Dilemma
From January 2022: my sister Mia... what should I say to her?
Dear Church Leaders
I am writing to ask you for advice about my sister Mia. What do you think I should I say to her?
In March 2020, Mia originally took what the authorities were saying about covid at face value. She followed all the rules and guidance. Staying at home. Avoiding meeting people face-to-face. Getting tested for anything even vaguely resembling a covid symptom. Later on, she wore a mask as prescribed by government guidance. Although she can’t now help wondering why. She remembers the authorities saying in Spring 2020, at the height of the pandemic, that masks do more harm than good.
Why wouldn’t we trust the authorities, thought Mia? Weren’t these measures necessary to beat this terrible pandemic and get back to normal? But nearly two years on, Mia finds it increasingly hard to believe that we are heading back to normal any time soon, and she is increasingly wondering what is really going on.
Mia knows that covid exists. She tested PCR positive last Autumn. Not that she really needed a test. The strange loss of taste and smell was unlike anything she could remember. But the illness wasn’t a big deal. A cough and a mild fever. She’s had worse bouts of flu. And part of her was relieved to have had covid, not least because she knows that she now has broad and long-lasting immunity much better than any vaccine could ever provide. At least that’s what she hears from Sofia, an old friend from university who works in the pharma industry. And Mia now wonders if some people have been immune to covid all along, perhaps due to prior exposure to common-cold coronaviruses. She thinks this might explain why some people don’t catch covid when they are sharing a house — or even a bed — with someone who has it.
The more research Mia does, the more her suspicion grows. She’s never had time for conspiracy theories or social media, but she does like to check figures where she can. And she now finds it hard to avoid the conclusion that the authorities have deliberately overstated the risk from covid. Sofia sent Mia some figures from the Office for National Statistics: age-adjusted mortality data showing that, of the 31 years between 1990 and 2020, 19 were worse than 2020 and only 11 were better! Mia found this difficult to believe at first, but she couldn’t find fault with the numbers. Though she did note that 2020 was somewhat worse than recent years. Sofia agreed: “Sure, 5-10% worse than the 2010-2019 average, though more than 10% better than 2000-2009. It does look like covid caused some extra deaths, but it was hardly apocalyptic. Especially when you consider the millions of missed health appointments.”
As it happens, Mia had already been wondering how many people died in 2020 simply from lack of basic healthcare. She suspects her great-uncle’s death in a care home was mainly due to neglect, even though covid was put on the death certificate. He had been frail for several months after treatment for cancer, but was expected to live at least for a few more months. And she often thinks of Jim, a neighbour in his 60s, who died of a heart attack at home because he was too scared to call an ambulance when he had chest pains. Jim had told Mia that he feared catching covid in hospital and dying alone.
In this context, Mia wonders why the authorities have been so fixated on vaccination when they know that covid is not actually so very serious. She wonders how much money is changing hands between pharma companies and government advisers. That said, she took the promise of “fifteen million jabs to freedom” at face value. She felt reassured at the promise not to vaccinate children — something she was particularly concerned about after reading that GSK’s 2009 Pandemrix swine flu vaccine had left 1000+ children with narcolepsy. And she believed government ministers when they said they would not introduce vaccine passports. She remembers an argument with Karl, one of her work colleagues, in which she had called him a crazy conspiracy theorist when he claimed that vaccine passports had been planned for ages.
But as time has elapsed, Mia’s concern has grown. The fifteen million jabs for the most vulnerable did not bring freedom. They led little by little to jabs for schoolchildren, against the initial recommendation of the JCVI advisers. And then vaccine passports were introduced. Mia is particularly puzzled by this given that the jabs don’t protect against infection or transmission. And she now feels embarrassed about what she said to Karl. Indeed she wonders in what ways the “vaccines” are actually vaccines at all, and prefers to speak instead of “injections”. “It’s just more accurate,” she tells friends who will listen.
