{"id":1800370,"date":"2023-01-09T17:20:27","date_gmt":"2023-01-09T22:20:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1800370"},"modified":"2023-01-09T17:22:25","modified_gmt":"2023-01-09T22:22:25","slug":"youtube-censors-heritage-vp-for-going-counter-narrative-on-covid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/youtube-censors-heritage-vp-for-going-counter-narrative-on-covid\/","title":{"rendered":"YouTube Censors Heritage VP for Going Counter-Narrative on COVID"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fyoutube-censors-heritage-vp-for-going-counter-narrative-on-covid%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1800370&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47-->\n<p>FIRST ON THE DIARY SIGNAL: Nearly 3 years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, and just as President Joe Biden had effectively declared the pandemic over by trying to reverse Title 42 (Title 42), YouTube removed footage of a panel consisting of doctors and a Heritage Foundation expert. The panel discussed COVID-19 restrictions on religious liberty and the limitations imposed in the name of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailysignal.com\/category\/topics-health-care\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">public health<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>The Daily Signal heard from one of the speakers on the panel that this was his opinion. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailysignal.com\/category\/big-tech\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Big Tech censorship<\/a> proved his point about suppression of freedoms during the pandemic, and he condemned YouTube\u2019s move as \u201cKafkaesque.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The panel \u201cSetting the Record Straight,\u201d The Restoring Our Faith Summit took place last October in Vermont. <\/p>\n<p>Dr. Robin Armstrong was the speaker and is the owner of an organization that provides hospital and nursing home physicians. Dr. Janci Chunn Lindsh, a toxicology expert, and Aaron Kheriaty, psychologist and scholar at Ethics and Public Policy Center, were also present. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailysignal.com\/author\/roger-severino\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Roger Severino<\/a>Former director of the Office for Civil Rights, Department of Health and Human Services. Currently vice president for domestic policy at The Heritage Foundation. (The Daily Signal is Heritage\u2019s news outlet.)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHi Restoring Our Faith Summit, Our team has reviewed your content, and, unfortunately, we think it violates our <strong>medical misinformation policy<\/strong>,\u201d YouTube posted Dec. 13 to the summit using boldface for the last three words. <\/p>\n<p>YouTube noted that it had removed content on the panel discussion from the social media site\u2019s platform.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"994\" height=\"687\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Screenshot-2023-01-09-at-9.40.22-AM.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-960234\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Screenshot-2023-01-09-at-9.40.22-AM.png 994w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Screenshot-2023-01-09-at-9.40.22-AM-300x207-1.png 300w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Screenshot-2023-01-09-at-9.40.22-AM-768x531-1.png 768w\"   style=\"display:none\"><figcaption>Send screenshot from YouTube<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>YouTube gave a vague explanation about why YouTube removed the content. \u201cYouTube doesn\u2019t allow claims about COVID-19 vaccinations that contradict expert consensus from local health authorities or the World Health Organization.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Restoring Our Faith was also warned in the email that it could be removed from its channel if it attempted to upload another video that is contrary to the policy. \u201cwill get a strike and you won\u2019t be able to do things like upload, post, or live stream for 1 week.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A summit representative reached out personally to a YouTube employee for clarification. The YouTube staffer could not clarify which claims were made by the summit speakers or what YouTube policy they violated.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"485\" height=\"207\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Screenshot-2023-01-09-at-9.53.09-AM.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-960235\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Screenshot-2023-01-09-at-9.53.09-AM.png 485w, https:\/\/first-heritage-foundation.s3.amazonaws.com\/live_files\/2023\/01\/Screenshot-2023-01-09-at-9.53.09-AM-300x128.png 300w\" \/><figcaption>Send a screenshot to YouTube<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThe video you appealed was reviewed and determined to be in violation of our Community Guidelines pertaining to COVID-19 medical misinformation,\u201d YouTube staffer wrote. \u201cYouTube does not allow content that spreads medical misinformation that contradicts local health authorities\u2019 or the World Health Organization (WHO) medical information about COVID-19.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Again, the YouTube staffer did not clarify which speaker\u2019s comments about vaccines reportedly violated its policy. <\/p>\n<p>Lindsay spoke out about the COVID-19 vaccines during the panel \u201cgene therapies.