May the source be with you, but remember the KISS principle ;-) Skepticism and critical thinking is not panacea, but can help to understand the world better
Federal bureaucracy blunders in handling COVID-19 epidemic in the USA
Neoliberal MSM dance around human mortality and fearmongering to get more revenue provoked real panic. The USA
government did not have a plan for coronavirus outbreak and improvises as events unfold
The virus epidemic which started in the USA in full force in March will probably follow Chinese pattern. Which means the
time to the peak will be around two-three months (which means in summer the epidemics start subsiding.)
Might be shorter taking into account drastic measures taken by some state like NY, NJ, California and Washington. Currently
NewYork is the epicenter of the epidemics.
As of March 21 we still
see typical for initial stages of any flu epidemic exponential increase of cases, with the number of patient doubling in
approx. three days but very low number of critical cases.
Date
Total cases
Day increase
Serious
Deaths
Recovered
Notes
3/22
33,546
38.57%
64
396
178
3/21
24,208
24.88%
64
279
147
3/20
19,384
40.58%
64
160
3/19
13,789
48.93%
12
124
3/18
9,259
44.42%
12
94
10K mark
3/17
6,411
37.49%
12
93
3/16
4,663
26.71%
10
3/15
3,680
25.04%
10
3/14
2,943
30.97%
3/13
2,247
32.33%
3/12
1,698
24.49%
3/11
1,364
37.22%
3/10
994
41.19%
1K mark
3/9
704
30.13%
3/8
541
24.37%
3/7
435
36.36%
3/6
319
44.34%
3/5
221
39.87%
3/4
158
27.42%
3/3
124
24.00%
3/2
100
33.33%
100 mark
3/1
75
Starting from 100K cases the rate of increate will probably slow down. Number of infections among medical personnel are unavailable (worldometers.info)
It took the USA eight days to get from 100 cases to 1000 and another eight days to get from 1K to 10K. Some of the dynamics can be explained
the low availability of test kits -- this was the area where CDC royally screwed the US
population
Unfortunately, the current atmosphere increasingly exhibits the characteristics of a collective panic—and that is always a poor
basis for intelligent policy decisions.
The neoliberal society with its twisted guiding philosophy of radical individualism and competition combined with a supremacist
“that could never happen here” attitude quickly falls into panicked chaos when reality kicks in and reveals the society’s underlying
vulnerabilities. Countries with weak social safety nets and an ideological opposition to social responsibility are extremely
vulnerable to systemic breakdown when their societies are hit with unexpected stress. That is what we see in the USA. This virus is
revealing just how ineffective the neoliberal social Darwinism (“every man for himself”) ethic (aka "neoliberal rationality")
is and how deeply in denial and out of touch with reality these societies are. Including first of all neoliberal politicians.
The for-profit health system in the USA is certainly is very efficient in raking in cash for insurance companies and big pharma.
But health care outcomes are mediocre at best and other countries do a far better job for far less money. The most basic needs of
patients and health care workers are often unmet. Health care workers complain they haven’t received proper training putting them in
danger of infection and do not have supplies to protect themselves even as they treat COVID-19 patients. And that's in richest
country in the world.
...system can’t provide enough hand sanitizer the governor of New York came up with a solution. Andrew Cuomo announced that
the state will produce hand sanitizer made by
prison labor .
The original reaction in the United States government to the corona outbreak was surprisingly casual. And that despire multiple
intelligence againces who supposedly produce beefing for the President and other key figures of the administration (U.S.
intelligence reports from January and February warned about a likely pandemic ). Early on it was clear the older
population will be hit hard, but administration did not close access to senior care centers. They did nothing to rump up local
production of masks and other clothing necessary for medical personnel to fight infection. Medics, who are in most danger among all
population groups, were not systematically trained by Koreans (the USA has two month to do so). Proper protocols
were not established. This was the major blunder of Trump administration and the case of bureaucratic incompetence what will be
studying in books.
In the absence of data, prepare-for-the-worst reasoning leads to extreme measures of social distancing and lockdowns.
Unfortunately,
we do not know if these
measures work. School closures, for example, may reduce transmission rates. But they may also backfire if children socialize
anyhow, if school closure leads children to spend more time with susceptible elderly family members, if children at home disrupt
their parents ability to work, and more. School closures may also diminish the chances of developing herd immunity in an age
group that is spared serious disease.
The USA government behaviour drastically changed in March 11 with Trump's surprise announcement of cancelling air travel from EU countries for 30 days.
Initially GB and
Ireland were excluded, which provide for strangled travelers a "window" of escape. Later they were added. Still all this was
badly planned and caused major panic with ticket prices for the last flights from EU to the USA skyrocketing.
CDC blunders is another parts of the story of bureaucratic incompetence. CDC did not launch the training of medical
personnel to use protective gear, despite that the fact that the virus severely affected medical personnel in Wuhan. There was
no efforts to launch additional production of masks and ventilators domestically, despite that fact that both are known bottlenecks. There
were only very limited attempt to establish the screening and mandatory quarantine of passengers in airports, arriving from
international flights. There were no attempt to supply hospitals in large cities with additional ventilators, masksa. and similar
protection gear. Looks like the USA government wasted the whole February and met flaring up of infections in March unprepared.
And what is most important CDC botched the production and distribution of virus tests leaving the country without them till late
March, when tesing can change nothing. Gin was out of the bottle.
It seems the CDC, NIH and the USA privatized health care system in general was caught flat-footed as if they didn't have any plan
to execute. Currently CDC does not even provide the information about how this particular virus spreads (Transmission
of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) CDC):
The virus is thought to spread mainly from person-to-person.
Between people who are in close contact with one another (within about 6 feet).
Through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes.
These droplets can land in the mouths or noses of people who are nearby or possibly be inhaled into the lungs.
Spread from contact with infected surfaces or objects
It may be possible that a person can get COVID-19 by touching a surface or object that has the virus on it and then
touching their own mouth, nose, or possibly their eyes, but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads.
Asked about WHO's coronavirus fatality rate findings during an interview Wednesday, Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity:
"Well, I think the 3.4% is really a false number."
He added, "now, this is just my hunch ... based on a lot of conversations with a lot of people that do this, because a lot of
people will have this, and it's very mild."
Trump later put the number at less than 1%.
Later events proved that he was right.
While some problems that the USA now experience with coronavirus are the direct or indirect result of blunders (like CDC blunder
with test kits; of overcrowding of returning passengers in airports on arrival from Europe after the fight ban), some are not.
Many things are rooted deeply in neoliberal globalization and perverted neoliberal rationality. Both make proper reaction to
dangerous epidemic almost impossible. So by-and-large the USA current problems were unavoidable.
Also in epidemics like in war mistakes are to be made. At the same time repeating Chinese mistakes was pain vanilla incompetence.
Classic bureaucratic incompetence, if you wish. While there are no perfect responses in the current environment (the availability of
a vaccine would change everything), the earlier government reacted, the slower the virus would spread. But under neoliberal
globalization any reaction entails severe economic disruption, and that means that the measures were postponed till it's to late for
them to be affective while providing the same level of economic disruption. Meanwhile large sectors of the economy, here and
abroad, are nearly collapsing because of fears about COVID-19 epidemics that are not entirely justified.
Watch the interviews below. Dr. Anthony Fauci who is
the head of the head of the
National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) This high level "medical diplomat" in his March interviews carefully avoid
mentioning that fact that CDC completely botched producing and distributing test kits and the government did nothing substantial to
combat the virus the whole February. Most airports did not perform even elementary screening of arriving passengers. And the
operation of returning the US citizens from Europe after travel with EU countries was banned was also completely botched. All
February the administration essentially was allowing the flow infected passengers from Italy and France without screening and
quarantine (two severely hit by COVID-19 countries with large tourists flows from the USA) to spread the disease in the USA:
But there is some progress. With national emergency declared on Feb 13, FEMA's USD 50 billion is unlocked to fight the COVID-19
pandemic. FEMA is one of the few federal institutions which still works and works well.
Arrival of warm weather on Eastern Coast may significantly change the dynamic of epidemics, slow down infections and help NYC,
which is the most severe affected on this coast and the most densely populated area.
Measures for self-isolation of seniors like California tries now is of vital importance and it should have been done much
earlier, because the USA has advantage of Chinese experience with this epidemic (which it by-and-large ignored). This was not done.
There should also be the prohibition of air trips and remove vacations (including cruise ships) for this category of people.
Violators they put their own life and lives of other people especially medical personnel in unnecessary danger. Seniors are the
major factor is overcrowding of intensive care beds in the hospitals. Trying to protect them from this virus is probably the
most important part of "flattening the curve" efforts.
The USA has a lower population density than other affected countries so outside of large cities like New York it is in much
better position to suppress the epidemics. Large parts of the country such as Texas already have warm weather which
typically helps to suppress such epidemics.
Globally COVID-19 is spreading more slowly then in the USA slowly: 69K cases on Feb 15 vs. 162K cases on March 15: in other words
the number of cases approx. doubled in one month period. Assuming that the next month will be same and then epidemic start to
subside replicating the shape of the curve before the peak, we will have globally around 162+324+162K=648K or something like
half-million cases total for this virus
The delay between the shutdown in Wuhan and a fall in new daily cases
was 12 days . That suggests that in two weeks from now we will probably see a drop in the number of new cases in the US.
But that is not guaranteed.
The priority is to slow down the spread of the disease to lessen overcrowding of hospital beds with
severe cases.
At the same time there are multiple cases of selfish, reckless behaviour of a part of the population. Some young people
from closed schools and universities engage in travel as tickets and hotels are dirt cheap now. Those who carry the virus are
spreading the infection with them. Some people who are at risk are not wearing mask and engage in reckless behaviour
disrespecting community interests such as shopping using public transport or other encounters with large number of people. Years of
neoliberalism brainwashing ("Greed is good", "shareholder value" mantra, glorification of unlimited predatory competition as
in Latin saying "homo homini lupus est")
converted a large part of the US population into greedy and selfish animals, and while such people concentrate in
FIRE sector, other segment of population are also severely affected. The situation is especially bad in NYC.
Years of neoliberalism brainwashing converted some part of the US population into greedy and selfish animals and this
epidemic and while such people concentrate in FIRE sector, other segment of population are also severely affected. Epidemic of
hoarding also had shown the ugly face of neoliberal
rationality in full grace. The situation is especially bad in NYC.
So far infections are clustered within families and friends of initially infected persons. For example, if wife is infected, the
husband and children typically became infected too. Common spreading centers are religious gatherings and conferences. The same
danger represents travelling with the infected person in public transport if he/she is not wearing a mask, or any other close
and prolonged contact. Most of initial US patients had recently visited Wuhan or attended meeting/conference were at least one
infected person was present. "Community spread" cases, where person was infected in transport or public places like
grocery shops like on this early state of epidemic are relatively rare.
Judging from China experience the next two months in the USA will be "interesting times." The lower you are in the "wealth
pyramid" the worse it is for you. Particularly for the elderly underclass.
Is the Chinese Government using the Corona outbreak as a cover for some other purpose?
Definitely. Iranian too. Related to trade war/sanctions I feel. The bottom line, everybody on top wins, in this game.
Say….up to 20 %. The rest are designated losers. Lower in the pyramid worse it is. The elderly underclass in particular.
Good gig…for some. So far works like charm.
Critique of the "flattening the curve" approach adopted by the USA
Yet if the health system does become overwhelmed, the majority of the extra deaths may not be due to coronavirus but to other
common diseases and conditions such as heart attacks, strokes, etc that are not adequately treated. If the level of the epidemic
does overwhelm the health system and extreme measures have only modest effectiveness, then flattening the curve may make things
worse: Instead of being overwhelmed during a short, acute phase, the health system will remain overwhelmed for a more protracted
period. That’s another reason we need data about the exact level of the epidemic activity.
One of the bottom lines is that we don’t know how long ockdowns can be maintained without major consequences to the economy and
society. Hyping the threat by MSM already produced harding epidemic in the USA. Unpredictable evolutions may
ensue, including financial crisis.
At a minimum, we need unbiased prevalence and incidence data for the evolving infectious load to guide decision-making.
In the most pessimistic scenario, which I do not espouse, if the new coronavirus infects 60% of the global population and 1% of
the infected people die, that will translate into more than 40 million deaths globally, matching the 1918 influenza pandemic.
The vast majority of this hecatomb would be people with limited life expectancies. That’s in contrast to 1918, when many young
people died.
We can discuss whether CODID-19 represents a pandemic or not, but hoarding epidemics in the USA is very real.
It also feels like a scam: there is no shortage of snake oil sellers who hope stoking such fears will make people buy more
supplies. The reality is that there is little point “preparing“ for the most catastrophic scenarios some of these people envision.
As a species, we live and die by our social world and infrastructure — and outside some minimal stocks (say two weeks supply
of food in areas affected by infection and which might be subject to quarantine (which are currently only two cities in the
US.) Moreover, it is difficult to predict what will be needed in the face of total catastrophe (Preparing
for Coronavirus to Strike the U.S. - Scientific American Blog Network ). You can't drink sanitizer and you need minimal amount
of it when you are outside of home. In all other cases regular soap is more effective against this virus, so hoarding
sanitizer is far from the best move you can make:
American Association for the Advancement of Science By Derek Lowe 4 March, 2020
Since this is going to be a post about the coronavirus, let's start off with this PSA: wash your hands. These viruses have
a lipid envelope that is crucial to their structure and function, and soaps and detergents are thus very effective at
inactivating them. It's fast, it's simple, and it's one of the more useful things that any individual can do under these
conditions.
The real crisis scenarios we’re likely to encounter require cooperation and, crucially, “flattening the curve” of the crisis
which includes sharing not hoarding, so the more vulnerable (older folks) can fare better and our social world and the
infrastructure will be less stressed. For those who can do it that way that means switching to work from home and avoiding
unnecessary travel and meetings. Most think those days can be done via phone of via teleconferencing.
We do not need to contribute to the panic, and to panic buying isopropyl alcohol and hand sanitizers as if there no
tomorrow. From state to state, shelves at grocery stores are being emptied. Community after community is stocking up on essential
goods as they anticipate a very remote (or non-existent in many areas of the country ) possibility our of fears of forced
China style self-quarantine. In reality only retired persons in areas with active cases of infection need to self-quarantine
as they are the most vulnerable and can overwhelm hospitals. They generally should stay home, avoid direct contact with
relatives and friends (which are rare those days, anyway, so no big deal) , and do only rare shopping which should exclude all
shopping for clothing, etc. They need a lot of exposure to sun, vitamins, flesh air to boost the immune system. Abandoning bad
habits like smoking would be nice too. No or minimal visits to restaurants, entertainment centers like casino, or God forbid
cruise ships or international travel. For the sake of everyone else, they should prepare to stay home for a few weeks, while
epidemic burns out in their neighborhood and try their best not to be infected. This way they will reduce their own
risks, but most importantly, they will reduce the burden on health care and delivery infrastructure and allow frontline workers to
reach and help the most vulnerable.
What does “flattening the curve” mean for the current COVID-19 threat facing us: the emerging pandemic of this human
coronavirus? Epidemiologists often talk about two important numbers: R0 or how infectious a disease might be,
expressed as the number of people that are infected by each person who’s been infected; and the case fatality ratio
(CFR): the number of people who die as a result of being infected. For example, an R0 of two means each infected
person infects two people on average, while a number less than one means the disease is likely dying out in the population. Some
diseases are deadlier than others: the average case fatality ratio for Ebola has been around 50 percent, for example, while the
common cold is rarely deadly for otherwise healthy individuals.
The infectiousness of a virus, for example, depends on how much we encounter one another; how well we quarantine
individuals who are ill; how often we wash our hands; whether those treating the ill have proper protective equipment; how
healthy we are to begin with—and such factors are all under our control. After active measures were implemented, the R0 for
the 2003 SARS epidemic, for example, went from around three, meaning each person infected three others, to 0.04. It was our
response to SARS in 2003 that made sure the disease died out from earth, with less than a thousand victims globally.
... ... ..
All of this means that the only path to flattening the curve for COVID-19 is community-wide isolation: the more people stay
home, the fewer people will catch the disease. The fewer people who catch the disease, the better hospitals can help those who
do. Crowding at hospitals doesn’t just threaten those with COVID-19; if emergency rooms are overwhelmed, more flu patients, too,
will die because of lack of treatment, for example.
But what we see in the USA is primitive and destructive hoarding epidemic. Toilet paper, sanitary wipes and sanitizers are in
short supply as stocks are being exhausted. As of March 3, 2020 a 250 ml (8 ounces) bottle of hand sanitizer on Amazon was $60 or so
(while its regular price is $2 or so ;-). This is not only ridiculous but it beats "socialist back market" prices.
Ana
I know someone who is the head of security in the SF Bay for a large big box membership store that all of us in the States
are familiar with. Their stores in the SF Bay area have been selling out of water, hand sanitizers, gloves, masks and
other similar cleaning supplies, along with boxed mac and cheese and similar long shelf life foods.
Their regional supply center that brings replacement supply in over night by semi trucks has not been able to refill it’s
own pallets from suppliers. He just texted me pics of local big box stores in the Bay with empty shelves and no back stock is
available. I can’t find info on sales of things like generators. I don’t care what soothing nonsense the TV and feds blather
at us. People are trying to get what they think they need to cope with serious disruption.
Ana in Sacramento.
P.S. By the way, I was one of the paper pushers who designed emergency response and business resumption plans for the State
of California. This event was never considered or planned for. I’m retired so it may have been added after I left.
The dynamic of the USA panic can be watched via Amazon prices for those items and as of March 7 the panic is still in full swing
(you can buy the same 250 ml(8 ounces) bottle for mere $35 ;-) . And they used to say that such hoarding behaviour is
typical only for socialism ;-).
And despite chaotic and botched containment of epidemic (CDC botched development and production of test kits so badly that the
officials responsible probably should be tried for criminal negligence ) the USA government managed already take several measures to
slow down the spread of the virus (please note that time is working against the virus -- warm weather in East cost will come in May
or even earlier).
For example, starting Sunday, Feb. 2, the US citizens, permanent residents and immediate family who have visited China's Hubei
province undergo a mandatory 14 days quarantine. On Mar 11, Trump administration prohibited all flights from Europe firs exampling
UK and Ireland and later adding them.
On Mar 13 Trump has declared the coronavirus a US national emergency and offered $50 billion for support of state and local
governments to fight the virus with FEMA.
At the same time the US Fed has increased its public support of the global private banking system in amounts looking to total in
the trillions of dollars and our Congress Critters are setting up to re-authorize the Patriot Act suppression of human rights.
On March 15 CDC recommended that all gatherings of more than 50 people within the United States be canceled for the next 8 weeks.
The same day California ordered all bars and nightclubs to shut their doors, restaurants to cut the number of tables in half and
for millions of seniors and people with chronic health conditions to immediately “self-isolate” at home
(mercurynews.com)
As the coronavirus continues its rapid spread, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday afternoon issued an urgent call for all California,
restaurants to cut the number of tables in half and for millions of seniors and people with chronic health conditions to
immediately “self-isolate” at home.
Newsom’s unprecedented call for action is designed to slow the infection rate, especially among the most vulnerable. The
governor stopped short of asking eating establishments to shut their doors, saying the need for food service during the pandemic
remained vital.
“We need to prioritize our focus,” Newsom said during an hour-long press conference in Sacramento. “We are looking at this
from a very holistic perspective.”
It was unclear how long the self-quarantine for seniors should continue.
NYC closed all schools staring Monday, March 16, 2020. NJ followed the suit. Both states resorted to pretty drastic
measures. All schools, entertainment outlets such as bars, nightclubs and non-essential shops are closed in NY and NJ.
Meetings over 50 people prohibited. Malls are also closes in some counties.
The CDC stunning failure to provide the coronavirus testing kits needed to control the spread of the outbreak is a national
outrage. Their incompetence threatens to increase the scope and prolong the duration of epidemics and contributes to troubles
that now the USA economy experience.
It is unlearn why the CDC failed to make mass production of test kits its top priority and who is responsible. But it is clear
that heads should roll (The Mercury News
editorial,
South Korea is testing 20,000 people every day, thanks to a biotech firm that anticipated the threat in January. South Korea
is providing free tests for anyone a doctor deems necessary at more than 100 facilities across the nation. The result is that
South Korea is now seeing more recoveries than new cases.
Contrast that with the state of California, which has only 10 million fewer people than South Korea. Gov. Gavin Newsom said
Thursday that the state has been provided with 8,227 testing kits from the CDC. But some of those kits did not contain all the
chemicals needed to administer them to Californians — a glaring failure given that it’s been nearly two months since the
coronavirus outbreak began in China.
Newsom compared it to “going to the store and purchasing a printer, but forgetting to purchase the ink. You need multiple
components.”
All told, as of Friday [Mar13, 2020], California had conducted a total of only 1,573 tests at its 18 state test labs.
The problem stems from the CDC’s botched first effort to mass produce test kits, followed by delays in sending promised
replacement kits for several weeks.
“The incompetence has really exceeded what anyone would expect with the CDC,” Dr. Michael Mina, an epidemiologist at Harvard
University, told the New York Times. “This is not a difficult problem to solve in the world of viruses.”
Testing is crucial to slowing the spread of the disease because it allows those who are infected to be quarantined. Health
officials can then trace who they may have been in contact with and test and possibly quarantine those people.
It’s essential that Congress investigate what went wrong and take steps to prevent it from happening during the next inevitable
infectious disease threat. But that’s for another day. The focus now must be on taking steps to minimize further spread of
coronavirus and its impact on people and the economy.
The state is turning to its major hospitals and private labs for additional help. It’s possible that their testing sites could be
up and running in the next week. President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency on Friday could also eliminate red tape
and speed the testing process.
Once upon a time, the United States was the global leader in fighting infectious diseases and serving as the provider for testing
kits to the world. Those days are long gone. The CDC must act to make up for its incompetence and take whatever steps necessary
to protect Americans against current and future outbreaks.
The CDC must also give clear direction on how hospitals can treat patients during this national emergency. It is not done. China
recommended three drugs that can help some patients. CDC does not provided any recommendations at all.
Abrupt announcement caused panic and airports on arrival became so overcrowded that they became epicenter of spreading the
decease: they manage to replicate the situation that was far worse that exists on cruise ships with many thousand of people.
Air conditioners are also known to circulate air-borne diseases such as Legionairre’s Disease, a potentially fatal infectious
disease that produces high fever and pneumonia. For efficiency air-conditioned on cruise ships, bases and airplanes mix fresh air
with the already circulated air and this is a concern. For example, some experts think that
in Diamond Princess cruise ship epidemic AC might help to spread the virus to all cabin
Currently there is no strong evidence to support the claim that the virus can be transmitted through the air conditioner
recirculation. It is believed to be spread mainly through droplets on close contact with infected person (less then 2m). In this
case the mucus or saliva of an infected person who sneezes or coughs can be inhaled and infect the person. This virus is
likely to die when the droplets dry up (Can
the coronavirus be spread through the air, Singapore News & Top Stories - The Straits Times):
Experts say if the virus could really survive even after the droplets carrying it have dried up, it would have spread through
the air as dust particles and potentially infected 10 times more people, which is not the case.
Last week, a Shanghai official, Mr Zeng Qun, said the virus could spread through aerosol transmission, or the mixing of the
virus with airborne liquid droplets.
This would allow the virus to linger in the air and infect those who inhale it, he said. Diseases that are known to spread
this way include tuberculosis, chicken pox and measles.
But an infectious diseases expert at the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Mr Feng Luzhao, refuted this on
Sunday, stating that the droplets carrying the virus travel only about 1m to 2m and
do not stay suspended in the air. This is why you are unlikely to catch the virus through transient (or short-term)
contact such as on public transport.
Ultraviolet rays and heat from the sun can kill the virus as virus does not last long on fresh air in a sunny day. This is
true for all viruses. The likelihood of viral persistence outdoors is lower, as most studies indicate that viruses do not survive in
hot and humid environments. This refers to a temperature of over 30C and a humidity level of over 80 per cent.
Using humidifier at home and maintaining 50% humidity might help to protect you and family members.
Contrary to claims by the media and the ego maniac Dr. Fauci about a tidal wave of Covid
infections, I have first hand, albeit anecdotal evidence, that there is a lot of bullshit
surrounding reports of people who have "tested" positive for Covid.
WASHINGTON -- An investigation released Friday by House Democrats says President Donald
Trump's administration overpaid by up to $500 million on
ventilators as the
coronavirus pandemic first struck the United States.
Click to expand 00:00 00:47 Fauci
optimistic on COVID-19 vaccine availability
In a review of thousands of pages of internal administration documents, Democrats on the
House Oversight Committee said Phillips North America was contracted to deliver 43,000
ventilators to the federal government for a significantly higher price than it did under
previous contracts for functionally identical ventilator models delivered under contracts
dating to President Barack Obama's administration.
"The American people got ripped off, and Donald Trump and his team got taken to the
cleaners," said Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., whose subcommittee led the investigation.
"The Trump Administration's mishandling of ventilator procurement for the nation's stockpile
cost the American people dearly during the worst public health crisis of our generation."
Phillips denied the report's findings, saying the company did not raise prices in relation
to the pandemic, and argued the increased price of the ventilators actually represented a
"discount."
Frans van Houten, CEO of Royal Philips, said in a statement the company did "not recognize
the conclusions in the subcommittee's report, and we believe that not all the information that
we provided has been reflected in the report."
"I would like to make clear that at no occasion has Philips raised prices to benefit from
the crisis situation," van Houten said.
According to Phillips, the list price of the ventilator ordered under the contract is
$21,000 and was supplied to the Trump administration for $15,000, which the company called a
"discount" given the rushed production schedule.
The report, however, disagreed with Phillips' claim. A functionally identical ventilator was
delivered to the Obama administration under a 2014 contract for $3,280. Based on the report's
review of purchases between December 2019 and May 2020, other small purchasers, even those that
purchased only one ventilator of the same model, secured them for as low as $9,327.
"No American purchaser paid more than the U.S. government," the report said.
White House Deputy Press Secretary Judd Deere told USA TODAY in a statement the report was
"misleading and inaccurate."
"Because of the President's leadership, the United States leads the world in the production
and acquisition of ventilators. No American who needed a ventilator was denied one, and no
American who needs a ventilator in the future will be denied one."
Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson Ryan Murphy said the Trump
administration's efforts ensured the "federal government procured enough equipment to care for
all hospitalized patients in the United States who needed a ventilator for respiratory support
related to COVID-19 infections."
Some of the ventilators ordered under the contract were already in use to treat COVID-19
patients, he added.
Murphy declined to comment on an ongoing contract, but said HHS follows "all Federal
Acquisition Regulations for Strategic National Stockpile contracting efforts."
The Trump administration has frequently touted the production of ventilators as evidence of
its response to the coronavirus pandemic.
"When you look at the United States response, you look at the fact that we were supposed to
have a ventilator shortage. In fact, we had a ventilator surplus," White House Press Secretary
Kayleigh McEnany said at a Friday briefing.
Phillips had first signed a contract with the Obama administration to deliver 100,000
ventilators in the event of a pandemic by June 2019, but the delivery date was pushed back,
eventually to June 2021, as the company missed deadlines, the report said. Phillips approached
the Trump administration about moving up the delivery date in January 2020, when the first
coronavirus cases were reported in the United States, but the Trump administration ignored the
offer, according to the report.
Then, in March 2020, the Trump administration agreed to extend the ventilator delivery
deadline to September 2022, but did not ask Phillips to produce more ventilators or move up
delivery times. Instead, in April 2020, the Trump administration negotiated a new contract with
Phillips to deliver 43,000 ventilators at a price of $15,000 per ventilator.
According to the report's review of documents, "the Administration accepted Philips' first
offer without even trying to negotiate a lower price."
According to emails released by the committee, White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, who
served as the lead negotiator with Phillips, offered to prepay half of the total cost, or over
$323 million, to Phillips before a single ventilator was even delivered. Department of Health
and Human Services staff later reduced the amount prepaid to 10% of the total cost of the
contract, or about $65 million.
N95 Masks DO WORK, and the Proof is Available All Over the Net!
There has been so much oh-so-earnest and so much oh-so-authoritarian nonsense bruited
about on this site about the non-effectiveness of the N95 masks that it's getting really,
really disgusting. It also calls into question either the honesty (trolls?) or the
intelligence of those who could so easily have just looked up the information from, and
about, the inventor of the N95, Dr. Peter Tsai.
If they had done just that little bit of research, they would have discovered that the N95
works because of an inner layer of plastic fiber that carries an electro-static charge that
attracts and destroys the virus, and that can be cleansed and sterilized for re-use by a
number of different techniques.
Please do not believe any of the contra-factual and sometimes dangerous nonsense being
spewed about by people who don't know what the hell they're talking about.
Oh, and N95 masks are not all "vented to breathe straight out without filtration." Not
those intended for medical use, for certain. There are some vented N95 masks that are
intended for firefighters and other non-medical usages, and not for protection against
viruses. And as you can see below, the electric charge attracts even sub-micron particles, so
the idea that the mask cannot trap viruses because they're too small is simply more nonsense
from uninformed and/or deviously motivated individuals.
//
Here's just a small sample of information that's easily found all over the net:
Brief bio: Peter Tsai, Ph.D.
Employment: Research faculty, Joint Institute of Advanced Materials, The University of
Tennessee, Knoxville
Expertise: Development of meltblowing (MB) systems and the electrostatic charging (EC) of
materials for making air filter electrets. The MB and the EC developed by Tsai have been used
in the industries worldwide making tens of billions of pieces of N95 respirators or face
masks. He has received three prestigious awards from UT in recognition of his contribution to
technology innovation. Tsai is a Fellow Member of American Filtration and Separation Society
and a member of Electrostatic Society of America.
https://utrf.tennessee.edu/information-faqs-charged-filtration-material-performance-after-various-sterilization-techniques/
//
Peter Tsai and the Electrostatic Filter Mask
https://engineeringethicsblog.blogspot.com/2020/04/peter-tsai-and-electrostatic-filter-mask.html
"Prof. Tsai's innovation was to find a way to take a cold pre-fabricated mat of non-woven
material and subject it to two electric discharges of opposite polarity, one after the other.
Under the right conditions, this process embedded quasi-permanent electric charges into the
plastic fibers and made them very attractive to even sub-micron particles, like the
100-nanometer-diameter SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19. The charge is durable and will
persist even if the masks are sterilized with steam, according to a new article that Prof.
Tsai just put up on a University of Tennessee website.'
//
The retired inventor of N95 masks is back at work, mostly for free, to fight covid-19 https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2020/07/07/peter-tsai-n95-mask-covid/
//
More technical information for those curious enough: https://aim.autm.net/public/project/53844/
//
Finally, let's dispense with a couple of other oh-so-popular misconceptions:
"Q: Do face masks cause oxygen deficiency?
"A: The prolonged use of medical masks when properly worn, does not cause oxygen deficiency
nor CO2 intoxication, according to WHO. Make sure your face covering fits properly and that
it is tight enough to allow you to breathe normally.
" 'This is a common misconception being perpetuated that has no evidence behind it,' said
Krutika Kuppalli, a Palo Alto infectious disease doctor and a biosecurity fellow with the
Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
"Q: Does wearing a face covering put you at risk for carbon dioxide poisoning?
"A: No. CO2 molecules diffuse easily through everything from bandannas to medical masks to
N95 respirators, allowing for normal breathing." Aidin Vaziri. San Francisco Chronicle
Thanks b. The mask - a simple and elegant precaution in high risk environments. But so
much foaming hysteria and opposition from pumped up nay sayers its just like the response to
the early motor car or the mandatory seat belt. Extraordinary, hyperventilated nonsense and
inflamed debating points.
I assume this noise is to distract from calling it by its proper name - Fort Detrick
Flu.
Mr Gohmert then wondered if his mask was to blame for contracting COVID-19.
"But I can't help but wonder if my keeping a mask on and keeping it in place, that if I
might have put some germs or some of the virus onto the mask and breathed it in -- I don't
know. But I got it, we'll see what happens from here, but the reports of my demise are very
premature," he said."
about a decade ago there was outbreak of TB in Seattle I was a nurse at the time. We were
told by infection disease at the time if we were to see TB patients we had to wear an
individually fitted respirator... every nurse was fitted and red pepper was sprayed around
the masks to test the fit. I couldn't wear one ... and was told I could wear a surgical mask
but that it would only provide about 30 min of protection and then I would need a new mask...
Now tell me why me way a fashion mask, a bandanna or scarf can protect me or another from a
virus (which is much smaller than a TB bacteria?
I just drove from coast to coast across the US. I avoided large cities and felt perfectly
comfortable with social distancing. I was in two states that never had a "true" lock down and
no mask mandates,,,, and you know what people weren't dropping like flies, people weren't
afraid... they were just acting respectful to one another"s personal space.
Let's see now... we have an aerosolized pathogen; shades of the discussion in 2001
regarding weaponized Antrax! We have, seemingly, a very low number of mutations; it's either
been out there or cultured for some time. No one has any 100% accurate test; the test
criteria of Koch's Postulates seem to have
been forgotten or ignored. In the dearth of trustworthy data, the deluge of untrustworthy
data, and the general level of greed-generated-mistrust towards all western societal
organizations, no one in the general public has the proper knowledge to make life-or-death
decisions concerning themselves or their families. Perhaps, rather than the "Trump flu" that
the partisan-oriented commenter proposed previously, if a large group of people called it
instead the "Fort Detrick Flu," western governments might be persuaded to seek and/or
spread truthful data.
The purpose of the mask is to stop (asymptomatic) carriers of the disease from spreading
it, or at least dramatically reduce the spreading. The mask limits outgoing aerosols,
not incoming ones.
Moreover, rural areas where people spend a lot of time outdoors and generally meet only a
limited amount of different people are much less likely to be affected by the initial phase
of a pandemic than densely populated cities where most people spend most of their days
closely packed with numerous other random people in badly ventilated indoor places such as
offices, factories, subways.
During an in-depth interview that will air Tuesday night on ABC News as part of a primetime
special, "American Catastrophe: How Did We Get Here?," Fauci was pressed to explain why, months
after COVID-19 first reached U.S. soil, the U.S. government is still struggling to provide
adequate testing for Americans and sufficient personal protective gear for essential
workers.
"We keep hearing when we go to these task force meetings that these [issues] are being
corrected," Fauci said. "But yet when you go into the trenches, you still hear about that."
Fauci said he does not have a "good answer" and "cannot explain" the discrepancy, especially
since those matters are not part of his "day-by-day" responsibilities, but part of the problem
stems from the fact that "many of the things that we needed were not produced in the United
States."
The U.S. government ended up competing for those materials with other nations stricken by
the pandemic, and the White House ultimately had to invoke emergency powers to push U.S.
companies to help.
Those challenges were exacerbated by what Fauci admitted were early missteps on testing by
the Centers for Disease Control, which developed tests that "didn't work" initially because
– it turned out – their results were based on potentially contaminated samples.
That forced the federal government to further rely private companies.
Asked about any missteps he may have made himself – including initially telling the
public that the average American didn't need to wear a mask – he said such decisions were
"based on the information at the moment."
In a segment due to air this
weekend, 'America This Week' host Eric Bolling sat down with Dr Judy Mikovits, a disgraced scientist who believes that the
coronavirus pandemic was orchestrated by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases head Dr Anthony Fauci and Bill
Gates to push vaccines on the population – a theory she set out in the documentary film 'Plandemic,' which has been effectively
censored off the internet.
Bolling called Mikovits' claims "hefty," and brought on medical contributor Dr Nicole Saphier to refute them, but CNN
claimed
the
host didn't push back hard enough against Mikovits' "baseless conspiracy theory," and hammered Bolling for allowing Mikovits to
"continue to make her case."
As CNN's article circulated
on Twitter on Saturday morning, the network's liberal audience called for a boycott of Sinclair. The broadcaster initially stood
by its decision to run the segment, declaring that
"at no juncture are we aligning with or
endorsing the viewpoints of Dr Mikovits."
However, within an hour,
Sinclair bent the knee and pulled the episode from the air until additional content could be added to counter Mikovits.
"All
stations have been notified not to air this and will instead be re-airing last week's episode in its place,"
Sinclair
tweeted. For good measure, the company added
"we valiantly support Dr Fauci and the work he
and his team are doing to further prevent the spread of Covid-19."
Sinclair is an incredibly
powerful organization to have been swayed by an online outrage campaign. The company and its partner organizations own nearly 300
local TV stations around the country, and reach 40 percent of American households.
Proponents of the boycott
celebrated their victory on Twitter, declaring that
"we shamed them into doing the right
thing."
Amid a recent upsurge in
'cancel culture,' few campaigns have brought a company to its knees as fast as Saturday's blitz by CNN. Similar campaigns have
been mounted against Fox News'
Tucker
Carlson
– with an advertiser boycott and attempts by journalists to doxx his family among the most recent moves, but Carlson
remains on the air and unapologetic.
For Bolling and his
colleagues at Sinclair on the other hand, it's back to the studio to reshoot their offending segment at CNN's behest.
The real problem is masks that don't measure up.
This article says half of the masks manufactured in China don't actually capture 95% of
particles. Since all of my masks are from China, that is concerning to me. However, even if a
mask only does 50%, that's still better than most non-respirator masks.
Mask-wearing obligatory in confined public spaces in France from today .Initially
announced by Macron in his july 14th speech for the first of August,but over the weekend
Health minister said it is in application from this monday 2 july.Fine is 135 euros.This will
lead to more gigs cancelled,unless they are in the street.How can one sing masked?
Well,I tried wearing one saturday,but it is a sloppy experience and I don't think I will wear
one correctly,it hangs down from my nose,it is to escape french fines.Before people start
insulting me for that,i have to tell you that I see practically nobody,apart from going to
supermarket once a week....
I pointed out that cloth masks were ineffective relative to N95 months ago here. The
hierarchy is N100, N99, N95, surgical masks, then anything else. There is a reduction of
maybe 25% in effectiveness per level (except for the N masks.) T-shirts are almost useless,
having an effectiveness of maybe 10-15%.
*Doesn't mean they shouldn't be worn.*
People don't seem to understand that avoiding infection is a game of probabilities. It's
not a binary either-or situation. Anything you can do to impede the progress of a viral load
from the environment to your vulnerable surfaces is worth doing if it's practical. Wearing a
mask is practical.
Minor repeated reductions in oxygen or increases in carbon dioxide is not going to kill
you and is unlikely to have long-term physical effects. And there's a good chance that
eventually we'll stop wearing them once the virus has been reduced in the environment.
Asians have been wearing masks frequently for a long time. Health workers wear masks
frequently for extended periods. Cite a study where that has had long-term negative health
effects.
"But there is a graph here that if I explain this properly, it'll make sense to you. This is
from the Centers for Disease Control. And it is death counts attributable to COVID-19 through
July 11th. The week ending July 11th, which is the most recent date for data. They run about,
you know, a week to two weeks behind here.
So throw the chart up. This is by age. All sexes by age. So if you look at the top line, the
red line, the very top, that is the week ending April 11th. You can't see this on the chart. Go
ahead and put the chart up there, Brian, switch it over. The top line is red. You can't even
probably tell that. But, trust me. The top-most line is red, and it occurs on April the 11th.
That is the peak death rate, and it's probably about 6,000 . I don't know in what interval that
this thing is reporting.
Probably Eh, it's in a week. The key is to go all the way over to the right side. You see
the peak of death rates was April the 11th. It isn't now. The peak death rate was April 11.
That red line is people 85 years and older. The line under it is people 75 to 84. That's the
yellow line. The blue line underneath that is people 65 to 74. We're under 4,000 now in a week.
So the top line is people 85 and older.
If you go to the This is where I'm not gonna There are two reds, but you can't tell the
difference in them. Just trust me. Let's move to the far-right side of the chart. That's July
11th, and you'll see that the death rate is not even 500, right now, per week -- CDC -- in all
ages, in all demographics, says the CDC. We're not at peak death rate. The peak death rate was
April the 11th to April the 18th." Limbaugh
I see now we are being encouraged to ignore "death rate" as unimportant. What we are told to
panic about is a higher incidence of "positives" among population under 40 years of age. This
population apparently doesn't have as bad an outcome (hospitalization/death) and that's "bad"
because they don't get contact traced and thus have "community spread".
I just love how AP/NYT and local journos all quote seemingly random "experts" with no
discussion of just what their "expertise" consists of, other than perhaps a credential (and the
relevance of the credential to the "expert statement" (more correctly opinion) is never
provided).
Sir, Yes. You are thinking right about Cuomo murdering the elderly that cost the state so much money
- many having the homes and medical treatment paid for by Medicaid (Medicare only pays for 30
days). Only it wasn't just Cuomo it was also Witmer in Michigan and Murphy in New Jersey. They
killed off the costly elderly and got the bonus of more deaths to raise the fear of the virus
and gain subsequent control over the lives of citizens + via twisted logic, try to give Trump a
black eye. Those govs are are morally sick people. It is a no brainer, if you care about the
elderly, to not place people with what you believe is a deadly highly contagious virus in homes
full of elderly infirm people. I mean what is there to even consider or weigh about that
decision?
Had those murderers handled the nursing homes correctly (like Florida did) the virus would
have been a lot less deadly.
Btw, with regard to schools re-opening, note that the line of the graph for school and
college age people is basically synonymous with the X-axis; meaning they didn't die from the
virus even at its peak lethality.
To know what Fauci [don't wear a mask it don't help; wear a mask it helps] would say, let's
look at how Aristotle would help us elucidate this answer.
Q: What can one conclude from [the mouth of] the liar [Fauci]?
A: Answer: nothing Absolutely Nothing. +++++++++++++++ And on this basis, from his mouth, our national "pandemic" "strategy" was thus formulated, from
Mr. Nothing aka Fauci.
And onto more black humor, and the wearing a mask as virtue signalling -- since they can
only slow down by at most ten minutes any disease transmission of the novel coronvirus, there
is this "gem" spoken by someone who apparently believes the mask kool aid? I D K . . . --and
for me at least, his essay, Attorney Jonathan Turley, was funny to read, irrespective of
whether that was his intent:
[[There is a new form of protests sweeping across the country as individuals put on
anti-Mask masks to defy mandatory mask rules. The anti-masks are made of thin material, mesh or
even crochet and are advertised as having no protective qualities for Covid-19. The question is
whether they are legal. They appear to be so.]]
The the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases was actually on sidelines and
did not yet contribute anything signigicat in understadning this coronavirus
The level of subservience of Fauci to Big Pharma is open for review
WASHINGTON -- Dr. Anthony Fauci on Monday rejected President Donald Trump's
recent criticism of him in which he called the infectious disease expert an "alarmist."
... Fauci warned last week that the coronavirus pandemic could be as bad as the
1918 flu pandemic, which is estimated to have killed at least 50 million people worldwide. He
also warned late last month that the number of
COVID-19 cases could top 100,000 a day.
And this Big Pharma stooge was right: in open spaces unless you are inthe dence coud there is no reason to wear any mask
Notable quotes:
"... No – for a solid hour, I heard the following: that COVID19 – in reality, at most, a moderately serious flu virus – is the worst medical threat the United States has ever faced. ..."
For anyone who has forgotten, Fauci told 60 Minutes that:
There's no reason to be walking around with a mask. When you're in the middle of an
outbreak, wearing a mask might make people feel a little better and it might even block a
droplet, but it's not providing the perfect protection that people think it is. And often
there are unintended consequences – people keep fiddling with the mask and they keep
touching their face."
But he does make an astute point:
"Recently I had the poor judgment to turn on National Public Radio for about an hour, under the impression that I was
going to learn something about the day’s news.
... No – for a solid hour, I heard the following: that COVID19 – in reality, at most, a moderately serious flu virus – is
the worst medical threat the United States has ever faced.
...
But the real theme of the hour was masks, masks, masks: how to make them, how to wear them, their different types, who
doesn’t seem to have enough of them, and why muffling our faces (even though no such thing was ever demanded of us during
dozens of past viral outbreaks) is absolutely, positively good for us all."
When it comes to the topic of clown cars, we'd say Dr. Fauci gets a limo version all to himself...
Yesterday he uttered the following incoherent babble, saying the recent surge in new cases is because the Virus Patrol didn't
go far enough in throwing 50 million Americans out of work:
'We did not shut down entirely,' Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said. 'We need
to draw back a few yards and say, "OK, we can't stay shut down forever." You've got to shut down but then you've got to gradually
open.'
Got that?
What does this pretentious old windbag think - that the blooming, buzzing mass of a $21 trillion economy can be calibrated up
and down by the week via some magical dimmer switch?
Never mind because he was then on to this preposterous comparison:
Fauci also said he expects the public to compare the Covid-19 pandemic to the 1918 pandemic flu, which killed around 50 million
people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Well, it so happens that the US death rate from the Spanish Flu was 655 per 100,000 persons (675,000 deaths in a population of
103 million). That's obviously orders of magnitude larger than the 39 per 100,000 deaths to date from the Covid.
In fact, the impact of the Spanish Flu was not only 17X greater in terms of the overall mortality rate, but it was also a true
Grim Reaper in the sense that it struck across the entire age spectrum of the population (dark blue bars).
It actually started in the giant domestic military training compounds stood up by Woodrow Wilson to join a European war that was
none of America's business, but the virus did kill tens of thousands of 18-30 year-old draftees in their own barracks long before
they got to the killing fields of France.
By contrast, as we now surely understand, and you would think Fauci would, too, the Covid (light blue bars) is primarily a harvester
of elderly persons already struggling with life-threatening respiratory, heart, vascular, renal and diabetic illnesses.
Accordingly, among the 191 million Americans under the age of 45 years, there have been only 1.5 WITH-Covid deaths per 100,000,
while for the elderly, the opposite is true. Nearly 70,000 or more than 60 percent of all WITH-Covid death have been among the 75
years and older population, resulting in mortality rates as follows:
85 years & Over: 581 per 100,000 persons;
75-84 years: 200 per 100,000 persons;
Now, you don't need to take a single class in epidemiology to understand a core truth: That is, when nearly 60 percent of the
population under 45 years accounts for only 2.5 percent of the reported WITH-Covid deaths and has a rounding error mortality rate,
while the 6.5 percent of the population 75 years and older accounts for 60 percent of the deaths -- you don't fight the disease with
a one-size-fits all strategy of generic lockdowns, quarantines, and social regimentation.
And surely you don't shutdown the schools, gyms, bars, restaurants, movies, ball games, concerts, beaches, theme parks etc. because
the vulnerable elderly don't patronize these venues in appreciable numbers anyway, and could easily be warned to stay strictly away.
The key point, however, is that this whole unspeakable Lockdown Folly does not remotely stem from the "science", as the MSM supporters
of Fauci claim.
It's just a hair-brained experiment in social control that happened because the Donald was too weak, ill-informed, distracted,
and innumerate to send Fauci and his camarilla of doctors and vaccine-peddlers packing when the mid-March guidelines were first issued
by the CDC.
Yes, the Donald's political enemies in the ranks of big city mayors and Blue State governors have feasted upon the chum Fauci
& Co have persistently tossed into the fetid waters of national politics, but that doesn't let Trump off the hook.
If the truth be told, this is the Trump Lockdown Folly and ranks among the greatest blunders ever committed by a US President.
That's because even at this late date nearly four months into the resulting economic disaster:
there is no evidence that asymptomatic persons are transmitters of the virus,
there is powerful statistical evidence that 95 percent of the population can cope with the disease and recover if they do become
infected.
Yet, the twin pillars of Fauci's hare-brained social regimentation scheme assumes they very opposite: Namely, that healthy Americans
must be put under house arrest because they are silent spreaders and killers of their fellow citizens; and that the disease is so
virulent that its #1 enemy -- the powerful immune system of every healthy American -- cannot be trusted to do its job if the virus
is permitted to follow its natural course of contagion and eventual herd immunity.
As to the silent spreaders trope, here is how the very head of WHO's COVID-19 Task Force, Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, recently explained
that transmission of the virus from asymptomatic patients appears to be very rare:
It still seems to be rare that an asymptomatic person actually transmits onward to a secondary individual."
For crying out loud. That knocks the very rationale for stay-at-home orders to hundreds of millions of healthy citizens into a
cocked hat.
In a constitutional democracy, where the liberties and properties of citizens are protected by law, you need overwhelming proof
of an existential threat to society before ordering mass house arrests. But in this instance, the head of the WHO task force–the
agency that fomented the whole coronavirus hysteria in the first place–has said quite unequivocally: No cigar!
In a word, Dr. Fauci is peddling dangerous humbug under the banner of pseudo-science, and should have been shut-up and forced
into retirement long ago. The unfortunate truth, however, is that the Donald is too chicken to use the Fake "your fired" tool that
made him a short-lived TV star, if not a successful businessman.
His defenders, of course, mumble that his hands are tied because Fauci is a member of the legally protected Senior Executive Service
(SES). That's Jimmy Carter's gift to insubordinate bureaucracy, which your editor happily voted against back in the day -- but the
excuse is poppycock.
Under Federal law, Fauci can be fired if he is found to have engaged in --
misconduct, neglect of duty, malfeasance, or failure to accept a direct reassignment or to accompany a position in a transfer
of function", is or to be "less than successful [in his] executive performance.
If not "malfeasance", what would you call the absolute savaging of the livelihoods and life's work of tens of millions of American
workers and small businessmen for no good reason of state, which have resulted from Fauci's idiotic pronouncements and guidelines?
The thing is, after four months Fauci's blatherings and instructions to state and local authorities have fomented an outright
public Hysteria of biblical proportions.
It is not just that officialdom has closed restaurants and gyms via unconstitutional "takings" of their owners' properties. By
now, Fauci's Virus Patrol and its megaphones and misanthropes in the MSM have rendered large portions of the American public fearful
about leaving their own homes.
And, needless to say, they have also given the Donald's legions of rabid political enemies license to stage malign theatrics in
the name of Covid-fighting that would be unthinkable under any other circumstances.
For instance, it has now been announced that the school districts of Los Angeles and San Diego, which collectively serve nearly
one million students, will not have in-person teaching to start the school year.
But if you are conversant with any facts at all, you can only sputter: WTF!
There are nine million school age children in California, and not a single WITH-Covid death has occurred among them.
That's right. There have been 27,400 positive tests among these nine million kids, but all of them, positively all of them, have
been either asymptomatic or mildly ill -- as children are wont to become -- and have recovered.
Yet here is where America's growing fleet of clown cars comes in. It seems that the politicization has gone so far off the deep
end that the LA teachers union–35,000 strong -- is now taking the schools hostage for their own parochial ends.
They recently proclaimed that no schools should open in LA until there is a Charter School freeze; the police are defunded; Medicare-for-all
is adopted by the US Congress; new state taxes on the wealthy are enacted; and there is a Federal bailout of the LA school district.
You can't make this stuff up. And while they were taking the children hostage in the name of Covid-fighting, they also insisted
that the already dysfunctional schools of LA become completely pointless:
The union outlined numerous major provisions it says will be necessary to reopen schools again, including sequestering students
in small groups throughout the school day, providing students with masks and other forms of protective equipment, and re-designing
school layouts in order to facilitate 'social distancing.'
