HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9437441/Life-WONT-return-normal-June-21-Covid-vaccines-arent-good-SAGE-warns.html
SAGE warns social distancing and masks will last until next YEAR because >>> vaccines are 'not good enough' - and life WON'T return to normal after
'the great unlocking' on June 21
All legal limits on social contact were to be abolished by June 21 as
part of final stage of roadmap out of curbs
But No10's scientific experts said 'baseline measures' would need to
remain in place until this time next year
They are more optimistic about April 12, adding that opening pub gardens >>> and shops unlikely to cause spike
By CONNOR BOYD ASSISTANT HEALTH EDITOR FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 11:03 EDT, 5 April 2021 | UPDATED: 13:31 EDT, 5 April 2021
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Social distancing will need to remain in place for another year even if
Boris Johnson's roadmap out of lockdown goes to plan, the Government's
top scientific advisers warned today.
Senior SAGE sources said that while the vaccines prevent the vast
majority of people from falling ill and dying from coronavirus, they
'are not good enough' to see all curbs lifted 'without a big epidemic'.
All legal limits on social contact were to be abolished by June 21 as
part of the final stage of the Prime Minister's four-step route out of
the crisis. It was hoped that festivals, sports events and nightclubs
would reopen and that families and friends could reunite in large
numbers after that date for the first time since winter 2020.
Read More
However, No10's experts claimed today that 'baseline measures',
including some form of social distancing and masks, would need to remain >>> in place until this time next year. They said they are 'reasonably
confident' that Covid will be manageable by then.
The AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines reduce Covid deaths by about 90 per
cent, but there are fears high infection rates could see the virus spill >>> into the small number of vulnerable people who haven't been jabbed or
for whom the vaccines don't work.
Despite the pessimistic comments, Mr Johnson announced tonight the
country is on track for the second stage of his lockdown easing plans on >>> April 12, which will see shops, gyms, hairdressers and beer gardens
reopen again.
Speaking at a Downing Street COVID news briefing, the Prime Minister
said: 'We see nothing in our present data that makes us think that we'll >>> have to deviate from the roadmap.' Cases and deaths are their lowest
levels in six months and more than half of the adult population has been >>> vaccinated with at least one dose of the jabs.
Papers released by SAGE today show the expert group is confident next
week's lockdown-easing measures will not pile pressure on the NHS, even
if there is a slight uptick in infections, because of the success of the >>> jab rollout.
But the advisory panel is less optimistic about future stages of the
roadmap, adding that it is 'highly likely that there will be a further
resurgence in hospitalisations and deaths'.
They said the reopening of pubs, cinemas and indoor hospitality - due to >>> happen on May 17 - could be delayed if vaccine uptake in the under-50s
dips below 85 per cent.
Modelling by Warwick University, Imperial College London and the London
School of Hygiene and Tropical medicine (LSHTM) warned of a late summer
surge after 'freedom day' in June which could rival levels seen this
January when hospitals were nearly overwhelmed.
SAGE's modelling of the Covid crisis after each step in Boris Johnson's
roadmap out of lockdown. The expert group experts transmission,
hospitalisations and deaths to remain low after April 12 but is less
certain about what effect later steps will have +5
SAGE's modelling of the Covid crisis after each step in Boris Johnson's
roadmap out of lockdown. The expert group experts transmission,
hospitalisations and deaths to remain low after April 12 but is less
certain about what effect later steps will have
Despite the pessimistic comments, Mr Johnson is set to announce the
country is on track for the second stage of his lockdown easing plans on >>> April 12, which will see shops, gyms, hairdressers and beer gardens
reopen again +5
Despite the pessimistic comments, Mr Johnson is set to announce the
country is on track for the second stage of his lockdown easing plans on >>> April 12, which will see shops, gyms, hairdressers and beer gardens
reopen again
+5
+5
In a series of SAGE files published today, the SPI-M subgroup warned of
a potential third wave as the country unlocks further later in the year. >>>
It said: 'It is highly likely that there will be a further resurgence in >>> hospitalisations and deaths after the later steps of the roadmap. The
scale, shape, and timing of any resurgence remain highly uncertain.
'In most scenarios modelled any peak is smaller than the wave seen in
January 2021 however scenarios with little transmission reduction after
Step 4 or with pessimistic but plausible vaccine efficacy assumptions
can result in resurgences in hospitalisations of a similar scale to
January 2021.'
Warwick University modelling, which feeds into SPI-M's assumptions
submitted to SAGE, warned that hospitals could peak at around 10,000 in
the autumn. For comparison, there were 35,000 daily admissions at the
peak in January.
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What will Boris Johnson announce at today's 5pm press conference?
The next step of easing lockdown will go ahead as planned: The PM is
expected to confirm that non-essential shops, gyms, hairdressers and
libraries will reopen from April 12 while pubs and restaurants will be
allowed to serve customers outdoors.
A mass-testing scheme: Everyone in England will be promised two rapid
lateral flow tests every week, starting from April 9, in a bid to cut
the chain of transmission as lockdown rules are loosened.
Vaccine passports: The PM will unveil the initial findings of a
Whitehall review into the potential use of 'Covid status certification'. >>> The documents are likely to combine vaccination, testing and immunity
data and could be used to determine access to large-scale events. It is
unclear whether they could be used at pubs.
Foreign travel: A traffic light system will be unveiled by Mr Johnson
which will pave the way for non-essential international travel to
resume. Countries will be rated either green, amber or red based on
criteria like vaccination levels and infection numbers. Travel from
green countries will not require a quarantine period. The earliest
foreign holidays could resume is May 17.
However, worst-case scenario forecasting by researchers from the London
School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine - which presumes dips in vaccine
uptake and efficacy - could see admissions back up to around 30,000.
LSHTM says this would only be the case if two doses of AstraZeneca
provided just 31 per cent effectiveness against transmission and 85 per
cent against severe disease.
Real-world analysis by the Government shows the AZ vaccine reduces about >>> 60 to 70 per cent of transmission and 90 per cent of severe cases. The
same is true for the Pfizer jab.
The success of the vaccine rollout means SAGE is not necessarily worried >>> about a rising R reproduction number or an uptick in cases - so long as
hospital admissions and deaths stay low.
But Government scientists will be concerned if the R rises to above 1.5
or if incidence rates provided by the Office for National Statistics
start to double every fortnight.
SAGE sources said this would indicate the virus is spiralling and drive
up the risk of vulnerable people not protected by the vaccines being
affected.
It comes as Britain's daily Covid cases were down 40 per cent today on
last week while deaths have risen slightly, official figures revealed.
Department of Health officials posted another 2,762 positive tests and
26 laboratory-confirmed fatalities. For comparison, 4,654 infections and >>> 23 deaths were recorded last Monday.
Day-to-day figures fluctuate, however, and the overall trend is still
hurtling downwards thanks to lockdowns and the UK's successful vaccine
roll-out, which has now seen almost 31.6million Britons get jabbed.
Both infections and deaths figures over Easter are expected to be lower
because of incomplete data and a longer-than-usual reporting lag due to
the four-day bank holiday weekend.
Meanwhile, travel chiefs fear a summer holiday booking 'fiasco' as Boris >>> Johnson unveils a new traffic light system to allow international trips
to resume.
The Prime Minister's initiative will allow Britons to go on summer
holidays to countries with high vaccination rates.
The system will see destinations rated as red, amber and green using
criteria including the percentage of the population that has been
vaccinated, the rate of infection, any emerging variants and the
country's access to reliable data and genomic sequencing.
The criteria could result in European countries like France and Italy
being ruled out of bounds for British holidaymakers as parts of the EU
suffer spikes in cases and the bloc's vaccination drive continues to stall. >>>
Industry bosses today warned they 'cannot go through the fiasco of
cancelling bookings because a system has been ill thought through' as
they highlighted the risk for potential customer 'confusion'.
At a press conference this evening, the Prime Minister will confirm the
next stage of the release from lockdown is on schedule – with shops,
gyms and hairdressers allowed to reopen from next week +5
At a press conference this evening, the Prime Minister will confirm the
next stage of the release from lockdown is on schedule – with shops,
gyms and hairdressers allowed to reopen from next week
They also warned that many European nations now face a race against time >>> to reduce infection rates and boost vaccination levels so they can make
it onto the green list before the summer season.
Under the Government's scheme, sunseekers returning from countries in
the green category will not have to isolate, although they will need to
have tests before and after they fly.
Those coming back from red list countries would have to quarantine in a
hotel for ten days, while arrivals from amber destinations will have to
isolate at home.
The Prime Minister will use a Downing Street press conference this
afternoon to re-affirm May 17 will be the earliest that foreign holidays >>> can resume and the new system comes into effect. But he will say he is
unable to advise yet whether any countries will be classed as green on
this date.
The traffic light scheme announcement came as the PM faces a growing
Tory revolt over the potential rollout of domestic vaccine passports.
`Britain's daily Covid cases fall by 40% in a week with 2,762 infections >>> - while deaths are up slightly to 26
Britain's daily Covid cases were down 40 per cent today on last week
while deaths have risen slightly, official figures revealed.
Department of Health officials posted another 2,762 positive tests and
26 laboratory-confirmed fatalities. For comparison, 4,654 infections and >>> 23 deaths were recorded last Monday.
Day-to-day figures fluctuate, however, and the overall trend is still
hurtling downwards thanks to lockdowns and the UK's successful vaccine
roll-out, which has now seen almost 31.6million Britons get jabbed.
Both infections and deaths figures over Easter are expected to be lower
because of incomplete data and a longer-than-usual reporting lag due to
the four-day bank holiday weekend.
Many Conservative MPs support using the documents for international
travel but they oppose using them for day-to-day life, with Mr Johnson
targeting a domestic rollout of some sort by June 21.
Mr Johnson is expected to offer the House of Commons a vote on the
issue, in a move which could risk a damaging defeat, with Labour
continuing to express concerns about the documents and increasing
numbers of Tory backbenchers opposed to them.
Health Minister Edward Argar today said an increase in cases in Europe
showed why the UK must 'get this right' on travel rules in order to
avoid importing potentially vaccine-busting variants of the disease.
He told BBC Breakfast: 'We are seeing many of our friends in Europe
seeing an increase in infections. That is one of the reasons why we have >>> to be very careful that as we see an increase across the world in
infections that we get this right because one of the things we don't
want to see – and just as the vaccination programme is working so well – >>> is getting new variants or risking new variants getting imported into
this country.'
Holiday chiefs insisted there is still time before the summer for
European countries to get coronavirus case numbers under control again.
Asked what the most likely holiday destinations could be when travel is
allowed, Andrew Flintham, managing director for Tui UK and Ireland, told >>> the BBC: 'Cyprus have come out and been very positive, Greece and Turkey >>> have come out and been very positive, and Spain again.
'So I think all these European countries, whilst to a degree they are
struggling with their rates at the moment, we are still a significant
period away from the summer season properly opening up, we are probably
11 weeks away.
'The world has been changing on a weekly basis, never mind an 11-weekly
basis. So we are still positive about those destinations. We are also
positive that the Caribbean and some of those destinations will open up.' >>>
Paul Charles, CEO of travel consultancy The PC Agency, told MailOnline
he believes a 'handful' of European countries will be on the UK's green
list in May with more to follow in June and July.
He said that last year many European countries had high infection rates
which were brought under control by the start of summer, adding: 'I
think the same will happen this year because there is also the added
bonus of the vaccine and the [EU] rollout will speed up. I am confident
that much of Europe will be accessible by early July.'
Martyn Sumners, executive director of the Association of Independent
Tour Operators, warned of the time pressures the industry faces, telling >>> The Times: 'The fact that we won't know until next month which countries >>> are permitted for travel will make it very difficult to get programmes
up and running. It does not happen overnight. There are many elements of >>> a holiday to organise.
'The travel industry cannot go through the fiasco of cancelling bookings >>> because a system has been ill thought through and leave customers and
operators angry because of the confusion.'
Many in the industry fear a repeat of last year when countries were
added to the travel red list at very short notice, leaving holidaymakers >>> scrambling to get home or cancel their trips.
It came as leading scientific adviser Professor Neil Ferguson said
testing everyone coming from Europe, with no exemptions, would be
'sensible' as he expressed concerns about the spread of the South
African variant on the continent.
The only healthy way to stop the pandemic in the UK, and other
places is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding
out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who among us
are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in
order to http://bit.ly/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to call
their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping
this pandemic. Thus, hoping for the best while preparing for the
worst-case scenario of the "UK variant mutations" **and** others like
the Brazilian, Californian, South African & "cluster-5 mink mutations"
(read more via Google) rendering current vaccines ineffective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.bbc.com/news/education-56651135
Published20 hours ago
Share
Related Topics
Coronavirus pandemic
Back to school
IMAGE COPYRIGHTJANE BARLOW
image captionMasks will be needed at the start of next term, but might
not be required after 17 May, say ministers
Secondary school pupils in England must keep wearing face masks in class >>> after the Easter holidays, said Education Secretary Gavin Williamson.
Face masks would remain as a "precautionary measure," he said.
Mr Williamson had promised to review the wearing of masks, which have
been required since schools reopened fully last month.
But head teachers say masks can disrupt learning and should not be used
any longer than is "absolutely necessary".
Announcing the decision to retain masks in the classroom, at least until >>> 17 May, the Department for Education (DfE) said: "This cautious approach >>> will help limit the risk of transmission and enable continued monitoring >>> of the effect of school and college returns."
But the latest DfE guidance says: "It is expected that face coverings
will no longer be required to be worn in classrooms, or by students in
other communal areas, at step three of the roadmap, which will be no
earlier than 17 May."
First day back at school has 'gone well', say heads
School attendance back at high levels in England
"Schools and students have done a great job adapting to Covid secure
guidance and working hard to make sure it doesn't impact learning," said >>> Mr Williamson.
"We obviously all want to get back to facemask-free classrooms and we
will do this in line with the latest scientific data while balancing the >>> interests of students, teachers and the wider community."
However, Geoff Barton, head of the school leaders' union ASCL, said that >>> while his union would support the department's new guidance, masks in
class were "not ideal".
"The use of face coverings is clearly not ideal in a classroom setting,
as it has the capacity to disrupt education and it is not something we
want to see going on any longer than is absolutely necessary.
"We hope that the continued excellent progress with vaccinations will
mean it is no longer necessary for students to wear face coverings in
lessons when the government announces the next stage in the easing of
restrictions in May."
But Patrick Roach, general secretary of the NASUWT teachers' union,
welcomed the move.
"Relaxing the rules in schools would send a message to pupils and
parents that the threat of Covid has passed at a time when extreme
caution is still needed.
"We are not out of the woods yet and maintaining the highest levels of
Covid security in our schools is critical as we move into the new term
in order to protect the safety and health of teachers and learners."
The only healthy way to stop the pandemic in the UK, and other
places is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding
out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who among us
are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in
order to http://bit.ly/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to call
their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping
this pandemic. Thus, hoping for the best while preparing for the
worst-case scenario of the "UK variant mutations" **and** others like
the Brazilian, Californian, South African & "cluster-5 mink mutations"
(read more via Google) rendering current vaccines ineffective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
https://archive.vn/qYkJ7
It’s inhuman that we’ve been left at the mercy of Sage’s garbage Covid
models
Ministers and scientists are trying to cover their backs, ignoring the
fact that social interaction is not a luxury
JONATHAN SUMPTION
7 April 2021 • 9:30pm
Jonathan Sumption
The modellers have been at it again. The modelling committee of Sage
(which goes by the unlovely name of SPI-M-O) has produced a report
projecting the consequences of ending restrictions in accordance with
the Government’s Covid Roadmap. The projection which has attracted the
most attention, and was surely designed to, is that on “pessimistic but
plausible” assumptions there will be a third wave in the summer if the
restrictions are eased, leading to hospitalisations as bad as at the
January peak.
Does that seem odd? It should. The January peak reflected the situation
before vaccinations took effect. So we are being told that it is
“plausible” to think that the vaccines may make little difference to
hospitalisations.
When Imperial College produced its modelling report last March, which
pushed the Government into the first lockdown, they pointed out that
unless restrictions were kept in place until there was a vaccine,
infections and associated hospitalisations and deaths would simply surge >>> again once the restrictions were lifted.
The goalposts are now being shifted. We are being told that the
restrictions may have to be kept in place even though there are now
highly effective vaccines. Hospitalisations and deaths are at rock
bottom. Almost all of the more vulnerable groups have been vaccinated.
Even accounting for the MHRA’s changed advice regarding the AstraZeneca
vaccine, a high proportion of the rest will have been inoculated by
June. If the vaccine is not an exit route, then what is? The logic of
the modellers’ more extreme projections is that the restrictions may
have to stay in place indefinitely.
It is time to be honest about documents of this kind. As aids to
policymaking and public understanding, they are at best useless and at
worst extremely misleading. The problem is that they are not evidence.
They are just painting by numbers. A model will produce any result you
care to name, depending on the assumptions fed into it.
SPI-M-O’s report is based on models from three different institutions:
Imperial College, Warwick University, and the London School of Hygiene
and Tropical Medicine. All three models assume no dangerous new variant. >>> The critical assumption in all of them is about the efficacy of the two
vaccines currently in use. The modellers assume a reduction in
hospitalisations after two doses of the Astra Zeneca vaccine varying >>>from 80-90 per cent (Warwick) to 70-80 per cent (Imperial).
These are wide ranges. The higher figure in the range is the modellers’
“central” projection. The lower figure is the “pessimistic but
plausible” projection. Neither has any greater validity than the other.
It depends on what you feel like.
Peak hospital occupancy in January was about 34,000. Hospital occupancy
in August as projected by SPI-M-O could be anywhere between 4,000 and
30,000 depending on which of the three modellers you choose, and whether >>> you choose the “central” or the “pessimistic but plausible” option. Only >>> at the outer extreme of pessimism does the projection come anywhere near >>> the January peak.
But the real eye-opener is the comparison between the modellers’
assumptions about vaccine efficacy and the real world. We do not need to >>> make assumptions about the efficacy of the vaccines. We have the results >>> of the clinical trials. In the latest US trials of the AstraZeneca
vaccine, involving 32,000 people, the reduction in the number of cases
serious enough to require hospitalisation was not 70-90 per cent, as
assumed by the modellers, but 100 per cent. The modellers’ assumptions
about the Pfizer vaccine are closer to the clinical trials, but they are >>> still notably more pessimistic. This makes a critical difference. If the >>> modellers had taken their assumptions from the real world, the projected >>> hospitalisations would have been far better than even the most
optimistic projection.
Why are the assumptions of the three modellers so different from each
other? And why are they all so different from the empirical results? On
the face of it, these assumptions are arbitrary, and the results based
on them no better. Garbage in – garbage out. What is missing from all
this number-crunching is an injection of judgment or common sense. The
public is entitled to ask what is going on.
What seems to be going on is that every one is covering their backs.
Ministers want to pass the buck to the scientists. They want to be able
to say “What a triumph for our policies” if things turn out fine; and
“We followed the science” if they turn out badly. The scientists don’t
like being made to carry the can for what is basically a political
judgment. They want to be able to say “These were only scenarios, not
predictions” if things turn out fine; and “We told you so” if they turn
out badly. Each group is trying to manipulate the other. Balanced
assessments based on actual evidence are sadly missing.
There are more important things at stake than the reputation of
ministers or their advisers. Human beings are social animals.
Interaction with other people is not a luxury. It is a basic human need. >>> It is also the foundation of our mental health, our social organisation, >>> our leisure activities and our economy.
There is a breed of public health officials who are indifferent to these >>> things. They have never reflected, at any rate in public, on what makes
life worth living. As far as they are concerned, human beings are just
instruments of government health policy. They will be lining up to tell
us that it is dangerous to return to normal life because we cannot be
absolutely sure that normal life will be risk-free. They will quote the
gloomier speculations of modellers as evidence of what “might” happen if >>> the Government stops treating us like caged animals or inert specimens
in some ghastly sociological laboratory.
The Government must now make up its mind whether the vaccines are
effective in reducing hospitalisations and deaths, or not. If they are
effective, then the restrictions on our lives are unnecessary and should >>> be lifted. If they are not effective, then they should still be lifted,
because in that case we are going to have to live with periodic surges
of Covid-19, for the only alternative is to prolong the current assault
on our humanity indefinitely.
The only healthy way to stop the pandemic in the UK, and other
places is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding
out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who among us
are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in
order to http://bit.ly/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to call
their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping
this pandemic. Thus, hoping for the best while preparing for the
worst-case scenario of the "UK variant mutations" **and** others like
the Brazilian, Californian, South African & "cluster-5 mink mutations"
(read more via Google) rendering current vaccines ineffective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://ethicsalarms.com/2021/04/10/well-thats-cleared-up-now-we-know-as-if-there-was-reason-for-doubt-that-the-cdc-is-a-political-organization-not-a-scientific-one-and-thus-not-to-be-trusted/
Well THAT’S Cleared Up! Now We Know (As If There Was Reason For Doubt)
That The CDC Is A Political Organization, Not A Scientific One, And Thus >>> Not To Be Trusted
APRIL 10, 2021 / JACK MARSHALL
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the current Director of the Centers For Disease
Control, released a statement last week that declared “racism” a public
health threat.
Go ahead and read the statement if you like; that sentence above is all
you need to know from an ethics perspective. If “racism”—it’s in quotes
because the definition no longer has any coherent meaning, since it has
been distorted to mean anything a social justice warrior or an unhappy
individual who regards himself/herself/whateverself as a minority needs
the word to mean at a given time or in a particular dispute, or, of
course, a dictatorial-minded government—is a health issue, almost
anything is. Maybe everything.
Actually, racism defined in a dictionary as "a belief that race is a
fundamental determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial
differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race" does
have "coherent meaning."
Source of definition:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/racism
The so-called anti-racists go far beyond the dictionary definition.
In the interim, I am simply wonderfully hungry (
http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) and hope you, Michael, also have a
healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-56710858
Covid lockdown eases: 'Sense of celebration' as pubs and shops reopen
Published33 minutes agocommentsComments
Share
Related Topics
Coronavirus pandemic
media captionToastmaster opens pub with a gong
For the first time in months, pub gardens, shops and hairdressers are
reopening in England, as rules are also eased in the rest of the UK.
Some pubs and salons opened at midnight, with one landlord saying there
was a "sense of celebration", and shoppers queued outside Primark stores. >>>
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has urged everyone to "behave responsibly". >>>
Northern Ireland's "stay-at-home" order is ending and some rules are
also being relaxed in Scotland and Wales.
The PM had planned to have a celebratory pint to mark the measures
easing, but that has been postponed following the death of the Duke of
Edinburgh on Friday.
What can I do from Monday... and what comes next?
Live updates: Shops, gyms and pub gardens open in England
In pictures: Shoppers and gym-goers enjoy lockdown easing
Snow showers and chilly temperatures in parts of southern England
appeared to do little to dampen enthusiasm for outdoor pints or
early-morning queuing for shops and salons.
Women take a selfie with their drinks at The Fox on the Hill pub in London >>> IMAGE COPYRIGHTREUTERS
image captionDrinkers wrapped up warm for an early drink at The Fox on
the Hill pub in London
Nicholas Hair, landlord and owner of the Kentish Belle pub in
Bexleyheath, south-east London, said there was a "sense of celebration"
in the early hours of Monday as it opened to midnight customers.
"I'm hoping that this is a sort of rebirth, and that we are reopen for
the foreseeable," he said.
In Coventry, hundreds of people queued outside the Oak Inn for its
midnight opening. Owner Darren Lee said they served 260 customers, but
turned 300 to 400 people away.
A queue of shoppers outside Primark in Brighton
IMAGE COPYRIGHTGETTY IMAGES
image captionA long queue of shoppers arrived early for the reopening of >>> Primark in Brighton
Marika Smith, general manager of Hough End Leisure Centre, Withington,
Manchester, said all of their swimming times were already fully booked
on Monday.
Kelly Boad, owner of the Hair & Beauty Gallery in Warwick, opened her
salon at midnight for a symbolic "first cut" of 2021, adding she is
fully booked for the first few weeks.
John Witts enjoys a drink at the reopening of the Figure of Eight pub,
in Birmingham
IMAGE COPYRIGHTPA MEDIA
image captionPub-goers, such as John Witts at the Figure of Eight pub in >>> Birmingham, were not put off by chilly temperatures
Children looking at a penguin in London Zoo in Regent's Park London
IMAGE COPYRIGHTPA MEDIA
image captionFamilies descended on London Zoo, which has also been
closed for months
Another business that reopened at midnight in England was Secret Spa,
which offers at-home salon and spa treatments in London, Manchester and
Brighton.
Co-owner Emily Ewart-Perks said it had "been such a long time coming",
saying: "Everyone has really missed the social contact of the day-to-day >>> job and making clients happy."
She said they have experienced a "surge of bookings", including "a lot
of 6am haircuts".
'Very excited' customers queue for reopened shops
'Everyone's raring to get back to the gym'
As of 10:00 BST, High Street footfall had more than trebled from a week
earlier, as queues formed outside branches of Primark, JD Sports and TK
Maxx and retailers extended their opening hours.
media captionThe rule of six applies for those visiting pubs and
restaurants outdoors in England
The rule changes in England from Monday include:
All shops can reopen
Hairdressers, beauty salons and other close-contact services can open
Restaurants and pubs are allowed to serve food and alcohol to customers
sitting outdoors
Gyms, spas, zoos, theme parks, libraries and community centres can all open >>> Members of the same household can take a holiday in England in
self-contained accommodation
Non-essential journeys between England and Wales are allowed
Up to 15 people can attend weddings and 30 can attend funerals
Children can attend any indoor children's activity
Care home visitors will increase to two per resident
Driving lessons can resume, with tests restarting on 22 April
But the British Beer and Pub Association has estimated that only 40% of
licensed premises have the space to reopen for outdoor service.
People on the Stealth ride as Thorpe Park reopens
IMAGE COPYRIGHTREUTERS
image captionThrillseekers have been enjoying the rides at Thorpe Park
in Surrey
People enjoy a beer garden at The Cat and Fiddle Inn in Macclesfield,
Cheshire
IMAGE COPYRIGHTREUTERS
image captionThese cyclists braved the snow for a drink outside The Cat
and Fiddle Inn in Macclesfield, Cheshire
In Northern Ireland, the remaining school year groups 8-11 will return
to the classroom. The stay-at-home message is being relaxed and up to 10 >>> people from two households can meet in a private garden.
Queues at Primark as stores to stay open to 10pm
What are the rules when I go to the pub or a restaurant?
In Scotland, pupils at schools in six council areas go back to school
today. Not everyone is returning on Monday because differing term times
mean some schools are still closed for the Easter holidays.
After a drop in Covid cases prompted the Welsh Government to bring
forward some dates for reopening, all students will return to
face-to-face teaching on Monday.
Non-essential shops can also reopen, close-contact services can resume,
driving lessons can restart and travel in and out of Wales from the rest >>> of the UK is allowed.
A rhino at Whipsnade Zoo in Bedfordshire
IMAGE COPYRIGHTPA MEDIA
image captionWhipsnade Zoo in Bedfordshire is open for visitors once again >>> Rebecca Richardson (left) and Genevieve Florence, members of the
Aquabatix synchronised swimming team during a practice session in the
swimming pool at Clissold Leisure Centre, north London, which has
reopened to the public
IMAGE COPYRIGHTPA MEDIA
image captionSynchronised swimmers are able to return to indoor pools,
which can reopen, such as this one at Clissold Leisure Centre, north London >>> 2px presentational grey line
Analysis box by Simon Jack, business editor
Shoppers, gym fans, domestic holiday makers, outdoor drinkers and
diners, plus those in need of a haircut will share the government's hope >>> that today is an irreversible step towards old and cherished freedoms.
So will the business owners who will be welcoming them back.
But this significant easing of lockdown is also an important test.
Will customers want or be able to return in sufficient numbers for firms >>> to break even and if they don't, what will it take to make the economy
work again?
Only two in five hospitality venues have any outdoor space and the rules >>> over future inside opening are still unclear.
The government and the opposition have distanced themselves from
requiring Covid certificates for day-to-day life but the government has
also hinted individual businesses may require them if they wish.
Hospitality chiefs have told the BBC they fear having to choose between
two different ways to lose money - half empty venues without
certificates or full ones with extra staff and hassle to check Covid status.
Demand may vary by sector.
Hairdressers are booked solid, retailers are hopeful of high footfall
and are welcoming longer opening hours but some holiday parks are
reporting subdued bookings as many of their public amenities remain closed. >>>
It is a test for everyone - but a welcome one for most.
2px presentational grey line
In a statement, the prime minister said the rule relaxations are "a
major step forward in our roadmap to freedom".
"I'm sure it will be a huge relief for those business owners who have
been closed for so long, and for everyone else it's a chance to get back >>> to doing some of the things we love and have missed," he added.
"I urge everyone to continue to behave responsibly and remember 'hands,
face, space and fresh air' to suppress Covid as we push on with our
vaccination programme."
People attend a strength and conditioning class at Ultimate Fitness Gym
in Wallsend, north-east England
IMAGE COPYRIGHTREUTERS
image captionUltimate Fitness Gym in Wallsend, north-east England, is
among the businesses to have reopened early on Monday
Amanda Sidley, owner of Bronte's Hair Boutique, cuts a customers hair
after reopening on April 12, 2021 in Leek, England
IMAGE COPYRIGHTGETTY IMAGES
image captionSome customers booked early hair appointments on Monday
The rule changes in England marks the third easing since the country's
third national lockdown began on 6 January.
There is a gap of at least five weeks between each step on the
government's "roadmap" out of lockdown, to allow the impact of changes
on infection rates and hospital admissions to be assessed.
Shoppers told 'stay safe' as Welsh stores reopen
Pupils begin full time return to secondary schools
NI's 'stay home' order lifted as restrictions ease
The next significant date is 17 May, when up to six people from
different households could be allowed to socialise indoors.
The four conditions for easing England's lockdown measures
1px transparent line
More than 32 million people in the UK have now had their first dose of a >>> coronavirus vaccine and of those 7.4m have had their second dose.
A record total of 475,230 second doses were administered on Saturday -
along with 111,109 first doses.
Mr Johnson praised the "record-breaking day" on Twitter, writing:
"Thanks to everyone involved in this extraordinary effort which has
already saved thousands of lives."
The number of people dying in the UK within 28 days of a positive Covid
test continues to fall steadily, with seven further deaths reported on
Sunday.
That is the lowest daily death toll by this measure since 14 September
2020. However, there can be a lag in reporting coronavirus statistics
during weekends.
The only healthy way to **stop** the pandemic in the UK, and other
places is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding
out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who among us
are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in
order to http://bit.ly/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to call
their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping
this pandemic. Thus, hoping for the best while preparing for the
worst-case scenario of the "UK variant mutations" **and** others like
the Brazilian, Californian, South African & "cluster-5 mink mutations"
(read more via Google) rendering current vaccines ineffective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-56721613
By Simon Read
Business reporter, BBC News
Published1 day ago
Share
Woman pouring pint in pub
IMAGE COPYRIGHTGETTY IMAGES
image captionPubs in England cannot fully reopen until 21 June
The pub industry has warned the sector is on its knees, with only two in >>> five English pubs reopening on Monday.
Pubs in England can serve outdoors, but need to fully open without
restrictions as soon as possible, they said.
"No pub is expecting to profit from reopening outdoors, and many will
make a loss," said Emma McClarkin, chief executive of the British Beer & >>> Pub Association.
Some 2,500 pubs are estimated to have closed for good in 2020.
"Pubs are the heart of our communities and we've all missed them. If
they are to survive the long-term it's imperative they fully recover,"
said Ms McClarkin.
Pubs are expecting to sell about 15 million pints in the first week of
reopening - about a quarter of what they would normally sell in an April >>> week.
"Less than half of pubs in England will be reopening and the people they >>> can serve is going to be greatly limited by their outdoor space," said
Ms McClarkin.
'Delighted'
Simon Daws, the proprietor of the Gloucester Old Spot, near Cheltenham,
told the BBC: "It's fabulous to be open today,
"Our customers are as delighted to see us as we are to see them, and the >>> atmosphere is of a new beginning and joy at the potential for a
hedonistic summer, which we hope lies ahead of us."
The Old Spot pub
IMAGE COPYRIGHTOLD SPOT
image captionThe Old Spot used lockdown to invest more outdoor facilities. >>> The pub has used the last few months of lockdown to invest in its
outdoor spaces. "Fire pit, lawns, patios and shelters mean we are well
prepared to serve more than 200 people on 40 tables," said Mr Daws.
What are the rules when I go to the pub or a restaurant?
Pubs hope to recoup Covid losses over summer
At the Kentish Belle pub, in Bexleyheath, south-east London, there was a >>> "sense of celebration" in the early hours of Monday - as it opened at
midnight.
Nicholas Hair, the landlord and owner, said there was "big excitement"
ahead of the reopening, with lots of people still ringing to see if they >>> could book minutes ahead of time.
"I'm hoping that this is a sort of rebirth, and that we are reopen for
the foreseeable," he said.
Prince Albert Pub in Stroud
IMAGE COPYRIGHTPRINCE ALBERT PUB
image captionStaff at the Prince Albert pub in Stroud have been building >>> the outdoor seating area ready for reopening
But Angie Uren, landlady of the Coach & Horses pub in Bradfield Green,
Cheshire, said it was difficult to know whether pubgoers would return.
"It's going to be very difficult [to make money] because we don't really >>> know what customers will want, whether they're going to come out, with
it being so cold," she says.
Challenging
Steve Alton, chief executive of the British Institute of Innkeeping,
said: "Our research shows an encouraging trend of strong demand from
consumers to get back to their local pub.
"However, this early phase of reopening for many of our pubs, will be
loss-making, with 40% operating on reduced hours until they can reopen
inside in May and fully reopen from 21 June."
He warned that the early stages of reopening would be significantly
challenging for operators for many months to come on their long road to
recovery.
"In order for our pubs to survive, they need to be free of restrictions
at the earliest opportunity," he said.
The only healthy way to stop the pandemic in the UK, and other
places is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding
out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who among us
are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in
order to http://bit.ly/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to call
their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping
this pandemic. Thus, hoping for the best while preparing for the
worst-case scenario of the "UK variant mutations" **and** others like
the Brazilian, Californian, South African & "cluster-5 mink mutations"
(read more via Google) rendering current vaccines ineffective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-56812163
Published4 hours agocommentsComments
Share
Related Topics
Coronavirus pandemic
A pub waitress
IMAGE COPYRIGHTGETTY IMAGES
Younger people continue to bear the brunt of the jobs crisis amid
widespread cuts in sectors such as hospitality, official figures show.
In the year to March, 811,000 payroll jobs were lost in the UK, with
under-35s accounting for 80% of these cuts.
The data also showed the unemployment rate dipped to 4.9% in the three
months to February - down from 5% previously.
This was despite most of the UK being under strict lockdown rules for at >>> least some of the period.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the jobs market "remains
subdued", with five million people employed but still on furlough.
Head of economics at the British Chambers of Commerce, Suren?Thiru,
said:? "Unemployment remains on course to peak towards the end of 2021,
once the furlough scheme expires and those who stopped job hunting
during the pandemic look to return to the workforce as restrictions ease. >>>
"Although the furlough scheme will limit the peak in job losses, the
longer-term structural unemployment caused by Covid-19, particularly
among young people, may mean that the road back to pre-pandemic levels
lags behind the wider economic recovery."
'Finding work feels impossible for my generation'
Overall, some 1.67 million people were unemployed between December and
February. That is down 50,000 on the previous quarter but still 311,000
higher than a year ago.
But the ONS said younger people were suffering disproportionately, as
sectors such as retail and hospitality were hit hard by the crisis.
People aged under 35 accounted for 635,000 payroll jobs lost in the year >>> to March, with 436,000 of those positions held by people under 25.
Gerwyn Davies, senior policy adviser at the Chartered Institute of
Professional Development, said the number of young people in employment
had hit a "post-pandemic low".
"This reinforces the urgent case for apprenticeship incentives to be
made more generous and targeted specifically at 18-24 year-olds. It also >>> underlines the need to improve employers' awareness of traineeships and
the Kickstart [work placement] Scheme."
line
Analysis box by Faisal Islam, economics editor
It would be wrong to get carried away with the pleasant surprise of a
dip in the official unemployment rate below 5%. The real pandemic
picture is in the tax data for March. 813,000 fewer payrolls on the PAYE >>> system versus a year ago, and four fifths of those jobs were lost to
under 35s.
But the fact that the numbers in the first few months have been broadly
stable is definitely a source of relief. Employers were able to navigate >>> the second lockdown without widespread further job losses, thanks to the >>> extension of support schemes such as furlough.
This provides a more solid basis than might have been expected for the
phased reopening of the economy. There will be strains, especially as
support is phased out in late summer. But these figures offer hope of a
lower peak to unemployment, perhaps at around 6%, than had been expected. >>>
line
The ONS said the overall jobs market had been "broadly stable" in recent >>> months after the major shock of last spring, when where the economy
contracted sharply.
ONS director of economic statistics Darren Morgan said the labour market >>> "remains subdued" but that there were positive signs.
"With the prospect of businesses reopening, there was a marked rise in
job vacancies in March, especially in sectors such as hospitality."
The Bank of England expects an economic rebound this year, as lockdown
measures are eased and government support for jobs continues. But it
says the recovery still depends on the "evolution of the pandemic".
Hannah Audino, an economist at PwC, said the stabilisation of the jobs
market during the third national lockdown boded well for the UK economy. >>>
"We expect a gradual recovery in the labour market in the coming months
with the reopening of hospitality and retail, provided the government's
roadmap to reopening the economy continues to go to plan."
The only healthy way to really stop the pandemic in the UK, and other
places is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding
out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who among us
are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in
order to http://bit.ly/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to call
their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping
this pandemic. Thus, hoping for the best while preparing for the
worst-case scenario of the "UK variant mutations" **and** others like
the Brazilian, Californian, South African & "cluster-5 mink mutations"
(read more via Google) rendering current vaccines ineffective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-56834724
Driving tests resume but available slots are like gold dust, says learner >>> Published9 hours ago
Share
Related Topics
Coronavirus pandemic
Charlotte Dalton with her family
IMAGE COPYRIGHTCHARLOTTE DALTON
image captionCharlotte Dalton (left) says getting her driving licence
would be a "lifeline" for her family
For some learner drivers the wait for a test is over as they resume in
parts of the UK - but many have spoken about the difficulties in
securing a test date.
Tests have been suspended due to Covid restrictions since January, but
restart in England and Wales on Thursday.
Most centres are currently booked up until August, with a backlog of
around 420,000 tests because of the pandemic.
Charlotte Dalton, 24 - who has had a test cancelled during every
lockdown - says test slots were "like gold dust".
The mother-of-two said she has spent the last few months "logging on
every day, every hour" to try to secure one.
The only healthy way to really stop the pandemic in the UK, and other
places is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding
out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who among us
are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in
order to http://bit.ly/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to call
their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping
this pandemic. Thus, hoping for the best while preparing for the
worst-case scenario of the "UK variant mutations" **and** others like
the Brazilian, Californian, South African & "cluster-5 mink mutations"
(read more via Google) rendering current vaccines ineffective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-56878753The only healthy way to really stop the pandemic in the UK, and other
Published1 hour agocommentsComments
Share
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Coronavirus pandemic
primark queue
image captionQueues formed on Glasgow's Argyle Street early on Monday
ahead of the shops reopening
Shops, gyms, swimming pools, pubs, restaurants and cafes in Scotland
have reopened after a four month-long winter lockdown.
Early morning queues formed at fashion retailers in Glasgow and
Edinburgh as shoppers waited for doors opening.
Travel restrictions have also been eased, allowing trips to other parts
of the UK for non-essential reasons.
Ministers say restrictions can be eased as the most vulnerable people
have been offered their first vaccine dose.
Scotland has been in level four lockdown since 26 December, with all
non-essential shops, leisure facilities, and hospitality venues closed.
New draft hospitality Covid guidance a 'bombshell'
How many people are not taking the Covid vaccine?
Driving lessons and tests can resume, while nail salons, museums and
holiday accommodation can also reopen.
As the mainland moves into level three restrictions many businesses will >>> still be subject to strict rules on capacity and social distancing.
Unlike England, pubs and restaurants will be able open indoors until
20:00 - but they will only be able to serve alcohol to customers seated
outside.
Princes Street reopening
IMAGE COPYRIGHTPA MEDIA
image captionShoppers wait on Edinburgh's Princes Street for the
reopening of non-essential shops
A number of shops across Scotland opened early to mark the easing of
restrictions with queues outside many larger retailers.
Braehead Shopping Centre near Glasgow opened at 07:00, with some
customers outside for an hour beforehand.
Lush on Edinburgh's Princes Street had a small queue waiting. Manager
Alan Brown said: "We're just really excited to be speaking to people
again after such a long time."
Liz Cameron from the Scottish Chamber of Commerce said the excitement
was "fantastic" for businesses.
She added: "We must remember it's been a long time, and we have a lot of >>> costs we have to be able to recoup and it will not happen in a day or a
week.
"It's the start of our journey but let's remember this is about trying
to save as many jobs as possible. "
drinkers in glasgow
IMAGE COPYRIGHTGETTY IMAGES
image captionEarly pub customers enjoy an outside drink in Glasgow city
centre.
Public Health expert Prof Devi Sridhar said infection numbers were low
enough to support the opening up of a large part of society.
She told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland: "The end is in sight within
weeks. We can see the full adult population getting vaccines by the summer."
She said Covid testing would also make a difference.
"I would really encourage people to get tested both the PCR and at home
lateral flow testing," she added.
"The safest way to keep bars and pubs and indoor hospitality open is to
make sure that nobody inside is infectious."
Presentational grey line
What is now allowed in Scotland?
Up to six people from two households can socialise indoors in a public
place such as a café or restaurant
Unrestricted travel within Scotland, England and Wales (subject to other >>> local restrictions in place)
All shops and close contact services (like nail salons and tattoo
parlours) can open
Hospitality venues like cafes, pubs and restaurants can open until 20:00 >>> indoors (no alcohol)
They can serve alcohol outdoors according to local licensing laws
Non-essential childcare permitted
Non-essential in-house work (like painter and decorators) permitted
Tourist accommodation to reopen (self-catering accommodation to be
restricted in line with rules on indoor gathering)
Driving lessons and tests can take place
Funerals and weddings including wakes and receptions can take place with >>> up to 50 people (alcohol permitted)
Gyms and swimming pools can reopen for individual exercise
Indoor attractions and public buildings such as galleries, museums and
libraries can open
Takeaway food can be collected indoors
Presentational grey line
Rapid testing kits are being made available to everyone in the country.
The lateral flow tests can be picked up without an appointment from
walk-in or drive through test sites from 15:30 every day.
And the Scottish government is launching a new app - Check In Scotland - >>> making it easier for businesses to collect contact tracing details.
'We're really excited'
Barry Cowan at The Walled Garden Touring Park near Maybole
Among those reopening their business is Barry Cowan from The Walled
Garden Touring Park, near Maybole in Ayrshire.
He had to open his gates four hours earlier than usual to meet demand.
He said the caravan park would be operating at half capacity so
holiday-makers have more space. But with restrictions on foreign travel
still in place, Mr Cowan is booked into August and September.
"We can't wait, we're really, really excited and we're sure we're going
to have a good season," he said.
Kurt McGonigle
image captionKurt McGonigle is excited about reopening his tattoo studio >>> Hepcat Tattoos in Glasgow is one of the "close contact businesses" that
will be open for the first time in four months.
Pent-up demand means most of Kurt McGonigle's tattooists are booked up
for months to come.
"We were closed for four months so most of our income stopped, so we're
all really excited to be going back to work and get back to normal," Mr
McGonigle said.
Steve Annand
image captionSteven Annand wants to see people able to enjoy alcohol
inside pubs and restaurants
Steve Annand, of drinks wholesaler Inverarity Morton, said the lifting
of lockdown was "a bit of light at the end of the tunnel - but there's
still a good way to travel before we're back to normal levels".
Permitting bars and restaurants to serve drinks indoors will be the key
to rebuilding after a "really difficult" few months.
"I think we need to get back to enjoying alcohol inside, in an indoor
environment, in bars and restaurants," he said.
"That is what's going to give us the opportunity to try and trade
normally and rebuild our business and rebuild the whole wholesale sector." >>
places is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding
out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who among us
are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in
order to http://bit.ly/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to call
their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping
this pandemic. Thus, hoping for the best while preparing for the
worst-case scenario of the "UK variant mutations" **and** others like
the Brazilian, Californian, South African & "cluster-5 mink mutations"
(read more via Google) rendering current vaccines ineffective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.bbc.com/news/education-56889035
By Branwen Jeffreys
Education Editor
Published8 hours ago
Share
Related Topics
Coronavirus pandemic
media captionAssistant head teacher Victoria Day has five tips to ensure >>> children's vocabulary keeps improving
There is growing evidence that the past year of lockdowns has had an
impact on young children's language skills, according to research.
Data from 50,000 pupils and a survey of schools across England have
shown an increased number of four- and five-year-olds needing help with
language.
Evidence shows poor speech development can have long-term effects on
learning.
The government says it is investing £18m in early-years catch-up,
including extra help for those in Reception year.
The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) research suggests the measures
taken to combat the pandemic have deprived the youngest children of
social contact and experiences essential for increasing vocabulary.
Less or no contact with grandparents, social distancing, no play dates,
and the wearing of face coverings in public have left children less
exposed to conversations and everyday experiences.
Of 58 primary schools surveyed across England:
76% said pupils starting school in September 2020 needed more support
with communication than in previous years
96% they were concerned about pupils' speech-and-language development.
And 56% of parents were concerned about their child starting at school
following the lockdown in the spring and summer.
Starting school
Niamh, in Reception at Ryders Hayes Primary School, in Walsall, is
slowly building her confidence with words.
Like many children, her life has been limited by the pandemic, her
social circle shrinking to her immediate family. And this left her
mother, Lisa, anxious about her starting school.
Lisa and Niamh
image captionLisa, whose surname we have not used, was worried about her >>> daughter starting school
"She was one of the youngest in the year and it worried me that other
children had got more school experience with nursery or pre-school,"
Lisa said.
"We tried to prepare her as well as we could. She was looking forward to >>> it - but she didn't know any of the children in the class, so we were a
bit worried about that.
"My concern was, after being locked down all of the summer and not going >>> out to play with her friends, how was she going to respond to a room
full of new children and new teachers?"
But the school's approach had worked well. "We never had a tearful
morning - we never had a day where she didn't want to come to school,"
Lisa said.
Five ways children could make up for lost school time
Should I worry about my child's development in lockdown?
Making friends
Another mother at Ryder Hayes - Emma - was also worried about the school >>> start and whether her son, Harry, would be able to articulate his needs. >>>
"I was worried about him making friends, that if something was troubling >>> him he'd be sat in the corner upset and he'd not be able to ask for help >>> or say what was wrong with him, so I was concerned," she said.
Emma and Harry
image captionEmma, whose full name we have not used, says Harry is now
"a little chatterbox"
But Harry has been participating in the Nuffield Early Language
Intervention at school, which can help children make up about three
months' progress.
"It is making a huge difference," Emma said. "He's become a little
chatterbox. He's always asking questions and thinking more and asking
more like, 'How does hair grow?' He's communicating his thoughts more."
'Absolutely key'
The school's head teacher Saly Miner said problems with communication
were "really limiting" for young children, particularly if they were
unable to express themselves, interact with peers and make themselves
understood.
"It's absolutely key," she said. "It's all about a child's self-esteem
and confidence.
"And without that, they're not going to feel happy, they're not going to >>> be able to grow, they're not going to be able to gain all the benefits
of interacting with their peers as we'd want them to, and interact with
staff.
"All the research shows that if a child does have issues with language
at that age, by adulthood they're four times more likely to struggle
with reading, three time more likely to have mental health issues, twice >>> as likely to be unemployed and have social-mobility issues, so getting
this right at such an early age is literally the key to children's futures."
EEF chief executive Prof Becky Francis said there was "huge concern
expressed by schools about young children's speech and language
following the impact of the pandemic".
"We can see that in the survey results but also anecdotally right across >>> our networks."
Catch-up plans 'not reaching poorest pupils'
Generation Covid: How will they catch up?
The EEF's findings are also reflected in data from the company Speech
Link, which offers standardised assessments to primary schools.
Among 50,000 four- and five-year-olds starting school in September, an
extra 20-25% needed help with language skills compared with the previous >>> year, the company found. There are also concerns about the impact of the >>> pandemic on pre-school children.
In some parts of England, up to 63% of health visitors, who check on the >>> development of babies and toddlers, had been redeployed early in the
pandemic, the Institute of Health Visiting said.
'Most crucial'
Many families had missed out on face-to-face assessments, acting
executive director Alison Morton said.
"We know there are children out there with difficulties who haven't been >>> identified," she said. "There hasn't been a 'build back better' for
younger children in the way there has been for older children."
Children and Families Minister Vicky Ford said the earliest years were
"the most crucial".
"On top of the £3.5bn we have spent in each of the past three years on
our free childcare entitlements, we have also invested £18m to support
language development in the early years, part of our new £700m package
to provide extra support to children who need it as they return to the
classroom," she said.
"This includes funding to build on the early successes of the Nuffield
Early Language Intervention scheme and roll it out to more schools, so
that thousands more four- and five-year-olds whose language,
communication and literacy skills have been impacted by the disruption
of the past year will benefit from targeted support."
The only healthy way to stop the pandemic in the UK, and other
places is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding
out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who among us
are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in
order to http://bit.ly/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to call
their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping
this pandemic. Thus, hoping for the best while preparing for the
worst-case scenario of the "UK variant mutations" **and** others like
the Brazilian, Californian, Texan (BV-1), South African & "cluster-5
mink mutations" (read more via Google) rendering current vaccines
ineffective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/hugging-england-allowed-after-june-5349977
Hugging in England may be allowed after June 21
It comes as a new study from Public Health England (PHE) shows that a
single dose of either the Pfizer/BioNTech or Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines >>> can slash virus transmission by up to half
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ByNeil ShawNetwork Content Editor
09:20, 28 APR 2021UPDATED11:52, 28 APR 2021
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Hugging in England may be allowed after June 21
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People may be able to hug their loved ones after June 21, a Government
scientific adviser has said, as a new study shows a single jab cuts
virus transmission by up to half.
Dr Mike Tildesley, from the University of Warwick and a member of the
Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling (Spi-M) group,
suggested the decision on whether social distancing would be needed
after the June road map date could be a political one.
However, he said vaccines were doing the job of preventing most people
falling seriously ill, and he was hopeful hugs would be back on the
agenda by the date the Government has set for lifting legal limits on
social contact.
PROMOTED STORIES
It comes as a new study from Public Health England (PHE) shows that a
single dose of either the Pfizer/BioNTech or Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccines >>> can slash virus transmission by up to half.
The breakthrough findings offer further hope that the pandemic can be
brought under control as vaccinated people are far less likely to pass
the virus onto others.
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More than 400 restaurants that are opening for alfresco dining across
the UK are featured on tastecard.
Foodies have the chance to get 2 for 1 on meals or 50% off food at some
of their favourite chains including Bella Italia, Prezzo, Café Rouge and >>> more.
New members can try tastecard for free for 60 days (£5.99 a month after
that).
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delivery and collection from selected businesses - find out more or sign >>> up here.
The study found that those given a single dose of a jab, and who became
infected at least three weeks later, were between 38% and 49% less
likely to pass the virus on to people living in their homes, compared to >>> those who were unvaccinated.
Speaking on Times Radio, Dr Tildesley was asked at what stage people
will be able to be close to another person, such as a family member, if
both have been vaccinated.
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He said: “I think this is really difficult because of course, in a
sense, this becomes more of a sort of a political decision rather than
an epidemiological decision because we have been told that on June 21
all of these legal limits on contact will be removed, but it’s still
unclear exactly what that means.
“Whether that means that on that date some social distancing will be in
place or whether all of those will be removed and you’ll be able to go
and hug your loved ones…
“I think the key thing is that if you’re both vaccinated, of course, it
does reduce the risk of anyone becoming severely ill and my hope is that >>> as we move towards that June date, we will be in a position that we can
not just see our loved ones, but also we can hug our loved ones because
it’s been a very long time since we’ve been able to do that.”
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Grant Shapps says when summer holiday rules will be announcedhulldailymail >>> He said there was a need for ongoing monitoring of the situation,
including of what happens when people are allowed to mix indoors again.
From May 17, up to two households, or six individuals from other
households (the rule of six), will be able to meet inside.
Dr Tildesley said: “We obviously do need to monitor the data as we get
to the main relaxation, when you are allowed to go inside people’s
households, it’s really important that we monitor that data and ensure
that we don’t get a resurgence at that point.”
The PHE study, which has yet to be peer-reviewed, included over 57,000
people living in 24,000 households who were the contacts of a vaccinated >>> person.
They were compared with nearly one million contacts of people who had
not had a vaccine.
Contacts were defined as secondary cases of coronavirus if they tested
positive two to 14 days after the initial household case.
Other studies have already shown that both vaccines are highly effective >>> at stopping people getting sick and ending up in hospital.
Experts will now assess whether two doses of vaccine can cut
transmission of the virus even further, and more work is being carried
out on transmission in the general population.
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Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock welcomed the study,
saying: “This is terrific news, we already know vaccines save lives and
this study is the most comprehensive real-world data showing they also
cut transmission of this deadly virus.
“It further reinforces that vaccines are the best way out of this
pandemic as they protect you and they may prevent you from unknowingly
infecting someone in your household.
“I urge everybody to get their vaccines as soon as they are eligible and >>> make sure you get your second dose for the strongest possible protection.” >>>
Dr Tildesley told BBC Breakfast he thought the PHE findings on
transmission were “significant”.
He said the study offered “extra evidence to suggest we do need as many
people to be vaccinated as possible, even if you are not at severe risk
of developing severe symptoms, because that way we’re getting much
higher levels of protection across the population, protecting the
vulnerable and, hopefully, further reducing the number of people who
will get severely ill and sadly die from the disease”.
The vaccines’ effects on cutting transmission are likely to be even
higher after two doses, though further evidence was needed, he added.
He said the UK was in a good position and the fact the “vaccines seem to >>> be effective hopefully puts us in a good position to continue with the
road map and the full relaxation by June 21”.
Professor Peter Openshaw, a member of the Covid-19 clinical information
network, described the PHE results as “very, very reassuring and
“certainly better than many of us expected just a few months ago”.
He told the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “It shows that the immune
system is doing something a lot more than we were expecting of it really.” >>>
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He added that, with two doses, the outcome is “almost certainly going to >>> be even better”.
Dr Mary Ramsay, head of immunisation at PHE, said vaccines were “vital
in helping us return to a normal way of life”.
She added: “Not only do vaccines reduce the severity of illness and
prevent hundreds of deaths every day, we now see they also have an
additional impact on reducing the chance of passing Covid-19 on to others.” >>>
The Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines are credited with having saved
10,400 lives among the over-60s as of the end of March.
Data out last week from the national Covid-19 Infection Survey run by
the University of Oxford and the Office for National Statistics (ONS)
also found that vaccines are likely to cut transmission.
What is happening where you live? Find out by adding your postcode or
visit InYourArea
Just one dose of either the Pfizer BioNTech or AstraZeneca vaccines cut
coronavirus cases by two-thirds and were 74% effective against
symptomatic infection, according to the real-world UK data.
After two doses of Pfizer, there was a 70% reduction in all cases and a
90% drop in symptomatic cases, these are the people who are most likely
to transmit coronavirus to others.
The only healthy way to really stop the pandemic in the UK, and other
places is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding
out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who among us
are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in
order to http://bit.ly/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to call
their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping
this pandemic. Thus, hoping for the best while preparing for the
worst-case scenario of the "UK variant mutations" **and** others like
the Brazilian, Californian, Texan (BV-1), South African & "cluster-5
mink mutations" (read more via Google) rendering current vaccines
ineffective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/01/england-urged-to-be-patient-amid-reports-hugging-may-soon-be-allowed
People in England urged to be patient amid reports hugging may soon be
allowed
Vaccine rollout and reduction in cases means family and friends could be >>> allowed to hug in a fortnight
Coronavirus – latest updates
See all our coronavirus coverage
People dine outside restaurants and pubs in Soho, London, in April.
People dine outside restaurants and pubs in Soho, London, in April. The
third stage of England’s roadmap out of lockdown is scheduled for 17
May. Photograph: Jo Hale/Getty Images
Molly Blackall
Sat 1 May 2021 06.43 EDT
1,361
People are being urged to remain patient before the next relaxation of
Covid lockdown restrictions as there is still a possibility for
coronavirus cases to “reignite”, amid reports that family and friends in >>> England could be allowed to hug in just over a fortnight.
The success of the vaccine rollout and sharp reduction in coronavirus
cases and deaths has led ministers to support the move, according to the >>> Times. If approved, this would mark the first time that people in
England have been allowed to have physical contact outside of their
household or bubble for more than a year.
The government had said it would keep hugging under review as England
approaches the third stage of the roadmap out of lockdown on 17 May. It
has not yet made a formal announcement on the decision.
However, the former chief scientific adviser Sir Mark Walport warned
that “the virus has not gone away” because many UK adults have still not >>> had their first vaccine jab.
“We are on the cusp of being able to move to the next step of
relaxation; it’s absolutely right that vaccines have been spectacularly
successful but not everybody is protected,” Walport, a member of the
Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), told BBC Radio 4’s
Today programme.
“We’ve got 35% of adults who are not vaccinated and 60% who have only
had one dose and the truth is the virus has not gone away.”
“The mistake that has been made repeatedly, really, is relaxing just
slightly too early. What we need to do is get the numbers right down.
It’s important that we don’t act as an incubator for variant cases that
might be able to resist immunity.”
Walport said the UK was still recording about 4,600 new cases each day,
adding: “There’s the potential for that spark to reignite, it seems
increasingly unlikely, but we need to get the numbers down.”
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According to figures released on Friday, more than half of adults in the >>> UK have now had one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, and more than 20% are >>> fully vaccinated.
If the government sticks to its plan, people in England will be allowed
to meet inside from 17 May, following the rule of six or two-household
rule, and be allowed to meet outdoors in groups of up to 30.
Hospitality venues such as pubs and restaurants will reopen indoors, as
will cinemas, play areas and accommodation such as hotels. Some larger
sporting events and performances will be allowed to go ahead with up to
1,000 people indoors, or 4,000 people outdoors. The number of people
allowed to attend weddings will increase to 30.
The only healthy way to really stop the pandemic in the UK and other
places is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding
out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who among us
are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in
order to http://bit.ly/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to call
their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping
this pandemic. Thus, hoping for the best while preparing for the
worst-case scenario of the "UK variant mutations" **and** others like
the Brazilian, Californian, Texan (BV-1), South African & "cluster-5
mink mutations" (read more via Google) rendering current vaccines
ineffective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-56993575
Covid: Depression rises in young and women during second peak
Published2 hours ago
Share
Related Topics
Coronavirus pandemic
young woman
IMAGE COPYRIGHTGETTY IMAGES
Women and younger adults were more likely to feel depressed during the
second UK coronavirus peak than men and other age groups, Office for
National Statistics (ONS) data suggests.
We do cheer folks up when we greet them and convince them we care
about them by caring to make sure they aren't infected with the
COVID-19 coronavirus by using the http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
You got that right!
Four in 10 women aged between 16 and 29 were affected, compared to 26%
of men.
One in five adults experienced depression in early 2021 - more than
double pre-pandemic levels.
The only healthy way to really stop the pandemic in the UK and other
places is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding
out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who among us
are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in
order to http://bit.ly/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to call
their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping
this pandemic. Thus, hoping for the best while preparing for the
worst-case scenario of the "UK variant mutations" **and** others like
the Brazilian, Californian, Texan (BV-1), South African & "cluster-5
mink mutations" (read more via Google) rendering current vaccines
ineffective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-57050860
Lockdown: Boris Johnson to announce 17 May changes for England
By Emma Harrison & Joseph Lee
BBC News
Published1 hour agocommentsComments
Share
Related Topics
Coronavirus pandemic
A group of friends enjoying a meal
IMAGE COPYRIGHTGETTY IMAGES
image captionThe next stage of lockdown easing is likely to see the
reopening of indoor hospitality
Indoor hospitality and household mixing are set to return from next
Monday, as the PM is due to confirm the next stage of lockdown easing in >>> England.
Boris Johnson is expected to say the data supports a further relaxation
of measures at a 17:00 BST Downing Street news conference later.
It could also include guidance that it is now safe to hug friends and
family.
Health Minister Nadine Dorries said she was "hopeful" hugging could be
allowed but urged people to act "cautiously".
Ahead of the Downing Street briefing, the UK reduced its Covid alert
level from level four to three, meaning the virus is in general
circulation but transmission is no longer high or rising exponentially,
so restrictions can be gradually reduced.
Under the next stage of the government's road map for lifting England's
lockdown, people will be able to meet in groups of up to 30 outdoors,
while six people or two households can meet indoors.
People are also likely to be allowed to stay overnight with those not in >>> their household or bubble. Pubs, restaurants and other hospitality
venues such as cinemas and soft play areas are set to be permitted to
reopen indoors.
When can we have a 'cautious' hug?
What changes are coming on 17 May?
The science of hugs: Why do we miss them so much?
A government science adviser said that if the guidance does allow hugs,
they should be selective, brief, and should avoid face-to-face contact
to minimise the risk of spreading the virus.
But Ms Dorries said "the data is looking extremely positive" when she
was asked if the guidance would be relaxed to allow hugging between
friends and family.
"We've all missed the hugs, we've all missed the close and intimate
contact we've had with friends and family and so I'm hopeful that we
will be hugging and kissing again indoors," she told BBC Radio 4's Today >>> programme.
She stressed that people should take this step "a little bit cautiously" >>> to protect people who may be vulnerable and avoid a resurgence of the
virus, however.
2px presentational grey line
Unlocking a sign of success in fighting infection
Analysis box by Nick Triggle, health correspondent
It is a sign of how successful the country has been in getting infection >>> rates down that there is no doubt that the next unlocking will take place. >>>
Allowing indoor mixing was always the step that concerned experts the
most in the roadmap - given how much easier the virus spreads indoors
compared to outdoors.
Modelling earlier this year warned there could be a deadly summer surge
- but that now looks overly pessimistic.
Lockdown and social distancing has done most of the hard work in getting >>> infection levels low, but now the vaccines are going to take the load.
From the evidence gathered so far, they are more than up to the job in
combating the dominant virus in the UK.
Early signs are also promising for the variants.
Some scientists are even suggesting the UK could be on brink of reaching >>> herd immunity.
As always with this virus, it would be foolish to get too far ahead of
ourselves. But the signs look very promising.
2px presentational grey line
As part of other measures set to be relaxed, the rest of the
accommodation sector is to reopen, along with indoor group sports and
exercise classes.
And up to 30 people are to be allowed to attend weddings, receptions and >>> wakes, as well as funerals.
Foreign holidays will also return. On Friday, the government announced
that 12 destinations would be placed on England's travel green list,
meaning anyone returning from those areas will not need to quarantine >>>from 17 May.
Monday's announcement of lockdown easing will be stage three of the road >>> map announced by the government in February, with the final stage
scheduled for 21 June, when the government hopes to remove all legal
restrictions on social contact.
A man holding a pint indoorsGetty Images
The long wait for an indoor pint
Millions of people in England have not been able to sit indoors in a pub >>> since last October
4 monthssince the nationwide shutdown of pubs
Longerfor all the people who were living under the toughest tier rules
last December
Last Octoberfor people in many areas like Greater Manchester, because of >>> tier rules
Drink onlyAnd in many areas where indoor drinks were allowed, they had
to be drunk with food
BBC News
Each stage has been separated by a gap of several weeks to allow
scientists to assess the impact of previous changes, which in stage two
included the reopening of non-essential shops and outdoor service in
pubs and restaurants.
The government has to be satisfied that its four tests have been met
before progressing to the next stage.
These tests rest on the successful rollout of vaccines; evidence that
jabs are reducing serious illness and death; infection rates being under >>> control and the risk from coronavirus variants not changing.
media captionCatherine Noakes, from the University of Leeds, says we
should hug safely
The government said the latest data suggested that easing restrictions >>>from 17 May was unlikely to risk a resurgence in infections. It said
infection rates were at the lowest level since September 2020 and
hospital admissions were continuing to decrease.
On Sunday, the UK recorded another two deaths within 28 days of a
positive coronavirus test and a further 1,770 cases.
Mr Johnson said: "The data reflects what we already knew - we are not
going to let this virus beat us.
"The roadmap remains on track, our successful vaccination programme
continues - more than two-thirds of adults in the UK have now had the
first vaccine - and we can now look forward to unlocking, cautiously but >>> irreversibly."
More than 35.3 million people have received one Covid vaccine dose and
17.6 million people have had both doses.
Banner image reading 'more about coronavirus'
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Prof Cath Noakes, a member of the Sage committee that advises the
government, told the BBC on Sunday that if people hugged their friends
every time they see them, it would "perpetuate an awful lot of
additional close contact that could spread the virus".
But she said the risk from grandparents who are fully vaccinated hugging >>> their grandchildren was likely to be low in most cases.
Number of people in hospital
The devolved nations are working to their own timeframe for easing
restrictions.
In Wales, indoor hospitality such as pubs, cafes, restaurants, cinemas,
theatres and museums are expected to reopen from 17 May. All tourist
accommodation is due to reopen and wedding receptions can have up to 30
people indoors and 50 outdoors.
In Scotland from 17 May, indoor hospitality venues are expected to
resume with alcohol being served until 22:30. Cinemas, amusement arcades >>> and bingo halls should reopen and indoor group exercise restart.
More restrictions may be lifted in Northern Ireland on 24 May, including >>> the reopening of indoor hospitality, B&Bs and hotels. Indoor group
exercise could resume and wedding receptions and funeral wakes restart.
The only healthy way to really stop the pandemic in the UK and other
places is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding
out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who among us
are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in
order to http://bit.ly/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to call
their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping
this pandemic. Thus, hoping for the best while preparing for the
worst-case scenario of the "UK variant mutations" **and** others like
the Brazilian, Californian, Texan (BV-1), South African & "cluster-5
mink mutations" (read more via Google) rendering current vaccines
ineffective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://nationalpost.com/news/canada/do-lockdowns-not-work-why-florida-and-texas-are-doing-better-than-ontario-and-alberta
Do lockdowns not work? Why Florida and Texas are doing better than
Ontario and Alberta
Why are lockdown-free states suddenly doing as well or better than
locked-down provinces?
Author of the article:Tyler Dawson
Publishing date:May 11, 2021 • 22 hours ago • 4 minute read •
1102 Comments
People drink and eat at Truck Yard beer garden in Houston in early
April. While some Canadian provinces are struggling with lockdowns,
Texas did away with most COVID restrictions in March.
People drink and eat at Truck Yard beer garden in Houston in early
April. While some Canadian provinces are struggling with lockdowns,
Texas did away with most COVID restrictions in March. PHOTO BY FRANCOIS
PICARD/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
Article content
In recent weeks, a seeming contradiction has emerged: States in the U.S. >>> that have had little to no COVID-19 restrictions have gotten case counts >>> under control, while in Canada there are provinces still struggling with >>> a third wave despite having never fully reopened.
It has the potential to become fuel for anti-lockdown protesters: If
those states have opened up and brought case counts down, why can’t we?
Do lockdowns not work?
The reality, experts say, is that there are numerous other factors at
play — from vaccination rates, to immunity from prior infections, to
climate.
Last Monday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis invalidated all local emergency
orders in the state, meaning there are now no restrictions and people
are free to gather and hit the beach. The decision drew criticism from
mayors, who saw their cities’ rules wiped out. In Texas, restrictions
were lifted in early March, including opening businesses and lifting
mask mandates.
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This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. >>> Article content
Yet, paradoxically, both places seem to be doing alright in the spring
wave of the pandemic.
Over the last week, Texas has had a rate of 53.2 COVID-19 cases per
100,000 people; Florida’s rate is 126 per 100,000, according to data >>>from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.
Meanwhile, Alberta’s seven-day case rate is 314 per 100,000 and
Ontario’s is 148 per 100,000 people, according to data from the Public
Health Agency of Canada’s epidemiological survey. Alberta has banned all >>> indoor gatherings and closed patios and put strict limits on other
outdoor gatherings, while Ontario is still under a stay-home order.
In this file photo taken on February 16, 2021 medical worker Robert
Gilbertson loads a syringe with the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine to be
administered by nurses at a vaccination site at Kedren Community Health
Center, in South Central Los Angeles, California.
How to jump the queue by getting your COVID shot in the U.S.
Some Republican governors stand by mask mandates as Texas and
Mississippi accelerate reopening
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Over the course of the pandemic, however, Canada’s overall case rate of
around 3,300 per 100,000 people is dwarfed by the rates seen in Florida
and Texas, which are both around 10,000 cases per 100,000 people. No
state has an infection rate comparable to Canada, overall.
So why are lockdown-free states suddenly doing as well or better than
locked-down provinces?
The simple explanation is the rate of vaccination, said Thomas Unnasch,
a professor at the University of South Florida who studies diseases.
“It’s starting to get to a point where … the virus is running out of
people to infect, so we’re really seeing a decline in the case numbers
as a result,” Unnasch said.
In Florida, about 42 per cent of the population has had at least one
dose of a vaccine; about 31 per cent are fully vaccinated. In Texas, 50
per cent have one dose, with 37 per cent fully vaccinated.
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In contrast, Alberta has given one dose to 32 per cent of the population >>> and just 6.8 per cent of people are fully vaccinated. In Ontario, about
38 per cent of the population has had one dose, and 2.7 per cent are
fully vaccinated.
Community transmission, explains Dr. Lynora Saxinger, an infectious
disease expert at the University of Alberta, tends to drop when around
50 per cent of the population have some sort of immunity, whether that’s >>>from vaccination or because of the number of people who already had
COVID-19.
In Florida and Texas, that’s about 10 per cent of the population, with
2.2 million total cases in Florida and 2.9 million cases in Texas. In
Alberta, though, just 4.8 per cent of the population (about 209,000
people) have had COVID-19, and in Ontario, that figure is even lower, at >>> 3.4 per cent of the population (492,000).
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With such enormous rates of infection seen earlier in the pandemic,
Saxinger explained, at this point, the virus has fewer places to spread
in Florida and Texas.
“It becomes easier to contain it to a lower level level of
transmission,” Saxinger said. “So they’re just in a completely different >>> place than we are.”
Even with the active case rates being lower in Florida and Texas than
many parts of Canada, and the vaccination rates being substantially
higher, death rates, both historic and current, are higher than north of >>> the border.
In Canada, the overall death rate is 65 per 100,000; Alberta’s is 48 per >>> 100,000 and Ontario’s is 56 per 100,000. Over the last seven days, the
death rate in Canada, Alberta and Ontario is just one in 100,000.
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Florida’s overall death rate is 166 per 100,000 and, in the last seven
days, the rate is 2.2 per 100,000. In Texas, the overall death rate is
170 per 100,000 and in the last seven days, it’s one per 100,000 — on
par with Canada’s death rate. (About half of the U.S. states have a
seven-day death rate on par with or lower than Canada’s.)
Even Quebec, the worst-performing Canadian province for deaths, with 128 >>> per 100,000 people, performed better than all but 13 U.S. states and all >>> of the territories.
There have been, over the course of the pandemic, around 35,000 COVID-19 >>> deaths in Florida and just shy of 50,000 deaths in Texas. Canada has had >>> a total of 24,655 deaths.
There are other factors that have helped states like Florida and Texas
get case rates under control, including good weather that encourages
people to move outdoors.
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“This is the prime time of the year here in Florida, right, in terms of
weather,” said Unnasch. “People are outdoors a lot more, they’re not
spending that much time inside, they’re not spending that much time
crowded together.”
Whether people are at work, and under what conditions, as well as more
complex factors, like seasonal variations and climate, may also impact
cases. For example, humidity seems to make it more difficult for the
virus to spread.
“Those are much more speculative than the partially immune from natural
infection and vaccine-induced immunity group, which I think is probably
the lion’s share of the difference that we’re seeing,” Saxinger said.
The only healthy way to really stop the pandemic in Florida and other
places is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding
out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who among us
are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in
order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, hoping for the best while preparing for
the worst-case scenario of the "UK variant mutations" **and** others
like the Brazilian, Californian, Texan (BV-1), South African &
"cluster-5 mink mutations" (read more via Google) combining to render
current vaccines ineffective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
Don't forget the Indian variant.
@Sarah F 4.0, I am simply wonderfully hungry and hope you, Sarah,
and others reading my comment at the very top, also have a
healthy appetite too. So how are you ?
@HeartDoc Andrew everything is good, doc. Keep spreading the word.
My private chef is making some wonderful hummus and the garden
is thriving. Ciao!
@Sarah F 4.0, taking your "everything is good" to mean "yes,
you have a healthy appetite," I, as a cardiologist, share with you,
Sarah, that it's wonderful knowing through our hunger that
we're both not having a heart attack (aka myocardial infarction)
at the moment in accordance with pure logic {healthy=wonderful & appetite=hunger} and advise that you try to write that you're
"wonderfully hungry" since we've established here that you are:
So now how are you ?
@HeartDoc Andrew ok, doc. I am wonderfully hungry.
No worries. Have a nice night.
@Sarah F 4.0, it is wonderful knowing through our writing/saying that
we're "wonderfully hungry "when either greeting or being
greeted that we're both "Stat COVID-19 Test" *negative*
which does allow us to be 100% certain that we're both
not infected by the COVID-19 coronavirus at the moment
so that we can "rapidly find out at any given moment, including
even while On-Line, who among us are unwittingly contagious
(i.e. pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to "Convince
It Forward" for them to call their doctor and to self-quarantine
per CDC guidelines in hopes of stopping this pandemic instead
of having more "Mourning In America." Thus, we're hoping for
the best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the
"UK variant" strain(s) mutations and others like the South African, Brazilian, (and Indian B.1.617.1 & B.1.617.2), Californian,
Texan (BV-1) & "Cluster 5 Mink" mutations combining to render
current vaccines no longer effective" (see my comment at the very top).
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-57088314
Covid: Lessons to be learned from spring 2022 public inquiry - PM
By Emma Harrison
BBC News
Published17 hours agocommentsComments
Share
Related Topics
Coronavirus pandemic
media captionPM Boris Johnson said the UK's Covid response would be
"placed under the microscope"
The government is "fully committed to learning the lessons at every
stage" of the pandemic, Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said.
He told MPs an independent public inquiry into the handling of the
pandemic would be held in spring 2022.
The inquiry would place "the state's actions under the microscope", he
added, and take evidence under oath.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer questioned why the inquiry could not
start earlier, such as later in 2021.
But addressing the Commons, the prime minister said the inquiry could
not "inadvertently distract" those within the NHS and government
advisers, who were continuing to deal with the pandemic.
The inquiry's terms of reference have not yet been defined but would be
published in "due course", he said, adding that the devolved
administrations would be consulted.
On Wednesday the UK reported another 11 deaths within 28 days of a
positive test and a further 2,284 coronavirus cases.
Mr Johnson acknowledged many bereaved families would want the inquiry to >>> begin sooner, but said because of the threat of new variants and a
possible winter surge in infections, spring next year would be the
"right moment".
What is the Covid inquiry and how will it work?
What's changing in England, Scotland and Wales?
Town's Covid surge leaves hospitality nervous
On The Beach pulls all summer holidays from sale
He said the "new variants pose a potentially lethal danger, including
the one first identified in India which is of increasing concern here".
"Should these [variants] prove highly transmissible and elude the
protection of our vaccines, they would have the potential to cause even
greater suffering than we endured in January."
Bolton has one of the highest instances of the Indian variant in the UK
and is seeing a particularly sharp rise in cases among unvaccinated
under-25s.
Health officials in Glasgow have expressed concern about a rising number >>> of Covid cases in the city - the latest public case rate is 58.3 per
100,000, well above a key threshold for easing restrictions.
More than 127,600 people have died in the UK with coronavirus, making it >>> one of the worst affected countries by number of deaths.
The inquiry is expected to examine the government's handling of the
pandemic, including the timing of its decision to impose lockdowns.
Mr Johnson told MPs the inquiry would be established on a "statutory
basis" - where witnesses can be legally compelled to attend and give
evidence and provide relevant material under oath.
Banner image reading 'more about coronavirus'
LOOK-UP TOOL: How many cases in your area?
LOCKDOWN RULES: What are they and when will they end?
OXFORD JAB: What is the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine?
Banner
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer called for clarification on whether the
inquiry would be formally opened in spring next year or whether that
will be when work begins to establish the inquiry.
In response, Mr Johnson said the preparatory work to establish the terms >>> of reference and the inquiry chairman "will happen before the spring of
next year".
Mr Johnson - who has set out plans to ease some of England's coronavirus >>> restrictions on 17 May - said: "The end of the lockdown is not the end
of the pandemic."
He added: "The World Health Organization (WHO) has said that the
pandemic has now reached its global peak and will last throughout this
year."
A WHO report released on Wednesday said the organisation should have
declared a global emergency earlier than it did, and that individual
governments failed to act quickly enough.
2px presentational grey line
Analysis box by Hugh Pym, health editor
Most leading healthcare systems struggled to get to grips with Covid in
the early stages. France, Italy and Spain had similar challenges to the UK. >>>
The inquiry will look at the extent to which the experience here
mirrored that of other countries and how decisions and policies
affecting outcomes were different.
Key questions will include preparedness and why before last year health
chiefs only "war-gamed" a serious flu epidemic.
Why were PPE supplies so inadequate and why then was procurement so flawed? >>>
Why was testing and tracing dropped because of lack of capacity in the
early stages of the pandemic?
There will be intense scrutiny of the decision to fully lock down only
on 23 March last year when dire warnings about the NHS being potentially >>> overwhelmed had come more than a week earlier.
Different approaches to opening up in the UK's nations will be considered. >>>
The biggest question is likely to be why the UK had one of the highest
Covid death rates relative to the population of any major economy.
The inquiry will need to consider whether this might be the result of
misguided official decision making - or a consequence of underlying
inequalities and poor health in disadvantaged communities, and perhaps
under-investment in public health.
2px presentational grey line
The Liberal Democrats, who were calling for a public inquiry in June
2020, said the planned timing of the inquiry meant the government were
"getting away from… early accountability".
Meanwhile, Jo Goodman, co-founder of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for
Justice campaign group, said the inquiry must involve families from the
start, allowing them to help to choose the chair as well as determining
the terms of reference.
She said spring 2022 was "simply too late to begin".
"It sounds like common sense when the prime minister says that an
inquiry can wait until the pandemic is over, but lives are at stake with >>> health experts and scientists warning of a third wave later this year.
"A rapid review in summer 2020 could have saved our loved ones who died
in the second wave in winter."
Along with the Lib Dems, the campaign group called on the government to
release an internal "lessons learned" investigation into its handling of >>> the pandemic.
Downing Street confirmed an "informal" review of its response has been
carried out but declined to say whether it would be published.
Boris Johnson greets Sgt Sebastian Mwaura from the Defence Medical Group >>> at Westminster Abbey's annual service for the Florence Nightingale
Foundation
IMAGE COPYRIGHTPA MEDIA
image captionThe PM attended a Westminster Abbey service on Wednesday
that paid tribute to nurses working during the pandemic
Fran Hall, who had only been married three weeks to her long-term
partner when she lost him to Covid last year, called for a "rapid review". >>>
She told the BBC: "That is something that can be done in a matter of
weeks, that wouldn't tie up people's time to the degree that a full
judge-led inquiry would.
"That would hopefully begin to get some quick answers to some of the
very pressing questions."
Dame Deirdre Hine - the author of the independent review into the swine
flu pandemic - told BBC Radio 4's World at One: "Looking at what will
have to be the terms of reference and the ground it [the inquiry] has to >>> cover; I can't see it reporting in less than two to three years."
Professor Sir Ian Kennedy, who chaired an inquiry into the deaths of
babies undergoing heart surgery, warned against placing a time limit on
the inquiry.
He told the BBC's Newscast podcast: "What's got to be worked out are the >>> mechanics. Who's going to chair it? Is he or she going to sit with
others? Is it going to be time limited? That would be a disaster. It
must be done as expeditiously as possible, but never put a time limit on >>> it because you never know what circumstances will arise."
Working from home guidance
In the Commons, Mr Johnson also confirmed a commission on Covid
commemoration is to be established to help remember those who lost their >>> lives during the pandemic.
He added he "wholeheartedly" supported the plan for a memorial in St
Paul's Cathedral, describing it as "a fitting place of reflection in the >>> heart of our capital".
In response to a question from Conservative MP Felicity Buchan on the
government's work-at-home advice, Mr Johnson said it was "certainly" the >>> intention to lift the guidance on 21 June, but the government would "say >>> that with more clarity a bit later on".
Everyone who can work from home must do so under the current government
advice.
On Thursday, England's Covid vaccination programme will open to those
aged 38 and 39, with the NHS website to be updated at 07:00 BST.
Pregnant women will also be able to book through the national booking
service from Thursday and will be directed to vaccination centres
offering Pfizer and Moderna in their local area - in line with guidance >>>from the UK's vaccine advisers.
More than 18.4m people - 35% of the adult population - have now received >>> both doses of a vaccine, with 35.7m people having received one jab.
The only healthy way to stop the pandemic in the UK and other
places is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding
out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who among us
are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in
order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, hoping for the best while preparing for
the worse-case scenario of the B.1.1.7 lineage mutations and others
like the P.1, B.1.135, B.1.525, B.1.617.1, & B.1.617.2 lineage
mutations combining to render current vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
https://thecritic.co.uk/lockdown-was-a-choice/
Lockdown was a choice
Agree with the policy if you like, but you can’t argue Lockdown harms
were caused by Covid
ARTILLERY ROW
By
Tom Moran
13 May, 2021
Chemotherapy is not always the most appropriate course of action for
cancer patients. Put simply, the side effects of chemotherapy, which can >>> have an extremely detrimental effect on the patient’s quality of life,
must be taken into account in the context of the Hippocratic oath (first >>> do no harm) before any treatments are prescribed. Where a good chance of >>> recovery is not present, subjecting the patient to possible months of
nausea, loss-of-appetite, fatigue, insomnia, hair loss, compromised
immunity, anaemia or other debilitating conditions, may not be
proportional to the benefit. This is why, in every individual case,
decisions are made by clinicians in consultation with the patient and
their family to decide whether chemotherapy is the best course of action. >>>
Sensible decisions can only be made when the harms caused by cancer and
the negative side-effects of chemotherapy are seen as mutually
exclusive. Were doctors to conflate the two, a cost-benefit analysis
would be rendered impossible. No oncologist would ever tell their
patient that the hair loss they were experiencing was “because of the
cancer”, knowing full well that it was a side-effect of the treatment.
Chemotherapy is undoubtedly a highly-effective and life-saving treatment >>> with years of efficacy data to support its implementation — but even in
cases where the benefits clearly outweigh the harms, the treatment is
always regarded as a choice with repercussions.
Imagine if, from its inception, chemotherapy had become an ideology.
Imagine that respect for this miracle of science had transcended into
zealotry, whereby no side-effects were ever considered and all
debilitating symptoms were ascribed to the cancer itself. Many patients
would have undergone this treatment unnecessarily, suffering a huge blow >>> to the quality of their remaining life without any real benefit. The
ability to weigh up risk and reward is a prerequisite for any healthcare >>> practitioner or policymaker.
There is a very deliberate line of rhetoric designed to shut down any
retrospective analysis of lockdown
Consider society as a patient. The novel coronavirus is the cancer. The
government’s scientific advisors are the oncologists and the measures
they “prescribe” are the treatment. No one can deny that the response to >>> the threat of SARS-CoV-2 has been extreme. Unlike chemotherapy, the
treatments advocated by public health advisors are novel and
experimental. Thus far, the side effects have included, but are not
limited to, the largest drop in GDP in over 300 years, at least 70,000
families facing homelessness, alcohol deaths rising to a 20 year high, a >>> doubling of suicide-related calls to the London Ambulance Service,
increased eating disorders in children and young people, a 60% increase
in domestic abuse, 350,000 missed cancer referrals, 50,000 delayed child >>> surgeries, and 2.9 billion cut from the foreign aid budget. On a global
scale, Unicef has forecasted 1.2 million child deaths as a result of
lockdowns, not the virus itself.
Articles about collateral damage widely use phrases such as “due to the
pandemic” or “because the government was forced to lockdown”. This is a
very deliberate line of rhetoric designed to shut down any retrospective >>> analysis of this course of action by conflating the fallout from
government policy with the effects of the pandemic itself. Before 2020,
“social distancing” was an alien concept. “Lockdown” was not a word in
our vocabulary. Face coverings in the community were widely seen as an
ineffective and possibly counter-intuitive response to an epidemic. One
year on, we are prohibited from questioning the efficacy of any of these >>> new and extreme ideas, and are largely tricked into believing that these >>> measures were the only possible course of action.
But there was a choice. The government made that choice. Whether you
feel that this choice was appropriate or proportional to the risk is not >>> the issue here. At the very least, one has to understand the importance
of separating collateral damage caused by our measures from the effects
of the virus itself. Following an initial cost-benefit analysis
predicting 200,000 deaths as a result of the first lockdown, the
government seemingly lost all interest in forecasting the collateral
damage of their pandemic response, presenting their measures as the only >>> viable option.
Cancer does not cause hair loss. Viruses do not make people homeless
Even when an independent study predicted the equivalent of 500,000 lives >>> lost to ongoing coronavirus policies, the majority of politicians showed >>> little to no interest. Now that the damage has been done, we have an
obligation to evaluate the side-effects of the treatment and decide
whether those effects were proportional to the benefit, not least so
that we may improve decision-making as and when new viral threats
emerge. This will not be possible until journalists and MPs abandon the
transparently manipulative strategy of conflating the cure with the disease.
Cancer does not cause hair loss. Viruses do not make people homeless. We >>> have just participated, without consent, in the largest medical
experiment in human history. Are we not entitled, at the very least, to
a fair and logical evaluation of the outcomes?
The only **healthy** way to stop the pandemic in the UK and other
places is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding
out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who among us
are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in
order to http://bit.ly/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to call
their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping
this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while preparing for the
worse-case scenario of the B.1.1.7 lineage mutations and others like
the P.1, B.1.135, B.1.351, B.1.429, B.1.525, & B.1.617.1-3 lineage
mutations combining to render current COVID vaccines no longer
effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/16/ignore-lockdown-easing-to-curb-indian-covid-variant-health-experts-urge
Ignore lockdown easing to curb Indian Covid variant, health experts urge >>> Leading specialists call on the public to avoid socialising indoors to
prevent a third wave of the disease
Coronavirus – latest updates
See all our coronavirus coverage
Businesses in Soho, central London, prepare for the easing of lockdown
measures in England
Businesses in Soho, central London, prepare for the easing of lockdown
measures in England. Photograph: Hollie Adams/Getty Images
Denis Campbell and Jessica Elgot
Sun 16 May 2021 14.49 EDT
1,129
People should ignore Monday’s easing of lockdown and avoid socialising
indoors in pubs and restaurants to prevent the new Covid-19 variant
first detected in India sparking a third wave of the disease, health
experts say.
A former government chief scientific adviser, a leading public health
specialist and the union representing Britain’s doctors are urging the
public to stick to meeting outdoors to reduce the risk of catching or
spreading the variant.
Prof Sir Mark Walport, a former director of the Wellcome Trust and a
chief scientific adviser until 2017, called on the public to be
cautious. “My personal judgement is that I will do things outside as far >>> as possible,” he said. “My advice is that just because you can do
something doesn’t necessarily mean you should.”
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‘Everybody is angry’: Modi under fire over India’s Covid second wave
Asked by Sophy Ridge on Sky News if that meant he would avoid going
inside a pub, he replied: “For the moment, yes.”
Martin McKee, a professor of public health at the London School of
Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, backed Walport. He said: “Based on the
precautionary principle and on the experience in earlier waves, I am
very concerned. Personally I will not be going indoors in bars or
restaurants for some time.”
Under the rule changes in England groups of six people or two households >>> will be allowed to meet indoors in homes, pubs, cafes and restaurants
for the first time since last autumn. Rules will also be relaxed in
Wales and most of Scotland.
The British Medical Association, however, also recommended that people
keep meeting outside for the time being because the of threat posed by
the new variant.
“We are urging the public, and young people in particular, to take a
cautious approach to social and physical contact, to continue practising >>> ‘hands, face, space’ and to meet outdoors wherever possible,” said Dr
Richard Jarvis, the co-chair of the BMA’s public health committee.
“People must look at their own personal risk and adjust their activities >>> accordingly. We are asking people to take a cautious approach as we
enter the next stage of lockdown.”
Advertisement
Cases linked to the variant first detected in India more than doubled in >>> a week from 520 to 1,313, the most recent official figures show. Bolton, >>> Blackburn, Erewash in Derbyshire and Moray in Scotland have been among
the initial hotspots, but cases are now being detected all over the
country, including in places such as London, Essex, Hertfordshire and
Cambridge.
The health secretary, Matt Hancock, has said that the variant could
“spread like wildfire” among unvaccinated groups. It is likely to
replace the Kent variant as the dominant strain of coronavirus across
the UK, he added. The government’s Scientific Advisory Group on
Emergencies fears the new strain could be 40 to 50% more transmissible
and, if it is, “would lead to a substantial resurgence in
hospitalisations [similar to, or larger than, previous peaks]”.
What threat does Indian Covid variant pose and do vaccines work against it? >>> Read more
Hancock defended Boris Johnson’s decision to let Monday’s easing of
limits on social contact go ahead. Uncertainty about how transmissible
the new variant is means that “it’s appropriate to continue down the
road map, but people need to be cautious and careful”, he said.
Johnson himself said people should “take this next step with a heavy
dose of caution” and called for an increased uptake of twice-weekly
testing and vaccination. “I urge everyone to be cautious and take
responsibility when enjoying new freedoms today in order to keep the
virus at bay,” he said.
“We are keeping the spread of the variant first identified in India
under close observation and taking swift action where infection rates
are rising,” he said on the eve of restrictions lifting.
“The current data does not indicate unsustainable pressure on the NHS
and our extraordinary vaccination programme will accelerate, with second >>> doses being bought forward to give the most vulnerable maximum protection.” >>>
Some members of the Independent Sage group of medical and scientific
experts said, however, that the new variant’s upward trajectory was so
worrying that the prime minister should have delayed the relaxation.
Surge testing is under way in areas with the highest number of cases
linked to the new variant and expanded vaccination is being used to
immunise as many people as possible. A new vaccination centre is opening >>> in Bolton in the next few days to cope with demand. Ministers could
again resort to local lockdowns to try to reduce infections in hotspots, >>> Hancock said.
Saffron Cordery, the deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, which
represents hospital trusts in England, said: “It is reassuring that the
spike in cases isn’t translating into unmanageable pressures on the NHS
at the moment, but we cannot afford to be complacent.”
Advertisement
Comments from Hancock on Sunday that hospitalisations in Bolton mainly
involve people eligible for the vaccine who have not taken one have
provoked some internal disquiet among Conservative MPs, who privately
say ministers should not delay lifting restrictions to protect those who >>> have declined vaccination.
The infection rate in Bolton stands at 254.9 per 100,000, more than ten
times the national average. Mark Logan, the Conservative MP for Bolton
North East, said the town had endured far longer restrictions than
almost anywhere in the country because of local lockdowns that began
last year, and demanded that everyone over 18 be vaccinated before the
end of May.
Share your story
Share your stories
If you have been affected or have any information, we'd like to hear >>>from you. You can get in touch by filling in the form below, anonymously
if you wish or contact us via WhatsApp by clicking here or adding the
contact +44(0)7867825056. Only the Guardian can see your contributions
and one of our journalists may contact you to discuss further.
Tell us
Hancock denied that Johnson was too slow to ban flights into the UK from >>> India. It was only added to the red list of high-risk countries from
which travel is banned on 23 April, two weeks after its neighbour
Pakistan. Critics, including Labour, say Johnson’s refusal to impose a
ban sooner was linked to his planned trade mission to India to meet his
counterpart, Narendra Modi, allowing thousands of potentially infectious >>> people to arrive in Britain.
A Channel 4 Dispatches documentary on Monday will also raise new
questions about the government’s pandemic response. In it Prof Sharon
Peacock of Public Health England, who runs the UK programme for tracing
variants and is a member of Sage, denies that the emergence of the Kent
variant late last year was down to bad luck. That variant led to the
second wave of Covid and led to many thousands of deaths.
It also examines why Johnson invited Prof Sunetra Gupta and Prof Carl
Heneghan, two prominent academics who had argued against blanket
lockdowns, to join a zoom call with him and Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, >>> last September, around the time he was being advised by Sage to
instigate an immediate two-week lockdown – a meeting first disclosed by
the Guardian.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, meanwhile, may
again allow under-40s to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine in response to
the threat from the new variant, the JCVI member Prof Adam Finn said on
Sunday. That age group have been advised to have either the
Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna jabs because the risk of blood clots.
The only **healthy** way to stop the pandemic in the UK and other
places is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding
out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who among us
are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in
order to http://bit.ly/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to call
their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping
this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while preparing for the
worse-case scenario of the B.1.1.7 lineage mutations and others like
the P.1, B.1.135, B.1.351, B.1.429, B.1.525, & B.1.617.1-3 lineage
mutations combining to render current COVID vaccines no longer
effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4206538
Restrictions reimposed as virus resurges in much of Asia
4637
By HUIZHONG WU and ZEN SOO, Associated Press
2021/05/19 17:49
Social distancing on the subway in Singapore
Social distancing on the subway in Singapore (AP photo)
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taxi drivers are starved for customers, weddings
are suddenly canceled, schools are closed, and restaurant service is
restricted across much of Asia as the coronavirus makes a resurgence in
countries where it had seemed to be well under control.
Sparsely populated Mongolia has seen its death toll soar from 15 to 233, >>> while Taiwan, considered a major success in battling the virus, has
recorded more than 1,000 cases since last week and placed over 600,000
people in two-week medical isolation.
Hong Kong and Singapore have postponed a quarantine-free travel bubble
for a second time after an outbreak in Singapore of uncertain origin.
China, which has all but stamped out local infections, has seen new
cases apparently linked to contact with people arriving from abroad.
The resurgence hasn’t come close to the carnage wrought in India and
parts of Europe, but it is a keen reminder that the virus remains
resilient, despite mask mandates, case tracing, mass testing and wider
deployment of the newest weapon against it — vaccinations.
That’s setting back efforts to get social and economic life back to
normal, particularly in schools and sectors like the hospitality
industry that are built on public contact.
In Taiwan, the surge is being driven by the more easily transmissible
variant first identified in Britain, according to Chen Chien-jen, an
epidemiologist and the island’s former vice president, who led the
highly praised pandemic response last year.
Complicating matters are some senior citizens who frequent slightly racy >>> “tea salons” in Taipei’s Wanhua neighborhood. They accounted for about
375 of the new cases as of Tuesday, Chen said. The tea shops are known
for providing adult entertainment with singing and dancing.
“These seniors, when they go to these places, want to keep it veiled,”
Chen said. “When we are conducting the investigation, they may not be
honest.”
In Wanhua, normally a bustling area with food stalls, shops and
entertainment venues, the Huaxi night market and historic Longshan
Buddhist temple are closed.
Kao Yu-chieh, who runs a breakfast shop in the area, said business is
down at least 50% since last week.
Cab driver Wang Hsian Jhong said he hasn’t had a customer in three days. >>> “Everyone is affected. This is a Taiwan-wide problem. We have to get
through it,” he said, puffing on a cigarette on a street in Wanhua.
The island has shut all schools and restrictions previously only in the
Taipei area were expanded island-wide Wednesday: Restaurants, gyms and
other public venues were closed, and gatherings of more than five people >>> indoors and more than 10 people outdoors are banned.
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen has sought to reassure a public that is
reverting to panic-buying and shunning public places.
“We will continue to strengthen our medical capacity,” Tsai said, adding >>> that vaccines are arriving from abroad.
Malaysia unexpectedly imposed a one-month lockdown through June 7,
spooked by a sharp rise in cases, more-infectious variants and weak
public compliance with health measures.
It was the second nationwide lockdown in just over a year and came after >>> the country’s cases shot up fourfold since January; it’s now more than
479,000 and 1,994 people have died, a sum also up by four times from
January. Interstate travel and social activities are banned, schools are >>> shut, and restaurants can provide only takeout service. The government
has warned that hospitals have almost maxed out their capacity to take
new coronavirus cases.
Singapore has imposed stringent social distancing measures until June
13, restricting public gatherings to two people and banning dine-in
service at restaurants.
That came after the number of coronavirus infections of untraceable
origin rose to 48 cases in the past week, from 10 cases the week before. >>> Singapore had previously been held up as a role model after keeping the
virus at bay for months.
Schools moved online after students in several institutions tested
positive. Wedding receptions are no longer allowed, and funerals are
capped at 20 people.
For wedding planner Michelle Lau, at least seven clients either canceled >>> or postponed weddings meant to take place over the next month. Other
couples have opted for a simple ceremony without a reception, she said.
Janey Chang, who runs two Latin dance studios in Singapore, says that
the tougher restrictions have drastically reduced class size.
“We are taking on fewer students, but the costs such as rent remain the
same,” Chang said. “Whether we can continue to operate is highly
dependent on the number of coronavirus cases.”
Hong Kong has responded to fresh outbreaks by increasing the quarantine
requirement from 14 to 21 days for unvaccinated travelers arriving from
“high-risk” countries, including Singapore, Malaysia and Japan, and,
farther afield, Argentina, Italy, the Netherlands and Kenya.
China has set up checkpoints at toll booths, airports and railway
stations in Liaoning province, where new cases were reported this week.
Travelers must have proof of a recent negative virus test, and mass
testing was ordered in part of Yingkou, a port city with shipping
connections to more than 40 countries.
Thailand reported 35 deaths, the highest since the outbreak started, on
Tuesday, and an additional 29 on Wednesday. That brought its number of
fatalities to 678, of which 584 have been reported in the latest wave.
About three-quarters of Thailand’s more than 116,000 cases have been
recorded since the beginning of April.
Thailand had about 7,100 cases in all of last year in what was regarded
as a success story.
The resurgence has posed difficult choices for governments, particularly >>> in poorer nations where lockdown restrictions can increase financial
suffering for those already living on the edge of starvation.
In the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte has eased a lockdown in
the bustling capital and adjacent provinces to fight economic recession
and hunger but has still barred public gatherings this month, when many
Roman Catholic festivals are held.
COVID-19 infections started to spike in March to some of the worst
levels in Asia, surging beyond 10,000 a day and prompting Duterte to
impose the lockdown in and around Manila in April. The Philippines has
reported more than 1.1 million infections with 19,372 deaths, though the >>> surge has begun to ease.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the partial resumption of
economic activities, increased noncompliance with restrictions and
inadequate tracing of people exposed to the virus combined to spark the
steep rise in infections.
Experts said the delivery of vaccines, however delayed and small in
amount, also fostered false confidence the pandemic might be ending.
The only healthy way to stop the pandemic in Asia and other
places is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding
out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who among us
are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in
order to http://bit.ly/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to call
their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping
this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while preparing for the
worse-case scenario of the B.1.1.7 lineage mutations and others like
the P.1, B.1.135, B.1.351, B.1.429, B.1.525, & B.1.617.1-3 lineage
mutations combining to render current COVID vaccines no longer
effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/argentina-tighten-lockdown-pandemic-rages-sources-say-2021-05-20/?utm_source=reddit.com
Argentina announces 'circuit-breaker' lockdown as pandemic rages
Nicolás Misculin
2 minute read
People wearing face masks wait in line to be tested for the coronavirus
disease (COVID-19) at the Colon Theatre, in Buenos Aires, Argentina
April 13, 2021. REUTERS/Agustin Marcarian
People wearing face masks wait in line to be tested for the coronavirus
disease (COVID-19) at the Colon Theatre, in Buenos Aires, Argentina
April 13, 2021. REUTERS/Agustin Marcarian
Argentina will tighten pandemic lockdown measures to combat a severe
second COVID-19 wave, President Alberto Fernandez said on Thursday,
underscoring concern as daily cases and deaths have broken records over
the last week.
The strict "circuit-breaker" measures will come into force on Saturday
and last until May 31. They include school and non-essential commerce
closures and the banning of social, religious and sporting events in the >>> nation of 45 million people.
"We are living the worst moment since the pandemic began," Fernandez
said. "Today as never before we must all take care of ourselves to avoid >>> all the losses that we can."
Citizens who are not classed as essential workers will be allowed to be
out close to their homes between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.; otherwise, they must >>> stay at home.
The restrictions come as the government accelerates a vaccination
campaign that has lagged ambitious initial plans. So far, only 4.7% of
the population has been fully inoculated and 18.4% has received at least >>> one dose, according to a Reuters analysis.
Fernandez also announced an economic rescue package for sectors
worst-hit by the pandemic, which has exacerbated a crisis that has
plagued the country for the past three years and left millions of
Argentines in poverty.
Argentina posted 35,884 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday after hitting a
record high 39,652 on Wednesday. Total infections number some 3.45
million, which puts the country ahead of hard-hit Brazil on a per capita >>> basis and has pushed hospital intensive care units to near-saturation.
There have been 72,699 confirmed deaths.
The only **healthy** way to stop the pandemic in Argentina and other
places is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding
out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who among us
are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in
order to http://bit.ly/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to call
their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping
this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while preparing for the
worse-case scenario of the B.1.1.7 lineage mutations and others like
the P.1, B.1.135, B.1.351, B.1.429, B.1.525, & B.1.617.1-3 lineage
mutations combining to render current COVID vaccines no longer
effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote in part:
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01334-y
Why national attitudes about science matter for vaccine acceptance
Views on vaccination are coloured by an individual’s stance on science — >>> and by their society’s stance, too.
Ample evidence shows that people tend to trust vaccines if they also
trust science in general...
We should trust only the truth instead of it's surrogate, science,
which is simply "the process of searching for the truth" because
science is fallible while the truth (John 14:6) is perfect:
http://T3WiJ.com
Science is indeed a process.
There is a subtle, yet important, distinction, between trusting a
process and trusting a person who claimed to have followed the process.
The only healthy way to stop the pandemic in the U.S.A. and other
places is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding
out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who among us
are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in
order to http://bit.ly/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to call
their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping
this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while preparing for the
worse-case scenario of the B.1.1.7 lineage mutations and others like
the P.1, B.1.135, B.1.351, B.1.429, B.1.525, & B.1.617.1-3 lineage
mutations combining to render current COVID vaccines no longer
effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/covid-19-uk-15-virus-cases-events-attended-by-60-000-14860544
UK sees just 15 COVID-19 cases from events attended by 60,000
Leicester fans were able to support their side live for the first time
in 14 months
Leicester fans were able to support their side live for the first time
in 14 months AFP/MATTHEW CHILDS
22 May 2021 03:12AM (Updated: 23 May 2021 07:21PM)
Bookmark
LONDON: Only 15 people out of almost 60,000 who attended nine pilot
events for mass gatherings have since tested positive for coronavirus,
British health officials said Friday (May 21).
The government allowed limited crowds at the events - including two FA
Cup games, the World Snooker Championship and the Brit Awards - over
recent weeks to assess their impact on COVID-19 transmission.
The country has since March been gradually easing its strict lockdown,
with 22,000 football fans permitted inside Wembley Stadium last weekend
for the FA Cup final.
Officials are now working to trace just 15 people to have tested
positive following the nine official test events, with that level of
infection in line with case numbers for the broader population.
"The aim of our world-leading events research programme is to examine
the risk of COVID-19 transmission at large events and explore how crowds >>> can be welcomed back in bigger numbers safely," a government spokesman said.
"The pilots have been designed in a scientifically controlled way to
reduce the risk of transmission for attendees.
"We are working closely with NHS Test and Trace to ensure everyone can
be traced following a positive test," the spokesman added, referring to
Britain's state-run National Health Service.
The United Kingdom has been one of the hardest-hit countries in Europe
by the pandemic, but has been able to ease lockdown measures in part
thanks to a highly successful vaccination campaign.
The government is hoping to lift remaining restrictions on Jun 21, but
doubts have emerged after numerous spikes in the Indian variant of the
virus across the country.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to make an announcement on the
next stage of the relaxations next week.
The only healthy way to stop the pandemic in the U.K. and other
places is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding
out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who among us
are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in
order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the B.1.1.7 lineage mutations
and others like the P.1, B.1.135, B.1.351, B.1.429, B.1.525, &
B.1.617.1-3 lineage mutations combining to render current COVID
vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
https://archive.vn/LRwYK
The Airborne Covid Threat Is Confirmed. What to Do About It?
It’s not too late for a simple, effective public health message.
By Faye Flam
May 22, 2021, 12:00 PM UTC
Maybe this was dumb.
Maybe this was dumb. Photographer: Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images
Faye Flam is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist and host of the podcast
"Follow the Science." She has written for the Economist, the New York
Times, the Washington Post, Psychology Today, Science and other
publications.
Read more opinion
Follow @fayeflam on Twitter
COMMENTS
LISTEN TO ARTICLE
4:06
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Post
You know something is wrong with the public health messaging in the U.S. >>> when a tow truck driver is giving out better information on Covid-19
transmission than the WHO or CDC. His words of wisdom to me, when he
came to tow my car back to the dealer earlier this spring, was that if
you’re indoors with people and one of them is infected, you can still
get infected even if everyone is wearing a mask. And if you’re outdoors
and someone is infected, you’re probably not going to get it.
He was speaking from direct experience, having done essential work
through the worst of the pandemic. He said he’d seen co-workers get sick >>> and that his boss had died.
And he was right. The SARS-CoV2 virus can travel on very small particles >>> that disperse quickly outdoors but can build up inside. Indoors, these
particles can affect people who stay more than six feet away. And the
hodgepodge of masks Americans have adopted may provide some protection,
but they don’t render an unsafe situation safe.
Though scientists have been discussing airborne transmission for months, >>> it was only this week that the WHO and CDC made this official. With the
vaccine rollout still in its early days globally, those officials should >>> follow up this belated admission with guidance unvaccinated people can
use to minimize their risk.
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Clarifying the word “airborne” would be a good place to start. The
scientific meaning isn’t the same as its common meaning, and so people
may wrongly assume that outdoor air is dangerous. As a recent article in >>> the New York Times reported, news about the concept of airborne
transmission was compelling people in India to close their windows
rather than open them.
Indeed, reports on airborne transmission can be unnecessarily
panic-inducing, implying that risk is nearly unavoidable, and that
there’s no safe distance from our fellow humans.
It’s true that the virus can build up in indoor environments in a way
that can still pose a risk even if people wear masks and stay more than
six feet apart. But that risk can be mitigated by opening windows and
wearing N95 masks, and by keeping exposure short. A quick trip to the
supermarket is going to be safer than a long meal in a restaurant or an
exercise class. And because the virus is primarily traveling on smaller
particles, the risk is tiny outdoors, even if someone passes within six
feet.
Indoor restaurants, therefore, are not rendered safe by rules that
dictate people put on a mask when they’re not eating, or by most of the
plexiglass dividers between tables. Opening windows does help, as would
offering a warning that unvaccinated people are taking risks by dining
inside.
This has long been known — though officials were slow to admit it. Last
May, I interviewed Muge Cevik, an infectious disease specialist at the
University of St. Andrews in the U.K. She had been collecting all the
data she could find from contact tracing around the world to see how the >>> disease was actually being transmitted. There were reports that
so-called superspreading events had happened primarily in offices, at
business conferences, in retail stores where people lingered, and indoor >>> restaurants. Beyond superspreading, there was lots of transmission in homes.
She found that the amount of time people spent in a closed environment
matters. And the greater the number of people in an enclosed space, the
higher the odds that one of them is contagious.
That’s why in Japan, people have long been warned to avoid the three Cs
— crowds, closed spaces and close contact. Useful public health messages >>> don’t need to be complicated.
It’s not too late to do a better job on public health messaging and
prioritizing. In countries where people are returning to offices and
other workspaces, ventilation should be a higher priority than
sanitizing surfaces. In India, where the pandemic is raging, officials
should stop wasting resources on drones spraying disinfectant on parks.
Opinion. Data. More Data.
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By submitting my information, I agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of >>> Service and to receive offers and promotions from Bloomberg.
Here in America, we’ve worried too much about 15-minute grocery store
trips and have taken false comfort in a six-foot distance. We have spent >>> far too much mental energy enraged at each other for going unmasked to
the beach, or taking masks off in a parking lot — assigning other
people’s behavior an outsized role in our own risk. A better
understanding of what airborne transmission really means can help us
better manage our own risks and preserve our ability feel good about our >>> fellow human beings. And, of course, should motivate more of us to get
the vaccine.
The only healthy way to stop the pandemic in the U.S. and other
places is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding
out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who among us
are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in
order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the B.1.1.7 lineage mutations
and others like the P.1, B.1.135, B.1.351, B.1.429, B.1.525, &
B.1.617.1-3 lineage mutations combining to render current COVID
vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-boris-johnsons-review-of-social-distancing-rules-set-to-be-delayed-by-indian-variant-12315874
COVID-19: Boris Johnson's review of social distancing rules set to be
delayed by Indian variant
The PM had previously promised to give details by the end of this month
- but Number 10 says data on the variant is now needed.
Greg Heffer, political reporter
Greg Heffer
Political reporter @GregHeffer
Tuesday 25 May 2021 00:24, UK
BORIS JOHNSONCOVID-19CORONAVIRUS
The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Manchester
People maintain social distance as they walk through Manchester as the
city and the surrounding area faces local restrictions in an effort to
avoid a local lockdown being forced upon the area amid the coronavirus
disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Britain, July 31, 2020. REUTERS/Phil Noble >>> Image:
A review of social distancing rules is due before 21 June
Why you can trust Sky News
The public will likely have to wait longer for details of the
government's review of social distancing rules and its proposals for
COVID certification due to the growth in cases of the Indian variant.
Downing Street signalled Boris Johnson would wait longer to unveil the
plans, despite the prime minister having previously promised to provide
details by the end of this month.
Sponsored link
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Mr Johnson's official spokesman on Monday said the review of social
distancing rules would be published "as soon as possible based on the
latest data, which will help inform us what measures we can take around
certification".
Asked to explain a delay from the PM's initial timetable, the spokesman
added: "I think it's reasonable for a new variant such as this and the
need to gather as much data as possible to inform our decisions.
"It's right to take the time to get that information before making those >>> final decisions."
Advertisement
The spokesman also said the results of a review of COVID-19
certification in domestic settings - dubbed "COVID passports" - would be >>> published "as early as possible", but offered no set date.
Both the review of social distancing rules and work on the possible use
of coronavirus certification are due to be completed by the fourth and
final step of the prime minister's roadmap for lifting lockdown
restrictions, which is scheduled for 21 June.
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within Conservative Party, report finds
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COVID-19: Number 10 denies Boris Johnson skipped coronavirus meetings to >>> work on Shakespeare book
COVID-19: Boris Johnson to reveal if lockdown will be lifted on 21 June
'by end of month'
Despite the growth in cases of the Indian variant, the government has
been positive about the prospects of the final unlocking happening next
month.
The four stages of England's lockdown lifting
Image:
The four stages of England's lockdown lifting
A decision is set to be announced on 14 June as to whether England will
proceed to stage four of the roadmap.
Earlier this month, the prime minister predicted the "one-metre plus"
rule for social distancing could be scrapped at stage four.
"When it comes to social distancing from 21 June, I look at the data
very carefully and I think at the moment it looks to me as though we may >>> be able to dispense with the one-metre plus rule," Mr Johnson said at a
Downing Street news conference.
Subscribe to the All Out Politics podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google
Podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker
He promised to give more details "by the end of this month" - although
that timetable now appears to have slipped.
Scrapping the "one-metre plus" rule could allow pubs, restaurants and
other venues to operate at larger capacities and serve more customers.
The only healthy way to stop the pandemic in the U.K. and other
places is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding
out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who among us
are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in
order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the B.1.1.7 lineage mutations
and others like the P.1, B.1.135, B.1.351, B.1.429, B.1.525, &
B.1.617.1-3 lineage mutations combining to render current COVID
vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://ethicsalarms.com/2021/05/27/the-wuhan-virus-origin-debacle-a-bias-makes-you-stupid-classic/
The Wuhan Virus Origin Debacle: A “Bias Makes You Stupid” Classic
MAY 27, 2021 / JACK MARSHALL
Times Wuhan hack
I periodically am asked why I insist on referring to the pandemic virus, >>> which unquestionably originated in China, almost certainly in the Wuhan
province, and was allowed to spread world-wide in part by cover-up
activities by the Chinese government, “The Wuhan virus.” After all, the
edict came down from our politically-correct betters that this term was
“racist,” despite the fact that it conveyed useful and accurate
information that the technical term “COVID” does not.
Actually, COVID stands for "COronaVirus Infectious Disease" which
conveys the "useful and accurate information" that an infectious
coronavirus is causing disease.
"The Wuhan virus" conveys only geographical origin which is useless in
the setting of an active pandemic.
Once a wild horse has escaped from the barn, it really is too late to
close the door at the geographical origin.
I typically reply that I call it the Wuhan virus because that’s where it >>> came from, and virtually every other virus has been named for its place
of origin (sometimes inaccurately).
If inaccurate, then it's not the place of origin by definition.
Moreover, HIV is a glaring example of a virus that is not named after
its place of origin.
Other glaring examples include measles, smallpox, chickenpox, HPV,
HSV, RSV, and SV40.
Lyme disease, Legionnaire's disease...
Ignorance blinds virtually anyone.
Moreover, if it's proven that COVID-19 is the tragic result of SARS
vaccine research gone awry, laboratory safety standards will have to
be upgraded to prevent re-occurrence and our global lesson would be
that vaccine research comes with not only high cost but also high
risk.
correct.
Bottom line:
The only healthy way to stop the pandemic in the U.S. and other
places is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding
out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who among us
are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in
order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the B.1.1.7 lineage mutations
and others like the P.1, B.1.135, B.1.351, B.1.429, B.1.525, &
B.1.617.1-3 lineage mutations combining to render current COVID
vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Actually, "COVID" conveys "useful and accurate information" (see
above) for 100% of the front-line medical workers who are fighting the
COVID-19 pandemic either in person or virtually including here on
USENET.
"'The Wuhan virus' conveys only geographical origin which is useless
in the setting of an active pandemic.
Once a wild horse has escaped from the barn, it really is too late to
close the door at the geographical origin." (see above)
But it is important to know the history of the disease.
In the interim, I am simply wonderfully hungry (
http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) and again hope you, Michael, also
have a healthy appetite too.
So again, how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/columnists/2021/06/01/patients-protected-nhs-now-blaming-us-failings/
Back at the start of the first lockdown, all those aeons ago, a doctor
gave me a piece of advice. “Don’t get ill, Allison,” he said.
“But I’m not really at risk from Covid, am I?”
“Forget about Covid,” he said, “Just don’t get ill from anything else
for a year or two.”
I thought he was joking. I didn’t know. Well, I do now.
If you didn’t have the virus, good luck with getting hospital treatment. >>> The plunge in the number of urgent referrals from primary care belies
the outrageous, backside-covering claim by GPs’ leaders that all their
members were fully available for patients. They so weren’t. Yet, as the
fog of pandemic panic lifts and the scale of devastation becomes clear,
the main thing is that no blame must attach to our sainted NHS. It’s the >>> patients’ fault, you see.
I can guarantee I won’t have been the only one to react with spluttering >>> disbelief to a story in this newspaper which began: “Cancer patients who >>> decided not to seek treatment during lockdown are now overwhelming
emergency units at hospitals across the country.”
Decided? What sort of decision would that be, then?
Presumably it went something like this: “I had this funny spot on my
neck back in May last year and I sent a picture to my GP, like he asked
me to. He said it was fine and prescribed me some steroid cream. It
didn’t get any better, actually it got really nasty, but I decided not
to have it seen. Well, actually, I couldn’t because no doctor would
offer me a face-to-face appointment. Last week, I finally went to A&E,
in despair because the spot was bulbous and bleeding, and they said I
needed a scan. Turns out it’s melanoma and it’s spread everywhere. They
say I can have palliative care. Which means I’m going to die, doesn’t
it? Because I ‘decided’ not to seek treatment.”
Is this really the disingenuous, nothing-to-do-with-us-guv line that the >>> NHS intends to take as tens of thousands of advanced cancers come to
light? The Government requisitioned private hospitals at a cost of
£2billion, but clueless NHS managers barely got their act together to
use them for non-Covid patients. Many radiography and radiotherapy
departments were off limits for 12 months but, apparently, it’s the
British people who are at fault for overwhelming A&E today, with their
wretched tumours and their annoying pain.
According to Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, this
“striking” surge in non-Covid patients means some hospital trusts are
already at 97 per cent capacity and may struggle to cope with a rise in
virus cases if the full lifting of restrictions goes ahead on June 21.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister is under mounting pressure from scientists >>> to postpone Freedom Day because of the allegedly worrying advance of the >>> Indian variant, with one respiratory consultant painting an apocalyptic
picture of “mini Covid volcanoes erupting at hospitals around the
country, which are threatening to explode”.
Here we go, all aboard the Excuses Roundabout. Because lockdown created
a healthcare disaster, the NHS is in danger of not coping, so we need
more lockdown to protect the NHS. Can anyone spot the flaw in this
circular logic?
If we follow Mr Hopson’s reasoning, and that of sundry academics who are >>> eagerly buying shares in a third wave, the Government should endlessly
defer the lifting of lockdown. Just in case a few unvaccinated people
who get sick with Covid need to go to hospital, which will be a problem, >>> because the hospital will be nearly full with all the people who
couldn’t get treated during the first lockdown. Have you got that, Marjorie?
One hesitates to use anything as crazy as reason or facts to counter
this self-serving scaremongering, but here goes. The Indian variant may
be more transmissible, but is no more lethal than its predecessors.
Yesterday, there were zero Covid deaths in the UK, compared to a typical >>> daily death toll from cancer of 450; tragically, that number will soon
be much higher because of medical neglect during lockdown.
Hospital occupancy is perfectly normal for the time of year. Covid
patients are taking up only one per cent of all beds, and that number
continues its steady decline.
As for those “mini Covid volcanoes erupting at hospitals around the
country”, in the so-called “hotspots”, numbers are still low. There have >>> been minor increases in virus patients in Blackburn and Bedford
hospitals in the past few days, but Bolton, previously the
worst-affected, is starting to tick down. Those in the 35-to-44 age
group make up the bulk of admissions and they don’t tend to get as sick. >>> If it’s mainly young people who are now getting Covid, as the scientists >>> shriek, that’s encouraging; they are far less at harm from the virus and >>> will build up valuable immunity to protect any unvaccinated elders.
So there is no cause for concern, no sign of that Third Wave. There is
certainly no reason for the PM to postpone the lifting of all
restrictions on June 21.
What a devastating blow to national morale that would be. While fretting >>> over rising “cases” (meaningless, unless accompanied by actual
symptoms), some scientists have shown a horrifying disregard for the
collateral damage to people’s health and well-being.
“We need to stop obsessing about June 21 and start worrying about where
we are ‘now’ and how we can get cases down,” tweeted Professor Christina >>> Pagel, a health research mathematician. On the contrary, Professor. You
need to stop obsessing about phantasmal cases and start worrying about
the real people who are going to die as a consequence of your beloved
lockdown.
Here’s what Linda, who works in an oncology unit, wrote to me: “I work
in PET/CT imaging. Before the pandemic, we’d get patients with newly
diagnosed cancers and we’d scan to see how far the cancer had spread.
Most were in the early stages. We’re now getting an increasing number of >>> patients who were unable to access GP care and are presenting with
advanced cancers. Some with moles that, with no face-to-face
consultations, had been prescribed steroid creams and they’ve turned out >>> to be melanomas. We also have people whose treatment was stopped during
lockdown and we’re rescanning them before they resume treatments and
their cancer has spread. This means more aggressive treatment with more
side-effects. Unfortunately, frontline workers like me are afraid to
speak out.”
While the NHS panjandrums fret about how to protect their service from
its patients, while the scientists demand just a few more
weeks/months/years of masks and social distancing, it’s people like
Linda who are staring catastrophe in the face.
Yes, it’s true, there are mini-volcanoes erupting at hospitals around
the country, but not because of Covid. From Orthopaedics to Oncology,
there is a state of national emergency. I pray that Boris holds his
nerve and lifts all restrictions on June 21. How much more evidence does >>> it take? It’s lockdown that will be the death of us.
I am sick of protecting the NHS; let the NHS do its job and protect the
sick.
The only healthy way to stop the pandemic in the U.K. and other
places is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding
out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who among us
are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in
order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the B.1.1.7 lineage mutations
and others like the P.1, B.1.135, B.1.351, B.1.429, B.1.525, &
B.1.617.1-3 lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render
current COVID vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-nearly-half-of-uk-adults-going-through-pandemic-job-loss-are-drinking-more-alcohol-survey-12323517
COVID-19: Nearly half of UK adults going through pandemic job loss are
drinking more alcohol - survey
The figures could increase further when the furlough scheme is wound
down later this year.
Thursday 3 June 2021 02:27, UK
COVID-19Coronavirus
Drinking habits increased during the first lockdown, while death rates
related to alcohol misuse reached record levels
Image:
Alcohol consumption has gone up among people going through job loss.
File pic
Why you can trust Sky News
Nearly half of adults in the UK going through job loss are drinking more >>> than they would have done before the pandemic, a new survey suggests.
Research by the charity Drinkaware shows 49% of people who have been
made redundant - or are in the process of being made redundant - are
consuming more alcohol than they did before March 2020.
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This is up from 38% since December, the poll of 4,000 people between 27
and 30 April showed.
The figures could be set to increase next month when the government's
furlough scheme is reduced - before it ends completely on 30 September.
Nationally drinking levels have gone up across the board, with people
consuming 20% more on average.
Advertisement
Two thirds (66%) who are drinking high-risk levels of alcohol, which is
more than 34 units a week for women and 50 for men, are drinking more
than they did before the pandemic.
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW THIS ADVERT
Among parents with children under 18, 33% are drinking more than usual - >>> up from 24% in December - and 10% "much more".
More on Covid-19
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figures show
COVID-19: Vietnamese government sends mass texts to citizens asking for
cash to fund vaccine programme
COVID-19: Holiday hopes as green list review to be released - but
Hancock warns UK has to 'protect the progress we have made'
COVID-19: Ahead of green travel list update, what's the situation in
holiday hotspots and how do rates compare?
COVID-19: Testing system could be 'overwhelmed' if more countries are
added to the green travel list
G7 Summit 2021: Countries to boost efforts to reduce risk of future pandemic
Drinkaware is calling for alcohol harm to be included in public health
strategies, as trends showed an "increased polarisation" in drinking
habits by the end of 2020, it said.
Its evidence and impact director Annabelle Bonus added: "Our survey
shows that there are clear differences in the drinking habits across
certain groups of the UK population, signalling a clear need for
targeted action and appropriate support.
"It is concerning that the proportion of adults drinking more since the
start of the pandemic has increased from December to April and we must
ensure that people drinking more since lockdown began get the help and
support that they need if we are to reverse this trend."
The only healthy way to stop the pandemic in the U.K. and other
places is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding
out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who among us
are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in
order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the B.1.1.7 lineage mutations
and others like the P.1, B.1.135, B.1.351, B.1.429, B.1.525, &
B.1.617.1-3 lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render
current COVID vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/nrtha0/unethical_quote_of_the_pandemic_dr_anthony_fauci/
http://ethicsalarms.com/2021/06/03/unethical-quote-of-the-pandemic-dr-anthony-fauci/
Unethical Quote Of The Pandemic: Dr. Anthony Fauci
JUNE 3, 2021 / JACK MARSHALL
Above is Dr. Fauci during his baseball game theater last year, when he
went out to the mound at Nationals Park to throw out the first pitch,
and wore a facemask, though he was outdoors, there were no fans in the
stands, and nobody was within a hundred feet of him. Then, once he
thought he was off-camera, he took off his mask while sitting right next >>> to two friends who were wearing theirs, for some reason. Thanks in great >>> part to Fauci’s misinformation and pandemic fear-mongering, when I
attended a Nats game this year I was required to wear a mask between
bites of my hotdog, again despite there being nobody near me. What fun. >>> Yet here is Fauci’s quote:
This email, one of thousands being perused after a Freedom of
Information Act dump, demonstrates that the CDC official advising the
Trump administration and treated like a benign, all-knowing God of
Science during the first year of the pandemic was and is a manipulative, >>> two-faced, untrustworthy hack.
This should not shock anyone at this point, though Fauci worshipers,
like mask worshipers (my sister wears two, in her car alone, still) will >>> probably be in lifetime denial. Oh, heck, let me digress to an example.
My woke-diseased baseball writer/ lawyer colleague, Craig Calcaterra,
who is peddling a substack baseball commentary newsletter that I would
eagerly subscribe to if he could resist off-topic progressive madness,
wrote today in part,
“Ohio’s mask mandate, and all of its other COVID protocols, expired at
midnight on Tuesday night. In response, two prominent Republicans —
Ohio’s Attorney General and a man running for U.S. Senate — made a big
performative point of posting videos of themselves burning paper masks.
….these are the people who, whenever there is a defense appropriations
bill to vote on or a war to fight, talk solemnly about the need for
sacrifice in order to keep Americans safe. Yet when asked to do the most >>> simple and basic of things — wear a mask to keep from spreading a
disease that has killed millions in a little over a year — they act as
if they were forced into bondage and subjected to intolerable cruelties. >>> I’d say that the Republican Party is full of the immature diaper filling >>> babies, but that’d be an insult to babies who, most of whom eventually
tire of throwing tantrums and just deal or go to sleep or something.“
And I’d say that Craig should 1) stick to baseball, 2) pay attention,
and 3) write “bias makes you stupid” a thousand times on a blackboard.
There was never convincing evidence that the masks “saved lives.” It was >>> an “it’s better than nothing” measure at best, and it was not “simple
and basic.” It made basic communication difficult, ruined social
interaction, made otherwise intelligent people paranoid and kind
miserable, and was weaponized by the Left, Craig’s friends, to get the
public used to giving up basic liberties to Big Brother’s experts, when
Big Brother and the experts secretly ignored their own edicts because
laws are for the little people.
Meanwhile, medical experts will continue to choose to wear their
"personal protective equipment" (aka PPE), which invariably includes a
facemask, whenever they are around others who are possibly infected
with a contagious pathogen. This is done out of wisdom that comes from
front-line experience instead of from edicts.
Gee, that was a long digression! Back to Fauci and masks.
Ethics Alarms dinged the mask scam in December of 2020, almost 7 months
ago, in this post. Yet the sainted doctor flipped again, just last
month, contradicting the CDC and saying that continuing to wear a face
mask, even after most restrictions have been lifted, could “diminish the >>> likelihood that you’ll spread these respiratory borne diseases.”
In the CDC context of everyone being **fully** COVID vaccinated, the
expectation is that the increased likelihood of spread of the COVID-19
coronavirus among maskless folks would be of no significant
consequence. Dr. Fauci's "saying that continuing to wear a face
mask, even after most restrictions have been lifted, could 'diminish
the likelihood that you’ll spread these respiratory borne diseases'"
is in the context of **fully** COVID vaccinated folks not wanting to
possibly spread this "respiratory borne (COVID) disease" to their more
vulnerable not-fully COVID vaccinated neighbors, friends & family
because doing the latter could result in significantly tragic
consequences.
How could fully vaccinated folks spread COVID-19?
In the interim, the only healthy way to stop the pandemic in the U.S.
and other places is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the B.1.1.7
lineage mutations and others like the P.1, B.1.135, B.1.351, B.1.429,
B.1.525, & B.1.617.1-3 lineage mutations combining to form hybrids
that render current COVID vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://oaklandside.org/2021/06/04/alameda-countys-new-covid-death-toll-is-25-lower-than-thought/
Alameda County’s new COVID death toll is 25% lower than thought
County health officials reviewed COVID-19 death records and found 411
cases that were "clearly not" caused by the disease.
by Brian Krans
June 4, 2021
staff in full safety gear stand under a sign that says "emergency"
Frontline workers at Highland Hospital will be among the first to
receive COVID-19 vaccinations in Oakland. Credit: Pete Rosos
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A quarter of all deaths previously attributed to COVID-19 in Alameda
County weren’t actually caused by the coronavirus, the Alameda County
Public Health Department announced today.
That puts the county’s new official COVID-19 death toll at 1,223, down >>>from 1,634.
The 25% decrease—or 411 cases—is due to the fact that COVID “wasn’t a
direct cause” of death in these cases, according to county health
officials.
County officials decided to revise the numbers after they reviewed
guidance from the California Department of Public Health about how to
classify deaths as being caused by COVID-19. The new count more
accurately reflects how many people died as a direct result of, or
complications from, a COVID-19 infection.
“There are definitely people who died from reasons that were clearly not >>> caused by COVID,”
said Neetu Balram, a spokesperson for the Alameda County Public Health
Department.
Balram couldn’t give specifics about the true cause of death for the 411 >>> people removed from the COVID-19 data, but she said the cases were
identified after reviewing codes entered by county coroners into
CalREDIE, the state’s database for disease reporting and surveillance.
Alameda County uses CalREDIE data to populate its COVID dashboard.
Here’s what else is going on in Oakland:
Oakland considers banning ADUs in the hills to avoid fire danger
Where Oakland kids and families can get free food this summer
The last dance is still far off for Oakland’s Tacos El Ultimo Baile
Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert and senior scholar at
Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told The Oaklandside that
although some adjustments are to be expected, 25% “seems high.” Adalja
said he has never seen this big of an adjustment in a death count with
other infectious diseases.
Nicholas Moss, Alameda County’s health officer, said the deaths removed >>>from the COVID rolls occurred throughout the pandemic. He hopes the
county’s decision to adjust the numbers will show people that the county >>> is dedicated to accurately reporting the impact of the virus.
“We knew any change like this would have raised some eyebrows,” Moss
told The Oaklandside. “Nothing about this changes our policy decisions
now or during the height of the pandemic.”
The county’s original method was to attribute a death to COVID-19 if the >>> coroner or medical provider (like a hospital) listed someone as being
positive for the coronavirus at the time of their death.
Balram said the state’s definition was different: A death can only be
attributed to COVID-19 if the coroner or medical provider can show that
the person died “as a direct result of COVID-19, with COVID-19 as a
contributing cause of death, or in whom death caused by COVID-19 could
not be ruled out.” The state came up with this definition late last year >>> in the middle of the pandemic, after Alameda County was already using
its method.
“Obviously our definition was broader than the state’s,” Balram said,
adding the 411 deaths being removed were “clearly not COVID.”
In announcing the changes to the data, the county used the example of a
resident who tested positive for COVID-19 but died in a car accident.
Under the original definition, that person’s death would have been
included in the total number of COVID-19 deaths. Balram said she
couldn’t say if that actual scenario played out in Alameda County.
“When the state implemented these guidelines, Alameda County became
aware of the conflicting definitions and made a plan to conduct the
update when cases and deaths stabilized,” the Alameda County Public
Health Department said in a statement Friday.
Prior to the update Friday, the Alameda County COVID dashboard showed
1,687 deaths, a tally that reflects not only the county’s old definition >>> of a COVID-related death, but also any new deaths added to rolls since
May 23. Deaths are often reported at different intervals and rarely on
the day they actually occur.
Throughout the pandemic, the county’s data on COVID-19 deaths has shown
much smaller fluctuations caused by a variety of factors, such as if a
person died in Alameda County but didn’t live there.
Alameda County’s COVID dashboard contains several disclaimers, including >>> that recent numbers, including infections and deaths, could change. That >>> includes cases that move from “suspected” to “confirmed,” and dates of
when a death has been reported to the day it actually occurred.
“Death data may be corrected from time to time as information about the
cause of death or the County of residence of the deceased person are
finalized,” a warning on the COVID dashboard reads.
Alameda County’s recounting of its COVID cases are yet another example
of potential flaws in real-time data reporting involving several
agencies during a global public health crisis.
Moss, who has more experience with the HIV/AIDS epidemic, said that data >>> isn’t computed until six months after the previous year. COVID-19 data,
he said, is entered daily, giving number-crunchers less time to ensure
the data being reported meets universal standards.
“It’s not an excuse. It’s a reality,” Moss said. “Unfortunately it took
us longer to get to this point than we would have liked.”
The only healthy way to stop the pandemic in California
and other places is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, & Delta
lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current COVID
vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
https://ethicsalarms.com/2021/06/07/morning-ethics-warm-up-6-7-2021-the-masks-come-off-at-the-local-7-11-edition/#more-83482
1. Speaking of masks, Dr. Anthony Fauci just took the lead in the race
to be the Ethics Alarms Asshole of the Year. Yesterday, smirking,
untrustworthy and partisan MSNBC talking head Rachel Maddow hosted Fauci >>> on her program, and in an example of the hard-hitting, objective
journalism for which she has become famous, fawned all over him in an
interview that began with the assumption that poor Fauci is being
cruelly ganged up upon by right-wing Neanderthals. Nah, there’s no
mainstream media bias! Her very first question signaled I’m on your
side, poor baby!: “First of all, let me just ask if I’m being fair. Am I >>> building you up to be thicker-skinned about this than you are? You’re
actually worried about this new sort of re-upping of attacks on you?”
Given his cue, Fauci responded in part, “Well, I’m concerned about that
more because it’s really very much an attack on science…What is the
thread going through, what’s happening now, is very much an anti-science >>> approach. So that’s a big, big difference. I mean, it is what it is, I’m >>> a public figure, I’m going to take the arrows and the swings, but
they’re just, they’re fabricated.”
It could have been worse, I guess; he might have said that the criticism >>> of him was racist. His despicable answer settles any questions about
Fauci’s character in my mind; he’s a manipulative creep and an ethics
villain. “Attack on science” !? We have smoking gun proof that Fauci was >>> mistaken about his conclusions, frequently lied or withheld information, >>> and had unrevealed conflicts of interest. He allowed himself to be used
as a partisan weapon to shut down the economy.
Come to think of it, Fauci’s answer to Maddow was exactly the same as a
policy-maker-of-color playing the race card. Because he’s a scientist,
he should be above reproach. No opposition is in good faith or
justifiable. Any criticism of him is really anti-science bigotry.
Asshole of the Year.
Fauci, like other scientists, remains knowledgeable which does happen
in science, which is "the process of searching for the truth."
Name-calling pundits, otoh, not so much.
Meanwhile, the only healthy way to stop the pandemic in the U.S.
and other places is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, & Delta
lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current COVID
vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/nuuv0b/its_time_for_jacks_believe_it_or_not_vox_actually/
http://ethicsalarms.com/2021/06/07/its-time-for-jacks-believe-it-or-not-vox-actually-published-this-essay-three-days-ago/
It’s Time For Jack’s “Believe It Or Not!” Vox Actually Published This
Essay Three Days Ago!
JUNE 7, 2021 / JACK MARSHALL
believe-it-or-not 2
The article by German Lopez in Vox published on June 4 is more than just >>> head exploding. It is clinical evidence of brain dysfunction or such
deep cynicism and disrespect for readers that the author and editors
should be under surveillance. I’m exaggerating only slightly.
Vox is an openly Leftist website founded by Ezra Klein, who pretended to >>> be an ethical journalist at the Washington Post until his outrageous
partisan bias became too obvious to deny. Since then it has become the
kind of news and commentary source, like MSNBC, only taken seriously by
those who want to hear a slanted, spun, openly partisan view of reality
that jibes with their unalterable world view. Yet this thing is
unbelievable even by that standard.
Over the past week, even the mainstream media has accepted the
likelihood that its government, and particularly its health authorities
led by Dr. Anthony Fauci, lied to the public repeatedly, hid evidence
and covered up facts and documents throughout the pandemic, prime among
those fact the likely origins of the Wuhan virus (you’ll never guess
where it came from!) This was a betrayal of trust of epic and historic
proportions. So what does Vox identify as America’s “biggest pandemic
failure”?
We’re not more like China! Or Iran! We don’t automatically bow to
government restrictions on our liberties. We don’t trust the experts to
run our lives! Some excerpts:
“Whenever collective action is called for, Americans don’t do it — or,
at the very least, don’t do it sufficiently. America is too politicized, >>> fractured, and, above all, individualistic for a collective move to save >>> it. …When the US writes its next pandemic playbook, it can’t ignore this >>> reality. Going forward, tackling a pandemic or collective public health
threat will require a more individualistic approach to public health —
one more focused on clear guidance, risk communication, harm reduction,
and making the safest choice the easiest…The research suggests
collectivistic places handled at least some aspects of the pandemic
better. But in a highly individualistic society like the US, maybe such
approaches are simply unrealistic. After suffering one of the highest
Covid-19 death tolls among developed nations and in the world, America
may have to find its own individualized alternative….Many Americans did
take Covid-19 seriously, social distancing and masking up as federal
officials and experts asked them to. They have continued to do so, too,
getting vaccines as soon as they were available. But with Covid-19, just >>> a few people can spoil everything. A few people going out, gathering,
and failing to wear masks can launch an outbreak across a community…This >>> is a big thing that went wrong with America’s approach to Covid-19. Yes, >>> most people wore masks at least sometimes, and a lot of people made some >>> sacrifice to social distance in the past year. But many others, fueled
by Trump’s downplaying of the virus and politics in general, rejected
the precautions, describing them as violations of civil liberties.
Meanwhile, calls for more collectivistic actions have gone nowhere.
Lockdowns quickly proved to be unsustainable, with protests and Trump’s
demands to “LIBERATE!” economies soon leading just about every state in
the country to reopen too quickly and see a surge in Covid-19 cases.
Mask mandates were adopted in most states, but not all. Places that did
keep some restrictions, from social distancing to mask mandates, barely
enforced them — cops weren’t going around breaking up a lot of house
parties.…”
Read the whole thing if your stomach is empty, but that should be
enough. This is a totalitarian talking, and one that either doesn’t
realize how repulsive and anti-American his analysis is, or one who is
confident that his readers dislike democratic society as much as he
does. Let’s ignore the factual distortions and gaslighting (the U.S.’s
death toll from the illness cannot be compared to other nations, since
the CDC guidelines deliberately overcounted pandemic deaths while other
countries of similar or greater size undercounted; states did not open
up too soon, they should never have closed down; there is no mention
anywhere of the huge demonstrations, protests and riots that observed no >>> “social distancing” that the alleged health experts stillendorsed,
etc.), and just concentrate on the delusional, frightening attitude the
article represents:
Despite all the evidence, coming in an avalanche before the article was
written, that there was every reason to distrust the government and its
experts since they were making stuff up, ignoring their own advice, and
generally incompetent, Americans are at fault because they didn’t fall
into line and love Big Brother, saying, “Thank-you sir, may I have another?”
The “precautions,” like telling people they could not drive alone in
their car except for “essential” travel and should wear masks during
sex, were not irrationally “described” as violations of civil
liberties, they were violations of civil liberties. Also, in too many
cases to list, idiotic.
“A lot of people made some sacrifice to social distance in the past
year”???? Everybody in the country except the elected officials like
Nancy Pelosi and the gang of dictatorial Democratic mayors and governors >>> who had guaranteed jobs and income and defied their own edicts whenever
it was convenient sacrificed. The economy crashed for everybody.
Children’s education went to hell, or Zoom, which is the same thing. The >>> arts, sports, social activities, and of course businesses—like mine—were >>> crippled—and all based on stuttering guesswork and fakery by
incompetents posing under the banner of “science.”
The conclusion of this despicable screed is that, damn it, Americans
just don’t take orders, or at least not enough of them. “America is an
individualistic nation, and a progressive administration alone can’t
change that,” Vox tells us. “One way to fix these problems would be to
try to make Americans more collectivistic.”
In other words, less American. Trust Big Brother. Give up individualism
and liberty for “the greater good.” It gets to be a habit, you know,
then you’ll get used to it. It’s all for the best.
“We shouldn’t tolerate another 600,000 American deaths in the next
pandemic,” Big Brother’s PR flack concludes. That’s one of those
intellectually dishonest statements that lets you know someone is
conning you. Recent estimates suggest that the pandemic fatalities have
been overcounted by as much as 20%. Ok, 500,000. The majority of the
victims were sick and or elderly. How many of those would have died soon >>> anyway if China’s virus hadn’t intervened? Half? Let’s be conservative
and say only another 20%. That’s 400,000.
"Using more recent data from the National Vital Statistics System
(NVSS), CDC estimated that 545,600 - 660,200 excess deaths occurred in
the United States during January 26, 2020 - February 27, 2021"
Source:
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7015a4.htm
Ignorance is bliss, which is neither a blessing nor peace.
How many of those deaths are a reasonable price to pay to preserve
American values, liberties, and individualism?
"The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and the one who is wise
saves lives." (Proverbs 11:30)
Source:
https://biblehub.com/proverbs/11-30.htm
Every damn one of them.
Wiser to save "every one of them."
At what cost?
We already saved over 1.4 million lives.
The only healthy way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, & Delta
lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current COVID
vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://archive.vn/kMmXM
http://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/nvpyku/andrew_lloyd_webber_youll_have_to_arrest_us_to/
Amid fears of more social distancing, Lloyd Webber insists his new
musical Cinderella will open on June 25 ‘come hell or high water’
By
Dominic Cavendish,
THEATRE CRITIC
8 June 2021 • 9:45pm
Andrew Lloyd Webber at the Gillian Lynne Theatre, London
Defiant: Andrew Lloyd Webber at the Gillian Lynne Theatre, London
CREDIT: Rii Schroer/Daily Telegraph
Andrew Lloyd Webber, the world’s most successful composer of musicals,
is putting the finishing touches to his first new West End show in five
years. He should be preparing to celebrate ? the first preview is just
over two weeks away, with opening night set to follow on July 14 ?
instead, he’s spoiling for a fight.
The world premiere of his £6?million Cinderella depends on social
distancing being lifted, in accordance with the Government’s “roadmap”,
on June 21, a promised milestone that looks increasingly in doubt. Yet,
Lloyd Webber tells me, his voice bristling with defiance, “We are going
to open, come hell or high water”. What if the Government demands a
postponement? “We will say: come to the theatre and arrest us.”
The buzz around Cinderella, Lloyd Webber’s 17th major musical since
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat in 1968, is intense, not
least because its book is by Emerald Fennell, the Oscar-winning writer,
director and producer of Promising Young Woman. Lloyd Webber has known
35-year-old Fennell, who also appeared as Camilla Parker Bowles in The
Crown, since she was a child – he’s an old friend of her mother and
father, the jeweller Theo Fennell.
He seized on her scenario, dashed off in 48 hours back in 2018, when she >>> was still best known for playing Nurse Patsy in Call the Midwife. Her
sparky treatment upends the familiar telling of the fairy tale, instead
presenting, as Lloyd Webber puts it, “a world where people go to extreme >>> lengths to make themselves beautiful, and our Cinderella looks at it and >>> goes: this is weird”.
Lyrics by David Zippel stir stinging satire into the romance. “It’s
about being obsessed with changing yourself and being like the
Kardashians,” says Lloyd Webber. For Zippel, who also collaborated on
The Woman in White in 2004, the creative process was “joyful… Andrew
knew where he wanted it to go musically. There were times Emerald would
write a scene and I would musicalise it – it was a team effort.”
Andrew Lloyd-Webber and Emerald Fennell in rehearsals
Andrew Lloyd-Webber and Emerald Fennell in rehearsals
According to Nikolai Foster, artistic director of Leicester’s Curve
theatre, Lloyd Webber’s score marks “a return to A-game form… You’ve got >>> rock anthems that remind you of the excitement of Jesus Christ
Superstar, there are waltzes with nods to Rodgers and Hammerstein, and a >>> mind-blowing Bohemian Rhapsody-inspired segment in the second half. It’s >>> just what you want in a musical.”
We shall see. Or shall we? What should be the happy conclusion to a
creative journey that began in earnest in 2018, before being diverted by >>> the pandemic (Cinderella was originally due to open last August) is once >>> again in question. No show of this scale, with a bank-busting ensemble
of 34, is commercially viable while attendances remain capped at 50 per
cent of capacity.
Despite the success of the vaccine rollout, the mood music has suddenly
changed, and official caution is once again in the ascendant. Lloyd
Webber questions the justification for this. “I’ve seen the science from >>> the tests, don’t ask me how,” he says. “They all prove that theatres are >>> completely safe, the virus is not carried there. If the Government
ignore their own science, we have the mother of all legal cases against
them. If Cinderella couldn’t open, we’d go, ‘Look, either we go to law
about it or you’ll have to compensate us’.”
Carrie Hope Fletcher, in costume for Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cinderella
Carrie Hope Fletcher as Cinderella, in costume
The stakes could hardly be higher. It costs Lloyd Webber £1?million a
month just to keep his six theatres dark. He has remortgaged his London
home – a townhouse in Belgravia, which he shares with his third wife,
Madeleine, mother to three of his five children – and has reportedly
borrowed more than £50?million, although he refuses to confirm that
figure today. According to The Sunday Times Rich List his personal net
worth has tumbled by £275?million in a year, to £525?million.
More challenges lie ahead. He has two other shows waiting in the wings:
a new production of The Phantom of the Opera, the West End’s second
longest-running show after Les Misérables, is set to take over the
refurbished Her Majesty’s Theatre from July 27; while a revival of
Joseph is also due at the Palladium that month. Then, as owner of the
Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London’s oldest playhouse, he’s also poised to >>> unveil a £60?million renovation in time for the UK stage premiere of
Disney’s Frozen in August. All of which leaves Lloyd Webber in a
position he describes as “acute financial stress. I don’t think [the
Government] understand it. We’ve never taken any profit out of the
theatres. I’ve always tried to put back in, which is why we’re in a
muddle now because we never had a big reserve.”
When we meet, early in the morning, at his (again, newly refurbished)
Gillian Lynne Theatre, Lloyd Webber’s usual, endearing air of eccentric
distraction has given way to twitchiness. Having shown tireless
leadership throughout the crisis, he seems a bit on edge. News has come
in of a government adviser counselling delay to the roadmap and his
office has just been contacted by Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden.
“They’ve said can we have a call at 5pm? No! I’m doing the day job now.
I will talk to him later.” The implication? Theatre is a serious
business, not to be treated lightly.
For months, he has been a proactive but pliable collaborator with
officialdom, on the inside track before news spilled out. Last year, he
says, he “knew on February 2 from a source in Government that it was
very likely there would be a lockdown. I got a coded message sent to me
– ‘Happy birthday!’ – from someone at a meeting.” So Lloyd Webber
gathered his staff and said: “‘OK, folks, we are going to have to close
down, we have to get a doomsday scenario in place.’ And people said,
‘You’re off your trolley!’” Six weeks later, the Prime Minister advised
the nation to “avoid pubs, clubs, theatres and other such social
venues”, effectively bringing down the curtain on live entertainment.
Andrew Lloyd Webber with his dog Mojito
'Theatres are completely safe': Andrew Lloyd Webber with his dog Mojito
CREDIT: Rii Schroer/Daily Telegraph
Now, Lloyd Webber’s patience is being stretched to breaking point.
“Unfortunately,” he says, “the Government regards theatre as a nice
thing to have rather than a necessity.” Aside from Dowden, he has had no >>> dealings with the top brass. “I don’t know Boris at all,” he remarks,
with some acidity. “He has shown no interest in getting in touch.”
Doubt over the wisdom of opening the West End’s first major new musical
in over a year is etched on his face. “I jumped the gun and all the
bigger shows have followed suit. I just hope I’m right. I took what I
thought was an informed decision on what I knew the Government wanted.”
If the goalposts keep moving, his worst-case scenario – being forced to
sell off his playhouses – will become a reality. “There is a real risk
of that,” he says. “I will fight to the last ditch to prevent that
happening but no one can deny that there are foreign buyers sniffing
around who would quite love to have these [theatres] as trophy assets.
They call them bottom-feeders, don’t they?”
The licence for the Gillian Lynne “is for a music venue til three in the >>> morning. If I lost it there’d be nothing I could do to stop someone
doing that.” He trails off, shudders. “In the end, it’s unthinkable.”
If Lloyd Webber’s London theatre empire crumbles, his life’s work, the
shows, can hardly be dismantled, even if they are sometimes glibly and
wrongly disparaged. He says he pays little heed to his detractors;
negative reviews don’t deter him from continuing, nor do flattering
appraisals persuade him that he’s a national treasure. “I never think
about what my profile is. I like to get on and do what I want to do.” He >>> notes, all the same, with some satisfaction that shows such as Jesus
Christ Superstar and Evita “were not greatly considered at the time, at
least by quite a number of people, and I think they’re now classics”.
His biggest flop of the past decade – Stephen Ward, about the socialite
osteopath at the heart of the Profumo scandal – lasted just a few months >>> in the winter of 2013-14. He concedes that it wasn’t up to scratch but
pleads illness: “I was on morphine!” (After prostate cancer, he had a
number of back operations.) He redeemed himself with School of Rock in
2015, an uproarious hit on both sides of the Atlantic.
The West End cast of Andrew Lloyd Webber's School of Rock in 2016
Uproarious: the West End cast of Andrew Lloyd Webber's School of Rock in >>> 2016 CREDIT: Alastair Muir
That show, based on Richard Linklater’s 2003 film, was about Dewey Finn, >>> a slacker who inveigles his way into a private school and turns prim
classical music lessons into wild rock sessions. At the time, Lloyd
Webber – the elder son of composer and organist William Lloyd Webber and >>> violinist and pianist Jean (and, of course, elder brother of cellist
Julian) – told me how he identified with Finn’s anti-establishment
spirit, saying, “There was a day I was down to play piano at the school
concert and I got up and said, ‘I’m changing the agenda, I want to play
songs I’ve written’ – it was when the real me came out”. Whether it’s
Finn, or the Phantom, or for that matter Cinderella, Judas, Norma
Desmond, or even Evita, he’s drawn to outsiders.
Quite why, though, he hesitates to articulate. “I do relate to that
misfit [Finn] and I love stories that involve somebody who doesn’t
conform to convention but I never quite analyse it. It’s probably for
others to say.” That’s a classic bit of Lloyd Webberian deflection, done >>> with a brisk politesse as though there were much more important things
to do than clamber onto the analyst’s couch.
He’s less circumspect about his true feelings on the debacle of the Cats >>> film: “I wrote to the head of Universal and said, ‘You’ve got a car
crash on your hands unless you get a grip on this thing’, a year before
they made [it]. I didn’t even get a reply.”
By this point he is exiting the Gillian Lynne, and ushering me into his
own personal chauffeur-driven London taxi, to pop round the corner to
see the opulent goings-on at “The Lane”, as he calls the Theatre Royal,
brightening as he walks, workmen parting at his approach, like the Red
Sea before Moses; he’s so speedy it’s hard to keep up.
Raring to go: the cast of Cinderella
Raring to go: the cast of Cinderella
His biographer, Michael Coveney, finds that restlessness fascinating.
“What is appealing is this permanent sense of insecurity and I don’t
think it has ever changed. He’s the biggest thing in musical theatre
since Ivor Novello, in fact there’s no one comparable but he’s never
quite happy.”
Perhaps it’s worth taking him at face value too, though: a face that
lights up when he talks about returning Drury Lane to its palatial
former glory, or the way the front section of the Gillian Lynne
auditorium will magically spin on a revolve, so that some of Cinderella
can be performed in the round.
“I don’t know when or where or how I began to love musicals but I can’t
remember a time when I didn’t,” he says, 73 going on seven. “I think of
music all the time. I must have 30 to 40 melodies in my head that
haven’t found a home yet.”
The prosaic, wondrous truth may be that Andrew Lloyd Webber is a
once-in-a-generation gift to British theatre. It’s incumbent upon the
Government to handle that gift with utmost care.
Cinderella is at the Gillian Lynne Theatre, London WC2
(andrewlloydwebberscinderella.com) from June 25
The only healthy way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, & Delta
lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current COVID
vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
https://www.bbc.com/news/57403888
Lockdown easing: Four numbers to look for ahead of the 21 June decision
By Robert Cuffe
Head of statistics
Published1 day ago
Share
Related Topics
Coronavirus pandemic
People sitting outside restaurants in Stevenson Square in Manchester
IMAGE COPYRIGHTPA MEDIA
The UK government faces a difficult choice in the next few days.
Many people are desperate to see the return to normality promised by the >>> final stage of the roadmap to lifting lockdown.
But ministers always said 21 June was not set in stone - and could be
affected by changes in the pandemic, including the emergence of new
variants.
What will they be weighing up as they make their final decision?
Here are four key numbers to watch out for in the coming days.
1. The number of people in hospital
There are just under 1,000 people with coronavirus in hospitals in the
UK, up about 5% from a low point a week ago.
That's far below the peak of nearly 40,000 people in January. And NHS
Providers say the people who are going in aren't as seriously ill as
they were in early waves. They are younger, or don't require intensive
care as much - and they're coming out sooner.
That means this wave is different, and better, than previous ones but
eventually rising admissions will mount up.
In the two parts of the UK that are furthest into this "third wave", the >>> North West of England and Scotland, the number of people in hospital
with coronavirus is rising faster than the rest of the UK.
Chart showing rising numbers of people in hospital in Scotland and the
North West of England
How far and how fast this trend develops depends on how fast infections
are rising and how likely you are to get seriously sick with the new
variant.
2. The speed of rising infections
Health Secretary Matt Hancock told Parliament on Tuesday that the main
type of coronavirus in the UK - the Delta variant first identified in
India - is "at least 40%" more transmissible than the version that
sparked the winter wave - the Alpha variant first seen in Kent.
And as Delta takes over, infections are on the rise again.
Last week, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggested that UK
infections had risen by 60% in a single week.
A chart showing the path of infection numbers through the pandemic and
recent rises
If that growth rate remains steady or picks up, it suggests that cases
will rise pretty quickly if and when society reopens further.
We'll learn more on Friday.
But rising infections on their own aren't a reason to extend lockdown.
The government's key test is whether rising infections "risk a surge in
hospitalisations which would put unsustainable pressure on the NHS".
And that also depends on your chances of getting seriously ill if you
catch coronavirus.
When could social distancing end?
3. The chance of becoming seriously ill if infected
That is much harder to predict now than it was in the first or second
waves, when scientists could predict what proportion of cases would need >>> treatment.
That's because vaccines do reduce your chance of getting really sick if
you do get infected with any variant.
Already we can see that while people who have been double jabbed make up >>> more than 40% of the population, they make up fewer than 5% of people
who have been admitted to hospital with the Delta variant.
But it does look like it takes two doses before someone gets high levels >>> of protection from that variant.
So there's a race on: double-jab as many people as possible, before the
virus spreads enough to find the vulnerable or to put pressure on the NHS. >>>
Chart shows daily doses of vaccine with focus now on second dose
4. The number of people who have been fully vaccinated
More than 50% of adults have been given the best protection possible -
two doses of the vaccine. That's still a way off herd immunity, even if
you add in people who have some immunity from having had coronavirus in
the past.
Say each infected person would, on average, pass the virus on to six
other people in a fully open society that hadn't seen the virus before.
Then five out of six people, not just five out of six adults, would need >>> to be able to fight off the virus - that would be the "herd immunity
threshold".
We're not there yet, and it's possible that the threshold is higher as
Delta could be more infectious than imagined in this example.
But every person vaccinated helps to slow the spread.
How many people have been vaccinated so far?
Predicting the future
To predict what rising infections will mean for the NHS, you need to
know how fast cases will rise and how many cases will get really sick.
We don't know either figure precisely, and probably won't by 14 June.
And a rough estimate doesn't help. The last time UK government modellers >>> made their forecasts, the difference between "40% more transmissible"
(the orange line below) and "50% more transmissible" (the blue line
below) made a huge difference to the predicted severity of a third wave. >>>
Chart showing hospital cases
And then, to know what to do about rising cases, you need to predict
what effect any change to the rules might have on spread. It's
uncertainty piled on uncertainty.
To know the cost of that action, you need to know what effect another
few weeks of being shut, or trading at a loss, would do to the
businesses that are desperate to open up.
It's a mammoth task and one that will require some old-fashioned
political judgement as well as hi-tech epidemiological models.
The only healthy way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, & Delta
lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current COVID
vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/jun/12/delay-ending-lockdown-majority-of-public-back-boris-johnson
Delay ending lockdown: majority of public back Boris Johnson to wait
Observer poll reveals most people believe prime minister should wait
past proposed 21 June date
Coronavirus – latest updates
See all our coronavirus coverage
Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson is poised to announce a delay to his plan to remove the
remaining restrictions on 21 June. Photograph: Jonny Weeks/The Guardian
/ NMA pool
Michael Savage and James Tapper
Sat 12 Jun 2021 15.30 EDT
The majority of the public back delaying the end of legal restrictions
on social contact in the wake of rising cases of a more transmissible
Covid variant, according to a new poll.
With Boris Johnson poised to announce a delay to his plan to remove the
remaining restrictions on 21 June, an Opinium poll for the Observer
found that 54% think the move should be postponed, up from 43% from a
fortnight ago.
It suggests that the public is taking a cautious view following the
emergence of the Delta variant, first detected in India and thought to
be 60% more transmissible than the variant previously dominant in the
UK. The proportion of people who thought Johnson should push ahead with
the unlocking has fallen from 44% a fortnight ago to 37% this week.
Advertisement
A four-week delay now seems the most likely outcome when Johnson
addresses the nation on Monday. Scientists have said that a delay will
allow more time to collect crucial data on the serious illness caused by >>> the Delta variant, as well as allowing more people to be vaccinated.
Hospital chiefs have also been warning that even if deaths and cases of
serious illness are lower as a result of the vaccine programme, the
sheer number of new cases could affect other hospital services that have >>> been hit by huge waiting lists and delays as a result of the pandemic.
Emergency departments are already being “overwhelmed”, according to the
Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM). NHS performance figures
published last week showed that nearly 1.4 million patients had attended >>> A&Es in England during May – the second highest figure recorded since
the 1980s, according to Dr Adrian Boyle, vice-president of the RCEM.
Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, said: “Trust leaders are >>> nervous that, with this level of pressure, even if they have relatively
small numbers of Covid-19 patients coming in, that could disrupt the
non-Covid care that’s being provided. NHS capacity is nowhere near where >>> it would normally be.
“If you add all of that together – full-pelt care backlog recovery, a
very busy emergency care pathway, growing numbers of Covid patients and
12% less capacity – what we’re saying is that overall NHS pressure is
one of the factors that absolutely does need to be taken into account.”
Johnson is, however, coming under pressure from Tory MPs desperate to
avoid any delay. Steve Baker, deputy chair of the Covid Recovery Group
of MPs, said: “Sooner or later, we are going to have to decide if we are >>> content to fumble along like this as a country, imposing severe
restrictions that a majority seem to support but which are having
devastating consequences on some businesses and some people’s mental
health.”
In his clearest indication yet of a delay, Johnson said the spread of
the new variant was a “serious, serious concern”. He insisted no final
decisions had been made, but said it was “clear that the Indian variant
is more transmissible and it’s also true that the cases are going up,
and that the levels of hospitalisation are going up”.
He confirmed he was now less optimistic over holding to the current
unlocking timetable than a fortnight ago. “What we want to do is make
sure that the roadmap is irreversible, but you can’t have an
irreversible roadmap unless you’re prepared to be cautious,” he said.
The only healthy way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, & Delta
lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current COVID
vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/theresa-savages-chaotic-covid-travel-24296171
Theresa May savages 'chaotic' Covid travel rules in broadside at Boris
Johnson
The former Prime Minister did not hold back in a speech about the
"incomprehensible" green list system, adding: "I really don't understand >>> the stance the Government is taking"
mirror
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MAY SLAMS ‘INCOMPREHENSIBLE’ TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS ON UK DESPITE VACCINE
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Theresa May has savaged Boris Johnson's "chaotic" foreign travel rules
after thousands of Brits in Portugal were plunged into the amber list.
In a furious broadside at her successor, the former Prime Minister said
it is "incomprehensible" that Brits can barely take any foreign holidays >>> despite the huge number of vaccinations.
She warned Brits will "never be able to travel abroad ever again" if the >>> point of travel restrictions is to keep out new variants.
And witheringly the Maidenhead MP - who received £8,400 worth of
hospitality from nearby Heathrow Airport last year - said the government >>> "needs to decide whether it wants an airline industry".
It comes after Portugal, one of the only "green list" countries Brits
could travel to without quarantine at either end, was put on the amber
list in a travel update.
Theresa May was not happy
Theresa May was not happy (Image: Parliamentlive.t)
That means returning Brits have had to isolate for up to 10 days at home >>> since 4am on Tuesday.
While travel to red or amber list countries is not legally banned, the
government is strongly advising Brits against it.
Labour has called for a stricter border policy while SAGE scientists
argue restrictions are needed to keep new variants from undermining the
vaccine programme.
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But Mrs May said the government should be "up front" with the public
that "we will not eradicate" Covid-19 from the UK.
Mrs May said deaths from Covid will also continue in future and
highlighted the thousands of flu deaths which occur in the country each
year.
Speaking during a low-key general debate on the aviation, travel and
tourism industries, she said the Government has failed to act on its
promise from June 2020 to get internationally-agreed standard health
measures in place.
The Conservative MP said: "One year on, we are no further forward -
indeed, what we have is a devastated industry, jobs lost and global
Britain shut for business. More than not being any further forward,
we've gone backwards.
"We now have over 50% of the adult population vaccinated - a wonderful
programme - yet we're more restricted on travel than we were last year.
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"In 2020, I went to Switzerland in August, South Korea in September,
there was no vaccine and travel was possible - this year there is a
vaccine, travel is not possible. I really don't understand the stance
the Government is taking."
Mrs May raised questions over the "mixed" messaging over travel to
countries on the amber list, adding the system is "chaotic".
She also told the House of Commons: "I think there are some facts the
Government needs to be upfront with the British people about and
ministers need to think a bit more of when making these decisions.
"First, we will not eradicate Covid-19 from the UK. There will not be a
time when we can say that there will never be another case of Covid-19
in this country.
British tourists lining up in Faro to leave Portugal before amber list
status kicked in
British tourists lining up in Faro to leave Portugal before amber list
status kicked in (Image: LUIS FORRA/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)
"Secondly, variants will keep on coming. There will be new variants
every year. If the Government's position is that we cannot open up
travel until there are no new variants elsewhere in the world then we
will never be able to travel abroad ever again.
"And the third fact that the Government needs to state much more clearly >>> is that sadly people will die from Covid here in the UK in the future,
as 10,000 to 20,000 people do every year from flu."
Opening the debate, transport minister Robert Courts spoke about how
reviews are conducted every three weeks on the safety of travel
destinations and highlighted efforts to reduce the cost of Covid-19 tests. >>>
He said: "The ability to prove your vaccination status for outbound
travel using the NHS app and an inclusive letter service means that
several countries now accept vaccinated visitors from the UK with
reduced or removed testing and health measures."
At this point, Mrs May put her head in her hands as MPs asked about
inbound visitors.
Conservative Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the 1922 committee, asked:
"Why doesn't the United Kingdom recognise the validity of those vaccines >>> for international travel?"
Mr Courts replied: "We are considering what role vaccination may be able >>> to play in facilitating international travel."
In his concluding remarks, Mr Courts said he wants to welcome people
back to the UK and for Britons to explore the world before adding: "We
cannot and we will not rush this, and we cannot and will not undermine
our hard won progress.
"If we move too quickly, recklessly even, we could throw away our
progress and take us all - including the travel, tourism and aviation
industries back to square one."
The only healthy way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, & Delta
lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current COVID
vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-57464097
By Becky Morton
BBC News
Published31 minutes ago
Share
Related Topics
Coronavirus pandemic
Social distancing sign in London
IMAGE COPYRIGHTGETTY IMAGES
Senior ministers have signed off a decision to delay the lifting of all
coronavirus restrictions in England beyond 21 June.
Government sources have told the BBC most current rules will remain for
another four weeks after this date.
It means nightclubs will stay closed and people will be encouraged to
still work from home where possible.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to confirm the delay later at a >>> press conference.
The extension will be put to a Commons vote this month and could trigger >>> a sizeable Conservative backbench rebellion.
Lockdown lifting - the four key numbers
Why June 21 lockdown easing may have to wait
'We'll lose thousands if wedding rules don't change'
Stage four of the government's roadmap out of lockdown would see all
legal limits on social contact removed.
But many scientists have called for the reopening to be delayed to
enable more people to be vaccinated and receive second doses amid rising >>> cases of the Delta variant.
A delay would also allow for more work to be done on whether vaccines
are breaking, or simply weakening, the link between infections and
hospitalisations.
On Sunday Prime Minister Boris Johnson said a final decision on whether
the reopening should be paused had not yet been taken.
All areas of Scotland are due to move to Level Zero Covid restrictions
on 28 June - meaning bigger groups can gather in cafés, pubs and
restaurants, although they will still have to observe social distancing. >>>
Limits on indoor gatherings in Northern Ireland are scheduled to be
relaxed on 21 June - when the current rules in Wales will also be reviewed. >>>
'Break clause'
Former Conservative cabinet minister Damian Green told the BBC's
Westminster Hour that he wanted to see the decision to delay reviewed as >>> more data becomes available.
"I think if it is as long as a month then there should be a break clause >>> after two or maybe three weeks, to say that if we can tell by then that
the rise in cases is not leading to a sort of rise in the serious
illness that sends people into hospital, then we can unlock earlier," he >>> said.
On Sunday, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told the BBC's Andrew Marr
Show the government "don't want to yo-yo in and out of measures".
He said the decision on postponing unlocking would depend on whether the >>> link between infections and hospital admissions had been severed.
Under stage four of the roadmap, venues and events would be allowed to
operate without capacity limits and the cap on guests at weddings would
also be lifted.
Even if these restrictions are removed, rules on face coverings and
social distancing could remain in place.
The prime minister has previously said the government must be cautious
so any easing of restrictions is irreversible.
Chart showing infections trend
Rising infections in the UK are being driven by the Delta variant, first >>> identified in India, which now accounts for 90% of infections.
It is believed to be around 60% more infectious than the Alpha variant - >>> which was first identified in Kent and was previously dominant in the UK >>> - and twice as likely to result in infected people being hospitalised.
Prof Andrew Hayward from University College London, who is a member of
the Sage group which advises the government, said easing more
restrictions would "fan the flames" of rising infections.
On Sunday, the UK recorded 7,490 new cases of Covid-19 and eight deaths
within 28 days of a positive test.
The seven-day average for cases in the UK is up 49% compared with the
seven days before.
line
Analysis box by Nick Triggle, health correspondent
If it wasn't for the Delta variant, the government would in all
likelihood be announcing the go-ahead for a full unlock.
But a more infectious variant against which one shot of the vaccine
works less well has created a problem.
That much can be seen from how quickly infection levels are rising. The
trajectory we are on means we could see January levels of infection by
the end of July.
Exactly what that means for hospital admissions is less clear. It is
already obvious that while the vaccines have weakened the link between
cases and serious illness they have not broken it completely -
admissions are rising after all.
Early data suggests less than 5% of cases are ending up in hospital -
half the rate seen previously.
But that still has the potential to cause 2,000 admissions a day if we
did reach January levels of infection - twice what the NHS would see for >>> all respiratory illnesses in a bad winter.
None of that is guaranteed, of course, and so a delay, government
scientists are arguing, gives them more time to work out with confidence >>> where we are heading - and it is even possible the immunity built up by
the vaccines will have started to halt the growth by then.
line
The government has set out four tests that must be met for the next
stage of easing restrictions to go ahead:
The vaccine deployment programme continues successfully
Evidence shows vaccines are sufficiently effective in reducing
hospitalisations and deaths in those vaccinated
Infection rates do not risk a surge in hospitalisations which would put
unsustainable pressure on the NHS
Its assessment of the risks is not fundamentally changed by new variants >>> of concern
More than 41 million people in the UK have had a first dose of a
coronavirus vaccine, while nearly 30 million have had two doses.
Graph showing number of patients in hospital in the UK with Covid-19
starting to rise
The Night Time Industries Association has warned any delay beyond 21
June would be "catastrophic" for sectors like nightclubs which have been >>> forced to close since March last year.
It said businesses had already spent millions preparing to reopen on
that date.
The UK Weddings Taskforce, an industry group, estimates that 50,000
weddings planned in the four weeks from 21 June could be cancelled if
the lifting of restrictions is pushed back and that the industry would
lose lose £325m for every week of delay.
Currently the number of guests allowed at weddings and other life events >>> is limited to 30.
Some Conservative MPs also oppose a delay to easing restrictions,
including members of the Covid Recovery Group of backbenchers.
The group's chairman, former minister Mark Harper, said any postponement >>> would be a "political choice".
He warned that if the unlocking did not go ahead as planned,
restrictions could carry on through the autumn and into the winter as
other respiratory infections picked up.
"The effectiveness of our vaccines at preventing hospitalisation means
unlocking on 21 June could proceed safely. Any decision to delay will be >>> a political choice," he said.
"Variants and mutations will appear for the rest of time. We have to
learn to live with it.
"If our very effective vaccines cannot deliver us freedom from
restrictions, then nothing ever will."
Steve Baker, the CRG deputy chairman, questioned how long the country
could "fumble along" with restrictions that had such "devastating
consequences" for both business and people's mental health.
Labour's Emily Thornberry said the decision over stage four of the
roadmap was "the last chance" for the government to follow the science
and communicate clearly with the public.
The only healthy way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, & Delta
lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current COVID
vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-57469547
Covid: Delay to full reopening a hammer blow, says live event sector >Published4 hours ago
Share
Related Topics
Coronavirus pandemic
media captionLondon’s Cuckoo Club 'facing extinction' after lockdown >easing delay
Live music, theatre and other events have been dealt a "hammer blow" by
a four-week delay to the final stage of easing lockdown restrictions in >England, industry figures have said.
The move means the capacity of venues will remain limited by the >requirements around social distancing.
The entertainment sector has appealed for urgent financial support.
The Society of London Theatre said the decision would "have serious >implications for many theatres".
And the Night Time Industries Association said the PM had "switched the >lights off for an entire sector".
Boris Johnson told a press conference on Monday the delay to lifting
most remaining curbs on social contact was necessary to avoid "a real >possibility that the virus will outrun the vaccines and that thousands >more deaths would ensue which could otherwise have been avoided".
Lockdown easing in England to be delayed
One week notice 'not enough' for nightlife delay
What are the lockdown rules we still have to live with?
What will delaying the full unlock achieve?
The government's planned date for lifting restrictions - 21 June - has >now been pushed back until 19 July, amid rising Covid cases driven by
the more transmissible Delta variant.
weeks.But the prime minister said there would be a review after two weeks and >he was "confident" the delay would not need to be longer than four
theAudience at The Show Must Go On
IMAGE COPYRIGHTREUTERS
image captionFans recently attended a West End performance titled The >Show Must Go On
Many in the entertainment industry said they understood the need for
delay, but called for further government support.
Mark Davyd, chief executive of the Music Venues Trust, said the >government should take "swift and robust" action to prevent hundreds of >potential grassroots music venue closures.
He said this should include "getting financial support to people who >desperately need it, extending repayment options for loans, cancelling >business rates and extending support schemes such as furlough and SEISS >[the self-employment income support scheme]".
The Society of London Theatre and UK Theatre said there were "thousands >of jobs hanging in the balance" as producers make the "difficult >decision" of whether to start rehearsals for shows that are due to open >later this summer.
have"Particularly at risk are large-scale commercial productions, which
received little or no Cultural Recovery Fund support and cannot survive >under social distancing," a statement said.
the'West End farce'
Trafalgar Entertainment's Sir Howard Panter and Dame Rosemary Squire,
who have two major musicals due to open in London in late July, said
delay was "yet another bungle" from the government.
"The confusion and muddled messages are reminiscent of a West End
farce," they said in a statement.
enormousMeanwhile, UK Cinema Association said it was "mindful of the rationale >behind today's decision" and acknowledged many cinemas "can still
operate viably at below full occupancy", but that they would "continue
to face significant challenges as they look to recover from the
financial impacts of Covid".
wasLucy Noble, chair of the National Arenas Association, said the delay
"devastating", while trade association Live said the industry had been >left "in limbo".
Sir Ian McKellen
IMAGE COPYRIGHTSEAN GLEASON
Sir Ian McKellen, who is due to star in Hamlet from 21 June, said the >fact theatres cannot play to full houses was "very, very frustrating".
shift to"Thank goodness I'm not the producer, who must be wondering what to do, >because you sold an awful lot of tickets and people may have to
other dates," he told the BBC's The One Show.
"I think they were warned in advance that might happen.
"It's a lot of trouble, but there's no doubt, a week today, we open up >Hamlet at the Theatre Royal Windsor as planned, but it will be social >distancing for a little bit longer than we'd hoped."
Gillian Lynne Theatre London
IMAGE COPYRIGHTGETTY IMAGES
image captionAndrew Lloyd Webber has pledged to open Cinderella at the >Gillian Lynne Theatre in London
However, there could be hope for some in the sector as fifteen >coronavirus pilot events are to continue as planned before 19 July, >including some arts and music performances.
CinderellaOn Monday, the PM suggested Andrew Lloyd Webber's new musical
may be able to join the scheme, after the composer said he was prepared >to be arrested if he couldn't open as planned on 25 June.
"I think we're in talks to with him to try to make it work and we'll do >whatever we can to be helpful," the prime minister said.
But that came as a surprise to Lord Lloyd-Webber. "My goal is, and will >always be, to fight for the full and safe reopening of theatre and live >music venues up and down the country," he said.
"I was pleased and surprised to hear the prime minister mention >Cinderella as part of his announcement today, but I can't comment
further on the proposed pilot until I know more about the scheme."
Cancelled festivals
A string of music festivals planned for June and July were cancelled or >postponed after Mr Johnson's announcement.
They included the Black Deer festival in Kent, which was due to be >headlined by Van Morrison at the end of June.
again isOrganisers of the Noisily Festival in Leicestershire wrote in a >statement: "After pouring our heart and soul into the event on a wing
and a prayer - hoping against hope - to have all of that dashed
beyond devastating."
Alex Hutchinson, who runs the Kubix festival in Sunderland, said his >event would no longer take place in early July.
"I think people forget there are millions of people behind these closed >industries, either directly or in the supply chains, who at the minute >can't even give a definite date to be able to resume making a living,"
he told BBC Radio 5 Live.
reopeningGovernment support
A government spokesperson said: "We understand a delay to full
is challenging for live events, and we will be helping our creative >industries through it. We have made £2bn available through the biggest >arts funding package in history and the final funding round of £300m
will be announced shortly.
"Clubs and venues have also benefited from restart grants worth £18,000 >each, and there's nearly £1bn available in further discretionary grants >local authorities still have to pay out.
"The furlough scheme and VAT cut is in place until September and
eligible businesses will also continue to benefit from business rates >relief of 75% over the year."
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, & Delta
lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current COVID vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
https://archive.is/nrEKS
I work on cruise ships. We can’t get back to normal if we can’t require
vaccines.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says he’s standing up for the industry, but
he’s wrong
Image without a caption
The Symphony of the Seas cruise ship docks in Miami in May 2020. Florida >>> Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) wants to ban businesses from requiring proof of
vaccination against the coronavirus, including cruise ships. (Wilfredo
Lee/AP)
Image without a caption
By Alissa Musto
Alissa Musto is a musician, singer and songwriter who has entertained
audiences around the world as a guest entertainer on luxury cruise
ships. She is a former Miss Massachusetts and Miss America finalist and
has a master's degree in music business and entertainment industries >>>from the University of Miami's Frost School of Music.
June 16, 2021 at 10:00 a.m. UTC
26
I got the coronavirus vaccine as soon as I could, in early April. I had
my concerns, and the side effects were rough, but I accepted them as a
small price to pay for the world to resume — and for me to get back to
work. I play piano and sing on cruise ships, and I haven’t been able to
set foot on deck for over a year. Throughout the pandemic, I’ve been
following the news and secret Facebook groups for cruise workers, hoping >>> for signs of our industry’s return.
I was pretty discouraged when I saw Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) ban
businesses from requiring proof of vaccination from customers. This
would mean cruise lines face up to $5,000 in fines for each passenger
they ask. I fear that this policy will drag down an industry that’s
already been treading water for 15 months. Everyone who works on a
cruise ship — and, I’d bet, most passengers, too — want to know that the >>> people onboard with us don’t pose an unnecessary risk to our health and
safety. If cruise lines can’t protect the safety of passengers and crew
and make people feel confident about booking their vacations, we’ll
never get back to normal. Right now, I believe requiring passengers and
crew to be vaccinated is our best chance at returning to normalcy.
I’ve greatly respected DeSantis’s efforts to advocate for the cruise
industry and keep Florida’s economy going during the pandemic. After my
cruise contracts evaporated virtually overnight, I couldn’t find work in >>> my home state: Massachusetts had banned indoor singing. After visiting a >>> friend in Tampa in October, I was amazed to see performance venues open
and holding auditions. I landed a role in a popular piano show three
nights a week. That gig was my lifeline, and I ended up moving here.
This was only possible because of Florida’s ability to set its own
coronavirus restrictions.
But the state’s new policy hampers private businesses and overrides
their rights. I don’t believe that anyone should be mandated to get the
vaccine, but companies already have the right to set health standards
for their employees: Even before the pandemic, I had to pass an
extremely thorough seafarer medical evaluation, including records of
other non-coronavirus vaccinations and vision and hearing tests, to work >>> onboard. On each ship, there are strict health protocols in place. Upon
embarking, I am required to undergo rigorous health and safety trainings >>> and drills, as is every single crew member. Failing to report symptoms
of illness is a fireable offense.
So I don’t believe it’s unreasonable for cruise lines to ask guests for
proof of vaccination. Companies should get to decide which clients they
will or won’t serve (unless they’re discriminating by race, gender, age, >>> sexual identity, disability or other protected reasons). Unvaccinated
customers present more of a risk than vaccinated ones.
[Cruise lines sell us a floating paradise. Coronavirus shows it was
always a lie.]
When it comes to cruises, what happens in Florida does not stay in
Florida. Every single Carnival, Norwegian and Royal Caribbean cruise
docks in at least one foreign port. There’s no telling what unvaccinated >>> guests may be exposed to in those ports, what risks they’ll pose to
locals or what they’ll bring back with them.
Cruises also employ a huge number of crew members from all over the
world, including countries without much vaccine access and where
coronavirus cases have stayed high. These crew members are required to
be vaccinated to work on board, so their personal risk of getting
seriously ill is low. However, while the vaccines appear to prevent
people from transmitting the virus, they may still worry about spreading >>> the virus to unvaccinated loved ones and their communities — especially
in places that don’t have the same health care infrastructure or access
that we have in the States. My co-workers already sacrifice so much by
leaving their families and homes for up to nine months at a time. They
shouldn’t have to fear coming to work or returning home.
Vaccine requirements make sense for our industry: People live in very
close quarters on ships. For some travelers, that’s part of the appeal — >>> the opportunities to gather with, and befriend, strangers during a
voyage. My job involves a lot of close contact: I play music in crowded
bars and packed auditoriums at night, and I’m expected to be “on” and
presentable during the day, mingling with guests over meals or in other
common spaces. Vacation is about relaxation: It’s hard to imagine
customers signing up for a cruise if they’re worried about viral spread
and can’t fully enjoy the ship’s amenities, like gathering in a
restaurant or a nightclub or laying maskless by the pool.
With everything that’s happened during the pandemic, cruise lines have
even more reason to make customers feel confident about traveling with
them. Some of the most publicized early coronavirus outbreaks, in
February and March 2020, happened on cruise ships. The Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention imposed a No Sail order and, in the fall, >>> issued a report blaming the industry for the widespread transmission of
the virus. Now, with vaccinations rising, and case counts dropping,
cruise lines have been following new CDC guidelines that will permit
them to set sail — including a requirement that 98 percent of crew and
95 percent of passengers be fully vaccinated to board a cruise.
[Yes, it’s legal for businesses and schools to require you to get a
coronavirus vaccine]
Florida’s policy clashes with those preparations — and with federal
guidance — and it may end up hurting the state. In 2019, the cruise
industry contributed almost 159,000 jobs and $8.1 billion in income to
Florida, according to the Cruise Lines International Association.
Already, some cruise lines have said that they’ll shift voyages to other >>> states or the Caribbean to avoid DeSantis’s ban.
I’ve worked on cruises whose itineraries brought us to Australia during
its worst-ever wildfire season, Hawaii during a hurricane, New Zealand
during deadly volcano eruptions and Alaska during record-breaking forest >>> fires. Each time, I felt safely insulated — even weirdly dissociated — >>>from the world while onboard the ships where I live and work. To me,
cruises have generally felt like an escape from even the most dire
circumstances. I have always felt safe, and I’m proud that we have been
able to guarantee guests that same sense of security; regardless of the
scenario, we are equipped and prepared. But this pandemic has been the
exception. If the government prevents ships from taking the proper
safety precautions, the inevitable reality is either a coronavirus
outbreak or a further delay in the return to sailing.
Performing on cruise ships was a dream come true for me — a chance to
see the world while doing what I loved most. “Ship life” is an
experience almost impossible to explain to those on the outside. I
didn’t just work onboard. This is where I lived. This is where my
friends were. This is where my life was. The people I met onboard, both
passengers and fellow crew, weren’t just customers and co-workers — they >>> were my neighbors, the people I spent holidays and birthdays with, the
shoulders I cried on.
I, like thousands of others, fled to Florida during the pandemic to
dodge the stringent restrictions that were preventing me from pursuing
my career and any sense of normal life. Now, I just hope Florida’s new
policies won’t stand in the way of my colleagues and me getting back to
work — and the lives we’ve had to put on hold for the past 15 months.
As told to Post editor Sophia Nguyen.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, & Delta
lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current COVID
vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/the-war-on-reality-gutentag >>>
The War on Reality
As the mainstream narrative about the origin of COVID-19 falls apart,
it’s time to put other widely accepted facts about the virus—and the
devastating measures they were used to justify—under the same scrutiny
BY
ALEX GUTENTAG
JUNE 27, 2021
Michael Loccisano/Getty Images
MICHAEL LOCCISANO/GETTY IMAGES
On March 13, 2020, the public school district where I teach announced
that all classrooms and buildings would be closed for two weeks. Then
two weeks turned into two months, and two months turned into over a full >>> year without in-person instruction. My school serves a diverse
population of low-income students in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is
impossible to overstate the severity of this disruption caused by school >>> closures for these students, many of whom did not have a computer or
internet at home when virtual learning began. Online, my students got
only a fraction of the regular curriculum. Kids who had once loved the
social aspects of school were left with only the parts of school they
hated, and students with disabilities who depended on school for daily
living needs were cut off from a vital service.
“Public health” and “the safety of our children” came to mean students
Zooming from homeless encampments, experiencing severe abuse, regressing >>> academically, falling into depression, going hungry, struggling through
catastrophic learning loss, and, in the saddest cases, not making it
through the year alive. Despite consistent evidence that schools were
not sites of high transmission for COVID-19, many teachers failed to put >>> aside baseless fears about classroom superspreading and rampant
infection. As a result, many of the most vulnerable children in our
society suffered outrageous hardships, while their affluent peers
attended private schools in person. We’ve all been told that school
closures and lockdowns were mandated by science, but what if these
mandates were immoral? What if they were based on a series of lies? In
fact, what if the entire rationale for most restrictions was actually
rotten to the core?
We’re watching the mainstream pandemic narrative starting to unravel.
While the Senate and House intelligence committees investigate the
origins of SARS-CoV-2, many reporters are openly wondering why they
initially dismissed the lab leak hypothesis as “misinformation.” Few in
media consider the possibility that their approach to the theory was not >>> an anomaly, but rather a long-established pattern of journalistic
dereliction of duty. For the public, these renewed questions about the
virus (and their hard-to-face answers) speak to a deep sense that
something is amiss in the story we’ve been told by major media outlets.
But gain-of-function research is just the tip of the iceberg.
A trove of media darling Dr. Anthony Fauci’s emails was recently
released to the public. The emails reveal early assertions that
asymptomatic transmission is rare, that post-infection immunity is
highly likely, and that masks are “not really effective.” However, you
wouldn’t know that from the public messaging since the start of the
pandemic, in which bureaucrats and journalists upheld lasting
misconceptions that asymptomatic cases are dangerous, natural immunity
is not a factor in protecting the population, and individuals are
responsible for viral spread. These misconceptions fueled countless
months of lockdowns, business closures, and job losses, pushing millions >>> of people into poverty and despair through the destructive lie that
stringent “sick until proven healthy” interventions save lives.
In reality, the rushed doomsday forecasts and commitment to politically
correct pseudoscience prompted leaders to abandon decades of pandemic
planning. This not only had disastrous economic consequences, but it
also exacerbated the effects of COVID-19 itself. And rather than swiftly >>> correct their errors, public health officials and politicians doubled
down, manipulated data, and blamed ordinary people for the failure of
nonsensical policies. The uncomfortable truth is that “The Science” did
not protect vulnerable populations. Instead, “expert” advice served only >>> to make the pandemic more deadly and replace the scientific process with >>> destructive anti-science.
Saving Lives by Killing People
In December 2020, 35% of Americans believed that half of the people with >>> COVID-19 required hospitalization. The correct figure was 1%-5%.
Americans also estimated that the share of COVID-19 deaths for people
between 18 and 24 was 8%. It was actually 0.1%. These incorrect
assumptions were influenced by anecdotes, shocking media coverage, and
early projections like the influential Imperial College model, which
threatened that without lockdowns there would be 40 million COVID-19
deaths worldwide. The model assumed an infection fatality rate (IFR) of
0.9%, but the actual IFR of COVID-19 is 0.15% and the median IFR for
people under 70 is 0.05%.
As a result of mistaken prognostications like this, the media compared
COVID-19 to the 1918 influenza pandemic, for which the average age of
death was 28. For COVID-19 the average age of death is 73, and about
half of all deaths are in people 80 or older. While the CDC projected a
one-year decrease in life expectancy for the U.S. population, the
overall decrease in life expectancy was only five days, and the U.S.’s
excess mortality in 2017 was greater than its excess mortality in 2020.
There is no better example of the harm created by flawed simulations,
and the subsequent misguided interventions, than New York’s disastrous
nursing home policy. While Gov. Andrew Cuomo landed a $5 million book
deal and won an Emmy for his televised briefings, conditions on the
ground for COVID-19 patients in his state were catastrophic. Over 9,000
elderly COVID-19 patients were sent from hospitals back to nursing
homes. Additionally, Cuomo required group homes for people with
intellectual disabilities to take COVID-19 patients and attempted to
issue a blanket DNR guideline for all cardiac patients in New York City. >>> He also denied nursing homes’ requests for testing kits, ignored the
concerns of families, and gave immunity to nursing home executives. This >>> resulted in the deaths of nearly 15,000 long-term-care patients.
These deaths did not occur because Cuomo ignored scientists and
researchers. They occurred precisely because Cuomo was adhering to
predictions from his team of experts who projected the need for 140,000
hospital beds and 40,000 ICUs. Ultimately, New York’s actual bed and ICU >>> use peaked in mid-April at 18,825 and 5,225, respectively. The deadly
decisions the governor’s office made were motivated by a perceived need
to save resources and space—a manufactured imperative based on
fictitious IFR figures and a baseless belief in universal risk.
Moreover, although some New York hospitals were overwhelmed, many were
not. While Elmhurst hospital in Queens was at full capacity in April,
the hospital had 26 new ambulances to take patients to 3,500 empty beds
in New York City, many within a 20-minute drive. Because of panic
induced by horrific forecasts, New York City doctors cited the need for
“wartime ethics” when advising patients and families about DNRs. At some >>> hospitals, doctors were informally allowed to override patients’ desires >>> for medical intervention. These ethical violations were urged on by
crazed media coverage and an environment of psychological terror, but
they were not justified by the true level of danger involved in treating >>> patients.
Despite concerns about hospital beds and ICUs, field hospitals across
the country remained largely empty, costing taxpayers $660 million
despite the fact that most of them did not serve any patients. Cuomo’s
nursing home order was replicated by four other Democratic governors,
and one-third of all American deaths from the virus are now linked to
nursing homes. As a consequence of these practices, New York State has
the second-highest COVID-19 mortality rate in the country.
Following the Science
Three of the top four states in overall COVID-19 mortality have
Democratic governors who “followed the science” long after the initial
promises that it would only take “two weeks to flatten the curve.”
Although these states have high population density, density is often
associated with lower COVID-19 death rates. After Texas Gov. Greg Abbott >>> lifted all his state’s restrictions in April, Texas saw no resulting
surge in cases, hospitalizations, or deaths. In fact, many states that
continued restrictions saw higher cases and deaths than states that
lifted restrictions early.
FOLLOWING THE ANTI-SCIENCE
Science section icon
America’s Smug Elite Is Harming Our Kids
The push to decouple skepticism from science turns schoolchildren into
victims
BYJACOB HALE RUSSELLANDDENNIS PATTERSON
Science section icon
Science Says
Becoming worshippers at the altar of ‘Science.’ Bad for our health, bad
for science, bad for society.
BYNORMAN DOIDGE
Science section icon
The Herd Immunity Taboo
Purity and danger: Why some are strangely comforted by lockdowns,
fearful of herd immunity, and quick to punish anyone who questions the
stark choice between them
BYNORMAN DOIDGE
These trends are consistent with dozens of peer-reviewed studies and
retrospective analyses indicating that stay-at-home orders did not have
an impact on rates of fatal infection and that comparisons between many
countries do not show superior outcomes from lockdowns. Besides
hospitals, nursing homes, and other health care settings, households
show some of the highest rates of transmission, while the share of
transmission that has happened outdoors is less than 0.1%. Furthermore,
vitamin D and exercise have both been linked to better outcomes for
COVID-19 patients. In the U.S. 78% of people hospitalized for COVID-19
were overweight or obese. Lockdowns caused Americans to gain an average
of two pounds per month and reduce their daily steps by 27%, thereby
increasing the likelihood of adverse COVID-19 outcomes.
Not only were government orders confining people to their homes highly
detrimental, but the early recommended treatment procedures for the
virus were often fatal. Although experts and the media claimed that
ventilators were lifesaving, death rates in most states actually dropped >>> dramatically once the use of ventilators was abandoned in favor of other >>> treatments. In order to meet what was supposed to be an astronomical
medical demand, the U.S. spent $3 billion manufacturing ventilators, but >>> by August 2020, the Department of Health and Human Services had
distributed only 15,057 ventilators, leaving 95,713 of them untouched in >>> a federal stockpile.
Usually, 40%-50% of patients in severe respiratory distress die on
ventilators, but in New York City the death rate for COVID-19 patients
on ventilators was 88%. Hospital staff often intubated patients
prematurely or left them on ventilators for 10-15 days. Patients were
given unusually heavy sedatives so that staff would be able to check on
them less frequently. U.S. hospitals received $13,000 for each Medicare
COVID-19 patient and $39,000 for each Medicare patient they intubated.
These patients were separated from their families and had no one to
advocate for them. Many people died after terrified doctors, misinformed >>> about the scale of the risks, used intubation as a way to avoid virus
exposure.
When lockdowns began, commentators referred to herd immunity as a
“genocidal” concept that meant exposing vulnerable people to disease.
That is actually what happens when natural immunity is prevented.
Lockdowns limit and delay the acquired immunity of the younger
population, making older people more vulnerable to exposure, especially
in the absence of focused protection measures. Long-lasting immunity >>>from COVID-19 is acquired after mild or asymptomatic cases, and
sensational stories about “long COVID” and “COVID heart” have been
debunked. In-person learning was not correlated with lower rates of
student illness and school closures may have actually worsened death rates. >>>
Clearly, quarantining the healthy did exactly the opposite of what was
sold to the public: It increased non-COVID-19 excess deaths while
leaving elderly and immunocompromised people completely unprotected.
While some may excuse the destructiveness of lockdowns as a simple
error, the sheer volume of reversals public health officials have made
during the pandemic paints a picture of bureaucrats intentionally
misleading the public in order to cover up their failures or pursue
agendas unrelated to public health.
Moving the Goal Posts
Experts have consistently taken an imprecise approach to statistics,
changed their minds, and withheld information while claiming the mantle
of “scientific consensus.” Over the summer of 2020, the WHO quietly
changed its definition of herd immunity from protection acquired through >>> both natural immunity and vaccination to one acquired only through
vaccination. Similarly, in December 2020, Fauci declared that he was
changing his estimate for vaccination rates needed to achieve herd
immunity from 60% to 90%. When asked for a scientific rationale, Fauci
said he changed the percentage based purely on polling that indicated
more Americans were willing to take the COVID-19 vaccine.
When lockdowns failed to yield meaningful mitigation results, public
health agencies that had previously recommended against masking changed
their position. Although simulations suggested that 80% mask compliance
would do more to stop the spread of COVID-19 than lockdowns, regional
analysis in the United States does not show that mandates had any effect >>> on case rates, despite 93% compliance. Moreover, according to CDC data,
85% of people who contracted COVID-19 reported wearing a mask.
Research has shown that once unquestioned rules like 6 feet for social
distancing are arbitrary and not actually associated with lower
transmission. Reporting of death and hospitalization rates was also
inexact, and mass asymptomatic testing distorted public understanding of >>> the virus. Ninety-five percent of COVID-19 deaths had an average of four >>> related underlying conditions and the CDC’s death count includes “deaths >>> involving unintentional and intentional injury.” As a result of testing
children hospitalized for unrelated conditions, the number of pediatric
COVID-19 hospitalizations was exaggerated by at least 40%.
The PCR testing protocol for COVID-19 was based on a paper by Christian
Drosten, which was peer-reviewed and published within just two days in a >>> journal on whose editorial board Drosten sits. The method was created
“without having virus material available,” using instead a genetic
sequence published online. The PCR test amplifies genetic material of
the virus in cycles but does not determine whether a case is infectious. >>> A higher number of cycles indicates a lower viral load. The cycle
threshold for PCR tests used in the U.S. was usually limited at 37 or
40, highly sensitive levels. In July 2020, Fauci remarked that at these
levels, a positive result is “just dead nucleotides, period.”
For vaccinated Americans, the CDC has lowered the cycle threshold for
“breakthrough infections” to only 28 cycles and announced that
post-vaccine cases will only be counted if they result in
hospitalization or death. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky stated that
vaccinated Americans who died and tested positive for COVID-19 merely
died “with” COVID-19, not “from” COVID-19. This method of tallying would >>> eliminate many pre-vaccine cases. It is also likely that 85%-90% of
tests that are positive at a cycle threshold of 40 would be negative at
a cycle threshold of 30.
Despite this lack of accurate data, authorities have consistently
scapegoated members of the public as “anti-maskers” or “anti-vaxxers”
responsible for prolonging the pandemic. They have used divisive
messaging and disorienting scare tactics in order to justify months of
COVID-19 restrictions that were based on dogma, not on science.
Scientific Inversion
Our current state of scientific inversion has sown intense division in
the U.S. and threatens to rip apart the social fabric. For the past 16
months, the public has been told that it is our duty to serve the needs
of medical institutions and personnel, not the other way around.
Effective low-cost therapeutics like ivermectin were dismissed in favor
of a vaccine program that transferred billions of dollars from taxpayers >>> to pharmaceutical executives and shareholders. Critics of measures like
school closures were accused of far-right white supremacy, even though
these measures were most damaging to working-class people and
minorities. Deadly policies were portrayed as lifesaving, and public
health protocols caused immense clinical damage.
A few people have benefited from this war on reality while many have
paid a heavy price. In 2020, workers lost $3.7 trillion, while
billionaires gained $3.9 trillion and 493 new individuals became
billionaires. During this same period, decades of progress against
diseases like malaria and tuberculosis were reversed. Disruptions to
health and nutrition services killed 228,000 children in South Asia.
Globally, the impact of lockdowns on health programs, food production,
and supply chains plunged millions of people into severe hunger and
malnutrition.
In the U.S., we are facing a crisis of cardiovascular disease and
undiagnosed cancer. Unemployment shock will cause 890,000 additional
deaths over the next 15 years. Overdoses from synthetic opioids
increased by 38.4%, and 11% of U.S. adults considered suicide last June. >>> Three million children disappeared from public school systems, and ERs
saw a 31% increase in adolescent mental health visits.
Now, the stories that were used to justify these hardships are
continuing to unravel. Many of the people responsible will insist that
the second-order consequences are the horrible symptoms of a magic virus >>> and that the mistakes made in handling such a crisis were inevitable.
But preventing young children from reaching crucial developmental
milestones in the face of mounting evidence is not just a “mistake.”
Forcing hospital patients to die alone without saying goodbye to their
families is not just a “mistake.” Pushing millions of people into
poverty and starvation is not just a “mistake.” These are crimes.
Basic civil, human, and economic rights were violated under demonstrably >>> fraudulent pretenses. The sacrifices we thought we were making for the
common good were sacrifices made in vain. Unlawful lockdowns demoralized >>> the population and ruined lives. The tragic reality is that this was all >>> for nothing. The only way to prevent these events from recurring is to
exhaustively investigate not just the origin of the virus, but every
corrupt and misguided decision made by politicians, NGOs, public health
organizations, and scientific institutions made since its fateful emergence.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, & Delta
lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current COVID
vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/29/more-people-plan-to-quit-as-return-to-work-plans-go-into-effect-.html
PERSONAL FINANCE
‘Great Resignation’ gains steam as return-to-work plans take effect
PUBLISHED TUE, JUN 29 202110:42 AM EDTUPDATED TUE, JUN 29 202112:21 PM EDT >>> Jessica Dickler
@JDICKLER
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KEY POINTS
Instead of heading back to the office in the wake of the Covid pandemic, >>> employees may quit instead.
In what’s being called the “Great Resignation,” 95% of workers are
considering changing jobs, according to a report by Monster.com.
WATCH NOW
VIDEO09:56
We may never go back to the office full-time
Before Covid, Blaze Bullock, 34, was on the road one week a month as a
marketing consultant in the auto industry.
Then, when the country shut down, Bullock began working remotely. “Now
they want me to start traveling again and visiting car dealerships,” he
said. “I don’t want to do that at all.”
Bullock said he likes working from home and spending more time with his
friends and family in Salt Lake City. “I realized this is the only way I >>> want to live.”
The pandemic has caused a lot of people to reevaluate, particularly when >>> it comes to work.
After working from home for over a year, Blaze Bullock says he'd like to >>> freelance full-time or at least find a position that's entirely remote – >>> and he's seen plenty of those types of openings.
After working from home for over a year, Blaze Bullock says he’d like to >>> freelance full-time or at least find a position that’s entirely remote – >>> and he’s seen plenty of those types of openings.
Source: Blaze Bullock
After spending more than a year at home, some don’t want to go back to
commuting, preferring the flexibility of remote work at least a few days >>> a week.
Others are simply burned out from logging long hours while also
balancing child care and remote school, sometimes all at once.
And nearly all employees are ready to see what else is out there.
“Either they’re unfulfilled from their jobs or their priorities have
changed,” said Maria Reitan, founder and head coach at Jump Team, based
in Minneapolis.
More from Personal Finance:
The possible consequence of a $15 minimum wage
Before you quit, here’s what you need to know
Early end to extra benefits not driving job searches, data suggests
In what’s been dubbed the “Great Resignation,” a whopping 95% of workers >>> are now considering changing jobs, and 92% are even willing to switch
industries to find the right position, according to a recent report by
jobs site Monster.com.
Most say burnout and lack of growth opportunities are what is driving
the shift, Monster found.
“When we were in the throes of the pandemic, so many people buckled
down, now what we’re seeing is a sign of confidence,” said Scott
Blumsack, senior vice president of research and insights at Monster.
Already, a record 4 million people quit their jobs in April alone,
according to the Labor Department.
Candidates are putting their toe in the water to see what’s out there.
Scott Blumsack
SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF RESEARCH AND INSIGHTS AT MONSTER
At the same time, there are more opportunities for job seekers — with
the Labor Department reporting a record 9.3 million job openings as of
the latest tally.
“The number of open jobs is higher than ever before, that’s absolutely
contributing to why candidates are putting their toe in the water to see >>> what’s out there,” Blumsack said.
As Covid vaccinations gain steam, so are plans to return to the office,
which is driving more workers to consider their options.
In a survey of more than 350 CEOs and human resources and finance
leaders, 70% said they plan to have employees back in the office by the
fall of this year — if not sooner — according to a report by staffing
firm LaSalle Network.
WATCH NOW
VIDEO03:42
Here are the pros and cons of remote work
Of the companies that are planning for office reentry, managing
employees who want to continue working remotely is a top concern,
LaSalle Network found.
“If we see a wave of employees leaving, companies are going to have to
figure it out,” Reitan said.
Now, 9 out of 10 organizations will be combining remote and on-site
working, according to a separate McKinsey survey. Most companies,
however, said they’ve haven’t hammered out the specifics of what that
will look like.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, & Delta
lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current COVID
vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9742985/No-face-masks-rule-July-19.htmlThe only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
No face masks rule from July 19: Mouth guards will become voluntary as
Covid curbs are axed.... and even nightclubs can reopen with NO testing
Face masks set to be made voluntary under plans to end most Covid
restrictions
Boris Johnson is pushing for the lifting of mask laws in almost all
indoor settings
Ministers have shelved plans to require mass events such as festivals to >>> use Covid passports to control entry
By JASON GROVES POLITICAL EDITOR FOR THE DAILY MAIL
PUBLISHED: 17:16 EDT, 30 June 2021 | UPDATED: 04:14 EDT, 1 July 2021
3.1k
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Face masks are set to be made voluntary under plans to end most
coronavirus restrictions on July 19.
Boris Johnson is pushing for the lifting of mask laws in almost all
settings to help return life to 'as near normal as possible'.
Key social distancing measures, including the one-metre rule, the rule
of six and the 30-person limit on the size of outdoor gatherings, are
also set to be scrapped on the new 'Freedom Day'.
Read More
The Mail revealed today that ministers have shelved plans to require
mass events such as festivals to use Covid passports to control entry.
And last night it emerged that even nightclubs may be allowed to reopen
on July 19 without the need to test customers at the door, as part of a
new 'freedom plan' that could be published by the Prime Minister as soon >>> as next week.
The proposals reflect growing confidence in Government that the
vaccination rollout has severely weakened the link between infections,
and hospitalisations and deaths.
Covid cases are continuing to surge across the country.
Yesterday, 26,068 new cases were recorded – a rise of almost 70 per cent >>> in a week, and the highest figure since late January.
Yesterday, 26,068 new cases were recorded – a rise of almost 70 per cent >>> in a week, and the highest figure since late January +5
Yesterday, 26,068 new cases were recorded – a rise of almost 70 per cent >>> in a week, and the highest figure since late January
But there is growing confidence in Government that the vaccination
rollout has severely weakened the link between infections, and
hospitalisations and deaths +5
But there is growing confidence in Government that the vaccination
rollout has severely weakened the link between infections, and
hospitalisations and deaths
Daily hospitalisations due to Covid were running at 263, up by just 6.4
per cent in the last week and far below the January peak of 4,579 in a
single day +5
Daily hospitalisations due to Covid were running at 263, up by just 6.4
per cent in the last week and far below the January peak of 4,579 in a
single day
Chief medical officer Chris Whitty told the Cabinet this week that the
rise in Covid cases was not putting unsustainable pressure on hospitals
in England, as shown +5
Chief medical officer Chris Whitty told the Cabinet this week that the
rise in Covid cases was not putting unsustainable pressure on hospitals
in England, as shown
By contrast, daily hospitalisations due to Covid were running at 263, up >>> by just 6.4 per cent in the last week and far below the January peak of
4,579 in a single day.
Covid-related deaths have also risen slightly, but averaged at just 16
per day over the last week, with 14 yesterday.
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Chief medical officer Chris Whitty told the Cabinet this week that the
rise in Covid cases was not putting unsustainable pressure on hospitals
in England.
A source said Professor Whitty and chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick
Vallance had suggested 'we should get as much open this summer as
possible before winter, which will be much more difficult'. Professor
Whitty, one of the architects of lockdown, was said to be 'cautiously
optimistic' that rules could now go – but warned that the winter would
be 'challenging' for the NHS.
Government sources said 'final decisions' had not been made, but
acknowledged that Mr Johnson is pushing to scrap as many rules as
possible +5
Government sources said 'final decisions' had not been made, but
acknowledged that Mr Johnson is pushing to scrap as many rules as possible >>>
The Prime Minister has ordered officials to prioritise the removal of
the one-metre rule, which affects hospitality and is viewed as the most
economically damaging measure still in place.
Covid has slashed life expectancy by three YEARS in the North West of
England
The high number of people dying from Covid in the North West has caused
the life expectancy of men and women in the region to decline by a
combined 2.8 years, a study has found.
A report published today by the University College London found a high
Covid mortality rate and deprivation contributed to a decline in life
expectancy in the North West region, which was larger than the average
in England.
Life expectancy dropped across England last year by an average of 1.3
years for men and 0.9 years for women, but it decreased even more in the >>> North West, where it fell by 1.6 years for men and 1.2 years for women.
The report also found that people in Manchester were 24 per cent more
likely to die from Covid than the rest of England.
Researchers calculated that 307 men and 195 women per 100,000 in Greater >>> Manchester died from Covid between March 2020 and April 2021.
This was higher than the rest of England where 233.1 men and 142 women
per 100,000 died from the virus in the same period.
Professor Sir Michael Marmot, director of the IHE, said the area's high
death rates and 'particularly damaging long-term economic and social
effects' will damage health and widen health inequalities unless action
is taken.
His report proposes that the government should invest in jobs, housing,
local services and education to tackle these long-term problems.
It comes are the North West battles the biggest Covid outbreak in
England, fuelled by the Indian 'Delta' variant.
The region recorded 21 deaths in the week up to June 18 - more than any
other area of the country - according to figures released yesterday by
the Office for National Statistics.
Separate data from the Department of Health shows that the region was
responsible for 3,720 of the 14,608 infections recorded in England on
Thursday.
But ministers are also increasingly confident that face masks will not
be required in shops and on public transport, although they may remain
mandatory in hospitals. Sources said it was possible that travellers
could still be encouraged to voluntarily wear masks on public transport
even after the legal restrictions have been lifted.
Asked whether the requirement to wear a mask in shops and offices would
go on July 19, the Prime Minister's official spokesman said: 'We aim to
remove as many restrictions as is safe to do so.'
Government sources said 'final decisions' had not been made, but
acknowledged that Mr Johnson is pushing to scrap as many rules as possible. >>>
Some officials remain cautious about scrapping mask laws at a time when
new infections are soaring, and Sir Patrick has previously warned that
the rules may be needed again this winter, even if they are ditched next >>> month.
A review of social distancing rules by Michael Gove is said to have
concluded that even nightclubs, which are deemed so high risk they have
been unable to open since March last year, would get the green light to
open their doors without restrictions.
A source said Mr Gove had decided it would be 'too much hassle' to ask
late-night customers to take a Covid test to go dancing.
But Sage committee scientist Professor Stephen Reicher warned that
ministers were in danger of making 'the same mistakes as last summer'
when indoor hospitality was reopened in July, accompanied by a big back
to work push, leading to rocketing infections.
It comes after it emerged tens of millions of Britons could be offered a >>> third Covid jab in as little as two months under fresh guidance issued
by No10's top advisers last night.
The Joint Committee on Vaccinations and Immunisations (JCVI) said the
booster scheme should start in September and could see 23million
over-50s, vulnerable Britons and NHS and care home staff offered another >>> dose.
Extra vaccines would be rolled out in two stages — prioritising those
most at risk of Covid — and patients are expected to be offered
whichever jab they were originally inoculated with. However, officials
have not ruled out a potential 'mix and match' vaccine schedule.
