mistakes were made: collins edition
more conspicuously calculated contrition from the architects of the disaster. spoiler alert: it's still complete garbage.
"mistakes were made..."
“if you're a public health person, and you're trying to make a decision, you have this very narrow view of what the right decision is, and that is something that will save a life. doesn't matter what else happens, so you attach infinite value to stopping the disease and saving a life. you attach zero value to whether this actually totally disrupts people's lives, ruins the economy, and has many kids kept out of school in a way that they never might quite recover from. this is a public health mindset… and that was really unfortunate, it's another mistake we made."
-francis collins, head of NIH (tony fauci’s boss) during covid and during the funding of ecohealth alliance’s viral gain of function programs at the wuhan institute of virology.
the man who was helping run public health response (after funding the creation of the virus that was so badly reacted to) says "well, gee, i guess we just did not think about the second and third order effects of our choices when we used a flame thrower to clear the ants off the kitchen counter."
this is beyond appalling.
it’s the mindset and action of a cartoon villain.
his speech is neither apology nor contrition. it's an admission that he and others like him were so grossly unfit to hold any public power whatsoever as to amount to actual sociopathy.
i do not use that word lightly or casually.
does this man seem sorry? does he seem like he’s taking responsibility? no, he’s speaking in platitudinous generality and third person displacement. that’s not a sign of apologia, it’s a sign of whitewash and cognitive dissonance to cover for cluster B personality traits.
i dunno about you, but i see no reform or redemption here, i see a perp who would, given motive, means, and opportunity, happily do it again and then sleep like a baby.
in all seriousness, what else are we going to call the monomaniacal pursuit of impossible viral mitigation/elimination without regard to lives and livelihoods this pseudoscientific pantomime of "doing something" amounted to if not sociopathy?
how does one simply ignore the fact that there is an entire society, an entire economy, 100’s of millions of people, workers, children, business owners, people just wanting to live their lives attached to this misbegotten public health crusade?
just slipped your mind, did it?
because this violated every basic precept of basic public and personal health.
it was not science.
it was not public health.
it was known and knowably false.
lockdowns don’t work. neither do masks, travel bans, school closures, or “social distancing.” 100 years of hard learned pandemic guidelines said so.
it was, frankly, absurd.
it was malpractice of the highest order by people who knew better.
there has never been a pandemic that was materially dangerous to a modern society except in the rare instances that the societies in question lost their minds in over-reaction. that is always the prime danger, not a virus, respiratory or otherwise.
this response was not "data driven," it was data drivel cobbled and conjured to spread needless alarm and over and mal-reaction to the monstrous detriment of all so that a feckless few could try to hide the dirt on their hands in setting this off in the first place.
this is not the act of a public servant.
it's the act of a monster. (and one who likely got filthy rich off this, the massive royalties paid by moderna to NIH were paid to many staffers directly. i’ve never seen the bulk of it accounted for or traced to end recipient. they all just retired and rode off into sunset.)
sorry, but "ooops, i guess we really didn't think that through" is simply not going to cut it.
even if these folks did learn their lesson (they didn’t), consider the lesson learned by their replacements.
go big, get paid, go home and let the wreckage fall where it may.
seems a poor incentive set when selecting for the skippers of the next “crisis.”
disband these institutions and take away the power of the state to grab emergency power in "emergencies" and once more render sacrosanct and inalienable your rights above their whims or the debate is not "whether" this will happen again but "when?"
it’s really that simple.
afuera!
Executions are required for justice to be served.
The passive voice: language allowing you to disclaim all responsibility. If you disclaim all responsibility, what in the hell are we paying you for?