STORY AT-A-GLANCE
- In America, we have taken our freedom for granted because, while we have been willing to fight to defend the freedom of others, we have never been called upon to defend it in our own backyard. Most Americans have never imagined we would experience a serious threat to autonomy and freedom of thought, speech, conscience and assembly
- When government threatens to take away an individual’s right to employment, education, health care and the ability to enter a store to buy food, enter a hospital or travel on public transportation, there is no other word for it but tyranny
- It doesn’t have to be like this. We can refuse to be psychologically manipulated so we are unable to engage in rational thinking and are crippled by fear. We can push back against the authoritarians taking away our freedom and trying to divide us
With the exception of Pearl Harbor and September 11, 2001, Americans have not been attacked by an enemy on our own soil. Unlike countries in Europe during World War II, America has never been occupied by a military force or locked down under martial law. We have never seen soldiers in armored vehicles patrolling the streets, warning us to stay in our homes or face arrest — or worse.
Beginning in 1776, when our freedom-seeking founders wrote the Declaration of Independence1 and stood their ground from Lexington and Concord to Saratoga and Valley Forge,2 and then came together to create a constitutional Republic dedicated to protecting individual and minority rights,3 the United States of America has defined and served as a beacon for liberty for people around the world.4
This summer, we watched soldiers patrolling the streets of Sydney, Australia, with helicopters overhead blaring warnings to a stunned, locked-down people to stay in their homes in the name of the public health.5,6,7 We have watched hundreds of thousands of people, young and old, gather together again and again in the streets of Paris, London, Rome, Athens and Berlin.8,9,10,11,12
They are marching against authoritarianism, the kind of Orwellian authoritarianism embodied in government issued vaccine passports that punish citizens for simply defending the right to make a voluntary medical decision for themselves and their minor children,13 a decision about whether to be injected with a biological pharmaceutical product that can cause serious reactions,14,15,16,17 injure,18,19,20,21 kill22,23,24 or fail to work.25,26,27,28 The signs they carry say:
“No forced testing, no forced vaccines”
“Stop the dictatorship”
“Hands off our children”
“My body is mine”
“Big Pharma shackles freedom”
“No to the Pass of shame”
“Better to die free than live as a slave”
In what has become a prophetic primal scream for liberty, governments are ordering the police to break up the largely peaceful demonstrators29,30 flooding the big cities and small villages of western Europe, the first populations to organize massive public protests against old fashioned tyranny dressed up in 21st century clothes.
The people of Europe were the first to stand up for freedom during this government-declared public health emergency because they know how tyranny begins. They know what it looks like and they remember what it feels like. They remember and are declaring, “Never again.”
In America, We Have Taken Our Freedom for Granted
Most Americans living today do not remember World War II or, if they do, it is through what their parents or grandparents told them about it. World War II was not fought on American soil.
Americans went to war in Europe to stop the slaughter of millions at the hands of an authoritarian fascist government commanding the Army of the Third Reich that killed in the name of the public health and safety,31,32 even an authoritarian communist government slaughtered many more millions during a “Reign of Terror” in the Soviet Union.33
Most American children today are not taught what happened in China after World War II, when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) implemented the Great Leap Forward and the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. Those militant ideological cleansing campaigns imprisoned and killed tens of millions of citizens because they criticized or opposed authoritarian government policies.34,35
In America, we have taken our freedom for granted because, while we have been willing to fight to defend the freedom of others, we have never been called upon to defend it in our own backyard. Most Americans have never imagined we would experience a serious threat to autonomy and freedom of thought,36,37 speech,38,39 conscience40,41 and assembly.42
So deep has been our trust in the laws and cultural values which have, for the most part, ensured fundamental freedoms in our country, that we never believed it could happen here.43,44
But the last 20 months have changed everything. Many Americans have begun to understand that tyranny can be disguised to look like safety, even as many others still cannot bring themselves to believe it.
