108 Comments

ICYMI The counter argument to Dr Palmer's stack here > "Some responses to Bhakdi & Palmer's recent "yes, viruses exist" claims" - Christine Massey FOIs - Jun 06, 2024

https://christinemasseyfois.substack.com/p/some-responses-to-bhakdi-and-palmers

[clip} Massey says: "On May 18, 2024 Michael Palmer, MD and Sucharit Bhakdi, MD published an article titled “Do viruses exist?”. In it, they framed the growing realization that virology is pseudoscience and that no virus has ever been shown to exist as “radical skepticism bordering on nihilism”.

"Despite 3000+ words and 18 references, they failed to cite valid scientific evidence for even 1 alleged virus (because there is none to cite).

Dr. Tom Cowan has addressed their article at length in his May 29, 2024 webinar, below.

I responded to their article with a private email on May 27, 2024 that has had no response or acknowledgement and that I am now making public. And Drs. Sam and Mark Bailey made some comments about this article in their May 31, 2024 Q & A for paid subscribers. "

Think everyone will be super interested in this excellent interview with Dr Lee Merrit MD re: "viruses":

> Stew Peters Show - Interview w/ Dr Lee Merrit MD - Most Vaccine Pushing Doctors & Scientists Know Viruses Don't Exist & Vaccines Are Actual Poison! - 1 year ago

https://www.bitchute.com/video/D73qGbAskBTb

Dr Merrit provides a ^ convincing argument imo. ICYMI >C19 is a "CGI" fear-mongering medical hoax.

Evidence that viruses have not been shown to exist based on Christine Massey's extensive FOI requests.

> Collecting FOIs re never-isolated/sequenced/characterized (or studied with controlled experiments) imaginary "viruses" https://tinyurl.com/novirusisolated

Read more on FOIS etc here: Christine Massey FOI substack - https://christinemasseyfois.substack.com/

Let the scientific evidence & facts speak for themselves because "real science" is always contentious. ;-)

Expand full comment

"The great scientists of the 19thcentury were very often hobbyists who were indulging their own whims and passions. They thus were independent from external interests, particularly from financial ones."

This seems an apt description of Antoine Bechamp, but DEFINITELY NOT of Koch or Pasteur.

See Money and Microbes: Robert Koch, Tubercullin and the Foundation of the Institute for Infectious Diseases in Berlin in 1891

Expand full comment
author

This came AFTER Koch's key discoveries, and in recognition of them. Also this was not a statement about Koch specifically, but about science then vs. now in general. And Koch's institute was not financed by commercial interests.

Expand full comment

No not commercial interests but "national" interests. In a letter to the Ministry of Culture Koch made a claim that they would make a boatload of money on his tuberculin cure. He stated his requirements. He tried to wedge his position. But when tuberculin flopped he lost leverage.

Koch may have been more honest earlier on, I don't know. But by this stage he was in it for the fame and prestige. And for money.

Expand full comment

"It therefore is remarkable that Koch’s discoveries were recognized and accepted within a fairly short period of time."

The Prussian Ministy of Culture supported him and gave him his own national institute to compete with the Pasteur Institute of France, though the disaster of Koch's treatment for tuberculosis was a national embarrassment.

Expand full comment

1200+ SIDE EFFECTS OF THE COV-2 VAXX, AS RELEASED IN COURT - 45 OF WHICH ARE DEATH (SUDDEN DEATH) - 40 ARE CANCER: https://vaccinadead.com/pfizer-vaccine-side-effects/

FIELD THEORY, THE COMMON COLD AND PANDEMICS (THERE IS NO VIRUS)

We get seasonal influenza when our cells build up toxins; ingest/inject. We cyclically purge toxins from our body to bring the electromagnetic frequency (EMF) of our cells into balance with the changing EMF in our environment.

