Obviously We're At The Raised Eyebrow Phase Of This Whole Covid Situation

brownstone  |  Here is my review of Oisín MacAmadáin, Busting Anti-Vax Myths! Seriously EXPERT Arguments for the Covid-Deniers in Your Life (2022), with a Foreword by Dr. Anthony Faucet.

This is a slim, wickedly funny satire of 126 pages organised into ten chapters of rollicking hilarity. It’s a hugely enjoyable book for all those who were critical of lockdowns, masks, and vaccines. As the Brits say, it takes the piss out of all the self-proclaimed Covid experts, the public health clerisy, the media, and people with blind faith in the experts. 

Thus the fictitious professor Oisín MacAmadáin informs us of “a good friend in Dublin whose fully vaccinated father died from Covid. He also told me how much worse he knew it could have been.” And all the grannies going merrily about their way in Stockholm “must be brainwashed. A perfect example of state propaganda.” The true believers are likely to be offended. 

The book is successful in skewering the many Covidian dogmas because MacAmadáin closely tracks the many gaslighting tropes used by the experts and the authorities to attack critics, dissenters, Florida, and Sweden. The last, for example, is dismissed as irrelevant because its vast empty spaces make it very difficult to encounter the virus and anyway, we all know the Swedes are so reserved they rarely hug.

It’s been many a long year since I laughed so much while reading a seriously serious book. The greater your familiarity with the lies, obfuscations, and gaslighting by health experts and governments in the last three years, and with the range of scientific literature and controversies, including the leading names, the more you will be entertained by this book.

American readers will especially enjoy the chapter on Florida and the attempted puncturing of Robert Malone and Peter McCullough as anti-vaxxer ringleaders. That they were removed from Twitter is proof they were spouting anti-scientific drivel. Their knowledge is so shallow that they can be shown up even by the likes of Neil Young and Meghan Markle.

MacAmadáin is inventive with names in the mould of JK Rowling, referencing the CDLWQ (CatDogLynxWolfQuestioning) + community for those who self-ID as catgender etc. The encomia on the back cover are from eminent world experts like President Macaroni who adores the book because it will “really ‘piss off’ the anti-vaxxers;” Santa Klaus who is incredulous that the author “was never a WEF young leader;” the CEO of Pfizzle; and Gubnet O’Foole, the correspondent in residence of the Oirish Times. The final encomium is signed off “The author.”

We meet Prof. Nadir Jibjab and Dr. Smärtz Aleks. Austria has a Mr. Hündbisket and a Prof. Ann Schlüss who has written a treatise on The Jab as Moral Good. She holds firmly to the view that the government decisions tick all ethical boxes, “even those of Kant whose ethical boxes are notoriously hard to tick.” A German schoolteacher named Gretel Voopingkoff praises Oisín’s “awesome work in exterminating anti-vaxxer propaganda.” She informs him that her multi-jabbed kids “play the geese marching game” from which the unvaxxed are, of course, excluded.

If You Didn't Trust Your Own Examination Of The Science And Instead Succumbed To The Propaganda

censorednews  |  The COVID-19 lie that started it all—before lockdowns and mandates—was the lie that the virus was more deadly than it actually was. On March 3, 2020, the media cited the World Health Organization to spread the misinformation that the global death rate of COVID-19 was 3.4%. Years later, the WHO’s much-expanded dataset now shows the real global case fatality rate is less than 1%. However, at the time, when the President of the United States correctly pointed out the figure was inflated, he was viciously attacked for “downplaying” the virus, as the WHO’s misleading statistic was regurgitated in the press.

“WHO says the death rate is 3.4% globally, higher than previously thought” - CNBC

“The death rate now estimated at 3.4% for anyone afflicted with this virus” - FOX News

“3.4% of people who get coronavirus die from it.” - USA TODAY

The WHO’s death rate was severely inflated because most COVID-19 cases are mild with no symptoms and are therefore never reported. In fact, Dr. Fauci and the Director of the CDC, Dr. Redfield predicted as much just three days prior to the WHO’s misleading 3.4% death rate. In the New England Journal of Medicine, Fauci and Redfield concluded the number could be “considerably less than 1%”. This contradiction between US public health officials and the WHO went mostly ignored. The media was only triggered into a response when Donald Trump used the same scientific reasoning on FOX News with Sean Hannity.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, I think the 3.4% is really a false number. Now, this is just my hunch, but based on a lot of conversations with a lot of people that do this, because a lot of people will have this, and it's very mild. They will get better very rapidly. They don't even see a doctor. They don't even call a doctor. You never hear about those people.

