The Buffalo shooter was a Leftist

Both sides of politics are claiming Peyton Gendron for the other side. And he has confused people somewhat. He claims to be a Leftist but is also clearly a real-life white supremacist. Leftists say that his racism makes him a man of the right so therefore he cannot really be a Leftist

But that is nonsense, Ever since Karl Marx, the chief source of racial awareness has been Leftists. Hitler was a socialist (check his election manifesto if you doubt it: "All citizens shall have equal rights and duties") and there are rumblings of antisemitism among Democrats to this day. They usually call it "anti-Zionism" these days but Jews are targeted whatever you call it.

Antisemitism was so common among the pre-war Left that the founder (August Bebel) of Germany's mainstream socialist party (The Social Democrats, who now once again run Germany) referred with some asperity to antisemitism as the "Sozialismus des blöden Mannes" (the socialism of fools). So Gendron was in fact a traditional Leftist

Quotes from Buffalo Shooter Payton Gendron’s Manifesto

When talking about his political affiliation in his manifesto Peyton Gendron wrote:

“When I was 12 I was deep into communist ideology, talk to anyone from my old high school and ask about me and you will hear that. From age 15 to 18 however, I consistently moved farther to the right. On the political compass I fall in the mildmoderate authoritarian left category, and I would prefer to be called a populist.”

When discussing the type of people he supports he wrote:

“I support many of those that take a stand against ethnic and cultural genocide. Brenton Tarrant, Patrick Crusius, John Earnest, Robert Bowers, Phillip Manshaus, Luca Traini, Anders Breivik, Dylann Roof, Anton Lundin Pettersson, Darren Osbourne etc. I have never had any connections with other confirmed partisans though”.

When discussing if he was expecting to be alive in prison he said:

“Yes, I do wish to see how the world plays out after all. If I become old in the same prison. I would only assume that we have passed the point of no return and will die out, and that I have failed. If we do rise up against the replacers, I expect that I will be let out and honored amongst my people”.

https://newspunch.com/buffalo-killer-exposed-as-far-left-activist-who-wanted-justice-for-ukraine-hated-those-opposed-to-war-media-blackout/

Further comment: What is abundantly clear about Glendron is that he is a psychopath, so his ideology is secondary to that. There are however grounds for saying that entrenched Leftism is psychopathic so Glendron's Leftism is what we might have expected of a psychopath

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Two new Omicron variants are spreading. Will they drive a new U.S. surge?

New versions of Omicron are again causing a surge of COVID-19 cases in South Africa, and studies show that these new subvariants are so different from the original version of Omicron that immunity generated from a previous infection may not provide much protection.

Dubbed BA.4 and BA.5, the new subvariants are nearly identical to each other, and both are more transmissible than the Omicron BA.2 subvariant. In South Africa, they replaced the BA.2 strain in less than a month. They are now responsible for a spike in South Africa’s COVID-19 cases, which have tripled since mid-April.

“If you were unvaccinated, what you got is almost no immunity to BA.4 and BA.5,” says Alex Sigal, a virologist at the Africa Health Research Institute and at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. “There might be some immunity that may be enough to protect against severe disease, but not sufficient to protect against symptomatic infection.”

South Africa is the worst hit country on the continent, with more than 100,523 official deaths from COVID-19—and that’s likely a gross underestimate according to a recent study in The Lancet. With BA.4 and BA.5 now on the rise, the death toll is likely to grow, as only a third of the South African population has received a COVID-19 vaccine; the rate of vaccination is even lower in the rest of Africa.

For now, the subvariant known as BA.2.12.1 remains dominant in the U.S., causing new hospitalizations to spike in the last week by more than 17 percent nationally and by as much as 28 percent in the Great Lakes area, and Washington D.C. and the surrounding region. But the new subvariants have spread to more than 20 countries across North America, Asia, and Europe, and already 19 cases of BA.4 and six cases of BA.5 have been identified in the U.S.

How are BA.4 and BA.5 different from other Omicron variants?

South Africa has become a bright spot within Africa for sequencing samples of SARS-CoV-2. This swift sequencing was critical in alerting the world in December 2021 to the discovery and surge of the original Omicron strain, called BA.1. Now the same team has discovered BA.4 and BA.5.

“The BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants were identified because South Africa is still doing the vital genetic sequencing that many other countries have stopped doing,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director General of the World Health Organization, at a press conference on May 4. “In many countries we’re essentially blind to how the virus is mutating. We don’t know what’s coming next.”

That sequencing has revealed that for both BA.4 and BA.5, the spike protein is similar to the one in BA.2, except for six mutations. The spike protein is the part of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that anchors to receptors on human respiratory cells and allows the virus to infect the cell.

“The three modifications present in the spike of BA.4 and BA.5, compared to BA.2, are most likely associated to antibody escape and improved viral fitness and binding to the ACE2 receptor,” says Olivier Schwartz, head of the Virus and Immunity Unit at Institut Pasteur in France.

Two of the changes on the spike can make these viruses more infectious, says Ravindra Gupta, an immunologist and infectious diseases specialist at the University of Cambridge in the U.K. as shown by his previous research. The upside is that these same mutations make it easy for researchers to rapidly distinguish the new subvariants from BA.2 in a standard PCR test.

Another mutation present in BA.4 and BA.5 is also found in other variants of concern, including Delta, Kappa, and Epsilon. It increases infectivity and weakens immunity from existing antibodies, according to a preliminary study from China.

The Chinese study also shows that a rare change seen before only 54 times among 10 million viral sequences helps BA.4 and BA.5 to evade BA.1-specific antibodies. This same mutation also enabled SARS-CoV-2 to infect mink and ferrets during April 2020 outbreaks in mink farms.

In addition to these spike protein mutations, BA.4 and BA.5 also have small changes in viral proteins whose exact function are not well known.

Where did BA.4 and BA.5 evolve?

A preliminary genetic analysis estimates that the new subvariants may have originated in South Africa at around the same time as other Omicron variants, in mid-December 2021 and early January 2022, respectively. But scientists don’t yet know their origin for sure.

“BA.4 and BA.5 may well have originated from the same kind of common source as BA.1, BA.2, and BA.3, but it's not certain,” says Richard Lessells, an infectious diseases doctor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa. He is part of the nation’s sequencing team that discovered all of these Omicron variants.

Possible routes of evolution may have been an animal host, such as a mouse; or it may have gestated in some immunocompromised patients, as has been shown to occur through accumulation of mutations during a chronic infection by Gupta.

“The alternative is that BA.4 and BA.5 may have evolved from BA.2,” says Lessells.

BA.4 and BA.5 dodge previous immunity

In the first study of BA4 and BA.5 on immunity, which has not yet been peer reviewed, scientists led by Sigal, of the Africa Health Research Institute, isolated live viruses from nasal swabs. The scientists then ran tests to see whether antibodies from unvaccinated and vaccinated people who had been infected with the original Omicron BA.1 strain just a few months ago were able to neutralize these new variants. Sigal’s team discovered that these antibodies weren’t able to protect against symptomatic infection.

That’s concerning, because in low- and middle-income countries less than one in six people have yet received a single dose of any COVID-19 vaccine. Even in the United States, nearly 23 percent of the population remains unvaccinated.

“BA.4/5 data are interesting and somewhat surprising,” says Gupta, referring to the sharp decline in immunity seen in studies so far. “It is greater than I would have predicted,” he says. “It may be that [the] biology of this virus has completely changed in terms of how quickly it's able to evolve.”

The South African study does have some good news for vaccinated people: “We found that you get a lot of protection from vaccines, even if you got infected with Omicron despite being vaccinated—a lot more protection than if you weren't vaccinated going forward,” says Sigal.

Sigal’s study also suggests that BA.4 and BA.5 may cause less severe disease, especially among vaccinated people, compared to previous Omicron variants. This may explain why fewer people seem to be getting severe disease despite the rise in COVID-19 hospitalizations in South Africa. The median length of hospitalization also appears to be shorter, but deaths due to COVID-19 are rising faster in patients of older age.

“BA.4/5 data do reinforce the need for boosters in vulnerable people to keep the antibody levels high,” says Gupta.

In the meantime, Moderna has published data on its new mRNA-1273.211 candidate booster vaccine—which mixes ancestral spike protein with a mimic of the Beta variant spike. Although not yet peer reviewed, the results seem to show superior protection for up to six months even against the Omicron variant.

