28, an article by Roman et al. presented a meta-analysis of ten randomized controlled trials(RCTs) including 1,173 patients with mild or moderate disease [30]. The authors wrote that in comparison to standard of care or placebo, ivermectin did not reduce all-cause mortality, length of stay or viral clearance.

They concluded that ivermectin was not a viable option to treat COVID-19 patients. The article was based on a previous preprint [31,32]. The CovidAnalysis group noted that in addition to numerous uncorrected errors,the preprint and the PDF of the article stated that the authors had no conflicts of interest, yet Pasupuleti’saffiliation listed in the abstract on the journal’s website was a company delivering brand and portfolio commercial strategy for biotech and pharma, working with 24 of the top 25 pharmaceutical companies as well as hundreds of biotechs globally [33,34]. The company also stated that they were working withthe European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries (EFPIA) to support their activities, and that the company’s regulatory consultancy practice in the US was preparing a number of emergency use authorizations to the FDA [35].

On June 28, an article by Patterson et al. presented a model for predicting COVID-19 severity and chronicity [36]. A score measuring severity of COVID-19 was defined as (IL-6 + sCD40L / 1000 + VEGF / 10 + 10 * IL-10) / (IL-2 + IL-8). A score measuring chronicity (long haul symptoms) was defined as (IFN-γ+ IL-2) / CCL4-MIP-1β. CCL4 (chemokine ligands 4), also called MIP-1β(macrophage inflammatory protein-1β),was related to the C-C chemokine receptor type 5 (CCR5) pathway. About VEGF, see also [37,38,39,40].

On June 30, Thailand’s FDA and Chiang Mai University’s faculty of pharmacy warned against using ivermectin for COVID-19 [41].

On June 30, an article by Nippes et al. reviewed research on the presence of chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, ivermectin, dexamethasone, remdesivir, favipiravir and some HIV antivirals in the environment, and presented treatment technologies for each drug [42].

On June 30, Syed interviewed FLCCC’s Marik about treatments and the origin of SARS-CoV-2 [43].

July 2021

On July 1, HART group consisting of UK doctors compared adverse events reported to the WHO of ivermectin (20 deaths and 5,484 adverse events since 1992), remdesivir (534 deaths and 6,707 adverse events since 2020) and COVID-19 vaccines (6,667 deaths and 1,198,200 adverse events since 2020) [44]. They also suggested that some of the ongoing studies were designed to fail and actually aimed at stalling the adoption of ivermectin.

On July 1, Vice magazine wrote about ivermectin advocates, saying that ‘proponents of a dubious COVID19 cure have signaled they’re ready for a long fight against what they see as censorship in medicine and media’ [45].

On July 2, an article by Vallejos et al. described a low dose RCT with 501 relatively low-risk outpatients in Argentina which did not produce statistically significant results (NCT04529525) [46,47].

On July 2, an article by Adegboro et al. reviewed the antiviral effects of ivermectin [48].

On July 2, a Twitter post reported that a video featuring Nobel prize winner Satoshi ¯Omura discussing Japanese ivermectin emergency use authorization bill had been removed by YouTube for violating their terms of service [49].

On July 2, a blog post by Crawford investigated the details and the background of the meta-analysis by Roman et al., noting that the meta-analysis came at a politically contentious moment, the language and behavior appeared political, the work was error-laden, took research out of its true context, used numbers that didn’t seem to come from the actual studies, chose papers testing ivermectin under the least favorable circumstances, gave unexplained and inappropriate weights to the small amount of data that stood as outliers to the bigger picture, and extracted an unfavorable conclusion from a massive average mortality reduction that did not quite reach statistical significance while consistently complaining about the low quality of evidence represented by the studies [50]. Crawford asked whether these were ‘just mistakes’, adding that ‘a medical journal published all this – just in time to push back the Lawrie case. Think on all that for a moment’.

On July 3, an open letter signed by 43 researchers and clinicians requested retraction of the meta-analysis by Roman et al. [51,52].

On July 6, an article by Hill et al. (submitted on January 20) presented a meta-analysis including eleven RCTs of moderate/severe infection [5]. The analysis indicated 56% reduction in mortality (3% vs 9%, RR0.44, 95% CI 0.25-0.77, p=0.004), favorable clinical recovery and reduced hospitalization. In contrast to the preprint stating that ivermectin should be validated in larger studies before the results are sufficient for review by regulatory authorities [53], the published version said that a network of large clinical trials was in progress to validate the results seen to date.

On July 6, a TrialSite news report suggested that the WHO might have been attempting to limit the use of ivermectin to neglected tropical diseases only [54,55,56]. The report also discussed the apparent lack of objectivity of Wikipedia, noting that it had, among other omissions, mentioned the rejection of FLCCC’s review by Frontiers of Pharmacology but failed to mention that it had later been published in the American Journal of Therapeutics, failed to mention the meta-analysis by the BIRD group, and failed to mention USNIH’s transitioning to a neutral stance on ivermectin. The report asked why any positive aspects would be omitted unless there was an explicit goal to completely discredit this possible therapeutic option and researchers looking into the matter.

On July 6, Yahoo News UK published a news story featuring ivermectin in a positive light [57].

On July 6, WHO announced that it had updated its patient care guidelines to include interleukin-6 receptor blockers tocilizumab (by Roche) and sarilumab (by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Sanofi) [58]. The strong recommendation was based on findings from a prospective and a living network meta-analysis including data(also prepublication data) from over 10,000 patients enrolled in 27 clinical trials. The meta-analyses were said to show that in severely or critically ill patients these drugs reduced the odds of death by 13% and the odds of mechanical ventilation by 28% compared to standard of care, with high certainty of evidence [59]. WHO said tocilizumab and sarilumab were the first drugs found to be effective against COVID-19 since corticosteroids were recommended in September 2020 [58]. WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, however, that the drugs would remain inaccessible to most, and called on manufacturers to reduce prices and make supplies available to low-and middle-income countries. Ghebreyesus also encouraged companies to agree to transparent, non-exclusive voluntary licensing agreements using WHO’s Covid-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP) platform and the Medicines Patent Pool, or to waive exclusivity rights. Rochwerg et al. noted that compared with other treatments IL-6 receptor blockers were expensive but the the recommendation did not take account of cost effectiveness [59]. They also acknowledged that access to these drugs was challenging in many parts of the world and that the recommendation could exacerbate health inequity. However, the strong recommendation aimed at providing a stimulus to improve global access to these treatments.

On July 6, an article by WHO Rapid Evidence Appraisal for COVID-19 Therapies (REACT) WorkingGroup presented a meta-analysis on the efficacy of tocilizumab and sarilumab [60]. Absolute mortality risk was 22% for IL-6 antagonists compared with an assumed mortality risk of 25% for standard of care or placebo, with especially sarilumab showing very low efficacy. Regarding conflicts of interests, one of the authors reported being involved with two patents owned by Genentech/Roche, one on treating COVID-19with an IL-6 antagonist, and another for tocilizumab and remdesivir combination therapy for COVID-19pneumonia. Two other authors reported being co-inventors of a filed patent covering the use of low-dose tocilizumab for treatment of viral infections. Nine other authors also reported associations with Roche.

Seven authors reported associations with Sanofi. Three reported being employees of and owning stock in Regeneron, and two reported other associations with it. Also associations with, for example, Merck Sharp and Dohme, Gilead Sciences, ViiV Healthcare, Janssen, Cilag, Thera technologies, Lilly, Biohope, Gebro, Bristo lMyers Squibb, Abbvie, Pfizer, Novartis, PharmaMar, GlaxoSmithKline, Boehringer Ingelheim, Celgene,Alexion, Inatherys, AB Science, Argenx, Oncoarendi, Biogen, Ose Pharmaceutical, Shionogi, Genetech, EliLilly, Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB, Sanofi Genzyme, Aspen Pharmacare, Crist´alia and AM Pharma were reported.

On July 6, a press release by M´edecins Sans Fronti`eres (MSF) noted that the Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche continued to have de facto market exclusivity and tocilizumab was likely to remain unaffordable and inaccessible for most of the world [61]. MSF wrote that Roche had kept the price of tocilizumab very high in most countries (USD 410 in Australia, USD 646 in India and USD 3,625 in the US per dose of 600mg for COVID-19, while the manufacturing cost was estimated to be around USD 60).

On July 6, an article by Malin et al. presented a key summary of German national treatment guidance for COVID-19 inpatients [62]. The guideline recommended corticosteroids, prophylactic anti-coagulation, and optionally tocilizumab. Convalescent plasma, azithromycin, ivermectin and vitamin D3were recommended against. With regard to ivermectin, it was said that achievable tissue concentrations seemed to be far below the half maximal inhibitory concentration in vitro, that in February 2021 only one peer-reviewed RCT with 72 patients was available for consideration, and that the numerous preprints did not report clinically relevant endpoints or presented with significant methodological issues and a high risk of bias.

On July 6, a commentator asked why WHO targeted IL-6 instead of going upstream to block NF-kB [63] which in turn inhibits IL-6 (ivermectin is an NF-kB antagonist [64]) [65,66].

On July 6, the US president Biden proposed the creation of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), a new organization under the NIH, aimed at facilitating and accelerating more innovation and breakthroughs in fundamental biomedical and health research [67].

On July 6, an article by Margolin et al. described a small controlled trial (n=113) that suggested benefits from supplementation with zinc, zinc ionophores quina plant bark extract and quercetin, vitamins C, D3and E, and L-lysine [68].

On July 7, an article by Cadegiani et al. about an open-label observational prospective outpatient study indicated 98.0% lower risk of hospitalization (0% vs 19.7%, RR 0.02, p<0.001) and 94.2% lower risk of ventilation (0% vs 6.6%, RR 0.06, p=0.005) [69,70,71]. The authors said treatments showed overwhelming improvements; therefore, it had become ethically questionable to conduct further studies employing full placebo arms in early COVID-19.

On July 7, a preprint by Hazan et al. described a retrospective late treatment study with 24 outpatients and a synthetic control arm calculated from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)database [72]. The study used a combination therapy protocol with ivermectin, doxycycline, zinc, vitaminD and vitamin C, resulting in 100% survival and cure in unselected ambulatory ‘moderate to severely’ illCOVID-19 outpatients, with some initially presenting with SpO2values as low as 73% and 77%. Despite a symptom to treatment delay of over nine days, mean SpO2values rose from 86.5 to 93.1 in the first 24 hours.

On July 8, an article by Muthusamy et al. described an in silico study identifying 32 anti-parasitic compounds effectively inhibiting the receptor binding domain of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein [73]. The most effective compounds, in a descending order, were selamectin, ivermectin, artefenomel, moxidectin, posaconazole, imidocarb, piperaquine, cepharantine, betulinic acid and atovaquone.

On July 9, Cameron et al. proposed a two-axis model to describe variability in decision-making among critical care physicians [74]. The authors emphasized the necessity for a better understanding of the root causes of physician-attributable differences in patient management in order to foster a better collaborative and educational environment to help critical care systems adapt to emerging ideas. The first axis of the model measured interventionism (early, aggressive treatment) versus minimalism (’wait and see’) preferences. The second axis measured individualism versus collectivism.

On July 12, a preprint by Neil et al. described a Bayesian meta-analysis of ivermectin’s effectiveness in COVID-19 [75].

On July 13, a news report in the Atlantic by Mazer discussed FDA’s recent approval of Alzheimer’s disease medicine aducanumab [76]. It said aducanumab was approved despite scant evidence of benefit, and against the nearly unanimous advice of the agency’s expert advisers, with ten members against approval and one being uncertain [77]. Aducanumab was priced at USD 56,000 a patient per year. The estimated cost of treating all patients with it was larger than NASA’s yearly budget. The article said that ‘the actions of drug regulators, like those of industrial polluters, are often freighted with unacknowledged externalities .. . the FDA specifically does not really worry about those larger societal issues and doesn’t really worry about cost. . . instead, the agency is judged by how many drugs it can approve’.

On July 14, an opinion by Flam said that high hopes for ivermectin owe more to politics than to science[78].

On July 14, Mathachan et al. reviewed current uses of ivermectin in dermatology, tropical medicine andCOVID-19 [79].

On July 15, an article by Ravikirti et al. describing a clinical trial in India on patients with mild to moderate disease (n=112) using 12 mg of ivermectin on two consecutive days did not produce statistically significant results [80].

On July 15, referring to a 2020 preprint by Elgazzar et al. [3], a news article by Davey in the Guardian said that a huge study supporting ivermectin as COVID-19 treatment had been withdrawn over ethical concerns [81]. The article described ivermectin being promoted by right wing figures, then interviewed a person described as a medical student, Jack Lawrence, who had analyzed the preprint and the associated dataset for an assignment as a part of his master’s degree. He had found that the introduction section appeared plagiarized, raw data apparently contradicted the study protocol on several occasions, there were errors in data formatting, and the dataset didn’t match the numbers in the preprint. He also described that ivermectin hype was ‘dominated by a mix of right-wing figures, anti-vaxxers and outright conspiracists’.

A data analyst Nick Brown had helped Lawrence to analyze the data. He said that the main error was that at least 79 of the patient records were obvious clones of other records. An epidemiologist, Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz, commented that the data appeared totally faked, and since the study had been included in most meta-analyses, if removed, the conclusions of these meta-analyses would have their conclusions entirely reversed. Yet another researcher said the data appeared fabricated. Lawrence concluded that ‘something is clearly broken in a system that can allow a study as full of problems as the Elgazzar paper to run unchallenged for seven months . . . thousands of highly educated scientists, doctors, pharmacists, and at least four major medicines regulators missed a fraud so apparent that it might as well have come with a flashing neon sign’.