Of course, the latest outbursts of this kind of mindless social destruction has been fueled by the absolute mendacity of the Virus
Patrol and its MSM megaphones with respect to the so-called outbreak of new cases in the Sun Belt states.
But the whole brouhaha is a crock. There is no public health crisis in the so-called hot spots, as the up-to-date chart below
makes abundantly clear.
Yes, the 42-day trend of "new cases" has risen sharply in tandem with far more testing, and repeat testing of the same individuals
-- outcomes that were inherent in re-opening plans, which required employers to have their employees tested as a condition of operating.
But, alas, the death count trend in these 50 counties has not risen at all - except for the last few days when a lot of "catch-up"
data for earlier fatalities was thrown into the data hoppers by some of the counties involved.
That hasn't stopped the Covid-Howlers from proclaiming a phony medical crisis in Texas and elsewhere, with the same old tropes
about overflowing hospitals and strained ICU capacity in places like Houston.
But as the eagle-eyed maven of the corona-data, Alex Berenson, tweeted this AM, it's just a big fat lie. While CNN may have managed
to find one or two crowded facilities in the whole of the Houston-Harris county region of some 5 million souls, there are actually
still more than 2,500 empty hospital beds in the area.
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Here's the thing. The Virus Patrol has switched from the death count to the "case" count because the latter is not at the 3,000
per day predicted by the CDC in early May, and ballyhooed by the NYT and MSM as the leading edge of a horrid "second wave" coming
down the pike.
In fact, during July to date (thru the 14th), the daily WITH-Covid death count has averaged 613, or only one-fifth of the projected
June-July-August surge; and even that level is suspect, given the growing evidence that many local jurisdictions are doing retrospective
death audits to pad their case counts.
In any event, the readily available state-by-state data tells you all you need to know. This so-called Sun Belt wave of cases
is, indeed, the equivalent of the normal flu.
In the case of Florida, for instance, during the first 14 days of July, there have been 139,195 new cases reported, but only 4,322
new hospitalizations. So that means only 3.1 percent of this ballyhooed surge of cases was sick enough to even require hospitalization.
Needless to say, that's not a crisis; it's just one more part of the indictment against Fauci and his gang of malpracticing doctors.
They have put the anti-Trump press into a rabid feeding frenzy, and that coverage, in turn, has caused the American public to head
back into their Covid holes.
As it happened, three of the nation's largest banks reported their totally confected earnings for Q2 this AM, but the one thing
that stood out as meaningful was a collective $28 billion provision for future loan losses. That is, they see the massive wave of
defaults set in motion by Fauci's misbegotten Lockdown Nation strategy, and are getting prepared for the worst.
Meanwhile, the Fed's lunatic $3 trillion injection of liquidity into the canyons of Wall Street since the Lockdown Nation incepted
in mid-March continues to do its mischief, fueling a stock market bubble that gets more ludicrous (and dangerous) by the day.
We noted yesterday that during the Monday's great reversal on the stock market that Tesla had gained a "GM" ($38 billion) in the
morning spike, but lost a "BMW" ($42 billion) in the afternoon.
A timely piece by Bloomberg this AM helps explain how this kind of madness actually happened:
Almost 40,000 Robinhood accounts added shares of the automaker during a single fourhour span on Monday, according to website
Robintrack.net, which compiles data on the investing platform that's much beloved by day trading millennials.
The frenzy in interest means that as of the end of Monday's trading session, there are now roughly 457,000 users on the Robinhood
app that hold shares of the company in some form. That makes it the 10th-most popular stock on the platform, ahead of even Amazon.com
Inc., which is held by 358,000 users.
The one-day return may not have turned out so well. Tesla was up as much as 16 percent at one point before paring gains through
the day and finishing 3 percent lower. It was a rare losing day for the high flying stock, which has surged 56 percent over the
past 10 days.
So how did these mindless gamblers reason about a company that has never, ever made a four-quarter profit, and which reported
Q2 volumes well below last year, in coming to a peak valuation of $325 billion Monday morning?
Well, a sell-side analyst explained both that question, and the large fleet of clown cars now cruising up and down Wall Street
about as well as could be expected. Said this master of the crystal ball:
'At the current price, Tesla's stock reflects an expectation of 2030 volume of 5 million units, which is more than ten times
what the company appears on track to achieve this year,' Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas said.
Why, you don't say!
Then again, projecting EV car sales in the year 2030 is probably as good a use for Wall Street's clown car riders as any other.
Certainly, it would not dawn on them to ask whether a stock market held up by the Terrific Ten, and especially the FAANGs and
Microsoft, has anything at all to do with the dire state of the US economy.
It seems these trading sardines make up a quarter of the S&P 500 index by value, but just 8 percent of its composite revenues
and a mere 1 percent of jobs in the American workforce.
So, yes, the Acela Corridor has the clown cars coming and going - even as the stock bubble which will take down this whole fantasy
reaches its historic asymptote, as we will essay further in Part 3.
Nearly 71,000 Americans died from drug overdoses last year...
Soaring overdose deaths in the US have helped drag down average life expectancy for 3
straight years, and by the looks of it, No. 4 might be right around the corner.
play_arrow
sbin , 1 hour ago
St Floyd died of an overdose.
2 years of drug overdose killed as many Americans as plandemic.
Work for funeral homes many more overdose and suicide deaths 20 to 40 year olds than covid
+70 and most were already dead but still breathing and making nursing home money.
Lucius Quinctius , 1 hour ago
The Chinese have a legitimate grievance ,(actually several), with regards to the
deliberate introduction of opium into their country by the British, in the 1800 s,as a means
to repatriate sterling used to pay for tea .Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank,(HSBC),very central
to funding this traffic as well as a Jewish-British banking family, the Sassoons, originally
from Baghdad ,directly involved.The immiseration of millions of Chinese in opium addiction as
well as the failed Chinese attempt To free themselves from this in the Opium Wars has left
them bitter,rightfully.
So, introducing fentanyl to the west is payback. Two years ago I looked up on Alibaba ,out
of curiosity ,the cost , quantity and availability of a common antibiotic, Vancomycin. It was
amazing, at least 30 responses, producing in quantity, hundreds of kilograms, cheap ....,,you
want it when? The Chinese pharmaceutical production capacity is enormous. Fentanyl is no
problem to produce in huge quantity for these folks. They, in their minds, have reason to
send it our way. We are at war.
MerLynn , 1 hour ago
yes its a Bio Chemical War.... and all Bio Weapons come from the Barrel of a Needle
Sid Davis , 1 hour ago
If you are free, that means you can make good choices for yourself and bad ones, too.
When you are a slave on the big government run plantation we call the USA, pain from being
subjugated encourages escape, and since the underground market in drugs is one of the few
remaining free markets, you still have the freedom there to make bad choices.
It isn't much solace to those you leave behind that you managed to permanently escape your
pain.
Off topic, but yesterday on Newsmax network in the US the guest COMPLETELY ripped into
Gates and Fauci. Newsmax is a major conservative media outlet that has both a TV network and
website with millions of viewers/readers. You can watch it here: https://twitter.com/KarluskaP/status/1283315374025515008
"And when Fauci was telling the White House Coronavirus Task Force that there was only
anecdotal evidence in support of hydroxychloroquine to fight the virus, I confronted him with
scientific studies providing evidence of safety and efficacy. A recent Detroit hospital study
showed a 50% reduction in the mortality rate when
the medicine is used in early treatment.
Now Fauci says a falling
mortality rate doesn't matter when it is the single most important statistic to help guide
the pace of our economic reopening. The lower the mortality rate, the faster and more we can
open." Navarro in USA Today
-------------
"Laputa's population consists mainly of an educated elite, who are fond of mathematics,
astronomy , music and
technology, but fail to make practical use of their knowledge. Servants make up the rest of the
population.
The Laputans have mastered magnetic levitation. They also are very fond of astronomy, and
discovered two moons of Mars. (This is 151 years earlier than the
recognized
discovery of the two moons of Mars by Asaph Hall in 1877.) However, they are unable to
construct well-designed clothing or buildings, as they despise practical geometry as "vulgar
and mechanick". The houses are ill-built, lacking any right angles, [6] and
the clothes of Laputans, which are decorated with astrological symbols and musical figures, do
not fit, as they take measurements with instruments such as quadrants and a compass rather than with tape measures . [7] They
spend their time listening to the music of the spheres. They believe in astrology and worry
constantly that the sun will go out." wiki on Gullivers Travels.
--------------
Ah, I see it now! Dr. Fauci is a Laputan seer! He is devoid of any real comprehension or
respect for the ordinary humans trying to deal with actual pandemic problems rather than "the
music of the spheres."
Is he a Democratic Party operative? I doubt it. He is simply "out of it." pl
Fauci doesn't matter. Over the weekend the WH tried to strongarm parents to get on board
with school reopening. They are fucking with the wrong interest group.
There is a better, albeit a more difficult way to undermine Fauci. Educate the people that
this issue has vast economic consequences and we must factor in those consequences when
crafting an over-all policy. Fauci, I expect, will openly admit he is approaching the topic
from a purely medical perspective...which is exactly what he's supposed to be doing.
As is, Trump is leaves himself wide open to the obvious counter: Neither he nor his
economic adviser have any medical expertise.
"Tony Fauci has many, many vaccine patents and there's one vaccine patent that he has that
is a way of packaging a coronavirus with some other vaccine in a protein sheet and then
delivering it through a vaccine he somehow ended up owning that patent Tony Fauci will be
able to cash in . So Fauci's agency will collect half the royalties for that vaccine [related
to the coronavirus]."
"Sunderland co-founded the VC firm, known for making ambitious investments, after having
led program-related investments for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which provided
financial support to Moderna while she was there. Since 2010, Moderna has been working on
developing messenger RNA (mRNA) that allows the body's cells to act like reprogrammed
biological factories, producing antibodies needed to battle diseases, including viruses.
"The nice thing about big bets is that they play out over time. ... We made an investment
five years ago in Moderna, and mRNA was a big bet, and you see it playing out in terms of
their ability to get a rapid vaccine for Covid. ... You have to take those big bets,"
Sunderland said."
"The other thing that is amazing in its evolution is the amount that we've learned about
HIV pathogenesis, the reservoir, the potential for controlling the virus, either in the
absence of antiretroviral [treatment] or in a modified regimen that takes away the need to
have a single pill or multiple pills every single day. The thing that remains the holy grail
of unaccomplished goals is the development of a highly effective, safe vaccine. And that is
something that's not surprising because of the very special situation with HIV, that the body
-- as much as we study pathogenesis and understand it so incredibly well -- the body does not
make an adequate immune response against HIV, which is the reason why no one has yet
spontaneously cleared the virus by their immune system. And so what we need to do, and where
we're combination putting a lot of effort into, but also struggling with, is the issue of the
development of a vaccine that would be effective enough to be able to be deployed.
We have one situation that took place, well after that meeting in San Francisco, where a
trial of a candidate vaccine -- in a trial named RV 144 that took place in Thailand -- showed
a 31% efficacy, which gave us some great hints of correlates of immunity and are the basis
for a number of subsequent trials, but still was not good enough to deploy. So we have a
number of very large vaccine trials, going on now throughout the world, including a heavy
concentration in southern Africa. But we also are pursuing another line of vaccine research,
which is the attempt to present to the body, in the proper conformation with sequential
immunizations, the capability of making broadly neutralizing antibodies. And if we're
successful in that, then I think we have a really good chance of developing a vaccine that
would have an efficacy and safety profile good enough to actually deploy it."
I think over time mrna "vaccines" will change medicine. Are we opening Pandora's box?
Possibly.
Navarro wrote in the
op-ed for USA TODAY Tuesday that "Fauci has a good bedside manner with the public, but he
has been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on."
...
The White House's deputy chief of staff for communications, Dan Scavino, who has been by the
president's side since the 2016 campaign, on Sunday posted a cartoon on Facebook depicting
Fauci as a running faucet washing the U.S. economy down the drain.
"Sorry, Dr. Faucet! At least you know if I'm going to disagree with a colleague, such as
yourself, it's done publicly -- and not cowardly, behind journalists with leaks. See you
tomorrow!" Scavino wrote in a caption accompanying the cartoon.
>But media - and USA health officials - have been silent about long-term effects of
SARS-COV-2
I find it a very cruel irony that Fauci of all people is in charge of the virus
non-response. He was a boat-anchor at NIH during the initial response to the AIDS crisis. He
has been instrumental in wrecking the NIH research program for ME. For example, he kicked the
ME research program out of his institute in Oct 1999:
"Dr. Anthony Fauci, NIAID Director, met with the Dr. Harold Varmus, Director of NIH, and
concluded that CFS was more complex and activities should be relocated from a single NIH
institute." (CFSAC minutes Sept 2003)
The NIH research program has been in limbo ever since, subject to an unworkable
multi-institute something-or-other designed to make sure no one has authority or
responsibility to actually do something.
Fauci will soon be working overtime together with the UK psychobabblers to discredit
the personal reports of the COVID Longhaulers. They will be diagnosed with "stress" and given
a course of "computerized" CBT, which will tell them to ignore symptoms and carry on, until
they collapse.
When patients don't come back, doctors always assume they got better. Honest to god,
doctors have said that to me. It does not occur to them that patients get too sick to go to
the clinic, or they got tired of being fobbed off.
"... The study analyzed 2,541 patients hospitalized among the system's six hospitals between March 10 and May 2 and found 13% of those treated with hydroxychloroquine died while 26% of those who did not receive the drug died. ..."
"... Among all patients in the study, there was an overall in-hospital mortality rate of 18%, and many who died had underlying conditions that put them at greater risk, according to Henry Ford Health System. Globally, the mortality rate for hospitalized patients is between 10% and 30%, and it's 58% among those in the intensive care unit or on a ventilator." Detroit News ..."
"... A long "take down" of Fauci: https://www.unz.com/audio/kbarrett_ken-mccarthy-tony-fauci-is-corrupt-to-the-core/ ..."
"... This is not Fauci's first rodeo. He's been pumping hysteria for 36 years. He always gets it wrong. He was wrong about swine flu. He was wrong about bird flu. He was wrong about Zika. He was wrong about Ebola. He wildly exaggerated AIDS. And he always is wrong in the favor of pharmaceutical companies. And he's always wrong in favor of 'we've got to develop a vaccine now. We have to throw out all the rules. ..."
"... Observational studies are never the equivalent of double-blind randomized studies; but there can still provide important and fare more readily obtained early information about these connections and conditions. ..."
"... This stuff is hard. There are lots of variations in patient populations and treatment protocols. We have to consider doses, concomitant meds (such as azithromycin), patient status at time of treatment, age, and, comorbidities. ..."
"... the recently halted NIH trial was randomized, double-blinded; this was in a hospital setting. The prophylactic trial reported at the beginning of June in NEJM (author Boulware) was also randomized, double-blinded; this was in a prophylactic setting. ..."
"A Henry Ford Health System study shows the controversial anti-malaria drug
hydroxychloroquine helps lower the death rate of COVID-19 patients, the Detroit-based health
system said Thursday.
Officials with the Michigan health system said the study found the drug "significantly"
decreased the death rate of patients involved in the analysis.
The study analyzed 2,541 patients hospitalized among the system's six hospitals between
March 10 and May 2 and found 13% of those treated with hydroxychloroquine died while 26% of
those who did not receive the drug died.
Among all patients in the study, there was an overall in-hospital mortality rate of 18%, and
many who died had underlying conditions that put them at greater risk, according to Henry Ford
Health System. Globally, the mortality rate for hospitalized patients is between 10% and 30%,
and it's 58% among those in the intensive care unit or on a ventilator." Detroit News
There will be no accountability: The b-stards have set the standards.
https://www.bcazlaw.com/surgical-mishaps/ Medical malpractice is a legal term used to describe a medical professional's failing to
uphold the acceptable standard of care in a situation. Doctors must adhere to accepted
medical community standards concerning treatment methods and technique, and failing to
do so can leave them liable for any resulting damages.
https://www.lynchlawyers.com/blog/hospital-medical-malpractice/ When a patient is under a hospitals care, the facility must operate at a level that meets the
medical community's standards for treating patients. This means the hospital or its
staff members cannot cause the patient harm as a result of negligence.
https://www.fortheinjured.com/blog/common-medical-errors/ When a doctor or medical facility's
failure to meet these standards results in a
patient's injury or death, the at-fault party can be held liable for medical malpractice
.
https://biotech.law.lsu.edu/map/TheCommunityStandard.html The community standard is the older standard and reflects the traditional deference of the
law toward physicians. It is based on what physicians as a group do in a given circumstance.
The community standard requires that the patient be told what other physicians in the same
community would tell a patient in the same or similar circumstances. "Community" refers both
to the geographic community and to the specialty (intellectual community) of the
physician.
It'll be 37 years this year he's had the same job in the federal bureaucracy.
There are two million people getting a paycheck from the federal government as
employees. Who do you think the third highest paid employee in the entire federal
bureaucracy is? It's Tony Fauci.
So just to sum all this up: This is not Fauci's first rodeo. He's been pumping hysteria
for 36 years. He always gets it wrong. He was wrong about swine flu. He was wrong about
bird flu. He was wrong about Zika. He was wrong about Ebola. He wildly exaggerated AIDS.
And he always is wrong in the favor of pharmaceutical companies. And he's always wrong in
favor of 'we've got to develop a vaccine now. We have to throw out all the rules.
And his wife is Christine Grady, chief of the Department of Bioethics of the National
Institute of Health and the head of the section on Human Subject Research. She is the
person that makes decisions on what's ethical to do with human subjects. That's his
wife.
Uncharted research: areas where anti-malarial drugs are sold widely over the counter - in
malaria prone parts of the world - eg: Central America, SEA and Pacific Islands. How do their
covid rates relate to these specific localities (not just generalized country numbers), where
ongoing prophylactic sales of OTC anti-malaria drugs are most prevalent?
Why does the CDC travel and tourism website info still recommend taking anti-malarial
drugs, when the other hand of our deep state bureaucrats are screaming these drugs will kill
you?
Observational studies are never the equivalent of double-blind randomized studies; but
there can still provide important and fare more readily obtained early information about
these connections and conditions.
No comment/s needed perhaps. But deliciously anticipated. Here, from the Committee, and
especially from the MSM. Even if only silence. Because "silence is really violence" in this
case.
https://www.yourdailyshakespeare.com/2020/06/08/the-world-upside-down/ And here is an example, a reported 'case-study'. A prince of Persia had melancholia and
suffered from the delusion of being a cow. He would moo like a cow, crying "Kill me so that a
good stew may be made of my flesh," and would never eat anything. Avicenna was persuaded to
treat the case and sent a message to the patient, asking him to be happy as the butcher was
coming to slaughter him. The sick man rejoiced. When Avicenna approached the prince with a
knife in his hand, he asked, "Where is the cow so I may kill it."
The patient then mooed like a cow to indicate where he was. He was then laid on the ground
for slaughter. When Avicenna approached the patient pretending to slaughter him, he said,
"The cow is too lean and not ready to be killed. He must be fed properly and I will kill it
when it becomes healthy and fat. The patient was then offered food, which he ate eagerly and
gradually gained strength, got rid of his delusion, and was completely cured.
How relevant may be the Avicennian case study to the current dynamics of the pandemic I will
leave it to my possible and patient readers to decide.
Dr. Marc Siegel a medical correspondent for Foxnews told T. Carlson weeks ago that an
emergency treatment of this drug saved the life of his 96 year old father who was at the
point of death, cured him overnight in fact.
It is a fact that cancer drugs are not uniformly effective in all patients.
The causes must be sought in the genotypes of the patients.
The differential response as well as effectiveness are not reasons to discard a
therapy.
In further news on COVID-19 Treatments I have 2 items to report:
First one:
The 3-drug mixture of Azittomycin, Naproxen, and prednisolone (oral or injectable) have
been used successfully for reduction of the inflammation of respiratory system.
3 systematic trials have been undertaken and results were conclusive in expediting faster
recovery.
Second one:
Clinical trials in Iran (in Masih Daneshvari hospital) – indicated 100% cure of
COVID-19 in 20 patients using a combination of ReciGen and Cultera (sic?) which is an AIDS
drug.
A second group of patients – 152 – had a reduction in mortality of 20% as
compared to those who were only receiving Cultera (sic.?)
This stuff is hard. There are lots of variations in patient populations and treatment
protocols. We have to consider doses, concomitant meds (such as azithromycin), patient status
at time of treatment, age, and, comorbidities.
A big difference: the Ford study was not randomized, not double-blinded. They used a
statistical technique to try to make the groups comparable on factors believed to be
relevant, but this is after fact. (It's a nice technique, I've used it myself, but it doesn't
magically solve all of the difficulties of retrospective analysis.)
In contrast, the recently halted NIH trial was randomized, double-blinded; this was in a
hospital setting. The prophylactic trial reported at the beginning of June in NEJM (author
Boulware) was also randomized, double-blinded; this was in a prophylactic setting.
Hydroxychloroquine is the active ingredient in the tonic portion of gin and tonics, which
I've been drinking for prophylactic purposes since the pandemic began.
"... Alan MacLeod is a Staff Writer for MintPress News. After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent . He has also contributed to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting , The Guardian , Salon , The Grayzone , Jacobin Magazine , Common Dreams the American Herald Tribune and The Canary . ..."
alifornia-based pharmaceutical giant Gilead Sciences has
announced that a five-day course of its antiviral drug Remdesivir -- shown in tests to
effectively fight COVID-19 -- will cost $3,120 to Americans with health insurance and $2,340 to
those on Medicaid. Yet
research published in April calculated that the drug could be produced at a profit for as
little as $0.93 per day.
The study, led by Dr. Andrew Hill from the Department of Translational Medicine, University
of Liverpool, U.K., and published in the
Journal of Virus Eradication , found that a five-day course of lifesaving Remdesivir
could be mass-produced for less than the cost of a Subway sandwich. So cheap is the drug that
the saline solution and the syringe needed to administer it would be more costly.
MintPress spoke with Dr. Hill, who was dismayed by the company's announcement.
We are in a health emergency. We can't have a situation right now where people are unable
to access medicine because the prices are too high. Remdesivir is a drug that has had its
development costs paid for, in large part, by independent donors like governments and
ministries of health in China, the WHO, and the U.S. government. So why should a company be
making money in the middle of a pandemic by selling a drug which has largely been developed
independently of them?" he said.
News of the decision led to an explosion of public anger. "As Gilead charges $3,120 for its
COVID drug, Remdesivir, remember that the drug was developed with a $70,000,000 grant from the
federal government paid for by American taxpayers. Once again, Big Pharma is set to profit on
the people's dime," wrote former Secretary of Labor
Robert Reich. "This isn't healthcare. It's extortion," appeared to be the overwhelming sentiment
on social media.
Gilead itself, however, seemed not to share this sentiment. Indeed, its
press release on the subject positioned its decision as a selfless and magnanimous gesture
of corporate philanthropy. "We approached this with the aim of helping as many patients as
possible, as quickly as possible and in the most responsible way," said its CEO, Daniel O'Day,
adding that, "under normal circumstances" the company would have charged the public $12,000 per
patient.
"A new low"
Remdesivir is an intravenous antiviral drug that has been used to fight other coronaviruses
like SARS and MERS and has shown some effectiveness against Ebola. Although far from a miracle
treatment, studies have concluded that it aids
recovery, reducing the average hospital visit for COVID-19 patients from 15 days to 11 days
when compared to a placebo. Like with everything coronavirus-related, there is no absolute
scientific consensus. In late April, the WHO accidentally leaked a
Chinese study that suggested Remdesivir may not be as effective as Gilead claims it to be.
Nevertheless, the Trump administration has now bought
up the entire world's stock of the drug, effectively confiscating it and shutting out every
other country from the medicine.
"I've been working in medicine for 32 years and I have never seen anything like it. I've
never seen a country be that brazen. We have to work together. This could be a taste of the
future. They've tried to also do this with advanced orders of vaccines. Imagine if we had a 100
percent effective vaccine and it only went to Americans," Dr. Hill told MintPress
.
At the moment people don't quite understand the gravity of the decision that the American
government has made. This is a worldwide epidemic and we have got to remember that the
clinical trials of Remdesivir were not just conducted in the United States; they were
conducted around European and Chinese centers. Patients put themselves at risk to take part
in an experimental drug trial, and the gratitude we get as other countries after our people
were involved in these studies is to be shut out of the future supply of the drug?! It is
simply ethically unacceptable. I think there are serious questions to be answered. This is a
new low ground, unfortunately," he added.
Gilead has been under considerable public scrutiny of late. The company, which
announced profits of $5.4 billion last year, has increased its value by $15 billion since
the pandemic began. In December, MintPressreported
that it was being sued, accused of deliberately holding back a lifesaving HIV drug to extend
the profitability of their previous, inferior one. With shades of the Remdesivir announcement,
the drug is sold in Australia for $8 per month, but the company charges Americans around $2,000
for the same dosage. "Gilead has a long history of profiteering," said Dr. Hill. "Its CEO is a
billionaire and has been accused of tax avoidance; by keeping their intellectual property in
Ireland they avoided $10 billion in taxes in 2016 and they sell drugs for between 100 and 1,000
times the cost of production. And nobody is stopping them. I think this is a taste of things to
come if we don't have better controls on the pharmaceutical industry's excesses."
As of Wednesday morning, there have been 2.73 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the
United States, the six worst days for the virus in terms of infections all occurring in the
previous week.
Feature photo | A lab tech displays a package of the Remdesivir at the Eva Pharma Facility
in Cairo, Egypt June 29, 2020. Amr Abdallah | Reuters
Deaths from just *Pneumonia* from Feb1st to June20/20 =*119,174* Deaths from just Covid by
its self for same time period = 109,188 And for this time period 1,232,269 Deaths from all
causes. The numbers Fear game,obviously is being played up large by the DemoTards and we know
why! Funny how the Fake News,never speaks of this.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1113051/number-reported-deaths-from-covid-pneumonia-and-flu-us/
Arch_Stanton , 47 minutes ago
Fauci should have had his microphone taken away months ago. A testament to the power of
big pharma.
razorthin , 59 minutes ago
Little Fascist Koxucker.
"Please understand the people who have built this international order reject natural law,
so they do not like sovereign citizens. They do not believe people have inherent rights or
sacred liberties. Most frankly find God anathema and believe in no higher authority than
themselves and the heartless arithmetic they serve. So, while they have happily plundered
America of blood and treasure which we were foolish enough to provide in copious quantities,
they have no love or need of our nation or antiquated concepts such as those enshrined in the
Constitution and Bill of Rights. In their calculation, America needed to be taken down in
order to realize the global project, and as you see the first glimmers of a national effort
in opposition to that, a positive limited effort struggling to overcome the bureaucrats who
betray us all at every opportunity, it becomes clear the Left would rather collapse America
than see us oppose the new world without borders where everyone intermingles under a
controlling network of agencies. No guns, no resistance, no free speech, and no problems is
what they want. Only we stand in the way of the fulfillment of this Orwellian vision, and as
each day's hysteria on the news reveals, the powers that be are working overtime to push the
Left into revolt to topple America into a conflict that will remove us from prominence on the
world scene. Should they win, our rights are gone. Should they fail, the rest of the world
will have consolidated against us, save those few brave nations trying to fight themselves
free of the same entanglements that brought us low. This is where we are today, and it is one
hell of a dilemma for a person who cares about this country and our historic values. No
matter what we choose, any path but submission and surrender only leads to greater conflict,
so this makes us consider the first important question: What are we willing to fight to
preserve? Individuals and families will have to answer this question in the coming months and
years in a much more meaningful way than has been required in generations. The easy days are
coming to an end, and while the economy is booming and we're enjoying an Indian Summer for
our embattled nation, these questions will only become more pressing in the days ahead."
-- The Coming Civil War by Tom Kawczynski
nsurf9 , 1 hour ago
The nasolacrimal duct (also called the tear duct) carries tears from the lacrimal sac of
the eye into the nasal cavity. This virus seems to be able aerosol its particles more readily
than other viruses so as to spread its RNA/DNA in the air - as well as being normally
contracted through fluid droplets.
The eyes are large wet areas, perfect for collecting dust and viruses. If you're a part of
an at-risk demographic or just worried, make sure you cover you eyes. And, upon returning
home, I rinse the eyes out with water along with washing my hands.
Right now, I'm using some tight-fitting fishing glasses with my n99 mask, when I go into
stores or hi-density areas - but, looking for something better.
IvannaHumpalot , 1 hour ago
Rinsing your eyes wont help
yes you can get it through your eyes but that is very difficult via aerosol and
unlikely
far more likely is you touch a contaminated surface after some dirty person without a
facemask has been talking and breathing out their infected droplets earlier
those droplets fall to the surface and you touch it then touch your eyes, nose or
mouth
or you breathe in an infective dose by not wearing a mask to reduce viral load
exposure
or you walk it home on your shoes
IvannaHumpalot , 1 hour ago
Herd immunity at 80%
america has 328 million
That means 262 million must get infected for fantasy herd immunity
US infected is now at 2.7 million infected
let us be generous and say 10x havent been diagnosed but have it
so the US is at 27 million infected
27 out of 262 million
there goes the stupid herd immunity sham
Wear a facemask, avoid catching or spreading it
tranium , 1 hour ago
Dr. HOAX is spreading plandemic.
ZKnight , 1 hour ago
Does anyone even believe this sleazy little man who's corona predictions were 20x off?
He single handedly destroyed the economy and people's jobs over a false alarm all to try
and get his vaccine's in.
WhiteHose , 1 hour ago
Hes been wrong on everything since Jan!
hugin-o-munin , 1 hour ago
We applaud the approval of chemical sweeteners, fluoride, GMOs, antibiotic saturated meat
products and poultry, not to mention the continued use of Glyphosate on just about all food
products. Eat and drink your industrial sugar and chemicals. Now we need a global vaccine
schedule and license linked to passports to make sure everyone on the planet is inoculated
all the time before we can allow them to buy and sell. This is all done out of pure love and
care for all people.
/s
JamcaicanMeAfraid , 1 hour ago
Fauci's ego may start to encroach on the king of all egos, Barry Soreto
Peak Finance , 1 hour ago
This:
"tremendous burden" that the US health care system might face this fall if COVID-19 and
the flu are circulating at the same time.
This man is truly a fool and should be arrested.
Death rates and statistics do not work that way
This coming flu season is going to be the MILDEST EVER because of Covid, as, the people
that WOULD HAVE DIED this season have ALREADY PASSED
Similar to the "Demand-pull" concept in economics
Random ZH posters smarter than people in the upper reaches of government
Fauci and Redfield are complete pieces of s h i t. So much misdirection and lies.
RTP , 2 hours ago
Gallo + Fauci = AIDS swindle
Fauci + Gates = COVID-19 swindle
How much longer will this poisonous dwarf ruin the future of mankind?
k3g , 2 hours ago
Question in March: Doc, you've been a Director at NIH infectious disease unit for 36
years. You're our top virologist. You're in the spotlight, your moment to shine, to show why
we've paid your salary and bene's all these years, we're counting on you. First question:
should we wear masks, would that help?
A: Dunno. Have to study it.
Q: Well, if we want to wear masks, how to we get them? When will the gubmint release masks
from the billions it has in storage?
A: Dunno. Not sure if we have any masks. Have you tried Home Depot?
The government and the FED dumping TRILLIONS of dollars to all these corporations,
meanwhile they can't even provide FREE MASKS for everyone. If they really wanted to help,
they could have given everyone masks. That's how you could have helped prevent it. And MASKS
are expensive why not subsidized it, and maybe we would have this in control and are
re-opening sooner.
On Monday, Gilead disclosed its pricing plan for Gilead as it prepares to begin charging for
the drug at the beginning of next month (several international governments have already placed
orders). Given the high demand, thanks in part due to the breathless media coverage despite the
drug's still-questionable study data, Gilead apparently feels justified in charging $3,120 for
a patient getting the shorter, more common, treatment course, and $5,720 for the longer course
for more seriously ill patients. These are the prices for patients with commercial insurance in
the US, according to Gilead's official pricing plan.
As per usual, the price charged to those on government plans will be lower, and hospitals
will also receive a slight discount. Additionally, the US is the only developed country where
Gilead will charge two prices, according to Gilead CEO Daniel O'Day. In much of Europe and
Canada, governments negotiate drug prices directly with drugmakers (in the US, laws dictate
that drug makers must "discount" their drugs for Medicare and Medicaid plans).
But according to O'Day, the drug is priced "far below the value it brings" to the
health-care system.
However, we'd argue that this actually isn't true. Remdesivir was developed by Gilead to
treat Ebola, but the drug was never approved by the FDA for this use, which caused Gilead to
shelve the drug until COVID-19 presented another opportunity. Even before the first study had
finished, the company was already pushing propaganda about the promising nature of the drug.
Meanwhile, the CDC, WHO and other organizations were raising doubts about the effectiveness of
steroid medications.
Months later, the only study on the steroid dexomethasone, a cheap steroid that costs less
than $50 for a 100-dose regimen, has shown that dexomethasone is the only drug so far that has
proven effective at lowering COVID-19 related mortality. Remdesivir, despite the fact that it
has been tested in several high quality trials, has not.
So, why is the American government in partnership with Gilead still pushing this
questionable, and staggeringly expensive, medication on the public?
Nine News Perth
Nine News Perth
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I am not an ORSA (I can talk from my BS studies, and a few electives at grad level)
occasionally I used the USAF version usually A&AS contractors and/or FFRDC of you guys.
I would not talk models unless they showed the 'pedigree'.
I do not know your model, nor do I know how CDC or WHO validates or accredits a model
for CoV SAR-2 when there is little agreed to on CoV SAR 1 from 2003. Post Docs in
Universities.......?
NY metro, my home town and of 1/2 my grandkids', is "enjoying" very low new cases and
for a number of weeks has seen steeply declining hospitalizations and ICU demand. The dead
for NY state is well over 1500 per million, consider that during most of the shelter in
place the center of NY state cases was the NY metro area (say 12 million souls) more than
half NYS population in the shelter in place regime, you may disagree but I put dead for
million in NY metro closer to 2700 than NY states' 1500 in round numbers. Sweden is around
10 million.
NY metro failed at 'lock down', mass transit continued to operate, unlike Wuhan which
shut it all down. "Essential" workers travelled, came home often to multigenerational
homes, crowding and general breaking of the curfews denied most of the 'benefits' seen in
Peoples Republic of China and Taiwan, where if one tested positive you were put in a "Covid
hotel" totally out of 'circulation'.
Some ideas:
Estimates are that 20% of NY metro residents now have anti bodies, that is large number
of cases with none to minimal symptoms. That is the (not so) hardest observation to explain
what is happening in NY metro.
Another theory comes out of Italy is with social distancing many 'subjects' get a small
exposure to the virus and the subjects develop immunity. Another theory is 50 or so percent
of the population has sturdy T cell response and beats the virus. I think Italy's, along
with France and Spain, turn in the pandemic is a miracle! Thanks to Pope Francis.
Son with PhD theories, his words:
"Cell paper suggesting 40-60% of people have innate immunity ranging from cellular
response (lysozyme, TLR pathway, etc.) to cross-reactive T-cells. A pet theory of mine is
ACE2 receptor polymorphism as a possible factor; I saw an early Chinese paper suggesting
east Asians carried an ACE2 membrane domain very similar to that of bats, though have not
found much follow-up to that. Like with SARS-1, there will be many years of study and still
no good answers."
The above is from a dialog with his childhood friend, now an ER MD in a Massachusetts
hot spot, I used to take them to Boy Scouts 30 years ago.
I disagree with my son, the recent "success" in NY metro is a miracle: NY metro changed
nothing; kept the subways running but 'turned the corner' in a big way!
The Corruption of Science. The Hydroxychloroquine Lancet Study Scandal. Who Was Behind
It? Anthony Fauci's Intent To Block HCQ on Behalf of Big Pharma By Prof Michel Chossudovsky Global
Research, June 10, 2020 Global Research Region: USA Theme: Media Disinformation ,
Science and
Medicine
The Guardian has revealed the scandal behind the hydroxychloroquine study which was intent
on blocking HCQ as a cure for COVID-19. "Dozens of scientific papers co-authored by the chief
executive of the US tech company behind the Lancet hydroxychloroquine study scandal are now
being audited, including one that a scientific integrity expert claims contains images that
appear to have been digitally manipulated. The audit follows a Guardian investigation that
found the company, Surgisphere , used suspect data in major
scientific studies that were published and then retracted by world-leading medical journals,
including the Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine. .
several concerns were raised with respect to the veracity of the data and analyses
conducted by Surgisphere Corporation and its founder and our co-author, Sapan Desai, in our
publication. We launched an independent third-party peer review of Surgisphere As such, our
reviewers were not able to conduct an independent and private peer review and therefore
notified us of their withdrawal from the peer-review process
The study was allegedly based on data analysis of 96,032 patients hospitalized with COVID-19
between Dec 20, 2019, and April 14, 2020 from 671 hospitals Worldwide. The database, according
to the Guardian could not be verified. It was false.
"I did not do enough to ensure that the data source was appropriate for this use. For
that, and for all the disruptions – both directly and indirectly – I am truly
sorry."
CEO Dr. Sapan Desai took the blame. Who was behind him?
The Surgisphere Scientific Scam. Who was behind it? Who "commissioned" this Report?
Was the pharmaceutical industry and vaccine lobby group behind this initiative? The Lancet
acknowledges that the study received funding from the William Harvey Distinguished Chair in
Advanced Cardiovascular Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital which is held by Dr. Mandeep
Mehra. In this regard, it is worth noting that Brigham Health has a major contract with Big
Pharma's Gilead Sciences Inc , related to
the development of the Remdesivir drug for the treatment of COVID-19.
The Gilead-Brigham Health project was initiated in March 2020 .
Was the Surgisphere
study intended to provide a justification to block the use of HCQ, as recommended by Dr.
Anthony Fauci, advisor to president Trump? Upon reading the study (prior to its retraction),
"Dr Fauci, grinned as he told CNN that "the data shows hydroxychloroquine
is not an effective treatment "Referring to the Surgisphere report: "The scientific data is
really quite evident now about the lack of efficacy for it [HCQ]," said Dr. Fauci. (quoted by
CNN ).
Here is the CNN's authoritative assessment of Surgisphere's
report (prior to The Lancet's Retraction):
"Seriously ill Covid-19 patients who were treated with hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine
were more likely to die or develop dangerous irregular heart rhythms, according to a large
observational study [by Surgisphere] published Friday [May 22, 2020] in the medical journal
The
Lancet .
Dr. Anthony Fauci who is the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases (NIAID) , has from the very outset led the campaign against hydroxychloroquine
(largely on behalf of Big Pharma) invoking similar "scientific arguments" against HCQ, saying
categorically there was no cure to COVID-19, and the only solution was the vaccine.
The campaign to destroy hydroxychloroquine has been waged relentlessly, both by competitor
pharmaceutical companies and those who want to destroy the US economy to advance their
political agenda. It is shocking that it has cost hundreds of thousands of lives and billions
of taxpayer dollars. But although the corruption of science for political and/ or financial
gain has become a defining characteristic of our age, it is not a new story.
The publication of the Surgisphere study had an immediate impact: According to
the Guardian , "Surgisphere data led to global trials of hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19
being halted in May, because it appeared to show the drug increased deaths in Covid-19
patients".
"Higher Risks of Death" if you take HCQ, according to the study. In the days following the
fake Surgisphere Lancet report on May 22, several countries including Belgium, France, Italy,
acted to halt the use of hydroxychloroquine. The study had concluded patients taking the
anti-malaria drug had a higher risk of death than those who were not taking the medication
It is worth noting that prior to the conduct of the Surgisphere study, Dr. Fauci
stated categorically that the use of HCQ had not been studied in relation to the coronavirus.
"No proven drug": "Not Enough Known" . Nonsensical and false statements.
What Fauci failed to mention is that Chloroquine had been "studied" and tested fifteen years
ago by the CDC as a drug to be used against coronavirus infections. Chloroquine was used in
2002 and tested against SARS-1 coronavirus in a study under the auspices of the CDC published
in 2005 in the peer reviewed Virology Journal. The main conclusion of the article was that:
Chloroquine is a potent inhibitor of SARS coronavirus infection and spread. It was used in the
SARS-1 outbreak in 2002. It had the endorsement of the CDC.
The main author Dr. Martin J. Vincent together with several of his colleagues were
affiliated with the Special Pathogens Branch of the Atlanta based CDC together with co-authors
from a Montreal based partner research institution. The main conclusions of this study are that
Chloroquine is a tested drug and can be used for SARS-corona virus infections.
Dr. Anthony
Fauci has not put forth a treatment which could be applied against COVID-19. What he is saying
is that there is no treatment. And then he endorses the fake scientific study by Surgisphere
which was subsequently retracted by The Lancet. Lancet: the article was retracted
Dr. Anthony Fauci has been deliberately blocking a drug which was endorsed by the CDC 15
years ago for treatment of SARS-1 Coronavirus. More recently, it has been used extensively in a
number of countries in relation to the Coronavirus or SARS-COV-2 (COVID-19) outbreak. Whose
interests is he serving?
"The primary function of a mask is not to protect the person who wears it, but to protect the
other persons who are around.
Theaters are closed rooms in which people sit together for a longer time in often somewhat
sticky air. Like churches they are prime location for potential super-spreader events. One
infected person who does not wear a mask in a theater can infect many other attendants, even
if they do wear masks."
I am a bit more understanding of mandatory mask wearing on public transportation or retail
outlets. People don't have many choices to travel or shop so I go along with it.
However, going to a movie theater is a choice. I am a big believer in Freedom of Choice.
If you choose to attend a theater knowing in advance masks are not mandatory, thats your
choice. For a healthy person under 55 the risk of death or hospitalization from this virus is
not any greater than flu. Those are facts from CDC. If you want to protect your eyes from
viruses wear goggles.
I personally cant wear a mask for long periods because i feel oxygen deprived. Real or
imaginary I cant say, but I saw one study with surgeons where prolonged wearing of
surgical
Masks significantly reduced lung oxygen levels. Some medical conditions make mask wearing
dangerous. Oxygen is necessary to clear infection in the lungs and nasal passages so I am not
confident prolonged mask wearing might not increase the risk of infection or worsen an
existing infection. Sadly there are few useful studies. I guess not enough of a profit motive
to fund them.
Kay Fabe, "I am a bit more understanding of mandatory mask wearing on public transportation
or retail outlets...Masks significantly reduced lung oxygen levels."
Masks just need to stop droplets can be cloth based, they don't have to be super
impermeable but still only you can say what you consider comfortable. A movie is about 2 - 3
hrs of non-strenuous activity, I don't see how it is so different from wearing it on an
airplane, or long bus / train trip.
I heard a doctor make an interesting claim that contrary to popular belief, the air on a
passenger jet is very pure, highly filtered and blows downward and therefore very safe. It
makes me wonder about the air system in a theater, if it is good then AMC should lead with
that.
...Of course, if someone directly coughs in your face, then presumably you get hit with a
full load. That's why we maintain distance. But even the, the primary route will be through
the nose and mouth. It's also likely that a far bigger load goes through the nose and mouth
than the eyes, and it is speculated that the likelihood of infection depends on the viral
load.
In any event, I wear glasses, which likely provides a fair amount of protection from
random airborne virus particles.
...For the most part, however, the vast majority of persons who caught it appear to have
gotten it directly from being near an infectious person for at least ten minutes, inhaling
their breathing/talking/singing/yelling air, with a much smaller percentage getting it from
touching an infected surface (estimated at only ten percent of cases.) So getting it from
food is likely an even more distant probability.
That said, as I've said before, getting this thing is a crapshoot. It's a matter of
greater or lesser probabilities. As they say, "to play the odds, you have to know the odds."
So I take steps that would minimize my risk, but in the end there's only so much you can do.
I assume some people have caught it by wildly improbable methods.
It reminds me of the Marty Feldman skit decades ago. He goes to visit an insurance agent
and proceeds to drive the agent crazy by asking if the insurance being offered would protect
me from insanely unlikely events, such as "being struck by a meteorite whilst sunbathing at
the beach" or "falling into a pit filled with hedgehogs whilst playing cricket." Eventually
he asks if he is protected against an enraged insurance agent, whereupon the agent says,
"No!" and proceeds to strangle him.
Fauci clearly is a charlatan, a researcher who long ago became a politician and now cheats
like Pompeo. His mask wearng fiacto characterize him as a person who is unable to admin that he
was wrong. and admin the he lied in order to cover the shortage of masks for medical personnel
and complete unpreparedness of the country to the epidemic.
He also look like a boy who cried "wolf,wolf" way to many time, when no wolf was around.
This guy did absolutely nothing to understand and prepare for the epidemic from January to
Late March and then pushed for excessive measures like total quarantine. he should be fired for
incompetence. He is implicitly guilty for Ciumo idiotism in NY (horror hospital beds are running
out we need million of ventilators) and similar idiotism in NJ and other parts of the country,
which unnecessary closed businesses where wearing masks would suffice.
This charlatan never admitted his role in promotion of "gain of function" experiments and
financing them in Wuhan biolab.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the polarising director of the National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases, slammed everyday Americans for refusing to go along with 'authority' on
medical matters, and accused people of 'amazing denial' when it comes to 'truth'.
Speaking on a podcast called Learning Curve , produced by the Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS), Fauci charged that "unfortunately, there is a combination of an anti-science
bias that people are -- for reasons that sometimes are, you know, inconceivable and not
understandable -- they just don't believe science and they don't believe authority."
"So when they see someone up in the White House, which has an air of authority to it,
who's talking about science, that there are some people who just don't believe that -- and
that's unfortunate because, you know, science is truth, " Fauci asserted.
"It's amazing sometimes the denial there is, it's the same thing that gets people who are
anti-vaxxers , who don't want people to get vaccinated, even though the data clearly indicate
the safety of vaccines," Fauci proclaimed, adding "That's really a problem."
Fauci also has a long history of being the front man for a network of powerful Big Pharma
and Big Medicine interests, pushing vaccines
and medicines in a clear conflict of interest.
* * *
Following Fauci's blame-scaping the anti-science bias of (implicitly ignorant) Americans,
Thiel Capital MD Eric Weinstein unleashed a barrage of uncomfortable truths on Twitter
How dare this man.
Do you want to know why they are learning to hate scientists for real Dr Fauci?
Because your group lies about science & your ilk drove the truth telling scientists
out of their rightful places inside the institutions calling bullshit on your lying about
masks. pic.twitter.com/VJLTGT0GOe
Scientists like me who don't go along with cowards & crowds cannot disrupt your
group's lies because we are outside. Imagine if I was tweeting from the National Science
Foundation or MIT. It would be a national news story about how your cabal lies and degrades
faith in science: https://t.co/leYsCerG3o
"But you prattle on. We will one day find out later that you suspected all along that the
Wuhan BS-L 4 virology lab might well be involved, but that you didn't say so for this or that
political reason.
Because you aren't a scientist. You play one. You are an MD turned actor.
Even when I agree with the conclusions of your institutional pseudo science cabal, you
cheat to get to our shared conclusions on vaccines, viruses, climate, etc.
So you want people to believe in science again? Ok. Call-yourself-out. Admit that your
crowd **lied** about our masks.
And not to put too fine a point on it: your group is sitting in chairs reserved for people
who don't do what your cabal just did.
You just don't have what it takes sir. I'm sorry. But science isn't acting. It's not a
beauty pagent. It's not politics.
Science requires courage ."
y_arrow 1
Whoa Dammit , 2 minutes ago
Like the other many things that Mr.Fauci has gotten wrong, he fails to recognize the truth
that Americans don't believe him
Boing_Snap , 6 minutes ago
People don't believe Fauci, never been in the real world, vaccine patent holder,
TruthHunter , 6 minutes ago
Fauci, you're not a scientist. You're a politician...stop whining when you're treated like
one
JoePorkChop , 6 minutes ago
Are scientists and authority some incorruptible special breed? A very skeptical eye
towards any power structure is very neccesary, always.
artytom , 6 minutes ago
Good man Weinstein.
HowardBeale , 7 minutes ago
Is he phucking joking? Fauci has no idea what Fauci will say tomorrow...
SuperareDolo , 8 minutes ago
I don't know if it would surprise Fauci to know that the majority of epidemiologists are
among those he says, "Don't believe in science, or authority."
Combining those two terms is very telling. Science is skeptical empiricism, not belief.
It's kind of self-contradictory to believe in conclusions, since he's not talking about
belief in the validity of skeptical empiricism. He's talking about his authority, which he
wants people to believe in, because he's a scientist. That's technocracy, and nobody should
accept that.
diogi23 , 9 minutes ago
Fauci is the John Bolton of science. Why does Trump keep him around??
aelfheld , 6 minutes ago
Science is a process, not 'revealed wisdom'.
I d----d sure don't put much faith in scientists who try to speak ex cathedra .
ze_vodka , 11 minutes ago
I require evidence based reasoning to be presented for Science...
and
I require that those who seek to be called an "Authority" demonstrate the ability to lead
well with kindness and humility.
So...
I firmly reject arbitrary Totalitarianism... which is exactly what Fauci espouses and
proclaims.
Demystified , 12 minutes ago
Fauci is a medical MEATBALL, his credibility is in the toilet. A Flush is needed
urgently.
ze_vodka , 11 minutes ago
I require evidence based reasoning to be presented for Science...
and
I require that those who seek to be called an "Authority" demonstrate the ability to lead
well with kindness and humility.
So...
I firmly reject arbitrary Totalitarianism... which is exactly what Fauci espouses and
proclaims.
Demystified , 12 minutes ago
Fauci is a medical MEATBALL, his credibility is in the toilet. A Flush is needed
urgently.
YouThePeople , 13 minutes ago
Fauxi is a corrupted paid stooge...and a bad actor.
Slayer666 , 14 minutes ago
Old School Americans aren't very fond of blindly following authority. They/We have a
rebellious streak. That's why the globalists/NWO want to import a new, more docile
population. But if America falls, don't expect the rest of the world to remain the same. Yeah
I know a lot of people would welcome that, but don't be too sure that what comes into that
power vacuum wouldn't be way worse.
hugin-o-munin , 6 minutes ago
There is a big difference in allowing the US economy to fail and having the US fail. Two
different things. In fact I think the best remedy to the current hyper corrupt system is to
let the dollar implode. That removes these fvckers' power in a clean sweep move and then
something more genuine and honest can take its place.
Distant_Star , 15 minutes ago
What ********. I believe in Newton's laws of motion. I believe in the laws of
thermodynamics and many other scientific rules. I believe in the periodic table. I believe in
Avogadro's number and Boyle's Law.
I don't believe in the "China model" that Fauchi, the corrupt WHO, the inept CDC with
their flawed Chinese test kits and the progressive politicians worshipped from day 1. I don't
believe it was necessary to lock down whole populations. I don't believe in the political
jihad against hydroxychloriquine because Trump said it might have value, mounds of anecdotal
evidence supported its use, and many physicians endorse it.
I don't subscribe to the globalist horesehit from the Gates Foundation with his push for
undeveloped vaccines and quantum dots, and statements that, "we have to vaccinate 6 billion
people." I have contempt for craven people who demand that everyone else be locked down for
their benefit, and whine about how "We can never go back to the way it was. Boo-hoo."
