When asking questions gets you cancelled by the 'COVID-19 gods'. Early last week, I became aware of a letter written by Dr. Patricia Lee to Dr. Peter Marks of the FDA and Dr. Tom Shimabukuro of the CDC. In writing, Dr. Lee became part of a small but growing group of doctors who have the courage to speak openly and honestly about what they are experiencing treating patients with COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccine injuries.
In normal times, it would not require courage for doctors to express concerns regarding their first-hand clinical experiences to federal health authorities and the public. I would have thought doctors contributing information to alert the medical establishment and inform treatment guidelines would be applauded and their input highly valued. But these are not normal times.
Instead, doctors, nurses, and researchers who have perspectives and opinions that differ from those of the "COVID-19 gods" in government, news outlets, and social media are shunned, vilified, fired, and sued. The brave individuals who speak out against these goliaths risk their reputations, medical licenses, and livelihoods.
Dr. Lee was well aware of these risks when she raised vaccine concerns to the FDA and CDC. She wrote, "It is my sincere hope that the reaction to this letter will not be to focus on me, but rather to focus on addressing the serious safety issues with these products that, without doubt, you have either missed or are choosing to ignore."
When doctors raised similar concerns or discussed other treatment options on social media, they were censored, criticized, or canceled. Early in the pandemic, doctors who had the courage and compassion to treat COVID-19 patients were posting videos to relay their experiences and theories about the disease. The internet should be a tool for medical professionals to exchange ideas and advance the practice of medicine, but instead, those videos were removed or labeled as dangerous misinformation.
Media vilification soon followed. Because President Trump expressed interest in one potential COVID-19 drug, hydroxychloroquine, any doctor who supported repurposing that and other cheap, generic drugs for early treatment became a public enemy. Rather than fully examine and promote early treatments, health agencies essentially instructed sick patients to do nothing until they required hospitalization. Shortly after my November 2020 Senate hearing on early treatment with three eminently qualified doctors, Peter McCullough, Harvey Risch, and George Fareed, an op-ed in the New York Times labeled us all "Snake-Oil Salesmen of the Senate."
Apparently, the powers that be have determined that vaccines were the only solution to end the pandemic, and speaking or asking about other approaches was blasphemy. With the COVID-19 death toll in America exceeding 700,000, and the CDC's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) indicating 16,766 deaths and 798,636 total adverse events, isn't it past time to question the wisdom of the "COVID-19 gods"? If their approach has worked so well, why have we experienced the surge of the Delta variant and why are fully vaccinated individuals contracting and transmitting the virus, becoming ill, being hospitalized, and dying?
Sorry, we're not supposed to ask those questions.
In June 2021, I held a press event for vaccine-injured individuals to tell their stories. All they were asking was to be seen, heard, and believed so that the root cause of their maladies would be acknowledged in order to help find cures. Instead of showing any compassion or asking the vaccine-injured questions and delving into what happened to them, most of the media decided to attack me. They posted my picture with a story above the fold in newspapers throughout Wisconsin labeling me "fundamentally dangerous."
What is "fundamentally dangerous" about asking questions prompted by true stories of injuries following vaccination? Why is the media so quick to vilify individuals who share their concerns about the vaccines rather than focusing on the documented injuries?
Because of this new repressive reality, millions of Americans are now facing a life-altering decision forced upon them by freedom-robbing vaccine mandates. Those imposing vaccine mandates are ignoring natural immunity, the danger of vaccine injuries, and the fact that fully vaccinated individuals are contracting and spreading the virus – making the mandates ridiculously ineffective.
Why are the "COVID-19 gods" denigrating and warning the public about cheap, generic drugs used safely for decades? Over a 25-year span, ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, and the flu vaccine have 379, 1,639, and 1,673 death reports associated with their use, respectively. Compare that to the 16,766 deaths reported to the CDC after COVID-19 vaccination in just 10 months.
In 1976, CDC Director David Sencer suspended the swine flu vaccine program after reports of at least 25 deaths and more than 500 cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome following vaccination.
Have our safety standards changed? When did science become settled, especially when there is so much we don't know about COVID-19? Why is questioning the COVID-19 groupthink considered dangerous?
The pandemic has revealed major problems with our institutions. Although highlighting these issues has resulted in me being labeled a snake oil salesman and dangerous, I will not stop asking questions or holding experts accountable. The American people deserve the truth.
• Ron Johnson is an American accountant, businessman, and politician serving as the senior United States Senator from Wisconsin.