Titian The rape of Europe 1560-62
Question: WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus claims “The Omicron variant of Covid-19 is killing people across the globe..”. But I think if that were true, we would see it on every front page. Instead, I’ve seen one death reported with/from Omicron in the UK, and one in the US, neither of which were very convincing reports. Tedros doesn’t supply any evidence either. With death numbers plummeting, certainly relative to infection numbers, shouldn’t we perhaps assume the deaths reported up till now are all Delta, until proven otherwise? If it is Omicron, that would play right into the hands of Fauci and Pfizer and all mandates, the political and media narrative etc., so why is it not reported?
Some inevitable Jan 6 stuff too today. I keep thinking of Lincoln’s “A nation divided cannot stand.”
Israel vaccine efficiency tumbles off a cliff. Don’t look down.
Bit hard to read, apologies, but the same message
2nd hand vaccine salesman.
• Calling Omicron ‘Mild’ A Mistake, Warns WHO (Y!)
The Omicron variant of Covid-19 is killing people across the globe and should not be dismissed as mild, the World Health Organization insisted Thursday. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the record numbers of people catching the new variant — which is rapidly out-competing the previously-dominant Delta variant in many countries — meant hospitals were being overwhelmed. “While Omicron does appear to be less severe compared to Delta, especially in those vaccinated, it does not mean it should be categorised as mild,” Tedros told a press conference. “Just like previous variants, Omicron is hospitalising people and it is killing people,” he explained. “In fact, the tsunami of cases is so huge and quick, that it is overwhelming health systems around the world.”
Just under 9.5 million new Covid-19 cases were reported to the WHO last week — a record, up 71 percent on the week before. But even this was an underestimate, Tedros said, as it did not reflect the backlog of testing around the Christmas-New Year holidays, positive self-tests not registered, and overburdened surveillance systems missing cases. Tedros used his first speech of 2022 to slam the way rich nations hogged available vaccine doses last year, saying it had created the perfect breeding ground for the emergence of virus variants. He therefore urged the world to share out vaccine doses more fairly in 2022, to end the “death and destruction” of Covid-19. Tedros wanted every country to have 10 percent of their population vaccinated by the end of September 2021 and 40 percent by the end of December.
[..] The WHO’s Covid-19 technical lead Maria Van Kerkhove said it was “very unlikely” that Omicron would be the last variant of concern before the pandemic is over. In facing the more transmissible Omicron variant, Van Kerkhove urged people to step up the measures they were already taking to protect themselves against the virus. “Do everything that we have been advising better, more comprehensively, more purposefully,” she said. “We need people to hang in there and really fight.”
But don’t use the word “mild”!
• South Africa Excess Deaths Peak At Fraction Of Previous Covid Variants (BBG)
South African excess deaths, regarded as a true indication of the impact of Covid-19, have peaked during the Omicron-driven wave of infections at a fraction of the numbers seen in outbreaks caused by earlier variants. The number of excess deaths, a measure of mortality against a historical average, in the week to Dec. 26 fell to 3,016 from 3,087 the week earlier, the South African Medical Research Council said in a report on Wednesday. Official deaths due to Covid-19 declined to 425 from 428. The excess death decline was the first in three weeks. That compares with a peak of 16,115 in the week to Jan. 10, when the beta variant was ripping through the country and South Africa had yet to start its vaccination drive.
In July weekly excess deaths peaked at just over 10,000 during a wave of infections driven by the delta variant while the initial outbreak, caused by the virus first identified in China, peaked at 6,674 in July 2020. “The number of estimated excess deaths has begun to decrease, consistent with the trend in the number of confirmed Covid-19 deaths,” the council said. “This observation is strongly supportive that a significant proportion of the current excess mortality being observed in South Africa is likely to be attributable to Covid-19.” South Africa, which on Nov. 25 was the first country announce the discovery of the highly infectious omicron variant, has served as a harbinger of how the latest stage of the pandemic may play out globally.