I question the ever changing, often contradictory narrative on this virus. I heap scorn on
their wildly inaccurate models that caused this economic and social disaster. I call
horse**** on the "scientists" and progressive authoritarians who joyfully locked down
populations and businesses when it was not necessary. These same fools then remained totally
silent when thugs, demonstrators, looters, arsonists, anarchists and mobs filled the street
for a "higher cause." I condemn those such as the "hero" Andrew Cuomo who put infected people
into nursing homes where old and vulnerable people died by the thousands for no reason. I
guess that makes me and millions of others science "deniers." On the other hand, maybe
ordinary people know a ship of floundering fools when they see one, and express genuine
concern. You don't need scientific method to see a disaster in motion. Screw Fauchi.
theboxseat , 12 minutes ago
I believe in:
Fool me once shame on you...
Darn who can remember Dubya's version of this
LA_Goldbug , 11 minutes ago
He's busy looking for WMD with Colon Powell in Iraq. He'll be back in 50 yrs. because it
is there and he will not stop looking.
ken , 9 minutes ago
Lies, just remember the lies, and that stupid look on his face while he tells them.
hugin-o-munin , 5 minutes ago
“There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in
Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you
can't get fooled again.”
Rocbottom , 15 minutes ago
SCIENCE doesn’t say jack ****. SCIENTISTS do. And this “scientist” is a
PROPAGANDIST not a doctor. THAT IS WHY no one believes what he says. He’s a paid
liar.
SteveNYC , 18 minutes ago
Joke of the day "American don't believe authority"
Tony, WHAT DO YOU EXPECT? When you've been lied to, on a massive scale since 2001,
additional lies of which were put on steroids starting in 2016 - you'd be a FOOL to believe
"authority" or "EXPERTS" like you pal.
It's over.
k3g , 11 minutes ago
Lives Matter.
hugin-o-munin , 10 minutes ago
You must be a racist. :)
ken , 3 minutes ago
...not so much according to the Georgia Guidestones, the BMGF, U.S. Foreign Policy, and
the sacrificial babies used in blackmail to force it, by Israel.
sun tzu , 21 minutes ago
What science told the states in the northeast to send thousands of infected patients into
nursing homes?
Trezrek500 , 22 minutes ago
Science isn't about blind ideology.
B52Minot , 23 minutes ago
Faucci is nothing but a spoiled brat....and now he has a tantrum because Americans could
care less about what he says....why?? he wonders....Because Faucci has shown us the dark side
of science....how it can ruin you if you make the wrong decision about its true validity. If
we knew that the original estimate of deaths from COVID was a fraud Trump would never had
declared an emergency and agreed with a shut down....This entire COVID response has been one
big disaster....and a fraud with Faucci out there thinking he runs the place...
Time after time HE HAS BEEN WRONG..and his trust in the WHO and CHINA too has been
corrupted if not a fraud too...SO WHY IS HE STILL TRYING TO TELL US WHAT TO DO....Because he
thinks he is some sort of expert yet so flawed it oozes out of every pore...and NO ONE should
listen to him on anything. Just another crying kid having a tantrum....GO HOME and retire
Faucci...you really are worthless...and shut the hell up.
sun tzu , 24 minutes ago
Science is the truth, but scientists can and do lie.
BAMCIS , 24 minutes ago
Science has a PR problem. Mainly due to it only being accountable to itself and the fact
that for all it lofty aspirations, Science has not been able to achieve escape volatility
from the bounds of corruption that only Big Money can impose.
Plus Americans are culturally hard wired to view Science as an enemy. Luke, a dumb hick
farmer who used his faith and tenacity to destroy the crown jewel of the evil technocrats,
namely the Death Star. In most (if not all) James Bond movies the villains are mad scientists
or industrialists using science for "evil". In "The Hunger Games", Katniss Everdean is again
a bumpkin who wages war against the fancy people with their shiny tech in their decadent
cities. Its the Urban/Rural dichotomy. Same as it ever was.
bh2 , 27 minutes ago
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts." -- Feynman
vampirekiller , 29 minutes ago
No one believes a queertard that attempted to attribute a 100% preventable queer disease
confined to the queer population to the majority heterosexual population. No one believes a
queertard when current empirical data refutes his fearmongering.
Lux , 29 minutes ago
I'm still wondering why Fauci is even alive. Then again, the entire Pentagon is populated
by traitors with offshore bank accounts, so..
smacker , 33 minutes ago
Someone needs to tell Fauci the reason why people don't believe the science is because it
keeps changing and contradicts itself.
There is no centre of competence on this virus and conflicting advice, including from
him.
Voice-of-Reason , 35 minutes ago
Science originally said we didn't need masks and now we do. The problem I have with Mr
Fauci's form of science is that it is too easily manipulated by politics.
adr , 38 minutes ago
Hey Fauchole, is this science?
Upwards of 60% of people have natural immunity to Covid due to antibodies produced from
four or more common coronaviruses.
I reject your "science" and replace it with real research.
Well, yeah Dr. Fausti. We certainly did believe you. We didn't want to. But we are playing
along. You know like at work. And like living like free citizens in a supposedly free
country. By obliging you with shut-ins and shutdowns. And you terrorizing and bankrupting
millions. Yeah I think we played along. And had faith in government and science. Cuz you said
so. And would jail or punish those who did not. Take kids away. Send swat. Stuff like that.
Had bills to pay. Those bills just keep on coming. And the nerve of those people wanting to
like pay them! On time!
Government is only effective with the consent of the governed. You should know that. You
should also say something about how that was shown to be very selective enforcement. Cuz
riots or something. Do or don't matter? Confusing. They apparently can live of a billion
dollars from bank of America and starkbucks and Wal-Mart. Or just not pay their bills at all.
Or work. At a job. Where you have to show up on time, wear a mask and not burn **** down.
Stuff like that.
You are throwing a tantrum. Because everyone, not quite everyone. Still doesn't obey you.
Enough. To willingly line up for your vaccine. When it is ready. Of course. Seeing a little
scary times ahead for your authority. Who do you answer to Dr. Fausti? Are they getting a
little hot under your collar? Cuz science, right? Is what you most believe in. Not like
something else. And as long as we are here. Why do you work for Trump? Or more to the point.
Why does he employ you? Very confusing. Since he wants to maga. Supposedly.
Hal n back , 41 minutes ago
I wonder how he treats his subordinates who have different views
R2U2 , 40 minutes ago
Webster’s Dictionary, 1828:
JES'UITISM, noun
1. Cunning, deceit; hypocrisy; prevarication; deceptive practices to effect a purpose
"Two cankers are biting the very entrails of the United States today: the Romish and the
Mormon priests. Both are quietly at work to form a people of the most abject, ignorant and
fanatical slaves, who will recognize no other authority but their supreme pontiffs. Both are
aiming at the destruction of our schools, to raise themselves upon our ruins. Both shelter
themselves under our grand and holy principles of liberty of conscience, to destroy that very
liberty of conscience, and bind the world before their heavy and ignominious yoke.
The Mormon and the Jesuit priests are equally the uncompromising enemies of our
constitution and our laws; but the more dangerous of the two is the Jesuit—the Romish
priest, for he knows better how to conceal his hatred under the mask of friendship and public
good; he is better trained to commit the most cruel and diabolical deeds for the glory of
God.”
--Abraham Lincoln, 1864; "Fifty Years in the Church of Rome,” Charles Chiniquy,
1888.
The CIA is roughly half Mormon and half Roman Catholic.
Stan Smith , 43 minutes ago
The reason people don't trust institutions is because they fail us time and time
again.
All why sucking up resources for research (good) and making sure people inside the system
are taken care of (less good).
The more Fauci talks the more he sounds like Al Gore. Not a good thing.
Lying about masks was bad. But lying about HC + Zinc is worse, at least in my mind.
To be fair to Fauci, that industry isnt the only one filled with dishonest schiesters.
They are everywhere.
Institutions aren't trusted because they've earned the distrust over decades. It's well
earned.
Sid Davis , 46 minutes ago
Fauci is a complete fraud.
He graduated from medical school and then spent 2 years working in hospitals. That is the
extent of his medical experience. For the last 50 years he has been a bureaucrat. He
obviously has a conflict of interest because of his ties to the Gates Foundation, Big Pharma,
and the Wuhan Lab where this mess started.
This guy belongs at the end of a rope, not at the top of the response team to this
scamdemic.
He is a sociopathic conman, and not even very good at that.
Stillontheroad , 50 minutes ago
Hey Fucci. How much money to you stand to gain from all your patents, all granted when you
worked for the Federal Government but because you had friends in Congress a law was passed
giving you the proceeds from those patents when in the real world said patents belong to the
USA
Voice-of-Reason , 52 minutes ago
Mr. Fauci,
We believe science. We just don't believe governmental controlled shutdowns are the answer
to this pandemic and that it ultimately does more damage to the economy than it protects
people from Covid19. And yes, we do not believe authority because they lie constantly, are
corrupt and generally are incompetent.
Krink26 , 53 minutes ago
When authorities weaponized everything including science, for political gain, people will
not trust your authority.
VideoEng_NC , 53 minutes ago
"Speaking on a podcast..."
This is the level of media Fauci seems to be relegated to plus his ever-welcoming friends
for interviews with the MSM. Would appear Hungarian Pengos here on ZH was correct on his
05/21 post regarding the ulterior motives behind the announcement of Pence staffers getting
the Wuhan virus making Fauci self isolate...for good. He doesn't even get to bake tree
cookies.
Longdriver , 1 hour ago
Fauci's true colors are being shown now. He's getting testy because he is watching his
future personal profits go up in smoke in controlled vaccines.
DoctorFix , 1 hour ago
"Dont believe science"? Sure, Dr. Falsey! I believe in the "science" you represent. The
science of lies and criminal deception. The science of propaganda and manipulation. The kind
of sciences that you wholeheartedly embrace.
k3g , 1 hour ago
Fauci's turn came, and he proved himself to be incompetent, a bureaucrat, a fraud.
**** you Tony. You flat out suck.
What is The Hedge , 1 hour ago
What Fauci is really saying is that Americans are no longer accepting the false narratives
promoted by those in charge. Maybe there's hope.
Lumberjack , 1 hour ago
Mr. Fauci;
I’m your age and have a pretty strong background in engineering, science and some
other practical skills.
Over the last 30 years science has been bastardized by politicization and liberalism has
finally reached the point of teaching kids 2+3= anything they want.
Political science is based on fraud and bull$hit and now the real deal is as contaminated
as Fukushima.
Your comment about “authotity” screams of idiocracy. Try watering your crops
with gatorade and fertilizing with MDMA.
I know and knew real Phd’s who were real scientists and that’s when science
was based on theory, tests, duplication and verification.
That is no longer the case. It’s idiots like you, book smart field stupid (
I’m being kind with book smart), The only thing you a$$wipes are looking for is 10
minutes of fame, a bunch of money and molesting your interns and students with big boobs that
need a passing grade.
When as usual your astrological prognotications are bad (which are 99% of the time), you
find convenient parties to blame.
It’s time to put real science into both science and leadership.
I have high hopes that this will happen sooner rather than later.
Kid’s take note and see how many times they claimed eggs are bad for you and then
they said eggs are good for you. That goes for many other items and issues too.
Yesireebob, You screwed the pooch Mr. Fauci and I’m calling PETA right now.
Lj
NotAGenius , 1 hour ago
Why the hell does ZH give Fauci the incredibly dishonest cruel idiot any venue. He's a
liar and is the cause of the destruction of the USA by telling Trump we'd have a million
covid-19 deaths unless it was shut down and everyone stayed home. So Trump wiped out the
country and all of our lives on Fauci's b.s. That is what Fauci is, at best. Do not give him
any public platform to lie even more yet to the cowardly stupid clueless Americans. Fauci
does not deserve any recognition or platform for lies anywhere in the USA. But he's given the
stage because the government apparently supports his lies. They are all guilty of treason and
mass destruction of civilization. I want both executed at best, or at least humiliated with
public avoidance.
brian91145 , 1 hour ago
he is owned by the Rockefllers and Gates. That's a fact
radical-extremist , 1 hour ago
Scientists that can never bring themselves to say "I don't know." , are not
scientists...they're blathering charlatans pumping their brand and feeding their egos. Fauci
is much like Paul Krugman. He speaks with such confidence and certainty about everything,
that surely he must be right. And when proven wrong will do it again with the opposing view,
ignoring the fact he ever said it to begin with...as if there's no internet.
SurfingUSA , 1 hour ago
Yes true scientists are extremely humble and cautious, bec. they know how much they don't
know.
FragNasty , 1 hour ago
Hee hee, greatings to all.
Science is meant to be based on evidence rather than faith. Maybe Fauci himself doesn't
believe in science with his inclination to the contrary. "Americans don't believe ..." The
man is a maniac! Maybe he is accidentally confessing to the state of "science" as a
counterpart to religion in it's role as an ideological control mechanism within the state of
politics today, more precisely the breakdown of such a control mechanism.
Often is man's best wisdom to be silent , 1 hour ago
Marionettes can easily be transformed into hanged persons. The ropes are already
there.
Stanislaw Jerzy Lec
BaNNeD oN THe RuN , 1 hour ago
He is right...
Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political
and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is
just as good as your knowledge.
~ Isaac Asimov
But he is also one of the reasons that the anti-intellectual movement can maintain
momentum. Too many of the "authoritative voices" in positions of power are total
charlatans.
Itchy and Scratchy , 1 hour ago
This yap flappin’ freak show in on the board of Gates controlled WHO & various
other big pharma boards! His crooked snoot is buried so far into the cash flow trough it
ain’t even funny! Embezzlement poster child!
Handful of Dust , 1 hour ago
"Fauci the Fraud" will go down in history who will not remember him kindly.
Totally_Disillusioned , 1 hour ago
Fauci doesn't seem to understand WE DON'T BELIEVE HIM ANY LONGER!
SuperareDolo , 6 minutes ago
You never should have believed him. He was behind the attempt to steal credit for the
discovery of HIV by his underling, Gallo. There's a long story there.
Yog Soggoth , 1 hour ago
I believe Fauci gave the Wuhan lab $3.7 million.
We_The_People , 1 hour ago
That’s not entirely true, we just believe fraudulent agenda driven traitors like
you!
Fauci’s estimates were so off that the only 2 conclusions can be formed, gross
negligence or intentional deception, either way he has zero credibility left!
That's not entirely true, we just do not believe in fraudulent agenda driven traitors like
you!
Fauci's estimates were so off that the only 2 conclusions can be formed, gross negligence
or intentional deception, either way he has zero credibility left!
Locker up , 1 hour ago
I remember when the pandemic started Fauci said "Masks don't protect you and the front
line health workers need the masks for their protection". I think that statement caused him
to lose all credibility with the public. Fauci still sounds like he's drowning in mucus. They
should get a healthy honest scientist to talk to the public.
MsCreant , 1 hour ago
This guy should just step down.
He is now saying masks are good. They were not good when there was a shortage of them.
If he can't see the logic of why he is not trusted, he is incompetent. lay_arrow
Dumpster Elite , 1 hour ago
"How DARE you serfs and peasants question the authority and wisdom of your masters!!!
INSOLENCE!!!!"
Max UK , 1 hour ago
Yeah Fauci, nobody has done as much to destroy trust actually, as YOU!
NumberNone , 1 hour ago
There are 57 genders...is that the science we don't believe in? Asking for a friend.
Lt. Frank Drebin , 1 hour ago
What a jerk. This dude has Napoleon syndrome, i.e. only he is right, everyone else is
stupid.
Tarzan , 38 minutes ago
Fauci TEST ified that, although they are TEST ing more, there has been more positive TEST
s then before they were TEST ing more, and We're all crazy science deniers for recognizing
his inconsistent TEST imony.
We do still need to worry about the coronavirus's spread. But how can we when the experts
have completely forsaken our trust? Dr. Anthony Fauci (L), director of the National Institute
of Allergy and Infectious Diseases speaks next to Response coordinator for White House
Coronavirus Task Force Deborah Birx, during a meeting with US President Donald Trump and
Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards D-LA in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington,
DC on April 29, 2020. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Since the pandemic began, I've been described as a so-called "COVID warrior," which makes
some sense. After all, I've defended the shutdowns of large gatherings. I've insisted that it's
wise to temporarily close churches and postpone funerals and other ceremonies. I've argued that
extreme caution is necessary -- that to do anything else would be to blatantly and selfishly
ignore the
scientific information at our disposal. I've held the opinion that, although it has caused
irrevocable harm to the economy and caused millions of people to suffer, business owners
who close up shop for fear of spreading contagion are in the right.
Now I feel like a fool.
By no means am I a coronavirus denier -- more than 100,000
and counting have died from the COVID. But with conflicting reports about everything from
wearing masks to the
spread of the virus through surfaces coming out of the World Health Organization and the
CDC almost weekly, my head is spinning. Nothing seems to make sense anymore.
For fear of spreading the virus, health experts have consistently recommended shutting down
and avoiding public spaces, including
schools ,
playgrounds ,
public pools , and
public transportation . They've also advocated for
limiting large gatherings and closing anything that might draw crowds. It's advice that's
been repeated for months -- to the point that those ignoring it have been
reviled and accused of experimenting with "
human sacrifice ."
That's because asymptomatic carriers of the virus, though they may feel all right
themselves, can become
mass spreaders of the deadly contagion, especially in large groups. This is why Michigan
residents
protesting their state's lockdown in Lansing were deserving of shame -- they likely
caused mass immiseration and sickness, right?
Wrong. Turns out, health officials didn't really believe any of that.
Just last week, the WHO
announced that it's extremely rare for asymptomatic spreading of the coronavirus to occur.
If you feel fine, then you're probably not a grave threat to anyone, especially if you're
wearing a mask and gloves. Then the WHO backtracked on that statement, ultimately arriving at
the completely unhelpful determination that "
this is a major unknown ." Health experts simply don't know to what extent the disease is
transmitted by asymptomatic carriers -- yet they
still feel confident that the risks of the coronavirus shouldn't impact our protesting of
police brutality.
One rightly wonders how, within a span of weeks, we went from shaming people for being out
in the streets to shaming those who won't join the
crowd .
What's more,
contact with infected animals and surfaces is
unlikely to cause COVID-19 to spread, and
chlorine kills the virus upon contact, so clean pools are also safe. But of course, many
schools, playgrounds, pools, and businesses were forced to close.
Livelihoods have been destroyed, children are paying a
high price through a loss of time and key social-educational development, and mental health
across the country is on
the decline .
And now some journalists from prominent publications -- the same ones that have been
demanding oh-so-extreme caution -- are performing breathtaking gymnastics in an effort to
backtrack,
explaining that there's no evidence of outdoor coronavirus spread. Now, it's "prolonged
indoor close contact" that we have to worry about.
They may be right. Maybe protesters really shouldn't worry (though they probably
should ). But that doesn't excuse what seems to be a disgusting hypocrisy that trampled on
the livelihoods of more than
30 million Americans. Understandably, many are outraged and have
lost all faith in the experts.
Health advice can't shift with politics -- COVID-19, cancer, and the flu don't know party
lines. The virus is either unmanageable or manageable. That's it.
Now, with Trump
aiming to restart his so-called "MAGA rallies," we'll inevitably have -- and
already have had -- another round of tut-tutting from the media about how horribly
irresponsible it is to gather in crowds. But who can possibly blame those who shrug these
warnings off? MAGA rallies very well could spread COVID-19, but in the event they do, the
George Floyd protests will be equally culpable. Expert credibility has been lost.
Maybe we should, as many of my more classically liberal friends have been saying all along,
allow people to make their own choices, take their own risks, open their own businesses back
up, hold their own protests against injustice.
Whatever the case, given the whiplash the public has experienced over these past few weeks,
we certainly won't be running to health experts as readily as before. Certainly, social
distancing practices have
helped flatten the curve, but living your life based on the inconsistent messaging of the
WHO and the CDC is a recipe for disaster. If a second wave does appear, it will be cautious
individuals and community innovation that provides the solutions -- not those who have done
nothing to earn our trust.
Anthony DiMauro is a freelance writer based in New York City. His work has appeared
in The National Interest , Real Clear Media, and elsewhere. You can follow him on
Twitter @AnthonyMDiMauro.
Absolutely nothing about how the US has responded to the Corona Virus could be mistaken for being based on data. I mean getting
into the "spike" people are talking about, in Alabama where I live this is no spike, this is a continuation of the trend we've
been seeing since March. Cases never significantly declined, and instead we've just seen steady growth in deaths, active cases,
and new cases.
The increases we've seen have followed 2 weeks after what was basically the final wave to reopening (Which, really
isn't, but public perception was that life could go back to normal based on statements from the state), almost perfectly. I am
sure we'll see trends continue as protesters who were exposed start getting sick. It will just compound with the day to day effect
that can easily be directed at the miscommunication of what the threat is to the public.
Make no mistake, Saagar is right to be
annoyed but there is Nothing here that has been handled remotely well. Nobody communicated this well, nobody planned well, nobody
reopened well. Front to back, top to bottom this has been an embarrassing failure for the US.
Glenn Greenwald's video on the intercept about this was excellent. The medical and public health establishment need to be neutral,
people aren't going to trust them again.
Dave Chappelle pointed out in his latest standup that those we depend upon for information lie to us. CNN, Fox News and the
like are all meant to polarize the citizens. Obviously it has been working!
I had this discussion with my best friend in March. I was questioning how is it the masks can be useless for those trying to
prevent infections, but was efficient for those that had infection. Yet medical workers were using surgical masks while working
around covid patients. It was easy to conclude that it was to prevent panic buying. Even if the MSM was truthful (I do not condone
them lying), IMO people would have still bought out all of the masks. Just as they did with all the toilet paper and hand sanitizer.
The origin of this panic seems to have been a report from CNN on January 26 of an
alleged statement by China's health minister Ma Xiaowei that people who are (supposedly)
infected by the virus can infect others without themselves showing any symptoms of illness.
If that were true then you could be infected just by walking down the street -- clearly a
reason to panic. Ma didn't explain why he thought the virus can be spread before someone
has symptoms, but that didn't stop Dr. William Schaffner, a longtime adviser to the CDC,
from taking this claim seriously -- in effect endorsing it. Other CDC officials took up the
theme. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases picked up the ball and ran with it. Dr. Fauci is quoted as saying, "the Chinese
did not tell U.S. health authorities that the virus could spread before someone is
symptomatic", thus implicitly suggesting that indeed that was the case. This was denied by
epidemiologist Dr. Michael Osterholm, who stated, "I know of no evidence in 17 years of
working with coronaviruses ... where anyone has been found to be infectious during their
incubation period." On January 30 the New England Journal of Medicine published a
letter from 16 German doctors claiming that a symptomless Chinese woman (arriving from
China) had infected a German man in Munich, but when they got around to actually asking
her, she said that while in Munich she had in fact shown symptoms, which worsened on her
return to China. Thanks to CNN, Dr. Fauci,and the German doctors, the rumor of symptomless
transition morphed into "fact" among government officials and the general public. From then
on the MSM issued increasingly alarming reports of deaths due to this (allegedly) new
illness, ignoring the fact that people were (as usual) dying of the (not reported) seasonal
flu.
John Nolte: Dr.
Fauci Is Either a Liar or a Fraud And for a devastating exposé of the 36-year
career of this vile quack doctor see the final article in William Engdahl's Covid article
compilation
here .
In February, as Italy began reporting infections, Prof. Neil Ferguson, Head of the
Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology at Imperial College London, dusted off a
computer program he had written 15 years ago implementing a model for infectious disease
spreading. Using data available from Italy he concluded (following his history of vastly
over-estimating deaths in previous epidemics) that 510,000 people (2.5 million in the U.S.)
could die if the U.K. government didn't abandon its strategy at that time of allowing the
disease to spread. On February 23 in Italy the first lockdowns and compulsory "social
distancing" began. Early in March Britain also imposed lockdowns, later extended to the
entire U.K., despite the fact that Prof. Ferguson had revised his death toll estimate from
510,000 down to 20,000.
The term "lockdown" normally means keeping prisoners locked down in their cells,
typically following a riot. It was also used in the MSM following the Boston Marathon
Bombing in 2013 (likely a false flag) to confine people to their homes until given
permission to come out -- a trial run?
On March 7 one Dr. James Lawler (U. of University Medical Center) misinformed the world
(to the delight of the MSM) that about 96 million Americans could become infected with
coronavirus, of whom about half a million would die. On March 11 the WHO, after much delay,
declared COVID-19 a global pandemic. On March 15 New York mayor Bill de Blasio declared
(with no evidence) that the virus can spread rapidly through "close interactions," and
issued an order (which was soon after repeated by governors of many other states) to close
restaurants, bars and cafes. On March 16 most European countries imposed lockdowns and
border closures. On March 20 New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (along with governors of many
other states) shut down all "non-essential businesses", thereby depriving millions of
people of their jobs and their livelihoods, leading to bankruptcies and suicides. By March
30 approximately 265 million Americans were under indefinite lockdown and martial law in
all but name.
In late April a 'revised' version of the computer code written by Ferguson to predict
510,000 deaths in the U.K. was released to the GitHub code repository. It was examined
by an anonymous ex-Google software engineer, who found numerous flaws and bugs, in
particular that, from the same input data the program would produce very different outputs.
This makes it useless for scientific purposes, and also worse than useless as a basis for
political decisions (and consequently as a justification for government orders). Further
details at
Computer model that locked down the world turns out to be sh*tcode.
A
comment (by Frito) on Zero Hedge about Ferguson's shoddy code:
The thing that really has me pissed off, is that my government [the U.K.] (and many
others around the world), jumped in and spent hundreds of billions of dollars and
suspended the civil liberties of millions of people indefinitely and destroyed the
livelihoods of countless small business people based on just one unverified source [that
is, Ferguson]. There was ZERO due diligence done. The first thing that should have been
done was to require the production of the full source code for the simulation software
(as it was run, not this "cleaned up" stuff), and all input data so that it could be
verified. If they didn't want to provide it, then the simulation results should have been
discarded.
Ferguson's "scientific" advice was bogus, and Boris Johnson was criminally negligent in
accepting it and ordering the lockdown of the entire U.K. But will they ever see jail time
for wrecking the U.K. economy and ruining the lives of millions of people? No way.
The mask problem in the USA has a much simpler origin: the USA simply don't have the means to
give masks for everyone anymore. It is heavily deindustrialized.
The CDC actually advised against wearing masks until April 6, even though there were studies
showing that some types of home-made masks were 70% effective against molecules the size of
Corona. N95 were found to be 95% effective.
Wearing a mask helps with protecting oneself but even more importantly helps to protect
others. One might be carrying and spreading the disease without knowing it. We all release
fine droplets when we speak, sneeze or cough. Masks prevent one's droplets from spreading
out.
There was and still is a lot of cultural resistance in 'western' societies to wearing
masks even as it seem obvious that masks help to prevent infections. But while there was
evidence that masks work in certain situation there was no scientific research that
showed the effects general mask wearing would have on the growth of the epidemic. We did not
know how much general mask wearing would 'flatten the curve'.
We now have a sound answer. There is now a study that compares a city which ordered everyone to
wear masks with a similar city that had no 'mask-up' order during the same period of the
epidemic.
On April 6 the German city of Jena with a population of 110,000 people ordered everyone to
wear a mask in all public settings. The announcement of the order was made
a week earlier and was followed by a local awareness campaign - "Jena wears mask!"
No other city in Germany did this at the time. The states of Germany only ordered
mandatory mask wearing between April 22 and 26.
For 20 days Jena was different than the rest of the country but experienced the same
epidemic. That made it possible to test the effect the mask order had on the number of new
cases in Jena.
To be able to make a one to one comparison with Jena researchers from the University of
Mainz constructed a 'synthetic city' of the same size and demographic characteristics as Jena
from the weighted data of six other German cities (selected from a bigger pool). They then
compared the Covid-19 case data from Jena with the case data from the synthetic city.
At the beginning of the pandemic in Germany the synthetic city and Jena had similar
developments. But ten days after the announcement of the order and four days after its
mandatory implementation the case numbers in Jena dropped away from those of the comparison
city.
The people in Jena started to wear masks before other German cities did so. It nearly
immediately paid off.
At the time of the announcement of the mask campaign Jena and the synthetic control city
each had 93 cases. On April 6 Jena had 142 registered cases compared to 143 cases in the
synthetic control city. On April 26 Jena counted 158 cases and the synthetic control city had
205 cases. It shows a significant reduction in the growth of the epidemic.
The authors conclude:
We believe that the reduction in the growth rates of infections by 40% to 60% is our best
estimate of the effects of face masks.
...
We should also stress that 40 to 60% might still be a lower bound. The daily growth rates
in the number of infections when face masks were introduced was around 2 to 3%. These are
very low growth rates compared to the early days of the epidemic in Germany, where daily
growth rates also lay above 50%. One might therefore conjecture that the effects might have
been even greater if masks had been introduced earlier.
Japan and South Korea both brought the epidemic under control without ordering harsh
lockdowns. The people there all wore masks from very early on even without being ordered to
do so. The two countries also did extensive testing and contact tracing for each new case.
Together these measures were enough to stop the outbreak.
Why didn't we copy them?
It was 'western' arrogance that prevented our societies from learning from China and other
Asian societies. We should have used the time China had given us .
The economic and human price for not having done so is very high. No doubt the masks help in
preventing the spread when used properly, as well as gloves and distancing, but I wouldn't
put too much faith in any studies.
The lockdown approaches themselves may have done more, but even those vary in method from
one state to the next. Additionally, closing of borders to potential carriers from other
countries seems important, as well as the virulence of the particular strain. Then there
seems to be a massive divergence in counting and testing for the virus and recording virus
deaths.
There are a lot of variables to control for an reliable study. And I seriously doubt any
study has done so, particularly given the politicization of the crisis and the venal
opportunism of Big Pharma and its bought and paid for medical journals.
Western arrogance, sure, but is that the most important factor?
Since US peons live in a democracy, let's review the meeting minutes and memos and emails
of our dear leaders to see what their thinking was. Oh wait. There are no meeting minutes.
Everything is secret and opaque so as to not worry the pretty little heads of peons.
Guess we are once again reduced to speculation and gossip. Let the rumors begin.
I don't think the mask problem has anything to do with Western arrogance. Not at all.
The mask problem has a much simpler origin: the Western nations simply don't have the
means to give masks for everyone anymore. It is heavily deindustrialized.
Had they had mask manufacturing sectors at home, you bet your soul the Western governments
would be buying them at inflated prices (to enrich the local capitalist) and enforce their
use with an enthusiasm never seen before. A cultural shift towards daily mask use would
sprout overnight and no westerner would complain.
I know this because we have countless examples in History. The substitution of alcoholic
beverages for tea in industrial England. The creation of the leisure and entertainment
industries during the rise of Fordism. The invention of the concepts of infancy and
adolescence. Etc. etc. etc.
We observed the lack of masks crisis in the West immediately. The USA begun to intercept
ships loaded with masks (and ventilators) from China in Malaysia. Spain and France begun to
resort to Aliexpress test kits to have the quantity necessary and lost the money with subpar
masks and kits. Healthcare workers are without adequate PPE in the UK, USA and probably many
other Western countries (at least, I've never seen any Western doctor or nurse with nearly
the equipment of their Chinese counterparts).
The West's problem is called deindustrialization. Culture is always fixable - survival
generally being the best teacher. But lack of resources cannot be solved just with sheer
will.
Ergo amongst other things, your royal "we" also believed they could pin the deaths and
economic pain on Trump alone and then ride that all the way to an election victory on
November 3.
And now it has backfired/not gone as planned.
If journalists are worried about Covid-19 all over again, why don't they ask their beloved
Fauci why he didn't tell the rioters and looters to wear a face mask or "social distance"
during last week when they were all outside running amok and spreading Covid-19?
But he suddenly pops up this week and the fear mongering starts again... and the feeble
fall in line again lol
Anyway. Maybe Dr Fauci will give a press conference next week dressed in Kente
clothing....
I swear 2020 is like we are living in a simulation lol
The CDC actually advised against wearing masks until April 6, even though there were studies
showing that some types of home-made masks were 70% effective against molecules the size of
Corona. N95 were found to be 95% effective.
What stupidity!!! Who in his right mind would counsel against using a 75% effective mask,
when it was the only readily available option?!?
It's like counseling against wearing condoms because they're not 100% effective.
The virus has peaked in Germany a long time ago and in fact before the lockdown. By now, herd
immunity is reached, achieved by about half, or more, of the population not being susceptible
to this type of coronavirus. A fair amount, perhaps 60%, never were due to background
immunity from prior conoravirus infections, others have built it since, most of those without
realising as symptoms or rare and if occurring, mostly mild. The authorities can find as many
"cases" as they want, at any day they want, by adjusting testing activity. It's the most
easily manipulated number. Seeing our host trust precisely that number (and base a story on
it) from a government that has been persistently lying about this winter's flu, and has
broken the constitution multiple times to ram through the measures, is surprising.
Deaths from delayed surgeries and medical treatments are estimated up to 125,000 - in
Germany alone, suicides are already spiking. Abuse of children and women at home is at
alarming levels, doctors report injuries so severe as usually seen in car crashs.
The measures are nothing short of carefully planned (Event 201), premeditated mass
murder.
What about masks? Here a snapshot of the science on it:
On the effectiveness of masks
Regardless of the comparatively low lethality of Covid19 in the general population (see
above), there is still no scientific evidence for the effectiveness of masks in healthy and
asymptomatic people in everyday life.
A cross-country study by the University of East Anglia came to the conclusion that a mask
requirement was of no benefit and could even increase the risk of infection.
Two US professors and experts in respiratory and infection protection from the University
of Illinois explain in an essay that respiratory masks have no effect in everyday life,
neither as self-protection nor to protect third parties (so-called source control). The
widespread use of masks didn't prevent the outbreak in the Chinese city of Wuhan, either.
A study from April 2020 in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine came to the conclusion
that neither fabric masks nor surgical masks can prevent the spread of the Covid19 virus by
coughing.
An article in the New England Journal of Medicine from May 2020 also comes to the
conclusion that respiratory masks offer little or no protection in everyday life. The call
for a mask requirement is described as an "irrational fear reflex".
A May 2020 meta-study on pandemic influenza published by the U.S. CDC also found that
respirators had no effect.
The WHO moreover declared in June that truly "asymptomatic transmission" is in fact "very
rare", as data from numerous countries showed. Some of the few confirmed cases were due to
direct body contact, i.e. shaking hands or kissing.
In Austria, the mask requirement in retail and catering will be lifted again from
mid-June. A mask requirement was never introduced in Sweden because it "does not offer
additional protection for the population", as the health authority explained.
And we must remember what Nassim Taleb pointed out...even if your mask is only 30% effective,
if the person you're interacting with also has a mask which is only 30% effective, the
multiplicative properties of probability means the actual probability of neither of you
getting infected is much greater than 30%.
I ordered my first batch of ten masks from Aliexpress on April 4, followed by an order of
five more (expensive ones at $7 each) from LA Police Gear on April 6 and five more from LAPG
on April 14. So I have enough masks to rotate them daily for two weeks. So I don't have to
worry about washing them or whatever, per the advice of the guy who invented the filter who
said leaving a mask unused for at least 4-5 days should be sufficient to to enable any
collected virus particles to die.
As for the study, I'm not sure it is reliable, given the possible factors surrounding
entire cities. A "simulated city" just might not be accurate enough, especially when
referring to relatively low numbers of cases per city. It would be more persuasive if there
was a country that wore masks and one that didn't. But then we've already seen that: the US
versus any Asian country.
In my observations, most people are wearing masks, but they seem to be doing so rather
haphazardly. A lot of people wear them for a bit, then let them hang around their necks when
they get tired of the heat buildup inside the mask. I had to stop yesterday during a supply
run when my nose started running and I had to shift the mask off partly in order to deal with
that. That made me concerned coming close to my nose with a tissue, not knowing whether there
might be any virus particles on the plastic gloves covering my hands. Normally I don't touch
my face when out of my room, and once back in the room I immediately wash my hands, remove
the mask, then apply hand sanitizer. Interrupting that process did not make me happy.
A lot of people, especially blacks and the homeless, aren't wearing masks at all. The
homeless obviously have little ability to acquire them (at least manufactured ones), and a
certain number of lower-class blacks are seemingly oblivious to the risk, despite blacks
being hit harder than whites by the virus.
In fact, the nationwide decline in "the curve" of daily new cases, from a peak of 35,000 in
early April to around 20,000 in recent weeks, has been obfuscated by the fact that four
states with 40% of the nationwide case total -- New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and
Illinois -- experienced significant declines.
"That is hiding the fact that the majority of other states are either increasing their
numbers or fluctuating in fits and starts around a peak," says Mark Cameron, PhD, an
immunologist and medical researcher in the School of Medicine at Case Western Reserve
University in Ohio. "Our victory lap has started too quickly."
The nationwide curve was flattened thanks to stay-at-home orders and other preventive
measures, Cameron says. But rather than continuing to bend the curve down, as many other
countries have done, ours is on a "disappointing plateau," he says, a "slow burn" that's
putting seeds of the virus in every nook and cranny of the country.
That means the current wave of infections could be far from over, Cameron says. It might
simply persist at current daily case levels, or even possibly swell this summer and then,
if it recedes at all, roar back as a larger wave this fall.
..but: Despite this evidence, a group called "masks4all", which was founded by a "young
leader" of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Davos, is advocating worldwide mask requirements.
Several governments and the WHO appear to be responding to this campaign.
While for medical purposes it's a waste of time and resources (might even lead to
additional health problems), the masks are more likely to have a psychological or political
function ("muzzle" or "visible sign of obedience") and that wearing them frequently.
A few days ago, I was talking to someone for work, and they started ranting about how the
"whole coronavirus thing" is a conspiracy. How it's blown out of proportion and isn't any
worse than the seasonal flu. I inwardly rolled my eyes. Later that day, I mocked him while
talking to my wife.
But not so long ago, I was that guy. Sure, he's got to have his fact-resistance turned
up to a nine or ten to still be in denial at this point. But it would be hypocritical of me
to get too self-congratulatory.
(MSM actually reflects advice not too badly; plus, it is what the public saw.)
April 6. WHO publishes 'interim guidance.' PDF.
excerpt.
"Studies of human coronaviruses provide evidence that the use of a medical mask can
prevent the spread of infectious droplets from an infected person to someone else and
potential contamination of the environment by these droplets. There is limited evidence that
wearing a medical mask by healthy individuals in the households or among contacts of a sick
patient, or among attendees of mass gatherings may be beneficial as a preventive measure.
However, there is currently no evidence that wearing a mask (whether medical or other types)
by healthy persons in the wider community setting, including universal community masking, can
prevent them from infection with respiratory viruses, including COVID-19. .. Medical masks
should be reserved for health care workers. .The use of medical masks in the community may
create a false sense of security "
"synthetic control city": total bullshit. So many arbitrary parameters you can get any result
you like. Why not do a real comparison?
And: Japan had no "extensive testing and contact tracing" at all. In fact Japan had the
LEAST testing of all industrial countries. No testing, no panic, no problems.
Wuhan is using way more masks than Japan (also due to air pollution). How did that stop
the outbreak?? Not at all.
MoA has been consistently wrong with every aspect of this pandemic. Even worse, it totally
failed to recognize the huge political dimension.
Many states do not have the contact tracing capacity needed to reopen safely. At the
beginning of May, NPR created a map of states whose contact tracing forces met the need
estimated by public health officials, and the vast majority did not meet them. Some states
are working to increase their contact tracing capacity, but some experts interviewed by
STAT news cautioned that it's not enough.
Bottom line: The US botched the initial response by being too slow, and it is not botching
the re-opening. We can assume it will botch the second wave. Trump has already said there
will be no lockdown even for a second wave (not that it matters what he says now.)
It's like the old line: "Cheer up, things could be worse. So I cheered up, and sure
enough, things got worse." Well, I didn't bother "cheering up" in the first place. My
procedures to deal with this remain in place and will remain in place until there is 1) a
vaccine, or 2) an effective treatment that prevents death and severe long-term effects of
infection.
Thanks b! The study proves the obvious, IMO. The behavior exhibited by those inhabiting
Western nations proves the degree with which they care for themselves, their families, and
their neighbors in the most damning manner. Clearly collectivist societies will perform
better than individualist societies, all other things being equal.
Trailer Trash @2--
I beg to differ as there're two very good timelines documenting TrumpCo actions in the run
up to the outbreak that proves beyond reasonable doubt that the policy employed was a
Treasonous Do Nothing Policy that runs totally against the rationale for the Constitution and
the government it established--the very instrument Trump swore to obey and uphold. I've
incorporated both into the essay I'm currently writing.
This one compiled by Raw Story is the more detailed of the two as this example
shows:
"On February 1, 2018, the Washington Post reported that 'CDC to cut by 80 percent efforts
to prevent global disease outbreak' (6): 'The global health section of the CDC was so
drastically cut in 2018 that much of its staff was laid off (7) and the number of countries
it was working in was reduced from 49 to merely 10. (8) Meanwhile, throughout 2018, the U.S.
Agency for International Development and its director, Mark Green, came repeatedly under fire
from both the White House and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. (9) And though Congress has so
far managed to block Trump administration plans to cut the U.S. Public Health Service
Commissioned Corps by 40 percent (10), the disease-fighting cadres have steadily eroded as
retiring officers go unreplaced.'"
And as you see from the date, that was just the beginning of the dismantling of what was
erected to "provide for the common defence."
Posted by: poor moa | Jun 11 2020 20:47 utc | 14 Wuhan is using way more masks than Japan
(also due to air pollution). How did that stop the outbreak?? Not at all.
When the outbreak started, Wuhan hospitals were not using KN95 - they were using surgical
masks. Thousands of medical personnel were infected.
When the Chinese government brought in scores of thousands of additional medical
personnel, they wore KN95 masks. None were infected.
Actually, the "study" you cite (it's not published anyway) refutes itself right away. They
say all German cities introduced masks between April 20 and 29. Then why did cases not drop
to zero as they claim for Jena? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_pandemic_in_Germany
Cases in Arizona are up 240% in last two weeks and hospitalizations are up 77% this past
month, 31% this week alone. The positive rate for Covid-19 testing is increasing. That's
not a great combination.
The largest hospital system in the state has been ringing the alarm. That they are
running short of ICU capacity. Loudly.
Meanwhile, other states and Puerto Rico have had their largest number of daily cases since
this started, according to the Washington Post.
Yet we still have idiots proclaiming their bullshit here. b is going to have to do a lot
of "cleansing" today.
Maria Van Kerkhove, PhD, the World Health Organization's technical lead for the coronavirus
response and head of the emerging diseases and zoonoses unit, clarified that when she said
asymptomatic spread was "very rare" on Monday, that she was answering a question asked in a
presser, and not sharing an official WHO policy or statement.
She added that some modeling groups have estimated that 40% of transmission may be due
to asymptomatic spread, but that is a mathematical modeling estimate and a definitive
answer is still unknown, in part because data from contact tracing studies remains
limited.
It's important to note that asymptomatic people who never exhibit signs of Covid-19 are
different from pre-symptomatic people who initially don't have symptoms but develop them
later. It's difficult, from a research standpoint, to tease these two groups apart.
Masks are fine. They build confidence when people are threatened with an awful death and
where 'experts' give conficting advice. They are personaly empowering. Wear one now.
The WHO is not looking good.
The Lancet and NEJM are trashed.
The China response was a brilliant example to the world.
The mask is a mighty useful response.
Sunlight is wonderful.
Alright, on page 28 in annex C they compare the effect of masks in other German cities, and
found no effect. In some cities infections got even worse after introducing masks. It is
clear Jena is a special case, perhaps they stopped testing or people stopped interacting or
whatever.
The study is another fraud, and Moa once again fell for it. What a shame. I'm sure he
didn't even read until page 28.
I hope you won't delete my comments, everybody should decide for themselves if this study
has any merit.
The WHO stated the obvious: the vast majority of people remain asymptomatic, and asymptomatic
people don't spread the virus (which is why children don't spread the virus). Pre-symptomatic
is possible if you get really close, but this is true for common cold as well.
So what paranoid folks like you really need to show is if mandatory mask is any better
than masks only for sick people or sick people simply staying home. Hint: it isn't.
Quote from the "study": "In addition to Jena, we test for treatment effects in Nordhausen,
Rottweil, Main-Kinzig-Kreis, and Wolfsburg (compare Figure 1). --- As the figure shows, the
result is 2:1:1. Rottweil and Wolfsburg display a positive effect of mandatory mask wearing,
just as Jena. The results in Nordhausen are very small or unclear. In the region of
Main-Kinzig, it even seems to be the case that masks increased the number of cases relative
to the synthetic control group. " (page 28)
So obviously, masks aren't important at all. Other factors are at play.
I blame it on the communists - Jena is in what was formerly East Germany and the inhabitants
of Jena are still oppressed by their communist upbringing. Communism in Jena must be rooted
out and the German citizens of Jena must be free to die from COVID-19 just like the
freedom-loving morons in the good old U S of A, y'all. Yee haw. USA! USA! USA! Would you go
all the way for the U.S.A?
He intentionally broke the moratorium on the gain of function research studies and then
paid 3.7 million to china's virology lab in Wuhan to continue it. Where did this pandemic
start from again? He is guilty and should be thrown into a pit.
And Dr. Faucci is still lieing when he says that he didn't realize that it was so
transmittable early on because he was heavily invested in the Wuhan Lab for a long time
before the outbreak! And heavily invested in the WHO at the same time!
The only issue that I see is that Dr. Fauci wasn't lied too by the W.H.O. He was in full
know of what was going on and because of his role in the research in China, he went along
with the the guidelines the W.H.O. Its all a cover up and Dr. Fauci needs to be investigated
as well.
He was told in USA to stop developing covid 19 in the USA So.... he paid to send the
unfinished virus to China And they finished the job. Research & let me know if this isn't
the truth . If it is true find out why he did & then before you cut off his head for
treason inject him with vaccines he developed & leave for 1 year & watch results
Fauci is entirely too elderly (and out of experience) to be making judgement calls for the
entire country. One man alone should not be making decisions as he is doing.
"... The purpose of the mask is that if the wearer has the virus and is a carrier, the mask protects others from that carrier. The person infected wearing a mask coughs, splutters, sneezes into the mask which captures most of virus and reduces its spread to other people. ..."
The thing about masks is not that it protects the wearer, of
course, it does not protect the wearer, especially with the extra fiddling that Fauci
alludes to.
The purpose of the mask is that if the wearer has the virus and is a carrier, the mask
protects others from that carrier. The person infected wearing a mask coughs, splutters,
sneezes into the mask which captures most of virus and reduces its spread to other
people.
Hospital staff have traditionally worn masks to protect patients, who may have a poor
immune system, from any illness that the doctor/nurse may be carrying.
I have done lots of travelling over the past few months, and
have not seen one person coughing or sneezing. Fauci said very clearly that people should
not be wearing masks. If someone thinks they are infected with a virus, they should not
being going out in public.
Reply
Because I completely blocked out mainstream media when the
quarantine started, this is actually the first time I've heard Fauci speak he reminds me of
Mel Brooks or of some bad actor in a bad sit-com he doesn't seem that smart is he smart?
Big news in CA is that "Grinning" Gavin Newsom is on the verge of being sued by the
PROFESSIONAL BEAUTY FEDERATION OF CA a coalition of tens of thousands of nail salons who
feel that Newsom is treating them unfairly on top of that, 80% of CA nail salons are
operated by Vietnamese immigrants, who are among the most patriotic individuals in America
the groundswell against Newsom is finally palpable
If journalists are worried about Covid-19 all over again, why don't they ask their beloved
Fauci why he didn't tell the rioters and looters to wear a face mask or "social distance"
during last week when they were all outside running amok and spreading Covid-19?
But he suddenly pops up this week and the fear mongering starts again... and the feeble
fall in line again lol
Anyway. Maybe Dr Fauci will give a press conference next week dressed in Kente
clothing....
I swear 2020 is like we are living in a simulation lol
"The top teams rushing to develop coronavirus vaccines are alerting governments, health
officials and shareholders that they may have a big problem : The outbreaks in their countries
may be getting too small to quickly determine whether vaccines work
A leader of the Oxford University group, one of the furthest ahead with human trials, admits
the reality is paradoxical, even "bizarre," but said the declining numbers of new infections
this summer could be one of the big hurdles vaccine developers face in the global race to beat
down the virus.
Even as new cases are growing worldwide, transmission rates are falling in Britain, China
and many of the hardest-hit regions in the United States -- the three countries that have
experimental vaccines ready to move into large-scale human testing in June, July and August."
Washpost
---------------
Well, pilgrims it would seem that the Post staff does not see the irony in their own
writing, or perhaps they do. There have been scattered evidences of rationality there lately.
Even as Democrat governors and mayors across the country drag their feet on the re-opening of
the American economy, infection rates are falling. In the Faucibirxist view of things
everything depends on vaccine development (or herd immunity post holocaust). But, alas there
just aren't enough new, vibrant infections to make development of the vaccines convenient. What
will happen to the flow of government money to these projects if this phenomenon becomes
general knowledge. Someone at the Post should be disciplined for this indiscretion. pl
"What will happen to the flow of government money to these projects if this phenomenon
becomes general knowledge."
Well Fauci is almost 80 so I think he's set for life. I hear the left wants lots of
redevelopment funds and jobs programs, with the attendant opportunities for graft that comes
with them, for thier cities which we are all assured had neither rioting nor looting.
Thank you Col. Lang for all the posts on novel coronavirus.
For shining light on this, this utter failure by the medical community and their various
and sundry enablers in government and in business.
On these liars and charlatans and killers and criminals.
The video below is about an hour long. It is a nurse, who worked in NYC hospital, the
alleged epi center of epi centers.
She basically says, without saying directly, but points to the fact that doctors were
murdering patients there, it seems.
She paints a picture of doctors not as scientists but as zealots, as neo neanderthals, as
craven monsters, who care not about life, the elderly, the sick, the least among us.
As Nurse Ratchets
Towards the end of video, she recounts her last day at this hospital, discussing a patient
she had nursed for many days, and who was doing fine, making progress, . . . and how she was
removed from his bed on direct orders, sent to the ER where she was not assigned, and 20
minutes later, the man she was caring for is dead.
These sorts of stories abound; this rage is not going away anytime soon. This is the rage,
and what caused it, that our "lords and masters" who censor us and tell us black is white,
and want to destroy our country. . . this is the rage they don't want to see expressed and
exposed. Will they get their way?
Well...they can always test their vaccines in the USA. We seem not to be faring as well and
can help out. (I believe this is a glass half-full moment.)
Trump needs to stop the $600 a week federal bonus to the unemployed. My neighbor told me
about how his daughter-in-law worked one day a week as a barmaid before the virus shut the
bar down and made a little over a hundred a week. Oregon unemployment pays her 150 a week and
with the added 600 she now makes over 7 times what she did working. How many protesters and
rioters are just as flush getting paid to party in the street? Most i'd say. That makes these
government funded protests a powerful voice and recruitment tool for the Democratic Party.
Ending the federal subsidy to the unemployed would reduce, if not stop, the demonstrations
and mau-mauing of the country.