On July 15, a post by Lawrence on an online disinformation website discussed retraction of the preprint by Elgazzar et al. [82]. Jack Lawrence introduced himself on his blog as a journalist and a disinformation researcher [83].

On July 15, a blog post by Brown analyzed details of the study by Elgazzar et al [84].

On July 15, a blog post by Meyerowitz-Katz pictured ivermectin for COVID-19 research as ‘potentially the most consequential medical fraud ever committed’ [85].

On July 15, the Covid Analysis group removed Elgazzar et al. from their meta-analysis. Since the study was a preprint, the analysis of 37 peer-reviewed studies (n=11,352) in the July 15 version 99 of 60 studies [86] remained unchanged, indicating 88% efficacy in prophylaxis (95 % CI 70%-95%), 74% efficacy in early treatment (95% CI 58%-84%) and 42% efficacy in late treatment (95% CI 19%-58%). Since Elgazzar etal. only concerned prophylaxis and late treatment, also the early treatment results remained unchanged, indicating 64% reduction in mortality (95% CI 15%-85%). In comparison to the previous, July 9 version 98 of 62 studies [87] (Elgazzar study included prophylaxis (n=200) and late treatment (n=400) parts), the new version indicated the same or slightly improved prophylaxis efficacy but slightly widened confidence intervals, with all studies indicating 85% (95% CI 75%-91%) vs 85% (95% CI 75%-92%) efficacy, and RCTs indicating83% (95% CI 39%-95%) vs 84% (95% CI 25%-96%) efficacy. For late treatment, the new version indicated lower efficacy, with all studies indicating 46% (95% CI 30%-59%) vs 43% (95% CI 26%-56%) efficacy, and RCTs indicating 40% (95% CI 11%-60%) vs 29% (95% CI 3%-48%) efficacy.

On July 16, FLCCC and BIRD gave a joint statement saying that there was no scientific basis to state that the removal of one study from meta-analyses would ‘reverse results’, yet the Guardian article had reported it as a fact [88]. They also said that according to the most recent analyses by BIRD, excluding the Elgazzar data from the meta-analyses by Bryant and Hill did not change the conclusions of these reviews, with the findings still clearly favoring ivermectin for both prevention and treatment. They added that even the prestigious Institute Pasteur in France had confirmed that the evidence was sound [89].

On July 16, Hill tweeted that ‘after removal of Elgazzar trial from ivermectin meta-analysis, borderline significant effects still seen for hospitalization and survival, but small number of endpoints. More evidence still needed from large ongoing randomized trials – must be continued’ [90].

On July 16, a news article said that a study that had ‘lit up the right-wing sphere of COVID deniers had been retracted over questionable methods’, adding that it was ‘just totally faked’ [91].

On July 16, a South African news article reviewed the retraction [92]. It also featured video interviews of patients, doctors and officials which concentrated on the black market of ivermectin in South Africa and the possible dangers of counterfeit medications.

On July 16, an opinion by Razak, the rector of International Islamic University of Malaysia, aimed at ‘setting the pace for a more courageous narrative’ about ivermectin’s possibilities in COVID-19 [93].

On July 17, the United Arab Emirates announced the treatment results for intravenously administered monoclonal antibody sotrovimab, produced by GlaxoSmithKline, in treating mild to moderate COVID-19cases among high-risk outpatients [94]. 6,175 patients were administered sotrovimab in Abu Dhabi between30 June and 13 July. Within 14 days, 97 percent of recipients achieved full recovery. There were zero deaths. 1 percent were admitted to ICU.

On July 17, a news report by Weisser described that early in the pandemic in Indonesia, an enterprising philanthropist Haryoseno made ivermectin available to the masses for free or at low cost, which resulted in Indonesia having an extremely low COVID-19 mortality rate. On June 12, 2021, however, in line withthe WHO recommendation, the ministry of health decided to disallow ivermectin and threatened Haryoseno with a fine and a ten-year jail sentence. Subsequently, the supply of ivermectin dried up and mortality increased five-fold [95]. About Australia, the report noted that clinician Mark Hobart had been reported to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) which had decided that there had been no infringement. Subsequently, federal health minister had written that off-label ivermectin prescribing was not regulated or controlled by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) but was at the discretion ofthe prescribing physician. The physicians had formed Covid Medical Network [96], the members of which predominantly followed a ‘triple-therapy protocol’ developed by Thomas Borody, consisting of ivermectin, zinc and doxycycline [97]. The report also said that although the research on ivermectin for COVID-19 had originated from Australia, the researchers had been starved of resources and the discovery ignored.

On July 20, BBC wrote about Indonesia, saying that local media reports had incorrectly stated that theIndonesian authorities had granted ivermectin emergency approval [98]. The reports had been based on a July 15 statement issued by the Food and Drugs Authority of Indonesia (BPOM) in which ivermectin had been listed together with other drugs, two of which had had emergency approval. Shortly afterwards the head of BPOM had told local media that no emergency approval had been given to ivermectin. It had been listed because it was undergoing clinical trials at eight hospitals, the results of which were not expected until October.

On July 20, Med Page Today wrote about retraction of the preprint by Elgazzar et al. [99].

On July 20, a Swedish medical newspaper published an opinion by three Swedish doctors suggesting that Sweden should follow the example of the Czech Republic, Slovakia and other countries which had adopted ivermectin [100].

On July 22, Los Angeles Times wrote that ‘ivermectin, another bogus treatment, becomes a darling ofconspiracy-mongers’ [101]. In addition to reviewing the main points behind the retraction of the Elgazzaret al. preprint the columnist delved into an analysis of ivermectin politics, saying it was rather different from hydroxychloroquine controversy, as ‘the political underpinning of the ivermectin craze involves a conspiracy-infused attack on the pharmaceutical and medical establishment. In this it resembles the antivaccine movement .. . like anti-vaxxers, ivermectin advocates claim that information about the drug is being “suppressed,” generally by agents of Big Pharma; the core idea is that because drug companies can’t make very much money out of a drug available in generic form, they prefer to foist vaccines, on which they canmake billions of dollars in profits, on the innocent public . . . let’s be clear: information about the drug isn’t being “suppressed” for political reasons. It’s being treated as what it is: dangerous misinformation’.

On July 23, an interview of science writer Matt Ridley in the Wall Street Journal said that science had lost the public’s trust and that the politicization of science had led to a loss of confidence in science as an institution, and whereas the distrust may have been justified it left a vacuum that was often filled by lessrigorous approaches to knowledge [102]. Ridley pointed to a distinction between ‘science as a philosophy’ and‘science as an institution’, with the former wanting to remain open-minded, and the latter wanting to present a unified and authoritative voice, fostering a naive belief in the supremacy of scientists in understanding the world, luring politicians to affiliate themselves with this alleged power. Regardless, scientists often deliberately published things that fit with their political prejudices, ignored things that didn’t, or presented models based on rather extreme assumptions. Pessimistic predictions often being more popular in the media introduced a bias. A third conceptualization of or a type of identification with the concept of science,‘science as a profession’, had become off-puttingly arrogant and political, permeated by motivated reasoning and confirmation bias, with increasing numbers of scientists falling prey to groupthink [103]. According to Ridley, the tendency of scientific establishment ‘to turn into a church, enforcing obedience to the latest dogma and expelling heretics and blasphemers’ had previously been kept in check by the fragmented natureof the scientific enterprise but social media was eliminating the space for heterodoxy, leaving those believingin science as a philosophy increasingly estranged from science as an institution.

On July 23, an article by Mansour et al. described a preclinical tolerance study on the safety of inhaled lyophilized ivermectin formulation indicating 127-fold increase in drug aqueous solubility but also safety issues [104].

On July 24, World Ivermectin Day was organized by the BIRD group, the FLCCC, TrialSite News and 15 other affiliates [105]. Panel discussions included Shabnam Palesa Mohamed in conversation with PinkyN.J. Ngcakani (South Africa) and Wahome Ngare (Kenya); Erin Stair in conversation with Hector Carvallo(Argentina), Lucy Kerr (Brazil) and Flavio Cadegiani (Brazil); Shabnam Palesa Mohamed in conversation with Pierre Kory (US), Ira Bernstein (Canada) and Sabine Hazan (United States); Vincent Rey Vicente(US) in conversation with Iggy Agbayani, Homer Lim and Allan Landrito (Philippines), and PriyamadhabaBahera, Binod Kumar Patro, Biswa Mohan Padhy and Rashmi Ranjan Mohanty (India); Daniel O’Connorin conversation with Juan Bertoglio (Chile) and Matjaˇz Zwitter (Slovenia); Daniel O’Connor in conversationwith Juan Chamie (US), Pierre Kory (US) and Nathi Mdladla (South Africa).

On July 25, a preprint by Ontai et al. described a nationwide implementation of multi-drug COVID-19inpatient and outpatient treatment protocol CATRACHO in Honduras since May 3, 2020 [106,107]. The inpatient protocol consisted of dexamethasone, colchicine, tocilizumab, ivermectin, zinc, azithromycin andheparin. There were two outpatient protocols, one consisting of mouthwash, azithromycin, ivermectin andzinc, and the other consisting of prednisone, colchicine and rivaroxaban. The results indicated a case fatalityrate (CFR) decrease from May 3,2020 baseline of 9.3% to 3.0%, or from June 10, 2020 baseline of 5.0% to3.0%. Mexico used as a control country failed to show a similar decline.

On July 27, upon receiving a Special Benevolence Award from Tan Sri Lee Kim Yew of Malaysia on World Ivermectin Day, Kory of the FLCCC gave a lecture outlining the history of ivermectin in COVID-19 [108,109].

He mentioned that the MATH+ protocol had been adopted as the standard protocol in Ukraine, and thatthe hospital mortality rate there was the lowest of the countries in the area.

On July 27, press releases by Cochrane Deutschland and the University of W¨urzburg stated that there was no evidence of ivermectin’s efficacy [110,111].

On July 27, the university hospital of St. Anny in Brno in the Czech Republic published a report about their ivermectin treatment, saying it had been well tolerated and likely had a positive effect on COVID19 [112]. Ivermectin had been available at hospitals and for outpatient treatment since late 2020. Head of internal cardioangiology clinic Michal Rezek described the results of their analysis of 150 patients with a mean age of 63 years (32-93 years, median 65 years) treated between December 2020 and January 2021 with two doses of 0.2 mg/kg of ivermectin. 117 patients had required oxygenation and corticosteroids, 42 had required high-flow oxygen, and 17 had received also remdesivir. 18 patients had needed mechanical ventilation, six of which had died. Hospital mortality had been 10%, with the average age of the deceased being 75 years. There had been no control group. The hospital intended to continue ivermectin treatment and was preparing a RCT in collaboration with Masaryk University and Czech Clinical Research InfrastructureNetwork (CZECRIN) [113]. Lack of COVID-19 patients was mentioned as a possible obstacle to the trial. Rezek said a combination antiviral therapy with ivermectin and remdesivir was likely more effective than single-agent therapies.

On July 28, a Cochrane review by Popp et al. concluded that its authors were uncertain about the efficacy and safety of ivermectin for treatment or prophylaxis of COVID-19 [114]. With regard to late treatment(inpatients), the authors were uncertain whether ivermectin compared to placebo or standard of care reduced or increased mortality (RR 0.60, 95% CI 0.14-2.51, 2 studies, n=185, very low certainty), mechanical ventilation (RR 0.55, 95% CI 0.11-2.59, 2 studies, 185 participants, very low certainty), need for supplemental oxygen (0 participants required supplemental oxygen, one study, 45 participants, very low certainty), adverse events within 28 days (RR 1.21, 95% CI 0.50-2.97, one study, 152 participants, very low certainty), or viral clearance at day seven (RR 1.82, 95% CI 0.51-6.48, 2 studies, 159 participants, very low certainty). With regard to outpatients, the authors were uncertain about mortality up to 28 days (RR 0.33, 95% CI 0.018.05, 2 studies, 422 participants, very low certainty), mechanical ventilation (RR 2.97, 95% CI 0.12-72.47,one study, 398 participants, very low certainty) and symptoms resolution up to 14 days (RR 1.04, 95% CI0.89-1.21, one study, 398 participants, low certainty). With regard to prophylaxis there was only one eligible study, with mortality up to 28 days being the only outcome eligible for primary analysis; the authors were uncertain whether ivermectin reduced or increased mortality compared to no treatment (zero participants died, one study, 304 participants, very low certainty). The Covid Analysis group criticized the meta-analysis for being ’a very biased meta analysis designed to exclude almost all studies’ [115].

On July 28, an opinion in the Wall Street Journal questioned FDA’s negative stance on ivermectin [116]. The next day the authors wrote that they had not been aware of the retraction of the Elgazzar et al. study, yet stated that ‘the broader point stands: there’s strong evidence of ivermectin’s efficacy in COVID-19’ [117].

On July 28, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Vir Biotechnology announced a joint procurement agreement with European Commission to supply up to 220,000 doses of sotrovimab [118], a contract worth USD 462 million at the wholesale price of USD 2,100 per dose. The agreement enabled participating European Union member states to quickly purchase sotrovimab, following local emergency authorization or authorization at the EUlevel, to treat high-risk patients with COVID-19 who might benefit from early treatment with sotrovimab.

On July 29, an article in Times of India explained a much higher rate of infections in the state of Kerala bylower COVID-19 seropositivity [119].

On July 30, a Czech Republic newspaper published a timeline of ivermectin-related events in the CzechRepublic [120].

On July 30, an article by Rella et al. suggested that in the current conditions the vaccines-only pandemic response may create vaccine-resistant strains [121,122].

On July 31, Kiekens interviewed George Fareed about outpatient treatment protocols for newly infected andfor long haul COVID-19 syndrome (LHCS) patients, implemented jointly with Brian Tyson on thousands of patients in the US [123]. For neurological LHCS symptoms in some instances, Fareed suggested a two to three-day high-dose ivermectin treatment as suggested by Alessandro Santin [124].

