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What Our Investigative Team Learned Covering Covid for 300 Days
This is an archive of the October 2020 entries for the Covid19 news feed. You may return to the current page here.
Was the International Monetary Fund’s Covid-19 relief aid offer to Belarus actually bribery or payoff? The IMF responds to President Lukashenko’s accusation | Added October 31
Over the summer, Belarusian Pres. Aleksandr Lukashenko asserted, through the official Belarusian Telegraph Agency, BelTA, that the IMF and the World Bank bribed him, in the name of Covid-19 relief funding, to impose strict measures on the citizens of Belarus.
This news brief released by the state-owned news agency in June states that these measures were part of “additional terms” to the agreement, as does this July article from Great Game India. In early September, Armstrong Economics reported that in exchange for the $940 million dollars of aid, Lukashenko would have been required to enforce extreme lockdowns and curfews, as well as a face-mask mandate, through the use of a police state.
Here is video of President Lukashenko speaking in Russian about his decision to not lockdown his country. On YouTube, it is possible to choose “closed captions” in English, though the translation isn’t exact. To see the English translation, click “cc,” “settings,” then “auto-translate.”
In a separate video, Pres. Lukashenko raises some interesting questions as to the origins of this coronavirus. Ironically, Belarus is considered to be a dictatorship, yet Lukashenko is one of the few world leaders with the courage to question the Covid narrative.
He refers to the U.S. leadership as “stupid” for shutting down the country. He questions whether the virus was man-made and suggests that many world leaders are using this virus for their own personal gain.
At a press briefing in September, a journalist asked IMF Communications Director Gerry Rice to address the concerns raised by Lukashenko’s accusation, namely that the IMF is strongarming the Covid-19 policies of nations around the world.
From the transcript of IMF Press Briefing on September 10, 2020:
QUESTIONER: Okay, great. Thanks a lot. It’s a big technological advance. I want to ask you a couple of questions about — about COVID-19 and — and IMF. One is a pretty, you might knock it out of the park — the President of Belarus, Lukashenko had said, has been quoted that the IMF tried to “bribe him to impose a lockdown by offering COVID relief funds” which was in Delta (phonetic) the telegraph has taken the media of Belarus. So I wanted to know what your understanding, what your response would be to those who would say that offering the aid is is trying to strongarm governments into taking the pandemic more seriously. And then I also wondered about corruption.
It’s been — there’s been investigation in Kenya about how supplies are being purchased and — and distributed. And there’s some similar issues in Cameroon and Honduras and I just — I wanted to follow up on countries you previously gave relief, just to know how active is the IMF in monitoring or in keeping its finger on the pulse of — of corruption issues in some countries that arise in terms of the response to COVID-19 with IMF helps? Thanks a lot.
MR. RICE: Thank you very much for those questions, Matthew. On Belarus, what I can tell you is that in March, Belarus approached the Fund with a request to discuss possible emergency assistance, but no agreement was reached, and we have not found a way to bridge significant differences about the appropriate response to the present challenges. The Rapid Financing Instrument, which is our emergency — one of our emergency financing mechanisms, does not carry hard conditionalities that I explained at the top of the briefing, but assurances of transparency and appropriate policy actions are required to ensure that the funds are used to address the pandemic and to facilitate economic stabilities.
We’re actually getting into your next question a bit there, Matthew. But still on Belarus, I I can tell you, we did not demand quarantine, isolation, lockdown, but we sought assurances for steps to contain the pandemic in line with WHO recommendations, which is our standard operating procedure in all countries. So, just the same.
On your broader question, Matthew, and thank you for — again for asking it, I mentioned at the top of the meeting that the — the governance and — the good governance and the anticorruption dimension of our emergency financing is a very important component of our efforts, so if you take a look at the Lending Tracker that I mentioned, you’ll see that we are now, and this — this is an upgrade, an improvement in our website over the summer, you’ll find there that we are listing the measures that governments have committed to undertake in this sphere as a means of literally helping to track them.
It’s the — the Lending Tracker. I won’t get into individual countries here, Matthew, but I will say that you will find the — the kinds of actions, measures that we are calling for are audits of — of procurement. We are asking for clear publication online.
And you know, more broadly, you may have heard Kristalina Georgieva talked about used this phrase you know, “spend the money that’s needed to protect lives and livelihoods, but keep the receipts.” Meaning, we want to track how that money has been spent and we will be looking at that ex=post.
But in the here and now we’re looking for commitments to audits and online procurement, and indeed I think the whole move to online and digital can really help us in this regard. So let me — let me leave it there.
Due to authorities’ Covid-19 concerns, cemeteries across Mexico are ordered to close for Dia de los Muertos | Added October 30
Families struggling to make ends meet during the country’s still-raging coronavirus outbreak are having difficulty buying the usual trappings for their altars. Some will be baking their own pan de muerto, the traditional bread of the dead, and downsizing their elaborate ofrendas.
“Mexico is a community in suffering,” said Guadalupe Loaeza, an author and cultural critic. “Mexico is a very happy culture, festive, full of life. But we are in a terrible reality and it affects everything.”
By tradition, families sit by the graves of relatives for hours overnight. They break bread and drink spirits with their lost loved ones.
If they’re not there on the one night a year that their ancestors are able to mingle with the living, will the dead think they have been forgotten?
“Here in Mexico, death is life,” she said. “We go to the cemeteries to bring them flowers, to talk to them, to say, ‘I am here. I did not forget.’ The way we live with death, the way we consider it part of life, affects how Mexican families feel about their dead — that they are very, very present.”
Letter to a Friend: Commentary from Eric | Added October 30
This is the fundamental question of the scientific method in our situation: identifying a pathogen, and proving causation. This is not easy with a virus, and with Covid, it has been skipped over. Learning that is part of the result of our work, but there are better specialists on that topic. Personally, I suspect multiple issues, including multiple pathogens and environmental insults.
Most or all virus “causation” is established by inference: apparent transmission, similar symptoms, and the presence of antibodies. Many many times, a chemical insult is the cause of what is believed to be communicable. That too can take years to rule in or rule out. Scientists thought scurvy was caused by a virus as late as the 20th c., even though some Brit admiral in 1600 or so knew it was about oranges and lemons. Then vitamin C was discovered.
If we are talking actual science, that is, the scientific method, proof of causation is the name of the game. That cannot merely be correlation; the point of the Method is to filter out mere correlation and to establish causation. There are lots of correlations which share no causal relationship.
Right now about five different syndromes are being called Covid-19, including no disease whatsoever. They vary radically, and that variance is not accounted for. If one patient has blood coagulation and another loses their sense of smell, and one gets a fever for two days, and one has pneumonia, what connects them, in the causative sense? PCR positive is not enough. It is not proof of causation — nor is it proof of the presence of virus! This is right in the regulations for the “test” that is NOT a diagnostic tool by its inventor’s own admission.
I do not believe what corporate and government scientists say until there is proof. You do not need proof to demand proof. The burden of proof is on government officials — for all of this, including all the social rules and forced masking.
Government officials have a terrible track record getting things right or being honest.
EPA still to this day claims that the safe level of dioxin is 1,000 parts-per-trillion, which is insane. (One part-per-billion in soil.) New York State still says it’s OK to have 1 microgram of PCBs per square meter spread on everything. That is based on the cleanest they could get a certain building that had a fire in 1981.
They called it the safe level and that is now the world standard.
NY Times still claims that dioxin is “less toxic than previously believed” and “comparable to sunbathing” but that was proven to be conjecture. They never corrected that, but the writer was sent out to pasture.
Science is about not just proof, but repeated, double-blind experiments. With SV40, the tests at NIH were set up in five labs around the world, with 40 samples and both positive and negative controls distributed randomly to those labs, and the labs had to return results on the samples AND the controls and get them ALL correct to have the data counted. That is how to use PCR. If the negative control came up positive or vice versa, the whole lab’s work was tossed.
At one stage, labs were used that had never handled SV40 ever, for fear of cross-contamination, as PCR can pick up a single fragment and amplify it into a positive.
By the way, people on ALL sides of the issue agree that the full genome has not been sequenced. Some may claim it but I have multiple sources, including a vaccine-researcher/developer at SUNY Buffalo, saying they are trying to assemble small fragments (he compared it to pages in a book), which is just how Drosten came up with the PCR codes in early January — from published code and NO patient samples. I have that in writing, from him.
Pam Popper on the logic of false beliefs and the human desire to belong | Added October 30
An economic Covid analysis from Loreen Costa | Added October 30
The knot of facts and lies, misdirection and truths-hidden-in-plain-sight that is this “pandemic” and the worldwide response is, ultimately, for me, nothing more and nothing less than an acceleration of economic forces which history has mapped time and again: how do those few who wish to “own” the wealth/productivity of the many manage that energy transfer from labor to ( their own) capital reserves?
Some may truly be motivated by a thought for the greater good, and work selflessly, if often chauvinistically and in opposition to the people they serve, to improve the lives of their fellow humans. Others are working free of collective scrutiny. It would appear that we have an endless abundance of evidence to suggest that humans are always ready to justify, and even sanctify with convoluted effort, their own enrichment at the expense of others, in a thinning veneer of claims that we serve “the greater good.”
Ego and fear, and the desire for comfort for self and those we love, these are universally human experiences. As is the truth that there will always be people willing to use these as tools to manipulate large groups of laboring people — and people who will always hope that those in power (wealth holding) will somehow “do the right thing” and save them, if only we ask them nicely enough.
“The public systems that New Yorkers rely on are also facing historic budget deficits—$14.5 billion at the state level, $9 billion in the city—with layoffs and cuts to schools and essential services looming in the absence of federal aid. The MTA has said it will have to cut subway and bus service by 40% if it doesn’t receive assistance by the new year.
“At the same time, New York’s financial sector posted $27.6 billion in profits over the first six months of 2020, an increase of 82% compared to the same period of 2019, according to a recent report from the state comptroller’s office. Globally, billionaires saw their wealth increase by 27% to $10.2 trillion, from April to June 2020; New York is home to more billionaires than nearly any other state in the country.
“I think it’s outrageous and insulting to continue to put billionaires ahead of working families who actually make New York possible. It’s a slap in the face,” Queens State Senator Jessica Ramos said.
“Ramos is the main senate sponsor of the most controversial option on a menu of new state tax proposals aimed at the wealthiest New Yorkers: a tax on billionaires that supporters say could raise billions of dollars for a “worker bailout fund.” New Yorkers who have been unable to tap state and federal assistance would receive $3,300 a month, retroactive to April. Recently incarcerated New Yorkers would also be eligible for the money.
“According to Kathryn Wylde, who regularly speaks to wealthy and powerful New Yorkers as the president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City, it is this kind of rhetoric that presents the biggest obstacle to taxing the rich, even if helping undocumented New Yorkers is “a worthwhile cause.”
“The first issue here is not whether they can afford to pay. The question is whether they like to be treated very badly and then turn around and pay for the privilege,” Wylde said of the state’s billionaires. “This is a targeting of a small group of individuals on a very punitive, negative basis. Has anybody sat down with billionaires or their tax accountants and asked them, is there a way that this would make sense to make this contribution? I doubt it.”
The Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald resigns in protest of censorship, drawing attention to troubling trend in progressive newsrooms | Added October 30
From journalist Matt Taibb’s Substack:
Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald quit his job this morning. In a bizarre, ironic, and disturbing commentary on trends in modern media, the celebrated reporter was forced to resign after writing a story criticizing both the Biden campaign and intelligence community — only to have it spiked by the editors of The Intercept, the news outlet he co-founded six years ago with the aim of preventing pretty much this exact situation.
“The irony,” Greenwald says, “is that a media outlet I co-founded, and which was built on my name and my accomplishments, with the purpose of guaranteeing editorial independence, is now censoring me in the most egregious way — about the leading presidential candidate, a week before the election.”
Greenwald becomes the latest high-profile journalist to leave a well-known legacy media organization to join Substack. You’ll be able to read the piece spiked by The Intercept at his new site here.
BREAKING — GLU-Anon: Exposing the International Gluten Conspiracy | Added October 29
My name is Glu. Well, not really. It’s actually more difficult to pronounce. I am a Cordon-Bleu certified executive chef at an important restaurant in Washington, D.C. Some of the most important people in the world eat in our restaurant, and even more important ones eat in the back room.
For obvious reasons, I cannot reveal my identity. Suffice it to say that my job requires a high level of security clearance, because of all the generals, admirals, cabinet members and senators and plumbers who eat in my restaurant.
I am here to tell you about the international gluten conspiracy. Maybe you’ve heard of this. Maybe you figured out it was happening, because you have a gluten-free friend, and it takes an hour to find the right restaurant, and then 45 minutes to order — all to avoid one little molecule that nobody needs.
One little molecule that nobody wants, but everyone can have in abundance, just by randomly eating anything.
The New York Times is now reporting 9 million ‘cases’ of Covid-19. But what about false positives? | Added October 29
The New York Times has previously reported that the PCR test is unreliable.
This 2007 article explains how, at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in the spring of 2006, the PCR test led medical professionals to believe there was a whooping cough outbreak, which then turned out to be completely untrue:
“Now, as they look back on the episode, epidemiologists and infectious disease specialists say the problem was that they placed too much faith in a quick and highly sensitive molecular test that led them astray.”
But we don’t see this mentioned in today’s front-page story.
With daily reports of coronavirus cases in the United States surging to previously unseen heights, the country has crossed the threshold of nine million known infections since the pandemic began.
On Thursday, the U.S. set another record for new daily cases, more than 89,000, topping the record set last Friday when the country recorded 85,000. It’s the equivalent of more than one new case every second.
“There is no way to sugarcoat it: We are facing an urgent crisis, and there is an imminent risk to you, your family members, your friends, your neighbors,” said Gov. Tony Evers of Wisconsin.
Message from Tom DiFernando, president of Rethinking AIDS | Added October 29
I think part of what’s confounding is that the Covid industry didn’t just make a claim; they threw down a gauntlet. They didn’t just say, “Covid is deadly and going to kill millions so we need to destroy the economy, ruin people’s lives, sell you vaccines and then install a centralized form of global government”, they also said, “Try and stop us”.
This is built into the fact that as defined, Covid, like AIDS, is endless. It only ends when the marketing ends, or when it becomes “manageable”, which is no ending at all. What product manufacturer in their right mind wants to end production of its product? (And then there’s the social engineering arm of this monster.)
Suggest the pandemic is over and those with an emotional investment in it get anxious. People don’t believe in the pandemic because they actually see one; either they believe in it because they are shown one, and then are constantly stoked, coached and deceived to continue seeing it, or they have an emotional investment in seeing it.
