Silencing Dissent

Silencing dissent: How social media giants advance fake science

Jordan Schachtel

On Friday, I was locked out of Twitter for replying to an article that was advancing baseless fear mongering about a series of “new COVID-19 variants.” I was replying to a story by The New York Post, which was titled, “What to know about all of the COVID-19 variants.”

I read the first paragraph, which was not written by any kind of health expert, but from one of their general assignment reporters. It reads: “The world is on edge over the emergence of three new strains of COVID-19, each of which shows signs of being more dangerous and damaging during an already devastating pandemic.”

Anyway, the story recycles much of the garbage you’ve seen on television and in social media over the past year. It was nothing special – a giant dose of fear and paranoia, citing “scientists” and “experts” to make sweeping conclusions about these “new variants.” 

As I’ve discussed at length in The Dossier, there is no actual evidence that any of these new variants are more or less transmissible or deadly. The claims about the status of new viral mutations are wholly sourced to epidemiological models constructed by a handful of academics, who have access to influential people and platforms. These models have not been tested by actual evidence, and most of these models are not open source. Some have not even been peer reviewed.

The “new variant” insanity is not based on science, it is based on models. For something to become scientifically sound, it requires experimentation and evidence. These models are constructed around rudimentary hypotheses and theories, and then rushed to the nearest politician or public health official, who declares it a product of sound science.

For example, the British variant you’ve been hearing about is regarded as more transmissible. Why is this? Their “proof” is as follows: cases went up in the UK over the winter, and scientists found a new mutation that was driving a lot of infections. Therefore, the new mutation must be more transmissible, the “experts” claimed. 

This, of course, ignored the role of seasonal factors in disease spread, and an infinite set of other variables. Nonetheless, it was enough for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to renew his countrywide lockdown and smash the five-alarm fire panic button into oblivion. The idea that the British variant is more contagious is not, in fact, backed by any real science. It is based on an epidemiological model constructed by a handful of academics at Imperial College London. Nonetheless, this model, and countless other projections similar to it (the South African variant, the Brazilian variant, etc), have been mainstreamed into our collective consciousness without any actual science to back it up.

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