Live from Music Row Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed former New York Times reporter and author of the new book, Pandemia, Alex Berenson to the newsmakers line to discuss his book and discuss the efficacy of masks, vaccines, and lockdowns.
Leahy: We’re joined on a newsmaker line now by Alex Berenson, author of Pandemia: How Coronavirus Hysteria took over our Government Rights and Lives. This morning. Alex, you’re at number 80 on the Amazon is on list of bestsellers. Congratulations.
Berenson: Well, thank you. Thank you.
Leahy: Alex. How did somebody with your strong academic background and a graduate of Horace Mann School in New York, Yale University. Then you went on to The New York Times to be a science writer. At what point did you decide that you had to report the truth because it’s not coming from all these institutions?
Berenson: Sure. It’s funny because I really am, as I like to say, although it’s not really a joke, a class traitor, and that I did work for The Times, mainly covering the drug industry for close to 10 years. And I think that has led to a lot of anger at some of these institutions towards me because I have not toed the line.
I think as I write impending that the lockdowns were a mistake that mass there’s very little scientific evidence. And now we’re having sort of battle royale about vaccines and whether or not it makes sense to force people to take this shot when there’s, unfortunately, now, after a year, we’ve seen very little evidence that it’s doing much good on a societal basis.
Maybe it’s protecting some people. But if you look at the big results all over Europe and in the United States, the vaccines seem to have efficacy that fails very quickly. And honestly, I have been throughout this for the last two years and this is really what Pandemia is all about just follow the data wherever I can.
And I was banned from Twitter a few months ago, which is hard for me to believe, because I’m not a conspiracy theorist and I’ve never written anything that isn’t backed by science, scientific evidence. But the societal pressure around the coronavirus and now around vaccines is like nothing I’ve ever seen before.
Leahy: You talk about that societal pressure. It’s led to your banning on Twitter. I, by the way, subscribe to your sub-stack email. So how do people get on that, by the way?
Berenson: Well, thank you so much. The sub-stack is called Unreported Truths, and it’s a newsletter platform that’s called sub-stack, which just really started a couple of years ago. It’s just really taken off this year because the corporate media has really turned into this one voice.
And so people like Glenn Greenwald or people like Matt Kibbe, people who are not necessarily Conservatives but who are independent thinkers, are finding themselves reaching directly to readers. But anyway, you can go to sub-stack.
And if you type in either my name Alex Berenson or Unreported Truths, you will find it there. And here’s what I tell people. You can sign up for free or you can pay. The product is basically the same.
You get, like an extra story a week if you pay, but it’s essentially the same thing. And the reason I do that is what matters to me is that people see what I have to say. That’s more important to me right now than having the largest possible paid audience. I want the largest audience.
Leahy: Alex, I chose to pay because I want to support your work. Question, true or false? Face masks have little or no efficacy in stopping the transmission of COVID-19?
Berenson: They have no efficacy. I’d say the evidence is essentially clear on that. Now we’re not talking about N-95. So an N-95 is a respirator. A hospital grade mask to wear properly. You actually have to do what’s called a fit test.
And those may have some use, but most people don’t wear those. They’re sort of uncomfortable. They’re expensive. Outside hospital settings, most people don’t wear those. If you’re wearing a bandana or a cloth mask or even a surgical mask, it is not doing you any good against COVID-19 or the flu. Here’s what’s so fascinating. This wasn’t even a debate before March 2020.
And the conclusion that I’ve come to which I talk about in Pandemia, is the reason the public health establishment wanted us all to wear masks is that masks are frightening.
Masks are a symbol that we are in a dangerous moment and that there’s something dangerous going on and that you need to listen to the people telling you to stay inside. And that’s why they pushed masks. Not because masks work.
Leahy: Here’s another question for you, Alex. True or false? Vaccine efficacy declines dramatically after six months?
Berenson: Oh, that’s absolutely true. I don’t even think that’s why they’re pushing boosters. Why else make people get a booster shot if the vaccine is continuing to work? Yes. Pandemia has some information about vaccines. Unfortunately, I believe I’m going to have to write another book just about the vaccine.
Leahy: Here’s another true or false. Lockdowns are virtually useless?
Berenson: I think the evidence is that as we conducted them in the U.S., locked downs were virtually useless. Now, if you’re in China and you can literally lock down a city of 10 million people and have the army deliver food or not let anybody outside of their house.
And you can combine that with a total border closure as they did in New Zealand, for example, and you can keep that up for months and months, then you can suppress transmission of the virus. But eventually, you have to let people go out and it comes back. And by the way, in the U.S., we never had a lockdown like that.
Leahy: Exactly. Last question for you, Alex, is, I know you’re very busy. Book published November 30th. What has surprised you most since the publication of your book in this past week?
Berenson: People really want to book. You said it was number 80 but last week it was in the top 20 on Amazon. I think it’ll probably go back up this week with the publicity. There is a desperation for facts out there. Here’s the thing.
We’ve all lived through this the last two years but it’s happened so fast and there’s been so much of it that the one thing about writing a book or that reading a book like this is it gives you the sweep of what’s happened.
And so you can say, wow, I remember that. I remember feeling lied to back in May 2020. Well, I was lied to. Here’s the evidence. And so the book provides that sweep. And people are really desperate. They’re desperate for some grounding.
Leahy: Alex Berenson, author of Pandemia: How Coronavirus Hysteria Took Over our Government Rights and Lives. Alex, will you come and visit us in Nashville? We broadcast from the same studio as Clay and Buck sometimes broadcast.
Berenson: I got to come see Clay and Buck. I got to come see Candace. And I think there’s, like a couple of other people in Nashville.
Leahy: And us, Alex!
Berenson: Of course. No; if I do, though, I will come down, I will visit.
Leahy: Sounds great.
Berenson: I promise.
Leahy: Alex, please come soon. And good luck with the book. Thank you so much for joining us today.
Berenson: Thank you.
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to the Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Alex Berenson” by Alex Berenson.