California restricts Thanksgiving celebrations due to virus panic — legislators sue Gov. Newsom | Added October 29
Thank you to Meri Cairns.
California’s governor now regulates what citizens can do in the privacy of their own homes, making large Thanksgiving family gatherings illegal. Thanksgiving must be celebrated outside, including no more than 3 households (and for two hours or less).
People outside of the host’s household are required to maintain six-feet distance. Oddly, loud singing is not allowed!
Apparently, the louder the singing, the more the virus spreads. Guests are ordered by the governor to not sit near each other and to wear masks at all times except while eating. Family members are permitted to eat and go to the bathroom as long as they don’t make too much noise while they do so. Needless to say, the playing of wind instruments is also discouraged.
California State Assembly member Kevin Kiley is suing Governor Newsom to remove the executive powers that Newsom is enforcing in response to the coronavirus. He says Newsom’s orders are unconstitutional, and he wants to restore powers to local governments within the state.
Assembly members James Gallagher of Yuba City and Kevin Kiley of Rocklin, California are also suing Governor Newsom for implementing unconstitutional restrictions on Californians. Why are democrats remaining silent?
France and Germany ordered back into another lockdown| Added October 28
Today both French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have announced that their respective countries will once again be enacting lockdown protocols. Interestinlgly CNN reported today that “while recorded Covid-19 cases are spiking in the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany and other European countries, deaths are not rising at the same rate.” They mention that a similar situation is occuring in the U.S.
In the context of a test that is known to produce mass quantities of false positives, which has been documented repeatedly, this isn’t exactly rocket science. Or epidemeology for that matter.
French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel ordered their countries back into lockdown on Wednesday, as a massive second wave of coronavirus infections threatened to overwhelm Europe before the winter.
World stock markets went into a dive in response to the news that Europe’s biggest economies were imposing nationwide restrictions almost as severe as the ones that drove the global economy this year into its deepest recession in generations.
“The virus is circulating at a speed that not even the most pessimistic forecasts had anticipated,” Macron said in a televised address. “Like all our neighbours, we are submerged by the sudden acceleration of the virus.”
“We are all in the same position: overrun by a second wave which we know will be harder, more deadly than the first,” he said. “I have decided that we need to return to the lockdown which stopped the virus.”
Under the new French measures which come into force on Friday, people will be required to stay in their homes except to buy essential goods, seek medical attention, or exercise for up to one hour a day. They will be permitted to go to work if their employer deems it impossible for them to do the job from home. Schools will stay open.
As in the darkest days of spring, anyone leaving their home in France will now have to carry a document justifying being outside, which can be checked by police.
Shutdown order enacted in Newark, New Jersey yesterday | Added October 28
It has been barely seven months since Newark, New Jersey’s largest city and a short ride from New York by train or car, began suffering disproportionate losses when the pandemic first gripped the region in the spring.
And it is here that the state is getting a glimpse of what could lie ahead this fall and winter as New Jersey struggles to control an alarming uptick in new coronavirus cases statewide.
On Tuesday at 8 p.m., the state’s first new shutdown order since March took hold in the city by order of the mayor, Ras Baraka, a Democrat.
New Jersey’s governor, Philip D. Murphy, has so far avoided the targeted shutdowns that states like New York and Connecticut have begun enforcing to address virus hot spots, but he said he supported the steps Mr. Baraka was taking to tame the outbreak. Mr. Murphy and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York have consulted on the surge in Newark.
Footage of Dublin streets on second day of Ireland’s new lockdown | Added October 28
Mitigating air pollution might have prevented 15 percent of global deaths attributed to Covid-19, new research suggests | Added October 27
Can’t say we’re surprised.
The authors said the deaths linked to COVID-19 and air pollution represented a “potentially avoidable, excess mortality” and that exposure to particulate matter in air likely aggravated “co-morbidities that lead to fatal outcomes” of infection by SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
“If both long-term exposure to air pollution and infection with the COVID-19 virus come together then we have an adverse effect on health, particularly with respect to the heart and blood vessels,” said the paper’s co-author Thomas Munzel.
He said that air pollution made known COVID-19 risk factors such as lung and heart problems more likely. Specifically, the team noted that particulate matter appeared to increase the activity of a receptor on lung cell surfaces, ACE-2, which is known to be involved in the way COVID-19 infects patients.
“So, we have a double hit: air pollution damages the lungs and increases the activity of ACE-2, which in turn leads to enhanced uptake of the virus,” said Munzel, a professor at the University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz.
One quotation in particular neatly reminds us: it’s economics, stupid | Added October 27
Thank you to Loreen Costa.
In a fearful world where people are longing for a savior from illness and (ultimately, inevitable) death, the pressure is on to reinterpret the motives of pharmaceutical companies in a benevolent light. One primary flaw in this collective effort is the willingness to forget the foundational truth of all corporate entities: that their chartered purpose is to provide profits to their shareholders, period. They operate under no other mandate, and all products and services they offer are in pursuit of this task.
In a purely capitalist structure, market forces – not morality – are meant to keep them accountable for any degradation in quality or other failures of their offering. In the managed markets system we’ve chosen, public regulatory offices like the FDA and EPA, and efforts like antitrust legislation and consumer safety protections, are meant to bolster these pure market forces.
Certain events in our history suggest this system works well enough when applied to dubious corporate offerings like the Ford Pinto; however, it must be stated that this system does not seem to apply all that well to pharmaceutical products in general, and certainly not to biologics and vaccines, emergency use or otherwise.
From a STAT News article titled “Pharma contributed to attorneys general who want to repeal the Affordable Care Act.” Note, RAGA refers to the Republican Attorneys General Association, and DAGA the Deomocratic Attorneys General Association:
” ‘A spokesperson for Pfizer (PFE), which contributed $105,000 to RAGA, wrote that “Pfizer contributes to both the RAGA and DAGA. It is misleading to tie those contributions to any one specific policy issue or action by those groups and/or its individual members. Pfizer’s political contributions are led by two guiding principles – furthering the incentives for innovation and expanding access to medicines and vaccines.’ ”
Fourth grader in New Mexico spends his days on school sidewalk to attend remote classes | Added October 26
When the pandemic stuck and schools were closed, the family were unable to participate in remote learning because they they [sic] couldn’t afford internet.
Instead, Angel, who lost both of her jobs because of the pandemic, said that Jonathan, who turns 10 next month, could walk to school to use the internet there.
‘He was like, “Yeah, I need to be back on the school property, and I could be like a normal kid again,”‘ she said to CNN. ‘Him just being outside of the building gives him that, “Hey, I’m at school” feeling even though he’s not around other classmates or teachers.’
The family don’t live too far away from the elementary school so Jonathan’s parents felt comfortable with him spending the day there, sitting outside the front door.
‘The principal, the secretary and a few teachers, they do come outside to check up on him and see if he needs anything,’ she said.
But seeing the youngster outside the building, day after day, had an effect on one teacher. She ended up sharing a picture of him online.
More strange New York Times coverage about problems with the PCR | Added October 26
Here is some truly strange coverage of the PCR from the NY Times this weekend. This is the second article admitting that a vast proportion of “confirmed cases” of covid are false positives. This article says maybe more false positives than real ones, consistent with their coverage from August.
This is what is causing the “casedemic” of false positives that are not “cases” at all. They write these articles, and then they don’t adjust their case count accordingly, or place a warning on it. This helps accentuate the “maximum fear” approach.
A few writers have been working on this issue since early in the year — Celia Farber, Jon Rappoport, those at the Off-Guardian, we at Planet Waves and many others. The NY Times makes no admission of having known about this issue, and published warnings about it, in 2007. Celia Farber has been covering it since the mid-1990s when she wrote for SPIN and documented it during the HIV/AIDS crisis. There is no relationship between the PCR and “viral load.”
So once again it’s news — and yet the Times and all outlets from Fox to CNN to Washington Post are treating the “case count” like it’s real. Everyone including CDC and FDA knows and admits: PCR is not a diagnosis, nor proof of disease, or proof of infection, or of the presence of ANY virus. The PCR has a false positive rate that can be as high as 100% as documented by the Times and others in 2007.
Public officials and the media keep whining about ‘dangerous conspiracy theorizing’ and how dangerous it is. Any wonder why that’s going on? | Added October 26
Eric’s comment: Let me take a stab. I’ve broken this matter down into 19 separate issues at last count. There is no way to assess “covid.” It has to be seen as its component parts: the origins, the writing of the PCR codes, the problems with the test, the death reporting guidance, the “novel virus” issue, the purification and isolation issue, the push for the vaccine, the efficacy and honesty of lockdowns.
And, working as a team for nine+ months nonstop, whenever we look at the claims around any of those issues, we find deception, manipulation, obfuscation, contradiction by government officials, sham media coverage that asks no real questions, and on and on and on. People notice this. It is all documented. Everyone has made up their mind, and I would estimate that at least half of the public has something about this that they do not trust.
“Leaders” and media are not being honest and almost everyone knows that. So to me, “conspiracy theorizing” means that people are not wholly anesthetized, and are capable of having their doubts. Accusing people of conspiracy theorizing in the midst of an obvious action by a cartel is just ridiculous. See the recent RFK video, which I will add to the first comment.
How about some transparency? Well, any doctor or governor who speaks up tends to get panned, shunned and discredited.
Here is that video, which we’ve posted before:
New study finds Covid-19 infection on airplanes is unlikely | Added October 26
In late August, a study conducted by the U.S. military assessed the risk of contracting an airborne virus as a passenger aboard commercial aircraft. The results, released last Thursday and reported in this article by Military.com, suggest there is low risk of such infection due to highly effective air particle filtration and ventilation systems.
The air supply systems on commercial aircraft offer greater protection against COVID-19 than those in hospital operating rooms, research commissioned by the US Department of Defense (DOD) found.
The overall risk of exposure to COVID-19 on a flight is “very low,” the research concluded — and “virtually nonexistent” if you wear a mask.
If only one passenger on a Boeing 767 or 777 flight is infected, it would take a flight of around 54 hours for others onboard to get an infectious dose of the virus, researchers found.
The world’s longest flight, between Singapore and Newark, New Jersey, is 18 hours long.
However, researchers acknowledged that the test was limited because it was based on the flight having just one infected passenger, and didn’t involve passengers moving around the cabin.
The DoD states the military will play a “logistics-only” role in coronavirus vaccine effort | Added October 26
From the U.S. Department of Defense:
U.S. military personnel won’t be administering any COVID-19 vaccines to the American people once the vaccines are approved for use. But the U.S. military will lend it’s experienced hand in logistics to ensure the vaccine is available across the nation, said Paul Mango, the deputy chief of staff for policy at the Department of Health and Human Services.
“The overwhelming majority of Americans will get a vaccine that no federal employee, including the Department of Defense, has touched,” Mango said during a Friday teleconference regarding Operation Warp Speed, the DOD and HHS effort to find a vaccine for COVID-19.
“That said … we have the best logisticians in the world at the Department of Defense, working in conjunction with the CDC, to guide … every logistical detail you could possibly think of.
“That effort, Mango said, involves things such as needles, syringes, swabs, adhesive bandages, dry ice and trucks, for instance.
Singapore temporarily suspends use of two flu vaccines after deaths in Korea | Added October 26
Deaths have continued to rise in South Korea and public anxiety is growing in relation to the flu vaccine program underway there. Of note: last month in South Korea about “5 million doses had to be disposed of as they were not stored at recommended temperatures,” and last year “more than 1,500 elderly people died within seven days of receiving flu vaccines, but those deaths were not linked to the vaccinations, the government said.”
Regarding the situation today, President President Moon Jae-in is quoted as saying “Do trust the health authorities’ conclusion…reached after a review with experts.”
More on the situation in Singapore via South China Morning Post:
Singapore has temporarily halted the use of two influenza vaccines as a precaution after some people who received them in South Korea died, becoming among the first countries to publicly announce a halt of the vaccines’ use.
South Korea reported that 48 have died as of Saturday after getting flu shots but said it would carry on with the state-run vaccination programme as they found no direct link between the deaths and the shots.
No deaths associated with influenza vaccination have been reported in Singapore to date but the decision to halt the use of SKYCellflu Quadrivalent and VaxigripTetra was precautionary, the health ministry and the Health Sciences Authority (HAS) said in a statement late on Sunday.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.: Int’l. Message for Freedom and Hope | Added October 25
Here is a speech published yesterday, October 24, by Robert F. Kennedy and Children’s Health Defense wherein he speaks out against censorship and totalitarianism.
Flu shot plan in Korea to continue despite deaths | Added October 25
Two days ago we shared a couple of stories focused on the recent deaths in Korea that coincided with the country’s flu vaccination campaign. The number of deaths have since risen to 48 people, and doctors and politicians have called for a halt to the government campaign where they plan to vaccinate close to 30 million people out of the country’s 58 million.
Health authorities claim they have found no link and between the deaths and the vaccinations and intend to carry on with the program.
The number of South Koreans who have died after getting flu shots has risen to 48, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said on Saturday, adding that the vaccines would continue to reduce the chance of having simultaneous epidemics.
The health authorities said they found no direct link between the deaths and the shots. They plan to carry on with the state-run vaccination programme to try to avoid having to fight both the flu and the coronavirus over the coming winter.
“After reviewing death cases so far, it is not the time to suspend a flu vaccination programme since vaccination is very crucial this year, considering … the COVID-19 outbreaks,” KDCA Director Jeong Eun-kyung told a briefing.
Jeong said the review had shown no direct link between the flu shots and the 26 deaths that have been investigated.
Some 20 initial autopsy results from the police and the National Forensic Service showed that 13 people died of cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and other disorders not caused by the vaccination.
Spain to impose curfews until April | Added October 25
The Spanish government on Sunday agreed to declare a new state of emergency, which would allow a curfew to be imposed across the country as it continues to battle a resurgence of coronavirus cases.
An extraordinary meeting of the Council of Ministers was held in Madrid on Sunday morning “in order to examine the terms of a new royal decree on a state of alert,” a communiqué released by Prime Minister Pedro Sachez’s office said on Saturday evening.
It added that “the proposal has been welcomed by the majority” of Spain’s regional governments, “which have requested it”.
In a meeting that lasted two hours, the cabinet agreed to an initial 15-day state of alarm. Local media reports claim the government intends to extend the measure until April. Regions across Spain will now be subject to a curfew at night from 11 pm until 6 am CET.
Daycare in Finland introduces more green space at daycare; positive impact on immune systems | Added October 25
Similar to this story we shared in June about microbioe rewilding and how urban green spaces help to strengthen immune systems, a daycare in Finland has installed forest undergrowth at a daycare playground.
and allowed children to care for crops in planter boxes, According to the article below, “the diversity of microbes in the guts and on the skin of young kids appeared healthier in a very short space of time.”
