Friday, December 24, 2021

COVIDiocy Conspiracy: Are the Antivaxxers Bankrolled by Koch Network?

The Daily Post just dropped a new article: "How the Koch Network Hijacked the War on COVID". It is quite long, but it can be summed up as... Koch Industries, one of the largest privately held fossil fuel company in the world, saw the lockdown as draining its profits (due to sharp drop in fuel use due to lockdown and supply chain problems), so it is using its reserves to push for re-opening at all fronts, from businesses lobbying, to medical professionals declaring, to social media blitzing, and more, directly contravening public health policies, and this is leading to millions of American casualties. 

One of the fronts was the so-called Great Barrington Declaration, where it calls for re-opening and targeted vaccination of the essential. The WHO outright called it "unethical", and other scientists called it cold-hearted, as it essentially sacrifices part of the population. The conference where GBD was signed was at American Institute for Economic Research, at Great Barrington, Massachusetts. What people may not have noticed is AIER derived a bit portion of its budget from Koch or foundations linked with Koch. 

It can be said that both Florida and Texas, with Republican governors, simply followed Trump as Trump liked the GBD, and even welcomed some of the signatories to the White House. At this point, it's worth noting that Trump's COVID advisor, Scott Atlas, is an MD, but has no background in epidemiology or public health. He had publicly stated that masks do not help curb infection, and called the idea of vaccinating children "denial of science". Both have been proven wrong. Trump's response to COVID was basically "let it run", which jives with GBD's approach to COVID... let it run and hope it achieves herd immunity. In fact, Trump said so in an interview, except he actually said "herd mentality". And Trump lost (and tried to cover that up by alleging voter fraud, but that's not relevant here). 

The Biden administration had already publicly stated that lockdown are off the table, even as omicron swept the country and is already deep into the US now. And Florida and Texas are opposed to various public health measures, with several other states following suit as well, mainly based on COVID misinformation spread by so-called think-tanks directly or indirectly funded by Koch or alumni from such think-tanks. 

My thoughts on this... 

This is about as close as the Illuminati being the Black Hand behind everything. And it fits a little TOO well. I doubt there is an active thought to mess with public health, but even unconscious bias has huge consequences when it involves billions of dollars. It's more like "where do I find some experts who agree with what I need?"

But at a deeper level, it is very... cold and calculating. And as a result, very disturbing. 

And it also explains the linkup between antivaxxers and conservatives. They sought each other. 

And the result is more American casualties as collateral damage for ideological gains. 

That's fascist, not American. 

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