Apologies to one or two of you, who are old friends and also subscribers, and who read this when I briefly posted it to the internet many months ago – before I took it down. I've since improved it a little bit, and have still wanted to publish it in a place with lower exposure. This is the best idea I could come up with.
Also, a small housekeeping matter:
Do you, my subscribers, want me to close comments on the free posts to everyone but you guys, or keep them open?
Hi. Regarding comments on the free posts: they have enormous value to readers and they have enormous value to you. A reader may comment and point out a small mistake you made so you can correct it promptly. Or they can report a new development that you can write about.
About 30% of the reason why I read your articles, is to read comments. I do not read all of them but I catch some very interesting glimpses.
I am personally wealthy enough that I do not need the subscription revenue, so I do not even consider paid posts for me personally. We are in a very unusual historic moment, comparable to perhaps only 1942-1944 in some countries, and to me spreading the word is the highest priority. I waste my time and my money writing my articles instead of making money.
Now I totally get it why there are paid subscriptions in general, this is not a criticism of anyone at all. I am glad Substack has it. But the overall priority, in my eyes, is ending the pandemic of mind control.
Allowing people to comment keeps the community alive.
I actually ended my subscription to one substack that limited comments to only paid subscribers. Just a data point.
Agree completely - love seeing everyone's comments! The more data and opinions mixed into this pot makes for a very nourishing intellectual experience.
On those Stacks where anybody may comment, the comments range far and wide and serve as an outlet for substantial relief - people get to emote freely and clear their mind. The threading model used on the page isn't particularly helpful in reading commentary. I do find it it valuable. OTOH on subscriber-only pages the comments are fewer and typically more on-topic. I see room for both models.
I felt bad for not moderating, which is one of the main reasons I asked this. Curating comments can take a lot of time. If anyone is too obnoxious, anyone can always write to me at eugyppius-africanus@tutanota.com and I'll do something about it.
Agreed. Trolls and moles will show up to cause trouble or sow discord. We can certainly chase them off. I've called people out who I suspected were one or the other.
I do think we all gain from open and honest discourse (even if sometimes ugly). For the most part, the people who comment are thoughtful and well informed...unlike most of the commenters on Fakebook and Twitter. IMO, there is no need to police the comments.
Please keep the comment section open - there is a thriving community of people, all along the spectrum of this awakening, that find comfort, value and confirmation through the words of others. Many feel they are walking this path alone, alienated by friends and family, but when they read the comments to articles such as these, they are reminded that they are anything but alone. This is invaluable, and perhaps just as important as the actual information you are presenting itself.
Vox is good for this kind of thing: Their stated goal of "explaining" the news, means they're very agenda-forward, and state openly a lot of the assumptions that are also at work in the rest of the press, but more quietly.
Herr Eugyppius: I only discovered you a few weeks ago and I have just now subscribed. I was delighted to do so because I find you to be an exceptionally clear thinker. It's no surprise to me that your academic specialty has nothing whatever to do with virology or epidemiology; credentialed experts in any field are almost always wrong, in particular when it comes to public policy. Thank God you are no "expert"! Nevertheless, you seem to have an excellent understanding of the trees while keeping your gaze fixed on the forest at all times. That is what attracted me to your writings from the start--that, and the fact that you write a better English than 95% of those who comment publicly on this or any other topic.
A question: You have mentioned these Chinese-dropping-dead-in-the-streets-of-Wuhan photos more than once before, and here you have reproduced one for the first time, I believe. This is first one I've seen. You seem to be saying that 1) these photos were faked, and 2) they were faked to foment lockdown hysteria in the west. Am I wrong about that? Can you please provide more information regarding the provenance of these images, their circulation, and effect they had on western opinion in future posts? Thank you.
The extra posts are a great value for our money. Plus, for me personally, I'm so grateful for the work you are doing, that I'm happy to pay a little to support you. Although, I have no idea how much I am paying in American dollars. :)
lol apologies for this. is it maybe 5.80 / month in dollars right now? on the bright side: there is every chance we continue to destroy our whole economy, and/or the Eurozone collapses as this goes forward, in which case the foreign denomination will represent a huge discount.
I find the conflict between xenophobia and public health policy at Vox to be hilarious and pathetic. They are, as are all progressives, hopelessly bound by it and are therefore incapable of making any utilitarian decisions.
