The
TRUTH about SARS
Shock
and Awe
Cough and Awe SARS by any other name
By Steven Ransom (Campaign
For Truth in Medicine)
Bigger than Arnie & Sylvester for a while, bigger than
Catherine & Michael, bigger even than De Niro & Devito,
SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, was recently
front-page news the world over. But in examining the evidence
to support the claims that SARS is a dangerous ‘new’ disease,
there seems to be insufficient cause for such widespread
panic. And from the very outset, our fears were being fuelled
to the max. Interviewing a Professor Andrew Burd, a surgeon
in Hong Kong, one BBC report contained the following hyperbole:
“With this SARS, we have colleagues fighting for their
lives. We have an invisible killer in our midst. We are at
war, but our enemy has no name, no identity. We are professionals
and we have a job to do. This reality easily eclipses the
nightmare fantasies of Bush and Saddam. Now, as I sit at
home with my young son quietly sleeping and my wife pottering
in the background, I wonder what tomorrow will bring?” [1]
CREATE THE NEED
AND MEET THE DEMAND
To more seasoned observers of the ‘business’ of
global disease, these shocking, doom and gloom SARS headlines
looked like familiar pointers. Rather than a new and dangerous
disease, could the SARS pandemonium be part of a wider business
plan suiting certain pharma/political purposes? Create the
need and sell into the demand? This is a common practice
in many spheres of business. In the drug industry, it’s
happening all the time. The British Medical Journal recently
featured an article entitled ‘Selling Sickness: the
Pharmaceutical Industry and Disease-Mongering’. The
report, which readers are strongly advised to read for themselves,
reveals the calculated manner in which unnecessary fear of
disease is instilled into the public mind, in order then
to market equally unnecessary drugs and related pharmaceutical
services. In the introduction to their study, the BMJ authors
state:
“Pharmaceutical companies are actively involved in
sponsoring the definition of diseases and promoting them
to both prescribers and consumers. The social construction
of illness is being replaced by the corporate construction
of disease. Although some sponsored professionals or consumers
may act independently and all concerned may have honourable
motives, in many cases the formula is the same: groups and/or
campaigns are orchestrated, funded, and facilitated by corporate
interests, often via their public relations and marketing
infrastructure. A key strategy of the alliances is to target
the news media with stories designed to create fears about
the condition or disease and draw attention to the latest
treatment. Company sponsored advisory boards supply the ‘independent
experts’ for these stories, consumer groups provide
the ‘victims’ and public relations companies
provide media outlets with the positive spin about the latest ‘breakthrough’ medications.” [2]
Taking the above ‘business plan’ as the template,
what salient points can be applied to this latest SARS crisis?
ALL RATIONALE WENT THAT-A-WAY
On the strength of a few very un-extraordinary deaths related to breathing
difficulties and wheezing problems, the World Health Organisation issued
a global warning that some new kind of pandemic could be imminent. And from
14th March 2003 onwards, global news agencies were telling us of various
health authorities struggling to contain some kind of ‘lethal’ pneumonia,
being spread by air travellers across three continents. We were treated to
endless images of masked Orientals scurrying through airports, restaurants
and shopping centres. Ex-pats were being interviewed, suitcases in hand,
leaving cities across South East Asia - many of these people genuinely afraid
of catching SARS. The world over, the only news we were being treated to
was the threat of this new disease, how people were fleeing the ‘encroaching
monster’ and how nations should prepare. And then, on the 19th March
2003, after a much-hyped race to track down the cause of this apparently ‘new’ illness
(which of course, had been immediately blamed on some kind of virus), researchers
named a virus from the paramyxoviridae family, apparently also responsible
for conditions such as mumps and measles.
“Thank God!” we cried. “The virus has
been identified!” Or had it? A few weeks later, the ‘expert’ diagnosis
of paramyxoviridae was superseded by another ‘expert’ announcement,
telling us that SARS was caused by a mutated form of the
common cold virus, known as coronavirus. “OMIGOD! Not
a mutated virus, PLEASE!” Strangely however, none of
the news reporters bringing us these ‘SARS epicentre’ scoops
ever wore those protective masks. More on that later. Almost
a lone voice in all the hype, in the 27th April 2003 UK Observer,
Dr Peter Marsh, a social psychologist and director of the
social issues research centre at Oxford stated:
“Humans tend to worry more about the unfamiliar and
the improbable. It’s foreign, it’s eastern. The
virus has been described as a ‘time bomb’. There
has been talk of it ‘mutating’. Once you have
that kind of imagery, then rational consideration, rational
decision-making really goes out of the window.”
And of course, throughout the crisis, various senior health
officials had been stating that because the SARS virus was
a new, mutated strain, the only obstacle was the current
lack of up-to-date testing kits, new antibiotics and new
vaccines. Permission to research and manufacture these items
had to be granted to the relevant authorities as soon as
possible. Without this funding, the vital vaccines to combat
SARS would be a good while away yet.
JUST ANOTHER DAY AT FORWARD PLANNING
And that, my friends, is the standard business template.
