Althouse: "Instagram has deleted a post by Madonna in which the pop star shared a coronavirus conspiracy theory with her 15 million followers."

July 29, 2020

"Instagram has deleted a post by Madonna in which the pop star shared a coronavirus conspiracy theory with her 15 million followers."

"She captioned the video with claims that a vaccine for Covid-19 has 'been found and proven and has been available for months.' She continued: 'They would rather let fear control the people and let the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.'... Pop star Annie Lennox commented on the post: 'This is utter madness!!! I can’t believe that you are endorsing this dangerous quackery. Hopefully your site has been hacked and you’re just about to explain it.' Donald Trump Jr was banned from tweeting for 12 hours after posting the clip later shared by Madonna. Facebook and Twitter have previously removed it, citing it as misinformation."

The Guardian reports.

I don't think Donald Trump Jr claimed there was a vaccine and that it's being hogged for use only by the rich! However bad the underlying video may be, the material added by Madonna is especially cruel. It fits with the larger protest culture, which relentlessly tells people that the world has been engineered to oppress them.

52 comments:

Dangerous Dreamer said...: Why do we need social media platforms deciding for us what is acceptable for consumption and what is not. They are suppressing opposing view points. I think we are capable of deciding for ourselves.; 7/29/20, 12:49 PM
Sebastian said...: "tells people that the world has been engineered to oppress them"

Can you blame progs for getting that impression?

They like nothing better than oppressing people, they aim to achieve power to effectuate their oppression, and progs currently in power are in fact oppressing the people of their states.

Oppressive social engineering is prog MO. Combine it with prog projection, and you get Madonna et al., "systemic racism," and the rest.; 7/29/20, 12:51 PM
rehajm said...: She captioned the video with claims that a vaccine for Covid-19 has “been found and proven and has been available for months”

There's multiple vaccines in trials. If one were to Clintonparse this claim, 'found' and 'available for months' are true. Only 'proven' would be falsifiable and, of course, falsifiability would depend upon who would stand to benefit....; 7/29/20, 12:57 PM
WisRich said...: I don't know, but it sure seems that Dem's and big Media do not want talk about this at all. No free debate, just total blackout.

Why?

Just because Trump said some of the studies looked promising?; 7/29/20, 12:59 PM
Jupiter said...: "The video shows Dr Stella Immanuel, a primary care physician in Houston, Texas, claiming to have treated 350 coronavirus patients with hydroxychloroquine. She was speaking with a group called America’s Frontline Doctors outside the US Supreme Court building."

Dr. Immanuel did not claim that there is a vaccine for coronavirus, she claimed -- correctly -- that HCQ and zinc will cure it supplied early enough. This has, in fact, been known by many practicing physicians for months now, and there has been a conspiracy to suppress that information. If Madonna made a mistake, it was in supposing that "cure" meant "vaccine". Madonna is kind of dumb, OK?; 7/29/20, 1:01 PM
Vance said...: Well, it's not too much of a surprise. Last I checked, Madonna kept her brains inside two cones that she takes on and off like a clown nose... or whatever it is she "thinks" with.; 7/29/20, 1:02 PM
Expat(ish) said...: I'm just remaining interested in the role these companies are making about what is Truth, what is Acceptable, and etc.

If they turn out to be wrong and to have suppressed something important is there anything (besides fate) to worry about?

-XC; 7/29/20, 1:03 PM
Jupiter said...: And BTW, I do mean that there has been a conspiracy to suppress this information. A private organization based in Chicago published a paper in the Lancet, perhaps the most prestigious medical journal in the world, claiming to have reviewed clinical data from hundreds of hospitals worldwide showing that HCQ is not effective against COVID. Other researchers questioned how such a small organization could possibly have received data from so many hospitals, and Lancet retracted the paper.

It is not clear what motivated this hoax, but it was elaborate and effective. Someone devoted a lot of time and effort to preventing the spread of life-saving information.; 7/29/20, 1:06 PM
bagoh20 said...: "On Tuesday, Sweden reported 0 deaths and just 77 cases. Over the past week, deaths have been no higher than two per day. What is so remarkable is that while there are other countries that have had near-zero deaths for even longer, Sweden has achieved this through herd immunity; prevented the lockdown deaths, emotional abuse, drug deaths, suicides, and financial ruin plaguing other countries; and – most importantly – is more fortified against a resurgence than these other countries that delayed herd immunity."