Every time I see that staged photo (and a few other Walking Dead zombie type walkers supposedly spontaneously captured on the street in Wuhan) it makes my blood boil - I cannot wait for the day that the Jiang Zemin faction takes the Xi Jipeng faction down and the karma being a bitch thing playing itself out within the CCP.
Our credulous and childlike media certainly kept licking the hand that was feeding them that psy-op!
A fascinating read - I’m trying to reconcile / compare with my memories of this period, which were very related to running my business. It was a very intense moment in my life.
Similar here. We were traveling in the US very heavily throughout February. We were a little hesitant because of the weird stories but went with, of course, no issues. I look at our Mardi Gras 2020 pictures and want to cry. March was so strange—we had two in college, and a senior and sophomore in high school. Such a weird time.
This is great, thank you. Can't wait for the 2nd piece.
If based on something you wrote in March, is it updated with new information?
All (silk) roads lead to China. You've said so before. But i still can't marry that idea with:
1. China hurt herself with the virus too. I guess the only explanation is that the release of the virus was accidental
2. The virus was designed and paid for by the US. It can't be a Chinese attack on the West - not just the virus but the lockdowns etc.
3. Paid shills in the US like Fauci covered it up. Understandable that they'd cover their mistakes. But again rules out a China - US war.
Anti-globalists would say it's a Elite/Captured-Elite in both China, the US, etc. against the rest of us. NWO style. Ok, partially explains some of the above. But all roads lead to China. Everything else, even the criminal conspiracies by our western elites, seem like a reaction. A Never let a good crisis go to waste moment.
I think your competing multiple inner conspiracies theory might be the best. Because it doesn't need the US-China elite alignment to trigger the cascading events. And then the outer conspiracies explains the reactionary events.
Something like that. I'm confused myself. I'm sure you can write something to make everything more clear. Thanks
There have been a few updates, but by and large our knowledge of the early machinations hasn‘t advanced very much. I think there are some new points in Michael Senger‘s new book, which is another reason I wanted to publish this here, now. It might be good to have a third piece some time in the future looking at what his work adds to this basic picture.
Yes, I think an accidental leak is most credible. My old idea, which nobody liked very much, is that original motives of Chinese regime in promoting lockdowns to the West, might have been insecurity over its own reactions. If the West does nothing, after China shuts down Hubei for weeks and weeks, and nothing especially bad happens—well, that would be awkward. But I think even the early push for lockdowns is not coming from just one place or even about just one thing.
An interesting side note to all this: Pro-lockdown bot/spam-acount activity on Twitter (steered from where?) has now mostly been shut down, but elements were active as late as the summer.
I'm coming around to the notion of intentional release. I mean, it almost doesn't matter with the damage it's done, but China has done very well out of COVID. A virus that only targets elderly and health-compromised individuals must make a lot of sense if you're collectivists looking at a looming demographic crisis.
Regardless of what the virus may have been intended for, I doubt the actual release we got was on purpose, simply because of the location. If China didn't want this traced back to the WIV - and that's certainly the line they're pushing - they picked what was quite possibly literally the worst place on Earth to release the virus. Remember, one of the reasons that people originally speculated this might have been a lab leak, before anything about furin cleavage ever came out, was the location: there are no relevant bat species anywhere near Wuhan, but the virology lab is right there. Believing China intentionally did this means believing they had the foresight to realize this would work out in their favor and the influence to make that happen, but couldn't bother giving their story an immediate boost to plausibility by releasing the virus a few hundred kilometers away near some actual bat caves - or at least in a city that didn't house a virology lab known to be messing with bat coronaviruses.
I always find this interview fascinating. It’s from Davos 24/1/20 and everything he says is what pans out especially regarding vaccines, almost as if there really was a master plan in place.
I am all for open commentary. I really wish that Substack had a feature like some of the other comment posting utilities that allowed any reader to block a user they have learned is a troll. You might encourage them to add that. I skip over the trolls, but at some point, would just like them to go away. In the meanwhile, delighted to send some $$ and would have been delighted to be a Founding Sponsor to send more if you had such a category. Your work is masterful, thoughtful, and humble. Please do not ever stop! Thanks.
i will explore the opportunities for telling Substack about this. in the meantime, if you write to me at eugyppius-africanus@tutanota.com, and draw my attention to specific trolls, i will get rid of them.
