Mercola Archives - The Automatic Earth

Low-vaccinated India has now 60% less Coronavirus deaths than the same week last year.

Mid-vaxxed US is up 39% from last year.

Highly-vaccinated Israel and Canada are up 100% and 200% respectively.

I don’t know why it’s so.

Here is Fauci March 2020:pic.twitter.com/iZO6JArhmp

— Yossi Gestetner (@YossiGestetner) September 5, 2021

India

Kory/Ivory

Lies and rumors about the “i” word: Dr. @PierreKory, top ivermectin researcher, dispels the myths and answers the questions my viewers submitted. Full 27 minute interview here: https://t.co/5A1uzu6h5U pic.twitter.com/FxFEJ6WJhn

— Ivory Hecker (@IvoryHecker) September 13, 2021

Great source that references tons of studies.

• Clearing Up Misinformation About The Spike Protein And Covid Vaccines (Joomi)

The spike protein is a type of protein on the surface of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that helps the virus infect cells. The COVID vaccines available in the U.S. work by getting the body to produce this protein (with some modifications) so that the body will generate neutralizing antibodies to it. It turns out that the spike protein by itself, even without the rest of the virus present, has been shown to cause harm to the body. In Part I of this article I’ll summarize some of the studies that show this. This is not really controversial at this point. However, what is controversial is that some people have asked: if spike is dangerous, might we be endangering people by giving them vaccines that make the body produce spike?

Fact-checking articles that try to shoo away this concern usually refer to the fact that the spike encoded by the vaccines are different from “wild-type” spike (spike from the virus), and for this reason, they are safe. They also state that there is no evidence that the vaccine spike is harmful. In Part II, I’ll look into the evidence that shows that vaccine-encoded spike is not harmless. In Part III, I’ll discuss how most responses to concerns about vaccine-encoded spike usually misconstrue the concern, or don’t actually back up their statements with any real data. In Part IV, I’ll argue that we should consider the possibility that vaccine-encoded spike protein can cause lasting harm even in people that don’t have obvious or serious “adverse events” from the vaccine. In Part V, I’ll link to statements from other scientists or doctors who have concerns about the vaccines.

Before we go any further: I am not anti-vax. I am double-vaxed with Moderna. I used to be a biologist. I believe vaccines have saved many lives. However, not all vaccines are the same. And not all vaccines are equally safe, and we need to be able to have an open and honest discussion about this.

“It is my opinion that SARS-CoV-2 causes an infection in humans that results in robust, complete, and durable immunity,..”

• Risks of Vaccines for Those Recovered from COVID-19 (McCullough)

There is recent research on the fact that the COVID-19 vaccine is dangerous for those who have already had COVID-19 and have recovered with inferred robust, complete, and durable immunity. These patients were excluded from the FDA-approved clinical trials performed by Pfizer, Moderna, and J&J. From these trials, the safety profile was unknown when the products for approved for Emergency Use Authorization in 2020. There has been no study demonstrating clinical benefit with COVID-19 vaccination in those who have well documented or even suspected prior COVID-19 illness.

A medical study of United Kingdom healthcare workers who had already had COVID-19 and then received the vaccine found that they suffered higher rates of side effects than the average population. Rachel K. Raw, et al., Previous COVID-19 infection but not Long-COVID-19 is associated with increased adverse events following BNT162b2/Pfizer vaccination, medRxiv (preprint), (last visited June 21, 2021).

The test group experienced more moderate to severe symptoms than the study group that did not previously have COVID-19. The symptoms included fever, fatigue, myalgia-arthralgia, and lymphadenopathy. Id. Raw found that in 974 individuals who received the BNT162b2/Pfizer vaccine, those with a prior history of SARS-CoV-2 or those who had positive antibodies at baseline had a higher rate of vaccine reactions than those who were COVID-19 naive. Mathioudakis et al. reported that in 2020 patients who underwent vaccination with either mRNA-based or vector-based COVID-19 vaccines, COVID-19-recovered patients who were needlessly vaccinated had higher rates of vaccine reactions. Krammer et al. reported on 231 volunteers for COVID-19 vaccination, 83 of whom had positive SARS-CoV-2 antibodies at the time of immunization.

The authors found: “Vaccine recipients with preexisting immunity experience systemic side effects with a significantly higher frequency than antibody naïve vaccines (e.g., fatigue, headache, chills, fever, muscle or joint pains, in order of decreasing frequency, P < 0.001 for all listed symptoms, Fisher’s exact test, two-sided).” To my knowledge, there are no studies that demonstrate the clinical benefit of COVID-19 vaccination in COVID-19 survivors or those with suspected COVID-19 illness or subclinical disease who have laboratory evidence of prior infection. It is my opinion that SARS-CoV-2 causes an infection in humans that results in robust, complete, and durable immunity, and is superior to vaccine immunity which by comparison has demonstrated massive failure including over 10,000 well-documented vaccine failure cases as reported by the CDC before tracking was stopped on May 31, 2021.

There are no studies demonstrating the clinical benefit of COVID-19 vaccination in COVID-19 survivors, and there are three studies demonstrating harm in such individuals. Thus, it is my opinion that the COVID-19 vaccination is contraindicated in COVID-19 survivors, many of whom may be in the student population. Multiple laboratory studies conducted by highly respected U.S. and European academic research groups have reported that convalescent mildly or severely infected COVID-19 patients who are unvaccinated can have greater virus-neutralizing immunity—especially more versatile, long-enduring T- cell immunity—relative to vaccinated individuals who were never infected.

BMJ, September 2020. T cells and vitamin D. A year later, the UK still recommends 400 IU per day, which guarantees people will get very sick. Fauci takes 6,000 IU.

“When a T cell is exposed to a foreign pathogen, it extends a signalling device or ‘antenna’ known as a vitamin D receptor, with which it searches for vitamin D..”

