A semi-chronological, open-access library of the most important and viral video clips from throughout the response to COVID. This thread has no end, so videos after the first hundred or so may be added ad hoc. Be sure to bookmark! 1/
Jan 2020 – Shortly after Xi Jinping announces the strictest lockdown in history in Wuhan, China, videos begin going viral all over the world supposedly showing Wuhan residents spontaneously collapsing and falling to their deaths from the new virus. 2/
Feb 2020 – In some of the most powerful propaganda of the entire COVID saga, viral videos purport to show CCP officials welding Wuhan residents into their homes to prevent them from going outside during lockdown. 3/
Feb 2020 – A viral video shows Chinese police with the word SWAT written on their uniforms in English catching a man with a butterfly net for removing his mask during Wuhan’s lockdown. 4/
Jan 2020 – WHO Director Tedros Adhanom heaps praise on Xi Jinping and China for the lockdown of Wuhan. However, the lockdown, being only days old, hadn’t produced any results, so Tedros was actually praising human rights abuses with nothing to show fro them. 5/
Feb 2020 – In the WHO’s official press conference on Wuhan’s COVID response, Bruce Aylward, head of the WHO-China Joint Mission, waxes rhapsodic about the Wuhan lockdown: “What China has demonstrated is, you have to do this.” 6/
Feb 2020 – Bruce Aylward, head of the WHO-China Joint Mission, explains how Wuhan’s COVID lockdown supposedly flattened the curve. “This is extremely important for China, but it’s extremely important for the rest of the world.” 7/
March 2020 – Shortly after advising the entire world to copy China’s lockdown policy, Bruce Aylward, head of the WHO-China Joint Mission, refuses to acknowledge Taiwan’s existence. 8/
March 2020 – An anchor for CGTN, China’s largest state TV outlet, explains the “new norm” of “lockdown.” “We traded a little of our freedom for the greater good… This is exactly what Europe and America should know.” 9/
March 2020 – Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte announces a lockdown of all of Italy—the first lockdown of an entire country in the history of the western world. 10/
March 2020 – Footage of empty streets across Italy as the entire country is placed under lockdown. 11/
March 2020 – Military police in Italy use automated drones to enforce the lockdown and monitor compliance with COVID restrictions. 12/
March 2020 – A video goes ultra-viral all over the world showing Italians in lockdown with “a message to themselves from 10 days prior” urging viewers to be more afraid of the new coronavirus. 13/
March 2020 – Tomás Pueyo, an influencer whose ultra-viral articles convinced many officials to adopt COVID lockdown policies, goes on tour advising leaders all over the world to adopt strict lockdowns. Here, Pueyo debates UK SAGE leader John Edmunds. 14/
March 2020 – Anthony Fauci, Deborah Birx, and Donald Trump smile and laugh as they announce “15 Days to Slow the Spread,” arguably the most destructive policy ever implemented in US history at the domestic level. 15/
March 2020 – Cars line up for miles at food banks as COVID lockdowns begin in the United States. 16/
March 2020 – People line up around the block in freezing temperatures outside grocery stores as COVID lockdowns begin in the United States. 17/
March 2020 – Footage of empty streets across New York City during lockdown. 18/
April 2020 – Stranded workers thrown out of their factory jobs march in exodus to villages thousands of miles away during lockdown in India. 19/
April 2020 – People line up for miles to receive food rations during lockdown in South Africa. 20/
April 2020 – Under the banner of #Masks4All, a video goes viral all over the world touting the false claim that cloth masks had stopped the spread of COVID in the Czech Republic. This false claim played a major role in mask mandates all over the world. 21/
April 2020 – The city of Los Angeles orders a skate park to be filled with sand so youth won’t try to go outside and skate during lockdown. 22/
April 2020 – Police detain a mother in Idaho for taking her kids to play at the playground during lockdown. 23/
Spring 2020 – ‘The COVID Religion’: A compilation of some of the most insane scenes of petty authoritarianism, theater, and mass psychosis during peak COVID hysteria. 24/
April 2020 – Chinese state media shares a video of a 7-year-old girl reciting a script on the importance of obeying COVID lockdown orders. “I am only 7 years old. I understand it, but why do some adults not get it?” 25/
