What do you think?
Rate this book
The Contagion Myth: Why Viruses (including "Coronavirus") Are Not the Cause of Disease
For readers of Plague of Corruption, Thomas S. Cowan, MD, and Sally Fallon Morell ask the question: are there really such things as "viruses"? Or are electro smog, toxic living conditions, and 5G actually to blame for COVID-19?
The official explanation for today’s COVID-19 pandemic is a “dangerous, infectious virus.” This is the rationale for isolating a large portion of the world’s population in their homes so as to curb its spread. From face masks to social distancing, from antivirals to vaccines, these measures are predicated on the assumption that tiny viruses can cause serious illness and that such illness is transmissible person-to-person.
It was Louis Pasteur who convinced a skeptical medical community that contagious germs cause disease; his “germ theory” now serves as the official explanation for most illness. However, in his private diaries he states unequivocally that in his entire career he was not once able to transfer disease with a pure culture of bacteria (he obviously wasn’t able to purify viruses at that time). He admitted that the whole effort to prove contagion was a failure, leading to his famous death bed confession that “the germ is nothing, the terrain is everything.”
While the incidence and death statistics for COVID-19 may not be reliable, there is no question that many people have taken sick with a strange new disease—with odd symptoms like gasping for air and “fizzing” feelings—and hundreds of thousands have died. Many suspect that the cause is not viral but a kind of pollution unique to the modern age—electromagnetic pollution. Today we are surrounded by a jangle of overlapping and jarring frequencies—from power lines to the fridge to the cell phone. It started with the telegraph and progressed to worldwide electricity, then radar, then satellites that disrupt the ionosphere, then ubiquitous Wi-Fi. The most recent addition to this disturbing racket is fifth generation wireless—5G. In The Contagion Myth: Why Viruses (including Coronavirus) are Not the Cause of Disease, bestselling authors Thomas S. Cowan, MD, and Sally Fallon Morell tackle the true causes of COVID-19.
On September 26, 2019, 5G wireless was turned on in Wuhan, China (and officially launched November 1) with a grid of about ten thousand antennas—more antennas than exist in the whole United States, all concentrated in one city. A spike in cases occurred on February 13, the same week that Wuhan turned on its 5G network for monitoring traffic. Illness has subsequently followed 5G installation in all the major cities in America.
Since the dawn of the human race, medicine men and physicians have wondered about the cause of disease, especially what we call “contagions,” numerous people ill with similar symptoms, all at the same time. Does humankind suffer these outbreaks at the hands of an angry god or evil spirit? A disturbance in the atmosphere, a miasma? Do we catch the illness from others or from some outside influence?
As the restriction of our freedoms continues, more and more people are wondering whether this is true. Could a packet of RNA fragments, which cannot even be defined as a living organism, cause such havoc? Perhaps something else is involved—something that has upset the balance of nature and made us more susceptible to disease? Perhaps there is no “coronavirus” at all; perhaps, as Pasteur said, “the germ is nothing, the terrain is everything.”
The official explanation for today’s COVID-19 pandemic is a “dangerous, infectious virus.” This is the rationale for isolating a large portion of the world’s population in their homes so as to curb its spread. From face masks to social distancing, from antivirals to vaccines, these measures are predicated on the assumption that tiny viruses can cause serious illness and that such illness is transmissible person-to-person.
It was Louis Pasteur who convinced a skeptical medical community that contagious germs cause disease; his “germ theory” now serves as the official explanation for most illness. However, in his private diaries he states unequivocally that in his entire career he was not once able to transfer disease with a pure culture of bacteria (he obviously wasn’t able to purify viruses at that time). He admitted that the whole effort to prove contagion was a failure, leading to his famous death bed confession that “the germ is nothing, the terrain is everything.”
While the incidence and death statistics for COVID-19 may not be reliable, there is no question that many people have taken sick with a strange new disease—with odd symptoms like gasping for air and “fizzing” feelings—and hundreds of thousands have died. Many suspect that the cause is not viral but a kind of pollution unique to the modern age—electromagnetic pollution. Today we are surrounded by a jangle of overlapping and jarring frequencies—from power lines to the fridge to the cell phone. It started with the telegraph and progressed to worldwide electricity, then radar, then satellites that disrupt the ionosphere, then ubiquitous Wi-Fi. The most recent addition to this disturbing racket is fifth generation wireless—5G. In The Contagion Myth: Why Viruses (including Coronavirus) are Not the Cause of Disease, bestselling authors Thomas S. Cowan, MD, and Sally Fallon Morell tackle the true causes of COVID-19.
On September 26, 2019, 5G wireless was turned on in Wuhan, China (and officially launched November 1) with a grid of about ten thousand antennas—more antennas than exist in the whole United States, all concentrated in one city. A spike in cases occurred on February 13, the same week that Wuhan turned on its 5G network for monitoring traffic. Illness has subsequently followed 5G installation in all the major cities in America.
Since the dawn of the human race, medicine men and physicians have wondered about the cause of disease, especially what we call “contagions,” numerous people ill with similar symptoms, all at the same time. Does humankind suffer these outbreaks at the hands of an angry god or evil spirit? A disturbance in the atmosphere, a miasma? Do we catch the illness from others or from some outside influence?
As the restriction of our freedoms continues, more and more people are wondering whether this is true. Could a packet of RNA fragments, which cannot even be defined as a living organism, cause such havoc? Perhaps something else is involved—something that has upset the balance of nature and made us more susceptible to disease? Perhaps there is no “coronavirus” at all; perhaps, as Pasteur said, “the germ is nothing, the terrain is everything.”
216 pages, Hardcover
Published September 29, 2020
43 people are currently reading
1305 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 80 reviews
August 28, 2020
I was heartbroken when I read an early excerpt of the forthcoming book, "The Contagion Myth" by Thomas S. Cowan, MD, and Sally Fallon Morell, that was shared by the Weston A. Price Foundation. I have a personal connection to Dr. Cowan; he was my pediatrician when I was in high school. At the time, I was suffering from severe eczema that had not responded to either conventional or alternative treatment. I will always be grateful to Dr. Cowan for suggesting that the source of my chronic skin problems was my diet (at the time I was vegetarian and consumed large amounts of soy products.) On Dr Cowan's recommendation I eliminated all soy and started eating a diet rich in high quality animal fats and protein, fresh vegetables, and little to no sugar or refined carbohydrates. My eczema cleared within weeks. Twenty years later, I still follow the dietary principles I learned from Dr. Cowan and the Weston A Price Foundation and have enjoyed robust health ever since. It is thus infuriating to me when someone who gets certain things so right (such as nutrition advice) gets some things so tragically, dangerously wrong, namely this flagrant misinformation about the Coronavirus. I was frankly shocked to see Dr. Cowan pedaling what amounts to an internet conspiracy theory masquerading as a book. I have not read "The Contagion Myth" in its entirety, as the book will not be published until September 15th, but I was able to read excerpts and chapter summaries through the Weston A Price Foundation, of which I was formerly a member. I could easily exceed the Goodreads review word count limit pointing out the fallacies in each of the arguments presented here, but in summation, there is not a shred of credible evidence that the Coronavirus is caused by 5G or other forms of electromagnetic radiation. The claim that infectious diseases simply do not exist and thus that precautionary measures are not necessary is not just deluded it is dangerous. The Weston A Price Foundation will be hosting its annual convention (and one of the major promotional events for "The Contagion Myth") this November at a hotel in Atlanta that has promised attendees they will NOT have to wear masks or practice any form of social distancing. I cannot say it strongly enough: the misinformation in "The Contagion Myth" is going to get people killed.
October 2, 2020
If you want to change the world, you have to get enough people to care.
There are forces that are trying to stop you from reading this. They tell you it's misinformation, but really, it's because it challenges the current paradigm. We need a nation of educated and informed citizens to be discussing these ideas. That is the only way we will make any progress. Unfortunately, our world is full of people that can't read anything longer than a blog post.
This book needs to be read by everyone and anyone. The subject matter is cited and free to be challenged. But we need everyone to read it before we can have an informed discussion about it.
Please read this book. Read it as soon as possible. The fate of the world relies on all of us forming an informed and educated opinion about what is happening.
There are forces that are trying to stop you from reading this. They tell you it's misinformation, but really, it's because it challenges the current paradigm. We need a nation of educated and informed citizens to be discussing these ideas. That is the only way we will make any progress. Unfortunately, our world is full of people that can't read anything longer than a blog post.
This book needs to be read by everyone and anyone. The subject matter is cited and free to be challenged. But we need everyone to read it before we can have an informed discussion about it.
Please read this book. Read it as soon as possible. The fate of the world relies on all of us forming an informed and educated opinion about what is happening.
September 30, 2020
Thomas is a modern day Galileo!
As a leading health and wellness expert I rarely recommend content unless I know that it is extremely accurate and well vetted. I have been following Thomas and his work for over two decades. He is a deep and fiercely independent thinker who cares deeply about helping others to improve their health. He is one of the top five health experts that I recommend.
In this exciting book he exposes the deceptions and dishonesty of foundational beliefs about viruses and other contagions. We assume that there is good science that these contagions exist and cause illness. He exposes the psudo-science that they used and shows that there is little evidence to support the contagion theory.
He does so in a way that is easy to understand for the ordinary non-academic reader, yet he backs it up with logic, reason and evidence that would convince an open-minded top level academic.
