A US house of representatives committee has laid out, with references and evidence, some 550 pages detailing most of the elements of the Covid response “mistakes”:
“After Action Review of the Covid-19 Pandemic: The Lessons Learned and a Path Forward”, 04 Dec 2024.
The report clearly has international implications. Most importantly the report calls into question the needless atrocities on children, as part of the supposedly scientific official Covid response
. There are ten important conclusions of the report, supported both by everyone’s common sense observation as well as scientific evidence. However, there is an entire family of four elephants-in-the-room missed by the report – either ignoring scientific evidence or citing only weak evidence. First, the ten truths.
The ten common sense truths brought out by the report, backed by scientific evidence
1. Report findings: “Long Term School Closures Were Not Supported by Available Science and Evidence” (page 412). “Pandemic-era School Closures Adversely Impacted Academic Performance that Will Continue for Years.” (page 438). “School Closures Significantly Contributed to Increased Instances of Mental and Behavioral Health Issues.” (page 440).
Comment: We all got to see how children suffered mentally and physically due to extended school closure for nearly two years. Specific to India: While it was a travesty in the USA, in India where child malnutrition, poverty, child labour, child marriage are rampant problems, it was unconscionable. School closure was nothing short of institutionalized child abuse by those in mortal panic, based on exaggerated fear rather than on scientific evidence.
2. Report findings: “Enduring COVID-19 Lockdowns Unnecessarily Damaged American’s Mental Health.” (page 215). “Enduring COVID-19 Lockdowns Disrupted the Development of American Children and Young Adults.” (page 216). “Enduring COVID-19 Lockdowns Unnecessarily had Severe Consequences for Americans’ Physical Health.” (page 217).
Comment: Children and young adults were not only denied education, but were also denied a normal childhood – they were literally driven mad with unscientific restrictions on play, recreational activities, and simply being children/youth. The US report needs to be commended for stating the obvious, and supported by scientific evidence.
3. Report finding: “Forcibly Masking Young Children, Ages Two and Older, Caused More Harm than Good”. (page 212).
Comment: Hiding children’s smiles behind ineffective masks will forever remain a symbol of how unscientific and delusional society behaved. Mask mandates for children were hence also institutionalized child abuse by those in mortal panic, based on exaggerated fear rather than on scientific evidence.
4 Report findings: “Unscientific COVID-19 Lockdowns Caused More Harm Than Good” (page 214). “Enduring COVID-19 Lockdowns Unnecessarily Harmed the U.S. Economy” (page 215).
Comment: Lockdown was premised on society functioning with “essential” workers. Why did the world not have the common sense or compassion to even find out what was happening to the “essential” workers? Specific to India: Why were the so-called pro-poor incapable of comparing virus risk to starvation risk for the millions of migrant labourers who lead a hand-to-mouth existence? Migrant workers were even heard saying in the media that they will not die of Covid but would surely die of hunger. Why did the so-called scientists and elites assume that they have the right to decide for someone else?
5 Report finding: “Those Who Recovered From COVID-19 Were Conferred Infection Acquired Immunity” (page 331).
Comment: Not only is this supported by recent evidence, this is one of the oldest truths known in healthcare. Immunity after natural infection and recovery is known science since more than 2400 years since the plague of Athens. Indeed, such immunity is the basis of most vaccines.
6 Report findings: “COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates Caused Massive Collateral Damage and Were Very Likely Counterproductive.” (page 340). “COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates Were Not Supported by Science.” (page 346).
Comment: Covid vaccines were never properly tested and approved vaccines, they were a mass medical experiment. What gave anyone the authority to violate someone else’s bodily integrity for a medical intervention, that too an experimental one? Why was there no informed consent?
7.,Report finding: “The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System is Insufficient and Not Transparent.” (page 349).
Comment: Specific to India: Such a system is virtually non-existent in India, there was just half an hour “observation” and a photo of the Supreme Leader after such “observation”. Even the mandatory half an hour observation was not followed in many villages – people were happy that they were not forced to wait for half an hour and could immediately leave for their work! Nobody was ever told of any possible side-effects or if anything happens where they should report.
8. Report finding: “There Was No Quantitative Scientific Support for Six Feet of Social Distancing.” (page 198).
Comment: Specific to India: Was such distancing ever possible in India? Why were Indian elites and even the so-called pro-poor blind to whether any apocalypse was happening in slums where such six-foot distancing is unthinkable? Did they not see crowds of starving migrant labourers queuing up for food? Crowds of migrant workers not only queuing up, some photographs showed them falling on each other – driven by starvation, in desperation for food. Why did the scientists and elites then not have the common sense to see that such six-foot distancing was made-up quackery?