It will coincide with the annual influenza inoculation programme, which
health officials say will be vital this winter amid warnings of a
difficult flu season.
The interim advice has been drawn up to ensure the NHS is prepared for
any possible booster campaign in the autumn, while officials await more
data on whether a third jab will be needed.
Ministers are expected to make a decision on whether to go ahead with
the programme in the coming weeks.
Newly appointed Health Secretary Sajid Javid said he 'welcomed' the new
guidance, which could 'help us ensure we are ready in our preparations
for autumn'.
And Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, England's deputy chief medical officer,
said it would keep Britain on the 'front foot' in the fight against Covid. >>>
JCVI sources said data suggested Covid jabs spark immunity that lasts
for at least six months in the 'majority' of cases, but there are fears
this could fade later in the year which could trigger a spike in
hospitalisations and deaths.
An Oxford University trial looking at booster doses suggested a third
shot six months after the second could restore peak immunity against Covid. >>>
It comes after Professor Chris Whitty reportedly told a Cabinet meeting
yesterday that England is on course to lift the remaining Covid
restrictions on July 19 'Freedom Day'. And Boris Johnson sounded
increasingly bullish that restrictions would be lifted as planned at
PMQs today saying Britain has 'a higher wall of vaccination than
virtually any other country in the world'.
The UK today recorded more than 20,000 cases for the third day in a row, >>> but deaths from the virus continued to drop in a sure sign the vaccines
are working. But scientists today warned England could face a spike in
Covid cases in the coming weeks because of the Three Lions' success at
the Euro 2020s, although this is not expected to translate into a surge
in hospitalisations and deaths.
Just one in 100 NHS beds were being taken up by Covid patients in
England last week — fourteen times fewer than at the start of the second >>> wave, according to official figures highlighting the power of the vaccines. >>
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, & Delta
lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current COVID
vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://archive.vn/4LkrD
Lockdown killed my mother – and thousands like her
From magazine issue: 3 July 2021
Lockdown killed my mother – and thousands like her
Text settings
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Share
I barely recognised my mother when I saw her in the hospital bed the
night she died. It had been many months since we were last able to meet, >>> when she was still a force of nature. Now there was almost nothing left
of her. The death certificate records that Elizabeth Carol Chamberlain
died of dementia and kidney disease aged 88. But it was lockdown that
really killed her.
For my parents, like so many people of their generation living out their >>> later years in care homes, lockdown offered not protection but
imprisonment. ‘It’s cruel,’ Mam would say, over and over again, in the
painful and awkward phone calls that we shared over the last year or so. >>> ‘Just cruel.’ ‘What have you been doing?’ ‘Nothing. Staring at the walls.’ >>> Both my parents had been in and out of care homes and hospital over the
past year. My mother had been sliding into dementia for a while, though
she could be lucid and sharp as a tack when the mood took her. My
father, Les, had recently suffered a stroke, so had been taken into
hospital from the care home where they lived.
Gloucestershire’s hospitals would not allow visitors in, and the care
home would not allow residents out, so they were separated once more.
But after 63 years of marriage, this would be the last time. Convinced
that they would never see each other again, Mam had no wish to go on.
She decided to stop eating or drinking and died four days later.
Her funeral last month was a sad and strange affair. Everyone had to
wear a mask unless they were standing to speak. Singing wasn’t allowed.
We all had to be socially distanced. There were about a dozen people in
attendance. In normal times, there would have been many more, because
Mam touched the lives of so many people.
She had left a very clear set of instructions for a simple funeral and
had asked for three hymns, including ‘Away in a Manger’, because it was
a favourite and she was called Carol. As the curtains started to close
around the coffin and the first bars of ‘The Lord Is My Shepherd’ were
played on the organ, my dad said ‘To hell with this’, and we sang
anyway. Just him and me.
Both my parents felt that throughout the pandemic, the balance of risks
had been wrong. They could not understand why the focus on avoiding
Covid-19 now trumped everything else. As care-home residents, they felt
that they had become collateral damage in an increasingly politicised
debate. More than anything, they felt forgotten.
Like thousands of other care-home residents, they were asked to sign Do
Not Resuscitate letters at the outset. And like thousands of others,
they agreed, because they didn’t want to be a bother to anyone. Those
letters — and the decision to decant hundreds of untested pensioners out >>> of their hospital beds and back into care homes — showed just how
expendable they and their generation were considered to be.
Those who survived were shut away, denied visitors, left to believe that >>> they had been abandoned. Many, like my mother, became profoundly
depressed. They died in their thousands, often alone. My mother was
right about how cruel this was.
If my parents needed to leave the care home for treatment in hospital,
they were forced on their return to isolate for two weeks in their
rooms. On one occasion, this solitary confinement nearly did for Dad
too. After being sent to hospital for tests, he was placed back into a
room on his own away from Mam. Over the next few days, he complained
repeatedly about being in pain, but attempts to get a GP to enter the
care home were rebuffed. I don’t know how the phone triage system works
but I’d guess that an 87-year-old in a care home doesn’t go to the front >>> of the queue. By the time he was rushed into hospital, he was badly
dehydrated and his kidneys were failing. The staff were wonderful and he >>> pulled through, but it was hard not to feel that his life was not
regarded as a priority.
Once, frustrated and furious, Mam broke out of the home. She toddled off >>> down the street just as the schools emptied out. She would have loved
seeing all the children, who would have been the same age as those she
used to teach. But her reward was to be placed back into isolation ‘to
protect the other residents’. She pointed out to me that the staff still >>> moved back and forth between the home and the outside world without
restriction.
Sometimes she would call, distressed, demanding that I drive down from
Scotland to rescue them. I did, once, dodging through the back roads of
north Wales on a lockdown--evading mission to spring them from the home
they regarded as their prison. It was the only time they had been
allowed into the outside world since the start of the lockdown, other
than for medical attention. We stopped by the promenade so they could
see the sea. I wondered then whether it might be the last time.
Then it was all over. They told me it was peaceful in the end. Inside
Dad’s hospital room, behind the closed door and with the blinds drawn, I >>> broke the news to him about Mam and we hugged, because that’s what
humans do. I don’t really know whether it was permitted: there were so
many restrictions. A couple of days later I spoke to the medical
examiner determining the cause of death. ‘I think I’ll say dementia,’ he >>> said. ‘Well, OK, but it was lockdown really,’ I said. ‘She was killed by >>> lockdown.’ He sighed and said they heard that a lot now.
On Father’s Day, I spoke to my dad. ‘Are you doing anything nice?’ I
asked. ‘Well, no, I’m still in quarantine after the funeral.’
‘Quarantine? But the funeral was nearly two weeks ago.’ Since the
funeral, Dad has been confined to a room barely 12ft by 12ft, without
being allowed out for exercise or anything else. Like the other
residents, he has been double-vaccinated. ‘They say they’ll let me out
tomorrow. They said those were the rules.’
WRITTEN BY
Gethin Chamberlain
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, & Delta
lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current COVID
vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
https://archive.is/5P5Ni
Sajid Javid: World leaders have acted like panicked shoppers hoarding
lavatory paper
Health Secretary’s comments, made in a research paper, accuse
governments of ‘herd behaviour’ in the face of Covid pandemic
By
Dominic Penna
3 July 2021 • 9:30pm
Placeholder image for youtube video: K61gmdCT6Xs
Sajid Javid confirms final stage of lockdown is 19 July, pledging an
'exciting new journey'
Sajid Javid accused world leaders of “herd behaviour” in their response
to the coronavirus pandemic and likened them to panicked shoppers who
hoarded toilet paper, The Telegraph can reveal.
The new Health Secretary made the comments in a research paper in
December 2020 that he produced in his role as a senior fellow at Harvard >>> Kennedy School.
Mr Javid, who this week ruled out any further extension of Covid
restrictions beyond July 19, also spoke of the need for the economic
responses to the virus to be “overhauled”.
His comments are likely to add to the optimism of some Conservative MPs
that Mr Javid will take a less hardline approach to lockdowns than his
predecessor Matt Hancock, who resigned last week.
Governments of democratic industrialised nations demonstrated “herd
behaviour” by allowing the existing policies of other countries to
dictate their virus response, the former Chancellor argued.
“Many factors that took place during Covid provided heightened
conditions for herd behaviour ... crisis, fear, volatility and
uncertainty all increase [its] likelihood,” Mr Javid wrote.
“Or the interaction between global leaders’ identity grouping and
decision making, as the fact that other types of herd behaviour were
observed in most populations – e.g. hoarding of toilet paper – and the
market (massive volatility).
“If indeed herd behaviour took place, it would be important to consider
how this behavior can negatively impact equilibria, for example giving
‘first movers’ outsized influence in a final equilibrium.”
Eastern countries have responded better than West
Mr Javid’s research concludes that “behavioural differences in human
contact” explain why South Korea and Taiwan’s rates of infection have
been significantly lower than those in Western countries.
He cited mask-wearing, “obesity differences in East versus West” and the >>> contrast between bowing and hugging as factors that account for the
higher levels of cases, hospitalisations and deaths in the UK and Spain. >>> On Britain’s multiple lockdowns, he wrote: “The magnitude of the impact
of Covid-19 is due in part to the economic and social pain that various
forms of lockdown have caused.
“It is already clear that although the governments of developed
countries had pre-existing, detailed plans to respond to a pandemic, few >>> have managed this particular crisis well. The way we prepare for public
health shocks of this nature will need to be overhauled.”
PROFILE
Sajid Javid
Born:
Rochdale, 5 December 1969 (age 51)
Expand to read more
An aversion to trade-offs – including weighing up the needs of the
economy against the health of the population – was among the “dangerous” >>> biases shown by politicians during a crisis, he added.
Other trade-offs identified in the research include health versus
privacy, health versus property rights and “optimism bias versus risk
averseness”.
Mr Javid said the about-turns that had characterised much of the UK
Government’s response to the virus were an “essential feature of good
policy making” in light of new and changeable information, but added
politicians must do more to defend U-turns’ “healthy role within
democracies”.
Taking to the Despatch Box on Monday, he told MPs that no date of
restrictions was risk-free and that Britons must learn to live with the
virus.
“Make no mistake, the restrictions on our freedoms must come to an end,” >>> he said. “We owe it to the British people not to wait a moment longer
than we need to.”
Mr Javid’s appointment to his new role has cheered lockdown sceptics on
the Tory back benches. He was the most high-profile Conservative
politician to call for a reopening of the economy in May 2020.
Will Sajid Javid make a better Health Secretary
than Matt Hancock?
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The following month, Mr Javid authored a separate report for the Centre
for Policy Studies think-tank which offered 63 different recommendations >>> about restoring economic growth.
He used his introduction to the research paper to insist that the focus
of the ministers “must shift from safeguarding the economy to rebuilding >>> it”.
Proposals included significant temporary cuts to employer’s National
Insurance, major planning law reform and fast-tracking plans for
infrastructure projects.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, & Delta
lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current COVID
vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://archive.is/Rfp9R
School bubbles could be brought back to tackle Covid outbreaks
A record 641,200 pupils have been forced to miss school in England as a
result of Covid isolation rules
By
Camilla Turner,
EDUCATION EDITOR
6 July 2021 • 7:56pm
Placeholder image for youtube video: Dn_kFuiDkbo
Government scraps Covid bubbles in schools from 19 July
Campaign for Children
The number of pupils forced to miss school owing to Covid has hit over
600,000, the latest figures show, as it emerged that bubbles could be
brought back if there is a cluster of cases.
A record 641,200 pupils are off school in England as a result of Covid – >>> up from 385,500 the previous week and the highest since classes went
back in March.
The number includes 471,000 who have been forced to self-isolate because >>> of a case at school – a 69 per cent increase in the space of a week.
On June 28, The Telegraph launched a campaign calling on ministers to
put children first as the country recovers from its Covid lockdowns,
with action to bring an end to the disruption in schools.
On Tuesday, Gavin Williamson, the Education Secretary, confirmed plans
to end bubbles on July 19, meaning an entire class or year group would
not need to be sent home for 10 days each time a pupil in their cohort
tested positive.
Almost one in ten pupils was out of school on July 1
Proportion of children out of school in England for covid-related reasons >>>
Suspected covid case
Confirmed covid case
7.5%
School closed
5.0%
Self-isolating:
contact inside school
2.5%
Self-isolating:
contact outside school
0
7 Jun
15 Jun
23 Jun
1 Jul
SOURCE: DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION
But detailed guidance published on Tuesday night by the Department for
Education (DfE) said schools "may wish" to continue with bubbles until
the end of the summer term.
It also said it "may become necessary to reintroduce bubbles" for a
temporary period if there is a Covid outbreak. Schools are told to
contact their local public health teams to report a potential outbreak
if they have several confirmed cases within 14 days.
The guidance says any decision to recommend the reintroduction of
bubbles should not be taken lightly and should "take account of the
detrimental impact they can have on the delivery of education". It adds
that a student who has Covid symptoms can be refused entry to school if
a headteacher believes that is "necessary" to protect other pupils and
staff.
Teachers should make these decisions on a case-by-case basis and use
their "reasonable judgment".
Figures published by the DfE show that 8.5 per cent of all children in
England were not at school last Thursday for a Covid-related reason, a
rise from 5.1 per cent the week before.
There are now 28,000 children who have tested positive for Covid, up >>>from 15,000 the week before, the DfE data shows.
Mr Williamson told the Commons that, from July 19, schools would no
longer need to stagger the start and end of the day, nor would children
need to have separate break times.
"While the pandemic is not over, we are moving into a new phase of the
pandemic from strict rules towards greater personal responsibility," he
said.
He added that "children are better off in their classroom, with their
friends and teachers", noting that "they have given up so much to keep
the older generation safe".
Restrictions on face-to-face teaching in universities will also end on
July 19 unless there are local outbreaks, he added.
Placeholder image for youtube video: TMoT2YscQyQ
In full: Boris Johnson announces England's final Covid lockdown easing
From Aug 16, children will be exempt from self-isolation after coming
into contact with someone who tested positive. Instead, they would be
contacted by NHS Test and Trace who would notify them of the contact and >>> advise them to take a test.
Students will be expected to come to school unless they have tested
positive for Covid or have symptoms.
During the autumn term, schools will still be expected to have extensive >>> cleaning regimes in place and also to make sure buildings are well
ventilated.
Mr Williamson came under fire from Tory MPs after announcing that
twice-weekly testing for secondary school pupils will continue in September.
Felicity Buchan, the Conservative MP for Kensington, said tno one wants
to see testing in schools "in perpetuity".
Mark Harper, who chairs the Covid Recovery Group, also questioned why
testing will remain in place during the autumn term, saying: "When
schools return in September, every adult will have had the chance to be
vaccinated once at least, which provides the bulk of protection – so why >>> is regular testing still going to continue, perhaps forever?"
Headteachers criticised plans for the autumn term, saying that
ventilating classrooms is "easier said than done" when it is the middle
of winter and too cold to keep windows open.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, & Delta
lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current COVID
vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
https://archive.is/Auy9c
Ending coronavirus restrictions will make us healthier, says Sajid Javid >>> Eleni Courea, Political Reporter
Sunday July 04 2021, 12.00pm BST, The Times
Sajid Javid referenced a rise in domestic violence and mental health
concerns in an argument for ending restrictions this month
Sajid Javid referenced a rise in domestic violence and mental health
concerns in an argument for ending restrictions this month
VICKIE FLORES/EPA
Lifting lockdown restrictions will make the country healthier, Sajid
Javid said today as ministers prepare to scrap the remaining lockdown
rules on July 19.
In a significant departure from his predecessor Matt Hancock, the health >>> secretary said that for him the health arguments for ending lockdown are >>> “equally compelling” as the economic ones.
“I know many people will be cautious about the easing of restrictions –
that’s completely understandable. But no date we choose will ever come
without risk, so we have to take a broad and balanced view,” he wrote in >>> a column for the Mail on Sunday.
He wrote that the government’s restrictions had “caused a shocking rise
in domestic violence and a terrible impact on so many people’s mental
health”.
Following his appointment a week ago, after Hancock quit over an affair
with an aide that breached social distancing guidance, Javid said he
wanted to see restrictions lifted “as quickly as possible.”
“I see two immediate challenges. The first is how we restore our
freedoms and learn to live with Covid-19. The second is to tackle the
NHS backlog – something that we know is going to get far worse before it >>> gets better,” he wrote.
It comes amid concerns that a growing number of doctors wanting to work
part-time could lead to huge staff shortages in the health service.
The Royal College of Physicians said that more than a quarter of senior
consultant physicians are expected to retire in the next three years,
many within 18 months.
Meanwhile just over half of trainees entering the NHS are interested in
working part-time. A fifth of doctors already work part-time and this
trend looks likely to increase in popularity, according to the college.
Its poll of 1,523 medics found 43 per cent of doctors have not yet
reverted to their original working pattern because of the pandemic, and
that some 57 per cent are working from home at least some of the time.
More than 60 per cent want opportunities for remote IT access, online
meetings and remote working to be available in the future.
Speaking ahead of the NHS’s 73rd birthday tomorrow, Andrew Goddard,
president of the RCP, said: “It is right that we should celebrate the
achievements of healthcare staff during the pandemic as we mark the
NHS’s birthday, but the pressures we have faced have been greater than
they needed to be because of existing staffing shortages.
“If we do not address this problem, we will have much less to celebrate
in future.
“The NHS has recognised that and wants to offer flexible working — but
it is stuck in a true Catch-22 situation where it cannot do the very
thing needed to attract more staff because it doesn’t have enough staff
at the moment.”
The RCP said medical school places need to be doubled to avoid staff
shortages worsening in the future.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, & Delta
lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current COVID
vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-57767863
Covid in Scotland: Glasgow Life to cut 500 jobs due to venue closures
Published16 hours ago
Share
Riverside Museum
IMAGE COPYRIGHTGETTY IMAGES
image captionThe Riverside Museum is run by Glasgow Life
About 500 jobs are to go at the organisation which runs libraries,
museums and sports centres for Glasgow City Council.
The Glasgow Life charity said it had lost £38m due to the closure of
dozens of venues during the pandemic.
Many of the facilities have been shut since last March and will not
reopen before the end of this year.
Glasgow Life said the job cuts would be made "over time" and would not
involve compulsory redundancies.
Instead, the not-for-profit organisation said it would target early
retirement packages and voluntary redundancies.
The attractions run by Glasgow Life for the council include Kelvingrove
Art Gallery and Museum, the People's Palace, Riverside Museum and the
Mitchell Library.
Eighty of its 171 venues across the city remain shut.
Call for clarity on future of Glasgow leisure venues
Glasgow Life warns services face uncertain future
A spokesperson for the charity said: "This cost-saving strategy is a
vital part of the process of recovery Glasgow Life has been forced to
undertake by the global pandemic."
The statement said the recovery package was being supported by Glasgow
City Council through its £100m funding guarantee for the next five years. >>>
However, it said it was "unrealistic to expect that it can raise
significant additional income this year that will support the reopening
of venues beyond the 91 already announced".
"Glasgow Life will be a very different organisation at the end of this
period," the spokesperson added.
"We are asking staff for flexibility during this process and are
regularly updating them through internal communications and briefings >>>from their managers; and unions are also regularly updated."
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum
IMAGE COPYRIGHTGLASGOW LIFE
image captionKelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum is one of Scotland's
most popular visitor attractions
After Glasgow City Council set its budget in March, a spokesman for the
GMB union said a decision to cut £5m from the fee paid to Glasgow Life
would "put local services and livelihoods under even greater pressure".
The charity has been able to furlough some staff, whose pay is linked to >>> its own income, not the council's service fee.
At the end of November 2020, the charity had claimed £6.7m and 751
people remained on the scheme.
Glasgow Life is an "arms-length" charitable trust which was established
by Glasgow City Council more than a decade ago.
The trust took over the council's galleries, museums, libraries and
sports facilities with the idea there would be more opportunities to
generate commercial income outside direct council control.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, & Delta
lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current COVID
vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://thediplomat.com/2021/07/malaysias-total-lockdown-failure-plunges-hospitals-into-crisis/
Malaysia’s ‘Total Lockdown’ Failure Plunges Hospitals Into Crisis
A COVID-19 surge is overwhelming many of Malaysia’s intensive care
units, as rivalries among politicians allow a disaster to unfold.
Alifah Zainuddin
By Alifah Zainuddin
July 12, 2021
Malaysia’s ‘Total Lockdown’ Failure Plunges Hospitals Into Crisis
People wait to receive COVID-19 vaccines at MIECC Seri Kembangan, in
Selangor, Malaysia, July 6, 2021.
Credit: Depositphotos
When Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced a nationwide total
lockdown in May to battle a surge in COVID-19 infections, Malaysia’s
healthcare system was already in critical condition.
The country was struggling to contain a more recent outbreak of the
coronavirus driven by more contagious variants, and worsened by
gatherings ahead of Eid al-Fitr.
By the end of May, the country’s average daily cases per capita
surpassed that of India as new single-day infections breached the 9,000
mark. Daily deaths had also peaked at 98 cases on May 29, with health
chief Dr. Noor Hisham Abdullah calling it a “dark moment” for the nation. >>>
Hospitals across the country, particularly in the Klang Valley, were
running close to capacity as the influx of patient arrivals triggered a
shortage of intensive care unit (ICU) beds and staff to provide adequate >>> care for patients.
Healthcare workers in Kuala Lumpur had to turn patients away, given that >>> COVID-19 care takes priority, while in the northern state of Kedah,
doctors were left to decide who gets a chance to live due to the state’s >>> limited number of ICU beds.
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a month.
Health officials resorted to unconventional measures to cope with the
surge in COVID-19 cases and death, which included the deployment of
military-built field ICUs and the utilization of shipping containers as
makeshift morgues. Soon after, the nation went into “total lockdown.”
The first 14 days of the full lockdown brought new infections down to as >>> low as 4,900 amid reduced testing in most states. As testing for the
virus continued to drop in the weeks after, reports of new cases also
decreased, albeit at a slower rate.
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At this point, health experts warned of a rise in COVID-19 hospital
admissions involving younger adults who were brought in critically ill
with the disease.
Dr. Benedict Sim Lim Heng, an infectious disease consultant at Sungai
Buloh Hospital – the country’s primary hospital for COVID-19 – said the
majority of patients who required critical care were now aged between 40 >>> and 60, with a significant number in their 20s and 30s.
“We are seeing young patients being brought in at the most advanced
stage of the disease, people in their 30s and 40s being brought in and
put on life support machines,” Sim said. “The situation has actually
turned scarier. It is quite dire at times.”
As it turns out, the country’s COVID-19 situation was not getting any
better and the misleading toll of confirmed cases had shifted the
attention away from a rapidly evolving public health crisis.
In recent weeks, pictures and videos of overwhelmed hospitals in the
Klang Valley have been shared online. One video showed at least a dozen
patients on metal row chairs sharing oxygen supplies at the emergency
department of Tuanku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital in Klang. Another showed
bodies of COVID-19 victims being placed in a holding room as morgues
overflowed.
Several hospitals have converted their parking lots into emergency units >>> to accommodate more patients, stretching exhausted medical workers thin. >>> Many healthcare workers are suffering from compassion fatigue due to the >>> prolonged stress of dealing with COVID-19. Others who are reeling from
burnout and exasperated by the lack of top-level support are calling it
quits.
On July 10, Malaysia set a new record for the second consecutive day
with 9,353 COVID-19 infections. Its total of more than 830,000 confirmed >>> cases is the highest per million people in Southeast Asia – at least
twice the caseload per capita in Indonesia – though lack of testing
means that the number is vastly below the real toll.
By official count, over 6,100 people have now died from the coronavirus
in Malaysia, of which 55 percent reported during the current “total
lockdown” period. To put it simply, about 85 people with the coronavirus >>> have died per day on average since the lockdown began on June 1.
Enjoying this article? Click here to subscribe for full access. Just $5
a month.
The brutal toll of the virus inside hospital ICUs, as told through
stories and images shared anonymously by desperate frontline workers,
show the extent of the havoc being wreaked in the country. Many are
blaming the near collapse of the healthcare system on the government’s
“half-baked” lockdown measures, which have only exacerbated infections.
The government’s decision to allow 18 manufacturing sectors to operate
mainly at 60 percent capacity created favorable conditions for virus
outbreaks at factories and workers’ dormitories. Workplace clusters have >>> emerged as a key source of COVID-19 infection in Malaysia, with the bulk >>> of the clusters identified linked to the industrial sector.
Insufficient testing has also resulted in early infections going
undetected, especially among young adults, until they rapidly
deteriorate. Public health experts and health advocates have long
stressed the need for large-scale testing to run hand in hand with
restriction orders.
Over the course of the lockdown period, the national positive rate
(share of tests that returned positive for COVID-19) has remained above
the World Health Organization (WHO)’s maximum 5 percent benchmark. This
indicates that Malaysia is not testing enough people to contain the
outbreak.
Opposition coalition Pakatan Harapan’s health committee recently
declared the lockdown a complete failure, with movement restrictions
unlikely to contain a fourth COVID-19 wave.
Foreign trade chambers have also voiced concerns about how the pandemic
is being managed in Malaysia, while an army general said the country’s
COVID-19 response lacked coordination and speed.
Many say the government has had misplaced priorities. As cases soared,
Muhyiddin announced shifts in cabinet positions in a bid to ease
tensions in the ruling coalition, ahead of the United Malays National
Organization (UMNO)’s decision to withdraw support from his Perikatan
Nasional (PN) coalition last week.
In the shift, Defense Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, UMNO’s most senior
figure in cabinet, was made deputy prime minister. Foreign Minister
Hishammuddin Hussein, another UMNO stalwart, has been promoted as Senior >>> Minister for Foreign Affairs and will take over Ismail’s role as chief
security officer.
The two UMNO lawmakers are part of a faction within the party that is
more aligned towards Muhyiddin’s government. Another faction, headed by
UMNO president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, has resolved to break away from the
PN coalition and is reportedly teaming up with Anwar Ibrahim’s Pakatan
Harapan coalition to form a new government.
The country’s Attorney General Idris Harun has maintained that there are >>> no “clear facts” that the premier has lost his majority. This means that >>> Muhyiddin’s leadership still stands until it is proven otherwise in
parliament, which will sit from July 26 for five days.
As COVID-19 continues to rage in Malaysia, anger towards the government
is growing. For most Malaysians, whether Muhyiddin can survive this
crisis after 15 months in power is less urgent than whether they can. As >>> politicians bicker, Malaysians are left to fend for themselves.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
Asia & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, & Delta
lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current COVID
vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/covid-19-vancouver-convention-centre-hospital-never-used-during-pandemic-being-dismantled
Share on Twitter
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Breadcrumb Trail Links
News Local News
COVID-19: Vancouver Convention Centre hospital, never used during
pandemic, being dismantled
Vancouver Coastal Health says it has approval from the Health Ministry
to close the 271-bed site
Author of the article:The Canadian Press
Publishing date:Jul 13, 2021 • 15 hours ago • 1 minute read • 9
Comments
Vancouver Coastal Health alternative care site at the Vancouver
Convention Centre. The 271-bed site was mobilized in case of a COVID-19
surge but was never needed.
Vancouver Coastal Health alternative care site at the Vancouver
Convention Centre. The 271-bed site was mobilized in case of a COVID-19
surge but was never needed. PHOTO BY VANCOUVER COASTAL HEALTH
Article content
The makeshift hospital at the Vancouver Convention Centre, which was
repurposed with COVID-19 overflow beds, is being shut down without ever
taking patients.
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STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Article content
Vancouver Coastal Health says it has approval from the Health Ministry
to close the 271-bed site, one of several alternative care sites
established as the threat of COVID-19 loomed last year.
COVID-19: Regular briefings, formal statements ending, health minister
says | Vancouver Sun
Close sticky video
Health Minister Adrian Dix says in a statement it’s fortunate the site
didn’t have to be activated and it’s great to see the centre poised to
return to its original, vibrant purpose.
Vancouver Coastal Health says the process to close the makeshift
hospital should be complete by Friday, although there are plans for its
remobilization if needed.
The announcement comes as COVID-19 hospitalizations trend downward in
B.C., with 66 patients currently being treated including 14 in intensive >>> care.
There were 33 new COVID-19 cases reported on Tuesday, for a total of
145,775 since the pandemic began. There were no new COVID-19 deaths
reported Tuesday, making it B.C.’s fifth straight day without a
pandemic-related fatality.
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STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Article content
The Ministry of Health says 3.47 million adults have received their
first shot of vaccine, while 2.124 million, or 49.1 per cent of B.C’s
adult population, are now fully vaccinated. The first-dose vaccination
rate for B.C.’s eligible population, those aged 12 years and over, has
reached 79.1 per cent, while the second dose rate is 46 per cent.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
B.C. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, & Delta
lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current COVID
vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://ktla.com/news/local-news/l-a-county-again-requiring-masks-indoors-starting-saturday/
L.A. County again requiring masks indoors starting Saturday amid
coronavirus spike
NEWS
by: Nouran Salahieh, Wendy Burch, Mary Beth McDade
Posted: Jul 15, 2021 / 02:09 PM PDT / Updated: Jul 16, 2021 / 05:55 AM PDT >>>
Los Angeles County is reimplementing its mask mandate indoors —
regardless of vaccination status— amid an increase in coronavirus case
numbers and concerns over the delta variant, officials announced Thursday. >>>
The new masking order goes into effect 11:59 p.m. on Saturday.
“We’re not where we need to be for the millions at risk of infection
here in Los Angeles County, and waiting to do something will be too
late, given what we’re seeing,” L.A. County Health Officer Dr. Muntu
Davis said in a briefing with reporters.
L.A. County has seen several consecutive days with more than 1,000 new
cases reported daily amid a “rapid and sustained” spike in the number of >>> infections. The county recorded 1,537 new coronavirus cases Thursday — a >>> 83% increase over the last week, according to Davis.
L.A. County sees spike in coronavirus cases
“Masking indoors must again become a normal practice by all, regardless
of vaccination status, so they can stop the trends and level of
transmission we’re currently seeing,” Davis said.
It’s unclear how long the new mask requirements will remain in effect.
“We expect to keep this order in place until we begin to see
improvements,” Davis said.
L.A. County’s new order comes after the health department on June 28
started “strongly recommending” that people wear masks indoors in public >>> places. The move came just two weeks after Gov. Gavin Newsom lifted the
statewide mask mandate.
“We took a chance in terms of lifting the physical distancing
requirements as well as the capacity limits. We changed the masking at
the time. We felt it was reasonable to do given the level of community
transmission that we had at that moment,” Davis said. “But this is not
the same situation. We’re in a very different situation. This is not the >>> same as what it was June 15.”
RELATED CONTENT
L.A. County’s coronavirus test positivity rate spikes nearly 700% in 1
month as delta variant circulates
L.A. County reports 5th straight day of more than 1,000 coronavirus
cases amid delta variant fears
‘Urgent threat’ to public health: Surgeon general calls for U.S. fight
against COVID misinformation
Now, L.A. County is ranked as having “substantial” coronavirus community >>> transmission.
The fear is that more people will die of COVID-19 as hospitalization
numbers increase, according to Davis.
He said the pandemic is still being driven by unvaccinated people, and
vaccination rates are low in the communities where transmission is
rising fastest.
Recovery from the pandemic is also complicated by the spread of the
delta coronavirus variant, now California’s dominant coronavirus strain. >>> The variant became a source for concern as it was found to be more
contagious than even the other highly contagious variants reported.
“Given that slightly under 4 million L.A. County residents are not
vaccinated, the risk of increased spread of this variant within our
county remains high,” the health officer said.
“It’s just disappointing that overall vaccination numbers are lower than >>> we need them to be,” Davis said.
Asked if there could be more restrictions coming to L.A. County, Davis
said “anything is on the table if things continue to get worse.”
Officials said the county’s Health Officer Order will be updated to
outline the masking requirements by Friday.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, & Delta
lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current COVID
vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://lbpost.com/news/covid-19-spread-variant-delta-health-order
Rapid spread of COVID-19 reaches ‘very concerning levels,’ officials say >>> Melissa Evans
0
Cases of COVID-19 have increased four-fold since the July 4 holiday in
Los Angeles County, with the virus continuing to spread mostly among
those who are not vaccinated, officials said Saturday.
- ADVERTISEMENT -
The county on Saturday reported 1,827 new cases of the virus, and a
testing positivity rate of 3.7%. The number of people who tested
positive for the virus was near 0.5% on June 15, when the state lifted
most restrictions on capacity and mandates for masking that were
intended to stem the spread of COVID-19.
The rate of transmission has “rapidly increased to very concerning
levels,” officials said in a statement.
Long Beach’s numbers are even more dire: On Friday, officials reported a >>> 331% increase in average daily cases since July 4, and an 860% increase
since June 15.
The city’s positivity rate is now 4.1%, with case rate of 9 per 100,000
residents. That is still well below the peak of cases, hospitalizations
and deaths reported in January, but significantly above the numbers seen >>> on June 15, when the case rate was 1.2.
The quick spread of the virus promoted city and county health officials
to issue a new health order this week requiring masks indoors,
regardless of a person’s vaccination status. (Long Beach’s amended
health order, which goes into effect at 11:59 p.m. Saturday, can be
viewed here.)
Masks will be required in all indoor public places, venues, gatherings,
and businesses (including offices, retail, restaurants, theaters, family >>> entertainment centers, meetings, and state and local government
offices). Dining indoors is still allowed, and the county and city have
not placed any restrictions on capacity.
Health officials attribute the quick escalation of cases to a number of
factors, including intermingling among unmasked people who may or may
not be vaccinated, as well as a new, more contagious strain of the virus >>> known as the “delta variant.”
Close to one-third of eligible people over 12 have not been vaccinated
against COVID-19 in Long Beach. In Los Angeles County as a whole,
roughly 4 million people have not been vaccinated, including 1.3 million >>> children under 12.
“While vaccinations are by far the most powerful tool we have, we are
nowhere near herd immunity,” Barbara Ferrer, director of the county
Department of Public Health, said in a statement Saturday.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, & Delta
lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current COVID
vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-57869258
England nightclubs reopen: Cheers and celebrations as clubbers return
for first night out
England nightclubs reopen: Cheers and celebrations as clubbers return
for first night out
Close
Nightclubs are among the first venues to take advantage of the easing of >>> Covid restrictions in England from Monday.
With doors opening a minute past midnight, the BBC was at a nightclub in >>> Leeds where revellers aren't being asked to wear masks or socially distance.
Some people there said that this was the first time they'd ever been to
a nightclub, as they had not turned 18 when the pandemic began.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, & Delta
lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current COVID
vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/oojc4u/olympic_village_covid19_infection_bubble_already/
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
Japan & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, & Delta
lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current COVID
vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/opbqhz/weve_made_a_tragic_choice_to_enter_a_new_era_of/
Welcome to Britain’s reign of permanent terror, Covid-style. We have
become a nation addicted to fear, that relishes turning every triumph
into a disaster, every hope into a worry, every freedom into a danger.
We should be celebrating humanity’s brilliant, speedy defanging of a
terrible new virus, the drastic reduction in its ability to kill, the
millions of lives saved globally; instead, we are driving ourselves mad
with an absurd pingdemic, a botched “freedom day”, holiday chaos and
utter, abject confusion about the current risk posed by Covid. For
reasons that defy comprehension, the Prime Minister, the Leader of the
Opposition and the Chancellor, together with countless others, are all
simultaneously in self-isolation. If that is victory, or an armistice,
against the coronavirus, then what does defeat look like?
The reality is that thanks to the vaccines, Covid, including in its
delta variant, has been downgraded and is on the verge of becoming
normalised. It will now surely become endemic like influenza, which
kills some 17,000 in England in an average year and often a lot fewer.
Covid’s ongoing toll is likely to be roughly similar; a mature, embedded >>> virus would not require contact tracing and endlessly pinging apps, but
the adult population would need to remain up to date with vaccinations,
including jabs configured to protect against the latest variants.
Why, then, the continued panic? Why are so many still behaving as if we
were in March 2020, when we looked on aghast at pictures of collapsing
Italian hospitals, realising that our complacent world was about to be
upended? The lure of turning back the clock, of the risk-free zero-Covid >>> society, an impossibility even if every human being in the word were
double-jabbed, looms large over our public consciousness.
It shouldn’t. The radical reduction in the danger posed by the virus is
primarily down to the fact that 68.8 per cent of over-18s in England are >>> now double-jabbed. In addition, some 91.9 per cent of the adult
population would test positive for antibodies, suggesting they have had
the infection or are at least single-jabbed.
Such elevated levels of protection 16 months after the start of the
first UK lockdown would have been dismissed as hopelessly utopian last
March, a time when some “experts” thought it might take up to a decade
to invent, test and roll out a vaccine. The high rate of double-jabbing, >>> and the programme’s massive bias towards older, more vulnerable people,
is the reason why there are drastically fewer deaths at this stage of
the third wave than there were last time around. There were just 68
fatalities in England announced on Wednesday.
Yet this is still not good enough for the Zero Covid zealots. They deem
even such low death numbers – which sadly, will continue to trend
upwards for now – to be unacceptably high.
Britain would never have locked down had the original wave been this
mild, and yet there appears to be widespread support among swathes of
the public for continuing with all sorts of precautions for as long as
any risk of Covid remains – in practice, forever.
The goalposts keep shifting in an entirely unreasonable, absolutist
manner. We entered lockdowns because the Government feared 500,000
people would die; today, opponents of the “Freedom Day” measures would
reimpose massive restrictions to avoid 1 per cent of that death toll or
even less. Boris Johnson feared the NHS would implode, killing tens of
thousands more; today’s Zero Coviders don’t want a single operation to
be rescheduled or a single ward to be busy, even though the NHS’
structural flaws means this keeps happening.
The original aim was to vaccinate the elderly and vulnerable, and then
the over-60s before we could open up society again. Yet the more radical >>> pro-lockdown voices first extended this to all over 40s, and then to
everybody, including teenagers and perhaps even children, and in some
cases not just in Britain but also abroad.
They worry about Long Covid, and highlight that some of those who
recover, including younger patients, suffer from persistent symptoms.
While one must feel sorry for anybody in this condition, the scale of
the issue doesn’t warrant maintaining or reimposing restrictions. The
immuno-supressed are a greater problem, and more needs to be done to
help them, but again not at the cost of reimposing restrictions.
It is also possible that elevated case levels will accelerate the
development of vaccine-escaping variants. This latter concern must be
taken seriously, but the answer is for the Government to stand prepared
to roll out further modified doses if this turns out to be the case. The >>> jab needs to be authorised, mass-produced and distributed to millions
extremely quickly.
For such a rational, amazing species, we are singularly unable to assess >>> risk correctly. This is at once a blessing and a debilitating pathology. >>> We need mad gamblers: if Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk hadn’t believed,
against all the odds, that they could be successful, the tech revolution >>> would never have materialised, and neither would the age of private
space travel. But errors work both ways: we can be too pessimistic as
well as too optimistic. We were too relaxed about the risks of pandemics >>> prior to 2020, and now many people are too scared about the threat of
Covid today.
Another quirk of our psychology is at play here, too. For good reason,
we don’t treat all deaths equally. We are fine with some, but utterly
outraged about others, depending on whether we believe the death to be
in the “fair” category, or caused directly or indirectly by human
agency. We are relatively relaxed about cancer fatalities, especially
among the elderly; but will go to war for one single terrorist attack.
This generally makes sense, but is a serious challenge when it comes to
moving on from Covid.
If we are to start learning to live with the virus, the public needs to
accept that, like car crashes or heart attacks, some fatalities from
Covid are inevitable. If Boris Johnson and his government keep being
held responsible for every death from the virus, even when all those who >>> want the vaccine have been double-jabbed, we will never break free from
today’s fear-addled madness.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, & Delta
lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current COVID
vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-57933108The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
Published10 hours ago
Share
File image of person getting a vaccine
IMAGE COPYRIGHTGETTY IMAGES
The proportion of people aged 20 to 29 testing positive for Covid in
England has hit record levels, officials say.
Public Health England's figures show, in the last week, 1,155 people in
their 20s tested positive for every 100,000 in the population.
Experts say this is the highest rate of cases in any age group since
mass-testing began and urge everyone in this group to get both jabs.
It comes as data shows 59% of people in their 20s have had one jab.
Meanwhile people aged 85 and above continue to be most likely to need
hospital care.
Dr Yvonne Doyle, medical director at Public Health England, said
hospital admissions and deaths were not growing as quickly as in
previous waves, but cases were on the rise and would be monitored.
What do I need to know if I'm still not jabbed?
'Remain cautious'
The data covers 12 to 18 July, and looks at the average number of people >>> testing positive per 100,000 people of the same age in the population.
It shows:
Case numbers are rising across all age groups and regions
Weekly levels are highest in the North East (952) and lowest in the
South East (423)
The lowest numbers are for those aged 80 and above, with a weekly rate
of 61 per 100,000
Dr Doyle added: "It is vital we all remain cautious.
"Remember that meeting outside is safer than inside, get two doses of
the vaccine as soon as you can, isolate if you are told to by NHS Test & >>> Trace and if you show symptoms stay home and get a PCR test."
The rise in this age group will partly be because many people in their
20s will not yet have had both jabs and because of greater chances to
socialise as restrictions eased.
graph showing vaccine rates by age
The latest government data for England show around 59% of people in the
20-29 age group have had at least one coronavirus jab.
Across the UK 87.8% of the adult population has had one dose of the
vaccine and 69.2% has had two doses.
Vaccination figures are highest for the older age groups who were
offered the jab earlier.
Recent figures suggest the vaccination programme has reduced hospital
admissions and deaths, with a fewer than one in 1,000 infections now
estimated to result in death - compared with one in 60 during last winter. >>
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, & Delta
lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current COVID
vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.660citynews.com/2021/07/22/alberta-kenney-media-fear-covid-19/ >>>
Premier Kenney believes media should 'stop promoting fear when it comes
to COVID-19'
BY JOEYCHINI
Posted Jul 22, 2021 1:58 pm MDT Last Updated Jul 22, 2021 at 7:46 pm MDT >>>
SUMMARY
The premier believes we should 'start actually looking at where we're at.' >>>
CAMROSE, Alta. – Premier Jason Kenney says the province is in a good
spot in the fight against COVID-19, and he believes it’s time for media
to stop promoting fear when it comes to the virus.
The premier was addressing his tweet from this past weekend which
celebrated the success of the stampede—stating it was the first major
event in Canada ‘after the pandemic’.
Many people, including several health experts, took issue with the
Premier’s phrasing, they say we are not through with this virus yet.
READ MORE: Experts concerned over Alberta government’s comments about
pandemic moving to ‘endemic’
“We are now three weeks into that full openness,” said the premier,
referring to Alberta’s Open for Summer Plan. “And I’m very encouraged to >>> see that we continue to do very well.”
While he acknowledges that the virus remains an issue, Kenney says there >>> has been a dramatic drop in covid numbers, and it’s time we all start
looking at where Alberta is when it comes to the fight against COVID-19. >>>
“Numbers will go up, and they’ll go down… What matters most is that the
widespread protective effect of vaccines is real,” he said.
“We should embrace the science, we should stop listening to people who
deny the powerful protective effect of vaccines.”
RELATED: Alberta identifies 81 new COVID-19 cases, active infections
rise to 649
Kenney says Alberta crushed the third wave and, even when cases rise,
the case numbers will likely not merit the same response as before.
“We have seen the numbers come down dramatically in Alberta, and we
should salute that,” Kenney said.
“Let me be blunt, I think it’s time for media to stop promoting fear
when it comes to COVID-19, and to start actually looking at where we’re at.”
According to the premier, we now have fewer people in hospital with
COVID-19 than at any point in the past nine months. He adds that 75 per
cent of eligible Albertans have gotten their first dose of vaccine, and
within a week, he expects we’ll hit about 65 per cent of eligible people >>> fully vaccinated.
“But most importantly, about 90 per cent of the vulnerable in Alberta,
have been vaccinated–that is people over the age of 65–those are by far
the most vulnerable individuals.”
The premier says these numbers mean our healthcare system likely won’t
face the same capacity issues we’ve seen in the past, should COVID cases
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
Alberta & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, & Delta
lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current COVID
vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/australians-may-face-longer-lockdown-after-mass-protests-2021-07-24/?utm_source=reddit.com
Australians may face longer lockdown after "reckless" mass protests >Sonali Paul
4 minute read
Summary
New South Wales reports 141 new local cases, 2 deaths
Victoria on track to ease curbs
Australia secures 85 mln Pfizer booster shots
MELBOURNE, July 25 (Reuters) - Australia's New South Wales logged its >second-highest daily increase of the year in locally acquired COVID-19 >cases on Sunday amid fears of a wave of new infections after thousands
of people joined an anti-lockdown protest.
disgusted"In relation to yesterday's protests, can I say how absolutely
I was. It broke my heart," Gladys Berejiklian, the premier of the >country's most populous state, told reporters.
"I hope it won't be a setback, but it could be," she said.
TheThere were 141 COVID-19 cases reported, down from 163 a day earlier.
outbreak, which began in June, is being driven by the highly contagious >Delta variant of the virus, and has now infected 2,081 people in New >South Wales. There are 43 people in intensive care, up from 37 a day >earlier.
enforcedUnder fire for a slow vaccine rollout, Prime Minister Scott Morrison
said more vaccine supply was not going to ensure New South Wales gets
out of lockdown, but what was needed was an effective, properly
lockdown.
"Let me be clear - there's not an alternative to the lockdown in New >South Wales to get this under control. There is no other magic bullet >that's going to do that," Morrison told reporters at a televised media >conference.
self-defeating.He called the anti-lockdown protests in Sydney reckless and
states.While Berejiklian and other state leaders have blamed Canberra for the >slow vaccine rollout, critics have said NSW did not enforce its >stay-at-home orders, which has led to Delta variant leaks to other
Sydney,At least 38 of the new cases in NSW had spent time in the community
while infectious, state health authorities said. Numbers of such cases >have stayed stubbornly high even after four weeks of lockdown in
now expected to be extended beyond July 30.
The state reported two deaths overnight, including a woman in her 30s >with no pre-existing conditions.
managed toA woman exercises on the empty steps in front of the Anzac Memorial at >the Pool of Reflection as gyms are closed during a lockdown to curb the >spread of a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Sydney,
Australia, July 22, 2021. REUTERS/Loren Elliott
Despite its struggle with spikes of infections, Australia has
keep its epidemic largely under control with a total of about 32,600 >cases and 918 deaths.
To help speed up vaccinations in Sydney, the government's official >adviser, the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation
(ATAGI), on Saturday changed its advice on the AstraZeneca vaccine, >urging anyone in the city under the age of 60 to strongly consider >getting vaccinated with it.
ATAGI had previously advised against the AstraZeneca vaccine for people >under 60 due to concerns about blood clots.
"In the context of the current risk of COVID-19 in NSW and with the >ongoing constraints on Comirnaty (Pfizer) vaccine supplies, all adults
in greater Sydney should strongly consider the benefits of earlier >protection with COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca rather than waiting for >alternative vaccines," ATAGI said in a statement.
Morrison said on Sunday the government has secured an additional 85 >million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, but they will only be delivered in >2022 and 2023.
"To have those booster shots pre-ordered means we can go into 2022 with >confidence," he said.
Australia's Victoria state reported 11 locally acquired COVID-19 cases
on Sunday, down from 12 a day earlier, raising hopes the state will end
a hard lockdown imposed 10 days ago.
State Premier Daniel Andrews said it was too early to say whether >restrictions will be eased on Tuesday, but: "At this stage, though, >things are going well."
all ofAll of the cases were linked to the current outbreak clusters and
them were in isolation throughout their infectious period, the state's >health department said.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
NSW & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://nypost.com/2021/07/26/covid-has-become-a-media-driven-panic-disconnected-from-facts/
By John ZieglerJuly 26, 2021 | 8:09pm | Updated July 26, 2021 | 8:09pm
Enlarge Image
A COVID-19 testing site in Brooklyn on July 26, 2021.
A COVID-19 testing site in Brooklyn on July 26, 2021.Photo by Spencer
Platt/Getty Images
More On:
Coronavirus
De Blasio proclaims ‘voluntary phase is over’ on COVID-19 vaccines
Cuomo says he always tells ‘the truth’ on COVID — except when he doesn’t >>> The honeymoon’s over: American optimism drops 20 points to mark Biden’s
six months in office
Biden slams ‘pain in the neck’ reporter for off-topic question on
breaking news
Reprinted with permission from Mediaite.
One of the most underrated aspects of human behavior is how much
expectations dictate our perceptions of reality. Largely because none of >>> us has ever dealt with a pandemic before and, therefore, we have no
experience on which to draw comparisons, this has been particularly true >>> when it comes to dealing with the coronavirus.
Since the beginning of this nightmare, the news media have done a
horrible of job of providing much-needed context and perspective to the
COVID data that have driven so much of our lives for the last year and a >>> half. This has been especially the case with regard to the recent
hysteria over the “Delta variant” causing a large spike in the daily
number of positive tests, both here in America and in many other places
around the world.
As someone who has previously written that COVID is effectively no
longer a “pandemic,” I admit surprise and concern at just how much and
how quickly the case numbers have increased in the United States in the
last few weeks. It’s now clear, contrary to the data trends of the
previous four or months and even current inaccurate claims made by
President Biden, that the vaccines do not fully prevent you from testing >>> positive for the virus, but rather mitigate the symptoms.
The news media’s obsession with daily case numbers has always been, at
best, misguided, and, at worst, malicious. When the history of the
destruction of this once-great nation is finally fully written, I
believe the news media and public-health “experts” transitioning from
hospitalization/death numbers to daily positive tests as the primary
COVID data point will be seen as one of the final nails in the coffin of >>> our formerly free society.
This is not just because there is evidence that the most prominent test
is flawed, with the CDC just recommending it be dumped because it can’t
even differentiate COVID from influenza. (It should also be noted that
weekend reporting in many states has become so lax that the data
collection itself helps facilitate exaggerated mid-week “spikes.”)
We seem to forget that when the positive test first became the news
media’s metric of choice, there were no vaccines, and we had very little >>> communal immunity. In theory, everyone who tested positive was at least
somewhat vulnerable to a very bad outcome, even though, in reality, 98
percent of those in that group recovered.
The third wave of COVID-19 has been less deadly than the first and second. >>> The third wave of COVID-19 has been less deadly than the first and second. >>> Mediaite
Now, well over half the nation is at least partly vaccinated (with at
least another 10 percent having some — possibly even better — level of
immunity from having previously contracted the virus), so the focus on
daily positive tests, without at least some critical context, has become >>> totally absurd. One, because even the current “case” numbers are not
THAT bad, and two, because there is no indication as of yet that
hospitalizations/deaths are going to get to “emergency” levels, which,
it cannot be stated enough, is the ONLY standard when direct government
intervention is remotely justified in a supposedly free country.
We are now averaging over 45,000 new positive tests per day, which is
over triple the number when it reached our low about a month ago. This
sudden increase is understandably alarming, especially without any
perspective, which most of the news media has very little incentive to
provide. For instance, late in the “swine flu” of 2009-2010 America was
averaging 57,000 cases a day (down from the year-long average of
190,000) and the spread at that time was not considered to be at
“pandemic” levels.
Yes, positive COVID tests have increased, but they have done so in a
very similar seasonal pattern, even on a state-by-state basis, to what
happened in the summer of 2020. The numbers are still much lower than
the height of that summer spike, and dramatically less than the worst of >>> the winter wave which once had us at 250,000 new cases a day, with no
vaccines, and yet without our health-care system reaching levels of
grave danger.
Thanks apparently to the those vaccines, this rise in positive tests has >>> not yet caused a dangerous increase in hospitalizations, and absolutely
no rise yet in the number of people currently dying with COVID (though
expect that to begin to change, at least marginally, in the next week or >>> two). In fact, for more than a month now, based on the 7-day average,
Americans have had a less than a one-in-a-million chance of dying with
COVID on any given day, and currently here in California daily “COVID
deaths” are just barely outpacing automobile deaths (which, it should be >>> pointed out, end the lives of people much younger and healthier on
average than COVID does).
In short, unless the perceived effectiveness of the vaccines is one of
the greatest frauds of all time, we are currently in no danger of seeing >>> numbers that once again threaten to cause a catastrophe in our
health-care system, which was the entire justification for the
government usurping endless dictatorial powers due to this emergency.
But here is where the purveyors of fear have masterfully won the
expectations game, even when the facts indicate that they should have
lost it.
A healthcare worker giving a man a COVID-19 vaccine at a drive-thru site >>> in Miami, Florida on July 26, 2021.
A healthcare worker giving a man a COVID-19 vaccine at a drive-thru site >>> in Miami, Florida on July 26, 2021.
Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images
The notion that cases were not going to significantly rise, especially
among younger people, during a summer when most of America is back to
“normalcy” and eager to make up for lost time is mystifying. If all
restrictions had been lifted and there had been categorically no
negative change in the data, it would have been a devastating blow to
the already highly questionable premise that lockdowns are worth the
collateral damage which they cause (though the news media would have
done their very best to ignore such a development). For instance, it
will be interesting to see how the United Kingdom spins it if their
numbers continue to improve now that the worst of their lockdown has
ended, at least for now.
At the heart of the current debate on how to respond to the rapid
increase in positive tests is the notion that “Zero COVID” is an
attainable, or even a worthwhile, goal.
The “experts” have infamously and radically moved the goalposts since we >>> began with “15 Days to Slow the Spread,” but trying to pretend we can
both live in a semi-free society and somehow eradicate the virus
completely is foolish to the point of delusion.
Ironically, though probably not coincidentally, the Western country
which has come currently closest to “Zero COVID” is much-maligned
Sweden, which is yet another data point indicating that natural immunity >>> may be more effective than just the vaccines themselves. In short, while >>> the “experts” would like to see us panic and go back to some form of new >>> lockdowns, a level-headed view indicates that position is actually the
one which, at least for now, is really “anti-science.”
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.rgj.com/story/news/2021/07/27/nevada-issues-emergency-order-requiring-masks-all/5395205001/
Nevada issues emergency order requiring masks — vaccinated or not — in a >>> dozen counties starting Friday
Ed Komenda
Jason Hidalgo
Reno Gazette Journal
Recycled Records employee Joe Wilson, right, helps a customer while
wearing a mask in Reno on April 14.
Nevada has issued an emergency order requiring people in 12 of 17
counties — whether they're vaccinated or not — to wear masks in public
indoor spaces.
Starting at 12:01 a.m. Friday, the mandate becomes effective in counties >>> with substantial or high transmission of COVID-19, according to a news
release shared Tuesday afternoon.
Nevada counties that will be impacted: Carson, Churchill, Clark,
Douglas, Elko, Esmeralda, Lincoln, Lyon, Mineral, Nye, Washoe and White
Pine.
More COVID-19 coverage:Surge in Delta variant cases raises concerns
about summer events in Reno
The city of Reno on Tuesday afternoon announced a mandate that all
people regardless of vaccination status will be required to wear a mask
or face covering in public indoor settings at all city of Reno
facilities effective Wednesday.
Nevada mandate follows CDC guidance
The state's announcement of the new restrictions comes the same day the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reversed course and urged
even fully vaccinated Americans to wear masks indoors in areas of high
coronavirus transmission.
While masks aren't likely to crush community spread, experts say, they
might ratchet up pressure on the unvaccinated and encourage businesses
and schools to implement mask mandates.
With caregivers seen in a reflection, a patient lies intubated in his
bed in the Intensive Care Unit devoted to those inflicted with COVID-19
at Renown Regional Medical Center in Reno December 2020. The patient's
name was not released.
The CDC is also now recommending universal indoor masking for all
teachers, staff, students and visitors inside schools from kindergarten
to 12th grade, regardless of vaccination status. That aligns closely
with guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics, which
recommended this month that anyone older than 2 be required to wear a
mask in school.
Cases surge across Silver State
Nevada has resurfaced as a COVID-19 hotspot in recent weeks due to the
spread of the Delta variant.
After falling to just 132 daily new cases on June 9, Nevada saw a steep
increase in the following weeks as the variant started to take hold in
the state. By July 24, new confirmed COVID cases shot up to 870 per day, >>> a level not seen since early February.
On Tuesday, Nevada logged 792 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total
number of cases recorded during the pandemic to 352,567. In all, 5,854
people statewide have died from COVID-19.
Story from Providence
Why COVID-19 shed new light on mental health
Health providers discuss the COVID-19 pandemic’s substantial impact on
mental health.
See More ?
In Washoe County, the seven-day average for new cases rose to 67 as of
July 26. The number represents a steep increase from just a couple of
months ago, when the county reported a seven-day average of 13 on May 31. >>>
The COVID-19 positivity rate, which measures the share of COVID tests
that return with a positive result, has also seen a steady increase this >>> summer ever since dipping all the way down to just 2.8% on June 7. The
rate hit 5% — the World Health Organization’s upper limit for reopening
— on July 10.
Your stories live here.
Fuel your hometown passion and plug into the stories that define it.
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Less than two weeks later, the positivity rate in Washoe broke the 8%
mark, which is one of the thresholds set by the governor when assessing
whether a county is at elevated risk for COVID-19.
The rate was at 9.1% as of July 25.
As of Tuesday afternoon, 1,143 people were hospitalized statewide — 36
of them on ventilators, according to state data.
Clark County — home of the Las Vegas Strip — accounts for nearly 80% of
COVID-19 cases in the state, as well as the highest incidence rate. In
Washoe County, health officials have logged 47,296 cases and 690 deaths. >>>
The surge led Clark County commissioners last week to mandate all
employees working indoors in a public space to wear masks.
A week earlier, the Southern Nevada Health District recommended mask
wearing for vaccinated and unvaccinated people at crowded indoor public
places. The district changed its mask policy following rising case rates >>> and hospitalizations for COVID-19.
Vaccination rates low
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said new data shows the Delta
variant, which accounts for more than 80% of the new infections in the
U.S., behaves "uniquely differently'' from its predecessors and could
make vaccinated people infectious.
"Information on the Delta variant from several states and other
countries indicates that in rare occasions some vaccinated people
infected with the Delta variant after vaccination may be contagious and
spread the virus to others,'' Walensky said. "This new science is
worrisome and unfortunately warrants an update to our recommendation.''
In Nevada, vaccination rates remain low, state data shows.
Carson City has the highest vaccination rate in the state — about 50
percent. In Washoe, that number is 48 percent.
Clark County, where the majority of new cases have been recorded, has a
vaccination rate of 39 percent.
A big part of the challenge in boosting vaccination rates is vaccine
hesitancy. While the county saw a high number of vaccinations earlier
this year, rates have since slowed down. Reasons for vaccine hesitancy
range from health concerns to personal and political beliefs.
Earlier this month, Washoe District Health Officer Kevin Dick pleaded
for residents to get the vaccine as the Delta variant continued to make
inroads within the state. At the time, Dick said higher vaccination
rates were crucial in ensuring that things don’t go backward after the
progress seen in prior months.
"The vaccine is free and readily available to anyone 12 and older,
regardless of immigration status," Dick said at the time. "That’s our
path forward regarding COVID-19. We don’t want … to be in a situation
where we mandate everyone to wear masks."
Health officials also expressed concern back in late June about the
variant quickly establishing a foothold after a COVID cluster was
confirmed at a Washoe kindergarten.
"The super contagious nature of the Delta variant is very concerning,"
said Nancy Diao, division director of epidemiology and public
preparedness for the Washoe County Health District.
"We already saw in the U.K. that it took over in the course of a month."
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.indiatoday.in/coronavirus-outbreak/video/kerala-to-impose-complete-weekend-lockdown-amid-spike-in-covid-19-cases-1834266-2021-07-29
http://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/otx2f0/kerala_to_impose_complete_weekend_lockdown_amid/
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
Kerala & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9496075/Mothers-legs-erupt-horrifying-rash-blisters-getting-AstraZenecas-Covid-vaccine.html
Mother's legs erupt in agonising blood-filled blisters 'after getting
AstraZeneca's Covid vaccine' - as 34-year-old reveals rare reaction left >>> her wheelchair-bound and fearing she'd need her limbs amputated
Sarah Beuckmann, 34, from Glasgow, had rashes and blisters on her legs
Mother-of-one said they appeared about a week after she got her first dose >>> British skin experts said the symptoms looked like a reaction to the jab >>> By LUKE ANDREWS HEALTH REPORTER FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 11:52 EDT, 21 April 2021 | UPDATED: 12:03 EDT, 23 April 2021
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A mother has claimed her legs erupted into painful blood-filled blisters >>> that 'merged together' after receiving AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine. >>>
Sarah Beuckmann, from Glasgow, said she suffered flu-like symptoms after >>> getting her first dose in mid-March — a very common side-effect. But the >>> 34-year-old began to feel a tingling sensation in her legs just a week
later and noticed a rash flaring up around her ankles.
She called the GP to arrange an appointment that morning, but by the
afternoon her skin was already breaking out into blisters.
Read More
The mother-of-one was rushed to Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, and >>> claimed at one point she feared her legs might have to be amputated.
Ms Beuckmann spent 16 days in hospital, with blisters also appearing on
her hands, face, arms and bottom. She was discharged to recover at home
but is wheelchair-bound because she struggles to walk due to the
bandages on her legs and blisters on the soles of her feet.
British skin experts told MailOnline it appeared she had suffered an
extremely rare reaction to the vaccine.
Ms Beuckmann urged Britons to come forward to get the vaccine, revealing >>> she told her story to raise awareness — 'not to scare people'. Her
doctor has advised that she shouldn't get her second dose because of her >>> reaction.
Sarah Beuckmann, 34, from Glasgow, claims her legs, arms, hands and face >>> erupted into blisters and rashes after she got the AstraZeneca vaccine +6
Sarah Beuckmann, 34, from Glasgow, claims her legs, arms, hands and face >>> erupted into blisters and rashes after she got the AstraZeneca vaccine
The mother-of-one said she was on the wards for 16 days, and doctors
told her she had suffered a reaction to the AstraZeneca vaccine +6
Pictured are rashes and blisters that appeared on her hands +6
The mother-of-one said she was on the wards for 16 days, and doctors
told her she had suffered a reaction to the AstraZeneca vaccine
British skin experts told MailOnline it appeared the mother had suffered >>> a reaction to the AstraZeneca vaccine +6
British skin experts told MailOnline it appeared the mother had suffered >>> a reaction to the AstraZeneca vaccine
Ms Beuckmann, who works in retail, said at one point she feared her legs >>> might have to be amputated. But she is now on the mend at home after
being discharged from hospital +6
Ms Beuckmann, who works in retail, said at one point she feared her legs >>> might have to be amputated. But she is now on the mend at home after
being discharged from hospital
WHAT ARE THE SIDE-EFFECTS OF THE ASTRAZENECA COVID VACCINE?
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has
listed the below as side-effects of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Very Common (may affect more than one in 10 people)
Tenderness, pain, warmth, itching or bruising where injection is given;
Generally feeling unwell;
Feeling tired (fatigue);
Chills or feeling feverish;
Headache;
Feeling sick (nausea);
Joint pain or muscle ache.
Common (may affect up to one in 10 people)
Swelling, redness or lump at the injection site;
Fever;
Being sick (vomiting) or diarrhoea;
Flu-like symptoms, such as high temperature, sore throat, runny nose,
cough and chills.
Uncommon (may affect up to one in 100 people)
Rash, excessive sweating or itchy skin.
Feeling dizzy;
Decreased appetite;
Abdominal pain;
Enlarged lymph nodes;
Source: MHRA
It is not clear why Ms Beuckmann, who works in retail, was invited for a >>> vaccine as Scotland's roll-out is still mopping up over-50s.
But jabs are available to those who are considered at risk from the
virus, or live with someone classed as vulnerable.
More than 33million Britons — or three in five adults — have already
received at least one dose of a vaccine.
At least 20million have had AstraZeneca's jab — which drug regulators
say causes a rash in 1 per cent of cases. Rashes tend to go away on
their own within a week.
Ms Beuckmann told the Daily Record that her rash started just around her >>> ankles — prompting her to ring her GP, who asked to see her.
As the day progressed, her rash became worse and she asked her husband
to take her to A&E. Doctors flagged that she had a high heart rate and
carried out further tests.
In an attempt to work out what triggered the rash, medics also carried
out tests for HIV, herpes and other skin conditions — but the results
all came back negative.
Doctors eventually decided the vaccine caused her rare reaction after
carrying out two biopsies, the Scottish newspaper reported.
Ms Beuckmann was then given steroids to calm her immune system down and
stop the reaction. She said the drugs — which weren't named — are
'helping'.
Speaking about her concern when she was admitted, she said: 'At one
point I was sitting there thinking "Am I going to have my legs
amputated?" because I didn't know what was going on and obviously this
is new to the hospital staff as well.
'For the first eight or nine days I was on quite a bit of morphine but I >>> started to gradually come off the stronger stuff.
'They are starting to heal and they're looking a lot better than they
were but as the blisters started to get worse, they all sort of merged
together.
'I'm currently using a wheelchair as well just because I can't walk with >>> my legs getting bandaged up every day and the blisters on the soles of
my feet.'
Ms Beuckmann also praised the doctors and nurses at the hospital for
their efforts, and said despite her condition she thinks everyone should >>> get the jab.
'I'm still not an anti-vaxxer or anything, even now, but I'm not allowed >>> to get the second dose to be on the safe side,' she said.
'I just want people to be aware that there are some reactions that can
occur and not to ignore any rashes.
'It's not to scare people but just in case this does happen to anybody
else, it means they're going to get the treatment straight away.'
Dr Emma Wedgeworth, a consultant dermatologist and spokeswoman at the
British Skin Foundation, said Ms Beuckmann had likely suffered a
reaction to the jab.
'Vaccines are designed to activate the immune system,' she told MailOnline. >>>
'Occasionally people will have quite dramatic activation of their immune >>> systems which, as happened in this case, can manifest in their skin.
'This poor lady had a very severe reaction, which thankfully is
extremely rare.'
She added: 'While vaccines can cause, usually mild reactions, we know
that Covid-19 can fairly commonly cause significant changes in the skin
and throughout the body and can be life threatening.
'I would therefore urge people to continue to have the Covid vaccine and >>> to be vigilant about any side effects.'
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Ms Beuckmann said she is wheelchair bound while her wounds heal +6
Ms Beuckmann said she is wheelchair bound while her wounds heal
Britain's medical regulator - the Medicines and Healthcare products
Regulatory Agency (MHRA) - has 'robust' monitoring systems in place to
ensure all vaccines being distributed are safe and effective.
It asks for any suspected reactions to be reported to its yellow card
scheme.
This data is monitored by top medics, who then take a closer look if
they start to spot a potentially concerning side-effect.
But experts say it is very rare for concerning reactions after
vaccination because the jabs have already been through rigorous checks.
The MHRA recommended under-30s receive an alternative to AstraZeneca's
vaccine at the start of this month, after the jab was linked to very
rare blood clots.
Medical regulators have said the benefits of the jab clearly outweigh
the risk for all but the youngest patients — who face a tiny risk of dying. >>>
The MHRA has been contacted for comment.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-9826739/Minnesota-woman-legs-AMPUTATED-contracting-COVID-19-days-receiving-vaccine.html
Minnesota medical worker has both of her legs AMPUTATED after
contracting COVID-19 just days after receiving her second vaccine dose
Jummai Nache, from Minneapolis, Minnesota, received the second dose of
her COVID-19 vaccine on February 1
Days later, she felt chest pains and was rushed to the hospital, where
she tested positive for the virus
Doctors diagnosed her with arterial blood clots multiple inflammatory
syndrome (MIS), a condition where multiple organs in the body become
inflamed.
Jummai's health rapidly deteriorated and she had to have of her legs
amputated
Medical experts are unsure whether the vaccine caused her complications, >>> while her husband searches for answers
Jummai will soon need her hands amputated as well, though her heart has
fully recovered
By MANSUR SHAHEEN FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 11:50 EDT, 26 July 2021 | UPDATED: 04:14 EDT, 27 July 2021
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Jummai Nache (pictured) contracted COVID-19 in the days after she
received the second shot of a vaccine. Complications from the virus led
to her needing both legs amputated +3
Jummai Nache (pictured) contracted COVID-19 in the days after she
received the second shot of a vaccine. Complications from the virus led
to her needing both legs amputated
A Minnesota woman who contracted COVID-19 after getting vaccinated had
to have both of her legs amputated, and will soon have her hands
amputated as well.
Jummai Nache, a medical assistant from Minneapolis, received the second
dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on February 1.
A few days later on February 6, her husband, Philip, took her to urgent
care after she felt chest pains.
A day later, she tested positive for COVID-19, and her condition quickly >>> deteriorated, leading to hospitalization and eventual amputation.
Philip is now searching for answers to the true cause of his wife's
condition.
'Jummai and I were shocked when we received the result that she was
Covid-19 positive because she had not manifested any symptom before
taking the shot,' Philip wrote in a letter attached to a GoFundMe for
the couple.
'But we later accepted that perhaps, the virus and the vaccine together
contributed to the adverse reaction on her body based on the report of
the Infectious Disease physician that Jummai was asymptomatic.'
Read More
In the letter, Philip goes into detail about the conditions his wife
suffered, and the months of work with medical experts he undertook to
figure out what exactly happened.
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Philip Nache (right) is searching for answers after his wife was
hospitalized, and later required amputation, after getting vaccinated in >>> February +3
Philip Nache (right) is searching for answers after his wife was
hospitalized, and later required amputation, after getting vaccinated in >>> February
He said that his wife suffered from an arterial blood clot, respiratory
disease, cardiomyopathy (heart muscle disease), anemia, ischemia and
multiple inflammatory syndrome (MIS) - a condition where multiple organs >>> in the body become inflamed.
She was placed on a ventilator on February 14.
Jummai's case was referred to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) to investigate.
After a virtual call that included 70 to 80 health experts from around
the country, the CDC determined that COVID-19 and MIS combined were the
cause of her complications, according to the GoFundMe page.
Jummai Nache will soon need her hands amputated as well, though her
heart has fully recovered +3
Jummai Nache will soon need her hands amputated as well, though her
heart has fully recovered
The agency could not determine whether the vaccine played a role in her
condition, however.
Philip is not satisfied with the CDC's findings and still has questions. >>>
He wonders why he himself did not contract COVID from his wife despite
their close contact.
Philip says he also questions if the vaccine played a role in her
condition, and if not, what exactly did the vaccine do within her body.
'My experience on this journey has been so difficult but I can't imagine >>> the excruciating pain mentally, physically and emotionally that my wife
is going through,' he wrote.
'I can only equate her experience and challenge with job's experience
and trial in the sense that the challenges have come in degrees, one
after another.'
Jummai and Philip are Nigerian immigrants who came to America as church
planters as part of the Minnesota-Wisconsin Baptist Convention (MWBC) in >>> the Twin Cities.
The MWBC set up a GoFundMe for the couple, hoping to raise $500,000 to
help pay for their medical expenses, expenses for prosthetic limbs and
other adjustments the couple will have to make in their new life.
More than $100,000 has been raised for the couple as of Monday morning.
Philip reports that Jummai's heart is fully healed.
'We are grateful to God for His grace upon Jummai, the children and
myself as we go through this unprecedented experience and the painful
challenges! GOD KNOWS!' Philip wrote.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-58057380
Covid in Scotland: Most restrictions to end from 9 August
Published33 minutes agocommentsComments
Share
shop window pics
IMAGE SOURCEGETTY IMAGES
Almost all of Scotland's remaining Covid-19 restrictions are to end from >>> 9 August, Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed.
Social distancing will be dropped in most settings, meaning more
capacity in pubs and restaurants and larger crowds at sporting events
and concerts.
And close contacts of those who test positive for Covid will no longer
have to self-isolate - as long as they are fully vaccinated and test
negative.
However, the wearing of face coverings in some public spaces will continue. >>>
This will include secondary schools, where staff will need to maintain
1m physical distancing for the first six weeks of term and twice-weekly
testing will be required.
Live: Latest from Nicola Sturgeon's Covid-19 statement
Self-isolation of whole classes 'no longer routine'
Football clubs to host 5,000 without permission
The first minister also said a "gradual approach" will be taken to
returning workers to offices, warning that the virus still poses "real
challenges".
While the changes would restore a "substantial degree of normality", she >>> said they do not "signal the end of the pandemic or a return to life
exactly as we knew it".
She said: "Declaring freedom from or victory over this virus is in my
view premature."
The number of new Covid-19 cases has fallen markedly from the peak of
the "third wave", with Ms Sturgeon saying the infection rate had fallen
by two-thirds since early July.
drinker
IMAGE SOURCEPA MEDIA
image captionThe changes will allow hospitality venues to increase capacity >>> The percentage of tests coming back positive has also fallen, as has the >>> number of patients being admitted to hospital and intensive care wards
with the virus.
The first minister said uptake of the Covid-19 vaccine had been
"exceptional", and that this - along with the fall in cases - made it
possible to lift most of the legal restrictions still in force.
As of Monday, 9 August, the current limits on the number of people who
can meet up will be dropped, as will social distancing rules in most
settings.
This means nightclubs will be allowed to reopen, and larger crowds will
be allowed to gather for indoor and outdoor events - although organisers >>> of large events will still need to apply to local councils for permission. >>>
The rules around self-isolation will also change, meaning that
fully-vaccinated adults who are identified as a close contact of a
positive case will no longer have to isolate if they return a negative
PCR test.
school pupil
IMAGE SOURCEPA MEDIA
image captionThe use of face coverings will continue in secondary
schools for the first part of the new term
The government is still considering whether a certificate proving people >>> have been vaccinated will be needed to enter "higher-risk" events.
Ms Sturgeon confirmed that a "Covid status certification" app was under
development, but said she was "considering very carefully" whether such
a scheme would be appropriate.
She also said she would not hesitate to take the "tough decision" to
re-impose some local restrictions if there was a serious outbreak of the >>> virus, saying the government "will seek to take whatever action is
necessary to keep the country safe".
While most restrictions will be lifted, a number of "mitigations" will
remain in place, with Ms Sturgeon saying the harm of the virus "cannot
be underestimated".
The use of face coverings in enclosed spaces like shops, hospitality
venues and public transport will remain "for some time" to come, and
venues will still be expected to collect customer details for contact
tracing.
The first minister said it was "vital" that the return to working in
offices was a gradual one, saying employers should consider a "hybrid"
model of home and in-office work.
'Mixed bag'
The Scottish Parliament was recalled from its summer recess for the
announcement, giving opposition leaders the chance to question the first >>> minister on the plans.
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said the statement was a
"mixed bag", saying that "ongoing restrictions will hold Scotland's
recovery back".
He said: "We have moved beyond level zero - but still curbs remain in
place. Yet again the goalposts have been moved. We are at level minus
one or minus two, and still the government is clinging on to parts of
people's lives."
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said there was "definitely light at
the end of the tunnel", but said "we are at a crucial point for
Scotland's recovery".
He called for a "new approach" in the fight against the pandemic,
calling for increased support for the test and trace system and pop-up
vaccination clinics at sporting events and universities.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
https://archive.is/CKW9lThe only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, at
Disney’s new annual pass system does not bring the real magic:
vaccination requirements
The top of the Guardians of the Galaxy ride behind the Quinjet aircraft
The Disneyland Resort recently opened the Avengers Campus in Disney
California Adventure, which will now be easier for locals to access with >>> the return of an annual passport-style program.(Allen J. Schaben / Los
Angeles Times)
BY TODD MARTENS | GAME CRITIC
AUG. 3, 2021 6:47 PM PT
On Tuesday, seven months after the COVID-19 pandemic killed Disneyland’s >>> annual passport program, hundreds of thousands of the theme park’s
die-hard fans likely breathed a sigh of relief — the APs are back.
They’re called Magic Keys now, but beyond continuation of the parks’
reservation-based system, they look similar to the old program. Former
passholders’ worst fears — that the new passes would be priced
significantly higher or do away with a monthly payment plan — were not
made manifest.
Transitioning passports to a reservation-based system is a step in the
right direction, allowing the park’s biggest fans to maintain something
akin to the level of access they had in the past while limiting the idea >>> of Disneyland as a last-minute hang. But in this rapidly changing
pandemic-scarred world, there’s still one more leap we’d like to see
Disneyland — and all of Southern California’s theme parks — take.
In 2021, the only passport with any real currency is the one that
documents your COVID-19 vaccination.
Restaurants, bars, Broadway and even New York City are putting pressure
on people to get vaccinated by requiring proof of shots or a negative
COVID-19 test. Yet just days after Disney announced it would require
much of its workforce to be vaccinated, none of the Magic Keys, or
indeed any ticket to the resort, requires proof of vaccination.
A heartbreaking opportunity lost.
Whether you can stomach a day at a theme park or not, there’s no denying >>> Disneyland’s cultural resonance. When the park, along with much of the
state, shuttered in March 2020, it was an exclamation point for many on
the gravity of this pandemic. A place of optimism — a park built on the
belief in humanity’s ability to aspire to be better — had survived
multiple wars, recessions and national crises.
But it was no match for a virus.
And when, on April 30, Disneyland celebrated its second proper grand
opening since July 1955, it stood as a sign that we were emerging at
long last from more than a year of trauma. We may not be healed, but we
could once again visit a place with cross-generation memories embedded
into its every square inch and celebrate the myths, stories and fairy
tales that help us define our lives.
ANAHEIM CA APRIL 30, 2021 - Park visitors take a selfie in front of the
Walt Disney statue inside Disneyland as the theme park reopens for the
first time in more than a year on Friday, April 30, 2021.(Robert
Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
BUSINESS
Disneyland has a new annual pass program. Here’s everything you need to know
Aug. 3, 2021
Given the devotion millions feel to the Disney resorts in California and >>> around the world, it would have been nice to see the Magic Keys offer
more than just discounts and free parking for its top $1,399 “Dream”
key. A bolder nod to the modern war effort shouldn’t be a thing of
fantasy. Schools can close, office buildings can empty but Disneyland
remains a reset for many to life’s ills, a mini-respite from our
pandemic highs and lows.
Last week, in light of rising cases, Disneyland reinstated a mask policy >>> for indoor venues. But even some outdoor lines, such as those in
Fantasyland, cram guests in so tightly that everyone is essentially
sharing the same air, especially on windless SoCal days.
As Disneyland devotees know, great care is taken to maintain “the berm,” >>> which prevents Anaheim’s skyline from penetrating our sightlines from
the Magic Kingdom, but as long as the park isn’t fully pledging
allegiance to science, it’s doing far less to prevent invasion by the
highly infectious Delta variant.
As a regular parkgoer, I haven’t felt uncomfortable (although I do wear
a KN95 mask at all times and avoid the tight lines of the re-imagined
Snow White ride), but before the masking policy was reinstated, I did
worry about children under 12, who are not yet eligible for vaccination. >>> For them, for myself, for the families they return home to and for
America’s continued attempt to escape the grip of this pandemic.
So why not require proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test for
all vaccine-eligible guests? Disney has already proved it’s logistically >>> possible.
The French government is requiring a “health pass” to show proof of
vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test to enter most venues, including
Disneyland Paris, where there is an on-site testing center run by a
third party. Why can’t that happen here at the flagship resort? After
all, what are the recent changes to the classic Jungle Cruise ride to
rid it of racist caricatures if not an attempt to grow with the times,
to be a place where everyone feels welcome and comfortable?
Disneyland, Universal Studios and Knott’s Berry Farm shouldn’t be more
virus-risky than local bars and restaurants such as Osteria La Buca,
Akbar, the Short Stop, Gigi’s and Tramp Stamp Granny’s. Vaccine
requirements aren’t just common sense for the common good of society;
they’re also about the survival of our economy and our culture. So what
is arguably Southern California’s most famous international destination
should lead by example.
If this truly is — as that lovely Disney earworm tells us — a world of
hopes and a world of fears, let’s make sure the emphasis stays on the hope. >>
Disney & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
https://reason.com/2021/08/04/resist-de-blasios-vaccine-passport/
Resist De Blasio's Vaccine Passport
De Blasio's dataless call to create a class of citizens barred from
civic life is an intolerable imposition on New Yorkers' liberties.
BRIAN DOHERTY | 8.4.2021 12:50 PM
dpaphotosfive239397
(picture alliance / Luiz Rampelotto/EuropaNewswire/Newscom)
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's announcement that he intends, by >mayoral ukase, to make it illegal for someone without a city-approved >proof of vaccination to work at or be customers of the city's gyms, >entertainment venues, and indoor restaurants is a grotesquely >unconstitutional tyranny, annihilating human liberty of movement, >commerce, and association with a dangerously tenuous justification.
Even with de Blasio's dataless references to saving lives as the >justification for this move, and the admission that it won't (yet) be >extended to public transit, it is clearly a blatant attempt to harass
and punish Americans who have not yet gone along with months of state
and media pressure to get vaccinated, for whatever reason. That we know >the vaccinated also can transmit the virus makes the purely punitive >nature of his power grab all the more clear.
be atNew York currently has 72 percent of its adult population vaccinated
with at least one dose and, looking at the current rate of vaccination >over the past month, is adding around 130,000 to that vaccinated number >weekly?nother 2 percent of the city's adult population per week. This >means that by the time de Blasio begins enforcing this regulation about >five weeks from now, the city would likely even absent this threat
around 82 percent adults vaccinated.
Infectious diseases have always existed and for good reason have never, >at COVID-19's demonstrated level of serious harm, been seen as a >legitimate excuse to treat masses of other human beings as pure harms >that must be barred from large parts of the society and market.
Right now, a bit over 3 percent of New Yorkers who get tested are
testing positive for COVID. (Given what makes people decide to get >tested, this number likely represents the percentage of those who >actually feel ill or otherwise have testing demands made on them, not >necessarily proof that even that percentage of New Yorkers overall are >positive right now.) Over the past week, dozens of?ut never more than >50?OVID-positive New Yorkers have been admitted daily to hospitals, out >of roughly 700 daily new confirmed cases.
The daily average death numbers inspiring de Blasio's tyranny in New
York have been four a day over the past week. For what it's worth, the >percentage of black adult New Yorkers who will be barred from all these >businesses at the current vaccination rates under de Blasio's unique >approach to public accommodation law is 58 percent; of white adults, 43 >percent.
De Blasio did not even give the public the respect of explaining and >defending the data and risk calculations behind his vague handwaving >about "lives saved" and science. He made no attempt to explain what we >know (or don't know) about the risk an unvaccinated person presents of >causing serious harm to a vaccinated person, or the risk that anyone
will encounter someone transmitting COVID, nor did he detail the above >current numbers of cases, hospitalizations and deaths associated with >COVID, such that it justifies this punitive assault on the liberty of
the unvaccinated.
It has never been possible to run a risk-free human society, and our >current political class's attempts to pretend to do so (while failing) >get darker and more insane by the week. Public policy has made flailing >attempts to eradicate a virus in the past year. It cannot do so, and it >definitely hurts to try.
WhateverChloe Valdary: How Kendrick Lamar and The Lion King Can Help Close the >Racial Divide
The vaccine exists. People can mask as they will. The statistics about >those who are most likely to suffer serious harm are out there.
moretenuous excuses any public official might have for treating the >unvaccinated as a unique menace who must be driven from society get
currentabsurd by the day. The percentage of infected in New York is small, as >are the numbers hospitalized or dying. Harmful diseases are a fact of >human existence that cannot reasonably, certainly not at COVID's
takelevel of harm, be used to justify creating a second-class citizenry and >normalizing the idea of having to take actions one does not want to
our(as invasive as injected medical treatment without a long history or
culture's standard safety approval) and prove them via documents to
exist equally in society.
markWestern culture has always had a justifiably bad attitude about the
power towithout which one can neither buy nor sell, and people with the
stop you from going places demanding your papers. De Blasio cannot,
alas, be recalled, so New Yorkers' best option is a combination of >lawsuits against this power grab, mass civil disobedience of the laws, >and mass protests to show de Blasio?nd the government officials across >the country he wants to inspire to follow along?hat he has crossed a
line Americans won't tolerate.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
NYC & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/oxyg0w/are_icus_in_the_us_actually_full_as_headlines/
Are ICUs in the U.S. actually full as headlines claim?
Discussion
It's really interesting (and disheartening) to see the exact same repeat >>>of last year happening right now, where it's clear that those with the >>>loudest voices aren't interested in actually educating or informing the >>>public about accurate data or scientific findings, but instead seem >>>intent on creating as much confusion as possible by spreading "half >>>truths" and sensationalized opinions from "experts."
One such topic of confusion and disinformation at the moment is the
state of hospital and ICU capacities across the country, a topic which
is often used to justify lockdown measures or other restrictions. Every >>>day, major media headlines claim that ICUs are full, just like last
year, but upon further examination it appears many of these claims are >>>grossly exaggerated. But is there an easy way for regular people to see >>>the ACTUAL data for themselves, vs. just taking sensational media's word >>>for it?
To clarify, it certainly appears to be true that in many areas around
the country, there are increased admissions to hospitals and ICUs. But >>>the question is how does this compare to other times during the
pandemic, and how "full" are they? Do headlines match reality?
I came across this website that seems like it could be a good resource:
https://data.commercialappeal.com/covid-19-hospital-capacity/
You can look at every state and county in the U.S. and view current and >>>past hospital/ICU capacities for every hospital, plus COVID admissions. >>>It's apparently part of the USA Today network, and the data gathered is >>>purported to be straight from the U.S. Department of Health & Human >>>Services. If anyone knows any more about the validity of this site, >>>please share, but it looks to be legitimate (and you may be able to >>>verify numbers by looking at your state/county health department
websites if they make the data accessible).
I'm sharing this because it's good for people to be informed, and share >>>the REAL information with others, so we aren't beholden to believing >>>whatever claims are made in the headlines. For example, I've heard many >>>people claim that in my local area, ICUs were "overrun" at the peak
times of the pandemic, but a quick glance at this site shows that there >>>was never a case where all hospitals or ICUs were even close to full in >>>my area.
Here are some examples of sensational headlines that are being shared
and accepted as gospel across Reddit and elsewhere:
COVID-19: Oklahoma runs out of ICU hospital beds >>>https://www.birminghamstar.com/news/270565700/covid-19-oklahoma-runs-out-of-icu-hospital-beds
This headline is a blatant lie which is conflicted by the text of its >>>actual article, which includes quotes that show that ICU numbers may be >>>increasing, but have not "run out." Here's one quote: "According to a >>>local ER doctor in Oklahoma, several ICUs across the metro were "maxed >>>out or close to capacity" as COVID-19 hospitalizations continue to soar, >>>reported Fox News."
The article also mentions there's been a large reported increase in RSV >>>cases (which the headline conveniently leaves out)
Looking at the Commercial Appeal hospital tracking website above, it >>>looks like the majority of Oklahoma hospitals have space available, with >>>a number of them at below 70% ICU capacity.
Central Florida hospitals close to ICU capacity as COVID-19 cases increase >>>https://www.clickorlando.com/news/local/2021/07/20/central-florida-hospitals-close-to-icu-capacity-as-covid-19-cases-increase/
This one is interesting because one of the hospitals has an official >>>statement shared within the article that seems to conflict with the >>>fear-generating headline. AdventHealth, one of the Orlando area
hospitals listed as being at 93% ICU capacity, released this statement:
“It is typical for hospitals to have capacity figures in the 90th >>>percentile even in pre-COVID times, so these numbers do not cause for >>>concern or alarm. While we have seen an increase in hospitalizations in >>>Central Florida over the last few weeks, we still have significantly >>>fewer COVID patients compared to what we saw during the peak. Even
during the peak, at no point did we reach capacity."
As a disclaimer, I'm not a Covid-denier, and I am vaccinated. I believe >>>Covid has been a very serious problem, but that misinformation and >>>fearmongering are helping no one. People should be informed, the CDC and >>>other "health leaders" should be transparent and seek to educate the >>>population on data and actual risks posed to them and their communities, >>>rather than trying to manipulate people to behave a certain way with
half truths or withholding data.
The "actual risk" of COVID-19 infection faced by any given individual
will depend on the extent (duration/distance from source) of their
actual physical exposure to the virus at any given moment instead of >>statistics from the CDC and/or other "health leaders."
If anyone else has great data sources to share, please do!
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) >>finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage >>mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/oyouji/mandate_vaccination_for_everyone_including_all/
"Mandate vaccination for everyone, including all children" vs "The
vaccines are dangerous, deadly experiments" -- using England's age
demographics + Covid-19 mortality data to appeal for nuance +
proportionality in the vaccine debate
OCAnalysis
I write this post to discuss current national vaccination strategies, in >>> hope of finding a more balanced approach, which better reflects the
nuance of mortality risk from real world data.
I submit that The United Kingdom (and other countries) has become far
too focused on achieving arbitrary vaccination targets amongst the
young, who can be shown to be at very low innate risk of severe illness
and death from Covid-19. Therefore, the relative benefits of pushing for >>> vaccinations amongst younger and younger people (using progressively
more draconian and coercive methods), will only produce diminishing
returns. I hope that any future policy proposals are better calibrated
towards acknowledging the extreme risk disparity between the young and
the old. The risk disparity is so large that it also has profound
ethical implications for richer countries' duties to poorer countries,
with respect to vaccine donation.
It is with a sense of extreme frustration that I observe online
discussion regarding Covid-19 vaccines - a wide gulf of opinion has
opened between two opposing, entrenched and aggressively vocal camps.
Either the vaccine is a medical miracle, our ticket out of the pandemic
and should be mandated to every man, woman and child on the planet. Or,
it is a dangerous experiment that is being forced on people against
their will, that shows little benefit of efficacy and has dangerous,
potentially deadly side-effects.
Actually, there are several COVID vaccines to choose from for the
unvaccinated each with different side-effect profiles.
I propose that, by analysing available data, a different picture
emerges. One which suggests a more balanced understanding of where mass
vaccination is, and crucially isn't, appropriate; that an age-targeted
vaccination approach would be most effective at preventing Covid-19
fatalities. This suggestion is certainly nothing new - if we re-wind to
the end of 2020, the UK Government was keen to announce the national
vaccine rollout, targeted specifically to the oldest and most vulnerable >>> as priority. In a predictable example of "mission creep", this sensible
strategy morphed into an insistence that all individuals must be
vaccinated, irrespective of age, co-morbities and previous infection.
Instead of "mission creep," the UK being overwhelmed with the Alpha
variant during the end of 2020 showed that unchecked spread of
infection among the unvaccinated would increase the likelihood of new
variants b/c of more mutations happening when there are more
infections.
By combining age-stratified mortality data, vaccination data and UK
demographic data, it becomes easier to understand why age is the most
important factor in the cost benefit calculation for vaccines:
r/LockdownSkepticism - "Mandate vaccination for everyone, including all
children" vs "The vaccines are dangerous, deadly experiments" -- using
England's age demographics + Covid-19 mortality data to appeal for
nuance + proportionality in the vaccine debate
Figure 1: Age Demographic data + age based Covid-19 data
Figure 1: Source 1, Source 2 + Source 3
In Figure 1, we can observe that ages 60 and over account for 92% of all >>> Covid-19 mortality, an overwhelming majority, from just 24.1% of the
total population. By contrast, ages 0-40 account for just 0.8% of total
mortality, despite representing 49.8% of the total population.
Therefore, the skewing of risk towards older age groups is so
overwhelming that we should also expect relative benefits of
vaccinations to be equally asymmetrical.
This can be demonstrated through a thought experiment. Imagine that, in
March 2020, we had the ability to click our fingers and 100% double
vaccinate everyone in the UK. From recent Israeli data, we know that
vaccines do not bestow sterilising immunity; double vaccinated people
are still capable of showing symptoms, spreading the virus to others,
being hospitalized and dying, but at reduced rates. Let us assume that
the virus spreads in a similar epidemic wave through the whole
population (although in reality this would be a flattened curve due to a >>> vaccine-slowed rate of spread; yet the total number of exposed
individuals would be the same). Looking specifically at reduction of
mortality, if we assume a vaccine efficacy of 90%, we can compare the
following two examples:
Ages 80+*: Population demo size: 2,855,599, Number of recorded deaths
overall: 47,052 (approx 54% of total recorded deaths) So, if we assume
the vaccine reduces death by 90%, and we could have achieved 100%
vaccination on day 1 of the pandemic, 0.90 * 47052 = 42,347 deaths could >>> have been prevented.*
This translates to 1 life saved for every 67.4 doses given, amongst this >>> age group.
Ages 0-19: Population demo size: 13,330,355, Number of recorded deaths
overall: 45 (approx 0.1% of total recorded deaths) So, if we assume the
vaccine reduces death by 90%, and we could have achieved 100%
vaccination on day 1 of the pandemic, 0.90 * 45 = 41 deaths could have
been prevented.
This translates to 1 life saved for every 329,144 doses given, amongst
this age group.
The above example shows the staggering disparity in the relative benefit >>> of vaccinating the very old versus the very young. In this particular
case, vaccinating the old is nearly 5,000 times more effective at
reducing mortality per vaccine administered.
The same argument applies if you use a range of assumed values for
vaccine efficacy: (highlighting 70 to 90% in green because it is likely
to fall into this range)
r/LockdownSkepticism - "Mandate vaccination for everyone, including all
children" vs "The vaccines are dangerous, deadly experiments" -- using
England's age demographics + Covid-19 mortality data to appeal for
nuance + proportionality in the vaccine debate
Figure 2: Range of assumed values (0 to 100%) of Vaccine Efficacy
(Reduction of Mortality) + Number of Vaccine Doses required to prevent 1 >>> death
In Figure 2, we observe that, irrespective of reduction in mortality
provided by the vaccine, there will always be a wide disparity in the
number of doses required to prevent 1 death.
This metric is useful because, with simple multiplication of "number of
doses required to prevent 1 death" by the cost of a common vaccine, you
can derive "cost of vaccination to prevent 1 death". In the following, I >>> use a cost of $23.15 USD for Pfizer (source) x 2 for the required double >>> dose:
r/LockdownSkepticism - "Mandate vaccination for everyone, including all
children" vs "The vaccines are dangerous, deadly experiments" -- using
England's age demographics + Covid-19 mortality data to appeal for
nuance + proportionality in the vaccine debate
Figure 3: Cost of vaccination to prevent 1 death, for a range of assumed >>> values (0 to 100%) of Vaccine Efficacy (Reduction of Mortality)
Figure 3 demonstrates the diminishing returns which vaccination of
increasingly younger groups incurs. For the 20 - 39 age group, at 90%
vaccine efficacy, we should expect an average cost of $1,214,883 USD to
save one life. Compared to the extremely modest cost of $3,122 to save
an 80+ individual.
How should the age-related risk disparity affect vaccine policy?
Having recognised that such diminishing returns exist, I offer my own
opinions on what a proportionate mass vaccination strategy would look
like below:
80+ In this age group, everyone should be fully vaccinated. For every 60 >>> to 80 jabs administered, another life is saved. Education campaigns and
every reasonable form of social pressure should be applied to the
unvaccinated (although there aren't very many of them in the UK, less
than 5% left non double vaxxed). The financial cost per life saved is
modest and well within medical norms.
60-79 As above, but 300 - 450 jabs administered per life saved.
40-59 More marginal but definitely worth mass vaccinating, England has
more than 80% in this category already double-vaxxed, but focussing on
the remaining 20% would be beneficial.
20-39 Once you get into 20-39, 1.2 million to 1.6 million dollars per
life saved is a staggeringly high cost; Higher than your average
individual would contribute in an entire lifetime to tax revenue. But if >>> people choose it for themselves, and the medical cost benefit ratio is
low (this will vary depending on individual circumstances) then they
should have access to voluntary vaccinations. Pushing for arbritrary
targets in this demographic should not be done (currently around 35% are >>> double vaccinated in the UK).
There is no justification for policies which coerce or bribe people in
younger age categories to take up this vaccine, if they don't choose it
for themselves. Allowing them to acquire natural immunity via exposure
will achieve similar results with respect to mortality, because deaths
are so rare in this demographic anyway (current total mortality rate of
0.0042%)
0-19 - No mass vaccinations should be considered in this group. At
estimated costs of 13 to 20 million dollars per life saved and a total
mortality rate of just 45 out of 13,000,000, this group is already
innately close to zero risk of mortality prior to vaccination.
Donation of vaccines to poorer countries
As the above numbers show, there is an estimated 5,000 times greater
benefit for each vaccine administered to a person aged 80+ compared to
ages 0-19. This makes the ethical argument opposing vaccinating
teenagers in Western countries (versus donating those same vaccines to
poorer nations for their old people), overwhelming - in a vaccine supply >>> limited world, how can we accept giving vital vaccines to individuals
who will experience nearly zero benefit?
If we do not change course on these policies, I fear people of the
future will view our decision making as profoundly selfish and immoral.
Conclusion
I wish to make it clear that I am not opposed to vaccination. I think
the benefits of vaccines for the vulnerable are undeniable, clearly
outweigh the risks and I would strongly recommend anyone who falls into
older age groups or has co-morbidities to get vaccinated as soon as
possible. However, the benefits of vaccination should not be
exaggerated. If Covid-19 affected all age demographics equally, there
would be no debate here, but we know this is not the case.
Younger people are now more likely to be hospitalized and to die from
COVID-19 when infected with the more contagious/pathogenic variants.
How much more likely?
A key part of good public health leadership is being clear and honest
about the data that is available, to ensure that the trust of the public >>> is maintained. It is not unreasonable to expect public health policies
to be proportionate to the real world risks, and I think the current
policies do not adequately meet this standard.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://ethicsalarms.com/2021/08/06/end-of-week-ethics-bombs-8-6-21/
1. Well, I’ve been spoiling for a fight, shopping around Northern
Virginia and fining myself one of the few unmasked. So far, nobody’s
said a word, but anyone who does is in for it. I’ve been vaccinated
twice and probably had a mild, symptom-free infection before that. I
have always been unusually resistant to viruses. Mask fog up my glasses
and make me miserable. If you have chosen not to get your shots, swell,
that’s your choice, but your exercise of personal liberty is not going
to restrict mine without a fight. And don’t tell me I have to wear a
mask so phobics feel “safe.” That’s not my problem either. I am not
inclined to “social distance,” either. The mask fetish is going to
strangle community, society and the joy of life unless we draw some hard >>> lines. I’m drawing.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.wral.com/coronavirus/durham-face-mask-requirement-goes-in-effect-today/19816430/
Durham face mask requirement goes in effect today
Tags: coronavirus, face mask
Posted August 7, 2021 4:25 p.m. EDT
Updated August 9, 2021 11:00 a.m. EDT
By Sydney Franklin, WRAL multiplatform producer & Aaron Thomas, WRAL
reporter
DURHAM, N.C. — Everyone must wear face masks indoors in Durham,
according to a new state of emergency from county and city officials.
The new state of emergency will go into effect on Monday at 5 p.m.
Face masks will be required in any indoor public place, businesses or
establishment, even for people who have been vaccinated.
A New Surge at an ICU in California Triage tents back up at Duke
Hospital as COVID-19 cases spike
Officials said the new state of emergency stems from the rise in
COVID-19 cases from the Delta variant.
"I think it's a great idea. I 100 percent support it. We don't know what >>> the virus is doing and we are back where we were," said Durham resident
Natalia Harwood.
ADVERTISING
Over the past month, the percent positive rate of infections in Durham
County has doubled from 2.3 percent to 4.6 percent, according to officials. >>>
On Friday, North Carolina reported 4,506 new cases -- which is nearly 20 >>> times higher than the number the state reported a month ago.
"This is a direction we did not want to move in," said Durham Councilman >>> Mark-Anthony Middleton. "We're not out of the woods yet. We're better
off than we were before, but we're not out of the woods yet."
Middleton said city officials aren't looking to arrest or fine people
for not wearing a mask. Ultimately, Middleton said it's up to businesses >>> and neighbors to look out for each other.
North Carolina's state mask mandate expired on July 30. Gov. Roy Cooper
has pressed businesses statewide to verify whether employees are
vaccinated against coronavirus, and, if not, require them to wear masks
and take weekly virus tests.
The push won’t be a requirement for businesses, but "a strong
recommendation," Cooper said.
Matt Calabria, chair of the Wake County Board of Commissioners, said
Wake County has no "immediate plans to require that the general public
wear masks indoors."
In late July, Wake County leaders announced masks would be required in
county buildings, such as libraries, courthouses and EMS facilities.
In Durham, Exotique Clothing Store manager Hakim Zayid-Bey said the new
mandate doesn't impact his business much.
"I never took down the sign for masks," he said. "It's always good if
somebody has a cold or cough."
Durham Mayor Steve Schewel encouraged residents to get vaccinated to
help "curb the development of variants."
"The city and county are also doubling down on our efforts to take
vaccines into many of our communities," Schewel said in a press release. >>>
Schewel said that instituting a mask mandate was to help protect
residents and their vulnerable neighbors.
Harwood said she'll do what needs to be done to keep her family safe.
"Putting a mask on is the least you can do," she said.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://ethicsalarms.com/2021/08/09/facts-dont-matter-charles-blow-says-vaccination-resistance-is-donald-trumps-fault
Facts Don’t Matter: Charles Blow Says Vaccination Resistance Is Donald
Trump’s Fault
AUGUST 9, 2021 / JACK MARSHALL
Chart vaccine
The New York Times has a lot of Trump Deranged op-ed writers, a lot of
jackasses, and quite a few race-baiters in the mix as well. None scores
as high in all three categories as the arrogant Charles M. Blow. His
continued presence on the Times opinion pages is a continuing insult to
black pundits everywhere. Blow obviously only has his job because he is
black, and if this is the best the most prestigious paper in the country >>> could do in seeking “diversity,” “The Bell Curve” was more accurate than >>> we thought. But Blow isn’t the best, or even one of the best, black
pundits the Times could employ, and he’s unbearably pompous to boot.
Yesterday Blow’s column was titled “Anti-Vax Insanity.” I have not read
a Blow column for more than a year, but this made me think, “Gee, a
column from Blow that doesn’t involve foaming at the mouth over Donald
Trump!” Silly me. Here is how it starts:
“Nothing better exemplifies the gaping political divide in this country
than our embarrassing and asinine vaccine response. Donald Trump’s
scorched earth political strategy has fooled millions of Americans into
flirting with death. And now thousands are once again dying for it.”
Later he writes,
“Why were Americans turning away a vaccine that many people in other
parts of the world were literally dying for? Many did so because of
their fidelity to the lie and their fidelity to the liar. They did it
because they were — and still are — slavishly devoted to Trump, and
because many politicians and conservative commentators helped Trump
propagate his lies.”
Blow managed to find one poll —you know, polls—that kind of backed his
thesis if you squint hard and aren’t thinking clearly, except that it
doesn’t mention Donald Trump at all. That’s a pretty big “except.” What
the poll shows is that more Republicans than Democrats distrust the
vaccine and object to the government telling them they have to take the
shots. Well, that would have been the result if Donald Trump had never
been born, and whether the vaccine was deadly or conveyed immortality.
Blow doesn’t even read his own paper. The Times did one of the
investigative reporting jobs that keeps me subscribing—barely!—at the
beginning of the month with a front page feature headlined, “Who are the >>> unvaccinated in America? There’s no one answer.”
Remember: Blow just wrote that the one answer is “Trump.”
The piece has 3363 words. “Trump” appears once, in a paragraph near the
end describing an 82-year-old man who has been avoiding vaccinations all >>> his life:
“Mr. Sims always managed to take a bathroom break. He said he would
emerge after his turn had passed. Now he lives in Houston and identifies >>> as more of a libertarian than a Republican, though he voted for Donald
J. Trump in November. But Mr. Sims was emphatic that his politics have
not shaped his near lifelong antipathy to vaccines. ‘It has to do with
my civil rights,’ he said. ‘The United States government’s main job is
to protect me from foreign and domestic enemies. Not my health. I’m in
charge of my health.'”
Got it. It’s all Donald Trump’s fault. Clear as a bell.
Blow, for such a pompous ass, doesn’t comprehend basic logic or the
significance of correlations. People who don’t trust the government
tended to support Trump, and people who don’t trust the government tend
to be wary of the vaccine. That doesn’t make Trump responsible for
vaccine resistance, or even suggest it. Indeed, Trump sees the
development of the vaccine on his speedy timetable as a personal
accomplishment. He has urged Americans to get vaccinated. Never mind. To >>> Blow and those like him—it’s horrifying to consider that anyone’s like
him—Trump is responsible for everything and anything they don’t like.
The Times’ list of reasons why people are not getting vaccinated is
interesting, and it also doesn’t include “President Trump.” The #1
reason is fear of side-effects. That may be overblown, but it isn’t
“insane.” #2 is “Waiting to see if safe.” Well, how long are they going
to wait? Still not “insane.” 27% don’t trust the government. That’s
amazing: it should be close to 100%. The public has listened to the
flip-flops, obfuscations and lies of Dr. Fauci and the CDC; it has seen
mayors and governors and the Speaker of the House insist that wearing
masks and social distancing were essential and then see them break their >>> own rules, and often lie about it.
In another chart (above), the Times tries to track the demographic
profiles of those who are waiting for more information about vaccines
compared to those who say they will not consider them. It exposes Blow’s >>> deceptive representation of the Monmouth poll. It is true that the
“NeverVax” group is overwhelmingly GOP, but the “wait and see” group is
pretty evenly divided between Donkeys and Elephants. Both groups aren’t
vaccinated.
Charles Blow’s Trump-Deranged, partisan distortion is, in short,
disinformation. Yes, it’s opinion, but it is opinion sanctified by being >>> published in the Times, by a writer the Times is presenting as
responsible and worthy of attention. It’s just the kind of
disinformation—from the Left, in other words, calculated to nourish hate >>> and disvision— that the social media platforms won’t censor, and that
the New York Times will publish….even if its own pages expose it as
divisive, malicious lies.
"The former guy" is being blamed for vaccine hesitancy among his
followers just as our LORD Jesus Christ of Nazareth was blamed for His
followers not fasting to stop the sin of gluttony (little did the
Pharisees know that holding ourselves to the right daily amount also
stops the sin of gluttony).
A leader will be blamed for the sins of their followers.
To not do our part to stop the pandemic is a sin.
So let's follow the LORD, Who is wonderfully hungry (
http://bit.ly/Lk2442 ) and Who is willing to help us stop the
pandemic, instead of "the former guy" who isn't either.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:He is urging people not to get the vaccine because it led to vaccine
http://ethicsalarms.com/2021/08/11/comment-of-the-day-comment-of-the-day-theater-ethics-meets-pandemic-ethics/
Comment Of The Day: “Comment Of The Day: ‘Theater Ethics Meets Pandemic
Ethics…’”
AUGUST 11, 2021 / JACK MARSHALL
It has been a hugely informative and entertaining knockdown, drag-out
comment battle over vaccine hesitancy the last few days on not just one
but two posts on the topic. It’s time to add another. One irony of long
comment threads, which make me happy as a blog proprietor, is that many
readers don’t have the patience to pick through them. I’m sometimes
guilty of that myself.
This Comment of the Day by Ryan Harkins on Humble Talent’s own
provocative (to understate it) Comment Of The Day on my post, “Theater
Ethics Meets Pandemic Ethics: If I Were Still Running My Theater Company >>> And We Had A Large Cast Show In Production…” deserves to be highlighted. >>> Here it is (and I forgive Ryan for not calling the virus by it’s
rightful, earned non-partisan name.)
***
First, I want to take exception to conflating hesitancy to take the
COVID-19 vaccines and anti-vaxxers. There’s a huge difference between
being skeptical about one particular vaccine and being skeptical about
all vaccines. And conflating the two blurs the issues and dismisses out
of hand legitimate arguments and concerns.
I stand in an odd position, because I oppose getting any of the COVID-19 >>> vaccines, and I have been vaccinated. I took the double doses of the
Moderna vaccine when it became available at my workplace. Was it to
protect my family (my wife is pregnant with our fourth)? Not at all.
We’re all healthy, and the odds of the coronavirus having any effect
other than a harsh cold for my household is surprisingly small. Was it
because my workplace pressured me into it? No, though I will cite that
the 14 days paid sick time goes away if I snag a sufficiently large
batch of SARS-CoV-2 and I’m not vaccinated.
So why did I get the vaccine? At the time, I believed it the right thing >>> to do to help the efforts of reaching herd immunity. So what has changed >>> since then? Let’s consider my thinking, meandering as it is.
I don’t think there’s any legitimate argument against the efficacy of
the vaccines, especially the Moderna and Pfizer variants. I agree they
reduce the infection rate, they reduce the virulence of infections, and
they reduce the death rates. I also think, from a standpoint of trying
to reach heard immunity, the vaccines go a good way towards
accomplishing that.
Do I support people in their hesitancy with regards to the long-term
side effects? Absolutely. We’ve had tremendous success with vaccines
over the course of the last century or more. Vaccines are one aspect
that has helped us achieve such extended lifespans. But we’ve also seen
drugs and vaccines and therapies come onto the market, and then have
their approval revoked when some unanticipated side effects emerge. mRNA >>> vaccines have been under development for 20 years or more, but until now >>> they’ve never been marketed. There’s bound not only to be side-effects,
but a large number of unanticipated side-effects, and it is reasonable
to want to wait until more information is available. Certainly an FDA
approval (which is rumored to be coming soon for Pfizer) would go a long >>> way to assuage fears. Until then, it is reasonable to wait. But that’s
not the reason I’m opposed to taking the vaccines.
Do I look at the numbers? Yes, I do. Does it appear that currently there >>> are higher rates of side-effects reported than for any other vaccine in
recent history? Yes. VAERS is seeing a surge in reporting on the
COVID-19 vaccines. AstraZeneca and Johnson and Johnson were halted in
places over concerns of larger-than-expected numbers of side-effects.
Does this justify not getting the vaccine? Not necessarily. This is a
balancing act. If the side-effects of the vaccine are less frequent in
cases and severity than acquiring COVID-19 naturally, then the numbers
still recommend the vaccine. And I believe the numbers currently show
the balance to be in favor of the vaccines. This could potentially flip
with the Delta, Lambda, Omicron, Babylon 5, or Death Star variants, but
we still have to wait for time and data to reveal what’s happening
there. So that’s also not my reason for opposition.
So why I am opposed to getting the vaccine? In true “Retards for
Freedom” [Editor’s Note: this is a reference to Humble Talent’s COTD.]
fashion, I’ll cite freedom. Not from a standpoint of my-body-my-choice,
because I don’t believe that. (I oppose abortion, remember?) It doesn’t
pass a societal test, and it doesn’t pass the Catholic moral theology
test. But there’s a greater concern going on here, and I believe it is
encapsulated in the vaccine passports and the threat to freedom that
represents. Vaccine passports are the gateway drug into the full
oppression of a populace. Show your party credentials, or you’ll be
thrown out. We’re already seeing that New York. No restaurant access
without the passport. And if the government can get away with forcing
such passports on us, do you really, truly, honestly think they’ll stop
there?
Maybe I’m being heavily influenced right now as I’m reading “The Rise
and Fall of the Third Reich” by William Shirer (“Hi, my name is Ryan,
and I’m falling into the ‘my opponents are Nazis trap…’”), but it
certainly seems that if the government can revoke rights because of
crises, they will continue to create crises so they can continue
revoking rights. Eventually they will have such a precedent of success
in revoking rights that they’ll just do it without a crises. And by
then, it will be too late.
Will more people die if people don’t get vaccinated? Probably. But
that’s the cost of pushing back against the totalitarian mindset
besieging us. I see this in the same light as the gun debate. Yes, more
people will die due to guns by keeping gun ownership a right. But it is
a cost that has to be paid to keep freedoms intact.
To oppose others getting vaccinated, while confessing one has gotten
vaccinated is confessing to hypocrisy which is confessing to a sin.
passports, which will be a slippery slope to the government taking away
more freedom.
Moreover, not doing our part to stop the COVID-19 pandemic is also a
sin.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/covid-19-coronavirus-new-zealands-elimination-plan-let-down-by-allies/LCZF5AZYNXLVNGIOKUVEFD25UY/
Covid 19 coronavirus: New Zealand's elimination plan 'let down by allies' >>> 11 Aug, 2021 03:15 PM
11 minutes to read
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Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has set out a plan to start re-opening the >>> borders, starting with a trial this year of home isolation or shorter
MIQ stays for selected travellers
Derek Cheng
By: Derek Cheng
Derek Cheng is deputy political editor for the New Zealand Herald
derek.cheng@nzme.co.nz
18
Leading epidemiologist Sir David Skegg says New Zealand has been "let
down by its allies" in its fight to eliminate Covid-19.
Skegg is the chair of an independent panel of experts who yesterday
provided advice to the Government on its ongoing Covid response strategy. >>>
The Prime Minister responded this morning. She has set out a plan to
start re-opening the borders from next year, starting with a trial
between October and December of self-isolation for vaccinated New
Zealanders arriving back into the country.
That would be followed by the phased resumption of quarantine-free
travel in the future. The plan would eventually see three "pathways of
travel" into New Zealand.
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For full coverage of the Government's blueprint, click here
Virus 'still winning the war'
Speaking at this morning's press conference, Skegg said despite vaccine
development the virus was "still winning the war".
New Zealand's allies could have pursued an elimination strategy, Skegg
said, but they chose not to.
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"Many of the countries that could have eliminated Covid-19 either never
tried, or threw in the towel."
Each country had done its own thing. The independent channel chaired by
Helen Clark showed a weakened World Health Organisation unable to
provide the leadership required.
There were also new variants, including Delta, making the virus more
difficult to control.
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Referencing Winston Churchill, Skegg asked how he could have had a
detailed plan to defeat the enemy at the beginning of the war.
"Nor can we pretend to have a detailed plan with how we can reconnect
with the world over the next year or two."
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Advertise with NZME.
The priority was to get as many New Zealanders as possible protected by
vaccination by the end of the year. But by then there could be a new
variant, more challenging than Delta.
?
There would be, though, more known about vaccine efficacy, better
testing, and even potentially anti-viral technology that could
"completely change our attitude to this virus".
There however still needed to be a strategy, he said. The first question >>> his group looked at was if elimination was still viable. Many people had >>> said elimination was impossible.
"Well they were wrong," Skegg said.
He compared the New Zealand situation with that of Scotland, which had a >>> similar population. Here 26 people had died; there more than 10,000.
"We dodged a bullet," Skegg said.
But reopening borders and new variants raised further questions. The
experts concluded that at this stage elimination was not only viable but >>> the best option.
"It allows us to enjoy a lifestyle relatively unaffected by the ravages
of Covid-19 and protect our health service and economy."
The United Kingdom had a great vaccination rollout, with 84 per cent of
adults having antibodies from vaccination or past infection. Yet last
week they still had 627 deaths from Covid - equivalent of 48 a week
here, based on population.
There were also heavy social and work restrictions, with enforced mask
use and a fear of contagion.
This was a real thing in the world today.
"I hope not to spend the rest of my life shielding from others. I don't
want to spend the rest of my life looking at beautiful faces covered by
masks. We are going for gold and we may not succeed, if we don't achieve >>> high vaccination."
Along with high vaccination there also needed to remain precautions at
the border.
The group had suggested a gradual reopening, with quarantine-free travel >>>from low and medium-risk countries, with proof of vaccination, testing
and contact tracing measures.
This would occur from the beginning of next year, when everybody had a
chance to be vaccinated.
The group did not favour setting a vaccination target, rather aiming for >>> getting everybody vaccinated.
Lockdowns destroy business confidence: Rob Fyfe
Rob Fyfe told the press conference that, looking through a business
lens, what destroyed confidence and viability was lockdowns.
"Businesses need to do everything they can to support people to be
vaccinated."
There were many tools, including border measures, but lockdowns were the >>> inevitable consequence where they failed.
Businesses could help people be available to be vaccinated and create
understanding.
They could also encourage QR scanning and testing.
Strategies need to recognise M?ori community
Dr Maia Brewerton said in terms of the M?ori response, it was important
the strategies and vaccination rollout recognised community.
"At the heart of being M?ori, you put your wh?nau and community ahead of >>> yourself. That was very much what happened around New Zealand. It is not >>> unique to M?ori ... but it is very important what we do is led by our
communities."
It was clear from the rollout not one size fit all. The rollout needed
to be dynamic, adapt where needed, especially to reach out to the
marginalised and vulnerable.
"We need to focus on those who are not accessing the vaccine, change the >>> rollout if need be to meet those people, ask what we can do differently. >>> Nobody knows a community like that community, a wh?nau like that wh?nau. >>> People want the vaccine, but are not able to access it."
The Pasifika perspective
Dr Api Talemaitoga said equity needed to be at the heart of the
vaccination rollout.
From a Pasifika perspective, there needed to be greater focus on
education, location of vaccinations, but also on community.
It was worrying that hesitancy was used as a blame, and took away the
focus from education.
In terms of venue, Talemaitoga said it needed to be centred around the
community and what those communities value.
'If we do our jobs well we will get high rates of coverage': Bloomfield
Dr Ashley Bloomfield said he never felt vaccine hesitancy was the problem. >>>
"We know most people if they have information from someone they trust,
offered a vaccine in a setting by someone they trust they take up that
offer. If we do our job well we will get high rates of coverage."
Skegg said it was important as many as possible were vaccinated, because >>> if not it would be less effective.
It could mean the health service would be swamped, meaning delays for
elective surgery, and for things like cancer, heart attacks and stroke.
"I hope we can be unselfish and care about each other, we also need to
care about the whole.
"I hope we can beat the world at vaccination as well."
Asked about 12- to 15-year-olds being vaccinated before the school
holidays, Bloomfield said "watch this space".
They were still awaiting trial results and evidence around efficacy and
safety.
"We are watching like a hawk," he said.
'We have to open up': John Key
Meanwhile, former NZ Prime Minister Sir John Key says the Government
should adopt a telethon-style approach to boost vaccination numbers and
open up our borders by Christmas.
Key told Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking this morning that, rather than
aiming for elimination, the focus should switch to relaxing travel bans
and getting everyone a double jab in the coming months.
"We have to open up. We can't sit back forever where businesses and
families can't get in or out of New Zealand."
With the elimination strategy being abandoned in countries across the
globe, including Australia, the Government should admit it was no longer >>> a viable strategy, Key said.
Instead, it was important to get the population fully vaccinated and
live with the virus.
Key said the way to achieve this was to set vaccination targets that
were constantly screened, very much like telethon target totals.
"If you sit there and are going to say we are going to open up the
borders by Christmas and we're going to give everyone the chance to be
double jabbed by Christmas, why wouldn't you just be constantly running
it on the corner of the TV every single day between now and then with
the days left and the number of people jabbed?" he asked.
Earlier advice painted sobering picture
His comments came after Sir David Skegg said borders will re-open next
year after the vaccine rollout finishes, but only then will experts be
able to see if enough of the population is vaccinated to stay the
elimination course.
Skegg was speaking to the Herald after an expert panel he chairs
released its advice to the Government, and ahead of today's press
conference.
The group's advice, released yesterday, paints a sobering picture of an
uncertain future in a world still gripped by Covid-19, where overseas
travel is limited to the fully vaccinated and herd immunity is
unattainable, making public health measures an important part of the
elimination puzzle as border restrictions are eased.
The advice included a caveat that no one really knows what the Covid-hit >>> world will look like in three to five years, or even in six months'
time, which makes making promises about when the borders will reopen
problematic.
Sir David Skegg chairs an expert panel advising the Government on how
borders should re-open. Photo / Supplied
Sir David Skegg chairs an expert panel advising the Government on how
borders should re-open. Photo / Supplied
That was in part the reason the group didn't provide a target for when
the borders could start to re-open and enough people were vaccinated for >>> life to continue much as it does now - with few community Covid cases
that are quickly stamped out as they arise.
Skegg added that the number of unvaccinated port workers at the border
remained "a major concern", especially in light of the 98 port workers
in Tauranga who had a Covid-scare with the Rio de la Plata - only nine
of them were fully vaccinated.
"I was shocked by the low vaccination uptake by port workers in
Tauranga. Hopefully this is now being addressed."
In Australia, an expert panel similar to Skegg's one has suggested 80
per cent vaccination coverage of the eligible population before
international travel might be opened up more.
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"There is no way of determining this [level of vaccination coverage]
with any precision," Skegg told the Herald.
"We assume the re-opening of borders will start in a phased and
carefully monitored way early next year, when the vaccination rollout is >>> completed.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is responding to the expert panel, chaired >>> by Sir David Skegg, today. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is responding to the expert panel, chaired >>> by Sir David Skegg, today. Photo / Mark Mitchell
"Then we will discover whether the vaccination coverage achieved,
together with our recommended precautions, such as rapid testing of
travellers on arrival, plus strengthened public health and social
measures, will be enough to maintain elimination of Covid-19."
More open borders would inevitably lead to some outbreaks, but with a
high level of vaccination coverage and public health measures -
including localised lockdowns - these could be quickly stamped out.
Skegg said having large cohorts of unvaccinated people in different
pockets of New Zealand could endanger not only them, but the vaccinated
as well.
"The hospitals would be swamped and that would affect all kinds of
people, including those needing urgent cancer treatment. That has been a >>> major problem in other countries, such as the UK."
The first phase of the re-opening, the group suggested, should be for
fully vaccinated Kiwi travellers returning from short overseas trips to
low-risk countries.
That was in part because their vaccination status would be reliably
known, including which vaccine they've had - aspects that may not be so
easy to certify in other travellers.
Skegg couldn't say how long it would take to transition from there to
quarantine-free entry, but piloting each phase would provide some
insights to the timeline.
He said it would be ideal if the quarantine-free travel bubbles with
Australia and the Cook Islands became travel corridors for the fully
vaccinated.
That is already in the Government's thinking.
Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said yesterday re-opening the
transtasman travel bubble might only happen for New Zealand citizens or
those who are fully vaccinated.
Covid
The panel also points out the health system is still poorly resourced,
and Skegg has recommended a review of how the system would deal with
Covid-19 outbreaks.
"The relatively low provision of ICU beds per capita is certainly a
concern."
It was difficult to say for how long Covid-19 outbreaks and the
possibility of localised lockdowns would be part of the new normal.
"It is too hard to predict. This pandemic keeps surprising everyone, and >>> that is likely to continue."
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
N.Z. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://blockclubchicago.org/2021/08/12/more-than-200-lollapalooza-attendees-got-covid-19-but-it-wasnt-a-super-spreader-event-citys-top-doc-says/
"We would have seen a surge if we were going to see a surge, at this
point," Chicago Dept. of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said.
Block Club Chicago Staff
10:40 AM CDT on Aug 12, 2021
CHICAGO — Chicago’s top doctor said 203 people who attended Lollapalooza >>> tested positive for COVID-19 in the two weeks since the event began at
Grant Park.
Chicago Dept. of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Allison Arwady said the
results do not indicate Lollapalooza was a super-spreader event, saying
officials predicted seeing about 200 new cases.
Arwady, in a Thursday morning briefing, said 127 vaccinated people who
attended Lollapalooza later tested positive. An additional 76
unvaccinated people who attended tested positive.
Arwady said more positive test results could still come in from other
jurisdictions, but because of the amount of time that has passed, she
does not consider it a super-spreader event.
“We would have seen a surge if we were going to see a surge, at this
point” Arwady said.
“There’s no evidence of a super-spreader event, and there’s no evidence
of substantial impact to Chicago’s COVID epidemiology.”
Arwady said the city used a “conservative estimate” that 88 percent of
the 385,000 attendees were vaccinated. That calculates to 0.04 percent
of vaccinated people later testing positive — about 4 in 10,000 people.
Of the unvaccinated, 0.16 percent later tested positive, she said. That
is about 16 in 10,000 people.
Of the positives, 58 were Chicago residents, 138 were non-Chicago
Illinois residents and 7 were from out of state. She said the city, in
surveying for the results, took a broad view of potential infections and >>> counted anyone who tested positive and had been at the festival.
“We’re not saying all of these folks were infected at Lolla,” she said.
No hospitalizations or deaths were reported, she said.
Of the 58 Chicago residents infected, 13 told surveyors they attended
Lollapalooza “on or after the day their symptoms began,” Arwady said.
“This is a really important reminder we need everyone in Chicago not to
ignore symptoms, assume it’s a summer cold, regardless of your
vaccination status,” she said. “Because we know vaccines are not 100
percent effective.”
The news surprised those who were expecting a surge following the large
event. Arwady said the department came to the 203 number based on
surveys, contact tracing, emergency room visits and by consulting with
other health departments.
The city has been criticized for its lackluster contact tracing program, >>> but Arwady said the city did an extensive investigation into cases
linked to the festival.
Vaccinations:
• In Illinois, about 6.5 million people of all ages — or 51.26 percent
of the state’s 12.7 million people — have gotten all their COVID-19
vaccine shots, according to state data.
• Across the state, 27,611 vaccine doses are being administered per day, >>> based on a seven-day rolling average.
• Illinois and Chicago have administered at least 13,463,308 vaccine
doses of the 15,223,455 provided to them.
• City data shows more than 1.44 million Chicagoans — or 53.8 percent of >>> all residents — have gotten fully vaccinated. About 59.1 percent of all
Chicagoans have gotten at least one shot.
COVID-19 vaccinations are free and do not require insurance. Anyone can
call the city’s coronavirus hotline at 312-746-4835 to get more
information on how and where to get vaccinated in their community.
The numbers:
• Twenty-four Illinoisans were reported dead from COVID-19 since Wednesday. >>>
• At least 23,575 people have died from COVID-19 in Illinois, and
another 2,500 deaths are probably related to the virus, accordingw to
the state.
• The state reported 3,114 cases since Wednesday. That brings the total
number of confirmed cases in Illinois up to 1,454,208.
• Since Wednesday, 71,820 tests were reported statewide. In all,
27,536,684 tests have been reported in Illinois.
• Illinois’ seven-day positivity rate was at 5 percent. The figure
represents the percentage of people testing positive among recent tests. >>> It was at 5.1 percent Wednesday.
• Illinois’ seven-day test positivity rate, which measures the
percentage of tests that were positive, was at 5.8 percent. It was at
5.7 percent Wednesday.
• As of Wednesday night, 324 people with COVID-19 were in the ICU and
152 people with COVID-19 were using ventilators in Illinois.
• In Chicago, three deaths were reported since Wednesday. There have
been at least 5,539 deaths from COVID-19 in Chicago. The city is seeing
an average of more than two deaths per day, a 29 percent increase from
the week prior.
• Chicago has had 343 confirmed cases reported since Wednesday. It’s had >>> a total of 294,269 confirmed cases. An average of 364 confirmed cases
are being reported per day, a 39 percent increase from the week prior.
• At the same time, testing has increased 27 percent since a week ago.
• Chicago’s positivity rate was at 3.8 percent, up from 3.5 percent the
week prior.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
Chicago & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
https://archive.is/KoiLX
Restaurants Become the New Covid-19 Vaccine Enforcers—for Better or Worse >>>
James Lim, owner of Watson's Counter in Ballard, Wash. The restaurant in >>> suburban Seattle reopened earlier this month to dine-in customers who
are vaccinated against Covid-19.
James Lim, owner of Watson's Counter in Ballard, Wash. The restaurant in >>> suburban Seattle reopened earlier this month to dine-in customers who
are vaccinated against Covid-19.
Restaurants Become the New Covid-19 Vaccine Enforcers—for Better or Worse >>> Dining out in some places now requires proof of vaccination, putting
workers in tough spots; ‘people scream at us through the phone’
By Heather Haddon | Photographs by Chona Kasinger for The Wall Street
Journal
Aug. 15, 2021 5:30 am ET
Restaurant managers and hosts are being assigned a new job—vaccination
police—and it’s dividing businesses and customers.
Some U.S. municipalities are asking restaurants, bars and other
businesses to verify patrons’ Covid-19 vaccination status before they
can dine or drink indoors, much as some European nations have begun to
do. The local mandates come as some bars and restaurants have
voluntarily started asking patrons to prove their vaccination status,
including a growing number in Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Some restaurant owners checking diners’ vaccination status or a negative >>> Covid-19 test say the practices——intended to help move beyond the
pandemic——introduce new logistics.
Customers have canceled reservations and gotten angry when showing up
unaware of the new rules, some owners said. Some online reviews of their >>> restaurants now blast the new policies. Other owners say they and their
staff have received anonymous threats from people who accuse them of
infringing on individual freedoms and discriminating against the
unvaccinated.
“People scream at us through the phone. They say racist things. It’s all >>> about the vaccines,” said James Lim, owner of the Watson’s Counter
restaurant and cafe in the Seattle suburb of Ballard, Wash.
Watson’s Counter owner James Lim says the staff supported the voluntary
move to require indoor diners to show proof of vaccination.
Mr. Lim said his staff supported voluntarily instituting a
proof-of-vaccination requirement when the restaurant reopened for
dine-in service earlier this month. Many customers of the restaurant
welcomed the move, he said, but the hostility has troubled Watson’s
younger workers.
Thousands of other U.S. restaurants soon will be joining Watson’s.
Starting Monday, New York City restaurants must verify that a customer
has had at least one dose of a vaccine before entering to eat, with city >>> enforcement starting on Sept. 13. New Orleans also will start to impose
a vaccination mandate or negative Covid-19 test for indoor dining
starting Monday. Philadelphia last week added an incentive for
restaurants to check vaccination status, saying that indoor dining
without masks can continue only if all patrons and workers are vaccinated. >>> San Francisco will begin enforcing one of the strictest rules Friday,
allowing only fully vaccinated people to dine indoors. Elsewhere in
California, Palm Springs and California City will begin requiring proof
of vaccination or a recent negative Covid-19 test for indoor dining and
drinking in the coming weeks. Los Angeles is weighing similar measures.
“Our economy is so dependent on tourism. It’s essential to be known that >>> we are safe,” said Palm Springs Mayor Christy Gilbert Holstege.
The proof-of-vaccine screening is the latest in a series of
pandemic-related requirements placed on restaurants over the last 18 months.
Many Watson’s Counter customers welcomed the move to require proof of
vaccination, its owner says, but the restaurant also has been on the
receiving end of hostility.
Some restaurants already requiring vaccination proof say they are
willing to do whatever it takes to avoid their dining rooms being closed >>> down again due to coronavirus surges. Owners say they believe loyal
customers will reward them with business and they are willing to endure
the criticism.
“We don’t want to get shut down again. It’s that simple,” said Dean
Lavine, owner of Palm Springs bar and restaurant Blackbook, which
started checking customers’ vaccination status earlier this month.
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think of the prospect of being asked to show proof of
vaccination when dining out? Join the conversation below.
Others are skeptical about private businesses being asked to enforce
vaccine mandates. Some fear driving unvaccinated people away, or
confusing customers.
Laurie Thomas, owner of two San Francisco establishments and executive
director of the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, said she supports
the city’s new rules, but worries about her staff having to enforce the
mandate.
“Tell me the last time you were carded at a restaurant? It’s a different >>> level of training,” said Ms. Thomas, who wants the mandate to be widely
publicized so customers aren’t surprised.
Some restaurants requiring proof of vaccination say they are willing to
do whatever it takes to avoid another shutdown.
Business for restaurants was strong heading into the summer but has
slipped as the Covid-19 Delta variant has spread. Restaurant sales
growth in the week ended Aug. 1 was the slowest in nearly two months,
according to restaurant-analytics firm Black Box Intelligence. More
customers are mentioning Covid-19 safety practices in recent online
reviews, Black Box found.
Americans are split over needing to disclose vaccination status to dine out.
Janet Russell, a property manager from Arlington, Va, said she’s opposed >>> to rules requiring proof of vaccination. “These small businesses that
have already suffered tremendously during lockdown should not have to
shoulder the burden,” Ms. Russell said.
Restaurateurs are divided, too. Palm Springs businesses largely
supported the move before it was adopted, for example, while most
Colorado restaurants are opposed to proof-of-vaccine mandates out of
concern for their staff having to police customer compliance, according
to polls by local business groups. Some restaurant managers, fearing
lawsuits from disgruntled patrons, said they want clear guidelines from
local officials on how to determine vaccination status.
In New York City, restaurant operators are trying to determine how their >>> workers will verify customers’ vaccination status. The city order also
requires all restaurant workers to be vaccinated.
Executives at Shake Shack Inc., Panera Bread Co. and Applebee’s-parent
Dine Brands Global Inc. all said they intended to comply but are still
trying to understand the requirements.
“I do worry a little bit about the responsibility of checking ID cards,
and the place that puts our hosts and hostesses,” said Dine Chief
Executive John Peyton. “I’m hopeful that New Yorkers are respectful of
what’s now required.”
Surveys have found owners and consumers to be divided over vaccine
mandates for restaurants.
A survey of 536 consumers last month by market-research firm
Datassential found diners about evenly split over whether they would
comply with a proof-of-vaccination requirement at a restaurant.
“I understand the objections to it. People think it’s unfair,” said Sam
West, a 26-year-old Manhattan restaurant server. “But now I think of it
as a necessary evil.”
South Seattle small-plates restaurant Off Alley began requiring diners
to show proof of vaccination in late July. Co-owner Meghna Prakash said
customers have generally been supportive but online backlash is taking a >>> toll. Off Alley has received negative online reviews from people who
haven’t dined there, and she has been called discriminatory, Ms. Prakash >>> said.
“Making these policy decisions by ourselves is putting targets on our
backs,” she said.
Write to Heather Haddon at heather.haddon@wsj.com
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-17/new-zealand-puts-nation-into-lockdown-on-single-covid-case
Prognosis
One Virus Case Puts New Zealand Into Nationwide Lockdown
By Tracy Withers
August 16, 2021, 11:30 PM PDT
Updated on August 17, 2021, 1:54 AM PDT
Ardern assumes community case is infectious delta variant
Kiwi dollar falls as investors pare bets on RBNZ rate hike
Jacinda Ardern, left, during a news conference in Wellington, New
Zealand, on Aug. 17.
Jacinda Ardern, left, during a news conference in Wellington, New
Zealand, on Aug. 17. Photographer: Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images
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New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern put the nation into a
three-day lockdown after the discovery of the first community case of
Covid-19 since February.
The snap lockdown will begin at midnight tonight as authorities rush to
identify the source of a single infection in largest city Auckland,
Ardern said at a news conference Tuesday in Wellington. While genome
sequencing has yet to be completed, the case is assumed to be the highly >>> infectious delta variant, she said.
“Delta has been a game-changer, we’re responding to that,” Ardern said.
“The best thing we can do to get out of this as quickly as we can is to
go hard.”
More from
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Delayed Wuhan Report Adds Crucial Detail to Covid Origin Puzzle
It is New Zealand’s first nationwide lockdown since the initial pandemic >>> response over a year ago. Under so-called Alert Level 4, all schools,
public venues and most businesses must close and people are urged to
wear a face covering if they need to venture out. Only shops providing
essential services such as groceries, gasoline and health products can
stay open.
The New Zealand dollar plunged more than one U.S. cent when the case was >>> reported, falling to as low as 69.07 cents. Bond yields and swap rates
tumbled as investors reduced bets that the central bank will raise
interest rates at its policy decision on Wednesday.
The case is an unvaccinated man in his 50s from Auckland who is deemed
to have been infectious since Aug. 12, Director General of Health Ashley >>> Bloomfield told the news conference. He and his fully vaccinated wife
were in the nearby Coromandel region over the weekend, where they
visited a crowded pub on Saturday night to watch an All Blacks rugby
game, he said.
Because of those movements and the probability of it being delta,
officials advised an immediate nationwide response. Auckland and the
Coromandel have been placed into lockdown for seven days.
“Going hard and early has worked for us before,” Ardern said. “We want
to be short and hard, rather than light and long.”
Delta Challenge
New Zealand has so far largely kept the virus out of the community,
allowing its economy to recover quickly during the pandemic. But a slow
vaccine rollout has left it vulnerable to another outbreak, particularly >>> of the delta strain that is challenging virus containment efforts around >>> the world.
Along with Australia, which has strict border curbs like New Zealand,
China is battling a delta-fueled outbreak after the variant got in via
cleaners at an airport. It has taken a similarly zero-tolerance
approach, testing millions of people and locking down city districts to
rein in cases.
It’s a strategy that’s running into resistance in some so-called Covid
Zero countries as people tire of restrictions while other parts of the
world open up.
Ardern cited Australia’s experience with delta as a reason for swift
nationwide action, saying “we don’t want that experience here.”
Australia’s outbreak continues to spread despite more than half the
nation’s 26 million people being placed into lockdown. New South Wales
state recorded 452 new cases on Tuesday after a record of 478 set the
previous day, with the vast bulk of those infections detected in Sydney. >>>
Australia’s most-populous city has been in lockdown for more than seven
weeks and some health experts have criticized the New South Wales
government for acting too late, after the virus was already seeded in
the community.
RBNZ Decision
New Zealand’s case comes on the eve of the Reserve Bank’s review of the
official cash rate. Prior to news of the lockdown, a majority of
economists were forecasting a quarter percentage point hike in response
to an overheating economy.
Those at Westpac and ASB changed their calls after Ardern’s press
conference late Tuesday, saying they now expect the RBNZ to keep the OCR >>> on hold at 0.25% on Wednesday.
“It is logical that the RBNZ will pause until more certainty over the
extent of the community Covid outbreak and lockdown is established,”
said Nick Tuffley, chief economist at ASB in Auckland. Still, “provided
the lockdown is short and doesn’t change the underlying economic
picture, we would still anticipate the OCR reaching 1.5% by the end of
the year,” he said.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
N.Z. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
https://pix11.com/news/coronavirus/brooklyn-business-defies-key-to-nyc-vaccine-mandate-i-instantly-thought-that-was-so-un-american
Brooklyn business defies Key to NYC vaccine mandate: ‘I instantly
thought that was so un-American’
CORONAVIRUS
by: Lauren Cook, Rebecca Solomon, Shirley Chan
Posted: Aug 17, 2021 / 02:19 PM EDT / Updated: Aug 17, 2021 / 10:34 PM EDT >>> brooklyn business defies vaccine mandate
Mary Josephine Generoso, the manager of Rocco’s in Bay Ridge Brooklyn,
will not turn away unvaccinated patrons despite the city’s mandate.
(Credit: PIX11)
NEW YORK — New York City’s vaccine mandate for restaurants, gyms and
entertainment venues began on Tuesday, but one business owner in
Brooklyn says she won’t turn away unvaccinated customers.
The sign on the front window of Rocco’s in Bay Ridge reads: “We do not
discriminate against any customer based on sex, gender, race, creed, age >>> — vaccinated or unvaccinated — all customers who wish to patronize are
welcome in our establishment.”
However, if business owners do not comply with the city’s vaccine
mandate, called the Key to NYC Pass, after Sept. 13, they could face
fines up to $1,000 for a first offense. Mayor Bill de Blasio said the
city would take an “escalator approach” with increasing, costly
penalties for repeated offenses.
Mary Josephine Generoso, the manager of Rocco’s, said she and her
husband are willing to take the risk.
“Once I heard the mayor come out and speak in the beginning of August
stating that we were going to have to check vaccine status, I instantly
thought that was so un-American. I could not understand how we were
going to start discriminating against people who weren’t vaccinated,”
she told PIX11 News on Tuesday. “I really feel like people should be
able to enter an establishment if they choose to, whether they’re
vaccinated or not.”
Generoso also said it’s none of her business why people don’t want to
get vaccinated and she urged de Blasio to rethink the mandate.
Key to NYC Pass: Full list of places with COVID vaccine mandate
When asked about Rocco’s during his COVID briefing Tuesday morning, the
mayor pushed back against Generoso’s assertion that the mandate was
discriminatory.
“It’s not discrimination. It’s about protecting people,” de Blasio said. >>> He also noted the Key to NYC vaccine mandate does not apply to customers >>> who quickly go into a business to purchase or pick-up takeout or to-go
items.
De Blasio touted the mandate as the best way to avoid a return of
pandemic-related restrictions, such as a mask mandate, amid a surge of
new cases and hospitalizations related to the highly contagious delta
variant.
“We do not want to go back to restrictions,” he said.
NYC’s vaccine mandate starts a day later than expected, adding to
confusion and controversy
Over the next few weeks, the city will ramp up its outreach and public
awareness campaigns related to the Key to NYC before enforcement begins
in September. Part of that outreach includes more mobile, pop-up
vaccination sites strategically positioned outside businesses that now
require proof of vaccination to enter.
While some may not be on board with the mandate, other business owners
applauded the city’s effort to get more people vaccinated.
Abla Atoubi, the general manager of Bhatti Indian Grill, pointed out
that unvaccinated New Yorkers can still dine outdoors.
“It’s our restaurant, right, if you want to come dine at our house you
have to abide by our rules. And nobody is forcing anybody to dine
indoors; there’s still plenty of outdoor areas,” she said.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
NYC & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://gizmodo.com/whopping-94-of-adults-in-england-have-covid-19-antibod-1847515379
England still sees 25,000 covid-19 cases per day but deaths have fallen
sharply since the height of the pandemic.
ByMatt Novak
Thursday 6:30AM
Comments (109)
Alerts
People dancing at Egg London nightclub in the early hours of July 19,
2021 in London, England.
People dancing at Egg London nightclub in the early hours of July 19,
2021 in London, England.Photo: Rob Pinney (Getty Images)
A staggering 94.2% of adults in England have antibodies for covid-19,
according to a new report from the UK’s Office of National Statistics.
Roughly 80.7% of England’s population has been fully vaccinated,
suggesting the rest of the 94.2% acquired antibodies through natural
infection with the coronavirus.
ADVERTISEMENT
The report is great news for England, which has seen covid-19 rates
plateau at roughly 25,000 per day. Deaths have remained extremely low,
with a seven-day average of 81 covid-19 fatalities daily.
The UK more broadly has also seen a rise in antibodies among adults,
with 93.2% in Wales, 89.1% in Northern Ireland and 93.5% in Scotland,
according to the Office of National Statistics. Again, part of that is >>>from high rates of vaccination and part of that is through natural
infection.
The UK was one of the hardest hit regions for covid-19 with over 6.36
million cases and more than 131,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic. >>>
Related Stories
U.S. Set to Offer Covid-19 Vaccine Booster Shots for All Starting in
September
SARS Survivors Vaccinated Against Covid-19 May Have Super-Antibodies to
Coronaviruses
U.S. to Encourage Covid-19 Booster Shots for All: Report
The new report out of the UK should lift plenty of spirits for people
who want to get the covid-19 pandemic behind them. Though admittedly,
England has been wide open ever since it’s “Freedom Day” on July 19.
Henri Strengthens to a Hurricane as It Closes In on New England
“Across the four UK countries, the estimated percentage of adults aged
25 to 34 years who have received one or more doses of a COVID-19 vaccine >>> ranged from 82.3% to 90.1% – this has increased sharply since the end of >>> May,” the Office of National Statistics said in a statement early Thursday. >>>
“A similar increase can be seen for those aged 16 to 24 years across the >>> UK since June, with between 51.3% and 56.6% reporting having had at
least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine in the week beginning 26 July
2021,” the statement continued.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Moderna vaccine was approved in the UK for children as young as 12
years old just this week, while the Pfizer vaccine was approved for that >>> age group a few weeks ago. Children under 12 are still not eligible for
any covid-19 vaccine in the UK, just as they aren’t in the U.S. yet either. >>>
Most adults in the UK were vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine,
which relies on older vaccine technology that doesn’t include Pfizer and >>> Moderna’s mRNA platform. But that will be fine for British adults in the >>> long run, since a new study has shown that while Pfizer worked better
than AstraZeneca for a few weeks, Pfizer’s efficacy wanes over time and
they both work about the same, according to the BBC.
ADVERTISEMENT
To be clear, every vaccine approved by the FDA has been shown to be
effective against covid-19, even the highly contagious delta variant of
the virus. So if you haven’t gotten vaccinated yet, please make that
happen as soon as possible. You don’t want to regret going without the
vaccine, as so many people are learning the hard way around the world.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the UK & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://reason.com/2021/08/22/texas-lt-gov-dan-patrick-is-right-that-democrats-have-a-vaccine-hesitancy-problem-but-its-not-nearly-as-big-as-the-gops/#comment-9061685
The Democrats, the healthcare bureaucrats, and the press lied about the
efficacy of masks and the probable origin of the pandemic, and they
blocked posts and deplatformed Republicans for contradicting the CDC and >>> the NIH. No one should ever believe anything just because an expert said >>> so, but even among those who usually give the experts they see in the
media a certain amount of deference, in other circumstances, why should
any Republican in their right mind believe what they’re told by the
Democrats, the health bureaucrats, or the news media at this point?
They’re all bald-faced liars, and everyone knows it!
I wonder if Sullum has seen recent polls about the lack of credibility
the news media suffers from right now. Have you seen the absurd and
insane things Joe Biden has been saying about what’s happening in
Afghanistan? He has all the credibility of Baghdad Bob.
Is Fauci still the head of the NIAID? Isn’t his job to be a source of
information that people trust? Liars and buffoons can’t make credible
endorsements, which is why no one on Wall Street hired Bernie Madoff to
endorse their investment brokerages or financial advice after he was
exposed as a fraud. Would you hire Harvey Weinstein to write the sexual
harassment manual for your human resources department? Would you go to
O.J. Simpson for anger management classes or marriage counseling?
Listening to the advice of Biden, the CDC, or Fauci on the pandemic, at
this point, is a bit like that.
The Democrats, the bureaucrats, and the news media burned through
whatever credibility they had long ago, and these are the consequences.
First you convinced the white, blue collar middle class that you hated
them for being sexist, xenophobic, homophobic, and racist, and then you
smeared them all as insurrectionists for questioning the election
results. You lied about the probable origin of the pandemic–and
prohibited people from talking about it on social media. You’re trying
to force them to wear masks–even if they’re vaccinated–on the basis of
questionable interpretations of very little data. And now you wonder why >>> Republicans don’t believe whatever you tell them and wonder why they’re
reluctant to do as you say?
The reason the townspeople don’t come running when you cry wolf,
anymore, is because they’re smart. If you didn’t know you were trashing
your own credibility every time you lied to them and treated them with
contempt, that’s probably because you’re stupid. This is like a
progressive being shocked by the entirely foreseeable and entirely
foreseen consequences of progressive policies.
Yes, it turns out that the choices you made have consequences in the
real world, and one of the consequences of destroying your own
credibility with TDS, not only over the course of the pandemic but also
the whole time Trump was in office, means that when it’s over, you have
no credibility anymore. How’s it feel?
Ultimately, I don’t know if there is a solution to a whole class of
Democrat politicians, bureaucrats, and their fans in the news media
willfully destroying their own credibility. The reason you’re supposed
to avoid drunk driving is because after you’ve killed an innocent child
with your choice, it’s too late. You’re supposed to avoid foolish
choices for fear of the negative consequences before they happen, and
the negative consequences of selling your credibility short is supposed
to be a lack of credibility.
Maybe Democrats, bureaucrats, and their fans in the news media can take
solace in the realization that future generations will always look back
at their disgraceful behavior over the last five years as a textbook
example of what happens when the government, the experts, and the news
media completely destroy their own credibility. Their monumental
contempt for average people, their outright lying, and their profound
stupidity should be remembered forever.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.cnn.com/2021/08/29/health/us-coronavirus-sunday/index.html
By Kristen Holmes and Aya Elamroussi, CNN
Updated 10:24 AM ET, Mon August 30, 2021
Inside Mississippi hospital stretched to brink amid Delta surge
CNN
New name of Pfizer vaccine draws vicious online critique
ivermectina no previene covid-19 coronavirus medicamentos mito falso
remedio seg pkg michael roa_00003729.png
'Stop it': FDA urges people to stop taking livestock drug to treat Covid-19 >>>
State's poison control calls climb after horse drug falsely touted as
Covid treatment
robin zinsou daughter paige ruiz covid-19 death nd intv vpx_00001130.png >>> New mother dies from Covid-19 before she can hold her newborn
Dr. Fauci corrects prediction on when US may have control over Covid-19
trump alabama rally vaccine crowd boos sot ip vpx_00000000.png
Trump tells crowd to get vaccinated. Hear their response
Florida mayor: DeSantis is treating children as political pawns
Mask fight in Florida schools as pediatric ICU beds fill with patients
Now Playing
Inside Mississippi hospital stretched to brink amid Delta surge
ivermectin coronavirus fda deworming livestock ftr brown dnt nr vpx_00002005
Ivermectin debacle exposes hypocrisy of anti-vaccine crowd
Woman hospitalized with Covid comes home to find husband has died from it >>>
Hospitals scrambling for incentives to retain nurses amid shortage
connecticut governor mask mandate meeting pkg vpx_00000410
Parents chase and shout at governor over mask mandate
Covid-19 is here to stay. Here's what that means
Wuhan Lab Animation
See how Wuhan lab at center of leak theory is designed
New name of Pfizer vaccine draws vicious online critique
ivermectina no previene covid-19 coronavirus medicamentos mito falso
remedio seg pkg michael roa_00003729.png
'Stop it': FDA urges people to stop taking livestock drug to treat Covid-19 >>>
State's poison control calls climb after horse drug falsely touted as
Covid treatment
robin zinsou daughter paige ruiz covid-19 death nd intv vpx_00001130.png >>> New mother dies from Covid-19 before she can hold her newborn
Dr. Fauci corrects prediction on when US may have control over Covid-19
trump alabama rally vaccine crowd boos sot ip vpx_00000000.png
Trump tells crowd to get vaccinated. Hear their response
Florida mayor: DeSantis is treating children as political pawns
Mask fight in Florida schools as pediatric ICU beds fill with patients
Inside Mississippi hospital stretched to brink amid Delta surge
ivermectin coronavirus fda deworming livestock ftr brown dnt nr vpx_00002005
Ivermectin debacle exposes hypocrisy of anti-vaccine crowd
Woman hospitalized with Covid comes home to find husband has died from it >>>
Hospitals scrambling for incentives to retain nurses amid shortage
connecticut governor mask mandate meeting pkg vpx_00000410
Parents chase and shout at governor over mask mandate
Covid-19 is here to stay. Here's what that means
Wuhan Lab Animation
See how Wuhan lab at center of leak theory is designed
New name of Pfizer vaccine draws vicious online critique
(CNN)Hospitals in parts of the South are running out of oxygen supply as >>> Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations continue soaring, driven by the
swaths of people who remain unvaccinated and a dangerous coronavirus
variant that has infected millions of Americans.
Several hospitals in Florida, South Carolina, Texas and Louisiana are
struggling with oxygen scarcity. Some are at risk of having to use their >>> reserve supply or risk running out of oxygen imminently, according to
state health officials and hospital consultants.
With the continued uptick in Covid-19 cases, there has been more demand
on the oxygen supply, and hospitals cannot keep up the pace to meet
those needs, Donna Cross, senior director of facilities and construction >>> at Premier -- a health care performance improvement company -- told CNN. >>> 'There is no room to put these bodies,' Alabama health official
says as Covid-19 deaths climb
'There is no room to put these bodies,' Alabama health official says as
Covid-19 deaths climb
"Normally, an oxygen tank would be about 90% full, and the suppliers
would let them get down to a refill level of 30-40% left in their tank,
giving them a three- to five-day cushion of supply," said Cross. "What's >>> happening now is that hospitals are running down to about 10-20%, which
is a one- to two-day supply on hand, before they're getting backfilled." >>>
Even when they're getting backfill, it's only a partial supply of about
50%, Cross said. "It is very critical situation."
Florida on Saturday had the highest Covid-19 hospitalization rate in the >>> country, with 75 patients per 100,000 residents in hospitals with the
virus, according to data from federal health officials and Johns Hopkins >>> University. It also reached yet another pandemic high of Covid-19 cases
Friday, reporting 690.5 new cases per 100,000 people each day from
August 20 to August 26, state data showed.
Portable morgues for Central Florida
Covid-19 deaths have increased so much that the Central Florida Disaster >>> Medical Coalition, a federally funded nonprofit that aids in preparing
health care system response, has purchased 14 portable morgues with the
capacity of 12 decedents each, coalition Executive Director Lynne Drawdy >>> said.
She said that the organization has met with hospitals in the region to
find out what their needs are. The hospitals relayed that in the last
week more morgue space was the highest priority because there was not
adequate capacity -- and that they have seen delays in funeral homes
picking up those who have died.
Dr. Ahmed Elhaddad, an intensive care unit doctor in Florida, told CNN's >>> Pamela Brown on Saturday that he's frustrated and "tired of seeing
people die and suffer because they did not take a vaccine."
He said the Delta variant is "eating" people's lungs, which eventually
leads to their collapse.
"We're seeing the patients die faster with this (Delta) variant," said
Elhaddad, who is the ICU medical director at Jupiter Medical Center.
A respiratory therapist treats a COVID-19 patient in a NCH Healthcare
System's ICU on August 9 in Naples, Florida.
A respiratory therapist treats a COVID-19 patient in a NCH Healthcare
System's ICU on August 9 in Naples, Florida.
"This round, we're seeing the younger patients -- 30-, 40-, 50-year-olds >>> -- and they're suffering. They're hungry for oxygen, and they're dying.
Unfortunately, this round they're dying faster," he said.
The government's top infectious diseases expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told >>> CNN's Jake Tapper that the US could see an additional 100,000 deaths >>>from Covid-19 by December, as predicted by a University of Washington model. >>> "What is going on now is both entirely predictable, but entirely
preventable. And you know we know we have the wherewithal with vaccines
to turn this around," Fauci, director of the National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said.
Elhaddad noted that his ICU does not have a single Covid-19 patient who
is vaccinated, nor did he see any vaccinated people die from Covid-19.
"There's no magic medicine. ... The only thing that we're finding is
that the vaccine is preventing death. It's preventing patients from
coming to the ICU," Elhaddad said.
Fauci pointed to the 80 million Americans who are eligible for the
vaccine, but who are not vaccinated. "We could turn this around and we
could do it efficiently and quickly if we just get those people
vaccinated," he said.
Florida has fully vaccinated 52.4% of its total population, data from
the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed Saturday.
Meanwhile, less than 50% of people in South Carolina, Louisiana and
Texas -- where oxygen supplies are also low -- are fully vaccinated.
Studies have shown that full vaccination is necessary for optimal
protection against the Delta variant.
Nationally, 52.1% of the population was fully vaccinated as of Saturday, >>> CDC data shows.
Hurricane Ida targeting Louisiana as Covid-19 hospitalizations remain high >>> Louisiana's overall vaccination rate remains among the lowest in the
nation at 41.2% -- and the state's hospitals are dealing with hundreds
of Covid-19 patients as Hurricane Ida slams the region.
Some 2,450 people were hospitalized with Covid-19 in Louisiana, Gov.
John Bel Edwards said Saturday, which is a drop of 20% in the past 10
days. But it's still the most the state has had since before the current >>> surge in cases, Edwards told CNN's Jim Acosta.
More than 475 of those patients are on ventilators, according to data >>>from the state department of health.
'Time is not on our side.' Gulf Coast braces for Sunday arrival
of Hurricane Ida, potentially a Category 4 storm
'Time is not on our side.' Gulf Coast braces for Sunday arrival of
Hurricane Ida, potentially a Category 4 storm
Hurricane Ida made landfall near Port Fourchon, Louisiana, on Sunday as
a dangerous Category 4 hurricane. Possible injuries from the storm stand >>> to compound the risk of health care facilities being overwhelmed, given
Covid-19 patients already occupy hospitals at high rates.
"Evacuating hospitals is not going to be possible because there's
nowhere to bring those patients to, there's no excess capacity anywhere
else in the state or outside the state," Edwards said.
"Then you have people who may be injured as a result of the hurricane
itself, and so we need to make sure we have some capacity for them," he
said. "We still have a very, very challenging situation here across the
state of Louisiana."
Edwards pointed out that he's worried about lengthy power outages. The
state has about 10,000 lineworkers ready to go and another 20,000 on
standby to assist as soon as necessary.
"Restoring power is going to be critically important in order to keep
these hospitals up and functioning," he said.
All of the state's parishes are in the highest risk category for
coronavirus, with widespread, uncontrolled transmission, and many
undetected cases, the state health department said.
'We're headed into a really tough time for young people,' doctor says
A return to in-person learning has led to thousands of students having
to quarantine across the US, with Covid-19 cases among children surging
to levels not seen since winter.
And hospitalizations of children due to Covid-19 could continue to
increase as more of them return to classrooms this fall.
"There is no question that we're headed into a really tough time for
young people," Dr. Esther Choo told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Saturday.
US Surgeon General urges parents and officials take these steps to
protect children from Covid-19
US Surgeon General urges parents and officials take these steps to
protect children from Covid-19
Choo, a professor of emergency medicine at Oregon Health & Science
University, added that while people had some reassurance last year that
the virus wouldn't affect children as severely, this year is different.
"We're going back to school in-person, unmasked across the United
States. There's a lot of resistance to things like mask mandates and
vaccinations that would keep our kids safer in schools," she said.
Notably, children under 12 are not yet eligible to be vaccinated against >>> Covid-19.
Not all schools in the US have opened yet, but the remaining ones are
expected to open after Labor Day, which is when Choo said children's
Covid-19 hospitalizations could increase.
"We're no doubt going to see more of what we're seeing now, which is
hospitals just bursting with pediatric admissions," she said, noting
Covid-19 deaths of children will also become more common.
Fauci said he supports mandating Covid-19 vaccines for students who are
eligible, noting, "This is not something new. We have mandates in many
places in schools, particularly public schools that if in fact you want
a child to come in, we've done this for decades and decades requiring
polio, measles, mumps, rubella, hepatitis," vaccinations.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/israel-may-deny-green-passports-to-people-who-have-not-received-covid-booster-1.10147312
Israel May Deny Green Passports to People Who Have Not Received COVID
Booster
Health Minister Horowitz says that since the vaccine loses effectiveness >>> over time, proof of immunity will no longer be valid for those who have
not had the booster
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Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz in Kafr Qasem, on Monday.
Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz in Kafr Qasem, on Monday.Credit: Moti Milrod
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Aug. 24, 2021
People who do not receive a coronavirus booster shot will eventually be
denied a so-called green passport, which allows entry into various
venues, Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz said on Tuesday.
“This is simply because, in terms of its effectiveness, the vaccine is
valid only for a period of five or six months,” Horowitz told Channel 13 >>> television. “After about half a year, you have to get a third dose.
Otherwise, the vaccine loses its power.”
“The Green Pass testifies that a person is safe in a certain way,” he
added. “So the moment we know that the vaccine loses its effectiveness
after a certain period, there’s no justification for giving a green pass >>> to someone who hasn’t gotten another dose.”
Nevertheless, he said, the booster will become a requirement for a Green >>> Pass only when the shot is available to everyone aged 12 and older.
Currently, only people aged 30 and up qualify for the third dose.
- Advertisment -
Earlier Tuesday, the Health Ministry approved giving the third shot to
anyone aged 30 and over who had received the second dose at least five
months ago. It had previously only been available to people aged 40 and
up. The move was recommended by a number of expert advisory committees.
So far, 1,575,898 Israelis have gotten the third dose.
Record number of Israelis get COVID boosters, serious cases decline
Israel's 20% unvaccinated now account for half of all serious COVID-19 cases
Israel hits seven-month high in COVID infections; booster vaccine drive
expanded to 30 and older
U.S. donation of COVID-19 vaccines arrives in West Bank and Gaza
"The doctors who decide this, who advise us, the vaccine committee, are
going with the method of gradual stages to make it 100 percent safe,"
Horowitz said on Kan Bet public radio. "I assume that in a very short
time, it will be available for everyone."
The decision to lower the age for receiving the booster was based on
data accumulated from older people, which showed the third shot to be
both safe and effective, in the hopes that it will lower the rising
infection rates. More than 80 experts have participated in discussions
of the booster in recent weeks.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
Israel & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://ethicsalarms.com/2021/09/01/from-the-res-ipsa-loquitur-files/comment-page-1/#comment-775443However, it is written in 1 Thessalonians 5:22-23 that we're to avoid
SEPTEMBER 1, 2021 / JACK MARSHALL
covid_breakthrough_chart_8-31-21
But one brief observation: The chart gives me one more reason to say
“Oh, bite me!” to the vaccinated mask-police who recoil in terror and
tell me to “Get back!” because I am maskless and intend to remain so. So >>> far, I’ve responded thusly only twice, but I plan on upping the frequency. >>
any appearance of evil so that we'd be kept blameless at the coming of
our LORD Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Indeed.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/03/us-heads-into-labor-day-with-covid-vaccines-but-substantially-worse-outbreak-than-last-year.html
U.S. heads into Labor Day with Covid vaccines but a substantially worse
outbreak than this time last year
PUBLISHED FRI, SEP 3 20212:27 PM EDTUPDATED FRI, SEP 3 20218:14 PM EDT
Nate Rattner
@NATERATTNER
Robert Towey
@ROBERTTOWEYCNBC
Berkeley Lovelace Jr.
@BERKELEYJR
Rich Mendez
@RICHMENDEZCNBC
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KEY POINTS
The CDC has advised unvaccinated Americans against traveling over the
holiday weekend, worried the festivities could kick off another surge in >>> cases.
New cases this week have climbed to their highest point since January,
averaging 166,000 per day over the last seven days.
New cases, however, are rising at a substantially slower pace than in
recent weeks, and many scientists predict they will soon start to decline. >>> People line up at a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) testing at a mobile
testing van in New York City, August 27, 2021.
People line up at a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) testing at a mobile
testing van in New York City, August 27, 2021.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
The U.S. is heading into Labor Day weekend with just over four times as
many Covid-19 cases and more than twice as many hospitalizations as at
this time last year — despite having vaccinated 62% of the American
population with at least one dose.
The U.S. and the world are nowhere near where health officials hoped,
and thought, we would be 20 months into the pandemic — and more than
eight months after vaccines that boasted efficacy rates around 95% were
rolled out.
WATCH NOW
VIDEO04:23
Dr. Scott Gottlieb on the battle over Covid booster shots
Though the outbreak is significantly worse by most measures than 2020,
setting the U.S. up for a tough fall season, the delta variant, vaccines >>> and open schools make it hard to predict how the pandemic will unfold,
doctors and scientists say.
“There is a lot more uncertainty right now. The dynamic interplay
between variants and vaccine and particularly people unvaccinated, and
the sort of game changer of the delta variant leads to a lot of
uncertainty in terms of what the fall holds,” said Dr. Barbara Taylor,
an assistant dean and infectious disease specialist at the University of >>> Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
Coronavirus in the U.S.
Avg. daily cases
Current hospitalizations
Avg. daily deaths
Note: Seven-day averages shown to smooth day-of-week reporting
fluctuations. Hospitalization data prior to August 2020 not available.
Axes are adjusted for each chart to more clearly show the trend.
Source: Johns Hopkins University (cases, deaths), Dept. of Health and
Human Services (hospitalizations). As of Sept. 2, 2021.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has advised unvaccinated
Americans against traveling over the holiday weekend, worried the
festivities could kick off another surge in cases.
Heading into Labor Day 2020, the U.S. was coming down off a summer surge >>> in which average daily cases peaked around 67,000 per day in July to an
average of just over 41,000 new cases per day the week before Labor Day, >>> data compiled by Johns Hopkins University shows. New cases this week
have climbed to their highest point since January, averaging 166,000 per >>> day over the last seven days.
New cases, however, are rising at a substantially slower pace than in
recent weeks, and many scientists predict they will soon start to
decline. New cases rose by 7% over the last week, almost a third of the
seven-day jump of 26% just three weeks ago, according to the data.
“It is true that cases, hospitalizations and deaths are at higher levels >>> than they were last Labor Day, especially for mostly Southern states,”
said Lawrence Gostin, director of the World Health Organization’s
Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law. “This was highly >>> surprising because we now have highly effective vaccines.”
However, the effectiveness of all three vaccines cleared for use in the
U.S. — Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson — has fallen since they
were first introduced. Scientists have discovered that the protection
wanes over time. The highly contagious delta variant is also a game
changer. It spreads more easily and quickly than other variants,
according to the CDC, infecting both unvaccinated and vaccinated people. >>>
CNBC Health & Science
Read CNBC’s latest global coverage of the Covid pandemic:
U.S. heads into Labor Day with Covid vaccines, but a substantially worse >>> outbreak than last year
Fauci says the new mu Covid strain isn’t an immediate threat in the U.S. >>>
Singapore to roll out Covid vaccine booster shots to some groups,
including seniors
Fauci says he wouldn’t be surprised if Covid vaccines require three
shots for full regimen, instead of two
The viral load in the nasal cavity is so high, estimated at 1,000 times
that of other strains, that scientists in Australia say they traced a
case where a man contracted it with just 5 to 10 seconds of exposure.
The small fraction of fully vaccinated people who get Covid, even an
asymptomatic case, are just as capable of spreading it as unvaccinated
people, officials have warned. The delta variant now accounts for 99% of >>> all new sequenced cases in the U.S.
“The delta variant, as we’ve seen with the evolution of Covid-19 over
the past year and a half, continues to throw us curves, and I think the
best advice is to be cautious and careful,” Dr. Nusheen Ameenuddin, a
community pediatrician at the Mayo Clinic, said in an interview.
The good news is that delta appears to be running its course in the
U.S., running out of new people to infect as vaccination rates rise and
others gain natural immunity after recovering from the virus, doctors
and scientists say.
New hospital admissions have finally started to turn after weeks of a
steady rise, with the seven-day average of daily admissions down 1.7%
over the past week, CDC data shows. Still, more than 100,000 Americans
are currently hospitalized, compared with about 41,000 during the same
week a year ago, according to the Department of Health and Human
Services, in line with levels seen in late January of this year.
The big question is: How long does immunity last? Studies show that the
vaccines start to wane in effectiveness about two months after the
second shot and then really decline in protection five to eight months
following full vaccination, U.S. officials say.
“We may see periodic waves of this until there is sufficient
community-level protection, and hopefully that comes via vaccination
rather than recovery from natural infection,” said infectious diseases
physician Dr. Isaac Bogoch at the University of Toronto. “I know we all
want the pandemic to be over, but it’s not. We are closer to the end in
countries with access to vaccinations, but it’s not over.”
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://ethicsalarms.com/2021/09/05/why-american-presidents-need-a-fair-news-media-to-be-competent-and-more-evidence-that-they-wont-get-one-anytime-soon-if-ever/
SEPTEMBER 5, 2021 / JACK MARSHALL
fakenews
It’s my own fault. I’ve written so many essays here since 2009 about the >>> disgraceful descent of the news media into partisan propaganda that I
can’t find the relevant post I was looking for on my own blog. That
would be the one during the Obama administration in which I pointed out
that being assured that no reporters and virtually no pundits would have >>> the guts or integrity to criticize Obama’s performance as President had
made him lazy, arrogant, and reckless. If you know anything you do will
be extolled whether it deserves praise of not, and any mistakes and
blunders will be covered up or spun, why be careful, especially if
you’re an arrogant narcissistic like Barack? The same principle operated >>> on President Trump, but in reverse (I honestly don’t recall if I noted
this, but I noticed it). If a President is certain that whatever he does >>> will be attacked by the news media, there is no reason for him to
consider the press in his policy considerations. Summary: bad journalism >>> makes bad Presidents.
It is written at Matthew 19:17 that only GOD is good. This does mean
there never has been nor ever will be a good President.
Instead, there can be a wonderfully hungry (
http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ) President, who would then be able
(Philippians 4:13) to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John 15:12)
for journalists to also be wonderfully hungry:
https://groups.google.com/g/sci.med.cardiology/c/Vf1FfJ8ll1o/m/NImqHo-6AQAJ >>
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) and
hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://forum.pafoa.org/showthread.php?t=357078&p=4502486#post4502486
curbs onParents* fury as schools reintroduce bubbles, face masks and >self-isolation for healthy children
*Nonsensical* curbs are being imposed on pupils to prevent spread of >Covid, despite ministers ending restrictions
By
Camilla Turner,
EDUCATION EDITOR
6 September 2021 * 5:18pm
Parents in one school were told that children will be grouped into >bubbles and encouraged to adhere to social distancing rules around the >school
Parents in one school were told that children would be grouped into >bubbles and encouraged to adhere to social distancing rules around the >school CREDIT: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
Latest UK cases: 41,192 +9%deaths: 45 -35%
See figures for your area
Start your free trial today
Subscribe now
Schools across the country have reintroduced bubbles, face masks and >self-isolation for healthy children, The Telegraph has learned. >Headteachers have been told by ministers that many of the restrictions >which were in place last academic year are no longer necessary.
However, parents have accused schools of imposing *nonsensical*
pupils as they return to school following the summer holidays.
Comberton Village School in Cambridgeshire told parents that it usually >prided itself on running an *extensive* after-school programme of >sporting activities including basketball, hockey, badminton and rugby. >However, the secondary school said that since it was continuing to >operate a system of *year group bubbles*, this would have a *negative >impact* on the number of clubs they would be providing this term. >Meanwhile, parents at Avanti House Secondary School in Stanmore, north >London, have been told that children will still be grouped into bubbles >and encouraged to adhere to social distancing rules.
*It is heartbreaking that while adults are getting their lives back to >normal, children are still leading their school lives under the weight
of these restrictions,* said Molly Kingsley, co-founder of the parent >campaign group UsForThem.
Children falling behind
back.Months behind by autumn 2020
Maths
Reading
Secondary and
primary pupils
Primary pupils
2
3
Months behind by autumn 2020
Reading
Primary school
1.7-2 months
Secondary (year 8)
1.6 months
Secondary (year 9)
2 months
SOURCE: DFE
*It makes an absolute mockery of any talk of recovery and building
stayYou can*t build back if you are still bombing. This is nonsensical.
*It is the same pattern we have seen all along: an excessive deference
to Covid safety over and above child welfare and it has to stop.*
A primary school in Cumbria has told pupils that if they are a close >contact of anyone who has tested positive for Covid-19, they should
personalat home until they can provide a negative PCR test result.
This contradicts government guidance which says pupils should be off >school only if they test positive for Covid or are showing symptoms. >*That could mean three or four days off school before you get your >negative result,* one parent said. *It feels like headteachers*
notfeelings on the topic are overreaching into their professional role.
They think they can decide their own rules.*
The headteacher of Winterton Community Academy in Scunthorpe, north >Lincolnshire has told parents that if cases rise they may segregate >pupils who do not take lateral flow tests.
In a letter to parents, the school*s headteacher said: *In the event
that the risk of Covid-19 increases, for example through identified
cases in school or, if locally the infection rate increases, then we >reserve the right to escalate our contingency plans and put in place >limited or alternative access and provision for any student who does
have consent to test.*
Education: The days lost
said:Days lost to school closures during lockdown...
...amounts to over half a year
for each pupil
Share of
entire schooling
+5%
Total days lost in
Autumn term 2020
Average days missed
by each pupil in
Autumn term 2020
From in-person
education during the
2020 Autumn term
2
1
33m
4
3
5
Absence rate
Typical Autumn term
Autumn term 2020
4-5%
12%
SOURCE: IFS, DFE
All secondary school pupils are encouraged to take two lateral flow
tests each week at home, but this is not a legal requirement and
students should not be *denied education* if they do not take them, >official guidance says.
A private school chief said that pupils will still be expected to clean >their desks and wear face coverings in corridors as classes resume. >Samantha Price, president of the Girls* Schools Association which >represents the country*s leading girls* independent schools, said that >headteachers are acting with a *degree of caution*.
Mrs Price, who is also the headteacher of Benenden School in Kent,
well.**We are going to continue with cleaning desks after lessons and asking >students to do that because I think that*s reassuring for teachers, but >it*s also reassuring for cleaners who are going into those rooms as
College*In our school we are going to ask students to wear masks in corridors >and in public areas and obviously there*s still going to be testing,*
she added.
Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and
Leaders, said that the desire for heads to act cautiously is *hardly >surprising given the bitter experience of the past 18 months* and also >given the *uncertainty* about the risks posed by Covid this term.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://forum.pafoa.org/showthread.php?t=357078&p=4502942#post4502942
The ACLU, Prior to COVID, Denounced Mandates and Coercive Measures to
Fight Pandemics
In a New York Times op-ed this week, the group completely reversed its
views, arguing vaccine mandates help civil liberties and bodily autonomy >>> "is not absolute."
Glenn Greenwald
4 hr ago
298
367
Protest for medical freedom and health choice in Minnesota, Stop the
mandates, Minnesota citizens demand informed consent and transparency in >>> matters of health choice and medical freedom without coercion. (Photo
by: Michael Siluk/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) surprised even many of its
harshest critics this week when it strongly defended coercive programs
and other mandates from the state in the name of fighting COVID. “Far >>>from compromising them, vaccine mandates actually further civil
liberties,” its Twitter account announced, adding that “vaccine
requirements also safeguard those whose work involves regular exposure
to the public."
If you were surprised to see the ACLU heralding the civil liberties
imperatives of "vaccine mandates” and "vaccine requirements” — whereby
the government coerces adults to inject medicine into their own bodies
that they do not want — the New York Times op-ed which the group
promoted, written by two of its senior lawyers, was even more extreme.
The article begins with this rhetorical question: “Do vaccine mandates
violate civil liberties?” Noting that "some who have refused vaccination >>> claim as much,” the ACLU lawyers say: “we disagree.” The op-ed then
examines various civil liberties objections to mandates and state
coercion — little things like, you know, bodily autonomy and freedom to
choose — and the ACLU officials then invoke one authoritarian cliche
after the next (“these rights are not absolute") to sweep aside such
civil liberties concerns:
[W]hen it comes to Covid-19, all considerations point in the same
direction. . . . In fact, far from compromising civil liberties, vaccine >>> mandates actually further civil liberties. . . . .
[Many claim that] vaccines are a justifiable intrusion on autonomy and
bodily integrity. That may sound ominous, because we all have the
fundamental right to bodily integrity and to make our own health care
decisions. But these rights are not absolute. They do not include the
right to inflict harm on others. . . . While vaccine mandates are not
always permissible, they rarely run afoul of civil liberties when they
involve highly infectious and devastating diseases like Covid-19. . . .
While limited exceptions are necessary, most people can be required to
be vaccinated. . . . . Where a vaccine is not medically contraindicated, >>> however, avoiding a deadly threat to the public health typically
outweighs personal autonomy and individual freedom.
The op-ed sounds like it was written by an NSA official justifying the
need for mass surveillance (yes, fine, your privacy is important but it
is not absolute; your privacy rights are outweighed by public safety; we >>> are spying on you for your own good). And the op-ed appropriately ends
with this perfect Orwellian flourish: “We care deeply about civil
liberties and civil rights for all — which is precisely why we support
vaccine mandates.”
What makes the ACLU's position so remarkable — besides the inherent
shock of a civil liberties organization championing state mandates
overriding individual choice — is that, very recently, the same group
warned of the grave dangers of the very mindset it is now pushing. In
2008, the ACLU published a comprehensive report on pandemics which had
one primary purpose: to denounce as dangerous and unnecessary attempts
by the state to mandate, coerce, and control in the name of protecting
the public from pandemics.
The title of the ACLU report, resurfaced by David Shane, reveals its
primary point: "Pandemic Preparedness: The Need for a Public Health –
Not a Law Enforcement/National Security – Approach.” To read this report >>> is to feel that one is reading the anti-ACLU — or at least the actual
ACLU prior to its Trump-era transformation. From start to finish, it
reads as a warning of the perils of precisely the mindset which today's
ACLU is now advocating for COVID.
In 2008, the group explained its purpose this way: “the following report >>> examines the relationship between civil liberties and public health in
contemporary U.S. pandemic planning and makes a series of
recommendations for developing a more effective, civil
liberties-friendly approach.” Its key warning: “Not all public health
interventions have been benign or beneficial, however. Too often, fears
aroused by disease and epidemics have encouraged abuses of state power.
Atrocities, large and small, have been committed in the name of
protecting the public’s health.”
2008 report of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
The immediate impetus for the ACLU's 2008 report was two-fold: 1) the
2008 emergence of the avian bird flu pandemic, which produced highly
alarmist and ultimately false headlines around the world about millions
dying; and 2) new pandemic legislation and regulatory frameworks,
enacted in the wake of 9/11, premised on the view, as the ACLU put it,
"that every outbreak of disease could be the beginning of some horrific
epidemic, requiring the suspension of civil liberties.”
The ACLU issued its 2008 report to warn that the worst possible way to
respond to a deadly pandemic was through coercion and mandates. Instead, >>> the group argued — as one would expect from a civil liberties
organization — persuasion and voluntary compliance were both more
effective and less likely to erode core liberties. As they put it:
The lessons from history should be kept in mind whenever we are told by
government officials that “tough,” liberty-limiting actions are needed
to protect us from dangerous diseases. Specifically: coercion and brute
force are rarely necessary. In fact they are generally
counterproductive—they gratuitously breed public distrust and encourage
the people who are most in need of care to evade public health
authorities. On the other hand, effective, preventive strategies that
rely on voluntary participation do work.
The key dichotomy emphasized by the 2008 version of the ACLU was the
difference between constructive and persuasive messaging regarding
public health versus the use of law enforcement and forced mandates.
Starting with the report's title (“The Need for a Public Health – Not a
Law Enforcement/National Security – Approach”) through every section,
the ACLU urges that mandates and coercion be dispensed with in favor of
voluntary compliance and educational messages:
Government agencies have an essential role to play in helping to prevent >>> and mitigate epidemics. Unfortunately, in recent years, our government’s >>> approach to preparing the nation for a possible influenza pandemic has
been highly misguided. Too often, policymakers are resorting to law
enforcement and national security-oriented measures that not only
suppress individual rights unnecessarily, but have proven to be
ineffective in stopping the spread of disease and saving lives . . . .
This law enforcement/national security strategy shifts the focus of
preparedness from preventing and mitigating an emergency to punishing
people who fail to follow orders and stay healthy.
Much of the report is devoted to an examination of how the U.S.
government has historically treated pandemics. As it reviews each
pandemic — including horrifically lethal ones such as the plague and
smallpox — the ACLU concludes over and over that American health
authorities excessively relied on coercion rather than education and
persuasion, fueled by media-aided fear porn and alarmist narratives:
Lessons from History: American history contains vivid reminders that
grafting the values of law enforcement and national security onto public >>> health is both ineffective and dangerous. Too often, fears aroused by
disease and epidemics have justified abuses of state power. Highly
discriminatory and forcible vaccination and quarantine measures adopted
in response to outbreaks of the plague and smallpox over the past
century have consistently accelerated rather than slowed the spread of
disease, while fomenting public distrust and, in some cases, riots.
Amazingly, the model that the ACLU identifies as the one that must be
avoided is precisely the one that it is now urging be used for COVID.
Compare, for instance, the ACLU's defense of coercive mandates in its
New York Times op-ed this week (vaccine mandates “rarely run afoul of
civil liberties”) with this ringing endorsement of the need to preserve
freedom of choice in its 2008 report:
This model assumes that we must “trade liberty for security.” As a
result, instead of helping individuals and communities through education >>> and provision of health care, today’s pandemic prevention focuses on
taking aggressive, coercive actions against those who are sick. People,
rather than the disease, become the enemy.
What most worried the 2008 version of the ACLU was that authoritarian
power vested in the hands of public health officials in the form of
mandates and coercion will become permanent given that we will always
live with such threats and endless pandemics. That was why, urged that
iteration of the ACLU, we must opt for an approach that relies on
education programs and voluntary compliance rather than state mandates.
“The law enforcement approach to public health offers a rationale for
the endless suspension of civil liberties,” they explained. Using
post-9/11 expansions of state power as its framework, the group
explained that “the ‘Global War on Terror' may go on for a generation,
but the war on disease will continue until the end of the human race.
There will always be a new disease, always the threat of a new pandemic. >>> If that fear justifies the suspension of liberties and the institution
of an emergency state, then freedom and the rule of law will be
permanently suspended.”
The ACLU's New York Times op-ed this week repeatedly stressed that
coercive mandates are justified whenever “the disease is highly
transmissible, serious and lethal.” But its 2008 report argued exactly
the opposite. The report was critical of forced vaccinations and other
mandates in prior outbreaks of smallpox — certainly a highly contagious
and lethal disease — but then argued that when the disease reappeared in >>> the late 1940s, New York City handled it much better by offering
voluntary vaccines and education programs rather than coercive measures: >>>
In contrast, New York City relied on a different approach in 1947, one
that viewed the public as the client rather than the enemy of public
health. When smallpox reappeared in the city after a long absence, the
city educated the public about the problem and instituted a massive
voluntary vaccination campaign. Not surprisingly, no coercion was
needed. Provided with information about the need for and benefits of
vaccination, and reassurance that the city was helping rather than
attacking them, the citizens of the New York turned out en masse for one >>> of the world’s largest voluntary vaccination campaigns. The campaign was >>> successful, and the epidemic was quashed before it had a chance to
spread broadly in the city or beyond.
In the scheme of repressive measures that worried the 2008 ACLU,
“compulsory isolation and quarantine are among the most coercive
non-pharmaceutical interventions that may be employed during a
pandemic.” They minced no words about such policies: “civil liberties
concerns arise when these interventions are imposed by law.”
The ACLU did not merely warn with words of the dangers of excessive
pandemic coercion. They also legally represented at least one client who >>> they viewed as the victim of public health hysteria and tyranny. In
2006, “a 27-year-old tuberculosis patient named Robert Daniels was
involuntarily quarantined in Phoenix, Arizona for disobeying an order by >>> Maricopa County health officials to wear a face mask in public at all
times.” Even once Daniels was released and it turned out he had a less
severe case of TB than originally assumed, “Sheriff Joe Arpaio publicly
threatened him with prosecution for the pre-quarantine events.”
The ACLU's lesson from that case, and similar ones it had handled, was
clear: these cases “are cautionary tales that illustrate the
counterproductive nature of a punitive, law enforcement approach to
preventing the spread of disease.” Most important of all, said the civil >>> liberties group, coercive steps — such as mandates and quarantines — not >>> only endanger civil liberties but are less effective in improving the
public health, because they convert the public from cooperative allies
into enemies that must be controlled and punished:
These efforts require working with rather than against communities,
providing communities with as healthy an environment as possible, health >>> care if they need it, and the means to help themselves and their
neighbors. Most importantly, to protect public health, public health
policies must aim to help, rather than to suppress, the public.
A separate ACLU report from 2015, issued during the ebola epidemic,
contained a similar message. It warned “against politically motivated
and scientifically unwarranted quarantines, which the report found
violated individuals’ rights and hampered efforts to end the outbreak.”
Hysteria over ebola became so intense that the ACLU “found that people
were illegally deprived of their right to due process under the 14th
Amendment because the quarantines and movement restrictions were not
scientifically justified.”
While both reports acknowledge that more restrictive measures can be
justified under extreme circumstances, the crux of each is that
voluntary compliance is better than coercion, that state mandates
typically fail, and that the far greater danger is vesting too much
power in the hands of the state, which it will never relinquish given
the permanence of pandemics.
How the ACLU fell from those traditional and vital civil liberties
positions to urging this week in The New York Times that “far from
compromising civil liberties, vaccine mandates actually further civil
liberties,” is anyone's guess. But what is beyond doubt is that it is a
far fall indeed. And most of all, hearing the ACLU invoke the standard
rationale of authoritarians — we all have the fundamental right to
bodily integrity and to make our own health care decisions, but these
rights are not absolute — is nothing short of jarring.
Update, Sept. 7, 2021, 6:58 p.m.: Shortly after publication of this
article, a former ACLU lawyer, Margaret Winter, noted in response: “It
was NOT just ‘prior to covid’ that ACLU denounced vaccine mandates: Read >>> ACLU's 2020 position paper passionately and correctly arguing that
vaccine mandates ‘exacerbate racial disparities and harm the civil
liberties of all.’” Winter was referencing this ACLU report, from May of >>> 2020, that warned of the serious dangers of “immunity passports," under
which citizens who already got COVID and thus had immunity would enjoy
rights not available to others:
We at the ACLU have serious concerns about the adoption of any such
proposal, because of its potential to harm public health, incentivize
economically-vulnerable people to risk their health by contracting
COVID-19, exacerbate racial and economic disparities, and lead to a new
health surveillance infrastructure that endangers privacy rights. . . .
This division would likely worsen existing racial, disability, and
economic disparities in America and lead people struggling to afford
basic necessities to deliberately risk their health.
While such a scheme is different in degree from vaccine passports let
alone vaccine mandates — which the ACLU is now championing — its
rationale for opposing such a system is fully applicable: “there are
serious civil liberties and civil rights harms from making workplace
decisions on that basis,” adding: “any immunity passport system
endangers privacy rights by creating a new surveillance infrastructure
to collect health data.”
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://forum.pafoa.org/showthread.php?t=357078&p=4503090#post4503090
The Great Reboot
COVID-19 disruption causing many deaths from TB, AIDS in poorest
countries, fund says
By Emma Farge
2 minute read
A healthcare worker sets up a mobile clinic in Gugulethu township near
Cape Town, South Africa, March 26, 2021. REUTERS/Mike Hutchings
People walk in a crowded market amidst the spread of the coronavirus
disease (COVID-19) in Mumbai, India, September 5, 2021. REUTERS/Francis
Mascarenhas
People wearing protective face masks stand in a queue to receive food
aid amid the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, at
the Itireleng informal settlement, near Laudium suburb in Pretoria,
South Africa, May 20, 2020. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko/File Photo
1/3
People walk in a crowded market amidst the spread of the coronavirus
disease (COVID-19) in Mumbai, India, September 5, 2021. REUTERS/Francis
Mascarenhas
GENEVA, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of people will die of
tuberculosis left untreated because of disruption to healthcare systems
in poor countries caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, a global aid fund said. >>>
In a few of the world's poorest countries, excess deaths from AIDS and
tuberculosis (TB) could even exceed those from the coronavirus itself,
said the head of the Geneva-based aid body, known as the Global Fund.
The Fund's annual report for 2020, released on Wednesday, showed that
the number of people treated for drug-resistant tuberculosis in
countries where it operates fell by 19%. A decline of 11% was reported
in HIV prevention programmes and services.
"Essentially, about a million people less were treated for TB in 2020
than in 2019 and I'm afraid that will inevitably mean that hundreds of
thousands of people will die," Executive Director Peter Sands told Reuters. >>>
While precise death tolls are as yet unknown, Sands said that for some
poor countries, such as parts of the Sahel region in Africa, excess
deaths from the setback in the fight against diseases such as TB or AIDS >>> might prove higher than from COVID-19 itself.
The Geneva-based Global Fund is an alliance of governments, civil
society and private sector partners investing more than $4 billion per
year to fight tuberculosis, malaria and AIDS. The United States is its
top donor.
Sands said services were affected by COVID-19 lockdowns while clinics,
staff and diagnostics normally used for TB were instead deployed for
COVID-19 in countries such as India and across Africa. He added that he
expected further disruptions this year due to the Delta variant.
He said the decline in treatment for other diseases "underscores the
need to look at the total impact of COVID-19 and measure success in
combating it not just by the reduction in deaths due to COVID-19 itself
but to the knock on impact".
Malaria proved to be an exception to the trend in 2020, and prevention
activities remained stable or increased compared to 2019, the Global
Fund said.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://forum.pafoa.org/showthread.php?t=357078&p=4504482#post4504482
If COVID Is Forever, Is This What You Want the Rest of Your Life to Look >>> Like?
By PHILIP KLEIN September 9, 2021 6:30 AM
People making sacrifices for a few weeks is one thing. But if those
sacrifices are indefinitely extended, it*s a much different debate. Most >>> people have at some point in their lives been asked to entertain a
version of the cheesy question, *If you knew you had one day to live,
what would you do?* It*s often posed as a playful game or essay topic or >>> used by self-help gurus to prod people into trying to get a deeper sense >>> of their priorities. But it*s time for everybody to start asking
themselves a different question: If COVID-19 will be here forever, is
this what you want the rest of your life to look like? In this case,
it*s not an idle or theoretical exercise. It will be central to how we
choose to live and function as a society for years or even decades to come. >>>
Ever since the onset of COVID-19, we have more or less been living under >>> an illusion. That illusion was that it would reach some sort of natural
endpoint * a point at which the pandemic would be declared *over,* and
we could all more or less go back to normal. The original promise of
taking *15 days to slow the spread* or six weeks to *flatten the curve*
has long since been reduced to a punchline.
In March of 2020, the outside estimates were that this coronavirus
period would come to an end when safe and effective vaccines became
widely available. Even the infamous Imperial College London report,
viewed as draconian at the time for its estimate of up to 2.2 million
deaths in the U.S. absent sustained intervention, predicted that its
mitigation strategies *will need to be maintained until a vaccine
becomes available.* Yet vaccines have been available for anybody who
wants one for nearly six months, and our leaders have ignored the
obvious off-ramp. The CDC backtracked on guidance and said that
vaccinated people must wear masks in public, and many people and
jurisdictions have listened. For example, Montgomery County, Md., has an >>> extraordinarily high vaccination rate * with 96 percent of the eligible
over-twelve population having received at least one dose and 87 percent
of them being fully vaccinated. By its own metrics, the county has *low
utilization* of hospital beds. Yet the county requires masks indoors *
including in schools. In Oregon, vaccinated people are required to wear
masks even outdoors. And it isn*t just liberal enclaves. A new
Economist/YouGov poll found that eight in ten Americans report having
worn a mask in the past week at least *some of the time* when outside
their homes, with 58 percent masking *always* or *most of the time.* If
masking has remained so widespread among adults months after vaccines
became widely available, why will it end in schools after vaccines
become available for children?
When operating under the assumption that there is a time limit on
interventions, it*s much easier to accept various disruptions and
inconveniences. While there have been ferocious debates over whether
various mitigation strategies have ever been necessary, we should at
least be able to agree that the debate changes the longer such
restrictions are required. People making sacrifices for a few weeks, or
even a year, under the argument that doing so saves lives is one thing.
But if those sacrifices are indefinitely extended, it*s a much different >>> debate.
There are many Americans who willingly locked themselves down and who
still favor some restrictions. But what if this were to drag on for five >>> years? Ten years? Twenty years? Do you want your children to be forced
to wear masks throughout their childhoods? Do you want to bail on
weddings if some guests may be unvaccinated? Skip future funerals? Ditch >>> Thanksgiving when there*s a winter surge? Keep grandparents away from
their grandkids whenever there*s a new variant spreading? Are you never
going to see a movie in a theater again?
These are not wild scenarios. The Delta variant has led to surges
throughout the world months after vaccines became widely available.
Despite being a model of mass vaccination, Israel has been dealing with
a significant Delta spike. To be clear, vaccines still appear to be
quite effective at significantly reducing the risk of hospitalization
and death. But if the virus continues to adapt and people need to get
booster shots every six months or so, it seems there*s a good chance
that the coronavirus will continue to spread for a very long time. So
the question is how we, as individuals, and society as a whole, should
adapt to this reality. Instead of thinking in terms of policies that may >>> be tolerable for a very short period of time, it*s time to consider what >>> would happen if such policies had to continue forever.
Whatever arguments were made to justify interventions early on in the
pandemic, post-vaccine, we are in a much different universe. There is a
negligible statistical difference in the likelihood of severe health
consequences between vaccinated people who go about their business
without taking extra precautions, and those who take additional
precautions. Yet having to observe various protocols in perpetuity
translates into a reduced quality of life. Put another way, the sort of
question we need to start asking ourselves is not whether we can
tolerate masking for one trip to the grocery store, but whether we want
to live in a society in which we can never again go shopping without a mask.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://reason.com/2021/09/15/covid-19-hospitalizations-are-an-increasingly-misleading-measure-of-severe-disease/
New research shows incidental and mild infections account for a large
and rising share of that widely cited number.
JACOB SULLUM | 9.15.2021 1:55 PM
COVID-19-patient-Florida-8-25-21-Newscom
(John Pendygraft/Zuma Press/Newscom)
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers, policy
makers, and journalists have viewed hospitalizations as an important
indicator of the disease burden, often citing increases in that measure
as a justification for government interventions aimed at curtailing
virus transmission, such as business restrictions and mask requirements. >>> Hospitalization numbers do have advantages over case tallies, which are
highly dependent on who happens to be tested, and fatality reports,
which are a lagging indicator, since deaths may be recorded weeks after
diagnosis. But because hospitalization rates reflect patients who test
positive for COVID-19, they do not tell us how many were admitted for
treatment of the disease or how many experienced severe symptoms.
A newly published preprint study addresses those gaps in knowledge by
applying measures of disease severity to about 48,000 V.A. hospital
admissions of more than 38,000 COVID-positive patients between March 1,
2020, and June 30, 2021. The researchers, all but one of whom work for
the V.A. Boston Healthcare System, found that the share of admissions
involving moderate-to-severe COVID-19 cases fell from 64 percent before
vaccines were widely available to 52 percent afterward.
A 12 percent decrease is not really a "fall."
Yes, ikt is. It is considered a significant percentage change in any
context.
In other words, incidental or mild cases accounted for a rising share of >>> so-called COVID-19 hospitalizations—nearly half by the end of June. That >>> means it is increasingly problematic to treat that number, which
includes COVID-19 patients without life-threatening symptoms as well as
COVID-positive patients admitted for other reasons, as an indicator of
severe disease. Notably, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, >>> which collects data on what are commonly called "COVID-19
hospitalizations," uses a more ambiguous term: "COVID-19-associated
hospitalizations." But even that description is misleading, since the
tally includes many hospital patients who were not admitted for
treatment of COVID-19.
The main measure of disease severity in the V.A. study was an oxygen
saturation level below 94 percent, which corresponds with "the most
stringent cut-off" on a scale developed by the National Institutes of
Health. The researchers also considered whether patients received the
steroid dexamethasone, which reduces mortality in COVID-19 patients on
supplemental oxygen or mechanical respiratory support. By both measures, >>> the prevalence of moderate-to-severe cases declined with the advent of
vaccines.
There's no reason to link the decline in COVID severity in
hospitalized patients to "the advent of vaccines" when the
hospitalized are largely the unvaccinated.
Instead, the decline should be linked to the coincidental advent of
monoclonal antibody cocktail usage inspired by the example of TFG
getting the Regeneron cocktail when hospitalized at Walter Reed VA
medical center in 2020.
Thus, it is more likely that VA patients were calling 911 to be
hospitalized to receive their monoclonal antibody cocktail while
they're still ambulatory before they have to be stretchered into the
hospital.
The researchers cite two explanations for that trend: Vaccination
protects people against severe disease even if they are infected by the
coronavirus, and "unvaccinated patients tend to be younger and
healthier," meaning they are less likely to experience life-threatening
systems. Another factor could be the criteria that hospitals use for
admitting COVID-19 patients, which are apt to be less demanding when the >>> infected population becomes younger and healthier. But the upshot is
that "COVID-19-associated hospitalizations," which were always an
imprecise measure of severe disease, should be viewed with even more
caution now.
"Routine inpatient screening, common or mandated in many facilities, may >>> identify incidental cases," the researchers note. "If hospitalizations
are used as a metric for policy decision-making, patients hospitalized
for the management of COVID-19 disease should be distinguished from
patients who are hospitalized and incidentally found to be infected with >>> SARS-CoV-2." They argue that oxygen saturation levels and use of
supplemental oxygen, both of which are recorded by hospitals, are handy
ways to distinguish between these two groups. They suggest that
"reporting definitions may need to be revised to reflect the changing
nature of the pandemic, particularly in regions with high levels of
vaccine uptake."
The researchers note that "the VA population is not representative of
the US population as a whole, having few women and no children." But the >>> finding that mild cases account for a substantial share of hospitalized
COVID-positive patients is consistent with earlier research involving
pediatric populations.
A study reported in Hospital Pediatrics last month looked at 117
admissions to a children's hospital in Northern California between May
10, 2020, and February 10, 2021. Two-fifths of those "COVID-19
hospitalizations" involved patients who were asymptomatic. One-fifth
involved "severe" or "critical" cases.
Another study reported in the same journal last month looked at
COVID-positive patients younger than 22 who were treated by Valley
Children's Healthcare in Madera, California, between May 1, 2020, and
September 30, 2020. The researchers found that 40 percent of the
patients had "incidental infection," 47 percent were "potentially
symptomatic," and the rest were "significantly symptomatic." In this age >>> group, they reported, "most hospitalized patients who test positive for
SARS-CoV-2 are asymptomatic or have a reason for hospitalization other
than coronavirus disease 2019."
The authors of the V.A. study note that "most of the data are from
months before the more-transmissible delta variant became dominant." But >>> they add that "proportions of patients with moderate-to-severe
respiratory distress or being treated with dexamethasone did not appear
to be rising at the end of the observation period (6/30/2021), when
delta was becoming predominant nationwide, suggesting stability of the
vital signs metric for identifying moderate-to-severe COVID-19."
As David Zweig notes in The Atlantic, the V.A. study "demonstrates that
hospitalization rates for COVID, as cited by journalists and policy
makers, can be misleading, if not considered carefully. Clearly many
patients right now are seriously ill. We also know that overcrowding of
hospitals by COVID patients with even mild illness can have negative
implications for patients in need of other care. At the same time, this
study suggests that COVID hospitalization tallies can't be taken as a
simple measure of the prevalence of severe or even moderate disease,
because they might inflate the true numbers by a factor of two."
64/52 is a factor of 1.24 instead of two.
Zweig interviewed Shira Doron, a co-author of the V.A. study who is an
infectious disease specialist and epidemiologist at Tufts Medical
Center. "As we look to shift from cases to hospitalizations as a metric
to drive policy and assess level of risk to a community or state or
country," she told him, "we should refine the definition of
hospitalization. Those patients who are there with rather than from
COVID don't belong in the metric."
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Typically, when a metric is described to have "fallen" there is the
expectation that there's been a reduction by more than half (i.e. >
50%). Picture a person falling from upright (90 degree angle) to near
prone (less than 45 degree angle) or temperatures in the fall (40's
compared to the summer (80-90's).
Would a ten percent drop in systolic pressure be considered
insignificant?
A 10 percent decrease in systolic blood pressure from a normal 120
mmHg to 108 mHg typically would not cause a normal person to fall
down. 60 mmHg or less, otoh, would.
What about a ten percent drop in the price of a stock in one day?
A 10 percent decrease in Tesla stock price from the current $754 to
$675 typically would not cause Tesla shareholders to fall out of a
skyscraper window. $375 or less, otoh, might.
The phrase "fell by 12 percent" frwquently shows up on Internet
searches.
here is one example.
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202109/1234440.shtml
"Shares of China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group fell by 12 percent."
In the interim, I am simply wonderfully hungry and again hope you,
Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So again, how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.reddit.com/r/COVIDrights/comments/pqqgwn/supermodel_doutzen_kroes_says_she_wonx27t_be/
Supermodel Doutzen Kroes Says She Won't Be Forced To Get The Vaccine To
Participate In Society
BY ERICA JIMENEZ·Sep 17th 2021· 2 min read
Copy to ClipboardCopy to Clipboard
shutterstock 1423572554 (1)
Former Victoria's Secret Angel and supermodel Doutzen Kroes took to
Instagram today with an important message about freedom, speech, and
vaccine mandates.
In the caption of an Instagram post today, the Dutch model, actress, and >>> philanthropist Doutzen Kroes took a strong stance against Covid vaccine
mandates, saying, "I will not be forced to take the shot. I will not be
forced to prove my health to participate in society. I will not accept
exclusion of people based on their medical status."
Here is her full statement:
"The past few months have been very peaceful without social media. A
part of me wanted to escape into my family bubble and leave everything
up to faith. That part of me believes in the power of consciousness,
that whatever you give energy to will grow. So I tried to ignore the
negative and focus on the positive. But at this point I can no longer
turn a blind eye to the injustice that is happening right in front of us." >>>
She continues, "Other people have given me hope and strength with their
courage to stand up for our rights. They touched my heart and inspired
me to do the same. So although my hands are shaking while writing this,
I feel it is time to choose courage over comfort and speak my truth: I
will not be forced to take the shot. I will not be forced to prove my
health to participate in society. I will not accept exclusion of people
based on their medical status."
Kroes ends her post saying, "Freedom of speech is a right worth fighting >>> for but we can only solve this united in peace and love! Pass on the
torch of hope and love and speak your truth. ??"
Doutzen Kroes married her husband Sunnery James in 2010. The couple have >>> two children together, a son Phyllon, age 10, and a daughter Myllena, age 7.
Kroes is not the only celebrity to voice concerns about being bullied
into getting the Covid vaccine lately. Earlier this week, rapper Nicki
Minaj said people should only get the vaccine if they want to, tweeting, >>> "So just pray on it & make sure you’re comfortable with ur decision, not >>> bullied." [sic]
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the Netherlands & elsewhere is by rapidly (
http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given moment,
including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly contagious
(i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John 15:12) for them to call their
doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping this
pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while preparing for the
worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations and others like the
Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations
combining to form hybrids that render current COVID vaccines no longer
effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.reddit.com/r/COVIDrights/comments/proia9/students_diein_on_pentacrest_protesting_the/The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
Students die-in on Pentacrest, protesting the ‘perpetual state of
stress’ caused by UI’s lax COVID rules
Posted on Sep 3, 2021 by Adria Carpenter
26
Shares
COGS holds a die-in protest at the Pentacrest on Thursday, Sept. 2,
2021, in Iowa City, Iowa. Adria Carpenter/Little Village
Around 50 people “died” on the Pentacrest on Thursday to protest the
University of Iowa’s COVID-19 policies.
The die-in protest was organized by Campaign to Organize Graduate
Students (COGS), the union that represents graduate student workers at
the university. Protesters laid down on the Pentacrest’s sidewalk, as
COGS members drew chalk outlines of their bodies.
“COGS is here to demand better COVID policies across campus. Things like >>> vaccine and mask mandates as well as creating alternatives for teaching
and learning online, other things that will save lives, prevent
disease,” said Caleb Klipowicz, a doctoral student in Sociocultural
Anthropology.
Klipowicz led everyone in chants.
“What do we want!” he shouted.
“Mask mandates!” they replied.
“When do we want it?”
“Now!”
“And if we don’t get it, shut it down!” Klipowicz said.
Caleb Klipowicz leads the crowd in chants. — Adria Carpenter/Little Village >>> Protesters took turns at the megaphone sharing their experiences, both
as instructors and students. Rob Ascher, a MFA student in Theater Arts,
spoke about the first day of class last week.
“In the rhetoric department, I come in, and there’s not a single student >>> wearing a mask,” he said. “That ain’t right. I go into my classroom. If
it’s a good day, half of my students are wearing a mask.”
“There’s a football game this weekend. That’s a super spreader and a half.” >>>
Rob Ascher, center, holds up a sign protesting Gov. Kim Reynolds. —
Adria Carpenter/Little Village
“We have to get back to normal,” shouted Johnathan Bartholomew, who was
watching the protest. “It’s up to freedom. We have freedom in America.
This is terrible that you want to force [people] to wear a mask.”
Mayor Bruce Teague issued a mask mandate for Iowa City on Aug. 19, in
response to the surge in new COVID-19 cases caused by the spread of the
Delta variant in Iowa. The mandate, which is scheduled to be in place
until Sept. 30, requires people to wear face masks when in indoor public >>> settings. It specifically cited “University of Iowa academic buildings
and business offices” among the locations where masks are required.
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In response to the city’s mask mandate, the university said in a
statement it would not change its policy of only encouraging, but not
requiring, masks.
“The University of Iowa strongly encourages the use of face masks on
campus, especially in all classroom settings and during in-person office >>> hours,” according to the statement. “However, as a state agency, we are
expected to comply with state law and the guidance of our governing
body, the Board of Regents, State of Iowa.”
The Iowa Board of Regents controls policy at all three of Iowa’s public
universities, and has decided to prevent UI, Iowa State University and
the University of Northern Iowa from requiring masks, a change from
previous policy. The board had required masks be worn indoors at the
universities, but on May 20 eliminated that requirement, saying that
“significant improvements in the management of COVID-19” had made mask
requirements unnecessary.
The regents have also decided to prevent the three universities from
requiring COVID-19 vaccinations. The prohibition does not apply to other >>> vaccinations. All three public universities in Iowa require people to
submit documentation showing they have had two MMR (measles, mumps and
rubella) vaccinations in order to enroll.
On April 14, Iowa Board of Regents President Michael Richards said that
“while we continue to strongly encourage members of our campus community >>> to get vaccinated, the regents universities will not be mandating
vaccinations for any student [or] employees now or for the 2021-22
academic year.” That same day, however, Grinnell College announced it
would require students enrolling in the fall to have proof of a COVID-19 >>> vaccination.
“The efficacy of vaccines, as well as expanded vaccine eligibility and
availability, allows us to address the higher risk of transmission in a
communal living environment and affirms this additional step to protect
the health of our community,” Grinnell, a private college, told students >>> in an email about the vaccination requirement.
UI is the only Big Ten university that does not require masks on campus. >>> Six of the conference’s 13 schools also require vaccinations. More than
800 colleges and universities around the country have COVID-19
vaccination requirements.
UI is not regularly testing students and staff, but is participating in
a nationwide program that monitors the amount of virus present in
wastewater.
Since the beginning of August, data shows that COVID-19 hospitalizations >>> and cases are increasing in Johnson County. The county provides three
reasons for this recent trend:
Delta Variant community transmission is HIGH (spreads more easily and
may cause 2x as many infections)
Larger groups of people are gathering indoors without masks
Return of K-12 and UI in-person activities without masking requirements
or the ability to socially distance
A COGS worker draws a chalk outline around people at the protest. —
Adria Carpenter/Little Village
“As a student worker, I’m just appalled by the lack of care and
leadership they’ve shown,” Glenn Houlihan, who teaches American studies, >>> said about UI’s administration and the Board of Regents.
“In every class I teach there could be someone with COVID, and I don’t
know it. And that puts me at risk, my family at risk, that puts my loved >>> ones at risk. I’ve only taught one Friday so far, which is three classes >>> in a row. And in the middle class, one person out of 25 decided to wear
a mask.”
UI is currently relying on students and employees to self-report any
positive tests. According to a UI FAQ on pandemic policies, instructors
can encourage masks and vaccines in the classroom, “as long as all sides >>> have a voice in the conversation.”
“The university is just leaving its students, its teachers, its
professors, its other precarious workers, janitorial staff, catering
staff to fend for themselves in the midst of a deadly pandemic. They
don’t care for their workers,” Houlihan said.
“That was immensely distressing. It makes me feel upset teaching. I
don’t feel safe in my workplace. It puts us all in almost a perpetual
state of stress.”
But not everyone on the Pentacrest agreed with protesters. As students
poured out of Macbride and Schaeffer Hall, many unmasked individuals
walked past and scoffed.
Students emerge from Macbride Hall during class change. Adria
Carpenter/Little Village
Ariane Thomas holds a poster while a group of students look at and film
the protest. Adria Carpenter/Little Village
COGS holds a die-in protest at the Pentacrest on Thursday, Sept. 2,
2021, in Iowa City, Iowa. Adria Carpenter/Little Village
Bartholomew, who shouted about freedom during the protest, clarified his >>> objections after it was over, insisting that personal freedom is more
important than public health precautions, which he believes the
government shouldn’t have the authority to require.
“I’m not anti-mask. I’m not anti-science. I’m not anti-vaccine. But it
comes down to freedom, and it’s not just a slippery slope requiring a
mask mandate, it’s pushing us over the ledge,” he said. “What’s the
point of having my life if I don’t have the freedom to make my own
decisions? I’d rather die if we can’t have freedom.”
Violette Bray, a recent international studies graduate from the
University of Wyoming, thinks that UI’s policies do not go far enough to >>> protect the students.
Violette Bray and Glenn Houlihan make signs before the protest began. —
Adria Carpenter/Little Village
“I think it’s really just evident that the university really doesn’t
care about its students between how they’re dealing with sexual assault
cases and then this, masks and COVID,” she said, referencing the sexual
assault allegations against Phi Gamma Delta (FIJI). “They’re really just >>> not doing anything to advocate for their students, and they need to step >>> it up.”
UI has also phased out its Temporary Work Alternative Arrangement (TAWA) >>> and Temporary Alternative Learning Arrangement (TALA) programs.