This comports with what Zach Bush shared in his first interview with Del Bigtree, regarding the importance and impact of environmental microbes on the human microbiome, and how it bolsters one’s immune system.
Playing through the greenery and litter of a mini forest’s undergrowth for just one month may be enough to change a child’s immune system, according to a small new experiment.
When daycare workers in Finland rolled out a lawn, planted forest undergrowth such as dwarf heather and blueberries, and allowed children to care for crops in planter boxes, the diversity of microbes in the guts and on the skin of young kids appeared healthier in a very short space of time.
Compared to other city kids who play in standard urban daycares with yards of pavement, tile and gravel, 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds at these greened-up daycare centres in Finland showed increased T-cells and other important immune markers in their blood within 28 days.
“We also found that the intestinal microbiota of children who received greenery was similar to the intestinal microbiota of children visiting the forest every day,” says environmental scientist Marja Roslund from the University of Helsinki.
UN Nuclear Weapons ban treaty to enter into force next year| Added October 25
Here is a story that went by yesterday that didn’t seem to get much coverage. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons has been ratified at the UN and will enter into force in January of next year.
An international treaty banning nuclear weapons will come into force after it reached the minimum number of ratifications, according to a UN official on Friday.
Honduras became the 50th and final country to ratify it, “triggering entry into force,” tweeted the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), a coalition of non-governmental organizations that won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize for its key role in bringing the treaty to fruition.
The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons — which bans the use, development, production, testing, stationing, stockpiling and threat of use of such weapons — was adopted by the UN General Assembly in July 2017 with the approval of 122 countries.
A wave of countries ratified the agreement in recent months, as the world marked the 75th anniversary of the nuclear bomb attacks on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, AFP news agency reported.
Jamaica and Nauru signed up just a day before Honduras.
The treaty will enter into force in 90 days time — in January 2021.
Vaccine hesitancy continues to grow — new poll results reported by AP | Added October 24
Facing public skepticism about rushed COVID-19 vaccines, U.S. health officials are planning extra scrutiny of the first people vaccinated when shots become available — an added safety layer experts call vital.
A new poll suggests those vaccine fears are growing. With this week’s pause of a second major vaccine study because of an unexplained illness — and repeated tweets from President Donald Trump that raise the specter of politics overriding science — a quarter of Americans say they won’t get vaccinated. That’s a slight increase from 1 in 5 in May.
The poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found only 46% of Americans want a COVID-19 vaccine and another 29% are unsure.
More striking, while Black Americans have been especially hard-hit by COVID-19, just 22% say they plan to get vaccinated compared with 48% of white Americans, the AP-NORC poll found.
“I am very concerned about hesitancy regarding COVID vaccine,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a vaccine specialist at Vanderbilt University who says even the primary care doctors who’ll need to recommend vaccinations have questions.”
Wow- ya think? Air pollution is costly and bad for the brain! | Added October 24
Thank you, Loreen Costa.
What interests me in this presentation at this time is that we’re looking at a global economic reset, whether by design or opportunistic response, which is having an impact on fossil fuel consumption and the plans for urban environments.
What challenges me is that the costs generated by certain industries are rarely paid for by those industries; the costs are simply creatively recongfigured to be borne by the labor classes under a new label.
So we’re finally beginning to calculate the real time costs of “cheap” fossil fuels and the environmental degradation they’ve caused, ratherthan continuingto externalize these costs to “the future”. Great. But as we switch over to our Brave Green World, who pays with lack of freedom and self determination, again?
Certainly not the CEOs who drove the markets to calculate the “cost-effectiveness” of continued reliance on fossil fuels, for example. It begins to make the lofty academic presentations about equity sound like b.s. ear candy for the privileged walking their kids to the fully-functional days schools.
“The World Bank has estimated that air pollution costs the global economy $5tn (£3.8tn) a year but this includes only the well-known damages caused to heart and lungs by dirty air.
“There is now an increasing body of evidence suggesting air pollution isn’t great for the brain either,” Mudway said. “We may actually have been underplaying the adverse effects of air pollution on our health from cradle to grave.”
And, also from The Guardian:
“Universities must act to eradicate discrimination against working-class students, including the mockery of regional accents, equality campaigners have said.
A Guardian investigation has found widespread evidence of students at some of the country’s leading universities being ridiculed over their accents and backgrounds, in some cases prompting them to leave education.
The analysis found discrimination against working-class students was particularly prevalent among Russell Group universities. The group, which is made up of 24 institutions, has a reputation for academic excellence.”
Here is the video Eric was banned from Facebook for posting. Find out what the fuss is about. The new Planet Waves FM (posted to its tab above) contains a longer interview with Reiner Fullmich | Added October 23
36 people die after receiving flu vaccination in South Korea | Added October 23
On Wednesday, The New York Times reported the unexplained deaths of 13 people over the past week in South Korea who had received the seasonal flu vaccine, including the death of a teenager. On Friday, The Straits Times reported a new total of 36 deaths after flu vaccination, which has caused an increase in public concern.
From The Straits Times:
South Korea hopes to inoculate some 19 million people for free, especially vulnerable groups such as young children and the elderly, ahead of the annual flu season starting in November when temperatures drop.
No causal link has been found yet between the flu shots and the fatalities so far, and investigations are underway to determine the exact cause of the deaths.
It remains unknown how a 17-year-old boy living in Incheon died last Friday – two days after getting a free flu shot, making him the first case.
South Korea’s forensic agency said it has found no direct link between his death and the flu shot.
But it is alarming how the number of similar deaths has since spiked, with 18 alone reported on Thursday, and nine more on Friday.
Most of the fatalities are elderly people with underlying medical conditions.
Peter Breggin interviews Jeffrey Tucker | Added October 23
In this interview, psychiatrist Dr. Peter Breggin and economics writer Jeffrey Tucker discuss The Great Barrington Declaration, the history of lockdownism, Dr. Anthony Fauci and totalitarianism, Fauci and Bill Gates, the lack of science in public health policies, and hopeful progress. Planet Waves researcher Ro Dann writes, “Just over an hour in length with some excellent information and background.”
September report from BBC on the unreliability of tests and PCR cycle thresholds | Added October 23
Here’s a September 5 article from BBC that explores what we have reported here, and what other major publications only sometimes feel the need to point out: the tests that are generating the illusion of massive outbreaks are indeed unreliable.
From BBC:
Most people are infectious only for about a week, but could test positive weeks afterwards.
Researchers say this could be leading to an over-estimate of the current scale of the pandemic.
But some experts say it is uncertain how a reliable test can be produced that doesn’t risk missing cases.
Prof Carl Heneghan, one of the study’s authors, said instead of giving a “yes/no” result based on whether any virus is detected, tests should have a cut-off point so that very small amounts of virus do not trigger a positive result.
Horseshoe crab population in decline; needed in vaccine research | Added October 23
As the world looks forward to a COVID-19 vaccine, one organism and its copper-based, blue blood is playing a major role helping to ensure prevention of contaminants in human health treatments.
Around for more than 450 million years, horseshoe crabs have earned the nickname the “living fossil.” They have been in the spotlight over the past couple months while a COVID-19 vaccine is being developed.
What do horseshoe crabs have to do with human health? “Almost everything,” said John Tanacredi, director of the Center for Environmental Research and Coastal Oceans Monitoring, otherwise known as CERCOM. “No one talks about horseshoe crabs in the perspective of human health.”
Extremely sensitive to toxins, Limulus amoebocyte lysate, or LAL, is the unique blue blood contained within the horseshoe crab. When the time comes to deploy the COVID-19 vaccine, every single vaccine will have to be manufactured without contamination, using horseshoe crab blood, in order to prevent sepsis.
There’s now a $15 fine for people who refuse to wear masks in Narberth, Penn. | Added October 23
The Borough of Narberth has passed an ordinance to require people to wear masks in the business district and in parks.
The ordinance will levy a $15 fine on people who are spotted in those areas without a mask. There are several exceptions, including health reasons and for children under 2-years-old.
Some residents said it’s a bold move for a small borough with about 4,300 residents.
FDA fully approves Remdisivir as a treatment for the coronavirus | Added October 23
The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved Gilead Sciences’ antiviral drug remdesivir as a treatment for the coronavirus.
In May, the FDA granted the drug an emergency use authorization, allowing hospitals and doctors to use it on patients hospitalized with the disease even though the medication had not been formally approved by the agency. The intravenous drug has helped shorten the recovery time of some hospitalized Covid-19 patients. It was one of the drugs used to treat President Donald Trump, who tested positive for the virus earlier this month.
The drug will be used for Covid-19 patients at least 12 years old and requiring hospitalization, Gilead said. Remdesivir is now the first and only fully approved treatment in the U.S. for Covid-19, which has infected more than 41.3 million people worldwide and killed more than 1 million, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
WHO opposes lockdowns — Trump cites them as supporting him | Added October 23
This story is from last week, but we would like to ensure that it is shared here. The World Health Organization announced in a statement that they were against the use of lockdowns as “the primary means of control of this virus.” President Trump later tweeted saying that the WHO admitted he was right about lockdowns.
This week, President Trump exaggerated a position taken by the World Health Organization, saying that the agency had vindicated his derision of lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic.
“The World Health Organization just admitted that I was right,” the president tweeted. “Lockdowns are killing countries all over the world. The cure cannot be worse than the problem itself.”
Mr. Trump’s message was rapidly shared by thousands online, including the commentator Lou Dobbs and Representative Andy Biggs, Republican of Arizona, who echoed the president’s rallying cry to “open up” and described the closings as “pseudoscientific” and “tyrannical.”
Since the early days of the pandemic, the president has dismissed lockdowns as unnecessary and harmful, even while the virus continued to blaze across the nation.
Mr. Trump did not say which W.H.O. statement he was referring to. But one of the few published recent comments from a W.H.O. official about lockdowns came from David Nabarro, one of several envoys to the organization on Covid-19.
“We in the World Health Organization do not advocate lockdowns as the primary means of control of this virus,” Dr. Nabarro said earlier this month to the British magazine The Spectator.
“The only time we believe a lockdown is justified is to buy you time to reorganize, regroup, rebalance your resources, protect your health workers who are exhausted. But by and large, we’d rather not do it.”
“We really do appeal to all world leaders, stop using lockdown as your primary method of control,” Dr. Nabarro said.Dr. Nabarro described several potential tolls of widespread lockdowns, which have set off economic declines and higher unemployment rates, and have widened disparities in many parts of the world, including the United States.
Integrity of Covid-19 death data questioned in Florida; state’s Department of Health orders investigation | Added October 23
Florida, which has reported the deaths of over 16,400 people from COVID-19, now says the public may not be able to trust any of those numbers.
The state Department of Health on Wednesday ordered an investigation of all pandemic fatalities, one week after House Speaker Jose Oliva slammed the death data from medical examiners as “often lacking in rigor” and undermining “the completeness and reliability of the death records.”
House Democrats then blasted the House Republicans’ report as an insult to coronavirus victims and an attempt “to downplay the death toll.”
The political battle over COVID-19 death reporting — and now the new review — follows Gov. Ron DeSantis’ push for a full reopening of the state’s businesses and tourist attractions and a picture of the virus being so under control, Tampa should host a packed Super Bowl in early February.
Special Comment: “Schrödinger’s Virus” | Added October 22
By Eric F. Coppolino
Lately I’ve been calling SARS-CoV-2 “Schrödinger’s Virus.” Those familiar with quantum folklore will recognize this as the example from Erwin Schrödinger, under one interpretation of quantum mechanics where the same hypothetical cat can be both alive and dead at the same time, due to a fundamental principle called quantum superposition.
The two states that seem to exist in superposition are: 1. There is no virus and 2. The virus came from a lab. I have been going over both possibilities throughout this crisis, accessing scientific and journalistic sources, as well as the available data, and there are strong arguments on both sides. Through the course of the year, you have heard both sides argued by guests on my program.
I Am Not Taking a Position
I am not proposing that these are the only two possibilities; each has several branches, and there are many other possibilities. For example, the lab origin theory splits in two: accidental release (a commonplace event) and bioterrorism (a topic about which the media and political community have been curiously silent, given all the attention that terrorism has received the past few decades).
I am saying these are the two dominant theories that challenge the official position of wholly accidental and natural origin — and I am presenting them specifically because they would seem to contradict one another. Holding the contradiction is a useful tool in investigative reporting and many other aspects of life. This is another way of saying having respect for the unknown and respecting that anything is possible.
I do not assert either position, though I’m following closely the abundant evidence on either side. I am here to tell you what they are, so that you may further your own consideration and analysis. I would also caution that simple dismissal is not an argument, such as a “fact check” that claims to prove something did not happen.
The “No Virus” Position
“No virus” advocates say correctly that the government admits that it has not isolated and purified any virus called SARS-CoV-2. What is found via PCR in both patients, healthy people and claimed isolation events are RNA fragments with a broad reach. Additionally, there is no one syndrome from claimed exposure. Even the “flu-like” versions of the disease do not match and are unremarkable from a medical standpoint; they could be symptoms of many different things.
Only 44 pneumonia patients were initially identified in Wuhan in December, and only 15 of those tested “positive.” The PCR primers were written in France with no patient samples available, only computer code. Nothing close to Koch’s Postulates have been met, and at this time there is no correlation between “cases” and claimed deaths (there was briefly, in March and April).
The “Lab Origin” Position
On the other side, the “lab origin” advocates say that the virus they see shows evidence of genetic editing. These include Nobel Laureate Luc Montagnier of the Pasteur Institute and others. They state correctly that the U.S. and China were collaborating on “gain of function” research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (funded through Eco-Health Alliance) — located very close to the first claimed outbreak. They point out how frequently lab escapes and accidents happen. They give evidence of biological arms race.
On the issue of “natural origin” versus “lab origin,” there is no direct or circumstantial evidence of natural origin, there is much that argues against it, and there is strong circumstantial evidence of lab origin. To my mind, after careful thought, the weight of the evidence goes to lab origin, if presented with these two possibilities.
Most who are investigating this are taking one position or the other — “lab origin” or “no virus,” and sticking to it. This is a source of confusion for the public, and I have not seen this specific issue discussed anywhere else. I have found that arguing and researching from one side is not helpful, and that I need to hold both possibilities in mind at the same time, and consider every scenario and development from both positions.
Researchers now caution that some coronavirus vaccines may increase risk of HIV infection | Added October 22
Some of the Covid-19 vaccines currently in development could increase the risk of acquiring HIV, warned a group of researchers in the The Lancet medical journal Monday, potentially leading to an increase in infections as vaccines are rolled out to vulnerable populations around the world.
