Bold Orthodox Leadership is Necessary to Avoid the COVID Backlash

Depending on where you live, the lingering hysteria over COVID can be quite distressing. It can seem like nothing but bad news on every side. Mask mandates, attendance restrictions, social distancing are still very much a fact of life around the world. Police in Germany actually arrested a Christmas Market Santa Claus for a mask violation!

There are actual detention camps in Australia and New Zealand. The requirement for “vaccine” passports is spreading around the world, in some countries effectively locking the “unvaccinated” out of civilization. Austria is trying to force everyone to get vaccinated or face fines. Greece is doing the same for the elderly. The United Kingdom voted in favor of a vaccine passport. France is moving forward with pension restrictions for those over 65 and unvaccinated. In NYC, kindergartners must have proof of vaccination to eat out with their families. Travel restrictions abound, as do testing and/or vaccination requirements to travel at all. Some in the U.S. Congress want to make vaccination mandatory for even interstate travel. Doctors are being threatened with loss of licenses for spreading “misinformation.” (Otherwise known as their competent medical opinions that vary from the approved narrative.)

In many places, even the ancient Orthodox Church is affected. In the Australian State of Victoria, the Greek Archdiocese has agreed to separate “vaccinated” versus “unvaccinated” services for Advent.

Greek authorities want the Orthodox Church there to check vaccine passports as well. No doubt this requirement will spread. And, also no doubt, most Orthodox Churches will comply for the sake of keeping the doors open. Just as so many complied with all the other restrictions up till now.

We could keep going with the bad news. There is a lot of it. But we won’t. Because the “pandemic” is actually over, and those areas of the world still mired in COVIDism will eventually join Florida in returning to freedom. Most of the United States, some parts of Canada, and even other countries around the world are done with COVID, “vaccines”, and mandates. Mass protests in EuropeSouth AmericaAsia, and Australia / New Zealand continue, showing that even in “lockdown” areas, huge numbers of regular people have simply had enough.

Good news is actually everywhere if you can put the doom and gloom aside for a moment. (We know that is hard if you live in deep COVIDism territory, but please bear with us.)

Very few people are buying the manufactured panic over “Omicron.” Borders are closing, mandates are popping up or being tightened, and all for what amounts to a cold. According to Dr. Angelique Coetzee, chair of the South African Medical Association and discoverer of the Omicron variant, expected symptoms are a couple of days of fatigue and malaise.

Omicron is said to be in at least 57 countries globally. Despite this widespread dispersion, only one death has so far been attributed to Omicron. A single patient in Britain who, according to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, “Sadly, yes, omicron is producing hospitalizations, and sadly at least one patient has now been confirmed to have died with omicron.” The word “with” as opposed to “from” in that statement did not go unnoticed.

The massively out-of-proportion response has not gone unnoticed either. If the Global Elites can get this worked up over an over-hyped cold, it makes normal people ask uncomfortable questions to which the official answers are extremely unsatisfactory.

After almost two years of war against a virus, it is very clear that everything the “experts” recommend has failed and will continue to fail. Border closures did not stop Omicron from reaching every inhabited continent. Mask mandates do not reduce “cases.” In fact, the only two sizeable studies evaluating masks in the context of COVID-19 failed to demonstrate statistically significant reductions in confirmed viral transmission either for surgical masks (one study) or for cloth masks (the other). This tracks with the empirical evidence observed over the past almost two years. By now, most people have gotten the message – masks don’t work. 

Neither do vaccine passports. Fortunately, people are starting to realize that “case” numbers mean little, as COVID testing is wildly inaccurate. Hospitalizations and deaths are not correlated with asymptomatic “cases” detected by testing only. On the other hand,  research has found that the higher the vaccination rate in an area, the higher the excess mortality. Vaccine passports can increase the “uptake” of vaccines, but that doesn’t actually help protect anyone. Still, however, governments fixate on “cases” which are not responding to vaccination and other efforts. South Korea, for example, just imposed the country’s toughest COVID restrictions since the start of the pandemic amid a record “case” surge. 92% of the population is considered fully “vaccinated.” For now at least, until boosters are required.