THE CATALYSTS

1) Seasonal Earth Tilt

Earth's axis-tilt changes the angular momentum of its electromagnetic field, which, via inductance, re-calibrates our weaker, cellular EMF. All magnetic fields are torroidal in nature. All cells have a weak electrical charge. The Earth has a magnetic field, which, via inductance, shapes the magnetic field of our cells, such as a strong magnet warps/re-aligns the field of a weaker magnet. Field Theory is not just hypothesis. Earth Seasonal EMF = Flu (No Virus): https://talknet.substack.com/p/earth-seasonal-emf-flu-no-virus-from

2) New EMF Tech

New, wide-spread EMF tech precedes all "pandemics"; an undeniable fact, which includes the COV-2 “pandemic” that started when Wuhan launched/activated the first city-wide 5G towers in China. When environmental electromagnetic frequencies/polarity change, it causes, via inductance, the body to re-calibrate EMF/polarity on a molecular level, which triggers a natural detox process/cycle that brings cellular EMF of our cells into homeostasis with our environment. Spanish Flu, SARS, COVID-19 Followed the Same Pattern/Expansion as Radio, 3G, 5G https://talknet.substack.com/p/spanish-flu-sars-covid-19-followed

PANDEMICS CAUSED BY EMF INDUCTION

• 1918: Spanish Flu - The flu Exploded with the distribution of WW1 radio comm / Ten million Bell phones in service across US by 1918.

• 1957: Asian Flu - Hong Kong television began May 1957

• 2003: SARS - From 2002-2003, 3G networks launched globally

• 2019: COVID-19 - Wuhan activated 1,580 5G towers mid-October, 2019. 5G deployed worldwide 2019.

3) Injected/Ingested Toxins

• Vaxx to Kill/Disable Billions Over 10-15 Years (As of 2020): https://talknet.substack.com/p/vaxx-to-killdisable-billions-over

• Vaccines are Catalysts for all Autoimmune Diseases: https://talknet.substack.com/p/vaccines-cause-autoimmune-diseases

BIG INSIGHT

• Vaxxed Biology Programmable via DNA Nanoantennas, Graphine, Luciferase, 5G. It Controls Gene Expression, Cell Signaling and Cellular Processes: https://talknet.substack.com/p/cov-2-vaxxed-biology-programmable

REAL DEATH STATS

• Close to 600 Million dead and injured and then this came out: https://lionessofjudah.substack.com/p/dr-james-thorp-585-million-global?publication_id=581065

Real sudden death numbers (stats): Global shipments of smart phones down 4% annually since 2020 (hundreds of millions), huge drop in telecom + movie streaming subscribers. With openvaers.com stats factored in, we get 600 million dead and injured. Factor in declining birth rate (vaxx induced), we get 2.8% annual loss of global population that adds up to billions in the next 5-10 years. Death in correction facilities are up 56% since 2019.

180 vaxxed Canadians doctors have died SUDDENLY - https://www.europereloaded.com/180-canadians-doctors-have-died-suddenly/

Expand full comment

Michael Palmer: "Figure 1 shows how, immediately after Koch’s discovery of the tubercle bacillus [1882], mortality due to tuberculosis went into a steep and sustained decline. Most likely, both hygiene and improvements to nutrition and general health contributed to this change for the better."

In 1889, Robert Koch stated: "Attempts have been made repeatedly to prove the contagious nature of tuberculosis, but they must be looked upon as failures, as such views have never found acceptance among scientists ... on the whole physicians consider tuberculosis a non-contagious disease"

https://archive.org/details/sim_american-veterinary-medical-association-journal_1889-05_13_2/page/54/mode/2up

Michael Palmer: "Hygiene and surveillance and improvements to sanitation made it possible to prevent outbreaks of enteric diseases such as cholera."

Truth: "Public health policy had been riven since the 1840s with divisions between so-called contagionist and anticontagionists. The former group maintained that the prevention and control of epidemic diseases should be based on the use of quarantines and cordon sanitaires. The latter group, as the form of the word suggests, was primarily defined by its opposition to contagion and, above all, opposition to the use of quarantines and isolation to control epidemics. However, anticontagionists had their own programme of prevention and control, which relied on environmental improvements ... The experience of cholera played a pivotal role in shaping public disease theories and control policies in the 1850s and 1860s. After the epidemic of 1848-49, the standing of anticontagionism rose due to the repeated failure of quarantines to halt the spread of the disease between countries and within them. The cholera poison had passed through quarantine barriers, and often appeared de novo in suitable conditions behind them. In the 1850s, a number of human as well as animal diseases were fashioned by medical and sanitary authorities to be noncontagious, and hence best prevented by general environmental and sanitary reforms rather than waiting for threats and instituting quarantines ... Anticontagionists saw themselves as proactive, 'inclusive' and truly preventive, while contagionists were reactive, 'exclusive' and often only offered control of established epidemics. The imperative for anticontagionists was to prevent epidemics at their source by eliminating the conditions in which poisons arose and which facilitated their elaboration and spread."

https://archive.org/details/spreadinggermsdi0000worb

Expand full comment

Aldhissla - Yep. Recommend Frances Leader's substack if you don't know about it or follow it.

