To My Critics,
In a previous article, I exposed the futility of your attempt to rebut my writing using straw man arguments and juvenile japes. Calling me a “lockerdowner” generates likes and retweets from “free-thinkers”, but it doesn’t refute anything I wrote. As you seem confused, I’d like to give you a clear roadmap to refute me. It shouldn’t be that hard. All you have to do is stand up for your own words and make the affirmative case that the purposeful infection of unvaccinated children and young adults was wise and a net positive this pandemic.
Let’s start at the beginning. In March 2020, you penned an essay titled “Is the Coronavirus as Deadly as They Say?” in which you surmised that COVID had “one-tenth of the flu mortality rate of 0.1%”. You wrote “about the limited scale of the epidemic” and said that “a 20,000- or 40,000-death epidemic is a far less severe problem than one that kills two million.” To refute me, defend your statements. Prove that you were right about the limited scale of the epidemic.
As the pandemic progressed, you were certain that herd immunity would arrive and everyone could live normally with minimal risks just 3-6 months after restrictions were removed. The passage below comes directly from the Great Barrington Declaration (GBD), which was published in October 2020. To refute me, make the case that had we only used “focused protection” on that date, then herd immunity would have arrived by April 2021 at the latest. You must argue that we never would have heard of Delta, Omicron, or any variant because we’d have herd immunity.
You need to further make the affirmative case that the purposeful infection of unvaccinated youth remained wise even after a vaccine arrived in December 2020, just two short months after you published your plan to infect hundreds of millions of unvaccinated Americans. Days after vaccinations began that month, you continued to advocate for the mass infection of unvaccinated young people, promising that the pandemic would be “naturally over in 3-6 months” once they all were infected. Tell me you were right about this.
Throughout the pandemic, you continued to make the case that young people should forgo the vaccine in favor of “natural immunity”. In an article you published in June 2021 titled, “The Ill-Advised Push to Vaccinate the Young” you wrote that:
The idea that everyone must be vaccinated against COVID-19 is as misguided as the anti-vax idea that no one should. The former is more dangerous for public health.
Convince me that you were right about this, that it would have been “more dangerous” to vaccinate every one than to vaccinate no one.
Further, you must argue that it was a good idea to glorify the virus in articles such as The Triumph of Natural Immunity. That article expressed a lot of confidence about a brand new virus. Like a clairvoyant, you wrote that children “have strong natural immunity that protects them from covid infections as they get older”. To refute me, prove that repeat COVID infections are rare or benign. Explain how we can be certain repeat infections will have no consequence for developing children. Remind me again why you ignored any COVID outcome beyond death in your Declaration, as if all survivors recovered fully. Convince me that the mass infection of unvaccinated babies, who aren’t born with natural immunity and who have the highest COVID risk, should continue in perpetuity.
You must also claim you were right when you said “we should not be particularly concerned about the variants” shortly before the Delta and Omicron variants arrived. Defend your statement in April 2021 that, “the central problem right now I think is the fear that people still feel about COVID.” I thought the virus was the “central problem” at that time. You need to make the case that fear of COVID was worse than COVID, even though more Americans died of COVID after your comment than before it.
Of course, you must use accurate numbers in your rebuttal, which hasn’t been your strong suit this pandemic. Don’t bother trying to trick me by claiming only 1 in a million children die of COVID or that more children died of the flu. We both know I’ll spot and expose your fake statistics, as I have throughout the pandemic. You also need to avoid specious arguments. You previously argued that we should let some unvaccinated children suffer from COVID because the virus is more dangerous for older people. We both know I won’t find this convincing. It’s also a waste to try to convince me rare vaccine side-effects are a fate worse than death for children.
Perhaps most importantly, tell me what we need to do now to end the pandemic. You said that if we had “focused protection, as outlined in the Great Barrington Declaration, the pandemic would have been over now”. How can we do “focused protection” right now to achieve herd immunity? What pandemic restrictions must end so the pandemic can be over in 3-6 months? How many more unvaccinated children must contract COVID for the pandemic to end?
And if you once again to tell me, yet again, that the pandemic is over, then please act like it. You said in September 2021 that “we should be treating covid as one of 200 diseases that affect people”. Please do that. Model the behavior you expect from others.
Nothing would be a stronger rebuke of my writing than for you to stop talking about the pandemic.