Trump repeated his reasoning for clarity, although his full explanation was later deleted from nearly all mainstream news segments which criticized him for sharing thoughts “based on nothing” (John Berman, “CNN New Day”, CNN, 3/5/20).

PRESIDENT TRUMP: When you do have a death…all of a sudden, it seems like three or four percent, which is a very high number, as opposed to a fraction of one percent. But, again, they don't know about the easy cases, because the easy cases don't go to the hospital. They don't report to doctors or the hospital in many cases. So I think that that number is very high. I think the number—personally, I would say the number is way under 1 percent. 

MEDIA MISINFORMATION / DISINFORMATION

Former Vox reporter and special guest to the Biden White House, Aaron Rupar, reflexively attacked Trump’s rational, and ultimately correct, take on the WHO death rate, as “astoundingly irresponsible”.

Over the following days, Trump was mocked on nearly every major television channel (CNN, MSNBC, NBC, ABC, CBS, & Comedy Central), where he was accused of lying.

MSNBC hosts and experts labeled Trump’s correct take on the death rate as “not correct”, “not true”, “dishonest”, and “disinformation” (Andrea Mitchell, Ben Rhodes, and Geoff Bennett on “Andrea Mitchell Reports”); “false information”, (Chris Jansing on “Live with Hallie Jackson”); and “misinformation” (“Live with Velshi and Ruhle”).

CNN’s reporters and pundits did the same, calling Trump’s informed skepticism “disinformation” (Brian Stelter, “CNN Newsroom”); “misinformation” (Anderson Cooper, “Anderson Cooper 360”); and “sketchy information” (Jim Acosta, “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer”).

(NOTE: This is only a small sample of the false accusations.)

After the news set the narrative, late-night hosts took their cues and obediently forwarded the message that WHO’s word reigns supreme and therefore Trump is crazy to question it.

 

Elite Maleficence And Impunity (REDUX Originally Posted 8/17/23)

washingtonexaminer  |  On Monday, we got a bombshell. New documents indicate the entire justification for vaccine mandates was based on a falsehood — and that public health officials knew it. 

Emails obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request show that CDC Director Rochelle Walensky and former NIH Director Francis Collins were aware of, and discussed, “breakthrough cases” of COVID in January 2021 — right when the vaccines became widely available. In her email, Walensky says that “clearly,” it is an “important area of study,” links to a study raising the issue, and assures the person she is sending it to that Dr. Anthony Fauci is looped into these conversations.

However, in public, Walensky was saying something quite different. Two months after discussing this data, she said vaccinated people “don’t carry the virus” and “don’t get sick.” In a congressional hearing, after it became clear people were able to get infected with COVID even after receiving the vaccine, she defended her original statements by claiming it was true at the time she said it — namely, for the strands we were dealing with in early 2021.

We now know that was not true and that Walensky herself knew it was not true.

Jay Bhattacharya, a professor at the Stanford School of Medicine, called the revelation “stunning.” He pointed out that despite this knowledge, “they continued to push vax mandates anyway.”

This is the real scandal, as there is little harm in getting something like this wrong in a vacuum. After all, COVID-19 vaccines certainly saved many, many lives and reduced the severity of infection for many more. But the fact vaccine mandates were pushed, even though those in charge knew people could contract and spread the virus while vaccinated, is indefensible. That they mislead the public on this makes it even worse.

If the vaccine stopped COVID dead in its tracks, as Fauci explained, then the decision to institute a vaccine mandate would merely be a controversial yet ultimately legitimate public health measure. The fact it did not do that but rather had primarily personal benefits completely removes the justification for mandates.

The Biden administration tried to impose a vaccine mandate on employers, thousands of people were fired from their jobs, and there was a time when unvaccinated people were not even allowed into restaurants in some of the country’s largest cities.

And it was all based on a lie.

 

 

Are Fraudulent Covid Control Measures About To Be Reinstated?

SummitNews  |   In response to reports of COVID restrictions, including social distancing and masking being reimplemented by colleges and offices, Senator Rand Paul asserted that those pushing the measures again “have no shame.” During a Fox News interview, Paul described the move as “hysteria” being pushed by the leftist media to financially benefit their corporate pharma owners. “These people are so conflicted,” Paul said, adding “It’s so dishonest to put people like that on the air to promote a product that they make more money from … promote this hysteria. This defies all logic. It defies science, and it defies common sense.” “To see this coming up again, these people have no shame,” Paul continued, pointing to Morris Brown College in Atlanta, a black private liberal arts college that has reinstated the measures as part of a “precautionary step.”

