OPINION:
Last month, Dr. Robert Malone, an American virologist and immunologist who worked on developing the mRNA technology used in COVID-19 vaccinations, suggested to podcaster Joe Rogan that we are living through an era of mass formation psychosis.
“There was a European intellectual inquiry into what the heck happened in Germany in the ’20s and ’30s,” Dr. Malone explained. “Very intelligent, highly educated population and they went barking mad. How did that happen?”
He continued: “The answer is mass formation psychosis. When you have a society that has become decoupled from each other and has free-floating anxiety and a sense that things don’t make sense … and then their attention gets focused by a leader or series of events on one small point, just like hypnosis … they can be led anywhere.”
“The people they identify as their leaders,” he added, “the ones that typically come in and say, ‘You have this pain, and I and I alone can solve it for you’ — they will follow that person. It doesn’t matter whether they lie to them. … The data is irrelevant.”
“Furthermore, anybody who questions that narrative is to be immediately attacked. They are ‘the other,’” Dr. Malone said. “And this is what has happened. We’ve had all of those conditions.”
Shortly after the Dec. 31 interview, “mass formation psychosis” began trending in online searches. Google searches on this day suggested the company was scrambling to censor the content, and manually altering its algorithm to find no search results.
“It looks as if these results are changing quickly,” a Google message on Jan. 1 said in response to a search for the term. “If this topic is new, it can sometimes take time for results to be added by reliable sources.”
Last week, YouTube took down the video of the Rogan-Malone interview. Over the weekend, the trusty “fact-checkers” at Reuters and The Associated Press droned in unison that there is no evidence of pandemic mass formation psychosis.
Now, when you Google the term, only the “fact-checks” denouncing Dr. Malone’s theory appear online — ironically, proving Dr. Malone may have a point: Go against the prevailing narrative, and you will be chastised and removed from the public debate.
We live in a twisted age, where Big Tech and the media, instead of questioning the Biden administration on behalf of the people, are now using their megaphones to blast out the administration’s talking points.
Call it the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, like the one used by National Socialist Germany to control the content of the press, literature, film, music, theater, television and radio.
The Washington Times opinion pages have been called out several times by these so-called “fact-checkers” and have been put on notice by Big Tech.
Just last week, Michael McKenna’s column questioning why we call these COVID-19 shots vaccines — when they don’t prevent the spread or contraction of the virus — got fact-checked “false” by “independent” fact-checkers used by Facebook.
Facebook said the piece lacked “context: Independent fact-checkers say this information could mislead people,” citing a fact-check that simply said: “The vaccines are vaccines … using needles or sprays to trigger immune responses that protect us against viruses when they show up is vaccination, and that’s what the three U.S.-approved shots do.”
The “fact-check” ignored the rapid spread of the omicron variant among vaccinated and boosted individuals, the waning efficacy of all three approved vaccinations, and the fact the CDC changed the “definition” of a vaccine in May to focus on the stimulation of an immune response rather than immunity. The gatekeepers simply parroted the government’s line.
As The Wall Street Journal explained in its opinion pages this week: “As of Jan. 1, omicron represented more than 95% of U.S. Covid cases. … Because some of omicron’s 50 mutations are known to evade antibody protection, because more than 30 of those mutations are to the spike protein used as an immunogen by the existing vaccines, and because there have been mass omicron outbreaks in heavily vaccinated populations, scientists are highly uncertain the existing vaccines can stop it from spreading. As the CDC put it on Dec. 20, ‘We don’t yet know … how well available vaccines and medications work against it.’”
Last year, the CDC admitted COVID-19 vaccines no longer prevent transmission, and last week Moderna’s CEO said people may need a fourth COVID-19 shot as the efficacy of boosters is likely to decline over time.
The Washington Times challenged the “fact-check” with, you know, facts. We don’t anticipate any response, revision or apology from the mainstream media or Big Tech. As a matter of fact, we expect this article will be flagged as well.
Other columns we have run on these pages, citing the benefits of natural immunity and questioning if COVID-19 originated in a lab in Wuhan, China, the benefit of vaccinating small children and the wisdom of a universal vaccination strategy, have all come under similar scrutiny — from the same folks.
We view it as our job to question authority. To listen and give fair representation to all voices on any issue. To give an opinion and for it to be heard or challenged.
The more voices there are in any debate, the better. This is our philosophy, and we’re not backing down.
• Kelly Sadler is the commentary editor at The Washington Times.
For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.