The failure of the jabs to control Omicron “cases” is being widely reported. Press around the world note that the Omicron “epidemic” is driven by young, vaccinated people, as confirmed by data from countries as diverse as the UK, Denmark and South Africa. The jabs don’t work. They didn’t work very well before Omicron, and they certainly aren’t working now to prevent infection and transmission. Everyone can see that for themselves. So the response from officialdom is to give you more of the same jabs, more of the same masking, more of the same travel restrictions – in other words, more of all the same policies that have failed miserably over the past two years.

Globally, being “fully vaccinated” is a moving target. Pfizer CEO Bourla and multiple major world government officials are already claiming a 4th “booster” will be necessary. With every demand for more “boosters”, more opposition to COVIDism builds. While some may submit to the third shot, who is really interested in the fourth and fifth? The “public health” community has already signaled that you must keep up with boosters to “remain” fully vaccinated. Even the most rabid COVIDian has enough sense to realize you don’t repeat a “vaccine” every few months for the rest of your life.

It especially doesn’t make sense when they are dangerous as well as ineffective. The FDA has asked a federal judge to make the public wait until at least 2096 to see all the Pfizer data and information it relied upon to license Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. You have an experimental medical product being mandated by governments and private businesses. A product the manufacturer is shielded from liability for any injuries it causes. A product that was approved in record time. Now, the FDA wants you to wait 75 years to see the underlying data relied on for approval.  In the meantime, be sure to inject your kids and get your own boosters every few months. Even the dimmest of dim bulbs is going to be bothered by all that.

Somewhere around 8 billion doses of the jabs have been administered worldwide. Despite the best efforts of the government / Big Pharma complex to hide them, word of severe adverse reactions (including deaths) is finally coming to the public’s notice. Too many people have been killed and injured to hide, even when official reporting mechanisms, such as VAERS, are woefully inadequate. But even that system, as bad as it is, provides shocking numbers. The number of reported VAERS deaths in the U.S. in 2021 alone, after COVID-19 vaccines were authorized for emergency use, is greater than the number of deaths after inoculation from all vaccines given from 1990 to 2020 combined.

Damage on this scale is impossible to hide. Especially when you are now, thanks to Omicron, essentially fighting the common cold. That awareness of vaccine risk, coupled with their relative immunity to COVID, explains why more than a month after jabs for kids were approved, barely 15 percent percent of children have been “vaccinated.” The vast majority of parents have simply ignored the massive advertising and media campaign. No one should expect that number to budge much going forward. Even in Deep Blue areas, with some notable exceptions, politicians have evidenced better sense than to mandate experimental jabs for kids.

In fact, even Blue State politicians are throwing in the towel. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, declared in an interview that the COVID-19 emergency is “over”. He won’t be implementing another statewide mask mandate in response to the Omicron variant, explaining that if people aren’t vaccinated at this point it’s their “own darn fault” if they get sick.

Plus, COVID is treatable and preventable! Monoclonal antibodies are now available in Canada, and their use is spreading within the United States. Pfizer has asked for Emergency Use Authorization for its new drug, Paxlovid, that is touted to reduce the risk of COVID hospitalization or death by 85 percent. How does that narrative work exactly? Pfizer is going to tell you that COVID is so dangerous you need an EUA, experimental mRNA jab to avoid it or survive it? While simultaneously telling you that COVID is easily treatable at home with some pills available at your local pharmacy?

The idiocy of that conundrum has not escaped the notice of the general public. 

For almost two years, the medical profession has played along with the lie that COVID was novel and no treatments existed. Only a vaccine could save us. As one doctor described the situation,

What changed overnight and across the board, was an anti-science attitude across all specialties to everything related to COVID. A viral infection is not something requiring government management, rather, its encounter is part of a physician’s daily medical practice. The government has seemingly accomplished what medical insurers, medical boards, and hospitals tried, but had not yet succeeded at: complete mind control of physicians. And with that, the last vestige of respect I had for my profession died.