America’s Move Toward Authoritarianism
Striking fear into the hearts and minds of the people, the move toward authoritarianism in America began with government officials suddenly telling us — even children as young as 2 years old — that we could not breathe fresh air or enter public spaces without a mask covering our face.45,46,47,48,49
Millions of American workers judged to be “nonessential” lost the ability to earn a living so they could eat and pay rent during “flatten the curve” lockdowns we were told would only last a few weeks but, instead, went on for months.50,51,52 Anyone who criticized government narratives about the origin of SARS-CoV-2 virus53,54 or questioned social distancing restrictions was immediately publicly shamed and censored.55,56,57
Any doctors who tried to provide early treatment to COVID-19 patients by repurposing safe and effective licensed drugs and nutritional supplements to help their patients survive the infection58 were also publicly shamed and censored.59,60
After the FDA granted Pfizer and Moderna an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA)61 in December 2020 to distribute their liability-free experimental mRNA COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S.,62,63,64,65 public health officials enlisted big corporations to launch a hard-sell national vaccine advertising campaign targeting all Americans over the age of 12.66,67,68,69,70,71,72,73
Anyone who asked questions or challenged the hard sell was immediately censored on social media.74,75,76,77 State governments and employers were encouraged to threaten workers,78 especially health care workers and emergency responders, with loss of their jobs for refusing the vaccine.79,80,81,82 Private businesses were encouraged to deny unvaccinated citizens entry to restaurants, stores and other public venues.83
By the end of July 2021, the Department of Veteran Affairs directed all VA health care workers to be fully vaccinated or lose their jobs.84 In early August, the Department of Defense announced that all military service members must be fully vaccinated when the FDA officially licenses a COVID-19 vaccine or lose their jobs.85
Suddenly, on August 23, 2021, the Pfizer mRNA vaccine was licensed without a public meeting of the FDA Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRPBAC) and full disclosure of the scientific data supporting licensure.86
By the end of August, about 176 million Americans had been “fully” vaccinated, representing 53.6 percent of our population of 333 million people,87 which is the third largest in the world. And studies had confirmed that the SARS-CoV-2 infection mortality ratio (IFR) in the U.S. remains at less than 1%.88
Federal Government Declares War on Unvaccinated Americans
But the executive branch of the US government was not happy. Federal health officials had publicly set the goal of persuading 90 percent of Americans to get the COVID vaccine,89 although it is clear now that the real goal all along was a 100 percent vaccination rate: no exceptions and no questions asked.
At the beginning of September 2021, the politics of persuasion gave way to an iron-fisted approach using the heel of the boot of the state to try to club 100 million unvaccinated Americans into submission. On September 9, 2021, the president of the United States followed the advice of top public health officials and, in effect, declared war on unvaccinated Americans.90,91
He scapegoated and placed all the blame for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on the unvaccinated, even though federal health officials admit that fully vaccinated people can still get infected and transmit the virus to others;92,93,94,95 and even though breakthrough COVID infections, hospitalizations and deaths in fully vaccinated people are on the rise;96,97 and even though evidence shows individuals who have recovered from the infection have stronger natural immunity than those who have been vaccinated;98 and even though officials at the World Health Organization now say that the SARS-COV-2 virus is mutating like influenza and is likely to become prevalent in every county — no matter how high the vaccination rate.99,100
The president told 100 million unvaccinated Americans that “our patience is running thin” and issued an Executive Order that every person working for the executive branch of the federal government — more than 2 million people — must get fully vaccinated or lose their jobs.101 That order also applied to about 17 million health care professionals working in medical facilities that accept Medicare and Medicaid.102
There is no option for executive branch employees to get tested — the rule is get vaccinated or be fired. It is interesting that the order does not apply to workers in the judicial branch or legislative branch, which includes members of and staffers in Congress.
The president also ordered the Department of Labor to issue a rule that carries penalties of $14,000 per violation to force private companies with more than 100 employees to get their workers fully vaccinated or be tested weekly. He also called for all teachers and school staff in all schools to be fully vaccinated.103,104
The next day, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, criticized the president for not going far enough.105 Fauci said the government should give Americans no option but to get injected with the biological product that some describe as a vaccine, others characterize as a genetic therapy or cell disrupter biological, and others allege is a bioweapon made in a lab in China with U.S. funding.106,107,108
Then Fauci said all children must be vaccinated or denied a school education109 and all unvaccinated people must be banned from getting on an airplane.110 At the same time, a Virginia congressman introduced the Safety Travel Act that would require travelers getting on a plane or Amtrak train in the U.S. to show proof of COVID vaccination or a negative COVID test within 72 hours of boarding.111
Destroying the Lives of Those Who Dissent
Today, people in some cities are being denied entrance to restaurants and stores if they can’t prove they have been “fully” vaccinated.112 Doctors are refusing to provide medical care to the unvaccinated.113 Hollywood entertainers are celebrating the deaths of unvaccinated people, saying they deserved to die, and are calling for the unvaccinated who get COVID to be denied admission to hospitals for treatment.114,115
Judges are separating children from mothers who have not gotten a COVID shot.116 Influential scientists are insisting lawmakers make it a hate crime for anyone to publicly criticize scientists and government health officials.117
Dissenters are told they are “selfish”118 and characterized as an enemy of the state119 for simply defending the human right to informed consent to medical risk taking.120 The normalizing of the ritualistic persecution of Americans who are refusing to give up the right to autonomy — which is the first and most fundamental human right — is underway. The Orwellian message is: The life of any person who dissents from government policy must be systematically destroyed.
