And the Award for the Biggest Covid Lie Goes To...
The gaslighting is real, folks.
Warning: this post will be discussing concepts relating to psychological abuse, which are sensitive and triggering for many people. It will be applying these concepts as a framework to understand what is currently occurring in the world, and it will do so in a way that may be confronting and challenging.
For those not familiar with the dynamics of abusive relationships, there is an often-used term called ‘gaslighting’. This phrase has now well and truly infiltrated the general vocabulary, for largely (but not always) good reason.
Gaslighting is a malicious and insidious practice by an abuser, whereby they gradually cause their victim to doubt their own version of reality. This will often involve making the victim believe that a problem created by the abuser was actually the fault of the victim, and in doing so burden them with feelings of guilt, shame and other negative emotions. This leaves the victim in a constant state of cognitive dissonance, and over time breaks down the connections they have to their own self-worth, identity, and even to the concept of personal truth.
Keep that definition in mind as we take a look at the situation we now see playing out before us. I will use specific examples from my country, Australia, but I am sure you can see similar patterns emerging elsewhere.
The rollout started off so innocently and innocuously in the lucky Covid country down under. Lagging behind but following dutifully, as is our way on virtually every significant world issue, we were initially promised that the Covid vaccines would not be made mandatory. Well, sort of. The fine print was, of course, that some sectors may go their own way, Fleetwood Mac style, and impose such measures on their employees. Sure enough, we can now see clearly the sectors that will be targeted as such: first aged care, and now disability care.
Disability support work is my job, going on for almost 2 years. It is by far the most meaningful and fulfilling job I have ever had. I have, up until now, watched the pandemic drama play out from afar, but it looks like it is about to get personal. Luckily, I’m ready for it, and can see exactly how it will play out.
As this push for mandatory vaccination gains steam, this is how it will be framed: this is not about you. This is about protecting others: those that we love and support. This is about being selfless and being a good member of the community. And the best way to show that you are a selfless person — perhaps even the only way right now — is to get vaccinated.
There have been many falsehoods spread by both ‘sides’ during this debacle, but this is the clear victor for me in the Pandemic Porkie awards. It is, to be blunt, gaslighting: clear and blatant in front of our eyes.
We — and it will be all of us, because it won’t stop here if they are successful — are being psychologically abused by those who we have trusted to have our best interests at heart. If you reject this idea, find it offensive or damaging to your ego, I would ask you to consider if this is exactly how those in abusive relationships would react before they realise that those trying to warn them (and who actually did have their best interests at heart) were right.
I would also ask you to keep the following points in mind, next time you hear the arguments given by people who seek to make out to be selfish anyone asking legitimate questions concerning safety and health freedom.
Firstly, something that should be a given but seemingly now isn’t: the best way you can be of service to other people is to be healthy yourself. It is that simple: good diet, exercise, sunlight, mental health self-care, positive recreational habits to name a few. The role that you believe the Covid vaccine can play in your health on top of these non-negotiables is the primary reason why you should consider taking it — I would argue the only reason.
Obviously there is nothing wrong with wanting to take selfless measures that will prevent us from putting other people at harm. That’s not the argument here. It is whether getting a Covid vaccine has anything to so with anyone’s health except our own.
Good intentions can easily be abused and manipulated, if we aren’t careful. We have to be vigilant to ensure any health measures enforced upon us from on high for The Greater Good are based on actual science and evidence, not just ‘the vibe’. It is one thing to err on the side of precaution for the relatively benign practice of wearing face coverings. But it is completely different when it comes to the dicey practice of experimental vaccination.
Because it is experimental. The official clinical trial for the consensus favourite product — Pfizer — isn’t due to finish until 2023. And they have now un-blinded their trial (i.e. allowed placebo group members to receive the vaccine) meaning that any long-term data is effectively useless. Basically what we will be left with are these recently released 6 month trial findings: a clear reduction in Covid infections compared to the placebo, but no difference in overall death.
The impact on transmission was not even studied in these trials. It wasn’t included in the trials because the end point of reduced transmission was not how these vaccines were originally framed… or how they should be framed now, based on what we know about how they work.
Yes, you can find now, through a simple Google search, studies triumphantly claiming these vaccines reduce transmission. All of these studies are simply snapshots in time of a particular aspect of a vast, complicated, often contradictory and ever-evolving data picture. In the end, the proof will be in the pudding, as they say.
