April 2026 Open Covid Post (was: Open (More or Less) Post on Covid 238)

[ecosophia]

We are now well into the fifth year of these open posts. When I first posted a tentative hypothesis on the course of the Covid phenomenon, I had no idea that discussion on the subject would still be necessary all these years later, much less that it would turn into so lively, complex, and troubling a conversation. It has been quite a wild ride, all things considered. 

That said, comments on these open posts have been declining for some time now, and last week's post got well under 50 comments. Thus I think it's time to have a conversation about where to go from here. It may be that going to one post a month would do a better job of fostering conversation; it may be that these posts have served their purpose, all that needed to be said has been said, and it's time to move on to other things. I'll look forward to your ideas. 

For the time being, though, it's time for another open post. The rules are the same as before:

1. If you plan on parroting the party line of the medical industry and its paid shills, please go away. This is a place for people to talk openly, honestly, and freely about their concerns that the party line in question is dangerously flawed and that actions being pushed by the medical industry and its government enablers are causing injury and death on a massive scale. It is not a place for you to dismiss those concerns. Anyone who wants to hear the official story and the arguments in favor of it can find those on hundreds of thousands of websites.

2. If you plan on insisting that the current situation is the result of a deliberate plot by some villainous group of people or other, please go away. There are tens of thousands of websites currently rehashing various conspiracy theories about the Covid-19 outbreak and the vaccines. This is not one of them. What we're exploring is the likelihood that what's going on is the product of the same arrogance, incompetence, and corruption that the medical industry and its wholly owned politicians have displayed so abundantly in recent decades. That possibility deserves a space of its own for discussion, and that's what we're doing here. 
 
3. If you plan on using rent-a-troll derailing or disruption tactics, please go away. I'm quite familiar with the standard tactics used by troll farms to disrupt online forums, and am ready, willing, and able -- and in fact quite eager -- to ban people permanently for engaging in them here. Oh, and I also lurk on other Covid-19 vaccine skeptic blogs, so I'm likely to notice when the same posts are showing up on more than one venue. 

4. If you plan on making off topic comments, please go away. This is an open post for discussion of the Covid epidemic, the vaccines, drugs, policies, and other measures that supposedly treat it, and other topics directly relevant to those things. It is not a place for general discussion of unrelated topics. Nor is it a place to ask for medical advice; giving such advice, unless you're a licensed health care provider, legally counts as practicing medicine without a license and is a crime in the US. Don't even go there.

5. If you don't believe in treating people with common courtesy, please go away. I have, and enforce, a strict courtesy policy on my blogs and online forums, and this is no exception. The sort of schoolyard bullying that takes place on so many other internet forums will get you deleted and banned here. Also, please don't drag in current quarrels about sex, race, religions, etc. No, I don't care if you disagree with that: my journal, my rules. 

6. Please don't just post bare links without explanation. A sentence or two telling readers what's on the other side of the link is a reasonable courtesy, and if you don't include it, your attempted post will be deleted.

7. Please don't post LLM ("AI") generated text. This is a place for human beings to talk to other human beings, not for the regurgitation of machine-generated text. Also, please don't discuss large language models (the technology popularly and inaccurately called "artificial intelligence" these days) except as they bear directly on the Covid phenomenon. Here again, my finger is hovering over the delete button. 

Please also note that nothing posted here should be construed as medical advice, which neither I nor the commentariat (excepting those who are licensed medical providers) are qualified to give. Please take your medical questions to the licensed professional provider of your choice.

With that said, the floor is open for discussion.

Edit 14 April 2026: The votes are in, and a very substantial number of regular commenters have asked that this forum continue on a once-a-month basis. I've therefore changed the title of the post, and a new one of these will be going up at or near the beginning of each month. I'm also willing to consider modest changes in the rules, though the basic rules outlined above will remain in place -- no shilling for Big Pharma, no AI slop, no rudeness, and so on. 

I want to thank everyone who commented on how this forum helped them get through the Covid-driven era of cognitive collapse, btw. It did the same thing for me, for what it's worth -- knowing that there were other people out there who didn't either rent out their brains to Pfizer's marketing department, on the one hand, or start babbling about space lizards on the other, was very welcome.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Oof, only 33 comments in the previous Open Post on covid.

[ecosophia]

Exactly -- thus my concern that these open posts may have finished their work.