Hospitalisations have been lower than in previous waves and doctors have reported patients with milder symptoms. The wave of infections has also risen faster and then declined more rapidly than earlier outbreaks. While official deaths from the coronavirus during the course of the pandemic in South Africa have been tallied at 91,561, the excess death figure is more than 286,000. Excess deaths appear to have peaked in the province of Gauteng, where the omicron variant was first identified, as well as in three of the country’s other eight provinces.
People keep talking about high levels of immunity through vaccines, when we see all the time that this wanes within months, if not weeks.
• Current US Covid Death Rate Is Half That Of January 2021 (DM)
While Omicron drives record COVID-19 case increases in the U.S., deaths have stayed relatively low so far – with about 1,300 Americans dying each day in the last week, compared to 2,600 deaths per day at this point in 2021. The variant’s inherently milder qualities, combined with high levels of immunity from vaccination and prior infections, may mean that a low percentage of people infected in the Omicron surge will face severe symptoms. Experts say the U.S. is showing signs of ‘decoupling,’ in which increases in hospitalizations and deaths no longer directly follow increases in cases. The U.S. could follow the U.K., where the current Covid mortality rate is 21 times lower than it was during the country’s second wave and experts are saying Omicron ‘should be welcomed.’
Following a large wave of cases in the U.S., some experts say that the variant could lead to even higher levels of population immunity – meaning that future surges will be even less severe. On Tuesday, University of California immunologist Monica Gandhi said the US was in a ‘totally different phase’ of the pandemic. ‘The virus is always going to be with us but my hope is that this variant causes so much immunity that it will quell the pandemic.’ The highly contagious Omicron variant is driving record cases across the U.S., with an average of 587,000 new cases reported on a seven-day rolling average, according to data from Johns Hopkins. On Monday, more than 1 million new cases were reported in a single day – including some cases from holiday backlogs.
The current national case rate is more than twice as high as the rate reported in January 2021, during the U.S.’s last record-breaking surge. Yet so far, hospitalization and death numbers have remained lower than last winter – both nationally and in many states and cities. About 85,000 Covid patients are currently hospitalized in America’s hospitals, compared to a peak of 124,000 during last winter’s surge, according to the CDC. Each day in the past week, about 1,300 Americans died of Covid. While this is still a high number, it’s about half of the death rate at this time last year – over 2,600 Covid deaths per day. Experts call this phenomenon ‘decoupling’: hospitalizations and deaths used to increase at the same rate as cases during surges, but now they increase at lower rates.
In the U.S., decoupling may be attributed to both Omicron’s inherent biology and high levels of immunity in the population. A growing number of studies are showing that Omicron is less likely to cause severe symptoms than past coronavirus strains. Unlike other variants, Omicron can rapidly replicate in the upper airways – but has limited capacity to wreak havoc in the lungs, where the worst respiratory symptoms take place. At the same time, the U.S. has high levels of immunity from vaccinations and past infections. More than 70 percent of Americans have received at least one vaccine dose, while about one-third have been infected at some point, computational biologist Trevor Bedford recently told STAT News. ‘Factored together, that’s 80-odd percent [of people with some immunity,’ Bedford said.
[..] Dr David Livermore, a medical microbiologist at the University of East Anglia, told MailOnline the strain’s emergence could be the best thing to have happened for the pandemic, echoing comments made by health experts in Denmark earlier this week. He said: ‘With the spread of Omicron over the past three weeks, recorded cases have gone from around 50,000 per day to around 200,000.’ ‘This has not fed through into an increased death rate – and a rise would have been expected by now, if it was going to happen. [..] The U.K.’s falling Covid fatality rate could be partially attributed to delayed reports of deaths over the holiday season, Dr Paul Hunter, also at the University of East Anglia, told MailOnline. The ‘fatality rate for Omicron does seem to be lower than we have seen with previous variants,’ he said, but current figures may be skewed by the delays.