See: "WHAT DOES 1920 HAVE IN COMMON WITH 2020?" - Frances Leader - Mar 21 [2024]

Re: radio/microwaves/EMF/5G etc. "Strategy....that is what. A dirty dastardly sinister STRATEGY."

https://francesleader.substack.com/p/what-does-1920-have-in-common-with

[clip] Leader writes: "There is a strategy afoot which was used during the Spanish Flu epidemic. In 1918 the US army erected high powered radio transmitters near their barracks in Kansas. The soldiers were immediately struck down with catastrophic and unexplained illness.

They knew why.

It was the radio-waves.

So Rockefeller and his institute immediately prepared a vaccine cocktail full of all sorts of poison and began giving that to all the military men before they were deployed to Europe. Everywhere the US military went, the general public were warned of the strange illness and were offered this new vaccine. People were masked. Health facilities became overrun with war casualties and those who were sick from the radio-waves AND those who were reacting to the toxic vaccines.

The symptoms were so varied that nobody could work out what to do. One thing stuck out.... no efforts to infect the uninfected succeeded. None. Even the horses were sick but did not infect each other. They put snot up noses.... and failed to infect people and horses.

It was a clusterfuck.

But it was a very successful clusterfuck.

It killed far more people that the wars!

There is NO DOUBT in my mind that the telecoms corporations knew that introducing 5G was going to cause dramatic health reactions and sure enough, as soon as Wuhan was switched on for the UN Military Games in Oct 2019, people were going down like flies. Hospitals had 5G antennae on the roofs. Major venues, shopping centres and municipal buildings were all fitted with 5G first. Elderly residencies especially.

The progress of the illness followed the roll out of 5G both chronologically and geographically until the vaccine was finally approved to be given to the public in December of 2020.

By dispersing the vaccine to the most vulnerable elderly first, the waters were forever muddied in exactly the same way that they had been in 1920!

People began to get sick even if 5G had not been set up in their area. They didn't die from the same symptoms. They died of intubation and poor protocols, plus starvation and fluid deprivation + too much morphine and Midazolam (in the UK) - other drugs did the job in other countries.

The intention is to murder multiple billions and the root cause is 5G EMFs being covered up by vaccines - NOT WORKING IN TANDEM.

Most of the vaccines were probably duds.... saline.... but if people got them and subsequently died, nobody would suspect the 5G towers looming everywhere, they would (as they DO) blame the vaccines and let telecoms continue to get on with the job of murdering everyone."

(Good, additional informed comments to this posted Leader stack above also.)

Expand full comment
author

There is a world of difference between surveillance and sanitation measures one can carry implement when the pathogen is known, as opposed to when it is not known, and the mode of disease causation and transmission remains elusive.

The book "Invincible Microbe" tells the story of surveillance measures instituted in the US in the years after Koch's discovery. You can find it at

https://archive.org/details/invinciblemicrob0000murp_t6r6

I find it likely that they contributed to the continued decline of tuberculosis morbidity and mortaliy, although it is likely the improved supply of fresh food due to better transportation etc. also played an important role.

As to the contagiousness of tuberculosis -- not everyone who is exposed gets infected, not everyone who is infected gets sick, and most of those who get sick will take a long time to do so, often after a long period of latent infection and triggered by some change in general health. Thus, it is not surprising that transmission of the manifest disease is difficult to demonstrate. However, infection as such can be detected a lot more often using the tuberculin skin test, which has been widely used for mass surveillance in the past.

Expand full comment

Cholera:

"Dr. Robert Koch has sought to explain the cause of certain diseases upon the hypothesis of the action of pathogenic germs, invisible to the human eye ... But this comma-shaped bacillus theory of cholera has proved a failure. These invisible comma-shaped germs are now found to be universal and harmless. They are found in the secretions of the mouth and throat of healthy persons, and in the common diarrheas of summer everywhere—they swarm in the intestines of the healthy and are observed in hardened fecal discharges as well. Dr. Koch to-day asserts that these bacilli are universally present. He even tells us that: "Water from whatever source frequently, not to say invariably, contains comma-shaped organisms."

