The insults against the skeptics came quick to the tongue of the COVID devout throughout the pandemic. We were dangerous spreaders of disinformation. Or so they said.
And yet, even at the same time Yuri Deigin’s was leading us down the gain-of-function rabbit-hole and we questioned the ludicrous modelling, the media was spinning a web of their own disinformation. They weren’t covering the spread of the virus, so much as they were pushing a slanted narrative. Some of their lies were dangerous, such as the idea that we could shut down the world for a virus that was already circulating, but others were almost comical.
Enter the COVID party.
There was an alleged COVID party in Kentucky, which the media ate up despite scant, inconsistent details. A few days later, a DC rag even “covered” the story of Lucian Wintrich’s COVID potluck. The story went viral despite the magazine characterizing him as a professional troll — the author, apparently, missed the point. COVID parties were later alleged in Washington state, San Antonio, Alabama, Texas. In fact, there was scant a place where these parties were not alleged to happen. Yet, none were substantiated or met with the least bit of skepticism from the mainstream media.
Small and even smaller outlets and individuals were the only ones questioning these ridiculous stories, so they ran rampant. Looking at the comments of more recent stories, most people seem to believe COVID parties were rampant and reckless. The propaganda doesn’t need to be logically consistent to be effective.
I want to just touch on one of these stories: a Canadian story that appeared on the tail-end of this string of hoaxes. It’s my favorite story because, in a line of ridiculous tales, it is the most ridiculous.
Allegedly, a COVID party was held in the small town of Edson, Alberta last September as “confirmed” by CityNews. The story gained some traction being featured in both Forbes and Vice with few edits and little elaboration.
Why is this story so ridiculous?
The entire premise of the story is based on one source. Instead of actually confirming the story, as they claimed, they spoke to a person “outside of the hospital” that “knew” of “a party” that occurred “outside of town a couple of weeks ago”. Who the source was is unclear. For all we know, it was a homeless person looking for change. The reporter never makes it clear why they decided to extrapolate from “a party” to “a COVID party”. I’m sure the incentive of having their third-rate story featured in Forbes had nothing to do with it.
Even worse, the report is noticeably vague featuring phrases like “several people in the hospital” attended the party, the party “sent some people to the local hospital”, and “a number of Edmonton ICU cases also come from the party”.
Perhaps trying to capture lightning in a bottle twice, a few days later the reporters were on the hunt for anyone that would verify their frivolous claim.
And they found… a random grocery store employee who said he attended a party a couple weeks ago because everyone was “kinda dealing with stuff”. Their witness never claims it was a COVID party. Nor does he claim that anyone ended up in the ICU after attending. In fact, he provides absolutely nothing to back up the initial claim.
We are in a world where asking random young people around town if they attended a party during summer is journalism.
Of course, no one else verified the claims either.
They quickly gloss over the lack of details by interviewing a crazy person in a parking lot that wanted to complain about this elusive COVID party and the selfishness of everyone who allegedly attended it.
More interestingly, they interviewed one of the two doctors in town who, apparently, treated most of the patients that ended up in the ICU. The reporters left out the part of the interview where the doctor said he hadn’t heard about the party from any of the patients. The only reason we know about that fact is due to a separate media outlet, perhaps mistakenly, filling us in on that detail.
Nor did the mayor of the town hear about the party. When questioned, he chose to skirt around the issue by offering up some COVID platitudes. These platitudes were echoed by Alberta’s top doctor who claimed that Alberta Health Services was looking for evidence on that matter. Needless to say, never again did she mention the party or their findings. Silence is a great arbiter in the search for truth.
Yet, despite the complete lack of evidence, many people will believe the story they want to believe. But the skeptics are the spreaders of disinformation, eh?
It’s like when Rachel Maddow reported on the mythical hordes of people in the ER from OD’ing on horse paste, as if it were fact, when it was made up.
Hehehe, to quote a former editor of one of Sweden's major papers, Expressen ("The Express", commonly referd to as Excessen/The Excess) "Never ruin a good story by checking facts".
We actually had a "Covid party" here in Sweden, confirmed and true. Only, it was accidental and not planned. See, in one of the may depopulated areas, there's this old farmhold-turned-retreat with an angle towards all things New Agey; the weirder the better. Such as how to make sounds towards the forest, trying to hum in harmony with the trees. Hippie stuff, mostly harmless. Target audience is menopausal women, often recently divorced. The kind that swallows anything if it's packaged to play to their fears and fix ideas.
So what do these people arrange in 2021? A tantric yoga retreat for two weeks. Out of just above 200 guests and instructors, all doing tantric massages in saunas and whatnot day in day out, more than 150 came down with Covid.
Which of course was what the media hooked upon. Well, that and the sex angle. Lowest common denominator, thy name is journalism.
What they didn't cover was that none of those infected needed ICU, or even hospital stay. Nor did they mention that there was zero fatalities.
Good thing the monkey pox wasn't circulating then, since these kind of women going to such retreats are the same kind going to Gambia as sex tourists.
Just thought I'd try to insert some levity (or whatever it might be called).