Only 14% of Swedes wear masks - one of the lowest rates in the world.

https://www.theblaze.com/op-ed/horowitz-sweden-riding-high-and-the-triumph-of-the-rational-herd-immunity-approach

What is the lockdown proponents' plan? How do we get past the epidemic if we never go through it. Places that are locked down will be most vulnerable when we do open up. Maybe a vaccine will come, but the flu vaccine is only 40% effective, and we don't have one for any corona virus yet. There is a free vaccination available. It has a very high effective rate, and a very low mortality. It's called living life with reasonable risk.; 7/29/20, 1:06 PM
Fernandinande said...: The video shows Dr Stella Immanuel, a primary care physician in Houston, Texas, claiming to have treated 350 coronavirus patients with hydroxychloroquine.

Are she/they conflating treatment with a vaccine? The horrible article's partial quote doesn't include Madonna using the word "vaccine".; 7/29/20, 1:06 PM
Fernandinande said...: This article claims she spoke of a cure, not a vaccine. They used the same partial quote as the "vaccine" article, though, I wonder why?; 7/29/20, 1:10 PM
gilbar said...: hmmmm...
IF this was happening; it'd be being done, by the party of the Rich Billionaires. Right?
Bill Gates
Jeff Bezos
Michael Bloomberg
Tom Steyer
George Soros
Mark Zuckerberg
Sergey Brin
etc; 7/29/20, 1:11 PM
Lucid-Ideas said...: Them: Listen to the Doctors!
Us: Ok, here's one speaking right now
Them: Not that one!

Them: Elevate female voices!
Us: Ok, here's one...
Them: Not that one!

Them: Listen to black people!
Us: Ok, here's a black expert doct....
Them: NOT THAT ONE!; 7/29/20, 1:12 PM
I Have Misplaced My Pants said...: I think it's cruel to pretend that this isn't a fear campaign that is being relentlessly and endlessly squeezed for all it's worth.; 7/29/20, 1:14 PM
Fernandinande said...: Creepy fake news - about 10 of 10 fakenews articles used the same partial quote: something has "been found and proven and has been available for months." Why wouldn't they include that one word which makes it clear?; 7/29/20, 1:16 PM
Jim Gust said...: It is not a vaccine, Madonna was wrong to use that word. It is a treatment, the hydroxywhatever that Trump has mentioned, that a Yale epidemiologist has endorsed (even reported in Newsweek), that the MSM is desperate to prove Trump is wrong about.

Related, from Instapundit:

https://pjmedia.com/instapundit/390245/

Although Madonna was wrong to call it a vaccine, she was not wrong to question why the information is suppressed, the same complaint made by the Yale epidemiologist.; 7/29/20, 1:18 PM
James Graham said...: This is just an up-dated version of "the oil companies have suppressed manufacture of a carburetor that would give us 100 miles to a gallon" and like conspiracies.; 7/29/20, 1:23 PM
Fernandinande said...: FWIW, Treatment with Hydroxychloroquine Cut Death Rate Significantly in COVID-19 Patients, Henry Ford Health System Study Shows July 02, 2020

13% of 2,541 hospitalized patients treated with hydroxychloroquine alone died, compared to 26% not treated with hydroxychloroquine; so not a miracle cure.; 7/29/20, 1:24 PM
wendybar said...: Now they are eating their own...God forbid you have different opinions!! You must think alike, you must think alike, you must think alike. get used to it....if Biden wins...you must think alike or get cancelled.; 7/29/20, 1:24 PM
rehajm said...: What is so remarkable is that while there are other countries that have had near-zero deaths for even longer, Sweden has achieved this through herd immunity; prevented the lockdown deaths, emotional abuse, drug deaths, suicides, and financial ruin plaguing other countries; and – most importantly – is more fortified against a resurgence than these other countries that delayed herd immunity."

There were many of us saying this was the superior strategy as far back as March. The whole thing is now so politicized. Leftie leaders in places like MA and NY are all smug at the moment, but they're really a few weeks behind those backwards red states in terms of reopening. Easiest money to win is to predict they'll be seeing cases spike in the data from about two weeks after loosening lockups...

We chose the 'nothing else matters' route to slowly rip off the band-aid, but we'll be Sweden...eventually...; 7/29/20, 1:27 PM
mandrewa said...: Here's the real thing: Netherlands common cold study

That is not what Madonna was talking about.