August 2021

On August 2, a news article from Israel reported on a clinical trial by Biber et al. (NCT04429711) [125], saying that ivermectin could help reduce the length of infection for less than a USD 1 per day, and that only 13%of ivermectin-treated patients were infectious after six days, compared with 50% of patients in the placebo group [126]. Schwartz, the leader of the trial, said that three journals had rejected the paper: ‘No one even wanted to hear about it. You have to ask how come when the world is suffering’.

On August 2, an open letter by Covid Medical Network stressed the importance of early treatment and noted that the federal health minister had acknowledged and even encouraged off-label prescribing of some treatments including ivermectin [127].

On August 2, an article by Reardon in Nature said that shocking revelations of widespread flaws in the data of a preprint study by Elgazzar et al. dampened ivermectin’s promise and highlighted the challenges of investigating drug efficacy during a pandemic [128]. Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz, an Australian epidemiologist,said he had lost all faith in the results of ivermectin trials published to date.

On August 2, an article by Sengthong et al. said that repeated ivermectin treatment induced ivermectin resistance in Strongyloides ratti infected rats [129].

On August 3, an article by Santin et al. reviewed the current status of ivermectin research, mentioning that the indicated biological mechanism of ivermectin, competitive binding with SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, was ikely non-epitope specific, possibly yielding full efficacy against emerging viral mutant strains [130].

On August 3, BBC wrote about the mystery of rising infections in India’s Kerala [131]. The southern Indian state of Kerala, with barely 3% of India’s population, accounted for more than half of the country’s new COVID-19 infections. Kerala was testing more than double the people per million compared to the rest of the country. Antibody tests survey revealed that only 43% people above the age of six in Kerala had been exposed to the infection, compared to 68% nationwide. Kerala had fully vaccinated more than 20% of its eligible population and 52% had received a single jab (70% of people over 45 years) which was much higher than the national average. BBC wrote that the state appeared to be testing widely, reporting cases honestly and vaccinating quickly, ensuring that future waves of infection would be less severe. Yet Kerala was said to be at an early stage in runaway exponential growth of cases. More forceful enforcement of rolling lockdowns was suggested as a solution.

On August 3, George Fareed discussed early treatments on Fox News television [132].

On August 5, an article by Behera et al. described a prospective cohort study (n=3,532) in India, indicatingthat two doses of oral ivermectin (0.3 mg/kg/dose given 72 hours apart) as chemoprophylaxis among healthcare workers reduced the risk of COVID-19 infection by 83% in the following month (6% vs 15%, adjustedrelative risk 0.17; 95% CI, 0.12-0.23) [133].

On August 5, a preprint by Rana et al. described an in silico study showing strong binding affinity ofivermectin and doxycycline for SARS-CoV-2 main protease 3CLpro, and increased binding affinity for thecombination of both [134,135].

On August 5, a Finnish technology magazine wrote about ivermectin, saying that according to FLCCC,there was already an effective medication for COVID-19 but it was rarely used [136]. A head of unit at theFinnish Medicines Agency (FIMEA) commented that doctors were allowed to prescribe it off-label, providedthat the patient was informed about it not being officially approved for COVID-19. The official commentedthat ‘in an international comparison the Finnish medical community is quite conservative about adoptingnew treatments without a sufficiently strong evidence base’. Also, a process to officially adopt ivermectin forCOVID-19 could only be initiated by a producer of ivermectin or the European Medicine Agency (EMA).

On August 6, an article by Kow et al. reviewed sample size calculations in ivermectin trials, indicating thatexisting trials had been very underpowered [137].

On August 6, US National Institutes of Health (NIH) Collaboratory published a video interview of EdwardJ. Mills, the head researcher of Together adaptive platform trial [138]. Mills discussed interim results of their outpatient trial which included fluvoxamine and ivermectin (0.4 mg/kg for three days). For ivermectin,the risk reduction for extended emergency room observation or hospitalization was 9% (86/677 vs 95/678,RR 0.91, 95% CI 0.69-1.19) and for mortality 18% (RR 0.82, 95% CI 0.44-1.52); these were not statistically significant. Mills commented that ivermectin had had ’no effect whatsoever’ on their primary and secondary endpoints. For fluvoxamine, the risk reduction for extended emergency room observation or hospitalization was 31% (74/742 vs 107/738, RR 0.69, 95% CI 0.52-0.91) and for mortality 29% (17/742 vs 24/738, RR0.71, 95% CI 0.39-1.29); the first endpoint was statistically significant while the second was not. The trial was done at ten locations in Minas Gerais, Brazil. It was unclear whether over-the-counter ivermectin usehad been an exclusion criteria. At the time the gamma variant was prevalent and assumed to cause higher viral loads and a more severe disease than most other variants. The Covid Analysis group criticized various aspects of the trial [139].

On August 6, a report on SARS-CoV-2 variants by Public Health England indicated that concerning deathswithin 28 days of positive specimen date between February 1 and August 2 there had been 71 deaths in people under 50 years and 670 in people over 50 years [140]. In the first group, 18% had been vaccinatedtwice and 68% were unvaccinated. In the second group, 58% had been vaccinated twice and 31% were unvaccinated.

On August 6, a podcast by Nature discussed ivermectin [141].

On August 9, a commentary by US medical doctor using a pseudonym Justus R. Hope described a ‘blackouton any conversation about how ivermectin beat COVID-19 in India’ [142,143]. It claimed that the US newsmedia were trying to confuse the public with false information by saying the deaths in India were ten times greater than official reports. Using August 5 numbers as examples the author said that in ivermectin-using states of India such as Uttar Pradesh with a population 240 million of which 4.9% were fully vaccinated there were 26 daily cases and three deaths, in Delhi with a population of 31 million of which 15% were fully vaccinated there were 61 daily cases and two deaths, in Uttarakhand with a population of 11.4 million of which 15% were fully vaccinated there were 24 daily cases with zero deaths. In states not using ivermectin such as Tamil Nadu with a population of 78.8 million of which 6.9% were fully vaccinated there were 1,997daily cases with 33 deaths. In the US with a population of 331 million of which 50.5% were fully vaccinated there were 127,108 daily cases with 574 deaths. He compared FDA’s and WHO’s ban on ivermectin to Pope’sban on all books and letters that argued the Sun was the center of the universe instead of Earth, adding that the US government was ‘all-in with vaccines with the enthusiasm of a 17th century Catholic church’.

On August 10, a news story by Yahoo! Japan reported that a Japanese clinician Kazuhiro Nagao, appearingon the Fuji TV television program, had suggested that ivermectin should be distributed to all Japanese nationals in advance to be taken after COVID-19 infection, and that COVID-19 should be in the same administrative category as seasonal influenza in order to avoid delays and make early treatment possible [144].

On August 10, a news report from La Pampa province of Argentina described minister of health MarioRub´en Kohan releasing the latest results of the implementation of a monitored intervention program on the use of 0.6 mg/kg of ivermectin for five days in 3,269 treated patients versus 18,149 untreated patients[145,146]. The risk of death was 27.4% lower (RR 0.73) and the risk of death or ICU admission was 38.0%lower (RR 0.62). For people over 40 years of age the risk of death was 33.4% lower (RR 0.67). For people over 40 years of age and with comorbidities the risk of death was 44.0% lower (RR 0.56).

On August 11, Los Angeles Times wrote about ivermectin having ‘no effect whatsoever’ in the Togethertrial [147]. The head researcher Mills said that ‘in our specific trial we do not see the treatment benefit that a lot of the advocates believe should have been seen’. He complained that many researchers had faced unprecedented abuse from advocates of specific treatments.

On August 11, an article by Cobos-Campos et al. reviewed ivermectin for COVID-19 [148].

On August 12, vaccine expert Geert Vanden Bossche, who on May 24, 2021 had proposed mass chemoprophylaxis with ivermectin [149], demanded stopping of COVID-19 mass vaccination [150]. A rationale for the demand was the increased infectiousness of new variants already noted with respect to the alpha and delta variants, both more infective than the original variant, and the delta variant being significantly more infective than the alpha variant. Bossche expected this trajectory to continue, possibly resulting in an uncontrollable situation. In Bossche’s view, the increased infectivity had resulted from a natural selection of increasingly vaccine immunity escaping variants in the vaccinated part of the population. In other words, mass vacci11nation had created an evolutionary pressure for development of these variants which were then transferred to the non-vaccinated population. In addition, vaccine-induced antibodies possibly competed with natural antibody based, variant-nonspecific immunity, possibly rendering the population more vulnerable to some vaccine immunity escaping variants. The issue was also taken up by other researchers [151].

On August 12, a preprint by Elavarasi et al. described a retrospective study about hospitalized patients in India which did not show a statistically significant result [152].

On August 12, an article by Pedroso et al. described that self-prescribed use of early ivermectin treatment by 45 healthcare workers in Brazil was associated with a lower rate of seroconversion in a dose-dependentresponse [153].

On August 13, an article by Zhou et al. suggested that ivermectin might be a new potential anticancer drug therapy for human colorectal cancer and other cancers [154].

On August 13, on NIH Collaboratory, Smith discussed the history of proposed therapies for COVID-19 andthe adaptive platform trial ACTIV-2 [155].

On August 14, a Japanese clinician Kazuhiro Nagao wrote in a blog post that he had been harassed and had received death threats after appearing on TV and telling about treating 500 COVID-19 patients with ivermectin with no deaths [156,157].

On August 14, Kiekens interviewed an Italian physician Andrea Stramezzi about his early treatment protocol and his telehealth treatment method [158]. He was using hydroxychloroquine as a part of the outpatient protocol due to its easy availability. According to Stramezzi, it was useful in the first few days. Initially in the pandemic it had been provisionally recommended [159], then banned [160]. Stramezzi had initiated a legal proceeding about the ban, initially winning the case but subsequently losing an appeal. Regardless,the judge had decreed that physicians were free to prescribe medications off-label at their discretion. In addition, the protocol had included anti-inflammatories such as aspirin, and bromhexine. Also vitamins C and D were used, although Stramezzi did not consider high levels of vitamin D sufficient to prevent COVID19. Additionally, vitamin K was administered separately from vitamin D due to their antagonism. A later addition, ivermectin, useful also in later stages to reduce replication of the virus, needed to be imported from the neighboring countries. Stramezzi said that about 10% of Italians had a genetic vulnerability toSARS-CoV-2 induced hyperinflammation. For this group, prevention with corticosteroids and enoxaparin was necessary. He said that there were approximately 1,500 physicians in Italy working with the similar protocols, exchanging information with each other. The public’s awareness of early treatments in Italy was still low because health authorities did not recommend it or talk about it, instead just recommendingparacetamol and waiting for severe pneumonia to emerge before contacting healthcare facilities. Stramezzisaid they had met Sileri, a physician/researcher and deputy minister of health (M5s) [161,162], for an hour.

Sileri had said he was aware of the therapeutical options, had treated a hundred patients himself, and hadco-authored an article about the genetic defect [163]. Also, the parliament of Italy had voted in favor ofearly treatments [164]. Regardless, after several months nothing had happened with regard to adoption of these treatments. Stramezzi was developing a free mobile phone app for doctors who had too many patients or who were unsure of how to treat COVID-19: the app would give suggestions for a suitable treatment protocol.

On August 16, a letter to the editor by Chahla et al. in the American Journal of Therapeutics described a randomized controlled trial (n=234) in Argentina with ivermectin and iota-carrageenan as pre-exposureprophylaxis for health care workers (NCT04701710) [165,166,167]. The treated group (n=117) received 6mg ivermectin every seven days, and six nasal sprays of iota-carrageenan per day for 4 weeks. The risk ofCOVID-19 infection was 84.0% lower (3.4% vs 21.4%, RR 0.16, p=0.001), and the risk of moderate or severe disease was 95.2% lower (0.0% vs 8.5%, RR 0.05, p=0.002). The authors hypothesized that the combination treatment formed a double viral barrier: first, carrageenan behaved as a mucolytic agent in a barrier of sulfated polysaccharides with negative charge in the nasal cavity; second, ivermectin decreased viral load by systemic cellular action.

On August 16, an article by Winter examined the ongoing discussion about ivermectin [168].

On August 17, an article by Gonz´alez-Paz et al. described an in-silico elastic network model analysis of ivermectin components (avermectin-B1a and avermectin-B1b) providing a biophysical and computational perspective of proposed multi-target activity of ivermectin for COVID-19 [169,170].

On August 17, Associated Press reported that ’dozens of people in Oregon have contacted the state’s poisoncenter after self-medicating against COVID-19 with a drug used to treat parasites, with five becoming hospitalized and two of them winding up in intensive care units’ [171].

On August 18, Los Angeles Times wrote that fluvoxamine may actually work against COVID-19 [172].

On August 19, an article by Gonz´alez-Paz et al. described an in silico analysis of the components of ivermectin (avermectin-B1a and avermectin-B1b), suggesting different and complementary inhibitory activity of each component, with an affinity of avermectin-B1b for viral structures, and of avermectin-B1a for host structures [173,174].

On August 20, an article by Amaya-Aponte reviewed ivermectin in COVID-19 [175].

On August 20, the investigational monoclonal antibody sotrovimab was granted a provisional approval forthe treatment of COVID-19 in Australia [176].

On August 20, a letter by Popp et al. in the BMJ said that the different assessments between Popp et al’sCochrane meta-analysis and the one by Bryant et al. were partly due to baseline data of included studies:Bryant et al. pooled heterogeneous patient populations, interventions, comparators and outcomes whereasPopp et al. did not; thus, according to Popp et al., Bryant et al. compared apples and oranges, ‘serving a large bowl of a colorful fruit salad’ [177]. The authors accused Bryant et al. of ‘creating pseudotrustworthiness for substances that cannot be considered effective and safe treatment options nor game changers, at this stage’.