9. Report finding: “The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Relied on Flawed Studies to Support the Issuance of Mask Mandates”. (page 207).
Comment: If the US CDC cited flawed studies, one has to ask: why did the rest of the world not have sufficient independent thinking to analyze critically? To the contrary, everyone – housing societies, municipal authorities, even higher education institutions – was blindly copying and downloading and printing CDC posters on masking.
10. Report finding: “The Biden Administration Employed Undemocratic and Likely Unconstitutional Methods to Fight What It Deemed to Be Misinformation.” (page 292).
Comment: It was not just the government, but so-called scientists also engaged in censorship of voices opposing the mainstream narrative – all in exaggerated panic. Such censorship is rife even today in social media platforms.
The US report must be commended for bringing out these ten truths. Its mention of the needless suffering of children is especially filling a much needed gap in honesty among officials in charge of Covid response, and for this no amount of praise is sufficient.
However, the report misses an entire family of four elephants-in-the-room.
The time element elephant: when did SARS-Cov-2 originate?
The US report begins with the finding: “SARS-CoV-2, the Virus that Causes COVID-19, Likely Emerged Because of a Laboratory or Research Related Accident.” (page 1). The report thus deems this finding to be of primary importance. This is an important finding indeed, and is likely a correct conclusion. However, the question of when SARS-Cov-2 originated is of far greater importance than where it originated. To take an analogy, in a case of suspected murder, the question of when the event happened is of prime importance – it should raise eyebrows if an investigation assiduously avoids the question of timing.
But this is exactly what the US report does – entirely skirts the timing question of when SARS-Cov-2 originated. This is of significance since there is substantial evidence that the so-called “novel and dangerous” virus was circulating as early as September 2019 in Italy, without anyone noticing anything extraordinary. During the military olympics held in China in October 2019, circumstantial evidence points to the fact that athletes from around the world caught, and likely took back with them, what was later to be termed as “Covid”.
So if the virus was circulating in different parts of the world in Sep/Oct 2019 without anyone noticing, can it really be termed as “novel and dangerous” ? This is the biggest elephant in the room avoided by the report – if the virus (regardless of man-made versus natural) were not clinically “novel and dangerous” in a meaningful way, the entire Covid pandemic narrative falls apart.
The Swedish elephant: lesser mortality than 2015
Amid the (manufactured) panic in Mar/Apr 2020, one prominent western country did not lockdown – Sweden. For this, it was vilified in the media and even in “scientific” circles. But no-lockdown, no-mask Sweden had no statistically meaningful excess deaths at all! In fact, the winter of 2015 saw a higher mortality in Sweden than the so-called first wave of Covid.
Should the US report not investigate as to why Sweden had no pandemic of note? It misses to do so.
The continent sized African elephant: poorer fared better
The Covid narrative ran – the virus was highly infectious and overwhelmed hospitals everywhere. So it is natural to ask what happened in places where population density is high and hospital resources are poor. Strangely, there was no pandemic of note in almost the entire continent of Africa – no reports of hospitals being overwhelmed, or large numbers of people dying, no reports of official counts missing many deaths.
Most of resource poor Africa had much lesser per-capita Covid mortality than resource rich New York and San Francisco. Should this not pique curiosity in a report investigating Covid response? Once again, there is no mention of this continent sized African elephant in the entire report.
The needle shaped elephant: Covid “vaccines” lack rigorous trial data
One of the report’s findings is: “Operation Warp Speed Was a Great Success and Helped Save Millions of Lives.” (page 301). This finding refers to the Covid “vaccines” – it is deeply flawed and is a political claim, lacking scientific evidence. Fittingly, the report cites only a simulation/modeling study to support this claim of millions of lives saved – thus conflating imagined simulations with real-world data. Whether a product is a safe and effective vaccine or an unsafe and ineffective immuno-suppressant is to be decided based on trial results. None of the randomised controlled trials (RCTs) started in 2020 for Covid “vaccines” have completed trial results – all were unblinded (abandoned) 2-6 months into the study, declaring success without the numbers to support it.
Worse, Pfizer’s intermediate results in fact showed more deaths in the “vaccine” arm than in the placebo arm. This needle-shaped elephant is also missed by the US report. It is therefore absurd and counter to scientific evidence, for it to claim that the “vaccines” saved millions of lives.
Where is such an official report in India?