But if you read the full paper, the authors find evidence that a simultaneous infection with the HCoV-HKU1 and HCoV-NL63 coronaviruses, both of which are widespread and common and which normally strike every year, and which are responsible yearly for a small percentage of what we call the common cold, also produce antibodies to Covid-19.

It's a natural vaccine! It is right in front of us. I don't know why isn't getting more attention.

But I think a big part of the problem is that many people can't tell the difference between what is truth and what is nonsense.

To me it's obviously true. It passes whatever process it is I'm using to distinguish to between truth and fiction.

Now that comes with qualifications. We don't know long the antibodies last. We don't know what percentage of the people that get infected by these two viruses also get the Covid-19 protection. And it is also possible that the authors are mistaken. I don't doubt their sincerity but they could have made a mistake.

Even so, to me, it seems crazy not to investigate this further. But I'm a bit cynical; I don't really expect the establishment to do the right thing.

What's the risk after all? Suppose it doesn't work. You get a cold. So what. Big deal.
But is anyone going to do the research? Will the federal government allow the research to be done?; 7/29/20, 1:27 PM
Jupiter said...: It certainly ought to be possible to determine whether Dr. Stella Immanuel is who she says she is and has, in fact, treated 350 coronavirus patients with HCQ and zinc. That the TechBorg intends to suppress the claim, rather than investigate its accuracy, seems to indicate something deeply sinister.; 7/29/20, 1:32 PM
Kevin said...: As one of the world's wealthiest, wouldn't Madonna be in on it?

As much as I love a leftist being hoist-petarded, I still hate this. Nobody voted Instagram the right to decide truth from falsehood.; 7/29/20, 1:35 PM
mandrewa said...: Matt Christiansen doing is usually high-quality thinking.

Here's what is on YouTube currently:

Wrongthink doctors getting censored again (banned video)

Here's is the banned video:

it's on bitchute: an honest, intelligent and persuasive video that YouTube won't allow; 7/29/20, 1:41 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: I wish they wouldn't delete these stupid videos because every time they do, multiple people send them to me. ("The powers that be are trying to hide this information!") Then people want an opinion. My opinion is that I don't watch inane videos.; 7/29/20, 1:43 PM
Nichevo said...: It fits with the larger protest culture, which relentlessly tells people that the world has been engineered to oppress them.

Oh, it has, it has. Just think of poor Robert Cook!

https://www.thecity.nyc/housing/2020/7/27/21341035/new-york-city-rent-regulation-vacancies-apartments-elliman-moving-brooklyn

PDT did this COVID thing JUST to end rent control!

And lower housing rents. Wait, what?

Looking forward to Cook voting for Cuomo and de Blasio the very next chance he gets.; 7/29/20, 1:45 PM
PM said...: Madonna's followers are interested in Covid news because they're the ones most at risk.; 7/29/20, 1:48 PM
Joe Smith said...: Standard Democrat playbook.

Madonna has done OK herself though...oppressed to the tune of $850M...material girl, indeed : ); 7/29/20, 1:53 PM
Joe Smith said...: @Vance

Madonna may be weird, odd, etc., but she is no dummy.; 7/29/20, 1:55 PM
Nichevo said...: Also speaking of conspiracies...

https://breaking911.com/man-faces-federal-arson-charge-in-blaze-inside-justice-center-at-start-of-portland-protests/

PORTLAND, Ore.— Edward Thomas Schinzing, 32, has been charged by criminal complaint with using fire to maliciously damage or destroy the Justice Center in downtown Portland on May 29, 2020.

Tell us about the rabbits, George. I mean tell us about the Boogaloos and the Hell's Angels, Inga. Tell us about the right-wing, not left-wing, connections of this prize specimen.

Tell us about the evidence, Althouse. Or the lack of it, of any exploration of his background, his motivations, of any social media info on him. Not at all suspicious! The NYT is so pretty! Like you!; 7/29/20, 1:57 PM
Howard said...: Madonna can take the hit, she looks like and is as tough as a $2 steak; 7/29/20, 1:59 PM
Char Char Binks, Esq. said...: Actually, “proven” can be Clintonparsed. “Proven“ can mean “tested”, and she didn’t say proven right.; 7/29/20, 2:17 PM
Dan from Madison said...: Althouse trivia time...114 posts (by my count) on this blog with the "Madonna" tag.; 7/29/20, 2:20 PM
Craig said...: Because everything is political now, the public cannot know whether HCQ works. We can't even hear both sides of the story, unless we happen to watch a video before the thought police pull it down. So maddening!

