Wood House 76

No real pushback, just capitulation disguised as dissent

Dr Jonathan Engler, Jessica Hockett PhD, & Prof Martin Neil

Originally published to Sanity Unleashed on 27 June 2025. Republished on Wood House 76 on 19 August 2026, with links & references listed and with two additional notes.

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Surveying the landscape of current COVID-related events and conversations, we see three persistent problems with the pandemic narrative that nobody wants to address.

Each one is related to the use and mis-use of PCR testing.

1. The “appearance” of a novel pathogen causal of a new disease.

In a discussion this morning on X, Jonathan pointed out that even if PCR protocols and the sequencing of found things is an entirely valid science, the pandemic narrative not only presumes a one-to-one relation between pathogen and illness (i.e., this detected entity is alone in causing a new disease), but also that nasopharyngeal swabbing is relevant to any serious illness in the lungs.*

A short article on these same points and associated studies can be found here.

A longer piece by the three of us and Norman Fenton plumbs the depths of the topic further:

Whodunnit? {unabridged} [Republication]

2. The “disappearance” of influenza

Yesterday Robert Malone (now an ACIP member) asked a CDC representative about the sudden and prolonged “disappearance” of influenza. We do not for one moment think that Dr Malone is anything other than fully committed to preserving the need for “pandemic preparedness” and view his asking of the question entirely “scripted” and “theatrical”.

NEW: The "paradoxical" disappearance of flu.

Remember when the Flu magically disappeared in 2020/21?

Robert Malone MD asks at todays ACIP meeting if the CDC know why:"Does the CDC have hypotheses that they can share regarding the paradoxical [sudden] decrease in a burden of… pic.twitter.com/ZI0GkONIs7

— Humanspective (@Humanspective) June 26, 2025

The response from Vivien Dugan, director of the CDC influenza division, is predictably nonsensical. She basically claimed that reduced contact and other NPIs caused the disappearance (only) of other respiratory pathogens, seemingly relying on the notion that “SARS-CoV-2” wiped out all other causes of influenza-like illnesses.

Why the “new virus” didn’t manage to defeat its “competitors” until countries deployed mass testing for it is never explained but is an important concept to grasp since, in our view and as Jonathan articulated in this article, flu “had” to vanish in order for the “new virus” to seem very powerful, in need of special treatments and a shot.**

Human interference in the form of shifts in testing priorities and directives given to hospitals and doctors are obvious culprits of the disappearing act. See here for a whole series of articles on the “vanishing flu” trope.

The role of various SARS-CoV-2 and RVP (Respiratory Viral Panel) tests must also be investigated. Same goes for the expansion of flu surveillance and shifts in coding pneumonia deaths, apparent in U.S. data, which Jessica probed in the article below.

Yes, the CDC Lies About Flu Deaths (Just Like COVID)

3. Pandemic propagation

Also from the ACIP meetings: A CDC staffer gave a presentation with a message to the effect of “everything is fine with the covid vaccines”.

Children’s Health Defense reported that ACIP committee members pushed back hard against this claim. In our view, they did no such thing. As Jonathan stated via Substack Note, the “pushback” was incredibly muted and no one is questioning whether a new disease came into existence, or whether it can be reliably or meaningfully diagnosed via PCR test.

By avoiding any criticism of the PCR test as the basis for propagating and maintaining the state of pandemicity, the ACIP took great care to only push back within the constraints of what we’ve termed “permitted dissent”. (Explanation and examples here.)

It’s truly incredible that we’re at the end of June 2025 and it is still considered “out of bounds” to question whether a pandemic declaration was justified at all.

What others see as pushback, we see as capitulation — and therefore cannot agree (with this article, for example) that pressure is being applied or “dialed up”.

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Works Linked or Referenced

• Engler, J. (2025, June 27). “Post regarding pathogen detection and illness.” X.
• Engler, J. (2024, March 29). “The pathogens causing lung infections cannot be reliably determined by swabbing the nose and/or throat.” Sanity Unleashed.
• Neil, M., Hockett, J., Engler, J., & Fenton, N. (2023, August 30). “Whodunnit? {unabridged}.” Where Are the Numbers?
• Humanspective. (2025, June 26). “Robert Malone questions CDC Influenza Division director Vivien Dugan about the disappearance of influenza.” X.
• Engler, J. (2024, June 21). “The ‘disappearing flu’ trope is important for the pandemic narrative. How robust is the story?”Sanity Unleashed.
• Hockett, J. (2023, March 15). “In my opinion, the 2019–20 flu season did not come to an abrupt end due to viral interference.” X.
• Neil, M., Engler, J., & Fenton, N. (2023, May 11). “Sensors set to Off: Did COVID-19 quarantines hide the flu?” Where Are the Numbers?
• Neil, M., & Fenton, N. (n.d.). “Vanishing Flu.” Where Are the Numbers?
• Brennan-Krohn, T. (2020, March 2). “Making sense of respiratory viral panel results.” American Society for Microbiology.
• Hockett, J. (2025, February 18). “Yes, the CDC lies about flu deaths (just like COVID).” Wood House 76.
• Baletti, B. (2025, June 25). “ACIP members push back on CDC’s COVID vaccine safety claims.” The Defender.
• Engler, J. (2025, June). “Note regarding the ACIP’s purported ‘pushback.’” Sanity Unleashed.
• Hockett, J., Engler, J., & Neil, M. (2025, May 28). “False binaries that ‘limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion’ in the COVID-19 debate and perpetuate lies told by the Powers That Be (Part 2).” Wood House 76.
• Demasi, M. (2025, June 27). “All eyes on ACIP: New vaccine panel dials up pressure on the CDC.” MD Reports.

Hockett Notes (19 August 2026):

* These and related points were explained to us quite well by Dr Norman Pieniazek in our recorded conversation with him in October 2023. Relevant segments at 21:15-23:20 and 38:55-41:00.

**In addition to making a similar point, Flu, Interrupted noted that NPI/VI theories tend to dismiss or disallow malfeasance of any kind. This would include the failure to investigate anomalous data. For example, by January 2021, the Chicago Department of Public Health was reporting zero positive influenza tests out of more than 10,000 tests administered. No false positives make no sense, nor does the failure of local, state, and federal agencies, such as the CDC, to exercise intellectual integrity and conduct honest inquiries into the tests themselves.