Damar Hamlin Commotio Cordis Charade Untenable

Damar Hamlin's inactivation reveals untenability of ongoing deception.

Back in April, when it was announced that Damar Hamlin would return to the playing field, a supporter in California sent me—along with Drs. Peter McCullough and Joe Ladapo—an e-mail asking, “How is this possible?”

“They are whitewashing vaccine myocarditis with commotio cordis,” Peter replied. “Very dangerous move.  Shows how far they will conceal vaccine dangers.”

In the months that followed, many of my friends asked me, “Do you think the Bills are really going to play Hamlin again?”

“They will make a spectacle of him triumphantly returning to the playing field,” I proposed. “They will then, ‘out of an abundance of caution,’ withdraw him from regular season play. The charade and the attendant risk will be carefully choreographed.”

I wasn’t surprised when I woke up this morning and saw Dr. McCullough’s post titled Damar Hamlin Inactivated for Monday Night Football.

Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur is an old Latin adage that mean, “The world wants to be deceived, so let it be deceived." The origin of the phrase is debated, though some scholars think it was coined by the Roman pontifex maximus Scævola, who considered it expedient to deceive the people with religion. The Roman author, Marcus Terentius Varro, stated that “there are many truths which it is useless for the vulgar to know; and many falsities which it is fit the people should not suppose are falsities,” hence the utility of the adage Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.

The trouble with elaborate charades is that they become untenable over time. Myths can be very potent and compelling, but like a child’s belief in Santa Claus, they eventually run into the hard wall of reality. People also eventually grow weary of being defrauded.

Hieronymus Bosch, “The Conjurer”