Great summary and thanks for taking one for the team and reading this for us :-)
I was shocked after reading Dr. Atlas' book how large of a role Birx had played with regards to lockdowns, etc. While it was all playing out she struck me as more of a background figure than anything else. It was very illuminating to see how much she was steering policy.
This is a great article and certainly explains a few things. I read Scott Atlas' book and knew she had made some bad calls, but this certainly sheds more light on her behavior. I love the commentary (all that is missing is the maniacal laugh) etc)! I've wanted so much to understand how this travesty of justice happened and how it was so well coordinated and executed by so many people. Now we at least know who wrote the blueprint for the ridiculous American lockdowns. And we have a lead on its possible connection to China. Maybe someday all of the puzzle pieces will be complete and America will learn the real history of this tragic takeover and how to avoid it in the future.
I thought the “Scarf Queen” was more of a meely-mouthed, passive-aggressive nincompoop. I remember how wounded she acted when she proclaimed no one should gather for Thanksgiving & then got busted secretly whooping it up w/ her own family in CT or somewhere.
Who knew she is the Wicked Witch of the West behind the curtain??
Reading this brings to mind the image of a stone mason who gets called back to re-point a crumbling stone wall they built only a sort time ago. If there is any secret to stone masonry, it's that the stones need to stand on their own; mortar simply fills the small gaps. Walls crumble due to ignorance of the most basic concept: the stones must balance on top of each other. Hubris is what sells poor walls to the client who is none the wiser. When it crumbles, the stone mason then blames "nature" as the cause of the failure, with shrugged shoulders.
It is as clear as the sunrise that these folks live in an echo chamber and can only relate to each other. They are blind to the workings of the natural order of basic human interaction. Basic human interaction is self organizing and self balancing. All 330 million of us work it out each and every day, for the most part. (sans crime) Govt does not "run us" and tells us how to do these basic things. But many of these folks have lived in the echo chamber for so long, they are completely blind to this.
I've not read it yet--and thanks for doing it, as I'm not sure I could--but I gather that she wrote this to herself as a way to re-point the cracks in her own wall of crumbling lies.
Jul 14, 2022·edited Jul 15, 2022Liked by Michael P Senger
Alex Berenson has been skewered by many for a recent Substack wherein he places significant responsibility for the disastrous American pandemic response at the feet of Donald J. Trump. Among other things Berenson states, "But even Trump, a master at avoiding responsibility, cannot dodge the fact that he and his administration are responsible for the mRNA vaccines. "
Your last paragraph implies that Michael Pottinger was primarily responsible for Birx's appointment as Trump's Coronavirus Response Coordinator. Jared Kushner, whose uselessness cannot be overstated, believed Birx to be "100% MAGA", which was 100% wrong, as you stated. Pottinger was brought into the Trump fold through his association with Michael Flynn.
The Trump Administration was a revolving door of RINOs and necocons as we witnessed by the appointment and quick departure of John Bolton, H.R. McMaster, among others. Trump was the one who appointed Christopher Wray and Mark Milley.
In the final analysis, is Alex Berenson wrong? Looking forward to the Pottinger article.
That last line was a bombshell!! Oh my gosh. I knew who you were talking about as soon as you got to "Mandarin-fluent" but I was hoping it was not him.
I've read the Atlas book, but Gehenna will freeze over before I read Birx's. I will quibble with one comment. SHE is the abomination. I pray that book will be used against her at Nuremberg 2.0.
Jul 14, 2022·edited Feb 7, 2023Liked by Michael P Senger
Great piece, as usual. You are right to focus on the question of asymptomatic spread and asymptomatic testing, because this issue is truly central to the perception of the pandemic. While many have written about the huge false positives that result from testing asymptomatic people in widespread screening programs, very few people, even professionals, understood exactly how big an impact this has on the perception of the pandemic. FDA wrote way back in Nov. 2020 how a 98% specific antigen test can in fact produce 96% false positives in the real world with 0.1% background prevalence of the disease at issue. And this is indeed around where we have been much of the time during the pandemic. The misperception that "Omicron" is everywhere or similar such statements is driven largely by this massive false positive rate based on asypmtomatic testing. It really is that big a part of what's happened and I urge you, Michael, to devote additional essays to this issue specifically. Here's an essay I and my colleagues wrote on this for BMJ back in June 2021: https://www.bmj.com/content/373/bmj.n1411/rr
Jul 15, 2022·edited Jul 15, 2022Liked by Michael P Senger
Wonderful article! Thank you! Especially in light of this lowlife's sworn testimony to Jim Jordan and the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, 23 June 2022:
Jordan: Dr. Birx, can vaccinated people get COVID?
Birx: Yes.
Jordan: Have vaccinated people been hospitalized with COVID?
