I hesitate to criticize my fellow libertarians since there are so few of us against millions of liberals and conservatives who actively work against a free society. However, this doesn’t mean that I never have disagreements with them, and sometimes strong ones.
Although I reject the simplistic answer “open borders” as a feasible solution to the immigration “crisis,” I have only written two or three articles on the subject of immigration over the past twenty years, and the main point of the articles wasn’t even to criticize the “open borders” position.
I have been very critical of pro-abortion libertarians for their inconsistency in applying the non-aggression principle. But my ire was mainly directed toward the most outspoken of them who claimed to believe that a baby in the womb was a parasite that could justly be killed up to the time of birth.
I have for 25 years been reminding libertarians that government-managed trade and trade agreements are not free trade. See my book Free Trade or Protectionism?
Perhaps the issue upon which I have been the most critical toward other libertarians is that of government educational vouchers, often wrongly referred to as “school choice.” I have even collected a series of my articles on the subject into a book: School Choice for Whom?
I plead guilty to not hesitating to lambaste self-proclaimed libertarians who claim to be social justice warriors or advocate U.S. military aggression, socialism, or a universal basic income.
But even worse than these things—because of the dire times in which we presently live—is the defense of face masks, lockdowns, travel restrictions, social distancing, business and venue capacity limits, Covid testing, the Covid vaccine, and vaccine passports by CDC libertarians.
I am a theology doctor, not a medical doctor. But I can read, research, study, and weigh evidence. To those who will write to me and say that because I am not a medical doctor I should not write about vaccines, let me say this now: When I steer you to articles by medical professional to back up what I am saying and you dismiss them as well, then it is clear that you just don’t like what I am saying and that my credentials have nothing to do with it.
The question before us is a simple one: Have vaccines saved millions of lives?
The reason I address this subject is because of a recent article by a conservative-leaning libertarian who does good work, and whom I like, profit from, and read on a regular basis. I gather that he probably doesn’t feel the same about me since he doesn’t respond to e-mails.
I agree that “free enterprise also is the best option for dealing with a pandemic.” I likewise agree that “I like pharmaceutical companies when they are being honest participants in a free market” and “I don’t like them when they get in bed with big government.” But to say about pharmaceutical companies that “their pursuit of profit is what led to the vaccines that have saved millions of lives” is utter nonsense.
Which vaccines? I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he meant vaccines for real diseases like measles, mumps, and rubella. But before his “millions of lives” statement, he favorably quoted this from the Wall Street Journal: “What’s worked in the pandemic so far has been the dog everyone wants to kick: Big Pharma. Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson succeeded where the internationalists failed. Scientists in free societies working with the resources that capitalism provides have given the world hope.” And in an earlier article, where it was clear that he was talking about the coronavirus vaccine, he made the same statement: “Millions of lives are now being saved because pharmaceutical companies have produced multiple vaccines.”
It is totally and completely false to say that vaccines have said saved millions of lives—even before the development of the Covid-19 vaccine.
Now, let me state for the record that I am not anti-vaccines. I know how vaccines are supposed to work. I am “fully vaccinated” according to what was recommend by pediatricians in the 1960s, although I had no interest or say in the matter at the time. My children are “fully vaccinated” according to what was recommended by pediatricians in the 1980s and 1990s. I never gave it a second thought at the time, although knowing what I know now, I might not have allowed all of the recommended vaccines to be administered. My grandchildren have received vaccinations, although I don’t know which ones, and it is out of my control anyway. I simply don’t know for certain how effective vaccines actually are, and which ones are more effective or necessary than others. However, it seems clear that pumping babies full of vaccines, and especially flu shots beginning at 6 months of age like the CDC recommends, can’t possibly be a good thing.
What I do know is this: Most of the decline in deaths from scarlet fever, diphtheria, whooping cough, typhoid fever, measles, yellow fever, tuberculosis, and cholera occurred before widespread immunization because of improvements in nutrition, sanitation, and hygiene. I have seen many articles and charts on this over the years, most recently here.
But when it comes to the Covid-19 vaccine, I can loudly and unequivocally say that it is reckless and irresponsible to say that it has saved millions of lives. In fact, it may actually end up killing more people than it saves.
First of all, the Covid-19 vaccine is not a vaccine. It does not inject anyone with an attenuated or live virus to keep them from getting a disease and transmitting a disease. It is RNA gene therapy. It is a shot, an injection, or a jab, but it is not a not a vaccine, an immunization, or an inoculation. The Covid-19 vaccine is no more a vaccine than shooting up with heroin is a vaccine.
Secondly, the medical establishment’s own studies and statistics show that around 99.7 percent of people survive getting “the virus”; that is, a series of clinical symptoms.
Third, the tests for “the virus” are terribly inaccurate, and result in a high percentage of false positives. I could literally link to hundreds of articles, including some by government officials. If the tests are inaccurate, then the Covid cases and deaths cannot but be inaccurate.
Fourth, the number of people who have actually died from Covid-19 has been way overstated due to factors such as age, obesity, and comorbidities. I could literally link to hundreds of articles, including some by government officials.
Fifth, according to the makers of the Covid-19 “vaccine,” it neither prevents anyone from contracting Covid nor transmitting the infection to anyone else. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky just recently confirmed this. All the “vaccine” is designed to do is reduce the severity of the symptoms of the “virus.” Whether it actually does this is irrelevant.
And sixth, as to my second contention regarding the dangers of the “vaccine,” I note that the latest data released by the CDC shows “a total of 545,338 reports of adverse events from all age groups following COVID vaccines, including 12,366 deaths and 70,105 serious injuries between Dec. 14, 2020 and July 30, 2021.” And these are just deaths and injuries that have been reported. I think that the cure is worse than the disease.
Saying that the Covid-19 vaccine has saved millions of lives or will save millions of lives is just as false as Biden saying that 40,000 lives would have been saved if everyone had worn face masks for the last three months of 2020.
I will refrain commenting on my libertarian friend’s smear that “only curmudgeonly libertarians will get upset about an effort to subsidize vaccines for the developing world.”
If you think that getting the shot will prevent you from getting Covid, then get the shot. I don’t care. If you think that getting the shot will lessen the severity of your symptoms, then get the shot. It is none of my business. If you want to post a picture of your arm with a band-aid over where you got the shot (as did my libertarian friend), then get the shot. I couldn’t care less.
If you want to get the shot, then get the shot. Just don’t say that it has saved or will save millions of lives. That is an absolutely baseless assertion.
And quit holding out pharmaceutical companies as capitalists in pursuit of profits. Like defense contractors, they are merchants of death and crony capitalists in pursuit of government contracts.
And there is nothing “free market” about private businesses requiring vaccines for their workers and vaccine passports from their customers when it is all in response to pronouncements, pressure, and propaganda from the government and the news media.