• Do Many People Have Pre-Existing Immunity? (BMJ)

All this should have shifted the focus of efforts towards T-cells at an early stage – the real question is why mainstream media and others continued to focus efforts and narrative on antibodies. Is it because vaccines are good at provoking antibody responses but not so great at generating T-cells? Some of the vaccines presently under trial do elicit some T-cells but it seems that neither the quantity nor variety are hugely impressive. Does this matter? Apparently so: Research establishments including Yale found that in mild or asymptomatic cases, many T-cells are produced. These were highly varied, responding not just to parts of the Spike, S protein or Receptor Binding Domain but to many other parts of the virus [1, 4-6]. Notably, in these mild cases there were few or no detectable antibodies.

Conversely, the severely ill produced few T-cells with less variety but had plenty of antibodies. What is also of interest is that men produced fewer T-cells than women, and unlike women, their T-cell response reduced with age [7]. So why are some people unable to mount a good protective T-cell response? The key to this question might be a 10-year-old Danish study led by Carsten Geisler, head of the Department of International Health, Immunology and Microbiology at the University of Copenhagen [8]. Geisler noted that “When a T cell is exposed to a foreign pathogen, it extends a signalling device or ‘antenna’ known as a vitamin D receptor, with which it searches for vitamin D,”, and if there is an inadequate vitamin D level, “they won’t even begin to mobilize.”

In other words, adequate vitamin D is critically important for the activation of T-cells from their inactive naïve state. The question of whether T-cells might also need a continuing supply of vitamin D to prevent the T-cell exhaustion and apoptosis observed in some serious COVID-19 cases [9] deserves further research. High levels of vitamin D are also critical for first line immune defences including physical mucosal defences, human antiviral production, modulating cytokines, reducing blood clotting and a whole host of other important immune system functions [10]. The obese, diabetics and people of BAME origin are far more deficient in vitamin D and men have lower levels than women.

Another intriguing clue is that Japan has the highest proportion of elderly on the planet but despite lack of lockdowns, little mask wearing and high population densities in cities, it escaped with few COVID deaths. Could this, at least in part, be because of extraordinarily high vitamin D levels of over 30 ng/ml in 95% of the active elderly [11]? By comparison, UK average levels are below 20ng/ml [10]. Vitamin D is made in the skin from the action of UV sunlight, food usually being a poor source, but the Japanese diet includes unusually high levels. Sunny countries near the equator (e.g. Nigeria, Singapore, Sri Lanka) also have very low COVID related deaths.

The results of the first vitamin D intervention double blind RCT for COVID was published on 29 August by researchers in Córdoba, Spain. This very well conducted study produced spectacular outcomes for the vitamin D group (n=50), virtually eliminating the need for ICU (reducing it by 96%) and eliminating deaths (8% in the n=26 control group). Although this was a small trial, the ICU results are so dramatic that they are statistically highly significant [12]. Substantially more vitamin D is required for optimal immune function than for bone health. It seems Dr Fauci is not ignorant of this, having apparently confirmed on TV and by email that he takes 6,000 IU daily! (see Dr John Campbell on YouTube Vitamin D and pandemic science, 16 September 2020). Meanwhile the US’s health body continues to recommend only 600-800 IU and the UK’s, only 400 IU.

“By vaccinating the unvaccinated, increasing our testing and masking, and protecting the vaccinated, we can end the pandemic. That’s exactly what we are committed to doing.” – Kamala Harris

Never before in history has there been a need to “protect the vaccinated.” There isn’t one now unless the jabs not only don’t work, in some percentage of people who took them they make infection worse — and they know it.”

• Yes, They Are Insane (Denninger)

While you can excuse Biden for being a demented old coot and unable to think before his mouth opens you can’t make that argument for Kamala. Her statement above is proof that what Biden said the other day was not an accident. Indeed, he was likely reading off a teleprompter and it is an official position of the US Federal Government at all levels. This in turn implies they know the vaccines not only have failed they are potentiating infections instead of protecting against them. Why else would you “protect the vaccinated”? But wait: Who caused all these people to be put in the position where they are more likely to get ****ed? That would be the CDC, NIH, Fauci personally and both the Trump and Biden Administrations. What might be scaring the crap out of them? Perhaps data like this:

Add to that anecdotal reports so far about people who were fully vaccinated not only winding up in the hospital and dying but crashing very rapidly — somethin that hasn’t happened throughout the time we’ve had Covid-19 here in the United States and which isn’t happening in unvaccinated persons. Gee, isn’t that something — especially when on the data we also know, and even Fauci has admitted it, that being previously infected and recovered is extraordinarily good protection — far better than that afforded by these vaccines. He refused to answer said question in a presser the other day. In other words for the previously-infected the jabs only offer risk, no benefit, exactly as does a HPV shot for a nun, who is in fact celibate and virginal, in a convent. Now that “potential risk” from not collecting the data before jabbing a huge number of Americans appears to be on the verge of turning into very real and lethal risk!

There is no way to know whether those currently-anecdotal reports will turn into an unavoidable cascade of cases that absolutely nobody will be able to ignore. Don’t you think we should have figured all of this out before we went on a stabby spree with lightly tested technology that you cannot turn around and undo if it goes badly? We would have found out and halted what may well be an incipient disaster if we didn’t proceed with “Warp Speed” and instead went through the regular process of gathering that long-term data while allowing the use of these jabs only by those at the highest degree of individual “bad outcome” infection risk (such as residents of nursing homes who have, on average, six months of remaining life and thus long-term risks are, for most of them, irrelevant.) They tried to kill you and got jabs into 200 million American arms — although whether it was intentional or simply stupidity and greed that drove what happened is up for debate — and now they’re trying to cover it up.

Mercola has already taken this down again, as he does standard now, I’m sorry. We should save his pieces in their entirety.

Fleming: “The ultimate argument is that you can’t kill somebody more than dead … they can’t do worse than kill the patient. And we’ve already seen what doing nothing does. It kills the patient.”

• Is COVID-19 a Bioweapon? (Mercola)

In his book, “Is COVID-19 a Bioweapon? A Scientific and Forensic Investigation,” Dr. Richard Fleming documents evidence showing SARS-CoV-2 is a bioweapon created over the past two decades. Once you conclude that SARS-CoV-2 is a bioweapon, you must also recognize that the COVID shots are nothing more than the genetic reproduction of that bioweapon. In other words, they are bioweapons too. The same people involved in the funding of this bioweapon are the same people who have interfered with doctors providing treatment to patients, and the same people who have been involved in the development of these COVID shots. Health care workers are injecting people with something they cannot possibly give informed consent for, which means health care workers are violating their Hippocratic Oath.

