Coronavirus
Psychotherapist: Lockdown Zealots Are Behaving Like Cult Members
They double down on their beliefs despite having been proven wrong.

Published
3 years agoon

Psychotherapist Dr Hugh Willbourn says lockdown zealots are displaying all the classic signs of cult members by doubling down on their beliefs despite having been proven wrong.
In an article on his website, Willbourn highlights the work of respected social psychologist Leon Festinger, who analyzed the beliefs of a UFO cult in the 1950’s who believed that a flying saucer would rescue them from the apocalypse.
However, after the catastrophic earthquakes and floods they expected to hit the United States never arrived and their beliefs were totally disproved, “the cult members would become not less but more convinced of their beliefs.”
Festinger identified five conditions that needed to be met in order for the cult members to double down on their beliefs and avoid cognitive dissonance.
1. There must be conviction
2. There must be commitment to this conviction
3. The conviction must be amenable to unequivocal disconfirmation
4. Such unequivocal disconfirmation must occur
5. Social support must be available subsequent to the disconfirmation.
“Festinger’s five conditions and the behaviour of the cult believers correspond closely to the situation with Brexit, Climate Change and Covid-19: a prophecy is made, believers invest themselves, their time, money and prestige in it, the prophecy fails and the believers become more fervent,” writes Willbourn.
The doctor notes how terrifying predictions of how many people COVID-19 would kill have fallen massively short and the models that produced these numbers have been thoroughly debunked. Despite warnings that coronavirus would kill 500,000 in the UK alone, the disease has only claimed 318,000 worldwide.
“To put this figure into perspective, the number of people who have died of, or with, Covid-19 in about four and half months is the same as the number who die in five days from cardiovascular disease,” writes Willbourn.
The doctor notes how “experts” are still doubling down anyway, warning of mass death if lockdown is lifted too early and a second wave of infections.
In reality, research suggests that the lockdowns had a minimal impact on infection numbers, and Sweden’s per capita death toll is lower than the UK’s and numerous other countries despite the Scandinavian country having imposed no hard lockdown.
“Don’t expect an apology from our Government, or any other Government, any time soon,” writes Willbourn. “The Festinger effect is far, far more prevalent than a clear-sighted view of reality and the tragedy is all the greater.”
“Is this starting to sound familiar?” asks Toby Young. “As Willbourn points out, the sequence that Festinger wrote about more than 50 years ago is eerily reminiscent of what’s happening today: an apocalyptic prophecy was delivered from on high (“the science”), those who believed it radically altered their behaviour, the prophecy turned out not to be true, but instead of abandoning their doom-mongering the believers have become even more fervent, attacking anyone who points out the gap between fantasy and reality as dangerous heretics (“fake news”, “misinformation”, “conspiracy theories”, etc).”
“The difference, of course, is that Festinger’s UFO cult had a few dozen members, whereas the Covid cult seems to have infected half the world. If Festinger’s right, the bad news is we won’t be able to persuade people to stop social distancing if we prove that the danger posed by COVID-19 has been dramatically overstated. On the contrary, people’s opposition to returning to normal will intensify rather than diminish as the evidence mounts they were wrong.”
Meanwhile, Karens all over the world don’t show any signs of giving up on something that legitimizes their favorite thing in the world; Lecturing other people about their behavior.
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Coronavirus
Anger As Biden Admin Hands Another $2.3 Million To EcoHealth Alliance To Research Bat Coronaviruses
What could possibly go wrong… again?
Published
4 weeks agoon
11 May, 2023Steve Watson

