#WORLD #WORLDWIDE #(en) ait - Russia: Covid-19: The war of all against all and the maneuvers of the state (2) (ca, de, it, pt)[machine translation]

 We are publishing the second part of an article from the Swiss anarchist

publication L'Affranches, which analyzes the manifestations and effects of the
dictatorial and repressive policies of states under the guise of "fighting the
epidemic" and the mistakes made in this regard by the left and libertarians. The
first part was published on our website on February 23. ---- In the first part of
this text, we wondered what the Swiss government's change of course, announced on
February 16 at 14:00, means from the next day. Relief, but also bewilderment, was
felt in the face of this sudden turn.. ---- Unusually, the day after his solemn
announcement, Swiss President Ignazio Cassis tested positive for covid. Little
was said about this in the media, just as the statement dated early January did
not cause a stir, when in a debate on Swiss-German television, the same president
calmly confirmed that not all "covid patients" who died in hospitals died from
this disease. "It's okay," he said. - When someone dies in a car accident and
tests positive, it is considered a covid death. It depends on the definition.
Definitions are set all over the world and they should apply everywhere."
Clarification: "This classification was established by the WHO" (1).

First, they "inflated" the statistics, counting those who died from covid and
those who died with covid together. Do they now try to defend themselves - in
connection with possible complaints after the "covid deaths" of vaccinated people
- while maintaining the ability to argue that the "covid death" is caused by
another pathology?

We know that this disease has certainly killed more than it could, in part
because the sick have been ordered to stay at home instead of receiving immediate
treatment. One day it will be necessary to take stock and establish
responsibility. But at the same time, the numbers appear to have been
exaggerated, which has contributed to a climate of unease and allowed more and
more restrictive measures to be taken.

There was daily media propaganda: catastrophic scenarios, staged cases, deaths of
unvaccinated celebrities, and so on.; posters on every street corner; then the
"passport", which draconically curtailed the social life of the obstinate. Most
people more or less obediently accepted the created disciplinary society, which
allowed - including in Switzerland - anti-social measures to be carried out
without discussion: for example, giving the cantons permission to draw up "black
lists" of persons deprived of medical care (except in emergency cases), which
included those who are late in paying their health insurance.

The Omicron variant overturned the official notion that herd immunity could be
achieved through vaccination. While this variant is less lethal, it sends you to
the hospital bed and can cause death in both vaccinated and unvaccinated people.
However, the failure of the blanket vaccination policy is not emphasized. On the
contrary, the authorities hide the data they have on the side effects of
vaccines.(2) They clearly reserve the possibility of a campaign for a fourth dose
in the fall, or even for the restoration of the "sanitary passport".

Looking for scapegoats

The legacy of blaming disasters on minorities has been given new life. The
culprits were designated "super contagious"; children who were going to kill
their grandparents; the unvaccinated, who are accused not only of spreading the
disease, but also of depriving others of medical care ...

The same pattern of looking for scapegoats is repeated. In some speeches, we feel
disturbing echoes of times that seemed to many long gone. Speaking of truckers in
Canada, Philippe Wahl, former director of Charlie Hebdo, accuses them of being
the main spreaders of AIDS because "they cross borders"!

In Switzerland, on February 7, the media reported on a "scientific study" that
shows that in the country between 2019 and 2020, the increase in the death rate
among people "without a Swiss passport" was about twice as high as among those
who have one ( 3). A little careful reading reveals that these differences are
explained precisely by the socio-economic difficulties that foreigners are more
likely to face (working conditions, exposure to risks, crowded housing, poverty,
etc.). The fact remains that the choice of the criterion for separating data into
"Swiss" and "foreigners" rather than income or occupation is not neutral. Many
will argue on this basis that it was immigrants who were responsible for the
"sanitary" measures and the overcrowding of hospitals. Already on the horizon is
the prospect that, after the unvaccinated,

The measures taken to stop migrants and refugees (with the exception of the
current Ukrainians) are indicative here. They resulted in the death of many
people. And we remember that in the early months of the covid crisis, people of
Asian descent were attacked on the street or on social media under the pretext
that the disease came from China.

Loss of critical thinking

The subordination of some libertarians and anti-capitalists to mainstream thought
during this crisis cannot be attributed solely to fear or other psychological
mechanisms. Instead of distrusting the authorities and the capitalist system,
some felt that in this case they should follow them and trust them completely.
There are arguments that claim to be logical and rational that justify this
commitment to the system. We consider them simplified. Let's take a look, for
example, at the arguments of the group Karmina from Slovakia, published on a
Montreal blog:

"Mass vaccination has become the main strategy of states, often supported by
associations of employers. However, this does not mean at all that it is contrary
to the interests of the working people. Capital is interested in labor power as a
commodity that can be bought cheaply and efficiently exploited, and only in this
context does it care about protecting its quality. But for workers, the commodity
"labor power" is inseparable from their own body. Protesting against vaccinations
and other public health measures aimed at protecting the workforce is like
refusing to wear welding gloves because the foreman told you to wear them" (5).