Covid deaths are typically reported with a longer lag time than cases, as it can take days or weeks for a death certificate to be filled out and submitted to health officials. In the U.S., data experts have noted that death data typically take more time to recover from holiday reporting lags than other types of Covid data. Still, the numbers so far have given some scientists reason to be optimistic. Livermore told MailOnline the Omicron variant could be beneficial because its increased transmissibility has helped wipe out more lethal variants, including Delta, and could help prevent future ones from emerging. ‘It’ll then act as a natural vaccine or booster,’ he said. ‘And that, I believe – rather than through human efforts – is how the pandemic will end. It’s how respiratory pandemics ended in the past.’
“We’re going to have to live with it.”
He means his billionaire status?!
• Moderna CEO Warns People May Need Fourth Covid Shot (CNBC)
Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel on Thursday said the efficacy of boosters against Covid-19 will likely decline over time, and people may need a fourth shot in the fall to increase their protection. Bancel said people who received their boosters last fall will likely have enough protection to get them through the winter, when new infections surge as people gather indoors to escape the cold. However, Bancel said the efficacy of boosters will probably decline over the course of several months, similar to what happened with the first two doses. The Moderna chief was interviewed by Goldman Sachs during the investment bank’s health-care CEO conference. “I will be surprised when we get that data in the coming weeks that it’s holding nicely over time — I would expect that it’s not going to hold great,” Bancel said, referring to the strength of the booster shots.
An unprecedented surge of infections from the highly contagious omicron variant is currently spreading worldwide. In the U.S., the seven-day average is now more than 574,000 new cases daily, according to a CNBC analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University. The Moderna CEO said governments, including the U.K. and South Korea, are already ordering the doses in preparation. “I still believe we’re going to need boosters in the fall of ’22 and forward,” Bancel said, adding that people who are older or have underlying health conditions might need annual boosters for years to come. “We have been saying that we believe first this virus is not going away,” Bancel said. “We’re going to have to live with it.”
Interesting that India sees the same numbers as Indiana. And scary too.
“Although these young adults — including a number of celebrities — typically have “no conventional risk factors,” Indian heart doctors are blaming the mysterious rise in heart attacks on “lifestyle choices.”
• Insurance Companies Report 40% Increase in Premature Non-COVID Deaths (CHD)
An Indiana insurance executive dropped a bombshell statistic during an end-of-year virtual news conference, reporting a “stunning” 40% increase in the death rate among 18- to 64-year-old adults compared to pre-pandemic levels. During the same call, OneAmerica’s CEO Scott Davison also described a major uptick in both short- and long-term disability claims. The insurance executive rated the extraordinarily high death rate as “the highest … we have seen in the history of this business,” adding the trend is “consistent across every player in that business.” To further underscore the import of his statements, Davison said, “Just to give you an idea of how bad [40%] is, a … one-in-200 catastrophe would be a 10% increase over pre-pandemic. So 40% is just unheard of.”
Contrary to what the public might assume — given the media’s unremitting coverage of COVID-19 — Davison reported most of the death claims listed causes of death other than COVID. Commenting on the news, Steve Kirsch, executive director of the Vaccine Safety Research Foundation, wrote, “It would take something REALLY BIG to have an effect this big.” Moreover, Kirsch said, the culprit would have to be something first introduced in 2021 — “something new … that a huge number of people would be exposed to” — such as COVID shots. Vaccine scientist Dr. Robert Malone and statistician Jessica Rose, Ph.D., agreed that experimental COVID injections should be considered prime suspects.
[..] While claiming not to have a breakdown of causes, an Indiana hospital association official noted that the majority of intensive care patients are in the hospital for illnesses and conditions having nothing to do with COVID. In a September study described as “narrative-shattering,” Harvard, Tufts and Veterans Affairs researchers reported that approximately half of hospitalized patients “showing up on COVID-data dashboards in 2021” had likely been admitted “for another reason entirely.”