\u201d (Although many contest this claim because the vaccines use mRNA, which doesn\u2019t interact with a person\u2019s DNA,  mRNA still uses the ATCG genes in DNA; a former U.S. Food and Drug Administration official told The Daily Signal that the vaccines were developed in a gene therapy laboratory.) <\/p>\n<p>He also stated that American women have seen an increase of stillbirths and miscarriages due to vaccines.<\/p>\n<p>Severino emphasized issues relating to religious freedom and lamented that churches had replaced holy water by hand sanitizer, while outdoor services were temporarily banned. He briefly mentioned that the government vaccination mandates applied even when people already had contracted COVID-19 and that mandates didn\u2019t relax \u201cif the vaccine efficacy has plummeted.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>YouTube&#8217;s owner, Google, didn&#8217;t respond. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailysignal.com\/author\/tyler-oneil\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Daily Signal<\/a>\u2018s multiple requests for comment on the banned video. <\/p>\n<p>Restoring Our Faith Summit brought together a wide range of faith and health experts. Speakers included Jay Bhattacharya, a professor of medicine at Stanford University; former Harvard Medical School professor Martin Kulldorff; commentator and talk show host Dennis Prager; the Catholic University of America\u2019s Marriage and Religion Institute Director Pat Fagan; and Jay Richards, director of Heritage\u2019s Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family, among others.<\/p>\n<p><strong>RELATED: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailysignal.com\/2023\/01\/03\/twitter-files-reveal-left-uses-big-tech-create-illusion-sceintific-consensus-stifle-debate-especially-covid-19\/\">\u2018Twitter Files\u2019 Reveal How the Left Uses Big Tech to Create an Illusion of Scientific Consensus and Stifle Debate, Especially on COVID-19<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>YouTube didn\u2019t flag videos featuring Bhattacharya and Kulldorff, who were leaders of the anti-lockdown <a href=\"https:\/\/gbdeclaration.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Great Barrington Declaration<\/a>, launched October 4, 2020 during the peak of the pandemic. Only the panel discussion with Severino Lindsay, Armstrong, Kheriaty, was removed from the video platform.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are shocked and disappointed that YouTube refused to post our video that featured some of the country\u2019s leading scientists and physicians and high-level government officials,\u201d A spokesperson\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nam04.safelinks.protection.outlook.com\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Frestoringourfaithvermont.com%2F&#038;data=05%7C01%7CTyler.ONeil%40heritage.org%7C02214572edd04106d98f08daef409b5f%7Ccbd93b4867ea46759ee84178b273204a%7C0%7C0%7C638085358023498113%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&#038;sdata=qBZZPGyTIb5Ia2w6Cjoy5DMXuLKZknc46H%2F5upgMQAg%3D&#038;reserved=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Restoring our Faith Vermont<\/a> The Daily Signal. <\/p>\n<p>Restoring Our Faith Vermont is an organization that encourages Americans to return biblical and moral principles. It was founded following the October summit&#8217;s success.  <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThree years after the COVID outbreak social media companies still refuse to allow debate and discussion that may question the medical community and people like Anthony Fauci whose mistakes in handling the pandemic are clearly evident,\u201d The spokesperson said more. \u201cFreedom of speech has been lost to powerful forces just as freedom of religion and the ability of Americans to practice their faith was set aside during the pandemic.\u00a0Our organization will fight to protect these freedoms despite this setback.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYouTube\u2019s ban of my talk once again demonstrates the censorious, arbitrary, and authoritarian <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailysignal.com\/2022\/12\/29\/trans-inquisition-rachel-levine-enlists-state-medical-boards-pressure-big-tech-stamp-transgender-heresy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">tendencies of Big Tech<\/a>,\u201d Heritage\u2019s Severino told The Daily Signal. \u201cIronically, my talk was on the censorious, arbitrary, and authoritarian tendencies of\u00a0our government during the pandemic, especially with respect to violations of religious freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wish I knew exactly what triggered YouTube\u2019s ire, but they remain imperiously vague,\u201d He added. \u201cIt is Kafkaesque to be placed in YouTube jail and not be told what the alleged crime was or even who committed it.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/IMG_1427-1024x768-1.jpg\" alt=\"Roger Severino in a gray suit with a blue striped tie speaks at The Heritage Foundation.\" class=\"wp-image-960237\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/IMG_1427-1024x768-1.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/IMG_1427-300x225-1.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/IMG_1427-768x576-1.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/IMG_1427-1536x1152-1.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/IMG_1427-2048x1536-1.jpg 2048w\" \/><figcaption>Roger Severino speaks to The Heritage Foundation on April 14, 2022. Photo: The Heritage Foundation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cWas it me, a fellow panelist, or both?\u201d Severino asked. \u201cIf it wasn\u2019t me, why was my talk censored too? YouTube censored a public debate on issues of public concern in the digital public square. It should no longer be able to get away with it, and Congress must take this power away.