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Although in the minority, I do know lay people, like myself, who saw through the insanity and refused the Covid jab. As costly as it was (job loss), I don’t regret it.

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Please, don’t be too hard on yourself. The vaccination spell cast by Edward Jenner set a very deep tap root that has infected the thinking of almost everyone. Charles MacKay said it best with his observation that we humans think in herds, go mad in herds, and gain good sense slowly, one by one. A broad awakening will take a while.

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Indeed. It's a wise observation, especially for those of us who grow impatient and angry at the pace of reformation. In the end, a broad awakening is inevitable. Their side will diminish with attrition.

I fancied myself as an independent thinker, someone who never fully bought into the western medicine paradigm, even in medical school. That's why I am particularly annoyed with my blindspots around this. There's always more to challenge and learn.

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If I remember correctly, it took about 50 years to take down big tobacco. Today, we have communication tools and easy access to information that anti-tobacco activists never had so I would think bringing Pharma to heel could be done in much less time. In my opinion removing blanket liability protections baked into both the 1986 vaccine act and the PREP act, and the prohibition of mass media drug advertising are critically important goals that need to be achieved. Minds can be changed. Education is key and level-headed thinkers such as yourself are indispensable in that effort. The day will come...

https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/throwback-thursday-when-doctors-prescribed-healthy-cigarette-brands-165404/

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To inject 'vaccines" and more and more "vaccines" in every human being on the planet and in animals, that is the biggest crazyness of the last century, the population is not healthier and protected, but sicker and more vulnerable. That should say a lot. "Safety"? All the fight is for nothing if is not for answering to the most important questions: are these all vaccines, these products, needed and where are the studies on totally unvaccinated people.

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The Amish community would likely volunteer as a control group of unvaccinated--it may not be a double blinded study but would at least give signals. Steven Kirsh has done this with CoVid vaccines & Autism. Check him out. Outside the box.

It is sad that one is willing to trust no placebo studies by people making billions from successful studies & no liabilities for “mistakes”. Hello, anyone home?

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I don't understand, Steven Kirsh makes studies? :)

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He has dedicated his life to researching studies and anecdotal evidence with regard to vaccines issues. Very interesting but definitely down a rabbit hole which does not mean he is wrong to me.

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I respect your opinion. I do not care for or trust those who once devoted to progressive causes. Rich people have their own world.

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In general I agree but "some?" rich people are aware of the rest of us and care about us as equally important to have our lives lived with safety, knowledge, freedom, etc. In other words, if we succumb to throwing out all of any class or group of people (or race) we may become part of the problem instead of part of the solution. We get clearer vision, in my view, if we accept information from everyone bar none but vet that info with our own truth meter. We just have to work every day at keeping our truth meter honest, truthful, diligent in comparing/contrasting, and keeping our sights set on our end game. (Hopefully being full of truth and free of bias, inaccuracies, defensiveness, not just protecting our reputation, not being tribal, etc., etc..) example: I do not agree with all of Naomi Wolfs views but she has a lot of valuable insight and compassion more so than most.

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This was an excellent article. Many thanks for being so lucid on this subject. Good title, too!

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I feel like (hope!) that the courage, diligence and integrity of people like yourself Dr Setty, will slowly , gradually chip away at this seemingly impenetrable wall of arrogant “fake science” that is currently spreading its cancerous tentacles into our lives ! Please never give up . I wish I could offer financial support , but all I can really offer is my prayers . I’m so grateful to you .

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We all have a role to play, and it is wonderful to have purpose. I am no more courageous than those who choose to engage in their own way on these matters. My intent is to frame these issues in ways that can serve to start conversations. Thank you for participating.

I am thankfully in a position where I do not need financial support at the moment.

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Thank you sincerely for your thoughtful (and I might add humble) comment !

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Wow! Thank you! This is a tectonic shifting article. Like you, and the majority, I believed our vaccines are tested in placebo controlled studies. When Bobby first said no vaccine has received long term, pre-licensure placebo controlled safety tests, it seemed like lawyerly parsing. Our vaccines had to be safety tested! I couldn’t have imagine otherwise. Before I read this amazing piece, such was my cognitive dissonance, that I hoped you were making a big deal out of a technicalities i.e. what ‘placebo’ or ‘long term’ means. Thanks for chipping away at my illusions. Our vaccines are not safety tested!!! We’ve been scammed by the pharmaceutical industry and the agencies that are suppose to regulate them. Thanks for getting into the weeds. I never would have believed it otherwise. Offit saying water and saline placebos can kill you is pure boldface obfuscation! Thanks for your work, courage and clarity.

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Thanks Doug. The legwork was done by Aaron Siri. It's an article well worth holding on to as he has found the often hard to find citations that blow apart the whole thing. I am just trying to point out what is important.

