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The Day the Science Died

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Back in October 2021, I was talking to Patrick about ADHD and his book Obedience Pills.  ADHD has since become a very big and polarizing issue in the UK.  Katinka Newman has had a prominent and hard-hitting article in the Daily Mail two weeks ago on these issues.

There have been earlier RxISK posts on ADHD Nation, and Is there such a thing as Adult ADHD and many posts on the hazards of stimulants – It’s Alright Ma, I’m only Punding and Could your Stimulant cause Dementia.

We followed up an early post on RxISK about the  – Obedience Pills, with another Calling all ADHD Influencers. Some people were calling Patrick’s book pill-shaming and saying it was shocking that any one would question the idea of Adult ADHD.

These reactions seemed rather like the reactions found in debates about trans issues. Differences in points of view are not welcome.  Before ADHD got quite to the level of division found with trans issues, it seemed an idea to get some conversation going but it proved impossible to engage anyone on the ADHD side even people usually willing to tackle the most tricky subjects.

Patrick’s hope and mine was that Obedience Pills was a good book at the right time, and it is still looking good to me.

Then

In his usual very direct style, he then mentioned he was working on a vaccine book – didn’t know if anyone would take it.

Maybe expecting me to say Samizdat would be interested.

I froze. My immediate reaction, given the climate in October 2021, was the last thing Samizdat needed was a book on Vaccines – Covid Vaccines.  Mandates had just come in.  People were losing jobs. The world was being divided into Sheep and Goats.

It seemed impossible to find a middle ground and Samizdat’s mission statement is that it is all about keeping a middle ground open on health related issues – see Neoculturalism.

We would be tarnished as anti-vaxxers if Patrick’s book said anything short of everyone must rush out and get their boosters immediately.

I muttered something about it being close to impossible at the moment to write a book on vaccines without being eviscerated by one or other side or even both.  I thought my message was clear if a bit English.

Senator Ron Johnson’s November 2 meeting about vaccine injuries was about to happen – at which Brianne Dressen, an extraordinary woman, lit up a landscape of vaccine injuries and death for all the world to see – See The Day of the Dead.

No-one who was at the meeting, in person or on feed, could have been anything but moved.  I told Patrick about the meeting and suggested he get there – he lives relatively close by. He went and was moved.

His later take on our conversation a few days before the meeting was:

When David Healy suggested in a telephone conversation that I write a book about the covid shots, I agreed immediately. This was a project I could sink my teeth into.

Beyond Tricky

A year later, Bill James and I had an email:

Are you interested in taking a look at my new book?

Bill rapidly pleaded ignorance of Vax issues and said let’s wait for David to read.  I had probably told him about the earlier conversation with Patrick.

I had begun reading and far from feeling caught in the headlights of an oncoming disaster ended up emailing Patrick saying:

Have finished your new book – it’s great – beautiful in places
The opening and end are marvellous

I mentioned a few things that confused me and likely would confuse readers and ended with:

All things considered I was impressed.

So Samizdat was on the way to getting involved in a game where it didn’t look like there could be any winners.

I was also slightly chagrined. I had been thinking about a book in this area – taking a similar approach to Patrick – not arguing the detail but looking at the human impact on us all of this living through the thundercloud of a common experience.  Telling him I was impressed was genuine – he had hit on the approach I’d have tried.

The Opening

It was the day after Thanksgiving, an unseasonably warm afternoon, the rolling hills and dales of Washington County forming a viridescent backdrop to the last remaining golden leaves of autumn still clinging to the trees. It was a perfect day for the Old Man to go for a walk with his nephew and nieces, who in turn were the perfect ages for such an undertaking—old enough to be able to carry on an intelligent conversation, and yet young enough still actually to want to spend time with the Old Man.

The four of them had barely gotten underway when they spotted a couple, a man and a woman, a couple of hundred yards away. Then the middle child, a girl, spoke up.

