As I mentioned on April 21, I intended to revisit Phil Harper and his substack.com publication, The Digger. Harper has bolstered his invaluable Ivermectin series with follow-ups and a podcast interview. After providing specific details regarding the whys and wherefores of the TOGETHER trials, Harper's continuing investigative journalism has framed the often-contradictory narratives surrounding Ivermectin in a context that features all of the right questions. And that really is all anyone can do -- legwork, ask the obvious questions, do more legwork, ask some less obvious questions, and then more legwork.
Harper has been patient, dogged, and in some respects lucky in following the threads that he weaves into an evidentiary and logical tapestry that any civilian can understand. I have great respect for both Harper's investigative patience and attention to detail. Had I been privy to some of the information he's uncovered, I think my head would have exploded before I was able to clearly communicate the storylines in an even-handed, logical manner. I salute Harper's Joe Friday-style connecting of the dots and his take on not just what's been available for analysis, but the implications of what's unavailable, and also what's implied by the timing and sequencing of events.
Harper and The Propaganda Files
People who have followed me awhile know that I've done some line-by-line analyses to create frames and connect dots. I've also gone where I felt evidence and logic demanded. Some examples include the August 17 and 18 (2020) two-parter regarding Louis Gohmert's radio show appearance, the February 1 and 10 (2022) two-parter analyzing media responses to Aaron Rodgers public Covid stance, and the February 23 and 25 (2022) two-part analysis of Apoorva Mandavilli's CDC expose'. As opposed to my brief analytical essays, what Harper has done is true investigative journalism. He has, as his publication's title suggests, dug up the details and given them to us.
The key question for me, from the perspective of writing "The Propaganda Files," isn't whether Harper is more right than wrong. The key question is why hasn't every major news organization already trotted him onto the public stage and interviewed him. His research is painstaking and precise with major implications for how the public has been manipulated during the pandemic. How is it that Phil Harper isn't front and center on CNN every blessed night until everything he examines has also been put in front of the American public? The fact that he isn't is unbelievably ominous.
As cynical as I've been, as much as I've questioned pandemic narratives presented to us, I may have vastly underestimated the self-serving venality of all of the involved institutions. Given my normal baseline cynicism, to discover that I'm not cynical enough is a bit of a shock.
Dr. Been
I wanted to mention a particular lecture by Dr. Mobeen Syed (known as "Dr. Been" on YouTube) as a good example of a necessary line-by-line analysis of both a study and particular posted criticisms of the study. The paper was published in Nature on April 28. The title is "Increased emergency cardiovascular events among under-40 population in Israel during vaccine rollout and third COVID-19 wave."
I recommend that everyone take a look at the study, but the study itself is not my focus today. I wanted to point out how Dr. Syed very patiently analyzed the posted criticisms of the study that were presented by an organization called Voices for Vaccines. Syed does a very thorough line-by-line analysis of what Voice for Vaccines has to say.
From my perspective with "The Propaganda Files," here's the scary thing: Voices for Vaccines flat out lies about what the paper is saying. Personally, I can't call their ongoing comments misrepresentations, because "misrepresentations" doesn't cover it. In its posts, Voices for Vaccines declares that the study says various things that the study simply and clearly does not. The statements made by Voices for Vaccines are so consistently incorrect vis-a-vis the paper that the inaccuracy must be purposeful.
I have rarely seen anything like this in science. The actual Voices for Vaccines posts are not signed by any individual but by Voices for Vaccines as an organization. If you go to Voicesforvaccines.org, you will see many familiar pandemic faces. Some, such as William Schaffner at Vanderbilt, I had considered reliable science sources for the general public. Now I don't. Whoever was posting criticisms of this paper in the name of Voices for Vaccines was trying real hard to impose a nuclear-powered spin to undermine the paper. Now remember, this paper appeared in Nature of all places, not some backwater niche journal.
Nature's papers undergo gold standard peer reviews. Perhaps comments by organizations that are supposed to have at least read the paper should undergo similar peer review. Fortunately for me, Dr. Syed did a line-by-line rebuttal peer review of the Voices for Vaccines' comments. If someone like Schaffner is lending his name and clout to these kinds of dishonest hit jobs on peer reviewed papers in Nature, imagine how bad the overall pro-vaccine spin and pro-vaccine pressure must be.
I'm appalled at Scheffner's involvement. Schaffner is one of CNN's go-to talking heads. He's part of Vanderbilt's Medical School, which is a straight drive for me west on I-40 across the state. I am just horrified that some of the most respected experts are on board with this kind of over-the-top targeted hit job on a Nature paper. I'm flabbergasted.
The Whore(s) of Babylon
Since I've done the line-by-line analyses myself on a very limited scale, I sit up and take note when Dr. Syed (aka Dr. Been) does the same. I greatly appreciate his taking the time to do so, all without saying anything so blatant as to arouse the YouTube censors.
I thought, coming from the realm of professional gambling, where everything is misdirection and concocted narratives and contextually The Sting, that I was cynical enough to handle (without barfing) whatever big pharma, American medical institutions, and the American government could throw at me. I was wrong.
We are mired in an institutional hellpit, stuck in a quagmire of massive manipulation and outright lies. I'm relying on people like Phil Harper and Dr. Been to hold my head out of the propaganda toilet.
Bob Dietz
May 14, 2022