“Vaccines are designed to prevent severe disease, to keep us out of hospital and off the ventilator,” says Lessells. “And they are still doing that extremely well, in the face of all these different variants.”

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/two-new-omicron-variants-are-spreading-will-they-drive-a-new-us-surge

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

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How Rusians think about the Ukraine war

The Russians may well love their children too, but many of their views about their war on Ukraine span a narrow range from intellectually dishonest to morally bankrupt.

Ironically, it’s only overt Russian imperialists that think in a way – though abhorrent in its application – that is arguably consistent. The West’s real challenge is to defeat their imperial ambitions which threaten, not only Ukraine, but global stability.

Let me step back to a day in a hotel room between trips to Ukraine.

I spent some time watching Russian television, including its vox pops, scrolling Russian social media sites, and reading the Tweets of mainstream Russians. Not the full rigorous analysis of my past lives with pollsters and in politics, but certainly part of the process that many campaigners and communicators normally follow. One tries to see the context through many prisms. Here’s some of what’s out there.

‘There’s nothing I can do.’

This fatalistic view is patently false. If every Russian took a similar view of their own lives and their own circumstances, there would be no one getting out of bed from St Petersburg to Vladivostok every morning. While there may be a limited number of choices available to Russians living in a neo-dictatorship, there are certainly still choices, and their own history of revolutions and Glasnost prove it.

Further proof of its falsehood is that hundreds of thousands of moneyed and educated Russians have actually made a significant choice recently; they’ve hurriedly left the country and were indeed encouraged to do so.

‘I’m not political.’

One way to describe this type of position is the ‘Instagram position’ (though ironically Russian influencers actively mourn their loss of that vanity platform).

Those who see themselves as beyond politics are those that can afford to be beyond politics. They typically feel themselves as not substantially impacted by the course of world events. It’s a standpoint founded in immaturity, narcissism, and materialism. Without a hint of self-awareness, it selfishly ignores the interdependence that led us out of caves and into civilisation. Such people have replaced society with brand and, through their vanity and irresponsibility, provide the space for dictatorships to operate in.

‘I support peace – stop the war.’

This type of view might be called the ‘oligarch position’. It’s the queen of all motherhood statements – the equivalent of liking puppy pics on social media.

Safe, unsubstantive, and sterilised of all meaning, but extremely convenient for those needing to cleanse themselves of culpability and/or superficially distance themselves from their country’s war against a neighbouring country.

Oligarchs who need to protect their direct interests, including avoiding sanctions, and the small Russian upper middle class who want to protect their global access use this type of statement as a ‘get out of jail card’ after mostly tolerating and indeed supporting Putin for decades in exchange for mafia-styled material gain.

‘The Zombie views.’

Some Russians put forward this broader set of views, or some part of it, that basically parrots Putin’s state-controlled propaganda machine.

‘We need to deNazify Ukraine… Nato is threatening Russia… The world hates Russia… A genocide is being committed against Russian speakers…Putin is our leader and we support our leader… Events in Ukraine are false flags by Ukrainian Nazis and their Nato sponsors…’

That these folks are aligned with the Kremlin’s (often inconsistent but always untrue) narratives is obvious. What’s less obvious are their various motivations.

First, we need to accept that Russian social and cultural structures have been authoritarian and collective – as opposed to democratic and liberal – for around a thousand years. Inasmuch, it’s logical that there’s no inherent personal dishonour in going along with prevalent norms, even if they are objectively problematic, in Russia. The bandwidth of the Russian people’s capacity for cognitive dissonance is necessarily narrowed by their history, cultural mores, and socio-economic development.

If we then go to a purely emotional level, and that’s where 80 per cent of our decision-making resides, the motives for Russians buying into Putinism as a worldview could variously be:

Protecting themselves from the perceived authoritarian threat of persecution for dissent.
Giving themselves the ‘benefits of belonging’ and group identity in a vast, multi-ethnic and relatively poor country that is actually short of a modern unifying ideology.
Isolating themselves from information that destabilises their view of themselves.
Taking queues from those they culturally trust – for better or for worse – to run their country.
‘Ukraine is not a real country and is part of Russia.’

While this is a historically and objectively false statement at every level, it is distinct from all those above. Namely, for those who (mistakenly or intentionally), hold it, it is arguable that it is intellectually and morally consistent whereas the positions above are built on one form of dust or another.

In some respects, those who are open about the fact that Russia is pursuing an imperialist agenda to crush and colonise Ukraine are, ironically, the most ‘honest’ Russians. They don’t try to dress up the unprovoked aggression and brutality of their dictator, government, or military with some false construct. It’s the no-bullshit approach.

Think of the difference between America’s ‘destroying weapons of mass destruction in Iraq’ to ‘we need to protect our strategic energy interests and key ally’.

Indeed, this group of Russians are the ones who most acknowledge a state of war and an expanded invasion, intentional full-scale violence against civilians, and the enormous costs to their own society. However, because of their foundational belief – that Russia should be ‘restored’ as an empire and a global power – this set of people logically see all actions, no matter how monstrous or bestial, as justifiable steps toward, in their view, a positive objective. It is a disgusting view, but it is not a lie or a fiction.

And, we would do well to treat it as the well-spring current events. Russian imperialism and all the forms it takes is the true opponent.

https://spectator.com.au/2022/05/to-crush-and-colonise

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The Ukrainian national anthem. It's rather good



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The UK government shocks observers with a host of new genuinely conservative bills

The government of Boris Johnson has faced an endless list of accusations since its accession to power in 2019, except for one: being too “conservative.” In fact, the Johnson government’s impotence at meeting the expectations of the Brexit movement, its complacency about the Channel migrant crisis, and its endless praise for multiculturalism and diversity, have led some to question its conservative credentials entirely. That is why Tuesday’s list of new policy proposals, announced during the Queen’s Speech, were met with a certain degree of shock.

To the casual observer, the main story of the day was that Queen Elizabeth II could not attend the ceremony in the Houses of Parliament, and her eldest son, Prince Charles, filled her role for the day. He was tasked with presenting the government’s 38 new bills that will determine the government’s policies for the coming parliamentary season. Some among these are well worth noticing, because for the first time since leaving the clutches of the EU, the British government is demonstrating the virtues of political freedom and national sovereignty, for which the majority of British citizens voted for in the Brexit referendum.

Chief among these bills is a Bill of Rights, which would help fulfill the conservative dream of replacing the much-despised Human Rights Act. The new Bill of Rights would enshrine freedom of speech in law, protecting it from the attacks of woke and politically-correct activists. It will also protect people’s right to express their views against European-style privacy laws that have muffled a number of newspaper reports about the rich and powerful in the past.

Crucially, the new bill will impede foreign criminals’ ability to use human rights laws to fight deportation to their country of origin, or against those who use human rights legislation to shorten their jail sentences. The myriad of human rights cases that are currently bogging down British courts will, in the future, be prejudged by the courts on their merit, before they can be allowed to proceed in front of the judges.

In a sign the government is beginning to prioritize national security in accordance with the present threats the UK faces at home and from abroad, the Queen’s Speech included a National Security Bill, that will update current spy laws, making it easier to prosecute leaks of classified data to foreign governments or terrorist organizations. Foreign interference, sabotage or the theft of trade secrets will be punishable by life sentences, in the case of serious offenses.

In line with current affairs the government has also announced an Economic Crime Bill, that is likely aimed at avoiding national scandals, such as Russian and Arab oligarchs laundering their ill-gotten money through British companies. If the bill passes, those aiming to establish a firm in the U.K. will have to verify their true identity with Companies House, a government controlled register. Crime fighters will also get new powers to seize cryptocurrencies from suspects, something that was exceedingly difficult to do with the current legislation.

A newly proposed Online Safety Bill will tackle social media companies if they fail to remove harmful or illegal content from their platforms. They can be fined in the tune of 10 percent of their global turnover in case they do not comply. Newly reintroduced duty of care plans will protect users of these websites from attacks or harmful information. It remains to be seen though how this bill is going to be implemented, as most understand that regulating online content, apart from extreme examples, can be a double-edged sword, and can impede the freedom of speech, which the government is allegedly trying to protect.

Perhaps one of the most interesting, and popular of the new bills will be the Public Order Bill, which is aimed at stopping radical political- or eco-activists from causing havoc and economic damage. In the past, radical climate protesters brought anarchy to Britain’s roads during peak hours, blocked newspaper printing and delivery companies, or chained themselves to gas stations, causing unquantifiable damage to ordinary citizens as well as companies. Once the bill is introduced, offenders will face a maximum jail sentence of up to six months.