When the sailors were all getting scurvy they thought it was a contagion because they were so close together on the ships. When they left the ships the scurvy went away so it stood to reason. Yet they failed to consider that there are many other possible explanations. Perhaps like scurvy modern day contagions have a different cause than viruses.
In this groundbreaking book Thomas clearly exposes the contagion myth and shows what the other likely causes are. If you want to understand what is going on the world today and improve your health you will want to read this exciting new book.
This book has already been banned on Amazon because it threatens the power structures. I expect them to flood the reviews with fake negative reviews. Ignore the negative reviews, instead read the book and decide for yourself. You will be glad that you did.
About me:
My name is Bret Bouer and I run the largest sauna detox group in the world on Facebook called Smart Detox where I teach over 30,000 members how to improve their health.
As a leading health and wellness expert I rarely recommend content unless I know that it is extremely accurate and well vetted. I have been following Thomas and his work for over two decades. He is a deep and fiercely independent thinker who cares deeply about helping others to improve their health. He is one of the top five health experts that I recommend.
In this exciting book he exposes the deceptions and dishonesty of foundational beliefs about viruses and other contagions. We assume that there is good science that these contagions exist and cause illness. He exposes the psudo-science that they used and shows that there is little evidence to support the contagion theory.
He does so in a way that is easy to understand for the ordinary non-academic reader, yet he backs it up with logic, reason and evidence that would convince an open-minded top level academic.
When the sailors were all getting scurvy they thought it was a contagion because they were so close together on the ships. When they left the ships the scurvy went away so it stood to reason. Yet they failed to consider that there are many other possible explanations. Perhaps like scurvy modern day contagions have a different cause than viruses.
In this groundbreaking book Thomas clearly exposes the contagion myth and shows what the other likely causes are. If you want to understand what is going on the world today and improve your health you will want to read this exciting new book.
This book has already been banned on Amazon because it threatens the power structures. I expect them to flood the reviews with fake negative reviews. Ignore the negative reviews, instead read the book and decide for yourself. You will be glad that you did.
About me:
My name is Bret Bouer and I run the largest sauna detox group in the world on Facebook called Smart Detox where I teach over 30,000 members how to improve their health.
December 8, 2020
Once I looked this guy up and realized he believes the heart doesn't pump blood, that was the end.
April 8, 2022
The authors concentrate on science and observations to provide strong evidence that our notion of disease has been misguided. Although this book seems "ahead of its time," the overwhelming evidence of the microbiome with the reluctant acceptance of this concept by the allopathic set may indicate that the book is providing revolutionary thoughts and evidence at the perfect moment in history.
The overarching concepts from this book and from podcasts related to it are that the four ways the body requires healing are: 1) Trauma, 2) Starvation (or lack of essential nutrients), 3) Poisoning, and 4) Environmental insults (such as radiation). These four do not include "disease causing microorganisms" as we have all been led to think. If you possess and open mind and can overlay these concepts over what you have "known" in the past. you are likely to enjoy this book. Those that believe that "Science is Settled" - it just might change your mind!
COVID has affected all of us. The worst effects have been fear, separation, and acrimony between friends and family. This book, in a calm, rational manner, provides an understanding for what has been happening, an explanation of what we can do about it, and a not-so-fairy-tale hope for the future.
I highly recommend it!
Podcast with the authors regarding this book:
https://youridealday.com/dr-tom-cowan...
The overarching concepts from this book and from podcasts related to it are that the four ways the body requires healing are: 1) Trauma, 2) Starvation (or lack of essential nutrients), 3) Poisoning, and 4) Environmental insults (such as radiation). These four do not include "disease causing microorganisms" as we have all been led to think. If you possess and open mind and can overlay these concepts over what you have "known" in the past. you are likely to enjoy this book. Those that believe that "Science is Settled" - it just might change your mind!
COVID has affected all of us. The worst effects have been fear, separation, and acrimony between friends and family. This book, in a calm, rational manner, provides an understanding for what has been happening, an explanation of what we can do about it, and a not-so-fairy-tale hope for the future.
I highly recommend it!
Podcast with the authors regarding this book:
https://youridealday.com/dr-tom-cowan...
October 16, 2020
Don't listen to bad reviews of this book. They're put out by the truly uneducated or Big Pharma/technocratic shills.
Cowan isn't giving the answers but questioning the current science behind contagion, which is pure bunk and profit/control motivated.
Read the book, spread the word and let's get these criminals, like Gates and Fauci and their governmental bagmen, behind bars and out of the way.
Cowan isn't giving the answers but questioning the current science behind contagion, which is pure bunk and profit/control motivated.
Read the book, spread the word and let's get these criminals, like Gates and Fauci and their governmental bagmen, behind bars and out of the way.
February 8, 2021
As a librarian, I went into this book with an open mind. It is one thing to present your beliefs and theories and it is another thing altogether to state things as true and fact without "connecting the dots" with data. It is also sad to read such a disregard for all the medical knowledge accumulated over the years through careful observation. That is where this book/the authors lost my respect. Like many current ideas, there is lots of twisting of history to suit the ideas presented. You just can't draw conclusions about things that may simply be coincidences without investigating, documenting and doing good science! yes, there is still lots to be discovered and understood in all fields but we don't get there by creating destruction.
Sorry folks but this is some good sense cloaked in a LOT of invalid extrapolations
Sorry folks but this is some good sense cloaked in a LOT of invalid extrapolations
November 17, 2022
The Contagion Myth - A review of some points:
A few friends have recommended this book to me, and one lent it to me and asked for feedback. I took notes as I encountered new ideas to look up, and it evolved into a longer review - mostly because I found reviews of this book to be very polarized with little discussion of the subject matter itself. I hope to bridge some gaps in taking time to write about some of the content of this book. For context, I'm interested in Weston Price’s work (and aware of some critiques), and I love co-author Sally Fallon Morell’s Nourishing Traditions, so I began the book with optimism and interest; however I was quickly disappointed with its rigour, and ultimately saddened by its irresponsibility.
Overall: This book brings up key points on human health, but in the end leaves gaping holes in its critique of germ / contagion theory. A main strength is its discussion of how organism health and stressors (water, toxicity, nutrition, even belief - and other conditions) are crucial to understanding disease dynamics. This is critical to considering human immune systems, a truly complex subject. However, the leap of faith from the importance of the “terrain” theory, to dispelling human contagion overall (nonetheless acknowledging *some* forms of human contagion, as I’ll mention), is poorly supported. The Contagion Myth contains numerous quotation, factual, and procedural errors which I believe should be addressed or retracted by the authors if they want the remainder of their work to be looked at seriously. I was truly looking for a more interesting and nuanced exploration of “terrain” theory, and found this book disappointingly skewed and flimsy in its acknowledgement (and lack thereof) of questions raised by its topic, and other interpretations of research and data.
>> At the core of this debate, I think many people pose terrain theory vs. germ theory in simplistically binary way - it's worse than "nature vs. nurture"! The need for suitable soil and water to grow a garden does not disprove the role of seeds - and vice versa - the importance of a healthy human immune system does not disprove the importance (or existence) of germs or viruses, or vice-versa. <<
Contagion: The authors begin their critique of germ theory with some history, criticizing “that great fraud and plagiarist” Louis Pasteur. They refer to a “famous” deathbed confession of Pasteur’s (“the germ is nothing, the terrain is everything” or similar variants to that effect, oft-cited by terrain theory advocates), which is unattributed in this book and is not referenced by any named biographers. The authors’ primary argument revolves around so-called “Koch postulates” and “Rivers postulates” on what constitutes proof of contagion. Craig Holdrege and Jon McAlice have written a much more in-depth review of Cowan and Fallon Morell’s interpretation of Koch’s research and “postulates”, arguing that Koch never presented them in that format, or even called them “postulates” and suggest that Koch’s research on tuberculosis is seriously misrepresented.*
Pandemics: Cowan and Fallon Morell’s discussion of contagion theory take on historic pandemics, colonialism, and comets. Their scope is large and they are not very thorough. They attribute the bubonic plague and the Black Death to comets, but are quite vague about time frames, suggesting only that approximately 300 years of the bubonic plague could be “possibly explained by still-orbiting cometary debris.” I found this shallow treatment for a very niche theory on plagues - and at least some acknowledgement of the chronological leaps they are making would have felt more realistic.
They do bring up interesting considerations that I’ve read elsewhere, such as the theory that stressful conditions for populations like colonial-era indigenous populations in North America played a role in deaths attributed to epidemics. I’ve seen other articles, with less blatant agenda, suggest that the extreme stressors faced by indigenous populations (starvation/poor water/relocation/stress of genocide) contributed to smallpox epidemics, in addition to exposure to novel contagions. Cowan and Fallon Morell suggest it was ONLY the former. (And, perhaps a lack of salt, a small strange detour in this chapter)
Cowan and Fallon Morell show interesting charts of polio and DDT exposure in the US, but don't explore any further paths of inquiry that might support or detract from their claims - eg. DDT use in other countries, DDT use in response to polio outbreaks, polio outbreaks that occurred before the invention of DDT. They really began to go out on some limbs, claiming smallpox to be caused by bedbugs (citing only one doctor - admittedly an interesting guy Dr. Charles Campbell). Then they suggest “toxins” in insect bites might cause "illness", rather than bacteria or viruses. Zero mention of why some insect bites are linked directly to malaria or Lyme’s disease, while billions of other insect bites are just a little itchy. The discussion of bacterial infections is really inconsistent - in discussing mass deaths in Native Americans historically attributed to smallpox, Cowan and Fallon Morell blame leptospirosis, a spirochaete bacteria. They acknowledge transmission of leptospirosis in domestic animals through “urine and other fluids” - why would they acknowledge animal to human transmission, but not human-to-human? I kept waiting for them to address famously “contagious” conditions, like chicken pox, herpes, or measles in this chapter. So I was excited when the pandemics chapter closed, suspensefully, with some of the very questions running through my head: “What about measles parties?” The authors promise tantalizingly that “the mystery of childhood illnesses and sexually transmitted diseases will be addressed in chapter 7.”
