Two years into the pandemic, the confusion, contradictions and censorship that have plagued the response since the early days continues. January 24, 2022, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson moderated the COVID-19: A Second Opinion roundtable in Washington, D.C., to provide different perspectives on the pandemic response worldwide, the state of early treatment and hospital treatment and efficacy of COVID-19 shots.1
He asked listeners to keep an open mind during the nearly five-hour panel discussion, which, he pointed out, wouldn’t have been needed had the public been honestly informed during each step of the pandemic response.
“There’s so much we don’t know. I would have liked to see a much larger dose of modesty coming out of our federal health officials and the legacy media and Big Tech,” Johnson said. “We would be so much better off if there was robust debate and discussion.”2 That, however, did not occur, as an unprecedented assault on the freedom of speech and medical care took hold instead.
Only one narrative has been allowed to be heard during the pandemic; those who questioned it were discredited and ostracized, necessitating open meetings like this roundtable to discuss what went right, what went wrong and where to go from here.
The panel included an all-star lineup with some of the most brilliant minds in their fields. Nearly all of them have experienced censorship, intimidation or professional reprisal and damage as a result of their advocacy, Johnson said. If you can, tune in to the entire discussion, or at least the condensed 34-minute version Johnson posted online, which is below.3 I’ve also summarized some of the most important highlights to follow.