Furthermore, local governments will be banned from introducing boycotts against the products from certain countries, as some did against Israeli products in the past. Such misguided policies championed by far-left politicians have been blamed for a rising antisemitic sentiment in parts of Britain.

The new Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Bill is another attempt to stop the extremist, often violent protests at student campuses and British universities, which have in the past prevented a number of public figures from delivering speeches or from visiting campuses. The government will introduce a complaints scheme for staff, students and visiting speakers who believe that their right to freedom of speech was violated. Universities and student unions can be punished for violating these new rules.

The proposed Brexit Freedoms Bill 51 will abolish the 1,400 EU laws still actively used in Britain, with Johnson looking to accelerate economic growth by ending inherited EU red-tape.

These bill proposals, and the government’s imminent introduction of the deportation of channel migrants to Rwandan processing centers, creates the impression that the conservative government of Boris Johnson has finally gotten the message from its core voters. They are not interested in supporting a conservative party that aims to compete with the Labour Party for left-wing voters. The Conservatives are currently some 5 points down against Labour in the polls, but the legislation introduced during the Queen’s Speech is a true testament to Boris Johnson’s exceptional survival instincts.

https://rmx.news/uk/the-uk-government-shocks-observers-with-a-host-of-new-genuinely-conservative-bills/

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

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Outrageous lie about vaccine from Biden team

The White House is walking back a tweet stating that claimed "there was no vaccine available" when President Biden took office, issuing a follow-up tweet on Friday night saying that it "misstated" the availability of COVID-19 vaccines in January 2021.

On Thursday, the official White House Twitter account tweeted "When President Biden took office, millions were unemployed and there was no vaccine available."

The original tweet drew fierce criticism from other Twitter users, who pointed out that there was a COVID-19 vaccine available when Biden took office on Jan. 20, 2021.

On Friday night, the White House tweeted that its original tweet "misstated that vaccines were unavailable in January 2021."

"We previously misstated that vaccines were unavailable in January 2021. We should have said that they were not widely available. Vaccines became available shortly before the President came into office. Since then, he’s responsible for fully vaccinating over 200 million people," the tweet from Friday night states.

While the White House corrected its tweet, the original version which states that there was "no vaccine available" when President Biden took office remains on the social media platform and has not been deleted.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/white-house-misstated-vaccines-unavailable-twitter

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CDC is winging it again

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says it does not have documents backing its claim that COVID-19 vaccines do not cause variants of the virus that causes COVID-19.

The CDC’s website calls it a myth that the vaccines cause variants.

“FACT: COVID-19 vaccines do not create or cause variants of the virus that causes COVID-19. Instead, COVID-19 vaccines can help prevent new variants from emerging,” the website states.

“New variants of a virus happen because the virus that causes COVID-19 constantly changes through a natural ongoing process of mutation (change). As the virus spreads, it has more opportunities to change. High vaccination coverage in a population reduces the spread of the virus and helps prevent new variants from emerging,” it also says.

The Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN), a nonprofit, asked the CDC in Freedom of Information Act requests for documentation supporting the claim.

In one request, the group asked for “All documents sufficient to support that COVID-19 vaccines do not create or cause variants of the virus that causes COVID-19.”

Another requested “All documents sufficient to support that the immunity conferred by COVID-19 vaccines does not contribute to virus evolution and the emergence of variants.”

The CDC has now responded to both requests, saying a search “found no records responsive” to them.

The first response came in January (pdf); the second came on May 4 (pdf).

If the CDC is making declaratory statements, the agency should have documents supporting them, Aaron Siri, an attorney representing ICAN, told The Epoch Times.

The responses are “very troubling,” Siri said. “I thought the CDC was a data-driven organization, that they made their decisions based on the studies and the science and the data.”

The CDC did not respond to a request for comment.

ICAN has been one of the more prolific requesters of information from the CDC during the pandemic. Many requests have yielded information. Others have not.

In this case, the CDC should act to ensure continued public trust, Siri says.

“Remove the language or provide the evidence,” he said. “There obviously are going to be instances where recommendations from the CDC might prove helpful or useful. And I think they do a disservice to everybody by hurting their own credibility by making statements that they either don’t have support or won’t produce the support for.”

Scientists outside the CDC have also said that vaccines can help prevent new variants.

“As more people get vaccinated, we expect virus circulation to decrease, which will then lead to fewer mutations,” the World Health Organization says on its site.

But many of the claims relied on the vaccines being able to stop infection from the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which causes COVID-19. The vaccines are increasingly unable to do so, particularly against the newest dominant strain, Omicron.

Dr. Geert Vanden Bossche, a virologist, is among those who say that the vaccines themselves are behind new variants.

“All COVID-19 vaccines fail in blocking viral transmission, especially transmission of more infectious variants. This is a huge problem as viral transmission is now increasingly taking place among healthy people in general and vaccinees in particular (as their S-specific Abs do not sufficiently neutralize S variants),” Vanden Bossche says on his website. “The resulting suboptimal S-directed immune pressure serves as a breeding ground for even more infectious variants.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/cdc-no-documents-supporting-claim-vaccines-dont-cause-variants_4464871.html

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Biden promises to boost U.S. wheat production to combat loss of Ukrainian, Russian wheat exports, but production here is down 15 percent since 2019

President Joe Biden is promising to boost U.S. production of wheat to offset the loss of Ukrainian and Russian exports from the Black Sea thanks to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that has shut down the ports there, stating at a farm in Illinois on May 11 that he would extend crop insurance for farmers who double crop in a bid to get more wheat to market this year.

But will Biden’s plan even work? U.S. wheat production is down 15 percent since 2019, from 1.93 billion bushels in 2019 to 1.64 billion in 2021, according to data compiled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Overall, the U.S. produces a little more than half of what it did in 1981, when it produced more than 75 million metric tons. That was down to 44.8 million in 2021.

The domestic wheat shortfall last year was thanks to major drought conditions that severely impacted production in Idaho, Montana and North Dakota, another hit to global food production that could not come at a worse time.

The biggest part of the problem is not enough has been planted. According to a March Department of Agriculture release on prospective plantings, 2022 will be the fifth lowest area planted since 1919: “All wheat planted area for 2022 is estimated at 47.4 million acres, up 1 percent from 2021. If realized, this represents the fifth lowest all wheat planted area since records began in 1919.”

Is Biden’s crop insurance program enough to avert potential starvation in the third world and beyond?

Given current conditions — Biden also complained in his speech that the spring had been very cool this year and that there was less time to plant more wheat this year — it appears unlikely the U.S. will be able to boost production to even get back to 2019 levels, let alone to offset drops in Ukrainian and Russian exports. Meaning, the worst may be yet to come.

https://dailytorch.com/2022/05/biden-promises-to-boost-u-s-wheat-production-to-combat-loss-of-ukrainian-russian-wheat-exports-but-production-here-is-down-15-percent-since-2019

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The United Nations is a paper tiger

Like the League of Nations before it. Internationalism is a foolish dream

“Where is the peace that the United Nations was created to guarantee?” That’s the pointed question Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky asked the U.N. Security Council during a video speech on April 5 in response to Russia’s war on his country

The urgency of his questions needs no explanation. Vladimir Putin has decided Ukraine belongs to Russia, and there are no boundaries, treaties, or warnings that will prevent him from waging war to make it so. At this point, why should Ukraine’s President, or anyone else, have much confidence that the “international community” will stop this war?

More broadly, loss of faith in governing authorities is the defining story of our era. The U.S., the only nation that can project military power into every region of the world, has become its most politically dysfunctional major power. A third of Americans say Joe Biden is not a legitimately elected President. Europeans have lost faith too. In 2016, Britain voted its way out of the E.U., and antiestablishment, xenophobic parties of the far right shifted the politics inside many European states.

In fact, the entire international system is increasingly in question. China has advanced from impoverished to powerhouse over four decades and increasingly rejects the right of Westernled institutions to make and enforce international rules. Strongmen have emerged in Russia, India, Turkey, and even E.U. members Hungary and Poland to challenge principles of freedom of the press, democratic checks and balances, and minority rights. Few in any country have faith the U.N. can do much more than help care for and feed the refugees fleeing conflicts no one can resolve.