Absolutely. There were howls of protests before Minneapolis when Georgia, Florida and
Texas started tellling people that if they recieved a recall to work notice from an employer
and refused to go they would be considered a voluntary quit and no longer eligable for
unemployment insurance payments. They'll howl again when they figure out this is all taxable
income.
Take everything the WaPo claims with a grain of salt. There is no real worry over lower covid
infections. What made Covid decrease was the lockdowns. Remove the lockdowns and covid
infection rates will climb, as we are seeing in the already reopened states.
Then when fall rolls around, and people are stuck indoors again, rates will skyrocket.
There will be plenty of test subjects for a vaccine.
With the spread rate of the coronavirus, any outbreak of the infection will peter out once
the total immunity rate of the population approaches 65-70 percent.
In Bergamo (Italy), 57 percent a population sample have tested positive for coronavirus
antibodies, which means that they must have had the infection before and are now most likely
immune.
If you are a Karen, then don't listen to me, but take it from the German government's very
own propaganda outlet, Deutsche Welle:
"Out of nearly 10,000 Bergamo residents who had their blood tested between April 23 and
June 3, 57% had antibodies, indicating they had come into contact with the virus and
developed an immune response.
Health authorities said the sample size was 'sufficiently broad' to be a reliable
indicator of the presence of SARS-CoV-2 among Bergamo province's population."
So we had two major pandemic exercises last year projecting almost exactly what did happen
with the corona virus. First was Crimson Contagion Jan thru Aug 2019
Then Event 201 the international war gaming of a global pandemic almost exactly like what
happened which took place only months before the real pandemic on October 2019
Another prediction from Fauci. This "Black Lives Matter" vs coronavirus puzzle will unfold in
14 days from now. In any case quarantine was send into the dust bin.
Some protesters might pay the price for Dem Party sponsored protests
Fauci, who sits on the White House Coronavirus Task Force, says he finds the protests across
the nation "very concerning" and a "perfect recipe" for a surge in Covid-19
cases.
"... The British scientist known as Professor Lockdown has undermined the draconian policy he unleashed on the world by confessing that Britain hasn't fared any better in tackling the disease than the laid-back Scandis. Professor Neil Ferguson probably woke up this morning breathing a massive sigh of relief because he hadn't been ripped to shreds again in the British newspapers for this second time in just under a month – this time over his startling admission that there has been no significant difference in the levels of Covid-19 suppression when comparing the UK and Sweden. ..."
"... In other words, in the type of roundabout waffling way you'd expect from a bumbling boffin, the scientist – dubbed 'Professor Lockdown' after he cajoled Boris Johnson into bringing the British economy to a screeching halt – reckons Sweden has essentially coped very well without being forced into any draconian lockdown, thank you very much. ..."
"... At the moment, the biggest accusation they could face is needlessly making a hames (for those of you who aren't Irish, this means a 'big mess') of the economy. Even Sweden's state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell has since said that, while he regrets not implanting stricter measures to stop the spread of Covid-19, he "still would not have gone as far as other European countries did." ..."
"... He might've been dubbed "Dr Strangelove" after that embarrassing slip up – but now he just comes across as a nutty professor after his latest confession. These strong words might just come back to haunt BoJo when he next goes before the electorate. With a crippled economy thanks to the draconian measures, he's going to find the next election will be all about his mishandling of Covid-19, and specifically, "the economy, stupid." ..."
The British scientist known as Professor Lockdown has undermined the draconian policy he unleashed on
the world by confessing that Britain hasn't fared any better in tackling the disease than the
laid-back Scandis.
Professor Neil Ferguson probably woke up this morning breathing a massive sigh of relief because he
hadn't been ripped to shreds again in the British newspapers for this second time in just under a
month – this time over his startling admission that there has been no significant difference in the
levels of Covid-19 suppression when comparing the UK and Sweden.
During his
evidence
to the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee on Tuesday, he said:
"They
[Swedish scientists] came to a different policy conclusion based really on quite similar science. I
don't agree with it but scientifically they're not far from scientists in any part of the world."
He then acknowledged that the Swedish authorities had
"got a long way to the same effect"
without a full lockdown.
In other words, in the type of roundabout waffling way you'd expect from a bumbling boffin, the
scientist – dubbed 'Professor Lockdown' after he cajoled Boris Johnson into bringing the British
economy to a screeching halt – reckons Sweden has essentially coped very well without being forced
into any draconian lockdown, thank you very much.
So where was the indignation about how his recommendations f**ked up the economy and made people
prisoners in their own homes? It certainly wasn't to be seen splashed across any British front pages.
Indeed, it was hard enough to find much, if any, coverage of this very significant news story on
Wednesday.
It was buried inside the Daily Telegraph on page seven, running across a third of a page or less,
with a very accurate subheading
stating
in clear black and white:
"Professor admits radical Scandinavian policy worked as well
as British policy of shutting down."
The
evidence
from the two countries' differing approaches has left the professor with little escape
route. UK (full lockdown/businesses shut down): 579 Covid-19 deaths per million of population. Sweden
(softer restrictions/businesses kept open): 442 deaths per million.
But why make such a startling confession now, when he could have wriggled away by saying it's too
early to assess the data as the disease is still running its course? The cynic in me wonders if Dr
Ferguson's matter-of-fact admission that a full lockdown probably didn't make a blind bit of
difference was fueled by ulterior motives. Seeing as his own reputation is already in tatters, was it
a warped act of revenge against Boris Johnson for being forced to fall on his sword after being caught
breaking lockdown with his married lover?
Or here's one for conspiracy theorists: instead of wanting to throw BoJo under the bus, could it
have been a case of wanting to hide something else that's about to come down the track? With America
now burning in the wake of the atrocious murder of George Floyd, the confession at this juncture
reminds me somewhat of how a British government spin doctor sent out a memo only 30 minutes after the
second plane hit the Twin Towers on 9/11 with the cynical recommendation
that
"it's now a very good day to get out anything we want to bury."
At the moment, the biggest accusation they could face is needlessly making a hames (for those of
you who aren't Irish, this means a 'big mess') of the economy. Even Sweden's state epidemiologist
Anders Tegnell has since
said
that, while he regrets not implanting stricter measures to stop the spread of Covid-19, he
"still would not have gone as far as other European countries did."
But the Swede being plagued with self-doubt sounds much more like someone racked with guilt about
"what ifs?"
like an Oskar Schindler type of character who was pictured crying at the end of
the Spielberg
film
because he was convinced he could've done better.
According to Aric Dromi, CEO of the Sweden-based Tempus Motu Think Tank, both the UK and Sweden's
response to Covid-19 is
"ego driven and lacking in strategy."
He told me:
"Differences in
the social structure between the UK and Sweden should have made a bigger impact between the numbers
infected. The Swedish economy, for example, far from being protected by remaining open, has still been
badly damaged as it relies heavily on exports, despite the lack of a lockdown. For both countries, it
represents a human sacrifice on the altar of economics, and it is wholly unacceptable."
It all reminds me of when John Cleese in the 'Gourmet Night' episode of 'Fawlty Towers'
told
guests that there were only three different types of duck on the menu that night – with
orange, with cherries or
"surprise,"
which turned out to be
"duck without oranges or
cherries."
And if you don't like duck? As Basil Fawlty
quipped
,
"Ah, well, if you don't like duck, uhhh, you're rather stuck."
At the end of the day, it might still be too early to fully know which was the right way to go,
which begs the question: Why did Prof. Ferguson jump the gun and heap such fulsome praise – no pun
intended here – on the Swedish model? Whatever way you spin it here, he has, once again,
"
undermined
"
the lockdown just like he did
"
after
violating quarantine he designed to meet married lover."
He might've been dubbed
"Dr Strangelove"
after that embarrassing slip up – but now he just
comes across as a nutty professor after his latest confession. These strong words might just come back
to haunt BoJo when he next goes before the electorate. With a crippled economy thanks to the draconian
measures, he's going to find the next election will be all
about
his mishandling of Covid-19, and specifically,
"the economy, stupid."
If you like this story, share it with a friend!
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are
solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.
Jason O'Toole
has
worked as a senior feature writer for the Irish Daily Mail, a columnist with the Irish Sunday Mirror
and senior editor of Hot Press magazine. He's also the author of several best-selling books.
CDC consist of overpaid idiots. On 20 January, the first confirmed case in South Korea was
identified as a 35-year-old Chinese woman. The first South Korean national to be infected
occurred three days later was a 55-year-old man who worked in Wuhan and returned for a checkup
with flu symptoms. The two infection reports were publicly released on 24 January.
[1] At
this point team of CDC researchers should already be in South Korea. But nothing was done.
The technology was old, the data poor, the bureaucracy slow, the guidance confusing, the
administration not in agreement. The coronavirus shook the world's premier health
agency , creating a loss of confidence and hampering the U.S. response to the crisis
"World's premier health agency"?
I think the illusion the C.D.C. was the "world's premier health agency" comes from the
fact that the USA has, by far, the largest and most powerful pharmaceutical sector in the
world (which Americans call "Big Pharma"). If you have the biggest pharma, you will have the
most sheer volume of human trials and new drug patents. This, by osmosis, puts your country's
C.D.C. at the forefront of most drug regulation - which the rest of the world's C.D.C.s will
simply copy and paste for obvious reasons (i.e. they won't do the same work twice). That
doesn't mean your C.D.C. is "the premier". For instance, it could simply be the most corrupt,
the C.D.C. which is at the right place, the right time. An example for this is the USA's
airplane equivalent to the C.D.C., which sold itself off to Boeing, resulting in the 737 MAX
fiasco.
"... The failure of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) against COVID-19, with nearly four times the annual budget of the WHO, is visible to the world. The CDC failed to provide a successful test for SARS-CoV-2 in the critical months of February and March , while ignoring the WHO's successful test kits that were distributed to 120 countries. ..."
"... Trump has yet to hold his administration and the CDC responsible for this criminal bungling. This, more than any other failure , is the reason that the U.S. numbers for COVID-19 are now more than 1.5 million and about a third of all global infections. Contrast this with China, the first to face an unknown epidemic, stopping it at 82,000 infections, and the amazing results that countries such as Vietnam and South Korea have produced. ..."
"... Taiwan was the first to inform the WHO of human-to-human transmissions in December, but was completely ignored. ..."
"... "Just how evil does this situation become? Is the general leadership of the American political economy trying to be evil just for the fun of it?" ..."
"... And at what point does the general indifference to this state of affairs that still, incredibly, obtains, turn over into mass outrage and condemnation? Skrelli, Bayer, and all the rest are frelling evil. Extortion writ large, with easily preventable death and suffering. ..."
"... As you note it's about profits. One of the disturbing condemnations of the now fading American Century, which most USians remain contentedly oblivious to is that during their watch as global hegemon, the US, in what can be seen, in the best light, as bad faith, worked to undermine the democratic functionality of international cooperative organizations like the WHO, the UN, etc. ..."
"... The intention of granting copyrights and patents was noble, to provide a limited monopoly on an invention or literary work for a limited period. IP has been distorted and twisted, extended to insane time limits to protect works that for any common sense thinkers have already become public domain (see, e.g. the Happy Birthday song, Mickey Mouse or re-formulation of a drug that's gone out of patent). Software should have had its own IP regime but that ship has sailed (thanks Bill G.). ..."
Donald Trump launched a new vaccine war in May, but not against the virus. It was against
the world. The United States and the UK
were the only
two holdouts in the World Health Assembly from the declaration that vaccines and medicines
for COVID-19
should be available as public goods , and not under exclusive patent rights. The
United States explicitly disassociated itself from the patent pool call, talking instead of
"the critical role that intellectual property plays" -- in other words, patents for vaccines
and medicines. Having badly botched his COVID-19 response, Trump is trying to redeem his
electoral fortunes in the November elections this year by promising an early vaccine. The 2020
version of Trump's "Make America Great Again" slogan is shaping up to be, essentially, "
vaccines for us" -- but the rest of the world will have to queue up and pay what big pharma
asks, as they will hold the patents.
Trump has yet to hold his administration and the CDC responsible for this criminal
bungling. This, more than any
other failure , is the reason that the U.S. numbers for COVID-19 are now more than 1.5
million and about a third of all global infections. Contrast this with China, the first to face
an unknown epidemic, stopping it at 82,000 infections, and the amazing results that countries
such as Vietnam and
South Korea have produced.
One issue is now looming large over the COVID-19 pandemic. If we do not address the
intellectual property rights issue in this pandemic, we are likely to see a repeat of the AIDS tragedy . People
died for 10 years (1994-2004) as patented AIDS medicine was priced at $10,000 to $15,000
for a year's supply, far beyond their reach. Finally, patent
laws in India allowed people to get AIDS medicine at less than a dollar a day , or $350 for a year's supply.
Today, 80
percent of the world's AIDS medicine comes from India. For big pharma, profits trumped
lives, and they will continue to do so, COVID or no COVID, unless we change the world.
Most countries have compulsory licensing provisions that will allow them to break patents in
case of epidemics or health emergencies. Even the WTO, after a bitter fight, accepted in its
Doha Declaration (2001) that countries, in a health emergency, have the right to allow any
company to manufacture a patented drug without the patent holder's permission, and even import
it from other countries.
Why is it, then, that countries are unable to break patents, even if there are provisions in
their laws and in the TRIPS Agreement? The answer is their fear of U.S. sanctions against them.
Every year, the U.S. Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) issues a Special
301 Report that it has used to threaten trade sanctions against any country that tries to
compulsorily license any patented product.
India figures prominently in this report year after year, for daring to
issue a compulsory license in 2012 to Natco for nexavar, a cancer drug Bayer was selling
for
more than $65,000 a year . Marijn Dekkers, the CEO of Bayer, was quoted widely that this
was "theft," and "We did not develop
this medicine for Indians We developed it for Western patients who can afford it."
This leaves unanswered how many people even in the affluent West can afford a $65,000 bill
for an illness. But there is no question that a bill of this magnitude is a death sentence for
anybody but the super-rich in countries like India. Though a number of other drugs were under
also consideration for compulsory licensing at that time, India has not exercised this
provision again after receiving U.S. threats.
It is the fear that countries can break patents using their compulsory licensing powers that
led to proposals for patent pooling. The argument was that since many of these diseases do not
affect rich countries, big pharma should either let go of their patents to such patent pools,
or philanthropic capital should fund the development of new drugs for this pool. Facing the
pandemic of COVID-19, it is this idea of patent pooling that emerged in the recent World Health
Assembly , WHA-73. All countries supported this proposal, barring the
United States and its loyal camp follower, the UK . The
United States also entered its disagreement on the final WHA resolution, being the
lone objector to patent pooling of COVID-19 medicines and vaccines, noting "the critical
role that intellectual property plays in incentivizing the development of new and improved
health products."
While patent pooling is welcome if no other measure is available, it also makes it appear as
if countries have no other recourse apart from the charity of big capital. What this hides, as
charity always does, is that people and countries have legitimate rights even under TRIPS to
break patents under conditions of an epidemic or a health emergency.
The United States, which screams murder if a compulsory license is issued by any country,
has no such compunction when its own interests are threatened. During the anthrax scare in
2001, the U.S. Secretary of Health issued a threat to
Bayer under "eminent domain for patents" for licensing the anthrax-treatment drug
ciprofloxacin to other manufacturers. Bayer folded, and agreed to supply the quantity at a
price that the U.S. government had set. And without a whimper. Yes, this is the same Bayer that
considers India as a "thief" for issuing a compulsory license!
The vaccination for COVID-19 might need to be repeated each year, as we still do not know
the duration of its protection. It is unlikely that a vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 will
provide a lifetime
immunity like the smallpox vaccine. Unlike AIDS, where the patient numbers were smaller and
were unfortunately stigmatized in different ways, COVID-19 is a visible threat for everyone.
Any attempt to hold people and governments to ransom on COVID-19 vaccines or medicines could
see the collapse of the entire patent edifice of TRIPS that big pharma backed by the United
States and major EU countries have built. That is why the more clever in the capitalist world
have moved toward a voluntary
patent pool for potential COVID-19 medicines and vaccines. A voluntary patent pool means
that companies or institutions holding patents on medicines -- such as remdesivir -- or
vaccines would voluntarily hand them over to such a pool. The terms and conditions of such a
handover, meaning at concessional rates, or for only for certain regions, are still not clear
-- leading to criticism that a voluntary patent pool is not a substitute for declaring that all
such medicines and vaccines should be declared global public goods during the COVID-19
pandemic.
Unlike clever capital, Trump's response to the COVID-19 vaccine is to thuggishly bully his
way through. He believes that with the unlimited money that the United States is now willing to
put into the vaccine efforts, it will either beat everybody else to the winning post, or
buy the company that is
successful . If this strategy succeeds, he can then use "his" COVID-19 vaccine as a new
instrument of global power. It is the United States that will then decide which countries get
the vaccine (and for how much), and which ones don't.
Trump's little problem is that the days of the United States being a sole global hegemon
passed decades ago. The United States has shown itself as a
fumbling giant and its epidemic response
shambolic . It has been unable to provide virus tests to its people in time, and failed to
stop the epidemic through containment/mitigation measures, which a number of other countries
have done.
China and the
EU have already agreed that any vaccine developed by them will be regarded as a public
good. Even without that, once a medicine or a vaccine is known to be successful, any country
with a reasonable scientific infrastructure can replicate the medicine or the vaccine, and
manufacture it locally. India in particular has one of the largest
generic drug and vaccine manufacturing capacities in the world. What prevents India, or any
country for that matter, from manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines or drugs once they are developed
-- only the empty threat of a failed hegemon on breaking patents?
Clearly the Trump and Johnson administrations are completely wrong in not supporting that
all COVID vaccines and medications be declared as public goods. This is an unprecedented
global threat requiring unprecedented global response.
But as a Canadian I have to reluctantly admit, there are legimate reasons to oppose the
WHO. Trump like a broken clock can be correct twice a day, even if he is wrong the other 1438
times a day.
The worst offence is that the WHO (World Health Organisation) is suppose to represent the
world, and yet it deliberately excludes Taiwan, which it a known part of the world with 24
million people.
Taiwan was the first to inform the WHO of human-to-human transmissions in December, but
was completely ignored. And Taiwan has best handled its response to the pandemic.
Personally I think that all countries should stop supporting the WHO until it restores
Taiwan's observer status it previous had until 2016. The only other reasonable option would
be to create an alternative health organisation to the WHO which does not exclude any part of
the world.
The WHO also has other failings, including corruption, exorbitant travel expenses, and an
unqualified president beholden to the CCP. But these failings pale in comparison to Taiwan's
exclusion, and hopefully the other failings can be fixed within the organisation.
"Just how evil does this situation become? Is the general leadership of the American
political economy trying to be evil just for the fun of it?"
And at what point does the general indifference to this state of affairs that still,
incredibly, obtains, turn over into mass outrage and condemnation?
Skrelli, Bayer, and all the rest are frelling evil. Extortion writ large, with easily preventable death and suffering.
it did NOT begin with trump.It's been there for most of my life. What will it take for ordinary people to get mad enough about it all to do something about
it?
Even in this article, the unspoken assumption is that our hands are somehow tied that these
corps have agency far beyond anyone else's but those corps can be seized, and exist only at
the pleasure of governments in the places they pretend to exist in.
They are a human creation an Egregore, set tottering about as if it were willful and
alive
but even Lefties treat them as untouchable godlike entities "oh, well lets appeal to
"Benevolent Capital, instead "
"Behold, I show you the last man.
'What is love? What is creation? What is longing? What is a star?' thus asks the last man,
and blinks.
The earth has become small, and on it hops the last man, who makes everything small. His race
is as ineradicable as the flea; the last man lives longest.
'We have invented happiness,'say the last men, and they blink. They have left the regions
where it was hard to live, for one needs warmth. One still loves one's neighbor and rubs
against him, for one needs warmth
One still works, for work is a form of entertainment. But one is careful lest the
entertainment be too harrowing. One no longer becomes poor or rich: both require too much
exertion. Who still wants to rule? Who obey? Both require too much exertion.
No shepherd and one herd! Everybody wants the same, everybody is the same: whoever feels
different goes voluntarily into a madhouse.
'Formerly, all the world was mad,' say the most refined, and they blink
One has one's little pleasure for the day and one's little pleasure for the night: but one
has a regard for health.
'We have invented happiness,' say the last men, and they blink.""
As you note it's about profits. One of the disturbing condemnations of the now fading
American Century, which most USians remain contentedly oblivious to is that during their
watch as global hegemon, the US, in what can be seen, in the best light, as bad faith, worked
to undermine the democratic functionality of international cooperative organizations like the
WHO, the UN, etc.
Thus when emergencies arise such as international diplomatic crisis or pandemics, it is
found these organisations have been rendered untrustworthy, corrupted and unreliable;
unsuited to purpose. American exceptionalism?
It is clear now that the USA will not fund a national public health system to fight the
coronavirus epidemic. The only conclusion is the reason is to allow Pharmaceutical
Corporations to make huge profits by marketing patented drugs and vaccines to treat the
illness; if and when, they become available sometime in the future.
Due to incompetence, lack of money and bad messengering; the economic reopening of the USA
could kill close to a million Americans. To Republicans and Libertarians, this is of no
concern. Democrats may acknowledge the deaths but say they are unavoidable.
For the Elite keeping their wealth is more important than spending a portion to prevent
the huge costs in lives and treasure that will come once the Wuhan Coronavirus is established
across North America like the related common cold.
This is a teachable moment on the immorality of all "intellectual property". I am pleased to see that so many countries – other than the US and the UK –
can get together on the common decency of allowing everyone to live, and set that above the
"justice" of paying off intellectual property assignees. But these countries still have some
ways to go in understanding that this applies to all information. That the creation of
information can never be a living – in contrast to a living based on the creation of
essential goods and services, about which we are learning so much right now! – and that
information can never be owned.
They do not yet fully comprehend that all claims to own and extract rent from information
are in fact crimes against humanity.
The intention of granting copyrights and patents was noble, to provide a limited monopoly
on an invention or literary work for a limited period. IP has been distorted and twisted,
extended to insane time limits to protect works that for any common sense thinkers have
already become public domain (see, e.g. the Happy Birthday song, Mickey Mouse or
re-formulation of a drug that's gone out of patent). Software should have had its own IP
regime but that ship has sailed (thanks Bill G.).
Either a giant reform is due or people will ignore the law and infringe the IP. Chinese
companies do it with impunity. Maybe they're right to do so.
Patent applications for the top 20 offices, 2018
Rank Country Patent applications
1 China 1,542,002
2 U.S. 597,141
3 Japan 313,567
4 South Korea 209,992
If one sums up USA patent applications vs Asia (China, Japan, SK), it is USA 597K vs Asia
2066K.
So Asia is putting in patent applications, vs the USA, at a 3.46 multiple vs the USA.
It will be interesting to see if the USA attitude about the sanctity of intellectual
property changes when important key patents are held by the rest of the world.
Teachable moments. This could get really interesting if China or a non US & associated puppets develops
an effect Covid treatment first.
I will dream of something like this: China develops vaccine, offers it free to US on condition it reduce it's Dept of War &
Aggression by 80% and honor all existing and recently existing arms control agreement, and
withdraws it's Naval forces though out the world and confines them to the North Atlantic and
California coast.
I wonder if a geopolitically powerful nation/bloc of nations such as China/India/etc might
announce that they disregard pharma IP, & announce that they will adhere to the economist
Dr Dean Baker-type policy of open source pharma R&D/recipe publication, any private
manufacturer may manufacture & sell the resultant pharma SKU. I am referring to any type
of pharma or medical device (such as ventilators), not just a COVID-19 vaccine. I would
guesstimate that the "soft power" & goodwill generated by such a policy would be
extremely beneficial to those nation(s). Furthermore, the US if it tried to retaliate via
sanctions or other threats would get a corresponding additional decrease in soft power.
To be honest, in some instances Indian govt practices on pharma are quite bad. It is
extremely hard in some instances to recoup investments at prices they ask for.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has stealthily attempted to rewrite history, deleting his
controversial order requiring nursing homes to admit Covid-19 patients from the state health
website and blaming facilities for obeying it. After being lambasted in the press for the March
25 executive order that forced New York elder care facilities to accept patients infected with
the highly contagious virus, Cuomo attempted to blame the nursing homes for not disobeying his
orders during a Wednesday press conference.
" The obligation is on the nursing home to say, 'I can't take a Covid-positive
person,' " the governor insisted. " If they said 'I can't take the person,' they can't
take the person! So that's how it works ."
The coronavirus has cut a devastating swath through New York's nursing homes, killing more
than 5,800 people in long-term care facilities since the pandemic began - nearly a fifth of the
state's Covid-19 deaths so far, according to AP statistics compiled on Thursday. The policy
ultimately sent over 4,500 recovering coronavirus patients to nursing homes, which Cuomo
himself called " the optimum feeding ground for this virus ."
But the executive order itself leaves little room for disobedience, reading (in underlined
text, no less), " No resident shall be denied re-admission or admission to the [Nursing
Home] solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19 ." Elsewhere in the
document, facilities are advised they " must comply with the expedited receipt of residents
returning from hospitals " so long as they've been deemed medically stable - no excuses
allowed. Facilities aren't even permitted to test incoming patients.
But that same order, titled " Advisory: Hospital Discharges and Admissions to Nursing
Homes ," was apparently removed from the New York healthcare website early this month,
according to Fox News, which discovered its absence on Tuesday. Unfortunately for Cuomo's
revisionism, it's still available in the
Wayback Machine . The governor issued a revised directive on May 10, barring hospitals from
sending patients back to nursing homes unless they tested negative for the virus. However, his
communications director denied the more recent order represented a " reversal " of the
old one so much as " build[ing] on " it.
By Saturday, however, Cuomo was blaming the Trump administration for the ill-advised
Covid-19 mandate, declaring New York was merely " following the president's agencies'
guidance " and " follow[ing] what the Republican Administration said to do. "
While the governor's office claimed he was referring to a March
directive from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, that order merely required
nursing homes to " admit any individuals that they would normally admit to their facility,
including...from hospitals where a case of Covid-19 was present " and even advised setting
aside a unit to quarantine patients returning from hospitals - a safety measure notably missing
from Cuomo's executive order.
Governments throughout the world and across the US justified extreme, draconian,
undemocratic, and unconstitutional (in most US states) "lockdown" and stay-at-home orders on
the grounds that the COVID-19 virus was exceptionally fatal.
In March, the World Health Organization (WHO) was claiming that the fatality rate was a
very
high 3.4 percent .
Yet as time went on, it became increasingly clear that such high estimates were essentially
meaningless because researchers had no idea how many people were actually infected with the
disease. Tests were largely being conducted on those with symptoms serious enough to end up in
emergency rooms or doctor's offices.
By late April, many researchers were publishing new studies showing that the number of
people with the disease was actually much higher than was previously thought. Thus, it became
clear that the percentage of people with the disease who died from it suddenly became much
smaller.
Now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released new estimates
suggesting that the real fatality rate is around 0.26 percent.
Specifically, the report concludes that the "symptomatic case fatality ratio" is 0.4
percent. But that's just symptomatic cases. In the same report, the CDC also claims that 35
percent of all cases are asymptomatic.
Or, as the Washington Post reported this week:
The agency offered a "current best estimate" of 0.4 percent. The agency also gave a best
estimate that 35 percent of people infected never develop symptoms. Those numbers when put
together would produce an infection fatality rate of 0.26, which is lower than many of the
estimates produced by scientists and modelers to date."
Of course, not all scientists have been wrong on this. Back in March, Stanford scientist
John Ioannidis was much, much closer to the CDC's estimate than the WHO. The Wall Street
Journal noted in
April :
In a March article for Stat News, Dr. Ioannidis argued that Covid-19 is far less deadly
than modelers were assuming. He considered the experience of the Diamond Princess cruise
ship, which was quarantined Feb. 4 in Japan. Nine of 700 infected passengers and crew died.
Based on the demographics of the ship's population, Dr. Ioannidis estimated that the U.S.
fatality rate could be as low as 0.025% to 0.625% and put the upper bound at 0.05% to 1% --
comparable to that of seasonal flu.
Not that this will settle the matter.
Proponents of destroying human rights and the rule of law in order to carry out lockdowns
will continue to insist that "we didn't know" what the fatality rate was back in March. The
lack of evidence, however, didn't stop proponents of lockdowns from implementing policies that
destroyed the ability of families to earn a living, and which also created social conditions
that caused child
abuse and
suicides to spike.
But for more sane people, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Those who
have claimed that lockdowns are "the only option" had virtually no evidence at all to support
their position. Indeed, such extreme over-the-top measures such as the general lockdowns
required an extreme level of high-quality, nearly irrefutable evidence that lockdowns would
work and were necessary in the face of a disease with an extremely high fatality rate. But the
only "data" the prolockdown people could offer was speculation and hyperbolic predictions of
bodies piling up in the streets.
But that became politically unimportant.
The people who wanted lockdowns had gained the obeisance of powerful people in government
institutions and in the media . So actual data, science, or respect for human rights suddenly
became meaningless. All that mattered was getting those lockdowns. So the lockdown crowd
destroyed the lives of millions in the developed world -- and
more than a hundred million in the developing world -- to satisfy the hunches of a tiny
handful of politicians and technocrats.
According to
the Telegraph , Michael Levitt correctly predicted the initial trajectory of the pandemic,
but was ignored by now-disgraced Imperial College epidemiologist Niall Ferguson, whose warnings
were embraced by the UK government as justification for the lockdown, despite the fact that the
projections proved to be extremely flawed and dramatically overestimated the virus's potential
for devastation. As early as march, Levitt warned that Ferguson's projections had
over-estimated the potential death toll by "10 or 12 times".
Instead of helping the situation, Fergusons' projections created an unnecessary "panic
virus" which spread among global political leaders, Prof Levitt told the Telegraph.
Prof Levitt, a British-American-Israeli who shared the Nobel prize for chemistry in 2013
for the "development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems", has said for two
months that the planet will beat coronavirus faster than most other experts predict.
"I think lockdown saved no lives," said the scientist, who added that the Government
should have encouraged Britons to wear masks and adhere to other forms of social
distancing.
"I think it may have cost lives. It will have saved a few road accident lives - things
like that - but social damage - domestic abuse, divorces, alcoholism - has been extreme. And
then you have those who were not treated for other conditions."
Data from various studies has offered a mixed picture about the effectiveness of the
lockdowns. The number of cases and deaths has undoubtedly plunged in the US and across Europe
since strict lockdowns were almost universally enacted, but many wonder whether governments are
being overly cautious, perhaps to a dangerous degree.
Though his models have been vindicated by the passage of time, Levitt said his initial
concerns about Ferguson's models were largely ignored due to what he calls the "panic virus",
despite the fact that there's recent precedent for epidemiological models over-estimating the
impact of other outbreaks, including H1N1 and Ebola.
Having assessed the initial outbreak in China and from the infected Diamond Princess
cruise ship, he predicted by March 14 that the UK would lose around 50,000 lives. Prof
Ferguson's modelling that same week estimated up to 500,000 deaths without social distancing
measures.
"I think that the real virus was the panic virus," Prof Levitt told the Telegraph. "For
reasons that were not clear to me, I think the leaders panicked and the people panicked and I
think there was a huge lack of discussion..
The 73-year-old has no background as an epidemiologist, but he assessed the outbreak in
China and prepared a paper based on his own calculations. Most countries, he predicted, would
suffer a Covid-19 death rate worth around an extra month in excess deaths over the calendar
year.
"In Europe, I don't think that anything actually stopped the virus other than some kind of
burnout," he added. " There's a huge number of people who are asymptomatic so I would
seriously imagine that by the time lockdown was finally introduced in the UK the virus was
already widely spread. They could have just stayed open like Sweden by that stage and nothing
would have happened."
Professor Levitt has now analysed the data from 78 nations with more than 50 reported
cases of coronavirus. His investigations proved the virus was never going to achieve the type
of exponential growth that the researchers at Imperial were predicting at the same time.
At this point, Levitt believes the virus has reached a point of saturation across Europe and
parts of the US making lockdowns much less effective. At this point, they're probably causing
far more harm than benefit.
The virus "has saturated", he believes, across Europe. "I think the lockdown will cause
much more damage than the deaths saved," he added. "When I saw the briefing (from Prof
Ferguson) I was shocked. I had a run-in with him when I actually saw that Ferguson's death
rate was a year's worth - doubling the normal death rate. I saw that and said immediately
that's completely wrong. I think Ferguson over-estimated 10 or 12 times. We should have seen
from China that a virus never grows exponentially. From the very first case you see,
exponential growth actually slows down very dramatically.
"The problem with epidemiologists is that they feel their job is to frighten people into
lockdown, social distancing. So you say 'there's going to be a million deaths' and when there
are only 25,000 you say 'it's good you listened to my advice'. This happened with Ebola and
bird flu. It's just part of the madness."
Prof Levitt says the global evidence shows the virus fades in dry heat and in much of the
western world "there seems to be some kind of immunity". "The main worry I would have would
be in China," he said when asked about the prospect of a second outbreak. "I am 73 and I feel
very young," he added. "I don't care about the risk at all. As you get old the risk of dying
from disease is so high that this is the time to buy a motorcycle, go skiing!"
Even as the NYT and WaPo search for every shred of evidence to support the view that the
reopening in the US will lead to a second wave, they're finding that there's not nearly as much
as they'd hoped - which is why projections are their new favorite tool.
"... "According to CDC, the disease of obesity affects about 78 million Americans 1 and the ASMBS estimates about 24 million have severe or morbid obesity." ..."
And the government botching of this crisis continues...
'How Could the CDC Make That Mistake?' The government's disease-fighting agency is
conflating viral and antibody tests, compromising a few crucial metrics that governors depend
on to reopen their economies. Pennsylvania, Georgia, Texas, and other states are doing the
same. https://tinyurl.com/y92ea59f
Nearly half of US states haven't contained their coronavirus outbreaks, a new study
finds https://tinyurl.com/yc72pd8t
And no, Sweden is not doing better...
Just 7.3% of Stockholm had Covid-19 antibodies by end of April, study shows
Official findings add to concerns about Sweden's laissez-faire strategy towards the
pandemic https://tinyurl.com/yahnmb3a
Finally, a large scale study on HCQ - 86,000 patients, with 15,000 receiving HCQ...
Blacks are *twice* as likely to get it as whites and Latinos. American Indians are *five
times* more likely to get it. They conclude the best indicator is poverty.
From The Lancet, a study of New York patients... Epidemiology, clinical course, and
outcomes of critically ill adults with COVID-19 in New York City: a prospective cohort study
https://tinyurl.com/yblmszsx
Between March 2 and April 1, 2020, 1150 adults were admitted to both hospitals with
laboratory-confirmed COVID-19, of which 257 (22%) were critically ill.
The median age of patients was 62 years (IQR 51–72), 171 (67%) were men. 212 (82%)
patients had at least one chronic illness, the most common of which were hypertension (162
[63%]) and diabetes (92 [36%]).
119 (46%) patients had obesity.
As of April 28, 2020, 101 (39%) patients had died and 94 (37%) remained
hospitalised.
203 (79%) patients received invasive mechanical ventilation for a median of 18 days (IQR
9–28), 170 (66%) of 257 patients received vasopressors and 79 (31%) received renal
replacement therapy.
The median time to in-hospital deterioration was 3 days (IQR 1–6).
In the multivariable Cox model, older age (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] 1·31
[1·09–1·57] per 10-year increase), chronic cardiac disease (aHR
1·76 [1·08–2·86]), chronic pulmonary disease (aHR 2·94
[1·48–5·84]), higher concentrations of interleukin-6 (aHR 1·11
[95%CI 1·02–1·20] per decile increase), and higher concentrations of
D-dimer (aHR 1·10 [1·01–1·19] per decile increase) were
independently associated with in-hospital mortality.
Note: 36% had diabetes; 46% were fat. Like I've said before, "diabetes" is a code word for
"fat." And how many people in the US are fat and thus at risk? "According to CDC, the
disease of obesity affects about 78 million Americans 1 and the ASMBS estimates about 24
million have severe or morbid obesity."
So much for "let's just isolate the elderly"...so we can attend our baseball games this
summer and stuff ourselves with crap food...
Millennial Millie investigates the deep conflicts of interest and connections Bill Gates has
with the coronavirus and his proposed 'vaccine' to cure the pandemic.
This is an interesting look at the situation in the military as related to the militaries
place in society. It is written in Marxist language of class struggle which is one way to
look at it. There does seem to be pressure for some sort of social reform.
Also similar things could be said about the working conditions of many of our 'essential
workers'
""It is a well-known feature of revolutionary history that the individual soldiers and
sailors who make up the armed forces can be affected by the overarching mood in society and
play a key role in the class struggle. The cramped quarters of Navy warships have been
likened to "floating factories," and given the proletarian background of most of their crews,
these conditions can breed a fierce class hatred.
Add a deadly virus to the already volatile mix, and the stage is set for a social
explosion.
On April 2, Thomas Modly, the then-Acting Secretary of the Navy, relieved Crozier of
command and ordered him removed from the vessel. An online video was posted of Crozier
leaving the vessel, with the Roosevelt's crew on deck cheering him and chanting his name. To
the rank and file, an officer standing up to leadership at such a high level to advocate on
their behalf is almost unheard of. Then, Modly, who previously sat on the Defense Business
Board of a $42 billion consulting firm, actually flew all the way out to Guam -- at a
reported cost of $243,000 -- to personally berate the crew, calling them "stupid," and
Captain Crozier "naïve." His profanity-laden rebuke was also leaked by members of the
crew.
Modly was defiantly heckled by the sailors, and after the subsequent public outcry, he
resigned on April 7. As of the writing of this article, there have been over 1,100 positive
cases of COVID-19 among the crew of the Roosevelt -- including Crozier himself. One crew
member, a junior enlisted sailor, has died. The crew continues to languish in port as
Crozier's dire prediction came true. This saga of higher-level commanders ignoring the
warnings of the people "on the ground" is all too familiar to the military rank and file.
Plummeting Morale, Rising Discontent
The public heckling of Thomas Modly was a significant event. No matter how unpopular the
leader, service members will almost always "sit there and take it," both out of a sense of
professionalism -- and out of fear of punishment. The response of the Roosevelt's crew
reflects a population on edge
In these conditions of dysfunction and discontent, military leaders are undoubtedly
haunted by the recent 45th anniversary of the Fall of Saigon, which marked the defeat of the
US in Vietnam amid widespread mutinies and soldier resistance. In the course of that war, the
Pentagon documented half a million cases of desertion, and at least 900 incidents of
"fragging" -- the deliberate killing of officers by soldiers.
As a result, the Pentagon drew certain conclusions and the entire military was
restructured in an attempt to cut across a repeat of those events. The military is no longer
made up of conscripts, most combat missions are performed by special forces or drones, and
information is effectively sanitized and kept out of public view. And yet, despite these
measures, service member opposition to the current wars, has been on the rise, especially
among veterans.
In many cases, soldiers are recruited on the predatory basis of the "poverty draft," with
the promise of a stable income, housing, healthcare, education opportunities, and an escape
from the deprivations of capitalism. But the empty nature of these promises is revealed by
the rates of homelessness and mental illness among veterans.
According to a "Political Risk Outlook" published by the strategic consulting firm
Maplecroft, a quarter of the countries on the earth's surface experienced a surge in civil
unrest, mass protests, and revolutionary situations last year. The report summary concluded
by describing 2019 as the "new normal":"
The pent-up rage that has boiled over into street protests over the past year has caught
most governments by surprise. Policymakers across the globe have mostly reacted with limited
concessions and a clampdown by security forces, but without addressing the underlying causes.
However, even if tackled immediately, most of the grievances are deeply entrenched and would
take years to address. With this in mind, 2019 is unlikely to be a flash in the pan. The next
12 months are likely to yield more of the same, and companies and investors will have to
learn to adapt and live with this "new normal." "
"Grandma Killer" Cuomo Sent 4,300 Patients Back To Nursing Homes Despite Positive
COVID-19 Tests by Tyler Durden Fri, 05/22/2020 - 17:25 Earlier
this month, a reporter at one of NY Gov Andrew Cuomo's daily press briefings asked the governor
about reports that the state issued guidance calling for hospitals to return thousands of
patients who had tested positive for COVID-19 to nursing homes or long-term care facilities
where they lived.
Somehow, despite the horrifying notion that Cuomo deliberately sent patients back to nursing
homes where they unleashed some of the deadliest outbreaks in the country, the governor readily
owned up to the decision, and insisted public health officials believed this to be the best
option to prevent the patients from just hanging around the hospital.
With the benefit of hindsight, we now see that the hospital bed shortages that the US had
prepared for never came to pass. So, not only did this decision lead to thousands of deaths, it
was also totally unnecessary.
Because as the Associated Press reported Friday morning, an investigation discovered that
more than 4,000 nursing home patients who had tested positive for COVID-19 were returned to
their care facilities due to this state order.
More than 4,300 recovering coronavirus patients were sent to New York's already vulnerable
nursing homes under a controversial state directive that was ultimately scrapped amid
criticisms it was accelerating the nation's deadliest outbreaks, according to a count by The
Associated Press.
AP compiled its own tally to find out how many COVID-19 patients were discharged from
hospitals to nursing homes under the March 25 directive after New York's Health Department
declined to release its internal survey conducted two weeks ago. It says it is still
verifying data that was incomplete.
The issue has become a huge problem for Cuomo, who has been labeled "the grandma killer" by
critics. When confronted with the data by the AP, the state health department declined to
comment. One individual quoted by the AP called it "the single dumbest decision" made during
the response to the pandemic.
And guess what - this decision had nothing to do with President Trump. While Cuomo of course
tried to deflected criticism to the Trump administration by claiming that the decision stemmed
from federal guidance, the AP pointed out that "few states went as far as New York and
neighboring New Jersey, which has the second-most care home deaths, in discharging hospitalized
coronavirus patients to nursing homes. California followed suit but loosened its requirement
following intense criticism."
Whatever the full number, nursing home administrators, residents' advocates and relatives
say i t has added up to a big and indefensible problem for facilities that even Gov. Andrew
Cuomo -- the main proponent of the policy -- called "the optimum feeding ground for this
virus."
"It was the single dumbest decision anyone could make if they wanted to kill people,"
Daniel Arbeeny said of the directive, which prompted him to pull his 88-year-old father out
of a Brooklyn nursing home where more than 50 people have died. His father later died of
COVID-19 at home.
"This isn't rocket science," Arbeeny said. "We knew the most vulnerable - the elderly and
compromised - are in nursing homes and rehab centers."
Told of the AP's tally, the Health Department said late Thursday it "can't comment on data
we haven't had a chance to review, particularly while we're still validating our own
comprehensive survey of nursing homes admission and re-admission data in the middle of
responding to this global pandemic."
Cuomo didn't reverse the order until May 10. According to the directive, nursing homes could
"refuse" to take in the patients if they weren't "equipped" to handle them. But unsurprisingly,
no nursing homes did so - since this would be tantamount to admitting that the facilities
weren't safe .
Cuomo, a Democrat, on May 10 reversed the directive, which had been intended to help free
up hospital beds for the sickest patients as cases surged. But he continued to defend it this
week , saying he didn't believe it contributed to the more than 5,800 nursing and adult care
facility deaths in New York -- more than in any other state -- and that homes should have
spoken up if it was a problem.
"Any nursing home could just say, 'I can't handle a COVID person in my facility,'" he
said, although the March 25 order didn't specify how homes could refuse, saying that "no
resident shall be denied re-admission or admission to the (nursing home) solely based" on
confirmed or suspected COVID-19.
Over a month later, on April 29, the Health Department clarified that homes should not
take any new residents if they were unable to meet their needs, including a checklist of
standards for coronavirus care and prevention.
And according to the AP, even the most well-equipped nursing homes in the state saw the
trickle of COVID patients turn into a flood that quickly overwhelmed their ability to cope.
Across the country, thousands of nursing home residents and staff have succumbed to the
illness.
Gurwin Jewish, a 460-bed home on Long Island, seemed well-prepared for the coronavirus in
early March, with movable walls to seal off hallways for the infected. But after the state
order, a trickle of recovering COVID-19 patients from local hospitals turned into a flood of
58 people.
More walls were put up, but other residents nonetheless began falling sick and dying. In
the end, 47 Gurwin residents died of confirmed or suspected COVID-19.
The state order "put staff and residents at great risk," CEO Stuart Almer said. "We can't
draw a straight line from bringing in someone positive to someone catching the disease, but
we're talking about elderly, fragile and vulnerable residents."
Nationally, over 35,500 people have died from coronavirus outbreaks at nursing homes and
long-term care facilities, about a third of the overall death toll, according to the AP's
running tally.
Bottom line: Irony of ironies, the most sanctimonious blue-state governors, who used every
conceivable pretext to bash President Trump, also allowed the largest numbers of vulnerable
patients to die because of what amounts to sheer bureaucratic idiocy.
The scandal has earned Cuomo a new nickname that has been heavily suppressed by the likes of
Google, Facebook and Twitter: The "Grandma Killer".
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is facing new criticism after the Associated Press reported Friday that a
state directive led to over 4,300 still recovering coronavirus patients being sent to New
York's "already vulnerable nursing homes."
"It was a death sentence," tweeted Daniel Choi, a doctor at
the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. He called the directive
a "horrendous idea" and "definitely not something any doctor taking care of nursing home
patients would have signed off on."
The state health department
directive (pdf), issued March 25, barred nursing homes from requiring patients deemed
"medically stable" from being tested for Covid-19 prior to admission. Cuomo, a Democrat,
rescinded the order May 10, but not before thousands of infected patients likely entered
nursing homes and contributed to the coronavirus's spread.
The estimated number tallied by the AP amounts to what would have been a "big and
indefensible problem for facilities," the outlet reported.
From the AP :
"It was the single dumbest decision anyone could make if they wanted to kill people,"
Daniel Arbeeny said of the directive, which prompted him to pull his 88-year-old father out
of a Brooklyn nursing home where more than 50 people have died. His father later died of
Covid-19 at home.
"This isn't rocket science," Arbeeny said. "We knew the most vulnerable -- the elderly and
compromised -- are in nursing homes and rehab centers."
CBS New York reported
Friday that the conoravirus has taken the lives of almost 5% of nursing home residents in the
state, and this week the Cuomo tried to deflect blame for the directive.
"Why did the state do that with Covid patients in nursing homes?" asked Cuomo. "It's because
the state followed President Trump's CDC guidelines. So they should ask President Trump."
In an
op-ed at the Guardian on Wednesday questioning the recent accolades heaped on the New York
governor -- including suggestions that Cuomo run for president -- journalists Lyta Gold and
Nathan Robinson of Current Affairs magazine write that "Cuomo should be one of the most loathed
officials in America right now. "
Gold and Robinson argue that blame for New York's high death toll from the virus should sit
largely with Cuomo.
"Federal failures played a role, of course, but this tragedy was absolutely due, in part, to
decisions by the governor," they wrote, citing as examples his failure to take swift action,
delays in imposing social distancing measures, Medicaid cuts both before and after the start of
the pandemic, and his partnership with Silicon Valley billionaires to "reimagine
education."
"This is the problem: for too long, Democrats have measured their politicians by 'whether
they are better than Republicans,' wrote Gold and Robinson. "This sets the bar very low indeed,
and means that Democrats end up settling for incompetent and amoral leaders who betray
progressive values again and again."
Andrew Cuomo may be the most popular
politician in the country. ... All of which is bizarre, because Cuomo should be one of the
most loathed officials in America right now. ProPublica
recently released a report outlining catastrophic missteps by Cuomo and the New York City
mayor, Bill de Blasio, which probably resulted in many thousands of needless coronavirus cases.
ProPublica offers some appalling numbers contrasting what happened in New York with the
outbreak in California. By mid-May, New York City alone had almost 20,000 deaths, while in San
Francisco there had been only 35, and New York state as a whole suffered 10 times as many
deaths as California.
Federal failures played a role, of course, but this tragedy was absolutely due, in part, to
decisions by the governor. Cuomo initially "reacted to De Blasio's idea for closing down New
York City with derision", saying it "was dangerous" and "served only to scare people". He said
the "seasonal flu was a graver worry". A spokesperson for Cuomo "refused to say if the governor
had ever read the state's pandemic plan". Later, Cuomo would blame the press, including the New
York Times for failing to say "Be careful, there's a virus in China that may be in the United
States?" even though the Times wrote nearly 500 stories on the
virus before the state acted. Experts told ProPublica that "had New York imposed its extreme
social distancing measures a week or two earlier, the death toll might have been cut by half or
more".
But delay was not the only screw-up. Elderly prisoners
have died of coronavirus because New York has failed to act on their medical parole
requests. As Business Insider documented:
"Testing was
slow . Nonprofit social-service agencies that serve the most vulnerable
couldn't get answers either . And medical experts like the former CDC director Tom Frieden
said 'so many deaths could have been prevented' had New York issued its stay-at-home order
just 'days earlier' than it did. On March 19, when New York's schools had already been
closed, Cuomo said 'in many ways, the fear is more dangerous than the virus.'"
The governor has failed to take responsibility for the obvious failures, consistently
blaming others and at one point even saying " governors
don't do pandemics ". (Actually, some governors just don't read their state's pandemic
plans.) But much of the press has ignored this, focusing instead on Cuomo's aesthetic
presentation: his poise during press conferences, his dramatic statements about "taking
responsibility" (even when he obviously hasn't), and his invisible good looks. ...
There's something disturbing about Cuomo being hailed as the hero of the pandemic when he
should rightly be one of the villains. As Business Insider notes, he is now only able to attain
praise for his actions because his earlier failures made those actions necessary. He's lauded
for addressing a problem that he himself partly caused. Of course, part of this is because
Donald Trump has
bungled the coronavirus response even more badly , so that Cuomo – by not being a
complete buffoon – looks like a capable statesman by contrast. But this is the problem:
for too long, Democrats have measured their politicians by "whether they are better than
Republicans". This sets the bar very low indeed, and means that Democrats end up settling for
incompetent and amoral leaders who betray progressive values again and again.
The Argument Against the Argument Against Facemasks
Resistance rooted in liberty clashes with the unalienable right of life https://tinyurl.com/yctjydmx
Masks help stop the spread of coronavirus – the science is simple and I'm one of 100
experts urging governors to require public mask-wearing https://tinyurl.com/yah8orzo
More than 80% of Americans support closing non-essential businesses. Support for limiting
restaurants, closing schools, canceling sporting and entertainment events, and group
gatherings exceeds 90%. A total of 94% strongly or somewhat approve asking people to stay
home and avoid gathering in groups; 92% support canceling major sports and entertainment
events; 91% approve closing K-12 schools; 91% approve limiting restaurants to carry-out
only; 83% approve closing businesses other than grocery stores and pharmacies. There are
some partisan differences on these items -- Republicans are somewhat less supportive, but
even among Republicans large majorities support all of these measures; and, as summarized
below, support is largely consistent across every state.