Demanding obedience, government health officials characterize public health policies that segregate, discriminate and turn people against each other as “the good.” Yet, a lot of Americans instinctively know segregation and discrimination are not good. They know that persuading a majority of citizens to scapegoat a minority of citizens to cover up the failures of government is allowing evil to triumph.
Dissenting Americans, both vaccinated and unvaccinated, fill the ranks of every socioeconomic class, every political party and every faith-based community. They understand the meaning of the warning that, “The only thing necessary for triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,” and they are not going to stand by and do nothing.
When government threatens to take away an individual’s right to employment, education, health care and the ability to enter a store to buy food, enter a hospital or travel on public transportation, there is no other word for it but tyranny.
Weaponizing a Virus and a Vaccine Against the People
This virus, which has a 99% survival rate, and this leaky vaccine, which fails to reliably prevent infection and transmission in the fully vaccinated, has racked up a record-breaking more than half a million vaccine adverse event reports in the U.S. alone.121 It will not be the last virus and vaccine to be weaponized against the people in the name of the greater good.
That is because forced vaccination is the tip of the spear in a culture war that has been going on for much longer than the 40 years that I have been a vaccine safety and human rights activist publicly warning that this day would come.122,123,124 It is a war that will cause more suffering until enough of us refuse to be siloed and, instead, join together to change dangerous laws that abuse the trust and good will of the people.
Every single American, whether you have been vaccinated or not, should stop to reflect upon what is happening in our country. Think about what liberty means.
Imagine What Life Will Be Like in the Future
Imagine what life will be like in the future if you cannot leave your home without being harnessed to a government-issued digital ID, which contains personal information about your body and your life, and is hooked up to an electronic surveillance system that records and controls every move you make.
Imagine if you are a health care worker and your medical license is taken from you for refusing to get a government-mandated vaccine, which is a public health policy being implemented in Washington, D.C.,125 a city where doctors can now vaccinate children as young as 11 years old without the knowledge or consent of their parents.126
Imagine if you cannot hold any type of job or enter a grocery store to buy food to feed your family, or enter a drug store, cafe, gym, school,127 cinema, museum, park or beach without showing proof you’ve been vaccinated.
Imagine if you are denied entrance to a doctor’s office or lose your Medicare and Social Security benefits because you don’t have the vaccine passport, a suggestion made recently on national television.128
Imagine if you cannot get on a plane or bus to visit your children or elderly parents because federal government officials have exercised authority over inter-state commerce and banned the unvaccinated from crossing state borders, an action that some proponents of forced vaccination are urging the current administration to invoke.129,130
Imagine if you cannot get a driver’s license, file your taxes, open or access your bank account or use a credit card to make a purchase if you fail to produce the required vaccine paperwork stamped by the government.
Imagine if you or your child have already suffered a previous serious vaccine reaction or have an underlying inflammatory immune disorder that increases your risk for being harmed by vaccination,131,132,133 but doctors refuse to see you because you are unvaccinated — which is already happening in America — and you are denied admission to a hospital for a life-saving operation.
Forced Vaccination Was Always the End Game
If you think that the vaccine passport is only about this virus and this vaccine, think again. Forced vaccination was always the end game both before and during this pandemic and the proof of that lies in the decades of federal legislation and federal agency rule making paving the way for what we are experiencing today.134,135,136,137,138
Right now, forced vaccination is the quickest means to what the World Economic Forum transparently describes on its website as “The Great Reset.”139 You, your children and grandchildren are the commodity, and in the name of the greater good, you are expected to obediently allow others to “reset” your lives in all kinds of ways without making a sound.