[..] By revenue, the U.S. has the largest insurance industry in the world, valued in 2020 at $1.28 trillion. Financial analysts deem life insurance — which represents 49% of total premiums paid — to be “one of the most profitable industries in the world.” More than half (52%) of American adults have life insurance, including group coverage of the type underwritten by OneAmerica. The face value of life insurance policy purchases in the U.S. is $3.29 trillion. One of the key determinants of life insurance profitability is the accurate assessment of mortality risk by actuaries, and notably, proper accounting of premature death risks. Reports for 2020 indicate life insurers took an unexpected hit from claims associated with “COVID-19” — with an $18 billion drop in “net gains from operations” in 2020 as compared to 2019.
[..] The Times of India reported in late October that health insurers are seeing a “huge surge in non-COVID claims.” Again citing the magic number of 40%, the head of interventional cardiology at a Mumbai hospital noted a 40% increase in heart problems — acute coronary syndrome, sudden heart attacks and cardiac arrest — over the previous six to eight months The cardiologist also observed that “even patients who have been stable for years are coming in with acute heart emergencies.” That same month, the New Indian Express reported on widespread concern about the growing prevalence of heart attacks in those under age 45. Although these young adults — including a number of celebrities — typically have “no conventional risk factors,” Indian heart doctors are blaming the mysterious rise in heart attacks on “lifestyle choices.”
Around the same time in late December that OneAmerica’s Davison shared his remarks, Fortune India reported on data from the nation’s Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority showing a 41% increase (there’s that number again) in death claims in fiscal year 2021. In comparison, death claims rose by 11% in fiscal year 2020. Describing the increase in non-COVID-19 deaths, a life insurance executive suggested the industry might end up posting “a 200-300% increase in claims” for 2021. For now, however, 18 of the 24 life insurance companies operating in India in 2020-21 are reporting profits.
“I am recording 8-10 podcasts and TV interviews a day. If I could clone me, I could do five times that number.”
• Surviving In The Age Of Censorship, Propaganda And Cancel Culture (Malone)
So, not that what happens to me is so special – but last night Linkedin decided I was not a fit human to be on their platform. In another blink of an eye of big tech, Linkin flushed my 30,000 connections and de-platformed me. No explanations, no warnings were given. I can say that I rarely post anything on Link-in that is controversial anymore, since they de-platformed me, re-instated me and then apologized for it last summer. This was not a surprise – just more of the same censorship that is happening everywhere. All I can do at this point is laugh about it. This is about resiliency: like water off a duck’s back. In two weeks since Twitter de-platformed me, my GETTR account has gone over 212,000 followers. Other social media venues are doing well also. My Substack is over 100,000 people. My Gab account is 88,000 strong.
My fan run telegram account also has 189,000 subscribers. I am recording 8-10 podcasts and TV interviews a day. If I could clone me, I could do five times that number. I will not let my voice be silenced, because the cause is too great. I can only hope with the linkedin censorship: my voice, your voice – all of us will unite and find a common path forward to stop the propaganda madness being driven by the oligarchs who control big tech, big media and big pharma. Remember, The oligarchy are using cancel culture to control us. On Joe Rogan last week, I spoke of Mass Formation and how the hypnotized are fully bought into the idea that vaccine mandates for a leaky vaccine with poor efficacy against Omicron was a mass formation hypnotic event. This idea went viral on the internet and the topic of “mass formation” skyrocketed in the search engines. This is when google decided to manually edit the search results.
What happened is not important in the context of “me,” but what it shows is that Google has become the “minister of truth.” Free speech can only occur when all voices are allowed to be heard. This is no longer about COVID-19, this is about control of what we are allowed to think, believe and speak about. The question is why are the oligarchs so scared of me? Of Peter? Of physicians who advocate for early treatment? Of you? Let’s face it, it is because our combined efforts to stop the illegal mandates, to stop the jabbing of children with experimental vaccines and to stop the propaganda and censorship is having an impact. It is because we are all realizing how the Internet is being controlled to influence us in how we think.