Republican lawmakers have labeled as “absolutely reckless” a decision to grant a further $2.3 Million to the very same outfit at the centre of the likely coronavirus lab leak that led directly to a the global pandemic.
What fresh hell is this?? Did we learn nothing? “NIH restarts bat virus grant suspended 3 years ago by Trump,” : “The new 4-year grant is a stripped-down version of the original grant to the EcoHealth Alliance… providing $576,000 per year.” https://t.co/TWYe1dhnH8
— Carrie Sheffield (@carriesheffield) May 11, 2023
As reported by The Daily Mail, The Biden Administration, via the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has renewed the taxpayer grant to EcoHealth Alliance to research bat coronaviruses over the next four years, with the proviso that no gain of function activity is carried out.
Why would NIH renew a $2 million grant to EcoHealth after they funded the Wuhan lab?? And why do friends at NIH tell me that Fauci has not retired as he suggested he would do? Is he still the highest paid employee in the govt? https://t.co/4wqLQMvdKN
— Marty Makary MD, MPH (@MartyMakary) May 9, 2023
The funding was previously blocked when it emerged that zoologist Peter Daszak had enabled the funnelling of the money to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where the research into making the virus more deadly was carried out.
https://t.co/hBujcD6hJo reports that EcoHealth Alliance, despite possibly having caused the pandemic and definitely having repeatedly and gravely violated terms of a US-government grant, currently has 16 active US-government grants and contracts, totaling more than $57.8 million. https://t.co/0muqLF9KyL pic.twitter.com/yQIhA5ghoT
— Richard H. Ebright (@R_H_Ebright) May 8, 2023
Could you believe that the National Institute of Health (NIH) just reissued the research grant to EcoHealth Alliance (suspended in 2020), which helped the Wuhan Lab create the Coronavirus that caused global pandemic and killed millions?
— Ned Nikolov, Ph.D. (@NikolovScience) May 9, 2023
Read this thread: https://t.co/db5tnTjsio
This is interesting! I found today that I'm blocked by Peter Daszak, the CEO of EcoHealth Alliance, an NGO used by Fauci to transfer funds to the Wuhan Lab in China for gain-of-function research on coronaviruses.
— Ned Nikolov, Ph.D. (@NikolovScience) May 10, 2023
I've never interacted with Daszak directly. Why did he block me?🤔 pic.twitter.com/0JIgK1gsFX
Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., who sits on the House Energy and Commerce Committee said “It’s absolutely reckless that the NIH has renewed a grant for EcoHealth Alliance given their negligence and the breach of their contract with the NIH on the coronavirus research done at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”
Griffith added that EcoHealth has “not been contrite” about the Wuhan lab connection and has actively refused to cooperate with Congressional investigations.
“Until they can demonstrate a willingness to work with Congress to resolve outstanding questions and fulfill all of the terms of their federal contracts, paid for with American taxpayer dollars, all funding should remain suspended, and no new contracts should be awarded,” Griffith urged.
GOP Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa added that the renewal of the NIH grant “doesn’t pass the COVID smell test,” further noting that “Ecohealth has already betrayed the trust of American taxpayers by funneling funds to China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology for risky experiments on bat coronaviruses that may have unleashed the COVID-19 pandemic on the world.”
“Americans deserve accountability, which is why it’s past time to defund EcoHealth,” she added.
Kentucky Congressman James Comer asserted that “It’s bat crazy that the U.S. National Institutes of Health is resuming a suspended grant and allowing EcoHealth Alliance access to taxpayer dollars to conduct research on bat coronaviruses,” adding that the outfit “funneled taxpayer dollars to the Wuhan lab to conduct mad scientist research on bat coronaviruses that may have started the pandemic.”
“EcoHealth shouldn’t receive another dime from the U.S. government until we fully investigate what happened at the Wuhan lab,” Comer emphasised.
Last month, during a House hearing on the origins of the COVID Pandemic, former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe declared that “a lab leak is the only explanation credibly supported by our intelligence, by science and by common sense.”
A Senate report also concluded that the pandemic most likely came from a lab leak and was the result of a “research-related incident” in Wuhan.
The 300-page document notes that the theory that COVID-19 jumped from animals to humans in a market “no longer deserves the benefit of the doubt, or the presumption of accuracy.”
Related:
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Coronavirus
Video: Rand Paul Accuses USAID Administrator Of Stonewalling COVID Origins Investigation
The Senator grilled Samantha Power during hearing Wednesday
Published
1 month agoon
27 April, 2023Steve Watson