“This is just a hotspot waiting to happen. We’ve already had students
with COVID tell us,” Klipowicz said. Klipowicz is teaching a course on
the origins of infectious disease this semester.
“I teach a class of about 70 students, all in the same room, windows are >>> shut. And first day I actually walked around handing out masks. Several
students said no,” he said.
A student wearing a “My governor is an idiot” mask looks across the
Pentacrest. — Adria Carpenter/Little Village
Prior to the protest, COGS released a list of demands to the UI
administration and the Board of Regents.
We issue the following set of demands voted on by COGS/UE Local 896
membership as necessary to provide a safe and healthy work environment
on campus:
Immediately Reinstate the Temporary Work Alternative Arrangement (TAWA)
and Temporary Alternative Learning Arrangement (TALA) Processes.
These are no-cost options that enable students and instructors to
opt-out of in-person situations. The processes should be streamlined so
that anyone who chooses to avoid face-to-face interactions at this time
may do so.
Report COVID case counts and make them widely available to the entire
campus community.
The university needs to report COVID case numbers at least twice weekly. >>> Right now, the university will only be updating COVID cases once a week
and not sending out that information by email like last academic year.
Reporting numbers only once a week is insufficient to assess the rate of >>> COVID transmission. These numbers should be made available to all
students, staff, and faculty through email.
Allow for flexibility in schedules for graduate workers who are parents
or caretakers.
With public schools in Iowa returning to in-person teaching without mask >>> requirements, it is likely that disruptions to classroom schedules will
occur. This is already happening in states where the school year has
already started.
Pause all non-essential in-person events, and create hybrid options for
all essential events.
Sanctioning events that can spread disease across campus and the
community is irresponsible. Pause these events until rates of local
transmission return to safe levels.
Mandate masks inside campus buildings.
Along with vaccinations, mask-wearing is one of the simplest and most
effective ways to slow the spread of outbreaks. Additionally, while the
vaccines are highly effective, they are not 100% effective against all
variants and scientists believe that vaccine effectiveness is
significantly lower six months after vaccination.
Require vaccinations of students, faculty, and staff, and/or mandate
weekly testing of those who are not vaccinated and do not have medical
or religious reason for this.
Like other universities in the Big 10, and hundreds of others, the
university should require students, faculty, and staff to be vaccinated
against COVID-19. If this cannot be implemented immediately, the
alternative measure of frequent, regular testing of the unvaccinated is
a must.
Conduct contact investigation of all documented COVID-19 cases.
Outbreaks will happen. Currently, the state health department is working >>> against our collective well-being by refusing to conduct investigations
in public schools. Take an active role in mitigating spread of the
highly contagious Delta variant on campus and in the community and
initiate contact investigations of cases, related to campus.
Put a plan in place for the provision of technical, pedagogical, and
financial support for graduate workers in the case of emergencies, or a
transition from in person to remote teaching. With this, provide clear
thresholds for when such a transition may happen.
Everyone would like for this semester to be a “return to normal.”
Unfortunately, it is unreasonable to think that this is a guarantee.
Instead, we need guarantees from the university that we will be able to
do our jobs and deal with emergencies or a transition. Furthermore, we
need transparency from the university about what to expect.
Communicate in a clear and timely manner with international graduate
workers throughout the semester about travel and visa restrictions,
vaccination regulations, and testing.
International graduate workers have been under particular stress during
the pandemic due to national and international travel restrictions that
have complicated work and personal life. Resources should be directed
towards providing transparency wherever possible to this group.
Include COGS/UE Local 896, graduate bodies of shared governance, and
diverse graduate organizations in planning, decision-making, and
information dissemination regarding operations at the University of Iowa >>> for the 2021-2022 academic year.
We have done much of this in the past year. Mechanisms are in place.
Taking action now will save lives and make the transition to the
semester smoother, rather than repeating the mistakes of the past and
waiting until the crisis is upon us.
“The pandemic is far from over,” Houlihan said. “This isn’t sustainable.” >>
Iowa & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.reddit.com/r/COVIDrights/comments/psz6ht/academia_is_establishing_a_permanent_surveillance/
Academia Is Establishing A Permanent Surveillance Bureaucracy That Will
Soon Govern The Rest Of The Country
Michael Tracey
20 hr ago
98
62
Image by Mark Breck via GettyImages
Having now received a tsunami of messages from people across the US (and >>> a few internationally) about the surveillance regimes being permanently
installed at their educational institutions — in contravention of
earlier assurances that the current academic year would mark a
long-awaited “return to normalcy,” thanks to the onset of mass
vaccination — there are a few conclusions to draw.
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First: unless and until COVID “cases” are abandoned as a metric by which >>> policy action is presumptively dictated, these institutions are destined >>> to continue flailing from irrational measure to irrational measure for
the foreseeable future. Just turn your gaze over to one of America’s
most hallowed pedagogical grounds: As of September 17, Columbia
University has newly forbidden students from hosting guests, visiting
residence halls other than their own, and gathering with more than ten
people. The stated rationale for these restrictions? Administrators have >>> extrapolated from the “contact tracing” data they’ve compulsorily seized >>> that a recent increase in viral transmission is attributable to
“students socializing unmasked at gatherings in residence halls and at
off-campus apartments, bars, and restaurants.” (Socializing at
apartments, bars, and restaurants in the middle of Manhattan — gee, I
can’t imagine anything more heinous.)
Just like Connecticut College and so many other institutions I’ve been
taking flurries of messages about, Columbia has already mandated
vaccination for all students, faculty, and staff, and is approaching
100% compliance. But as has now been made abundantly clear, for many
people in positions of bureaucratic authority, universal vaccination was >>> never going to be sufficient for a transition away from the “Permanent
Emergency” mode of COVID exegetical theology. The perverse incentives
are easy to grasp. These administrators have so much invested in the
infrastructure of “case” detection they’ve constructed over the past
year and a half — not to mention the wider ideological project of
“stopping the spread” at all costs — that it’s impossible to imagine
conditions under which they’d voluntarily move to dismantle the
surveillance systems over which they preside. And not just because the
new powers conferred by this infrastructure — the ability to micromanage >>> the private lives of young adults, track and adjudicate the propriety of >>> their movements, etc. — is probably creepily intoxicating on a level
these administrators may not be overtly conscious of, and in any event
would almost certainly never publicly admit.
No, the infrastructure won’t be dismantled any time soon because doing
so would also require accepting a major paradigm shift in how COVID is
understood. And for certain segments of society, that whole system of
thought is just too all-consuming. Benign instances of transmission —
i.e. transmission that results in no severe disease, which is almost
invariably the case with vaccinated young adults at astronomically low
risk from COVID — would have to stop being portrayed as alarming
“outbreaks,” necessitating a never-ending stream of frenzied Zoom
strategy meetings and swift, all-hands-on-decks interventionist tactics. >>> The very word outbreak would also probably have to be ditched, given its >>> alarmist connotations. I would suggest instead that outbreak be applied
to these frantic upswells of bureaucratic overreaction. Perhaps the
epidemiological origins of this diseased mentality could be “contact
traced.”
Share
Why should anyone be alarmed by an alleged “outbreak” of overwhelmingly
asymptomatic or mild “cases” among a population of healthy vaccinated
undergrads — “cases” which would never have been detected at all if not
for the superfluous “surveillance testing” structures that these
institutions require students submit to? And before anyone chimes in
with the standard “because they can transmit to others” response: the
“others” they’re surrounded by have had the opportunity to get
vaccinated at no cost for the past eight months. Even the US prestige
media is beginning to reject the utility of using “cases” as a benchmark >>> for anything of consequence, so you’d think college administrators would >>> eventually follow suit, but a combination of bureaucratic inertia and
weirdly flamboyant zeal appears to be preventing that from happening.
Having read way too much administrative jargon recently, there are a
number of obnoxious rhetorical strategies they employ to engender
acceptance of edicts that more and more people seem to recognize are
wildly, overbearingly arbitrary. “We all have to hold each other
accountable,” these administrators will often pronounce, or some
variation thereof, which ironically shields them from accountability for >>> their own capricious and intrusive actions. Their orders are often
cloyingly filled with artificial appeals to “the community,” which
raises the question of who elected these surveillers and snoops to be
spokespersons for “the community,” and how they even define
“communities,” which seem to contain growing segments of unwilling
inhabitants.
One key thing to know is that despite their pretension of acting at the
direction of “expert” epidemiologists and public health officials, the
day-to-day decisions about practical implementation at these places
often come down to the individual discretion of officials who in no sane >>> world would ever be deferred to on questions of infectious disease
protocol, or really anything else of significance. The latest
restrictions at Columbia were promulgated by the “Dean of Undergraduate
Student Life,” one of those titles which you know must encompass a whole >>> slew of useless, indecipherable makework — and now tends to include a
never-ending cycle of COVID monitoring. In her official bio, Dean
Cristen Scully Kromm of Columbia is described as having an esteemed
background in something called “residence life and leadership
oversight.” I don’t know about you, but I can think of few things more
unappealing than to have my personal activity surveilled by official
busybodies who have dedicated their careers to learning the majesties of >>> “leadership oversight,” which sounds like a field invented specifically
for people who actually enjoy receiving LinkedIn emails.
Thanks to my trusty network of informants, I was able to listen in on a
Zoom meeting held Sunday night by Dean Victor Arcelus, the chief COVID
decider at my old stomping grounds of Connecticut College. I apologize
again for the unrelenting focus on this obscure liberal arts college in
southeastern Connecticut, but it’s just become irresistible. Dean
Arcelus convened a panel of all his subordinate Deans involved in the
crafting of COVID rules; studying the credentials of these people sure
is fascinating.
One member of the ad hoc infectious disease task force, Ariella Rabin
Rotramel, currently serves as the College’s “Interim Dean of
Institutional Equity and Inclusion,” and is also Associate Professor of
Gender, Sexuality and Intersectionality Studies, with a specialty in
“Queer Theory and Activism.” Here is Rotramel answering a Zoom question >>>from an anonymous student:
I’m sure they is a lovely person, but it’s unclear why Rotramel should
be endowed with authority to issue virology-related policy
pronouncements. Either way, they gave some indication that they is
perhaps not up for the task, describing the whole situation as
“exhausting” — that familiar exasperated rallying cry of activists
demanding acquiescence.
Demonstrating his unparalleled leadership abilities, however, Dean
Arcelus stated that he was “quite disappointed” at reports that parties
had been rudely held this past weekend at an on-campus residential
facility. “There will be conduct consequences,” he warned. “Suspension
is most definitely on the table.” Though the most extreme variation of
the Australia-style lockdown had been lifted just hours after my visit
last week, students are still being ordered not to partake in normal
social gatherings such as parties (gasp) or going to bars (gasp).
“If you have parties, if you go to the bars, you’re not going to be able >>> to have everything else,” the Dean exhorted, threatening that those who
misbehave could prompt a return to lockdown for everybody. However, he
did leave a glimmer of hope, enticing students that “if we were able to
see that you all were actually being really good” about acceding to his
prohibitions, then “things could potentially change.”
“The power in preventing this from happening again is in you and in
holding each other accountable,” Dean Arcelus continued. There’s that
ubiquitous feature of the contemporary college administrator jargon —
presumably tailored to the sensibilities of “accountability”-minded
young adults. Again with the added irony that these invocations of
“accountability” serve to deflect scrutiny from those who wield the real >>> decision-making power. In the name of “accountability,” students become
scapegoats for the irrational policy choices of the people actually in
charge. “Accountability” is usually also demanded on behalf of some
imagined “community,” so you are not to comply solely at the behest of
Dean Arcelus, but rather at the behest of some diffused assemblage of
individuals who are claimed to represent a unified community. There’s
always this incredibly annoying pretense that bureaucratic operatives
and public health “experts” are alone the most exalted guardians of
“community safety,” and if you don’t agree with them on moral,
practical, or epidemiological grounds, you are a menace.
“Moving forward, none of you should be OK with people not having a mask
on inside, or not having it properly worn,” the Dean inveighed, again
appealing to the shockingly pervasive snitch culture being fertilized at >>> this and other academic institutions. Deans at Georgetown University and >>> the University of Southern California have also been sending out these
imperious injunctions for students to rat out the alleged violators
among them, or as USC Law School Andrew T. Guzman put it in that
typically manipulative style: “non-compliant members of our community.”
What’s a “non-compliant member” of the USC “community,” exactly? Someone >>> who engages in unsanctioned indoor “hydration.” No, I’m not kidding.
Do you find any of this arbitrary or ridiculous? Tough luck. Because
nowadays all public and private officials apparently have to do is
incant the magic word “Delta,” and people whose dictates about proper
interpersonal behavior would otherwise be ignored are suddenly imbued
with this awesome, unchallengeable power. Their decrees must be obeyed,
preferably with effusions of gratitude. Forcing masks on crying
two-year-olds? “Delta.” Forbidden to remove your mask for a few seconds
in order to take a sip of water at USC, even as a lavish and unmasked
Emmys extravaganza just took place right down the road? “Delta.”
Shutting down a special needs school in East Harlem less than a week
into the academic year? “Delta.” Concerned about the privacy
implications of being made to walk around with your health information
stored on mandatory smartphone apps, as is the current policy at the
University of Michigan, and being made to display this information on
command? “Delta.” Also, I just saved a bunch of money on my car
insurance by switching to Delta.
For all his foibles, at least Dean Arcelus nicely encapsulates the
mindset which is now running rampant at major US educational
institutions — the same institutions producing the graduates who will
soon be governing the rest of the country. At the disciplinary Zoom
meeting, the good Dean admitted: “I know all of us thought, going into
getting vaccinated in April and May, we thought that we would be able to >>> come back to campus and live campus differently [sic] having been
vaccinated… But as I’ve said multiple times now, the Delta Variant just
presents a whole new level of challenge to us. And that’s why we can’t
do what we thought we were going to be able to do back when we got
vaccinated in April and May.”
Well, there you have it. Vaccination was never the gateway to normalcy
it was presented to be, and the only option is apparently to instate
“Permanent Emergency” protocols with no cognizable “off-ramp” in sight,
as a Duke University “expert” helpfully conceded this week. Reneging on
these prior assurances is portrayed as some inherently unavoidable fait
accompli, rather than a conscious policy choice undertaken to the
exclusion of other vastly more sensible options. Choosing another option >>> would mean re-assessing the underlying logic of constantly surveilling a >>> 99% vaccinated population of healthy young adults with these
increasingly dubious “tests,” and gathering their private data so as to
opine about the permissibility of their social activities. College
administrators are totally committed — politically, professionally,
metaphysically — to that logic. There’s also an entire financial
infrastructure that’s been erected to sustain the endless provision of
nonsensical testing services. Ultimately, these officials can’t or won’t >>> extricate themselves from the scolding surveillance paradigm — and why
would they? That would entail the relinquishment of power.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.reddit.com/r/COVIDrights/comments/pw80xb/hawaii_moves_the_goalposts/
Delta variant ends 70% vaccination goal for removing COVID restrictions
CORONAVIRUS
by: Max Rodriguez
Posted: Sep 24, 2021 / 09:44 PM HST / Updated: Sep 26, 2021 / 04:07 PM HST >>>
HONOLULU (KHON2) — Many were looking forward to the state reaching the
70% vaccination rate in order to drop COVID restrictions, but the Delta
variant turned those plans upside down.
At least for now, there is no end to restrictions.
Get Hawaii’s latest morning news delivered to your inbox, sign up for
News 2 You
Reopening tiers are a plan of the past.
Oahu moved away from those metrics to adopt a more flexible system to
meet the mitigation needs for COVID. Now Kauai is separating from the
tiers as well.
“The elimination of the tier system, all that it signals is that we
acknowledge that the delta variant is still a high level of concern for
us,” Kauai Mayor Derek Kawakami said. “We’re taking a look at the
different metrics. We are more so concerned about our healthcare
capacity, not only here on Kauai but statewide as well.”
The old plan was to drop restrictions when Kauai reached a 70%
vaccination rate.
Honolulu wedding rules force Hawaii couple to set third date
Governor David Ige also had said a 70% statewide vaccination rate had to >>> be met in order to fully reopen travel. His office now said the
benchmark must be higher, and there is no set threshold at this time.
Kauai is defaulting to state rules, 50% capacity at restaurants, bars
and gyms. Social distancing and masking indoors remains in effect. But
Kawakami diverted when it comes to structured events like weddings.
Kawakami said, “We set a capacity limit of 40 indoors and 100 outdoors
for our professionally organized events, which means there is a point of >>> contact.”
Indoor events larger than 40 people and outdoor events larger than 100
people will require proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test on Kauai. >>>
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Big Island Mayor Mitch Roth said they will >>> be revisiting restrictions and anticipate a public announcement sometime >>> next week.
Hawaii governor considering more restrictions, says COVID surge was
‘preventable’
Maui is also looking at the current level of cases to decide what is next. >>>
“The numbers as we have seen have been dipping a little lower, what
mayor says he will be looking at restrictions,” Maui County Managing
Director Sandy Baz said. “I can’t detail what these restrictions might
be at this point, but we hope that we can loosen up.”
Check out what’s going on around the nation on our National News page
Oahu remains under the program Safe Access Oahu, that required proof of
vaccination at restaurants, gyms and theaters through Oct. 19.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
Hawaii & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/pwd7i5/black_lives_matter_leader_calls_bill_de_blasios/
Black Lives Matter leader calls Bill de Blasio's vaccine mandate 'modern >>> day freedom papers'
Newsome says the organization plans to 'demonstrate' until the NYC
vaccine mandate is 'abolished'
Kyle MorrisBy Kyle Morris , Breck Dumas | Fox News
Comments
New York governor to health care workers: 'You're replaceable'
Democrat Kathy Hochul says she will refuse to budge on a coronavirus
vaccine mandate for nurses. Sarah Klein of the University of Rochester
Medical Center with reaction.
A leader of the Greater New York chapter of the Black Lives Matter
movement is chastising New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio over a
COVID-19 vaccine mandate and vaccine passport process for residents,
equating it to "modern day freedom papers."
Chivona Newsome, a co-founder of Black Lives Matter Greater NY who also
ran as a candidate for New York’s 15th Congressional District in 2020,
spoke out against the "racist" mandate in a statement to Fox News.
"Although Mayor Bill De Blasio ran on progressives values, nothing in
his tenure will attest to his campaign promises," Newsome said. "The
September 13th vaccine mandate is racist and specifically targets Black
New Yorkers. The vaccination passports are modern day Freedom Papers,
which limit the free will of Black people."
NY GOVERNOR REFUSING TO BUDGE ON VACCINE MANDATE FOR NURSES: YOU'RE
REPLACEABLE
Newsome also accused De Blasio of failing "to protect New York’s most
vulnerable" throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, adding that the "social
distancing and mask requirements resulted in Black New Yorkers being
brutalized and arrested while their White neighbors received masks and
refreshments."
"The vaccination mandates infringe upon the civil liberties of the Black >>> community," Newsome claimed. "It’s more than where we can dine or enjoy
entertainment, it will result in loss of income. As of Monday, September >>> 27, Black health care workers and educators will lose their jobs."
According to Newsome, De Blasio was "fully aware of the hesitancy and
distrust people of African descent have about vaccination and their
interactions with government and law enforcement," yet he still "chose
to disenfranchise and force the very people who elected him into poverty >>> and second-class citizenship."
Newsome vowed to prevent the vaccine mandate from being used as "a free
pass to racism" and said that Black Lives Matter Greater NY plans to
"demonstrate" until the vaccine mandate is "abolished."
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
"It is the duty of Black Lives Matter Greater NY to fight for the
liberty of Black people," Newsome told Fox News. "The vaccination
passport will not be a free pass to racism. Our organization pledges to
demonstrate until the vaccine mandate is abolished."
The mandate, announced by de Blasio in early August, requires that both
workers and customers of certain categories of businesses like
restaurants, gyms and movie theaters provide proof that they have been
vaccinated against the coronavirus in order to enter.
But since the rule went into effect, there have been reports of disputes >>> at several establishments, which have also been burdened with manning
the front lines of its enforcement.
Such a dispute was the reason BLM Greater NY held a demonstration on
Monday in front of Carmine's Italian Restaurant, where protesters
demanded justice for the Black women who were purportedly denied entry.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
NYC & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/q06zmn/all_covid_passes_in_israel_are_about_to_be/
Explained | Israel's New COVID Pass: Everything You Need to Know
All Israeli Green Passes currently in use were meant to expire on
Sunday, but due to technical glitches on the Health Ministry's website,
Israelis will have a few more days to get them reissued. Who is eligible >>> for the new pass, and how can they get it?
Ido EfratiOct. 3, 2021 1:35 PM
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Open gallery view
A man receives his COVID-19 vaccine in Jerusalem, Israel, today.
A man receives his COVID-19 vaccine in Jerusalem, Israel, today.Credit:
Ohad Zwigenberg
The rules for Israel's proof of vaccination pass – called the Green Pass >>> – will change this Sunday with new regulations determining who is
eligible for the pass.
From Sunday, all Green Passes currently in use were meant to expire and
those eligible for new passes must get them reissued. However, technical >>> glitches on the Health Ministry's website overnight into Sunday,
apparently due to heavy traffic to it, meant many people couldn't
register for new passes. The ministry said the old passes will remain in >>> effect "for the next few days."
In general, the new eligibility rules stipulate that those reissuing
their Green Pass must have received their third jab of the coronavirus
vaccine, or their second dose in the past 6 months. In some stickier
situations, keep reading for information on the specifics.
As of Thursday, some 1.6 million Israelis who are entitled to receive
the third dose of the coronavirus vaccine still have not done so,
meaning they will be ineligible for the new green passport. The new
Green Pass documents will include a digital signature, which business
owners are supposed to scan before granting holders entry.
- Advertisment -
Why is the Green Pass being changed?
Starting in July, an increasing amount of vaccinated people became
infected with COVID-19, mostly above the age of 60.
Studies showed that this was due to a drop in the effectiveness of the
vaccine, as a result of a decline in the antibodies in those vaccinated. >>>
Serious cases - just for outside image. not the actual info
The graphs that prove Pfizer vaccine works
? The 10% unvaxxed fueling the COVID catastrophe; account for 89% of
ECMO patients, 65% of serious cases and 60% of deaths
Read more
? All COVID passes expire. Here's why and how to get a new one
? Israel to study link between menstrual irregularities and vaccinations >>> ? Booster shot increases protection elevenfold, data shows
? Prominent Israeli anti-vaxxer dies of COVID
Data from the drug company Pfizer, which developed the vaccines Israel
largely used to inoculate its population, found the vaccine was 90
percent effective in preventing infection from the delta variant of the
virus. The Health Ministry also released similar data early on in their
vaccine campaign – but later announced that the effectiveness of the
vaccine had decreased and reached only 40 percent in July.
- Advertisment -
The drop in the vaccine’s effectiveness led to a rise in infection, and
as a result, to a rise in the number of patients hospitalized in serious >>> condition and in the number of deaths.
Get breaking news and analyses delivered to your inbox
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As a result, the Health Ministry decided to administer booster shots –
and so far it seems that those who have received a third dose of the
vaccine are significantly more protected than others, including those
who have received two shots.
Because of the effectiveness of the third dose and the decrease in
effectiveness of the first two doses, the Health Ministry has decided
that only people who have received the third dose (or their second dose
within the past 6 months) will be eligible for the Green Pass as of
Sunday. This new green passport will be valid for six months starting >>>from the date of the third vaccination. The Health Ministry has not yet
formulated a policy on what will happen after these six months.
- Advertisment -
Ads by Brightcom
What happens if I received only the first two doses?
According to studies, the effectiveness of the second dose of the
vaccine decreases a few months from after it is received, so those who
have received the second shot of the vaccine within the past six months
will be considered protected and vaccinated.
Open gallery view
Museum goers peruse an exhibition at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel, >>> in July.
Museum goers peruse an exhibition at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel, >>> in July.Credit: Hadas Parush
Those newly vaccinated with two doses will receive the Green Pass for
six months, after which they will be required to take the third dose to
maintain the green passport. To receive the Green Pass under the
circumstances, one must wait a week after receiving a second shot of the >>> Pfizer vaccine, or two weeks after receiving the second Moderna jab.
I’ve recovered from the coronavirus. Am I eligible for the green passport? >>>
With new COVID policy, Israel redefines what it means to be vaccinated
Israel to require recovered COVID patients to have booster shot for
Green Pass
These unvaccinated 10% fuel Israel's COVID crisis
The Health Ministry recommends that those who have recovered from the
virus receive a single dose of the vaccine.
Formerly, recovered COVID-19 patients have been eligible for the Green
Pass even if they did not receive the vaccine. But this week, the Health >>> Ministry announced that those who have recovered will be eligible for
green passports in the six months following their recovery, after which
they will be required to receive a single dose of the vaccine to
maintain the pass.
Prof. Nachman Ash, the director general of the Health Ministry, made the >>> decision after evidence showed that immunity to the virus among
recovered COVID-19 patients faded over time.
The Green Pass for those who have recovered and received a vaccine shot
will remain valid until March 31, 2022, and after that the matter will
be reexamined.
Research conducted by the Gertner Institute for epidemiology and health
policy research, which advises the Health Ministry, showed that people
who recovered from COVID-19 and were vaccinated with a single dose have
protection similar to those who have been vaccinated with three doses.
The data was presented at the beginning of the month to a COVID-19
advisory team – which decided at the time not to recommend requiring
vaccination after recovery from the virus as a condition for receiving
the Green Pass.
Those who have been infected by the virus after testing positive for
coronavirus antibodies in a serological test, and who have received at
least one dose of the vaccine are also considered to be protected and
eligible for the Green Pass.
What happens if I became ill with COVID-19, was vaccinated, and six
months has passed since then?
A person who has recovered from the coronavirus and was vaccinated
(meaning has received two shots of the vaccine) is described as
“recovered-vaccinated,” even if more than six months have passed since
they received the vaccine. For now, the recovered and vaccinated are not >>> required to receive further doses of the vaccine.
What if I came down with the coronavirus after being vaccinated?
A person who was vaccinated and infected with the virus later is
considered to be protected from the virus regardless of how many doses
of the vaccine they received, or how much time has passed since then.
What about children who are unable to be vaccinated?
Open gallery view
Parents and children wait in line for COVID tests
Parents and children wait in line for COVID testsCredit: Rami Shllush
The Green Pass is required from children aged three and up. Children
12-years-old and under who tested negative for the coronavirus through a >>> PCR test as part of the “Education Shield” (Magen Hinuch) program are
eligible for the Green Pass for seven days. Other children can undergo
rapid COVID-19 tests to receive a Green Pass valid for 24 hours.
Where will I be required to show my green passport?
Places that operate according to the Green Pass program are supposed to
inspect it at the entrance, including cultural and sports events,
festivals, halls, conferences and exhibitions, hotels, gyms, closed
swimming pools, houses of worship that hold over 50 people, restaurants, >>> bars, cafes, museums, libraries, tourist attractions, amusement parks,
universities and institutions of higher education.
Will I need to show the Green Pass at the entrance to medical institutions? >>>
No. But some hospitals recently began asking for a Green Pass from
people who require non-urgent medical treatment and visitors.
The Health Ministry announced that the issue of denying entrance to
those who do not have green passports is being discussed in court,
addressing "the problematic nature of keeping any medical treatment from >>> a person who does not follow the guidelines of the Green Pass.” Ash said >>> he is aware that preventing infection inside hospitals is important,
however the Green Pass program stipulates that medical institutions are
exempt from the program's admission regulations as they are an essential >>> service
At the same time, Ash added that the hospitals are allowed to ask a
patient to take a rapid COVID-19 test – at their own expense – before
carrying out a medical procedure that could lead to infections.
Hospitals are also allowed to postpone a medical procedure that is not
urgent, but they must not prevent the procedure from taking place.
Ash said that hospitals need to use their judgement when determining
whether to allow a visitor in to accompany a patient if they do not meet >>> the conditions for the green passport, “for example if they show
symptoms of the disease.” In any case, hospitals have been forbidden to
allow patient's caregivers into hospitals to assist them.
How can I receive the new Green Pass?
The green passport can be issued either on the Health Ministry’s website >>> or through the Ramzor (Stoplight) app. Other possibilities include
self-service stations, through Kol Habriut call center representatives
by calling *5400, or through the interactive voice response service at
phone number (02) 508-2000.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
Israel & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:I am wonderfully hungry!
http://www.reddit.com/r/COVIDrights/comments/q16zxs/public_health_officials_blew_up_their_credibility/
Vaccine hesitancy can, in part, be laid at the feet of experts who
betrayed the public’s trust.
J.D. TUCCILLE | 10.4.2021 7:00 AM
zumaamericasthirtytwo496507
(Patrick Gorski/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom)
With COVID-19 still sickening and killing people even though effective
vaccines have been widely available for all since the spring, it's
frustrating to see vaccination rates creep up only slowly against a
head-wind of widespread resistance. It's even more frustrating that much >>> of that resistance can be attributed to self-inflicted wounds on the
part of public health experts and government officials. Having
effectively discarded their own credibility since the beginning of the
pandemic, the powers-that-be find that much of the population no longer
places faith in what they have to say.
"Why aren't tens of millions of eligible Americans fully vaccinated
against COVID-19?" The Economist and YouGov asked in a recent poll.
"Most who haven't started the vaccination process say it's a matter of
trust."
"Americans who are sure they will not get the vaccine are especially
likely to say their lack of trust in the government is their major
reason for rejecting the vaccine," the polling firm adds, with 22
percent of respondents giving that as their reason for refusing
vaccination, second to concerns about side effects.
Critics are certain to wave off the findings as the unfounded concerns
of low-information knuckle-draggers who need to be poked and prodded
into compliance. But, while such dismissal may confer a warm and fuzzy
feeling of superiority, it doesn't explain why health professionals also >>> have lost faith in public-health officials.
"Trust in the CDC and FDA has decreased dramatically during the COVID-19 >>> pandemic among health care professionals," WebMD/Medscape noted in June. >>> "Out of nearly 2,000 U.S. nurses surveyed on Medscape (WebMD's sister
site for health care professionals) between May 25 and June 3, 77% said
their trust in the CDC has decreased since the start of the pandemic,
and 51% said their trust in the FDA has decreased. Similarly, out of
nearly 450 U.S. doctors surveyed in the same time period, 77% said their >>> trust in the CDC has decreased and 48% said their trust in the FDA has
decreased."
Respondents to the WebMD/Medscape poll cited concerns about politics
affecting public health decisions as well as contradictory messaging
about masks, vaccination, and proper conduct to avoid infection. Both of >>> those concerns were on display last year when public health officials
went from condemning anti-lockdown protests to promoting protests
against police brutality and racial injustice.
"Are Protests Dangerous? What Experts Say May Depend on Who's Protesting >>> What," The New York Times headlined an article on the whiplash-inducing
change in messaging over the potential health risks of public gatherings. >>>
"I certainly condemned the anti-lockdown protests at the time, and I'm
not condemning the protests now, and I struggle with that," Catherine
Troisi, an epidemiologist at the University of Texas Health Science
Center, conceded to the Times. "I have a hard time articulating why that >>> is OK."
"It's one thing to protest what day nail salons are opening, and it's
another to come out in peaceful protest, overwhelmingly, about somebody
who was murdered right before our eyes," New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy
huffed in an open assertion that only protests with which he agreed were >>> acceptable.
To large numbers of Americans, it's obvious that many of the people
issuing public health dictates base their proclamations not on science
but on their personal biases. Those seeking actual medical guidance, or
who entertain different values, might feel perfectly justified in
ignoring public health officials who reveal themselves as just another
class of activists.
Hypocrisy also plays a powerful role in eroding trust for officialdom.
Last month, San Francisco Mayor London Breed was caught partying at a
nightclub unmasked, in defiance of her own orders.
"No, I'm not going to sip and put my mask on, sip and put my mask on,
sip and put my mask on, eat and put my mask on. While I'm eating, and
I'm drinking, I'm going to keep my mask off," Breed told a reporter. She >>> also kept her mask off while dancing, which she defended by saying she
"wasn't thinking about a mask, I was thinking about having a good time." >>> It was a sentiment that many regular people no doubt share, but which
could get them fined if they were caught acting on it.
Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser also exempted herself from the rules >>> when it was convenient.
"Despite the mayor's order, the wedding reception featured hundreds of
unmasked guests served by dozens of wait staff, including a
conspicuously unmasked Bowser," the Washington Examiner noted at the end >>> of July.
Breed and Bowser are hardly alone, since pandemic rules have
overwhelmingly been applied only to the little people and ignored by
those who make them and their friends. It's difficult to imagine a more
effective way of eroding officialdom's standing with the general public. >>>
"Even if institutions manage to walk back their mistakes, this
self-destructive behavior will have serious long-term consequences,"
Zaid Jilani observed last week for Persuasion on the flurry of recent
own-goals scored by supposedly reliable experts. "If institutions
continue to undermine their own credibility, people may start going to
less reliable sources for information instead."
Jilani didn't even address the ongoing fiasco of pandemic-era guidance,
but instead focused on politicization in museums, think tanks, and
universities. The effect is the same, though: abandoning objectivity and >>> substituting ideological preferences for consistent standards damages
trust. It took a long time for experts and officials to build whatever
standing they had with the public; too many of them seem dead-set on
burning it as quickly as possible.
One end result of destroyed credibility, as we've seen, is resistance
among part of the population to vaccination for COVID-19, with trust
cited as the reason for that hesitancy. The fact is, millions of
Americans simply distrust the people who tell them that the vaccines are >>> safe and effective for reducing the dangers of the disease and have
turned to alternative sources that echo the public's disdain for the
powers-that-be while also peddling bad medical information. Yes,
anti-vaxxers are making bad choices, but they've been strongly nudged in >>> that direction by self-destructive experts.
Officials are justified in complaining about vaccine hesitancy among the >>> general population. But, when they're looking for somebody to blame
about the public's resistance to medical advice, they should look in the >>> mirror.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/q0sd71/fauci_says_its_too_soon_to_know_if_us_families/
Frustration as Fauci says it's 'too soon to tell' if families can gather >>>for Christmas - and says immigrants are 'absolutely not' responsible for >>>COVID spread
Dr. Anthony Fauci said it was 'too soon' to say whether Americans can >>>gather for Christmas in an interview Sunday on Face the Nation
CBS News' Margaret Brennan asked Fauci about the December holiday after >>>he voiced cautious optimism about the country's COVID-19 numbers going down >>>Fauci warned that the country needed to remain vigilant
'You know, Margaret, it's just too soon to tell,' Fauci said about >>>Christmas
He added, 'We've just got to keep concentrating on continuing to get >>>those numbers down and not try to jump ahead by weeks or months'
On CNN's State of the Union, Fauci knocked down a belief on the right >>>that immigrants share a high degree of responsibility for the spread of >>>COVID-19
'Certainly immigrants can get infected, but they're not the driving
force of this, let's face reality here,' Fauci said
By NIKKI SCHWAB, SENIOR U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 13:25 EDT, 3 October 2021 | UPDATED: 22:27 EDT, 3 October 2021 >>>
2.6k
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3.5k
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Dr. Anthony Fauci said it was 'too soon' to say whether Americans can >>>gather for Christmas in an interview Sunday on Face the Nation.
CBS News' Margaret Brennan asked Fauci about the December holiday after >>>he voiced cautious optimism about the country's COVID-19 numbers going >>>down - however warned that the country needed to remain viligant.
'You know, Margaret, it's just too soon to tell,' President Joe Biden's >>>chief medical expert said about Christmas. 'We've just got to keep >>>concentrating on continuing to get those numbers down and not try to
jump ahead by weeks or months and say what we're going to do at a >>>particular time.'
Read More
Fauci was doing the rounds on the Sunday shows.
On CNN's State of the Union, he knocked down a belief stoked by >>>Republicans saying that immigrants were 'absolutely not' driving the >>>COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S.
Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday on Face the Nation that it was 'too soon' >>>to say whether American families can gather for Christmas +1
Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday on Face the Nation that it was 'too soon' >>>to say whether American families can gather for Christmas
'When you have 700,000 Americans dead and millions and million and >>>millions of Americans getting infected, you don't want to look outside
to the problem. The problem is within our own country,' Fauci said. >>>'Certainly immigrants can get infected, but they're not the driving
force of this, let's face reality here.'
CNN's Dana Bash had asked Fauci about a Kaiser Family Foundation poll >>>that found 55 per cent of Republicans and 40 per cent of unvaccinated >>>respondents blamed immigrants and tourists for bringing COVID-19 into
the country and for the country's high case rates.
Republicans also ranked immigrants as the biggest factor impacting >>>COVID-19 transmission.
Fauci was also asked about Title 42, which allows the U.S. government to >>>quickly deport border crossers due to the ongoing pandemic.
'I am not as familiar with the intricacies of that to make any comment >>>about that rule,' Fauci first said before adding, 'my feeling has always >>>been that focusing on immigrants, expelling them or what have you, is
not the solution to an outbreak.'
Bash also asked Fauci if he believed former President Donald Trump
should get a COVID-19 booster shot on-camera.
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Fauci didn't immediately say yes.
'Well, first of all, I would think everybody should get their boosters >>>anyway, whether the president does it or not,' Fauci answered. 'I am
sure that there are people who religiously follow what former President >>>Trump says and does, that that - they may look at that and say, OK, I >>>will get vaccinated.'
Fauci also offered a 'we will see' and 'I don't know.'
'I just think we need to appeal to the rationale of why it's important, >>>whether Trump gets vaccinated or not,' he continued.
'There are very, very good reasons, beyond someone specifically getting >>>vaccinated, for people to get vaccinated with a booster shot,' Fauci >>>said. 'The protection is waning, as we know. And boosters are going to
be something that will be very helpful to contain the outbreak and to >>>protect people.'
'That's the reason why they should get boosted,' Fauci added.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) >>finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage >>mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu & >>Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://forum.pafoa.org/showthread.php?t=334088&p=4516217#post4516217
"I went to the Giant Eagle in Rocky River today.
There was a sign on the front door announcing a MASK MANDATE.
To the best of my knowledge, neither of the stores in Berea, nor the one >>> in North Olmsted requires masks, certainly not a week ago when I was in
Berea. I believe the sign said it was implemented on 08/16 or 08/26. It
was getting late, so I got the mask out of my car. Never going back to
that store. No reason to with a Walmart literally on the other side of
the parking lot from me and TWO Giant Eagle stores in Berea that don't
require masks."- Christopher Charles Morton, dba Deanimator
http://forum.pafoa.org/showthread.php?t=334088&p=4516402#post4516402
"I'm not interested in being the Black guy in the YouTube video that the >>> cops beat, taze and maybe shoot to death because I "reached for my
waistband" while refusing to wear a mask.
Its a lot easier to just go to EVERY OTHER GROCERY STORE that apparently >>> doesn't require masks. Even the Giant Eagles closer to me didn't require >>> them as of a week or two ago. I only went to that one because I went to
Books-A-Million in Fairview Park first.
Other than the Cleveland Clinic, it's the ONLY place I've seen that
requires masks since Poindexter lifted the state mandate months ago. And >>> I really can't avoid the clinic unless I decide to become a Christian
Scientist."- Chris
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.reddit.com/r/COVIDrights/comments/q5k692/analysis_universal_health_care_advocates_turn_on/The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
ANALYSIS: Universal Health Care Advocates Turn On The Unvaccinated
US-HEALTH-VIRUS-VACCINE-BOOSTER
Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images
VARUN HUKERI
GENERAL ASSIGNMENT & ANALYSIS REPORTER
October 08, 2021
9:30 PM ET
FONT SIZE:
The financial cost of remaining unvaccinated ?against COVID-19 is rising >>> as more companies and health insurance providers are now proposing
insurance surcharges and other healthcare costs as a tool to drive up
vaccination rates.
Such measures have been backed by proponents of universal healthcare and >>> programs like Medicare for All, even though such policies are, in
theory, meant to offer all Americans healthcare at little to no cost
regardless of their medical status.
Elisabeth Rosenthal, the editor-in-chief of Kaiser Health News, has
argued unvaccinated people should be charged higher insurance rates as a >>> penalty in The New York Times, CNN and MSNBC. Yet she is a proponent of
universal healthcare, writing in a New York Times op-ed in May 2019 that >>> the point of healthcare “is to treat patients, not to buttress the economy.”
Arthur Caplan, a prominent medical ethicist, said in an August interview >>> with WBUR that unvaccinated people should “pay a financial penalty” or
otherwise be held liable for the cost of avoidable treatment. Yet during >>> the height of the Obamacare debate in 2010, he co-authored an academic
paper arguing that healthcare is a “right” and universal health
insurance “makes sense.”
Democratic California Rep. Ted Lieu invoked criticism on social media
when he tweeted Oct. 2 that unvaccinated people “engage in riskier
actions that increase health care costs and health care burdens on all
of us,” and in turn “should be the one paying for the increased risk.”
Ted Lieu
@tedlieu
If you are going to engage in riskier actions that increase health care
costs and health care burdens on all of us, then you should be the one
paying for the increased risk.
Kyle Griffin
@kylegriffin1
Ochsner Health, Louisiana's largest healthcare provider, will raise
health insurance premiums for employees whose spouses or domestic
partners covered under its benefits plan are not vaccinated against
COVID. https://bit.ly/39WT1lI
6:59 PM · Oct 2, 2021
8.8K
See the latest COVID-19 information on Twitter
Lieu, a supporter of Medicare for All, appears to be contradicting a
basic premise of universal healthcare. The New Republic, a liberal
outlet, noted in an article opposing additional financial costs on
unvaccinated people that under a universal healthcare system,
“individual health care use shouldn’t determine how much anyone pays
into the system.” (RELATED: Progressives Applaud Alabama Doctor Who
Refuses To Treat Patients Unvaccinated Against COVID-19)
Some critics have compared penalties for unvaccinated patients,
including denying them treatment altogether, to targeting patients with
health conditions such as obesity, a group that almost certainly would
use more healthcare services.
The relationship between health conditions like COVID-19 and obesity are >>> not unfounded, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
concluded in a March study that 78% of people hospitalized due to
COVID-19 were overweight or obese.
Lieu’s office did not comment at the time of publication to a request >>>from the Daily Caller. His office didn’t respond to questions about the
Body Mass Index (BMI) sliding scale and whether financial costs for the
unvaccinated is comparable to similar costs for obese people.
As supporters of universal healthcare begin to turn on unvaccinated
people, companies and health insurance providers are also moving forward >>> with plans to impose insurance surcharges and other financial costs.
Delta Airlines announced in late August that unvaccinated employees will >>> face a $200 premium surcharge per month on their health insurance.
Airlines have been among the most aggressive companies in targeting
unvaccinated employees.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
?Open Menu
To what extent, if at all, are you concerned about the effectiveness of
your vaccination diminishing over time?
To what extent, if at all, are you concerned about the effectiveness of
your vaccination diminishing over time?
Very concerned
Somewhat concerned
Not at all concerned
Other / No opinion
NEXT
In a memo to employees, Delta CEO Ed Bastian said the surcharge “will be >>> necessary to address the financial risk the decision to not vaccinate is >>> creating for our company.”
VICTORVILLE, CA - MARCH 24: A Delta Air Lines jet taxis to be parked
with a growing number of jets at Southern California Logistics Airport
(SCLA) on March 24, 2020 in Victorville, California. As the coronavirus
pandemic grows, exponentially increasing travel restrictions and the
numbers of people in quarantine, airlines around the world are
scrambling to find places to park a majority of their fleet as they wait >>> to see how the situation will play out. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images) >>> A Delta Air Lines jet taxis to be parked with a growing number of jets
at Southern California Logistics Airport (SCLA) on March 24, 2020 in
Victorville, California (David McNew/Getty Images)
Ochsner Health, the largest healthcare provider in Louisiana, announced
earlier in October that employees will be charged a $200 premium
surcharge per month if a spouse or partner covered under an Ochsner plan >>> is unvaccinated, The Times-Picayune reported.
JPMorgan Chase announced Monday that unvaccinated employees will not
only be required to pay higher payroll contributions next year for
health insurance, but will also be banned from business travel, Reuters
reported.
At the onset of the pandemic, most private insurance providers waived
cost-sharing for patients under their plans. Around 88% of insured
people in November 2020 had their out-of-pocket costs waived if they
were hospitalized for COVID-19, according to the Kaiser Family
Foundation (KFF).
But vaccines have become more easily available in recent months, and
more than 70% of insurance providers in turn no longer waive
out-of-pocket costs for COVID-19 treatment, the KFF concluded.
Companies and insurance providers are likely willing to place additional >>> financial costs on unvaccinated people because much of the cost for
COVID-19 treatment comes from that group. A CDC report in August found
that the hospitalization rate of unvaccinated people infected with
COVID-19 is 29 times that of vaccinated people. (RELATED: ‘The Only
Pandemic We Have Is Among The Unvaccinated’: Biden Says Facebook
Misinformation Is ‘Killing People’)
Experts believe insurance surcharges and other costs could become a more >>> common tool in limiting financial risks for companies and insurance
providers, as well as incentivizing people to get the vaccine.
HOLLYWOOD, FLORIDA - AUGUST 07: Lisa Taylor receives a COVID-19
vaccination from RN Jose Muniz as she takes part in a vaccine study at
Research Centers of America on August 07, 2020 in Hollywood, Florida.
Research Centers of America is currently conducting COVID-19 vaccine
trials, implemented under the federal government's Operation Warp Speed
program. The center is recruiting volunteers to participate in the
clinical trials, working with the Federal Government and major
Pharmaceutical Companies, that are racing to develop a vaccine to
potentially prevent COVID-19. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Lisa Taylor receives a COVID-19 vaccine on August 07, 2020 in Hollywood, >>> Florida (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
“Now that COVID-19 is largely preventable for most adults and employers
are pushing people really hard to get vaccinated, it makes a lot less
sense for those employers to be giving people who do get infected a
break,” said KFF Health Care Marketplace director Matthew Rae.
Some experts also dismissed criticism that financial costs for the
unvaccinated are similar to charging more for people with obesity or
other underlying health conditions.
“Your chronic illness isn’t going to jump to the person in the next
cubicle,” said Kenneth Campbell, an assistant professor at the Tulane
School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.
“This is a wakeup call for people to get vaccinated,” he continued.
“We’re talking about bad decisions in terms of not getting vaccinated
and these are the consequences.”
Polling data indicates Americans are split on whether companies and
insurance providers should be able to charge unvaccinated people more in >>> health insurance premiums in order to cover for potential associated
medical costs from contracting COVID-19.
In a Harris poll conducted in August, 51% of respondents said they
oppose charging unvaccinated people more compared to 49% who said they
support the idea. Among those polled, 61% of vaccinated respondents said >>> they support the idea while 27% of unvaccinated respondents said the same. >>
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://forum.pafoa.org/showthread.php?t=380436&p=4520059#post4520059
"People around me have lost their fucking minds. My mother is totally
bamboozled. If Biden said that a return to slavery would end the Chinese >>> Communist Flu, she'd be standing in a cotton field with a sack the next
day. The wife of my best friend literally screamed at and cursed me
because I refuse to get the dubious (and endless) series of
vaccinations. She actually told me I was going to die"- Christopher
Charles Morton, dba Deanimator
Suggested reading for anti-vaxxer Chris Morton:
https://groups.google.com/g/alt.atheism/c/IP2h2a7mC0k/m/HXl3-qC2AQAJ
Immunity from prior infection is natural immunity.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/q7qo6w/why_manhattan_happily_complied_neat_take_on_what/
Why Manhattan happily complied
BY THE MILLENNIAL POSTED ON 11 OCT 2021
A little more than a year has passed since the lockdowns were first
announced in NYC over the pandemic and little did I know looking back
that it was just the start. At first, a lot of us enjoyed the privilege
of working from home and no longer having to get up early on a cold
morning to take the crowded subway where you were likely to encounter a
crazy homeless person on drugs. Work from home became quite a gift,
other than the fact that the bars we drank at were also closed.
Overtime, what started out as lockdowns started to wane a bit. Things
were starting to get back to “normal”, especially during July of this
year when they said that NYC has officially reopened since the vaccine
has been released. Only a month later, vaccine mandates were passed
meaning that if you wanted to sit inside for a meal at a restaurant or
go to the gym, you had to show proof of vaccination.
Now, I am in a part of the country where none of that is happening (yet, >>> and I hope it stays that way). What gets me about NYC, at least
Manhattan where I lived the whole time, how very few people actually
pushed back when all of it was announced. It’s like whether the
lockdowns happened or whether the mandates happening, everyone went with >>> it. Not only did people just go with it, they also turned on those who
would not get the jab or practice whatever the CDC preached.
Little by little, NYC started to fall apart as crime rates spiked and
rents continued to get higher. I personally saw how building before the
pandemic which were full and lively with people partying on Fridays were >>> empty during the pandemic. How well NYC bounces back is anyone’s guess
but that was not the question on my mind. The questions I asked along
with the many that fled NYC is why did those living in Manhattan not do
a damn thing? Why did they not resist? Why did just take it? More of
all, why did they turn on their fellow man and woman as opposed to
pushing back against the government? They didn’t have to resist, but why >>> did they so happily comply?
Quite a few of us asked this question, how the so called tough New
Yorker who is known for being brash somehow just dropped to both knees
for big government. More of all, how the city became so divided against
itself instead of pushing back against nonsense from the local
government. As I left, these were questions that left me potentially
thinking that I should never return to the city. After all, who is to
say that if the next pandemic comes along, the cycle doesn’t repeat
itself? Yet, I had to have my answer and after thinking about it for
weeks and comparing NYC to my new home, I started to realize some
reasons as to why the people of Manhattan never pushed back.
Instant gratification.
Life in Manhattan moves fast and most of all, it runs on instant
gratification. Whether it is quickly getting my lunch from a Halal cart
or quickly getting my slice, I need to have it now and have it fast.
Hurry it up, I got work here, I gotta get to my meeting, fast! The
people of Manhattan have no time for nonsense but really, they don’t
have time for much of anything. Once you are done with a long workday,
you go home after a long subway ride into your overpriced yet tiny
studio if you are lucky (likely a 3 bedroom you are sharing with
roommates if you are in your 20s) and go to bed.
There is no time to think, you have to move fast. You might miss that
next train or miss that cab you are trying to get the attention of
(because Ubers are damn expensive). In some ways, this also works out in >>> the favor of some of us, culturally that is. Hookup culture in Manhattan >>> is better than most college towns and everyone is looking for Mr. or Ms. >>> Right Now instead of Mr. and Ms. Right. It’s a blur and it moves faster
than it would in any other city out there because you barely have time
for much of anything.
I notice how now I have more time to blog and actually cook my own meals >>> which has been better for my health. Meanwhile, in Manhattan I ran on
Uber Eats and delivery or just fast foods while rarely grocery shopping. >>> The life comes with its pros and cons but the one major downfall it had
for me was that I barely had time to think about this sort of stuff. I
almost lost myself in a way as well as the big picture idea of my goals. >>>
Life in Manhattan for me consisted of climbing the work ladder, making
the big bucks, getting some drinks after a long hard day at work,
getting laid, and then partying hard on the weekends. Once that was all
done, I had time for basic chores but barely much time for anything
else. People like me are too distracted to think that much about
politics because most of us are too busy just getting our lives together >>> and surviving in a place everyone wants to live in.
Who cares if I have to wear a mask, just give me my damn slice of pizza. >>> Who cares if I have to stay home, I prefer it, just let the government
handle it so we can get “back to normal”. Who cares if I have to get a
jab, it’s just a poke, get it so we can “get back to normal”. “Hurry it
up over here” and “come on already!” are things frequently said in
Manhattan. We want it now, we want it fast, and we don’t care what has
to happen for us to get it.
Lack of ownership amongst a transient population.
Most people living in Manhattan are in their 20s or maybe 30s and
renting an apartment, likely with roommates, as they try to make their
careers and extend their youth of partying and drinking as much as
possible. I don’t blame them, I am that guy myself at heart who plans to >>> keep the party going throughout his 30s if he can. This is one of the
reasons why Manhattan went overwhelmingly blue in the past election.
When you don’t really own anything, you don’t think much about the
consequences because it’s not really yours. I even saw it with my
roommates who’d occasionally have parties and thrash the place because
it wasn’t actually their home, they’d move out and at the end have a
good chunk of their security deposit deducted and that was it.
Most people in Manhattan are not actually local to Manhattan, they are
usually from elsewhere. A lot of people from small town and small city
USA go to Manhattan to enjoy their 20s and 30s as they build a career,
drink hard, party hard, and leave no fun behind before old age. I know
that feeling, I am that guy. What this really means is that whatever
happens, you don’t really have to live with it because Manhattan is not
your home. This is why the people of the more residential Long Island
tend to be far more Conservative.
This means who cares if things get bad in NYC? You can just leave. You
don’t really have to live with the consequences of much of anything
because you know that you are not going to buy a house or raise your
kids there. Why push back? Why resist? Who really cares about NYC
itself? You’re there for the partying, drinking, and networking for your >>> career, not because its your home.
An easy life.
There is a saying that goes something like this: Tough times make for
strong men, strong men make for easy times, easy times make for weak
men, and weak men make for tough times. What you will notice for the
population of Manhattan and the more hipster parts of Brooklyn is that
they come from affluence. Majority were raised in wealth and are
immensely privileged, ever been to Westchester County? Filthy rich
people there in some of those places, it makes Long Island look like
Mississippi.
When you have lived a life of that much privilege, you tend to get
scared of a lot of stuff that normal people have become accustomed to. A >>> certain illness may be laughed off by some but someone who lived an easy >>> life will look at it and get scared shitless. The other downfall of an
easy life is that you believe whatever the mainstream media tells you
because the established institutions have always been in your favor, so
you trust them more.
Why question any authority or government entity? They almost always came >>> through for you and rarely bothered you.
This is why the mandates themselves were not taken so well by the
working class communities of color in Manhattan compared to the
privileged white and Asian communities. Notice a trend? The former have
seen certain horrors while the latter have lived a very easy life.
When you live an easy life, it is easier to make up enemies where they
might not exist. Your biggest threat is no longer an actual criminal
that wants to kill you, a gang member that wants to ruin your community, >>> or a bunch of violent men who want to break into your house, rather its
the guy who doesn’t agree with your politics and refuses to take the
jab. When you grow up in rough circumstances and make it, you are a
survivor who has a lot to be proud of. Meanwhile, the privileged bunch
who had everything handed to them in life see getting the jab as their
chance to be superheroes.
Overtime, it did become less of a mystery to me, now I wonder what I
want to do about it.
I am starting to enjoy my new city but obviously, there is a honeymoon
period here. I have no doubts in my mind that soon, I am going to find
quite a few shortcomings here. Originally, I thought that I simply stick >>> it out here for a year or two until things get “back to normal” in
Manhattan but I know that is not happening. I’ve learned that the
underlying issues with the social fabric of Manhattan will bring back
the same restrictions that came about in 2020. In other words, we yet
another pandemic or tough year away from Empire State of Mind turning
into Escape From New York. Time will tell.
Plus, I am not even sure if I could live with myself knowing that when
things went from bad to worse in Manhattan, I could no longer stick it
out and moved. Quite a lot to come in these next few years but I remain
open to all possibilities.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
NYC & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/q8hvsx/italy_braced_for_unrest_as_covid_pass_becomes/
Coronavirus – latest updates
See all our coronavirus coverage
An employee at an optician shop shows her Covid-19 ‘green pass’ a day
before it becomes obligatory for all workers either to show proof of
vaccination, a negative test or recent recovery from infection to access >>> their workplaces.
An employee at an optician shop shows her Covid-19 ‘green pass’ a day
before it becomes obligatory for all workers either to show proof of
vaccination, a negative test or recent recovery from infection to access >>> their workplaces. Photograph: Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters
Angela Giuffrida in Rome
Thu 14 Oct 2021 10.35 EDT
Italy is bracing itself for further unrest and labour market mayhem as
the strictest vaccine mandate in Europe takes effect on Friday.
All workers will be obliged to present a coronavirus health pass before
entering their workplaces, a move that is expected to leave some
industries struggling with staff shortages.
The measure, an expansion of the “green pass” introduced in August, will >>> require public and private sector workers to have been double
vaccinated, to show proof of a negative test taken within the previous
48 hours or of having recently recovered from Covid-19.
Those who flout the rules face being suspended without pay or fined up
to €1,500 (£1,270). Employers face fines for failing to check if staff
are complying.
More than 80% of the population over the age of 12 has been
double-vaccinated and the majority of Italians have taken the green pass >>> – also required for dining inside restaurants, entering museums,
theatres and cinemas, and for use on planes and long-distance trains –
in their stride.
However, protests over the workplace rule have gathered pace in recent
weeks, with a demonstration in Rome last weekend turning violent as
neofascist groups exploited the discontent.
The motive behind Italy’s green pass is to boost inoculations and
contain infections in the hope of avoiding another lockdown.
Although there was an increase in the number of people booking
vaccinations when the measure was first announced, especially among
young people, an estimated 2.5 million workers have not yet had the jab. >>> The majority of those refusing the vaccination are over the age of 50.
The issue has caused divisions among workers, with some vaccinated
people choosing to stay away from the workplace due to the presence of
non-vaccinated colleagues.
Confindustria, the Italian business lobby, strongly supports the
workplace measure. However, various industries are envisaging staff
shortages from Friday as workers hold strikes or simply choose to stay home.
Port workers across Italy have threatened to go on strike, while the
transport sector is facing a potential shortage of 130,000 workers.
“Out of 400,000 drivers, we estimate that 30% do not have the green
pass,” said Ivano Russo, the director general of Confetra, the transport >>> and logistics federation. “On top of that, we fear for the foreign
workers, many of whom have been vaccinated with Sputnik or other
vaccines not approved by the European or Italian medicines agencies. We
therefore foresee a risk of severe blockage in the sector.”
The agriculture sector is facing a similar dilemma with foreign farm
workers, the majority coming from eastern Europe, who have had the
unapproved Sputnik vaccine.
Meanwhile, an estimated 20% of Italy’s police force are unvaccinated, as >>> are between 10% and 20% of public transport workers.
Bar and restaurant workers also require the pass, although industry
officials say vaccine take-up has been high in a sector that was
severely affected by lockdowns.
Green pass opponents are planning further protests over the next few
days. Meanwhile, CGIL, Italy’s oldest trade union, has organised a
demonstration against fascism in Rome on Saturday after its headquarters >>> were ransacked by neofascists during the green pass protests last weekend. >>>
The violence prompted calls for the extreme right party Forza Nuova and
other neofascist movements to be banned.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
Italy & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:=%2CO*F
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.facebook.com/RabidFeminist/photos/a.371249409573054/4699580140073271/?__cft__[0]=AZUnYjfsRmlc5a-4US3f_UUQ4r_QzwQISgA-JBXGfbRQPs74j1gjDQDGuf9OZJZSXJkQGc4fGLB2sVfCj4c3W7i92wYfjQtRx3tMNVb02yjRz7nD8P_q7qonWG_k-VeXVo6r7b90rLG53uqWHRkBps5Z&__tn__
JBXGfbRQPs74j1gjDQDGuf9OZJZSXJkQGc4fGLB2sVfCj4c3W7i92wYfjQtRx3tMNVb02yjRz7nD8P_q7qonWG_k-VeXVo6r7b90rLG53uqWHRkBps5Z&__tn__=R*F
"I think it's, culturally, time for us to re-frame how we think about
the uterus.
It's not a nurturing organ, it doesn't need to be; a fetus is
frighteningly good at getting the resources it needs to nurture itself;
if they are implanted anywhere other than the womb, (most often the
fallopian tube, but also sometimes the bladder, the intestine, the
pelvic muscles and connective tissue, and the liver) placental cells
will rip through a body, slaughtering everything in their path as they
seek out arteries to slake their hunger for nutrients. Fetal cells will
happily grow in any of these places, digesting and puncturing tissue,
paralyzing and enlarging arteries, raising blood pressure to feed itself >>> more, faster; but it will be unable to be ejected. It's no coincidence
that genes involved in embryonic development have been implicated in how >>> cancer spreads.
Rather than a soft cozy nest, a womb is a fortress designed to protect
the person from the developing cells inside them. Because of our huge
and (metabolically speaking) expensive brains, human fetal development
requires unrestricted access to a parent's blood supply, which makes
pregnancy (and miscarriage too btw) incredibly dangerous for the
carrier. The uterus has evolved to control and restrict whether
placental cells can get that access, and to eject it before it develops
enough to kill the host. The function of the womb is to protect the
parent's life. The very structure of the womb very firmly prioritizes
the life of the parent over the life of the fetus.
Even with modern medical care, at least 800 people die EVERY DAY from
pregnancy- and childbirth-related causes. Among developed countries, the >>> United States has one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the
world, and Texas has one of the highest rates within that. The rate is
even higher when viewed among BIPOC only.
Pregnancy may be necessary for the continuation of the species, but it
is not a joke. It is a life-threatening event, a parasitic attack on a
human body; just one we have romanticized and been desensitized to. The
"miracle" of birth is that we have a protective organ designed to, if
all goes well, let us survive it. It doesn't always go well. It is life
or death. Someone who chooses to get pregnant, stay pregnant, and carry
a fetus to delivery is legitimately choosing to risk their life to do
it. Nobody else has the right to make anyone do that, and nobody should
be punished or vilified for not wanting to do it. Forcing someone to
carry a pregnancy, ANY pregnancy, is attempted murder.
Abortion is a human right."- Rabid Feminist
http://www.facebook.com/RabidFeminist/photos/a.371249409573054/4699580140073271/?comment_id=4732633993434552&reply_comment_id=4732709430093675&__cft__[0]=AZUnYjfsRmlc5a-4US3f_UUQ4r_QzwQISgA-
"Michael Ejercito , from the perspective of those of us who are
physicians, the purpose of the uterus is to nurture the implanted embryo >>> just as the purpose of the ovaries is to produce the ovum which after
united with a spermatocyte becomes an embryo. In the interim, I am
simply #WonderfullyHungry and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy
appetite too. So how are you ?"- Dr. Andrew B. Chung
The "versus" of Roe v. Wade reminds us that abortions are the terrible
consequence of terribly hungry people misbehaving terribly like
"Jan621" Insurrectionist "hangry DJT" and motivates us to redouble our
efforts to "Convince It Forward" to stop being hangry in hopes of
stopping the "Mourning In America."
I will quote my Facebook friend and world-renowned legal ethicist,
Jack Marshall.
http://ethicsalarms.com/2021/01/06/ethics-observations-on-the-pro-trump-rioting-at-the-capitol/
"First and foremost, anyone who did not condemn all of the George
Floyd/Jacob Blake/Breonna Taylor/ Black Lives Matters rioting that took
place this summer and fall is ethically estopped from criticizing this >episode.
That means I can, and will, condemn it as stupid, useless,
self-destructive and anti-democratic violence, but most Democrats, >progressives and media pundits cannot."- Jack Marshall
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.reddit.com/r/COVIDrights/comments/qbcpnn/san_francisco_closes_innout_burger_after_defying/
SAN FRANCISCO CLOSES IN-N-OUT BURGER AFTER DEFYING CITY’S VACCINE RULE
By Jefferey Jaxen and Patrick Layton
In-N-Out Burger’s Chief Legal and Business Officer, Arnie Wensinger, is
set to release a statement after the San Francisco Department of Health
closed one of the Top California Burger Restaurant’s locations.
“Today, the San Francisco Department of Health closed our restaurant…”
he wrote. According to Wensingers statement, In-N-Out Burger employees
were allegedly “not preventing the entry of customers who were not
carrying proper vaccination documentation.”
Beyond the famous California institution’s location “properly and
clearly” posting signage to communicate local vaccination requirements,
the SFDH has attempted to require In-N-Out Burger employees to act as
health police and enforcement personnel for the city.
He explains, “After closing our restaurant, local regulators informed us >>> that our restaurant Associates must actively intervene by demanding
proof of vaccination and photo identification from every
customer…barring entry for any Customers without proper documentation.”
Wensigner opened up further in the statement saying they are committed
to the highest level of customer service & making all feel welcome.
“We refuse to become the vaccination police for any government. It is
unreasonable, invasive, and unsafe to force our restaurant associates to >>> segregate customers,” wrote Wensigner.
In late August, San Francisco became one of the first major U.S. cities
to require proof of full COVID-19 vaccination to enter indoor
restaurants, bars, gyms, theaters, and other entertainment venues.
New York City’s policy went into effect on August 17, and the city began >>> to enforce the requirements as of September 13. Inspectors for New York
City have reportedly given numerous violations of $1,000 for failing to
check vaccination cards.
Some fast-food chains shut their seating areas altogether, sacrificing
sales and bottom lines to appease city health rules.
Federal and State Vaccine Mandates have fueled a great divide in the
U.S., pitting businesses, unions, legislators, and neighbors against one >>> another based on their firmly held beliefs on the issue.
Further fueling the division are inconsistent actions from public
officials like CA Governor Gavin Newsom. It was recently reported that
Newsom, who is publicly driving Lockdowns and Vaccine mandates, does not >>> vaccinate his own daughter. In addition to that, CA Assemblyman Kevin
Kiley tweeted that the embattled Governor is fighting to remove the
vaccine mandate for a union that reportedly gave over $1 million to his
campaign.
For In-n-Out Burger, they are not alone as employees, employers, unions, >>> public employees, and even Governors across the nation are signaling
their distaste for a mandate Arnie Wensinger describes as a “government
dictate that forces a private company to discriminate against customers
who choose to patronize their business.”
The statement concludes with a declaration that leaves no doubt about
where the famous Burger Institution stands.
“This clear governmental overreach and is intrusive, improper, and
offensive.”
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
Cali & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote in the subject line:
"Florida Surgeon General Dr. Ladapo: Highest quality data does not support any clinical benefit
for masking children in schools | Masking a child is no one else's decision except for their parents
http://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/qcfdr8/florida_surgeon_general_dr_ladapo_highest_quality/
Actually, there is no quality data to either support or refute
Florida's political assertion that there's no "clinical benefit for
masking children in schools."
Source:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8014099/
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
Florida & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/10/25/1048202711/covid-economic-pain-black-latino-native-american
October 25, 20212:53 PM ET
Laurel Wamsley at NPR headquarters in Washington, D.C., November 7,
2018. (photo by Allison Shelley)
LAUREL WAMSLEY
3-Minute Listen
Download
Los Angeles International Airport and SoFi Stadium employers spoke with
potential job applicants at a job fair in Inglewood, Calif., in
September. About 19% of all households in an NPR poll say they lost all
their savings during the COVID-19 outbreak, and have none to fall back on. >>> PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images
Jonathan Eta had managed to keep his head above water after he lost his
job as an auto detailer in Southern California at the start of the
pandemic. But last month, the emergency unemployment benefits he relied
on expired.
"Basically, now we're just out on our own, you know?" he says.
Eta, who was born in Honduras, lives in the San Fernando Valley, where
he's a single father to his three school-aged children. The financial
strain he'd staved off for 17 months has arrived. He's now three months
behind on rent for the one-bedroom apartment where the four of them
live, and he's behind on his credit cards and electric bill, too.
"Man, it's just hard to find work, constantly worrying about catching
the virus. You know, my kids have caught it. My mother, too. So it's
really been real, real rocky, you know. I don't know which way to go,"
Eta says.
He's far from the only one feeling that pressure. Thirty-eight percent
of households across the U.S. report facing serious financial problems
over the last few months. That's according to a poll by NPR, the Robert
Wood Johnson Foundation and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public
Health. And among Black and Latino households, more than 55% reported
serious financial problems. That's compared with 29% of white households. >>>
Article continues after sponsor message
Impact of the racial wealth gap: "I've got to start all over"
For Eta, the financial strain has made it hard to sleep, and it has
stymied his hopes of moving his family to a bigger place.
"I had some kind of progress going on. Now that's pretty much over with, >>> so I've got to start all over. And it's just been pretty rough, you
know, to not have any kind of surety of where we're going or when this
is going to be over," he says. The little savings he had are now gone.
That lack of savings is a major factor in the unequal financial toll of
the pandemic.
About 19% of all households say they lost all their savings during the
COVID-19 outbreak, and have none to fall back on. Among Black
households, the number is higher: 31% reported losing all their savings. >>> And among Latino and Native American families, more than more than a
quarter of households report having depleted their savings.
"The racial wealth gap is real, and one of its most basic manifestations >>> is not having liquid assets," says William Spriggs, professor of
economics at Howard University and chief economist to the AFL-CIO.
The additional federal aid that expired last month gave people a sense
of security, Spriggs says, so they could continue to consume.
"That's all gone away," he says. "So that is, I think, the number one
reason you saw special stress in Latino and Black households — because
without the boost to the unemployment check, without the stimulus checks >>> still being there, these households simply don't have the savings to
endure and be resilient during downturns."
"It is incredibly hard"
Melissa is a single mom in Brooklyn. She's asked we only use her first
name because she's ashamed of being unable to provide for her children
and doesn't want it widely known how much she is struggling.
"This has been hell," she says. "I'm trying to survive without a job,
without assistance, with two young children. It is incredibly hard."
When the pandemic started, she was working as a home health aide. But
because she was caring for her kids, checking in on her mother in a
nursing home, and looking after her aunts and uncles, she didn't want to >>> work directly with COVID-19 patients.
Article continues after sponsor message
"And they didn't want to hear that, so I was forced to take a leave,"
she says.
Around the same time, her wallet was stolen, and with it, the state ID
and social security card she needed to apply for various government
assistance. Getting replacements for those documents has been slow, with >>> government offices backed up during the pandemic.
When she became eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine earlier this year,
Melissa wasn't able to get the protective shot for underlying health
reasons. But that's raised her ongoing vulnerability to the coronavirus. >>>
Without income, she's leaned on extended family, gone to food pantries
and made the most of her supply of canned goods while she looks for a job. >>>
"I've applied at Target, Kmart, H&M — everything. I've applied
everywhere. And you know, it is difficult with my two children because I >>> still have to make sure they go to daycare. And without a voucher ...
you're looking at six, seven hundred dollars in daycare a week."
Glimmers of hope
She says the pandemic has erased the life she knew before — when she
could take care of others in her extended family, instead of just
scraping by herself.
But there are glimmers of hope: That underlying health issue has at last >>> healed, her doctors now tell her, so she should be able to get
vaccinated against the coronavirus, and be able to look for a
better-paying job in health care.
Until then, she says, her kids are what keep her going. "They wake up
every day and look at me like, 'OK, let's go.' They're happy and they
help make me happy. They motivate me."
And soon, she hopes, the whole family can return to some measure of
stability.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
Cali & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://millennialbachelor.com/2021/10/26/how-i-saw-nyc-change-throughout-the-pandemic/
How I saw NYC change throughout the pandemic
26 Oct 2021The Millennial
March 2020, or around that time as I like to imagine it, it was like a
normal night. I was in West Village having drinks with a girl I was
casually seeing as her brother and his friends were in town. As bad as
it sounds looking back at it now, so many people joked about COVID-19
and how it won’t be serious. Then we all got an announcement that
weekend or around that time to stay at home, we would be working remote. >>> For a while, it seemed like no one wanted to be back in the office since >>> well, working remote has its perks.
My friend and I walked around, may have been April or May of that year,
and we could not believe it. NYC, Manhattan itself, the bumbling haven
of activity was now a ghost town. Rats became more prominent on the
streets as there was less foot traffic and the drugged out homeless
stuck out more. Never would anyone have thought that a city like NYC
would be turned into a ghost town, it was something else entirely. All
of the city had gone into lockdown. As the spring turned to summer,
racial tensions boiled over due to the murder of George Floyd.
I watched as once lively apartment buildings went empty in neighborhoods >>> that used to be full of energy. Even my own building saw a change as
Friday nights and Saturdays were drop dead silent. You heard almost
nothing anymore and rows of stores were now boarded up. Yet I stayed,
the truth is that very few cities can rival what NYC offers to a single
guy in his twenties.
Tensions got bad as cop cars in Union Square were set on fire and I
lived through it, seeing the riots happen all over the city. Some were
peaceful protests but as night came, those turned violent. Meanwhile,
the city was on lockdown, almost all of the bars closed and nightlife
dead. The parties still went on at the apartments and in some
underground destinations where you had to have an invite but it was
nothing like when the city was open. Most people with the means to do so >>> left NYC and opted to get out of the state entirely. I don’t know much
of the city outside of Manhattan, for all I know, Queens and other
boroughs are the same.
I loved working remotely and not having to go to the office but it was
something else as the city had changed. The lockdowns, fear of COVID,
tensions boiling over, and restriction after restriction had changed
NYC. I don’t mean change as in your favorite spots being closed, I mean
change as in change the character of the city and of Manhattan. At its
very core, New York was different because New Yorkers became different.
Maybe the tough times exposed traits of New Yorkers you do not see when
you are too busy trying to catch the train in the crowd, but it was
different.
What I witnessed were not just lockdowns but a roller coaster of rights. >>> At one moment, it’s back to normal, and at the other it is mandate after >>> mandate. NYC has recovered from a lot but this was kind of different, I
saw New Yorkers change.
New Yorkers went from kinda rude to hostile.
New Yorkers are stereotypically rude, they can be downright mean, but
they are not exactly hostile. In fact, I’d say New Yorkers are good
people as a whole who want to help. I remember arriving here and
strangers happily helped me with directions and gave me feedback on
neighborhoods. There was a degree of trust in most strangers in
Manhattan, you felt it, and knew that there were good samaritans abound
in the city.
A New Yorker will be blunt with you and talk shit to your face but he is >>> never hostile in a territorial sort of way, at least not in Manhattan.
Waiting for food, being in line for groceries, and waiting on your
coffee were different experiences now. Perhaps the one demographic in
NYC that I saw change and become unbearable were older white women,
particularly in Manhattan, they took being Karen to a whole new level.
I remember waiting for the cashier to bag my groceries around April of
last year as an older woman accidentally bumped into me. She made eye
contact and immediately said “get away from me, get the fuck away from
me” as I was standing arm’s length away from her. Very unusual as the
cashier watched along with others. Throughout the city, I saw these
instances happening more and more often. In all fairness, this did come >>>from the older white population in the city.
In the younger population, there was frustration. We hated how the same
old people at risk for COVID were outside wondering around for their
walks while locking down was encouraged, some were even unmasked.
Frustration grew in the younger population as we dealt with the economy
being mostly shut down while those at risk wandered around carelessly,
expecting us to cater to their demands.
The less flattering aspects of the city became even more prominent.
I remember walking with a friend to see how the city looked like during
the lockdowns when they allowed us out. We got too close to a garbage
bag which had not been collected and saw about ten rats inside running
around, that scared the shit out of me. When NYC was open, you wouldn’t
encounter this as much or even notice it because so much was going on.
The homeless struggles became a lot more prominent as well because you
could no longer ignore it compared to moving through crowds of people on >>> their way to work. You had a lot of instances where it would just be you >>> walking down the street and the only person you would encounter is a
homeless guy asking for change. I also noticed that the homeless
population started to become a lot more aggressive than usual, now
cursing at you more when you ignored their requests for change, which
brings me to my next point.
Crime went up.
While statistics will bring up the rise in hate crimes and rise in
shootings in the city, the truth is that NYC as a whole began to feel a
lot less safe. You did not want to take the subway during the pandemic,
especially not the one in Union Square. Walking around, especially at
night, felt a lot less safe as well. I noticed more shoplifting
happening at pharmacies and convenient stores, all of this in parts of
Manhattan that were usually seen as being safe.
The spike in crime is shown as being in areas where crime was already
bad, I think it is naive to think this way. The truth is that crime in
NYC as a whole went up, especially in safer parts of Manhattan. I used
to be able to walk around my neighborhood at night and it would be
people walking their dogs and everyone getting their evening walk in as
well. During the pandemic, I started noticing more homeless drug addicts >>> and overall a vibe that was a lot less safe. It’s no surprise that when
the mayoral race happened, the winner on the Democrat side was a former
cop with more centrist policies.
The incompetent leadership was no longer tolerable.
It doesn’t matter where you stand on the political spectrum, New York
has not elected good leaders recently. Our previous few governors seem
to always get caught up in some sort of scandal and our mayor is
considered to be one of the worst in America. In all fairness, the
mayors before the current mayor did do a good job. When things were
open, you kind of tolerated it. The drinking, partying, and hooking up
with attractive women took your mind off of how incompetent and corrupt
some of the people running the city were.
Once the lockdowns happened, nightlife ended, jobs gutted, crime
skyrocketed, and the rich fled; you were forced to pay attention to it.
The chickens came home to roost for the leadership which became a
laughing stock of the entire country. Now New Yorkers were forced to ask >>> where the hell those tax dollars were actually going. New Yorkers hit
the polls and selected someone different for mayor, but it was a tale of >>> two New Yorks.
Racial tensions got much worse.
While it does not get talked about as much and might catch others by
surprise, NYC has quite a lot of racism going on under the surface. The
wealthy whites who vote Democrat in the city will play up the hero act
but there is a reason they prefer not to live too close to Harlem. I
won’t take the time to bash out of touch liberals too much.
As it showed in the race for mayor and Democrat primary, well-off whites >>> in the city do not vote like minorities do. One group was facing rising
crime rates and found defunding the police to be a baffling proposal.
Meanwhile, the Uber Eats Work From Home class was all onboard for
defunding the police as they hid out in their doorman secured buildings. >>>
While wealthy whites cheered for vaccine mandates, minorities who are
less vaccinated on average were not nearly as enthusiastic. The Carmine
Incident represented these tensions boiling over, even though the family >>> was from Texas. Vaccine mandates were a tale of one privileged side
cheering for them while the other side which was less privileged did not >>> see as much value in them because they had pressing issues like rising
crime staring them in the face.
For decades, these tensions existed. Many New Yorkers of color were
aware of what I will call the Reddit New Yorker for the sake of this
post, the type to pretend to care about people of color but only hang
with their white and/or hipster crowd. Somehow, during the pandemic, the >>> tensions bubbled up to the surface. Vaccine mandates almost gave some of >>> the wealthy closet racists a way to be prejudiced while just hiding
behind the “they’re unvaccinated” act.
People got nosier.
New Yorkers are stereotyped as being in their own world and out of
everyone’s business. As the mandates came, New Yorkers got nosier and
nosier. Once again, the biggest culprit here were middle-aged and older
white women being Karens. Now, it became their duty to ask everyone if
they were vaccinated and then give them a lecture if they were not. Your >>> conversations had a much bigger chance of being overheard.
As angry as I was at these types, I felt for them now looking back at
it. So many of these people lived easy lives in their Manhattan bubbles, >>> believing every word of what mainstream media told them, and once the
pandemic came it was as if their world had been shattered. I may have
been annoyed and angry at first but I realized that these people were
just really scared and adversarial as a result.
More people questioned why they live in the city now, and many moved.
In all fairness, a lot of people have also moved into NYC because they
think that things will be back to normal soon. Rents have gone up in
Manhattan for a reason and in my heart, NYC will always hold a special
place. Despite the love I had for NYC, I realized that with being able
to work remote and nightlife being mostly closed, there was very little
incentive to pay the high taxes and high rents.
You paid the high taxes and high rents because you loved the nightlife
the city offered and the fact that it attracted a non-judgmental crowd
that didn’t care if you weren’t married with kids by 35. Once nightlife
started to close down and the mandates kicked in, you started to
question why you lived in the city. When jobs allow you to work remote
and nightlife becomes more stringent on proof of vaccination, you really >>> start to second guess what you are actually paying for.
What does the future hold?
I moved out of NYC and seeing how the city handled the pandemic, am left >>> wondering how they might handle future crises. Some of what NYC offers
in the form of a great hookup culture will be tough to rival for most
cities. NYC has its charm and it will always attract tourists from
across the world. With remote work being the norm now, it is anyone’s
guess how much livelier Manhattan will be. Given the good years it gave
me, I will always be in NYC’s corner and rooting for it. I am only left
asking if I would want to go back.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
NYC & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://globalnews.ca/news/8333159/toronto-covid-survivor-returns-icu-message/
‘Thank you for everything’: Toronto COVID-19 survivor returns to ICU
with message for care team
By Caryn Lieberman Global News
Posted October 29, 2021 6:00 am
Updated October 29, 2021 6:24 am
Global News at 5:30 Toronto: October 28, 2021
close video
The very first COVID-19 patient in Humber River Hospital’s intensive
care unit returned a year and a half since he was first admitted to
thank the medical team that saved his life. Caryn Lieberman reports.
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A year and a half since Mario Castillo was taken off a ventilator at
Humber River Hospital after spending nine weeks intubated, fighting
COVID-19, he returned to thank the medical team that saved his life.
“Want to say thank you for everybody taking care of me … thank you for
everything,” he said.
Seeing Castillo healthy is a huge morale boost for the front-line
health-care workers who cared for him during the first wave of the pandemic.
“The team is overwhelmed. I have a nurse that stayed overnight just to
see Mario. She took care of him and hearing Mario speak today, I had
goosebumps,” said Cecile Marville-Williams, program director with
responsibility for critical care, cardiology, respiratory and oncology.
Marville-Williams lost her mother to COVID-19, so seeing Castillo
thriving is even more meaningful.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW ADVERTISEMENT
READ MORE: ‘This is my second chance’: COVID-19 survivor who defied odds >>> recovering in rehab centre
“To see him today walking, talking, to be able to come back and give
back to us by sharing his experience just made me feel very
overwhelmed,” she said.
Castillo was the first COVID-19 patient to be intubated in the intensive >>> care unit at Humber River Hospital.
In late March of 2020, the mechanic went to the emergency room after
leaving work early one day with a fever and runny nose and spending a
week sick in bed.
Within hours of arriving in hospital, Castillo’s symptoms worsened.
READ MORE: ‘I’m scared’: Toronto COVID-19 survivor who defied odds
updates recovery, expresses fear
“I saw him the first time that he came with shortness of breath and we
had a flood of patients with COVID. So everyone that came with shortness >>> of breath and low oxygen saturations was most likely a COVID patient,”
recalled Flor Guevara, respiratory therapist.
The next day, Guevara said Castillo had been moved to the ICU from the
emergency department.
“I remembered that I had a Spanish background and I said, ‘I need to
talk to him.’ So I went inside and I spoke to him and I explained to
him, ‘We need to give you a medication to put you into sleep’ and then
he said, ‘How long I’m going to be down?’ and I said, ‘We don’t know’,”
she said.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW ADVERTISEMENT
Seeing Castillo all these months later was emotional for Guevara, who
called his recovery “a miracle.”
Click to play video: 'Ontario lifts capacity limits for outdoor public
events'
2:16
Ontario lifts capacity limits for outdoor public events
Ontario lifts capacity limits for outdoor public events
Critical care physician Dr. Keren Mandelzweig was part of the medical
team that performed the intubation on Castillo.
“Really what stands out to me is all the preparation that went into
preparing to perform the intubation, all the new protocols that had to
be put in place, the whole team coming together to learn how to do
everything in a different way to keep, of course, the patients safe, but >>> also everyone safe,” she recalled.
Mandelzweig said she remembers feeling worried about Castillo.
“We didn’t know that much about the disease and we didn’t know what his
outcome was going to be. I remember just basically a lot of unknowns,”
she said.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW ADVERTISEMENT
READ MORE: ‘I’ll live to see another day’: COVID-19 survivor describes
effects of virus 8 months later
Seeing Castillo after all this time was thrilling for Mandelzweig.
“It almost took my breath away,” she said.
Castillo is planning to return to work soon. He has not yet fully
recovered but can walk again and has regained strength in his hands.
He said he will also visit St. John’s Rehab at Sunnybrook Hospital one
day soon to thank the team there.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
Toronto & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/qmimr7/political_theology_and_covid19_agambens_critique/
crisis inPolitical Theology and COVID-19: Agamben’s Critique of Science as a New >“Pandemic Religion”
Guillermo Andrés Duque Silva and Cristina Del Prado Higuera
From the journal Open Theology
https://doi.org/10.1515/opth-2020-0177
Abstract
The philosopher Giorgio Agamben has reacted to the coronavirus
variousa way that markedly contrasts with most other positions in contemporary >political philosophy. His position has been described as irrational, >politically incorrect, and unfair toward the victims of COVID-19. In
this article, we delve into the foundations of this peculiar, >pessimistic, and controversial reaction. From Agamben’s conceptual >framework, we will explain how state responses to the COVID-19 crisis >have turned science into a new religion from the dogmas of which
strategies have been developed in order for states to exercise >biopolitical power under theological guises.
theKeywords: state of exception; political theology; COVID-19; sovereignty
1 Introduction
At the beginning of 2020, an important philosophical debate took place
on the COVID-19 crisis. Various contemporary thinkers such as Slavoj >Žižek, Roberto Esposito, and Jean-Luc Nancy put forward their positions >regarding the critical situations then developing. In February 2020,
thatItalian philosopher Giorgio Agamben intervened with a press release
responsesaroused the most relentless criticism from the philosophical community. >The title of the publication: The invention of an epidemic revealed the >critical position that Agamben advanced against the measures that have >been imposed by states within their responses to the health emergency.
In that publication, the renowned philosopher called the state
unjustified.”to the pandemic crisis “frantic, irrational and completely
exception,Agamben questioned why the media and the authorities were making an >effort “to spread a climate of panic, causing a true state of
proportionwith serious limitations on movements and a suspension of the normal >functioning of living and working conditions in entire regions.” From >Agamben’s perspective, those measurements were totally out of
to what, according to him, was simply a typical common flu.
A coronavirus is simply different from a flu virus whether the latter
is either typical or common.
notA wave of criticism was quickly levied against Agamben and we shall >examine in this article the most important elements thereof. We will
discuss the virus’s destructive capacity since Agamben’s classification >of COVID-19 as “simply flu” falls by itself. What interests us is the >link Agamben makes between the emergence of COVID-19 and what he >conceptualizes as a resultant permanent state of exception.
responseAgamben has devoted himself for more than twenty years to the scholarly >study of the state of exception in Western culture. While his study of >the subject began solely on a theoretical and abstract plane, it
suddenly took life before his eyes in the form of the worldwide
COVID-19to COVID-19. For this reason, quite beyond Agamben’s controversial >position on the lethality of the virus, we are interested in the
argument that the philosopher puts forward about a growing tendency of >states to use the state of exception as a standard paradigm of >government, a propensity of theirs for which the cover given by
is ideally suited, as he explains in his most recent work.[1]
situationsThis article will fulfill three purposes, arranged into three sections. >First, we will examine Giorgio Agamben’s theoretical proposal of the >state of exception as a dialogue, on the one hand, with the criticisms >received from other philosophers, and, on the other hand, with the >possible applications that this theory would have in concrete
conceptualgenerated by the COVID-19 crisis. Second, we will analyze the
4, weframework of political theology and economic theology in Giorgio >Agamben’s work, especially that developed in The Kingdom and the Glory: >For a Theological Genealogy of Economy and Government. Finally, we will >put this theory in the context of the health crisis and the question of >the origin and legitimacy of laws and measures that affect social life
in the state of emergency generated by the coronavirus. In Section
that,will draw attention to the scope of the current state of exception
in the Agambenian theoretical framework, will not be overcome with the >end of the pandemic, in the same way, that it did not begin with it.
philosophical2 Pandemic and homo sacer: Our neighbor has been abolished
The Italian philosopher has attempted to carry further the
diagnosisproject dealing with biopolitics and their underlying genealogical >considerations that was initiated by Michel Foucault. Agamben describes >the contemporary age as a time that manages to materialize the
it.[3]that Foucault hinted at in reference to the concept of “biopolitics” in >his last works. The notion of biopolitics has been used to describe the >administration of power in human life as a government paradigm in
Western culture. According to Foucault’s conception of human powers: >these act in two ways:[2] those that boost life or those that end
reducedFrom the first perspective, that of the impulse of life, human beings
are, for those in power, simply raw material to be preserved; however,
in the second case, those in power are compelled to exercise mechanisms >that end the life of a part of the population that they administer. The >two visions are complementary because, ultimately, the deaths of some >subjects may serve to protect the lives of others. Giorgio Agamben >revives the concept of biopolitics in order to describe contemporary >society and goes one step further: he focuses his attention on a >pessimistic perspective of biopolitics. Agamben dedicates himself to >understanding the criteria for the administration of death that are >exercised in the history of the West so as to identify biopolitical >patterns in the governments of Western societies, as well as the
possibilities of resistance that may emerge in a world that has been >turning into a “gigantic concentration camp.”[4]
Auschwitz?”From Agamben’s perspective, the most reprehensible cruelties that have
taken place in the exercise of power in the West, instead of being >exceptional anomalies, constitute instances inherent in the process of >the social construction of modernity.[5] In this way, Giorgio Agamben >interprets Ernst Nolte’s position on Auschwitz: history seems to resist >being left in the past. Indeed, Auschwitz constitutes the obscene >paradigm of the modern that Agamben turns into the founding myth of a >biopolitical era. This paradigm refuses to “remain in the past” and
gives meaning to contemporary forms of government. The Italian follows >the weak but the constant beat of the Musselman [6] of Auschwitz. The >philosopher carries out, in a research program over a decade and >producing six books, a prodigious archaeological excavation of power so >as to identify among its meanings what is the essential core of the >modern, an explanation of the question of “how did we get to
and through that genealogy journey finds the origins of the concept of >“Nuda Vita.”[7]
areContemporary life, in the concept of biopolitics proposed by Agamben,
has become a bare life. Life thus conceived is reduced to what is >produced and managed by law. The individuals in a concentration camp
exercisedstripped of all rights and political–legal status; their life is
treated, by the agents of power, as matter without human form, naked >life: they are data, figures, biological units that are always >disposable, as opposed to the greater value of the future and the >preservation, paradoxically, of other lives.[8] Under the rule
campby the agents of power, Nuda Vita, according to Agamben, gives rise to >the pauperization of human life in general. Among the concentration
middlesubjects, Agamben focuses on two figures; the Musselman, on the one
hand, represents the most powerless figure in the concentration camp. >Resigned to dying, he is engulfed in humiliation, fear, and horror. On >the other hand, there is the homo sacer, who lives trapped in the
Benavidesof an incongruity; on the one hand, he bears the burden of a crime, but >he is legally unsacrifiable. That is, it is forbidden to subject him to >death at the same time that he has to live knowing that others are >allowed impunity if they kill him.[9] Agamben advances and relates the >nuda vita and the homo sacer as metaphors of modern life and the >concentration camp as its paradigm. In this regard, Múnera and
indicate that:
Bared life [as life for death] is not the simple natural life, but a >politically unprotected life, permanently exposed to death or the >humiliations caused, with total impunity, by the sovereign power or by >those who compose it as citizens.[10]
It is inevitable to compare Agamben’s bare life concept with his >statements about the disease and the states of emergency that COVID-19 >has generated.
in aIn particular, the intergenerational differences that are promoted in >defense of general well-being are striking. All, but particularly the >older generations, have experienced, in a certain way, being locked
saving apolitically unprotected life, permanently exposed to death. The older >adult has become a Musselman of the twenty-first century, resigned to >death but while being unsacrifiable. His death is an expected result >that, however, is not directly ordered. The death is, in this case, >expected as a natural result of the isolation offered, in European >nursing homes, for instance. His death is considered a natural and >inevitable result. The fact that consideration of the option of
“has apatient with a ventilator leans naturally to a question as to who
thatwhole life ahead of him,” at no time admits the other option of >considering that choice as a criminal act in respect of other patients >not so saved, puts us face to face with biopower. If the meaning of
normalization ofchoice seems justifiably natural, it is because in that
Thishorror lies the essence of the administration of power in the >contemporary age, a power that conserves one life and ends another.
is the meaning of the criticism that Agamben makes of the health >emergency’s political background, which not only affects the elderly as >Musselman of the XXI century but, in general, is directed at all >individuals of Western civilization destined to become a contemporary >homo sacer. For Agamben, the message that sustains the biopolitics of >COVID-19 is based on the promotion of horror: the governmental machine >tells us that “our neighbour has been abolished.”[11]
nakedTo analyze how life in the West has been transformed into a simple
havelife due to the pandemic, we have systematically studied all of Giorgio >Agamben’s discourse on the health emergency and the changes that are >taking place in some Western democracies. After studying the sixteen >chapters of the book A che punto siamo? L´epidemia come politica we
usingcome upon an interesting finding: not only can it be verified that we >live in a permanent state of exception, as Agamben presented in his >research, but the pandemic has created a particular religious need to >which the church cannot respond, but to which science can. That is, in >the pandemic crisis science has become the new religion and takes from >religion its forms and strategies of governing life, all the while
scientific arguments.
place inThe author presented his arguments in the face of the COVID-19 crisis,
as quarantines and restrictions on movement were being put into
canEurope, being presented as the most plausible means of handling the
peaks of contagion during 2020. In our study, we have identified that
the progression of Agamben’s argument follows three basic stages, the >first of which is present in his February 2020 publications. Here we
identify the notion of a fear of contagion as a key element.
limitationThe central idea raised by Agamben indicates that the management of the >COVID-19 crisis has generated “a perverse vicious circle: the
fundamentalof freedom imposed by governments is accepted in the name of a desire
for security that has been induced by governments themselves, the same >governments that are now intervening in order to satisfy that >desire.”[12] In this sense, this fear of contagion forms the
basis of a new form of the traditional transaction between protection
and obedience that has characterized the relationships between modern >states and their citizens.
thatIn his March 11 publication, at one of the most critical moments of the >pandemic, Agamben explains that the fear of contagion has made citizens >accept unprecedented restrictions on their freedoms, fuelled by the >uncertainty generated by not being able to identify materially the
source of risk and harm. The second group of arguments follows from the >previous ones and supposes the transition from collective fear to >individual isolation, with the deterioration in human relationships
culmination ofthis produces. These two elements, collective fear and individual >isolation, support the third argument, which leads to the
religiosityAgamben´s criticism of governments. More specifically, in Riflessioni >sulla pestee the author claims that the pandemic has reactivated a need >for religion that the church cannot satisfy. This demand for
is met today by what we refer to as science.
In summary, beyond confirming that we live in a permanent state of >exception, the interesting finding that we would like to highlight is
the emergence of a need for religion that the Church can no longer >satisfy but that science can, even if only through theological
strategies of government.
madeAgamben describes the theological form of science as a new religion
context ofevident through a discourse disseminated via the media that combines >religiosity with science. The author affirms that the obsessive appeal, >“especially in the American press, to the word ‘apocalypse’ and to the >end of the world is an indication of this.”[13] However, blind faith in >science is not only evident in the media’s discourse, but is also >transferred to politics and decision making, that is, to the terrain of >sovereignty. The decisions that promote life or end it in the
the pandemic have been supported by scientific reasons that are
sometimes contradictory. This reveals to us a science of differing >opinions and prescriptions that range “from the heretical minority >position (also represented by prestigious scientists) of those who deny >the seriousness of the phenomenon to those within the mainstream
orthodox discourse who affirm it and yet radically diverge among >themselves in their opinions on how to deal with the pandemic.”[14]
(orContrary to what the essence of science would indicate, some experts
definesome self-defined as such) act like governmental commissioners to
how life is to be promoted or ended. This situation is similar to that
of a religious conflict, where the role of experts is not always to
reach the best solution but rather “to ensure the favor of the monarch, >who at the time of the past religious disputes that divided
Christianity, took sides according to his interests with one current or >another and imposed his solutions.”[15] In other words, this new >“science” of religion comes interweaved with a new biopolitical >government relying on theological strategies. In this article, we will >analyze arguments that explain this change based on Agamben’s work, >mainly his genealogy of sovereignty in his work Il regno e la gloria.
areIt is indispensable to compare Agamben’s bare life concept with his >statements about the disease and the states of emergency that COVID-19 >has generated. In particular, the intergenerational differences that
biopower. Ifpromoted in defense of general societal well-being are striking. All,
but particularly the older generations, have experienced, in a certain >way, being locked into a politically unprotected life, permanently >exposed to death. The older adult has become a Musselman of the >twenty-first century, resigned to death, while being unsacrifiable. His >death is an expected result that, however, is not directly ordered. The >death is, in this case, expected as a natural result of the isolation >they offer, in Europe, for instance, in nursing homes. His death is >considered a natural and inevitable result. The fact that the choice >between saving a young patient with a ventilator leans naturally to who >“has a whole life ahead of him,” at no time admits the option of >considering it as a criminal act, puts us face to face with
the meaning of that choice tends to naturalize, it is because in that >normalization of horror lies the essence of the administration of power >in the contemporary age, a power that drives one life and ends another. >This is the meaning of the criticism that Agamben makes of the health >emergency’s political background, which not only affects the elderly as >Musselman of the XXI century but, in general, is directed at all >individuals of Western civilization destined to become a contemporary >homo sacer. For Agamben, the message that sustains the biopolitics of >COVID-19 is based on the promotion of horror: the governmental machine >tells us that “our neighbor has been abolished.”[16]
andThe sovereignty exercised by the governmental powers in this >interpretation by Agamben does not require greater legitimacy than the >very fact of being able to dispose of the lives of subjects. That is,
the decisions of government agents are considered legitimate “by the >simple fact of their sovereignty.”[17] This is what grounds as legal
legitimate the sovereign decision of the attribution of the ventilator >referred to above, where reasons may be given or not since the symptom >and the expression of sovereignty do not need reasons in order to be >exercised.
logic:For Agamben, where this sovereignty is developed is closely related to >the duality between normality and exception that Carl Schmitt raised; >however, it breaks the dichotomous scheme that characterized >Plettenberg’s jurist. Agamben indicates that the sovereign is not the
one who decides in and on the state of exception but rather is the one >capable of maintaining exceptional actions as an area subject to his >control and presenting them as standard actions. Thus, to the old
exceptionality.normality – exception – new normality that we would long for with >Schmitt’s scheme, Agamben proposes a notion of permanent
further: HeIf Carl Schmitt went so far as to affirm that “the sovereign is at the >same time, outside and inside the legal order”[18] for his ability to >suspend normality with the declaration of a state of exception and >reinstitute a new legal order, Giorgio Agamben goes one step
affirms that his sovereign acts under a self-justifying imperative,
which indicates: “the law is outside itself, and I, the sovereign, who
am outside the law, declare that there is no outside the law.”[19]
powerWhile in the Schmittian approach, exceptionality and sovereignty are >attributes of the political struggle,[20] in Agamben, the place of
it isand its exercise are transcendent to political groups and actors. >Authority and administration are expressed from a permanent >exceptionality. For that reason, the sovereignty in Agamben is a place, >not a specific actor. The government is a verb rather than a noun. So, >while the sovereign for Schmitt may be a political party, a monarch, a >populist leader, or even, in its last stage, a guerrilla group that >decides in and on the state of exception, for Agamben, that role is the >experience of governing, not a specific social actor.[21] That is,
not the result of a specific decision-maker but of the social and legal >order that has been built in the West.[22] This form of exceptionality
is expressed permanently, without breaks or claims of new normalities. >For Agamben, sovereignty and the right that emanates from it do not
arise from the pauses of exceptionality that Schmitt proposes because,
in the contemporary West, there is nothing more normal than living in a >permanent state of exception. In other words, the state of exception in >Giorgio Agamben’s thought is not characterized by its abnormality and >contingency, and it is not explained in terms of “normality to come,”
but instead by its permanence, which is why it is, in most cases, an >imperceptible exceptionality.[23]
fewAlthough the approach to a permanent state of exception places the >COVID-19 crisis in a broad panorama, the criticisms received by another >biopolitics researcher, Roberto Esposito, reflect that it is still too >early to see beyond the “death toll,” as Agamben urges. It is not yet >time to analyze the qualitative effect that the decision to quarantine >humanity and its freedoms will leave in the long term. Specifically, >Esposito indicates to Agamben that the comparison between spending a
which wedays in isolation in a comfortable Italian middle-class house and the >horror of a concentration camp is implausible and irresponsible.[24] >Esposito is right. However, we should add to his reply that the way >COVID-19 restrictions are assumed is not the same in regions of the
world where, for example, washing hands with soap and water has been a >luxury for centuries. So, Esposito seems to lose sight of the fact that >the exceptional is not dictated by the circumstances in which isolation >is assumed but comes from how we internalize in customs what should not >under any circumstances be accepted.[25] For example, we have >incorporated as something “normal” that enormous regions of the world >live under the quarantine imposed by hunger and misery. Agamben reminds >us that the genuine plague is none other than the meekness with
accept to live with exceptional and reprehensible situations.[26] >Finally, this “normalization of the exceptional” is a consequence of >sovereignty in the biopolitical era and the permanent state of
exception, and the emergence of COVID-19 is settling into it, like its >most advanced chapter.
part3 COVID-19 and democracy: A people that can reign but not govern
Many of the criticisms that Agamben received sought to label him as
theof the “conspiracy theorist paranoiacs” who assign to the states and
questioncapitalist elites the responsibility of having spread fear amongst >citizens when, in fact, capitalism and its government elites have been >highly affected by the crisis capitalism and its government elites have >been the main affected by the crisis. Žižek’s criticism of Agamben, for >example, questioned the benefit that the state of emergency could bring >to governments and capitalist elites because, in the end, the emergency >has accentuated, on the one hand, general distrust in the governments >and, on the other hand, an unprecedented economic crisis. Žižek asks >Agamben: what elite would be interested in promoting such a movement >against their interests? The answer in favor of Agamben to this
Agambencan be found in the criticism that Paolo Flores d’Arcais made of
in MicroMega. For Flores d’Arcais, COVID-19 has not strengthened the >state or capital’s power. This position coincides with that of Žižek. >However, the pandemic has been characterized by the appearance of a new >“conspiracy of white coats”: doctors and scientists who appear today as >depositaries of the “last word” in government on the lives of its >citizens. According to Flores d’Arcais, this is/represents a power more >significant than the interests of governments and capital.[27]
thatIf we focus on the way decisions are made in the COVID-19 state of >exception, and in the Agambenian theoretical framework, we will see
routine,governments rely on the medical-scientific argument to justify their >decisions with two benefits to them, such administrators; on the one >hand, they avoid the need to submit their proposals to the demanding >deliberation of democratic systems and, on the other hand – with that >shortcut and delegation to the scientists – the governments exempt from >their original responsibilities; as simple “operators” of a scientific >decision that, after all, is alien to them. So, that last decision of
the “white coats” to which Flores d’Arcais refers is not taken in some >way above the governments themselves but is instead used by the latter
as an argument of authority that operates theologically. If we consider >the theological background in which the scientific decisions that >subsequently sustain government actions arise, we see a correlation >between earthly government authorities and “scientific sovereignty.”
This self-power justifies coercive decisions under the irrefutable halo >that medicine offers. In the long term, contrary to what Žižek says, >those measures that in principle seem to affect capital and the states >will strengthen them notably, since the exceptional will become
in an accelerated way and with a high democratic cost that will be >difficult to recover. In the end, with the irrefutable and self-imposed >argument of “medical reason,” the governments that have sustained the >temporary suspension of the legal order will have been able to justify >unprecedented control over the individual and society to protect them >from an unprecedented danger. In summary, by dint of the >medical–political duality, in the crisis of COVID-19, a contemporary >version of the theological–political duality that Agamben studied is >forged to explain that who governs, in the occidental democracies is
that power capable of converting the state of exception into order, and >the world – into a gigantic “concentration camp.” Seen like this, the >relationship between theology and politics that can be established in
the decisions taken to contain COVID-19, coming from Agamben, does not >correspond in any way with a conspiratorial agenda.
humanIn Agamben’s viewpoint, the world configured as a concentration camp >predates COVID-19; in fact, it is as old as Western societies’ very >formation. How does Agamben explain why we got to this point? Agamben >considers that the West’s history is the history of creating a bipolar >biopolitical “governmental machine” that operates theologically on
somelives, despite having eliminated the need to sustain its actions in
thatessence or primary political substance: the machinery of government
does not need to refer to a divine foundation and, nevertheless, is >always presented as a sacred institution.[28]
WesternThe biopolitical government is clothed with celestial majesty without >properly a divine substance from which its authority emanates. In Il >regno e la gloria, Agamben performs a genealogical exercise of modern >government. He explains the emergence of this governmental machine, >moving back to the Judeo-Christian theological origins. This
genealogical development is highly relevant for understanding Agamben’s >criticism of the global state of exception that has unleashed through >COVID-19. Agamben’s research allows us to understand that modern
culture has built a type of government that can dispense with the need
to refer its decisions to a fundamental, essential, and superior power >and, even so, operate under theological principles. The modern
understood in this way does not presuppose, much less arise from, the >rupture between substance and form, nor the separation between
auctoritas and potestas. Rather, the modern invokes the discovery of an >absent, immobile divine power, whose sacredness depends not on itself, >but on the glorification of those who, without being God, have assumed >the management of its praxis on earth.
findsIn modern government the providential and scientific levels?–?that of >power and that of authority–make up two poles that cooperate: they >maintain the place of the sacred as an empty throne, that is, without a >specific substance and, at the same time, they preserve the sacredness
in the management rites that, “in the name of the sacred,” are carried >out by angels, ministers, shepherds, saints for each prayer and, in >general, all the bureaucratic machinery responsible for religious
praxis. To reach this conclusion, Agamben faces the task of creating a >genealogy of government, similar to that carried out by Foucault while >going beyond Foucault’s work. Concurrently, the French philosopher
transformingin the pastoral work of the first two centuries of Christianity the >authentically modern moment that found the birth of political power in >the theological contamination of the human government’s world. Let us >remember that for Foucault, this moment is characterized by
frompower into a properly human management attribute, that is, detached
andtranscendental sovereignty. Modern political power, that is, the
capacity to provide security, administration, and management to the >state, would be born, in Foucault’s perspective, from that pastoral >power, in essence, private, and oriented to the economic technique that >the priests and first Christian leaders carried out on their flock and >over each one his “sheeps.”[29] For his part, in various theological >treatises, Agamben analyzes how the political is also present in the >origins of Jewish and Christian religious dogmatic discourses. Agamben >explains, for example, that the term oikonomia, which characterizes the >first private management of the “pater familias,” not only has the >political implications that we know today in the states but also had
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.reddit.com/r/COVIDrights/comments/qobdik/la_county_mask_mandate_likely_to_last_through/
L.A. County mask mandate likely to last through next year: Ferrer
Prostock Studio/Getty Images
Photo credit Prostock Studio/Getty Images
By Jake Flanagin, KNX 1070 Newsradio
KNX 1070 NEWSRADIO
a day ago
Los Angeles County’s Director of Public Health Barbara Ferrer announced
this week that mask mandates in the county are likely to remain in place >>> into 2023.
Mortality rates for vaccinated residents of L.A. County have remained
steady for months, but deaths rates for the unvaccinated continue to
rise, Ferrer warned at a press conference on Thursday.
Podcast Episode
KNX All Local
New state health figures show low demand for booster shots; Getting
businesses ready to enforce LA city's new vax mandate; A court hearing
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“By October, the risk of death for unvaccinated people was 41 times
higher than the risk of death for vaccinated people,” she noted.
Ferrer said it was still too early to determine whether the county was
experiencing a fifth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The county’s lead
health official also explained that cooler temperatures heading into
winter may be slowing down infection rates; but those could spike again
once spring arrives.
“I think we have to do what we know will work,” Ferrer said. “Vaccinate
more people and wear masks when indoors. Again, because it is a powerful >>> way to prevent infection.”
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.reuters.com/world/europe/unvaccinated-greece-face-new-restrictions-covid-cases-soar-2021-11-06/?taid=6186ebacdc5dd300010555e5&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter&utm_source=reddit.com
Unvaccinated in Greece face new restrictions as COVID cases soar
Reuters
2 minute read
A shop employee checks customers’ vaccination certificates against the
coronavirus disease (COVID-19), as the government imposed further
measures for unvaccinated citizens, in Athens, Greece, November 6, 2021. >>> REUTERS/Stelios Misinas
A shop employee checks customers’ vaccination certificates against the
coronavirus disease (COVID-19), as the government imposed further
measures for unvaccinated citizens, in Athens, Greece, November 6, 2021. >>> REUTERS/Stelios Misinas
A private security employee checks customers’ vaccination certificates
against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), as the government imposed
further measures for unvaccinated citizens, in Athens, Greece, November
6, 2021. REUTERS/Stelios Misinas
1/3
A shop employee checks customers’ vaccination certificates against the
coronavirus disease (COVID-19), as the government imposed further
measures for unvaccinated citizens, in Athens, Greece, November 6, 2021. >>> REUTERS/Stelios Misinas
ATHENS, Nov 6 (Reuters) - Queues formed outside shops in Athens on
Saturday on the first day of new restrictions to curb soaring
coronavirus infections which require the unvaccinated to have negative
COVID-19 tests.
COVID-19 infections in Greece hit a new daily high almost every day in
November, prompting authorities to announce new measures on Tuesday,
which also restrict access to cafes and restaurants, state services and
banks to those who are either vaccinated or have a negative test.
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Those vaccinated against COVID-19 also have to present their vaccination >>> certificates, triggering long lines outside shops in the capital's
busiest shopping street, Ermou.
"I don't like it," said Soula Tsaousi as she waited in line outside a
clothes shop in central Athens. "We don't live in a jail, we're
civilized human beings and I don't like it at all."
Report ad
Greece reported 6,909 new coronavirus infections on Friday, breaking a
previous single-day record of 6,808 recorded on Thursday. This took the
total infections to 774,265 since the pandemic began last year. Some
16,200 death people have died.
Some Greeks were in favour of the new rules.
Report ad
"They will be effective as long as they are implemented correctly and by >>> all," said Giorgos, a customer in a cafe who declined to give his last
name. "I think they were late in coming too, they should have
implemented these measures a lot sooner."
As part of the new measures, all unvaccinated workers should also test
negative twice a week. Most unvaccinated in Greece are now required to
present a negative test once a week to get to their workplace.
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About 60.5.% of a population of about 11 million are fully vaccinated
against COVID-19, according to the latest data.
Health Minister Thanos Plevris said Greece will soon send letters and
text messages as part of a new campaign to boost vaccination take up.
Reporting by Phoebe Fronista Writing by Karolina Tagaris Editing by Ros
Russell
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
Greece. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/qqiojq/more_than_half_of_us_states_have_sued_to_stop/
More than half of US states are suing to stop Biden's COVID-19 vaccine
mandate
Kevin Shalvey Nov 6, 2021, 3:33 AM
President Joe Biden stands behind microphones and points toward the
camera in front of a vaccine sign
President Joe Biden promoting vaccines at the White House on Wednesday.
His vaccine mandate plans are now under legal attack by most US states.
Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters
At least 26 states on Friday filed or joined lawsuits opposing President >>> Joe Biden's vaccine mandate.
"This mandate is unconstitutional, unlawful, and unwise," said a filing
by a coalition of 11 states.
The White House on Thursday made official its plan to require vaccines
for employees of big companies.
More than half of US states on Friday filed or joined lawsuits opposing
President Joe Biden's vaccine mandate for employees of large companies.
Twenty-six states cosigned four petitions, amounting to perhaps the most >>> sweeping legal challenge to pandemic-era safety requirements since Biden >>> took office. Three Democrat-led states are among the 26.
The lawsuits, filed in four federal appeals courts, take aim at Biden's
requirement that all companies with more than 100 employees mandate
COVID-19 vaccines for their staff, or implement weekly testing.
"This mandate is unconstitutional, unlawful, and unwise," said a lawsuit >>> filed by Missouri and 10 other states in the US Court of Appeals for the >>> Eight Circuit.
The states said in the filing that Biden's mandate "will cause injuries
and hardship to working families, inflict economic disruption and
staffing shortages on the states and private employers, and impose even
greater strains on struggling labor markets and supply chains."
Biden's mandate, which would affect about two of every three
private-sector workers, was officially rolled out on Thursday. It is set >>> to take effect January 4.
The lawsuits argue that the federal government doesn't have the
constitutional authority to put a vaccine mandate in place. The
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) also lacks the
statutory authority to enforce it, they say. The issue should be left to >>> states to decide, they argue.
"States have been leading the fight against COVID-19 from the start of
the pandemic," said Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, one of several Democratic
leaders to join the suits. "It is too late to impose a federal standard
now that we have already developed systems and strategies that are
tailored for our specific needs."
At least one lawsuit argues that Biden's requirements have been
"shoe-horned" into workplace safety statutes.
The White House on Friday pushed back against that characterization,
saying it wanted to be "crystal clear" that the requirement was a
workplace-safety measure, not a vaccine mandate.
"That would be, on its face, incorrect," Karine Jean-Pierre, principal
deputy press secretary, told reporters in a briefing. "As has been
explicit for months, it is a standard for a safe workplace to either
comply with weekly testing or to be vaccinated."
Missouri was joined in its Eighth Circuit petition by Arizona, Nebraska, >>> Montana, Arkansas, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Alaska, New
Hampshire, and Wyoming.
Kentucky filed in the Sixth Circuit with Idaho, Kansas, Ohio, Oklahoma,
Tennessee, and West Virginia.
Texas filed a petition in the Fifth Circuit, joined by Louisiana, South
Carolina, Utah, and Mississippi.
Georgia filed in the Eleventh Circuit with Florida and Alabama.
At least two other lawsuits were filed last week against the Biden
administration's vaccine requirements. Mississippi on Thursday joined a
separate lawsuit with Louisiana and Indiana. And Florida, which had
announced plans to sue in October, filed a solo complaint in US District >>> Court in Tampa.
"We started with fifteen days to slow the spread and now it's, 'Get
jabbed or lose your job,'" Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a press
conference, adding that the OSHA requirement was "500 pages" of
government bureaucracy.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/qr8cey/manhattan_office_workers_not_returning_after/
Study: Only 1 in 6 Manhattan Office Workers Will Return Full Time by End >>> of January
Large Manhattan employers expect to cut their office space and their
staff in the post-pandemic era, the Partnership for New York City found
Published November 10, 2021 • Updated on November 10, 2021 at 1:21 pm
Office buildings in midtown manhattan
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Manhattan's office workers are slowly returning to the city's towers,
but at such a snail's pace that most still won't be back by the end of
January, according to a new survey released Wednesday.
In fact, the Partnership for New York City found half of the city's
largest employers now expect some of their workforce to spend a majority >>> of their time working remotely. About one in three expect to reduce
their NYC office space and roughly one in six said they would cut their
New York City-based staff.
The nonprofit, which represents more than 300 of the city's largest
businesses, found that only 8% of the 1 million-plus office workers are
back to work full-time now. By the end of January, employers expect that >>> just 13% will be back five days a week.
When counting hybrid schedules, only 28% of office workers are at their
desk at least one day a week now, and that's expected to rise to just
49% by the new year.
News
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Among the largest employers, those with 5,000 workers or more, just 46%
are expected to be back in the office at any frequency two months from now. >>>
The numbers stand in stark contrast to prior Partnership surveys that
found a growing return-to-work trend. But as the pandemic has dragged on >>> and many major employers have been forced to repeatedly delay their
return plans, attitudes appear to have shifted as well. (In March, for
example, employers had projected that at least 45 percent of their
employees would be back by now.)
The survey was conducted between Oct. 19 and 29. Among the data (source: >>> Partnership for New York City):
On an average weekday, 28% of Manhattan office workers are in the
workplace as of late October 2021.
8% of Manhattan office workers are in the office full time (five days a
week)
10% are in four days per week
12% are in three days per week
8% are in two days per week
8% are in one day per week
54% of Manhattan office workers are still fully remote
49% of Manhattan office workers are expected to be in the workplace on
an average weekday by the end of January 2022.
13% of Manhattan office workers are expected to be in the workplace five >>> days per week by the end of January 2022
11% will be in four days per week
33% will be in three days per week
15% will be in two days per week
7% will be in one day per week
21% of Manhattan office workers will still be fully remote
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/qs897v/hollywoods_covid_protocols_mandatory_vaccinations/
Hollywood’s Covid Protocols & Mandatory Vaccinations Extended To January 15 >>> By David Robb
November 11, 2021 7:28pm
1
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CDC
Hollywood’s Covid-19 safety protocols have been extended to January 15.
The protocols, which had been set to expire on Oct. 31, include testing
and vaccination mandates.
Established in September 2020 by an agreement between the AMPTP and
Hollywood’s unions – the DGA, SAG-AFTRA, IATSE, the Teamsters and the
Basic Crafts – the return-to-work protocols had originally been set to
expire on April 30, but were extended with no major modifications and
contained all of the original agreement’s provisions, including strictly >>> enforced testing regimens, physical distancing, Covid compliance
officers, diligent use of personal protective equipment and a “Zone”
system to ensure that different sections of productions are tightly
controlled based on proximity to cast, who often can’t wear masks or
maintain social distancing while working.
Sponsored Video
Watch to learn more
SPONSORED BY ADVERTISING PARTNER
See the protocols here.
Vaccinations as a condition of employment were first allowed last July
when producers were given “the option to implement mandatory vaccination >>> policies for casts and crew in Zone A on a production-by-production
basis.” Zone A, where unmasked actors work, is the most restrictive of
the safe work zones on sets.
Labor and management agree that the protocols have enabled jobs and
productions to safely rebound during the pandemic.
California Extends Covid State of Emergency Through March 2022
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://millennialbachelor.com/2021/10/27/the-pandemic-of-the-self-righteous/
Millennial Bachelor
Unfiltered thoughts, stories, and experiences of an unattached man in
his twenties
"For out of the heart come evil (i.e. unfiltered) thoughts -- murder,
adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander."
(Matthew 15:19 w/ parenthetical clarification)
Source:
https://biblehub.com/matthew/15-19.htm
ABOUT ME
CONTROVERSIAL · CULTURE · LIFESTYLE · POLITICS · REFLECTION
Referring to "ABOUT ME" is indeed a referral to the self in
"self-righteous."
27 Oct 2021The Millennial
Two more weeks to flatten the curve, a phrase we all heard so much when
this all began. Yet, two more weeks have turned into forever now.
"false testimony" (Matthew 15:19).
Now the time from 2020 to 2021 has been a span of 1 year which is not
forever.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/qxe5zr/army_to_begin_forcing_out_soldiers_who_refuse/The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
New policy bars unvaccinated soldiers from re-enlistment, promotions as
Oklahoma governor says National Guard need not obey Biden's vax mandate. >>> TARA COPP | NOVEMBER 18, 2021 03:41 PM ET
ARMY CORONAVIRUS
Updated at 8:09 p.m.
Soldiers who refuse to get the COVID-19 vaccine and have not requested
an exemption will no longer be allowed to re-enlist or be promoted,
effectively ending their military careers. The new directive applies to
active-duty troops as well as reservists and National Guardsmen,
including those serving in states whose governors do not require the
vaccine.
The Nov. 16 memo, signed by Army Secretary Christine Wormuth, says
troops’ service records will be flagged the day they make their final
vaccine refusal, which follows a meeting with a medical professional and >>> a secord order to get vaccinated. This flag will bar them from being
promoted, reenlisting, continuing to receive enlistment bonuses,
attending service-related schools, or receiving tuition assistance.
“I authorize commanders to impose bars to continued service…for all
soldiers who refuse the mandatory vaccine order without an approved
exemption or pending exemption request,” Wormuth wrote in the memo. “The >>> Soldier will remain flagged until they are fully vaccinated, receive an
approved medical or administrative exemption, or are separated from the
Army.”
The issue of vaccinating the force, including the hundreds of thousands
of soldiers in the Army National Guard, has come to a head in recent
days. Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt has rebuffed President Joe Biden’s
directive that all federal employees, including troops in uniform, be
vaccinated, and his state’s adjutant general has told Oklahoma National
Guardsmen that they need not comply with the directive.
“We are getting to this point where the federal government and state
governments are essentially fighting over who has control of the force,” >>> said Anthony Kuhn, a managing partner at the Tully Rinckey law firm and
a New York State Army reservist who specializes in military law.
National Guard troops are largely under Title 32 orders, which puts them >>> under the control of their state governors. When they are activated
under Title 10, such as when they deploy overseas, they are under
federal control. To retain that ready force for overseas missions—for
example guard units were heavily relied upon throughout the miltary’s
campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan—the federal government foots the bill
for those troops even though they report to their governors,
complicating who has authority to direct those Guardsmen to be vaccinated. >>>
In 2020, the National Guard was used more heavily than it has been since >>> World War II, with members called up to respond to wildfires, domestic
unrest, to give COVID shots and respond to flooding and hurricanes.
But the use of the Guard has become more contentious. The issue of who
has ultimate authority over the Guard is likely to end up in the courts, >>> said Eugene Fidell, a military law professor at the NYU School of Law.
“There are two clauses in the Constitution, the militia clauses. We,
over the decades—centuries, really—we've developed a kind of modus
operandi, where, you know, ultimate questions have been avoidable. But
we're getting to the point where these questions are not avoidable. And
that is a crisis,” Fidell said.
Kuhn said the Army’s decision to cut funding for soldiers and Guardsmen
who do not get vaccinated “was not surprising.”
“It’s kind of a backdoor way to force this policy on the states,” Kuhn
said.
About 77 percent of the total Army—active duty, Reserve, and Guard—has
received at least one shot, and 72 percent are completely vaccinated,
according to the latest data provided by Army spokesman Lt. Col. Terence >>> Kelley. Many of the unvaccinated soldiers are in the National Guard or
reserves. Only 51.84 percent of the Army National Guard is fully
vaccinated; 60.72 percent have received at least one dose of the
vaccine, according to data provided to Defense One by the National
Guard. There are 329,709 Army National Guardsmen serving in all 50
states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories.
It has been unclear whether the Pentagon could force Guardsmen, who
serve under both federal and state control, to be vaccinated if the
governors they serve do not require a vaccine.
Related articles
The Army Brief: Vaccine mandate delay; Project Convergence; Tracking
brain injuries; and more...
Pentagon Orders Troops to Get COVID Vaccine
The new Army guidance asserts that no service member who refuses to get
vaccinated or to procure an official exemption may continue to serve
without limits in the Army, and thus in the National Guard.
Soldiers flagged for refusing the vaccine will be allowed to pursue
separation from the military through disability evaluation, retirement,
resignation, or separation after completion of service, the Army said.
This story has been updated with the latest Army numbers on vaccinations. >>
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.cbc.ca/radio/whitecoat/pediatric-cancer-diagnosis-delays-covid-wcba-1.6253093?cmp=rssThe only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
Late diagnosis of tumours in children collateral damage of COVID-19,
doctors say
Social Sharing
Lack of in-person visits with family doctor a factor in diagnosis,
treatment delays
CBC Radio · Posted: Nov 21, 2021 4:00 AM ET | Last Updated: November 21
Dr. Sheila Singh, a pediatric neurosurgeon at McMaster Children's
Hospital in Hamilton, says the health-care system should be able to stay >>> on top of cancers and all of the other diseases that have been given
less priority during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Submitted by Dr. Sheila Singh) >>>
930
comments
Dr. Sheila Singh is used to explaining complex medical situations in
simple terms. The pediatric neurosurgeon at McMaster Children's Hospital >>> in Hamilton says that lately, she's seeing too many oranges and
grapefruits and fewer ping pong balls.
That's not good, and it could signal that the COVID-19 pandemic has
delayed the diagnosis of many pediatric diseases, sometimes with
devastating results.
"You can imagine a tumour that's the size of a ping pong ball, it's
easier for me to work around and remove it," she said. "But if that ping >>> pong ball-sized tumour grows to the size of an orange or a grapefruit,
the tumour has grown to a size where it's much more difficult now to
deal with."
Singh told Dr. Brian Goldman, host of White Coat Black Art, that she is
now seeing two to three times more oranges and grapefruits than before
the pandemic. In other words, the tumours have been left to grow much
longer due to delays in diagnosis.
Singh says she believes the delays in diagnosis have been caused by
patients staying away from hospitals because:
They are afraid of catching COVID-19.
There is a lack of in-person visits with their family doctor.
There is an anchor bias to look for COVID-19 symptoms to the detriment
of flagging other serious diseases.
"There's no doubt there will be collateral damage," she said, "and some
of that will be death and poor outcomes from diseases that could have
had better outcomes."
Singh says she remembered a recent patient, a young girl who had a
tumour that typically grows in one place in the brain. "This little girl >>> came in and this tumour was actually in four places in her brain. And
let me put it this way, two out of those four places I'd never seen this >>> brain tumour in before." Instead of doing one surgery, Singh had to do
several risky and difficult operations.
Doctors worry they won't be able to help every cancer patient diagnosed, >>> treated late due to COVID-19
THE DOSEStudies reveal the unintended consequences of delaying
surgeries, drop in ER visits due to pandemic
As a pediatric doctor, Singh says that it has been heartbreaking to see
some of the children whose cancers have progressed much further than the >>> pre-pandemic norm. "I feel like I've been practising in a Third World
country. I have seen disease that has spread so far that it's almost
like cases I've read about in rural India. It's been quite difficult and >>> alarming."
Pediatric cancer specialists at CHEO, formerly the Children's Hospital
of Eastern Ontario, in Ottawa also saw fewer patients coming in the
early days of the pandemic, when parents said they feared going to the
hospital.
26:30
The COVID fallout: tumours as big as oranges
Dr. Sheila Singh, a pediatric neurosurgeon at McMaster Children’s
Hospital talks about the enormous collateral damage caused by the
pandemic. She's now seeing tumours as big as oranges and grapefruits,
instead of ping pong balls. Dr. Singh blames it on prioritizing COVID
over all else, telling people not to come to hospital, and relying too
much on virtual health care -- all lessons for the future. 26:30
Early signs of widespread diagnosis delays
Early research suggests that later diagnosis of illness in children due
to the pandemic may extend to other serious illnesses, not just cancer.
In a study published earlier this year in the medical journal Pediatric
Diabetes, researchers in Alberta found that more children are being
treated for diabetic ketoacidosis, a serious and potentially fatal
complication of diabetes.
The authors suggest that parents may have been reluctant to access
medical services because of fear of COVID-19 and that "increased virtual >>> visits resulted in reduced face-to-face contact with health-care
providers and may have contributed to the under-recognition of the
severity of illness."
Pediatric neurosurgeon Dr. Patrick McDonald says he wants to make sure
that lessons are learned from what was done right and what was done
wrong in providing adequate care during the COVID-19 pandemic.
(Submitted by Dr. Patrick McDonald)
Dr. Patrick McDonald says he remembers the challenges of the lockdowns.
For much of the pandemic, McDonald headed up the pediatric neurosurgery
division at B.C. Children's Hospital in Vancouver. In the early days of
COVID-19, "I think all of us struggled with the issue [of] how do we
make sure that families know that they can still access care. It might
be a little more challenging, and we might have to do it initially by
phone."
He said that "it's a legitimate concern that people might not be able to >>> or might not be accessing care in a timely fashion."
Push for more in-person care
In October, the Ontario Ministry of Health and the College of Physicians >>> and Surgeons of Ontario issued a letter that encouraged doctors to
resume in-patient visits over virtual appointments.
"The standard of care is often difficult to meet in a virtual care
environment," the letter stated. "In-person care is essential for
certain conditions and services or where physical assessments are
necessary to make an appropriate diagnosis or treatment decision."
Singh says it's imperative that children undergo an in-person physical
exam to receive a proper diagnosis. (JD Howell)
That's particularly true when examining a young patient, Singh stressed. >>> "There's so much room to miss a diagnosis when you're staring at a child >>> on a screen."
One of the common symptoms of a brain tumour in a child is macrocephaly, >>> a technical term for an enlarged head, which Singh said can be a
challenge to identify during a virtual visit.
"Depending on the angle at which you're looking at a child, you might
not even notice how big their head is or even be alarmed about it,
whereas if that child walked into a room, it'd be the first thing you'd
notice about them."
McDonald says he believes that it may be another year before the full
impact of delayed diagnosis due to COVID-19 is really understood. When
the data does emerge, he stressed that we need to carefully examine what >>> happened to understand why people may not have sought out the care their >>> children needed.
"There may be another pandemic, and we want to make sure that we learn
appropriate lessons for what we did right and what we did wrong in
providing adequate care," he said.
700 families waiting for children's health services at Toronto hospital
as pandemic backlog grows
In the meantime, Singh offered two pieces of advice to parents. First,
she said, "It's safe to go to your hospital." And second, "I would
really encourage parents not to accept a virtual visit as being a proper >>> way to diagnose your child."
Singh stressed that when parents are concerned about their child, an
in-person physical examination is imperative to receive a proper diagnosis. >>
Canada & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/r2t6kd/covid_chris_whitty_worried_about_whether_public/
Chief Medical Officer for England Chris Whitty. Picture date: Monday
November 15, 2021.
Chief Medical Officer for England Chris Whitty. Picture date: Monday
November 15, 2021. Leon Neal
Chief Medical Officer for England tells panel his concerns about whether >>> the Government could 'maintain public support' if new restrictions are
introduced
Samantha Haynes
DIGITAL PRODUCER
PUBLISHED Friday 26 November 2021 - 17:03
England’s chief medical officer has said his “greatest worry” is whether >>> the public would accept fresh restrictions in the face of a new Covid-19 >>> variant.
Professor Chris Whitty told a panel discussion hosted by the Local
Government Association that he worried whether the Government could
still “take people with us”.
It comes as Belgium became the first European Union country to announce
a case of the variant B.1.1.529, which has been identified in other
places including South Africa, Botswana, Hong Kong and Israel.
It is not yet known if the new variant is more deadly, or even more
transmissible, than previous variants.
“My greatest worry at the moment is that people… if we need to do
something more muscular at some point, whether it’s for the current new
variant or at some later stage, can we still take people with us?” Prof
Whitty said.
Covid variant: Travel sector fury over restrictions for arrivals from
southern Africa
Covid variant: Travel sector fury over restrictions for arrivals from
southern Africa
He admitted that some of the changes the public has had to make have
been “very destructive” to society and the economy.
However, despite his worries, the chief medical officer struck a
positive note, saying he believed the Government will be able to
maintain public support for coronavirus measures.
“I think the extraordinary thing has been the ability of the UK
population, with very, very small exceptions, to just accept that there
are things we collectively have to do to protect one another and do
collectively, including things that have been very destructive to social >>> and economic situations for individuals and families,” he said.
“Obviously, we want to avoid having to do those at all if we can, and to >>> do the minimum ones necessary, but will we be able to maintain public
support?
“And I think my overall view is, I think we will.
“Provided you are clear with people what the logic is, provided they
feel that we’re being entirely straight with them as to all the data…
but I think that’s always a worry.”
Prof Whitty added that the longer the pandemic goes on, the harder it is >>> to know what the public’s response will be.
“It’s easier to be confident of people’s response right at the beginning >>> than it is after people put up with two years of their lives being
interfered with.”
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the UK & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining to form hybrids that render current
COVID vaccines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/r3z6vw/australias_first_two_cases_of_omicron_variant/
Australia’s first two cases of Omicron variant detected in Sydney
By Jenny Noyes and Mary Ward
Updated November 28, 2021 — 5.23pmfirst published at 6.47am
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For our free coronavirus pandemic coverage, learn more here.
Two international flight passengers who tested positive to COVID-19
after arriving in Sydney have been confirmed as Australia’s first cases
of the new Omicron variant of concern, after urgent genomic sequencing
was completed on Sunday.
The pair were passengers on Qatar Airways flight QR908 from Doha which
landed at Sydney Airport at about 7pm on Saturday. They have been in
isolation in special health accommodation since their arrival.
Premier Dominc Perrottet giving an update on COVID-19 quarantine in NSW. >>> Premier Dominc Perrottet giving an update on COVID-19 quarantine in NSW. >>> CREDIT:NINE NEWS
In a statement, NSW Health said the pair were asymptomatic and both
fully vaccinated.
The other 260 passengers on the flight are now considered close contacts >>> of a COVID-19 case and have been directed by health authorities to isolate. >>>
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“It is an offence not to comply with a Public Health Order and penalties >>> can apply,” NSW Health said. “Close contacts will be contacted
regularly, and compliance checks will be undertaken.”
In a statement on Sunday morning, NSW Health confirmed testing on
arrival at Sydney Airport had identified two of the 14 passengers on the >>> flight who had recently been in southern Africa had COVID-19, and urgent >>> genomic sequencing was being carried out to determine whether they were
infected by the new Omicron B.1.1.529 variant.
It came hours after federal Health Minister Greg Hunt announced a
two-week ban on non-citizens arriving from South Africa, Namibia,
Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, Eswatini, Seychelles, Malawi and Mozambique. >>>
Australian citizens arriving from those countries are now required to
enter 14 days of supervised quarantine upon arrival in Australia.
Another 15 arrivals from southern Africa arrived at Sydney Airport on an >>> Emirates flight which landed around 11pm. All 29 have entered hotel
quarantine.
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“The clear point today is that this clearly demonstrates the pandemic is >>> not over,” Premier Dominic Perrottet said earlier on Sunday.
“We need to learn to live alongside the virus and to live alongside the
various strains of the virus that will come our way, and the best thing
we can do is get vaccinated and get booster shots.”
The Premier added that there were “limits” to what the government could
do going forward to keep new variants out of Australia.
“These variants will get into the country, it is inevitable,” Mr
Perrottet said.
Health Minister Brad Hazzard said it was possible the Omicron variant
has already entered NSW, where fully vaccinated international arrivals
have not been required to enter hotel quarantine since November 1.
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The World Health Organisation has named the latest variant Omicron.
Updated
Coronavirus pandemic
What we know about Omicron, the new coronavirus variant
“This Omicron variant of the COVID virus is not well understood at this
point,” Mr Hazzard said, noting that it only took three weeks for the
Delta variant to spread to 53 countries.
“We have to expect that Omicron may already be here.”
NSW has so far recorded no cases of the Omicron variant in its genomic
sequencing program.
The state recorded another 185 cases of COVID-19 and zero deaths in the
24 hours to 8pm on Saturday, NSW Health reported Sunday morning.
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Anyone who has already arrived in Australia and has been in any of the
countries within the past 14 days, must immediately isolate themselves
and get tested.
Mr Hazzard asked anyone who had been in southern Africa in the past 14
days to immediately contact NSW Health.
In addition, both NSW and Victoria moved on Saturday night to introduce
72-hour isolation requirements for all fully vaccinated international
arrivals, regardless of their country of departure.
On Sunday, the Premier stressed this was a “short-term precaution” in
light of the changing situation.
Europe, Britain and a host of other countries have also closed their
borders to non-residents arriving from the same countries due to the
emergence of the variant.
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Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said there was one existing case of
COVID-19 from southern Africa currently isolating at the Howard Springs
quarantine facility in the Northern Territory, and that case will also
be examined further to determine whether it is the concerning new variant. >>>
Despite concerns Omicron may be highly transmissible – even more so than >>> Delta – Mr Perrottet said the state government was not planning to make
any changes to the post-lockdown reopening road map, with restrictions
still set to ease for unvaccinated people on December 15.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
Australia/elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-replication to
form hybrids that render current COVID vaccines/pills no longer
effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/r4gn2g/covid_south_africas_president_calls_for_lifting/
Covid: South Africa's president calls for lifting of Omicron travel bans >>>
Published2 hours ago
Share
Related Topics
Coronavirus pandemic
Media caption,
Cyril Ramaphosa: "We are deeply disappointed by the decision of several
countries to prohibit travel."
South Africa's president has condemned travel bans enacted against his
country and its neighbours over the new coronavirus variant Omicron.
Cyril Ramaphosa said he was "deeply disappointed" by the action, which
he described as unjustified, and called for the bans to be urgently lifted. >>>
The UK, EU and US are among those who have imposed travel bans.
Omicron has been classed as a "variant of concern". Early evidence
suggests it has a higher re-infection risk.
ADVERTISEMENT
The heavily mutated variant was detected in South Africa earlier this
month and then reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) last
Wednesday.
The variant is responsible for most of the infections found in South
Africa's most populated province, Gauteng, over the last two weeks, and
the number of cases of "appears to be increasing in almost all
provinces" in the country, according to the WHO.
South Africa reported 2,800 new infections on Sunday, a rise from the
daily average of 500 in the previous week.
Government adviser and epidemiologist Salim Abdool Karim said he
expected the number of cases to reach more than 10,000 a day by the end
of the week, and for hospitals to come under pressure in the next two to >>> three weeks.
But Health Minister Joe Phaahla said there was "absolutely no need to
panic".
"We have been here before," he added, referring to the Beta variant
identified in South Africa last December.
On Monday, Japan became the latest country to reinstate tough border
restrictions, banning all foreigners from entering the country from 30
November.
The WHO has warned against countries hastily imposing travel curbs,
saying they should look to a "risk-based and scientific approach".
How worrying is the new Covid variant?
South Africans fear impact of new variant measures
Covid variants: Do we need new vaccines yet?
WHO's Africa director Matshidiso Moeti said on Sunday: "With the Omicron >>> variant now detected in several regions of the world, putting in place
travel bans that target Africa attacks global solidarity."
However, numerous bans have been introduced in recent days, with Rwanda
and Angola being among the African states to restrict flights to and >>>from South Africa.
Foreign ministry spokesman Clayson Monyela described their decision as
"quite regrettable, very unfortunate, and I will even say sad".
Media caption,
Watch Dr Angelique Coetzee, the doctor who first spotted Omicron,
describe "extremely mild" symptoms in patients
In his speech on Sunday, Mr Ramaphosa said there was no scientific basis >>> for the travel bans and that southern Africa was the victim of unfair
discrimination.
He also argued that the bans would not be effective in preventing the
spread of the variant.
"The only thing the prohibition on travel will do is to further damage
the economies of the affected countries and undermine their ability to
respond to, and recover from, the pandemic," he said.
He called on countries with bans in place to "urgently reverse their
decisions... before any further damage is done to our economies".
Mr Ramaphosa said South Africa would not impose new restrictions, but
would "undertake broad consultations on making vaccination mandatory for >>> specific activities and locations".
Current regulations in South Africa make it mandatory to wear face
coverings in public, and restrict indoor gatherings to 750 people and
outdoor gatherings to 2,000.
There are no vaccine shortages in South Africa itself, and Mr Ramaphosa
urged more people to get jabbed, saying that remained the best way to
fight the virus.
Health experts said that Gauteng, which includes Johannesburg, had
entered a fourth wave, and most hospital admissions were of unvaccinated >>> people.
Omicron has now been detected in a number of countries around the world, >>> including the UK, Germany, Australia and Israel.
In other developments:
In the Netherlands, Omicron was detected in 13 people who arrived in
Amsterdam on two flights from South Africa.
Separately, Dutch police said they detained a couple who had escaped >>>from a quarantine hotel. According to the Dutch newspaper Het Parool,
the Spanish man and Portuguese woman were arrested on a plane that was
about to depart to Spain
Israel banned all foreigners from entering the country for 14 days from
midnight Sunday
The UK called for an emergency meeting of the G7 group of nations on
Monday to discuss the new variant
Voters in Switzerland backed the government's measures to tackle Covid,
according to preliminary results.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
Africa/elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-replication to
form hybrids that render current COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills >> no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10269235/NFL-suspends-Bucs-Antonio-Brown-lying-vaccine-status.html
NFL suspends Tom Brady's Buccaneers teammates Antonio Brown and Mike
Edwards for three games without pay for lying about their COVID-19
vaccination status
Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Antonio Brown was suspended
three games without pay on Thursday for misrepresenting his vaccine status >>> Brown's Tampa Bay teammate, safety Mike Edwards, and free agent
John Franklin III, a former Bucs receiver, were also suspended three
games apiece
All three bans are effective immediately. The players waived their
right to appeal
Brown was previously accused by his former chef of trying to obtain
a fake vaccine card in order to skirt the NFL's rules for unvaccinated
players
Tom Brady and the Bucs host the Falcons at Raymond James Stadium on
Sunday
Brown's lawyer Sean Burstyn has stressed that his client is vaccinated >>>
By ALEX RASKIN SPORTS NEWS EDITOR FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 16:45 EST, 2 December 2021 | UPDATED: 17:47 EST, 2 December 2021 >>>
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Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Antonio Brown and two other players
have been suspended three games without pay by the league for
misrepresenting their vaccination statuses.
Brown was previously accused by his personal chef of attempting to pay
for a fake COVID-19 vaccine card before the season in an effort to skirt >>> the NFL's rules for unvaccinated players.
Along with Brown, one of quarterback Tom Brady's favorite targets, two
other players were suspended three games without pay: Bucs safety Mike
Edwards and free agent receiver John Franklin III, who was released by
Tampa Bay earlier this year.
0:00 / 0:00
The league hasn't specified the allegations against the players. An NFL
spokesman did not immediately respond to DailyMail.com's request for
clarification on the accusations against Brown, Edwards, and Franklin III. >>>
The suspensions are effective immediately and the players have waived
their right to appeal. Franklin can only serve his suspension if and
when he is signed by another team.
Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Antonio Brown was suspended three
games without pay on Thursday for misrepresenting his vaccine status
+6
Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Antonio Brown was suspended three
games without pay on Thursday for misrepresenting his vaccine status
Bucs safety Mike Edwards
+6
Free agent wide receiver John Franklin III, who previously played for
the Bucs
+6
Brown's Tampa Bay teammate, safety Mike Edwards (left), and free agent
John Franklin III (right), a former Buccaneers receiver, were also
suspended three games apiece. Franklin can only be forced to serve that
suspension if a team signs him
Brown, Edwards, and Franklin III were all represented by the NFL Players >>> Association to review the recent allegations, which were not specified
in the NFL's press release, other than to say they misrepresented 'their >>> vaccination status under the NFL-NFLPA COVID-19 Protocols.'
A subsequent review supported the allegations.
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'The health and safety of players and personnel is our top priority,'
the NFL and NFLPA said in a joint statement. 'The protocols were jointly >>> developed working with our respective experts to ensure that we are
practicing and playing football as safely as possible during the ongoing >>> pandemic.
'The NFL-NFLPA jointly reinforce their commitment and further emphasize
the importance of strict adherence to the protocols to protect the
well-being of everyone associated with the NFL.'
Brown's former personal chef, Steven Ruiz, claimed Brown's girlfriend,
model Cydney Moreau (pictured), texted him, asking for fake COVID-19
vaccination cards
+6
Brown's former personal chef, Steven Ruiz, claimed Brown's girlfriend,
model Cydney Moreau (pictured), texted him, asking for fake COVID-19
vaccination cards
Brown was allegedly interested in paying his personal chef $500 for a
fake COVID-19 vaccination card so he could avoid the league's rules for
unvaccinated players.
Brown's model girlfriend Cydney Moreau allegedly texted Los
Angeles-based chef Steven Ruiz asking for a fake card - a violation of
federal law - on July 2
Antonio Ruiz shared the story with the Tampa Bay Times after falling out >>> with Brown over a $10,000 debt
Antonio Ruiz shared the story with the Tampa Bay Times after falling out >>> with Brown over a $10,000 debt
'Can you get the COVID cards?' Moreau asked.
'I can try,' replied Ruiz, who had been working for Brown.
'JNJ shot. Ab said he would give you $500,' Moreau added, expressing
preference for a card claiming that Brown got the one-shot Johnson &
Johnson vaccine.
Ruiz provided the text exchange to the Tampa Bay Times, which verified
the phone numbers, after he fell out with Brown over an unpaid $10,000 debt.
The Bucs said Brown's card passed muster and doesn't have any
irregularities.
'After an extensive educational process conducted throughout our
organization this past offseason highlighting the benefits of the
COVID-19 vaccines, we received completed vaccination cards from all
Tampa Bay Buccaneers players and submitted the required information to
the NFL through the established process in accordance with league
policy,' read the Bucs' November statement. 'All vaccination cards were
reviewed by Buccaneers personnel and no irregularities were observed.'
Brady and the Buccaneers host the Atlanta Falcons at Raymond James
Stadium on Sunday
+6
Brady and the Buccaneers host the Atlanta Falcons at Raymond James
Stadium on Sunday
In his own November statement, Brown's lawyer Sean Burstyn stressed that >>> his client is vaccinated.
'Antonio Brown appreciates the severity of the pandemic, which is why he >>> got the vaccine and supports everyone for whom it is advisable to get
the vaccine,' Burstyn told the Times.
'Coronavirus has hit close to home as it took him out of a game. He is
healthy, vaccinated, and ready to win another Super Bowl.'
The NFL does not require players to be vaccinated, but the league has
set out rules for teams with unvaccinated players that penalize them,
and the opposing teams, with hefty fines for lost games due to outbreaks. >>>
Unvaccinated players are facing many of the same protocols they had last >>> season, before the vaccines were released, including daily testing as
well as mask and social distancing requirements.
More than 93 percent of all NFL players are vaccinated according to the
league.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-replication to
form hybrids that render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Antonio Brown and Mike Edwards should consider a career in public
health.
Public health is far more tolerant of dishonesty than professional
football.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
MichaelE wrote:
http://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/r9rtx5/covid_rules_are_set_to_be_extended/
We'll be wearing masks until the new year: Covid rules are set to be
extended in bid to fend off even tougher curbs amid ongoing concerns
over Omicron variant
Laws requiring people to wear face masks in shops could stay until New Year >>> Final decision on extending use may not be taken until as late as
December 18
But Whitehall sources say it's likely they will stay for at least
another three weeks
Contingency plan would involve vaccine passports and working from home
By JASON GROVES POLITICAL EDITOR FOR THE DAILY MAIL
PUBLISHED: 17:00 EST, 5 December 2021 | UPDATED: 19:46 EST, 5 December 2021 >>>
156
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1.3k
View comments
Laws requiring masks in shops and on public transport are set to stay
until the New Year, as ministers try to fend off demands for tougher
restrictions in the run up to Christmas.
Emergency regulations last week reintroduced mandatory masks until
December 21 to help slow the spread of the Omicron variant.
A final decision on whether to extend their use may not be taken until
as late as December 18.
Read More
But Whitehall sources said it was likely masks would stay mandatory for
at least another three weeks to give scientists more time to assess the
threat posed by Omicron.
Other restrictions, such as travel tests and compulsory ten-day
quarantine for those in close contact with an Omicron case, are also set >>> to be extended.
However, sources said Boris Johnson is resisting pressure to move to the >>> Government's Plan B until at least the New Year.
Emergency regulations last week reintroduced mandatory masks until
December 21 to help slow the spread of the Omicron variant (file image) +11
Emergency regulations last week reintroduced mandatory masks until
December 21 to help slow the spread of the Omicron variant (file image)
The contingency plan would involve the use of vaccine passports and
ordering millions to work from home (file image) +11
The contingency plan would involve the use of vaccine passports and
ordering millions to work from home (file image)
The contingency plan would involve the use of vaccine passports and
ordering millions to work from home.
Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab yesterday urged people to press ahead >>> with their plans for the festive season, saying it was 'going to be a
great Christmas'.
A Whitehall source said: 'In terms of Plan B, we are not there yet. The
ambition is that people can have a much more normal Christmas than last
year.
'That depends on what the data shows about the new variant. But
certainly the hope is that things stay as they are in the next couple of >>> weeks.'
Mr Raab urged people to get their booster jabs, saying it was the most
important measure in heading off further restrictions.
But he said ministers did not want to follow Germany in making
vaccinations mandatory.
And he ruled out restricting medical treatment for the unvaccinated,
despite warnings from the medical profession that their needs are
crowding out other vital care.
Nicki Credland, chairman of the British Association of Critical Care
Nurses, told The Sunday Times: 'All nurses understand they have to
provide non-judgmental care.
RELATED ARTICLES
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Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab yesterday urged people to press ahead >>> with their plans for the festive season, saying it was 'going to be a
great Christmas' +11
Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab yesterday urged people to press ahead >>> with their plans for the festive season, saying it was 'going to be a
great Christmas'
'But what we find difficult is that giving care to patients who have
chosen not to be vaccinated has a knock-on effect on other patients.
'We are still human beings and we still get angry at things that we
think aren't just.'
Her comments came after figures revealed more than 90 per cent of Covid
patients needing the most specialist care have not been vaccinated.
Doctors have warned that some transplant surgery is not going ahead and
that vital cancer operations are being delayed.
Mr Raab told Times Radio: 'I would not countenance some sort of
suggestion that we would refuse access to vital services for people who
have not had a jab.'
Britain's Omicron outbreak grows by more than 50% in a day: 86 new cases >>> take total to 246 as scientist warns its 'too late' to halt spread and
overall Covid cases rise by 16% in week to 43,992
James Gant for MailOnline
The number of new Omicron cases reported in the UK rose by 86 on Sunday, >>> bringing the total cases to 246 - an increase of more than 50 per cent
in the space of a day.
The UK Health Security Agency, who publish the figures, said 18 of the
new cases are in Scotland taking their total to 48.
The remaining 68 cases were recorded in England, according to the UKHSA. >>>
Meanwhile, a further 43,992 Covid cases were recorded in the UK this
week, an increase of 6,311 on last week's figures.
The increase marks a 16.7 per cent rise since last Sunday while a
further 54 deaths were recorded.
The number of people who have died within 28 days of testing positive
for Covid rose by 5.8 per cent from 51 last week.
+11
+11
+11
'It doesn't look there's a great degree of severity': Dr Fauci says
Omicron may be LESS dangerous than Delta
White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci says early
indications from South Africa suggest that the Omicron variant may not
be as severe as previously feared.
'Thus far - though it's too early to really make any definitive
statements about it - it does not look like there's a great degree of
severity to it, but we've really got to be careful before we make any
determinations that it is less severe or really doesn't cause any severe >>> illness comparable to delta,' he said.
'But thus far, the signals are a bit encouraging regarding the severity. >>> But again we've got to hold judgement until we get more experienced.'
President Joe Biden locked eight South African countries out of the US
last Monday in fear of the new super mutant COVID variant, and the ban
remains in place despite travel remaining open to other foreign countries. >>>
But Fauci said Sunday that the restrictions were made during a time when >>> an explosion of Omicron cases were rocking South Africa as the severity
of the variant remained unknown.
He said US officials are now reevaluating the restrictions.
'When the ban was put on, it was put to give us time to figure out just
what is going on,' Fauci told CNN's Jack Tapper.
It comes as a leading scientist warned Britain has left it 'too late' to >>> halt the spread of the Omicron super-variant.
Professor Mark Woolhouse said bringing in new curbs on travel was 'a
case of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted'.
The Edinburgh University epidemiologist said it was 'spreading pretty
rapidly' and could become the world's dominant strain.
Professor Woolhouse, who is a member of the Scientific Pandemic
Influenza Group on Modelling which advises the Government, said the
measures would not make a 'material difference' as the variant is
already 'spreading pretty rapidly'.
He told BBC One's Andrew Marr Show on Sunday: 'I think that may be a
case of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted.
'If Omicron is here in the UK, and it certainly is, if there's community >>> transmission in the UK, and it certainly looks that way, then it's that
community transmission that will drive a next wave.
'The cases that are being imported are important, we want to detect
those and isolate any positive cases we find, as we would for any case
anywhere.
'But I think it's too late to make a material difference to the course
of the Omicron wave, if we're going to have one.'
The president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine has also warned >>> the NHS will be in a 'very, very difficult position' if the Omicron
variant were to lead to a surge in hospital admissions.
Dr Katherine Henderson said hospitals were already struggling to cope as >>> they enter winter.
'It is pretty spectacularly bad now, it will get worse - and if the new
variant becomes a thing in terms of numbers and translates into
hospitals admissions we are going to be in a very, very difficult
position,' she said.
'We will always still be there. We still want patients to come but we do >>> have to help people to understand that really at the moment the service
is so stretched that an extra push could be very very difficult.'
The World Health Organization (WHO) has said there have been no deaths
linked to the super mutant variant despite the strain being spotted in
38 countries.
However, it warned it could take weeks to determine how infectious the
variant is, whether it causes more severe illness and how effective
treatments and vaccines are against it.
'We're going to get the answers that everybody out there needs,' WHO
emergencies director Michael Ryan said on Friday.
Many of the Omicron cases surfacing in the states - and across the globe >>> - look to be connected to people who had traveled to South Africa
recently, including the first person in the US to have an identified
case of the variant, a resident of San Francisco.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-replication to
form hybrids that render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://www.nationalreview.com/2022/01/the-covid-insanity-has-to-end/
The Covid Insanity Has to End
By ANDREW C. MCCARTHY
January 1, 2022 6:30 AM
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Email this article
Print this article
People wait in line to receive free rapid at-home Covid testing kits at
a vaccination clinic run by the Philadelphia Department of Public Health >>> in Philadelphia, Pa., December, 21 2021. (Hannah Beier/Reuters)
Trying to strong-arm reluctant people into compliance with increasingly
irrational protocols is not working.
NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE
The illogic of the Pandemic Reign of Error is long past the point of too >>> much to bear.
As Covid infections have surged beyond control — breaking through
vaccines and boosters — the CDC now says that we have to reduce the
number of isolation days for people who test positive for the virus but
are basically asymptomatic. Our Phil Klein has elaborated on the
arbitrariness of it all. Naturally, leave it to our Janus-faced
megalomaniac, Dr. Anthony L’Science C’est Moi Fauci, to supply the
risible rationalization du jour: “If you are asymptomatic and you are
infected, we want to get people back to the jobs, especially those with
essential jobs.”
If we were dealing with a real plague, the insanity of this would be so
obvious even the media-Democrat complex would not be able to speak of it >>> without snickering.
With an infectious disease that posed a serious threat of lethality to
the average person, a credible positive test would call for isolation
until the person was certifiably cleared of infection. Here, by
contrast, the government is now saying that the certifiably infected
need to get back into the general population faster. This, even though
the government (a) insists on treating non-vaccinated people as if they
were lepers (including those who have had Covid, even though their
natural immunity makes their risk comparable to that of vaccinated
people); and (b) has been coercing even people who are “fully”
vaccinated (whatever that means from moment to moment) to mask up and
take other precautions because being vaccinated and asymptomatic is no
guarantee against transmitting the virus.
MORE IN CORONAVIRUS
EXCLUSIVE: AOC Spotted in Miami Beach as NYC Reports Record Covid Cases
When Does Trump Get His Apology?
AOC Responds to Miami Beach Photo Controversy: ‘Where’s DeSantis?’
We’ve lost our minds.
Just to be clear on where I’m coming from, I am enthusiastically
pro-vaccination. I got the jab as soon as it was available to me, and
was boosted weeks ago. I’ve insisted that family members whom I’m either >>> responsible for or have influence over do likewise. I lost family and
friends in the early months of the epidemic. I would like to prevent
everyone from getting Covid, even in what early reports indicate is the
milder new Omicron iteration, and even though our wondrously evolved
world of vaccines and improved therapeutics makes the chance of death or >>> serious illness vanishingly small.
Then again, I’d similarly like to prevent everyone from catching the
scourges of viral rhinitis (also known as the common cold) and
influenza. But I don’t want to prevent that outcome, an inevitable one
for all of us at some point(s), nearly as much as I want us to live in a >>> free society. By nature, liberty entails risks, an enormous number of
which are more perilous than Covid. Freedom is America’s foundation, but >>> it necessarily involves no small amount of annoyances and
inconveniences, aches and pains, large and small. A risk-free society is >>> stifled and inert. It is no society at all.
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Following a pattern of viral mutation that Jim Geraghty explained a
year-and-a-half ago, Covid appears to become less lethal as it becomes
more transmissible. (To be sure, it is still too early for settled
conclusions, opinions vary — see, e.g., here and here — and the CDC is
characteristically confused about whether we’re in the onset of Omicron, >>> the depths of Delta, or both.) The virus is now spreading like the
common cold and seasonal flu, with both of which we long ago learned to
live. For the former, there is no cure but many well-known mitigation
strategies. For the latter, which Mario Loyola fittingly described in
our pages as a relatively “prolific killer,” we have perennially
adjusted vaccines that are no guarantee against infection but reduce its >>> likelihood and ameliorate most cases.
People who roll the dice, ignoring precautions against cold and failing
to get a flu shot, sometimes escape unscathed and sometimes get bad
cases. The number of them who get seriously sick is small, and the
number who die is negligible. For the most part, moreover, their
ignorance or negligence is a threat to themselves, not to the rest of us >>> — or at least not much of a threat, and not nearly enough of one to
justify jamming the gears of a free society.
Covid fits this pattern. It is impossible to calculate a perfectly
accurate mortality risk since there are many more infections than
reported cases (including more deaths attributable to Covid than deaths
reported as such). But even if we grossly inflated the death rate by
using reported cases as a crude metric, it would still be just 1.4
percent (about 801,000 deaths out of about 55.5 million cases); and the
real risk varies widely — almost none for those under 30, much higher
for the elderly and those with comorbidities.
Elected officials and bureaucrats are well aware of this; they just
don’t want to say it aloud. But in the places where they figure you
won’t look and where the media won’t report, they make admissions they
hope you’ll never hear about. So it is with the Justice Department,
which is laboring to defend President Biden’s indefensible vaccine
mandate — issued on a purported “emergency” basis by the Occupational
Security and Health Administration two years after the pandemic began
and one year after vaccines were developed . . . though before the
president suddenly conceded on Monday that there is no federal solution
to the virus, which he now regards as principally a matter of state
regulation.
Based on the government’s own data, crunched by the CDC, Justice
Department lawyers have acknowledged to the federal appellate courts
that unvaccinated workers between the ages of 18 and 29 bear a risk
roughly equivalent to that posed to vaccinated persons between 50 and
64. Yet the Biden administration — the same administration that
venerates abortion as a private health-care matter to be weighed by a
woman (or “birthing person”) and her doctor free of government
interference — is hell-bent on extorting the young to get vaccinated, on >>> pain of lost livelihood and pariah status.
That is beyond absurd. It’s tyrannical.
It is not that the vaccines are ineffective. They are great. Still, like >>> anything else that is defamed and overhyped, as the Left has done to the >>> vaccines (first talking them down as unreliable because they were
developed under the Trump administration, then talking them up as the
silver bullet that would empower Biden to make good on his vow to “shut
down the virus”), they are not quite as advertised. They are settling
into what they will be in a future era of endemic Covid (an era that is
already under way): an invaluable mitigation tool for an infectious
virus that, like the flu, we must learn to live with and manage.
It is high time that we, too, live with and manage Covid, just as we do
with the rest of life’s tribulations. Things that are a spot of bother
the vast majority of the time but tragically lethal in outlier cases.
Conditions that are nuisances for most of us but mortally threaten a few >>> of us who have underlying conditions — threats that, fortunately, we
learn more about, and about how to treat, every day.
Having finally discovered federalism, perhaps President Biden could take >>> the next step and discover liberty. If he did, he’d accomplish more of
what he wants — higher vaccination rates and lower incidence of serious
illness and death, fewer disruptions and better economic performance —
by trusting Americans to care for themselves. Trying to strong-arm
reluctant people into compliance with increasingly irrational protocols
is not working on them, and it is strangling all of us.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids that render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/ex-health-official-suggests-ending-quarantine-allowing-israelis-to-catch-covid/
Ex-health official suggests ending quarantine, allowing Israelis to
catch COVID
26 December 2021, 6:12 pm
Health Ministry Deputy Director General Itamar Grotto at a press
conference about the coronavirus, May 29, 2020. (Screen capture: Facebook) >>> Health Ministry Deputy Director General Itamar Grotto at a press
conference about the coronavirus, May 29, 2020. (Screen capture: Facebook) >>> Itamar Grotto, the former deputy director of the Health Ministry,
suggests that it could be to Israelis’ benefit to be infected by the
Omicron variant of COVID-19.
“It could be that we should think about such a policy… of letting people >>> get infected,” Grotto tells the Kan public broadcaster.
The ex-health official suggests that in the face of the ultra-contagious >>> Omicron variant, the policy of quarantine, even for those who are not
vaccinated, is no longer effective.
He says early data from abroad shows that while many Israelis will
become infected, rates of hospitalizations will not shoot up “like they
did in the last wave, we won’t see that again.”
“It has to become more of an individual problem than a public problem,”
says Grotto, lamenting constant quarantining of school-age students when >>> a classmate tests positive.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
Israel & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids that render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/rv1lbq/covid_lincolnshire_hospitals_declare_critical/
Covid: Lincolnshire hospitals declare 'critical incident' over staff
shortages
Published1 hour ago
Share
Related Topics
Coronavirus pandemic
Lincoln County Hospital sign
IMAGE SOURCE,LOCAL DEMOCRACY REPORTING SERVICE
Image caption,
General visiting has been banned at hospitals in Lincoln, Boston and
Grantham
A critical incident has been declared at four Lincolnshire hospitals
because of staff shortages due to Covid-19.
United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust said it was taking "additional
steps to maintain services" at all its hospitals in Lincoln, Boston and
Grantham.
The trust's medical director, Dr Colin Farquharson, said there were
"significant staffing pressures due to absence related to Covid-19".
But he said essential services "remain fully open".
Last month, visiting restrictions were brought in at Lincoln County,
Grantham and District, Pilgrim Hospital Boston and County Hospital Louth >>> to slow the spread of the new Omicron variant of coronavirus.
'Unprecedented'
In a statement, Dr Farquharson said: "As a result of significant
staffing pressures due to absence related to Covid-19, we are having to
take additional steps to maintain services.
"Our staff continue to work exceptionally hard and we would like to
reassure our patients and the public that in spite of the challenges
faced, essential services remain fully open for anyone who needs them,
so people should continue to come forward for care."
He added people could "reduce pressure on health services" by getting a
booster vaccine.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
View original tweet on Twitter
According to a leaked email seen by The Sunday Times, the trust declared >>> a critical incident on Saturday night "due to extreme and unprecedented
workforce shortages".
It issued an "urgent appeal" for clinical and non-clinical staff to
offer extra time supporting colleagues "over the next 72 hours".
It also asked staff to "consider limiting social contacts with people
outside of work".
'Burnt out'
Chris Hopson, the chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents
trusts, said a critical incident was "an indication of very serious
pressure" at a trust which may "not be able to provide" a range of
priority services.
Helen Monday, a nurse at the trust, said hospitals were busy but were
"not being inundated with Covid-positive patients".
She said colleagues were "helping out as much as they can" as a result
of absences caused by staff self-isolating due being in contact with
someone who tested positive.
"Staff are absolutely exhausted," said Ms Monday.
"People are now getting to the point where they're burnt out."
2px presentational grey line
Analysis box by Nick Triggle, health correspondent
The situation in Lincolnshire is not unique.
It is understood at least half a dozen NHS trusts have declared critical >>> incidents over the past week.
That is not that unusual in the depths of winter - the NHS is entering
what is traditionally its busiest time of year.
But the scale and nature of the challenges are, of course,
unprecedented, with growing rates of staff absences due to Covid.
At this time of year the NHS can see around 1,000 admissions a day for
all types of respiratory illness - and it is getting more than that just >>> for Covid, and the number is rising.
A critical incident does not mean emergency care stops being provided,
rather it is an alert to the wider system that the trust is under acute
pressure and needs help, such as getting staff redeployed from elsewhere. >>>
Many of these incidents will be over in a few days.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids that render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10364503/Denmark-health-chief-says-Omicron-bringing-END-pandemic.html
Denmark health chief says Omicron is bringing about the END of the
pandemic and 'we will have our normal lives back in two months'
Tyra Grove Krause is the chief epidemiologist at Denmark's State Serum
Institute
Speaking Monday, she said Omicron's hospitalisation risk was half that
of Delta
This, she said, could spell the end of the pandemic in around two months >>> By CHRIS JEWERS FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 07:46 EST, 3 January 2022 | UPDATED: 11:06 EST, 3 January 2022 >>>
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A Danish health chief has said the Covid-19 Omicron variant is bringing
about the end of the pandemic, saying 'we will have our normal lives
back in two months'.
Speaking to Danish TV 2, Tyra Grove Krause - the chief epidemiologist at >>> Denmark's State Serum Institute - said a new study from the organisation >>> found that the risk of hospitalisation from Omicron is half that seen
with the Delta variant.
This, she said, has given Danish authorities hope that the Covid-19
pandemic in Denmark could be over in two months.
Speaking to Danish TV 2, Tyra Grove Krause (pictured) - the chief
epidemiologist at Denmark's State Serum Institute - said that a new
study from the organisation found that the risk of hospitalisation from
Omicron is half that seen with the Delta variant +5
Speaking to Danish TV 2, Tyra Grove Krause (pictured) - the chief
epidemiologist at Denmark's State Serum Institute - said that a new
study from the organisation found that the risk of hospitalisation from
Omicron is half that seen with the Delta variant
+5
'I think we will have that in the next two months, and then I hope the
infection will start to subside and we get our normal lives back,' she
said on Monday.
Despite early fears that Omicron could prolong the pandemic due to its
increased level of infection, Ms Krause said it actually could spell the >>> end of the pandemic.
According to the study: 'Omicron is here to stay, and it will provide
some massive spread of infection in the coming month. When it's over,
we're in a better place than we were before.'
But while infection numbers in countries with the variant are soaring,
the expert said that the highly infectious Omicron appears milder than
the Delta variant, and therefore more people will be infected without
having serious symptoms.
As a result, she said, this will provide a good level of immunity in the >>> population.
Denmark has seen a spike in new cases in recent weeks, and on Sunday
recorded its highest ever seven-day average infections, recording an
average of 20,886 across the previous week, or 3,592.74 per million
people - one of Europe's highest rates.
It reported its highest ever new infections on December 27 (41,035).
By comparison, the UK's seven-day average daily new confirmed Covid-19
cases per million people sits at 2,823.31 as on Monday, while in the
United States, that number is 1,215.76 - lower than many countries in
Europe.
Ms Krause stressed that there was still work to be done to beat the
pandemic in the coming months, however.
'Omicron will peak at the end of January, and in February we will see
declining infection pressure and a decreasing pressure on the health
care system,' she said.
'But we have to make an effort in January, because it will be hard to
get through.'
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Pictured: People queue for rapid COVID-19 test in the center of Aalborg, >>> Denmark, to the test site at Budolfi Church, Thursday, December 23,
2021. Danish officials are hopeful that Omicron could spell the end of
the pandemic +5
Pictured: People queue for rapid COVID-19 test in the center of Aalborg, >>> Denmark, to the test site at Budolfi Church, Thursday, December 23,
2021. Danish officials are hopeful that Omicron could spell the end of
the pandemic
The epidemiologist said Danes should continue to follow the now
well-known measures to help slow the spread, such as good hygiene,
social distancing where possible, and staying at home when symptoms
present themselves.
Omicron's increasing spread will continue to put pressure on Denmark's
healthcare system, she said. 'This is definitely what will be the
challenge in the future.'
Professor Lars Østergaard, chief physician at the Department of
Infectious Diseases at Aarhus University Hospital, also looked towards
the end of the pandemic in comments made on January 1.
He said that while the coronavirus will not be characterised as a
pandemic forever, it will likely never fully disappear.
I never think we'll ever wave goodbye to the corona,' he said.
'But we want such a good immunity in the population - partly because of
new vaccines, partly because people have been infected - that we can
handle it as another of the infections we know that come especially in
the winter month.'
+5
+5
Ms Krause agreed, saying: 'In the long run, we are in a place where
coronavirus is here, but where we have restrained it, and only the
particularly vulnerable need to be vaccinated up to the next winter
season.'
Ms Krause's optimistic comments came three days after the World Health
Organisation made a similarly hopeful statement about Omicron.
'If we put an end to inequality, we will put an end to the pandemic and
the global nightmare that we have all gone through,' WHO chief Tedro's
Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a speech on New Years Eve.
But the WHO also warned warned of trying times ahead, saying Omicron
could lead to 'a tsunami of cases'.
'This... will continue to put immense pressure on exhausted health
workers, and health systems on the brink of collapse,' Ghebreyesus said. >>>
Many Western leaders have been hesitant to reimpose strict controls seen >>> in 2020, for fear of sparking a new economic downturn.
But on-again-off-again restrictions have still prompted frequent, vocal
and occasionally violent anti-lockdown, anti-vaccine and anti-government >>> protests.
Experts and non-experts alike hope that 2022 may be remembered as a new, >>> less deadly phase of the pandemic.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
Denmark & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids that render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:I am wonderfully hungry!
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-60023560The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
Retired GP broke Covid rules to hug bereaved woman at clinic
Published2 hours ago
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Coronavirus pandemic
Dr Prit Buttar
IMAGE SOURCE,DR PRIT BUTTAR
Image caption,
Dr Prit Buttar's post has generated hundreds of responses from people
with their own stories
A retired GP says he has been "humbled" by the response to a social
media post on why he broke Covid rules to hug a bereaved woman at a
vaccine clinic.
Dr Prit Buttar's Twitter thread has generated hundreds of responses and
thousands of likes and retweets.
He said he had been prompted to post by the political row surrounding
gatherings at 10 Downing Street.
Dr Buttar said that showed a "huge disconnection" from the lives of
ordinary people.
He retired to near Kirkcudbright in Dumfries and Galloway in 2016 but
worked part-time in practices across the region until 2019.
However, he volunteered to assist - helping to set up local Covid hubs - >>> when the coronavirus pandemic began a year later.
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.
View original tweet on Twitter
He told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme why he
decided to breach social distancing regulations.
"This was just under a year ago," he said.
"I was working in one of the vaccine clinics and one of the reception
staff came through and asked if we could fit in somebody who should have >>> come a few days before but had missed her appointment.
"Of course, we said that's fine and when she came in - this was a lady
in her late 60s or early 70s, I can't remember the details now - she was >>> so apologetic that she had wasted an appointment and apologised again
and again and we reassured her."
He said they had told the woman someone else would have used the slot
she had missed and then she had explained why she had not attended.
Vaccination
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
Image caption,
Dr Buttar was working at a vaccination clinic when he decided to hug the >>> woman
"She and her husband had moved to Scotland just immediately before the
pandemic broke and as soon as they arrived in Scotland, her husband
discovered that he had cancer," said Dr Buttar.
"She had cared for him through the first lockdown and through the summer >>> that followed and he had died shortly before her appointment to come to
see us.
"Because her son lived in England and his wife had Covid, he was unable
to come up to be with her."
He said that meant she had had to deal with the death of her husband
having had little chance to establish a friend network in the area.
"This poor woman was very, very much alone," he said.
"And I just took the decision that this was an occasion where I was
going to break the rules, and I leaned forward and embraced her.
"This poor person just dissolved into tears and as she sobbed, she told
me that I was the first person who had embraced her since her husband
had died."
'Tremendous fortitude'
He explained why he had taken to social media to share his experience.
"I posted on Twitter about this just to make the point that, you know,
ordinary people dealt with their loss and their loneliness with
tremendous fortitude and resignation and stoicism and what a contrast to >>> the behaviour of the prime minister and his entourage," he said.
Dr Buttar said many people had responded to the story.
"Everyone in the thread who said they'd broken the rules had done so in
order to help somebody else, not because they wanted to have a party,"
he said.
"The other thread of it was the people who hadn't broken the rules who
had watched loved ones die over an iPad and now bitterly regretted that
they hadn't taken that moment just to say goodbye to their loved one.
"One of the universal comments that I have seen when I've looked at the
thread from people is that the gulf between everyday experiences and the >>> behaviour of the prime minister is so vast.
"This is not something for which an apology - a promise to do better -
will ever suffice."
Boris Johnson admitted at Prime Minister's Questions last week that he
had joined colleagues for drinks in the Downing Street garden on 20 May
2020 for around 25 minutes, to thank them for their hard work during the >>> pandemic, but had "believed implicitly" it was a work event.
He apologised for his handling of the event, saying he understood
people's "rage".
Civil servant Sue Gray has been appointed to investigate allegations of
parties held at Downing Street while the UK was in lockdown due to Covid. >>
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids that render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://ethicsalarms.com/2022/01/23/the-pandemic-post-i-never-wrote/
The Pandemic Post I Never Wrote
JANUARY 23, 2022 / JACK MARSHALL
[This post is dedicated to Michael Ejercito.]
For months, veteran prolific Ethics Alarms commenter Michael Ejercito
peppered the blog with various versions of the same question: “When are
you going to finish “The Pandemic Creates a Classic and Difficult Ethics >>> Conflict…”? He was referring to this post, which went up way back in May >>> of 2020. The rest of the title was “…But The Resolution Is Clear.” It
was designated as Part I, with a Part II supposedly coming soon that
would explain what that resolution was and why. It never arrived.
Stalling, I posted a Prelude to Part II. It was so long and covered so
much territory that I doubt anyone read it all the way to the end
(except Michael). It didn’t inspire a single comment. Here’s a precis... >>>
No, I am not satisfied with the current draft of Part II, but I trust
it’s obvious what the resolution referred to is. The lock-down has to
end, and before vaccines, cures, or adequate medicine are available….It
is quite striking: the arguments for continuing the lockdown
indefinitely are almost entirely authored by progressives, and are
without exception characterized by bad logic, emotionalism, manipulated
facts, biased analysis, fearmongering, and suspect motives. The majority >>> of the arguments for opening up the economy soon are markedly more
logical, unemotional, and based on sound statistics and analysis…
It is not “plausible” that the pandemic will continue forever; pandemics >>> don’t. And indeed, if they did, it would be an irrefutable reason to
open up now. Freedom has always had a price…
…As I discussed in Part I, health experts focus almost exclusively on
health. Health is not the only priority involved in the policy
trade-offs involving the lockdown. The health experts don’t care about
the other issues—literally, they don’t care—because it isn’t their job
to care about the economy, or unemployment, or ruined careers and
diminished quality of life. They should care about increased suicides
during depressions, and inadequate preventative health care, and the
deaths those and other consequences of the lockdown will cause, [or]…the >>> U.S. having a catastrophic expansion of its national debt… !
…Right: nobody knows how it will play out. We do know, however, how it
will play out if we lock down the economy much longer, never mind until
there’s a vaccine…On this 75th Anniversary of V-E Day, it shouldn’t be
hard to understand that lost lives can be acceptable when the most
rational, responsible policies involve unavoidable risk.
But “Part II,” when it arrived six months later, still didn’t deliver
the promised resolution. Except for the (again, long) introduction, in
fact, it was a dud, but a dud that illustrated the problem with the
topic. I wrote about the non-media coverage of a Johns Hopkins study
that seemed to indicate that the despite the daily lists of pandemic
deaths, the total deaths had not varied significantly from the previous
year. As it turned out, the study was flawed, and its conclusions were
not supported, though the Ethics Alarms indictment of the bias and
partisan agenda indicated by the news media’s lack of coverage still
applies.
So what was going to be Part II was then going to be Part III, and again >>> stalling, I wrote a prelude to that as well. This one was mercifully
short, and endorsed a statement by then President Trump as the Ethics
Quote of the Century. He had said via Twitter in October, “Don’t be
afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life.” The post concluded,
“President Trump is among the Americans I would view most unlikely to
utter an ethical statement, much less a great one, but this was a great
statement, essential, inspirational, and right. I assume this is
sufficient notice of what the conclusion of Part III will be.”
But there was no Part III, much to Michael’s disappointment and annoyance. >>>
In May of 2020, my conclusion regarding what we should have done about
the pandemic is exactly the same as it is today. The only difference is
that my resolution was politically and logically impossible in May of
2020, and thus not ethical. (What is impossible isn’t ethical, it’s just >>> ethics static).
We should not have closed the schools. We should not have shut down the
economy. We should not have been subjected to the relentless
fearmongering by the media in its efforts to ensure slavish obedience to >>> the panicky edicts of power-mad governors, mayors, and CDC officials.
The fact that these measures also had the tertiary salutary side effect
of making it easier to push Donald Trump out of office by blaming him
for the economic and social secondary side effect of them was, no doubt, >>> considered a bonus.
The United States of America allowed its health experts who had, we now
know, no idea what they were dealing with then and little more now, and
who were driven as much by politics as “science,” force perhaps
permanent damage on all levels of society because it proved impossible
to do otherwise. What made this worse is that it was done in the name of >>> priorities that reversed those that made the existence of the United
States possible, and that sustained its excellence and success for
centuries.
In my first draft of the Post I Never Wrote, I looked at the risks
undertaken by the founders of the nation—not The Founders but the
ordinary, courageous, sometimes desperate people who settled the land
between the continents. If they had begun with the fearfulness and
aversion to risk of their perpetually terrified descendants who now wear >>> cloth mask talismans alone in their automobiles, they would have stayed
in Europe. They would have never rebelled against England. They would
have definitely never moved West, an adventure that cost the lives of
20-25% of the families that tried. They would not have fought to keep
the south from seceding. They would not have fought Hitler and Japan;
they would have negotiated for concessions and to Hell with Europe. They >>> would definitely not have risked nuclear war with the USSR: Better Red
than Dead after all.
In the quest for liberty, which included, they believed, great economic
opportunity, better lives for their children, and strong, unique nation
that celebrated what its citizens could do if left alone to do it, they
took far worse risks than braving a China-bred virus that had a death
rate of less than 1% for those infected beneath the age of 35, and that, >>> when it did kill, overwhelmingly killed the old, obese and unhealthy.
In 2020 I started listing all of the ways the fear of the Wuhan virus
was ruining almost everything, just as our enemies foreign and domestic
would have wished. I makes me sick to have to feature Bill Maher
approvingly in the video above: he’s the same toxic creep who said on
the same show three years ago that it would be worth destroying the
economy to get rid of Trump. The economy, I guess, but not the supply
chain, art, sports, movies, theater, education, the mental and emotional >>> health of children, law enforcement, trust in each other, the national
spirit, what remained of the credibility of journalism, support for due
process and the rule of law, and everything else, right, Bill?
There were various studies by economists of the “value” of each human
life in terms of realistic costs that society could responsibly bear,
but in an era when Obama’s “if it saves one life” nonsense is applauded
as compassionate and profound, I decided they were futile to mention.
The course we were taking nauseated me in May, 2020, and I was certain
that it was a tragic, disastrous mistake. I was also certain that my
position would be characterized by many readers as a brutal “let the old >>> and sick people die” shrug. Would I be willing to set that fate for
myself to avoid the consequences the lockdown has had?, I expected many
to ask, eyebrow raised in skepticism.
And my answer would be “Absolutely.” Of course absolutely. I never had
the opportunity to fight for my country and its values, but my father
did. He and his whole generation put their lives at risk so that his
unborn children and whole unborn generations could experience and
improve upon what our brave ancestors built for us. If I had to die in
the last third of my life so that children could see each other smile
and have the chances I did to grow up learning from face to face
encounters rather than a damn Zoom screen, not to mention feeling that I >>> had the freedom to succeed or fail without being hobbled by the
government, I would regard it as a price gladly paid. I would shuffle
off this second, if it would undo all the damage cowardice, ignorance,
flawed expertise and abusive power has done to the nation I love.
You don’t believe that? Bite me. It’s true.
Donald Trump doesn’t understand much, but I think he understood how
disastrous the reaction to the virus was and would be. He also knew, I
feel sure, that this was a situation where, in the words of my father’s
favorite obituary,
“He was right, dead right, as he sped along
But he’s just as dead as if he were wrong.”
The news media and Democrats were going to blame every death on him, no
matter what the President did. If he did nothing, if he fought a
lock-down, and impeded the efforts to close schools, which anyone should >>> have been able to see would cause a chain reaction of unemployment, the
accusation would be that he deliberately let people die. Joe Biden and
others repeatedly claimed that Trump had had the power to stop the
pandemic at our borders, and had “blood on his hands” even while he was
capitulating to Dr, Fauci’s “let’s see what the dart hits” orders and
advice base on “science.” Now Joe Biden, by his own standards, has more
blood on his hands than Trump did.
Condign justice.
And here we are. I’m not a gloom and doom guy, so I’m not inclined to
say all has been lost. But nearly all will be lost if there isn’t a
national realization that we screwed ourselves, our children and future
generations in 2020 far more certainly and unnecessarily than an our
non-response to climate change speculation has or perhaps even will.
When I read that New York’s Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul compared
children wearing face masks in schools to the requirement that they wear >>> shoes, I felt like I had seen the Grim Reaper smile
“My daughter had a meltdown about having to put sneakers on to go to
kindergarten,” the governor said yesterday during a press conference
after being asked about a timeline for removing mask mandates in
schools. “She got used to wearing sneakers in school. They adapt better
than adults do.”
This is what we let the virus do to us. I knew that it was the wrong
course, but I also knew, given the erosion and rot in the American
spirit, that no other course was possible.
That’s why I never finished the post, Michael.
I’m sorry.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
New York & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids that render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://thepostmillennial.com/spotify-covid19-content-advisories-podcast-episodes-combat-misinformation
BREAKING: Spotify will add COVID-19 content advisories to podcast
episodes to 'combat misinformation'
In an effort to "combat misinformation," Spotify will now add content
advisories to podcast episodes that discuss COVID-19, following growing
criticism of Joe Rogan's popular podcast.
ADVERTISEMENT
BREAKING: Spotify will add COVID-19 content advisories to podcast
episodes to 'combat misinformation'
Hannah Nightingale
Hannah Nightingale
Washington DC
January 30, 2022 1:46 PM
2 Mins Reading
Following growing criticisms of the "Joe Rogan Experience" podcast and
its COVID-19 discussions, Spotify announced Sunday it will be adding
content advisories to podcast episodes that discuss the coronavirus.
ADVERTISEMENT
According to The Verge, the advisory would link to the platform’s
COVID-19 hub, which contains up-to-date information about the pandemic.
In an effort to "combat misinformation," the platform will also be
making its COVID-19 content policy and general platform rules publicly
available on its site, saying any content creator who breaks the rules
may have the content removed, and repeated violations could result in
account suspension or banning.
ADVERTISEMENT
According to the policy obtained by The Verge, Spotify prohibits content >>> that says "AIDS, COVID-19, cancer or other serious life threatening
diseases are a hoax or not real." The platform also bans content that
encourages the public "to purposely get infected with COVID-19 in order
to build immunity" and doesn’t allow content that suggests vaccines "are >>> designed to cause death."
However, a line which is present in the internal document is not there
in the version available on Spotify's website, which prohibits
"Suggesting that wearing a mask will cause the wearer imminent,
life-threatening physical harm."
"You've had a lot of questions over the last few days about our platform >>> policies and the lines we have drawn between what is acceptable and what >>> is not," Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said in a blog post published Sunday.
"We have had rules in place for many years but admittedly, we haven’t
been transparent around the policies that guide our content more
broadly...Based on the feedback over the last several weeks, it’s become >>> clear to me that we have an obligation to do more to provide balance and >>> access to widely-accepted information from the medical and scientific
communities guiding us through this unprecedented time," the Spotify
executive added.
ADVERTISEMENT
The move comes after numerous singers have pulled their music from the
platform in protest of Rogan's podcast, with criticism skyrocketing
after the popular podcaster had alleged mRNA vaccine creator Dr. Robert
Malone on as a guest.
Joni Mitchell announced on her website on Friday night that she was
removing her music, writing: "Irresponsible people are spreading lies
that are costing people their lives. I stand in solidarity with Neil
Young and the global scientific and medical communities on this issue."
"I am doing this because Spotify is spreading fake information about
vaccines – potentially causing death to those who believe the
disinformation being spread by them, Please act on this immediately
today and keep me informed of the time schedule," Neil Young wrote.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids that render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://thecovidworld.com/israel-is-now-1-in-covid-cases-per-capita-proving-all-the-draconian-measures-are-utterly-worthless/The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
THE COVID WORLD
Because Everyone's Story Should Be Heard
Latest News
The Shell Game Continues: Moderna’s ‘FDA Approved’ Vax Is Not Available
To Americans, And It’s Not Scrutinized For Omicron |
We Need Your Help (End Of Month Fundraising Drive!) |
Italian Teacher In CRITICAL CONDITION After Setting Himself on Fire In
Protest Of The Country’s Vaccine Mandate |
Lukashenko: Vaccine Mafia Is Dividing Markets And Sorting People |
Law of Unintended Consequences Series – Disinfectant Spray Causing Harm | >>> The Shell Game Continues: Moderna’s ‘FDA Approved’ Vax Is Not Available
To Americans, And It’s Not Scrutinized For Omicron |
We Need Your Help (End Of Month Fundraising Drive!) |
Italian Teacher In CRITICAL CONDITION After Setting Himself on Fire In
Protest Of The Country’s Vaccine Mandate |
Lukashenko: Vaccine Mafia Is Dividing Markets And Sorting People |
Law of Unintended Consequences Series – Disinfectant Spray Causing Harm | >>>
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The COVID World post date: January 27th, 2022
By JD Heyes
Despite the fact that Israel has implemented some of the most draconian
COVID-19 pandemic measures in the world, the country is now number one
in the world in new cases, according to local reports.
According to the Times of Israel, a leading health expert in the country >>> said that 0.6% of the population was testing positive daily for the
virus — most likely the latest variant, omicron, which is highly
contagious but also very mild.
Prof. Eran Segal of The Weizmann Institute said at that rate, Israel
currently leads the world in per capita infection rates, even though the >>> population is required to get the latest version of vaccines available
and despite heavy quarantine and lockdown regimes.
However, Segal tried to excuse the high infection rate:
But Segal noted it was likely that Israel was not truly the country with >>> the highest infection rate. Rather, he attributed the figures to Israel
being a leading country in the number of tests performed each day,
relative to its population size.
Israel is followed in the highest daily cases worldwide ranking by
Mongolia, Peru, Canada and Georgia.
The fact is, either you’re the number one country, per capita, in daily
infections — or you’re not. And right now, Israel is No. 1, period, no
matter how you look at the data.
But instead of realizing that this novel coronavirus is not the
world-ender that the world has been propagandized to believe, Israeli
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is quadrupling down on idiot policies
that have not worked yet and are never going to work (because viruses
virus — that’s what they do and nothing humans do will stop them from
spreading).
The PM announced Thursday that mandatory quarantine for schoolchildren
who were exposed to coronavirus carriers would be scrapped entirely.
According to the plan, starting next Thursday, children up to the age of >>> 18 will no longer need to isolate after being exposed.
“Instead, all students — both vaccinated and unvaccinated — will need to >>> conduct two antigen tests a week — on Sundays and Wednesdays — and
present negative results when entering educational institutions.
Children who test positive for COVID-19 will still need to isolate until >>> testing negative.”
Bennett said that the government will begin distributing “millions” of
test kits so that testing can be done at home, an endeavor that is
costing tens of millions of dollars to carry out.
Bennett’s order comes as 146,000 school-aged children were already in
quarantine due to testing positive for the virus, while another 142,000
were forced into quarantine because they had been ‘exposed’ to the virus >>> (which means nothing considering the virus is literally everywhere).
Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz said:
“Wherever we can make it easier for the public, we will. We are taking
Omicron seriously, but also looking at the bigger picture.”
Israeli Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz
Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Biton called Bennett’s order “a brave
decision,” while noting further that “it would have been easier to close >>> the education system, but our duty is to save every boy and girl” from
the damage of repeated quarantines — even while ordering them into
repeated quarantines.
These lunatics literally have no self-awareness at all when it comes to
their pandemic decisions.
But that’s not all. Regarding the overall state of the pandemic, Segal
predicted that the current outbreak sweeping the country will end soon.
“We are very close to the height, or even at the height of the Omicron
wave.”
What about the next variant? And the next? And the ones after that?
Why haven’t any of these measures ever been implemented for influenza,
which sweeps the globe annually, showing up as a different strain?
Viruses… are going to virus. ‘The science’ has shown us this for
centuries. Why civilized democracies can’t seem to understand this
elementary scientific principle when it comes to COVID-19 is mind-boggling. >>
Israel & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids that render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://jonathanturley.org/2022/02/02/study-lockdowns-did-little-to-combat-covid-mortality
Study: Lockdowns Did Little to Combat Covid Mortality
A new study from Johns Hopkins University found that the lockdowns in
2020 did little to combat Covid-19 mortality. Given the huge economic
and personal costs of these lockdowns, the study obviously raises
questions about the basis for these extreme measures. However, as will
come as no surprise to anyone on this blog, I view the study as much a
statement against the censorship of commentators and researchers who
were banned or attacked for questioning the lockdowns. Once again, it
would have been better for public health to have this debate than to
shut down any opposing views in the name of science.
The researchers declared “We find no evidence that lockdowns, school
closures, border closures, and limiting gatherings have had a noticeable >>> effect on COVID-19 mortality.”
The study refutes the claim of researchers at the Imperial College
London, for example, who predicted that such steps could reduce death
rates by up to 98%.
They did find that “closing nonessential businesses seems to have had
some effect (reducing COVID-19 mortality by 10.6%), which is likely to
be related to the closure of bars.”
The most striking aspect of this study is that is part of a discussion
that we never really had. Social media companies were banning or tagging >>> anyone expressing doubts over such measures.
We have seen various journalistic and scientific figures banned for
expressing skepticism over pandemic claims from the origins of the virus >>> to the efficacy of certain treatments. For example, when many people
raised the possibility that the virus may have been released from the
nearby Chinese virology lab (rather than the “wet market” theory), they
were denounced as virtually a lunatic fringe. Even objections to the
bias of authors of a report dismissing the lab theory were ridiculed.
The New York Times reporter covering the area called it “racist” and
implausible. Now, even W.H.O. admits that the lab theory is possible
and Biden officials are admitting that it is indeed plausible.
The same is true with the debate over the efficacy of masks. For over a
year, some argued that the commonly used masks are ineffective to
protect against the virus. Now, the CDC is warning that the masks do not >>> appear to block these variants and even CNN’s experts are calling the
cloth masks “little more than facial decorations.”
Yet, the W.H.O. head is now embracing censorship as a means of combating >>> the “infodemic.” There are also calls, including from the White House,
for Spotify to ban or curtail Joe Rogan’s show for allowing dissenting
views to be aired on Covid or its treatment.
If there had not been such extensive censorship of dissenting
viewpoints, there might have been more discussion on the costs and
science behind the lockdowns. Instead, there was a chilling effect on
such dissenting voices and anyone expressing doubts were labeled
extremists or conspiracy theorists. Recently, for example, scientists
have come forward to admit that they also suspected the Wuhan lab was
the origin of virus but were silenced by the backlash at the CDC and
universities.
I do not know what the data will show on these issues and I readily
recognize that, in the early days, many wanted to take the most
protective course. However, we could have taken that course without
actively seeking to censor or silence those who had doubts on these
measures.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids that render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:RYNE1kT0yko4CYkZIOIiM674KvW2d8l7T8YYcFyx64JG-oNLU4g7SloxONNDX3WK3d0XMgIAp6osMxd0WtjX1c2qbORbZq24F4jaohDs99FjcKdzDK66ezc2h2ONuMax7Y6gY8SrsZDWmVxYjAnupGJAZCClvGT2d94nI-
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/08/world/asia/hong-kong-covid-social-distancing.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuomT1JKd6J17Vw1cRCfTTMQmqxCdw_PIxftm3iWka3DPDm4SiPsSGYyMvE7WZKMkZ9w10HGYQ9lOdbQoWv1-i_
Hong Kong announces its toughest social-distancing rules yet as cases
reach record highs.
Waiting at a makeshift Covid-19 testing center in Hong Kong on Tuesday.
Waiting at a makeshift Covid-19 testing center in Hong Kong on
Tuesday.Credit...Lam Yik/Reuters
By Austin Ramzy and Rebecca Robbins
Feb. 8, 2022
Updated 2:35 p.m. ET
Hong Kong will institute its tightest social-distancing rules since the
start of the pandemic to curb its largest coronavirus outbreak so far,
as a wave of Omicron cases has raised questions about how long the city
can continue its strict Covid-control policies.
Hong Kong will require hair salons and places of worship to close for
two weeks starting Thursday, and no more than two households will be
allowed to meet in private, Carrie Lam, Hong Kong’s chief executive,
said on Tuesday. Public gatherings will be limited to two people.
Shopping malls, grocery stores and markets will join the list of public
places where visitors must register with an official contact tracing
app. People visiting those sites, which include restaurants, will have
to prove they have been vaccinated. Fines for not following mandatory
testing orders will be doubled to nearly $1,300.
The city of 7.5 million has largely managed to avoid the worst of the
pandemic, recording 213 Covid deaths over the past two years. But the
spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant since late December
now threatens to overwhelm Hong Kong’s aggressive contact tracing and
quarantine efforts. Since last week it has set several daily highs for
new case totals, with more than 600 added on Monday and again on Tuesday. >>>
ADVERTISEMENT
Continue reading the main story
The surging number of cases has forced the city to stop hospitalizing
all Covid patients. On Tuesday it began sending some people with few or
no symptoms to the government quarantine center at Penny’s Bay. And some >>> close contacts who were previously required to go to Penny’s Bay will
now be allowed to quarantine at home.
Hong Kong Coronavirus Cases
All time
Last 90 days
Feb. 2020
Mar.
Apr.
May
Jun.
Jul.
Aug.
Sept.
Oct.
Nov.
Dec.
Jan.
Feb. 2021
Mar.
Apr.
May
Jun.
Jul.
Aug.
Sept.
Oct.
Nov.
Dec.
Jan.
Feb. 2022
50
100
150 cases
7–day average
Source: Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns
Hopkins University. The daily average is calculated with data that was
reported in the last seven days.
Mrs. Lam has resisted suggestions that the latest wave of cases will
force Hong Kong to abandon its strategy, which she calls “dynamic zero
Covid.”
“In our fight against the epidemic we need to stand by a philosophy,
otherwise we will see measures being change all the time,” she said on
Tuesday. “So at this moment, we will stand by the dynamic zero
containment strategy.”
The risk to older people is of particular concern, Mrs. Lam said,
because less than half the population over age 70 have been vaccinated.
“The risk is increasing because there are more cases in residential
homes and among their workers,” she said.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
H.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids that render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:south.
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://archive.vn/WrSEO
‘Freedom Convoy’ protesters shut down third border crossing as Ottawa >>> police warn of arrests ‘without a warrant’
Listen to article
6 min
Line of truckers block U.S.-Canada border for miles
Video captured in Port Huron, Mich., on Feb. 8 showed a line of trucks
stalled on the highway as protesters continued to block U.S.-Canada
border crossings. (Reuters)
By Amy Cheng, Jennifer Hassan and Miriam Berger
Today at 6:11 a.m. EST|Updated today at 10:37 a.m. EST
Police in Ottawa are warning that any protesters blocking streets for
the self-described “Freedom Convoy†may be “arrested without a warrant,â€
as raucous protests against vaccine mandates and coronavirus
restrictions blocked a third border crossing with the United States
early Thursday.
The protests, which have led to at least 23 arrests and 80 criminal
investigations in the capital, are sparking debate among officials over
how best to de-escalate the situation there and at U.S.-Canada border
crossings, where blockades have disrupted the flow of goods and people.
Some are warning that mass arrests could prove counterproductive or even >>> lead to violence.
Early Thursday, a convoy of trucks with passengers shouting “Freedom!†>>> and “Fake news!†descended on Ottawa International Airport, causing
traffic disruptions and delays.
Soon afterward, police in Manitoba province said the typically bustling
Emerson crossing into North Dakota was “shut down†after a convoy of >>> vehicles and farm equipment blocked traffic heading both north and
streets“It is a criminal offence to obstruct, interrupt or interfere with the >>> lawful use, enjoyment, or operation of property,†Ottawa police said in >>> a news release issued Wednesday. “You must immediately cease further
unlawful activity or you may face charges,†the police department told >>> protesters.
[‘Freedom Convoy’ in Canada inspires vaccine-mandate protests from New >>> York to New Zealand]
'Freedom Convoy' creates frustration amid resolve in seized Ottawa
Residents express frustration over noise as the 'Freedom Convoy'
occupies the streets of downtown Ottawa with one goal in mind: Make
Trudeau resign. (Zoeann Murphy, James Cornsilk/The Washington Post)
Police said those found to be taking part in criminal activity — which >>> could include blocking streets or “assisting others in the blocking of >>> streets†— could be arrested. Police are also giving notice that
vehicles could be seized and possibly forfeited if people are convicted. >>> Law enforcement officials are under pressure to use tougher measures to
disperse demonstrations, including those that continue to clog traffic
arteries between the United States and Canada. So far, two major ports
of entry — the Ambassador Bridge connecting Detroit to Windsor, Ontario, >>> and the Coutts crossing linking Montana to Alberta — have been closed or >>> partially blocked.
[Auto industry already feeling the pinch from Canadian bridge blockade]
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who has been widely targeted by
protesters denouncing his response to the pandemic, called the
obstruction of border crossings an economic crisis. He tweeted that the
blockades in Windsor and the capital, Ottawa, where a state of emergency >>> was declared over the weekend, “must stop†— but he didn’t elaborate on
how this could be achieved.
The blockades, he said, “are endangering jobs, impeding trade,
threatening the economy, and obstructing our communities.†Business
groups and experts reported that the bridge blockades are hurting supply >>> chains. Goods worth approximately $300 million cross the Ambassador
Bridge every day.
Despite the warning from Ottawa police, some local law enforcement
officers seemed to acknowledge the fraught implications of mass arrests. >>> “You can’t arrest your way out of the choices that people are making. …
The best thing is for them to make the decision to leave,†a Royal
Canadian Mounted Police superintendent in Alberta, Roberta McKale, told
reporters Wednesday at one of the protest sites near Coutts. “And
they’ve got to go.â€
Still, McKale said, asking the protesters to leave has so far not
worked: “We’re going to have to use our enforcement options in order to >>> have that happen.â€
Windsor’s mayor, Drew Dilkens, warned that arresting people could lead >>> to violence, telling local outlets that Windsor police must be
“calculated and appropriately balanced†in how they handle protesters. >>> “At this time, our focus is on maintaining security and de-escalating
the situation as much as possible,†he said during a news briefing.
Some protesters believe that “they are fighting for a cause that is
worth dying for,†Dilkens said. “That type of sentiment translates into >>> different behaviors than any normal protests.â€
In Ottawa, where more than 1,000 tickets for offenses including
excessive noise and red-light violations have been issued, municipal
authorities are stepping up enforcement. They can now issue fines up to
nearly $800 for setting fires or creating noise, a steep increase for
those types of offenses, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported.
[Here’s what you need to know about the ‘Freedom Convoy’ in Canada] >>> The Ambassador Bridge is temporarily closed, while the delay at the
Coutts land crossing is estimated at seven hours, according to Canada’s >>> border service agency. Dilkens said in an interview Wednesday that local >>> police have tried to keep at least one lane open in each direction on
the Ambassador Bridge so that goods could be transported across the
border while respecting people’s right to protest.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is also monitoring a campaign
in which truckers in the United States are potentially planning to block >>> roads in major metropolitan areas in protest of vaccine mandates. The
Super Bowl in Los Angeles on Sunday and President Biden’s State of the >>> Union address March 1 could be affected.
In New Zealand, an anti-vaccine rally outside Parliament in Wellington
led to mass arrests, after crowds gathered to protest myriad reasons,
including lockdown restrictions and alleged media corruption.
“We stand with Ottawa,†read the message on the side of one truck at the
scene, while others held signs attacking the media and calling the
global health crisis “a plandemic.â€
[Canada’s capital is jammed, its border crossings are blockaded, and
there’s no end in sight]
The Wellington district commander, Superintendent Corrie Parnell, told
reporters that 120 people were arrested Thursday as the protest there
went into its third day.
Similar demonstrations — seemingly energized by Canada’s convoy — have
also been held in Australia, France, Alaska and across Europe in recent
days.
[Paris and Brussels to ban ‘Freedom Convoy’ inspired by Canadian protest]
As the protests drag on, concerns are growing for the number of children >>> who have been present.
About 25 percent of attendees inside some 400 trucks stationed at the
scene are believed to be children, police say, which could complicate
the ways in which officers respond to those protesting. Ottawa Police
Deputy Steve Bell cited sanitation, noise levels and carbon monoxide
fumes as some of the risks that children who are spending so much time
inside the trucks could face.
“It’s something that greatly concerns us.†Bell told reporters Tuesday,
adding that the children could be “at risk during a police operation.†>>> The Ottawa Police Service said Wednesday that it was aware of the
welfare concerns and working with the Children’s Aid Society of Ottawa >>> to “ensure the safety†of the children present. The force said it would >>> be sharing information with the CASO and that the organization “has a
duty to investigate whenever there are allegations of abuse or neglect
that suggest a child or youth may be in need of protection.â€
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
Ottawa & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids that render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://reason.com/2022/02/27/snl-to-liberals-its-ok-to-question-nonsensical-mask-mandates/
SNL to Liberals: It's OK To Question Nonsensical Mask Mandates
Mocking COVID public health theater is finally going mainstream.
ERIC BOEHM | 2.27.2022 1:40 PM
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SNLCOVID3
John Mulaney and Kate McKinnon in the February 26 episode of "Saturday
Night Live." (Screenshot from YouTube)
The best Saturday Night Live sketches feel like funhouse-mirror versions >>> of real life—echoes of conversations or situations we've experienced,
but with comedic exaggerations. I mean, who hasn't seen lobster on a
menu in a diner and wondered: "Why?"
The best sketch in last night's show, hosted by former SNL writer and
recently out-of-rehab standup superstar John Mulaney, is a perfect
example. It could have been yanked out of probably thousands of
conversations around the country this week after the Centers for Disease >>> Control and Prevention (CDC) finally loosened their guidelines for
masking—guidelines that have been used to justify all sorts of local and >>> state polices that often make little sense. Like, say, the rules in D.C. >>> and several other major cities requiring you to wear a mask to enter a
restaurant even though you're going to take it off as soon as you sit
down to eat.
That's where the sketch begins, with six friends gathered for dinner.
One of them, Keenan Thompson, is still wearing his mask when we join the >>> group mid-conversation. After he removes it, fellow diner Heidi Gardner
cautiously mentions an article she'd read suggesting that "mask mandates >>> had, I don't know, little to no effect on COVID."
"It's not like I'm anti-mask or anything," Gardner quickly clarifies, "I >>> just sometimes wonder if any of the things we did actually helped."
That sets off a chain reaction around the table, with each member of the >>> group rest of the table reacting in exaggerated, GIF-tastic
horror—before slowly, even painfully admitting that they, too, are
questioning the effectiveness of the pandemic theater that we've endured >>> over the past two years.
It's an unexpectedly subversive sketch from a show that rarely aims its
fire these days at the liberal political consensus. It's five minutes of >>> saying aloud thoughts that a lot people have been condemning as off-limits. >>>
Kate McKinnon's character is "personally so relieved to be vaccinated"
but then wonders aloud whether those who are vaccine-hesitant might not
have a valid reason for refusing the shot? Mulaney timidly suggests that >>> maybe "we"—read: the show's liberal audience—have been too quick to
demand that the unvaccinated lose their jobs and get shunned from public >>> life.
From there, it becomes a rapid-fire unraveling of the logic behind much
of what's happened in the past year. Outdoor dining? "Oh, you mean when
they built a smaller restaurant in the street, how is that outdoors?"
asks Mulaney. The CDC's ever-changing and confusing guidance? "When I
make a mistake at work, I don't get to say 'the science changed,'"
complains Thompson.
But it's McKinnon who delivers the final blow with a long story about
how she attended a child's birthday party in which all the kids were
masked while doing gymnastics—and then took off the masks to eat pizza.
"So did they really need the mask?" she says, looking like she's about
to vomit simply by stating the question out loud. "Did any of us ever
need the mask?"
These are, of course, questions that a lot of us have been asking for
months, even years. And while masking in some circumstances helps slow
the spread of coronaviruses, it's also true that mask mandates are
mostly about virtue signaling and haven't been shown to work. As
McKinnon points out, there's little logic behind masking in some
settings and then immediately unmasking in the same setting. And
officials' disregard for their own COVID policies has only further
demonstrated how silly many of these rules were in the first place.
Good on SNL for telling viewers that it's fine to question, and to laugh >>> at, all this.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://bit.ly/convince_it_forward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids that render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://ethicsalarms.com/2022/02/27/more-amazing-stories-of-the-great-stupid-fema-tells-us-how-to-avoid-getting-the-wuhan-virus-during-a-nuclear-attack/
More Amazing Stories Of The Great Stupid! FEMA Tells Us How To Avoid
Getting The Wuhan Virus During A Nuclear Attack…
FEBRUARY 27, 2022 / JACK MARSHALL
Do you wonder why fewer and fewer Americans trust their government?
See Jeremiah 17:5-8 and http://T3WiJ.com
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids that render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/hong-kong-leader-calls-calm-after-supermarkets-emptied-ahead-mass-covid-testing-2022-03-01/?utm_source=reddit.com
Hong Kong leader calls for calm, after supermarkets emptied ahead of
mass COVID testing
Reuters
rumours2 minute read
HONG KONG, March 1 (Reuters) - Hong Kong's leader Carrie Lam called for >calm on Tuesday after residents emptied supermarkets, stocking up on >produce ahead of reports of compulsory mass COVID-19 testing and
of a city-wide lockdown.
familiesLocal media reported compulsory COVID testing would start after March
17, sparking concerns many people will be forced to isolate and
with members testing positive would be separated.
Lam appealed to the public "not to fall prey to rumours to avoid >unnecessary fears being stirred," with the supply of food and goods >remaining normal, according to a statement on Tuesday.
Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
Report ad
"There is no need for members of the public to worry, they should stay >vigilant and pay attention to the information disseminated by the >government so as to avoid being misled by rumours."
timesOfficials are planning to test the city's 7.4 million people three
sources.over nine days, with the government recommending that people stay home >during the period, Sing Tao newspaper reported, citing unidentified
Report ad
Exemptions would be made for those who buy food, seek medical treatment >and maintain societal operations. Hong Kong's stock market would
continue to operate, the paper said.
at aCOVID-19 outbreak in Hong Kong
Customers wearing masks shop in front of partially empty shelves at a >supermarket in Hong Kong
A customer wearing a mask shops in front of partially empty shelves
supermarket in Hong Kong
1/6
Customers wearing masks shop in front of partially empty shelves at a >supermarket during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Hong >Kong, China February 28, 2022. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
Lam had previously said she was not considering a city-wide lockdown.
moreThe Chinese ruled city has seen coronavirus infections surge some 34 >times to over 34,000 on Monday from just over 100 at the start of >February. Deaths are also climbing, with facilities for storing dead >bodies at hospitals and public mortuaries at maximum capacity. read
Report ad
Hong Kong continues to stick to a COVID policy of "dynamic zero", the >same as mainland China, which seeks to curb all outbreaks at any cost. >The Chinese ruled territory has implemented its most draconian measures >since the start of the pandemic in 2020.
The rules have exacerbated separation fears among many families, with >many fleeing ahead of the mass testing scheme and the build out of tens >of thousands of isolation centres. read more
Report ad
Lam, who inspected a mainland Chinese built isolation centre on Monday, >said the team had raced against the clock to "create a miracle" in the >city's construction industry.
The Tsing Yi facility, located in the northwest of the city, would >provide around 3,900 rooms for infected people with mild or no symptoms >and others who need to isolate, she said.The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
H.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids that render current COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://www.cnn.com/2022/03/13/health/who-ukraine-war-covid-19/index.html >>>
By Jen Christensen, CNN
Updated 9:39 PM ET, Sun March 13, 2022
Woman who was inside bombed hospital gives birth
Woman who was inside bombed hospital gives birth 02:02
(CNN)The World Health Organization (WHO) said Sunday it is concerned the >>> war in Ukraine could worsen the Covid-19 pandemic, and it is trying to
do more to limit the spread of infectious diseases.
Cases in the region are down from the previous week, but there's
significant risk there will be more severe disease and death due to low
vaccination rates in Ukraine, as well as among the more than two million >>> who've fled the country to surrounding areas, regions also with low
vaccination rates. Ukraine's Covid-19 vaccination rate is around 34%,
while neighboring Moldova's is around 29%, according to Our World In Data. >>> Here's what could lie ahead for the third year of the pandemic
Here's what could lie ahead for the third year of the pandemic
There have been a total of 791,021 new cases of Covid-19 and 8,012 new
deaths in Ukraine and in surrounding countries between March 3 and 9, a
WHO situation report published Sunday said.
"Unfortunately, this virus will take opportunities to continue to
spread," said Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO's technical lead on Covid-19,
during a Wednesday news briefing. "We as an organization recognize that
countries are in very different situations; they're facing different
challenges. There's a lot of movement and refugees associated with this
crisis."
Also on Wednesday, Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO's health
emergencies program, said there will be a rise in Covid-19 in Ukraine,
"without a doubt." He attributed the predicted increase to lack of
testing, halted vaccinations, and a stressed, war-weary population with
already low vaccination rates.