I never thought we'd see this level of viewpoint censorship in America.; 7/29/20, 2:26 PM
I Have Misplaced My Pants said...: Madonna has a well documented 150ish IQ and is a millionaire many times over. She’s nuts, but far from dumb.; 7/29/20, 2:32 PM
gilbar said...: remember back in the olden days (last april)?
when we destroyed the economy by a two week lockdown, to FLATTEN THE CURVE?
because we didn't want to overwhelm our hospitals?
So, everyone stayed away from everyone (except their housemates, who did/or did not have it)
After 3 months, we began to end our 2 week lockdown; and people started intermingling again
Suddenly! case numbers started to go up! No one could explain WHY people that had stayed apart from each other were now in contact with each other
(it makes sense that this made no sense; a 2 week lockdown that lasted 3 months made no sense either)

There is No vaccine. Seems like, what we need to do, is just go ahead and have the NON at risk people go ahead and get it, and get it over with.
We could:
a) quarantine all the at risk people.
b) have ALL THE PRETTY GIRLS (18+) come and stay with gilbar, and cuddle and communicate
c) then the Pretty Girls, could then go back to communicating with the rest of us
d) 21 days later: problem Solved!

I KNOW it would be a burden on me; but, i'm willing to take one (and ALL) for the team; 7/29/20, 2:44 PM
JAORE said...: Madonna? Feh. What does Barbara Streisand have to say?; 7/29/20, 2:46 PM
mccullough said...: Madonna has been wealthy since 1984.

She has to be among the 10,000 wealthiest on the planet.

So what rich people were ahead of her in the Rich People Vaccine Queue?; 7/29/20, 2:52 PM
Inga said...: How surprising! I thought Madonna loved demon sperm.; 7/29/20, 3:23 PM
Gahrie said...: Madonna? Feh. What does Barbara Streisand have to say?

Streisand? I want to know what Cher thinks.; 7/29/20, 3:42 PM
Beach Brutus said...: If there is a vaccine then you do not need a cure. You only need a cure if you get and have the disease. A vaccine, if effective, is a preventative that precludes catching the disease in the first instance; ergo no cure is needed.; 7/29/20, 3:48 PM
George Leroy Tirebiter said...: Ah, Annie Lennox! Skipping inane celeb political garbage and onto music.

Twas generally meh re: Eurythmics, but absolutely loved their precursor The Tourists. Here's their best song by far (IMO of course), written by primary songsmith Peet Coombes (RIP) and only available on their rare Blind Among The Flowers EP.

The Tourists - The Glolden Lamp; 7/29/20, 4:01 PM
buwaya said...: The larger culture HAS been engineered to oppress you.

In the US especially its designed to reduce labor costs.
Its designed to inflate the power and income of the regulatory infrastructure, especially the private sector legal appendages and intermediary "compliance" consultants.
Its designed to increase cost of entry to reduce competition for market dominant corporations.
Its designed to inflate the costs of highly regulated, favored industries especially health care, education and telecoms.
Thats just to start.

Besides being engineered to force down wages while picking your pocket, its designed to shut you up, and especially to keep you from organizing.; 7/29/20, 5:17 PM
RichAndSceptical said...: This is a case of big tech pretending to be God. The doctors' (White Coat Summit) video was blocked on FB and YouTube and their hosting company said they violated terms of service and kicked them off. All because the left would rather deny people relevant information about HCQ than admit Trump was right.; 7/29/20, 5:53 PM
MadisonMan said...: I do not like twitter, facebook, Instagram, etc., being the arbiters of what is published.

Why not let people realize for themselves -- and they will, quickly -- that celebrities are dumb.; 7/29/20, 5:55 PM
Phil 314 said...: "Dr. Immanuel did not claim that there is a vaccine for coronavirus, she claimed -- correctly -- that HCQ and zinc will cure it supplied early enough. This has, in fact, been known by many practicing physicians for months now, and there has been a conspiracy to suppress that information"

References please. "Known by practicing physicians for months" is NOT evidence.; 7/29/20, 6:35 PM
Phil 314 said...: The more I hear about hydroxychloroquin the more it sounds like "true communism".

Its not that it doesn't work, its that we haven't done it right yet.; 7/29/20, 6:36 PM
MadTownGuy said...: Jupiter said...
"And BTW, I do mean that there has been a conspiracy to suppress this information. A private organization based in Chicago published a paper in the Lancet, perhaps the most prestigious medical journal in the world, claiming to have reviewed clinical data from hundreds of hospitals worldwide showing that HCQ is not effective against COVID. Other researchers questioned how such a small organization could possibly have received data from so many hospitals, and Lancet retracted the paper."

