As a difficult year draws to a close, and we all get ready to put aside our work duties and enjoy the much needed Christmas holidays, I thought it was an opportune time to step back from the nitty-gritty of the science and politics of Covid-19, to pose the question, what can we reasonably expect going forward? Are we likely to to regain our lost liberties, or are we likely to be living under a nightmarish regime of rolling lockdowns and medical apartheid for the foreseeable future?
Politics is a game played by free persons, so thankfully, the future is not set in stone. Nonetheless, there are some very powerful actors who have a vested interest in perpetuated emergency powers, lockdowns, and restrictions on everyday life for as long as possible.
The first set of public actors who benefit in an obvious way from the perpetuation of a public health emergency and its concomitant restrictions are national governments, since they get to exercise powers with minimal legislative scrutiny if there is a perception that they are responding to a public emergency. A public health emergency also serves to distract the public’s attention from the gaping deficiencies in public policy surrounding the pandemic, including the vast collateral harms of lockdowns.
Another sector that has a powerful vested interest in perpetuating a public health emergency is, of course, the pharmaceutical industry. Big pharmaceutical companies have profited handsomely from governments’ reckless decision to impose vaccines coercively; and from the public’s fear that without a vaccine, they might up end up on ventilators. If there is a public perception that we are no longer in a public health crisis, the flawed rationale for bullying people into vaccinating is weakened even further, and the future profits of the vaccine industry are jeopardised.
A third set of powerful actors who arguably have a lot to gain from perpetuating a public health emergency are mainstream media, who thrive on sensationalism, and whose reputation, in many cases, is tied up with the official Covid narrative that they have been instrumental in propagating. It would take a lot of maturity and humility for journalists who condemned and excoriated Sweden and Florida for taking a more moderate approach to disease control, to admit that Sweden and Florida were broadly correct, after all, while most other governments were wrong to follow the heavy-handed and illiberal Chinese approach.
For established media, international pharmaceutical conglomerates, and governments to restore civil liberties, withdraw their support for lockdowns, and admit to the futility of vaccine discrimination, would be for them to tacitly admit that they may have actually vastly over-reacted to the pandemic; over-estimated the efficacy of vaccines; and unnecessarily trampled on civil liberties.
For all of these reasons, the case against lockdowns, censorship, and vaccination coercion, however compelling from a scientific and ethical standpoint, is not likely to change the minds of political, pharmaceutical, and media elites anytime soon.
But this does not mean that freedom is lost forever, or that we are destined to live forever under a regime of medical coercion and draconian health serveillance. It just means that turning the tide on the new Covid regime is a marathon rather than a sprint.
We must be prepared for many setbacks and disappointments along the way as we fight to restore our birthright of freedom. We must find resources within ourselves and our communities to restore our spirits and find the support and inspiration we need to stay true to the cause of freedom we have championed, and persevere in this cause against all odds.
Christmas heralds the birth of a sinless child into a messy and fallen world, a child destined, according to the Christian tradition, to be a sign of the “rise and fall of many.” The birth of one child changed history forever. That certainly puts the power of governments, mainstream media, and Big Pharma in its place.
Thanks for reading! And a special thank you to so many readers who have supported me in my work, and so many friends and colleagues across the world whose work has informed and inspired my own. I wish all of you a very happy and peaceful Christmas!
Many thanks for your helpful essays, videos and podcast appearances, David. Miss you on Twitter but substack is a wonderful medium for your essays, in my humble opinion.
We have a lot of work in front of us in ‘22. My goal is to speak with one person every day who went along to get along with lockdowns and jab mandates and now is becoming more sceptical with every passing day. I’m my neck of the woods, these folks likely represent 25-35% of the population. The fully propagandized, unfortunately, are lost causes.
Wishing a Merry Christmas to you and yours and a healthy and prosperous 2022!
Thank you, David. I have enjoyed your writing immensely. Yes, let's hope that we find the off-ramp at some point.
I fear that if that sinless child were born today, it would be stuck with needles before long. Our modern-day equivalent of a crown of thorns....
All my best to you and yours over Christmas, and, hopefully, peace for all before too long.