A bipartisan consensus opposes a rapid "reopening" of the economy. Only 7% support
immediate reopening of the economy, and the median respondent supports waiting four to six
weeks. There is a bipartisan consensus on waiting (89% of Republicans as compared to 96% of
Democrats opposed immediate re-opening), and Republicans support a somewhat faster
re-opening of the economy than Democrats, where the median Republican supports waiting two
to four weeks versus median Democrat six to eight weeks. As discussed below, even in those
Republican-led states which are moving toward re-opening, few people support reopening
immediately
Generally, Americans report adhering to social distancing, indicating that they had minimal
social interactions with people outside of their households. That said, 56% reported
encountering at least one person from outside of their home in the preceding 24 hours (and
7% reported encountering 10 or more persons); the survey did not contain information on the
circumstances of those encounters (e.g., was it at grocery stores? were the individuals
wearing masks?). Generally, there were not large differences with respect to age, gender,
race, income, partisanship or education. An exception was that Asian Americans were
substantially less likely to encounter other individuals, and more likely to avoid contact
with other people. There were significant racial differences reported in wearing face masks
outside of the home, with 51% of whites reporting following recommendations very closely,
along with 62% of Hispanics, 64% of African Americans, and 68% of Asian Americans. There
was also an age gradient in this regard, ranging from 50% face mask wearing for 18-24 year
olds to 60% of those aged 65 or higher. There were also partisan differences: 51% of
Republicans, compared to 64% for Democrats, reported wearing face masks outside the home.
I find the racial differences interesting, especially since in my observation fewer blacks
are wearing masks. However, since I was specifically looking at blacks (due to the
disproportionate number of blacks dying) in my walks, I may have under counted the number of
whites not wearing masks. Also I suspect it varies between cities, states and more suburban
or rural areas.
In any event, not enough people are wearing masks to re-open the economy - and we damn
sure don't have enough testing, tracing and isolating capability and probably won't until
September, according to one report I read.
A number of other interesting results. Check it out.
One of the key things to understand in thinking about the value of masks is the concept of
the viral dose. While it seem logical that a single viral particle hitting a person's
mouth, nose or eye could cause an infection, strong laboratory and empirical evidence says
that this is not the case -- it takes a big dose of virus to launch a case of Covid. This
happy fact means that masks for everyday use don't need to block 100% of pathogens in order
to prevent the disease from spreading. (Even the medical grade N95 masks don't block every
viral particle, but they block enough to protect the user, even when caring for patients
with known Covid-19.)
A simulation by De Kai and colleagues makes the case that masks are most effective if at
least 80% of people are using them. The figure below maps the rate of transmission with the
expected deaths from Covid-19 in a nation the size of the UK. According to the simulation,
social distancing alone without masking would lead to 1.16 million deaths by May 31st.
However, with 50% of the population masking, the projected death figure drops to 240,000.
With 80% masking, there are 60,000 deaths. If Professor De Kai's mind-blowing video (below)
doesn't convince you of the virtue of mask wearing, I just don't know what to tell you.
Video referenced above:
Visual simulations show why we all need to wear masks now #UniversalMasking #masks4all
#COVID19
42,341 views •Apr 26, 2020 https://tinyurl.com/yc89vf9c
Fauci jumped the gun with the Moderna vaccine promotion.
Notable quotes:
"... Former Harvard Medical School professor and founder of the university's cancer and HIV/AIDS research departments, William Haseltine dared to speak out today about the high level of bullshit and damage that is being done to "trust" in "scientists" and even dared to break the one holy writ that shall go un-mentioned, throwing some shade a Dr.Fauci. ..."
"... But, but, but... the CNBC anchorette blubbered, "are you questioning Dr. Fauci who also said that this was encouraging news?" ..."
"... "Whether [Fauci] shaded what should should have been done, I think is an important question. He's obviously under enormous pressure for positive results but it was not the right thing to do if you can't see the data." ..."
"... The most recent example is Moderna's claim Monday of favorable results in its vaccine trial, which it announced without revealing any of the underlying data. The announcement added billions of dollars to the value of the company, with its shares jumping almost 20 percent. Many analysts believe it contributed to a 900-point gain in the Dow Jones industrial average. ..."
"... The Moderna announcement described a safety trial of its vaccine based on eight healthy participants. The claim was that in all eight people, the vaccine raised the levels of neutralizing antibodies equivalent to those found in convalescent serum of those who recovered from covid-19. What to make of that claim? Hard to say, because we have no sense of what those levels were. This is the equivalent of a chief executive of a public company announcing a favorable earnings report without supplying supporting financial data, which the Securities and Exchange Commission would never allow. ..."
"... There is a legitimate question regarding what Moderna's unsupported assertion means. The scientific and medical literature reports that some people who have recovered have little to no detectable neutralizing antibodies . There is even existing scientific literature that suggests it is possible neutralizing antibodies may not protect animals or humans from infection or reinfection by coronaviruses. ..."
"... The National Institutes of Health announced last month that the drug remdesivir offered a clear benefit to covid-19 patients with moderate disease, shortening the length of their hospital stay by several days. But did it really? Twenty days after the announcement, the supporting data has still not been published. Without the data, no doctor treating a patient can be sure they are doing the right thing. ..."
"... Another paper , published the same day, found that remdesivir had no measurable effect on patient survival or the amount of virus detectable in nasopharynx and lung secretions. What then should a practicing physician do? Follow the unsupported advice of a news announcement or a medical report published in a leading scientific journal? This is not an idle question: The NIH announcement triggered a global stampede for limited supplies of the drug. ..."
"... The media also bears responsibility. Asking experts to opine on unsubstantiated claims is not useful. Medicine and science are not matters of majority opinion; they are matters of fact supported by transparent data. This is the backbone of scientific progress and our only hope to end this pandemic. We can't give up on our standards now. ..."
At a moment in time when narrative-following "scientists" are lauded
like unquestionably omniscient supreme beings enabling dumb-as-a-rock-partisan-politicians to
play omnipotent overlords without fear of blowback, the world needs more people like William
Haseltine.
The last two weeks have seen markets and politicians jump exuberantly at the hope of every
press release from a biotech firm that proclaims one of their pet rabbits didn't die when they
fed it their latest DNA-reshaping test material (oh that is except if anyone dares say anything
positive about hydroxychloroquine but that is a topic for another discussion) as the fate of
global citizenry rests on a vaccine (and definitely not herd immunity, don't even mention
it).
Barstool Sports' Dave Portnoy said it right - when did we shift from "flatten the curve,
flatten the curve, flatten the curve" to "we have to fund a cure or everyone's going to
die."
And so, that is where we find ourselves... Every talking head proclaiming the same malarkey
- we will re-open carefully, with PPE, and social distancing, and whetever else is mandated
from on-high "until we find a vaccine in 12-18 months" at which point the world will be made
whole again and Kumbaya...
All of which brings us back to the man of the day in our humble opinion.
Former Harvard Medical School professor and founder of the university's cancer and HIV/AIDS
research departments, William Haseltine dared to speak out today about the high level of
bullshit and damage that is being done to "trust" in "scientists" and even dared to break the
one holy writ that shall go un-mentioned, throwing some shade a Dr.Fauci.
Reflecting on Moderna's press release this week (which was immediately followed by massive
equity raises across numerous biotech firms and upgrades from the underwriters, surprise),
Haseltine said:
"If a CFO had tried to get away with such an opaque and data-less statement it would have
bee treated with derision and possibly an investigation."
The CNBC anchor desperately tried to guilt him into the official narrative of clinging to
any hope as long as it lifts stocks - no matter its utter bullshittiness - but Haseltine
destroyed her naive party line:
"we all know its an emergency, and in an emergency it's even more important to be clear on
what you know and what you do not know."
Moderna did not follow the process:
"you don't know what happened, we don't know what happened, there is no data."
But, but, but... the CNBC anchorette blubbered, "are you questioning Dr. Fauci who also said
that this was encouraging news?"
"Whether [Fauci] shaded what should should have been done, I think is an important
question. He's obviously under enormous pressure for positive results but it was not the
right thing to do if you can't see the data."
The full interview below is a must-watch by all who care about their freedom being
controlled by a narrative directed by fearmongering elites in the name of "science" when the
"science" is a) being ignored, b) being bastardized to meet a political need, c) being treated
as if handed down on high from the man himself, or d) being manipulated explicitly.
Faith in medicine and science is based on trust. But today, in the rush to share scientific
progress in combating covid-19, that trust is being undermined.
Private companies, governments and research institutes are holding news conferences to
report potential breakthroughs that cannot be verified. The results are always favorable, but
the full data on which the announcements are based are not immediately available for critical
review. This is "publication by press release," and it's damaging trust in the fundamental
methods of science and medicine at a time when we need it most.
The most recent example is Moderna's
claim Monday of favorable results in its vaccine trial, which it announced without
revealing any of the underlying data. The announcement added billions of dollars to the value
of the company, with its
shares jumping almost 20 percent. Many analysts believe it contributed to a
900-point gain in the Dow Jones industrial average.
The Moderna announcement described a safety trial of its vaccine based on eight healthy
participants. The claim was that in all eight people, the vaccine raised the levels of
neutralizing antibodies equivalent to those found in convalescent serum of those who recovered
from covid-19. What to make of that claim? Hard to say, because we have no sense of what those
levels were. This is the equivalent of a chief executive of a public company announcing a
favorable earnings report without supplying supporting financial data, which the Securities and
Exchange Commission would never allow.
There is a legitimate question regarding what Moderna's unsupported assertion means. The
scientific and medical literature reports that some people who have recovered have little to no
detectable neutralizing antibodies . There is even existing scientific literature that
suggests it is possible neutralizing antibodies may not protect animals or
humans from infection or reinfection by coronaviruses.
Such "publication by press release" seems to be a standard practice lately.
The National Institutes of Health
announced last month that the drug remdesivir offered a clear benefit to covid-19 patients
with moderate disease, shortening the length of their hospital stay by several days. But did it
really? Twenty days after the announcement, the supporting data has still not been published.
Without the data, no doctor treating a patient can be sure they are doing the right thing.
Another paper
, published the same day, found that remdesivir had no measurable effect on patient survival or
the amount of virus detectable in nasopharynx and lung secretions. What then should a
practicing physician do? Follow the unsupported advice of a news announcement or a medical
report published in a leading scientific journal? This is not an idle question: The NIH
announcement triggered a global stampede for
limited supplies of the drug.
The case is more nuanced for the vaccine developed by the Jenner Institute at Oxford
University, though the mileposts remain the same: It started with a public
pronouncement of favorable results from an early study, this time in monkeys, well before
any data was publicly released. An NIH scientist working on a trial of the Oxford vaccine gave
an interview to the New
York Times , claiming the drug was a success.
But the data, released as a prepublication version more than two weeks after the story ran,
didn't quite live up to the early claim. All of the vaccinated monkeys became infected when
introduced to the virus. Though there was some reduction in the amount of viral RNA detected in
the lungs, there was no reduction in the nasal secretions in the vaccinated monkeys. So the
positive result reported by the Oxford group turned out not to be protection from infection at
all, something most would agree is what a successful vaccine would do. Instead, it lowered only
the amount of virus recoverable from the vaccinated monkey's lung.
To the Jenner Institute's credit, it does warn visitors to its website
that there have been many false reports about the progress of its vaccine trial. Still, having
a scientist working on the trial paint preliminary results in such a positive manner without
having yet released the full data is cause for concern.
We all understand the need to share scientific and medical data as rapidly as possible in
this time of crisis. But a media announcement alone is not enough. There are ways to share the
data quickly and transparently: posting manuscripts before review or acceptance on publicly
available websites or working with journals to allow an early view. Publishing in this manner
allows doctors and scientists to reach their own conclusion, based on the evidence
available.
The media also bears responsibility. Asking experts to opine on unsubstantiated claims is
not useful. Medicine and science are not matters of majority opinion; they are matters of fact
supported by transparent data. This is the backbone of scientific progress and our only hope to
end this pandemic. We can't give up on our standards now.
* * *
So, by all means, trust in "science" but choose your "scientist" well...
Pure Evil, 13 minutes ago
It seems the more this hoax is exposed. The more Gates/Fauci appear as money grubbing
opportunist vaccine pushers the more the MSM and the government double down on the whole
false narrative.
hanekhw, 13 minutes ago
Look around at the moral climate and ask yourself if lying about everything for profit was
not required for success how can we stop it without pain, suffering and violence? There
really IS no free lunch and there never has been nor ever will be. We pay one way or another
but we ALL pay.
Enraged, 15 minutes ago
Fake media, fake Big Pharma, fake banksters, fake government, fake breasts, fake stock
"market", fake medical agencies, fake wars.
Assume they are 100% wrong unless there is substantial evidence they are correct, which
will be on very rare occasions.
Stochastic" is simply defined as "randomly determined; having a random probability
distribution or pattern that may be analyzed statistically but may not be predicted precisely."
In other words, they begin with a presumption, and therein lies the FIRST error. Ferguson's
assumption was wrong, to begin with. Then this mode is so old, they recommend that it be run
only on a single CORE processor as if we were dealing with an old IBM XT.
Effectively, you start the program with what is called a "seed" number which is then used to
produce a random number. Most children's games begin this way. In fact, this is a version of
what you would be similar to the game SimCity where you create a city starting from scratch and
it simulates what might happen based upon the beginning presumption. There are numerous bugs in
the code and the documentation suggests to run it several times and take the average. This is
just unthinkable! A program should produce the same result with the same data from which it
begins. Therefore, there is no possible way this model would ever produce the same results. In
reality, this model produces completely different results even when beginning with the very
same starting seeds and parameters because of the attempt to also make the seed random. This is
not even as sophisticated as SimCity, which is really questionable. This is where the Imperial
College claims that the errors will vanish if you run it on an old system in the
single-threaded mode as if you were using a 1980s XT.
In programming, you run what is known as a regression-test, which is re-running a functional
and non-functional test to ensure that previously developed and tested software still performs
after a change. In market terminology, its called back-testing. In the most unprofessional
manner imaginable, the Imperial College code does not even have a regression-test structure.
They apparently attempted to but the extent of the random behavior caused by bugs in the code
to prevent that check? On April 4th, 2020, Imperial College noted:
" However, we haven't had the time to work out a scalable and maintainable way of running
the regression test in a way that allows a small amount of variation, but doesn't let the
figures drift over time."
This Ferguson Model is such a joke it is either an outright fraud, or it is the most inept
piece of programming I may have ever seen in my life. There is no valid test to warrant any
funding of Imperial College for providing ANY forecast based upon this model. This is the most
UNPROFESSIONAL operation perhaps in computer science. The entire team should be disbanded and
an independent team put in place to review the world of Neil Ferguson and he should NOT be
allowed to oversee any review of this model.
The only REASONABLE conclusion I can reach is that this has been deliberately used to
justify bogus forecasts intent for political activism, or I must accept that these academics
are totally incapable of even creating a theoretical model no less coding it as a programmer.
There seems to have been no independent review of Ferguson's work which is unimaginable!
A 15,000 line program is nothing. I will be glad to write a model like this in two weeks and
will only charge $1 million instead of $79 million. If you really want one to work globally, no
problem. It will take a bit more time and the price will be at a discount – only $50
million on sale – refunds not accepted as is the deal with Imperial College.
So just one more narrative about how the virus was so horrific, used to justify the
lockdowns, is shown to be utter bullshit. Remember "the immunity doesn't last, you can get
reinfected, the next time it's lethal"?
So, contrary to that, lots of people have immunity before they even get exposed to it.
From the common cold. So the idea that the corona immunity is a short term and unreliable
thing was just a bunch of uninformed blather, or worse, targeted and manipulative
narrative.
Fearmongering bullshit that is 95% wrong needs to get called out constantly.
Even in New York there was not the "catastrophic death count" that I see people writing
about as if it were true.
Hey! Let's talk about duct tape and plastic sheeting! Remember that idiotic bullshit scare
narrative?
"We have met the moment and we have prevailed," said President Donald Trump Monday, as he
supported the opening of the U.S. economy before the shutdown plunges us into a deep and
lasting depression.
Tuesday, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation's leading expert on infectious diseases, made
clear to a Senate committee his contradictory views.
"If states reopen their economies too soon, there is a real risk that you may trigger an
outbreak that you may not be able to control," said Fauci. "My concern is that we will start to
see little spikes that might turn into outbreaks of the disease (and) the inevitable return of
infections."
Fauci is talking of the real possibility of a second and even more severe wave of the
pandemic this summer and fall, if we open too soon.
There is evidence to justify the fears of Fauci and Dr. Robert Redfield of the Centers for
Disease Control, who told the same Senate committee, "We are not out of the woods yet."
Yet, there is a case to be made for the risks that Trump and red state governors are taking
in opening up sooner.
The Washington Post daily graph of new deaths nationally has been showing a curve sloping
downward for a month from April's more than 2,000 a day. On no day yet this week did the U.S.
record 2,000 dead from the virus. On some days, there were fewer than 1,000.
The graph for new coronavirus cases, which was showing more than 30,000 a day in April, is
now closer to 25,000.
Also, hospitalizations and ICU occupancies are not as high as they were. Hospitals put up in
Central Park and the Javits Center seem not to have been needed. There was and is no shortage
of ventilators. The Navy hospital ships Comfort and Mercy are returning to their home
ports.
Also, not all states are suffering equally, nor are all communities in the hardest-hit
states. There have been three times as many COVID-19 cases in New Jersey as in Texas, though
New Jersey is a fraction of the size and has a fraction of the population of Texas.
There are twice as many cases in Massachusetts as in Florida, the nation's third-most
populous state with one of its highest percentages of retirees and elderly. There have been
five times as many cases in New York as in California.
It is the nursing homes filled with the elderly and ill that have proven to be the real
killing fields of this virus. According to The New York Times, one-third of all deaths from
COVID-19 have come among residents and staff of nursing homes. Beyond these are the meatpacking
plants and the prisons where social distancing is almost nonexistent.
Moreover, while Fauci and Redfield are specialists in epidemics, Trump's portfolio goes far
beyond that.
He is chief of state, head of government and commander in chief, responsible for the
security and defense of the nation. His portfolio is broader and deeper than those of Fauci and
Redfield.
ORDER IT NOW
In the first hours of the Normandy invasion, General Eisenhower must have been rightly
alarmed about the high U.S. casualties on Omaha Beach. But he also had to concern himself with
the failure to capture the Port of Caen to bring ashore the armor to stop any German
counterattack that might turn D-Day into another Anzio.
Ike could not worry about casualties alone.
According to The Washington Post, economists already project that 100,000 small businesses
have shuttered, never to reopen.
"(D)eeper and longer recessions can leave behind lasting damage to the productive capacity
of the economy," warned Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday. "Avoidable
household and business insolvencies can weigh on growth for years to come."
Ultimately, Fauci is not "The Decider" here. Trump is.
It is he who is accountable to the nation for weighing the losses, both human and material,
due to his decisions.
Fauci may be the best at what he does, but he is still only an adviser. As John F. Kennedy
said after the Bay of Pigs, it is the president who ultimately bears responsibility for what he
does and fails to do, while "the advisers may move on to new advice."
Believing he can do no more than his White House is now doing to contain the incidence of
cases, hospitalizations and deaths, Trump has decided his primary job is to prevent the nation
from a catastrophic economic collapse from which it might take years to recover.
The country is slowly moving in Trump's direction, slowly opening. And he will be
responsible for whether the policy succeeds or opens the floodgates to a second and worse wave,
should it come.
As Abraham Lincoln put his situation: "I mean to keep going. If the end brings me out all
right, then what is said against me won't matter. If I'm wrong, ten angels swearing I was right
won't make a difference."
Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of "Nixon's White House Wars: The Battles That Made and
Broke a President and Divided America Forever."
Fauci says that, "My concern is that we will start to see little spikes that might turn
into outbreaks of the disease "
The problem with his statement is the first two words. A science advisor is supposed to
provide advice based knowledge and science. It is not part of his job description to voice
his feelings.
In this case, it doesn't matter who is "right" only one of them is POTUS! I get it that
Trumps perch on his seat is tenuous and exactly how much real control he has over the
government he supposedly heads is open to speculation, but at the end of the day Trump is
POTUS and this is no time to be thinking of political futures he must be focused on the
future of America.
We need not only an end to the lockdowns, but an end to the media campaign to demoralize
the country by hyping the non-event known as corona virus. It is all hype. when you get past
the spin and media blitz, there is nothing about this virus that would justify any kind of
response beyond your doctor testing you for covid along with the flu when you go to the
doctor with flu symptoms. That's it.
This is simply not the life altering virus that is being hyped. The enemy here is NOT the
virus, it is the (((elites))) who are trying to destroy us. It is time people it is time.
Gen. Flynn is the perfect example of how far these gov't agencies will go to protect a lie
and those frauds involved in the cover up/hoax. Trump was there target, the pathetic part of
all this is just how many republicans knew about the fraud before Trump did and did nothing
to protect him or Americans.
Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is not
cited anywhere as an inventor or patent owner of the drug and has not authored any research
studying remdesivir.
While Fauci has also said that early trials of remdesivir on coronavirus patients are a
positive sign, he has also cautioned against prematurely celebrating.
"I was very serious when I said this was not the total answer by any means, but it's a very
important first step," Fauci said on April 30 about the NIH study on
remdesivir.
As remdesivir is wholly owned by Gilead Sciences, Fauci is not legally entitled to any
profits from remdesivir.
Fauci was
the director of NIAID during the 2013-14 Ebola outbreak and spearheaded the department's
research and response to the virus. NIAID supported research into a range of potential Ebola
treatments, including remdesivir, as
recently as December. That said, Fauci did not directly conduct this research; neither he
nor the NIH stand to profit from its results.
The National Institutes of Health confirmed that Fauci has not authored any studies on
remdesivir and does not own stock in any biomedical or pharmaceutical companies.
Owning financial assets in pharmaceutical firms like Gilead would also be required to be
publicly disclosed per the
agency's ethics policy .
Amidst the storm of controversy raised by the lab-origin theory of COVID-19 extolled by such
figures as Nobel prize winning virologist Luc Montagnier, bioweapons expert Francis Boyle, Sri
Lankan Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith and the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard, an elaborate
project was undertaken under the nominal helm of NATURE Magazine in order to refute the claim
once and for all under the report 'The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2'
.
This project was led by a team of evolutionary virologists using a line of reasoning that
"random mutation can account for anything" and was parroted loudly and repeatedly by Fauci, WHO
officials and Bill Gates in order to shut down all uncomfortable discussion of the possible
laboratory origins of COVID-19 while also pushing for a global vaccine campaign. On April 18,
Dr. Fauci (whose close ties with Bill Gates, and Big Pharma have much to do with his control of
hundreds of billions of dollars of research money),
stated :
"There was a study recently that we can make available to you, where a group of highly
qualified evolutionary virologists looked at the sequences there and the sequences in bats as
they evolve. And the mutations that it took to get to the point where it is now is totally
consistent with a jump of a species from an animal to a human."
I think at this moment, rife as it is with speculative arguments, confusion and
under-defined data, it is useful to remove oneself from the present and look for higher
reference points from which we can re-evaluate events now unfolding on the world stage.
"... Sara Cunial, the Member of Parliament for Rome denounced Bill Gates as a "vaccine criminal" and urged the Italian President to hand him over to the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. ..."
"... In an extraordinary seven-minute speech met with wide applause, Sara Cunial, the Member of Parliament for Rome said that Italy had been subjected to a "Holy Inquisition of false science." ..."
Sara Cunial, the Member of Parliament for Rome denounced Bill Gates as a "vaccine criminal"
and urged the Italian President to hand him over to the International Criminal Court for crimes
against humanity.
She also exposed
Bill Gates' agenda in India and Africa, along with the plans to chip the human race through
the digital identification program ID2020.
In an extraordinary seven-minute speech met with wide applause, Sara Cunial, the Member of
Parliament for Rome said that Italy had been subjected to a "Holy Inquisition of false
science."
She roundly criticized the unnecessary lockdown imposed on her fellow Italians in the
service of a globalist agenda. She urged fellow political leaders to desist in any plans to
compel citizens to surrender themselves to compulsory COVID-19 vaccination at the hands of the
corrupt elite – whom she identified as the Deep State .
Below is the transcription of the full speech delivered to the Italian Parliament by Sara
Cunial, the Member of Parliament for Rome.
Hobbes said that absolute power does not come from an imposition from above but by the
choice of individuals who feel more protected renouncing to their own freedom and granting it
to a third party.
With this, you are going on anesthetizing the minds with corrupted Mass Media with
Amuchina (a brand of disinfectant promoted by Mass Media) and NLP, with words like "regime",
"to allow" and "to permit", to the point of allowing you to regulate our emotional ties and
feelings and certify our affects.
So, in this way, Phase 2 is nothing else than the persecution/continuation of Phase 1
– you just changed the name, as you did with the European Stability Mechanism (ESM). We
have understood people, for sure, don't die for the virus alone. So people will be allowed to
die and suffer, thanks to you and your laws, for misery and poverty. And, as in the "best"
regimes, the blame will be dropped only on citizens. You take away our freedom and say that
we looked for it. Divide et Impera (Divide and Rule).
It is our children who will lose more, who are 'raped souls', with the help of the
so-called "guarantor of their rights" and of CISMAI (Italian Coordination of Services against
Child Abuse). In this way, the right to school will be granted only with a bracelet to get
them used to probation, to get them used to slavery – involuntary treatment and to
virtual lager. All this in exchange for a push-scooter and a tablet. All to satisfy the
appetites of a financial capitalism whose driving force is the conflict of interest, conflict
well represented by the WHO, whose main financier is the well-known "philanthropist and
savior of the world" Bill Gates.
We all know it, now. Bill Gates, already in 2018, predicted a pandemic, simulated in
October 2019 at the "Event 201", together with Davos (Switzerland). For decades, Gates has
been working on Depopulation policy and dictatorial control plans on global politics, aiming
to obtain the primacy on agriculture, technology and energy.
Gates said, I quote exactly from his speech:
"If we do a good job on vaccines, health and reproduction, we can reduce the world
population by 10-15%. Only a genocide can save the world".
With his vaccines, Gates managed to sterilize millions of women in Africa. Gates
caused a polio epidemic that paralyzed 500,000 children in India and still today with
DTP, Gates causes more deaths than the disease itself. And he does the same with GMOs
designed by Monsanto and "generously donated" to needy populations. All this while he is
already thinking about distributing the quantum tattoo for vaccination recognition and mRNA
vaccines as tools for reprogramming our immune system. In addition, Gates also does business
with several multinationals that own 5G facilities in the USA.
On this table there is the entire Deep State in Italian sauce :
Sanofi, together with GlaxoSmithKline are friends of the Ranieri Guerra, Ricciardi, and of
the well-known virologist that we pay 2000 Euro every 10 minutes for the presentations on Rai
(Italian state TV. She's probably talking about Burioni). Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline sign
agreements with medical societies to indoctrinate future doctors, making fun of their
autonomy of judgment and their oath.
Hi-Tech multinationals, like the Roman Engineering which is friend of the noble Mantoan,
or Bending Spoons, of Pisano, which are there for control and manage our personal health
datas in agreement with the European Agenda ID2020 of electronic identification, which aims
to use mass vaccination to obtain a digital platform of digital ID. This is a continuation of
the transfer of data started by Renzi to IBM. Renzi, in 2016, gave a plus 30% to Gates Global
Fund.
On the Deep
State table there are the people of Aspen, like the Saxon Colao, who with his 4-pages
reports, paid 800 Euros/hour, with no scientific review, dictates its politics as a
Bilderberg general as he is, staying away from the battlefield. The list is long. Very long.
In the list there is also Mediatronic, by Arcuri and many more.
The Italian contribution to the International Alliance Against Coronavirus will be of 140
million Euros, of which 120 million Euros will be given to GAVI Alliance, the non-profit by
Gates Foundation. They are just a part of the 7.4 billion Euro fund by the EU to find a
vaccine against Coronavirus – vaccines which will be used as I said before.
No money, of course for serotherapy, which has the collateral effect of being super cheap.
No money for prevention, a real prevention, which includes our lifestyles, our food and our
relationship with the environment.
The real goal of all of this is total control. Absolute domination of human beings,
transformed into guinea pigs and slaves, violating sovereignty and free will. All this thanks
to tricks/hoax disguised as political compromises. While you rip up the Nuremberg code with
involuntary treatment, fines and deportation, facial recognition and intimidation, endorsed
by dogmatic scientism – protected by our "Multi-President" of the Republic who is real
cultural epidemic of this country.
We, with the people, will multiply the fires of resistance in a way that you won't be able
to repress all of us.
I ask you, President, to be the spokesperson and give an advice to our President Conte:
Dear Mr. President Conte, next time you receive a phone call from the philanthropist Bill
Gates forward it directly to the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity. If
you won't do this, tell us how we should define you, the "friend lawyer" who takes orders
from a criminal.
"If you look at the evolution of the virus in bats and what's out there now, [the scientific
evidence] is very, very strongly leaning toward this could not have been artificially or
deliberately manipulated," Fauci said in an interview with National Geographic
"Everything about the stepwise evolution over time strongly indicates that [this virus]
evolved in nature and then jumped species," the U.S. government's leading epidemiologist
added.
His statements are in line with those set forth by the World Health Organization (WHO), a
United Nations agency that ratified on Monday that the coronavirus is of animal origin. "The
coronavirus circulates ancestrally between bats.
"That is something we know based on this virus's genetic sequence. What we need to
understand is which animal... was infected by bats and transmitted it to humans," the WHO
Emerging Diseases Department Director Maria Van Kerkhove said.
Demand Trump's incompetent, unqualified son-in-law be removed from the coronavirus
response team! #care2
https://t.co/TN8jpMIw2p
Nevertheless, Trump insists that the U.S. government has evidence that the virus was created
in a laboratory in Wuhan (China), something that the Intelligence Directorate also
rejected.
Are You Tired Of The Lies And Non-Stop Propaganda?
On Tuesday morning, the U.S. president also reacted angrily to a video titled "Mourning In
America" produced by The Lincoln Project (LP), a conservative group opposed to Trump's
reelection which blames him for mishandling the COVID-19 pandemic.
"There's mourning in America - and under the leadership of Donald Trump, our country is
weaker, sicker, and poorer," the LP video points out and adds that the United States is on the
brink of a new Great Depression.
In response to the above, Trump released his discomfort by calling the Lincoln Project
members "losers."
Should everyone be wearing face masks? It's complicated.
Why
don't masks protect the wearer? Paul Glasziou, Professor of Medicine, Bond University and Chris Del Mar, Professor of
Public Health, Bond University, AU
also endorsed by epidemiologists in UK, CAD.
[.] There are several possible reasons why masks don't offer significant protection. First,
masks may not do much without eye protection. We know from animal and laboratory
experiments that influenza or other coronaviruses can enter the eyes and travel to the nose
and into the respiratory system.
While standard and special masks provide incomplete protection, special masks combined
with goggles appear to provide complete protection in laboratory experiments. However,
there are no studies in real-world situations measuring the results of combined mask and
eyewear.
The apparent minimal impact of wearing masks might also be because people didn't use
them properly. For example, one study found less than half of the participants wore them
"most of the time". People may also wear masks inappropriately, or touch a contaminated
part of the mask when removing it and transfer the virus to their hand, then their eyes and
thus to the nose.
Masks may also provide a false sense of security, meaning wearers might do riskier
things such as going into crowded spaces and places.[.]
Got goggles or a Visor? Eye protection is essential.
"... > How about we follow WHO's rule zero: test, test and test? ..."
"... Why the USA did not implemented entry/exist temperature checks (even at airports) I do not understand. The richest nation in the world has the government which is probably the most inept and disfunctional ..."
"... It looks like this is mainly the disease of megacities and industries with closely packed people (ships, meatpacking plants, Amazon warepuses) . And a large part of large cities infrastructure such as subways and air-conditioned building, hotels and shops are ideal environment for spreading of the virus. ..."
"... Another interesting feature of this virus is that it simply revealed how unhealthy the USA population generally is. For example, the epidemic of obesity now is tightly intermixed with the epidemic of COVID-19. Within the limits of the neoliberal social system very little can be done about it: for profit medicine makes is more fragile and create multiple avenue of abusing people. ..."
Do you understand that the current polymerase tests have 20-30% of false positives?
So if everybody in the USA is tested around 60-80 million people in the USA would be
deemed infected. I suspect that a very large percentage of "asymptomatics" are in reality
false positives.
We need to distinguish between the necessary measures and fearmongering. I suspect that in
the case of polymerase test the mantra "test, test, test" is close to the latter. This is s
rather expensive test and money probably can be better spend distributing masks to the
population. That would instantly give a larger effect. The simple measure that in the USA was
not done. Just for that Fauci should be fired and probably tried, IMHO.
The same is probably true with the distribution of oxymeters too: people with lows reading
need oxygen. As simple as that. That probably will cut hospitalizations in half.
My impression is that temperature and oxymeter testing might be a proxy for polymerase
testing and much cheaper: if oxygen saturation is less then 90% the person need to be
isolated/treated with oxygen
Why the USA did not implemented entry/exist temperature checks (even at airports) I do
not understand. The richest nation in the world has the government which is probably the most
inept and disfunctional
It looks like this is mainly the disease of megacities and industries with closely
packed people (ships, meatpacking plants, Amazon warepuses) . And a large part of large
cities infrastructure such as subways and air-conditioned building, hotels and shops are
ideal environment for spreading of the virus.
Even reasonable prophylactic measures do not work that well in large cities. Slums and
homeless are and will be hotspots.
Even at work enforcing prophylactic measures is non trivial. You need to change mask each
2 hours when you are working inside. How many people will do that ?
I think there is not way out other then clench your teeth and go forward adapting the
behavior as new information about the virus emerge.
For example individual supply of air in planes, trains and buses (which existed in old
planes and some buses ) might be an important psychological (and with better filters medical)
measure required.
Also Cruise ships "experiments" suggest that only around 20% of population is susceptible
to the virus. Even among Wuhan medics who started working with coronavirus patients without
wearing protective equipment only around half got the disease. The simplistic assumption that
100% of people is susceptible is just a myth propagated by fearmongers for fun and
profit.
Another interesting feature of this virus is that it simply revealed how unhealthy the USA
population generally is. For example, the epidemic of obesity now is tightly intermixed with
the epidemic of COVID-19. Within the limits of the neoliberal social system very little can
be done about it: for profit medicine makes is more fragile and create multiple avenue of
abusing people.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will be checking
passengers' temperatures at select airports next week.
People familiar with the matter told The
Wall Street Journal that additional details would be unveiled in the near term. The program
is expected to roll out at 12 airports next week and will cost $20 million to implement.
Thermal check fees will be waived for travelers and likely expensed to the federal
government.
The first message is that covid19 is terrifying, unique, an existential threat to the human
race.
This message is never sourced to much fact, because the facts about the virus don't really
support it. If it cites anything solid it's the appallingly sloppy and discredited Imperial
computer model, or some generic research into the pathology of severe infections or rare viral
syndromes, which it tries to spin as being unique to covid19, even though it is not. But mostly
it doesn't cite anything at all. Or really claim anything at all.
It just tells people to be afraid. Very afraid. Of death, of uncertainty, of the 'virus', of
other people, of 'fake news'.
The fear being encouraged is not rooted in facts, and is therefore impervious to
them.
2. 'THERE IS NOTHING TO BE AFRAID OF '
The second message is that covid19 is actually pretty harmless and no big deal.
This message is rooted in a great deal of fact, because, as we have been pointing out since
day one, pretty much all the data coming out about this virus supports exactly this
conclusion.
No official body has ever denied this, and most of them readily admit it. Regularly and
unambiguously.
Here and here
and here and here .
Chris Whitty above is only one of many and this is not even his first go (see here ) at
explaining clearly that covid19 is only dangerous to a very very small minority of people, and
that most who get it will be just fine.
• Over the whole epidemic, even if there is no vaccine, a high proportion
will not get it.
• Of those who do, a significant proportion (exact number not yet clear)
have no symptoms.
• Of the symptomatic cases, the great majority (around 80%) a mild-
moderate disease.
• A minority have to go to hospital, most need only oxygen. The great
majority of these survive.
• A minority of those need ventilation.
• A minority of every agegroup sadly die with current treatment, but even
of the oldest group most do not.
[T]he great majority of people will not die from this and I'll just repeat something I
said right at the beginning because I think it's worth reinforcing :
Most people, a significant proportion of people, will not get this virus at all, at any
point of the epidemic which is going to go on for a long period of time.
Of those who do, some of them will get the virus without even knowing it, they will have
the virus with no symptoms at all, asymptomatic carriage, and we know that happens.
Of those who get symptoms, the great majority, probably 80%, will have a mild or
moderate disease. Might be bad enough for them to have to go to bed for a few days, not bad
enough for them to have to go to the doctor.
An unfortunate minority will have to go as far as hospital, but the majority of those
will just need oxygen and will then leave hospital.
And then a minority of those will end up having to go to severe end critical care and
some of those sadly will die.
But that's a minority, it's 1% or possibly even less than 1% overall.
And even in the highest risk group this is significantly less than 20%, ie. the great
majority of people, even the very highest groups, if they catch this virus, will not
die.
And I really wanted to make that point really clearly
Yes, Ken Garoo @26, the fearmongers have blood on their hands, not just in the UK, and this
is a massive life-and-death crisis. More evidence, from another unimpeachable source various
MoA stalwarts will now have to claim is a hack:
"...According to a stark report published in Lancet Global Health journal on Wednesday,
almost 1.2 million children could die in the next six months due to the disruption to health
services and food supplies caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
"The modelling, by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and
Unicef, found that child mortality rates could rise by as much as 45 per cent due to
coronavirus-related disruptions, while maternal deaths could increase by almost 39 per
cent.
"Dr [Stefan Peterson, chief of health at UNICEF] said these figures were in part a
reflection of stringent restrictions in much of the world that prevent people leaving their
homes without documentation, preventing them from accessing essential health care services.
...
"...Covid is not a children's disease. Yes there are rare instances and we see them
publicised across the media. But pneumonia, diarrhoea, measles, death in childbirth, these
are the reasons we will see deaths rise."
Hurrah! I have my blogroll back! I'm just starting to build it. At some point in the frequent
rollouts of new WordPress features, they added a 'WP Admin' button, which gives access to the
'Links' page and allowed me to eliminate those irritating default links, as well as add new
ones. So, I'm just getting started, but among the must-sees I stumbled across while starting
out with links I knew I wanted to add right away are one discussing the coronavirus (haven't
even read all of it myself yet) at Club Orlov;
and a great article, very much on point with this post, at Irrussianality, detailing the
absolutely flabbergasting Joint Statement on the Anniversary of the End of the Second World
War, on the USA's State Department website. The Nazis get one mention – the rest is
non-stop Russia is evil.
https://irrussianality.wordpress.com/2020/05/08/joint-statement-on-the-75th-anniversary-of-the-end-of-the-second-world-war/
I'm not sure what Dmitry Orlov does for a living, but if he is exclusively a writer when he's
not sailing around, I suppose he is entitled to charge a fee for his product, and I have
found it consistently excellent and well-sourced, much like John Helmer's work (although that
is still free). Orlov's blog is only $2.50 a month at the basic level of subscriber, and
that's cheap enough for me. I encourage readers to subscribe at the same level, because it's
an excellent resource. In this case, I had just skipped over it very quickly, because I
wanted to add it to the blogroll. I read the first couple of paragraphs, divined that it was
not only about the coronavirus, but vindicated many of my own beliefs, and went elsewhere to
add another site. I did not notice until I came back to it that it was now
subscription-only.
So I'll copy a few salient points for everyone, and they can judge for themselves if they
are willing to pay a couple of bucks for that kind of content. It was not all about the
coronavirus – it started out about that, and sort of segued into the precarious
position the USA is now in economically. So that's why it may look like two different posts;
I am just excerpting at random: the entire post is much too long to copy. Presuming you have
read as much of the post as was already included as a teaser before it became
subscriber-only
"First, let's handle the question of vaccination. There is a measles vaccine, yet it
kills 140,000 a year. There is a pneumococcus vaccine, yet it kills between 2 and 2.5 million
a year. There is a hepatitis B vaccine, yet it kills 140,000. There is a tetanus vaccine, yet
it kills 89,000 annually. There is a rotavirus vaccine, yet it kills 800,000. There is a HPV
vaccine, yet it kills 250,000. There is a tuberculosis vaccine, yet it kills 1.5 million.
There is an influenza vaccine, yet it kills 650,000 to 1 million a year. None of these are
considered pandemics, cause entire economies to be shut down, or call for any extraordinary
measures at all.
And then there is the novel coronavirus which has killed 218,187 people to date (the
vast majority of them very old and/or very sick) -- and this is considered to be a problem to
be solved with all possible haste. Some infectious disease experts have suggested that the
entire populace may be required to shelter in place until a vaccine becomes available.
Meanwhile, deaths from the novel coronavirus largely fit within the usual mortality of the
flu season. The northern hemisphere winter was warmer than usual, and some of the elderly and
sick people who would have been killed off by any of the usual influenza viruses (including
other coronaviruses) during any of the previous three flu seasons were claimed by the novel
coronavirus.
But even this is uncertain because it is unclear whether these 218,187 deaths were
actually caused by the coronavirus or whether the coronavirus just happened to be present in
their bodies at the time of death. Furthermore, a lot of people were diagnosed as suffering
from this coronavirus based on symptoms which are not too different from those caused by
other viral agents. Lastly, the vast majority of those who have died from it had what are
called comorbidities. Elderly immunocompromised morbidly obese diabetics with high blood
pressure, cancer and other potential fatal ailments have been particularly susceptible. If
you discard all fatal cases with comorbidities and only consider young healthy people, then
the number of deaths where the new coronavirus is obviously the root cause may turn out to be
as low as zero.
Confirmed novel coronavirus cases number less than 3,147,626 worldwide, which is 0.04%
of the world's population. This barely adds up to a cough and a sneeze. As this virus has
spread throughout the world the increase in cases has slowed, but the number of confirmed
cases could yet double or even triple, adding up to as much as three coughs and three
sneezes. But then the World Health Organization enters the fray. The WHO makes gratuitous use
of appellations such as "world" and "health" but is actually a semi-private entity lavishly
financed by Bill Gates and Big Pharma, which is owned by a handful of highly inbred
oligarchic entities that include Vanguard, BlackRock, Capital Group, Morgan Stanley, Goldman
Sachs, Northern Trust and State Street, which in turn own each other in various convoluted
ways. WHO's main function is to scare people into getting vaccinated and accepting expensive
drug regimens (barely half of which do any good at all), thus funneling resources toward Big
Pharma.
The World Health Organization establishes thresholds to determine whether to declare an
influenza epidemic that range between 2.5% and 5%. The novel coronavirus misses the mark by a
thousand-fold, yet the WHO has declared it to be the cause of a global pandemic. If this
seems like an extreme overreaction, that is because this is an extreme overreaction. Some
conspiratorially-minded people may surmise that this is a conspiracy, but it isn't. It is yet
another blatant attempt to confiscate a chunk of the world's wealth by requiring it to buy
something worthless, just like this same set of medical/financial interests did with the
relatively worthless Tamiflu antiviral medication during the H1N1 swine flu pandemic of
2009-10 which caused a mere 18,036 deaths worldwide. This is a specific group pursuing its
own group interests."
Then he went into how the Chinese and the Russians are respectively manipulating the
coronavirus in their own countries for their own ends
"The Chinese have taken the novel coronavirus outbreak as a chance to train for
repelling a biological warfare attack. To argue that this coronavirus is indeed the agent of
a biowarfare attack is to argue for something extremely stupid because it just isn't
effective as a biowarfare agent. It's almost as bad as Novichok, which was touted as being
able to wipe out entire armies but only managed to sicken five people and kill just one of
them. It doesn't matter whether this coronavirus leaked out of a dead bat or a biowarfare
lab, or both -- it just isn't any good as a weapon. But the Chinese government imposed
extreme, unprecedented controls over much of the population and the economy. The Russians
followed suit, with the difference that while the Chinese saw these extreme measures as
temporary, setting up makeshift hospitals, the Russians seized on them as a chance to
fundamentally upgrade the entire health care system, setting it up to effectively handle any
future biological warfare attacks.
In doing so, the Chinese and the Russians pursued different goals. The Chinese need to
find a way to stop shipping actual physical manufactured goods to the US in exchange for
pieces of paper or promises to pay, all of which are about to become worthless, without
triggering a dangerous escalation. The need to do so with all necessary haste became obvious
in mid-August of 2019, when it turned out that banks were no longer willing to accept US
Treasury debt instruments as collateral for overnight loans. These were supposedly the safest
investments in the world that made up the world's largest and most liquid financial market --
until it turned out that they weren't that at all."
And on the American economy
"There are two important global processes which, while they will affect the US
particularly severely, go far beyond its geographic confines. One is the still relatively
gradual process of dethroning the US dollar from its position of dominance. Until the
coronavirus pandemic disrupted much of the global economy, most of its participants were
interested in preserving some measure of stability to the dollar system. But now that trade
has already been disrupted, an opening has been created to dump the dollar without
necessarily causing economic damage significantly worse than already exists. The actions of
the Federal Reserve, which is in the process of monetizing a large proportion of existing US
government debt and virtually all of the new debt being issued to cover the ever-growing
budget deficit, are undermining the dollar as well. Although the term "debt monetization" is
being used to describe what's happening, issuing currency with which to buy up worthless
promissory notes stretches the definition of "debt" beyond any reasonable limit, while
"monetization" is far too dignified a term for such a desperate delaying tactic. As a
consequence, some analysts do not see US dollar-based global financial system holding up too
far beyond this year.
The other process is the rapid transition of the US from the world's largest producer
of oil to one of the smallest, because the fracking bonanza has largely run its course. It
has never really made any money, since fracked oil is, for technological reasons, always too
expensive to sustain economic growth. And now, with an economic depression setting in,
economies at a standstill and oil futures trading in the negative territory (where market
participants are willing to pay producers to get out of having take delivery of the oil when
the contract matures) the fracking industry is going bankrupt, production is falling, and in
less than a year it is likely to be down by as much as 70%. At that point, any attempt at
economic recovery in the US will involve having to start importing large quantities of oil
from a world supply that, with the exception of fracked oil from the US, hasn't expanded much
since 2005."
My view is that despite this being all highly disruptive, it will prepare us all for the
inevitable outbreak of a truly deadly virus that will also kill the young and healthy too
(hopefully not cats). The world is becoming ever more globalized, transmission chains and
time seriously shortened. There will be no escape even on the periphery. A biological version
of Neville Shute's On the Beach.
Handling this well (in future) is eminently doable without even losing a (metaphorical)
bollock. It is basic stuff and really shouldn't be 'a thing.' The WHO is a redirection
nothing burger for those who are responsible for the abrogation of national competence.
Decisions are still taken at the national level, no? The WHO is a spokesbody and therein it
does have a role to play. It is neither free from political inteference or influence just
like every other international organization.
Fortunately, Asia has shown the common-sense that we in the old world have lost through
our own arrogance and self-importance. We should be humiliated, but we are not. We're too
busy blaming others.
This CoVid-19 outbreak has provided everyone with a crystal clear warning of precisely how
incompetent many nation states are over basic provision of health and pandemic planning in
the 21st Century. This isn't 1918. Things are supposed to have moved on a bit but it has
exposed the ideology of cuts, penny-pinching and not-give-a-f/kery over common-sense by those
elected (by us) to provide responsible government. They've been warned multiple times about
the risks, not to mention the series of other outbreaks in this century. Still, they're
rather more interested in squeaking out ever leaner efficiencies to maximize
profit.
I'm not worried about the planet, we'll knock ourselves off first.
My initial feeling was that the initial reaction of Putin, Trump and Johnson was to let the
thing burn itself out and maybe put the effort into looking after the most at risk. The
Imperial College thing seems to be the reason why Trump and Johnson went to lockdown and that
left me puzzled why Putin did. Orlov's piece gave me the idea that maybe, after talking to
Xi, Putin decided to use it as a test of Russia's ability to handle a bioattack. Notice that
Russia is actually building specialised hospitals around the country rather than just (as in
the West) temporarily re-purposing large facilities. We'll probably never know but it's a
thought I will keep in the Maybe File.
Agreed; I could think of no good reason for it, and consequently Orlov's speculation came as
a revelation. Again, it's only speculation on his part, but it does make sense and fits with
the Sino-Russian concept of every experience being a teachable moment, to be wrung for such
lessons as it may yield.
It is fairly well-known that Johnson's initial plan was to go for herd immunity and just
say bollocks to social distancing, but something caused him to abruptly reverse himself after
the UK had already started a pretty respectable infection curve. I'm not familiar with the
'Imperial College thing'; could you enlighten me? I do know that impatience at being shut in
with no job is increasingly unpopular with people everywhere it prevails, and governments are
having a harder time keeping the lid on. I can only imagine it is the same for Putin's
government.
I see; thanks for that. I remember reading mentions of a study which forecast incredible
death tolls, but didn't realize that was it. Well, no way they could have done anything else,
in the face of that – 2.2 million deaths in the US, and more than half a million in the
UK.
I don't suppose they will ever be called to account for their fearmongering quackery. To
nobody's surprise, I'm sure, the Imperial College receives generous grants from the Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation, the most recent in March of this year – just shy of $80
Million, to develop a new tool for malaria control and elimination in sub-Saharan Africa.
Nor was that the only one, by a long chalk; 80 donations between 2006 and 2018. This
website does ask that a disclaimer be included that the data are preliminary; final
development is not expected to be achieved until 2022. But at first glance, it looks like the
full amount will run into quite a few decimal places.
An under-reported fact in the US is the abundance of empty ICUs and now a surplus of
ventilators. A nearby city is laying off 2,500 medical personnel for lack of work (presumably
mobilized for the pandemic).
IIRC, a local story blew the whistle on a staged waiting line for Covid-19 testing; most
of the people in line (including medical volunteers who had nothing to do) were asked to to
stand in line to provide video footage for a network news team.
Yes, that's correct: Cherry Health, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The article points out that
Cherry Health stands to lose millions as a result of the crisis.
Ha, ha!! Dear God. Well, I hope he doesn't lose his tasty bit on the side over this –
he'll probably top himself. She looks quite yummy. But it's always the same, innit? Those who
make up the rules get a great kick out of it, but feel free to disregard them themselves as
soon as they get in the way.
Makes one wonder if the virus response is being managed at some level to cull the old and
frail to reduce health care costs. The obvious vulnerability of nursing home residents
combined with the apparent lack of resources specifically devoted to protecting those
individuals suggests high level scheming in that regard.
It was only a few months ago that we exceptional people were told that masks were useless
and unneeded (except for health care workers who desperately needed them for
self-protection). It is likely that policy lead to a rapid spread in the vulnerable
population.
It is remarkable how quickly the "masks are useless" directive has been officially
forgotten. Now, it's all about how China allowed us to mishandle the situation.
I would think not, only because no apparent effort has been made to ensure infection of the
homeless in their cardboard cities, and wipe them out. Here, as I have mentioned before,
Mayor Helps has given them a city park to use as their own squalid state, constantly refers
to them tenderly as 'our most vulnerable', and provides them no end of services, all for free
on the taxpayer. If your ambitions are modest, there is no real incentive to work.
If it were all part of a diabolical plan, you would think that plan would allow for taking
out the 'useless eaters' among the poor and helpless, as well as the old.
