Of heretics and heroes

By Trish Wood, first published on Substack

Late with last week’s Sub because I was in Baddeck, Nova Scotia for the Free Speech in Medicine conference which was spectacular on many fronts. To be in a room with so many brave doctors and medical professionals who bucked the dangerous C-19 narrative and paid a price yet have remained generous and positive is a lesson in authentic spirituality. Being there was to experience living grace.

And I met so many listeners! I had a couple of weepy moments — feeling at times overwhelmed that my little podcast — started with no money and no social media has affected so many people. I tried to say hello to each and every one of you — but didn’t manage it. Exhaustion and an ongoing doc project got the better of me but there will be more opportunities for us to meet.

Chris Milburn and Julie Curwin who organized the event are true heroes. Their efforts on behalf of free speech, especially in medicine and science are so very necessary. Many in medicine are still afraid to talk about the tragedy of C-19 public policy — but Chris and Julie — lovely Cape Bretoners, bring light and courage that we very much need.

The highlight for me — beyond meeting some of my podcast friends was being able to hug Jay Bhattacharya after all this time. I also got to introduce him — honour of a lifetime.

I first interviewed him in October of 2020, just after the Great Barrington Declaration was published. Jay was shy but taking a big risk to lobby for the most humane and logical solution to the pandemic — focussed protection. His case was solid and predicated on saving as many people as possible — not just from C-19 but from extreme public health measures.

We have spoken a number of times since and I’ve seen him gain confidence as the world comes to understand how important he, Sunetra Gupta and Martin Kulldorff have been in shifting the narrative away from lockdowns. He is still shy but he has found his voice. I recalled our exchanged emails after his first Tucker Carlson appearance — 5 million viewers and 2 1/2 minutes to explain his epidemiological premise. Ten minutes after his spot on FOX, I congratulated him and offered some advice, passed along to me by the late, great Fraser Kelly. Always have your own message and mini-message — no matter what you are asked. It is clear that Jay has figured out the media game — which can be brutal, especially if you are on the hot seat.

The weekend also reminded me that we must never forget the smear campaign against Jay, Sunetra, Martin, Scott Atlas and anyone else who challenged official policy. NIH’s Tony Fauci and Francis Collins emailed each other about how to take them down and get focussed protection out of the conversation as quickly as possible.

"This proposal from three fringe epidemiologists who met with the Secretary seems to be getting a lot of attention — and even a co-signature from Nobel Prize winner Mike Leavitt at Stanford," Collins wrote in an email sent on Oct. 8, 2020.

"There needs to be a quick and devastating takedown of its premises,” Collins wrote in reference to the Great Barrington Declaration. 

Sadly, attacks like the one below, were the direct result of the government-driven campaign against the focussed protection plan. Nearly all reporting by legacy media was infected by the Collins/Fauci directive to denigrate GBD’s proponents. Now, many jurisdictions are doing a version of the Great Barrington Declaration without ever admitting their own massive lockdowns of healthy people were a grave mistake.

Bruce Pardy, Martha Fulford and Shawn Whatley were magnetic in their methodical critiques of the past two years. Francis Christian, a surgeon with the soul of a poet, reminded us that truth and beauty go hand in hand — which explains why the world seems so ugly lately.

Matt Strauss brought his incisive intellect and youthful charm, overlaying a steely courage. Aris Lavranos posed great questions on the free speech panel. Sarah Choujounian of Canadian Frontline Nurses gave an impassioned polemic against mandates. York Hsaing was eloquent on healthcare workers resisting forced inoculation.

At one point, Bruce Pardy said something that shook me to my core — that the thing, the revolution, the cult-like ideology — whatever it is — that we’ve all been so destabilized by, has already fully captured our institutions — in essence, it has won. Oddly, I feel some relief because it makes so much sense and explains the fall of my beloved former journalism trade. This is why otherwise good, decent people are behaving like petty tyrants - hypnotized into believing their bad acts are virtuous.

It dovetails nicely with this week’s show and Tess Lawrie who says the same — we have been victimized and overtaken by dark forces and we must move forward accordingly. No amount of new data will reverse what has happened.

The crowd — the one informed by living in panic mode — responds only to others in the crowd — but there is hope — and it is fanning outward from a tiny harbour in Nova Scotia — like ripples in a pond. An expert in social sciences has said we can only change those crowd-minds, from the edges, one by one. And we will, if we stay true to what happened last week in Baddeck.