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Mark Brody's avatar

Very cogently argued defense of germ theory. Your essay is missing a few things, which I hope you can put in your next essay. First, the scientific evidence showing viral transmission is the cause of viral infection. Second, scientific evidence for purified samples of viruses.

It is my understanding that the "no-virus" people have been mischaracterized in what is in all a likelihood a psy-op which attempts to make them look ridiculous by imputing that they claim viruses don't exist. Having read through this literature, including works by Cowan, Kaufman, Lanza, Samantha Bailey, Mark Bailey, and others, these individuals are merely exposing the gaps in the science supporting the viral contagion theory. Far from claiming that viruses "don't exist" as has often been incorrectly ascribed to them, most of them usually take a more measured perspective, saying that viruses have not been "proven" scientifically to exist. Some admittedly go to far, but most stick to the science. The failure of viruses to satisfy Koch's or Rogers' criteria is dismissed out of hand by the pro-virus crowd. Personally, as you may suspect, I myself take an agnostic view of viruses -- namely that they have neither been proven to exist nor not to exist. I'm in favor of better science offering superior evidence than we now have. I do confess that viral infection makes a great theory, and explains a lot. I do not have a better explanation. Nor do the virus skeptics. However, the ignorance of one side is not proof that the other side is correct. Scientific evidence must be the final arbiter.

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Daniel's avatar

Reading Baaijen's article confirmed my belief that there is no evidence for the existence of viruses, though I would have to read up on the tabacco virus. Baaijen' presents stories about contagion that bear all the marks that are typical of narrative evidence. Mike Stone, for example, in https://mikestone.substack.com/p/the-wonder-twins writes that he and his twin never experienced contagion, while admitting that this is just narrative. Nothing in what Baaijen writes provides evidence for the existence of viruses with a genome of some 30000 nucleotides. There could be tons of alternative explanations for what he presents as evidence. I don't understand how one can, as Mark Brody does, find this article 'cogently argued'. To me this sounds more like a medical doctor just repeating what he learned as a student. PS. Baaijen's article is sloppy in presenting the opponent's view. He writes: 'The proponents claim - with great conviction and certainty - to have absolute scientific proof that pathogenic germs either do not exist, or play no causal role'. Where have you read that? The ones that I have read just claim that there is no evidence for the existence of viruses. For example Denis Rancourt: 'I am sympathetic to the view that human-contagious-disease-causing viruses have not been demonstrated to exist. So far, these demonstrations have not convinced me, despite my earnest study.' https://denisrancourt.substack.com/p/germ-theory-critical-excess

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