Amazake

[michele7]

For those of you who eat natto (see all the previous threads about natto and Covid), you may want to try enjoying Amazake. Amazake is a Japanese fermented rice beverage. In Japan amazake is known as drinkable IV. Some research shows amazake helps with constipation, skin issues, immune issues and fatigue. You can buy rice koji online and culture your own amazake with just cooked rice and a method to keep the rice mixture warm for 8 hours. The result is a naturally sweet rice porridge that can be eaten as is, watered down to make a drink or used in making sweets.

I actually created my own rice koji using medium grain rice and koji kin (Aspergillus Oryzae). Then I made the amazake from the fresh rice koji. Delicious!

Here's a good how to recipe:
https://www.chopstickchronicles.com/amazake/

Please be aware that there are two different types of amazake. Rice koji amazake uses just the rice koji and rice. Sakekasu amazake uses the leftover lees from the sake making process and sugar.

[lunchboxbike]

You could do a weekly or monthly decline post or open post here instead of at the other blog, and let covid settle into the background as one of many issues.

Here is my vote

[(Anonymous)]

This open post kept me sane while my job was threatened, one of my kids basically disowned me (and kept me from grandkids), and the world went crazy. But at this point, I don't think we need a separate Covid Open Post. Helpful info can be posted to the monthly open post. That said, I hope that when the powers that be do another operation like Covid, you will consider doing another special subject open post.
Thank you for providing the forum and moderating it. It has meant more that I can say. Blessings on you for the good that you have done with this.

[(Anonymous)]

Hello All:

Perhaps once a month would make sense. The issues don't seem as pressing as they once did. But the shots are still on the market and there hasn't been any kind of real reckoning. And of course, my friends are still sick.

I am grateful for the this covid conversation. It was especially helpful to know my husband and I weren't the only ones who thought the ongoing lockdowns and coerced injections were deeply wrong and very strange. This blog made disobeying my office's mandate and estrangement from extended family easier. I am still shocked all of my daughter's grandparents refused to see her because we wouldn't inject her.

This blog has in more recent time been helpful for hearing how every one is dealing with the fallout. Especially the illnesses and sudden deaths that are much more prevalent.


Heloise

238

[(Anonymous)]

Week 238

Dear JMG, and dear forumistas, thank you.

JMG, no matter what you decide to do about this forum please know that it has served truly as a lifeline for me, especially in the beginning weeks when there was so much censorship in the news and almost everywhere else online. A forum with clear guidelines and common sense moderation, but otherwise uncensored was, and is invaluable and, I do believe, unique.

I also very much appreciate being able to discuss issues with a group more open to the occult / metaphysical.

Regular commenters: I appreciate you!

In contrast to the early days of this forum, I now get most of my news and information elsewhere (my own curated list of sources), however the comments sections elsewhere tend to be a bit of a mosh pit, often plagued with rigid-minded Bible-quoters and bots. Here, by contrast, I can expect that another commenter might disagree with me, or correct me, but rude insults get, um, fed to Fido on the astral, and I thank you for that.

Your protecting us commenters from personal insults has been something very important for me. I'm no snowflake, however I recognized from the lockdowns in March 2020 that keeping my moods steady and cheerful was going to be crucial and, in such dark and strange times, not easy. And looking back now, after all these years, I would say, so much of "covid" really has been about assaulting the human spirit. I see some things differently now than I did in 2020, however, my early and continuing instinct to protect myself, and to come often here to this forum, I know was a wise one.

Right now I don't think I have anything to say or discuss about the covid shots and all things covidian that I haven't already. But of course, that could change.

I'll be curious to know what others say.

Perhaps you could keep it going as you have the Frugal Fridays?

Cetiosaurus

Re: 238 / ceteris paribus

[kallianeira]

As for others, the importance of this forum to me since its inception cannot be overstated. Even with the reduction in comments I'd feel quite at a loss were it to discontinue completely. In my circumstances there has been no viable replacement or succession for the regular information and opinion still provided here. My ongoing regular scavenging of comments has resulted in a homemade spreadsheet of resources which continues to grow almost every week as the discussion broadens organically and which I am pleased to be able to share with friends. I'd love the forum to continue on a monthly standing.
Thank you, JMG, whatever you decide.