Birx: Yes.
Jordan: When the government told us that the vaccinated could not transmit the disease, was that a lie or was that a guess?
Birx: I think it was hope that the vaccine would work in that way..
I wholly concur with Underground Rssistance’s comment about taking one for the team. Thank you for doing it for us. I read this piece with mounting revulsion but after about half way through could no longer bring myself to ingest the quotes from this not only appallingly written but unbearably smug, sociopathic and self-glorifying witch. To think that people like this have such ability to direct the lives and fortunes of millions.
Jul 14, 2022·edited Jul 14, 2022Liked by Michael P Senger
Thank you for putting this together. It httas always bothered me that there is so much ire directed towards Fauci and so little towards Birx when it has been obvious to me that Birx was to blame for much of what happened these last two years. She was the effective lockdown politician behind all this. She flew to my red state and convinced my republican governor to shut down my church. It makes me sick to relive this and know that she was dishonestly presenting her intentions from the very beginning to manipulate our leaders.
I was drinking with family, sympathetic family that all agree covid mitigations are complete bullshit, and I proclaimed to them that the biggest dope in covid history was Deborah Birx. They were confused, because they couldn't really remember who she was.
I bet that's a common response. And I bet that's the way the power elite want it.
Jul 14, 2022·edited Jul 14, 2022Liked by Michael P Senger
These monsters can write all the books they want. I still won't ever trust a word that comes out of their mouths. Their books should be used as a written confession of their crimes and as evidence to prosecute them to the full extent of the law before putting them in lockdown at a supermaxx prison for the rest of their lives
I just read Dr Atlas' book this week and he does describe Dr Birx as one among many large egos in the White House. My take is that she is definitely responsible for encouraging the lockdowns (with the high culpability of the VP Pence), but she was the public face of what I heard repeatedly in 2020 from democrat officials, commentators, and journalists: they incessantly complained of the inefficiency of our federal system and argued for central control out of Washington. My impression at the beginning of the scamdemic is that this was in fact the whole point of the emergency and I was glad President Trump held firm and did not allow that to happen. He wisely and calmly stood his ground, and the governors showed their true colors by their own pandemic responses.
Great summary and thanks for taking one for the team and reading this for us :-)
I was shocked after reading Dr. Atlas' book how large of a role Birx had played with regards to lockdowns, etc. While it was all playing out she struck me as more of a background figure than anything else. It was very illuminating to see how much she was steering policy.
This is a great article and certainly explains a few things. I read Scott Atlas' book and knew she had made some bad calls, but this certainly sheds more light on her behavior. I love the commentary (all that is missing is the maniacal laugh) etc)! I've wanted so much to understand how this travesty of justice happened and how it was so well coordinated and executed by so many people. Now we at least know who wrote the blueprint for the ridiculous American lockdowns. And we have a lead on its possible connection to China. Maybe someday all of the puzzle pieces will be complete and America will learn the real history of this tragic takeover and how to avoid it in the future.
I thought the “Scarf Queen” was more of a meely-mouthed, passive-aggressive nincompoop. I remember how wounded she acted when she proclaimed no one should gather for Thanksgiving & then got busted secretly whooping it up w/ her own family in CT or somewhere.
Who knew she is the Wicked Witch of the West behind the curtain??
Reading this brings to mind the image of a stone mason who gets called back to re-point a crumbling stone wall they built only a sort time ago. If there is any secret to stone masonry, it's that the stones need to stand on their own; mortar simply fills the small gaps. Walls crumble due to ignorance of the most basic concept: the stones must balance on top of each other. Hubris is what sells poor walls to the client who is none the wiser. When it crumbles, the stone mason then blames "nature" as the cause of the failure, with shrugged shoulders.
It is as clear as the sunrise that these folks live in an echo chamber and can only relate to each other. They are blind to the workings of the natural order of basic human interaction. Basic human interaction is self organizing and self balancing. All 330 million of us work it out each and every day, for the most part. (sans crime) Govt does not "run us" and tells us how to do these basic things. But many of these folks have lived in the echo chamber for so long, they are completely blind to this.
I've not read it yet--and thanks for doing it, as I'm not sure I could--but I gather that she wrote this to herself as a way to re-point the cracks in her own wall of crumbling lies.
What a hateful woman. I sincerely hope she rots in hell. It never ceases to astound me how deluded and stupid those in high office can be. Smh.
Alex Berenson has been skewered by many for a recent Substack wherein he places significant responsibility for the disastrous American pandemic response at the feet of Donald J. Trump. Among other things Berenson states, "But even Trump, a master at avoiding responsibility, cannot dodge the fact that he and his administration are responsible for the mRNA vaccines. "
Your last paragraph implies that Michael Pottinger was primarily responsible for Birx's appointment as Trump's Coronavirus Response Coordinator. Jared Kushner, whose uselessness cannot be overstated, believed Birx to be "100% MAGA", which was 100% wrong, as you stated. Pottinger was brought into the Trump fold through his association with Michael Flynn.