Resonance (Chapter 7)
I'll admit I jumped right ahead in my first reading (yes, I’ve read it multiple times now, with increasing frustration) to follow up on the promise to explain measles parties, chicken pox, and the broad category of “STDs”. If human-to-human contagion isn’t a thing, and viruses are actually endogenous "exosomes", then how did I get chicken pox? I'm personally very interested in the concept of resonance and I think it is not a fully explained or explored subject in science. I was thrilled to hear their ideas. However, I found depth and scope of this chapter more unfulfilling than I could have imagined, and their explanation of STD transmission tipped the scales. They bring up some very interesting (unreplicated) in vitro experiments by Nobel-prize winning virologist Luc Montagnier on isolated DNA and RNA, and wildly extrapolate to speculate on possible cellular behaviour in complex living organisms - humans. They describe how he experimented on genetic material in "glass beakers" and then propose the following theories of human-to-human transmission - and their theories are so irresponsible I can only quote them:
“When one applies this [Montagnier’s] discovery to viruses (or exosomes) said to cause measles, chicken pox, or herpes, it is possible that since these particles called viruses or exosomes are simply packages of DNA or RNA, they emit their own resonant frequencies. In a way not yet determined, each frequency creates an expression that we call a disease; however, the frequency will create what we we call illness only if there is a purpose or reason for this illness.”
They extoll the health benefits of chicken pox, “Chicken pox is a universal way for children to live a long life,” and suggest children "decide" when they need to get it - no discussion of what happens when children don’t get it, or even what chicken pox is. The authors avoid the topic of any health benefits / or “purpose or reason” for herpes, whooping cough, polio, or syphilis, (only a brief un-cited aside that “a collagen deficiency may contribute to genital irritations in patients with herpes and other STDs” nevermind oral herpes). For some reason all STDs are lumped together, whether commonly considered to be viral or bacterial. In other parts of the book the authors emphasize distinctions between bacterial and viral conditions, acknowledging bacteria such as spirochetes as real (but downplaying their contagiousness), but suggesting that viruses are endogenous “exosomes” (we’ll discuss this chapter, #6, next).
And the authors' explanation for transmission of “STDs” in humans? -
“So when two people come together in the highly charged act of sex, a situation in which this resonance acts strongly, it is no surprise that the couple might resonate together and create identical DNA or RNA, in a manner similar to what occurred in the beaker [referring to Montagnier’s experiments]. To a virologist, this looks like the appearance of a new contagious virus. To a realistic observer, it is two people forging an intimate genetic connection.”
Wow. No, there is absolutely no discussion of condoms, diverse types of STDs, transmission of STDs through non-sexual contact (contact with surfaces, blood transfusions, etc), or other obvious questions that someone interested exploring this novel theory of contagion might ask (never mind getting into just how "highly charged" the sex is). They also say a new contagious virus, not a virus that someone can be reliably tested for such as herpes. Why suggest that smallpox epidemics were transmitted by a spirochaete, leptospirosis, but posit that syphilis (also a spirochaete bacteria, as they acknowledge) is caused by resonance? Did the highly charged act of sex create a resonant spiral-shaped bacteria? This is all based on unreplicated experiments on nucleic acids in beakers. Not the kind of sex education I'd want in a high school, even though I do respect that they acknowledge sex as a powerful act. Initially keenly interested in what they had to say about resonance, I was deeply saddened by the new low hit in this chapter.
Testing (Chapter 5) - I will just say showed an incomplete understanding of genomic sequencing; this has been covered much more extensively in other circles..
Exosomes (Chapter 6): Cowan and Fallon Morell posit that viruses do not exist, but are endemic, beneficial sacs of messenger proteins and/or detoxifying garbage sacs - saying “modern researchers have shown that exosomes have exactly the same attributes as ‘viruses.’ They are the same size, contain the same components, and act on the same receptors”. They don’t begin to acknowledge the HUGE variety of virus morphology, size, or action described by decades of research around the globe. Yes, viruses and exosomes both contain informational proteins and interact with cells in the body, and some look similar, like little round sacs. But MANY look nothing alike - some viruses are long and threadlike, some look a bit like little space ships, and would be very hard to visually confuse with exosomes - none of these other shapes discussed. Nor are the genetic differences in viruses - after making much of proper viral isolation techniques in Chapter 5, the authors ignore literally thousands of examples of corresponding identification of viruses around the world in plants, animals, and humans, including those found across species. This chapter centers on one of their more blatant misquotes, from James Hildreth, virologist: “The virus is fully an exosome in every sense of the word.” James Hildreth has refuted the use of this quote, repudiated any conflation of exosomes with viruses, and Hildreth supports the explanation of Covid-19 as an infectious virus transmitted by human vectors. The authors blur exosomes and viruses so much in this chapter that they suggest a study on exosome production in mice contraindicates virus theory, when there is no virus present or discussed in the study (p. 71). When you misattribute someone’s words so erroneously, in print, and are corrected, the proper thing to do is retract your mistake and do so publicly. I re-read this chapter repeatedly, trying to figure out if the authors could be oversimplifying, just confused, or deliberately misrepresenting research.
Electricity & Disease: A significant chunk of this book proposes the causal relationship of Covid-19 to 5G wireless frequencies. This topic has been discussed elsewhere so extensively that I don’t want to wade through it, but I noticed that Cowan and Fallon Morell picked and chose examples that supported their interpretation, without acknowledging examples that bring up serious logistical questions of this perspective. I’m much more respectful of authors that at least acknowledge apparently conflicting data. (Eg. South Korea introduced 5G months before China but had much reduced spread, as well as different containment measures). Sometimes apparently conflicting data is the key to understanding something! I personally believe that 5G and other EMF exposure poses health concerns that are worth discussing, so this argument saddens me by making it harder to have much-needed discussion about actual concerns about 5G and other EMF sources.
This book is very wide in scope, and there are many more areas of discussion. As mentioned I have respect for Nourishing Traditions and I think there are some good pieces on health, but most, like so much health advice, are offered in the this-is-the-only-truth manner, prompting complaints from many dietary corners.
A random additional note - I was interested in their description of the "German Supreme Court" 2016 ruling on proof of a measles virus - I'll just say that as with many things in the book that I looked up, I found this to be oversimplified and slanted. Look it up if you want to go down some wormholes of opinion, but it is certainly more complex than presented.
The distinction between bacteria and viruses is sometimes muddled, sometimes emphasized. The role of viruses in other species, including plants, and bacteria, is not acknowledged at all. In an older plant pathology textbook I have, it's described that about half of identified viruses affect plants. Much early viral study and identification has been done on plant viruses, contributing significantly to our viral science; not even a mention of plant viruses or their pathways made it easier to focus on an uncritiqued exosome postulate.
In the end, there was no discussion of the extensive taxonomic classification of viruses and their properties or why people should have such symptoms. The discussion of some symptoms in particular, including smallpox, polio, rabies, often rested on rather long extrapolations or speculations. While the authors repeatedly take people to task for weak methodology, I found their level of rigour did not meet even a layperson's level of interested questioning.
A few links and sources:
The Contagion Myth, the book
Scientific American - “We Have No Reason to Believe 5G is Safe” (Opinion article)- https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/...
Pasteur’s last words: https://www.ratbags.com/rsoles/commen...
Plant Pathology
A Textbook of Plant Virus Diseases
Yellow Fever, Black Goddess: The Coevolution Of People And Plagues
The Secret History of the War on Cancer
*Holdrege, Craig & McAlice, Jon - “Some comments on the contagion myth” [discussion of Koch’s postulates] https://www.natureinstitute.org/artic...
Comments on Cowan’s quoting Rudolf Steiner: http://www.flowersociety.org/covid-5g...
A few friends have recommended this book to me, and one lent it to me and asked for feedback. I took notes as I encountered new ideas to look up, and it evolved into a longer review - mostly because I found reviews of this book to be very polarized with little discussion of the subject matter itself. I hope to bridge some gaps in taking time to write about some of the content of this book. For context, I'm interested in Weston Price’s work (and aware of some critiques), and I love co-author Sally Fallon Morell’s Nourishing Traditions, so I began the book with optimism and interest; however I was quickly disappointed with its rigour, and ultimately saddened by its irresponsibility.
Overall: This book brings up key points on human health, but in the end leaves gaping holes in its critique of germ / contagion theory. A main strength is its discussion of how organism health and stressors (water, toxicity, nutrition, even belief - and other conditions) are crucial to understanding disease dynamics. This is critical to considering human immune systems, a truly complex subject. However, the leap of faith from the importance of the “terrain” theory, to dispelling human contagion overall (nonetheless acknowledging *some* forms of human contagion, as I’ll mention), is poorly supported. The Contagion Myth contains numerous quotation, factual, and procedural errors which I believe should be addressed or retracted by the authors if they want the remainder of their work to be looked at seriously. I was truly looking for a more interesting and nuanced exploration of “terrain” theory, and found this book disappointingly skewed and flimsy in its acknowledgement (and lack thereof) of questions raised by its topic, and other interpretations of research and data.