Key Facts
The researchers warn of a “cautionary tale” from efforts to create an HIV vaccine over a decade ago, where a promising vaccine candidate actually increased the risk of some men catching the virus.
The vaccine made use of a modified virus — called adenovirus 5 (Ad5) — as a vector to transport some of HIV’s genetic material into the body.
Exactly how the vaccine increased the risks of HIV transmission is unknown, but a conference convened by the National Institutes of Health recommended against further use of Ad5 as a vector in HIV vaccines (Dr. Anthony Fauci was lead author of the paper outlining this position.)
Brazilian volunteer in AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine trial dies | Added October 22
Brazilian health authority Anvisa said on Wednesday that a volunteer in a clinical trial of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca AZN.L and Oxford University had died but added that the trial would continue.
Oxford confirmed the plan to keep testing, saying in a statement that after careful assessment “there have been no concerns about safety of the clinical trial.”
AstraZeneca declined to comment immediately.
A source familiar with the matter told Reuters the trial would have been suspended if the volunteer who died had received the COVID-19 vaccine, suggesting the person was part of the control group that was given a meningitis jab.
More from Dr. Tom Cowan — on insistences in the coronavirus story | Added October 21
Tom writes, “In today’s video I get deeper into the inconsistencies of the corona virus story. At the end of the video, I outline a simple scheme you can use to help keep you and your family healthy during these times.”
People sure are paranoid about conspiracy theories | Added October 21
Lately, I have been putting an embarrassing amount of thought into notions like jinxes and knocking on wood. The polls for Joe Biden look good, but in 2020, any hint of optimism feels dangerously naïve, and my brain has been working overtime in search of potential doom.
I have become consumed with an alarming possibility: that neither the polls nor the actual outcome of the election really matter, because to a great many Americans, digital communication has already rendered empirical, observable reality beside the point.
If I sound jumpy, it’s because I spent a couple of hours recently chatting with Joan Donovan, the research director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School. Donovan is a pioneering scholar of misinformation and media manipulation — the way that activists, extremists and propagandists surf currents in our fragmented, poorly moderated media ecosystem to gain attention and influence society.
Nazism, COVID-19 and the destruction of modern medicine: An interview with Vera Sharav, Part One | Added October 21
Truly poignant, and relevant.
Full transparency would quash “conspiracy theories” — is that too much to ask in a representative democracy? | Added October 21
Given the unprecedented amount of tax dollars being thrown into the unprecedented public health policies of quarantine for the healthy and clear movement toward a nationwide mandate for an untested group of vaccines, it should come as no surprise that thinking people with time on their hands are trying to make sense of all the conflicting facts, theories and statistical presentations.
Two things which would help seem to be unavailable to US citizens: 1- a clear definition of the phrase “very active pharmacovigilance surveillance system” and 2- access to the government contracts which have assigned data operations of such a system to private, multinational corporations.
From Children’s Health Defense Fund newsletter October 20, 2020:
“During an interview with the Wall Street Journal published last Friday, the “captain” of OWS, career Big Pharma executive Moncef Slaoui, confirmed that the millions of Americans who are set to receive the project’s COVID-19 vaccine will be monitored via “incredibly precise … tracking systems” that will “ensure that patients each get two doses of the same vaccine and to monitor them for adverse health effects.” Slaoui also noted that tech giants Google and Oracle have been contracted as part of this “tracking system” but did not specify their exact roles beyond helping to “collect and track vaccine data.”
The day before the Wall Street Journal interview was published, the New York Times published a separate interview with Slaoui where he referred to this “tracking system” as a “very active pharmacovigilance surveillance system.”
Despite the claims in these documents that the “pharmacovigilance surveillance system” would intimately involve the FDA, top FDA officials stated in September that they were barred from attending OWS meetings and told reporters they could not explain the operation’s organization or when or with what frequency its leadership meets. The FDA officials did state, however, that they “are still allowed to interact with companies developing products for OWS,” STAT reported.
Brain damage warning from masks | Added October 20
“Masking” drives up C02 levels instantly and soon after depletes blood oxygen. This causes slow asphyxiation, which damages the brain. This is dangerous for everyone, especially for children whose brains are still developing. It is dangerous for people who have any cardio-pulmonary issues at all. And not only does it not provide protection from virions, most masks atomize droplets on the one hand, and concentrate any pathogens on your side of the mask, including bacteria, which is then taken deeper into the lungs. This is a very bad idea and there are reasons it has not been done in the past.
The following is a transcript of the highlights (by Henna Maria) from Dr. Margarite Griesz-Brisson’s recent extremely pressing video message, that was translated on-air from German into English by Claudia Stauber. Video below.
Dr. Margarite Griesz-Brisson MD, PhD is a Consultant Neurologist and Neurophysiologist with a PhD in Pharmacology, with special interest in neurotoxicology, environmental medicine, neuroregeneration and neuroplasticity. This is what she has to say about masks and their effects on our brains:
“The rebreathing of our exhaled air will without a doubt create oxygen deficiency and a flooding of carbon dioxide. We know that the human brain is very sensitive to oxygen depravation. There are nerve cells for example in the hippocampus, that can’t be longer than 3 minutes without oxygen – they cannot survive. The acute warning symptoms are headaches, drowsiness, dizziness, issues in concentration, slowing down of the reaction time – reactions of the cognitive system.
Dr. Tom Cowan explores the COVID virus | Added October 20
If this is science, a penguin is a spaceship.
Via our colleague Jon Rappoport and posted on Nexus News Feed. (You can find Jon’s personal blog here):
The hits keep coming. The CDC used an arbitrary computer “tinker-toy” process to invent a description of the virus. The virus that no one has proven exists. This is the basic conclusion of Dr. Tom Cowan.
The CDC article was discovered by Sally Fallon Morrell. Her co-author, Dr. Cowan, fleshes out the fraud. Cowan’s article is titled, “Only Poisoned Monkey Cells ‘Grew’ the ‘Virus’.”
Dr. Cowan: “[The CDC journal article] was published in June 2020 [original publication, March 2020]. The purpose of the article was for a group of about 20 virologists to describe the state of the science of the isolation, purification and biological characteristics of the new SARS-CoV-2 virus, and to share this information with other scientists for their own research. A thorough and careful reading of this important paper reveals some shocking findings.”
“First, in the section titled ‘Whole Genome Sequencing,’ we find that rather than having isolated the virus and sequencing the genome from end to end, they found 37 base pairs from unpurified samples using PCR probes. This means they actually looked at 37 out of the approximately 30,000 of the base pairs that are claimed to be the genome of the intact virus. They then took these 37 segments and put them into a computer program, which filled in the rest of the base pairs.”
In other words, the sequencing of the SARS-CoV-2 virus was done by assumption and arbitrary inference. If this is science, a penguin is a spaceship.
California will independently review the safety of new coronavirus vaccines | Added October 20
A California panel of experts will independently review the safety of new coronavirus vaccines and initial plans for distribution, Governor Gavin Newsom said on Monday.
The 11-person panel specializing in topics such as epidemiology, biostatistics, and infectious disease will review any vaccine approved by the Food and Drug Administration before it is distributed to state residents, Newsom told a news conference.
“These are top health experts that will independently review any FDA-approved vaccines,” he said. “We will do our own independently reviewed process with our world-class experts that just happen to live here in the state of California.”
University in Japan announces new Covid-19 breath testing system | Added October 20
According to Tohoku University President Hideo Ono the system purportedly “can also detect many viruses other than the novel coronavirus and, therefore, contribute to the post-COVID fight against infectious diseases.”
Tohoku University and precision equipment maker Shimadzu Corp. have jointly developed a system that checks exhaled breath to detect novel coronavirus infections.
The testing accuracy of the system is about the same as the levels achieved by widely used polymerase chain reaction tests, according to a joint announcement by the university and Shimadzu on Friday.
They aim to put the system into practical use within a few years after conducting clinical research for about six months.
The system collects exhaled breath from testing subjects for five to 10 minutes to examine the water vapor contained in it.
Analysis of PCR tests that was originally published in September | Added October 20
Here’s an analysis of the PCR that I don’t think I’ve posted elsewhere.
In this August 29, 2020 article by Apoorva Mandavilli for The New York Times, she covers the growing concern over RT-PCR tests in the United States. The article was published days after the CDC changed guidelines to exempt asymptomatics from taking the swab test [see CDC changes guidelines for testing: No more test for asymptomatics].
In this report, Mandavilli quotes various experts who are raising their concerns about how the RT-PCR test provides a simple yes-no answer to the question of whether a patient is infected. According to Dr. Michael Mina, epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the yes-no isn’t good enough, and that the amount of virus found in the patient should dictate on how a coronavirus-positive patient will be handled. Dr. Mina is referring to the viral load – the greater the viral load, the more contagious the patient. Viral load, however, is determined by the number of amplification cycles needed to detect the virus – the fewer cycles required, the greater the viral load.
Unfortunately, results from the US are showing that cycling thresholds (CT) in the US are too sensitive, as many of them have set the limit at 37 to 40. At these thresholds, the tests are able to detect genetic fragments from past infections which no longer pose risks. For Juliet Morrison, virologist at the University of California, a CT beyond 35 is already too sensitive.
NYT on pandemic fatigue | Added October 20
All the folly of the allopathic medical system engaging simultaneously. I was fatigued by how often many people go to the doctor before all this happened.
“People are done putting hearts on their windows and teddy bears out for scavenger hunts,” said Katie Rosenberg, the mayor of Wausau, Wis., a city of 38,000 where a hospital has opened an extra unit to treat Covid-19 patients. “They have had enough.”
Ann Vossen, a medical microbiologist in the Netherlands, where daily cases doubled this past week, said people across Europe “let go too much.” She added, “This is the result.”
In parts of the world where the virus is resurging, the outbreaks and a rising sense of apathy are colliding, making for a dangerous combination. Health officials say the growing impatience is a new challenge as they try to slow the latest outbreaks, and it threatens to exacerbate what they fear is turning into a devastating autumn.
Covid-19 vs Surgical Mask | Added October 20
This guy…for your entertainment. Total absolute irrefutable proof that masks stop viruses, if you were wondering where to find it.
Coronavirus found in Australian sewage | Added October 20
They will find it anywhere they look, that’s because the PCR can find anything anywhere.
Queensland’s chief health officer has raised concerns about undetected coronavirus cases in the community after testing at three wastewater plants returned positive results.
Sewerage testing at Maroochydore, on the Sunshine Coast, and Wynnum and Sandgate wastewater plants in greater Brisbane came after all three had previously returned negative results.
The news of the coronavirus fragments in sewerage come as Queensland recorded no new cases overnight and has just four that are across the state.
Dr Jeanette Young said on Saturday there was no need for alarm although there was every chance someone may have coronavirus and not even realise it.
The positive tests could also be the result of people having recovered from COVID-19 but are still shedding virus fragments that is turning up sewage.
French women in uproar as they’re forced to wear masks during LABOR leaving them vomiting and unable to breathe — doctors threaten to leave them to give birth alone if they refuse | Added October 20
She said it was made clear to her that if she did not wear a mask she would have to give birth on her own because the doctors could choose not to treat her, and the hospital was understaffed and could not provide a replacement team.
The mother, who declined to give her surname, said: ‘As soon as I pushed the first time I realised that it was going to be complicated and my instinct was to take off the mask to breathe.’
She said she was told: ‘You have to keep your mask on, it’s protocol.’
In the throes of childbirth, she agreed to put her mask back on and pushed again but quickly realised that it was going to be complicated because she was ‘breathing my own hot air’.
She said that she tried again, but said: ‘I had the feeling that I was suffocating, I was very hot, I was sweating profusely under my mask, I wasn’t managing it.
‘I remember one point my partner took the mask off me because he could see that I was in distress, but he was told off for doing so.
‘In the end the doctor had to use forceps and my son was born with amniotic fluid in his lungs, a bump on his head from the forceps and he had to be transferred to the neonatal service in another hospital because the hospital I was in did not have adequate facilities.’
Maud said: ‘This was very traumatic for my partner and me. Before giving birth, we are taught to manage our breathing and so to be in this situation was very traumatic.'”
“Echoing the feelings of other mothers across the country, Fanny said she could not understand why people in fitness centres do not have to wear masks but mothers giving birth do.”
Dr. Pam Popper: Data From the World Health Organization, CDC, and State of Ohio | Added October 20
Forbes: Covid-19 Vaccine Protocols Reveal That Trials Are Designed To Succeed | Added October 20
Even FORBES is admitting that a Covid vax will not “save lives.” This is based on protocols of the vaccine trials.
Moderna, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson are leading candidates for the completion of a Covid-19 vaccine likely to be released in the coming months. These companies have published their vaccine trial protocols. This unusually transparent action during a major drug trial deserves praise, close inspection of the protocols raises surprising concerns. These trials seem designed to prove their vaccines work, even if the measured effects are minimal.
What would a normal vaccine trial look like?
Prevention of infection must be a critical endpoint. Any vaccine trial should include regular antigen testing every three days to test contagiousness to pick up early signs of infection and PCR testing once a week to confirm infection by SARS-CoV-2 test the ability of the vaccines to stave off infection.
Prevention of infection is not a criterion for success for any of these vaccines. In fact, their endpoints all require confirmed infections and all those they will include in the analysis for success, the only difference being the severity of symptoms between the vaccinated and unvaccinated.
Measuring differences amongst only those infected by SARS-CoV-2 underscores the implicit conclusion that the vaccines are not expected to prevent infection, only modify symptoms of those infected.
NYT: Covid-19 Vaccines Are Chance at Salvation, Financial and Beyond, for Drug Makers | Added October 20
Yes and yet another chance for demolishing their reputations and faith in medicine — and a fine opportunity to sicken millions.
For a long time, drug makers have been the most hated industry in America. Companies are blamed for gouging prices on lifesaving drugs and enriching themselves through the opioid crisis, among other sins.
Now, with pharmaceutical companies racing to find vaccines to end the coronavirus pandemic, the industry is hoping to redeem itself in the public’s mind.
The primary goal, of course, is to rescue the world from the grips of a vicious virus. But a big fringe benefit is to get public credit — and to use an improved image to fend off government efforts to more heavily regulate the industry.
New York National Guard deployed to airports; helping to enforce mandatory travel quarantines | Added October 20
The New York National Guard is being deployed to airports across the state to assist the state health department in the travel advisory screening process, 7 Eyewitness News has learned.
A total of 36 states and two U.S. territories are currently on the advisory list, meaning anyone arriving at a New York airport from one of those areas must quarantine for 14 days or face possible fines. Essential workers are excluded.
The initiative will vary from airport to airport and is being phased in starting today, a representative from the New York National Guard said. Guard members were seen working in this capacity at the Buffalo Niagara International Airport on Friday.