May 2020 – Richard Horton, Editor-in-Chief of The Lancet and lead advisor to the UK, said the world should thank China for lockdown: “Not only the right thing to do, but it also showed other countries how they should respond… I think we have a great deal to thank China for.” 26/ twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Spring 2020 – During peak COVID lockdown, high-production-value TikTok videos of nurses performing choreographed dance routines across the world began going viral. They appear to have been produced at significant cost, but the reason remains a mystery. 27/
April 2020 – In a viral video, Dr. Cameron Kyle-Sidell acted as an early whistleblower about COVID ventilator protocols that “will lead to a tremendous amount of harm.” Indeed, a study later revealed a 97.2% mortality rate among those over age 65 placed on ventilators. 28/
July 2020 – Jeremy Hunt, powerful UK establishment politician and current Chancellor of the Exchequer, praises China’s draconian “Zero Covid” and quarantine measures and advocates for the UK to emulate them. 29/
July 2020 – In a brief limited hangout, FBI Director Christopher Wray discloses that the CCP specifically approached local politicians across the United States to endorse its pandemic response. “Yes, this is happening at both the federal and state levels.” 30/ twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
Aug 2020 – Deborah Birx: “I wish when we went into lockdown, we looked like Italy…people weren’t allowed out of their houses, and they couldn’t come out but once every two weeks to buy groceries…had to have a certificate that said they were allowed.” 31/
May 2020 – Stephanie Warriner, a patient at a hospital in Toronto, is forcibly restrained by hospital staff for not properly wearing her mask. Her body is then wheeled away, having died from “restraint asphyxia following struggle and exertion.” 32/
May 2020 – An Ohio woman is arrested and tazed for refusing to wear a mask at a football game. 33/
April 2020 – Deborah Birx tells the press that in the US, “if someone dies with COVID-19, we are counting that as a COVID-19 death” regardless of any other health issues or comorbidities. 34/
Jul 2020 – Anthony Fauci says if a COVID PCR test only yields a positive using a CT value of 35 or more, it should not be considered a real positive. Despite this, labs across the US used a CT of 37 for years based on the original WHO guidance, inflating COVID cases ten-fold. 35/
1993 – American biochemist Kary Mullis, who received the Nobel Prize for his invention of PCR technology, states plainly that PCR should never be used for the purpose of diagnosing illness. Mullis passed away in August 2019, just months before the first reports of COVID. 36/
1996 – Kary Mullis, winner of the Nobel Prize for inventing PCR, blasts Anthony Fauci for his abuse of PCR for diagnosing illness. “Fauci does not mind going on television in front of the people who pay his salary and lying directly into the camera.” 37/
Aug 2020 – Bill Gates expresses exasperation with the US response to COVID, which he blames on western “freedom”; China, by contrast, he says, “did a very good job of suppressing the virus,” thanks to the “authoritarian” approach and “individual rights that were violated.” 38/
2020 – A compilation of live interviews in which Anthony Fauci literally advises to “shut down the country” to control COVID. Fauci would later defend his record on COVID by arguing “I didn’t shut down anything.” 39/
Jun 2020 – A giant, 20-foot statue of a nurse in a biblical pose is unveiled in Latvia “in honor of COVID-19 healthcare workers around the world.” 40/
Jul 2020 – Throughout the response to COVID, governments used propaganda and censorship to support the illiberal measures being taken. Here, NZ PM Jacinda Ardern reassures viewers her government “will continue to be your single source of truth.” 41/
Apr 2020 – Around the world, media outlets often falsely associated opponents of COVID lockdowns with Donald Trump. Contrary to this portrayal, Trump worked hard behind to scenes to stop governors from ending lockdowns. “We’re not gonna let them open.” 42/
Sep 2020 – When Scott Atlas joins the White House coronavirus task force, he begins unwinding the insanity that’s characterized the official response to COVID. Here, Atlas explains T cells and why immunity to COVID is far more widespread than realized. 43/
Oct 2020 – Having joined the White House coronavirus task force, Scott Atlas explains the disaster of lockdowns. “People have been killed…when I say killed, look at the data…46% of the most common types of cancers were not diagnosed during lockdown.” 44/
2020 to 2021 – A compilation of footage of teachers’ union leader Randi Weingarten calling for COVID school closures. Weingarten was one of the most influential voices behind school closures, though she would later claim she boldly opposed them. 45/
