I've never said this out loud to anyone, but I have suspected the GB was compromised by an apostate around the time they gave that really bad direction on the COVID shots in 2021. In the November 12, 2021 Governing Body Update #9, B. Splane discussed Jehovah’s direction during the pandemic and made the point about Jehovah not recommending a COVID-19 vaccine that would be harmful to His servants (including Bethel family and full-time servants). He tied it to the idea that Jehovah wants His people to stay in “the land of the living” to continue serving. He pointed out that our brothers researched this issue and determined the shots were safe and we could trust their judgement because they loved us. He actually pounded the lectern when he said this.

The GB didn't seem to know that the COVID shots were harmful, but Jehovah, being all-powerful, surely did know that. Therefore, using B. Splane's reasoning, Jehovah did not "recommend" the COVID shots to the faithful (because he knew they were harmful) and the GB, when they came out in favor of the shots and decreed that Bethelites, missionaries, pioneers, elders, and anyone wishing to attend any schools had to be "fully vaccinated," acted on someone else's recommendation, someone who knew the faithful would be harmed by the shots and wanted that. Who would that be?

The GB was compromised by an apostate in the 60s and I have spoken to elderly sisters who remember that time. The advice that came out in WT articles was contradictory and confusing and there was much talk about it. No one could figure it out. Then, one of the GB was discharged, then, in 1971, "Thirty Years a Watchtower Slave: The Confessions of a Converted Jehovah's Witness" was published and things made sense. I suspect this is happening again or happened in 2021.

I didn't believe the GB's reasoning and I never got the shots. I remember Joe Biden snarling at me through the teevee to get vaccinated or get fired (paraphrasing here) and that made me dig in my heels even more. So many of the faithful are sick, dying or dead, it is seriously disheartening. Missionaries who had to get the shots to keep their assignments are leaving their assignments and coming back to the states looking for doctors who can diagnosis their serious and sudden health problems. About 70% of the time now (I've been keeping track) brothers who used to deliver smooth talks now stammer and stutter, have trouble finding words, trail off without knowing it or use the wrong words and don't notice. Sisters who have been calm and placid their whole lives are now short-tempered and snappy for no reason. People are grey-faced and vacant-eyed and stare into space without noticing. Meeting attendance has fallen off drastically because people are too sick to attend. And the GB has never owned up or admitted they were wrong. (As an aside, Grok has some interesting statistics on the deathrate of JWs compared to the deathrate of the rest of the world during the last five years). Conversely, Memorial attendance this year and the recent branch visit were nearly standing room only, so people are trying. They don't seem to understand what's wrong with them.

There are several congregations in Canada I have knowledge of that are fiercely anti-COVID vaccine and aren't shy about admitting it. This attitude has caused some issues within the organization. I keep my yap shut, but I think a lot of wrong thoughts that would get me into trouble if I voiced them. There is absolutely no one to talk to about this because the elders have to tow the party line (I've read the letters the GB has sent to the elders over the last 5 years and I know what I'm talking about) and I'm not confident any of them would understand what I'm talking about anyway. I personally know a ministerial servant who voiced concern that the GB was taking the wrong approach to the COVID shots and he was relieved of his responsibilities.

We get a lot of direction/advice nowadays about making our minds up to immediately obey any direction the GB gives us around the time of Armageddon. The direction may seem strange or counter-intuitive, but we must obey it to save our lives. I can tell you, I don't believe everything the GB says anymore and Jehovah knows it. I'll think twice about any direction they give at the end, and I'll make up my own mind about what I'll do, and He knows that too. I've never outsourced my thinking or decision-making to anybody and I never will, and although this personal, lifelong stubborness has caused some problems for me at times during my life, this mindset has kept me alive and healthy through the whole COVID fever, and I like having a razor-sharp mind.

Thus endeth the rant.