“That university that’s wanting to mask up and do all this testing — zero cases,” Paul urged, adding “But even worse than that, even when COVID was really more potent in 2020, the death rate for young, healthy people turned out to be close to zero.” “We don’t know for sure because the CDC won’t release it, but we do know that Germany released all of their data, and not one young, healthy person died. So, it’s a crime to mandate masks. It’s a crime to mandate vaccines, which do have some risks for young, healthy people,” Paul further noted. The Senator urged that Americans are “not going to lay down and take it again,”adding “there will be more resistance” this time. “We will fight back, and we will point out that they are making money off of this. These are not high-minded people. They are making money off of us and making money off of generating hysteria,” the Senator asserted.

2023's CDC Updated Covid Mitigation List

Here’s an updated list of the sterilizing vaccines, effective monoclonal antibodies, long Covid treatments, updated ventilation lists in businesses and schools and the action plan to fight this virus after almost 4 years. pic.twitter.com/AGPxsOOKmU

— Jess (@MeetJess) August 23, 2023

Elite Maleficence And Impunity

washingtonexaminer  |  On Monday, we got a bombshell. New documents indicate the entire justification for vaccine mandates was based on a falsehood — and that public health officials knew it. 

Emails obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request show that CDC Director Rochelle Walensky and former NIH Director Francis Collins were aware of, and discussed, “breakthrough cases” of COVID in January 2021 — right when the vaccines became widely available. In her email, Walensky says that “clearly,” it is an “important area of study,” links to a study raising the issue, and assures the person she is sending it to that Dr. Anthony Fauci is looped into these conversations.

However, in public, Walensky was saying something quite different. Two months after discussing this data, she said vaccinated people “don’t carry the virus” and “don’t get sick.” In a congressional hearing, after it became clear people were able to get infected with COVID even after receiving the vaccine, she defended her original statements by claiming it was true at the time she said it — namely, for the strands we were dealing with in early 2021.

We now know that was not true and that Walensky herself knew it was not true.

Jay Bhattacharya, a professor at the Stanford School of Medicine, called the revelation “stunning.” He pointed out that despite this knowledge, “they continued to push vax mandates anyway.”

This is the real scandal, as there is little harm in getting something like this wrong in a vacuum. After all, COVID-19 vaccines certainly saved many, many lives and reduced the severity of infection for many more. But the fact vaccine mandates were pushed, even though those in charge knew people could contract and spread the virus while vaccinated, is indefensible. That they mislead the public on this makes it even worse.

If the vaccine stopped COVID dead in its tracks, as Fauci explained, then the decision to institute a vaccine mandate would merely be a controversial yet ultimately legitimate public health measure. The fact it did not do that but rather had primarily personal benefits completely removes the justification for mandates.

The Biden administration tried to impose a vaccine mandate on employers, thousands of people were fired from their jobs, and there was a time when unvaccinated people were not even allowed into restaurants in some of the country’s largest cities.

And it was all based on a lie.

 

 

Um, Er, Ah..., Despite Causing Us Massive Injury - NONE OF THEM Have Yet Been Held Accountable!!!

alt-market  |  When I think back to the first days of the covid pandemic lockdowns, I suspect the majority of people, even many conservatives and liberty movement types, had a healthy concern about the effects of the virus and the potential for structural upheaval if it turned out to be as deadly as the World Health Organization initially claimed. If covid had an Infection Fatality Rate of 3% or more as global health officials warned, then the damage would be substantial enough to change our world for many years to come.

Anyone who was not at least partially concerned about a biological disaster (or biological warfare) was probably an idiot. Anyone who was smart was prepared.  However, after a few months of the spread of the virus and after the first flurry of scientific data, several facts became evident:

1) The lockdowns did nothing to stop the spread, they were simply destroying our economy.

2) The masks were useless and did nothing to prevent transmission of the virus.

3) The IFR of covid was a tiny 0.23%, and that’s not accounting for all the co-morbidity deaths that were falsely labeled as covid deaths.

4) The vaccines did not prevent transmission for millions of people. They did not prevent infection in many cases and numerous vaccinated people have died from the virus. Not only that, but unvaccinated people with natural immunity were better protected than those that took the vaccine and boosters.

5) Studies show that the vaccines cause dangerous side effects at a much greater rate than the CDC admitted.