This is a tough one. Broad-based commentary can enrich the conversation, but at the cost of welcoming trolls. The assumption, of course, is that trolls do not live amongst us - the paying subscribers. The conundrum you have eugyppius will be one faced by many substack authors so we can hope that better auto-moderation tools are within sight. Keep it open, and ask substack for their moderation roadmap
Can’t wait for the second part, hope blushed pandemic modellers are waiting behind the curtain…Neil deserves a special attention and an Oscar for his entire contribution to “pandemic response” …and naturally don’t stop commentaries
He was a very useful ally when Tamiflu pre-avian pandemic stockpile was build…some believe he single-handedly scared Boris and Witty shitless and reversed their initial pragmatic “Swedish” approach to COVID-19…
Thanks so much. Eagerly awaiting the second part. Honestly, this article alone is worth the subscription! FWIW, my husband and I have scaled back some other subscriptions (cable news, I'm looking at you) and have embraced independent writers like you to support. Substack has been really great.
Apologies to one or two of you, who are old friends and also subscribers, and who read this when I briefly posted it to the internet many months ago – before I took it down. I've since improved it a little bit, and have still wanted to publish it in a place with lower exposure. This is the best idea I could come up with.
Also, a small housekeeping matter:
Do you, my subscribers, want me to close comments on the free posts to everyone but you guys, or keep them open?
Hi. Regarding comments on the free posts: they have enormous value to readers and they have enormous value to you. A reader may comment and point out a small mistake you made so you can correct it promptly. Or they can report a new development that you can write about.
About 30% of the reason why I read your articles, is to read comments. I do not read all of them but I catch some very interesting glimpses.
I am personally wealthy enough that I do not need the subscription revenue, so I do not even consider paid posts for me personally. We are in a very unusual historic moment, comparable to perhaps only 1942-1944 in some countries, and to me spreading the word is the highest priority. I waste my time and my money writing my articles instead of making money.
Now I totally get it why there are paid subscriptions in general, this is not a criticism of anyone at all. I am glad Substack has it. But the overall priority, in my eyes, is ending the pandemic of mind control.
Allowing people to comment keeps the community alive.
I actually ended my subscription to one substack that limited comments to only paid subscribers. Just a data point.
thanks, this is very helpful.
Agree completely - love seeing everyone's comments! The more data and opinions mixed into this pot makes for a very nourishing intellectual experience.
I, too, enjoy the comments, though I don't read all of them. I agree that comments "keep the community alive."
I agree and find most of the comments very insightful and informative.
I agree, we should encourage speech to be free as long as we can.
On those Stacks where anybody may comment, the comments range far and wide and serve as an outlet for substantial relief - people get to emote freely and clear their mind. The threading model used on the page isn't particularly helpful in reading commentary. I do find it it valuable. OTOH on subscriber-only pages the comments are fewer and typically more on-topic. I see room for both models.
'.......the pandemic of mind control.'
How very true; the most damaging pandemic of all.
Definitely keep comments open to all. Trolls may show up but they can easily be ignored.
I felt bad for not moderating, which is one of the main reasons I asked this. Curating comments can take a lot of time. If anyone is too obnoxious, anyone can always write to me at eugyppius-africanus@tutanota.com and I'll do something about it.
I'm very new here, but I think even obnoxiousness can contain grains of wisdom.
sooner or later, every comments section will attract its share of counterproductive infuriating trolls. it is just a matter of time, here. :-)
Agreed. Trolls and moles will show up to cause trouble or sow discord. We can certainly chase them off. I've called people out who I suspected were one or the other.
I do think we all gain from open and honest discourse (even if sometimes ugly). For the most part, the people who comment are thoughtful and well informed...unlike most of the commenters on Fakebook and Twitter. IMO, there is no need to police the comments.
Luckily trolls have a distinct pungent odor that makes their presence easily detected even through cyber space!
I completely agree. We are all adults here, and there is no need to censor obnoxious behavior besides who gets to decide what’s obnoxious.
I’d prefer your time spent on writing & analysis versus troll filtering.
