As Anthony Fauci's 50-year reign comes to an end, the fawning media will canonize him for masterminding the COVID-19 pandemic response.  In a radical departure from evidence-based medicine, he advocated the imposition of widespread economic lockdowns, the disregard of informed consent, the suppression of diverse medical opinion, the masking of children, the repudiation of natural immunity's protective role in combating infectious disease, and the medical profession's obsequious surrender to the pharmaceutical industry.  These are the actions of a zealot, whose directives could not be implemented without disciples like Lloyd Austin, the procrustean Secretary of Defense.

From its nascence, the compulsory COVID-19 military vaccination program has been controversial.  As the virus has evolved rapidly over the past two years to a mild disease that rarely causes severe symptoms in young healthy cohorts, many members of the armed services rightly question the wisdom of the mRNA vaccine mandate.  The "vaccine" protects against neither acquisition nor transmission of the disease, and its adverse effects, both present and future, are becoming more apparent.  At what point does common sense prevail, where Austin acknowledges the program's high risk-to-benefit ratio and its detrimental effect on recruitment and retention of military personnel?

The secretary rules by caprice, and emulates Fauci by standing on opinion, the lowest level of medical evidence. Yet he insists on the highest standards of medical evidence for those who propose otherwise.  As data accumulates demonstrating the futility of his dictate, the secretary counters with anecdotes, as he did with his most recent COVID illness and its recrudescence after taking Paxlovid.  His justification rests on the unprovable supposition that his doctor told him that the outcome would have been worse if he had not taken the drug.  An argument based on petitio principii, where personal assumptions establish the conclusion, serves as a standard gambit by Fauci and Austin alike.                   

Members of the armed services have much in common with Sisyphus, the Greek mythological King of Corinth, who was banished to Hades, where Zeus subjected him to ceaseless torment for the audacity to defy unquestioned authority. The king was obliged to push a massive boulder to the top and over a hill to atone for his transgressions and earn his freedom, only to have it near the top but return to the bottom for another attempt. Zeus preferred perpetual punishment to rapprochement.    

Like the symbolic Sisyphus of ancient Greece, his modern counterparts are victims of repression.  But unlike Sisyphus, they are heroic figures, who are abused for their virtues, patriotism, and commitment to the truth.  To rely on the scientific method or measured analysis marks one as a modern-day Sisyphus.  Despite the preponderance of expanding evidence refuting Lloyd Austin's COVID-19 proclamations, his response never varies — he makes the boulder heavier with each succeeding criticism of the mandate.  

Austin appears incapable of understanding that the recruitment crisis affecting the armed forces and all United States military academies is at least in part related to the COVID-19 vaccine policy.  The expulsion of seven upper-class cadets from the Coast Guard Academy (USCGA) is the latest example of his heavy-handed policy. 

In a press release this past week, STARRS, one of the few nationally based organizations defending members of the military who refuse to receive the vaccine for medical or religious reasons, reported the USCGA's plans to discharge seven cadets for failure to receive the vaccine.  On August 31, with their legal options exhausted and little time to make future plans, the cadets were expelled.  They were escorted to the gate like common criminals without money or travel arrangements and, in some cases, no place to live.    

Honor and integrity are indispensable for maintaining public trust.  Every lie, spin, or quibble compounds the difficulty of restoring trust gained over generations.

Dr. Pierre Kory, author of The Miracle Not Heard Around the World, details the Uttar Pradesh ivermectin success story.  He gives a testament to the province's chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, a man reputed for integrity and honesty.  Without the minister's intolerance of corruption and his ability to withstand the financial enticements offered by the pharmaceutical industry, the state of Uttar Pradesh with its 233 million people in the impoverished country of India could not have achieved its remarkable medical triumph against COVID-19.  There are few world leaders of his character who display the courage to withstand withering political pressure and act in the best interest of those they serve.  

Secretary Austin has much to learn from Uttar Pradesh's chief minister.  Intransigence and pride are no substitute for one's responsibility to care for the needs of those in the armed forces.  It is time to lighten Sisyphus's load and allow the boulder to be pushed over the precipice. 

Image: Franz von Stuck.