In other words, master-backed states are vaccinating to keep us healthy because
they need our labor force. Unfortunately, everything is not so simple. As a
general rule, employers protect "workforce" only when the law or the balance of
power compels them to do so. When they think they can get rid of it, they do so,
as with illegal migrants, for example. In addition, most of the profits are
realized today in the financial markets. And the pharmaceutical industry, one of
the most profitable, has fueled them throughout the pandemic. Pharmaceutical
corporations don't care if a portion of their workforce is harmed or poorly
protected by their products as long as they manage to sell them. As for states,
they have a whole series of painful "reforms" on their way: cutting social and
medical spending,

What science? What medicine?

Reflecting on the radical changes that physics has undergone, the philosopher of
science Alan Chalmers explains that this discipline may in the future change its
character "due to social changes associated with the rise of monopoly
capitalism." If we accept that physics, a science by definition "exact", is
influenced by the context in which it develops, then what about other, much
"softer" disciplines in which political and economic interests are even more
obvious? The philosopher does not advocate absolute relativism ("everything is
fine"), but also rejects the ideology of science. That is, a conservative
concept, which considers the methodologies prevailing at a given time to be
eternal and universal. In every field of knowledge, "we can ask ourselves what
are its goals, which will eventually deviate from what what we think or what we
usually imagine. What means are used to achieve them and what degree of success
they achieve. (...) We can try to criticize any field of knowledge, criticizing
its goals, determining whether the methods it uses are suitable for achieving its
goals, comparing them with other, better means to achieve the same goals "(6).

Under the conditions of the COVID-19 crisis, the scenario implemented by the WHO
and Western countries was not subjected to harsh and well-reasoned criticism.
Other methods proposed to deal with the pandemic (especially early treatment)
were discredited from the very beginning.

Moreover, medicine is not a homogeneous discipline, but areas of knowledge that
have undergone standardization by the new public management over the past fifteen
to twenty years. As mentioned in articles published on this blog, "hospitals have
become a new industry to which cost-benefit criteria are being applied" (7). This
process, contrary to its stated purpose, increases the bureaucracy exponentially.

This is not about denying the successes of medicine, they are. Some specialties,
such as surgery, have managed to adapt better to the "economic" model of
fee-based pricing... But other areas are suffering. In cases of the most common
chronic diseases (asthma, diabetes, polyarthritis, heart failure, etc.),
"autopilot" and standardization are counterproductive. There you need to resort
to human-centered medicine (8) because the main problem is the carelessness of
patients. Without listening to them, without showing attention, failure is
guaranteed.

The indiscriminate handling of the covid pandemic has probably not strengthened
the bonds of trust between medicine and those who use it, which is to say, all of
us. A choice had to be made between doctors in media studios who delivered their
"Mass" at the hours when they could be heard by the largest audience, and those
who made unconventional remarks in alternative media and/or were victims of witch
hunts - and above all, start asking questions. In the face of the
industrial-police management of health, which is offered to us, collective
appropriation is as relevant as possible.

Notes:

1) https://bonpourlatete.com/a-vif/gestion-du-covid-cassis-abaisse-le-clou

2) Such a taboo question is the question of "suspected side effects" of vaccines.
At the European level, in 2021, according to the data available in the Euromomo
database, there was excess mortality associated with vaccination campaigns,
especially among those aged 15-44 years. For Switzerland, there are figures on
the official website of the administration, but they must be carefully sought
out, and they lack accuracy. See:
https://www.covid19.admin.ch/fr/vaccination/symptoms. It can be seen that as of
March 8, 2022, there were 13,338 reports of suspected adverse effects of
vaccines, including 5,165 of serious consequences (causing death, potentially
fatal, requiring hospitalization, causing disability, congenital malformations,
etc.). e. Although we know exactly the number of deaths attributed to covid every
day, we do not know how many of them can be attributed to vaccines.Of course, the
arguments of "conspiracy theorists" should be avoided.

3) https://www.blick.ch/fr/news/suisse/pauvrete-et-discrimination-les-etran...

4) As Alain Badiou proclaims in his updated reading of Jean de La Fontaine's
fable "Plague Animals". https://youtube.com/watch?v=nHbayI033qs&feature=share
(after 24 minutes)

5) https://liberteuvriere.com/2021/12/05/coronavirus-desobeissance-blind/

6) Alan F. Chalmers, Qu'est-ce que la science?, Paris, La Découverte, 1987
(1976), p. 262.

7) En pandemie: https://laffranchi.info/en-pandemie/

8) "Une médecine centrée sur la personne", Pratiques, n°96, janvier 2022.
https://pratiques.fr/Une-medecine-centree-sur-la-personne

Original: https://laffranchi.info/covid-19-guerre-de-tous-contre-tous-2e-partie/

https://aitrus.info/node/5920  https://aitrus.info/node/5937
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