In the past 24 hours, I posted on Facebook, an article released via a Johns Hopkins University website showing that Covid has not significantly changed the mortality rate. Quickly thereafter, it was slapped by the Facebook ‘Ministry Of Truth’
I posted a response and a challenge directly on Facebook, as follows:
MY EDIT, DAY AFTER POSTING THE ARTICLE LINK
The link that I posted is a study published by a periodical for and of the students of Johns Hopkins University, one of the premier medical schools in the United States. The school has also been in the forefront of tabulating and crafting the public health response to the Covid-19 outbreak. Based on the reputation of the school and their part in the pandemic, I deemed this article to be credible. Shortly after posting it, the Facebook police slapped their fake news label on it. Posting this edit is my response to their action.
A student periodical is of course not a peer reviewed paper; however, the contributors to the article are well versed in that process. They are not back-shop hacks or Russian dormitories full of operatives churning out manipulative pieces. Even if it were peer reviewed (and it may be in some future iteration), generally speaking everything associated with Covid is nothing if not severely weighted in politics.
The contents of the article are also credible as it is actually not making a very big claim; only a claim that goes against common perceptions and overnight political orthodoxy. In an aging nation of 370 million+ people, it is not incredible to have 255,000+ deaths in a year [that data derived from the JHU Covid data tracking website as of this week) due to a communicable pathogen. Since it afflicts the old and already infirm disproportionately, and because co-morbidities are also almost always involved, there is absolutely no surprise here. As for cardiac morbidity falling at the same time, that too is no surprise. Some of them just turned into Covid statistics and some of them have been spared due to a dramatic decrease in cardiac procedures, a few of which were already documented to be over-prescribed and under-effective to the point of hastening mortality. Covid perhaps saved a few of them from death by unscrupulous doctors. The point here is that these statistics ONLY go against the narrative that has been built up by the media of which Facebook is a primary perpetrator.
The Facebook warning has called the article false at the call of ‘Independent Fact Checkers’. I would like to see the credentials of those ‘fact checkers’. My guess is that they’re probably recent grads, perhaps journalism majors, lured to Silicone Valley by tales of wealth, free and easy living lifestyle, and especially of the mission to be part of the Facebook dark empire, an impulse to feel like a Lord of the Universe, but I only speculate here. My point is that Facebook dares to call into question an article without establishing any shred of credibility on their part. You low commoners, fear the him-her-it-they-their-whatever behind the curtain. That is the message that they really want to convey.
Facebook; your move now. Come on, show your hand, your logic, your credentials, you cowards. I’m waiting here.
Postscript [24 hours later]:
Later news indicates that the article was taken down, but it is still available as a PDF via the link shown here.
This comment is posted on the link:
“Though making clear the need for further research, the article was being used to support false and dangerous inaccuracies about the impact of the pandemic. We regret that this article may have contributed to the spread of misinformation about COVID-19.”
This statement is not so much a disavowal of the original work (still available via PDF) as it is confession of coercion. “Was being used” is a passive nominalization to obscure both the source of the threat and the entities that were using the article for vaguely ‘false and dangerous’ purposes.
Facebook is one of the most likely suspects that might coerce Johns Hopkins. My challenge to Facebook stands; show your credentials cowards!
[End Facebook Response]
End note:
The original article and the points taken were not and are not earth shattering. Quite frankly, Facebook trying to fact check Johns Hopkins University is laughable at the same time that it’s outrageously arrogant. The point of my lengthy follow up and this article is about Facebook, not Covid. This should serve as a template for war against the ‘Ministry of Truth’
Postscript, 12/9/20: The Federalist has provided an article about the ‘professional’ qualifications of USA Today fact checkers which are also allegedly, contractually involved with Facebook.