Huge budget cuts pre-Covid, fire non-vaxxed staff, and lo and behold…
• Military Deployed At London Hospitals Due To Omicron Staff Shortages (G.)
The armed forces are being deployed to help hospitals in London deal with a surge in Covid patients because the Omicron variant is leaving so many staff sick and unable to work. Of the 200 military personnel involved, 40 are doctors who will help NHS staff look after patients. The other 160 personnel, who have no medical training, will check in patients, ensure stocks are maintained and would also be “conducting basic checks”, the Ministry of Defence said. Some have already started work and they are expected to support the NHS in the capital until the end of the month. The announcement comes two days after Boris Johnson said he hopes England can “ride out” the current wave of Covid-19 without further restrictions, but did acknowledge parts of the NHS would feel “temporarily overwhelmed” by Omicron.
Health union leaders, although grateful for the help, have said this latest move means the government can no longer be “dismissive” of concerns about “delivering safe care”. Thousands of NHS staff have been off work each week in London, which last month became the first part of the country to see a huge wave of Covid cases caused by the new strain, leaving hospitals struggling to cope with unprecedented levels of staff absence. Chris Hopson, the chief executive of hospitals group NHS Providers, welcomed the assistance from personnel from what is thought to be all three armed forces. But he said that their arrival underlined the extent of NHS understaffing. “Trust leaders will welcome the support of colleagues from the armed forces during what continues to be an incredibly challenging time for the NHS in London.
A union very divided.
• Destroying a Democracy to Save it (Turley)
This week, Democratic lawyer Marc Elias predicted that 2022 would bring a renewed interest in disqualifying Republican members from office based on an obscure Civil War-era provision. Elias — the former Hilary Clinton campaign general counsel — is a well-known figure in Washington who has been prominently featured in the ongoing investigation of Special Counsel John Durham. Elias has founded a self-described “pro-democracy” group that challenges Republican voting laws and pledges to “shape our elections and democratic institutions for years to come.” In the age of rage, nothing says democracy like preventing people from running for office. Elias and others are suggesting that — rather than defeat Republicans at the polls — Democrats in Congress could disqualify the Republicans for supporting or encouraging the Jan. 6 “insurrection.”
Last year, Democratic members called for the disqualification of dozens of Republicans. One, Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) demanded the disqualification of the 120 House Republicans — including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy(R-Calif.) — for simply signing a “Friend of the Court brief” (or amicus brief) in support of an election challenge from Texas. These members and activists have latched upon the long-dormant provision in Section 3 of the 14th Amendment — the “disqualification clause” — which was written after the 39th Congress convened in December 1865 and many members were shocked to see Alexander Stephens, the Confederate vice president, waiting to take a seat with an array of other former Confederate senators and military officers.
Justin Reade of the North Carolina Supreme Court later explained, “[t]he idea [was] that one who had taken an oath to support the Constitution and violated it, ought to be excluded from taking it again.” So, members drafted a provision that declared that “No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”
By declaring the Jan. 6th riot an “insurrection,” some Democratic members of Congress and liberal activists hope to bar incumbent Republicans from running. Even support for court filings is now being declared an act of rebellion. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) helped fuel this movement — before Jan. 6 even occurred — by declaring that the Republicans supporting election challenges were “subverting the Constitution by their reckless and fruitless assault on our democracy which threatens to seriously erode public trust in our most sacred democratic institutions, and to set back our progress on the urgent challenges ahead.”
Better find something before the midterms. Take full credit for Omicron ending the pandemic.
• Biden’s Approval Rating Crashes To 24% With Independents (DC)
President Joe Biden’s approval ratings with crucial swing voters hit a new low, with only 24% of Independents approving of the president’s job, a new Civiqs poll found. The Jan. 4 poll found that nationally, 56% of registered voters disapprove of how Biden is handling his job as president. That number is up more than 10% from when Biden was first sworn in on Inauguration Day, with 43% of voters disapproving. Out of all fifty states, only three (Hawaii, Massachusetts and Vermont) approve of the president’s performance. Biden is also trailing in approval ratings across all four age demographics: 18-34, 35-49, 50-64, and 65+. Among those 18 to 34 years old, Biden’s approval rating is the lowest at 27%, with 58% disapproving.