The Trump Administration was a revolving door of RINOs and necocons as we witnessed by the appointment and quick departure of John Bolton, H.R. McMaster, among others. Trump was the one who appointed Christopher Wray and Mark Milley.
In the final analysis, is Alex Berenson wrong? Looking forward to the Pottinger article.
That last line was a bombshell!! Oh my gosh. I knew who you were talking about as soon as you got to "Mandarin-fluent" but I was hoping it was not him.
I've read the Atlas book, but Gehenna will freeze over before I read Birx's. I will quibble with one comment. SHE is the abomination. I pray that book will be used against her at Nuremberg 2.0.
Great piece, as usual. You are right to focus on the question of asymptomatic spread and asymptomatic testing, because this issue is truly central to the perception of the pandemic. While many have written about the huge false positives that result from testing asymptomatic people in widespread screening programs, very few people, even professionals, understood exactly how big an impact this has on the perception of the pandemic. FDA wrote way back in Nov. 2020 how a 98% specific antigen test can in fact produce 96% false positives in the real world with 0.1% background prevalence of the disease at issue. And this is indeed around where we have been much of the time during the pandemic. The misperception that "Omicron" is everywhere or similar such statements is driven largely by this massive false positive rate based on asypmtomatic testing. It really is that big a part of what's happened and I urge you, Michael, to devote additional essays to this issue specifically. Here's an essay I and my colleagues wrote on this for BMJ back in June 2021: https://www.bmj.com/content/373/bmj.n1411/rr
And here's a more detailed article on the same issues: https://www.authorea.com/users/61793/articles/527660-the-false-positive-paradox-and-the-risks-of-testing-asymptomatic-people-for-covid-19
Wonderful article! Thank you! Especially in light of this lowlife's sworn testimony to Jim Jordan and the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, 23 June 2022:
Jordan: Dr. Birx, can vaccinated people get COVID?
Birx: Yes.
Jordan: Have vaccinated people been hospitalized with COVID?
Birx: Yes.
Jordan: When the government told us that the vaccinated could not transmit the disease, was that a lie or was that a guess?
Birx: I think it was hope that the vaccine would work in that way..
Hope.
And then this gem from this corrupt lowlife: "'When people start to realize that 99% of us are going to be fine, it becomes more and more difficult' to get people to comply, she said." https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2020/aug/18/birx-notes-harm-of-virus-fatigue/
This crime and the scum who ran it and those who aided and abetted -- truly boggle the mind.
P.S. Apologies for the vulgar language, name-calling...
I wholly concur with Underground Rssistance’s comment about taking one for the team. Thank you for doing it for us. I read this piece with mounting revulsion but after about half way through could no longer bring myself to ingest the quotes from this not only appallingly written but unbearably smug, sociopathic and self-glorifying witch. To think that people like this have such ability to direct the lives and fortunes of millions.
Fantastic journalism & scholarship as usual Michael, well done.
What a terrible human being this Deborah Birx is
Thank you for putting this together. It httas always bothered me that there is so much ire directed towards Fauci and so little towards Birx when it has been obvious to me that Birx was to blame for much of what happened these last two years. She was the effective lockdown politician behind all this. She flew to my red state and convinced my republican governor to shut down my church. It makes me sick to relive this and know that she was dishonestly presenting her intentions from the very beginning to manipulate our leaders.
Bravo!!!
I was drinking with family, sympathetic family that all agree covid mitigations are complete bullshit, and I proclaimed to them that the biggest dope in covid history was Deborah Birx. They were confused, because they couldn't really remember who she was.
I bet that's a common response. And I bet that's the way the power elite want it.
These monsters can write all the books they want. I still won't ever trust a word that comes out of their mouths. Their books should be used as a written confession of their crimes and as evidence to prosecute them to the full extent of the law before putting them in lockdown at a supermaxx prison for the rest of their lives
Just one glaring example of the unelected administrative state that truly believes they answer to no one.
Great read, as always.
I just read Dr Atlas' book this week and he does describe Dr Birx as one among many large egos in the White House. My take is that she is definitely responsible for encouraging the lockdowns (with the high culpability of the VP Pence), but she was the public face of what I heard repeatedly in 2020 from democrat officials, commentators, and journalists: they incessantly complained of the inefficiency of our federal system and argued for central control out of Washington. My impression at the beginning of the scamdemic is that this was in fact the whole point of the emergency and I was glad President Trump held firm and did not allow that to happen. He wisely and calmly stood his ground, and the governors showed their true colors by their own pandemic responses.