March 4, 2022
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."
The book banned by Amazon:
"Vaccine Roundup"
This is the book the censors at Amazon think you shouldn't be allowed to read.
According to their copy/paste rejection email:
"We are referring customers to official sources for advice about the prevention or treatment of the virus".
This book isn't about prevention or treatment of the virus. It is about questioning the narrative.
Apparently Amazon believes that you, an intelligent questioning reader, need to be protected from anything that comes from "unofficial sources".
Perhaps they believe you are incapable of making decisions for yourself, and need to be shielded from any suggestion that you might want to question the official narrative?
They don't want you thinking for yourself.
Read on below to find out more, or click the button below to find out where you can get hold of a copy...

“I'll tell you what they don't want. They don't want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don't want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. They're not interested in that. That doesn't help them.”
George Carlin

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.

Why was the book blocked?
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.
“When you tear out a man's tongue, you are not proving him a liar, you're only telling the world that you fear what he might say.”
George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings
I didn't plan to write a book about vaccines
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.
About Me.
My name is Ian Usher. I was born in 1963 in the UK.
One of my major passions is travel. I’ve visited over 60 countries, and lived in several, including Australia, Canada, Panama and Mexico.
As I write this I am living in France, since being locked down here for a month in November of 2020. I have decided to stay on here for a while.
I have published a couple of other books about earlier parts of my life, and had no plans to write anything else.
But the things I saw happening around us, as one by one our freedoms were taken away, made me question the narrative around the coronavirus, and the speedy vaccine roll-out.
Recent reviews
Luis Basto
Smashwords Review
(2nd April 2021)
The author has done some good research into the why, what, and where of this COVID-19 "narrative". If you are a non-believer in the pandemic, you probably have seen or read many of the articles. If you are a believer, you probably can't find too many holes since this is mainly putting all the visible facts and clues on the table and not pushing the opinion one way or the other.
While it doesn't answer the question of whether one should or should not take the vaccine, it does question the safety and saneness of taking the jab. Also, it covers only the 4 American and British vaccines. At last count, there are 6 Chinese vaccines, most of which are the first and second generation types. So if a person do want to take a jab but don't trust the mRNAs, is it an option to travel to another country that offers these vaccines? There are at least 2 problems here - international travel is difficult now and those countries may offer the vaccines only to their citizens.
It's a good read and will open your eyes to the unclear world of vaccination.
Adelin R.
Amazon Review
(4th April 2021)
A must-read
Very clear, exhaustive, well written and documented. A must-read.
Richard Penny
Smashwords Review
(12th March 2021)
Very easy to read, effective in maintaining the balance of a questioning neutral narrator, and perhaps as comprehensive as can be without journeying into pure speculation.
If you're looking for this book to give a "solution", whether that is in choosing to take the vaccine or pushing back against powers-that-be then you could be disappointed. It is clear that we have the freedom to make our decisions individually, and if it does get to the point of mandatory vaccination then the only effective pushback is in a critical mass number of resistors that are too large to be corralled.
If you're of a questioning mind and not overly invested in a particular viewpoint on the pandemic then this book is for you.
Amazon censorship...
The Amazon Advertising Team
Amazon Advertising
"The following ads are non-complaint to creative acceptance policies:
Your ad titled "Vaccine Roundup: Should I Have One of the COVID-19 Coronavirus Vaccinations? Questioning the Narrative: An Exercise in Critical Thought" no longer complies with our current Creative Acceptance Policies. Specifically for the following reasons:
Your ad contains prohibited content. Content that revolves around controversial or highly debated social topics is not permitted. Please remove this content from your ad."
Aswin
Amazon Content Review Team
"Due to the rapidly changing nature of information around coronavirus, we are referring customers to official sources for advice about the prevention or treatment of the virus."
Rituparno B.
Amazon Advertiser Support
"We have reviewed the query and found that the campaign is not compliant with Amazon Advertising's guidelines. The product advertised ASIN [B09169418H] is restricted from advertising at present.
As per Amazon Advertising creative acceptance policy we do not permit products that may exploit sensitive events such as natural disasters, human-caused disasters, incidents of mass drama, or the death of public figures."
Kathryn
Amazon Content Review Team
"We've reviewed your book again and are upholding our previous decision to not offer your book for sale on Amazon."