It is unfortunate that we do not have any such official report in India – despite immense damage to children and poor, and continuing “sudden” and excess deaths time-correlated with the rollout of the Covid “vaccines”. Perhaps some blunders are too huge for anyone to admit and sleep at night after admitting.
---
*Professor at IIT Bombay. Views are personal
. There are ten important conclusions of the report, supported both by everyone’s common sense observation as well as scientific evidence. However, there is an entire family of four elephants-in-the-room missed by the report – either ignoring scientific evidence or citing only weak evidence. First, the ten truths.
The ten common sense truths brought out by the report, backed by scientific evidence
1. Report findings: “Long Term School Closures Were Not Supported by Available Science and Evidence” (page 412). “Pandemic-era School Closures Adversely Impacted Academic Performance that Will Continue for Years.” (page 438). “School Closures Significantly Contributed to Increased Instances of Mental and Behavioral Health Issues.” (page 440).
Comment: We all got to see how children suffered mentally and physically due to extended school closure for nearly two years. Specific to India: While it was a travesty in the USA, in India where child malnutrition, poverty, child labour, child marriage are rampant problems, it was unconscionable. School closure was nothing short of institutionalized child abuse by those in mortal panic, based on exaggerated fear rather than on scientific evidence.
2. Report findings: “Enduring COVID-19 Lockdowns Unnecessarily Damaged American’s Mental Health.” (page 215). “Enduring COVID-19 Lockdowns Disrupted the Development of American Children and Young Adults.” (page 216). “Enduring COVID-19 Lockdowns Unnecessarily had Severe Consequences for Americans’ Physical Health.” (page 217).
Comment: Children and young adults were not only denied education, but were also denied a normal childhood – they were literally driven mad with unscientific restrictions on play, recreational activities, and simply being children/youth. The US report needs to be commended for stating the obvious, and supported by scientific evidence.
3. Report finding: “Forcibly Masking Young Children, Ages Two and Older, Caused More Harm than Good”. (page 212).
Comment: Hiding children’s smiles behind ineffective masks will forever remain a symbol of how unscientific and delusional society behaved. Mask mandates for children were hence also institutionalized child abuse by those in mortal panic, based on exaggerated fear rather than on scientific evidence.
4 Report findings: “Unscientific COVID-19 Lockdowns Caused More Harm Than Good” (page 214). “Enduring COVID-19 Lockdowns Unnecessarily Harmed the U.S. Economy” (page 215).
Comment: Lockdown was premised on society functioning with “essential” workers. Why did the world not have the common sense or compassion to even find out what was happening to the “essential” workers? Specific to India: Why were the so-called pro-poor incapable of comparing virus risk to starvation risk for the millions of migrant labourers who lead a hand-to-mouth existence? Migrant workers were even heard saying in the media that they will not die of Covid but would surely die of hunger. Why did the so-called scientists and elites assume that they have the right to decide for someone else?
5 Report finding: “Those Who Recovered From COVID-19 Were Conferred Infection Acquired Immunity” (page 331).
Comment: Not only is this supported by recent evidence, this is one of the oldest truths known in healthcare. Immunity after natural infection and recovery is known science since more than 2400 years since the plague of Athens. Indeed, such immunity is the basis of most vaccines.
6 Report findings: “COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates Caused Massive Collateral Damage and Were Very Likely Counterproductive.” (page 340). “COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates Were Not Supported by Science.” (page 346).
Comment: Covid vaccines were never properly tested and approved vaccines, they were a mass medical experiment. What gave anyone the authority to violate someone else’s bodily integrity for a medical intervention, that too an experimental one? Why was there no informed consent?
7.,Report finding: “The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System is Insufficient and Not Transparent.” (page 349).
Comment: Specific to India: Such a system is virtually non-existent in India, there was just half an hour “observation” and a photo of the Supreme Leader after such “observation”. Even the mandatory half an hour observation was not followed in many villages – people were happy that they were not forced to wait for half an hour and could immediately leave for their work! Nobody was ever told of any possible side-effects or if anything happens where they should report.
8. Report finding: “There Was No Quantitative Scientific Support for Six Feet of Social Distancing.” (page 198).
Comment: Specific to India: Was such distancing ever possible in India? Why were Indian elites and even the so-called pro-poor blind to whether any apocalypse was happening in slums where such six-foot distancing is unthinkable? Did they not see crowds of starving migrant labourers queuing up for food? Crowds of migrant workers not only queuing up, some photographs showed them falling on each other – driven by starvation, in desperation for food. Why did the scientists and elites then not have the common sense to see that such six-foot distancing was made-up quackery?
9. Report finding: “The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Relied on Flawed Studies to Support the Issuance of Mask Mandates”. (page 207).