There’s a lot to be said for the idea that crises create opportunities that mustn’t be wasted. It’s true that our world has faced a stream of shocks in recent years: the 2008 global financial crisis, the Arab Spring, the 2015–2016 tidal wave of migrants into Europe, Brexit, the rise of angry populists in Europe and America, and then the worst pandemic in 100 years. None of these events has created a new sense of unity and purpose.

Now Russia has invaded Ukraine. War is killing civilians by the thousands, more than 5 million refugees have headed west in more than two months of fighting, NATO and Russia have moved to high alert, and fuel and food prices around the world are surging.

It’s no one’s fault the system is failing. Order and disorder are cyclical forces. The U.N. and institutions like the World Bank and IMF were built atop the ashes of a war that ended 77 years ago. That’s why Germany and Japan, wealthy and dynamic free- market democracies committed to multilateralism and the rule of law, had no seats at the table for Zelensky’s speech to the Security Council—and why Russia did.

The international system is broken. To fix it, the world needs a crisis. It was the crisis of World War II that created institutions and alliances that helped keep the peace and invest in global development for decades after. Putin’s war on Ukraine has created the biggest geopolitical emergency since the Cold War’s end. The Russian government has even threatened the use of nuclear weapons and warned of World War III.

Can this crisis bolster dying institutions and create new ones?

https://time.com/6176274/global-crises-will-transform-world/

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

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COVID-19 Vaccine Producer Hid Evidence of Problems: Report

Executives at a company that produced millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses attempted to hide evidence that some of the doses were contaminated, according to a congressional report released on May 10.

Emergent BioSolutions “took repeated steps to conceal its quality failures from the federal government and other third parties by limiting access to Bayview, tampering with drug-substance labels to impede FDA oversight, and strategizing to withhold information from HHS following the cross-contamination event in March 2021,” a report from the House Oversight Committee and the Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis concluded.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and its parent agency, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), identified deficiencies in the manufacturing process at Emergent’s Baltimore, Maryland facility—known as Bayview—in 2020.

In early 2021, Johnson & Johnson announced that up to 15 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine at the facility became contaminated.

Documents obtained by the committees showed that Emergent rejected requests from Johnson & Johnson to visit the site around that time ahead of a follow-up FDA inspection.

One email from a consultant hired by Emergent indicated that employees removed quality-assurance tags from containers of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine drug substance just before inspectors began their tour and put them back into place after inspectors left. The tags alerted employees that portions of the batches were potentially unable to be used.

Several days later, the consultant said that the tags were removed to “avoid drawing attention” to the potential quality issue.

Internal communications obtained by lawmakers show top executives at Emergent were aware of what happened.

Despite the tag removal, the FDA identified problems during the inspection.

In March 2021, another cross-contamination issue was identified by Johnson & Johnson, but Emergent did not alert AstraZeneca—whose vaccines Emergent was also manufacturing—and HHS for three weeks, according to the new report.

When an HHS agency asked for details, an executive said that no details should be shared with the government until its investigation was over.

“Today’s report shows that Emergent profited from the pandemic while violating the public’s trust. Despite major red flags at its vaccine manufacturing facility, Emergent’s executives swept these problems under the rug and continued to rake in taxpayer dollars,” Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), chairwoman of the House oversight panel, said in a statement.

Approximately 400 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines were destroyed because of the contamination issues.

“These doses were squandered despite repeated warnings from employees, outside consultants, pharmaceutical companies, and FDA regulators that the company’s manufacturing practices were unsafe and that it was unlikely to fulfill the contract recklessly awarded by the Trump administration. Emergent executives prioritized profits over producing vaccines in a responsible manner that complied with FDA requirements,” Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), chairman of the subcommittee, said in a statement.

Emergent was operating on a $628 million contract awarded during the Trump administration. The Biden administration canceled the contract in late 2021.

In a statement issued in response to the new report, Emergent said the report contained nothing new. The company also said it did not knowingly mislead the FDA, other government agencies, or private partners.

“During the last few years, the FDA and other international regulatory authorities have visited Emergent facilities dozens of times. On several occasions, Emergent invited FDA personnel to visit Bayview to review our progress, assess our capabilities, and provide feedback on our facilities, processes, and systems when no FDA inspection was required.

Further to that point, the single contaminated batch was brought to the attention of the FDA by Johnson & Johnson and Emergent,” the company said, adding that it has been in “constant communication” with the FDA and its clients as it tried to manufacture the Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca vaccines.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/covid-19-vaccine-producer-hid-evidence-of-problems-report_4458059.html

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All About the Newest COVID Pills – Should You Take Them?

Pfizer’s new antiviral pill Paxlovid is receiving high-profile attention – the vice president even took it when she contracted COVID. But a strange phenomenon is being reported by some of its users, raising the question if it, too, should be avoided.

Story at-a-glance:

* So far, all of the drugs developed against COVID-19 have been disastrous in one way or another. Remdesivir, which to this day is the primary COVID drug approved for use in U.S. hospitals, routinely causes severe organ damage and, often, death

* Despite that, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved remdesivir for in-hospital and outpatient use in children as young as 1 month old

* Another COVID drug, Paxlovid, will in some cases cause the infection to rebound when the medication is withdrawn

* Molnupiravir (sold under the brand name Lagevrio) also has serious safety concerns. Not only might it contribute to cancer and birth defects, it may also supercharge the rate at which the virus mutates inside the patient, resulting in newer and more resistant variants

* The fact that U.S. health authorities have focused on these drugs to the exclusion of all others, including older drugs with high rates of effectiveness and superior safety profiles, sends a very disturbing message. They’ve basically become extensions of the drug industry, protecting the drug industry’s interests at the cost of public health

So far, all of the drugs developed against COVID-19 have been disastrous in one way or another. Remdesivir, for example, which to this day is the primary COVID drug approved for use in U.S. hospitals,1 routinely causes severe organ damage2,3,4,5 and, often, death.

Despite its horrible track record, the U.S. government actually pays hospitals a 20% upcharge for sticking to the remdesivir protocol, plus an additional bonus.6,7,8 Hospitals must also use remdesivir if they want liability protection.

Incentives like these have turned U.S. hospitals into veritable death traps, as more effective and far safer drugs are not allowed, and hospitals are essentially forced to follow the recommendations of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As reported by Forbes science reporter JV Chamary back in January 2021, in an article titled, “The Strange Story of Remdesivir, a COVID Drug That Doesn’t Work”:9

“Remdesivir is an experimental drug developed by biotech company Gilead Sciences (under the brand name Veklury) in collaboration with the US Centers for Disease Control and Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases …

The drug proved ineffective against the Ebola virus … yet was still subsequently repurposed for SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. News media prematurely reported that patients were responding to treatment.

But the published data10 later showed that ‘remdesivir was not associated with statistically significant clinical benefits [and] the numerical reduction in time to clinical improvement in those treated earlier requires confirmation in larger studies’ …

What’s weird about remdesivir is that it hasn’t been held to the same standards as other drug candidates. Normally, a drug is only approved for use by a regulatory body like the U.S. Food and Drug Administration if it meets the two criteria for safety and efficacy.

Nonetheless, in October 2020, remdesivir was granted approval by FDA based on promising data from relatively small trials with about 1,000 participants. A large-scale analysis11 by the World Health Organization’s Solidarity trial consortium has cleared-up the confusion.

Based on interim results from studying more than 5,000 participants, the international study concluded that remdesivir ‘had little or no effect on hospitalized patients with COVID-19, as indicated by overall mortality, initiation of ventilation, and duration of hospital stay.’ As a consequence of being mostly ineffective, WHO recommends against the use of remdesivir in COVID-19 patients.”

Shockingly, US Approves Remdesivir for Babies

Curiously, while Big Tech — aided and abetted by the U.S. government — has spent the last two years censoring and banning any information that doesn’t jibe with the opinions of the WHO, the U.S. government has completely ignored the WHO’s recommendation against remdesivir.

In fact, in late April 2022, the FDA approved remdesivir as the first and only COVID-19 treatment for children under 12, including babies as young as 28 days,12 which seems beyond Orwellian and crazy considering it’s the worst of both worlds: It’s ineffective AND has serious side effects.

What’s worse, the drug is also approved for outpatient use in children, which is a first. In an April 30, 2022, blog post,13 Dr. Meryl Nass expressed her concerns about the FDA’s approval of remdesivir for outpatient use in babies, stating:

“Remdesivir received an early EUA (May 1, 2020) and then a very early license (October 22, 2020) despite a paucity of evidence that it actually was helpful in the hospital setting. A variety of problems can arise secondary its use, including liver inflammation, renal insufficiency and renal failure14 …

More here:

https://www.theepochtimes.com/all-about-the-newest-covid-pills-should-you-take-them_4460839.html

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Inflation up another 8.3 percent in April as Biden economy teeters on the edge. Has the recession already begun?

