UPDATE: 9th April 2021 - Book BANNED (again!) worldwide on all Amazon websites.

Well, it looks final this time... I received an email from the "Amazon Content Review" department today stating: "Amazon reserves the right to determine what content we offer according to our content guidelines. Your book does not comply with our guidelines. As a result, we are not offering it for sale."

Over the course of a couple of weeks in late February / early March 2021 I have tried to publish this book under few different titles, with a few different cover options. I've even tried changing the book blurb to meet Amazon Kindle guidelines:

The original, full title for the book is:

Vaccine Roundup: Should I Have One of the COVID-19 Coronavirus Vaccinations? Questioning the Narrative: An Exercise in Critical Thought

After my initial rejection I shortened the title to:

Vaccine Roundup: Questioning the Narrative: An Exercise in Critical Thought

Third time lucky? I took out all reference to vaccines, and tried re-submitting under the simple title:

Questioning the Narrative: An Exercise in Critical Thought

My initial submission had the original cover, as shown above. In later submissions I used plain text on a white background. Maybe the simple outline graphic of a hypodermic needle was the problem.

I also tried re-working the book description text, but to no avail.

What is the book about?

I'm glad you asked. Here's the book blurb from my original submission to Amazon

Do you believe “the narrative” about COVID-19?

A virus, pandemic, tests, cases, hospitalizations and deaths.

Something must be done...

Lockdowns, curfews, business closures, stimulus payments, furloughs, border restrictions.

The only way out...

Vaccines

The original estimate often given for producing a vaccine in record time was “12 to 18 months”. Vaccines usually take at least 5 years to go through all the processes necessary to prove safety and efficacy. Yet less than a year since the viral outbreak was declared a pandemic millions had already been given the jab.

None of the vaccines have been approved, but are being used under Emergency Use Authorizations only. They are still classed as experimental, and if you are given one, you are part of the biggest vaccine trial ever run on the human race.

Despite this hasty experimental roll-out, there is a huge publicity campaign underway to encourage everyone to get vaccinated as soon as possible. The pressure is on.

The Great Vaccine Roundup of 2021

Do you have questions? Are you concerned?

Does something feel “not quite right” about all of this?

This book doesn't claim to know “the truth”, nor does it suggest that the most lurid conspiracy theories are correct.

What it aims to do is help you to think through all that is going on around the world, by questioning the narrative we are being fed every day. Who is involved, what motivations might they have, why is this all happening so quickly?

This is an exercise in critical thinking, because only by doing this can we come to a rational and considered decision about what the best course of action is for our own personal and unique circumstances.

As you can see from the blurb above, the book doesn't claim to offer any facts, or present anything as "the truth". It certainly doesn't offer any "advice about the treatment or prevention of the virus", as the rejection email from Amazon states as their reason for blocking the book.

The book merely suggests that perhaps there is more going on around us than we initially thought, and that all of us should really do a bit of critical thinking before we jump in and have one of the experimental new vaccinations.

So one has to wonder why such a book would be censored.

I have appealed to Amazon KDP (Kindle Desktop Publishing) many times, referencing the many other books already on offer on Amazon dealing with similar subject matter.

I have pointed out that the book offers no misinformation, but merely links to many sources with the goal of helping the reader to think carefully about a very important decision. 

I have also appealed on the grounds of inappropriate censorship.

Cult 90s TV series “The X-Files” carried the tagline “I want to believe”.

Fox Mulder, maverick FBI agent tasked with studying the strange, unusual, mysterious cases that nobody else wanted to investigate, often found himself siding with the conspiracy theorists. His partner, Dana Scully, provided some balance, combining a deep scepticism with a rigorous scientific approach.

The larger story arc which continued through all the series, and in a couple of movies too, involved a massive government cover-up of the discovery of alien technology, and the subsequent use of that technology for evil intent.

“I want to believe” was the phrase on a poster, occasionally seen in an episode, on Fox Mulder’s basement office wall. The words appeared below an image of a UFO. Fox was clearly deeply invested in believing in the plot he was trying to uncover.

The X-Files was a huge success, perhaps partly due to the fact that we all enjoy an occasional visit to the deep rabbit hole of conspiracy theories.

But perhaps we can take the phrase “I want to believe”, and turn it on its head in regard to our current situation.

Instead of using it to indicate a desire to embrace all of the darkest ideas of evil goings-on behind the scenes, we can acknowledge that the world would be a better place if we really could believe the stories we are told.

Our recent past has been filled with challenges, changes, loss of freedoms, and fear. The easiest and most comforting option is to take all we’re told at face value, and go along for the ride.

In February and March (2020) I did believe. I thought, based on what I read and heard, that we were facing a tidal wave of disease and death. I believed the news reports, I understood how exponential growth hides the numbers until they explode off the chart. I saw the haggard faces of the doctors in Italy. I saw the reasoning which led to the first lockdown in the UK, because it was necessary to “flatten the curve”. I was an early adopter of mask use. I believed.

But little by little, over the months, things just haven’t seemed to add up. I began to question what was going on as governments made decisions, then hasty U-turns, as masks weren’t essential, then suddenly were mandated, as lockdowns destroyed businesses, lives and the economy.

I was amazed to see what appeared to be very obvious censorship as any discussion of Hydroxychloroquine was side-lined and ridiculed, and qualified doctors were de-platformed for expressing an opinion which differed from that constantly being pushed in the media.

But it wasn’t until the surprise “Hey Presto!” vaccine announcements in early December, months if not years ahead of any predicted timeline, that I really sat up and took any notice.

The final straw that broke the camel’s back for me was the hasty approval for emergency use, and the enormous effort to get needles into arms before the ink on the pharma company research papers had had time to dry.

I sincerely hope that I am wrong to be so sceptical.

I hope that we are being told the truth. I hope that the people making decisions for us, enforcing new rules and regulations, and encouraging us to be vaccinated as soon as possible do indeed have our best interests at heart.

I hope that by rolling out a vaccine we find a way to halt the progress of this pandemic, and that our lives will return to normal.

But I don’t think I can choose to believe this simplistic narrative any longer.