Health care workers who give these COVID shots are also violating the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Treaty, the Nuremberg Code, the Declaration of Helsinki and other legal statutes. Helping you take control of your health in these crazy times is Dr. Richard Fleming, a prolific author in addition to being a physicist, a nuclear cardiologist, researcher and attorney. Here, we discuss his latest book “Is COVID-19 a Bioweapon? A Scientific and Forensic Investigation,” slated for release September 7, 2021. It’s currently available for preorder on Amazon. It’s an incredibly well-documented book and contains history that many of us aren’t aware of. As it turns out, the creation of this virus goes back not a year or two but two decades.

[..] “You see real efforts to produce viruses, coronaviruses, in particular. Spike proteins of coronaviruses to be even more specific, as I show in the book, paid for by the federal government by people who say they were not involved in gain-of-function research. Well, their fingerprints are on the documents, or on the published papers or on the grants or on the patents. You can’t say that you’re not involved in things when the documents show differently. They show the work and the money that came out of the federal government that went to Peter Daszak at EcoHealth, that went to Ralph Baric at the University of North Carolina, Shi Zhengli at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and other places. For me, as a researcher, obviously, once I start to investigate something, the only way you can stop me from doing that is to put a bullet in my head.

Otherwise, I’m going to stay after it. There are things that are not in the book that are going to come out in international criminal court, things I’m saving for that, because this virus is, by definition, a biological weapon. It violates the biological weapons convention treaty. You just have to look at the definitions. It provides nothing useful to humanity. It’s dangerous. When Fort Detrick is involved and the Department of Defense is involved … and you see these monies and you see the people that are involved, you realize that … the United States was playing China, China was playing the United States, and you saw who got caught in between. And they’re still playing the game. For lack of a better term, this book is an indictment.

That’s now my attorney hat going on saying that I have provided in this book evidence that I would take to a grand jury … I’m not somebody who is going to give up on having these people dealt with, because all the freedoms that we have lost, and the rights that we have lost as individuals, not to mention just the numbers of people who have died. My argument is … the reason why they died is because they didn’t get treatment for the inflammation and the blood clotting that I and other doctors have shown works. The ultimate argument is that you can’t kill somebody more than dead … they can’t do worse than kill the patient. And we’ve already seen what doing nothing does. It kills the patient.

At no other time in American history have doctors looked at patients and said, ‘We can’t do anything for you. Go home and come back when you get sicker.’ We have always treated people with breathing problems with medications for breathing problems. We’ve always treated people with clotting problems with medicines to stop the clotting. And so, the reason why this is so critical to understand is because the same people who were involved in the funding of this bioweapon are the same people who have interfered with doctors providing treatment to patients, and the same people who have been involved in the development of these vaccines.”

Twitter thread. “Could this be a vax escape lineage?”

• Variant Heads-up To The Virologist Community (Roemer)

A new delta sublineage AY.33 has been designated that (to me) appears to be the most critical delta sublineage designated so far. (journos please don’t yet write about it, this has not been scrutinised by the science community) The defining Spike mutation is S:Q613H, a mutation that has already been studied in the context of other variants due to it’s closeness to the mutation S:D614G which got fixed last summer. The other spike substitutions on top of standard Delta are S:T29A, S:T250I, S:T299I. This lineage grabbed my attention not because of its high growth rate but because of its high number of extra spike mutations that is a clear outlier on the current delta tree (see screenshot).

The lineage is most common in Belgium but also growing in Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland and has already been observed in more than 25 countries. The first observation was in Japan mid-June in a traveller from Morocco. The second observation was in Morocco. Using timetree, the lineage seems to have arisen in April/ May. Belgium has strong ties to Morocco so it’s plausible that the lineage is widespread in North Africa where unfortunately there is very little sequencing activity (last sequences is 3mo old and this precise lineage). At this point in time, it’s difficult to estimate growth advantage because in no country has this lineage reached more than 10% and we only have a few weeks of data. But using naive methods, it’s plausible that the transmission advantage could be between 10-70%.

Comparing transmission advantages it’s interesting to see that the growth rate seems to be higher in countries with higher vaccination rate Spain: advantage ~70% (left)
Denmark: ~30%
Belgium: ~30%
Germany: ~20%
Switzerland: ~10% (right)
Could this be a vax escape lineage?
If I was a lab scientist, I’d take a close look at this lineage and study neutralising antibody titers. Any comments are very welcome! If you think there’s something fishy going on that could explain this, please comment! 8/

“..that will mean a lot more people have to be fired, adding to the soup lines at a time when soup shelves are growing bare..”

• Biden’s Tax & Vax Plan May be The Final Straw (GRB)

Joe Biden is looking a little Grinchy, having decided to fire the unvaccinated across America as we head toward the holidays. Even though the end of enhanced unemployment benefits has not brought back millions of former employees who’ve held out since the COVID lockdown, Biden decided it would be wise to fire a lot more people, mandating last week that all businesses with more than 100 employees terminate any employees who continue to refuse the government’s experimental, warp-speed vaccine. While President Biden may think he’s going to strong-arm people who don’t want to get vaccinated into a strong shot in the arm by punishing them with poverty and the threat of losing their homes as we enter the holiday season, he may find he find he has just enraged them and increased their willingness to take a stand against forced medication.

If so, that will mean a lot more people have to be fired, adding to the soup lines at a time when soup shelves are growing bare. I don’t know about where you live, but where I live, I see a number of small businesses already running fewer hours due to lack of employees and running with reduced menus or partially empty shelves due to unattainable supply. Has Jumpin’ Joe not stopped to think that an additional major drain of employees to run shops and move products around the nation does not add up to the kind of holiday retail season that can put companies in the black and may be all it takes to shove an already fading economy into a black winter hole? Will major trucking companies like Swift being forced by the nation’s ruler-by-decree to lay off hundreds of Trump-loving truckers help the nation with its widespread shortages?

Step 1.