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/453342

---

"On the whole physicians consider tuberculosis a non-contagious disease."

- Rober Koch, 1889. https://archive.org/details/sim_american-veterinary-medical-association-journal_1889-05_13_2/page/54/mode/2up

---

"Baumgarten, to whom belongs the credit of being a co-discoverer of the bacillus tuberculosis, and who implicitly believes that this organism is the causative agent of tuberculosis says that he never knew of a single well-established case of tuberculosis which was acquired through respiring an atmosphere vitiated by the exhalation of people with tuberculosis."

https://archive.org/details/101719214.nlm.nih.gov/page/8/mode/2up

---

"When direct statistical evidence, such as that submitted in this paper, shows that among one thousand six hundred and twentysix married persons, where consumption existed either in the wife or in the husband, only the same disease occurred in the other partner in only forty-four instances, the certainty of non-contagiousness is placed beyond the shadow of a doubt. Here we have the picture of more than 1,600 people who were subjected to a much closer intimacy than that which obtains in any other condition of social life, occupying for years the same bed at night and the same room by day, and yet only forty-four or 2.73 per cent. of the consorting partners became fellow-sufferers. Truly, if consumption is contagious, it can only be so in a very slight degree. But can the source of these forty-four cases be traced to infection?"

https://archive.org/details/sim_medical-and-surgical-reporter_1890-06-14_62_24/page/690/mode/2up

---

For more on Koch's failures have a look at these articles:

Koch's Cholera Catastrophe https://mikestone.substack.com/p/kochs-cholera-catastrophe

The Germ Hypothesis Part 2

https://mikestone.substack.com/p/the-germ-hypothesis-part-2

Expand full comment
author

But Koch himself did NOT consider tuberculosis a non-contagious disease.

Re cholera: Vibrio cholerae is not part of the regular oral flora, nor of the gut flora. And it is now known that the profuse diarrhea that is characterisic of cholera is caused by a protein toxin, which is formed by many, but not all strains of V. cholerae; so even the detection of V. cholerae in some patient sample does not prove that this patient is at risk of suffering cholera.

Here is a trial with human volunteers that imbibed V. cholerae cultures:

Hornick, R.B. et al. (1971) The Broad Street pump revisited: response of volunteers to ingested cholera vibrios. Bull. N. Y. Acad. Med. 47:1181-91 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=5286453

Many, but not all developed diarrhea, and some developed outright cholera.

Tuberculosis typically has a very long incubation time, so the occasion of the transmission in an individual case will as a rule be impossible to trace.

It is best to think of transmission of infectious agents as a necessary, but not sufficient cause of infectious disease. Then most observations fall into place.

Expand full comment

Did you read the other citation? 1,600 people were subjected to a close intimacy for years, and yet only 2.73% of the consorting partners became afflicted with tuberculosis.

Do you know why Robert Koch considered tuberculosis a contagious disease? Because of his uncontrolled inoculated experiments. However, numerous researchers have induced tuberculosis simply by injecting various innocous and inert substances, demonstrating that the experimental procedure itself created the disease.

"Take away the inoculation experiments on animals and you destroy the corner-stone on which those who believe in the communication of tuberculosis from man to man repose their belief."

— Dr. Thomas J. Mays, 1890.

https://aldhissla.substack.com/p/refuting-the-infectious-etiology

Expand full comment
author

Those 2.73% became sick. How many became infected but stayed clinically healthy?

The histopathological signs of tuberculosis are indeed similar to those for example of sarcoidosis, for which no causative microorganism is known -- and also for example to the tissue lesions in miner's lung or asbestosis, which is caused by inhalation of mineral dust particles. But that doesn't mean these are the same diseases as tuberculosis. Surely you are aware of the general idea that different diseases can manifest in similar ways.

Expand full comment

Doesn't this idea of assymptomatic carriers totally invalidate Koch's original postulates which were logical and sound and which he later modified and watered down such that they prove nothing. I must agree about the petitio principii

Expand full comment
author

Yes, the idea of asymptomatic carriers does conflict with Koch's original postulates.