On August 21, an article by Karvanen et al. described a new algorithm for causal effect identification: do search based on do-calculus [178]. The algorithm might allow for improving clinical trial result analysis [179,180,181].

On August 21, due to overlap and confusion with the I-MATH+ prophylaxis and early outpatient treatment protocol, the FLCCC discontinued its I-MASS mass prophylaxis and home treatment protocol introduced a few months earlier [182].

On August 21, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) tweeted about ivermectin, stating that ‘You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y’all. Stop it.’ [183]. The tweet linked to FDA’s March 2021advisory against ivermectin [184].

On August 21, a Slovenian newspaper reviewed ivermectin, mentioning two previous articles published in the same newspaper written by a Slovenian ivermectin proponent Matjaˇz Zwitter [185,186].

On August 21, a blog post by Meyerowitz-Katz discussed a study by Cadegiani et al. [69], claiming that thedata in a spreadsheet uploaded by the authors didn’t look real: ’data for this study may not be fake, but it is at least incredibly suspicious’ [187,188].

On August 21, a preprint by Izcovich et al. presented a systematic review about bias as a source of inconsistency in ivermectin trials [189]. Based on a review of 29 RCTs with 5,592 cases the authors concluded that previous reports about ivermectin’s benefits were based on potentially biased results, and further research was needed.

On August 22, an Indian geriatrician, preventive cardiologist and anti-aging specialist Lenny Da Costa described ivermectin use in India [190,191]. According to Costa, beginning from March 2020, India distributed an outpatient home treatment kit containing hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, doxycycline, ivermectin and vitamin C. In March 2021, ignoring evidence from India, WHO stated that ivermectin should not be used.

The statement was given by an Indian epidemiologist, WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan. A group of Indian physicians filed a legal case against her. To protect Swaminathan, Indian central government removedivermectin from official recommendations. However, state governments were responsible for guidelines for medical care in the states, not the central government; most states continued the use of ivermectin. Costasaid that no-one had stopped using ivermectin but they did not advertise the fact. According to Costa,during the deadly second wave in April-May 2021, India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, reduced the number of daily cases from 60,000 to 15,000 in a month by distributing ivermectin for everyone for free. Clinicians did not wait for RT-PCR test results; instead, medication was started immediately on the presentation of symptoms. Prescriptions were given for free by telemedicine (WhatsApp). Ivermectin prevented people from infecting others, especially family members. Also, numerous physicians had been using ivermectin since March 2020 for prophylaxis, with none of them getting infected. On June 29, 2021, the government of Uttar Pradesh announced a home treatment kit for children, containing paracetamol, multivitamins and ivermectin. Costa claimed that India’s success in controlling the second wave was primarily due to an early administration of ivermectin, doxycycline, zinc and other medications used for early treatment.

On August 23, a medical doctor writing under a pseudonym Justus R. Hope continued on India’s ‘ivermectin blackout’ [192,193]. On August 15, Kerala, a state reportedly not using ivermectin, with a population of approximately 3% of India’s population, had accounted for 56% of India’s new cases and 25% of India’s new deaths. Delhi, a state with nearly the same population size as Kerala but using ivermectin, accounted for 0.2% of new cases and 0% of deaths. Uttar Pradesh, with a population almost eight times larger than

Kerala, accounted for 0.09% of new cases and 0.2% of deaths. Hope wrote that Kerala ranked in the top five most vaccinated of India’s 29 states, adding that Kerala’s failure in comparison to most other states of India could be explained by the facts that Kerala had not used ivermectin for early treatment whereas most other states had, and that ivermectin lowered the viral load and inhibited transmission whereas vaccination did not, giving a false sense of security. Those with prior infection, negative test result, or at least one vaccine dose (56% of adults) had been exempted from lockdown [194]. Hope called Kerala’s comparatively highvaccination rate its most problematic feature leading to rampant viral transmission. Kerala had adopted ivermectin in April but restricted its use to severe cases with additional risk factors. On August 5, Kerala had removed ivermectin from state guidelines completely. In contrast, Uttar Pradesh had been the first stateto introduce large-scale prophylactic and therapeutic use of ivermectin. The state had treated all contacts of an infected patient prophylactically with ivermectin. The lesson, Hope said, was that ivermectin could make up for the low use of vaccination but vaccination could not make up for the low use of ivermectin.

On August 23, ABC News report written by a medical toxicology fellow and an emergency medicine physician in New York stated that health officials had said that a potentially dangerous, unproven deworming drugs hould not be used to treat COVID-19 [195]. The report blamed social media for informing people about the medication ‘not authorized by independent regulators at the FDA’ (see e.g. [196]). Not a single trial to prove ivermectin’s usefulness existed and an interviewee advised that people ‘don’t have to go with something that doesn’t have a scientific basis’.

On August 23, CBS News reported that officials had warned against using anti-parasite drug for COVID19 [197].

On August 24, Mother Jones magazine interviewed Boulware, an ivermectin researcher, involved in a University of Minnesota trial (NCT04510194) [198,199]. Boulware had received hostile messages calling him ’are embodied Josef Mengele’ from people believing that ivermectin was a miracle cure and placebo-controlled trials were therefore unethical. Another researcher at Washington University in St. Louis commented on the polarization, saying that if she tweeted something about vaccines as positive, she was being attacked by people pro early treatment, and if she tweeted about potential treatments, she provoked the ire of vaccine advocates who ‘kind of seem to suppress any information about early treatment, maybe because they feel like it’s going to make people think they don’t need to be vaccinated’. The article also described Steve Kirsch’s frustration with the government’s unwillingness to recommend treatments on the basis of small trials with encouraging results. Researchers also worried that the recent reports of ivermectin self-dosing could scare people off of enrolling in any kind of treatment trials in the future.

On August 25, an article by Mohan et al. described a trial (RIVET-COV, n=157) investigating the effect of single-dose oral ivermectin (12 or 24 mg) in mild and moderate COVID-19 which indicated no statistically significant effects on viral load or RT-PCR negativity [200].

On August 25, on the social media platform Reddit, subreddit r/ivermectin which had been a public, uncensored discussion forum initiated a year before for discussions related to ivermectin research and treatments,was flooded with tens of horse-themed pornographic cartoon images, in reference to ivermectin as ‘horse paste’, as well as hundreds of sexual, offensive or irrelevant comments. The moderator said the attack had been coordinated by a group of moderators of other, large subreddits, yet refused to remove the irrelevant content, referring to his disbelief in censorship [201].

On August 25, in a FLCCC weekly update, endocrinologist and researcher Fl´avio Cadegiani described his experience in the state of Amazonas in Brazil during a gamma variant outbreak in 2021 (the gamma variantwas considered to cause a more severe disease than the delta variant) [202]. The research group had visitedvarious cities with hospitals overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients. However, in the city of Coari located afew hundred kilometers west from Manaus there had been no hospitalized COVID-19 patients at all. At first Cadegiani had been unable to get an explanation to the situation but later, in private, a health official had revealed that the city had been providing ivermectin for its whole population for two months already. As to the question why the explanation had not been given immediately the official replied that she had been afraid of being accused of giving unapproved treatments. Cadegiani said the experience had been shocking.

He added that secondary endpoints in single-agent trials were important indicators of possible efficacy as a component in a multi-agent treatment protocol.

On August 25, in the FLCCC weekly update, Kory and Marik discussed the addition of dual anti-androgentherapy (dutasteride 2 mg on day one followed by 1 mg daily for ten days [203], and spironolactone 100 mg twice daily for ten days [204]) to their delta variant early treatment protocol which at the time included twelve components [202]. They stated the addition provided ‘massive improvements’.

On August 26, Krolewiecki et al. published additional details about their trial on the antiviral effect of high-dose ivermectin in COVID-19 [205].

On August 26, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that ivermectin prescriptionsfrom US pharmacies had increased 24-fold from the pre-pandemic baseline [206]. Ivermectin-related calls to poison control centers had increased five-fold, respectively. The report gave two examples of adverse effects:one patient becoming disoriented after taking tablets of unknown strength (5 tablets per day for five days),and another patient presenting with confusion, drowsiness, visual hallucinations, tachypnea and tremors after drinking an injectable form of veterinary ivermectin.

On August 26, Newsweek interviewed Joe Varon of the FLCCC saying that since a year ago he had treated thousands of COVID-19 patients in the US with off-label ivermectin in combination with other pharmaceuticals in the FLCCC treatment protocols [207]. During the pandemic Varon had been widely featured in the US media but the reporters had chosen to not mention ivermectin.

On August 26, a news story in Vice magazine complained that Facebook did not properly censor ivermectin content and Facebook’s ivermectin groups were ‘unhinged and out of control’ [208,209].

On August 28, Newsweek reported about a far-right political commentator’s use of ivermectin for his COVID19 infection [210].

On August 28, Newsweek reported that a Republican representative from Texas had appeared to speak in support of unproven treatments for COVID-19, including ivermectin, a drug often used as a dewormer for cows and horses [211]. The representative was also said to have praised president Trump and have raised concerns about vaccines.

On August 29, Anthony Fauci warned against using ivermectin for COVID-19 [212].

On August 29, Cohen wrote in Forbes that ivermectin had become embedded in a ‘cultural war’, commenting that ‘of all drugs right-wingers would have gravitated to, ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine are most unusual candidates, in that they’re largely used in humans in developing nations for conditions rarely seen in the US’ [213]. Ivermectin for COVID-19 was pictured as unproven misinformation harming public health, and the politicization of the issue had been to the detriment of efforts to contain the pandemic, taking attention away from clinically confirmed instruments such as vaccines. The author worried that there were a surprising number of people in the medical profession who believed in ivermectin, such as the physician advisor to Florida’s governor. Cohen said that ‘these contrarians are not waiting for the completion of confirmatory studies to disseminate their advice to the gullible minions to take ivermectin off-label, even if doing so may endanger lives’.

On August 30, Newsweek reported that an US hospital had refused to administer FLCCC member FredWagshul’s prescription for a patient, after which a judge had ordered the hospital to administer it [214]. The next day, a regional US newspaper interviewed Wagshul who attributed the lack of adoption of ivermectinto ‘propaganda, money and big pharma’ [215].

On August 30, a report by German news agency said that ivermectin trials have been of a low quality and that Cochrane Deutschland and the University of W¨urzburg considered ivermectin inefficacious [216].

On August 30, a video interview of Fernando Valerio describes Honduras’ treatment protocols in detail [217].

On August 31, a preprint by Omrani et al. presented a systematic review and meta-analysis of effectiveness of ivermectin/doxycycline combination, concluding that based on low-quality evidence, the combination was accompanied with a shorter time of clinical recovery but did not significantly reduce all-cause mortality, viral clearance, and hospital stay [218].

On August 31, Pfeiffer described patients’ experiences in US hospitals [219].

On August 31, Kory of the FLCCC accused the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) of being the main agent in the ‘war against ivermectin’ due to not having given a recommendation for ivermectin [220]. Healso stated the FDA was only ‘running interference for [NIH] by telling jokes and lies’.

On August 31, a Swedish newspaper G¨oteborgs-Posten wrote about veterinary ivermectin use in the US [221].

On August 31, a preprint describing a randomized controlled trial of community-level surgical mask promotion in rural Bangladesh with 111,525 individuals in the intervention arm and 155,268 individuals in the control arm indicated 14% relative reduction in COVID-19-like symptoms, with absolute reductions of 7.5%vs 8.6%. Divided by age groups, differences were not statistically significant in people under 50. In people between 50-60 years there was a reduction of 23%, and in people over 60 a reduction of 35%, respectively.

The impact of the intervention faded after five months [222].

September 2021

On September 1, ABC News wrote that due to lack of evidence and increase in reports related to ivermectin toxicity, the American Medical Association, American Pharmacists Association and American Society of Health-System Pharmacists had called for an ‘immediate end’ to prescribing, dispensing or using the deworming drug ivermectin to treat or prevent COVID-19 [223].

On September 1, Washington Post wrote that people using ivermectin for prophylaxis had been shocked about having ended up being hospitalized for COVID-19 [224]. The story mentioned the rise in prescriptions and FDA’s tweet and warned about overdoses. Numerous interviewees advised against ivermectin, with the most critical comparing it to ‘snake oil’. Overall, a part of the population preferring ivermectin and vitamin cocktails over vaccines was seen to indicate ‘a broader problem: a public health crisis made worse by many people’s distrust of medical authorities while they rely on often faulty information from some ofthe country’s most influential people, which is amplified through social media’. Ivermectin was said to have gained particular traction in conservative circles. Wagshul of the FLCCC was quoted saying that ivermectin was more effective than vaccines against variants given waning immunity. A researcher working on an ongoingclinical trial on ivermectin in the US ([225,226]) commented that ‘there’s either people that believe it totally is a cure-all and works or that it is highly dangerous . . . and the reality is, neither extreme is true’.

On September 1, a letter by Keehner et al. in the New England Journal of Medicine reported about a dramatic decline in vaccine effectiveness from June to July in a highly vaccinated health system workforce in California, likely due to the emergence of the delta variant, waning of immunity over time, and the end of masking requirements in California [227].

On September 1, KFOR News published a news story in which a rural Oklahoma doctor, Jason McElyea,claimed that local emergency rooms were so backed up with patients having overdosed ivermectin that gunshot victims had hard time getting to the facilities [228]. In addition, ivermectin overdose patients were completely clogging ambulance services: McElyea was quoted saying that ‘all of their ambulances are stuck at the hospital waiting for a bed to open so they can take the patient in and they don’t have any, that’s it. . . if there’s no ambulance to take the call, there’s no ambulance to come to the call’.