I agree that this is something that has to be "chipped away" at. We are in the process of overturning some major paradigms. There is a ton of details that are being debated all over the place. However the fact that childhood vaccines haven't been tested against a true placebo is an enormous truth that forms the foundation of the argument for a referendum on the whole vaccine policy. When engaging with people that disagree, this is a great place to start as it undermines all of their overused adages and platitudes.

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We know the earth is the center of the universe, the Church says so. No need to look through the telescope, that's not how science works. Great summary, Madhava, I'll check out Siri's response. One wonders whether these august academicians would accept a scientific paper in their classes that offered such lame arguments.

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I don't think they would. Offit is smart enough to know he is bullshitting as opposed to being unknowingly caught in dogmatic thinking. He's banking on the fact that his reputation will fool people. It's my hope that his explanation will draw ire from the public. By doubling down he is risking insulting the intelligence (and intuition) of people.

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When they labeled the covid shot as a "vaccine" despite the fact that this is actually known in the sciences as a "transfection" (that is used on lab animals with shortened lifespans) that unraveled the whole vaccine edifice for me. If they were willing to lie about that and coerce something so obviously different, clearly ineffective and dangerous, then a thorough evaluation was due for the whole of vaccinology.

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What are the odds that if the childhood vaccines aren’t properly safely tested then what are the odds that vaccines for pets are? Do you know that vets once gave the jabs under the skin of the neck, but changed it to the leg because it could be amputated if the vaccine causes cancer? That means that vets knew damn well that the vaccines causes cancer in pets! But did they ever inform you of that? I haven’t been informed.

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"This is not what a person of integrity would do."

That is a key insight.

Hotez, with a likely vaxx-injured child, is incapable of admitting he was wrong. You, with children having no serious obvious injuries, admit you were wrong, and you are beating yourself up over it.

You have integrity. Hotez has none.

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Hotez's refusal to speak directly to RFK Jr. gives us a lot to think about. I can understand why he wouldn't want to waste his time "debating" with a person off the street. However he has been offered a chance to address his biggest critic who also happens to be running for the POTUS. Moreover, what kind of person would pass up over 3 million dollars that would be given to the charity of his choice for a few hours of his time?

It can only point to the fact that either Hotez knows he would be thrashed publicly or he is completely ignorant of the data. Until about a year ago I would have thought that the latter would be extremely unlikely. After watching meetings of the advisory panels for the FDA and the CDC as well as talking with vaccine "insiders" directly, it is entirely possible that folks like Hotez have never bothered to challenge their basic assumptions.

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He knows. I rarely say that just watching someone, but I'll say it: he looks and acts slimy.

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Sentiment is highly unappreciated as an asset. Both of them have lost the most precious asset of them all — trust. Hotez and his shill, Farhad Manzoo are right in that there’s no point in debating. That horse has left the barn. One wonders how long they’ve been committing scientific fraud.

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Hundreds of years. Blood letting to lobotomies, and in-between the refrain of doctors being told to wash their hands to reduce the risk of puerperal fever: "You tell us our failure to wash our hands is causing the deaths of mothers and newborns? You are mad, Dr. Semmelweis! You are mad!"

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Love the ratio on Offit's piece! There are only 3-4 bloodhounds in the comments desperately attempting to discredit anyone who speaks against "the narrative ". If there's any blessing from Covid it's that many (myself included) have awoken from their slumber on the mass exploitation tptb are wielding against us in so.many.ways.

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To Offit's credit, he allows everyone to leave comments on his articles, unlike other influencers that peddle the conventional narrative. And I agree, it is encouraging to see so many people calling out his BS. I find it very useful to notice how the audience responds to what is offered as it offers insight in how the collective draws conclusions.

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You write: “If Offit is correct, Siri and Kennedy can be blamed for stoking vaccine hesitancy at considerable cost to public health.” Not true. If Offit is correct, the most one can say is that vaccines are not poisonous. But their efficacy would still have to be proven.

It never will be, because all vaccines are poisons that create rather than prevent disease, but that is a separate question from the logical gap in your statement.

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I agree that I am introducing an opinion, which is that vaccines have some efficacy against preventing the diseases that they target. To my understanding, most of the vaccines on the childhood vaccination schedule do, in fact, have proven effectiveness. If there was minimal harm, it would be better for public health if vaccination continued. That's a big "if".

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The efficacy claims are, if possible, even more fraudulent than the safety claims. Many of the vaccines are even for diseases "caused" by fake viruses -- e.g. for polio, as shown by Jim West and others, and for measles, as shown by the Lanka trial in Germany.

Nothing coming of the mouths of those sociopaths known as vaccinologists should be believed.

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You could be right, but at least with efficacy there is data. There is none with safety, hence I regard the two claims differently.

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Shakespeare Had It Wrong:

Kill All Of The Doctors

And You Won't Need Lawyers.

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Recent tweet from Jeffery Tucker of the Brownstone institute: "People think they should watch the movie Contagion to learn about science and infectious disease. This is wrong. Instead, they should watch the movie Goodfellas. It tells you more about how the industry actually operates."

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