It must be stated from the outset that this book is a satire: a spoof take on all the arguments in favour of economic lockdowns, face-masks, vaccines, and The Great Reset. Written under the nom de plume of Professor Oisín MacAmadáin, sole member of staff (Provost, Head of Department, and Lecturer) at a purportedly world-leading Irish educational institute (the Termonfeckin Institute of Expertise), it is both hilarious and deadly serious, obliging the reader to remember all the traumas that befell us; that people mounted serious arguments in favour of them; and that they must never happen again. Whichever genius is behind Prof. Oisín MacAmadáin, he has studied all things COVID related, and, provided you remember to invert every argument in the book, you should emerge with authentically expert arguments against the orthodoxy.
If, taken in by the title, one picked up this book expecting a genuine defence of COVID restrictions, one would soon be disabused of that notion. Here we encounter a foreword by one Dr. Anthony Faucet; there we find praise for the author from the likes of Presidents Macaroni and Trudy-Wudy, Santa Klaus, and the CEO of Pfizzle. Indeed, while the title refers to so-called ‘anti vaxxers,’ the book is about much more, including masks and lockdowns.
Paying homage to the Chinese for alerting us to the dangers of COVID, Prof. MacAmadáin recalls a video coming out of China in the early days of the ‘pandemic’ in which a single sneeze causes nearby people to drop dead on the spot. As it happens, I can vouch for the absurdity here. I was working in Wuhan when COVID was doing the rounds, but before it became public knowledge, and have tried to tell people that there was nothing to worry about—that, to this day, I do not know a single Chinese colleague (all health professionals) who contracted the virus. The same people look at me as if I am insane, so brainwashed are they by the media. “Scientific thought was elevated to unimaginable heights thanks to Chinese genius,” trumpets the professor, and, sure enough, the measures recommended by one of the most mendacious regimes in the world were replicated internationally “from Germany to Turkmenistan.”
In the same vein, the Great Barrington Declaration, almost the only reasonable (and since vindicated) statement on how COVID should be managed, becomes “The Declaration of Great Baloney,” and the professor expresses doubt that its lead author, Stanford University’s Jay Bhattacharya, is really who he says he is, or whether he is not, perhaps, at Stanford Polytechnic. The smear is not as outlandish as it seems. Since early 2020, not only has the authority of COVID sceptics been routinely questioned, but they have been subjected to untiring ad hominem and tu quoque (‘whataboutery’) attacks—all slurs that have been used against me, incidentally, and, undoubtedly, against the author of this book. That is one of the things that makes it so clever: its familiarity with all the tactics of the COVID lobby. Anyone of that ilk who deigns to read Busting Anti-Vax Myths (very few, I imagine) ought to blush with shame.
The book continues in the same hilarious but incisive manner through the COVID hall of shame. Weaving in imaginary correspondence, Prof. MacAmadáin receives a letter from a German school teacher which describes how her children start the day by recounting their vaccination status, whereupon, if a student reports being triple vaccinated, the whole class celebrates by doing the traditional ‘geese marching game’ (“an old game we have here in Germany, a bit like you with your ring around the rosy,” she explains). Sweden comes in for special opprobrium, as the “Liberal Utopia” that “become a Far-Right Nightmare.” The fact that the 90,000 Swedish deaths by June 2020 predicted by the UK’s Neil Ferguson did not materialise—they had 2,000—does not convince Prof. MacAmadáin.
In several places, the professor uses extreme credulity as a device to make some very valid points. The social-media ‘fact-checkers,’ who so readily closed the accounts of the COVID sceptical, must have, he asserts, “a Ph.D. in virology.” The truth is that these were usually unqualified censors, or simply ‘bots,’ which, detecting proscribed words, closed accounts or issued ‘strikes’ as it suited. Similarly, the professor admires how the COVID vaccines were “developed and tested for safety so quickly.” Of course, the vaccines were not adequately tested. Their efficacy was greatly exaggerated, and, it transpires (according to the recent admission by the CEO of Pfizer), that they were never proven to prevent the spread. These facts should be viewed against the backdrop of ‘100% effectiveness, 100% safety’ pushed by Big Pharma and governments alike. It is now abundantly obvious that the vaccines were not safe.
Two chapters are dedicated to exposing the ‘anti-vaxxers’ and to countering their ‘myths.’ Here Prof. MacAmadáin tackles all the main arguments about how the mRNA-based vaccines alter our DNA, inflame our hearts, affect our fertility, and even kill us. Though written in the same light-hearted style as the rest of the book, these chapters are particularly uncomfortable because all the ‘myths’ have turned out to be true. Even while Prof. MacAmadáin disparages it, the real author works in some telling—and damning—evidence of vaccine injury. For example, two laboratory studies which demonstrated that the mRNA vaccines could alter DNA are dismissed simply because they emanated from Sweden (where they love ABBA, “so case closed”). Some questions, he concludes, just should not be asked; and that, in fact, was precisely the attitude of the COVID orthodox in dealing with the sceptics.
The problem for the latter was that the orthodox had the full power of the law and, in some cases, the army to enforce their view. It would be gratifying to think, in the winter of 2023, that the COVID orthodox—especially those who locked us down, imposed vaccine passports, dismissed people from jobs, and imprisoned legitimate protesters—were at least losing some sleep. It seems unlikely, however, that the Oisín MacAmadáins of this world will ever be able to admit their wrongdoing, either to others or to themselves. As this ruthless satire reminds us, their irrational worldview must be maintained at all costs. Whether this is ultimately a cause for laughter or tears, I will leave you to decide.