>> At the core of this debate, I think many people pose terrain theory vs. germ theory in simplistically binary way - it's worse than "nature vs. nurture"! The need for suitable soil and water to grow a garden does not disprove the role of seeds - and vice versa - the importance of a healthy human immune system does not disprove the importance (or existence) of germs or viruses, or vice-versa. <<
Contagion: The authors begin their critique of germ theory with some history, criticizing “that great fraud and plagiarist” Louis Pasteur. They refer to a “famous” deathbed confession of Pasteur’s (“the germ is nothing, the terrain is everything” or similar variants to that effect, oft-cited by terrain theory advocates), which is unattributed in this book and is not referenced by any named biographers. The authors’ primary argument revolves around so-called “Koch postulates” and “Rivers postulates” on what constitutes proof of contagion. Craig Holdrege and Jon McAlice have written a much more in-depth review of Cowan and Fallon Morell’s interpretation of Koch’s research and “postulates”, arguing that Koch never presented them in that format, or even called them “postulates” and suggest that Koch’s research on tuberculosis is seriously misrepresented.*
Pandemics: Cowan and Fallon Morell’s discussion of contagion theory take on historic pandemics, colonialism, and comets. Their scope is large and they are not very thorough. They attribute the bubonic plague and the Black Death to comets, but are quite vague about time frames, suggesting only that approximately 300 years of the bubonic plague could be “possibly explained by still-orbiting cometary debris.” I found this shallow treatment for a very niche theory on plagues - and at least some acknowledgement of the chronological leaps they are making would have felt more realistic.
They do bring up interesting considerations that I’ve read elsewhere, such as the theory that stressful conditions for populations like colonial-era indigenous populations in North America played a role in deaths attributed to epidemics. I’ve seen other articles, with less blatant agenda, suggest that the extreme stressors faced by indigenous populations (starvation/poor water/relocation/stress of genocide) contributed to smallpox epidemics, in addition to exposure to novel contagions. Cowan and Fallon Morell suggest it was ONLY the former. (And, perhaps a lack of salt, a small strange detour in this chapter)
Cowan and Fallon Morell show interesting charts of polio and DDT exposure in the US, but don't explore any further paths of inquiry that might support or detract from their claims - eg. DDT use in other countries, DDT use in response to polio outbreaks, polio outbreaks that occurred before the invention of DDT. They really began to go out on some limbs, claiming smallpox to be caused by bedbugs (citing only one doctor - admittedly an interesting guy Dr. Charles Campbell). Then they suggest “toxins” in insect bites might cause "illness", rather than bacteria or viruses. Zero mention of why some insect bites are linked directly to malaria or Lyme’s disease, while billions of other insect bites are just a little itchy. The discussion of bacterial infections is really inconsistent - in discussing mass deaths in Native Americans historically attributed to smallpox, Cowan and Fallon Morell blame leptospirosis, a spirochaete bacteria. They acknowledge transmission of leptospirosis in domestic animals through “urine and other fluids” - why would they acknowledge animal to human transmission, but not human-to-human? I kept waiting for them to address famously “contagious” conditions, like chicken pox, herpes, or measles in this chapter. So I was excited when the pandemics chapter closed, suspensefully, with some of the very questions running through my head: “What about measles parties?” The authors promise tantalizingly that “the mystery of childhood illnesses and sexually transmitted diseases will be addressed in chapter 7.”
Resonance (Chapter 7)
I'll admit I jumped right ahead in my first reading (yes, I’ve read it multiple times now, with increasing frustration) to follow up on the promise to explain measles parties, chicken pox, and the broad category of “STDs”. If human-to-human contagion isn’t a thing, and viruses are actually endogenous "exosomes", then how did I get chicken pox? I'm personally very interested in the concept of resonance and I think it is not a fully explained or explored subject in science. I was thrilled to hear their ideas. However, I found depth and scope of this chapter more unfulfilling than I could have imagined, and their explanation of STD transmission tipped the scales. They bring up some very interesting (unreplicated) in vitro experiments by Nobel-prize winning virologist Luc Montagnier on isolated DNA and RNA, and wildly extrapolate to speculate on possible cellular behaviour in complex living organisms - humans. They describe how he experimented on genetic material in "glass beakers" and then propose the following theories of human-to-human transmission - and their theories are so irresponsible I can only quote them:
“When one applies this [Montagnier’s] discovery to viruses (or exosomes) said to cause measles, chicken pox, or herpes, it is possible that since these particles called viruses or exosomes are simply packages of DNA or RNA, they emit their own resonant frequencies. In a way not yet determined, each frequency creates an expression that we call a disease; however, the frequency will create what we we call illness only if there is a purpose or reason for this illness.”
They extoll the health benefits of chicken pox, “Chicken pox is a universal way for children to live a long life,” and suggest children "decide" when they need to get it - no discussion of what happens when children don’t get it, or even what chicken pox is. The authors avoid the topic of any health benefits / or “purpose or reason” for herpes, whooping cough, polio, or syphilis, (only a brief un-cited aside that “a collagen deficiency may contribute to genital irritations in patients with herpes and other STDs” nevermind oral herpes). For some reason all STDs are lumped together, whether commonly considered to be viral or bacterial. In other parts of the book the authors emphasize distinctions between bacterial and viral conditions, acknowledging bacteria such as spirochetes as real (but downplaying their contagiousness), but suggesting that viruses are endogenous “exosomes” (we’ll discuss this chapter, #6, next).
And the authors' explanation for transmission of “STDs” in humans? -
“So when two people come together in the highly charged act of sex, a situation in which this resonance acts strongly, it is no surprise that the couple might resonate together and create identical DNA or RNA, in a manner similar to what occurred in the beaker [referring to Montagnier’s experiments]. To a virologist, this looks like the appearance of a new contagious virus. To a realistic observer, it is two people forging an intimate genetic connection.”
Wow. No, there is absolutely no discussion of condoms, diverse types of STDs, transmission of STDs through non-sexual contact (contact with surfaces, blood transfusions, etc), or other obvious questions that someone interested exploring this novel theory of contagion might ask (never mind getting into just how "highly charged" the sex is). They also say a new contagious virus, not a virus that someone can be reliably tested for such as herpes. Why suggest that smallpox epidemics were transmitted by a spirochaete, leptospirosis, but posit that syphilis (also a spirochaete bacteria, as they acknowledge) is caused by resonance? Did the highly charged act of sex create a resonant spiral-shaped bacteria? This is all based on unreplicated experiments on nucleic acids in beakers. Not the kind of sex education I'd want in a high school, even though I do respect that they acknowledge sex as a powerful act. Initially keenly interested in what they had to say about resonance, I was deeply saddened by the new low hit in this chapter.
Testing (Chapter 5) - I will just say showed an incomplete understanding of genomic sequencing; this has been covered much more extensively in other circles..
Exosomes (Chapter 6): Cowan and Fallon Morell posit that viruses do not exist, but are endemic, beneficial sacs of messenger proteins and/or detoxifying garbage sacs - saying “modern researchers have shown that exosomes have exactly the same attributes as ‘viruses.’ They are the same size, contain the same components, and act on the same receptors”. They don’t begin to acknowledge the HUGE variety of virus morphology, size, or action described by decades of research around the globe. Yes, viruses and exosomes both contain informational proteins and interact with cells in the body, and some look similar, like little round sacs. But MANY look nothing alike - some viruses are long and threadlike, some look a bit like little space ships, and would be very hard to visually confuse with exosomes - none of these other shapes discussed. Nor are the genetic differences in viruses - after making much of proper viral isolation techniques in Chapter 5, the authors ignore literally thousands of examples of corresponding identification of viruses around the world in plants, animals, and humans, including those found across species. This chapter centers on one of their more blatant misquotes, from James Hildreth, virologist: “The virus is fully an exosome in every sense of the word.” James Hildreth has refuted the use of this quote, repudiated any conflation of exosomes with viruses, and Hildreth supports the explanation of Covid-19 as an infectious virus transmitted by human vectors. The authors blur exosomes and viruses so much in this chapter that they suggest a study on exosome production in mice contraindicates virus theory, when there is no virus present or discussed in the study (p. 71). When you misattribute someone’s words so erroneously, in print, and are corrected, the proper thing to do is retract your mistake and do so publicly. I re-read this chapter repeatedly, trying to figure out if the authors could be oversimplifying, just confused, or deliberately misrepresenting research.
Electricity & Disease: A significant chunk of this book proposes the causal relationship of Covid-19 to 5G wireless frequencies. This topic has been discussed elsewhere so extensively that I don’t want to wade through it, but I noticed that Cowan and Fallon Morell picked and chose examples that supported their interpretation, without acknowledging examples that bring up serious logistical questions of this perspective. I’m much more respectful of authors that at least acknowledge apparently conflicting data. (Eg. South Korea introduced 5G months before China but had much reduced spread, as well as different containment measures). Sometimes apparently conflicting data is the key to understanding something! I personally believe that 5G and other EMF exposure poses health concerns that are worth discussing, so this argument saddens me by making it harder to have much-needed discussion about actual concerns about 5G and other EMF sources.