As Michael Fumento noted in a recent edition of The National
Post: “There’s fame, fortune, and big budgets
in sounding the ‘emerging infection’ alarm and
warning of our terrible folly in being unprepared.” [3]
The authors of the BMJ ‘Selling Sickness’ paper
summarise their report as follows:
Some forms of ‘medicalisation’ may now be better
described as ‘disease-mongering’ - extending
the boundaries of treatable illness to expand markets for
new products.
Alliances of pharmaceutical manufacturers, doctors, and patients groups use
the media to frame conditions as being widespread and severe.
Disease-mongering can include turning ordinary ailments into medical problems,
seeing mild symptoms as serious, treating personal problems as medical, seeing
risks as diseases, and framing prevalence estimates to maximise potential markets.
[4]
And gauging the panic level so far, the pharmaceutical industries have every
reason to believe they can expect significant financial returns from SARS.
There have been frantic requests in Beijing and Hong Kong for ‘necessary’ testing
kits, antibiotics and other medicines to reach the ‘stricken’ areas
as soon as possible. His ‘n’ hers matching facemasks, along with
masks for the household pets are selling very well. In many parts of South-east
Asia, facemasks and household disinfectants have tripled in price. ABC News
recently reported what is perhaps the first SARS murder - a fatal stabbing.
The victim sneezed. The assailant’s plea was that he was afraid his victim
was spreading SARS.[5] Just as our naked emperor paraded himself before his
loyal subjects, believing he was fully clothed, so too, the reams of finely-woven
tabloid and science journal hype on SARS are persuading the world and his dog
(literally) to engage in these bizarre anti-SARS behaviours. Big Pharma and
Big Media are laughing all the way to the bank. Even as you read this, a fierce
market-place battle has already begun as major pharmaceutical companies submit
various patents on the rights to subsequent vaccines and associated SARS paraphernalia.[6]
And all this idiocy over what amounts to nothing more than
flu. Simple flu, you say? But doesn’t SARS have the
capability of being fatal? What about the death toll so far?
Explain that.
SOME UNSETTLING FACTS ON THIS ‘NEW’ DISEASE
Before looking at the death rate for SARS, let us first look at whether SARS
is actually a new disease. The evidence to support such statements is remarkably
lacking. The following guidelines are the most up-to-date definition of SARS
illness, taken from advice given by the US Centers for Disease Control and
featured on the Star Tribune Health Science page:
Health officials have developed these guidelines for suspected
and probable cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
Respiratory illness of unknown cause since Feb. 1st, 2003.
Temperature greater than 100.4 degrees.
One or more symptoms of respiratory illness such as cough, shortness of breath,
difficulty breathing.
Within 10 days of symptoms, the patient travelled to a place where SARS has
spread in the community or had close contact with a suspected SARS victim.[7]
Not one single symptom distinguishing SARS from any other flu-like illness,
except international travel? Somebody tell me this is a joke. At the beginning
of the SARS ‘crisis, the Hong Kong health minister was interviewed’ by
the BBC News Night team. Like a single tree falling silently in the forest,
he admitted there was no definitive test for SARS and that this illness is
identified by a particularly vague set of symptoms. He also admitted that its
description covers a multitude of existing syndromes.[8] Needless to say, the
interviewer did not ask whether these SARS deaths might therefore be attributable
to an existing, common illness. The World Health Organisation has also admitted
that a large number of suspect SARS cases turn out, on further investigation,
to have other common causes.[9]
MITIGATING CIRCUMSTANCES
THE AMOY GARDENS ‘OUTBREAK’
So, what are these people dying of? With no definitive test
for SARS and no definitive symptoms separating SARS from
common flu or pneumonia, this should be quite enough to bring
a halt to all the outrageous SARS headlines. But there are
also a number of other co-factors that are purposely not
being aired by the major media outlets or the SARS experts.
For instance, in the so-called SARS outbreak in the Hong
Kong Amoy Gardens complex, no mention was made of the appalling
sanitation system in that building. Records from the management
office confirmed that there had been numerous complaints
from residents on the emission of foul gas from the floor
drains indicating the likelihood of the failure of the U-traps
in these apartments. Droplets from the free-flowing sewage
were being blown into the residents’ individual apartments. “In
other words,” says Fintan Dunne, editor of the sceptical
SARStravel.com, “the first headline-grabbing, high-profile,
mass-infection, so-called SARS incident arose from the oldest
disease source known to mankind: exposed human excrement.” [10]
Very compelling mitigating circumstances for the onset of
disease and no virus needed to explain the illnesses at Amoy
Gardens.
THE SARS DEATH RATE-
IS IT REALLY THAT BIG A DEAL?
Bearing in mind that our disease experts have yet to prove
that SARS is anything other than flu, in the United States,
during 2002, more than 26,000 people died of flu, most of
whom were elderly, infirm or very young. Doing a few simple
sums, the US death rate works out at 71 deaths per day -
this in a country of 290 million. To population statisticians,
this death rate is not at all extraordinary. However, on
the 27th April 2003, the UK ITV Ten O’Clock News breathlessly
announced that 23 people had died from SARS across the whole
of South East Asia in a single day, including 12 in Hong
Kong and 9 in China alone! But if the ITV news reporter had
been doing his job correctly, he would have contextualised
these ‘SARS deaths’ by drawing attention to the
lack of evidence that SARS is a new disease and that when
compared to the US death rates, the reported Chinese death
rate of 9 people in one day and only 23 people across the
whole of South East Asia falls well within the daily average
death rate - with acres of room to spare! None of this is
explained for the audience. Instead, we are awash with charged,
emotional accounts of a ‘new disease’ and a ‘new
virus’ that at the time of writing, has claimed the
lives of just under 300 people worldwide. Dr Peter Marsh
again:
“The fact is that 260 people have died. But for every
Chinese person who has died, 10 million have not. In an ordinary
rational world, that sounds like quite good odds, but not
in this context. In this country, every year, 1,500 people
are killed falling down the stairs. The implication would
be that people should only be allowed to build bungalows.”