Lack of trust

[(Anonymous)]

Please delete if to far out. Talking with people I have lived around for years no one is going to the doctor or ARNP for a wellness exam. If they get sick a trip to the urgent care center and then home. The middle east has folks who can afford it buying extra food and other items as if a hurricane was about to hit Florida. Other places I visit the old engine forum and radio forum have seen a drop in visits. People have been giving more to the food banks in the area a lot more. Blueberry

[thinking_turtle]

Thanks for doing these posts! A monthly version looks like a good option while the memory of Covid ebbs away. As an alternative the subject could be broadened to healthcare in general. Or the diseases that trigger preventive animal killings (like chicken pox.)

P.S. I will miss the weekly image!

Lurker Here

[(Anonymous)]

I don’t contribute to the discussion, but I read it every week. It helps me keep the fact that the government does not rule for the sake of the governed before my mind. It helps me hold the line when the pediatrician wants to give my son a chicken pox vaccine. It helps me remember how easily I was and can still be duped.

[slclaire]

I haven't commented much, but I have read some to all of the comments to most of the posts and learned a lot from them. What little trust I had in the medical industry has been lost as a result of the mess of the past five-plus years. Thanks to you, JMG, for providing this forum, and to those of you who comment for your thoughts and information. I feel more capable of handling my and my husband's health concerns as a result.

My suggestion is to experiment with a monthly format to see if it generates enough posts to be viable. If it doesn't, then the ask-me-anything post on the other blog could accept the posts that we would otherwise put here.

[(Anonymous)]

Pending relevant breaking news, my opinion is that a monthly post would be better at this time. This forum has certainly been a big emotional help to me, not only regarding COVID, but other related (directly or even peripherally) topics as well - a lot of dots have been connected, so to speak. Thank you JMG for providing a space where I could 'breathe'.

Thank you!!!

[(Anonymous)]

Dear John,
Thank you for these posts from the bottom of my heart. They were my main lifeline as a healthcare worker in California during the height of the vaccine hysteria. I was the only one unvaccinated among all my coworkers. Throughout 2021 and 2022, our facility had a poster by the entry, "We are 99% vaccinated". I knew exactly who this 1% was.
With deep gratitude,
Inna

[transcriberb]

Dear JMG,

Heartfelt thanks for hosting and also for moderating this forum. When it started in 2021 I was one of those in blue urban areas who were left almost completely isolated while it seemed everyone around me suddenly turned mad-to-get-jabbed.

I wasn't born yesterday, but it has been the shock of my life to watch almost everyone I know so easily take fright, accept and even actively promote censorship and medical fascism in general, and run to inject themselves with Dr. Fauci's who-know-whats-in-it Emergency Use Authorized cooties juice. Now so many of my family members and friends, almost all jabbed and abundantly boosted, have died or become disabled that I have lost count.

I really do not know that I could have coped as well as I have without this forum.

There is so much more I could say about this invaluable forum but I'll settle on this: that it gave me a place to post my first transcripts of suppressed videos (those counter to the official "narrative").

As you, JMG, know, but maybe some who are reading this do not, after quite a long while of posting here in 2021-2024, I finally figured out that the best way to proceed was to start my own dreamwidth blog with an adjunct Substack, the latter mainly to more easily accommodate the screenshots.

Over the past several years the archive of my transcripts has grown to nearly 1,000. I've limited the transcripts to those of video mainly circa 2021-2023, and to only certain topics, but the archive of transcripts wants to be what it wants to be, and that means I'll still be at this task for while yet.

If anyone wants to see what it's all about, I wrote an introductory essay, "What's This All About?"
https://transcriberb.dreamwidth.org/9102.html

The index, which is stll in-progress, is here:
https://transcriberb.dreamwidth.org/142176.html

And the Substack is "Transcriber B's Substack."
https://transcriberb.substack.com/

#   #   #

The main thing that jumps out at me now was— and is— the deadly effectiveness of the censorship. As early as 2021 I did manage to dig out and transcribe many crucial videos— and every video in the index I consider special in its way (else I wouldn't have bothered to transcribe it)— yet I am still, now in April of 2026, finding videos from even early 2021 that astonish me— mainly astonish me that I had not found them earlier, but for the clarity and power of speech of those who made them.

# # #

JMG, should you decide to move on from this forum, please know that it has meant more to me than I can say. I hope that you will consider continuing it, albeit perhaps on a less frequent basis. This forum may prove helpful yet, and in ways we all may not anticipate.

Commenters: thank you to all of you. Your comments have given me solace, information, and so much more.

