Fighting Disinfo is one thing, but ...

Image: Not the first time Trudeau has worn blackface


Fighting Disinfo is one thing, but Misinfo too?

That's going to put a real crimp in political speeches!

CBC: Federal government open to new law to fight pandemic misinformation

• It's one of several measures the government is considering to counter fake news about the virus online

One commenter to the CBC article (posted here as is) was quick to point out some serious misinfo provided by the Government itself (bolding entirely mine):

• This government, this reactionary government keeps changing its mind. it asks us to isolate but wont isolate the country. Tells us not to travel to family on Easter but Trudeau does. Tam cant decide if a mask works or not, so when was she spreading misinformation and not? She should know, its her job. She told us that this would not significantly effect Canada. Then she said, pull out all stops. Trudeau says nothing will come back to normal unless there is a vaccine, how does he know? Canadian military intelligence told him about this back in January but he refused to act on it. The excuse that its evolving has some merit. but not for everything.

SpencerFernando: Video: Rosemary Barton Cuts Away Just As Pierre Poilievre Asks Trudeau About Early Virus Warning

The video referred to above doesn't seem to be working at the moment (sometimes, due to people working from home, there's a drain on the bandwidth - or else the video has been dumped by Google), but in a search I found a video that is even more interesting: Pierre Poilievre asks how many people from the "most infected" area in China (2000, he says) were allowed into Canada after receipt of the aforementioned "military intelligence" without immediately being placed in confinement.

Chrystia Freeland, after considerable dissembling, finally answers: "They were told to self-isolate". "Told to self-isolate"; not required to self-isolate as arrivals later were. Also note: none of the parliamentarians in this video are wearing masks, nor are they fully distancing.

(As an aside: I've always wondered why the rule for public transit buses is an empty seat between riders. Not six feet.) 

It doesn't really matter what Rosemary Barton did; it matters more what Trudeau did.  It seems clear that he was readying for something big when he gave the media $600 million -- to protect the “vital role that independent news media play in our democracy and in our communities”-- along with other perks to help them increase paid subscriptions. NatPost

So who is guilty of misinformation? It's hard to believe that any really serious contemplation on that topic is occurring. If this were already a law then Trudeau et al would be in contempt -- or, do they have immunity from their own laws, as they seemed to think when they broke the distancing and travelling rules; is there a special vaccine for that?

Many of the commenters to the CBC article on "misinformation" felt this was the beginning of the end for freedom of speech and opinion and quoted dystopian literature quite meaningfully.

One lonely commenter, looking to the government alone for direction and apparently wishing to support the crackdown on "fake news" wrote: One cannot yell, "FIRE" in a crowded theatre.

If this is true, then arrest the whole government for having yelled "FIRE" in a population of upwards of 37 million.  The rest of us, having lived previously through countless winters of varying varieties of flu, would never have thought much about it, nor would the media. Flu of one sort or another, usually pandemic in character and variety, has long been a mere fact of winter life. "It's the flu", one would say on informing one's employer that one couldn't come to work.

Besides, we knew there were far greater causes of death in Canada that the government never got upset about, like cancer, car crashes, medical mistakes, addictions, etc.

HuffPost Oct. 2016: In Canada, medical errors and hospital-acquired infections claim between 30,000 and 60,000 lives annually. Thousands more are injured. But to the public, these incidents are largely invisible.

You can toss the insult "Conspiracy Theorist" at me all you like, but you can't answer, nor can I, why there is a lack of government concern over those deaths, yet sheer panic over something they've called Corona-19, which means nothing at all until you add the word "novel". What a difference a word makes, even if, in truth, the virus acts exactly like a fairly mild flu in otherwise healthy people.

Here's where I'm happy to distance myself from the whole medical profession, so sadly influenced by the evil, money-grubbing vaxxinators. Yeah, George Soros; you and Bill Gates and your simple-minded admirers like Chrystia Freeland (none of whom has any scientific knowledge whatsoever) are little more than money grubbers, and the power that obscene wealth wields among the same type of empty souls who go ape over sleazy movie stars. You know it's true, and that's why you always look a bit embarrassed with your tight-lipped smiles, but still can't stop because it's an obsession.

Megalomania is a real disease, and what these types really need is psychiatry, though I wouldn't place much hope in that either.

Just three months ago, we could stand behind someone in a supermarket lineup, hear a deep, croupy cough, and offer them sympathy.  You'd discuss remedies (Buckley's is the best, a woman told me); you'd ask, did you get the shot?  Often, they'd say "Yes, but I got sick anyway".  You'd part with "hope you're feeling better soon", and that would be it.  You'd go home and forget about it.

It was flu season, for pity's sake!  It comes every winter. Some people get it; some don't. I never get it, but that probably doesn't make me superior to those who do (I get other stuff). And they have my complete sympathy.  But that sympathy has never extended to toleration of restrictions on my own comings and goings. Nor do I willingly suffer the grocery store police. Give some people a little bit of power and you create a monster. We see that with politicians all the time.

The interesting thing about Covid-19, however, as compared to the regular seasonal flu, is that more often than not, the symptoms are much milder than the regular flu -- unless, of course, your health is already compromised by some other condition - in which case your relatives and friends need to stay away from you if they've got a fever or cough.

That's always been the case with newborns, as well. If you care at all, you don't go near one if you've got the sniffles.

But here's a quote from a story linked-to below about what happens to credible experts when they speak this kind of truth:

• “Why do you blow the horn?” “To keep the tigers away.” “But there are no tigers here.” “There you see!”

Dr. Peter Gøtzsche, former head of Cochrane [Wiki], expelled after publishing this book.
You can, however, read his article: Corona: an epidemic of mass panic” LINK

(The sad thing about the book is that it apparently can only be read with something like Amazon's "Kindle". It would be interesting to find out why.)

You can read more about Dr. Gøtzsche at the blog of Dr. Malcolm Kendrick who states:

• ...when an organisation that I had a lot of time for, the organisation now known as Cochrane, which used to be the Cochrane Collaboration, loses its way, one wonders if the lamps truly are turning out across the world. Perhaps never to be turned on again.

That certainly calls for some heavy duty positive thinking. Time to sing, and sing, and sing Vera Lynn's WWII song: "When the Lights Go On Again All Over the World"

That's how serious this is, folks.

Dr. Kendrick also refers us to an in-depth review of the situation with Cochrane:
Cochrane: A Sinking Ship? Dr Maryanne Demasi, PhD --16th August 2018

• There are concerns that Cochrane has become preoccupied with “brand promotion” and “commercial interests”, placing less importance on transparency and delivering “trusted evidence”.

Can't decide if the Cochrane cabal are guilty of dis- or mis-info. Either way, they don't seem to have much room for truth tellers with pristine reputations.

​Any one of them would make a fine politician.

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