So this is what we are seeing. In countries most advanced in their vaccination rollouts — notably Israel and the UK — the vaccines were initially highly effective in protecting from infection and serious illness. After a few more months, it still looks like they protect from the serious aspects of Covid disease, although only time will tell how well this aspect of protection holds up. What doesn’t appear to be holding up well is the protection from infection itself, and by extension its ability to protect against transmission.
Don’t take my word from it, take the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) in the US, which has been held up as the most authoritative and trustworthy health organisation during the pandemic. Whether it deserves that status is not the point here, the point is that they have been one of the lead proponents of mass vaccination and are now saying this:
“With prior variants, when people had these rare breakthrough infections, we didn’t see the capacity of them to spread the virus to others. But with the Delta variant we now see in our outbreak investigations that have been occurring over the last couple of weeks… if you happen to have one of those breakthrough infections that you can actually now pass it to somebody else.”
Knowing this now, to continue to make the Covid vaccine about other people’s health and not our own is such an astonishing act of gaslighting that you almost have to admire it.
What we can do for others is to go back to basics. If you become sick, you stay at home and isolate, like we have always done (although probably not as well as we should have). This is easier said and done for some people, such as front line workers and primary careers, and shows how much work we need to create a society that allows and encourages everyone to take time off (for whatever reason it may be) when needed.
And if you aren’t sick? The science clearly shows that you pose little danger to other people: the myth of asymptomatic spread as a driver of infection in this pandemic is like the zombie lie that never dies.
Once again: there is absolutely nothing wrong with (or to be ashamed of) making the decision to get vaccinated — especially if you are doing it with the primary motivation of protecting others. But you should also be fully informed of the lack of evidence that you will in fact be protecting others — as well as the risks that are associated with this decision. You should do so while also understanding whether you fit into one of the groups that is at extremely low risk of serious illness from the virus.
And this is where we get to the astonishingly nature of the gaslighting at play. Our self-proclaimed protectors haven’t done any of this, and continue to fear-monger around the risk around the risk of the virus to young healthy people while downplaying any hazards from the vaccine. All the while, at the same time, they are of course pushing to make Covid vaccines mandatory, step by step, regardless of what the evidence is showing. As such, they have no right to lecture down to us from any kind of moral high ground.
In fact, perhaps more brazenly, they have also been obscuring from us the fact that there are valid treatment measures for protecting our most at-risk should the vaccine fail them. The debate about early treatments such as hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin is extremely murky — if you base your opinion simply on the official guidance, you would be wondering what the fuss is about. But I have been following this from the start — I have articles on HCQ here and here, and IVM here and here — and feel like I have clearly demonstrated two things: that each drug (particularly IVM) can effectively treat Covid infectees and reduce their risk of serious illness and death when used in the correct way; and that each has been subject to a deliberate campaign of suppression from our ‘protectors’.
And this leads to the most outrageous element of this whole gaslighting agenda. This should also go without saying, but it is hard to tell anymore: your level of true selflessness and service to your community is not and never will be judged by others. This is between you and whatever entity you associate with objective morality: God, karma, even just your own conscience. It most certainly is not judged by a politician, a health bureaucrat, or any other public figure who has quite likely only made it to such a prestigious and powerful position by compromising their own morality.
I had a feeling we would arrive here. As much I dislike every aspect of how we have gotten to this situation, I also welcome it, because this is where we get the chance to push back. I have already contacted my support coordinator asking about the official stance of the service provider to this news, and I am already preparing my contribution to the consultation process that I will insist they undertake before any decisions are made. If you find yourself in a similar position, I urge you to think what you can do to start your own pushback, and I would be happy to help if I can.
Abusive relationships rarely if ever end nicely. An abuser doesn’t just wake up one day, realise they have been acting abusively, and let their victim walk out of the door and on to a peaceful life, trauma free. If you think this current situation is suddenly going to resolve itself nice and neatly, I am going to suggest you will be disappointed. At some stage, we will have to make the conscious decision to break from the gaslighting, break from this abusive relationship, and choose the version of reality that we know inside ourselves to be true.
I can only finish by speaking personally. When, or if, it comes to that point, after having done whatever I can to prevent it, I will make the decision about whether I will get vaccinated to keep my job. Whatever I do decide, it will have nothing to do with the gaslighting that is coming from above. It will be because I know within myself that it is the right thing to do, because I am done with outsourcing my morality and my reality to others.