Mia is also troubled by conversations she has had with Sofia. Mia is well aware from previous discussions that it normally takes many years to develop a vaccine, and that the covid injections do not finish clinical trials until late 2022 or early 2023. She knows that there is thus no long-term safety data by definition. But Sofia has recently shared other concerns. She suspects that there have been no animal safety studies at all, which she finds odd. She says that, as a project leader in pharma research, she could not even initiate studies in dogs or monkeys – let alone human beings – without first doing studies in mice or rats. She knows that such rodent studies would not take long, and that they could and should have been done for the covid injections, at the very least in parallel with dosing into humans. But she has seen no evidence that any such experiments have been conducted, let alone any results.
Moreover, Brad, an American colleague of Mia’s, says that there has been an unprecedentedly large number of serious short-term adverse events following covid injections, and that discussion about this is being suppressed. He says that the US government’s VAERS database has more than 20,000 registered covid vax-related deaths, the bulk of them soon after injection. And, according to Brad, the number of reports registered is likely only 1-10% of the actual figure. Mia was so concerned at this that she sent some of her friends links to the VAERS website. Of those that have replied, a few show some interest, but others have asked Mia not to send them any more messages relating to covid.
Mia is especially worried about her niece, Megan, a junior nurse, who has recently been notified that she will lose her job if she refuses to take covid injections. Megan is devastated. She has worked right through the pandemic, had covid herself, and seen first-hand the extent of adverse events after injection. And she knows that such complications are often worse for those who have had covid. She has explained this to her boss, but, while he is sympathetic, he says he is just obeying orders. When Mia heard about this, she couldn’t help thinking of another of her arguments with Karl.
Megan tells her aunt that she feels abused, isolated and frightened. 18 months ago she felt pride in her job, particularly one Thursday when she was clapped down the road by her neighbours after a 12-hour shift. Now she often lies awake at night, tearful, and wondering how she will pay the bills if she loses her job. She knows others in a similar position: Ravi, a young paramedic who had such a bad reaction to his first injection that he cannot face a second. Nadia, a midwife who feels she has no option but to retire early. Winston, a junior doctor who has confided that he sometimes feels suicidal. Megan wonders why all this is happening. And where it will lead. She has heard rumours that people in some European countries now require a vaccine passport to go to the supermarket.
Mia is ordinarily the sort of person who looks out for others, but she is increasingly concerned for herself. She particularly resents the government instruction that if she is a contact of someone who tests positive for covid then she must self-isolate for 10 days, essentially imprisoned in her own home. Even if she is completely well. And even though she is immune to covid. She feels that she can only escape this if she takes covid injections. Injections that will not bring medical benefit to her or to anyone else. Injections that have caused unprecedented numbers of short-term serious adverse events. Injections with no long-term safety data. Injections from which the makers have been absolved of liability. And where will it end? How long until a third injection is required. And then a fourth? With potentially cumulative adverse effects.
Sofia says the UK government is actually behaving criminally, and that Mia should just ignore anyone contacting her about contacts. It’s the lesser of two evils, says Sofia, who, having grown up in Czechoslovakia under Communism, is better placed than most to perceive creeping authoritarianism. She also says that she cannot see how this ends unless people stop complying: particularly with masks, testing, and taking injections. She points out that there are established international agreements that state clearly that informed consent is required for any medical intervention — preventative, diagnostic or therapeutic. And that the consent can be withdrawn at any time. Moreover, because the injections are still in clinical trials, any element of force or duress to take them would be wrong, she says, even if they were safe and effective in the short-term.
But Mia feels that she has to abide by the rules. As a result, she has become increasingly withdrawn and worried. She misses seeing her friends. She fears for the future. Not just for herself but for her children. Especially if she takes injections and becomes ill — or worse. Mia wonders why so few people seem to be speaking out. On TV and radio. In the newspapers. Even at the church she attends. Most people simply don’t seem to want to talk about the injustice of what is happening, let alone challenge it. Few people seem to understand her dilemma. She feels she has little or no support. From her friends. From the neighbours who clapped her home. Even from some of her own family.
My sister Mia… what should I say to her?
Not unrelated:
Testimony from the Australia covid inquiry:
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