We at Mad Mondays haven’t reported on the pandemic for a couple of weeks. Life has continued on and, unless you’re online or watching the news, there is little evidence of the past two years. While the slow drip of clarity seems to be corroding a hole in the narrative, there is still a whole lot of obfuscation going on and people continue to be harmed by half-truths and lies. 

Dr. Harvey Risch, an MD and epidemiology professor at Yale, was recently asked what he viewed as the biggest lie of the pandemic and his answer is a great summary of how we got here. Professor Risch says that the demonization of hydroxychloroquine early in 2020 set the tone for the rest of the pandemic. He is baffled that medical practitioners acted as if there was nothing that could be done to treat COVID and let people die rather than use cheap and readily available drugs and supplements. That all this happened while pharmaceutical companies enriched themselves with a patented vaccine is unconscionable. 

Risch was blackballed by the medical establishment and media early in the pandemic for insisting that hydroxychloroquine was a safe and effective treatment for early-stage COVID. He also spoke out against the media obsession with randomized control trials. Although such trials are handy when you can get them, Risch explains that unless studies are well-designed and include tens of thousands of participants, randomization is of no benefit. It is interesting to watch a heated TV interview with Dr. Risch from two years ago, remembering that COVID vaccines were not subject to the FDA’s own “gold standard”. 

Doctors continue to speak out against medical tyranny, with one group calling for an end to COVID vaccines and more investigation into safety.  While most places are lifting restrictions, California’s lawmakers have sent a bill to Governor Newsom which would see doctors deregistered for offering advice outside of the approved medical “consensus”. Elsewhere, concerned doctors who believe that physicians are too influenced by pharmaceutical interests have formed a telemedicine company.

In other COVID news:

A new study of randomized trial data from Pfizer and Moderna’s mRNA COVID vaccines claims that the risk of “severe adverse events” associated with the drugs may be as high as 36%. (Science Direct)

Denmark has stopped offering COVID vaccines to anyone under fifty years of age. Healthcare and aged-care workers are still required to take booster shots. (Western Standard)

Embalmers are finding blood clots in the blood of the dead. Teenager in Ohio has to rethink his football career after six feet of blood clots were removed from his body. (Epoch Times, WTOL)

Twitter sleuth, Eugyppius says a study from Italy is evidence that Sars-CoV-2 outbreak started earlier than Wuhan cases.  (Substack)