Any medical journalist worth his salt should know that omitting
such statistics from any news report on a so-called ‘new
disease’ is a complete, professional no-no. While these
so-called SARS deaths will of course be upsetting for the
families, it is a dismally unshocking scoop.
Yes, but SARS is different to flu, say the experts.
SARS is a new disease.
The virus proves it.
Hmmm.
SOUNDING THE GONG ON THE SARS VIRUS
The only evidence that has been put forward by the medical
community to categorise SARS as a new illness is the claim
that a mutated virus has been identified. Aside from a pretty
photograph (which we shall examine shortly), no other evidence
has been proffered to confirm this statement. But then, who
ever really questions a virologist? When was the last time
you did? Nicholas Regush is the editor of RedFlagsWeekly – an
internet health page. He worked regularly as a TV producer
with Peter Jennings on World News Tonight and was responsible
for the producing the health news items. Regush believes
that news editors are as much to blame for promoting the
idea that SARS is a virus-driven disease. He says that the
virus is, “a simple tag to which a simpleton brain
can connect.” His full report is well worth reading.
A condensed account is included below:
“The media are not only befuddled when it comes to
SARS, but many reporters ‘on the story’ are either
stone deaf, blind, or just scientifically 'challenged.' Why
are media reports repeatedly referring to the ‘SARS
Virus’ when it is far from scientifically clear what
SARS is? And never mind the cause of it. When a Canadian
National lab reveals that a small percentage of people who
apparently have SARS do not show signs of the ‘new’ coronavirus,
or show very little sign of it, shouldn't that sound a GONG?
After all, the GONG was sounded by scientists after many
people dubbed ‘SARS victims’ in TORONTO, turned
up negative in a test for the ‘new’ coronavirus.
Who knows what the Toronto deaths are all about? Coronavirus?
Really?” [11]
SUPPOSITION AND ARTISTIC LICENCE
The image on the right is supposed to be the new SARS virus.
But it is only a computer-created model. It is merely a representation
of what a virus ‘expert’ believes is causing
SARS. This photograph is one of several on a virus image
web site, selling these images to the press. Readers are
encouraged to visit the site here if only to gain insight
into the hypothetical world of virus science.[12] Not one
actual photograph of a SARS virus exists. All imagery available
on this site (and all other virus sites for that matter)
is inference and supposition only, mixed with a generous
amount of artistic license. An interesting report is available
here on how Roger Highfield, the science editor for the ‘respectable’ UK
Daily Telegraph intentionally used a fake picture of a virus
in a full-page spread promoting AIDS theory: “We supplied
Highfield with a number of images, but he specified he wanted
a computer graphic.” The picture editor agreed that
Highfield had done a dis-service to his readership, which
in the case of the Daily Telegraph approaches two million.[13]
Fake virus pictures are being used in health news reports
all the time.
AN INACCURATE TEST
Moreover, the CDC is currently using the Polymerase Chain
Reaction antibody detection test to determine the presence
of this ‘new SARS virus’. This highly complex
technique is supposed to be able to detect fragments of genetic
material in the blood that allegedly indicate the presence
of certain viruses. It all sounds very grand until you actually
start asking questions of the virus experts. In discussion
with a Mr John Parry, deputy head at the Colindale Virus
Laboratory in the UK, he admitted that PCR was not a precise
tool for identifying any virus. Yet the lab uses PCR every
day for virus confirmation. Also, Mr Parry was entirely unaware
that Kary Mullis, the inventor of PCR, had issued an official
statement, spelling out his concerns that his invention was
being used by laboratories across the world to arrive at
medical and scientific conclusions for which his invention
was not sanctioned, particularly HIV testing. Colindale also
uses PCR to ‘determine’ the presence of HIV in
blood samples every day.
Confirming the paucity of so-called SARS testing, immunologist
Frank Plummer, the director of Canada’s National Microbiology
Laboratory in Winnipeg stated recently: “Both Canadian
and U.S. data show that only a minority of people with SARS
test positive for the coronavirus. It’s puzzling. We
just need a lot more information.” [14] The phrase
is worth repeating. Only a minority of people with SARS test
positive for the coronavirus. What does this say about the
worth of the test? How much has all this expert help cost
us as tax payers so far? And these are the experts in charge
of world health? In any other industry, heads would surely
roll. Yet none of these stark failures in SARS theory have
stopped these same experts racing ahead to work out the supposed
gene sequence for SARS. Nicholas Regush again:
“And, oh what fun when two scientific teams came up
with the gene sequence (all the genetic material, supposedly)
for the 'SARS Virus’. So what? What does it mean to
come up with the sequence of something that may not even
be a major player in a so-called MAJOR KILLER EPIDEMIC? The
problem is that some scientists have VERY BIG MOUTHS. They
love going on TV, and telling the public about all their
marvellous discoveries. They are often not challenged because
the ‘interviewers’ are mindless about what to
ask, or are afraid to upset the Virus cart. I mean, I’m
impressed, okay, that the Canadian team in British Columbia
sequenced the ‘SARS Virus’ in just two weeks.