“We need to go back,” she informed the Old Man solemnly. “We’ll get the corona.”

It was at that moment that I knew I had to do something. But what? Where to start?

The Middle

This is a crisis that touches upon every facet of our existence. Going from writing about antidepressants and stimulants to writing about the covid is like going from swimming laps in a pool to being parachuted into the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

The End

It was the day after Thanksgiving, an unseasonably warm afternoon, the rolling hills and dales of Washington County forming a viridescent backdrop to the last remaining golden leaves of autumn still clinging to the trees. Two years had elapsed since I had gone for that hastily interrupted stroll with my nephew and nieces and now I had come full circle, literally. They’re two years older now, and it took some coaxing to induce them to accompany their uncle on his peregrinations.

My wife and I had driven up the night before, and the kids’ mom had served up a delicious feast, and over dinner I lectured them on randomized controlled trials and the placebo effect, and also on the discovery of insulin, and the youngest child, a girl, piped up “Uncle Patrick, you’re like a living Wikipedia.”

Now we were out and about, strolling down the smooth blacktop lanes past acres of manicured lawns when we spotted a couple, a man and a woman, standing in their driveway. They smiled and waved and greeted us, and we returned their greetings. No fearful avoidance of one another, no muzzles converting the human visage into a cold insectoid gaze—just human beings, sampling the joys of being human. It occurred to me that as a people we seem to be developing antibodies to the climate of fear we have been saturated with for the past almost three years. That was a comforting thought.

We reached the end of a cul-de-sac and stood there for a while, gazing at the blue hills in the distance. A cool breeze blew through, presaging the frigid temperatures forecast for that evening. The middle child, a girl, complained of feeling cold, and so I removed my jacket and draped it over her shoulders.

“Say thank you,” her younger sister admonished her, and she did so.

It was time to start heading back. As we made our way back to the house, I reflected on the long sweep of history……

Back from the Dead?

The end now has a little more added about the long sweep of history than the original ending I read. If you want Patrick’s take on this sweep and on the climate of fear we have been saturated in, you will need to buy The Day the Science Died – which now I’m pleased to say features on the Samizdat website.

It is probably safe to give a copy to others you know, whether pro- or anti- the Covid vaccines.  There are no conspiracy theories here. Instead there is a good deal of wondering about just what we have been through. This is about living under the Thundercloud of a Common Experience, as Tennessee Williams put it in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

How should we handle these electrically charged atmospheres?  Williams’ answer in Sweet Bird of Youth was:

I don’t ask for your pity but just for your understanding
Not even that – no
Just for some recognition of me in you
and the enemy time in us all. 

When reading The Day the Science Died, it seemed to me that Patrick was reaching for something like this and this is what had me so impressed – along with an unusual ability to explain tricky scientific coneepts in terms that even his nephew and nieces on walks with him could appreciate.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. This book sounds like an interesting take on our situation. I would like to think that it may sell really well if we can make sure that the Covid vaccine injured are made aware of it. I shall do my bit by buying a copy and passing it on to Adam Rowland who is now a well-known name in that circle.
    The UK wing of the Covid vaccine-injured are presently going through a rather hard time – Matt Hancock, responsible for so much that went wrong here during the darkest times of the pandemic, is now trying to close down the right of the injured to discuss their condition on social media. This is a disgusting move from a disgraced member of parliament. That he even thinks in such a way about the damaged members of his public is beyond belief. It would be wonderful to rub his nose in a copy of ‘The Day the Science Died’! I can think of a good number here who could do with a copy, maybe we could ask Matt to put in a bulk order for us – he’s actually very good at that. One difference here though – it would not be a dud like so many of his previous orders!

