This week I was briefly distracted by former politician and now shock jock Michael Laws who announced to the world that I was a “madman, conspiracy theorist, untrained in anything, with a tendency to make things up”.
Apparently, Laws took exception to the university where I studied for my PhD in research psychology—Maharishi International University. If you want to make up your own mind about MIU, an accredited university in Iowa, you can visit this link.
According to Laws, my occasional advocacy of natural food, yoga, and meditation, and their relevance to health policy, is weird. It should disqualify anyone from commenting on scientific matters whatever academic, technical, and professional expertise they might have. As if disagreeing with Laws is sufficient to neutralise academic qualifications like my doctorate. A good job he is not running our universities.
If you want to know more about my academic and professional qualifications, I have already publicly defended them following enquiries by a journalist. You can view the question and answer exchange here.
Laws’ comments are part of a current fashion to run down anyone who questions Covid vaccine safety. This is designed to distract from the real issues and the failure of journalists to investigate them.
His comments arose in the context of a listener calling in concerned about excess death rates in New Zealand. I have written extensively on the subject during the last few weeks at HatchardReport.com. Here is my position on Laws’ comments in brief:
Dictionary.com says ‘conspiracy theorists reject the standard explanation for an event and instead credit a covert group or organization with carrying out a secret plot’. It seems to me that Laws might be a conspiracy theorist himself as incredibly he implied today on his show that excess deaths are solely the result of Covid.
The weekly rate of excess all-cause death in New Zealand reached 946 in late August. That is 35% above the long term seasonally adjusted rate. A concerning figure.
Laws referred to Epidemiologist Dr Michael Baker as the significant expert who had reassured him that the record rate of excess deaths is due to Covid infection alone. Are the two of them part of a wider covert group carrying out a secret plot? You decide.
In a rational scientific forum, the Laws/Baker position on the sole cause of excess deaths being Covid could be judged speculative, certainly unproven, and likely untenable. There is insufficient evidence to support the contention, and indeed a great deal of evidence which refutes it.
A definitive scientific determination of the factors driving the record levels of excess deaths would require as a minimum the following information:
- Information on death certificates recording vaccination status
- Up to date compilation of cause of death information by category compared to historical data
- Breakdown of these stats by age.
These figures have not been made available in New Zealand. However, they are available from some overseas sources:
- UK ONS figures show that UK high rates of all-cause death are very disproportionately affecting the vaccinated and especially the boosted.
- US VAERS data indicates hugely elevated rates of cancers
- German data indicates that surges in death rates are consistently connected to upward movements in vaccination rates
- US insurance industry data indicates that working age and young people are suffering elevated death rates unrelated to Covid
We should not be so isolated in our outlook here in New Zealand that these official overseas figures are of no concern to us. More importantly, we cannot look to journalists for definitive information on the subject. Earlier this week I wrote on the necessity to reference primary data sources.
Scientists like myself are hoping for a new serious measured style of journalism that exhibits a modicum of depth, caution, and balance, but journalists are 3 or 4 times removed from primary sources and not really stepping up to the plate.
The Platform says it is “offering unbiased coverage commentary and opinion and the chance to have your say on the issues that affect you…It aims to beat the hatred and division fuelled by taxpayer funded media and woke culture warriors who want to stifle debate and suffocate democracy.”
Earlier today I spoke to Sean Plunket, founder and of The Platform—the radio outlet employing Michael Laws. He felt that Laws is entitled to air his opinion however far it drifts away from matters of fact—a disturbing indictment of journalism in general.
Disturbing because there are human lives at stake here, thousands of all-cause deaths in excess of historical trends. These can’t be airily dismissed by a radio talk show host who is projecting an aura of certainty and authority he doesn’t deserve and is unable to reliably back up with facts and figures.
The good news—to resolve the impasse, Sean Plunkett assured me he will arrange a head to head moderated exchange between Laws and I next week. I wonder whether Laws will agree to it? If it happens, we look forward to it.
Guy Hatchard Ph.D. was formerly a senior manager at Genetic ID a global food safety testing and certification company (now known as FoodChain ID)
Guy is the author of Discovering and Defending Your DNA Diet