Not only that; Surgisphere, the company behind the retracted hydroxychloroquine study, is no more.

"It is not clear what motivated this hoax, but it was elaborate and effective. Someone devoted a lot of time and effort to preventing the spread of life-saving information."

I think it was a lot of someones. Kind of like the Democratic governors who insisted early on to curtail the use of hydroxychloroquine (pdf download). It's as if they wanted people to die.; 7/29/20, 6:37 PM
Jupiter said...: "My opinion is that I don't watch inane videos."

The video is not inane. You should watch it.; 7/29/20, 7:29 PM
Darkisland said...: It's really all about the money. Lots and lots and lots of it.

Several companies are developing vaccines. I think I read that there are 130 or so different vaccines in development at the moment. At least two are have gone into or are about to go into (in days) the final phase of human testing before general release.

Pfizer is already well on their way to producing 200 million or so doses on the speculation it will be approved.

Astra-Zeneca is producing something like 2 billion doses, again on speculation that it will be approved.

We are probably talking about tens of billions of dollars invested in these two vaccines alone.

Because of the money involved and because of the inventory build up, I'd be willing to bet that even if it has significant side effects and even if it is not very effective, it will be approved anyway. That's one of the reasons we need to keep the hullaballoo going until they can clear out the inventory. As soon as they do, govt et al will declare VICTORY!!! over kung flu and we'll all forget about it. Nobody will ever mention that the victory had already occurred in June or earlier.

Someone mentioned that if we have a vaccine, we don't need a cure. More or less right though only to the degree the vaccine is effective.

The corollary to that is that if we have a cure, we don't need a vaccine. (Same caveat)

What would happen if the American public realizes that Kung Flu is no longer a danger (assume it is not, for the moment) It is going to be very hard to peddle those vaccines. Why should I take a new, unproven, rushed through approval, vaccine to prevent a disease that is no danger. I would not. I don't even get flu shots. Nor do most Americans. I suspect that it will also be expensive. I would not be surprised if it is in the $100-200 range per person.

Let's assume that HQL, plus zinc and azithromyicin is a cure or even a prophylactic against Kung Flu if taken early. Yeah, it may or may not be but play along.

Here we have a drug that has been proven safe with few side effects in over 50 years of tens of millions of doses per day. Caveat about certain heart conditions but it is safe for most people. We don't have to take anyone's word for it, experience has proven it safe.

And it is cheap. The entire recommended course is about $10 per person.

If it were effective as claimed, nobody would want the billions of vaccine doses. We'd simply lay in a stock of HQL and take our chances. In the unlikely event we got kung flu, at the first sniffle and might suffer a day or two of a mild cold.

Then what happens to the tens of billions invested in the vaccine. It would basically be flushed down the shitter.

This is why there is such a hullabaloo about HQL. We just can't let the rubes think it might work. If it does work, we can't let them find out. That's why videos are banned. People talking about it are banned. OMB rigiculed for taking it. Bolsonaro ridiculed, though, since he came through pretty much the way HQL supporters expected, we don't hear much about this cure.

Govt should make the HQL cocktail available over the counter. Or perhaps allow pharmacists to prescribe it so they could ask about the heart conditions. If it doesn't help prevent or cure kung flu, there has been no harm other than individuals being out of pocket. If it does work, we'll have saved thousands of lives.

Sounds like all upside, little downside to me.

Other than costing the taxpayer billions for the vaccines being produced on spec.

John Henry; 7/29/20, 7:50 PM
Darkisland said...: In other news abut HQL, President Trump and Kodak announced today that the federal govt will be loaning them $750mm to bring pharmaceutical manufacturing back to the US. One of the products they will be making in Rochester NY and St Paul MN is hydroxycloraquine.

Although several news articles just say "for the company to produce pharmaceutical ingredients to help fight the coronavirus pandemic." That's US News. Others say similar but some say that the ingredient is HQL.

This is being done under the Defense Production Act

John Henry; 7/29/20, 7:58 PM
DEEBEE said...: But one could plausibly state the conspiracy theory against HCQ. A drug, presumably used eatly in the infection might decrease the need for a vaccine. HCQ of course is too cheap to make anyone rich.; 7/30/20, 5:09 PM