March 2021 – CDC Director Rochelle Walensky claims “vaccinated people do not carry the virus.” This false claim would convince many people to receive the virus and become a major impetus for vaccine mandates and stigmatization of the unvaccinated. 46/
May 2021 – Anthony Fauci falsely claims that the vaccinated become a “dead end” for the virus. 47/
2020 to 2021 – A compilation of virtually every top official and media personality during the response to COVID insisting, falsely, that the vaccines prevent infection and transmission. 48/
2020 to 2021 – Fauci and other top officials repeatedly advised masks were effective against COVID. But this contradicted Fauci’s prior statements that masking was merely psychological and sometimes harmful. Ultimately, masks did not stop the spread. 49/
Dec 2018 – Laurie Garrett, a vocal advocate of masks and strict mandates throughout the response to COVID, tells a panel that masks simply cause alarm.
“But did the mask really help them? Did the mask keep the virus out? Almost certainly not.” 50/
Dec 2021 –Horrifically, young children were often subjected to some of the most severe restrictions, despite their being at virtually zero risk from COVID. Here, kindergarteners in Oregon are forced to eat lunch outside in 40 degree weather. 51/
Sep 2021 – Often, throughout the response to COVID, leading officials would put on masks simply for their photo ops. Here, NY Governor Kathy Hochul, NYC Mayor Bill DeBlasio, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle mask up for the cameras. 52/
Apr 2022 – Joe Biden walks across the White House lawn in a mask for the cameras, only to take it off as he goes inside. 53/
2020 to 2022 – A compilation of top officials and commentators specifically advocating masking children for COVID on the basis that “kids are resilient,” though kids were always at virtually zero risk and masks never actually slowed the spread. 54/
Jun 2021 – Florida Gov Ron DeSantis became the first major leader to call out the CCP’s role in lockdowns: “China was very much invested in promoting lockdown…public health guidance was never in a pandemic to just lock down…that was really fueled by the Chinese experience.” 55/
Jul 2021 – DeSantis: “I think it’s very important that we say unequivocally: no to lockdowns, no to school closures, no to restrictions, and no mandates…Americans should be free to choose how they govern their affairs.” 56/
2020 to 2022 – A compilation of the coordinated propaganda lines from major officials and commentators throughout the response to COVID, such as “No one is safe until everyone is safe” and “Don’t do your own research.” 57/
Nov 2021 – Michael Gunner, Chief Minister of Australia’s Northern Territories, announces that “positive cases and close contacts” will be transferred to quarantine camps via army truck. 58/
Jul 2021 – Sydney, Australia announces a snap lockdown due to one COVID death. “A small list of essential stores can remain open…that’s 900,000 residents who can’t leave their area, even for work.” 59/
Aug 2021 – Jacinda Ardern tells New Zealanders not to talk to their neighbors as she announces a “snap lockdown.” “Do not congregate. Don’t talk to your neighbors. Please, keep to your bubbles.” 60/
Nov 2021 – Police set up checkpoints after several wards escaped from quarantine camps in Australia’s Northern Territory. Every escapee who was caught tested negative for COVID. 61/
Dec 2021 – Hayley Hodgson recounts how police came to her home in Australia after a friend tested COVID positive and took her to a quarantine camp, where she was forced to stay 14 days despite testing negative three times. 62/
Aug 2021 – Bill Gates calls for “all countries” to be “more like Australia.” Parts of Australia were then at 200 days in lockdown with COVID cases at all-time highs. Gates goes on: “flu and common cold…we can build tools that, over time, can get rid of those as well.” 63/
Nov 2021 – Michael Gunner, Chief Minister of Australia’s Northern Territory: “If you are anti-mandate, you are absolutely anti-vaxx… If you support, champion…give comfort to, support anybody who argues against the vaccine, you are an anti-vaxxer.” 64/
Oct 2021 – Hawaii introduces a $150,000 ‘robot dog’ to scan people for COVID in public spaces. 65/
Jun 2021 – Anthony Fauci refers to himself as “science” incarnate: “A lot of what you’re seeing as attacks on me, quite frankly, are attacks on science.” 66/
Jul 2021 – UK SAGE advisor Susan Michie, a behavioral scientist with no background in epidemiology, seethes when asked whether her 40-year membership in the British Communist Party might inform her draconian policy preferences: “I’ve come on your program as a scientist…” 67/
Nov 2021 – In Senate hearing, CDC Director Walensky can’t say why CDC has done no field studies of natural immunity.