By Robert Romano

Consumer inflation increased another 8.3 percent annualized in April, according to the latest data compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), amid increases in prices for housing, food, airline tickets and new vehicles.

And it is crushing wages, with BLS reporting a 2.6 percent drop in real average hourly earnings, thanks to the inflation.

Inflation has now been north of 5 percent since June 2021, in what is the worst inflation since the late 1970s and early 1980s. It caused recessions then, and it may have already induced another recession now just two years after the 2020 Covid recession.

The U.S. economy already contracted 1.4 percent on an inflation-adjusted basis, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The economy did grow on a nominal basis by almost 6.5 percent annualized, by $382 billion to $24.4 trillion, but because inflation averaged about 8 percent the first quarter, real GDP came in negative.

The same thing could be happening right now. With April’s inflation number on the books, May and June will tell the tale of whether President Joe Biden will preside over a recession in 2022 — or perhaps in 2023 or 2024.

If inflation remains above, say, 7 percent throughout the second quarter, nominal growth appears unlikely to be that high. In just 18 economic quarters out of 127 quarters since 1989, nominal growth annualized was above 7 percent. That is only 14 percent of the time. Meaning, there’s about an 86 percent chance it will be less than 7 percent nominal growth in the second quarter.

But when one considers that there have already been massive nominal gains in GDP following the Covid lockdowns — including a monster 38 percent nominal gain in the third quarter of 2020, and a 14.5 percent nominal gain in the fourth quarter of 2021 — it is hard to imagine another big nominal GDP gain in the current environment with high inflation, the continued supply chain crisis and now the war in Ukraine.

It’s like a flock of black swans flying in a triangle formation. What else could possibly go wrong?

Again, in the first quarter, growth was almost 6.5 percent, which was the lowest reading since 2019. So, the economy is already slowing down. Before that, one has to go back to the second quarter of 2018 to find annualized nominal growth above 7 percent, and the second quarter of 2014 before that. It has not been happening a lot in the past 20 years.

Meaning, the escape route to avoid a recession right now is rapidly narrowing. It is still possible, but politically, President Joe Biden and Congressional Democrats might be better off in the long run if the recession happens right now, which would certainly impact the Congressional midterms in November, but might be far enough away from 2024 to provide ample time for a robust economic recovery.

Ronald Reagan had a massive recession in 1982, but by 1984, the recovery was fully underway and he easily defeated Walter Mondale in a 49-state landslide.

On the other hand, given the ongoing supply chain crisis and no end in sight for Russia’s war in Ukraine, which is further exacerbating oil, natural gas and wheat global supply lines, it is foreseeable that even with a recession right now, inflation could remain elevated for the foreseeable future — which could have the economy overheating once again in 2023 headed in the 2024 presidential election cycle.

The point is that it is never a great time for an administration to have to weather a recession. The American people can be quite forgiving, but in Biden’s case, if the inflation remains a going concern after 2022, their patience may end up running thin.

https://dailytorch.com/2022/05/inflation-up-another-8-3-percent-in-april-as-biden-economy-teeters-on-the-edge-has-the-recession-already-begun/

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

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The fallacious Fauci flips

Why haven’t they fired Dr Anthony Fauci?

Although Fauci had been given the task of leading America – and by proxy, the world – out of the Covid pandemic, he has done little to help the wider cause of public faith in science.

Fauci’s inconsistent rhetoric has greatly retarded the efforts of those who were trying to combat the virus and has subsequently left the public confused and mistrustful.

Recently, on April 26, Fauci gave an interview with PBS NewsHour, where he said:

‘We are certainly, right now in this country, out of the pandemic phase.’

A day later, after his words had been enthusiastically splashed across national headlines, Fauci flipped on his message, saying that:

‘By no means does that mean the pandemic is over.’

These bafflingly contradictory pronouncements shouldn’t surprise anyone. Fauci’s ability to backflip is Olympic quality and seems to be the most consistent thing about his health approach throughout the pandemic.

For instance, in January 2020, when Covid was new and beginning to worry experts, Fauci said in a radio interview:

‘The American people should not be worried or frightened by [Covid]. It’s a very, very low risk to the United States, but it’s something we, as public health officials, need to take very seriously.’

The virus quickly spread through America as if to spite him. In a March 2020 during a CBS 60 Minutes interview, Fauci went on to say 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 bit better and it might even block a droplet, but it’s not providing the perfect protection that people think that it is.’

Just months later, Fauci backflipped again and said everyone should mask up. Astonishingly, he admitted that his initial advice against masking was knowingly false and made due to worries over a mask shortage instead of health reasons.

Shouldn’t he have been fired then and there?

For a physician leading the pandemic response – who had presumably taken the Hippocratic Oath – to intentionally deny people his best medical advice due to a supply issue is highly unethical.

It gets worse. Soon Fauci was telling fully vaccinated people to wear, not one, but two masks. He (unsurprisingly) flipped a short while later and admitted this suggestion was merely theatre, intended not to give mixed signals or dissuade mask-wearing. Fauci assured the public that he – as someone fully vaccinated with two shots – was in fact safe from catching the virus without a mask (or two).

But he was wrong on that also. Vaccine protection was suspected and soon confirmed to wane rapidly. Then, evidence began to accrue that Covid vaccines did not prevent transmission or infection. By November 2021, Fauci had decided that three shots may become the standard for the definition of a ‘full’ vaccination. Four days later, he flipped across the press conference a couple of times, finishing with a statement saying that booster shots were definitely not necessary to be considered ‘fully vaccinated’.

Ironically, having had four shots of the Pfizer vaccine, Fauci still doesn’t feel safe enough to attend the 2022 White House correspondence dinner.

In addition to his uniformly muddled and mendacious public health advice, the public should consider the quality of his work behind the scenes as the Chief Medical Advisor to the President and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

Despite going so far as to equate himself to science, Fauci does not appear to like actual science. In late 2020, three professors from Harvard, Oxford, and Stanford universities drafted the Great Barrington Declaration, highlighting their concerns about the unintended consequences of blanket lockdowns, which they posited would do more harm than good.

They gave their considered reasons and offered less-damaging alternatives. The declaration has been signed by over 60,000 medical experts and researchers from across the world, including a Nobel Laureate. But emails have surfaced showing Dr Francis Collins, then-director of the National Institute of Health (NIH), and Fauci – rather than engaging their peers in a discussion of ideas – had conspired to denigrate the team, calling them ‘fringe epidemiologists’.

The lab-leak theory surrounding Covid’s origin remained controversial, despite significant practical, logical, and hard scientific evidence in its favour. Regardless of whether it turns out to be true or false, Fauci’s behaviour towards exploring Covid’s origin throughout the pandemic remains odd, to say the least. Fauci (and others) set out to quash the theory from its inception and to malign anyone, including respected scientists, who might entertain it. This paints Fauci as a man without scruples.

Fauci’s relationship with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, situated at the heart of the pandemic outbreak and which just so happens to be the largest institute in the world studying bat coronaviruses, is probably an uncomfortable fact. Fauci denied vehemently in the US Senate on May 12, 2021, the charge that the NIH had funded gain-of-function research in the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Two weeks later, in what may be Fauci’s most serious flip of all, he admitted to ‘modest’ NIH funding of the Wuhan lab, while denying it was for gain-of-function research. No surprises for guessing that the NIH later admitted to funding gain-of-function research in the lab a few months later.

Ordinary people would have been fired long ago for this sort of behaviour. The task of leading the world out of the pandemic mindset is too important to be left to an unreliable man who wields compromised truth.

https://spectator.com.au/2022/05/the-fallacious-fauci-flips/

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Hispanic Voters Are Losing Faith in the Democratic Party: Poll

The support of Hispanic voters at the midterms later this year could prove to be “extremely instrumental” in turning the tide of liberal policies of the current administration, a conservative Hispanic group says.

According to a Quinnipiac University poll published in April, only 26 percent of Hispanic survey participants approved of President Joe Biden’s job performance. This marks the lowest approval rating of any demographic group.

The Epoch Times spoke to Santiago Avila, national vice chairman of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly (RNHA), who offered a number of reasons why support among Hispanic voters is plummeting.