There is no word on when members of the guard will arrive at the Buffalo airport. They will be in uniform but will not be armed.
Pfizer to test its coronavirus vaccine in children as young as 12 years old| Added October 20
This was briefly mentioned in this story from Reuters that we posted on October 14. Here it is as a headline from CNN published that same day:
Drugmaker Pfizer has plans to start testing its experimental coronavirus vaccine in children as young as 12, and parents have already expressed interest in enrolling their kids, the researcher helping lead the trial told CNN Tuesday.
It will be the first coronavirus vaccine trial to include children in the United States.
A team at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital will begin vaccinating teenagers aged 16 and 17 this week, and will move to enroll 12-to 15-year-olds later, said Dr. Robert Frenck, director of the Vaccine Research Center at the hospital. Other sites will also enroll children.
The company confirmed on its website it has approval from the US Food and Drug Administration to enroll children as young as 12 in its trial.
This video is part of a series by one of my jorno mentors, Prof. Karl Grossman of SUNY Westbury | Added October 19
Tina Cordova, co-founder of the Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium, tells of the terrible health impacts that have continued for decades from the first detonation of a nuclear device. Although doctors in the Manhattan Project warned of large amounts of radioactivity that would be released, the test named Trinity of a plutonium-fueled atomic device proceeded anyway on July 16, 1945, she relates.
Cordova herself is a cancer survivor and cancer has run through her family—and has been and is widespread among the other downwinders from the Trinity blast site in New Mexico, largely Latinx and Native-Americans. Cordova says they know it’s not a matter of “if” they’ll be hit with cancer “but when.”
There’s been no federal compensation although a measure is now pending in Congress for Trinity victims. Host Grossman, a journalism professor, speaks of how the detonation was the occasion for the first official government disinformation about nuclear technology with William Laurence, a New York Times reporter on loan by the Times to the Manhattan Project, writing a press release claiming it was an ammunition dump explosion.
The Guardian shares speculation — we’d object if we were in court | Added October 19
Thank you to Loreen Costa for this write-up.
If the witness is asked for facts, but replies with conjecture, or hearsay information taken out of context, a competent attorney in a court of law would have to raise an objection. But with journalism today it’s essential for the reader to maintain the understanding of the difference between fact and supposition, supported theory and – most especially – facts reframed with manipulative intent.
“Suspected or confirmed Covid-19” and “charts say…deaths and intensive care use…could be higher than in April” are some examples of prose designed to sound factual and authoritative, but which requires a closer read than many can give.
First and last, my questions here are: what has been the operating capacity at these hospitals in Aprils and Octobers in the recent past? How many spare beds are budgeted in the working class public hospitals in the UK in so-called “normal years”?
What are the per capita, by age, admissions and death rates in past years for people admitted to intensive care in October? I for one would love context here.
“Covid: Greater Manchester running out of hospital beds, leak reveals”
NHS document shows no spare beds for patients in Salford, Stockport and Bolton
Greater Manchester is set to run out of beds to treat people left seriously ill by Covid-19, and some of the region’s 12 hospitals are already full, a leaked NHS document has revealed.
It showed that by last Friday the resurgence of the disease had left hospitals in Salford, Stockport and Bolton at maximum capacity, with no spare beds to help with the growing influx. The picture it paints ratchets up the pressure on ministers to reach a deal with local leaders over the region’s planned move to the top level of coronavirus restrictions.
It suggested that Greater Manchester’s hospitals are quickly heading towards being overwhelmed by the sheer number of people with Covid needing emergency care to save their lives, in the same way that those in Liverpool have become in recent weeks. By Friday 211 of the 257 critical care beds in Greater Manchester – 82% of the total supply – were already being used for either those with Covid or people who were critically ill because of another illness.
Very few NYC school kids test positive | Added October 19
For months, as New York City struggled to start part-time, in-person classes, fear grew that its 1,800 public schools would become vectors of coronavirus infection, a citywide archipelago of super-spreader sites.
But nearly three weeks into the in-person school year, early data from the city’s first effort at targeted testing has shown the opposite: a surprisingly small number of positive cases.
Out of 15,111 staff members and students tested randomly by the school system in the first week of its testing regimen, the city has gotten back results for 10,676. There were only 18 positives: 13 staff members and five students.
Special Feature: European Union Government Advice on Avoiding Conspiracy Theories | Added October 18
The patriarchs (or philosopher kings) at the European Union have just issued guidance memo on how to avoid conspiracy theories. I promise you this is not one of my jokes, but again I am envious. Here is the document, and here is a little sample:
Level 1: Low exposure to conspiracy theories
PREBUNKING – Empowered people are more resilient:
1.Warn people early on that conspiracy theories exist.
2.Encourage rational thinking, questioning and fact-checking.
3.Alert people about the arguments behind the most common COVID-19 conspiracy theories and the key traits of conspiratorial thinking – suspicion of official accounts, immunity to contrary evidence, reinterpreting random events as part of a broader pattern.
Level 2: High exposure to conspiracy theories
DEBUNKING – Facts and logic matter
DOs
1.Focus on the facts you want to communicate, not the myth you want to debunk.
2.Choose your target – the author, source or logic behind the conspiracy theory.
3.Always state clearly that the information is wrong, before quoting a conspiracy theory.
4.Provide a fact-based alternative explanation.
5.If possible, use visual aids to back your argument.
DON’Ts
1.Don’t focus on the conspiracy theory first. Don’t reinforce it.
2.Don’t overwhelm with information.
This is from one of my investigative journalism mentors, Karl Grossman, professor of journalism at SUNY Westbury | Added Oct. 18.
We don’t usually put astrology on this page, but here is what the chart looks like. Note that in many of the most important nuclear charts, Saturn is the most prominent planet, or always shows up in a standout position.
Everything is a Rich Man’s Trick | Added October 18
Biosecurity law passed in China | Added October 18
China has passed a fast-tracked biosecurity law with the stated intention of preventing and managing infectious diseases. The law was originally proposed in February by President Xi JinPing, and will reportedly come into effect on April 15 of next year.
China’s top legislative body passed a new biosecurity law aimed at preventing and managing infectious diseases, state news agency Xinhua reported late on Saturday.
The National People’s Congress Standing Committee voted to adopt the law on Saturday, according to Xinhua, and it would come into effect on April 15, 2021.
The law would establish systems for biosecurity risk prevention and control, including risk monitoring and early warning, risk investigation and assessment, and information sharing.
It would also have provisions to prevent and respond to specific biosecurity risks, including major emerging infectious diseases, epidemic and sudden outbreaks, and biotechnology research, development and application, reported Xinhua.
Flaming Lips concert held — everyone in their own bubble | Added October 18
The COVID-19 pandemic has decimated concerts as we know them. With venues shut down nationwide and no widespread touring until there’s a vaccine, the only ways to experience live music have required a lot of creativity. Because 2020 has been the year of ticketed live streams, drive-in concerts, and distanced “pod events,” it’s easy to speculate on the future of live music in a pandemic.
How can concerts safely return at scale? How will large gatherings be safe? Will we have to wear weird space suits? But if you ask Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne the future of concerts might include inflatable plastic bubbles, which he calls “space bubbles.”
If you’ve been to a Flaming Lips show, chances are you’ve seen Coyne perform and crowdsurf in one of these bubbles. But now, thanks to coronavirus, the Flaming Lips are now hosting shows where the audience is in bubbles too. The band first debuted the bubble performances in June for appearances on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon but now, they’re gearing up to host full concerts.
“I mean, it seems absurd, but we at first were just doing it as not a joke, but just as a kind of funny thing, and now it’s becoming kind of serious and real,” Wayne told Brooklyn Vegan last week. Coyne said that they were planning on hosting concerts with 100 bubbles in a 4,000 capacity venue sometime after the election.
Twitter reverses position on blocking New York Post article about Joe Biden | Added October 16
It is the 11th hour before the presidential election. But Facebook and Twitter are still changing their minds.
With just a few weeks to go before the Nov. 3 vote, the social media companies are continuing to shift their policies and, in some cases, are entirely reversing what they will and won’t allow on their sites. On Friday, Twitter underlined just how fluid its policies were when it began letting users share links to an unsubstantiated New York Post article about Hunter Biden that it had previously blocked from its service.
The change was a 180-degree turn from Wednesday, when Twitter had banned the links to the article because the emails on which it was based may have been hacked and contained private information, both of which violated its policies. (Many questions remain about how the New York Post obtained the emails.)
Late Thursday, under pressure from Republicans who said Twitter was censoring them, the company began backtracking by revising one of its policies. It completed its about-face on Friday by lifting the ban on the New York Post story altogether, as the article has spread widely across the internet.
Pfizer looking to seek FDA approval for coronavirus vaccine in November | Added October 16
Pfizer will apply for emergency US approval of the Covid-19 vaccine it is developing with Germany’s BioNTech in the third week of November, the pharma group said, assuming it receives positive results from its current trial.
Albert Bourla, Pfizer’s chief executive, said in an open letter that he wanted to “provide greater clarity around the development timelines” of the vaccine, which is being tested on some 38,000 people worldwide.
No manufacturer outside Russia and China has been granted regulatory approval for a vaccine anywhere in the world, making Pfizer a frontrunner in the race.
While Mr Bourla’s statement showed the company’s trial was well advanced, it also clarified that the shot would not be available until after the US presidential election, on November 3rd.
COVID-1984 Surveillance Capitalism with Shoshana Zuboff | Added October 16
Harvard Professor Shoshana Zuboff , author of The Age of Surveillance Capitalism says the tech companies want to collect and digitally store all of our personal information—including what’s happening inside our bodies, our bloodstream, and DNA, using Covid-19 as an excuse. Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon and Apple are the primary offenders.
Facebook and Instagram ban ads that discourage vaccines | Added October 16
NPR reports that Facebook and Instagram (owned by Facebook) will not allow ads that portray vaccines as unsafe or ineffective. Curiously, NPR does not criticize or question this bold censorship. But at the end of the article an editor’s note tells us that “Facebook is among NPR’s financial supporters.”
From NPR:
Facebook said on Tuesday it will ban anti-vaccination ads, following widespread pressure on the social network to curb harmful content.
Under the new global policy, the company will no longer accept ads discouraging people from getting vaccines; ads that portray vaccines as unsafe or ineffective; or ads claiming the diseases vaccines prevent are harmless.
“We don’t want these ads on our platform,” Facebook officials Kang-Xing Jin and Rob Leathern wrote in a blog post. “Our goal is to help messages about the safety and efficacy of vaccines reach a broad group of people, while prohibiting ads with misinformation that could harm public health efforts.”
The new policy also applies to Instagram. Facebook said it will start enforcing it in the next few days.
September 2020 | August 2020 | July 2020 | June 2020 | May 2020
April 2020 | March 2020 | Timeline of coronavirus test.
The Cornoavirus Novel: Full Portfolio of
Original Articles, Videos and Audios by Eric Francis
Ongoing discussion of Covid issues happens every day on my Facebook timeline. Many of these articles are cross-posted.
The common cold could be cause of your positive PCR test says Irish immunologist | Added October 16
Dolores Cahill, Ph.D. is an Irish scientist, molecular biologist and immunologist who argues that a positive PCR test may simply mean evidence of a common cold, not that one has Covid-19. We previously posted a video of her at Dublin’s TIme For Change protest that has since been taken down.. The article below was originally published on September 26.
Professor of Translational Science, School of Medicine/University College Dublin and Advisory Science Council to Irish Government Professor Dolores Cahill last week said a positive PCR coronavirus test may testify to the presence of the common cold.
“COVID-19 is a seasonal coronavirus; about one-in-ten people had the symptoms, we’re all immune. So they’re now testing people who had it, who were exposed to it. And they just have fragments of the RNA. But the testing, which we don’t need to go into, may actually be positive if you have a common cold, or another circulating virus, just because they’ve had this media storm, like the way we had two influenzas, there could be another circulating coronavirus.”
A University College Dublin (UCD) professor, Cahill chairs the Irish Freedom Party. In June she was asked to resign from a leading European Union scientific committee over online statements she made about COVID-19.
Facebook and Twitter restrict controversial story on Joe Biden from the New York Post | Added October 15
For the first time, Twitter has directly limited the spread of information from originating from a news site.
Facebook and Twitter took steps on Wednesday to limit the spread of a controversial New York Post article critical of Joe Biden, sparking outrage among conservatives and stoking debate over how social media platforms should tackle misinformation ahead of the US election.
In an unprecedented step against a major news publication, Twitter blocked users from posting links to the Post story or photos from the unconfirmed report. Users attempting to share the story were shown a notice saying: “We can’t complete this request because this link has been identified by Twitter or our partners as being potentially harmful.” Users clicking or retweeting a link already posted to Twitter are shown a warning the “link may be unsafe”.
Twitter said it was limiting the article’s spread due to questions about “the origins of the materials” included in the article, which contained material supposedly pulled from a computer that had been left by Hunter Biden at a Delaware computer repair shop in April 2019. Twitter policies prohibit “directly distribut[ing] content obtained through hacking that contains private information”.
Liability conditions vague for poorer countries eligible for WHO’s vaccine program | Added October 15
The World Health Organization’s plan (dubbed COVAX) to supply reduced or no cost coronavirus vaccines to poorer countries has hit a potential snag: unclear vaccine injury liability conditions are becoming a cause of concern for such countries, and may turn them off to the program.
Note: the EU will not be taking delivery of vaccines through COVAX despite pledging money to the effort — instead the EU has separately negotiated with vaccine producers and the firms will be liable for potential compensation. The US has not funded COVAX, but has separately negotiated with producers. And according to the article those deals included “offering a blanket legal immunity to COVID-19 vaccine makers in a bid to spur their investments in jabs.”
Under the WHO’s COVID-19 vaccine plans, known as COVAX, 92 poor countries are eligible to access vaccines at lower or no costs until the end of 2021, but liability conditions remain vague.
Without clearly stated terms, governments of poor states may be on the hook for potential compensation claims, which could put them off participating in the WHO-led scheme and risk prolonging the pandemic in places ill-equipped to cope, health experts say.
WHO and GAVI, a vaccine alliance which co-leads COVAX, said in a joint statement to Reuters that the scheme will try to solve liability and indemnification issues “while addressing the financial obligations this may impose on AMC-eligible economies,” referring to the group of 92 poorer states which includes most African and South-East Asian countries.
London to face tighter coronavirus restrictions starting on Friday | Added October 15
A clearer explanation of England’s three-tier lockdown system may be found here, and is also referenced in the story posted just below. London is to be placed on tier 2 meaning, ” people must not meet with anybody outside their household or support bubble in any indoor setting, whether at home or in a public place. People should also aim to avoid public transport.”