But until someone tells me in some detail what the net result
of that sequencing truly means, I’ll refrain from referring
to genetic material as the ‘SARS Virus’. In fact,
I defy anyone in the scientific field to argue publicly on
the basis of available evidence that the cause of SARS has
been adequately identified.” [15]
HEAR! HEAR! MR REGUSH
But these are all just ‘trifling’ matters to
our official SARS information outlets. None of these awkward
realities will bring any downward adjustment to official ‘SARS
death’ statistics. And of course, ‘discovering’ the
gene sequence for SARS has paved the way for the latest patents
jamboree. Journalistically speaking, the SARS story has been
mindless tripe from the very beginning. Commercially speaking,
this tripe is proving to be most lucrative. And from a medical
perspective, doctors and professors alike, have been adding
weight to the SARS nonsense at every juncture.
I was invited onto a BBC radio programme recently to comment
on the SARS ‘crisis’ and was cast opposite a
professor of bacteriology. It was obvious that the professor
was not used to being challenged about his work by somebody
who could both critique viral theory and also remain relatively
underwhelmed in the presence of said qualifications. During
the interview, the professor must have repeated the phrase, “We
have a new virus,” about six or seven times. But once
the all-important background to virus theory had been defined
and contextualised for the listeners by myself, the claims
made by the professor were sounding a lot less impressive.
As Regush stated, “They are often not challenged because
the ‘interviewers’ are mindless about what to
ask, or are afraid to upset the virus cart.” In another
instance, a Dr Robert Holloway, an industrial chemist, wrote
to me, advising that I remove the content of my SARS web
page, as many of my conclusions were false. But he did not
actually specify which conclusions he felt were false. I
replied to Dr Holloway and asked him one simple question;
please tell me how the SARS experts differentiate between
those who died from SARS and those who died from normal flu.
This was his reply:
“Stopping this virus requires that people act on accurate
and valid information. This is best done by letting the people
qualified to handle the situation provide the information
about the disease. I don’t think that you claim to
be a medical doctor and I suspect that your education in
medical affairs is limited. You should consider your moral
responsibility in this matter and not put your uninformed
judgment ahead of those who are qualified to address the
issue. But you have chosen another road and I think you are
stupid for doing so...The lurid graphics on your web site
tell a great deal about your personality. No professional
would have such a web site.”
The superior attitude demonstrated by Dr Holloway is not
unusual in his field. And neither was it surprising that
he declined to answer such a straightforward question. To
do so with any integrity would ‘hole his profession
amidships’. And what’s wrong with my graphics?
Doesn’t a picture paint a thousand words? Who’s
got their head in the sand here? It doesn’t actually
take much to pierce the veil of grandeur that surrounds virus
theory. We just need to start thinking a bit more. As far
as SARS is concerned, the fact that the test is highly inaccurate
and that Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, by its very name,
is indistinguishable from other common pneumonias – these
two anomalies are leading to multiple misdiagnoses. Here
are just two of many stories.
In Sri Lanka, 54-year-old Kumari Somabandu died of heart
failure while she was being transferred to an infectious
diseases hospital after being misdiagnosed as having SARS. “We
have no clue as to how she was diagnosed to be suffering
from SARS as she was admitted after suffering a heart attack,” Kumari’s
husband M.D. Somabandu said. Mr. Somabandu who is contemplating
legal action charged that the hospital was at fault for the
misdiagnosis and was responsible for his wife’s death. “There’s
one hundred per cent negligence on the part of the hospital
staff,” he said.” [16] And The Bangkok Post tells
of a Ms Wachira Thaichon who was misdiagnosed with SARS,
after initially going to hospital with bladder problems.
Once she was suspected of SARS, she received five injections
which cost her 17,000 baht (£250) each. Both her arms
became badly bruised as a result. The hospital said the cost
was justified because it had saved her life and that Ms Thaichon
had also caused the hospital to seal off the entire 11th
floor because of the threat she posed. Upon being released
from the hospital, Ms Thaichon was made to sign an agreement
that she would continue to stay in quarantine for another
10 days and wear a mask and gloves.[17] On behalf of his
colleagues in the virus profession, perhaps Dr Holloway might
like to offer a sensible reply to the severely medically
abused Ms Thaichon.
COGNITIVE POWERS PROFOUNDLY CHANGED
Reading the horrific accounts of this latest SARS doctoring
madness begs the question; what might be happening to one’s
general powers of reasoning during the gruelling process
of conventional medical training? In the seven or more years
it takes to become medically qualified, even the sharpest
of minds can soon become bent a little out of shape. Is that
too harsh a criticism? Not according to Dr Michael Greger.
