Even before the COVID-19 pandemic ended, several books had come out (most of them independently published) outlining the scientific and policy failures between 2020 and 2022.
Stephen Heartland’s LOUIS PASTEUR CONDEMNS BIG PHARMA is a good addition to this anti-COVID literature. Heartland is not an “anti-vaxxer” in the original sense of the term, which meant someone who was opposed to all vaccines (not only the COVID shots). “Those who believe that all vaccines are good, whenever or however you get them, is almost like a child’s belief in Santa Claus,” he writes. “It is too good to be true. And the other side is just as bad, that all vaccines will kill you or harm you.”
Heartland also admits from the outset that he is not a medical doctor, trained in any related field of medicine, and has no work-related medical experience. However, he has a daughter who suffered vaccine-related injuries, and he has read medical experts extensively. Most of the information he presents is thus well-grounded, although he adds nothing new in terms of facts to the books written by Alex Berenson (Pandemia), Robert W. Malone (Lies My Government Told Me), and Peter C. Gøtzsche (Vaccines: Truth, Lies, and Controversy).
Heartland’s twist is to situate his claims in the life and work of Louis Pasteur, the discoverer of germs, developer of immunization, and (of course) inventor of pasteurization. Unfortunately, this adds nothing to Heartland’s factual arguments, and his frequent claims that Pasteur would have rejected this or that action only invokes the Argument from Authority.
Heartland is more interested in polemics than objective analysis. For example, he links the rise in allergies, autism, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to the increase in vaccines. Alternative explanations—over-hygienic environments, more women having children at an older age, expanded diagnostic criteria—are not considered.
Heartland also undermines his credibility when he writes irrelevant things like “A belief in atheism appears to be an undefendable position, as it goes against all the scientific and empirical evidence.” To so readily dismiss intellects like Bertrand Russell, Richard Dawkins, and Stephen Hawking is itself undefendable.
Nonetheless, the 16 solutions offered by Heartland to ensure the health of children and adults are quite cogent. These include stopping payoffs to clinics to promote vaccines, informed consent, using true placebos in trials, removing liability protection for vaccine manufacturers, and banning any unproven vaccines. “Big Pharma money is corrupting our doctors and their offices, our elected officials, our government regulatory agencies, medical science and laboratory testing, and Big Tech and the media,” he writes. Heartland’s book and others like it can help stop this phenomenon.
Stephen Heartland’s LOUIS PASTEUR CONDEMNS BIG PHARMA doesn’t present any information that will surprise readers familiar with previous books on policy and science failures during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the author does a good job of presenting the main issues and providing policy solutions.
~Kevin Baldeosingh for IndieReader