“If we don’t know natural immunity confers protection…it’s because we’ve decided not to look…why have we not done the research?” 68/
Sep 2021 – Orlando Magic star Jonathan Isaac explains his reluctance to get a COVID vaccine, given his understanding of natural immunity and his having had COVID before. 69/
Oct 2021 – Sen. Rand Paul: “You presume, somehow, to tell over 100 million Americans who survived COVID that we have no right to determine our own medical care?…an arrogance coupled with an authoritarianism that is unseemly and un-American.” 70/
Mar 2021 – Frequent CNN contributor Leana Wen advocates keeping COVID restrictions in place so that reopening can be used as a “carrot” to promote vaccine uptake. 71/
Jun 2021 – Heads of state exchange elbow bumps and stand in socially-distanced rows in a display of pandemic theater at the 2021 G7 conference. 72/
Jul 2021 – Journalist Gerhard Wisnewski refers to governments’ COVID policies a series of “completely nonsensical and contradictory measures.”
“There is a method behind this madness. It is actually a method of torture…and interestingly enough, they were developed in China.” 73/
Oct 2021 – Spain’s Health Minister declares that masks are here to stay, even if only for normal seasonal flu: “Las máscaras llegaron para quedarse, al menos mientras tengamos influenze.”
“Masks are here to stay, at least as long we have influenza.” 74/
Dec 2021 – Rand Paul on the response to COVID: “I don’t think it’s been about science for a long time. It’s really been about conditioning the American individual to submit to government. And it never ends. The goalposts will continue to change.” 75/
Jan 2022 – During oral arguments, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor falsely claims there are “over 100,000 children” hospitalized with COVID, roughly 30 times the real number. 76/
Jun 2021 – European Parliament releases this video explaining its new digital vaccine pass system for travel within the European Union. 77/
Nov 2021 – CDC Director Walensky tells the Senate the CDC hasn’t conducted any field studies as to whether natural immunity confers protection from COVID.
“If we don’t know natural immunity confers protection…it’s because we’ve decided not to look.” 78/
Sep 2021 – Bill Maher recalls a survey in NYT unintentionally revealing that most Democrats believed COVID’s infection fatality rate was dozens or hundreds of times higher than it really was. 79/
Nov 2021 – In 2021, protests against COVID mandates began to break out all over the world. Here, tens of thousands take to the streets in some of the largest protests in the history of Vienna, Austria. 80/
Jan 2022 – Over 100,000 gather to protest lockdowns, vaccine passes and COVID mandates in Brussels, Belgium. 81/
Sep 2021 – Tens of thousands spent months protesting against the COVID pass regime in cities all across France. This is Paris. 82/
Jan 2022 – Thousands protest against COVID mandates at the Freedom Rally in London. 83/
Oct 2021 – Massive protest against COVID mandates in Tel Aviv, Israel. 84/
Sep 2021 – Italians symbolically burn green passes in protest of Italy’s COVID vaccine “green pass” system. 85/
Feb 2022 – In Turin, Italy, citizens boycotted Italy’s vaccine pass system by hosting outdoor feasts attended by thousands. 86/
Jan 2022 – In Naples, Italy, the mayor cited COVID to ban fireworks during New Year’s Eve. This was the response from citizens. 87/
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Thread – How Donald Trump shut down America: Reexamining Trump’s role in the response to COVID
Trump knew lockdown was a lie. He did it anyway. 1/
On March 13, 2020, Trump began announcing initial lockdown measures.
