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Why Challenging a Belief System Is Nearly Impossible

November 23, 2022

By Dr. Sherri Tenpenny | SubStack

In 2004, I was writing my book, “FOWL – Bird Flu Is Not What You Think” (out of print). The number of messages used to imbed the ‘necessity of the flu vaccine’ into our collective consciousness was massive.


Early in 2004, a presentation given at the National Immunization Program by the Associate Director for Communications at the CDC, Glenn Nowak, PhD, revealed the extent to which the media is used to force consumers into believing in the necessity of the flu shot.


The following stats were from 2004:

During the week of September 21–28, 2004, according to information provided by Dr. Nowak, the airwaves carried a whopping 1,056 messages—that’s approximately one every fifteen minutes—urging viewers or listeners to get their flu shots. The most intense reporting on influenza generally starts in early October and extends through mid-February, averaging 200 stories per week for 20 weeks. That’s at least 4,000 messages per season.

Endless stories of ‘flu shot delays’ and maps of influenza outbreaks amounted to free advertising for the manufacturers, with the unspoken subtext being ‘hurry, get your flu shot or you may die!’ Locations where flu shots could be obtained, such as churches, health departments, and local pharmacies — which are often announced on the local evening news — added to a free publicity bonanza for flu vaccine manufacturers.


The use of local television to promote flu vaccines amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars of essentially free advertising for the pharmaceutical manufacturers, among the wealthiest companies on earth. This prototype was launched and tested years before the same techniques were used to promote the Pfizer and Moderna Covid shots.


What types of messages were delivered? Here is a partial list, along with the number of times the message pierced the airwaves in 2004:


Number of messages per week (in parentheses)

  • Doctors recommend/urge flu shot (285)

  • The flu kills 36,000 per year (221)

  • This could be a bad/serious flu year (174)

  • Flu vaccine is the best defense against the flu (149)

  • Oct./Nov./Dec. is the best time to get the vaccine (117)

  • Now is a good time to get the flu vaccine (106)


The same fear-mongering, used year after year, continues throughout the fall until influenza vaccine sales peak and start to fall off in mid-February when the media’s hawking subsides as quickly as the spring’s melting snow.

Given this level of indoctrination, is it any wonder the average person views the flu shot as one of the most important ‘prevention tools’ for maintaining health? Is there any doubt what when a similar hype started regarding the Covid shots, people had already been conditioned to run out and get their shot? Is it any wonder that trying to convince people to NOT take an experimental shot that had no track record of safety or efficacy was as hard as convincing someone to NOT take a mercury-laden flu shot?

Why Changing a Belief System is Nearly Impossible


Research into how people process media reports sheds some light on why it so is difficult for people to change their “beliefs,” even in light of compelling information.


A 2003 study by cognitive Professor Stephan Lewandowsky from the University of Western Australia investigated the effects of retractions on people’s memories of and beliefs about events relating to the war in Iraq. The study is long, but worthy of your time to read it.


More than 800 people from three countries—Germany, Australia, and the U.S.—were shown a list of events reported by the media. Some of the events were completely true, some were reported as true and then retracted, and some were complete fabrications. Each study participant indicated whether or not he had heard of the event, and then rated the likelihood of it being true. For each report the individuals had recalled hearing, they were asked to note whether it had subsequently been retracted and if the recall changed their feeling about the original report.

The results of the study were both fascinating and telling. The more clearly the Germans and the Australians recalled that an event had been retracted, the less they believed the original claim had been true. However, if Americans recalled hearing the report, even once, they tended to believe it was true, even if it had been retracted or denied.

The study offers many strong points to ponder:

  • Why were false memories confined to a specific segment of the population rather than affecting everybody?

  • Can people who are susceptible to false memories be identified on the basis of some other measures?

  • Did the public in other societies around the world share the perceptions of the American public?

  • Finally, how might the incidence of such false memories be reduced?


An interview reported in 2005 in the Wall Street Journal with Dr. Lewandowsky further explained that people build “mental models” of what they believe is true.

“By the time they receive a retraction, the original misinformation has alreadybecome integrated into their mental model, or their world view. Dismissing what they had come to know as ‘true’ would leave their world in shambles.”

In other words, Americans continue to believe something is true or the truth, even after they have been shown unequivocally the information is false.


The study also supports what are referred to as ‘false memories.’ False memories are formed from a combining actual facts with opinions suggested by others. Over time, the person usually forgets the source of the original information, but s/he will come to believe the opinions that were added to the facts are also completely true. The more comfortable a person becomes with the ‘facts’ as they remember them—for example, that the Covid shots are safe, effective, and cause little harm—the less likely they are to even consider another point of view.


According to Lewandowsky’s study on Iraqi events, Americans are the most difficult to convince that they had been scammed. 


For example, even though no weapons of mass destruction were ever discovered, nearly 30 percent of U.S. respondents through most of the war still believed they existed despite mountains of evidence to the contrary.


This behavior, also called ‘confirmation bias,’ is embracing information that supports their beliefs and rejecting information that contradicts their beliefs.

For example, even though there have been more than 150 peer-reviewed studies proving unequivocally that masks don’t work, people are still wearing them and muzzing their kids. And even though many more people are dying with side effects caused by the shots than from a covid infection, people (especially Americans) are still lining up to get their boosters.

As Lewandowsky reported in 2005, “It appears Americans accept what they hear at face value, especially if they hear it from the television news.”


Fast forward to March 2020. His predictive statement has become prophetic.


This is why your friends and family don’t listen to your warnings about the Covid shot. I said from the beginning of this scamdemic, “Want to know the CURE for Covid? Turn off your TV.”


Reposted from the author’s Substack

Source Link: The Epoch Times

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