It certainly looks that way but such a plot requires a competence that our political elites
(at least in the UK) just don't have. Unfortunately, we're led by the shallow, ignorant and
inexperienced who responded to a serious health problem with blind panic. It's common sense
that a virus, which is particularly dangerous for the elderly, shouldn't be let out to play
in care homes; that steps should have been taken to protect the vulnerable rather than
putting everyone under house arrest while destroying their livelihoods. But common sense is a
bit like common courtesy, not actually that common when you get right down to it.
Professor Neil Ferguson (he of the 500,000 deaths forecast) and his Imperial College team
have a dire track record of forecasting in previous health crises, consistently wrong by an
order of magnitude. Yet it seems that no-one in government or our once highly competent civil
service had either the skills or time to query his forecasting model and the assumptions he
made. The fact that he broke the lockdown, introduced as a result of his forecast, in order
to dally with his mistress, does kind of suggest he doesn't believe in his own figures.
Yes, it sounds as if you are right. I suppose one reason it looks like a well-managed
conspiracy is that it was such a startlingly stupid thing to do – it's difficult to
imagine people would willingly cause such destruction without the slightest look to the
future.
Johnson is an idiot, but his first instinct – or apparently so, I suppose it might
have been just paralysis – was the correct one; proceed as normal, no reason to believe
this is the Black Death.
It's almost like the 'pandemic' is just an excuse for something, and the rest is just going
through the motions.
On relaxation of restrictions, it's mostly a game of feeling for the level of restriction
the public will tolerate, because it is so grateful for the degree of freedom allowed it. I
imagine when stores are opened, they're going to want Soviet-style lineups outside,
social-distancing 6 feet apart, because only 50 people are allowed inside at any one time. So
they can social-distance inside as well, as if that were somehow an effective
contagious-virus countermeasure, the way grocery stores are now. And 50 seems to be the magic
number no matter the size of the store, except for kiosks which are only allowed to serve one
person inside at a time.
The local pizza hotspot, Romeo's, seems to be doing a land-office business, and is
probably making money. They only serve take-out now, no inside service, so they only have to
pay the cooks and perhaps two counter-service persons; no waitresses or waiters or busboys.
And the line outside frequently is about a quarter-mile. But they still have to pay their
rent based on the size of the building, which is wasteful – look for perhaps quite a
few businesses switching to take-out only in the course of time, and renting smaller
premises. Because of course The Authorities are going to want social-distancing inside
restaurants as well as we emerge, to preserve the illusion that they knew what they were
about.
Case in point. America has a surveillance state but it refuses to use it to save lives.
Instead, it uses it to save Wall Street and protect the extractive elite from any TRUE REAL
threat. I relish the notion of this virus running rampant across America until it ravages,
and decimates actually, the Praetorian Guard Class, the managerial class if you will, that
licks the ass of the extractive elite for some bread crust, discarded steak fat and a Tesla.
I want to see them truly suffer for their sins.
After weeks cooped up at home following governors' orders to contain the coronavirus
outbreak, U.S. residents appear eager to get moving again. As more states began to relax
restrictions, about 25 million more people ventured outside their homes on an average day
last week than during the preceding six weeks, a New York Times analysis of cellphone
data found .
In nearly every part of the country, the share of people staying home dropped, in some
places by nearly 11 percentage points.
As the death toll from this pandemic rises in America with no end in sight, Wall Street,
as reflected in the DJIA, doesn't even blink and actually cheers. It doesn't get any sicker
than that. Wall Street sees the carnage as an opportunity to make more profit off of death
and the extractive elite see it as an opportunity to concentrate wealth even further and rid
the world of burdensome useless eaters. It's sick. It's sadistic. It's malevolent. It's evil.
It's our reality.
The coronavirus reminds us that the gap between what we think we know and what we
actually do know is enormous.
Dr. Deborah Birx, White House coronavirus response
coordinator, shows off charts with members of the coronavirus task force during a briefing in
response to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the
White House on Tuesday, March 31, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Jabin Botsford/The
Washington Post via Getty Images)
May 13, 2020
|
12:01 am
Matt
Purple St. Louis Federal Reserve watchers, rejoice! And yes, I'm talking to both of you. The St.
Louis Fed is freshly relevant this week thanks to a paper it
published back in 2007 that examined the economic effects of the 1918 Spanish flu. Drawing
on old newspaper articles, local surveys, and other studies -- national data back then was
scarce -- the report found that the damage done to businesses by the outbreak was both severe
and short-lived. The impact on the next generation, however, was longer-lasting. Those in utero
during the pandemic went on to attain less education and lower incomes than had previous
generations.
What we wouldn't give for that kind of glimpse from the future today. The coronavirus has
killed hundreds of thousands while sledgehammering the economy, leaving close to a quarter of
working-age Americans either unemployed or
underemployed. And we still have no idea how it will end. It may be that this recession is
similar to the one in 1918, cutting deeply but easing rapidly. Or it may be that we're in for
another lost decade of stubborn unemployment and stagnant growth. It may be that the virus is
seen off this summer, remembered as a frightening but ultimately brief ordeal. Or it may be
that it lurks into the autumn, whereupon it comes roaring back.
We don't know, and we hate that we don't know. Consequently a cottage industry has sprung up
around our uncertainty, hawking models, projections, expert opinions. These things have valid
scientific purposes, of course, but thrown down the rabbit hole of our popular discourse,
they've taken on a kind of hysterical clairvoyance, supposedly able to tell us what's coming
and how we should respond. With climate change, we grew accustomed to the idea that scientists
could see into the future. Now we're demanding they do the same with the coronavirus. That's
despite the fact that so far, none of these projections have demonstrated any greater
predictive ability than your average call to Miss Cleo.
Take the government's official death toll projections. Back in January, the White House was
largely complacent over the coronavirus, with President Trump comparing it to the seasonal flu
and his health secretary
saying that Americans need "not worry for their own safety." Then in late March, the
pendulum swung towards apocalypse. Actually, the White House said,
200,000 Americans could die. Two weeks later, the death toll projection fell
to a far rosier 60,000 , and the country breathed a sigh of relief ahead of Easter weekend.
Then the projections ticked upwards yet again. Today, IHME, the White House's principal
modeler, predicts that 147,000 Americans will be killed
by August 4.
Some of the issue here may be the choice of models. IHME has been
criticized by epidemiologists , as have the Imperial College modelers in Britain (who have
lately been distracted by, er, more
extracurricular activities ). But the bigger problem is best summed up in a quote
to Politico by the head of IHME, explaining why his organization's projections
were so wrong. "We had presumed, perhaps naively," he said, "that given the magnitude of the
epidemic, most states would stick to their social distancing until the end of May." In other
words, the models are premised on assumptions that can be scrambled by real-world events,
whether political decisions or acts of God or the caprices of the virus itself. They aren't
showing us the future so much as extrapolating off of a snapshot, one that can easily change.
Yet we treat them as practically mystic. "200,000 could die!!" scream the headlines, with
"could" ever the weasel word.
We don't just do this with the death toll. On the economy, too, we seem hopelessly confused.
Here's a smattering of headlines from the past two months: "Unemployment rate could exceed 20%
by June, top White House adviser says." "Economists see uneven jobs recovery, high U.S.
unemployment through 2021." "Top JPMorgan investment advisor: It will take '10 to 12 years' for
U.S. employment levels to return." "The coronavirus recession will be deeper and faster than
the financial crisis." "Economists say quick rebound from recession is unlikely." "Trump's
baseless claim that a recession would be deadlier than the coronavirus." "U.N. warns economic
downturn could kill hundreds of thousands of children in 2020."
Stare into this blurry puddle long enough and you might conclude that no one has any idea
what the hell they're talking about. Or you might fall back on your own biases, choosing to
believe stories that buttress your political beliefs and speak to your own personal
circumstances. Either way, this kind of confusion can have long-reaching effects. Consider, for
example, a new study that was released last week, which found that there could be 75,000
so-called deaths of despair -- meaning suicides and drug and alcohol overdoses -- as a
result of the coronavirus recession. It called to mind another
social science finding , one of the most consequential of the last decade: that life
expectancy among less educated, middle-aged, white Americans was declining, driven primarily by
those deaths of despair.
That claim, courtesy of researchers Anne Case and Angus Deaton , made
its way around the internet. It fed into the narrative of the populist right and Donald Trump.
It provided an empirical grounding for "American carnage." But wait: a less noticed study a
year later, which took Case's and Deaton's data and adjusted for age, found a more mixed
picture. According to research from
Columbia University , while middle-aged white women had indeed seen increased mortality
rates, middle-aged white men had reversed this trend back in 2005. And then came another study, in the
American Journal of Public Health , that challenged the very concept of "deaths of
despair," warning that "the gap between deaths of despair as a claim and deaths of despair as a
rigorously tested scientific concept is wide."
There is a Grand Canyon-sized gap between what we think we know and what we actually know.
How to navigate this chasm? Two maxims can help.
The first comes from Friedrich Hayek: "The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to
men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design." Hayek was concerned
with what he called the "fatal conceit," which he defined as the belief "that man is able to
shape the world around him according to his wishes." We might add a corollary: that man is able
to anticipate the world around him according to his wishes. Because knowledge is
complex and dispersed, Hayek argued, no one can ever marshal enough of it to centrally plan an
economy. Likewise even a sophisticated model can't have enough data to foresee how a pandemic
will play out. There are simply too many variables, drawing on too many areas of life.
The second maxim comes from a very different source: John Dickinson, perhaps our most
conservative founding father. "Experience must be our only guide," Dickinson said. "Reason may
mislead us." Of course, by reason, he didn't mean vast computer algorithms struggling to track
contagion across seven continents; he was thinking of 18th-century rationalism, which he
contrasted with the more reliable yardstick of historical experience. While what seemed
philosophically sound in the abstract could be tainted by personal bias or disconnected from
real life, precedent was far more settled. How something had worked in the past was a good
indication of how it would work in the future.
Unfortunately we have very little precedent when it comes to the coronavirus, though the
Spanish flu can perhaps offer some clues. The 1918 influenza, like the current pandemic, began
in the spring, only to enter a second wave in the fall that killed more people than the first.
A third wave then began that winter and stretched into the summer of 1919. That's chilling, yet
there's good news too: the recession that followed was short and quickly blossomed into the
1920s, one of the most dizzying economic expansions in our history.
So top hats and flapper dresses all around? Who knows? It's called the novel coronavirus for
a reason. The awful truth is that we have very little idea how long this will go on and how it
will ultimately turn out. And the reason for that is that we know so very much less than we
think we do.
"Paul's challenge encapsulates the debate between elected officials eager to open up businesses and willing to accept the risk
that more people will die, and public health experts committed to lowering infection rates and keeping the public as safe as possible.
" People are hurting and we're destroying our country ," Paul told reporters outside the hearing room. "We've got to open up business
we got to let people vote, and we're not going to live in a perfect world without infectious disease, we're still going to have it,
but we got to open the economy and that's the number one message I have."
The Kentucky senator, an opthamologist, told Fauci he didn't believe there would be a surge in cases if schools opened, which
is not what public health experts say. Paul dismissed predictive models of the virus. "The history of this, when we look back, will
be of wrong prediction after wrong prediction after wrong prediction ," Paul said.
Paul then targeted Fauci personally: "As much as I respect you Dr. Fauci, I don't think you're the end-all, I don't think you're
the one person that gets to make the decision . We can listen to your advice. But there are people on the other side saying there
won't be a surge and we can safely open the economy." CNBC
--------------
IMO, there may or may not be an effective vaccine developed against COVID-19. Some virus bugs are never countered effectively
by vaccines. There are no vaccines for the common cold, the Spanish Influenza of 1918, and many other virus strains. Some diseases
must burn themselves out in a population by establishing herd immunity. Bubonic Plague is a bacterial infection, but the same thing
was true of it. It ravaged Europe, but eventually the fire of infection burned out in Europe and those of us who are descended from
Europeans are the descendants of the herd survivors.
COVID-19 is nothing like the Black Death or the Spanish Influenza in lethality except for the old and infirm. Suck it up, people!
Cowboy up! Grow a pair! Fauci is a techno dweeb who would keep the US shut down economically until the survivors of COVID-19 would
be living in a post-apocalyptic world of small communities living in poverty, a dystopian nightmare.
Rand Paul is also a doctor, and a survivor of the disease.
The Democrats are having a good time playing with Trump while the country burns to the ground economically.
Biden? Pelosi? Juan Williams? Northam? You want them? If you do, and you want to hunker down until the country dies, well then,
Bless You! You will deserve what you get.
SWMBO and I, and the doggies are unlikely to be here to share your pain. pl
LA County apparently wants to extend the lockdown by another 3 months. This is just insane!
Old guys like me could hang out more at the ranch but the youth need to be out and about.
There's no perfect risk-free scenario as you point out. Unfortunately we have cultivated a nanny state of big government and
big business that are quite rapacious in reality. Has any state actually passed legislation to enforce lockdowns? These are just
executive orders at the state and local levels. It would appear that these orders suspends the constitution? I'm surprised no
one has yet challenged these orders in state and federal courts.
We sure are an afraid lot. What happened to the derring-do?
maybe they could do a special ufc - wrestling type show with paul and fauci.. the american public seem very keen on this sort
of thing and would eat it up..
can someone explain how herd immunity works?? i've never heard of people being referred to as a herd... i missed that in school..
BTW, notice how Ukraine has vanished from the national conversation.
Who needs to keep yapping about how Trump let down (one faction in) Ukraine when they can blame him for the economic calamity
which, in point of fact, is due to the vast overreaction that has been pushed by the media and Dem politicians.
For example, failing to point out that New York has unique demographics, which directly and conclusively led to its high hospitalization
and fatality rate.
A key point the media doesn't adequately emphasize, IMO, is the sharpness of the dependency on age.
In Virginia, there have been, to date, roughly 900 deaths attributed to the virus.
Of those deaths, over half were to people over 80.
Roughly one quarter were people in their 70s.
About 15% were people on their 60s.
Less than 10% were people under 60.
There were ZERO deaths of people under 20.
To see a bar chart which shows the exact numbers, visit https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/coronavirus/
Then click on "Demographics", then set "Select Measure" to "Deaths".
"public health experts"
These folks appear to be expert only at guaranteeing thier jobs. The backpedaling, double speak and out right fraud is beyond
shameless. I notice we aren't talking about the Georgia death count any longer but St. Travoon of the skittles accolyte. This
thing is over but for NYC and the politicians in the democratic death traps being governed by fools. Ordering infected elderly
patients back to nursing homes, which experts advised that to Cuomo and Whitmer? Suicide, drug overdoses, those deaths don't count?
"Biden? Pelosi? Juan Williams? Northam? You want them?" No, nor Whitmer nor Newsom. If we get them I won't be around much longer
than your doggies and I'm much younger than you and SWMBO.
I think a big part of the problem is the total lack of any deeper philosophic debate, as part of a normal social functioning.
People want answers not truths, so there are plenty of politicians and priests, but philosophy is neutered and left to the back
alleys of academia.
We are linear, goal oriented creatures in a cyclical, reciprocal, feedback generated reality, in which there is this organic interplay
between competition and cooperation, as well as public and private functions of society, etc. So when we impose this goal oriented
model on those facts of life, we end up with a bunch of absolutist ideologs running the world and using the other side as boogymen
to rally their cultists. Rather than appreciating such interplay is fundamental to life.
When we have such a fundamentally primitive understanding of how reality functions, having nuanced discussion of life and death
issues is not possible.
The people won't stand for Fausti's nonsense, nor the Democrats'. They will just open their businesses and local governments -
especially county level - will allow it. Already happening in PA. Heck even some states are doing it. As counties and states open
up, the populations of those that do not will become increasingly agitated and begin to break "the rules". There will be a ripple
effect. The cowards and social media magnates and leftists will call them names and wave fingers at them, but the people won't
care. Actually they will continue to open with even more fervor just to give give these "elites" the finger.
As always, the socialist/dictator class ignores human nature and believes people can be programmed. As always, they are wrong.
People are no longer buying the models and case rates BS, etc. that the "scientists" put out there. Geekery ain't cutting it any
more.
Hopefully, this will all occur peacefully with the socialists/dictators just throwing up their hands. If they double down,
then the tree of liberty gets watered. Probably the outcome that needs to happen, terrible as it is. Right now Pelosi is trying
to develop a plan to bribe the people into staying locked down and vote democrat. It will fail.
LA County apparently wants to extend the lockdown by another 3 months. This is just insane!
Old guys like me could hang out more at the ranch but the youth need to be out and about.
There's no perfect risk-free scenario as you point out. Unfortunately we have cultivated a nanny state of big government and
big business that are quite rapacious in reality. Has any state actually passed legislation to enforce lockdowns? These are just
executive orders at the state and local levels. It would appear that these orders suspends the constitution? I'm surprised no
one has yet challenged these orders in state and federal courts.
We sure are an afraid lot. What happened to the derring-do?
maybe they could do a special ufc - wrestling type show with paul and fauci.. the american public seem very keen on this sort
of thing and would eat it up..
can someone explain how herd immunity works?? i've never heard of people being referred to as a herd... i missed that in school..
BTW, notice how Ukraine has vanished from the national conversation.
Who needs to keep yapping about how Trump let down (one faction in) Ukraine when they can blame him for the economic calamity
which, in point of fact, is due to the vast overreaction that has been pushed by the media and Dem politicians.
For example, failing to point out that New York has unique demographics, which directly and conclusively led to its high hospitalization
and fatality rate.
A key point the media doesn't adequately emphasize, IMO, is the sharpness of the dependency on age.
In Virginia, there have been, to date, roughly 900 deaths attributed to the virus.
Of those deaths, over half were to people over 80.
Roughly one quarter were people in their 70s.
About 15% were people on their 60s.
Less than 10% were people under 60.
There were ZERO deaths of people under 20.
To see a bar chart which shows the exact numbers, visit https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/coronavirus/
Then click on "Demographics", then set "Select Measure" to "Deaths".
"public health experts"
These folks appear to be expert only at guaranteeing thier jobs. The backpedaling, double speak and out right fraud is beyond
shameless. I notice we aren't talking about the Georgia death count any longer but St. Travoon of the skittles accolyte. This
thing is over but for NYC and the politicians in the democratic death traps being governed by fools. Ordering infected elderly
patients back to nursing homes, which experts advised that to Cuomo and Whitmer? Suicide, drug overdoses, those deaths don't count?
"Biden? Pelosi? Juan Williams? Northam? You want them?" No, nor Whitmer nor Newsom. If we get them I won't be around much longer
than your doggies and I'm much younger than you and SWMBO.
I think a big part of the problem is the total lack of any deeper philosophic debate, as part of a normal social functioning.
People want answers not truths, so there are plenty of politicians and priests, but philosophy is neutered and left to the back
alleys of academia.
We are linear, goal oriented creatures in a cyclical, reciprocal, feedback generated reality, in which there is this organic interplay
between competition and cooperation, as well as public and private functions of society, etc. So when we impose this goal oriented
model on those facts of life, we end up with a bunch of absolutist ideologs running the world and using the other side as boogymen
to rally their cultists. Rather than appreciating such interplay is fundamental to life.
When we have such a fundamentally primitive understanding of how reality functions, having nuanced discussion of life and death
issues is not possible.
The people won't stand for Fausti's nonsense, nor the Democrats'. They will just open their businesses and local governments -
especially county level - will allow it. Already happening in PA. Heck even some states are doing it. As counties and states open
up, the populations of those that do not will become increasingly agitated and begin to break "the rules". There will be a ripple
effect. The cowards and social media magnates and leftists will call them names and wave fingers at them, but the people won't
care. Actually they will continue to open with even more fervor just to give give these "elites" the finger.
As always, the socialist/dictator class ignores human nature and believes people can be programmed. As always, they are wrong.
People are no longer buying the models and case rates BS, etc. that the "scientists" put out there. Geekery ain't cutting it any
more.
Hopefully, this will all occur peacefully with the socialists/dictators just throwing up their hands. If they double down,
then the tree of liberty gets watered. Probably the outcome that needs to happen, terrible as it is. Right now Pelosi is trying
to develop a plan to bribe the people into staying locked down and vote democrat. It will fail.
The Current Situation in the United States: May 2020
James K. Galbraith
Two weeks ago week the US death toll from Covid-19 exceeded that of US soldiers in
Vietnam, 1955-1974. On May 1 the one-day toll reached a new high, greater than that in New York
City on September 11, 2001. Meanwhile economic output has collapsed and over thirty million
Americans had filed unemployment claims as of April 30, 2020. On the public health front,
testing remains inadequate, contact tracing non-existent, treatment options appear stalled and
millions remain uninsured. The federal bailouts have worked well in one way only: to spur a
modest revival of stocks and to forestall massive defaults on bonds.
The failures of the public health system border on sabotage. Test kits were available
from the WHO in January; the US elected not to use them. The first production of tests from the
CDC was botched. Testing was deliberately limited as community transmission grew, so that the
virus escaped from early containment that might have been possible. Lockdowns and quarantines
came late, were poorly organized and weakly enforced. Supplies of PPE were not allocated to
hospitals and health care providers according to need; the Defense Production Act was not
deployed in timely and effective manner to ramp up home production; no effective federal system
to manage international medical supply chains exists to this day. While some firms have no
doubt done their best, reports of profiteering and scams are rampant.
The push to reopen the economy is a further mark of failure. As food supply workers
were not properly protected, unacceptable levels of sickness and workplace contamination have
occurred, notably in meat. Food banks are in crisis, while milk, eggs and other perishables are
wasted. State governments facing fiscal catastrophe press businesses to reopen on terms that
cannot be profitable, because capacity is constrained for health reasons. The openings are
calculated to force workers off of unemployment insurance, which can be revoked if they decline
to return to risky jobs. Many smaller businesses are deciding not to reopen; they will face
bankruptcy instead and disappear. Although evictions and foreclosures are technically deferred,
many landlords have ignored this and in any event rent, mortgages, utility bills and other
debts continue to accrue.
Models of the pandemic now openly predict infections rising further as lockdowns are
relaxed, to the point of testing the capacity of health care systems even in parts of the
country not yet severely affected. Whether this will happen or not is not yet clear; the public
may continue, as a general rule, to practice safe contact behavior, and if the transmission
rates hold below 1, as they presently are estimated to be in almost all of the American states , the pandemic may continue to
decline. But if the models are borne out, death rates will rise by many multiples of their
current values. These events are projected to lead to further lock-downs on a rolling basis,
until such time as a vaccine or therapy is available. There is no guarantee of
either.
Even if the pandemic is now contained the economy will not revert to "normal." The
United States is a premier producer of energy, aerospace, advanced information technologies and
financial services. It assembles many million automobiles, appliances and other consumer
durable goods every year. The oil sector has suffered a price collapse and borders now on mass
bankruptcy; when fracking wells are capped they will sand up and become very costly to reopen,
so the US energy-based economic expansion is over. Airplanes are lined up in parking spaces; no
new civilian passenger airliners will be needed indefinitely. Households who are either
unemployed or working from home (and therefore not commuting) or that face deferred rent and
mortgages will not soon be in the market for new cars; in any event the old ones will last
longer as they are being driven much less. As office buildings remain empty, new ones will not
be built. Similarly for retail stores, already driven to the wall by on-line ordering and
deliveries. The banking sector is on the hook for energy loans gone bad, and for household
debts, and for corporate loans that will be at risk once the bailout money runs low. The debts
built up during the pandemic will be defaulted in many cases, ruining credit for the households
affected. All of which foretells a long depression even under the best foreseeable public
health conditions. A cycle of infections and lock-downs will make all of this that much
worse.
There is an illusion about, that the recent prosperity can be revived by "reopening." But
many industries – aircraft, airlines, hotels, automobiles, appliances, commercial
construction, energy – will definitely shrink, whatever happens now and no matter how
much money they receive. The bailouts were a measure predicated on the idea that these
industries were facing just a temporary interruption. But it is difficult to see how
bankruptcies and liquidations can be avoided if there is no revival in the demand for product.
And large-scale production relies on interlinked supply-chains, so that if a single major
producer (for example one of the majors in the automotive sector) fails, there is a risk of
cascading liquidations (for example in auto parts), making operations difficult – perhaps
impossible – for the survivors. In these industries the supply chains and subcontractors
are much larger in the aggregate than the assembly operations of the final production firm.
Higher education, a large sector in America, faces a crisis of high costs, collapsing
enrollments and the actual alternative of cheap on-line instruction in many fields. This was
already in the works for demographic reasons, and is now being accelerated by the loss of
household wealth. Health care, ten times larger, also faces financial difficulties as millions
are losing their insurance and – for the moment anyway – as accidents, other
infectious diseases and such are down, depriving doctors and hospitals of reimbursements.
Service industries from restaurants to retailers cannot function profitably at one-quarter of
capacity; bars, nightclubs, and most sporting venues cannot reopen at all.
Federal decision-making has failed at every level. In the executive branch, it has
been at best a complex of incompetence, denial, and political motivation. At worst,
decisions were taken and are still being taken in full knowledge of the projected death rates
and potential for private profiteering, both in the medical sector and in the larger financial
economy. It is known that some private speculators made over three hundred billion dollars
shorting the stock market before the February collapse, and that some Members of Congress sold
their holdings based on information provided in intelligence briefings. Congressional action
has been slow, marred by politics, lobbies, regional rivalries, poor judgment and a
misdiagnosis of the economic issues, as Congress reached for legislative models used in past
business downturns, especially the crisis of 2007-2009, which had no quarantine or other public
health component.
The specific policies implemented were plagued by problems. To calculate payments
under the first CARES Act, the IRS had to use filings from tax year 2018, and also ran into
printing bottlenecks for paper checks that had to be mailed to those without direct deposit.
Unemployment insurance benefits were made relatively generous, and the state unemployment
insurance web-sites could not handle the crush, so they crashed, leaving many without the
ability to access the program. Instead of simple wage replacement (which would have protected
health insurance and union membership) the Small Business Administration issued rules that
appeared unusable for many firms, banks gave preference to favored clients, and in the first
round also the money soon ran out. In short, the effort to save the economy by pouring money
into it through conventional channels was inadequate, ill-considered, inefficient, and in some
respects corrupt. The best that may be said is that it was much better than doing nothing at
all.
As events progress, the usual pattern of property sales and purchases cannot proceed. So
property values will collapse, leaving millions of homeowners without equity; as this happens,
mass foreclosures and property seizures are inevitable under the present legal rules. Predatory
private investors will buy distressed assets at firesale prices and the American population
will revert, largely to renter status. For those with means, private tutors and doctors will
remain available; the others will manage as they can. Needless to say, depression, despair,
drug abuse and suicide will prevail.
Or maybe they won't . In the wake of the Great Financial Crisis, it was possible
– barely possible, but possible – to shift the blame from the bankers to the
victims, from those who built a massively fraudulent financial system to those who took out the
loans that they could not repay. But there was no viral element, no public health trigger, to
that crisis. This one is different. Every development described above is a consequence, direct
or indirect, of the coronavirus. Those who were laid off, and who went home, and who broke the
transmission of the disease, did their part, just as health-care professionals and grocery
clerks did theirs. Their legal case for relief remains weak. But the moral case is strong and
the economic case is beyond dispute. Even the incumbent Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, a
foreclosure-predator of the first water after 2008, has stated that
the economic crisis "is no fault of American business, it is no fault of American workers, it
is the fault of a virus." This is true but it does not mean that things will return to the past
if the virus can be made to go away.
To move forward, first of all, debts incurred before and during the pandemic will
have to be written down. The energy sector and transport sectors will have to be rebuilt, based
far more on renewables and sources other than oil. A large share of basic industries –
especially in the health sector – will have to be repatriated so that basic sufficiency
exists in this country. Millions of people will be needed to monitor and support public health;
jobs for them must be organized and funded by the government. State and local governments will
have to be federally-funded, in substantial part, to provide basic public services. New and
sustainable housing must be built, in new community structures. High speed broadband must be
provided to all. A new financing model – cooperative, with public support – will be
required to re-establish small businesses. Local, decentralized cultural and sporting venues
will have to replace mass-based experiences; these too will require cooperative structures and
public support. In short, the only way out, remotely acceptable to the population at large,
will require a comprehensive restructuring of the economy on a cooperative foundation, with the
government stepping up to guaranteed funding, employment, and public investments.
Disaster capitalism is being tried, and the worst case is now the likely case. But there is
a scale beyond which disaster capitalism cannot go. At a certain point, the carnage becomes too
great to neglect, impossible to avoid and lethal to overlook. At a certain point, ordinary
people will stand up and refuse to be bullied any more. That point has not quite arrived; we
are still in the mind-set of "getting back to normal," even as the pandemic continues. The
contradiction between normality and public health is on people's minds; the impossibility of
returning to the previous abnormal-normal has not yet settled in. It will, in due course. At
that point, the question of alternatives will have to be faced.
>Patient #1 was a 35 year old male who presented at a Seattle (WA) clinic on Jan 15, 2020
A month later Fauci was still proclaiming in public that the evil virus was less of a
problem than the annual influenza. Someplace there is a video of Fauci saying this, right
around Feb 15.
I can not understand how even complete incompetents manage to make exactly the wrong
decision at every opportunity. In the UK there was a policy to send elderly patients, both
suspected and known to have the virus, to care homes, without even warning the care home
people. Supposedly it was to make room for corona patients who were even sicker than the ones
going into care homes. This is straight-up criminal negligence.
The governor -- who himself has described nursing homes as a "feeding frenzy'' for the
deadly coronavirus -- said that the facilities can't challenge a state regulation
forcing them to admit patients with the contagion .
The CEO of a hard-hit Brooklyn nursing home, where 55 patients have died from the
coronavirus, told The Post last week that he'd been warning state Health Department
officials for weeks he had staffing and equipment issues -- yet received little help.
"There is no way for us to prevent the spread under these conditions,'' the head of the
Cobble Hill Health Center, Donny Tuchman, wrote in an e-mail to the department on April
8.
He said he asked to move some patients to the makeshift wards at Manhattan's Javits
Center and aboard the city-docked USNS Comfort amid the pandemic, only to be told those two
spots were receiving only patients from hospitals.
"I made specific requests to transfer patients, and it didn't happen,'' Tuchman told The
Post. "There weren't options."
Deliberate policy decisions have killed and continue to kill people. That is perfectly
clear, even while the origins of the virus and the intent of decisions are hiding in the
muck. Will relatives of the dead just accept this as "an act of god", or will they come to
understand these events as "acts of dear leaders"?
For two months Dear Leaders have claimed that destroying the economy, house arrest, and no
care home visitors are for the express purpose of protecting ... care home residents. But
most of the dead were care home residents, along with plenty of their care workers.
Yes it sounds melodramatic but I keep seeing black-and-white images of people being herded
into shower rooms in order to get showered with Zyklon B. Please tell me why we are not
witnessing state-sanctioned murder.
"... Paul, who also has a medical degree, called for "a little bit of humility in our belief that we know what's best for our economy," questioning Fauci's support for a prolonged economic shutdown during a Senate hearing on the government's coronavirus response on Tuesday. ..."
"... With all due respect I don't think you're the end-all, I don't think you're the one person who gets to make a decision. ..."
"... "I hope that people who are predicting doom and gloom and saying oh we can't do this there's going to be a surge will admit they're wrong if there isn't a surge," the senator continued, calling for the Trump administration to listen to experts who disagreed with the "doom and gloom" predictions of Fauci and his ilk. ..."
"... Paul added that continuing the lockdown would widen the class divide, explaining that if children are kept out of school for months on end, then "the poor and underprivileged kids who don't have a parent that's able to teach them at home aren't going to be able to learn for a full year." He also said that the catastrophic narrative painting Covid-19 as a killer necessitating mass shutdowns had gotten started with "wrong prediction after wrong prediction," starting with the British scientist Neil Ferguson's apocalyptic forecasts – even as the British scientist had been meeting secretly with his mistress in violation of the lockdown he'd been championing. ..."
Republican Senator Rand Paul has challenged National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases director Dr Anthony Fauci on the nation's Covid-19 policy, suggesting the US is
waiting too long to reopen. Paul, who also has a medical degree, called for "a little bit of
humility in our belief that we know what's best for our economy," questioning Fauci's support
for a prolonged economic shutdown during a Senate hearing on the government's coronavirus
response on Tuesday.
Sen. Paul argues school decisions should be made district by district, tells Dr. Fauci: "I
don't think you're the end all."Fauci: "I'm a scientist... I think we better be careful if we
are not cavalier in thinking that children are completely immune to the deleterious effects."
pic.twitter.com/dIjXwkM5AU
With all due respect I don't think you're the end-all, I don't think you're the one
person who gets to make a decision.
"I hope that people who are predicting doom and gloom and saying oh we can't do this
there's going to be a surge will admit they're wrong if there isn't a surge," the senator
continued, calling for the Trump administration to listen to experts who disagreed with the
"doom and gloom" predictions of Fauci and his ilk.
" In rural states, we never really reached any sort of pandemic levels in Kentucky and
other states ," Paul pointed out, even as he acknowledged that " New England " had
been hit hard by the virus. " We have less deaths in Kentucky than we have in an average flu
season. "
" We don't know everything about this virus ," Fauci countered, challenging that
children in some parts of the country were turning up with " a very strange inflammatory
syndrome " similar to Kawasaki syndrome.
" You're right in the numbers that children do much much better .but I am very careful,
and hopefully humble, in knowing that I don't know everything about this disease, and that's
why I'm very reserved in making broad predictions ," Fauci continued.
Paul added that continuing the lockdown would widen the class divide, explaining that if
children are kept out of school for months on end, then "the poor and underprivileged kids who
don't have a parent that's able to teach them at home aren't going to be able to learn for a
full year." He also said that the catastrophic narrative painting Covid-19 as a killer
necessitating mass shutdowns had gotten started with "wrong prediction after wrong prediction,"
starting with the British scientist Neil Ferguson's apocalyptic forecasts – even as the
British scientist had been meeting secretly with his mistress in violation of the lockdown he'd
been championing.
Fauci's supporters took to social media to slam his opponent, noting that Paul had gone to
the Senate gym while infected with the coronavirus and perhaps infected others. They also cited
high numbers of Covid-19 cases in Paul's home county of Warren County, Kentucky.
Watching Republicans cheer on Rand Paul "taking on" Dr. Fauci almost perfectly
characterizes the anti-intellectual, anti-reason, anti-fact, and frankly degenerate state of
the Republican Party.
Warren County, Kentucky – where Rand Paul lives – has more COVID-19 cases per
capita than 51 of the 67 counties in New England states.Senator Paul is wrong and the
ignorant message he is peddling is dangerous. There is no special immunity to this virus
based on where you live. https://t.co/l9u5RBYR2J
Rand Paul absolutely destroys Dr. Fraudci. "I don't think you're the end all. I don't
think you're the one person who gets to make the decision." pic.twitter.com/nvljuGAy5u
Federal 'social distancing' guidelines were lifted at the end of April, but hotspots like
New York and California have extended their economic shutdowns as lesser-hit states have begun
to relax restrictions.
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
"... X22 Report Fauci's Connections To Wuhan Ready To Be Exposed - Episode 2171c ..."
"... I don't remember Fauci ever apologizing his remarks concerning - you don't need to worry, you don't need masks - masks are bad, the virus can't be spread easily, his models predicting millions would die in the US. ..."
"The history of this when we look back will be wrong prediction after wrong prediction after wrong prediction... As much as I
respect you, Dr. Fauci, I don't think you're the end all, I don't think you're the one person that gets to make a decision,"
said Paul - who added that we need to "observe with an open eye what happened in Sweden, where the kids kept going to school."
"The mortality per capita in Sweden is actually less than France, less than Italy, less than Spain, less than Belgium,
less than the Netherlands, about the same as Switzerland. But basically I don't think there's anybody arguing that what
happened in Sweden is an unacceptable result. I think people are intrigued by it, and we should be."
"I don't think any of us are certain when we do all these modelings - there have been more people wrong with modeling
than right. We're opening up a lot of economies around the US, and I hope that people who are predicting doom and gloom
and saying 'oh, we can't do this, there's going to be a surge' - will admit when there isn't a surge."
Watch:
Sen. Rand Paul:
"The history of this when we look back will be wrong prediction after wrong prediction after wrong prediction... As much as I
respect you, Dr. Fauci, I don't think you're the end all, I don't think you're the one person that gets to make a decision."
pic.twitter.com/SP9T638y2B
Fauci responded, (25 seconds in below), saying "Sen. Paul, I have never made myself out to be the end-all & only voice of this.
I'm a scientist, a physician, and a public health official."
He then offered a 'but, the children!' argument - latching onto Paul's comment that we don't know everything
about the virus, and that "we really better be very careful, particularly when it comes to children."
"Because the more and more we learn - we're seeing things about what this virus can do that we didn't see from the studies in
China. Or in Europe. For example, right now children presenting with COVID-19 who actually have a very strange inflammatory symdrome,
very similar to Kawasaki syndrome. I think we better be careful that we are not cavalier in thinking that children are not immune
to the deleterious effects.
"I never made myself to be out the end all.
I’m a scientist, a physician, and a public health official.
I give advice according to the best scientific evidence. "
I have not promoted the
#FireFauci movement.
I've defended him.
But now...
Fauci responded to a factual-based inquiry by @RandPaul w/an egregious
allusion to some mystery Kawasaki-like disease & tripled-down on his aversion to a 2020-21 school session.
Why isn't anyone asking directly about the 'gain of function' studies that NIH was doing on the US prior to outsourcing the
experiments to Wuhan and illegally funding it via the NIH....why is there a need to lockdown 300m people for a relative small
number of deaths which in turn are focused on the elderly with prior illnesses...what is the relationship betwe3n the CDC and
the European CDC... does the European CDC pay European hospitals for every diagnosis and every ventilator use.... its all BS...hopefully
people are beginning to smell a rat and through these bums out....
Al Agent, 3 minutes ago
True. Fauci wasn't elected to make policy; in fact, he wasn't elected at all! He was employed to advise on what happens under
different scenarios. Trump's economic advisors weren't elected to make policy; in fact, they weren't elected at all! They are
employed to advise on what happens under different scenarios.
Congress and The President decide on policy. They were elected to do that.
Templar X, 16 minutes ago
There will never be a vaccine for COVID-19 which is safe, effective, and worthwhile.
The fastest a vaccine has ever been developed in the past was four years after the first appearance of a new infectious disease.
Four years from now people will either have herd immunity or they will be dead.
Within a year or two, the COVID-19 virus will likely mutate itself to death, or it will weaken and become no worse than a regular
flu virus.
COVID-19 is, apparently, less harmful to people under 65 years of age and those with no underlying health conditions, which,
of course, is also true of the common flu.
theWHTMANN, 32 minutes ago
How come no one asks Fauci straight to his face regarding all the deaths that will happen because of the lockdown (missed surgeries,
suicide, famine, et al.). What is this con man's response? He doesn't care? What if non-COVID deaths because of the lockdown are
3x or 4x the COVID deaths? What then? Does anyone ask this fool Fauci whether he will take responsibility for anything?
mrpc, 30 minutes ago
Like Fauci says himself, in the interview, he gives advice. He doesn't make the decisions.
sun tzu, 34 minutes ago (Edited)
Where's the carnage in Georgia, Florida, Texas, and South Carolina from reopening? I see no massive surge in the hospitals
or deaths. The only carnage I see is in the nursing homes in New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts all states run by Democrats
PerilouseTimes, 8 minutes ago
I made an appointment for a procedure this week and had to go in for covid pretesting today. It was my second test in three
months. I worked with and personally interacted with, people that tested positive for covid in mid March. I was unusually sick
in January and have talked to many others that was strange sick in January as well. After speaking with the health professionals
and the people I know in and around this, I am convinced that this is all a load of ****. I had covid in Jan, and so did many
of the others I worked with. The nurse I just talked to said to me that her and her family along with many people that she is
testing was convinced that they had it between Dec. and Feb. I'm in GA and it is long past time to get this show on the road.
Those experiments were going on in the United States until 2014. They were Dr. Anthony Fauci's projects. President Obama
ordered that to stop because they had a lot of lab escape problems in 2014 from three different labs
Instead of stopping as he was ordered, Fauci moved those operations to the Wuhan lab in China and continued to do those
experiments right up until the time that the coronavirus [pandemic occurred]. In fact, [infectious disease expert] Ian Lipkin
was doing those experiments over there when [COVID-19] exploded. And I'll tell you exactly what happened because it's very
suspicious."
---ZerooreZ---, 56 minutes ago
I am genuinely impressed with the American spirit, that everything covid related has happened at double the speed in the USA
compared to the UK - you were the last to get this thing and seem to be the first to open back up (well done!). I guess because
you guys have lived with guns your whole lives, you are braver than the average UK citizen who literally have been the most obedient
and most scared bunch I have experienced. People literally throw themselves off the pavements into the road to avoid someone walking
the other way, they would rather be
I don't remember Fauci ever apologizing his remarks concerning - you don't need to worry, you don't need masks - masks are
bad, the virus can't be spread easily, his models predicting millions would die in the US.
Newsweek reveals that as recently as last year, the US funded scientists at the Wuhan
Institute of Virology in 'gain of function' research on bat coronaviruses.
The source of that funding? The National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Disease,
headed by.....(drumroll please)....Dr Anthony Fauci, lead medical expert for America's Covid-19
task force.
President Donald Trump's legal counsel, Rudy Giuliani, in a recent chat on "The Cats
Roundtable" on New York AM 970 radio, suggested a good U.S. attorney general move about
now would be to investigate key members of the past Barack Obama administration on the
Wuhan, China, laboratory, to see what they knew and when they knew it.
And then he mentioned Dr. Anthony Fauci specifically.
And then he accused the prior Team Obama of sending $3.7 million to the lab in 2014
-- at a time when that same Team Obama had banned the funding of any lab that was
involved in virus experimentation.
And then he named Fauci as the guy who gave the money to the Wuhan Institute of
Virology.
Ouch. Politically speaking, the perception of one of this administration's loudest
voices on the coronavirus front -- the one calling for shutdowns and shut-ins and
contact tracing-slash-government-tracking of American citizens -- well, it doesn't look
good to have him tied financially to Wuhan.
Giuliani, as RedState noted, said this:
"Back in 2014, the Obama administration prohibited the U.S. from giving money to
any laboratory, including in the U.S., that was fooling around with these viruses.
Prohibited. Despite that, Dr. Fauci gave $3.7 million to the Wuhan laboratory.
And then even after the State Department issued reports about how unsafe that
laboratory was, and how suspicious they were in the way they were developing a virus
that could be transmitted to humans, we never pulled that money."
Giuliani said if he were attorney general, he'd open an investigation.
Something strange here: virions do not travel as single units. They travel "en mass" within
water droplets. They also prevent spread of aerosol from sick people. So the professor is barking
on a wrong tree.
Moreover single virion is so small that it will be affected by Brownian movement which make it impossible
for it to travel in a given direction at all -- it will he chaotic movement. So this physics
professor looks like very weak in physics
Interview with Professor Denis Rancourt
by Kim Petersen / May 8th, 2020
A health professional told me back in March that face
masks were ineffective but that respirators (the N95) were. Because of the source, I thought
there must be validity to this. However, it seemed counterintuitive. I reasoned that there
would be differentials between using any type of mask versus no mask because no mask usage
would allow aerosols to penetrate unabated, whereas a mask should capture much of the aerosol
and reduce risk of spread to others and presumably should also function to mitigate breathing
in viral-laden droplets. Because of the greater density of respirator material, the
prophylactic would be reasoned to be greater.
However, what I had not considered was how extremely small the virion was in relation to
the porosity of the material in the masks and respirators. I also had not looked at the
scientific literature on the subject until now.
Denis Rancourt, an eminent physics professor , former
anarchist, and author, examined the scientific evidence for using face masks and respirators
as preventative of contracting respiratory influenza-like disease, or respiratory illnesses
believed to be transmitted by minuscule droplets.
What I have noticed is that Rancourt is wedded to the evidence, and he is unafraid to make
known his conclusion even though it goes against the mainstream consensus. His article, "
Masks Don't Work: A review of science relevant to COVID-19 social policy ," is Rancourt
at his iconoclastic finest. He concludes,
No RCT [randomized control trial] study with verified outcome shows a benefit for HCW
[health care workers] or community members in households to wearing a mask or respirator.
There is no such study. There are no exceptions.
The virions are super tiny, tinier than the pores in the respirators. Rancourt writes,
if anything gets through (and it always does, irrespective of the mask), then you are
going to be infected. Masks cannot possibly work. It is not surprising, therefore, that no
bias-free study has ever found a benefit from wearing a mask or respirator in this
application.
Rancourt's article is fascinating and anyone curious abut the efficacy of masks should
read it.
*****
Kim Petersen : Recently, American vice-president Mike Pence was criticized for walking
around the Mayo clinic accompanied by mask-wearing staff although he did not wear a mask. He
excused his refusal to don a mask based on the frequent testing he undergoes, so presumably
he would not be a danger to others. Given what the science reveals on mask wearing, how do
you view the reaction to Pence's refusal to wear a mask?
Denis Rancourt : In my article "
Masks Don't Work: A review of science relevant to COVID-19 social policy ", I show that
there have been many randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and meta-analyses of RCTs, which
were designed to detect any benefit from wearing a mask, in terms of reducing the risk of
being infected by a viral respiratory disease.
In the many studies, in which the known bias of self-reporting is eliminated by using
laboratory-confirmed infection detection, no statistically meaningful advantage is ever
found, in either health-care or community settings, with either surgical masks or N95
respirators. No study, and there have been many, has been able to establish any advantage of
wearing a mask or respirator, with viral respiratory diseases.
This means that, even in controlled professional health-care settings, any benefit is too
small to be detected by science, and that other factors must be overwhelmingly more
important.
Regarding all viral respiratory diseases -- which are both known to be transmitted by
small aerosol particles (i.e., "droplets" of less than a few microns in diameter) and known
to be highly infectious in terms of the so-called minimum-infective-dose (i.e., the number of
virions that will likely be sufficient to cause illness or detectable infection) -- in plain
language, this means "masks don't work". (A "virion" is a single virus unit, the RNA and its
shell.)
Therefore, any societal debate about the virtue or responsibility of wearing a mask to
reduce the risk of infection, whether it involves Pence or anyone else, is occurring in a
science vacuum. It is a political and psychological debate, not one that is
science-based.
Likewise, no unbiased RCT has ever shown any advantage for a confirmed-infected person to
be less likely to transmit a viral-respiratory-disease infection to susceptible (i.e., not
immune) persons if the infected person wears a mask.
Studies that show that cough and sneeze droplets are physically intercepted by masks are
irrelevant in this regard, because they do not represent the reality of actual person to
person transmission, nor do they measure actual transmission.
In my article, which has been read more than 70 K times on Research Gate, I also review
what is known about the physics and biology of transmission of this class of diseases. I
argue that, on this basis, one should not expect masks to work. Likewise, if masks cannot
stop inward transmission (into the lung), then, by the same physics, they cannot stop outward
transmission.
However, it is important to distinguish a RCT that evaluates risk of actual
person-to-person transmission of confirmed infection, as one class of study, and the
necessarily simplistic arguments based on hypothetical scenarios using physics and biology.
And the "masks intercept droplets" studies are useless in the relevant context. Masks
intended to stop a surgeon's spit from impacting an incision area are a completely different
question.
Coming back to Pence, a face mask is a powerful psychological symbol of submission (to
both the invisible disease and any State policy directives), such that it is understandable
that many political leaders would not want to wear masks in front of media cameras.
KP : You write that there has been no randomized controlled trial that shows a benefit for
anyone (doctors, nurses, regular folks, et al.) wearing a mask or respirator. The reason
proffered is because the mask/respirator material is too porous for virion particles. The N95
respirator blocks at least 95 percent of very small (0.3 μm) test particles, but the
virion particles (from 0.06 μm to 0.14 μm) (See Na Zhu et al., " A Novel Coronavirus from Patients
with Pneumonia in China ," 20 February 2020, NEJM, 382:727-733.) can pass through.
I am trying to visualize this on a larger scale. If I kick a soccer ball at a chain-link
fence, all soccer balls will be blocked. But if I throw a handful of sand at the chain-link
fence, almost all grains of sand will pass through. Is this an apt analogy for the mask and
the virion?
DR : The many RCTs show no statistically valid benefit from wearing a mask or N95
respirator, and show no differences in RCT comparisons between surgical masks and N95
respirators, regarding risk of infection from this class of diseases. That is a separate
question from any hypothetical mechanistic explanation as to why any benefit from wearing a
mask would be so small as to be undetected. In other words, that masks don't work must be
discerned from the question of why masks don't work. The former is a scientific outcome of
the studies, irrespective of what we believe or infer about the latter.
Nonetheless, regarding a discussion of the hypothetical mechanisms, one can say the
following things:
There can be little doubt that the overwhelmingly dominant path of infection is via
small aerosol particles of less than approximately 2 microns in diameter.
Such a particle can contain many and up to hundreds of virions.
One virion is approximately 0.1 microns in size.
Such small aerosol particles stay suspended in air in-effect indefinitely, as part of
the fluid air; as would virions themselves, subject to chemical adsorption and
aggregation.
Regarding the masks and respirators, pore-size of the filtering material is not the
relevant bottleneck in practice.
The seal to the face is never perfect, and the mask is regularly moved by pressure
differences, by the user for reasons of discomfort, and by normal facial and operational
movements.
Inhaled and exhaled air will flow mostly through the paths of least resistance (or
fluid impedance): through the breaks in the seal, through the sides of a mask, and though
the larger pores or stretches or micro-tears in the filtering material.
The minimum-infective-dose is expected to be less that a single small aerosol particle,
and can be as little as a single undamaged virion.
Thus, it is not difficult to conclude that mask and respirators should not work, even
leaving out the complex particle-mask-material interactions that can occur, mask aging and
wear considerations, and so on.
KP : You cite possible harm from dictates requiring the wearing of masks. Could you
elaborate?
DR : My answer is in two parts. First, there is potential medical harm to the individual
from the wearing of a mask. Second, there is societal and psychological harm from being
forced to wear a mask in public.
In one large RCT in Japanese health centers, health-care workers who wore respirators
suffered significantly more headaches than the cohort of workers who did not wear
respirators. This was a statistically significant outcome. Furthermore, professional
health-care workers self-report significant discomfort from wearing respirators, and
therefore often adjust them or remove them, contrary to protocol. If healthcare workers, in
circumstances in which there is no scientific basis for wearing respirators, suffer headaches
and discomfort, then this can only negatively impact the intended health care.
More broadly, the potential health hazards of population-scale extended personal mask use
have not been studied. Potential health hazards include such factors as:
constriction of breathing itself, including both flow restriction, and recycling of CO2
and vapour-laden breath
breathing-in the particles, fibres and chemicals from the mask-material itself, both in
a new mask and for aging, used, washed, and sun-bleached masks
retention of particulates and adsorbed substances in proximity to the face, which would
normally be expelled in the exhaled breath
collection, concentration and retention of particulates and adsorbed substances from
the environment onto the mask, in proximity to the face
reactions of particulates and adsorbed substances on the mask, including shedding of
virions or virion-carrying nano-particles from larger mask-captured droplets
and so on
Such factors have not been studied, yet population-scale policies of extended mask-wearing
are being implemented.
