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How Can We Trust Institutions That Lied?

CDC headquarters in Atlanta

Trust the Authorities, trust the Experts, and trust the Science, we were told. Public health messaging during the COVID-19 pandemic was only credible if it originated from government health authorities, the World Health Organization, and pharmaceutical companies, as well as scientists who parroted their lines with little critical thinking.

In the name of ‘protecting’ the public, the authorities have gone to great lengths, as described in the recently released Twitter Files (1,2,3,4,5,6,7) that document collusion between the FBI and social media platforms, to create an illusion of consensus about the appropriate response to COVID-19.

They suppressed ‘the truth,’ even when emanating from highly credible scientists, undermining scientific debate and preventing the correction of scientific errors. In fact, an entire bureaucracy of censorship has been created, ostensibly to deal with so-called MD—misinformation (false information resulting from human error with no intention of harm); disinformation (information intended to mislead and manipulate); malinformation (accurate information intended to harm).

From fact-checkers like NewsGuard, to the European Commission’s Digital Services Act, the U.K. Online Safety Bill and the BBC Trusted News Initiative, as well as Big Tech and social media, all eyes are on the public to curtail their ‘mis-/dis-information.’

“Whether it’s a threat to our health or a threat to our democracy, there is a human cost to disinformation.” — Tim Davie, Director-General of the BBC

But is it possible that ‘trusted’ institutions could pose a far bigger threat to society by disseminating false information?

Although the problem of spreading false information is usually conceived of as emanating from the public, during the COVID-19 pandemic, governments, corporations, supranational organizations and even scientific journals and  academic institutions have contributed to a false narrative.

Falsehoods such as ‘Lockdowns save lives’ and ‘No one is safe until everyone is safe’ have far-reaching costs in livelihoods and lives. Institutional false information during the pandemic was rampant. Below is just a sample by way of illustration.

The health authorities falsely convinced the public that the COVID-19 vaccines stop infection and transmission when the manufacturers never even tested these outcomes. The CDC changed its definition of vaccination to be more ‘inclusive’ of the novel mRNA technology vaccines. Instead of the vaccines being expected to produce immunity, now it was good enough to produce protection.

The authorities also repeated the mantra (at 16:55) of ‘safe and effective’ throughout the pandemic despite emerging evidence of vaccine harm. The FDA refused the full release of documents they had reviewed in 108 days when granting the vaccines emergency use authorization. Then in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, it attempted to delay their release for up to 75 years. These documents presented evidence of vaccine adverse events. It’s important to note that between 50 and 96 percent of the funding of drug regulatory agencies around the world comes from Big Pharma in the form of grants or user fees. Can we disregard that it’s difficult to bite the hand that feeds you?

The vaccine manufacturers claimed high levels of vaccine efficacy in terms of relative risk reduction (between 67 and 95 percent). They failed, however, to share with the public the more reliable measure of absolute risk reduction that was only around 1 percent, thereby exaggerating the expected benefit of these vaccines.

They also claimed “no serious safety concerns observed” despite their own post-authorization safety report revealing multiple serious adverse events, some lethal. The manufacturers also failed to publicly address the immune suppression during the two weeks post-vaccination and the rapidly waning vaccine effectiveness that turns negative at 6 months or the increased risk of infection with each additional booster. Lack of transparency about this vital information denied people their right to informed consent.

They also claimed that natural immunity is not protective enough and that hybrid immunity (a combination of natural immunity and vaccination) is required. This false information was necessary to sell remaining stocks of their products in the face of mounting breakthrough cases (infection despite vaccination).

In reality, although natural immunity may not completely prevent future infection with SARS-CoV-2, it is however effective in preventing severe symptoms and deaths. Thus vaccination post-natural infection is not needed.

The WHO also participated in falsely informing the public. It disregarded its own pre-pandemic plans, and denied that lockdowns and masks are ineffective at saving lives and have a net harm on public health. It also promoted mass vaccination in contradiction to the public health principle of ‘interventions based on individual needs.’

It also went as far as excluding natural immunity from its definition of herd immunity and claimed that only vaccines can help reach this end point. This was later reversed under pressure from the scientific community. Again, at least 20 percent of the WHO’s funding comes from Big Pharma and philanthropists invested in pharmaceuticals. Is this a case of he who pays the piper calls the tune?

The Lancet, a respectable medical journal, published a paper claiming that Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ)—a repurposed drug used for the treatment of COVID-19—was associated with a slight increased risk of death. This led the FDA to ban the use of HCQ to treat COVID-19 patients and the NIH to halt the clinical trials on HCQ as a potential COVID-19 treatment. These were drastic measures taken on the basis of a study that was later retracted due to the emergence of evidence showing that the data used was false.

In another instance, the medical journal Current Problems in Cardiology retracted—without any justification—a paper showing an increased risk of myocarditis in young people following the COVID-19 vaccines, after it was peer-reviewed and published. The authors advocated for the precautionary principle in the vaccination of young people and called for more pharmacovigilance studies to assess the safety of the vaccines. Erasing such findings from the medical literature not only prevents science from taking its natural course, but it also gatekeeps important information from the public.

A similar story took place with Ivermectin, another drug used for the treatment of COVID-19, this time potentially implicating academia. Andrew Hill stated (at 5:15) that the conclusion of his paper on Ivermectin was influenced by Unitaid which is, coincidentally, the main funder of a new research centre at Hill’s workplace—the University of Liverpool. His meta-analysis showed that Ivermectin reduced mortality with COVID-19 by 75 percent. Instead of supporting Ivermectin use as a COVID-19 treatment, he concluded that further studies were needed.

The suppression of potentially life-saving treatments was instrumental for the emergency use authorization of the COVID-19 vaccines as the absence of a treatment for the disease is a condition for EUA (p.3).