This book is very wide in scope, and there are many more areas of discussion. As mentioned I have respect for Nourishing Traditions and I think there are some good pieces on health, but most, like so much health advice, are offered in the this-is-the-only-truth manner, prompting complaints from many dietary corners.
A random additional note - I was interested in their description of the "German Supreme Court" 2016 ruling on proof of a measles virus - I'll just say that as with many things in the book that I looked up, I found this to be oversimplified and slanted. Look it up if you want to go down some wormholes of opinion, but it is certainly more complex than presented.
The distinction between bacteria and viruses is sometimes muddled, sometimes emphasized. The role of viruses in other species, including plants, and bacteria, is not acknowledged at all. In an older plant pathology textbook I have, it's described that about half of identified viruses affect plants. Much early viral study and identification has been done on plant viruses, contributing significantly to our viral science; not even a mention of plant viruses or their pathways made it easier to focus on an uncritiqued exosome postulate.
In the end, there was no discussion of the extensive taxonomic classification of viruses and their properties or why people should have such symptoms. The discussion of some symptoms in particular, including smallpox, polio, rabies, often rested on rather long extrapolations or speculations. While the authors repeatedly take people to task for weak methodology, I found their level of rigour did not meet even a layperson's level of interested questioning.
A few links and sources:
The Contagion Myth, the book
Scientific American - “We Have No Reason to Believe 5G is Safe” (Opinion article)- https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/...
Pasteur’s last words: https://www.ratbags.com/rsoles/commen...
Plant Pathology
A Textbook of Plant Virus Diseases
Yellow Fever, Black Goddess: The Coevolution Of People And Plagues
The Secret History of the War on Cancer
*Holdrege, Craig & McAlice, Jon - “Some comments on the contagion myth” [discussion of Koch’s postulates] https://www.natureinstitute.org/artic...
Comments on Cowan’s quoting Rudolf Steiner: http://www.flowersociety.org/covid-5g...
November 18, 2020
Well worth reading. Before reading this book I went back and re-read Thomas Kuhn's "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions." The current science regarding medicine in general and Covid-19 in particular is fraught with problematic anomalies. After all, the third leading cause of death in the USA is medical mistakes. I'm keeping an open mind regarding possible better paradigms as medicine relates to my health. At the beginning of this Covid fiasco I watched a Canadian television program in which a supposed expert on Covid "conspiracy theories" included good nutrition as one of these theories. Needless to say, the comments were filled with people saying, "Did he just call good nutrition a conspiracy theory?" and, of course, he had. Unfortunately, this is where we are today: downplaying or dismissing good nutrition and looking for a quick chemical/medical/biological fix in a vaccine or an anti-viral as a solution to preventing diseases like Covid-19. Read this book if you are open minded and searching for better solutions for better health. I thought it was excellent.
November 9, 2020
So this was the book that Amazon banned. If I hadn't already been interested in the subject matter, that alone might have made me curious enough to read it. Why would a book that explores theories of what really makes people ill draw the ire of Amazon? I think I know the answer to that... but we'll get to that in a minute.
For the most part, this is an interesting book. It talks about the history of germ theory and illnesses of the past. Germ theory wasn't always the prevailing theory in the West (and, in fact, that idea doesn't exist in non-Western medical systems). In Pasteur's time, there were actually a number of doctors who didn't buy into the whole germ theory thing. But Pasteur won out, and here we are.
Except...
Pasteur was a fraud. He kept notebooks of his experiments, and before he passed away, he gave instructions to his heirs that the notebooks were not to be made public. Unluckily for him, his grandson Louis Pasteur Vallery-Radot (who obviously wasn't that fond of pops) went and gave those notebooks to the national French library... which published them.
The issue? The notebooks revealed that Pasteur's theory of disease had failed. He hadn't been able to make any of his subjects sick by "infecting" them with bacteria. So he'd resorted to poisoning them. They got sick. Bingo! Bacteria causes disease... right? That's how he made it look. In fact, nobody has demonstrated transmissibility of disease using pure cultures of bacteria... or viruses.
So what makes us sick? The authors offer a number of possible explanations, drawing on recent research. Our toxic modern environment, our diets, our state of mind, and even the electromagnetic fields—natural and man-made—that surround us may all play a role. (5G is mentioned as a culprit in the current "pandemic". This is likely why Amazon—but none of the other booksellers—banned the book, as Amazon intends to launch more than 3000 5G satellites into orbit.)
One comes away from reading the book with a better understanding of the history of germ theory, and some unsettling questions about what we've been taught—and why. Had this been the extent of the book, I might have liked it more than I did.
The problem is Chapter 9, which talks about diet. Going in, I knew that there would likely be some ignorant meat-pushing (given that the co-author is Sally Fallon Morrell of the Weston A. Price Foundation). But I was still pretty disgusted by the judgemental and elitist attitudes about food put forth in that chapter. Some assertions are questionable at best, while others imply things that are demonstrably false. For example, it's implied that we can't possibly be healthy unless we eat a ton of animal meats and fats. Without them, we won't have enough cholesterol or collagen for our cells, and we'll succumb to all sorts of diseases... including COVID-19. I'm sorry, but I must have missed the memo that it was mainly vegans dying of the 'rona. Vegan diets are apparently terrible because they're high in copper which will turn you into an antenna for EMFs (in an otherwise well-sourced book, the source for this assertion was an online forum of some sort, so I'm taking it with a grain of salt). However, the authors then go on to advocate eating plenty of liver... which is actually one of the highest copper-content foods known! The head-scratchers keep coming, with the recommendation to avoid MSG (because it's full of neurotoxic free glutamates) while consuming copious amounts of bone broth... which is so high in free glutamates that it can actually cause seizures in susceptible people! The final straw was the assumption that everybody should—and will—eat tons of animal products in the future, all grass fed and pasture raised, of course. My question is this: Where is all the land going to come from to graze enough meat for almost 8 billion people?
I was so irked by the dietary recommendations (which aren't what Weston Price even recommended to his own family, a fact that's conveniently ignored by his followers) that I sort of abandoned this book partway through the appendix when I hit yet more meat-pushing. What I don't understand is that many people who are beginning to question things like the germ theory are also big on medical freedom and bodily autonomy. Treating vegans and vegetarians as stupid, unhealthy people because they don't want to kill an animal and eat every last inch of it doesn't seem to go along with those ideas. But I suppose everybody has biases and paradigms they need to examine.
I just wish they'd stuck to the virus stuff and left the dietary recommendations for another book. Yes, diet is important. But to imply that vegans and vegetarians are more at risk for the disease we call COVID-19 is rather deceptive.
For the most part, this is an interesting book. It talks about the history of germ theory and illnesses of the past. Germ theory wasn't always the prevailing theory in the West (and, in fact, that idea doesn't exist in non-Western medical systems). In Pasteur's time, there were actually a number of doctors who didn't buy into the whole germ theory thing. But Pasteur won out, and here we are.
Except...
Pasteur was a fraud. He kept notebooks of his experiments, and before he passed away, he gave instructions to his heirs that the notebooks were not to be made public. Unluckily for him, his grandson Louis Pasteur Vallery-Radot (who obviously wasn't that fond of pops) went and gave those notebooks to the national French library... which published them.
The issue? The notebooks revealed that Pasteur's theory of disease had failed. He hadn't been able to make any of his subjects sick by "infecting" them with bacteria. So he'd resorted to poisoning them. They got sick. Bingo! Bacteria causes disease... right? That's how he made it look. In fact, nobody has demonstrated transmissibility of disease using pure cultures of bacteria... or viruses.
So what makes us sick? The authors offer a number of possible explanations, drawing on recent research. Our toxic modern environment, our diets, our state of mind, and even the electromagnetic fields—natural and man-made—that surround us may all play a role. (5G is mentioned as a culprit in the current "pandemic". This is likely why Amazon—but none of the other booksellers—banned the book, as Amazon intends to launch more than 3000 5G satellites into orbit.)
One comes away from reading the book with a better understanding of the history of germ theory, and some unsettling questions about what we've been taught—and why. Had this been the extent of the book, I might have liked it more than I did.
The problem is Chapter 9, which talks about diet. Going in, I knew that there would likely be some ignorant meat-pushing (given that the co-author is Sally Fallon Morrell of the Weston A. Price Foundation). But I was still pretty disgusted by the judgemental and elitist attitudes about food put forth in that chapter. Some assertions are questionable at best, while others imply things that are demonstrably false. For example, it's implied that we can't possibly be healthy unless we eat a ton of animal meats and fats. Without them, we won't have enough cholesterol or collagen for our cells, and we'll succumb to all sorts of diseases... including COVID-19. I'm sorry, but I must have missed the memo that it was mainly vegans dying of the 'rona. Vegan diets are apparently terrible because they're high in copper which will turn you into an antenna for EMFs (in an otherwise well-sourced book, the source for this assertion was an online forum of some sort, so I'm taking it with a grain of salt). However, the authors then go on to advocate eating plenty of liver... which is actually one of the highest copper-content foods known! The head-scratchers keep coming, with the recommendation to avoid MSG (because it's full of neurotoxic free glutamates) while consuming copious amounts of bone broth... which is so high in free glutamates that it can actually cause seizures in susceptible people! The final straw was the assumption that everybody should—and will—eat tons of animal products in the future, all grass fed and pasture raised, of course. My question is this: Where is all the land going to come from to graze enough meat for almost 8 billion people?
