As the pandemic runs its course with its pretty awful consequences currently hitting China the hardest, (I’ll come to that later) anti science seems just too easy to find on the internet. Frustrated by global circumnavigation, those with flat earth tendencies have shifted their thinking to virology, now claiming that viruses don’t even exist. The Naked Scientist (Yes really!) opines:
“..most if not all sicknesses and diseases are the consequence of personal choices that leads to the over-acidification of the interstitial fluids”.
Like so many of these terrible websites, they provide opportunities for you to waste lots of money with products which purport to do what your own wonderful kidneys do so well. And of course provide the usual scapegoat…..
“The conception of the virus is just a money making scam which provides pharmaceutical companies with the opportunity to make billions of dollars from gullible people who will buy chemical concoctions which supposedly kill said ‘viruses’ “.
Pity the poor sod responsible for this gem in the comments: “How do [viruses] attack? They have no eyes, legs, arms, ears, nose or brain to think out a strategy”. Wow! I don’t suppose they the wherewithal to go out to buy a gun either! What else might this poor sod think?A “PhD scientist” goes on…“the whole thing was a hoax to force people to take vaccines as part of a TRANSHUMANIST AGENDA!” The publication refers to naturopathy, a speciality that has on occasion advised patients to forego cancer treatment in favour of so called alternative remedies. In other words, kills people.
They claim the pandemic’s victims are due to defects in the resistance of the body which so weakened by choices, pollution and external factors that it generates its own viral infections, levering the “Terrain Theory” to absurd levels.I sometimes think of how to debunk this sort of stuff in one paragraph.
The one that leaps to mind is the devastation of the Americas when newly introduced bacteria and viruses from Europe reduced the population of that continent by an estimated 90%, about 100,000,000 people, with chicken pox and measles vastly exceeding deaths from savage violence. Despite early reports from the first invaders on the incredible health and vitality of the population, which suggested an excellent internal “Terrain” they were devastated by infections imported from Europe. The Terrain Theory goes ‘pop’.
This is all very amusing, apart from the fact that 64,000 have viewed the post, not counting tweets and shares on many other platforms. Hopefully, like me, 63,999 will see it as a hilarious level of fanciful thinking, but some will be believing and sharing this nonsense and so experiencing a sort of ‘reverse education event’. There are others, a nutty, yet famous media doctor (former – she has been struck off) ) who believes that the Rabies virus doesn’t exist. She has a You Tube following (victims) of over 300,000. How much science education has this single person undone?
I hope that answers the question “Do viruses exist”? This has not been seriously asked since viruses were discovered as infections agents that could pass through porcelain filters impermeable to the smallest bacteria, and readily shown to transmit infection from one cell or organism to another. The world is not flat and yes, viruses do exist.
Sorry, you have been duped by your schooling. God didn’t create any harmful contagious particles. https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vT14y9fEKOEZzlVls7uNbA0g1lRfOtMtqbxhpEe7kjVE8fMkMeACP1nugoV-c_ZkI5LVJlJyxGbthWC/pub
Orellana’s account
https://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra-visor/descubrimiento-del-rio-de-las-amazonas–0/html/0039c0ae-82b2-11df-acc7-002185ce6064_7.html
Thanks Owen, the history of the invasion (discovery as we call it in Plymouth) is not well know and utterly horrific. The “American Holocaust” is not a read for those with delicate stomachs. As you say, the destruction of the Amazon forest is revealing much about what went before. Grim stuff.
Viruses
Do they move? No
Do they breathe? No
Are they sensitive? No
Do they grow? No
Do the reproduce? Yes but only through other organisms.
Do they eat? No
Do they excrete? No
Do you call that an existence?
On a more serious note you mention the American plagues that followed the Spanish “discovery”. They may well have been more devastating than the 90% previously thought. We have accounts from the Andes, which in themselves are horrific enough, but these were societies that had high amounts of sunshine, UV light, a rarefied atmosphere, and a relatively low population density. Today diseases do not propagate well in this environment.
The earliest account of the exploration of the Amazon was by Orellana. He reports a huge population on the banks of the river some 15 miles across, with populations greater than 100,000 . This was when the larger than almost all European cities of the times (London ~80 000).
The river was explored a second time a couple of decade later and no sign of these populations was found.
So Orellana was was confined to be history’s greatest liar. However, recently archaeological evidence supports Orellana as large areas of once cultivated land is being discovered. Indeed I have read the original account-it is somewhere on the web in 16th century Spanish which has little or no differences from modern Castilian! He describes things in a very matter of fact way and even with some 80 soldiers, firearms, steel armour and weapons and an up to date ship he had to flee from the armies of the locals.
Since this society depended on biochar ( burning wood) for fertilizer and soil conditioning the Carbon Dioxide they were producing had an effect on global temperatures, and the sudden collapse of the civilisation and the regrowth of the forest has been postulated as an explanation for the dip in global temperatures that occurred in the 16th century.
https://theconversation.com/european-colonisation-of-the-americas-killed-10-of-world-population-and-caused-global-cooling-110549
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=bbc+in+the+search+of+el+dorado+terra+preta+in+the+amazon&&view=detail&mid=1B4DDC527C894D956C551B4DDC527C894D956C55&&FORM=VRDGAR&ru=%2Fvideos%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dbbc%2520in%2520the%2520search%2520of%2520el%2520dorado%2520terra%2520preta%2520in%2520the%2520amazon%26qs%3Dn%26form%3DQBVR%26%3D%2525eManage%2520Your%2520Search%2520History%2525E%26sp%3D-1%26pq%3Dbbc%2520in%2520the%2520search%2520of%2520el%2520dorado%2520terra%2520preta%2520in%2520the%2520amazon%26sc%3D0-56%26sk%3D%26cvid%3D56976FFF4DDC4A8C8AEB82234AAB63E0%26ghsh%3D0%26ghacc%3D0%26ghpl%3D