Many media outlets are also guilty of sharing false information. This was in the form of biased reporting, or by accepting to be a platform for public relations (PR) campaigns. PR is an innocuous word for propaganda or the art of sharing information to influence public opinion in the service of special interest groups.

The danger of PR is that it passes for independent journalistic opinion to the untrained eye. PR campaigns aim to sensationalize scientific findings, possibly to increase consumer uptake of a given therapeutic, increase funding for similar research, or to increase stock prices. The pharmaceutical companies spent $6.88 billion on TV advertisements in 2021 in the U.S. alone. Is it possible that this funding influenced media reporting during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Lack of integrity and conflicts of interest have led to an unprecedented institutional false information pandemic. It is up to the public to determine whether the above are instances of mis- or dis-information.

Public trust in the Media has seen its biggest drop over the last five years. Many are also waking up to the widespread institutional false information. The public can no longer trust ‘authoritative’ institutions that were expected to look after their interests. This lesson was learned at great cost. Many lives were lost due to the suppression of early treatment and an unsound vaccination policy; businesses ruined; jobs destroyed; educational achievement regressed; poverty aggravated; and both physical and mental health outcomes worsened. A preventable mass disaster.

We have a choice: either we continue to passively accept institutional false information or we resist. What are the checks and balances that we must put in place to reduce conflicts of interest in public health and research institutions? How can we decentralize the media and academic journals in order to reduce the influence of pharmaceutical advertising on their editorial policy?

As individuals, how can we improve our media literacy to become more critical consumers of information? There is nothing that dispels false narratives better than personal inquiry and critical thinking. So the next time conflicted institutions cry woeful wolf or vicious variant or catastrophic climate, we need to think twice.


This article was originally published by the Brownstone Institute. Abir Ballan is the co-founder of THiNKTWICE.GLOBAL — Rethink. Reconnect. Reimagine. She has a Masters in Public Health, a graduate certificate in special needs education and a BA in psychology. She is a children’s author with 27 published books.

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7 Responses

  1. Actually back in 2017, the FDA lie about the safety of MRI contrast containing the heavy metal toxin gadolinium began the distrust of the government for me and gave me a reason to begin looking back at their history of lies and public deception. The Pandora’s Box has been opened and I do not like what I have found. There is nothing the government can do to ever gain back my trust.

  2. “How Can We Trust Institutions That Lied?”

    Same way that we trusted them before.

    I don’t know, but “we” trusted them when this whole thing started, and they’ve been lying to us for decades. The payouts on Big-Pharma lawsuits are legion.

    Wash, rinse, repeat I guess.

    And who’s “they?”

    The answer to that is critical to understanding who not to trust for the next so-called crisis.

    Presumably it’ll be the Cyber-Attack that Schwab has been predicting.

    Let me guess, Russia will have “conducted it as an attack on America and the world,” and the ONLY solution will be bigger, more centralized, more tyrannical, more controlling global government, and of course at the expense of our personal liberty, and all “in the common interest” of course. LMAO … just watch! Only additional surveillance, digital ID control, and of course only one currency, owned and controlled by the most satanic largely unknown individuals on the planet using the westernized central banks, will be the “solutions.”

    LOL This entire thing plays out like a black-comedy’s black comedy.

    The lawsuits against Big-Pharma and the harms caused by so-called “vaccines” were well known prior to this entire charade unfolding. Videos of global vaccine conferences discussing the same were out there. The documentary VAXXED had been out for a while.

    We haven’t injected our kids with so-called vaccines in years and were castigate by “far more intelligent and non-gullible people” don’cha know.

    But anyone attempting to alert people to this were characterized as paranoid conspiracy theorists, much like people attempting to point out who’s truly behind this are now.

    It’ll happen again, just on another front that pushes their end game further toward its satanic end. Just watch!

  3. When you add in the horrific lie of 9/11, check out the books Methodical Illusion from Rebekah Roth, you can no longer believe that our government is for the good of the people. They are the most evil psychopaths and we are expendable and in their way. The elite that think they can push policy because of their money. All of them should be locked up and we need to start over with a government for the people, by the people.

  4. Techno-Feudal Nazis will NEVER have the trust of PERSONS of the world; let alone those of the FREE REPUBLIC of The United States of America (Not to be confused by ‘The Corporation of the United States of America’ owned by the Corporate Entity if ‘The Town of London’ located within London as the Vatican is within Rome, Italy.

    Better off to totally DISMANTLE THE WHOLE Fauci/Gates Medical Complex Monopoly united with Big Pharma, the U.N. with the WHO and WEF, as well as the DOD and all the Executive Cabinet now. ALL International Organized Crime Mafia is CRIMINAL AND GUILTY OF CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY they now cover-up and shield one another from accountability. TOTALLY INSANE TO BELIEVE A WORD ANY IMPART.

  5. Ukraine has low poliomyelitis vaccine rate. Not because their poor, not because their government doesn’t recommend polio vaccine.
    It because people don’t trust Ukraine government.
    Poliomyelitis spread from contaminated food or water.
    Ukraine has clean water. No poliomyelitis.

  6. No one could have imagined the huge scope of disinformation, suppression of the truth, propaganda, and outright lies, with so many entities involved! It was inconceivable but true! I didn’t trust the health departments or governments when this all started, and I will never trust them again!

  7. Nothing has changed except that people are now seeing what was always there. These alphabet agencies have ALWAYS lied to the public, long before covid. The truth of this is now more obvious to many that used to place blind trust in them. So really, this is a good thing as people awaken and realize that these gov’t agencies are actually corrupted partners with the corporations they are supposed to be over-seeing and it has always been so.

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