There were doctors who, often risking their licenses, came forward and told the truth. They were alternatively vilified, ignored, and censored. Even though many were quite distinguished, they were openly denigrated as hacks. Most people consuming only mainstream news heard very little of what any of them had to say. Until now. Joe Rogan, the most popular podcaster in the world, just hosted a segment with Dr. Peter McCullough, a famous cardiologist and epidemiologist in academic and medical practice in Dallas, Texas. Dr. McCullough was key in publishing in 2020 the first protocol for treating COVID. Suddenly, an active listening audience of 11 million people heard McCullough’s message that treatment has always been available and that people died needlessly. (Joe Rogan also averages 200 million downloads a month, so the total reach will be much broader.) Here are some excerpts from the interview:

“It seems to me, early on, there was an intentional, very comprehensive, suppression of early treatment in order to promote fear, suffering, isolation, hospitalization and death,” he said. “And it seemed to be completely organized and intentional in order to create acceptance for, and then promote mass vaccination.”

 

McCullough told Rogan the reason so few medical professionals are willing to speak up against the new, anti-scientific COVID regime is they’re under a “mass formation psychosis,” meaning the COVID fear-mongering and propaganda has placed almost the entire professional field in a state of irrational complacency.

The result has been electric. Even some doctors, who were previously afraid to speak out, have found their voices.

The treatment genie is not going back in the bottle. Thanks to the media push for Pfizer and monoclonal antibodies, everyone now knows we have widely available “official” treatments. Thanks to Joe Rogan’s treatment protocol (including “horse paste”), and his interview with Dr. McCullough, tens of millions now know about the other safe, effective treatments available.

Did you know that you could naturally boost your immunity to COVID? A few doctors have been talking about that for some time, but with a new surgeon general, the State of Florida is now urging Floridians to “Talk to your health care provider about how certain supplements or foods containing vitamins and minerals might help boost your immune system, such as zinc, vitamin D, vitamin C and quercetin.” These are all well-known supplements that have been shown to have a positive impact on your COVID-19 risk.

Imagine, a state Department of Health that is encouraging things that make people healthier. Who would have thought? But for the COVID crowd, the news out of Florida gets worse.

“Physicians should use their clinical judgment when recommending treatment options for patients’ individualized health care needs. This may include emerging treatment options with appropriate patient informed consent, including off-label use or as part of a clinical trial.

Paging Dr. McCullough – sounds like Florida is ready to put your treatment protocol of off-label drugs to work. Given that Florida is the 3rd largest state in the world’s most powerful nation, this might get some attention.

The U.S. Court system has not been kind to pandemic hysteria either. So far, courts have struck down every federal mandate. Lacking the excuse of a “federal mandate”, even woke behemoths like Disney and Oracle have voluntarily ended their vaccine requirements. Nor are just major corporations pausing their jabs. A recent survey found that 75% of all U.S. employers won’t require COVID-19 vaccination or weekly testing to work. The constant clamor for “boosters” to keep your “vaccinated” status isn’t helping companies who want to keep their mandates in place. It is one thing to fight 20% to 40% of your labor force, in a tight labor market, once. Who wants to do that over and over again every few months?

Despite what is happening in New York and with some high-profile corporations such as Kroger, the trend is definitely against vaccine mandates. Even the Los Angeles public school district suspended its vaccine mandate for students. If you can’t hold the line in California….

All of this has some media outlets in full-throated denial of reality. Unfortunately for them, shifts in tone have been obvious in such unlikely places as the New York Times and even The Atlantic of all places. The Atlantic just published a piece called, Where I Live, No One Cares About COVID:

outside the world inhabited by the professional and managerial classes in a handful of major metropolitan areas, many, if not most, Americans are leading their lives as if COVID is over, and they have been for a long while.

Ouch.

However, despite all the evidence that the “pandemic” is truly over, children are still being abused in many blue areas of the United States. Schools are still closing. Even universities such as Cornell, which have 100% vaccination requirements and mandatory masking, are shutting down campuses. Public schools in some places are following suit. In too many areas where schools are remaining open, kids are still wearing masks the entire day. In some places, kids are being forced to eat lunch outside in the cold, or on the floor in silence.

Capitol Hill Elementary School in Portland, Oregon, kindergartners forced to eat lunch outside in 40-degree weather sitting on buckets to maintain a social distance from their classmates

These kinds of abuses, and more, are happening in blue areas across the country, and parents are fed up.

The fact that all these polices contributed to a 50.6 percent increase in suicide for girls aged 12-17 has not made parents any happier. Nor has crossing the 100,000 mark for annual deaths from overdoses. Children have lost precious years of their lives. Children born in the “pandemic” are lagging behind in development. As a society, we may never recover from all this.