• New York City Teacher’s Union Wins Battle Over COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate (ET)

New York City’s largest teacher’s union has won a battle to keep teachers and other educators employed if they suffer from certain medical conditions and don’t want to comply as a result with the Big Apple’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. An arbitrator ruled late Friday that teachers with certain documented medical afflictions must be offered assignments outside of classrooms and be kept on the city’s payroll. Other educators who don’t want a COVID-19 vaccine must be offered unpaid leave that keeps in place their health coverage or a severance package. City officials announced last month that all 148,000 Department of Education employees would have to get a COVID-19 vaccine, with limited exemptions.

The city planned to remove people who were granted an exemption from the payroll, infuriating the United Federation of Teachers (UFT), the city’s largest teacher’s union. “That was it for us,” Michael Mulgrew, the union’s president, said on NY 1 this week. That prompted pushback, which ultimately resulted in the arbitration decision, even after New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio seemed to publicly reverse the stance in a press conference on Wednesday. De Blasio said that few cases of medical or religious exemptions being granted are expected, “but they will be honored” if approved. “Those folks will continue to work for us in some capacity, in some location. We got to work that through,” he added, referring to the arbitration.

Mulgrew said the pushback from the union resulted in the reversal. “After our demand for independent arbitration, the city backed off its initial position that all unvaccinated personnel be removed from payroll, and will offer out-of-classroom work for those with certified medical or other conditions,” he said in a statement after the arbitrator’s decision was released.

Step 2.

• LA Cops Sue Over Vaccine Mandate, Police Across CA Threaten To Resign (G.)

Los Angeles police department (LAPD) employees have sued over requirements they get vaccinated for Covid-19, alleging that the department has created a “hostile work environment” for the unvaccinated and that the mandate violates employees’ privacy and civil rights. The suit is one of several aggressive challenges to vaccine mandates by police unions and officers across California, some of whom have threatened mass resignations in response to new rules. It comes as staff at law enforcement agencies remain unvaccinated at disproportionately high rates. LA’s vaccine mandate requires city employees to be vaccinated by 20 October unless they are approved for a specific religious or medical exemption.

Six LAPD employees over the weekend asserted in a federal complaint that that policy and its implementation infringed on their rights to “bodily integrity” and constituted “coerced medical treatment”. The complaint says that officials have threatened to lay off thousands of officers who refuse to get the jab. The lawsuit comes amid increasingly fraught debates over employer vaccination mandates in America, which escalated last week after Joe Biden announced the government would temporarily mandate that employers with more than 100 employees require workers to get vaccinated or be tested weekly.

The federal government and California have had public sector mandates in place for months, but some cities have adopted stricter requirements – that employees must be vaccinated and cannot submit to regular testing as an alternative. The LA suit, which was brought against the city, the police chief and several other government officials, claims that weekly testing is “highly intrusive”. It alleges that officers have not been given enough time to apply for exemptions, after a Monday deadline.

“Dr Marion Gruber is the director of the Office of Vaccines Research and Review at FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER).”

As such, her voice was essential in approving the Pfizer vaccine. That happened on August 23. On August 30, she resigned. What’s going on?

• FDA Senior Officials Say No Evidence Fully Vaccinated Need Booster Shots (DM)

A group of senior U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials – including two who announced they will soon resign – have authored a report disagreeing with the White House’s plan to roll out COVID-19 vaccine boosters next week. In a report published in in The Lancet on Monday, the 18 officials write that there is no evidence supporting the need for boosters because fully vaccinated people still have high levels of protection against hospitalization or death. Instead, they say, vaccine doses should be donated to areas with lower vaccination rates to prevent the emergence of more COVID-19 variants. Although the administration is ready to roll out boosters starting September 20, President Joe Biden said last week that any decisions – including when to authorize boosters and who should receive them – will be left up to the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The group of FDA authors of the new report include Dr Marion Gruber and Dr Philip Krause, who plan to step down in the coming months due to disagreements over the rollout of vaccines. ‘Although the idea of further reducing the number of COVID-19 cases by enhancing immunity in vaccinated people is appealing, any decision to do so should be evidence-based and consider the benefits and risks for individuals and society,’ the officials wrote in the report. ‘COVID-19 vaccines continue to be effective against severe disease, including that caused by the Delta variant. ‘Most of the observational studies on which this conclusion is based are, however, preliminary and difficult to interpret precisely due to potential confounding and selective reporting.’

[..] Last month, health officials announced the those who received the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine would be eligible for a third shot eight months after receiving their second, starting September 20. The move was pending approval from the regulators like the FDA, though, and it appears they will not be approved by the planned roll out date next Monday. Gruber and Krause were frustrated by the decision from the White House to make the public announcement for the shots before approval, leading to the pair – who are crucial to the FDA’s process of approval of vaccines – announcing they will soon resign. Gruber is the director of the Office of Vaccines Research and Review at FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER). Krause is the deputy director of CBER.

The office is responsible for regulating ‘biological products for human use under applicable federal laws,’ according to the FDA. In essence, the office is largely responsible for making final decisions regarding things like vaccines, and making sure they are safe for human consumption. Gruber is one of the most important figures in the approval of vaccines. Now with senior officials choosing to publicly oppose the measure, the White House’s plans could be in turmoil.

100s of people and a $1 million fund.

• Sweden Proposes Law to Compensate Those Injured by Covid Vaccines

The Swedish government has announced a new proposal that would see those who have taken coronavirus vaccines and have been injured as a result will be entitled to compensation. The Swedish government announced the new proposal on Thursday, with Social Minister Lena Hallengren commenting: “Serious side effects of vaccines against COVID-19 are uncommon, but as an individual, you should be sure that financial compensation is paid in the event of injury.” “With this bill, the state takes it upon itself to pay the compensation for damage due to approved vaccines against COVID-19, in cases where a vaccine is not covered by Pharmaceutical Insurance or if the Pharmaceutical Insurance money is not enough,” Hallengren added.

