Whilst I believe most strongly in the use of critical thought and in freedom of speech and in the promulgation and debate of ideas, I have a very low tolerance threshold for unfounded conspiracy theories. Of course there are some things that are claimed to be conspiracy theories which the Left says about Critical Race Theory when this ideology is criticised by the Right, which are nothing of the sort. Critical Race Theory is a genuine ideology and one that is being pushed throughout academia from its highest levels right down to primary schools and nurseries. However there are some things that genuinely are conspiracy theories and can be proven, as the author linked below has done, to be such.

One of these readily disprovable conspiracy theories is one of those that surround the subject of vaccines and that is that vaccines are part of a nefarious plot to depopulate the planet. This conspiracy theory has been extremely prominent among those who promote the idea of vaccine avoidance, not just for the covid vaccine, but for all vaccines per se.

The medical professional David Gorski, writing over at the Science Based Medicine blog has examined the conspiracy theory about how vaccines are part of an ‘elite plot’ to depopulate the Earth. He has found that this particular conspiracy theory dates back to at least 2009 when the world was afflicted by the spread of the H1N1 influenza virus. This conspiracy theory, which has been updated to encompass the covid vaccines is being promoted by some very well known quacks and doyens of the anti vaccination movement, such as Joseph Mercola.

Dr Gorski notes how Mercola, sees vaccination as part of a Nazi style policy to see humans not as individuals but as cogs in a utilitarian biological machine. Mercola is not the only one with paranoid fantasies Michael Yeadon comes into a lot of criticism by Dr Gorski because Dr Gorski believes that the lie that covid vaccinations affect female fertility may well have been originated by Michael Yeadon. Yeadon has also climbed onto the ‘depopulation’ bandwagon and is claiming that the vaccines are designed to kill. Needless to say Dr Gorski skillfully and elegantly fillets and destroys all of the arguments that those claiming ‘vaccine depopulation’ have made, including another commentator’s belief that this ‘depopulation agenda’ is the result of contact by the ‘elites’ with ‘Aliens’.

It’s well worth reading Dr Gorski’s article as it is a classic and well presented example of how to destroy the arguments of those who may well seem plausible to the unwary but whose evidence, such as it is (or rather in this case is not), is extremely shaky. You can read Dr Gorski’s argument via the link below.

https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/depopulation-by-covid-19-vaccines/

I’m all in favour of allowing everyone, even nutters, to have their say. Nutters need to be able to speak if for no other reason than to show the world that they are indeed nutters. I don’t believe that nutters should be forbidden to speak on public platforms, but I do believe that nutters need to be challenged and Dr Gorski does this admirably.

As someone who is old enough to have seen a tiny proportion of the ravages that were caused by diseases that are now easily and safely preventable by vaccination and whose son is now more vulnerable to things like Shingles because the UK does not, unlike the USA, routinely vaccinate against Chickenpox, I find myself concuring with this comment from Dr Gorski:

Dr Gorski said:

In reality, it is the antivaxxers’ whose agenda is far more likely to result in global depopulation. Vaccines are arguably the most effective medical intervention to prevent death and suffering ever devised by the human mind, having prevented billions of cases of disease and death over the history of their existence. Anyone who tries to frighten people out of taking advantage of vaccines, for both themselves and their children, is the true advocate of “depopulation.”

Spot on there Dr Gorski. I speak as someone who saw as a child, a child of my own age at the time suffering from what must have been one of the last community acquired Polio infections in the UK. The image of this child longing to be able to walk but not being able to do so has stuck with me and made me think that it was a shame that full whole population Polio vaccination did not arrive in time for this particular child.