I had first heard about these booklets by watching Fox News one evening. I believe it was the Tucker Carlson Show. Alex Berenson was a guest on the show and was discussing how his first booklet, Unreported Truths about COVID-19 and Lockdowns, Part 1: Introduction and Death Counts and Estimates, was censored by Amazon. The same Amazon that sells copies of Mein Kampf, Fanny Hill, The Communist Manifesto, and The Anarchist Cookbook, which it should. Amazon as well as other big tech companies should not be in the business of censoring books and other literature, if the book is not banned by the government. Naturally, I could not imagine what could possibly be in these bookl
ets that crossed the line more than other books for sale on Amazon. So, I ordered the first three that night!
What I read not only confirmed many of my thoughts on our country’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak, especially New York State, but also shed some light on the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
Part 1 focuses on how COVID-19 deaths are reported. Berenson makes a compelling argument that questions the number of reported COVID-19 deaths. He points out that most COVID-19 deaths occur in people over the age of 75, many of whom have health related issues that may have ended their lives in 2020 despite COVID. The author says, “Many states assume that anyone with a positive coronavirus test has died from the disease, no matter what their actual cause of death.” Berenson goes on to quote the Director of the Illinois Department of Heath “It means technically even if you died of a clear alternate cause, but you had COVID at the same time, it’s still listed as a COVID death.” That means that if you died of a gunshot wound and had COVID, it is listed as a COVID death. How can that be accurate? How can that be legal? Why is there such a push to count every death as a COVID death?
Well Mr. Berenson, after reading your first booklet, you officially have my attention!
Part 2 provides a brief update to Part 1 and focuses on the effectiveness of the lockdowns in other countries and individual states. A few countries, such as New Zealand, were effective in their lockdowns. But New Zealand is an island and not a huge global trader. So, when they shut down fast and hard, they were spared the high COVID numbers, as well as global politics and criticism. (Kind of makes you want to move there, right?) Other countries, like Italy and Spain, shut down hard but not fast enough and suffered high COVID numbers. There are other factors to consider though. They have a high population of senior citizens (must be the wine), a poor health care system, and high air pollution, contributing to severe cases of influenza each season. So, if we cannot compare the results of each country due to its varying populations, geographies, health care, and even weather, then how can we compare the results of each U.S. state? Florida’s needs are vastly different than South Dakota; New York’s needs are obviously different than Iowa. So, why is the media ready to criticism and bash a state’s COVID response when there is a spike? And why are governors lashing out against other governors? Simply put, politics. Berenson points out in this booklet that the states without long-lived shutdowns and restrictions have had lower COVID ‘cases’, even with short-lived spikes in positive test results, than some of the states with strict sanctions. Does that mean that the Florida and Arizona governors know what to do regarding COVID more than the New York and California governors? No, but it could indicate that long-lasting lockdowns are not the answer.
Part 3, which was written just after the 2020 Presidential election, focuses on the use of facial masks as a preventative measure for COVID-19. Probably the most heated issue of the pandemic. Berenson makes a strong argument against the use of masks as a universal method to prevent or slow the spread of viruses. In the beginning of the booklet, I was not sure why he was explaining the difference in measurements for droplet size, but it becomes clear that it is an important factor. You see, respiratory viruses, like influenza and COVID, live on the smallest droplets in the air. They pass right through most masks and travel further into the body where is can cause severe symptoms. Larger droplets like from coughing, sneezing, or talking, could be stopped by a mask but do not travel as far into a person’s body, causing less severe symptoms. I find this interesting.
I also find it interesting that many of the medical experts have been against the use of masks in a non-hospital setting. Berenson cites several medical journals, the CDC and WHO, Dr. Fauci, and even the Chinese health authorities that encourage social distancing and air purification systems over facial masks. However, governments have imposed mask mandates nearly everywhere even though the evidence shows that they are largely ineffective. So, why are we being forced, really shamed, into wearing masks if they do not work? Mask advocates say that it’s nothing, just wear a mask, it’s not worth the trouble to argue. I think Berenson is right when he says that “… mask mandates appear to be an effort by government to find out what restrictions on their civil liberties people will accept on the thinnest possible evidence.”
While I am not a conspiracy theorist or completely anti-government, I am concerned about the civil liberties and freedoms that we have quickly allowed to be taken away. Perhaps President Trump’s plan to let each governor dictate what their own state needed is backfiring. Perhaps COVID became the jumping-off point for socialism. Perhaps its for something fake. I don’t know, but Alex Berenson’s booklets are interesting, well thought out, alarming, and easy to devour in a short period of time.
I assume that there will be another installment coming out soon and that all of these will be compiled into one book. I’ll keep you posted!