(LifeSiteNews) — The Department of Homeland Security has a new terrorism advisory that now includes dissenters of the government’s pandemic policies, in addition to the obvious threats such as foreign terrorist organizations.
The advisory, issued February 7 and expiring June 7, states that while a number of security conditions have not changed significantly over the past year, there is a “convergence” of factors that could “sow discord or undermine public trust in U.S. government institutions” and “potentially inspire acts of violence.” Among the “factors” is “the proliferation of false or misleading narratives” on COVID-19.
The advisory comes days after truckers in Canada launched their “Great Canadian Freedom Convoy” to protest the draconian COVID-19 vaccine and mask mandates of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and suggests such individuals could be monitored or investigated.
While the advisory makes no mention of the convoy, it makes reference to “foreign terrorist organizations” that “maintain a highly visible online presence to attempt to inspire U.S.-based individuals to engage in violent activity.”
Lockdown skepticism and violence?
The suggestion of “violence” being linked to pandemic policy skepticism is preposterous, says Marilyn Singleton, M.D., J.D.
“I find it absurd, especially when you look back to the riots over the last couple of years with Black Lives Matter and no one instituted a policy after that,” said Singleton. “Then suddenly because people are discussing alternative treatments to COVID that people are rioting in the street? I think not.”
Singleton has been a vocal critic of top-down approaches to addressing a public health threat and wrote an extensive report on the subject, “COVID-19: A Weapon to Transform America” which was published last summer in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons
Asked if she felt threatened by the federal government’s new advisory, Singleton responded, “[B]ring it on.”
“I think the more normal individuals who just want to study a problem in medicine, the more the government tries to intimidate, the better. People will see it could be them, next. Look at how they’re after parents who just want to discuss mandates and going back to school and teaching critical race theory. All they want to do is discuss things about their children, yet they’re considered terrorists.”
Singleton was referring to Attorney General Merrick Garland’s formation of a law enforcement task force, described in an October 4 memo, that would use the FBI to investigate parents protesting COVID-19 mandates and racist indoctrination in public schools.
Surgeon General’s head start
The advisory comes five months after the Biden administration’s Surgeon General, Vivek H. Murthy, released a 22-page report to counter “misinformation” and control the narrative on COVID-19.
Murthy’s report, entitled, “Confronting Health Misinformation: The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on Building a Healthy Information Environment,” purports to teach Americans how to identify “misinformation,” and gives examples of what communities, schools, the media, research institutions, funders, foundations, families, health professionals and the government can do to stop it.
Defining misinformation
The report distinguishes “misinformation” from “disinformation,” which is intended to “trick people into believing something for financial gain or political advantage.” Health “misinformation,” the report states, reduces the “willingness of people to seek effective treatment.”
The report gives examples of “misinformation tactics used by those who deny scientific consensus on health issues.” Tactics named include “presenting unqualified people as experts; misleading consumers with logical fallacies; setting impossible expectations for scientific research; cherry-picking data or anecdotes; and introducing conspiracy theories.”
At a White House News Conference, Murthy singled out social media companies that “have enabled misinformation to poison our information environment with little accountability to their users.”
The surgeon general is wrong on “scientific consensus,” says Joel Hirschhorn, author of Pandemic Blunder.
“The goal should not be to respect imaginary scientific consensus that mostly represents propaganda but to always seek alternative facts and opinions by highly experienced and credentialed medical experts,” Hirshhorn said. “We need more Americans to dig deep into alternative news sources to fully see that there is no scientific consensus on the most important pandemic health issues. Sadly, the government creates false consensus on nearly all pandemic health issues and therefore does not deserve public respect or trust.”
History of medical dissent
While not the threat it is considered today by the government, there is a precedent of dissent among doctors and scientists challenging conventional wisdom.
Ignaz Semmelweis was a Hungarian doctor who discovered in 1847 the benefits of handwashing in decreasing infection. “He was vilified, he was ostracized, he was actually driven crazy,” said Singleton.
Another example are Barry Marshall and Robin Warren, who won the Nobel Prize in medicine for discovering in 1982 that the bacterium Helicobacter pylori, not stress, was the cause of peptic ulcers.
“He was so vilified he drank a bottle of the h-pylori bacterium just to prove he was right,” said Singleton. “So, you tell me just expressing scientific views in medicine and something to have the government needs to investigate you for is a bad thing.”
AnneMarie Schieber ([email protected]) is a contributor to LifeSite News and the managing editor of Health Care News. Parts of this article appeared in The Heartland Daily News on August 23, 2021. Reprinted with permission.