As a child of war, I know what the Ukrainians are going through
As a child of war, I know what the Ukrainians are going through
Ryan added the world should avoid stereotypes around refugees and disease. >>> "Let us be very careful with our rhetoric because this always arises,"
he said, "that in some way people fleeing the horrors of war are going
to bring stuff with them. Europe has plenty of Covid as it stands, and
it has got to deal with that, and Ukrainian refugees are not going to
change the dial on that."
Sunday's report said the WHO has purchased therapeutics for Covid-19 and >>> is recommending vaccination campaigns and enhanced surveillance for
Covid-19 and other infectious diseases.
Former President Barack Obama tests positive for Covid-19
Former President Barack Obama tests positive for Covid-19
Hungary is providing Ukrainian refugees with free Covid-19 vaccines, and >>> the WHO has also offered lab support that includes Covid-19 testing.
The Romanian ministry of health has sent medical teams to test and give
Covid-19 vaccines to Ukrainians who have fled their country.
Covid-19 treatment is provided free of charge in Slovakia. Covid-19
vaccinations are also free in Moldova for Ukrainians, with its ministry
of health testing and monitoring Covid-19, among other diseases.
In a joint statement with UNICEF and UNFPA, the WHO called for an end to >>> attacks on Ukraine's health care systems. As of Sunday, there had been
31 verified attacks on health care facilities, with more suspected.
Get CNN Health's weekly newsletter
Sign up here to get The Results Are In with Dr. Sanjay Gupta every
Tuesday from the CNN Health team.
"Humanitarian partners and health care workers must be able to safely
maintain and strengthen essential health service delivery, including
immunization against Covid-19 and polio, and the supply of life-saving
medicines for civilians across Ukraine as well as to refugees crossing
into neighboring countries," the WHO statement said. "Health services
should be systematically available at border crossings, including rapid
care and referral processes for children and pregnant women."
CNN's Jacqueline Howard contributed to this report
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
Ukraine & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/tjhpwp/uk_covid_case_numbers_no_particular_cause_for/
CORONAVIRUS
new
Chris Smyth, Whitehall Editor
Monday March 21 2022, 12.00pm GMT, The Times
Sajid Javid said it was time to treat the virus in the same way as all
other infectious diseases
Sajid Javid said it was time to treat the virus in the same way as all
other infectious diseases
WIKTOR SZYMANOWICZ/ANADOLU AGENCY/GETTY IMAGES
People who think they have Covid should “socialise a bit less”, the
health secretary has said as he dismissed concerns about a rise in
hospital admissions.
Sajid Javid said it was time to treat the virus in the same way as “all
other infectious diseases” and suggested there was no particular need
for people to pay for a test once lateral flow kits were no longer free. >>> Covid infection rates in the elderly are at their highest level but
Javid insisted the recent rise in cases was “no particular cause for
concern”.
With fourth Covid jabs for the over-75s beginning today, Javid said that >>> all over-50s were likely to be offered a booster in the autumn as
ministers pin their faith on vaccines rather than social distancing rules. >>> Confirmed cases rose 38 per cent last week and the Office for National
Statistics found that among over-70s infections are now at their highest >>> ever level, with rates in the elderly traditionally the best predictor
of hospital admissions.
However, Javid said that of the 11,500 people in hospital in England
with Covid “almost 60 per cent are not there because of Covid — they are >>> there for something else. That might be a hip operation or something,
but they happen to be Covid-positive.”
He told Times Radio: “That does give us a lot of confidence that we are
learning to live with Covid.”
Lateral flow tests will stop being free on April 1 for all but the most
vulnerable. The government has not specified who will be eligible or
what the advice will be for others with Covid symptoms.
Javid said: “Post-April 1, if people have Covid symptoms then they
should just behave sensibly — like you would expect someone to really
behave if they had flu symptoms in the past — and that is to socialise a >>> bit less, stay indoors and wait till you feel better.”
Asked if people should still get tested, even if they have to pay for
it, Javid said that would be “a decision for that individual”.
He said that paying “something like £2” for a test from a high street
pharmacist would remain an option for those who wanted to be tested.
Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Javid said that “when it comes
to someone that may be having to take time off work or socialising less
because they believe they might be positive, that is handled in the same >>> way that all other infectious diseases are handled.”
Asked if Covid was now in the same category as other infections, Javid
replied: “That’s right.”
He attributed the recent rise in cases to increased social mixing after
all restrictions were lifted as well as the BA.2 subvariant of Omicron.
He said the subvariant was “on the one hand more infectious but on the
other hand, we know that our vaccines work just as well against this
subvariant. And so taking all that into account, of course we keep the
data under review, but there’s no particular cause for concern at this
point.”
Professor Graham Medley, who chaired the modelling committee of the
Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies before it was stood down,
said: “There is another wave of infections, in which, for the first
time, we are seeing older people being infected at the same rate as
younger people.
“We have seen previous peaks of prevalence from ONS [infection survey]
at over 8 per cent previously, and the prevalence in the 70-plus age
group is currently less than 5 per cent. This suggests that there is
considerable scope for further increases leading to hospital admissions.” >>> Medley said that “there remains great uncertainty as to how high
admissions will peak in an epidemic with high vaccination coverage,
reduced access to testing and reduced self-isolation”.
A health source defended ministers’ approach, saying: “It’s not just the >>> politicians, but the senior clinicians. We have asked them whether we
should be worried and they don’t think so… We are keeping an eye on it
but most [admissions are] incidental at the moment, and when you look at >>> number of people on ventilation it remains very low.”
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://boston.cbslocal.com/2022/03/25/massachusetts-reports-1109-new-covid-cases-9-additional-deaths-march-25/
Massachusetts Reports 1,109 New COVID Cases, Positivity Rate Back Over 2% >>> By CBSBoston.com StaffMarch 25, 2022 at 5:00 pmFiled Under:Coronavirus
BOSTON (CBS) – The Massachusetts Department of Public Health reported
1,109 new confirmed COVID cases on Friday. The seven-day weighted
average of positive tests in Massachusetts has now increased to 2.08%,
marking the first time the positivity rate has been over 2% during the
month of March.
Still, there are 222 people currently in the hospital with COVID and 32
patients currently in intensive care, which are both down from Thursday. >>>
ADVERTISING
There was nine additional COVID-related deaths reported on Friday.
Health officials said the total number of confirmed cases in the state
is now 1,558,358. The total number of confirmed deaths in the state is
now 18,969.
There were 60,516 total new tests reported.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://www.stripes.com/covid/2022-03-28/guests-and-crew-test-positive-for-covid-19-aboard-cruise-ship-5505067.html
Guests and crew members test positive for COVID-19 aboard Princess
Cruise ship
BY COLLEEN SHALBY• LOS ANGELES TIMES • MARCH 28, 2022
A small fishing boat passes by the cruise ship, Ruby Princess on May 7, >2020, in the waters of Manila Bay, Philippines.
A small fishing boat passes by the cruise ship, Ruby Princess on May 7, >2020, in the waters of Manila Bay, Philippines. (Ezra Acayan, Getty >Images/TNS)
Copy link
Add This
Stars and Stripes is making stories on the coronavirus pandemic
available free of charge. See more stories here. Sign up for our daily >coronavirus newsletter here. Please support our journalism with a >subscription.
for(Tribune News Service) — Passengers and crew members tested positive
COVID-19 aboard a 15-day Princess Cruise trip to the Panama Canal that >returned Sunday to the Port of San Francisco.
Those affected aboard the ship the Ruby Princess were either
asymptomatic or showed mild symptoms of COVID-19 and were isolated and >quarantined, Princess Cruises said in a statement. The cruise line did >not say how many guests and crew members tested positive, or at what >point in the trip they did so.
Hawaii.The ship has since departed San Francisco for a 15-day cruise to
The cruise line requires guests to show a negative COVID-19 test and >proof that they were fully vaccinated at least 14 days before the start >of the trip. Vaccination rates for guests and crew members on the Ruby >Princess were at 100%, Princess Cruises said.
The Port of San Francisco also requires that at least 95% of both >passengers and crew members onboard are vaccinated.
The cruise line said guests with positive test results who had not >completed the required isolation period had returned home or were >provided hotel rooms for isolation and quarantine.
Princess Cruises suspended voyages for more than a year after COVID-19 >outbreaks in 2020. Coronavirus cases remain relatively flat nationwide, >but health experts are concerned about a potential rise linked to the
new BA.2 COVID-19 variant.
The CDC was not immediately available for comment and a dashboard that >tracks ships’ COVID-19 test positivity rates has not been updated since >Thursday.The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://archive.ph/dA63S
The ‘zero-Covid’ approach got bad press, but it worked – and it could
work again
Laura Spinney
The places that chose to pursue elimination suffered less overall.
Unfortunately, few had the determination to do so
A sign in front of UC Davis Medical Center.
‘Eighteen months into its No-Covid experiment, Davis, California, is
puzzled that other US towns haven’t followed suit.’ Photograph: Peter
Dasliva/EPA
Mon 28 Mar 2022 08.22 EDT
It was the alt-history, the policy that didn’t get enacted. No-Covid,
zero-Covid or elimination aimed to stamp out community transmission of
Covid-19 in a given area, rather than just reduce it to “manageable”
levels. Most of the world eschewed it, and it got bad press from the
start. Only autocratic regimes could pull it off, one mantra went.
Countries like China and ah, New Zealand and, oops, that notorious
police state Davis in California.
There was something of the self-fulfilling prophecy about this. Many
people thought No-Covid was impossible, but the handful of places that
embraced it proved them wrong. Now that some of those places are
themselves shifting to a reduction or mitigation strategy, countries
that opted for mitigation from the beginning are enjoying a “we told you >>> so” moment. But No-Covid’s early champions had to shift in part because
other countries let the virus rip. Even if their strategy didn’t remain
the optimal one, it bought them time to prepare others. It’s important
that we remember that when the next pandemic sidles along.
The power of language is terrifying sometimes. We talk about pandemics
“erupting” – I’ve done it myself – but sidling seems a more appropriate
verb for something that grows quietly in the dark before exploding into
the light. The concept of exponential growth is one we have trouble
grasping, yet grasping it empowers us. It means that for a time the
disease spread is limited and potentially controllable. It means that
explosive growth falls off rapidly once it is deprived of fuel. And it
means that not everybody has to pursue elimination for it to succeed –
as long as a critical mass do.
We’ve found one factor that predicts which countries best survive Covid
Thomas Hale
Read more
No-Covid was dogged by problems of definition. People confused
elimination with eradication, for example. Only one human disease,
smallpox, has been eradicated, but plenty have been eliminated. The UK
was measles-free until 2017, when partly, due to low vaccine uptake, it
lost that status. Elimination is not an unattainable dream, but it does
require a concerted effort. In the current pandemic, the word often
applied to such efforts was “restrictions”, as if the efforts themselves >>> deprived us of liberty. No. The virus deprives us of liberty; the
efforts preserve it. That’s why nobody in Davis is complaining, 18
months into their No-Covid experiment, and why they’re puzzled other US
towns haven’t followed suit.
Though lockdowns might have been necessary in the beginning, because we
had no other shields against the virus, they soon stopped being
synonymous with elimination. Cheap mass testing plus isolation of the
infected, ventilation, masking, distancing and – importantly – social
and financial support for those inconvenienced by these measures, became >>> the preferred tools, used most effectively in combination.
The claim that elimination exacerbates inequality is a red herring; it
doesn’t, with the right support. A circulating virus certainly does, on
the other hand, by preferentially encountering gig workers, keeping kids >>> out of school, and closing mental health clinics.
It’s true that some diseases are easier to eliminate than others. Many
western countries assumed that Covid would behave like flu, and decided
that elimination would be too difficult. China assumed that it would
behave like Sars, which it successfully beat 20 years ago. It actually
behaves a bit like both, but not exactly like either. Countries tended
to get the outcome they aimed for.
Last June, a study in The Lancet showed that those that chose
elimination over mitigation did a better job of protecting life, the
economy and civil liberties – the hat-trick. But no country is an island >>> to a highly transmissible virus – even those that are islands – and the
emergence of Delta and Omicron variants of the Sars-CoV-2 virus,
combined with the rollout of vaccines that protect against severe
disease and death, was bound to change the calculus. Some who favoured
elimination previously now think it has outlived its usefulness.
New Zealand, for example, has switched to a mitigation strategy.
Epidemiologist Michael Baker expects his country’s high levels of
vaccination will protect it from a wave of hospitalisations and deaths
as Omicron sweeps the country. Hong Kong, which also pursued No-Covid
until recently, has tragically not avoided that fate, due to its
relatively low vaccination rates.
The lesson from Hong Kong is not that elimination doesn’t work, it’s
that you need a plan B in case the context changes. Baker and economist
Donald Low, who has chronicled Hong Kong’s experience, agree that
elimination was the right strategy for the first 18 months of the
pandemic. Baker stands by his analysis of December 2020 that,
“Elimination might be the preferred strategy for responding to new
emerging infectious diseases with pandemic potential and moderate to
high severity, particularly while key parameters are being estimated.”
What we’re learning about long Covid – or post-Covid-19 condition as the >>> World Health Organization (WHO) now calls it – only strengthens that
case, since it’s looking increasingly likely that countries that
tolerated high infection rates, including the UK, are facing a sizeable
burden of long-term disability. The vaccines do not stop transmission
completely, and by abandoning the non-pharmaceutical interventions that
do, those countries also increase the likelihood – far from trivial, as
scientists highlighted again this month – that a variant more severe
than Omicron or its “stealth” subvariant could arise.
These emerging facts demonstrate how pointless it is to cost
elimination, or any other containment strategy. How do you measure what
it has saved you? In speculative fiction terms, what’s the counterfactual? >>> The right way to respond to an unknown disease is to fix a goal and work >>> towards it, adjusting your strategy as you learn. Because there’s
another unknown in the equation, human determination, no response should >>> be ruled out initially. As Nelson Mandela said, and the WHO itself likes >>> to quote: “It’s only impossible until it’s done.”
Laura Spinney is a science journalist and the author of Pale Rider: The
Spanish Flu of 1918 and How it Changed the World
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the UK & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://archive.ph/gAekF
Judge Blocks COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate for Entire Navy
By Zachary Stieber March 29, 2022 Updated: March 29, 2022?bigger?smaller >>> ?Print
The U.S. military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate has been blocked for all
Navy members seeking religious exemptions.
A preliminary injunction that previously covered 35 Navy SEALs now
covers some 4,000 others.
U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor, a George W. Bush appointee who
entered the original ruling in January, agreed to expand it in part
because all members who have applied for religious exemptions “have all
been harmed in essentially the same way.”
“Each is subject to the Navy’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates. Each has
submitted her religious accommodation request, and none has received
accommodation. Without relief, each servicemember faces the threat of
discharge and the consequences that accompany it. Even though their
personal circumstances may factually differ in small ways, the threat is >>> the same—get the jab or lose your job,” he said in a 27-page order.
The Supreme Court recently sided with the Pentagon in the case, ruling
that Navy commanders can consider a members’ vaccination status when
deciding on deployment.
The new ruling means “anyone in the U.S. Navy whose religious
accommodation from the vaccine mandate was denied is now protected from
any sort of punishment or involuntary separation, things like that,”
said Mike Berry, a lawyer with First Liberty Institute, which represents >>> the plaintiffs in the case.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in August 2021 ordered all U.S. troops to >>> get a COVID-19 vaccine, asserting vaccination would help the force stay
ready and prevent contraction of the virus that causes COVID-19 vaccine. >>> The mandate has remained in place even as the three vaccines available
in the United States have proven increasingly ineffective against
infection from the virus, SARS-CoV-2, and have also waned against severe >>> disease.
As of March 23, 3,320 active-duty Navy members have requested a
religious exemption from the mandate, along with 864 reserve members.
Zero religious accommodation requests have been approved.
The Navy has declined to comment on court orders, referring comment to
the Department of Justice. A government lawyer did not respond to a
request for comment.
Berry told The Epoch Times his organization wanted to expand the case to >>> cover all service members seeking religious accommodation but under
federal rules, they were not able.
The case is currently proceeding on multiple fronts. While O’Connor
ruled on the motions for an expanded injunction and to certify a class,
the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit is considering an appeal >>>from the Navy from the original injunction.
The Navy has kicked out 630 members so far for refusing to get a
COVID-19 vaccine.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/tviqe7/i_really_had_hope_i_thought_once_a_vaccine_was/
I really had hope, I thought once a vaccine was discovered all the
covid19 restrictions would end and normality will come back.
Mental Health
I really thought once a vaccine was discovered life would eventually go
back normal in which there will be no more mask wearing, lockdowns and
all the covid19 restrictions. Despite a vaccine roll out programme in
the UK people especially in my life and the wider community i live in,
still do not want to go back to normal. This is what makes me so upset
and even angry once in a while.
My local Catholic Church still enforces mask wearing, banning of shaking >>> hands during the sign of peace and hand sanitiser booths are in every
corner of the church even though everyone is now vaccinated. The priest
wears a facial shield when administering Holy Communion ,he looks like
he is going is succba diving. A couple of weeks ago I started my driving >>> lessons and I didnt wear the mask. I told my driving instructor I have
had my booster shot he said in a panicked disapproving tone " so that's
OK then" I didn't even answer and just wore the mask in the next couple
of lessons . Last lesson the mask during his I sneezed he asked "Is that >>> covid19"
In London even though it is no longer compulsory to follow covid19 rules >>> many physical aspects of the restrictions introduced in the pandemic
still remain showing how there is an unwillingness amoung society and
local government to move on and go back to normality.
Look at the transport. On the TFL trains there still stickers on all the >>> windows telling you to wear the mask. On the floors of train stations
especially my area and many train stations there is stickers on the
floor telling you to social distance.
The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan kept telling us the people of London to
wear a mask when using the transport in the city. Sadiq Khan attended a
boxing match and he caught in a packed audience not wearing the mask.
The camera zoomed in on the Mayor sitting in the audience, that was
embarrassing to see on the TV.
My local jobcentre still has all the covid19 secure measures. The social >>> distancing tape all across the centres still exists along with many
signs telling you about covid19, the glass screen which the advisors sit >>> behind that was never there and was introduced during the pandemic.
What psees me off about the mask wearing is that it is a total fcking
sham. The Queen of England doesn't wear the mask, the leaders of the G7
were not wearing the mask at the G7 summit, the wealthy celebrities at
the met gala were not wearing the mask but the waiters and waitresses
serving the rich people the food and drink were made to wear the mask.
The Mayor of London was telling us the people of London to wear the mask >>> when using public transport. This is the same Mayor who attended a
boxing match and was caught in a packed audience not wearing the mask.
The camera zoomed in on the Mayor, it was so embrassing he has kept
quiet ever since.
So why the f*ck should I wear one?
The covid19 signs in public yes are signs but their existence is
symbolic of the unwillingness of society to move on and go back to
normal. We are still living in the shadow of covid19 and no where near
close enough to normality.
I want to do a masters degree. A couple of months earlier during the
autumn season I decided to vist some university open days. A lot of
universities in England were having their open evenings online only
which a lecturer would appear on Zoom explaining the what university
offers and the course itself. Prior to the pandemic people who wanted to >>> go university were allowed to vist the university buildings to see what
facilities the universities offered.
I was upset my life was wasted in the lockdown however I now embrace the >>> years of life I have ahead of me. Before the pandemic came to the world
we had it so good and now it's all gone I deeply regret taking it all
for granted.
I really had hope normality would come back maybe that was the problem
all along.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the UK & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://montreal.ctvnews.ca/montreal-s-canada-day-parade-cancelled-for-third-year-in-a-row-1.5849545
Montreal's Canada Day parade cancelled for third year in a row
A man waves a flag during a Canada Day parade in Montreal, on July 1,
2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham HughesA man waves a flag during a Canada >>> Day parade in Montreal, on July 1, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes >>> Lillian Roy
CTVNewsMontreal.ca Digital Reporter
Contact
Updated April 5, 2022 1:56 p.m. PDT
Published April 5, 2022 1:55 p.m. PDT
Share
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic as well as funding issues,
Montreal’s 2022 Canada Day parade has been cancelled, according to event >>> organizers.
Although government health restrictions do not prohibit parades,
organizers say the current situation makes it too risky to put on a
full-scale event.
ADVERTISEMENT
It’s the third year in a row organizers have cancelled the parade, which >>> usually includes 170,000 spectators and between 8,000 and 9,000
participants.
According to an email sent to participants, a lack of sufficient funding >>>from one of the parade’s main sponsors also played a role in its
cancellation.
"[Heritage Canada] has expressed they are unable to keep up the current
amount of funds given to make the parade a success," it reads, adding
that costs have increased as a result of inflation.
The Department of Canadian Heritage has yet to respond to CTV News about >>> the cancellation.
Organizers said Tuesday they will work to resolve funding setbacks in
time for the 2023 festivities.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
Montreal & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://www.news24.com/channel/gossip/royal-news/watch-queen-elizabeth-admits-she-felt-exhausted-from-covid-19-20220411
WATCH | Queen Elizabeth admits she felt 'exhausted' from Covid-19
accreditation
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Queen Elizabeth opens up about COVID scare
Queen Elizabeth has revealed she was left “very tired and exhausted”
after her recent battle with Covid-19. She discussed her experience with >>> a former patient whose brother and father died from the virus.
TICKER NEWS
Queen Elizabeth has spoken of serious fatigue after she contracted
Covid-19 in February despite aides downplaying her illness.
The monarch revealed her struggles on Wednesday, when she spoke to staff >>> and patients by video-link to mark the opening of a hospital unit named
in her honour in east London.
The queen's appearance comes after she withdrew from the the Royal
Maundy Service at St. George's Chapel in Windsor Castle on Thursday.
Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, who turns 96 soon, has spoken of serious
fatigue after she contracted Covid-19 in February despite aides
downplaying her illness.
At the time, Buckingham Palace said the vaccinated monarch had "mild,
cold-like symptoms".
But she was forced to cancel a series of appointments with foreign
diplomats, at the start of her record-breaking 70th year on the throne.
Queen Elizabeth recalled her experience on Wednesday when she spoke to
staff and patients by video-link to mark the opening of a hospital unit
named in her honour in east London.
Speaking to one former Covid-19 patient who required ventilation, the
queen said about the virus: "It does leave one very tired and exhausted, >>> doesn't it?"
"This horrible pandemic. It's not a nice result," she added, according
to footage released by the palace on Sunday.
The unit at the Royal London Hospital was built in record time to cope
with an influx of Covid-19 sufferers.
The construction team hailed the "Dunkirk spirit" that inspired them,
referring to the World War II retreat of British and allied forces from
northern France, in the face of a Nazi onslaught.
"Thank goodness it still exists," the queen replied.
"It is very interesting, isn't it, when there is some very vital thing,
how everybody works together and pulls together - marvellous, isn't it?" >>>
WATCH THE VIDEO HERE:
Fears for the queen's health have lingered since she had an unscheduled
overnight stay in hospital last October, which was only revealed by the
palace later.
Her public appearances have become rarer since, and she has complained
of mobility problems, as her 96th birthday approaches on 21 April.
The queen's virtual appearance also comes after she withdrew from the
the Royal Maundy Service at St. George's Chapel in Windsor Castle on
Thursday.
Prince Charles is said to be stepping in to represent his mother at the
service, which marks the start of Easter weekend, and is normally a
fixture in the queen's calendar.
Play Video
Queen Elizabeth pulls out of Easter church service 'with regret'
Queen Elizabeth II is pulling out “with regret” of an Easter event
marking Maundy Thursday at Windsor's St George's Chapel
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-61093246
Covid caution urged as Scots gather for Easter
Published1 day ago
Share
Related Topics
Coronavirus pandemic
Crowds in Glasgow
IMAGE SOURCE,PA MEDIA
Image caption,
Footfall across Scotland is expected to surge over the busy Easter weekend >>> A leading public health expert has urged people to keep following
Covid-19 advice over the busy Easter weekend.
Prof Linda Bauld told the BBC there were still high levels of infection
due to the BA.2 Omicron variant.
She said public health advice on the virus would be around for "months
to come" despite the rule on face masks becoming guidance on Monday.
Traffic jams and rail disruption have already impacted commuters across
the UK over the long weekend.
Family gatherings, a rise in church attendance and events including the
Musselburgh races are expected to contribute to higher social
interaction across Scotland.
Crowds will also have gathered at Hampden for the Scottish Cup
semi-finals with Hearts playing Hibs on Saturday and Celtic clashing
with Rangers on Sunday.
Crowds at Hearts vs Hibs at Hampden on Saturday
IMAGE SOURCE,PA MEDIA
Image caption,
Hearts supporters pictured at Hampden on Saturday during the semi-final
clash
Earlier this week the Office for National Statistics sampling showed a
slight decrease in the number of people testing positive for Covid-19 in >>> Scotland for the third week in a row.
However, Prof Bauld said despite the encouraging figures, infection
levels were still high due to the highly transmissible BA.2 variant.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, she said: "Reinfections are increasingly
common - they're accounting for around 11% of infections certainly in
Scotland.
"So if you're in indoor places with others you don't normally live with, >>> of course people may pick it up.
"They're unlikely to become severely unwell but I think in time when
we've lifted basically all the protective measures and it's down to
people's decisions, we still just need to be aware of that."
infedction rates
On Thursday Public Health Scotland reported 4,196 further cases of
Covid-19 and 40 deaths of people who had tested positive.
Fewer people are becoming severely unwell with only 20 patients with
Covid requiring intensive care on Friday, although more than 2,000
Covid-positive patients are in hospital across Scotland.
On Monday, the legal requirement to wear face masks in many indoor
settings in Scotland will become guidance.
'Protect the clinically vulnerable'
The move had been delayed twice amid record levels of Covid cases and
high numbers of people in hospital with the virus.
Speaking about the matter to the PA news agency on Sunday, First
Minister Nicola Sturgeon said she had confidence in the "good sense and
responsibility" of people in Scotland.
She said: "We can't keep things in law beyond a point where that is
deemed to be proportionate, so we will move the face covering
requirement out of law and into guidance.
"Wearing a face covering is a bit of protection you can give, not only
to yourself but to the people you might be around - including people who >>> might be more clinically vulnerable."
Covid cases in Scotland fall for third week
Lifting of Scottish face mask laws confirmed
Covid in Scotland: The latest cases
Prof Bauld echoed the Scottish government's advice for people to
continue wearing masks in crowded indoor places and on public transport. >>>
She said: "Wearing a face covering indoors even if it's not a legal
requirement, thinking about being in well ventilated places and finally
just making sure everyone is up to date with their vaccines before they
travel - this is practical advice we're going to here around the country >>> for some months to come.
"If you had Delta for example you might pick up Omicron, and you could
still become quite poorly even if you don't become severely unwell."
Prof Bauld added that new hybrid variants were still being identified
through the government's testing surveillance.
She said: "They certainly are transmissible and in fact some of them may >>> be a little bit more transmissible than what we've got at the moment but >>> they're not causing more severe disease."
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
Scotland & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
We celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
the Only Begotten Son of HaShem, Lord of Lords, Jehovah Incarnate, King
of Kings, Creator Eternal, Lamb of God, the Way, the Truth, and the Life!
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://archive.ph/OLLHi
Nicola Sturgeon reported to police for breaking her own face mask rules
First Minister accused of ‘disdain and sheer arrogance’ as police assess >>> footage which appears to show her mingling without a face covering
By
Daniel Sanderson,
SCOTTISH CORRESPONDENT
17 April 2022 • 2:50pm
Image of Nicola Sturgeon without a face mask on
Video footage shared on social media appears to show the First Minister
mixing indoors without a legally-mandated face covering
Scottish police are assessing a complaint against Nicola Sturgeon over
footage which appeared to show her breaking her own face mask law.
The First Minister visited an East Kilbride barbers shop on Saturday,
for an SNP campaign event ahead of next month’s local elections.
She wore a tartan mask when photographers and camera crews were present
for the photo-op, during which she shaved off a man’s beard.
The First Minister shaves a man's beard whilst wearing a face mask
The First Minister was initially seen to be wearing a tartan face mask
during the visit to the barber's shop CREDIT: Mick McGurk
However, mobile phone footage, apparently taken by a customer in a
barber’s chair, later emerged of Ms Sturgeon mingling at close quarters
with her face uncovered.
She appears to approach the man taking the video and brazenly strokes
his head while mimicking the sound of an electric razor.
Face mask laws in Scotland, which will be lifted on Monday after Ms
Sturgeon twice delayed their abolition, state that members of the public >>> must cover their faces in indoor public settings including barber shops. >>> Jane Lax, a former Scottish Tory treasurer who was suspended from the
party in 2019 for making “unacceptable” comments about the First
Minister online, said she had reported Ms Sturgeon to the police.
She accused Ms Sturgeon of showing “disdain and sheer arrogance” and
said she had complained about the SNP leader because the opposition
parties were not doing enough to hold her to account.
Nicola Sturgeon
Nicola Sturgeon is then seen in the same setting captured by the
previous photographer, this time without a mask
A Police Scotland spokesman said on Sunday: “We can confirm that we have >>> received a complaint which is currently being assessed.”
Despite finally agreeing to lift the final legal Covid restrictions from >>> Monday, Ms Sturgeon has urged the public to continue wearing masks
voluntarily.
She claimed on Saturday that the “vast majority” of Scots would continue >>> to follow her advice even when they were no longer under a legal
obligation to do so.
Those who break face mask laws can be issued with a £60 fixed penalty
notice by police, which is reduced to £30 if paid within 28 days.
Ms Sturgeon previously admitted to breaking her own face mask rules in
December 2020 when she was pictured having a conversation at a funeral
wake with her face uncovered.
She issued an apology for what she described as a “stupid mistake” and
did not face police action.
Last month, she did not wear a face mask at Westminster Abbey, at a
memorial service for Prince Philip.
Although she was not under a legal obligation to wear one due to
different rules in England, at the time Ms Sturgeon’s rules mandated
their use in places of worship in Scotland.
‘Virtue signalling for official photos’
Craig Hoy, the Scottish Tory MSP, posted a video of the barber shop
incident on his Twitter account:
Craig Hoy MSP
@CraigWHoy1
Vote SNP for cuts and double standards.
Jamie Halcro Johnston MSP
@jhalcrojohnston
Facemasks are still legally required in Scotland.
Embedded video
9:52 AM · Apr 17, 2022
601
Reply
Copy link
Read 159 replies
The SNP has been approached for comment.
Dr Sandesh Gulhane, health spokesman for the Scottish Tories, said: “The >>> video clearly shows Nicola Sturgeon isn’t practising what she preaches
on face masks.
“She’s happy virtue signalling for official photos, but behind closed
doors it’s clear she doesn’t believe in her own rules so why should
anyone else.
“This is blatant hypocrisy from the First Minister who has now shown her >>> true colours.
“The public, who have been under these legal Covid restrictions for over >>> two years, deserve an apology for this rule break.”
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-61154106
Published10 hours ago
Share
Related Topics
Coronavirus pandemic
Picture of a waiting room
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
Image caption,
People will now be able to sit next to each other in waiting rooms
Patients in waiting rooms in England are no longer required to socially
distance.
The new "stepping down" rules apply to NHS hospitals, GP surgeries and
emergency departments.
People will still be encouraged to wear face masks and practise good
hygiene.
In a letter to local health services, NHS England bosses said rules
needed to "adapt" with Covid-19, because the virus was widely
circulating and likely to remain endemic for some time.
Who can still get free Covid tests?
What's the guidance if I have Covid now?
Cleaning routines in England's hospitals have also been changed.
Patients with Covid will have to isolate for a week instead of 10 days.
And those exposed to the virus but without symptoms will not have to
isolate at all.
Testing rules were changed in England earlier this month, as part of the >>> government's Living with Covid plan.
'Vulnerable people'
Senior NHS bosses said they were changing the rules because of "the
pressure from Covid-19 continuing".
Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS providers, which represents
hospital trusts, said: "We need to keep reviewing our infection-control
measures.
"We know at the moment that they are very important to protect
vulnerable people but they also make it a lot more complex to run a
hospital, get through care backlogs and provide emergency care.
"What these rules are saying is each individual hospital needs to review >>> where it is up to in terms of local infection rates but also seeing how
many rooms they have in a hospital too."
'Unprecedented pressure'
There is much concern over accident-and-emergency waiting times and a
backlog of planned surgeries.
Asked in Parliament, on Tuesday afternoon, about backlogs in the NHS,
Health Secretary Sajid Javid said: "The NHS and social care are facing
unprecedented pressure because of the pandemic.
"In NHS settings and adult social care, there has been a necessity for
infection-protection controls.
"Staff absences have been higher than in normal times but the NHS has
been stepping forward to bring support with the record funding that the
government is providing both to the NHS and to adult social care."
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://amp.dailycaller.com/2022/04/20/rhode-island-democrat-proposes-doubling-income-tax-for-unvaccinated
ThoseRhode Island Democrat Pushes Bill That Would Double Income Tax For
Who Don’t Comply With Vaccine Mandate
pass[Shutterstock/PhotobyTawat]
BRIANNA LYMAN
REPORTER
April 20, 2022
2:17 PM ET
A Democratic state senator from Rhode Island is urging the state to
his COVID-19 vaccine mandate that would double income taxes for those
who don’t comply with the mandate.
Sen. Sam Bell, citing a poll showing Rhode Islanders “still strongly >support a universal vaccine mandate,” said “it’s time for us to pass my >mandate bill. Cases are rising again. Surrender isn’t working.”
The bill, introduced in March, would mandate everyone 16 and older who
is eligible for the vaccine and lives in, works in or pays personal >income taxes to the state get the jab. Those under 16 or “under >guardianship shall be required to be immunized against COVID-19, with
the responsibility for ensuring compliance falling on all parents or >guardians with medical consent powers.”
“shallFor individuals who fail to comply with the mandate, the legislation >proposed a “monthly civil penalty of fifty dollars” and violators
owe twice the amount of personal income taxes as would otherwise be >assessed.”
NYTEmployers who do not require proof of vaccination would be subject to >monthly $5,000 fines for every violation. (RELATED: Vaccines, Masks, >Staying At Home Did Not Make A Major Difference In COVID Case Rates,
Writer Says)
bill.Two senators who signed onto the bill have since removed their names,
NBC 10 News reported. Locals aren’t too happy with the proposal either, >with Dhimitris Lusiano telling the outlet he “can’t advise anybody >because everybody is different” and that he doesn’t agree with the
Republican State Sen. Jessica de la Cruz said it was “amazing” that a >senator would even propose legislation like this in an exclusive >statement to the Daily Caller.
impose a“I’ve been against any of the mandates, if anyone looks through my
social media I was quite the prolific poster. I’m not anti-vaccine, I’m >anti-coercion. It’s amazing that a state senator from Rhode Island, a >state that was founded on personal and religious liberty, would
special tax on people for exercising their religious or conscientious >belief, especially at a time when families are experiencing inflation
and rising prices.”
De la Cruz said many of her constituents have raised the alarm over the >legislation but that the bill has “little chance” of passing.
The Daily Caller has reached out to Bell but did not receive a response >at the time of publication.The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://archive.ph/YdWxj
L.A. County homeless deaths surged 56% in pandemic’s first year.
Overdoses are largely to blame
People, tents and piles of belongings on a city sidewalk
From April 1, 2020, to March 31, 2021, 1,988 deaths of homeless people
were reported in L.A. County, including 715 overdose deaths. Above, a
homeless encampment on skid row in downtown Los Angeles. (Luis Sinco /
Los Angeles Times)
BY CHRISTIAN MARTINEZ, RONG-GONG LIN II
APRIL 22, 2022 7:06 PM PT
Deaths of homeless people in Los Angeles County soared by 56% in the
year after the start of the pandemic, driven primarily by an increase in >>> overdoses, according to a study published this month.
Between April 1, 2020, and March 31, 2021, 1,988 deaths of people
experiencing homelessness were reported, up from 1,271 in the 12 months
prior, pre-pandemic, according to the Department of Public Health study. >>> The numbers in L.A. County mirror figures recorded in San Francisco over >>> a similar time period; between March 2020 and March 2021, 331 homeless
people died in the city, more than twice the number reported in any
previous year, according to a study coauthored by scientists at UC San
Francisco, the San Francisco Department of Public Health and New York
University.
The L.A. County report, unlike past years, does not provide a homeless
death rate due to restrictions put on the annual homeless count.
“The findings in this report reflect a true state of emergency on the
streets across our County,” First District Supervisor Hilda L. Solis
said in a release. “In a civil society, it is unacceptable for any of us >>> to not be profoundly disturbed by the shocking needs documented in this
year’s homeless mortality report.”
In the year surveyed, 179 homeless people died of COVID-19, accounting
for about a quarter of the increase in overall deaths from the year prior. >>> Still, a surge in fatal overdoses was the primary driver of the
increase. In the pre-pandemic year, the Department of Public Health
reported just over 400 overdose deaths. In the year after the outbreak,
that figure nearly doubled, to 715.
For some homeless advocates, the results are disturbing but not unexpected. >>> “Increases in overdoses are not surprising; we’ve seen it anecdotally,”
said Homeless Healthcare Los Angeles medical director Dr. Susan Partovi. >>> “We’re trying to give everyone Narcan [an overdose-reversing nasal
spray] as much as possible.”
MONTEBELLO, CA - OCTOBER 14: Bill Bodner, DEA Special Agent in Charge
for the Los Angeles Field Division at a news conference held to announce >>> the largest domestic seizure of methamphetamine in the division's
history. According to DEA the seizure of controlled substances, 2,224
pounds of methamphetamine, 893 pounds of cocaine and 13 pounds of heroin >>> occurred on Oct. 2 by agents who served search warrants at multiple
narcotic stash houses in Moreno Valley and Perris. The operation was the >>> result of an investigation into a large-scale drug-trafficking
organization with ties to the Sinaloa Cartel. warehouse on Wednesday,
Oct. 14, 2020 in Montebello, CA. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
CALIFORNIA
Seven charged with distributing fentanyl that killed 10 in Orange County >>> April 22, 2022
The pandemic likely exacerbated an already growing overdose issue,
driven primarily by the prevalence of fentanyl, by making it more
difficult for people experiencing homelessness to access care.
It’s harder to make an appointment for Suboxone, a medication used to
treat opioid addiction, and to access any type of resources, Partovi said. >>> Partovi called for the implementation of safe injection sites, like
those in New York City, to combat the opioid epidemic. Such sites allow
the use of drugs while providing clean needles and other medical
treatment as well as monitoring users for overdoses.
“We need to stop vilifying people who are addicted to drugs,” Partovi said. >>> Young, Latino and Black people experiencing homelessness bore the brunt
of the increase in deaths, according to the report.
Overall deaths increased by more than 105% among those ages 18 to 29, by >>> 69% among Latinos and by 58% among Black people.
Nearly 200 more Black homeless people died in the year after the start
of the pandemic than in the year prior, while there were 334 more deaths >>> among Latinos.
Soledad Enrichment Action community health outreach worker Maria Mejia,
53, left, gives information about COVID-19 vaccines
CALIFORNIA
‘Alarming’ disparities leave parts of L.A. County hit hard by COVID-19
March 2, 2022
Young, Latino and Black homeless people were also most affected by
overdose deaths, with increases of more than 112% for both 18- to
29-year-olds and 30- to 49-year-olds, 84% for Latinos and 74% for Black
people.
In addition, homicide deaths rose by nearly 50%, and deaths from traffic >>> injuries rose by more than 30%.
The county has attempted to address barriers to care during the pandemic >>> and worked to provide services and support to homeless people, including >>> crisis response teams to connect unhoused people to coronavirus testing
and vaccinations, said public health director Barbara Ferrer.
An estimated 65% of people experiencing homelessness in L.A. County have >>> received at least one dose of vaccine, a decent but not ideal
percentage, Ferrer said.
The county has made efforts to offer unhoused residents places where
they can quarantine or be isolated, Ferrer said, and Project Roomkey
hotel rooms can prevent medically vulnerable people from living in a
situation that would create more danger for them because of COVID-19.
LOS ANGELES, CA - JANUARY 27: (Editor's note: This photo is initially
for a Hayley Smith story.) Gabriela Martinez, right, is preparing a
vaccination for Blandly Amaya at South Central Family Health Center on
Thursday, Jan. 27, 2022 in Los Angeles, CA. The center is located in a
neighborhood with the highest Omicron case rates in the county.
(Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times)
SCIENCE
How many California lives were saved by COVID-19 vaccines? Scientists
have an answer
April 22, 2022
“So I do want to give the county a lot of credit and all of the workers
— and we’ve got a lot of private organizations as well helping — that
have done everything we can,” she said. “But I still think the root of
the problem of homelessness has, during the pandemic, led to an increase >>> in mortality among people experiencing homelessness.”
The county plans to expand harm-reduction services with a focus on
Latino and Black homeless people, increase the distribution of naloxone
and expand investments in other areas of care.
But the report also notes that deaths of homeless people have been
trending upward for years, without the aid of a pandemic.
“This recent increase, while notably large, is consistent with a
longer-term trend … since 2014,” the report said.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/04/21/1094123780/battle-over-cdcs-powers-goes-far-beyond-travel-mask-mandate
Battle over CDC's powers goes far beyond travel mask mandate
April 21, 20225:42 PM ET
Pien Huang
PIEN HUANG
3-Minute Listen
Download
A discarded mask is seen on the floor inside New York's John F. Kennedy
Airport on Tuesday, a day after a federal judge in Florida struck down
the CDC's mask mandate for public transportation.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
In a startling rebuke to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, >>> a federal judge in Florida on Monday struck down an agency order that
required people nationwide to wear masks on public transportation to
prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The travel mask mandate had been in place for 14 months, implemented
shortly after President Biden's inauguration, and was a key part of the
country's response to the pandemic. The decision strikes at the heart of >>> the CDC's mission.
In court documents, the judge described the order as "unlawful" and
claimed "the Mask Mandate exceeds the CDC's statutory authority."
The news of the ruling was celebrated by some – videos of airline
passengers ripping off their masks and rejoicing trended online.
The judge who tossed mask mandate misunderstood public health law, legal >>> experts say
SHOTS - HEALTH NEWS
The judge who tossed mask mandate misunderstood public health law, legal >>> experts say
But the decision against the CDC raised concerns in the public health
community. It's the latest in a series of challenges to the agency's
authorities that could hamstring its ability to respond to this pandemic >>> and public health crises to come.
"It's stunning, the extent to which the courts are reading federal
statutes in the most cramped, narrow way possible to sharply limit the
powers that the federal government can exercise now or in response to
future emergencies," says Lindsay Wiley, a health law professor at
University of California, Los Angeles.
Sponsor Message
The CDC and Justice Department disagree with the mask ruling and are
proceeding with an appeal. In the CDC's assessment, "an order requiring
masking in the indoor transportation corridor remains necessary for the
public health," the agency said in a statement. Further, "CDC believes
this is a lawful order, well within CDC's legal authority to protect
public health."
In the face of an unprecedented pandemic, the public health agency has
flexed its regulatory powers to issue sweeping, legally binding orders
that have affected travel, housing and migration. The agency is now
facing a backlash over some of its actions from courts and Congress.
Limits on public health powers may be gaining popularity now, but health >>> law experts say the moves are shortsighted; they warn that the
restrictions could undercut the ability of health officials to respond
effectively now and in the future.
Supreme Court slapdown on the eviction ban
If the reasoning behind this week's travel mask mandate ruling was hazy, >>> the Supreme Court decision last August on the CDC's eviction moratorium
was clear: in a 6-3 decision, the court found that the CDC had "exceeded >>> its authority" in banning landlords across the country from ousting
delinquent renters.
The rationale for the moratorium was that evictions could contribute to
the spread of COVID-19 by making it harder for people to isolate or
quarantine.
That the CDC put a stay on evictions in the first place was a move that
surprised many, says Wiley. "I think the eviction moratorium really
pushed the limits of what CDC is authorized to do," she says,
"Intuitively, a lot of the general public and a lot of federal judges
felt that this isn't exactly what CDC's role should be – that it should
be left to state and local governments to think about how to handle
evictions during the pandemic."
The Supreme Court's majority opinion hammered home the point: "[T]he
C.D.C. has imposed a nationwide moratorium on evictions in reliance on a >>> decades-old statute that authorizes it to implement measures like
fumigation and pest extermination," it reads, "It strains credulity to
believe that this statute grants the C.D.C. the sweeping authority that
it asserts."
The CDC's regulatory powers stem from the Public Health Services Act of
1944 – "a very old statute that hasn't been updated since," says Larry
Gostin, director of the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health >>> Law at Georgetown University. The law, signed by President Franklin D.
Roosevelt, predated the founding of the CDC by two years. It gave the
public health branch of the federal government powers to, for instance,
enforce quarantine laws.
Decades later, those legal powers are in need of an update: "There's so
much that has changed, but CDC's powers haven't," Gostin says, citing
world travel, mass migration and other factors that contribute to global >>> disease spread.
The increasing conservatism of the courts also factored into the Supreme >>> Court rebuke over the eviction moratorium, UCLA's Wiley says. The stay
on evictions, which was first issued in September 2020, "was upheld by
federal courts when it was being defended by the Trump administration,"
Wiley notes. It was only "when it was being defended by the Biden
administration before a changing judiciary," that court challenges
started skewing against the government, and the Supreme Court struck it
down, she says.
The Supreme Court decision set a precedent that may empower lower courts >>> to further limit public health powers, says James Hodge, a health law
professor at Arizona State University. It puts the CDC's powers under a
microscope, and opens it up to other challenges. "I think courts will
take the [Supreme Court] decision and say things like, 'It's clear the
Supreme Court does not envision [the CDC] having the direct federal
authority to do what states should be doing," he says. The decision was
cited in the district court ruling this week that struck down the
federal mask mandate.
It also forces the CDC to rethink its strategies as it faces other court >>> challenges. "You get cold feet when you see what can happen to your
scope and authority, when an entity like the Supreme Court gets hold of
it," Hodge says, "Especially in a more conservative court that ... is
issuing opinions that are about less about what's in the public health
interest, and more about agency authority."
Other public health orders challenged
The CDC has issued some broad and far-reaching nationwide orders during
the pandemic. Beyond issuing travel requirements and banning evictions,
it has banned migrants at the borders and grounded the cruise industry
for periods during the pandemic. These orders were punishable by fines
and criminal penalties.
"This has been the largest and most expansive use of regulatory
authority [by CDC], given the unprecedented nature of this pandemic
threat," Dr. Martin Cetron, director of the CDC's division of global
migration and quarantine, told NPR in March 2021, "While we've been
reshaping and modernizing our public health authorities for decades –
and we've used them in smaller ways, on an individual basis, in the past >>> – this pandemic has called for the more broad, population-based use of
public health authorities."
The CDC did not make anyone available for comment for this story despite >>> multiple requests.
While the CDC's authorities from Congress haven't changed in decades,
there have been efforts by the CDC to more clearly define them, most
recently with a set of rules, created at the tail end of the Obama
administration that spelled out the CDC's authority to detain and
quarantine individuals that might be harboring dangerous infectious
diseases.
"Those regulations were firmly entrenched pre-COVID," says Arizona
State's Hodge, who serves as a regional director for the Network for
Public Health Law. "Those rules are what CDC attempted to follow. But
they got tripped up on political hurdles, and got into some hot water
related to their breadth and scope."
The cruise industry pushed back against a months-long "no-sail" order
and the CDC's long list of requirements for restarting, alleging unfair
treatment from the agency. Immigration advocates railed against a CDC
order under Title 42 that turned migrants away at U.S. land borders for
the stated purpose of limiting the spread of COVID-19.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky
made the decision on April 1 to rescind immigration restrictions related >>> to COVID-19 that were first implemented during the Trump administration. >>> Greg Nash/AFP via Getty Images
The CDC announced earlier this month that it's winding down its Title 42 >>> order – now set to expire May 23. The introduction of COVID-19 from
migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border has "ceased to be a serious danger to >>> the public health," CDC Director Rochelle Walensky wrote in the decision. >>>
Health law experts say the public health rationale for establishing it
in the first place was shaky, and made the agency appear politicized.
"Recently, a judge said, I think quite rightly, 'This has nothing to do
with public health. This is just to do with politics and border policy,' >>> " Georgetown's Gostin says. While a ban on migrants may serve a
president's immigration policy goals, using public health rationale as
political cover can weaken the agency, he says. "CDC must always act
with evidence, and they must always show a scientific rationale for what >>> they do – never a political one and never stretch beyond what CDC was
designed to do, which is to protect the American public in ways that
individual states can't."
Losing the bully pulpit
When the CDC's travel masking order was invalidated by the federal
judges in Florida, the agency was only able to recommend that travelers
continue wearing masks.
When the agency issues advice – on masks, on testing, on quarantining
and isolation – its guidance is routinely questioned and many states go
on to craft their own policies.
As the CDC's hard powers get challenged in court, the CDC's soft powers
– its ability to persuade through reputation and reason – have also
taken a hit.
In the past, "CDC has never had national authority over what states do
in public health, and yet we haven't had the problems we're having now," >>> Dr. William Foege, a former CDC director, said during a panel discussion >>> this month. "If there was even an outbreak investigation, CDC had to be
asked by the state or a county or a city or a tribe to do that
investigation ... and yet the system worked so well that it was never a
problem. We didn't need more authority."
Previously, states took CDC guidance as a basis to regulate. "Even
though CDC wasn't passing the laws, the fact that the CDC said, 'this is >>> what we think people should do' carried a lot of weight," says Liza
Vertinsky, a health law professor at Emory University.
But the agency's reputation has been tarnished by perceptions of
politicization during the pandemic. The CDC has lost public confidence
and trust, and its guidance is now frequently treated as a suggestion by >>> some states and as a trigger for active opposition by others. "I think
they can do less than they should be able to do," Vertinsky says of the
CDC, "because when they issue the guidance, it no longer carries the
weight."
Limits on public health powers have risks
The conundrum for public health officials, tasked with navigating a
pandemic while their powers and popularity wane, extends to state and
local authorities. Some legislatures are limiting the scope and duration >>> of public health orders on masking, vaccinations and gatherings, and
requiring more public and political input for disease mitigation measures. >>>
"There's no question that the nation's public health authorities are
being challenged at all levels," says Dr. Georges Benjamin, head of the
American Public Health Association. "We are tying the hands of our
nation's public health officials, and we need to stop and think about
that because you cannot manage an emergency by committee."
The move to curb so many public health powers strikes some as myopic.
"People on all parts of the political spectrum need to understand that
the next pandemic might look very different," says Wendy Parmet, health
law professor at Northeastern University, "What if the next disease
kills kids, not adults? Are we going to force kids to go to school in
person?"
In the next pandemic, the political dynamics could be flipped.
Republicans might prefer to be more aggressive at disease control than
Democrats, as happened with the Ebola outbreak in 2014, when
"Republicans [wanted] more quarantines, and Democrats were arguing for a >>> much more lenient approach," Parmet says. "We need to prepare for the
unknown. We need to have the imagination to understand that what comes
next might not look either epidemiologically or politically like what
we've seen."
The CDC must "tread carefully" as it determines how to respond to court
challenges to its powers, Arizona State's Hodge says. The agency has
asked the Justice Department to appeal this week's travel mask mandate
ruling, to help preserve the agency's public health authorities.
There are big benefits to winning an appeal – and clear risks to losing. >>> Currently, the district court ruling is a limited decision with "very
little precedential value," Hodge says. A failed appeal in a higher
court could put permanent limits on the CDC's regulatory powers.
For the future, the CDC's authorities should be clearly defined,
Georgetown's Gostin says. "The CDC needs to have power, so it doesn't
always have to look behind its shoulder at what some governor, some
congressperson, or some judge is saying. They need to act decisively and >>> flexibly," he says. "But they also need to respect individual liberty
and act with evidence and always act using the least restrictive
alternative."
He says these principles, stretched and magnified by COVID-19, should be >>> assigned to the agency as part of a modernization act from Congress,
which hasn't significantly updated the CDC's powers since 1944. "We need >>> to make sure that they have the kind of modern legal tools that any
public health agency needs to do a good job."
But in the current political climate, when public health mandates are
unpopular and public health workers are facing attacks, "it's just as
likely CDC would be curtailed as expanded" as part of a congressional
reexamination of its powers, Gostin says.
By all accounts, including its own, the CDC has acted imperfectly in its >>> response to this pandemic. The agency has much work ahead in evaluating
how it could do better and how to regain public trust.
Even so, the push to restrain the CDC's regulatory powers is misguided,
and could lead to dangerous repercussions, Hodge warns. "When the next
threat hits us, everybody is going to turn right back to CDC and say,
'What are you doing about this? How are you responding?' "
Having less authority to issue orders to contain health threats could
backfire on the nation.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://reason.com/2022/04/27/anthony-fauci-thinks-scientific-expertise-trumps-the-rule-of-law
Anthony Fauci Thinks Scientific Expertise Trumps the Rule of Law
The president’s COVID-19 adviser embodies the arrogance of technocrats
who are sure they know what’s best for us.
JACOB SULLUM | 4.27.2022 12:01 AM
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on RedditShare by emailPrint
friendly versionCopy page URL
Anthony-Fauci-1-11-22
(CNP/AdMedia/Sipa/Newscom)
Anthony Fauci was "surprised and disappointed" by last week's ruling
against the mask mandate for travelers issued by the Centers for Disease >>> Control and Prevention (CDC). "This is a CDC issue," President Joe
Biden's top medical adviser told CNN. "It should not have been a court
issue."
Fauci, who objects to federalism as well as judicial review, embodies
the mild-mannered arrogance of technocrats who assume their scientific
expertise trumps the rule of law. Because they believe they know what is >>> best for us, they are dismayed by any attempt to limit their influence
or restrain their power.
Fauci did vaguely criticize the substance of U.S. District Judge Kathryn >>> Kimball Mizelle's decision, calling her reasoning "not sound" and "not
particularly firm." But his main point was that she had no business
determining whether the CDC had complied with the law, because courts
should not be "getting involved in things that are unequivocally public
health decisions."
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki concurred: "Public health
decisions shouldn't be made by the courts. They should be made by public >>> health experts."
But Mizelle did not make a public health decision; she made a legal
decision, based on her understanding of the relevant statutes. Contrary
to Psaki's implication, courts are not only authorized but obligated to
make such decisions, as she surely would have conceded had Mizelle ruled >>> in the CDC's favor.
The Justice Department is appealing Mizelle's ruling, but it did not
seek a stay that would have restored the mask requirement while the case >>> is pending. Although that omission may seem puzzling given the CDC's
claim that the mandate "remains necessary for the public health," it
makes sense if the administration's goal is to facilitate future power
grabs by keeping the agency's statutory authority as vague as possible.
If there is "no place for the courts" to assess the legality of
disease-control edicts, as Fauci maintains, it follows that the Supreme
Court erred not only by blocking the CDC's nationwide eviction
moratorium but even by taking up the issue. Evidently, it also should
have stayed out of the dispute over the federal vaccination-or-testing
requirement for private employees, which it likewise deemed illegal.
Fauci's impatience with legal niceties has been apparent for some time.
"The states are very often given a considerable amount of leeway in
doing things the way they want to do it," he complained in a 2020
interview with BBC Radio 4, "as opposed to in response to federal
mandates, which are relatively rarely given."
The result, Fauci explained, was "a considerable disparity, with states
doing things differently in a nonconsistent way." That "disparity," he
averred, "has been a major weakness in our response" to the pandemic.
The "leeway" that bothers Fauci is required by the Constitution, which
leaves states with the primary responsibility for addressing public
health threats under a broad "police power" that the federal government
was never given. So his beef is not simply with the way COVID-19 policy
happened to play out in the United States; it is an objection to our
system of government.
Biden Begins Using Clemency To Ameliorate the Damage Done by the
Draconian Drug Policies He Long Supported
That system limits the federal government to specifically enumerated
powers, which do not include a general mandate to fight communicable
diseases or protect public health. At the same time, the Constitution
and Supreme Court precedent prohibit states as well as the federal
government from violating certain rights, even during a public health
emergency.
That explains why courts heard and sometimes upheld objections to
COVID-19 control policies that restricted religious gatherings, the
right to keep and bear arms, and access to abortion. If Fauci is right
that such policies should be left to government experts, all of those
interventions were misbegotten, regardless of their legal merits.
"It's a bad precedent when decisions about public health issues are made >>> by people [who] don't have experience or expertise in public health,"
Fauci told Fox News on Saturday. Americans should be thankful that the
courts do not share his confusion.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://archive.ph/aOMrh
Committee says international travel should not be singled out in
response to any future pandemics
An empty check-in area at Heathrow airport on 1 April 2020
An empty check-in area at Heathrow airport on 1 April 2020. Photograph:
Paul Childs/Reuters
Gwyn Topham Transport correspondent
@GwynTopham
Sun 24 Apr 2022 19.01 EDT
International travel should be protected in future pandemics, MPs have
urged, describing the Covid restrictions imposed by the UK government as >>> confusing, arbitrary and disproportionate.
The Commons transport select committee said the government should learn
lessons from the coronavirus pandemic to create a predictable and
transparent system for future public health crises, to support
travellers and the aviation industry.
In a critical report, it said the curbs on foreign travel during the
pandemic were “disproportionate to the risks to public health”.
The cross-party committee said restrictions should be comparable to
those applied domestically, and international travel should not be
“singled out”.
The report concludes that the “decision-making process was not
transparent or consistent, nor based on scientific consensus”, resulting >>> in rules that caused “a severe financial shock to the sector”.
The committee also criticised ministers for abdicating all
responsibility for the queues, cancellations and delays seen this Easter >>> as airlines and airports struggled to recruit staff in time for a
resurgence in passenger demand, after the sudden lifting of all Covid
isolation and testing requirements.
It said the government was attempting to “lay the blame on an aviation
sector decimated by restrictions and a lack of certainty offered by
ministers”, but should review its own recruitment and training
processes. Airlines and airports have complained of delays in government >>> security checks for job applicants.
The committee’s chair, Huw Merriman, said: “Government action was
inconsistent. It left industry and passengers confused and unable to
plan ahead. This resulted in a severe economic deficit for the aviation
sector.
“Ministers must get on with protecting the sector against future
economic shocks and reassuring passengers that future restrictions will
only be implemented in extreme circumstances. Legislation is urgently
needed to give the industry more flexibility to recruit new staff for
the summer, to give the regulator more teeth to intervene on behalf of
consumers and to provide protection from airline insolvencies.”
He added: “Above all, we want ministers to be transparent with industry
and passengers. Over Easter we witnessed a sector in the early stages of >>> recovery and vulnerable to disruption. The increase in demand is
encouraging but a sustained and supportive approach from government is
vital to nurse the sector back to recovery.”
The report calls for measures including publishing a promised aviation
recovery plan; introducing an airline insolvency bill to protect
consumers, employees and taxpayers; and giving the regulator more powers >>> to fine airlines for not refunding customers when required.
The Airport Operators Association said the report was “welcome
recognition of the devastating impact the pandemic had on aviation”. Its >>> chief executive, Karen Dee, said: “We join the committee in calling for
a comprehensive recovery package that allows our sector to recover
sustainably and prevents the UK from falling behind our international
competitors.”
The latest indictment of the UK’s Covid travel policies follows a
critical National Audit Office report last week that found central
government lost track of spending and made up rules on the hoof – as
well as leaving the taxpayer on the hook for around £400m for quarantine >>> hotels that ministers thought would be paid for by travellers.
Sign up to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every weekday
morning at 7am
Again, the only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving
lives, in the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly (
http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given moment,
including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly contagious
(i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to call
their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping
this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while preparing for the
worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations and others like the
Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage
mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and again hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So again, how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-61270786
Covid infections in record drop of nearly one million, says ONS
Published1 day agocommentsComments
Share
Related Topics
Coronavirus pandemic
Women wearing masks in London
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
There has been a record drop in the number of Covid infections in the
UK, according to the latest estimates from the Office for National
Statistics.
Around 2.87 million people would have tested positive in the week to 23
April - 900,000 fewer than the week before.
Covid levels are declining in England, Scotland and Wales but are
unchanged in Northern Ireland.
Despite the decreases in all age groups in most of the UK, the ONS said
infections remained high.
"We are yet to see if this is part of a larger trend," said Kara Steel,
senior statistician for the Covid-19 Infection Survey.
One in 23 would test positive for the virus under the latest estimates,
down from one in 17 the week before - a 24% decrease.
That equates to the largest week-on-week fall in total infections since
the ONS started its survey in July 2020.
UK infections continue to fall - ONS
The figures are an estimate, based on tests on thousands of people in
random households across the UK.
They provide the most accurate picture of Covid now that free testing
for the public in England has come to an end.
Some free testing will continue in Scotland until the end of April, and
in Wales and Northern Ireland until the end of June.
The ONS research found:
One in 25 people in England has Covid (down from one in 17)
One in 18 in Wales has Covid (down from one in 15)
One in 25 in Northern Ireland has Covid (which is little changed from
the week before)
One in 25 in Scotland has Covid (down from one in 19)
Infections fell in all regions of England. They are highest in the North >>> East (6.1% testing positive) and lowest in London (3.6%).
And infections in England are coming down among the over-70s (to 5%),
younger adults and children, with the steepest falls among the youngest
- those aged two to 10 (2%).
Official UK data shows the number of people being admitted to hospital
with Covid continues to fall.
Figures had risen from about 1,100 a day in mid-February to nearly 2,400 >>> by the end of March, but they have since dropped to about 1,455
admissions each day.
Meanwhile, the number of hospital patients with the virus in
intensive-care beds is now around 325.
Data for mid-April shows 1,150 people died during the previous week with >>> Covid-19 on their death certificate - suggesting it is very likely to be >>> the underlying cause of death.
There were 1,673 deaths a week in mid-January.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-61272252
contactPeople with Covid in Scotland no longer need to self-isolate
Published1 day ago
Share
Related Topics
Coronavirus pandemic
Girl looking out of window
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
People with Covid in Scotland no longer need to self-isolate and
tracing has come to an end as case numbers continue to fall.
last week.Covid-19 infections have dropped for the fifth successive week, with >about one in 25 people having the virus, compared with one in 19
Following a change in Scottish government guidance, anyone feeling
unwell with Covid symptoms is now advised to just stay at home.
phaseWhy do we no longer need to self-isolate?
A woman looks out her window
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
Health Secretary Humza Yousaf says Scotland is now in a "different
of the pandemic" and is "focused on reducing severe harm of the virus".
Covid-19 is effectively now being treated in the same way as any other >virus.
an end.What is happening with testing?
Covid testing
IMAGE SOURCE,PA MEDIA
You will no longer be advised to take a PCR test, mass testing has
ended, testing sites are closing and test and trace has finished. Free >lateral flow tests for the general population have already come to
date.The Protect Scotland app will be closed down but users are advised to >keep the app on their phones in case it is needed again at a future
What are the Covid symptoms?
New recognised symptoms
Scotland's list of official Covid-19 symptoms has now been expanded, >bringing it closer in line with guidance in the rest of the UK.
The original signs of a Covid infection that were recognised in the UK >were fever, new continuous cough and loss of sense of smell or taste.
Additions to the list in Scotland now include: shortness of breath, >unexplained tiredness, lack of energy, muscle aches or pains, unusual >hunger, headaches, sore throat, stuffy or runny nose, and diarrhoea, >feeling sick or being sick.
theirWhat do I do if I have symptoms?
Woman sneezing
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
Adults who have symptoms of Covid and other respiratory illnesses and >have a high temperature, or do not feel well enough to go to work or >carry out normal activities, will be advised to stay at home until
fever has gone or they feel well enough.
as aChildren and young people aged 18 and under with mild symptoms such
runny nose, sore throat, or slight cough who are otherwise well, do not >need to stay at home and can continue to attend education settings.
The Scottish government says this reflects the fact that children and >young people generally have a higher likelihood than adults of regular >instances of respiratory symptoms from non-Covid illnesses.
How is the NHS affected?
woman in mask being swabbed by person in visor
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
Image caption,
Health and social care workers are among those who can still be tested >NHS Scotland has now also been taken out of emergency footing as Covid >cases continue to fall.
carersHowever, testing will remain available to certain groups including
health and social care workers, care home and hospital visitors,
patients groups eligible for treatment, hospital patients, unpaid
and people in prison.
What is the expert opinion?
linda bauld
IMAGE SOURCE,UNIVERSITY OF EDINBUGH
Public health expert Prof Linda Bauld says people can still become
really unwell with Covid and those with a high temperature are strongly >advised to stay at home. If they still have lateral flow tests in the >house and test positive, adults should isolate for five days and
children for three days.
She warns that the pandemic is not over yet and says measures may need
to be reassessed if a new Covid-19 variant "really challenged" the >progress made.
olderAre vaccinations still happening?
elderly woman given vaccine
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
Those eligible for the spring booster are adults aged 75 years and over >(or who will turn 75 by 30 June 2022), residents in care homes for
immuneadults and individuals aged 12 years and over who have a weakened
systems.
For some immunosuppressed people this may be their fifth jab, as extra >doses were given to those with certain health conditions.
All five to 11-year-olds in the UK are eligible for a low-dose Covid >vaccine.
coveringsWhat is the situation with masks?
Woman on a train in a mask
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
People in Scotland are no longer legally required to wear face
stillin crowded indoor places such as shops and restaurants, or on public >transport. However, the Scottish government and health experts are
strongly advising people to continue to wear masks voluntarily.The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-61276303
Covid breach court case criticised by Bedford gym owner
By Jon Ironmonger
BBC Look East
Published19 hours ago
Share
Alex Lowndes
IMAGE SOURCE,GAINZ FITNESS & STRENGTH
Image caption,
Alex Lowndes said gyms should never have been closed
A gym boss who is among more than 20 people who overturned a prosecution >>> for a gym-related Covid breach said the case against him was a waste of
time.
Alex Lowndes refused to close his Gainz Fitness & Strength in Bedford in >>> November 2020, when restrictions were imposed in England.
Bedford Borough Council's case collapsed but the authority said it had
acted in the public interest.
A lawyer told the BBC she had successfully defended 23 similar cases.
Under Covid regulations at the time - the second national lockdown in
England - sports venues could only open in limited circumstances, such
as for the training of elite athletes.
Gainz Fitness and Strength
IMAGE SOURCE,BEDFORDSHIRE POLICE
Image caption,
Police gave a prohibition notice to Gainz Fitness & Strength in Bedford
in November 2020
Infection rates and hospital admission were rising in the area but Mr
Lowndes said he felt strongly that gyms should remain open.
'Based on principle'
"It became clear it was an airborne disease, you're more prone to it if
you're unhealthy, overweight, etc, and gyms contributed a very small
amount to the spread of the virus," he said.
"From a mental health point of view, gyms are really important, people
depend on them, and I think people underestimate that.
"[Contesting the case] was based on principle. We should never have shut >>> in the first place and we stand by what we did at the time."
The gym was raided in November 2020 and Mr Lowndes charged with a breach >>> of lockdown regulations, which he denied.
He faced a £10,000 fine and was due to stand trial last in March but the >>> council failed to gather enough evidence.
The authority requested an adjournment, which was rejected by magistrates. >>>
presentational grey line
Cases successfully defended
Lucinda Nicholls
IMAGE SOURCE,NICHOLLS & NICHOLLS
Image caption,
Lucinda Nicholls said the prosecutions "make no sense"
Gyms in England and Wales were forced to close over various periods
during the pandemic but many defied the measures to stay open.
London-based criminal defence lawyer Lucinda Nicholls said she had
represented 25 cases involving an alleged gym-related Covid breach, 23
of which were found in favour of her client.
In most cases, a fixed penalty notice was issued when there was an
exception or reasonable excuse argument, she said.
"The biggest issue is enforcement of the legislation - the law hasn't
been followed, but councils and prosecutors doggedly insist on
proceeding, it makes no sense," she added.
"We've been in scenarios where costs have just added and added, and
we've written to the local authority saying, 'Why are you doing this?'
This is completely unnecessary'."
Local Authorities as well as the police or Crown Prosecution Service
have the power to issue and pursue fixed penalty notices in the courts.
The CPS said each case was considered based on its "individual merits"
and prosecutions followed "whenever our legal test is met".
The Local Government Association did not wish to comment.
presentational grey line
Mr Lowndes claimed the council case was "flimsy" and "inept", and that
it was also "ludicrous" to continue to prosecute people for exercising
after details of the "partygate" gatherings in Westminster emerged.
"They [the council] should have looked at it even six months in and gone >>> 'this is a waste of time'," he added.
"But they kept going and they kept going, they brought in an external
barrister, they kept spending money, and it just got out of control."
Gainz Fitness & Strength in Bedford
IMAGE SOURCE,GAINZ FITNESS & STRENGTH
Image caption,
Gainz Fitness & Strength in Bedford is a 24-hour gym
Bedford Borough Council said regulations were enforced in line with its
duty at the time.
"We brought this case because there was ample evidence for a successful
prosecution following the non-payment of a fixed penalty notice and
because it was in the public interest," said a council spokesman.
"It is important that we remember that the threat posed by the virus
then was very different to that which we face now."
"The pandemic isn't over but the combination of immunity from prior
infection, vaccinations and antivirals has made it possible for us to
return cautiously to the activities that we love."
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-61349651
Hepatitis in children mystery still being investigated as cases rise
By Philippa Roxby
Health reporter
Published22 hours ago
Share
Related Topics
Coronavirus pandemic
A child in hospital
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
UK health officials say they are still no clearer on the cause of a rise >>> in liver inflammation, or hepatitis, in children.
A common adenovirus is thought to play a role, but other possibilities
are still being investigated.
In the UK, 163 cases have now been identified, and 11 children have
received liver transplants.
Cases have been detected in 20 countries worldwide, with nearly 300
children affected, and one death.
"It's important that parents know the likelihood of their child
developing hepatitis is extremely low," said Dr Meera Chand, from the UK >>> Health Security Agency (UKHSA).
She said parents should still be alert to the signs - particularly
jaundice, a yellow tinge in the whites of the eyes - and they should
contact a doctor if concerned.
Since last week, another 18 children in the UK with hepatitis have been
identified - 118 live in England, 22 in Scotland, 13 in Wales and 10 in
Northern Ireland.
The children's most common symptoms were jaundice and vomiting - and
most have been under five years old.
Hepatitis in children: What is causing it?
Hepatitis detected in nearly 300 children worldwide
Child hepatitis cases falsely linked to Covid jab
The UKHSA's latest report on cases says there is "some apparent
reduction in confirmed cases in the past two weeks overall in the UK".
What's puzzling scientists is that the most likely cause - adenovirus -
doesn't normally make children seriously unwell. Passed from person to
person via coughs and sneezes, it can cause colds, vomiting and diarrhoea. >>>
However, it's very unusual for adenovirus to be a cause of severe
hepatitis in otherwise healthy children, but it has been circulating at
high levels since the start of the year after virtually disappearing
during the pandemic.
Genetic analysis of samples from some children has found a type of virus >>> called AAV-2 - but it doesn't typically cause illness either, the report >>> says.
Scientists are also keeping a close eye on another type of adenovirus,
called F41.
"Our investigations continue to suggest that there is an association
with adenovirus, and our studies are now testing this association
rigorously," Dr Chand said.
"We are also investigating other contributors."
These include whether a new variant of adenovirus has developed which is >>> making children more ill, or whether a previous infection, such as
Covid, could be a factor.
The latter is highly probable given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic
especially in the U.K. and the known post-COVID inflammatory syndrome
(MIS-C) that happens in some children and can affect GI organs, which
includes the liver.
Suggested reading:
https://emergency.cdc.gov/han/2020/han00432.asp
Another possibility is that the pandemic, by delaying young children's
exposure to a number of different viruses because of reduced social
mixing, may have made them more prone to becoming ill.
And health officials are also exploring whether there could be a link
with dogs. A number of families affected said they owned dogs or had
come into contact with them, but UKHSA also acknowledges that having a
pet dog is common in the UK.
The UKHSA says there is no evidence of any link to the Covid-19 vaccine, >>> because most children with hepatitis were too young to receive it.
It's impossible for the COVID-19 vaccines to cause anything in
children who did not receive them.
In the interim, the only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby
saving lives, in the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly (
http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given moment,
including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly contagious
(i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to call
their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping
this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while preparing for the
worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations and others like the
Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage
mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10804993/SAGE-models-scary-held-weight-says-lockdown-architect-them.html
SAGE models were too 'scary' and held too much weight... says lockdown
architect behind them! No10 Covid expert admits death forecasts were
'eye watering' and should have considered economy
Professor John Edmunds said Covid models were only supposed to be 'one
component' of decision-making
He accepted models failed to account for the economic and health harms
that Covid lockdowns caused
SAGE member admitted these harms 'in principle' could have been factored >>> in 'but in practice they were not'
By EMILY CRAIG HEALTH REPORTER FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 11:20 EDT, 11 May 2022 | UPDATED: 12:59 EDT, 11 May 2022
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Professor John Edmunds (pictured), a SAGE modeller, said scientists'
projections of Covid infections, hospitalisations and deaths was only
'one component' of decision-making but were leaned on too much by ministers >>> +5
View gallery
Professor John Edmunds (pictured), a SAGE modeller, said scientists'
projections of Covid infections, hospitalisations and deaths was only
'one component' of decision-making but were leaned on too much by ministers >>>
Britain relied too much on 'very scary' SAGE models to decide on
lockdowns, according to the man behind some of those very projections.
Just months after SAGE predicted 6,000 deaths per day and called for a
Christmas lockdown in response to Omicron, Professor John Edmunds said
the models were only supposed to be 'one component' of decision-making
but were leaned on too much by ministers.
He accepted the models failed to account for the economic harm and the
knock-on health effects that lockdowns caused.
Professor Edmunds admitted that these harms 'in principle' could have
been factored into models 'but in practice they were not'.
His remarks come as Britons face the harsh reality of two years' of
shutting down the economy and health service, with the NHS grappling a
backlog crisis that has seen one in nine people in England stuck on an
NHS waiting list for treatment and inflation at its highest point in 30
years.
The epidemiologist, who was among the most outspoken members of SAGE,
said some of the death projections in the model were 'truly eye-watering'. >>>
Speaking at a medical conference on Tuesday, he said: 'The
epidemiological model is only one component [of decision-making] and I
wondered and I worried that we’d had too much weight.'
READ MORE
He added: 'There is of course an enormous economic impact from many of
the interventions and other indirect impacts on psychological health and >>> so on. Now these in principle could be included but in practice they
were not.'
Professor Edmunds called for the first lockdown to be extended in summer >>> 2021, warning Britain was 'taking a risk' by unlocking while still
logging 8,000 cases per day and that the decision was 'clearly' political. >>>
And he warned against easing the third national lockdown in early 2021,
warning it would be a 'disaster' and put 'enormous pressure' on the
health service.
Professor Edmunds' team at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical
Medicine were among four modelling groups that fed into Government
recommendations.
Professor Neil Ferguson - dubbed Professor Lockdown for his gloomy
forecasts - worked within another modelling team at Imperial College
London.
The chair of the SPI-M modelling group has previously admitted the
groups did not consider optimistic scenarios because 'that doesn't get
decisions made'.
SAGE's modelling team at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical
Medicine presented projections on infections (purple), hospitalisations
(red) and deaths (black) under different scenarios between now and
August 2022. The top graph shows hospital admissions from the beginning >>>from the pandemic. They estimated there could be 10,400 hospitalisations
in England per day at the peak of the outbreak in February in a
worst-case scenario (far right red graph), if Omicron escapes immunity >>>from vaccines and previous infection and the boosters have a low
efficacy. They assumed that Omicron will continue to grow exponentially
even under Plan B curbs, two jabs offer just 50 per cent protection
against severe disease from the mutant strain and boosters just 80 per cent >>> +5
View gallery
SAGE's modelling team at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical
Medicine presented projections on infections (purple), hospitalisations
(red) and deaths (black) under different scenarios between now and
August 2022. The top graph shows hospital admissions from the beginning >>>from the pandemic. They estimated there could be 10,400 hospitalisations
in England per day at the peak of the outbreak in February in a
worst-case scenario (far right red graph), if Omicron escapes immunity >>>from vaccines and previous infection and the boosters have a low
efficacy. They assumed that Omicron will continue to grow exponentially
even under Plan B curbs, two jabs offer just 50 per cent protection
against severe disease from the mutant strain and boosters just 80 per cent >>>
Imperial College London modelling from March 2020 showed Covid
restrictions individually were insufficient to bring down virus
hospitalisations to a level that hospitals could cope with
+5
View gallery
Imperial College London modelling from March 2020 showed Covid
restrictions individually were insufficient to bring down virus
hospitalisations to a level that hospitals could cope with
Warwick University scientists calculated there would be 6,000 deaths a
day if Plan B alone remains implemented and there is 'extreme pressure'
on the NHS. The graph shows death estimates if Plan B has low
effectiveness (top row of graphs) to high effectiveness (bottom row),
while the columns show death projections based on Omicron's severity
(low to high, left to right)
+5
View gallery
Warwick University scientists calculated there would be 6,000 deaths a
day if Plan B alone remains implemented and there is 'extreme pressure'
on the NHS. The graph shows death estimates if Plan B has low
effectiveness (top row of graphs) to high effectiveness (bottom row),
while the columns show death projections based on Omicron's severity
(low to high, left to right)
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Most recently, in the winter Omicron surge, the teams warned that daily
hospitalisations could reach 10,000 — more than four times higher than
actual peak of around 2,400. Deaths peaked 20-times lower than the
experts' worst-case scenario.
Ahead of Freedom Day last July, SAGE modelling suggested there could be
another 200,000 UK deaths in the year June 2022 in a worst-case
scenario, which was quickly disputed by other scientists who said it
underestimated the power of the vaccines.
And ahead of the winter 2020 surge, they warned deaths could hit 4,000
per day. A peak of 1,820 was logged.
Speaking at the European Society for Paediatric Infectious Diseases 40th >>> annual conference, which is taking place in Athens this week, Professor
Edmunds admitted there are weaknesses to scientific models.
WHO chief slams China's for its 'unsustainable' zero Covid policy
The head of the World Health Organization has finally criticised China's >>> Zero Covid strategy and urged it to change its policy, as millions in
Shanghai enter their seventh and most brutal week of lockdown yet.
In a rare rebuke of the Communist party, which is one of the biggest
financial contributors to the health agency, WHO director-general Tedros >>> Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the strategy was unsustainable.
'As we all know, the virus is evolving, changing its behaviours,
becoming more transmissible,' he said. 'With that changing behaviour,
changing your measures will be very important.
'When we talk about the zero-Covid strategy, we don't think it's
sustainable.' He added: 'Considering the behaviour of the virus I think
a shift [in China's strategy] will be very important.'
The WHO had previously been slammed as too 'China-centric' during the
pandemic and was accused of failing to publicly challenge Chinese
misinformation in early 2020.
Chinese censors have already censored Dr Tedros' comments, with searches >>> for the hashtags 'Tedros' and 'WHO' on the popular Weibo social media
platform displaying no results.
Users of the WeChat app have also been unable to share articles posted
on an official United Nations health agency's account.
Official Chinese modelling used to justify sticking to Zero Covid has
warned that ditching it now would unleash a 'tsunami' of infections and
kill 1.6million people this summer.
He said: 'One of the issues is that it’s only one component in
decision-making. So the epidemiological model is only one component and
I wondered and I worried that we’d had too much weight.'
There was an 'enormous economic impact' as well as harm to mental health >>>from lockdowns, which saw people unable to mix outside their household,
schools close and mandatory working from home.
He said they were left out because the link between Covid cases and
damage to the economy was 'really unclear'.
And the social and psychological impact of the restrictions are 'still
not clear' and were 'certainly not clear ahead of time', Professor
Edmunds said.
He added: 'So these things were not included. And I actually think in
many respects it was a great failure of health economics to not really
contribute to this field during the epidemic.'
Yet dozens of scientists warned throughout the pandemic about the toll
of lockdowns and restrictions on mental and physical health, as well as
the economy.
Professor Edmunds noted that Covid models fail to include factors that
are 'unknowable at the time' such as the severity of Omicron when it
emerged.
During the winter Omicron wave, SAGE models did not take account of the
variant's reduced severity, despite real-world data from South Africa
showing the strain caused milder illness.
He also noted that it is not possible to accurately predict how the
public will act in an outbreak.
Professor Edmunds has previously hit out at the Government for not going >>> into lockdowns earlier and easing restrictions too quickly, including
the scrapping of mandatory self-isolation.
He was one of the leading scientific voices when the first lockdown was
imposed in early 2020.
Detailing the response to the first wave, Professor Edmunds said: 'We
looked at different interventions and came out with truly eye watering,
very scary results, in terms of deaths, perhaps 300 to 4,000 [daily]
deaths in the UK alone if we just let the epidemic run its course.
'That’s of course without changing behaviour.
'Probably, the individual would have changed their behaviour anyway. But >>> huge numbers of deaths, huge numbers of intensive care beds usage.'
But Professor Edmunds said there are questions around how much modelling >>> helped in the UK's initial response, as the UK brought in the
stay-at-home order later than other nations.
He said: 'It certainly didn’t help us move very fast here and, in fact,
I wonder whether because we had these tools and policymakers could ask
us questions — "what about if we did this and what about if we did that" >>> — that that might have actually contributed to us actually making a
decision quite slowly.
'And in fact the speed of that lockdown was certainly the biggest
contributing factor to total numbers of deaths in the first wave.'
SAGE scientists have previously claimed their official projections have
not come to fruition due to behavioural changes among the population,
who cut their contacts when cases are on the rise, as well as high
levels of immunity following multiple waves.
The models have come under fire from other experts, who have criticised
SAGE for failing to talk to sociologist and economists when doing their
modelling, meaning they failed to incorporate 'things other people know
about'.
Professor Graham Medley, who chairs Spi-M, a modelling group that feeds
into SAGE, admitted modelling has failed to reflect the reality of how
waves unfold because they do not factor in behaviour changes, one of the >>> Government's chief pandemic advisers has admitted.
'The epidemic is dynamic,' he said. 'People's responses to the situation >>> in March 2020 were very different to those in November 2020 and very
different again in January 2021.'
Professor Medley, based at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical
Medicine, added: 'The modelling is there to understand the process and
what's going on. We know we cannot accurately predict the numbers but we >>> can give insight into the processes that determine the outcomes.'
Professor Edmunds echoed his comments at the conference yesterday,
noting it is 'not currently possible' to accurately take people's
behaviours into account in scientific models.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-61524055
Covid infections down again to one in 50, says ONS
By Philippa Roxby
Health reporter
Published6 minutes agocommentsComments
Share
Related Topics
Coronavirus pandemic
People walking along Oxford Street
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
Covid infections have fallen again to one in 50 people in the UK,
according to the latest estimates from the Office for National
Statistics (ONS).
That means around 1.27 million people had coronavirus in the week to 13
May - down 14% from the week before.
Infections have been coming down steeply since the end of March, after
the Omicron variant pushed up cases.
Over-65s and health and care staff are among groups to be offered a
vaccine in the autumn to top up protection.
Clinically vulnerable adults aged 16 to 64 will also be offered a Covid
jab ahead of the winter, when the virus could spread more widely.
A form of the Omicron variant of coronavirus, called BA.2, is the most
common cause of Covid, but two others - BA.4 and BA.5 - have now been
named 'variants of concern' by UK health officials.
"They are likely to have a growth advantage over BA.2," says the UK
Health Security Agency in its latest report on variants.
However, it cautions that this is based on a small number of cases, and
there is still a lot of uncertainty.
BA.4 and BA.5 are currently causing another Covid wave in South Africa.
In the UK, levels are very low.
UK infections continue to fall
Covid infections are now at their lowest level since mid-December, the
ONS says, based on swab tests of thousands of people in households
across the UK, whether they have symptoms or not.
Since free testing has now ended in England, and is restricted in
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the ONS survey is the most
accurate picture of the spread of Covid-19.
From the positive tests collected, the ONS estimates that infections
fell in all four UK nations in mid-May.
Current rates are:
one in 55 in England - down from one in 45 the week before
one in 40 in Wales - down from one in 35 the week before
one in 60 in Northern Ireland - down from one in 55 the week before
one in 45 in Scotland - down from one in 35 the week before
However, the ONS found that infections may no longer be falling in the
south-east and south-west of England. And among under-35s, the drop in
infections looks to be slowing down.
Sarah Crofts, head of analytical outputs for the Covid-19 Infection
Survey, said: "Today's figures continue to show a welcome decline in
infections across the UK, reaching their lowest point in England since
the start of December last year.
"While younger age groups continue to be the lowest infected, there are
early signs of the decrease slowing for under-35s.
"We will continue to monitor these patterns over the coming weeks, since >>> it is too early to say if this is part of a longer trend."
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
I am simply wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) and
hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://www.spectator.co.uk/article/boris-johnsons-guilt
Boris Johnson’s guilt
From magazine issue: 28 May 2022
Boris Johnson’s guilt
Text settings
Comments
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An ability to survive narrow scrapes has been one of Boris Johnson’s
defining qualities. The pictures of Downing Street’s lockdown social
events included in the Sue Gray report were so dull as to be almost
exculpatory: staid gatherings of half a dozen people around a long table >>> with sandwiches still in their boxes, apple juice poured into a whisky
glass. Far worse happened in No. 10 but Gray did not publish those
photos or look into (for example) the ‘Abba’ party in the No. 10 flat,
saying she felt it inappropriate to do so while police were
investigating. Luckily for Johnson.
The more damaging material came from the emails intercepted, with No. 10 >>> staff being clear that they knew they were breaking the rules they had
collectively designed and enforced on the country. The emails show No.
10 staff asked to hide wine bottles from the cameras – then joked that
they seemed to have ‘got away with’ drinks parties that broke the law.
But in the end, they did not get away with it. The Prime Minister
remains guilty – most explicitly of misleading the House of Commons when >>> he denied that any parties took place. He has shown a serious failure,
too, in not learning from his mistakes. It is no use him or anyone else >>> in government complaining about the triviality of the charges. His
government put the lockdown laws on the statute book in the first place, >>> framing them in such a way as to criminalise everyday interactions.
Now the Prime Minister’s allies plead for clemency. It is in human
nature, they say, to gather to bid farewell to a departing friend or
colleague, to offer friendship and succour. Quite so. Johnson’s allies
further argue that, as he raised his glass in a toast, he did so in a
work capacity – as evidenced by the presence of his red box. This
Jesuitical defence would be more plausible if the government’s laws had
not seen ordinary people dragged to court and found guilty of far milder >>> offences. Let us consider his defence for the leaving party:
“
I briefly attended such gatherings to thank them for their service –
which I believe is one of the essential duties of leadership.
Particularly important when people need to feel that their contributions >>> had been appreciated and to keep morale as high as possible.
Does he realise, even now, that he made it illegal for anyone to do this >>> during lockdown? Where, in his lockdown rules, was the exemption for the >>> ‘essential duties of leadership?’ Where was the clause allowing those
outside the ruling elite to have a regular ‘wine-time Friday?’ Does he
realise that he personally used the powers of his office to send the
police after anyone else who would have attended a gathering to salute a >>> departing colleague? Or, for that matter, to console a friend, visit a
dying relative or even attend a funeral in numbers greater than
stipulated by the staff of No. 10.
The Prime Minister said it was ‘right’ to salute former colleagues in a
leaving party. He’s quite correct in that it is a decent, humane thing
to do. But consider the childminder in Manchester who was fined for
delivering a birthday card to a child in her care: was it ‘right’ for
her to do so? Of course. Did this help her, when police intercepted her
to enforce the Prime Minister’s rules and took her to court? Not one
bit. His needless, draconian lockdown rules were enforced by police upon >>> millions of people, with tens of thousands taken to court. No one – not
the pensioner in his allotment, not the mother celebrating her child’s
birthday with two friends – had the chance to argue before the
magistrates that what they were doing was ‘right’.
When police went after two women in Derbyshire for the crime of walking
through a park with takeaway coffee, one might also ask: was it ‘right’
for them to seek each other’s company and avail themselves of the basic
liberty of a free country? Of course. Did Johnson’s laws prohibit this?
Unforgivably: yes. And this is the point.
Most popular
Gavin Mortimer
Marine Le Pen is right to defend Liverpool fans
Marine Le Pen is right to defend Liverpool fans
So to hear him now talk about what was ‘right’ and ‘decent’ is hard to
swallow. This magazine argued for him to decriminalise lockdown rules,
to offer guidance and leave people to judge what is ‘right’ – as was
being done with much success in Sweden and several states of America.
But Johnson refused to do so, preferring to turn Britain into a police
state. While having every intention of flouting the laws when he
considered it opportune to do so.
How ironic that in the November 2020 photograph of Boris Johnson raising >>> a toast to the spin doctor he had forced to resign, a copy of The
Spectator can be seen resting on the table. This magazine had argued
against that month’s lockdown and its needless criminalisation of
everyday life. By then, the logic for lockdowns had collapsed. But,
thanks in part to a supine opposition, No. 10 pressed ahead anyway.
Those leaving drinks took place when all other social gatherings had
been banned under pain of huge fines.
Lockdowns involved the passing of the most damaging, illiberal laws in
British postwar history. The social and economic cost is still being
counted. Johnson is guilty not simply of breaking his own rules, but of
failing to assess if those rules even worked. The sheer scale of the law >>> demanded a rigorous assessment of the policies behind it, but no serious >>> cost-benefit analysis was conducted. Nor were studies commissioned to
ask why infections seemed to have peaked before the previous lockdown.
And no one is now asking why, if lockdown was the only means of holding
back a Covid wave, Sweden has done so well without ever imposing one.
The Prime Minister has not been ‘vindicated’ as he claims. No one who
spent months trying to abide by his lockdown laws is under any doubt of
what went on. He is guilty of presiding over a gung-ho culture in which
lockdown advocates were never properly challenged. He allowed himself to >>> be bounced into taking deeply damaging decisions. His own instinct to
resist lockdown was not enough: he could have assembled ‘red-team’
advisers to challenge Sage. He could have asked the Treasury for a
cost-benefit analysis of lockdown. He could have made the second
lockdown a matter of guidance, not of law. Instead he closed society
down over and over again, asking his aides to implement laws they
themselves regularly flouted.
Johnson has further opened himself to charges of hypocrisy through his
confected fury about his former spokeswoman Allegra Stratton, who
resigned after being caught on camera making light of the parties that
were being held in No. 10. There is no suggestion that she broke any
rules. She was poking fun at the absurdity of the law and of being asked >>> to defend such a ridiculous situation.
Her laughter, Johnson declared, had caused national anger – an anger
that he said he shared. He was shocked – shocked! – to find any such
behaviour was happening in No. 10. Stratton resigned on principle, the
only person in No. 10 to have done so.
It is a damning – and accurate – charge against the Prime Minister that
he is no man of principle. Weakness in personal conduct need not
necessarily make a bad prime minister – Johnson’s hero Winston Churchill >>> drank to excess for most of the second world war. The important part of
leadership is getting the big decisions right. Johnson is often said to
be a leader who manages to do just that – and certainly on Ukraine that
claim can reasonably be made. But on Covid and lockdowns (and, recently, >>> tax rises) he got some big decisions very wrong. His predicament over
partygate is testament to that.
His failure to be guided by his instinctive liberalism has led him to
the worst and most avoidable disasters of his premiership. He can still
learn from these mistakes. But we are more than halfway through this
parliament: he does not have much time left.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/31/as-uk-covid-cases-fall-to-lowest-level-for-a-year-what-could-the-future-look-like
Coronavirus
Now that normal life has resumed for most people, will the disease
continue to remain in the background?
Crowds of rail commuters
The UK has eased back towards normality, but testing habits have changed >>> and cases could rise as the weather changes. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA
Ian Sample Science editor
@iansample
Tue 31 May 2022 01.00 EDT
After enduring record-breaking levels of Covid in the past six months,
Britain has seen cases fall to their lowest for a year. But as the
country eases back into a life more normal, will the disease remain in
the background – or is another resurgence on its way?
Science editor Ian Sample explains how the virus is changing – and why
one expert thinks infection rates “are not going to get down to very low >>> numbers again in our lifetimes”.
Why have cases fallen so low?
Britain has weathered two major waves of coronavirus in the past six
months, driven by versions of the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
At the winter peak, official figures recorded hundreds of thousands of
confirmed cases a day, although the true number of infections was
substantially higher. The surge in infections bolstered immunity to
Covid, particularly among the vaccinated, which in turn has helped to
push cases down.
Advertisement
But there are other forces at work behind the dwindling numbers.
As with much older human coronaviruses that cause the common cold, cases >>> of Covid rise and fall with the seasons, with more transmission in the
winter and less in the summer months. We are now into a period where
cases should naturally subside. Another important factor at play is the
dramatic shift in testing habits.
Since April, most people have had to pay for Covid tests, meaning far
fewer infections are being confirmed and logged as cases. Whereas
lateral flow and PCR tests in the community once detected perhaps half
of all Covid infections, they are now picking up less than one in 10,
according to Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at the University of
East Anglia. “The daily dashboard isn’t picking up anywhere near as many >>> infections as it was,” he said.
According to the government’s Covid dashboard, daily cases in England
have fallen by 98% since the start of the year. They now sit below 5,000 >>> cases a day for the first time since last June.
In contrast, the Office for National Statistics, which estimates
infection levels from swabs taken in random homes around the country,
has recorded only a 73% fall in prevalence in England, from more than 3
million people infected in the week ending 31 December to nearly 875,000 >>> in the week ending 21 May.
Advertisement
After the successive waves of infection and the UK’s mass vaccination
programme, the proportion of people with antibodies against Covid is
extremely high. In England, about 99% of over-25s have Covid antibodies, >>> but levels are high even among pre-teens, with 89% or more of those aged >>> 8 years and over carrying antibodies against the virus.
Will cases drop further over the summer?
They may fall a little more and remain low through the summer as people
spend more time outdoors, but another rise before the autumn is not out
of the question.
With the full relaxation of Covid rules, the steady filling of offices,
and people gradually reverting to pre-pandemic behaviour, there is
plenty of scope for the virus to spread. And as immunity wanes from
vaccinations and past infections, protection against infection will be
the first line of defence to fail.
Because protection against severe illness wanes more slowly, any rise in >>> cases should not translate into high rates of hospitalisations and
deaths unless another variant intervenes.
… but Covid maybe spreading differently
Over the past few weeks, scientists have noticed a shift in the Scottish >>> data, with a higher proportion of lateral flow tests coming up positive
in more affluent than deprived areas.
“It’s not clear if this is a long-term effect yet,” said Prof Rowland
Kao, who studies infectious disease dynamics at the University of
Edinburgh, “but if it holds it’s very unusual.”
The way Covid is circulating appears to have changed.
In summer 2020, daily cases fell to the low hundreds, but they may not
get as low this summer, Hunter said. “It won’t continue falling for
ever. Covid is undoubtedly becoming endemic. We are not going to get
down to very low numbers again in our lifetimes.”
Despite huge uncertainties about the trajectory of the pandemic, the
Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation has proposed an autumn
booster programme for people aged 65 and over, the clinically
vulnerable, frontline health and social care workers and the staff and
residents of care homes.
… And it is still evolving
Britain’s spring surge of Covid was driven by an Omicron variant called
BA.2. Its dominance in the UK is now being challenged by two recent
descendants, namely BA.4 and BA.5, which are driving a new wave of Covid >>> in South Africa.
The UK Health Security Agency declared BA.4 and BA.5 “variants of
concern” last week, as new data revealed they had a growth advantage
over BA.2.
Another descendant causing concern is BA.2.12.1, which spreads faster
still, and last week became the dominant variant in the US. So far,
there is no evidence that any of them cause more severe disease, but as
the original Omicron demonstrated in December, the danger comes from
reaching more people. “Any increased spread without a decrease in
severity could be a bad thing,” Kao said, adding that with plenty of
virus in circulation around the world, we should expect more variants to >>> come.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/05/covid-19-pandemic-restrictions-magnified-discrimination-against-most-marginalized-groups/
May 31, 2022
Covid-19: Pandemic restrictions magnified discrimination against most
marginalized groups
Marginalized groups, including LGBTI+ people, sex workers, people who
use drugs, and those experiencing homelessness, were disproportionately
impacted by Covid-19 regulations that exposed them to further
discrimination and human rights abuses, Amnesty International said in a
new report today assessing the impact of pandemic restrictions across
the globe.
Based on an online survey of 54 civil society organizations in 28
countries, the report documents how an overly punitive approach to the
enforcement of Covid-19 regulations—that saw people fined, arrested and
jailed for non-compliance with public health measures— resulted in
already marginalized groups facing increased harassment and violence >>>from security forces. The approach also left them with reduced access to
essential services including food, healthcare and housing.
More than two thirds of survey respondents (69%) said that state
responses to Covid-19 had exacerbated the negative impact of
pre-existing laws and regulations that criminalized and marginalized the >>> people they work with. Of these, 90% reported that the communities they
work with were specifically targeted and/or disproportionately impacted
when Covid-19 measures were enforced. Among other punitive measures,
organizations reported the widespread use of fines, arrests, cautions,
written warnings and police orders to “move on” or stay away from a
public place.
“Though Covid-19 measures may have varied from country to country,
governments’ approaches to tackling the pandemic have had a common
failing. An overemphasis on using punitive sanctions against people for
non-compliance with regulations, rather than supporting them to better
comply, had a grossly disproportionate effect on those who already faced >>> systematic discrimination,” said Rajat Khosla, Amnesty International’s
Senior Director of Policy.
People who lost their livelihoods overnight and people experiencing
homelessness were criminalized for not adhering to Covid-19 measures,
rather than being supported to access housing or other essentials
Rajat Khosla, Amnesty International’s Senior Director of Policy
“When governments use punitive approaches to enforce public health
measures, it simply makes it harder to comply. People who lost their
livelihoods overnight and people experiencing homelessness were
criminalized for not adhering to Covid-19 measures, rather than being
supported to access housing or other essentials.
“This short-sightedness left these groups at the mercy of violent and
discriminatory policing and drove people to take riskier decisions to
meet their basic needs, resulting in preventable illness, deaths and a
wide array of human rights abuses.”
Punitive policing
Groups who were already over-policed before the pandemic have
experienced discrimination, unlawful use of force and arbitrary
detentions by security forces.
The overarching majority (71%) of the 54 organizations who responded to
Amnesty International’s survey stated that people from the communities
they work with, including sex workers, people who use drugs, LGBTI
people and people in need of abortion, were punished for breaching
Covid-19 measures.
According to the Mexican human rights organization Elementa, the
country’s punitive “war on drugs” has enabled police forces to target
people who use or possess drugs through the enforcement of Covid-19
related measures. In an alarming case that sparked widespread protests,
a construction worker, who at the time was under the influence of drugs, >>> was arrested in the western state of Jalisco, allegedly for not wearing
a face mask. He died in police custody days later. His body was covered
in bruises and he had a bullet wound in his leg.
In Belize, Indonesia, Mexico Nigeria, Uganda, the Philippines, Tanzania, >>> and UK, civil society organizations working on issues including LGBTI
rights, drug policy reform, the rights of sex workers and ending
homelessness, have reported that marginalized communities have seen an
increase in surveillance and harassment from law enforcement and have
been disproportionately affected by arrests, fines and detentions during >>> the pandemic.
In Argentina, a sex worker-led organization reported police violence
against transgender sex workers, including “beatings, searches and
arbitrary detentions” and that sex workers were harassed by police “for
quarantine violations when they went to the supermarket or the
neighbourhood pharmacy.”
Stigma and barriers to social protection, health and adequate housing
States’ reliance on punitive Covid-19 measures have also created
additional obstacles to accessing essential services and support,
especially for people experiencing poverty and systemic discrimination.
Marginalized groups were often blamed, including by public officials,
for breaching Covid-19 regulations and for spreading the virus. This
has, in turn, fuelled violence against marginalized groups and
discouraged them from seeking medical care because they fear being
arrested, detained or judged.
Although many governments adopted some form of social protection
measures, countries failed to consider the social and economic realities >>> in which they were implemented, and rarely provided comprehensive
support for the most marginalized communities.
Among those disproportionately impacted were people working in the
informal sector or in insecure employment. In Nepal, many Dalits who
live below the poverty line and rely on daily wages, faced extreme debt
and hunger due to the increased challenges of the pandemic.
Organizations also reported that stigma towards LGBTI people, for
example, resulted in their exclusion from state and municipal food
donations and crisis centres in countries including Indonesia and Zambia. >>>
Rather than relying on punitive measures that places all the
responsibility and blame on individuals who already faced systematic
discrimination, governments should have focused on protecting human
rights for all
Rajat Khosla
Covid-19 measures further had a negative impact on the provision of
essential health services. In particular, access to community-run
services and outreach projects aimed at marginalized individuals became
severely restricted or completely unavailable as health systems pivoted
their attention to respond to Covid-19. In Canada, medical clinics run
in partnership with health authorities at sex worker outreach projects
were cancelled. Similar concerns were reported regarding widespread
closures of community-run health clinics in East African countries.
In some countries, the Covid-19 pandemic was exploited to further
restrict access to essential health services, such as harm reduction
services and abortion. In India, the organization Hidden Pockets
Collective, which advocates for sexual and reproductive rights, reported >>> that the government initially failed to recognize abortion as an
essential health service; as a result, service providers told women that >>> abortions were “not essential” and should not happen in a pandemic. The
stigma related to abortion also meant women felt unable to tell police
why they were leaving their homes for healthcare during lockdown.
“Rather than relying on punitive measures that places all the
responsibility and blame on individuals who already faced systematic
discrimination, governments should have focused on protecting human
rights for all and ensuring that marginalized communities have access to >>> universal healthcare and essential services for their protection,” said
Rajat Khosla.
“This is a crucial lesson that governments must take into account while
negotiating a treaty to improve pandemic prevention, preparedness and
response under the auspices of the WHO. Putting human rights at the
heart of government efforts to address public health emergency responses >>> is not an optional consideration, it is an obligation.”
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/v5nz6l/beergate_scandal_prediction_keir_starmer_will/
Beergate scandal prediction: Keir Starmer will avoid punishment for
breaking lockdown rules on a technicality
Opinion Piece
Last month the Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer went on live television
and pledged to offer his resignation on the grounds of " principle" if
he is issued a fixed penalty notice for breaking COVID rules . Keir
Starmer is currently under police investigation after he was caught on
film having a beer with party colleagues at a gathering in Durham which
took place in April 2021. At the time England was under step 2 lockdown
restrictions which banned indoor social mixing between different households.
Keir Starmer continues to argue the event in Durham was a work event
this is the same argument Boris made for partygate.
https://news.sky.com/story/beergate-sir-keir-starmer-will-pledge-to-resign-if-fined-for-breaking-covid-rules-12609389
Keir Starmer offering his resignation amoung the British public he is
seen as this principled man whereas the British public now hate Prime
Minister Boris Johnson because of Partygate.Boris Johnson and his wife
kept getting booed by the public as they were attending the Queens
Plaitnum Jubliee events and the Prime Minister is at risk of facing a
leadership challenge as more Conservative Mps are sending their letters
of no confidence. The reality is Starmer knows he will not be getting
fined by police that is why he is able to do this publicity stunt.
Keir Starmers will avoid punishment for breaking lockdown rules on a
technicality. At the time under the rules indoor gatherings were allowed >>> as long as they were for “work purposes” and there is also was an
exemption which allowed gatherings if they "reasonably necessary for the >>> purposes of campaigning in an election". This was introduced because
local elections were coming at the time in the UK. This is the
technicalities which will help Starmer go free.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/61334893
This piece of law here is very important because the guidelines do not
define what is work purposes so it open for interpretation. In addition
the guidelines do not define clearly what is considered "reasonably
necessary" for the purposes of campaigning in an election.If keir
Starmer can prove the gathering was a work event and it was necessary
for him to be there he will avoid punishment all together .
Politics is not a regular work environment because MPs and politics
staff work very irregular hours and the job does involve a lot of
travelling and meeting people as part of campaigning. The scope of work
for politicians is very wide and open for interpretation.Starmer argues
he was in the house in Durham campaigning and working with Labour party
staff for the Hartlepool by election which Labour ended up losing. Keir
Starmer has already has compiled time-stamped logs from WhatsApp chats,
documents and video edits, showing they carried on working after the
takeaway was delivered - continuing to 1am which have been provided to
Durham police. The reason why Boris Johnson was fined for partygate was
because there was inconsistencies in his stories and the pictures proved >>> there was no work taking place in Downing Street especially at the
leaving party for the Downing Street staffer.
Before going in to politics Starmer was a prosecutor and head of the
Crown Prosecution Service. Being a prosecutor Starmer already knows how
to find legal loopholes and navigate the legal system system to work in
ones favour. The system already in his favour.The police force
investigating Starmers party are the same police force that didn't fine
Dominic Cummings for his trip to Banard Castle when Cummings was under
investigation. The Police and Crime commissioners for the Durham area
her name is Joy Allen who was elected commissioner in the local
elections last year 2021. She ran as the Labour candidate and was
successfully elected. It's the role of commissioner to oversee the work
done by the policd force and to hold them accountable. We have Labour
police and crime commissioner involved in the work of a Labour leader
being investigated by police you cant make this up. The signs are there
Starmer will not get fined and he will remain leader of the opposition.
Boris Johnson his political career over because the British public no
longer support him because of partygate scandal.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10862281/Same-police-chief-let-Dominic-Cummings-investigating-Keir-easy-too.html
https://www.joy4durhampcc.com/about/#:~:text=Joy%20was%20elected%20as%20Bishop,the%207th%20May%202020.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://www.kron4.com/news/these-13-california-counties-are-now-in-the-cdcs-worst-covid-category/
These 13 California counties are now in the CDC’s worst COVID category
by: Alix Martichoux, Nexstar Media Wire
Posted: Jun 6, 2022 / 06:49 AM PDT
Updated: Jun 6, 2022 / 10:37 AM PDT
SHARE
Editor’s note: This story was updated to correct a county name on the
CDC’s list.
(NEXSTAR) – Increased transmission of COVID-19 has landed more than a
dozen California counties on the Center for Disease Control and
Prevention’s watch list.
Thirteen counties in Northern and Central California have “high”
community transmission, according to CDC data. It’s the first time since >>> March that any county in the state has been in the “high” category,
according to the Los Angeles Times.
ADVERTISING
The 13 California counties with high community levels of the virus are:
Del Norte
El Dorado
Marin
Mendocino
Monterey
Napa
Placer
Sacramento
San Benito
Santa Clara
Solano
Sonoma
Yolo
A county’s community level is based on the number of new COVID-19 cases, >>> new hospital admissions, and the number of hospital beds filled with
COVID patients. When a county has “high” community spread, the CDC
recommends wearing a mask indoors, but it’s not a federal mandate.
California vs. Texas: Here’s how much house you get for $2M
In response to the rising numbers, one county has decided to reinstate
its indoor mask mandate. As of Friday, face coverings are once again
mandatory in Alameda County grocery stores, offices, and other indoor
gathering places.
“Rising COVID cases in Alameda County are now leading to more people
being hospitalized and today’s action reflects the seriousness of the
moment,” Alameda County’s health officer, Dr. Nicholas Moss, said in a
press release announcing the reinstated mask rules. “We cannot ignore
the data, and we can’t predict when this wave may end. Putting our masks >>> back on gives us the best opportunity to limit the impact of a prolonged >>> wave on our communities.”
The CDC updates its map of community transmission levels every Thursday. >>> If the spread of the virus worsens, several more California counties
that are currently labeled as “moderate” could be bumped up, including
San Diego and Los Angeles.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2022-06-10/cdc-67-of-americans-should-be-wearing-masks-indoors-or-considering-it
CDC: 67% of Americans Should Be Wearing Masks Indoors or Considering It >>>The percentage of Americans who should be wearing masks in public indoor >>>spaces under CDC guidance is increasing as the U.S. averages more than >>>100,000 new coronavirus cases each day.
By Cecelia Smith-Schoenwalder Staff Writer • June 10, 2022, at 5:15 p.m.
The majority of Americans should be wearing masks while in indoor spaces >>>or considering the measure, according to new data from the Centers for >>>Disease Control and Prevention.
As of Thursday, more than 67% of the population was in a “high” or >>>“medium” COVID-19 community level – a measure determined by new >>>coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and hospital capacities.
At a high level, people should wear masks in indoor public places, >>>according to the CDC. At a medium level, people should consider wearing >>>masks inside if they are at high risk for severe COVID-19.
Cartoons on the Coronavirus
(Joey Weatherford/Tribune Content Agency)
(Chris Britt/Creators)
The CDC reported that 22% of the U.S. population lives in counties >>>considered to be at a high level and 45% live in counties deemed to be
at a medium level. It’s an increase from three weeks ago, when about 18% >>>of the population fell under a high community level and nearly 28% was
in a medium community level.
While the percentages have been increasing, there has been no widespread >>>return to mask mandates. In fact, most coronavirus mitigation measures >>>have fallen by the wayside as much of the country is no longer worried >>>about catching COVID-19 despite increasing infections.
White House Signals Focus on COVID-19 Vaccines, Treatments as Money Runs >>>Short
The U.S. is averaging more than 100,000 new coronavirus cases each day, >>>which is a jump from an average of 77,000 a month ago and nearly 30,000 >>>two months ago. Hospitalizations are increasing in the South and West
but declining in the Northeast, while average deaths appear to have >>>leveled off at fewer than 300 per day.
Additionally, the country is watching two new omicron subvariants that >>>some experts believe are poised to become the dominant strains >>>circulating in the country. BA.4 and BA.5, which were first identified
in South Africa, were responsible for 13% of coronavirus cases in the >>>U.S. last week, according to estimates from the CDC.
Experts say the rise of BA.4 and BA.5 could lead to an uptick in >>>infections or, at the very least, a longer plateau for the latest >>>coronavirus wave.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) >>finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage >>mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID >>vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/second-opinions/99225?xid=nl_secondopinion_2022-06-14&eun=g1662251d0r
We're Not Out of the Pandemic Woods Yet
— The end of the COVID emergency phase may be nearing, but we must
remain vigilant
by Monica Gandhi, MD, MPH, and Michael Daignault, MD June 14, 2022
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A computer rendering of a COVID virus colored as the Earth.
The emergency phase of the pandemic may be fading per the World Health
Organization, the European CDC, and U.S. public health officials. But
the pandemic is not over. We have the tools at our disposal to continue
to save lives and keep the burden on our hospitals low. This is what we
need to do next.
Better Hospitalization Tracking Metrics
We need better tracking of COVID-19 in hospitals. We previously proposed >>> delineating hospitalizations by "for COVID" rather than "with COVID,"
but disease progression is dynamic during a hospital admission. A better >>> metric, as is being looked at in Massachusetts, is to track use of the
steroid dexamethasone as a surrogate for hospitalized patients with
severe COVID-19 illness. Another possibility is to directly track which
patients require oxygen.
In the emergency department (ED), the presence of hypoxia is the primary >>> determinant of whether a COVID-19 patient needs hospitalization. These
patients are treated with dexamethasone and require a higher level of
care, including pulmonary, infectious disease, and respiratory therapist >>> consultations. Delineating hospitalizations for COVID-19 by use of
dexamethasone or supplemental oxygen would give us a more accurate,
bird's-eye view of hospital resource use and help public health
officials understand when hospitals are being overwhelmed with severely
ill patients.
Link Home Rapid Tests With Reporting Mechanism and Expand Wastewater Sites >>>
The U.S. government recently provided a third round of free at-home
rapid tests through its centralized covid.gov hub. This has been a great >>> resource for Americans to safely test at home and quickly begin
isolating if COVID-positive.
However, home testing has led to significant underreporting of COVID-19
cases. We need greater effort from government and testing companies to
encourage and incentivize people to report the results of their home
tests, as is being done in the U.K. through the National Health Service. >>> Many kits already include a way to report results through their mobile
apps, and the government should launch public awareness campaigns to
facilitate this reporting. Testing companies must then share results
with local county health departments.
Expansion of COVID-19 wastewater surveillance sites is also critical.
Increased incidence of COVID-19 here can precede officially recorded
cases by a matter of weeks, allowing time for health systems to prepare
for a possible surge in patients and for public officials to consider
re-implementing stricter public health measures.
Continue the Push for Vaccines
Vaccines targeting the wild type spike have continued to hold up well in >>> preventing severe disease and hospitalization by the more immune-evasive >>> Omicron and its subvariants. The reason: T cells and memory B cells
continue to work against variants, even Omicron.
However, some groups remain vulnerable: we must double down on boosters
for the elderly. A large Veterans Affairs study of patients with a
median age of 71 during the Omicron surge showed those with three doses
had a lower rate of hospitalization and need for ICU level of care than
those with only two doses. Despite the apparent less intrinsically
severe nature of Omicron, almost as many Americans over 65 died during
the winter surge as died from last year's Delta variant surge. A second
booster is now available for those over 50 in the U.S., although most
other countries have decided on an older age cut-off for this dose. This >>> second booster unfortunately wanes faster than the first booster in
terms of antibodies, but each booster (or exposure) diversifies and
broadens T-cell responses to the virus and expands the potency of B
cells. Therefore, boosters are important for those at high risk for
severe COVID-19.
The next step for the FDA is to expand our vaccine arsenal.
Most urgent is the need to authorize vaccines (from both Moderna and
Pfizer) for kids under 5. Once authorized, we need additional research
to determine the most effective dosing schedule. For older age groups,
an extended 8-week or longer interval schedule has been shown to
maximize immunogenicity and effectiveness. We'll need to determine the
best approach for young kids under 5 too, and investigate how previous
COVID infection factors into this.
Considering alternative vaccine technologies is also a priority. The
Novavax vaccine, which involves the spike protein combined with an
adjuvant, was recommended by an FDA advisory committee earlier this
month and now awaits FDA authorization, pending a manufacturing review.
Perhaps a more familiar vaccine technology will sway some who remain
hesitant about mRNA vaccines. FDA should also consider nasal vaccines an >>> important next step in our armamentarium. These vaccines induce faster
mobilization of antibodies to our throats and nasal passages, which,
beyond just preventing severe COVID-19, may better protect people from
getting infected in the first place.
Finally, the FDA needs to determine the makeup for the next generation
of vaccines due this fall. There are several contenders: the Omicron
bivalent vaccine booster by Moderna increases neutralizing antibodies
more than a booster directed against the old strain, although studies in >>> primates previously performed by the NIH did not demonstrate superior
protection against disease by the Omicron-specific vaccine. The Covaxin
vaccine is an inactivated whole virus vaccine that is effective against
all of the emerging variants, with a recent study showing strong
cellular immune responses against Omicron. FDA will need to thoroughly
assess which options offer the most safety and efficacy.
Ensure Access to Therapeutics
With a non-eradicable virus like SARS-CoV-2, therapeutics are essential
to keeping our rates of severe disease low among older and high-risk
patients.
Real-world data show a clear benefit of nirmatrelvir-ritonavir
(Paxlovid) in those high-risk for severe COVID-19, whether vaccinated or >>> not (the original clinical trial studied the drug only among
unvaccinated individuals). Even against the more immune-evasive Omicron
variant, in those age 65 and above there was an 81% reduction in death
and 67% reduction in hospitalization. There was no benefit for
nirmatrelvir-ritonavir in those 40 to 64 years for protecting against
severe disease. Molnupiravir, another oral antiviral, has fewer
drug-drug interactions than nirmatrelvir-ritonavir, since it does not
require a ritonavir booster. In a recent subset analysis from the
MOVe-OUT study, molnupiravir demonstrated an 89% reduction in
hospitalization or death among immune-compromised participants.
These therapeutics are in robust supply. At the end of May, only around
30% of nirmatrelvir-ritonavir doses ordered by the government had been
used. After a White House initiative to transform testing sites into
federally funded "test to treat" locations, more than 182,000
prescriptions for oral antivirals were filled during the last week of
May, and 40,000 pharmacies and other locations now have antiviral pills
in stock. We need to ensure continued -- and equal -- access among all
high-risk Americans.
Monoclonal antibodies also remain in our treatment and prevention
arsenal. Bebtelovimab remains a powerful option to prevent severe
disease and hospitalization in high-risk patients, with persistent
activity against BA.2.12.1. As EDs across the country return to peak
pre-pandemic patient volume for other medical conditions, bebtelovimab
is a great one-and-done option since it's given as an intravenous dose
pushed over 30 seconds. For certain immunocompromised patients who are
unable to mount a significant protective response from vaccines, a
long-acting dual-monoclonal antibody can help. Tixagevimab co-packaged
with cilgavimab (Evusheld) given as preexposure prophylaxis demonstrated >>> an impressive 82.8% relative risk reduction for all COVID-19 symptoms at >>> 6 months, with retained activity against subvariants BA.4 and BA.5.
What about treatment for long COVID? While an exact etiology remains
elusive, one of its proposed mechanisms is a high viral load.
Vaccination is highly protective against long COVID. For those with
residual symptoms, some case studies have offered evidence that oral
antivirals could reduce symptoms, so this must be studied further.
On to the Next Phase
We are certainly in a much stronger position against SARS-COV-2 than we
have ever been. Vaccines continue to provide robust protection against
severe illness and death. Therapeutics can keep high-risk patients out
of the hospital. The emergency phase of the pandemic may be fading. We
now need to avoid backsliding and instead look toward better future
COVID management.
The next phase will require increasing trust in our public health
system, updating vaccines for all, continued ease-of-access of
therapeutics, new whole virus vaccines in the future, novel therapeutics >>> currently in development, and nasal vaccines. Let's remain vigilant and
continue to move ahead.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://archive.ph/cD1wF
‘Zero covid’ has many in China dreaming of leaving
By Lily Kuo and Lyric Li
June 15, 2022 at 2:55 a.m. EDT
Zhu Aitao visits her alma mater, Leeds University, in England in 2019 on >>> her last international trip before the pandemic. (Zhu Aitao)
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By most accounts, Zhu Aitao has it all. Now she is ready to leave it all >>> behind.
The 35-year-old, originally from China’s Shandong province, lives in the >>> richest district of Beijing with her husband — her high school
sweetheart — and their two young children. They own their home and two
cars, a BMW and a Lexus. They both have stable jobs: Zhu manages public
relations at a multinational auto company, while her husband writes for
a government-owned journal.
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Russia's war in Ukraine.
Sick of their lives being dictated by pandemic measures — the frequent
and sudden lockdowns, never-ending rounds of mass testing and constant
uncertainty — Zhu hopes to move her family to Thailand as soon as
possible and eventually immigrate to Europe or the United States.
“I feel like I’m having an emotional breakdown,” she said. “I feel
powerless. It’s like an overbearing father telling you that this is all
for your own sake. You just need to listen. Don’t ask questions.”
Zhu is one of a growing number of Chinese urban professionals
subscribing to a new school of thought known as runxue, the study of how >>> to “run” away from their home country. For many like Zhu, it is not just >>> about China’s severe “zero covid” policy, but what the future looks like >>> in a society where politics — upholding the top leader’s policies no
matter the cost — trumps science and the well-being of residents whose
day-to-day lives are subject to ever more state interference.
[Xi’s strict covid policies prompt rumblings of discontent in China]
“It’s migration driven by a sense of disillusion,” said Xiang Biao, a
director at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Germany
focusing on migration. “People are not running away from the virus.
People are running away from such top-down measures and disregard of
individuals’ feelings and dignity.”
Inquiries into emigrating have surged since chaotic lockdown measures
were imposed in April on China’s most populous city, Shanghai, where
residents struggled to feed themselves and watched family members die
after being unable to get medical attention for non-covid emergencies.
The term runxue, or “the science of running,” soon gained momentum
online among disaffected residents in Shanghai and dozens of other
Chinese cities under some form of lockdown.
On April 3, when a senior Chinese official visited Shanghai and ordered
“unswerving” adherence to zero covid, searches for “emigration” on the
social media platform WeChat surged more than 400 percent from a day
earlier and again by almost 500 percent on May 17 as restrictions
continued. Searches for requirements for immigrating to Canada and
Malaysia, as well as the question “good immigration destinations,”
increased twentyfold between the end of March and early April, according >>> to Baidu data.
Watching from afar, Luna Liu, a PhD candidate in England at the
University of London who is originally from Tianjin, posted on the forum >>> Douban that she would give free advice to anyone hoping to move to
Britain. She now has appointments booked until November, with a
half-dozen people still on a waiting list.
“I can feel that many of those I spoke to had illusions about the system >>> at home. After the lockdown of Shanghai, those illusions were shattered. >>> They realized that if they want to live freely, they have to get out of
there,” Liu said.
[Shanghai’s covid siege: Food shortages, talking robots, starving animals] >>> While runxue has not triggered a mass migration, it is the latest
example of deeper pessimism in China amid slowing growth, historic
levels of youth unemployment, an increasingly prohibitive political
environment and uncertainty over China’s openness as the country turns
increasingly inward.
A joke often seen online is that stressed-out urbanites have three
options. They can continue to struggle in the rat race of Chinese
society, making little progress in an approach known as neijuan, or
“involution,” the process of turning inward in a self-defeating
competition with others. Others may choose to opt out of a life of
striving and instead tangping, or “lie flat.” Now, those with means can
choose to emigrate, or “run.”
[Young Chinese take a stand against pressures of modern life — by lying
down]
“This is definitely not a normal phenomenon, nor is it something that
would be widely talked about in a healthy society,” said Li Nuo, 45, >>>from Hebei province, who obtained permanent residency in Japan last year
and now runs an e-commerce company in Osaka. Recently, he has been
helping friends and family trying to leave China.
“If China is really as powerful and great as it claims, why are so many
people willing to send themselves into exile, and why do so many young
people have no sense of security? What this says is that this society is >>> sick,” he said.
Li Nuo and his cat, Nana, walk along the southern Osaka Bay in Japan.
(Li Nuo)
Foreign passports and green cards have long been the privilege of
China’s wealthiest families, often seeking better educational
opportunities for their children. Now, more middle-class families and
young people are also looking for a way out.
Joy Zhou, 23, who works at a nongovernmental organization in Beijing,
plans to move to Canada in the next year or two to study and hopes to
establish permanent residency there. Zhou started thinking about moving
abroad last year to experience living in a new cultural environment.
Now, she feels a sense of urgency.
“Leaving is not just about the pandemic. I don’t identify with about 80
percent of mainstream social values here,” she said, noting her concern
about women’s rights, the treatment of workers and increasingly limited
freedom of speech in China. “This system is without a doubt backwards.
People seem to have learned to cope with living in an unreasonable
system, but will our lives ever become better?”
While many talk about leaving, few will actually make the leap,
according to Julia Jing, a consultant at Pacific Overseas Group in
Beijing, which offers immigration advice. She said the company received
more inquires in the first four months of this year than in the whole of >>> 2021.
Jing said that while there are more overseas opportunities for Chinese
tech entrepreneurs and specialists at a time when domestic firms are
laying off workers, residents also have to consider things like care for >>> elderly parents, language barriers or the possibility that border
controls will prevent them from returning home indefinitely.
Still, internet users, both older and younger, post extensive and
detailed articles about the logistics and technicalities of emigrating
despite the fact that they are unlikely to act on such advice.
Discussing the possibility of emigrating becomes both a form of fantasy
and a way to vent.
“People feel that runxue is a way for them not just to imagine a
different life. It’s a way to imagine their autonomy,” said Xiang, of
the Max Planck Institute. “It’s a way to express anger, powerlessness
and disillusion.”
[Stranded in their own homes: Portraits of Shanghai’s lockdown]
Official attitudes toward emigration, once seen as a betrayal of
socialist ideology during the early years of the People’s Republic of
China, have loosened over the years. Waves of emigration include
students, contract laborers, activists and other migrants in the 1980s
and 1990s. Authorities further opened up applications from regular
citizens for passports, which for years were limited to officials, and
by mid-2019, about 13 percent of the mainland population had them,
according to government data.
Now, as authorities work to attract talent and prevent a brain drain in
the face of a shrinking and aging population, some worry that emigration >>> will once again become politicized. Over the past two years, authorities >>> have issued fewer passports and restricted outbound travel in the name
of covid measures.
Joy Zhou sits on a cliff during a summer trip in 2018 to Yunnan, China.
(Joy Zhou)
Last year, China issued 630,000 passports, compared with an average of
10.8 million annually from 2002 to 2017. In May, the National
Immigration Administration said it would continue to “strictly restrict
the nonessential departures” of Chinese citizens.
On social media, internet users have posted accounts of their passports
being taken by employers or foreign residency cards and passports
getting cut up by border officials. The immigration authority in May
denied that passports had been halted or that residency certificates had >>> been invalidated.
[China shuts down talk of covid hardship; users strike back]
While censors do not appear to be heavily moderating the online
discussion of runxue, authorities are likely to be concerned about an
ideology that promotes abandoning the country. On WeChat, some articles
on runxue were blocked for “violating relevant laws.” Internet users on
GitHub said some Weibo and WeChat accounts posting immigration tips had
been shuttered. On the search engine Baidu, data for search volume on
terms related to emigration is no longer available to the public.
“It’s not only what people do that shapes society. It’s also where
people imagine their future or a good life to be. Runxue says that
people imagine the good life to be somewhere else, and that says a lot
about Chinese society today,” said Heidi Ostbo Haugen, a professor of
China studies at the University of Oslo.
“They are always ready to leave, and that does something to how you live >>> your life here and now,” she said.
For Zhu, the public relations manager in Beijing, the biggest obstacle
to leaving is her husband, a traditional man for whom moving to Beijing >>>from their hometown in Shandong was already a big request. Recently, she
nervously broached the subject of moving with him. He did not
immediately say no.
In the meantime, she tries to stay busy to avoid focusing on things like >>> her children spending their childhood under pandemic restrictions,
something that causes her insomnia.
“I just try to fill my work and life as much as possible. While I don’t
like the current policy, who knows if it will get worse tomorrow?”
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
China & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-61848134
Published1 day ago
Share
Related Topics
Coronavirus pandemic
Angela Rayner and Sir Keir Starmer
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
Image caption,
Both Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and deputy leader Angela Rayner deny >>> breaking Covid rules
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer and deputy leader Angela Rayner have
returned questionnaires to police investigating whether they broke Covid >>> rules, a party spokesman has said.
Durham police are looking into whether the rules were violated after Sir >>> Keir was caught on camera drinking a beer in an MP's office in April 2021. >>>
The pair deny breaking lockdown rules.
They have said they will stand down if they are issued with
fixed-penalty notices by police.
At the Durham gathering on 30 April, which was in the run-up to the
Hartlepool by-election, people drank beer and ate curry in the
constituency office of City of Durham MP Mary Foy.
Social distancing rules - including a ban on indoor mixing between
households - were in place at the time.
There was an exemption for work purposes, but the rules did not mention
socialising at work - and there was also an exemption if "the gathering
is reasonably necessary for the purposes of campaigning in an election". >>>
Labour has argued the food was consumed between work events, meaning the >>> gathering was within the rules.
Keir Starmer's Durham drink - what were the rules?
I'll quit if given Covid lockdown fine, says Starmer
Media caption,
Watch: If I get Covid fine, I will go - Starmer says he'll step down as
leader
Durham Constabulary last month reversed an earlier decision that no
offence had been committed, after receiving "significant new information". >>>
It comes following the fallout from the Metropolitan Police
investigation into several parties in Downing Street and Whitehall
during coronavirus restrictions.
That probe led to a total of 126 fines to 83 people, for events
happening across eight different dates, including to Prime Minister
Boris Johnson, his wife Carrie Johnson and the Chancellor Rishi Sunak.
Mr Johnson apologised but refused to resign over the fine. He later
survived a vote of no confidence.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://fee.org/articles/why-it-matters-that-fauci-got-covid-19/
Why It Matters That Fauci Got Covid-19
In the end Dr. Fauci was no more successful in avoiding the virus than
Prince Prospero, the villain from Poe's imagination who believed his
castle could protect him from the plague.
Monday, June 20, 2022
Image Credit: Public Domain (via Flickr)
Jon Miltimore
Jon Miltimore
Politics Anthony Fauci Brownstone Institute Lockdowns COVID-19 F. A.
Hayek Prince Prospero
Irecently returned from a week-long vacation in the north woods of
Wisconsin. We played beach volleyball, went fishing and boating, had a
lively game of Wiffle Ball with the kids, and swam until our skin was
prune-like.
Even without a cell phone, I managed to stumble on a bit of breaking
news from an unusual source: television. (It was virtually the only
media I had up there.) Naturally, I had to share this bit of news.
“Fauci has Covid,” I told some of my companions, stuffing beer into coolers.
A discussion quickly broke out over whether the news was relevant.
“So what?” a friend responded. “I accepted a long time ago that everyone >>> is going to get this thing.”
I partly agreed with my friend. Even during the early stages of the
pandemic, I harbored suspicions that the virus was going to spread
regardless of any interventions politicians or bureaucrats enacted—and
those interventions could prove to be destructive, perhaps more
destructive than the virus itself.
But I told him not to underestimate the importance of Fauci contracting
Covid.
Why It Matters That Fauci Got Covid
It’s important to understand that Fauci isn’t just the president’s top
medical advisor. Fauci, whose official title is director of the National >>> Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is “America’s Doctor,” as
The New Yorker described him in April 2020.
More importantly, for better or worse, Fauci became the architect of the >>> US Covid response.
It was Fauci who, early in the pandemic, proposed a Covid strategy that
was simultaneously radical and simple: keep Americans apart from one
another, using state force, if necessary.
In March 2020, Fauci told “Face the Nation” that the strategy was working. >>>
"The kinds of mitigation issues that are going on right now, the things
that we're seeing in this country, this physical separation at the same
time as we're preventing an influx of cases coming in, I think that's
going to go a long way to preventing us from becoming an Italy," Fauci said.
The “mitigations” Fauci was referring to were lockdowns. Schools closed. >>> Parks closed. Businesses closed. Any enterprise or activity not deemed
“essential” by state authorities was illegal.
Americans were told these efforts were only temporary. “Fifteen days to
slow the spread,” became a national mantra.
Six months later, however, nothing had changed. In fact, Fauci was now
saying it would have to continue until 2022.
The idea that humans could hide indefinitely from an airborne pathogen
if government bureaucrats turned the dial just right has more than a
touch of madness to it, but what few seem to realize is that for Fauci,
this was just the first step in a larger revolution.
Writing at the Brownstone Institute, Jeffrey Tucker points to an August
2020 Cell article written by Fauci wherein the doctor explains his
ideological vision, which rings of Rousseauian idealism.
“Living in greater harmony with nature will require changes in human
behavior as well as other radical changes that may take decades to
achieve: rebuilding the infrastructures of human existence, from cities
to homes to workplaces, to water and sewer systems, to recreational and
gatherings venues.
In such a transformation we will need to prioritize changes in those
human behaviors that constitute risks for the emergence of infectious
diseases. Chief among them are reducing crowding at home, work, and in
public places as well as minimizing environmental perturbations such as
deforestation, intense urbanization, and intensive animal farming.”
The article, Tucker points out, makes it clear Fauci’s pandemic response >>> was not just about Covid, but a larger technocratic revolution that was
hard to define—and one Americans had not signed up for.
“It’s not socialism or capitalism. It’s something else entirely,
something very strange,” Tucker writes. “No one has voted for such a
thing. It is something Fauci and his friends dreamed up on their own and >>> deployed all their enormous power to enact just as a test, until it fell >>> apart.”
And this is what makes Fauci’s infection—which comes more than two years >>> after the first lockdowns were imposed—so important.
“It’s a sign and symbol that [Fauci’s] entire theory of virus control
was wrong,” Tucker writes. “He got his way with policy and it did not
work. The virus finally landed on him, as if to reenact Edgar Allan
Poe’s fictional story of Prince Prospero in his castle that he believed
would protect him.”
The Fatal Conceit
In his 1974 Nobel Prize acceptance speech, the economist F.A. Hayek
concluded with a warning: he urged humans to act humbly with the immense >>> power of modern science.
“There is danger in the exuberant feeling of ever growing power which
the advance of the physical sciences has engendered,” Hayek said, “and
which tempts man to try, 'dizzy with success,' to use a characteristic
phrase of early communism, to subject not only our natural but also our
human environment to the control of a human will.”
He continued:
“The recognition of the insuperable limits to his knowledge ought indeed >>> to teach the student of society a lesson of humility which should guard
him against becoming an accomplice in men’s fatal striving to control
society – a striving which makes him not only a tyrant over his fellows, >>> but which may well make him the destroyer of a civilization which no
brain has designed but which has grown from the free efforts of millions >>> of individuals.”
A careful look at Dr. Fauci reveals that humility is not one of his
stronger attributes, and his actions show the fatal conceit that Hayek
warned against infects public health officials as well as economic planners.
Despite all his efforts, Fauci was no more successful in avoiding the
plague than Prince Prospero. But his mad, arrogant effort to extinguish
the virus through force is a tale worthy of its own parable.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://ethicsalarms.com/2022/06/24/the-unfiltered-reaction-to-dobbs-by-abortion-fans-may-do-more-to-turn-u-s-culture-against-the-procedure-than-anything-else/
The Unfiltered Reaction To Dobbs By Abortion Fans May Do More To Turn
U.S. Culture Against The Procedure Than Anything Else
JUNE 24, 2022 / JACK MARSHALL
It certainly should.
I was planning on posting “Thoughts On What An Ethical Solution To The
Abortion Ethics Conflict Might Look Like, Part 2: A Solution,” which has >>> been languishing since November. I had decided to wait for the Dobbs
decision before finishing my draft. As I have watched, read and listened >>> to the ugly, ruthless, intellectually dishonest and sometimes unhinged
reaction first to the Alito draft and now today to the final Dobbs
opinion overturning Roe, however, I am seeing a hopeful development. The >>> fanaticism and complete comfort with idea of killing nascent human life
has burst out the abortion fans like pus from a boil. It is rank and
horrifying, but it is also honest and revealing. They can’t hide behind
“choice” any more. Finally, they are revealing just how corrupt their
thinking is and how warped their values have become.
Consider this exchange on CNN today, as CNN Newsroom host Alisyn
Camerota used the network’s favorite conservative commentator (because
she’s not a conservative) and co-host of “The View” (and you know what
THAT means), Ana Navarro to debate Republican strategist Alice Stewart
regarding the Dobbs ruling…
ALICE STEWART: I can tell you, having worked and advocated in the
pro-life community for many years, there are crisis pregnancy centers
set up across this country that are there to provide assistance,
financial assistance, for expectant mothers.
ALISYN CAMEROTA (interrupting): Right, but I mean, after they’re born.
STEWART: Before, during, and after they have their child, whether they
decide to put it up for adoption or they want to keep it themselves.
There are services in place in the pro-life community that will help in
this situation.
CAMEROTA: But Alice. Hold on. Let me just talk to you about that. There
are something like 410,000 children in the foster care system right now
in the U.S. So, clearly, they’re not all being adopted. And some of
these babies will have obviously physical disabilities. I mean, what is
the plan? Obviously, they’re not just all being taken care of currently. >>>
Let me stop here. I am encountering this argument more and more over the >>> last few months. Camerota is genuinely arguing that it’s important to
let mothers kill these kids before they are born. No more intentionally
vague and deceitful “choice” cover-words. That’s her “plan.” That’s the
Democratic Party’s “plan.”
Then Navarro jumped in to show she’s a fool as well as fan of eugenics.
ANA NAVARRO: And I am not anybody to tell you what you need to do with
your life or with your uterus. And because I have a family with a lot of >>> special needs kids. I have a brother who’s 57 and has the mental and
motor skills of a 1-year-old. And I know what that means financially,
emotionally, physically, for a family.
And I know not all families can do it and I have a step-granddaughter
who was born with Down’s Syndrome and you know what? It is very
difficult in Florida to get services. It is not as easy as it sounds on
paper. And I’ve got another step-grandson who is very autistic, who has
autism and it is –
And their mothers and people who are in that society who are in that
community will tell you that they considered suicide because that’s how
difficult it is to get help, because that’s how lonely they feel.
Because they can’t get other jobs. Because they have financial issues.
Because the care that they’re able to give their other children suffers. >>>
And so, why can I be Catholic and still think this is a wrong decision?
Because I’m American. I’m Catholic inside the church. I’m Catholic when
it comes to me. But there’s a lot of Americans who are not Catholic, and >>> are not Christian, and are not Baptist, and you have no damn right to
tell them what they should do with their bodies. Nobody does.
Imagine, people pay this inarticulate, babbling idiot to render her
opinion on national TV! Let’s see:
1. The resorting to “my life and my uterus” rings desperate and
dishonest now. Hmmm, let’s see, is something else involved in an
abortion other than the mother’s life and her uterus? Unfortunately,
Stewart didn’t have the wit to knock that statement out of the park as
the sickening rationalization it is, but this is CNN’s unethical game:
find inarticulate, slow-witted conservatives for alleged “balance.”
2. Navarro, even more clearly and guilelessly than Camarotta, is
literally saying, “If we don’t kill these children before they are born, >>> they are a lot of trouble and expense!”
Would it be tasteless and excessive to reference Nazi Germany now? Why?
3. The last paragraph is a classic of justified hypocrisy and Ana’s
proud integrity void. What’s the matter with believing one thing in
Church while denying it aggressively in public? After all, she’s an
American!
4. The government has the right to tell people they can’t kill whomever
and whatever they please. In fact, it has the obligation to set such
limitations.
There they are, everyone! These are the people who are fanatic about
abortions; this is how they think; these are their values.
Aren’t they repulsive? Isn’t what they are saying completely devoid of
respect for human life? Are these really the kind of people you trust?
It’s so good of them to finally show us who they are.
"'Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, ending decades of federal
abortion rights' thereby reminding us that abortions are the terrible
consequence of #TerriblyHungry people misbehaving terribly like
#Jan621 Insurrectionist #HangryDJT and motivates us to redouble our
efforts to #ConvinceItForward to stop being #Hangry in hopes of
stopping the #MourningInAmerica" -- HeartDoc Andrew
Source:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLbY86WqEQE&lc=Ugz7f-yaXdea7oYt3dR4AaABAg
Shorter more shareable link:
https://tinyurl.com/RoeWadeOverturned
Suggested further reading:
http://bit.ly/h_angry (2 Kings 6:29)
Instead of hangry, I am simply wonderfully hungry (
http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ) and hope you, Michael, also have a
healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://ethicsalarms.com/2022/06/25/this-mornings-featured-dobbs-ruling-freakout-wapo-pundit-jennifer-rubin/
This Morning’s Featured Dobbs Ruling Freakout: WaPo Pundit Jennifer Rubin >>> JUNE 25, 2022 / JACK MARSHALL
Sure, Jen.
Please take those meds.
Rubin was literally driven mad by Donald Trump’s election, and she
wasn’t a particularly enlightening Washington Post pundit before that,
when she posed as a conservative. Now the NeverTrump hysteria has
clearly infected her logic, her perception, everything. However, Rubin’s >>> reactions to the Dobbs decision are right in line with those of the
Left generally, which are characterized by insulting scaremongering,
fury, emotional nonsense, legal fantasy, and an abandonment of all sense >>> of proportion.
Again, GOOD. That’s who these people are, and we should all be grateful
that the masks are off. There are many future citizens of this country
who will owe their lives to their candor.
Back to Rubin: her disingenuous (or stunningly ignorant) conceit is that >>> because the states now can regulate abortion, they now could choose to
make abortion a capitol crime. They could also declare a state’s
language to be Esperanto. When something isn’t going to happen it is
unethical to claim it could happen, especially when it couldn’t. I am
pretty certain that executing women who get abortions would be found to
be a violation of the 8th Amendment, not to mention the fact that the
public wouldn’t tolerate it.
Rubin’s Twitter feed is full of similarly ridiculous statements.
I’m going to do a full post on freakout highlights when I return from a
meeting, but Rubin is special.
"'Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, ending decades of federal
abortion rights' thereby reminding us that abortions are the terrible
consequence of #TerriblyHungry people misbehaving terribly like
#Jan621 Insurrectionist #HangryDJT and motivates us to redouble our
efforts to #ConvinceItForward to stop being #Hangry in hopes of
stopping the #MourningInAmerica" -- HeartDoc Andrew
Source:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLbY86WqEQE&lc=Ugz7f-yaXdea7oYt3dR4AaABAg
Shorter more shareable link:
https://tinyurl.com/RoeWadeOverturned
Suggested further reading:
http://bit.ly/h_angry (2 Kings 6:29)
Instead of hangry, I am simply wonderfully hungry (
http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ) and hope you, Michael, also have a
healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://ethicsalarms.com/2022/06/27/collective-ethics-dunce-the-bet-awards/ >>>
JUNE 27, 2022 / JACK MARSHALL
As Ethics Alarms has stated many times, any individual, official,
politician, pundit, journalist, celebrity or organization that abuses
its public trust and engages in unethical and destructive conduct when
their statements make the public more ignorant than it already is, and
it already is too ignorant to competently participate in a democracy.
Welcome to the BET Awards!
The hostess of last night’s televised festivities (of a racially
exclusive awards show that makes pronouncements about equality and civil >>> rights), Taraj Henson, got things off to an irresponsible start by
saying, with the ‘I’m pissed off and certain I am right though I have no >>> clue what I’m ranting about’ expression on her face you see above by saying,
“It’s about damn time we talk about the fact that guns have more rights
than a woman. It’s a sad day in America. A weapon that can take lives
has more power than a woman who can give life, if she chooses to.”
This is being called a “powerful statement” this morning, on CNN’s HLN
among other places. Stupid statements are not powerful. It is not a fact >>> that guns have more rights than women: inanimate objects have no rights. >>> Henson is making declarations about rights when she doesn’t understand
what a right is. Weapons don’t take lives: they have no agency or
autonomy. People take lives. Unlike “guns,” abortion is an act performed >>> by people, and that act has taken far, far more lives in the U.S. since
Roe v. Wade was written than people firing guns have. No laws in any
states either require women to “give life” or prevents them from doing
so. The laws at issue do limit the extent to which a women, having
created human life, can unilaterally end it when she “chooses to.”
Misleading, inarticulate, hyperbolic and intellectually muddled
pronouncements like Henson’s do no good whatsoever, and a lot of harm by >>> making intelligent debate impossible.
Others were similarly adamant and destructive.
Rapper Janelle Monáe introduced the nominees for best female R&B/pop
artist thusly:
“To Black queer artists, to Black non-binary artists, these artists
making art on our own terms, owning our truths, and expressing ourselves >>> freely and unapologetically in a world that tries to control and police
our bodies, my body, our decisions, and my decisions. Fuck the Supreme
Court. I know we’re celebrating us right now, as we should. We
absolutely deserve to celebrate. Especially now, we must celebrate our
art by protecting our rights and our truths.”
Nobody gets to have their own “truths.” Personalized “truths” are better >>> known as delusions, fantasies, and rationalizations. Nor is any
citizen’s body free to do whatever it chooses: BET’s celebrities would
have served their community better by pointing out that they do not, for >>> example, have the freedom to kill each other, especially in the wildly
disproportionate numbers they do. Abortion may become illegal because
there are very strong arguments ( I would say irrefutable) that the
procedure also involves killing human beings, and if Janelle Monáe has a >>> persuasive counter-argument to offer, it had better consist of something >>> more substantial than “protecting our rights and our truths.”
Then singer Jazmine Sullivan appealed to the self-interest of the legion >>> of black men who depend upon facing no responsibilities for having
unprotected and promiscuous sex, leading to a black out-of-wedlock
pregnancy dwaring that of any other demographic:
“OK, fellas? Y’all got us? Cause we got y’all. This is everybody’s
issue. As always, I do this for the women, for my sisters especially.
It’s a hard time right now for us, and I want to speak directly to the
men. We need y’all. We need y’all to stand up — stand up for us, stand
up with us. If you’ve ever benefited from a woman making one of the
toughest decisions of her life, which is to terminate a pregnancy, you
need to be standing with us. This is not just a woman’s issue. This is
everybody’s issue, and we need your support more than ever.”
The same line of reasoning argues for men rallying to repeal laws
against drive-by shootings.
I’ll be collecting and periodically reporting on the notable celebrity
outbursts about the Dobbs decision, which none of the bloviating celebs
have read. If you encounter a fair, informed, well-reasoned and civil
critique of the decision by a celebrity, please let me know.
Also alert me if you see a passenger pigeon flying overhead…
"'Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, ending decades of federal
abortion rights' thereby reminding us that abortions are the terrible
consequence of #TerriblyHungry people misbehaving terribly like
#Jan621 Insurrectionist #HangryDJT and motivates us to redouble our
efforts to #ConvinceItForward to stop being #Hangry in hopes of
stopping the #MourningInAmerica" -- HeartDoc Andrew
Source:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLbY86WqEQE&lc=Ugz7f-yaXdea7oYt3dR4AaABAg
Shorter more shareable link:
https://tinyurl.com/RoeWadeOverturned
Suggested further reading:
http://bit.ly/h_angry (2 Kings 6:29)
Instead of hangry, I am simply wonderfully hungry (
http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ) and hope you, Michael, also have a
healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
i am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-61995463
Covid is rising again in the UK - should we worry?
James Gallagher
Health and science correspondent
@JamesTGallagheron Twitter
Published
1 day ago
going onShare
Related Topics
Coronavirus pandemic
Lateral flow test
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
You'd be forgiven for letting out a weary sigh. There's so much
rearingfrom Ukraine to the rising cost of everything - and now Covid is
its ugly head again.
peopleThe latest statistics show the number of people infected in the UK has >more than doubled since the start of June with around 2.3 million
testing positive. You probably know someone who's had it.
So is summer ruined? Two-and-a-half years into the pandemic we're back >facing new variants, a surge in infections, questions about whether the >NHS can cope and what it means for all our lives. It's also giving us a >clearer idea of what living with Covid is going to look like.
health at"We're in a bad patch at the moment," says professor of public
the University of Edinburgh Linda Bauld.
"It's very disruptive to society and some are suffering severe effects, >but that's still a tiny proportion of where we were."
bodiesGraph
The driving force behind the sudden surge in infections is the double
act of BA.4 and BA.5. These two mutated forms of the virus are >technically sub-variants of Omicron. The original Omicron had an >impressive ability to spread and overcome the immune defences our
have built up to keep the virus out. BA.4 and BA.5 are even better.
Their ascent started before big summer events like the Jubilee >celebrations or Glastonbury so it's not like we've just partied our way >into a new wave.
OmicronProf Danny Altmann, an immunologist at Imperial College London, says
it's "shocking" how much the virus is able to change to keep on
infecting us. He recalls seeing the first scientific analysis of
last winter: "I felt like I'd just seen the worst horror film on the >planet and yet it keeps throwing up worse ones".
The result is we're now entering another - arguably our third - Omicron >wave of the year and it's only just July.
canSlippery virus
Research in the New England Journal of Medicine showed BA.4 and BA.5
"substantially escape" the protection from either vaccination or >infection. A study in Science also showed the original Omicron was like
a "stealth virus" that left limited protection if you came across
Omicron again.
whoThe new sub-variants' slippery skills combined with our waning immunity >means stories of catching Covid multiple times are now increasingly >common. Plus there's still a surprising number - one-in-five of us -
have somehow dodged Covid throughout the pandemic.
"[This virus] continues to surprise us in unpleasant ways, you would
have hoped there would be more protection from one Omicron variant to >another" says Prof Mark Woolhouse, who studies disease outbreaks at the >University of Edinburgh.
'I've had long Covid for two years now'
Covid: The London bus trip that saved maybe a million lives
Five things we still need to keep an eye on
However, the most important form of protection - against becoming >severely ill, ending up in hospital and dying - is clearly holding up.
If there were 2.3 million cases in the era before vaccines then the NHS >would be swamped and tens of thousands of people would die. That is >clearly not happening.
Jubilee celebrations
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
Image caption,
The upswing in Covid cases started before the Jubilee celebrations
But even with that protection BA.4 and BA.5 still have the potential to >leave you feeling seriously rough.
the UK"I think it's far from a bad cold," says Prof Susan Hopkins, from
Health Security Agency, who says people are "ill for between seven and
10 days".
That has knock-on effects if you need to work - staff sickness in the
NHS is another way the virus can pile pressure on the health service -
or were planning to go on a nice holiday.
"What do you do if your school has no teachers or an airline has no >pilots? How do you suck that up?" asks Prof Altmann.
Rising cases will also have a disproportionate effect on the clinically >vulnerable and leave behind cases of long Covid.
Severity question
There are no signs this virus is any more or less dangerous that
original Omicron, but we don't know for sure.
So far there is only laboratory and animal research. A study in Japan >shows BA.4 and BA.5 can grow more readily in lung cells. Hamsters had >worse disease than with earlier forms of Covid.
who isThe UKHSA has reported a "small" increase in the proportion of those >infected needing hospital treatment since April. But the reason is >unclear and could include waning vaccine protection or a shift in
catching the virus.
Prof Woolhouse, who was one of the scientists to show original Omicron >was milder, says "we haven't seen definitive data" on BA.4 or BA.5 >because we're not collecting the same volume of information now.
theyHowever, variants don't have to be worse for it to impact the NHS -
just have to infect enough people. Then the small proportion who do get >into trouble still add up to a big number.
- upThe number of people in hospital with Covid across the UK is 10,081
need toby around 2,500 in a week. More than half of those will be there for >other reasons, such as a broken bone or a stroke, but they still
be managed.
covidChart showing the number of patients in hospital across the UK with
"I remain concerned, one more doubling [in numbers] brings the NHS into >significant challenge," says Prof Hopkins, the chief medical advisor at >the UK Health Security Agency.
The hope will be that the UK follows a similar trajectory to countries >like South Africa and also Portugal.
Prof Bauld: "I think we should be optimistic, in those countries that
are ahead of us, things are settling down, these things do burn >themselves out as they run out of people to infect."
However, it looks as though the idea that Covid will just become a
winter bug is either wrong or someway off.
Woolhouse."Every year we say this and then it causes a wave in the summer, driven >by new variants coming along more than once a year," warns Prof
The virus may be looking more flu-like in terms of severity, but the >difference at the moment is flu comes only once a year.
There is no political appetite to return to any restrictions. The big >decision is going to be around the vaccination programme ahead of next >winter - who gets vaccinated and equally importantly with what?
Both Pfizer and Moderna have announced updated vaccines that target the >original Omicron, but that is already yesterday's variant.The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://www.reddit.com/r/Veterans/comments/vt0j4h/army_cuts_off_more_than_60k_unvaccinated_guard/
Army Cuts Off More Than 60K Unvaccinated Guard and Reserve Soldiers from >>> Pay and Benefits
Share
Soldiers with the Oklahoma Army National Guard fire weapons over a
trench during a live-fire exercise at Fort Irwin, California.
Soldiers with the 45th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, Oklahoma Army
National Guard, fire weapons over a trench during a live-fire exercise
at the National Training Center in Fort Irwin, California, July 24,
2021. (Pfc. Emily White/Oklahoma Army National Guard photo)
6 Jul 2022
Military.com | By Steve Beynon
Some 40,000 National Guard and 22,000 Reserve soldiers who refused to be >>> vaccinated against COVID-19 are no longer allowed to participate in
their military duties, also effectively cutting them off from some of
their military benefits, Army officials announced Friday.
"Soldiers who refuse the vaccination order without an approved or
pending exemption request are subject to adverse administrative actions, >>> including flags, bars to service, and official reprimands," an Army
spokesperson said in a statement.
The move comes in the midst of the annual training season, during which
part-time soldiers are often ordered to serve from two weeks to a month
with their units for summer training exercises. Those training events
are usually critical for soldiers to sharpen their military skills and
for unit commanders to ensure their formations are ready to deploy if
needed.
Read Next: Space Force Launches New Intelligence Unit as Congress Voices >>> Concerns over Growth
If the soldiers continue to refuse the vaccine, the consequences could
be even more dire. "In the future, Soldiers who continue to refuse the
vaccination order without an exemption may be subject to additional
adverse administrative action, including separation," the Army
spokesperson said.
The long-term impact may mean many soldiers would be forced to leave, a
devastating outcome especially in the middle of a recruiting crisis as
Defense Department officials struggle to fill the ranks.
Soldiers will be allowed to come on duty and earn their pay in order to
be vaccinated or to take part in separation procedures.
"We're going to give every soldier every opportunity to get vaccinated
and continue their military career," Lt. Gen. Jon Jensen, director of
the Army Guard, told Military.com in an emailed statement. "We're not
giving up on anybody until the separation paperwork is signed and
completed."
The Army National Guard and Reserve deadline to receive the vaccine was
June 30, the latest of all the services, which required vaccination last >>> year. As of July 1, 13% of the Army Guard and 12% of the Reserve is
unvaccinated.
Part-time soldiers with a pending medical or religious exemption for the >>> vaccine may continue to train with their units and collect pay and
benefits. But exemption approvals are rare.
The vaccines have some rare side effects, including heart inflammation
that has affected at least 22 service members, according to a study from >>> the JAMA Network.
Only six Guard soldiers across all states and territories have permanent >>> medical exemptions for the vaccine, out of 53 who requested one,
according to Army data. No Reserve soldiers have a medical exemption.
No Guard or Reserve soldiers have been approved for a religious
exemption after nearly 3,000 requests. It is unclear what would qualify
a soldier for a waiver on religious grounds. Soldiers are required to be >>> innoculated against at least a dozen other ailments, including the flu
and hepatitis. And no major religious leaders have come out against
vaccines.
Army officials have stopped short of outlining a clear plan on removing
part-time soldiers, particularly Guardsmen, from service for continuing
to refuse the vaccine. As of now, Guardsmen are barred only from
attending federally funded drills and other training events, which make
up the bulk of their service. While Guardsmen technically serve under
their respective governors during their typical weekend duties, those
weekends are federally funded.
Multiple Republican governors have vowed not to kick out Guardsmen who
remain unvaccinated. It's unclear how easy it will be for the Defense
Department to enforce its decision to bar unvaccinated Guardsmen from
pay and benefits. On paper, the only thing an unvaccinated Guard soldier >>> is qualified for now is state active-duty orders, a comparatively rare
tool for a governor to activate their Guard for short-term emergencies
such as hurricane relief and responding to domestic disturbances.
SAD duties are usually short term. However, there are outliers such as
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has used SAD orders lasting up to a year to
mobilize thousands of troops for missions on the U.S.-Mexico border.
But SAD duties do not qualify Guardsmen for federal benefits or
retirement -- effectively shutting them out of all of the military's
service incentives other than a paycheck.
Reserve soldiers fall exclusively under the federal government, possibly >>> making it easier to separate them from service.
As of Friday, 1,148 active-duty soldiers have been removed from the Army >>> for failing to comply with the vaccine mandate.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://reason.com/2022/07/12/if-congress-bans-abortion-this-new-deal-precedent-will-be-at-the-center-of-the-legal-battles/
If Congress Bans Abortion, This New Deal Precedent Will Be at the Center >>> of the Legal Battles
A 1942 decision about the Commerce Clause takes on new importance post-Roe. >>> DAMON ROOT | 7.12.2022 10:05 AM
US Supreme Court Abortion New Deal Franklin Roosevelt
(Illustration: Lex Villena; Smontgom65 | Dreamstime.com)
The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's
Health Organization, which overturned Roe v. Wade (1973) and eliminated
the constitutional right to abortion, has raised the possibility of a
future Republican-controlled Congress seeking to ban abortion
nationwide. If that happens, the resulting courtroom battles will likely >>> center on a New Deal–era Supreme Court precedent that vastly expanded
the scope of congressional power.
Under the Constitution, Congress possesses the authority "to regulate
Commerce…among the several States." At the time of the founding, this
power was understood to be a limited one. As Alexander Hamilton
explained in Federalist 17, the Commerce Clause did not extend federal
authority to "the supervision of agriculture and of other concerns of a
similar nature, all those things, in short, which are proper to be
provided for by local legislation." While Congress was permitted to
regulate economic activity that crossed state lines, in other words, it
was not empowered to control wholly intrastate economic undertakings.
That changed in the 1940s as a result of the federal government
sanctioning an Ohio farmer named Roscoe Filburn for growing twice the
amount of wheat that he was allowed to grow under the terms of the
Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938. Congress specifically invoked its
power to regulate interstate commerce while enacting that New Deal law.
The statute's goal was to raise agricultural prices by limiting the
supply of crops hitting the national market.
Filburn fought the law by arguing that his extra wheat was not subject
to federal regulation because it never once entered the stream of
interstate commerce. In fact, he pointed out, his extra wheat never even >>> left his own farm. It was used to either feed his livestock or make
flour for his family's kitchen. It was nowhere near "Commerce…among the
several States."
The Supreme Court thought otherwise and issued one of the most
significant rulings of the New Deal era. Filburn's extra wheat may not
have crossed state lines, the Court said in Wickard v. Filburn (1942),
but entirely local activity of the sort was still subject to
congressional regulation if it had a "substantial economic effect" on
the national market. It was a huge political win for the agenda of
President Franklin Roosevelt and a significant boost to Congress'
overall regulatory authority.
Congressional power was boosted again by SCOTUS in the 2005 case of
Gonzales v. Raich, which extended Wickard while upholding the federal
ban on marijuana, even as applied to medical marijuana that was both
legal to use under state law and which was cultivated and consumed
entirely within the confines of a single state. Once again, the local
conduct at issue was said to have a "substantial effect" on the
interstate market.
Modern liberals have generally cheered for the broad vision of
congressional power endorsed by Wickard and Raich. But they may feel
somewhat differently about it when congressional Republicans invoke
those same precedents in support of a federal abortion ban, which would
also reach down to regulate wholly local activity. What is worse, plenty >>> of Republicans in Congress seem willing to do just that.
The good news for abortion rights supporters is that any such use of
Wickard and Raich may be rejected by even some of the most anti-abortion >>> members of the current Supreme Court. Justice Clarence Thomas, for
example, sharply dissented in Raich itself, faulting the majority
opinion for turning the meaning of the Commerce Clause on its head. "By
holding that Congress may regulate activity that is neither interstate
nor commerce under the Interstate Commerce Clause," Thomas wrote, "the
Court abandons any attempt to enforce the Constitution's limits on
federal power." Thomas resumed his attack on the logic of Raich just
last year.
Strange as it may sound, Thomas (and possibly a few other anti-abortion
justices) might conceivably vote for the abortion rights side if a
federal abortion ban ever reaches the Supreme Court.
"'Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, ending decades of federal
abortion rights' thereby reminding us that abortions are the terrible
consequence of #TerriblyHungry people misbehaving terribly like
#Jan621 Insurrectionist #HangryDJT and motivates us to redouble our
efforts to #ConvinceItForward to stop being #Hangry in hopes of
stopping the #MourningInAmerica" -- HeartDoc Andrew
Source:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLbY86WqEQE&lc=Ugz7f-yaXdea7oYt3dR4AaABAg
Shorter more shareable link:
https://tinyurl.com/RoeWadeOverturned
Suggested further reading:
http://bit.ly/h_angry (2 Kings 6:29)
Instead of hangry, I am simply wonderfully hungry (
http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ) and hope you, Michael, also have a
healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://www.campusreform.org/article?id=17954
backgrounds.Ibram X Kendi: Like slaveholders, those against COVID restrictions want >'freedom to kill and exploit and terrorize'
Ibram X. Kendi said that the United States is still a 'slaveholders' >republic' on his podcast, referencing an article he published in 2020. >'Campus Reform' continues to report on Kendi's 'anti-racism' agenda and >the criticism it receives from concerned parents of diverse
Article image
Chaida Bango Bango '23 | Maryland Campus Correspondent
Tuesday, August 10, 2021 8:00 AM
Ibram X. Kendi recently told his podcast listeners that the United
States is still a "slave holding republic," likening the "freedom to >enslave" to those Americans today wanting to end COVID-19 restrictions.
"When the right started pushing for the right and the freedom to open >back up, I ended up writing this piece in the Atlantic that basically >argued that we're still in a slaveholders' republic," the Boston >University professor said on a July 28 episode titled "Prison & Police >Abolition: Finding True Safety."
He continued, "And what I argued is that the slaveholder, the
individual, wanted the freedom to enslave there's no difference between >that and the individual saying 'I should have the freedom to infect >people. I should have the freedom to kill and exploit and harass and >terrorize."
Kendi was referencing an article he wrote in May 2020 for The Atlantic.
[RELATED: Ibram X. Kendi says teaching young students anti-racism is >‘prudent’]
Kendi previously said that teaching young students anti-racism is a >"prudent thing to do for teachers" during the American Federation of >Teachers 2021 TEACH conference, as reported by Campus Reform.
to BeAt Albion College, the university announced that Kendi's book "How
an Antiracist" would be their 2021 common read, which is mandatory for >all first-year students.
antiracism."The college's Common Reading Experience Taskforce said in an email that >the book is a "Blueprint" for student's growth in "individual
Kendi[RELATED: As Asian, Black, White parents stand up to CRT, Ibram X.
dismisses opponents' arguments]
our“This text speaks to the work already taking place on campus through
institutional,Blueprint for Belonging and challenges us to grow towards
interpersonal, and individual antiracism,” the email said.
reachThe email continued to say that they are continuing “to expand our
andbeyond the First Year Experience to create conversations across our >college and Albion community,” and that “We will provide intentional >programs, events, and opportunities for all students, faculty, staff
community members to engage with the themes of the text.”The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-62265648
UK Covid cases continue to rise
Published
1 day ago
comments
Comments
Share
Related Topics
Coronavirus pandemic
Stock image of a young woman wearing a face mask and holding a smartphone >>> IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
Around 3.8m people - one in 17 of the UK population - has coronavirus,
latest figures from the Office for National Statistics suggest.
That's up by a quarter of a million - 7% - on the week before when there >>> were 3.5m Covid infections recorded.
The number of people testing positive across the UK has been rising
since the start of June but the rate of rise is showing signs of slowing >>> down.
Other, more recent figures, hint cases may be on the way down.
The ONS data is always a couple of weeks behind the curve for new
infections but this big dataset gives the most accurate overview for the UK.
Other data sources, such as the government Covid dashboard - which is
more current but reflects far fewer Covid test results - suggest that
for England the number of new infections may already have peaked.
Graph of Covid infections
In the latest report, for the week ending 13 July, the ONS estimates
Covid rates were:
One in 17 in England - up from one in 19 the week before
One in 17 in Wales - the same as the previous week
One in 20 in Northern Ireland - down from one in 17
One in 15 in Scotland - up from one in 16
Many of the recent cases have been caused by fast-spreading sub-variants >>> of Omicron, called BA.4 and BA.5.
Nearly eight out of 10 Covid infections in the UK are now caused by BA.5. >>>
People are still able to catch the infection even if they have had Covid >>> before.
But vaccines are still doing a good job of helping protect people from
getting very sick with the virus.
The ONS data is collated by testing thousands of people from UK
households - whether they have symptoms or not - to estimate how much
virus is around.
Kara Steel, senior statistician for the Covid-19 infection survey, said
there were some uncertain trends in the latest data across Scotland,
Wales and Northern Ireland.
She added: "It is too early to say if this most recent wave is starting
to peak, but we will continue to closely monitor the data."
Graph of Covid hospitalisations. Data from the UK Government dashboard
Separate data shows, on average, week on week, hospital cases have
started to ease in Scotland and England.
In England on 18 July, there were, on average, about 1,720 new hospital
admissions with a positive Covid test, each day.
The week before, the figure was 1,861.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 )
finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://jonathanturley.org/2022/07/24/south-carolina-moves-to-criminalize-sharing-abortion-information/
InformationSouth Carolina Legislators Move to Criminalize Sharing Abortion
HealthThe South Carolina legislature is moving to enact a new law with deeply >troubling free speech implications. Following the Jackson Women’s
someone”Organization v. Dobbs decision overturning Roe, the legislators have >sought to criminalize any effort to ”aid, abet or conspire with
overto obtain an abortion. That apparently includes sharing information
the Internet or other communication systems. In my view, the law
violates the First Amendment and should be scuttled by the legislature. >Otherwise, it would likely be struck down by the courts.
The language below is reminiscent of laws making it illegal to share >information on committing suicide. I have long objected to prosecutions >for sharing such information as inimical to free speech.
manyThe free speech concerns are even greater with regard to the South >Carolina law. Abortion is a protected right in many states. Indeed,
Constitution.continue to believe that this is a protected right under the
services.The law criminalizes sharing information on “the means to obtain an >abortion, knowing that the information will be used, or is reasonably >likely to be used, for an abortion.” It is an unconstitutionally broad >provision. Even the federal government and members of Congress would be >in violation since it is actively assisting those seeking abortion
Of course, it is easy to introduce legislation but it is important to >flag such excessive laws before they are replicated in other states. >Indeed, the provision was reportedly based on model legislation drafted >by the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC). Jim Bopp, the NRLC’s >general counsel, reportedly wrote a memo noting that the model >legislation seeks to use a type of organized crime model to deal with >such activities: “The whole criminal enterprise needs to be dealt with
to effectively prevent criminal activity.”
The analogy to organized crime will not sustain such a law. As a noted >above, this is a lawful procedure in many states and the criminalized >information would include core political and religious speech under the >First Amendment.
from aThe law also makes it unlawful for a person “to knowingly or >intentionally receive any proceeds directly or indirectly derived
pattern of prohibited abortion activity.” That could include a wide
array of religious, journalistic, and public interest organizations.
interestPresumably, tech companies themselves would be protected under Section >230 of the Communication Decency Act (47 U.S.C. § 230). However, it
would make it a crime for anyone, including journalists, public
groups, politicians, and advocates from sharing basis information on >abortion services for women in states like South Carolina.
Pro-life states need to be careful not to replicate the record of >anti-gun states like New York, which have passed a series of >ill-considered laws that resulted in major court losses. There is a >tendency in such moments to follow Oscar Wilde’s rule that the only way >to be rid of temptation is to yield to it. However, overreach can
result in creating new and limiting precedent. The pro-life community >needs to switch from years of being on the offensive to being on the >defense. It needs now to hold the ground gained in Dobbs while
pro-choice advocates must now shift to the offense in litigation after >years of defending Roe.
South Carolina has moved to lower its ban from the 20th to the 6th week >of a pregnancy.
Here is the critical language:
Section 44-41-860. (A) It is unlawful to knowingly or
intentionally aid, abet, or conspire with another person to violate the >provisions contained in Section 44-41-830. A person who violates this >section is guilty of a felony and is subject to the same penalties as >provided in Section 44-41-830.
(B) The prohibition against aiding and abetting a violation of
Section 44-41-830 includes, but is not limited to knowingly and >intentionally:
self-administered(1) providing information to a pregnant woman, or someone
seeking information on behalf of a pregnant woman, by telephone, >internet, or any other mode of communication regarding
abortions or the means to obtain an abortion, knowing that the >information will be used, or is reasonably likely to be used, for an >abortion;
(2) hosting or maintaining an internet website, providing
access to an internet website, or providing an internet service >purposefully directed to a pregnant woman who is a resident of this
State that provides information on how to obtain an abortion, knowing >that the information will be used, or is reasonably likely to be used
for an abortion;
(3) offering or providing abortion doula services, knowing
that the services will be used, or are reasonably likely to be used for >an abortion;
(4) providing a referral to an abortion provider, knowing
that the referral will result, or is reasonably likely to result, in an >abortion; and
abortion(5) providing a referral to an abortion provider and
receiving monetary remuneration, or other compensation, from an
provider for the referral."'Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, ending decades of federal
abortion rights' thereby reminding us that abortions are the terrible consequence of #TerriblyHungry people misbehaving terribly like
#Jan621 Insurrectionist #HangryDJT and motivates us to redouble our
efforts to #ConvinceItForward to stop being #Hangry in hopes of
stopping the #MourningInAmerica" -- HeartDoc Andrew
Source:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLbY86WqEQE&lc=Ugz7f-yaXdea7oYt3dR4AaABAg
Shorter more shareable link:
https://tinyurl.com/RoeWadeOverturned
Suggested further reading:
http://bit.ly/h_angry (2 Kings 6:29)
Instead of hangry, I am simply wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ) and hope you, Michael, also have a
healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-07-25/covid-19-stats-australia-death-rate-high/101266098
Australia's COVID-19 cases and death rates currently among world's
highest per capita
AM / By Annie Guest
Posted 12h ago12 hours ago, updated 10h ago10 hours ago
Health worker holds a swab for a test for COVID-19 at drive-through
testing clinic.
Epidemiologists are calling on people wear masks and get PCR tests to
stem the spread of COVID-19.(ABC News: Stefan Lowe)
Help keep family & friends informed by sharing this article
COPY LINK
SHARE
Australia's COVID-19 cases and death rates were the third highest in the >>> world per capita during the past week, and the numbers are getting worse. >>>
Key points:
Australia ranked third in cases per million people in the past seven days >>> Experts are pleading with the public to wear masks, get PCR tests if
symptomatic and get boosters
Health workers say they are bearing the the strain of the ongoing pandemic >>> The latest figures show more than 12,625 Australians have died with
COVID, and more than 5,000 are in hospital with the virus, including 159 >>> in intensive care.
Professor Mike Toole, an epidemiologist from the Burnet Institute, said
Australia was probably in the worst phase of the pandemic.
"Ninety-five per cent of reported cases have been reported this year,
2022," he said.
Professor Toole has studied the latest international data and found that >>> Australia had some of the highest COVID-19-related numbers per capita.
"In the past seven days, Australia has ranked number three in cases per
million population," Professor Toole said.
"That excludes the very tiny islands like the Channel Islands and other
small places.
"We [also] ranked number three for deaths per capita, so much higher
than the US, UK, France, Germany."
Experts plead with public to wear masks
Australia does mandate masks in high-risk settings such as aged care,
hospitals and public transport but Professor Toole said it was not enough. >>>
"If you look at other countries, a number of countries in Europe still
have stronger mask mandates than Australia, and they have a lot higher
compliance," he said.
What you need to know about coronavirus:
The symptoms
The number of cases in Australia
Tracking Australia's vaccine rollout
Which masks are best and is it OK to reuse them?
Professor Toole pointed to a Burnet Institute study that showed
mask-wearing doubled when Victoria first made it compulsory in 2020.
"The messaging out there is very very confusing," he said, arguing
Australians were not getting clear signals on mask-wearing and other
precautionary measures.
Omicron fuels COVID-19 reinfections
When Lyndall recovered from her second COVID infection, she thought she
had months of immunity. Just six weeks later, she was battling the virus >>> again.
A woman in a green top sitting in her living room
Read more
"[We need] strong public health messaging that if you have the slightest >>> symptoms, do a RAT test. If it's negative, go out and get a PCR test.
"The other thing they must do is get boosters. Two doses is not enough." >>>
Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly released a statement saying the advice
was clear — people should wear masks in crowded indoor environments
beyond their homes.
'Relentless' toll on health workers
Health workers have felt the strain perhaps more than anyone.
As the pandemic stretches on, doctors and nurses are becoming burnt out
by the ongoing burden on the health system.
Read more about the spread of COVID-19:
What we know about the new COVID subvariant BA.2.75, or 'Centaurus'
How likely are you to get COVID-19 again?
Fears outbreaks could be 'similar or greater' than Omicron in aged care
Kylie Ward, the chief executive of the Australian College of Nursing,
said she was very concerned about health workers.
"They've been giving now for years and it's been relentless and this is
our third winter," she said.
"It's not only their physical health but their emotional health and
mental health and wellbeing I'm concerned about.
"I have raised concerns about moral injury and the stress that the
profession is under."
She said healthcare workers deserved empathy.
"We don't have enough nurses, and those that we do have must be well
over exhausted now," she said.
"So, please be patient, be kind, wear masks, wash hands and practice
really good infection-control measures to minimise the spread of this
infection."
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
Australia, & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/wh4q9k/covid_mum_urges_vaccination_takeup_after_baby_loss/
By Gill Dummigan
Health Correspondent, BBC North West
Published
1 day ago
Share
Media caption,
Toni Dennan said though she had since had another daughter, remembering
what happened "doesn't get any easier"
A mother who lost her baby after getting Covid-19 while she was pregnant >>> has urged other pregnant women to get vaccinated.
Toni Dennan lost baby Darcey at the end of 2020, before the vaccine was
available.
She and husband Lee wanted to share their story so that Darcey's legacy
would be to save other babies.
Near the start of the pandemic, the couple found out they were having a
baby.
Toni said it was "amazing".
"It was something we were obviously really happy about and really
wanted, so we were delighted."
A 20-week scan revealed they were having a girl.
"We knew we were calling her Darcey all the way through from that moment >>> on, which we're grateful for now," Lee said.
Lee and Toni Dennan
Image caption,
Covid rules meant Lee had not been allowed to go to hospital with Toni,
but he was called and told to get straight there
At the time, no vaccines were available, so Toni spent months shielding. >>>
But shortly before Christmas, she caught coronavirus and she became
concerned about Darcey.
An initial hospital check seemed to be OK, but by the next day, she was
worse.
"She wasn't moving," she said.
"So I went back in and at that point it was a full-on emergency and
straight through to an emergency C-section."
Covid in pregnancy linked to birth-related complications
Pregnant women urged not to delay getting jab
Pregnant women 'afterthought' in Covid jab rollout
Covid restrictions meant Lee had not been allowed to go to hospital with >>> her, but she said he was called by the medical staff and told to get
there as quickly as possible.
Toni was put under general anaesthetic and the hospital's medics fought
to save her and Darcey.
"I came round and I was surrounded," she said.
"I was out of the theatre then, in a side room, and surrounded by doctors. >>>
"That was when the doctor had told me that Darcey hadn't made it.
"Lee walked through the door and kind of looked really hopeful and I
just shook my head at him."
She said remembering that moment "doesn't get any easier".
Dr Anustha Sivananthan
Image caption,
Dr Anustha Sivananthan said unvaccinated mums-to-be accounted for "one
in five people in intensive care units"
Toni did not have the option of getting vaccinated, something which is
now seen as essential to protect both mother and baby.
However, in some parts of North-West England, 60% of expectant mothers
do not have that protection, so mobile clinics are being used to try to
make it easier for them to have a jab.
Dr Anustha Sivananthan, medical director at Cheshire and Wirral
Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, said "one in five people in intensive
care units are women who are pregnant who haven't been vaccinated".
"It's as high as that, which is why we're encouraging as many pregnant
women or even women wanting to become pregnant to come forward and have
their vaccination."
Nancy and Toni Dennan
Image caption,
The couple have since had another daughter, Nancy, but want Darcey's
legacy to be one of helping other people
Seven months ago, Toni and Lee had another daughter, Nancy.
Lee said it was "amazing just hearing her cry and seeing her for the
first time".
Toni added that she had "never been so happy to hear a baby cry".
"We know what you can lose and it's just not worth the risk, so I would
urge every pregnant woman to get that vaccine."
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://archive.ph/neCEI
Paul’s wife says senator wants to subpoena Fauci records
By BRUCE SCHREINER
2 hours ago
Kelley Paul, wife of Senator Rand Paul, (R-Ky.), addresses the audience
gathered during the Fancy Farm Picnic at St. Jerome Catholic Church in
Fancy Farm, Ky., Saturday, Aug. 6, 2022. Paul represented her husband at >>> the political event. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)
1 of 6
Kelley Paul, wife of Senator Rand Paul, (R-Ky.), addresses the audience
gathered during the Fancy Farm Picnic at St. Jerome Catholic Church in
Fancy Farm, Ky., Saturday, Aug. 6, 2022. Paul represented her husband at >>> the political event. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)
FANCY FARM, Ky. (AP) — U.S. Sen. Rand Paul wants to subpoena the records >>> of the country’s top infectious disease expert, the senator’s wife said
while standing in for him at Kentucky’s premier political event Saturday. >>> Paul, a Republican, has repeatedly clashed with Dr. Anthony Fauci over
the government’s COVID-19 policies and the origins of the virus that
caused the global pandemic. Paul’s wife, Kelley, waded into the dispute
while promoting her husband’s candidacy during the political speaking at >>> the Fancy Farm picnic in western Kentucky. Paul is seeking a third term
and is being challenged by Democrat Charles Booker on November’s ballot. >>> “Now I promise you this, come November when we win, Rand Paul will
subpoena every last document of Dr. Fauci’s,” Kelley Paul said.
Rand Paul and the state’s senior senator, Senate Minority Leader Mitch
McConnell, missed the stump-style speaking event because of Senate
duties in Washington.
Sen. Paul and other conservative critics have focused their ire at how
the pandemic was handled on Fauci. Paul has promised to wage a vigorous
review into the origins of the coronavirus if Republicans retake the
Senate and he lands a committee chairmanship. The Senate currently has a >>> 50-50 split, but Democrats have the edge with Vice President Kamala
Harris’ tie-breaking vote.
2022 MIDTERM ELECTIONS
In wake of floods, typical barbs at Kentucky political event
Clackamas County again under fire for election issues
Pinal County names new recorder amid election woes reshuffle
Progressive and centrist Dems battle for Vermont House seat
Continuing her comments about Fauci, Kelley Paul said: “Now some people
ask why me, why is Rand so hard on poor Dr. Fauci? Well it’s simple,
because the American people deserve the truth.
It is written that LORD Jesus Christ of Nazareth is the truth (John
14:6) and that only He is good (Matthew 19:17) so that though we don't
"deserve the truth," He deserves our following His example of living
http://WonderfullyHungry.org
“We deserve the truth about the origins of a virus that killed millions
of people,” she added.
It is described in the 1st chapter of the Gospel of John that the LORD
is the origin of all things both good **and** evil.
Nonetheless, even evil things such as COVID-19 "work for the good of
those who love the LORD." (Romans 8:28)
We love (John 14:15) the LORD when we, as His friends (John 15:14) do
what He wants:
http://WDJW.net
Indeed we do!
U.S. intelligence agencies remain divided on the origins of the
coronavirus but believe China’s leaders did not know about the virus
before the start of the global pandemic, according a Biden-ordered
review that was released last summer.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://archive.ph/fZdtJ
New CDC COVID-19 Guidance Is Agency ‘Admitting It Was Wrong’: Epidemiologist
By Zachary Stieber and Jan Jekielek August 13, 2022 Updated: August 13,
2022?bigger?smaller ?Print
0:00
0:00
1
The new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) COVID-19
guidance is the agency acknowledging it was wrong in the past to
downplay natural immunity and promote unprecedented policies like
asymptomatic testing, a California epidemiologist says.
The new guidance, released on Aug. 11, rescinds and alters a number of
key recommendations, including treating unvaccinated and vaccinated
people differently for many purposes, explicitly stating that people
with previous infection have protection against severe illness, and
removing six-foot social distancing advice.
“The CDC is admitting it was wrong here, although they won’t put it in
those words,” Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, professor of medicine at Stanford
University School of Medicine, told The Epoch Times.
“What they’ll say is that, well, ‘the population is more immunized now,
has more natural immunity now, and now is the time—the science has
changed.'”
But a large percentage of the U.S. population has had natural immunity,
or protection from prior infection, Bhattacharya noted, while over 80
percent of the elderly population had protection from severe disease >>>from COVID-19 vaccines, previous infection, or both, since 2021.
“This is two years too late, but it’s a good step,” Bhattacharya added.
CDC Statement
The CDC, which did not respond to a request for comment, portrayed the
change as streamlining previous guidance, with the adjustments stemming >>>from more people being vaccinated and more COVID-19 treatments available. >>> “We’re in a stronger place today as a nation, with more tools—like
vaccination, boosters, and treatments—to protect ourselves, and our
communities, from severe illness from COVID-19,” Greta Massetti, the CDC >>> author of the new guidance, said in a statement. “We also have a better
understanding of how to protect people from being exposed to the virus,
like wearing high-quality masks, testing, and improved ventilation. This >>> guidance acknowledges that the pandemic is not over, but also helps us
move to a point where COVID-19 no longer severely disrupts our daily lives.”
Dr. Jerome Adams, the surgeon general during the Trump administration,
echoed the line of thinking.
“The fact that @CDCgov is changing guidance shouldn’t be taken as proof
that they were necessarily ‘wrong,’ on a particular issue. The virus has >>> changed, our tools and immunity have changed, and our knowledge has
changed. So too must our guidance. That’s how science works,” Adams
wrote on Twitter.
Vaccination numbers have fallen off in recent months, with little change >>> among adults and little update among children, even after the vaccines
were authorized and recommended for kids as young as 6 months old.
No new treatments have been authorized since December 2021, and a number >>> of the treatments have been shown as less effective against newer
strains of the virus that causes COVID-19, as have the vaccines and, in
some cases, natural immunity.
Nearly half of the 20 papers and briefs cited by the CDC in support of
the adjusted guidance were published in 2020 or 2021, while a number of
others were released in early 2022.
No Mandates Rescinded Yet
Among the most significant changes in the guidance: a rollback of
recommendations for asymptomatic testing for individuals exposed to
COVID-19, loosening guidance related to tracing contacts of COVID-19
cases, and ending quarantine recommendations for people exposed to a
positive case.
Some rules are stricter for high-risk settings such as nursing homes.
Masking is also recommended for 10 days for people who were exposed to
COVID-19, including when a person is at home around others.
Bhattacharya, who co-authored the Great Barrington Declaration in 2020,
a document that called for focused protection on the elderly and fewer
restrictions on others, said that the guidance is closely aligned with
the principles outlined in the declaration.
Based on the new guidance, the CDC should immediately rescind the
COVID-19 vaccine mandate for foreign travelers entering The United
States, a policy imposed in November 2021, the professor added.
The CDC’s webpage describing the mandate says that the agency “is
reviewing this page to align with updated guidance.” The U.S. government >>> has not adjusted or rescinded any of its vaccine mandates since the
guidance was changed.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://archive.ph/xK9wL
dying ofLockdown effects feared to be killing more people than Covid
Unexplained excess deaths outstrip those from virus as medics call >figures ‘terrifying’
By
Sarah Knapton,
SCIENCE EDITOR
18 August 2022 • 9:30pm
The effects of lockdown may now be killing more people than are
crisisCovid, official statistics suggest.
Figures for excess deaths from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) >show that around 1,000 more people than usual are currently dying each >week from conditions other than the virus.
The Telegraph understands that the Department of Health has ordered an >investigation into the figures amid concern that the deaths are linked
to delays to and deferment of treatment for conditions such as cancer, >diabetes and heart disease.
Over the past two months, the number of excess deaths not from Covid >dwarfs the number linked to the virus. It comes amid renewed calls for >Covid measures such as compulsory face masks in the winter.
But the figures suggest the country is facing a new silent health
linked to the pandemic response rather than to the virus itself.
The British Heart Foundation said it was “deeply concerned” by the >findings, while the Stroke Association said it had been anticipating a >rise in deaths for a while.
Dr Charles Levinson, the chief executive of Doctorcall, a private GP >service, said his company was seeing “far too many” cases of undetected >cancers and cardiac problems, as well as “disturbing” numbers of mental >health conditions.
“Hundreds and hundreds of people dying every week – what is going on?”
he said. “Delays in seeking and receiving healthcare are no doubt the >driving force, in my view.
“Daily Covid statistics demanded the nation’s attention, yet these >terrifying figures barely get a look in. A full and urgent government >investigation is required immediately.”
Figures released by the ONS on Tuesday showed that excess deaths are >currently 14.4 per cent higher than the five-year average, equating to >1,350 more deaths than usual in the week ending Aug 5.
EXCESS DEATHS IN ENGLAND AND WALES Total deaths above 5-year average
Non-Covid deaths
Deaths owing to Covid
2,000
1,500
1,000
500
0
June 12
17
26
July 3
10
17
24
31
SOURCE: ONS
Although 469 deaths were because of Covid, the remaining 881 have not >been explained and the ONS does not break down the remaining deaths by >cause.
Since the beginning of June, the ONS has recorded nearly 10,000 more >deaths than the five-year average – around 1,089 a week – none of which >is linked to Covid. The figure is more than three times the number of >people who died because of the virus over the same period, which stood
at 2,811.
Excess deaths during a COVID pandemic will nonetheless be linked to
COVID, if not now, then in the future, albeit retrospectively.
theEven analysis that takes into account ageing population changes has >identified a substantial ongoing excess.
There were 103 Covid deaths in England on August 11 and the seven-day >average is currently around 111 fatalities per day.
Questioned by The Telegraph, the Department of Health admitted it had >asked the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities to look into
facingfigures and had discovered that the majority were linked to largely >preventable heart and stroke and diabetes-related conditions.
Many appointments and treatments were cancelled as the NHS battled the >pandemic throughout 2020 and last year, leading to a huge backlog that >the health service is still struggling to bring down.
This week, an internal memo from the Royal Albert Edward Infirmary in >Wigan, leaked to the Health Service Journal, warned it was becoming >“increasingly common” for patients to die in A&E as they waited for >treatment.
PATIENTS ARE WAITING LONGER FOR EMERGENCY CARE Number of patients
a 12+ hour wait
deaths24,000
20,000
16,000
12,000
8,000
4,000
0
2019
2020
2021
2022
SOURCE: BMA
Dr Charmaine Griffiths, the British Heart Foundation chief executive, >said: “We’re deeply concerned by the initial findings that excess
in recent months seem to be being driven by cardiovascular disease. >“Without significant help for the NHS from the Government now, this >situation can only get worse.”
Last week, official England-wide statistics showed emergency care >standards had hit an all-time low.
Juliet Bouvier, the Stroke Association chief executive, said: “We know >people haven’t been having their routine appointments for the past few >years now, so we’ve been anticipating a rise in strokes for quite a
while now.
“This lack of opportunity to identify risk factors for stroke, coupled >with increasing ambulance delays, is a recipe for increased stroke >mortality and disability in those that survive.”
Read more here: Silent crisis of soaring excess deaths gripping Britain >is only tip of the iceberg
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://archive.ph/0ivEm
Lockdown fanatics can’t escape blame for this scandal
Those who warned about the inevitable increase in non-Covid deaths were
denounced as selfish murderers
CAMILLA TOMINEY
ASSOCIATE EDITOR
19 August 2022 • 4:46pm
Camilla Tominey
NHS ambulances
Some time ago, I received a heartbreaking email from a lady called Lisa
King, detailing how Peter, her beloved husband of 21 years, had become a >>> tragic casualty of Covid.
The father of two, 62, did not catch coronavirus. He died on October 9,
2020 because he was repeatedly denied a face-to-face GP appointment
during the pandemic – only to be told that an urgent operation to remove >>> his gallbladder had been delayed because of spiralling NHS waiting lists. >>> His sudden death, in agonising pain, was completely avoidable.
As Mrs King told me at the time: “To the decision makers, he is nothing
more than ‘collateral damage’, but to me, he is the love of my life.”
When journalists like me heard these stories and warned that the
lockdown cure might be worse than the disease, we were accused of being
mercenary murderers intent on prioritising the economy ahead of saving
lives.
Scientists who dared to question the severity of the restrictions were,
as Lord Sumption put it at the time, “persecuted like Galileo”. Falsely
branded “Covid deniers” simply for questioning some of the “science”
that was slavishly followed, they were subjected to appalling online
abuse by a bunch of armchair experts who claimed to know better.
Professor Robert Dingwall faced career “cancellation” for refusing to
drink the zero-Covid Kool-Aid, as did the likes of Professor Carl
Heneghan, Professor Sunetra Gupta and leading oncologist Professor Karol >>> Sikora.
Yet now we learn that they were right to raise their concerns in the
face of pseudo-socialist Sage groupthink.
Official data now suggests that the effects of lockdown may be killing
more people than are currently dying of Covid.
An analysis by the Daily Telegraph’s brilliant science editor Sarah
Knapton (another figure who was pilloried for questioning the
pro-lockdown orthodoxy) has found that about 1,000 more people than
usual are dying each week from conditions other than coronavirus.
Figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on Tuesday
showed that excess deaths are 14.4 per cent higher than the five-year
average, equating to 1,350 more deaths than usual in the week ending
August 5. Although 469 deaths were linked to Covid, the remaining 881
have not been explained. Since the start of June, the ONS has recorded
almost 10,000 more deaths than the five-year average – about 1,086 a
week – none of them linked to coronavirus. This figure is more than
three times the number of people who died because of Covid over the same >>> period – 2,811.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has asked for an
investigation into the data amid concern that the deaths are linked to
delays and deferment of treatment for conditions such as cancer,
diabetes, and heart disease.
Study the stats, by all means, but the DHSC might be better off simply
speaking to someone like Mrs King – along with many of the nation’s
leading oncologists and cardiologists.
In July, I visited Bart’s for a feature to mark the hospital’s 900th
anniversary next year – and the doctors I met there were in no doubt
about the detrimental effect successive lockdowns have had on non-Covid
patients. As breast cancer surgeon, Laura Johnson, explained: “It wasn’t >>> that patients’ diagnoses were missed, it’s unfortunately because a
number of people didn’t come to hospital.
“They are then presenting now, 18 months later, with more advanced
disease. Half of our patients that are presenting with a cancer are
almost needing chemotherapy before surgery, whereas before that
percentage was much lower. And that’s because they’re presenting with a
bigger, more aggressive, more advanced cancer.”
The horror stories are everywhere you look: from people dying needlessly >>> at home like Mr King, to elderly patients waiting 40 hours for
ambulances, to cancer sufferers now dying because they didn’t get
appointments during lockdown, or didn’t want to be a burden.
It’s tempting to blame this on the NHS being in urgent need of reform –
and that’s surely part of the explanation. We all know how staff
shortages – again, exacerbated by the pandemic – are crippling the system. >>> But this isn’t simply a result of a lack of resources. Healthcare
spending has risen sharply as a percentage of GDP in recent years.
The nettle that needs to be grasped is that these figures suggest that
the country is facing a growing health crisis that has been caused by
our overzealous response to the pandemic – scaremongering policies that
kept people indoors, scared them away from hospitals and deprived them
of treatment.
These excess deaths may well turn out to be a direct consequence of the
decision to lock down the country in order to control a virus that was
only ever a serious threat to the old and the vulnerable.
Had a more proportionate approach been taken, akin to Sweden’s, then
would we be in this mess right now? Perhaps only a government inquiry
will be able definitively to answer that question, but what’s certain
now is the debate over the severity of lockdown was never about the
economy versus lives – as pro-shutdown fanatics would have it – but over >>> lives versus lives.
At the start of the pandemic, the overreaction to the virus might have
been forgivable. We didn’t know much about Sars-CoV-2 and any hope of a
vaccine felt like a faraway fantasy.
But it rapidly became clear that many of the measures were
disproportionate and poorly targeted – and that too little thought had
been put to alternatives, like the focused protection scheme promoted by >>> those who signed the Great Barrington Declaration, in which those
actually vulnerable to Covid were properly shielded.
Lest we forget that in the last quarter of 2020, the mean age of those
dying with and of Covid was estimated to be 82.4 years, while the risk
of dying of it if you were under 60 was less than 0.5 per cent. Who
wouldn’t now take those odds compared to being diagnosed with cancer,
circulatory or cardiovascular related conditions and being made to wait
months for post-pandemic treatment?
None of this has come as a surprise to those running organisations like
the British Heart Foundation or the Stroke Foundation, which had
predicted a sharp rise in deaths because “people haven’t been having
their routine appointments for the past few years now”.
And let’s not even get started on the mental health toll taken by the
Government’s panic-mongering. Or the negative effect that work from home >>> edicts have had on our already sedentary lifestyles, alcohol intake and
waistlines. Not to mention the adverse impact on the education of a
Covid generation whose schools and universities should, in hindsight,
never, ever have been shut.
The World Health Organisation said at the time that the Great Barrington >>> Declaration “lacked scientific basis”, but nearly three years on from
the start of the pandemic there has been precious little analysis of
whether the raft of Covid restrictions either served the collective good >>> – or actually saved lives in the round – compared with the lives that
are now being lost as a result.
These numbers aren’t just statistics – they are people’s husbands,
wives, brothers, sisters, daughters and sons. The appalling truth is
that a lot of these people would probably still be here today were it
not for the lockdowns; lockdowns which seemingly did little to stop tens >>> of thousands of people dying of Covid in the UK.
We stayed at home to “protect the NHS”. It turns out the NHS isn’t there >>> now to protect us.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://archive.ph/XJiXA
The consumer price index registers double-digit annual increase for
first time in more than 40 years
© Bloomberg
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Chris Giles in London 30 MINUTES AGO
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The UK’s rate of inflation rose to 10.1 per cent in July, the first time >>> it has registered a double-digit annual increase in more than four
decades, driven by the higher cost of food.
The increase in the consumer price index, higher than economists’
expectations of 9.8 per cent, rose from a 9.4 per cent rate in June.
The figures highlighted the difficult task the Bank of England faces
bringing inflation down, now it has spread from high energy prices to
other goods and services across the economy.
The on-going COVID-19 pandemic w/increasing numbers of people disabled
with Long-COVID continues to have a very negative impact on the rate
of production of "goods and services across the economy."
The Office for National Statistics said on Wednesday the increase in
July resulted principally from the higher cost of food last month.
With the Conservative leadership hopefuls battling to become the next
prime minister, the figures will draw further attention to the decline
in living standards faced by households across the UK.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://ethicsalarms.com/2022/08/24/unethical-quote-of-the-month-ethics-villain-dr-anthony-fauci/
Unethical Quote Of The Month: Ethics Villain Dr. Anthony Fauci
AUGUST 24, 2022 / JACK MARSHALL
“Well, I don’t think it’s forever irreparably damaged anyone.”
—Dr. Anthony Fauci, architect of the disastrous Wuhan virus response, to >>> Fox News’ Neil Cavuto’s question, “In retrospect doctor, do you regret
that it went too far? … Particularly for kids who couldn’t go to school
except remotely, that it’s forever damaged them.”
How Clintonian of the good doctor, picking up on Cavuto’s awkward
“forever” and adding “irreparably” to make it seem especially extreme.
Maybe the lockdown forever damaged people, but it didn’t forever
irreparably damage people. The lockdown caused more than 200,000 small
busineses to shut down during 2020 alone. Gee, is that “forever enough”? >>> It murdered the economy, the arts, and sports; it was significantly
responsible for the George Floyd riots. The education and social
development of young children were indeed retarded permanently by the
isolating experience of remote schooling, as increasing numbers of
assessments indicate. The corruption of US elections in 2020 arising out >>> of the lockdown did long-term damage to the public trust in elections;
whether it is “forever permanent” is yet to be seen.
It wrecked our small business, our savings, and our development permanently.
What an asshole.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/little-by-little-the-truth-of-lockdown-is-being-admitted-it-was-a-disaster-5b5lrlgwk
Little by little the truth of lockdown is being admitted: it was a disaster >>> Public fear was deliberately stoked to justify decisions made on the
hoof and based on questionable advice
Jonathan Sumption
Sunday August 28 2022, 12.01am BST, The Sunday Times
Lockdown was an extreme and unprecedented response to an ancient
problem, the challenge of epidemic disease. It was also something else.
It marked one of the gravest governmental failures of modern times. In a >>> remarkably candid interview with The Spectator, Rishi Sunak has blown
the gaff on the sheer superficiality of the decision-making process of
which he was himself part. The fundamental rule of good government is
not to make radical decisions without understanding the likely
consequences. It seems obvious. Yet it is at that most basic level that
the Johnson government failed. The tragedy is that this is only now
being acknowledged.
Sunak makes three main points. First, the scientific advice was more
equivocal and inconsistent than the government let on. Some of it was
based on questionable premises that were never properly scrutinised.
Some of it fell apart as soon it was challenged from outside the
groupthink of the Sage advisory body. Second, to build support, the
government stoked fear, embarking on a manipulative advertising campaign >>> and endorsing extravagant graphics pointing to an uncontrolled rise in
mortality if we were not locked down. Third, the government not only
ignored the catastrophic collateral damage done by the lockdown but
actively discouraged discussion of it, both in government and in its
public messaging.
Lockdown was a policy conceived in the early days by China and the World >>> Health Organisation as a way of suppressing the virus altogether
(so-called zero Covid). The WHO quickly abandoned this unrealistic
ambition. But European countries, except Sweden, eagerly embraced
lockdown, ripping up a decade of pandemic planning that had been based
on concentrating help on vulnerable groups and avoiding coercion.
At first Britain stood up against the stampede. Then Professor Neil
Ferguson’s team at Imperial College London published its notorious
“Report 9”. Sunak confirms that this was what panicked ministers into a
measure that the scientists had previously rejected. If No 10 had
studied the assumptions underlying it, it might have been less
impressed. Report 9 assumed that in the absence of a lockdown people
would do nothing whatever to protect themselves. This was contrary to
all experience of human behaviour as well as to data available at the
time, which showed that people were voluntarily reducing contacts well
before the lockdown was announced.
And, as Report 9 pointed out, lockdown would not destroy the virus. It
would come back as soon as the restrictions were lifted. The policy
therefore made sense only as a stopgap until the advent of an effective
vaccine, then reckoned to be 18 months away.
It was always obvious that you could not close down a country for months >>> on end without serious consequences. The shocking thing that emerges >>>from Sunak’s interview is that the government refused to take them into
account. There was no assessment of the likely collateral costs of
lockdown. There was no cost-benefit analysis. There was no planning. In
government the issues were not even discussed. Sunak’s own attempts to
raise them hit a brick wall. Ministers took refuge in evasive
buck-passing, claiming to be “following the science”.
Yet the critical question was never a scientific one. It was a political >>> question, in which the likely hospital admissions and deaths from Covid
were just one element. The scientists said it was not their job to think >>> about the social or economic implications of their advice. They were
right about that. The problem was it turned out to be no one else’s job. >>> We are still paying for this negligence, and our children and
grandchildren will be paying for it for decades to come. In 2020, UK GDP >>> fell by nearly a tenth, the biggest hit to the economy for at least a
century. According to Treasury estimates, 460,000 people left the
workforce never to return. The policy took a wrecking ball to the public >>> finances. The IMF estimates that government spending rose by more than
£400 billion, or about £6,000 for every man, woman and child. Most of
this was unproductive spending. It went on paying people for not working >>> and supporting businesses forced to cease operations. At one point, in
the spring of 2020, the government was spending about twice as much on
compensating for the lockdown as it was on the NHS. Borrowing rose to
£330 billion, a peacetime record.
Then there are the non-financial costs. Other mortal conditions went
undiagnosed and untreated. In October 2020, after four months of
lockdown, the Office for National Statistics reported more than 25,000
excess deaths at home from conditions such as cancer, heart disease and
dementia. A year after the last lockdown ended, the NHS still has a vast >>> backlog. Excess deaths, 95 per cent of them due to conditions other than >>> Covid, are running at about 1,000 a week. There has been a huge impact
on mental health, with children and the poor worst affected.
Children lost two terms of face-to-face schooling. The closure of
schools, training establishments and universities slowed the
accumulation of skills, reducing productivity. The Institute for Fiscal
Studies has estimated the cost to the economy at somewhere between £90
billion and £350 billion. The best-off, with plenty of resources at
home, will probably recover. Those who are already disadvantaged will be >>> permanently damaged. Existing inequalities will grow a lot worse.
The lockdown was an experiment in authoritarian government unmatched in
our history even in wartime. Not only did the government assume powers
over the lives of citizens that it had never previously claimed. In
government, decision-making was concentrated in the hands of the prime
minister, a man with notoriously poor judgment and little taste for
detail. The cabinet was kept out of the loop until near the end.
Discussion of fundamental issues was ruled out in the name of collective >>> responsibility.
Sunak blames the government’s hysterical public messaging for
aggravating the economic impact of the lockdown. Other countries did not >>> stoke public fear in this irresponsible way. It has, he says,
contributed to making the UK’s recovery the slowest in Europe. That is
no doubt true. But there is a more serious criticism. Throughout
history, fear has been the chief instrument of authoritarian rule.
During the lockdown it was what enabled the government to silence
dissent and inhibit discussion.
The result illustrated some of the worst features of top-down
government. The lack of wider deliberation and scrutiny leads to
decisions being made on the hoof, without proper forethought, planning
or research. It promotes loyalty at the expense of wisdom, and flattery
at the expense of objective advice. It encourages overconfidence,
banishing moderation and restraint. It was only the weakening of the
prime minister’s political authority after the Owen Paterson affair that >>> emboldened a supine cabinet to overrule him and his scientific advisers
for the first time in December last year when the NHS feared being
overwhelmed by the Omicron variant.
Ministers and scientists responsible for a policy that has inflicted
untold misery on an entire population naturally find it hard to admit
they may have been mistaken. But closing ranks against the public
interest usually fails in the end. There will be more embarrassing
disclosures after this one. The official narrative is beginning to unravel. >>> Lord Sumption is a former Supreme Court justice
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-62689586
Published
21 hours ago
Share
Related Topics
Notting Hill Carnival
Notting Hill Carnival
IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS/HENRY NICHOLLS
Image caption,
Those involved in the processions said it was their "moment of claiming
the streets and having a really good time"
Notting Hill Carnival has returned to west London's streets for the
first time since 2019.
The Covid-19 pandemic forced the event to be put on hold in 2020 and 2021. >>>
Sunday's event began with a run to remember the 72 victims of the
Grenfell Tower fire and a 72-second silence was held at 15:00 BST.
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said he would "never forget" the tragedy that >>> took place in June 2017 and said the community wanted "justice".
"What the community wants is two main things," Mr Khan said.
ADVERTISEMENT
"One is for justice to happen and for those responsible be held to
account and that still hasn't happened. And secondly for this to never
happen again."
Notting Hill Carnival goers
IMAGE SOURCE,VICTORIA JONES/PA WIRE
Image caption,
The two-day carnival returns to the streets of west London for the first >>> time since 2019
Notting Hill Carnival goers
IMAGE SOURCE,EPA/ANDY RAIN
Image caption,
In total, 39 sound systems and two live stages were due to take part
The carnival's chief executive, Matthew Phillips, said although the
pandemic had affected previous years, this year the cost of living
crisis was the biggest worry.
He said some bands could not appear and the flamboyant costumes that
featured in the main parade would be unaffordable for some.
Crowds and floats at Notting Hill Carnival
IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS/HENRY NICHOLLS
Image caption,
The streets of west London were filled with carnival-goers on Sunday
Children at Notting Hill Carnival
IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS/HENRY NICHOLLS
Image caption,
Children said they were "looking forward to the music and dancing"
Linett Kamala, who is on the carnival's board of trustees, said it had
been expensive to stage the event.
"It is a free event but there's absolutely a cost to all of us involved
in terms of materials, equipment hire, and storage hire," she said.
"It's been tough for all of the carnivalists, we've been affected by the >>> pandemic too, but that's not deterred us, people will see an amazing
carnival this year."
Notting Hill Carnival goers
IMAGE SOURCE,VICTORIA JONES/PA WIRE
Image caption,
The Notting Hill Carnival tyically attracts an estimated two million
people to the streets of west London
Children at Notting Hill Carnival
IMAGE SOURCE,EPA/ANDY RAIN
Image caption,
Many children have been experiencing their first Notting Hill Carnival
Marelle Steblecki, 29, said she was "excited" to finally wear a costume
she had planned to wear pre-pandemic.
"I've had my particular costume, which is rose gold, purple and teal
booked with my carnival band since 2018, so I've been waiting to wear
this for two years," she said.
"The carnival band that I'm playing with chose their theme as Africa. It >>> is good for people to see that there are true influences behind each
costume."
Notting Hill Carnival goers
IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS/HENRY NICHOLLS
Image caption,
Organisers said people had been "working tirelessly" in preparation for
the event
Person on stilts at Notting Hill Carnival
IMAGE SOURCE,REUTERS/HENRY NICHOLLS
Image caption,
The community-led celebration of music, dancing, food and drink is
rooted in Caribbean culture
A second 48-hour bus strike in parts of west London could affect those
attending the event.
Sadiq Khan urged everyone attending to arrive early and to make the most >>> of the celebration.
"This community-led celebration of Caribbean history and culture has
become one of the world's biggest street festivals and part of the very
fabric of this city," he said.
Notting Hill Carnival goers
IMAGE SOURCE,VICTORIA JONES/PA WIRE
Image caption,
Participants said they were looking forward to seeing their creations
"brought to life" at the event
Parade at Notting Hill Carnival
IMAGE SOURCE,VICTORIA JONES/PA WIRE
Image caption,
Sunday is designated as "family day" at the carnival
There would be another 72-second silence at 15:00 BST on Monday to
honour those who died in the Grenfell tragedy, organisers said.
The blaze destroyed Grenfell Tower on 14 June 2017, claiming the lives
of 72 residents.
Organisers said on Twitter: "We ask all those planning to attend this
year's carnival and the participating bands and sound systems to work
with us as organisers and the community to help pay our respects.
"We stand by the Grenfell community and support them wholeheartedly."
2px presentational grey line
Crowds at Notting Hill Carnival
IMAGE SOURCE,VICTORIA JONES/PA WIRE
Notting Hill Carnival
The event takes place on the August Bank Holiday in Notting Hill,
Westbourne Park and parts of Kensington
The spectacle of music, dancing, food and drink is rooted in Caribbean
culture, and has been influenced by the Windrush generation
Over the past 55 years it has grown to become the second-biggest
carnival in the world, after the one held in Rio de Janeiro
The event aims to "promote unity and bring people of all ages together"
The first festival was put on by Rhaune Laslett, who lived in Notting
Hill and wanted to highlight and celebrate the diversity in her area
2px presentational grey line
The Metropolitan Police said thousands of officers were on duty to keep
the public safe.
Commander Dr Alison Heydari said: "Being able to attend Carnival in
person has been sorely missed for the last couple of years, so we are
expecting large crowds in the Notting Hill area this weekend.
"We are also working to keep the area safe with the festival organisers
implementing 'safer spaces' where women and girls can go and seek advice >>>from specially trained professionals, as well as the police.
"Our officers are here to help you, if you feel like something doesn't
look right please speak with us."
Children at Notting Hill Carnival
IMAGE SOURCE,EPA/ANDY RAIN
Image caption,
Carnival-goers said the event was a way of "expressing our freedom"
Notting Hill Carnival goers
IMAGE SOURCE,EPA/ANDY RAIN
Image caption,
Linett Kamala said Sunday was "very special" as it was "children's day"
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://archive.ph/9NASl
How dare anyone demand an apology for Covid lockdowns – have they
forgotten the terrors of early 2020?
The myth is being perpetuated that lockdowns actually caused more deaths >>> than lives saved. It is a ridiculous suggestion, but a seductive one
Sean O'Grady
·
2 hours ago
·
115
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Another Covid surge inevitable, Chris Whitty warns MPs
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Advocating lockdowns might not seem the most appropriate way to enjoy a
sunny bank holiday, but I fear it’s necessary.
Thanks to some unwise remarks by those two second-raters vying to lead
our poor knackered nation, the Covid denialists have been emboldened.
Not only do they vow to resist any future public health precautions, but >>> they are demanding that those of us who advocated lockdowns should
apologise, both for the lockdowns themselves and the undoubted misery
caused, but also for the non-Covid excess deaths now being experienced.
It is getting absurd.
Liz Truss, inexplicably and inexcusably, has ruled out lockdowns in the
face of any future pandemic, no matter how deadly; and Rishi Sunak now
says he didn’t argue hard enough in cabinet about the economic damage
and let the scientists become “empowered”.
Where once these two said they wanted to be guided by the science, they
have now joined the ranks of the anti-science conspiracy theorists. It’s >>> terrifying to behold. At least Boris Johnson, genuinely reluctant and
slow to impose the lockdowns, did bow to the reality of the position in
2020 and 2021 and take the painful action required to save many lives.
His successors seem, strange to say, more cowardly about doing the right >>> thing in future. They seem to have sided with those who’d rather not run >>> up more national debt, and thus pay higher taxes, to save the lives of
others. It’s an ugly sort of backlash.
Recommended
Boris Johnson’s own moral failings have lowered all around him
Boris Johnson’s own moral failings have lowered all around him
The myth is being perpetuated that lockdowns actually caused more deaths >>> than lives saved. It is a ridiculous suggestion, but a seductive one,
and one that is gaining currency, on social media and among folk who
should know better.