London will be placed in high-risk, tier 2 coronavirus restrictions from Friday night as infection rates in the capital continue to increase, MPs and the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, have confirmed.
The decision came as Boris Johnson signed off on harsher coronavirus measures for hundreds of thousands of more people in the north of England .
The health secretary, Matt Hancock, told the Commons that in addition to London, Essex, Barrow-in-Furness, York and parts of Derbyshire, would move from the lowest of the three levels to the middle tier, under which indoor household mixing is banned.
Used coronavirus swab kits handed out in the UK | Added October 15
Used coronavirus swab kits have been accidentally handed to students in Birmingham.
Several of the second-hand kits were distributed in Selly Oak during a drop and collect service on Tuesday, the council confirmed.
Students from Birmingham University were shocked when they opened the packs and discovered the tests had already been used.
One of them wrote on Facebook community page: “Anyone on [Tiverton Road] given a covid test by guys in high-vis jackets, don’t open!
“They’ve already been done – we opened up the box and they were sealed and snapped so had obviously been used!”
Birmingham currently has 167.4 coronavirus cases per 100,000 people and has been put in Tier 2 of restrictions under the government’s new three-tier localised lockdown system.
Proof-of-immunity technology to be tested in at least two airports| Added October 15
From Children’s Health Defense:
At least two airlines are testing CommonPass, a new technology designed to let passengers prove they’ve tested negative for COVID-19 before they fly.
Proponents tout the CommonPass technology as a panacea for global travel in a pandemic world. They hope that a public weary of COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions — but still fearful of the virus — will embrace it.
But civil rights and privacy groups warn against any technology that monitors individuals’ movements and activities. That includes any digital health pass, like CommonPass, that can be adapted to provide proof of vaccination.
Here’s how CommonPass works. An individual takes a COVID-19 test at an approved lab, then uploads the results to a smartphone. At the airport, airline staff and border officials scan a QR code from the phone, which certifies that the passenger is COVID-19 free.
Pa. Secretary of Health: ‘We have no plans to have any further business restrictions or stay-at-home orders at this time’ | Added October 15
A recent uptick in covid-19 cases and a likely cold-weather resurgence of the virus will not lead to another state shutdown, Pennsylvania health leaders said Wednesday. Instead, current mitigation measures and increased testing will be used to combat the spread as cool weather drives people indoors.
“We have no plans to have any further business restrictions or stay-at-home orders at this time,” Secretary of Health Rachel Levine said. “It’s impossible for me to predict the future, but we are in a much better place than we were in the spring.”
Wednesday marked the ninth consecutive day the state saw a daily new case count of over 1,000 after weeks of the number generally staying in the hundreds. As of dawn Wednesday, 773 covid-19 patients were hospitalized, and 83 were on ventilators.
Eli Lilly antibody trial paused by NIH over safety concerns | Added October 14
It could be two weeks until there is news on a paused trial of Eli Lilly’s closely watched monoclonal antibody treatment for Covid-19.
The National Institutes of Health said late Tuesday that it paused the trial because one of the two groups in the study — one had received the antibody, the other a placebo — was doing better than the other. Both groups also received remdesivir, a Covid-19 treatment from Gilead Sciences.
The NIH said the trial’s independent data and safety monitoring board, or DSMB, noted Tuesday morning that the study had reached a “predefined boundary for safety” after five days of treatment, meaning that there was an overall difference between the two patient groups. The agency, however, did not indicate whether it was the treatment group or the placebo group that may have crossed a safety threshold.
Initial coronavirus vaccine may not be recommended for children according to the CDC| Added October 14
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Wednesday that COVID-19 vaccines may not be initially recommended for children, when they become available.
Children, who rarely have severe COVID-19 symptoms, have not yet been tested for any experimental coronavirus vaccine. The CDC said so far early clinical trials have only included non-pregnant adults, noting the recommended groups could change in the future as clinical trials expand to recruit more people.
Pfizer Inc PFE.N has said it will enroll children, who are capable of passing on the virus to high-risk groups, as young as 12 in its large, late-stage COVID-19 vaccine trial, while AstraZeneca AZN.L has said a sub-group of patients in a large trial will test children between five to 12.
France declares public health state of emergency; curfews to be imposed | Added October 14
Intially the French governemnt declared a public health state of emergency due to the country’s rising coronavirus “case” count. They did not clarify exactly what actions they’d be taking. However in a more recent interview with French President Emmanuel Macron, it was announced that curfews are to be imposed in a few major cities throughout France. The curfews will take effect “from Saturday and run from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. the following morning.”
The French government on Wednesday declared a public health state of emergency, giving officials greater powers to impose new measures to contain the spread of COVID-19.
“The COVID-19 epidemic constitutes a public health disaster which, by its character and its severity, puts at risk the health of the population,” the government said in a statement announcing the state of emergency.
“It justifies the declaration of a state of emergency so that measures can be adopted … which are strictly proportionate to the public health risks.”
The statement did not say what action the government would take, but the adoption of a state of emergency gives the authorities statutory powers to impose tough measures.
Del Bigtree interview with OSHA-certified workplace consultants| Added October 13
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jf5ojpIZt4Q&feature=youtu.be
People interested in masks will benefit from watching this presentation by two OSHA-certified workplace safety consultants.
State-owned Chinese drug maker offers free experimental vaccines to students heading overseas | Added October 13
From South China Morning Post:
A Chinese drug maker is offering its experimental Covid-19 shots to students heading overseas to study, even though the vaccines are still in clinical trials, according to mainland media reports.
State-owned China National Biotec Group, or CNBG, says it will provide its two inactivated vaccine candidates for free to such students, without giving any age restrictions, according to financial news site China Star Market. Students can register their interest online and they will be given the shots in Beijing or Wuhan.
The two experimental vaccines are in the final stage of human trials but they were approved for emergency use in July by China’s drug regulator, the National Medical Products Administration. Although the World Health Organization
supported that move, there have been concerns about using a vaccine that has not completed clinical trials.
Johnson & Johnson vaccine trial paused after participant’s “unexplained illness”| Added October 13
Johnson & Johnson has paused all clinical trials of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine after a study participant became sick with an “unexplained illness.”
In a statement on Monday, the company said it had “temporarily paused further dosing in all our COVID-19 vaccine candidate clinical trials,” including a Phase 3 trial that began late last month, while it investigated the illness.
“Adverse events — illnesses, accidents, etc. — even those that are serious, are an expected part of any clinical study, especially large studies,” the company said.
The Great Barrington Declaration – Three epidemiologists urge politicians to end the lockdown now | Added October 12
Three scientists who disagree with the lockdowns and restrictions imposed on people around the world have gotten together to discuss a better way to manage the pandemic. While we may not agree with everything each doctor has to say (Dr. Bhattacharya believes the Covid tests are accurate and Dr. Gupta thinks a vaccine might help some people, for example), it is interesting that these scientists all take the pandemic seriously yet insist that the lockdowns are deadlier and more destructive than the disease itself.
The lockdowns are causing an increase in deaths by other health problems that remain unaddressed due to the focus on Covid, as well as an increase in deaths from substance abuse and suicides. They argue that instead we should focus on protecting the vulnerable, mostly those aged over 65 and with co-morbidities, while letting the rest of the population go back to their normal lives.
The three epidemiologists have produced a petition called the Great Barrington Declaration which people are free to sign if they wish to support it. It calls for temporary measures to help the vulnerable that would be done away with once herd immunity occurs.
For those who want to learn more, here is a longer discussion with these three epidemiologists at their private summit.
Legal action launched against UK gov. over failure to account for £3bn spent on private Covid contracts | Added October 12
Jolyon Maugham QC, who is the director of Good Law Project, is quoted as saying that “huge sums of public money have been awarded to companies with no discernible expertise. Sometimes the main qualification seems to be a political connection with key government figures.” On top of that, the government is said to be “deliberately keeping the public in the dark.”
A legal action has been launched over the government’s failure to disclose details of its spending on contracts related to the pandemic, as it emerged that it has failed to account for £3bn spent on private contracts since the start of lockdown.
Three cross-party MPs and Good Law Project, a non-profit-making organisation, have filed a judicial review against the government for breaching the law and its own guidance and argue that there are mounting concerns over coronavirus procurement processes.
Green party MP, Caroline Lucas, Labour’s Debbie Abrahams and Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran say that, despite the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) disclosing in September that at least £11bn worth of contracts have been awarded by the department since April, related predominantly to coronavirus, fresh analysis by data analysts Tussell shows that over £3bn worth of these contracts have not been made public.
Discussion between Dr Carrie Madej and Dr Andrew Kaufman about vaccines and more| Added October 12
Madej has been outspoken about the “transhumanism” issue of nanotechnology and Kaufman has been influential in reintroducing terrain theory.
OffGuardian on WHO’s claim that roughly 10% of the global population may have been infected: ‘no more dangerous than flu’ | Added October 10
On October 5 we shared a story from CNBC detailing how the World Health Organization’s “best estimates” reportedly indicated that “roughly 1 in 10 people worldwide may have been infected by the coronavirus — more than 20 times the number of confirmed cases.” The announcement was made on October 5 during a special session of the WHO executive board. On October 8 OffGuardian published this article and examined the infection fatality rate in light of this new estimate.
At the session, Dr Michael Ryan, the WHO’s Head of Emergencies revealed that they believe roughly 10% of the world has been infected with Sars-Cov-2. This is their “best estimate”, and a huge increase over the number of officially recognised cases (around 35 million).
Dr. Margaret Harris, a WHO spokeswoman, later confirmed the figure, stating it was based on the average results of all the broad seroprevalence studies done around the world.
As much as the WHO were attempting to spin this as a bad thing – Dr Ryan even said it means “the vast majority of the world remains at risk.” – it’s actually good news. And confirms, once more, that the virus is nothing like as deadly as everyone predicted.
The global population is roughly 7.8 billion people, if 10% have been infected that is 780 million cases. The global death toll currently attributed to Sars-Cov-2 infections is 1,061,539.
That’s an infection fatality rate of roughly or 0.14%. Right in line with seasonal flu and the predictions of many experts from all around the world.
‘Extreme’ Covid surveillance across Asia | Added October 9
Human rights experts are concerned over the potential abuses of power that authoritarian regimes might indulge in through the use of coronavirus tracking measures — measures such as drones and “fever goggles,” whatever the hell those are.
The article below is from The Guardian — they also reported on this back in June, where it was noted that “digital tracking was already in use in 35 countries, with contact-tracing apps in at least 28 countries, half of which use GPS location data.” And that “more than half of the apps do not disclose how long users’ data is stored.”
Draconian surveillance measures introduced during the Covid-19 epidemic are handing “unchecked powers” to authoritarian regimes across Asia, human rights experts are warning.
In a report out today, risk analysts warn that “extreme measures and unchecked powers” brought in to tackle Covid-19 could become permanent features of government across the region, and have an impact on the rights and privacy of millions of people.
Analysts at Verisk Maplecroft found that surveillance tools and technology such as fever detection goggles, drones that monitor curfews and lockdown, and apps that track the spread of Covid are already being deployed as part of laws and other measures brought in during the pandemic in countries including Cambodia, China, Pakistan and Thailand.
The report also highlights a trend of arrests linked to citizens criticising national Covid response programmes, pointing to Cambodia where people speaking out about the government’s policies had been detained.
Congress plans to discuss rules for Trump’s removal under 25th amendment | Added October 9
Democrats in the US Congress have announced a plan to create a commission to review whether Donald Trump is capable of carrying out his presidential duties or should face removal from office.
The office of the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, announced a Friday press conference about the bill after she expressed concern that Trump, who is under treatment for coronavirus at the White House, is suffering a “disassociation from reality”.
The president has unleashed a barrage of erratic and self-contradictory tweets and declarations in recent days that have left staff scrambling and raised concerns over his stability.
In a zig-zagging interview on the Fox Business channel on Thursday, his first since being hospitalised, Trump, 74, boasted: “I’m back, because I am a perfect physical specimen and I’m extremely young. And so I’m lucky in that way.”
Pelosi, who is negotiating a Covid-19 economic stimulus plan, responded at her weekly press conference: “The plan isn’t for the president to say that he’s a perfect physical specimen. Specimen, maybe I can agree with that … And young, he said he was young.”
I saw this in May — someone recently sent it again. All of this over a claimed virus that 99.8% of people survive. Not appropriate to the situation! | Added October 8
Naomi Wolf: 10 Steps to the Cliff | Added October 8
NOTE: I love Naomi, and I think her message is worthwhile. However, there are two issues I want to point out to readers. One is that she is not aware of the medical and scientific fraud associated with Covid, which — when considered — makes her predictions worse. Second, this is not being exclusively done by Trump; she does finally state that this is not partisan. Democratic governors have done as much to erode freedom and privacy as anyone has. This cannot be blamed on any one politician or political party. The apparatus behind the pandemic is much deeper in the government than any political party or administration. That said, what Naomi is saying her warrants serious attention and action. — efc
‘The Smoking Gun: Where is the coronavirus? The CDC says it isn’t available.’ Via Jon Rappoport | Added October 8
The key phrase there is: ‘Since no quantified virus isolates of the 2019-nCoV are currently available…’
From our Colleague Jon Rappoport over at No More Fake News:
The CDC document is titled, “CDC 2019-Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Real-Time RT-PCR Diagnostic Panel.” It is dated July 13, 2020.
Buried deep in the document, on page 39, in a section titled, “Performance Characteristics,” we have this: “Since no quantified virus isolates of the 2019-nCoV are currently available, assays [diagnostic tests] designed for detection of the 2019-nCoV RNA were tested with characterized stocks of in vitro transcribed full length RNA…”
The key phrase there is: “Since no quantified virus isolates of the 2019-nCoV are currently available…”
Every object that exists can be quantified, which is to say, measured. The use of the term “quantified” in that phrase means: the CDC has no measurable amount of the virus, because it is unavailable. THE CDC HAS NO VIRUS.
A further tip-off is the use of the word ‘isolates.” This means NO ISOLATED VIRUS IS AVAILABLE.
Another way to put it: NO ONE HAS AN ISOLATED SPECIMEN OF THE COVID-19 VIRUS.
NO ONE HAS ISOLATED THE COVID-19 VIRUS.
THEREFORE, NO ONE HAS PROVED THAT IT EXISTS.
September 2020 | August 2020 | July 2020 | June 2020 | May 2020
April 2020 | March 2020 | Timeline of coronavirus test.
The Cornoavirus Novel: Full Portfolio of
Original Articles, Videos and Audios by Eric Francis
Ongoing discussion of Covid issues happens every day on my Facebook timeline. Many of these articles are cross-posted.
