We Want Them Infected Podcast NEWSMAX with Bhattacharya: Incentives, Incidental COVID, and the Numbers Game
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Sep 20, 2025 The hosts dive into the media's sanitization of Charlie Kirk in light of pandemic narratives. They dissect early claims by John Ioannidis that shaped public discourse. The discussion highlights how ‘protect the vulnerable’ rhetoric emerged and evolved into today’s critiques of the CDC. They also address the personal emotional toll faced by healthcare professionals during the crisis, the impact of misinformation, and how past myths resurface in current rhetoric. The episode culminates in frustrations over colleagues who failed to challenge false narratives when it mattered most.
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How Doubt Seeded Pandemic Narratives
- John Ioannidis framed early COVID data as 'utterly unreliable' and used that to downplay risk.
- That doubt-seeding helped normalize narratives that later pushed 'protect the vulnerable' policies.
Undercount Prediction Versus Reality
- Jonathan recalls Ioannidis predicting fewer than 40,000 US deaths on April 9, 2020.
- Howard notes the U.S. had already surpassed 40,000 deaths when Ioannidis recorded his later clip.
Asymptomatic Claims Minimized Real Harm
- Claims that most infections were asymptomatic and IFR was ~0.1% minimized perceived harms in April 2020.
- Jonathan Howard argues those claims ignored overwhelmed hospitals and real suffering.