On September 1, 2021 the subreddit r/ivermectin was ‘quarantined’ by the Reddit platform but that did notstop the flood of offensive posts. Alternative forums were created but they seemed to fail to capture largeaudiences (e.g. [229]). Another subreddit, r/IVMScience appeared to have stalled after August 23, 2021,with the moderator’s account deleted.

On September 1, podcaster Joe Rogan, with 11.1 million followers on YouTube, 13.2 million followers on Instagram and a USD 100 million contract to publish his podcast exclusively on Spotify, revealed on Instagram that he had got COVID-19 and had been treated with monoclonal antibodies, ivermectin, azithromycin, prednisone, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide drip and a vitamin drip for three days in a row [230]. Rogan’s statement was widely taken up by news media [231,232,233]. On July 1, 2021, in the context of an unrelated controversy, a journalist at the New York Times had called Rogan ‘too big to cancel . . . one of the most consumed media products on the planet – with the power to shape tastes, politics, medical decisions’ [234].

On September 1, a letter to the editor by Bryant et al. commented on the recent report in the Guardian [81]discussing the effect of the removal of the Elgazzar et al. trial on the meta-analysis by Bryant at al. [4].

The authors stated that ‘while quantitative measures of effect do of course change on removal of any study,the overall findings of a significant mortality advantage in ivermectin treatment, and in prophylaxis, remain robust to removal of the disputed data. The claim that conclusions are “entirely reversed” cannot be sustained on the evidence’ [235].

On September 1, Due˜nas-Gonz´alez et al. discussed repurposing of ivermectin as a novel anticancer [236].

On September 2, Newsweek published a version of McElyea’s story, saying people taking the horse de-wormer medication were filling up the area’s emergency rooms [237]. The report mentioned FDA’s ‘stern warnings’against ivermectin, the unavailability of ambulances, and gunshot victims’ difficulties.

On September 2, Rolling Stone wrote about how Joe Rogan ‘became a cheerleader for ivermectin . . . no one has been more successful at promoting ivermectin than Rogan’ [238].

On September 2, a major Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat republished a news article written by Finnish News Agency (STT) about an US podcast host Joe Rogan treating his COVID-19 infection with a ‘dewormer intended for horses’ warned against by ‘medical officials’ [239]. The article described that after his diagnosis Rogan begun taking ‘all kinds of potions’ including ivermectin, which, according to Washington Post and the Guardian, was used as a dewormer for horses. However, ‘some representatives of conservative media’had ‘advertised the controversial dewormer’. In addition to mentioning the negative stance of the European

Medicine Agency (EMA), the article also cited FDA’s tweet saying: ‘You are not a horse. You are not a cow.

Seriously, y’all. Stop it’. According to the article, calls about ivermectin exposure to poison control centers in the US jumped to five times over normal levels in July 2021. Rogan was also described having spread ‘lies’about COVID-19 and being against vaccines. The leading infectious diseases expert Anthony Fauci was said to have criticized Rogan’s earlier statements. Up to the 1990s, STT, founded in 1887, was often consideredt he ‘official’ national news source. Helsingin Sanomat, the most widely distributed newspaper in Finland,essentially holds a monopoly in the metropolitan area. The article was also republished by the most widely distributed yellow press media Ilta-Sanomat belonging to the same concern as Helsingin Sanomat [240]. In addition, the story was posted in some regional newspapers [241], essentially reaching the whole population of the country.

On September 2, a competing Finnish yellow press newspaper wrote about Rogan’s use of dewormer, saying that it had no proven efficacy and it could be dangerous, even deadly [242]. Rogan was said to regularly ‘flirt with misinformation’. The article also described FDA warnings and retraction of the Elgazzar et al. trial.

On September 2, citing insufficient evidence of efficacy, leading health experts in Sri Lanka urged people to stop using ivermectin for COVID-19; however, a local trial was ongoing [243].

On September 2, Marik and Kory published a reanalysis of the data of their earlier meta-analysis [6],saying that the summary point estimates were largely unaffected when the study by Elgazzar et al. was removed [244].

On September 2, a letter to the editor by Neil et al. said that their Bayesian analysis provided sufficientconfidence that ivermectin was an effective treatment for COVID-19, also after the exclusion of Elgazzar et al. study [245].

On September 2, a Cochrane review concluded that the authors were uncertain whether the investigational monoclonal antibody sotrovimab had an effect on mortality (RR 0.33, 95% CI 0.01-8.18) and invasive mechanical ventilation requirement or death (RR 0.14, 95% CI 0.01-2.76). Treatment with sotrovimab was said to possibly reduce the need for oxygenation (RR 0.11, 95 % CI 0.02-0.45), hospital admission or death by day 30 (RR 0.14, 95% CI 0.04-0.48) [246].

On September 2, an article by Alves et al. in the BMJ about poorly designed studies contributing to misinformation in Brazil said that ’much like a poorly written sequel to a blockbuster, the ivermectin narrative appears to be a subsidiary of the rationale that gave the world the HCQ pseudo-solution to COVID-19: cheap, readily available answer to the biggest sanitary crisis of our time’ [247]. The authors argued that public communication of science (i.e. news reporting) should be evidence based: any interaction between scientists and press should aim at summarizing and contextualizing the most important findings of an article for the general public, preserving context and limitations of the research, promoting transparency,integrity and scientific literacy. Also, research findings should be published without delay and include full datasets. Otherwise, the authors said, public communication may be only fueling polarization and an eventual implementation of harmful, inefficient or wasteful public health policies.

On September 2, an article by Chaudhry et al. presented a systematic review about the role of ivermectin in hospitalized patients [248].

On September 2, a report in BuzzFeed news questioned the validity of two prophylaxis trials by Carvallo etal. in Argentina [249]. The report claimed that the reported numbers, genders and ages of trial participants had slight inconsistencies. Carvallo was said to have declined to share the raw data even to his coauthors, the timeline and ethical approvals of the trials were unclear, as well as who had performed the statistical analyses.

It was also unclear which hospitals had been involved and in which ways. Carvallo denied accusations of fraud.

On September 3, an article by Okogbenin et al. described a retrospective study in Nigeria, with 300 patients treated with ivermectin, zinc, vitamin C and azithromycin, reporting zero mortality [250].

On September 3, a rapid response by Bryant et al. to Popp et al. [177] stated that their Bryant et al. metaanalysis was a non-commissioned research paper that strictly followed PRISMA systematic review guidelines,and that Popp et al. itself contained several misleading items, including using death instead of infection for the prophylaxis outcome, specifying outcome measures not found in the included trials but ignoring the outcome measures found in the trials, subsequently stating that they found ‘no data’ [251]. The authors concluded that in a pandemic context, the benefits of ivermectin almost certainly outweighed any risks.

On September 3, a blog post by Meyerowitz-Katz discussed the study by Carvallo et al. [252], pointing outissues that indicated possible fraud, yet noted that the study was not a randomized controlled trial and thus

not included in most meta-analyses or given the same credence, and it did not change recommendations forofficial medical organizations. However, Meyerowitz-Katz added, ’it perhaps had an even bigger impact onpeople actually taking ivermectin than previously fraudulent research. This paper showed a 100% benefit,it was enormously popular on social media, and it was given a huge amount of credence by promoters ofivermectin for nearly a year. It is not a stretch to say that this one study has perhaps caused hundreds ofthousands or even millions of people to take ivermectin as a prophylactic drug to prevent COVID-19’ [253].

On September 3, South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) repeated its warnings against the use of ivermectin, saying its stance was aligned to that of US FDA [254].

On September 3, Yahoo News published a version of McElyea’s story, mentioning that he was an emergency room physician affiliated with multiple hospitals in Sallisaw, Oklahoma, and that the situation was so dire that even people with gunshot wounds have to wait their turn to get treatment [255]. McElyea added that people were suffering real ramifications from taking a dosage meant for a full-sized horse, including ‘scary’instances of vision loss, nausea, and vomiting.

On September 3, Rolling Stone magazine published a version of McElyea’s story [256].

On September 4, the Guardian published a version of McElyea’s story [257].

On September 4, BBC published a version of McElyea’s story [258].

On September 4, the administration of Northeastern Health Systems (NHS) Sequoyah posted a statement saying that although McElyea was not an employee of NHS Sequoyah, he was affiliated with a medical staffing group that provided coverage for the emergency room at Sallisaw but he had not worked there in over two months [259,260]. The administration clarified that NHS Sequoyah had not treated any patients due to complications related to taking ivermectin, including not treating any patients for ivermectin overdose. They added that all patients who had visited the emergency room had received medical attention as appropriate,and the hospital had not needed to turn away any patients seeking emergency care.

On September 4, KXMX interviewed a hospital administrator of NHS Sequoyah who stated that the hospital being overloaded by ivermectin patients was ‘simply not the case in Sallisaw .. . we have not seen or had anypatients in our ER or hospital with ivermectin overdose . . . we have not had any patients with complaints or issues related to ivermectin . . . we are not overrun with patients with ivermectin related issues’ [261].

The administrator added that McElyea had treated patients in the Sallisaw emergency room but not in the past several months, and added that she wanted the public to know that McElyea did not speak for NHSSequoyah.

On September 4, NPR wrote that poison control centers are fielding a surge of ivermectin overdose calls [262,263].

On September 4, Reuters published a fact-check article saying that ‘outrage has spread online that Afghan refugees entering the United States will receive the drug ivermectin although it does not have U.S. approval as a COVID-19 treatment. However, the posts miss the vital context that refugees are given ivermectin for infections unrelated to the novel coronavirus . . . ivermectin is administered as a presumptive treatment forintestinal parasite’ [264]. The ‘outrage’ was said to have been caused by ivermectin being administered to refugees but being largely unavailable for US citizens willing to use it for COVID-19.

On September 4, an article by Associated Press published in Indian Express said that efforts to stamp out use of parasite drug ivermectin for COVID-19 in US were growing [265]. It said that ivermectin was being‘promoted by Republican lawmakers, conservative talk show hosts and some doctors, amplified via social media to millions of Americans who remain resistant to getting vaccinated’, with the American Medical Association, two US pharmacist groups, FDA, CDC and WHO advising against it.

On September 5, the Guardian added an amendment to the end of their article, quoting parts of the statementby NHS Sequoyah, saying that the hospital had not treated any patients related to taking ivermectin,including overdose [266].

On September 5, a ‘fact check’ by Shore News Network called the McElyea story ‘completely false’, mentioning that the publishers had not issued retractions, saying that ‘the left continues to push a media narrativethat conservatives and Republicans are creating an ivermectin health crisis’ [267].

On September 6, a preprint by Buonfrate et al. described randomized controlled trial in Italy with results indicating statistically insignificant dose dependent viral load reduction (NCT04438850) [268]. The authors said that ivermectin remained safe with dosing regimes of 0.6 mg/kg and 1.2 mg/kg for five days. The study was terminated early due to lack of eligible patients.

On September 6, a blog post by an US doctor working on new models for mental health care called theMcElyea story ‘too good to check’, saying that ’the media has tried to spread the word that the scientific consensus [about ivermectin for COVID-19] remains skeptical. In the process, they may have gone a littleoverboard and portrayed it as the world’s deadliest toxin that will definitely kill you and it will all somehow be Donald Trump’s fault’ [269,270].

On September 6, a report by News On 6 said ‘a false report has Oklahoma trending nationally . . . the doctor at the center of the story told News 9 he was misquoted, and the story was wrong’. McElyea clarifiedthat ‘as the story ran, it sounded like all of Oklahoma hospitals were filled with people who have overdosed on ivermectin and that’s not the case, . . . the cases we are seeing, people who are overdosing on ivermectin,they are taking full strength cattle doses and coming in and that is something that could be avoided’.

The report mentioned another hospital in the area, Integris Grove, having stated that they had seen ‘a handful of ivermectin patients in their emergency rooms . . . while our hospitals are not filled with people who have taken ivermectin, such patients are adding to the congestion already caused by COVID-19 and other emergencies’. The report concluded with a mention that the Oklahoma Center for Poison and Drug Information had received 12 ivermectin-related calls last month [271].

On September 6, Soave analyzed the media reporting, saying that the media fell for a viral hoax about ivermectin overdoses straining rural hospitals [272]. He commented that McElyea clearly stated that ivermectin overdoses were a problem and claimed that some hospitals were dealing with strain in general but he neveractually connected these two issues. Instead, the KFOR’s journalist had added that framing; she had notresponded to a request for comment. If other media outlets had called the doctor or the hospitals they would have easily uncovered the error. Soave added that while the mainstream media had vigorously condemned COVID-19 misinformation in social media, readers could also encounter it in mainstream media such as Rolling Stone, New York Times or Associated Press (AP) which had recently reported that 70 percent of calls to Mississippi’s poison hotline were from people who had taken ivermectin while the actual figure was 2 percent [273] (AP was a member of the Trusted News Initiative (TNI) [274]).

On September 6, another judge reversed the earlier decision concerning administration of ivermectin prescribed by Wagshul to a patient in a US hospital, saying there ‘was no doubt that the medical and scientific communities do not support the use of ivermectin as a treatment for COVID-19’ [275]. The judge addedt hat ‘COVID-19 has ravaged the world. However, the rule of law must be followed once the court system is involved. The law in its purest form shall have neither hatred nor sympathy to anyone or anything. It shall stand unwavering in its truth, justice, and fairness to call’ [276]. A spokesperson for the hospital described the ruling as ‘positive in regards to the respect for science and the expertise of medical professionals’, adding that they implore the community ‘to do what we know works: wear a mask, become fully vaccinated and use social distancing whenever possible’. She added that the hospital appreciated scientific rigor and did not believe they should be ordered to administer medications ’against medical advice’.