The government-issued passport allowing you to function in society is just the first step on the slippery slope to what will be many more requirements and restrictions on your freedom in the days, months and years to come. The question is: Will you allow yourself to be used and abused by those currently holding the power to do what they want to do to you, or will you defend your God-given right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
This pandemic of deception and incompetence has stolen from our daily lives the peace and joy we deserve to have, leaving too many of us confused and paralyzed by fear, divided from our family and friends, crippled with anxiety and despair, allowing hopelessness to rule our days.
We Can Refuse to Live in Fear and Push Back
It doesn’t have to be like this. We can refuse to be psychologically manipulated so we are unable to engage in rational thinking and are crippled by fear. We can push back against the authoritarians taking away our freedom and trying to divide us.
We can do it the way that all successful social reform movements before us have done it: through actively participating in local, state and federal government and by engaging in nonviolent civil disobedience,140 if that becomes necessary.
Instead of allowing ourselves to be separated from one another, we can stay connected and meet together in small groups in our homes and neighborhoods. We can develop personal relationships with our elected officials at every level of government — from our local sheriff and elected members of local school boards and city and county councils, to our elected state and federal legislators.
If we don’t like the way the people we have elected are governing, we can vote them out, or run for office ourselves and help change the laws.
We can talk to the young men and women serving in our community police departments and the U.S. military to remind them of how important it is to value and protect human rights and civil liberties, so that if they are ever called upon to implement authoritarian rule, they will make the right choice.
Above all, we can be self-disciplined and make rational decisions that do not lead to violent confrontations, because that kind of behavior only plays into the hands of those, whose ultimate goal is to take away autonomy and more individual freedoms in the United States.
During the civil rights movement of the 1950s and ‘60s, the most profound statements were made by those who sat down in the front of the bus, or in a chair at a segregated restaurant or other public place, and simply refused to move.141
Heroes Standing Their Ground and Helping Us Through This
There are restaurant owners in New York City who are refusing to follow orders directing them to discriminate against and deny service to the unvaccinated.142,143
There are veteran health care workers on the front lines caring for patients during the pandemic, who are being fired for supporting informed consent rights,144,145 and giving up their careers to stand on principle. Many of them suspect that the next cruel order they will be told to obey is to deny life-saving medical treatment to unvaccinated patients.
There are corporate CEO’s and union leaders who are refusing to bow to political pressure to require rank and file workers to get the vaccine or risk losing their jobs.146,147
There are courageous doctors and scientists, who have never spoken out publicly before who are risking their careers by demanding that mass vaccination policies be backed up by good science;148,149 who are challenging the government’s narrative that natural immunity is not as good as vaccine-acquired immunity;150 who are criticizing the long-term safety of mRNA vaccines,151 and who are providing convincing evidence that the SARS-CoV-2 virus did not spontaneously jump out of a bat but was genetically engineered by scientists in biohazard labs.152
There are state lawmakers, who are listening to the people and refusing to vote for the passage of forced vaccination laws that perpetuate the illusion that vaccine passports are the only solution to ending the pandemic.153,154
These Americans are rejecting authoritarianism. They are heroes, and they are on the right side of history.
They and many other brave Americans are helping us make our way through this time of fear, oppression and suffering when the cultural values and beliefs that have guaranteed freedom in this great country of ours are being tested.
Restoring the Spirit of Freedom to the Center of Our Culture
I believe we will come together and pass this test. We will act responsibly to protect our liberty. We will restore the spirit of freedom to its rightful place at the center of our culture.
We will do it because we know that if the state can tag, track down and force individuals against their will to be injected with biologicals of known and unknown toxicity today, then there will be no limit on which individual freedoms the state can take away in the name of the greater good tomorrow.
You can choose to be a hero wherever you live. You can choose to reject the ugly call to shame and punish your friends, family members, neighbors, colleagues and fellow citizens for defending the human right to autonomy and protection of bodily integrity, which is the essence of the informed consent ethic. You can choose freedom over fear.
Be the one who never has to say you did not do today what you could have done to change tomorrow. Do it for yourself, your children and grandchildren, and for all the generations to come. It’s your health, your family, your choice. And our mission continues: No forced vaccination. Not in America.
Analysis by Barbara Loe Fisher