Demand grows for antibody trials following Donald Trump’s Regeneron treatment | Added October 8
Patients are asking to join clinical trials of antibody-based COVID-19 drugs after U.S. President Donald Trump was treated last week with an experimental therapy from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc REGN.O, and on Wednesday he promised to make it free to Americans while touting its benefits.
Medical experts said more data is needed to assess the treatment’s efficacy before wider use should be allowed.
Trump was discharged from the hospital late on Monday, just a few days after being diagnosed with COVID-19 that caused enough lung inflammation for blood oxygen levels to fall.
According to his doctor, blood tests on Monday detected infection-fighting antibodies, which a Regeneron spokesperson said were probably from the treatment.
The company said on Wednesday that it has submitted a request to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for an emergency use authorization (EUA) for its antibody combination.
Robots outfitted with ultraviolet light introduced at London train station to combat the coronavirus | Added October 8
Yes. More robots.
Robots that can kill the coronavirus with ultraviolet light have been brought in at one of London’s biggest train stations, St Pancras International, as it tries to restore customer confidence in the safety of travel hubs.
Stations suffered a blow on Tuesday when Prime Minister Boris Johnson told people to work from home again where possible and also ordered restaurants and bars to close early to tackle a second wave of COVID-19 infections.
St Pancras International saw 34.6 million entries and exits in the year to March 2019, the most recently available yearly data from the Office of Rail and Road (ORR), making it the ninth-busiest station in the country. The ORR has said the pandemic caused a dramatic fall in rail usage.
Live in-depth reporting on V.P. debate | Added October 8
In what was last night’s bombshell story a fly landed on Vice President Mike Pence’s head during the televised, vice presidential debate for just over two minutes. The story was covered by The New York Times, Politico, The Guardian, The Daily Mail, and even The Hindustan Times.
This is a developing story. We have reached out to the fly’s publicist and are awaiting a response.
Article on the PCR test and its role in producing pseudo-epidemics | Added October 8
Great piece on the sham PCR. Our reporting team has verified the salient facts of this article in our work for the past seven months. This is a valuable interpretation. Remember that the PCR manufactures the thing it is looking for. It can do so from very little, and it can do so from nothing. It is scientifically irrelevant, as it has no baseline, and when tested against other methods, almost always fails. Its use is central to the scientific fraud of our era.
Hey, if the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic is a hoax as some claim, it would have to fool a lot of university-trained microbiologists. But surprisingly this isn’t the first time modern medicine has been completely fooled by a pseudo epidemic. Yes, the COVID-19 pandemic is fake, obviously much larger than the ones that preceded it, but totally fake. How so, you ask?
Mike Hearn, posting plan99.net clued the whole world in to how the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, now used to diagnose COVID-19 coronavirus infections, fooled three major medical centers into mistakenly believing they were being besieged by a whooping cough epidemic in the years 2004-2007.
Hearn’s report dated July 26, 2020 was entitled: Pseudo-Epidemics: Why COVID-19 Is Guaranteed To Never End. Few people paid attention to Hearn’s report that likened what happened during suspected infectious disease outbreaks at three major medical centers in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Tennessee, to our modern-day COVID-19 calamity
Scientific community shocked over leader choice for lab origin investigation Task Force | Added October 8
Editor’s Note: Peter Daszak is heading up the “lab origin” investigation. Recognize that name? He is the president of Eco-Health Alliance, a contracting firm (famous for shoving Q-Tips up the assholes of bats in caves in China) which was the recipient of the NIAID (Tony Fauci) grant to develop coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. In other words, if there is a lab origin to this virus, Dascak is very likely directly involved. Having him in charge of the lab origin investigation is so ridiculous that no metaphor will suit. He’s the very guy that needs to be investigated. — efc
This newsletter from Organic Consumers Association recently came in. Included is an from September 23 article focused on the announcement of Peter Daszak being chosen to lead a Task Force brought together as part of the Lancet COVID-19 Commission — their goal is to investigate the possibility of a lab origin for SARS-CoV-2. The article highlights the incredulous response from the scientific community following the announcement of Dazsak as he is considered “to be one of the most conflicted and unreliable voices on this issue.”
Expressions of outrage and incredulity have greeted the announcement that Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance, has been chosen to lead a Task Force that will examine the possibility that Covid-19 could have emerged from a lab, as part of an investigation into the origins of the virus.
Daszak has promised to undertake the investigation “with an open mind”. But this is hard to imagine, given his previous dismissals of suggestions that SARS-CoV-2 could have leaked from a lab as “preposterous”, “baseless”, “crackpot”, “conspiracy theories” and “pure baloney”.
Misinformation super-spreader
Daszak’s investigation forms part of the work of the Lancet Covid-19 Commission – a body launched in July to look at the handling of the pandemic and “offer practical solutions”. In a statement, the Commission said it was “extremely important that the research into the origins of SARS-CoV-2 should proceed … in a scientific and objective way that is unhindered by geopolitical agendas and misinformation”.
But Daszak himself is considered a misinformation super-spreader by critics like Rutgers University microbiologist Richard Ebright, who has accused him of lying “on a Trumpian scale”, and the evolutionary theorist Bret Weinstein who has labelled him “Patient Zero for misinformation” on the origins of Covid-19.
This is how politicians sound when explaining COVID rules | Added October 8
Trump previously had stocks in the two companies that manufactured the medicines used in his Covid-19 treatment plan | Added October 8
President Donald Trump previously reported he earned capital gains from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Gilead Sciences Inc., the manufacturers of two of the medicines he’s taken as part of his COVID-19 treatment plan.
According to a 2017 financial disclosure form filed with the U.S. Office of Government Ethics in June 2017, Trump had a capital gain of $50,001 to $100,000 for Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and $100,001 to $1 million for Gilead Sciences Inc. The form notes the information was of April 15, 2017.
Trump’s subsequent disclosure forms, including his 2020 form signed July 31, did not list Regeneron or Gilead.
Trump received a single 8-gram dose of Regeneron’s polyclonal antibody cocktail as a precautionary measure, according to his physician Sean Conley. The antibody cocktail is in four late-stage clinical trials, and its safety and efficacy have not been fully evaluated by any regulatory authority, the company said on its webpage.
White House doctor says Trump’s condition is stable and that he’s been “symptom-free” for more than 24 hours | Added October 7
President Donald Trump has been “symptom-free” for more than 24 hours as he continues to be treated for the coronavirus at the White House, one of his doctors said Wednesday in a new memo.
Trump has also been “fever-free for more than 4 days” and has not required supplemental oxygen since leaving Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Monday, said Dr. Sean Conley, the White House physician, in the memo.
“Of note today, the President’s labs demonstrated detectable levels of SARS-CoV-2-IgG antibodies from labs drawn Monday,” Conley added.
Conley’s brief memo did not include any specific updates on the president’s drug regimen. Trump, since testing positive for the coronavirus last week, has taken numerous treatments, including the steroid dexamethasone, the antiviral therapy remdesivir and an antibody cocktail from Regeneron.
Perspective piece from the NEJM proposes a framework to help states implement a mandatory SARS-CoV-2 vaccine | Added October 7
This perspective piece was authored by researchers from Standford, Yale, and Indiana University. It includes six trigger criteria for the implementation of a mandatory coronavirus vaccine, as well as a discussion of penalties for those who do not comply such as “employment suspension or stay-at-home orders for persons in designated high-priority groups who refuse vaccination.”
From the New England Journal of Medicine:
As Covid-19 continues to exact a heavy toll, development of a vaccine appears the most promising means of restoring normalcy to civil life. Perhaps no scientific breakthrough is more eagerly anticipated. But bringing a vaccine to market is only half the challenge; also critical is ensuring a high enough vaccination rate to achieve herd immunity. Concerningly, a recent poll found that only 49% of Americans planned to get vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2.1
One option for increasing vaccine uptake is to require it. Mandatory vaccination has proven effective in ensuring high childhood immunization rates in many high-income countries. However, except for influenza vaccination of health care workers, mandates have not been widely used for adults.
Although a vaccine remains months to years away, developing a policy strategy to ensure uptake takes time. We offer a framework that states can apply now to help ensure uptake of the vaccine when it becomes available — including consideration of when a mandate might become appropriate. Our approach is guided by lessons from U.S. experiences with vaccines for the 1976 “swine flu,” H1N1 influenza, smallpox, and human papillomavirus (HPV).
House democrats suggest breaking up big tech monopolies | Added October 7
In a sweeping report spanning 449 pages, House Democrats lay out a detailed case for stripping Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google of the power than has made each of them dominant in their fields.
The four companies began as “scrappy underdog startups” but are now monopolies that must be restricted and regulated, the report from Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee’s antitrust panel says.
“These four corporations increasingly serve as gatekeepers of commerce and communications in the digital age, and this gatekeeper power gives them enormous capacity to abuse that power,” a lawyer for the subcommittee’s Democratic majority said in a briefing with reporters.
The lawmakers say Congress should overhaul the laws that have let the companies grow so powerful. In particular, the report says, Congress should look at forcing “structural separations” of the companies and beefing up enforcement of existing antitrust laws.
The recommendations, if enacted, could radically change how these companies operate. They could, for example, restrict Amazon from selling its own products in its marketplace, in direct competition with sellers who depend on the platform to reach customers.
Google could be banned from using the data the Android operating system collects on users and other apps to refine its products. Facebook could, theoretically, be barred from acquiring another competitor, after concerns over how it bought rivals including Instagram and WhatsApp.
Covid post from Trump deleted by Facebook, hidden by Twitter | Added October 7
Facebook has deleted a post in which President Trump had claimed Covid-19 was “less lethal” than the flu.
Mr Trump is at the White House after three days of hospital treatment having tested positive for the virus.
He wrote the US had “learned to live with” flu season, “just like we are learning to live with Covid, in most populations far less lethal!!!”
Twitter hid the same message behind a warning about “spreading misleading and potentially harmful information”.
Users have to click past the alert to read the tweet.
“We remove incorrect information about the severity of Covid-19, and have now removed this post,” said Andy Stone, policy communications manager at Facebook.
From the Are You Fucking Kidding Me department: Joint Chiefs in quarantine | Added October 6
Read more in UK METRO, if I recall from my brief stint as a Londoner, this thing they give out on the Tube. Now that’s the place to have a horoscope column. OK this shit is serious — get ready:
Joint Chiefs of staff chairman General Mark Milley and the chiefs of the Army, Navy and Air Force have tested negative for the virus, but remain under quarantine as a precaution, unnamed officials told AP. The head of the United States Cyber Command, General Paul Nakasone, was also among those quarantined.
The officials said the military leaders were working from home and this has not affected military readiness, amid fears the wave of quarantines could leave the US and its allies vulnerable to an enemy incursion. Milley is the most senior member of the US military, and reports to President Trump directly on behalf of the US Army and Air Force.
Up to 14 officials are believed to have been potentially exposed to the virus after meetings last week with the vice commandant of the Coast Guard, Administrator Charles W Ray, who has tested positive. The officials were informed about the positive test on Monday.
Editor’s Note: And no curiosity whatsoever, whether this was bioterrorism?
Naomi Wolf explains aspect of ‘digital problem’ described in last night’s edition of Planet Waves | Added October 6
In Monday night’s edition of Planet Waves, I wrote that we have a digital problem, not a political problem. I’ve been tracking many of the effects of that, including the psychic ones that other writers have not been talking about.
I also quoted my virologist source who said he believed that we are in our generation’s war — something that both Marshall McLuhan and more recently his grandson Andrew have described.
Soon after last night’s edition came out, I was sent this video by Naomi Wolf. Naomi discusses both points — the war angle and the high tech angle — and is particularly incisive on the digital issue, which comes from a viewpoint that I had not considered: governments are contracting out management of Covid data to the very companies that are profiting the most on the disaster — Google, Amazon and others.
READ MORE
Correspondence with a reader about the “novel virus” concept | Added October 6
Note to Readers — With the monthly horoscope edition, I asked for people to share their theories about Covid. I got one from a reader named Rebecca, who wrote, “It’s called a ‘novel’ disease for a reason, though it may reassemble other similar diseases, in many ways it’s very different and we don’t have much understanding of it yet.” This statement contains a few misunderstandings, which are important to study. Covid is not a “novel disease.” There is no such thing in medical science. Rather, SARS-CoV-2 was said to be a novel virus. You can see our dialog here. I begin with my discussion of the “novel virus” concept.
Auditor General: Pennsylvania’s pandemic business waiver program is subjective | Added October 6
During the statewide covid-19 shutdown and business closures this year, there was no consistency in granting waivers to those wishing to stay open, an ongoing investigation by the auditor general has found.
Auditor General Eugene DePasquale gave an update Tuesday on an audit started in May. The investigation so far has found that among the 42,380 waivers requested, more than 500 businesses received answers from the Department of Community & Economic Development (DCED) that later changed. The businesses were granted waivers that were later revoked, they were denied waivers that were later approved, or they received an answer only to be told later no waiver was necessary — and vice versa, he said.
“The waiver program appears to be a subjective process built on shifting sands of changing guidance,” DePasquale said.
While DCED made waiver approval decisions, the department told auditors that the criteria and guidelines were developed by the governor’s office, which changed throughout the pandemic and caused greater confusion.
Van Morrison Covid-19 protest songs deemed ‘dangerous’ | Added October 6
Northern Irish singer and song writer Van Morrison has released songs in protest against coronavirus lockdowns. In response Northern Ireland’s health minister Robin Swann has labelled Morrison’s new songs and his messaging as “dangerous.”
Van Morrison accuses the U.K. government of “taking our freedom” in three new songs bashing the worldwide lockdown to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
In “No More Lockdown,” the most on-the-nose of the three tracks, Morrison plainly lays out his thoughts: “No more lockdown/No more government overreach/No more fascist bullies/Disturbing our peace/No more taking of our freedom/And our God-given rights/Pretending it’s for our safety/When it’s really to enslave.”
In another song, according to the BBC, Morrison references a widely shared Facebook post of a screenshot from the U.K. government’s website, stating that “Covid-19 is no longer considered to be a high consequence infectious disease (HCID) in the U.K.” While it is true that Covid-19 currently does not meet the criteria for an HCID in the U.K., it is still highly infectious the world over, with a possibility of a second national lockdown in the U.K. on the horizon, according to the BBC.
Ireland’s Prime Minister rejects reccomendation for another national lockdown | Added October 6
Ireland must act now to prevent a damaging return to lockdown, Prime Minister Micheal Martin said on Monday after rejecting a surprise recommendation by his health chiefs to shut down the economy immediately and opting instead to tighten COVID-19 restrictions.