The more people know about they way they have been swindled, the bigger the coming backlash is going to be. People are increasingly waking up, many of whom previously had wholeheartedly supported every single COVID measure. This backlash will be felt in the loss of credibility of public health. It will be felt in the loss of credibility of the mainstream media. It will be felt in the loss of credibility of the medical profession. It will be felt in the loss of credibility for Big Pharm, Big Tech, and Big Government. It will most assuredly take the form, in the United States, of a “Red Wave” in the next few elections that will devastate the Democratic Party. The election results in Virginia are likely just a foretaste of how bad that will be.

All that is good and to be applauded. Our fear, however, is that Jesus and His Church will get caught in that backlash as well.

Potential Backlash Against Orthodoxy

I have a friend who is a very successful business man. A life-long Southern Baptist, we have been discussing Orthodoxy for several years now. I even managed to get him to visit the Divine Liturgy a few times. I really believed he was starting to see the truth in Orthodox Christianity. But then Archbishop Elpidophoros announced that there are no religious exemptions for Orthodox Christians, despite the jab’s ties to aborted fetal cells. That was a tough blow, and our conversations changed after that.

When the Greek Archdiocese gave Pfizer CEO Bourla the Athenagoras Award, my friend called me and gave me his condolences. He told me that I had almost “gotten him”, but that the independent church model was clearly superior to having centralized administration by bishops. His pastor answered to no one but the local community, and would never kowtow to the world the way our bishops did. The office of bishop, absolutely essential for the practice and continuity of the Orthodox Faith, was seen by this sincere, intelligent man as a fatal weakness. He is not alone.

Roman Catholic bishops have sued in various places opposing COVID restrictions. So have Protestants. Pastors of various heterodox denominations have defied restrictions, willingly facing fines and even arrest to keep their churches open. Heterodox pastors have written letters supporting vaccine religious exemptions for Orthodox Christians. This was necessary because their own priests had refused to help them, citing directives from their bishops.

Heterodox and secular leaders have demanded an end to the abuse of children in schools. They have opposed draconian mandates and medical apartheid. For once, it seems, the “religious” entrepreneurial market in the United States (progenitor of thousands of denominations) has been good for something positive.

kids in churchJust as people feel betrayed by the government and media, so do many Orthodox Christians, catechumens and inquirers feel betrayed by their Orthodox bishops. The results are disastrous. Outreach is hampered. My friend is just one small example. We have gotten many emails over the course of the pandemic from families considering Orthodoxy, but frightened away by what they see as the weakness and timidity of our bishops. Orthodox Faithful are leaving the Church. Some are staying home, but others are joining heterodox churches. When ethnic Greeks praise the faithfulness of the heterodox in resisting COVID mandates, you know we Orthodox have an issue. Other Orthodox Christians are switching jurisdictions, attending less frequently, and/or scaling back their donations.

That is not to say that we don’t have good, solid bishops in the Orthodox Church. We covered some of them in this article about Orthodox COVID heroes. Since we published that article, we have been made aware of even more.

But we need more Orthodox bishops to recognize where we are in this crisis. Millions are waking up each day to the tyranny around us. My friend is only exceptional in that he understood the COVID situation earlier than most. Daily, there are more just like him all around the world. They look, naturally, to the Successors of the Apostles for leadership. Instead of inspiration, they often encounter silence from men who fear being “divisive” and so fail to address the great questions of this moment. Yes, we fully believe that the tide has turned and that the forces of godly freedom will triumph. This time. But at what cost, and how long that will take, are things known but to God. The more positive leadership we have, the lower the human and civilizational costs in the long run.

And the better prepared we will be when the next “crisis” is thrust upon us. It is highly unlikely the Powers-That-Be will simply give up after their “pandemic” has faded from memory. If we do not learn resistance now, then we may not have the chance later.

We highly recommend you watch watch this example of brave leadership from Serbian Orthodox Bishop Photius. His Grace said many important things, such as: “A great battle is being fought for the freedom all around the world.” It is only a few minutes long with sub titles. We need hundreds of heroes in miters just like him. That would change the entire world. 

Alexander is a member of the Orthodox Church in America

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