While Hispanics have historically registered as Democrats, Avila said their values are generally conservative. “[Many Hispanics] grow up being told that Republicans are for the rich and Democrats are for the poor.” What they should understand, he said, is that “Democrats are more liberal, and Republicans are more conservative.”

Having spoken to many different left-leaning Hispanics, Avila said, “they are really beginning to feel like the Democratic party has become too extreme to the point where it’s starting to scare some of them.” Many are beginning to turn away from the Democratic party because “they’re getting vibes of a communist Cuba and socialist Venezuela here in America. “

As a result, Avila said Hispanics are going to be “extremely instrumental” in the upcoming midterm elections. “They are starting to come to the realization that their conservative values are in opposition to what the media has been trying to feed them in favor of Biden and the Democrats.”

RNHA’s National Chairman Ronnie Lucero agreed, pointing to the liberal policies of the current administration as a problem. More often than not, “a lot of changes in policies are reflected against the values of the Hispanic community,” he said.

Lucero said progressive leaders push for abortion and the abolishment of the Second Amendment, for example. “The Hispanic community is very pro-life and does not want a power grab [that restricts the lawful possession of firearms],” he said. “These are issues Hispanics want to speak up, stand up, and be vocal about when it comes time to vote.”

Legal, Not Illegal, Immigration

The topic of immigration is often a prevailing narrative when talking to Hispanics about the policies of any administration, Avila noted. As the son of two immigrants, he wants to see immigration but said it has to be accomplished by the rule of law.

“Illegal immigration puts a burden on the country and both parties are to blame,” Avila said, pointing out that Democrats play with “emotions, sentiments, and pull at the heartstrings” when speaking about the topic. And all the while, he said, too many conservatives are assuming they’re not going to get the Hispanic vote. Yet, he said, former President Donald Trump and his administration were “very effective” at reaching the Hispanic community.

Lucero agreed that illegal immigration is harmful to the country, adding that “a country with open borders is not a country.” Rule of law must be “cherished” and “respected,” he said. “The people who take the wrong process and beat the system must be rejected.”

But for those entering the country legally, Lucero suggested that lawful immigration should be a speedier process. Raising a personal example, he said it took his mother-in-law 15 years to become a U.S. citizen. “The country does need some immigration reform, because access to citizenship should be easier for those coming to the United States to contribute to the country—and love the county,” he said.

Values and the America Dream
While immigration is a hot topic, Avila said, “it’s not the number one topic for the Hispanic community.” He said Hispanics care more about their families and their independence. “We didn’t come into this country to live off of welfare; we’re running away from that.”

Most Hispanics are “chasing the American dream,” according to Avila. Hispanics want the opportunities found in the United States and that’s why many have immigrated to the country.

“We come here, because when you become an American, you get endowed with inherent, unalienable rights that aren’t enjoyed in other countries,” he said. “We want to prosper and live out our values in this great country.”

When it comes time to vote in the midterm election, “one thing about the Hispanic voter is that we stick to our values,” Avila said. “We see ourselves as Americans and our voices will be heard at the voting booth later this year,” he said

https://www.theepochtimes.com/hispanic-voters-are-losing-faith-in-the-democratic-party_4453450.html

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

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‘Non-Starter’ to Authorize COVID-19 Vaccine for Infants: Dr. Peter McCullough

Moderna has requested the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to grant an emergency use authorization (EUA) for its COVID-19 vaccine for children as young as 6 months. However, according to Dr. Peter McCullough, such authorization shouldn’t be granted because there’s almost no clinical benefit for children that young.

Pfizer is also working on data for a three-dose regimen after the FDA postponed its decision in February on whether to authorize its COVID-19 vaccine for this age group.

“I think for children that age, it’s a non-starter,” McCullough told NTD’s “Capitol Report” program on April 30.

McCullough said a recent study from New York State showed the efficacy of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine in young children was so low that “it looks like they don’t work.”

The study (pdf) analyzed the Pfizer vaccine’s effectiveness in over 1.2 million fully vaccinated children in New York state from Dec. 13, 2021, to Jan. 30, 2022. Among those vaccinated children, over 852,000 were aged 12–17, and over 365,000 were aged 5–11.

“In the papers by [Vajeera] Dorabawila and colleagues from New York state, over a couple hundred thousand children aged 5 to 11, [had] virtually no clinical benefit, no vaccine efficacy. All the vaccine efficacy was less than 25 percent,” said McCullough, a renowned cardiologist and epidemiologist.

The study found that the vaccine effectiveness against infection declined from 66 percent to 51 percent for 12 to 17-year-olds and from 68 percent to 12 percent for 5 to 11-year-olds in about one and a half months.

The Pfizer vaccine is the only one currently being administered to children in this age group.

The FDA has said that vaccines should be at least 50 percent effective in preventing infection or decreasing disease severity to receive emergency authorization. The World Health Organization says vaccines are required to be 50 percent effective or better to receive clearance.

According to Moderna’s data, the vaccine was just 43.7 percent effective in the youngest group and 37.5 percent effective in the other children during the Omicron wave. Both were below the 50 percent bar. Some doctors and experts questioned that the trial result was not strong enough to warrant a EUA.

“That’s not acceptable by the FDA’s own standards,” Dr. Steven Hatfill, a virologist who advised the Trump administration, told The Epoch Times last month.

The FDA said it would thoroughly review Moderna’s request after additional data was provided.

“We have received a request from Moderna for a EUA for its COVID-19 vaccine for children 6 months to 6 years of age. As the company has acknowledged, they still need to submit additional data to complete its request. FDA cannot reach a decision on any vaccine without a completed EUA request, which allows us to do a thorough review, which includes, among other things, a comprehensive review of all of the adverse events and replication of the key analyses,” an FDA spokesperson told The Epoch Times in an email last week.

Some experts said it doesn’t make sense for young children to receive COVID-19 vaccines, as they are at low risk for severe disease and death from the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, and the possible severe side effects are a big concern.

“Parents should think twice about vaccinating their child,” Dr. Robert Malone previously told The Epoch Times, adding that serious adverse events can occur, and most “are irreversible.”

Malone is a key contributor to mRNA vaccines, and his website includes a list of peer-reviewed studies related to COVID-19 vaccine adverse events in children, the main one being myocarditis.

In March, Florida’s top health official issued guidance, saying healthy children may not benefit from receiving current COVID-19 vaccines.

“Based on currently available data, the risks of administering COVID-19 vaccination among healthy children may outweigh the benefits,” Florida Surgeon General Dr. said in a statement. “That is why these decisions should be made on an individual basis and never mandated.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been saying that COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective, and severe side effects are rare. The agency also says that all children aged 5 and older should get Pfizer’s vaccine, and all children between the ages of 12 and 17 should get a booster.

However, recent studies have found that Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine doesn’t do well in preventing infection against the Omicron variant for children 5 to 15 years old.

McCullough pointed out that it would be unnecessary to get young children vaccinated because most of them have already contracted the virus.

“We’ve heard reports recently from the CDC that roughly 75 percent of children have already had COVID. So for them, it’s too late for any hope of a vaccine. The vaccine can’t help once somebody’s already had COVID,” McCullough said, adding that if a vaccine doesn’t have at least 50 percent coverage, it would be considered “nonviable.”

On April 26, an early release of CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report said that about 75 percent of children and adolescents had already developed antibodies against the disease.

McCullough said COVID-19 has become “progressively” milder through its progression of mutations and the Omicron variant caused much fewer hospitalizations or deaths.

A number of studies have found that the clinical severity of infection is much lower for Omicron than for the Delta variant. In March, a peer-reviewed study published in Lancet is the largest one to date, which analyzed data from 1.51 million COVID-infected people in England between November 2021 and January 2022. Among them, over 1.06 million were infected by Omicron.

The study found that the overall risk of hospitalization within the 14 days after a positive test was 1.64 percent with Delta and 0.9 percent with Omicron. The mortality risk in the 28 days after a positive test was 0.27 percent after Delta, falling to 0.11 percent after Omicron.

“I can tell you, we have studies now, large studies on Omicron, where there’s close to zero hospitalizations or deaths,” said McCullough. “It’s essentially a common cold.”

The Epoch Times has contacted FDA, Moderna, and Pfizer for comments.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/non-starter-to-authorize-covid-19-vaccine-for-infants-dr-peter-mccullough_4447924.html

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FDA: Americans Should Treat COVID-19 Like the Flu

Several top Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials, including Commissioner Robert Califf, admitted that Americans will now have to accept COVID-19 as another respiratory virus, comparing it to influenza.