From a societal perspective, what are the consequences of government coercion ("education"
and enforcement) to wear masks in public, given that there is no scientific basis for any
benefit from mask wearing, in terms of reducing the risk of being infected by a viral
respiratory disease?
How is this not an arbitrary application of power, which directly infringes or denies
personal freedom? What are the long-term consequences of habituation to arbitrarily applied
violations of personal freedom?
The recent scientific study of Hickey and Davidsen (2019) (" Self-organization
and time-stability of social hierarchies ") in my view provides a theoretical foundation
that such habituation to arbitrarily applied power is part of a progressive degradation
towards an extreme totalitarian state, depending on the degree of authoritarianism (whether
contestation is effective) and the degree of violence (magnitude of the penalty for
disobeying).
We should rollback arbitrary State powers. I would say: If an individual evaluates or
believes that a mask constitutes health or privacy or religious protection in public, then
the individual should be free to wear a mask, but how can forcing all individuals to wear
masks be justified, beyond government pronouncements? Security cannot be based on arbitrarily
forced behaviour of everyone. This is the classic recipe for totalitarian rule.
In fact, the present case of pandemic mask laws or policies is a case where a health
pretext and stoked fear are being exploited by governments, in a globalized corporate
environment in which there are billions to be made from vaccines and other treatments, and
where legal liabilities for the treatments have largely been socialized. Regular vaccination,
for diseases that have always been kept in check by the human immune system, are a hard
method of creating dependence on the State, involving seasonal violations of bodily
integrity, which could become forced.
KP : You point a finger at governments, monopoly media, and institutional propagandists
for deciding "to operate in a science vacuum, or select only incomplete science that serves
their interests." Which institutional propagandists do you refer to?
DR : The main institutional propagandists here are the arms and legs of the pharma-medical
complex, from the WHO and CDC, through the medical schools, to every hospital, research
laboratory, clinic, community health center, and doctor's office. The medical establishment
is a major network of the high-priests that structure and control modern society. In their
book, "health" is a dependence on the health system, not healthy living conditions, contrary
to all the science regarding the determinants of public health. I mean, Pharma and medical
errors are the third leading cause of death in the Western world, after heart disease and
cancer, and that is not a "pandemic"? It is not even on the radar, except in specialized
conferences and journals.
As another example of institutional and professional alignment with top-down directives
and recommendations, John Ioannidis showed in 2005 (" Why Most
Published Research Findings Are False ") that most of the scientific research that finds
marginal benefits for expensive and dangerous treatments is incorrect.
In the case of the on-going COVID-19 saga, several top researchers and experts have broken
rank, and these professionals have been profiled in a series of three articles in
Off-Guardian , for example. Generally, these contrarians who insist on practicing
science, have been avoided by the mainstream media, and have had to be featured in the
alternative media, and on YouTube. John Ioannidis and Knut Wittkowski are just two of the
names that stand out for me.
KP : Given that the conclusion of your review of meta-analyses is accurate, why would so
many health care professionals, who presumably have been trained in evidence-based practice,
disregard the absence of evidence for the efficacy of masks and respirators?
DR : It is a myth that medicine is an evidence-based practice. This myth is propagated by
the medical establishment. It has never been the case in the history of medicine, and it is
not the case today. In practice, medicine is whatever the profession can get away with and
profit from.
From a political perspective, the public-relations statement about being "science-based"
is a propagandist mantra applied in training those initiated into the profession. It is
designed to deliver legitimacy in the public's mind and among other professions, and means
that the profession will attack, destroy or capture competitors that are not in the
profession, such as homeopaths, nutritionists, acupuncturists, chiropractors, psychologists,
councillors, life coaches, etc.
There is a large litigation record of this reality. If you litigate against or attempt to
discipline an MD or a medical specialist for a practice that is not science based, then you
find that the in-court or administrative-tribunal argument will never be about the science
itself or whether a scientific basis exists. None of the actual medical researchers will be
called as expert witnesses, and they would be seen as irrelevant and thus inadmissible.
Instead, a complete defence will be based on whether or not the hired expert witnesses for
the defendant will be of the opinion that the impugned practice is within the spectrum of
actual practice in the field, irrespective of whether there is a scientific basis. In order
to win, you will need to prove that the impugned act or practice is egregiously contrary to
what is generally done or officially recommended by a certifying body; again, irrespective of
any scientific-basis consideration. "Scientific basis" is given lip service, nothing
more.
For example, when a drug or procedure is convincingly and unavoidably proven to be
unacceptably harmful after being put into practice, and this harm is reported in the
mainstream media, and there is organized public outcry, then the practice is changed but no
practitioners are ever found to have been at fault. This means that the practitioners are not
responsible to evaluate and establish a scientific basis for their prescriptions and
treatments. They are only bound to do what one does in the profession. If mechanical
ventilators are the treatment for critical COVID-19 patients, then we kill those patients
with those mechanical ventilators until the proverbial shit hits the fan ("
New study finds nearly all coronavirus patients put on ventilators died ," The
Hill , 23 April 2020).
The history, to this day, of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is exhibit-one regarding the extent to which
medical practice is distinct from any scientific basis. The said Manual is the
pseudo-scientific organizational pretext for a large pharmaceutical project of managing the
mind, which relies on heavy-handed "precautionary" prescriptions, made by any army of medical
practitioners. For example, see Gary Greenberg (2013) ( The Book of WOE: The DSM and the
Unmaking of Psychiatry ).
I could go on for days. Coming back to the masks, medical commentators, like politicians,
will say whatever seems advantageous at the time, in terms of propping up their own
legitimacy and popularity, and in terms of avoiding public-perception liability. If it is
politically risky to recommend masks, then masks are out, and there is no evidence that they
work. If it becomes risky to go against masks, then masks are in, and we must all do our part
to protect those who are most vulnerable, etc.
KP : Since there is evidence that viruses flourish during dry periods, might the use of a
humidifier be a recommended preventative measure during seasons when humidity is low?
DR : There is conclusive evidence that viral respiratory diseases and flu-like diseases
predominantly propagate via small aerosol particles, which are stabilized in dry air, and
that this is why these diseases are seasonal in mid-latitude regions. The reproduction
number, R 0 , can vary four-fold during a season, in accordance with absolute
humidity of the atmosphere. This oft-confirmed discovery was initiated with the landmark work
of Shaman et al . (2010) .
Closed buildings such as hospitals, residences for the elderly, and day-care centers are
proven to have large densities of virion-laden aerosol particles suspended in the air, in the
dry season. In addition, air-flow has been shown to play a role regarding transmission, in
restaurants and airplanes.
Therefore, it is not unreasonable to examine the use of controlled absolute humidity, and
air-flow management in critical facilities housing many persons at risk of severe
complications if infected. A high humidity would in-principle draw-out virtually all the
aerosol particles, by condensation, particle growth, and gravitational removal. In principle,
what was an environment of high-density of aerosol particles, would become an environment of
low-density of aerosol particles. Only a true RCT comparative study, with
laboratory-confirmed infection determinations, could demonstrate whether such measures can be
effective.
Literally every human concern - every social, psychological, spiritual concern; every
political, constitutional, rule-of-law concern; every concern of human and civil rights,
civil liberties, human freedom; every concern of children's healthy development; and
literally every health concern except for this flu - have been eradicated from the
propaganda and evidently from the minds of the police-statists.
Their minds have been scoured clean of literally every thought except for a threadbare
fanatical obsession with quantity of life (an obsession they pursue in defiance of all the
evidence; their lockdowns don't work even according to their own terms, let alone according
to the terms of ecology, biodiversity, sound epidemiology; even their arch-ideologue and high
priest Neil Ferguson was caught admitting that he regards his entire agenda as nothing but a
Big Lie), and a grossly reductive notion of "opening the economy", which they deploy in order
to slander the rapidly increasing number of people who are questioning, criticizing, and
rejecting the lockdowns for a vast diversity of reasons I only briefly surveyed above.
The fact that the police-statists are utterly unwilling to meet any of these concerns
except for the economic, and are willing to meet that one only in the most reductive,
fraudulent, slanderous way which expresses total contempt for the vast numbers of people
being economically destroyed beyond any hope of recovery (which is a major purpose and goal
of the terror campaign and lockdowns), says it all about the total bankruptcy of their
position. As in every other case, police-state authoritarianism has nothing but brute thug
force, including in its ideas.
2001 His predictions on the Foot & Mouth Epidemic led to the needless 'voluntary'
slaughter of 12 million animals. This in turn led to countless bankruptcies and suicides
amongst small farmers. It also helped accelarate the concentration of farming into the hands
of Big Farmer.
2002 He predicted 'up to' 50,000 would die from aka variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease aka
'Margaret Thatcher disease'. The total from 1990 to 2017 was actually 178.
2005 He predicted 'up to' 200 million people worldwide would be killed by H5N1 aka 'bird
flu'. By 2006, WHO had reported 78 definite fatalities out of 147 eported cases.
2009 He predicted 'up to' 65,000 deaths in the UK from H1N1 aka 'swine flu'. In reality,
457 died from it in the UK.
2020 He predicted 'up to' 500,000 deaths in the UK (and 2.2 million in the US) from
Covid-19, used by the UK government to justify the lockdown. UK to date ~31,000 (probably
~85% exhibiting multiple comorbidities and dying 'with' Covid-19 rather than 'from' it).
Still it is early days, and ignoring the new death rate has been decreasing since ~ April 15,
give it another 4 years and we will be there!
So his score is 0 out of 5. Truly impressive.
The underlying question remains, why did the UK government take his advice when he has
been proven grossly wrong time after time?
It looks like Fauci is a political hack. But that not all. He also helped to deepen the
current recession.
Notable quotes:
"... Perhaps one way to help see through the professional obfuscation, and identify just exactly how political Dr. Fauci is, would be to: compare and contrast Dr. Fauci under President Obama in September 2009 after 3,000 to 4,000 H1N1 deaths in the USA -vs- Dr. Fauci under President Trump in March 2020 after 200 to 300 COVID-19 deaths. ..."
Perhaps one way to help see through the professional obfuscation, and identify just
exactly how political Dr. Fauci is, would be to: compare and contrast Dr. Fauci under President
Obama in September 2009 after 3,000 to 4,000 H1N1 deaths in the USA -vs- Dr. Fauci under
President Trump in March 2020 after 200 to 300 COVID-19 deaths. WATCH:
Now, to better absorb the information . According to the CDC final estimate of 2009 U.S. H1N1
cases ( published
in 2011 ): from April 12, 2009 to April 10, 2010 approximately 60.8 million U.S. cases,
274,304 U.S. hospitalizations, and 12,469 U.S. deaths occurred due to H1N1. That's the
empirical data.
The concept of "flattening" the virus curve; the presumptive reason for social distancing
and shutting down the U.S. economy; is based on a theory to extend the spread of COVID-19 to a
lesser incident rate over a longer duration, thereby lessening the burden on the U.S.
healthcare system. Hence, 'flatten' the spike in infections.
Put another way: "Flattening" means the same number of people eventually contract the virus,
only they do so over a longer period of time, and the healthcare system can treat everyone
because the numbers do not rise to level where the system is overloaded. In theory that seems
to make sense.
However, no-one is asking: what is the current stress level on the healthcare system right
now? Where are we in that capacity? and what is normal capacity level during a high-level flu
outbreak? and Where are we when compared against that baseline?
♦ Remember in 2009
there were over 61 million cases of H1N1, more than 274,000 hospitalizations and 12,469
additional deaths specifically attributed to that strain of flu virus in the U.S. [ DATA HERE ]
The premise to extend the virus duration in an effort to lower the infection rate and spread
the virus over a longer period of time needs to measured against: (a) where the healthcare
system is at any given moment; and (b) under traditional high-flu seasons where are we during
those historic events.
♦ STRESS LEVEL – The healthcare 'system' per se, is expending an awful lot of
time on mitigation efforts. As Dr. Birx noted: the current negative test rate for coronavirus
among those showing symptoms who are tested is 94 to 98 percent. That means of all the people
taking coronavirus tests, 94/98 out of 100 are symptomatic (they are sick) but they are not
infected with coronavirus. They are normal flu cases.
Our healthcare "system" is expending an incredible amount of resources on a mitigation
effort. According to Dr. Birx and the current U.S. test results, 94 to 98 percent of those
mitigation efforts are not engaging with coronavirus. They are dealing with regular flu
(perhaps a strong flu).
If you extract the mitigation effort from the overall effort, the current stress level on
the healthcare system doesn't seem to be overwhelming. What is stressing the system is a
coronavirus mitigation effort with a rate of 94 to 98 percent testing negative.
♦ Dr. Fauci's theory is self-fulfilling .
If the viral spread never exceeds the capacity of the healthcare system to deal with it, he
can claim success. Look, our flattened curve worked.
However, when contrast against flu outbreaks, no-one knows what the COVID-19 capacity
threshold is within the healthcare system. There's no way to disprove Fauci's theory.
Given the nature of the baseline for overall U.S. sanitation and hygiene, which is
significantly higher than Italy, S-Korea and China; and given the higher standards of food
safety (U.S. is the world leader); again significantly higher than Italy, S-Korea and China;
and given the nature of the U.S. healthcare system (more capacity per person); is it really a
fair comparison to overlay a COVID-19 outbreak, without also overlaying a traditional flu
outbreak?
Any theory that cannot be scientifically tested; and is simultaneously self-fulfilling; is,
by its nature, a false theory.
This is not to say that Dr. Anthony Fauci is intentionally misleading anyone; however, it is
absolutely true that no-one will be able to quantify if trillions of dollars of economic wealth
lost; and trillions more in economic activity lost; and trillions more in deficit spending; and
that might all be done just to follow the fantastical whims of a doctor who is directing the
mitigation of an ordinary flu-virus/season, and appears to be quite full of his own sense of
self-importance.
Does Dr Fauci enjoy indirect financial ties to Gilead? Does he own the stock?
Notable quotes:
"... Basically, this was a negative trial. Of the 255 patients screened, 237 met the eligibility criteria, and 158 were assigned to the remdesivir group, with 79 assigned to placebo control. Unfortunately, remdesivir treatment was not associated with a shorter time to clinical improvement, and mortality was not different between the two groups. ..."
"... It does look very fishy to me. Endpoint or outcome switching, particularly late in a clinical trial is a huge red flag. ..."
"... There are also other reasons to question this trial, including how no confidence intervals were reported, that not even an abstract was published, just a press release with, as Heathers put it, "two results in four lines": ..."
"... I remain very suspicious that the NIH study was announced the same day that a negative study out of China of remdesivir was published. It just seems too convenient. Maybe I'm being overly suspicious. Maybe I'm too suspicious. Maybe I'm falling prey to conspiracy mongering. However, in the Trump era, when the Trump administration has politicized previously (mostly) apolitical government agencies as never before, it's hard not to wonder. ..."
"... He was unimpressed by remdesivir's modest benefit. "It was expected to be a whopping effect," Topol added. "It clearly does not have that." ..."
"... Indeed, given that the pre-test probability of remdesivir having a significant effect was low, meaning that this trial is probably just noise: ..."
"... But Gilead will make billions and billions of dollars ..."
"... Could Anthony Fauci explain why the investigators of the NIAID remdesivir trial did change the primary outcome during the course of the project (16th April)? Removing "death" from primary outcome is a surprising decision. ..."
"... The most common adverse effects in studies of remdesivir for COVID-19 include respiratory failure and blood biomarkers of organ impairment, including low albumin, low potassium, low count of red blood cells, low count of platelets that help with clotting, and yellow discoloration of the skin. Other reported side effects include gastrointestinal distress, elevated transaminase levels in the blood (liver enzymes), and infusion site reactions. ..."
"... So, if it does shorten duration, is it worth potential liver damage, respiratory failure and organ impairment? In other words is the cure potentially as bad as the disease. ..."
"... For yet another drug that was supposed to be a game changer, I am unimpressed by its results. The whole mechanism is wrong. A drug with this mechanism would need to be almost a prophylactic for it to be hugely effective. ..."
"... Fauci didn't seem to have any problem cautioning against unwarranted optimism for CQ/HCQ even while DJT was championing the stuff. What is different about this? . ..."
"... So, what did Fauci say about chloroquine? ""We've got to be careful that we don't make that majestic leap to assume that this is a knockout drug. We still need to do the kinds of studies that definitely prove whether any intervention is truly safe and effective," Fauci, who is also a member of the White House coronavirus task force, said during an interview on "Fox & Friends. . . "We don't operate on how you feel, we operate on what evidence and data is," Fauci said, adding that it was "not a very robust study" or "overwhelmingly strong."" (Concha, 2020 Apr 3) ..."
"... Now, what did he say about Remdesivir: "Speaking to reporters from the White House, Fauci said he was told data from the trial showed a "clear-cut positive effect in diminishing time to recover." Fauci said the median time of recovery for patients taking the drug was 11 days, compared with 15 days in the placebo group. He said the mortality benefit of remdesivir "has not yet reached statistical significance." ..."
"... Disappointingly, the lock down seems to have made a number of people irrational. Just a quick post to expound on my Fauci post for those who see the world as binary – ie: black or white. These people think you either support Fauci 100% or 0% and a single criticism of any Fauci statement means 0% support of Fauci. I do not happen to worship at the altar of Fauci or any scientist and recognize all are subject to errors – including myself. I view the world in a more nuanced manner than those with the black/white delusion. I find I can disagree with some things a person says or stands for and agree with some other things they say or do. ..."
"... I am of the opinion that Fauci made a mistake here. The evidence for Remdesiver is nowhere near good enough for it to become the standard of care. ..."
"... On the other hand, watching the White House performance from afar, I can see the administration is dysfunctional and is run by a narcissistic bully, who will publicly turn on anyone who disagrees with them. ..."
"... I believe that is the main thrust of this Orac article – that the evidence for Remdesiver efficacy is sorely lacking. ..."
Remdesivir: Gilead wins with unimpressive results announced by press release On Wednesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci announced positive
results for the antiviral drug remdesivir treating COVID-19. They were unimpressive and, suspiciously, announced by press release
rather than scientific paper. It's all very fishy, but one thing's for sure. Gilead Sciences will make boatloads of money.
I've been writing a lot about the unjustified and
premature hype
over hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug with mild immunosuppressive activity that is also used to treat rheumatoid arthritis
and other autoimmune diseases and how the drug probably doesn't work against COVID-19, despite its being
hyped by President
Trump and his sycophants, toadies, and lackeys on Fox News,
Dr. Mehmet Oz ,
Dr. Phil , Dr. Didier Raoult
, and a
bevy of irresponsible fame seeking doctors who have no idea how to do a proper clinical study.
There are, however, other drugs
being hyped out there, drugs that might actually have a better chance of turning out to be effective treatments for COVID-19. Chief
among these is remdesivir, the experimental antiviral drug being tested by Gilead Sciences.
Remdesivir is an adenosine (a nucleotide) analog that inhibits
viral RNA polymerases. It is incorporated into RNA made by the virus, causing the premature termination of the RNA molecule, thus
interfering with viral replication. The drug was originally developed to treat Ebola and Marburg but was ultimately found to be
ineffective against these viruses . Because it inhibits the replication
of a number of RNA viruses, it was only natural that it would be considered as a possible treatment for COVID-19, and Gilead has
been relentlessly promoting it as such as the company has been working to carry out clinical trials.
White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday that data from a coronavirus drug trial testing Gilead Sciences'
antiviral drug remdesivir showed "quite good news" and sets a new standard of care for Covid-19 patients.
Speaking to reporters from the White House, Fauci said he was told data from the trial showed a "clear-cut positive effect
in diminishing time to recover."
Fauci said the median time of recovery for patients taking the drug was 11 days, compared with 15 days in the placebo group.
He said the mortality benefit of remdesivir "has not yet reached statistical significance."
The results suggested a survival benefit, with a mortality rate of 8% for the group receiving remdesivir versus 11.6% for the
placebo group, according to a statement from the National Institutes of Health released later Wednesday.
"This will be the standard of care," Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, added. "When
you know a drug works, you have to let people in the placebo group know so they can take it."
My skeptical antennae started twitching immediately, because on the same day a study from China was published in
The Lancet that
was far less impressive. In fact, it was a negative trial. What also got my skeptical antennae all aflutter twitching away was how
the results of the remdesivir trial were announced. Normally, when a study is announced to the press, it's upon publication of the
paper, and the press release is issued either the same day or the evening before publication. As of last night, as I wrote this,
however, the actual paper reporting the results of the clinical trial had not yet been published. As I perused Twitter on Wednesday,
I found even more reasons for skepticism.
So, before I get to the study touted by Dr. Fauci, let's review some history.
Remdesivir: The early days versus COVID-19 (like, you know, three weeks ago)
The first data published on remdesivir was a single-arm uncontrolled trial that somehow got published three weeks ago in
The New England Journal of Medicine . This was
peak COVID-19 publishing, when an uncontrolled case series of patients with severe COVID-19 treated with remdesivir under compassionate
was published in a super high impact journal like NEJM and made headlines as a result. Be that as it may, the case series examined
61 patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection who had an oxygen saturation of 94% or less while they were breathing room air or
who were receiving oxygen support. They received a 10-day course of remdesivir, consisting of 200 mg given intravenously on day 1,
followed by 100 mg daily for the remaining 9 days of treatment. (Remdesivir is an intravenous drug.) The authors reported clinical
improvement in 68% of evaluable patients:
Of the 61 patients who received at least one dose of remdesivir, data from 8 could not be analyzed (including 7 patients with
no post-treatment data and 1 with a dosing error). Of the 53 patients whose data were analyzed, 22 were in the United States,
22 in Europe or Canada, and 9 in Japan. At baseline, 30 patients (57%) were receiving mechanical ventilation and 4 (8%) were receiving
extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. During a median follow-up of 18 days, 36 patients (68%) had an improvement in oxygen-support
class, including 17 of 30 patients (57%) receiving mechanical ventilation who were extubated. A total of 25 patients (47%) were
discharged, and 7 patients (13%) died; mortality was 18% (6 of 34) among patients receiving invasive ventilation and 5% (1 of
19) among those not receiving invasive ventilation.
The case series also did not collect viral load data to confirm potential antiviral activity in humans or any association between
declines in viral load and clinical improvement. Basically, when you get right down to it, this study was not really much better
than Didier Raoult's crappy
study of his hydroxychloroquine/azithromycin combination, but that didn't stop the authors from concluding that comparisons with
contemporaneous cohorts "suggest that remdesivir may have clinical benefit in patients with severe Covid-19." In reality, like Raoult's
trials, this trial said nothing about the efficacy of remdesivir against COVID-19 other than that the drug could be given to COVID-19
patients with a reasonable safety profile.
Less than week later, as
related by Derek Lowe , came news that two clinical trials of remdesivir in China, one for
severe disease and one
for moderate disease
had been suspended. (They still are.) Lowe noted that both trials had the notice: "The epidemic of COVID-19 has been controlled well
at present, no eligible patients can be recruited." The apparent explanation was "the stringent inclusion criteria for the trials
– apparently patients had to have no previous therapy with any other experimental agent to enroll, and that eliminates a lot
of people." Around the same time, Adam Feuerstein and Matthew Herper published a story in STAT,
Early peek at data on Gilead coronavirus drug suggests patients are responding to treatment :
The University of Chicago Medicine recruited 125 people with Covid-19 into Gilead's two Phase 3 clinical trials. Of those people,
113 had severe disease. All the patients have been treated with daily infusions of remdesivir.
"The best news is that most of our patients have already been discharged, which is great. We've only had two patients perish,"
said Kathleen Mullane, the University of Chicago infectious disease specialist overseeing the remdesivir studies for the hospital.
Her comments were made this week during a video discussion about the trial results with other University of Chicago faculty
members. The discussion was recorded and STAT obtained a copy of the video.
Derek Lowe
discussed this story in depth, and I largely agree with him that the leak of the video to STAT was a serious breach of clinical
trial ethics and protocol. (I'm not alone in suspecting that it was almost certainly intentional to jack up Gilead's stock price,
a result that was achieved.) Lowe also noted:
But now that it's out there, let's talk about what's in the leak. Gilead stock jumped like a spawning salmon in after-market
trading on this, and one of the reasons was that that 113 of the 125 patients were classed as having "severe disease". People
ran with the idea that these must have been people on ventilators who were walking out of the hospital, but that is not the case.
As AndyBiotech pointed out on Twitter,
all you had to do was read the trial's exclusion criteria
: patients were not even admitted into the trial if they were on mechanical ventilation. Some will have moved on to ventilation
during the trial, but we don't know how many (the trial protocol has these in a separate group).
Note also that this trial is open-label; both doctors and patients know who is getting what, and note the really key point:
there is no control arm. This is one of the trials mentioned in this post on small-molecule therapies as being the most likely
to read out first, but it's always been clear that the tradeoff for that speed is rigor. The observational paper that was published
on remdesivir in the NEJM had no controls either, of course, and that made it hard to interpret. Scratch that, it made it impossible
to interpret. It will likely be the same with this trial – the comparison is between a five-day course of remdesivir and a ten-day
course, and the primary endpoint is the odds ratio for improvement between the two groups.
Again, these data, such as they are, are no more useful than Didier Raoult's data on hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin to treat
COVID-19, but this brings us to the Chinese trial published in
The Lancet on Wednesday.
The Chinese randomized clinical trial
The Chinese trial
published two days ago is the first randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial of remdesivir to treat COVID-19,
but it was also one of the studies halted. Eligible patients were adults admitted to the hospital with laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2
whose symptoms had lasted less than 12 days before enrollment and who had an oxygen saturation on room air of 94% or less or a ratio
of arterial oxygen partial pressure to fractional inspired oxygen of 300 mm Hg or less (another measure of hypoxia), and radiologically
confirmed pneumonia.
Patients were randomly assigned in a 2:1 ratio to intravenous remdesivir at the same dose as the NIH trial touted
by Dr. Fauci or the same volume of placebo infusions for 10 days and were permitted concomitant use of lopinavir–ritonavir, interferons,
and corticosteroids. The primary endpoint was time to clinical improvement up to day 28, defined at the time from randomization to
the point of a decline of two levels on a six-point ordinal scale of clinical status (from 1=discharged to 6=death) or discharged
alive from hospital, whichever came first. An intention-to-treat analysis was carried out.
Basically, this was a negative trial. Of the 255 patients screened, 237 met the eligibility criteria, and 158 were assigned to
the remdesivir group, with 79 assigned to placebo control. Unfortunately, remdesivir treatment was not associated with a shorter
time to clinical improvement, and mortality was not different between the two groups. Subgroup analysis looking for hypotheses found
that there was a trend towards a shorter duration of symptoms (not statistically significant) in patients treated with remdesivir
who had had symptoms for less than ten days. Most disappointingly, there was no detectable difference in viral load between the remdesivir
groups and the placebo controls. Again, basically this was a negative study with only the barest hint that remdesivir might -- I
repeat, might -- work if administered earlier in the course of COVID-19. That's some pretty thin gruel.
Which brings us to the NIH trial of remdesivir touted by Anthony Fauci.
The NIH press release for its remdesivir trial.
The results of the NIH remdesivir trial can, unfortunately, only be gleaned from the press release and
news stories so far:
For the first time, a major study suggests that an experimental drug works against the new coronavirus, and U.S. government
officials said Wednesday that they would work to make it available to appropriate patients as quickly as possible.
In a study of 1,063 patients sick enough to be hospitalized, Gilead Sciences's remdesivir shortened the time to recovery by
31% -- 11 days on average versus 15 days for those just given usual care, officials said. The drug also might be reducing deaths,
although that's not certain from the partial results revealed so far.
"What it has proven is that a drug can block this virus," the National Institutes of Health's Dr. Anthony Fauci said.
"This will be the standard of care," and any other potential treatments will now have to be tested against or in combination
with remdesivir, he said.
Here is the
press release , posted to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases website:
Hospitalized patients with advanced COVID-19 and lung involvement who received remdesivir recovered faster than similar patients
who received placebo, according to a preliminary data analysis from a randomized, controlled trial involving 1063 patients, which
began on February 21. The trial (known as the Adaptive COVID-19 Treatment Trial, or ACTT), sponsored by the National Institute
of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, is the first clinical trial launched in
the United States to evaluate an experimental treatment for COVID-19.
An independent data and safety monitoring board (DSMB) overseeing the trial met on April 27 to review data and shared their
interim analysis with the study team. Based upon their review of the data, they noted that remdesivir was better than placebo
from the perspective of the primary endpoint, time to recovery, a metric often used in influenza trials. Recovery in this study
was defined as being well enough for hospital discharge or returning to normal activity level.
Preliminary results indicate that patients who received remdesivir had a 31% faster time to recovery than those who received
placebo (p<0.001). Specifically, the median time to recovery was 11 days for patients treated with remdesivir compared with 15
days for those who received placebo. Results also suggested a survival benefit, with a mortality rate of 8.0% for the group receiving
remdesivir versus 11.6% for the placebo group (p=0.059).
More detailed information about the trial results, including more comprehensive data, will be available in a forthcoming report.
As part of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's commitment to expediting the development and availability of potential COVID-19
treatments, the agency has been engaged in sustained and ongoing discussions with Gilead Sciences regarding making remdesivir
available to patients as quickly as possible, as appropriate. The trial closed to new enrollments on April 19. NIAID will also
provide an update on the plans for the ACTT trial moving forward. This trial was an adaptive trial designed to incorporate additional
investigative treatments.
As you can see, the difference in mortality was not statistically significantly different, although that could just be because
of inadequate numbers. It's also very important to note the part about the adaptive trial design of this trial, which puts Dr. Fauci's
comment about how remdesivir will become the "standard of care" going forward into the proper context. In this
particular trial , multiple different drugs can be
compared to placebo or standard of care. The idea is that, if a signal of efficacy is found with one drug, that drug becomes "standard
of care" and the trial is adapted to study how adding other experimental drugs compares to the "standard of care." So what Dr. Fauci
meant was that, based on the finding, going forward remdesivir will become the "standard of care" arm for the trial and the experimental
arm will become remdesivir plus another experimental therapeutic. However, given that the FDA is on the
verge
of issuing an emergency use authorization for remdesivir to treat COVID-19, it looks as though remdesivir will become standard-of-care
in general soon.
But back to the results. Derek Lowe observed:
it's worth noting that had there been "clear and substantial evidence of a treatment difference" during the trial that the
DSMB was to have halted the study at that point. We can infer that nothing rose to that level, then: we have a difference, but
not substantial enough to have ended the trial prematurely.
It's also worth noting some things posted on Twitter about the trial. For instance, Waller Gellad noted:
It's very odd that the primary endpoint was changed:
Thread that summarizes my concerns with Remdesivir press release (not science) as well.
Changing the endpoint midtrial this way is like hosting a race for one destination then declaring wherever you end up after
running for an hour is the finish line. https://t.co/XMUXYW3njp
I'll summarize, so that you don't have to scroll through a Twitter thread if you don't want to. As James Heathers and Waller Gellad
noted, the original primary outcome of the trial when it was registered on March 20. The original primary endpoint of the trial was
an 8-point severity scale (death, on ventilator, hospitalized with oxygen, all the way down to discharged with no limits on activity)
but was changed to time to recovery. There's still a similar scale for the secondary endpoints, but no numbers for that were reported.
(Any bets on whether the results are negative?) This change was apparently made on or around April 16.
Gellad also notes:
last thing:
Here is the results table for the negative lancet trial of remdesivir. The highlighted results are what the primary outcome for
the NIH trial was until 2 weeks ago. https://t.co/niQ65zgLF2
It does look very fishy to me. Endpoint or outcome switching, particularly late in a clinical trial is a huge red flag.
Don't get me wrong. There can be legitimate scientific reasons to switch primary endpoints of a trial. as James Heathers
puts it:
Sometimes it becomes clear after you start that the registration is incomplete or wrong. Sometimes you have a better idea after
you start. Sometimes your thinking changes.
Other times, you're trying to cherry-pick the results.
There are also other reasons to question this trial, including how no confidence intervals were reported, that not even an abstract
was published, just a press release with, as Heathers put it, "two results in four lines":
(2) the results in the press release. I call this 'two results, four sentences' – press releases describe the results in incredibly
brief terms, usually the two most positive outcomes w the briefest explanation possible. He's me bitching about it earlier.
https://t.co/FQlaAQaytG
Basically, if you have two "good" results and twenty "bad" or uninterpretable results, what do you do? What are you going to tell
people? The two "good" results, of course!
Gary Schwitzer has
a nice
summary of the negative reactions to the trial and how it was announced.
The bottom line
I remain very suspicious that the NIH study was announced the same day that a negative study out of China of remdesivir was published.
It just seems too convenient. Maybe I'm being overly suspicious. Maybe I'm too suspicious. Maybe I'm falling prey to conspiracy mongering.
However, in the Trump era, when the Trump administration has politicized previously (mostly) apolitical government agencies as never
before, it's hard not to wonder.
Adding to my suspicion is the fact that the study was reported in a press release, rather than being published, which makes me
wonder if the press release was written to counter the negative study from China that would certainly have tanked Gilead's stock
prices. Yes, I know that the press release reported that this decis, apparently the announcement was decided upon after April 27
meeting of the data and safety monitoring board overseeing this trial, but the outcome switching so late in the trial makes me very
suspicious. Yes, the explanation, which should have been in the press release, along with an acknowledgment that the primary outcome/endpoint
had been changed, but wasn't is not unreasonable:
Then there was
this news report in which Fauci claimed that concerns about leaks fueled the announcement:
He expressed concern that leaks of partial information would lead to confusion. Since the White House was not planning a daily
virus briefing, Fauci said he was invited to release the news at a news conference with Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards(D). "It
was purely driven by ethical concerns," Fauci told Reuters in a telephone interview.
"I would love to wait to present it at a scientific meeting, but it's just not in the cards when you have a situation where
the ethical concern about getting the drug to people on placebo dominates the conversation."
An independent data safety and monitoring board, which had looked at the preliminary results of the NIAID trial, determined
it had met its primary goal of reducing hospital stays.
On Tuesday evening, that information was conveyed in a conference call to scientists studying the drug globally.
"There are literally dozens and dozens of investigators around the world," Fauci said. "People were starting to leak it." But
he did not give details of where the unreported data was being shared.
I smell bullshit here. What probably really happened is that he was under enormous pressure to release the results. It was also
unwise to discuss the results with so many scientists until the manuscript reporting the results of the trial had at least been submitted
for publication. I agree with the scientists who had "expected it [the trial data] to be presented simultaneously in a detailed news
release, a briefing at a medical meeting or in a scientific journal, allowing researchers to review the data." I also agree with
Dr. Eric Topol, referring to the Chinese RCT and this one:
"That's the only thing I'll hang my hat on, and that was negative," said Dr. Eric Topol, director and founder of the Scripps
Research Translational Institute in La Jolla, California.
He was unimpressed by remdesivir's modest benefit. "It was expected to be a whopping effect," Topol added. "It clearly does not have that."
Indeed, given that the pre-test probability of remdesivir having a significant effect was low, meaning that this trial is probably
just noise:
Unfortunately, by the time you are symptomatic with a virus, you are usually already high/peak viral load. So, when you give
an antiviral to someone who is already ill, the damage from the virus is largely done. It's there in big numbers and in the cells.
Indeed, I'm not only unimpressed with the modest benefit reported, I question whether there really was any benefit at all, particularly
in light of the Chinese trial, which found zero difference in viral load in the remdesivir group.
The whole thing looks damned fishy, and we can't judge the study until it's actually published. Meanwhile, whatever the true reasons
for releasing the study results this way, mission accomplished. The negative effect of the Chinese study on Gilead's stock price
was successfully countered and remdesivir becomes a de facto standard of care for patients hospitalized with COVID-19. Worse, no
further trials of remdesivir versus placebo will be possible, because it's been declared that remdesivir "works" against COVID-19
and is the new standard of care! As Mark Hoofnagle put it in a great Twitter thread, that echoes my thoughts:
By the end of the day, reports that FDA is going to emergently approve remdesivir for treatment of COVID.
Gilead gets what they want. No one will want to be in a control arm in further trials and they will argue all future trials
must be noninferiority.
Absolute genius. You have to salute them. On the day a negative trial of their drug is reported, based on a press release they
took over the news cycle, and with some midstream edits to their endpoints their now "positive" trial wins them FDA approval and
a halted trial.
It's worse than that. If remdesivir is now the "standard of care" for hospitalized COVID-19 patients, it now becomes unethical
to randomize them to a placebo group testing ANY new drug for COVID-19. Trials will now have to compare remdesivir alone to remdesivir
plus experimental drug. We'll probably never know now for sure if remdesivir is truly effective against COVID-19.
But Gilead will make billions and billions of dollars.
Drs. Vladimir Zelenko and Stephen Smith have been claiming that hydroxychloroquine is a miracle drug based on anecdotes. Their
shoddy, poorly reported case series are not evidence of efficacy.
President Trump's COVID-19 advisors include Dr. Oz, Rudy Giuliani, and Peter Navarro, the latter an economist who thinks he can
science better than Anthony Fauci. Can science- and evidence-based medicine prevail with respect to hydroxychloroquine and coronavirus?
By Orac Orac is the nom de blog of a humble surgeon/scientist who has an ego just big enough to delude himself that someone,
somewhere might actually give a rodent's posterior about his copious verbal meanderings, but just barely small enough to admit to
himself that few probably will. That surgeon is otherwise known as
David Gorski
...
In long twitter exchange mainly led by James Heathers, has anyone noticed that there are a series of tweets by Didier Raoult ?
One tweet reads:
Could Anthony Fauci explain why the investigators of the NIAID remdesivir trial did change the primary outcome during the
course of the project (16th April)? Removing "death" from primary outcome is a surprising decision.
In a quick search of the web I found the following two:
WHAT ARE SIDE EFFECTS OF REMDESIVIR (RDV)?
In the Ebola trial, researchers noted side effects of remdesivir (RDV) that included:
Increased liver enzyme levels that may indicate possible liver damage
Researchers documented similar increases in liver enzymes in three U.S. COVID-19 patients
The most common adverse effects in studies of remdesivir for COVID-19 include respiratory failure and blood biomarkers of organ
impairment, including low albumin, low potassium, low count of red blood cells, low count of platelets that help with clotting,
and yellow discoloration of the skin. Other reported side effects include gastrointestinal distress, elevated transaminase levels
in the blood (liver enzymes), and infusion site reactions.
Other possible side effects of remdesivir include:
Infusion‐related reactions. Infusion‐related reactions have been seen during a remdesivir infusion or around the time remdesivir
was given.[8] Signs and symptoms of infusion‐related reactions may include: low blood pressure, nausea, vomiting, sweating, and
shivering.
Increases in levels of liver enzymes, seen in abnormal liver blood tests. Increases in levels of liver enzymes have been seen
in people who have received remdesivir, which may be a sign of inflammation or damage to cells in the liver.
So, if it does shorten duration, is it worth potential liver damage, respiratory failure and organ impairment? In other words
is the cure potentially as bad as the disease.
And, as Orac and many commenters have made more than clear, one more example of Trump's government, ignoring science, and jumping
to conclusions.
For yet another drug that was supposed to be a game changer, I am unimpressed by its results. The whole mechanism is wrong. A
drug with this mechanism would need to be almost a prophylactic for it to be hugely effective.
One thing they discovered is that the proteins involved have zinc atoms incorporated into their structure. This won't surprise
any biochemists, as zinc-containing proteins are common. But there's been a steady flow of fringe treatments for the disease --
including some involving chloroquine derivatives -- in which zinc was a key component. We'll have to see whether that changes
now that it's clear that zinc is needed to make copies of the virus (assuming that fact registers at all with the people
prone to promoting fringe therapies).
What is that saying about zinc? I've always heard that zinc was a good thing to have a high intracellular level of it to protect
against viruses besides also being needed to make NO.
So: "Fauci just dropped down a level or two in my estimation of his commitment to rationality."
Let's look at the "Reality": "America needs a federal government that assertively promotes and helps to coordinate that, not one
in which experts like Tony Fauci and Deborah Birx tiptoe around a president's tender ego."
I wouldn't want to be in Fauchi's shoes. If he openly criticizes Trump, he is out and staying in allows him to have some effect.
Damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. So, he has to balance his "committment to rationality" to trying to modify/reduce the
insanity of Trump. If he resigned or was fired, could he have more of an influence? Maybe, maybe not. I would not want to be in his
shoes! ! ! Personally, I would probably resign and try to get our media to listen to me. Just standing next to Trump would turn my
stomach.
So, maybe you should live up to your "name" and evaluate "reality" not an idealistic world.
So you wouldn't say what Fauci said and would quit, eh, Joel?
I wouldn't say what Fauci said about "standard of care" which is basically his endorsement of this.
I believe Orac wouldn't make that statement endorsing Remdesivir as the "standard of care".
I don't know of any self-respecting scientist who would make such a statement no matter what the pressure.
If I was pressured by DJT I would object but maybe agree to not make any statement pro or con about the subject – so as to keep my
position and influence but if someone asked me to say something I thought was not true I would not do it and refuse.
. Fauci didn't seem to have any problem cautioning against unwarranted optimism for CQ/HCQ even while DJT was championing the stuff.
What is different about this?
.
You write: "Fauci didn't seem to have any problem cautioning against unwarranted optimism for CQ/HCQ even while DJT was championing
the stuff. What is different about this?"
Yep; but the only studies promoting CQ/HCQ was a fraudulent one in France and an in vitro study.
What about Remdesivir? First it is a nucleic acid analogue designed to directly disrupt replication of the viral genome. Chloroquine/Hydroxychloroquine
were not even remotely designed to target viruses, though they have a moderate dampening effect on immune reactions, so they work
for autoimmune diseases (e.g., lupus, rheumatoid arthritis); but, as I wrote in a previous exchange, the immune response in an autoimmune
disease compared to a cytokine storm is like comparing 20 mile per hour winds to a category 5 hurricane, 160 mph winds. In addition,
chloroquine/hydroxychloroquine have a large number of mild side-effects and some really serious major ones.
So, what did Fauci say about chloroquine? ""We've got to be careful that we don't make that majestic leap to assume that this
is a knockout drug. We still need to do the kinds of studies that definitely prove whether any intervention is truly safe and effective,"
Fauci, who is also a member of the White House coronavirus task force, said during an interview on "Fox & Friends. . . "We don't
operate on how you feel, we operate on what evidence and data is," Fauci said, adding that it was "not a very robust study" or "overwhelmingly
strong."" (Concha, 2020 Apr 3)
Now, what did he say about Remdesivir: "Speaking to reporters from the White House, Fauci said he was told data from the trial
showed a "clear-cut positive effect in diminishing time to recover." Fauci said the median time of recovery for patients taking the
drug was 11 days, compared with 15 days in the placebo group. He said the mortality benefit of remdesivir "has not yet reached statistical
significance."
The results suggested a survival benefit, with a mortality rate of 8% for the group receiving remdesivir versus 11.6% for the
placebo group, according to a statement from the National Institutes of Health released later Wednesday. "This will be the standard
of care," Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, added. "When you know a drug works, you have
to let people in the placebo group know so they can take it." "What it has proven is a drug can block this virus," he said. (Lovelace,
2020 Apr 29)
"The data shows that remdesivir has a clear-cut, significant, positive effect in diminishing the time to recovery," Fauci said
at the White House on Wednesday. The data he referred to is from a large study of more than 1,000 patients from multiple sites around
the world. Patients either received the drug, called remdesivir, or a placebo.
Dr. Michael Saag, associate dean for global health at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said the results seemed promising.
Antiviral drugs such as remdesivir tend to work earlier in the course of an illness, so "the thing that I think is important in this
study is the patients had advanced disease," said Saag, who is not involved with any remdesivir trials. (NBC News (2020 Apr 29)
Hospitalized patients with advanced COVID-19 and lung involvement who received remdesivir recovered faster than similar patients
who received placebo, according to a preliminary data analysis from a randomized, controlled trial involving 1063 patients, which
began on February 21. The trial (known as the Adaptive COVID-19 Treatment Trial, or ACTT), sponsored by the National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, is the first clinical trial launched in the United
States to evaluate an experimental treatment for COVID-19.
An independent data and safety monitoring board (DSMB) overseeing the trial met on April 27 to review data and shared their interim
analysis with the study team. Based upon their review of the data, they noted that remdesivir was better than placebo from the perspective
of the primary endpoint, time to recovery, a metric often used in influenza trials [my emphasis]. Recovery in this study was defined
as being well enough for hospital discharge or returning to normal activity level. . .
Results also suggested a survival benefit, with a mortality rate of 8.0% for the group receiving remdesivir versus 11.6% for the
placebo group (p=0.059). the group receiving remdesivir versus 11.6% for the placebo group (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases (2020 Apr 29).
So, first I'd bet you don't understand how nucleic acid analogues work?
Second, though I tend not to rely on one study, this one was fairly large and the shortening of time to recovery was clinically significant,
"defined as being well enough for hospital discharge or returning to normal activity level." And Dr. Michael Saag: "Antiviral drugs
such as remdesivir tend to work earlier in the course of an illness, so "the thing that I think is important in this study is the
patients had advanced disease,"
Standard of Care is more a legal definition than a clinical one. Basically it reduces risk of malpractice lawsuits.
While I probably would not have called it "standard of care", instead clearly stating that based on the recent trial, it is currently
the best we have to offer or something to that effect.
So, Fauci didn't call it a cure, didn't claim it reduced mortality, though indications it did, and based on over 1,000 patients,
found it reduced hospitalization and return to normal life by a clinically significant margin, the standard used for flu studies.
Again, I would have been more cautious in my working; but your rank attack on a man who knows more about infectious diseases that
you, I, and many others, a man who has dedicated his life to preventing and dealing with them is just plain sickening. Your black
and white view of Fauci is how antivaccinationists and other adherers to unscience see the world. And an MPH probably means a couple
of lower level epidemiology courses. So, the old saying: A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, coupled with a personality that
prefers a dichotomous world is very very problematic.
Only time and further studies will tell if Remdesivir really does shorten recovery time and, perhaps, also lowers mortality. Right
now, we have nothing else and I wouldn't jump on something because of this; but the over 1,000 patient study isn't nothing.
Just to be clear, Orac's critique is valid; but, as he says, by this time one becomes perhaps overly skeptical given Trump's insanity.
How cautious should Fauci have been? People are becoming desperate. The risks from Remdesivir are extremely low, so currently, either
use it or continue as is.
If there were significant risks and the one study had been one a much smaller group, the scales would be
different. And, though Orac is right they changed the outcome points, as mentioned, shortening of recovery time is a criterion used
for treatment of flu, so, though not, perhaps, the best end-point, it is certainly not the same as some studies using endpoints such
as lowered cholesterol without looking at deaths. They did look at deaths and though not significant, in the right direction. By
the way, do you even understand significance levels? Though only one study, p=0.059 isn't far from p=0.05.
References:
Concha, Joe (2020 Apr 3). Fauci warns there's no 'strong' evidence anti-malaria drug works on coronavirus
Lovelace, Berkeley (2020 Apr 29). Remdesivir coronavirus drug trial: Dr. Fauci says it will set new standard of care. CNBC
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (2020 Apr 29). NIH Clinical Trial Shows Remdesivir Accelerates Recovery
from Advanced COVID-19
Disappointingly, the lock down seems to have made a number of people irrational. Just a quick post to expound on my Fauci post
for those who see the world as binary – ie: black or white. These people think you either support Fauci 100% or 0% and a single criticism
of any Fauci statement means 0% support of Fauci. I do not happen to worship at the altar of Fauci or any scientist and recognize
all are subject to errors – including myself. I view the world in a more nuanced manner than those with the black/white delusion.
I find I can disagree with some things a person says or stands for and agree with some other things they say or do.
My criticism of Fauci in regard to his remdesivir endorsement does not mean I have 0% support for Fauci it means that with that
statement and some others my positive view of him is now ~80% but not 100% and I will have to check up on what he is endorsing
to make sure that I agree with it just like I do with any other scientist/person.
BTW – If some were to check my Disqus account history (Reality022) you would find posts strongly defending Fauci against the Loony
Libertarians who seem to think he is the debil.
.
Now to a second point:
There appears to be a group of Fauci apologists who, to excuse Fauci's statement, say it is due to 'pressure from Trump/the administration'.
I do not subscribe to this excuse and think it is a horrible thing to say for 2 reasons:
1) There is absolutely no evidence that this statement was made under pressure. That idea is totally invented in the minds of
the Fauci apologists in their attempt to exonerate Fauci.
2) It is a horrible thing to say about Fauci. I take him at his word. If he said it he meant it. The excuse actually means that
Fauci's word is so untrustworthy that he can be pressured into being dishonest about his scientific opinions and only the apologists
can tell us when he is lying or actually relating his honest view. The apologists are basically saying Fauci is dishonest.
I have much more respect for the man and believe he is honest but in this case merely wrong.
.
That is all I'm going to say about this subject as some people are going off the rails with their binary view of the world. (snicker)
And you continue to miss the point that "Standard of Care" is mainly a legal term. Are you that dense? It is you who stated your
opinion of Fauci sank, so your binary view of the world. Try reading my other comments, closely, maybe you will learn something;
but I doubt it. "Reality", lacks reality testing.
Reply
I tend to agree. I am of the opinion that Fauci made a mistake here. The evidence for Remdesiver is nowhere near good enough
for it to become the standard of care. But then I am not the one having to make these decisions under difficult circumstances.
I don't pretend to understand why Fauci might have made the comment, so don't see a lot of point in speculating about it.
On the other hand, watching the White House performance from afar, I can see the administration is dysfunctional and is run by
a narcissistic bully, who will publicly turn on anyone who disagrees with them. I also see there are people within and around the
White House who are happy to tell whatever lies they think Trump wants to hear, either through fear or hope for advancement. I understand
why people would add 2 and 2 and come up with 5.
Chris Preston said, "I am of the opinion that Fauci made a mistake here. The evidence for Remdesiver is nowhere near good enough
for it to become the standard of care."
I believe that is the main thrust of this Orac article – that the evidence for Remdesiver efficacy is sorely lacking.
Quoting Orac's article above: "In reality, like Raoult's trials, this trial said nothing about the efficacy of remdesivir against
COVID-19 other than that the drug could be given to COVID-19 patients with a reasonable safety profile."
.
I agree with your 2nd paragraph and think that Fauci is not one of those administration toadies and is being honest and has merely
made a mistake perhaps brought about through grasping-at-straws desperation as described in a current SBM article.
I, as well, do not know why Fauci made the statement but to me it is very disrespectful of the man to use as an excuse that he
is dishonest enough to lie like a toady when pressured by Trump.
I think we are essentially in agreement about this matter.
Have fun.
re dysfunctional administration.. narcissistic bully et al
It seems that the aforementioned will now " wind down" the Covid task force ( The Hill reports) but Drs Fauci and Birx
will still be involved in some capacity.
AS though the battle is already won. Hah! CA and the NY area are reporting lower numbers of deaths and hospital admissions BUT
whilst
other areas are increasing theirs.
Maybe the Orange One imagines that if we discuss Covid less, people will think it's gone, go back to work, buy stuff and the economy
will flourish. Ignore it and it'll go away. Wishful thinking as usual.