    Reply

  2. ‘A fantasy of never dying’ … Congrats, Patrick

    Robert F. Kennedy Jr
    @RobertKennedyJr

    It is dawning on mainstream figures like Anthony Fauci that their Covid policies were a public health disaster. Lots of us are angry about the mandates, the lockdowns, the censorship, the insanity. But we need to avoid the toxic quagmire of retribution and blame and focus on ensuring this never happens again. Clean up the regulatory agencies, get corporate money out of public health, and guarantee free, open, uncensored public and scientific discourse.

    https://edition.cnn.com/2023/04/25/health/fauci-pandemic-lessons/index.html

    There have been an estimated 20 million deaths from Covid-19 around the world, but that number might well have doubled, Fauci said.

    Norman socks that claim…and adds some, at the end…

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_fqVbaeLfM

    Things are moving so fast; Mark Steyn was ‘Ofcommed’ out of GB News, but now has his own channel; James O’Keefe is out, and has his own O’Keefe Media Group (OMG), Andrew Bridgen is out of Government; Robert Kennedy Jnr. Runs for President…..
    Tucker, tucks up…

    The Day the Science Died: Covid Vaccines and the Power of Fear

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Day-Science-Died-Covid-Vaccines/dp/1989963307/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1682576877&sr=8-1

    The coronavirus pandemic has hit the nation and the world like a tsunami, so much so that history seems to divide into pre- and post-covid. We have entered a Bizarro World, in which all the things that allow us to co-exist as a civilization of intelligent, self-governing men and women—work, school, church, fresh air, outdoor exercise, entrepreneurship, love, friendship, verve, spontaneity, joyous celebration, the human face—have been relentlessly downgraded. We are being asked to give up most of the things that make life worth living—including sovereignty over our own bodies—in exchange for a fantasy of never dying. This transaction deserves perhaps more scrutiny than it has received.

    https://samizdathealth.org/

    ‘Cats on Hot Tin Roofs’ is Apt…

    Reply

  3. Hello Annie,

    Thank you for this enlightening information.
    What is wrong with speaking the TRUTH?
    It is absolutely disgusting how low some people stoop.
    Stay away from toxic people.
    They come from all walks of life.
    They get dirty, grubby and nasty and their bullying ways demonstrate just how childish they are.
    There will come a day when all those who have been harmed will have their DAY OF JUSTICE.
    It is only a matter of time……………………………..!
    Demand RESPECT and SPEAK UP!
    Walk away from those who do not have your back or your highest good.
    Sadly, there are too many ratbags who have lost their way!

    Reply

  5. My review of Patrick’s book, on Samizdat plus forwarded to Amazon.
    Let’s hope this nice, shiny tablet is purchased far and wide and reviewed by all who have read it.

    *****

    This is a wonderful book, a collectors’ item, a tour-de-force.

    It cracks along, at a pace, it seeks and delves; once picked up, you won’t put it down.

    Packed with eye-watering stories, this is a fair-minded litany about the Pharmaceutical Companies who produced the vaccines, the regulators who regulated, the vaccinated and the unvaccinated, the deceptions and the criticisms, the rolling-stock of narratives, all told with the voice of reason.

    Wherever you sit The Day The Science Died is a book for all the right reasons.

    It doesn’t gloat, it doesn’t lie, it is not pedestrian and it is not boring.

    The book struts hs stuff, by an author who is tantalisingly honest.

    If you are interested in the-whole-nine-yards of what happened in the Covid-Era, starting at the beginning, getting a handle of the middle, and finishing at the end, you will not be disappointed.

    You may find lots of surprises, you may be shocked, you may be stunned, you may be might feel uncomfortable, but you will never be able to say nobody ever told you.

    The Day The Science Died, fills a niche not previously covered.

    My feeling is Patrick D Hahn has a Hit from his Hands.

    Reply

  7. The Day The Science Died…

    “Gobsmacked”…

    ADHD: Private clinics exposed by BBC undercover investigation

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-65534448

    Patients are being offered powerful drugs and told they have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) after unreliable online assessments, a BBC investigation has discovered.