The National Public Health Emergency Team called late on Sunday for a leap to the highest level of coronavirus curbs, Level 5, having told the government as recently as Thursday the current Level 2 status for most of the country was appropriate.
Ministers faced sharp political and business resistance to what would have amounted to Europe’s first major second-wave national lockdown and chose to move the whole country to Level 3, going against their health chiefs’ advice for the first time.
Extra-Parliamentary Corona Investigation Committee & Medic and Ethical Emergency Deliberation | Added October 6
“Corona has kept the whole world in suspense for months. Corona concerns us all. Many of the measures taken by the government to fight the disease from COVID-19 are disproportionate and harmful to the population. Since no independent committee of inquiry has yet been convened, the extra-parliamentary corona committee of inquiry, ACU for short, was announced on May 31, 2020 in front of 5,000 people in Stuttgart. The ACU was also referred to in the issue of the weekly newspaper with the highest circulation, “Democratic Resistance” on June 20, 2020.
This Corona Committee stands for well-founded, free and broad education for all citizens on a multimedia basis. In addition, information is provided internationally in several languages in order to achieve the broadest possible reach.
The ACU is conceived as a cross-generational, hands-on project that is organized by citizens for citizens. This means that people like you and me as well as experts in their special field can support the ACU with their knowledge, experience and contributions in the form of lectures and interviews.”
“The ‘Medical and Ethical Emergency Deliberation’ has layed the foundation for an international alliance between European doctors and lawyers. Experts in law and medical science shared their views on surviving and striving for the restoration and recovery of science and moral values while facing misinformation and censhorship.
In order to unite as mankind and to create a way out of further lockdowns – that many people here and in the third world countries will not survive – a variety of lectures were presented concerning ethics and law as well as principles based on common sense.”
You may find a collection of videos with Heiko Schöning in conversation with medical doctors and lawyers, at this link here.
And video from the Medical and Ethical Emergency Deliberation provided here.
Kary Mullis, inventor of the PCR, talks about the lack of HIV-AIDS connection | Added October 6
Kary Mullis invented the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which is being used to prove that there is an outbreak of Covid-19. Mullis won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his invention. In this video, he describes his quest for documentation of the scientific proof of the HIV-AIDS connection. Mullis is not a Ph.D. and he is not paid by the government, therefore he can be honest. Be prepared to have some of your preconceptions blown up.
Watch the video on Dropbox. Thanks Dave Rasnick for sending it along.
Leader of WHO states that a coronavirus vaccine may be ready by the end of the year | Added October 6
A vaccine against COVID-19 may be ready by year-end, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday, without elaborating.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called for solidarity and political commitment by all leaders to ensure equal distribution of vaccines when they become available.
“We will need vaccines and there is hope that by the end of this year we may have a vaccine. There is hope,” Tedros said in closing remarks to the WHO’s Executive Board meeting that examined the global response to the pandemic.
White House blocks FDA vaccine guidelines | Added October 6
Top White House officials are blocking strict new federal guidelines for the emergency release of a coronavirus vaccine, objecting to a provision that would almost certainly guarantee that no vaccine could be authorized before the election on Nov. 3, according to people familiar with the approval process.
Facing a White House blockade, the Food and Drug Administration is seeking other avenues to ensure that vaccines meet the guidelines. That includes sharing the standards — perhaps as soon as this week — with an outside advisory committee of experts that is supposed to meet publicly before any vaccine is authorized for emergency use. The hope is that the committee will enforce the guidelines, regardless of the White House’s reaction.
The struggle over the guidelines is part of a monthslong tug of war between the White House and federal agencies on the front lines of the pandemic response. White House officials have repeatedly intervened to shape decisions and public announcements in ways that paint the administration’s response to the pandemic in a positive light.
Trump leaves Walter Reed and returns to White House | Added October 5
President Donald Trump attempted to claim victory over the coronavirus Monday as he returned to a White House increasingly hollowed out by the disease, as infections among staffers continued to spread and confusion reigned.
“I will be leaving the great Walter Reed Medical Center today at 6:30 P.M. Feeling really good!” he tweeted shortly before making a dramatic exit through the front doors of the hospital, pumping his fist to cameras. “Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life. We have developed, under the Trump Administration, some really great drugs & knowledge. I feel better than I did 20 years ago!”
Upon returning to the White House, Trump took off his mask before posing for a photo op as Marine One took off.
WHO claims that more than 10% of the global population may have been infected with the coronavirus | Added October 5
The head of emergencies at the World Health Organization said Monday its “best estimates” indicate that roughly 1 in 10 people worldwide may have been infected by the coronavirus — more than 20 times the number of confirmed cases — and warned of a difficult period ahead.
Dr. Michael Ryan, speaking to a special session of the WHO’s 34-member executive board focusing on COVID-19, said the figures vary from urban to rural, and between different groups, but that ultimately it means “the vast majority of the world remains at risk.” He said the pandemic would continue to evolve, but that tools exist to suppress transmission and save lives.
“Many deaths have been averted and many more lives can be protected,” Ryan said. He was flanked by his boss, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who minutes earlier led a moment of silence to honor victims as well as round of applause for the health workers who have strived to save them.
Bars to close as Paris is placed on ‘maximum Covid alert’ | Added October 5
Paris will shut all bars completely from Tuesday as the French government raises the city’s coronavirus alert to maximum following a sustained period of high infection rates.
Full detail of the new restrictions will be announced on Monday and will last for two weeks, the office of Prime Minister Jean Castex announced.
On Sunday France reported 12,565 cases of Covid-19.
It comes after the city of Marseille closed bars and restaurants last week.
The maximum alert level in France comes into force when the infection rate in a locality exceeds 250 per 100,000 people and at least 30% of intensive care beds are reserved for Covid-19 patients.
New York to reverse reopening in areas facing increase in positive test results | Added October 5
For many weeks, public health officials had expressed concern that a second wave of the coronavirus would hit New York City, which until recently had achieved striking success in beating back the outbreak after a devastating spring that left more than 20,000 residents dead.
On Sunday, with those fears growing, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced an emergency crackdown, saying that he intended to impose new restrictions in 20 hot spots in Brooklyn and Queens that have been experiencing rising positivity rates.
The plan is a major setback for New York City, amounting to the first significant reversal in the reopening and offering further evidence of the challenges in curbing the pandemic. The city over the last month had taken several strides forward, allowing indoor dining for the first time and becoming the first major school district in the country to bring children back into its public schools.
Trump performs drive-by; talk of him being discharged from hospital today | Added October 5
After Trump’s drive-by to wave at his supporters outside of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center ran the news cycle on Sunday, there is now talk that he is set to be discharged on Monday, today.
Trump’s doctors have said his health is improving and he could be sent back to the White House as soon as Monday.
Yet they are treating Trump, 74, with a steroid, dexmethasone, that is normally used only in the most severe cases. He is also just two days into a five-day course of an intravenous antiviral drug, remdesivir.
Dr. Sean P. Conley, the White House physician, said on Sunday that Trump’s condition had been worse than he had previously admitted. Conley said Trump had run a high fever on Friday morning and he had been given supplemental oxygen after his blood oxygen levels had dropped.
Here is a video that sums up everything our team has learned the past seven months | Added October 4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kr04gHbP5MQ&feature=youtu.be
This morning’s news conference by presidential physician Dr. Sean Conley | Added October 3
Numerous sources reporting mixed signals on Trump’s health; date of positive may have been earlier than Trump claimed | Added October 3
While the White House offered a rosy picture of the President’s progress overnight, several news outlets quoted White House insiders as asserting that things were less certain. Also, his first positive test may have been as early as Wednesday, according to news updates today. Trump claimed Friday that he tweeted about testing positive within an hour of when he knew, which now seems unlikely.
In a briefing in front of the Walter Reed military hospital Saturday, Dr. Sean Conley said the president’s symptoms of a mild cough, nasal congestion and fatigue were improving and that he hadn’t had a fever for 24 hours. But he didn’t give a date for the president’s release and declined to provide a definitive answer on whether Mr. Trump had ever received supplemental oxygen, despite repeated pressing.
After Dr. Conley concluded his briefing, a person familiar with the president’s health told reporters that Mr. Trump’s vitals over the last 24 hours were very concerning and that the next 48 hours would be critical. “We’re still not on a clear path to a full recovery,” the person said.
While doctors maintained during a televised briefing that Mr. Trump was “doing very well” after a night at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, they refused to provide critical details and left open the impression that the president was known to be sick a day earlier than previously reported.
Shortly after the upbeat briefing by the doctors, a person familiar with the president’s health gave a more sober assessment to reporters at Walter Reed on the condition of anonymity. “The president’s vitals over the last 24 hours were very concerning and the next 48 hours will be critical in terms of his care,” this person said. “We’re still not on a clear path to a full recovery.”
Two people close to the White House said in separate interviews with The New York Times that the president had trouble breathing on Friday and that his oxygen level dropped, prompting his doctors to give him supplemental oxygen while at the White House and decide to transfer him to Walter Reed where he could be monitored with better equipment and treated more rapidly in case of trouble.
At a Saturday morning news conference, President Trump’s medical team suggested the president knew he tested positive for the coronavirus earlier than had been reported. Sean P. Conley, Trump’s physician, said we’re “72 hours into the diagnosis,” meaning the president could have tested positive as early as Wednesday.
Members of Trump’s medical team at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center said the president is fever-free and that they are “extremely happy” with the progress he has made. But the team refused to answer key questions about when the president was first diagnosed and first symptomatic, and whether he had received supplemental oxygen.
Adding to the confusion, a White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because that person was not authorized to discuss the president’s health, said after the briefing that the doctor misspoke about the timing of the president’s diagnosis and treatment. The White House has not commented on the record about the doctor’s remarks and whether they contradict the timeline communicated to the public by Trump and the White House.
Trump spent the night at Walter Reed, where he received the experimental drug remdesivir after experiencing mild coronavirus symptoms.
Investigative reporter Jon Rappoport warns that doctors are endangering Trump’s life with experimental treatments | Added October 3
The other drug, Regeneron, the antibody cocktail, synthesized versions of mouse and human antibodies, is still in clinical trials. There is NO authorization for its use.
In past trials of antibody drugs, highly increased infection has occurred. Very dangerous.
And pray these doctors don’t suddenly opt for a ventilator. They could do that, if Trump’s condition worsens, because of the effects of the DRUGS. They will call those effects “serious COVID decline.”
In a large New York study of COVID patients in Trump’s age group, 97 percent of the patients receiving ventilator treatment died. Ventilator treatment, as you know, involves heavy and prolonged sedation.
The president is in a very dangerous situation.
Planet Waves coverage of Trump testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 | Added October 3
Friday, Planet Waves news organizations covered Trump’s testing and hospital visit in the form of an article covering the astrology, a new edition of Planet Waves FM, and an edition of Planet Waves TV displayed below.
READ ARTICLE HERE
THE PRESIDENT TESTS POSITIVE. IS IT TRUE?
Mobile device | Download | Thank you for sponsoring Planet Waves FM
Michigan high court strikes down Whitmer’s emergency powers; gov vows to use other means | Added October 3
Lansing — In a landmark ruling with far-reaching implications, the Michigan Supreme Court decided Friday that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer violated her constitutional authority by continuing to issue orders to combat COVID-19 without the approval of state lawmakers.
The state’s high court ruled 4-3 that a state law allowing the governor to declare emergencies and keep them in place without legislative input — the 1945 Emergency Powers of the Governor Act — is unconstitutional.
The court was unanimous in ruling that a separate law — the 1976 Emergency Management Act — did not give Whitmer the power, after April 30, to issue or renew any executive orders related to the COVID-19 pandemic after 28 days without Legislative approval.
The ruling, which was requested by a federal judge earlier this year, serves as advice to the federal court and indicates how the court would rule on a suit challenging Whitmer’s emergency powers.
Additional coverage in the Washington Times
New York parents sue Cuomo over unlawful and unconstitutional restrictions | Added October 3
Via PJ Media — not getting mainstream coverage
A group of parents in Upstate New York have filed a lawsuit against Governor Andrew Cuomo and Howard Zucker, the commissioner of health, for what they claim are overly broad and “unlawful and unconstitutional” restrictions on liberty. Each parent involved in the lawsuit has children negatively affected by the lack of access to sports, religious services, band, and more. They are reportedly falling behind in their educational pursuits. One plaintiff, Hayley Reed, the mother of a special needs child with speech delays, says her child has regressed due to shutdowns and lack of access to therapy. Further, Reed reports that her child is negatively impacted by mask-wearing, which inhibits the child from reading lips.
Fauci continues fear mongering over ‘cases’ and does not admit problems with PCR | Added October 3
Anthony Fauci, MD, says the United States is “not in a good place” entering the fall and winter because daily coronavirus case counts are regularly topping 40,000.
Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has said the United States should have a baseline of around 10,000 new cases per day to get through the time before a vaccine becomes available.
“We’re not in a good place,” Fauci said Monday in an interview on Good Morning America. “You don’t want to be in a position like that as the weather starts getting cold. So we really need to intensify the public health measures that we talk about all the time.”
Fauci said some states have tamped down the coronavirus through widespread testing and social distancing, but “there are states that are starting to show an uptick in cases and even some increases in hospitalization in some states. And, I hope not, but we very well might start seeing increases in deaths.”
New York MDA pleading for riders to return; claims subways are safe | Added October 3
MTA officials hope a new report asserting that no major COVID-19 outbreak on the planet has been traced to urban mass transit systems will give New Yorkers faith the city’s subways and buses are safe.
The report — published Tuesday by transportation engineer and Daily News columnist Sam Schwartz — says buses and trains are safe because they’re well-ventilated, and rides are relatively short.
Extraordinary interview with Kelly Brogan MD | Added October 3
Trump tests positive for the coronavirus | Added October 2
President Trump revealed early Friday morning that he and the first lady, Melania Trump, had tested positive for the coronavirus, throwing the nation’s leadership into uncertainty and escalating the crisis posed by a pandemic that has already killed more than 207,000 Americans and devastated the economy.
Mr. Trump, who for months has played down the seriousness of the virus and hours earlier on Thursday night told an audience that “the end of the pandemic is in sight,” will quarantine in the White House for an unspecified period of time, forcing him to withdraw at least temporarily from the campaign trail only 32 days before the election on Nov. 3.
The dramatic disclosure came in a Twitter message just before 1 a.m. after a suspenseful evening following reports that Mr. Trump’s close adviser Hope Hicks had tested positive. In her own tweet about 30 minutes later, Mrs. Trump wrote that the first couple were “feeling good,” but the White House did not say whether they were experiencing symptoms. The president’s physician said he could carry out his duties “without disruption” from the Executive Mansion.