The rest of your statement does not even rate as sophomoric.

Expand full comment
Jun 29·edited Jun 29

Dr Palmer, TY for outlining your objections to no virus theory - which is actually NOT a theory, but an extensive investigation into the tenets of "virus theory" (as utilized by the field of virology) itself.

Torsten Engelbrecht's arguments & evidence against viruses that you argue against here & in your other article is explored more fully in his writings & his book's thorough & comprehensive analysis. In case others are interested, Torsten's website is here: https://www.torstenengelbrecht.com/en/home/

p.s. Torsten's website is perfectly safe, however many popular search engines - google? - may block it or use a pop-up to say that it's "unsafe" & then not link to it - which is definitely online censorship.)

Also, pls read his block-buster book: "Virus Mania"-(Now available: The 3rd greatly expanded edition)

subtitled -" -Corona/COVID-19, Measles, Swine Flu, Avian Flu, Cervical Cancer, SARS, BSE, Hepatitis C, AIDS, Polio, Spanish Flu - How the Medical Industry Continually Invents Epidemics, Making Billion-Dollar Profits at Our Expense" - https://www.torstenengelbrecht.com/en/virus-mania/

Plus: ☆ Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about vaccines, fraud and harm

With Forewords by

☆ Etienne de Harven, MD, pioneer in virology

☆ Joachim Mutter, MD, expert in preventive medicine

Re: "Virus Mania" - "The aim of this book is to steer the discussion back to a real scientific debate and put medicine back on the path of an impartial analysis of the facts. Engelbrecht, Köhnlein, Bailey and Scoglio will analyze all real causes of the illnesses named COVID-19, avian flu, AIDS or Spanish flu, among them pharmaceuticals, lifestyle drugs, pesticides, heavy metals, pollution, malnutrition and stress. All of these can heavily damage the body of humans and animals and even kill them."

"To substantiate these claims, the authors cite dozens of highly renowned scientists, among them the Nobel laureates Kary Mullis, Barbara McClintock, Walter Gilbert and Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet as well as microbiologist and Pulitzer Prize winner René Dubos. The book presents more than 1,400 solid scientific references."

Urge everyone to read this book & fully consider Engelbrecht's historical evidence as compared to "virus" defenders. You must read Torsten's full arguments & then decide the "virus vs no virus" for yourself.

Reviews:

"The book 'Virus Mania' is masterfully written."

Wolfgang Weuffen, MD, Professor of Microbiology and Infectious Epidemiology

"'Virus Mania' will open your eyes. As soon as you realize that you have already been deliberately manipulated by politics and the media for decades with recurring misinformation, the foundation is laid to break free from the current COVID mass psychosis."

Prof. Dr. Klaus Steger, molecular biologist with more than 25 years of experience in PCR and co-author of the Corman-Drosten Review

For me, the evidence & facts marshaled by the critics of germ theory & virology are simply irrefutable.

Expand full comment
author

First off, I have the book "virus mania." I find it worthwhile to give all those specific "pandemics" a good hard look, and I agree on the general idea that virology is being hijacked and abused for nefarious purposes. But on the fundamental questions of germ theory and the existence of viruses Engelbrecht is very much mistaken. He often misrepresents (and apparently misunderstands) the meaning of the scientific references he cites.

Klaus Steger happens to be a friend of mine. I agree with him on COVID, which is a prime example of the abuse of virology, but not the only one. But on the other hand, we both agree that this virus (as well as others) exist and can cause disease.

Expand full comment

Okay. My sharing this info was primarily for your readers here as I figured that you had also read Engelbrecht's Virus Mania book (with its 1,400 citations!). Thnx for responding.

This no virus issue just seems so clear to me since claiming that something invisible can be proven to exist by putting a mixture of human cells into a reactive cell culture w/other toxic elements like kidney monkey cells & THEN just saying whatever cell culture reaction occurs can only due to a "virus" (& not those reactive ingredients added to the mix & causing the reaction) seems illogical, flawed scientific reasoning & just plain dumb.

But then, I really didn't need to be convinced that the field of virology lies thru its teeth as I had already read so many articles/exposes/books of the medical profession's tricks & deceptions that I was already doubtful of anything that trad medicine tells us is factual.