Senator Rand Paul grilled Samantha Power, Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), during a Senate Foreign Relations Hearing Wednesday, accusing Power of working to withhold information requested by Republicans on the origins of COVID-19.
Paul immediately asked Power if USID had funded coronavirus research in Wuhan, China, prompting her to automatically deny any gain of function research took place.
“That is not the question,” Paul shot back, before noting that huge grants totalling 200 million dollars, under the PREDICT program, were given to coronavirus researchers in China, some of which were stationed at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Paul continued, “In September of last year, I wrote Ms. Power or USAID a request asking for records from the PREDICT program. These are not classified. These are simply records of scientific research. And we want to read the grants to find out what they were doing and whether the research was dangerous or not. The response I got from your agency was USAID will not be providing any documents at this time.”
“They’re just unwilling to give documents on scientific grant proposals. We’re paying for it. They’re asking for $745 million more in money, and we get no response,” Paul further explained.
“20 million people died around the world. You’re supposed to be an agency that cares about the death of people around the world. We, you know, talk about starvation and famine and 20 million people died from a virus. And you won’t give us the basic information about what grants you’re funding around the world and who you’re funding,” the Senator continued.
“The American people think this, that because you won’t respond because you respond with a non-response, that you have something to hide. I don’t know if you have anything to hide or not. I want to see every grant proposal that had to do with coronaviruses that went to China from the U.S. government, from all facets of the U.S. government and every bit of the Biden administration is stonewalling us and will not give us the information…You are not being honest,” Paul asserted.
Watch:
In a press release, Paul further noted “this isn’t just a USAID problem of concealing information, this is a Biden administration-wide problem in which there is a concerted effort to withhold critical information from Congress on the origins of COVID-19.”
Paul notes that Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of the Department of Human Health Services Xavier Becerra, Secretary of the Department of Defense Lloyd Austin, Acting Director of the National Institutes of Health Lawrence Tabak, and Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development Samantha Power have all failed to reply to requests for information from the Senators.
Last month Paul, who has vowed to find the paper trail for the origins of the COVID lab leak, grilled Blinken and noted that documents related to funding of coronavirus research have not been provided to him despite repeated requests.
“My question is, what’s the State Department hiding?” Paul asked, adding “Why won’t you give these records to the American people?”
“We want to read the research grant proposals. We want to read what the people in Wuhan sent back to the State Department saying they did. Which viruses did they create?” Paul further urged.
“And yet you won’t help us investigate this. You refuse and it makes — it is reminiscent of the countries we criticize for lack of transparency. And yet you sit there and say you’re still going to continue to refuse,” Paul told Blinken.
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Coronavirus
Video: Former Director of National Intelligence Says ‘Lab Leak The Only Credible Explanation For COVID Pandemic’
“Were this a trial, the preponderance of circumstantial evidence provided by our intelligence would compel a jury finding of guilt”
Published
2 months agoon
19 April, 2023Steve Watson

During a House hearing Tuesday on the origins of the COVID Pandemic, former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe declared that “a lab leak is the only explanation credibly supported by our intelligence, by science and by common sense.”
Ratcliffe told Representatives “from a view inside, if our intelligence and evidence supporting a lab leak was placed side by side with our intelligence and evidence pointing to a natural origin or spillover theory, the lab leak side of the ledger would be long, convincing, and overwhelming. While the spillover side would be nearly empty.”
“Were this a trial, the preponderance of circumstantial evidence provided by our intelligence would compel a jury finding of guilt,” Ratcliffe added.
Watch:
Former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe testifies that the Wuhan lab is responsible for spawning a global pandemic:
— Becker News (@NewsBecker) April 18, 2023
“A lab leak is the only explanation credibly supported by our intelligence, by science and by common sense.” pic.twitter.com/zdEoDSzh1f
Watch: Fox’s @GillianHTurner: “Breaking tonight: Congressional Republicans press their case that the Coronavirus pandemic originated in a Chinese research lab. A new Senate report claims the evidence points to an undetected aerosol leak during vaccine research,” with new… pic.twitter.com/wJSPXOACkj
— TV News Now (@TVNewsNow) April 18, 2023
Elsewhere during the hearing, Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State David Feith noted that officials in the State Department were against investigating U.S. funding gain-of-function research relating to the outbreak, suggesting that it could “open a Pandora’s box”.
.@StateDept officials worked to conceal information that pointed to a Wuhan lab leak.
— Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic (@COVIDSelect) April 18, 2023
Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State David Feith reveals that some of his colleagues warned against “opening a Pandora's box” related to U.S. funded gain-of-function research. pic.twitter.com/ebygLvi92Z
The full hearing is below:
Meanwhile, in the Senate Rand Paul confronted DHS head Alejandro Mayorkas concerning the origins of COVID. Mayorkas tried to avoid answering any questions on it, instead hyping up DHS’ efforts to set up vaccination centres.
Paul also noted that “The most significant source of disinformation during the pandemic with the most influence and greatest impact on people’s lives was the U.S. government.”
Sen. Rand Paul: "The most significant source of disinformation during the pandemic with the most influence and greatest impact on people's lives was the U.S. government. The greatest purveyor of disinformation has been the U.S. government."pic.twitter.com/PNXSDIKfPN
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) April 18, 2023
Paul later appeared on Fox News, noting that there is a “mountain of evidence” that the virus came from a lab and no proof it came from animals.
Paul further charged that in his role at the National Institutes of Health, Anthony Fauci made a “COVID judgment error that allowed millions to die.”
Today I joined @Americarpts to talk about the origins of COVID. The LEAST democrats can do is support a request for government records concerning gain-of-function research. We must leave no stone unturned in the search for answers! pic.twitter.com/ztP27HMYNR
— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) April 18, 2023
The hearings come after a Senate report concluded that the pandemic most likely came from a lab leak and was the result of a “research-related incident” in Wuhan.
The 300-page document notes that the theory that COVID-19 jumped from animals to humans in a market “no longer deserves the benefit of the doubt, or the presumption of accuracy.”
The report also states that Chinese researchers appeared to begin development of at least two Covid vaccines at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in November 2019, “before the known outbreak of the pandemic”.
The report is below:
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