I was so irked by the dietary recommendations (which aren't what Weston Price even recommended to his own family, a fact that's conveniently ignored by his followers) that I sort of abandoned this book partway through the appendix when I hit yet more meat-pushing. What I don't understand is that many people who are beginning to question things like the germ theory are also big on medical freedom and bodily autonomy. Treating vegans and vegetarians as stupid, unhealthy people because they don't want to kill an animal and eat every last inch of it doesn't seem to go along with those ideas. But I suppose everybody has biases and paradigms they need to examine.
I just wish they'd stuck to the virus stuff and left the dietary recommendations for another book. Yes, diet is important. But to imply that vegans and vegetarians are more at risk for the disease we call COVID-19 is rather deceptive.
November 14, 2020
It is disgraceful that The Contagion Myth was banned on Amazon shortly before its release date. This is a well researched and eloquent analysis of viral theory. Unfortunately it exposes many of mistaken assumptions which form the foundation of our mainstream medical model. The same medical model that is controlling the narrative which justifies the enforced removal of our basic human rights/freedoms under the guise of keeping us safe. You dont have to agree with its contents but if you support it being banned you are only proving how scared you of free speech.
November 10, 2020
Informative book that needs to be read by all wanting to expand their minds. I don’t agree with all the theories and claims in this book but most of the information is eye opening and well annotated. Read this book with an open mind but do your own research and question everything-especially what we assume to be true.
October 31, 2020
This book will really stretch your mind and beliefs about contagious illness! Cowan and Fallon are modern day Galileos, suggesting we’ve got everything flipped about the pathology of bacteria and viruses. Super interesting book, I’d love to hear a group of scientists really dive into this topic and challenge our fundamental beliefs. I’ve been listening to Zach Bush wherever he gets interviewed and I’m slowly building up this new model inside my own head. We’re so conditioned to want to kill something in order to be well, it’s difficult to accept and really live a new paradigm while being bombarded with endless propaganda from the status quo! I will persist as I can tell something isn’t right with what we’re being sold about this pandemic. Are Cowan and Fallon completely right? Are there more subtleties to illness than they’ve fleshed out here? Probably, but this is an amazing head-turning start. Read this book if you dare! 😊
March 17, 2021
Everyone needs to read this book written to educate and clear up a lot of the confusing information coming from "experts" and elected officials about viruses. I was fascinated by how the human body was created to heal and the lack of real science behind how viruses (really, exosomes) work. The historical evidence gathered here by Cowan and Morrell evaporates fear and leaves those pushing that message powerless.
November 10, 2020
A must-read book for our current time. Banned by Amazon, this book discusses problems with the current and previous viral epidemic models and gives alternative explanations to what causes diseases that appear contagious. Some factors discussed include increases in global electrification, poisoned air, food, and water, vaccinations, and resonance. It discusses viruses as exosomes. A couple of things specifically about COVID that contradict the mainstream viral epidemic theory mentioned are the fact some cells of COVID patients were found to have multiple nuclei and/or that their lungs were unrecognizable. Very well researched and written and contained many references to various other books and works. Highly recommended.
October 27, 2024
Must read during 2020! The book covers (debunks) germ (ie virus) theory and Koch/Rivers postulates, diffrent 'viral' diseases and pandemics of the last century, electrification of the earth, AIDS, Corona testing and vaccine, Exosomes (ie what viruses might really be), vaccines, toxins, emfs, 5 g and ways to protect or at least minimize the chance of coronovirus (eg emf poisoning, air pollution) and other 'viral' disease (ie toxic poisoning).
November 12, 2020
It's taken me a few days to write a review for this one, as I felt I had to let the information digest a bit. I read this book because my husband read it, and asked that I read it also. We have a small pasture-based farm and raise grass-fed beef, and pastured pork & poultry. I share that mostly to explain that we ARE members of the Weston A. Price Foundation and are fans of Sally Fallon's book Nourishing Traditions, Nourishing Histories, Nourishing Fats...etc. Our family is always skeptical of Western medicine and of "big pharma", so this idea of a pandemic around Covid-19 has thrown us for a loop. I tried to remain open-minded while reading this, as I always try to do when confronting new material. I felt this book offered a variety of "thoughts" about what is going on in our environment, but not much evidence. It meandered all over the place, and left me with more questions than answers. It WAS successful, however, in offering a good argument about germ theory vs terrain theory, and I found myself understanding that the germ theory we have been taught has not even been fully understood, and holds less weight than I'd initially believed.
One thing that has perplexed me about this virus is how so many people can be "asymptomatic", or have relatively minor symptoms. I believe the terrain theory explains that far better than the germ theory, and I certainly appreciated the guidance about both our environment and our body's own "terrain" in the form of our microbiome. I wholeheartedly agree with the suggestions of what our diets should look like, as well as have some concerns about our water and EMR exposure. After reading this, my husband and I HAVE taken some reasonable precautions as far as turning off WIFI when we sleep, putting our phones in "Airplane mode", and a few others. I liken this to turning down the "noise" of our exposure to something that is fairly new to humanity.
Overall, if you're an open-minded person, who is looking for a different viewpoint than the standard "medical advice of the day", I would offer this book as one of several to broaden your thinking about our collective human health.
One thing that has perplexed me about this virus is how so many people can be "asymptomatic", or have relatively minor symptoms. I believe the terrain theory explains that far better than the germ theory, and I certainly appreciated the guidance about both our environment and our body's own "terrain" in the form of our microbiome. I wholeheartedly agree with the suggestions of what our diets should look like, as well as have some concerns about our water and EMR exposure. After reading this, my husband and I HAVE taken some reasonable precautions as far as turning off WIFI when we sleep, putting our phones in "Airplane mode", and a few others. I liken this to turning down the "noise" of our exposure to something that is fairly new to humanity.
Overall, if you're an open-minded person, who is looking for a different viewpoint than the standard "medical advice of the day", I would offer this book as one of several to broaden your thinking about our collective human health.
May 3, 2021
Fantastic book with clear and easy to understand information. Very well researched and an important one to read at this time when the main source of information for people is media propaganda instead of actual science. It did not answer all my questions about viruses but it raised considerable doubt for me regarding the current paradigm. I don't think anyone actually has all the answers. Some reviewers are dismissing this book as dangerous and conspiracy theory however I would like to see some of them find
1. Evidence of a purified virus (isolated according to Rivers postulates) that does harm to the host.
2. Evidence of contagion from such a virus.
The author's point was that there isn't any. I have had trouble finding any myself and know others who have looked and come up blank. You can't just read the abstract, intro and conclusion of a study to evaluate whether or not they have done what they said they did as studies are often misrepresented in these sections. The method needs to be read as well. It seems that no scientists are successfully using River's postulates to isolate viruses and then proving contagion.
I believe the author's main point was to point out that based on the fact that COVID 19 has never actually been isolated, the PCR test is not an adequate way to determine infection and that contagion has never been proven, we need to question the response to the virus on our planet. I certainly got that point from this book and have found ample evidence outside the book to support what they are saying in that regard. I still have many questions though.
1. Evidence of a purified virus (isolated according to Rivers postulates) that does harm to the host.
2. Evidence of contagion from such a virus.
The author's point was that there isn't any. I have had trouble finding any myself and know others who have looked and come up blank. You can't just read the abstract, intro and conclusion of a study to evaluate whether or not they have done what they said they did as studies are often misrepresented in these sections. The method needs to be read as well. It seems that no scientists are successfully using River's postulates to isolate viruses and then proving contagion.
I believe the author's main point was to point out that based on the fact that COVID 19 has never actually been isolated, the PCR test is not an adequate way to determine infection and that contagion has never been proven, we need to question the response to the virus on our planet. I certainly got that point from this book and have found ample evidence outside the book to support what they are saying in that regard. I still have many questions though.
March 16, 2021
I would give this book a 10. Stimulating reading for the open minded who are willing to question the accepted and propagandized medical dogma which has controlled our medical system for many, many decades. There is so much we don't know and yet medical science acts beyond arrogance in assuming they know all and are not to be questioned.
But the real kicker comes at the end of the book, on the last pages before the end notes. I don't want to spoil it, but there is distinct evidence that CoV-2 was known over a decade ago. But there is a bit more to this final anecdote on pages 161 and 162 that is truly chilling, in my view.
I am no longer assuming that viruses spread from person to person in the typical never-to-be-questioned manner. There may well be another force here at work that is very believable and supported by Dr. Cowan. Along with numerous other sources I have read and investigated, my understanding and thinking about medicine (for the layman and patient) is now a far cry from the pharma based and pushed nonsense that pervades the medical establishment.
But the real kicker comes at the end of the book, on the last pages before the end notes. I don't want to spoil it, but there is distinct evidence that CoV-2 was known over a decade ago. But there is a bit more to this final anecdote on pages 161 and 162 that is truly chilling, in my view.
I am no longer assuming that viruses spread from person to person in the typical never-to-be-questioned manner. There may well be another force here at work that is very believable and supported by Dr. Cowan. Along with numerous other sources I have read and investigated, my understanding and thinking about medicine (for the layman and patient) is now a far cry from the pharma based and pushed nonsense that pervades the medical establishment.