The new law comes after the Swedish Board of Pharmaceutical Insurance made moves in December of last year to limit insurance liability in the case of injuries caused by vaccines during the Wuhan virus pandemic. “Due to the limitation of Pharmaceutical Insurance, there is weaker protection for possible serial damage caused by vaccines against COVID-19 than for other medicines. The government, therefore, considers that there is a need for the State to supplement Pharmaceutical Insurance in this regard,” the government stated in a press release. The new law would come into force in December but retroactively grant compensation to anyone injured as a result of the vaccines prior to that date. The government has also proposed to set aside 10 million Swedish kronor (£837,761/$1,159,443) to fund the initiative.

Compensation for injuries related to the vaccine is harder to access in other countries — like the United States, where lawyers have told prospective clients they may be unable to claim any compensation. Lawyer Altom Maglio told news service Reuters in July that his firm had been contacted by around a hundred people but said that despite his firm representing many people with vaccine-related injuries in the past, those looking to get compensation regarding the coronavirus vaccines were out of luck. Earlier this year, the Canadian federal government opened a vaccine injury compensation programme but stated only those with “a serious and permanent injury” would be eligible for any compensation.

“senator Ron Johnson, who has falsely claimed that natural immunity is better than vaccine immunity..”

The Guradian changes tack, from dewormer to a more ‘reasonable’ approach.

• Ivermectin Frenzy: The Advocates, Anti-vaxxers And Telehealth Companies (G.)

Despite outstanding questions over Ivermectin’s efficacy, several advocacy organizations have been on a nearly year-long campaign to mainstream the drug. Two of the most prominent groups backing Ivermectin as a Covid-19 treatment are the UK-based British Ivermectin Recommendation Development (Bird) and the US-based Front Line Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC). The FLCCC started as a non-profit network of doctors attempting to establish protocols for Covid-19 patient care in the initial days of the pandemic. The group became an early advocate for the use of steroids in treatment, and in late 2020 shifted its focus to Ivermectin, arguing the drug was a low cost option that could both treat and prevent the virus while vaccines were not widely available.

Bird, a non-profit group of doctors in the UK, took on a similar advocacy role. Its members published analyses promoting the drug, and the group started a now-defunct GoFundMe to “help us get life-saving drug approved for Covid-19”. The fund had raised around $44,000 as of last month. The FLCCC also solicits donations on its website, and in July it received a $100,000 award from a Malaysian charitable trust. Doctors in both groups have been on a media blitz during the last year, publishing protocols and promotional material on Ivermectin, giving interviews to news outlets, holding panels and appearing on major podcasts. But other doctors have cautioned the groups have relied on weak data, ignored studies that show Ivermectin is not effective and made numerous misleading claims in their push for the drug – such as FLCCC tweeting last month that “this could all be over by the end of August” and one founding member comparing restrictions on Ivermectin to genocide.

[..] Co-founder and president of FLCCC, pulmonary care specialist Dr Pierre Kory, has also found allies among influential politicians and media figures who have spoken critically of Covid-19 vaccines. At a December 2020 hearing chaired by senator Ron Johnson, who has falsely claimed that natural immunity is better than vaccine immunity and made misleading statements about vaccinations causing death, Kory called Ivermectin “the solution to Covid-19”. The appearance boosted Kory’s online following and led to appearances on several popular podcasts that have questioned vaccinations. In June, Kory was a guest on Joe Rogan’s top-rated podcast, telling Rogan’s millions of listeners that his “dream is that every household has ivermectin in the cupboard” while suggesting that technology companies were censoring discussion of the drug.

All I can see in this is utter madness.

• US Bankruptcy Judge Approves Purdue Pharma’s $7 Mln Executive Bonus Plan (R.)

Purdue Pharma, the bankrupt maker of the OxyContin painkiller, on Monday obtained court approval to pay up to $7.1 million in incentive payments for five top executives if they meet certain goals, despite opposition from U.S. government lawyers. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain in White Plains, New York, signed off on the executive incentive plan at the conclusion of a virtual hearing. His ruling comes about two weeks after he said he would approve Purdue’s reorganization plan, which rests on a $10 billion settlement of opioid-related litigation. read more The judge said repeatedly during Monday’s hearing that he does not consider the incentive payments “bonuses” because even if they are paid out in full, the executives would still only fall in the middle of the total compensation range for executives at major pharmaceutical companies.

The incentive payments, he said, are essentially part of the executives’ salaries, he added. “It’s easy — too easy in fact — to say that an incentive program is always a bonus,” Drain said. “No doubt my ruling will be construed by some as authorizing large bonuses to executives. I do not believe that is in fact the case here,” he added. “A bonus is something you get over and above median compensation.” He rejected an argument from the U.S. Department of Justice’s bankruptcy watchdog, the U.S. Trustee, that Purdue failed to show that the 2021 incentive plan is truly incentivizing, rather than a bonus for executives who are simply showing up to work. The U.S. Trustee frequently objects to bonuses for executives of companies that are in bankruptcy.

[..] Drain approved Purdue’s reorganization plan on Sept. 1, but the process of implementing it is ongoing. The plan rests on a $10 billion settlement that resolves thousands of lawsuits accusing the company and its owners, the Sackler family, of fueling the opioid crisis through deceptive marketing of its products. The Sacklers contributed approximately $4.5 billion to the settlement in exchange for the release of future opioid-related litigation. Under the plan, Purdue will reorganize as a public-benefit company with profits steered toward victims of the crisis through opioid abatement programs. A handful of states that opposed the settlement have already filed appeals. More than 500,000 Americans have died since 1999 from opioid overdoses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Xi is taking a big risk not bailing them out.

• Evergrande Hires Bankruptcy Advisors As Investors Protest Imminent Default (ZH)

It took Evergrande less than a day to go from denying “rumors” of bankruptcy (as per a statement posted on its website earlier today), to confirming that a bankruptcy is imminent. In a filing on the Hong Kong stock exchange on Tuesday, Evergrande which was busy trying to convince angry Chinese mobs that they will get their money and/or apartments and that it has no plans of default, the company all but conceded that a bankruptcy is imminent when it said it has hired notable bankruptcy advisors Houlihan Lokey and Admiralty Harbour Capital as joint FAs to “assess the firm’s capital structure”, a well-known euphemism of “prepare to file for bankruptcy.” And just so there was no doubt as to what is coming next, the company said if it’s unable to repay debts on time or get creditors to agree to extensions or alternative arrangements, it may lead to cross-default.