His book, entitled Heart Failure is his own account of medical
school, and contains passages from a number of doctors describing
the pressures to conform, the pharmaceutically-focussed curriculum
and the expectation to toe the institutional party line.
The inside front cover of Greger’s book has the following
quote: “Besides medical school, there is probably no
other four-year experience - unless it be four year’s
service in a war - that can so change the cognitive content
of one’s mind and the nature of one’s relationships
with others.” [18] On the pressure to conform, one
medical student in Greger’s book contributed the following:
“Support from the rest of the student body, when present,
often had to be obtained anonymously. One student told me, ‘I
agree with you, just not in public.’ ‘In public’ meant
in front of faculty or administrators. ‘In public’ meant
in front of other students. The worry was that a student
who spoke up about issues of conscience would have narrower
career choices because of poor evaluations doled out by disapproving
faculty.” [19]
Of course, it would be quite wrong to discount all that
conventional medicine has to offer. There are many areas
of A&E medicine especially that are saving and enhancing
lives every day. And millions of people have benefited from
all manner of organ and limb replacements and other keyhole
surgery techniques. But none of these blessings hide the
reality that much damage is being inflicted upon society
through the secondary effects of our state-controlled, profit-motivated
teaching hospitals, as they intensively instruct our ‘soon-to-be-qualified’ doctors
in defunct, junk medical theory. For the producers of today’s ‘doom
and gloom’ virus news reports, tracking down institutionalised
medical opinion in support of ‘the threat of deadly
disease’ is never difficult. And throughout this latest
SARS ‘pandemic’, there have been plenty of doctors
available to comment on the ‘frightening spread of
SARS’ and the ‘alarming vaccine/antibiotics shortage’.
Dr Patrick Dixon is one such voice.
A DASH OF MEDICAL ERROR AND A DASH OF
HOLLYWOOD IMAGERY – PRESCRIBED DAILY
Known for his seminars on ‘global trends’, Dr
Dixon is pressing for stricter controls to ‘curb the
threat’ of SARS and believes this latest ‘epidemic’ has
the potential to become a real threat to global health. If
allowed to spread much further, warns Dr Dixon, SARS may
become a wild-fire impossible to put out. Interviewed on
the 24th April 2003 BBC Breakfast News, Dr Dixon stated that
the British government should get properly prepared for an
inevitable epidemic. His ‘Truth About SARS’ website
contains the following: “We are in an urgent race against
time, leading potentially to many tens of millions of deaths
over the next two years.” [20]
But haven’t we all been here before with the AIDS
scare-stories? Weren’t our screens filled with similar
catastrophic Hollywood imagery? Unwarranted fear and a generous
helping of medical error is the usual prescription. And Dr
Dixon was at the forefront of those early AIDS doom and gloom
statistics as well. His book The Truth About AIDS warned
us of a pandemic of massive proportions on the horizon. The
opening chapter entitled ‘The Extent of The Nightmare’ speculated
the UK could be witnessing 18,000 AIDS deaths a year. The
same book warned against deep kissing, and suggested the
pill and even sterilisation for women who had been tested
HIV positive.[21]
FOLLOWING AN INCORRECT COURSE
WITH THE MAXIMUM OF COMPASSION
Telephoning Dr Dixon on this matter, I pointed out the physiological
dangers of the contraceptive pill and also asked him to comment
on the medical evidence sent to him and to everyone at management
level within his organisation, highlighting the fact that
the HIV test can react false positively to some 60 different
conditions unrelated to any virus. Given the potential for
such a high rate of ‘false positives’ from the
HIV test, should he really be suggesting this test, let alone
be suggesting that such women should consider the irreversible
sterilisation procedure? Accusing me of being a flat-earther,
Dr Dixon has so far refused to seek ways of professionally
resolving these crucial issues. Furthermore, Dr Dixon’s
same ghastly advice on sterilisation has not been omitted
from his updated version of The Truth about AIDS which is
stored in electronic format on his website. Perhaps if enough
people write in to him, the sterilisation advice at least
will be removed. Please copy all correspondence to steve1@onetel.net.uk
Just as serious perhaps, as far as any national planning
for SARS is concerned, we should really ask ourselves what
sort of societal control policies might emerge, should the
construct of such policies be left to such a way of thinking.
While there are a number of well-intentioned, caring people
involved with Dr Dixon’s AIDS care teams, the ability
to follow an incorrect path with the maximum of compassion
can occur in all walks of life, especially medicine. Dr Dixon
has since gone on record to say that SARS could be deadlier
than AIDS.[22] His Global Trend/Global Change website has
reportedly received 5.5 million hits over the last twelve-month
period.
OPERATION STERILISE BEIJING
Returning to SARS, the 23rd April 2003 Five PM News Hour contained an interview
with a doctor who had recovered from the so-called ‘new disease’ of
SARS. Struggling throughout the interview to make his illness sound dramatic,
the doctor actually admitted that SARS is not the fatal disease it is being
made out to be. Undaunted by the relative flatness of the interview or the
admission by the doctor that SARS was not that lethal, news anchorman Eddie
Mayer summarised the world headlines five minutes later, still describing
SARS as ‘a deadly virus’. The much-hyped SARS disinfectant teams
working around the clock in Beijing are another case in point.