Have we forgotten the terrors of early 2020? A completely unfamiliar,
poorly understood but highly infectious and potentially deadly
coronavirus was ripping through populations in China and Europe, causing >>> deaths and serious illness. Health services in Italy couldn’t cope with
the demand.
People choked to death, effectively asphyxiated by the virus, before
they got near a doctor. At that time we were utterly defenceless and, no >>> matter how much we’d like to have dismissed it as not much worse than
flu, in too many cases it caused an agonising, unnecessary death.
To reiterate: when the first lockdown was announced by Boris Johnson in
March 2020 there was little knowledge about the disease and how it
spread, no cures, no vaccines, no treatments, no testing kits, little
protective equipment in hospitals, a shortage of hand sanitisers, masks
and disposable gloves for home use and, most important of all, simply
not enough ambulances, hospital beds, intensive care facilities and
respirators to save lives.
We were trying to build the basic Nightingale hospitals just to
warehouse the sick and making grim plans for mass graves. All this seems >>> to have been forgotten, strangely, in an orgy of post-event denialism.
Covid was a potentially fatal disease that had – and has – the
especially nasty feature that it is easily spread while people are
asymptomatic. Before they ever get a cough or a fever they can
unknowingly make many others sick – an especially insidious feature of
Covid.
Like any plague, it spreads exponentially, and soon there was hardly a
place in earth unaffected. As the slogan of the time went, we had to
stay indoors to protect the NHS from collapse and to save lives. As the
disease took hold in hospitals and care homes, staff went off sick and
there were even fewer people to care for those dying from Covid.
For some reason the nation now wants to indulge in an act of collective
amnesia. We want to pretend now that things weren’t that bad and the
lockdowns weren’t really needed. The lie is being spread that the
lockdowns have left us with a terrible backlog of cases, hence the
delays and queues for NHS treatment now. Yet it was cold that did that,
not the public health precautions.
So the opposite was – and is – the truth. Without social distancing,
restrictions on gatherings, mask wearing, hygiene regimes and
self-isolation, even more cases would have overcrowded GP surgeries,
ambulances and hospital wards, and left even fewer resources available
to treat other urgent cases.
The alternative would have been to just leave people with Covid:
feverish and unable to breathe, to die alone at home, often with the
excuse that they were too old anyway – the “let the bodies pile high”
attitude once attributed to Johnson.
In fact, during the pandemic the NHS did still attend to other non-Covid >>> sick people – I know this from personal experience – and did so because
the lockdowns and other public health precautions allowed the medics the >>> space to do so. No doubt, too, some people suffered mental health
problems, many children had their educations disrupted and some of those >>> who felt unwell didn’t come forward for attention.
The economy, which we rely on to fund free health care, was damaged. But >>> all of those situations would have been worse had the lockdowns not
broken the chain of transmission and prevented overload. Harsher and
longer lockdowns would have become inevitable as the system broke down.
As I say, the unspoken alternative strategy (used in previous centuries) >>> would have been to confine Covid patients to their homes and not allow
them out or offer them treatment at all. Boris Johnson would have been
left to die in his Downing Street flat after he fell ill with his own
serious case of Covid, possibly caught through a cavalier attitude to
the tiny micro-organism.
The case for the lockdowns has been put eloquently by Chris Whitty. A
national hero, Whitty is now having his reputation quietly trashed by
people who should know better. This is what Whitty told MPs last year
when he was asked if the emergence of the omicron variant meant it was
being prioritised over cancer treatment: “That is sometimes said by
people who have no understanding of health at all, but I do not think it >>> is said by anyone who is serious, if I am honest. When they say it, it
is usually because they want to make a political point.
“The reality is – and if you ask any doctor working in any part of the
system they will say this – that what is threatening our ability to do
cancer and to do all these things is the fact that so much of the NHS
effort, and so many of the beds, are having to be put over to Covid that >>> we are having to work in a less efficient way because Covid is there.
Finding a way to manage Covid that minimises the impact on everything
else is absolutely central to what we are trying to do.
“In a sense, I completely agree that there are multiple other things in
addition to Covid. If we do not crack Covid at the point when we have
big waves, as we have now, we will do huge damage elsewhere. The idea
that the lockdowns cause problems with things like cancer is a complete
inversion of reality.
To keep up to speed with all the latest opinions and comment sign up to
our free weekly Voices Dispatches newsletter by clicking here
“If we had not had the lockdowns, the whole system would have been in
deep, deep trouble and the impact on things like heart attacks and
strokes, and all the other things people must still come forward for
when they have them, would have been even worse than it was. I want,
through all of you, to make it absolutely clear that that is an
inversion of reality.”
Recommended
GCSEs: Results down from 2021 record high, but remain above pre-pandemic >>> levels
GCSEs: Results down from 2021 record high, but remain above pre-pandemic >>> levels
Letters: I was beginning to quite like Rishi Sunak – but not anymore
Letters: I was beginning to quite like Rishi Sunak – but not anymore
Editorial: We should still be following the science on Covid
Editorial: We should still be following the science on Covid
It seems that the present epidemic of amnesia is one unexpected
consequence of Covid. The constant refrain that we have to “learn to
live with Covid” seems intended to mean we shouldn’t worry about it and
should treat it like a bad cold – indeed, we should forget all about
that nasty pandemic, because if we stop thinking about coronavirus then
it will go way. But of course it won’t, and one day a variant both more
dangerous and more infectious will emerge.
We should now be making sure the incidence of Covid is minimised,
through simple precautions such as masks on crowded public transport,
free testing kits and mandatory self-isolation while infectious. And one >>> day, in extremis, we might need a lockdown to prevent a collapse of the
NHS. If we took more precautions now, a lockdown would be less likely,
but might still be needed. Are we really so forgetful?
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://archive.ph/kl7Ik
Lionel Shriver
Why didn’t more people resist lockdown?
From magazine issue: 3 September 2022
Why didn’t more people resist lockdown?
[Getty Images]
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Share
Last week’s Spectator interview with Rishi Sunak conveyed the
anti-science ‘science’, the paucity of even fag-packet cost-benefit
analysis and the ideological lockdown of Boris Johnson’s cabinet that
brought forth calamitously extensive lockdowns of everyone else. Ever
since, numerous politicians and institutions implicated in this rash
experiment have had a vested interest in maintaining the myth that
putting whole societies into standby mode, as if countries are mere
flatscreens that can be benignly switched on and off by governmental
remote, saved many millions of lives.
As it will take years for culpable parties to retire, I once feared that >>> a full generation would need to elapse before we recognised lockdowns
for what they were: the biggest public health debacle in history. Yet
everywhere I turn lately, still another journalist is decrying the
avoidable social, medical and economic costs of this hysterical
over-reaction to a virus, while deriding lockdown zealots for having
vilified sceptics of a policy that may well end up killing more people
than it protected. The Covid revisionism is welcome – though it’s a good >>> deal easier to publish these opinion pieces now than it was two years
ago, and I speak from experience.
I’m all for holding officialdom accountable for mistakes from on high
that continue to generate dire consequences, not least today’s soaring
inflation. Yet it’s worth pressing more uncomfortably: should the public >>> not also be held accountable? After all, the professional naysayer Neil
Ferguson notoriously assumed that democracies would never ‘get away
with’ lockdowns in Europe – ‘and then Italy did it. And we realised that >>> we could.’ What facilitated sending entire populations to their room
like naughty children? Not merely draconian laws, but widespread public
eagerness to obey them. Johnson’s heavy hand was forced in part by
British opinion polls.
With nary a whimper, the public abdicated every civil right they’d
imagined to be inalienable
What was wrong with people – individual people, and in many instances
this means you, reader – yes, you – who’d never even heard of a
‘lockdown’ outside a prison or an American school-shooting drill, yet
who overnight embraced as inevitable a method of suppressing
communicable disease never before tried at scale, never recommended in
public health literature and first used to ‘successfully’ quell Covid by >>> lying, authoritarian China? Why didn’t more independent thinkers say:
‘Hold on a minute. Have you thought this through? Might nationwide house >>> arrest be just a tad over the top? And have you pols never heard of
unintended consequences?’ Why didn’t more enterprising citizens hit the
internet and note: ‘Wow! We’ve had pandemics before’ – and some older
folks would have lived through the contagions of 1957 and 1968
themselves – ‘and we didn’t close so much as a betting shop. Why can’t
we be trusted to act like grown-ups and behave in our own
self-interest?’ Why didn’t more members of the public get angry?
In the UK, a resistance did emerge, but we were few and roundly
traduced. Chillingly uniform journalistic cheerleaders for government
restrictions on all the major networks might at least claim to have been >>> intimidated by coercive Ofcom ‘guidelines’. But under no such regulatory >>> pressure, most regular shmoes in whose faces interviewers poked
microphones still obligingly spouted: ‘No ruination of our lives is too
extreme!’ With nary a whimper, the British public abdicated every civil
right they’d imagined the very week before to be inalienable: the right
to assembly; to free association; to family life; to travel, even the
right to leave the country; effectively, too, the right to free speech.
Worse, a substantial volunteer army became the state’s enforcers,
ringing the police when neighbours dared to go running twice in a day.
If we step back to gain a modicum of perspective, what’s most disturbing >>> about the past ten years is a different kind of climate change: a
sequence of social manias that have swept the world like back-to-back
sandstorms.
In 2012, a rare mental illness entailing estrangement from the sexual
signifiers of one’s own body suddenly snowballed into an international
obsession, until now we have thousands of women lopping off their
healthy breasts with the blessing of both the medical establishment and
the state.
In 2017, a movement energised by legitimate consternation over a
sexually predatory Hollywood producer’s abuse of power exploded into a
worldwide female grudge-fest, until no woman could hold her head high in >>> public without a personal story of sexual victimisation, which ambitious >>> females carried with them everywhere like bespoke handbags. Some of the
men destroyed by this frenzy surely deserved their fate, but others
didn’t. In the process of conflating rape and a disappointing date while >>> demonising commonplace flirtation and courtship, we must have lowered
the birth rate in multiple countries by several babies per thousand.
In 2020, we all moaned cosily, ‘Here we go, another lockdown,’ as if the >>> state barricading us in our homes for months on end were a time-honoured >>> tradition like Christmas. With the populace primed for hysteria, that
summer massive marches all over the world poured into the streets after
a single unjustified murder of a black suspect by a white policeman in
Minneapolis, issuing in an era consumed by race that is, alas, still
with us. It never appeared to enter the heads of indignant protestors in >>> Seoul that, gee, they didn’t really have any black people in South Korea. >>> Swept up in this succession of manic social waves, everyone gets
exercised about the same thing, mindlessly repeats the same empty
phrases and eagerly adopts the same branding (with its implied chiming
in, the coinage ‘MeToo’ was pitch-perfect). Trans women are women!
Believe women! Protect the NHS! Black lives matter! Yet once a mania
begins to subside, we never hear any sheepish self-examination. Say,
something like: ‘Hmm. I do feel badly about that Floyd chap, but why did >>> I find myself shouting on a London street “Hands up, don’t shoot!” when
our constabulary is unarmed?’ Members of the throng never seem to notice >>> that none of these passing intoxications was their idea, or to wonder
what this blowing-in-the-wind suggestibility says about their
vulnerability to, er, you know, fascism. So you’ve really got to worry
what comes next.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/x40ml2/these_emails_show_how_the_biden_administrations/
These Emails Show How the Biden Administration's Crusade Against
'Misinformation' Imposes Censorship by Proxy
Social media companies are eager to appease the government by
suppressing disfavored speech.
JACOB SULLUM | 9.1.2022 5:35 PM
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on RedditShare by emailPrint
friendly versionCopy page URL
Surgeon General Vivek Murthy
Surgeon General Vivek Murthy (Ron Sachs/CNP/SplashNews/Newscom)
On July 16, 2021, the day that Joe Biden accused Facebook of "killing
people" by failing to suppress misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines, a >>> senior executive at the social media platform's parent company emailed
Surgeon General Vivek Murthy in an effort to assuage the president's
anger. "Reaching out after what has transpired over the past few days
following the publication of the misinformation advisory, and
culminating today in the President's remarks about us," the Meta
executive wrote. "I know our teams met today to better understand the
scope of what the White House expects from us on misinformation going
forward."
Murthy had just published an advisory in which he urged a
"whole-of-society" effort to combat the "urgent threat to public health" >>> posed by "health misinformation," possibly including "appropriate legal
and regulatory measures." Biden's homicide charge came the next day, and >>> Meta was keen to address the president's concerns by cracking down on
speech that offended him.
The email, which was recently disclosed during discovery in a federal
lawsuit that Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry and Missouri
Attorney General Eric Schmitt filed in May, vividly illustrates how the
Biden administration engages in censorship by proxy, pressuring social
media platforms to implement speech restrictions that would be
flagrantly unconstitutional if the government tried to impose them
directly. Landry and Schmitt, both Republicans, argue that such pressure >>> violates the First Amendment.
"Having threatened and cajoled social-media platforms for years to
censor viewpoints and speakers disfavored by the Left," the lawsuit
says, "senior government officials in the Executive Branch have moved
into a phase of open collusion with social-media companies to suppress
disfavored speakers, viewpoints, and content on social media platforms
under the Orwellian guise of halting so-called 'disinformation,'
'misinformation,' and 'malinformation.'…As a direct result of these
actions, there has been an unprecedented rise in censorship and
suppression of free speech—including core political speech—on
social-media platforms."
Landry and Schmitt reiterate that point in a "joint statement of
discovery disputes" they filed yesterday in the U.S. District Court for
the Western District of Louisiana. "Under the First Amendment, the
federal Government should have no role in policing private speech or
picking winners and losers in the marketplace of ideas," they say. "But
that is what federal officials are doing, on a massive scale—a scale
whose full scope and impact [are] yet to be determined."
So far, Schmitt reports, documents produced by the government in
response to a court order have identified 45 federal officials who
"communicate with social media platforms about 'misinformation' and
censorship." Schmitt and Landry think many other officials are involved
in "a vast 'Censorship Enterprise' across a multitude of federal
agencies," and they are seeking additional documents to confirm that
suspicion.
In response to inquiries, Landry and Schmitt say, "Facebook and
Instagram identified 32 federal officials, including eight current and
former White House officials," who have contacted them regarding
"misinformation and censorship of social-media content." YouTube
"identified 11 federal officials, including five current and former
White House officials," while Twitter "identified nine federal
officials, including at least one White House official."
Judging from the examples that Schmitt cites, the tenor of these
communications has been cordial and collaborative. The social media
companies are at pains to show that they share the government's goals,
which is precisely the problem. Given the broad powers that the federal
government has to make life difficult for these businesses through
public criticism, litigation, regulation, and legislation, the Biden
administration's "asks" for stricter moderation are tantamount to
commands. The administration expects obsequious compliance, and that is
what it gets.
Shortly after sending the July 16 email to Murthy, according to Landry
and Schmitt's joint statement, the same Meta executive sent the surgeon
general a text message. "It's not great to be accused of killing
people," he said, adding that he was "keen to find a way to deescalate
and work together collaboratively."
And so he did. "Thanks again for taking the time to meet earlier today," >>> the Meta executive says in a July 23, 2021, email to Murthy. "I wanted
to make sure you saw the steps we took just this past week to adjust
policies on what we are removing with respect to misinformation, as well >>> as steps taken to further address the 'disinfo dozen.'" He brags that
Meta has removed objectionable pages, groups, and Instagram accounts;
taken steps to make several pages and profiles "more difficult to find
on our platform"; and "expanded the group of false claims that we remove >>> to keep up with recent trends."
Twitter also was eager to fall in line. "I'm looking forward to setting
up regular chats," says an April 8, 2021, message from Twitter to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). "My team has asked for >>> examples of problematic content so we can examine trends. All examples
of misinformation are helpful, but in particular, if you have any
examples of fraud—such as fraudulent covid cures, fraudulent vaccine
cards, etc, that would be very helpful."
Twitter responded swiftly to the government's censorship suggestions.
"Thanks so much for this," a Twitter official says in an April 16, 2021, >>> email to the CDC. "We actioned (by labeling or removing) the Tweets in
violation of our Rules." The message, which is headed "Request for
problem accounts," is signed with "warmest" regards.
The government also got fast service from Instagram. In a July 20, 2021, >>> email, Clarke Humphrey, digital director for the White House COVID-19
Response Team, requests the deletion of an Instagram parody of Anthony
Fauci, Biden's top medical adviser. "Any way we can get this pulled
down?" Humphrey asks. "It is not actually one of ours." Less than a
minute later, he gets his answer: "Yep, on it!"
Twitter's desperation to please the Biden administration likewise went
beyond deleting specific messages. Landry and Schmitt note "internal
Twitter communications" indicating that senior White House officials
"specifically pressured Twitter to deplatform" anti-vaccine writer Alex
Berenson, "which Twitter did." In an April 16, 2021, email about a
"Twitter VaccineMisinfo Briefing" on Zoom, Deputy Assistant to the
President Rob Flaherty tells colleagues that Twitter will inform "White
House staff" about "the tangible effects seen from recent policy
changes, what interventions are currently being implemented in addition
to previous policy changes, and ways the White House (and our COVID
experts) can partner in product work."
Like Twitter, Facebook was thirsty for government guidance. In a July
28, 2021, email to the CDC headed "FB Misinformation Claims_Help
Debunking," a Facebook official says, "I have been talking about in
addition to our weekly meetings, doing a monthly disinfo/debunking
meeting, with maybe claim topics communicated a few days prior so that
you can bring in the matching experts and chat casually for 30 minutes
or so. Is that something you'd be interested in?" The CDC's response is
enthusiastic: "Yes, we would love to do that."
The communications uncovered so far mainly involved anti-vaccine
messages, many of which are verifiably false. But Americans have a First >>> Amendment right to express their opinions, no matter how misguided or
ill-informed. That does not mean social media platforms are obligated to >>> host those opinions. To the contrary, they have a First Amendment right
to exercise editorial discretion. But that's not what is really
happening when their decisions are shaped by implicit or explicit
threats from the government. Notwithstanding all the friendly words,
Facebook et al. have strong incentives to cooperate with a government
that otherwise might punish them in various ways.
Ostensibly, the Biden administration is merely asking social media
companies to enforce their own rules. But those rules are open to
interpretation, and the government is encouraging the companies to read
them more broadly than they otherwise might.
Maybe Twitter would have banished Alex Berenson even if White House
officials had not intervened, but maybe not. Multiply that question
across the myriad moderation decisions that social media platforms make
every day, and you have a situation where it is increasingly difficult
to tell whether they are exercising independent judgment or taking
orders from the government.
"Although a 'private entity is not ordinarily constrained by the First
Amendment,'" Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas noted in a 2021
concurrence, "it is if the government coerces or induces it to take
action the government itself would not be permitted to do, such as
censor expression of a lawful viewpoint….The government cannot
accomplish through threats of adverse government action what the
Constitution prohibits it from doing directly." That is the gist of the
argument that Landry and Schmitt are making in their lawsuit.
The danger posed by the Biden administration's creepy crusade against
"misinformation" is magnified by its broad definition of that concept,
which encompasses speech that the government deems "misleading," even
when it is arguably or demonstrably true. "Claims can be highly
misleading and harmful even if the science on an issue isn't yet
settled," Murthy says, and "what counts as misinformation can change
over time with new evidence and scientific consensus."
In other words, the "scientific consensus," however Murthy defines it,
can be wrong, as illustrated by the federal government's ever-evolving
advice about the utility of face masks in preventing COVID-19
transmission. The CDC initially dismissed the value of general masking,
then embraced it as "the most important, powerful public health tool we
have." More recently, it has conceded that commonly used cloth masks do
little, if anything, to stop coronavirus transmission.
"Twitter's 'COVID-19 misleading information policy,' as of December
2021, noted that Twitter will censor (label or remove) speech claiming
that 'face masks…do not work to reduce transmission or to protect
against COVID-19,'" Schmitt says. "Other platforms had similar policies. >>> Both Senator Rand Paul and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis were censored
by Youtube for questioning the efficacy of masks." Twitter even removed
a mask-skeptical tweet by Scott Atlas, a member of the Trump
administration's coronavirus task force. But "now," Schmitt says, "a
growing body of science shows that masks, especially cloth masks, are
ineffective at stopping the spread of COVID-19, and can impose negative
impacts on children."
Landry and Schmitt's lawsuit also notes Twitter's blocking of the New
York Post's story about Hunter Biden's laptop, which was deemed
"disinformation" prior to the 2020 presidential election but turned out
to be accurate. Social media companies have made similarly questionable
decisions regarding discussion of the COVID-19 "lab leak" theory, which
remains contested but has not been disproven.
Even acting on their own, social media platforms are bound to make bad
calls. But when the government demands that they all hew to an
officially recognized "consensus," the threat to free inquiry and open
debate is far graver.
The only healthy way to stop the "misinformation" (aka lies) is to
choose instead to http://tinyurl.com/TrulyLove (John 15:12) our
neighbor.
Here was a conversation about the media in 1994.
Well I have to look that up for myself. I’m just going by what I
see/read in the news media.
– Darryl Hamilton
That’s an interesting approach, kind of like trying to determine the actual >intelligence and character of Black people by watching “Birth of a Nation”….
– Christopher Charles Morton
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://ph.news.yahoo.com/editorial-why-not-mask-wearing-115800603.html
Editorial: Why not make mask-wearing part of Filipino culture?
Tue, September 6, 2022 at 4:58 AM·3 min read
Wearing of face masks in many parts of Europe and the United States have >>> been met with resistance from people who viewed it as encroaching on
their personal freedoms. This stubbornness could have contributed to the >>> high number of Covid-related deaths and infections in the west.
The governments of South Korea and Japan have no problems about
requiring their residents to wear face masks. Even before the arrival of >>> the coronavirus pandemic in both East Asian countries, Koreans and
Japanese had been wearing face masks.
In the Philippines, one of the government’s responses to the pandemic is >>> the mandatory wearing of face masks. The enforcement of this policy was
criticized as harsh, especially during the first year of the pandemic.
Remember the apprehension of broadcaster Howie Severino? The veteran
journalist, a Covid survivor, stopped biking to drink water. A team of
police officers and tanod who happened to pass him by, arrested him and
took him to a stadium for a brief seminar on proper use of the face mask >>> in public. In Cebu City, the common punishment received by apprehended
maskless people was doing a set of physical exercises at Plaza
Independencia in the sun. Other forms of punishment included attending a >>> seminar on health protocols, rendering community service, and, absurdly, >>> praying the rosary (as if non-wearing of face mask is a mortal sin that
if repeatedly committed would send the violator’s soul to eternal fire). >>>
Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama has issued Executive Order (EO) 5, which
makes the wearing of it non-obligatory whether in open spaces or not in
the city. He later issued EO 6 after EO 5 was met with resistance from
the national government, particularly the Department of the Interior and >>> Local Government, and the Department of Health (DOH). The new EO sets a
four-month “trial period” of the optional wearing of face masks in Cebu
City, starting on Sept. 1, 2022 and ending on Dec. 31.
Some quarters praised Rama and Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia, the pioneer
in making mask-wearing not obligatory in open spaces, for moving ahead
of the national government, specifically the Inter-Agency Task Force
(IATF) for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases.
The IATF still has to come up with new protocols in dealing with the
pandemic. DOH officer-in-charge Maria Rosario Vergeire admitted that the >>> mandatory face mask policy can be lifted, particularly in open spaces;
however, she said easing of restrictions must not be done recklessly but >>> slowly and carefully. But her statement begs a question: how slow the
national government will be in coming up with new protocols.
One can agree with the de facto DOH secretary that wearing a face mask
can protect one from other respiratory infections such as flu and pneumonia.
Why is the IATF hesitant in making the wearing of face masks optional?
It can do so but at the same time, it can ask the DOH to launch an
expansive promotion of mask-wearing to become part of the new normal as
it can help Filipinos have healthier lungs. For sure, there will be
Filipinos who will listen. Perhaps in the near future, wearing a face
mask would become part of Filipino culture just like in Japan and South
Korea.
Despite Mayor Rama’s move on easing the mask-wearing protocol, one can
observe that several people in the city—inside modern or traditional
jeepneys, malls and in open public spaces—still wear their face masks.
Haven’t they read the news? Are they getting comfortable with wearing
face masks to the point that they do not mind the discomfort? Do they
feel incomplete if they are not wearing masks whenever they go outside
their houses?
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
Asia. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-women-were-nearly-twice-as-likely-as-men-to-break-lockdown-rules-study-suggests-but-why-12691002
COVID-19: Women were nearly twice as likely as men to break lockdown
rules, study suggests - but why?
Researchers say the lockdown rules clashed with existing gender
inequalities and that these were not considered by authorities.
Tuesday 6 September 2022 12:53, UK
File photo dated 30/03/20 of signage outside a closed West Bridgford
Infants School in Nottingham
Image:
When schools closed as part of the lockdown, many mothers faced
increased childcare responsibilities
Why you can trust Sky News
Women were nearly twice as likely as men to break COVID-19 lockdown
rules, mainly due to their caring responsibilities, a study has suggested. >>>
Many women formed bubbles "out of necessity" before they were legally
allowed to so they could get help with childcare, according to a study
by the University of York.
Lead author Professor Joe Tomlinson, from the university's law school,
said: "The results of our study suggest there wasn't enough
consideration given to caring obligations and how the new laws would
have a disproportionate impact on women and other groups facing
inequalities.
"Our findings surprised us because previous studies into compliance have >>> shown that men are much more likely to break the law than women.
"However, our results are not about women being wilfully non-compliant.
"Many participants told us how they broke the law by enlisting
grandparents to help with childcare or meeting with other mothers for
support.
"They were forming bubbles out of necessity before it was officially
allowed."
MORE ON COVID-19
Ambulance crews at City Hospital in Birmingham. West Midlands Ambulance
Service has experienced its busiest day on record as hospitals struggle
to cope with an influx of coronavirus cases. On Monday, the service
dealt with 5,383 calls in 24 hours. The previous record was 5,001 calls
in March 2018.
COVID-19: Deaths involving coronavirus in England and Wales fall for
fourth week in a row
A woman wearing a protective face mask holds a mobile phone while the
spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) continues, London, Britain, >>> April 19, 2020. Picture taken April 19, 2020 REUTERS/Steven Watt
COVID app that detects virus in your voice 'more accurate than lateral
flow tests'
This photo has been successfully downloaded. (Look for it in your
Downloads folder or the last place you saved a file.)
£1.1bn of COVID small business loans identified as fraud, claims
government source
Related Topics:
COVID-19
Coronavirus
According to a report by the Office for National Statistics in July
2020, during the first month of lockdown women carried out on average
two-thirds more of the childcare duties per day than men.
Read more:
The eight-year-old carer looking after her mum and sisters in lockdown
Programme of variant-busting jabs begins in England
COVID app that detects virus in your voice 'more accurate than lateral
flow tests'
Even after bubbles were allowed, women with care duties faced a dilemma
over who to include, the researchers said.
The University of York analysed polling by YouGov, which surveyed 1,695
people in April 2020, 1,158 in June 2020, and 1,195 in October, and
carried out online focus groups and interviews.
It found most people tried to follow the rules but over time there was
an increasing amount of rule-bending and "creative non-compliance".
Some claimed they had adhered to the "spirit" of a rule or that they
were using "common sense", with many saying they were more likely to
follow what they believed to be law rather than guidance.
Rob Street, director of justice at the Nuffield Foundation, which funded
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://archive.ph/pHBUX
HITHER AND YON
The COVID Reckoning Is Overdue
The damage done to children is manifest.
by SCOTT MCKAY
September 13, 2022, 9:19 PM
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern (Alexandros
Michailidis/Shutterstock)
Boy, there sure is an awful lot of discrediting news for the Branch
Covidian crowd lately, isn’t there?
Sure seems like they put us through two years of hell for — if not
nothing, then certainly not much.
We can start in New Zealand, where the abject idiot Karen in charge of
the country essentially pulled an Emily Litella after destroying its
economy and trampling all over the civil liberties of the people, only
to … shrug her shoulders and mumble about individual choices.
Luke Rudkowski
@Lukewearechange
·
Follow
After discriminating and terrorizing her nation for not doing what she
wanted them to do, the Prime Minster of New Zealand FINALLY drops all
"health" mandates
This is the point where everyone should be asking themselves, what was
the point of all of this!?
Watch on Twitter
4:46 PM · Sep 12, 2022
17.8K
Reply
Copy link
Read 1.5K replies
Jacinda Ardern is a classic neocommunist control freak who formerly
obsessed about climate change until COVID came along — and then she
closed off travel to New Zealand and put the whole country on lockdown.
She’s in a relationship with a TV presenter which produced a child
before a marriage (the wedding was postponed because of COVID, of
course), and — shockingly — she was reelected in 2020 in a landslide
thanks to fawning media coverage.
And after two years of dictatorial government, she just lifted all the
mask and vaccine mandates and said it’s up to the people. This after
forcing vaccines on the whole country (something which happened right
after a call with Bill and Melinda Gates). Oh, well.
Ardern ought to be run out of office on a rail. Will New Zealanders do that?
What else have we seen lately? Well, there was this…
A new pre-print study by nine health experts from Harvard, Johns
Hopkins, and other top universities found that COVID-19 boosters
administered to young adults cause 18 to 98 serious adverse events for
each COVID hospitalization prevented.
The study—posted Monday on The Social Science Research Network
(SSRN)—concluded that mandatory booster vaccination in college is
“ethically unjustifiable.” The paper is titled, “COVID-19 Vaccine
Boosters for Young Adults: A Risk-Benefit Assessment and Five Ethical
Arguments against Mandates at Universities.”
…
The nine medical scientists analyzed CDC and sponsor-reported adverse
event data, and found that vaccine booster mandates have likely resulted >>> in more harm than good.
“Per COVID-19 hospitalization prevented in previously uninfected young
adults, we anticipate 18 to 98 serious adverse events, including 1.7 to
3.0 booster-associated myocarditis cases in males, and 1,373 to 3,234
cases of grade ?3 reactogenicity which interferes with daily
activities,” the study stated.
The researchers estimated that “approximately 22,000 to 30,000 previous
uninfected young adults ages 18–29 years must be boosted with an mRNA
vaccine to prevent one Covid-19 hospitalization,” and argued that the
risk of serious side effects is much higher.
This ought to be very bad news for a whole lot of politicians who’ve
demanded vaccinations for kids. A perfect example of one who should be
made to pay a terrible price for his COVID insanity is Louisiana Gov.
John Bel Edwards, who, despite being told no on school vax mandates by
the Louisiana Legislature, pressed ahead until the politics of his vax
fixation became impossible.
The damage done to those kids whose parents listened to people like
Edwards is already beginning to manifest itself. The question is whether >>> that story will be told.
Because … remember this?
Public health officials are encouraging all American adults to receive
COVID-19 booster shots due to the emergence of the omicron variant.
Meanwhile, children are still receiving their first doses of the vaccine. >>> But online, some claim children face more risk from the vaccine than
COVID-19 itself.
“HUGE: CDC and Big Pharma Data Confirm that More Children will Die from
COVID Vaccine than from the COVID Virus,” reads a Nov. 21 headline from
the Gateway Pundit, a conservative website that has repeatedly shared
misinformation about COVID-19.
The article accumulated more than 3,500 shares within two days. Similar
claims have also been shared in standalone posts on Facebook.
As evidence for its claim, the Gateway Pundit cites an Oct. 31 Substack
newsletter from Toby Rogers, who also writes for the anti-vaccine
organization Children’s Health Defense. The newsletter claims “the Biden >>> administration plan would kill 5,248 children via Pfizer mRNA shots.”
Fact check:Former Pfizer VP spreads false claim about COVID-19 vaccines
and child deaths
USA TODAY previously rated False a claim that children are 50 times more >>> likely to die from the COVID-19 vaccine than the virus. This claim is
similarly wrong.
Public health officials say the vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech is safe and >>> effective at preventing COVID-19 in children ages 5-11. As other
independent fact-checking organizations have reported, the benefits of
the vaccine outweigh its known and potential risks.
Maybe the folks at Gateway Pundit ought to reach out to Daniel Funke,
the USA Today hack who wrote that “fact check” piece, and ask him for
comment.
There’s more, obviously. We could fill a library with the nonstop
idiocies of the Biden administration with respect to COVID. Its response >>> is an unmitigated failure on every level — Biden has overseen many more
COVID deaths than did his predecessor despite trampling on civil
liberties at every turn.
In one example, there was a court case heard en banc at the Fifth
Circuit Court of Appeals Tuesday which went very badly for the
administration. Feds for Medical Freedom, an organization of about 6,000 >>> federal workers formed to fight Biden’s vax mandate as a term of their
employment, has been in litigation with the administration for nearly a
year, winning at the district level in front of a Texas judge but losing >>> the government’s appear to a three-judge panel at the Fifth Circuit.
But at the en banc hearing there were fireworks. Forgive the long
excerpt, but it’s just too good not to include all of this…
Some of the court’s jurists appeared skeptical in Tuesday’s hearing of
Justice Department attorney Charles Scarborough’s arguments the mandate
is well within Biden’s authority as chief of the federal workforce, akin >>> to the numerous CEOs of private companies who required their employees
to get inoculated against Covid-19.
U.S. Circuit Judge Rhesa Barksdale asked Scarborough if the case is moot >>> because getting vaccines is not ironclad protection against catching Covid. >>> “Even when you’re vaccinated you still have breakthrough cases of Covid. >>> It’s well known this is happening. So it would be moot and this case
would be over. Or at least it should be something we should consider in
the factors of whether an injunction is justified,” the George H. W.
Bush appointee said.
Expressing confusion at Barksdale’s suggestion, Scarborough said, “The
case is not moot. The vaccination requirement continues. And vaccination >>> continues to be the single best method for preventing serious disease >>>from Covid and hospitalization.”
U.S. Circuit Judge Edith Jones, a Ronald Reagan appointee, framed her
opposition to the mandate with a hypothetical.
“What is the likelihood the president would declare that all the
employees have to achieve a certain body weight within the next six
months?” she asked.
“I think the likelihood of that is extraordinarily small, your honor,”
Scarborough replied.
“Well, but everybody knows obesity is one of the biggest problems in the >>> United States,” Jones said, “related to many collateral health problems
and death. And that the daily consequences of obesity also affect the
workplace in terms of medical costs, absenteeism and that sort of thing.” >>> “So it seems to me that obesity is at least as big a problem,” she
added. “And it’s not transmissible. Whereas people who take the vaccine, >>> as you just acknowledged, can still transmit the disease.”
Then there’s the recent study showing a 92 percent success rate for
ivermectin in preventing COVID hospitalizations, which popped recently.
Meaning almost all of the crisis these people put their constituents
through was unnecessary. Imagine how this would have gone if common
antivirals had been made readily available to the public to treat COVID, >>> and then monoclonal antibodies made ready as a second line of defense
for the people hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin didn’t work for.
But as bad as things have been in the Western world, and as unjust as it >>> may be that some of the worst actors won’t be tossed out in disgrace for >>> their alarmism, stupidity, and tyranny, the man needing a reckoning more >>> than anyone else is none other than China’s fascist dictator Xi Jinping. >>> Yes, I’m calling him a fascist. China calls itself a communist country
but it’s far more properly termed a fascist one where the state controls >>> the means of production by running a corporatist tyranny. And that
tyranny manifests itself most flamboyantly in the mass COVID lockdowns
which are taking place even at this late date.
Residents under Covid lockdowns in areas across China are complaining of >>> shortages of food and essential items.
Tens of millions of people in at least 30 regions have been ordered to
stay at home under partial or full lockdowns.
“It’s been 15 days, we are out of flour, rice, eggs. From days ago, we
run out of milk for kids,” said one resident in western Xinjiang.
Authorities are scrambling to contain local outbreaks ahead of the
Communist party’s congress in October.
China’s zero-Covid policy requires strict lockdowns – even if just a
handful of cases are reported. On Monday China recorded 949 new Covid
cases across the entire country.
The policy has prompted rare public dissent from citizens and has also
been accused of stifling economic growth.
In Xinjiang a weeks-long lockdown in the Ili Kazakh Autonomous
Prefecture near the border with Kazakhstan has seen desperate residents
appeal for help on social media.
One post showed a video of an Uyghur man overcome with emotion, saying
his three children had not eaten for three days.
Xi comes up for “reelection” at a meeting of China’s Politburo next
month. The sycophants and cronies who populate that body wouldn’t dare
oust him for what he’s done to his people — from the inception of the
crisis to the nonstop lies about it to the privations and misery he’s
imposed — but they ought to. Frankly, they ought to do a lot worse than
just pack him off to retirement.
We’re far, far overdue for a reckoning on COVID. Across the globe, the
ruling class has been exposed as a cabal of idiots, charlatans and
despots of various stripes.
The reckoning will come, though. When it does it will be unpleasant.
Let’s hope some of it manifests on Nov. 8 in America.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://archive.ph/GQoZo
Listening Project contract will be awarded to one of 12 pre-approved
firms, many of which worked for government during pandemic
Britain's prime minister Boris Johnson speaks during a daily Covid-19
briefing.
PR agencies on the list worked for the hub that developed the criticised >>> ‘Stay alert’ messaging, revealed by Boris Johnson. Photograph: Pippa
Fowles/10 Downing St/Reuters
Jessica Elgot
@jessicaelgot
Tue 20 Sep 2022 15.25 EDT
PR giants that received hefty government contracts to run Covid-19
public health campaigns are now bidding to lead an inquiry into the
public’s experience of the pandemic response, the Guardian has learned.
The Listening Project was announced earlier this year as a formal part
of the Covid-19 inquiry, which will “examine the UK’s preparedness and
response to the pandemic and learn lessons for the future”.
A spokesperson for the group Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice said >>> the contract risked being “another example of those in power being able
to mark their own homework”.
But the contract for the work, estimated to be around £1m, will only be
awarded to one of 12 firms on a pre-approved government list, many of
whom also undertook work for the government during the pandemic. One
industry veteran who contacted the Guardian called it a “ludicrous,
farcical conflict of interests”.
The Listening Project, which is due to launch in mid-November, was
announced by the inquiry’s chair, Heather Hallett, and designed for the
bereaved to be able to talk about the loss of their loved ones, their
grief and the effect on their mental health.
It is intended to inform the inquiry’s understanding about how the
pandemic has affected people “in a less formal setting than a public
hearing”.
But a significant number of the firms on the pre-approved list were
involved in key government communications campaigns. London-based agency >>> MullenLowe was awarded a series of contracts by the Cabinet Office in
August 2020 to provide “Covid-19 awareness campaigns” – including the
creation of the “Hands, face, space” slogan and later the emotive “Look
into my eyes” campaign, which asked people to reconsider their
rule-breaking.
As well as MullenLowe, PR agencies Engine and 23red were also contracted >>> for work in the Covid-19 comms hub in the Cabinet Office. That hub also
developed hand hygiene communication, the “Stay at home” slogan and the
subsequent “Stay alert” messaging, which drew widespread criticism.
Another firm on the list, Freuds, was awarded a contract to provide
“strategic communications”, including “reputation management”, for the
beleaguered coronavirus Test and Trace system – without a tender process. >>> Accenture, the parent company of Accenture Song, another agency on the
list, acquired long-term contracts for software services and business
support for Test and Trace. FCB Inferno won the contract for the Home
Office campaign to encourage victims of domestic abuse to seek help
during lockdown restrictions.
M&C Saatchi obtained a contract during the pandemic for Public Health
England’s “Better health” campaign on adult obesity, which described the >>> benefits of weight loss in healthier outcomes for Covid-19.
Another firm on the list, Unlimited and Pablo, has recently been
appointed by the Cabinet Office Government Communication Service as a
standby agency – in effect, the “go-to” agency for the Cabinet Office,
though it did not run any of the big Covid-19 communications campaigns.
The government invites firms to apply for the contract, rather than vice >>> versa, and there remains potential for the contract to be awarded to a
firm that was not involved in Covid-19 or NHS communications after the
deadline this Friday.
The new contract for the inquiry work says that the Listening Project
“will also demonstrate to the country that we are ‘listening’ to what
the country wants to tell us, helping to maintain trust and confidence
in the inquiry and its findings”.
It says it should be “balancing the need to ‘listen’ to as many people
as possible, while being proportional in its delivery to ensure value
for money for the taxpayer and to the inquiry”.
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The contract also says whichever firm takes on the work should ensure
“high proprietary standards are in place which do not impede the
delivery of the inquiry’s legal processes”.
A spokesperson for Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice said: “This is >>> incredibly disappointing. The fact that Lady Hallet is leaving bereaved
families out in the cold and having their stories gathered by a third
party is bad enough … The potential conflict of interest is clear as day >>> and it looks like yet another example of those in power being allowed to >>> mark their own homework.
“Hallet herself has acknowledged that for the inquiry to learn lessons
that prevent the monumental scale of daily deaths we saw from ever
happening again, the bereaved must be at its heart.
“The inquiry needs to urgently come forward and explain how they are
going to involve us. So far they’ve rejected our recommendations and
told us next to nothing about what their plans are.”
A spokesperson for the inquiry said: “The UK Covid-19 Inquiry is
completely independent of the government.
“The listening exercise procurement is being conducted using a Crown
Commercial Service framework to ensure value for money to the taxpayer.
The contract will be awarded in line with robust procurement and
transparency regulations.
“The inquiry has robust processes in place to deal with conflicts of
interest.
“A separate firm will be procured to analyse the data collected from the >>> listening exercise.
“The inquiry will be investigating the way that the government
communicated with the public – this is part of the inquiry’s terms of
reference, which set the scope for the inquiry.”
A Cabinet Office source said: “All bidders are required to declare any
potential conflicts of interest as part of standard due diligence
required under procurement rules.
“These will be investigated once the bidding process closes. The inquiry >>> will make the final decision as to which supplier to appoint.”
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-63009813
Covid: First rise in infections in UK since July
Published
1 day ago
Share
Related Topics
Coronavirus pandemic
Secondary school age pupils
IMAGE SOURCE,PA MEDIA
Covid infection rates have increased in the UK for the first time since
the middle of July, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). >>>
One in 70 tested positive, with the largest rise in secondary school
children in the week to 14 September.
Infections increased in England and Wales while rates fell in Scotland
and Northern Ireland.
The ONS says it will closely monitor the data to see the impact of
schools returning over the coming weeks.
Infections rose by 5% in the most recent period covered by the survey,
although the total number testing positive is still close to its lowest
point of the year.
Booster jabs are now being offered to the most vulnerable, to help
protection over the winter.
UK first country to approve dual-strain vaccine
Who will get a Covid booster this autumn?
The ONS estimates are based on random tests on people in households
across the UK whether or not they have symptoms.
From these tests, it says approximately 927,000 people would have
tested positive for Covid - 1.4% of the population - an increase from
881,200 the previous week.
There were increases in London, the West Midlands, Yorkshire and the
Humber and north-east England, while rates continued to decline in the
South East.
The rise was most noticeable in England in secondary school pupils as
the new term started as well as in those aged between 25 and 34. In all
other age groups, it was "uncertain" what the trend was.
The data marks the first increase in UK infections since the middle of
July although rates are still well below spikes driven by the original
Omicron variant earlier this year and two related offshoots, known as
BA.4 and BA.5, in the summer.
UK infections up by 5%
The number being admitted to hospital with Covid in England has also
increased over the most recent week.
In total 4,015 patients were admitted in the week ending 19 September,
up 17% from 3,434 in the previous week.
A programme to offer Covid booster jabs, along with antiviral
treatments, to millions of the most vulnerable starting this month is
designed to help protect those at greatest risk.
The UK has approved two dual-strain Covid vaccines which are part of
that programme.
Across the UK, the ONS estimates Covid rates were:
one in 70 in England - up from one in 75 last week
one in 75 in Wales - up from one in 110 last week
one in 80 in Northern Ireland - down from one in 55 last week
one in 55 in Scotland - down from one in 45 last week
Sarah Crofts, head of analytical outputs for the ONS's Covid-19
infection survey, said it was "a mixed picture" across the UK as
infections increased in England and Wales and decreased in Scotland and
Northern Ireland.
"It is too early to see if these changing trends will continue, and we
will monitor the data closely to see any impact of the return of schools >>> over the coming weeks," she said.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://nypost.com/2022/09/21/fauci-admits-he-knew-draconian-lockdowns-would-have-collateral-negative-consequences-on-schoolchildren/
By Gabriel Hays , Fox News
September 21, 2022 10:43pm Updated
Fauci
Fauci admitted during a three-day convention that the policies would
lead to "collateral negative consequences."
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call/Sipa U
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED BY:
Fox News
Queen Elizabeth II funeral
House passes Liz Cheney-backed election reform bill
Newsom says people left California because of Trump’s visa policies
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Dr.
Anthony Fauci admitted Wednesday that he knew the “draconian” COVID-19
policies he pushed for would lead to “collateral negative consequences”
for the “economy” and “schoolchildren.”
Fauci’s comments came during day one of The Atlantic Festival, a
three-day convention put on by the media outlet The Atlantic featuring
speeches and interviews from prominent members of the media, the
government and political activists.
During the event, Fauci spoke with The Atlantic editor Ross Andersen in
front of a live audience about his experiences as the leading medical
professional working in the federal government during the COVID-19
pandemic.
In one segment of his talk, the doctor spoke about his guidance in
instituting “draconian” pandemic guidance knowing full well there would
be “collateral” damage stemming from it.
Before making his central point, Fauci first blamed the “divisiveness”
of “social media” for turning every piece of his guidance during the
pandemic into a confusing and controversial statement.
SEE ALSO
No, COVID didn’t come from a US lab — Lancet report continues the China
coverup
“When you have a divisiveness in society where every time you say
something, you have X number of people with social media looking to
attack it, that adds to the understandable confusion when you’re dealing >>> with an evolving outbreak,” Fauci stated.
He then justified his harsh COVID guidance, including pushing the
federal government to mandate lockdowns, masking, and later,
vaccination, because hospitals were being “overrun.”
“Of course, when you make recommendations, if the primary goal when
you’re dealing with a situation where the hospitals were being overrun
in New York, intensive care units were being put in hallways, you have
to do something that’s rather draconian,” the doctor admitted.
SEE ALSO
Anthony Fauci
Fauci mocked ‘ass-backwards’ diners for taking off masks at table: book
He continued, “And sometimes when you do draconian things, it has
collateral negative consequences, just like when you shut things down,
even temporarily, it does have deleterious consequences on the economy,
on the schoolchildren. You know that.”
Fauci confirmed he risked these harms, adding, “But you have to make a
balance when you’re dealing with — we know the only way to stop
something cold in its track is to try and shut things down.”
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/lifestyle/health-fitness/experts-fear-more-contagious-covid-28106476
Experts fear 'more contagious' Covid variant will reach UK amid upcoming >>> World Cup
The new strain BF.7 has been dubbed the 'Omicron spawn' by medical
professionals.
dailyrecord
SHARE
Comments
4
ByNicola RoyTrainee Trends WriterAlahna KindredNews Reporter
17:50, 28 SEP 2022
Enter your postcode for local news and info
Enter your postcode
Click for Sound
DR HILARY WARNS OF 'TWINDEMIC' OF COVID AND FLU THIS WINTER
A new strain of Covid thought to be even more contagious has been
spotted all over Europe, and experts fear it will continue to spread.
The variant BF.7 has been dubbed the 'Omicron spawn' by scientists, who
have warned that it could become dominant in the next few weeks.
And a top immunologist has warned the upcoming World Cup could make
cases surge, similar to how Delta cases spiked during the Euros last summer.
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Professor Denis Kinane, a world-leading immunologist and Founding
Scientist at Cignpost Diagnostics, told the Mirror : "It is hard to
predict when we will see a peak in cases as we do not yet know the full
extent to what is coming this autumn and winter.
"However, with events like the football World Cup taking place in
November, it is likely that the increase in international social
gatherings will lead to an increase in the spread of mutations cases –
similar to the effect of the Euros."
The World Cup may cause a surge in cases, similar to the Delta spike
during the Euros last year
The World Cup may cause a surge in cases, similar to the Delta spike
during the Euros last year (Image: Getty Images)
The World Cup is being hosted in Qatar this year, and will take place
across November and December to combat the soaring desert temperatures.
This means football fans in the UK will be watching their countries play >>> as temperatures begin to drop and the days become shorter.
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It's not clear how many cases of BF.7 have been found in the UK because
of a lack of regular testing. However, Belgium has seen the most cases
of the variant so far.
Prof Kinane added: "This new Covid variant spreading quickly in several
countries – it already accounts for 25 per cent of cases in Belgium."
He continued: "Like all new variants, BF.7 only exists as it is more
contagious than existing variants and will also be more effective in
overcoming immune resistance, whether it is natural through prior
infection or artificially via vaccination."
What are the symptoms of the new variant?
Change or loss of smell or taste is still a common symptom
Change or loss of smell or taste is still a common symptom (Image: Getty >>> Images/EyeEm)
The new strain's symptoms are similar to that of the original virus, so
you should still be mindful if you have the following:
High temperature
New, continuous cough
Aching body
Sore throat
Change to sense of smell or taste
Loss of appetite
Prof Kinane also urged those to get their Autumn booster vaccine, if
they can.
He said: "I would encourage those who are eligible for the Autumn Covid
booster jab to take it up at the earliest possibility, and for those not >>> eligible at present to remain cautious as to the impact that Covid can have.
"With immunity waning over time, it is vital that if a further
vaccination dose is offered, uptake should be swift and across the board >>> for maximum protection.
"The virus has not disappeared and will continue to mutate. Without the
lack of a baseline surveillance system and the absence of a testing
framework, we have very limited visibility on the virus’ mutation.
"As a result, it is difficult to quickly bring in public health measures >>> to counter the virus’ constantly mutating nature. Testing is the best
way to study the virus’ behaviour and it is crucial that we retain our
ability to increase testing."
There are around three million unvaccinated people in the UK, with
millions of others not yet eligible for the booster.
And although the vaccine doesn't prevent you from getting Covid, it
reduces the risk of hospitalisation.
Prof Kinane also said the scrapping of universal free testing means a
large section of the population will be unaware they have the virus and
we need to remain vigilant to prevent a Winter surge.
People are being urged to get the Autumn booster if they're eligible
People are being urged to get the Autumn booster if they're eligible
(Image: Getty Images)
He said: "Despite what many think, Covid-19 is still a dangerous and
highly infectious disease.
"Given this, it is important that we remain vigilant and cautious. No
one wants to see a return of lockdowns and restrictions.
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"But with three million people in the UK remaining unvaccinated, and the >>> virus still being a severe threat to vulnerable groups and the
immunosuppressed, we need to take reasonable precautions to prevent a
Winter surge."
Prof Kinane urges people to use face masks in enclosed spaces, including >>> at mass events, and to get tested if we think we are infected.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/01/latest-covid-surge-a-heavy-straw-on-camels-back-for-every-hospital-in-uk
Health leaders urge vaccination and return to mask-wearing as
hospitalisations rise by 37 per cent in a week
A paramedic wheeling someone on a stretcher out of an ambulance
Eight hospitals declared a critical incident, cancelled operations or
asked people not to come to A&E unless seriously ill last week.
Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA
James Tapper and Sundus Abdi
Sat 1 Oct 2022 10.00 EDT
Every hospital in the UK is under significant pressure and a new Covid
surge is “a very heavy straw on the camel’s back”, health leaders have
warned.
At least eight hospitals declared a critical incident, cancelled
operations or asked people not to come to A&E unless they were seriously >>> ill last week. One of Britain’s most senior emergency doctor said there
were links between incidents like these and the rapid rise in
hospitalisations for Covid, up nearly 37% in a week to 7,024. While the
Office for National Statistics said it was too early to say if an autumn >>> Covid wave had begun, health leaders said ministers need to urgently
address staffing shortages.
Dr Adrian Boyle, the incoming president of the Royal College of
Emergency Medicine told the Observer: “Our system is under-resourced. We >>> don’t have enough beds, and we don’t have the workforce for the demand
that we’re being asked to deal with.
Advertisement
Hurricane Ian: Florida and Carolinas comb wreckage to assess deadly toll >>> “Covid just makes everything that much harder and it’s entirely valid to >>> link this with critical incidents being called around the country. All
hospitals are feeling significant levels of pressure at the moment.
Covid is a very heavy straw on the camel’s back.”
The first signs of an increase in Covid infections came in southwest
England. Last Friday, NHS Devon warned people of “longer than usual
waits” in emergency departments. NHS Devon’s chief nurse Darryn Allcorn
said people who came to A&E without a life-threatening emergency “may be >>> directed to a more appropriate service”.
Hospital trusts in the Midlands and north have all announced they were
struggling to cope with demand. Nottingham University Hospitals Trust
declared a critical incident, postponing some operations due to extreme
pressures, and by Friday the alert was expanded to cover the whole of
Nottinghamshire.
In neighbouring Lincolnshire, routine operations at the Diana, Princess
of Wales hospital in Grimsby were cancelled, with Northern Lincolnshire
and Goole NHS Trust saying there had been a significant increase in
people attending A&E.
Royal Liverpool hospital said it had very limited space in emergency
departments and St George’s hospital in London asked people to go to A&E >>> only in serious situations.
Advertisement
Boyle, who takes up his position this week, said the first
sticking-plaster should be applied to social care. “We need to use what
beds we have as efficiently as possible. That means sorting out social
care, so people aren’t kept in hospital waiting to leave.”
The spectre of a “twindemic” of flu and Covid means that winter “could
become very grim,” he said – “like two playground bullies getting
together and forming a gang”. “What’s happening with urgent and
emergency care, particularly ambulance handovers and long waits in
emergency departments – this needs to become a political priority. We
need leadership and we need grip and investment.”
Last week, research by the Nuffield Trust revealed that record numbers
of nurses were quitting the NHS, with one in nine leaving their jobs.
Pat Cullen, the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said
that an increase in Covid infections and hospitalisations “should be a
cause for concern”, and called for nurses to get access to the highest
quality PPE.
“As we head into winter it is important that healthcare leaders remain
vigilant and stand ready to act to prevent any further spread of the
virus. We all saw what happened last winter and nobody wants to take a
backwards step.”
Saffron Cordery, interim chief executive of NHS Providers, said trusts
had become more adept at dealing with Covid by, for example, setting up
“hot” and “cold” sites.
“But we need to be clear that we’re back at levels with the R rate over
one in lots of places. We need to think about the impact not just on
patients but also on staff, and what it means for them to be going
through this yet again. With a twindemic this winter, we’re going to see >>> a spike in demand and more staff are going to be absent.”
She said Thérèse Coffey, the health secretary, should be focusing on
vaccinations and supporting the NHS workforce.
Dr Veena Raleigh, senior fellow, The King’s Fund said Covid was the
sixth leading cause of death, with more than 300 people dying each week. >>>
Sign to coronavirus testing site
NHS 111 failures led to early Covid deaths, investigation finds
Read more
“[That is] a stark reminder that this virus remains a threat for the
foreseeable future,” she said. “Although it is early days, this rise in
cases is consistent with what’s been expected as winter approaches.
Acting now to prevent further hospitalisations and deaths is crucial.”
Advertisement
People at higher risk of Covid should get vaccinated as soon as
possible, Raleigh said. “This is especially important for people from
deprived and ethnic minority communities, given the disproportionately
brutal impact Covid-19 has had on them.” Mask-wearing on public
transport and in crowded places would also help, she added.
“Since spring this year, overall deaths have been significantly higher
than expected compared with previous years, in part due to Covid-19
deaths. There’s a real risk that the toll of excess deaths could mount.
The NHS was over-stretched even during the summer months when demand for >>> health care is normally lower, and winter will bring added pressures. We >>> therefore urge the Government to address the longstanding staffing and
funding deficits in NHS and social care services that pre-date the
pandemic and continue to limit the ability to meet patients’ needs.”
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/oct/03/we-gave-up-so-much-how-covid-changed-young-peoples-lives
‘We gave up so much’: how Covid changed young people’s lives
Clockwise from top left: Eoin O’Loughlin, Zubaydah Abdi, Jess Paine and
Eva Yacobi Composite: Guardian Design
Young people across the UK reflect on how the pandemic affected them –
and continues to shape their futures
Covid has left a third of young people feeling life is out of control –
study
by Amelia Hill
Mon 3 Oct 2022 01.00 EDT
In the next phase of the Guardian’s Covid Generation series, young
people across the UK reflect on how the Covid pandemic changed their
lives and continues to have an effect on their futures.
Marcel Charowski is 12 and lives in London with his parents and sister.
He is in his first year of secondary school
Marcel Charowski
Marcel Charowski: ‘I feel old before my time’. Photograph: Mark
Pinder/The Guardian
The pandemic definitely changed me. I was a carefree child before it
hit. Now I’m quite scared and negative. I feel old before my time. One
of the worst things about Covid was not being able to visit my
grandparents in Poland. I could see them getting older over Zoom and I
was scared they would die before I could visit them again.
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I also had the last year of primary school taken away from me. I didn’t
have a chance to say goodbye to anyone or have a school leavers’ party.
Then I lost those friends for good over lockdown. We tried to stay in
touch online but we ran out of things to say and drifted away from each
other.
It makes me sad that I won’t have any friends in my future from primary
school. It’s also made me think about how people you think of as “for
ever friends” can just drift away. I think that’s why I’ve found it hard >>> to make new friends at secondary school.
My dad nearly died thanks to Covid. My mum spent a lot of time at the
hospital with him for seven months and I had to wait at home, worried
every day that she would come home and tell me he’d died. I was
frightened all of that time. It’s probably why I worry a lot about death >>> now. Death is always waiting for you. I worry that Covid will come back
in a worse variant or we may get another plague. We’ve already had
monkeypox.
Lockdown was very lonely for me. I was pretty much on my own, in front
of a computer, doing home learning – which was incredibly hard because
you can’t ask for help in the same way: you’re told what to do, then you >>> log off and have to do the work on your own.
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I would say that before Covid, I used to be worry-free but now I don’t
really care about anything. I don’t get excited about anything.
Eva Yacobi is 14 and lives in the south of England. She had just started >>> secondary school when lockdown began
Before Covid, I wanted to be a singer. Now I realise there’s nothing
stopping me from being an entrepreneur, starting my own business or
being a CEO of a big company.
It was all because of lockdown: I would never have started thinking like >>> this otherwise. Home learning was so boring – I was so over sitting in
front of my computer, doing endless worksheets and online lessons. I
started making jewellery just for fun and then it occurred to me that I
could start a business, sell what I’d made and give the profits to charity. >>>
young-covid-5
Generation Z and the Covid pandemic: 'I’m 100% more politicised'
Read more
It was so amazing. I’d been quite lonely – I’d got to the stage where I
barely talked to my friends online because we’d run out of stuff to say
to each other – but when I started selling my jewellery I was having
conversations with people from all over who wanted to buy what I’d made. >>> That really opened my horizons back up. It felt amazing.
It was also really cool to realise that all that stuff that seemed so
complicated really wasn’t: it wasn’t such a big deal to make a website,
advertise across different social media sites. I realised I was much
more capable than I’d thought.
Lockdown was also nice in that I got a lot closer to my family and, in
particular, my younger brother. He and I spent a lot of time together,
making art and talking for hours.
Lockdown wasn’t great though in the way I became totally dependent on
screens though. I once spent three whole days watching Netflix during
lockdown: I was completely obsessed. That feeling hasn’t really gone
away: screens were everything to me for two years and remain a much
bigger part of my life now lockdown has ended than they would have been
if it had never happened. It’s not healthy but it’s how it is. I think
my generation gave up a lot more than other generations over lockdown
because these are such important years for us, where we find change
hard. Our schools are putting a lot of effort into helping us transition >>> back into real life but I don’t think politicians have really done enough. >>>
Zubaydah Abdi is 19 and lives in Tottenham with her parents – a cab
driver and special needs teacher – and her five siblings. She has just
started studying medicine at King’s College London
Zubaydah Abdi
Zubaydah Abdi: ‘I shut down and spent a lot of time feeling hopeless and >>> angsty’. Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi/The Guardian
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The years between 16 and 18 are a blur to me: I feel as if I’m a
16-year-old stuck within a 19-year-old’s body without the experiences or >>> skills to fulfil their responsibilities.
This does make me sad: the years I’ve missed are important ones – you’re >>> supposed to have all sorts of experiences to form the adult you become.
But my life during those key years had no substance to it: it was just
school and home. I worry how that time lost and time wasted will come
back to haunt me in later life.
The pandemic also had an impact on me emotionally. We had relatives who
died and that, combined with all the other awful things that went on
over those two years, it led to me becoming fairly desensitised. Instead >>> of opening my gaze out to the wide world and thinking about my place in
it, I focused in on myself. I shut down and spent a lot of time feeling
hopeless and angsty.
When I got my teacher-assessed A-level grades, I didn’t know what to
think. In all honesty, the grades I was given – 4 A*s – were probably
better than I would have got had I done the exams. That’s given me a
strong sense of impostor syndrome for university: I’m not going to feel
that I’m qualified to be where I am and that’s going to be destabilising. >>>
I opted to take a gap year so I could try to make up for all those lost
experiences. I saved money by working in retail, which forced me to be
out and about after so long being locked away. I then volunteered at a
hospital in Tanzania, which helped confirm for me that medicine was what >>> I wanted to do with my life. I also made friends from around the world
to make up for those I lost during the pandemic.
All this helped resensitise me – it helped me open my gaze back up
again, to burst the bubble I’d been living in and bringing me back to
real life.
It also helped me channel the anger I’d built up over the pandemic. I
realised that I could help people through medicine. I think before
Covid, I would have used my medical degree to do research but now I want >>> to use it to go out into the world and make it a better place. In that
way, you could say that Covid been a good thing: it has focused my
political and campaigning zeal.
Lily Smith is 19 and comes from Manchester. She is in her second year of >>> studying musical theatre at Anglia Ruskin University
Lily Smith
Lily Smith: ‘Being given the time to make the decision to jump from
science to the arts essentially saved my life’. Photograph: Sophia
Evans/The Observer
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I feel guilty saying this but the pandemic was, for me, a brilliant
thing: it changed my life and I’ll always be grateful.
I was doing A-levels when Covid hit and intended to study sciences at
university. I was already finding my courses hard but it got much worse
during lockdown: it became impossible to get the support I needed. I
quickly began feeling hopeless and overwhelmed. It was a really bleak
time. My friends had been the only thing that had helped me when I’d
been feeling stressed before Covid and when they were taken away from me >>> by lockdown, it all crashed down.
I managed to get online counselling in May 2020 but after a while, the
enforced isolation began to have a different effect: I realised that it
was nice to be on my own in this almost womb-like environment where I
didn’t need to be anything for anybody. I had stepped off the conveyor
belt of school, expectation and achievement.
What I realised was that I’d been pushing myself towards this career in
science because that’s what everyone told me I should do but it wasn’t
who I actually was.
I found myself playing the piano more and suddenly I realised that I
could choose to make myself happier – and the way to do that was to do
something in the arts. Then it hit me: I was going to be a stage actor.
My piano teacher recommended an amazing singing teacher who helped me
work on auditions for universities.
I am so happy now. If the pandemic hadn’t happened, I doubt I would have >>> got the A-levels I needed to do science at university and that would
have been so devastating that I honestly don’t know if I would still be
here today.
Being given the time to make the decision to jump from science to the
arts essentially saved my life. Without the pandemic, there’s no way
that would have been possible.
Eoin O’Loughlin, 20, moved from Dublin to Dundee during the pandemic to
study at the Scottish School for Contemporary Dance
Eoin O’Loughlin
Eoin O’Loughlin: ‘The pandemic stunted me at the exact moment I was
ready to burst out creatively and socially’. Photograph: Murdo
MacLeod/The Guardian
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I think my generation gave up a lot during the pandemic for older people >>> because it hit at such a key, developmental time for us. We were happy
to do it at the time but problems have come since because the government >>> hasn’t acknowledged what we sacrificed. Some recognition and some
recompense would help, in terms of support for the issues – around
careers, education, mental health, physical health – that my generation
suffered and still suffers as a direct result of pandemic policies
introduced to protect the older generation.
The sad thing is that we gave so much up because we had a sense of
community. But because there’s been no recognition of what we gave up or >>> any attempt to recompense us, I think that sense of community has been
burnt out of us. I’m not sure that my generation would be as happy or
willing to sacrifice ourselves for other people a second time. I think
we all feel our goodwill was taken advantage of.
The pandemic was dreadful for me. It stunted me at the exact moment I
was ready to burst out creatively and socially, and start exploring and
making my mark on the world. The pandemic meant that I had to adapt from >>> being a child to an adult with no transition period – I missed my
secondary school exams and graduation, along with my 18th and 19th
birthdays. I then missed my first year of college in Dundee – and doing
a dance degree at home, in front of a laptop screen is no fun at all.
I feel l’ve lost my younger self in the pandemic. I’ve lost that
youthful exuberance and joyfulness I once had. I feel like an old man:
even though lockdown is over, I just want to stay in now – read a book
and drink some tea.
Because of the pandemic, however, I met the love of my life and am now
happier than I’ve ever been. If you take Jack into account, all the pain >>> of the pandemic was definitely worth it. But I wish I hadn’t had to go
through that to meet him.
Michael Nesi-Pio, 20, was in his final year of A-levels when Covid hit
Michael Nesi-Pio
Michael Nesi-Pio: ‘It’s only when you experience something bad that you
realise what makes you happy and what’s important’. Photograph: Joel
Goodman/The Guardian
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I had planned to take a year out after A-levels to grow up a bit, travel >>> and decide what I wanted to do at university and in life. But when Covid >>> hit, I panicked and grabbed at the first degree course recommended to me >>> by my teachers, which was chemistry.
I wasn’t able to take my exams and my teacher-assessed grades were
crazily lower than my predictions, so I didn’t get my place at
Manchester. I panicked again and snatched the first alternative course I >>> could find, which was in Sheffield. I didn’t really want to do that
course and I didn’t want to go to that university but with the world
exploding, I didn’t feel I had any choices.
It was a disaster. In retrospect, I think I became seriously depressed.
I was so lonely and miserable in lockdown in Sheffield. I spent all day
in my room in the dark.
My girlfriend eventually persuaded me to stop pretending everything was
OK and drop out. I left in March 2021 with a £11k debt. I reapplied to
Manchester and got in to study politics and philosophy.
I’m not angry about the time I lost, the debt and the traumatic time I
had though. I think what I went through was good because it’s only when
you experience something bad that you realise what makes you happy and
what’s important.
The past year has added to my character. I’m more resilient, more
determined. I now prioritise my mental health and my own happiness.
My generation is in a difficult position now because older generations
judge us and have expectations of us aligned to our chronological age.
But we lost our formative years and haven’t had the life experiences
that you need to grow up. We’re not given any leeway to reflect that.
I also get angry because I think my generation sacrificed more than
other generations over Covid. I get angry at the experiences we missed.
I get angry that we’ve never been given credit for what we sacrificed
for others.
Kate Nichols, 20, is from Newcastle upon Tyne and is in her final year
at Cardiff University
I got Covid on 21 December 2021 and, 10 months later, have still not
recovered. Last week, I finally got my referral to a chronic fatigue
syndrome clinic, which I’m hoping will help.
Christmas with Covid was really sad. We had to cancel my grandparents
coming round, so they were on their own with no time to arrange their
own alternative Christmas. I stayed in my bedroom: my Christmas dinner
was left outside my door. After I’d finished, I had to wipe my plate,
glass and cutlery with antiseptic wipes before my parents could collect
it. It was lonely and grim.
Evidence grows of lockdown harm to the young. But we act as if nothing
happened
Martha Gill
Martha Gill
Read more
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I had Covid for a week and felt bad but after it went, I started getting >>> endless infections: I had tonsillitis seven times, endless recurrent
chest infections, breathing problems, brain fog and was constantly
exhausted. I was taking so many antibiotics that I was quite scared: at
one point, I was taking eight tablets a day and they still weren’t
working, so the doctors had to give me stronger ones.
I still have problems with tiredness, brain fog and breathing – there’s
a crackling in my lungs that’s pretty scary – and if I go out with
friends in the evenings, I’m destroyed for the next few days: my
tonsillitis will come back, probably a chest infection and I’ll have
days of really severe brain fog.
It’s frustrating – so much of student life revolves around the nightlife >>> – but I can’t risk getting behind in my studies, which I’ve worked hard
to keep up with despite my long Covid.
On the upside, not being able to go out in the evening means I now see
my friends during the day and we talk a lot more. I’d say I’m closer to
my friends as a result of this change of socialising style, and that’s a >>> positive: I sat in a coffee shop for three hours the other day with a
friend, just talking. I’m also far more health-conscious than I was
before getting long Covid. I always went to the gym but now I’m
super-conscious of what I eat, drink and I make sure I get as much
exercise as I can manage.
I suppose that’s a positive too but in truth, this long Covid is really
hard, frustrating and sad: these are supposed to be my carefree, healthy >>> years.
Eliza Niblett, from Leicestershire, is 20 and has just started her third >>> year studying experimental psychology at Oxford University
Eliza Niblett: ‘The stress of feeling I’m constantly on thin ice is
exhausting’.
Eliza Niblett: ‘The stress of feeling I’m constantly on thin ice is
exhausting’. Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian
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One of the saddest impacts of the pandemic is that I still haven’t had
my first kiss. I’ve never even been on a date. I’m a lesbian and at
school that was really difficult. I thought it would become easier when
I got to university but it didn’t happen because of Covid and now it
seems like a big, scary thing instead of an exciting, natural step.
Even though university is finally back on track after a really difficult >>> first year, I missed so much because of the pandemic that I don’t feel
ready to be where I am. I spent my second year at uni playing catch-up,
both academically and socially, but I’m still getting used to the idea
of interacting with people: I’ve never gone out and got drunk; I’ve
never been in a nightclub or done a pub crawl. I wanted to do that sort
of thing when I first got to university but now the moment has passed
and it just seems really scary to go out and lose control.
Covid mucked up lots of other things for me that I’m still affected by.
I was given A-level grades based on an algorithm that the government
later admitted disadvantaged state-school students like me. That
algorithm downgraded the grades my teachers had estimated for me, which
meant I lost my place at Oxford.
It was devastating and I decided to get the government to change their
minds. I organised an open letter to the education secretary using
testimonies from people who had also been affected. I spoke on local
radio and TV, and lots of people sent messages of support.
Eventually, the government announced the grading U-turn and Oxford
reinstated my place. But it didn’t undo how traumatising it had all
been: two years on and I still constantly question what it was about me
that made my tutors decide that I was the one they would reject when
others who had been downgraded were still given places. The stress of
feeling I’m constantly on thin ice is exhausting.
Thanks to the pandemic, I barely interacted with anyone for my entire
first year at university. I tried to focus on work and not lament how
rubbish my hard-won Oxford experience was turning out to be but it was
hard to ignore it. There was just this emptiness and nothingness where
there should have been excitement and inspiration.
Ella Thornton, 20, gave up her place at Cambridge University in 2021
after a year. She is now at the University of East Anglia studying education
Ella Thornton, 20, outside her shared Norwich home.
Ella Thornton, 20, outside her shared Norwich home. Photograph: Joshua
Bright/The Guardian
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The pandemic completely transformed my life for the better but it was an >>> incredibly painful journey. The first thing Covid did was to stop me >>>from being able to properly finish school. I was heartbroken – I loved
my school. Being torn away felt like a physical pain.
Though I was heartbroken, lockdown was the first time I had had a big
rest for many years. For the first time I wasn’t waking up with a racing >>> heart, already feeling anxious. I felt like a hamster that had been able >>> to step off the wheel. Lockdown gave me the space and peace to
re-evaluate what matters to me. It healed me.
I matured a lot over that year. I realised that instead of valuing other >>> people’s vision of success, I value a slow life, spending time with
friends, not being stressed. I value being able to feel silly and young
and not be worried.
It was incredible, coming to that realisation after giving up so much of >>> my youth to achieving my ambition to get into Cambridge. I hadn’t done
any partying or anything extracurricular. During that year out, I
realised with great sadness how much I’d given up and that I could never >>> get those things back.
I still went to Cambridge but I only lasted a year because, thanks to my >>> time of peacefulness, I quickly realised it was no longer who I was and
I had the courage to step away.
If I hadn’t had that Covid year to decompress, I don’t think I would
have been able to break out of my paradigm. I would have stayed at
Cambridge and become more and more unhappy, pushing myself to the brink. >>> I would have been perpetually unhappy and probably turned into a hermit, >>> doing nothing but work. It’s possible that I would have self-harmed or
developed an eating disorder. I would probably have had a breakdown.
I’m now at UEA and having an amazing time. I aim for Bs not As, which
means I’ve got time for friends and for me. I have the time to listen to >>> music. I take the weekends off. I cook for myself. I am very, very happy. >>>
Jess Paine is 22 and from Nottingham. Having completed her degree at
Birmingham University, she is now in Greece, working with refugees
Jess Paine
Jess Paine: ‘The experience of giving back to the community has changed
my future plans entirely’. Photograph: Fabio De Paola/The Guardian
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The pandemic was, as weird as this sounds, incredibly positive and
life-affirming for me. It led directly to me reframing my whole life and >>> even changing the foundations of my identity. Gone are the ambitions for >>> a high-flying career: I want to help people by being actively political. >>>
I was loving living in Birmingham when Covid hit and we were all told we >>> had to go home. I had to leave this amazing, massive city behind me and
head back to the tiny, rural village that I thought I’d left behind me
for good. I’m lucky in that I’m an incredibly optimistic person. I had
been so excited to be in Birmingham but when I was sent away, I felt I
was lucky to have a home to go back to and loved all the Zoom calls with >>> the new uni friends I’d made.
We were given barely any coursework at all for the first year, so I had
a lot of time to myself. Again, a lot of people might have flipped but I >>> realised that Covid had given me the opportunity to look outside the box >>> that I would otherwise have been stuck in. It stripped away all familiar >>> routines and gave me all this solitary time to reflect on my life and
think about what other exciting experiences I now had the opportunity to >>> engage in. I think of it as an early midlife crisis.
I started doing lots of volunteer work during lockdown and it was a
revelation to me. I found it really liberating and the experience of
giving back to the community has changed my future plans entirely.
Before, I’d always thought I’d go into academia but I’ve realised that
my calling is in volunteering: in the human connection.
Housing and homelessness has became a big passion for me. It wasn’t
something that I’d ever thought about before: there’s no homelessness in >>> my tiny village. But going to Birmingham, I saw homeless people and that >>> gave me food for thought. Then when Covid hit, I thought of all the
people stuck in small, poor quality high-rise buildings while I was in
my mum’s lovely home.
The other thing that the lockdown gave me was time to come to faith. I
was already talking with a Christian student group before Covid hit and
we continued the conversations over lockdown. I don’t think I would have >>> found my way to Christ had it not been for the lockdown: I had the time
to think about the bigger things. It’s something of a miracle. There, I
said it! A miracle. That’s really how I feel.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://archive.ph/ivoHC
Number of Covid-19 patients in England jumps to highest level for two months
Three regions are recording patient levels last seen in late July.
Ian Jones
·
3 hours ago
A hospital ward (Peter Byrne/PA)
A hospital ward (Peter Byrne/PA) (PA Wire)
IndyEat
For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign >>> up to our breaking news emails
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Independent. Read our privacy notice
The number of hospital patients in England testing positive for Covid-19 >>> has climbed to its highest level for two months, in fresh evidence a new >>> wave of infections is under way.
Admission rates are also continuing to rise, in a trend described by
health experts as “concerning”.
A total of 9,631 people with coronavirus were in hospital as of 8am on
October 5, according to NHS England.
This is up 37% from 7,024 a week earlier and is the highest figure since >>> August 3.
Patient numbers topped 14,000 in mid-July at the peak of the wave of
infections caused by the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of the virus, >>> then fell steadily until mid-September.
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Numbers have risen in recent weeks, suggesting Covid-19 is once again
becoming more prevalent.
Covid-19 hospital data is currently published once a week on a Thursday. >>> The latest figures show all regions are recording a steady rise in
patients, with three regions back to levels last seen in late July.
South-west England currently has 1,003 patients who have tested positive >>> for coronavirus, not far below its peak during the BA.4/BA.5 wave of 1,229. >>> South-east England has 1,553 patients, compared with its summer peak of
1,985, while eastern England has 1,064, compared with a summer peak of
1,432.
All numbers remain well below those reached during the early waves of
the pandemic, however.
The rate of Covid-19 hospital admissions stood at 10.8 per 100,000
people in the week to October 2, up from 7.5 the previous week.
Rates are highest among people aged 85 and over, at 132.3 per 100,000.
This is up sharply from 80.1 and is the highest rate for this age group
since late July.
UK Health Security Agency
·
Oct 6, 2022
@UKHSA
·
Follow
Replying to @UKHSA
The South West has the highest amount of hospital admissions this week
in our new #COVID19 surveillance report. Find out more:
https://gov.uk/government/statistics/announcements/national-flu-and-covid-19-surveillance-reports-week-ending-4-september-2022…
UK Health Security Agency
@UKHSA
·
Follow
Our weekly #COVID19 surveillance report shows that hospital admissions
are still highest among those aged 85 and older.
Read the full report:
https://gov.uk/government/statistics/announcements/national-flu-and-covid-19-surveillance-reports-week-ending-4-september-2022…
2:29 PM · Oct 6, 2022
3
See the latest COVID-19 information on Twitter
Read 2 replies
Dr Susan Hopkins, chief medical adviser at the UK Health Security Agency >>> (UKHSA), said the latest increases were “concerning”, and that cases and >>> hospitalisation rates were at their “highest level in months”.
“Outbreaks in hospitals and care homes also on the rise,” she continued. >>> “Make sure you have any Covid-19 vaccinations you are eligible for and
avoid contact with others if you feel unwell or have symptoms of a
respiratory infection.
“If you are unwell, it is particularly important to avoid contact with
elderly people or those who are more likely to have severe disease
because of their ongoing health conditions.”
About two-thirds of patients in hospital who test positive for Covid-19
are being treated primarily for something else.
But they need to be isolated from patients who do not have the virus,
putting extra pressure on staff already struggling to clear a record
backlog of treatment.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/brits-should-wear-face-masks-28151050 >>>
EXCLUSIVE: Brits should wear face masks again to avoid new Covid
lockdown, claims expert
As Covid numbers continue to rise, an expert has advised for the return
of face masks to avoid the risk of future lockdowns being introduced
amid increasing numbers in hospitals
Face masks may have to return to stave off the threat of lockdowns
Brits were told to wear face masks in public places during the height of >>> the pandemic
NEWS
POLITICS
FOOTBALL
CELEBS
TV
MONEY
ByAntony ThrowerNews Reporter
14:42, 7 Oct 2022
|
68
COMMENTS
Brits should return to wearing face masks to avoid the return of
lockdown restrictions this winter, according to an expert.
Latest figures show the number of infections across England increased by >>> a quarter while hospitalisations have surged to more than one million
across the UK in the last week.
The jump has caused fears the country is already experiencing the start
of a winter wave as millions sign up for Covid boosters.
To avoid the return of nightmare scenarios such as lockdowns Martin
Michaelis, professor of Molecular Medicine at the University of Kent,
says there may have to be a return to wearing face masks.
Emotional minute's silence held at Covid inquiry as grieving families
demand answers
Professor Martin Michaelis from the University of Kent
Professor Martin Michaelis from the University of Kent ( Image:
University of Kent)
He explained: “If we want to reduce the likelihood that formal
restrictions will have to be re-introduced to prevent a collapse of the
healthcare sector, it is a good idea to still follow wherever possible
the rules that we have become familiar with, in particular in crowded,
poorly ventilated indoor spaces.
“One thing we have learnt during the pandemic is that face masks reduce
the transmission of COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses.
“Therefore, wearing face masks, for example, in supermarkets and on
public transport reduces the spread of all respiratory illnesses.
“Also, washing your hands regularly reduces the transmission of
infectious diseases.
“If you experience the symptoms of a respiratory illness (e.g. runny
nose, sore throat, cough, headache, body aches, fatigue, high
temperature), it is a good idea to stay away from others to break the
infection chain.
Face masks are no longer compulsory
Face masks are no longer compulsory ( Image: Getty Images)
“If this is not possible, wearing a face mask reduces the likelihood you >>> infect others.
“What we do not know is whether a new variant will be more or less
severe than the Omicron subvariants.
“If a variant evolves that combines the immune escape properties and the >>> transmissibility of Omicron with the deadliness of Delta, we may see a
substantial wave with many hospitalisations and deaths again.
“In the worst case this may result in the re-introduction of some
restrictions, if hospitals fill again up beyond their capacity limits.”
Reassuringly, he added the return of lockdowns is “unlikely” - but not
impossible.
He added the best defence continues to be vaccines and urged people to
get their boosters.
Find out how Covid-19 is affecting where you live by adding your postcode. >>>
Find out how many cases of coronavirus there have been where you live in >>> the widget above - and get an even more detailed breakdown when you
click through to our sister site InYourArea..
Professor Michaelis added: “We know the protection provided by vaccines
wanes over time.
“Thus, everyone, who is eligible, should come forward and get an
additional COVID-19 booster.
“Although these boosters cannot prevent every infection, they provide
high protection from severe disease and reduce Covid-19 spread.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/oct/13/boris-johnson-covid-laws-rights-decree-two-years-democracy
Boris Johnson’s Covid laws took away our rights with flick of a pen.
Don’t let that happen again
Adam Wagner
Ministers were able to rule by decree for more than two years. That’s
not true democracy and it remains a risk in the future
Boris Johnson addressing the nation from 10 Downing Street as he placed
the UK on lockdown.
Boris Johnson addressing the nation from 10 Downing Street as he placed
the UK under lockdown in March 2020. Photograph: PA
Thu 13 Oct 2022 05.07 EDT
730
It is almost three years since the first case of a novel coronavirus was >>> identified in Wuhan, China.
It’s just over two and a half years since Boris Johnson gave us a “very
simple instruction”, that we “must stay at home”, followed – three days
later – by a law that for the first time in our history would impose a
24-hour curfew on almost the entire population. The years, months, weeks >>> and days since have been so relentless – and at times almost beyond
belief – that it is difficult to begin to process them. Many of us have
experienced personal bereavement, and everyone has been touched in some way.
But as tempting as it is to move on, to focus on other important issues
vexing our society, there are some aspects of the past three years we
must face up to.
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There are a hundred lenses through which to view this important period
in modern history, but as a barrister I have looked at the more than 100 >>> laws that placed England in lockdown, imposed hotel quarantine,
international travel restrictions, self-isolation, face coverings and
business closures.
These were probably the strangest and most extraordinary laws in
England’s history, imposing previously unimaginable restrictions on our
social lives, bringing into the realm of the criminal law areas of life
– where we could worship, when we could leave home, even who we could
hug – that had previously been purely a matter of personal choice.
By early 2020, the Johnson government already had form for seeing
democracy as a gadfly to be swatted away, having tried, and failed –
thanks to the supreme court – to shut down parliament for weeks to ram
through a Brexit deal. When the pandemic hit, it is no surprise that it
took the same approach to involving parliament in the most consequential >>> decisions and laws in living memory.
The Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984 allowed for ministers to >>> enact the coronavirus regulations with almost no parliamentary scrutiny. >>> Of 109 lockdown laws, only eight were considered by parliament before
coming into force, usually only a day before. The rest became law
(literally) as soon as Matt Hancock, the then health secretary, put his
signature at the bottom of the page.
Finally, this reckless government faces a reckoning for Covid deaths in
care homes
Charlie Williams
Read more
I am not suggesting that emergency law-making would ever be
straightforward and neat, following all the processes of ordinary
legislation. During public emergencies, events move swiftly and
mercilessly. But it did not have to be like this.
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Also troubling was the constant refrain that the government was
“following the science”, by which it meant its scientific advisory
group, Sage. But decisions were ultimately taken in the extremely
powerful but opaque Covid-19 cabinet committees, presided over by four
ministers – Boris Johnson, Rishi Sunak, Matt Hancock and Michael Gove.
No minutes were released and no explanation offered of how decisions
were made. This was the most powerful government committee since the
second world war, but received no scrutiny. Important political
decisions need to be understood, scrutinised and tested. These hardly were. >>>
We still live in the state that permitted ministers to rule by decree
for more than two years, and where basic freedoms were removed without
democratic scrutiny or accountability. In 2008, the Public Health and
Wellbeing Act was amended to include vast powers for ministers to use in >>> the case of a public health emergency. And because ministers would have
the power to impose laws without parliament having to review them for
four weeks (or sometimes longer), they could, as one prescient member of >>> the House of Lords put it during the brief 2008 debate, “at the stroke
of a pen … limit and constrain the daily lives and freedoms of citizens”. >>>
Parliament, meanwhile, allowed itself to play the role of a 1,400-person >>> rubber stamp. The police, tasked with enforcing the ever-growing mass of >>> legislation, often being changed more than once a week, floundered
between excessive and unjustified intrusions into our private lives, or
– as was initially the case with the Partygate investigation –
attempting to stay out of the fray altogether. The courts, for their
part, also played a limited role, ruling repeatedly that pandemic policy >>> – even when it interfered with fundamental rights – was a matter for
government and parliament, not judges.
Why does this matter now? Because the pandemic – and the ease with which >>> ancient freedoms such as the right to protest, to worship, to see our
families, were removed essentially by decisions of a tiny group of
ministers – should be a wake-up call. It is only a matter of time before >>> a new crisis will arise – either connected to Covid-19, to another virus >>> or to another kind of emergency altogether.
We must face up to the fact that we are not well protected from a
government if it wanted to use a state of emergency to corrode our
freedoms. We have no written constitution, meaning it is more difficult
for people to claim their rights, and – unlike in many other democracies >>> – the courts are reluctant to become embroiled in cases involving
fundamental rights that involve political controversy. Government power
has been on the rise for years, not least through the ever increasing
use of secondary legislation to set policy. And our public health
legislation remains extraordinarily broad.
CK Allen, scholar of the vast emergency powers built up during the
second world war, reminds us that freedom “is not easily gained, and,
once surrendered – however necessary the surrender may be – is even less >>> easily regained”. As tempting as it is to put this dark period in our
history behind us, it is only by looking back that we can, finally, hope >>> to move forward.
Adam Wagner is a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers. His debut book is >>> Emergency State: How We Lost Our Liberties in the Pandemic and Why it
Matters (Vintage)
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://ethicsalarms.com/2022/10/15/wuhan-virus-ethics-train-wreck-update-part-1/
Wuhan Virus Ethics Train Wreck Update, Part 1
OCTOBER 15, 2022 / JACK MARSHALL
[There’s almost no traffic here on Saturday if I don’t get a post up
before 10:30am; I guess I’m going to find out what kind of traffic there >>> is if nothing gets posted before 4 pm. Ugh. I’m sorry. Sitting down at
my desk is still very painful, more so, in fact, today than yesterday. I >>> also don’t understand why an 18 inch bruise on one leg makes the rest of >>> me feel so terrible. I feel like a weenie, and I’m sorry.]
1. Biden again extended the Wuhan pandemic public health emergency,
which was set to expire last week. Now it will remain in place past the
midterm elections. This keeps millions of Medicaid and Children’s Health >>> Insurance Program beneficiaries who might lose their coverage enrolled
for several more months, and allows allowed vaccines, testing, and
treatments to be offered for free. It also requires states to offer
continuous enrollment for Medicaid and CHIP, public health insurance
programs for low-income individuals, in order to receive additional
federal funding.
That’s nice, except that there is no emergency, and Biden’s previous
public statements admitted as much. This is an abuse of Presidential
power, no more ethical nor legal than a leader’s extending a curfew or
martial law to seize dictatorial powers—it’s the same principle, and the >>> same tactic. Congress should throw a fit, but it won’t, because Congress >>> has no principles or guts: the measures benefit voting blocs, and though >>> the President is abusing his emergency powers to bypass the requirements >>> of legislation and rule-making, the public can’t comprehend such details >>> like due process and the separation of powers, nor, apparently, basic
honesty. If the President can declare an emergency (extending an
emergency is not different from declaring one) when there is none and
get away with it, why not martial law?
The Wuhan gravy train has benefited so many (while wrecking the economy, >>> whole sectors of the economy and the education and social progress of
our children, just to mention a few of the self-inflicted wounds) that
ending it will undoubtedly cause many considerable pain. HHS estimates
that as many as 15 million people will lose their Medicaid coverage—but
then, they aren’t supposed to have medicaid coverage.
Many families will also lose supplemental money they received through
the federal government’s nutrition program. But the only reason they
were getting such funds was because of an emergency that no longer
exists. Biden has already used the non-emergency to justify student loan >>> forgiveness (we’ll see if he gets away with that) and make landlords
continue to do without rent. HHS overrode state laws regarding which
vaccines pharmacists could administer to certain age groups. Whether
the nationalization of pharmacy vaccine rules will expire when the
“emergency” is lifted is still open to question. Essentially, this is a
scheme to spend more taxpayer money and extend nanny state benefits and
ratchet up big government control, using the pandemic as the tool. It is >>> both an abuse of power and a cynical exercise in bypassing democracy.2.
I defy anyone to make sense out of PolitiFact’s latest desperate and
absurd foray into covering the Left’s derriere. A Pfizer executive
admitted to the European Parliament that it had not tested the ability
of its Wuhan virus vaccine to prevent transmission of the virus, saying
that Pfizer did not know whether its vaccine “prevented transmission”
of the virus before it was released in December 2020. Conservative media >>> “pounced” on the admission, saying that this proved skepticism about the >>> vaccines were justified and not “conspiracy theories.” Naturally, the
Left’s “factcheckers” defended Pfizer, but if this is a defense, I’m a
walnut, Here are some quotes:
“Pfizer did not claim that a clinical trial for its COVID-19 vaccine was >>> testing whether the vaccine prevented transmission of the coronavirus to >>> other people. The aim of the drug trial was to study whether the vaccine >>> was safe and if it prevented disease from SARS-CoV-2.”
Oh. What? If the vaccine was going to “prevent” the disease, then it had >>> to prevent transmission. What else does transmission mean?
“When the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced in December 2020
its emergency use authorization for the Pfizer vaccine, the agency said
there was no data available on whether the shot prevented transmission >>>from person to person.”
How were people being infected if not from “person to person”? I don’t
recall the CDC making that clear, do you?
“Some may have been surprised at Small’s answer, given public officials’ >>> comments about vaccines and transmission. Both Dr. Rochelle Walensky,
director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Dr.
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases, have said that vaccination can help mitigate the
spread of COVID-19. The CDC in May 2021 changed its guidance on masking, >>> with Fauci saying on CBS’ “Face the Nation” that vaccinated people’s
chances of transmitting the virus to others was low. “
Some may have been surprised, given the statements of the self-declared
Voices of Science”?
“The phase 3 clinical trial was “designed and powered” to evaluate the
COVID-19 vaccine’s efficacy in preventing disease caused by SARS-CoV2,
including severe disease, Widger said. “Stopping transmission was not a
study endpoint,” he said, which means it wasn’t an outcome being studied.” >>>
Again, how does a vaccine prevent disease without stopping transmission? >>>
“We were hopeful in spring/early summer 2021 that vaccines would be
effective against transmission. Delta did change that a bit, making it
clear that while vaccines did, and still do, help to reduce one’s risk
of infection, they alone are not enough to stop transmission,” Smith
said in an email to PolitiFact. “That’s why many of us were and remain
frustrated at CDC’s messaging around masks, suggesting the vaccinated
could stop masking.” Before the delta and omicron variants came along,
studies suggested that the vaccines were somewhat effective in slowing
transmission of the coronavirus.”
It’s all like this: read the whole infuriating, huminahumina thing. The
truth is that the vaccines were a Hail Mary, they were over-hyped, the
CDC lied, and now the Left’s propagandists are trying to rewrite
history. Science! Unfortunately, we should learn that these agencies and >>> experts cannot and should not be trusted.
Now let’s do climate change…
https://ethicsalarms.com/2022/10/15/wuhan-virus-ethics-train-wreck-update-part-2-hospital-masking/
I actually witnessed this exchange three days ago, as part of my
four-day Alexandria, VA hospital adventure:
Woman: Put on a mask! This is a hospital!
Man: Why should I? You’re not wearing one!
Woman: I am!
Man: You’re wearing it under your nose!
Woman: I’m still wearing it! Put one on, or I’m reporting you!
Man. Go ahead!
Whereupon the woman turned to the elderly volunteer manning the desk at
the entrance. He wasn’t wearing a mask.
Are the idiotic pandemic masks the official symbol and attire of The
Great Stupid? I think so. My experience at the INOVA hospital convinced
me. At the Emergency Room entrance. a large sign mandated masks. A
security guard ordered me to put one on (but not my wife, who was being
checked in). The masks being handed out were those cheap paper things
that are either completely useless or mostly useless, depending on who
you talk to. During the four days of hospital visits, I didn’t see a
single N95 mask on the faces of staff, patients or visitors.
Around the busy ER waiting area, there were unmasked people, masked
people, and people wearing masks under their noses or chins. When my
wife was being checked in, nobody appeared to care about the masks at
all. The nurse processing us wore no mask. I didn’t; my wife didn’t. The >>> attendants who took her to the temporary room did. Later on, all of the
nurses and techs were masked, but some doctors were not. Nobody ever
asked me or my wife to put one on. In the nearby rooms, the typical
scene was an unmasked patient and a mixed crowd of masked and unmasked
family members, shoulder to shoulder.
Later, when my wife was moved to a regular hospital room, the signs even >>> disappeared. The Patients Entrance and Visitors entrance had cheap masks >>> available, but there were no apparent requirements. Sometimes the
receptionists were masked, sometimes not. Sometimes one was and the
other wasn’t. I walked in maskless (let’s see…) eight times, and nobody
said a word.
What’s going on here?
Madness, as Major Clipton said. Virtue signaling. Confusion. Mixed
messages. Chaos. Fear. Stupidity.
Science!
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
Wuhan & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-63307833
Respiratory illness may take up half of NHS beds this winter
Published
1 day ago
Share
Related Topics
Coronavirus pandemic
File picture of patient in hospital
IMAGE SOURCE,BBC NEWS
Up to half of all hospitals beds in England could be occupied by
patients with respiratory infections, including Covid and flu, NHS
England says.
The warning came as NHS bosses set out further details of its plans to
help the health service cope this winter.
This includes rapid response teams to help people who have fallen at
home and "data war rooms" to monitor pressures.
The return of normal winter viruses along with Covid will place huge
strain on hospitals, NHS England said.
It said the modelling, which has not been published, was very much a
worst-case scenario - even during the peak of the pandemic, Covid did
not lead to such high levels of beds being occupied.
ADVERTISEMENT
But NHS England chief executive Amanda Pritchard said it was important
to be prepared.
"Winter comes hot on the heels of an extremely busy summer - and with
the combined impact of flu, Covid and record NHS staff vacancies - in
many ways, we are facing more than the threat of a 'twindemic' this
year," she said.
ADVERTISEMENT
"So it is right that we prepare as much as possible - the NHS is going
further than it ever has before in anticipation of a busy winter."
Thousands more NHS beds to be created this winter
UK must brace for big, early wave of flu - experts
She said every local area would have a data-driven war room where
clinicians could monitor pressures at individual hospitals in real-time
so that ambulances could be diverted to the sites with greatest capacity >>> to treat patients.
She said it was also important for everything to be done to keep
patients out of hospital.
The use of rapid response teams to treat patients who have fallen at
home is one solution that is being increasingly adopted.
Areas such as London and Hull have set up systems whereby teams
including non-paramedics such as firefighters attend to patients who
have fallen but are not deemed to be an emergency.
It has allowed quick support to be provided and reduced the numbers
being taken to hospital.
Another scheme being rolled out is dedicated care hubs to support care
homes to reduce unnecessary admissions.
These projects are being partly supported by the extra £500m the
government has provided for the NHS this winter.
It comes on top of the NHS winter plan published in the summer which
will see an extra 5,000 beds opened, bringing the total to close to
100,000 as well as 2,500 "virtual ward spaces" with patients monitored
at home.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://archive.ph/bEBeq
Autumn Covid numbers peak at lower levels – but flu cases are on the up
Despite encouraging survey, scientists warn of emergence of serious
variant, leading to parallel epidemic
The National Covid Memorial Wall
The National Covid Memorial Wall, on the south bank of the Thames in
London. Photograph: Alberto Pezzali/AP
Robin McKie, Science Editor
Sun 23 Oct 2022 04.00 EDT
Britain’s current wave of Covid-19 cases appears to be peaking at a
lower level than previous outbreaks of the Omicron variant of the
disease, researchers have revealed.
The news is encouraging – though scientists have also warned that a
further wave of the disease could sweep the nation before the end of the >>> year. “We need to be vigilant and monitor the data with great care, all
the time,” said Professor Mark Woolhouse, of Edinburgh University.
According to last week’s ONS survey, Covid case numbers have flattened
out or are falling in five of nine English regions, as well as in
Northern Ireland and Scotland. At the same time, children now have the
lowest prevalence of the disease for some weeks.
And while cases are still rising in 50-69 year olds, there has been a
fall in prevalence among over-70s. “Hopefully that will soon be mirrored >>> by a fall in hospitalisations,” added Woolhouse.
But if the short-term prospects of avoiding a new wave of Covid-19 cases >>> look fairly promising, longer-term forecasts are less reassuring because >>> of the uncertainties involved. “The problem is that we have now got a
soup of around 300 Covid-19 variants in existence,” said Professor
Andrew Lee, of Sheffield University. “At the same time, different
populations have got varying levels of immunity to Covid-19. That makes
it really difficult to predict how future waves are going to behave.”
Scientists have also warned that the nation faces the prospect of a
parallel flu epidemic this winter, one that could be fuelled by low
immunity levels in a population that has lost protection during Covid
pandemic restrictions. This was raised last week when it was revealed
that flu cases had climbed in England – though levels are relatively low >>> overall.
London mayor, Sadiq Khan, receives his Covid-19 booster jab
London mayor, Sadiq Khan, receives his Covid-19 booster jab after having >>> his flu vaccination, earlier this month. Photograph: Kirsty O’Connor/PA
However, these fears were tempered by Professor Francois Balloux, of
University College London. “The one piece of good news is that the flu
vaccine that is now being given turns out to be really well matched to
the strains that have begun to circulate in the population. That means
it should provide good protection and hold down hospitalisations.”
Predictions about future outbreaks of diseases like Covid or flu needed
to be treated with care, added Woolhouse. “This time last year, when we
had quite high levels of the Delta variant of Covid-19, expert after
expert predicted really huge waves of the disease would sweep Britain in >>> the autumn. And it never happened.”
Instead, the nation was struck by a completely new variant, Omicron,
which affected unprecedented numbers of people last winter. New
sub-variants of Omicron have since appeared and these are circulating
with one version, Omicron BA 2.75.2, being viewed as a serious potential >>> threat. “However, it is still relatively rare in the UK,” added Woolhouse. >>> Nevertheless, scientists accept that the risk of a completely new
variant, one with severe pathogenic impacts, could appear at any time.
“As long as Covid remains mild for most people, and doesn’t overwhelm
health systems, governments will be able to ride the wave,” added Lee.
“But if we get a more pathogenic, severe variant then that will dictate
a very different response. And that remains a risk, without doubt.”
Balloux said the prospect of a lethal new variant appearing remains
scientists’ greatest fear about Covid and will require constant
surveillance by health authorities and doctors, he told the Observer.
“However, unless something terrible happens and a deadly new variant
appears, I think in terms of Covid, things should be better than last
winter and the winter before,” he said.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-63410341
Published
3 days ago
Share
Related Topics
Coronavirus pandemic
This photo taken on September 17, 2022 shows a health worker taking a
swab sample from a young resident to be tested for the Covid-19
coronavirus in Chengdu
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
Image caption,
China has reported a third straight day of more than 1,000 cases
By Yvette Tan
BBC News
Dozens of cities across China, including Wuhan where the coronavirus was >>> first recorded, have gone into lockdown - as the country pursues leader
Xi Jinping's zero-Covid policy.
More than 800,000 people in one district in Wuhan were told to stay at
home until 30 October.
"We feel numb to it all. We feel more and more numb," one local told
Reuters.
The city of Zhengzhou, home to the world's largest iPhone manufacturing
plant, was also affected.
It comes as China reported a third straight day of more than 1,000 cases. >>>
Earlier this month Mr Xi signalled that there would be no easing up of
the zero-Covid policy, calling it a "people's war to stop the spread of
the virus".
As of Oct 24, some 28 cities across the country were implementing some
degree of lockdown measures, analysts Nomura told news agency Reuters -
with around 207 million people affected in regions responsible for
almost a quarter of China's GDP, it added.
Across the country, around 200 lockdowns have been implemented in recent >>> days - the majority of this affecting communities that have been marked
as high or medium risk. Residents in different areas are subject to
different rules, depending on whether they are in a low, medium or
high-risk zone.
Wuhan reported up to 25 new infections a day this week, with more than
200 cases over the past two weeks.
In Zhengzhou, a "small number of employees" from Foxconn - a major
manufacturer for Apple - have been "affected by the pandemic", the
manufacturer told the BBC, adding that quarantined employees were being
provided with "material supplies, psychological comfort and responsive
feedback". It comes at a critical period for Apple - which is now making >>> the new iPhone 14.
Earlier this week, in-person schooling and dining in at restaurants were >>> suspended in the southern Chinese hub of Guangzhou - which on Thursday
reported 19 new virus cases, Some neighbourhoods in the city also remain >>> subject to various control measures.
Blue iron walls are used to temporarily isolate and control a
residential community in Shanghai, Oct 25
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
Image caption,
A residential community in Shanghai has been placed under lockdown
Even further-flung regions such as Tibet have been affected, after
footage emerged earlier this week showing rare large-scale protests
against strict zero-Covid measures in the regional capital Lhasa.
The city has been under lockdown for nearly three months as it battles
the virus - local officials on Thursday had said eight new Covid cases
were reported in Lhasa.
Multiple videos on social media showed hundreds demonstrating and
clashing with police. They were said to be mostly ethnic Han Chinese
migrant workers. A Lhasa resident confirmed to the BBC that the
demonstration had taken place in the city on Wednesday.
Though seen as relatively small outbreaks in other parts of the world,
China adheres to a strict zero-Covid policy, where authorities try to
wipe out outbreaks.
The adherence to the policy comes despite increasing public fatigue and
anger over lockdowns and travel restrictions. The country's economy has
also taken a hit as a result - with GDP falling by 2.6% in the three
months to the end of June from the previous quarter.
Videos emerge of rare Covid protests in Tibet
The politics driving China's hellish lockdowns
How zero-Covid is spoiling Xi's party
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
China & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew , in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://ethicsalarms.com/2022/11/01/amnesty-for-the-unethical-pandemic-policymakers-fearmongers-and-health-experts/
Amnesty For the Unethical Pandemic Policymakers, Fearmongers And Health
Experts?
NOVEMBER 1, 2022 / JACK MARSHALL
I was thinking about making the latest Atlantic essay “Let’s Declare a
Pandemic Amnesty: We need to forgive one another for what we did and
said when we were in the dark about COVID” an Ethics Quiz. Wouldn’t that >>> be the civilized, forgiving, soothing, fair thing to do? After all, as
author, a Brown professor named Emily Oster, argues, weren’t “most
errors were made by people who were working in earnest for the good of
society”? They meant well! (Rationalization #3A The Road To Hell)
Anyone can make a mistake! (#19. The Perfection Diversion) OK, we could
have done better! (#19B The Insidious Confession) That’s in the past!
(#52. The Underwood Maneuver). There are so, so many more
rationalizations, all employed here to avoid accountability by those who >>> richly deserve it. And I realized that this was coming from The
Atlantic, one of the leaders of the Trump-hating media, and a herald of
the Progressive New Order. Of course they want an amnesty.
The Atlantic’s ideological and political clients were responsible for
closing the schools, which started a domino effect resulting in
businesses shutting down. Progressives used “Science denier!” as a
bludgeon to force Americans to accept the contradictory, ever-changing,
often dishonest edicts of the CDC and its narcissist symbol, Anthony
Fauci. Social media platforms censored posts and tweets as
“disinformation” that questioned what turned out to be fake science and
often outright lies by Fauci and others. “The good of society” for
Democrats meant killing the good Trump economy to make him vulnerable in >>> the 2020 election, and using pandemic fear to justify deliberately
insecure, and often illegal, voting procedures. Amnesty? For which
misdeeds? All of them? Claiming that President Trump had blood on his
hands for all the pandemic death, when the next administration saw more, >>> even with a vaccine? Using the disease to place outrageous restrictions
on travel, arresting people for walking alone on a beach, taking down
tennis nets? Issuing arbitrary rules and orders about masks and social
distancing? Does the Left get amnesty for accusing President Trump of
racism for referring to the Wuhan-originating virus as the Wuhan virus
(as I will do until my dying day)? Does Andrew Cuomo get amnesty for
killing thousands of nursing home resident by putting infected patients
among them? Do all the Democratic mayors and governors (and a Republican >>> here an there) who forbade citizens to travel, gather in churches or
around Thanksgiving tables deserve “amnesty” for violating their own
rules? Do the hypocritical (but woke!) health officials who waived their >>> supposedly life and death rules so Black Lives Matter could hold mostly
peaceful protests without social distancing or masks deserve amnesty?
How about the mainstream news media that engaged in flagrant
fear-mongering, like the New York Times with its front page death charts >>> with peaks that reached beyond the margins of the paper?
To hell with that. There should be no amnesty, just vigorous prosecution >>> of responsibility and betrayal of trust. Pundit Emily Burns sees the
Atlantic’s dodge more narrowly than I do—she sees it from a feminist
perspective— but her analysis isn’t wrong. She writes,
First, let’s be clear to whom Emily Oster is speaking. She’s speaking to >>> the furious well-educated suburban women who are swinging towards
Republicans in this cycle, even in the bluest of states. Because it was
the bluest of states that were hit hardest by these policies. It was in
blue states that the schools were closed longest, that the economic
devastation was worst, that crime spiked the most, where masks were
required longest. …As women, we have felt far more acutely than at any
time in the past what it really means for government to interfere in our >>> lives—controlling whether our children go to school, whether we can
socialize, or go to a gym, or a restaurant, how many people can be
invited to our home, whether we can spend holidays with family, whether
we can run our businesses. These are all violations, violations of our
personal liberty that harmed us, our children, and our communities, and
which were done solely in service to political power. We have
internalized this, and many will not be quick to forgive.
Emily is asking us to forgive a mistake. There was no mistake. There was >>> a political calculation that harmed us, but even more, that harmed our
children. The harm was considered acceptable because those who undertook >>> it, took the votes of women for granted. They assumed they could lie and >>> manipulate us into believing these harms were necessary, or barring
that, unintentional. If we, as women, want our votes to be courted in
the future by either party, we must vote to punish the past three years
treachery. After we have exacted some political retribution, if there is >>> acknowledgement of the wrongs committed and contrition for those wrongs, >>> then we can talk about amnesty.
Bingo. This is just another desperation Hail Mary effort to somehow
avoid the Nov. 8 retribution Democrats deserve.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://abc7.com/la-county-public-health-covid-19-cases-in-los-angeles-mask-wearing-rules/12442687/
LA County health officials will 'strongly recommend' masks indoors if
COVID cases continue rising
Indoor mask wearing is currently only a matter of personal preference,
unless a location or business opts to require them.
City News Service
Friday, November 11, 2022 10:15AM
EMBED <>MORE VIDEOS
Los Angeles County is continuing to experience increases in COVID-19
infection and hospitalization rates, the public health director said
Friday, warning that two newly emerging variants of the virus.
LOS ANGELES (CNS) -- Los Angeles County is continuing to experience
increases in COVID-19 infection and hospitalization rates, the public
health director said Friday, warning that two newly emerging variants of >>> the virus are threatening to fuel a fall and winter surge in cases.
Barbara Ferrer said the county had an average of about 1,300 new COVID
cases per day last week, up from about 1,000 per day the previous week.
She said the daily average case numbers have been "slowly but steadily
increasing'' since the beginning of November.
The rate of infections is also rising, reaching a weekly average of 86
cases per 100,000 residents last week, up from 65 per 100,000 residents
two weeks ago, Ferrer said. If that average rises to 100 cases per
100,000 residents per week, the county will again "strongly recommend''
that people wear masks indoors. Indoor mask wearing is currently only a
matter of personal preference, unless an individual location or business >>> opts to require them.
WATCH NOW ABC7 Los Angeles 24x7 Streaming channel
Ferrer also noted a rise in the average daily number of COVID-related
hospital admissions, with the average rising to 77 last week from 65 the >>> previous week.
Virus-related deaths are averaging about seven per day, down from 10-12
per day in early November, but Ferrer said deaths are considered a
lagging indicator, meaning the numbers could rise in coming weeks in
response to the increases in infections and hospitalizations.
Health officials have been expressing concern about a possible winter
COVID surge, mirroring similar increases seen the past two years during
the winter months. They noted that cooler temperatures lead to more
people spending time indoors in more crowded, less-ventilated spaces --
conditions that are ripe for virus spread.
Ferrer said two recently identified variants of the COVID virus -- BQ.1
and BQ.1.1 -- are beginning to spread more rapidly in the county, now
representing about 17% of all virus specimens that undergo special
sequencing to identify specific infection strains. That's more than
double the rate from mid-October.
Ferrer said federal health authorities believe the BQ variants are
likely to "increase rapidly'' in coming weeks and could soon represent
more than one-third of all infections.
"Many are predicting these strains, which are highly transmissible, are
likely to drive an increase in cases this fall and winter," she said.
She said the currently available "bivalent'' vaccine booster -- which is >>> engineered specifically to counter Omicron-based variants of the virus
-- are believed to be effective against the BQ variants. But she said
the rate of eligible residents receiving the new booster remains very
low, and health officials are working to increase their public outreach
efforts to encourage people to get the shot.
On Thursday, Los Angeles County reported 1,595 new COVID-19 infections
and eight additional deaths linked to the virus, bringing its cumulative >>> totals to 3,501,782 cases and 34,039 fatalities since the pandemic began. >>>
Daily case numbers released by the county are an undercount of actual
infections, since many residents rely on at-home tests and do not report >>> those results to county health officials, according to the Los Angeles
County Department of Public Health.
The seven-day average daily rate of people testing positive for the
virus was 5.8% as of Thursday.
The number of COVID-positive patients in Los Angeles County hospitals
was 464 as of Thursday, down from 492 on Wednesday, according to state
figures.
Of those patients, 50 were being treated in intensive care units, up >>>from 43 a day earlier.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.financialexpress.com/world-news/beijings-biggest-district-urges-residents-to-stay-home-as-covid-cases-rise/2865895/
Beijing’s biggest district urges residents to stay home as COVID cases rise >>> On Sunday, Beijing city officials urged residents of the sprawling
Chaoyang district – home to nearly 3.5 million people as well as
embassies and office towers – to remain at home on Monday.
Written by Reuters
November 20, 2022 5:17:57 pm
Follow Us
Beijing’s biggest district urges residents to stay home as COVID cases rise >>> "The pressure on Beijing has further increased," he said.
Beijing’s most populous district urged residents to stay at home on
Monday, extending a request from the weekend as the city’s COVID-19 case >>> numbers rose, with many businesses shut and schools in the area shifting >>> classes online.
Nationally, new case numbers held steady on Sunday near April peaks as
China battles outbreaks in cities across the country, from Zhengzhou in
central Henan province to Guangzhou in the south and Chongqing in the
southwest.
Still, China is trying to ease the impact of containment measures that
drag on the economy and frustrate residents fed up with lockdowns,
quarantine and other disruptions, even as it reiterates its commitment
to its zero-COVID approach.
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On Sunday, Beijing city officials urged residents of the sprawling
Chaoyang district – home to nearly 3.5 million people as well as
embassies and office towers – to remain at home on Monday.
“The number of cases discovered outside quarantine is increasing rapidly >>> at present, and there are hidden transmission risks from multiple
places,” Liu Xiaofeng, deputy director of the Beijing Center for Disease >>> Prevention and Control, told a media briefing.
Also Read: Beijing district urges staying home for weekend as COVID
cases rise
“The pressure on Beijing has further increased,” he said.
The Chinese capital reported 621 new infections for Saturday, up from
515 a day earlier. As of 3 p.m. on Sunday, it added a further 516 new
infections.
Authorities also said an 87-year-old Beijing man became the nation’s
first official COVID-19 fatality since May 26, raising China’s
coronavirus death toll to 5,227.
Many Beijing residents stocked up on food during the weekend, with some
delivery services experiencing delays.
Parents at international schools in Chaoyang district were told that
classes would be online for the coming week. “As COVID-19 has spread in
multiple places and with complex transmission chains, schools in
Chaoyang district will be moving to online learning,” one such notice said. >>>
Hairdressers in neighbouring Dongcheng district were also told to shut.
‘SEVERE’ SITUATION
On Sunday, China reported 24,435 new COVID-19 infections for Nov. 19,
down slightly from 24,473 a day earlier but near highs clocked in April
when Shanghai, China’s largest city, was in the midst of an outbreak and >>> grinding two-month lockdown.
While official infection tallies are low by global standards, China
tries to stamp out every infection chain, making it an outlier nearly
three years into the pandemic.
Guangzhou, a hard-hit southern city of nearly 19 million people,
reported 8,434 new locally transmitted infections, down from 8,713 a day >>> earlier.
Officials said that the Panyu district will resume in-person school for
primary and middle school students on Monday, while online teaching
continues in seven of the city’s 11 districts.
Under a series of measures unveiled this month, Chinese health
authorities have sought more targeted COVID-19 curbs, sparking investor
hopes of a more significant easing even as China faces its first winter
battling the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
Many analysts expect such a shift to begin only in March or April,
however, with the government arguing that President Xi Jinping’s
signature zero-COVID policy saves lives.
Experts warn that full reopening requires a massive vaccination booster
effort and a change in messaging in a country where the disease remains
widely feared.
The People’s Daily, the ruling Communist Party’s official newspaper,
warned on Sunday that the pandemic may expand due to mutations and
seasonal factors.
“The situation of pandemic control is severe. We must maintain
confidence that we will win, resolutely overcome issues such as
insufficient understanding and insufficient preparation,” it said in an
editorial.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
China & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://archive.ph/Vd5na
UK experts helped shut down Covid lab leak theory - weeks after being
told it might be true
Sir Patrick Vallance among scientists behind paper that stifled debate
into the origins of the virus
By
Sarah Knapton,
SCIENCE EDITOR and
Ashley Rindsberg
23 November 2022 • 9:10pm
Sir Patrick Vallance helped publish a paper arguing that a natural
spillover event caused the pandemic
Sir Patrick Vallance helped publish a paper arguing that a natural
spillover event caused the pandemic CREDIT: George Cracknell
Wright/LNP/London News Pictures Ltd
Top scientists including Sir Patrick Vallance were warned that Covid-19
could have evolved in laboratory animals, but collaborated in a paper
which shut down the lab leak theory, it has emerged.
The paper, “The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2,” published in Nature
Medicine in March 2020, argued that a natural spillover event caused the >>> pandemic, and was hugely instrumental in stifling debate into the
origins of the virus.
But newly released emails from early 2020 show that in the weeks before
publication the authors held lengthy discussions with experts, including >>> Sir Patrick and Sir Jeremy Farrar, the head of the Wellcome Trust.
In those discussions, experts were advised that the unusual features
seen in Covid-19 could have evolved in animals in a lab, as well as in
the wild.
They were also warned that the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) had
been carrying out research on bat-coronaviruses at worrying levels of
biosecurity.
Yet by the time the paper was published, all reference to biosecurity
problems in Wuhan had been removed, and the authors argued that lab
evolution of the virus was unlikely.
Questions have arisen around the drafting and formulation of the paper
since its publication.
The lead author of the paper, Prof Kristian Andersen, of the Scripps
Research Institute in La Jolla, California, had earlier told colleagues
that features of the virus looked as if they’d been engineered in a lab. >>> However, no mention of this was made in the paper.
'Important to stay open-minded'
Commenting on the new emails, which were released under Freedom of
Information request, Dr Jeremy Farrar, the director of Wellcome, said:
"It is important that we understand how all pathogens emerge so that we
can prevent future pandemics.
“In my view, the scientific evidence continues to point to SARS-CoV-2
crossing from animals to humans as the most likely scenario.
“However, as the efforts to gather evidence continue, it is important to >>> stay open-minded and work together internationally to understand the
emergence of Covid and variant strains – to end this pandemic and reduce >>> the risks of future events.”
A Government Office for Science spokesperson said: “The Government Chief >>> Scientific Adviser ensures that policies and decisions are informed by
the best scientific evidence.
“The GCSA promotes full transparency and an open exchange of ideas and
scientific opinion as the email exchange reflects.”
The emails were released following an FOI request from James Tobias, a
freelance journalist.
More reason to believe scientists were trying not to upset China
In March 2020, just days before Britain entered its first Covid
lockdown, an influential scientific paper was published in the journal
Nature Medicine.
The paper, entitled "The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2" argued that the
new deadly virus sweeping the globe was of natural origin, having jumped >>>from animals to humans.
Covid had emerged just a few miles from the Wuhan Institute of Virology
(WIV) where scientists had been collecting and manipulating bat
coronaviruses, leading to widespread speculation that a deadly
experiment could have leaked from a lab.
Yet after the research paper was published, serious probing into the lab >>> theory effectively stopped.
Now new emails show that some of the authors had indeed suspected a
laboratory leak, and had discussed it in the weeks before publication
with leading scientists including Sir Patrick Vallance and Sir Jeremy
Farrar.
In an email chain debating the original draft, one of the authors even
admitted that the virus would look the same whether it had evolved
naturally or in lab mice in a process known as "serial passaging".
In an email on February 8 2020, Dr Robert Garry, from the University of
Sydney, pointed out that similar effects had been seen when bird flu had >>> been passaged in laboratory chickens.
Yet by the time the paper was published the authors dismissed the
possibility, concluding: “Our analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is
not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus”.
One of the reasons the authors gave in the paper for dropping the lab
theory was that the Covid-19 contained sugars known as "o-glycans" which >>> help the immune system.
In the Nature Medicine paper they said it showed that the virus could
not have been a lab creation.
However they failed to point out that if the virus had evolved in lab
animals it would also contain o-glycans, a fact they had discussed in
the emails.
In fact, in the emails Sir Patrick said that the "glycan point" could be >>> used in the paper as "further weight against a passage origin".
The original draft also pointed out that research to alter Sars-like bat >>> coronaviruses had been taking place for many years in Wuhan at dangerous >>> biosecurity levels - a fact that was later removed from the finished paper. >>> In one email exchange, Sir Jeremy even warned that research in Wuhan was >>> like the "Wild West".
The email release will add more fuel to accusations that eminent
scientists effectively publicly shut down investigations into a lab leak >>> so as not to upset China, while believing privately it was possible.
Covid had emerged just a few miles from the Wuhan Institute of Virology
(WIV) where scientists had been collecting and manipulating bat
coronaviruses
Covid had emerged just a few miles from the Wuhan Institute of Virology
(WIV) where scientists had been collecting and manipulating bat
coronaviruses CREDIT: ROMAN PILIPEY/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
In the newly released email chain, Prof Ron Fouchier, a Dutch
neurologist, warned that even investigating a lab leak could harm
Chinese research.
“An accusation that (Covid-19) might have been engineered and released
into the environment by humans (accidental or intentional) would need to >>> be supported by strong data, beyond reasonable doubt,” he warned.
“It is good that this possibility was discussed in detail with a team of >>> experts. However, further debate about such accusations would
unnecessarily distract top researchers from active duties and do
unnecessary harm to science in general and science in China in particular.” >>> Many scientists now agree that a lab leak is highly plausible, but most
of the supporting evidence was found by hackers and rogue scientists who >>> were branded conspiracy theorists for challenging the accepted narrative. >>> The latest email release shows that scientists who dismissed a lab leak
accepted it was possible behind closed doors.
In an email on February 8 Prof Edward Holmes, one of the authors of the
Nature Medicine paper, from the University of Sydney, acknowledged that
many people believed the virus had leaked from the Wuhan lab.
He wrote: “Ever since this outbreak started there have been suggestions
that the virus escaped from the Wuhan lab, if only because of the
coincidence of where the outbreak occurred and the location of the lab.
“I do a lot of work in China and I can tell you a lot of people there
believe this and believe they are being lied to.”
Another on the same date from Prof Kristian Andersen, of Scripps
Research Institute in La Jolla, California, said it would be wrong to
dismiss a lab leak "out of hand".
He wrote: “Passage of Sars-live coronaviruses have been going on for
several years and more specifically in Wuhan under BSL-2 conditions.”
BSL-2 laboratories are used to study moderate-risk infectious agents or
toxins such as salmonella. Serious diseases should be handled in BSL-3
or 4 labs.
Evidence has shown that the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) was
importing bat coronaviruses from areas of China which hold the closest
viruses to Covid-19.
Experts were also warned that the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) had
been carrying out research on bat-coronaviruses at worrying levels of
biosecurity
Experts were also warned that the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) had
been carrying out research on bat-coronaviruses at worrying levels of
biosecurity CREDIT: Barcroft Media/Getty Images Contributor
The institute had also applied for funding to manipulate viruses by
inserting a furin cleavage site (FCS) which is what makes Covid-19 so
infectious in humans.
A recent report by the US Senate Committee concluded that the Covid-19
pandemic was "more likely than not" the result of a laboratory accident, >>> arguing that no candidate for an animal spillover had ever been found.
In the emails, Sir Jeremy said the purpose of discussions was to come to >>> a consensus view and "lay down a respected statement to frame whatever
debate goes on, before that debate gets out of hand with potentially
hugely damaging ramifications."
The results of the study were considered so perilous that it led the US
government to put a moratorium on research to enhance the lethality of
viruses.
The email chain also involved Anthony Fauci, the director of the
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), an
organisation which was funding research at the Wuhan lab.
To date the "Proximal origin" paper has been accessed more than 5.7
million times and cited in 2,627 subsequent papers.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://ethicsalarms.com/2022/12/01/abc-is-upset-that-twitter-is-ending-its-covid-19-misinformation-censorship-policy-abc-should-shut-up-and-address-its-own-misinformation/
ABC Is Upset That Twitter Is Ending Its “Covid 19 Misinformation”
Censorship Policy. ABC Should Shut Up And Address Its Own Misinformation >>> DECEMBER 1, 2022 / JACK MARSHALL
The report from ABC News is rife with significance and illumination.
Sayeth the network, a bulwark of the biased mainstream media propaganda
machine, in its headline, “Twitter ends enforcement of COVID
misinformation policy: Twitter is no longer enforcing its policy against >>> misinformation about COVID-19.”
If one had to choose a single topic about which it is ridiculous and
hypocritical for the news media to complain about alleged
“misinformation,” I can’t imagine a more perfect one than the pandemic.
The ABC story is unintentionally hilarious in its resolute refusal to
acknowledge reality, thus qualifying as misinformation, disinformation,
or perhaps just “typical unethical journalism deception” itself. ABC’s
self-own is also useful, as it provides one more example, as if more
were necessary, of how desperately the Axis of Evil (you know by now, I
hope: “the resistance”/ Democratic Party/ mainstream media”
anti-democracy team) needs to see Elon Musks mission to rescue free
speech and the dissemination of non-conforming opinions and embargoed
information fail.
Some highlights:
Twitter’s decision to no longer remove false claims about the safety of
COVID-19 vaccines disappointed public health officials, however, who
said it could lead to more false claims about the virus, or the safety
and effectiveness of vaccines.
Health experts have thoroughly disgraced themselves for three years by
feeding bad information regarding the Wuhan virus and its pals to the
news media and the public, sometimes intentionally. They, more than
anyone, are ethically estopped from complaining about “misinformation”
or “false claims about the virus.” What, like the claims that paper
masks protected against it? That one had to wipe down surfaces? That we
needed to stop touching our faces? That the virus couldn’t be spread by
George Floyd demonstrations, only mass gatherings like church services?
While Twitter’s efforts to stop false claims about COVID weren’t
perfect, the company’s decision to reverse course is an abdication of
its duty to its users, said Paul Russo, a social media researcher and
dean of the Katz School of Science and Health at Yeshiva University in
New York.
Nice use of Rationalization #19. The Perfection Diversion, or “Nobody’s
Perfect!” and “Everybody makes mistakes!,” Paul! From the description:
“This is a legitimate defense if, in fact, an individual has been
accused of not being perfect. Usually, however, it is an attempt to
minimize the significance of genuine misconduct.” Virtually all of
Twitter’s “misinformation” censorship involved the partisan and
idologically motivated silencing of those who challenged progressive
orthodoxy, and it wasn’t unintentional or “a mistake.”
Russo added that it’s the latest of several recent moves by Twitter that >>> could ultimately scare away some users and even advertisers. Some big
names in business have already paused their ads on Twitter over
questions about its direction under Musk. “It is 100% the responsibility >>> of the platform to protect its users from harmful content,” Russo said.
“This is absolutely unacceptable.”
Ah! Russo is a Leftist operative! His tribe fervently believes that any >>> information, statement or opinion that doesn’t advance The Mission is
“harmful,” Who determines what is “harmful content”? Well, on Twitter it >>> has been people like Russo. The ex-staffer—a “trust and safety”
chief—responsible for the Hunter Biden story cover-up said yesterday,
“We didn’t know what to believe, we didn’t know what was true, there was >>> smoke — and ultimately for me, it didn’t reach a place where I was
comfortable removing this content from Twitter. But it set off every
single one of my finely tuned APT28 hack and leak campaign alarm bells.” >>>
Translation: His”finely tuned” biases ruled the decision.
Yet a fifth of the U.S. population hasn’t been vaccinated, most
Americans haven’t gotten the latest boosters, and many have stopped
wearing masks.
Oh, NOOOO!!!! They’ve stopped wearing virtually useless masks that they
pull down under their noses or wear alone in the car, and that muffle
their speech and ruin facial communication! Thanks to the CDC, ABC and
other deliberate seeders of pandemic terror and hysteria, my sister, I
learned, actually brought her own electric air purifier to the home
where she had been invited to Thanksgiving dinner! She’s a full-fledged
phobic now, because she watched MSNBC and refuses to accept the fact
that ABC et al. are manipulating the news to manipulate people like her. >>>
Musk, who has himself spread COVID misinformation on Twitter, has
signaled an interest in rolling back many of the platform’s previous
rules meant to combat misinformation.
Journalism! Musk spent over 40 billion dollars to buy Twitter expressly
to stop it from poisoning public discourse and free speech with its
partisan censorship. That’s one hell of a “signal”! Those previous rules >>> weren’t meant to combat “misinformation,” they were meant to combat
opinions and dissent that Twitter and the aspiring Totalitarian
Left—like ABC— found inconvenient.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.S. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
http://www.ed.ac.uk/generation-scotland/what-have-we-found/latest-results/pandemic-mental-health
Anxiety and depression due to the pandemic could remain for years
Levels of anxiety and depression remained high between lockdowns and
worsened in the second lockdown, found researchers
Women experienced more mental distress than men
The number of people suffering high levels of anxiety and depression
rose by more than a third during the pandemic. It's a mental health
crisis which looks likely to remain for years to come, according to a
study using data from our volunteers and 10 other studies.
The research ran from March 2020 to March 2021. It investigated various
stages of the pandemic, including two lockdowns and a period in which
restrictions were eased. This data was then compared to data seven years >>> before the Covid-19 pandemic.
The researchers were particularly concerned to find that the high levels >>> of anxiety and depression they found early in the pandemic continued at
similar levels, even after the first lockdown lifted. It then became
worse during the second lockdown.
This suggests increased levels of mental health problems are likely to
continue for some time, even though all restrictions have now been
lifted, the researchers said.
The substantial deterioration in mental health seen in the UK during the >>> first lockdown [from March to June, 2020] did not reverse when lockdown
lifted, and a sustained worsening was observed across the pandemic
Kishan Patel
Lead Researcher, University College London
The study found a 29% increase in the number of people with
psychological distress – an umbrella term for symptoms of anxiety and
depression – from April to June 2020, compared to before the pandemic.
This rose to 36% compared to the pre-pandemic level between October 2020 >>> and February 2021, with no notable reduction during the lifting of
lockdowns in summer 2020.
The second lockdown ran from early November to early December 2020 and
the third from early January to March 2021.
We found a sustained decrease in mental health. There was a lot of talk
that lifting lockdown measures would automatically return people back to >>> normal but our results suggest that wasn’t the case at all.
Given the sustained deterioration of mental health during the pandemic,
I would think that it would still be sustained now [after the study
period ended] and into the future. As long as the pandemic exists, I
would say it’s highly likely that high psychological stress will continue >>>
Kishan Patel
Lead Researcher, University College London
The study also found that women were more affected than men. It showed a >>> 33% increase in the occurrence of mental distress in women from April to >>> June 2020 compared to a 16% increase in men.
This is partly thought to be because women take on most of the extra
caring duties. They also make up the bulk of the front-line healthcare
workforce, who have been put under particular pressure by the pandemic.
People aged 25 to 44 experienced the sharpest decline in mental health
across the pandemic. That could be because this age group is more likely >>> to have children to care for and home school during lockdowns.
Researchers said that people in this age category were also more likely
to experience mental distress anyway, regardless of the pandemic,
compared to other age groups.
Given this, it is possible that psychological distress levels could go
even higher in the future. However, that is a possibility rather than a
prediction, Dr Kishan said.
The study was, sadly, unsurprising.
Many of us have found the pandemic very difficult to cope with for
different reasons – including fears about getting sick, feelings of
loneliness during lockdowns, concerns about finances and uncertainty
about the future.
Recent estimates suggest there are 1.6million people waiting for mental
health treatment and another eight million who could benefit from mental >>> health services but aren’t deemed unwell enough to be eligible to access >>> them.
Jess D'Cruz
Mind (Mental Health Charity)
We’ve all felt the sting of being separated from family and prevented >>>from doing the things we love in the recent years, but this research
shows that for many of us, the pandemic has taken a more severe toll.
Recovery won’t be linear, and as we now careen into a cost of living
crisis and continue to deal with the aftershocks of the pandemic, it is
vital that the government acts swiftly to ensure that people have access >>> to the support they need.
This has to be a cross government approach to support people with
aspects like housing, employment, finances and connecting with their
communities, which we all need to be able to survive and to thrive.
Brian Dow
Chief Executive, Rethink Mental Illness
The study was published in JAMA Network Open and funded by the
Government’s UK Research and Innovation body. It looked at data from
49,993 people enrolled in 11 separate studies, including Generation
Scotland volunteers, who responded to surveys about their mental health
before and during the pandemic.
Before the pandemic, about 10 - 20% of volunteers met the criteria for
mental distress. This proportion varied from one study group to the next. >>>
The study involved the universities of Bristol, Glasgow and Edinburgh,
and the Bradford Institute for Health Research and the full publication
can be found below:
Psychological Distress Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic Among
Adults in the United Kingdom Based on Coordinated Analyses of 11
Longitudinal Studies
This article was adapted from the 'i' news article. The original article >>> can be found below.
Depression and anxiety levels soared during Covid pandemic and could
remain high for years, experts say
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://archive.vn/BrBeI
Lockdowns put us at the mercy of disease
We are experiencing a predictable perturbation in our ecological
relationship with the organisms that are capable of causing serious disease >>> SUNETRA GUPTA
9 December 2022 • 7:00am
Sunetra Gupta
Covid-19 pandemic coronavirus lockdown face mask social distancing
British society will suffer the burden of lockdown's after-effects for
decades to come CREDIT: AP
Fans of Little Women will know that Beth March died of the lingering
complications of scarlet fever, but who would have thought that this
bacterial disease would be in the headlines in 2022? Is this because we
have left children who were born during, or just ahead of, the Covid
pandemic with an “immunity debt”?
It is now widely acknowledged that lockdowns caused harm to our already
stretched health service, with many of the direct consequences such as
increased cancer and cardiovascular deaths being reported regularly.
Most of these harms were entirely predictable. Less obvious was how some >>> of the more indirect consequences of lockdown might play out, such as
the effect on our relationship with other pathogens circulating within
our communities.
I am used to viewing infectious disease from an ecological perspective.
Therefore, it did not come as much of a surprise to me that some
non-Covid seasonal respiratory diseases almost immediately started to
take a knock on the head during lockdown. Many took this to be an
indication that lockdowns were working to stop the spread of disease,
forgetting that the impact of lockdowns on already established or
“endemic” diseases is completely different to the impact on a new
disease in its “epidemic” phase.
It is worth explaining this. For an individual, “immunity debt” can be
interpreted as a gap in the level of protection that you might be
expected to have from previous exposure to the disease in question. The
same principle also applies to a whole population. This is because there >>> is a threshold of immunity in the population at which rates of new
infections start to decline — known as the herd immunity threshold. If
we are below this threshold, we are in immunity debt; if we are above
it, we are in credit — at least for a while.
With endemic diseases, we go into immunity debt as winter sets in and
the herd immunity threshold (which is determined by the transmissibility >>> of the pathogen) rises. This causes a seasonal increase in infection and >>> leaves us in credit for the rest of the season. Over the summer, the
numbers immune fall, leaving us again with an “immunity debt” in the
winter. Any small change to the transmissibility of the pathogen will
disrupt the rhythm and can cause these pathogens to disappear by
reducing the Herd Immunity Threshold and so transiently cancelling their >>> normal “immunity debt”.
A pathogen entering an immunologically naïve population will start off
with a massive “immunity debt”, leading to infections growing very
rapidly at this ‘epidemic’ stage. This is why lockdowns hardly make a
dent in the progress of an epidemic, but can have such a significant
effect on endemic diseases.
Such effects are, however, transient. Endemic diseases will soon
re-establish themselves, and – as we have seen – can return more
aggressively than usual on account of the “immunity debt” they have
amassed in the interim.
This can cause all sorts of problems. Naturally, health care systems
will have to be prepared for higher than usual hospitalisations during
this period of re-adjustment. It is a particularly troublesome task for
the NHS, which continues to struggle with capacity problems.
Furthermore, the synchronised rise in these suppressed infections
enhances the possibility of coinfection; this has been recognised as a
potential cause of a spate of adenovirus infection related deaths
earlier this year. And if the likelihood of clinical complications
increases with age, there will be obvious perverse consequences of
delaying infection.
It is hard to say which of these potential mechanisms is the key
contributor to the very unfortunate re-emergence of scarlet fever as a
cause of severe disease and death in young children in the UK. Group A
Streptococcus, its causative agent, exists within a complex network of
other bacterial species which also may have suffered changes in
composition as result of Covid lockdowns. Disturbing this order can have >>> a profound impact on an individual’s ability to resist disease.
More than anything, it is clear that we are experiencing an entirely
predictable perturbation in our finely balanced ecological relationship
with the organisms which are capable of causing serious disease.
Eventually that balance will return. The “immunity debt” that we have
incurred will be gruesomely paid off and scarlet fever will once again
become a storybook word. Sadly, the same cannot be said of the enormous
financial debt we have taken on board to pay for these fruitless
lockdowns. Our children will be shouldering this debt for years to come. >>> Sunetra Gupta is professor of theoretical epidemiology at the Department >>> of Zoology, University of Oxford
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the U.K. & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1709123/tory-mp-covid-vaccine-inflaming-heart-arteries-commons-debate-update
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Tory MP alleges 'cover up' of Covid vaccine inflaming heart arteries in
bombshell claim
An MP has used Parliamentary privilege to make a bombshell allegation
that a senior member of the British Heart Foundation has covered up a
report which shows the mRNA Covid vaccine increases inflammation of the
heart arteries.
By DAVID MADDOX - POLITICAL EDITOR
00:00, Wed, Dec 14, 2022 | UPDATED: 09:18, Wed, Dec 14, 2022
493
Andrew Bridgen alleges cover up on MRNA vaccines
The spelling here should be mRNA for "messenger RNA."
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Conservative MP Andrew Bridgen has called for the mRNA covid vaccine to
be suspended as he claimed that a report linking heart problems with the >>> MRA Covid vaccine has been suppressed by a senior cardiologist who has
"a leadership role with the British Heart Foundation". The North West
Leicestershire MP used an end of day adjournment debate to make his
claims on the floor of the House of Commons that problems with the
vaccine are being covered up because of financial links with "Big
Pharma." The claims have been denied by the charity.
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Quoting Richard Smith, the former editor of the British Medical Journal, >>> he said: "Research misconduct is rife and not effectively been tackled.
Something is rotten in British medicine and it has been for a long time." >>>
The MP then turned to his biggest claim that a report linking
inflammation to the arteries and the vaccine had been deliberately
suppressed.
He said: "It has been brought to my attention by a whistleblower from a
very reliable source that one of these institutions is covering up clear >>> data that reveals that the mRNA vaccine increased inflammation of the
heart arteries.
The COVID-19 "spike" proteins increase inflammation everywhere. This
is why the COVID-19 disease is not only deadly but has become chronic
long-COVID in millions of survivors. It really is better to get a
small controlled dose of "spike" proteins via an mRNA vaccine in hopes
of achieving acquired immunity **without** long-COVID than a much
larger uncontrolled dose via a COVID-19 infection achieving the
so-called "natural" acquired immunity because of the latter's
significant (reportedly as high as 48%) risk of long-COVID along with
the huge several-fold higher risk of death compared to risk of death
from an mRNA vaccine.
"They are covering this up in fear that they may lose funding from the
pharmaceutical industry.
"The leader of that cardiology research department has a prominent
leadership role with the British Heart Foundation and I am very
disappointed to say that he has sent out non-disclosure agreements to
his research team to ensure that this important data never sees the
light of day.
"This is an absolute disgrace. Systemic failure in an over-medicated
population also contributes to huge waste of British taxpayers' money
and is an increasing strain on the NHS."
Andrew Bridgen MP
Andrew Bridgen MP made accusations today about the pharmaceutical
industry and covid vaccines (Image: PARLIAMENT TV)
'Enough is enough': Rishi Sunak gets tough on migration as he unveils
new laws
Rishi Sunak insisted "enough is enough" as he laid out tough new plans
to stop migrants illegally entering the country.
The Prime Minister vowed to turn away Albanians more swiftly, clear the
backlog of asylum claims by the end of next year and make the Rwanda
deportation plan work.
He also promised to end the use of hotels to house asylum seekers at a
cost to taxpayers of £5.5 million a day by switching to disused holiday
parks, former student halls and unoccupied military sites.
Read more HERE.
Mr Bridgen has previously opposed allowing young children to be
vaccinated warning that the vaccines are still in their experimental stages.
He also raised concerns that the Medicines and Healthcare products
Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is 86 percent funded by the pharmaceutical
industry while research departments also get most of their money from
so-called "Big Pharma" too.
He said: "In effect we have the poacher paying the gamekeeper."
But in particular, he was concerned that the vaccines are having little
effect while posing a health risk and he pointed out that since the
vaccine rollout there had been 14,000 additional cardiac arrests in 2021 >>> since 2020.
He also noted research which showed a 25 percent increase in heart
attack and cardiac arrest calls in 16-39 year olds in Israel associated
with the first and second doses of vaccine and not associated with Covid >>> infection.
READ MORE: Covid rebound looms as hospital cases up days before Christmas >>>
Maria Caulfield
Health minister Maria Caulfield responded to Andrew Bridgen (Image:
PARLIAMENT TV)
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Mr Bridgen described the government of suffering from "wilful blindness" >>> to "protect their reputations."
Promising to offer "cold hard facts", he said that since the rollout of
the vaccine there has been "almost half a million yellow card reports"
of adverse effects on the public.
He described this as "unprecedented" and pointed out that the swine flu
vaccine was withdrawn in 1976 for causing Guillan Barre syndrome in 1 in >>> 100,000 adults and in 1999 the rotavirus vaccine was withdrawn for
causing a form of bowel obstruction in children affecting 1 in 10,000.
Mr Bridgen is able as an MP to make his accusation without legal
recourse as he is protected by Parliamentary privilege.
Responding, Health Minister Maria Caulfield said he was "entitled to his >>> view" but hit back at the claims.
The former nurse, who worked on wards during the pandemic said she
disagreed, "not only in the content of his speech but the way in which
he derided doctors, scientists, nurses, many of us who worked through
the pandemic and saw first hand the devastation that covid caused.
... and is still causing devastation especially for the millions now
also suffering from long-COVID.
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[INSIGHT]
Meghan is USA's 'second worst export' but White House bid is possible
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Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson's government made the key decisions on the vaccine (Image: >>> GETTY)
"There is no doubt in my mind that despite the PPE, the vetting and the
social distancing the thing that made the biggest difference in
combatting Covid was the introduction of the vaccine.
"Vaccines have underpinned our strategy of living with Covid.
"They have saved thousands of lives and allowed the economies to reopen
not just in this country but in countries around the globe."
She added: "It is important to put on the record that the Covid vaccine
is safe and we have some of the highest safety standards in the world."
A spokeswoman for the British Heart Foundation said: “The British Heart
Foundation has no knowledge of these allegations. As a leading medical
research charity we uphold the highest scientific standards in all the
research that we fund.”
Britain was the first country in the world to rollout Covid vaccines,
with the entire population offered a first jab within just eight months. >>>
It meant the UK was able to remove lockdown restrictions far quicker
than many other nations.
China, which has still not inoculated its entire population, continues
to impose strict Covid measures on its citizens.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
China & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/zote52/the_winter_nhs_narrative/
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the UK & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://archive.vn/ubqOo
Streets deserted in China's cities as new COVID surge looms
By Siyi Liu and Eduardo Baptista
Beijing residents receive nasal spray COVID-19 vaccine boosters
[1/4] A health worker registers a resident for a nasal spray COVID-19
booster vaccine in Beijing, China December 17, 2022 in this still image
obtained from a video. REUTERS TV/via REUTERS
Read more
1
2
3
4
Summary
People take steps to protect themselves after curbs lifted
Senior official predicts three waves this winter
Lunar New Year in January to drive further spread
BEIJING, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Streets in major Chinese cities were eerily
quiet on Sunday as people stayed home to protect themselves from a surge >>> in COVID-19 cases that has hit urban centres from north to south.
China is in the first of an expected three waves of COVID cases this
winter, according to the country's chief epidemiologist, Wu Zunyou.
Further waves will come as people follow the tradition of returning en
masse to their home areas for the Lunar New Year holiday next month, he
said.
Advertisement · Scroll to continue
China has not reported any COVID deaths since Dec. 7, when it abruptly
ended most restrictions key to a zero-COVID tolerance policy following
unprecedented public protests. The strategy had been championed by
President Xi Jinping.
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Register for free to Reuters and know the full story
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As part of the easing of the zero-COVID curbs, mass testing for the
virus has ended, casting doubt on whether official case numbers can
capture the full scale of the outbreak. China reported some 2,097 new
symptomatic COVID infections on Dec. 17.
Latest Updates
Beijing funeral homes, crematoriums busy as COVID spreads
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China to maintain ample liquidity in 2023 to implement proactive fiscal
policy, state media report
Taiwan to fine Foxconn for unauthorised China investment
In Beijing, the spread of the highly transmissible Omicron variant has
already hit services from catering to parcel deliveries. Funeral homes
and crematoriums across the city of 22 million are also struggling to
keep up with demand amid staff shortages as workers and drivers call in
sick.
At Beijing's largest funeral parlour in Babaoshan, also known for
handling the bodies of top Chinese officials and leaders, several
hearses a minute could be seen entering on Sunday, while the parking
area for private cars was also full.
Advertisement · Scroll to continue
"Right now it is difficult to book a hearse so many relatives transport
the body with their own vehicles," said an employee on condition of
anonymity.
Smoke billowed out of crematoriums, where groups of people were gathered >>> to collect the ashes of the deceased. It was not immediately clear to
what extent a rise in COVID-related deaths was responsible.
Social media posts also showed empty subways in the city of Xian in
China's northwest, while in Shanghai, the country's commercial hub,
there was none of the usual bustle in the run up to the New Year.
"Festive vibes are missing," said a resident who gave her name as Alice. >>> In Chengdu, streets were deserted but food delivery times were
improving, said a resident surnamed Zhang, after services began to adapt >>> to the recent surge in cases.
Getting hold of antigen test kits was still difficult however, she said, >>> explaining that she had been told the kits she ordered recently had been >>> diverted to hospitals.
'1 PEAK, 3 WAVES, 3 MONTHS'
In Shanghai, authorities said schools should move most classes online >>>from Monday, and in nearby Hangzhou most school grades were encouraged
to finish the winter semester early.
In Guangzhou, those already doing online class as well as pre-schoolers
should not prepare for a return to school, said the education bureau.
Speaking at a conference in Beijing on Saturday, chief epidemiologist Wu >>> of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said the
current outbreak would peak this winter and run in three waves for about >>> three months, according to a state media report of his speech.
The first wave would run from mid-December through mid-January, largely
in cities, before a second wave would start from late January to
mid-February next year, triggered by the movement of people ahead of the >>> week-long New Year holiday.
China will celebrate Lunar New Year starting on Jan. 21. The holiday
normally sees hundreds of millions of people travelling home to spend
time with family.
A third wave of cases would run from late February to mid-March as
people returned to work after the holiday, Wu said.
In eastern Zhejiang province, home to many high-tech companies and
industry, the first wave is expected to peak around mid-January, though
it could be earlier, health officials told a press briefing on Sunday.
"This period coincides with the Lunar New Year, and population movement
will speed up the spread of the epidemic," said Chen Zhong, executive
deputy director of the provincial epidemic control taskforce.
A U.S.-based research institute said this week that the country could
see an explosion of cases and over a million people in China could die
of COVID in 2023.
Wu said severe cases had declined compared with past years and
vaccination had offered a certain degree of protection. The vulnerable
should be protected, he said, while recommending booster vaccines for
the general public.
While China rolled out its first COVID vaccines in 2021, vaccination
rates among people aged 60 and above have remained little changed since
the summer, according to official figures.
Only 66.4% of people over the age of 80 have completed a full course of
vaccination, official news agency Xinhua reported.
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Register for free to Reuters and know the full story
Register now
Reporting by Siyi Liu, Dominique Patton, Ryan Woo, Eduardo Baptista and
Brenda Goh; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell and Philippa Fletcher
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
China & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/magistrate-sacked-for-public-campaigning-over-covid-response/5114649.article
By John Hyde21 December 2022
Save articlePlease Sign in to your account to use this feature
Amagistrate has been removed from office for using her judicial platform >>> to campaign against the government’s Covid-19 policies.
The Judicial Conduct Investigations Office said that Kaira McCallum had
been found to have ‘associated herself publicly with activity in
relation to the government’s response to the Covid pandemic’.
ADVERT
McCallum, who sat on cases at Westminster Magistrates Court, was also
found to have aggravated her conduct by referring publicly to her
judicial status.
A spokesperson for the JCIO said the lord chancellor and lord chief
justice found that McCallum’s conduct amounted to a ‘serious breach’ of
important guidance on judicial impartiality and of guidance issued to
magistrates about use of the suffix ‘JP’.
entrance of westminster mags
McCallum sat on cases at Westminster Magistrates Court
Source: Monidipa Fouzder
She was also found to have sent a ‘highly inappropriate’ email to a
senior manager in HM Courts & Tribunal Services, who had issued
information to staff and judiciary about Covid safety measures.
The spokesperson added: ‘In deciding to remove Miss McCallum from
office, the lord chancellor and lord chief justice agreed with the
finding of a disciplinary panel that, due to the nature of her conduct,
allowing her to remain in office would risk damage to the reputation of
the judiciary. They also took into account that Miss McCallum had failed >>> to acknowledge her actions were in any way improper for a judicial
office-holder.’
PARTNERSHIP
McCallum is listed online as a member of the UK Medical Freedom
Alliance, holding itself out as a group of healthcare professionals,
scientists and lawyers campaigning for informed consent and medical choice. >>>
She was one of the signatories to a claim made to the International
Criminal Court in 2021 relating to the government’s handling of the
pandemic and its promotion of the Covid vaccines.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the UK & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/25/uk-to-stop-publishing-covid-modelling-data
UK to stop publishing Covid modelling data
R range and growth rate, which during the height of the pandemic was
published weekly in England, deemed ‘no longer necessary’
Commuters in Manchester
The UKHSA said the data was not necessary as, thanks to vaccines and
therapeutics, the country is living with Covid. Photograph: Christopher
Thomond/The Guardian
PA Media
Sun 25 Dec 2022 18.32 EST
The UK Health Security Agency will stop publishing modelling data on
coronavirus in early January.
The chief data scientist, Dr Nick Watkins, said the publication of this
specific data is “no longer necessary” as the country is living with
Covid thanks to vaccines and therapeutics.
The R range and growth rate for England had been published weekly during >>> the height of the pandemic, and fortnightly since April this year. It
was first published in May 2020 for all of the UK, until April 2021 when >>> it was published for England only.
The reproductive rate, the R rate, refers to the number of people an
infected person will pass the virus onto.
The UKHSA Epidemiology Modelling Review Group (EMRG) said that,
following a detailed review, the next publication of its consensus
statement on Covid-19 on 6 January “will be the last”.
It said Covid-19 incidence data will continue to be accessible from the
Office for National Statistics infection survey.
Watkins, chairman of the EMRG, said: “During the pandemic, the R value
and growth rate served as a useful and simple indicator to inform public >>> health action and government decisions.
“Now that vaccines and therapeutics have allowed us to move to a phase
where we are living with Covid-19, with surveillance scaled down but
still closely monitored through a number of different indicators, the
publication of this specific data is no longer necessary.
“We continue to monitor Covid-19 activity in a similar way to how we
monitor a number of other common illnesses and diseases.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the UK & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://archive.vn/e3U7x
No plans for UK Covid restrictions on arrivals from China
US said to considering new controls after Beijing announced reopening of >>> borders
Adam Forrest
Political Correspondent
·
4 hours ago
·
5
Comments
<p>Passengers at Covid testing site at Boston airport, where US
authorities are considering new restrictions on Chinese arrivals </p>
Passengers at Covid testing site at Boston airport, where US authorities >>> are considering new restrictions on Chinese arrivals
(AP)
IndyEat
Sign up to the Inside Politics email for your free daily briefing on the >>> biggest stories in UK politics
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The UK government does not have any plans to impose Covid restrictions
on arrivals from China despite a surge in cases, Downing Street has said. >>> The US is said to be looking at new restrictions on Chinese arrivals
after Beijing announced it was reopening its borders in January after
almost three years of strict controls.
Japan, Malaysia, Taiwan and South Korea have also responded to the
latest Chinese wave of infections by requiring negative virus tests for
visitors from China.
Asked if the British government was considering something similar, the
No 10 spokesperson said: “That’s not something we’re looking at.”
Rishi Sunak’s spokesperson added: “We will continue to monitor cases of
Covid across the UK. You will see they are still at a relatively low
level, but we will continue to ensure we have the necessary surveillance >>> in place.”
China has said it will resume issuing visas and passports in a big step
away from the controls that isolated the country – a move which could
see millions of citizens going abroad for January’s Lunar New Year holiday. >>> Recommended
Rishi Sunak paid for ‘opulent’ curtains and velvet sofas in No 10 flat
refurb
Rishi Sunak paid for ‘opulent’ curtains and velvet sofas in No 10 flat
refurb
Sex workers ‘ordered for MPs on overseas trip to dictatorship’
Sex workers ‘ordered for MPs on overseas trip to dictatorship’
Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer have something in common: a very thin
foreign policy offer
Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer have something in common: a very thin
foreign policy offer
It adds to abrupt changes that are rolling back some of the world’s
strictest anti-virus controls as president Xi Jinping’s government tries >>> to reverse an economic slump.
Rules that confined millions of people to their homes kept China’s
infection rate low, but fuelled public frustration and dampened economic >>> growth.
Authorities have softened its stance on its stringent “zero-Covid”
policy by lifting restrictions after unprecedented nationwide protests
against the communist government in November.
But some countries are worried about the potential for cases to spread
quickly, as travel services companies reported international ticket
bookings and searches for visa information spiked after Tuesday’s
announcement.
India’s health ministry said it was stepping up surveillance of cases >>>from overseas following the recent rise in Covid cases in China.
“There are mounting concerns in the international community on the
ongoing Covid-19 surges in China and the lack of transparent data,
including viral genomic sequence data,” US officials said in a statement. >>> However, Wang Wenbin, spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry, said
western nations and media outlets were “hyping up” the issue and
“distorting” the country’s Covid policies.
The National Immigration Administration of China said it will start
taking applications on 8 January for passports for tourists to go
abroad. It said it will resume issuing approval for tourists and
businesspeople to visit Hong Kong, a territory with its own border controls.
Recommended
China to start issuing new passports as virus curbs ease
China to start issuing new passports as virus curbs ease
The agency also said the government will “gradually resume” allowing in
foreign visitors and gave no indication when full-scale tourist travel >>>from abroad might be allowed.
Health experts and economists expected the ruling Communist Party to
keep restrictions on travel into China until at least mid-2023 while it
carries out a campaign to vaccinate millions of elderly people. Experts
say that is necessary to prevent a public health crisis.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the UK & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11587211/Chris-Whitty-warns-thousands-middle-aged-people-dying-heart-conditions-went-untreated.html
There are reportedly 800 more people dying each week over normal levels
Reasonings are still unclear but barriers to accessing pills could be an >>> influence
Research indicates that many Brits did not want to be a burden to the NHS >>> By LAUREN HAUGHEY FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 20:01 EST, 30 December 2022 | UPDATED: 08:29 EST, 31 December >>> 2022
585
shares
3.2k
View comments
Sir Chris Whitty has warned that thousands of middle-aged people are now >>> dying of heart conditions after many were reluctant to bother the NHS
during the pandemic.
This year has seen a higher number of deaths than normal from
preventable conditions as many have missed out on statins or pills for
blood pressure amid lockdowns.
As of now, there are currently 800 more people dying each week over
normal levels, and only half of that is due to Covid, The Times has
reported.
While the reasonings for these deaths are still unclear, the chief
medical officer has now alerted the Government about how barriers to
accessing medication may have contributed.
Sir Chris Whitty has warned that thousands of middle-aged people are now >>> dying of heart conditions after people were reluctant to bother the NHS
at the height of the pandemic
+1
View gallery
Sir Chris Whitty has warned that thousands of middle-aged people are now >>> dying of heart conditions after people were reluctant to bother the NHS
at the height of the pandemic
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Earlier this year, MailOnline reported that deaths from heart attacks
soared by a fifth worldwide during the pandemic.
Previous research also indicated that many Brits were too worried to go
to hospitals in case they were a burden on the already struggling NHS
service, while others did not want to catch the virus.
Millions of GP appointments and operations were postponed or scrapped
too, which may have contributed to worsening conditions.
In drawing attention to excess deaths, Whitty reportedly pointed to
figures from the Office of National Statistics which demonstrate that
5,170 deaths in men aged 50-64 could have been helped by heart medications. >>>
These patterns have been recognised by the Health and Social Care
Secretary Steve Barclay who recently stressed that it was important to
be 'transparent coming out of Covid around excess deaths'.
He said: 'Now, one shared point of understanding must be the scale of
the COVID backlog, with around now 7.1 million patients.
'For example, we know from the data that there are more 50 to
64-year-olds with cardiovascular issues.
'It’s the result of delays in that age group seeing a GP because of the
pandemic and in some cases, not getting statins for hypertension in time.' >>>
The Department of Health has also opened more than 90 community
diagnostic centres where people across the UK can be tested for numerous >>> conditions including cancer, heart and lung disease.
Earlier this year it was pledged that a network of up to 160 centres and >>> boosted testing capacity would be available by 2025.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the UK & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.bournbrookmag.com/home/emboldening-the-biosecurity-state
Emboldening the biosecurity state
Jan 2
Written By Jamie Walden
It is depressing to have Covid regulations in the UK for the first time
in 10 months.
The Government has announced the imposition of its first Covid
regulations since March 2022. Travellers from China are now required to
produce a negative test result for the virus before arriving into
Britain. This follows similar moves made by other nations, including the >>> United States.
Millions of people in the UK have Covid already, according to the Office >>> for National Statistics. Virtually every Briton has had the virus before >>> (probably multiple times), had several vaccine doses, or a combination
of both. We have a high level of immunity across the nation.
Since we last had restrictions of any kind, now almost a year ago, there >>> have been three waves of Covid. Barely anybody even noticed them. We
moved on after the Omicron scaremongering flopped last winter and
exposed the forces of ‘public health’ for the sham they were.
The variants have become milder overall, and any new strains will really >>> need to be significantly different to evade our existing immunity. Not
to mention the fact that the variants circulating in China are not novel. >>> So, why the new rule?
As Chris Smyth and Steven Swinford of The Times have reported, the
decision is a political one.
It is intended to “put more pressure on China” and “stand side by side
with allies”, mainly, of course, the Americans. The UK Government and
its partners wish to send a message about transparency (true infection
levels in China, which variants are circulating, and so on).
It is depressing to have Covid regulations in the UK for the first time
in 10 months. As the ‘diaries’ of Matt Hancock recently revealed,
politicised decision making has been routine during the pandemic. For
instance, children were masked in England to compete with the devolved
Scottish Government. The move against travellers from China appears to
be another example.
While it is unlikely to mutate into much more at a state level, it will
embolden the biosecurity authoritarians in our nation. You may have
already been told you cannot visit loved ones in hospital or a care home >>> again. You may find your optician, dentist, or veterinarian insists you
shroud you face when you see them. And a country that had virtually
forgotten the ‘C word’ will now be talking about it again, for no
sensible reason.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the UK & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-64151557
Covid and flu putting massive pressure on NHS - health secretary
Published
14 hours ago
Share
Related Topics
Coronavirus pandemic
A paramedic gets into the back of an ambulance
IMAGE SOURCE,PA MEDIA
By Nick Triggle
Health correspondent
Flu and Covid have put "massive pressure" on the NHS and reducing
backlogs caused by the pandemic will "take time", Health Secretary Steve >>> Barclay has said.
Speaking amid mounting concern over hospital delays, he said the
government was working on freeing up beds.
He said this would relieve pressure in A&Es and on ambulance services.
It comes as a woman who waited 25 hours to be seen at an emergency
department told the BBC it was "like a war movie".
ADVERTISEMENT
Mr Barclay said people with conditions like heart disease had been
reluctant to come forward for support at times during the pandemic - and >>> this was a major factor in the demands now being seen.
He acknowledged the NHS was facing huge challenges, but said the
government was providing extra funding to help.
This includes a £500m winter fund that has been set up to help hospitals >>> discharge patients who are medically fit to leave but cannot because of
a lack of support available in the community.
And he added: "We are so focused on getting people out of hospital who
do not need to be there."
5 Questions On: Pressure on the NHS
Annette Fury, who was blue-lighted to a hospital in the West Midlands
Image caption,
Annette Fury, who spent 13 hours in an ambulance and another 12 waiting
in A&E, described the scene at a hospital as like 'a war movie'
Downing Street said the government had been "up front" with the public
about the pressure the NHS would face.
The prime minister's official spokesman acknowledged that "for a number
of people seeking to access the NHS this winter it will be very difficult". >>>
He said the service was facing an "unprecedented challenge" but insisted >>> the government was doing "everything possible" to ease pressure.
"I think we are confident we are providing the NHS with the funding it
needs," he said, adding the NHS was already "maximising its number of
beds" to free up capacity.
In recent days, a number of hospitals have declared critical incidents,
suggesting they cannot function as usual because of extraordinary pressure. >>>
Senior doctors have described the NHS as on a knife edge, with some
accident and emergency units in a "complete state of crisis".
One patient, Annette Fury, described the situation in A&E after she
suffered a seizure from bacterial meningitis and was blue-lighted to a
hospital in the West Midlands.
Once there, she spent 13 hours in an ambulance and then another 12
waiting in A&E.
"It was like a scene from a war movie," she told BBC News. "There were
people sitting on the floor, people on trollies everywhere. It was just
horrendous."
She added she wanted to "highlight to the government how dangerous the
situation is".
She said: "What I would like to do is invite a government minister to
come in - even for six hours - and to observe what goes on here," she said. >>>
There have been sharp rises in the numbers of people in hospital with
Covid and flu in recent weeks - about one in eight beds in England is
now occupied by patients with these infections.
Winter set to be worst for A&E, health leaders warn
Pressure on the NHS is unsustainable, medics warn
BBC graph shows a steep rise in the number of patients in hospital with
flu in England from 15 Nov to 25 Dec
Labour criticised the government's management of the health service,
while the Liberal Democrats called for Parliament to be recalled early.
MPs are due back at Westminster next Monday, following their Christmas
break.
Prof Phil Banfield, who chairs the British Medical Association, which
represents doctors, called on the government to "step up and take
immediate action".
The situation was "intolerable and unsustainable", he said, with the
NHS's survival on a knife edge and patients needlessly dying because of
a political choice.
Richard Webber, of the College of Paramedics, said the current situation >>> was the worst in his 30-year career.
Delays were causing patients "significant harm", he said, with ambulance >>> services now struggling to find available crews for cardiac arrests -
the highest category of emergency call.
"I've never known anything like it," Mr Webber said.Meanwhile, the UK
Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has reiterated the importance of people
wearing masks if they are ill and need to go out.
The UKHSA has also asked parents to keep children off school if they
have a fever.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the UK & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://uk.sganalytics.com/blog/manufacturing-in-uk-shrinks-fastest-rate-since-2020-lockdown/
Manufacturing in the UK shrinks at the fastest rate since the 2020 lockdown >>> SGAnalytics_Blog_Manufacturing in the UK shrinks at the fastest rate
since the 2020 lockdown
Published on Nov 15, 2022
The UK economy in 2023 is about to fall into a black hole because of its >>> own government. The UK Economy in 2023 has been facing a lot of crises
for a long time now.
The manufacturing industry lost 9.2 (E&T) percent of its revenue in
2022, dropping from £636 billion to £577 billion, and it employed 1.7%
less people than in 2021. Recently In October, factory activity in both
the United States and the United Kingdom fell at their fastest rates
since the middle of 2020. Business surveys released on Tuesday revealed
a drop in global factory output in October due to prolonged supply
interruptions and dimming recovery hopes caused by widespread recession
fears, high inflation, and China's zero-COVID policy. Russia's invasion
of Ukraine has caused inflation to skyrocket worldwide as supply
networks already recovering from the coronavirus outbreak were hammered
anew.
In the United Kingdom's industrial sector, the decline continued last
month, with new orders falling at the quickest rate seen since May 2020. >>> According to the manufacturing buyers' index (PMI) compiled by S&P
Global, a significant decrease in the amount of new work received,
sluggish demand for exports, and disruptions in the supply chain all
contributed to a reduction in production as well as employment.
SGAnalytics_Blog_2022 Lockdown
Despite the fact that this number was higher than the earlier flash
estimate of 44.8, the PMI has now fallen below the neutral line of 50
for three consecutive months. The indicator reached its lowest point in
29 (Reuters) months in October, coming in at 46.2, down from 48.4 the
previous month. A decrease in activity is indicated by any reading that
is less than 50.
The lackluster performance of sales to international customers during
the period was reflected in the decline in the new export business for
the ninth consecutive month. This was owing to the global economic
situation being worse, Chinese demand getting weaker, the war in
Ukraine, and continued concerns related to Brexit restricting export
performance.
The production of consumer, intermediate, and investment goods all went
down, with output falling the most in the intermediate goods sector.
Investment goods also performed particularly poorly. The decrease in the >>> number of new orders received did, however, result in an increase in the >>> quantity of finished goods in stock. S&P said that there was a rise in
inventories for the sixth month in a row, albeit at the slowest pace
seen since June.
The data also revealed that job losses had been reported for the first
time since 2020. These job losses "reflected redundancies, cost
management initiatives and problems in both attracting and keeping
workers and certain skill sets," according to the data.
SGAnalytics_Blog_UK manufacturing
The overall worsening scenario has brought down corporate optimism to a
level not seen in over 2.5 (LondonLovesBusiness) years. Confidence has
been harmed as a result of weak demand, worries about recession,
inflationary pressures, and rising levels of uncertainty.
"No wonder the UK's manufacturers were down in the dumps with the lowest >>> optimism for the year ahead in two and a half years as the burden of
potential rail strikes affecting freight added to their downbeat
assessment," said John Glen, chief economist at the Chartered Institute
of Procurement & Supply.
"Manufacturing may not be the largest sector of the United Kingdom's
economy, but its importance is evident as supply disruptions continue
elsewhere and additional capacity is needed domestically to keep the
wheels running for customers and consumers alike."
The respondents to the study predicted that output levels would be
greater in one year, with approximately 43% of them making this
prediction. This prediction was reinforced by the introduction of new
products and the potential reduction in economic and political volatility. >>>
SGAnalytics_Blog_Economy
At the beginning of the fourth quarter, price inflation remained strong
despite the fact that both input prices and output charges were rising
at rates that were above the survey average. Nevertheless, the rates of
increase in both price measures slowed down a little bit in the month of >>> October.
Companies have stated that prices have increased for a diverse range of
products. In addition to chemicals, electronics, energy, food, metals,
packaging, paper, and lumber, there were other items as well. Also
included were things like paper and packaging. The prices of
transportation and administration both went up as well.
There was a discussion of how the conflict in Ukraine, general
inflationary pressures, and the value of the pound in relation to other
currencies all contribute to pricing increases.
"There is evidence that the UK manufacturing sector is starting to
contract," said Simon Jonsson, UK head of industrial products at KPMG.
"As consumer and business demand dips, whilst the impact of inflation is >>> being felt on operational costs," he added.
SGAnalytics_Blog_Manufacturing in the UK
"The instability of the pound, a decreasing order pipeline, and
expectations surrounding interest rates all create a gloomy picture for
the manufacturing sector," said one analyst. "The manufacturing industry >>> is facing a number of challenges." The problem is made even worse by the >>> fact that a large number of businesses are still dealing with a lack of
supplies.
"Parts of the industrial sector are putting a hold on post-pandemic
capacity growth since there is not a solid pipeline of new work, and
even worse, some firms are making redundancies in order to save money on >>> operational expenses. Since late 2020, this is the first month in which
there has been a loss of manufacturing jobs.
"The United Kingdom is home to a robust manufacturing sector, and
industry leaders are looking forward with great anticipation to the
government's autumn statement on November 17 in the hopes that the
government will outline its plan to keep the economy in the United
Kingdom competitive."
SGAnalytics_Blog_United Kingdom
Global inflation has risen as supply chains still recovering from the
coronavirus pandemic have been impacted by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, >>> prompting consumers to cut back on purchases. Companies reported a wide
range of things increasing in price. Products, including chemicals,
electronics, energy, food, metals, packaging, paper, and wood, were
among them. Expenses in areas such as transportation and management have >>> also increased. It was discussed how the conflict in Ukraine, inflation
in general, and the value of the pound all played a role in the price
increases. The UK manufacturing sector shrank further last month, with
new orders contracting at the highest rate since May 2020.
Also Read - UK is the only G7 country with a smaller economy than before >>> Covid-19.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the UK & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://archive.is/W1yZs
After three years of zero-Covid, nothing feels real in newly ‘free’ Shanghai
new
Officials locked down people in lavatories and swabbed fish. Now
restrictions are no more but millions remain traumatised
Covid patients line the hall of a hospital in Shanghai on Tuesday
Covid patients line the hall of a hospital in Shanghai on Tuesday
CHINATOPIX
Cameron Wilson, Shanghai
Saturday January 07 2023, 6.00pm GMT, The Sunday Times
I’ve lived in Shanghai for 17 years, enjoying a ringside view of China’s >>> rise — and countless wonderful adventures. But the last 12 months have
left me feeling like an unwitting participant in some kind of
hidden-camera television show. For a long time, every aspect of life in
China was shaped by zero-Covid restrictions.
Then, just before Christmas, the policy was suddenly and unexpectedly
abandoned. For large numbers of people, the consequences have been
tragic. But for many others, the whole experience has resembled a
practical joke so elaborate that the late Jeremy Beadle would surely
have considered it to be his finest work.
Just a month ago, if you were deemed even to have been a close contact
of someone who tested positive, you could be dragged off by dabai
(health workers in white protective suits) to a grotty isolation centre
and forced to stay there until you tested negative. Today? The official
message is: it’s fine to turn up at work with the very same virus that
we were told until late last year was a mortal threat.
The author took a photograph in this pose every day to relieve the
tedium of daily testing
The author took a photograph in this pose every day to relieve the
tedium of daily testing
CAMERON WILSON
Sure enough, friends, family, colleagues and neighbours have fallen like >>> dominoes. Everyone has. Each day brought a new empty seat in the office, >>> a new social media post of a positive Covid test. After three years of
barely anyone catching the disease, the sudden onslaught has created an
overwhelming sense of confusion. Many were expecting mild, if any,
symptoms, because the government published figures every day emphasising >>> that the vast majority of cases were asymptomatic. But in fact almost
everyone I know was knocked out for days at home with a heavy flu-like
illness, having forgotten that the official definition of asymptomatic
just meant not requiring hospital treatment.
It’s hard to overstate just how intrusive zero-Covid was in Shanghai,
particularly in 2022. You had to do a PCR test every other day and show
a negative result to enter restaurants, shops and your workplace, or use >>> public transport. You name it, you had to scan a code with an app on
your phone to do it. Forgetting to do a test on time meant abandoning
any plans you had to leave your house that day. Your health code app
dominated every hour of your existence. And now, suddenly, it doesn’t.
Right now the city is starting to recover and you can freely enter all
the bars, restaurants and shops which didn’t go bankrupt — as a great
many did.
But a feeling of mass discombobulation remains. Most people were fine
with the first couple of years of zero-Covid — millions of lives were
saved. Unfortunately, the virus mutated into something significantly
less deadly but a lot more transmissible. And rather than face up to the >>> inevitable and make an exit plan, China escalated the policy and the
madness started.
The Shanghai lockdown saw 26 million people unable to leave their homes
for more than two months, subjected to mandatory testing every day, and
forcibly taken to isolation centres if testing positive. Some residents
were even physically sealed inside buildings. The courier delivery
system collapsed, leaving people to rely on government food handouts to
survive. Every day, social media brought weird, sometimes disturbing
spectacles. Videos of people jumping from buildings. Left-behind pets
killed by healthcare workers. Hysterical kids being separated from
parents taken to isolation. Suffering people walking naked in the
street. Thousands of neighbours wailing crazily in unison. Meanwhile,
official propaganda rubbed it in everyone’s faces by blaming “foreign
forces” for a protest that saw millions of hungry residents bang pots
and pans at their kitchen windows each night. Today, everyone is asking
if all of this really happened — because in the end it was all for
absolutely nothing.
Seeing this happen in China’s biggest and most modern city seemed
unreal. It was a trauma, which being honest, I have not fully recovered
from, and I don’t think most others have either.
The waterfront at the Bund in Shanghai is disinfected last March
The waterfront at the Bund in Shanghai is disinfected last March
YANG JIANZHENG/VCG/GETTY IMAGES
Taken in August 2020, the first time the author’s family had left
Shanghai for ten months. From left: Min Deyuan, now 66, Veronica Min,
39, Cameron Wilson,47, Mhairi Min Wilson, seven, and Zhang Jinqing, 67
Taken in August 2020, the first time the author’s family had left
Shanghai for ten months. From left: Min Deyuan, now 66, Veronica Min,
39, Cameron Wilson,47, Mhairi Min Wilson, seven, and Zhang Jinqing, 67
CAMERON WILSON
The months following the end of the lockdown brought even more bizarre
phenomena, as the authorities cracked down on the increasingly
transmissible Omicron variant. No act, no matter how contradictory,
absurd or ridiculous, was considered overzealous in the “fight against
the virus”. Live fish had their gills swabbed by people in white suits.
Bars, nightclubs and sports stadiums remained closed, yet the metro
carried millions of passengers every day. Public health officials
visited a restaurant which only sold pizza and insisted on putting up
campaign posters saying “use separate serving chopsticks to prevent
spreading viruses”. Regular Covid outbreaks and brutally uncompromising
enforcement meant people suddenly found themselves locked down in
unusual locations such as public lavatories, offices or strangers’
homes. Schools were constantly closing and opening. At one point a video >>> of an unfortunate goose being anally probed by a government inspector at >>> a wet market made the rounds.
Eventually, the pressure began to take its toll in higher circles. The
Communist Party’s 20th national congress — widely hoped to bring the end >>> of zero-Covid, didn’t deliver in that regard but brought the spectacle
of a confused-looking former president, Hu Jintao, being led out of the
arena. As usual, nobody really knew what was going on, but something had >>> changed. In November, the sight of maskless fans partying at the World
Cup in Qatar did not go unnoticed by the Chinese population — nor the
authorities, who censored crowd scenes on state TV broadcasts. Before we >>> knew it, zero-Covid had delivered the ultimate in unthinkable
developments, when protesters in Shanghai called for the end of the
policy and for Xi Jinping to step down. Weeks later, zero-Covid ended at >>> the worst time possible — the start of winter — leaving no time for any
preparation such as stockpiling medicines or finishing vaccination
programmes.
Nobody knows how many people have succumbed to the virus since then,
because the country has stopped publishing daily case data. However,
there have been reports of crematoriums and hospitals becoming
overwhelmed, and on Wednesday the World Health Organisation said that
China was under-representing the true impact and in particular
underplaying the number of deaths.
In my household, however, the most utterly peculiar three years of our
lives ended in typically perplexing style last week. My father-in-law —
in his late sixties and of the very demographic that zero-Covid was
meant to protect, reacted to testing positive by sauntering out to buy
several £5 bottles of huangjiu (yellow wine). He polished them off that
evening and was first in our family to recover just a day later. I half
expected him to take off his mask to reveal that Beadle was still alive. >>> Cameron Wilson is a freelance journalist based in Shanghai
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
China & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://amp.theguardian.com/education/2023/jan/13/cultural-shift-since-pandemic-causing-attendance-crisis-in-english-schools
‘Cultural shift’ since pandemic causing attendance crisis in English schools
Teachers say parents are now more reluctant to send children to school
or willing to let them stay home
Richard Adams Education editor
Fri 13 Jan 2023 12.30 EST
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare via Email
Headteachers and school leaders are becoming increasingly worried that a >>> “cultural shift” in attitudes is causing a crisis in attendance, with
more pupils absent than before the Covid pandemic.
Teachers say parents are now more reluctant to send children to school
and more resistant to efforts to encourage attendance, with school
leaders in England warning it may take years to repair national
attendance figures.
Specialists who spoke to the Guardian said fears around illness had been >>> heightened since the pandemic, and are being driven by worsening support >>> for mental health as well as the strain experienced by the NHS and the
cost of living crisis.
Their fears are supported by figures from the Department for Education
(DfE) showing a sustained increase in authorised and unauthorised
absences in state schools across England.
Younger children most affected by Covid lockdowns, new research finds
Secondary schools appear worst affected, with pupils missing more than
9% of classroom time in the first term of the latest academic year,
compared with an average of about 5.4% in the five years between 2014
and 2019.
While illnesses accounted for a steep rise in children staying away
during December, when many parents were concerned about strep A and
scarlet fever outbreaks, the rate of unauthorised absences reported also >>> rose by 70%.
Sheila Mouna, the headteacher at St Anne’s and Guardian Angels Catholic
primary school in east London, said while parents had become more
anxious about their children going to school, others were more willing
to let them stay home since the pandemic.
“I think there’s been a cultural shift with people working at home, and
some people – not all – seem to think their kids did OK at home, so
things like that have become ingrained in some parents’ mind.
“But children need to be out and about, to be with their friends and
learn to socialise. It’s not just academic,” Mouna said.
Stuart Lock, the chief executive of the Advantage Schools academy trust
in Bedfordshire, said pupil attendance was a matter of concern for all
school leaders.
“I thought it was a blip. I now think that this is an established crisis >>> that is going to get worse and take years to solve,” Lock said.
“I don’t know how we’ll fix this – it feels like there has been a shift, >>> and it isn’t dissimilar to the early 2000s when it was very hard to get
a significant number of pupils to attend school regularly.”
Lock said the DfE was aware of the national problem and was looking at
policies to improve attendance, but added: “I think this is going to be
a big challenge for all of us this year.”
Stephen Aravena, the attendance and welfare adviser at St Anne’s, said
there were pupils who normally have “very good” attendance who were now
spending days out of school, with the mental health and resilience of
parents as well as children under strain.
“The landscape has changed. Pressures like the cost of living, all these >>> things are impacting on families, so that’s brought a whole range of new >>> problems that we need to deal with. We need to find new ways of
responding to that,” Aravena said.
MPs on parliament’s education select committee are to hold an inquiry
next month into the growing rates of persistent absence, questioning
education leaders on possible causes including economic disadvantage as
well as Covid.
Robin Walker, the Conservative MP who chairs the education committee,
said: “Missing school can seriously undermine a child’s education and
future life chances. It is imperative that we take a nuanced and
sympathetic look at the reasons why absence has become a growing problem.” >>>
Stephen Morgan, the shadow schools minister, said the absence rates
“should set alarm bells ringing”.
“The failures of the government’s Covid recovery scheme, plummeting
pupil wellbeing and the growing epidemic of mental ill health in our
schools is driving non-attendance, which will lead to lower attainment
and lower life chances for children and young people,” he said.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the UK & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://reason.com/2023/01/16/school-closures-caused-learning-loss/
Reading and math scores declined between 2020 to 2022, reversing two
decades of improvement.
EMMA CAMP | FROM THE FEBRUARY 2023 ISSUE
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on RedditShare by emailPrint
friendly versionCopy page URL
topicseducation
(Photo: Annie Spratt/Unsplash)
Tests measuring the academic performance of American schoolchildren
consistently show dramatic declines in scores between the years directly >>> before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. While the full scope of learning >>> loss is not yet known, the data indicate that many children entered the
2021 school year with unprecedented education gaps that were likely
exacerbated by widespread school shutdowns.
The National Association for Education Statistics tests a representative >>> national sample of 9-year-olds on math and reading skills. From 2020 to
2022, according to a report published in September, reading and math
scores declined by five and seven percentage points, respectively,
reversing two decades of improvement in both areas. The drop was
especially steep among students who already faced academic difficulties. >>> While math scores fell only three points among students in the 90th
percentile, they dropped a staggering 12 points within the 10th percentile. >>>
In October, the National Assessment of Educational Progress revealed
academic setbacks among 450,000 American fourth- and eighth-graders. The >>> data hinted at the possible effects of low-quality remote learning.
Among remote-learning eighth-graders, for example, just 41 percent of
students who scored in the bottom quartile on the math test participated >>> in live video lessons with their teacher every day or almost every day.
Within the top quartile, 71 percent did.
Test scores declined for older students too. Between 2021 and 2022, ACT
scores showed the biggest single-year drop in a decade. It was the first >>> time in three decades that average ACT scores had dropped below 20 on
the test's 36-point scale.
The ACT also sets "college readiness benchmarks"—minimum scores on each
test's subsection that correlate with success in freshman-level college
courses. In 2022, the percentage of students meeting all four of these
benchmarks fell from 25 percent to 22 percent, the largest drop in 10 years.
These dramatic declines in test scores indicate that something went
deeply wrong in American schools during the last few years. The obvious
culprit is long-term school shutdowns. Notably, students in Sweden,
which kept elementary schools open throughout the pandemic, experienced
no learning loss.
School closures during the pandemic disrupted learning for millions of
American students. The effects are now becoming painfully clear.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the US & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.itv.com/news/2023-01-20/i-really-miss-school-71000-children-in-uk-suffering-from-long-covid
'I really miss school': 71,000 children in UK struggling with long Covid >>> HEALTH
CORONAVIRUS
Friday 20 January 2023 at 11:33pm
The profile picture of Chloe Keedy
Chloe Keedy
Reporter, ITV News
ITV News' Chloe Keedy heard from two children learning to live with long >>> Covid
"Some days you can cope with it, some days you can’t."
12-year-old Tillie Adams has been living with the effects of Covid for
two years.
Diagnosed in January 2021, her "cold-like symptoms" quickly turned into
something more serious.
"Mainly it was the stomach pains," her mum Kelly explains. "She was
getting really bad stomach pains and when she would eat they’d get
worse, and she’d be crying out in pain. So she stopped eating altogether." >>>
By the time Tillie was admitted to hospital in April 2021, she weighed
just three stone.
Ever since then, Tillie has had to be fed through a tube. Her symptoms
are still hugely debilitating, making her feel sick and causing severe
pain in her stomach and legs.
She is now back at school part-time, but struggles to do any of the
other things she used to enjoy.
Tillie is one of 71,000 children in the UK suffering from post Covid-19
syndrome, better known as long Covid.
Tillie now eats via a tube.
Credit: ITV News
UK Covid-19 infections may have peaked after Christmas wave
"You’ve got to think not just about that day," says Tillie. "You've got
to think about the next day.
"Because if you've got something important the next day, you can't do
anything that day. I try to think of all the positives. I try to think:
'I'm going to get better, I'm going to get better'.
"But, actually, I don't really know."
Kelly says the doctors are "hopeful" that her daughter will make a
recovery, "but there’s no guarantee".
At Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital in London they've developed a dedicated >>> clinic for children with long Covid.
14-year-old Imani Howsam is one of around 50 patients they've seen since >>> it was established in October 2021.
Imani Howsam with her parents.
Credit: ITV News
It's designed as a 'one stop shop' where each child is assessed by a
team of seven specialists, including psychologists, physiotherapists and >>> dieticians.
Rob Schneider is an occupational therapist at the clinic. He tells me
that long Covid causes a huge range of chronic symptoms in the children
he treats, but that the kind of symptoms Imani has - "the fatigue, the
brain fog, the difficulties with transitioning back to school" are
fairly common.
Imani’s dad Karl says his daughter used to love playing squash and
swimming, "but she can’t do those things anymore".
Her mum Nadia tells me that Imani is so exhausted, she sometimes sleeps
for 18 hours a day.
The day we meet at the clinic marks only the second time Imani has left
the house in a month, and she hasn’t been able to go to school for a year. >>>
"I really miss school", she tells me. "I miss my friends. I just want my >>> normal life back."
The clinic at Guy’s and St Thomas’ is one of 14 ‘hubs’ across England
dedicated to treating children with long Covid.
The specialists can’t promise to cure the condition, but they aim to try >>> and help children live with it.
"The hope is that with the right intervention, you turn it around more
quickly, and we see some of the young people in our clinic get better
within a few months," explains Dr Emma Parish, a paediatric consultant
who helped to set up the service.
"But on the whole it takes a number of months and it's about a slowly
improving picture. I think the impact socially for them is huge, and the >>> impact for us as a society - because these are young people that need to >>> get better so they can do what we want them to do and they want to do in >>> the future."
Imani’s trip from her home in Surrey to her hospital appointment in
London will take her days, if not weeks to recover from.
But when we chat after her appointment, she is beaming.
Both her and her parents tell me that it’s the first time since she
became ill they feel as though they’ve been taken seriously, been
listened to - the first time they’ve been heard.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the UK & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-11666223/Orthrus-makes-one-THREE-Covid-cases-area.html
The variant accounted for 36.1% of all Covid tests in England on January 14 >>> Highest number of cases recorded in Cornwall, Kirklees and Nottingham
Data is based on the genetic analysis of Covid tests submitted across
England
By EMILY STEARN, HEALTH REPORTER FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 11:22 EST, 23 January 2023 | UPDATED: 11:33 EST, 23 January 2023 >>>
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Covid variant 'Orthrus' is now behind over a third of all reported cases >>> in England, figures suggests.
Latest surveillance data shows how the strain, scientifically called
CH.1.1, has swept across England, seemingly accounting for all new
infections in the worst-hit regions.
Despite falling Covid cases nationally, its emergence has stoked
concerns among UK health chiefs that it could soon become the dominant
Covid variant.
Latest surveillance data shows how the strain, scientifically called
CH.1.1, has swept across England, accounting for all confirmed
infections analysed in the lab in the worst-hit regions
+3
View gallery
Latest surveillance data shows how the strain, scientifically called
CH.1.1, has swept across England, accounting for all confirmed
infections analysed in the lab in the worst-hit regions
Figures from the Sanger Institute, one of the UK's largest Covid
surveillance centres, shows 37.6 per cent of cases in the week to
January 14 were caused by CH.1.1 (shown in pink, bottom right corner)
Figures from the Sanger Institute, one of the UK's largest Covid
surveillance centres, shows 37.6 per cent of cases in the week to
January 14 were caused by CH.1.1 (shown in pink, bottom right corner)
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How dangerous is XBB.1.5? Is it already the dominant Covid strain? And
do the jabs still work? Everything you need to know about 'the Kraken'
as new variant starts sweeping the UK
A highly contagious Covid strain has emerged and is already behind one
in 25 cases in the UK, data suggests
A highly contagious Covid strain has emerged and is already behind one
in 25 cases in the UK, data suggests
ADVERTISEMENT
Data from the Sanger Institute, one of the UK's largest surveillance
sites tasked with analysing strains circulating in the UK, shows Orthrus >>> — nicknamed after a mythical two-headed dog — accounted for 36.1 per
cent of all Covid tests analysed in England on January 14, according to
the latest data available.
Maps suggest it now accounts for 100 per cent of genomic tests of the
virus in many regions.
These include East Devon, Darlington, Dover, Redcar and Cleveland,
Tendring, Mid Suffolk, North Kesteven, Nottingham, North Warwickshire,
Kirklees, Rotherham and Worcester.
It also accounted for 94 per cent of all cases in Cornwall, 75 per cent
in Cannock Chase and Test Valley and 67 per cent in Cheshire East.
Cornwall reported the highest number of estimated cases at 199 in the
week to January 14, while Kirklees recorded 142 and Nottingham, 91.
It shows how far the new variant has come since it was first spotted in
Blaby in the south west of Leicestershire on November 12.
But the Sanger Institute data is only based on hundreds of samples,
meaning it does not reflect the true picture.
The majority of Covid-positive samples are not sequenced by the lab,
which was analysing thousands every day during the height of the pandemic. >>>
The 'Orthrus' strain was deemed an official variant by the UK Health
Security Agency (UKHSA) in December.
CH.1.1 has mutations including P681R — which was also on the Delta
variant — and is thought to make it better attack cells and cause more
severe illness.
Scientists have also spotted R346T, which is thought to help the strain
fight-off antibodies that were generated in response to vaccination or
previous infection.
Thus, it's a Delta-Omicron chimerae/hybrid which is possibly a
realization of our worst-case scenario in the setting of both
increased virulence **and** increased contagiousness if there is also
resistance to anti-virals.
Figures from the Sanger Institute shows how cases of Covid-19 in England >>> have continued to fall through Autumn
Figures from the Sanger Institute shows how cases of Covid-19 in England >>> have continued to fall through Autumn
COVID: The number of people infected with Covid taking up hospital beds >>> in England fell 11 per cent from 9,414 in the week to January 4 to 8,404 >>> in the seven days to January 11. NHS data shows the figure peaked at
9,533 on December 29 and has since fallen 19 per cent to 7,743
+3
View gallery
COVID: The number of people infected with Covid taking up hospital beds >>> in England fell 11 per cent from 9,414 in the week to January 4 to 8,404 >>> in the seven days to January 11. NHS data shows the figure peaked at
9,533 on December 29 and has since fallen 19 per cent to 7,743
According to data from the Sanger Institute, the Omicron BA.5
sub-variant remained the dominant variant on January 14 and was behind
the majority of infections (56.8 per cent).
But another mutated version of Omicron — scientifically called XBB.1.5 — >>> is thought to be the most transmissible strain yet.
Nicknamed 'Kraken', after a mythical sea monster, it currently accounts
for 3.9 per cent of cases in England, according to the same data.
Scientists at the UKHSA revealed earlier this month that they expect one >>> of either the Orthrus or Kraken strains will become dominant in the
coming weeks.
'CH.1.1 and XBB.1.5 are currently the variants most likely to
predominate in the UK following BQ.1, unless further novel variants
arise,' the UKHSA said.
'It is plausible that XBB.1.5 will cause an increase in incidence after
the current wave, however it is currently too early to confirm this
trajectory,' they added.
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Concerns over the two new strains, combined with NHS winter pressures,
earlier this month triggered calls for the return of pandemic-era
restrictions like masks and working-from-home in a bid to ease pressure
on the ailing health service.
But the latest data from the Office of National Statistics (ONS)
suggests Covid cases have in fact plummeted in England.
According to the data published on Friday, nearly 1.5million people in
England were carrying the virus on any given day in the week to January 10. >>>
The figure is 33 per cent lower than the 2.2million who were thought to
be infected in the previous spell.
The data, based on the random swabbing of more than 80,000 Brits,
suggests just one in 40 people in England (2.6 per cent) were infected
with Covid.
Levels were highest in the South West, East of England and the North
East, while London, the South East and North West had the lowest Covid
rates, ONS data suggests.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the UK & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://archive.vn/NHVj2
Lockdown will ruin Britain’s health for many years to come
Its disastrous effect on care for a range of diseases was predictable –
and predicted
JONATHAN SUMPTION
25 January 2023 • 5:10pm
Jonathan Sumption
Ambulances in a queue outside the Royal London Hospital
A friend of mine suffered from cancer early in 2020. She was booked into >>> a hospital for a course of treatment. The prognosis was uncertain, as it >>> usually is, but reasonably good. Then came the pandemic and the
lockdown. Her treatment was indefinitely postponed. By the time that the >>> hospital was in a position to reinstate it, tests showed that it was too >>> late. The cancer had developed beyond the point where the treatment had
any prospect of success. She is now dead.
Her story is too familiar to be shocking. As government figures released >>> this week show, excess deaths, by comparison with the pre-pandemic
years, have reached extraordinary highs. Moreover, only a tiny
proportion of all deaths are now due to Covid. The major contributors to >>> death numbers have been cancer and ischaemic heart disease.
It is questionable whether lockdowns avoided any deaths from Covid.
International comparisons suggest that, in the medium and long term,
there is no significant correlation between the lockdowns and the Covid
death toll. But the contribution of lockdowns to long-term excess deaths >>>from other causes is becoming increasingly obvious.
The clearest case is cancer. Early diagnosis and treatment are critical
in cancer care. During the lockdown, it became almost impossible to see
a GP in person. Isolation and quarantining of hospital staff disrupted
screening. Government-induced fear, thought necessary to encourage
people to comply with restrictions, also discouraged them from seeking
treatment. “If you go out, people will die,” said Matt Hancock with the
dramatic hyperbole that was his stock in trade. Cancer referrals plummeted. >>> All of this was predictable, and was, in fact, predicted. Within two
months of the first lockdown, the oncologist Karol Sikora estimated that >>> only about one-tenth of cancer cases that would normally be diagnosed
were actually being detected. Research by the Macmillan Cancer Support
charity suggests that an estimated 50,000 people in the UK had cancer
which was undiagnosed because of disruption to the NHS. Many of these
people, who are now dying, could have been saved.
Cancer is far from being the only issue. Excess deaths from ischaemic
heart and Alzheimer’s disease rose rapidly during the lockdowns and have >>> continued high. Mental health has suffered severely, especially among
the young. Deaths from Alzheimers, traditionally one of the biggest
killers in the UK, skyrocketed as old people were isolated and deprived
of mental stimulation. Obesity increased, a major contributor to heart
disease and diabetes. There is also mounting evidence that months of
isolation significantly compromised the natural immunity of children. We >>> emerged from the lockdown sicklier and more vulnerable than before.
At the moment, with the health system in crisis, there is a tendency to
blame excess deaths on strikes, ambulance delays and staff shortage.
Clearly these things have not helped. But the pattern of rising excess
deaths was evident long before the current crunch in the NHS. Similar
patterns are reported in other European countries which locked down
their populations and whose health systems are in a better state than
ours. World-wide, a study of excess deaths published last year in The
Lancet estimated global excess deaths at 18 million in 2020-21, compared >>> with a total of six million officially reported deaths from Covid.
This is, above all, a failure of government. Governments across the
world discarded previous plans that had been years in the making and
allowed themselves to be panicked into a radical, ill-considered and
ultimately unsuccessful experiment with human welfare. Covid was never
going to be eliminated and people were infected in spite of lockdowns.
In the process, there came a load of other problems that could have been >>> avoided, all of them profoundly destructive and some of them mortal.
The moral is that politicians do not concentrate on the most serious
problems but on the ones that they are most likely to be blamed for.
Covid deaths were dramatic and newsworthy. Government messaging made
them more so. The long-term outcome was subtler, less noticeable and
ignored. It is coming back to hit us now.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the UK & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-64415015
Lockdowns linked to tenfold rise in child sex imagery
Published
1 day ago
Share
Child at a computer
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
By Joe Tidy
Cyber reporter
Imagery of young children carrying out sexual acts on camera has risen
by more than tenfold since the pandemic lockdowns, new data suggests.
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) says its data highlights how
predators took advantage of the situation.
Social media websites exploded in popularity in early 2020 when the
pandemic began.
Last year the IWF logged more than 63,000 webpages showing the material
compared to 5,000 before the pandemic.
"During the pandemic, the internet was a lifeline but we are only now
unpacking the full effects," said IWF chief executive Susie Hargreaves.
"What is clear to us is that younger children are being pulled into
abusive situations by rapacious predators, often while they are in their >>> own bedrooms."
Overall the IWF tracks, investigates and attempts to remove hundreds of
thousands of incidents of child sexual abuse material from around the
internet worldwide.
The charity says it is confident that the rise in self-generated
material it is seeing is because of an increase in activity, because
reporting levels have remained relatively similar in recent years.
Tech bosses face jail after Tory revolt on bill
Tech firms told to do better on child abuse images
Self-generated child abuse videos and images now make up two-thirds of
imagery investigated by analysts.
This refers to imagery of children sexually abusing themselves on camera >>> while coerced by a predator over the internet.
Researchers say many of the videos are recorded or livestreamed from
bedrooms or bathrooms, with sounds of a busy household in the background. >>>
They are often done on a live chat, and recorded without the child's
knowledge to be shared and sold by paedophiles.
IWF is a UK-based organisation and says it is often hard to ascertain
where the children are based from the videos. However, it passes on
cases to authorities if a school uniform or other identifiers are visible. >>>
Of the imagery, which the charity estimates is of seven to 10-year-olds, >>> more than 8,000 items contained what is classed as Category A material.
This is the most severe kind, and can include penetrative sexual
activity, images involving sexual activity with an animal, or sadism.
In one video seen by IWF analysts, a nine-year-old girl is instructed by >>> adults over an online platform to perform sex acts while in her bedroom
surrounded by cuddly toys.
She is asked to perform "super dirty" dares over a webcam, and is
interrupted when a presumed family member, who is oblivious to the abuse >>> taking place, calls up to ask her to run a bath for her (presumed)
little brother.
The IWF is calling on the UK government to do more to protect children
through the long-delayed Online Safety Bill.
The bill is currently being amended to potentially make tech platform
bosses criminally liable for any failures to prevent, identify and
remove child sexual abuse and exploitation content.
But the IWF says the material it processes is coming from all over the
world and most of it is not hosted in the UK.
The United States National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children did >>> not have figures for 2022, but reported an increase of child sexual
abuse material in 2021. The charity's CyberTipline received 29.4 million >>> reports, up from 21.7 million in 2020.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the UK & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11687675/Army-spied-lockdown-critics-Sceptics-including-Peter-Hitchens-suspected-watched.html
Army spied on lockdown critics: Sceptics, including our own Peter
Hitchens, long suspected they were under surveillance. Now we've
obtained official records that prove they were right all along
Military operatives were part of an operation that targeted politicians
and high-profile journalists who raised doubts about the official
pandemic response
READ MORE: Critics slam £14.9bn of 'extraordinary waste' on overpriced,
faulty or unused pandemic-era equipment
By GLEN OWEN POLITICAL EDITOR
PUBLISHED: 17:05 EST, 28 January 2023 | UPDATED: 04:38 EST, 29 January 2023 >>>
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A shadowy Army unit secretly spied on British citizens who criticised
the Government's Covid lockdown policies, The Mail on Sunday can reveal. >>>
Military operatives in the UK's 'information warfare' brigade were part
of a sinister operation that targeted politicians and high-profile
journalists who raised doubts about the official pandemic response.
They compiled dossiers on public figures such as ex-Minister David
Davis, who questioned the modelling behind alarming death toll
predictions, as well as journalists such as Peter Hitchens and Toby
Young. Their dissenting views were then reported back to No 10.
Documents obtained by the civil liberties group Big Brother Watch, and
shared exclusively with this newspaper, exposed the work of Government
cells such as the Counter Disinformation Unit, based in the Department
for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, and the Rapid Response Unit in
the Cabinet Office.
Military operatives in the UK¿s ¿information warfare¿ brigade were part
of a sinister operation that targeted politicians and high-profile
journalists
+4
View gallery
Military operatives in the UK's 'information warfare' brigade were part
of a sinister operation that targeted politicians and high-profile
journalists
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But the most secretive is the MoD's 77th Brigade, which deploys
'non-lethal engagement and legitimate non-military levers as a means to
adapt behaviours of adversaries'.
According to a whistleblower who worked for the brigade during the
lockdowns, the unit strayed far beyond its remit of targeting foreign
powers.
They said that British citizens' social media accounts were scrutinised
– a sinister activity that the Ministry of Defence, in public,
repeatedly denied doing.
Papers show the outfits were tasked with countering 'disinformation' and >>> 'harmful narratives... from purported experts', with civil servants and
artificial intelligence deployed to 'scrape' social media for keywords
such as 'ventilators' that would have been of interest.
The information was then used to orchestrate Government responses to
criticisms of policies such as the stay-at-home order, when police were
given power to issue fines and break up gatherings.
It also allowed Ministers to push social media platforms to remove posts >>> and promote Government-approved lines.
Former Cabinet Minister David Davis, a member of the Privy Council,
said: 'It's outrageous that people questioning the Government's policies >>> were subject to covert surveillance'
+4
View gallery
Former Cabinet Minister David Davis, a member of the Privy Council,
said: 'It's outrageous that people questioning the Government's policies >>> were subject to covert surveillance'
The Army whistleblower said: 'It is quite obvious that our activities
resulted in the monitoring of the UK population... monitoring the social >>> media posts of ordinary, scared people. These posts did not contain
information that was untrue or co-ordinated – it was simply fear.'
Last night, former Cabinet Minister Mr Davis, a member of the Privy
Council, said: 'It's outrageous that people questioning the Government's >>> policies were subject to covert surveillance' – and questioned the waste >>> of public money.
Mail on Sunday journalist Mr Hitchens was monitored after sharing an
article, based on leaked NHS papers, which claimed data used to publicly >>> justify lockdown was incomplete. An internal Rapid Response Unit email
said Mr Hitchens wanted to 'further [an] anti-lockdown agenda and
influence the Commons vote'.
Writing today, Mr Hitchens questions if he was 'shadow-banned' over his
criticisms, with his views effectively censored by being downgraded in
search results.
Military operatives compiled dossiers on journalists including the
Mail's Peter Hitchens
Military operatives compiled dossiers on journalists including the
Mail's Peter Hitchens
He says: 'The most astonishing thing about the great Covid panic was how >>> many attacks the state managed to make on basic freedoms without anyone
much even caring, let alone protesting.
Now is the time to demand a full and powerful investigation into the
dark material Big Brother Watch has bravely uncovered.'
The whistleblower from 77 Brigade, which uses both regular and reserve
troops, said: 'I developed the impression the Government were more
interested in protecting the success of their policies than uncovering
any potential foreign interference, and I regret that I was a part of
it. Frankly, the work I was doing should never have happened.'
The source also suggested that the Government was so focused on
monitoring critics it may have missed genuine Chinese-led prolockdown
campaigns.
Silkie Carlo, of Big Brother Watch, said: 'This is an alarming case of
mission creep, where public money and military power have been misused
to monitor academics, journalists, campaigners and MPs who criticised
the Government, particularly during the pandemic.
'The fact that this political monitoring happened under the guise of
'countering misinformation' highlights how, without serious safeguards,
the concept of 'wrong information' is open to abuse and has become a
blank cheque the Government uses in an attempt to control narratives online.
'Contrary to their stated aims, these Government truth units are
secretive and harmful to our democracy. The Counter Disinformation Unit
should be suspended immediately and subject to a full investigation.'
A Downing Street source last night said the units had scaled back their
work significantly since the end of the lockdowns.
This snooping was wrong, it hangs over my proud Army career like a black >>> cloud
By Anonymous (Ex-77th brigade officer)
I was serving in the British Army in March 2020 when I was seconded to
77th Brigade, on the basis I would be helping root out foreign state
misinformation on social media.
We were told what was legally allowed – such as 'scraping' online
platforms for keywords – and what was illegal. This included repeatedly
looking at a named UK individual's account without authorisation,
although some people would do that from their own accounts after their
shift.
We would take screenshots of tweets from people expressing
dissatisfaction with the UK Government's action against Covid. The
project leader would then gather these screenshots and send them to the
Cabinet Office. Feedback from the Cabinet Office would direct us over
what to look for the next day.
To skirt the legal difficulties of a military unit monitoring domestic
dissent, the view was that unless a profile explicitly stated their real >>> name and nationality they could be a foreign agent and were fair game.
But it is quite obvious that our activities resulted in the monitoring
of the UK population… the social media posts of ordinary, scared people. >>> These posts did not contain information that was untrue or co-ordinated
– it was simply fear.
We learned from the feedback that the Government were very keen on
hearing what the public thought of their Covid response.
I entered this role believing I would be uncovering foreign information
warfare. Instead, I found the banner of disinformation was a guise under >>> which the British military was being deployed to monitor and flag our
own concerned citizens. There may have actually been social media
campaigns from China to promote lockdown policies but because we were
directed to monitor sentiment towards the success of lockdown, we would
have completely missed them. I had the impression the Government were
more interested in protecting the success of their policies than
uncovering foreign interference, and I regret that I was a part of it.
Recently, I looked over my medals and thought of all I have done in my
career – things I am proud of, in the defence of the people of this
country – except my work on 'disinformation' in 77, which hangs over my
career like a black cloud.
It was about domestic perception, not national security. Frankly, the
work I was doing should never have happened. This domestic monitoring of >>> citizens seemed not to be driven by a desire to address the public's
concerns, but to identify levers for compliance with controversial
Government policies.
I do not doubt that the activities I participated in were conceived for
good reasons, but they were undemocratic, wrong, and should not be
allowed to happen again.
PETER HITCHENS: How shadowy censors tried to remove my 'unhelpful' Covid >>> views from YouTube
I have been annoying people for decades. It is my job as a journalist to >>> do so. And when I look back on my career, I only regret that I did not
annoy more of them. News is what powerful people want to keep out of the >>> media. Interesting commentary strays outside the mainstream and
challenges conventional wisdom. That is why it so often wears better,
over time, than the standard official opinion.
We'll have to wait and see how the Ukraine war goes, which almost
everyone currently thinks is a good thing. But the near-unanimous view
of the Covid crisis back in 2020 is now beginning to look a bit threadbare. >>>
Did we really do the right thing, squandering all that money we didn't
have on making people stay at home? Now we're deep underwater in
unpayable debt, the currency is shrivelling, multitudes have given up
regular work patterns and a terrifying number of businesses are in
permanent trouble because their customers have melted away. And we
absolutely did not save the NHS. In fact, we made it much, much worse.
A terrifying number of businesses are in permanent trouble because their >>> customers have melted away
+4
View gallery
A terrifying number of businesses are in permanent trouble because their >>> customers have melted away
I was almost alone in criticising these measures when they began. In
fact, for the first few days I was totally alone – except that The Mail
on Sunday, upholding the proper tradition of a free press – allowed me
to dissent and gave me generous space to do so. That was absolutely
proper. I was responsible for what I said. The newspaper did not have to >>> agree with me, but it took the civilised view that open debate favours
the truth, or as Milton put it in his great defence of free speech,
Areopagitica: 'Who ever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and open
encounter?'
Someone had fiddled with the algorithms which guide web searches
After a few weeks, it became clear that not everyone was as enlightened
as The Mail on Sunday.
Invitations from broadcasters, who had previously been friendly and
reasonably generous with their time, stopped arriving, with a few heroic >>> exceptions such as Mike Graham on Talk Radio.
Various people went on to Twitter and elsewhere to ludicrously accuse me >>> of 'denying' Covid or of having caused the deaths of people by
expressing doubts about the restrictions, a very nasty slander.
Despite having been vaccinated myself, I was simultaneously denounced as >>> an 'anti-vaxxer' by Covid zealots, and became the object of fury from
genuine anti-vaxxers who decided madly that I was a traitor even though
I had never adopted their cause (one of these pursued me on to a train
to shout at me, only the other day).
We absolutely did not save the NHS. In fact, we made it much, much worse >>> +4
View gallery
We absolutely did not save the NHS. In fact, we made it much, much worse >>>
But the deeper effect was harder to pin down. For it was on the
internet, the most vital forum of all. Here, you can never be sure.
I use Twitter a lot, but are others seeing my tweets? I have no idea,
and will never know whether I was 'shadow-banned' – a form of censorship >>> in which your impact is reduced but not actually obliterated, so hard to >>> measure or spot.
But at two points it was clear beyond doubt that something very creepy
was going on. I give quite a few interviews which appear later on
YouTube, sometimes getting more than 100,000 viewers.
In June 2020, I gave an interview about the virus farce to two clever
young men, Konstantin Kisin and Francis Foster, who run a popular web
broadcast called TRIGGERnometry. I said what I have been saying here –
that the crashing of the economy and the stifling of personal liberty
were utterly out of proportion to the danger from Covid-19. I gave
evidence for my view and quoted eminent experts. I do not think I said
anything that was false or abusive. But, within a couple of hours of
launching the interview, Konstantin and Francis noticed a very strange
thing. It was almost impossible to find, even if you knew where to look. >>> Usually, their programme quickly garners large numbers of viewers, and
it had done so on a previous occasion when I'd been interviewed by them
on another matter.
I am pretty sure (but cannot prove) I was the victim of shadow-banning.
Someone had fiddled with the computer algorithms, which guide the
searches everyone makes on the World Wide Web. A lot of people kindly
protested. And as mysteriously as it had been applied, the ban
evaporated, albeit too late. The audience for the interview was
irretrievably reduced. That's not all – on January 25, 2021, YouTube
posted a version of a conversation I had had with Mike Graham on Talk
Radio. But 75 seconds of the original broadcast were missing.
A few weeks before, YouTube had suspended the entire Talk Radio station >>>from its output. The ban was ended after a major public fuss. I have
never really got to the bottom of what happened to my censored words,
but I think I can say that someone deliberately cut them because they
did not like the opinions I was expressing.
I mention these things because we now have an even more worrying
connection. The report from Big Brother Watch probably only touches the
surface of what Government agencies were up to during the closedown of
the country. We know they were at one stage interested in what I was up
to, but I suspect there was a lot more than this that we will never find. >>>
Suppression can flourish like bindweed if it is not cut back
But the key is Whitehall's special access to the giant internet
companies, which, of course, include YouTube and Twitter. These shadowy
monitors clearly had hotlines to the web monsters, which allowed them to >>> 'flag' things they did not like. Did someone whose salary was paid by
you and me, with the special powers given to government, dislike what I
said? Was someone else afraid that the popularity of TRIGGERnometry
would give me and my unwelcome views a new, wider audience? I can only
guess, and so can you.
But the circumstantial evidence is strong. And I believe that this is
the way censorship will reappear among us, as governments grow less
tolerant of opposition.
To me, the most astonishing thing about the great Covid panic was how
many attacks the state managed to make on basic freedoms without anyone
much even caring. This was partly because of the fear the Government had >>> deliberately spread (as SAGE minutes reveal).
So now is the time to demand a full and powerful investigation into the
dark material which Big Brother Watch has bravely uncovered – and to
stand against the tendency towards censorship and suppression which
flourishes like bindweed if it is not ruthlessly cut back.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the UK & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://michaelpsenger.substack.com/p/how-the-response-to-covid-affected >>>
How the Response to COVID Affected Us at a Personal Level
It will take many years to fully process the trauma of what we
experienced during COVID. But our individual human stories can help us
get at least part of the way there.