It quickly went downhill from there, with the company saying that it expects “significant continuing decline” in contract sales in September, resulting in “continuous deterioration” of cash collection, according to the statement. That will place “tremendous pressure” on the group’s cashflow and liquidity. Finally, guaranteeing that a default is just a matter of days if not less, the company admitted that it has failed to make “material progress” on the sale of stakes in China Evergrande New Energy Vehicle Group Ltd. and Evergrande Property Services Group Ltd., while the sale of its office building in Hong Kong hasn’t been completed within the expected timetable.

In short a total disaster, and all this is happening a tens of thousands of Chinese are starting to feel insurrectiony – the real thing, not that January 6 tourist trap – and if they suffer losses, and in a company with $300BN in debt they will suffer major losses, their protests which have been largely peaceful to date will turn quite violent. As we reported this morning, police descended on Evergrande’s Shenzhen headquarters late Monday after dozens of people gathered to demand repayments on overdue wealth management products. Protesters numbered in the hundreds on Sunday, Caixin reported. In addition to equity investors who are about to lose everything, the company is also facing angry homebuyers, creditors and even its own employees… who are also about to lose everything.

“It looks like they are working on debt restructuring after no concrete results on asset disposals, and the first task is to stabilize the holders of wealth management products which could be a social issue,” said Daniel Fan, a credit analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. “It seems the developer is working on rescheduling pretty much all onshore debt, and the next step is to do the same for offshore investors. Translation: a bond default is imminent, and the only question is what will creditors get in return.

Hesitancy

Wondering who fueled vaccine hesitancy? Watch this.pic.twitter.com/xsPzWXDhVo

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 14, 2021

Cat
https://twitter.com/i/status/1437071028744867842

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Debt Rattle September 11 2021

Sep 112021

September 11, 2021 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 8:12 am Finance Tagged with: Fauci, gain of function, ivermectin, mandates, Mercola, mRNA, myocarditis, natural immunity 67 Responses »

Pablo Picasso Seated woman 1903

• Long-Term Dangers of Experimental mRNA Shots (Joseph Mercola)

• ‘Sweeping,’ ‘Unprecedented’ Vaccine Mandates for Millions of Americans (CHD)

• Biden Adviser Says Administration Will ‘Run Over’ GOP Governors (ET)

• Fauci Lied to Congress — Will DOJ Hold Him Accountable? (Mercola)

• Gottlieb: Fauci Funded Gain Of Function On Even Deadlier Viruses (SN)

• Unvaccinated 11 Times More Likely To Die Of Covid – CDC (F.)

• Vaccine Risk In Teenage Boys 6x Higher Than That Of COVID Hospitalization (SN)

• California Professor Sues Over Vaccine Mandate, Citing Natural Immunity (Fox)

• Texas Hospital System Bans Ivermectin For Covid Patients (JTN)

• Australia Bans Ivermectin (CTH)

• Australian Regulator Bans Ivermectin After Sharp Rise In Prescriptions (G.)

• Insane “Australia-Style” Lockdown Happening Right Now In The US (Tracey)

• Vaccine Passports May Lower Number Of People Willing To Get Vaccinated (ME)

• Then What? (Kunstler)

Wesley Clark

Watch and share this short—yet incredibly revealing—clip of Wesley Clark, a former four-star general in the US Army, as the 20th anniversary of 9/11 approaches: pic.twitter.com/YVZG6b82th

— Human Rights Watch Watcher (@queeralamode) September 9, 2021

“..we’ll see a significant rise in cancer, accelerated Parkinson’s-like diseases, Huntington’s disease, and all types of autoimmune diseases and neurodegenerative disorders.”

• Long-Term Dangers of Experimental mRNA Shots (Joseph Mercola)

The spike protein is the toxic part of the virus responsible for the most unique effects of the virus, such as the blood clotting disorders, neurological problems and heart damage. To expect the COVID shot to not produce these kinds of effects would be rather naïve. A (adenine) and U (uracil) in the third position are rare, and the COVID shots replace these A’s and U’s with G’s (guanine) or C’s (cytosine). According to Seneff, this switch results in a 1,000-fold greater amount of spike protein compared to being infected with the actual virus. What could go wrong? Well, just about anything. Again, the shot induces spike protein at levels unheard of in nature (even if SARS-CoV-2 is a “souped up” manmade concoction), and the spike protein is the toxic part of the virus responsible for the most unique effects of the virus, such as the blood clotting disorders, neurological problems and heart damage.

So, to expect the COVID shot to not produce these kinds of effects would be rather naïve. The codon switches might also result in protein misfolding, which is equally bad news. As explained by Seneff in our previous interview: “The spike proteins that these mRNA vaccines are producing … aren’t able to go into the membrane, which I think is going to encourage it to become a problematic prion protein. Then, when you have inflammation, it upregulates alpha-synuclein [a neuronal protein that regulates synaptic traffic and neurotransmitter release]. So, you’re going to get alpha-synuclein drawn into misfolded spike proteins, turning into a mess inside the dendritic cells in the germinal centers in the spleen. And they’re going to package up all this crud into exosomes and release them. They’re then going to travel along the vagus nerve to the brainstem and cause things like Parkinson’s disease.

So, I think this is a complete setup for Parkinson’s disease … It’s going to push forward the date at which someone who has a propensity towards Parkinson’s is going to get it. And it’s probably going to cause people to get Parkinson’s who never would have gotten it in the first place — especially if they keep getting the vaccine every year. Every year you do a booster, you bring the date that you’re going to get Parkinson’s ever closer.”

[..] While the variety of diseases we may see a rise in as a result of this vaccination campaign are myriad, some general predictions can be made. We’ve already seen a massive uptick in blood clotting disorders, heart attacks and stroke, as well as heart inflammation. More long term, Seneff believes we’ll see a significant rise in cancer, accelerated Parkinson’s-like diseases, Huntington’s disease, and all types of autoimmune diseases and neurodegenerative disorders.