“This is why I outlined…my administration’s, the fact we’ve issued a requirement suspending all medically unnecessary visits to various places, but particular nursing homes.” 2/
March 13, 2020: Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services quietly issues the initial template for COVID lockdowns. 3/
THREAD – The Great COVID Ventilator Death Cover-up
Tens of thousands of Americans died after being placed on mechanical ventilators in spring 2020. It’s long past time we got real answers as to how many were killed this way. 1/
Early COVID data from China had suggested that ventilators would need to be used widely in the treatment of COVID patients, and this led to a major rush by politicians and hospitals to procure tens of thousands of ventilators. A small sample of the headlines from that period. 2/
However, it soon became clear that ventilators were being vastly overused. Dr. Cameron Kyle-Sidell acted as an early whistleblower, sounding the alarm in a widely-shared video. 3/
THREAD - HOW ZEYNEP TUFEKCI AND JEREMY HOWARD MASKED AMERICA
Zeynep Tufekci and Jeremy Howard played a decisive role shifting CDC guidance and ushering in mask mandates across America. Zeynep’s role in the COVID story goes far deeper than most realize. 1/ michaelpsenger.substack.com/p/how-zeynep-t…
After three years of speculation, an authoritative gold-standard Cochrane review including results from 78 peer-reviewed RCTs confirmed that across populations, masks, regardless of type, made “little to no difference” in preventing COVID or flu. 2/ city-journal.org/new-cochrane-s…
The Cochrane review seemed to settle the matter. Mask opponents had their trump card. But alas, the pro-mask establishment responded with a trump card of their own: an NYT op-ed by Zeynep Tufekci: “Here’s Why the Science Is Clear That Masks Work” 3/ nytimes.com/2023/03/10/opi…
BREAKING: Wet market theorists find another poor animal in Wuhan to scapegoat.
The problem with every one of these zoonotic origin studies—like the lab leak studies—they’re too wedded to the idea COVID began in Wuhan simply because of Xi’s lockdown. 1/ theatlantic.com/science/archiv…
Once you see it, it’s incredibly obvious. They ignore countless peer-reviewed studies showing vast, global early spread many months before the initial COVID theatrics in Wuhan.
Another peer-reviewed study demonstrating vast, global early spread many months before Wuhan, which the authors of these wet-market studies have brazenly and repeatedly ignored. 3/ link.springer.com/article/10.100…
THREAD: Balaji Srinivasan: The Man Who Couldn’t Wait for COVID to Ring In the ‘New Normal’
Balaji’s ‘prophecies’ may be the best evidence yet that there was a plan to recreate China’s COVID response globally, down to the particular details of how the world would transform. 1/
Going back to the initial weeks of 2020, prior to the western world’s first lockdown in Lombardy, Italy, on February 21, it’s remarkable how normal things were. The Atlantic, for example, published a great piece titled You’re Likely to theatlantic.com/health/archive…… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
There was Xi’s lockdown in Wuhan, but most commentators opined on how brutal and illiberal it was. One thing virtually no one in the world was doing prior to the lockdown of Lombardy was hoping the rest of the world would adopt China’s lockdown policy. 3/ theguardian.com/world/2020/feb…
THREAD – Tomás Pueyo Returns: The MBA Who Shut Down Europe on Masks and the Cochrane Review
Pueyo is an MBA who came to sudden fame for his March 10, 2020, article Coronavirus: Why You Must Act Now, in which he urged leaders around the world to emulate China’s lockdowns. 1/
Having been relatively quiet for the past three years, Pueyo has returned with a new viral thread purporting to debunk the recent Cochrane review concluding that mask mandates made “little to no difference” in preventing COVID or flu. 2/
Pueyo had no relevant credentials or prior interest in epidemiology but, strange as it may seem, Pueyo’s article was one of the most-shared articles of the 2020, and the most influential causes of global COVID lockdowns. As one academic at Sheffield University summarized: 3/