There are many history of medicine books I could cite here right now showing the absolute perfidy of Big Med etc. but I'm tired & can't do it now. Later, perhaps.

Expand full comment

.

Even Pavlov’s Dog

Would Have Figured Out This Charade

And Turned On Its Owner.

Now The Salient Question Is:

How Many Vicious Bites

Would It Take The Doctor

To Turn On Its Owner ?

Expand full comment

Thank you for this exceptional article.

Expand full comment

'Has the SARS-CoV-2 virus ever been isolated?' You say it has but was it a virus or synthetic DNA ie a clone? And it it was a clone, is it possible to pass that on to another person? Just asking in the spirit that this was a false pandemic and much trickery was used on the general population that needs to be exposed.

Expand full comment

To our knowlege, no attempts to truly isolate any virus were made; even though some of the "scientific" papers mention "isolation", the description in the Methods Section of such papers never describes isolation as you or I would understand that word. Nothing of the kind.

The alleged "spike protein" in "mRNA vaccines" is claimed to be a synthetic mRNA sequence. The sequence is an in silico (computer) sequence with no relation to any natural protein. The sequences are all computer generated.

Expand full comment
author

The virus has been isolated from cell cultures that were inoculated with patient samples many times. That is standard practice in virology, and I see nothing wrong with it. The idea that "viruses are exosomes" is untenable and easily refuted.

Expand full comment

"The continued decline in tuberculosis mortality in those years was most likely due to the continued surveillance measures". What were the surveillance measures?

Expand full comment

Good question. Robert Koch's "magic bullet" he named Tuberculin was an embarrasing disaster, just like Pasteur's "anthrax vaccine". There is certainly plenty of reason to question such claims crediting Koch with the decline of tuberculosis.

Expand full comment
author

Tuberculin was a disaster in terms of therapy, but it was a success in terms of diagnostics. The tuberculin skin test was widely used as a screening test for subclinical infection. If it was positive, people were subjected to further diagnostics by X-rays and microbiology. If someone was found to shed tubercle bacilli in the sputum, some preventive measures and contact restrictions were imposed, and his family were examined as well etc.

So both Koch's tuberculin and Koch's bacteriological methods were cornerstones of tuberculosis surveillance. Nobody gave Koch sole credit for the decline of tuberculosis, but it is baseless to deny his great contribution.

Expand full comment

After it failed as a treatment, it was used on cattle as a test (and a vaccine?):

““Guerin, Richart and Bossiera studied a large number of cattle

on a farm. On this farm in 1915 in a herd of 67 head, 47%

reacted positively to the tuberculin test. Year after year, the

positive animals were slaughtered. In 1918, 38% were still

positive to the tuberculin test. In 1920, the number of reactors

was 41.7%.

Vaccination in the newborn cattle started on Jan. 1, 1921.

In 1922, one year after the vaccination, 20 cattle gave a

definitely positive and nine a very suspicious tuberculin

reaction, or a total of 45% of 64 head. Many of these animals

were vaccinated and revaccinated. In 1923 there remained

26 of the 1919-1920 year animals, all giving a positive

tuberculin reaction.”

So the “test” resulted in extremely heavy culling of the cattle, yet the number of “positives” remained high year after year!

This is too reminiscent of what goes on nowadays. A crime, I would say.

Expand full comment
Jun 30·edited Jun 30

Yes, only too recently here in the UK there was a mass culling of healthy animals because of a test and a computer prediction. Guess who did the prediction? The same "go to" scientist who led to the world wide lockdowns for the so called human "pandemic" in 2020.

"Ferguson was behind the disputed research that sparked the mass culling of eleven million sheep and cattle during the 2001 outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease. Charlotte Reid, a farmer’s neighbor, recalls: “I remember that appalling time. Sheep were left starving in fields near us. Then came the open air slaughter. The poor animals were panic stricken. It was one of the worst things I’ve witnessed. And all based on a model — if’s but’s and maybe’s.”

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/professor-lockdown-modeler-resigns-in-disgrace/

Expand full comment
author

The vaccination also causes a positive tuberculin test -- you can't distinguish that from the natural infection.

Cattle are slaughtered all the time. Some do consider this a crime.

