We experienced a severely needed breath of fresh air Saturday night from Dr. Scott Atlas at The Barn at 52 Pines in Burlington. I came to the event with a low bar of expectations as Dr. Atlas had just written his book, A Plague Upon Our House, and I anticipated a good speaker on a book selling tour, but what we got was far better.
His presentation, The SARS2 Pandemic: Will Truth Prevail?, was filled with real solid facts and not fear. The severity, death rates, loss of life years, and health of everyone in the nation was worsened by the policies put in place, seemingly by Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx. He showed clear and convincing data from a number of nations that lockdowns, masking, closure of schools, shutting down businesses, force vaccinations, disruptions to regular medical, and absolute media hysteria in the U.S. were all absolutely the wrong things to do. He stated over and over “We knew this in early 2020…”, “We’ve known this for decades…” regarding a variety of the failed policies put in place. Shocking and painful, on page 299 of his book it outlines the severity of the “voluntarily imposed” lockdowns. In a May of 2020 column, “…we conservatively estimated the US lockdown was already responsible for at least 700,000 lost years-of-life, or about 1.5 million through only May 2020 – about double the COVID-19 total in the U.S. at that point of 800,000 lost years of life.” Parents, teachers, elected officials, and anyone with a pulse could benefit from reading chapters 9 and 20 in his book regarding schools, masking, lockdowns, and more by getting an expert viewpoint that is clearly not being shared in the mainstream media. He stated if he was going to design one of the safest jobs from COVID-19, it would be a school teacher. The children do not impose a risk on the teachers. He stated in regards to mass vaccinating young children for COVID-19, and I paraphrase as I don’t have a recording, that it is despicable that we would “use them as a shield” it’s the other way around, I’m the father and I will be the shield for my child. This comment brought a loud round of applause from the attendees.
He took us on a journey through the last two years from “two weeks to flatten the curve” to “wear 6 masks and googles” to the here and now. It appears that we are at a critical point in our country, our state, our community, our school board, our families. He stated, “We must be able to think for ourselves.” He said we have lost trust in science and those who make health policies and that that is not safe for a society. He encouraged people to do their own research, run for school boards, other elected offices, and get involved in the process. I felt he was hopeful we can change the overall situation of distrust and stripping of our liberties but “It’s not going to happen overnight” or without our active involvement for change. He spoke clearly about “morally corrupt” leadership in many of the government health entities that must be changed and life-long bureaucrats, such as Fauci, Birx and others, can’t be allowed to stay in those positions.
An extended period of open questions was taken from the attendees. Questions on therapeutics for COVID-19 were asked and his responses included questioning the reason why these safe and effective, decades old medications were not allowed to be studied and implemented such as Hydroxychloroquine. He stated he didn’t know why one drug, such as Remdesivir, was favored so much more over much cheaper and far more available options. “The Why is the hardest question…” on these things he said. One attendee asked why isn’t our leadership (governors, elected officials, etc..) asking these questions and bringing this information to light because it is not easy to find information that doesn’t agree with the mainstream media, and the response was an encouragement to run for offices, and contact your current leadership and raise awareness, essentially it’s in our hands. It was asked by another attendee, for a show of hands, how many in the room trust the CDC less now than they did before, and room was filled with raised hands, an overwhelming majority had far less trust in the CDC. Dr. Atlas, with his fingers intertwined in front of him, said they are so interdependent with so many unhealthy relationships and connections that it has corrupted the process. The CDC was only to give guidance or a recommendation, but our leaders “…have delegated their authority…” to these bureaucrats. The elected leaders should be making the decisions, not unelected compromised bureaucrats.
Many local leaders, and people in places of authority for decision making were invited but did not attend. There were health professionals, legislatures, families, ranchers, pastors, husbands, wives, children at the event. We all fill a different role in life and, therefore, we can each have a unique powerful impact on regaining our health freedoms and liberties as we can all approach it from a different angle. It was made clear by Dr. Atlas that action must be taken now or this situation will undoubtedly worsen.
BeTruthful.org, a ND non-profit working to bring the nation’s leading conservative minds in education to North Dakota, is to thank for bringing Dr. Atlas to speak and providing a great meal at the Barn at 52 Pines. Dr. Scott Atlas is a medical doctor, was a 14-year Professor and Chief of Neuroradiology at Stanford University Medical Center, special advisor to key government officials, and currently a Robert Wesson Senior Fellow in health care policy at the Hoover Institution. He, along with others has formed The Academy for Science and Freedom at Hillsdale College with a purpose to educate the American people about the free exchange of scientific ideas and the proper relationship between freedom and science in the pursuit of truth. He also mentioned a global organization being created with other nations to promote similar thinking so I’m confident more is to come from Dr. Atlas.
Willy Fielhaber