On September 6, a German magazine for pharmacists reported about American Pharmacists Association’s recent demand to stop off-label ivermectin prescribing [277]. The article mentioned the ongoing PRINCIPLEtrial by University of Oxford.

On September 7, Fox News reported that McElyea was an employee of an agency that staffs emergencydepartments [278]. The report also mentioned that while NHS Sequoyah had stated they had not treatedany ivermectin patients, Integris Grove Hospital, had seen a handful’. Integris added that ‘there is a lotof media attention surrounding remarks reportedly made by Dr. McElyea. While we do not speak on hisbehalf, he has publicly said his comments were misconstrued and taken out of context’.

On September 7, a CNN reporter Daniel Dale tweeted about McElyea case, saying local media had misrepresented the interview of McElyea, national and international media had failed to do due diligence, and readers and critics had jumped to conclusions. He concluded that ‘lots of people involved here – certainly the local outlet/the big aggregating outlets/the prominent tweeters on the left, but also some critics on the right – could’ve done a better job pursuing facts/waiting for facts before coming to conclusions’ [279]. CNN published a ‘fact-check’ report with similar content [280].

On September 7, an Austrian newspaper wrote that the misconception that horse dewormer ivermectin wouldhelp against COVID-19 is widespread internationally and also in Austria [281]. The article mentioned thatno poisonings had been reported in Austria, and that Czech Republic had adopted ivermectin in hospitals.

A toxicologist commented that ivermectin was still dangerous and there was insufficient data on the safety of chronic consumption.

On September 7, the title of a January 2021 article in a German women’s magazine, originally asking whether ivermectin might be useful, was updated to ‘People are not horses’ [282].

On September 7, a Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet wrote that instead of being vaccinated Americans are taking ivermectin as the latest alternative treatment for COVID-19, the only problem being that it was intended for treating parasites in horses and cows [283].

On September 7, Joe Rogan complained that CNN had reported that he had been taking ‘horse dewormer’;Rogan stated that ‘I literally got it from a doctor’ [284].

On September 7, wealthy Chinese exile Guo Wengui was said to be using his online misinformation network to promote the use of unproven treatments for COVID-19 [285].

On September 8, an article by Cruciani et al. presented a systematic review and meta-analysis of ivermectin for prophylaxis and treatment of COVID-19 [286]. Based on an analysis of eleven RCTs, the authors concluded that there was limited evidence for the benefit of ivermectin.

On September 8, a letter published in the Guardian by Hill, the main author of one of the meta-analyses about ivermectin [5], said that after his team had questioned the clinical benefits of ivermectin the team and his family had received daily death threats. As social media platforms had not reacted he had stopped using social media but abuse by email had continued. Hill described the situation as shocking, affecting many scientists, and said that scientists must be protected from anti-vaxxer abuse, possibly by police action [287].

On September 8, Wired magazine wrote about Together trial results, quoting the head researcher saying that ivermectin proponents had ignored their fluvoxamine findings, only being interested in ivermectin,‘feeling strongly’ about it but not about other possible options [288]. The article also mentioned US NIH’s ongoing ACTIV-6 ivermectin trial, into which people could sign up at home. A co-chair of the trial’s steering committee said that there was no data on ivermectin’s benefit but since people were using it, the point of their trial was to get a definitive answer.

On September 8, the Guardian worried about some Australian clinics’ off-label prescribing of ‘unapproved’ivermectin [289]. The president of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) said that while RACGP did not consider its role to be looking over the shoulders of every GP, the advice from the health experts to not use ivermectin was ‘100% clear’. However, she added, ‘the status of other drugs, suchas sotrovimab, is very different. That is an example of a new drug for the treatment of Covid-19 that haspassed through the rigorous testing safety procedures of the Therapeutic Goods Administration’.

On September 9, Geert Vanden Bossche summarized the negative effects of mass vaccination as follows: itwill, first, eventually drive dominant propagation of super variants that are highly infectious and increasinglyresist vaccine-induced neutralizing antibodies; second, erode innate immune defense in the non-vaccinated(due to high infectious pressure exerted by enhanced circulation of more infectious variants); and third,erode naturally acquired immunity (due to increasing viral resistance to neutralizing spike protein specificantibodies). Of these, the second and third consequences together prevent herd immunity from being established.

Yet the solution, according to Bossche, would be induction of herd immunity by starting from scratch against the more infectious variants. This could be achieved by providing multidrug early treatment for the infected which would result in enhanced rates of recovery from disease and rise in the number of people who develop life-long protective immunity. Also, mass antiviral treatment with any drug that would effectively reduce viral infectious pressure would be required to prevent innate antibodies in previously asymptotically infected individuals from being suppressed by short-lived, spike protein specific antibodies and thus enable the healthy, unvaccinated part of the population to deal with all SARS-CoV-2 variants; these massantiviral campaigns might need to include pets and live-stock and be combined with lockdown rules foras long as titers of these short-lived antibodies were measurable (6-8 weeks).

Boscche said that a larger unvaccinated population would circulate also less infectious variants, attenuating circulation of more infectious variants. However, the above methods would still be unlikely to sufficiently reduce transmission among healthy individuals; therefore ultimately an immune intervention able to prevent infection in all susceptible age groups would be required, and as long as such an intervention, likely based on natural killer cell based vaccines, would not be available, repeated antiviral chemoprophylaxis might be necessary. However, as along term strategy the chemoprophylaxis would not be feasible, as overuse could promote viral resistance to the compound.

About his personal intentions Bossche wrote that ‘one can always do more, write morearticles, bring more scientific evidence to the table, do more interviews and podcasts, reply to more questionsand destroy more of the nonsense divulgated by scientifically incompetent experts or illiterate fact-checkers.

However, I’ve decided to not continue along this path as I knew from the very start that this big alliance of stakeholders would not listen and as the primary purpose of my endeavors has always been to share, as broadly as possible, my scientific insights on why this [mass vaccination] experiment is an incredible blunder, so that none the involved experts, key opinion leaders, public health authorities or peers from industry could ever pretend that this was unknown and simply unpredictable’ [290].

He said that he had a history of going against ‘groupthink’, for example speaking against the results of Gavi The Vaccine Alliance’s phase III Ebola vaccine trials conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO) and published in a peer-reviewed journal. Bossche said the results falsely concluded that the vaccine had 100% efficacy, whereas according to Bossche’s analysis ‘the truth looked extremely different’ [291]. He added that to him it seemed that ‘many of our experts and scientists, even including a substantial number of renowned professors, are so stuck within their small silos that they have simply lost touch with reality’.

On September 9, Hill responded to a tweet by the BIRD group which had said that according to Hill, the conclusions of the meta-analysis by Hill et al. remain clearly in favor of ivermectin even after exclusion ofElgazzar et al. trial [292,293]. Hill stated: ‘Misleading information from the BIRD group. In our analysis there is no significant survival benefit for ivermectin in randomized trials after exclusion of apparently fraudulent and biased studies’ [292]. Later on the same days he responded with ‘more misleading information from the BIRD group misquoting our research’ to another tweet by the BIRD group which had said that‘Hill’s work also shows that ivermectin not only reduces the risk of death, it clears the virus from the bloodstream faster than controls, thus ivermectin reduces the time that an infected person can transmit the virus’ [294].

On September 9, Joe Rogan discussed the ‘horse dewormer’ narrative, referring to regulatory capture in theUS [295].

On September 10, a news report in the BMJ discussed US court rulings and ivermectin prescriptions [296].

On September 10, the BIRD group announced that their meta-analysis by Bryant et al. [4] had reached a position in the top ten of 18.9 million articles tracked by Altmetric [297,298].

On September 10, Hill tweeted that the ‘survival benefit of ivermectin disappears when only trials at low risk of bias are analyzed. The reported survival effects are entirely driven by studies at high risk of bias or medical fraud’ [299]. An accompanying graph indicated slightly over 50% benefit (p=0.01) with Elgazzar et al. study included, slightly under 40% benefit (p=0.05) without it but including studies with a high risk for bias, and approximately 4% benefit (p=0.90) with only low risk studies included.

On September 10, a blog article discussing failed communication attempts between ivermectin skeptics and proponents commented that ‘what you are witnessing is just the most absurd example of a decades-long war on re-purposed (aka “non-profitable”) medicines’ [300,301,302].

On September 10, Hindustan Times wrote about a clinical trial (RIVET-COV) with 157 patients with mild to moderate disease carried out by All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) which indicated that ivermectin did not reduce the viral load or duration of symptoms [303]. Mohan said that ‘all the ivermectin being prescribed or being taken by people left, right, and centre will definitely not show any effect’; therefore ivermectin should not be used outside clinical trials, although he added that their trial did not investigate possible effect on mortality.

On September 11, TrialSite News wrote about US NIH’s refusal to release information on who had been involved in its decision to recommend neither for nor against ivermectin [304]. However, US CDC had released the names of the members of the working group [305]. According to TrialSite News, three of the nine members, Adimora, Bedimo and Glidden, had disclosed a financial relationship with Merck & Co/MSD.

Another member, Naggie, had later received USD 155 million funding for US NIH’s ACTIV-6 trial which included ivermectin, fluvoxamine and fluticasone (NCT04885530) [306].

On September 11, TrialSite News wrote that Australia’s Therapeutic Good Administration (TGA) had formally placed a national prohibition on off-label prescribing of ivermectin to all general practitioners,citing interruption of vaccination as a factor in the decision [307].

On September 12, a three-day International Covid Summit started in Rome [308,309], with presentationsin the Roman Senate held also in Italian and Spanish and translated into sign language. Lecturers included Roberta Ferrero, Francesca Donato, Albert Bagnai, Luigi Icardi, Ivan Vilibor Sincic, Joseph Tritto, Robert Malone, Mauro Rango, Christof Plothe, David Anderson, Ira Bernstein, Fabio Burigana, Steven Hatfill,Roberto Accinelli, Tess Lawrie, Oswaldo Castaneda, Rosanna Chifari, Antonietta Gatti, Andrea Stramezzi, Peter Mccullough, George Fareed, Pierre Kory, Roberta Lacerda, Carlos Maggi, Bruce Patterson, DilipPawar, Victor Villa, Mattia Perroni and Francesco Matozza. In addition, the summit featured groups of researchers and clinicians from Italy, Croatia, Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Tanzania, South Africa, Nigeria, Mali, Spain, UK, France, Brazil, Bolivia, Argentina, Paraguay, Peru, Canada and US. Several treatment protocols including McCullough et al’s sequenced multidrug protocol [310] and FLCCC’s MATH+protocol were discussed.

On September 13, a Dominican Republic newspaper described details of an early 2020 ivermectin trial by Morgenstern et al. [311,312].

On September 13, a story in Rolling Stone ridiculed ‘anti-vaxxers’ for using povidone iodine mouthwash to prevent COVID-19 [313]. An interviewed gynecologist/obstetrician commented that ‘we use it before surgery to clean the vagina’ and that ‘it could result in iodine poisoning if taken orally’. Another physician who appeared unable to give statements without including profanities in his sentences commented that ‘drinking iodine’ had caused a patient a transient kidney failure and that povidone iodine definitely could not reducethe effects of COVID-19 or prevent its transmission. An ’Australian family physician’ stated that ‘there have been no human studies on the use of Betadine to treat COVID-19, just hypotheses and lab studies’.

On September 13, the Guardian wrote about ‘ivermectin frenzy’ being ‘a cottage industry of advocacy groups, anti-vaccine activists and telehealth companies’ despite stances of FDA, NIH and some US medical and pharmaceutical associations [314]. It noted that FLCCC had signed open letters in favor of ivermectin which had also been signed by ‘anti-vaxx’ organizations. Telehealth sites were said to have connections to a conservative doctor group America’s Frontline Doctors in favor of hydroxychloroquine treatments and whose opinions had been quoted by ‘Donald Trump, his son Donald Trump Jr and numerous QAnon conspiracists’.

On September 13, Mother Jones magazine wrote that people associated with Q-Anon had harassed a hospital where a Q-Anon member had been hospitalized with hundreds of calls and emails, in order to get ivermectin administered to her [315].

On September 14, in a Cochrane Collaboration author interview, Stephanie Weibel and Maria Popp described their ivermectin meta-analysis [316]. The authors said that because of a lack of good-quality evidence, it was unknown whether ivermectin reduces or increases mortality, caused adverse effects, improved or worsened patients’ condition, or increased or decreased viral load, led to more or fewer negative COVID-19 tests 7days after treatment. Likewise, they could not say whether ivermectin prevented COVID-19 infection or reduced the number of deaths after high-risk exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

On September 14, Menichella wrote about Peter McCullough’s influence in Italy and about a protocol developed in Italy by a group led by Giuseppe Remuzzi [317]. The Remuzzi protocol was mainly based on relatively selective COX-2 inhibitors [318]. In a retrospective observational matched-cohort study with 90outpatients and 90 controls with mild disease the proportions of patients who required hospitalization were2% vs 14% (p=0.01); cumulative days of hospitalization were 44 vs 481 days, and costs of hospitalization were EUR 28,000 vs EUR 296,000, respectively. Menichella wrote that the standard of care resulted in approximately 2% mortality; with a ’serious home treatment protocol’ mortality could be lowered to 0.05%.

On September 15, an article by Talwar et al. described a case of a successful management of ivermectinpoisoning [319]. A 6-year-old girl weighing 20.5 kg had accidentally consumed 600 mg of ivermectin (29.3mg/kg). Mechanical ventilation, ceftriaxone, clindamycin, intravenous midazolam, phenytoin and supportivemeasures were utilized. The girl was discharged after nine days of hospitalization.

On September 15, a news report in Willamette Week discussed US biologist Bret Weinstein’s role in the ivermectin controversy, including his influence on Joe Rogan [320].

