From the perspective of the people running the government and the various public health authorities, one of the absolute worst things you can possibly do is remember what they told you five minutes ago. Particularly if you keep track of the most alarming things they say, then it’s very easy to realize that pretty much none of it is true.

Just four years ago, for instance, we were told repeatedly that COVID-19 was a “once-in-a-lifetime pandemic.” The United Nations still has an article on its website that makes that exact declaration. It’s called, “All hands on deck to fight a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic.” It wasn’t written by some intern; the author was the U.N.’s Secretary-General. And he wasn’t the only one saying that, various peer-reviewed papers promoted by the N.I.H. made the same claim. So did the White House, where Jenn Psaki insisted during a press briefing that COVID was a, “once-in-a-century pandemic.”

All those pronouncements didn’t last long. We’re now less than six months away from another presidential election, and just in time, there’s a new “once-in-a-lifetime pandemic” on the horizon. Along with nationwide civil disorder, we’re getting another pathogen.

In fact, we’re told that this pandemic is going to be much deadlier than the last one. So all the old predictions were way off. It turns out COVID was a “twice-in-a-lifetime pandemic,” I guess.

Here’s the New York Post to explain:

The reporter from the New York Post opens her report by saying that the bird flu could be “100 times worse” than COVID. But she doesn’t explain how she’s coming up with that number.

Later on in the video, she says that 52% of humans who have contracted bird flu since 2003 have died, while COVID only kills 0.1% of people it infects. That makes bird flu sound even more serious than “100 times” more dangerous. But it’s also using very old data. So the question remains: where exactly is the idea that bird flu could be “100 times worse than COVID” coming from?

If you dig around the New York Post’s article, you’ll find this explanation:

John Fulton, a pharmaceutical industry consultant for vaccines and the founder of Canada-based BioNiagara … also expressed his concerns. ‘This appears to be 100 times worse than COVID — or it could be if it mutates and maintains its high case fatality rate,’ he said. ‘Once it’s mutated to infect humans, we can only hope that the [fatality rate] drops.’

This is worse — or it could be. This is something — actually it’s not that thing, but it could be. Now, the Post is quoting from a Daily Mail interview, in which Fulton also says,

This discovery is very concerning, and governments should take immediate action by seeking out and mobilizing all high-potential production capacity for vaccines and therapeutics for the prevention and treatment of avian influenza H5N1. …’We need to sound the alarm bells to wake up our governments to the fact that there is a virus that is undergoing mutations that would/ could eventually allow it to become highly transmissible in human (mammals).

So, a guy named John Fulton says that if the bird flu mutates to spread easily among humans, then it could be 100 times worse than COVID. He says this is all very disturbing, and we need the government to help create (and presumably fund) more “vaccines and therapeutics.” The next time you get your COVID booster — if you’re one of the four people still doing that — you should make room on your arm for the Bird Flu vax. That’s the idea. Because of this quote, various news outlets, including the Post, have said that “experts” are warning about the existential threat posed by bird flu. And this guy is the primary source of this claim, as far as I can tell.

But John Fulton is not an expert in anything. According to his LinkedIn, he’s got a degree in “corporate communications” from something called “Brock University” in Canada. He lists “social media” as one of his skills. So his qualifications are that he can use Instagram and Facebook. Essentially, he’s a salesman. And he currently consults on the side for something called “POP Biotechnologies,” which says on its website that it, “develops revolutionary therapies that expand treatment possibilities in cancer care and infectious disease prevention.” 

Where have we seen this before? When have we seen fake “experts” pretending to know what they talk about, as they raise the alarm about some catastrophic public health emergency — without disclosing their obvious conflicts of interest? 

It’s actually hard to believe the media is being this flagrant about the narrative this time. They’re not even getting a scientist to scare everyone. If you wanted to deliberately undermine people’s trust in public health — more than it’s already been undermined — then it’s hard to think of what you’d do differently. You’d do exactly what the media is doing now: You’d find some “social media expert” and get him to say something outrageous and terrifying, and then you’d pretend he knows what he’s talking about.

To be clear, I’m not saying that bird flu, or H5N1, definitely isn’t a threat. I’m not an expert on the topic anymore than John Fulton is. We’re both just guys giving our opinion. Unlike John Fulton, I’m happy to admit that.

What I am saying is that, right now — according to all of the available evidence we have — there’s no sign that the bird flu is any kind of significant threat to the public, or worthy of any real concern, or any of the blaring headlines it’s getting. There’s no evidence that it’s spreading between humans. There’s one farm worker somewhere who’s supposedly currently infected, and that’s it, as of now. The commercial milk and dairy supply is safe, according to a recent analysis of hundreds of random samples. And this tracks with how bird flu has behaved for decades; it typically doesn’t infect people at all. There are no real signs that’s changing.

But here’s the key point. If that does change — if bird flu suddenly becomes infectious and starts killing humans, which could theoretically happen, because anything could happen — then there is no doubt about one thing: It will be a far deadlier pandemic than it would have been, if the public health establishment hadn’t lied to us for years about COVID. Public health authorities proved with COVID that we can’t trust anything they say. If there’s another “once in a lifetime pandemic” — an actual, real one — we’ll have no choice but to ignore them, or at best take them with a massive grain of salt. 

And of course, in turn, that will provide them with the pretense to use even more force than last time. In a way, their own flagrant untrustworthiness becomes a benefit to them. It guarantees we will defy them — because what other choice do we have? — which gives them the excuse to be authoritarians.

A year ago, the head of the World Health Organization delivered a speech about the “next pandemic,” which he said was inevitable. He made it clear that he understands very well that people will be hesitant to ever obey public health officials again. So to counteract that hesitancy — and to ensure “equity” — the head of the WHO insisted on “changes” that, “must be made.” Watch:

“When the next pandemic comes knocking — and it will — we must be ready to answer decisively, collectively and equitably. And for enhanced international cooperation,” he says. There needs to be a “pandemic accord” to ensure that “the old cycle of panic and neglect” never happens again. Instead, he says, we need a “shared response” — directed, of course, by the WHO.

If you go and look up the “pandemic accord” on the WHO’s website, you’ll find that it’s intended to, “support global coordination through a stronger WHO.” Additionally, “At the heart of the proposed accord is the need to ensure equity in both access to the tools needed to prevent pandemics (including technologies like vaccines, personal protective equipment, information and expertise) and access to health care for all people.” 

If you’re a white guy, that’s all very bad news — especially if the extremely unlikely scenario really does play out where the bird flu somehow mutates and starts infecting people’s lungs. If they ever develop any treatment that works and won’t make you even sicker, you’re guaranteed to be last on the list. In any event, there’s no point in fretting about whether there will be another COVID-style pandemic, the WHO is saying. It’s inevitable.

This is a very far cry from the old lines we heard about how COVID was a “once in a century” or “once-in-a-lifetime” pandemic. The moment they realized COVID was over, the public health establishment stopped pretending that it was a rare event. Instead, they immediately got to work on preparing for the next pandemic. And already, with another presidential election rapidly approaching, some of the least impartial and least qualified people in the country desperately want us to believe that it is about to arrive.