December 18, 2020
Even if the authors' theories are total bullsh*t, the factual information in this book is intriguing. Every time I thought to myself, "That can't be true," I'd look it up and find out it IS true. Absolutely riveting. Until the end. The epilogue and appendices go off into la-la land about 5G and "vortex" water. There's a showerhead one of the authors sells that will protect you from...something. Weird. But fascinating.
November 9, 2020
I´m accustomed to reading controversial and unorthodox books, but this one is easy to grasp and read. That does not mean it´s not technical, in fact it is but the spot on analogies and impeccable examples laid out beforehand, make you understand what the author is trying to convey.
November 7, 2020
An explanation about how the contagious Germ Theory is incorrect.
December 28, 2020
Absolutely essential reading. Highly recommend this book to anyone.
February 9, 2021
Amazing! This book truly changes everything we thought we knew about germs, bacteria and viruses. Thank you, Dr. Cowan and all who worked on this book!
June 9, 2021
A great presentation of the difference between germ theory and terrain theory of disease. A must read for all who seek to know ALL science not just the current mainstream narrative.
November 18, 2021
Ugh. This is really bad.
This book is written by a Dr and a woman that own some foundation.
The forward written by an unlicensed woman is complete misinformation embellished with hysterics and citing a 100 year old study that Science had proven wrong. Remember: antibiotics weren’t invented until the 1950s.
She unnecessary brings our up Conspiracy theories so ANY credible evidence she has, will be forever unknown Bc there’s only so much time and I will not entertain her insanity.
It’s a GOOD thing to be wrong in Science. It’s called the Scientific Process. It’s an replicated theory that hasn’t been unproven UNTIL it’s unproven.
And the Dr incorrectly grasps how HIV/AIDS is caused and replicates. He gives this away by saying he only remembers one fact about Immunology in Med School in the 80s. I can tell you exactly how pathogens introduced to the immune system work from school. This Dr. Can’t.
He also mentions that he has a theory about water and cancer, wrote a book years ago, and wishes that it was widely accepted now.
For the people saying it’s hard to get: you can Google their Foundation: Weston A. Price. Also I borrowed this from the Library. It’s published by Skyhorse Publishing. I’m sure the Gov has more important things than steal books from your mail box. It probably has more to do with the Independent book publisher 😂😂😂
PLEASE do not feed your infants unpasteurized raw milk like the unlicensed lady says is safe. She doesn’t understand babies are born with a sterilized digestive track and giving them raw food (like honey) in the first year, can KILL them.
But don’t worry. There’s a disclaimer after the frontispiece; that’s this isn’t a substitute for a licensed physician and it’s for info purposes only. No guarantees and the authors/publishers assume no responsibility if you follow their advice.
Something REAL facts in books do not have to include.
This book is written by a Dr and a woman that own some foundation.
The forward written by an unlicensed woman is complete misinformation embellished with hysterics and citing a 100 year old study that Science had proven wrong. Remember: antibiotics weren’t invented until the 1950s.
She unnecessary brings our up Conspiracy theories so ANY credible evidence she has, will be forever unknown Bc there’s only so much time and I will not entertain her insanity.
It’s a GOOD thing to be wrong in Science. It’s called the Scientific Process. It’s an replicated theory that hasn’t been unproven UNTIL it’s unproven.
And the Dr incorrectly grasps how HIV/AIDS is caused and replicates. He gives this away by saying he only remembers one fact about Immunology in Med School in the 80s. I can tell you exactly how pathogens introduced to the immune system work from school. This Dr. Can’t.
He also mentions that he has a theory about water and cancer, wrote a book years ago, and wishes that it was widely accepted now.
For the people saying it’s hard to get: you can Google their Foundation: Weston A. Price. Also I borrowed this from the Library. It’s published by Skyhorse Publishing. I’m sure the Gov has more important things than steal books from your mail box. It probably has more to do with the Independent book publisher 😂😂😂
PLEASE do not feed your infants unpasteurized raw milk like the unlicensed lady says is safe. She doesn’t understand babies are born with a sterilized digestive track and giving them raw food (like honey) in the first year, can KILL them.
But don’t worry. There’s a disclaimer after the frontispiece; that’s this isn’t a substitute for a licensed physician and it’s for info purposes only. No guarantees and the authors/publishers assume no responsibility if you follow their advice.
Something REAL facts in books do not have to include.
November 19, 2020
This could have been an excellent book had the authors kept their focus on the underappreciated "terrain theory." But their emphasis on EMFs/5G as a likely cause of the pandemic, instead of just a possible contributor (along with all the other components of total toxic load), pushed this book over the edge for me. (EMF exposure is proportional to the inverse of distance squared, so is highly individual; if you increase your distance by ten-fold, your exposure reduces by 100-fold.)
Glutathione status, a key risk factor for Covid-19, is barely mentioned. Another important variable, cell membrane health, is mentioned (in relation to dietary fats) in an appendix.
Finally, the book reads like a rough draft. I suppose these authors can get away with it, given their unique combination of innovative thinking and common sense. I wish a better book about terrain theory were available.
Glutathione status, a key risk factor for Covid-19, is barely mentioned. Another important variable, cell membrane health, is mentioned (in relation to dietary fats) in an appendix.
Finally, the book reads like a rough draft. I suppose these authors can get away with it, given their unique combination of innovative thinking and common sense. I wish a better book about terrain theory were available.
February 12, 2021
Rarely does a book change your entire outlook on the world. The Contagion Myth is one of those books, and Dr. Cowan is a clear and concise genius. This is a courageous, easy to read effort that everyone should own a copy of. The few dolts who left negative comments admit to not even reading the book. Exactly the kind of arrogant ignorance this book was written for.
December 18, 2020
A must read!
March 12, 2022
I'm on like page 2 and already caught the authors in a misrepresentation. I'm reading about the studies done on Bacillus influenzae (or Pfeiffer's bacillus) and the thing Cowan doesn't mention is that they filtered the secretions of the infected people looking specifically for the bacteria, which they found. They infected people with that bacteria and of course no one got sick because the bacteria wasn't the cause. The actual disease causing agent (the virus) was later found in the stuff filtered away from the targeted bacteria which makes sense because virus are much much smaller than a bacteria. For further reading, here's the NIH: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
There isn't a microchip in any of the vaccines. 5G wireless is no more dangerous than 4G wireless and that danger is found when people text while driving or can't disconnect when on vacation.
Vaccines don't cure acute illness, so I don't know how they can interfere with the supposed cleansing of cells. Vaccines help to prevent illness by strengthening an immune system that would otherwise be caught unawares by an invading bacteria or virus. This also doesn't saw where the illness comes from. If not bacteria or a virus, where?
Curiosity got me to Cowen's fb page where he's selling processed powdered vegetables, which seems weird if the solution to all of life's problems is FRESH fruits and vegetables.
"If incorrect...any errors come out of a place of seeking truth."--that's a terrifying quote. He's speaking as an authority while he admits to being a student. When someone doesn't know something, they should be asking questions, not proclaiming certainty! "Our research suggests" is the most common phrase you'll find in a scientific paper not "This is the truth until someone convinces me otherwise."
Cowan hasn't done any research. Sure, he's read some papers, but show us the studies he's facilitated. What is his scientific method? His hypothesis? His procedure? His results? His conclusions? What are his independent and dependent variables? 6th graders participating in a science fair have done more of their own work when they present a clay volcano!
The pingpong ball is a strawman. It's an argument constructed specifically to be torn down to "prove" the author is correct. Why not talk about actual viral research? Because this guy hasn't studied immunology since the 1980s and wouldn't know where to start with modern day research? Probably. Nothing he's describing is accurate as an analogy, but we shouldn't be discussing this in analogy form to start with. This isn't "accessible science"; it's just wrong information.
Please don't drink milk contaminated with Listeria bacteria, even if you know the cow hasn't been poisoned with arsenic.
I read the article cited for O2 absorption of 60GHz radio frequency and am thoroughly convinced that that's a terrible frequency to broadcast at because your signal is going to be distrupted by oxygen in the atmosphere. That's literally the only thing being said in that article. The NIH once again explains that there's no evidence of harm caused to humans by 60GHz radio frequencies. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
Illness tends to follow population and population always follows technology. Correlation doesn't mean causation, which is kind of Cowen's main premise. He wants to prove causation isn't bacteria and viruses but is bringing up correlation with technology as though that is definitive proof. Cool story, bro.
Off topic, but why doesn't 5G make everyone sick? Cowen said that bacteria and viruses don't cause illness because they don't fit all the postulates of Kohn and Rivers respectively. How does 5G fit the postulates? Where are the antibodies for 5G exposure and why doesn't everyone have them?
...That moment when you realize that Cowan thinks all radiation is the same. Gigahertz (GHz) is a unit of measurement no different from a centimeter or an inch. He's literally trying to compare 10 inches of iron to 10 inches of cotton. The microwave in your kitchen is not emitting the same radiation as the television in your living room!
Yes, "high frequencies" (or low frequencies or moderate frequencies) can cause issues with people. But what matters is the specific thing the frequency is measuring (again, a frequency is a unit of measurement). The microwave appliance in your kitchen operates at a much, much lower frequency than the microwave ray gun for crowd control used by the army.
A microwave is merely one tyfeet f electromagnetic radiation. To focus on specific frequencies is ridiculous because what matters is the type of radiation. To claim that everything that can be measured in frequencies is bad is dumb because sound is measured with frequencies. My daughter screaming at a high pitch in my ear has a much different effect than her quietly cooing as she kicks her feet in delight.