Watching ‘Operation Sterilise Beijing’ as disinfectant
teams sprayed elevators and pavements etc., was reminiscent
of the UK 2001 ‘Operation Sterilise The Countryside’ – an
equally fatuous attempt to shock and awe us into believing
that foot and mouth is ‘highly infectious’ and
that it might be halted if we waded through the hurriedly-erected
foot troughs scattered across the countryside. This ritual
merely served to reinforce the lie in the public mind that
we were dealing with a vicious virus on the loose. That we
believed the establishment line on FMD was confirmed by our
unquestioning participation in the ‘boot-washing’ ritual.
For a more factual account of the very uninfectious disease
known as foot and mouth and the political intent behind the
recent mass-slaughter, please refer to the Credence title,
Plague, Pestilence and The Pursuit of Power.
TERRIFIED OF SARS?
THE BBC UNMASKED
Perhaps the most laughable inconsistency in SARS theory is seen in the example
set by television journalists reporting from the supposed ‘SARS epicentres’.
If it’s all so highly infectious, then why are they never wearing the ‘life-saving’ face
masks? On this note, I contacted the BBC World Planning Department, where the
coordinating supervisor for BBC Beijing conceded that there was indeed a certain
inconsistency in maskless reporters announcing the spread of highly contagious
disease to millions across the world. She would send an email to Beijing, she
assured me, to find out why that was the case, but I should not be offended
if I didn’t get a reply: “After all, we are dealing with an enormous
and time-consuming story.”
As far as SARS is concerned, this latest hysteria will
be serving the South-East Asia pharmaceutical infrastructure
very well over the next few months. The knock-on business
will be considerable in the battle to appease the masses
currently crying out for the full array of ‘urgently
required’, anti-SARS paraphernalia. News from the experts
that we face a ‘mutated virus’ can only add to
the potential profit margin. The Life Extension Foundation
has just released a warning on SARS. Under the title ‘Chilling
SARS Update’, the LEF home page warns us of the following: “What
has doctors most concerned, however, is that the SARS virus
may easily mutate into a form that is resistant to anti-viral
therapies. About six samples of the virus have been genetically
unravelled and no two are exactly alike. This makes finding
an effective vaccine or anti-viral drug therapy that much
more difficult.” [23]
And so, to fill the momentary void, the SARS market place
is being flooded with various hocus-pocus miracle cures to
satiate the needs of the panicking, ‘pill for every
ill’ general public.
DR LEONARD HOROWITZ AND HIS MIRACULOUS MEDICINES
Dr Horowitz is known for his books on various global threats and how to avoid
them with his special products (create the need, meet the demand?). Nestled
in among all sorts of indispensable, ‘please rush me’ health
elixirs, his latest work entitled Death In The AIR is described as a book
that may help save the planet and millions of lives.[24] While Dr Horowitz
was quick to alert people to the trickery of establishment medicine over
its ‘management’ of the so-called SARS crisis, he has proved
to be just as quick to see an angle in the SARS jamboree and is hoping to
cash in on everybody’s fears with his own miracle ‘treatment’.
DOCTORS MAKE NATURAL TREATMENT FOR SARS AVAILABLE WORLDWIDE Dr. Leonard Horowitz
and Dr. Joseph Puleo have named the new treatment the ‘Urbani SARS
Formula’ after one of the disease’s earliest victims. Dr Urbani
died in Thailand after contracting the disease while caring for patients.
Dr. Puleo saw rapid improvement among patients who presented in March with
SARS-like symptoms at the Natural Health Research Clinic he directs in Sandpoint,
Idaho. The ingredients include: CONTINUED AT: http://www.wnho.net
Personally speaking, at $31.00 for a two oz mixture, readers
who find themselves clicking ‘please add Urbani Formula
to my shopping cart’ are in danger of fulfilling that
old adage, ‘a fool and his money are soon parted.’ And
Dr Horowitz’ miracle Urbani Formula has not gone unnoticed
by the Federal Trade Commission either. In this instance
at least, the FTC has been quite right to slap an order on
Horowitz, insisting that all groundless claims be removed
from his web site. How much HTML work will that constitute?
HONG KONG’S RICHEST MAN
AND HIS ELEPHANT REPELLENT MARKETING
A health drink said to ward off SARS has been launched by
Hong Kong’s richest man, who says he will pay £14,000
to anyone who catches the disease after using his product
called VitaGain. Mr Li, a septuagenarian property developer,
claims he himself has benefited from VitaGain during its
trials. At a press conference, his son Victor, Cheung Kong’s
deputy chairman, refused to say how much the health drink
would cost but insisted it would not be ‘overly expensive’,
the Hong Kong Standard reported. Customers are told they
need to drink a bottle a day of the concoction for 90 days
to complete a course. Their immune systems will then be shielded
for a further 90 days before they need to start a new course.[25]
This is no more than elephant repellent marketing. Didn’t
I mention that earlier this morning, before you came downstairs
to turn on your PC, I sprayed your front room with our fabulous
new product Jumbo Gone? Please look carefully in all corners
of the room. Has Jumbo Gone worked? Have you found any elephants?
I enclose Yuan 5,000 for the complete course. I understand
I need never worry about elephant infestation ever again!