Keep them open. You never know when someone will have a useful insight.
my instinct too
“Do not be so open-minded that your brains fall out.” ― G.K. Chesterton
Always keep comments open. Don't worry about it
Please keep the comment section open - there is a thriving community of people, all along the spectrum of this awakening, that find comfort, value and confirmation through the words of others. Many feel they are walking this path alone, alienated by friends and family, but when they read the comments to articles such as these, they are reminded that they are anything but alone. This is invaluable, and perhaps just as important as the actual information you are presenting itself.
Please keep them open; the more informed comments (and this site really has very informed comments) the better.
Please keep articles and comments open. Thanks.
Fascinating to study the progression of both the virus and the narrative through one particular publication. Not something I had thought to do.
Vox is good for this kind of thing: Their stated goal of "explaining" the news, means they're very agenda-forward, and state openly a lot of the assumptions that are also at work in the rest of the press, but more quietly.
Herr Eugyppius: I only discovered you a few weeks ago and I have just now subscribed. I was delighted to do so because I find you to be an exceptionally clear thinker. It's no surprise to me that your academic specialty has nothing whatever to do with virology or epidemiology; credentialed experts in any field are almost always wrong, in particular when it comes to public policy. Thank God you are no "expert"! Nevertheless, you seem to have an excellent understanding of the trees while keeping your gaze fixed on the forest at all times. That is what attracted me to your writings from the start--that, and the fact that you write a better English than 95% of those who comment publicly on this or any other topic.
A question: You have mentioned these Chinese-dropping-dead-in-the-streets-of-Wuhan photos more than once before, and here you have reproduced one for the first time, I believe. This is first one I've seen. You seem to be saying that 1) these photos were faked, and 2) they were faked to foment lockdown hysteria in the west. Am I wrong about that? Can you please provide more information regarding the provenance of these images, their circulation, and effect they had on western opinion in future posts? Thank you.
coming in part 2, tomorrow.
I truly enjoy the comments of all readers - subscribers and non-subscribers. Please keep them open. I learn many things from your readers, too.
yes, i also want an open community of commenters - just want to give you value for money too.
The extra posts are a great value for our money. Plus, for me personally, I'm so grateful for the work you are doing, that I'm happy to pay a little to support you. Although, I have no idea how much I am paying in American dollars. :)
lol apologies for this. is it maybe 5.80 / month in dollars right now? on the bright side: there is every chance we continue to destroy our whole economy, and/or the Eurozone collapses as this goes forward, in which case the foreign denomination will represent a huge discount.
Thanks! A perfectly acceptable amount to pay! I'm truly happy to do so!
I find the conflict between xenophobia and public health policy at Vox to be hilarious and pathetic. They are, as are all progressives, hopelessly bound by it and are therefore incapable of making any utilitarian decisions.
Every time I see that staged photo (and a few other Walking Dead zombie type walkers supposedly spontaneously captured on the street in Wuhan) it makes my blood boil - I cannot wait for the day that the Jiang Zemin faction takes the Xi Jipeng faction down and the karma being a bitch thing playing itself out within the CCP.
Our credulous and childlike media certainly kept licking the hand that was feeding them that psy-op!
Thank you for this great narrative on the sequence of events leading to the lockdowns. I am looking forward to the next part.
A fascinating read - I’m trying to reconcile / compare with my memories of this period, which were very related to running my business. It was a very intense moment in my life.
in all of our lives. i had it right at the beginning, too, which made it very poignant for me
Similar here. We were traveling in the US very heavily throughout February. We were a little hesitant because of the weird stories but went with, of course, no issues. I look at our Mardi Gras 2020 pictures and want to cry. March was so strange—we had two in college, and a senior and sophomore in high school. Such a weird time.
This is great, thank you. Can't wait for the 2nd piece.
If based on something you wrote in March, is it updated with new information?
All (silk) roads lead to China. You've said so before. But i still can't marry that idea with:
1. China hurt herself with the virus too. I guess the only explanation is that the release of the virus was accidental
2. The virus was designed and paid for by the US. It can't be a Chinese attack on the West - not just the virus but the lockdowns etc.
3. Paid shills in the US like Fauci covered it up. Understandable that they'd cover their mistakes. But again rules out a China - US war.
Anti-globalists would say it's a Elite/Captured-Elite in both China, the US, etc. against the rest of us. NWO style. Ok, partially explains some of the above. But all roads lead to China. Everything else, even the criminal conspiracies by our western elites, seem like a reaction. A Never let a good crisis go to waste moment.