Expand full comment

But in this record, which begins in 1915, vaccination of newborns did not begin until 1921

Expand full comment
author

OK. Still, these data aren't very meaningful. Must have been an attempt to eradicate cattle tuberculosis, and it probably isn't easy to obtain sputum samples from cows or to X-ray them, so they just used the tuberculin test instead.

In humans, a positive tuberculin test is taken as evidence of either natural infection or vaccine-induced immunity. It was only used for screening; a positive test was followed by more definitive diagnostics (X-ray, bacteriology).

Vaccine-induced immunity is at best relative BTW, the vaccine never was considered very effective.

Expand full comment
Jun 8Liked by Michael Palmer, MD

I have questions:

You wrote:

“While direct isolation is often used in the initial characterization of a novel virus, the use cell cultures greatly facilitates the sensitive and speedy routine detection of viruses that are already known.”

Can you define exactly what you mean by ‘direct isolation’? Are you able to show an example of when an actual isolation (purification) procedure was done in order to first identify a particular ‘viral particle’ in order to then allow virologists to use the more expedient ‘cell culture’ method?

Expand full comment

I'm curious about the pure isolated sample, as well. Surely, the samples were taken from living tissue and did not have anything added to it, including the chemicals used in electron microscopy, otherwise it isn't “pure” and “isolated”.

Expand full comment

I have yet to see a single example of when a pure isolated sample has been obtained in virology. Either directly from a sample taken from living tissue or even after the cell culture procedure, which it is claimed is needed in order to culture enough of these alleged 'viral particles' for further experimentation. My understanding is that EM would be impossible without the use of chemicals during the process (which is an issue in itself), nevertheless it should still be possible to produce EM photographs of purified 'virus' particles if they actually exist, because this has been done with other similar sized particles, e.g. bacteriophages.

Expand full comment
author

With "direct isolation" I mean the purification of viral particles from the tissues or body fluids of infected humans or animals. One example is discussed in the article, namely the study by Theil et al. In this case, the virus particles were purified from the intestinal contents of the pigs. They were characterized by electron microscopy, and also directly by RNA electrophoresis. Moreover, they were shown to be infectious for other pigs.

Examples of human viruses that initially were obtained in this manner are rotaviruses, norovirus, and hepatitis A virus, all of which were initially obtained from stool samples, and hepatitis B, the particles of which were first demonstrated in blood samples by David Dane (hence their name "Dane particles").

Expand full comment

Respectfully, have you looked at Christine Massey's long list of FOIAs made by herself and others. The answer from the world's leading health institutions for all these viruses about whether they have papers showing the virus directly isolated from patient samples always come back "We were unable to find any documents pertaining to your request."

Expand full comment
author

I have addressed these questions in my follow-up post: https://michaelpalmer.substack.com/p/the-fallacies-of-the-no-virus-doctrine

Expand full comment

I’ve downloaded this paper and I’ve read through the methods section and I cannot see anything remotely like an attempt to purify any particles.

Please can you show me exactly where in the paper the authors describe how they purified ‘viral particles’ and how they then proved that these particles and only these particles caused the same disease symptoms they observed in the original animal.

Expand full comment
author

Please see my answer to Christine below.

Expand full comment

In your answer to Christine below you wrote: "Of course this is not a highly pure preparation --- just pure enough for the kinds of experiments that were carried out"

However, this contradicts your answer to my first question where you claim "the virus particles were purified from the intestinal contents of the pigs” . Therefore the only logical conclusion is that it cannot possibly have been proven that any unique and identifiable particles were the cause of the observed disease symptoms in the first animal.

My first question concerned the fact that you are claiming the ‘cell culture’ method is valid because ‘viral particles’ have already been ‘directly isolated’. However, you are now confirming that no actual isolation (purification) has taken place in the study you have cited.

Then you state: “That is precisely the reason for using cell cultures, because those produce much higher particle densities, and therefore permit more rigorous purification.”

If that is the case, then please show an example of when the ‘cell culture’ method was used and this was then followed by ‘rigorous purification’ in order to isolate ‘viral particles’ in order to prove that these particles and these alone were the cause of an observed disease.

