Doctor’s Orders

Pill Shill Palaces

Chris Bray wrote recently about the rapid growth of conglomerated healthcare systems in this country. He highlighted the costs of a new “Cancer Pavilion” being constructed at the Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

The Sickness Industry Is Eating Cities

It made me think of a similar “Cancer Center” that was built near my home about a year ago. The five story oncology mega-facility is undeniably impressive. Elaborate water features, tasteful artwork, and luxurious furniture line every hallway and waiting area. I can’t imagine what they spent to build the place.

I also can’t imagine how it would feel to be a patient there. Burning through my life savings to pay for cancer treatment would be bad enough, but knowing that the exorbitant fees I was being charged were going toward koi pond upgrades and grand pianos for the lobby might push me over the edge.

Hospital systems and insurance companies are more than happy to spend lavishly on their facilities. They’re much less generous when it comes to honoring the claims of patients or reducing their premiums. None of this is new or surprising, but in the wake of covid, it’s become much more difficult for me to stomach.

Covid changed a lot of things. My opinion of our institutions in 2019 was already low, but 2020 reshaped my understanding of rock bottom. I will never again be able to view any of our institutions or professional organizations as anything more than the obedient lap dogs of one evil cartel or another.

Many people have had the same perspective shift, but it hasn’t done us all that much good. Unfortunately, the tyrants and opportunists still deny their crimes. Worse, the masses are committed to pretending they didn’t quietly go along with those crimes.

This has left the small minority of us who saw what was going on and said or did something about it in a weird position.

As Solzhenitsyn might put it:

We know what happened.

They know what happened.

They know that we know what happened.

They know that we know that they know what happened.

Yet we know nothing will happen.

They successfully roped too many people into signing off on their behavior for anything to ever come of it. If the majority of the population can save face by pretending something terrible didn’t happen, then that is what they will do. Those of us who persist in remembering and bringing it up will only be ostracized further.

Fine. I’ve made my peace with that reality, however upsetting it may be. I’ve written before about the anger and feelings of betrayal from those days and how I’ve been trying to move forward from it all. I won’t rehash all of that here, but there is one aspect of the picture which still confuses me.

Even if the majority are unwilling to admit to their part in the what was done, their actions still betray that they know the truth. One look at current covid vaccination rates confirms that. My question is this: How can they know the truth and yet still give deference to any medical professional?

It’s remarkable that of all professions, doctors are not universally held to account for their behavior during the covid hysteria. If there was one group that could have made a difference, it was the physicians. Any doctor worth their title understood what was going on. How many spoke out?

Several medical professionals have since explained that they were cowed into silence. That their licenses were threatened.

It’s true that a lot of people had their livelihood threatened in those days. Many who wanted nothing to do with the vaccines were coerced into taking them. Forced to choose between their autonomy and the ability to provide for their families. They were cornered and did what they had to. I understand.

That understanding does not extend to doctors, however. If the engineering firm or financial institution you worked for pressured you into getting the shot, that was certainly evil, but it wasn’t what was being asked of doctors. No, the doctors were ordered not only to go along with the insanity, but to amplify it. To reinforce it. They sacrificed all the credibility and trust they had to help sell a dangerous lie to their patients.

They lied about the severity of the disease itself.

They lied about the validity of the lockdown and containment measures.

Most unforgivably, they lied about the safety and efficacy of the vaccines.

To avoid losing their license to practice, these doctors violated their oaths and knowingly encouraged patients to inject themselves and their children with untested and unnecessary drug cocktails.

Doctors might claim that they didn’t know. That they didn’t have all the facts and information at the time. Well, let’s consider just a few of the premises that their entire profession did sign off on as fact:

• Society-wide lockdowns are a necessary and effective measure to combat a respiratory virus.

• Everyone, regardless of age or physical health, is at equal risk of severe outcomes from the virus. Risk profiles do not exist for covid-19.

• Paper masks can prevent the transmission of a respiratory virus.