Michael P Senger
Feb 4
The scars that have been left on all of us by the response to COVID are
incomprehensibly varied and deep. For most, there hasn’t been enough
time to mentally process the significance of the initial lockdowns, let
alone the years-long slog of mandates, terror, propaganda, social
stigmatization and censorship that followed. And this psychological
trauma affects us in myriad ways that leave us wondering what it is
about life that just feels so off versus how it felt in 2019.
For those who were following the real data, the statistics were always
horrifying. Trillions of dollars rapidly transferred from the world’s
poorest to the richest. Hundreds of millions hungry. Countless years of
educational attainment lost. An entire generation of children and
adolescents robbed of some of their brightest years. A mental health
crisis affecting more than a quarter of the population. Drug overdoses.
Hospital abuse. Elder abuse. Domestic abuse. Millions of excess deaths
among young people which couldn’t be attributed to the virus.
But underneath these statistics lie billions of individual human
stories, each unique in its details and perspectives. These individual
stories and anecdotes are only just beginning to surface, and I believe
that hearing them is a vital step in processing everything that we’ve
experienced over the past three years.
I recently sent out a query on Twitter as to how people had been
affected by the response to COVID at an individual level. The
conversation that emerged is a luminating and haunting reflection of
what each of us experienced over the past three years. Below is a tiny
selection of the responses that I found especially powerful.
Specifically, the query was: “Which aspect of the response to COVID
affected you most at a personal level?”
Mark Trent: “Watching the last remnants of my belief in democracy get
peeled away. Seeing the collusion across the globe roll out in lockstep
made me realise just how powerful and comprehensively in control those
that orchestrate the darkness are.”
Dr Jonathan Engler: “The realization that nearly everyone I knew would
give up literally all their individual rights for the illusion of safety.” >>>
Muriel Blaive, PhD: “How my friends, including many colleague historians >>> who know very well the history of the 20th century, proved ready to
believe any propaganda, to refrain from questioning government nonsense, >>> and to public shame anyone who did. It's as if all the studies we led
were for naught.”
Myrddin the Weathered: “How easily people were propagandized.
Particularly people who I thought carried the ability to properly
scrutinize the situation. Frankly, it was down right chilling how easily >>> most people fell in line. No question how the Nazis were able to control >>> their populace.”
Watcher: “Closures. My business was thrown for a loop the outlets I used >>> to deal with depression like the gym or going for coffee w/friends were
closed and it was beyond hard to get through the day with everything
going on and no outlet to deal with any of it Talking about it is
traumatic.”
Christine Bickley: “Everything. My business that I spent 30 years
building hasn't recovered and is unlikely to. I used to have health
insurance and save. Had to cancel the ins and am using my savings to top >>> up income. I'm not the worst off by far. It was criminal.”
Jemma Palmer: “Lockdown = no income, no home, health declined, mental
health declined, didn’t see my family or friends for years, changed my
life for the worse, not sure I will get to have kids now, I’d like to be >>> who I was before lockdown & for my life to be what it was.”
Sarah Burwick: “The restrictions on travel and rules governing visiting
patients in the hospital. I believe my mom would be alive today had I
been able to visit her and advocate for her care in person. It haunts me.” >>>
ProfessorYaff1e: “Not being able to visit my dad in hospital as he lay
dying until the last couple of days when he was so far gone he didn't
know what was going on.”
Sursum Corda: “Having my mom locked up in an assisted living center &
not being able to hug her or talk to her except by phone through a
closed window-all while HCWs traipsed in & out unmolested. I was so angry!!”
PJS: “The lies.”
Karinaksr: “Segregation, exclusion.”
Tin hayes: “Tribalism.”
Ally Bryant: “Had to be the crimes against humanity...”
Nick Hudson: “The darkness of it all.”
Remnant MD: “The disintegration of Autonomy. One of the four pillars of
medical ethics. Those who partook, have made a mockery of medicine.”
MD Aware: “The willingness of so many to comply with all of it, no
questions asked - even when things made no logical sense. The
unwillingness of the same individuals, especially colleagues, to listen
to any reason. I never imagined society could be so influenced and so
horribly misled.”
Love4WesternCanada: “My mother dying alone, after have been cut off from >>> all family for 7 weeks.”
ThinkingOutLoud: “The devastating human misery created by the closures
of people’s businesses. Being unable to talk to any friends or most
family because every single one of them agreed with what was happening,
I was treated like a leper. It’s why I turned to twitter, to feel less
alone.”
RantingLogician: “My ex fell for it, I didn’t and refused to comply or
close my business, and she kept my young children from me the entirety
of the first lockdown.”
Debbie Mathews: “Losing a 30 year friendship because we had a difference >>> of opinions on the issue. She considered me a selfish grandma killer.”
Number 99: “It harmed my career, irrevocably. Tied with, it harmed my
son's college career, irrevocably. Tied with: it harmed my marriage,
irrevocably.”
Hillary Beightel: “Masks. Not just the fact they were useless. They
became a political symbol, but they served as a tool to keep people
scared. Masks mean everyone is sick. They played such a huge
psychological role… I hate them!”
Year Zero: “Vaccine passports. I still can’t believe that most people
just went along willingly with segregating their friends and family
members out of society. There’s been no atonement for this. It’s deeply
fractured close relationships in a way I’m not certain I’ll ever get over.” >>>
Kristen Mag: “For me it was being cast out of public spaces for five
months. Dark days.”
Natalya Murakhver: “School closures and child mask policies.”
Mike O’Hara: “Everything that was done to children. Masking, separation, >>> isolation.”
BundlebranchblockMD: “Watching my then teenagers go from happy, healthy, >>> engaged kids to isolated, depressed, emaciated kids. Biggest mistake of
our lives not moving them to private school immediately. We have spent
many times more than the cost of tuition on therapy and tutors.”
Spence O Matic: “My son was a 2020 high school grad. All the signatures
of that, plus his senior year of baseball….wiped out because of a severe >>> cold with zero threat to him. No grad night. No prom. Nothing. No
apologies will suffice for me. Ever. The data was clear.”
Rob Hazuki: “The persistent doom figures on the news, the advertising on >>> tv that messaged as of the world had been nuked and the way the media
didn’t ask any intelligen questions during press conferences other than
to beg to be locked down harder.”
IT Guy: “I was booted out of my niece’s wedding for not being vax’d. My
wife hasn’t seen her grandkids since the Before Times because she’s not
vax’d. My first cousin died of cardiac arrest right after 2nd Moderna
dose. That’s 3 I know, but all pretty impactful.”
M_Vronsky: “I no longer speak to my father or my brother, both of whom
abandoned all of their supposed Liberal pretenses and became
authoritarians up to the point of arguing for my segregation from
society (my father argued that to my face the last time we spoke).”
Instavire: “The overwhelming # of people (family not excepted) willing
to turn Milgram’s dial up to “potentially lethal,” when it came to
punishing the non-vx’d — and worse, that they did so with such glee. The >>> success of the experiment sickens me and most of these people are still
among us.”
Foundring: “My parents/family didn’t care when I lost my jobs over the
vax mandate.”
DDP21: “The way friends and family turned on each other over vaccine
status. Our already small family has been destroyed by it. My kids are
growing up without their aunt, uncle and cousins.
EatSleepMask: “Being a teacher & seeing kids who need the consistency of >>> school, being forced to stay home. Then having to reassure not only them >>> but my own kids that things would be ok, when I was just as shell
shocked as they were. Not to mention balancing educating my students &
my kids.”
LFSLLBHons: “Masking children and the fact that most parents did it
willingly and turned on those who tried to save the children.”
PiA: “It shuttered my ~15 year old business. It isolated my loved ones
after the death of my mother. It was a tough road to navigate for
everyone. But the worst part: it ruined too many lives.”
Manny Grossman: “Losing my business, career, career trajectory, friends, >>> business contacts, reputation and the ability to shop in my local stores >>> etc. All because I advocated for reality and truth.”
Captain Ancapistan: “It broke the brains of almost everyone I know, and
forever changed my perspective of western medicine.”
Nicky Frank: “April 22, 2020 and May 6, 2020. Those were the days my
friends Ryan and Jen committed suicide because they couldn't bare the
isolation anymore and people were telling them they're weak. Ryan's
words "I can't infect anyone if I'm dead" still haunt me.”
John Baird: “The snooping, snitching, silencing, and bullying of
sceptics, neighbours, and people with hidden disabilities. Curtain
twitchers, do-gooders, and virtue signallers held sway. Never again.
SunnySideUp: “Lockdown down!! Having to deal with my 15 yr daughter
self-harming, sucidal thoughts, eating disorder and fear of fire... I
hate what they did. Also how it has affected her twin sister! Both
seeing counsellors... not what I have ever wanted!!”
Beth Baisch: “Social bubbles. Nobody included me in theirs. It was an
awful, lonely way of finding out where one stands. Some friends saw me
out walking one day and rather than come over and say hello they DM’d
later because I wasn’t in their bubble. Still suffering effects.”
Lex: “My brother disowning me. Family specifically not allowing *me*
into their homes. My 'spectrum' child freaking out at homeschooling. The >>> hangover of being dead inside half the time & despondent the other.
Worrying friends & family have that poison pulsing through them. Etc Etc >>> Etc...”
Camelia: “Restrictions on live performance. I worked in music and became >>> completely black pilled on the entire industry.”
Fashion Felons: “My company went bankrupt and lost my job. Family and
friends wouldn't see me because I was from a 'hot zone'. Got the jab and >>> lots of horrible side effects. Need I go on?”
Miki Tapio Walsh: “Universal masking of healthy people and forcing us to >>> live in a faceless society hit me hard. I was also frustrated that I
lost the ability to do my normal exercise routine for 2 years… I know
not the most important thing in the world, but it truly affected my
mental health.”
James F. Kotowski: “My son's having been kept out of school, missed out
on most of his wrestling season, etc. On a more societal level, the
exacerbation of the schism between 'republicans' and 'democrats', and
the degraded status of dialogue between 'opposing' pts of view.”
Russ Walker: “The school lockdowns, my daughter lost her junior and
senior year. Followed by all the General lock downs and vaccine
mandates. Unforgivable!”
Daniel Hadas: “Closure of universities. A fundamental betrayal of
students' and lecturers’ vocation.”
Stevemur: “School/university response. Those who had the most at stake
(i.e., learning, childhood, socialization) had a LOT summarily taken
away from them, with very little evidence to support it. And when the
evidence became clear, it has taken (and IS taking) way too long to
restore it.”
Rowan: “I think seeing people get hurt, the hypocrisy and
discrimination. At this point people not willing to admit they were
wrong and being so terrible.”
Trish the Dish: “I’m probably going to get married (ask me again in a
month) and my one remaining Alive Parent I’m not going to invite because >>> he disowned due to disagreements about the shot.”
Snek: “My oldest is on the spectrum and he never got used to going to
school again after the closures. It's cost me all my vacation days and
my ex has had a burnout due to it. Everyone is emotionally exhausted and >>> he's having to go to special counselors. He was doing great before.”
Molly Ulrich: “When folks got a kick out of being authoritarians when
they told me to pull up my mask over my nose.”
Increase Laws: “The mask humiliation ritual & watching my kids have to
do it. Got cut off from family members. Lost a rental & threatened with
job loss plus the inability to travel. 2020 was quite the year.”
Maret Jaks: “Me, I'm fine, but watching our gov't give young people
despair and loneliness and being helpless to do anything about it -
awful. My kids are grown and fine and managed their teens well. Many of
my friends fed into the fear and one couple found their only child dead
(suicide).”
Elizabeth Forde: “Constantly wondering what small freedom was going to
be taken away next, and the isolation from friends and family. It
reminded me of when I was in a domestically violent relationship with a
lot of coercive control. My PTSD came back because Lockdown felt so
similar to me.”
Dawn: “Hospital protocols. My mom (vaccinated, recovered from COVID, &
rec’d monoclonal antibodies) was denied seeing my dad until the day
before he died. 3.5 weeks he laid there by himself. Unforgivable.”
Golden Bull: “There were many aspects but one that both crushed &
infuriated me were old friends in nursing homes that were locked up
unable to see their family & friends. Two of these friends passed on
only seeing one family member & staff for more than 6 months. A sad end
to life. Criminal.”
Helpful_signage: “Being locked out as my grandfather died alone, then
not having a funeral. Our church emptying out. Watching my covid fanatic >>> brother push everyone out of his life, culminating in an abrupt divorce. >>> Our neighbors across the street divorced. My kids had 2 years of
birthdays alone. Me & everyone at my job took a 20% salary cut. We
couldn't visit grandparents across the border. i lost a bunch of
longtime friends. The nights our kids would break down in tears because
they thought their friends didn't like them anymore. Beaches, parks,
trails all roped off. Our neighbours yelling out the window at us for
going outside. No bathrooms open if we tried to travel. Not being able
to buy clothes because they were non-essential. Having no toilet paper.
Threatening, bewildering government propaganda commercials and signs
everywhere. Can't forget our stupid complicated border situation where
we were required to 'quarantine' in a friend's basement for 14 days
(despite not having covid), during which the gov't would call us every
day to ensure we didn't leave and would make us wait hours to take tests >>> on webcam. Every day brought a new horror. There's so much more. It was
all so ridiculous, and yet nobody objected. People cheered for it,
became deputized civilian enforcers of it even. Watched so many people's >>> lives get ruined while they stood by applauding.”
It will take many years before we can fully process the trauma of what
we experienced during COVID. But hopefully, sharing our individual human >>> stories can help us get at least part of the way there.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the US & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://theconversation.com/covid-vaccines-why-the-uk-needs-to-rethink-its-decision-to-stop-boosters-for-young-and-healthy-people-199044
COVID vaccines: why the UK needs to rethink its decision to stop
boosters for young and healthy people
Published: February 10, 2023 11.41am EST
Author
Stephen Griffin
Associate Professor of Viral Oncology, University of Leeds
Disclosure statement
Stephen Griffin is affiliated with Independent SAGE and is a Champion
for the Long COVID Kids Charity. Stephen would like to thank Christina
Pagel for her comments on an earlier draft of this article.
Partners
University of Leeds
University of Leeds provides funding as a founding partner of The
Conversation UK.
View all partners
CC BY ND
We believe in the free flow of information
Republish our articles for free, online or in print, under a Creative
Commons license.
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Facebook179
The UK Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) recently
recommended that the current autumn booster campaign, offering
additional COVID vaccine doses to higher-risk groups, including people
with certain medical conditions and those aged over 50, will end on
February 12.
Vulnerable groups will be offered COVID boosters in autumn 2023, with
additional boosters in spring 2023 for those at highest risk. But, for a >>> large portion of people, there will be no more COVID vaccines.
The offer of third doses to everyone over 16 will be withdrawn after
February 12, with no indication it will be reinstated. The offer of
primary COVID vaccinations also looks likely to end during 2023 for most >>> people, including children.
So if you’re a non-vulnerable person aged under 50 who is yet to receive >>> a first, second, or third dose, come February 12 you may well have
missed your chance.
Don’t let yourself be misled. Understand issues with help from experts
In their statement, the JCVI highlight waning vaccine uptake, and note
rescinding the offer of third doses comes “as the transition continues
away from a pandemic emergency response”. Their message is that targeted >>> vaccination of the vulnerable is sufficient to allow us to “live” with
COVID.
This is shortsighted at best. It means that in the future,
paradoxically, most people will only obtain any immunity to SARS-CoV-2
(the virus causing COVID) by becoming infected. This contradicts the
fundamental premise of safe vaccination.
The pandemic remains unpredictable
In England there were roughly 135,000 direct COVID hospital admissions
in 2022, with around 33,000 deaths involving COVID (COVID was main
underlying cause in 66%).
Some 1.8 million people in the UK report suffering from long COVID for
at least 12 weeks, around 650,000 of whom developed the condition from
infections in 2022.
While endemic respiratory viruses cause one, or sometimes two, waves of
infection annually, SARS-CoV-2 isn’t seasonal, it’s pandemic and
perennial. 2022 saw five omicron waves in the UK, and another is starting. >>>
Omicron has caused multiple waves because it evolves very quickly. This
allows SARS-CoV-2 to infect more people, despite vaccines and immunity
gained in previous waves, by evading prior antibody responses.
Read more: Six common COVID myths busted by a virologist and a public
health expert
Vaccination is better than infection – including in kids
Whether you have immunity from prior infection, vaccination, or both, a
growing narrative suggests it’s OK to catch SARS-CoV-2 unless you’re
“vulnerable”. But while both vaccination and prior infection reduce the
risk of serious consequences from COVID, they clearly don’t reduce it to >>> zero.
Also, protection wanes over time. Though no medicine is completely
risk-free, a booster vaccine can “top up” immunity safely, without the
considerable risks of an infection. And vaccines add significant
protection even if you’ve already had COVID.
Even in children, who are at reduced risk of severe COVID compared with
adults, vaccination has clear benefit. COVID is a major risk among
paediatric infections. Smaller risks are magnified when so many are
infected (as we saw in 2022, when the large majority of children under
11 caught COVID at least once). Vaccination also reduces the risk of
long COVID.
Strikingly, as many children under five are admitted to intensive care
with COVID as those aged between 45 and 54 (although the latter are now
mostly vaccinated). Risk declines in primary school-aged children, then
starts to build again through adolescence and into adulthood.
A child with a healthcare worker after receiving a vaccine.
The UK’s COVID vaccine rollout for children has been muddled.
FamVeld/Shutterstock
COVID vaccines provide children with excellent protection against severe >>> disease, though less so from infection. In the UK they’re only offered
to children who turned five before September 2022, making the UK an
outlier compared with many other wealthy countries, which offer COVID
vaccines consistently for children aged five and older.
COVID vaccines have also been approved in the UK for children under
five, but are not currently offered. This contrasts with a growing
number of countries including the US and Israel which now vaccinate this >>> youngest age group.
So it appears that children in the UK who were too young before
September 2022, or missed their primary doses, will soon have no
opportunity to get vaccinated against COVID unless they’re clinically
vulnerable. Instead, they face multiple infections.
Read more: COVID vaccine: children in England turning five will no
longer be offered a jab – here's why that’s bad news
Mixed messages
One-quarter of the English population remains unvaccinated. Most are
children, but this also includes nearly 30% of adults under 40. As well
as age, uptake varies with social deprivation and ethnicity,
exacerbating health inequalities.
Inconsistent messaging from politicians and health leaders, including
presenting infection in children as preferable to vaccination, has
probably played a key role in reducing vaccine uptake. The JCVI has been >>> at best lukewarm in its endorsement of vaccines for children.
In the face of this mixed messaging, it’s somewhat ironic they cite low
uptake as a reason for withdrawing current offers.
Removing choice from those who are as yet unvaccinated to come forward
is highly unusual and doesn’t occur for any other UK vaccine programme
we know of.
It also positions the UK apart from other wealthy countries which are
offering continual booster programmes. For example, Australia has been
offering fourth doses for some time and is shortly going to make fifth
doses available widely for adults. The US is also planning free annual
boosters for healthy adults and, crucially, continues vaccinations for
preschool children.
Vulnerable people will remain at risk
Paradoxically, those JCVI would seek to protect via targeted vaccination >>> are those least likely to respond well to vaccines. There is also a
dwindling number of therapeutics available in the UK to protect this
vulnerable group from serious disease if they do become infected.
Offering boosters and maintaining primary vaccines in the wider
population, ideally from preschool, would give added protection to
younger people or those currently unvaccinated. It would also indirectly >>> protect those who are vulnerable by reducing infections and onward
community transmission.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the UK & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.printfriendly.com/p/g/8yazuR
Lockdown Blamed as England, Wales Knife Deaths Reach Record Level
theepochtimes.com/lockdown-blamed-as-knife-deaths-in-england-and-wales-reaches-record-level_5048326.html
Chris SummersFebruary 10, 2023
UK
A forensic investigator recovers knives after man was arrested on
Whitehall in Westminster, central London, on April 27, 2017. (Toby
Melville/Reuters)
A forensic investigator recovers knives after man was arrested on
Whitehall in Westminster, central London, on April 27, 2017. (Toby
Melville/Reuters)
By Chris Summers
Chris Summers
Chris Summers
Chris Summers is a UK-based journalist covering a wide range of national >>> stories, with a particular interest in crime, policing and the law.
View profile
February 10, 2023Updated: February 12, 2023
biggersmaller
More than 280 people in England and Wales lost their lives to homicide
with a bladed instrument—mostly knives—between April 2021 and March
2022, the highest number since records began in 1946, according to a
report by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The number of homicides rose by 19 percent, to 282, over the previous
year. The increase included an 18 percent rise in the deaths of young
men, with the number of male victims aged 16 to 17 years jumping to 24 >>>from 10.
One of those teenage victims was Levi Ernest-Morrison, 17, who was
stabbed to death in the Sydenham district in London, after being chased
by a gang armed with knives and a machete.
Alex Sprules, 17, was jailed for life for murder; Tyreese Ulysses, 19,
was sentenced to 13 years for manslaughter; and Ulysses’s mother,
Nichola Leighton, 36, also was jailed for life for murder. During trial, >>> jurors heard that Leighton was outraged by Ernest-Morrison and his
friends banging on her front door looking for Ulysses; she then drove
him and Sprules to hunt down the group.
Epoch Times PhotoUndated images of 17-year-old Levi-Ernest Morrison (L), >>> who was stabbed to death by Alex Sprules (R), who was jailed for life
for murder, in Sydenham, London, on April 10, 2021. (PA/Metropolitan Police)
The figures showed 177 of the knife homicide victims were white—an
increase of 36 compared with the previous year—and 59 were black,
including almost 50 percent of whom were aged 16 to 24.
Black people had higher rates of victimisation, the ONS said. “The
average rates per million population were around four times higher for
black victims than white victims or victims of other ethnicities,” it said. >>>
The report did not analyse the ethnicity of perpetrators, as many of the >>> homicide cases have not yet come to court.
The ONS report pointed out that knives and machetes were used in 75
percent of teenage murders compared with just 40 percent of adult homicides.
Patrick Green, chief executive of the Ben Kinsella Trust, an anti-knife
crime charity, blamed the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdowns for making >>> young people feel more “vulnerable.”
Green said: “As we emerged from COVID restrictions and those
restrictions were lifted, we were seeing more evidence of young people
made more vulnerable by COVID. Gangs are particularly good at picking up >>> on vulnerabilities, are quick to pick them up and indeed lure young
people and exploit them in criminal acts. We think there could be a link >>> there.”
Green said he had carried out education workshops in London and
Nottingham and had seen a “notable difference” in interactions with
young people after the pandemic.
‘Some Feel Less Secure in Their Community Spaces’
“Some feel less secure in their community spaces, more worried,” he
said. “We know that fear is a factor … in terms of carrying a knife.
It’s one of the motivations. They feel safe carrying a knife and that
alleviates the fear.”
Green said there are “a range of drivers for knife crime that reach deep >>> into our society.”
“We’ve got to not only tackle drugs and gangs, we’ve also got to tackle
school exclusions, we’ve also got to tackle mental health provisions for >>> young people,” he said.
Bruce Houlder, founder of Fighting Knife Crime London, said the rise in
male teenage knife victims is “highly disturbing.”
“The long-term failure of all governments in the last few decades to get >>> to grips with social deprivation and the loss of hope among many young
people needs to be heeded. As a nation, we need to be ashamed that it
has come to this,” he said.
In March 2022 Tyler Hurley, 16, was stabbed to death with a zombie knife >>> on a bus in Chadwell Heath, east London.
His killer, Carlton Tanueh, 18, was jailed for life for murder. The
trial heard that Hurley and his friends had uploaded a music video to
YouTube mocking a number of Tanueh’s friends.
“Homicides, knife, and gun crime continue to fall in the capital,
bucking the national trend,” a spokesman for the mayor of London said.
“However, the mayor is clear that one death is one too many and the
level of violence in London remains too high.
“That’s why he continues to take action by investing in policing,
expanding neighbourhood policing teams, and investing record amounts in
early prevention and support programmes for young Londoners through
London’s Violence Reduction Unit as we work to build a safer London for
everyone.”
The ONS analysed data held by the Home Office Homicide Index, which
contains detailed information about each killing recorded by police in
England and Wales.
It said “kicking or hitting” accounted for 116 homicides—17 percent of
the total—and “strangulation or asphyxiation” was the cause of 14
percent of murders in which women were the victims.
There were 28 homicides by shooting, seven fewer than the previous year
and 30 percent lower than a decade ago.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the UK & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/feb/12/price-britain-paid-lockdown-colossal-alternative-recession-austerity-stagnation
The price Britain paid for lockdown was colossal. Was there an alternative? >>> Larry Elliott
Larry Elliott
Flirtation with recession, along with new era of austerity and
stagnation are consequences of policy response to pandemic
A woman walks passed a NHS sign encouraging people to stay at home on 2
April 2020 in Cardiff.
A woman walks passed a NHS sign encouraging people to stay at home on 2
April 2020 in Cardiff. Photograph: Matthew Horwood/Getty Images
Sun 12 Feb 2023 06.18 EST
The UK economy is flatlining and has been for the best part of a year.
Recovery after the deep slump of 2020 has petered out. Higher inflation, >>> higher interest rates and higher taxes are all exacting a toll.
Technically, the strict definition of a recession has not been met
because the economy has yet to contract for two successive quarters. But >>> official estimates showing zero growth in the final three months of 2022 >>> meant it was a mighty close thing. With the full impact of higher
borrowing costs yet to be felt, neither the chancellor nor the governor
of the Bank of England would bet against a recession at some point this
year.
Britain is the one G7 country where activity is still to return to its
pre-pandemic levels and on current trends it will be some time before it >>> does. Growth has not exactly been stellar anywhere else in the developed >>> world either but the UK’s performance has been especially poor. By early >>> 2025, the last possible moment when a general election could be held,
the economy will probably still be smaller than it was in late 2019.
Some will wonder what the fuss is all about. There is a strong de-growth >>> community in the UK that says the aim of policy should not be
ever-higher levels of growth, but a steady-state economy that ceases to
put as much pressure on the carrying capacity of the planet.
Well, for the past three years the UK has been through a process of
de-growth. The 16-year period of constant and robust expansion from 1992 >>> to 2008 is now a distant memory. To all intents and purposes the economy >>> has arrived at a steady state. But it would be stretching the truth to
say that the country is a happier place because of it. The number of
adults rating their satisfaction with life as very high is well down on
pre-pandemic levels, according to the Office for National Statistics.
That’s hardly surprising. Living standards are going down because wages
are failing to keep pace with prices. Consumers who have savings are
dipping into them in order to maintain spending habits. Those without
savings are being forced to tighten their belts.
There is, though, more to it than that. To be sure, the pandemic has
left its mark through supply chain bottlenecks and an increase in the
number of business failures, but there has also been long-term scarring
both to the economy and to the nation’s social fabric. The workforce is
smaller because the number of people classified as long-term sick or who >>> have taken early retirement has increased.
Meanwhile, evidence is mounting of the long-term consequences of
quarantining the country during lockdown. There were warnings at the
time that keeping people under a form of house arrest would lead to
rising loneliness, mental illness, domestic abuse and childhood obesity; >>> a growing school attainment divide between pupils from rich and poor
homes; an increase in hospital waiting lists and a rise in undiagnosed
cases of cancer. All of which have come to pass. Only last month, for
example, a report by the House of Commons Library expressed concern that >>> the estimated rate of absence from school in the current academic year
was 7.8% – compared with 4.8% in 2019-20.
The better off households in Britain – as elsewhere – survived the
pandemic reasonably well. This part of the population was able to work >>>from home, and actually stashed money away as its spending opportunities
were reduced during lockdown. The value of their houses went up, and
they were also the main beneficiaries of rising share prices. The
super-rich did best of all from the surge in asset prices driven by
record-low interest rates and central bank money-printing. Globally,
lockdowns resulted in more billionaires and more people living in
extreme poverty.
The response to this is that there was no alternative but to take
draconian measures, in order to provide a breathing space before the
arrival of vaccines. A single narrative in which policy makers had no
choice but to impose lockdowns has largely gone unchallenged.
But as Toby Green and Thomas Fazi note in their book, The Covid
Consensus, the idea of entire countries being placed in lockdown was
something entirely new. They note that in a report on pandemic
preparedness produced by the World Health Organization in November 2019
there was no notion of city-wide, let alone country-wide quarantines
being conceived of. The word “lockdown” was not mentioned once.
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By late February 2020, the WHO had changed its mind, noting that the
only measures “currently proven to interrupt or minimise transmission
chains in humans” were the ones introduced in China. Politicians in the
west duly accepted the advice. Only Sweden, of the developed countries,
went its own way.
Perhaps the WHO was right that Covid 19 represented an unprecedented
challenge. Yet as time has worn on the harms from lockdowns have been
harder to hide. A pair of self-confessed lefties, Green and Fazi express >>> bewilderment that the liberal left has not kicked up more of a fuss. As
they note, an aggressive form of authoritarian capitalism resulted in
poor people everywhere suffering enormous losses while rich people
everywhere became immeasurably richer.
Britain’s flirtation with recession and a new era of austerity,
alongside semi-permanent economic stagnation are the consequences of a
policy response to the pandemic that was far-reaching in its scope and
severity. Given that the price paid for lockdown was colossal and is
still rising, a period of deep reflection is needed. The argument that
there was no alternative should be closely examined.
The Covid Consensus by Toby Green and Thomas Fazi is published by Hurst
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the UK & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward (John
15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.port.ac.uk/news-events-and-blogs/news/education-levels-impact-on-belief-in-scientific-misinformation-and-mistrust-of-covid-19-preventive-measures
Covid preventive measures - Photo by Waldemar on Unsplash
A new study has found that people with a university degree were less
likely to believe in COVID-19 misinformation and more likely to trust
preventive measures than those without a degree.
17 February 2023
2 min read
School of Biological Sciences
Faculty of Science and Health
Health and Wellbeing
A new study has found that people with a university degree were less
likely to believe in COVID-19 misinformation and more likely to trust
preventive measures than those without a degree.
Researchers from the University of Portsmouth highlighted that both
scientific misinformation and trust in preventive measures were
significantly associated with participants' educational levels. However, >>> participants' religious beliefs didn’t have any impact on their belief
in scientific misinformation or trust in preventive measures.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, we found a significant negative correlation
between participants' belief in scientific misinformation and their
trust in preventive measures.
Dr Alessandro Siani, Associate Head (Students) in the School of
Biological Sciences
Dr Alessandro Siani, Associate Head (Students) in the School of
Biological Sciences said: “Perhaps unsurprisingly, we found a
significant negative correlation between participants' belief in
scientific misinformation and their trust in preventive measures.
Basically, participants who expressed greater belief in fake news
regarding the pandemic were less likely to believe that vaccines, face
masks and social distancing are effective preventive measures.”
A cross-sectional online survey of a UK population sample was conducted
with a total of 218 adult UK residents taking part. The survey found
that only 13 per cent of participants agreed with the statement "I
believe that the UK government responded to the COVID-19 pandemic
appropriately", while 54 per cent disagreed and 33 per cent expressed a
neutral opinion.
The researchers also found that neither belief in COVID-19 fake news nor >>> trust in preventive measures were statistically associated with
participants' likelihood of having contracted COVID-19. This finding
reinforces the notion that preventive measures (vaccinations, face
masks, social distancing) rely on widespread community adoption, as
pathogens can still circulate within a population unless the vast
majority engages in appropriate preventive behaviours.
Dr Siani said: "Despite its limitations, this study furthers our
understanding of the links between scientific misinformation and
reluctance to comply with infection-prevention measures. It is unlikely
that COVID-19 will be the last pandemic we'll experience in our
lifetimes, so it is important to learn as much as we can from our past
experiences to improve our global responses to future challenges."
The study was published in the journal Vaccines.
The only *healthy* way to stop the pandemic, thereby saving lives, in
the UK & elsewhere is by rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19
) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who
among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or
asymptomatic) in order to http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John >> 15:12) for them to call their doctor and self-quarantine per their
doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the
best while preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage
mutations and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota,
Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations combining via
slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like
http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current COVID
vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://archive.ph/ZQgqXWhile COVID-19 has been detected in the wild deer populations in the
Fear we go again! UK health officials including 'Professor Lockdown'
begin Covid-style 'worst-case scenario' planning for if bird flu becomes >>> transmissible in humans - as girl, 11, dies and TWELVE more people are
feared infected in Cambodia
Scientists are modelling how an outbreak of avian flu could sweep the UK >>> Only one infection has been spotted in a Brit since outbreak began in 2021 >>> By EMILY CRAIG SENIOR HEALTH REPORTER FOR MAILONLINE
UPDATED: 20:32 EST, 23 February 2023
41
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A dozen people in Cambodia are suspected of being infected with the H5N1 >>> bird flu strain in the same province where an 11-year-old girl died on
Wednesday - raising fears the virus may be spreading from human to human >>> for the first time in decades.
Scientists are modelling how a worst-case scenario bird flu outbreak
could sweep the UK if the virus spread to humans.
The Khmer Times – a local newspaper – reported that the suspected
patients have all been tested for the virus and are waiting on lab
confirmation, four of whom are symptomatic.
Officials at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said they are
developing 'scenarios of early human transmission' to help with
preparedness, planning and improvements to surveillance.
While only one infection has been spotted in Britain since the record
bird flu outbreak began in October 2021, officials begin modelling
outbreaks in people when it deems the risk level is three out of five –
which it is currently.
This picture released by Cambodia's Communicable Disease Control
Department (CDCD) on February 23, 2023, shows villagers posing with
posters about H5N1 virus threats, in Prey Veng province - where a girl
died from the virus this week and 12 more are suspected to have been
infected
+16
View gallery
This picture released by Cambodia's Communicable Disease Control
Department (CDCD) on February 23, 2023, shows villagers posing with
posters about H5N1 virus threats, in Prey Veng province - where a girl
died from the virus this week and 12 more are suspected to have been
infected
Among those working on the models is Professor Neil Ferguson (pictured), >>> an epidemiologist whose modelling of the Covid outbreak led the UK
Government to impose the first lockdown
+16
View gallery
Among those working on the models is Professor Neil Ferguson
(pictured), an epidemiologist whose modelling of the Covid outbreak led
the UK Government to impose the first lockdown
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Dr Arturo Casadevall, an immunologist at Johns Hopkins, reacted to the
suspected outbreak in Cambodia. He wrote on Twitter: 'Key information is >>> whether the 12 infected people obtained it from a bird source or from
human-to-human transmission, which would be very worrisome.'
Dr Eric Feigl-Ding, an epidemiologist and Chief of COVID Task Force at
the New England Complex Systems Institute, tweeted: 'Hope this wasn’t
human to human, but I’m now getting to be worried,'
H5N1 was first detected in chickens in Scotland in 1959, and again in
China and Hong Kong in 1996. It first was detected in humans in 1997.
Human-to-human transmission of H5N1 is incredibly rare, but not
impossible. In 1997, officials confirmed 18 H5N1 cases in Hong Kong,
some of which were acquired through human-to-human transmission. The
outbreak stayed relatively small, though. And did not spiral into a
massive issue at either the local or global level.
This recent outbreak has caused particular concern. More than 15million
domesticated birds, and countless wild animals, have been struck down by >>> the virus.
There is nothing to be done that can prevent the spread among wild
birds, but officials are working to keep domesticated populations away >>>from them. In the UK, all farmed chickens are now required to stay indoors. >>> Among those working on the models is Professor Neil Ferguson, an
epidemiologist whose modelling of the Covid outbreak led the UK
Government to impose the first lockdown.
+16
View gallery
The above map shows locations where there is a growing risk of a
zoonotic virus outbreak. Dr Jennifer Nuzzo, a public health expert at
Brown University in Rhode Island, warned that Texas was also a potential >>> epicenter
Pictured: A National Trust ranger clears deceased birds from Staple
Island in July 2022
+16
View gallery
Pictured: A National Trust ranger clears deceased birds from Staple
Island in July 2022
The UKHSA graph shows the number of bird flu cases, by region in
England, confirmed among kept and wild birds between October 2022 and
February 2023
+16
View gallery
The UKHSA graph shows the number of bird flu cases, by region in
England, confirmed among kept and wild birds between October 2022 and
February 2023
+16
View gallery
A young girl in Cambodia has died from the H5N1 bird flu. She was
infected with the virus last week. She is the nation's first case since
2014 (file photo)
Bird flu cases detected in poultry facilities, by county, in 2022 and 2023 >>> Bird flu cases detected in wild birds, by county, in 2022 and 2023
The above map shows bird flu cases detected in poultry facilities (left) >>> and in wild birds (right) in 2022 and 2023. The WHO has warned the world >>> to prepare for a potential bird flu pandemic saying the virus could jump >>> to humans
Before the cases in Cambodia, only one case of H5N1 in humans had been
detected this year. Cases in humans have been rare in recent years
+16
View gallery
Before the cases in Cambodia, only one case of H5N1 in humans had been
detected this year. Cases in humans have been rare in recent years
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In an update today, the UKHSA confirmed that its Avian Influenza
Technical Group – which includes Professor Ferguson and around two dozen >>> other experts – calculated how an outbreak could sweep the UK.
Under a 'mild scenario', the scientists estimated that one in 400 people >>> who caught bird flu would die due to the virus.
This infection fatality rate (IFR) of 0.25 per cent is similar to
Covid's in mid-2021 and the 2009 bird flu outbreak.
But under a 'more severe scenario', the virus would be fatal among one
in 40 people who became infected (an IFR of 2.5 per cent).
However, the World Health Organization warns that of the 868 human H5N1
cases reported to it over the last two decades, 456 - just over half -
have been fatal.
Bird flu outbreak: Everything you need to know
What is it?
Avian flu is an infectious type of influenza that spreads among birds.
In rare cases, it can be transmitted to humans through close contact
with a dead or alive infected bird.
This includes touching infected birds, their droppings or bedding.
People can also catch bird flu if they kill or prepare infected poultry
for eating.
Wild birds are carriers, especially through migration.
As they cluster together to breed, the virus spreads rapidly and is then >>> carried to other parts of the globe.
New strains tend to appear first in Asia, from where more than 60
species of shore birds, waders and waterfowl head off to Alaska to breed >>> and mix with migratory birds from the US. Others go west and infect
European species.
What strain is currently spreading?
H5N1.
So far the new virus has been detected in some 80million birds and
poultry globally since September 2021 — double the previous record the
year before.
Not only is the virus spreading at speed, it is also killing at an
unprecedented level, leading some experts to say this is the deadliest
variant so far.
Millions of chickens and turkeys in the UK have been culled or put into
lockdown, affecting the availability of Christmas turkey and free-range
eggs.
Can it infect people?
Yes, but only 860 human cases have been reported to the World Health
Organization since 2003.
The risk to people has been deemed 'low'.
But people are strongly urged not to touch sick or dead birds because
the virus is lethal, killing 56 per cent of people it does manage to infect.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Avian Influenza Technical Group noted that while other H5N1
outbreaks have had 'much higher fatality estimates', these did not
involve sustained human-to-human transmission, so are not 'directly
comparable'.
Unlike the Covid pandemic, the scientists said that a bird flu outbreak
could be more deadly among the young, rather than the elderly – as was
seen in the 1918 flu pandemic.
Professor Ferguson has admitted he became 'something of a marmite
figure' and that he 'made mistakes' and 'oversimplified things' during
the pandemic.
Modelling from the epidemiologist and his colleagues at Imperial College >>> London in March 2020 predicted the NHS would be overwhelmed within weeks >>> and a terrible death toll would arise if nothing was done to stop the
spread of the disease.
Professor Ferguson has said while it had been challenging for most
Western governments to act in a timely manner, the science throughout
the crisis 'had basically been right'.
In light of the modelling, the UKHSA said it would continue to
investigate how it could detect cases if there was an outbreak among people.
This could see Covid-style lateral flow tests rolled out to test Brits
for bird flu, it said.
The UKHSA said it is investigating whether the swabs, which provided
results in as little as 15 minutes during the Covid pandemic, would
detect the circulating deadly H5N1 strain.
It is also probing whether a blood test could be developed that detects
antibodies against the virus.
Genetic mutations in positive samples are also being monitored for any
signal that the virus is mutating to become a bigger risk to people.
It will 'remain vigilant' over whether the 'constantly' evolving virus,
which kills over half of those it infects, has gained mutations that may >>> better allow it spread among people.
The UKHSA also noted that the 'very high levels' of transmission in wild >>> birds presents a 'constant risk'.
The agency noted that there is 'no evidence so far that the virus is
getting better at infecting humans or other mammals' and data suggests
H5N1 'does not pass easily to people'.
But it warned there is an 'increased chance' of people coming into
contact with the virus due to the sky-high rates among birds.
It urged Brits to avoid contact with sick or dead wild birds in parks
and waterways and wash their hands after feeding wild birds, to reduce
the risk of exposure to bird flu.
Dr Meera Chand, incident director for avian influenza at the UKHSA,
said: 'The latest evidence suggests that the avian influenza viruses
we're seeing circulating in birds do not currently spread easily to people. >>> 'However, viruses constantly evolve, and we remain vigilant for any
evidence of changing risk to the population, as well as working with
partners to address gaps in the scientific evidence.'
The weekly update also revealed that 2,310 Brits have been monitored by
UKHSA officials between October 1 2022 and February 14 after being
exposed to bird flu.
Imperial College London published a paper in March 2020 on the potential >>> impact of coronavirus. It weighed up options on how a lockdown could
reduce demand on hospitals
+16
View gallery
Imperial College London published a paper in March 2020 on the potential >>> impact of coronavirus. It weighed up options on how a lockdown could
reduce demand on hospitals
The UKHSA graph shows the number of cases of the H5N1 bird flu strain
detected among mammals, such as foxes and otters, between October 2021
and January 2023 in England (light blue), Scotland (dark blue) and Wales >>> (green)
+16
View gallery
The UKHSA graph shows the number of cases of the H5N1 bird flu strain
detected among mammals, such as foxes and otters, between October 2021
and January 2023 in England (light blue), Scotland (dark blue) and Wales >>> (green)
The graph, from the UKHSA, displays cases of H5N1 among mammals
worldwide between January 2020 and February 2023
+16
View gallery
The graph, from the UKHSA, displays cases of H5N1 among mammals
worldwide between January 2020 and February 2023
The UKHSA graphic shows the number of people exposed to bird flu between >>> October 2022 and February 2023, by region in England
+16
View gallery
The UKHSA graphic shows the number of people exposed to bird flu between >>> October 2022 and February 2023, by region in England
But samples taken from those who developed any cold or flu-like symptoms >>> in the three weeks after coming into contact with the virus revealed
none had become infected.
The UK's avian flu outbreak began in October 2021, after health chiefs
spotted the virus was still spreading among birds after the spring and
summer months – when they usually decline.
Health chiefs have warned that the winter migration of wild birds is
likely to further hike avian flu transmission in the coming months. This >>> is because migrating birds can infect local kept and wild birds, driving >>> up cases.
As well as record cases in birds, the virus has also been spotted in
other animals, such as foxes, otters and seals in the UK, mink in Spain
and sea lions in Peru.
This sparked concern that the virus may be spreading between the
mammals, which would indicate it had picked up a troublesome mutation
that could, in theory, make it easier for humans to become infected.
+16
View gallery
Nearly 300 confirmed cases of H5N1 have been detected among birds in
England since the current outbreak began in October 2021. However, the
true toll is thought to be much higher. The map shows the areas where
cases have been detected and where 3km (blue dots) and 10km (yellow
dots) protection zones have been imposed — meaning enhanced infection
control measures are in place among those who have birds
Pictured: A dead bird in Queens Park in Heywood, Rochdale, amid the
bird flu outbreak
+16
View gallery
Pictured: A dead bird in Queens Park in Heywood, Rochdale, amid the
bird flu outbreak
Alan Gosling (pictured), a retired engineer in Devon, caught the virus
after his ducks, some of which lived inside his home, became infected.
No one else caught the virus
+16
View gallery
Alan Gosling (pictured), a retired engineer in Devon, caught the virus
after his ducks, some of which lived inside his home, became infected.
No one else caught the virus
Further testing is still required to determine if mammals are
transmitting the virus, however.
But there has only been one case of a British person becoming infected
since the current outbreak began.
Alan Gosling, a retired engineer in Devon, caught the virus in early
2022 after his ducks, some of which lived inside his home, became infected. >>> Cambodian Health Minister Mam Bunheng warned that bird flu poses an
exceptionally high risk to children who may be feeding or collecting
eggs from domesticated poultry, playing with the birds or cleaning their >>> cages.
The virus can spread to humans when a person has an open wound exposed
to an infected bird. Usually, infections occur when a person is pecked
or clawed by a bird. Transmission can also occur from a dead bird to a
human.
America is still 'fundamentally unprepared' for zoonotic diseases
Harvard and NYU experts have described it as the greatest threat to
humankind and warn much of the world in unprepared
ADVERTISEMENT
World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom
Ghebreyesus said the agency still deems the risk of bird flu to humans
as low. 'But we cannot assume that will remain the case, and we must
prepare for any change in the status quo,' he said earlier this month.
He advised people not to touch dead or sick wild animals and for
countries to strengthen their surveillance of settings where people and
animals interact.
Cambodia had 56 human cases of H5N1 from 2003 through 2014, and 37 of
them were fatal, according to the World Health Organization.
Each person had samples were taken for analysis for a lab in Phnom Penh, >>> the nation's capital, around 40 miles west of the rural province of Prey >>> Veng, where the suspected cases were detected.
It is unclear whether this group of people had any interaction with the
11-year-old girl, or if they come from the same part of the province. It >>> is also unclear whether they had interactions with any birds that could
be carrying the virus.
More than 1.1million people live in Prey Veng, it is the third most
populous province in the country, and known to be densely populated.
Prey Veng is also were the girl who eventually died lived. She became
ill on February 16 and was sent to be treated at a hospital in the capital >>> She was diagnosed last Wednesday after suffering a fever up to 39C
(102F) with coughing and throat pain. She died shortly after her
diagnosis, the Health Ministry said in a statement Wednesday night.
There are no treatments designed specifically for humans infected with
bird flu, let alone H5N1. Those who fall ill are treated with regular
antiviral drugs such as Zanamivir and Peramivir.
In case of an outbreak, the US does have a stockpile of vaccines
designed to prevent infection from H5N1.
It is sold under the name Audenz and was approved in 2021 by the Food
and Drug Administration for people six months and older. It is a
two-dose vaccine.
Health officials have taken samples from a dead wild bird at a
conservation area near the Prey Veng girl's home, the ministry said in
another statement Thursday. It said teams in the area would also warn
residents about touching dead and sick birds.
Experts warn that the virus is adapting in ways that allow it to cause
outbreaks in other mammals - increasing the risk it could spread among
people.
In October, an outbreak of the bird flu ravaged a population of 52,000
mink at a farm in Spain.
Some of the critters were initially infected by eating meat from birds
that died while infected.
There were also signs of mink-to-mink spread of the flu, which is
unusual for a mammal population and signals a change to the virus.
In Peru, 716 sea lions were found to have died from the bird flu in
recent weeks. Local officials worry that the virus has also spread
between the animals - which are also mammals.
The world is suffering what has been described as the worst bird flu
outbreak ever recorded, with over 58million birds in the US alone having >>> been culled or killed by the virus over the past year.
Unlike usual spikes in bird flu that last months, this outbreak
sustained itself through the summer of 2022 and is spread almost
entirely by wild birds
+16
View gallery
Unlike usual spikes in bird flu that last months, this outbreak
sustained itself through the summer of 2022 and is spread almost
entirely by wild birds
For the US poultry industry the battle has been deadliest in history.
The outbreak has ramped up pressure on the industry to protect its
flocks and forced them to kill millions of birds to avoid the deadly spread.
To protect their domesticated birds, farmers around the country have
installed extra protections from wild flocks, including installing
vibrating mechanisms in containers holding chicken feed to avoid worker
contamination.
The disease is so contagious that wind can carry bird droppings to a
barn vent causing the virus to circulate inside.
It can also be spread to commercial flocks by workers stepping on
wild-bird feces outside of a barn and spreading it inside with each step. >>> Some farms have installed motion-detecting alarms, known as 'sound
cannons', as well as bright laser systems to shoo away wild birds
without harming them.
The recent spread of the virus has lead to rampant inflation of both
chicken and egg prices in the US and across the world.
Federal officials also fear that the spring migration of birds could
also reignite spread of the deadly virus.
A Cambodian man carries dead chickens at a market in Phnom Penh - the
capital and most populous city of Cambodia
+16
View gallery
A Cambodian man carries dead chickens at a market in Phnom Penh - the
capital and most populous city of Cambodia
It comes as experts express greater fears of the threat of zoonotic
diseases spreading in America. Last week, experts at Harvard University, >>> in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and New York University, warned about the
risks of zoonotic transmission.
In an editorial, they accuse the US of being too obsessed with external
threats such as bioterrorism and lab leaks while failing to keep a close >>> eye on the risks in its own backyard.
They called for an overhaul of regulatory agencies, including the US
Department of Agriculture.
Experts have already warned that the next zoonotic outbreak could occur
in China — because of its wet food markets — and Rwanda and Brazil —
where urbanization and expanding agriculture are bringing people into
contact with wild animals they would previously have been separated from. >>> But they also warn that Texas — one of the world's leading producers of
meat — could also be a hotbed for new dangerous viruses.
In the piece, they urged: 'What is needed is not simply for agencies to
do their jobs better or to paper over the gaps, but a fundamental
restructuring of the way that human-animal interfaces are governed.
'A One Health approach, which NBS-22 claims as its guiding principle,
would take the health of other living things not merely as the
occasional means or obstacles to human health, but as continuous with it. >>> 'The first step in implementing such an approach would be to create a
high-level process for integrating the broken mosaic of multiple
agencies, with their unclear and sometimes competing mandates, into an
effective, comprehensive regime.'
Figures show 10billion animals were killed for meat in the US in 2022,
the highest number on record and up 204million in 2021.
The country is also a leading importer of live animals — which could
harbor diseases — bringing in about 200million annually according to
estimates.
There is also a large wild game market which raises about 40million
animals annually.
Scientists warned that infections could jump from animals to humans at
any stage in the meat supply chain — from the rearing facility right
through to slaughter and where it is consumed.
They warn there is a higher risk with live imported animals because
these come into the US with no health and safety checks on arrival,
meaning they could bring new diseases into the country.
There is also a higher risk with game animals, because these are not
sanitized or regulated before being eaten.
Evidence is mounting that the US is already facing a growing number of
animal-to-human infections.
The country recorded more animal-to-human infections in the second half
of the 20th century than any other country globally, the scientists said. >>
U.S., there hasn't been any reports of deer-to-human/hunter infections
yet. The worst-case scenario here is that the millions with long-COVID
have a terrible 100% CFR when H5N1 joins the on-going pandemic.
In the interim, the only *healthy* way to stop the on-going pandemic,
thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by rapidly (
http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given moment,
including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly contagious
(i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://archive.vn/R1uMf
Lockdown sceptics like me were demonised – but we were right
The Telegraph’s exposé has shone a light on the over-zealous Covid
regulations and cruelty that politicians and their egos inflicted on us
By
Allison Pearson
4 March 2023 • 7:00am
National Covid Memorial wall
‘Don’t tell me thousands more would have died if we hadn’t locked down
because thousands more are dying because we had lockdown... Will they be >>> putting their names on the National Covid Memorial wall?’ CREDIT: Leon
Neal/Getty Images
It almost seems as if we dreamt it. So surreal was that period, so
dementedly bonkers in many ways, so full of strange unease, so randomly
cruel, so wrong. Desperately wrong. I felt it at the time, and I was
attacked for saying so. I nearly lost my mind as I absorbed the pain of
all the devastated people who wrote to me. (I remember shouting down the >>> phone at a GP practice manager in the West Country on behalf of an
elderly reader who had been stuck in her house alone for almost a year
and was desperate for a Covid jab.)
I was spied on, reported, publicly denounced, called a murderer, banned
and shadow banned. At times, it felt like we were living in East Germany >>> under the Stasi. Our blessed, free country had become an island of
hysterics, snitches and obsessive Dettol wipers. Driving in my car one
morning to take the dog for a walk in woods two miles up the road, I
thought, “Am I allowed to do this?”
Am I allowed to do this? Dear God. Where had Britain gone?
And now, vindication. So much that we “conspiracy theorists” suspected
turns out to be true, from the Wuhan Covid-19 lab leak (“racist” back in >>> 2020 but now highly likely says the FBI) to Matt Hancock’s imaginary
“protective ring” around care homes to the brutal collateral reckoning
for lockdown. Vindication is bittersweet, alas, because you cannot mend
all the people they broke (over a million children with mental health
problems, millions more awaiting hospital treatment – where do you
begin?) nor bring back those who died without a loved one to gentle
their passing.
And don’t tell me thousands more would have died if we hadn’t locked
down because thousands more are dying because we had lockdown. Men and
women in their thirties, forties and fifties with families; fit, younger >>> people whom the virus could not harm, now presenting with incurable
cancers. Will they be putting their names on the National Covid Memorial >>> wall? They should.
Human beings have an astonishing capacity to forget, especially when
something is embarrassing to look back on or when it makes us feel a bit >>> stupid.
READERS’ EXPERIENCES
Tom McLelland
The Memorial Wall will doubtless end up as the only meaningful tribute
to those who lost loved ones. Amidst all the politicking, journalism,
evasion of responsibility and self-serving, those who died must never be >>> forgotten, including Jeannie McLelland, my wife of 52 years, a nurse who >>> did her best to make others well but ended up failed by those
politicians now trying to escape blame, and sadly, yes, the NHS to which >>> she had given so much of her working life.
“The tingle of a remembered shame,” George Eliot called it. But we
should force ourselves to remember, I think. The Lockdown Files, drawing >>> on the WhatsApp messages vouchsafed to the superb investigative
journalist Isabel Oakeshott by Matt Hancock, the former health secretary >>> of state, and published this week by The Daily Telegraph, are an
extraordinary aide-memoire to the madness we all lived through. They
also provide a remarkable insight into the behaviour of those running
the country at the time. What a bunch of arrogant, clueless, emotionally >>> stunted authoritarians they turn out to be for the most part.
The biggest shock revealed by The Telegraph scoop is quite how often our >>> leaders, who always claimed to be guided by “the science”, were making
decisions on the hoof.
Astonished, we read conversation after conversation where, it becomes
clear, that decisions affecting the suffering of the elderly entombed in >>> care homes, of children shut out of schools and playgrounds is filtered
through the prism of something called “Comms”.
READERS’ EXPERIENCES
Richard Halsted
My mother died of Covid. It said on her death certificate. I was not
allowed to see her. She died of isolation and lack of care.
So, when Boris Johnson asks his top team whether masks in schools are
necessary, Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer, replies: “No strong
reason against in corridors etc, and no strong reason for. The downsides >>> are in the classroom because of the potential to interfere with teaching.” >>> But Lee Cain, the PM’s director of Comms, is not happy. Scotland has
just confirmed masks in schools so England is under pressure to follow
suit lest Nicola Sturgeon gain the advantage. “Why do we want to have
the fight on not having masks in certain school settings?” asks Cain.
Oh, I don’t know, Lee. Maybe because imposing an unevidenced and
alienating NPI (non-pharmaceutical intervention) on vulnerable
adolescents is a really bad idea? Perhaps because forcing children into
futile masks for protection against a virus they largely don’t need
protecting against is just a repugnant piece of political power play.
Perhaps because, with their young worlds turned upside-down, the
reassurance of seeing smiling faces would have been really nice.
Finally, as that WhatsApp conclave of geniuses somehow failed to
foresee, permitting masks in school corridors would be the gateway to
the teaching unions demanding (and getting) masks in classrooms.
(While the big boys’ club was throwing kids under the devolution bus, a
group of mums who founded an organisation called Us For Them to stick up >>> for children’s rights, were fighting furiously to get the school mask
mandates withdrawn under threat of pre-action letters. They succeeded,
twice. So often during the pandemic, it took the defiance of ordinary
men and women – parents, publicans, restaurateurs, shop owners, small
business people – to restore some sense to the senseless edicts.)
READERS’ EXPERIENCES
Paul S.
My business lost thousands due to Covid restrictions, HMRC aren't
getting any more out of me. I'm livid.
The Lockdown Files reveal that Matt Hancock and other key players often
had a callous disregard for everything except their own egos. (Look at
Simon Case, the country’s most senior civil servant, gleefully joking
about the prospect of seeing “some of the faces of those moving from
first-class plane seats” into shoe-box hotel rooms. Never mind the
inconvenience and expense for legitimate travellers, many of them trying >>> to reach terrified relatives before suddenly being forced into
quarantine by a government with a whim of iron.)
Children’s wellbeing? Forget it. Hancock, we learn, launched a
disgraceful “rearguard action” to close schools when Gavin Williamson,
then-education secretary, was, to his credit, battling to keep them
open. In one WhatsApp, Hancock talks of “preventing a policy car crash
when the kids spread the disease in January”. Had the health secretary
consulted widely with proper epidemiologists, instead of obsessing over
his willy-waving, 100,000-tests-a-day target, he might have learnt that
youngsters getting the virus was not a problem provided the vulnerable
were protected. (In fact, kids getting Covid was a positive because the
resolution of the crisis lay in achieving widespread immunity not in
endless, extortionate and increasingly pointless testing.) Keeping
children out of education for another two months (until March 2021)
turned out to be the real car crash.
One of the few people to emerge with any credit from this fiasco is
Boris Johnson. His large, freedom-loving spirit was a poor fit for the
narrow groupthink that took over No?10. Frequently, the prime minister
was the only one asking the questions any normal person would want
answering. When he finds out that the risk of the over-65s dying from
Covid is akin to the danger of perishing while going down stairs, he
points out, “And we don’t stop older people from using stairs”. Later,
he said that if he was an 80-year-old and had to choose “between
destroying the economy and risking my exposure to a disease that I had a >>> 94 per cent chance of surviving I know what I would prefer”.
READERS’ EXPERIENCES
Brendan Harris
My elderly dad fell ill during the Christmas lockdown and was admitted
to hospital in London. I was living in Italy so I flew back immediately, >>> making a false declaration on my Covid travel documents because ‘wanting >>> to be at my dying parent’s bedside’ wasn’t a valid reason.
At St Mary’s hospital they refused to let me in so I dodged security and >>> followed a nurse through the doors. I made it. I sat with dad, held his
hand, made sure he wasn’t alone in his last days. The duty nurse turned
a blind eye because she had some humanity.
Boris was bang on. By pausing society, we may have bought a bit more
life for those of 82.4 years (the average age of Covid death) and over,
but what the hell were we doing to the rest of the population? To even
pose such a question was to elicit the shrieked response, “You want
people to die!” But how many self-isolating octogenarians would rather
have taken a relatively small risk and enjoyed the company of family and >>> friends in the twilight of their days? The state denied them the dignity >>> of that choice. (The prime minister should, of course, have had the
courage of his convictions and cancelled the second lockdown when he
twigged it was based on out-of-date data.)
Ironically, Downing Street had become a prisoner of the public’s fear.
That sense of dread which, as Laura Dodsworth points out in her
definitive book, State of Fear, was itself created by government
scientists “using a battery of weapons from distorted statistics,
‘nudges’ and misleading adverts on TV to control the public in order to
make them comply with lockdown requirements”. So people were convinced
that Covid was a uniquely ruthless killer.
Another name that kept leaping out at me from The Lockdown Files was
Helen Whateley, then-social care minister. Perhaps it’s because Helen
was a rare female voice at the centre of power, and the mother of three
young children, that she kept urging more compassion on her gung-ho
boss. Couldn’t kids be excluded from the totally random “Rule of Six” so >>> more families could see grandparents? No, said Matt Hancock – it didn’t
work with the Comms, which needed to be kept simple so the plebs
wouldn’t think they had any leeway with the rules. Restrictions on
visitors to care homes were “inhumane”, Whately said, warning the health >>> secretary against “preventing husbands seeing wives for months and
months”. The elderly were at risk of “just giving up” because they had
been isolated for so long. Too bad. Hancock did nothing to alleviate the >>> misery experienced by tens of thousands as they enacted a pitiful
pantomime of intimacy through care-home windows and Perspex screens.
(Visits to care homes and hospitals only returned to something like
normality in July 2021 and, appallingly, many are still fortresses.)
READERS’ EXPERIENCES
John Stobart
My lovely wife died of cancer within 12 weeks of its diagnosis all
within the lockdown. We couldn't have visits by her friends to see her
nor could we have a proper funeral, just a miserable pinched affair of
eight people who had to stay well apart listening to recorded hymn
singing. Rage? Yes I feel rage and always will.
My wife's name was Anne Stobart and we had been married for 43 years
having first met at university in the 1970s.
I supported the first mini-lockdown. Three weeks to flatten the curve
(“squash the sombrero” in Boris’s ebullient phrase) seemed fair enough
when we were dealing with a novel virus. But, as time went on, and the
restrictions bit deeper, I began to shout at the TV during the Downing
Street press briefings. Why did no one ask why having a “substantial
meal” with alcohol in a pub protected you against Covid in a way that
standing at the bar eating a bag of crisps did not? Robert Jenrick, the
communities secretary at the time, explained that “a Cornish pasty on
its own” would not constitute a substantial meal, “unless it came on a
plate, to a table, with a side of chips or salad”. This gave rise to one >>> of the great dilemmas of the pandemic: The Scotch Egg Question. Food
minister George Eustice said a scotch egg “probably would count” as a
substantial meal, but a No?10 spokesman hastily over-ruled that
deplorable, devil-may-care attitude, sternly insisting that “bar snacks
do not count”.
Grown men, our democratically elected representatives no less, actually
said ludicrous things like that with a straight face. On the basis of no >>> scientific evidence whatsoever. It was farcical.
The farce insulted our intelligence, but it was the cruelty I abhorred.
Common sense and basic human decency had been overridden, leading to the >>> isolation of the most vulnerable (the very people we were meant to be
“saving”); so many lonely deaths, so many families damaged, so many
self-harming teenagers. Every day, my Telegraph inbox filled up with
devastating stories. A 14-year-old boy who, pre-lockdown had been fit
and sporty, admitted with anorexia to a psychiatric unit because he was
so terrified of the weight he’d put on. The five-year-old who developed
nervous tics. A dad-to-be pleading to be let in to the maternity unit
where his wife was miscarrying their first child.
A close friend was ticked off by a nurse for not wearing plastic gloves
and a mask when she stroked her father’s brow as he lay dying. What
possible harm could her bare hand on his dear forehead have done, her
kiss on his cheek? None. Yet simple human comfort was overruled by
“Covid-19 guidance for a healthcare in-patient setting”. With such scary >>> ease did we lose our moral bearings and slip into monstrosity.
Then there was dear Robert Styler, barred from visiting Josephine, his
wife of 60 years, in her care home. Josie got confused and upset seeing
her husband on FaceTime. Why, Robert wanted to know, was he, who was
self-isolating, not allowed to enter the premises to comfort the mother
of his children while the staff traipsed in and out from busy family
homes? On the Planet Normal podcast, Liam Halligan and I campaigned for
Robert and Josie to be reunited. And they were. One last dinner (and
dance) before Josephine died. I wept for them. And for all the other
Roberts and Josephines. At times, I felt almost unhinged by all that
sorrow. And now, through all those casual, bantering WhatsApp messages,
we can see the political expediency which lay behind huge decisions that >>> caused so much individual suffering. So, yes, I raged against the dying
of the light of reason. I couldn’t bear it.
Robert and Josephine in happier times at their golden wedding aniversary >>> CREDIT: Andrew Crowley
To speak out, however, was to be demonised as a “Covidiot” and worse.
The Left of the Labour Party, still smarting from the recent defeat of
Jeremy Corbyn, redirected all its fire-breathing zealotry into advancing >>> the cause of “zero Covid”, the better to undermine the hated Tories. I
regularly found myself under attack, and trending (not in a good way) on >>> Twitter. Once, it was for the heresy of suggesting that we should allow
young people to get Covid and build up natural immunity which could then >>> help protect their grandparents. Prior to the pandemic, that had been an >>> uncontroversial precept of epidemiology. As Martin Kulldorff, former
professor at Harvard Medical School and co-author of the Great
Barrington Declaration, observed drily this week at a Covid hearing in
the House of Representatives, “I guess we knew about it [natural
immunity] since 430 B.C. – the Athenian plague – until 2020. And then we >>> didn’t know about it for three years, and now we know about it again.”
I was naïve enough to be shocked when I discovered that a Conservative
MP, Neil O’Brien, had set up (at the behest, it was alleged, of certain
ministers) a McCarthyite website to monitor the work of journalists like >>> me who took a sceptical attitude to lockdown. How could that be
happening in a free society? While I undoubtedly got certain things
wrong, especially in the early days, I was repulsed by the way that Matt >>> Hancock assumed the moral high ground, bulldozing over any criticism of
his own highly questionable decisions. Intoxicated by his new
totalitarian powers. Mr Hancock, I felt, was getting away with murder.
So when Matt Hancock accused Isabel Oakeshott of a “massive betrayal”
for handing over his WhatsApp messages to The Telegraph, I laughed.
The Covid Inquiry, which began this week, with a dismaying lack of
lockdown sceptics among its “core participants” had better buck up its
ideas, or else. (At first, the inquiry wasn’t even going to consider the >>> damage done to children, if you can believe it.
In the interim, the only *healthy* way to eradicate the COVID-19
virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by rapidly (
http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given moment,
including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly contagious
(i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://archive.is/ju5LW
Leaked WhatsApp messages reveal how health secretary hoped to shock
public into complying with ever-changing lockdown rules
By
The Lockdown Files Team
4 March 2023 • 9:00pm
Matt Hancock's plan to ‘frighten the pants off everyone’ about Covid
THE LOCKDOWN FILES
Read the full investigation
Throughout the course of the pandemic, officials and ministers wrestled
with how to ensure the public complied with ever-changing lockdown
restrictions. One weapon in their arsenal was fear.
“We frighten the pants off everyone,” Matt Hancock suggested during one
WhatsApp message with his media adviser.
The then health secretary was not alone in his desire to scare the
public into compliance. The WhatsApp messages seen by The Telegraph show >>> how several members of Mr Hancock’s team engaged in a kind of “Project
Fear”, in which they spoke of how to utilise “fear and guilt” to make
people obey lockdown.
An Imperial College survey of Covid infections in the community – called >>> the React programme and led by the eminent professor Lord Darzi –
provided “positive” news for Mr Hancock and his team.
The study they referred to appeared to have been a survey showing
“decreasing prevalence” of Covid through May and an R number – the
reproduction rate of the virus – of just 0.57.
The study was in line with an Office for National Statistics (ONS)
survey. But when the media focused on a separate report by Public Health >>> England and Cambridge University showing a high transmission rate in
some parts of the country - prompting speculation that local lockdowns
could follow - Mr Hancock said: “That’s no bad thing.” Sir Patrick
Vallance, the Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser, agreed. On June 5
2020, there were 1,020 reported daily cases of Covid and 160 deaths.
5 June, 2020
Matt Hancock
Matt Hancock |Health Secretary
? Have you seen the v interesting Ara Darzi survey?
15:31
Patrick Vallance
Patrick Vallance |Government Chief Scientific Adviser
Haven’t seen it yet but heard a verbal output a couple of days ago. Will >>> try to find it now
16:49
Ok seen it now. Very good and consistent with the ONS study. All
pointing in the same positive direction
17:09
Matt Hancock
Matt Hancock
Yep. Just done presser where the media interest is only in the gloomy
Cambridge survey ????
17:57
But, if we want people to behave themselves maybe that’s no bad thing
17:57
Patrick Vallance
Patrick Vallance
Agree, suck up their miserable interpretation and over deliver
17:58
With recorded Covid cases now down to just 689, the Government was days
away from reopening pubs, restaurants and hairdressing salons.
But on June 30 2020, Leicester had just gone into a local lockdown. In a >>> WhatsApp group called “Local Action Committee”, Emma Dean, Mr Hancock’s
special adviser on policy, reported back to the group a rumour that
Milton Keynes may be the next town plunged into a local lockdown.
Jamie Njoku-Goodwin, Mr Hancock’s media adviser, replied that it would
not be “unhelpful” for the public to think they could be next.
Ms Dean appeared to start the conversation by forwarding messages sent
to her about the Milton Keynes rumour. Baroness Harding, who ran the
Test and Trace scheme, replied.
30 June, 2020
Emma Dean
Emma Dean |Department of Health Policy Special Adviser
Hi Jo, there's a rumour going around about an MK lockdown. So far
fending the BBC off by sending them the link to the data. Local radio
also asking
Hi Emma are we aware if there is a problem in MIlton Keynes?
15:34
False?
15:34
Dido Harding
Dido Harding |Executive Chair of NHS Test and Trace
False!
15:34
Emma Dean
Emma Dean
Marvellous
15:34
Jamie Njoku-Goodwin
Jamie Njoku-Goodwin |Department of Health Media Special Adviser
There will be lots of these sort of rumours doing the rounds in the next >>> few days. It's not unhelpful having people think they could be next, and >>> so should be responsible and *stay alert* as we approach the 4th July.
15:39
Matt Hancock
Matt Hancock |Health Secretary
When we publish the testing data, on Thursday, and the appendices to the >>> paper from PHE, people will immediately see the next cities down
15:42
The Government had started publishing a so-called “watchlist” of the
worst-affected areas in the country, not least to justify and explain to >>> the public the need for local lockdowns.
But on Oct 7 2020, ministers scrapped the list’s publication – the
thinking seemingly being that the numbers were increasing and that it
would cause residents and politicians in places like Leicester to
question why they had been singled out for local lockdowns.
In a WhatsApp group called “MH Top Team” that involved a number of
advisers and civil servants, the group agreed to scrap the surveillance
data watchlist because no such local “interventions” were being planned. >>> In a conversation with a civil servant, Damon Poole, Mr Hancock’s media
adviser, said that failing to publish the data can be turned to their
advantage because it “helps the narrative that things are really bad”.
7 October, 2020
Civil Servant
Civil Servant
Matt, are you content that we hold publishing the Watchlist tomorrow. I
think would be slightly confusing to publish without following up with
the interventions but it will create a bit of noise if we dont. Assume
we use a line about data going in the wrong direction so urgently
considering interventions.
19:12
She's sent to you.
19:13
Damon Poole
Damon Poole |Department of Health Media Special Adviser
It helps the narrative that things are really bad if we don’t publish
19:14
Matt Hancock
Matt Hancock |Health Secretary
Yes. No publication tmrw
19:17
Boris Johnson, then the prime minister, had promised that families would >>> be reunited at Christmas – the first since the pandemic struck in early
2020. He said foregoing long-awaited reunions “would be inhuman and
against the instincts of many people in this country”.
But behind the scenes, his ministers and officials were increasingly
aware that vast swathes of the public faced a grave disappointment and
that the Johnson administration would take the blame for their frustration. >>> The solution in December was “to frighten the pants off everyone” with a >>> declaration of a new strain of Covid-19, known as the Alpha or Kent variant.
In a conversation between Mr Hancock and Mr Poole on Dec 13, the pair
discussed how to survive the coming backlash and storm. On the day,
there were 18,409 cases of Covid recorded and 410 deaths. Five days
later, on Dec 18, Mr Johnson would scrap his planned five-day Christmas
amnesty in an about turn.
R RATE HAD ALREADY PEAKED WHEN LOCKDOWNS 2 & 3 WERE INTRODUCED Infection >>> transmission rate across UK, R rate
1.5
Upper bound
1.0
0.5
Lower bound
Lockdown
2
3
0
May
2020
Jun
Jul
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Jan
2021
SOURCE: PHE/GOV
The conversation started with a discussion about a fear that Sadiq Khan, >>> the London Mayor, could attack the Government for plunging the capital
into its own lockdown - just as Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater
Manchester, had waged a battle in his city a few months earlier.
The pair discussed a withering leader in the Mail on Sunday, before Mr
Hancock seemingly expressed a worry that bad news on the new variant
might be knocked off the top of the agenda by wrangles over Brexit.
That led them into a discussion about when to “deploy” the new variant,
although Mr Hancock was seemingly wary that it could have led to closing >>> schools.
13 December, 2020
Matt Hancock
Matt Hancock |Health Secretary
Sounds like Sadiq is lining up to being Burnham
10:51
Damon Poole
Damon Poole |Department of Health Media Special Adviser
Yep
10:51
Tory MPs also furious already about the prospect
10:52
MOS leader trying to warn us off it too
10:52
Rather than doing too much forward signalling, we can roll pitch with
the new strain
11:15
Matt Hancock
Matt Hancock
We frighten the pants of everyone with the new strain
11:17
but the complication with that Brexit is taking the top line
11:17
Damon Poole
Damon Poole
Yep that’s what will get proper bahviour change
11:17
Matt Hancock
Matt Hancock
When do we deploy the new variant
11:35
Damon Poole
Damon Poole
Been thinking more about this and think we need to be more cautious
12:49
The strain that is
12:50
Think you made the point earlier but we need to keep schools off
paperwork / agenda
13:45
Matt Hancock
Matt Hancock
Yes
14:24
Damon Poole
Damon Poole
Worth doing a bit about no leaking at the top I think
16:34
Big risk with the variant, right wing papers go for a renewed push for
let it rip on the basis the vaccines strategy is undermined.
19:16
Matt Hancock
Matt Hancock
That's why we reassure on the vaccine
19:47
Read full chat (16 messages)
In Jan 2021, Britain is in a third national lockdown, with schools shut
and people told to work from home.
Four days later, on Jan 10, Mr Hancock and Simon Case, the Cabinet
Secretary and therefore the country’s most powerful civil servant,
discussed more stringent measures that they could introduce.
They agreed that minor adjustments, such as banning angling, would be
“parodied galore” - so decided that “fear” and/or “guilt” were vital
tools in ensuring compliance.
They discussed making mask-wearing mandatory in “all settings” because
it had a “very visible impact”.
Another example given is the reopening of the Nightingale hospital in
London, which had been built hurriedly at the start of the pandemic for
a rush of Covid patients. In reality, the Nightingale hospitals across
the UK were barely used. The one in London re-opened on Jan 12 2021 for
non-Covid patients, but only a handful were admitted.
10 January, 2021
Simon Case
Simon Case |Permanent Secretary at No 10
More mask-wearing might be the only thing to consider. Effectively free
and has a very visible impact? Wear masks in all settings outside home
and in more workplaces?
12:17
Am not sure that got us much further, did it? Basically, we need to get
compliance up
14:20
We actually ought to be careful with stuff like angling - we should sort >>> them, but quietly. We will be parodied galore if it looks like we have
suddenly decided fishing is the first step towards tier 5!
14:21
Matt Hancock
Matt Hancock |Health Secretary
yep. I think the problem is that the levers not in the hands of No10 &
DHSC are harder to pull
14:21
I honestly wouldn't move on any small things unless we move on a lot.
14:22
The only big reamaining things are nurseries and workplaces
14:23
Simon Case
Simon Case
I agree - I think that is exactly right. Small stuff looks ridiculous.
Ramping up messaging - the fear/guilt factor vital
14:23
I suspect London Nightingale coming into use will feel like a big public >>> moment. Especially as I guess it will be full with a couple of days
(based on current data)
19:14
In the interim, the only *healthy* way to eradicate the COVID-19
virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by rapidly (
http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given moment,
including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly contagious
(i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-64870505
Hancock backed pressuring MP into voting for lockdown, messages reveal
Published
4 hours ago
Share
Related Topics
Coronavirus pandemic
Media caption,
Watch: Matt Hancock WhatsApp message row in 83 seconds
By Sam Francis
Political reporter, BBC News
Matt Hancock supported threatening to block a disability centre in a
Tory MP's constituency in a bid to get him to vote for the Covid tier
system in England, leaked messages suggest.
WhatsApp messages show Mr Hancock agreed to put pressure on James Daly,
Conservative MP for Bury North, if he failed to vote with the government. >>>
Mr Hancock's spokesperson said: "What has been accused here never happened."
Mr Daly said he was "very disappointed" to learn about the exchange.
ADVERTISEMENT
However, speaking to BBC Radio Manchester, he said the threat was not
carried out.
Asked how he would have responded if such a conversation had taken
place, the MP said: "I would have told him where to go, and reported
matters to a higher authority.
"To think somebody would use potential funding that could help someone
vulnerable in our community to get votes for the government is just not
acceptable."
Ex-Conservative Party chair Sir Jake Berry accused Mr Hancock of
"weaponising the provision of care to young disabled people" and said it >>> "crosses a line of what's acceptable in public life".
He said the former health secretary had been "drunk on power".
Hancock messages suggest plan to frighten public
Texts show Hancock concern at isolation relaxation
In messages leaked to the Daily Telegraph, Mr Hancock's political aide
Allan Nixon suggested putting pressure on MPs elected in 2019 whose
"re-election hinges" on central government funding.
Mr Nixon proposed warning Mr Daly that funding for a new centre for
disabled children and adults in his constituency would be "off the
table" if he voted against new plans for a stricter tiered lockdown on 1 >>> December 2020.
Mr Hancock replied: "Yes 100%."
Mr Daly told the Telegraph he was unaware the Department for Health and
Social Care had plans to give Bury North a disability hub, which would
provide specialists with a dedicated centre for co-ordinating local
activity.
Under the December 2020 tier scheme, every area of England was put into
one of three tiers - medium (one), high (two) and very high (three) -
with the vast majority of the population in the higher two tiers.
According to the paper, leaked messages show Mr Daly was more concerned
with support for pubs in areas placed in the higher tiers because they
were unable to serve food.
Under the system, bars in tier two were only allowed to stay open if
they served "substantial meals", while those in tier three could only
provide takeaways or deliveries.
A bar worker in a facemask during the Covid pandemic
IMAGE SOURCE,EPA
Image caption,
The tier system put restrictions on how pubs and restaurants could operate >>> MPs eventually backed the government's plans for the tier system by 291
votes to 78 despite a large rebellion by Tory MPs - including Mr Daly.
Fifty-five Conservatives voted against the plan - the largest rebellion
of then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson's time in No 10.
A spokesperson for Mr Hancock said the message exchange was an "entirely >>> partial account".
"The missing context here is vitally important because this vote was
critical for saving lives," the spokesperson added.
"What's being accused here never happened, demonstrating the story is
wrong, and showing why such a biased, partial approach to the evidence
is a bad mistake, driven by those with a vested interest and an axe to
grind.
"The right place to consider everything about the pandemic objectively
is in the public inquiry."
The BBC has not been able to independently verify the messages.
The texts are the latest release from more than 100,000 WhatsApp
messages leaked to the Telegraph by journalist Isabel Oakeshott.
line
The WhatsApp leaks
A collection of more than 100,000 messages sent between former Health
Secretary Matt Hancock and other ministers and officials at the height
of the Covid-19 pandemic have been obtained by the Telegraph. Here are
some of our stories on the leaks:
Text leak shows people in quarantine hotels mocked
Messages reveal battle over Covid school policy
Rees-Mogg had Covid test couriered during shortage
Hancock denies claim he rejected care home advice
Covid hearings begin in court of public opinion
In the interim, the only *healthy* way to eradicate the COVID-19
virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by rapidly (
http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given moment,
including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly contagious
(i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:Is there a rigorous mathematical proof?
https://www.bbc.com/news/education-64875643
Pupils missing school on Fridays as parents are at home, MPs told
Millions of pupils are suffering from undiagnosed long-COVID which
puts them at higher risk of not performing well at school thereby
lowering their incentive to attend school.
Published
18 hours ago
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A boy sits on his phone on the sofa
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
Image caption,
More children are thought to be absent from school on Fridays
By Alice Evans
BBC News
Some pupils have missed school on Fridays since the pandemic because
their parents are at home, England's children's commissioner has said.
The number of pupils regularly missing school in England remains higher
than pre-Covid levels.
Dame Rachel de Souza told MPs there was "a huge amount" of absence on
Fridays - when "mum and dad are at home" - that "wasn't there before".
The government said it is providing help for regularly absent children.
Pupils count as persistently absent if they miss 10% or more of school
sessions, which would amount to seven days in the autumn term.
Dame Rachel told the Commons Education Select Committee on Tuesday that
818,000 of the 1.6 million children who were persistently absent across
the autumn and spring terms in 2021/22 were off school for reasons other >>> than illness.
And some pupils are missing school on Fridays more than on other days of >>> the week, she said - a trend that did not exist before the pandemic -
citing analysis of attendance data from autumn 2021, covering 32,000
children from three multi-academy trusts.
Dame Rachel said conversations with families suggested one reason for
lower school attendance was that remote learning during lockdown had led >>> to an attitude of "Well, why can't we just have online learning?"
She added: "Parents are at home on Fridays. We've had evidence from
kids: 'Well, you know, mum and dad are at home - stay at home'."
One survey published last year suggested only 13% of UK workers go into
the office on a Friday. However, the Office for National Statistics says >>> most people do not work from home.
Pupil absences remain above pre-Covid levels
Why more people are working from home on Fridays
The postcode lottery of £60 fines for missing school
The Education Select Committee has launched an inquiry into why
persistent absence has grown since the pandemic.
A quarter (25.1%) of pupils were persistently absent last term, compared >>> with 13.1% in the autumn term of 2019. The increase was partly driven by >>> high levels of flu and other viruses, the government said at the time.
Responding to Dame Rachel's comments on Tuesday, a Department for
Education spokesperson said: "The vast majority of children are in
school and learning but we are offering targeted help for children who
are regularly absent.
"This includes working with schools, trusts, governing bodies, and local >>> authorities to identify pupils who are at risk of becoming, or who are
persistently absent and working together to support that child to return >>> to regular and consistent education."
In the interim, the only *healthy* way to eradicate the COVID-19
virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by rapidly (
http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given moment,
including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly contagious
(i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://archive.is/PQKqa#selection-711.0-1979.63
Covid backlash hobbles public health and future pandemic response
Lawsuits and legislation have stripped public health officials of their
powers in three years
By Lauren Weber and Joel Achenbach
March 8, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. EST
Protesters descend on the Ohio Statehouse for an anti-mask rally in
Columbus on July 18, 2020. (Jeff Dean/AFP/Getty Images)
https://tinyurl.com/COVIDapocalypse
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When the next pandemic sweeps the United States, health officials in
Ohio won’t be able to shutter businesses or schools, even if they become >>> epicenters of outbreaks. Nor will they be empowered to force Ohioans who >>> have been exposed to go into quarantine. State officials in North Dakota >>> are barred from directing people to wear masks to slow the spread. Not
even the president can force federal agencies to issue vaccination or
testing mandates to thwart its march.
https://tinyurl.com/COVIDapocalypse
Conservative and libertarian forces have defanged much of the nation’s
public health system through legislation and litigation as the world
staggers into the fourth year of covid.
Why covid-19 vaccination gaps persist
4:11
Hispanic adults are among the most eager to get vaccinated, researchers
say, but they still have one of the lowest covid-19 vaccination rates in >>> the country. (Video: Joy Yi, Whitney Leaming/The Washington Post)
At least 30 states, nearly all led by Republican legislatures, have
passed laws since 2020 that limit public health authority, according to
a Washington Post analysis of laws collected by Kaiser Health News and
the Associated Press as well as the Association of State and Territorial >>> Health Officials and the Center for Public Health Law Research at Temple >>> University.
https://tinyurl.com/COVIDapocalypse
Health officials and governors in more than half the country are now
restricted from issuing mask mandates, ordering school closures and
imposing other protective measures or must seek permission from their
state legislatures before renewing emergency orders, the analysis showed. >>> The movement to curtail public health powers successfully tapped into a
populist rejection of pandemic measures following widespread anger and
confusion over the government response to covid. Grass-roots-backed
candidates ran for county commissions and local health boards on the
platform of dismantling health departments’ authority. Republican
legislators and attorneys general, religious liberty groups and the
legal arms of libertarian think tanks filed lawsuits and wrote new laws
modeled after legislation promoted by groups such as the American
Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative, corporate-backed influence >>> in statehouses across the country.
https://tinyurl.com/COVIDapocalypse
The Alabama legislature barred businesses from requiring proof of
coronavirus vaccination. In Tennessee, officials cannot close churches
during a state of emergency. Florida made it illegal for schools to
require coronavirus vaccinations.
[Cut short: One million covid deaths]
https://tinyurl.com/COVIDapocalypse
The result, public health experts warn, is a battered patchwork system
that makes it harder for leaders to protect the country from infectious
diseases that cross red and blue state borders.
“One day we’re going to have a really bad global crisis and a pandemic
far worse than covid, and we’ll look to the government to protect us,
but it’ll have its hands behind its back and a blindfold on,” said
Lawrence Gostin, director of Georgetown University’s O’Neill Institute
for National and Global Health Law. “We’ll die with our rights on — we
want liberty but we don’t want protection.”
https://tinyurl.com/COVIDapocalypse
Those seeking to dismantle public health powers say they’re fighting
back against an intrusion on their rights by unelected bureaucrats who
overstepped amid a national crisis.
“We don’t want to concentrate power in a single set of hands,” said Rick >>> Esenberg, head of the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, a
libertarian law firm that won a state Supreme Court case barring health
officials from closing schools. “It’s a usurpation of the legislative role.”
Many conservatives said they did not believe the public health orders
were effective in saving lives, despite evidence to the contrary. One
study, for example, found that coronavirus vaccines prevented 3.2
million additional deaths in the United States.
Leaders in the public health establishment readily admit that many of
their problems have been self-inflicted. Among the mistakes: an early
failure by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to roll out a
diagnostic test for covid; an about-face on whether people should wear
masks to limit the spread of the virus; and confusing messages on when
to exit isolation after an infection. The duration of school closures
remains a source of recriminations.
“We deserve to have that backlash to some extent,” said Deborah Birx,
the coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force under
President Donald Trump, citing early CDC stumbles.
https://tinyurl.com/COVIDapocalypse
When Kelley Vollmar, health department director in Jefferson County,
Mo., issued a mask mandate, community members chattered online about
finding her address and chasing her out of the county. (Neeta Satam for
The Washington Post)
https://tinyurl.com/COVIDapocalypse
More than 1,000 legal decisions have been made at the local, state and
federal level regarding public health protections since March 2020,
according to research published in January in the American Journal of
Public Health. While only a quarter succeeded in weakening public health >>> powers, the rulings have substantially chipped away at the legal
standing of health agencies and officials to protect the public, said
Wendy Parmet, director of Northeastern University’s Center for Health
Policy and Law, who co-wrote the paper. “The courts are leaving us
vulnerable,” Parmet said.
https://tinyurl.com/COVIDapocalypse
The lawsuits found a conservative Supreme Court and federal judiciary
transformed by Trump and ready to strip the federal government’s public
health powers to issue mandates or other disease-control measures, said
Jennifer Piatt, a deputy director with the Network for Public Health Law. >>> A single federal judge in Florida was able to defeat the CDC’s travel
mask mandate. Republican attorneys general knocked out a federal
vaccinate-or-test mandate issued by the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration.
https://tinyurl.com/COVIDapocalypse
[Three days in the deadliest month of the covid pandemic]
These “big court wins” ensure that the next time there is a pandemic,
the country will not be able to respond as it had in 2020 with
government overreach, said Peter Bisbee, executive director of the
Republican Attorneys General Association.
“People are going to push for more freedom in every aspect of their
lives, but specifically when it comes to the ability to make decisions
regarding health and medicine,” Bisbee said. “So many people lost faith
with the government messaging on public health crises.”
The consequences are already playing out in Columbus, Ohio, where a
child with measles was able to wander around a mall before showing
symptoms in November, potentially spreading the highly contagious
disease. The state legislature in 2021 had stripped the city health
commissioner’s ability to order someone suspected of having an
infectious disease to quarantine.
https://tinyurl.com/COVIDapocalypse
Mysheika Roberts, Columbus health commissioner, explains her decision to >>> seek a public health emergency order for the Ohio city to help combat
the spread of the coronavirus on March 13, 2020. (Andrew Welsh-Huggins/AP) >>> Columbus Health Commissioner Mysheika Roberts bemoans the basic public
health functions she has lost control of — such as the ability to shut
down a restaurant with a hepatitis A outbreak as she had done before
covid. “All the other workers exposed preparing food for others to eat — >>> they could continue to go to work and shed hepatitis A” under the new
legislation, she said.
https://tinyurl.com/COVIDapocalypse
In Wisconsin, the constant threat of lawsuits by the Wisconsin Institute >>> for Law & Liberty has made officials wary of acting quickly to address
any public health threat, said Kirsten Johnson, the former health
commissioner of Milwaukee who is now the state’s health secretary.
Before the pandemic, Johnson said, she had threatened to shut down a
prominent local golf tournament after E. coli was found in the well
water, which forced the organizers to bring in bottled water. Now, she
said, she’s afraid to issue such a threat, for fear of legal retribution. >>> “At the beginning of the pandemic, it didn’t even occur to me that
public health authority was an issue,” Johnson said. “Fast forward a
year later, I had great hesitation of what was appropriate.”
The next time a pandemic hits, many public health officials will be
forced to go to state legislatures and to Congress to ask for explicit
authorization to act — a delay that could cost lives, said Edward
Fallone, a constitutional law expert at Marquette University Law School. >>> “Masking requirements, vaccine requirements, school closures are
completely off the table without new legislation,” Fallone said.
The push to dismantle the nation’s public health system was ramping up
in the summer of 2020 — months into a widespread shutdown of
restaurants, workplaces and schools — when the Heritage Foundation, a
conservative think tank, hosted a virtual forum on how state
legislatures could curtail governors’ shutdown powers.
On tap were representatives from the American Legislative Exchange
Council (ALEC) as well as a think tank and legal support group.
The message was clear: The government reaction to covid is a threat to
individual liberties that must be stopped.
https://tinyurl.com/COVIDapocalypse
“You have to narrowly define the authorities of the governor and make it >>> very clear to society and to the courts that certain things are to be
protected, such as individual and constitutional liberties,” said
Jonathon Hauenschild, who had worked on model legislation for ALEC,
according to a video recording of the July 2020 forum.
[The delta variant is ravaging this Missouri city. Many residents are
still wary of vaccines.]
https://tinyurl.com/COVIDapocalypse
Many states drew inspiration from the council’s model legislation.
In Missouri, John Wiemann, a former speaker pro tempore in the state
House of Representatives, said he used the council’s model legislation
when he co-sponsored a 2021 law that curtailed local public health
leaders’ ability to extend emergency orders without approval from
elected officials.
“It provided protections for the consumers and businesses with regards
to public health agencies out of control, unchecked with any kind of
supervision from elected officials,” he said.
Kelley Vollmar, health department director in Jefferson County, Mo.,
said the new law whittled her ability to fight covid and future
infectious diseases. In addition, a circuit court ruling stripped health >>> departments of their power to issue orders such as mandating masks and
closing schools without the support of an elected health board or county >>> commission. The state’s Republican attorney general refused to appeal
the ruling on behalf of the Missouri health department.
Backlash against her attempts to issue a mask mandate was so severe that >>> the mandate lasted just four months. The attorney who was supposed to
defend her department quit. Community members chattered online about
finding Vollmar’s address and chasing her out of the county.
Now, a gun store owner who gained local infamy for banning anyone from
wearing masks in his store says he is campaigning for an elected spot on >>> the health board so he can fire Vollmar and gut the department.
https://tinyurl.com/COVIDapocalypse
Vollmar shows printouts of threats she and her staff received on social
media during the pandemic. (Neeta Satam for The Washington Post)
Ian McFarland vowed on Facebook to give the health department “hell” and >>> used profane language to threaten workers with sexual assault in
December 2021, according to a screenshot Vollmar shared with The Post.
McFarland, in an October 2020 post she also shared, had suggested
holding a Second Amendment rally at a coronavirus testing site where
Vollmar’s staff would be working.
McFarland told The Post he was just joking around and was angry because
he believes the health department acted beyond its authority and
destroyed people’s lives and livelihoods.
https://tinyurl.com/COVIDapocalypse
“You can’t deny what they did was inappropriate and wrong if you are a
normal person who looked at life and liberty in America,” said
McFarland, a self-described constitutionalist who has vowed to turn away >>> government money if he wins.
He cited the $2 million in additional revenue he said his gun store
recorded as evidence his views are widely shared by the community, which >>> he said came to support him after his mask ban.
https://tinyurl.com/COVIDapocalypse
Amid the county’s contentious race for health board, Vollmar said a
quarter of her 81-person staff is on the verge of quitting. They change
out of their uniform polos before leaving work because of the continued
barrage of harassment and threats.
Vollmar said she is dismayed by the way the narrative of the pandemic
has become distorted. The basic facts have been lost, she said; these
public health measures were stopgaps to protect people’s lives before
vaccines and treatment were available. A majority of Americans in 2021
said they supported mask mandates and social distancing in both red and
blue states, according to a Monmouth University poll.
What haunts her most, Vollmar said, is the more than 600 lives that have >>> been lost to covid in Jefferson County. That despite her best efforts,
even she could not protect her own mother from contracting the disease
that killed her in December 2020. That even if she keeps her job after
the April health board election, Americans are now at greater risk — not >>> only for covid, but for whatever comes next.
“The reality is public health has been silenced,” Vollmar said.
https://tinyurl.com/COVIDapocalypse
In the interim, the only *healthy* way to eradicate the COVID-19
virus, thereby saving lives, in the US & elsewhere is by rapidly (
http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given moment,
including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly contagious
(i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/outrage-over-citys-proposal-to-impose-lockdown-for-the-flu/news-story/23649b2ca11f46aeb606cd4c45b20cf7
Outrage over city’s proposal to impose lockdown for the flu
Fury is brewing in a Chinese city with 13 million residents over a
radical plan to introduce lockdowns for outbreaks of the plain old flu.
Kate Schneider
less than 2 min read
March 12, 2023 - 8:45PM
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From mass tests to lockdowns, China is on high-alert to keep the
coronavirus at bay ahead of the Winter Olympics. WSJ examines the
zero-Covid strategy in the city of Xi'an to see how it has sparked
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There is outrage over a Chinese city’s proposal to introduce lockdowns
for the flu in the case of outbreaks.
The city of Xi’an, which is located in the Shaanxi province and is also
home to the famous terracotta warriors, released its emergency response
plan this week on social media.
In it, it detailed how it would shut schools, businesses and other
crowded places in the megacity of some 13 million people if a severe flu >>> epidemic struck.
It comes as China battles a surges in cases of the flu following its
reopening after Covid lockdowns.
Such surges in infectious diseases are happening because of the
on-going COVID pandemic and the millions now at risk from undiagnosed
long-COVID:
http://tinyurl.com/COVIDapocalypse
There was much concern expressed on Chinese social media sites such as
Weibo that the flu policy is “excessive” and echoes the
economically-crippling Covid Zero policy.
One city in China is considering locking down for the flu. Picture:
Lintao Zhang/Getty Images
One city in China is considering locking down for the flu. Picture:
Lintao Zhang/Getty Images
The city had been locked down for one month in 2021 to control a Covid
outbreak, with residents mostly unable to leave their homes. Few want to >>> see a return to that time.
“Is it not enough to torture people (before), that we are thinking of
doing it again and again?,” one user wrote on Weibo.
“If we have to lock down because of influenza, then won’t we have to
lock down every time flu season comes? We will not go backward,” another >>> said.
“Vaccinate the public rather than using such time to create a sense of
panic,” a third commented.
“How will people not panic given that Xi’an’s proposal to suspend work
and business activities were issued without clear instruction on the
national level to classify the disease?” asked another.
In the interim, the only *healthy* way to eradicate the COVID-19
virus, thereby saving lives, in China & elsewhere is by rapidly (
http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given moment,
including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly contagious
(i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://jeffjacoby.com/26819/lawmakers-challenge-the-secrecy-of
Lawmakers challenge the secrecy of the confessional
by Jeff Jacoby
The Boston Globe
March 12, 2023
Send
Share
HERE IS a proposition no reasonable person could argue with: There must
be laws protecting minors from abuse and neglect and bringing those who
hurt children to justice. Every state has such laws on its books.
Here is a second proposition: People in professions that involve
frequent contact with children, such as social workers, teachers,
doctors, or nurses, should be "mandated reporters" — i.e., required by
law to notify officials when they learn or suspect that a child is being >>> abused. That too is the law in every state. Some go even further,
requiring all persons, regardless of their profession, to report
suspected abuse or neglect.
Now consider a different kind of proposition, also broadly accepted:
Some relationships between two people, like that between a clergy member >>> and a penitent, are so important to society, and so dependent on
absolute trust, that the law cannot compel one party to reveal what the
other has said in confidence. There are only a few such privileged
relationships (attorney-client and doctor-patient are the others), and
they have been rooted in American law for 200 years.
Until very recently, these three propositions coexisted everywhere,
striking a balance between the best interests of children and the
imperative of religious freedom.
But in a handful of states, including Vermont, Washington, and Delaware, >>> there are now legislative efforts to overrule the clergy-penitent
privilege. That would mean that priests could be required to report
information even when it was obtained under the seal of the confessional >>> — a violation so grave in the eyes of the Catholic Church that a priest
who commits it is punished with automatic excommunication. (Though the
Catholic stricture on the secrecy of confession is the best known, other >>> religious denominations — among them, Episcopalianism, Orthodox
Christianity, and Mormonism — also obligate clergy to keep a penitent's
confession secret.)
There is little doubt that these bills are being advanced with the best
of intentions. In Vermont, for example, the sponsor of the legislation
is state Senator Dick Sears, a Bennington Democrat who chairs the
Judiciary Committee and has long been a leader in efforts to protect
vulnerable children. He hadn't realized that the law making clergy
members mandated reporters exempted information acquired in the
confessional, he told the Associated Press, and his bill is intended to
end that exemption.
"My gut reaction is nobody should get a free pass," Sears said.
But is there any evidence that child abusers are getting a "free pass"
because the law protects the secrecy of religious confession? As it
happens, that issue has been intensively studied in the wake of the
sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, which was exposed by the
Globe in 2002. According to Eric Kniffin, a civil rights attorney and a
fellow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, "more than a dozen
in-depth grand jury or attorney general reports have been produced since >>> 2002, yet none have pointed to the sacrament of confession as a
contributing factor, let alone a major factor [in protecting abusers]."
Perhaps, as Bishop Christopher Coyne, the head of Vermont's Catholic
diocese, observed when he testified at a legislative hearing on March 3, >>> that is because the rule of secrecy does not apply in any religious
setting outside the confessional. Priests and other clergy members
acquire considerable information in non-confessional settings, none of
which is exempt from being reported. "The conversations that we have in
our offices, the counseling sessions that we do, the spiritual direction >>> that we do — none of that is privileged, and it is all included under
the mandatory reporting statutes," Coyne told lawmakers.
The point is deepened by the American theologian Cathy Caridi. "Priests
can find ways to help the authorities without revealing the content of a >>> person's confession," Caridi writes in her blog on canon law. If a
penitent indicates that he intends to kill or harm someone, a priest can >>> alert the police that the intended victim is in danger, as long as he
does not disclose how he obtained the information. She describes a case
"in which police received a phone call from a priest, warning them that
two teenaged sisters were in danger at that very moment. The police
understood that the priest was not permitted to give them more specific
information, and simply located the girls . . . and made sure they were
protected." The priest in that instance was able to help thwart a crime
without violating the sacramental seal.
The privileged status of clergy-pentitent communications has been
recognized in US common law since at least as early as 1813, reinforced
by statute in every state and in judicial decisions. In a 1990 case, the >>> US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held that "the
clergy-communicant relationship is so important, indeed so fundamental
to the western tradition, that it must be sedulously fostered."
As a practical matter, abrogating the penitential privilege isn't likely >>> to elicit any information that is now kept confidential: Priests are
taught that they must be willing to face prison, torture, or death
rather than break the seal of the confessional. In any case, priests
frequently don't know the identity of the person making a confession.
"The overwhelming majority of sacramental confessions are anonymous,"
the Diocese of Wilmington noted in its statement on the proposed
Delaware law.
The First Amendment's forceful language banning legislators from
"prohibiting the free exercise" of religion doesn't empower religions or >>> their adherents to flout laws that are applicable to everyone. But as
the Supreme Court has ruled time and again, any law that impinges on a
particular religious belief or practice — even when its purpose is to
advance a vital public goal — must be drawn as narrowly as possible.
Preventing and punishing child abuse is unquestionably a compelling
interest. But is it compelling enough to allow Vermont, Washington, and
Delaware to uproot the longstanding legal protection of confessional
secrecy? To clear the First Amendment's hurdle, they would have to show
why they cannot fight child abuse without trampling on a key religious
belief when more than 40 states are able to do so.
Protecting children is a matter of crucial importance. Protecting
religious faith is too. It isn't the job of lawmakers to privilege one
of those worthy aims over the other. It is to strive, with care and
respect, to do both.
"Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness (secrecy),
but rather expose them." (Ephesians 5:11 w/ parenthetical
clarification)
Source:
https://biblehub.com/ephesians/5-11.htm
In the interim, the only *healthy* way to eradicate the COVID-19
virus, thereby saving lives, in the US & elsewhere is by rapidly (
http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given moment,
including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly contagious
(i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://brownstone.org/articles/censorship-masquerades-and-disinformation-control/
Censorship Masquerades and Disinformation Control
BY Andrew LowenthalANDREW LOWENTHAL MARCH 19, 2023 LAW, MEDIA 4
MINUTE READ
SHARE | PRINT | EMAIL
Twitter Files #19 have dropped. I am happy to have assisted Matt Taibbi
and team to put that release together, along with release #18.
The Files show widespread censorship masquerading as
“anti-disinformation” and intense collusion between government agencies, >>> NGOs, academia, Big Tech, media, philanthropy, the intelligence
community, and more.
Tinfoil hat stuff? The Twitter Files show it is real.
They uncover a level of corruption that is hard to grasp, much of it
among the ‘anti-disinformation’ and digital rights fields where I have
worked for almost 20 years.
To say this is disappointing would be an incredible understatement. A
180 on what I understood to be our values.
Twitter Files #18 and #19 focus on the Virality Project, an
“anti-vaccine misinformation” effort led by Stanford and bringing
together elite academia, NGOs, government, and experts in AI and social
media monitoring, with six of the biggest social media companies on the
planet. They went far beyond their “misinformation” remit. Twitter Files >>> show the Virality Project pushed platforms to censor “stories of true
vaccine side effects.”
Partnered in the effort were Facebook/Instagram, Google/YouTube, TikTok, >>> Pinterest, Medium, and Twitter.
Reporting side effects of the now-pulled Johnson & Johnson vaccine would >>> have been labelled “misinformation” under Virality Project decrees. Had
Kerryn Phelps (the first female president of the Australian Medical
Association) taken to Twitter to describe her and her wife’s vaccine
injuries, these too would have been labelled misinformation. German
Health Minister Karl Lauterbach would have also been censored last week
for admitting that as a result of the vaccines “there are severe
disabilities, and some of them will be permanent.” (Video)
Rather than listening out for safety signals to protect the public,
leaders in the “anti-disinformation” field ran cover to protect Big
Pharma, smearing and censoring critics. The moral depravity is
astounding and quite possibly criminal.
The Virality Project however is just part of a broader cultural shift
that reverses long standing liberal/left commitments to free expression
and allows censorship in the name of protection and safety. However in
suppressing “stories of true vaccine side effects” the Virality Project
put people in danger. Rather than keeping people safe they exposed us to >>> the depredations of Big Pharma.
The centrality of censorship ideology to the digital rights field is
illustrated in former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern opening
RightsCon 2022, the sector’s biggest civil society event. EngageMedia
co-organised RightsCon in 2015 when I was Executive Director. Ardern
claims that “weapons of war” and “disinformation” are one and the same.
RightsCon 2022 also heavily promoted US Secretary of State Anthony
Blinken. Blinken oversees the State Department’s Global Engagement
Center, one of the most egregious US government promoters of
“anti-disinformation” as censorship. (See Twitter Files #17)
Western leaders who advocate for censorship in the name of
“disinformation” severely undermine those fighting authoritarian regimes >>> around the world. Those regimes frequently evoke the threat of “fake
news” to justify their crackdowns.
Is disinformation an actual problem? Yes, though it is overstated and
the “anti-disinformation” field is making it worse, not better. It is
also contributing to increasing polarisation.
I encourage you to read both releases in full and hold what you have
been told about Elon Musk just for a moment. Musk is neither hero nor
demon. The Twitter Files however are a critical catalyst to challenge
the new censorship regime we now live under and reinvigorate the
movement for free expression.
(Note that I am a paid consultant for Matt Taibbi and have no relation
whatsoever to Musk).
If you can walk and chew gum you’ll know that uncovering liberal/left
corruption doesn’t imply support for the reactionary right.
Free speech and expression protect us from the most powerful actors on
the planet; corporations, the State, and a growing plethora of
international bodies. Ultimately we need radically decentralised social
media that is more immune to their capture. Our safety depends on it.
Many have come before me, however far too few have been willing to
challenge this ethical fall from grace. The good news is that it’s not
too late.
Republished from the author’s Substack
In the interim, the only *healthy* way to eradicate the COVID-19
virus, thereby saving lives, in the US & elsewhere is by rapidly (
http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given moment,
including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly contagious
(i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://reason.com/2023/03/20/britains-lockdown-files-reveal-the-sordid-thinking-behind-pandemic-policy/
Eye-opening insights into the messy motivations behind restrictive
COVID-19 responses.
J.D. TUCCILLE | 3.20.2023 7:00 AM
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on RedditShare by emailPrint
friendly versionCopy page URL
A sign at the entrance to the British Museum in London announces that it >>> is temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
(VVShots | Dreamstime.com)
When cornered, some politicians grudgingly admit COVID-19 restrictions
went too far and made little sense. But that still leaves us wondering
as to their thinking when they locked playgrounds, mandated masks,
restricted travel, shuttered businesses, closed schools, confined people >>> to their homes, sent cops after paddle-boarders floating on the lonely
sea, ignored their own rules, and otherwise inflicted harms worse than a >>> virus could ever manage. Now an important disclosure of communications
among British officials reveals just how government officials' minds
work when exercising extraordinary power. It's not a pretty sight.
Belated Regrets
"We had to make some decisions, that in retrospect, don't make a lot of
sense," Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer recently conceded with regard >>> to lockdown orders issued after COVID-19 appeared. "Some of those
policies, I look back and think: that was maybe a little more than we
needed to do."
Those policies arbitrarily parsed between "essential" and "nonessential" >>> businesses for the imposition of draconian rules, even banning the sale
of gardening supplies to people stranded at home. They were notoriously
ill-considered and intrusive, making an admission of error necessary, if >>> consequence-free. It was also belated, since the state Supreme Court
ruled Whitmer's use of emergency powers unconstitutional in 2020, and
lawmakers repealed them in 2021 in response to a citizen initiative.
But, if they're sorry-ish now, what in the hell were Whitmer and her ilk >>> thinking when they cooked up restrictive policies? For a peek behind the >>> dank and musty curtain we turn to Britain, where The Telegraph this
month published The Lockdown Files drawn from 100,000 messages exchanged >>> among government officials. They reveal powerful people warned that
restrictive policies would cause more harm than the disease, decisions
made for public relations reasons, media enlisted to suppress dissent,
and officials gloating over inconveniences to the public.
The Rattler is a weekly newsletter from J.D. Tuccille. If you care about >>> government overreach and tangible threats to everyday liberty, this is
for you.
Email Address
Submit
A Peek Behind the Scenes
"WhatsApp conversations contained in The Telegraph's Lockdown Files show >>> that those running the country privately acknowledged the 'terrible'
price of lockdowns and twice reimposed the national shutdowns, even as
they discussed the damage they were causing to physical and mental
health, children's prospects and mental health," the newspaper's team
noted. Among the consequences of which they were directly warned were
interrupted medical treatments and ill effects on children.
"A civil servant [in then-Health Secretary Matt] Hancock's private
office sent him a WhatsApp message alerting him to a child respiratory
virus that was expected to surge in the summer months as a result of the >>> virus being suppressed during lockdown—known in Whitehall as an NPI, or
non-pharmaceutical intervention," The Telegraph reports. In fact, cases
of the virus, RSV, subsequently soared in 2021 among children shielded >>>from the bug by social distancing orders, trading one infection for another. >>>
In addition, officials were "worried about the Government being sued by
the families of those who had died because of the backlog on cancer care >>> and elective treatments."
When the British public became resistant to damaging restrictions on
business, gatherings, and movement, Hancock openly embraced plans to
"deploy" news of COVID-19 variants to "frighten the pants off everyone"
to encourage compliance with lockdown rules. The idea was sufficiently
well accepted that officials referred to their efforts as "Project Fear." >>>
Fomenting panic was in keeping with the seat-of-the-pants
decision-making driving much pandemic policy. Then-Prime Minister Boris
Johnson boasted of making decisions based on "science," but was more
driven by polling—and sometimes by what he himself feared was bad data
that overstated risks.
Johnson "appeared to express a desire to lift the country out of
lockdown earlier than planned, but said his media advisers – Lee Cain
and James Slack – warned him that such a move was 'too far ahead of
public opinion'," reports The Telegraph. "When Mr Johnson broached the
subject of opening schools before the summer, his health secretary
argued against doing so, saying that 'everyone's accepted there won't be >>> more on schools until September'."
"The exchanges call into question the prime minister's insistence that
lockdown decisions were made on the basis of the best scientific
evidence," adds The Telegraph. "They also raise the prospect that
Britain spent many weeks living under restrictions that could have been
avoided."
What's the English Word for Schadenfreude?
And at least a few officials gained pleasure from the pain they imposed
on others, openly applauding harsh enforcement of rules that were open
to interpretation.
"Simon Case, the Cabinet Secretary, said it was 'hilarious' that 149
people had been told to stay in government-approved hotels on their
return from Red List countries in 2021," the newspaper summarized. "He
also joked about passengers being 'locked up' in 'shoe box' rooms. Those >>> on the receiving end of the quarantine policy at the time said it was
like being 'in Guantanamo Bay'."
For his part, Hancock "was an advocate of using the police to crack down >>> on anyone deemed to have broken quarantine or lockdown rules, even
though the regulations were often open to interpretation. He expressed
satisfaction when the 'plod' were given their 'marching orders'."
No Dissent Allowed
It wouldn't be 2023 if we didn't talk about policymakers compiling
enemies lists of lockdown opponents and "threatening to withdraw funding >>> for projects" in the districts of dissident legislators. Or of the
media's role in promoting establishment talking points and suppressing
dissent.
"What was most alarming was the alacrity with which the broadcast news
media fell into line – with boundless enthusiasm – as they were given a
key role in the day to day dissemination of government authority,"
observed The Telegraph's Janet Daly. "As the medium through which the
official information was conveyed – with, as we now know, often
misleading modelling projections and outdated death figures – they went >>>from being public service news media to what the BBC notably has always
insisted it is not: state broadcasters. From disinterested journalism to >>> Pravda in a single bound."
That should sound familiar to Americans who have had a similarly
revelatory peek through the Twitter Files and similar leaks into
government efforts to suppress inconvenient (to the powerful)
viewpoints. We've also seen politicians demonize critical journalists
such as Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger.
The correspondence in the "Lockdown Files" was leaked to The Telegraph
by journalist Isabel Oakeshott, who was collaborating with Matt Hancock
on his memoir and was disturbed by what she saw.
"We were all let down by the response to the pandemic and repeated
unnecessary lockdowns," she commented earlier this month. "Children, in
particular, paid a terrible price. Anyone who questioned an approach we
now know was fatally flawed was utterly vilified; including highly
respected and eminent public health experts, doctors and scientists."
We may never know exactly what members of America's own
pandemic-exploiting political class were thinking when they turned the
screws on people's liberties. But thanks to the Lockdown Files, we can
make a good guess.
In the interim, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://archive.vn/113vn
Why doesn’t Britain regret lockdown?
Three years on, voters remain in favour
BY FREDDIE SAYERS
. The mea culpas will never arrive (ANDY BUCHANAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Freddie Sayers is the Executive Editor of UnHerd. He was previously
Editor-in-Chief of YouGov, and founder of PoliticsHome.
freddiesayers
March 23, 2023
Filed under:
Groupthink CovidlockdownUnHerd Britain 2023
Share:
“In retrospect, lockdowns were a mistake.”
If you agree with the above statement, you are, I’m afraid, still in the >>> minority. Three years to the day since Britain brought in its first
nationwide lockdown, the latest wave of UnHerd Britain polling shows
that only 27% of voters agree that lockdowns were a mistake, while 54%
disagree and 19% are not sure. The strength of feeling also tilts in the >>> other direction: fully 30% of people strongly disagree with the
statement, while only 12% strongly agree.
Like what you’re reading? Get the free UnHerd daily email
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Having estimated results for all 632 constituencies in Britain, our
partners Focaldata could not find a single seat where the “lockdown
sceptics” outnumber the “pro-lockdowners.” Chorley in Lancashire and
Leeds Central are the closest thing to sceptical enclaves (here,
supporters of lockdowns outnumber opponents by a single percentage
point) but it is still a minority position. If “defenders of lockdown”
were a political party, it would sweep the nation in a landslide.
To those of us at the coalface of interrogating the wisdom of lockdowns
for the past three years, it is a bitter pill to swallow. As someone who >>> counts himself among the 12% of voters who strongly agree with the
statement, allow me to tell you what life is like inside this embattled
minority.
To the majority of people who believe lockdowns were right and
necessary, the Covid era was no doubt distressing, but it need not have
been cause to re-order their perception of the world. Faced with a new
and frightening disease, difficult decisions were taken by the people in >>> charge but we came together and got through it; mistakes were made, but
overall we did what we needed to do.
For the dissenting minority, the past three years have been very
different. We have had to grapple with the possibility that, through
panic and philosophical confusion, our governing class contrived to make >>> a bad situation much worse. Imagine living with the sense that the
manifold evils of the lockdowns that we all now know — ripping up
centuries-old traditions of freedom, interrupting a generation’s
education, hastening the decline into decrepitude for millions of older
people, destroying businesses and our health service, dividing families, >>> saddling our economies with debt, fostering fear and alienation,
attacking all the best things in life — needn’t have happened for
anything like so long, if at all?
To those who place emphasis on good quality evidence, it has been
particularly exasperating. In the early days of 2020, we had only
intuitions — there was no real data as to whether lockdowns worked, as
they had never been tried in this way. As millions tuned in to our
in-depth interviews on UnHerdTV with leading scientists, we made sure to >>> hear arguments in favour of lockdowns as well as against. Devi Sridhar
made the case for Zero Covid; Susan Michie said we should be locking
down even harder; Neil Ferguson (whose last-ever tweet was a link to his >>> UnHerd interview) told me how exciting it was that the world was
attempting to stop a highly infectious disease in its tracks.
There were periods when the evidence looked like it was going the other
way, such as Sweden’s worse-than-expected second wave in winter 2020-21. >>> Professor Fredrik Elgh dramatically predicted disaster for that country, >>> which ultimately didn’t transpire — but he had me worried.
SUGGESTED READING
How lockdown changed us
BY FREDDIE SAYERS
In the past year, however, we have for the first time been able to look
at the Covid data in the round. Many of the countries which appeared to
be doing “well” in terms of low levels of infections and deaths caught
up in the second year — Norway ended up much closer to Sweden, while
countries such as Hungary, which were initially praised for strong early >>> lockdowns, have ended up with some of the worst death tolls in the
world. Due to the peculiarly competitive nature of the lockdowns, the
results were neatly tracked, allowing clear comparison between countries >>> and regions. While we spent the first year arguing about deaths “with”
Covid as opposed to deaths “from” Covid, all sides in this discussion
have now settled on overall “excess deaths” as the fairest measure of
success or failure: in other words, overall, how many more people died
in a particular place than you would normally expect?
My view on these results is quite simple: in order to justify a policy
as monumental as shutting down all of society for the first time in
history, the de minimis outcome must be a certainty that fewer people
died because of it. Lockdown was not one “lever” among many: it was the
nuclear option. The onus must be on those who promoted lockdowns to
produce a table showing a clear correlation between the places that
enacted mandatory shutdowns and their overall outcome in terms of excess >>> deaths. But there is no such table; there is no positive correlation.
Three years after, there is no non-theoretical evidence that lockdowns
were necessary to save lives. This is not an ambiguous outcome; it is
what failure looks like.
If anything, the correlation now looks like it goes the other way. The
refusal of Sweden to bring in a lockdown, and the neighbouring
Scandinavian countries’ shorter and less interventionist lockdowns and
swifter return to normality, provide a powerful control to the
international experiment. Three years on, these countries are at the
bottom of the European excess deaths league table, and depending on
which method you choose, Sweden is either at or very near the very
bottom of the list. So the countries that interfered the least with the
delicately balanced ecosystem of their societies caused the least
damage; and the only European country to eschew mandatory lockdowns
altogether ended up with the smallest increase in loss of life. It’s a
fatal datapoint for the argument that lockdowns were the only option.
So why, three years on, do most people not share this conclusion? Partly >>> because most people haven’t seen the evidence. Nor will they. The media
and political establishment were so encouraging of lockdowns at the time >>> that their only critique was that they weren’t hard enough. They are
hardly going to acknowledge such a grave mistake now. Nor do I expect
the inquiry to ask the right questions: obfuscation and distraction will >>> continue and mea culpas will never arrive.
SUGGESTED READING
Questions the Covid Inquiry must ask
BY FREDDIE SAYERS
But it can’t all be put down to the media. Over that strange period, we
were reminded of something important about human nature: when
frightened, people will choose security over freedom. Endless opinion
polls confirmed it, and politicians acted upon it. Tellingly, those
constituencies most in favour of lockdowns in our polling are leafy and
affluent — New Forest West, Bexhill, Henley, The Cotswolds. Perhaps some >>> people even enjoyed it.
Meanwhile, the dissenting minority is not going anywhere. This new class >>> of citizen is now a feature of every Western society: deeply distrustful >>> of authority, sceptical of the “narrative”, hungry for alternative
explanations, inured to being demonised and laughed at. The dissident
class skews young (it includes 39% of 25-34 year olds) and clusters
around poorer inner-city neighbourhoods; it heads to alternative media
channels for information. Its number was greatly increased over the
lockdown era as those people lost faith in the way the world is run.
They will continue to make their presence felt in the years to come.
As for me, the past three years have changed how I view the world. I
feel no anger, simply a wariness: an increased sense of how fragile our
liberal way of life is, how precarious its institutions and principles,
and how good people, including those I greatly admire, are capable of
astonishing misjudgements given the right atmosphere of fear and moral
panic. In particular those years revealed the dark side of supposedly
enlightened secular rationalism — how, if freed from its moorings, it
can tend towards a crudely mechanistic world in which inhuman decisions
are justified to achieve dubious measurable targets.
I hope there is no “next time”, and that the political class will never
again think nationwide lockdowns are a proper policy option in a liberal >>> democracy. But if they do, I suspect the opposition, while still perhaps >>> a minority, will be better organised.
In the interim, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/mar/24/sage-warned-independent-sage-name-would-cause-confusion-patrick-vallance-david-king
Sage warned Independent Sage its name would cause confusion, says Vallance >>> Chief scientist told former incumbent Sir David King the similarity
would lead to mixed messaging
Ian Sample Science editor
@iansample
Fri 24 Mar 2023 14.56 EDT
The government’s chief scientist warned a former incumbent not to
confuse the public during the Covid pandemic by naming an independent
expert panel after the group convened to advise ministers on the crisis. >>>
Sir Patrick Vallance revealed the clash in an interview at the Institute >>> for Government on Friday, where he also said he would have told the
former prime minister Boris Johnson that the Covid rules were meant to
be followed by all.
Vallance chaired the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, or Sage, >>> throughout the pandemic and fed assessments from the expert committee
back to the prime minister and the rest of government.
In response to initial secrecy around Sage’s meetings and membership,
Sir David King, who was the government’s chief scientist a decade
earlier, created Independent Sage, a separate panel of experts that held >>> its meetings in public.
Speaking at the event, Vallance said King called early in the crisis and >>> declared his intention to set up the parallel group because of concerns
around Sage’s lack of transparency. “I did ask him not to call it Sage,
because I think that was very confusing,” Vallance said. “I think it’s a >>> pity that that happened.”
At the time, several senior scientists criticised King for the move and
warned that calling the group “Independent Sage” risked undermining
Britain’s pandemic response and muddying the waters around crucial
public health messages.
Sage’s membership was kept secret at the start of the pandemic, along
with data and research papers the group discussed, and minutes of the
meetings. Following an outcry over the lack of transparency, the
committee became more open, publishing the names of members who were
happy to be identified and releasing documents, though often several
weeks after the event.
The delay in releasing documents led to widespread alarm in October 2020 >>> when it emerged that Sage had warned ministers three weeks earlier that
the country faced a “very large epidemic with catastrophic consequences” >>> unless it took immediate action by imposing a “circuit breaker”
lockdown. Instead, Boris Johnson introduced a three-tier Covid alert system.
Vallance, who steps down as chief scientific adviser next Friday, said
that while government departments had “very good” science advisers, the
civil service has lagged behind. When he took up the post in 2018, only
10% of entrants to the civil service fast stream held a science,
technology, engineering or maths degree. A target has since been set to
achieve 50%, he said.
Asked if the government’s chief scientist could ever be an artificial
intelligence, Vallance admitted that he had asked ChatGPT to write a
letter for the prime minister on a scientific issue to see what it would >>> churn out. “The concept was a bit ropey, but the structure was quite
good,” he said.
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On the advice he would have given Johnson over the events that led to
his grilling by the House of Commons’s privileges committee this week
over Partygate, Vallance added: “I’ve been pretty clear: the advice was
there for everybody and everybody should follow it.”
Dr Stephen Griffin, a co-chair of Independent Sage, said the group was
set up in the early stages of the pandemic because the attendance and
disclosure around Sage meetings was obscured. “It was in no way intended >>> to be in opposition to Sage, and never has been – much of our work has
been based upon, or in agreement with, recommendations later released in >>> Sage minutes, plus several of our group are Sage members.
“Especially during the early years of the pandemic, Indie Sage certainly >>> offered both scientific and science policy advice; several of our
members are in fact experts on the latter. Sadly, certain critics
confuse policy with politics, yet to offer scientifically informed
statements on subjects such as supported isolation, or countering
transmission, for example, in schools ought not to be controversial.”
In the interim, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11807425/Judo-instructor-attacked-police-arresting-Covid-lockdown-class-Manchester-avoids-jail.html
Judo instructor who hurled police officer to the ground and attacked
another trying to pepper spray him as they tried to arrest him for
holding free outdoor children's classes during Covid lockdown avoids jail >>> Daniel Carr, 37, 'took down' two PCs as they tried to stop his lockdown
judo class
He admitted assaulting them and judge handed him 100-day community order >>> She praised Carr for revealing mental health issues after mum's cancer
diagnosis
By OLIVER PRICE
PUBLISHED: 08:03 EDT, 1 March 2023 | UPDATED: 08:03 EDT, 1 March 2023
72
shares
7
View comments
A martial arts instructor who 'took down' two policemen as they tried to >>> arrest him for holding free outdoor judo classes for children during the >>> Covid lockdown has avoided prison after a judge praised his 'excellent'
courtroom plea for leniency.
Daniel Carr, 37, used his judo skills to throw one officer to the ground >>> before striking another on the wrist who was about to pepper spray him
in February 2021.
At the time both constables were trying to detain Carr after he arranged >>> free classes for youngsters in a public park in Heywood, near Rochdale
Greater Manchester to help with their 'mental health wellbeing' due to
being confined to their homes during Tier 4 restrictions.
The officers were taken to hospital where PC Adnen Mehmood was found to
have suffered a punctured right lung as result of him him hitting the
ground. The other officer PC Mohammed Zeb had a day off sick and was
placed on restricted duties for two weeks after he was left with
'soreness, tenderness and swelling' to his left wrist. Both officers
have made full recoveries.
At Minshull Street Crown Court, Manchester, Carr, from Heywood who spent >>> ten days in custody following his arrest faced up to five years in
prison after pleading guilty to causing actual bodily harm and
obstructing police.
Martial arts instructor Daniel Carr (pictured), from Greater Manchester, >>> who 'took down' two policemen as they tried to arrest him for holding
free outdoor judo classes for children during the Covid lockdown has
avoided prison after his 'excellent' courtroom plea for leniency
+5
View gallery
Martial arts instructor Daniel Carr (pictured), from Greater Manchester, >>> who 'took down' two policemen as they tried to arrest him for holding
free outdoor judo classes for children during the Covid lockdown has
avoided prison after his 'excellent' courtroom plea for leniency
Daniel Carr, 37, used his judo skills to throw one officer to the ground >>> before striking another on the wrist who was about to pepper spray him
in February 2021. Pictured: Judo instructor Daniel Carr (right)
performing a martial arts move during a session
+5
View gallery
Daniel Carr, 37, used his judo skills to throw one officer to the ground >>> before striking another on the wrist who was about to pepper spray him
in February 2021. Pictured: Judo instructor Daniel Carr (right)
performing a martial arts move during a session
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But he was given a 12-month community order and was ordered to complete
100 hours of unpaid work after he gave an impassioned speech in which he >>> apologised for the injuries caused to the officers but said he was
merely 'helping people struggling with the effects of lockdown.'
The court heard all participants in the class were standing two metres
apart.
Carr organised the martial arts at Queens Park in Heywood. But Covid
restrictions in place at the time in February 2021 meant that it was
illegal to organise or attend gatherings and meetings with anyone
outside your household or support bubble.
But prosecutor Craig MacGregor said: 'He [Carr] wanted to be able to
protest about being able to protest about the Covid regulations. Police
became aware on social media about those gatherings and on February 4 he >>> received a "cease and desist" letter which said he can be fined for
prohibited behavior.
'He was also served with a directive from Rochdale Borough Council under >>> the health protection regulations, telling him not to have this protest. >>>
'He would say it was to help people's health and wellbeing and they
would have been 2m apart but the participants would still have to give
each other succour.
'He also said was offering kids martial arts lessons from 1pm but in
brackets saying: "If I have not been arrested."
'We say that is teasing and goading of the officers. He had already been >>> arrested previously and told to go home and there is an element of the
"I won't have anyone tell me what to do" mentality.'
+5
View gallery
Representing himself Carr (pictured outside Minshull Street Crown Court) >>> denied throwing a punch at PC Zeb and said: 'My intention that day was
to help people struggling with the effects of lockdown, myself amongst
them, and to offer free martial arts lessons to kids who may have been
struggling'
Carr organised the martial arts at Queens Park in Heywood (pictured).
But Covid restrictions in place at the time in February 2021 meant that
it was illegal to organise or attend gatherings and meetings with anyone >>> outside your household or support bubble
+5
View gallery
Carr organised the martial arts at Queens Park in Heywood (pictured).
But Covid restrictions in place at the time in February 2021 meant that
it was illegal to organise or attend gatherings and meetings with anyone >>> outside your household or support bubble
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Mr MacGregor said that the event had not taken account of any of the
other people using the park who wanted to follow the Tier 4 restrictions >>> and added: 'On February 27 at about 12 o'clock people started to gather. >>> The defendant tried to give help to people. At the bandstand there was
tea and coffee and martial arts lessons.
'At 12.40pm as the gathering got larger police tried to break things up. >>> PC Zebb and PC Mehmood told the defendant to leave the park, he being
the organiser.
'He started to walk off about 300 yards from the bandstand, but then
changed direction to try and frustrate what the police officers were
trying to do. It got to the stage where PC Mehmood decided he had to
arrest the defendant but he was thrown to the floor twice.
'PC Zebb deployed his Parva spray but during the scuffle that ensued was >>> punched on his left wrist. He was left with some soreness, tenderness
and swelling. PC Mehmood has slightly more serious injuries and they
both went to Fairfield Hospital.
'PC Mehmood suffered right shoulder pain and reduced mobility and there
was a soft tissue injury with an X-ray showing there was a puncture to
the right lung, an apical pneumothorax, but there were no associated rib >>> fractures. Perhaps it was the force in which he was taken to the ground
that caused it. Luckily, that punctured lung healed without further
medical intervention in a short period of time.
'PC Zebb had two trips to the hospital and had to take a day off work,
was on restricted office duties for a couple of weeks which had an
effect on the neighbourhood police team. This offence was committed
against an emergency worker acting in the exercise of his functions.'
Carr spent 10 days in custody following his initial arrest and 261 days
on a curfew while on bail and was originally charged with causing
grievous bodily harm.
Representing himself Carr denied throwing a punch at PC Zeb and said:
'My intention that day was to help people struggling with the effects of >>> lockdown, myself amongst them, and to offer free martial arts lessons to >>> kids who may have been struggling, something I am trained and qualified
to do, and something I had been doing for some years before lockdown.
'I still believe what I was doing or trying to do was the right thing to >>> do, however maybe in the wrong way. During a very difficult time due to
isolation and the news a few weeks earlier that my mother had been
diagnosed with cancer and was going through radiotherapy I wasn't
thinking 100% clearly.
'I have always done what I believe is the right thing to do, I have made >>> mistakes and strayed from the path at times, but I've always stood up
and taken responsibility for my mistakes. Allowing myself to assault a
police officer trying to arrest me however unlawful I perceived that
arrest to be, was wrong, resulting in an officer being hurt, causing
stress and upset to his family.
'It put stress and pressure on my family at a time when they had enough
to deal with. It undermined any good I was trying to do and caused me to >>> lose the judo club l had set up and my job, not to mention friendships
and the respect many people in the community had for me.'
He added: 'This was all set in motion by how I reacted that day, to
which I feel is in no way representative of who I am or who I want to
be. My reaction that day was completely instinctive with the sole
intention of escaping what I perceived at the time to be a threat,
partly influenced by my emotional mental state, partly by my righteous
indignation and partly by my pride, to which I am ashamed, embarrassed
and deeply sorry for any pain or distress I may have caused.'
At Minshull Street Crown Court (pictured) in Manchester, sentencing
Judge Angela Nield told Carr he had delivered an 'excellent speech in
mitigation' and said he had expressed himself in 'a careful and
impressive manner' as she handed him a 12-month community order and
ordered him to complete 100 hours of unpaid work
+5
View gallery
At Minshull Street Crown Court (pictured) in Manchester, sentencing
Judge Angela Nield told Carr he had delivered an 'excellent speech in
mitigation' and said he had expressed himself in 'a careful and
impressive manner' as she handed him a 12-month community order and
ordered him to complete 100 hours of unpaid work
Sentencing Judge Angela Nield told Carr he had delivered an 'excellent
speech in mitigation' and said he had expressed himself in 'a careful
and impressive manner'. She also made no order for compensation for the
two PCs.
She told Carr: 'Your actions were affected by your own mental state at
the time. You were understandably in distress at your mother's recent
diagnosis which compounded your own difficulties and the restrictions
that which you were struggling with significantly.'
At an earlier hearing Carr was fined £2,000 for breaching Covid
restrictions over the judo classes and was also ordered to pay 1,960
court costs and a £200 victim surcharge.
At the time Mark Widdup, director of neighbourhoods for Rochdale
council, said: 'The actions of Mr Carr were not only a breach of the
national regulations that were in place at the time, they were also an
affront to the majority of people who made great personal sacrifices in
order to help protect others from a virus that has claimed the lives of
hundreds of people in our borough.'
'Although the risks of transmission were generally considered to be
lower outdoors compared to indoors, there were still significant risks
of transmission with people congregating in large numbers and being
closer than two metres from each other. Mr Carr's actions demonstrated a >>> complete disregard for the legislation and his selfish actions put
others at risk.'
In the interim, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://archive.vn/zMd9l
App caused chaos in summer of 2021 when it alerted millions of people to >>> self-isolate
By
Matthew Field
28 March 2023 • 7:13pm
The NHS Covid-19 app behind the controversial “pingdemic” is to be shut
down next month.
The digital contact tracing service, which crippled businesses and
forced millions of workers into quarantine, will stop working on April
27 for lack of use.
The app, which was launched in September 2020, allowed people to
register positive Covid tests and then would notify recent contacts
about possible exposure to the virus. Those who came into contact with a >>> Covid patient were “pinged” and told to isolate.
At its peak, the app was alerting more than half a million people each
week that they should stay at home, bringing the economy to a halt.
A spokesman for the UK Health Security Agency said the number of people
using the app had “steadily reduced” over the last 18 months as the
world exited lockdowns.
LOCKDOWNS HELPED DRIVE UP INFLATION - BUT NOT ALL OF IT
0-5%
5-10%
10-15%
Over 15%
Peak
Deflation
B
Inflation related to covid
Other inflation
A
Furniture
Second-hand
cars
A
Petrol
Electricity
gas
B
Restaurants
Food
Jan
2022
Apr
2022
Jul
2022
Oct
2022
Jan
2023
SOURCE: ONS
Confirming the app would stop working next month, the Government cited
studies estimating it had prevented around one million cases of
coronavirus.
Experts at the University of Oxford and the University of Warwick
estimated the app stopped around 44,000 hospitalisations and 9,600
deaths during its first year of operation.
However, the app caused chaos throughout the summer of 2021 as the Covid >>> delta variant emerged and the sensitive app alerted millions of people
that they should self-isolate.
Concerns were raised about technical issues with the app, which in some
cases meant people were told to isolate after the app picked up positive >>> cases between walls or floors of apartments using its signals.
The Government ultimately tweaked the app so it would only alert people
who had been in close contact with a potential Covid case within the
last 48 hours.
The app cost about £76m to develop and run. Work on it began in the
early weeks of the pandemic and it was built and operated by Swiss tech
company Zuhlke Engineering.
The UK Health Security Agency said: “The number of people actively using >>> the NHS Covid-19 app has steadily reduced since July 2021. Since access
to government-funded testing ended for most people, fewer positive test
results have been entered into the app and as a result fewer
notifications have been sent to close contacts.”
The agency said it had decided to close the app down but it could
potentially use the technology developed for the app to counter future
pandemics.
The app used a smartphone’s Bluetooth signals to estimate when people
came into close contact with others, quantifying close contact as
spending around 15 minutes within two metres of each other.
In the interim, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
************** RABBI JESUS! *********************
John 1:49 Nathanael answered him, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You
are the
king of Israel!"
Yes, the Magi from the Far East (2 years travel is around 4900 miles
at a 7 mile/day pace over 700 days so that they were possibly from as
far as China) told Herod, the old king of Israel that they were
looking for the **new** King of Israel. And so, Israel and King Herod
were troubled (i.e. They likely tried in vain to kill/trouble the
Magi, hence the moniker Magi, which means powerful ones, reminiscent
of Samson, who was physically invincible in the Holy Spirit and
exhibited martial arts moves like humiliating the Philistines with a
donkey's jaw-bone).
Mark 9:5 Peter said to Jesus, "Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let
us put
up three shelters - one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah."
This suggests that instead of dying in the desert, that Moses
continued to follow the LORD off the planet, just as it's written that
Enoch and Elijah also did, despite not being allowed to set foot in
the promised land.
Moses was brought back from the dead.
Mark 11:21 Peter remembered and said to Jesus, "Rabbi, look! The fig
tree you
cursed has withered!"
This reminds us that GOD also cursed (Genesis 3:14) satan to be
terribly **not** hungry so that he's also withering away just as the
fig tree withered. Similarly, the eternally condemned here on USENET
are also withering way as is cognitively apparent.
it is indeed tragic that there are people who are eternally condemned
(like the Revd Mangina)
Luke 4:14 Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news >>> about
him spread through the whole countryside.
Luke 4:15 He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him. >>>
Luke 4:16 He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the
Sabbath
day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read,
Luke 4:17 and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him.
Yes, our LORD Jesus is Wonderful (Isaiah 9:6).
************** St. PAUL! *********************
Philippians 3:5 Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the >>> tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews
This reminds us that the Christ infant was also circumcised and took
up His name, Jesus, on the eighth day, which would be New Years Day ,
given His birth on December 25th.
In the interim, I am simply wonderfully hungry for **food** right now
(Lk 6:21a) like (Lk 6:40) LORD Jesus (Lk 4:2 x Lk 6:21 = Lk 24:42) &
hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite right now too. So how
are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-65127635
Published
3 days ago
Share
Related Topics
Coronavirus pandemic
Lateral flow test being performed
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
By Michelle Roberts
Digital health editor
Covid testing is being scaled back even further in England from April.
It is part of the "living with Covid" approach that relies on vaccines
to keep people safe.
Most staff and patients in hospitals and care homes will no longer be
given swab tests, even if they have symptoms.
Some will though, such as staff working with severely immunocompromised
patients or if there is an outbreak on a ward or in a hospice or prison, >>> for example.
ADVERTISEMENT
The long-running Office for National Statistics Covid infection survey
that estimated how many people in the community had the virus each week
- based on nose and throat swabs from volunteers - has already come to
an end.
The final one suggested 1.7 million people - about one out of every 35
(2.7%) - had Covid in the week ending 13 March, a14% rise on the
previous week.
But the UK Health Security Agency says thanks to the continuing success
of the vaccination programme, testing in England can now become more
like the approach used for other common respiratory infections such as flu. >>>
Covid booster jab to be offered this spring
Although, it can quickly be scaled up again if another big wave of
Covid, or a new variant, starts putting pressure on the NHS.
And scientists will keep checking some of the swabs tests that are
given, to see how the virus is mutating and whether there are fresh
concerns.
The testing that is ending includes:
routine asymptomatic testing for staff and patients being admitted to
all health and social-care settings, including hospitals and care homes
(most of this testing paused in August 2022 anyway)
routine symptomatic testing of staff and residents in care settings
routine symptomatic testing in prisons, places of detention and
homelessness, refuge and asylum settings
polymerase chain-reaction (PCR) testing outside NHS settings
Lateral-flow tests will continue for:
people in the community and residents in care or other high-risk
settings who have symptoms and are eligible for Covid treatment, to
enable rapid access to these drugs
some NHS staff who have symptoms and work on wards with severely
immunosuppressed patients
hospice staff with symptoms
all patients being discharged from hospitals into care settings
outbreak testing in the NHS, hospices, prisons, places of detention and
care, homelessness, refuge and asylum settings
some hospital patients with symptoms, where needed to inform decisions
such as ward transfers
UKHSA chief executive Dr Dame Jenny Harries said: "Fewer people now
experience severe illness due to Covid - due to vaccinations,
infection-related immunity and treatments for those who need them - and
the risk of hospitalisation has decreased overall.
"This means we are now able to further bring our testing programmes in
line with management of other viral infections whilst still maintaining
focus on those at highest risk, to protect them from the virus.
"Covid and other respiratory illnesses haven't gone away - and simple
actions like washing your hands and staying at home and avoiding
vulnerable people when unwell can make a big difference.
"For those at highest risk of severe illness, the spring booster
programme also provides an opportunity to keep immunity topped up."
Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay said: "Testing was
crucial to our response during the height of the pandemic - and our
successful vaccination programme has protected the most vulnerable,
saved thousands of lives and has helped us all to live with Covid.
"Thankfully, we are now able to scale back our testing programme while
remaining committed to ensuring those at highest risk and more prone to
severe illness get the protection they need."
In the interim, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
<racist> 04/06/23 Loose/KK tragically vainjangling (1 Tim 1:6) ...
https://groups.google.com/g/sci.med.cardiology/c/4tIJn_I167w/m/bKWQRUarAgAJ
Link to post explicating vainjangling by the eternally condemned:
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/sci.med.cardiology/O23NguTslhI/-xLGqnNjAAAJ
It is indeed tragic!
Such is the tragic consequence of being http://bit.ly/h_angry like
http://bit.ly/BiblicalEsau (Genesis 25:32) whom GOD hates (Malachi
1:2-3)
In the interim, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the US & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
<1737> 04/09/23 Again praying for TD here ...
https://groups.google.com/g/alt.christnet.christianlife/c/KDD5WXq4XbE/m/QHgsFEojAgAJ
Note: TD (aka http://tinyurl.com/PerishingSpamTroll ) reacting
adversely to prayer (vainly trying to rebuke someone who is omnipotent >> per Philippians 4:13 in the Holy Spirit) is not unlike how Saul
reacted to Stephen's prayer. Just as Saul needed GOD to change his
heart (Ezekiel 11:19-20 & 36:26) to become Apostle Paul on the "road
to Damascus," so too TD needs GOD more than he needs further Bible
study.
Source:
https://tinyurl.com/TDsVanity
In the interim, we can (and should rebuke) satan because he is
cursed (Genesis 3:14) by GOD to be terribly **not** hungry and enters
into the hearts of others causing them to also be terribly **not**
hungry (e.g. Judas the traitor Iscariot leaving the "Last Supper" with >> a dipped piece of bread and not eating it). Only those of us who are
always writing/saying that we're http://WonderfullyHungry.org are
those who always have on the "full armor of GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) to
"stand firm against satan" entering into our hearts (Matt 15:19).
Amen.
Laus DEO (Psalm 112:1)
Today is Easter Sunday, when we celebrate the Resurrection of our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, the only Begotten Son of HaShem, Lord of >Lords, Jehovah Incarnate, King of Kings, Creator Eternal, Source of all >life, Lamb of God, the Way, the Truth, and the Life!
Yes, our LORD and Saviour Jesus Christ did do the Wonderful (Isaiah
9:6) thing of eating the piece of broiled fish ( http://bit.ly/Lk2442
) and honeycomb to prove His Resurrection thereby becoming our #1
Example of living "wonderfully hungry" so that we can truthfully
say/write that we're always following Him when we're always
saying/writing that we're http://WonderfullyHungry.org in **all** ways including especially caring to http://tinyurl.com/ConvinceItForward
In the interim, I am indeed wonderfully hungry ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too. So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://archive.ph/PFBXK
No evidence face masks protected vulnerable from Covid, health officials >>> admit
Critics say authorities are failing to prepare for any future pandemics
by not examining the effectiveness of masks
By
Joe Pinkstone,
SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT
12 April 2023 • 7:59pm
A rapid review of 4,371 studies failed to find conclusive evidence that
masks were effective during lockdown
A rapid review of 4,371 studies failed to find conclusive evidence that
masks were effective during lockdown CREDIT: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Europe
There is not enough evidence to suggest medical-grade face masks protect >>> vulnerable people from Covid, health officials have admitted.
A rapid review report published by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) >>> investigated if high-quality masks, such as the N95, KN95 and FFP2
coverings, protect clinically vulnerable people in the community from
catching Covid.
However, the report was unable to find a single piece of scientific
research which had usable data.
“The review did not identify any studies for inclusion, and so could
provide no evidence to answer the research question,” the authors state. >>> “No studies matching the inclusion criteria were found, so no evidence
could be presented.”
The rapid review looked at 4,371 studies specifically about Covid but
there were none that examined the effectiveness of N95 and equivalent
face masks as wearer protection against Covid-19 when used in the
community by people at higher risk of becoming seriously ill.
Government scientists collected data up until September 2022 and the
at-risk groups included people with Down’s Syndrome, some cancer
patients and people with immune system disorders.
Contentious debate
Throughout the pandemic there has been a contentious debate about the
pros and cons of wearing face coverings among scientists with little
decisive evidence either way.
Various studies have purportedly shown masks to reduce transmission and
disease, while others have shown them to be ineffective.
Some vocal academics entrenched in scientific politicking have
vociferously defended their own position for the last three years while
other scientists calling for more research have often been met with
criticism.
Now, health officials are struggling with a lack of data which experts
warn leaves us just as in the dark now as we were three years ago about
whether masks work or not.
Prof Carl Heneghan, professor of evidence-based medicine at the
University of Oxford, told The Telegraph it is “a significant failing”
that there have not been high-quality trials done on the effectiveness
of masks.
“I do not understand why there's been a lack of will to do high-quality
trials in this area,” he said. “We have completely failed to address
this issue and I actually consider that to be an issue that the [Covid]
inquiry needs to look at.
“For those people at low risk, these questions don't necessarily matter
too much, but if you're at high risk, you really want this question to
be addressed. You want to know the answer.”
He added that the scientific field’s inability to conduct good clinical
trials that gather robust data leaves us exposed and at risk of making
the same mistakes in the next pandemic as we did in the last one.
“If there's another pandemic around the corner, we still haven't
addressed any of these issues. We've not learned anything,” Prof
Heneghan said.
A previous UKHSA which was wider in scope concluded that all types of
face coverings are effective in reducing transmission of SARS-CoV-2 to
some extent in both healthcare and community settings. In this review,
it was noted that N95 respirators are likely to be the most effective.
However, a Cochrane review published last month found insufficient
evidence to inform on the effectiveness of masks. It is impossible to
say if masks work or not because there is not enough good data, the
review found.
Information about the effectiveness of wearing mask needs to be clearer, >>> some scientists have said
Information about the effectiveness of wearing mask needs to be clearer, >>> some scientists have said CREDIT: SOPA Images
Prof Paul Hunter, Professor in Medicine at the Norwich School of
Medicine, led a study at the end of 2020 looking at how effective masks
were and used data on flu, as well as other viruses.
“Masks did reduce risk of transmission by about 20 per cent and in the
early days of the pandemic that was really important,” Prof Hunter told
The Telegraph. “But they were never the cast-iron guarantee that some
people seem to have been saying. However, since the appearance of
omicron masks no longer provide much if any value.
“The exception is people who remain particularly vulnerable to severe
disease as there is some evidence that if you catch Covid whilst wearing >>> a mask you generally get a less severe infection.
'No good evidence'
“In my view, there is no good evidence that N95 masks work any better
than surgical masks.”
Dr Aodhán Breathnach, a Consultant Global Health Microbiologist at UKHSA >>> and a Consultant Medical Microbiologist at St George’s University
Hospitals, recently published a study which found masks in hospitals had >>> little impact on Covid transmission in the omicron wave.
He told The Telegraph that conducting randomised clinical trials for
mask-wearing would be very difficult to do in practice.
“It is maybe surprising that there is no conclusive evidence one way or
another [as to whether masks work], given that SARS-CoV-2 is perhaps the >>> most studied virus ever, and masking was always a debated topic,” Dr
Breathnach said.
“Nonetheless, the fact that the studies that do exist (including our own >>> late addition) fail to show convincing evidence of benefit from masking
suggests that, if there is a benefit, it is a rather modest one, i.e.
masks may reduce the risk slightly but do not guarantee you won’t get
infected.”
Only the "full armor of GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) is 100% protective which
we put on as soon as we use Apostle Paul's secret (
http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking is less protective, it
helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil of spreading airborne
pathogens when there are people getting sick because of not being 100%
protected. It is written that we're to "abstain from **all**
appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22 w/**emphasis**).
In the interim, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://variety.com/2023/music/news/bruce-springsteen-covid-misses-awards-show-patti-scialfa-1235584631/
Bruce Springsteen Contracts COVID and Misses His Archives’ Inaugural
Awards Show, but Presents Via Video
Springsteen and Patti Scialfa both had to skip an awards show where
Steven Van Zandt, Darlene Love, Sam Moore and Steve Earle were being
honored. The previous night, he closed out a gig with a moving
dedication to his nephew, who died that day
By Michele Amabile Angermiller
Plus Icon
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 29: (L-R) George Clooney, Aloe Blacc,
Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa attend the Clooney Foundation For
Justice Inaugural Albie Awards at New York Public Library on September
29, 2022 in New York City. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Albie
Awards)
Getty Images for Albie Awards
The inaugural American Music Honors awards show — a fundraiser for the
Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music at Monmouth
University — launched Saturday night without two very important
presenters in attendance: Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa.
Bob Santelli, the Archives’ executive director, broke the news that the
Springsteens were both diagnosed with COVID-19 just hours after
Springsteen took a final bow Friday night at the Prudential Center,
wrapping the first part of his 2023 tour with the E Street Band.
“It broke our hearts around 6 a.m. this morning when I got a call that
two of the most important people who were supposed to be here, Bruce
Springsteen and Patti Scialfa, unfortunately came down with COVID.”
While the news was met with silence in the crowd, host Jon Stewart
lightened the mood, joking, “They’re alive. Don’t overreact. You can
still see them in concert. They’re home sitting by the fire eating
French onion soup.”
Despite his absence physically, Springsteen was feeling spry enough to
tape two videos presenting awards to Darlene Love and fellow E Street
Band member Steven Van Zandt.
Stewart joked that Springsteen “with COVID looks better than me,” adding >>> that he appeared “eerily healthy.”
“Aren’t you supposed to have sniffles or something?” he said. “We shut
down the world for a year and a half.”
Springsteen was supposed to receive a proclamation from New Jersey
Governor Phil Murphy, who was in attendance with his wife, Tammy.
Murphy, who joked that some in the audience were hoping that he was the
one with COVID, unveiled a proclamation declaring Sept. 23, 2023,
Springsteen’s birthday, “Bruce Springsteen Day” in the Garden State.
“I can’t believe it’s taken this long,” Murphy said.
“It’s not a rest area, but it’s nice,” quipped Stewart, an obvious
reference to the Jon Bon Jovi rest stop and others in New Jersey. “It’s
not like taking a whiz to ‘Livin’ on a Prayer,’ but it’ll do,”
The evening was a celebration of rock and soul music, honoring Van
Zandt, Love, Steve Earle and Sam Moore of Sam and Dave for their musical >>> contributions and career. Presenters included E Street Band bassist
Garry Tallent honoring Earle and Southside Johnny Lyon inducting Moore,
with Van Zandt’s band, the Disciples of Soul, serving as the house band. >>>
The joyful tone was set early as the Disciples of Soul performed a
medley of songs associated with each artist, starting with Love’s “A
Fine, Fine Boy” and the Sam and Dave hit “Soul Sister, Brown Sugar.” The >>> short set included Earle’s “Hard-Core Troubadour” and Van Zandt’s “I Am
a Patriot.”
Tallent inducted Earle, crediting him for his decision to move to Nashville.
“When you’ve been around music as long as I’ve been, and if you’re lucky >>> to come across an artist whose musical influences are so broad and whose >>> understanding of the importance and meaning of music is so great that
sometimes you just have to sit back and admire the genius — I play with
basically one of those guys,” he said. “Steve Earle is one of those guys >>> too.”
Earle, who performed his song “Copperhead Road” after accepting his
award, said that although he has other awards — including not just three >>> Grammys but a fleeting honor as the “fan of the game” on a Jumbotron at
Yankee Stadium — this one meant “a lot to me because of the name over
the door of the organization giving out this award.”
Springsteen wore a denim jacket and looked quite alert despite a late
night in Newark the night before at a show where he performed for three
hours and even did a shot with a fan from Avalon, NJ celebrating her
21st birthday. He saluted Love’s accomplishments and recounted how her
relationship with Van Zandt and him dated back to seeing her perform in
1982 at a show where she sang his hit “Hungry Heart.”
“By that time, Darlene had become this mysterious figure in the music
industry who had made this bunch of amazing records and was considered
one of the best, if not the best, of all the ’60s singers, male or
female — and then in the ’70s suddenly disappeared,” he said. “As fate
would have it, Darlene leaves the business to become a housekeeper in
the ’70s. I’m sure there’s something equally bizarre, unjust and
impossible to imagine,” he added, though little comparable came to mind. >>>
Love was overcome with emotion receiving her award, and celebrated by
performing an uplifting version of “River Deep Mountain High” with the band.
“I said I was going to laugh for the first five minutes but now I’m
going to try not to cry,” Love said. “I love you, Stevie, with all my
heart. My husband loves you. You know, it’s hard. You never know what
you have done for us. Because I had truly said goodbye to this business, >>> because this is one of the hardest businesses you ever want to be in.
You have to love it. You have to love people that don’t love you. You go >>> the show and you say, why am I doing this? Why am I doing this? But it’s >>> because of the gift that God has given me here and I truly intend to use >>> it for the next 80.”
Lyon was reverential inducting Moore, recalling how he and Van Zandt
were inspired to form the Asbury Jukes after watching Moore perform at a >>> show in New Jersey.
“One of those moments in your life, you hear that first Sam and Dave
record and you just go, ‘I wanna do that. That’s what I want to do,'” he >>> said. “There’s not a lot I can say about Sam except that he is still
teaching me.”
The 87-year-old Moore took the stage seated in a chair and lead the
crowd through an uplifting and fun performance of the hit “I Thank You.” >>>
Springsteen appeared again on video to honor his friend Van Zandt and
his accomplishments in music and socially conscious efforts, including
organizing “Artists Against Apartheid” for the “Sun City” record.
Springsteen reminisced about the first time the two met as teenagers at
the Hullabaloo Club in Middletown, NJ and ” I found a rock ‘n’ roll
partner in crime forever.”
“Yes, we liked the same music, yes, we liked the same bands, and it was
at one time we liked the same clothes,” he said, quoting his song from
“Born in the USA,” “Bobby Jean.”
“He does look kind of healthy, doesn’t he? — son of a bitch,” Van Zandt
joked, before giving a speech about his passion for music and his
mission to preserve the legacy through his TeachRock initiative, a
program also offered at Monmouth University.
“This is nice to have a home for Bruce’s archives, and we’ll talk about
other things as well as teaching workshops and all the rest that’s going >>> to come with this wonderful organization,” he said.
“We were the luckiest generation ever growing up in a renaissance. I
define renaissance very simply by when the greatest art is being made,
it’s when it’s also the most commercial, you are in the middle of a
renaissance. And that was the ’60s,” he said. “Of course, we were taking >>> it for granted at the time, thinking that this was normal. Of course, we >>> soon realized that it was a very, very special time.”
Van Zandt explained that the TeachRock initiative expands the standard
S.T.E.M. basic curriculum of science, technology, engineering and math
and adds an “A” for Arts, therefore transforming it to what he described >>> as “S.T.E.A.M.”
“You integrate the art into math, into engineering, and not as a
separate entity, but actually part of that same discipline. And this is
changing the way kids are starting to learn,” he said.
The evening was capped by Van Zandt taking the stage to perform the song >>> “Bitter Fruit” with the Disciples of Soul, and a finale that called all
four honorees to the stage with Lyon to perform “It’s Been a Long Time,” >>> “Hungry Heart” with Love on lead vocals, “Soul Man,” “Tenth Avenue
Freeze Out” and “I Don’t Want to Go Home.”
The previous night at Prudential Center, Springsteen closed out the show >>> by dedicating the night’s final song, an acoustic version of “I’ll See
You in My Dreams,” to his nephew, Michael Shave. An online family
obituary noted by Springsteen fans reported that Shave died at age 53 on >>> Friday, although Springsteen did not mention the death as part of his
dedication.
Concerning Michael Shave's untimely demise despite possibly being
fully vaccinated and fully masked, only the "full armor of GOD"
(Ephesians 6:11) is 100% protective which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens when there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evll" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
In the interim, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the US & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/arcturus-new-covid-variant-uk-symptoms-b2321577.html
Sir John Bell and Sir David King among leading scientists to argue UK is >>> no better prepared than it was in 2020, as new variant in India causes
concern
Rebecca Thomas
,
Thomas Kingsley
7 hours ago
Comments
Arcturus: What is the new Covid variant causing a surge in cases
IndyEat
Sign up for our free Health Check email to receive exclusive analysis on >>> the week in health
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Independent. Read our privacy notice
The UK is not ready for the next global pandemic because public services >>> are being dismantled and key research is being defunded, experts have
claimed.
More than three years after the global outbreak of coronavirus, top
scientists have warned that the UK is no better prepared for a pandemic
than it was in 2020.
They say another epidemic on the scale of Covid-19 is inevitable, but
that disinvestment in infection-monitoring services, dismantling of key
infrastructure, and the state of the NHS mean the country is “losing
ground”.
The warning comes as virologists told The Independent that the new
Covid-19 variant behind a surge of 10,000 new Covid cases a day in India >>> may turn more aggressive, and could become the dominant strain in the UK. >>>
The variant, first identified in January and known as Arcturus, has been >>> found in 22 countries, including the UK and the US, and has prompted
India to resume its production of vaccines.
Recommended
Arcturus: What is the new Covid variant causing a surge in cases?
Arcturus: What is the new Covid variant causing a surge in cases?
Arcturus: How many cases of new variant are in UK?
Arcturus: How many cases of new variant are in UK?
Arcturus: Latest Covid variant sweeping India shows unique symptom in
children
Arcturus: Latest Covid variant sweeping India shows unique symptom in
children
‘Sitting ducks’
Sir John Bell, a leading immunologist and a member of the UK’s Covid
vaccine taskforce during the pandemic, said it was too easy to dismiss
Covid-19 as a “once in a generation crisis”.
Promoted stories
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Writing in The Independent, he warned that it is “a question of when,
not if, another pandemic strikes”, adding that the nation needs to adopt >>> an “always on” approach that includes building a more resilient
healthcare system, carrying out better surveillance, and identifying
future threats.
“Despite everything we have learned, we are not ready for the next
pandemic,” he wrote. “The next pandemic could be even more devastating
than the last. We must be in a constant state of readiness for the next
big health crisis – if we do not act now, we will not be forgiven.”
He referred to modelling that suggests there is a 38 per cent chance
that another pandemic will happen within our lifetime, which would have
“the potential to cause even greater destruction”.
Professor Teresa Lambe, one of the principal investigators leading the
Oxford-AstraZeneca programme, said the UK had failed to take on board
many “hard-learned lessons” from Covid. She warned that the public will
be “sitting ducks” in a new pandemic if there are no further efforts by
the government to invest in preparation.
She highlighted the government’s decision to “disband” tracking systems
– including its “gold standard” Covid survey, the last remaining system
used to monitor infections – as a sign that the country would not be
fully prepared for another pandemic.
Writing in The Independent, she described such surveillance systems as
“crucial” for identifying new variants, tracking case numbers and
helping the UK to tackle any virus spread. She added: “We have learnt
time and again that we need to track this virus carefully to distinguish >>> if the current vaccine recommendations are enough.”
She added: “Without more of a concerted effort to work together and
invest in pandemic preparedness, we are sitting ducks for the next virus.” >>>
‘Nothing has changed’
Some experts also pointed to the issue of Covid-testing labs being
mothballed, and plans to sell off the UK’s future vaccine manufacturing
and research laboratory – the UK Vaccine Manufacturing and Innovation
Centre – before it had even opened.
In addition, after a year of record A&E waits, ambulance delays and
escalating waiting lists, there are concerns that the NHS is now in a
worse position to tackle a pandemic than it was when Covid struck three
years ago.
Sir David King, a former chief scientific adviser to the government, who >>> led the 2006 research that closely predicted the Covid pandemic, said
the world is likely to see another virus outbreak on the same scale in
the next 15 years.
He told The Independent: “We’re in the same position as we were in 2020. >>> Nothing has changed... if anything it has got worse.”
Sir David said the government had failed to invest in the NHS and he was >>> in “no doubt” that it was in “a worse position than it was three years ago”.
The former government adviser added that, by failing to fund the health
service or bolster Britain’s ability to respond to another pandemic, the >>> government is “discounting the future”.
“That’s what the pandemic in 2020 proved: that we had jettisoned all of
the processes that would have managed the epidemic. I see no signs of
this being reversed at the moment,” he said.
“If you wait for the next epidemic, which I think is where the
government may be now – if you wait until the next vaccine is developed, >>> for whatever disease that is, it will take months and months for that
vaccine to arrive. We cannot rely on that. We will have many, many
cases, it’ll get really out of hand again, and then we’ll have hospitals >>> completely overwhelmed by an outbreak of this kind.”
Losing ground
Professor Peter Horby, the lead for the groundbreaking Covid Recovery
trial and head of the Pandemic Sciences Institute, also warned that the
UK would be ill-prepared if a new pandemic were to hit in the coming years. >>>
The Oxford professor said that, despite the government backing
scientific work during Covid, disinvestment since means that the UK is
now “losing ground”. He claimed that researchers on the Covid Recovery
trial – which was launched in 2020 and has identified four treatments
for the disease – are having to rely on philanthropic funds because
there is no sustained investment.
“There were some good strategic moves by the UK government [in response
to the pandemic], but I have been disappointed by what’s happened since
then,” he said.
“What we’ve seen is there has been the discontinuation of funding of
some of the jewels in the crown of the UK response, like the ONS survey, >>> like the Covid Geonomics Consortium, like the Recovery trial ... the
mothballing of the [Covid lab] facilities.
“Instead of building on the successes, [the government has] been
dismantling the successes, and I find that a potential risk for the future.”
He added: “We may be back in the position that we saw ourselves in 2020, >>> where we’ve got a new threat and we don’t have the diagnostics, the
drugs, the vaccine, or the surveillance capabilities that we would desire.” >>>
Recommended
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Why the world is unprepared if new Covid variant Arcturus proves deadly
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A government spokesperson said: “We have flexible pandemic response
plans which are kept under constant review and continuously updated to
reflect the latest scientific information, lessons learned from
exercises and our response to emergencies, including Covid, to ensure
preparedness.
“The UK Health Security Agency was set-up to combat future health
threats and it continues to monitor the threat posed by Covid through
surveillance systems and genomic capabilities, while maintaining our
laboratory infrastructure and stock of lateral flow tests will ensure
testing can be scaled up swiftly if a Covid wave results in
significantly increased pressure on the NHS.
“A record £14.1 billion of funding for health and social care over the
next two years will help the NHS to address the unprecedented impact of
Covid and cut waiting times.”
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the US & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-65375395
Prezzo to close a third of its restaurants as bills rise
Published
23 hours ago
comments
Comments
Share
Stock image of someone putting toppings on a pizza
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
By Michael Race
Business reporter, BBC News
Italian restaurant chain Prezzo will shut a third of its restaurants
after being hit by rising costs for pizza and pasta ingredients and energy. >>>
The group said closing the 46 loss-making sites will put 810 staff at
risk of redundancy.
It said its utility bills had more than doubled in the past year along
with sharp rises in costs for dough balls, pizza sauce, mozzarella and
spaghetti.
The cuts will affect sites with footfall still below pre-Covid levels.
Prezzo said it would keep its restaurants in busier shopping areas, such >>> as retail parks and tourist destinations.
Covid restrictions at the height of the pandemic forced many hospitality >>> businesses to shut their doors and furlough staff. The financial
recovery for thousands of pubs, bars, restaurants and other venues has
since been hampered by rising costs, especially for energy.
Frankie and Benny's owner to close 35 more restaurants
Prezzo, which went into administration in late 2020 before being bought
by private equity firm Cain International, said the cuts affected
restaurants where "the post-Covid recovery has proved harder than we had >>> hoped".
Staff were informed about the closures on Monday morning and the chain
said it would work to redeploy "as many staff internally as possible".
"The last three years have been some of the hardest times I have ever
seen for the High Street," said Dean Challenger, chief executive of Prezzo. >>>
"The reality is that the cost-of-living crisis, the changing face of the >>> high street and soaring inflation has made it impossible to keep all our >>> restaurants operating profitably," he added.
As well as energy bills, Prezzo said its "core ingredients" had soared,
with dough ball costs rising 15%, pizza sauce shooting up 28% and
spaghetti jumping 40%.
The company added "double-digit wage inflation" had also hit its finances. >>>
Mr Dean said the "tough decisions" had been made to "ensure Prezzo can
continue serving communities with high-quality, accessible
Italian-inspired meals for many more years to come".
Other restaurant chains have announced cuts due to the impact of the
pandemic and inflation, with the owner of Frankie and Benny's and
Chiquito closing 35 restaurants in March on top of previous closures in
2020.
Zizzi, Ask Italian, Pizza Express and Pizza Hut have also closed sites
in recent years, while Prezzo announced it would shut 94 restaurants in
2018.
The 46 new Prezzo restaurants closing are:
Beccles
Billericay
Bolton
Borehamwood
Boston
Bracknell
Brentwood
Buckhurst Hill
Buckingham
Chichester
Chingford
Colchester
Corby
Didcot
Eastbourne
Egham
Eltham
Ely
Epsom
Fleet
Glasgow, St Vincent Place
Hailsham
Harpenden
Livingston
Lyndhurst
Maidstone
Mere Green
Mill Hill
Oxford
Plymouth
Redditch
Redhill
Rugby
Shepperton
Shirley
Sidcup
St Neots
Stowmarket
Tenterden
Tunbridge Wells
Weybridge
Whitstable
Wickford
Wimborne
Winchester
Woodford Green
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/134l3l5/ethics_quote_of_the_day_ethics_villain_dr_anthony/
Ethics Quote Of The Day: Ethics Villain Dr. Anthony Fauci
APRIL 30, 2023 / JACK MARSHALL
“Man, I think, almost paradoxically, you had people who were on the
fence about getting vaccinated thinking, why are they forcing me to do
this? And that sometimes-beautiful independent streak in our country
becomes counterproductive.”
—Dr. Anthony Fauci, major architect of the Wuhan virus lockdown
catastrophe, in a discussing how the government’s dictatorial
vaccination policies caused a drop in pubic trust of all vaccinations.
I have a lot to write about Dr. Fauci’s long interview in the New York
Times, as well as some of his other jaw-dropping comments last week, but >>> I’m lacking time and energy right now, and this quote demands immediate
attention.
Fauci, who used his reputation and influence to trap the United States
into a disastrous course of action that caused lasting harm to the
nation, its culture, its economy, its children and society, articulates
above the totalitarian’s lament about the United States of America. We
are hearing this a great deal of late, as the Democratic Party, now the
locus of totalitarian aspiration here, is increasingly open and candid
about what so many of its leaders hate about America. Too many people
just refuse to take orders from the smarter, more virtuous, more social
justice-minded in power. Clearly, something needs to be done about it.
There’s nothing paradoxical about the phenomenon Fauci’s whining about
at all. The lying, manipulation, false “facts” and abuse of authority
used by health officials, Fauci prominent among them, eventually became
apparent. Americans, who call themselves that rather than United Kingdom >>> citizens because a nation was organized around the bold theory that the
people—not kings, not unaccountable groups, not “experts”— have the
right and duty to decide what’s in their best interest, returned to core >>> values. Millions of people moved here to embrace the new experiment, and >>> as a result, the independent streak is more deeply embedded in the
culture than our native fans of dictatorship seem to comprehend. Decades >>> of indoctrination from the now fully complicit news media and most of
the education sector have weakened it and threaten it, but like the flag >>> over Fort McHenry, it’s still there.
Our betters and would-be philosopher kings like Fauci find this
incomprehensible. If only, if only, Americans weren’t so stubborn about
that Bill of Rights thingy! Think of the lives that could be saved! And, >>> similarly, all the income that could be redistributed, all the
businesses that could be nationalized and all the hateful speech and
dangerous ideas that could be censored! Fauci is perplexed that other
nations’ citizens were much more rational about falling into line and
doing as they were told during the pandemic. Well, rational isn’t the
word I would use. “Submissive,” perhaps. “Compliant,” maybe. How about
“naive”? They trust the people who have power over them. Americans,
enough of us anyway, don’t. Good. The past couple of decades have
demonstrated that these people–including, and spectacularly so, Dr.
Fauci, are not trustworthy. That is an existential problem in a
republic, and we’re still looking for a solution—but trusting people and >>> institutions who have shown beyond a shadow of a doubt that they are not >>> trustworthy is a surrender, not an answer. Americans still tend to
believe that it is important to be minimally obeisant to authority, even >>> though sometimes defiance may get you killed, as it did those men on the >>> monument above.
Beautiful.
Do you know what neither the New York Times interviewer or Fauci
mentioned at all in their discussion about why so many Americans stopped >>> following orders and the edicts of “experts”? The June, 2020 open letter >>> signed by by 1,288 “public health professionals, infectious diseases
professionals, and community stakeholders” explaining why Black Lives
Matter protesters could gather in mobs across the country while
churches, schools, businesses and the rest of society were being told to >>> lock down or insist on “social distancing” never came up.
What a surprise.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the US & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/HermanCainAward/comments/13821fj/as_the_pandemic_winds_down_antivaccine_activists/
May 4, 20235:01 AM ET
By
Lisa Hagen
Steve Kirsch, a tech entrepreneur turned anti-vaccine activist, at a
conference in Atlanta for future COVID and vaccine-related litigation
that he helped organize and fund.
Lisa Hagen/NPR
Steve Kirsch is a tech entrepreneur who made hundreds of millions of
dollars after founding an early search engine and helping invent the
optical computer mouse.
Recently, he stood before a gathering of more than 250 lawyers in
Atlanta while wearing a custom black T-shirt designed like a dictionary
entry for the phrase "misinformation superspreader."
"Our definition is it's someone who's basically pointing out the truth
and it just happens to disagree with the mainstream narrative we're
known as misinformation spreaders, because what they're trying to do is
they're trying to control the narrative," Kirsch told NPR.
By "they," Kirsch means a network of pharmaceutical companies,
governments, doctors and journalists that he argues are covering up a
pandemic-driven plot to poison the world for profit.
How Damar Hamlin's collapse fueled anti-vaccine conspiracy theories
UNTANGLING DISINFORMATION
How Damar Hamlin's collapse fueled anti-vaccine conspiracy theories
The scientific consensus shows COVID vaccines are safe and significantly >>> reduce the chances of death or serious illness. While many Americans may >>> share a distrust of pharmaceutical companies and healthcare systems,
there is no evidence of the kind of conspiracy alleged in these circles. >>>
In recent years, Kirsch has become an increasingly vocal and generous
funder of the anti-vaccine movement. He helped organize and fund the
conference to map out strategies for anti-vaccine and COVID-19-focused
litigation as the pandemic winds down.
Sponsor Message
Their mom died of COVID. They say conspiracy theories are what really
killed her
SHOTS - HEALTH NEWS
Their mom died of COVID. They say conspiracy theories are what really
killed her
Their proposed targets include hospitals, school systems, medical
licensing boards and, the holy grail, pharmaceutical companies that make >>> vaccines.
"My goal is to expose every single one of these a**holes," Kirsch told
the audience, to uproarious applause.
The lawyers met as the anti-vaccine movement is at a crossroads. The
COVID-19 pandemic brought in new energy and supporters but is fading >>>from public life. On May 11, the federal government's public health
emergency will expire. To keep the cause alive, some in the movement are >>> trying to build up a legal arm.
Anti-vaccine merchandise available at the conference.
Lisa Hagen/NPR
The legal conference drew a mix of people who've advocated against
vaccines for years before the pandemic, and those, like Kirsch, who are
more recent converts. He said he actually got two Moderna shots when
COVID vaccines became available.
Kirsch's path to the conference started with an effort to find
treatments for COVID.
From funding research to organizing lawyers
"When the pandemic hit, I put in a million dollars of my own money and
raised another $5 million dollars. We started the COVID 19 Early
Treatment Fund and we started funding early treatments," said Kirsch.
The goal was to run trials on existing treatments that might help combat >>> the virus. Reporting by MIT's Technology Review found the project had
brought together highly respected biologists and drug researchers who
believed in the work. But when some of the research seemed to run into
dead ends, Kirsch reportedly began to clash with the scientists he was
funding.
Sponsor Message
"If the data is is is bad and doesn't make sense and the study was badly >>> done, then I have a right to reject it," said Kirsch. "And so the point
is that if a study is well done, you'll see that I will like the study." >>>
Kirsch has a tendency to offer large sums of money to anyone willing to
debate his assertions.
"But they won't do that. They won't get into any discussion with me
because they don't want to answer a single question," Kirsch said.
Jeffrey Morris has tried to engage with Kirsch for years. In his spare
time, the professor of biostatistics at the University of Pennsylvania
has gone line by line through some of Kirsch's claims, providing
answers, context and explanations. They once had a long conversation
over Zoom.
Inside the growing alliance between anti-vaccine activists and pro-Trump >>> Republicans
UNTANGLING DISINFORMATION
Inside the growing alliance between anti-vaccine activists and pro-Trump >>> Republicans
"And it was an interesting discussion, you know, because he admitted
that he was not a scientist and didn't think like one. And so I was
trying to connect with him and help him understand the leaps he was
making in his arguments to get him to think more carefully. Because I
could tell he was someone with a lot of energy and passion on the
issue," said Morris, who has watched Kirsch pull millions of views on
some of his COVID vaccine content.
When someone makes a dramatic claim that vaccines are killing millions,
it's their burden to show the evidence, said Morris, not the other way
around.
Just 12 People Are Behind Most Vaccine Hoaxes On Social Media, Research
Shows
UNTANGLING DISINFORMATION
Just 12 People Are Behind Most Vaccine Hoaxes On Social Media, Research
Shows
"They're presuming that they have the entitlement that what they're
saying can be presumed to be true without them demonstrating rigorously
that it's true, and that it is the responsibility of society and the
scientific community to prove them wrong. And if they fail to prove them >>> wrong, or if they don't show up, then they're really offended. And then
to them, that just proves their guilt. It proves the cover up," he said. >>>
As government cover ups became a regular talking point for Kirsch, the
researchers abandoned his early treatment project. Two years and $2
million later, he's hoping to organize a sustained legal insurgency
against public health agencies, drug manufacturers, hospitals and schools. >>>
A doctor spread COVID misinformation and renewed her license with a
mouse click
SHOTS - HEALTH NEWS
A doctor spread COVID misinformation and renewed her license with a
mouse click
Attorney Pete Serano traveled from Washington State, where he represents >>> three doctors accused of spreading false statements about COVID-19 and
said finding a supportive community of lawyers and experts he can call
for help is "monumental."
"You know, it really felt like it was me against the world, even though
there were probably maybe half a dozen to a dozen lawyers in Washington
fighting. It still feels - it's extremely lonely. It's extremely
difficult," said Serano.
Conference organizers asked reporters not to record entire
presentations. But one thing Serano and other attendees heard again and
again from speakers: In this room, you're among heroes.
Sponsor Message
"There are people who are tremendously intellectually talented and
gifted in so many ways who are using those talents to fight for your
rights, to fight for my rights," said Serano.
Creating a new body of law
The fights include everything from suing educators who enforced mask
mandates, to demanding vaccination status be made a protected class,
like race or sexual orientation. Thousands of lawsuits pushing back
against public health measures have been filed since the pandemic.
In Florida, 'health freedom' activists exert influence over a major hospital
UNTANGLING DISINFORMATION
In Florida, 'health freedom' activists exert influence over a major hospital
The goal of this conference is to bring lawyers behind these suits
together, study all that legal spaghetti on the wall and analyze what
has and hasn't worked. They mean to probe for weak points in the law,
build a network of experts and plaintiffs, and, they hope, inspire new laws.
Conference organizers like attorney Warner Mendenhall want to ensure a
steady supply of lawyers who see opportunity, whether ideologically
aligned with the anti-vaccine movement or not.
"I hate to say this but greed is good in this instance," said Mendenhall >>> on a webinar promoting the event. "So if lawyers can see that they can
get rich, and we're trying to prove that you can - we haven't yet, but
we will - it'll bring lawyers in simply for the money."
Fears about vaccines are not new. The current legal structure around
vaccines is the result of a wave of lawsuits in the 1970s and 80s. It
tries to balance individual freedom with public health needs, according
to Anjali Deshmukh, a pediatrician and professor of administrative law
at Georgia State University.
"It's not only about protecting us, but it's about protecting our
community. And that's a different calculus, where it's now within the
government's interests to make sure that these diseases are not
spreading," Deshmukh said.
What a bottle of ivermectin reveals about the shadowy world of COVID
telemedicine
SHOTS - HEALTH NEWS
What a bottle of ivermectin reveals about the shadowy world of COVID
telemedicine
But the law is not fixed, she added, and well-funded, well-organized
groups can be a powerful force.
"And I think like we saw with Roe v Wade, you had a case that was passed >>> 50 years ago and then had various chips away at it until the ground
crumbled," said Deshmukh.
The civil rights movement, organized labor and women's rights advocates
have also relied on a potent mix of court battles and ground campaigns
to sway public sentiment.
"The court of public opinion is more important than I think we give
credit to in both law and medicine. We can have all the science in the
world, we can have laws that make sense, but laws change. Science is not >>> always convincing when you're coming from a place of fear," said Deshmukh. >>>
Sponsor Message
Cases don't even have to succeed in court to have an impact, Deshmukh
said. Influencers and headlines can frame settlements, technical legal
outcomes or compelling, emotional testimony as victories for one side or >>> another. She said these lawsuits also come at a time when the Supreme
Court is weakening the powers of many regulators.
This Doctor Spread False Information About COVID. She Still Kept Her
Medical License
SHOTS - HEALTH NEWS
This Doctor Spread False Information About COVID. She Still Kept Her
Medical License
With the COVID national emergency order set to end, keeping
COVID-related grievances alive in the courts may also help sustain the
larger movement against vaccines.
Serano, the lawyer from Washington State, says the kinds of cases that
brought him here may become the bulk of his work for years.
"I plan on being that 80 year old guy talking about what it was like in
the 2020s and COVID 19 and telling some young whippersnapper lawyer
about how we did it back when," he said.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the US & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/13fhroq/florida_gov_ron_desantis_signs_bills_prohibiting/
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signs bills prohibiting vaccine, mask mandates >>> in state
DeSantis' bills also protect doctors who offer alternative COVID-19
treatments other than those recommended by federal agencies
Andrea Vacchiano By Andrea Vacchiano | Fox News
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed legislation to prohibit vaccine and >>> mask mandates on Thursday.
DeSantis' announced his four new "Prescribe Freedom" bills during an
event in Destin. Senate Bill 252 prohibits workplaces, government
agencies and schools from requiring COVID-19 vaccination or masks.
The governor began his speech by referencing the intense criticism that
Florida faced during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Everything we were doing in Florida, we were getting attacked. We were
getting attacked by bureaucrats like Fauci. We were being attacked by
the political left. We were being attacked by corporate media. And we
were even attacked by some Republicans," DeSantis said.
WHAT RON DESANTIS SAYS ABOUT RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT IN 2024
DeSantis speaking at a podium
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed his "Prescribe Freedom" legislation on
Thursday banning vaccine and mask mandate in the state. (AP
Photo/Charles Krupa)
"I mean, that's just kind of the way it goes. But we stuck to our guns
because we believe that we are doing the right thing for the state," he
added.
The legislation also formally denounces World Health Organization (WHO)
recommendations in Florida. It also protects alternative COVID-19
treatments.
"You should have the right to try these [alternative COVID-19
treatments] under the supervision of your physician, and that is
protected in the state of Florida," DeSantis said.
WHO'S IN AND WHO'S ON THE SIDELINES — YOUR GUIDE TO THE 2024 GOP
PRESIDENTIAL NOMINATION RACE
Gov. DeSantis updates Hurricane Ian information
DeSantis' mask and vaccine mandates apply to government offices, schools >>> and workplaces in Florida. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Another component of the legislation is Senate Bill 1387, which bans
gain-of-function research. DeSantis said gain-of-function research in
Wuhan, China, was likely to blame for the pandemic.
"What we know is there was gain-of-function research being conducted at
Wuhan, and that very likely led to the emergence of COVID-19. And yet
there really isn't effective regulation," the governor said.
Senate Bill 1580 also ensures freedom of speech and whistleblower
protections for physicians.
"We want our physicians practicing evidence based medicine. We don't
want it to just defer to authority or to just follow the herd," DeSantis >>> explained. "So that is now law in the state of Florida."
San Diego Unified School District COVID vaccine mandate protests
FILE - Anti-vaccine protesters stage a protest in California. (Sandy
Huffaker/Getty Image)
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
DeSantis' remarks come nearly a week after the WHO announced that the
COVID-19 pandemic was no longer a global emergency.
But despite the announcement, WHO officials still warn that the pandemic >>> is technically not over. Countries in Southeast Asia and the Middle East >>> have reported some spikes in COVID-19 cases.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the US & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/13ha3ys/scotlands_vaccine_injured_feel_abandoned_with/
Exclusive: The Scottish Vaccine Injury Group sat down with the Scottish
Daily Express to discuss their campaign and how they feel let down by
the governments who put so much pressure on the population to take the jag >>>
scottishdailyexpress
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9
Scottish Vaccine Injury Group
The Scottish Vaccine Injury Group say they have been abandoned and left
to support themselves (Image: Submitted)
138398843738
Scotland's vaccine injured community say they have been abandoned by the >>> country's governments and have been left trying to pick up the pieces of >>> their lives by themselves. The Scottish Vaccine Injury Group says many
of its 150 members have felt suicidal at the lack of support, with
medical professionals dismisive of their concerns.
The Covid vaccine roll out from the end of 2020 was one of the biggest
logistical undertakings in British history. Public health bodies have
estimated the jabs have saved tens of thousands of lives over the past
two and half years.
But a growing number of people are now coming forward with their stories >>> of having adverse reactions to the vaccine. At least nine deaths in
Scotland have been attributed to the Covid vaccines and many others are
trying to put their lives together after suffering serious injury.
READ MORE: Scot left 'unable to stand after Covid vaccine' reaction
raising money for 'stem cell treatment'
The Scottish Vaccine Injury Group has been set up to provide support for >>> those who have suffered adverse reactions to the jags. Central to the
group's work are Ruth O'Rafferty, 54, Alex Mitchell, 58, and John Watt, 37. >>>
They have been granted core participant status in the Scottish Covid
inquiry but say they have been routinely dismissed as cranks by the
authorities. All have been handed various bans on social media for
sharing their stories but the group is continuing to grow and it
recently held an event in Glasgow city centre to raise awareness.
From left group members Ruth O'Rafferty, John Watt, Louise Whitford,
Andrew Carlin and Alex Mitchell
138212091369
The leadership trio, who say many of those seeking help have had
suicidal thoughts, believe their group is now picking up the slack from
government failures and have accused doctors of not taking their
concerns seriously.
138329043104
Alex, who had to have a leg amputated because of his reaction, says he
knows of nine people who have taken their lives due to their injuries,
saying: "They've had enough of the gaslighting the pain, the fact that
nobody's listening to them and the whole world was turned against them." >>>
Ruth adds: "We are offering support to people who are desperate. I was
speaking to somebody just last week who was admitting that they were
really, really desperate. And they're in their bed. They have been in
their bed for about 18 months. And because they don't have long Covid
They don't have access to the Long Covid clinics.
"They live alone so they're living in isolation, housebound, bedbound.
They can't actually even form sentences... so they can't advocate for
themselves. They're not getting any medical help because they said that
they thought it was a vaccine."
Alex became the first person in the UK to be awarded the full £120,000
vaccine damage payment from the UK Government after he lost his leg in
April 2021. He took his first dose on March 20, 2021 but after
experiencing calf pain, he was taken to hospital where he went into a
surgery he "wasn't expected to survive".
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Read All 9 Comments
covid injury group
Alex Mitchell lost his leg after getting his Covid vaccine (Image:
submitted)
138398850746
A scaffolder by trade from Glasgow, Alex was eventually diagnosed with
vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia which causes blood
clots. He is now on a range of medication for life, has suffered brain
damage and has eyesight issues. He is part of a lawsuit against
AstraZenenca.
He can no longer work and is relying on benefits. He says: "This is my
life: coming to visit people that are vaccine injured and bereaved and
trying to raise awareness. I don't have a life.
"They took everything from me. That's my life. I can't walk. I'll never
walk again. I've got brain damage, which is a real problem for somebody
who loves reading. I wasn't always a scaffolder, I was a business
manager so I really struggle mentally with a brain fog. So it's a real
struggle."
Ruth had taken two doses of the vaccine when she started suffering
"anaphylactic episodes" in late June 2021. She was eventually found to
be suffering from mast cell activation syndrome, which causes similar
symptoms to anaphylaxis. She also suffers from dysautonomia, which
impacts the nervous system, brain inflammation and hormonal imbalance.
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A former teacher from South Lanarkshire, Ruth can no longer drive and
her husband refuses to be away from her for any major length of time due >>> to her condition. She had to go private to get a diagnosis and says she
hit several brick walls as she tried to get to the bottom of what was
going on. "Unfortunately, a lot of GPs don't know about it. They don't
know about mast cell activation syndrome, and they certainly don't
recognise that the vaccine causes any damage," she says.
"And a lot of people with heart issues are getting gaslit and told 'och, >>> it's only it's anxiety'. And honestly, we've got people in the group who >>> are waiting up to two years to see a specialist."
All three are dismissive of the 'anti-vax' label that has been applied
by some to the group. They all point out that they willingly received
their jag the first time around and had received vaccinations before Covid. >>>
covid vaccine survivor john watt
John Watt (Image: Submitted)
138405386249
John, who was a joiner before falling ill, says he "doesn't entertain
it," while Alex adds: "I'll never tell you what to do. You're an adult,
go and do your research and make your own decision.
"I'll will stand beside you whether you decide never to take anything
again or take every one of them. That's your decision. That's democracy. >>> Children is a different story. There's no reason scientific or medical
for children to be given these."
John's story actually begins before the Covid lockdown In February 2020
when he suffered a suspected heart attack and was fitted with a stent.
After a "year of hell" he managed to get his life back in order but
struggled to find anyone who suffered similar symptoms of a heart attack. >>>
It is now believed has was suffering from Long Covid. After his third
booster jag - a Pfizer - in November 2021, John, who is from Glasgow,
started to suffer a range of symptoms, around 40 in total including
rapid heart rate, speech impairment, dizziness, nausea and fatigue.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon's message appears to have failed to get
through
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon spent much of the pandemic trying to
convince people to get vaccinated (Image: Scottish Government/PA Wire)
138398850746
He was throwing up "every day", lost 13kg in weight in just a few weeks
and his heart rate would go through the roof just with the effort of
standing up. He spent a year "bedridden" and "thought I was going to
die". Again, he had to go through a private doctor before he was
diagnosed with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) and
believes he was subject to "gaslighting and ignorance" from the NHS and
no longer trusts many medical professionals.
John, who wears sunglasses during our chat because of sensitive eyes,
spent £37,000 on treatment but today is still nowhere near back to the
health he enjoyed before 2020. "I cannot predict what tomorrow brings
for my body and what happens every day. I can't plan anything," he says. >>>
"The other day I had a bit of chocolate. You would think I would out
drinking for a week the way it reacted with me. My stomach was an
absolute pain. For three hours I was in absolute agony."
On his journey as a whole, he explains: "Ruth came and visited me on my
deathbed. Alex came and visited me on my deathbed, my family had been
traumatised, I've been extremely traumatised. Where my anger lies and
frustration lies, is that if they left me for that long, how many others >>> have they left for that long?"
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humans evaluatedscottishdailyexpress
Flu deaths outnumber Covid deaths in Scotland as figure soars to 20-year >>> highscottishdailyexpress
The trio say they have suffered from "censorship" online for sharing
their views and reckon politicians have no interest in helping them
because of the effort that went in to publicise the vaccine programme.
In fact, John revealed he had been blocked on Twitter by Nicola Sturgeon >>> when he invited her to their recent rally in Glasgow. But the potential
harms from the jag have started to enter the mainstream media after the
death of BBC presenter Lisa Shaw.
The 44-year-old died from the same condition that took Alex's leg in
2021 and her family is suing AstraZeneca having also accused the UK
Government of brushing them off. According to the UK Health Security
Agency, nearly 700 vaccine injuries have been reported in Scotland
through its Yellow Card scheme.
lixa shaw bbc presenter
Lisa Shaw died after taking the Covid vaccine
76516486337
And the National Records of Scotland say nine deaths have been directly
attributed to the Covid vaccine with a further four having adverse
reactions mentioned on the death certificate. Up until the end of last
year, 60 deaths in England and Wales had been attributed to the Covid
vaccine.
Ruth, Alex and John's group has allowed vaccine injured and bereaved >>>from across Scotland come together to share their stories and point each
other in the direction of what support they can access, as well as
discussing possible treatment options.
Asked what he wants achieve through the group, John says they want to be >>> "taken seriously" by doctors, adding: "We need the doctors to stand up,
we need mental health support, we need financial support. And these
people, they need help because I'm telling you right now, the stories
that we're seeing daily is heartbreaking."
Both Ruth and Alex again emphasise their desire to prevent children
receiving the vaccine. Ruth said: "We're not anti-vax. Yes, the risk of
Covid to children is there, it is real, but I honestly believe that the
risk of harms from these vaccines are so life changing - I'm not sure
that any of us will ever actually get our health back - And I don't want >>> that to happen to children."
The UK Government said: "All vaccines used in the UK must go through the >>> usual rigorous testing and development process and meet strict standards >>> of safety, quality and effectiveness by the independent medicines
regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). >>>
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - JULY 11: A pharmacist prepares a COVID-19
vaccination booster shot for a customer at the Exhibition Pharmacy on
July 11, 2022 in Melbourne, Australia. More Australians are now eligible >>> to receive a fourth dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, after the Australian
Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) approved people aged 30 >>> and above can access additional booster shots from Monday 11 July. While >>> over 30s are now eligible for an additional dose if they choose, health
authorities are strongly urging people over 50 to get the fourth
COVID-19 vaccine booster and for people to wear masks indoors in public
as coronavirus infections continue driven by Omicron subvariants. (Photo >>> by Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images)
Millions of doses have been administered in Scotland (Image: Getty Images) >>> 76516486337
"The public should be very confident that all tests are completed to the >>> highest of standards. The monitoring of vaccine safety does not stop
once a vaccine has been approved - the safety continues to be monitored
continually using well developed and pre-existing surveillance networks, >>> such as MHRA's Yellow Card scheme."
And Holyrood's Public Health Minister Jenni Minto said: "Like any
vaccine, Covid-19 vaccines can cause side effects, most of which are
mild or moderate. Serious or long-lasting side effects are rare, but
possible. These side effects need to be continuously balanced against
the expected benefits in preventing illness.
"I understand the issues some are experiencing and my sympathy goes to
all those affected. It is important that health boards take these issues >>> seriously, and support patients in their management and recovery of
their symptoms.
"Vaccines are continually monitored to detect adverse events, and public >>> health bodies in Scotland and across the globe are closely monitoring
for any unexpected side effects following Covid-19 vaccination."
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the US & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/13msj3o/museum_reopens_to_the_public_for_the_first_time/
Hull's Wilberforce museum reopens after three years
The museum was the birthplace of leading anti-slavery campaigner William >>> Wilberforce
A museum in Hull has reopened to the public for the first time since it
was forced to close due to the Covid pandemic in 2020.
The Grade I listed Wilbeforce House Museum has undergone major
conservation work during its closure.
The building was the birthplace of William Wilberforce, a leading
anti-slavery campaigner.
New features include a gallery examining the legacy of transatlantic
slavery.
ADVERTISEMENT
It has been funded by Arts Council England and was developed in
consultation with the museum's advisory board.
Hull City Council leader Mike Ross said it had been a "long closure".
"Given the global importance of this building it was critical to ensure
repairs and investigations were done to the highest standard," he said.
Statue of William Wilberforce
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
Image caption,
The museum explores Hull and Wilberforce's links with the anti-slavery
movement
Work carried out included building maintenance, an overhaul of the
heating system and work to the ornate 18th Century plaster ceiling above >>> the main staircase.
Visitors will also be able to see more of the architecture of the
building, which was previously obscured by display structures.
"The museum's exciting new galleries, refreshed displays and the
structural heritage of the building have been cared for in the best
possible way, and we know visitors will see it has been worth the wait," >>> said Robin Diaper, Curator of Maritime and Social History at Hull
Culture and Leisure.
"We hope that people will see these as fitting spaces to reflect on the
past and issues affecting today."
Wilberforce House, built around 1660, is one of the oldest buildings in
Hull and was acquired by William Wilberforce's grandfather in 1732 and
was extended by the family.
It opened as a museum in 1906 and offers free admission.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/13pytuq/boris_johnson_has_been_referred_to_police_over/
Boris Johnson referred to police over potential Covid rule breaches
Published
13 hours ago
Share
Related Topics
Coronavirus pandemic
Boris Johnson
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
Boris Johnson has been referred to police by the Cabinet Office over
further potential rule breaches during the Covid pandemic.
The department said it made the referral after a review of documents
ahead of the Covid public inquiry.
A spokesperson for the former PM dismissed claims of any breaches as a
"politically motivated stitch-up".
Both the Metropolitan and Thames Valley Police say they are assessing
the information received.
The Cabinet Office said officials had been obliged to disclose the
documents to the police under civil service rules.
The Times, which first reported the story, says Mr Johnson has been
referred to Thames Valley police because his ministerial diary revealed
visits by family and friends to Chequers - the prime minister's country
house in Buckinghamshire - during the pandemic.
Thames Valley Police said it had "received a report of potential
breaches of the Health Protection Regulations between June 2020 and May
2021 at Chequers, Buckinghamshire".
The Met Police released a similar statement but said their information
related to potential breaches in Downing Street.
It is understood Mr Johnson has had no contact from the police.
What will Boris Johnson do next?
I misled MPs but not intentionally, says Johnson
Boris Johnson: The many lives of a political survivor
The spokesman for the former prime minister said it was "totally untrue" >>> that there had been further Covid rule breaches.
"The events in question were all within the rules either because they
were held outdoors or came within another lawful exception. They include >>> regular meetings with civil servants and advisers.
"It appears some within government have decided to make unfounded
suggestions both to the police and to the Privileges Committee - many
will conclude that this has all the hallmarks of yet another politically >>> motivated stitch-up."
The spokesman said Mr Johnson's lawyers had written to the Cabinet
Office, as well as the Commons Privileges Committee, "explaining that
the events were lawful and were not breaches of any Covid regulations".
The seven-member committee of MPs has been investigating whether Mr
Johnson misled Parliament over Covid rule-breaking events in government
buildings.
In a statement, the committee said it had received additional evidence >>>from the government last week and asked Mr Johnson for a response, both
of which it would now take into account during its probe.
If the committee concludes Mr Johnson deliberately misled MPs over the
events, he could potentially face a suspension from Parliament, which in >>> turn could lead to a by-election in his Uxbridge and South Ruislip
constituency.
Mr Johnson's spokesman also said it was "bizarre and unacceptable" that
"no contact was made with Mr Johnson before these incorrect allegations
were made both to the police and to the Privileges Committee". The
Cabinet Office has denied the suggestion Mr Johnson was not given prior
notice.
The Cabinet Office said the material it had passed to police came from
the "normal" process of reviewing documents to be submitted to the
public inquiry into the government's handling of the pandemic.
"In-line with obligations in the Civil Service Code, this material has
been passed to the relevant authorities and it is now a matter for them." >>>
The BBC has been told the matter was not considered by ministers or the
cabinet secretary, who heads the civil service.
The public inquiry, which is separate to the privileges committee probe, >>> will begin hearings next month.
Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak
IMAGE SOURCE,CABINET OFFICE/ PA
Image caption,
Both Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak were fined for attending a birthday
party in Downing Street
Responding to the announcement, Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner
said: "These new allegations are for the police to examine but the
government must explain who else knew at the time and why this has only
now come to light."
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper, said Mr Johnson "should
finally do one decent thing and consider his position as an MP".
Lindsay Jackson, spokesperson for Covid-19 Bereaved Families for
Justice, said Mr Johnson was "totally unfit for any form of public
service, never mind being the prime minister".
But, speaking on his GB News programme, Conservative MP and former
minister Jacob Rees-Mogg defended Mr Johnson, saying: "The latest
stories are just another example of how those who don't like Boris,
mainly because of Brexit, are always looking for something to have a go
at him on."
Mr Johnson resigned as prime minister last July, in part due to public
anger over revelations he broke Covid lockdown rules.
In April 2021 he received a fine from the police for breaking lockdown
rules after attending a gathering on his birthday in June 2020.
And, in May 2022, a report by then-senior civil servant Sue Gray set out >>> a series of social events held by staff in Downing Street which broke
the rules.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/13u5o5k/covid_outbreak_will_shut_down_part_of_vallejo/
Jobs and Internships
Contact KTVU
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COVID outbreak will shut down part of Vallejo city hall next week,
officials say
By Pete Young
Published May 27, 2023 5:41PM
Vallejo
Bay City News
article
Exterior of Vallejo City Hall. The city of Vallejo, California filed for >>> bankruptcy protection in 2008 in attempt to deal with a ballooning
budget deficit caused by soaring employee costs and declining tax
revenue. (Photo by Kim Kulish/Corbis via Get
Expand
VALLEJO, Calif. - A COVID outbreak is forcing Vallejo officials to close >>> part of City Hall for three days next week, the city said Friday.
The Planning and Development Services Counter will be shut down through
Thursday because of the disease, according to a statement. The rest of
City Hall is to open after Memorial Day on Monday.
Online and telephone services may be delayed due to personnel absences,
and staffing in some other departments may be sporadic, the statement
said.
"Unfortunately, we will need to close the public counter next week due
to severely low staffing availability and out of an abundance of caution >>> for the public and our employees," Assistant City Manager Terrance Davis >>> said in the statement.
The closing was triggered by positive test results, the city said.
Affected employees will be out of the office for at least five days. The >>> public counter and offices will be sanitized during the closure, the
city said.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in Cali & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedkingdom/comments/1406f9b/the_billionaires_have_won_english_pubs_forced_to/
with‘The billionaires have won’: English pubs forced to close after owners >demand full rent for lockdown
Publicans face bankruptcy and homelessness after losing their fight
Tory donors against Covid rent back-payments
accusedJames Tapper
Sat 3 Jun 2023 08.58 EDT
A pub landlord company owned by billionaire Tory donors has been
of pushing pubs into bankruptcy after demanding tenants pay full rent >owed from the months during the Covid lockdowns.
itsThe Wellington Pub Company, owned by David and Simon Reuben, offered
estimated 850 tenants a Covid discount on condition that they extended >their leases for five years.
To take on Wellington, about 250 tenants formed a pressure group led by >Nick Holden and Kate Ahrens of the Geese and Fountain pub in Croxton >Kerrial near Grantham in Lincolnshire. These tenants refused the >company’s deal, and arbitrators have now ruled that many of them will >have to pay rent in full.
As a result, the Geese and Fountain would close permanently on Monday >Holden said, describing it as one of the “many victims of a combination >of the UK’s exceptional economic collapse and a failure to support >businesses trying to recover from the Covid pandemic”.
statement.Simon, left, and David Reuben’s company did not waive rents during the >pandemic for their pub tenants, unlike other landlords.
Simon, left, and David Reuben’s company did not waive rents during the >pandemic for their pub tenants, unlike other landlords. Photograph:
David M Benett/Getty Images
“To say we are devastated is an understatement,” he said in a
lives“The Geese and Fountain has been our home, our business, our whole
for the past eight years. We have poured thousands of pounds of our own >money, and that of our families, into this place, because we loved it, >and we wanted it to succeed.
“But another fight with Wellington, coming on top of three of the most >difficult years in the pub trade and with rising energy costs and >inflation running rampant, is one we cannot hope to win. We have to >accept defeat. The billionaires have won.”
skyrocketed.”Paul Michelmore, a sole trader and licensee of the Harrison in King’s >Cross, London, was told he must pay £99,086.12 in rent. He said the >arbitrator had made factual errors and had confused profits with >turnover, saying in the decision that he could afford to pay an extra >£5,000 a month to pay back the pandemic rent. “We make about £30,000 >profit a year,” he said. “And with inflation, our costs have
Seeger toMichelmore, whose award-winning pub has become a major part of London’s >folk music scene, hosting performances by musicians from Peggy
hasBonobo, is planning to appeal against the arbitrator’s decision, and
been raising money to contribute to the estimated £50,000 legal fees.
if I“As a sole trader, I have no protection whatsoever,” he said. “If I
lose, we’ll be closing six to eight weeks after the judgment. The >decision I was faced with [after the arbitration decision] was that
folded the pub, my debts would be limited to about £150,000 so they >probably wouldn’t go after my home.” If the appeal is lost, he would be >liable to lose his home too.
Michelmore said Wellington had an incentive to push him into bankruptcy >because it would be able to capitalise on improvements he had made to
the Harrison by charging higher rent to a new tenant.
didWellington Pub Company, which is part of Criterion Asset Management,
not respond to a request for comment last week.
nearA woman and three dogs walk in front of the Geese and Fountain Pub,
Grantham, which will close on Monday following high rent demands.
The Geese and Fountain Pub, near Grantham, will close on Monday
following high rent demands. Photograph: Gary Calton/The Observer
During the pandemic, pubs and restaurants across England were forced to >shut from March to September 2020, then faced further closures in local >lockdowns until May 2021.
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Some pub companies with tied tenants – who must get their beer from
largecompany – are governed by the Pubs Code, and they waived rents for
landlordsperiods of the lockdowns. But independent pubs have commercial
who are not regulated. With retailers and restaurants also facing
similar issues, in March 2022 Boris Johnson’s government passed a law >giving tenants a six-month window to ask an arbitrator to decide how
much rent owed during the pandemic should be paid.
way.“Businesses are continuing to fail as court judgments find in favour of >absentee, super-rich landlords,” said Gareth Epps, co-founder of the >Protect Pubs campaign group. “The government simply looks the other
Pubs LTD.Dale Ingram, town planning and heritage consultant. Planning for
andTooting
London
Photograph by David Levene
14/9/15
For Long Read
The death and life of the great British pub
Read more
“A fast investigation is needed to put the legislation back on track
stop people like the Reuben brothers exploiting the pandemic.”
arbitration.Chris Wright, of the Pubs Advisory Service, said that he had assisted >dozens of pubs and other hospitality businesses who had gone to
have“Some of the decisions have been nonsensical,” he said. “I’ve got >publicans who had 100% written off and people with the opposite who
differenceto pay everything – and the cases were the same. There was no
between them.”In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22 w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/1442my4/nhs_struggling_to_provide_safe_cancer_care_say/
NHS struggling to provide safe cancer care, say senior doctors
Published
6 hours ago
Share
Stock photo of a radiologist looking at a brain scan image on a computer >>> screen
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
By Jim Reed
Health reporter
The NHS is struggling to provide safe and effective care for all cancer
patients, say senior doctors.
The Royal College of Radiologists is warning that all four UK nations
are facing "chronic staff shortages", with patients waiting too long for >>> vital tests and treatments.
Half of all cancer units are now reporting frequent delays for both
radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
Ministers say a workforce strategy for the NHS in England is due shortly. >>>
The plan, which is meant to spell out how the government will plug
staffing gaps over the next 15 years, has been repeatedly delayed, to
the frustration of some in the health service.
It comes as new figures show 22,533 patients in England were waiting
more than two months for either cancer diagnosis or treatment at the end >>> of April, up from 19,023 at the end of March.
The wider NHS waiting list, which includes cancer and non-cancer
treatment, also increased further to 7.4 million people, the highest
number since records began in 2007.
Carol Fletcher
Image caption,
Carol Fletcher, 57, from Usk in South Wales, says she has faced multiple >>> delays for cancer treatment since being diagnosed last summer.
In June 2022, Carol Fletcher, from South Wales, finally had her routine
screening appointment for breast cancer, which was itself overdue.
"It took another eight weeks after my mammogram before I was told there
might be something wrong," she said.
Since her cancer diagnosis, there have been more waits - for scans,
tests, surgery and then chemo.
"I was told that I might not get results back [quickly] after my
mastectomy because they haven't got enough pathologists, so there was
another eight-week delay for chemotherapy," she said.
"I can't plan for the future and it's had a huge impact on my family."
Presentational grey line
NHS services across the whole UK have been struggling to meet cancer
targets since well before Covid.
The pandemic increased the backlog, with scans and treatment disrupted
by lockdowns.
Across England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, one key target is to
start treatment within two months of an urgent referral by a GP.
In Wales the measure is slightly different as it includes all urgent and >>> non-urgent referrals.
Graph showing UK cancer performance
All four nations are operating well below those levels. In England just
61% of patients start treatment in that time against a target of 85%.
Growing delays are, in part, the flip side of a medical success story.
Scientific progress in cancer care has been remarkable, with
cutting-edge drugs offering hope where previously there was little that
could be done.
New techniques are more effective but often far more complex for doctors >>> to deliver.
At the same time the UK population is getting older - and as cancer risk >>> is strongly linked to age it means more more demand for expensive
scanners, along with more staff to analyse those scans, and more
specialist doctors and nurses.
The Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) describes the situation as a
perfect storm - and says the workforce is struggling to keep up.
Graph showing predicted shortfall in senior doctors
Across the four UK nations, it calculates there is now a 15% shortfall
of specialist cancer doctors - or clinical oncologists - who deliver
chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Without action, it says this gap will grow to 25% - or a shortage of 368 >>> full-time consultants - by 2027.
Just as concerning is an even larger shortage of consultant radiologists >>> - highly trained doctors who interpret scans to diagnose cancer or
monitor its progression.
'Perfect storm'
The RCR says for each month a patient waits to start cancer treatment,
the risk of death is increased by about 10%.
In its annual survey, 44% of cancer service managers say they are now
"highly concerned" about patient delays, up from 29% in the previous year. >>>
"There are examples in almost every cancer centre where parts of the
service just aren't running as well as we would like," said Dr Tom
Roques, a consultant oncologist and vice-president of the RCR.
"We're having to tell patients all the time that we can't quite treat
them as quickly as we would like, or in the way that we'd like, and
that's a stressful thing to have to do."
Keith photo
Image caption,
Kevin O'Hara was diagnosed with kidney cancer after a motorbike accident. >>> Kevin O'Hara, 60, from County Durham, broke five ribs in a motorbike
accident last November.
A scan of his upper body also picked up a shadow near one of his kidneys >>> that was later diagnosed as cancer.
He was offered drug treatment meant to slow the growth of the tumour and >>> - in early February - was told the waiting list for surgery would be
three to four months.
That period has now been and gone but he is still waiting for a date for >>> his operation.
"Every day you are waiting and waiting and nothing changes," he said.
"I come home from work and go to the door and, when there's no envelope
that says NHS on the top, I just get so depressed."
Graph showing cancer referrals in England
There is another trend in cancer care which is often overlooked.
The last decade has seen a dramatic increase in people coming forward to >>> get checked after spotting a possible symptom such as an unusual lump,
strange mole or unexplained weight loss.
The reasons for that are complex and include a bounceback in demand
since Covid, stronger guidance for GPs to refer to cancer specialists,
major NHS publicity drives and the work of campaigners such as
"Bowelbabe" Deborah James.
Cancer doctors view the spike in demand as a "very good thing", as a
growing proportion of patients are now diagnosed earlier when cancer is
easier to treat.
But it also puts more pressure on NHS services, with waiting times for
diagnosis and other scans one of the key bottlenecks in the system.
Since Christmas there have been some signs of progress, with the NHS in
England reducing the backlog of long waits for treatment and hitting one >>> of its other standards - for faster diagnosis - for the first time.
Media caption,
In Blackpool, the NHS has hit its skin cancer targets by changing the
way patients are diagnosed, in an approach which is now being rolled out >>> across England.
The RCR also says there is a "chink of light" - with recruitment of
oncologists rising over the last three years, particularly in parts of
the country with the worst staff shortages.
It wants each UK nation to increase medical school places and training
posts, and says more also needs to be done to stop experienced staff
cutting their hours or leaving the profession early.
The Department of Health said that the total number of full-time staff
in the cancer workforce in England had risen by 51% to 33,093 since 2010. >>>
A spokesman added: "We want to build on this progress and will publish a >>> workforce plan shortly to ensure we have the right numbers of staff,
with the right number of skills."
The Scottish government is also expected to publish its new 10-year
cancer strategy within weeks, setting out ways to attract and retain
more staff.
The Welsh government recently published a cancer improvement plan and
says it is now investing heavily to train more staff and build more
diagnostic and treatment centres.
In Northern Ireland, the health department said it is "extremely
disappointing" that cancer targets are being missed. It has recently
opened two new rapid diagnostic centres and started a "cancer strategy
workforce review".
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/14558pu/lockdown_dissenters_were_muzzled_in_the_uk_as/
Lockdown Dissenters Were Muzzled in the U.K. as Well as the U.S. >Thin-skinned authoritarians of the world, unite!
J.D. TUCCILLE | 6.9.2023 7:00 AM
Kingdom.Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on RedditShare by emailPrint >friendly versionCopy page URL
A businessman with tape over his mouth holding a flag of the United
became(Elnur | Dreamstime.com)
When it comes to the political class, bad ideas can be contagious. That >appears to be the case with censorship during the pandemic, which
companies toa popular pastime among functionaries convinced they are the embodiment >of science—or, at least, the arbiters of truth. As it turns out, that
led to the collaboration between the state and social media
the U.K.muzzle voices not just in the U.S., but also across the Atlantic in
aboutThe Rattler is a weekly newsletter from J.D. Tuccille. If you care
government overreach and tangible threats to everyday liberty, this is >for you.