“His move to force universal obedience with an unwanted, ineffective and potentially dangerous medical intervention is anti science, anti-democratic and anti American..”

• ‘Sweeping,’ ‘Unprecedented’ Vaccine Mandates for Millions of Americans (CHD)

Children’s Health Defense Chairman Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. called out Dr. Anthony Fauci for his role in Biden’s plan. “Anthony Fauci’s vaccine-centric policies have given America more COVID deaths and cases than any other nation,” Kennedy said. “With 4.2% of the global population, America has suffered 14.5% of all COVID deaths.” Instead of firing Fauci, Kennedy said, Biden is “doubling down on his failed policies by trying to coerce Americans into taking a shot that doesn’t work and might injure or kill them.” Kennedy said Biden’s admonition that we must “trust the expert” has become a substitute for scientific literacy and common sense and a gateway to tyranny. “His move to force universal obedience with an unwanted, ineffective and potentially dangerous medical intervention is anti science, anti-democratic and anti American,” Kennedy said.

He added: “Americans don’t respond well to coercion. The White House crusade to silence debate and censor critics of this disastrous policy has further transformed bad policy into an attack on our fundamental values. It is therefore bound to further divide a dangerously polarized nation.” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott blasted Biden on Thursday after he ordered large employers to require COVID vaccines or get frequent testing, the Texas Tribune reported. Abbott, who has resisted making vaccinations mandatory in any form in Texas, dubbed Biden’s move a “power grab,” and said Texas is already working to halt it.

[..] Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, vowed to “push back” against Biden. “This is exactly the kind of big government overreach we have tried so hard to prevent in Arizona — now the Biden-Harris administration is hammering down on private businesses and individual freedoms in an unprecedented and dangerous way,” Ducey wrote in a tweet. “This will never stand up in court.” “This dictatorial approach is wrong, un-American and will do far more harm than good,” Ducey added in another tweet. “How many workers will be displaced? How many kids kept out of classrooms? How many businesses fined? The vaccine is and should be a choice. We must and will push back.”

” It’s not for political purposes. It’s to save the lives of American people. And so, we won’t let one or two individuals stand in the way. We will always err on the side of protecting the American people.”

• Biden Adviser Says Administration Will ‘Run Over’ GOP Governors (ET)

White House senior adviser Cedric Richmond said President Joe Biden is willing to “run over” any Republican governors who attempt to fight back against federal vaccine mandates. After Biden unveiled a plan to impose either vaccination or frequent testing on over 80 million workers who are employed at companies that have 100 employees or more, Richmond told CNN that the White House is ready for GOP opposition. “The one thing I admire about this president is the fact that we are always going to put people above politics. And we’re going to fight for those who really need our help,” Richmond, a former Democrat congressman from Louisiana, said in response to a question about governors resisting the mandate. “And those governors that stand in the way, I think, it was very clear from the president’s tone today that he will run over them,” he said. “And it is important. It’s not for political purposes. It’s to save the lives of American people. And so, we won’t let one or two individuals stand in the way. We will always err on the side of protecting the American people.”

Richmond’s comment, however, raises questions about how the federal government plans to “run over” states, as the United States government is federalist and combines the central government with state and local governments. A number of Republican governors on Thursday, following Biden’s speech, said they would resist the vaccine mandate. Should the federal government direct the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to impose testing or vaccine mandates on private employees, Biden will face an avalanche of lawsuits. “My legal team is standing by ready to file our lawsuit the minute Joe Biden files his unconstitutional rule,” South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a Republican, wrote in a Twitter post. “This gross example of federal intrusion will not stand.”

“Chimeric viruses” refers to artificial man-made viruses, hybrid organisms created through the joining of two or more different organisms.

This is precisely what gain-of-function research is all about.”

• Fauci Lied to Congress — Will DOJ Hold Him Accountable? (Mercola)

In what appears to be an attempt to extricate himself from blame for the COVID pandemic, Fauci — director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), an arm of the National Institutes for Health (NIH), since 1986 — denied ever having funded gain-of-function research at the WIV or elsewhere when questioned by members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee in May 2021. According to Thacker, the evidence clearly refutes this. One “smoking gun” is a research article written by WIV scientists titled “Discovery of a Rich Gene Pool of Bat SARS-Related Coronaviruses Provides New Insights Into the Origin of SARS Coronavirus.” This research was funded by the NIH and meets the Department of Health and Human Services’ definition of gain-of-function research.

The Channel 4 documentary addressed this paper. When asked whether the NIH ever funded gain-of-function research at the WIV, David Relman, a research physician at Stanford University, replies, “Yes. Indirectly, but yes. How do we know? The paper says, right on the front page, ‘Supported by NIAID, NIH.’” [..] As previously reported by the National Review, we know the WIV received NIAID/NIH funding to create novel chimeric SARS-related coronaviruses capable of infecting both human cells and lab animals. “Chimeric viruses” refers to artificial man-made viruses, hybrid organisms created through the joining of two or more different organisms.

This is precisely what gain-of-function research is all about. According to a 2016 report from the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity, “The term ‘gain-of-function’ is generally used to refer to changes resulting in the acquisition of new, or an enhancement of existing, biological phenotypes.” Fauci now wants to adopt a far narrower definition of gain-of-function research that takes into account the supposed intent behind the research, but that really doesn’t make sense. Just because you don’t set out with intent to harm doesn’t mean your creation can’t cause harm or might inadvertently cause harm.

Fauci

Dr. Fauci on why Americans who’ve previously been infected should get vaccinated despite studies showing it’s unnecessary: “I don’t have a really firm answer for you on that” pic.twitter.com/Y1CH2Wh6nk

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) September 10, 2021

“..current Pfizer board member Scott Gottlieb..”

• Gottlieb: Fauci Funded Gain Of Function On Even Deadlier Viruses (SN)

Former FDA head and current Pfizer board member Scott Gottlieb reacted to further revelations this week regarding the funding of dangerous gain of function research by Anthony Fauci, noting that a previously unknown fact has emerged that lab tampering was undertaken on MERS-like coronaviruses, which are even deadlier than their SARS-like relatives. Gottlieb noted that documents obtained under the FOIA also show that the viruses were made more deadly to humans in several labs around Wuhan, including a level three biocontainment facility, which has lesser security that the level four labs previously mentioned in relation to the outbreak. “Whether or not this was gain-of-function is a political and legal discussion,” Gottlieb said in an interview with CNBC.