• Maintaining a distance of six feet from others will reduce the risk of viral outbreak spread.

• It is ethical to deny medical treatment to a patient based on their vaccination status.

• There is good reason to isolate the dying from their loved ones and to forbid attendance of their funeral services.

• A vaccine can be 100% safe and effective. In fact, the covid vaccine was the first drug ever manufactured with 0 side effects.

• Racism is a public health crisis. Political protests are therefore exempted from pandemic containment measures.

• Ivermectin is a dangerous drug, intended solely for livestock. It has not been shown to be safe for human consumption.

To keep their licenses, doctors stood behind all of this and presented it to the public as fact. No honest doctor could go along with these lies and mislead their patients so thoroughly.

Some doctors might try to claim that they truly didn’t know. If so, then they may not be dishonest, but they are very stupid. In any event, they should not be trusted with anyone’s medical care.

So doctors, which was it? Were you lying or are you just stupid?

There is no scenario in which they didn’t know that all of this was counterproductive nonsense. Yet they kept up the charade to protect themselves at the expense of their patients. The complete inversion of their profession’s entire purpose. They betrayed the people entrusted to their care. How many died for their cowardice? How many more will die due to the trust they’ve permanently shattered?

As I mentioned before, I doubt any of these people will ever be called to account for their actions. But those of us who can’t unsee what we saw during that time are still here and will be for some time. It stands to reason that we’ll need some form of medical care going forward. What should a person do when there is no doctor he can trust?

For my part I’m going to do everything in my power to avoid ever having to cross paths with one of these people again. I will pay attention to my diet, exercise regularly, and get the best sleep I can. In general, live as healthy a life as I am able. Obvious enough advice, but what happens when something goes wrong despite an otherwise healthy lifestyle?

I really don’t have an answer to this. For many of us this will be an important concern in the coming years, if it isn’t already. We should do everything we can to avoid doctors and the trap of the healthcare machine, but inevitably most of us will develop ailments or conditions that no amount of healthy living can address.

What then? Do we just accept our fate if we develop a kidney disorder? Resign ourselves to mental oblivion when Alzheimers begins to surface? Have a heart attack and just try to walk it off? There will come a time when living right isn’t enough, and when that time comes, I’m honestly not sure how a person who understands what doctors really are in today’s world should respond.

Is it even possible for something as entrenched and all-encompassing as our healthcare industry to ever be reformed? Is anything salvageable? If not, then building something new in its place would be the only solution. But of course anyone trying to practice medicine without the blessing of the same corrupt system they’re attempting to escape will be jailed or sued out of existence. The stranglehold that pharmaceutical companies, insurance, and private equity have on all of medicine is total.

Where can anyone turn for actual medical care?

If they make it all but illegal to visit a doctor that isn’t bought and paid for by the medical-industrial cartel, will people eventually begin exploring options outside of the law? In the 1920’s, prohibition made it impossible to legally purchase alcohol. This gave rise to underground “speakeasy” establishments that served illicit booze. In the 2020’s we may end up having to consider a similar approach if we’re going to have a chance at honest medical care.

Our health will fail us at some point. It’s unavoidable. But how can we avoid our failing health being treated as a variable in some corporate growth model?

We’re human beings. We deserve dignity, especially when we become old or unwell. We are not numbers on a spreadsheet. Our bodies aren’t a vehicle for shareholder dividend increases.

All of us who have seen and felt the abuses of this system firsthand will face this grim reality at some point. Living well is important and effective on an individual level, but the medical cartel isn’t going away. And as long as that beast remains in power, how can we ever hope to take back control of our health? How can we retain our dignity?

I don’t have an answer to these questions, I suspect many of you may also be at a loss for answers. But they’re questions that have been weighing heavily on my mind in recent months. For all the debate over culture war issues or geopolitics, this issue is the only one that is absolutely certain to have a deep, personal impact on all of our lives and the lives of our loved ones. We owe it to each other to figure this out. I’m open to any and all ideas at this point.