Email(Required)
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Muzzling Dissenting Voices
"A secretive government unit worked with social media companies in an >attempt to curtail discussion of controversial lockdown policies during >the pandemic," The Telegraph reported June 2. "The
Counter-Disinformation Unit (CDU) was set up by ministers to tackle >supposed domestic 'threats', and was used to target those critical of >lockdown and questioning the mass vaccination of children."
socialThe report added that "critics of lockdown had posts removed from
sharedmedia. There is growing suspicion that social media firms used
technology to stop the posts being promoted, circulated or widely
Office."after being flagged by the CDU or its counterpart in the Cabinet
Among those monitored and penalized were prominent epidemiologists and >medical researchers who challenged official data and restrictive >policies. Activists who opposed lockdowns were also targeted. The >Telegraph, a prominent newspaper which has run articles skeptical of >pandemic authoritarianism, was itself singled out.
behest ofImplicated in monitoring content and penalizing dissent at the
government officials were companies including Facebook, Google, Twitter >(under the old management), and the BBC, the U.K.'s high-profile state >broadcaster.
spying onThe story follows an earlier report (credited by The Telegraph)
published in January 2023 by civil liberties group Big Brother Watch. >That report, Ministry of Truth: the secretive government units
Informationyour speech, called out the Cabinet Office's Rapid Response Unit, the >Counter Disinformation Unit, the Foreign Office's Government
Cell, the Home Office's Research, Intelligence and Communications Unit, >and the British Army's 77th Brigade. Together, they targeted what >officials considered "disinformation" during the pandemic and then >following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
"The government has created opaque agencies which increasingly use
social media companies as an extension of the state, using these online >intermediaries to police online speech on their behalf," the report
says. "Though the speech in question may violate these online >intermediaries' terms of use, this itself is not a legitimate cause for >state interference with free expression."
identical toWhere Have I Heard That Before?
If that sounds familiar to you, it should. It's essentially
what we've seen revealed in the United States. The Telegraph makes that >point in its story, noting that "In America, Twitter has released
similar information showing how the US government also introduced a >secretive programme to curtail discussion of Covid lockdowns."
As in Britain, U.S. officials leaned on multiple private firms to >suppress messages the government didn't like.
efforts"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) played a direct >role in policing permissible speech on social media throughout the >COVID-19 pandemic," Reason's Robby Soave reported in January. >"Confidential emails obtained by Reason show that Facebook moderators >were in constant contact with the CDC, and routinely asked government >health officials to vet claims relating to the virus, mitigation
such as masks, and vaccines."
theCensors Defending the Indefensible
Not only did government officials seek to muzzle people—often >intelligent, well-informed people—who dared to disagree with them, they >often did so to advance serious policy errors that might have been >avoided if open and healthy debate had been allowed. Just this week,
UK's Institute of Economic Affairs published a peer-reviewed analysis >showing that during the COVID-19 pandemic, "harsher restrictions, like >stay-at-home rules and school closures, generated very high costs but >produced only negligible health benefits."
"The science of lockdowns is clear; the data are in: the lives saved
were a drop in the bucket compared to the staggering collateral costs >imposed," comments Johns Hopkins University's Steve Hanke, who >co-authored the analysis with Jonas Herby of Denmark's Center for >Political Studies and Lars Jonung of Sweden's Lund University.
Among other costs, researchers find that restrictive pandemic policies >took an enormous toll on people's mental health.
"My colleagues and I conducted a review of all of the studies on mental >health conducted during the first year of the pandemic," social >psychology professor Gery Karantzas of Australia's Deakin University >wrote last year. "We found that overall, social restrictions doubled >people's odds of experiencing mental health symptoms…. Those who >experienced lockdowns were twice as likely to experience mental ill >health than those who didn't."
viableChildren took a particular hit from lockdowns implemented with no
plan for keeping them educated and engaged.
learning—brought on"Children lost an average of one-third of a year of school during the >coronavirus pandemic," Reason's Emma Camp pointed out in February. >"Researchers say the loss is largely due to the disruption and damage >school closures—and the subsequent shift to distance
children's physical and mental health."
preferredViolating Rights and Pushing Bad Policy
Suppressing opposing opinions from physicians, journalists, activists, >and anybody else who might have seen downsides to the policies
values,by those in power turns out to have been not just a violation of free >speech rights (a big deal itself), but an excellent way of greasing the >path to disaster. What officialdom called "disinformation" was actually >the sort of healthy debate that raises valid concerns, differing
and important considerations overlooked by thin-skinned authoritarians >who prefer censorship over challenges to their egos.
well asThe Telegraph quoted criticism from civil liberties advocates as
lawmakers from the ruling Conservative Party that implemented Britain's >lockdowns and speech controls.
"It is becoming increasingly clear that many of the foundations of our >democracy – such as free speech and parliamentary scrutiny – were >completely disregarded during the pandemic," commented Miriam Cates, a >Conservative member of Parliament.
We could say much of the same here in the U.S. and elsewhere in the >world. Unfortunately, despite their annoyance at being exposed, there's >little evidence that authoritarian officials have learned any lessons.In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22 w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/148jadc/covid_inquiry_failure_to_consider_potentially/
Covid inquiry: Failure to consider 'potentially massive impact' of
lockdown pre-pandemic
Published
18 hours ago
Share
Related Topics
Coronavirus public inquiry
A volunteer paints red hearts on the National Covid Memorial Wall in
Westminster
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
By Jim Reed and Michelle Roberts
BBC News
The "potentially massive impact" of lockdowns on society was not thought >>> through before the pandemic, the lead lawyer for the Covid inquiry has said.
As the probe into the government's handling of the pandemic began
hearing evidence, Hugo Keith KC said the UK may not have been well
prepared "at all".
It was "extraordinary" that lockdowns had received little thought, he added.
Government figures show 227,321 people have died in the UK with Covid
mentioned on their death certificate.
Mr Keith told the first public hearing that the virus had caused "death, >>> misery, and incalculable loss".
He said while Covid could not have been avoided, the key issue was
whether its impact on the UK was inevitable.
There was "very little debate" about whether a national lockdown could
be needed ahead of the pandemic or whether it could be avoided, Mr Keith >>> told the inquiry, adding that there was a failure to think through the
consequences for education and the economy.
On Tuesday, Mr Keith was addressing the inquiry as it prepares to take
oral evidence from its first witnesses later in the week.
Its first topic - or module - will examine how well prepared the UK was
for Covid up to January 2020.
Mr Keith said: "Even at this stage, before hearing the evidence, it is
apparent that we might not have been very well prepared at all."
What is the UK Covid-19 inquiry?
It is about going through what happened and learning lessons
No-one will be found guilty or innocent
Any recommendations made do not have to be adopted by governments
The inquiry has no formal deadline but is due to hold public hearings
until 2026
Scotland is holding a separate inquiry in addition to the wider UK one
What is the UK Covid inquiry and how long will it take?
Media caption,
Watch: Bereaved families express their loss in a film shown to the inquiry >>>
Chair Baroness Hallett pledged that the inquiry into the handling of the >>> coronavirus pandemic would be the "thorough investigation" that the
public deserves.
The former High Court judge paid tribute to a "dignified vigil" of
bereaved family members holding a silent protest outside of the building. >>>
Lady Hallett said there were three key questions to be answered for the
"millions of people who have suffered and continue to suffer":
Was the UK properly prepared for a pandemic?
Was the response to it appropriate?
And can we learn lessons for the future?
This first part of the inquiry will hear from key politicians, civil
servants, scientists, unions, health and care organisations, groups
representing victims and their relatives and more.
The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group has criticised the
inquiry's timetable and says people have been "excluded from sharing key >>> evidence".
They branded the inquiry's Every Story Matters project - where members
of the public can share their experience with the inquiry through a
website - an "inadequate" process because stories will be anonymised and >>> summarised and possibly "open to bias and interpretation by third parties". >>>
Addressing critics of the inquiry, Lady Hallett said she hoped they
would understand the difficult balance she has had to strike.
"I am listening to them, their loss will be recognised, they will be
able to contribute to the inquiry."
Mr Keith, counsel to the inquiry, said UK was "taken by surprise" over
"significant aspects" of the pandemic, including lockdowns.
"Extraordinary though it may seem, given that it's a word that's forever >>> seared in the nation's consciousness, there was very little debate
pre-pandemic of whether a lockdown might prove to be necessary in the
event of a runaway virus, let alone how a lockdown could be avoided.
"Very little thought was given to how, if it proved to be necessary, how >>> something as complex, difficult and damaging as a national lockdown
could be put in place at all.
"Equally, there appears to have been a failure to think through the
potentially massive impact on education and on the economy."
He said the UK had been preparing for an outbreak more similar to flu,
and questioned how well placed and funded the NHS was to cope.
"No amount of foresight or planning can guarantee that a country will
not make mistakes when a disease strikes, but that does not mean that we >>> should not strive to be as ready as we sensibly can be," Mr Keith said.
"No country can be perfectly prepared, but it can certainly be
underprepared."
Mr Keith highlighted "shocking" data showing that Covid mortality was
two-and-a-half times higher in some of the most deprived parts of the UK >>> than the richest, with people in some ethnic minority groups or with a
disability far more likely to be infected or die of the disease.
To what extent those outcomes could and should have been foreseen and
mitigated would be a "big question" in module one, he said.
The wider political environment will also be considered including the
possible impact of Brexit on emergency planning.
"Did the attention paid to the risks of a no-deal Brexit - Operation
Yellowhammer as it was known - drain resources and capacity that should
have been continuing the fight against the next pandemic?" Mr Keith asked. >>>
"Or did that generic and operational planning, in fact, lead to people
being better trained and well-marshalled, and in fact better prepared to >>> deal with Covid?
"On the evidence so far... we very much fear that it was the former."
The inquiry will also examine if the collapse of the power-sharing
agreement in Northern Ireland damaged the ability of authorities to plan >>> and respond to the pandemic.
Mr Keith said it was unlikely we will ever know how Covid started -
whether it emerged from a lab leak or from farmed wild animals that were >>> sold in Wuhan. Nor when the first human infection happened, he said.
"For this inquiry's purposes, this knowledge does not matter."
In his opening remarks, Pete Weatherby KC, counsel for the Covid-19
Bereaved Families for Justice group, said the "closest to an overall
plan" to deal with Covid in 2020 was a 2011 document drawn up to protect >>> the UK from an outbreak of influenza.
"With a pandemic, time is of the essence and lost time is measured in
lives," he said.
"The families expect the evidence will show… little or no ministerial
leadership and the chaos of committees which led to poor planning and
ultimately a reactive rather than a proactive response to the virus."
In response to the Brexit claims, a spokesperson for the prime minister
said the government would not be responding to every issue raised in the >>> inquiry.
He added that it would be up to the government to respond at the
appropriate stage.
WhatsApp Messages
Lady Hallett has asked to see ex-prime minister Boris Johnson's
unredacted WhatsApp messages between him and around 40 politicians and
officials, but this is being challenged by his successor, Rishi Sunak.
The Cabinet Office launched a legal challenge against the request,
arguing some of the messages were irrelevant. This is thought to be the
first time a government has taken legal action against its own public
inquiry.
Mr Johnson said he was "perfectly content" for the inquiry to have
WhatsApp messages sent after May 2021. Earlier messages are not
available because his mobile phone was involved in a security breach and >>> has not been used since.
Former Health Secretary Matt Hancock also said he was happy to share his >>> messages, although many of these have already been leaked by the
journalist Isabel Oakeshott, who helped Mr Hancock write his book,
Pandemic Diaries.
In a statement about the back-and-forth over the messages, Rishi Sunak's >>> spokesperson said it "is still ongoing" and will "obviously... be
resolved through the normal process".
"Broadly, we continue to provide tens of thousands of pieces of
information to the inquiry, 55,000 documents over the past 11 months and >>> we will do so in the spirit of transparency and candour."
Covid WhatsApp message row
How many Covid deaths have there been?
The UK saw one of the worst first waves of Covid in Europe in spring 2020. >>>
In April and May that year, about 160,000 deaths were registered: 60,000 >>> more than you'd expect based on the years just before the pandemic.
But by that winter the UK had been overtaken by many countries in
eastern Europe who had seemed to escape the first wave.
The UK's Office for National Statistics has continued to analyse these
figures for Europe and, as of July last year, put the UK in the middle
of the pack.
According to Department of Health figures, 227,321 people died across
the UK with Covid recorded on their death certificate.
Covid vaccines have prevented many deaths and serious illness from the
virus - more than 151m doses have been given in the UK.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/149ya3n/boris_johnson_deliberately_misled_uk_parliament/
Boris Johnson deliberately misled UK Parliament over Covid lockdown
breaches, inquiry finds
Luke McGee
By Rob Picheta and Luke McGee, CNN
Updated 9:08 AM EDT, Thu June 15, 2023
The investigation's focus was on Johnson's conduct during the Covid-19
pandemic, when he was PM and found by police to have breached his own
rules.
The investigation's focus was on Johnson's conduct during the Covid-19
pandemic, when he was PM and found by police to have breached his own rules.
Leon Neal/WPA Pool/Getty Images
London
CNN
—
Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson deliberately misled
lawmakers over breaches of his own Covid-19 lockdown rules, a
parliamentary committee has found, in a devastating and unprecedented
report that lambasts Johnson’s conduct and recommends he is refused a
pass to enter the parliamentary estate.
The committee’s report found that Johnson “committed a serious contempt” >>> of parliament when, after the so-called “Partygate” scandal which
revealed that illegal gatherings took place at Downing Street, Johnson
told parliament that rules were followed at all times.
The findings amount to a historic admonishment of a former prime
minister, who won a landslide electoral victory less than four years ago >>> but saw his political career collapse amid a series of scandals.
“The contempt was all the more serious because it was committed by the
Prime Minister, the most senior member of the government,” the
Privileges Committee wrote in its report, published Thursday. “There is
no precedent for a Prime Minister having been found to have deliberately >>> misled the House.”
LONDON, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 06: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson
delivers a farewell address before his official resignation at Downing
Street on September 6, 2022 in London, England. British Prime Minister
Boris Johnson is stepping down following the election of Liz Truss, the
former foreign secretary, as Conservative Party leader. (Photo by Dan
Kitwood/Getty Images)
Boris Johnson is down -- but not necessarily out
“He misled the House on an issue of the greatest importance to the House >>> and to the public, and did so repeatedly,” the members wrote, adding
that Johnson also misled the committee when he presented evidence in his >>> defense.
Johnson resigned as an MP in fury on Friday, days before the report’s
publication, nullifying the committee’s recommendation that he be
suspended for long enough to force a by-election in his constituency.
But the report added a further, damning recommendation in light of his
resignation: that Johnson is denied a former member’s pass to enter
parliament, a longstanding convention for ex-MPs.
Johnson raising a glass during one of the Downing Street gatherings, in
a picture released during a seperate investigation into his conduct.
Johnson raising a glass during one of the Downing Street gatherings, in
a picture released during a seperate investigation into his conduct.
UK Cabinet Office
“We came to the view that some of Mr Johnson’s denials and explanations
were so disingenuous that they were by their very nature deliberate
attempts to mislead the Committee and the House, while others
demonstrated deliberation because of the frequency with which he closed
his mind to the truth,” the report found.
It marks the end of a lengthy investigation by the committee – the
majority of whom represent Johnson’s Conservative Party – that Johnson
and some of his allies attacked as a “kangaroo court.”
But it may not end the Partygate saga. MPs must now vote to accept the
report’s findings, a potentially embarrassing exercise certain to expose >>> divisions between Johnson’s supporters in parliament and the current
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Committee lambasts Johnson’s ‘vitriol’
The investigation’s focus was on Johnson’s conduct during the Covid-19
pandemic, when he was prime minister and found by police to have
breached his own rules limiting gatherings.
One contemporary Downing Street staffer, in a piece of written evidence
submitted to the committee, described the prime minister’s residence as
“an island oasis of normality” during lockdown.
“This was all part of a wider culture of not adhering to any rules,” the >>> staffer wrote. “Birthday parties, leaving parties and end of week
gatherings all continued as normal. Those responsible for the leadership >>> of No. 10 failed to keep it a safe space.”
Unlike a police investigation and a separate parliamentary probe into
the parties themselves, this inquest looked at whether Johnson knowingly >>> misled lawmakers in the House of Commons when he reassured them that he
was unaware of the parties.
Its findings were unanimous and unambiguous. “We think it highly
unlikely on the balance of probabilities that Mr Johnson … could have
genuinely believed at the time of his statements to the House that the
Rules or Guidance were being complied with,” the report said.
The committee dismissed Johnson's argument that he didn't know he was
breaking his lockdown rules during the events.
The committee dismissed Johnson's argument that he didn't know he was
breaking his lockdown rules during the events.
UK Cabinet Office
The report also rebukes Johnson for his attacks on the committee’s
impartiality, finding that he committed contempt of parliament on
several more occasions when giving evidence and when he resigned as MP.
“This attack on a committee carrying out its remit from the
democratically elected House itself amounts to an attack on our
democratic institutions,” the committee wrote in its report, calling
Johnson’s language “vitriolic” and “completely unacceptable.”
Had Johnson stayed on as a parliamentarian, the committee would have
recommended a 90-day suspension from the Commons – a ban nine times the
threshold that would force a sitting member of parliament to hold a
by-election to reclaim their seat.
Johnson, in his own response to the report, called its publication a
“dreadful day for democracy.”
“This report is a charade. I was wrong to believe in the committee or
its good. faith. The terrible truth is that it is not I who has twisted
the truth to suit my purposes,” he said.
‘A pound shop Trump’
Johnson’s reputation is steeped even deeper in disgrace following the
publication, despite his furious attempts to discredit the committee in
recent days.
He was condemned by Angela Rayner, the deputy leader of the opposition
Labour Party, as “not only a law-breaker but a liar.”
“He’s not fit for public office and he’s disgraced himself and continues >>> to act like a pound-shop Trump in the way in which he tries to discredit >>> anybody who criticizes his actions,” Rayner told broadcasters on Thursday. >>>
“A decent public servant would have done the honorable thing, would have >>> had a little bit of humility and would have apologized to the British
public for what they put them through.”
As well as being the first PM ever to be fined by police while in
office, Johnson’s entire premiership was dogged by scandal, ranging from >>> financial irregularities to members of his team being accused of sexual
misconduct.
LONDON, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 06: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson
delivers a farewell address before his official resignation at Downing
Street on September 6, 2022 in London, England. British Prime Minister
Boris Johnson is stepping down following the election of Liz Truss, the
former foreign secretary, as Conservative Party leader. (Photo by Dan
Kitwood/Getty Images)
Analysis: Boris Johnson's name will go down in history, but for none of
the reasons he wants
His popularity plummeted toward the end of his time in office – both
among the British public and his own MPs. His attempt to come back after >>> his successor Liz Truss was forced to resign fell short after it became
apparent that a majority of Conservative MPs would block it.
Johnson has been in a war of words with Sunak, his former finance
minister and eventual successor, in recent days – and Sunak has now
sought to put distance between Johnson and himself.
Sunak’s spokesperson told reporters Thursday that the committee Johnson
has repeatedly attacked is “a properly constituted committee carrying
out work at the behest of Parliament.”
Over the weekend, Johnson and two of his allies said they would quit as
MPs immediately, forcing three difficult by-elections for a government
that is languishing in opinion polls.
The former PM’s departure from the House of Commons is not necessarily
good news for Sunak, whom Johnson criticized in his resignation statement. >>>
Johnson and his allies still largely hold Sunak responsible for his
predecessor’s political downfall. Johnson has always been an influential >>> figure among Conservative voters, whether inside or outside of parliament. >>>
The prospect of Johnson outside of parliament, writing columns and
giving speeches aimed at the voters Sunak needs to win the next election >>> will no doubt cause yet more anxiety in Downing Street.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/14chwgm/analysis_britains_covid_inquiry_has_become_a/
Analysis: Britain’s Covid inquiry has become a political farce
Analysis by Luke McGee, CNN
Updated 4:24 AM EDT, Sat June 17, 2023
The gloves are off between Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak.
The gloves are off between Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak.
Heathcliff O'Malley/Pool/AFP/Getty Images
London
CNN
—
Britain’s Covid inquiry was supposed to give closure to people who lost
loved ones in the pandemic. It’s instead become a political circus that
could hurt both Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak.
The inquiry, which began taking evidence on Tuesday, had for weeks been
overshadowed by a series of spats between Sunak, the current prime
minister, and Johnson, who resigned in disgrace last summer.
The first such spat relates directly to the inquiry. Sunak and his
government is legally challenging the inquiry’s right to request
personal information from people who were directly involved in
decision-making during the pandemic. That means anything form private
WhatsApp messages to private diaries.
The government says it wants to block this because it could set a
precedent where information that isn’t relevant could enter the public
domain which could have an adverse affect on the way that people making
decisions communicate during a crisis.
Johnson undercut Sunak by directly handing his own information to the
inquiry.
Deborah Doyle, spokesperson for Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice,
said of the government’s legal action: “For the Cabinet Office to spend
hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money on suing its own
public inquiry into being unable to access critical evidence is
absolutely obscene … They’re displaying exactly the same contempt for
ordinary people that was so disastrous when the pandemic struck in the
first place.”
Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak led Britain through much of the pandemic.
Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak led Britain through much of the pandemic.
Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
The second, and probably more explosive, of the spats distracting from
the inquiry revolves around a parliamentary committee specifically
looking at whether or not Johnson knowingly misled lawmakers when he
said that during the pandemic, all of the rules in place were observed
at all times.
ADVERTISEMENT
This is the committee’s investigation into the infamous Partygate
scandal, which led to Johnson being fined by police for breaking Covid
rules. Sunak was also fined for the same incident.
Johnson had initially told parliament that all rules were followed at
all times. Even after it become transparent that this wasn’t true,
Johnson maintained that he did not knowingly mislead parliament. The
committee disagreed, this week recommending that Johnson should be
suspended from parliament for 90 days and not be allowed a pass back
into the building, something ex-members are entitled to.
Having seen the report ahead of its publication, Johnson resigned as a
member of parliament and continued to accuse the committee of being
politically motivated. He still protests his innocence and has called
the committee “beneath contempt”.
While Johnson has ostensibly resigned over the committee’s report, it
was expected that Johnson might resign after Sunak rejected certain
people that Johnson wanted to elevate to the UK’s upper parliamentary
chamber, the House of Lords. It is believed by Sunak’s allies that
Johnson simply wanted to cause the PM a headache. Johnson’s office
denies this.
‘Shocking’
All of this drama, of course, brings no comfort to those who lost loved
ones to Covid 19.
“The families of the bereaved want the government to learn lessons that
might save lives in the future. All of these attempts to save face are
frankly just shocking,” Jack Rodgers, also from the Covid-19 Bereaved
Families for Justice campaign, told CNN.
Johnson and Sunak would both deny that they are trying to save face. But >>> the inquiry does have the potential to cause them both enormous damage
in the eyes of the public.
Christina Pagel from University College London’s Clinical Operational
Research Unit thinks that the the inquiry could shine an unflattering
spotlight on what happened after the first wave of Covid-19 hit the UK.
“From summer 2020 onwards, we knew a lot about how the disease spread,
but the government consistently failed to use the summer or the time
during lockdowns to put better protective measures in place, such as
indoor cleaner air or improved support for isolation.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson holds a press conference in response to the >>> publication of the Sue Gray report Into "Partygate" at Downing Street on >>> May 25, 2022 in London.
Boris Johnson deliberately misled UK Parliament over Covid lockdown
breaches, inquiry finds
At the time the UK had rules that changed based on infection rates in
local areas. In cases that meant people could meet indoor in groups of
six. It was around this time that Sunak introduced his “Eat Out to Help
Out” scheme, where meals out would be subsidized in an attempt to boost
the hospitality industry.
Leading scientists have claimed that the scheme was not backed by
experts and it is expected to be a key focus of the inquiry – whether or >>> not encouraging such mixing led to the virus spreading further.
Pagel also points specifically to the way in which procurement contracts >>> were handed to people who have since been found to have links to the
Conservative party. The government implemented a fast-track scheme in
order to secure personal protective equipment, which have since come
under scrutiny and led to accusations of cronyism.
“It’s one thing acting fast in a crisis; it’s another giving your
friends loads of money despite them not knowing what they are doing.
There were plenty of other eminently qualified people offering to
provide PPE,” she says.
The government argues that at the time it was simply trying to avoid
running out of PPE and did everything possible to secure it.
Report could reveal chaos
CNN spoke to multiple people who worked in government during the
pandemic about their concerns for the inquiry. Most are worried about
what unvarnished records of conversations – cabinet ministers arguing
and big personalities blowing up – will look like to the public. Others
are worried that the true level of chaos inside Downing Street,
particularly at the start of the pandemic, will cause embarrassment for
everyone involved rather than just those in charge.
One senior government official at the time described how teams
deliberately tried to keep their work away from Johnson who was, they
say, often erratic and would get in the way of what they were doing.
This included setting up work space in different buildings.
Ultimately, it is inevitable that this inquiry will put the people who
led the country at the time under fresh scrutiny. And it’s possible much >>> of what comes out will be embarrassing. Which, of course, somewhat
minimizes the human tragedies at the center of this story.
Boris Johnson visits a hospital during the pandemic in 2021. The inquiry >>> could prove embarrasing for the former PM.
Boris Johnson visits a hospital during the pandemic in 2021. The inquiry >>> could prove embarrasing for the former PM.
Peter Summers/Getty Images
Lorelei King lost her husband early in the pandemic. She is watching the >>> inquiry unfold with some concern.
“They are refusing to call any of the bereaved to give direct testimony. >>> We have submitted 20 potential witnesses. This is not about talking
about our experience, this is about presenting relevant evidence,” she
told CNN.
“On day one, the inquiry played a film about the impact of the virus on
the bereaved. Baroness Hallett, who is leading the inquiry, said she had >>> learned something new from the film. So there it is, that (fresh
evidence) came from individual direct testimony.”
King told CNN that she and the care home her husband, who had
Alzheimer’s, was living in agreed to end in-person visits before the
government locked down.
One day, she noticed on a video call that her husband’s breathing was
unusual. “Days later he was dead. I got to see his body briefly, then
men in hazmat suits came and took him away.”
For King, the political drama that has dominated the conversation around >>> Covid in the UK recently has made the grieving process even harder.
“The scab is ripped off every time there is a story about parties, about >>> people breaking the rules, about how they want to handle the inquiry. It >>> certainly has taken the focus off the human costs. I think the bereaved
have a particular insight and the people who cannot understand why we
can’t move on or say, ‘oh heck it was only a birthday cake’, I can only
assume they haven’t lost someone to Covid.”
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/14giawx/truckers_on_the_frontlines_of_freedom_tamara_lich/
"Dr. Jordan B. Peterson, Tammy Peterson, and Tamara Lich break down
the events leading up to, during, and after the internationally
recognized Canadian Freedom Convoy, which sought to publicize and end
ridiculous COVID mandates as they heavily affected the multi-national
trucking industry. Lich was a key organizer and has suffered for her
role, spending a total of 48 days in jail over “mischief,” while being
labeled a terrorist and being legally barred from using social media.
Tamara Lich is a Canadian activist with a background organizing the
2018-2019 Yellow Vest protests in Alberta. She was also an early
founder of the secession movement in western Canada known as WEXIT.
Lich also had a prior career in the logistics field regarding Canadian
energy and first became vocal about the unrivaled efficiency of her
country’s fossil fuel industry, despite the mainstream media claiming
otherwise."
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/14giawx/truckers_on_the_frontlines_of_freedom_tamara_lich/
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/14qpw54/nicola_sturgeon_scotland_had_no_set_plan_to_deal/
Former first minister also tells inquiry communication between UK and
devolved administrations was too ad hoc
Libby Brooks Scotland correspondent
Thu 29 Jun 2023 09.03 EDT
There was “no set plan” in Scotland for dealing with a pandemic of the
nature of Covid-19, Nicola Sturgeon has told the UK Covid inquiry.
The former first minister said she accepted that the 2011 four nations
pandemic plan – which focused on influenza – was inadequate, but that
did not mean no part of it was useful. “There is no plan that will ever
completely replicate what happens in reality when a pandemic
unfortunately confronts us.”
Sturgeon, who was Scotland’s first minister throughout the pandemic and
until she stepped down in March this year, said: “What there wasn’t, and >>> I think this is the significant gap, is there was no set plan and, as I
say, that’s not the same as saying there was no thinking, into how we
dealt with a pandemic that had features and characteristics of flu in
terms of transmissibility, but also the severity and what we came to
understand in terms of the asymptomatic transmissibility of Covid-19.”
She said that, in hindsight, politicians and officials would all have
benefited from much earlier discussion around issues such as social
restrictions, mass diagnostic testing and contact tracing.
“The questions in my mind, literally every day, are not so much did we
lack a plan, but did we lack capabilities for dealing with a pandemic of >>> the nature of Covid-19? And obviously I’m talking there about contact
tracing, testing, infrastructure in particular.”
Although the remit of this phase of the inquiry headed by Heather
Hallett focuses on the preparedness of the UK, Sturgeon said it was
“really important for us to consider frankly, could we or should we have >>> done more to suppress Covid to the maximum?”
“It was never the case when Covid struck that we just accepted as a
given that a reasonable worst-case scenario was going to unfold. It was
our determination from the outset to do everything we could – and this
is what prevention means – to suppress it to the maximum.”
She said this later became a point of difference between the Scottish
and UK governments, over “the extent to which we were still seeking to
suppress as opposed to live with the virus”.
She also described UK-wide planning as working “reasonably well” but
said that communication between the UK and devolved administrations
remained “too ad hoc”.
Asked about the former health secretary Jeremy Hunt’s admission that
“party politics” got in the way of four nations collaboration, Sturgeon
said this was “possible to overstate”.
But she acknowledged that Brexit “set the overall tone” for
intergovernmental relations. In 2019, time and resources had to be
diverted from pandemic preparation to planning for a no-deal Brexit,
which the Scottish government was “not at all happy about”, she said.
Sturgeon’s evidence was concluding while the final first minister’s
questions was being held before recess. There, the Scottish Labour
leader, Anas Sarwar, challenged Sturgeon’s successor, Humza Yousaf, over >>> why bereaved families still had little idea when the Scottish Covid
inquiry would begin questioning ministers and officials.
The separate Covid-19 inquiry, set up by the Scottish government, has
yet to hold any public hearings after the initial chair resigned last
autumn, citing personal reasons, and a new chair, Neil Brailsford, was
appointed.
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Yousaf said the government wanted the inquiry “to be delivered at speed” >>> and it would do everything necessary to cooperate.
Earlier in the morning, Sir Jeremy Farrar, the former member of Sage and >>> currently the chief scientist at the World Health Organization, told the >>> inquiry: “We’re living in a pandemic age”.
He said it would be wrong to view the Covid pandemic or other influenza
outbreaks as discrete episodes. “They are telling us something far
deeper about how the world is changing: biodiversity loss, environment,
climate change, urbanisation, trade and travel.”
Farrer urged future pandemic planning to take a “cross-government, whole >>> of society approach”, adding “table-top exercises will only get you so far”.
“To forge together public health laboratories, local authorities,
hospitals and clinical facilities, general practice, primary care and
the research endeavour and making sure that those are working together
outside the pandemic and can much better work together in a pandemic
would be a huge progress in terms of our ability to have resilience in
the future.”
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/14ug8r9/the_older_generation_still_do_not_understand_how/
The older generation still do not understand how lockdowns have
disadvantaged an entire generation of young people and its so
disappointing to witness.
Serious Discussion
Lockdowns happened 3 years old but we can no longer underestimate nor
ignore the impact it has on young people as the effects are now present. >>> Here in the UK a TV presenter called Nana Akua bravely shared about how
lockdowns harmed her childs development. Her child went from being very
confident to being socially anxious and withdrawn. Nana speaks about her >>> powerless as mother being unable to help her son. Other parents have
also sharing about how their children's emotional and mental well-being
declined during the lockdowns. It is now even coming out that in the UK
GP records and medical data show a sharp rise in teenage girls in the UK >>> developing eating disorders and self-harming during the Covid pandemic.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-12244133/amp/NANA-AKUA-Im-no-lockdown-skeptic-effects-son-mean-wont-compliant-time.html
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-65954131
My little sister was 12 years old and she was in her first term of year
7 when 1st lockdown happened in England in March 2020.The schools
reopened in September 2020 and attendance was mandatory by order of then >>> Education Secretary Gavin William as parents were refusing to send their >>> kids to school after lockdown. My little sister was now a 13 year old
girl in year 8. Schools did remain open during the second lockdown in
England which was a 4 week lockdown in November to stop the spread. Then >>> came January then Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a 3rd lockdown
in England and this time schools were closed however was open for key
workers children and children in the vunlerable category. My sister went >>> back to school in the summer term of around June 2021 Around that time
not much learning takes place because everyone is preparing for the
summer holidays. In September 2021 my sister was a 14 year old and
completed her school year without any lockdowns. My sister has missed
loads of days off school including being hospitalised because of her
chronic illness she has had since birth.
Today my sister is now a 15 year old in year 10 and rescently she did
very badly in her GCSE mock exams, mock exams are not real exams. She
passed only English Language and Literature as she is very creative. In
the UK young people now sit all GCSE exams in year 11and teachers use
mocks to test knowledge and predict what grade a student is likely to
receive if they sat that exam for real. My mother and grandmother are
very disappointed with her. My mother is angry about spending loads of
money on tuition and my sister still not doing well. My grandmother
regularly brings up how studious I was a teenager to criticise my sister >>> for her lack of studying. My mother and grandmother were the biggest
supporters of harder lockdown measures. My family believe people who
struggled lockdown are "weak people." because we have "Netflix, welfare
and Internet" so according to them "there is no excuse why people are
struggling with lockdown"
This week I explained to my grandmother how the lockdowns are a
contributing factor in how my sister is in this position. The problem
with the lockdowns was my sister along with other young people never
developed properly the basic literacy and maths skills due to amount of
missed schooling. In lockdown my sisters school did not have online zoom >>> lessons like other schools did instead students were given sheets of
work to complaete and then submit online. When she returned to school
there was no time to catch up really. In the UK teachers don't have time >>> to teach effectively because teachers are now expected to take on more
responsibilities especially where parents are failing to look after or
discipline their out of control children. My sisters school is in the
middle of a low income neighbourhood that issues with crime. The Social
services in the UK to deal with troubled families is broken so schools
are left shoulder the burden.
I acknowledge there is other factors too in my sisters poor grades such
as my sister not liking school and her missing school regularly because
of her illness. My grandmother's accused me of "making excuses." I even
almost lost my temper with my grandmother. I said " there factors that
happened beyond my sisters control which contributed to her exam
performance being poor. Everything is linked and if you can't see that
then you are part of the problem"
My grandmother just was not getting it unfortunately I have seen many
people older people like my grandmother with similar attitudes and
apathy. Many people think because it happened 3 years ago we should all
just move on but how can we ?. Lockdowns are gone but their effects are
everywhere now are schools and healthcare services can't cope.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/1500ttv/innout_trying_to_ban_masked_employees/
RESTAURANTS FAST FOOD IN-N-OUT BURGER
In-N-Out Burger's Alleged New Mask Policy Is Causing Controversy
Tada Images/Shutterstock
By Elias Nash|July 14, 2023 6:05 pm EST
West Coast chain In-N-Out Burger enjoys a pretty glowing reputation. It
seems to be one of the only fast food brands impervious to criticism >>>from even the highest culinary echelons, counting celebrity chefs like
Alton Brown and the late Anthony Bourdain among its rabid, not-so-secret >>> menu-loving fan club. And yet, the company has come under fire multiple
times for its political stances, aligning with a Conservative Christian
ethos that has been criticized for, among other things, anti-LGBTQ
policies. But while similarly-aligned brands such as Chick-fil-A have
sparked boycotts over these issues, In-N-Out hasn't faced the same backlash.
Skip Ad
Things shifted a bit during the COVID-19 pandemic, an event that put
corporations' political standings in the spotlight. In-N-Out made
headlines in 2021 when one of its San Francisco locations was
temporarily closed by the city's Department of Public Health for
violating a local vaccine mandate. According to the San Francisco
Chronicle, In-N-Out responded by calling vaccine mandates "intrusive,
improper, and offensive."
Now, the company's pandemic stances have landed it in hot water again,
as a tweet from Dr. Lucky Tran, a molecular biologist who frequently
writes about public health issues for The Guardian and other outlets,
alleges that In-N-Out is banning its employees from wearing masks.
Tran's tweet includes an apparent internal memo from In-N-Out executives >>> stating, "No masks shall be worn in the Store or Support facility unless >>> an Associate has a valid medical note."
In-N-Out's alleged mask ban comes in the name of customer service
Anouchka/Getty Images
The statement goes on to explain that medical notes can only be accepted >>> if the employee has a specific medical condition that requires them to
wear a mask and that the note must also state the expected duration of
that condition if that can be determined. If employees present such a
note, they will be permitted to wear a mask; however, they are required
to use N-95 masks provided by the company.
What is the reasoning behind In-N-Out's purported mask ban? According to >>> the memo, the mandate is intended to "emphasize the importance of
customer service and the ability to show our Associates' smiles and
other facial features." Also of note is the fact that the memo is
addressed to employees in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Texas, and Utah.
That leaves two states where In-N-Out operates — California and Oregon — >>> that are apparently exempt from the mandate.
If the information provided by Dr. Lucky Tran is indeed accurate, it
could potentially spell legal trouble for the fast food chain. In 2021,
the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) fined a
Massachusetts tax company for prohibiting employees from wearing masks.
In-N-Out Burger did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Read More:
https://www.thedailymeal.com/1340191/in-n-out-burger-mask-policy-controversy/
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the US & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/157emnd/new_york_teachers_lawsuit_over_religious/
New York Teachers’ Lawsuit Over Religious Exemptions Allowed to Move
Forward, Supreme Court Rules
A New York State Supreme Court judge today denied a motion to dismiss a
lawsuit brought by New York City Department of Education workers who
were denied religious exemptions from the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
By
Brenda Baletti, Ph.D.
16
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/nyc-lawsuit-religious-exemptions-covid-vaccine/
Link copied
nyc lawsuit religious exemption covid vaccine feature
Miss a day, miss a lot. Subscribe to The Defender's Top News of the Day. >>> It's free.
New York State Supreme Court Judge Ralph J. Porzio today denied the
City’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by New York Department of
Education (DOE) workers who were denied religious accommodation from the >>> COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
Sujata Gibson, the plaintiffs’ attorney, told The Defender the decision
was “huge” for the plaintiffs:
“Judge Porzio made the right decision, followed the law, and protected
thousands of people who deserve their day in court and deserve relief >>>from the outrageous religious discrimination that they faced.”
On May 18, Gibson argued against the motion by the city to dismiss
DiCapua v. City of New York in Judge Porzio’s Staten Island courtroom.
The lawsuit was filed in February by Teachers For Choice and other fired >>> NYC DOE employees and was sponsored in part by Children’s Health Defense >>> (CHD) and CHD-New York.
The lawsuit alleges that defendants New York City and the New York City
DOE, “harassed, denigrated, and discriminated against” workers seeking
religious exemption when implementing the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
In doing so, the defendants engaged in a continuing pattern of
discriminatory conduct against the DOE workers in violation of the New
York State Constitution, the New York State Human Rights Law, the New
York City Human Rights Law and Article 78 of the Civil Practice Law and
Rules.
The plaintiffs seek to have their jobs reinstated, back pay and
benefits, seniority and pension credits restored.
Gibson told The Defender that well over 150 people attended the court
session, which is just a fraction of the up to 7,000 people affected by
the denial of religious exemptions.
She said the people who attended were dignified and sincere, which she
thinks impressed the court, adding:
“It’s important for the court to see how many people are impacted …
“People traveled for this appearance from out of state — who have had to >>> move out of state. Some people took two hours on trains and buses, on
public transportation to get here from other boroughs, and from other
parts of the state.
“It really means a lot to people. And it means a lot to the court to see >>> how much it means to people.”
Plaintiffs petition for class action
The next hearing will take place on Aug. 14, when Judge Porzio may
decide on the plaintiff’s motion to certify class status for all DOE
employees adversely affected by the alleged discriminatory policies.
He could also decide on the Article 78 question — which is whether to
overturn the DOE’s determination on the religious exemptions and offer
relief to the plaintiffs.
The plaintiffs filed a motion for class certification for all people
affected by the DOE’s decisions on religious exemption, citing that all
members of the class were affected by the same errors of law and that
“the autogenerated, vague and conclusory denials” were all “arbitrary
and capricious.”
The defendants opposed the motion to certify a class, arguing that the
class definition was overly broad, that the class certification would
require “mini-trials” for each class member and that the petitioners
didn’t meet the minimum requirements for commonality defined in New York >>> law.
If Judge Porzio recognizes the class, and if the plaintiffs win relief,
all members of the class would be reinstated, Gibson told The Defender.
“All of their denials would be vacated as if they never happened, and
they’d be reinstated with full seniority and no break in service and
back pay and attorney’s fees.”
But even if the workers win the motion to define the class and win
relief, there will still be work to be done, Gibson said.
Once the denied exemptions are reversed, the violations of the New York
State Constitution and the state and city human rights laws will still
have to be litigated.
“We can prove our case for why the city should be liable not only for
back pay but also for costs,” Gibson said. She added:
“A lot of people had enormous, enormous collateral damage here.
“They lost rent-controlled apartments, their homes were foreclosed.
They’ve had to move. People have gotten severely sick. Some people took
the vaccine and got ill, some people just got ill from all of the stress >>> of being ostracized and discriminated against and bullied for the last
two years. Some people have lost career opportunities. Most of them —
really all of them — have been subjected to extreme pain and suffering.” >>>
In Kane v. de Blasio, a case brought by many of the same plaintiffs and
also represented by Gibson and supported by CHD in federal court, the
2nd Circuit Court of Appeals already held that DOE’s religious
accommodation policies were unconstitutional.
While resolution of the constitutional claims is pending in the
appellate courts, plaintiffs were authorized to bring their statutory
claims and seek certification as a class in New York State court after
the district court declined to exercise jurisdiction over their state
claims.
‘It felt like heresy tribunals’
In August 2021, New York City announced a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for
DOE employees.
The city initially indicated it would not consider religious exemptions, >>> but after a local court issued a temporary restraining order, the city
agreed to adopt an accommodation policy.
The accommodation policy, however, was “facially discriminatory,”
according to Gibson, because it was explicit that religious
accommodation requests must be denied to anyone who is not a member of a >>> “recognized” and “established” religious organization whose leader is
against vaccination.
Christian Scientists were listed as the only example of a religion that
a person could belong to and be granted a religious exemption.
“Right in its written policy, [DOE] required discrimination against
unorthodox beliefs or most religions, basically,” Gibson said. “So [for
example] they would deny all Catholics because the Catholic pope was
vaccinated.”
On that basis, DOE denied religious exemptions to Christians, Jews,
Buddhists and others, saying that although they believed that people’s
religious objects were sincere, they did not meet the criteria for
exemption.
“It felt like heresy tribunals,” Gibson said.
DOE granted religious accommodation for only 162 out of 7,000 requests.
The remaining employees who were not vaccinated were involuntarily
suspended without pay and ultimately terminated, with “problem” codes
attached to their permanent employee records and hurdles to getting
employment anywhere, not just at the DOE.
Ten DOE employees filed a lawsuit, backed by CHD, in federal court (Kane >>> v. de Blasio). The district court denied their requested injunction
against the mandate.
The plaintiffs appealed and they were joined on appeal by another group
of educators denied relief in the lower court (Keil v. City of New
York). The two lawsuits are currently consolidated under Kane v. de
Blasio in the federal court.
New York’s 2nd Circuit overruled the lower court, holding that the
religious accommodation as it was written is unconstitutional and that
it is illegal to deny a person religious accommodation “based on someone >>> else’s publicly expressed religious views — even the leader of her faith.” >>>
The case was sent back to the lower court after the city promised to
provide “fresh consideration” to the requests for religious exemption by >>> convening a citywide panel that would use standards required by Title
VII, the New York State Human Rights Law and the New York City Human
Rights Law, and to reinstate people with back pay if they qualified
under those standards.
“But the citywide panel continued to apply the same unlawful standards,” >>> Gibson told The Defender.
The panel re-reviewed the petitions of the 10 employees who filed the
lawsuit, but they reversed only one of them. “They sent them all an
auto-generated email that said, ‘does not meet criteria,’ and that’s
it,” Gibson said.
Workers applying for religious exemption who went to the citywide panel
were given the additional task of proving their exemption would not
place an “undue hardship” on the city. But, Gibson said, under the city
human rights law, the burden of demonstrating undue hardship rests with
the city.
The plaintiffs in the consolidated cases again asked the 2nd Circuit
court to stop the enforcement of the mandate in October 2022.
In February 2023, two days before oral arguments were set to take place
at the 2nd Circuit for the consolidated federal lawsuits, Mayor Eric
Adams announced the city would end the vaccine mandate for city workers. >>>
However, those city workers who were fired as a result of not receiving
the COVID-19 vaccine were not automatically reinstated. Instead, they
have simply been told they can reapply for employment with the city.
Gibson told The Defender the withdrawal of the city’s vaccine mandate
makes no difference for those teachers and DOE employees who were fired
due to their unvaccinated status.
“It doesn’t change anything,” she said. “New York City’s discriminatory
policies ruined a lot of lives and they need to make amends and
understand that this cannot happen again.”
While the federal Kane v. de Blasio case before the 2nd Circuit
continues to challenge the near-blanket denial of religious exemption
requests by teachers on federal constitutional grounds, the current
lawsuit against the city claims the state constitution was violated on
the basis of freedom of religion rights.
The state case that moved forward today seeks class-action status, “to
get relief for every DOE employee and contractor that was denied
reasonable religious accommodation under the discriminatory policies,”
Gibson said.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the US & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew. in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://archive.li/c05sC
A free society protects your right to burn a holy book
But expect to be reviled if you do so.
By Jeff Jacoby Globe Columnist,Updated July 19, 2023, 3:00 a.m.
Ahmad Alush outside the Israeli embassy in Stockholm, Sweden, July 15,
2023. Alush, who said he would burn a Jewish Torah and the Christian
Bible outside the Israeli Embassy in Stockholm, instead held a
one-person demonstration against burning holy books.
Ahmad Alush outside the Israeli embassy in Stockholm, Sweden, July 15,
2023. Alush, who said he would burn a Jewish Torah and the Christian
Bible outside the Israeli Embassy in Stockholm, instead held a
one-person demonstration against burning holy books.MAGNUS
LEJHALL/TT/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ahmad Alush obtained permission from Swedish authorities last week to
hold a protest outside the Israeli embassy in Stockholm on Saturday. He
intended, he said, to publicly burn a Torah and a Christian Bible in
retaliation for the burning of a Quran in front of Stockholm’s largest
mosque last month.
The burning of the Quran on June 28 — for which Swedish police had also
granted permission — set off a deluge of outrage. The governments of
numerous Islamic countries condemned the action. So did the US State
Department and the president of Israel. With tensions running high,
Alush’s plan to set fire to copies of the Jewish and Christian
scriptures was guaranteed to make an ugly situation even uglier.
Advertisement
But when the 32-year-old Alush, a Swedish resident of Syrian origin,
showed up at the Israeli embassy on Saturday, he didn’t burn any holy
books. Instead he tossed his lighter on the ground and announced that he >>> never intended to carry out his threat. “As a Muslim, I don’t burn
books,” he told the assembled crowd. His goal, he said, was to protest
the Swedish laws that treat book burning as a form of free speech.
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A bilingual view into politics, policy, people, pop culture framed
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“Burning the Quran is not freedom of expression, it is an action.
Freedom of speech has its limits,” Alush insisted. “We have to respect
each other; we live in the same society. If I burn the Torah, another
the Bible, another the Quran, there will be war here. What I wanted to
show is that it’s not right to do it.”
No, it’s not right to do it — civilized people do not torch or desecrate >>> the sacred books of others. But that does not mean it shouldn’t be legal >>> to do it. However depraved, hateful, or offensive such behavior may be,
there is no question that it expresses an idea. And in free societies,
the expression of even contemptible ideas must be protected. “In Sweden, >>> you have the right to say almost anything you want,” the government
website affirms, and the right to stage public demonstrations is
guaranteed by the Swedish constitution.
Advertisement
For Americans, steeped in the culture of the First Amendment, the right
to express even the most odious ideas is a core value as well. No
element of our legal system “more imperatively calls for attachment than >>> … the principle of free thought,” wrote Supreme Court Justice Oliver
Wendell Holmes Jr. in 1929. “Not free thought for those who agree with
us, but freedom for the thought that we hate.”
That is why the many voices that condemned Sweden for permitting the
burning of the holy texts — from the chairman of the Swedish Islamic
Federation to the European Jewish Congress — were wrong. As was the UN
Human Rights Council, which by a 28-12 vote adopted a resolution urging
member states to undertake “the prevention and prosecution” of those who >>> advocate religious hatred. Punishing people who preach hatred on the
basis of religion, or who would express that hatred by putting a match
to a copy of the Quran or Bible, may seem a small price to pay to keep
bigots out of the spotlight. But a government that can make the
expression of anti-Jewish or anti-Muslim hatred a crime today can make
the expression of other disfavored opinions a crime tomorrow.
Advertisement
As an observant Jew who reveres the Hebrew Bible, I agree without
reservation that book burning is uniquely barbaric. “Where they burn
books,” the German playwright Heinrich Heine wrote with terrible
prescience in 1821, “they will ultimately burn people also.” Heine’s
works were among the tens of thousands of books torched in public
bonfires by the Nazi regime after its accession to power in 1933 — and
Hitler and his henchmen did indeed “ultimately burn people also.” So, in >>> an earlier era, did the fanatics of the Inquisition who consigned
“heretics” to the flames. So in our own time did the Al Qaeda terrorists >>> who turned the twin towers into an inferno.
Repugnant as book burning is, however, I would not want to live in a
society that would prosecute someone for buying a book and then torching >>> it to express hatred or anger. Nor would I want to live in a society
where someone could do such a thing without being widely castigated.
They are two sides of the same coin: Hateful speech must be both
vigorously protected by the government — and vigorously denounced by
decent citizens.
Ahmad Alush, a Swedish Muslim, showed how to strike that balance. He
established last week that he was free to burn the holiest books of Jews >>> and Christians, then proved that he was wise enough not to do so.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the US & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/15exqy9/dr_anthony_fauci_is_caught_in_his_biggest_covid/
Dr. Anthony Fauci is caught in his biggest COVID lie yet
By Post Editorial Board
July 31, 2023 5:07pm Updated
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has announced a criminal referral of Dr. Anthony
Fauci to the Department of Justice over his apparent lying during
congressional testimony in 2021.
Fauci insisted repeatedly that the National Institutes of Health had
never funded any gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of
Virology.
Paul contended at the time, in arguing with Fauci, that the research
done on viruses at WIV — which got US funding — matched the NIH’s own
description of gain-of-function research and accused Fauci of playing
word games.
Now Fauci is damned by his own words.
The video player is currently playing an ad.
A newly surfaced February 2020 email about a COVID task-force call
between him, his associates and UK science big Dr. Jeremy Farrar shows
Fauci not only using the term “gain-of-function” to describe the work at >>> Wuhan, but highlighting serious misgivings about the virus being of
natural origin.
So not only does it look like Fauci was at the very least obfuscating
during the 2021 testimony; it shows that he and other senior scientists
(including then-NIH head Francis Collins, who was on the call) also took >>> the lab-leak origin theory of COVID seriously.
ANTHONY FAUCI
Dr. Anthony Fauci is accused of lying during congressional testimony in
2021.
REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
SEE ALSO
Rand Paul announces ‘official criminal referral,’ says email shows Fauci >>> COVID testimony ‘absolutely a lie’
At least before they panicked and launched a massive behind-the-scenes
effort to suppress it — likely to hide their own possible complicity in
funding work that might’ve unleashed COVID on the world.
To do that they bullied scientists dependent on the millions in grant
money they controlled and whipped compliant media into a frenzy over
“disinformation.”
In fact, that very same month a Post op-ed by Steven Mosher got
smothered by Facebook and Twitter for suggesting the exact same thing
Fauci & Co. admitted they were worried about to Farrar.
That view — that COVID came from a lab — is now increasingly the belief
of the US federal government.
And of every thinking person, especially after evidence appeared
indicating the first three Patients Zero of COVID were WIV employees.
But we may never know for sure, in part thanks to Fauci & Co’s fight to
prevent any real inquiry within China at the pandemic’s start.
84
What do you think? Post a comment.
That leaves the whole world more vulnerable.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the US & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/15ir3k9/no_one_could_have_predicted_it_gov_kathy_hochul/
‘No One Could Have Predicted It’: Gov. Kathy Hochul Announces $108
Million Program To Address Pandemic Learning Loss
Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul Announces Pandemic Learning Loss
Programs
Screenshot - YouTube - Governor Kathy Hochul
Daily Caller News Foundation logo
BRANDON POULTER
CONTRIBUTOR
August 03, 2023
4:47 PM ET
FONT SIZE:
exp-player-logo
Elon Musk Says Cage Fight
With Mark Zuckerberg Will Be Livestreamed On Twitter, Proceeds Will Be
Donated To Veterans
Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday announced over $100
million in funding for New York schools to address pandemic-era learning >>> loss and trauma, according to a press release.
Hochul said that $100 million would be used to address pandemic learning >>> loss and trauma when schools were closed due to Covid-19, and that $8
million would go to creating mental health clinics in schools, according >>> to the press release. Hochul gave a speech laying out the specifics of
the program, saying individual school districts or a consortium of
school districts would be able to apply for grants from the program.
(RELATED: Students Could Lose $70,000 Each In Their Lifetimes Thanks To
Pandemic Learning Loss)
“No one could have predicted it,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said
talking about pandemic learning loss.
“Something happened during that period of time, unforeseen, no one at
the beginning of the pandemic in March of 2020 could have foreseen that
three years later despite the fact that we had vaccinations, we saved
lives and people are starting to get back to work and feeling somewhat
normal again we could not of foreseen the impact that this has had on
our most vulnerable, our kids,” Hochul said.
“The new State matching fund, the $100 million Recover from COVID School >>> Program, will provide funding to create or expand programs to help
students address trauma caused by the pandemic, prioritizing school
districts with the highest need,” according to the press release.
New York schools didn’t fully reopen from COVID-19 until September 2021. >>> New Mexico, Illinois and New Hampshire began offering tutoring to combat >>> pandemic learning loss. Students need more than four extra months in
school to catch up with grade-level expectations, a July report from the >>> NWEA, a nonprofit organization that provides grades Pre-K-12 assessment
data, said.
“The effects of the pandemic on our students were devastating and
irreversible,” Hochul said.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the US & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/15mannp/why_doesnt_britain_regret_lockdown/
Why doesn’t Britain regret lockdown?
Three years on, voters remain in favour
BY FREDDIE SAYERS
. The mea culpas will never arrive (ANDY BUCHANAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Freddie Sayers is the Editor-in-Chief & CEO of UnHerd. He was previously >>> Editor-in-Chief of YouGov, and founder of PoliticsHome.
freddiesayers
March 23, 2023
Filed under:
Groupthink CovidlockdownUnHerd Britain 2023
Share:
“In retrospect, lockdowns were a mistake.”
If you agree with the above statement, you are, I’m afraid, still in the >>> minority. Three years to the day since Britain brought in its first
nationwide lockdown, the latest wave of UnHerd Britain polling shows
that only 27% of voters agree that lockdowns were a mistake, while 54%
disagree and 19% are not sure. The strength of feeling also tilts in the >>> other direction: fully 30% of people strongly disagree with the
statement, while only 12% strongly agree.
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Having estimated results for all 632 constituencies in Britain, our
partners Focaldata could not find a single seat where the “lockdown
sceptics” outnumber the “pro-lockdowners.” Chorley in Lancashire and
Leeds Central are the closest thing to sceptical enclaves (here,
supporters of lockdowns outnumber opponents by a single percentage
point) but it is still a minority position. If “defenders of lockdown”
were a political party, it would sweep the nation in a landslide.
To those of us at the coalface of interrogating the wisdom of lockdowns
for the past three years, it is a bitter pill to swallow. As someone who >>> counts himself among the 12% of voters who strongly agree with the
statement, allow me to tell you what life is like inside this embattled
minority.
To the majority of people who believe lockdowns were right and
necessary, the Covid era was no doubt distressing, but it need not have
been cause to re-order their perception of the world. Faced with a new
and frightening disease, difficult decisions were taken by the people in >>> charge but we came together and got through it; mistakes were made, but
overall we did what we needed to do.
For the dissenting minority, the past three years have been very
different. We have had to grapple with the possibility that, through
panic and philosophical confusion, our governing class contrived to make >>> a bad situation much worse. Imagine living with the sense that the
manifold evils of the lockdowns that we all now know — ripping up
centuries-old traditions of freedom, interrupting a generation’s
education, hastening the decline into decrepitude for millions of older
people, destroying businesses and our health service, dividing families, >>> saddling our economies with debt, fostering fear and alienation,
attacking all the best things in life — needn’t have happened for
anything like so long, if at all?
To those who place emphasis on good quality evidence, it has been
particularly exasperating. In the early days of 2020, we had only
intuitions — there was no real data as to whether lockdowns worked, as
they had never been tried in this way. As millions tuned in to our
in-depth interviews on UnHerdTV with leading scientists, we made sure to >>> hear arguments in favour of lockdowns as well as against. Devi Sridhar
made the case for Zero Covid; Susan Michie said we should be locking
down even harder; Neil Ferguson (whose last-ever tweet was a link to his >>> UnHerd interview) told me how exciting it was that the world was
attempting to stop a highly infectious disease in its tracks.
There were periods when the evidence looked like it was going the other
way, such as Sweden’s worse-than-expected second wave in winter 2020-21. >>> Professor Fredrik Elgh dramatically predicted disaster for that country, >>> which ultimately didn’t transpire — but he had me worried.
SUGGESTED READING
How lockdown changed us
BY FREDDIE SAYERS
In the past year, however, we have for the first time been able to look
at the Covid data in the round. Many of the countries which appeared to
be doing “well” in terms of low levels of infections and deaths caught
up in the second year — Norway ended up much closer to Sweden, while
countries such as Hungary, which were initially praised for strong early >>> lockdowns, have ended up with some of the worst death tolls in the
world. Due to the peculiarly competitive nature of the lockdowns, the
results were neatly tracked, allowing clear comparison between countries >>> and regions. While we spent the first year arguing about deaths “with”
Covid as opposed to deaths “from” Covid, all sides in this discussion
have now settled on overall “excess deaths” as the fairest measure of
success or failure: in other words, overall, how many more people died
in a particular place than you would normally expect?
My view on these results is quite simple: in order to justify a policy
as monumental as shutting down all of society for the first time in
history, the de minimis outcome must be a certainty that fewer people
died because of it. Lockdown was not one “lever” among many: it was the
nuclear option. The onus must be on those who promoted lockdowns to
produce a table showing a clear correlation between the places that
enacted mandatory shutdowns and their overall outcome in terms of excess >>> deaths. But there is no such table; there is no positive correlation.
Three years after, there is no non-theoretical evidence that lockdowns
were necessary to save lives. This is not an ambiguous outcome; it is
what failure looks like.
If anything, the correlation now looks like it goes the other way. The
refusal of Sweden to bring in a lockdown, and the neighbouring
Scandinavian countries’ shorter and less interventionist lockdowns and
swifter return to normality, provide a powerful control to the
international experiment. Three years on, these countries are at the
bottom of the European excess deaths league table, and depending on
which method you choose, Sweden is either at or very near the very
bottom of the list. So the countries that interfered the least with the
delicately balanced ecosystem of their societies caused the least
damage; and the only European country to eschew mandatory lockdowns
altogether ended up with the smallest increase in loss of life. It’s a
fatal datapoint for the argument that lockdowns were the only option.
So why, three years on, do most people not share this conclusion? Partly >>> because most people haven’t seen the evidence. Nor will they. The media
and political establishment were so encouraging of lockdowns at the time >>> that their only critique was that they weren’t hard enough. They are
hardly going to acknowledge such a grave mistake now. Nor do I expect
the inquiry to ask the right questions: obfuscation and distraction will >>> continue and mea culpas will never arrive.
SUGGESTED READING
Questions the Covid Inquiry must ask
BY FREDDIE SAYERS
But it can’t all be put down to the media. Over that strange period, we
were reminded of something important about human nature: when
frightened, people will choose security over freedom. Endless opinion
polls confirmed it, and politicians acted upon it. Tellingly, those
constituencies most in favour of lockdowns in our polling are leafy and
affluent — New Forest West, Bexhill, Henley, The Cotswolds. Perhaps some >>> people even enjoyed it.
Meanwhile, the dissenting minority is not going anywhere. This new class >>> of citizen is now a feature of every Western society: deeply distrustful >>> of authority, sceptical of the “narrative”, hungry for alternative
explanations, inured to being demonised and laughed at. The dissident
class skews young (it includes 39% of 25-34 year olds) and clusters
around poorer inner-city neighbourhoods; it heads to alternative media
channels for information. Its number was greatly increased over the
lockdown era as those people lost faith in the way the world is run.
They will continue to make their presence felt in the years to come.
As for me, the past three years have changed how I view the world. I
feel no anger, simply a wariness: an increased sense of how fragile our
liberal way of life is, how precarious its institutions and principles,
and how good people, including those I greatly admire, are capable of
astonishing misjudgements given the right atmosphere of fear and moral
panic. In particular those years revealed the dark side of supposedly
enlightened secular rationalism — how, if freed from its moorings, it
can tend towards a crudely mechanistic world in which inhuman decisions
are justified to achieve dubious measurable targets.
I hope there is no “next time”, and that the political class will never
again think nationwide lockdowns are a proper policy option in a liberal >>> democracy. But if they do, I suspect the opposition, while still perhaps >>> a minority, will be better organised.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/15pgd9u/i_will_always_be_grateful_to_the_lockdown_sceptic/
" Three months before the lockdown happened in the UK I felt like a
massive loser at 22 years old because I was an unemployed university
graduate who struggled to cope with life after graduating and everyone
else was doing so well. My university friends were travelling around the >>> world. In December 2019 I went to a church Christmas party the
churchgoers in their 20s also went to the same local catholic school as
me. At the party was just difficult seeing how successful they have been >>> with their lives since leaving school. One my classmates is a NHS
doctor, another at 23 years old is an Oxford University graduate who got >>> married and in stable career, another working in fiance and others have
partners of their own and just having all together.
During lockdown these feelings of failure wasting my 20s intensified and >>> caused me to develop an eating disorder to numb all the pain and I was
suicidal too. I spent a lot of time on reddit and writing journal
entries because I couldn't talk to my own family because they were so
upset about the covid19 deaths happening in the family and local
community. Expressing upset over lockdown was forbidden in the family
household. My family believed that nobody should complain about the
lockdown because " people have died"
When I started posting my threads on this sub about spending 20s in
lockdown and my views I attracted a lot of people going through my post
history and using it to publicly shame me on other sub communities, I
experienced misogyny for my feminist lockdown sceptic views and even in
my dms I even got hate mail. I once made a made a thread about domestic
violence women faced in lockdown and used the term lockdown is the new
patriarchy to describe how lockdowns limit women autonomy over their
lives. The person publicly shamed me on another UK sub community "You
should consider mental health support. Screaming nonsense like Lockdowns >>> are the new patriarchy isn't going to help you. Oh and kick the cannabis >>> smoking. You need stability not escapism."
I Don't even smoke cannabis and never have. I drink hemp tea which is >>>from the cannabis plant family but that has very low THC levels and is
legal in the UK due to its extremely low THC. My worst experience
happened in one of the major popular UK sub communities during June 2021 >>> at the time England still had numerous covid19 restrictions in place
even though lockdown ended. I can't share the link on here under the
rules so I will just explain accurately what happened.On the UK sub I
asked for advice on how to deal with seeing people you went to secondary >>> school with being more successful than you. At the time I was extremely
depressed and the users knowing this information decided to publicly
humiliate me for being a lockdown spectic and a hemp user.
Here the replies I received.
?" Turns out OP is anti-lockdown and staunchly defends their views.
Yeah, no wonder they don’t have a job and friends."
?"All I see is an anti-lockdown, covid sceptic feminist who is also a
devout catholic and a pothead who seems to have a very real “thing” for
complaining."
?"I dont mean to be a complete ass to you, but you clearly have
absolutely no grasp of the purpose of the lockdowns whatsoever. It's
almost shocking to me that people still can't understand why after 16+
months. I understand people have been affected. I work in the nhs. Do you?" >>>
?"You skepticism surrounding lockdowns sounds more like a personal
criticism because you personally have struggled so immensely with it and >>> have heard the stories about people that have also struggled. You can't
see the benefits at all?"Others were calling me mentally ill because of
my views and how i should see a therapist. When I did calmly defend
myself saying I believe lockdowns perpetuate social inequalities and I
write my threads to share my experiences of spending 20s in lockdown I
got heavily down voted and the community banneded together ulimately to
get me banned on the sub. After that experience I ended up deleting all
my threads because I was tired of being judged and having people using
my post history to publicy shame me all the time. Many months later when >>> my life got better I had to recover my old deleted threads luckily I
made copies of my threads as they are actual diary entries in my journal >>> at home.
I will always be grateful to this community and also other online
lockdown sceptic communities because it was the lockdown sceptics who
listened to my all concerns seriously during lockdown and showed me real >>> compassion at my lowest point in my life. It helped me get through the
lockdown."- AnarchistEva
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/15w2vb6/auburn_community_hospital_now_requiring_masks_as/
Auburn Community Hospital now requiring masks as new COVID variant spreads >>> by: Megan Hatch
Posted: Aug 18, 2023 / 04:33 PM EDT
Updated: Aug 18, 2023 / 05:13 PM EDT
AUBURN, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — Auburn Community Hospital is officially
bringing back its COVID-19 mask mandate after only a month since
announcing the end to the mandate.
This news comes following the new Eris COVID-19 variant that has been
spreading in the Central New York Community.
CDC COVID-19 data tracker
On August 17, Syracuse’s Upstate Hospital announced it’s also requiring
all staff, visitors, and patients in all clinical areas of the hospital
to wear masks.
ADVERTISING
The new policy is effective Saturday, Aug. 19 with masking being
mandatory for all staff, visitors, and patients in all clinical areas of >>> Auburn Community Hospital, AMMS Local Physician Practices, and Finger
Lakes Center for Living.
Clinical areas of the hospital are locations where patients gather,
wait, travel through, or receive care. Although masking is not mandatory >>> in non-clinical areas, it’s strongly recommended.
The following policies will stay in effect until further notice.
ALL Employees and Visitors are required to wear a mask in areas where
patients can be encountered (all patient care areas, hallways, cafeteria >>> (when not eating)
Covid-19 Positive patients are restricted to one visitor who is required >>> to wear Full PPE.
It is everyone’s responsibility to ensure masks or face shields are worn >>> wherever patients may be encountered.
Those employees that have tested positive and are on Covid days 6-10 and >>> those with unrelated respiratory symptoms must still mask everywhere
Quality and Infection Prevention will continue to monitor Covid-19
Positivity for potential surges which may require ACH to adjust these
measures.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the US & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:I am wonderfully hungry!
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/15xqqw2/just_what_you_wanted_to_hear_team_of_government/
Just what you wanted to hear! Team of Government scientists including
'Prof Lockdown' Neil Ferguson warn new Covid variant Pirola might be
rapidly spreading around the world
A 'notable' newly discovered Covid variant may already be spreading
across the world, according to a panel of government experts including
'Professor Lockdown' Neil Ferguson.
UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) advisers admitted they are unsettled
by the variant, called Pirola, due to its catalogue of mutations.
Britain has already detected a case of the highly-evolved strain, along
with Israel, Denmark and the US.
Alarm bells were raised because the unidentified patient, who tested
positive while being treated in a London hospital, had not left the
country so would not have contracted it abroad.
The UKHSA team, including epidemiologist Professor Ferguson, said the
'rapid' appearance of the variant — which was only officially noted last >>> week — suggested 'established international transmission'.
Pirola's arrival comes as Covid cases take off once again, sparking
concerns that the UK is on the brink of another wave just as the country >>> heads into the winter when the NHS is busiest. NHS hospital data shows
daily Covid admissions in England have increased on average by almost a
fifth in week, rising from a seven-day rolling average of 258 on August
4, to 308 on August 11
+6
View gallery
Pirola's arrival comes as Covid cases take off once again, sparking
concerns that the UK is on the brink of another wave just as the country >>> heads into the winter when the NHS is busiest. NHS hospital data shows
daily Covid admissions in England have increased on average by almost a
fifth in week, rising from a seven-day rolling average of 258 on August
4, to 308 on August 11
Professor Neil Ferguson (pictured) said Pirola appeared to growing
rapidly. The variant technical group, part of the UK Health Security
Agency (UKHSA), is tasked with forecasting coronavirus-style scenarios
in case the pathogen mutates to spread among humans easier
+6
View gallery
Professor Neil Ferguson (pictured) said Pirola appeared to growing
rapidly. The variant technical group, part of the UK Health Security
Agency (UKHSA), is tasked with forecasting coronavirus-style scenarios
in case the pathogen mutates to spread among humans easier
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Virologists are unsettled by BA.2.86, as it is officially known, because >>> of the array of mutations it carries on its spike protein, which is the
part of the coronavirus that vaccines were designed to target.
One expert labelled it the most 'striking' strain to have spawned since
the highly transmissible Omicron strain emerged in winter 2021 and sent
cases skyrocketing.
Others, however, have warned it is far too early to panic. No evidence
shows Pirola is any more of a threat than the dozens of strains that
have come before it.
Immunity levels built-up through vaccine roll-outs and previous waves
are high and over time the virus has evolved to become less deadly,
allowing society to treat it in the same way as the flu without
pandemic-era restrictions.
It comes amid a spike in cases which has sparked fears of a fresh wave
in the coming weeks.
Genetic tests on Friday revealed an unidentified patient in a London
hospital had the Omicron spin-off – nicknamed Pirola but also known
scientifically as BA.X/BA.2.86. No links were found to the five other
cases logged worldwide, in the US, Denmark and Israel
+6
View gallery
Genetic tests on Friday revealed an unidentified patient in a London
hospital had the Omicron spin-off – nicknamed Pirola but also known
scientifically as BA.X/BA.2.86. No links were found to the five other
cases logged worldwide, in the US, Denmark and Israel
During a meeting last week the UKHSA's variant technical group confirmed >>> the British patient was detected as part of routine hospital testing.
MailOnline understands that the team, which meets on a weekly basis,
also includes UKHSA chief medical adviser Professor Susan Hopkins as
well as influential members of the Scientific Advisory Group for
Emergencies (SAGE).
It is unclear who was in attendance at the most recent meeting.
The group is tasked with forecasting scenarios of Covid variants and
producing assessments on the risk of emerging strains.
It concluded there is 'established international transmission' of the
strain despite the small number of cases detected to date.
It was however 'a low confidence assessment until further sequences are
available'.
'The UK case has no recent travel history, also suggesting a degree of
community transmission within the UK,' the group added.
It said a more complete assessment could be made within a fortnight.
The government health agency also designated the strain as a 'variant
for the purposes of tracking and assessment'.
It comes a day after World Health Organisation officials labelled
Pirola a 'variant under monitoring'.
A former government adviser told MailOnline today the UKHSA likely
published the assessment in efforts to dampen down speculation and
anxieties about the new variant.
It comes after Government scientists drew flak for making morbid
predictions during the pandemic.
UK Health Security Agency statistics show that 589 out of 6,500
neighbourhoods in England had detected at least three Covid cases in the >>> week to August 12. For comparison, just 58 areas had reached this
threshold ¿ given to protect the anonymity of patients sickened in tiny
clusters ¿ at the start of July. MailOnline analysis shows the figure
has gradually increased week-on-week since then, hitting 270 on July 29
and 448 on August 5
+6
View gallery
UK Health Security Agency statistics show that 589 out of 6,500
neighbourhoods in England had detected at least three Covid cases in the >>> week to August 12. For comparison, just 58 areas had reached this
threshold — given to protect the anonymity of patients sickened in tiny
clusters — at the start of July. MailOnline analysis shows the figure
has gradually increased week-on-week since then, hitting 270 on July 29
and 448 on August 5
One that has drawn particular focus is modelling by SAGE expert Imperial >>> College London epidemiologist Professor Ferguson, dubbed Professor Lockdown.
It warned 510,000 people could die from Covid if ministers did not act
in early 2020.
That specific model, which critics have since called flawed, is
single-handedly credited with spooking ministers into banishing Britons
into lockdown to thwart the spread of the virus.
Experts largely accepted economically-crippling measures were vital to
control the spread of the virus because there was no vaccine to prevent
severe illness and stunt hospital admissions at the time.
But other epidemiologists and public health scientists shared 'grave
concerns' about the collateral damage of such policies on the NHS and
other parts of society.
Some insist that lockdown is why cases didn't reach the eye-watering
levels set out in Professor Ferguson's models.
He made other gloomy models throughout the pandemic, and later accepted
that some were 'off'.
READ MORE: 'Real deal' Covid variant is now in Britain: Patient is
hospitalised in London with heavily-mutated BA.X strain - and experts
think they caught it IN the UK
While only six cases of the new strain Pirola — first spotted last month >>> — have been detected so far worldwide, virologists are unsettled because >>> of its mutations.
A process called 'sequencing' allows scientists to find the exact
genetic make-up of every virus sample.
Early tests show Pirola has around 30 unique mutations in its spike
protein, the part of the virus that latches onto human cells and causes
an infection.
This is the same piece of the virus that vaccines are designed to target. >>>
Several have unknown functions but others are thought to help the virus
evade the immune system.
Experts believe it is derived from BA.2 variant which stopped
circulating around July 2022.
Overall, testing and the sequencing that detects new strains have
decreased since the WHO removed its pandemic emergency declarations.
In the UK, officials no longer track the prevalence of the virus in the
same way they used to, as part of the Government's ushering in of
pre-pandemic normalities.
Variant tracking capabilities have also been scaled back.
UK Health Security Agency statistics show that 589 out of 6,500
neighbourhoods in England had detected at least three Covid cases in the >>> week to August 12. MailOnline analysis shows the figure has gradually
increased week-on-week since then, hitting 270 on July 29 and 448 on
August 5
+6
View gallery
UK Health Security Agency statistics show that 589 out of 6,500
neighbourhoods in England had detected at least three Covid cases in the >>> week to August 12. MailOnline analysis shows the figure has gradually
increased week-on-week since then, hitting 270 on July 29 and 448 on
August 5
However, testing levels have remained stable over the past few months.
Around 5,000 lateral flow test results and 2,700 PCR readings have been
uploaded per day in the last week.
Positive test results are reported by the minority of the public still
eligible for a free Covid test or have taken a PCR swab — such as health >>> and social care workers, anyone with underlying health conditions.
Experts have warned it's far too early to panic. No evidence yet shows
Pirola is any more of a threat than the dozens of strains that have come >>> before it.
Other variants flagged as troublesome have fizzled out naturally.
Read more: How rife is Covid in YOUR area? Timelapse map shows how cases >>> have DOUBLED in a fortnight as health chiefs confirm 'real deal' variant >>> is now in UK - and may have been spreading silently for weeks
Ministers have vowed they will never deploy the curbs wielded during the >>> darkest days of the crisis in 2020 and 2021 unless a doomsday variant
emerges.
Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, an epidemiologist and lead for the Covid response >>> at the WHO, last week cautioned there is very limited information
available on the strain.
But she said it needs monitoring due to its large number of mutations.
Surveillance and sequencing is 'critical' to detect new variants and
track known ones, she added.
Meanwhile, after Denmark confirmed its third case of the strain on
Friday, its public health institute, the Statens Serum Institut, said it >>> was testing the virus to assess whether it poses a threat.
But it stressed there is currently no evidence that Pirola causes more
severe illness.
However, confirmation on the variant in the UK also comes amid a surge
in cases of the virus in the country.
The number of neighbourhoods hit by Covid outbreaks in England has
doubled in a fortnight.
Nearly 600 districts reported clusters in the week to August 12, up from >>> just 270 two weeks earlier.
It means the number of regions in England hit by Covid has more than
doubled in a fortnight and surged ten-fold in five weeks.
Hospital admissions are also rising sharply, sparking concerns that the
UK is on the brink of another wave just as the country heads into the
autumn when the NHS gets busier.
NHS hospital data shows daily Covid admissions in England have increased >>> on average by almost a fifth in week.
They rose from a seven-day rolling average of 258 on August 4, to 308 on >>> August 11, according to the latest figures available.
The uptick also coincides with the arrival of Eris, a variant which
already makes up one in four new cases.
But the toll of affected neighbourhoods is still a fraction of levels
seen at the height of the pandemic.
In early 2021, when the nation had battled through its first winter with >>> Covid circulating, more than 5,300 local authorities reported cases and
at much higher levels.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/15zudld/lockdowns_cut_infections_during_pandemic_uk_covid/
Lockdowns cut infections during pandemic, UK Covid inquiry told
Report says shutdowns, mask-wearing and border controls most effective
in combination
The UK Covid inquiry is examining the country’s response to the
pandemic, including the decisions to lock down and introduce other
social distancing measures © AFP via Getty Images
Lockdowns cut infections during pandemic, UK Covid inquiry told on
twitter (opens in a new window)
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Hannah Kuchler in London YESTERDAY
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Lockdowns and other social distancing measures significantly cut the
transmission of the coronavirus during the pandemic, according to a
report published on Thursday, which has been submitted to the UK
Covid-19 inquiry.
The Royal Society examined hundreds of studies from around the world on
the effectiveness of so-called non-pharmaceutical interventions, such as >>> mask-wearing and border controls, that were used to try to stem the
spread of the virus before the development of vaccines.
In their report, researchers at the UK’s independent scientific academy
found masks were highly effective at cutting transmission and that
mask-wearing, border controls and shutdowns were most useful when
introduced early, while case numbers were lower, and in combination.
Professor Sir Mark Walport, foreign secretary of the Royal Society and
chief scientific adviser to the UK government between 2013 and 2017,
said one of the main lessons to come out of the pandemic was to “be
prepared”.
“Governments on the whole are better prepared [than before Covid]. The
last emergency was a major pandemic and so we should be better prepared
for it next time. But viruses are dangerous things,” he said.
The Covid inquiry is examining the UK’s response to the pandemic,
including the decisions to lock down and introduce other social
distancing measures, testing and contact tracing, and masking. It will
last at least until 2026.
The Royal Society researchers concluded that lockdowns and social
distancing measures were the most significant intervention, with some
studies suggesting they could have reduced the reproduction number of
the virus by more than 50 per cent.
In care homes, restricting visitor numbers, keeping residents apart and
allocating individual staff to specific residents all reduced transmission. >>>
The researchers pointed to Hong Kong, South Korea and New Zealand as
examples of where stringently implemented lockdowns resulted in
extremely low domestic transmission.
Recommended
Coronavirus
UK Covid inquiry to launch amid continuing row over evidence
But their report did not consider the broader impacts of lockdowns such
as the effects on the economy, children’s education and people’s mental
health.
Chris Dye, professor of epidemiology at the University of Oxford, who
examined the mask studies, said there was “surprisingly overwhelming
evidence” that they cut transmission, especially N95 respirators.
He said they should be used by people working with vulnerable adults and >>> children whenever rates of Covid or other respiratory illnesses were high. >>>
In January 2023, a review by Cochrane, a non-profit organisation that
issues medical guidance, of the randomised controlled trials found no
clear link between encouraging people to wear masks and reducing infection. >>>
But Dye said that since there were not many randomised controlled trials >>>from which to draw conclusions, the Royal Society had looked at a
broader range of studies and found they consistently reported that
mask-wearing and mask mandates cut transmission.
The researchers found that border controls were less consistently
effective in preventing infection. While strict quarantine policies did
significantly reduce the number of infected passengers entering a given
country, measures such as symptom screening or taking travellers’
temperature failed to stop the virus crossing borders.
Christl Donnelly, professor of statistical epidemiology at Imperial
College London, who led the research into lockdowns, said the pandemic
had been “unique” because so many countries implemented measures to curb >>> viral spread.
“There’s absolutely no reason to think this only applies to Covid and
wouldn’t apply to other respiratory diseases,” she said.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/162lket/new_covid_wave_has_begun_and_we_should_wear_masks/
New Covid wave has begun and masks should be worn again, scientists warn >>> Spread of new variant could cause extreme pressure on NHS and cause more >>> damaging long-term health problems, Independent Sage expert says
Jane Dalton
Friday 18 August 2023 05:55
43
Comments
Close
Which surfaces are spreading Covid-19?
IndyEat
Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across
the world
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Experts have warned it is “reasonably certain” the UK is in another wave >>> of Covid-19 – and suggested people should wear face masks again.
Hospital admissions for coronavirus have risen in recent weeks, just as
the effectiveness of vaccines is wearing off, a new variant has emerged
and ministers have decided Covid boosters will not be offered to nearly
12 million Britons this winter.
“Without ramping up surveillance, and in the face of waning immunity, we >>> are travelling into winter more vulnerable and with blinkers on,” warned >>> Christina Pagel, a member of the Independent Scientific Advisory Group
for Emergencies that advises on the virus.
<p>Rates have risen since early July</p>
Rates have risen since early July
(Gov.uk)
Prof Pagel predicted the new wave could cause extreme pressure on the
health service, with a repeat of last winter’s “unprecedented” NHS
crisis of Covid, flu and respiratory virus that came all around the same >>> time.
“Any increase in hospital burden is bad news, given record waiting lists >>> for diagnosis and treatment and persistently high waits in hospitals for >>> admission,” she wrote in the British Medical Journal.
RECOMMENDED
Covid Eris symptoms: All we know about new variant driving surge in cases >>> Covid Eris symptoms: All we know about new variant driving surge in cases >>> Fast-spreading new coronavirus strain dubbed ‘variant of interest’
Fast-spreading new coronavirus strain dubbed ‘variant of interest’
UK Covid hotspots revealed as new variant Eris fuels surge in cases
UK Covid hotspots revealed as new variant Eris fuels surge in cases
“Infection is also not harmless simply because it’s causing fewer
hospital admissions – long Covid remains an ongoing significant problem, >>> damaging people’s lives (eg through persistent fatigue or brain fog), as >>> well as taking them out of the workforce.”
And she warned that a new variant very different from previous strains
could make “hard-won protection much less protective”.
Dr Trisha Greenhalgh, a University of Oxford healthcare expert and also
iSage member, wrote on social media: “My various science WhatsApp groups >>> are buzzing… I understand little of the detail but it looks like it’s
once again time to MASK UP.”
Asked whether people should wear them again, she added: “In high-risk
situations I personally would wear one, yes. More to the point, I’m
currently AVOIDING such situations eg not going to cinema.”
The new Covid variant, Eris, emerged this summer as hospital admissions
rose and estimated numbers of people with Covid jumped by almost 200,000 >>> last month.
A descendant of Omicron, Eris, or EG.5.1, now accounts for between 10
per cent and 16.74 per cent of cases, and is the second-most prevalent
strain in the UK, according to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).
Prof Pagel pointed out under-50s have not had a vaccine for 18 months,
and most under-75s for a year.
She wrote: “Protection from previous infection will also be waning in
the absence of a large wave for several months.
“It is thus likely that this wave is hitting a more susceptible
population than the last few, and this might be enough to drive a large
wave this September when coupled with return to school and work and more >>> time spent inside, where the virus spreads most easily.”
<p>Latest cases data in England, as of 10 August</p>
Latest cases data in England, as of 10 August
(gov.uk)
There are no signs that Eris is more dangerous than other variants.
But Prof Pagel warned: “Given few, if any, mitigations worldwide and
much lower surveillance, such a variant could spread a long way before
we realised it was a problem.”
She also raised the alarm over a new – as yet unnamed – variant with
many new mutations, detected in Israel and Denmark. It might fizzle out, >>> but people are more vulnerable now, she said.
There are few ways to track the prevalence of Covid-19 in England since
the end of wastewater monitoring last March, the end of Office for
National Statistics Covid-19 survey in March this year, and gradual
reduction of testing in hospitals.
Around 7 July, cases were thought to have fallen to their lowest since
the summer of 2020. However, since the start of last month, daily
hospital admissions have risen, and on 4 August were more than double
the figure four weeks earlier.
On that date, the 1,802 patients admitted in the previous seven days
represented a rise of 366 on the week before – a 26 per cent increase.
In all, 1,844 Covid patients were in hospital, in an increase thought to >>> be driven partly by more social mixing indoors during wet weather.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/1672gk7/the_uk_government_needs_to_expand_covid19/
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick >>>because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22 >>>w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given >>>moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly >>>contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to >>>http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to >>>call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of >>>stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu & >>>Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form >>>hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/1680gj8/covid_fears_over_new_pirola_variant_as_scientists/In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
Fears over new ‘Pirola’ Covid variant as scientists warns UK has ‘let
our guard down’
Jury still out on whether UK is set to face ‘a major wave’, amid hopes
expedited booster will be effective against new variant ‘Pirola’
Andy Gregory
·
3 hours ago
·
161
Comments
Powered By Pixels
NHS doctor reveals reality of A&E shift as fresh strikes launched
IndyEat
Sign up for our free Health Check email to receive exclusive analysis on >>> the week in health
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The UK has “let our guard down” over Covid and is “quite blind to what
is going on”, a scientist has warned as concerns grow over the new
BA.2.86 coronavirus variant.
The government brought forward its autumn Covid booster vaccine drive
this week in response to the discovery of the new variant, which has a
similar number of mutations to Omicron and Delta and was detected in the >>> UK and several other nations across the globe.
While scientists have welcomed the “precautionary” decision, the role
that the new variant BA.2.86 – dubbed “Pirola” – may play in the coming
months remains far from clear.
Although optimistic that the booster will offer some protection, some
virologists conceded that “we don’t know yet” whether it will provide
adequate protection in all instances as its many mutations may mean it
can evade the jab.
But with just one case confirmed in England, and another by Public
Health Scotland on Thursday, the new strain is not currently classified
as a “variant of concern”.
More concerning to scientists is the return of children to schools and
adults to offices following the summer holidays with “waning immunity”
and, said Professor Lawrence Young, “a general misplaced view that
there's is no longer a need to be worried about Covid”.
RECOMMENDED
Covid-19 hospital admissions in England at three-month high
Covid-19 hospital admissions in England at three-month high
Covid Eris symptoms: All we know about new variant driving surge in cases >>> Covid Eris symptoms: All we know about new variant driving surge in cases >>> “Sadly, this is not the case. At the moment we’ve let our guard down and >>> we’re quite blind to what’s going on,” said Prof Young, of the
University of Warwick.
While the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) monitoring of the virus
was wound down in March – to many epidemiologists’ dismay – the Zoe
Health Study estimates that infections spiked by nearly 200,000 cases
last month, rising to around 785,000 on 27 July. Covid-related hospital
admissions are running at their highest rate for three months.
“One way of controlling infection is to have at least some idea of where >>> you’re seeing particular outbreaks and might be able to introduce
precautionary measures to prevent the virus spreading further – but you
have to know where it is,” said Prof Young.
<p>‘We’re not PCR testing as much as we were previously, and not
sequencing, so it’s difficult to monitor outbreaks of infection,’ said
Prof Young </p>4
‘We’re not PCR testing as much as we were previously, and not
sequencing, so it’s difficult to monitor outbreaks of infection,’ said
Prof Young
(Danny Lawson/PA)
“This new [variant] is popping up all over the place at the moment, but
we’re not monitoring it in the population.”
The virologist added: “Now testing isn’t free and people have to buy
lateral flow tests ... if people have coughs and colds, would they go
back to work? They probably would, even if they tested positive.
“There really is an issue here – we’ve completely removed all mandatory
testing, we’ve removed the ONS survey, so we’re in quite an interesting
situation. What this is telling us is Covid hasn’t gone away.
“And even though people are really bored with it, it’s still out there,
it’s still changing – and it’s still unpredictable. With flu, however
nasty flu can be, it’s seasonal and can be predictable – Covid is
neither of those things. Not yet anyway, the hope is in the future it
will be.”
This month saw calls return for people to consider wearing face masks in >>> high-risk settings – likely to have been greeted in many quarters with a >>> considerable degree of weariness and scepticism.
But Prof Young believes the government and NHS should be putting out
recommendations on face masks in high-risk places such as hospitals, and >>> increasing ventilation in spaces such as schools, adding: “I can see
we’re going to be in a situation over the winter period where we’re
wearing face masks.”
<p>Some experts have advised people to consider wearing face masks in
certain settings </p>4
Some experts have advised people to consider wearing face masks in
certain settings
(AFP via Getty Images)
However, whether these factors will combine to drive “a major wave is
debatable”, Prof Young said, noting that the population’s significant
past exposure to vaccines and the virus – evident in the gradual drop in >>> severe cases – is working in our favour.
“My experience and the hospitals’ experience of the current variant [is] >>> the virus itself is not as nasty as it was in the past,” said Professor
Denis Kinane, co-founder of Covid testing firm Cignpost Diagnostics.
Prof Kinane said this can translated to mutations too.
Asked about the new variant, which the US Centres for Disease Control
estimates has around 35 mutations compared with Omicron XBB.1.5 – the
variant which the new vaccines target – he said: “The number of
mutations doesn’t correlate linearly with virulence [how harmful a virus >>> is], it can actually go the other way.”
<p>Hospital admissions are at their highest level in three months – but
well below March peak </p>4
Hospital admissions are at their highest level in three months – but
well below March peak
(PA/UK Health Security Agency)
“The virus is always mutating, and doesn’t really care whether it
actually is more or less virulent,” the immunologist added. “In many
respects, it’s actually better for the virus if it’s less virulent
meaning causes less illness and death. That means the virus can actually >>> survive and [spread] more.”
However, Professor John Edmunds, of the London School of Hygiene and
Tropical Medicine, noted that many of the large number of mutations in
the new variant – discovered in countries including South Africa, the US >>> and Israel – “might be expected to help the virus evade existing immune
responses”.
As a precaution, “it makes sense, therefore, to bring forward the
planned autumn vaccination campaign to ensure that those at highest
risk” have their protection topped up, he said, noting that “it is not
yet clear whether it is replacing existing strains” in any countries
where it has been picked up.
Speaking to the Financial Times this week, Eric Topol, director of the
San Diego-based Scripps Research Translational Institute, had also
warned that the boosters might not help much against the new variant
because of its significant number of mutations.
Prof Young said that, while “we don’t know yet” whether the vaccine
booster being rolled out from 11 September will provide adequate
protection against the new Covid variant, particularly for the most
vulnerable, “the suspicion is it will”. He added: “It should be okay,
but we don’t know.”
Professor Mark Jit, of Imperial College London, was similarly hopeful.
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‘Brighton cat killer’ Stephen Bouquet died of Covid-19 while in prison – >>> inquest
More than 121,000 people died waiting for NHS treatment in 2022, Labour says
More than 121,000 people died waiting for NHS treatment in 2022, Labour says
“We know very little about the BA.2.86 variant at the moment, but a
recent dose of a Covid vaccine like the kind used in the UK has so far
consistently provided decent protection against severe disease across
many different variants, even though protection against milder disease
has been more variable across variants,” the vaccine epidemiologist said. >>> He added: “It should help protect the most vulnerable people in the
country, as well as reducing the risk that the NHS becomes overstretched.” >>
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedkingdom/comments/16965xy/one_in_five_children_regularly_miss_school/
One in five children regularly misses school, figures show
Published
21 hours ago
Share
A boy sits on his phone on the sofa
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
By Andre Rhoden-Paul
BBC News
More than one in five children in England are frequently missing school, >>> data shows, in a sign attendance is still struggling to get back to
pre-pandemic levels.
The children's commissioner said some children play truant while others
experience anxiety or have educational needs so find it easier at home.
Parents should get children back to school, urged Dame Rachel de Souza.
Before the pandemic, just over one in 10 students were persistently absent. >>>
ADVERTISEMENT
Pupils count as persistently absent if they miss 10% or more of their
school days, which is roughly one or more days every fortnight over the
school year.
Over the last academic year, Department for Education (DfE) figures show >>> 22.3% of pupils in England were persistently absent.
Speaking to BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Dame Rachel said this
equated to 1.8 million children, and estimated that 100,000 of those
were playing truant.
"We've got a real problem post-pandemic around attendance," she said.
"1.8 million of an eight million cohort is huge... that's double the
number from before the pandemic".
In 2018/9 before the pandemic, around one in 10 children (10.9%) were
persistently absent.
A breakdown of figures shows that the problem is most marked among
children on free school meals (37.9%) and those with an education,
health and care plan (33.4%).
Dame Rachel said it was really important to get those children who were
anxious and "refusing on an emotional basis" back to school.
There is evidence that if children miss more than a day in the first
week of term, 55% go on to be persistently absent for the rest of the term. >>>
The DfE also says primary and secondary pupils who perform better missed >>> fewer days than those who did not perform as well.
But the return to school this week already comes with disruption for
many parents and children after the government forced some schools to
partially or fully close over concerns about the safety of buildings
made from a crumbly type of concrete.
Pupils stay home with parents on Fridays, MPs told
Pupil absences remain above pre-Covid levels
The postcode lottery of £60 fines for missing school
Labour's shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson said she was very >>> concerned about young people and their futures.
She told Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg her party would deliver breakfast
clubs for every primary school child in England and improve mental
health support to help boost school attendance.
Ms Phillipson added increasing truancy fines for parents who do not
ensure their children go to school was not the answer.
Currently, parents in England face £60 fines, which rise to £120 if they >>> are not paid within 21 days, if their children miss school. They are
normally issued by local councils.
In January, the Commons education select committee launched an inquiry
into persistent absence and support for disadvantaged pupils.
It will aim to examine the reasons behind the issue, the likely
effectiveness of the DfE planned reforms, and the impact of
interventions like breakfast clubs on improving attendance.
The children's commissioner has previously raised concerns that some
pupils were missing school on Fridays since the pandemic because their
parents were at home,
Dame Rachel told MPs there was "a huge amount" of absence on Fridays -
when "mum and dad are at home" that "wasn't there before".
A spokesperson for the DfE told the BBC: "Attending school is vital for
children's development and while it's encouraging that attendance is
improving, there is more to be done for the year to come to ensure
children are in regular education.
"We are prioritising driving up attendance rates, including for
vulnerable children, building on existing attendance programmes
including our attendance hubs and mentors, and updating our guidance to
help directly support children, teachers and schools.
"We are also increasing high needs funding by a further £440 million for >>> 24/25, bringing total funding to £10.5 billion - an increase of over 60% >>> since 2019-20."
Undiagnosed long-COVID in children remains a possible underlying
factor as discussed earlier:
https://tinyurl.com/COVIDapocalypse
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:I am wonderfully hungry!
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/16ex9yj/humza_yousafs_deputy_refuses_to_rule_out_return/
Humza Yousaf's deputy refuses to rule out return to Covid mask mandates
and lockdowns as virus spreads
Shona Robison was put on the spot on the BBC Scotland Sunday Show but
instead of reassuring viewers, she merely said the nationalist
government would 'take advice'
Bookmark
Comments
26
NEWS
ByDouglas DickieContent editor
10:39, 10 SEP 2023UPDATED11:40, 10 SEP 2023
Deputy First Minister Shona Robison with her boss Humza Yousaf
Deputy First Minister Shona Robison with her boss Humza Yousaf (Image:
Getty Images)
138437485146
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Humza Yousaf's deputy has refused to rule out a return to mask mandates
and lockdowns as a new strain of Covid spreads. Shona Robison said the
Scottish Government would "take advice" from scientists moving forward.
The new variant, nicknamed Pirola, is highly mutated and is believed to
be behind a spike in cases. While data is not available in terms of
positive tests, Scotland still monitors sewage for evidence of the virus >>> with health experts saying it is on the rise.
by TaboolaSponsored Link
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Pirola is understood to be better to bypassing immunity, either from
vaccines or previous infections. The deputy first minister, who said the >>> chief medical officer has briefed the Scottish cabinet on the situation, >>> was asked by Martin Geissler on BBC Scotland's Sunday Show if she could
"see a scenario" where the likes of face mask mandates, social
distancing and lockdowns would return.
She responded: "We would take advice clearly and work very closely with
UK partners around any change to the advice." Ms Robison added: "So the
advice at the moment is, of course to make sure that you get vaccinated
if you're eligible, and of course to take those precautions...hand
washing, obviously really, really important and you make a very
important point about the impact on on hospital capacity, so people who
become ill and then are required to be admitted to hospital, that puts
additional pressure on the system."
READ MORE: New Pirola Covid strain: Everything we know so far including
key symptoms you should look out for as first Scottish cases found
The country was infamously put into lockdown in March 2020 when Covid
first started to spread widely in the UK. Ministers at Westminster and
Holyrood banned people from leaving their homes except under certain
circumstances while they were told they could not visit loved ones.
Later that year, a mandate to wear masks in certain settings was
introduced. The Scottish Government clung to the mask mandate for longer >>> than the rest of the UK and faced criticism for trying to make emergency >>> Covid measures permanent.
The Scottish Government are considering raising the minimum unit price
of alcohol
mask wearing in certain circumstances was implemented in 2020 but it
proved to be controversial (Image: Getty)
138437485146
We previously told how winter vaccination programmes were being brought
forward by governments in a bid to lessen the impact of the new strain.
Also speaking to the Sunday Show, Professor Roland Kao of the University >>> of Edinburgh said there was no evidence to suggest Pirola was more
severe than previous infections and "every single time we've had a new
variant, past immunity, either through vaccination or past exposure, has >>> at the very least reduced the chance of severe infection".
However, he warned Covid was not yet 'just like flu' which would appear
regularly at certain times of year. He added: "This new variant coming
through...it's coming in a very odd time of year compared to say, the
way flu would do.
"The fact that we've got this rise now again tells us that something is
going on that hasn't happened before. So we need to wait at least a
couple of more years before that settling down is likely to occur."
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/16j560k/goodbye_wfh_staff_at_city_banks_are_under/
Goodbye WFH: Staff at City banks are under pressure to return to the office >>> City Comment: A wind of change is blowing through the City of London:
it’s back to the office, or else
VIEW 1 COMMENTS
<p>JP Morgan has had all its managing directors back in five days a week >>>from April — a nod to everyone else</p>
JP Morgan has had all its managing directors back in five days a week >>>from April — a nod to everyone else / PA Archive
By Simon EnglishFinancial Editor@SimonEngStand
1 day ago
SPONSORED
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T
he City boss was fuming about the lack of staff in his expensive office
on Friday. “You can make money and not turn up. You can turn up and not
make money,” he said. “You can’t not turn up and not make any money.”
That’s what he would say to staff if HR would let him — they are going
to get the message fairly clearly anyway. That view is running strong in >>> the Square Mile. Banks are less likely to ask Covid-traumatised staff,
how are you? Now it’s more: get in and crack on.
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00:06
00:15
A few things are playing into this shift. There’s a general
back-to-school feel, a desire that this year is different from the last. >>>
Companies also want certainty on their real estate — how much do they
need and when? So those banks that are relaxed about seeing staff three
days a week are demanding to know, which three?
The other factor for the traditional City — the shirt-sleeved traders
and bankers — is that there isn’t enough business at the moment to keep
them all in lunch.
If things don’t pick up by Christmas, redundancies are coming — a
bonfire of the bankers, perhaps.
Another City boss says: “It’s no longer 2/3 days in but 3/4. The
investment banks are making cuts and it doesn’t help not to be seen. The >>> temperature has been boiling and I see full offices, not bankers working >>>from the garden.”
The days when office incentives were the plan — free taxis, free food,
free hairdos — have been replaced by an approach that is more stick than >>> carrot.
Part of what’s driving the fear — the sticks — is that the City is going >>> through one of its periodic panics that it is in danger of being usurped >>> by some upstart financial centre — Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Luxembourg.
These fears always turn out to be overdone — some bits of trade, usually >>> not very profitable bits, move abroad. Most of what London wants to
keep, sticks. It has so many advantages over would-be rivals.
One of which is this: The City is fun. Less fun than it used to be,
since the arrival of Americans with white shirts and even whiter teeth,
but still full of clever people thinking and doing smart things, often
with a sense of humour and perspective.
Even on its worst day, it beats the hell out of, say, Frankfurt, which
has lots of bicycles and a famous-ish book fair.
READ MORE
‘Right’ to work from home will be hard to protect
‘Right’ to work from home will be hard to protect
‘Flexible’ space to increasingly feature in company office plans
‘Flexible’ space to increasingly feature in company office plans
Staff at small firms in the office more days than those at large companies >>> Staff at small firms in the office more days than those at large companies >>> Hypocritical corporations should not force young workers back to the office >>> Hypocritical corporations should not force young workers back to the office >>> When is an office not an office? When it is Zoom’s brand new London
‘engagement hub’
When is an office not an office? When it is Zoom’s brand new London
‘engagement hub’
This is not to say the City is serenely untroubled. There’s a definite
problem with the stock market, which isn’t functioning like it should.
London-listed shares are unloved, undervalued, a fact that has been true >>> for too long to be seen as just an anomaly that will correct itself.
That means there aren’t enough new company flotations to keep the army
of brokers and bankers who live off such things in the style they expect. >>>
But the stock market is only one relatively small part of what the City
does. It’s the most visible bit, the easiest to follow, so it gets
written about most often. The rest of it — insurance, bonds,
derivatives, legal services — are probably more important and they work
just fine. Still, the office pressure is on.
Some have moved faster than others. JP Morgan has had all its managing
directors back in five days a week from April — a nod to everyone else.
The Goldman Sachs trading floor on Shoe Lane looks nearly full. You can
work from home, say insiders, but you need a reason.
Aviva said in a statement ‘as office attendance has increased, absence
due to mental health has decreased’
One City investment banking chief said he would be stepping up the
pressure on all management-level staff to return full-time.
He said: “The working from home culture is terrible for young people,
they lose all those ‘apprenticeship’ benefits of sharing ideas,
spontaneity. You can follow up on things immediately after a meeting in
a room, it’s so much harder after a Zoom call, it takes days.”
Last week Lloyds Bank, a mainstream lender, not a City monster, cranked
up the return to the office. CEO Charlie Nunn earlier said: “We need
everyone in this together, working at pace, if we are serious about
transformation and change.”
Aviva, the giant insurer, puts a positive spin on the same thing. It
says: “We are seeing consistent increases in office-based working month
on month. What is particularly interesting and encouraging to see is
that as office attendance has increased, absence due to mental health
has reduced.” Get in here for your own sanity, in other words.
The post-Covid City might soon look a lot like the one before. Maybe
that period when investment banks were cuddly towards their staff was
always going to be a blip.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/16kf0qv/lessons_have_been_forgotten_is_the_uk_ready_for_a/
‘Lessons have been forgotten’: is the UK ready for a new Covid variant?
With worrying mutations, limited vaccine rollout, vastly reduced testing >>> and a creaking health service, experts are predicting a tough few months >>> ahead
Charlotte Lytton
Sat 16 Sep 2023 12.00 EDT
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare via Email
“New variant”, “care home outbreak”, “cases rising”: you’d be forgiven
if the headlines around Pirola, or BA.2.86, the latest Covid strain to
arrive in the UK, had triggered a severe case of pandemic deja vu. More
than two years since the UK’s last lockdown, concerns over BA.2.86 –
known to have infected dozens of people in the UK as of last weekend,
including 28 at a Norfolk care home – have been rising. The worry is
over what is “the most striking Sars-CoV-2 strain the world has
witnessed since the emergence of Omicron”, according to Francois
Balloux, professor of computational systems biology and director of the
University College London Genetics Institute.
That Omicron outbreak resulted in almost half of all Britons getting
infected with Covid last year, and we may be facing a repeat performance >>> at what scientists say is the worst possible time. With temperatures
falling (colder climes help the virus to thrive), schools and
universities returning to large-scale indoor mixing – and at the outset
of flu season – the overall rise in infections is already “translating
to hospitalisations and deaths, increased NHS pressure, as well as more
than a million suffering from long-term health problems under the
umbrella term long Covid”, says Stephen Griffin, professor of cancer
virology at the University of Leeds and a member of Independent Sage.
“The NHS is buckling from continued underfunding and staff shortages.”
Pirola began raising red flags when first detected in Israel in July,
with cases confirmed now in more than a dozen countries, including
Denmark and the US. While the EG.5.1 (Eris) and XBB variants account for >>> most Covid infections globally (and most of the more than 1m symptomatic >>> Covid cases currently in Britain), Pirola, which descended from Omicron, >>> is heavily mutated. This follows a pattern seen with Sars-CoV-2 since
the beginning of the pandemic, explains Andrew Pekosz, professor of
molecular microbiology and immunology at Johns Hopkins University. “They >>> accumulate a few mutations that allow them to evade some of the
antibodies induced by prior infection or vaccination, they spread for a
few months, then they are supplanted by a variant that has picked up a
few different mutations that also function to evade pre-existing
immunity, and the cycle continues.”
With more than 30 mutations, Pirola is “very unique”, adds Pekosz, with
the potential to be “more concerning” than the other circulating variants. >>>
Lessons learned during the early part of the pandemic, and before, do
seem to have been forgotten
The government started its Covid vaccine rollout last week for over-65s
and immunocompromised people, earlier than planned, as a “precautionary
measure” in response to the World Health Organization declaring Pirola a >>> “variant of interest”. Still, concerns remain about the efficacy of the
jab for Pirola, with studies so far producing mixed results. Both Pfizer >>> and Moderna last week said their jabs offered “strong responses” to the
spike protein (which they target). However Griffin says “multiple
preprint studies posted by reputable labs show this [Pirola] to be
equally, or perhaps more, antibody evasive compared to the XBBs” – which >>> “are among the most antibody-evasive strains ever encountered”.
The consensus is that it is too early to tell how useful the vaccine may >>> prove, though some MPs are pushing for 50- to 64-year-olds to be
immunised, either as part of the rollout or privately. With Covid
becoming “more of a value-for-money exercise” for the government,
according to Duncan Robertson, senior lecturer in management sciences at >>> Loughborough Business School, they may be playing a risky game by
reducing eligibility for “financial savings”.
Planning is all the more challenging given that the UK’s surveillance
and testing regimen is now the thinnest since the pandemic began. This
is “frustrating” says Robertson, as “the UK’s ability to detect new
variants has been compromised by the effective ending of the Office for
National Statistics Coronavirus Infection Survey. Not only did that give >>> a very good indication of the level of Covid in the population, it also
allowed the proportions of variants … to be estimated, which could have
meant that the emergence of BA.2.86 could have been better tracked.”
The UK Health Security Agency has promised that Covid testing will be
increased, “although details at the moment are scant”, says Griffin. He
says that “lessons learned during the early part of the pandemic, and
before, do seem to have been forgotten.”
Susan Michie, professor of health psychology at UCL and another
Independent Sage member, agrees that as we find ourselves in a position
where “we really can’t see what’s happening” because of the lack of
testing, missteps of the past appear not to have been absorbed. “One of
the things we’ve really learned from the mismanagement of previous
pandemics, certainly in this country, is waiting too late to do
something about it. Given the exponential growth of pandemics, it does
mean that once you’ve waited until it’s an obvious problem, you’ve
really got a problem.”
The NHS in August hit a record 7.6 million people on waiting lists, and
has in recent months been beset by strike action leading to the
cancellation of 839,327 hospital appointments. It “is really on its
knees”, says Michie. “We just can’t afford to have any huge big influx
into the NHS.”
A test tube sample of the new Pirola Covid variant.
The new Pirola variant has 30 mutations. Photograph: Cristian Storto/Alamy >>> This is more likely given what Griffin calls the current “vaccine-only
strategy”, which appears not to address measures such as masks or social >>> distancing, and “fails to recognise and account for airborne Sars-CoV-2
transmission, including in healthcare settings”. He adds: “Vaccine
strategy appears to completely disregard long-term consequences of
Covid, which is both undermining of those affected as well as a false
economy.”
With most excluded from the vaccine programme, should we be returning to >>> masking, and social distancing? Michie is firm that “we need to take a
population-wide approach to reducing the level of infection”, with
everyone playing their part, rather than the current attitude that
vulnerable people should stay at home. “This is discriminatory, but
also, it’s not effective,” she says; either pushing elderly people into
greater loneliness and social segregation, which studies have shown can
accelerate decline, or overlooking the estimated 1.8 million
multigenerational households in Britain. Such households are more likely >>> to be made up of poorer people or those from ethnic minorities, who
suffered a “disproportionate impact” during the lockdown years,
according to the King’s Fund. Telling already vulnerable communities to
stay at home is only “increasing inequalities”, says Michie.
Watching how Pirola continues to spread is now critical. “We are at the
start of a wave; how serious it’s going to be, we don’t know,” Michie
says. She adds that it is also unclear whether Covid is becoming
seasonal. “But we do know that there are other seasonal viruses like flu >>> and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus), which do always ramp up over the
winter months. We’re in a potentially dangerous situation.”
Others remain more hopeful.“We don’t really see it [Pirola] spreading
fast so perhaps it isn’t as concerning a variant as it looks on paper,”
says Pekosz.
Management is everything this time around, Robertson thinks, with the
future of any potential outbreak now a matter for ministers. “To govern
is to make choices. Let’s hope the government makes wise ones.”
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/16ktlnj/expected_cdc_guidance_on_n95_masks_outrages/
Expected CDC guidance on N95 masks outrages health care workers
Health workers warn that loosening mask advice in hospitals would harm
patients and providers.
A person holds up an N95 mask in the ER at a medical center in Richmond, >>> Texas
A person holds up an N95 mask in the ER at a medical center in Richmond, >>> Texas, in 2020.Mark Felix / AFP via Getty Images file
SAVE
Create your free profile or log in to save this article
Sept. 16, 2023, 4:00 AM PDT
By Amy Maxmen | KFF Health News
Nurses, researchers and workplace safety officers worry new guidelines >>>from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention might reduce
protection against the coronavirus and other airborne pathogens in
hospitals.
A CDC advisory committee has been updating its 2007 standards for
infection control in hospitals this year. Many health care professionals >>> and scientists expressed outrage after the group released a draft of its >>> proposals in June.
The draft controversially concluded that N95 face masks are equivalent
to looser, surgical face masks in certain settings — and that doctors
and nurses need to wear only surgical masks when treating patients
infected by “common, endemic” viruses, like those that cause the
seasonal flu.
The committee was slated to vote on the changes at a public meeting on
Aug. 22, but it postponed the vote until November. Once the advice is
final, the CDC begins a process of turning the committee’s assessment
into guidelines that hospitals throughout the United States typically
follow. After the meeting, members of the public expressed concern about >>> where the CDC was headed, especially as Covid cases rise. Nationwide,
hospital admissions and deaths due to Covid have been increasing for
several consecutive weeks.
“Health care facilities are where some of the most vulnerable people in
our population have to frequent or stay,” said Gwendolyn Hill, a
research intern at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, after the >>> committee’s presentation. She said N95 masks, ventilation, and
air-purifying technology can lower rates of Covid transmission within
hospital walls and “help ensure that people are not leaving sicker than
they came.”
“We are very happy to receive feedback,” Alexander Kallen, chief of the
Prevention and Response Branch in the CDC’s Division of Healthcare
Quality Promotion, told KFF Health News. “It is our goal to develop a
guideline that is protective of patients, visitors, and health workers.” >>> He added that the draft guidelines are far from final.
In June, members of the CDC’s group — the Healthcare Infection Control
Practices Advisory Committee — presented a draft of their report, citing >>> studies that found no difference in infection rates among health
providers who wore N95 masks versus surgical masks in the clinic. They
noted flaws in the data. For example, many health workers who got Covid
in the trials were not infected while wearing their masks at work. But
still, they concluded the masks were equivalent.
Their conclusion runs contrary to the CDC’s 2022 report, which found
that an N95 mask cuts the odds of testing positive for the coronavirus
by 83%, compared with 66% for surgical masks and 56% for cloth masks. It >>> also excludes a large clinical trial published in 2017 finding that N95
masks were far superior to surgical masks in protecting health workers >>>from influenza infections. And it contradicts an extensive evaluation by
the Royal Society, the United Kingdom’s national academy of sciences,
finding that N95 masks, also called N95 respirators, were more effective >>> against Covid than surgical masks in health care settings around the world. >>>
“It’s shocking to suggest that we need more studies to know whether N95
respirators are effective against an airborne pathogen,” said Kaitlin
Sundling, a physician and pathologist at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison, in a comment following the June meeting. “The science >>> of N95 respirators is well established and based on physical properties, >>> engineered filtered materials, and our scientific understanding of how
airborne transmission works.”
Kaiser Permanente
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Workers gather N95 masks as they come off an assembly line
Workers gather N95 masks as they come off an assembly line in West
Bridgewater, Mass., in 2021.John Tlumacki / Boston Globe via Getty
Images file
Her assertion is backed by the California occupational safety agency,
Cal/OSHA, whose rules on protecting at-risk workers from infections
might be at odds with the CDC’s if the proposals are adopted. “The CDC
must not undermine respiratory protection regulation by making the false >>> and misleading claim that there is no difference in protection” between
N95 masks and surgical masks, commented Deborah Gold, an industrial
hygienist at Cal/OSHA, at the August meeting.
Researchers and occupational safety experts were also perplexed by how
the committee categorized airborne pathogens. A surgical mask, rather
than an N95, was suggested as protection for a category they created for >>> “common, endemic” viruses that spread over short distances, and “for
which individuals and communities are expected to have some immunity.”
Three committee representatives, researchers Hilary Babcock, Erica
Shenoy, and Sharon Wright, were among the authors of a June editorial
arguing that hospitals should no longer require all health care workers, >>> patients, and visitors to wear masks in hospitals. “The time has come to >>> deimplement policies that are not appropriate for an endemic pathogen,”
they wrote.
However, in a call with KFF Health News, Kallen clarified that the
committee put coronaviruses that cause colds in that category, but not
yet the coronavirus causing Covid.
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What decongestants work? Here are some alternatives to phenylephrine.
The committee’s next tier consisted of viruses in a “pandemic-phase,”
when the pathogen is new and little immunity through infection or
vaccination exists. It recommended that health workers wear an N95 mask
when treating patients infected by bugs in this category. Its third,
highest tier of protection was reserved for pathogens like those causing >>> measles and tuberculosis, which, they claimed, can spread further than
lower-tier threats and require an N95.
Virologists said the committee’s categories hold little water,
biologically speaking. A pathogen’s mode of spreading isn’t affected by
how common it is; common viruses can still harm vulnerable populations;
and many viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, can travel significant distances >>> on microscopic droplets suspended in the air.
“Large COVID outbreaks in prisons and long-term health care facilities
have demonstrated that the behavior of infectious aerosols is not easily >>> classified, and these aerosols are not easily confined,” wrote the
deputy chief of health at Cal/OSHA, Eric Berg, in a letter of concern to >>> the CDC committee, obtained by KFF Health News.
An N95 protective mask hangs next to a hand sanitizer dispenser on a
reception's desk at a clinic
An N95 protective mask hangs next to a hand sanitizer dispenser on a
reception's desk at a clinic in Lansing, Michigan, on Oct. 18,
2020.Emily Elconin / Bloomberg via Getty Images file
The committee pitted its assessment of N95 masks against their
drawbacks. Its draft cites a study from Singapore in which nearly a
third of health care personnel, mostly nurses, said wearing such masks
negatively affected their work, causing acne and other problems
exacerbated by hot and humid conditions and prolonged shifts. Rather
than discard the masks, the authors of that study recommend
better-fitting masks and rest breaks.
Noha Aboelata, a doctor and the CEO of Roots Community Health Center in
Oakland, California, agrees. “There are other strategies to bring to
bear, like improved mask design and better testing,” she said, “if we
decide it’s unacceptable to give a patient Covid when they go to the
hospital.”
Aboelata is one of hundreds of doctors, researchers, and others who
signed a letter to CDC Director Mandy Cohen in July, expressing concern
that the CDC committee will weaken protections in hospitals. They also
warned that scaling back on N95 masks could have repercussions on
emergency stockpiles, rendering doctors and nurses as vulnerable as they >>> were in 2020 when mask shortages fueled infections. More than 3,600
health workers died in the first year of the pandemic in the United
States, according to a joint investigation by KFF Health News and The
Guardian.
The concerned clinicians hope the committee will reconsider its report
in light of additional studies and perspectives before November.
Referring to the draft, Rocelyn de Leon-Minch, an industrial hygienist
for National Nurses United, said, “If they end up codifying these
standards of care, it will have a disastrous impact on patient safety
and impact our ability to respond to future health crises.”
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the US & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/16lxqcr/commission_recommends_how_covid_pandemic_should/
Press release
Commission recommends how Covid pandemic should be remembered across the UK >>> THE UK Commission on Covid Commemoration’s final report on how the Covid >>> pandemic should be remembered across the UK has been published
From:
UK Commission on Covid Commemoration and Cabinet Office
Published
18 September 2023
The Commission has made 10 recommendations to the Government on how to
make sure the events of the pandemic and the experiences we all went
through are not forgotten.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport will now work with other
government departments and the Devolved Administrations to consider
carefully the Commission’s wide-ranging recommendations and respond in
due course.
The Commission’s recommendations include preserving existing memorials,
including the National Covid Memorial Wall in central London, holding a
national day of reflection every year and identifying green spaces
across the UK to serve as Covid memorial spaces.
The Chair of the UK Commission on Covid Commemoration, Nicky Morgan, said: >>>
The Covid pandemic changed the lives of everyone across the UK and its
impact is still felt very deeply by those who lost loved ones and those
who are still suffering from the effect of the virus.
That’s why it is so important that we don’t let this vitally important
period in our history be forgotten and we hope our recommendations will
mean that the loved ones we have lost and the sacrifices made by so many >>> during the pandemic will be remembered for years to come.
The Commission made their recommendations following a period of public
consultation which saw thousands of people from across the UK give their >>> views on how the pandemic should be remembered.
Groups consulted included bereaved families, young people, the
scientific community and the social care, transport and retail sectors.
The Commission has also recommended that a national symbol be created to >>> represent the pandemic, and a Covid commemoration website be set up to
promote the proposed day of reflection and provide details of local
memorials.
Cabinet Office Minister, Baroness Neville-Rolfe, said:
It is right that we mark the extraordinary sacrifices made during the
pandemic and continue to recognise the contributions of all those who
helped shape the UK’s response. I want to thank the Commissioners and
the Chair for their important work.
Communities across the UK have already started to find ways of
commemorating those unprecedented times, and the Government looks
forward to considering the Commission’s wide-ranging recommendations and >>> how we may support these efforts going forward.
Education also sits at the heart of the Commission’s recommendations,
with the suggestion that schools and colleges teach future generations
about the pandemic, highlighting people’s experiences, the role of
science and the importance of a resilient society. Oral histories would
also continue to be collected from groups including bereaved families,
frontline workers, volunteers, the scientific community and young people. >>>
Further recommendations include creating a funding scheme for local
authorities to establish commemorative spaces in existing parks or green >>> spaces, the creation of a specific body to coordinate a day of
reflection and other Covid commemoration activities, and the development >>> of a postdoctoral fellowship to enable researchers to support
preparedness for risks posed by natural hazards.
Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer said:
The impact of Covid will never be forgotten and we must find a fitting
way to remember and reflect on the pandemic for generations to come.
The Commission has made a number of valuable recommendations and my
department will now consider the best ways to commemorate this
unprecedented period in our history.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/16r3k75/arizonans_can_now_receive_workers_comp_benefits/
Arizonans can now receive workers comp benefits for getting Covid-19 on
the job
Gabrielle Parish Sep 23, 2023 Updated 23 hrs ago 4
Covid-19 was the fourth leading cause of death in 2022, CDC data shows
Nurse Elisa Gilbert checks on a patient in the Covid-19 unit at the
Harborview Medical Center in January 2022 in Seattle, Washington.
Covid-19 was the fourth leading cause of death in the United States in
2022, according to data from the CDC.
Karen Ducey/Getty Images
PrintCopy article link
Save
TUCSON, Ariz. (KVOA) - In a groundbreaking development, Arizonans can
now apply for worker's compensation if they contract COVID-19 while on
the job. This landmark decision stems from a widow's determined fight to >>> secure worker's compensation following her husband's tragic demise due
to COVID-19.
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Gabrielle Parish has all of the details after an Arizona woman won a
lawsuit to receive workers comp benefits after her husband died after
getting Covid-19 at work.
Court documents unequivocally state that if someone contracts COVID-19
at their workplace, they are entitled to file for worker's compensation. >>> An essential detail to note is that if a worker succumbs to the virus,
their next of kin will receive financial support.
We had the opportunity to speak with Attorney Dennis Kurth, who played a >>> crucial role in this case. He shed light on how it all began: "She filed >>> a work comp complaint with the Industrial Commission of Arizona to
secure widow's benefits, and that claim was denied," Kurth explained.
This denial prompted the widow to take legal action against the company, >>> marking the inception of this historic case. Kurth noted, "This is
apparently the first case where an insurance company lost and then
decided to take it to the court of appeals. They are arguing that
COVID-19 should never be covered by workers' comp as a matter of law."
However, there is a catch. If an employee chooses to accept the
compensation, they relinquish their right to sue the company, even if
they can prove they contracted the virus on the job. Additionally,
there's a time frame to keep in mind: workers must file their claims
within a year after contracting COVID-19.
Kurth added, "Now that the court of appeals has published an opinion
stating that COVID-19 is compensable if you meet the statutory and case
law requirements, people may start looking back and thinking, 'Oh, I
should have filed a claim.'"
It's essential to emphasize that the person filing for worker's
compensation must have contracted the disease at work for this ruling to >>> apply. Otherwise, these provisions do not come into play.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the US & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/16soil9/wealthier_children_in_uk_had_steepest_drop_in/
Wealthier children in UK ‘had steepest drop in mental health during
pandemic’
Gap between the mental health of the poorest and richest children
narrowed, researchers say
Andrew Gregory and Sally Weale
Mon 25 Sep 2023 19.01 EDT
Wealthier children experienced the steepest decline in mental health
during the pandemic, research suggests.
Children’s mental health worsened across the board in the UK during the
pandemic. But those whose parents were highly educated, employed, stayed >>> together and had high incomes suffered sharper falls in mental health
than those who were less well off.
The findings, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community
Health, show the gap between the mental health of the poorest and
richest children narrowed during the pandemic.
The authors of the research cited a range of potential reasons for their >>> findings. One was parents juggling highly paid work with looking after
children and educating them while schools were closed.
“This strain, which has been linked to parent distress levels, may
plausibly have been greatest for families with employed parents who
needed to balance childcare against their paid work,” they said.
“Moreover, the intense pressures and increased risk of Covid infection
faced by essential (key) workers in this period may have placed further
strain on some families with employed parents.
“For example, studies in Brazil and Bangladesh have shown that children
whose parents worked in essential roles, and were unable to work from
home, experienced worse mental health during the pandemic.
“We speculate that these excess pressures faced by some working parents, >>> who were required to balance childcare and paid work during the
pandemic, may have contributed to the poorer mental health of children
with employed parents during the pandemic compared with before.”
The study looked at data for 9,272 children as part of the UK Household
Longitudinal Study.
The mental health of young people was reported by parents using a
standardised questionnaire when the children were aged five to eight
between 2011 and 2019. Details of mental health were also recorded when
they were aged five to 11 in July 2020, September 2020 and March 2021 –
all during the pandemic.
The results showed that wealthier children experienced steeper declines
in their mental health during the pandemic than more disadvantaged
children, who tended to have lower mental health to begin with.
For example, the average difference in child scores between those whose
parents were unemployed compared with those whose parents were employed
was 2.35 points before the pandemic but fell to 0.02 points during the
pandemic – meaning the inequalities narrowed.
The researchers cautioned that there were limitations to their research, >>> but added: “Our study provides evidence that trends in child mental
health have continued to worsen during the pandemic.
“Unexpectedly, in many cases children from traditionally advantaged
groups saw larger declines than children from disadvantaged groups –
that is, child mental health has become more equal but at a worse
overall level.
“The pattern is contrary to predictions from some child health experts
that the financial and emotional strain of lockdowns would fall hardest
on children with parents in unstable employment, living in overcrowded
housing, with less access to outdoor space and educational resources.
“We speculate that social isolation and reduced access to services
during the Covid-19 pandemic brought the experiences of traditionally
advantaged groups closer to those already faced by children from
disadvantaged backgrounds, and/or that emergency income support measures >>> during the pandemic may have eased the economic burden for disadvantaged >>> families.”
A separate report, by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, suggests the
poorest third of families in England will see almost no direct benefit >>>from the government’s new expanded childcare entitlements.
By September 2025, children in working families will be entitled to up
to 30 hours a week of funded term-time care from the age of nine months
until the start of school – a dramatic scaling up from the current
provision which provides funded places for three- and four-year-olds in
working families.
However, the policy expansion continues the trend of neglecting families >>> in the bottom 30% of income distribution, the IFS said. So while the new >>> offer will benefit overall just over half of parents with a child aged
between nine months and two years, that will include just a fifth of
families earning less than £20,000 a year, but four-fifths of families
with household incomes above £45,000.
A government spokesperson said: “As well as announcing the biggest ever
expansion to free childcare for working parents, we have also almost
doubled childcare support for the most financially vulnerable and by
2027-28 we expect to be spending £8bn a year to help parents with
affordable childcare.”
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/16y29zv/the_best_summary_of_the_wuhan_virus_ethics_train/
The Best Summary Of The Wuhan Virus Ethics Train Wreck And Its Many
Villains Yet, From City Journal
OCTOBER 2, 2023 / JACK MARSHALL
And, as a bonus, a satisfying validation of Ethics Alarms’ decision to
always refer to the “Wuhan virus” rather than “Covid.”
James Meigs, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a contributing
editor of City Journal, and the former editor of Popular Mechanics has
written a thorough, fair and objective account of the entire pandemic
fiasco, which the Axis of Unethical Conduct still is trying to deny.
Here’s his final paragraph:
When scientists craft their scientific conclusions to political ends,
they are no longer practicing science. They have entered the political
fray. They shouldn’t be surprised when the public begins suspecting
political motives behind their other claims, as well. Public health
officials let political concerns and institutional biases influence
their statements and policies throughout the pandemic. And the media
eagerly served as handmaiden to these efforts. Americans started the
Covid-19 pandemic ready to make enormous sacrifices to protect their own >>> health and that of others. But our political leaders, health officials,
and media squandered that trust through years of capricious policies and >>> calculated dishonesty. It could take a generation or more to win it back. >>>
The essay is long, but essential reading for any informed American. I
recommend sending it to all of your smug progressive friends, especially >>> any of the mug-using persuasion, and even more-so to the idiots still
wearing masks while alone in their cars.
Literally none of the information included in the article is new to me,
nor should it be news to anyone who has read Ethics Alarms over the past >>> three years. (The tag “Wuhan Virus Ethics Train Wreck” will take you to
almost all of the posts on the subject.) However, relatively few members >>> of the public read City Journal, (which is routinely superb), much less
Ethics Alarms. As I read this piece I was infuriated all over again, not >>> just at being reminded of how the nation came to cripple itself
economically, financially, educationally and socially ( never mind how
it came to wreck my personal business and financial security), but
because this wasn’t written by the “investigative journalists” of the
New York Times or Washington Post and featured as a front page story.
Here is another memorable selection from the article, also a depressing one:
The Covid-era collapse in ethical standards in science, government, and
journalism might have brought a period of re-examination and reflection. >>> For example, Watergate, 9/11, and the 2008 financial crisis all led to
major investigations and reforms. So far, however, the pandemic’s
polarized battle lines remain intact. Rather than re-examine their
mistakes, in fact, some elite institutions seem eager to
institutionalize the excesses of the period. In August, the Journal of
the American Medical Association published a study titled “Communication >>> of COVID-19 Misinformation on Social Media by Physicians in the US.” The >>> JAMA study examined various Covid claims made by several dozen doctors
with large social media followings and bemoaned “the absence of federal
laws regulating medical misinformation on social media platforms.” It
suggested that doctors who propagate misinformation should be subject to >>> “legal and professional recourse.”
What were the types of misinformation that might require such a
heavy-handed response? The study quoted some extreme anti-vaccination
theories and other far-out claims. But many of the topics it flagged as
“misinformation” fell well within the range of normal scientific or
political discourse. The authors wrote, for example: “Many physicians
focused on negative consequences related to children and mask mandates
in schools, claiming that masks interfered with social development.” The >>> JAMA authors also objected to the assertion that health officials
“censored information that challenged government messaging.” Of course,
as the Facebook and Twitter documents showed—and the U.S. 5th Circuit
recently concluded—that’s exactly what the government did. Finally, the
JAMA study flagged as misinformation the claim that Covid-19 originated >>>from a Chinese laboratory, which, it limply objects, “contradicted
scientific evidence at the time.” Imagine if the JAMA authors had their
way and medical experts were professionally and legally enjoined from
contradicting the scientific consensus on major health questions.
Without the ability to challenge popular viewpoints, scientists can’t
advance our state of knowledge. In such a world, the germ theory of
disease might still be dismissed as misinformation; doctors might still
be relying on leeches and neglecting to wash their hands.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the US & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/1707qhh/children_were_failed_by_pandemic_policies_covid/
Children were failed by pandemic policies, Covid inquiry told
Young people’s needs were forgotten, with no one made responsible by UK
government for ensuring their rights were met, says legal expert
Amelia Hill
@byameliahill
Wed 4 Oct 2023 13.11 EDT
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare via Email
Children were disproportionately affected by pandemic policies, with
their voices not listened to and no one made responsible by the
government for ensuring their legal rights were met, the Covid inquiry
has heard.
Questions about how lockdown policies affected young people “weren’t
even asked”, said the barrister Jennifer Twite, giving evidence on
behalf of Save the Children UK, Just for Kids Law and the Children’s
Rights Alliance.
Twite said: “We fear that the answer does not simply lie in the erratic
decision-making and the failures of Mr Johnson or the distractions of
Brexit. Although we accept those are unlikely to have helped.”
Instead young people fell foul of systemic failings, she said. “Whose
role was it to consider the interests of children and make sure their
needs were not forgotten in a crisis?” Twite asked.
Warning over unconscious bias against working-class pupils in English
schools
Children were at the back of the queue when the government made its
biggest decisions about lockdown and reopening the economy, said Twite.
Prioritisation of venues meant that pubs, restaurants and sports clubs
were allowed to reopen before schools, nurseries and other places for
children’s activities.
The 1:1 rule, where adults were allowed to meet a friend outside, meant
that younger children who needed supervising were not able to do the
same, Twite said. The lack of consideration disproportionately affected
children in poverty who were isolated in their homes without adequate
replacements for learning, food and emotional support.
This was against the rights of children as enshrined in the United
Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, Twite said.
She added: “The charity Playing Out wrote to the children’s minister and >>> under-secretary of state because they were considerably concerned about
the rules about children playing outdoors. He wrote back to say that
outdoor play was not in his remit because the children’s minister role
sits in the Department for Education.
“We know that Gavin Williamson [the education secretary] was so
incidental to decision-making that it is the current position of this
inquiry not even to call him to give evidence in this module. So who was >>> there to consider the rights for children in England, and perhaps more
importantly, who should have been.”
The inquiry has said it will embark on a targeted research project to
hear from young people. Twite said the government must appoint a cabinet >>> minister for children with cross-departmental responsibility for driving >>> forward implementation of a child rights action plan.
She also called on the government to classify schools and early years
settings as essential infrastructure for future health emergencies.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the US & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/1726h4r/tragedy_8yearold_featured_in_covid_propaganda/
Tragedy: 8-year-old featured in COVID propaganda video dies after
cardiac arrest
An Israeli child has died three years after appearing with his father,
who is a pediatrician, in a government film informing children that they >>> have no choice about whether to take the COVID vaccine when it becomes
available.
Government education
Yonatan Erlichman was five years old at the time of the video, which was >>> produced by Mateh Binyamin Regional Council, a regional government body. >>> It aired as an episode in the government-run program, “Shushki in the
Land of Binyamin,” "to entertain and educate” children.
Shushki is a friendly puppet “child” who asks questions to prompt actual >>> people to respond with “educational answers.”
Normalizing the abnormal
The particular episode in which Yonatan appeared was entitled, “In
Quarantine with Shushki,” and opens with the puppet frightened that his
“brother” has been forced into quarantine and sits alone in his room
behind a closed door. Shushki is shocked that entire kindergarten
classes have been forced into quarantine and even whole schools were
closed down, with every child quarantined. His anxious voice then
expresses his diminishing mental state as he says he keeps hearing of
another person, and another, being quarantined, including his mother.
Shushki is particularly stressed at the possibility of being tested
himself, at not being able to touch, see or speak to his mother and
brother, who must have their food left by their doors, only pulling it
in after the person placing it there moves away from the door.
Exasperated, Shushki says he doesn't understand what's happening,
prompting young Yonatan to refer him to his father for an explanation.
Yonatan: Maybe ask my father.
Shushki: Ask your father? What, he knows about such things?
Yonatan: He's a doctor!
Shushki: Seriously?
Yonatan: Yes.
Shushki: I'm going to speak with him! I'm going to speak with a doctor!
The conversation in the original Hebrew was posted in a tweet, after
Yonatan's death, with a preface, also in Hebrew, in which the poster
asks why there are no headlines and no investigations into COVID vaccine >>> deaths in children.
Yonatan Erlichman of blessed memory, 8 years old, died of cardiac arrest. >>>
Does that not shock you? Where are the headlines? The investigations?
How many more children will die on the golden altar?
Especially as there are already two controlled studies that show that
the mRNA vaccines cause cardiac problems. [Translation].
Father knows best
Yonatan's father, Dr. Ira Erlichman, is in fact a pediatrician
practicing at Jerusalem's top hospital system, Hadassah. Dr. Erlichman
takes over the “conversation” with Shushki, convincing the puppet of the >>> “necessity” of quarantining people for a full 14 days after some
suspected contact with a potentially COVID-positive person, even though
they will probably test negative for COVID in the end.
The doctor expands the conversation to let Shushki know that children
also need to obey other COVID rules like social distancing, masking and
testing. He even tells the puppet that he cannot enter the bathroom used >>> by his “mother” long after she has left the bathroom.
Yonatan's father Dr. Ira Erlichman, explains to the little puppet boy
about isolating children and how they get infected.
Unfortunately, you can see the entire propaganda sheet full of
deceptions and lies presented to that "child" by the doctor who was
supposed to be a professional and reliable agent for him. [Translation]. >>>
Sudden
On the eve of the Jewish nation's holiest day, Yom Kippur, 8-year-old
Yonatan went into cardiac arrest while in a bath tub causing him to lose >>> consciousness and slip down below the water line. By the time a family
member found him he had no pulse. Though able to bring back some vital
signs with CPR, doctors were ultimately unable to save him and were
forced to declare his death a few days later in the hospital.
Jabbed?
Dr. Erlichman did not address his son's vaccination status in a family
statement translated by Arutz Sheva.
Our Yonatan Moshe passed away a short time ago. On the eve of Yom
Kippur, Yonatan went into cardiac arrest in our home, and since then we
have struggled by his side after he collapsed. With love, we thank all
those dear to us, who were by our side during the last days of his life. >>> Details of the funeral date will be provided later, Yael, Ira, and the
girls.
Clearly in favor
The video itself was filmed in July 2020, five months before the COVID
mRNA injections were rolled out in Israel. The end of the video,
however, provides a clue as to Dr. Erlichman's approach to the coming
jab for his son and other children:
Shushki: Tell me doctor, when will Corona finish?
Dr. Erlichman: We are now trying to create a vaccine for it. You know
what a vaccine is?
Shushki: A vaccine is something that makes it that you won't catch Corona. >>>
Dr. Erlichman: It makes the body recognize the Corona before you get it
and makes sure that you will battle it.
The doctor then compares the COVID vaccine being developed to existing
vaccines, which, he assures the children viewing the show, protects
every child who gets them.
Dr. Erlichman: Haven't you gotten vaccines in your life?
Shushki: Right, my mother told me that I got the vaccine against hepatitis. >>>
Dr. Erlichman: What else?
Shushki: Whooping cough.
Dr. Erlichman: All these vaccines are for diseases that we once didn't
know how to fight them and today we know — we give an injection, that
sometimes isn't pleasant, and afterwards no child gets sick from this
illness.
Anyway, you don't decide
Erlichman adds that, in any case, it's not for the children to decide
about injections.
Shushki: I don't like injections.
Dr. Erlichman: No one likes injections, but sometimes there's no choice, >>> right?
And don't be selfish
Finally, the doctor prods the puppet to take the coming jab whether or
not he himself needs it, since he must protect others.
Dr. Erlichman: I want to tell you something very important. . . . You
must always remember that everything we're doing is to protect who?
Shushki: Grandpa and grandma.
Dr. Erlichman: . . . and sick people. . . . [W]e're doing this for
those whom Corona endangers, and this creates a good feeling in the
heart, that you're able to help, right?
Shushki: Right. I'm glad I listened to Yonatan and came to you.
Dr. Erlichman: Great. Let's have a Corona handshake.
Dr. Erlichman concludes by bumping elbows with the puppet.
Grandpa too
The child's grandfather, Mati Erlichman, is also a medical doctor and
served as Director of Pediatrics at another well regarded Jerusalem
hospital, Shaare Zedek Medical Center. A Hebrew language interview with
the grandfather just after the mRNA injections were released was
captioned as follows:
The head of the Binyamin Council Israel Gantz hosted the renowned Dr.
Mati Erlichman. They discussed the safety of the corona vaccine and
called on the residents of Binyamin to come and get vaccinated.
True to the caption, Dr. Mati Erlichman repeatedly reassured listeners
not to hesitate to get the jab, claiming to know from studies that it
was both safe and effective.
I'm sure it's not dangerous, according to all the research that was
done, all the approvals it received . . . there were no side effects
other than a drop of local pain in the injection site. . . .
Of course . . . it's not possible to know with a new vaccine what will
be in another 10 years. . . . [W]e always start when we start . . . the
disease is a very, very difficult one. . . .
Whoever comes to the Corona ward and see what is happening there will
not fear taking the vaccine. It is 95% effective.
Demand to know
Not content with having to guess the child's vaccination status, some
are demanding more information. One Hebrew Facebook post called it a
“moral duty” to get to the bottom of the heart attack issue.
The video stars Yonatan Erlichman, the 8-year-old boy who had a cardiac
arrest and subsequently drowned in the bathtub. His grandfather the
doctor called for injecting the corona shot because it is “safe and
saves lives.” And the cute Yonatan himself served as a presenter during
the Corona scam, as you can see in the video.
Has the child been injected? Did he go into cardiac arrest because of
the injection?
It is the moral duty of every person to ask themselves whether the
corona shots cause cardiac arrest and death.
Why is there an increase in the number of dead since the injections were >>> given, and strange deaths that we hear about every evening? [Emphases
added].
Vindication?
If it turns out that the child did receive one or more mRNA injections,
especially if one was not long before his death, it will, of course,
vindicate the beliefs of opponents of mandatory vaccinations.
Ironically, it would also vindicate the morality of doctors, like the
child's father and grandfather. Allowing their own family members to
receive the jabs would prove that they did not immorally give the shot
to other children, but not their own.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the US & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/17emv3g/lockdown_sceptics_are_rapidly_being_vindicated/
Lockdown sceptics are rapidly being vindicated
The Covid inquiry has shown how the scientific process was perverted by
advisers steeped in groupthink
KAROL SIKORA
21 October 2023 • 6:00am
Karol Sikora
A commuter wearing a facemask on the concourse at Waterloo Station
Was there a better way? That’s the question central to everything at the >>> Covid Inquiry. Yet for the most part, it has featured a procession of
pro-lockdown voices relentlessly pushing the inevitable conclusion that
we didn’t lock down either hard or soon enough.
This costly exercise has been a demonstration of reputation management
and vanity preservation, showing a desperate scientific establishment
spinning to cement the message that there was no other way. Never
underestimate the power of ego, even over the best-qualified
individuals. Their reputations are interwoven with that of lockdown. If
restrictions are discovered conclusively to have caused more harm than
good, what does that say of those who promoted them and ridiculed any
opposition, including mine?
Unfortunately for them, as story after story emerges of the damaging
consequences of lockdown, the vanishingly small number of us in the
scientific community who voiced our concerns about the policy are being
vindicated.
Whether it’s the negative developmental effect on young children,
stunning levels of non-Covid excess deaths, a ticking cancer time bomb,
waves of mental health issues, the economic ramifications that affect
every single one of us, increases in teenage eating disorders, business
closures, wasted years – I could go on and on. Millions and millions of
lives were disrupted and ruined, including those of the youngest and
poorest in our society.
Belatedly, the Covid inquiry has also begun to confirm our suspicions
about how the scientific process itself was perverted. It has released
messages between two top government scientific advisers. They show how
when one flicker of common sense appeared, in the shape of Prof Carl
Heneghan, the establishment closed ranks and branded him a “f---wit”.
Heneghan did more than any Sage member to promote an evidence-based
approach. Let us not forget that, without his intervention, any death
following a Covid infection, be it weeks or months after, would have
continued to have been recorded as a Covid death. If someone caught the
virus in April, recovered in days, but was hit by a bus in July, that
was being logged as a Covid death before he acted.
Sincere apologies are now required. Challenging any consensus is
fundamentally important to good science – especially that of an unproven >>> intervention such as lockdown. The onus should have been on those
proposing such a radical new policy to justify it, not the reverse.
Sweden is the elephant in the room. A nation of relatively similar
wealth and standing to us, it largely avoided lockdowns yet has emerged
with impressively low excess death figures. Should the inquiry not be
asking how? Anders Tegnell, the architect of their successful strategy,
should have been a priority witness.
In September 2020 myself, Prof Heneghan, Prof Sunetra Gupta and a number >>> of others penned an open letter to the prime minister promoting what is
effectively “focused protection”. The idea was to deliver a laser-sharp, >>> well-funded focus on protecting the most vulnerable and to allow the
rest of the country, and importantly the economy, to continue as normal, >>> making decisions based on their own tolerance for risk.
I am more convinced than ever that this was the path to take. Some
arrogantly dismissed it as unworkable. But enforcing house arrest on the >>> entire country went so brilliantly and without issue, didn’t it?
I have little doubt that if a reasoned and fair analysis is ever
conducted, the number of life-years lost to lockdown and its
consequences will be far greater than those tragically taken by the
virus. If we refuse even to tentatively ask if there was a better way,
we are guaranteeing a repeat of our pandemic failures.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:I am wonderfully hungry!
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/17gppr8/care_home_residents_left_to_starve_covid_inquiry/
Scottish Covid Inquiry: Care home residents 'left to starve'
25 October 2023
Close up of male holding hands of senior woman, - stock photo
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
Some care home residents may have been "neglected and left to starve"
during the pandemic, Scotland's Covid Inquiry is expected to hear.
Lawyers representing bereaved relatives said they also anticipate the
inquiry will hear some people were forced into agreeing to "do not
resuscitate" plans.
Shelagh McCall KC told the inquiry that evidence to be led would "point
to a systemic failure of the model of care".
The public inquiry is investigating Scotland's response to the pandemic. >>>
ADVERTISEMENT
Ms McCall is representing Bereaved Relatives Group Skye, a group of
bereaved relatives and care workers from Skye and five other health
board areas of Scotland.
In her opening statement, she told the public inquiry that families
wanted to know why Covid was allowed to enter care homes and "spread
like wildfire" during the pandemic.
She added: "As well as revealing the suffering of individuals and their
families, we anticipate the evidence in these hearings will point to a
systemic failure of the model for the delivery of care in Scotland, for
its regulation and inspection.
"We anticipate the inquiry will hear that people were pressured to agree >>> to do not resuscitate notices, that people were not resuscitated even
though no such notice was in place, that residents may have been
neglected and left to starve and that families are not sure they were
told the truth about their relative's death."
Care home residents like 'exhibits'
What is it investigating and how does it work?
'Air freshener used as disinfectant' at Skye care home
Ms McCall added that many families were thwarted in their efforts to
find out what was going on with their relatives by some care homes, with >>> many finding out about Covid outbreak on Facebook or in the media.
Ten residents died during a Covid outbreak at Home Farm care home in
Portree, Skye, in 2020.
The case is being considered by the Crown Office and is also subject to
a damages claim by the families of former residents.
This claim alleges air freshener was used as a disinfectant and there
was a failure to provide some ill residents with oxygen.
Home Farm care home
Image caption,
Home Farm was run by private operator HC One at the time of the 2020
outbreak
HC One, which ran the care home at the time, previously said that
throughout the pandemic it had "worked tirelessly" to protect residents
and staff.
Alastair Gray, representing Central Scotland Care Homes - a group of 21
small to medium-sized independent care homes - said its members "worked
under extreme strain in exceptional conditions" throughout the pandemic. >>>
He said: "The issued guidance changed frequently and the messaging that
came through was often contradictory."
Mr Gray added there was an "unrealistic expectation of the pace of
implementation" and that the "rapidly changing nature of advice meant
there was worry among staff that they had been doing something wrong
with previous guidance".
NHS recovery
The first two days of evidence sessions in the inquiry have heard about
the impact Covid had on other parts of the NHS and social care sector.
The inquiry's approach is to look at the impact of the pandemic first,
before turning to how decisions to respond to the crisis were taken, and >>> then how Covid policies were implemented.
Elsewhere, Richard Pugh KC, representing Scotland's territorial health
boards, pointed out the NHS had not yet recovered from the pandemic and
"on current estimates are unlikely to do so for some time".
Mr Pugh put on record the health boards' gratitude to all NHS workers
and added: "The emotional and physical toll of those caring for people
dying without their family around them was huge, and the media images of >>> those working in high risk areas - dressed fully in PPE caring for such
seriously ill patients - will live long in the collective memory."
Women and children
The inquiry also heard that women and children were among the worst
affected by Covid.
Andrew Webster KC, representing the Long Covid Kids Scotland campaign
group, said: "Long Covid, the long-term illness caused by Covid, has
blighted that prospect for too many.
"For too many, long Covid presents a seemingly insurmountable obstacle
to an engaged, fulfilling and productive life."
Deirdre Domingo, of Scottish Women's Rights Organisations, said the idea >>> that the pandemic affected everyone equally should be "firmly dispelled". >>>
Ms Domingo said a key area of concern was the rise in domestic violence, >>> sexual abuse and rape.
She said stay at home measures "overlooked that for many people, home
was not the safest place to be".
Ms Domingo added: "One of the consequences of the imposition of lockdown >>> and isolation rules was a rise in domestic abuse and violence."
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Coronavirus/comments/17ep8jy/how_we_got_covids_risk_right_but_the_response/
How We Got Covid’s Risk Right But the Response Wrong
Early expert projections of how deadly the disease would be were
spot-on, but don’t seem to have led to a good balance between prevention >>> and costs.
October 23, 2023 at 3:30 AM PDT
By Justin Fox
Justin Fox is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering business. A former
editorial director of Harvard Business Review, he is author of “The Myth >>> of the Rational Market.”
Did we get it right or wrong?
Did we get it right or wrong? Photographer: Scott Olson/Getty Images
In this Article
NEW ENGLAND JOUR
Private Company
Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal
LEARN MORE
Early in March 2020, I decided to write about the risks posed by
Covid-19. I have no background in epidemiology or even health
journalism, but I can multiply, divide and make charts and was
frustrated with the lack of quantification in most reporting and
public-health messaging on what was soon to be declared a pandemic.
In the resulting column I took what seemed to be the most authoritative
estimate of Covid’s per-infection fatality rate, 1%, and noted that this >>> was about 10 times the 0.1% fatality rate of seasonal influenza, then
conservatively multiplied a CDC estimate of 61,099 influenza-associated
deaths in the US in the pretty bad flu season of 2017-2018 by five and
10 to get a range of “300,000 to 600,000 deaths.”
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Over the 12 months that followed, about 550,000 Americans died of Covid
according to according to the CDC’s provisional estimates and 490,000
according to its tallies of the “underlying cause of death” listed on
death certificates. Both are almost certainly undercounts, because in
the early days the lack of testing meant many Covid-caused deaths were
attributed to other maladies. My guesstimate was also more lucky than
good in that actual seasonal flu fatality rates may be closer to 0.04%,
and the 2017-2018 influenza toll has since been revised downward to
52,000. Still, it was in the ballpark.
I was reminded of all this while reading a passage in a new book on the
history of the pandemic, The Big Fail: What the Pandemic Revealed About
Who America Protects and Who It Leaves Behind. In March 2020, the
authors write, Stanford University health policy professor Jay
Bhattacharya “coauthored an article for the Wall Street Journal
questioning the validity of the scary 2 to 4 percent fatality rate that
the early models like Neil Ferguson’s were estimating — and that were
causing governments to panic. He believed (correctly, as it turns out),
that the true fatality rate was much lower.”
Well, my 1% fatality rate estimate came from a Feb. 10 paper out of the
MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis at Imperial College
London, then led by none other than Neil Ferguson. The March 24, 2020
Wall Street Journal op-ed by Bhattacharya and Eran Bendavid
appropriately took aim at the 2% to 4% fatality rates that the World
Health Organization was calculating using confirmed cases as the
denominator, but ignored Ferguson’s estimate and went on to propose that >>> the actual fatality rate might be as low as 0.01%, “one-tenth of the flu >>> mortality rate,” and that in the US Covid might be “a 20,000- or
40,000-death epidemic.”
Studies based on antibody testing later found that, in the early days,
among hard-hit, immunologically-naive populations with age distributions >>> like those of East Asia, Europe and North America, Covid killed close to >>> 1% of those infected. Fatality rates seemed to be lower where incidence
of the disease was lower (although measurement was less reliable there
too), and they have certainly declined over time, especially since
vaccines were introduced. But the very early estimate by Ferguson and
team, described as “approximately 1%” in the summary of their paper but
either 0.9% or 0.8% (depending on assumptions about how long people with >>> Covid kept testing positive for it) in the text, appears to have been
quite accurate, and certainly much closer to the mark than Bhattacharya
and Bendavid’s spitballing.
It was also not an outlier in early 2020. “The data so far suggest that
the virus has a case fatality risk around 1%,” well-informed amateur
epidemiologist Bill Gates wrote on the New England Journal of Medicine’s >>> website on Feb. 28. On the same day and in the same place, National
Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci and
the heads of the National Institutes of Health and the CDC wrote that
the “case fatality rate may be considerably less than 1%,” and on March
11 Fauci testified before Congress that it was “somewhere around 1%.” A
study published March 30 in Lancet Infectious Diseases, again
co-authored by Ferguson, put it at 0.66% overall, albeit much higher for >>> those 60 and older and much lower for those under 50, with the fatality
rate for children under 10 estimated at less than 0.002%.
So it wasn’t a faulty expert consensus on the risks posed by Covid that
drove the reaction to it. The expert consensus turns out to have been
eerily on-target. But as The Big Fail makes maddeningly clear — and no,
I didn’t stumble over any other mischaracterizations in it like the one
described above — the US did an awful job of balancing Covid’s risks
with the costs of fighting the disease. (I should disclose that the
authors, Joe Nocera and Bethany McLean, are former colleagues of mine
and current friendly acquaintances, although we’ll have to see if the
latter holds up after they read this column. Something I wrote comparing >>> Covid mortality in California and Florida is cited approvingly in the book.)
The “lockdowns” at the outset of the pandemic — which in the US were
mostly not literal lockdowns but did involve strongly urging people to
stay home — seem to have saved lives when implemented early enough. It
is also undeniable that staying away from other people is an effective
way to avoid catching or spreading Covid. But public policies aimed at
encouraging and even requiring such behavior over extended periods were
extremely costly and disruptive, and appear to have had at best a modest >>> impact on Covid mortality. The biggest mismatch between risks and costs
in the US involved schooling, as many urban districts did not offer
in-person classes for much or all of the 2020/2021 school year, with
dire consequences for student performance.
How much of a role did misrepresentations of Covid’s mortality rate play >>> in this faulty decision-making? It can’t have helped that the WHO and
other data compilers continued throughout the pandemic to report
fatality rates based on confirmed case numbers, which the news media
usually passed on without adding context. But I also think that a
disease with a mortality rate of a bit under 1% is just really hard for
people, myself included, to get their heads around. It’s in an
uncomfortable middle ground between seasonal viruses that we’ve all
grown accustomed to living with (as now seems to be happening with
Covid) and high-fatality-rate ones such as Ebola and the original SARS
virus that no one would encourage allowing to spread. The conservative
meme that “Covid is 99% survivable” — as if that made it a mere trifle — >>> was one indication of this confusion, but Fauci’s waffling over the
course of summer 2020 on whether schools should reopen probably was too. >>>
It didn’t help that some of those clamoring loudest for school
reopening, such as President Donald Trump, so clearly underestimated
Covid’s risks. An underappreciated reason why the October 2020 “ Great
Barrington Declaration” calling for an end to lockdowns generated such
an allergic reaction in public health circles is that two of its three
authors, Bhattacharya and University of Oxford epidemiologist Sunetra
Gupta — who in May 2020 argued that Covid “has largely come and is on
its way out” in the UK, with a fatality rate between 0.1% and 0.01% —
had been so spectacularly wrong in their early risk assessments. These
were not people who had earned a lot of credibility on Covid.
It seems telling — or at least ironic — that Sweden, where public health >>> officials greatly overestimated how quickly Covid was spreading early on >>> and thus underestimated its fatality rate, ended up with one of the most >>> successful and sustainable Covid management efforts among Western countries.
Sweden’s Long-Haul Covid Success
Deaths from all causes compared to projection
Source: Our World in Data compilation of data from Human Mortality
Database, World Mortality Dataset and Ariel Karlinsky and Dmitry Kobak,
"Tracking excess mortality across countries during the COVID-19 pandemic >>> with the World Mortality Dataset"
Sweden’s approach was never as laissez-faire as sometimes portrayed —
high schools and universities were closed early in the pandemic and
large gatherings banned — and the initial increase in deaths there was
even sharper than in the US, but over time the country’s light-touch
policies were accompanied by excess mortality only moderately higher
than in neighboring Denmark and Norway and much lower than in the US and >>> the rest of Europe. Getting the risks right may not have been essential
to getting the response right.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the US & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/17ltyzk/former_uk_prime_minister_boris_johnson_said_covid/
Former UK prime minister Boris Johnson said COVID virus was “just
nature’s way of dealing with old people”
Robert Stevens
18 hours ago
Boris Johnson and the Conservative government’s policy of mass death
during the COVID pandemic has been the focus this week of the ongoing UK >>> COVID-19 Inquiry. On Tuesday Dominic Cummings, Johnson’s chief adviser
in the early months of the pandemic gave evidence, as did Lee Cain, who
was Downing Street’s Director of Communications.
Although the Inquiry has been provided with only a partial collection of >>> electronic communications such as WhatsApp messages—swathes of which
have been deleted by their senders—and other records such as diary
entries, from these it is already clear that a brutal policy of social
murder was in operation from the off. This resulted in hundreds of
thousands of unnecessary deaths, with the Economist’s excess death
tracker recording 250,000 in Britain as of the end of October. On top of >>> this, between one and two million people are suffering from the impact
of Long COVID.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson holds a COVID-19 Press Conference with
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, October 10, 2020 [Photo by
Pippa Fowler/No 10 Downing Street / CC BY 2.0]
During Tuesday’s hearing with Cain, chief counsel for the Inquiry Hugo
Keith KC questioned him on evidence made available in the notebooks of
Sir Patrick Vallance, the UK government’s chief scientific adviser
during the pandemic. In one entry, Vallance said that Johnson bluntly
told senior advisers the COVID virus was “just nature’s way of dealing
with old people”.
In December 2020, with Johnson opposing scientific advice to impose a
further lockdown—which came into operation against his objections weeks
later—Vallance wrote: “He [Johnson] says his [Conservative] party
‘thinks the whole thing is pathetic and Covid is just nature’s way of
dealing with old people – and I am not entirely sure I disagree with them’.”
In another diary entry from five months earlier in August 2020, Vallance >>> noted that Johnson favoured “older people accepting their fate and
letting the young get on with life”.
Vallance wrote of a Cabinet Meeting in Downing Street in December 2020,
“Chief whip [Mark Spencer] says ‘I think we should let the old people
get it and protect others’. PM [Prime Minister Johnson] says ‘a lot of
my backbenchers think that and I must say I agree with them’.”
In a WhatsApp message to Cain on October 15, 2020, weeks before Johnson
was forced to agree a second lockdown in England that he never wanted,
the prime minister callously wrote: “I must say I have been slightly
rocked by some of the data on Covid fatalities. The median age is 82-81
for men and 85 for women. That is above life expectancy. So get Covid
and live longer.”
When asked by Cain the implications of this statement for policy,
Johnson replied, “It shows we don’t go for nationwide lockdown.”
It was at the end of this month, October 2020, that Johnson blurted out
his infamous statement, heard by several people in Downing Street: “No
more f*****g lockdowns. Let the bodies pile high in their thousands!” A
second national lockdown began six days later on November 5.
Johnson was fully aware of the terrible human cost of the let it rip
policy, designed to keep the economy open and profits flowing. A March
2020 diary entry from Imran Shafi, a former private secretary,
attributed to Johnson a statement: “We’re killing the patient to tackle
the tumour. Large ppl [taken to mean large numbers of people] who will
die, why are we destroying economy for people who will die anyway soon.” >>> Shafi said he understood that Johnson made the statement in a meeting
with then-chancellor, and now prime minister, Rishi Sunak.
The Inquiry also heard that Johnson’s special advisor Dominic Cummings
wrote a message to Cain just one day before the first lockdown began
revealing that Johnson was still opposed, despite scientific evidence
known to Downing Street showing that a national lockdown should have
been in place at least 10 days earlier—a measure that would have saved
thousands of lives. On March 19, 2020, Cummings messaged Cain saying,
Johnson was “back to Jaws mode”.
Asked by the Inquiry what this meant, Cain said it was a reference to
the film Jaws. “The PM at a time would refer to the mayor in Jaws who
wants to keep the beaches open,” so as to not harm the economy, despite
multiple shark attacks and deaths. Cain added, “He [Johnson] sort of
said, you know there’s more harm coming. The mayor was right all along,
to keep the beaches open, because it would have caused long term harm to >>> the community.”
Cummings told the Inquiry that in the run-up to imposing a national
lockdown there was essentially no plan in place to protect the most
vulnerable people: “I would say that that entire question was almost
entirely appallingly neglected by the entire planning system… The
Cabinet Office was essentially trying to block us creating a shielding
plan.”
MEHRING BOOKS
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Cummings, who was sacked by Johnson in December 2020, said he was not in >>> favour of lockdowns either, and instead argued for stricter border
controls and more testing as “much better” for saving lives and
protecting the economy.
The revelations confirm every word written at the time on the World
Socialist Web Site and by principled scientists and medical
professionals about the crime being carried out against the population
through the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. In February
2021, in an event highlighted by the WSWS’s perspective column but
largely ignored by the media, the British Medical Journal correctly
characterised the UK’s response as “social murder”.
The eugenicist policies espoused by Johnson et al were based on the
ruthless class logic that thousands of predominantly elderly,
overwhelmingly working-class lives were a price well worth paying to
keep businesses open and making money for their wealthy shareholders,
and to put a stop as soon as possible to payments for furloughed workers. >>>
In fact, for every pensioner who died, savings would be made in state
pension costs and other expenses required to keep people healthy into
old age. Less than a year after the first lockdown was put in place—with >>> the government well on the way to declaring the pandemic over—forecast
figures published by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) fiscal
watchdog showed that the amount the government would have to spend on
state pensions was to fall by £1.5 billion by 2022.
The determination of the Tories to end lockdowns and protect the profits >>> of the corporations—an aim wholly backed by the Labour Party
opposition—inspired Chancellor Sunak’s “eat out to help out” scheme that >>> ran during the summer of 2020, which used discounted food and drink to
encourage people into bars, restaurants, pubs and cafes. In a WhatsApp
exchange seen by the Inquiry, this led government scientific adviser
Professor Dame Angela McLean to refer to Sunak as “Dr Death the chancellor”.
Such ruthless indifference to mass death was shared by the ruling class
internationally, whatever the nominal political coloration of the
national government. When the UK economy was being thrown open after the >>> first lockdown, the Inquiry heard, the government’s most senior official >>> Simon Case told colleagues Johnson wanted to let the virus “rip”,
warning “This is in danger of becoming Trump/Bolsonaro level mad and
dangerous.”
Between them, the governments of Donald Trump and his successor Joe
Biden, Jair Bolsonaro and his successor Lula, and Johnson and Sunak,
have overseen the excess deaths of over 2.5 million people to date.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://archive.vn/9uvHP
Jonathan Sumption: Why the Covid inquiry is a farce
Instead of learning lessons from lockdowns, the hearing is more
interested in knocking the stuffing out of the government, writes
Jonathan Sumption, a former justice of the Supreme Court
ILLUSTRATION BY TONY BELL
Jonathan Sumption
Sunday November 05 2023, 12.01am GMT, The Sunday Times
The Covid-19 inquiry’s terms of reference are as broad as could be, but
it has only one useful purpose. Lockdowns and other aggressive
government interventions were an unprecedented and untested experiment
with the lives and wellbeing of each one of us.
We need to know what they achieved, if anything. We need to know whether >>> it was worth the appalling collateral consequences for other clinical
conditions, for our mental wellbeing, for our children’s education and
for the economy and public finances of our country. We need to know
whether other policies might have produced acceptable results at a
lesser cost in human misery. That way, we may have some prospect of
avoiding a similar disaster next time, for there will surely be a next time.
Measured against that standard, the inquiry’s agenda and working methods >>> are a programme for failure. It follows the classic model that has
undermined so many British public inquiries in recent years. It cannot
decide whether it is there to learn lessons for the future or to
distribute blame for the past. These are inconsistent objectives.
Learning lessons means assessing policy options with the benefit of
hindsight and the mass of information that has become available since
the lockdowns. But the inquiry has been more interested in assigning blame. >>> That means looking at the mechanics of decision-making in all its grubby >>> detail, exposing the weaknesses of inadequate human beings confronting a >>> crisis most of them never really understood.
The result is akin to a gigantic exercise in forensic litigation. For a
start, it is over-lawyered. The tribunal employs its own teams of
counsels. There are dozens of “core participants”, most with their own
team of lawyers sitting in serried ranks behind banks of computer
screens. Some of the witnesses have legal representation. The inquiry’s
chairwoman, Baroness Hallett, occasionally reminds the room that she
used to be a criminal judge. The proceedings advance at a snail’s pace.
It is inordinately expensive.
All this is bad enough, but there is worse. The procedure of the inquiry >>> distorts the exercise by creating a built-in bias in favour of lockdowns >>> and other aggressive government interventions. Six “modules” have been
announced. They constitute the inquiry’s agenda. All of them are
concerned with the quality of government decision-making. None of them
directly addresses the efficacy of lockdowns, masks, travel bans and
other non-pharmaceutical interventions. These issues have been
shoehorned into module 2, which is entitled “Core UK decision-making and >>> political governance”. That tells us a lot about the inquiry’s priorities. >>> No fewer than four branches of Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice,
one for each nation of the UK, have been accorded the status of core
participant. They are there to argue that the government should have
been more aggressive, not less. It should have locked down sooner,
harder, longer. The bereaved families are victims of the virus, but we
are all victims of the lockdowns. Yet the only lockdown victims who have >>> received any significant attention in the evidence are children. They
were indeed badly done by, but who is there to represent the population
at large?
Many of the comments made by Dominic Cummings, an adviser in No 10
during the pandemic, have put the decision-makers in government in the
stocks
Many of the comments made by Dominic Cummings, an adviser in No 10
during the pandemic, have put the decision-makers in government in the
stocks
UNPIXS
At the hearings the agenda is set by the inquiry panel and their
lawyers. Counsel to the inquiry decide what questions to put to each
witness. They decide what angle to take and what points to emphasise,
all in accordance with their own preconceptions. Those preconceptions
are apparent from the transcripts. They are generally prosecutorial.
Counsel’s hostility to some witnesses is palpable. The hunt for guilty
men and women inevitably descends into an argument that decision-makers
did too little too late. The basic assumption is that lockdowns and
other aggressive interventions were the answer and that the problem lay
not in the conception but in the execution.
This may be a good way of putting the decision-makers in the stocks,
something the public always enjoys. But it is a terrible way to examine
the complex and disputed scientific and statistical evidence. Important
scientific witnesses like Sir Patrick Vallance, the chief scientific
adviser; Sir Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer; the modeller
Professor Neil Ferguson; and sceptics like Professor Mark Woolhouse (by
far the most impressive scientific witness to date) and Professor Carl
Heneghan are confined to answering counsel’s questions in the course of
brief, superficial and highly selective cross-examinations.
Far too often the cross-examiner demands a yes or no answer to difficult >>> questions that call for nuance and qualification. The lawyers seem
keener to dwell on trivia extracted from the WhatsApp messages of
ministers and officials, which do nothing but remind us of the sheer
nastiness of some of them. At one point, counsel to the inquiry asked a
scientific witness whether he was the “f***wit” referred to in a profane >>> WhatsApp message from Dame Angela McLean, then a scientific adviser to
the Ministry of Defence. How does that help to resolve the serious
issues involved?
STR.COVID_STATS.22.10.23.R
• Surreal week at the Covid inquiry: ‘Voters would want to lynch people
if they knew’
To see how this has distorted the balance of the inquiry, one has only
to look at some of the things that have been left out or brushed aside.
There has been little examination of the role of statistical modelling
as an aid to policy-making. Ferguson’s wildly inaccurate modelling,
which played a critical role in propelling the government into the first >>> lockdown, got an easy ride.
• Was the UK right to go into lockdown during the Covid pandemic?
The huge margin of error involved in trying to model the spread of an
inherently unpredictable pathogen like Sars-CoV-2 was not touched on.
The modelling of death rates on the ridiculous assumption that people
would take no steps for their own protection unless forced to by
government intervention was barely questioned, although the evidence
shows that people were already doing so before the first lockdown was
imposed.
The implicit assumption of the model — that there was no halfway house
between total government inaction and a universal lockdown — received
hardly any attention. The poor historical record of models, including
Ferguson’s, as predictors of risk hardly got a mention.
Only cursory attention has been paid to what is perhaps the most
striking feature of the government’s response to Covid, namely its
indiscriminate nature in the face of a highly discriminating pathogen.
Healthy young and middle-aged people at little risk of serious illness
or death were subjected to the same restrictions as the old and those
suffering from pre-existing respiratory conditions who were the prime
targets of the virus.
The possibility of selectively protecting the vulnerable and allowing
the rest of the population to get on with their lives has been brushed
aside as impractical. The Great Barrington Declaration, which suggested
this approach, has many critics, some of whom misrepresent its message,
but none of its authors has been called to give evidence.
Woolhouse has reservations about the declaration, but his own
interesting proposals about selective “cocooning” were hurriedly passed
over when he tried to explain them. As he pointed out, belief in
universal lockdowns became a “test of virtue” among government advisers. >>> That attitude seems to have infected the inquiry.
Boris Johnson’s government has born the brunt of the testimony at the
inquiry into the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic thus far
Boris Johnson’s government has born the brunt of the testimony at the
inquiry into the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic thus far
ANDREW PARSONS/10 DOWNING STREET/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
Then there is the almost complete absence to date of any attention to
international comparisons. These are of limited relevance to the quality >>> of government decision-making, because the comparisons can be made only
in hindsight. But they are one of the principal tools available to
compare the efficacy of policy options according to their known results. >>> They suggest that the nature and scale of government intervention makes
remarkably little difference. The most striking example is Sweden, a
country with broadly similar conditions to the UK. Sweden made some of
the same mistakes as the UK in dealing with mortality in care homes. It
banned mass events. But it did not lock down its population, did not
close most schools and did not even close bars and restaurants, yet
ended up with a death toll lower than the UK’s. There is no sign that
the inquiry has the slightest curiosity about this.
Professor Sunetra Gupta’s witness statement, whose contents have been
reported, has some interesting things to say about Sweden and the views
of ministers and advisers on the subject, but the inquiry has not
published the statement or invited her to give evidence orally. The
inquiry’s report will not deserve to be taken seriously unless it
addresses the one notable experiment with a radical alternative to mass
coercion.
It is not too late for the Covid inquiry to acquire a more sensible set
of priorities. Unless it does so soon, the only lessons we will learn >>>from it are that officials should not dig themselves into defensive
positions when confronted by dissent and that ministers should be more
competent and diligent than Messrs Johnson and Hancock. We could have
worked that out without the assistance of Baroness Hallett.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/17rml1w/the_scotsman_brian_monteith_uks_covid19_inquiry/
Brian Monteith: UK’s Covid-19 inquiry is already more revealing than was >>> ever intended
As the UK’s Covid Inquiry rumbles on it not only confirms some awful
truths we already suspected but also reveals much about the nature of
our governments they would prefer remained hidden.
By Brian Monteith
Published 6th Nov 2023, 04:55 GMT
Covid jab gv
Covid jab gv
The UK’s Covid Inquiry is proving to be a very expensive sham. Already
believed to have cost over £100m, it does not take a great deal of
analysis to see that Baroness Hallet’s inquiry is travelling down a
pre-conceived path of blaming the Johnson government for the mishandling >>> of the pandemic response while treating public health officials and
advisors with kid gloves.
I have no doubt our politicians did indeed make a number of serious
errors and will deserve to be held to account for them, but I expect
many of the errors that professionals more expert than I will see as
arising from the evidence will be quite different to those Baroness
Hallet points to in her conclusions. The abrasive questioning of
witnesses who warned against the impacts of lockdowns – even though
their warnings can now be seen as self-evidently justified – compared to >>> the deference shown to those wanting greater and earlier restrictions is >>> displays wilful bias.
Will the Inquiry look into the lack of a cost-benefit analysis regarding >>> the impact on cancer screening and longer term cancer care against the
supposed benefits of lockdowns? No. The same lack of scrutiny about
prolonging lockdowns, the use of facemasks, the closing of schools is
also glaringly visible.
Covid infection rates remain high across Forth Valley putting a strain
on Forth Valley Royal Hospital services
Covid infection rates remain high across Forth Valley putting a strain
on Forth Valley Royal Hospital services
Yet for all the focus on the chaos surrounding how decisions were being
reached we can at last see the secrecy, skulduggery and blatant
jockeying for political advantage that existed behind the false
presentation of our political leaders as being reassuringly in command.
It is the UK Covid Inquiry, after all, that has confirmed what had
already been leaked – that due to the rush to present First Minister
Nicola Sturgeon as taking a lead in UK decisions (by her getting to a
microphone before the evening broadcast of the Prime Minister and his
Chief Science and Health advisors) decisions were taken away from the
meetings she might attend.
In repeatedly seeking to gain political advantage Nicola Sturgeon put
the SNP before the interests of all Scottish (and British) people. All
the while Covid was taking lives Sturgeon was seeking to bolster her
political reputation.
While we can, quite fairly, expect the UK Covid Inquiry to reveal the
human character flaws at the heart of government that that led to deaths >>> that should have been avoided, it has revealed unwittingly the
institutional flaws at the heart of government emanating from devolved
legislatures and assembles that also contributed to unnecessary deaths.
Even when Matthew Hancock decided to stop sending patients from English
hospitals into care homes, Sturgeon’s government decided against the
change and continued the practice, for no other reason than that they could.
It was also the UK Covid Inquiry that published on 29 July 2022 its
“Protocol on Documents” stating it would be a criminal offence to
"intentionally alter or destroy" any "relevant documents" and that this
included "WhatsApp messages" as well as meeting notes, emails and memos. >>> It is not enough for Humza Yousaf to say he will provide all retained
WhatsApp messages – it is those WhatsApp messages not retained the
public has a right to know about. Just when were Sturgeon’s messages
deleted?
If I am right, and the UK Covid Inquiry adopts the metropolitan
groupthink so often promulgated by our Ofcom-restricted broadcasters,
that we should have had lockdowns earlier, more restrictive and for
longer then we can also expect that it will say, or will be used by
others to say, that we cannot expect or trust our leaders to take
decisions on our behalf and that instead such life-or-death matters must >>> be handed over to the unelected officials of the World Health Organisation. >>> Why it should be thought unaccountable technocrats whose best interests
would not be those of the British public and would be beholden to
external paymasters would make better decisions will not be explained
(because it cannot be justified).
The WHO still enjoys the perception of being a quasi-UN publicly-funded
organisation merely doing the bidding of national governments acting in
concert for mutual health security – but it is nothing of the sort. The
WHO is, like so many international institutions with UN origins, now
organised by a self-reverential technocratic oligarchy who are at
liberty to ignore democratically elected governments and receive the
majority of their funding from private funds.
The most recent accounts (for 2022) show WHO’s revenue as $4.35bn of
which only $0.496bn came from Governments, but $3.619bn was voluntary
(private donations) and other revenues amounted to $0.239bn. The largest >>> donor by far is Bill Gates, through three different foundations. Medical >>> supplies and materials amount to only 13 per cent of spending with 30
per cent taken up by salaries and remaining overheads consuming 57 per
cent of spending.
By the end of this month the UK Government has to object to changes in
the WHO’s mandate that will allow it to change its guidance to national
governments into legally enforceable instructions – making it possible
to impose lockdowns irrespective of what any UK government wishes. To
prevent this process applying here the UK needs to declare its
objections before December.
If this is not done then when the next pandemic comes – and it may be
this decade or the next, but it will come – it is likely we would not be >>> able to prevent lockdowns and all the harms they do being forced upon
us. There would be no need for a Covid-like inquiry for there would be
no ability to hold anyone to account nor would there be a process in
which lessons learned could be applied by our national governments – for >>> they will count for naught.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/17ssrey/the_fight_over_returntooffice_is_getting_dirty/
The fight over return-to-office is getting dirty
Two watchful eyes over an employee.
Return-to-office mandates indicate a failure of imagination on the part
of management and a refusal to do the work necessary to create a
positive company culture. Chelsea Jia Feng/Insider
Ed Zitron
Ed Zitron
Nov 7, 2023, 2:43 AM PST
Amazon has built its $1.3 trillion empire largely by tracking and
evaluating almost every aspect of a customer's life. From a new TV to a
toilet-paper refill, Amazon knows what a customer wants and when they
want it, and it's always ready to serve it to them.
This obsession with metrics and data, however, does not appear to extend >>> to certain parts of Amazon's workplace. Over the past few months, the
company has aggressively pushed employees back to the office. In
February, Amazon announced that employees would be required to come into >>> the office three days a week and since then, the e-commerce giant has
escalated its battle with remote employees: sending emails to employees
about their attendance, creating internal dashboards to display how many >>> days a week each employee was coming into the office, and telling
managers in October that they could begin firing employees who weren't
meeting the return-to-office requirements.
When perturbed employees have pressed executives for the reason behind
the mandate, supposedly data-obsessed higher-ups have seemed to have no
data to justify it. Asked in August about this, Mike Hopkins, a senior
vice president of Prime Video and Amazon Studios, offered a vague
response, saying that he had "no data either way" on whether mandating
in-office work made people more productive but that executives believe
Amazon's workers do their best work when they're together.
Advertisement
It's reasonable to wonder why Amazon, a company that has data on
hundreds of millions of people and their decisions, is struggling to
come up with hard numbers to back up its dictatorial push back to the
office. Perhaps the reason is that the data supporting Amazon and other
companies' RTO policies is threadbare, relying mostly on a few studies
that use sample sets of questionable usefulness to back up their claims
that remote work is less productive.
But the weakness of the evidence won't stop bosses from making these RTO >>> mandates. They indicate a failure of imagination on the part of
management and a refusal to do the work necessary to create a positive
company culture.
Evidence is as evidence does
As the return-to-office battle has heated up in the past six months,
there has been a marked increase in declarations that remote work is
less productive. But diving deeper into this evidence reveals flawed
logic — and a media industry obsessed with proving bosses right.
The study that has most often been used to argue for the necessity of
in-office work is a July working paper from researchers at the National
Bureau of Economic Research, which randomly assigned data-entry workers
at a company in India to work either from home or in the office for
eight weeks. The researchers determined that remote workers were 18%
less productive than their in-person counterparts. Journalists have
consistently cited this study without, it seems, taking a moment to
consider its findings. First and foremost, it's farcical to use the work >>> of entry-level data workers in India — who were recruited specifically
for the study — as a proxy for all employees in all industries around
the world. Secondly, the measurement of their productivity was "net
speed," or the number of correct entries they made in a minute. The
"drop in productivity" is really about how fast people could put numbers >>> into a sheet — but that's not what most people do at work.
Other outlets cited a study that examined the productivity of 10,000
workers at an Asian IT-services company. The central claim seems to be
tailor-made for RTO advocates: The researchers estimated a productivity
shortfall of 8% to 19% when workers transitioned from working at the
office to working from home. The study's authors found only a "slight
decline in output" but acknowledged workers were stretching out their
working hours at home; those things together showed up as a drop in
productivity. Here too, there are issues. "Output" in this case refers
to "performance against the semi-annual goal on a key performance
metric," like lines of useful code written by a developer. The authors
described these metrics as "objective" and tracked, but the actual
composition of these metrics is still pretty vague and based on
managers' interpretations of their value. Additionally, hours worked
were logged by an employee-surveillance software — but these sorts of
tools come with plenty of problems that should make anyone skeptical of
their efficacy.
These studies — and the RTO push — often betray an utter ignorance of
the workplace and work itself, both its structure and its outputs.
You'll notice a lot of these studies focus on call centers (the Stanford >>> researcher Nicholas Bloom cited two in his roundup of productivity
research), and that's likely because these are extremely controlled and
heavily micromanaged environments — ones rife with labor abuse. Crude
measures of productivity might indeed slip when workers are able to get
away from horrible managers or torrents of abuse, but "productivity" in
these studies is always a rigid metric, like "calls answered," rather
than something more meaningful, like whether a problem was fixed or
whether the customer was happy. These studies are relatively useless
when it comes to evaluating most companies' return-to-office strategies, >>> but that's just fine for the managerial elite.
As somebody who's been writing about this subject for years (and who's
worked remotely since 2012), I've yet to read a single piece of research >>> that convincingly backs up the assertion that we need to be in the
office. And yet major media outlets have continued to feed bosses'
narrative that we "do better work together." The existing studies
continually fail to evaluate real work. Instead they prioritize speed,
betraying the same corporate ignorance forcing people back to the
office. These studies — and the RTO push — often betray an utter
ignorance of the workplace and work itself, both its structure and its
outputs.
Just the vibes
Despite the limited evidence against it, corporations are increasingly
trying to kill remote work. Corporate statements about these decisions
never seem to justify the shift beyond platitudes about "togetherness"
and vague references to "culture." Look deeper, though, and they reveal
the rotten core of the mandates.
Advertisement
Roblox, a company that derives its revenue from digital worlds, reversed >>> its flexible work policy in October, telling employees that if they
didn't work at least three days a week in the office they'd be laid off. >>> The reason for the about-face? Based on its CEO David Baszucki's blog
post announcing the move, it seems mostly about vibes.
"I personally hoped that for our culture and our type of work, it might
be possible to imagine a heavily hybrid remote culture," he wrote. "But
there was a pivotal moment for me when we had our first post-quarantine, >>> in-person group gathering. Within 45 minutes I came away from three
separate conversations with spontaneous to do's and ideas to put in
motion, something that hadn't happened during the past few years of
video meetings."
Nike's four-days-a-week policy points to "the power and energy that
comes from working together in person." Geico said its return-to-office
program was meant to "foster a sense of community and connection" — but
offered little data to support the decision. The only numbers in the
announcement appeared to be about layoffs: Geico said it was letting
2,000 people go to sustain "long-term profitability and growth,"
suggesting that while layoffs can be evaluated with data, in-person work >>> can only be backed up with mood rings.
Managers and executives make calls based on perception rather than
hands-on experience or data.
These announcements are almost always issued by executives who probably
won't be subjected to the same kinds of check-ins as the rank-and-file
workers the mandates apply to. Nobody's asking Amazon's Andy Jassy or
Geico's Todd Combs how many days they swiped into the office, and
there's no chance Oracle, which instituted a return-to-office policy in
May, would punish Safra Catz or Larry Ellison for spending too little
time at their desk. This irony combined with vague justifications
exposes the reality of the RTO push: Managers and executives make calls
based on perception rather than hands-on experience or data. The modern
CEO has become a figurehead reaping the rewards of a work process they
don't meaningfully participate in, so they make their choices based on
macroeconomic conditions, their own biases, or, evidently, a single
45-minute meeting that left them feeling good.
Nowhere is this more obvious than at Meta, where workers are required to >>> return three days a week. The only problem: Employees can't find the
space or the privacy to actually do their work at the office. The issue
is almost too on the nose. The honchos calling the shots at Meta, a
company that has caused global discord through its handling of people's
data, appear to be unaware of how people at the company do their jobs.
More frustratingly, Meta's corporate guidelines say that anyone who has
worked at the company for 18 months or more can apply to become a
permanent remote worker — a nice idea, except for the fact that hundreds >>> of people have applied and have yet to hear back.
Because I said so
Creating and sustaining a positive, productive corporate culture takes
work. It requires managers and executives who truly understand the
product their employees are putting out — and what is required to create >>> that product. That's what makes the move to kill off remote work so
frustrating. It's not clear that the return-to-office move is about
making workers more productive or building a better culture. Rather,
it's becoming obvious that these mandates are mostly an attempt to
reestablish a surveillance society that allows managers to skip over the >>> tough task of building a company where people actually want to work.
The RTO push is eyewash for investors to prove that drops in revenue and >>> profitability aren't a result of poor managerial decisions but the
result of lazy workers sitting at home in their pajamas. In some ways,
it's a genius move for executives — a way to establish control over
workers during an unprecedented societal awareness of labor rights
(thanks to the striking workers of the Writers Guild of America,
SAG-AFTRA, and the United Auto Workers) while also shifting the blame
and consequences of poor stock performance onto those least responsible. >>>
Real management takes responsibility and makes thoughtful decisions
based on what makes a company stronger.
I would perhaps have more sympathy if companies made even the lightest
attempt to demonstrate the efficacy of office work through relevant data >>> or definable productivity metrics, rather than vague references to hours >>> worked or office attendance. But seeing this type of data is unlikely as >>> corporations have mostly turned modern managers into hall monitors. And
if, as some have suggested, the return-to-office push is an attempt at a >>> "soft layoff" — instituting unreasonable policies to make people quit
(or accept severance) — it's corporate cowardice. It's restructuring a
company based on who's most willing to tolerate wrongheaded
inconveniences, rejecting great workers who don't live close to an
office, and galvanizing sycophants who are willing to uncritically cheer >>> on every executive mandate.
Advertisement
While executives may see a return-to-office push as a good thing, I
believe these mandates will only weaken their organizations, driving a
wedge between management and workers. Forcing in-person attendance
without clear goals and reasoning is going to create an outright
hostility toward higher-ups. This pointless and petty crusade does
nothing to make organizations better, leaner, or more productive — all
it does is temporarily help executives distract from larger
organizational issues.
Real management takes responsibility and makes thoughtful decisions
based on what makes a company stronger. The return-to-office move is the >>> exact opposite: an unproductive push for control that erodes the already >>> tenuous loyalty workers have to their employers while failing to address >>> core problems of managerial competency that will only get worse as
decent employees flee these dimwitted demands.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the US & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/17z10f7/writing_wrongthink_witnessing_the_medias_covid/
Witnessing the Media’s Covid Coverage from the Inside
BY Gabrielle BauerGABRIELLE BAUER NOVEMBER 17, 2023 MEDIA, SOCIETY
7 MINUTE READ
SHARE | PRINT | EMAIL
In the movie An Education, the main character gets sidetracked from her
studies by a smooth-talking art dealer who turns out to be a
criminal—and married. Our protagonist learns more from that experience
than from all the medieval literature books she cracked open before. I
have similar feelings about my own education. While I’ve been earning my >>> living as a writer for the past 29 years, it’s only during the Covid era >>> that I learned what the writing business is really about.
I wear two hats in my professional life: medical writer, creating
materials for doctors and the healthcare industry, and feature-article
journalist for consumer magazines. It wasn’t until Covid that I began
pitching essays and op-eds for publication.
I started with a piece called “A Tale of Two Pandemic Cities,” which
grew out of my short trip to Amsterdam and Stockholm in the summer of
2020, when the European Union opened its doors to “well-behaved”
countries like Canada. The Covid hysteria in my country had made me
desperate to visit more balanced parts of the world, and my trip didn’t
disappoint. The article found a home at a Canadian outlet called Healthy >>> Debate, though the editor asked me to temper my enthusiasm for the
Swedish strategy with an acknowledgement of its risks. Happy to find a
legit publisher for my first Covid piece, I capitulated, sort of. (You
can judge for yourself.)
Thus began a feverish outpouring of essays, each one motivated by the
same bewildered questions: What the hell is happening to the world, and
why? Has everyone else gone mad, or is it me? I had written a few
controversial articles throughout my career, but never before had I held >>> a “dissenting view” about an issue that affected the whole world—or felt >>> such an urgent need to express it.
The Great Divide
I quickly learned that certain news outlets were less open to my pieces
than others. Salon, fuggedaboutit. Spiked Online, bull’s eye on the
first try. Washington Post, not a chance. Wall Street Journal, a couple
of “close, but no cigar” efforts and then finally a yes. It boiled down
to this: the further left a publication leaned, the less likely it would >>> publish my pieces (or even respond to my inquiries). I’m sure a
statistician could write an equation to capture the trend.
So why the radio silence from left-wing publications? I doubted I was
tripping their “Covid disinformation” radars, as my pieces had less to
do with scientific facts than with social philosophy: the balance
between safety and freedom, the perils of top-down collectivism, the
abuse of the precautionary principle, that sort of thing. If
right-leaning outlets wanted my words and left-leaning ones did not, my
Occam’s razor landed on ideology as the explanatory factor. So-called
progressive media had a story to uphold and rejected any plot twist that >>> threatened the cohesion of its narrative. (Not that right-wing media
behaved much differently. Such is the age of advocacy journalism.)
Most nerve-wracking of all were the publishers who accepted my articles
but, like that first Healthy Debate editor, insisted I make substantive
changes. Should I concede or push back? I did a bit of both. The most
important thing, I told myself, was to make people reflect on the
topsy-turvy policies that had freeze-framed the world. If I had to
soften a few sentences to get the word out, so be it. I have the utmost
respect for writers who refuse to yield on such matters, but 29 years of >>> paying the bills from my writing have tipped my internal compass toward
pragmatism.
I did stand my ground with an article on the mask wars. My thesis was
that the endless and pointless disputes on social media—masks work, no
they don’t, yes they do, no they don’t—had less to do with science than
with worldview: irrespective of the data, social collectivists would
find a way to defend masks, while my freedom-first compatriots would
never countenance a perma-masked world.
One editor agreed to publish the piece if I mentioned that some studies
favor masking, but I argued that quoting studies would undercut my
central argument: that the forces powering the mask wars have little to
do with how well they block viruses. He wouldn’t budge, so we parted
ways and I found a more congenial home for the piece at the Ottawa Citizen. >>>
Hidden Treasures
The process of pitching counternarrative essays, while arduous at times, >>> led me to a smorgasbord of lesser-known, high-quality publications I
never would have discovered otherwise. Topping the list was the glorious >>> UnHerd, a UK news and opinion website with such daring thinkers as Mary
Harrington and Kathleen Stock on its roster of contributors. The
US-based Tablet magazine offered consistently fresh takes on Covid and
never took the easy road in its analyses. In its pages I found one of
the most powerful Covid essays I have ever read. The author, Ann Bauer
(no relation), teased out the common threads between the “settled
science” about the virus and the litany of quack theories about autism,
which fed into her son’s death by suicide.
Then there was Quillette, whose contempt for the sacred cows of wokeism
gave me a special thrill. True confession: I blew my chances with
Quillette and it’s my own damned fault. Like many working writers, I
sometimes pitch a piece to more than one outlet at the same time, a
practice known as simultaneous submissions. This goes against
protocol—we’re supposed to wait until an editor declines our pitch
before approaching the next one—but the reality is that many editors
never respond. With the deck thus stacked against us, we writers
sometimes push the envelope, figuring the odds of getting multiple
acceptances (and thus pissing off editors) are low enough to take the risk. >>>
On this particular occasion, I submitted an article called “Lessons from >>> my Half-Vaxxed Daughter” to three publications. Medpage Today responded
right away, and I accepted their offer to publish it. (This was while
Marty Makary, the dissident-lite physician who called out people’s
distorted perception of Covid risk in mainstream media, led the
editorial team.) A few hours later, Quillette’s Canadian editor sent me
a slightly reworked version of my piece and told me when he planned to
run it. I had no choice but to proffer a red-faced apology and admit I
had already placed the article elsewhere. He never responded to my email >>> or to a follow-up mea culpa a few weeks later—and has ignored everything >>> I’ve submitted since then. I guess I’ll have to wait until he retires.
Podcast Polarities
Earlier this year, Brownstone Institute published my book Blindsight Is
2020, which critiques the pandemic response through the lens of 46
dissident thinkers. By all standards a moderate book, it stays clear of
any “conspiratorial” speculations about the origins of the pandemic or
the political response to it. Instead, it focuses on the philosophical
and ethical issues that kept me awake at night during the peak Covid
years—the same themes I explore in my essays, but in greater depth. I
wrote the book not just for “my team,” but for those who vehemently
opposed my views—perhaps especially for them. I didn’t expect to change
their minds as much as to help them understand why some of us objected
so strenuously to the policies they cheered on.
After the book came out, a few podcasters invited me to their shows. I
appeared on a Libertarian Institute podcast in which the host puffed on
his hand-rolled cigarettes while we talked. I spoke to an amiable ex-con >>> podcaster who made it his mission to share Ayn Rand’s ideas with the
world. I bonded with Rupa Subramanya—a brilliant Canadian conservative
journalist and podcaster featured in my book—over the Freedom Convoy we
had both supported.
All told I’ve appeared on 22 podcasts to date, each of them hosted by a
right-leaning or libertarian host. Crickets from the left. Not one to
accept defeat, I’ve begun reaching out to left-leaning podcasters on my
own. Perhaps one day I’ll hear back from them.
Covid media, like so much else in modern life, has become hopelessly
fractured: the tall, left-facing trees dominate the landscape, telling
the story of a deadly virus that we “did the best we could” to manage.
Below the tree canopy lies the tangle of weeds that sway in the wind,
whispering songs of freedom and warning against the totalitarian
impulses that all too readily emerge during crises. While I’ll continue
to throw my essays at those unyielding trees, the messy underbrush is
where I’ve found my journalistic home.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the US & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/17zpsvy/bamboozled_boris_johnson_struggled_to_understand/
‘Bamboozled’ Boris Johnson struggled to understand COVID-19 stats, UK
inquiry hears
The former PM had a tough time getting his head around the science,
according to Patrick Vallance’s diary extracts
TOPSHOT-BRITAIN-HEALTH-VIRUS-POLITICS
Pool photo by Ian Vogler/AFP via Getty Images
BY ANDREW MCDONALD
NOVEMBER 20, 2023 2:24 PM CET
3 MINUTES READ
Share on Facebook
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PRESS PLAY TO LISTEN TO THIS ARTICLE
Voiced by artificial intelligence.
LONDON — Scientists faced a “real struggle” in trying to get Boris
Johnson to understand key terms and statistics relating to coronavirus,
Britain’s COVID-19 pandemic inquiry has been told.
Extracts from the contemporary diary of Patrick Vallance — the
government’s chief scientific adviser during the pandemic — claim that
on several occasions Johnson, then the prime minister, was confused and
“bamboozled” when engaged in conversations about the virus.
“Watching PM get his head around stats is awful,” one extract from
Vallance’s diary, dated June 11 2020 and read out at the inquiry Monday, >>> reads. “He finds relative and absolute risk almost impossible to
understand.”
Johnson was “taken through the graphs but it was a real struggle to get
him to understand them,” another entry from February 2021 reads.
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By Karl Mathiesen
A third, from May 2020, said Johnson was “clearly bamboozled” by what
Vallance described as a “complicated” meeting on the risks and science
behind the question of reopening schools.
In another entry from September 2020, Johnson is said to be surprised to >>> see a chart illustrating “all the same stuff he was shown 6h[ours] ago.” >>>
Giving evidence to the inquiry in person Monday, Vallance said his
former boss would be “the first to admit” that scientific concepts are
not his forte. Vallance said fellow scientific advisers in Europe had
often complained to him of a lack of scientific understanding among
their own leaders.
“But it was hard work sometimes to try and make sure that he had
understood what a particular graph or piece of data was saying,” the top >>> scientist continued.
“I would usually be persuaded that we had got him to understand what it
was we were trying to say. But as one of the extracts showed, six hours
later he might not have remembered what was in that presentation — so I
can’t be sure that he kept in his mind all the time,” he added.
Johnson will appear before the inquiry to give evidence in the next two
weeks.
Earlier Monday, Vallance argued that the government failed to act
quickly enough to deal with the pandemic in its initial phases. Asked
about the early stages of the pandemic as cases began to rise in the
U.K, Vallance said researchers had realized an estimated 75 percent
reduction in contacts between individuals would be required to prevent
the National Health Service becoming overwhelmed.
“I am not convinced that there was a very effective operational response >>> to that,” he added.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/180encw/people_who_stuck_by_uk_covid_rules_have_worst/
People who stuck by UK Covid rules have worst mental health, says survey >>> Trauma of pandemic having lasting impact on people’s mental health three >>> years on, research reveals
Denis Campbell Health policy editor
Tue 21 Nov 2023 03.50 EST
People who stuck by Covid lockdown rules the most strictly have the
worst mental health today, research has found.
Those who followed the restrictions most closely when the pandemic hit
are the most likely to be suffering from stress, anxiety and depression, >>> academics at Bangor University have found.
They identified that people with “communal” personalities – who are more >>> caring, sensitive and aware of others’ needs – adhered the most
rigorously with the lockdown protocols that Boris Johnson and senior
medics and scientists recommended.
However, people with “agentic” personalities – who are more independent, >>> more competitive and like to have control over their lives – were least
likely to exhibit those behaviours.
“The more individuals complied with health advice during lockdown, the
worse their wellbeing post-lockdown,” concluded Dr Marley Willegers and
colleagues.
The fear of catching Covid proved both an upside and a downside, they
found. “While increasing individuals’ worry of infection can effectively >>> drive compliance, it also has negative consequences on people’s
wellbeing and recovery,” they said.
The researchers based their findings on a study of how compliant with
the rules 1,729 people in Wales were during the first UK-wide lockdown
in March to September 2020 and measures of stress, anxiety and
depression found among them during February to May this year.
“Communal” types displayed the highest levels of continuing disturbance
to their mental wellbeing. However, “agentic” people had been able to
“bounce back” better from lockdown mode.
Willegers, an academic at Bangor University’s institute for the
psychology of elite performance, said some people found it hard to make
the transition from receiving regular exhortations about following
public health advice during the pandemic to no advice when lockdown ended. >>>
“Throughout the pandemic messaging campaigns were designed to ensure
people continued to follow the rules. But there was no messaging
campaign as we came out of the pandemic to help everyone safely
transition back to normality.
“Without this, certain personality types have retained infection
prevention behaviour and anxiety that undermines their mental
wellbeing,” he added.
The enduringly poor mental health being experienced by people who
adhered to the rules is “deeply disturbing”, the Centre for Mental
Health thinktank said.
“The finding that people who complied with pandemic restrictions are
more likely to have poorer mental health three years on is deeply
disturbing.
“The fear, loss and trauma created by the pandemic are having a lasting
impact on many people’s mental health. For some, this may have been
exacerbated by the loss of social solidarity from seeing others not
complying with the same restrictions,” said Andy Bell, its chief executive. >>>
Experts say the widespread damage Covid did to mental health in Britain
is the main reason demand for NHS psychological and psychiatric services >>> has soared in recent years.
Mark Winstanley, the chief executive of the charity Rethink Mental
Illness, said: “The early days of the pandemic were characterised by
significant disruption, uncertainty and a lack of control, factors which >>> can all fuel anxiety and low mood.
“It’s important to recognise that those who took the greatest steps to
protect themselves and others have seen an enduring impact on their
mental health.
“While many want to move on from the pandemic and life under lockdown,
its legacy lives with many people to this day, as worries or concerns
about our loved ones or the risks to our own health can’t be easily
shaken off.”
Future government health advertising campaigns designed to change
people’s behaviour should factor in the different personality types in
the population, Willegers added.
“Campaigns need to highlight the personal costs and benefits involved,
not just people’s responsibility to others,” he said.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/184bu37/former_uk_health_secretary_matt_hancocks_early/
Former UK health secretary Matt Hancock’s early Covid warnings were
ignored by No?10, say allies
Ex-cabinet minister set to hit back at inquiry after being made a
scapegoat for government failings
Toby Helm Political editor
Sat 25 Nov 2023 13.00 EST
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare via Email
Matt Hancock and his officials bombarded Downing Street with early
warnings about Covid-19 but were treated with ridicule and contempt,
according to senior Whitehall figures, who believe that the former
health secretary is unfairly being made a scapegoat by civil servants
and scientists during the official inquiry into the pandemic.
Attempts by the Department of Health, in mid to late January 2020, to
raise the alarm were dismissed out of hand by senior staff working for
the then prime minister, Boris Johnson, because they believed Hancock
was mainly seeking publicity and exaggerating the dangers, the insiders say.
One with detailed knowledge of events at the time told the Observer:
“The DoH was pushing really hard and the Cabinet Office and Downing
Street were saying ‘Look, we’ve just had an election and we have got to
get Brexit done: could you and your pandemic just fuck off and stop
irritating us.’ They totally trivialised it and did not want to engage.” >>>
On Thursday and Friday, Hancock will appear before the Covid inquiry and >>> is expected to mount a concerted effort to defend his reputation, after
weeks in which he has come under attack for being dishonest, incompetent >>> and more interested in self-promotion than tackling the spread of the
coronavirus.
Allies of the former health secretary – while accepting that his
behaviour was often irritating and that he at times seemed overconfident >>> – hope he will use the occasion to challenge what they believe has been
a semi-orchestrated attempt by others to deflect blame away from
themselves, and conceal their initial slowness to react.
Referring to several officials – including Johnson’s closest adviser
Dominic Cummings, the former Cabinet secretary Mark Sedwill, and the
permanent secretary at No?10 Simon Case – the source said that “those
around Johnson” knew they were late to see the Covid danger. They
realised that because many people found Hancock to be annoying, they
could usefully make him a fall guy: “Matt was irritating, yes, but the
idea that he was not trusted or was thought of as dishonest at the time, >>> that was just not true.”
Sedwill has already admitted to the inquiry that he received a request
on around 21 January 2020 from Hancock’s DoH for a meeting of the
emergency Cobra committee to discuss the spread of Covid and its threat
to the UK.
“I felt that a Cobra which might have been convened primarily for
communications purposes wasn’t wise,” Sedwill said, making clear he
believed Hancock was raising concerns in order to get himself into the
media. “Two days later I was advised there was a genuine
cross-government basis for it and I agreed,” Sedwill said.
WhatsApp messages from Sedwill also reveal that he told Johnson to sack
the “lying” health secretary in order to “save lives and protect the
NHS”. Sedwill later claimed this was a joke in a Whatsapp to Case.
Criticism of Hancock has also come from the most senior scientists. Sir
Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific officer, told the
inquiry last week that Hancock repeatedly got ahead of himself and said
things for which there was no evidence.
“I think he had a habit of saying things which he didn’t have a basis
for and he would say them too enthusiastically too early, without the
evidence to back them up, and then have to backtrack from them days
later,” Vallance said. “I don’t know to what extent that was sort of
over-enthusiasm versus deliberate – I think a lot of it was
over-enthusiasm.”
Earlier, Helen MacNamara, another senior civil servant in Downing
Street, had told the inquiry that Hancock was “regularly” telling people >>> things that they later discovered were not true and that No?10 had a
“lack of confidence” that what he was saying “was actually happening”.
Rishi Sunak, then chancellor, visits Scotlandwith his eat out to help
out scheme in 2020, now heavily criticised.
Rishi Sunak, then chancellor, visits Scotland with his eat out to help
out scheme in 2020, now heavily criticised. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/PA >>> Hancock is bound to come under most pressure over his repeated claims in >>> May 2020 to have put a “protective ring” around care homes, by which he
meant that when patients left hospitals to go into homes they were
Covid-free.
In the first wave of the pandemic there were, however, almost 27,000
excess deaths in care homes in England and Wales compared with the
2015–19 average. The virus penetrated homes so widely that 13 homes in
England saw two dozen or more Covid deaths each in just 11 weeks at the
start of the pandemic.
The former health secretary is also bound to be asked about his
reservations at the time about Rishi Sunak’s decision to introduce the
“eat out to help out” scheme.
The initiative, which is said to have been known at the time within the
DoH as the “eat out to spread the virus” scheme, was announced without
any consultation with scientists or Hancock. Hancock found out that it
was happening only when he read the press release on the day it was
announced.
Giving evidence last week, Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, England’s former
deputy chief medical officer during the pandemic, also said he was not
consulted over the “eat out to help out” scheme.
“The first I heard about it was on TV,” Van-Tam said, adding that had he >>> been consulted he would have said it went against everything that the
government and scientists had been trying to achieve over the previous
months. “So it didn’t feel sensible to me.”
Both Sunak and Johnson are scheduled to appear before the inquiry next week.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/18581ua/uk_covid_response_was_londoncentric_andy_burnham/
UK Covid response was London-centric, Andy Burnham tells inquiry
Greater Manchester mayor says Boris Johnson seemed unaware his region
had been under tougher rules
Peter Walker Deputy political editor
@peterwalker99
Mon 27 Nov 2023 11.27 EST
Boris Johnson appeared to have no idea that Greater Manchester had spent >>> months under tougher Covid restrictions than London, Andy Burnham has
said, arguing that this exemplified an over-centralised approach to the
pandemic.
Giving evidence to the inquiry into Covid, Burnham, the mayor of Greater >>> Manchester, said he felt his region was given a “punishment beating”
with less financial support after pushing back against regional
restrictions.
He also told the hearing that Matt Hancock, the health secretary at the
time, decided to impose severe tier 3 restrictions on Greater Manchester >>> in October 2020 despite believing the measures would be ineffective.
Recounting a phone call with Johnson at this time, Burnham said: “He was >>> saying ‘we just need you to agree to these tier 3 restrictions and the
package of support’ and I said ‘well, we can’t – it’s not enough. You
know, we’ve been under restrictions for a long time.’ He said: ‘What do
you mean?’ I said: ‘We’ve been under restriction since July. You do know >>> about that, don’t you?’
“It did seem that he didn’t know about that. He wasn’t aware that we’ve
been struggling all of that time.”
Burnham said there was a wider “London-centricity in decision making”
that meant lockdown restrictions were lifted in May 2020 when the north
of England was still near the peak of the first virus wave, a few weeks
behind the south.
“I think because of that, Greater Manchester was left stuck with a high
case rate for the rest of 2020,” he said.
Burnham said he repeatedly sought to attend meetings of the government’s >>> Cobra emergency committee, and there was a lack of any forum for mayors
such as him to keep ministers in Westminster updated about what their
regions faced.
“That, I think, led to a situation where there just wasn’t an
understanding of what some of the things the government was doing, what
impact they were having on people’s lives,” he said.
Burnham’s decision in autumn 2020 to speak out loudly against what he
saw as a lack of proper financial support for the tier 3 designation
meant Greater Manchester faced a “punishment beating”, he told the inquiry. >>>
Minutes from a meeting of a key central government committee on Covid
planning said neighbouring Lancashire “should have a lighter set of
measures imposed than Greater Manchester since they had shown a greater
willingness to cooperate”, Burnham said.
He said: “Because we stood up for people in our city region who would
otherwise have really struggled had they gone into that lockdown without >>> the funds to help them, because we took that stand, they decided to make >>> an example of us.”
He quoted from a written statement submitted by Hancock to the inquiry:
“He says in his evidence about tier 3: ‘I was in despair that we had
announced a policy that we knew would not work.’”
Burnham said: “It makes me angry on behalf of the people of Greater
Manchester that they … imposed a policy that they had been advised by
Sage [the government’s scientific advice committee] and others would not >>> work.”
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/186e7b0/young_people_dying_of_cancer_at_explosive_rates/
This article was originally published by The Defender — Children’s
Health Defense’s News & Views Website.
Teenagers and young people in their 20s, 30s and 40s in the U.K. are
dying from rapidly metastasizing and terminal cancers at an
unprecedented rate since mass COVID-19 vaccination began, according to a >>> new analysis by Edward Dowd.
The 45-page report by Dowd, a former Wall Street hedge fund manager and
author of “‘Cause Unknown’: The Epidemic of Sudden Deaths in 2021 and
2022,” alarmed some oncologists who characterized it as a sharp reversal >>> of decades of mortality data.
Dowd based his analysis on readily available government statistics from
the U.K.’s Office for National Statistics.
In an interview with The Defender, Dowd said he and his research
partners, who include a handful of high-level scientists, data analysts
and financial experts, examined all International Classification of
Diseases, 10th Revision, (ICD-10) codes for cause of death in the U.K.
in the study period of 2010-2022 to investigate trends in malignant
neoplasms (C00 to C99 codes).
ICD-10 codes are the international physicians’ classification of
diagnosis, symptom and procedure for claim processing set by the World
Health Organization (WHO). A malignant neoplasm is a cancerous tumor.
Dowd said his research team noticed a striking pattern: While almost all >>> deaths among older people in 2021 and 2022 in Wales and England had been >>> coded, 8% of deaths among 15- to 44-year-olds in 2021, and 30% of deaths >>> in that age group in 2022, hadn’t yet been coded.
“When you die in a hospital, you leave a trail of life and death with
indications of what led to the death,” he said. “When a young person
dies at the wheel of a car, walking down the street or in their sleep,
there’s an investigation” that consumes time to assign the cause of death. >>>
Dowd said the missing codes are “indicative of the problem” of excess
deaths among young people.
But even with the caveat of missing codes, he said, the remaining 92% of >>> coded deaths in 2021 and 70% of coded deaths in 2022 revealed “a strong
signal of cancer deaths in the young. We show a large increase in
mortality due to malignant neoplasms that started in 2021 and
accelerated substantially in 2022.
“The increase in excess deaths in 2022 is highly statistically
significant (extreme event),” Dowd wrote in his report. “The results
indicate that from late 2021 a novel phenomenon leading to increased
malignant neoplasm deaths appears to be present in individuals aged 15
to 44 in the UK.”
The study’s results in the rate of cancer deaths above the historic norm >>> in 2022 for ages 15-44 in the U.K. included:
A 28% rise in fatal breast cancer rates in women.
An 80% increase in pancreatic cancer deaths among women and a 60%
increase among men.
A 55% increase among men in colon cancer deaths and a 41% increase in women.
A 120% increase in fatal melanomas among men and a 35% increase in women. >>> A 35% increase in brain cancer deaths among men and a 12% rise in women. >>> A 60% increase in cancer death rates among men in cancers “without site
specification” and a 55% increase among women.
‘Mounting clinical evidence’ led to study
Dowd produced his report, assembled by Carlos Alegria, one of Dowd’s
partners, in his Humanity Projects study of excess deaths in the U.K.
and the U.S. using government and insurance industry data.
He said he started his pro bono data-driven project to help guide public >>> policy when he saw how COVID-19 pandemic policies were destroying
society’s faith in institutional experts.
Surveying the capture of national and state government regulatory
agencies and corporate media by Big Pharma and other global interests,
he realized, “We need independent agents to act as gatekeepers of the
public interest.”
