YouTube Censors Heritage VP for Going Counter-Narrative on COVID
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 public health.
The Daily Signal heard from one of the speakers on the panel that this was his opinion. Big Tech censorship proved his point about suppression of freedoms during the pandemic, and he condemned YouTube’s move as “Kafkaesque.”
The panel “Setting the Record Straight,” The Restoring Our Faith Summit took place last October in Vermont.
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. Roger SeverinoFormer 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’s news outlet.)
“Hi Restoring Our Faith Summit, Our team has reviewed your content, and, unfortunately, we think it violates our medical misinformation policy,” YouTube posted Dec. 13 to the summit using boldface for the last three words.
YouTube noted that it had removed content on the panel discussion from the social media site’s platform.
YouTube gave a vague explanation about why YouTube removed the content. “YouTube doesn’t allow claims about COVID-19 vaccinations that contradict expert consensus from local health authorities or the World Health Organization.”
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. “will get a strike and you won’t be able to do things like upload, post, or live stream for 1 week.”
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.
“The video you appealed was reviewed and determined to be in violation of our Community Guidelines pertaining to COVID-19 medical misinformation,” YouTube staffer wrote. “YouTube does not allow content that spreads medical misinformation that contradicts local health authorities’ or the World Health Organization (WHO) medical information about COVID-19.”
Again, the YouTube staffer did not clarify which speaker’s comments about vaccines reportedly violated its policy.
Lindsay spoke out about the COVID-19 vaccines during the panel “gene therapies.” (Although many contest this claim because the vaccines use mRNA, which doesn’t interact with a person’s 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.)
He also stated that American women have seen an increase of stillbirths and miscarriages due to vaccines.
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’t relax “if the vaccine efficacy has plummeted.”
YouTube’s owner, Google, didn’t respond. The Daily Signal‘s multiple requests for comment on the banned video.
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’s Marriage and Religion Institute Director Pat Fagan; and Jay Richards, director of Heritage’s Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family, among others.
YouTube didn’t flag videos featuring Bhattacharya and Kulldorff, who were leaders of the anti-lockdown Great Barrington Declaration, 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.
“We are shocked and disappointed that YouTube refused to post our video that featured some of the country’s leading scientists and physicians and high-level government officials,” A spokesperson Restoring our Faith Vermont The Daily Signal.
Restoring Our Faith Vermont is an organization that encourages Americans to return biblical and moral principles. It was founded following the October summit’s success.
“Three 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,” The spokesperson said more. “Freedom 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. Our organization will fight to protect these freedoms despite this setback.”
“YouTube’s ban of my talk once again demonstrates the censorious, arbitrary, and authoritarian tendencies of Big Tech,” Heritage’s Severino told The Daily Signal. “Ironically, my talk was on the censorious, arbitrary, and authoritarian tendencies of our government during the pandemic, especially with respect to violations of religious freedom.”
“I wish I knew exactly what triggered YouTube’s ire, but they remain imperiously vague,” He added. “It is Kafkaesque to be placed in YouTube jail and not be told what the alleged crime was or even who committed it.”
“Was it me, a fellow panelist, or both?” Severino asked. “If it wasn’t 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.”
David Gortler, a pharmacologist and scholar at the Ethics and Public Policy Center who previously served on the Food and Drug Administration’s senior executive leadership team, told The Daily Signal that the FDA abuses its own Vaccine Averse Event Reporting System, also called VAERS.
Gortler stated that the FDA welcomes input from Americans who have received vaccines through the Vaccine Averse Event Reporting System.
Gortler stated that some Americans have reported negative effects from the vaccine. “the FDA says, ‘technically, we haven’t verified every single one of these.’” He added, however, “that’s a lie because the FDA has made decisions based on the database.”
“They’re speaking out of both sides of their mouth,” Gortler said. “When they say a drug is safe, they’ll say there’s nothing in the VAERS database suggesting it isn’t. But when you record an adverse reaction, they dismiss it as unscientific.”
“This vaccine is so safe and effective, they’re still working from home to this day,” The pharmacologist laughed. “It’s like trying to make sense out of a fever dream.”
Gortler asked whether YouTube hires people with a medical background that are qualified to make decisions. “medical misinformation.”
“Do they have pharmacologists, FDA experts, geneticists on staff guiding their censorship decisions?” He asked. “What about drug safety epidemiologists or experts in Christian ministry who are trained biologists and/or public health experts?”
He asked: Are there government agencies? “100% infallible?”
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“These questions need answers from legitimate experts quoting objective and current findings in an open and transparent format such as [Florida Gov.] Ron Desantis’s grand jury investigation, not generic mainstream news ‘fact checkers,’ journalists parroting everything that still working-from-home HHS officials say,” Gortler stated in an email that he used italics to emphasize his point.
“Critical scientific thinking shows us that the federal government’s existing narrative is crumbling before our eyes,” He said. “Despite that, [first lady] Jill Biden is still encouraging Americans to get vaccinated in her New Year’s Day ‘tweet.’
Richards, the Heritage scholar who spoke at the event, also condemned YouTube’s move.
“It’s outrageous that YouTube has blocked video of this conference for ‘medical misinformation.’ I participated in the conference and attended the entire event,” Richards spoke to The Daily Signal.
“The 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,” Richards stated. “At this late date, it’s 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.”
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