No wonder Mr Li is Hong Kong’s richest man. Nicholas
Regush again:
“I frankly have had enough of this bilge from both
conventional and alternative medicine. Over the years, in
my journalistic career, I have met many people in both conventional
and alternative health spheres. Many good people who care
about others and wouldn’t take their dime unless they
felt there was value being offered. For example, there are
some alternative practitioners out there - doctors, nurses,
herbalists, chiropractors, and so on - who truly care about
what ALTERNATIVE means. Ditto for the conventional side where
many good people are NOT selling their souls to drug companies.
And then there is the oozing blight of the bullshit artists
(on both sides) who have talked themselves into a stupor
about how they know exactly what life is all about and what
must be done to stop a so-called ‘new’ illness.
SARS is just another example of why the planet is going to
crap, and not necessarily because of illness.” [26]
Despite the obviousness of all this SARS fakery and quackery,
the ‘pandemic’ continues to rumble on across
various continents. The thing is, can we in the UK resist
the urge to panic? The UK Sunday Times, dated 27th April
2003, featured an article on SARS by columnist Richard Leakey
who gravely told us, “… people in Britain are
terrified of the SARS virus.” Speak for yourself, Mr
Leakey. Please don’t include me in your lemming-like
statistics. If and when Emperor SARS does visit these shores,
I will resist the urge to fall at his feet and marvel. I’ve
seen this cavalcade plenty of times before. Emperor SARS
is just another one of those butt-naked pharma-phantasms.
The question is, will any of our respected, broadsheet journalists
have the balls to break rank and admit the same? I doubt
it. Not surprisingly, I have received no reply from the BBC
re the conundrum of their maskless reporters.
JAIL FOR THE IRRESPONSIBLE
More disturbingly though, it seems that SARS is paving the way for the introduction
of potentially quite sinister legislation. Enforced quarantine and restricted
movement are being introduced into the populations with relative ease. In
Canada, for instance, within a few days of the supposed outbreak, more than
a thousand healthcare workers had volunteered for home quarantine because
of SARS. Otherwise, they faced legal arrest and incarceration, as advised
by the World Health Organization. Canadian officialdom has been closing hospitals,
restaurants, schools and workplaces with only two deaths reported at the
onset of the media onslaught. The media has successfully whipped the population
into a trembling mass of masked and quarantined ‘sheeple’. The
Life Extension Foundation again:
“We do not want to be overly alarmist, but it would
seem appropriate for governments of the world to consider
placing travellers from affected areas in Asia into a ten-day
quarantine upon arrival. The effect of such an aggressive
mandate would be a virtual travel halt to and from countries
such as China, but the financial and human misery consequences
of failing to contain the SARS virus are unimaginable.”
WHO REALLY CARES ANYMORE?
On 23rd April 2003, the BBC announced that police in Australia
have been given new powers to round up and quarantine suspected
SARS victims. Singapore’s prime minister has vowed
to jail ‘irresponsible’ people who violate quarantine
laws. And, despite having no confirmed SARS cases, Japan
has announced plans to install a thermal imaging camera at
Tokyo’s international airport to screen passengers.[27]
China has announced that persons not admitting to SARS illness
is an offence punishable by execution: “Intentionally
spreading sudden contagious disease pathogens, endangering
public security or serious personal injury, death or heavy
loss of public or private property will be punishable by
from 10 years to life in prison or the death penalty,” the
official Xinhua News Agency said.” [28] What’s
really going on? Are we witnessing some sort of mass, social
experiment? Even as I write this article, in the background
I can hear the latest UK radio bulletin telling us that UK
Health Secretary Alan Millburn is under pressure to bring
in emergency powers to ‘protect’ us from this
SARS outbreak. But do we really care about any of this? Many
of us seem to have just rolled belly-up and allowed our ‘experts’ get
on with it. Shame on us for allowing such a debacle as SARS
to take place. Truly, we get the press and the healthcare
system we deserve.
For my part, the SARS experts can take all their expertise
and medicines and tip them into the middle of the deep, blue
sea. Worse for the fishes maybe, but on dry land, we would
notice the benefits immediately. As far as SARS is concerned,
please remember that disinformation is the main threat here.
And remember too, the patents war on ‘all things SARS’ has
already begun. More useless concoctions will soon be on our
shelves. As far as flu and pneumonia in general is concerned,
strengthen your immune system with good nutrition and exercise
and steer well clear of those vaccines, antibiotics, pneumonia
drugs and other equally useless toxic ‘medicines’.
Above all, get yourself informed on those ‘wheels within
wheels’.
Achoo! Ahem! A tickly cough at the back of my throat! Oh
no! The dreaded virus? Do I hand myself in? Might they shut
down the M25? Will any of the news teams interviewing me
be wearing masks, I wonder? Tchah.
Good health to you all!
Steven Ransom (Credence
Publications)
14.5.2003
REFERENCES
[1] ‘Hong Kong doctors identify killer disease’,
BBC News, 19th March 2003 at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2862991.stm
[2] Moynihan, Heath, Henry, ‘Selling Sickness: the
pharmaceutical industry and disease-mongering’, British
Medical Journal online, BMJ, 13th April 2002
[3] National Post, 28th March 2003
[4] Moynihan, Heath, Henry, op.cit.