The argument that no viruses and bacteria can cause disease because some (many) viruses and bacteria are beneficial quickly falls apart when you realize that without visible light (another form of electromagnetic radiation), you wouldn't be able to see your grand child's smile. If a benefit negates every negative form, then the fact that we'd be living in Plato's Cave without visible light "proves" that no electromagnetic radiation is bad. But no one would argue that because we know otherwise. Just as we know that it's harmful to blow an airhorn in someone's ear, it doesn't make a child's laugh dangerous.
Don't drink milk you know has Listeria in it just because you know there are beneficial bacteria in your gut. The world isn't black and white and neither bacteria nor viruses care about your well-being. They exist to do their own thing and reproduce. If they didn't reproduce, they wouldn't exist as a species. They don't care whether they're beneficial, harmful, or irrelevant. But mutations occur and too much of a good thing can be a bad thing.
Yes, don't remove the protective shielding in your microwave, but it's not going to make your food radioactive; it simply doesn't work that way.
You know what illness causes headaches, fatigue, and even nausea that you may feel when you're next to a cellular tower? Stress. Stress that you give yourself when you're convinced that cellular towers make you feel sick. It's a feedback loop. You think it'll make you sick, so you stress about being exposed to it, which makes you feel sick, so you feel like your hypothesis has been confirmed, which makes you stress more about exposure, which makes you feel sicker. Moving away from the cell tower removes the fear of exposure which removes the stress and suddenly you're "cured". But the thing that made you sick wasn't the cell tower, but the fear you had of the cell tower.
I used to throw up the morning of the first day of school. Did the first day of school make me sick? No. I was stressed out by the unknowns associated with the first day of school. Would I like my teachers and classes? Would I like my classmates? Would I be overwhelmed by the workload? Etc. Once I learned about stress management and how to make plans that accommodate unknown variables effectively, I quit throwing up before stressful events. I learned how to relax and be a much happier person. But I'm not dumb enough to think that Listeria wouldn't give me a no good, very bad day! Don't drink milk you know has Listeria in it!
THERE IS NO DAMN MICROCHIP IN THE VACCINE! Each vile of Pfizer's vaccines contains 5-6 doses. If the "chip" was visible, we'd obviously see it and know about it (duh) and if it's so small it's invisible to the naked eye, there's no way to ensure that an individual gets "their" microchip so that they can be individually tracked. But, such microchips (too small for the naked eye) don't exist and there are no microchips in the vaccine, so this entire argument is pointless. There is no "what if"-- there simply ISN'T the thing.
"Recent evidence" on comets is some random guy claiming that 19th century scientists were right. Show me the NASA studies with a different interpretation of the data. As it is, yes, comets are still "dirty snowballs". Ignore the guy blogging from his basement.
The DTaP vaccine doesn't cause microcephaly. I got the DTaP while pregnant and my baby is perfectly healthy. Why are there Zika antibodies only in people who were infected with the Zika virus if the DTaP is supposedly the problem? Correlation doesn't necessarily mean causation.
There isn't a microchip in any of the vaccines. 5G wireless is no more dangerous than 4G wireless and that danger is found when people text while driving or can't disconnect when on vacation.
Vaccines don't cure acute illness, so I don't know how they can interfere with the supposed cleansing of cells. Vaccines help to prevent illness by strengthening an immune system that would otherwise be caught unawares by an invading bacteria or virus. This also doesn't saw where the illness comes from. If not bacteria or a virus, where?
Curiosity got me to Cowen's fb page where he's selling processed powdered vegetables, which seems weird if the solution to all of life's problems is FRESH fruits and vegetables.
"If incorrect...any errors come out of a place of seeking truth."--that's a terrifying quote. He's speaking as an authority while he admits to being a student. When someone doesn't know something, they should be asking questions, not proclaiming certainty! "Our research suggests" is the most common phrase you'll find in a scientific paper not "This is the truth until someone convinces me otherwise."
Cowan hasn't done any research. Sure, he's read some papers, but show us the studies he's facilitated. What is his scientific method? His hypothesis? His procedure? His results? His conclusions? What are his independent and dependent variables? 6th graders participating in a science fair have done more of their own work when they present a clay volcano!
The pingpong ball is a strawman. It's an argument constructed specifically to be torn down to "prove" the author is correct. Why not talk about actual viral research? Because this guy hasn't studied immunology since the 1980s and wouldn't know where to start with modern day research? Probably. Nothing he's describing is accurate as an analogy, but we shouldn't be discussing this in analogy form to start with. This isn't "accessible science"; it's just wrong information.
Please don't drink milk contaminated with Listeria bacteria, even if you know the cow hasn't been poisoned with arsenic.
I read the article cited for O2 absorption of 60GHz radio frequency and am thoroughly convinced that that's a terrible frequency to broadcast at because your signal is going to be distrupted by oxygen in the atmosphere. That's literally the only thing being said in that article. The NIH once again explains that there's no evidence of harm caused to humans by 60GHz radio frequencies. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
Illness tends to follow population and population always follows technology. Correlation doesn't mean causation, which is kind of Cowen's main premise. He wants to prove causation isn't bacteria and viruses but is bringing up correlation with technology as though that is definitive proof. Cool story, bro.
Off topic, but why doesn't 5G make everyone sick? Cowen said that bacteria and viruses don't cause illness because they don't fit all the postulates of Kohn and Rivers respectively. How does 5G fit the postulates? Where are the antibodies for 5G exposure and why doesn't everyone have them?
...That moment when you realize that Cowan thinks all radiation is the same. Gigahertz (GHz) is a unit of measurement no different from a centimeter or an inch. He's literally trying to compare 10 inches of iron to 10 inches of cotton. The microwave in your kitchen is not emitting the same radiation as the television in your living room!
Yes, "high frequencies" (or low frequencies or moderate frequencies) can cause issues with people. But what matters is the specific thing the frequency is measuring (again, a frequency is a unit of measurement). The microwave appliance in your kitchen operates at a much, much lower frequency than the microwave ray gun for crowd control used by the army.
A microwave is merely one tyfeet f electromagnetic radiation. To focus on specific frequencies is ridiculous because what matters is the type of radiation. To claim that everything that can be measured in frequencies is bad is dumb because sound is measured with frequencies. My daughter screaming at a high pitch in my ear has a much different effect than her quietly cooing as she kicks her feet in delight.
The argument that no viruses and bacteria can cause disease because some (many) viruses and bacteria are beneficial quickly falls apart when you realize that without visible light (another form of electromagnetic radiation), you wouldn't be able to see your grand child's smile. If a benefit negates every negative form, then the fact that we'd be living in Plato's Cave without visible light "proves" that no electromagnetic radiation is bad. But no one would argue that because we know otherwise. Just as we know that it's harmful to blow an airhorn in someone's ear, it doesn't make a child's laugh dangerous.
Don't drink milk you know has Listeria in it just because you know there are beneficial bacteria in your gut. The world isn't black and white and neither bacteria nor viruses care about your well-being. They exist to do their own thing and reproduce. If they didn't reproduce, they wouldn't exist as a species. They don't care whether they're beneficial, harmful, or irrelevant. But mutations occur and too much of a good thing can be a bad thing.
Yes, don't remove the protective shielding in your microwave, but it's not going to make your food radioactive; it simply doesn't work that way.
You know what illness causes headaches, fatigue, and even nausea that you may feel when you're next to a cellular tower? Stress. Stress that you give yourself when you're convinced that cellular towers make you feel sick. It's a feedback loop. You think it'll make you sick, so you stress about being exposed to it, which makes you feel sick, so you feel like your hypothesis has been confirmed, which makes you stress more about exposure, which makes you feel sicker. Moving away from the cell tower removes the fear of exposure which removes the stress and suddenly you're "cured". But the thing that made you sick wasn't the cell tower, but the fear you had of the cell tower.
I used to throw up the morning of the first day of school. Did the first day of school make me sick? No. I was stressed out by the unknowns associated with the first day of school. Would I like my teachers and classes? Would I like my classmates? Would I be overwhelmed by the workload? Etc. Once I learned about stress management and how to make plans that accommodate unknown variables effectively, I quit throwing up before stressful events. I learned how to relax and be a much happier person. But I'm not dumb enough to think that Listeria wouldn't give me a no good, very bad day! Don't drink milk you know has Listeria in it!
THERE IS NO DAMN MICROCHIP IN THE VACCINE! Each vile of Pfizer's vaccines contains 5-6 doses. If the "chip" was visible, we'd obviously see it and know about it (duh) and if it's so small it's invisible to the naked eye, there's no way to ensure that an individual gets "their" microchip so that they can be individually tracked. But, such microchips (too small for the naked eye) don't exist and there are no microchips in the vaccine, so this entire argument is pointless. There is no "what if"-- there simply ISN'T the thing.
"Recent evidence" on comets is some random guy claiming that 19th century scientists were right. Show me the NASA studies with a different interpretation of the data. As it is, yes, comets are still "dirty snowballs". Ignore the guy blogging from his basement.
The DTaP vaccine doesn't cause microcephaly. I got the DTaP while pregnant and my baby is perfectly healthy. Why are there Zika antibodies only in people who were infected with the Zika virus if the DTaP is supposedly the problem? Correlation doesn't necessarily mean causation.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 80 reviews