[(Anonymous)]

Hi, transcriberb .
A few weeks back, towards the very end of a COVID open post, I asked if you had ever considered sharing the results of your archive at a Brownstone dinner. I suspect you never saw the question, because a new open covid post started very soon after I asked.

Perhaps you prefer to hang out in the shadows as I do, but I would love to see these get wider publicity, and a Brownstone dinner would be a very friendly terrain.

*Ochre Harebrained Curmudgeon*

[(Anonymous)]

A foray today into my local temple of Moloch, I mean, CVS Pharmacy, to pick up prescription meds for a family member.

The pharmacist had no information on the computer screen about Yours Truly, but she said to me directly, and chirpily, that my family member could get up-to-date very easily, right here at this very CVS, on a shingles shot, flu shot, pneumonia shot, and RSV shot.

No mention of a covid booster— although, on my way to the pharmacy counter, I did spot an eye-level shelf with little boxes of covid tests.

I took the occasion to practice my imitation of a Rapa Nui maoi statue.

[(Anonymous)]

The only good thing I have found at a Pharmacy(Walgreens) is canned Ham. Something they only carry in the winter months. Keep one in the car when traveling also good for camping shelf life around 4 years. I know this has nothing to due with Covid but is the only reason for going to the temple of Moloch. Blueberry

[hippieviking]

I haven't commented much lately but I just want to acknowledge how much of a help this forum was during that window where things went from their normal level of batshale to completely unhinged off in my little corner of the world. Thank you to all the commentors and to you JMG for your hosting.

HV

[quoadsacra]

Seconding - and thirding - all of the thanks expressed so far here.
This has been pretty much my last covid "watering hole". I also follow Alex Berenson on Twitter but that's about it.

It does feel as if the global narrative and our preoccupations are moving onto new things - although of course, none of the many issues that the covidian era raised, as well as the billions of dollars of debt and damage the lockdowns caused have been solved. They are simply morphing into something else.

Thanks to all who have shared this journey so far and to JMG for hosting.

Ceteris Paribus

[(Anonymous)]

It has taken these last six years to process the internal shocks of changes in my understanding of the world I have been living in. During the same span I have come to value more and more the healing and calming effects of regular communication with a small group of people who share a range of similar values to my own.

I could fancy a monthly opportunity to keep up the sharing but no longed focussed on sickness and lies, fighting and fear. Something more homely and encouraging and individual. Less of the mass and more of just us chickens.

Sharing whatever we have to offer of wisdom and knowledge and just plain fun. A kind of cross between a swap meet, a reader’s digest and a garden almanac: little tales and narratives of historical interest. Jokes. Recipes and tips. What some one did to help our home circle keep well and cheerful. A monthly theme could be drawn from the Druid year cycle, perhaps. Or dedicated to a saint or deific sphere.

It would also be nice to have brief notations of astrological and astronomical events. Or handy printable references such as conversion tables of measurements for cooking, that show equivalences in terms of weight AND volume, Metric AND English measures.

How sailors once used logarithmic tables in Celestial Navigation. A brief summary of Terrain Theory compared to Trad Chinese Medicine. How to stock a pantry. Coping with foxes in the neighborhood. How high is your Ham Radio antenna? How to train an ox to plow. Things of the past, things that work now.

If this might eventually be compiled into a book, the same permissions as are used in the Frugal Fridays could be applied. Or perhaps the Frugal Fridays will do well enough for this kind of sharing and no other forum is needed.

Trying to square the circle has an unovoidable outcome.

[(Anonymous)]

As you said, perhaps these Covid open posts have served their purpose. I can't tell you how important they were to me. My job was threatened, my marriage ended, I broke with a spiritual community I'd been part of for over 20 years, and most friends turned out to be NPCs. But there was always this forum to retreat to. It was like a weekly, virtual version of the solstice potlucks in Providence.

1) I hope arcanearchivist can post a final set of his Covid post archives.

2) I wish there was a way to keep in contact with quite a few people whose opinions I've really come to value, like stubborn_ass . I suppose the monthly open post is an option.

Thanks, JMG, and all of the regulars here.

*Ochre Harebrained Curmudgeon*

[transcriberb]

Ochre Harebrained Curmudgeon, who I appreciate so much, and others here on this forum, if you ever feel so moved to write, my contact info is on the "What This All About?" page on the Transcriber B site.

[scotlyn]

I concur with others that this series has been of significant benefit through rough and worrying times. And I thank you for all the work you yourself have put into hosting and moderating it.