I think your competing multiple inner conspiracies theory might be the best. Because it doesn't need the US-China elite alignment to trigger the cascading events. And then the outer conspiracies explains the reactionary events.
Something like that. I'm confused myself. I'm sure you can write something to make everything more clear. Thanks
There have been a few updates, but by and large our knowledge of the early machinations hasn‘t advanced very much. I think there are some new points in Michael Senger‘s new book, which is another reason I wanted to publish this here, now. It might be good to have a third piece some time in the future looking at what his work adds to this basic picture.
Yes, I think an accidental leak is most credible. My old idea, which nobody liked very much, is that original motives of Chinese regime in promoting lockdowns to the West, might have been insecurity over its own reactions. If the West does nothing, after China shuts down Hubei for weeks and weeks, and nothing especially bad happens—well, that would be awkward. But I think even the early push for lockdowns is not coming from just one place or even about just one thing.
An interesting side note to all this: Pro-lockdown bot/spam-acount activity on Twitter (steered from where?) has now mostly been shut down, but elements were active as late as the summer.
I'm coming around to the notion of intentional release. I mean, it almost doesn't matter with the damage it's done, but China has done very well out of COVID. A virus that only targets elderly and health-compromised individuals must make a lot of sense if you're collectivists looking at a looming demographic crisis.
Regardless of what the virus may have been intended for, I doubt the actual release we got was on purpose, simply because of the location. If China didn't want this traced back to the WIV - and that's certainly the line they're pushing - they picked what was quite possibly literally the worst place on Earth to release the virus. Remember, one of the reasons that people originally speculated this might have been a lab leak, before anything about furin cleavage ever came out, was the location: there are no relevant bat species anywhere near Wuhan, but the virology lab is right there. Believing China intentionally did this means believing they had the foresight to realize this would work out in their favor and the influence to make that happen, but couldn't bother giving their story an immediate boost to plausibility by releasing the virus a few hundred kilometers away near some actual bat caves - or at least in a city that didn't house a virology lab known to be messing with bat coronaviruses.
I always find this interview fascinating. It’s from Davos 24/1/20 and everything he says is what pans out especially regarding vaccines, almost as if there really was a master plan in place.
https://www.channel4.com/news/i-cant-say-that-ive-been-more-concerned-than-i-am-about-the-current-virus-dr-richard-hatchett
Richard Hatchett is the CEO of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, whatever that is?
A PDF version to share with friends and family for paid subs would be nice.
Here I am limited by the possibilities of Substack, but you can install software that will allow to "print" emails to .pdf format.
I am all for open commentary. I really wish that Substack had a feature like some of the other comment posting utilities that allowed any reader to block a user they have learned is a troll. You might encourage them to add that. I skip over the trolls, but at some point, would just like them to go away. In the meanwhile, delighted to send some $$ and would have been delighted to be a Founding Sponsor to send more if you had such a category. Your work is masterful, thoughtful, and humble. Please do not ever stop! Thanks.
i will explore the opportunities for telling Substack about this. in the meantime, if you write to me at eugyppius-africanus@tutanota.com, and draw my attention to specific trolls, i will get rid of them.
This is a tough one. Broad-based commentary can enrich the conversation, but at the cost of welcoming trolls. The assumption, of course, is that trolls do not live amongst us - the paying subscribers. The conundrum you have eugyppius will be one faced by many substack authors so we can hope that better auto-moderation tools are within sight. Keep it open, and ask substack for their moderation roadmap
Can’t wait for the second part, hope blushed pandemic modellers are waiting behind the curtain…Neil deserves a special attention and an Oscar for his entire contribution to “pandemic response” …and naturally don’t stop commentaries
ha ferguson. who was it, who called him “the turd that won’t flush”?
He was a very useful ally when Tamiflu pre-avian pandemic stockpile was build…some believe he single-handedly scared Boris and Witty shitless and reversed their initial pragmatic “Swedish” approach to COVID-19…
Thanks so much. Eagerly awaiting the second part. Honestly, this article alone is worth the subscription! FWIW, my husband and I have scaled back some other subscriptions (cable news, I'm looking at you) and have embraced independent writers like you to support. Substack has been really great.
thanks, cheryl, both for your kind words and your generosity.
Excellent compendium of medias initial response to lockdown mouthpiece.