[5] ‘Scared of SARS, man slays sneezer’ at
http://www.abscbnnews.com/abs_news_body.asp?section=Metro&oid=21493
[6] ‘SARS patent battle heating up’, CNN News,
7th May 2003 at
http://money.cnn.com/2003/05/05/news/companies/sars_patent.reut/
[7] Defining SARS at http://www.startribune.com/stories/1556/3848032.html
[8] BBC News Night, 2nd April 2003
[9] WHO SARS update 32, 17th April 2003 at http://www.who.int/csr/sarsarchive/2003_04_17/en/
[10] Dunne, Fintan, ‘SARS Bubble implodes as sewage
hits the fan’ at http://www.sarstravel.com/sars_bubble.htm
[11] Regush, Nicholas, ‘SARS and the befuddled media’,
RedFlagsWeekly at
http://www.redflagsweekly.com/extra/2003_may02.html
[12] Scientific Stock Images Library at http://www.rkm.com.au/imagelibrary/index.html
[13] Ransom, Steven, ‘Telegraph Virus Reporting; the
new plague?’ at
http://www.whatareweswallowing.freeserve.co.uk/highfield.htm
[14] ‘SARS deaths mount in Canada, Asia’, UPI
Science and Technology Newsdesk, 1st May 2003 at http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030501-035717-2143r
[15] Regush, Nicholas, SARS and the befuddled media, op.cit.
[16] Wijeya Sunday Times, 4th May 2003 at http://www.sundaytimes.lk/030504/news/5.htm
[17] ‘SARS misdiagnosis proves a costly and bitter
experience’, Bangkok Post, 29th April 2003 at http://search.bangkokpost.co.th/bkkpost/2003/apr2003/bp20030429/news/29Apr2003_news07.html
[18] Greger, Dr Michael, Heart Failure, 1999, online books
at
http://upalumni.org/medschool/preface.html
[19] ibid.
[20] ‘The Truth About SARS’ at http://www.globalchange.com/sars.htm
[21] Dixon, Dr Patrick, The Truth About AIDS, Kingsway Publications,
1987. Dr Dixon’s contention that Africa is dying ultimately
of a sexually transmitted disease brought about by ‘rampant
trans-African truck drivers’, etc., has attracted a
particularly large and loyal church following - a following
that has the capacity to do much good, yet a following that
has so far declined to question Dr Dixon’s populist
stance. A survey carried out by Durex on national sexual
practices, for instance, found that the UK was the most promiscuous
nation by far. Yet where is the British AIDS pandemic? And
then there’s the AIDS test, now known to trigger ‘false
positive’ to some 60 different conditions, including
those illnesses endemic to Africa, such as malaria and tuberculosis.
Furthermore, once ‘diagnosed’, so few of these
workers have any idea about the dangers of the AIDS drugs
they then demand for their so-called ‘HIV-ravaged’ patients.
For a look at some of the dangers associated with the latest
AIDS drugs, please visit www.whatareweswallowing.freeserve.co.uk/viramune.htm
By refusing to even consider such factors in the African
AIDS debate (despite numerous official requests to do so),
Africa must now do battle with an army of well-meaning but
ill-informed outreach workers who are applying a dangerously
incorrect ‘AIDS care’ hypothesis with the maximum
of compassion. Sound nutrition, clean water and a general
education away from toxic AIDS drugs, meddlesome western
corporatism and well-meaning, misguided missionary zeal is
the only triple therapy needed to see a swift end to African
AIDS. If there is a plague that threatens to engulf us all,
it is AIDS ignorance and gross medical error. The ongoing
dissemination of errant data by Dr Dixon and other church
'AIDS policy' shapers, is severely impeding the path towards
the correct and relatively simple treatment for the environmental
affliction known as African AIDS. At a deeper level, in their
book AIDS, Africa and Racism, Richard and Rosalind Chirimuuta
contend that African AIDS research has been built upon racist
preconceptions, rather than objective scientific reality.
Say the authors, “The only hope for the people of Africa
is seen to lie in aid from the West. This perception of Africa,
though superficially benevolent, is essentially racist. The
measure of the master’s magnaminity is also a measure
of his power, and attempts at independence and self-reliance
are discouraged… We urge all Africans never to feel
overwhelmed by the weight of scientific opinion, which has
so frequently served the master race and not the truth.” For
more information, please see World Without AIDS, available
at www.credence.org
[22] ONE BILLION TO BE INFECTED WITH SARS WITHIN 60 WEEKS,
Daily Record, Wednesday 23rd April 2003 at http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/04/1603343.php
[23] SARS Update at http://www.lef.org/featured-articles/urgent_sars_02.html
[24] www.wnho.net
[25] SARS potion comes with a rich promise’, Sydney
Morning Herald, 14th May 2003 at http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/13/1052591789262.html
[26] RFD Hot Controversy, 13th May 2003
[27] ‘WHO team probe SARS outbreak’, Intelihealth
News, 23rd April 2003 at
http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/WSIHW000/333/29758/363758.html
[28] ‘Spreading SARS now a capital offence’,
Sydney Morning Herald, 15th May 2003 at
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/05/15/1052885339581.html
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SARS
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Modern Medicine
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