It could become a monthly post, which might naturally broaden out (slightly, but naturally, to include:
1) broader discussions of various ways and means for taking charge of our own health and that of our families
2) broader discussions on the continuing prospect of "threats to health" being co-opted to justify policy over-reach inimical both to our civic responsibilities and to our civil rights.

[open_space]

That is one of my all-time favorite songs!

Next up, I recommend the albums "The Crime of the Century" and "Crisis, what crisis?"...

_Who are these men, of lust, greed and glory?Rip off the masks and let's see..._

[(Anonymous)]

Dear JMG:

Thank you very, very much for having hosted this weekly thread, and to you and all the commentariat for all your comments. I have gotten a ton of really helpful information and tips from here, which I continue to use in daily life (nattokinase, Niacin, the list goes on).

I agree with the idea of a monthly post, like Frugal Fridays has become. While the "noise" may have died down, stuff is still definitely going on-- I still hear emergency vehicle sirens multiple times a day where I am.

A note to everyone else who has Dreamwidth accounts-- JMG said a couple posts ago that his webhost is closing up shop by June 1. That would mean for everyone, not just him! Among other things, TranscriberB's invaluable collection of transcripts will need to find a new home also.

Thank you all very much, and I hope these conversations continue in the future.

- Cicada Grove

[ecosophia]

No, no, no -- it's the hosting company that features my blog at ecosophia.net, not Dreamwidth, that's shutting down! Your Dreamwidth access is, as far as I know, entirely secure for the time being.

I'm currently discussing things with a potential host for the blog, so everything should be fine.

[(Anonymous)]

Sen Johnson says staff untangling Biden 'coverup' of COVID vax injuries across millions of files

"We're just scratching the surface in terms of what they covered up," Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations chair says.

https://justthenews.com/government/congress/sen-johnson-says-staff-untangling-biden-coverup-covid-vax-injuries-across

yes i imagine this will take awhile..

Future of the Covid post and some reflections

[borealbear]

As another regular reader but very occasional commenter of these posts, I also think they've served their purpose and should be put to pasture at this point. I also very much appreciate that we had this forum to have civil discussions outside the narrative(TM), and I'd like to say "thank you" to both our host for taking on the workload and to the regulars here. A lifeline during those very strange days for sure. That said, these posts have felt like a relic of 2022 for a quite a while now, at least for me. Just about the only way I could see them becoming relevant again would be if one or more high-profile Covid lawsuits started up. So yes, all things have their time, and we still have the open posts for regular conversations with the group anyway (while the internet holds, of course).

I won't go on too much about my own personal Covid experiences, but like most here, seeing the societal meltdown was truly absurd and disturbing. For me the main takeaway has been that I have some sense now of how the totalitarian impulse starts, or what it must have been like to live in, say, East Germany. Please note that I'm *not* in any way saying people who took vaccines or supported Covid lockdowns are as bad or authoritarian as actual dictators, or that I think they want to install a dictatorship here or put us in camps (well, a small number actually did seem to want that, to be fair, but still). There's still an important difference between the West and "real" dictatorships both in degree and kind, even the gap has shrunk considerably. But I do think this was a real manifestation of the same impulse in a weaker form, the very primal "us or them", "are you with us or against us", tattle on your neighbor instinct. So in a way I'm grateful I got to experience a mild version of it without having to actually live through what many others have had to. I get it now, why places like East Germany happen. Or you could say it works as a vaccine against authoritarianism, in a way. :)

monthly posts

[(Anonymous)]

JMG and all,

I deeply appreciate these posts. I vote for trying once a month and seeing how that goes before ending them entirely.

I like the idea of also including discussion on health and related matters, but understand if our host doesn't want to open things up like that.

Monthly

[michele7]

I would love to see a monthly post like Frugal First Friday. I appreciate the fact that comments are threaded making it easier for us with no patience (or with ADD) to follow the topic without having to scroll up and down like on the other blog.

[tritumi]

With the cycle moving into a -what?- more enhanced energetic period (to apply a neutral description), I do not doubt that we will have perhaps more than enough to dwell upon. The resonance of Covid days will continue to echo in ways as various as the item itself upon body and psyche, individually and collectively.

Like any other history book on the shelf, there to inform the seeker, perhaps to comfort the infirm, and readdy to confirm the stalwart.

I have since 2020 kept quarterly folders of related links. My own obsession likely continues, now intertwined with what will be.