The Civiqs poll, broken down party lines, found 96% of Republicans disapprove, while 73% of Democrats approve of the 46th president’s job performance. Black voters gave Biden a 63% approval rating, while Hispanic voters appear to be tightening the gap between approval and disapproval. Forty-eight percent of Hispanic voters approve, while 42% disapprove. A poll from The Wall Street Journal found Republicans have made rapid gains with the Hispanic voting demographic. When asked in December which party they would back if the 2022 Congressional midterm election were today, 37% of Hispanic voters said they would support the Republican congressional candidate, and 37% said they would favor the Democrat. Democratic pollster John Anzalone, whose company conducted The Wall Street Journal Poll ,along with the firm of Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio, said the Hispanic vote is something “we’re going to have to fight for.”
“While CBS acknowledged in its report that Americans “widely call it a protest that went too far,” the liberal network significantly downplayed the bipartisan nature of that response.”
• Strong Bipartisan Agreement Jan. 6 Was ‘A Protest That Went Too Far’ (Fox)
A poll released this week by CBS News is drawing scrutiny on the one-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 riot on Capitol Hill. The poll, conducted by CBS News and YouGov from Dec. 27-Dec. 30 asked Americans “What happened at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021?” “Descriptions of what happened are also similar to how they were a year ago after it happened,” CBS News wrote in its article on Sunday. “People widely call it a protest that went too far, but how much further becomes more partisan. Most Americans — including most Democrats, but just a fifth of Republicans — call it an insurrection and describe it as an attempt to overturn the election and the government.”
The graphic presented four options to the question as well as the results broken down by party affiliation. 85% of Democrats viewed Jan. 6 as “an insurrection” or “trying to overthrow” the government while only 21% and 18% of Republicans agreed respectively. Meanwhile, the graphic showed that 47% of Republicans viewed Jan. 6 as “patriotism” and 56% viewed it as “defending freedom,” something less than 13% of Democrats agreed with. The margin of error was plus or minus 2.6 points. While CBS acknowledged in its report that Americans “widely call it a protest that went too far,” the liberal network significantly downplayed the bipartisan nature of that response.
For starters, “a protest that went too far” was the overwhelming favorite of the 2,046 Americans who were polled with 76% agreeing with that characterization of Jan. 6. The second most popular result was “trying to overturn the election and keep Donald Trump in power” with 63%. Both of those options were omitted in the graphic bolstered by CBS. Meanwhile, “an insurrection,” which came at a distant third with 55% of Americans was kept in the graphic among the others which polled even less popular. Among those who said Jan. 6 was “a protest that went too far,” a whopping 80% were Republicans and 69% were Democrats. Those who described themselves as Trump voters felt that way even more so with 84% while 70% of Biden voters felt the same. Notably, 80% of independents also described Jan. 6 as a “protest that went too far” while only 56% said it was “an insurrection.”
Ivory Hecker did this video portrait in November 2021.
• The Man Who Became the Face of January 6 (Ivory Hecker)
When I discovered Instagram had an algorithm in place to immediately remove key videos of Jacob Chansley calling for peace inside the US Capitol, I realized January 6 was one of the topics being subjected to intense efforts to manipulate the truth. That’s when I took up Chansley’s story. It is my goal after leaving the corporate news to show the public the truth where media corporations try to manipulate the truth. This report includes several key videos subjected to widespread censorship as well as interviews with Chansley’s friends and family. Today Chansley was sentenced to prison for entering the Capitol. While prosecutors couldn’t accuse him of violence, they told the judge today that his words “were not peaceful.” He’ll be in prison through 2024.
Support the Automatic Earth in virustime with Paypal, Bitcoin and Patreon.