Expand full comment
author

The cited study achieved partial purification by filtration. The filtration in particular would have removed bacteria, which might be an alternate cause of infection. The persistence of infectiousness after removal of bacteria by filtration was the crucial observation that first tipped off people to the existence of viruses, and there are many such studies. I picked this particular one because it not only demonstrated the infectiousness of the bacteria-free filtrate, but the viral particles were also observed by EM, and the genomic RNA molecules contained in those particles were characterized by electrophoresis. Realistically, this is about all you can hope to achieve when working with material obtained directly from diseased animals (or humans).

You write "Therefore the only logical conclusion is that it cannot possibly have been proven that any unique and identifiable particles were the cause of the observed disease symptoms in the first animal."

Rotaviruses and their relatives are known causes of acute diarrhea, which was also observed in this case. But indeed, we can't entirely rule out the possibility that some residual contaminant -- such as another virus -- was the true cause of disease. This is another excellent reason to work with cell cultures, which unlike samples such as intestinal contents make it possible to isolate the offspring of single viral particles. They indeed make rigorous isolation and purification of viruses much more practical, which is one of the reasons why they are used whenever possible.

Experimental infections using virus preparations from cell cultures have been carried out numerous times (though I'm not aware of studies on the particular virus described in the study cited here). I will address this in a future article.

Expand full comment
Jun 9·edited Jun 9

Your answers are a litany of unproven assumptions. Until I am shown evidence of actual Science taking place within virology, I have no choice but to logically conclude that virologists have observed various particles of unknown origin by way of electron microscopy and have made up increasingly elaborate stories about them.

Question: If, as you claim, virologists work with cell cultures “because those produce much higher particle densities, and therefore permit more rigorous purification.” Where are all the electron microscopy photos showing many thousands or even hundreds of identical particles?

Expand full comment
RemovedJun 8
Comment removed
Expand full comment
RemovedJun 8
Comment removed
Expand full comment
author

The virus particles were partially purified by filtration. More rigorous methods of purification such as chromatography or crystallization are realistic only if the starting material has a higher content of the substance of interest.

Expand full comment
RemovedJun 8
Comment removed
Expand full comment
author

The article describes the inoculation of pigs with the filtrate of the intestinal contents of previously infected pigs: "The inoculum was a bacteria-free filtrate of a 1:10 dilution (prepared in minimum essential medium) of the intestinal contents from gnotobiotic pig passage 4 of the RVLV."

The same material was also examined by electron microscopy, which detected viral particles, as well as by RNA electrophoresis, which detected the genomic RNA of the virus particles.

Of course this is not a highly pure preparation --- just pure enough for the kinds of experiments that were carried out. It is very difficult to achieve high purity if the concentration of particles in the sample is very low. That is precisely the reason for using cell cultures, because those produce much higher particle densities, and therefore permit more rigorous purification.

Expand full comment
RemovedJun 8·edited Jun 8
Comment removed
Expand full comment
author

There is no contradiction here.

Many viruses have been shown to occur in hosts. They do occur in "zillions" of copies, but nevertheless the amount of viral material per amount of tissue sample or body fluid is low, which makes complete purification difficult. Cell cultures achieve a much higher ratio of viral to other material and therefore are the preferred source of viral material for experimental purposes.

I will address these points in a future post. For now, I will stop replying.

Expand full comment

If you do no understand petitio principii, you should maybe refrain from writing an article that is about 9 months pregnant with it. The best way to understand the no-virus theory is people like you writing these fallacious articles time and time again.

Expand full comment

Nope

Expand full comment

All that and you still can't identify your begging the question circular reasoning, as I explain here:

https://fullbroadside.substack.com/p/virologys-fatal-flaw

Expand full comment

Drs. Palmer and Bakhdi need to take a weekend to read every article on Mike Stone's Substack, ViroLIEgy. He has actually read the papers, and done the deep dive into the history of "germ theory," that show these two doctors to be wrong on almost every count in this article.

Expand full comment
author

Please don't presume to assign homework. If you have some objections, please state them in your own words, right here.

Expand full comment

NO “virus” has been proven to exist.

Ever.

I rest my case😎

Expand full comment
author

Thank you for stating your ignorance so succinctly.

Expand full comment

Okay. I’ll say it one more time:

NO "virus" has ever been proven to exist.

- But I'm happy to wait for you Dr. Palmer to solve Big Pharma's smal scientific problem.

I’m not holding my breath though…😎

Expand full comment