The Tragedy of Judy Mikovits
As much as I want to dismiss Plandemic and its fans, I see their need. Covid-19 has thrown us all into the stages of grief. The video can be debunked, mocked and removed, but its fans still hunger for comforting lies. Better to think that nefarious agents are creating false flags than admit to a reality where a highly infectious virus can kill them and everyone they love.
The Plandemic star Dr. Judy Mikovits fills this particular need well. She’s not just a walking Dunning-Kruger effect. Her academic credentials are impeccable. Her PhD thesis helped to control HIV contamination. Before 2009, Dr. Mikovits was a legitimate scientist. From her doctoral thesis in HIV-1 to her work with XMRV, she was one of the most respected experts in retrovirus transmission. In 2009, she published a peer-reviewed paper establishing correlation between XMRV and chronic fatigue syndrome. The paper represented not just the culmination of years of hard work. It also opened up a wealth of possibilities including treatment, prevention and even a vaccine.
Two years later, her career effectively ended.
Dr. Mikovits was part of the task force, headed by Dr. Anthony Fauci, which failed to replicate the results. She stood next to Fauci at the press conference. This shouldn’t have been a problem. Soon thereafter, the original paper was retracted for poor quality control and omission of crucial information. Was Dr. Mikovits at fault? Did she alter the data? Did she not pay attention and ignore honest mistakes in the rush to publish? Who knows? Regardless, in a few months she saw years of hard work destroyed.
The next year she was arrested for stealing from Whittemore Peterson Institute. Whittemore didn’t press charges. Upon leaving jail, she couldn’t find employment in legitimate organizations, so she turned to the cranks. Her retrovirus authority became a liability. She began to apply it to everything. She found retroviruses in corn and soy. She claimed the retroviruses were in 30% of vaccines. At first, she had one thing in common with conspiracy theorists. She didn’t want to attribute her misfortune to personal failings or bad luck. Better to be a martyr. In this context, Dr. Fauci became Judas to her Christ.
Within the crank science and anti-vaxx communities she was never more than a minor celebrity. She didn’t have a punchy autism story. She didn’t just fear “chemicals”. RFK jr. wasn’t even in her speed dial. Covid-19 gave her the opportunity to grab the spotlight. Suddenly her rants against Dr. Fauci found an enthusiastic audience among gun toting manicure enthusiasts. Like James Watson and Peter Duesberg before her, she leveraged her professional reputation for a dubious celebrity.
I have no interest in debunking the Plandemic video. It’s been debunked. Instead, I want to take a moment and consider the sad life of Judy Mikovits, a woman who spent decades studying retroviruses. She entered her graduate program when AIDS was still an automatic death sentence and she helped to limit its effects. In a better world, she would be adding to the knowledge base in Lancet and other peer reviewed journals. Her research would help save lives. She would be mentoring the next generation.
Instead her professional reputation is destroyed and all of her potential lost.
None of this excuses her behavior.
Her life is sad, but she chose to deal with her disappointment by spreading dangerous misinformation. Emmanuel Levinas stated that with effort one may forgive individual Nazis but one should not forgive Heidegger. Other Nazis joined for different reasons. Heidegger volunteered his academic authority to the Nazi cause. Judy Mikovits is the current Heidegger of the Covid-19 Truther movement and before she sinks back into obscurity her stupid video will kill thousands. Not only will her fans get infected, but they will infect others — many of whom are actually taking precautions.
One can be sad about the vagaries of fate that led Dr. Mikovits to her choices, but like any terrorist, she still made those choices. Understanding does not mean forgiveness. Should she survive this year, we should never let her forget that she helped to kill thousands because she was too arrogant to admit fault.