In the murky world of medical research (slogan: The result you want, guaranteed to the highest bidder), the one shining light has been the Cochrane Collaboration.* Its independent research has endeavored to get as close to the truth as humanly possible without fear or favor, which usually means someone somewhere won’t like the conclusions.
Just recently, the Cochrane researchers pronounced that wearing face masks didn’t stop the spread of Covid-19 or protect you from viruses. So, there was everyone wearing these masks (and they are still around today), affecting their breathing and the castoffs were polluting the environment, and all for nothing—just as WDDTY suggested a long time ago.
The researchers analyzed 12 studies that had monitored more than 600,000 people, and two of the studies looked at healthcare workers who were wearing the superior medical or surgical masks. But whatever type of mask was worn, they were just as likely to catch Covid—or any virus, come to that—as someone who wasn’t wearing a mask. The masks made “little or no difference,” the Cochrane study concluded.
This isn’t so surprising when you look at the science. The SARS-CoV-2 virus responsible for Covid-19 is around 50 nanometers in size—it measures 50 billionths of a meter—so the holes in the masks look like giant, welcoming orifices to it, and it passes through with consummate ease.
As usual, the mainstream media ignored the study, but it got picked up on social media. Still the mainstream media didn’t want to know, although one of its acolytes, in the guise of the ironically named Trusted News Initiative (TNI), got in touch with the lead researcher, Dr Tom Jefferson, and asked if he’d like to “correct” the tweets and posts he had made that were suggesting masks don’t make a difference.
“Do you think it is a misrepresentation to claim that your study definitively proves that masks don’t work in preventing the spread of viruses such as Covid-19 and the flu? If so, I’d be interested in debunking these claims to set the record straight and would love to speak with you more about the study,” an email from a trusted TNI veteran pronounced (italics ours).
Of course, Dr Jefferson had no desire to debunk the comments on social media—because they were a fair and accurate reflection of his study.
But why would the TNI—set up by the BBC, the Washington Post, the Associated Press and Reuters in order to stop the spread of “fake news”—wish to suppress the truth, or at least report on a study from an independent group? Isn’t the function of the Fourth Estate to hold to account the powerful on the public’s behalf? In these strange Covid times, the media has morphed into the mouthpiece of government, a propaganda tool for the rich and powerful to access and employ.
The point hasn’t escaped Robert Kennedy Jr, who heads up the Children’s Health Defense, which questions the safety of some vaccines and campaigns for safer healthcare for children. He’s suing the TNI for suppressing “wholly accurate and legitimate reporting” and depriving people of vital information about matters of legitimate public concern.
The Children’s Health Defense has been barred from every social media outlet, and this ban poses an “existential threat,” says Kennedy, as it isn’t able to fundraise.
The legal suit pivots on an interesting point. Usually, the media can’t be sued for printing or, in this case, not printing articles as it’s a “free press” that determines what it deems fit to publish. However, argues Kennedy, it isn’t a free press as the media has become a government agency, and one that is interfering with the commercial interests of his organization.
The media has also benefited financially by shadowing the government line and has been rewarded with big advertising orders from health agencies and Big Pharma.
Aside from Kennedy’s organization, the only loser is you, but you’ve been put in such a state of terror by Project Fear that you’re unlikely to complain. Or are you?
* Peter Gotzsche, a Danish researcher who co-founded Cochrane in 1993, doesn’t agree. He was unceremoniously kicked out in 2018 after his research findings had ruffled too many Big Pharma feathers. He tells the story in his book, Death of a Whistleblower and Cochrane’s Moral Collapse (Art People, 2019).
What do you think? Start a conversation over on the... WDDTY Community