    Three private clinics diagnosed an undercover reporter via video calls.

    But a more detailed, in-person NHS assessment showed he didn’t have the condition.
    The clinics say they conduct thorough assessments and follow national guidelines.

    Private ADHD Clinics Exposed

    People are turning to private clinics for an assessment to determine whether they have ADHD. Panorama investigates whether they are being given a reliable diagnosis?

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001m0f9

    Obedience Pills: ADHD and the Medicalization of Childhood

    by Patrick D. Hahn

    https://samizdathealth.org/obedience-pills/

    Reply

  8. “Here is an example: In 2012, the pharmaceutical group GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) was fined almost £2 billion after admitting bribing doctors and encouraging the prescription of unsuitable antidepressants to children (there has — as yet — been no such case actually involving ADHD drugs). 

    GSK showered hospitality and kickbacks, including trips to resorts in Bermuda, Jamaica and California, on doctors who agreed to write extra prescriptions.”

    PETER HITCHENS: It has a huge and powerful lobby which turns with fury on its critics so I know this question will get me into loads of trouble but… does ADHD even exist?

    By PETER HITCHENS FOR THE DAILY MAIL
    PUBLISHED: 01:42, 18 May 2023 | UPDATED: 01:49, 18 May 2023

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12096593/PETER-HITCHENS-know-question-loads-trouble-does-ADHD-exist.html

    Does ADHD in fact exist? This week the BBC’s Panorama programme quite rightly exposed some very worrying private clinics. 

    In online consultations, staff had diagnosed a BBC reporter with ADHD — attention deficit hyperactivity disorder — despite an in-person, and far longer, assessment by an NHS psychiatrist concluding that he didn’t have the condition. 

    The clinics, while charging rather plump fees, seemed to have an extremely relaxed attitude towards diagnosing this increasingly common complaint. 

    It is a huge issue. ADHD was once mainly confined to children but is now spreading rapidly into the adult populations of the Western world. 

    The clinics, one of them working on behalf of the overloaded NHS, were also willing to prescribe powerful stimulant drugs on the basis of this.

    Mainstream doctors drew up their skirts in horror. Very alarming stuff. But the whole programme was based on two assumptions.

    The first was that ADHD exists at all, and the second was that there is some gold standard objective, testable diagnosis, against which these clinics can be judged. 

    I know this will get me into all kinds of trouble. The ADHD lobby is huge and powerful and turns with fury on its critics. It propels legions of people into lifelong prescriptions, as it officially cannot be cured, only ‘treated’. 

    And I suppose it is reasonable to guess that the makers of these drugs are happy with that. They have superb PR and spin machines and are brilliant at recruiting doctors to their side, with charm and lavish perks. 

    Here is an example: In 2012, the pharmaceutical group GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) was fined almost £2 billion after admitting bribing doctors and encouraging the prescription of unsuitable antidepressants to children (there has — as yet — been no such case actually involving ADHD drugs). 

    GSK showered hospitality and kickbacks, including trips to resorts in Bermuda, Jamaica and California, on doctors who agreed to write extra prescriptions. 

    But more ferocious than all of this power and wealth are the parents (and often the teachers) of the children diagnosed. They want the child’s problems to have a medical cause, rather than to be linked to modern child-rearing techniques or schooling. 

    And, of course, the sufferers are glad to be relieved of any personal responsibility for their behaviour. 

    And what is this behaviour? The NHS website provides a list. Here is part of it: having a short attention span and being easily distracted; making careless mistakes — for example, in schoolwork; appearing forgetful or losing things; being unable to stick to tasks that are tedious or time-consuming; appearing to be unable to listen to or carry out instruction; being unable to sit still, especially in calm or quiet surroundings; constantly fidgeting; excessive talking; being unable to wait their turn; acting without thinking; interrupting conversation. 

    First, who has not behaved in this way? Next, notice how many of these supposed symptoms are not really experienced by the alleged sufferer, but by the adults in charge of them. 