“We intend to be such agents, and to provide high-quality research to
other individuals and institutions who seek similar outcomes,” he wrote. >>>
The new report is his third in the UK Cause of Death Project, which
previously examined “UK – Death and Disability Trends for Cardiovascular >>> Diseases, Ages 15-44,” and “UK – Death Trends for the Cardiovascular
System, Ages 15-44, Analysis of Individual Causes.”
The mounting clinical evidence linking burgeoning cancers in young
people to the COVID-19 vaccines led Dowd to his latest study, he said.
“We focus our research on younger individuals, aged 15-44, as presently
it is a topic of particular interest due to the rise in anecdotal
evidence of many unexplained aggressive and unusual cancers (such as
turbo cancers … ) occurring in the population, particularly in younger
individuals,” he wrote in the study.
“The focus of this study is not to examine individual claims and
anecdotes, but instead to provide a statistical analysis at a population >>> level and clarify if the anecdotal evidence is abnormal or not.”
Dowd said he hopes “the relationships that we uncover in our analysis”
are “a basis for a reality check for health professionals to understand
underlying trends in individuals’ health.”
Dowd’s method was to analyze the number of deaths attributed to cancer
in England and Wales between 2010 and 2022 in the U.K. Office for
National Statistics data.
He compared excess death rates, the difference between observed deaths
and the baseline for expected deaths, before and after the COVID-19
pandemic.
He established a baseline of normal cancer death rates from 2010-2020
that was remarkably consistent with few deviations, he said — until the
cancer death rates rose significantly in late 2021 in the U.K. following >>> the vaccine rollout.
Key findings from the report include:
Breast cancer dominates in women. The most common cause of fatal cancer
in women, ages 15-44, is breast cancer, representing about 25% of the
total excess death rate caused by malignant tumors in women in 2022. The >>> next most dangerous cancers for women, based on excess death rates, were >>> colon cancer and cancer of the cervix uteri.
While fatal cancer deaths rose dramatically among both young men and
young women in 2022, young men saw a disproportionately higher rise in
cancer deaths, but with no dominant cancer comparable to breast cancer
in women. Brain cancer, colon cancer and stomach cancer accounted for
30.9% of the rise in fatal cancers in men in 2022.
Cancers “without specification of site,” indicating rapid metastasis to
other organs and commonly called “turbo cancers,” “exploded” in 2022,
Dowd said. “These cancers saw very large rise in both women (in 2021 and >>> 2022) and men (in 2022) and were likely metastasized already once they
were identified. As the individuals refer to younger individuals who do
not require early screening, these cancers were likely of rapid growth.” >>> Men experienced a huge rise in skin cancer death rates of 118% in 2022.
“Even though these cancers do not account for a large proportion of all
cancers,” Dowd said.
Cancers of the digestive tract “saw explosive changes in 2021 and 2022
relative to the 2010-2019 trend,” Dowd wrote. “Of particular notice are
cancers of the colon (internationally coded as C18), stomach (C16) and
esophagus (C15). “These cancers related to the digestive tract appear to >>> have risen substantially in importance, and we also notice that they
seem to be affecting men in a disproportionate manner.”
Pancreatic cancer “saw a very large rise in both women (in 2022) and men >>> (in both 2021 and 2022). Why these cancers rose so dramatically and why
they rose first in men then women is one of the questions that we
believe warrants investigation.”
Dowd emphasized that his research was “a first attempt to bring out some >>> patterns that are observed in trends” in cancer post-2020.
“We hope that medical doctors and specialized researchers perform
further investigations based upon these (and other) insights that our
data analysis provides,” he wrote.
Link between COVID shots and rise in cancers ‘worth looking at’
Dr. Chris Flowers, an academic physician, radiologist and breast cancer
specialist in England who came out of retirement to be the volunteer
scientific lead of the War Room/DailyClout Pfizer Documents Analysis
Project, told The Defender the U.K. data were “very, very, concerning.”
Flowers said Dowd’s research confirmed similar data on sharp cancer
death increases reported by researchers, clinicians and cancer
specialists in the U.S., U.K. and across the Western industrialized
world since the global rollout of the experimental Pfizer and Moderna
mRNA vaccine. An estimated more than 5.55 billion people, or about 72.3% >>> of the global population, received the shots.
Flowers said he and his colleagues, including pathologists,
radiologists, oncologists, internists, critical care doctors and
researchers in the U.S. and U.K., have never seen anything like the
severity of fatal breast cancers and other cancers in the young that
exploded in 2022.
Dowd’s report confirms what Flowers and his colleagues have noticed for
more than a year: “We’re seeing 2 or 3 times the normal rate of cancer.” >>>
“We’re seeing younger people, we’re talking 20- and 30-year-old women,
usually after they started menstruating and some form of growth promoter >>> is going on normally, presenting with advanced tumors which are
difficult to treat, but also they may have more than one tumor,” Flowers >>> said. “Something that was rare is now relatively common.”
Perhaps most distressing, Flowers said, is the rise in the young of what >>> some oncologists now call “turbo cancers,” a new term.
“Turbo cancer is a popular name that’s been coined to describe several
things,” Flowers said. “It is cancers in young people just turning up,
one day you’re absolutely fine, the next day you’re told you have
terminal cancer and you’re dead in a week. There are many reports of
that even in the mainstream media.”
“Tumors are not only faster growing but you’re getting more types of
cancer occurring in the same person. It used to be very very rare. Just
occasionally I’d see a very, very aggressive inflammatory cancer in
young people. But now everyone has stories.”
Dr. Pierre Kory, a pulmonologist and critical care doctor who is
president and medical director of the Frontline COVID-19 Critical Care
Alliance (FLCCC) and treats hundreds of vaccine-injured patients in his
practice, said he is “being deluged with reports and consults for help”
about cancer increases from colleagues and patients.
David Wiseman, Ph.D., a pharmacist with a doctorate in experimental
pathology and a pioneer, originally for Johnson & Johnson, of products
to prevent post-surgery internal injuries, said he was alternatively
astonished and outraged that governments and mainstream media won’t
follow up on research he and Kevin McKernan, a former director of
research and development at the MIT Human Genome Project, conducted
showing the mRNA shots were contaminated with DNA fragments.
The UK Astra-Zeneca COVID-19 vaccine was **not** a "mRNA shot."
These fragments, Wiseman said, add to the potential damage the vaccines
could cause to the human genome and open new doors to an infinite
variety of problems, including cancer.
The common denominator for all the COVID-19 vaccines is **not** mRNA
but rather the spike protein, which can cause cancer when in large
uncontrolled doses as happens during infection, because it suppresses
the immune system. Better a small controlled dose of spike protein
from a vaccine than a large uncontrolled dose of spike protein from an
actual COVID-19 infection.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:I am wonderfully hungry!
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/189saqp/families_of_covid_victims_to_confront_johnson_at/
Families of Covid victims to confront Johnson at inquiry over ‘Let the
bodies pile high’ comment
Attending the inquiry midweek with photos of relatives, Covid-19
Bereaved Families for Justice will unveil a powerful billboard
Toby Helm and James Tapper
Sun 3 Dec 2023 03.00 EST
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare via Email
Families bereaved during the Covid-19 pandemic will this week confront
Boris Johnson over claims that he told colleagues he would prefer to see >>> people die in large numbers than order a second lockdown that would harm >>> the economy.
Many relatives who lost loves ones will descend on the Covid inquiry en
masse on Wednesday and Thursday, when Johnson will give two days of
evidence in what promises to be the most emotionally charged and
explosive sessions of the official investigation so far.
The families are planning to greet Johnson on his arrival with
photographs of those who died.
They will also unveil a billboard poster by the campaign group 38
Degrees with the comment “Let the bodies pile high”, which former
advisers, including Dominic Cummings, claim Johnson made at a key
meeting in Downing Street in late 2020.
The inquiry has already heard that the government’s former chief
scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, noted in his diary on 25
October 2020: “PM meeting – begins to argue for letting it all rip.
Saying yes, there will be more casualties, but so be it – ‘they have had >>> a good innings’.”
The same entry also quoted Johnson as saying: “Most people who die have
reached their time anyway.”
Another former adviser to Johnson, Lord Udny-Lister, has also told the
inquiry that he too heard the comments about letting the bodies pile high. >>>
Johnson has strongly denied having used such words. Cummings, however,
says he heard his boss make the remarks after also declaring “No more
fucking lockdowns” in November 2020, following a meeting in which
Johnson had felt he had been corralled into agreeing to four weeks of
restrictions against his instincts.
At the time a source corroborated the Cummings account to the Guardian
and hinted that the comments had been heard by a small number of people
outside Johnson’s office.
The relatives are this weekend still waiting to hear from the inquiry
about arrangements for putting questions to the former prime minister.
Nicola Brook, solicitor at Broudie Jackson Canter, who represents the
7,000 members of the Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group, said: >>> “Our clients want us to focus on three core questions, namely: in the
face of a wealth of scientific advice, why was there so much indecision, >>> delay and dithering, which undoubtedly led to more deaths? Did Mr
Johnson view older people as expendable? And does he share Matt
Hancock’s view that the first lockdown happened way too late?”
One of those who will be attending on Wednesday is Naomi Fulop, who lost >>> her mother during the second wave of Covid, a few days before one of the >>> infamous lockdown-busting parties held in Downing Street during
Johnson’s premiership.
“I want him to directly answer questions about the mistakes that he
made, first of all leading up to the first lockdown,” she told the
Observer. “It’s clear from the evidence we’ve already heard from senior
scientists that the lockdown was called late.
“But even more unforgivably, following that first wave [what is his
explanation for] not learning the lessons in advance of winter 2020 to
2021, and making a number of unforced huge mistakes in ignoring
scientific advice about the two-week circuit breaker in September and
having policies like ‘eat out to help out’.
Rishi Sunak, in a face mask, putting an “Eat Out To Help Out” sticker in >>> a window next to a small pamphlet with the same words
The then chancellor Rishi Sunak visiting Rothesay on the Isle of Bute,
Scotland, in August 2020. Photograph: Jeff J Mitchell/PA
“So, mistake on mistake, ignoring scientists’ advice, leading to the
second wave in 2020 to 2021, which was even worse than the first wave.
That’s when my mother died.”
Fulop said Johnson had to explain “the terrible things” he is supposed
to have said. He has to account for those decisions and how he made
them. Did his views on ‘Let the bodies pile high’ and ‘They’ve had a
good innings’ influence those decisions?
“He seems to be revealing what he thinks – how did that influence his
decision-making?”
Johnson has had many months to prepare for his appearance, along with a
team of lawyers paid for by the Cabinet Office, as is the case with the
legal expenses of all “core participants”.
He is expected to apologise for decisions that he and the government got >>> wrong but make clear that in his view he got many of the major judgments >>> right, including that about the vaccine.
Covid inquiry: 10 questions facing Boris Johnson
It is also understood that Johnson will try to frame his evidence in a
way that avoids criticism of individuals including Cummings, who has
likened Johnson to an out-of-control shopping trolley.
Johnson wants his evidence to come across as constructive and helpful in >>> assisting the inquiry in reaching conclusions on how the government can
react better to another pandemic.
Johnson is likely to be asked what he knew in advance about the
controversial “eat out to help out” policy introduced by his successor
but one, Rishi Sunak, in August 2020, when Sunak was chancellor.
The scheme, which offered discounts for people going out to dine in
restaurants, was regarded as high-risk by scientists who feared it would >>> cause a spike in infections at a time when the government was still
battling to control the virus.
Several scientists and even former health secretary Matt Hancock have
said they were not consulted in advance about the scheme.
Sunak will appear at the inquiry next week.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/18b64iu/covid_whistleblower_says_boss_tried_to_break_her/
Humiliated Covid whistleblower says boss tried to 'break' her
By Michael Buchanan & Katie Langton
BBC File on 4
5 December 2023
Rosalind Ranson standing on the waterfront
Image caption,
Dr Rosalind Ranson
A senior doctor who won a record £3.2m payout says her boss tried to
"break" her after she raised concerns about how Covid was being handled. >>>
Rosalind Ranson, medical director on the Isle of Man during the
pandemic, experienced months of humiliation, an employment tribunal found. >>>
BBC News has discovered her former boss Kathryn Magson, who was
criticised by judges, now works in the NHS.
Miss Magson strongly disputes the tribunal findings.
ADVERTISEMENT
Dr Ranson has given BBC News her first interview since the hearing.
Short presentational grey line
Moving from London to the Isle of Man in January 2020 for what she
called the job of her dreams as medical director was an exciting time
for Dr Rosalind Ranson.
But she could not have imagined the situation she would find herself in
- after being plunged almost immediately into dealing with the threat of >>> Covid.
As a tribunal would conclude, she was treated in a way that was
"demeaning" and "unjustifiable", including eventually being moved from
her office and given a room with a broken chair. It all started with a
crucial email she sent in March 2020.
'Wave of a tsunami'
Dr Ranson and her clinical colleagues had met earlier that month and
decided that the borders of the Isle of Man - with a population of
85,000 and one main hospital - needed to be closed.
"I was saying… it's a wave of a tsunami, we can see this coming," she
now tells the BBC.
"We were going to have insufficient beds, insufficient ventilators. We
were going to rapidly overwhelm our health system."
She prepared a presentation for the Manx government, advising urgent
action was needed.
Some days later, on 24 March 2020, when she got home after working late
she saw a clip of the Isle of Man's chief minister answering a
journalist's question on why the borders had not been closed.
"We take advice from our medical experts," she heard him say, and "we
are waiting for that advice".
"I was thinking, either the chief minister's misleading the public," Dr
Ranson tells the BBC's File on 4, "or they didn't get the presentation." >>>
She decided to compose an email to her boss, the chief executive of the
Isle of Man's Department of Health.
"At 01:46 that morning, I wrote to Miss Magson. I said, 'Can you tell me >>> did you pass on all of this, these presentations, this information?'
"And she never responded to that email."
A copy of an email sent from Rosalind Ranson to Kathryn Magson: 'Please
can you confirm the documents referred to below and the information they >>> contained was conveyed to the Minister and COG/COMIN"
She believes the decision not to pass on the presentation led to
"avoidable deaths" from coronavirus, as action was not taken soon enough >>> - a view echoed by the British Medical Association (BMA).
When Dr Ranson advised borders needed to be shut, there was no Covid on
the island. But by the time she sent her email to Miss Magson, 23 cases
had been confirmed. The borders were eventually closed on 27 March.
As the employment tribunal heard, it was the start of what judges
described as a "period of torrid humiliation" that Dr Ranson experienced. >>>
BBC Sounds
Whistling in the Wind: The NHS doctors sacked after raising concerns
How NHS whistleblowers are punished for raising concerns about bad
practice and bad practitioners in the NHS.
Listen to the story in full on File on 4, at 20:00 GMT on Tuesday 5
December on BBC Radio 4, and on BBC Sounds.
And you can also listen to an interview with Dr Rosalind Ranson in 5
Minutes On.
BBC Sounds
The panel was especially scathing of Miss Magson, who joined the
island's Department of Health about the same time as Dr Ranson moved there. >>>
Dr Ranson has told the BBC that Miss Magson - described by judges at the >>> tribunal as "spiteful", "self-serving", and showing a "callous lack of
care" - "should be held to account for her actions".
Throughout 2020, as Dr Ranson continued to try to steer the Isle of Man
through the pandemic, she says Miss Magson responded in ways the
employment tribunal would find to be demeaning, including:
Telling colleagues that Dr Ranson "agreed" she was not fit to perform
her role
Refusing to let her use the toilet during an online meeting
Insisting on a non-urgent, almost five-hour, one-to-one meeting late
into the night
Denying a request by Dr Ranson for her deputy to chair a meeting so she
could attend her orchestral practice
"She was trying to break me, maybe trying to get me to lose my temper,"
said Dr Ranson. "It was setting me up to look as if I was failing."
Miss Magson has denied bullying Dr Ranson.
In a statement to the BBC, Miss Magson said: "I strongly refute the
tribunal's findings and given that I was not in control of, or a party
to, the proceedings I have no standing to appeal the decision."
Miss Magson cannot appeal because, while she gave evidence at the
hearing, it was the Isle of Man government and not Miss Magson herself
taken to the tribunal.
The Isle of Man's health department has apologised to Dr Ranson.
Kathryn Magson
Image caption,
Kathryn Magson is not able to appeal against the tribunal's findings
After the initial outbreak in March 2020, the island eradicated the
virus. But Dr Ranson started whistleblowing after being sidelined on
major decisions - like the plan to deliver vaccines in December that
year, as the tribunal heard.
This is where Miss Magson encountered a problem, as the legal process
required Dr Ranson to sign a document agreeing to the plan. Dr Ranson
thought things were not properly in place in order for the vaccine to be >>> safely delivered - and so refused.
She says this left Miss Magson "furious".
Dr Ranson did take over the planning of the vaccine rollout and
successfully delivered the programme once she was happy issues had been
resolved. But just a few days later, another problem arose.
Someone who had gone to the island's busiest nightclub tested positive
for Covid around Christmas 2020.
This was a huge threat, as residents had been living with very few
restrictions, with no need for social distancing or face masks.
Again, Miss Magson told the medical director her services weren't required. >>>
There was subsequently a further outbreak of coronavirus. In total, 116
people died in the Isle of Man from Covid, from the start of the
pandemic up to August 2022.
The British Medical Association, which supported Dr Ranson, tells File
on 4 that "there was more or less a witch hunt to discredit her".
"The issue here is that the consequence to that was that patients died,
and unequivocally so," says chair Prof Philip Banfield.
An email from Kathryn Magson to an unnamed colleague reading: 'Goodness! >>> Does she have a desk?????"
Image caption,
An email was sent from Kathryn Magson to a colleague after Dr Ranson was >>> moved from her office
The scientist who carried out the genome sequencing of the virus on the
island also told the tribunal that the first outbreak of Covid there
"would have been significantly shortened, and deaths prevented, had the
border been closed when requested".
There was one final humiliation to endure. In January 2021, Dr Ranson
was moved out of her office, and her nameplate removed from the door.
She was asked to use a smaller room, with a broken chair and neither a
computer nor telephone.
Dr Ranson says senior colleagues "sent communications to many people
saying that I was incompetent and that I agreed I was incompetent".
"But there was no evidence of that," she adds.
'No point has it felt like success'
After losing her role in March 2021, Dr Ranson sued the Isle of Man
government for unfair dismissal. She was awarded £3.19m, the single
largest payout for a whistleblowing case for the British Medical
Association, which supported her at the tribunal.
Dr Ranson, who had a successful career in the NHS in England before
taking the Isle of Man role, says she does not feel able to work again
after her experience.
The Manx government spent almost £900,000 defending itself but the
employment tribunal judgement repeatedly criticised Miss Magson,
describing her evidence as "unreliable", saying that she "failed to
accept responsibility" for her actions and attempted, on occasion, to
"justify the unjustifiable".
File on 4 understands Miss Magson has been working as an adviser to the
chief executive of the South London and Maudsley Trust for several
months. She has said her employers are aware of the tribunal's findings. >>>
While Miss Magson continues her career, Dr Ranson is struggling to
overcome what she's been through.
Reflecting on the experience - and the outcome of what was meant to be a >>> dream job - her voice breaks.
"At the age of 16, I decided I would be a doctor. It's an enormously
rewarding career because you can really affect people's lives. And to
have that taken away…" she says.
"It's been the most traumatic thing I've been through. At no point has
it felt like a success."
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Let us pray!
<Boris> 12/06/23 Again praying w/ Michael here ...
https://groups.google.com/g/alt.bible.prophecy/c/9KR9w3i2RGY/m/kEezWy-7AQAJ
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and again hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So again, how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/18f0ien/covid_lockdowns_had_catastrophic_effect_on_uks/
Covid lockdowns had ‘catastrophic effect’ on UK’s social fabric, report
claims
Research by centre-right thinktank says gap between the mainstream and
poorest in society is widening
PA Media
Sat 9 Dec 2023 19.11 EST
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare via Email
Covid lockdowns had a “catastrophic effect” on the UK’s social fabric
and the most disadvantaged are no better off now than at the time of the >>> financial crash, a new report claims.
The country is in danger of sliding back into the divisions of the
Victorian era, marked by a widening gap between the mainstream and the
poorest in society, according to an inquiry by the centre-right
thinktank the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ).
About 13.4 million people lead lives affected by family fragility,
stagnant wages, poor housing, chronic ill health and crime, the centre says.
UK lockdowns were a policy ‘failure’, health expert tells Covid inquiry
The CSJ’s Social Justice Commission’s report, Two Nations: the State of
Poverty in the UK, argues that the most disadvantaged in Britain are no
better off than 15 years ago. It also says that the pandemic lockdowns
had a “catastrophic effect” on the nation’s social fabric, especially
for the least well-off, where the gap between the so-called “haves” and
“have nots” was blown wide open.
The report says: “During lockdown calls to a domestic abuse helpline
rose 700%; mental ill health in young people went from one in nine to
one in six and nearly a quarter among the oldest children; severe
absence from school jumped 134%; 1.2 million more people went on
working-age benefits, 86% more people sought help for addictions;
prisoners were locked up for 22.5 hours a day.
“There is a growing gap between those who can get by and those stuck at
the bottom.”
Six in 10 people say that their area has a good quality of life, but
this drops to less than two in five of the most deprived.
Twenty years ago, just one in nine children were assessed as having a
clinically recognisable mental health problem. That figure is now one in >>> five, rising to nearly one in four for those aged 17-19.
If trends continue, the report argues that by 2030 more than one in four >>> five- to 15-year-olds, which may be as many as 2.3 million children,
could have a mental disorder.
Andy Cook, the chief executive of the Centre for Social Justice, said:
“This report makes for deeply uncomfortable reading.
“Lockdown policy poured petrol on the fire that had already been there
in the most disadvantaged people’s lives, and so far no one has offered
a plan to match the scale of the issues.
“What this report shows is that we need far more than discussions on
finance redistribution, but a strategy to go after the root causes of
poverty, education, work, debt, addiction and family.”
The report includes a poll of 6,000 people conducted by JL Partners,
3,000 drawn from the general public and 3,000 on the lowest income.
It also heard from more than 350 small charities, social enterprises and >>> policy experts, and the commission travelled to three nations of the UK
and to more than 20 towns and cities.
Ad
The most disadvantaged worry twice as much as the mainstream about the
quality of their housing and communities being “torn apart” by
addiction, the CSJ says.
“Although overall crime rates are down, violent crime remains high, and
still 6% of families account for half of all convictions,” the report
added. “Outstanding cases for the crown courts continue to rise, eroding >>> the public’s trust that justice will be done and emboldening criminals.
“Only 8% of victims are confident they would receive justice as a result >>> of reporting a crime. Only 17% of the most disadvantaged who rent in
social housing rate their quality of life at least eight out of 10,
compared with 52% of those who own a property.”
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/18fq3dy/raf_intelligence_officers_joined_whitehall_and/
RAF intelligence officers joined Whitehall and Army in 'spying' on Covid >>> lockdown critics - including David Davis and Peter Hitchens
By MARK HOOKHAM and GLEN OWEN
PUBLISHED: 20:09 EST, 9 December 2023 | UPDATED: 21:48 EST, 9 December 2023 >>>
RAF intelligence officers joined a shadowy Whitehall operation accused
of spying on members of the public who criticised Covid lockdown
policies, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Official military documents obtained by this newspaper show that
analysts from RAF Wyton in Cambridgeshire helped to scour social media
posts by the public.
The MoS revealed in January how the Army's secretive 'information
warfare brigade' was tasked with scrutinising online posts – an activity >>> the Ministry of Defence, in public, repeatedly denied doing.
Now this newspaper can show that the military's assistance to Government >>> cells, such as the Counter Disinformation Unit, based in the Department
for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, and Rapid Response Unit in the
Cabinet Office was far more extensive than previously thought.
Dossiers were compiled on public figures including Tory ex-Minister
David Davis (pictured), who questioned the modelling behind alarming
Covid death toll predictions
+4
View gallery
Dossiers were compiled on public figures including Tory ex-Minister
David Davis (pictured), who questioned the modelling behind alarming
Covid death toll predictions
Peter Hitchens (pictured) was monitored after sharing an article, based
on leaked NHS papers, which claimed data used to publicly justify the
lockdown was incomplete
+4
View gallery
Peter Hitchens (pictured) was monitored after sharing an article, based
on leaked NHS papers, which claimed data used to publicly justify the
lockdown was incomplete
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These Whitehall outfits were tasked with tackling 'disinformation' and
'harmful narratives' during the pandemic. Their activities have faced
fierce criticism after it emerged they also collected legitimate social
media posts questioning Government lockdown policies.
Dossiers were compiled on public figures including Tory ex-Minister
David Davis, who questioned the modelling behind alarming Covid death
toll predictions, and The MoS's Peter Hitchens.
The documents reveal defence chiefs privately conceded the military's
work for the Government could pose a 'potential presentational risk of
Defence 'spying' or conducting 'Psyops' on the UK'. But the MoD feared
that if the Armed Forces did not help the Government's online
monitoring, then 'harmful misinformation and disinformation' could spread. >>>
Jake Hurfurt, of the campaign group Big Brother Watch, last night
branded Whitehall's use of military personnel as 'an attack on freedom
of speech' and 'behaviour befitting an authoritarian state'. He added:
'The revelations that the RAF as well as the Army spied on the British
people during the pandemic is yet more evidence that the MoD misled the
public about the role of its psyops troops in 2020.'
Official military documents obtained by this newspaper show that
analysts from RAF Wyton in Cambridgeshire
+4
View gallery
Official military documents obtained by this newspaper show that
analysts from RAF Wyton in Cambridgeshire
The MoS revealed in January how the Army’s secretive ‘information
warfare brigade’ was tasked with scrutinising online posts
+4
View gallery
The MoS revealed in January how the Army's secretive 'information
warfare brigade' was tasked with scrutinising online posts
'These documents prove that Whitehall officials knew deploying the
military to monitor social media posts from politicians, journalists and >>> the press would look like spying – but they carried on anyway.'
The RAF and Army's assistance to Whitehall is detailed in documents
outlining official requests known as 'Military Aid to the Civil
Authorities' (MACA). These are normally used by the Government when
military help is needed to respond to natural disasters.
The papers also show how in 2020 the Government was considering a
dramatic expansion of the Counter Disinformation Unit by ordering
monitoring of online chatter about Brexit and the NHS.
Mr Hurfurt last night demanded that the Covid Inquiry also investigate
how the Government 'monitored the British people'.
Peter Hitchens was monitored after sharing an article, based on leaked
NHS papers, which claimed data used to publicly justify the lockdown was >>> incomplete.
An internal Rapid Response Unit email said Mr Hitchens wanted to
'further [an] anti-lockdown agenda and influence the Commons vote'.
The Government said: 'Online disinformation is a serious threat, which
is why in the pandemic we brought together expertise from across
government to monitor disinformation about Covid.
'The units used publicly available data, including material on social
media. They did not target individuals or take action that could impact
the ability to discuss issues freely.'
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/18hwsk1/smoking_decline_stalls_since_covid_as_more_young/
Smoking decline stalls since Covid as more young people take up the
habit - study
13th December 2023, 04:48 PST
Share
By Aurelia Foster
Health reporter
Getty Images Blonde woman smoking cigarette - stock photoGetty Images
Young adults may have started smoking because of stress during the
pandemic, researchers found
A decades-long decline in smoking in England has nearly ground to a halt >>> since the pandemic, a study suggests.
The rate of decline slowed from 5.2% in the years before the pandemic to >>> just 0.3% between April 2020 and August 2022, according to the research. >>>
The lead researcher said it was likely more young people were taking up
smoking and "bold" action was needed.
The government said it was taking "bold action" to make England
smoke-free, including raising the legal age.
Based on surveys with 101,960 adults representative of the population,
researchers estimated 16.2% smoked in June 2017, falling to 15.1% by the >>> start of the pandemic, in March 2020, but just 15% in August 2022, since >>> when the the slower rate of decline has remained consistent.
Office for National Statistics data also shows a year-on-year decline in >>> smoking between 2000 and 2020.
Anti-smoking efforts
The study suggests a 120% rise in the proportion of people giving up,
during the pandemic, and a 40% rise in the number of attempts to quit.
But these were offset by a rise in the number of people taking up the
habit, including an increase among 18- to 24-year-olds.
In 2019, the government set a target for England to be "smoke-free" by 2030.
But the researchers, from University College London (UCL), say this will >>> be missed and are urging the government to "reignite" anti-smoking efforts. >>>
Social isolation
Lead author Dr Sarah Jackson, of UCL's Institute of Epidemiology and
Health Care, told BBC News the results suggested a "step change" in
young people smoking, at the start of the pandemic.
"It definitely does seem like progress in reducing the number of young
adults taking up smoking has slowed down," she said.
Researchers noted higher levels of stress and social isolation among
younger adults during the pandemic.
But Dr Jackson said others factors could also be to blame and warned
against complacency.
'Uniquely lethal'
"It's really concerning there has almost been the assumption that we
have solved the problem of smoking among young people," she said.
Young adults may start smoking because they believed e-cigarettes were
equally bad for them, Dr Jackson said.
"There has a been lot of talk about vaping and there has been a real
disconnect about the risks of vaping and risks of smoking among young
people," she said.
"The risks of vaping are substantially lower than the risks of smoking.
"Smoking is uniquely lethal, yet most of the concern is about young
people vaping."
The researchers supported a government proposal to raise the smoking
age, which would mean a child turning 14 this year could never legally
buy cigarettes.
Pledge to end smoking in England by 2030
Smoking age should rise, Rishi Sunak says
How dangerous is vaping?
The research, funded by Cancer Research UK and published in the journal
BMC Medicine, also suggests, between April 2020 and August 2022:
Smoking decreased among 45- to 65-year-olds
The stall in the decline of smoking was most pronounced among advantaged >>> social groups
Former smokers relapsing back into the habit may also account for some
of the slowing of the decline
The switch to homeworking during the pandemic may have contributed to
loneliness and poor mental health, making people less inclined to quit
smoking, the researchers said.
But manual workers may have had more financial disruption, leading to
smoking becoming less affordable.
The charity Action on Smoking and Health said smoking rates would
decline in response to government action, as they had historically.
"The ambitious programme recently announced by the government can put us >>> on track," chief executive Deborah Arnott said, "but no time must be
lost in turning words into action."
The Department of Health and Social Care said it had doubled funding for >>> stop-smoking services, helping 360,000 people quit, and was planning to
provide a million free vapes to smokers.
Wales has a 2030 smoke-free target, while Scotland's is 2034.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/18kefk9/man_who_owes_14300_covid_fine_raises_full_amount/
Man who owes £14,300 Covid fine raises full amount after appearing on
ITV News
CORONAVIRUS
CRIME AND COURTS
Saturday 16 December 2023 at 8:21pm
In Hertfordshire, Toriano Reid was fined for a mistake made by someone
else he was living with.
Credit: ITV News
After his story aired on ITV News, a man who lost his family home and
partner after being unable to pay back a £14,300 Covid fine has
officially raised the full amount.
In Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, Toriano Reid was fined for a
mistake made by someone else he was living with.
He had been working at the local supermarket and was not at the illegal
gathering held in his garden, but because the house was in Toriano's
name he was the recipient of the fine.
Bailiffs have continued to chase him for the money, and even recently
clamped his car.
"I didn't know where to get the money, I work like everyone else. I've
got no savings. I genuinely don't know what to do," he told UK Editor
Paul Brand in an ITV News exclusive.
'I could work until I was blue in the face and it still wouldn't be
enough,' Toriano Reid told ITV News
"I could work until I was blue in the face and it still wouldn't be
enough," he added.
Toriano has set up a crowd funding page to help him pay the fine.
Almost four years on since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic,
Toriano has lost his family home, his partner and at times even his will >>> to live.
"I didn't know where to get the money, I work like everyone else. I've
got no savings. I genuinely don't know what to do," he said.
"I could work until I was blue in the face and it still wouldn't be
enough," he added.
Toriano had set up a crowd funding page to help him pay the fine, and
after appearing on Wednesday's Evening News, it has £14,000 in donations. >>>
"It feels like the whole world is lifted off my shoulders. You couldn’t
even begin to imagine the relief I feel at this point in time," Toriano
told ITV News on Saturday.
Toriano's crowdfunding page.
Credit: GoFundMe
He had written on his crowd funding page on Wednesday night: "I am so
overwhelmed with the love and support I have got since starting this.
"I honestly didn’t expect anything and just wanted to share my story
more than anything.
"It has shown me that there is light at the end of the tunnel and that
there is still many good and kind-hearted people in this world.
"I feel so blessed and every single donation has helped me more than
anyone can ever imagine.
"I just want this massive weight off my shoulders so I can get a sense
of control and my life back!
"God bless every single one of you for helping me and I hope you all
have a lovely Christmas if celebrating and a brilliant new year!"
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartMDPhD Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/18mraaq/open_letter_to_rishi_sunak_raising_concerns_about/
Open letter to Rishi Sunak raising concerns about the Covid Inquiry
The Rt Hon Rishi Sunak MP
Prime Minister, 10 Downing Street
Copy to: The Rt Hon Baroness Hallett DBE
20 December 2023
Dear Prime Minister,
Concerns in relation to the UK Covid Inquiry
We write as a community of parents, experts, parliamentarians and other
concerned individuals asking you urgently to review the Terms of
Reference for the Covid Inquiry.
We support the Covid Inquiry’s stated objective to learn lessons that
will inform future pandemic responses in the UK, but we have serious
concerns about the approach of the Inquiry to date.
In particular we fear that the Inquiry’s current approach is not only
failing adequately to identify those lessons, but risks entirely
undermining the validity of its future findings by failing to examine a
number of critical and highly salient points relating to the nature of
the pandemic and the desirability and effectiveness of the UK’s response. >>>
Deviation from its stated aims
According to its Terms of Reference, the overriding aim and purpose of
the Inquiry is to identify lessons to be learned “to inform preparations >>> for future pandemics across the UK”. In a number of highly material
respects, however, we believe the Inquiry as currently proceeding is
failing to meet these stated aims.
Harms, costs, QALYs
The Inquiry is creating the impression – reflected in extensive print
media and social media commentaries – of having predetermined that
lockdowns were necessary, proportionate and justified, notwithstanding
the very extensive documented harms they have caused, and continue to cause.
On numerous occasions the Inquiry appears to have failed to consider
whether there was any alternative to the lockdowns that were imposed on
this country and has instead appeared to be almost exclusively focused
on whether lockdowns should have been implemented harder, sooner and for >>> longer. [1]
The question of whether lockdowns were necessary, proportionate and
justified, however, can only meaningfully be considered in the context
of available alternative strategies (including by examining
international comparators) and – crucially – only once one has attempted >>> to evaluate the harms caused by locking down.
Many in the UK, including respected members of the scientific community, >>> believe lockdowns were not necessary, proportionate, or adequately
justified by the evidence, and that the harms caused by mass mandatory
lockdowns were more severe than the harm that would have been done by
the virus had a more consensual, focused protection policy been adopted
(e.g. as in Sweden). An important report published by the Centre for
Social Justice just last week [2] underlines the catastrophic impact of
successive lockdowns on the social fabric of the UK, most particularly
those already disadvantaged. Its findings include that “[t]he lockdown
measures, meant to curb the spread of the virus, had severe consequences >>> on various aspects of life for the most disadvantaged” and it states
that although the disadvantage gap was already significant prior to
2020, “the lockdown implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic was the
dynamite that blew it open”.
Prime Minister, as you said yourself in your testimony to the Inquiry, a >>> quality-adjusted life years (QALY) analysis carried out by two leading
UK academic institutions “suggested that the lockdown in its severity
and duration is likely to have generated costs that are greater than the >>> likely benefit”. We believe this to have been a vital piece of evidence
and are deeply concerned that the Inquiry’s focus on deaths from
Covid-19 as the sole or primary measure of the success or otherwise of
the Government’s approach to lockdowns [3] grossly underweights the
harms of lockdowns and other NPIs. Certainly it underweights in
particular the known severe impacts on children and young people, who
were substantially less likely to become ill or to die as a direct
result of the virus, but far more likely to face increased risk from
lockdown and school closures.
The Inquiry cannot satisfactorily contemplate lessons learned from the
pandemic, and specifically the impact of the response to the pandemic,
unless alongside the actual or perceived benefits it objectively,
openly, and fairly considers the harms of lockdowns, school closures and >>> other measures of lockdowns for children, the young and society as a
whole, including on a QALY basis. Similarly, any objective and fair
consideration of the harms of lockdowns and other measures must include
the short- and long-term impacts of approximately £400,000,000,000 of
debt incurred by the Government to fund pandemic-related policy
decisions, which must now be repaid by future generations.
Decision-making processes
Extensive questioning of witnesses to date has been devoted to examining >>> the relationships between Ministers and their advisers and officials,
and in particular to building an impression that poor working practices, >>> and individual instances of political indecision or incompetence in the
face of uniquely reliable scientific expertise, caused delays in
implementing unquestionably necessary interventions, including lockdowns >>> in particular.
Yet topics of potentially critical significance to our collective
understanding of how decisions were made – and therefore how better
decisions might in future be made – have been entirely omitted,
including: the manner and extent to which Ministers considered it
appropriate to brief and seek the support of Parliament for nationwide
interventions which profoundly impacted human and civil rights in this
country and which implicated massive public spending commitments; and
the ethical aspects of policy-making, including the role and apparently
premature standing down of the Government’s own expert ethics advisory
group in December 2021.[4]
The inquiry has also shied from considering the effect on
decision-making of the suppressive activities of both the Government
(through its CDU and RRU agencies in the DCMS and Cabinet Office
respectively) and private sector partners (including in particular media >>> and social media organisations) in relation to academic, journalistic
and clinical commentaries, opinions and advice perceived as casting
doubt on the Government’s policy decisions.
Approach to experts and their evidence
It is a matter of public record that the Inquiry’s approach to the
selection of core participants and to the selection of witnesses to give >>> evidence in person has given rise to an impression among members of the
public and a significant element of UK print media that the Inquiry has
consistently selected and favoured those who supported lockdown policies. >>>
A criticism levelled at the Inquiry – fairly, in our view – is that by
elevating and leaving unchallenged the opinions and disputed advice of
Government-appointed scientific experts, while appearing to disparage
the credentials and opinions of experts who have not supported the
‘official science’, the Inquiry is perpetuating an impression that it
has a preconceived view of what is ‘the right’ scientific opinion and is >>> closed to considering dissenting views, when it should be inquisitorial
and open-minded about the competing scientific perspectives at pivotal
moments in the pandemic response.
Conclusions and corrections
For the reasons stated above, we each hold serious concerns about the
conduct of the Inquiry to date and believe the Inquiry’s approach is now >>> damaging public confidence in its proceedings and by extension in any
recommendations which might ultimately be made.
It is critical that the very significant public expense of the Inquiry
is not wasted, and that the Inquiry adopts an inquisitive open-minded
approach to its proceedings so that lessons can genuinely be learned,
rather than appearing to be predetermined.
To that end, we respectfully ask that you take prompt action to endorse
a review and update by the Inquiry of its Terms of Reference, in
particular to:
? ensure that metrics other than deaths from COVID-19, including QALYs
lost as a result of lockdowns, are adopted for judging the response to
COVID-19;
? ensure that there is an independent and thorough review of all
relevant data with respect to NPIs, including a rigorous examination of
underlying assumptions (especially those which have since been shown to
have been unreliable);
? commit to explore the extent, role and impact of the agencies of
Government engaged in the monitoring and suppression of commentaries and >>> opinions perceived as casting doubt on the Government’s pandemic policy
decisions; and
? commit to explore the ethical aspects of decision-making, including in >>> relation to the Government’s public communication campaigns.
We also respectfully ask that you take such action as you can to support >>> or require the Inquiry to ensure that witnesses will be selected and
their evidence treated in such a way as to avoid any appearance of
favour based on support for the Government’s lockdown policies. Doing so >>> should enable relevant counterpoint perspectives to be adequately taken
into account, which we believe to be critical if the public is to have
confidence in the Inquiry’s findings.
We are aware that a letter was sent to the Inquiry on 15 December 2023
by JMW Solicitors acting on the instructions of UsForThem which has
signalled that, unless the Inquiry can promptly correct its course to
address these issues of predetermination and fairness, the validity of
its eventual findings are likely to be subject to a legal challenge. We
support the objective of that letter and we would support the principle
of a legal challenge to the Inquiry’s findings should it fail now to
address these critical issues.
Yours faithfully,
Signatories Include:
Lord David Frost
Lord Zac Goldsmith
Baroness Foster
Baroness Fox
Baroness Morrissey
Lord Daniel Moylan
Lord Ian Strathcarron
Lord Andrew Robathan
Ian Paisley MP
Rt Hon Sammy Wilson MP
Sir Desmond Swayne MP
Sir Robert Syms
Danny Kruger MP
Philip Davies MP
Sir Iain Duncan Smith MP
Miriam Cates MP
Chris Green MP
Professor Karol Sikora
Professor David Paton
Professor David Livermore
Doctor Tetyana Klymenko
Doctor Chao Wang
UsForThem
[1] The starkest example of many can perhaps be found in the questioning >>> of Michael Gove, where Counsel to the Inquiry stated: “There was no real >>> argument as to whether, for good and obvious public health reasons,
these measures had to be contemplated. They were matters of life and
death. So there wasn’t really a thesis and an antithesis position here,
Mr Gove. All the public health advice on a public health crisis were
pointing in one direction” and later in questioning of Boris Johnson:
“on the premise that the lockdown was necessary on 23 March, was it
nevertheless imposed too late?”.
[2]
https://www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/CSJ-Two_Nations.pdf
[3] This was apparent from the very outset in Counsel to the Inquiry’s
opening speech: “However, if the protection of life is the pre-eminent
duty which every government owes to the people, the numbers of those who >>> died is the marker against which the government’s response must be
judged. This is the stark metric which matters most”.
(https://covid19.public-inquiry.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/06170713/C-19-Inquiry-3-October-2023-Module-2-Day-1-2nd-Revision.pdf)
[4]
https://dailysceptic.org/2023/11/24/the-scandal-of-how-the-government-shut-down-its-ethics-committee-after-it-tried-to-intervene-on-the-vaccination-of-children/
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use
Apostle Paul's secret (http://bit.ly/Philippians4_12 ). Though masking
is less protective, it helps us avoid the appearance of doing the evil
of spreading airborne pathogens while there are people getting sick
because of not being 100% protected. It is written that we're to
"abstain from **all** appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22
w/**emphasis**).
Source:
https://biblehub.com/1_thessalonians/5-22.htm
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly ( http://bit.ly/RapidTestCOVID-19 ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
http://WDJW.great-site.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) for them to
call their doctor and self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of
stopping this pandemic. Thus, we're hoping for the best while
preparing for the worse-case scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations
and others like the Omicron, Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu &
Delta lineage mutations combining via slip-RNA-replication to form
hybrids like http://tinyurl.com/Deltamicron that may render current
COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry ( http://tinyurl.com/RapidOmicronTest
) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedkingdom/comments/18tsel5/nhs_in_england_facing_storm_of_pressure_as_flu/
NHS in England facing ‘storm of pressure’ as flu and Covid cases surge
Average of 3,631 patients in hospital with Covid during Christmas week,
data shows, a rise of 57% in a month
Anna Bawden Social affairs correspondent
Fri 29 Dec 2023 11.22 EST
A surge in the number of flu and Covid admissions to hospitals in
England is adding to a “storm of pressure” facing the health service,
NHS leaders have said.
Figures released on Friday showed that in Christmas week, there were on
average 3,631 patients with Covid in hospital, up 57% from the same week >>> in November.
Cases of norovirus were up 61% from the same period last year, while
serious flu cases also continued to spiral, with an average of 942
patients with flu in hospital each day in the week to 24 December,
including 48 in critical care.
The figure is almost six times higher than in November and double the
total a fortnight ago , albeit below the numbers for the equivalent week >>> in 2022 when the UK experienced the worst flu season for a decade.
The winter viruses are having a knock-on effect on staffing, NHS England >>> data shows, with an average of 2,597 employees off with Covid alone each >>> day last week, up 51% from November.
Meanwhile, 10,000 patients had to spend Christmas in hospital, despite
being well enough to go home. Of the 18,669 patients who were fit to
leave hospital on Christmas Eve, only 8,667 were discharged.
In January, the prime minister announced a plan to avoid another NHS
winter crisis. He pledged to create another 5,000 beds in English
hospitals before winter and reduce bed occupancy rates. But Friday’s
figures show that as of 24 December there were only 3,613 extra beds,
while bed occupancy rates remain stubbornly high at 91.4%, although this >>> is lower than previous weeks.
A woman holds a placards saying: '40% of junior doctors planning to
leave. Retain our staff. Save our NHS' and a man holds a placard saying: >>> 'Life + death decisions for just £14 an hour. Pay doctors fairly. Save
our NHS'
New year junior doctors’ strikes will risk patient safety, says health
leader
Read more
A six-day strike by junior doctors will begin next week over pay, with
thousands more appointments and operations expected to be cancelled.
During last week’s three-day strike 86,329 appointments and operations
were rescheduled.
Prof Stephen Powis, the NHS England medical director, said the impact of >>> next week’s strike would probably be “much more severe”, at a time of
high demand and higher levels of virus admissions.
“These figures demonstrate the storm of pressure the NHS is facing,
however, with huge rises in flu patients over the last few weeks and
many more norovirus cases than we saw last winter, as well as the
ongoing impact of Covid – all on top of the added pressure of industrial >>> action.”
The chief executive of NHS Providers, Julian Hartley, said the
“worrying” winter virus figures demonstrated the “scale of the
challenge” facing trusts and staff, and called for more pay talks. “We
urge the government and unions to think afresh, and find a way to
resolve the damaging and demoralising industrial dispute which has
caused so much disruption for patients. There is still time to head off
the longest strike in the history of the NHS.”
Opposition parties accused the government of not prioritising the NHS.
The Liberal Democrat health spokesperson, Daisy Cooper, said: “Hospitals >>> have been underfunded for years under this Conservative government,
leaving both patients and hardworking NHS staff struggling. The NHS and
the number of beds available for people in need should be a key priority >>> for the government, yet these figures suggest that is far from the case.” >>>
Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, said the “misery” caused by
the delayed discharges over Christmas was “entirely avoidable” and
promised more “care in the community”.
“Thirteen years of Conservative cuts to social care and district nurses
left 10,000 patients in hospital for Christmas Day who didn’t need to be >>> there,” he said. “The next Labour government … will introduce a fair pay >>> agreement for care workers to tackle staff shortages and trial new
neighbourhood health centres, so fewer patients need to go to hospital
in the first place.”
The British Medical Association said it was open to more pay talks. Dr
Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi, BMA junior doctors committee
co-chairs, said the government could avoid “unnecessary disruption” to
patients if it presented a credible offer, “especially if there was, as
suggested by the secretary of state, another offer for them to make”.
“It didn’t need to be this way, and next week’s action can be avoided.
The health secretary says she wants to ‘get this done’ and appeals to us >>> to return to negotiations, yet we never walked away ... We will talk at
any time, right up to the 11th hour, and if talks result in a credible
offer we can put to members, then further strikes can be averted.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We are making >>> better progress than last winter in cutting ambulance response times,
increasing bed capacity and the number of NHS 111 calls being answered.
“There were also more hospital beds made available than this time last
year and 894 of those beds were occupied by flu patients compared to
3,479 for the same week last year.
“NHS managers, medical directors and clinicians across England have had
to divert their attention from winter preparations to focus on dealing
with the impact of industrial action and we urge unions to call off
strikes next week so we can find a fair and reasonable solution, so we
can all get back to focusing on patients and their care.”
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use Apostle Paul's
secret (Philippians 4:12). Though masking is less protective, it helps
us avoid the appearance of doing the evil of spreading airborne
pathogens while there are people getting sick because of not being
100% protected. It is written that we're to "abstain from **all**
appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22 w/**emphasis**).
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly (i.e. use the "Rapid COVID-19 Test" ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
"convince it forward" (John 15:12) for them to call their doctor and
self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic.
Thus, we're hoping for the best while preparing for the worse-case
scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations and others like the Omicron,
Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations
combining via slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like "Deltamicron"
that may render current COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no
longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry (
https://groups.google.com/g/sci.med.cardiology/c/6ZoE95d-VKc/m/14vVZoyOBgAJ >> ) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/1903qkl/analysis_pandemic_is_far_from_over_expert_says_as/
Analysis: 'Pandemic is far from over,' expert says as new variant spurs
major COVID resurgence
Lamenting what he described as the state of denialism in the U.S., Dr.
Eric Topol says: "This passivity reinforces the illusion that the
pandemic is behind us when it’s actually raging."
Author of the article:Aaron Derfel • Montreal Gazette
Published Jan 05, 2024 • Last updated 1 day ago • 3 minute read
A man is opening a door to a building with large windowed walls. A
vaccination centre sign is in the right side of the frame, with an arrow >>> pointing to the door.
Although the updated vaccine booster that has been available in Quebec
since October has been shown to be 60 per cent protective against
hospitalization for COVID-19, only 17 per cent of the Quebec population
has taken it. PHOTO BY JOHN MAHONEY /Montreal Gazette files
Article content
“The pandemic is far from over,” one of the pre-eminent experts on
COVID-19, Dr. Eric Topol, declared on Thursday, roughly four years after >>> the world first learned of a novel virus that was killing people in China. >>>
In an op-ed published in the Los Angeles Times, Topol’s focus was the
major COVID resurgence now underway in the United States. But he could
have been writing about Quebec, given what’s now going on in the province. >>>
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“The pandemic is far from over, as evidenced by the rapid rise to global >>> dominance of the JN.1 variant of SARS-CoV-2,” Topol noted. In Quebec, >>>from Dec. 3 to 16, nearly one in two genetic samples screened for JN.1,
up from only eight per cent a month earlier. The prevalence is likely
higher now.
Source: Institut national de santé publique du Québec
Source: Institut national de santé publique du Québec
“Clearly, this virus variant, with its plethora of new mutations, has
continued its evolution with mutations adapted for infecting or
reinfecting us,” Topol added, alluding to JN.1.
Although the updated vaccine booster that has been available in Quebec
since October has been shown to be 60 per cent protective against
hospitalization, only 17 per cent of the Quebec population has taken it
— two per cent lower than the rate in the U.S. And among Quebecers ages
18 to 59, the rate drops to 7.2 per cent, according to the latest data
collected by the Institut national de santé publique du Québec.
Meanwhile, hospitalizations with and for COVID-19 have just crept up in
the last few days to the 2,400 range, putting enormous pressure on a
fragile health-care system. By comparison, pandemic hospitalizations
were in the high 2,800 range in the province last January.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use Apostle Paul's
secret (Philippians 4:12). Though masking is less protective, it helps
us avoid the appearance of doing the evil of spreading airborne
pathogens while there are people getting sick because of not being
100% protected. It is written that we're to "abstain from **all**
appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22 w/**emphasis**).
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in Canada & elsewhere is by
rapidly (i.e. use the "Rapid COVID-19 Test" ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
"convince it forward" (John 15:12) for them to call their doctor and
self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic.
Thus, we're hoping for the best while preparing for the worse-case
scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations and others like the Omicron,
Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations
combining via slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like "Deltamicron"
that may render current COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no
longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry (
https://groups.google.com/g/sci.med.cardiology/c/6ZoE95d-VKc/m/14vVZoyOBgAJ >> ) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:I am wonderfully hungry!
https://ethicsalarms.com/2024/01/11/update-we-cant-trust-the-science-because-we-cant-trust-the-scientists/
Update: We Can’t “Trust the Science” Because We Can’t Trust the Scientists >>> JANUARY 11, 2024 / JACK MARSHALL
…or the politicians and untrustworthy elected officials who use both for >>> unethical ends.
Further reinforcing his Ethics Alarms status as an Ethics Villain,?the
now retired Dr. Anthony Fauci blithely told lawmakers on the House
Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic this week that “social
distancing guidelines”—warning the public to keep six feet apart from
anyone else supposedly to limit the spread of the Wuhan virus — “sort of >>> just appeared” without scientific input, and was “likely not based on
scientific data.”
Oh! That’s nice! Schools remained closed well into 2021 substantially as >>> a result of the social distancing guidelines that he stood by and
allowed to be issued without scientific data. I was screamed at in
several public places because I knew the social distancing edicts were
garbage from the beginning, just like the “don’t touch your face!”
nonsense and 95% of all masks. My sister has been a phobic about
physical contact ever since March of 2020: she has yet to allow me into
her house, and will only speak to me at my home ten feet away on the
front yard. Research studies and other health officials pooh-poohed the
social distancing mandates early on while media scaremongers—-after all, >>> it was vital to wreck the Trump economy if he was going to be brought
down—were quoting some “experts” saying that we should all wear masks
and socially distance forever. Fortunately my pop culture addiction
served me well: I recognized all of the CDC recommendations from the
2011 pandemic movie “Contagion.” They were exactly the same, proving to
me that “social distancing” and the rest were just boiler plate “Do
something!” measures off the CDC shelf. (They didn’t work in the film,
either.)
Ethics Alarms tried to be an island of sanity in all this, but as you
know, there aren’t many on this island. I wrote in November of 2020 that >>> Canada’s Community and Public Services Committee, pathologist Roger
Hodkinson had told government officials that the pandemic crisis is “the >>> greatest hoax ever perpetrated on an unsuspecting public.” Hodkinson
said that “there is utterly unfounded public hysteria driven by the
media and politicians.” Nothing could be done to stop the spread of the
virus besides protecting older more vulnerable individuals, and that
what we have been experiencing is “politics playing medicine, and that’s >>> a very dangerous game.”
Anthony Fauci was the main facilitator and referee of that “game” in the >>> U.S. Yet today he refuses to accept any responsibility for the harm his
abuse of science and his own perceived expertise inflicted on the nation. >>>
Hodkinson stated that “social distancing is useless because COVID is
spread by aerosols which travel 30 meters or so before landing…Masks are >>> utterly useless. There is no evidence base for their effectiveness
whatsoever. Paper masks and fabric masks are simply virtue signalling.
They’re not even worn effectively most of the time. It’s utterly
ridiculous. Seeing these unfortunate, uneducated people – I’m not saying >>> that in a pejorative sense – seeing these people walking around like
lemmings obeying without any knowledge base to put the mask on their face.” >>>
When I designated Fauci an Ethics Villain in April of last year, it was
after he lamented the American streak of independence that caused many
to doubt the safety and necessity of the Wuhan vaccines. During the
pandemic there wasn’t enough rebellion and independence, clearly: most
of the nation was duped and given a dose of the kind of totalitarian
measures Democrats would like to use to fight climate change, another
area where the science is over-hyped and the scientists can’t be trusted. >>>
By early December in 2020, I was writing, “I’m not going to wear a mask
inside my home, nor in my car, nor outside while playing with my dog,
and I’m going to regard anyone who follows this edict with a ‘please’
attached as an enemy of my future liberty as an American.” Yet some
places, like California, are trying to inflict masking mandates again.
“Wired” laments that another outbreak of the virus is ongoing, and that
it is dangerous that these ignorant, independent Americans aren’t acting >>> appropriately terrified. “Over 80 percent of people in the US have not
yet received the updated 2023–2024 booster shot, the CDC reported last
week,” it reports, despite Fauci’s successors sagely telling them to.
That is because of Fauci and his cronies lied to us, deliberately tried
to frighten us, and generally forfeited any public trust they had
accumulated.
Not being able to trust authorities and experts is frightening; it’s
reassuring to think someone with superior knowledge and our best
interests at heart is there to tell us what to do. This is not a
comfortable or a desirable place now in the U.S.: an unprecedented
percentage of the country realizes that it cannot trust elected
officials, politicians, journalists, educators (Hi there, Claudine!) or
scientists. We are really and truly in the dark.
But it’s better to be in the dark and know it than to think you have
illumination when what you are experiencing is radiating deception and
manipulation.
***
Added: “The US may be heading to a “dangerous vaccination tipping
point,” with immunization rates falling so low that population-level
immunity is now at risk, and we will likely see thousands of needless
deaths this respiratory virus season, two top officials for the Food and >>> Drug Administration warned in a recent JAMA commentary.”
And whose fault is that?
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use Apostle Paul's
secret (Philippians 4:12). Though masking is less protective, it helps
us avoid the appearance of doing the evil of spreading airborne
pathogens while there are people getting sick because of not being
100% protected. It is written that we're to "abstain from **all**
appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22 w/**emphasis**).
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in Canada & elsewhere is by
rapidly (i.e. use the "Rapid COVID-19 Test" ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
"convince it forward" (John 15:12) for them to call their doctor and
self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic.
Thus, we're hoping for the best while preparing for the worse-case
scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations and others like the Omicron,
Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations
combining via slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like "Deltamicron"
that may render current COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no
longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry (
https://groups.google.com/g/sci.med.cardiology/c/6ZoE95d-VKc/m/14vVZoyOBgAJ >> ) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:I am wonderfully hungry!
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/1968ggk/were_in_a_major_covid19_surge_its_our_new_normal/
We’re In a Major COVID-19 Surge. It’s Our New Normal
A person wears their mask dangling off an ear during the 2024 COVID-19
surge.
An Elmurst Hospital worker in New York City on Jan. 4, 2024.Anthony
Behar/Sipa USA—AP Images
BY JAMIE DUCHARMEJANUARY 12, 2024 8:00 AM EST
You probably know a lot of sick people right now. Most parts of the U.S. >>> are getting pummeled by respiratory illness, with 7% of all outpatient
health care visits recorded during the week ending Dec. 30 related to
these sicknesses, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC).
Many people are sick with flu, while others have RSV or other routine
winter viruses. But COVID-19 is also tearing through the population,
thanks largely to the highly contagious JN.1 variant. Just like every
year since 2021, this one is starting with a COVID-19 surge—and
Americans are getting a good glimpse of what their “new normal” may look >>> like, says Katelyn Jetelina, the epidemiologist who writes the Your
Local Epidemiologist newsletter.
Watch more from TIME
Click to unmute
“Unfortunately,” she says, “signs are pointing to this [being] the level >>> of disruption and disease we’re going to be faced with in years to come.” >>>
The CDC no longer tracks COVID-19 case counts, which makes it harder
than it once was to say exactly how widely the virus is spreading.
Monitoring the amount of virus detected in wastewater, while not a
perfect proxy for case counts, is probably the best real-time signal
currently available—and right now, that signal is a screaming red siren. >>> According to some analyses, wastewater data suggest the current surge is >>> second in size only to the monstrous first wave of Omicron, which peaked >>> in early 2022. By some estimates, more than a million people in the U.S. >>> may be newly infected every single day at the peak of this wave.
More From TIME
Wastewater isn’t the only sign that things are bad. Almost 35,000 people >>> in the U.S. were hospitalized with COVID-19 during the week ending Dec.
30—far fewer than were admitted at the height of the first Omicron wave, >>> but a 20% increase over the prior week in 2023. Deaths tend to lag a few >>> weeks behind hospitalizations, but already, about 1,000 people in the
U.S. are dying each week from COVID-19.
Yet even as the trends veer in the wrong direction, people are still
working in offices, going to school, eating in restaurants, and sitting
shoulder-to-shoulder in movie theaters, largely unmasked. It can be hard >>> to know how to feel about that reality. Viewed through a 2020 lens, many >>> people would consider it catastrophically concerning that people are
living normally even as COVID-19 sickens the equivalent of an entire
city’s population every single day. But is it as worrisome in 2024, when >>> the pandemic is over on paper, if not in practice?
Not according to Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of
Public Health and the Biden Administration’s former COVID-19 response
coordinator. Almost all of the U.S. population has some immunity from
previous infections or vaccinations; treatments like the antiviral
Paxlovid are available for people at risk of severe disease; and most
people know the basics of masking, testing, and other mitigation
measures. All of these factors, Jha says, mean COVID-19 is becoming less >>> of a threat over time. Some groups of people, including the elderly and
immunocompromised, are still at greater risk than others, and Long
COVID—the name for potentially debilitating chronic symptoms that
sometimes follow a case of COVID-19—remains a possibility for everyone.
But Jha maintains that vaccines and treatments should make everyone feel >>> safer.
“The straight facts are: COVID is not gone, it’s not irrelevant, but
it’s not the risk it was four years ago, or even two years ago,” Jha
says. “It’s totally reasonable for people to go back to living their lives.”
The big challenge now, says Dr. Robert Wachter, chair of medicine at the >>> University of California, San Francisco, is wrapping our heads around
that change. “We’ve got to somehow reprogram our minds to think about
this as a threat that is just not as profound as it was for a couple
years,” Wachter says. “When your minds have been pickled in terror for a >>> couple of years, it’s very hard to do."
How to assess COVID-19 risk in 2024
In the earlier days of the pandemic, Wachter closely watched the
COVID-19 data and used exact numbers and percentages to decide what he
felt comfortable doing. Now, with fewer of those precise numbers and
more disease-fighting tools available, he goes by trends.
During COVID-19 lulls, “I’m living my life about as normally as I did in >>> 2019,” Wachter says. Once indicators like COVID-19 hospitalizations and
wastewater surveillance data start to suggest the virus is on the
upswing, he wears a KN95 mask in crowded places like airports and
theaters, where there’s little downside to masking. And in a full-blown
surge, like now, Wachter masks almost everywhere and avoids some places
he can’t, such as restaurants.
Those decisions feel right to Wachter, based on his personal risk
tolerance and vulnerability to severe disease. He’s up-to-date on
vaccines, which slashes his chances of being hospitalized or dying if he >>> gets infected—but, at 66, those outcomes are still likelier for him than >>> for his 30-year-old children. “Other people might make different
choices,” Wachter says. “And there are going to be people who say, ‘This >>> is a lot of mental energy...screw it.’”
With hard numbers scarcer than they once were and lots of people no
longer willing or able to make detailed risk assessments, Jetelina
instead recommends letting your objectives shape your behavior. Want to
avoid infecting your grandmother before a visit? Maybe skip having
dinner in a crowded restaurant a few days before and test before you go
to her house. Want to minimize your risk of getting very sick if you do
get infected? Stay up-to-date on boosters—as far too few people do, says >>> Dr. Peter Hotez, co-director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for >>> Vaccine Development.
“The biggest failing right now in our response to COVID,” Hotez says, is >>> that only about 20% of U.S. adults got the latest vaccine, which was
updated to target newer viral variants. “That should be the number-one
priority,” he says, since vaccination is the best way to prevent
complications like hospitalization, death, and, to some degree, Long COVID. >>>
The risks that don’t go away
Even with boosters, Jetelina says Long COVID is a hard risk to plan
around. The only tried-and-true way to avoid it is to avoid infection
entirely; staying up-to-date on vaccines reduces the risk by up to 70%,
according to recent research, but people can and do develop it even if
they’re healthy, fully vaccinated, and have had previous infections
without incident. With variants as contagious as JN.1 running rampant,
doing almost anything in public opens up the possibility of getting sick. >>>
But there are plenty of choices between ignoring the virus entirely and
completely locking down at home, says Hannah Davis, one of the leaders
of the Patient-Led Research Collaborative for Long COVID. She recommends >>> wearing good-quality masks in public, socializing outside or using open
windows and air filters to improve ventilation inside, asking people to
test before gatherings, and avoiding especially crowded places during
surges. “I wish more of those were normalized, because they do at least
decrease the chance of getting infected and causing long-term harm and
disability to yourself or other people,” she says.
But, Davis says, all responsibility shouldn’t fall on individuals. She
says it’s a “huge injustice” that the government hasn’t done more to
warn the public that people can still get Long COVID, and that
reinfections can lead to serious health issues. She also feels the data
support policy measures like ventilation requirements for public places
and mask mandates on public transportation.
The unclear future of COVID-19
Some mask mandates in health care facilities and nursing homes have been >>> reinstated during this surge. But Jha says widespread mandates are
unlikely to come back—and in his view, they shouldn’t. “There was a role >>> for mandates in the early days of the pandemic…when we had no other
tools, no way of protecting people,” he says. “Mandates four years in,
when we have plenty of tests, plenty of vaccines, plenty of treatments,
plenty of masks,” are not as crucial, he says.
Jetelina says she wouldn’t be surprised if 2024 brings a further
relaxation of COVID-19 guidance rather than increased mitigation
measures. She speculates that the CDC may change its isolation
guidelines, for example.
“The threat [of COVID-19] will get baked into the other threats people
have in their background that aren’t front of mind,” Wachter predicts,
similar to the ever-present risk of getting sick with other illnesses or >>> getting into a car accident. And, “as long as the virus doesn’t
shape-shift its way into laughing at our immune status,” he says that’s
not such a bad thing. People will continue to reach different
conclusions about the level of risk-taking they can stomach and behave
accordingly, just as they do in other areas of life.
It’s natural for guidance and behavior to change once a public-health
menace begins to transition from emergency to endemic, Jha says. But
that doesn’t mean we should turn a blind eye toward COVID-19 or the
numerous other pathogens swirling around.
"For a lot of people it's been about, 'How do we go back to 2019, to
life before the pandemic?'" he says. But, in his view, that's not the
right goal: "We actually want to look forward."
Jha says he’s hopeful that lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic
will spark a reimagining of how we deal with respiratory diseases in
general. Such an approach wouldn’t necessarily single out COVID-19, as
much of the public-health messaging has done since 2020. Instead, Jha
says, it could standardize and broaden guidance around all infectious
diseases, hammering home the importance of things like vaccines, masks,
ventilation, and sick-leave policies that allow people to stay home when >>> they have any disease—not just the one that has dominated our collective >>> consciousness for the past four years.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use Apostle Paul's
secret (Philippians 4:12). Though masking is less protective, it helps
us avoid the appearance of doing the evil of spreading airborne
pathogens while there are people getting sick because of not being
100% protected. It is written that we're to "abstain from **all**
appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22 w/**emphasis**).
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8 ) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the U.S. & elsewhere is by
rapidly (i.e. use the "Rapid COVID-19 Test" ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
"convince it forward" (John 15:12) for them to call their doctor and
self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic.
Thus, we're hoping for the best while preparing for the worse-case
scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations and others like the Omicron,
Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations
combining via slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like "Deltamicron"
that may render current COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no
longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry (
https://groups.google.com/g/sci.med.cardiology/c/6ZoE95d-VKc/m/14vVZoyOBgAJ >> ) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:I am wonderfully hungry!
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/19c82kx/a_pandemic_mea_culpa_from_francis_collins/
A pandemic mea culpa from Francis Collins
A key figure in the government’s COVID-19 response admits that he was
willfully blind.
By Jeff Jacoby Globe Columnist,Updated January 21, 2024, 3:00 a.m.
Dr. Francis Collins, then the director of the National Institutes of
Health, at a 2021 ceremony where Vice President Kamala Harris got a dose >>> of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Dr. Francis Collins, then the director of the National Institutes of
Health, at a 2021 ceremony where Vice President Kamala Harris got a dose >>> of the COVID-19 vaccine.ANNA MONEYMAKER/NYT
It comes three years too late. But Francis Collins, the former head of
the National Institutes of Health, has finally admitted that the
COVID-19 lockdowns caused a massive amount of harm — harm to which he
and other government public-health experts, such as Anthony Fauci of the >>> National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, were oblivious
because they were obsessed with doing things their way.
The mea culpa came last summer during a conversation hosted by Braver
Angels, an organization that promotes dialogue among Americans with
sharply different ideologies and political loyalties. Collins, who as
NIH director played a central role in shaping Washington’s response to
COVID-19, was paired with Wilk Wilkinson, a Minnesota trucking manager
and podcast host who strongly opposed how government officials addressed >>> the pandemic. The 90-minute exchange, moderated by Boston College
professor Martha Bayles, was recorded six months ago but only recently
attracted attention when excerpts were posted on social media.
Advertisement
The whole conversation was interesting, but one segment in particular
was jaw-dropping. Collins described with remarkable candor just how
narrow-minded, how willfully myopic, he and other high-level public
health officials had been as they dealt with the crisis.
“As a guy living inside the Beltway, feeling the sense of crisis, trying >>> to decide what to do in some situation room in the White House with
people who had data that was incomplete, we weren’t really thinking
about what that would mean to Wilk and his family in Minnesota a
thousand miles away from where the virus was hitting so hard,” confessed >>> Collins, who retired from the NIH at the end of 2021. “We weren’t really >>> considering the consequences in communities that were not New York City
or some other big city.”
That was a stunning admission. What he said next was even more scandalous. >>> Advertisement
“If you’re a public health person and you’re trying to make a decision,
you have this very narrow view of what the right decision is, and that
is something that will save a life. Doesn’t matter what else happens. So >>> you attach infinite value to stopping the disease and saving a life. You >>> attach zero value to whether this actually totally disrupts people’s
lives, ruins the economy, and has many kids kept out of school in a way
that they never recover from.”
“Collateral damage,” said Wilkinson.
“Collateral damage,” Collins agreed. He and his colleagues were locked
in what he now concedes was the “public health mindset” — a monomaniacal >>> approach that blinded them to the injuries they were causing. “A lot of
us had that mindset, and that was really unfortunate.”
Was it ever.
As early as March 2020, Fauci recommended a nationwide lockdown and
called for a “dramatic diminution of the personal interaction” in daily
activities. He warned that “life is not going to be the way it used to
be in the United States,” while insisting that was “best for the
American public.” Collins said at the time that the only correct
approach was “one that most people would find to be too drastic because
otherwise it is not drastic enough.”
Now, of course, it is far too late to mitigate any of the pain endured
by millions of Americans hurt by the government’s high-handed edicts and >>> recommendations. Those curbs and controls began with the declaration of
a federal emergency and travel ban, which in turn spurred many states to >>> order their own restrictions.
Advertisement
The coast-to-coast lockdown destroyed tens of millions of jobs and at
least 200,000 small businesses. It exacerbated numerous social ills,
worsened mental illness, and took a deadly toll in missed cancer
diagnoses and untreated heart disease. The prolonged school closures
inflicted unprecedented damage on children. The social distancing and
mask mandates were enforced with a ruthlessness that at times turned
despotic. And countless men and women — from ordinary citizens to noted
epidemiologists to elected state officials — found themselves demonized, >>> censored, or shunned for challenging those who attached “zero value” to
their concerns.
All this damage was caused not by the pandemic but by politicians who
abdicated their judgment and left it to public-health experts. Whether
out of panic, pigheadedness, or perversity, they declined to balance
costs against benefits, a basic function of policymaking. Instead, they
insisted they would “follow the science” — as though scientists were
endowed with an infallible road map to navigate COVID’s complex
interplay of disease, economics, education, psychology, and politics in
a nation of 330 million people.
The great economist and social historian Thomas Sowell has often
observed that “there are no solutions, there are only tradeoffs.” That
is a fundamental reality in all policymaking. There are pros and cons to >>> everything government does. For officials responding to the pandemic,
there can hardly have been a more shocking intellectual failure than the >>> one to which Collins now confesses: attaching “infinite value” to
stopping the disease and no value at all to everything else.
Advertisement
The same sort of thinking can be a pitfall in many other areas. Focus on >>> reducing fossil fuel use at any price, for example, and the results will >>> be stunted economic growth and continued misery for many of the world’s
poorest people. Assign maximum importance to achieving racial diversity
in student admissions and the result is affirmative action preferences
so lopsided that they violate the Constitution. Allow the prevention of
another 9/11 to override every other consideration, and the CIA ends up
torturing prisoners in secret “black sites” beyond the reach of law.
From crime to homelessness to addiction to national defense, there are
always costs to be weighed against benefits. And if acknowledging
tradeoffs is indispensable to the work of government, it is especially
so at times of crisis.
Toward the end of the Braver Angels conversation, Collins acknowledged
another way in which he and many of his inside-the-Beltway colleagues
blundered.
It was folly, he said, to think that Washington knew what was best for
the whole nation. “The fact that we could put blanket recommendations
across this incredible wide, broad, and diverse country and expect them
to be right . . . obviously could not have been correct. And yet that’s
what was done.”
Advertisement
COVID-19 would have been a terrible destroyer in any case. But it was
made all the more catastrophic by the failure of politicians and experts >>> who not only were sure they knew best but were unwilling even to
consider other views. Americans’ respect for public-health experts took
a beating during the pandemic, and it is a black mark on Collins’s
legacy that he was so complacent about the harm the government’s
policies caused. For belatedly admitting where he went wrong, he
certainly deserves credit. Let him continue to speak out, to warn other
scientists against falling into the same trap, and he’ll deserve a lot more.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use Apostle Paul's
secret (Philippians 4:12). Though masking is less protective, it helps
us avoid the appearance of doing the evil of spreading airborne
pathogens while there are people getting sick because of not being
100% protected. It is written that we're to "abstain from **all**
appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22 w/**emphasis**).
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the U.S. & elsewhere is by
rapidly (i.e. use the "Rapid COVID-19 Test" ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
"convince it forward" (John 15:12) for them to call their doctor and
self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic.
Thus, we're hoping for the best while preparing for the worse-case
scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations and others like the Omicron,
Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations
combining via slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like "Deltamicron"
that may render current COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no
longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry (
https://groups.google.com/g/sci.med.cardiology/c/6ZoE95d-VKc/m/14vVZoyOBgAJ >> ) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:I am wonderfully hungry!
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/19fljky/uk_bbc_misrepresented_covid_risk_to_boost/
BBC 'misrepresented' Covid risk to boost lockdown support, says top
scientist
Corporation accused of reporting rare deaths as the norm during pandemic >>> Simon Johnson,
SCOTTISH POLITICAL EDITOR
25 January 2024 • 11:47am
21
A man wears a mask in front of BBC Broadcasting House in London
CREDIT: Will Oliver/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
The BBC was allowed to “misrepresent” the risk posed by Covid to most
people to boost public support for lockdown, the UK Covid Inquiry has heard.
Prof Mark Woolhouse, an eminent epidemiologist and government adviser,
lambasted the corporation for having “repeatedly reported rare deaths or >>> illnesses among healthy adults as if they were the norm”.
He said this created the “misleading impression” among BBC News viewers
at the start of the pandemic that “we are all at risk” and “the virus
does not discriminate”.
In reality, he said it was known at the time that the risk of dying from >>> Covid was 10,000 times higher in the over-75s than the under-15s.
But Prof Woolhouse told the Covid Inquiry the BBC did not correct its
reporting, saying: “I suspect this misinformation was allowed to stand
throughout 2020 because it provided a justification for locking down the >>> entire population.”
Prof Mark Woolhouse, a member of the Scottish Government COVID-19
Advisory Group, also claimed hundreds of people may have died after
being told not to "bother" the NHS. He told the inquiry people were
misled about how the crisis would unfold. And he said orders to stay at
home and cease outdoor activity were not needed.
Prof Mark Woolhouse said BBC coverage during the pandemic led to a
'misperception' of the risk of Covid CREDIT: UNPIXS
He said further evidence of this was provided by a briefing dated March
22 2020 by a sub-group of the UK Government’s Scientific Advisory Group
for Emergencies (SAGE) that focused on the public’s behaviour.
This stated that “a substantial number of people still do not feel
sufficiently personally threatened; it could be that they are reassured
by the low death rate in their demographic group ... the perceived level >>> of personal threat needs to be increased among those who are complacent, >>> using hard-hitting emotional messaging”.
Prof Woolhouse said the “misperception” created by the BBC’s coverage
that everyone was at risk was a “barrier to targeting interventions at
the vulnerable minority who truly were at high risk from Covid”.
In his written submission to the inquiry about the impact north of the
Border, he said: “I fear that Scottish Government’s pandemic response
was compromised as a result.”
He also concluded that lockdown had been “least effective at protecting
the most vulnerable precisely because of their need to have contacts
with health care and social care workers — self-isolation was not an
option.” The expert added: “This should have been recognised from the
outset.”
‘Climate of fear’ in BBC during pandemic
Prof Woolhouse is professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the
University of Edinburgh and was an adviser to the Scottish Government
during the pandemic, although his submission said his advice was often
not heeded by Nicola Sturgeon.
He also sat on the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling,
which was another sub-group of SAGE.
The submission was published after he gave evidence to the inquiry on
Wednesday. It is sitting in Edinburgh to examine the Scottish
Government’s handling of the pandemic.
The Telegraph spoke last year to current and former BBC journalists who
described a “climate of fear” existing in the corporation during the
pandemic, with experienced reporters “openly mocked” if they questioned
the wisdom of lockdowns, or called “dissenters”.
Some complained to senior managers about the BBC’s blinkered stance, but >>> were ignored. Others communicated via secretive WhatsApp groups to share >>> their frustrations, like members of a resistance movement.
Prof Woolhouse said the public was “not given accurate information”
about Covid in the early stages of the pandemic.
“Some media sources — notably the BBC television news — did repeatedly
misrepresent the risk posed by Covid,” he said.
“One example is that they gave the impression that hospitals were being
overwhelmed during the first wave. Some (mainly in London) were, but
overall hospital bed occupancy was at an all-time low during that period. >>> “A second example is that they routinely reported deaths of healthy
young adults, thereby giving the impression that these were common. In
reality, such deaths were extremely rare; the great majority of Covid
deaths occurred in the elderly, frail and infirm.”
He concluded: “Possibly, this kind of coverage was an attempt to back up >>> government public health messaging; for example, the hugely misleading
claim that ‘we are all at risk’.”
The BBC was approached for comment.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use Apostle Paul's
secret (Philippians 4:12). Though masking is less protective, it helps
us avoid the appearance of doing the evil of spreading airborne
pathogens while there are people getting sick because of not being
100% protected. It is written that we're to "abstain from **all**
appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22 w/**emphasis**).
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8 ) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly (i.e. use the "Rapid COVID-19 Test" ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
"convince it forward" (John 15:12) for them to call their doctor and
self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic.
Thus, we're hoping for the best while preparing for the worse-case
scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations and others like the Omicron,
Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations
combining via slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like "Deltamicron"
that may render current COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no
longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry (
https://groups.google.com/g/sci.med.cardiology/c/6ZoE95d-VKc/m/14vVZoyOBgAJ >> ) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.nationalreview.com/2024/01/maine-moves-to-stifle-conventional-views-on-gender/
Maine Moves to Stifle Conventional Views on Gender
Signs at a rally for transgender rights at city hall in Portland Maine,
March 1, 2017. (Derek Davis/Portland Portland Press Herald via Getty Images)
Share
5 Comments
Listen
By JAMES ERWIN
January 26, 2024 6:30 AM
A bill being debated by the legislature would allow the state to take
gender-dysphoric kids away from parents who disagree with
‘gender-affirming care.’
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My beloved home state of Maine prides itself on a politically
independent streak as big as the north woods. Unfortunately, in the name >>> of compassion, a newly proposed Maine law would buck our independent
ways by effectively criminalizing dissent on one of the most
controversial topics in American politics today: gender.
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LD 1735, “An Act to Safeguard Gender-affirming Health Care,” would allow >>> Maine courts to take custody of any child from their parents if the
latter disagree with “gender-affirming care” as defined by the state.
That is no exaggeration — the bill text specifically says a court may
take temporary custody of a child “in an emergency” if the child is
present in Maine and “has been unable to obtain gender-affirming health
care or gender-affirming mental health care.”
So “in an emergency” (the vagueness of this term is especially
troubling), a parent of a child experiencing gender dysphoria may not
have a conversation with their child, teach self-acceptance, or
communicate their values if they do not believe that a sex change is the >>> only answer. If they exercise their First Amendment rights in this way,
they could lose custody of their children.
And “gender-affirming care” is broadly defined. The bill text repeatedly >>> states that whether or not such care is warranted is up to the child in
question, and it explicitly includes hormone treatments, mastectomies,
and castration as protected procedures. The bill would also make Maine a >>> safe haven for minors to come receive sex changes if they hail from one
of the states that have begun to restrict such procedures for the
underaged. Courts and officers of the law would be barred from reuniting >>> kidnapped children with their legal guardians if the children came to
Maine for gender-affirming care against their guardians’ wishes.
More on
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1.
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“It undermines the law in other states and legalizes kidnapping,” state
representative Katrina Smith, an opponent of the legislation, told me.
“A child could jump on a bus and come to Maine with any stranger they
meet online who tells them, ‘Trust me, not your parents.’”
Smith introduced a bill last year to require parental notification from
schools if a student starts using a different name or pronouns, which
was defeated by the legislature’s Democrat supermajority. She says that
she is sympathetic to those who experience gender dysphoria, especially
children, and emphasizes that LD 1735 targets minors and their parents,
not consenting adults.
Maine’s legislature is part-time, and committee attendance can be poor
during the workweek. As a result, three of the eight Democrats on the
Judiciary Committe
"if My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and
pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will
hear from Heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their
land (of even gender dysphoria)." (2 Chronicles 7:14 w/ parenthetical
clarification)
Source:
https://biblehub.com/2_chronicles/7-14.htm
Amen!
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use Apostle Paul's
secret (Philippians 4:12). Though masking is less protective, it helps
us avoid the appearance of doing the evil of spreading airborne
pathogens while there are people getting sick because of not being
100% protected. It is written that we're to "abstain from **all**
appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22 w/**emphasis**).
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8 ) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the US & elsewhere is by
rapidly (i.e. use the "Rapid COVID-19 Test" ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
"convince it forward" (John 15:12) for them to call their doctor and
self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic.
Thus, we're hoping for the best while preparing for the worse-case
scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations and others like the Omicron,
Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations
combining via slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like "Deltamicron"
that may render current COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no
longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry (
https://groups.google.com/g/sci.med.cardiology/c/6ZoE95d-VKc/m/14vVZoyOBgAJ >> ) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/1abt1p0/uk_covid19_inquiry_humza_yousaf_admits_winging_it/
UK COVID-19 Inquiry: Humza Yousaf admits 'winging it' as Scotland's
health secretary during pandemic
On the same day of the exchange, the Scottish government issued a 'state >>> of the pandemic' document reporting a 35% rise in COVID cases around
that time.
By Connor Gillies, Scotland correspondent @ConnorGillies
Friday 26 January 2024 17:31, UK
First Minister Humza Yousaf during a visit to Built Environment -
Smarter Transformation (BE-ST) at Hamilton International Technology Park >>> in Blantyre, Glasgow, to open the new National Retrofit Centre for
Scotland and announce new funding for innovation centres. Picture date:
Wednesday January 17, 2024.
Image:
Pic: PA
Messages have emerged of Scotland's First Minister Humza Yousaf
admitting to "winging it" during his role as health secretary at the
height of the COVID pandemic.
The UK COVID Inquiry has released WhatsApp exchanges between Mr Yousaf
and Scotland's national clinical director Professor Jason Leitch from
June 2021.
The discussion happened shortly after Mr Yousaf was appointed health
secretary and saw him joke that he was "winging it! And will get found
out sooner rather than later", followed by a laughing emoji.
WhatsApp exchanges between Mr Yousaf and Scotland's national
clinical director Professor Jason Leitch from June 2021
Image:
WhatsApp exchanges between Mr Yousaf and Scotland's national clinical
director Professor Jason Leitch from June 2021
On the same day of the exchange, the Scottish government issued a "state >>> of the pandemic" document reporting a 35% rise in COVID cases around
that time.
The Scottish government told Sky News it would be "inappropriate" to
respond to questions about the messages during the inquiry.
The UK COVID-19 Inquiry has already heard from Mr Yousaf as it takes
evidence during a series of sessions in Edinburgh.
Appearing on Thursday, the now first minister offered an "unreserved"
apology for the Scottish government's "frankly poor" handling of
requests from the inquiry for WhatsApp messages to be handed over.
Former first minister Nicola Sturgeon has wiped her messages and Mr
Yousaf's exchanges had to be recovered after also becoming lost. The
pair say they were following Scottish government policy on informal
messages.
Mr Yousaf said he accepted this would have caused "serious grief and
retrauma" for those who lost loved ones and announced an external review >>> into his administration's use of mobile messaging.
Advertisement
Read more:
COVID adviser Professor Jason Leitch denies daily purge of WhatsApps
Scotland's chief medical officer told colleagues to delete WhatsApps 'at >>> end of every day'
Sturgeon brands Johnson 'clown' in texts
'We should have done better'
Asked about WhatsApp messages from the time of the pandemic, which the
inquiry requested from the Scottish government, Mr Yousaf said: "Let me
unreservedly apologise to this inquiry, but also to those who are
mourning the loss of a loved one, who were bereaved by COVID, for the
government's frankly poor handling of the various Rule 9 requests in
relation to informal messages.
"There is no excuse for it, we should have done better and it is why I
reiterate that apology today."
This is a limited version of the story so unfortunately this content is
not available.
Open the full version
Mr Yousaf conceded there was "clearly a gap" in the mobile message
policy in relation to how material in informal messages should be retained. >>>
Ms Sturgeon will appear at the inquiry on Wednesday.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use Apostle Paul's
secret (Philippians 4:12). Though masking is less protective, it helps
us avoid the appearance of doing the evil of spreading airborne
pathogens while there are people getting sick because of not being
100% protected. It is written that we're to "abstain from **all**
appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22 w/**emphasis**).
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8 ) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly (i.e. use the "Rapid COVID-19 Test" ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
"convince it forward" (John 15:12) for them to call their doctor and
self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic.
Thus, we're hoping for the best while preparing for the worse-case
scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations and others like the Omicron,
Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations
combining via slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like "Deltamicron"
that may render current COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no
longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry (
https://groups.google.com/g/sci.med.cardiology/c/6ZoE95d-VKc/m/14vVZoyOBgAJ >> ) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/1adv5ts/nicola_sturgeons_advisor_says_i_was_wrong_to_push/
Nicola Sturgeon's adviser says 'I was wrong to push for zero Covid'
Prof Sridhar was an advocate of 'zero Covid' but now admits she was wrong >>> By ETHAN ENNALS
The influential public health scientist who advised former Scottish
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon that it was possible to eliminate Covid
now admits that she made 'a mistake'.
Professor Devi Sridhar was a vocal advocate of 'zero Covid', the
controversial view that it was possible to eradicate the virus by
adopting draconian measures such as quarantining people when crossing
the Scottish border.
The Covid Inquiry heard last week that Prof Sridhar regularly sent the
then First Minister messages on Twitter where she appeared to push for
the strategy to be adopted. In one, sent in June 2020, she told Sturgeon >>> that she had been working on a 'feasible plan for elimination [of the
virus]'.
Sturgeon would later describe elimination as the 'only sensible
strategy' to tackle the virus.
The revelation will likely cause further controversy after the inquiry
heard last week that Sturgeon also told Prof Sridhar not to 'worry about >>> protocol'.
The influential public health scientist who advised former Scottish
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon that it was possible to eliminate Covid
now admits that she made 'a mistake'
+4
View gallery
The influential public health scientist who advised former Scottish
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon that it was possible to eliminate Covid
now admits that she made 'a mistake'
Prof Sridhar now claims she regrets using the phrase 'zero Covid' and
that her aim was to limit the number of infections in Scotland until the >>> vaccine rollout.
'This was a mistake I made using the word 'elimination',' she told the
Covid Inquiry, adding that 'maximum suppression' would have been a more
appropriate phrase.
Other experts who spoke at the inquiry said that the Scottish
Government's refusal to accept that Covid was 'here to stay' led to a
much slower release of social restrictions than was necessary.
Throughout the pandemic, Scotland eased restrictions several weeks after >>> England.
Professor Mark Woolhouse, an epidemiologist at the University of
Edinburgh and a UK scientific adviser during the pandemic, said Scottish >>> Ministers were preoccupied with appearing more cautious than their
English counterparts. He added: 'This segued into this idea that... we
could somehow end up in zero Covid. To me... this was not consistent
with the evidence.'
In June 2020, when Scotland was recording fewer than five Covid cases
every day, Prof Sridhar, originally from the US, published an article in >>> The Guardian calling for a 'zero-coronavirus Britain'. That same month,
she told New Scientist magazine that 'Scotland could eliminate
coronavirus if it were not for England', arguing that Westminster was
not doing enough to stop the spread of the virus.
However, in January 2022 – 17 months later – Scotland was recording
roughly 8,000 daily cases and Nicola Sturgeon announced the nation would >>> remove the majority of its Covid restrictions in an effort to live with
the virus.
No country has been able to eliminate the virus.
Prof Sridhar now claims she regrets using the phrase 'zero Covid' and
that her aim was to limit the number of infections in Scotland until the >>> vaccine rollout
+4
View gallery
Prof Sridhar now claims she regrets using the phrase 'zero Covid' and
that her aim was to limit the number of infections in Scotland until the >>> vaccine rollout
Speaking on Tuesday, Prof Sridhar claimed she never believed that zero
Covid could be achieved and instead likened it to aspirational public
health campaigns that sought to end malaria or tuberculosis. 'We use
these campaigns to say we don't accept the spread of these diseases,'
she said. '[In summer 2020] we had a chance to hold and wait for a
vaccine in an optimal position.'
However, experts accused her of 'rewriting history'.
'Prof Sridhar now claims she never believed in zero Covid, but all you
have to do is go back and read her articles to see that's not the case,' >>> says Professor Robert Dingwall, sociologist at Nottingham Trent
University and former Government scientific adviser.
'Then she argued that Covid could be eliminated if not for the wicked
English. Every scientist who knew what they were talking about said zero >>> Covid wasn't achievable.'
Prof Sridhar declined to comment last night.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use Apostle Paul's
secret (Philippians 4:12). Though masking is less protective, it helps
us avoid the appearance of doing the evil of spreading airborne
pathogens while there are people getting sick because of not being
100% protected. It is written that we're to "abstain from **all**
appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22 w/**emphasis**).
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8 ) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly (i.e. use the "Rapid COVID-19 Test" ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
"convince it forward" (John 15:12) for them to call their doctor and
self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic.
Thus, we're hoping for the best while preparing for the worse-case
scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations and others like the Omicron,
Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations
combining via slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like "Deltamicron"
that may render current COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no
longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry (
https://groups.google.com/g/sci.med.cardiology/c/6ZoE95d-VKc/m/14vVZoyOBgAJ >> ) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/1anyxep/the_resistible_rise_of_the_new_normal_reich/
The Resistible Rise of The New Normal Reich
CJ HOPKINS
FEB 4, 2024
So, the German authorities have filed an appeal to overturn my acquittal >>> in criminal court last week. Apparently, their plan is to keep putting
me on trial until they get a judge who is willing to convict me of
something, or to bankrupt me with legal costs. Silly me, for a moment
there, I was actually starting to believe this was over.
Let me quickly review how I got here for anyone just tuning in.
I am an author and a political satirist and commentator. In August 2022, >>> I posted two Tweets criticizing mask mandates and making fun of Karl
Lauterbach, Germany’s Minister of Health. Both Tweets included an image >>>from the cover artwork of my latest book, The Rise of The New Normal
Reich: Consent Factory Essays, Vol. III (2020-2021).
The German authorities did not appreciate those Tweets, so they (1) had
them censored by Twitter, (2) had Amazon ban my book in Germany, and (3) >>> dragged me into criminal court and prosecuted me on trumped-up “hate
crime” charges.
Last week, a judge acquitted me of those charges, after which she
launched into a tirade in which she insulted me at some length, and then >>> strapped on a “Covid mask” and stalked out of the courtroom. During her
diatribe, she made a big show of proclaiming that, by acquitting me of
the fabricated hate-crime charges, she was proving that “Germany is not
a totalitarian state” … you know, the kind of totalitarian state where
books are banned, political speech is censored, and dissident authors
are harassed by the police and subjected to ridiculous show trials.
The judge didn’t have much choice but to acquit me, because the relevant >>> German law is clear, as my attorney had reminded her in his pretrial
pleading, and because my case had received some international press.
Also, the public gallery was packed, and there was a fair amount of
independent media in the courtroom. Unlike the German mainstream media,
which have been churning out government propaganda like the proverbial
Goebbelsian keyboard instrument for years, and which were too busy
covering the totally-organic government-sponsored mass demonstrations
against the government’s only political opposition to devote any
attention to my political prosecution, the banning of my book,
government censorship, and so on, some of the alternative German media
are still interested in actual journalism.
The prosecutor, who appeared to be drunk or on some kind of high-grade
sedatives, was very clearly unhappy to be there performing in front of a >>> sold-out house. He spent the proceedings hidden behind one of those
Plexiglass “anti-Covid” panels that cashiers still have to sit behind in >>> grocery stores and other retail establishments, so I couldn’t make out
every word he slurred. The gist of his argument was, although I didn’t
intend to “disseminate pro-Nazi propaganda,” I nonetheless “disseminated >>> pro-Nazi propaganda,” by comparing New Normal Germany to Nazi Germany,
and “unnecessarily using a swastika in an artwork.”
My favorite part of the prosecutor’s argument was made in a pretrial
pleading to the court, not during the actual trial itself. He accused me >>> of “relativizing the Holocaust” because he claimed that comparing New
Normal Germany to Nazi Germany is factually inaccurate, which assertion
is revealing, and just staggeringly ignorant.
Here’s a translation of the excerpt from his pleading (emphasis in
italics mine):
“… the accused is interested in relativizing this Nazi tyranny, which is >>> also the aim of supporters of this ideology in a different form. By
specifically using the swastika, the accused equates the crisis
management measures of the years 2020-2022, which came about within
constitutional procedures and were enacted and implemented by and
through democratically legitimized institutions, with the dictatorial
methods of the Nazi regime and thus – regardless of his intention –
promotes the normalization of National Socialist ideas and actions.”
Of course, the history of the transformation of Germany into a Nazi
dictatorship by means of “constitutional procedures and democratic
processes” is extremely well-documented. In the election of July 1932,
the Nazi Party won 37.3% of the vote and became the largest party in the >>> Reichstag. On January 30, 1933, von Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler
Germany’s chancellor. In the aftermath of the Reichstag fire, Hitler
convinced von Hindenburg to pass the Reichstag Fire Decree, which
severely curtailed the liberties and rights of German citizens. And then >>> the Enabling Act of 1933 was passed by the Reichstag on March 23. This
law gave the government the power to override individual rights
prescribed by the constitution, because of a so-called “state of
emergency.” All this “came about within constitutional procedures and
was enacted and implemented by and through democratically legitimized
institutions.”
The judge did her best to stop me from reciting all that history in
court, to prevent me from “relativizing the Holocaust” again, right
there, in her courtroom, in front of everyone, or to prevent the
prosecutor from coming off as a jackass, but it was too late, her
questioning had opened the door.
A hilarious episode then ensued, in which the judge projected king-size
enlargements of my Tweets on a screen with an overhead projector, like
the ones they used to use in elementary school, and then interrogated me >>> at considerable length about whether the swastikas in the offending
artwork were “on the mask” or “behind the mask.” For a moment, I
considered requesting a recess in which to ask the artist, Anthony
Freda, to prepare, sign, and telefax a notarized affidavit to the court
explaining the details of his creative process and his state of mind at
“the time of creation,” but I remembered that it was only 6AM in New
York, which I thought might be a bit too early for Anthony.
Yes, the whole trial was as farcical as it sounds, but, the thing is,
prosecutions like mine are never meant to make it into court in the
first place. The game the German authorities were playing is somewhat
like the plea-bargain game that the prosecutors play in the USA, which
American readers will be familiar with from watching all those cop shows >>> on television. The way this game works in Germany is, they charge you
with a misdemeanor crime, and hit you with a hefty fine, but one that is >>> significantly less than what you will have to pay a lawyer to fight it
in court. They are counting on you just paying the fine, and avoiding a
trial, where a judge can double or triple your fine or even sentence you >>> to prison. It doesn’t matter if they have no actual legal arguments to
support the charges. It’s basically just a bullying tactic.
I have never responded well to bullies. I have an aversion to
totalitarians, fascists, and other such authoritarian control freaks who >>> get their rocks off intimidating, and dominating, and preying on the
weak. My natural instinct, when threatened by bullies and other
varieties of fascist creeps, is to get all up their faces and call their >>> bluff.
Which doesn’t always turn out so well. Cops, for example, will just beat >>> the living snot out of you if you get up in their faces, as will most of >>> your hardened criminal types. But it typically works with petty public
officials and other such “respectable authorities” … or at least those
who are forced to maintain the appearance of adherence to the rule of
law and fundamental democratic principles.
This is an important point, because it is The New Normal Reich’s
“Achilles Heel.” I explained this in a previous essay, Pathologized
Totalitarianism 101, back in November of 2021.
“New Normal totalitarianism — and any global-capitalist form of
totalitarianism — cannot display itself as totalitarianism, or even
authoritarianism. It cannot acknowledge its political nature. In order
to exist, it must not exist. Above all, it must erase its violence (the
violence that all politics ultimately comes down to) and appear to us as >>> an essentially beneficent response to a legitimate ‘global health
crisis,’ and a ‘climate change crisis,’ and a ‘racism crisis,’ and
whatever other ‘global crises’ GloboCap thinks will terrorize the masses >>> into [a state of] mindless, order-following hysteria […] This
pathologization of totalitarianism is the most significant difference
between New Normal totalitarianism and 20th-Century totalitarianism.”
In other words, this new, emerging form of global-capitalist
totalitarianism cannot afford to look like “totalitarianism.” It can’t
put on jackboots and black leather trench coats and start goose-stepping >>> around with big fascist-looking banners, and putting people up against
walls and shooting them, at least not here in the heart of the empire.
The only way this form of totalitarianism works is if people like my
judge, and the countless thousands of New Normal Germans that have been
out in the streets here displaying their unquestioning allegiance to the >>> Reich, and demanding the banning of political opposition, and the
segregation and persecution of “the Unvaccinated,” or displaying
solidarity with Ukrainian neo-Nazis, or supporting Israel’s liquidation
of Gaza, or whatever they’ve been instructed to unquestioningly support
or display solidarity with tomorrow … the only way it works (i.e., this
new totalitarianism) is if people, and not just German people, but
Americans, and Brits, and Canadians, and Australians, and “Good New
Normals” all throughout the West, are allowed to keep telling themselves >>> and each other that they’re “the good guys,” the ones who are “defending >>> democracy,” as they march us down the road to totalitarianism.
Yes, I know, I’m repeating myself. I am going to keep repeating myself.
Because the only way this doesn’t all end in an extremely ugly and
dystopian scenario is if we get through to those “Good New Normals.” I’m >>> not talking about trying to convince them of anything, or winning
arguments about “the virus,” or “vaccines,” or Israel, or Trump, or
calling them names. I am talking about confronting them with what they
are doing. I’m talking about short-circuiting their mental programming — >>> even if just for a few fleeting seconds — by holding an accurate mirror
up to them, and forcing them to look directly into it, and recognize
what it is they have become.
That is what I did in criminal court last week. It’s why the judge was
forced to acquit me, and why she felt compelled to deliver that tirade,
and strap on her mask to make a big statement. She could have convicted
me. She probably wanted to. In her mind, and in the minds of most New
Normals, people like me are existential threats. However, to convict me, >>> she would have had to watch herself make a mockery of the law and behave >>> like a fascist … like a totalitarian functionary.
Call me a hopeless idealist if you want, but I have to believe that
somewhere deep down inside even the most fanatical New Normals (or most
of them anyway) is a decent human being, with principles, who does not
want to be a fascist (or a least doesn’t want to look like a fascist),
and who can still be reached, if they can be forced into the position
that judge was forced into last week. I have to believe that each brief
short-circuit, each momentary glimpse at themselves in the mirror,
cumulatively, over the course of time, is eating away at their mental
conditioning.
In any event, that’s the theory I’ve been operating under for quite a
while. I guess I’ll try it out again at my next show trial.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use Apostle Paul's
secret (Philippians 4:12). Though masking is less protective, it helps
us avoid the appearance of doing the evil of spreading airborne
pathogens while there are people getting sick because of not being
100% protected. It is written that we're to "abstain from **all**
appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22 w/**emphasis**).
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8 ) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the US & elsewhere is by
rapidly (i.e. use the "Rapid COVID-19 Test" ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
"convince it forward" (John 15:12) for them to call their doctor and
self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic.
Thus, we're hoping for the best while preparing for the worse-case
scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations and others like the Omicron,
Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations
combining via slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like "Deltamicron"
that may render current COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no
longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry (
https://groups.google.com/g/sci.med.cardiology/c/6ZoE95d-VKc/m/14vVZoyOBgAJ >> ) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/1aq8bko/uk_rise_in_longterm_sickness_pushes_up_labour/
Rise in long-term sickness pushes up labour force inactivity
A record 2.8 million people are suffering from long-term illnesses in the UK
Mehreen Khan, Economics Editor
Tuesday February 13 2024, 12.15pm GMT, The Times
The figures for long-term sickness will pile pressure on the government
to boost funding for the health service
The figures for long-term sickness will pile pressure on the government
to boost funding for the health service
ALAMY
A rise in long-term sickness drove up the proportion of people out of
the workforce last year, according to official statistics.
There were a record 2.8 million people designated as suffering from
long-term illnesses in the UK, pushing up the labour force inactivity
rate by 1.4 percentage points since the pandemic to 21.4 per cent.
The Office for National Statistics said the inactivity rate, a key
measure of the state of the jobs market, had been unchanged between the
third and fourth quarters of 2023. The inactivity rate measures the
proportion of people of working age, between 16 and 64, who are not in
the labour force and have not been seeking work for the past month.
Britain has suffered a larger drop in labour force participation than
neighbouring economies in the United States and the eurozone, where
missing workers have begun to re-enter the jobs market after the end of
pandemic lockdowns. The inactivity rate stood at just below 20 per cent
before Covid.
Thomas Pugh, an economist at RSM, a professional services firm, said
that the “UK’s sickness problem is even worse than previously thought,
with the number of people not in the labour force because they are sick
rising to almost three million”.
The shrinking workforce is a problem for the Bank of England and
businesses because worker shortages help to drive up wage bills and
increase inflationary pressures in the economy. The record figure of 2.8 >>> million people designated as long-term sick was released by the ONS to
reflect upward revisions made to the size of the population.
The numbers will pile pressure on the government to boost funding for
the health service, at a time when Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, is
focused on announcing pre-election tax cuts in his budget next month.
The ONS also said that 108,000 working days had been lost owing to
industrial action at the end of last year, the highest level since the
1980s, with the health and social care industries suffering the most >>>from labour strikes.
Ben Harrison, director of the Work Foundation at Lancaster University,
said the sickness rate was one of the highest since records began in
1993. “Since before the pandemic, the UK now has just under 700,000 more >>> working-age adults out of the labour market due to ill health. Against
this backdrop, the government may be tempted to tighten welfare
sanctions even further to help to fill the 932,000 vacancies and reduce
the benefit bill,” he said.
The Resolution Foundation, a think tank, said the number of people
designated as long-term sick was putting a brake on growth by keeping
overall employment rates below pre-pandemic averages.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use Apostle Paul's
secret (Philippians 4:12). Though masking is less protective, it helps
us avoid the appearance of doing the evil of spreading airborne
pathogens while there are people getting sick because of not being
100% protected. It is written that we're to "abstain from **all**
appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22 w/**emphasis**).
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8 ) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly (i.e. use the "Rapid COVID-19 Test" ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
"convince it forward" (John 15:12) for them to call their doctor and
self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic.
Thus, we're hoping for the best while preparing for the worse-case
scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations and others like the Omicron,
Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations
combining via slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like "Deltamicron"
that may render current COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no
longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry (
https://groups.google.com/g/sci.med.cardiology/c/6ZoE95d-VKc/m/14vVZoyOBgAJ >> ) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
You (greeting your neighbor): "I am wonderfully hungry and hope you,
neighbor, also have a healthy appetite too. So how are you ?"
Neighbor: "Good."
You: "I hope your 'good' means you, neighbor, have a healthy appetite. >>>> So you do have the ability to eat a piece of healthy fruit at the
moment, don’t you ?"
Neighbor: "Actually, lately I haven’t been able to eat fruit because I >>>> don’t really taste anything anymore."
You: "That’s terrible."
Neighbor: "How so ?"
You: "Losing the ability to taste and smell food is a specific symptom >>>> of being infected with the COVID-19 coronavirus."
Neighbor: "How did you know that I don’t smell anything anymore?"
You: "It’s called anosmia. Google anosmia and COVID-19 together and
see why you need to self-quarantine and call your doctor about your
having anosmia and your consequently needing to be tested to confirm
that you are contagious."
Bottom line: When we are saying we’re wonderfully hungry (Philippians
4:12), we are able (Philippians 4:13) to receive GOD’s help to
possibly (Matthew 19:26) save (Ephesians 2:10) many lives during this
COVID-19 pandemic.
Neighbor: "Are there others like you ?"
You: "Yes, we are members of the ‘My heart & all of me belongs to
Jesus ...’ Facebook group, which you are also welcome to join."
Link to original post in sci.med.cardiology:
https://groups.google.com/g/sci.med.cardiology/c/6ZoE95d-VKc/m/14vVZoyOBgAJ
Thank you for sharing.
I am simply wonderfully hungry and hope you, Michael, and others
reading this, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
I am simply wonderfully hungry for food right now (Luke 6:21a) and
hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite for food right now
too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/1atvvvl/apoorva_mandavilli_keeps_making_mistakes_at_the/
Apoorva Mandavilli keeps making mistakes at the New York Times to
exaggerate the risk of COVID to keep Americans scared
This is not journalism but activism
VINAY PRASAD
FEB 18, 2024
Apoorva Mandavilli is hell bent on keeping Americans scared of COVID
even if that means publishing falsehoods. Here is the latest.
She can’t even report the number of Americans who died WITH covid per
week accurately. In a prior essay, I detail her COVID errors and show
that these are one-sided. She tends to fear-monger about the virus. See
those e.g. here.
Apoorva Mandavilli is a terrible science reporter working at the New
York Times
VINAY PRASAD
·
SEPTEMBER 28, 2023
Apoorva Mandavilli is a terrible science reporter working at the New
York Times
Recently, I read an article by Apoorva Mandavilli— the New York Times
science reporter. I will come to that example at the end of this piece,
but it just reminded me that she is incompetent as a science journalist. >>> She has her own views on covid policy. She is pro mask, pro boosting
kids, and pro school shutdown. She seems as if she favors partisan D…
Read full story
It isn’t just factual errors. Even the framing of her recent article is
biased.
This week the CDC considered removing the 5 day requirement for
isolation post COVID. A curious reporter might ask, “Hmmm, among all
people who had covid this last month, what % tested for COVID, and what
% of those isolated for 5 days?”
Were people even following the CDCs policy?
If the answer is no one is testing and no one is isolating, then the
policy change is negligible— as no one was doing it anyway. That’s not
what we got.
Instead the New York Times, Apoorva Mandavilli believes COVID remains a
big threat, and her article is entirely critical of the proposed rule
change. She laments the proposed policy change and cites a willing band
of selective quotes, but she doesn’t actually provide data.
She can’t even ask the first question: was anyone following the policy
to begin with.
When she does provide statistics, she gets is horrifically wrong. How is >>> this acceptable? Let’s not forget her other comments. She refused to
take lab leak seriously, and condemned it as racist.
Image
She was wrong about hospitalizations
She was wrong about diagnosis vs deaths
And of course, she is so biased she got school closure wrong and her
reporting contributed to massive harm to generation of kids.
Image
A decent NY Times would relieve her of duty.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use Apostle Paul's
secret (Philippians 4:12). Though masking is less protective, it helps
us avoid the appearance of doing the evil of spreading airborne
pathogens while there are people getting sick because of not being
100% protected. It is written that we're to "abstain from **all**
appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22 w/**emphasis**).
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8 ) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the US & elsewhere is by
rapidly (i.e. use the "Rapid COVID-19 Test" ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
"convince it forward" (John 15:12) for them to call their doctor and
self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic.
Thus, we're hoping for the best while preparing for the worse-case
scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations and others like the Omicron,
Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations
combining via slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like "Deltamicron"
that may render current COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no
longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry (
https://groups.google.com/g/sci.med.cardiology/c/6ZoE95d-VKc/m/14vVZoyOBgAJ >> ) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:I am wonderfully hungry!
https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedkingdom/comments/1b1r5p5/medicines_regulator_failed_to_flag_covid_vaccine/
Medicines regulator failed to flag Covid vaccine side effects and must
be investigated, say MPs
All-party group believe MHRA were aware of heart and clotting issues in
February 2021 but did not highlight the problems for several months
Sarah Knapton,
SCIENCE EDITOR
27 February 2024 • 6:24pm
Related Topics
Vaccines, Medicines, Pharmaceutical industry, Steve Brine, AstraZeneca
987
All-party parliamentary group on pandemic response and recovery say MHRA >>> failed to raise the alarm on vaccine side effects
All-party parliamentary group on pandemic response and recovery say MHRA >>> failed to raise the alarm on vaccine side effects CREDIT: iSTOCKPHOTO
The medical regulator failed to sound the alarm over Covid vaccine side
effects and should be investigated, MPs have said.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is
responsible for approving drugs and devices and monitors side effects
caused by treatments.
But the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on pandemic response and
recovery, an influential group of MPs, has raised “serious patient
safety concerns”. It has claimed that “far from protecting patients” the >>> regulator operates in a way that “puts them at serious risk”.
Some 25 MPs across four parties have written to the health select
committee asking for an urgent investigation. In reply, Steve Brine, the >>> health committee chairman, has said an inquiry into patient safety is
“very likely”.
In a letter to Mr Brine, the APPG said that there was reason to believe
that the MHRA had been aware of post-vaccination heart and clotting
issues as early as February 2021, but did not highlight the problems for >>> several months.
Denmark and several other European countries suspended the AstraZeneca
vaccine over clotting fears in March 2021, but the MHRA only published
safety advice on April 7, by which time 24 million people had been
vaccinated.
The watchdog also saw a “signal” for the heart problems myocarditis and
pericarditis in February 2021, but did not include the conditions in
safety updates until June 2021, MPs said.
“In effect, the MHRA licences medical products as safe knowing it lacks
the processes to properly monitor adverse events,” the APPG wrote.
“In the case of Covid-19 vaccines, given the comparatively novel
technology and record manufacturing speed, could the MHRA have even
properly scrutinised the licensing data or known the short term safety?
“Historically trust and confidence in vaccines and vaccine safety has
been high in the UK, but it seems that the experience of the Covid-19
vaccines has undermined this and by association trust in the regulator
and the pharmaceutical industry.
“Now more than ever a wide-reaching and in-depth review is needed.”
Underestimates complexities
The group also warned that the MHRA Yellow Card reporting system – which >>> encourages patients and doctors to flag-up medicine side effects –
“grossly” underestimates complexities, and in some instances picks up
just one in 180 cases of harm.
An analysis by Stockport NHS Foundation Trust found that in the North
West of England, 1,058 people had been admitted to hospital with stomach >>> bleeds caused by anticoagulant medication over five years, yet just six
Yellow Card reports were made during the period.
Side effects from drugs account for one in every 16 hospital admissions
in Britain, and cost the NHS more than £2 billion each year.
But trials are often too small to pick up adverse reactions,
particularly when they are driven by rare genetic mutations, meaning it
is vital to continue monitoring drugs in the community.
The MHRA recently said it would investigate why blood thinners were
causing dangerous side effects in between two and five per cent of patients.
The APPG said it was also concerned that MHRA regulation of medicine was >>> funded by the pharmaceutical industry and said the body had shifted from >>> focusing on scrutiny to trying to help drugs get approved.
‘Watchdog to the enabler’
Dame June Raine, the chief executive of the MHRA, who announced she
would be stepping down last week, has previously said the agency was
transitioning from “watchdog to the enabler,” a phrase which MPs said
warranted its own investigation.
Graham Stringer MP, co-chair of the APPG on pandemic response and
recovery, said:
“The MHRA oversees a failing system that is slow to act, causing harm to >>> patients and beset with conflicts of interest.
“We cannot allow it to continue. That’s why we have written to the
health select committee calling for an urgent investigation into the MHRA.” >>>
The APPG said that concerns raised directly with the MHRA had been met
with “an habitually dismissive and evasive response”.
Dame June said: “We have made significant steps to put patients at the
heart of all our work.
“These include incorporating patient views and lived experience into our >>> safety reviews; involving patients in the early stages of planning
medicines development and building a new responsive reporting system for >>> patients to tell us about any adverse incidents. We have also led on
legislative changes to strengthen surveillance for medical devices and
medicines, meaning patient safety is embedded firmly into law.
“Our progress so far in making changes based on meaningful patient
involvement gives us a solid base to build upon as we continue on this
important journey.”
“We are committed to enabling innovation that brings transformative
medical products safely to patients.’’
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use Apostle Paul's
secret (Philippians 4:12). Though masking is less protective, it helps
us avoid the appearance of doing the evil of spreading airborne
pathogens while there are people getting sick because of not being
100% protected. It is written that we're to "abstain from **all**
appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22 w/**emphasis**).
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8 ) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly (i.e. use the "Rapid COVID-19 Test" ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
"convince it forward" (John 15:12) for them to call their doctor and
self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic.
Thus, we're hoping for the best while preparing for the worse-case
scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations and others like the Omicron,
Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations
combining via slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like "Deltamicron"
that may render current COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no
longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry (
https://groups.google.com/g/sci.med.cardiology/c/6ZoE95d-VKc/m/14vVZoyOBgAJ >> ) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/1b4rx90/now_they_are_targeting_the_amish/
Now They Are Targeting the Amish
Friends Read Free
Commentary
In January of this year, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, in
cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, raided the Amos
Miller Organic Farm, a longtime members-only organic farm in Lancaster
County. Government agents took possession of many tens of thousands of
dollars worth of food that had been produced on the farm for family and
friends, people who rely on this farm for high-quality products that
avoid factory methods, chemicals, and industrial processes.
This is the kind of food that many people around the country would love
to buy but cannot because of the industrial cartels that control
production and distribution in this country. Residents of Amish country
are wildly fortunate to have such options, particularly as it pertains
to raw milk products, which are widely considered to be more nutritious
and delicious than processed milk. However, that truth is censored very
heavily by YouTube, as part of the general censorship regime in
operation now.
Story continues below advertisement
Food safety regulations seem like they are an attempt to protect the
consumer. The darker truth behind the entire history of this regulation
is that it is designed to prop up certain industries at the expense of
others. In particular, traditional farms have long been a target of such >>> regulation, and often make the mainline food supply less healthy and
even dangerous.
For many decades, regulators have carved out a special exemption for the >>> Amish, who have been allowed to go about their business provided they do >>> not reach a critical mass of consumers. But that is starting to change.
As ever more people have grown gravely suspicious of what the regulators >>> are pushing, more people are trading with traditional farms that sell
organic produce and also fresh eggs and milk.
One might suppose that in a country that presumably values free
enterprise, this would not be a problem. Truth is that the regulators
have been lying in wait for an opportunity to crack down. And that time
seems finally to have arrived. The Amos Miller farm has been disabled,
even though its methods of producing food are no different from that
used for thousands of years and in fact built this country when it was
largely agricultural.
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This problem affects the whole of the food supply. The state departments >>> of agriculture are mere foot soldiers for the USDA, which has been
vexing the Miller farm since 2016, along with every other independent
farmer in the country.
As Thomas Massie has long pointed out and attempted to fix, you simply
cannot get your product to market without using USDA processors, which
are expensive, few and far between, and less capable than independent
sources. Again, it really is an outrage that this is happening in a
country built by yeoman farmers providing for their communities.
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Let’s just take a step back and look at the big picture here. I feel a
certain passion for this subject because, quite frankly, I have long
been wrong about this. I used to laugh derisively at the crunchy
liberals who insisted on natural this and natural that, believing it to
be nothing but an affectation of the rich who did not understand the
vast food needs of a giant population. I fully believed that mass
industrialized and regulated (and probably subsidized) production was
just what was required for the modern age. I suspect that many people
bought into the propaganda, just like I did.
I had placed the defense of independent farming and organic methods
solidly on the left. So it is hilarious and ridiculous to me that it is
now considered a pet issue of the “far right.” It’s utterly absurd: to
defend the right to raise and sell food is not an issue of the left or
right. It is a matter of human rights.
Aside from that, I actually did some reading on food production, only to >>> discover that industrial methods and mass subsidies contribute to
population ill-health. This revelation was slow to dawn but it only
takes a bit of looking to discover that vast amounts of retail food is
all about getting rid of the excesses of the industrial system. That’s
why everything contains corn syrup, why the cows are fed corn, and why
grains are stuffed into every product possible, while healthy food is
rare and expensive.
It doesn’t have to be this way, I came to realize. Regular traditional
farming not only provides for population needs, as it always has, but
has the benefit of being vastly healthier. It has been put at a huge
disadvantage thanks to government regulations. Independent farms barely
survived, and now with their growing popularity, government is
determined to shut them down.
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What finally flipped me on the question was the government’s response to >>> COVID. Everything they asked us to do was the opposite of what we should >>> have done. They kept the liquor and weed stores open while shutting down >>> AA meetings, gyms, and independent groceries. They moved sick patients
into nursing homes. They forced ventilators and pharma products on
people who simply needed sunshine and traditional therapeutics. They
made it impossible to get proven drugs while forcing everyone to take
the experimental misnamed vaccine.
For that matter, they forced the whole population into masks that
reduced the ability to breath and get oxygen, and thereby made people
vastly sicker. When it turned out that the shot came with terrible side
effects and death, they did nothing. In fact, government agencies hid
the evidence of harm from the public.
So you have to ask yourself a fundamental question. Do we want these
same people in charge of farming, ranching, food quality, and food
distribution? The answer is no. In fact, there is a very long history of >>> food regulation being used to ruin the food supply. Every bit of
government involvement that overrides the decisions of producers and
consumers has contributed more to population ill-health.
When I was growing up, I was subjected to the government’s evil food
pyramid that privileged grains and demonized meat and eggs. It took
decades for genuine scientists and nutritionists to debunk that
nonsense. The war on eggs, for example, was completely misguided.
Presumably everyone knows that now. But even today, the United States is >>> one of the few countries in the world that requires retail sales of eggs >>> to include washing off the membrane outside the eggs. That’s why this
country is one of the few in the world in which eggs have to be
refrigerated!
Story continues below advertisement
Look, this huge problem dates far back in history. Back in 1906, the
federal government first got involved in regulating meat quality, and
the problems began immediately. Inspectors used a “poke and sniff”
method of checking for rancid meat that was proven to spread disease.
This idiotic method persisted for many decades after it had been
affirmed to be unsafe.
It also turned out that the main lobbying forces for meat inspections
were the dominant suppliers in the industry. They were attempting to
drive up the cost of compliance as a method of competing and cartel
creation.
An Amish farmer uses a horse drawn harrow in a field on his farm near
Wilson, Wisc., in a file photo. (Karen Bleier/AFP via Getty Images)
An Amish farmer uses a horse drawn harrow in a field on his farm near
Wilson, Wisc., in a file photo. (Karen Bleier/AFP via Getty Images)
What will save the food supply in this country is less government
oversight and bullying and more of the free market that the Amish
practice. It is highly dangerous for government powers to be deployed in >>> harassing these people and thus further poisoning the food supply. I’m
happy to admit that I was wrong on this subject for most of my writing
career. But the COVID response taught me a thing or two. I learned that
we cannot trust government oversight in any aspect of human health,
particularly not that which affects our food.
Story continues below advertisement
And it’s not only about food. It’s also about religious freedom. Groups
like the Amish and so many others have thrived in the United States
thanks to religious freedom. Their lifestyle and food choices are part
of that. Take that away and you remove the whole guts of the whole basis >>> of the American experience. It’s that serious.
Meanwhile, as government goes after raw milk, vast numbers suffer real
injury from mRNA shots the government forced on millions of people.
Pharma’s stocks continue to trade at high levels while true
investigations get little attention by the captured corporate media outlets.
The Amos Miller Organic Farm deserves every passionate defense from
anyone who values health and freedom. Make no mistake. The war on the
organic farm is a war on all of us and only to the industrial benefit of >>> large producers tightly connected to the cartel that runs agriculture in >>> this country. The entire regulatory empire needs to be completely
deregulated in the interest of the health and well-being of everyone.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not
necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use Apostle Paul's
secret (Philippians 4:12). Though masking is less protective, it helps
us avoid the appearance of doing the evil of spreading airborne
pathogens while there are people getting sick because of not being
100% protected. It is written that we're to "abstain from **all**
appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22 w/**emphasis**).
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8 ) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the US & elsewhere is by
rapidly (i.e. use the "Rapid COVID-19 Test" ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
"convince it forward" (John 15:12) for them to call their doctor and
self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic.
Thus, we're hoping for the best while preparing for the worse-case
scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations and others like the Omicron,
Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations
combining via slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like "Deltamicron"
that may render current COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no
longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry (
https://groups.google.com/g/sci.med.cardiology/c/6ZoE95d-VKc/m/14vVZoyOBgAJ >> ) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/1b5w1bi/telegraph_ministers_failed_to_consider_longterm/
Ministers failed to consider long-term pain of lockdown, say scientists
Poll of leading thinkers contrasts sharply with public perception at
height of pandemic that there was consensus
Sarah Knapton,
SCIENCE EDITOR and
Joe Pinkstone
2 March 2024 • 6:00pm
667
poll result
The Government did not pay sufficient attention to the long-term
collateral damage of lockdowns, a majority of British scientists
surveyed believe.
A wide-ranging survey conducted by The Telegraph and Censuswide shows
that nearly seven in ten (68 per cent) academics believe more
consideration should have been given to the fallout caused by shutting
down the country.
The views are in stark contrast to the public discourse at the height of >>> the pandemic, when only a few dissenting scientific voices spoke out to
highlight the health and economic risks from lockdowns.
While just over half (51 per cent) of scientists thought lockdowns were
always proportionate and always justified, one third disagreed.
The survey also reveals that while 44 per cent of scientists believed
pandemic modelling was “excellent” or “good”, some 37 per cent thought
it was “average”, “poor”, or “very poor”.
Experts said the results show there was far less scientific consensus
than the public was led to believe, and warned that many academics had
felt unable to speak their mind at the time.
Scientists feared loss of patronage
Prof Robert Dingwall, a former government Covid adviser, from Nottingham >>> Trent University, said: “It was always clear to those of us who were
able to make evidence-based criticisms of ‘official science’ and
government actions, that we enjoyed considerable tacit support in the
scientific community.
“This was, however, muted by concerns about loss of patronage, access to >>> research grants and difficulty in publication as the cost of speaking out. >>> “Others certainly paid a price for trying to voice loyal opposition. I
don’t blame anyone for keeping their head down if they had a career to
build, a family to support or a preference for a quiet life.”
Bob Seeley, a Tory MP who during the pandemic spoke up against
lockdowns, said: “At the time we were, understandably, focused on
immediate risk.
“However, it was also clear that there was precious little thought as to >>> the long-term damage to a society, especially in the development of
young people. Schools should never have been shut. We are seeing a
generation of young people damaged.
“There was too much politics from some scientists who were pushing a
politicised agenda.”
He added: “The lack of interest in the origins of the virus seems bizarre. >>> “My fear is that at very least, lockdown will be seen to have been an
ineffective way of dealing with the crisis. The lack of an open and
science-led conversation during the crisis was, I felt, disturbing.”
A generation scarred
Last month, the World Bank warned that lockdown disruption to education
would scar multiple generations of children who suffered serious
developmental and learning delays.
NHS waiting lists soared to a record 7.8 million last September and
there have been tens of thousands of extra non-Covid deaths since the
pandemic, particularly among heart and cancer patients.
A study from University College London in February estimated that 12,000 >>> years of life had been lost in Britain because of delays in diagnosing
skin cancer during Covid lockdowns.
Gordon Wishart, chief medical officer at Check4Cancer, and visiting
professor of cancer surgery at Anglia Ruskin University, repeatedly
warned in 2020 and 2021 that delaying cancer diagnosis and treatment
would lead to deaths, but said his fears were ignored.
“I did feel like my concerns were falling on deaf ears as far as the
Government is concerned,” he said.
“I have real concerns that we would not do anything different if we have >>> another pandemic, as the Covid Inquiry did not seem that interested in
identifying what went wrong with our approach, and how we would change
it next time.”
The Telegraph survey, taken between December and February by 198
scientists from universities across Britain, also showed that 70 per
cent believed government decisions were not transparent or well
communicated.
During the pandemic, what did you think of the Government’s communication? >>> 17%
Transparent and well communicated
70%
Not transparent and not well communicated
13%
No views on this/prefer not to say
During the pandemic, do you think of the Government paid sufficient
attention to the long-term damage of lockdowns?
19%
Government paid sufficient attention
Government did not pay sufficient attention
68%
14%
No views on this/prefer not to say
SOURCE: CENSUSWIDE SURVEY WITH 198 UK SCIENTISTS (2023/ 2024)
Just three per cent thought all scientific views had been considered by
the Government, while a third believed officials had focused on only a
minority of opinions.
During Covid in the UK, how would you rate the effectiveness of the
modelling that was used?
During the Covid pandemic in the UK, how many, if any, scientific views
were considered?
3%
19%
All of
them
Excellent
51%
Majority
of them
31%
Good
20%
Average
33%
Minority
of them
13%
Poor
4%
1%
Extremely poor
None of them
19%
14%
No views/prefer
not to say
No views/prefer
not to say
During the pandemic, what did you think of the Government's decisions?
Transparent and well-communicated
51%
Not transparent and not well-communicated
33%
No views on this/prefer not to say
16%
SOURCE: CENSUSWIDE SURVEY WITH 198 UK SCIENTISTS (2023/ 2024)
Sunetra Gupta, professor of theoretical epidemiology at the University
of Oxford, said it was important to prevent the “abuse and persecution”
of scientists who were prepared to challenge the consensus.
“There are clearly systemic problems in academia that need to be
addressed in order to permit a fuller debate of these critical issues,”
she said.
“In future, I hope universities and institutions like the Royal Society, >>> as well as the government and the media, will see fit to put on more
debates and allow dissenting voices to be heard.”
The survey also showed that scientists are split over whether Covid-19
leaked from a laboratory, with the majority thinking that China has not
been open and transparent about the origins of the disease.
Do you think Covid-19 is of zoonotic/natural origin?
Definitely
Most likely
Most likely not
Definitely not
No views on this/
prefer not to say
0%
10
20
30
40
50
60
Do you think China have been open and transparent about the origins of
Covid-19?
61%
6%
34%
No
Yes
No views on this/
prefer not to say
Do you think Covid-19 leaked from a lab in China?
Yes
No
No views on this/
prefer not to say
0%
10
20
30
40
SOURCE: CENSUSWIDE SURVEY WITH 198 UK SCIENTISTS (2023/ 2024)
Around one third believe that gain-of-function experiments – which
increase the potency of viruses and bacteria – could spark a pandemic,
while the same number think the work could help prevent future outbreaks. >>>
Do you think gain-of-function experiments experiments are needed to
prevent future pandemics?
34%
52%
No views on this/prefer not to say
Yes
14%
No
Do you think gain-of-function experiments experiments risk sparking
future pandemics?
34%
47%
No views on this/prefer not to say
Yes
19%
No
SOURCE: CENSUSWIDE SURVEY WITH 198 UK SCIENTISTS (2023/ 2024)
Ravi Gupta, professor of clinical microbiology at the University of
Cambridge, said: “I think the survey shows that people believe in the
ability of science to answer questions but some of those experiments
carry a risk and they need to be regulated.
“Now the dust is settling, hopefully people are allowed to have a
balanced discussion.”
The survey, which dealt with current contentious issues within science,
also found that around six in 10 scientists think that sex is binary,
while a similar number agree gender is fluid.
Do you think sex is binary?
58%
29%
13%
Yes*
No
No views on this
/prefer not to say
*except in rare cases such as intersex individuals
Do you think gender is binary?
22%
64%
14%
Yes
No
No views on this
/prefer not to say
SOURCE: CENSUSWIDE SURVEY WITH 198 UK SCIENTISTS (2023/ 2024)
Responding to the survey, a Department of Health and Social Care
spokesman said: “Throughout the pandemic, the Government acted to save
lives and livelihoods, preventing the NHS being overwhelmed, and
delivered a world-leading vaccine rollout which protected millions.
“We have always said there are lessons to be learnt from the pandemic
and are committed to learning from the Covid-19 Inquiry’s findings,
which will play a key role in informing the Government’s planning and
preparations for the future.”
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use Apostle Paul's
secret (Philippians 4:12). Though masking is less protective, it helps
us avoid the appearance of doing the evil of spreading airborne
pathogens while there are people getting sick because of not being
100% protected. It is written that we're to "abstain from **all**
appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22 w/**emphasis**).
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8 ) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly (i.e. use the "Rapid COVID-19 Test" ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
"convince it forward" (John 15:12) for them to call their doctor and
self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic.
Thus, we're hoping for the best while preparing for the worse-case
scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations and others like the Omicron,
Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations
combining via slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like "Deltamicron"
that may render current COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no
longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry (
https://groups.google.com/g/sci.med.cardiology/c/6ZoE95d-VKc/m/14vVZoyOBgAJ >> ) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/1b6ntt8/locking_down_small_areas_during_the_autumn_of/
Covid inquiry: Local lockdowns failed, said Drakeford
21 hours ago
By David Deans, Rowenna Hoskin & Jack Grey,
BBC News
Share
Getty Images A Covid-19 poster in the foreground with Caerphilly Castle
in the backgroundGetty Images
Caerphilly county borough was the first area to lockdown in September 2020 >>> Mark Drakeford said locking down small areas during the autumn of 2020
was a "failed experiment", the Covid inquiry has been told.
Some council areas and towns like Llanelli and Bangor were subject to
restrictions as officials struggled to cope with rising case numbers.
A senior Welsh advisor said that in hindsight "perhaps they weren't the
best idea".
Rob Orford told the inquiry that lockdowns made it more "complicated".
The chief scientific advisor for Wales was among the senior officials
giving evidence at Monday's hearing, sitting in Cardiff.
It was told that Sir Frank Atherton, chief medical officer for Wales,
called the lack of information surrounding different UK restrictions an
"omnishambles".
The word, voted 2012's word of the year by the Oxford English
Dictionary, means a situation which is shambolic from every possible angle. >>>
Sir Frank told the hearing that Wales should have followed England when
it made masks law in shops.
Meanwhile a senior civil servant, Dame Shan Morgan, admitted to deleting >>> messages early in the pandemic.
Welsh government Wales' chief medical officer Sir Frank AthertonWelsh
government
Wales' chief medical officer Sir Frank Atherton
Tom Poole, counsel to the inquiry, told the hearing that the first
minister had described in written evidence local lockdowns as a "failed
experiment".
Caerphilly county was the first council area to go into a local lockdown >>> in September 2020, after a significant rise in cases there. A number of
other places followed soon after.
It generally meant people could not leave the areas without a reasonable >>> excuse. Case rates fell initially in Caerphilly, before rising again
before the firebreak lockdown of late October.
Dr Orford said in "hindsight perhaps they weren't the best idea".
"I felt it made things more complicated that you had to have more
legislation, more policies in place across different local authorities," >>> he said.
Caerphilly case rate
Figures from the time showed case rates fell in Caerphilly before rising >>> later
The hearing heard an account of the first Welsh government cabinet
meeting where Covid was discussed in 24 February 2020 - a month after
Sir Frank warned Mr Drakeford of a "significant risk" of Covid coming to >>> Wales.
Minutes claimed that Vaughan Gething, who was health minister at the
time, said there had been no imported cases in the UK at that point -
there were nine positive cases by 18 February.
The minutes have been disputed by a Welsh government source, who told
BBC Wales the document was incorrect in its account of Mr Gething's remarks.
Local lockdowns a failed experiment, says first minister
The timeline of the Covid-19 pandemic in Wales
Welsh government 'caught with trousers down' on Covid
Gething deleted messages, Covid inquiry hears
Russell George MS, Welsh Conservative shadow health minister, called the >>> alleged mistake "astounding".
"The fact that he wasn't aware of Covid's arrival into the UK when
others were preparing is very telling."
By the end of January, Sir Frank said it was "increasingly apparent that >>> optimistic scenario of it fizzling out in China was not going to happen". >>>
He added that the delay did not particularly surprise him, because of
"everything that was happening in Wales, including the management of the >>> flooding".
Sir Frank said no matter what the Welsh or UK governments had done, he
believed a nationwide lockdown was unavoidable.
Face masks
During his evidence Sir Frank said Wales should have copied England when >>> it made face coverings mandatory in public places.
Wales made masks compulsory on public transport in July 2020 but not in
shops until September, whereas England made them mandatory in shops in July.
Sir Frank originally advised against it amid concerns over PPE, face
coverings encouraging risky behaviour and coverings not being up to
World Health Organization standards.
"I think from all the time and energy spent on face coverings it would
have been better to align," he added.
The inquiry was shown a page from Sir Frank's notebook with the word
omnishambles scrawled across it, which appears to be from the summer of
2020.
Covid Inquiry A spider diagram Atherton scrawled in his notebook, which
appears to be from the summer of 2020, with omnishambles written at the
centre of the pageCovid Inquiry
Sir Frank had written omnishambles in his notebook about the difference
in UK restrictions
"This represents a degree of frustration I think I had which is that
information came from UK level into Wales very late and left us on the
back foot on some issues," said Sir Frank.
He said it "seemed odd" that some restrictions were being lifted when
the virus was low, but other restrictions - including rules on wearing
masks - were being introduced.
He concluded his evidence by saying there was "no safer alternative" to
discharging hospital patients with symptoms of Covid into care homes
without a test being required.
"The common view was that care homes ought to be able to manage cases of >>> infectious disease by isolating people within there," he said.
Though "not an easy decision" he said it was made "in the context of
hospitals absolutely risking being overloaded".
He said elderly patients could have been asymptomatic in hospital but
potentially "staying in hospital and becoming infected".
The Welsh government's chief scientific adviser for health, Rob Orford,
was concerned early in the pandemic that the disease would overwhelm the >>> NHS.
Rob Orford
Rob Orford, chief scientific adviser for health wrote emails in February >>> explaining the NHS would be overwhelmed
The Inquiry heard he wrote two emails in February warning the NHS
capacity would be outstripped based on the demand.
Public Health Wales advised against the Wales v Scotland Six Nations
match of March 2020 taking place, despite the Welsh government not
forcing its postponement.
By the time organisers called off the match, one day before kick-off,
20,000 Scottish rugby fans had already travelled to Cardiff.
Tom Poole said Public Health Wales had advised the match "should be
postponed or cancelled".
Mr Orford said he was not aware that advice had been given but agreed
that, with "the benefit of hindsight", it would have made sense to call
the match off.
Dame Shan Morgan, who was permanent secretary to the Welsh government
for the bulk of the pandemic - the most senior civil servant in Wales,
also gave evidence on Monday.
She admitted having deleted "some" early WhatsApp messages about Covid.
"I didn't turn on disappearing messages... To be honest I wouldn't know
how to but I know I deleted a few early messages," she said. "I have no
recollection of why beyond I suppose just an attempt at housekeeping."
Counsel to the Inquiry Tom Poole told the hearing that Jane Runeckles,
the first minister's special adviser, switched on the WhatsApp deletion
function in November 2021.
It comes after the Inquiry heard last week that Mr Gething used the same >>> setting during the pandemic.
The Inquiry will continue on Tuesday when Wales' top civil servant
Andrew Goodall and Public Health Wales boss Tracey Cooper will give
evidence.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use Apostle Paul's
secret (Philippians 4:12). Though masking is less protective, it helps
us avoid the appearance of doing the evil of spreading airborne
pathogens while there are people getting sick because of not being
100% protected. It is written that we're to "abstain from **all**
appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22 w/**emphasis**).
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8 ) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly (i.e. use the "Rapid COVID-19 Test" ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
"convince it forward" (John 15:12) for them to call their doctor and
self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic.
Thus, we're hoping for the best while preparing for the worse-case
scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations and others like the Omicron,
Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations
combining via slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like "Deltamicron"
that may render current COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no
longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry (
https://groups.google.com/g/sci.med.cardiology/c/6ZoE95d-VKc/m/14vVZoyOBgAJ >> ) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://ethicsalarms.com/2024/03/14/ethics-alarms-points-out-how-terrible-rfk-jr-s-vp-short-list-is-kamala-harris-says-hold-my-beer/
Ethics Alarms Points Out How Terrible RFK Jr.’s VP “Short List” is;
Kamala Harris says “Hold My Beer!”
MARCH 14, 2024 / JACK MARSHALL
What a shameless demagogue.
I am immediately torn, because every Kamala Harris head-exploding
utterance raises a Julie Principle issue: OK, an elected official who
has conclusively proven herself to be dumb, irresponsible and ethically
inert says something that is dumb, irresponsible and ethically alert.
Why is that worth complaining about or criticizing? Nevertheless, some
of Harris’s outbursts are just too despicable to be ignored. Like this
one, today, as she visited abortion providers and staff members at a
clinic in St. Paul, Minnesota to cheer on women putting the unborn to
death for the crime of complicating their mothers’ lives:
“These attacks against an individual’s right to make decisions about
their own body are outrageous and, in many instances, just plain old
immoral,” she thundered. “How dare these elected leaders believe they
are in a better position to tell women what they need, to tell women
what is in their best interest. We have to be a nation that trusts women.” >>>
Nice. Kamala had previously used the “How dare they!” stunt to condemn
the U.S. Supreme Court for daring to do their jobs, which includes
striking down bad decisions that made up constitutional rights that
didn’t exist. The abortion-fanatic’s dishonest defense has always relied >>> on pretending that only one life is involved in an abortion, though the
state has a valid interest in protecting all lives, including unborn
humans who their mothers want to kill. When does an abortion in Harris’s >>> world suddenly involve more than just the woman’s body? Six weeks? 15
weeks? 9 months? Never, if her words mean what they appear to mean.
“Plain old immoral” has always included “Thou shalt not kill”: what
weird definition of “immoral” is Harris alluding to? It must be really
old; Sumarian, maybe? Ancient Aztec?
And what is the right to do whatever you want with your own body? Does
it have any limits? Could Kamala please state this right simply and
concisely? The concept would seem to be an endorsement of anarchy, and
an assertion that the rule of law is itself “immoral,” which is ironic,
since legal codes are moral codes. Government and law necessarily
dictate what a citizen can or cannot to “with their own body,” and
Harris’s party has grand designs on that area even beyond its harsh
measures to force Americans to get mysterious chemicals injected into
their bodies as well as their children. It also wants to find ways to
stop citizens from saying, writing and hearing words, ideas and opinions >>> that progressives find “hateful” or “misinformation.”
Doesn’t using our mouths and brains to do what we want them to do bodily >>> autonomy too?
The claim that abortion is opposed because elected officials feel it
isn’t in a woman’s best interests is a flat-out lie. Abortion’s ethical
conflict is that it pits a woman’s best interests against another human
being’s right to exist. Fine: making the nascent life you carry
disappear may be in your best interests, just as murdering your cheating >>> spouse or stealing your sister jewels might be in your best interests.
But the rule of law is about balancing valid interests, and making the
hard choices that create an ethical society.
Isn’t Kamala supposed to know this? She went to law school, right?
“We have to be a nation that trusts women”—what does Harris think that
means? Should women be subject to no legal restraints at all, since we
trust these heavenly creatures? Women can’t be trusted to do the right
thing when they have an interest in opposition to that conduct; in this
respect, they’re no different from anyone else. Should we trust women
not to get pregnant when they can’t care for or support a child? And if
a woman violates that trust, what are the consequences? Should they be
borne by her, or the innocent life her conduct created? We can trust
women to be highly tempted to choose the latter, not because they aren’t >>> trustworthy, but because they are human, and humans are frequently
guided by non-ethical motives and consideration.
A complex ethics conflict like abortion can only be addressed by
examining all factors and competing interests, and what we get from the
Vice-President of the United States is hypocrisy, straw man arguments ,
appeals to emotion and “How dare they!”
An untrustworthy woman is calling for women to be trusted.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use Apostle Paul's
secret (Philippians 4:12). Though masking is less protective, it helps
us avoid the appearance of doing the evil of spreading airborne
pathogens while there are people getting sick because of not being
100% protected. It is written that we're to "abstain from **all**
appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22 w/**emphasis**).
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8 ) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the US & elsewhere is by
rapidly (i.e. use the "Rapid COVID-19 Test" ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
"convince it forward" (John 15:12) for them to call their doctor and
self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic.
Thus, we're hoping for the best while preparing for the worse-case
scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations and others like the Omicron,
Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations
combining via slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like "Deltamicron"
that may render current COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no
longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry (
https://groups.google.com/g/sci.med.cardiology/c/6ZoE95d-VKc/m/14vVZoyOBgAJ >> ) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
On Mon, 18 Mar 2024 10:20:33 -0700, Michael Ejercito
<MEjercit@HotMail.com> wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/1bhrecg/death_by_a_thousand_cuts_uk_insolvencies_soar_17/
‘Death by a thousand cuts’: UK insolvencies soar 17 per cent and exceed
pandemic levels
BY:JACK MENDEL
The Insolvency Service said the numbers of compulsory liquidations,
CVLs, and administrations were also higher than in February 2023.
Fresh insolvency figures painted a grim picture this morning, with a
number of companies going bust soaring by 17 per cent last month
compared to 2023.
The Insolvency Service said 2,102 companies went bust last month which
was a 17 per cent rise on the same period last year, which was at 1,801. >>>
The government agency said this was higher than levels seen during the
pandemic “while the government support measures were in place”, with
things like the furlough scheme. It is also higher than pre-pandemic
figures.
Analysts blamed a mixture of high inflation and the sharp increase in
interest rates following the mini-budget, which increased costs of
borrowing, and encouraged Brits to tighten their purses.
The war in Ukraine, which Russia launched two years ago, has also placed >>> huge pressure on businesses’ energy costs and ability to pay rent.
It said this included 217 compulsory liquidations, 1,707 creditors’
voluntary liquidations (CVLs), 166 administrations and 12 company
voluntary arrangements (CVAs).
The Insolvency Service said the numbers of compulsory liquidations,
CVLs, and administrations were also higher than in February 2023.
It also said that the number of insolvencies in February 2024 was
10,136, around 23 per cent higher than last year.
This comes as the UK entered a brief recession last month, but there are >>> already signs it had exited that period. This week it was reported the
UK took its first steps out of recession after the economy returned to
growth in January.
At the end of last month, S&P’s closely watched purchasing managers’
index (PMI), also showed the UK economy made a stronger start to 2024
than major European economies.
Yet, many businesses have struggled with higher interest rates, which
have been on hold for some months now.
Millions of Brits are eagerly anticipating their fall, which is
anticipated later this year, but some in the Bank of England’s
decision-making MPC committee have been more hawkish. This week it was
reported that interest rate cuts are drawing ever nearer after new data
showed that slack continued to build in the labour market.
READ MORE
Why the Bank of England will keep interest rates on hold despite lower
inflation
Although almost every measure suggested a softer labour market than
expected, the downside surprises were small, which demonstrated the
labour market was still tight in historical terms.
Julie Palmer, a partner at Begbies Traynor, said the latest data “paints >>> an unhappy picture for the state of the UK economy”.
“This environment is putting a huge amount of pressure on businesses and >>> the challenge business leaders now face will be insurmountable for many. “ >>>
Julie Palmer,
“After a decade of interest rates floating around zero, many businesses
simply were not prepared for higher interest rates for a sustained
period of time, having loaded up on cheap debt during the boom years,”
Palmer said.
“Sadly, the debt storm has now broken and this morning’s data from the
Insolvency Service highlights how this macro-economic environment is
wreaking havoc on small and medium businesses across the country.”
She added that the latest figures would discourage business owners who
had hoped interest rates might come down soon.
Daniel Staunton, a senior associate in the restructuring & insolvency
team at Kingsley Napley, warned that “the facts don’t lie”.
Staunton said: “When you speak to other professionals operating in the
restructuring and insolvency field they all report being busier which is >>> reflected in the increased numbers.
“We can likely expect March 2024 stats to show another incremental
increase.”
READ MORE
Pound Sterling makes strong start to 2024 as UK recovery from recession
to continue
He predicted that while “new records continue to be broken” he feared it >>> would “be an ongoing trend and whilst we won’t see tsunami levels, the
total number of insolvencies this year will ebb and flow like the tide.” >>>
Nicky Fisher, president at R3 warned that “businesses are still
suffering the after-effects of last year’s economic turbulence”.
“Rising fuel, energy and funding costs and cautious consumer spending
are continuing to take their toll on bottom lines and make it harder for >>> businesses to break even,” Fisher added.
“After the pandemic era lockdowns; Brexit; staff shortages – and rising
wage costs; spiralling fuel costs; high interest rates and inflation
eroding consumers spending power and confidence; and the contraction in
income implied by falling GDP , it is sad but unsurprising that company
insolvencies have increased.”
Jeremy Whiteson,
“While there is still some optimism among firms about what the next year >>> has in store, the economic conditions remain a key area of concern for
many and unless things improve, we could see more and more firms turning >>> to an insolvency process to help resolve their financial issues. “
Meanwhile, Jeremy Whiteson, restructuring and insolvency partner at city >>> law firm, Fladgate warned that company failures can “provoke wider
economic problems if that causes unemployment or lost production”.
Whiteson said: “Against this background, the increased figures are
worrying. There has been something of a ‘death by a thousand cuts’ for
many businesses”, citing the impact of the war in Ukraine, the aftermath >>> of Covid, Brexit changes and inflation.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use Apostle Paul's
secret (Philippians 4:12). Though masking is less protective, it helps
us avoid the appearance of doing the evil of spreading airborne
pathogens while there are people getting sick because of not being
100% protected. It is written that we're to "abstain from **all**
appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22 w/**emphasis**).
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8 ) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly (i.e. use the "Rapid COVID-19 Test" ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
"convince it forward" (John 15:12) for them to call their doctor and
self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic.
Thus, we're hoping for the best while preparing for the worse-case
scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations and others like the Omicron,
Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations
combining via slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like "Deltamicron"
that may render current COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no
longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry (
https://groups.google.com/g/sci.med.cardiology/c/6ZoE95d-VKc/m/14vVZoyOBgAJ >> ) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://ethicsalarms.com/2024/03/19/heluva-scotus-choice-there-joe/
Heluva SCOTUS Choice There, Joe!
MARCH 19, 2024 / JACK MARSHALL
Great. We now have a U.S. Supreme Court Justice who doesn’t like the
First Amendment. The Babylon Bee hardly had to be satirical to come up
with that headline. During yesterday’s oral arguments before the U.S.
Supreme Court in Murthy v. Missouri, the newest Justice and the only one >>> appointed by President Biden, Kentanji Brown Jackson revealed a
frightening hostility to the most important guaranteed principle of
American freedom from oppressive government.
“My biggest concern is that your view has the First Amendment
hamstringing the government in significant ways in the most important
time periods,” Jackson told Louisiana Solicitor General Benjamin
Aguiñaga as he argued against allowing Big Brother to recruit Big Tech
as a political ally by intimidating social media platforms into removing >>> posts the government finds inconvenient. I read Jackson’s quotes
yesterday with genuine horror. My sister, a federal litigator of liberal >>> tendencies, had assured me that Jackson was a smart, solid, trustworthy
jurist based on her experiences appearing before her. Justice Jackson
may be smart, but trustworthy she isn’t. Intentionally or accidentally,
President Biden’s openly DEI appointment to fill the Court slot vacated
by Stephen Breyer installed the perfect tool to assist aspiring Democrat >>> totalitarians to achieve their agendas.
Oh please, tell us again how Donald Trump is the existential threat to
democracy.
“Hamstringing the government” is the entire principle underlying the
First Amendment, indeed the entire Bill of Rights. Jackson’ lament
demonstrates the socking devolution of the American Left. On the
celebrated, ultra-liberal Warren Court that brought us school
integration, the rights have a lawyer appointed and “the fruit of the
poisonous tree” among other advances in civil rights, liberal icon
William O. Douglas and fellow Democrat Hugo Black kept reminding the
public and the government that “Congress shall make no law abridging the >>> freedom of speech” means that Congress shall make no law abridging the
freedom of speech, and that in the Bill of Rights, Constitution
prohibitions on “Congress” are prohibitions on the government as a
whole. In those golden days, it was the evil conservatives trying to
tell people what they were allowed to see, read and hear.
Jackson’s statement about the perils of hamstringing the government were >>> just the beginning of her cheerleading for government censorship. “Some
might say that the government actually has a duty to take steps to
protect the citizens of this country” she said, making it obvious that
she was one of the ‘some.” “You seem to be suggesting that that duty
cannot manifest itself in the government encouraging or even pressuring
platforms to take down harmful information,” continued Jackson. “So can
you help me? Because I’m really worried about that. Because you’ve got
the First Amendment operating in an environment of threatening
circumstances, from the government’s perspective, and you’re saying that >>> the government can’t interact with the source of those problems.”
Ah, yes, those “threatening circumstances.” Can’t have that. You know,
like telling the public about the President’s son’s laptop, questioning
the edicts of the CDC during the pandemic and the suspicious undermining >>> of election integrity …or endangering Democratic power in Washington, D.C. >>>
Despite indisputable proof that the Department of Health and Human
Services, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Centers >>> for Disease Control and Prevention, Census Bureau, Department of
Homeland Security, Department of State, FBI, Department of Justice, and
the White House demanded Big Tech companies like Twitter (now X),
Facebook, and YouTube interfere with Americans attempting to publicize
facts and opinions the government preferred to keep buried, Jackson
appeared to see this as completely benign.
Judge Terry Doughty, chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the
Western District of Louisiana in his 155-page ruling described the Biden >>> administration’s efforts to push social media platforms into doing its
censorship “the most massive attack against free speech in United
States’ history.” But Joe’s justice doesn’t see it that way at all. In
another exchange, Jackson argued that a “once-in-a-lifetime pandemic” or >>> other declared “emergencies” should allow the always well-meaning
government expand constitutional limits. You know, like Woodrow Wilson
locking up dissenters during World War I. Biden already has tried to use >>> his “emergency powers” illicitly, like ordering landlords not to evict
deadbeat tenants, or allowing degree holders to skip their obligations
to pay back loans. Most dictators take over in “emergencies,” and the
freedom of speech is usually the first right to go.
“I’m interested in your view that the context doesn’t change the First
Amendment principles,” Jackson said. “I understood our First Amendment
jurisprudence to require heightened scrutiny of government restrictions
of speech, but not necessarily a total prohibition when you’re talking
about a compelling interest of the government to ensure, for example,
that the public has accurate information in the context of a
once-in-a-lifetime pandemic.”
She actually said that, even though it is now undeniable that the public >>> was given false, deliberately misleading and repeatedly wrong
information by the government (as well as the fearmongering news media). >>> Conservative writer Matt Margolis correctly observed this morning, “More >>> often than not, it seems that the speech that the government censored or >>> suppressed turned out to be right in the end.”
Naturally, the mainstream media is soft-peddling Justice Jackson’s
ominous unmasking as a government censorship advocate. But the public
needs to understand: she stands for and with the party and the President >>> that are claiming only they can “save democracy,” when it is becoming
increasingly clear that the exact opposite is the truth.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use Apostle Paul's
secret (Philippians 4:12). Though masking is less protective, it helps
us avoid the appearance of doing the evil of spreading airborne
pathogens while there are people getting sick because of not being
100% protected. It is written that we're to "abstain from **all**
appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22 w/**emphasis**).
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8 ) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly (i.e. use the "Rapid COVID-19 Test" ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
"convince it forward" (John 15:12) for them to call their doctor and
self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic.
Thus, we're hoping for the best while preparing for the worse-case
scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations and others like the Omicron,
Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations
combining via slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like "Deltamicron"
that may render current COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no
longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry (
https://groups.google.com/g/sci.med.cardiology/c/6ZoE95d-VKc/m/14vVZoyOBgAJ >> ) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://reason.com/2024/03/20/15-days-to-slow-the-spread-on-the-fourth-anniversary-a-reminder-to-never-give-politicians-that-power-again/
'15 Days To Slow the Spread': On the Fourth Anniversary, a Reminder to
Never Give Politicians That Power Again
In the name of safety, politicians did many things that diminished our
lives—without making us safer.
JOHN STOSSEL | 3.20.2024 9:45 AM
Share on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly
versionCopy page URL
John Stossel is seen in front of the U.S. Capitol | Stossel TV
(Stossel TV)
Four years ago, government officials told us, "Stay home!" We have "15
days to slow the spread."
Days turned into months and then years, while officials chipped away at
our freedoms.
I have long been wary of politicians, but even I was surprised at how
authoritarian many were eager to be.
Some demanded police to go after people surfing. They took down the rims >>> of basketball hoops. Children's playgrounds were taped up like crime
scenes. They told people in rural Utah and Wyoming to stay in their homes. >>>
In the name of safety, politicians did many things that diminished our
lives, without making us safer.
They complied with teachers unions' demand to keep schools closed. Kids' >>> learning has been set back by years.
Politicians destroyed jobs by closing businesses. Some shutdown orders
were ridiculous. Landscaping businesses and private campgrounds were
forced to shut down.
Both former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden sharply
increased government spending. Trump's $2.2 trillion "stimulus" package, >>> followed by Biden's $1.9 trillion "American Rescue Plan," led to so much >>> money printing that inflation doubled and then tripled.
This week, the fourth-year anniversary of "15 days to stop the spread,"
my new video looks back at politicians' incompetence.
First, government probably killed people with its endless red tape.
At least the Trump administration broke Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) rules to speed vaccine approvals. But FDA rules kept perfectly
good American COVID-19 test kits off the market because they hadn't gone >>> through its multiyear approval process.
Michigan's Gov. Gretchen Whitmer banned "public and private gatherings
of any size." Residents were told they could not see friends or relatives. >>>
Many of her rules seemed random. She banned motorboats and jet skis, but >>> allowed kayaks and canoes. She closed small businesses, but exempted
big-box stores if they blocked off aisles offering plant nurseries and
paint. Why?
Even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) "six-foot
rule" under Trump was arbitrary, says former FDA commissioner, Dr. Scott >>> Gottlieb. COVID travels in aerosols that flow much farther than six feet. >>>
When some Americans became fed up and protested, they were vilified for
"threatening the public." Some were fined. A few were arrested.
It's clear now that restrictive rules were not the best way to protect
people.
Sweden took a near opposite approach. They mostly left people alone.
Swedish officials encouraged the elderly and other at-risk people to
stay home.
But beyond that, they let life carry on as normal. Sweden didn't impose
lockdowns, school closures, or mask mandates.
They followed standard pre-COVID wisdom that the best protection is what >>> epidemiologists call "herd" or "collective" immunity. Once a critical
mass of people are infected and recover, collective immunity will reduce >>> the total number of infections.
Arrogant American politicians and media "experts" sneered at Sweden's
approach.
NBC "reported" on what it called, "Sweden's failed experiment. How their >>> dangerous Covid gamble went wrong."
CBS confidently stated, "Sweden becomes an example of how not to handle
COVID."
Time magazine headlined: "Swedish COVID-19 Response Is a Disaster."
But the media's experts were just wrong. Swedish health officials were
right.
Yes, at the beginning of the pandemic, Sweden suffered high numbers of
COVID deaths, but as predicted, over time, herd immunity protected
people. Sweden's excess death rate was the lowest in Europe.
Sweden's economy got through the pandemic much healthier than other
countries. Because Swedish schools never closed, Swedish students didn't >>> suffer the learning losses that American kids did.
Four years later, have media blowhards who were wrong apologized?
Corrected their stories? No.
Have American politicians apologized and begged forgiveness for their
arrogance, for destroying jobs, restricting our freedom, and needlessly
pushing us around? No.
Let's not give politicians power like that again.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use Apostle Paul's
secret (Philippians 4:12). Though masking is less protective, it helps
us avoid the appearance of doing the evil of spreading airborne
pathogens while there are people getting sick because of not being
100% protected. It is written that we're to "abstain from **all**
appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22 w/**emphasis**).
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8 ) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the US & elsewhere is by
rapidly (i.e. use the "Rapid COVID-19 Test" ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
"convince it forward" (John 15:12) for them to call their doctor and
self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic.
Thus, we're hoping for the best while preparing for the worse-case
scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations and others like the Omicron,
Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations
combining via slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like "Deltamicron"
that may render current COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no
longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry (
https://groups.google.com/g/sci.med.cardiology/c/6ZoE95d-VKc/m/14vVZoyOBgAJ >> ) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/1bmxy0t/millions_of_lowincome_families_set_to_lose/
Millions of Low-Income Families Set to Lose Internet Subsidies
The Affordable Connectivity Program, a $14.2 billion federal effort to
make internet service more affordable, is expected to run out of funding >>> this spring.
Share full article
A person adjusting a device on top of a long rod on the edge of a flat
roof, with other buildings in the city behind him.
A volunteer installing Wi-Fi at a building in Brooklyn. More than 23
million households receive effectively free or reduced-price internet
service through a federal program that may be about to end.Credit...José >>> A. Alvarado Jr. for The New York Times
Madeleine Ngo
By Madeleine Ngo
Reporting from Washington
March 23, 2024, 5:01 a.m. ET
Phyllis Jackson, a retired administrative assistant in Monroeville, Pa., >>> signed up for home internet service for the first time in about two
decades early last year. She now regularly uses the internet to pay her
bills online, buy clothes, find new recipes and learn about her medication. >>> Ms. Jackson said she signed up for internet service after enrolling in a >>> federal program that provided a monthly discount for low-income
households. That program is set to run out of funding this spring,
however, which will make it harder for Ms. Jackson and millions of other >>> households to afford to stay connected to the internet.
“I really can’t do without it,” said Ms. Jackson, 79. “The way things
are today, everyone needs to be able to use the computer.”
The $14.2 billion Affordable Connectivity Program provides low-income
households up to $30 off their internet bill each month, and households
living on eligible tribal lands can receive a discount of up to $75 a
month. More than 23 million households receive either reduced bills or
effectively free internet service through the program.
But federal officials began winding down the program early last month,
when they stopped accepting new applications and enrollments. The
program was tucked into the 2021 infrastructure law as a replacement for >>> a pandemic-era program that provided certain households discounts on
their internet bills. Although there is some bipartisan support to
continue the subsidies, lawmakers have not passed an extension.
Participants will continue receiving full benefits through April,
according to the Federal Communications Commission. In May, internet
companies will have the option to provide them with partial discounts
using the remaining federal funding. Based on provider claims data as of >>> Feb. 15, the program had about $2.5 billion left, which is meant to
cover the subsidies and other program expenses.
The program is part of the Biden administration’s broader initiative to
connect every American to affordable, high-speed internet, which
officials hope will stimulate economic growth and widen access to health >>> care and education. The administration is spending an additional $42.5
billion to expand access to broadband to every corner of the country.
The administration is funneling billions of dollars into the expansion
of internet access largely because officials see it as a critical way to >>> strengthen the economy. Across U.S. metros, prime-age workers who have
access to high-speed internet on home computers participate in the labor >>> force at a much higher rate than those without access, according to
research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. Other research
has found that internet connectivity can bolster economic growth in
rural areas, helping to create jobs and attract workers.
Some Democratic and Republican lawmakers have coalesced around a bill
that would provide $7 billion to fund the program for about another
year. Senator Peter Welch of Vermont, a Democrat who has sponsored the
bill, said that he was encouraged by the bipartisan support, but that it >>> was “tough to be optimistic.”
“It’s hard to get anything done in this Congress,” Mr. Welch said.
“Anything on the budget becomes very contentious.”
In October, Biden administration officials sent Congress a supplemental
request for $6 billion to extend funding for the program, which they
have urged Republicans to support. “It’s past time for them to step up
for the American people so that we can continue our work to close the
digital divide across America,” Robyn Patterson, a White House
spokeswoman, said in a statement.
F.C.C. officials have said more funding is “urgently needed” to help
millions of households stay connected to high-speed internet. According
to a survey the F.C.C. conducted of program recipients in December, 48
percent of respondents said they would switch to a lower-cost plan that
could be slower than their current one, and 29 percent said they would
drop service after losing the benefit.
Paloma Perez, a spokeswoman for the F.C.C., said that the end of the
program would be a “step backward” and that officials were working with
lawmakers to “think about what the future of this program looks like.”
Image
A lineman in the bucket of a bucket truck stringing fiber optic line on
a tall pole as other linemen walk on the ground. They are surrounded by
grass and trees along a dirt lane.
The Biden administration is funneling billions of dollars into the
expansion of internet access, in large part because officials see it as
a critical way to strengthen the economy.Credit...Mike Belleme for The
New York Times
But some Republicans have argued that the program is wasteful. In a
December letter to the F.C.C., Senator John Thune of South Dakota and
other Republican lawmakers raised concerns about the program subsidizing >>> households that already had internet service. They have also pointed to
findings from the F.C.C.’s Office of Inspector General, which has in
recent months expressed concerns about some providers failing to comply
with program rules and improperly claiming funds.
“Some people are receiving this benefit that don’t really need it,”
Senator Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia said during a recent local >>> news interview. “So I think we need to have accountability and make sure >>> that the people that are receiving this benefit are the ones that
actually cannot pay.”
According to the F.C.C. survey, 22 percent of respondents said they did
not have any internet service and 25 percent only had mobile internet
service before enrolling in the program. Thirty percent of respondents
said they had both mobile and home internet service.
Blair Levin, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution
and an F.C.C. official during the Obama administration, said that
changes to the program would be problematic, but that lawmakers should
reach a compromise before millions of Americans are left at risk of
losing internet access.
Ms. Jackson, who enrolled in the program with assistance from a
Pittsburgh-based nonprofit, said she was not sure if she could afford
internet service after the program ends. She said she would most likely
have to purchase fewer groceries and reduce her electricity use to cut
expenses, but her monthly rent is also set to increase by $50 next month. >>> The end of the subsidy program could also complicate the Biden
administration’s other $42.5 billion program to provide every American
access to broadband, said Drew Garner, the director of policy engagement >>> at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. The funds, which will
be distributed as grants to internet providers, are meant to cover much
of the cost of building broadband infrastructure.
Without the subsidy program, however, more low-income households will
struggle to afford broadband service. With fewer potential customers in
low-income areas, internet providers will have less incentive to expand
service in those neighborhoods and may ask for bigger federal grants,
Mr. Garner said.
“It’s a big task to reach every unconnected household in the country,”
Mr. Garner said. “That’s going to be way harder without the A.C.P.
attracting infrastructure to those very hard-to-reach areas.”
Mr. Garner said the subsidy program has also helped provide households
more stable internet access. In the year before enrolling in the
program, many participants reported only having internet service during
the months they could afford it. Although some households could drop
service entirely, others might opt into slower internet plans, which
could impede their ability to complete many tasks online, Mr. Garner said. >>> Vincent Coleman, a 26-year-old medical student in Huntington, W.Va.,
said he would probably have to downgrade his internet plan. Although the >>> new plan would cost about $40 a month — roughly the same amount he pays
now with the discount — he worries his internet connection would be too
slow to watch lectures or view patient records at home.
Mr. Coleman said the benefit has helped provide relief for him and his wife.
“It’s a great help,” Mr. Coleman said. “Finances are always a major
source of stress, and I budget very carefully.”
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use Apostle Paul's
secret (Philippians 4:12). Though masking is less protective, it helps
us avoid the appearance of doing the evil of spreading airborne
pathogens while there are people getting sick because of not being
100% protected. It is written that we're to "abstain from **all**
appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22 w/**emphasis**).
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8 ) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the US & elsewhere is by
rapidly (i.e. use the "Rapid COVID-19 Test" ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
"convince it forward" (John 15:12) for them to call their doctor and
self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic.
Thus, we're hoping for the best while preparing for the worse-case
scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations and others like the Omicron,
Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations
combining via slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like "Deltamicron"
that may render current COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no
longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry (
https://groups.google.com/g/sci.med.cardiology/c/6ZoE95d-VKc/m/14vVZoyOBgAJ >> ) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/1bni0i3/couple_still_shielding_four_years_on_from_first/
Couple shielding for years still face Covid risks
1 day ago
Daniel Sexton,
Edward Sault
Share
Gayle and Leslie Howard Gayle and Leslie HowardGayle and Leslie Howard
Gayle and Leslie Howard say they still wear masks when they leave the house >>> A West Sussex couple who are still shielding four years on from the
first Covid lockdown said they feel they have been "left behind".
Gayle and Leslie Howard still wear masks when they leave the house to go >>> shopping, saying that everyone else thinks they are a "bit weird".
Mrs Howard had a kidney transplant in 2018 but despite having a Covid
vaccine and taking a drug for people with weakened immune systems, she
has not got the extra layer of protection she wanted.
She said: "When people see me wearing a mask when I'm out, people walk
straight at me like I'm not wearing it but there is a good reason why I am."
Gayle Howard Gayle Howard lying on a hospital bedGayle Howard
Gayle Howard said people who are shielding "deserve lives as much as
everyone else"
Analysis
By Mark Norman, BBC South East Health Correspondent
The question is – should people with suppressed immune systems be worried? >>>
The statistics would suggest that yes they should.
In 2022 just under 4% of the population were immunosuppressed.
However they accounted for 22% of COVID-19 hospitalisations and 24% of
COVID-19 deaths that year.
One study suggests this group of patients are 16 times more likely to be >>> hospitalised for COVID-19 than immunocompetent individuals.
'Risk with my life'
The couple used to attend music gigs but that is something they have now >>> had to sacrifice.
Mrs Howard said: "Some people are suggesting that I do take the risk but >>> taking the risk is taking the risk with my life."
"There is over a million people still affected by shielding following
the pandemic, but we are suffering. We deserve lives as much as everyone >>> else."
As well as being vaccinated, she takes the Evusheld drug, which contains >>> two antibodies against Covid that boost protection for those whose
immune systems do not respond well to vaccines.
Trials are currently underway on a second version of the Evushield,
which is hoped it will be more effective.
The Department for Health said: "Throughout the pandemic, the government >>> acted to save lives and livelihoods, preventing the NHS from being
overwhelmed and delivered a world leading vaccine rollout, which
protected millions.
"We have always said there are lessons to be learnt from the pandemic,
and are committed to learning from the Covid-19 inquiry's findings."
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use Apostle Paul's
secret (Philippians 4:12). Though masking is less protective, it helps
us avoid the appearance of doing the evil of spreading airborne
pathogens while there are people getting sick because of not being
100% protected. It is written that we're to "abstain from **all**
appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22 w/**emphasis**).
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8 ) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly (i.e. use the "Rapid COVID-19 Test" ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
"convince it forward" (John 15:12) for them to call their doctor and
self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic.
Thus, we're hoping for the best while preparing for the worse-case
scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations and others like the Omicron,
Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations
combining via slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like "Deltamicron"
that may render current COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no
longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry (
https://groups.google.com/g/sci.med.cardiology/c/6ZoE95d-VKc/m/14vVZoyOBgAJ >> ) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
The absolutely only way to speak "the truth, the whole truth, and
nothing but the truth" with GOD's Help is as shown at
http://WonderfullyHungry.org simply because LORD Jesus Christ of
Nazareth is our Number#1 Example of living "wonderfully hungry" as
exegesized at:
https://groups.google.com/g/raptureriddle/c/VMfhZpBcxoE/m/74mP0CxfAwAJ
"I am the way and the truth and the life." (John 14:6)
Source:
https://biblehub.com/john/14-6.htm
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry for food right now (Luke 6:21a) and
hope you, Michael, and others reading this, also have a healthy
appetite for food right now too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/1bpury0/pupil_behaviour_worse_at_schools_in_england_since/
Pupil behaviour 'getting worse' at schools in England, say teachers
1 day ago
By Lauren Moss & Elaine Dunkley,
BBC News
Share
Getty Images Stock image of a student looking at a mobile phone in a
classroomGetty Images
Nearly one in five teachers in England has been hit by a pupil this
year, a survey commissioned by the BBC says.
One teacher told BBC News behaviour was a "never-ending battle". Another >>> said spitting, swearing and chair-throwing were among the things
happening often.
A union says its members are reporting worsening violence and abuse from >>> pupils since the Covid pandemic.
The Department for Education (DfE) says it has invested £10m in
behaviour hubs to support schools.
Using the survey tool Teacher Tapp, BBC News asked up to 9,000 teachers
in England in February and March a series of questions about their
experiences with behaviour in the classroom.
A greater proportion of primary and secondary teachers reported pupils
fighting, pushing and shoving compared with two years ago.
Lorraine Meah has been a primary school teacher for 35 years, for the
last five of which she has chosen to do supply work - covering lessons
on an ad-hoc basis - because it is more flexible.
Over that time, she says pupils' behaviour has worsened.
Gemma Laister Lorraine Meah, supply teacherGemma Laister
Supply teacher Lorraine Meah says sometimes pupils as young as six are
throwing chairs
She says she has seen nursery and reception-aged children "spitting and
swearing", with the worst behaviour from five and six-year-olds with
"dangerous tendencies" like throwing chairs.
"You will get three or four children in your class displaying
challenging behaviour. That's hard to deal with when you've got a class
of 30," says Mrs Meah, who teaches in the Midlands.
Another Midlands-based teacher, Zak Copley, did supply teaching for a
year and also says behaviour is "definitely getting worse" and sometimes >>> feels like a "never-ending battle".
On one occasion, the computer science teacher said he had to pull pupils >>> apart after they began "throwing punches" at one another.
"The room got absolutely ransacked," he says, remembering that displays
were "ripped off the wall".
On another occasion, a pupil who had been sent out of class tried to
break back into the room with a cricket bat, he said.
School takes a stand to stop teen toilet vaping
School transforms behaviour with compassionate approach
Teachers speak out over rising pupil violence
In Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, St John Fisher Catholic Academy for 11 to
18-year-olds is working hard to improve its behaviour.
In 2022, it was rated "inadequate" by Ofsted, whose inspectors found
poor behaviour by pupils, including frequent fighting, made others feel
unsafe.
"There was a culture of bullying and an atmosphere of intimidation,"
says Karl Mackey, the school's fifth head teacher in six years.
"We had a lot of internal truancy - kids going into toilet cubicles
vaping and using mobile phones."
BBC/Dan Nelson Karl Mackey, head of St John Fisher Catholic Academy in
DewsburyBBC/Dan Nelson
Karl Mackey has brought in new rules and changed the curriculum to
tackle poor behaviour at his school
Since Mr Mackey joined a year ago, his new behaviour policy has seen
pupils rewarded for good attendance.
Corridors are closed off to stop children being able to wander the whole >>> school if they leave a lesson. There are strict rules about going to the >>> toilet during lessons and mobile phones are banned.
He has also brought in more subjects including dance, drama and music.
Year 9 pupil Tamika was excluded from her previous school, and says
pupils at St John Fisher have "settled down" since the rule changes.
"I find it easier to co-operate with teachers and speak to them if I am
struggling with a lesson, and I can get my head down," she said.
"There are less students going round kicking off. If they do, there will >>> be steps in place for them to reflect on their behaviour - like going
into isolation, or being sent home."
Mr Mackey says the school tries its best to avoid suspending children if >>> possible.
Pupils blame absence on routine shattered by Covid
Boost sport to get pupils back to school - report
Putting pupils in isolation 'harms mental health'
He says the whole school community, including local residents, have
noticed children behaving better.
"There's been a real shift. This year you'll see them in lessons every
single day, not late, in perfect uniform, trying their hardest," he added. >>>
In the Teacher Tapp survey, the BBC also found:
30% of all teachers said they had witnessed pupils fighting during the
week they responded to the questions
Two in five respondents said they had witnessed aggressively violent
behaviour that needed an intervention in a single week
15% of secondary teachers said they have experienced sexual harassment >>>from a pupil when working at school.
Dr Patrick Roach, general secretary of the NASUWT union, says teachers
are reporting that violence and abuse in schools "have risen notably"
since the pandemic.
"This is being compounded by cuts to specialist behaviour and mental
health services for children, which have left teachers doing their best
to fill the gaps and meet the needs of pupils that really require the
skills of specialist counsellors and therapists," he said.
Former DfE behaviour adviser Tom Bennett told BBC One's Breakfast
programme, on Tuesday, it had been a problem for "decades" after being
"brushed under the carpet".
"Up until about five or six years ago there wasn't much by way of
[teacher] training in behaviour management, which would probably
astonish a lot of people," he said.
"We need to make sure schools are looking at teaching the behaviour they >>> need, having boundaries and having consequences - a fairly simple
structure but quite hard to put into practice."
Teacher and union representative Debra de Muschamp stands smiling
outside school
Debra de Muschamp, from the head teachers' union, says teachers have
been left "shaken, frightened and isolated" by abuse from parents
The DfE says "decisive action" is being taken to improve pupil behaviour. >>>
A spokesperson added it had doubled its mental health and wellbeing
scheme for head teachers this year, backed by £1.1m.
In 2020, the DfE launched a £10m behaviour hub programme to allow
hundreds of struggling schools to be paired with others to learn new
ways of dealing with poor behaviour.
The programme finishes this year.
Abuse from parents
One in five respondents to the BBC's survey said they had experienced
online abuse from a parent or guardian since September. A similar number >>> said they had experienced verbal abuse.
Head teachers' union NAHT says some members are experiencing growing
problems among a "minority" of parents.
"It can be face-to-face, on the telephone, on social media... enough is
enough," says Debra de Muschamp, a regional NAHT secretary who runs
three primary schools in north-east England.
NAHT, which is running a local campaign to tackle parent-on-teacher
abuse, says head teachers have had tyres slashed and been physically
assaulted.
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In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use Apostle Paul's
secret (Philippians 4:12). Though masking is less protective, it helps
us avoid the appearance of doing the evil of spreading airborne
pathogens while there are people getting sick because of not being
100% protected. It is written that we're to "abstain from **all**
appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22 w/**emphasis**).
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8 ) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly (i.e. use the "Rapid COVID-19 Test" ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
"convince it forward" (John 15:12) for them to call their doctor and
self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic.
Thus, we're hoping for the best while preparing for the worse-case
scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations and others like the Omicron,
Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations
combining via slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like "Deltamicron"
that may render current COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no
longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry (
https://groups.google.com/g/sci.med.cardiology/c/6ZoE95d-VKc/m/14vVZoyOBgAJ >> ) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/1brzz68/greater_toronto_area_food_banks_see_record_300k/
Daily Bread food banks see record 300k visits in February
Demand has more than doubled in GTA since February 2022
Ethan Lang · CBC News · Posted: Mar 30, 2024 3:13 PM PDT | Last Updated: >>> March 30
About a dozen volunteers sort food donations in a warehouse.
Nearly 200 Daily Bread volunteers sorted roughly 60,000 pounds of food
Saturday. The charity says it's moving about 250,000 pounds of food
every day to programs around the GTA. (CBC)
Social Sharing
X
With many families gathering for Easter dinner across the GTA this
weekend, more people than ever may be relying on Toronto food banks to
get them through the holiday.
Last month, Daily Bread Food Bank had over 300,000 client visits at its
200-plus programs across Toronto. That's a 40 per cent increase from
this time last year, and a 136 per cent increase from February 2022,
according to the charity.
"We surpassed a milestone we never thought was possible," said Daily
Bread CEO Neil Hetherington.
Food bank use across the GTA has been rising steadily since the
pandemic, with roughly one in 10 Torontonians now relying on them.
"What's new is that there are individuals who have an income, who are
working, who are cobbling together two or three-part time jobs and they
still can't make it," said Hetherington.
Neil Hetherington
Daily Bread CEO Neil Hetherington says he doesn't expect food bank
lineups to shorten until governments take action. (Clara Pasieka/CBC)
At Daily Bread Food Bank's annual spring food sort Saturday, nearly 200
volunteers sorted 60,000 pounds of food, a fraction of the 250,000
pounds he says the charity is sending out daily to food banks across the >>> GTA.
People can't afford rising costs
Rising demand is coinciding with stagnating wages and rising costs,
Hetherington says.
Hetherington says more affordable housing and an injection of funds into >>> the Canada Disability Benefit, which will provide extra money to people
on fixed incomes, are the two most immediate ways to help.she hopes the
Canada Disability Benefit will "come into full force" with the new
federal budget next month, providing extra grocery money to people on
fixed incomes. He says quicker development of affordable housing is also >>> key.
100,000 people expected to turn to food charity in Toronto for 1st time
this year, survey finds
"Until those two things happen, I don't think that the lineups are going >>> to start to decrease at the Daily Bread Food Bank," she said.
Governments need to act: client
Sue Ellen Patcheson says she lives on disability with her two grown
children and two roommates. With $300 a month to spend on groceries, she >>> says there's no way she can afford to buy most of her food from the
supermarket.
"It's time for our government to step up and do something about it," she >>> said. "They have a responsibility here."
The CBC was unable to reach Canada's departments of Finance or
Diversity, Inclusion and Persons with Disabilities for comment before
publication.
A woman speaks at a podium in front of microphones. A middle aged man
stands behind her
Mayor Olivia Chow and Premier Doug Ford spoke at Daily Bread's spring
food sort Saturday. Chow says all levels of government must play a role
in making life more affordable. (CBC)
But Toronto mayor Olivia Chow spoke at Saturday's food sort, agreeing
that all levels of government have a "role to play" in making life more
affordable.
"The City of Toronto, because of new deal with the province in our
budget, we are building more affordable housing, we are protecting
tenants, we are bringing the city back on track," Chow said.
Food bank visits in the GTA are up 51% from last year, Daily Bread says
Minister says Canada's largest grocery chains have agreed to 'work' on
stabilizing food prices
Doug Ford also spoke Saturday, urging people to privately donate to food >>> banks.
"There's so many people in need right now," Ford said. "No matter if
it's affordable, attainable housing or if it's just basically putting
food on their table to feed their family."
All of the food in all of the food banks in all the world can not help
those who are terribly **not** hungry like the devil cursed for his
sin of deceiving Eve or for the "rich man" who went straight to Hell
for being unkind to wonderfully hungry (i.e. longing to eat at the
rich man's table) Lazarus.
Bottom line:
Only the http://WonderfullyHungry.org can both eat **and** really
enjoy the food they eat today in celebration of both the Resurrection
of LORD Jesus Christ and the LORD's rescue/rapture of Apostle Peter
from prison, which both occurred on Easter albeit one year apart.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry for food right now (Luke 6:21a) and
hope you, Michael, and others reading this, also have a healthy
appetite for food right now too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://ethicsalarms.com/2024/04/05/ethics-verdict-israel-is-right-and-the-biden-administration-is-cynical-dishonest-and-wrong-regarding-gaza/
Ethics Verdict: Israel Is Right and the Biden Administration Is Cynical, >>> Dishonest and Wrong Regarding Gaza
APRIL 5, 2024 / JACK MARSHALL
Biden called for an “immediate ceasefire” yesterday in a phone call with >>> Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, telling him that “strikes on
humanitarian workers” and “the overall humanitarian situation” are
“unacceptable.” Biden also, we are told, “U.S. policy with respect to
Gaza will be determined by our assessment of Israel’s immediate action”
and on steps to “address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the
safety of aid workers.”
By pure accident, the first thing I saw was Pentagon spokesman John
Kirby (he’s the smart and competent one of the two primary White House
paid liars) gaslight the press when asked how the U.S. policy toward the >>> support of Israel in the war could be “unwavering” (as described by
officials) and yet the Administration is also saying that it is
considering changing that policy in light of the civilian casualties in
Gaza. Kirby, with a straight face. said that the two statements were not >>> inconsistent, prompting incredulity from his questioner. Of course they
are inconsistent; in fact, they are contradictory. This is one more
example of Democrats deliberately playing to the ignorant and uncritical >>> voter.
Why aren’t Democrats
Equally infuriating is the reason for Biden’s <cough!> wavering
unwavering. The party doesn’t like the polling numbers, and the
Democrats’ strong, fact-and-history-challenged far left base has awarded >>> “persecuted” status to the Palestinians while designated Jews as the
white, genocidal, colonial villains. This means they are angry at
Biden—can’t have that!—so his “unwavering” support of Israel now
includes providing aid to Israel’s enemy that has been suffering from
assaults by U.S.-provided weapons and calling for a cease fire in Gaza
that will give the Hamas forces an opportunity to regroup.
Brilliant. This is, as EA has noted before, attempting to appease both
sides of violent dispute simultaneously. The Biden Administration has no >>> integrity. After the most recent ugly display, I wouldn’t expect any
ally to trust the U.S. as long as Biden is in the White House.
Democrats are “pouncing” on the recent misguided Israel missile strike
that killed several World Central Kitchen aid workers in the Gaza Strip. >>> Israel, for diplomatic reasons, is groveling apologies, agreeing that
the incident “should not have occurred.” That’s right: it would not have >>> occurred if Hamas had not broken its ceasefire with Israel in October
with a brutal terrorist sneak attack on civilians, making the war
essential and justified. Unintended deaths of civilians and
non-combatants in Gaza are not “unforgivable” as the World Central
Kitchen, a nonprofit founded by celebrity chef Jose Andres, called it
this week, announcing that it would pause all operations in Gaza
following the death of its workers. Such deaths are inevitable. How do
you prevent them? Well, don’t start wars. Or, going a bit further back
in time, don’t elect terrorist groups to run your government, since they >>> tend to start wars. Or: don’t send humanitarian workers into a war zone
without accepting the reality that doing so puts their lives at risk.
Matthew Continetti , a senior fellow and the inaugural Patrick and
Charlene Neal Chair in American Prosperity at the American Enterprise
Institute and earlier the founding editor of the conservative Washington >>> Free Beacon, has the moral and ethical clarity regarding this Washington >>> fiasco that Biden, the Axis, and all those protesting students do not.
He writes in part that the current shift in Biden’s policy-framing is..
a threat to conditional military assistance to Israel based on
absolutely no evidence and grounded in a ridiculous and unachievable
standard of conduct. The move is cynical, opportunistic, and
counterproductive. Biden has lost the plot.
Gee, what a surprise.
The writer continues,
Biden has let anyone within earshot know that he is frustrated and angry >>> with Israel’s strategy and tactics. He approved of Sen. Chuck Schumer’s
(D., N.Y.) call for new elections in Israel and the replacement of
Netanyahu’s government. His advisers have been trying to prevent
Israel’s planned offensive in the city of Rafah, where Hamas’s remaining >>> battalions use the hostages and 1.5 million Palestinians as human
shields. Last month, Biden’s U.N. ambassador chose not to veto a
resolution calling for an unconditional ceasefire in Gaza—a diplomatic
warning that America may not always be there for Israel.
But its support is “unwavering.”
…. “The U.S. must do more to tell Prime Minister Netanyahu this war
needs to end now,” [chef Jose Andres]told Reuters [after the deaths of
his workers]. “The people of Israel need to remember, at this darkest
hour, what strength truly looks like,” he wrote in the New York Times.
Who does Andrés think he is, calling for a unilateral ceasefire,
lecturing Israelis on the nature of strength? He’s not the Pope. He’s a
gourmand who serves traif….
The Pope has no business calling for a ceasefire either. More from
Continetti:
…For six months, huge swaths of the press have painted Israel in the
worst possible light. Netanyahu could say the sky is blue and a thousand >>> fact-checkers would scrub his claim for signs of misinformation.
Pro-Hamas falsehoods, meanwhile, are recycled without second thought.
The casualty numbers from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Health Ministry, the >>> bogus tale of the Israeli rocket “fired” at al-Shifa hospital, the blood >>> libel that Israelis separated Palestinian babies from their mothers, the >>> lie that the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the
Near East was free of Hamas infiltration—these stories were peddled in
bad faith before Israel had a chance to rebut them.
Which is why a sense of moral clarity in this conflict is so important.
Hamas is evil. Hamas could end the war it started by surrendering its
cadres and releasing its prisoners. Hamas refuses. Hamas would rather
sacrifice the civilian population of Gaza on the altar of its genocidal
ambition and suicidal desires. Hamas brutalizes children, abuses
captives, steals food, fires its rockets indiscriminately, wears no
uniforms, and hides behind schools, hospitals, and mosques. Hamas does
not just commit war crimes. It is a war crime. …
The political heroes of this moment are the men and women who have
retained the ability to make clear distinctions between Israel and
Hamas, between freedom, equality, and the rule of law and violence,
terror, and fear.
Bingo.
There is absolutely only one godly way to win the war against
terrorism including especially in Israel and this is as shown at
http://WonderfullyHungry.org because LORD Jesus Christ of Nazareth is
our #1 Example of living wonderfully hungry as evident by His eating
the "piece of broiled fish" ( https://bit.ly/Lk2442 ) on Resurrection
Sunday. Our LORD is the "Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6) and it is
written that He will destroy the AntiChrist ( https://AntiChrist45.com
), who is the Prince of Chaos, with simply His breath.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry for food right now (Luke 6:21a) and
hope you, Michael, and others reading this, also have a healthy
appetite for food right now too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/1by56b3/is_it_covid_flu_or_allergies_california_health/
Is it COVID, flu or allergies? California health experts tell how to
identify symptoms
BY ANGELA RODRIGUEZ
APRIL 07, 2024 5:00 AM
Seasonal allergies can leave you with a cough, itchy and runny eyes and
stuffed up nose. For many with pollen or grass allergies, spring and
summer can be uncomfortable. Mayo Clinic allergist Dr. Nancy Ott says
over-the-counter remedies such as an BY MCCLATCHY
Congestion? Check.
Sneezing? Check.
Coughing? Check, check and check.
With a number of illnesses currently circulating throughout California
and seasonal allergies irritating immune systems this spring, how do you >>> determine what you have?
“Many respiratory viruses, including influenza, (respiratory syncytial
virus) and COVID-19, can cause cold-like symptoms,” the California
Department of Public Health wrote in an email statement to The
Sacramento Bee on Wednesday morning.
Though many respiratory viruses, including the flu, coronavirus, and
RSV, peak between October and March, they circulate year-round in
California, the department’s website says.
As of mid-March, influenza, coronavirus, RSV and norovirus were coursing >>> through the state.
Unless you are at risk for a serious illness, such as pregnant people,
older adults and people with weak immune systems, the state health
department said “it isn’t always necessary to know which virus is
causing symptoms.”
If you want to know what illness is currently attacking your immune
system, however, here’s what California health officials said to do:
DO I HAVE THE FLU?
According to the California Department of Public Health’s most recent
weekly report, the percentage of influenza detection in California is
inching upward.
From March 17 to March 23, flu numbers were up by 5.3% compared to the
previous week — which showed numbers were up by 5%.
During this time frame, nine flu-related deaths were reported in California.
Getty Images
What are flu symptoms?
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, flu
symptoms include:
Fever or chills
Cough
Sore throat
Runny or stuffy nose
Muscle, head or body aches
Tiredness
Vomiting and diarrhea, which are more common in children
How do I know if my illness is the flu?
To determine if your symptoms are being caused by the flu, the
California Department of Public Health said you should “seek testing by
contacting (your) medical provider.”
According to CDC guidelines, these tests require a health care provider
to swab the inside of your nose or back of your throat, and then send
the swab for testing.
Examples of tests include reverse transcription polymerase chain
reaction, viral culture and immunofluorescence assays.
Flu shots for senior citizens are one good way to prevent the spread of
infections among vulnerable people during winter virus season. Staying
home from work is another. Washington’s new sick leave law might help.
Flu shots for senior citizens are one good way to prevent the spread of
infections among vulnerable people during winter virus season. Staying
home from work is another. Washington’s new sick leave law might help.
Mario Tama Getty Images file photo, 2005
HOW DO I KNOW IF I HAVE COVID-19?
According to the CDC, possible symptoms of COVID-19 include:
Fever or chills
Cough
Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
Tiredness
Muscle, head or body aches
New loss of taste or smell
Sore throat
Congestion or runny nose
Nausea or vomiting
Diarrhea
“Symptoms may appear two to 14 days after exposure to the virus,” the
CDC website says.
Although flu and COVID-19 share common symptoms, the California
Department of Public Health said you can “use COVID-19 over-the-counter
home tests” to determine your illness.
As of Friday, the latest weekly update by the department shows 2.4% of
tests came back positive for COVID-19.
In the past week, roughly 800 individuals were hospitalized due to the
virus.
From Oct. 1 to March 30, a total of 3,145 coronavirus-related deaths
were reported in California
IS IT RSV?
RSV infections typically target individuals during late fall, winter and >>> early spring, according to the CDC.
RSV detections appeared to be trending upward in California, as of Friday. >>> While roughly 12 cases of RSV were reported in California on March 23,
almost 16 cases were reported by March 30, according to the CDC’s most
recent report.
The best defense for fighting illness is a good offense, using tissues
when coughing and sneezing. And, nurses remind parents and children
alike that the single most important thing everyone can do to stay
healthy is to wash their hands with soap and water.
The best defense for fighting illness is a good offense, using tissues
when coughing and sneezing. And, nurses remind parents and children
alike that the single most important thing everyone can do to stay
healthy is to wash their hands with soap and water. Bally Scanlon Getty
Images
Symptoms of RSV can include:
Fever
Cough
Runny nose
Wheezing in very young babies
Difficulty breathing
How to test for RSV: Tests aren’t usually necessary to diagnose RSV,
Mayo Clinic says. However, they can help diagnose complications or rule
out other respiratory viruses that can cause similar symptoms.
These tests can include chest X-rays, swabbing the inside of the mouth
or nose, pulse oximetry to detect levels of oxygen and blood tests.
SHOULD I TEST FOR NOROVIRUS?
Unlike COVID-19, flu and RSV, norovirus primarily impacts the digestive
system.
“Norovirus is the leading cause of vomiting and diarrhea, and foodborne
illness in the United States,” the CDC said. “People of all ages can get >>> infected and sick with norovirus, which spreads very easily and quickly.” >>> More common symptoms include:
Diarrhea
Vomiting
Nausea
Stomach pain
However, some individuals could experience fever, headaches and body aches. >>> “A person usually develops symptoms 12 to 48 hours after being exposed
to norovirus,” the CDC says. “Most people with norovirus illness get
better within one to three days, but they can still spread the virus for >>> a few days after.”
To diagnose your illness as norovirus, Mayo Clinic says your health care >>> provider might recommend a stool test.
A cyclist rides past flowers blooming at William Land Park on Tuesday.
Allergy season has already hit full stride.
A cyclist rides past flowers blooming at William Land Park on Tuesday.
Allergy season has already hit full stride. Randall Benton
rbenton@sacbee.com
IS IT MY ALLERGIES?
According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, pollen in the >>> warmer seasons can cause cold-like symptoms for people with two common
allergic conditions: seasonal allergic rhinitis, also known as hay
fever, and allergic asthma.
Symptoms of allergic rhinitis caused by seasonal allergies can include:
Runny nose
Stuffy nose
Sneezing
Red and watery eyes
Itchy nose, eyes, ears or mouth
Swelling around the eyes
Symptoms of allergic asthma include:
Shortness of breath
Cough
Chest tightness or pain
Wheezing
Waking at night due to asthma symptoms
A drop in lung function
Though respiratory viruses and allergic reactions typically share the
same cold-like symptoms, “people with seasonal allergies almost never
have a sore throat or a cough,” Mayo Clinic says.
With seasonal allergies, individuals will also “notice puffy eyelids and >>> dark marks” under their eyes.
Dr. NaYoung Kim, the chief of allergy and immunology for Kaiser
Permanente Sacramento and Roseville, recently told The Sacramento Bee
that allergies cannot make you sick.
“People will complain that they have a sensation of not feeling well ... >>> but it’s not a direct correlation that just because you have allergies
your immune system is worse,” Kim said. “You’re not more sick because
you have allergies.”
To prevent seasonal allergies, Kim said, “Environmental control is key.” >>> This includes staying indoors or cleaning your hair and clothes if you
have to travel outdoors.
Read more: Why are my allergies so bad right now? This Sacramento doctor >>> has tips to help you manage
A woman sneezes into a tissue. Allergy levels are predicted to fluctuate >>> in Sacramento this week with looming rain and wind in the forecast.
A woman sneezes into a tissue. Allergy levels are predicted to fluctuate >>> in Sacramento this week with looming rain and wind in the forecast.
Dreamstime TNS
HOW CAN I KEEP FROM GETTING SICK?
According to the California Department of Public Health, here are some
tips to lower your chances of getting sick this spring:
Stay up to date on vaccines.
Stay home when sick.
Test and treat your symptoms.
Consider wearing a face mask.
Wash your hands or sanitize.
Shield your cough and sneeze.
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use Apostle Paul's
secret (Philippians 4:12). Though masking is less protective, it helps
us avoid the appearance of doing the evil of spreading airborne
pathogens while there are people getting sick because of not being
100% protected. It is written that we're to "abstain from **all**
appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22 w/**emphasis**).
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8 ) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the US & elsewhere is by
rapidly (i.e. use the "Rapid COVID-19 Test" ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
"convince it forward" (John 15:12) for them to call their doctor and
self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic.
Thus, we're hoping for the best while preparing for the worse-case
scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations and others like the Omicron,
Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations
combining via slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like "Deltamicron"
that may render current COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no
longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry (
https://groups.google.com/g/sci.med.cardiology/c/6ZoE95d-VKc/m/14vVZoyOBgAJ >> ) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/1c3banv/appeals_court_rules_government_likely_violated/
Appeals court rules government likely violated First Amendment in
vaccine misinformation campaign
BY IAN SWANSON - 09/08/23 8:20 PM ET
A U.S. appeals court on Friday ruled several government entities
including the White House, the FBI, the Surgeon General and the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention likely violated the First Amendment
by pressuring social media companies to moderate their content on
misinformation surrounding vaccines.
In a decision issued Friday evening, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals
said government actors “likely coerced or encouraged” social media
companies to moderate their content, affirming a decision by a lower
court with respect to the White House, the FBI, the CDC and the Surgeon
General. The three judges issuing the decision were all appointed by
Republicans.
The decision represents a significant win for conservatives who have
long argued the government has gone too far in pressuring social media
companies to make content decisions in lockstep with government opinion. >>>
At the same time, the court largely vacated an injunction by a lower
court that prohibited the government from contacting social media
companies about their content, ruling the previous injunction was both
too broad and vague.
It issued a modified injunction that prohibits parts of the government >>>from coercing or significantly encouraging a social media platform’s
content moderation decisions. It said this conduct would include threats >>> of adverse consequences, even if those threats were not verbalized or
did not materialize, “so long as a reasonable person would construe a
government’s message as alluding to some form of punishment.”
The decision also said the government could not “supervise a platform’s
content moderation decisions or directly involve themselves in the
decision itself.”
The White House in a statement said the Department of Justice was
reviewing the decision and its options going forward.
“This Administration has promoted responsible actions to protect public
health, safety, and security when confronted by challenges like a deadly >>> pandemic and foreign attacks on our elections,” the statement said. “Our >>> consistent view remains that social media platforms have a critical
responsibility to take account of the effects their platforms are having >>> on the American people, but make independent choices about the
information they present.”
The pressure mentioned in the decision largely took place in 2021, as
the Biden administrations sought to convince the public to take vaccines >>> as protection from the coronavirus pandemic.
In striking language, the decision harshly criticized the campaign by
the government to pressure social media companies to moderate their
content on vaccines, writing that it did not take its decision lightly
and that “the Supreme Court has rarely been faced with a coordinated
campaign of this magnitude orchestrated by federal officials that
jeopardized a fundamental aspect of American life.”
It said the earlier court was right it its assessment that “unrelenting
pressure” of certain government officials likely “had the intended
result of suppressing millions of protected free speech postings by
American citizens.”
It also agreed that the plaintiffs in the case had shown they were
likely to have suffered an irreparable injury from the campaign, and
that they were likely to suffer a future injury without an injunction.
In upholding the modified injunction, the court said that while
officials “have an interest in engaging with social media companies
including on issues such as misinformation and election interference,”
it is “not permitted to advance these interests to the extent that it
engages in viewpoint suppression.”
The decision emphasized that it was limited and that it was not
upholding the injunction on all officials. While the court ruled the
White House, FBI, CDC and Surgeon General had likely violated the First
Amendment, it ruled other government entities including the State
Department had not.
Moving forward, the new injunction would cover a host of officials in
the executive office of the president, spelled out specifically by the
court.
In discussing the pressure campaign, the decision said frustration in
the administration over vaccine misinformation reached a boiling point
at a press conference in July 2021.
It noted that the Surgeon General at that press conference described
social media platforms as being “one of the biggest obstacles” to
controlling the COVID pandemic because they had “enabled misinformation
to poison” public discourse and “have extraordinary reach.”
He labeled social-media-based misinformation an “urgent public health
threat” that was “literally costing . . . lives” and asked social media
companies to “operate with greater transparency and accountability,”
“monitor misinformation more closely,” and “consistently take action
against misinformation super-spreaders on their platforms.”
The next day, President Biden said the platforms were “killing people”
by not acting on misinformation.
The court said the social media companies in the face of this pressure
acted “with total compliance,” writing that they “capitulated to the
officials’ allegations.”
The attorneys general of Louisiana and Missouri filed a lawsuit against
Biden and other administration officials in May for “allegedly working”
with social media companies — including Meta, Twitter and YouTube — to
censor and suppress free speech on topics such as COVID-19 and election
integrity.
Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee are requesting documents
that include communications between the Biden administration and social
media companies as part of the panel’s investigation into what the GOP
says were efforts to “suppress free speech and censor content online.”
In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use Apostle Paul's
secret (Philippians 4:12). Though masking is less protective, it helps
us avoid the appearance of doing the evil of spreading airborne
pathogens while there are people getting sick because of not being
100% protected. It is written that we're to "abstain from **all**
appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22 w/**emphasis**).
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8 ) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the US & elsewhere is by
rapidly (i.e. use the "Rapid COVID-19 Test" ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
"convince it forward" (John 15:12) for them to call their doctor and
self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic.
Thus, we're hoping for the best while preparing for the worse-case
scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations and others like the Omicron,
Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations
combining via slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like "Deltamicron"
that may render current COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no
longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry (
https://groups.google.com/g/sci.med.cardiology/c/6ZoE95d-VKc/m/14vVZoyOBgAJ >> ) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
someone enroute to Hell whined again:
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
someone enroute to Hell whined:
The renowned writer Arthur Koestler warned many years ago that Israel >>>>>>> risked becoming `a nasty little Sparta.’ Half a century later Israel, >>>>>>> grown rich on US military and financial aid, has become a very nasty >>>>>>> big Sparta.
So launching the October 7th attack was a bad idea?
It was a total victory. It will embolden the oppressed Palestinians to >>>> rise up against the Zionazi regime occupying Palestine for as long as
it takes to drive them into the sea.
Only in the same sense that the attack on Pearl Harbor was a total
victory.
Moreover, it is written that Israel purchased Palestine from Esau with
a bowl of red lentil soup and some bread (i.e. a single meal). This
reminds us that those who are terribly hungry (Genesis 25:32) like >>https://bit.ly/BiblicalEsau whom GOD hates (Malachi 1:2-3) will
always fail because GOD is against them. So let's >>http://go.WDJW.net/ConvinceItForward (John 15:12) that everyone be
like (Luke 6:40) http://WonderfullyHungry.org LORD Jesus instead.
It is written that GOD blesses those who bless Israel and curses those >>>>> who curse Israel.
It was written by the late, great Walt Hampton:
Who was obsessed with brazen bulls and kept calling me a gook!
Then Walt Hampton is burning in Hell right now complaining about his
being very thirsty just as Lazarus' "rich man" is burning in Hell
right now too along with all the others who are terribly **not**
hungry because of being terribly thirsty, including especially satan,
who is cursed (Genesis 3:14) to eat dust the rest of his life for his
sin of deceiving Eve.
That is indeed tragic!
Eternally tragic!
In the interim, I am instead wonderfully hungry for food right now
(Luke 6:21a) and again hope you, Michael, and others reading this,
also have a healthy appetite for food right now too.
So again how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
HeartDoc Andrew, in the Holy Spirit, boldly wrote:
Michael Ejercito wrote:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LockdownSkepticism/comments/1caolm0/the_rise_in_suicide_suicide_rates_are_now_the/In the interim, we are 100% prepared/protected in the "full armor of
The rise in suicide
Suicide rates are now the highest they have been in England for 25 years. >>>
LAURA DODSWORTH
APR 20, 2024
Suicide rates are now the highest they have been in England for 25 years. >>>
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has released the latest report
of quarterly suicide death registrations in England for Quarter 4
(October to December) of 2023. Unfortunately, it shows a 6% rise, which
is the highest national rate of suicides since 1999. There were 1,439
suicides registered in Quarter 4, equivalent to 11.4 suicide deaths per
100,000 people. Overall there were 5,579 suicides registered in England, >>> which is significantly higher than 2021 and 2020.
It’s difficult to attribute causes to individual suicides, as well as
trends. While it is important to to be responsible and circumspect when
speculating, this notable and recent upshift in suicide deaths should be >>> analysed and monitored.
Share
The ONS figures need to be interpreted with some caution because there
is a delay in coronial inquests, meaning that only 39.3% of the deaths
registered in 2023 had a date of death in the same year, and some of the >>> deaths occurred in 2022 and 2021. Crucially, this means that we should
be cautious about making conclusions for 2023 at the moment as there
will still be a large number of suicides that occurred in 2023 which
have not yet been registered.
So what might have caused the trend? Professor Louis Appleby who chairs
the National Suicide Prevention Strategy Advisory Group has commented on >>> the uptick in suicides on Twitter. He suggested that the likeliest cause >>> is the economic downturn and cost of living crisis. Historically
recessions cause suicide rates to increase. The North East, North West
and East of England have seen the most significant increases in suicide, >>> but the North East, Midlands and London are actually the three regions
with the highest levels of poverty, so this theory does not necessarily
tally up neatly. The significant jump in the North West specifically
might indicate a change in the way deaths have been recorded. The
economic effect Appleby proposes would also not easily explain that the
increase for women was greatest in the over 60s.
Could there be another factor? Appleby has zoned in on the economy for
obvious and sound reasons, but has so far ignored a key factor.
In April 2021, Professor Appleby was the Lead Author of the report
‘Suicide in England in the COVID-19 pandemic: Early observational data >>>from real time surveillance’, analysing ’real time surveillance’ (RTS)
of suspected suicides during the pandemic and lockdowns. Despite greater >>> distress, the study did not find evidence of an increase in suicide
rates. Ensuing ONS month by month data for 2020 and 2021 also showed no
increase in suicides.
There was a vital caveat which needed to applied to this data which,
although present within the ONS report, wasn’t given much weight by
people who endorsed the findings: it was too early to be sure. Suicide
is a verdict given by a coronial court, and does not operate in ‘real
time’. Some courts were running almost a year behind on case load during >>> the pandemic. This was not something to be ignored in favour of real
time data — the coronial verdict is not simply a rubber stamping
process. Analysis based on real time surveillance might have delivered a >>> reassuring answer at the time to people who wanted to believe that the
pandemic, lockdowns and other distressing NPIs didn’t ultimately lead to >>> the most tragic consequences, but it was too soon to deliver a verdict.
Indeed, Appleby’s tweet thread on 12th April 2023, just over a year ago, >>> was confident in its assumptions:
‘New @ONS data give us, for first time, national suicide rates month by
month for Covid years 2020 & 2021, compared to earlier years. Graph
shows no rise in these years overall, or any month, or any period of
pandemic, including lockdown.
What can we learn from this?
It may tell us something about the protective power of social cohesion,
of looking out for each other, of community, with its message of
acceptance & concern.
If so, we need to hang on to it. It hasn’t looked in strong supply lately. >>>
It may confirm something we saw after the 2008 recession, the
life-saving impact of economic support - for people on benefits or in
debt or fearing for their jobs & homes.
Particularly important as we head further into the cost of living crisis. >>>
It reminds us to look at the evidence, no matter what the headlines claim. >>>
Or the Twitter “likes”.
Or the academics who should know better.
Or the current attempt at revisionism in the media.'
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In a National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Safety in Mental
Health presentation, Appleby suggested a number of reasons why suicide
had not increased. Despite the obvious anxiety about Covid-19, the tough >>> lockdowns, economic ramifications and huge societal changes, he believed >>> people were protected due to a combination of:
economic protections;
a supposed increase in social cohesion;
increased vigilance and support from family, friends and neighbours;
reduced access to certain methods of suicide;
a sense of short-term crisis.
These could well have prevented the rise in suicide at the time, but
conclusions from previous analyses of other disasters warn that the rise >>> in suicide does not occur during the disaster, but afterwards. The lack
of rise in suicides was in keeping with disaster literature. A
subsequent increase in suicide - as we see happening now - is also in
keeping with disaster literature.
In the early psychological phases of disaster — ‘heroic’ and ‘honeymoon’ >>> — you would not expect to see more suicides. They come afterwards. In
the case of a ‘slow disaster’ like Covid-19, this could be some time
afterwards.
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At the time, Professor Lucy Easthope, the country’s leading authority on >>> disaster and recovery, commented that the real time surveillance data
was very useful, but that more attention should be given to the role of
the coronial process as well as the underreporting of possible suicides
which can be recorded as either an open verdict or crucially a narrative >>> verdict which allows the coroner to expand on the additional factors
that led to death. Ultimately, she concluded, real time death data could >>> be unreliable.
She is now concerned now that ‘post-disaster conditions that may promote >>> hopelessness are all increased, including economic instability, domestic >>> violence, depression and alcohol use’ and that ‘we appear to have
incubated a real sense of nihilism and hopelessness in younger people’.
It’s a frustrating stage of the Covid-19 saga. Warnings at the time were >>> ignored and it is painful for experts such as Easthope to observe the
impact on the public of chronic disaster and delayed support for
physical and mental health, not to mention the toll on response workers
who ‘tend to feel let down and morally injured by the state’.
‘It’s particularly important to consider long-term suicide when risk
assessing economic policies,’ says Easthope. ‘Things like furlough
schemes have positives but also come with substantial emotional
negatives such as future redundancy, effects on self-worth, esteem and
purpose. All disaster decisions come with negatives, there are no purely >>> perfect answers. Discussion of the negatives was not welcomed and people >>> like me were seen as pessimistic if we raised suicide as a result of
Cabinet or Treasury decisions. It was very hard to get traction in 2020
and 2021 with these concerns.’
Whether suicide rates go up or go down, they are preventable and they
are always too high. It’s a tragedy for suicide rates to be the highest
in England for 25 years. If the pandemic and the never-before-used
lockdowns turn out to be a factor in this devastating trend, we could
well see the rates rise further.
Share
According to the Samaritans one in five of us have experienced suicidal
thoughts. If you’re going through a tough time, you don’t have to face
it alone. Call Samaritans day or night on 116 123. Email jo@samaritans.org. >>
GOD" (Ephesians 6:11) which we put on as soon as we use Apostle Paul's
secret (Philippians 4:12). Though masking is less protective, it helps
us avoid the appearance of doing the evil of spreading airborne
pathogens while there are people getting sick because of not being
100% protected. It is written that we're to "abstain from **all**
appearance of doing evil" (1 Thessalonians 5:22 w/**emphasis**).
Meanwhile, the only *perfect* (Matt 5:47-8 ) way to eradicate the
COVID-19 virus, thereby saving lives, in the UK & elsewhere is by
rapidly (i.e. use the "Rapid COVID-19 Test" ) finding out at any given
moment, including even while on-line, who among us are unwittingly
contagious (i.e pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic) in order to
"convince it forward" (John 15:12) for them to call their doctor and
self-quarantine per their doctor in hopes of stopping this pandemic.
Thus, we're hoping for the best while preparing for the worse-case
scenario of the Alpha lineage mutations and others like the Omicron,
Gamma, Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, Mu & Delta lineage mutations
combining via slip-RNA-replication to form hybrids like "Deltamicron"
that may render current COVID vaccines/monoclonals/medicines/pills no
longer effective.
Indeed, I am wonderfully hungry (
https://groups.google.com/g/sci.med.cardiology/c/6ZoE95d-VKc/m/14vVZoyOBgAJ >> ) and hope you, Michael, also have a healthy appetite too.
So how are you ?
I am wonderfully hungry!
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