Califf, Principal Deputy Commissioner Janet Woodcock, and top vaccine official Dr. Peter Marks wrote for the Journal of the American Medical Association that COVID-19 will be around for the foreseeable future while suggesting that it will require yearly vaccines targeting the most threatening variations of the virus.

“Widespread vaccine- and infection-induced immunity, combined with the availability of effective therapeutics, could blunt the effects of future outbreaks,” the officials said, referring to another name for the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus. “Nonetheless, it is time to accept that the presence of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is the new normal.”

The virus “will likely circulate globally for the foreseeable future, taking its place alongside other common respiratory viruses such as influenza. And it likely will require similar annual consideration for vaccine composition updates in consultation with the [FDA],” they continued.

It’s a departure from the rhetoric that was expressed by public health officials in 2020 and 2021. In late October 2020, for example, current White House COVID-19 adviser Anthony Fauci said that President Donald Trump’s comparisons to the flu were false, telling NBC at the time “it is not correct to say it’s the same as flu.”

About a year later, Fauci told CBS News that Americans will “likely” have to deal with COVID-19 in a similar manner as influenza. “That’s entirely conceivable and likely, as a matter of fact, we are not going to be in a situation of this degree of intensity indefinitely,” he said when asked about the Omicron variant.

Data published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that while cases have trended slightly upward in the United States, the numbers are a fraction of the cases that were reported in mid-January when the seven-day average stood at around 800,000 per day. As of May 6, the seven-day average was about 68,000 per day.

In the Journal of the American Medical Association article, the three FDA officials proclaimed that by the summer of 2022, decisions will have to be issued “about who should be eligible for vaccination with additional boosters and regarding vaccine composition.”

“Administering additional COVID-19 vaccine doses to appropriate individuals this fall around the time of the usual influenza vaccine campaign has the potential to protect susceptible individuals against hospitalization and death, and therefore will be a topic for FDA consideration,” they added.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/fda-americans-should-treat-covid-19-like-the-flu_4453370.html

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When Biden’s own people don’t trust him to speak, we have no real president

There is nothing more symbolic of American political power than a president of the United States holding court in the Oval Office.

Ensconced in that intimidating room, countless leaders have browbeaten, charmed, and cracked wise with the powerful and the press for generations.

But not Joe Biden.

And now we know why. According to new reporting, the reason we don’t see Joe in the Oval very often is that his team can’t install a teleprompter to keep the gaffer-in-chief on script.

So yeah, that’s where we are regarding the leader of the free world.

If one really stops and thinks about this it is simply shocking. The primary job of any politician, but especially a president, is to communicate a vision of policy and competency to the American people and the people of the world.

We have a president today who is incapable of this most basic element of his job. And whatever unelected group of White House flunkies there are — who are actually the president — can’t trust him to even open his mouth unless he can stare at a teleprompter and mouth their insights like the weatherman.

Things have gotten so obvious and awkward of late that even when Biden does have his trusty large print screen scrolling his supposed ideas he can’t even push them out. His struggle with the word “kleptocracy” in recent remarks was just sad. And fine, he grew up with a stutter, but he’s been in the public spotlight since “The Godfather” was in movie theaters.

The darkest and most troubling possibility here, but one we must face, is that we functionally have no actual President of the United States. If he can’t appear in public, in his own office, for want of a digital cheat sheet, then of course he has little if anything to do with the actual running of the country. And he’s not even a good false figurehead — using the teleprompter he often looks and sounds like he’s reading the bottom line of the eye exam.

Let’s face it. Even for an administration that thinks it’s a TV show, the construction of a White House set where Biden can wax incoherently was bizarre. But now we know this sound studio was set up to protect Biden, as much as possible, from his own words and actions. Maybe soon the president will only do live events in virtual reality where his handlers can correct his errors in deep fake real-time. Why not have the president be a programmed hologram? Is that so different from the current reality?

It’s time to talk about grandpa. He probably shouldn’t be driving or using the gas oven on his own anymore, or, you know, running the most powerful country on the planet into the ground.

Maybe the White House will overcome the great technical challenges of getting a screen with words on it into the Oval Office and we can once again see a president in his actual, natural environment. But given that this administration has given no indication in 20 months that it can even tie its shoes, I suggest we don’t hold our breath.

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, the wonderful Wizard of Ahs and Ums. Just go along with the joke as the Democrats would have us do. But the joke isn’t funny anymore. A president who cannot even give brief remarks in the Oval Office is no president. And that, my friends, is that sad fact.

So what are we going to do about it?

https://nypost.com/2022/05/06/when-bidens-own-people-dont-trust-him-to-speak-we-have-no-real-president/

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)

http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)

http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)

https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/ (IMMIGRATION WATCH)

https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/ (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

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Whistleblower Exposes 3 Big Issues in Pfizer’s COVID Vaccine Clinical Trials

On Nov. 2, 2021 British Medical Journal (BMJ) published an article that revealed three big issues in Pfizer’s vaccine trial based on interview with a whistleblower.

The whistle blower, Brook Jackson, was a regional director of one of Pfizer’s vaccine trial companies, Ventavia Research Group in Texas.

Beginning the fall of 2020, there were 153 institutes, including Ventavia, that assisted Pfizer’s vaccine clinical trial. Per Ventavia’s website, the company is the largest private clinical research company in Texas. Jackson found out the management of the clinical trial in the company was not organized. She reported this to the administrative level of the company, but received no response from the company. Then she reported this to the FDA.

However, after she emailed the FDA, she was fired that same afternoon. Jackson said this was the first time she was fired from her job in her 20-year career.

Finally, she contacted the international well-known journal–BMJ. She exposed 3 major issues she observed in Ventavia for Pfizer’s vaccine clinical trial.

1. Falsifying the data

2. Early unblinding of the trial, affecting the accuracy of the results

3. Very slow to respond to adverse events, and not paying attention to the safety of participants

We spoke with Dr. Sean Lin, phD, former toxicology lab director of Walter Reed Military Medical Center to discuss these issues. The interview below has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Issue 1: During the Trials, There Was Data Falsified

Health 1+1: Per Jackson, in one document dated as August 2020, before Jackson’s hiring, a Ventavia executive revealed that three site staff members were requested to go over e-diary issues and falsifying data, etc. One of them was verbally questioned for changing data and not informing the late data entry.

Jackson and Ventavia executives discussed multiple times the possibilities of an FDA inspection of their company. Another former Ventavia employee also stated that the company worried the FDA would audit the process of their company’s Pfizer’s vaccine clinical trials.

Dr. Lin: When any new vaccine or new medication goes through clinical trials, the accuracy of the data is very important.

For example, in clinical trials, to inject vaccine to a volunteer, there must be 2 people in addition to the volunteer on site. One person does the injection; the second person takes notes and watches the injection. The reason for having two people is if only one person does it, if there is any mistake in recording the procedure, or if the person changes data, the accuracy of the database will be affected significantly.

In cases where any data needs to be modified, these drug companies usually have strict procedures. First, upper management and an executive of the drug company need to be notified and approve, then the person is authorized to enter the database and modify the data. The person must record the time of modification and the reason. They need to explain that an error occurred while entering the data, or if there are other reasons. Only with strict rules can these companies guarantee that what is in the database won’t be falsified.

So by contrast, it is unbelievable that an employee at Ventavia can have the right to modify the database without permission. This can cause big problems.

Pfizer published their clinical trial report on NEJM (New England Journal of Medicine). In the report, there were 8 people infected COVID after vaccination, but there were 162 people infected COVID after placebo. So, it is easily to change the protection rate from 90% to 60% if there are wrong data on dozens of people.

Ventavia’s trial site had 1,000 volunteers participate in the COVID vaccine trials. If there are mistakes in just 50 of them, the results will be significantly different.

Issue 2: Early Unblinding of Trial Participants

Health 1+1: Based on the photos and information provided by Jackson, documents related to the clinical trials were randomly displayed, including vaccine packaging materials with clinical trial participants’ information and drug assignment confirmation labels, all these were accessible to blinded personnel. The above errors can lead the participants and the staff members to know ahead of time who would get vaccine, before the procedures were done. The errors were corrected two months after the trial started. It may have been a large range of unblinding.

Dr. Lin: Generally, people who participate in clinical trials are divided into two groups. One group would receive vaccine and the other group would receive placebo, like normal saline. None of the participants will know which they were given, otherwise it would affect the objectivity of the trial. This is called blinding.