    One of the problems with the diagnosis of ‘ADHD’ is that it covers such an extraordinarily broad range of behaviours, including children who may actually suffer from birth trauma or brain damage, and children who are merely wilful and obstinate, or are driven to distraction by dull schools and bad teachers. 

    Worse, it closes the subject. If all these millions truly are suffering from a treatable physical disorder, then we need not worry about our debased family life, dominated by screens and junk food, and short on sleep and outdoor activity and our uninspiring schools. 

    A pill — often nowadays prescribed for life — will solve the problem. Meanwhile, the small minority of children who do actually have something physically wrong with them are dosed with drugs that pacify them, and their real problems are ignored and go uninvestigated. 

    This means, firstly, they are not treated and, secondly, that medical knowledge ceases to advance. It’s arguable whether the ‘diagnosis’ of ‘ADHD’ objectively helps any of those to whom it is applied. But it gets a lot of adults off the hook of responsibility and closes off scientific inquiry. 

    Even if some of these children do actually have a physical defect curable by drugs, they cannot conceivably all be in this exact plight — six or seven million children now in the U.S., hundreds of thousands in Britain. 

    And then there is the problem of the pills they get. In the U.S., many children are prescribed an actual amphetamine, a class B drug normally illegal, with many known bad long-term side-effects. Yet this is given to boys and girls as young as four. 

    In this country, the drug normally prescribed to children over the age of five is methylphenidate, similar to but not identical to amphetamines. 

    Like them it is used illegally without prescription as a stimulant and an aphrodisiac. 

    Among its adverse effects are tachycardia (a fast heart rate), palpitations, headache, nausea, insomnia and anxiety. Not to mention weight loss and abdominal pain. If this does not worry you, then it does not worry you. But it worries me a lot. 

    And here comes the other amazing thing. On November 18, 1998, the U.S.’s National Institutes of Health (NIH) held what is called a ‘Consensus Conference’ on ‘ADHD’. This sought to get some kind of agreement about what ‘ADHD’ is and how to treat it. I suspect there may have been quite a struggle. 

    The conference eventually issued a statement saying firmly that there is no independent, valid test for ADHD, and there is no data to show that it is due to a brain malfunction. This, of course, badly undermines the case for giving potent drugs, which act physically on the brain, to supposed sufferers. 

    If you look for this information on the internet now, you will probably not be able to find it. It has inexplicably disappeared from the NIH’s own website and I have tried and failed to get an explanation from them as to how or why this happened. 

    Bit by bit, I found scraps of evidence that the statement had really been made. Then I found a lawyer in the pleasant lakeside city of Madison, state capital of Wisconsin, who happened to keep a copy of the original statement. And there are the original words.

    ‘We do not have an independent, valid test for ADHD, and there is no data to indicate that ADHD is due to a brain malfunction. Further research to establish the validity of the disorder continues to be a problem.’ 

    Somehow, this has morphed into the much vaguer wording that ‘as of yet, there is no independent valid test for ADHD. Although research has suggested a central nervous system basis for ADHD, further research is necessary to firmly establish ADHD as a brain disorder.’ 

    I find this censorship of the truth creepy and disturbing, as I find the whole issue of medicating children disturbing. But since then, somebody has realised that adults, too, can be seduced into this belief that a pill will make them fit in better with the modern world. 

    Long ago, Aldous Huxley predicted a society in which a drug called Soma (miraculously harmless) would solve all the woes of society. 

    As he put it: ‘All the advantages of Christianity and alcohol; none of their defects… the warm, the richly coloured, the infinitely friendly world of Soma-holiday. There is always Soma, delicious Soma, half a gramme for a half holiday, a gramme for a weekend, two grammes for a trip to the gorgeous East, three for a dark eternity on the moon.’ 

    He meant it as a warning. We have taken it as a manual.

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