On September 15, a letter to the editor by Boretti discussed quercetin, suggesting that quercetin might help to lower inflammation, as well as reduce the toxic effects of COVID-19 vaccines and the chances of being infected [321]. Quercetin had been included in the FLCCC protocols since early 2020.

On September 15, Fenton et al. discussed unreliability of current vaccine studies [322].

On September 16, Cheng et al. presented a meta-analysis about efficacy and safety of various medications for treating severe and non-severe COVID-19 patients [323].

On September 16, Malhotra discussed Indian Bar Association’s legal notice to WHO [324].

On September 16, an Australian medical newspaper wrote that a secretive organization called the COVID19 Antiviral Advisory Group had said it had been instructing 200 doctors to prescribe ivermectin and was planning on going public against TGA’s ivermectin ban [325].

On September 17, an article by Singh et al. suggested a positive correlation between European populations’zinc sufficiency status and COVID-19 mortality. The authors noted that the observed association was contrary to what would be expected if zinc sufficiency was protective in COVID-19, suggesting that controlled trials or retrospective analyses of the adverse event patients’ data should be undertaken to correctly guidethe practice of zinc supplementation in COVID-19 [326].

On September 17, an article by Gurung et al. described an in silico study which indicated that ivermectin demonstrated moderate binding to human serum albumin [327].

On September 17, a preprint by Karale et al. presented an updated systematic review and meta-analysis of mortality, need for ICU admission, use of mechanical ventilation, adverse effects and other clinical outcomes

[328]. 52 studies (n=17,561) were included in a qualitative analysis and 44 of those (n=14,019) were included in the meta-analysis. A mortality meta-analysis indicated lower odds of death (OR 0.54, 95% CI 0.34-0.86,p=0.009, 29 studies). As adjuvant therapy, the odds of viral clearance were higher (OR 3.52, 95%CI 1.816.86, p=0.0002, 22 studies), the duration to achieve viral clearance was shorter (p=0.02, 8 studies), andthe need for hospitalization was reduced (OR 0.34, p=0.008, 6 studies). The authors concluded that themortality benefit of ivermectin in COVID-19 is uncertain but as an adjuvant therapy ivermectin may improve viral clearance and reduce the need for hospitalization.

On September 17, a news report by Piper in Vox magazine questioned the validity of studies by Carvallo etal. [329,330], saying that experts on scientific fraud didn’t believe Carvallo conducted his study as described:the data appeared fabricated, key data was missing, study registration and published results didn’t match with each other, Carvallo could not explain these issues, and the hospital in which the study was said to have been conducted stated that it had not been conducted there, to which Carvallo replied that it had been but without the hospital administration knowing [331]. In another context, Lawrie of the BIRD group had been asked what evidence would persuade her that ivermectin didn’t work, to which she had replied thatthere could be nothing that would persuade her. Mills involved in the Together trial commented that themost culpable parties weren’t those who had believed in the apparently fraudulent studies but those whohad conducted, published, and boosted them.

On September 17, Business Insider wrote about FLCCC’s Kory and Marik, calling them ’fringe doctors whipping up false hope that could have deadly consequences’ [332]. According to Business Insider, Kory was’a once respected doctor whose hospital rejected his unsupported treatment ideas’ while Marik was ’a doctor who ostracized himself from mainstream medicine after his high-profile sepsis treatment was a dud’, adding that ’Marik’s failed sepsis protocol later became the backbone of the FLCCC’s first iterations of COVID-19treatment’ (the MATH+ inpatient protocol) [333]. Recently they had been ’sucked (willingly or not) into the embrace of the anti-vaccine far right .. . ivermectin is now a darling drug of QAnon’. A former FLCCCmember, Eric Osgood, had left the group in summer 2021. The editor in chief of Science Communication said that FLCCC’s communication style was objectionable but added that the existence of ’rogue opinions’was a necessary condition for scientific breakthroughs. However not everyone had the skills to assess claimsnor understood how science worked, which had led to ’a conflict between our commitment to freedom of speech and a clash with the nature of scientific truth and people’s right to say anything they want . . . the hype machine they’ve created is out of control’.

On September 17, Seheult on MedCram reviewed ivermectin, with comments from cell biologist Rhonda Patrick [334]. Seheult stressed the importance of taking all treatment options into account; Patrick said ivermectin had seemed to consistently reduce viral load but the hype around ivermectin was pushing researchers away from the subject.

On September 20, an Indian news agency reported that 31 of 75 districts of the state of Uttar Pradesh inIndia were COVID-19 free [335]. In total, the state reported 17 new cases in the last 24 hours out of 182,742samples tested.

On September 20, the Guardian worried about horses being deprived of a deworming agent [336].

On September 21, Brazil’s president Bolsonaro stated that Brazil had supported clinicians’ early treatment measures since the beginning of the pandemic, adding that he could not understand why some countries opposed early treatment measures [337].

On September 21, Ars Technica discussed the validity of Covid Analysis group’s ivmmeta.com meta-analysis[338].

On September 22, a letter to the editor by Lawrence et al. in Nature Medicine concluded that metaanalyses based on summary data alone were inherently unreliable [339]. The authors stated that most,if not all, of the flaws in recent ivermectin meta-analyses would have been immediately detected if metaanalyses were performed on an individual patient data (IPD) basis. They recommended that meta-analysts who study interventions for COVID-19 should request and personally review IPD in all cases, even if IPDsynthesis techniques were not used. They also recommended that all clinical trials published on COVID-19should immediately follow best-practice guidelines and upload anonymized IPD. They authors said that their proposal was a change to a nearly universally accepted practice over many decades and substantially more rigorous than current standards; regardless, the proposed change was imperative.

On September 22, in a FLCCC weekly update, Marik announced an upcoming publication of an article on the pathophysiology of COVID-19 [340].

On September 22, a video by John Campbell described the contents of ivermectin kits used in state of Goain India [341]. The kits in Goa contained pulse oximeter, a thermometer, paracetamol, vitamin C and D,multivitamin tablets containing zinc, ivermectin (10 x 12 mg), doxycycline (10 x 100 mg), and personal protective equipment. The cost of one kit was USD 2.65. The kits used in Uttar Pradesh contained ivermectin, doxycycline, vitamins B, C and D, zinc, paracetamol, thermometer and a pulse oximeter. Outpatients weremonitored by phone twice a day. Campbell said that the intervention had actually been organized under a WHO monitoring program. A WHO report described that since May 5, 2021, 141,610 government teams were moving across 97,941 villages in 75 districts over five days in Uttar Pradesh, a state with a population of 230 million [342]. WHO field officers monitored over 2,000 government teams and visited at least 10,000 households. WHO also said it was to support the Uttar Pradesh government on the compilation of the final reports; these reports had not yet been published.

On September 23, a preprint by Mayer et al. described an intervention program of high-dose ivermectin in COVID-19 carried out by the Ministry of Health of the Province of La Pampa, Argentina [343]. Within five days of symptoms onset, 0.6 mg/kg/day of ivermectin for five days was administered. Active pharmacosurveillance was performed for 21 days, with hepatic laboratory assessments performed in a subset of patients. From 21,232 subjects with COVID-19, 3,266 were offered and agreed to participate in the ivermectin program. 17,966 did not participate and were considered as controls. A total of 567 participantsreported 819 adverse events; 3.13% discontinued ivermectin due to adverse events. Mortality was lower in the ivermectin group in the full group analysis (1.5% vs 2.1%, OR 0.720, p=0.029), as well as in subjects over 40year-old (2.7% vs 4.1%, OR 0,655, p=0.005). ICU admission was significantly lower in the ivermectin groupcompared to controls among participants over 40 year-old (1.2% vs 2.0%, OR 0.608, p=0.024). According to Covid Analysis group [344], in a full group analysis the unadjusted risk of death was 27.6% lower (RR 0.72,p=0.03) and unadjusted risk of ICU admission was 26.0% lower (RR 0.74, p=0.13).

On September 23, several groups of clinicians in favor of early treatments announced a new organization,World Council for Health, an umbrella organization with over 45 affiliated organizations [345]. The council released a home treatment guide with a combination protocol consisting of vitamins C and D, zinc, quercetin, melatonin, ivermectin, mouthwash, ibuprofen, N-acetylcysteine, antihistamines, aspirin, and others [346].

The protocol was one of the first ones to tentatively include iodine (Lugol’s solution).

On September 23, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) dropped ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine from clinical guidelines for the management of adult COVID-19 patients [347,348,349,350].

On September 23, a fact-checking website discussed social media posts claiming that ’ivermectin apparently sterilizes the majority (85%) of men that take it’ and a news report claiming that ’ivermectin causes sterilization in 85 percent of men, study finds’ [351,352].

On September 24, the Guardian wrote about misinformation spreading globally [353].

On September 24, the Guardian wrote about fraudulent ivermectin studies [354].

On September 24, Mashable interviewed ex-FLCCC member Osgood who said that he had initially joined the FLCCC because they were ’forward thinking doctors who were able to get ahead of the profession’ on a few hospital treatments (e.g. the use of anticoagulants) but he had left the organization because of his view that FLCCC insisted on promoting ivermectin over vaccines [355]. He referred to povidone iodine prophylaxis of COVID-19 as misinformation.

On September 26, an article by Marik et al. presented a scoping review of the pathophysiology of COVID-19[356]. The article described severe COVID-19 as one of the most complex of medical conditions known to medical science, noting that an overarching and comprehensive understanding of its pathogenesis, a requirement for the formulation of effective prophylactic and treatment strategies, was still lacking. Threebasic pathologic processes were identified: a pulmonary macrophage activation syndrome with uncontrolled inflammation, a complement-mediated endothelialitis together with a procoagulant state with a thromboticmicroangiopathy, and platelet activation with the release of serotonin and the activation and degranulation of mast cells contributing to the hyper-inflammatory state (quercetin had been a part of FLCCC protocols sinceMarch 2020; in one study, it was found more effective than cromolyn in blocking mast cell cytokine release[357]). The article also mentioned the C-C chemokine receptor type 5 (CCR5) pathway which interacts with chemokine ligand 5 (CCL5 or RANTES).

On September 26, in a discussion with Robert Malone, Geert Vanden Bossche stated that the proper way would have been to vaccinate vulnerable groups only, and mentioned ivermectin chemoprophylaxis as a possible solution [358].

On September 26, the New York Times interviewed the acting head of the New Mexico (US) state health department who claimed that ivermectin ’had contributed to’ deaths of two hospitalized patients who had previously self-medicated with ivermectin ’instead of proven treatments like monoclonal antibodies’ [359].

On September 27, in a discussion with Anmol Ambani and Peter A. McCullough, Marik presented the contents of the new article in a video lecture [360].

On September 27, 5,200 doctors had signed a Global Covid Summit related ’Rome declaration’ [361].

On September 27, an article by Deng et al. presented a systematic review and meta-analysis about the efficacy and safety of ivermectin [362]. Based on an analysis of three observational studies and 14 RCTs representingvery low to moderate quality of evidence, the authors concluded that ivermectin was not efficacious atmanaging COVID-19.

On September 28, an article by Barkati et al. concluded that corticosteroid therapy was an important risk factor for Strongyloides hyperinfection but there were challenges associated with the performance, availability and quality of Strongyloides tests. The authors concluded that presumptive use of ivermectin was reasonablein selected situations [363].

On September 28, an article by Zhang et al. presented a Bayesian network meta-analysis of 222 randomized controlled trials with 102,950 patients, suggesting that imatinib, intravenous immunoglobulin andtocilizumab led to lower risk of death; baricitinib plus remdesivir, colchicine, dexamethasone, recombinanthuman granulocyte colony stimulating factor and tocilizumab indicated lower occurrence of mechanical ventilation; tofacitinib, sarilumab, remdesivir, tocilizumab and baricitinib plus remdesivir increased the hospital discharge rate; convalescent plasma, ivermectin, ivermectin plus doxycycline, hydroxychloroquine, nitazoxanide and proxalutamide resulted in better viral clearance [364]. On a treatment class level, the analysis found that the use of antineoplastic agents was associated with fewer mortality cases, immunostimulants could reduce the risk of mechanical ventilation and immunosuppressants led to higher discharge rates.

On September 28, the New York Times wrote that Facebooks groups promoting ivermectin continued to flourish [365].

On September 28, a rapid review by Cardwell et al. about pharmacological interventions to prevent COVID19 mentioned ivermectin prophylaxis trials [366].

On September 29, a preprint by Budhiraja et at. described secondary infections in hospitalized patients inNorth India, mentioning that 43.5% of the patients had been administered ivermectin [367].

On September 29, referring to FLCCC, BIRD and America’s Frontline Doctors (AFLDS), Scientific Americanwrote about fringe doctors’ groups promoting ivermectin for COVID despite a lack of evidence [368].

On September 29, Chemistry World wrote that ivermectin debacle had exposed flaws in meta-analysis methodology [369]. The report stated that ’the people who’ve done these meta-analyses haven’t stuffed up. . . they haven’t deviated from accepted standards or made big mistakes . . . instead, there is a fundamentalflaw in the approach’.

On September 29, the Hill, the largest independent political news site in the US, wrote that ivermectin disinformation had led to new kinds of chaos [370].

On September 30, a preprint by Schaffer et al. describing changes in dispensing of medicines proposed for re-purposing in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia noted that there had a small but sustained increase in ivermectin dispensing between March 2020 and November 2020 [371].

On September 30, an introduction to Popp et al.’s Cochrane review by Jordan said that at this stage there were very few completed well conducted studies about either prevention or treatment but 31 trials were underway [372].

Discussion

On a closer look it appeared that the quality of some early ivermectin trials had been lower than assumed.