Vaccine trials routinely use blind trials. This is because in medical field, it is well known that the mental effect plays a key role. For example, if someone knew he or she was given real medicine, they may have very positive mood which improves their immune system, and the results would not truly reflect the effect of medicine only. On the other hand, if people knew they were given placebo, they may not feel any hope, and that may also affect the results.

Besides the volunteer participants, other people who involved in the trials like physicians, nurses, and people who man database are also not allowed to know the true information regarding the distribution of the vaccine injection. This is to avoid bias. For example, if the nurse knew the participants receiving vaccine, the nurse may pay more attention to the person. This will affect the end results.

So the clinical trials are randomly assigned by computer for who receives the vaccine and who receives the placebo, and the information will be encrypted.

For early unblinding, it was not only a lapse in responsibility on Ventavia’s part, but showed problems related to Pfizer’s design and management of these COVID vaccine clinical trials. This made it so that the testing groups learned who was getting the vaccine too early. If lower level staff have authority or opportunity to unblind trials, it affects the objectivity of the data.

Issue 3: Slow Response to Adverse Events, Not Prioritizing Participant Safety

Health 1+1: Jackson pointed out that Ventavia did not pay attention to the safety of the participants during the vaccine trials. They did not contact or take care the participants who developed side effects. One email sent by the contract research organization to Ventavia mentioned that over 100 cases with issues where participants were not contacted for more than three days, including  including two participants who had developed severe symptoms. The expectation for vaccine trials is that that all issues need to be addressed within 24 hours.  Jackson also mentioned that participants were placed in a hallway after injection with no clinical staff observation.

Besides Jackson, a formal Ventavia employee also told the BMJ that the company doesn’t have enough staff to take samples from participants who developed COVID symptoms. FDA documents showed that across all clinical trials, there were 477 people who had symptoms but did not receive a PCR test for COVID. Jackson said in the 40-plus clinical trials she’s been involved with, including several large scale trials, she had never seen as much chaos as the environment she worked in under Ventavia.

In a recording of a meeting in September 2020 between Jackson and two Ventavia company directors, the company expressed they could not confirm how many types of issues had occurred because of the high volume of issues, nor could they confirm the number of errors that had occurred because there was something new everyday.

Dr. Lin: In clinical trials, the risk of the medication given to participants is unknown, and as such there needs to be enough staff to watch for side effects that could occur.

Usually, participants stay onsite, whether that is a hospital or nearby hotel, for the first 24 hours after the vaccine injection, and they are accompanied by clinical staff.  If a severe side effect occurs, it needs to be addressed right away. It is dangerous if no one is observing the participants after injection. This suggests the trial was not properly staffed.

In the past, there were clinical trials for certain medications that took a very long time before they could even begin. First you need to have enough test sites, then the standard data criterion needs to be set up to ensure the data integrity and security, among other things. If you have contractors with the capacity to test 500 people, but you sign them for contracts to test 1000 people, obviously they will have staffing and staff training issues. There’s a standard protocol that accompanies each step of these clinical trials and no short cuts can be taken, even if a pharmaceutical company wants to speed up the testing period. In this case specifically, Pfizer would have needed to monitor these testing sites, in order to ensure all these trials are using their designed process.

Ventavia’s situation implies additional risks, like the possibility of other sites having similar issues, and whether Pfizer has been correcting these in a timely manner. If the vaccine data contains errors, then wouldn’t the vaccine’s protection rate need to be reevaluated?

During the pandemic, many large pharmaceutical companies received protection from government. The entire vaccine development bill was footed by the government, as was the production and promotion costs. And even if there were problems in the process, the media was not investigating these steps and exposing the details to the public.

Pfizer’s vaccine has been so important in the US market and stricter monitoring should have been in place, rather than blanket protections.

FDA’s Poor Oversight

Health 1+1: Jackson reported the issue to the administrative level of Ventavia and received no response. Then on Sept. 25, 2020, she contacted the FDA. After sending the email, she was fired from the company.  A few days later, the FDA contacted Jackson to discuss her report. There was no further communication between Jackson and the FDA after this call. In August 2021, the FDA approved Pfizer’s COVID vaccine and listed 9 of the 153 clinical trial sites, not including Ventavia.

Jackson raised several problems in her report:

1) Participants were not monitored after receiving injections

2) There was no timely follow-up of patients with adverse side effects

3) Errors occurred during testing, and people would not report the errors

4) The vaccines were not stored at proper temperatures

5) Mislabeled laboratory specimens

6) Staff who reported these types of problems received retaliation

7) FDA told her no further information could be provided to her and ceased communications, and only nine of 153 test sites were inspected by the FDA, not including Ventavia, despite Jackson’s report

This exposes the oversight issues on the FDA’s part. In Ventavia case, FDA should have communicated with Jackson, Pfizer, and Ventavia. It stands that the FDA should have inquired about Pfizer’s trial procedures, and whether these three parties were on the same page regarding those procedures. And the public should have been made aware, because this affects human lives.

Dr. Lin: It’s more than an issue of corporate liability, there’s a matter of individual responsibility here as well. This whistleblower’s report showed that it wasn’t just Ventavia in the wrong, but Pfizer and the FDA as well. But I think the key issue is still the individual, because you have to remember that these are individuals doing all the research.

Many people think that science is noble, and all the people who work in the scientific field are pursuing truth. But in reality, in modern society, science is an industry. Especially the medical field, it’s become a large industry that involves huge profits. So in the process, the issue of how to keep research and clinical trials reliable and trustworthy has become a big challenge.

During the pandemic, the public had hope that pharmaceutical companies would develop medicine that could save lives. There’s a big profit opportunity here for the companies, especially because the government will help cover costs and also promote the products. With an upside this big, no company wants to miss out. With these conditions, it’s easy to risk the integrity of the company. Especially under the current PREP regulations, the company doesn’t take any responsibility. Pfizer and Moderna are free of responsibility involving this vaccine. People with adverse side effects from these injects can seek compensation through CICP, but it is not easy to do.

According to a Nov. 10, 2021 report from USA Today, 3,100 people developed side effects after vaccine injection during clinical trials. Following the CICP system, they filed for reimbursement, and none of them have thus far received compensation.

The government pays for production and protection, and the companies don’t need to pay out any losses from side effects. Big profits with small investments. Under these conditions how can one guarantee the integrity of the test? It in fact motivates the companies to rush their clinical trials. These are complicated procedures with many factors that can cause issues. Pharmaceutical companies should be following the basic principle of “do no harm.” Without this principle, the medical field is in peril.

Both the government and pharmaceutical companies have been focusing on the benefit rather than the drawbacks. This is a problem, because it means that something that could put someone’s life at risk can be ignored. This is irresponsible to the public.

On one hand, during a pandemic, ordinary people would of course wish that medical companies could develop medicine to save the world. Can pharmaceutical companies keep a high level of integrity through the process? I think this is a test for humanity arranged by God.

If humanity handles this test well, God creates miracles to help humanity.

If, under what is deemed an emergency condition, in the name of saving people at large a government decides to risk some people’s lives in trade, that is not right. Just like in China, the regime is behind the operation of organ harvesting ordinary citizens to make a profit. If a surgeon in China claims he saved a life through organ transplantation but had to kill another human being to do so, that is totally wrong.

Whether a physician or pharmaceutical expert, whether you can maintain morality and integrity during this pandemic is a test from God. As COVID spread across the entire world, it’s become a test not only to the medical field but all human beings.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/whistleblower-exposes-3-big-issues-in-pfizers-covid-vaccine-clinical-trials_4440371.html

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Also see my other blogs. Main ones below:

<a href="https://edwatch.blogspot.com">http://edwatch.blogspot.com</a> (EDUCATION WATCH)

<a href="https://antigreen.blogspot.com">http://antigreen.blogspot.com</a> (GREENIE WATCH)

<a href="https://pcwatch.blogspot.com">http://pcwatch.blogspot.com</a> (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)

<a href="https://australian-politics.blogspot.com/">http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/</a> (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)

<a href="https://snorphty.blogspot.com/">http://snorphty.blogspot.com/</a> (TONGUE-TIED)

<a href="https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/">https://immigwatch.blogspot.com/</a> <b>(IMMIGRATION WATCH)</b>

<a href="https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/">https://awesternheart.blogspot.com/</a> (THE PSYCHOLOGIST)

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