Everything government officials told us during the pandemic was a lie. It was not a mistake, it was not bureaucratic confusion, it was a lie. Even after this information became available, they KEPT GOING – They kept people locked down, kept them masked and they even tried to force-vaccinate the population. There were some Republican politicians that also went along with the panic, many of them Neocons (fake conservatives).  However, the majority of red states quickly ended the restrictions once the contradictory data was made public.  In the meantime, the blue states looked ridiculous and paranoid as they desperately clung to the mandates.

I believe the only reason Biden, the Democrats and globalist institutions eventually stopped was not because they realized their science was incorrect; it was because they realized millions of conservatives and independents were ready start a shooting war over the mandates and they knew they would lose.

Even today, months after Biden was forced to finally end the national emergency status on covid, there are still a lot of people out there running around with masks, still isolating in their homes and still complaining all over social media that the public has moved on from the pandemic hysteria. Where does this behavior originate? And why did so many Americans (mainly leftists) jump on the authoritarian bandwagon when it comes to lockdowns and forced vaccination?

I want to explore the psychology of such people here, because I think it’s the natural inclination of the public today to move on quickly from the discomfort of terrible events and ignore the deeper implications. We cannot move on from this, because the ultimate problem was never solved. These same leftists and globalists were never admonished for their behavior, they never had to admit they were wrong and they WILL attempt the same draconian measures again in the future if left unchecked.

Here is what I think happened during the covid cult frenzy…

A Useful Weapon Against The Constitution

Leftists are quick these days to change the subject or outright deny their authoritarian activities during covid. It makes sense, they view the next election as a defining election and they want people to forget that we almost lost what remains of our constitutional rights because of their policies. But again, we can’t allow these things to fade into the ether. Here’s a list of the worst trespasses on the part of leftists and globalists during the pandemic:

They lied about the effectiveness of the lockdowns.

They lied about the effectiveness of the masks.

They lied about the effectiveness of the vaccines.

They lied about how extensive the testing was for the covid vaccines.

They lied about the “pandemic of the unvaccinated.”

They enforced lockdowns OUTSIDE where it is nearly impossible to contract a virus.

They tried to put the population under house arrest.

They put legislation in motion in some states to build “covid camps” in the US.

In some countries, they did build covid camps, not just for travelers, but for everyone.

They conspired to suppress ample evidence linking the Wuhan Lab in China with the outbreak.

They (Government and Big Tech) conspired to use social media as a tool for mass censorship of conflicting data.

They exploited algorithms through search engines to bury any and all contrary information.

As many leftists openly admitted, the goal was to make life so difficult for the unvaccinated that they would eventually comply in order to survive. In this way, establishment elites and leftists could claim that people “volunteered” for the vaccines and no one was forced. What they really meant was, no one was forced at gunpoint, but we all knew that threat was coming next.  In fact, polling showed that a large percentage of Democrats were willing to scrap the Bill of Rights altogether and declare war on the unvaccinated…

Not Long Ago You Couldn't See A Dying Relative In The ICU - Now It's A Covid Free-Fire Zone

BostonGlobe  |  On a recent warm and humid summer night, a group of public health colleagues and I were approaching a restaurant for dinner. “Inside or out?” I asked. Not long ago, COVID-19 would have decided — outside. But not that night. We ate inside, where it was cooler.

Like so many others, we are living with COVID. The virus isn’t going anywhere, but how safely we live with it has changed dramatically. Most Americans have resumed the full range of their pre-pandemic activities — concerts, parties, summer camps, and family events. But with the virus still circulating, many who have gone back to pre-pandemic life still worry if they are safe.

It makes sense to be wary. We have lived with these risk assessments and daily decisions for almost four years. And yet we are in a much different, much better place. We can protect ourselves with vaccines, which remain free and widely available. Treatments like Paxlovid are more accessible than ever. Innovative research continues, with an updated vaccine expected in the fall that will better target the circulating variant. Tests are available for those who still want to use testing, and surveillance, through wastewater and genomic sequencing, is much better than it used to be. Add in large investments in improving indoor air quality and the infrastructure to respond more effectively to future outbreaks and things are much better.

The truth is that we can now prevent nearly every COVID death. People who are up to date on their vaccines and get treated when infected rarely get seriously ill. Even for the vulnerable like my parents, who are in their 80s, vaccines coupled with treatments provide a very high degree of protection against serious illness. This is also true for most immuno-compromised individuals. The fact is, now a few basic steps mean you can ignore COVID safely — and get back to doing things that matter, even with COVID still around. Think of these safety measures like the routine check-ups that keep your car safe to drive.