As individual patient data had not been generally available, most parties including various groups publishing meta-analyses had implicitly trusted the summary data and ignored slight inconsistencies. The current best practice guidelines did not require analysis of individual patient data. The proposal that meta-analyses should be performed on individual patient data appeared justified. An additional, likely necessary change to methodology would be adoption of the do-search method, assumedly the most general tool currently available for causal effect identification, and as such an improvement over Bayesian methods [179,373].

In 2014, Every-Palmer et al. noted that little ‘high quality’ (according to evidence-based medicine standards)empirical evidence existed that EBM should benefit the population, i.e. evidence about EBM’s superiority in improving patient outcomes [374]. In 2018, Anjum claimed that EBM relied on a flawed positivist methodology [375]. Recently, Martini claimed that the concept of evidence was insufficiently defined [376].

A fundamental error appeared to be the insistence on trialing single agents instead of combination protocols.

All of the currently utilized early treatment protocols were combination protocols and it was unlikely that the same results could have been obtained with a single agent. Thus, combination protocol trials would have been more likely to produce statistically significant effects. The insistence on large trials, instead of eliminating biases, possibly introduced them. For example, a lack of funding for repurposing may have introduced a severe funding-related bias.

It appeared that prolonged stress and continuing unpredictability of the situation had overwhelmed many,occasionally leading to actions whose consequences were perhaps badly thought out. The situation seemedto amplify preexisting tendencies and weaknesses within groups, leading to group-specific biases, formationof subcultures, or variants of ’groupthink’ [103]. Groups suspecting the pharmaceutical industry, authoritiesand ’the mainstream’ seemed to amplify these tendencies in-group, whereas groups suspecting anything’fringe’ but favoring mechanistic thinking and overreliance on specific methods or paradigms seemed toamplify these tendencies. Groups with a tendency to act out in panic or anger exhibited that behavior,while groups with a tendency to retreat into fearful inaction and silence did that. The central role of trustwas highlighted, yet trust seemed practically nonexistent.

Also strengths were exhibited, most prominently the capability of forming groups and alliances. However,these groups tended to become tribal in their nature, and the result resembled tribal warfare, a practice that the humanity should already have transcended. It seemed as if everyone was trying to take care of others in their own ways but these ways were incompatible with each other; someone once defined conflicts as ’failed attempts to love’.

It also seemed that journalists and the public had an idealized image of science and were trying to find solace in it as in a religion, with some scientists maybe trying to maintain these illusions. One commentator noted that ’society was not ready to watch science in real time’ [377]. Another added that ’science was not prepared to display itself to the public in real time’, while a third said that ’society was not ready to watch science in any other way either’.

In the news media, emotionally manipulative tactics seemed common. A prime example of arrogance and lack of due diligence was the case of Rolling Stone ridiculing povidone iodine use [313], claiming that there had been no human trials about it on COVID-19, despite the fact that there had been several, with promising results [10,378,379,380,381] (for observational studies, see e.g. [382,383]; for an updating list, see [384]).

Ways of reasoning appeared incompatible for example in the case of the Guardian’s critique of the BIRD group affiliating with organizations labeled as anti-vaccine for the purposes of promoting early treatment.

In the view of the BIRD group founder, vaccinations were unrelated to early treatments and, subsequently,the vaccination stances of the affiliates irrelevant. While technically correct, this view predictably appeared confusing.

In a similar manner it could be noted that, for example, the possible usefulness and validity of FLCCC’s protocols was unrelated to FLCCC members’ extra-medical opinions, and that ivermectin was only one component of the synergistic protocols consisting of more than ten components. Also, some news reports[332] severely misrepresented the sepsis protocol [333]. With regard to the social media communications of the FLCCC, it may have made a mistake in leaving these communications largely to a couple of ex-journalists whose communication style appeared unsuitable already in the first half of 2020.

With regard to conflicts of interest, the members of US National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) ivermectinworking group had disclosed several relationships to pharmaceutical companies working on COVID-19 treatments [385]. As mentioned, three of the nine members of the working group [305] had disclosed relationshipswith Merck & Co/MSD which, during the pandemic, had issued a statement against the use of ivermectinin COVID-19 [386], was working on a competing product molnupiravir [387,388,389], and had receivedsignificant US government funding for development of investigational pharmaceuticals for COVID-19 [390].

Adimora had received research support from Gilead Sciences and was a consultant and a member of an advisory board of Merck & Co/MSD; Bedimo was a member of advisory boards of Gilead Sciences, Merck &Co/MSD and ViiV Healthcare (a subsidiary of GlaxoSmithKline); Glidden was a consultant to Gilead Sciences and a member of an advisory board of Merck & Co/MSD [385]. A fourth member, Pavia, was a consultant to GlaxoSmithKline. A fifth member, Naggie, the head of US NIH’s ACTIV-6 trial (NCT04885530) [306]had received research support from AbbVie and Gilead Sciences, had a connection to Bristol Myers SquibbCompany, and was a stockholder and an advisory board member of Vir Biotechnology, the producer ofsotrovimab together with GlaxoSmithKline [391]. In summary, more than half of the members of the working group were associated with producers of molnupiravir, sotrovimab, remdesivir (Gilead Sciences),lopinavir/ritonavir (AbbVie), and investigational monoclonal antibodies (Bristol Myers Squibb Company).

However, NIH had specifically intended to involve the industry in its decision-making processes through the ACTIV public-private partnership [392]. Whereas this organizational structure likely appeared beneficialfrom the point of view of a swift development of investigational pharmaceuticals, with regard to repurposingit appeared to have included conflicts of interest by design.

For the pharmaceutical industry, incentives for unethical behavior may currently overpower those for ethical behavior. The current setting appeared designed for gambling [393], hardly the best method for optimizing public health, and it was difficult to see why societies considered it appropriate.

The event descriptions did not delve into details of the experiences of Honduras and the Dominican Republic; readers are encouraged to acquaintance themselves with the original sources [217,106,107,311,312].

These countries used relatively little clinical trial evidence to implement their protocols. Similarly, no RCT evidence on FLCCC protocols exists, yet they have been successfully used. These parties seemed to embrace uncertainty instead of requiring an unattainable level of certainty; high-income countries were probably less accustomed to radical uncertainty than developing countries.

Cameron described critical care archetypes on a two-axis model, with the first axis comparing interventionism(early, aggressive treatment) versus minimalism (’wait and see’) preferences, and the second axis measuring individualism versus collectivism [74]. In this model, the FLCCC appeared high on interventionism and individualism. The ’mainstream’, for example the World Health Organization and national authorities, appeared high on minimalism and collectivism.

During the whole pandemic (and before it), little to no attention was paid to the optimization of innate immunity. If the immune system is dysfunctional or in a suboptimal state, attempts at medicating symptoms including symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 infection are unlikely to be very effective, and the same likely applies to vaccines. While the role of zinc was acknowledged to some degree, the roles of, for example, copper, selenium and iodine were still mostly ignored. Conventionally, a long-term zinc supplementation without simultaneous copper supplementation is considered a risk for development of copper deficiency which would compromise immune function and host defence [394]; FLCCC recently lowered the dose of zinc supplementation. Astudy on European populations found a positive correlation between zinc sufficiency status and COVID-19mortality and incidence, contrary to what would be expected if zinc sufficiency was protective in COVID-19[326]; however, the result might also indicate lack of zinc ionophores.

Suggested solutions

In addition to the methodological issues there were other types of challenges to overcome. Considering that the nature of communication between parties involved in the ivermectin controversy was predominantly ofa rather violent nature, a method for improving communications would be needed. A suitable method forthe purpose may be the rather well known but rarely applied ’non-violent communication’ (NVC) method developed by Marshall Rosenberg [395,396]. The method presupposes a willingness to a certain degree ofvulnerability in order to express one’s real needs and feelings, and a willingness to actually listen to others without judging.

The method consists of two parts: expressing oneself, and empathically acknowledging others. NVC defines empathy as ’a process of connecting with another by guessing their feelings and needs’ [397]. Friesem describes the expressing part as a sequence of four steps: making observations (not evaluations) without blaming or criticizing, connecting feelings (bodily sensations instead of thoughts) to these observations, expressing the needs/values (not preferences) that caused the feelings, and making requests (concrete actions instead of vague wishes) without demanding [398]. The listening part consists of the same steps but the expressions use the pronoun ’you’ instead of ’I’. The four components are thus expressed as ’when I/you see/hear. . . ’(observation), ’I/you feel. . . ’ (feeling), ’. . . because I/you need/value. . . ’ (need), and ’would you be willing to/would you like. . . ’ (request).

The content must be as free from interpretations as possible, instead expressed in a neutral ’observation anguage’. Feelings, which are functions of the states of satisfaction of various needs, must be identified, named, connected with, and expressed without interpretation. Needs must be distinguished from strategies(strategies include objects and parameters while needs do not). Requests are aimed at assessing how likelyone is to get cooperation for particular strategies for meeting one’s needs; requests should be concrete and specific. Pandemic-specific examples are left as an exercise for the reader. With regard to therapeutics research, it might be worth a try to organize a conference whose participants would be required to find at least one detail they could agree on and then build on that foundation.

Considering that the communications at times appeared hopelessly dysfunctional, more potent methods are likely also needed. To a large extent, the damage associated with the pandemic was not caused by the virus itself but by a preexisting societal conditioning to fixed beliefs and subconscious biases which eventually led to disorganized and dissociative behavior. This ’inflexible disorganization’ subsequently created a massive amount of additional anxiety, burnout and depression.

Psychedelic therapy, currently maybe the second most trendy research subject after COVID-19 itself, wouldlend itself well for resolving these issues [399,400,401,402,403,404]. Psychedelics are likely the most effectivefacilitator of inspection of subconscious biases and fixed beliefs, and as such a valuable tool especially forscientists. Smaller doses may be preferable; this practice is called psycholytic therapy. It differs from the so-called ’microdosing’ in that doses are typically approximately a half or a third of a regular dose, and the effects of the substance are clearly perceived but different from those of high-dose psychedelic therapy.

Subconscious biases could be said to be a type of dissociative phenomena, in which a trigger related to a previous experience of overwhelming trauma triggers a slight dissociation, or a ’defence mechanism’. The mechanism of action of psychedelics in this case, in short, is to enable a person to relive the traumatic experience in order to neutralize the trigger. This must be done in an environment which provides thenecessary support so that the experience would not be experienced as overwhelming once again, as that would constitute a retraumatizing experience. Although various psychedelics produce slightly different effects, all of them would be useful for this kind of work. This includes also substances not always considered psychedelics,namely MDMA which is often called an ’empathogen’, and ketamine, often called a ’dissociative’.

Thus, an available pharmacological method would be off-label ketamine [405,406,407]. A trial by Federet al. compared treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder with either midazolam or ketamine (n=30)(NCT02397889) [408,409,410]. The mean score on the clinician-administered PTSD Scale for DSM-5(CAPS-5) was reduced from 40.1 to 33.2 in the midazolam group, and from 41.9 to 22.5 in the ketaminegroup. A similar reduction was observed for depressive symptoms.

A recent example of conflict resolution through altered states of consciousness, with promising results, was an attempt to alleviate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by organizing ayahuasca group ceremonies [411].

The essence of psychedelic therapy, however, are not the molecules but the ’states of consciousness’, or states of mind, or emotional states, reached with the help of the molecules; change, progress or ’healing’ happens in or through these states. The same states may also be reached by other methods, although psychedelics provide a shortcut in situations in which there is a lack of time, skill or resources; the cost-effectiveness of psychedelic therapy is typically superior to other methods.

Non-pharmaceutical methods capable of inducing altered states include holotropic breathwork developed by Stanislav and Christina Grof [412]. Holotropic breathwork consists of continuous forceful circular breathing,combined with some bodywork and other techniques for guidance. The breathing technique leads to changes in oxygenation and typically to altered states of consciousness with the potential of resolving embodied traumatic experiences or opening new perspectives to overcome fixed beliefs. Grof developed the method as an alternative to LSD therapy sessions and has described the states and results as similar. A gentler approach from Buddhist traditions, also applicable to trauma therapy, is the Ch¨od method based on visualization[413,414].

The Wim Hof method is applicable for innate immune system enhancement [415]. In 2014, Kox et al.proved that sympathetic nervous system and immune system can be voluntarily influenced, and that itis possible to attenuate the innate immune response in humans [416,417]. Healthy volunteers practicing specific breathwork (hyperventilation), meditation and cold exposure techniques exhibited profound increases in the release of epinephrine, which in turn led to increased production of anti-inflammatory mediators and subsequent dampening of the proinflammatory cytokine response elicited by intravenous administration ofbacterial endotoxin. The Wim Hof method has numerous advantages: it is free, available to everyone,unlikely to produce adverse effects, and unconnected to health care systems and clinicians.

Conclusions

Similarly to SARS-CoV-2 virus emerging as a possibly inexhaustible source of ever more infectious variants,the issue of COVID-19 treatments emerged as a possibly inexhaustible source of increasingly complex epistemological challenges. Current best practices of clinical trial result meta-analysis were found to be unsound;methodological changes were proposed. More broadly, the whole approach based on sole reliance on single agent clinical trials that no-one really wanted to fund appeared fundamentally unsound. The pandemic also revealed various severe problems with mindsets and subconscious biases; methods to overcome these issues were also proposed. The impression of the ivermectin controversy as a whole was that what is ideally understood by science will remain out of reach if scientists are riddled with subconscious biases, methodologies are fundamentally unsound, commercial interests dominate, and the behavior more closely resembles tribal warfare than a silent meditation retreat.

Authors’ contributions

The author was responsible for all aspects of the manuscript.

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Availability of data and materials

Not applicable.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

Not applicable.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The author declares that he has no competing interests.

Author details

Independent researcher, Helsinki, Finland. ORCID iD: 0000-0002-8575-9838

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