Sam Harris says we got 'unlucky' COVID was benign because far more dead kids would have prevented vaccine skepticism

Neuroscientist and committed atheist Sam Harris launched into a series of hypotheticals in a recent appearance on John Wood Jr.'s "Uniting America" podcast, detailing the sorts of circumstances that would have justified the kind of blind acceptance of new vaccines and coercive pandemic protocols he apparently would otherwise have favored.

Harris — who previously suggested that evidence of "corpses of children in [Hunter Biden's] basement" on the first son's controversial laptop would not have warranted his concern — noted on the Thursday podcast that vaccine skepticism would not have been permissible "if kids were dying by the hundreds of thousands from COVID."

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there were 634 COVID-19 deaths in the 0-4 age group and 986 COVID-19 deaths in the 5-18 age group between January 2020 and January 2023, out of a total 1,095,149 reported COVID-19 deaths.

In June 2021, the Wall Street Journal reported on a British study that found that 99.995% of 469,982 children in England who had been infected with the virus survived.

The fact that this virus claimed so few kids' lives meant that despite governments' best efforts to control the narrative around vaccinations and to stress the importance of adherence to pandemic customs, they lacked the needed emotional leverage to ensure conformity.

Had reality complemented Harris' hypothetical, whereby kids were majoritively dying from the virus rather than vulnerable geriatrics and older Americans with multiple comorbidities, "we would have had a very different experience."

The neuroscientist suggested that a death rate of 1% for kids might have prompted his preferred response.

"And the patience, there would've been no f***ing patience for vaccine skepticism, right? And everyone would've recognized: This is not 'my body, my choice.' This is 'you're not gonna kill my kids with your ignorance,'" said Harris.

The "'I'm just asking questions' routine would have not gotten anyone anywhere worth going," he added.

Since the pandemic did not kill kids at the rate Harris contemplated, America allegedly missed out on an "immensely clarifying" tragedy.

Harris argued, "In some sense we got unlucky at how benign this was and how mysterious it could yet seem because you can run the argument: Well, did he die from COVID or with COVID? He was eighty years old."

"I'm not saying I wish for those things," Harris said retroactively.

"But had those things been in place, I just don't think we would've witnessed the same kind of shattering of our society around this particular variable."

Harris, who previously claimed that former President Donald Trump "is a worse person than Osama bin Laden," bemoaned the fact that vaccine skeptics — whom he characterized as "people who were obviously unwell and unbalanced, professionally and mentally" — were provided with platforms on which to exercise their free speech.

He claimed that evolutionary theorist Bret Weinstein, one such "skeptic," had been "colossally irresponsible" for his podcasts discussing the pandemic and possible medical responses.

"I have no doubt that people died as a result of [Weinstein's] efforts to just get to the truth," Harris argued. "I would bet everything I own ... if that's the case."

Harris previously castigated Weinstein for asking questions, saying, "We're in the middle of a pandemic. There is no compelling reason, at this point, to be worried about these vaccines."

Weinstein responded to Harris on Twitter, suggesting that the neuroscientist erroneously assumes that "our institutions ~function" and that "we all work from the same information set."

Weinstein added, "Captured institutions deliver unreliable information including outright lies. Sorting signal from noise is the skill that separates us. Covid is our wakeup call."

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Reimagining the Project of Persuasion with Sam Harris - Ep 1youtu.be