What are these measures? The most important is making sure immunity is up to date. For most of us, this means one COVID booster shot annually. For high-risk people whose immune systems are less robust (like my parents and others over 65), two shots per year will help shore up waning immunity and avoid unnecessary vulnerability. The Biden administration has made a large investment in building vaccines that will stop infections and whose benefits will potentially last years. Until those vaccines arrive, an updated shot annually for most of us and two shots a year for the most vulnerable will keep most people safe from serious illness.

I get it — no one likes to get shots. But vaccines are the single greatest weapon we have to put the pandemic behind us. Getting a shot against the flu is already a regular part of the lives of many Americans, including those of us who work in health care. Vulnerable Americans will be safer if we all get both flu and COVID shots every year.

Second, if you do contract COVID, make use of the highly effective treatments. There are several available now and more coming soon. These treatments, like Paxlovid, are remarkable at preventing serious illness, with some preliminary evidence that they might also help reduce the risk of long COVID. While treatments are particularly important for those of us over 50, all adults should immediately explore treatments if they contract COVID.

 

Project Nextgen: Brandon Doubling Down On Unsafe and Inneffective Vaccine-Only Strategy...,

NEJM  | The development of safe and effective Covid-19 vaccines and treatments within a year after SARS-CoV-2 was first identified represents one of the great successes of modern science.¹ Thanks to the ingenuity of scientists, along with cooperation between the U.S. government and the private sector, these medical countermeasures changed the trajectory of the pandemic, saving millions of lives in the United States and tens of millions globally. Today, nearly 70% of Americans have received their primary vaccination series, including nearly 95% of those over 65 years of age.²

Although the numbers of deaths and hospitalizations due to Covid-19 have dropped by more than 90% since President Joe Biden took office, our fight against SARS-CoV-2 is not over. The virus continues to evolve rapidly³ and still causes substantial numbers of infections, hospitalizations, and deaths each day. The emergence of new variants is hard to predict and continues to threaten the ability of countermeasures such as monoclonal antibodies to protect vulnerable patients. Immunity from both vaccines and infection wanes over time. The only way to stay ahead of the virus is to continue to update the composition of our vaccines and administer them in a regular cadence. Although this strategy is critical, with our current generation of vaccines, it also requires immense resources for mounting frequent vaccination campaigns — at a time when antivaccination sentiment continues to grow and the public’s appetite for regular vaccinations has waned.

Next-generation vaccines and treatments are needed if we are to break the cycle of responding to new variants as they appear: we need tools that can improve our bodies’ ability to stop infections, reduce transmission, build longer-lasting immunity, and target parts of the virus that are less likely to evolve.⁴ Ideally, such vaccines and treatments would provide better protection, enabling us to avoid disruptions of our lives and continue to enjoy the activities we value.

Since it’s safe to assume that SARS-CoV-2 will continue to evolve, the goal for the next generation of vaccines and treatments is to be effective irrespective of that evolution — to protect against infection, transmission, and severe illness. This new approach is important for everyone, but particularly for the most vulnerable people — older adults and people who are immunocompromised, for whom infections can have more severe consequences.

The Biden administration has therefore announced Project NextGen, which will coordinate a whole-of-government effort to advance innovations from labs through clinical trials and safely deliver them to the public. It aims to bring new vaccines and treatments to market by investing in research and development, expanding manufacturing capability and innovation, and providing updated and streamlined regulatory guidance. This $5 billion investment will focus on three main areas: vaccines that provide broader immunity both against new SARS-CoV-2 variants and across the family of epidemic-prone sarbecoviruses, vaccines that generate effective mucosal immunity to block infection and transmission, and monoclonal antibodies that can weather viral evolution and serve as a basis for our arsenal against new threats from beta-coronaviruses.

Why is government investment needed at this time and for this effort? Although there is consensus that these tools are critical for our fight moving forward, current market forces have made development slow. Reduced interest in traditional vaccines has limited investments in this area. In addition, the science underpinning these efforts is difficult and requires work that is not guaranteed to pay off on the timelines that many private investors seek. There are also important scientific and regulatory challenges, such as determining how to best measure a new vaccine’s efficacy. Although companies may eventually bring the needed products to market, the current anticipated timelines could leave the public vulnerable, without additional tools, for many years. This prospect reflects a classic market failure: the costs of development have been left to private market forces that may not place adequate value on products’ broad benefits for the people of the United States and the rest of the world.

The U.S. government has committed to accelerating the science by streamlining development processes, using such strategies as standardizing assays, standardizing protocols, and providing timely regulatory guidance. This approach will build on years of success of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services), and it is designed to help ensure that new tools reach the American people in the shortest time possible.