Three Years Later: Revisiting Evidence Over Hysteria — COVID-19

by Rational Ground co-founder, Aaron Ginn

COVID-19 and the resulting Fauci Apocalypse turned our world upside down three years ago. Our world went from familiar to an unimaginable dystopian horror film. Every one of our lives changed in ways we never thought possible. Even as we leave the pain of the past three years, we are left with the echoes of failed policies and massive irresponsibility by our elected leaders. Nearly every major crisis we face today can be traced back to 2020, caused by insufficient data, a zealous expert class, an antagonistic media, and dreadful policy decision-making.

In light of our three-year “hysteria-adversary”, I wanted to revisit my article “Evidence over Hysteria — COVID-19” which changed policy, public debate, and my life. An article that originally was just a stream of research for only my friends turned into a viral sensation that generated millions of views in less than 24 hours until I was censored, canceled, and de-platformed for saying what ended up being true. Despite the efforts of elitist censors, my article was copied and shared widely. “Evidence over Hysteria: COVID-19” was the most-read story on ZeroHedge in all of 2020. I republished my original article on my substack and as far as I know, it is the only complete version on the internet. My experience also led me to start a new company focused on building a new type of infrastructure for the free and open web called Hydra Host.

Today, I’m rolling up my sleeves to revisit my analysis and reflect on the lessons learned. I hope it encourages you to never surrender to censorship and that courage requires you to be disliked.

A life living in fear is not a life worth living.

(If this post also gets censored, it will be republished elsewhere)

Canceled

Here is the background of how I got to this point. I started collecting data and analyzing COVID-19 in January 2020. I initially was only sending my gathered research to my close friends every week, and that email list started to grow organically. Then, I moved my research to a running doc as the data set became too large to share via email. Several readers encouraged me to publish the running doc for others to see so they can easily share it. I had a Medium account, so I posted it there for others to see.

To my surprise, my research and honest exploration of what was happening with COVID took off in good and bad ways. My article went worldwide, and I got praise from news outlets for challenging the hysterical, suffocating orthodoxy. My article reached the desk of politicians of both parties and was even read in the White House.

I also receive delirious hit pieces from CNN to NYT, death threats, friends publicly ridiculing me, hundreds of prank calls from strangers, and voicemails threatening my life and my family. Medium took down my post and Google removed it from my drive after pressure from angry EPIs and blue checks (when Twitter-verse said only autocratic epidemiologists could speak). After three years of being vindicated, my article is still censored and “under review” with Medium, breaking the world record for the most extended censor review. This is one of many reasons I started Hydra Host.

This led the WSJ Editorial Board to defend free speech, free inquiry, and our right for all of us to ask questions about COVID lockdowns. This was the beginning of the shift in public conversation. More and more scientists, utilizing open-door from the public debate around my article, began to speak up. Privately, scientists and journalists worldwide started to email me thanking me for my contribution and lamenting how they cannot speak up for fear of losing their livelihood.

At this moment, I realized how those bullies and wannabe tyrants in favor of censorship only have a veneer of support. It was a minority with a big scary media stick. They must keep up the front and force others to keep believing in their perceived power, but even those close to them will privately disagree. Their power was a shadow of fear. I just needed to wait it out, as the foundation of COVID hysteria was shaky. The evidence (aka reality) will lead people to see the error, so I kept going. I didn’t fear reprisal and helped change our country’s course out of lockdowns..

When those in power seek to first silence and slander rather than address your arguments, be confident that you are onto something. Courage is not something you need or experience when you are favored and worshiped; courage appears when you are at your darkest hour and persevere despite what the narrative says.

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” — Nelson Mandela

So let’s dig in.

Since I was updating my article several times a day before it was taken down, I’m pulling from a locally saved version I have not edited since 2020. My original paper had hundreds of citations and over 60 pages of charts and graphs. I will roll up my article into a handful of summarized meta-claims. Each header below summarizes an original meta-claim from March 2020 with its associated accuracy based on what we know today. Then, there is a quote that epitomizes the narrative of 2020. Below the selection is a short explanation with direct links to evidence and further reading.

Meta-claim scoreboard:

COVID claims — 10 out of 11 were accurate

Solution claims — 5 out of 6 were accurate

Let’s start with the most central claim of my article: was COVID-19 a hysteria or not?

READ THE REST OF THE ARTICLE HERE OR ON AARON’s NEW SUBSTACK