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>David Gortler, a pharmacologist and scholar at the Ethics and Public Policy Center who previously served on the Food and Drug Administration\u2019s senior executive leadership team, told The Daily Signal that the FDA abuses its own Vaccine Averse Event Reporting System, also called VAERS.<\/p>\n<p>Gortler stated that the FDA welcomes input from Americans who have received vaccines through the Vaccine Averse Event Reporting System. <\/p>\n<p>Gortler stated that some Americans have reported negative effects from the vaccine. \u201cthe FDA says, \u2018technically, we haven\u2019t verified every single one of these.&#8217;\u201d He added, however, \u201cthat\u2019s a lie because the FDA has made decisions based on the database.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re speaking out of both sides of their mouth,\u201d Gortler said. \u201cWhen they say a drug is safe, they\u2019ll say there\u2019s nothing in the VAERS database suggesting it isn\u2019t. But when you record an adverse reaction, they dismiss it as unscientific.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis vaccine is so safe and effective, they\u2019re still working from home to this day,\u201d The pharmacologist laughed. \u201cIt\u2019s like trying to make sense out of a fever dream.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gortler asked whether YouTube hires people with a medical background that are qualified to make decisions. \u201cmedical misinformation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo they have pharmacologists,\u00a0FDA\u00a0experts, geneticists on staff guiding their censorship decisions?\u201d He asked. \u201cWhat about drug safety epidemiologists or experts in Christian ministry who are trained biologists and\/or public health experts?\u201d <\/p>\n<p>He asked: Are there government agencies? \u201c100% infallible?\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>RELATED: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailysignal.com\/2022\/12\/29\/gop-senator-urges-dems-to-join-probe-of-fbi-politicized-federal-law-enforcement-after-twitter-files-expose\/\">FBI Twitter Reports on Corruption \u2018Tip of the Iceberg,\u2019 Warns Republican Senator<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese questions need answers from\u00a0<em>legitimate<\/em>\u00a0experts quoting\u00a0<em>objective<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>current<\/em>\u00a0findings\u00a0in an open and transparent format such as [Florida Gov.] Ron Desantis\u2019s grand jury investigation,\u00a0not generic mainstream news \u2018fact checkers,\u2019 journalists parroting everything that still working-from-home HHS officials\u00a0say,\u201d Gortler stated in an email that he used italics to emphasize his point.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCritical scientific thinking shows us that the federal government\u2019s existing narrative is crumbling before our eyes,\u201d He said.\u00a0\u201cDespite that, [first lady] Jill Biden is still encouraging Americans to get vaccinated in her New Year\u2019s Day \u2018tweet.\u2019<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailysignal.com\/author\/jrichards\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Richards, the Heritage scholar<\/a> who spoke at the event, also condemned YouTube\u2019s move.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s outrageous that YouTube has blocked video of this conference for \u2018medical misinformation.\u2019 I participated in the conference and attended the entire event,\u201d Richards spoke to The Daily Signal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe medical speakers are all highly credentialed, highly competent, and in a number of cases have been proven right in their predictions related to the COVID-19 lockdowns and vaccine policies,\u201d Richards stated. \u201cAt this late date, it\u2019s utterly bizarre that YouTube would still be putting its finger on the scale in favor of one side of a scientific debate on which it has no competence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Do you have a comment about this article? Please email to share your thoughts.\u00a0<\/em><a href=\"mailto:letters@DailySignal.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>letters@DailySignal.com<\/em><\/a><em>\u00a0and we\u2019ll consider publishing your edited remarks in our regular \u201cWe Hear You\u201d feature. Include the article&#8217;s URL or headline, as well as your name and the address of your town or state.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>FIRST ON THE DIARY SIGNAL: Nearly 3 years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, and just as President Joe Biden had effectively declared the pandemic over by trying to reverse Title 42 (Title 42), YouTube removed footage of a panel consisting of doctors and a Heritage Foundation expert. The panel discussed COVID-19 restrictions on religious liberty &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1800373,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[5458,6041,14133,4127,13357,3819,6562],"class_list":["post-1800370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report","tag-bongino","tag-censors","tag-counter-narrative","tag-covid","tag-heritage","tag-report","tag-youtube"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1800370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1800370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1800370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1800373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1800370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1800370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1800370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}