Would We Have Been Better Off Just Getting A Placebo?

I’m referencing the introduction of the COVID-19 shots which were mandated in so many places. They were supposedly tested against a control group using a placebo. The rational for subjecting humanity to these shots is that they were supposedly more effective than a placebo. We’ve all seen charts like the ones below the relationship between death trends and the COVID-19 injections.

Other lethal adverse events number into the many millions.

The Journal Vaccine described the randomized clinical control of the mRNA shots in relation to placebo. “The Pfizer trial exhibited a 36 % higher risk of serious adverse events in the vaccine group.” In other words, the placebo may have posed fewer risks than the vaccine itself.

So what is a placebo? A placebo is an inert substance or procedure—such as a sugar pill, saline injection, or simulated surgery—that has no therapeutic effect on its own. Yet, under certain conditions, placebos can produce real physiological and psychological improvements in patients. This phenomenon is known as the placebo effect..

There is a real physiological and behavioral treatment effect that is produced by a person's expectations, beliefs or prior experiences with treatment. There are factors that lead to the constuction of healing scenarios that maximise positive effects (placebo) and minimize negative effect (nocebo) effects. This can be anything from the use of certain words, environment, appearance (doctor in a white coat), charismatic healer, expectation of a procedure and a likely positive result. The placebo effect is very real. Unfortunately, it’s often denigrated because people will say, “it’s all in the head”. It’s true actually because while the substance is inert, it triggers an effect in the patient’s central nervous system which initiates a process in being able to alleviate pain. After all pain is perceived in the brain.

From the Journal of Chiropractic and Manual Therapies in 2021:

“…most placebos are indeed inert and do not have an effect generated by the specific ingredient they are made of. For example, it is not the chalk or the sugar in a placebo pill that interacts in some molecular way with pain receptors to generate common and powerful placebo analgesic effects but rather the patient’s own central nervous system (CNS) that generates the analgesia. Here then, the placebo pill or intervention is merely a trigger, wrapped in contextual meaning that initiates an innate ability of the CNS to directly modulate ascending nociception.”

While many vaccines recommended by the CDC have been tested against inert placebos, others have only been tested against older vaccines. This presents a problem: if a new vaccine is only marginally safer than a previous one, that doesn’t mean it’s objectively safe. It just means it’s better by comparison.

For example, Moderna’s updated COVID-19 vaccine, mRNA-1283 (marketed as MNEXSPIKE), was tested against an earlier version of the vaccine—not against a placebo.

When evaluating any medical intervention, three questions are key:

1. What are the risks of the treatment?

2. What are the benefits?

3. Are there alternatives?

Were people given these options? Most weren’t.

Let’s explore cases where placebos performed just as well as the actual treatment, and what that might imply.

A controlled trial of arthroscopic surgery for osteoarthritis of the knee

In a well-known study, patients undergoing arthroscopic surgery for knee pain were divided into real and placebo groups. The placebo group underwent simulated surgery—skin incisions were made, but no instruments entered the knee joint.

“Outcomes after arthroscopic lavage or débridement were no better than those after a placebo procedure.”

“Conclusions: In this controlled trial involving patients with osteoarthritis of the knee, the outcomes after arthroscopic lavage or arthroscopic débridement were no better than those after a placebo procedure.”

Effect of Spinal Cord Burst Stimulation vs Placebo Stimulation on Disability in Patients With Chronic Radicular Pain After Lumbar Spine Surgery

This study in the Journal of the American Medical Association concluded the following:

“Among patients with chronic radicular pain after lumbar spine surgery, spinal cord burst stimulation, compared with placebo stimulation, after placement of a spinal cord stimulator resulted in no significant difference in the change from baseline in self-reported back pain–related disability.”

These were patients who continued to suffer pain following spinal surgery along one of the nerve roots emanating from the spine. The placebo was just as effective as the real treatment.

So it raises an important question; What If the Public Had Received Placebos Instead?

If people had received placebo COVID-19 injections—believing they were real—might outcomes have been better? I think so.

If the injections were sanctioned by health authorities and administered with full ritual (white coats, official forms, a needle prick), many would believe they were protected. The psychological and behavioral placebo effects might have taken hold without the potential for adverse physical effects.

This would still reinforce the belief in vaccines as miraculous tools? However, at least fewer people would have experienced harm.