Comment: If the US CDC cited flawed studies, one has to ask: why did the rest of the world not have sufficient independent thinking to analyze critically? To the contrary, everyone – housing societies, municipal authorities, even higher education institutions – was blindly copying and downloading and printing CDC posters on masking.
10. Report finding: “The Biden Administration Employed Undemocratic and Likely Unconstitutional Methods to Fight What It Deemed to Be Misinformation.” (page 292).
Comment: It was not just the government, but so-called scientists also engaged in censorship of voices opposing the mainstream narrative – all in exaggerated panic. Such censorship is rife even today in social media platforms.
The US report must be commended for bringing out these ten truths. Its mention of the needless suffering of children is especially filling a much needed gap in honesty among officials in charge of Covid response, and for this no amount of praise is sufficient.
However, the report misses an entire family of four elephants-in-the-room.
The time element elephant: when did SARS-Cov-2 originate?
The US report begins with the finding: “SARS-CoV-2, the Virus that Causes COVID-19, Likely Emerged Because of a Laboratory or Research Related Accident.” (page 1). The report thus deems this finding to be of primary importance. This is an important finding indeed, and is likely a correct conclusion. However, the question of when SARS-Cov-2 originated is of far greater importance than where it originated. To take an analogy, in a case of suspected murder, the question of when the event happened is of prime importance – it should raise eyebrows if an investigation assiduously avoids the question of timing.
But this is exactly what the US report does – entirely skirts the timing question of when SARS-Cov-2 originated. This is of significance since there is substantial evidence that the so-called “novel and dangerous” virus was circulating as early as September 2019 in Italy, without anyone noticing anything extraordinary. During the military olympics held in China in October 2019, circumstantial evidence points to the fact that athletes from around the world caught, and likely took back with them, what was later to be termed as “Covid”.
So if the virus was circulating in different parts of the world in Sep/Oct 2019 without anyone noticing, can it really be termed as “novel and dangerous” ? This is the biggest elephant in the room avoided by the report – if the virus (regardless of man-made versus natural) were not clinically “novel and dangerous” in a meaningful way, the entire Covid pandemic narrative falls apart.
The Swedish elephant: lesser mortality than 2015
Amid the (manufactured) panic in Mar/Apr 2020, one prominent western country did not lockdown – Sweden. For this, it was vilified in the media and even in “scientific” circles. But no-lockdown, no-mask Sweden had no statistically meaningful excess deaths at all! In fact, the winter of 2015 saw a higher mortality in Sweden than the so-called first wave of Covid.
Should the US report not investigate as to why Sweden had no pandemic of note? It misses to do so.
The continent sized African elephant: poorer fared better
The Covid narrative ran – the virus was highly infectious and overwhelmed hospitals everywhere. So it is natural to ask what happened in places where population density is high and hospital resources are poor. Strangely, there was no pandemic of note in almost the entire continent of Africa – no reports of hospitals being overwhelmed, or large numbers of people dying, no reports of official counts missing many deaths.
Most of resource poor Africa had much lesser per-capita Covid mortality than resource rich New York and San Francisco. Should this not pique curiosity in a report investigating Covid response? Once again, there is no mention of this continent sized African elephant in the entire report.
The needle shaped elephant: Covid “vaccines” lack rigorous trial data
One of the report’s findings is: “Operation Warp Speed Was a Great Success and Helped Save Millions of Lives.” (page 301). This finding refers to the Covid “vaccines” – it is deeply flawed and is a political claim, lacking scientific evidence. Fittingly, the report cites only a simulation/modeling study to support this claim of millions of lives saved – thus conflating imagined simulations with real-world data. Whether a product is a safe and effective vaccine or an unsafe and ineffective immuno-suppressant is to be decided based on trial results. None of the randomised controlled trials (RCTs) started in 2020 for Covid “vaccines” have completed trial results – all were unblinded (abandoned) 2-6 months into the study, declaring success without the numbers to support it.
Worse, Pfizer’s intermediate results in fact showed more deaths in the “vaccine” arm than in the placebo arm. This needle-shaped elephant is also missed by the US report. It is therefore absurd and counter to scientific evidence, for it to claim that the “vaccines” saved millions of lives.
Where is such an official report in India?
It is unfortunate that we do not have any such official report in India – despite immense damage to children and poor, and continuing “sudden” and excess deaths time-correlated with the rollout of the Covid “vaccines”. Perhaps some blunders are too huge for anyone to admit and sleep at night after admitting.
---
*Professor at IIT Bombay. Views are personal
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