Apparently you lack understanding of English. As I explained even grandfathered in medical treatments with no hard scientific
evidence are considered the standard of care, that is, if a doctor uses them he/she lessens risk of lawsuits. Standard of care doesn't
mean a high level of scientific validity.
I guess I am wasting my time. Think of it this way, if allowed for compassionate use advised by ones doctor, then doctor may not
be protected against lawsuits. Unfortunately, as something I read a long time ago, even in Colonial times Americans would rather
sue than eat breakfast. Just one more sickness of American exceptionalism, so maybe, just maybe, all Fauci was doing was trying to
reduce this risk.
Not to mention that CDC closed the lab. So CDC is not part of great vaccine conspiracy, after all. Huge news, I would say.
One could mention, too, that Johnson & Johnson get COVID vaccine contract. So Dorit Reiss' plots are not very effective, ater
all. Reply
You write: Hmm . Problems with the Wuhan Lab and those nasty bats back in 2018. Just another coincidence, I suppose.
Weird. So many coincidences."
From a recent article in the Atlantic:
scientists have also identified about 500 other coronaviruses among China's many bat species. "There will be many more
-- I think it's safe to say tens of thousands," says Peter Daszak of the EcoHealth Alliance, who has led that work. Laboratory
experiments show that some of these new viruses could potentially infect humans. SARS-CoV-2 likely came from a bat, too.
It seems unlikely that a random bat virus should somehow jump into a susceptible human. But when you consider millions
of people, in regular contact with millions of bats, which carry tens of thousands of new viruses, vanishingly improbable
events become probable ones. In 2015, Daszak's team found that 3 percent of people from four Chinese villages that are close
to bat caves had antibodies that indicated a previous encounter with SARS-like coronaviruses. "Bats fly out every night
over their houses.
Some of them shelter from rain in caves, or collect guano for fertilizer," Daszak says. "If you extrapolate up to the
rural population, across the region where the bats that carry these viruses live, you're talking 1 [million] to 7 million
people a year exposed." Most of these infections likely go nowhere. It takes just one to trigger an epidemic.
Note. he links to peer-reviewed journal articles. So, as the second paragraph makes clear, antibodies to bat coronaviruses
exist in the population, etc. Add this to the sequencing of the genome that shows just how close it is to the 2003 SARS
corona virus and to bat coronaviruses and, as usual, your moronic "coincidences" just lacks any validity.
Note also that his article links to many other good ones.
As I've written before, nature is quite capable of creating really nasty microbes.
Oh this guy needs a dishonorable mention, Harvard traitor, Charles Leiber. "has received more than $15,000,000 in grant
funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Department of Defense (DOD)." Our tax dollars hard at work for
this POS.
This is our guy: Charles M. Lieber Semiconductor nanowires: A platform for nanoscience and nanotechnology MRS Bulletin
Volume 36, Issue 12 (Laser micro- and nanofabrication of biomaterials)December 2011 , pp. 1052-1063 DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1557/mrs.2011.26 So COVID 19 was not involved. One should indeed not serve two masters, DOD and a Chinese university
Reply
Note that he links to a number of excellent articles, including the two that the following is based on:
"scientists have also identified about 500 other coronaviruses among China's many bat species. "There will be
many more -- I think it's safe to say tens of thousands," says Peter Daszak of the EcoHealth Alliance, who has
led that work. Laboratory experiments show that some of these new viruses could potentially infect humans. SARS-CoV-2
likely came from a bat, too.
It seems unlikely that a random bat virus should somehow jump into a susceptible human. But when you consider
millions of people, in regular contact with millions of bats, which carry tens of thousands of new viruses, vanishingly
improbable events become probable ones. In 2015, Daszak's team found that 3 percent of people from four Chinese
villages that are close to bat caves had antibodies that indicated a previous encounter with SARS-like coronaviruses.
"Bats fly out every night over their houses. Some of them shelter from rain in caves, or collect guano for fertilizer,"
Daszak says. "If you extrapolate up to the rural population, across the region where the bats that carry these
viruses live, you're talking 1 [million] to 7 million people a year exposed." Most of these infections likely go
nowhere. It takes just one to trigger an epidemic."
So, 3 percent of people had antibodies to bat corona viruses. As the above explains, it is quite probable that
the current virus came from someone infected by a bat. Now, since sequencing of the current SARS-Cov-2 has found
its genome quite close to the 2003 SARS virus and to several bat coronavirus genomes, goes against your sick need
to blame the Chinese. A coincidence is not even close to any type of proof, except in the mind of a moron like
you looking to place blame. And there is a great book on "coincidences": David J. Hand (2014). "The Improbability
Principle: Why Coincidences, Miracles, and Rare Events Happen Every Day." Basically, what someone might think is
a rare coincidence isn't.
And, the major blame for what is happening in the U.S. is a combination of Trump and overall American unappreciation
for Public Health and, thus, pandemic preparedness. When it comes to cutting funding, first to go.
I realize that real research, logic, etc. have NO effect on moron's like you; but, hopefully, others monitoring
this exchange are open-minded.
And as Aarno pointed out, you attacked someone who had nothing to do with COVID. He worked with the Wuhan Institute
of Technology; yep, in Wuhan and that's it. It's a large city dimwit. More importantly, he has been charged, not
found guilty. I realize that the old adage innocent until proven guilty doesn't apply to anyone you chose to attack.
You just don't know when to stop. YOU ARE DESPICABLE!
Reply
"... Dr. Judy Mikovits is the central figure of 'Plandemic,' which basically claims that "billionaire patent owners" are stoking the spread of the coronavirus, all in the name of forcing "experimental poisons" on the population in the form of vaccines. ..."
"... Mikovits' central argument – that an eventual vaccine for coronavirus will kill "millions of people" ..."
"... "donated the entire amount to charity." ..."
"... However, amid the half-baked theories, Mikovits touches on some truth. The federal government does in fact pay hospitals a set amount of money to treat coronavirus patients, about $13,000. This amount rises to $39,000 if the patient is placed on a ventilator. Mikovits insists that ventilation is the wrong treatment for coronavirus patients, and is only carried out to boost revenues – something the ER doctors would disagree with. ..."
"... It doesn't help that many of the claims are disjointed, and rather than working towards its main goal of demonstrating a sinister plan by Fauci and vaccine evangelist Bill Gates to poison the masses, the documentary instead just lumps together anything critical of the mainstream consensus on the virus to paint Fauci in a bad light. ..."
"... For instance, it's been widely reported that Fauci's organization did give millions of dollars to the Wuhan Institute of Virology to finance its study of coronaviruses, after the federal government banned such research in the US. However, no smoking gun linking Fauci to the current outbreak is provided. ..."
"... "When you tear out a man's tongue, you are not proving him a liar, you're only telling the world that you fear what he might say." ..."
"... "bypass the gatekeepers of free speech," ..."
Pulled from YouTube, censored in internet searches, and denounced by every single mainstream
media outlet, what kind of information could make everyone so mad about 'Plandemic'? We watched
it to find out. A 23-minute teaser clip of the documentary went viral on Wednesday evening,
notching up tens of millions of views across multiple platforms. However, a media outcry soon
followed, with mainstream media outlets deploying their 'fact-checkers' to debunk its claims,
and Facebook and YouTube removing the video, citing their new rules on Covid-19
"misinformation."
Yet censorship is also a sure-fire way to generate interest in the very thing you're trying
to censor – and multiple copies and versions of 'Plandemic' began to appear like
mushrooms. So who's behind it and what's in there?
A doctor with quite a reputation
Dr. Judy Mikovits is the central figure of 'Plandemic,' which basically claims that "billionaire patent owners" are stoking the spread of the coronavirus, all in the name
of forcing "experimental poisons" on the population in the form of vaccines.
The claims are quite bold, but it doesn't help that Mikovits herself is far from an unbiased
source on the subject. She's been active in anti-vaccine and fringe circles for years, even
while insisting she's not "anti-vax" herself.
Once an active cancer researcher and (mainstream) virologist, Mikovits was disgraced in 2011
for publishing what others in the scientific community called false research into Chronic
Fatigue Syndrome. The dramatic events that followed – a search and arrest in her
California home – are used in 'Plandemic' to establish her alleged conflict with Dr.
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and
President Donald Trump's coronavirus adviser.
Mikovits claims Fauci personally "paid off" law enforcement officials to arrest
her and detain her without trial. She was indeed arrested in November 2011, but for allegedly
stealing lab materials from the Nevada laboratory she worked at before her dismissal (which
Mikovits claims were "planted" in her house). Criminal charges brought against
Mikovits were later dismissed – but this has been tied to the legal troubles of her
former employer, Harvey Whittemore.
Evidence-free claims galore
Of course, the central part of the video – something being discussed in every
'Plandemic' piece and review – is made up of an array of Covid-19-related claims that
Mikovits makes.
These range from claims that wearing face masks "activates your own virus" (there's
no evidence of that) to the assertion that the devastating coronavirus outbreak in Northern
Italy can be linked to the uptake in flu vaccination the year before (a claim which appears to
be based on a misleading interpretation of one tangentially-related study, not any fresh
research).
Mikovits' central argument – that an eventual vaccine for coronavirus will kill
"millions of people" – is unprovable, and her assertion that Fauci will
personally profit from any vaccine is outright false. Mikovits accuses Fauci of profiteering
from royalties on an AIDS treatment he patented in the 1990s, but Fauci only placed his name on
the patent because regulations required him to, and "donated
the entire amount to charity."
However, amid the half-baked theories, Mikovits touches on some truth. The federal
government does in fact pay hospitals a set amount of money to treat coronavirus patients,
about $13,000. This amount rises to $39,000 if the patient is placed on a ventilator. Mikovits
insists that ventilation is the wrong treatment for coronavirus patients, and is only carried
out to boost revenues – something the ER doctors would disagree with.
It doesn't help that many of the claims are disjointed, and rather than working towards
its main goal of demonstrating a sinister plan by Fauci and vaccine evangelist Bill Gates to
poison the masses, the documentary instead just lumps together anything critical of the
mainstream consensus on the virus to paint Fauci in a bad light.
For instance, it's been widely reported that Fauci's organization did
give millions of dollars to the Wuhan Institute of Virology to finance its study of
coronaviruses, after the federal government banned such
research in the US. However, no smoking gun linking Fauci to the current outbreak is
provided.
Boost by censorship
Yet, when information like this is declared verboten, that's what people will think. There's
a popular quote by 'Game of Thrones' author George RR Martin: "When you tear out a man's
tongue, you are not proving him a liar, you're only telling the world that you fear what he
might say."
When right-wing polemicist Alex Jones and his conspiracy-laden news site Infowars were
essentially banned from the internet in 2018, the Infowars app shot to the top of both Apple
and Google's app stores.
The phenomenon is known as the 'Streisand effect,' named for a 2003 lawsuit in which singer
Barbara Streisand sued a photographer who shot an aerial snap of her California mansion for
invasion of privacy. The lawsuit backfired, and led to hundreds of thousands of people
downloading the picture. Before the case, it had only been viewed six times.
Likewise, the documentary's producers will spin the furor over 'Plandemic' to their
advantage. Already, their website urges viewers to "bypass the gatekeepers of free
speech," and slams the "overlords of big tech" for silencing them.
Forbidden knowledge is tempting, and by wiping 'Plandemic' from the internet, Silicon Valley
will only increase its notoriety.
The connection of Dr Fauci to the Wuhan lab is also well established. He moved viral "gain
of function" research to Wuhan after it was closed down in the USA by the Obama Regime.
Appealing to his base of support, Trump has notoriously pardoned Chief Petty Officer Edward
Gallagher, a Navy seal who was clearly guilty of murder in Afghanistan, and even met with him
afterwards in the White House. Regarding Gallagher, Senate Armed Services Committee Democrat
Jack Reed of Rhode Island said in a November that "The White House's handling of this matter
erodes the basic command structure of the military and the basic function of the Uniform Code
of Military Justice."
Trump is now meddling in the treatment of Navy Captain Brett Crozier, who was relieved of
his command after he went public with complains about the spread of coronavirus on his ship. In
early April
the president said "I may just get involved." In the military services such interference
even has a name, "undue command influence." Clearly, the White House is seeking to squeeze
every bit of political advantage it can from the Crozier story.
Congressman Smith has also described the situation in a colorful fashion as "The president
has made it clear as far as he is concerned the single most important attribute that anybody in
the federal government can have is a willingness to kiss the president's ass as often as
possible" which "undermines your ability to be competent, to make decisions based on what is
the right thing to do as opposed to what is going to feed the president's limitless ego."
To be sure, Donald Trump is not about to change and if he is re-elected one can only expect
four more years of the same, but public confidence in government can only be maintained if
there is at least some belief that decision making is a rational process. Trump has clearly
turned that axiom on its head in his tendency to blame other parts of the government for what
are manifestly his own failings. His characterization of senior officials, many of whom he
himself appointed, as "losers" casts the entire government in a bad light. Whether the strategy
of divide and conquer within one's own administration will work out for Trump will certainly be
decided in November.
Philip Giraldi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Council for the National
Interest.
A Yale University epidemiologist is calling into question the legality of US President
Donald Trump and his administration's response to the COVID-19 novel coronavirus, appearing to
suggest that federal government officials could be tried under international law. Hours before
Trump
took to Twitter to announce the Coronavirus Task Force would "continue on indefinitely,"
Gregg
Gonsalves , an assistant professor of epidemiology of microbial diseases at the Yale School
of Public Health, posed a series of questions to fellow netizens on the social media site
regarding Washington's handling of COVID-19.
How many people will die this summer, before Election Day? What proportion of the deaths
will be among African-Americans, Latinos, other people of color? This is getting awfully
close to genocide by default. What else do you call mass death by public policy? #COVID19
#coronavirus
As of this article's publication, the US has tested over 7.5 million individuals for the
novel coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University . Data provided by the
university details that the country has confirmed 1.2 million cases of the novel coronavirus
and suffered over 71,400 associated deaths. At least 189,791 recoveries from COVID-19 have been
observed in the US.
Gonsalves' emphasis on the COVID-19 deaths of Black Americans, Latinos and other people of
color in the US stems from the fact that there has been a disproportionate amount of novel
coronavirus deaths in the Black community.
"Social conditions, structural racism, and other factors elevate risk for COVID-19 diagnoses
and deaths in black communities," wrote a team of epidemiologists and clinicians in a new study
analyzing novel coronavirus cases and death on a county level, as reported by CNN. The
scientists found that counties where Black residents made up more than 13% of the population -
about the percentage of the total US population that is Black - suffered 52% of COVID-19
diagnoses and 58% of associated deaths in the country.
"Structural factors including health care access, density of households, unemployment,
pervasive discrimination and others drive these disparities, not intrinsic characteristics of
black communities or individual-level factors," noted the researchers.
It's worth noting that the findings are preliminary, as the study still needs to go through
the peer review process.
"So, what does it mean to let thousands die by negligence, omission, failure to act, in a
legal sense under international law?" asked Gonsalves in another tweet
Wednesday morning .
The conduct of Trump and his administration has been called into question over the past
several weeks after reports revealed that the president and federal officials were briefed on
the novel coronavirus, and its potential threat to the US, several weeks prior to the
declaration of a national emergency on March 13.
Recently, Dr. Rick Bright, the former director of the US Biomedical Advanced Research and
Development Authority,
said that he alerted Department of Health and Human Services officials in January about
the US' unpreparedness for a possible COVID-19 outbreak. Bright said that he was met with
"indifference which then developed into hostility" from the administration and, in his
opinion, was the reason for his demotion within the agency.
While Trump is pushing for more Americans to return to their workplaces and restart the US
economy - which some believe could lead to a second wave of infections - Gonsalves wondered if
there could be some kind of intervention or charges brought against the federal government on
an international level.
"And I am being serious here: what is happening in the US is purposeful, considered
negligence, omission, failure to act by our leaders. Can they be held responsible under
international law?" he asked .
"The world today has 6.8 billion people. That's heading up to about nine billion. Now if
we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services, we could
lower that by perhaps 10 or 15 percent!" - Bill Gates
"men and women need a common motivation, namely a common adversary against whom they can
organize themselves and act together"
"new enemies have to be identified, new strategies imagined, and new weapons
devised"
"in its present form, democracy is no longer well-suited for the tasks ahead. The
complexity and the technical nature of many of today's problems do not always allow elected
representatives to make competent decisions at the right time"
"In searching for a common enemy against whom we can unite, we came up with the idea that
pollution, the threat of global warming, water shortages, famine and the like, would fill the
bill"
"The real enemy then is humanity itself."
Excerpts from "The First Global Revolution" – I would add, a wonderful marxist
propaganda for the NWO.
Ms No, 4 hours ago Listen to this medical chick that saved millions from the EU and their
swine flu vaccine that caused brain damage. They tried to have her "psychiatrized" which means
locked away as crazy and probably tortured for the rest of her miserable life, being banged
with blood draw needles, forced meds and put in a straight jacket. Close to Assange
treatment.
https://youtu.be/Hlk_Zfz7xhU
harleyjohn45, 4 hours ago She may have Fauci by the short hairs. He is deeply embedded in the
national health care oligarchy. Not my favorite person, had a lot to do with destroying the US
economy along with MSM. DaiRR, 5 hours ago The big pharma crime syndicate, embedded in
government health agencies with operatives like Fauci, is a mega-billion dollar enterprise and
those dollars buy off thousands of people like Fauci. People smarter than me need to figure out
how to stop this once and forever.
Meanwhile, if you don't realize Google and Facebook and all their offshoots are your enemy,
you are the enemy too. wdg, 5 hours ago (Edited) Dr. Judy Mikovits is just the tip of the
iceberg as more and more doctors and reserach scientists are speaking out and exposing the BIG
PHARMA CRIMINAL SYNDICATE that includes the WHO, CDC, NIH and many other so-called health care
and research agencies around the world, and Drs. Fauci and Birx not to mention the leadership
of most western government who have been bought off by this Criminal Syndicate which has
murdered and debilitated millions of people. These are crimes against humanity carried out at
the highest levels of governments, corporations and governmental agencies. Watch the powerful
video interview of Robert Kennedy Jr. below which provides a window into the evil world we now
live in. Big Pharma and the medical profession which sold their souls for money are both
finished because the trust is gone. Class action suits will bankrupt the lot.
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Robert Kennedy Jr. Destroys Big Pharma, Fauci & Pro-Vaccine
Movement
Your Wikipedia and all your stupid marxist propaganda is fake, yep!
5 hours ago Why is the video doctored right at the end to make Fauci say a damning sentence.
You can see his head jerk to new positions as they piece together bits of video.
That fake ending just negated all credibility for the video.
Take a look at the original video where he told that (the part of interest is at the very
beginning starting at 2:50 and is ending at 3:40) and you shall see that the meaning (when the
parts where he brags about his past and future were removed) of what he actually have told in
that part was not altered in any way - the meaning is exactly the same. Due diligence in these
times is actually quite easy in cases like these, hence you should probably do the same prior
to posting
4 hours ago (Edited) I have zero tolerance for fake news. It's not up to me. If I spot it, I
call it. You just confirmed I was right. It's up to them to not fake video of a person they are
disparaging. There is no way for him to comment about that doctored section at the end.
Edit: I thank you for doing that research but it shouldn't be up to you either. This is not
the time for fake anything.
Commercialization of research including allowing patenting the research so that you can extract revenue stream from licensing
the patent and which became a binge addition in universities creates "academic entrepreneurs" which are very similar to Soviet
Mafiosi.
One thing that should be abundantly clear by now is that any thoughts, opinions, or speculation which challenges the official
narratives regarding COVID-19 will be promptly silenced by Silicon Valley, under the guise of protecting the public - which apparently
can't be trusted to absorb information and form their own opinions.
The most recent example of censored wrongthink is a new documentary, Plandemic, which features former chronic fatigue researcher
Judy Milkovits, who claims that Dr. Anthony Fauci - head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) - is
spewing 'absolute propaganda' about COVID-19.
In the video, Mikovits claimed Fauci perpetrated propaganda that led to the deaths of millions of people in the past. She also
raised questions about how COVID-19 deaths are being counted.
However, one of her biggest beefs against Fauci dates to the battles for credit over the discovery of HIV in the early 1980s.
In the video, Mikovits claimed she isolated HIV from the saliva and blood of patients in France but that Fauci was involved
in delaying research so a friend could take credit, which allowed the HIV virus to spread. These claims are not proven. They were
also disseminated in April by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Kennedy alleged on the Children’s Health Defense website (where he is chairman) -Heavy
Google's YouTube is currently playing whack-a-mole with a 25 minute promotional vignette for the documentary which has gone viral
- deleting new versions seemingly as fast as they pop up. The original version had over 1.6 million views when it was censored.
Facebook, however, hasn't deleted it (yet):
As noted by Heavy's Jessica McBride, Mikovits has a new book out,
Plague of Corrpution, which currently has 4.5 / 5 stars on Amazon.
Mikovits, who has
a new book out, was featured in the first vignette released to promote the movie. Her controversial career in the scientific
community has been punctuated by an arrest, lawsuit, retracted research study, allegations against Fauci and clashes with the
founders of the Whittemore Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease, which is located in Reno, Nevada. -Heavy
Mikovits has claimed that she published a "blockbuster" study which revealed that "the common use of animal and human fetal tissues
were unleashing devastating plagues of chronic diseases," and that the "minions of Big Pharma" have been waging war against her to
destroy her "good name, career and personal life."
In the Plandemic video, Mikovits makes other claims, including that patents are a conflict of interest, and she criticizes
the concept of mass vaccines. “They will kill millions, as they already have with their vaccines,” she said, stressing she was
not anti-vaccine. She claims there is a financial incentive in COVID-19 strategies to not use natural remedies in order to push
people to use vaccines.
Mikovits co-wrote a book called Plague: One Scientist’s Intrepid Search for the Truth about Human Retroviruses and Chronic
Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), Autism, and Other Diseases
and claims 30% of vaccines
are contaminated with retroviruses.
The book contains a forward from Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The book was No. 2 on the Amazon bestseller list on May 6. -Heavy
Plandemic has received both praise and criticism,
however Google thinks it's best if you leave the thinking to them.
Fauci works for Bill Gates, and will push a vaccine & medications that he will profit from. I don't like him. However, the
end of this woman's video takes Dr. Fauci's 2017 remarks out of context. Fauci wasn't saying he knew this Plandemic would occur.
He was merely saying that every 4-8 years there is a new type of virus or flu strain in the world. (which is fearmongering in
a way -- with every new administration he needs to push for more funding by saying there will likely be an outbreak)
"Dr. Fauci, it turns out, has been a key cheerleader for this "death science" research for decades. He has also been credibly
accused by Dr. Judy Mikovitz and other virologists of stealing intellectual property and stifling whistleblowers who sought to
expose the truth about NIH-funded research and how it threatens humanity."...
Mokovitz has written a new book called, "Plague of Corruption". The hardcopy is "sold out" EVERYWHERE. I find this fishy. I
wonder if the kindle version has been edited to be less damaging to Fauci, et al. It wouldn't be hard for the government to buy
up all the copies. Plus, the website for the book does not load.
"The world today has 6.8 billion people. That's heading up to about nine billion. Now if we do a really great job on new vaccines,
health care, reproductive health services, we could lower that by perhaps 10 or 15 percent!" - Bill Gates
"men and women need a common motivation, namely a common adversary against whom they can organize themselves and act together"
"new enemies have to be identified, new strategies imagined, and new weapons devised"
"in its present form, democracy is no longer well-suited for the tasks ahead. The complexity and the technical nature of many
of today's problems do not always allow elected representatives to make competent decisions at the right time"
"In searching for a common enemy against whom we can unite, we came up with the idea that pollution, the threat of global warming,
water shortages, famine and the like, would fill the bill"
"The real enemy then is humanity itself."
Excerpts from "The First Global Revolution" – I would add, a wonderful marxist propaganda for the NWO.
xxx Ms No, 4 hours ago
Listen to this medical chick that saved millions from the EU and their swine flu vaccine that caused brain damage. They tried
to have her "psychiatrized" which means locked away as crazy and probably tortured for the rest of her miserable life, being banged
with blood draw needles, forced meds and put in a straight jacket. Close to Assange treatment.
She may have Fauci by the short hairs. He is deeply embedded in the national health care oligarchy. Not my favorite person,
had a lot to do with destroying the US economy along with MSM.
DaiRR, 5 hours ago
The big pharma crime syndicate, embedded in government health agencies with operatives like Fauci, is a mega-billion dollar
enterprise and those dollars buy off thousands of people like Fauci. People smarter than me need to figure out how to stop this
once and forever.
Meanwhile, if you don't realize Google and Facebook and all their offshoots are your enemy, you are the enemy too.
wdg, 5 hours ago (Edited)
Dr. Judy Mikovits is just the tip of the iceberg as more and more doctors and reserach scientists are speaking out and exposing
the BIG PHARMA CRIMINAL SYNDICATE that includes the WHO, CDC, NIH and many other so-called health care and research agencies around
the world, and Drs. Fauci and Birx not to mention the leadership of most western government who have been bought off by this Criminal
Syndicate which has murdered and debilitated millions of people. These are crimes against humanity carried out at the highest
levels of governments, corporations and governmental agencies.
Watch the powerful video interview of Robert Kennedy Jr. below
which provides a window into the evil world we now live in. Big Pharma and the medical profession which sold their souls for money
are both finished because the trust is gone. Class action suits will bankrupt the lot.
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: Robert Kennedy Jr. Destroys Big Pharma, Fauci & Pro-Vaccine Movement
Your Wikipedia and all your stupid marxist propaganda is fake, yep!
xxx 5 hours ago
Why is the video doctored right at the end to make Fauci say a damning sentence. You can see his head jerk to new positions
as they piece together bits of video.
That fake ending just negated all credibility for the video.
Take a look at the original video where he told that (the part of interest is at the very beginning starting at 2:50 and is
ending at 3:40) and you shall see that the meaning (when the parts where he brags about his past and future were removed) of what
he actually have told in that part was not altered in any way - the meaning is exactly the same. Due diligence in these times
is actually quite easy in cases like these, hence you should probably do the same prior to posting
xxx 4 hours ago (Edited)
I have zero tolerance for fake news. It's not up to me. If I spot it, I call it. You just confirmed I was right. It's up to
them to not fake video of a person they are disparaging. There is no way for him to comment about that doctored section at the
end.
Edit: I thank you for doing that research but it shouldn't be up to you either. This is not the time for fake anything.
This imperial college that consults with the CDC and WHO and others should have also looked
at previous forecasts... No one serious should have paid any attention to this Ferguson guy
because his modelling was off by factors.. He has now destroyed hundreds of millions of
lives, cost countries trillions. Mostly only Africa was saved because they have lived
thorough westerners saying they dont know what they are doing and stopped listening. Death
rates at a very few areas that were published were higher but were the same everywhere else.
In fact over the course of the next few years the effects of this will be widely felt as
above average death rates due to the factors. Far above even without anything being done at
all.
In 2009, one of Ferguson's models predicted 65,000 people could die from the Swine Flu
outbreak in the UK -- the final figure was below 500. potential death toll during the 2005
Bird [avian] Flu outbreak. Ferguson estimated 200 million could die. The real number was in
the low hundreds.
The clinical epidemiology tradition cautions that primitive model typically mislead us -- for
instance, by smuggling in unproven assumptions that have not been empirically established in
human populations.
The latter camp has won significant media attention in recent weeks. Bill Gates -- whose
foundation funds the research behind the most visible outbreak model in the United
States, developed by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University
of Washington -- worries that COVID-19 might be a "once-in-a-century pandemic."
A notable detractor from this view is Stanford's John Ioannidis, a clinical epidemiologist,
meta-researcher, and reliable skeptic who has openly wondered whether the coronavirus pandemic
might rather be a
"once-in-a-century evidence fiasco." He argues that better data are needed to justify the
drastic measures undertaken to contain the pandemic in the United States and elsewhere.
Neil Ferguson is the chief hack with an unbroken record of failure in his epidemiological
projections (and therefore always failing upward, as is typical of the system's most useful
propagandists), whose prescriptions have been instrumental in pushing the lockdown ideology
and program.
Now we learn that he himself doesn't believe in his own lies, as he has felt free to flout
the same restrictions he has insisted must become the totalitarian "new normal".
"Professor Neil Ferguson, high priest of liberal hospital management and inventor of the
generalized containment against Covid-19. Professor Ferguson is still the European reference
for epidemic modelling.
- Yet it was he who, in 2001, convinced Prime Minister Tony Blair to have 6 million cattle
slaughtered to stop the foot-and-mouth epidemic (a decision that cost 10 billion pounds and
is now considered an aberration).
- In 2002, he calculated that mad cow disease would kill about 50,000 British people and
another 150,000 when transmitted to sheep. There were actually 177.
- In 2005, he predicted that bird flu would kill 65,000 Britons. There were a total of
457."
His Corona terror-mongering will become known as his ultimate failure and lie.
Update (1045ET): In video of Trump's Tuesday morning scrum with reporters, the president can
be heard telling a reporter that he is allowing Dr. Fauci to testify before the Senate - and
not the House - because the House is "a set up".
REPORTER: Why won't you let Fauci testify before the House?
TRUMP: "Because the House is a set up. The House is a bunch of Trump haters ... they,
frankly, want our situation to be unsuccessful, which means death." pic.twitter.com/G3G5OoV5IV
And Fauci has already been awarded the dunce cap with his 1980s assertion that HIV was going
kill us all. So I guess for his most recent action he gets the dunce cap with slide rule
cluster.
"The project was run by EcoHealth Alliance, a non-profit research group, under the
direction of President Peter Daszak, an expert on disease ecology. NIH canceled the project
just this past Friday, April 24th, Politico reported. Daszak did not immediately respond to
Newsweek requests for comment."
These models are nothing more than curve fitting tools that have limited predictive value.
Basically the models are derived from Neil Ferguson and his modelling group at Imperial
College, in addition to being backed by WHO, receive millions from the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation.
Ferguson was the source of the "prediction" that 2.2 million Americans would likely die if
immediate lockdown of the US economy did not occur. Based on the Ferguson model, Dr Anthony
Fauci of NIAID confronted President Trump and supposedly pressured him to declare a national
health emergency. Much as in the UK, once the damage to the economy , Ferguson's model later
drastically lowered the US fatality estimates to between 100,000 to 200,000 deaths which has
since been reduced further.
Ferguson and his Imperial College modelers have a notorious track record for predicting
dire consequences of diseases. In 2002 Ferguson predicted that up to 50,000 people in UK
would die from variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, "mad cow disease", possibly to 150,000 if
the epidemic expanded to include sheep. A total of 178 people were officially registered dead
from vCJD. In 2005, Ferguson claimed that up to 200 million (!) people worldwide would be
killed by bird-flu or H5N1. By early 2006, the WHO had only linked 78 deaths to the virus.
Then in 2009 Ferguson's group at Imperial College advised the government that swine flu or
H1N1 would probably kill 65,000 people in the UK. In the end, swine flu claimed the lives of
457 people.
As for China. They need a Fake Cold War. Have to give people an external enemy so people
wont figure out who the real enemy is. To the extent China was involved it was as an equal
partner.
I was on the ground in the US for less than 36 hours, but saw enough to be alarmed. If I
hadn't forcefully volunteered that I had just come from living in China, I don't think
anyone would have checked me for fever before entering the US.
Once I declared myself, I was escorted to a "CDC line" for a cursory temperature check
(with a large group of Mormon missionaries returning from Europe), given a Centres for
Disease Control and Prevention flier about Covid-19 symptoms and asked to stay home and
minimise my trips outside for 14 days.
...
Finally, after we promised not to leave our flat, our passports were returned to us, and
at 4.03am, some 16 hours after landing, we were home. That morning, a young woman in a
hazmat suit knocked on our door and took our temperatures at 10am. She returned at 3pm to
take our temperatures again.
This routine was repeated for 14 days before we would be permitted to circulate in the
general Shanghai population. We chatted occasionally with our temperature takers (they were
a rotating cast of 20-something women). Initially, a man would accompany them to film the
temperature reading, but by the final few days the women came alone.
A few days after our return, we discovered that authorities had placed a sensor on our
door. And more than a week after the start of our quarantine, we received a note informing
us we were not to open our door more than five times a day.
There's a lot more on the epic journey to pass through Chinese airport/immigration/nCOV
control procedures, but just this last bit makes it clear what the difference is.
Has anyone out there seen or heard of any nCOV quarantined people in the US even being
checked on once to see if they are maintaining quarantine? Much less twice a day for 14 days
by a live person, plus a sensor on the door?
Note that this is a much easier setup than contact tracing.
Thanks for this very helpful tracing of US propaganda.
Those projections are very suspect, especially Deaths Per Day, where the model is way off
the mark for Past data on deaths per day! Any decent model would at least account for the
past data, but that one predicted a fifth of the deaths, and shows the rate dramatically
increasing when reported deaths are slowly decreasing.
In the US, some states (Guam, Hawaii, Vermont) have suppressed the virus spread very well,
some (Florida, Washington state) have a slow decline in new cases, and just a few
(Massachusetts, Virginia others) are still increasing in new cases per day. Fortunately, the
rate is increasing in the District of Corruption, but not fast enough to reduce the
corruption much.
"The basis of reassuring the public about re-entry is repeating the facts about the threat
and who it targets . By now, studies from Europe
and the U.S
. all suggest that the overall fatality rate is far lower than early estimates. And we know who
to protect, because this disease – by the evidence – is not equally dangerous
across the population. In Michigan's Oakland County , 75 percent of deaths were in
those over 70 years old; 91 percent were in people over 60, similar to what was noted in
New York . And younger, healthier people have virtually zero risk of death and little
risk of serious disease; as I have noted before, under one percent of New York City's
hospitalizations have
been patients under 18 years of age, and less than one percent of deaths at any age
are in the absence of
underlying conditions.
Here are specific and logical steps to end the lockdown and safely restore normal life:
First , let's finally focus on protection for the most vulnerable -- that means nursing home
patients, who are already living under controlled access. This would include strictly
regulating all who enter and care for nursing home members by requiring testing and protective
masks for all who interact with these highly vulnerable people. Specifically, nursing home
workers should be tested for COVID-19 antibodies, and if negative, for virus to exclude
infection, to ensure safety of senior residents. No COVID-19-positive patient can resume
residence until definitively cleared by testing.
We should continue to inform the public about what they have already successfully learned
regarding the at-risk group. That means issuing rational guidelines advising the highest
standards of hygiene and appropriate social distancing while interacting with elderly friends
and family members at risk, including those with diabetes, obesity and other chronic
conditions.
Second , those with mild symptoms of the illness should strictly self-isolate for two weeks.
It's not urgent to test them -- simply assume they have the infection. That includes
confinement at home, having the highest concern for sanitization and wearing protective masks
when others in their homes enter the same room." Dr. Scott Atlas in The Hill
---------------
It should be mentioned that Dr. John Ioannides, a leading epidemiologist at Stanford agrees
with Dr. Atlas.
I saw Atlas on a news program a day or so ago. The anchor looked frightened by what Atlas
was saying. This is understandable. The COVID panic is now so deeply embedded and pervasive
that to question the rationale for the shut-down of the economy is equivalent to heresy in a
theocratic state.
IMO the road back economically is going to be slow and difficult. I hope I am wrong. pl
I hope you are wrong, too. I am tired of the drama and hysteria.
Still, I do want the investigations into China's culpability for the
result of their "accident" or of their planned upheaval of the rest of the world.
I just want to trust some designated "expert" to tell us when when we can put away the
masks and can take up hugging our friends and shaking hands while smiling and meeting new
acquaintances. What is a church service without that and all the stories of Christs care and
concern for the "untouchables" of the world?
Seems the CCP's MSS's think-tank CICR compiled an Intelligence Report of their own warning
of possible armed conflict with U.S..
IMO it's hoped that our IC will realize that this virus doesn't jump ship into the human
sphere on its own naturally without 'human tweaking in a lab' which then provides a bridge
from which the virus could go from bats to the human sphere. And why would the CCP/MSS play
such a dangerous game? -- Bio-weapons R&D.
There can be little doubt that the fascist/socialist/anti-Trump elements in this country have
seized upon the presence of the virus to attempt to destroy Trump's chances in November and
to bring about greater state control of citizens. This immediately after the lame impeachment
plot failed to remove Trump; which was right after the lame Russian collusion plot failed to
remove Trump.
I don't think it's paranoid to consider that China released the virus on the US at a time
when President Trump is engaging in a major trade war with the Chinese, as a tactic in
fighting that war.
The Ionides/Atlas clinical perspective has been known to be correct - based on data -
since March, yet the Democrat controlled states continue to double down on state control of
their populations and destruction of their economies.
The Left has become a collection of kamikazes. The elites can ride this out. They have
money. They are hoping that when the economy is in ashes, all of the starving little people
will come into their open arms.
In 1968 another Asian virus, known as the Hong Kong flu, arrived in the US. It began
killing Americans noticeably in 1969. As this was occurring, the Woodstock music festival was
planned. The festival went off with now famous record crowd numbers during the peak of the
virus. No one seemed to care. That virus ultimately killed 100,000 Americans (not Woodstock
attendees); more than covid, even if you believe the artificially inflated covid figures.
That was at a time when the population of the US was far less. So a far greater % died than
covid.
We've been here before folks. It's the reaction that is different this time. The reaction
is driven by internal and external political objectives of massive importance for our future
as a free society.
Free people need to be able to make these decisions on their own. Give them clear
information and let them decide their next move. Keep the government "experts" out of the
decision making process. I believe that as the weather improves and the economic hardship
increases, Americans will turn on the fascist/socialist elites and take their lives back. The
vulnerable and the cowards will self-isolate. I further believe Americans will do what they
need to to get the economy going again, buying American made only, patronizing small
businesses beyond what they normally would and voting for pro-American candidates (i.e. the
Democrats lose big time).
What have we done every flu season that has resulted in very similar numbers and
population groups affected. How, in fact, is this one materially different.
Mnuchin said today that it is too early to say whether international travel will open back up
before the end of the year . Coincidentally, I also came across a Twitter poll of
15,000 people with the the following question & results:
"Hypothetically, if everything opens up tomorrow when would you fly again?"
- Immediately 25%
- 2-3 months 20%
- 3-6 months 26%
- 1 year or more 29%
Hardly scientific and I've no idea of the demographic or geographic spread of respondents,
but it seems pretty clear many people remain fearful.
The Democrat-media hysteria HAS been deeply ingrained.
The mass of people have - not surprisingly - turned out to be lambs (baby sheep).
Each person is responsible for managing their own life - which includes risk.
Unfortunately, the population of lambs has been trained over the years to look for mommy
government to manage their risk - mandatory seat belt laws come to mind.
Ben Franklin said it succinctly:
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve
neither Liberty nor Safety."
There is widespread criticism of Ioannides two Covid studies, including the use of an
unapproved antibody tests which is known to give false positives; statistical flaws, and
recruiting volunteers for the sampling via Facebook, as well as the wife of a study co-author
to call and recruit parents from her kids school.
Here is an excerpt from an article on the controversy.
""My quick take is that something really odd is going on with Ioannidis," wrote Alexander
Rubinsteyn, a geneticist and computational biologist at the University of North Carolina at
Chapel Hill, in an email to Undark. Rubinsteyn suggested that Ioannidis may simply be "so
attached to being the iconoclast that defies conventional wisdom that he's unintentionally
doing horrible science."
He added: "Pretty much no one with statistical acumen believes these
studies.""https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/23/coronavirus-antibody-studies-california-stanford
In areas where the health system is not under stress this makes perfect sense. I would give
the hugging, handshaking and church services a miss and maintain the social distancing at
work and when out of the house as far as is practical. It needs to be done with lots of
testing, contact tracing and case isolation. Knowledge and common sense on everyone's part
will work. Limited local shutdown may be needed if cases start climbing in some areas.
Our restaurants open today in most of Florida. In spite of needing our hair attended to, we
will eat out both lunch and dinner. Sadly, some of our restaurants are closing for good. My
wife tells me that local Facebook is about evenly divided about going out now. I don't get it
as these folks have been gathering in the supermarkets the whole time.
"I just want to trust some designated 'expert' to tell us when when we can put away the
masks and can take up hugging our friends and shaking hands while smiling and meeting new
acquaintances. What is a church service without that and all the stories of Christs care and
concern for the 'untouchables' of the world?"
I think that "expert" you seek is going to have to be the person you see in the mirror
every morning. The "designated experts" have no interest in encouraging you to go back to
living a life you love. As Eric Newhill stated, it's going to be up to free-thinking adults
to make those decisions for themselves. If you expect or hope for "experts" to protect you
from yourself, then you have too much faith in "experts" and in government. Take sensible
precautions as they relate to your own risk demographic and respect other people making those
choices for themselves. Otherwise let's all get on living like Americans.
Even in blissful 'pre rona' December the Fed's repo market had been sounding the alarms that
a serious bubble recession was coming. Nothing apparently was fixed from the last wall street
megadooshbaggery meltdown. See:
This means that even those who built up real estate equity will have a difficult time
short term liquifying that equity, which means that Chase, Wells Fargo, et al have a lot of
pessimism about the US real estate market, the thing they have made so much money on last few
years, and which they were supposed to have fixed.
well pilgrims ;) not only is the economy enduring sudden searing pandemic pain, it is also
feeling the beginning of a big bubble popping recession, which everybody in the financial
world was already freaking about well before the rona arrived. Perhaps endless Fed QE can
prop up equities markets through November, perhaps, but then it's all bets off into 2021 as
numerous wall street debts scams will have to be deleveraged.
Sir,
In the spirit of fairness, anti-body testing would allow scientists to identify who has the
anti-bodies and then track them to see if they become re-infected and, if so, at what level
of severity. That would shed light on the "herd immunity" theory (i.e. is there such a thing
and, if so, to what extent?).
Otherwise, calls for "universal testing" are just sound bites born of confusion and panic,
at best; another means of violating the rights of Americans at worst (e.g. making people wear
yellow stars, carrying papers that allow them to enjoy full or truncated societal
"privelges").
Widespread antibody testing will show covid-19 is more contagious than a lot of diseases,
but not not near as deadly as most people think. People will see they had it, didn't even
know it and are now immune to it at least in the near term. Fear will be deflated. We will
then have a known large segment of the population known to not capable of further spreading
the virus and a ready supply of antibody serum as an effective treatment for those who do get
infected. That will also diminish fear.
Covid-19 and our response to it is as much a political issue as it is a public health
issue. Trump was going to run on a booming economy. If he wants to get back to that strategy,
he has to banish the fear of the virus. That will get everyone back to work so they can eat
and pay rent, as well as continue to piss away their money on crap they don't need. Our
economy depends on all that. If Trump is smart, he best get to stepping and institute a
nationwide antibody testing program.
And Fauci has already been awarded the dunce cap with his 1980s assertion that HIV was going
kill us all. So I guess for his most recent action he gets the dunce cap with slide rule
cluster.
A cruise passenger interests website offered another informal poll - are you willing to
cruise again: 64% said as much as in the past; 10% said they would cruise even more to help
get the industry back on its feet. Therefore, in this obviously interested sample, 75% want
the cruise industry to start up again. Yesterday. 25% will choose to wait or not cruise
again.
The cruise industry passenger base remains willing and loyal. In fact they are probably
better trained in personal hygiene habits than most having had to deal with noro (aka
tourista ) in the past and a typical URI complaint commonly called" cruise crud" that
was most likely picked up on the air flight to get to the cruise port. The real numbers of
disease and mortality overall within this industry do not support the screaming head llnes
and lurid reporting.
It remains to be seen if one infection makes an individual immune for some time. IMO we
should follow the Atlas/Ioannides formula. I noticed in re-reading "Sharpsburg," that Hunter
McGuire appears therein.
What does an anti-body test do? I just had one last week and awaiting the results - was a
cruise passenger and international air passenger during the month of January in a later
suspected area. (not Asia).
Here is why I did the anti-body test: (Quest Labs - fee service, no RX- 99% accuracy -
drawn blood vial test)
1. Helps substantiate dates and areas of transmission that may not yet be in the data
pool.
2. Tracks the rates of asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic cases occurring among the
"elderly", in order to see if there is an enhanced risk of not in this age group, if there
are no underlying co-morbidities.
3. Adds demographic data specific for the travel industry.
4. Allows possible donation of anti-body serum for research and perhaps mitigation of
those who are affected.
5. Personal peace of mind -been there and done that. Freedom to move about.
6. Provides baseline for duration of immunity; resilience of immunity or data showing
re-infection can be possible.
Primarily it is for data gathering to help stop the hysteria. That was worth the time,
money and blood donation for me. We will never know the true extent of this virus, its
impacts, its initial modeling accuracy until we start plugging facts into the "expert"
hypotheticals.
Taking one for the team is the way I see it. Will I now become a local Typhoid Mary and
our house burned down if this data becomes known? Or will people stop walking out into the
roadway in faux deference to my advanced age as I pass by, from our deliciously virtue
signaling "progressive" population in blue state California.
Am I right or wrong in thinking that when the injected liquidity plus existing cash
exceeds the amount of money that would haven been in the economy at this point then the
currency will begin to inflate?
"Provides baseline for duration of immunity; resilience of immunity or data showing
re-infection can be possible. Primarily it is for data gathering to help stop the hysteria."
Yes
Colonel, you are NOT wrong. The oil business in America is going to take a very long time to
recover. There are complete shutterings of businesses, bankruptcies and more - all while we
were in the middle of a downturn. Personally, I just folded up my tent because my my active
client list went from 21 to zero over this last month (and that includes intl clients).
As the number one buyer of US steel, the oilpatch represents much more than people
realize. We have also been the number one buyer of many other items - where sales have
disappeared as company quietly and reluctantly face the reality of the current induced
glut.
I'm being forced to change livelihoods - interesting for me, as I am short of the age to
get my SS check and too old to employ by most corporate masters....
Yes, I noticed Hunter Holmes when I reread Chancellorsville this time. I knew nothing
about him until you mentioned him a while back. He also founded what is now the VCU Medical
Center and was president of the AMA for a time. There is a statue of him on the State Capitol
grounds, but i haven't seen it yet.
It's likely Fauci's incorrect simply because just as central planners routinely failed when
it came to planning economic outcomes in the 20th century, so does that same central planning
fail now. Fauci once again may be brilliant, but he's no match for a U.S. economy comprised of
hundreds of millions of individuals making infinite informed decisions every second of every
day.
The same applies to Bill Gates. Some believe that his undeniable genius as a businessman
positions him to knowledgeably opine on how we the U.S. and the world can come back from the
virus. Gates has observed that businesses would be troubled with or without the lockdowns,
unemployment would be higher with or without them, so the plan should be to continue them until
we're better situated in terms of a vaccine.
Is Gates right? It's once again difficult to know. For one, his analysis ignores the
"unseen"; as in what would individuals and businesses have done had the response of politicians
to the virus been something like "You're all adults. Be careful."
If so, it's not unreasonable to suggest that Fauci, Gates and other intelligent individuals
would have strongly called for Americans to shelter-in-place, and tens of millions would have
done just that. At the same time, Elon Musk and investors like Michael Burry might have
responded in more intrepid fashion; calling for individuals and businesses to work around a
virus of unknown lethality.
[.] "For lack of a 75-cent piece of equipment, we're losing lives and putting more lives
at risk," said Lisa Lattanza, MD, chair of the Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation
at the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut.
I purchased masks this week that [usually cost] 75 cents per mask that were being sold for
$5.50, $6 on the market. We had to pay it. It's either that or not have the masks," she
said.
Lack of Masks Shows Lack of Value."[.]
That WHO basically fucked up because of Western pressure more than because of China is
obvious. Just look at the most recent idiocy they promoted: masks are useless. China would
never claim that - both because they rely massively on them and because they produce and sell
a lot of them. On the other hand, Western governments who were asleep at the wheel and never
bothered to store or produce facemasks were desperately trying to convince their sheep flock,
I mean, people, that they were all good, managed the crisis as best as anyone could, and that
there wasn't any shortage of masks because these weren't useful to begin with.
Case closed.
And for the eternal record of universal history: China's dictatorship obviously cared more
about its people than self-claimed democratic governments. Let that sink in for a minute.
There's a lot of trash science out there re:Covid- it was founded on trash science.
Maybe next post you could go into the trash science of the fraudulent tests
themselves.
In the mean time this is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand what is
going on- one of the most concise pieces on the subject to date:
The WHO makes gratuitous use of appellations such as "world" and "health" but is
actually a semi-private entity lavishly financed by Bill Gates and Big Pharma, which is owned
by a handful of highly inbred oligarchic entities that include Vanguard, BlackRock, Capital
Group, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Northern Trust and State Street, which in turn own each
other in various convoluted ways.
WHO's main function is to scare people into getting vaccinated and accepting expensive
drug regimens (barely half of which do any good at all), thus funneling resources toward Big
Pharma.
The World Health Organization establishes thresholds to determine whether to declare an
influenza epidemic that range between 2.5% and 5%. The novel coronavirus misses the mark by a
thousand-fold, yet the WHO has declared it to be the cause of a global pandemic.
If this seems like an extreme overreaction, that is because this is an extreme
overreaction.
Some conspiratorially-minded people may surmise that this is a conspiracy, but it
isn't. It is yet another blatant attempt to confiscate a chunk of the world's wealth by
requiring it to buy something worthless, just like this same set of medical/financial
interests did with the relatively worthless Tamiflu antiviral medication during the H1N1
swine flu pandemic of 2009-10 which caused a mere 18,036 deaths worldwide. This is a specific
group pursuing its own group interests.
© Evan Vucci, AP Images President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at the White House.
Sinclair Broadcast Group, the US' largest local news conglomerate, has canceled an interview with a coronavirus conspiracy theorist, after CNN whipped up an online outrage campaign against the conservative broadcaster.
ilsm said...
It is worth noting that prior to the conduct of the Surgisphere study, Dr. Fauci stated categorically that the use of HCQ had not been studied in relation to the coronavirus. "No proven drug": "Not Enough Known" . Nonsensical and false statements.
Lancet: the article was retracted
3 hours ago (Edited) Just sayen
Ms No, 4 hours ago Listen to this medical chick that saved millions from the EU and their swine flu vaccine that caused brain damage. They tried to have her "psychiatrized" which means locked away as crazy and probably tortured for the rest of her miserable life, being banged with blood draw needles, forced meds and put in a straight jacket. Close to Assange treatment.
5 hours ago Why is the video doctored right at the end to make Fauci say a damning sentence. You can see his head jerk to new positions as they piece together bits of video.
![Donald Trump wearing a suit and tie: President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at the White House.]({"default":{"load":"default","w":"80","h":"53","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB17jamr.img?h=746&w=1119&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=2395&y=851"},"dpi":1.4,"size3column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"42","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB17jamr.img?h=584&w=874&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=2395&y=851"},"size2column":{"load":"default","w":"62","h":"42","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB17jamr.img?h=584&w=874&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=2395&y=851"}})
© Evan Vucci, AP Images President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at the
White House.
Bernie
Sanders: An Emergency Response to the
Democrats
join with Trump in bipartisan push for
US nursing home catastrophe: Increasing numbers of
'Immediate danger': Half of world's workforce could
Coronavirus pandemic is 'ACCELERATING,'
The
Decade