Plandemic Problem

I've seen a lot of people sharing or attempting to share a video entitled Plandemic.  The video, a 26 minute preview for their upcoming feature documentary, purports to reveal the truth about the Covid-19 pandemic, from the point of view of a suppressed scientist, Judy Mikovits.  I won't link to it here, because I refuse to spread dubious information.

The video is clearly conspiracy theory fodder.  It paints Judy Mikovits as a hero who has been jailed and silenced for her opposition to a global conspiracy of Big Pharma, national governments, and health organizations.  She is supposedly now able to speak because the five year ban has been lifted.  And she would have us believe that Covid-19 has been planned, it has been released to profit Big Pharma particularly through a yet undeveloped vaccine, and that governments, the World Health Organization, Dr. Fauci, etc., etc., etc. are all implicated.  And of course, it's been going on for years.

She goes on to add beliefs that autism is connected to viruses, to vaccines, and could be cured.  That chronic fatigue syndrome is caused by a virus.  That getting the flu vaccine make you more susceptible to Covid-19.  That our immune systems will crater because of stay in place orders (even after just a couple of weeks).  That there are healing microbes in the beach.

IT'S JUNK SCIENCE.

IT'S CONSPIRACY THEORY.

IT'S FALSE.

A quick google search on Mikovits would reveal that her one study was discredited because no one else could replicate her results.  That is how actual science works - through peer review and confirmation.  She was arrested and jailed for theft from her laboratory, though she would claim her innocence and that it was planted as part of the coverup.

I get it, conspiracy theories are appealing because they bring order to chaos.  They make things sound appealing because it provides a reason why everything is happening.  Even though it is a frightening reason when you consider the possibilities and implications, it still provides a reason compared to our reality where reasons are hard to find.

If you take just one minute to think through the implications, it all falls apart.

Let's put aside the profit angle that this video has.  I mean, it is a preview designed to get people to buy an upcoming documentary on the subject.  It's really trying to sell you on watching.  To scare you into watching, so that you know the "truth."

Just looking at the conspiracy claimed, it's too unbelievable.  Too outlandish.  It claims a global conspiracy - cross governmental, worldwide conspiracy and coverup.  Remember, we are not the only country that is reacting in this manner to this virus.  Lockdowns and stay in place orders are occurring on every continent across the globe.  Why would governments that are politically opposed to our government act in the same fashion, under the same conspiracy?  If this was really occurring, surely there would be countries that would be acting in opposition, right?  I mean, Dr. Fauci couldn't influence Iran?  Russia?  China?  You mean to have me believe everyone is united in this, when they can't be united anywhere else?  And no one else is going to leak it?

Occam's Razor most often wins out.  The simplest answer is usually the right one. What's more likely - all governments acting together under some great Big Pharma conspiracy?  Or all governments not knowing what to do and reacting how they see best given the information they have, looking at other countries for example?  It's scary to think that everyone is just doing their best to adjust and deal with something they were not prepared for, but that's most likely the truest answer.

Conspiracy relies on pointing to topics where we should have a healthy skepticism and stretches that beyond credibility.  Videos like this work, they make you start to accept even their outlandish claims, because they make you latch on to about 20% of the information in them that posits genuine questions.

It's one thing to question.  We should be cautious about the eventual vaccine.*  We need to make sure that it has been thoroughly tested and that its potential side effects are well known before administering it to a population.  That does not equate with believing that any vaccine will be some sort of control mechanism.   Nor does it make all of their other statements in the video true.

Please, please, please, think through these.  Look at them critically.  There will always be people who try to convince you that someone is out to get you.  One of the most disastrous trends in American society is this belief that experts are out to get us.  A distrust of intellectualism.  These people are not on your side.  The will continue to stoke fear, for their own gain, to divide us further, to make us reliant on them.

We can do better.

* Side note - What really bugs me about their vaccine skepticism is that they don't have any internal consistency in their argument.  They would have us distrust any vaccine, because the people that are making it are bad, but we should jump on hydroxychloroquine because of anecdotal evidence and it needs no further testing.