He added, “The bottom line is they were doing research on viruses in that institute that was making those viruses potentially more dangerous to humans. And handling the viruses in ways that could potentiate their release, particularly by infecting transgenic animals that have fully-humanized immune systems.” “They were doing things in that lab that could have led to circumstances where a virus that was purposefully evolved in ways that it could be more dangerous to humans could have escaped,” Gottlieb further emphasised. He continued, “What’s revealed by these documents are two interesting details I previously didn’t know. First, there was experimentation being done on MERS-like coronaviruses, not just SARS-like coronaviruses. Second, they affirmed what we suspected about coronavirus research being done at other institutes around Wuhan… at a level three biocontainment facility.

What purpose do these blatant lies serve?

• Unvaccinated 11 Times More Likely To Die Of Covid – CDC (F.)

After the coronavirus’ delta variant took root in the United States, vaccinated Americans were still 10 times less likely to be hospitalized for Covid-19 and 11 times less likely to die than unvaccinated people, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday, a result CDC Director Rochelle Walensky cast as “further evidence of the power of vaccination.” The CDC studied over 600,000 Covid-19 infections across 13 U.S. cities and states from April to July, and found just 8% of cases were among fully vaccinated patients. The vaccines were slightly less effective at stopping overall infections after delta became the virus’ dominant strain: Unvaccinated people were 4.6 times more likely to catch the virus from late June to mid-July, down from 11.1 between early April and late June, and the vaccines’ effectiveness dropped from 91% to 78% over the same period.

Still, the vaccines held up against hospitalization and death, with vaccinated U.S. adults 10.4 times less likely to end up in the hospital and 11.3 times less likely to die after delta surged in late June, a slight decrease from 13.3 and 16.6 before delta’s onset. The CDC said the vaccines were 90% effective at stopping hospitalization and 91% effective at staving off death after June, a small drop from 92% and 94% pre-delta. Another CDC study released Friday found Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine was more effective than its peers at preventing hospital visits amid delta’s surge. Moderna’s effectiveness stood at 92%, Pfizer’s vaccine showed 77% effectiveness and Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine stood at 65%, according to data from nine states between June and August.

The vaccines were somewhat less effective for seniors, the CDC said. Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines were 95% effective at stopping hospitalizations in adults under 65 but 80% effective in Americans 65 and over, according to a CDC study of five Veterans Affairs hospitals.

Pfizer has a new jab for 5-11 year olds almost ready, and is working on one for 6 months old and up. Getting tired of asking why.

• Vaccine Risk In Teenage Boys 6x Higher Than That Of COVID Hospitalization (SN)

Research conducted by the University of California has found that teenage boys are six times more likely to suffer from heart problems caused by the COVID-19 vaccine than to be hospitalized as a result of COVID-19 itself. Wow. “A team led by Dr Tracy Hoeg at the University of California investigated the rate of cardiac myocarditis – heart inflammation – and chest pain in children aged 12-17 following their second dose of the vaccine,” reports the Telegraph. “They then compared this with the likelihood of children needing hospital treatment owing to Covid-19, at times of low, moderate and high rates of hospitalisation.” “Researchers found that the risk of heart complications for boys aged 12-15 following the vaccine was 162.2 per million, which was the highest out of all the groups they looked at.”

This compares to the risk of a healthy boy being hospitalized as a result of a COVID infection, which is around 26.7 per million, meaning the risk they face from the vaccine is 6.1 times higher. Even during high risk rates of COVID, such as in January this year, the threat posed by the vaccine is 4.3 times higher, while during low risk rates, the risk of teenage boys suffering a “cardiac adverse event” from the vaccine is a whopping 22.8 times higher. The research data was based on a study of adverse reactions suffered by teens between January and June this year. In a sane world, such data should represent the nail in the coffin for the argument that teenagers and children should be mandated to take the coronavirus vaccine, but it obviously won’t.

Can a judge disregard Natural Immunity?

• California Professor Sues Over Vaccine Mandate, Citing Natural Immunity (Fox)

A University of California professor is suing the school system’s Board of Regents and president over a coronavirus vaccine mandate, which he argues he does not need because of his natural immunity against the virus. “I feel like I’m being treated unequally,” Aaron Kheriaty, professor of psychiatry and human behavior at the University of California, Irvine, said, SBG reported. “If my immunity is as good, indeed, very likely better, than that conferred by the vaccine, there doesn’t seem to be any rational basis for discriminating against my form of immunity and requiring me to get a different form of immunity.”

Kheriaty, who serves as director of UCI’s Medical Ethics Program and is a member of the UC Office of the President Critical Care Bioethics Working Group, said he contracted the virus in July 2020 and had raised concerns over the vaccine mandate to school leaders. However, he said he was met “mostly with radio silence” before he filed the lawsuit. “Efforts to elicit conversation, discussion, debate on the issue have fallen flat in my experience,” he said, adding that he took legal action after hearing concerns from others at the school. “It became clear to me that if I, as a medical ethicist, didn’t stand up and try to represent those voices, then those folks would be steamrolled by these policies,” he said.

Other faculty members joined Kheriaty on the effectiveness of natural immunity in a legal brief and cited research showing that people who have previously contracted COVID-19 may experience worse side effects from the vaccine than those who never contracted the virus. “It violates medical ethics to expose someone to this risk when they have robust, durable immunity that actually neutralizes SARS-CoV-2 upon exposure,” the faculty members wrote.

Just make sure you get scabies too.

• Texas Hospital System Bans Ivermectin For Covid Patients (JTN)

A Texas hospital system imposed “new restriction criteria” on the use of ivermectin, excluding the anti-parasitic agent from treatment of COVID-19. St. Luke’s Health will only allow its infectious disease physicians to use the drug for preventive treatment of strongyloidiasis, a roundworm infection, according to a Sept. 2 directive shared with Just the News. Its wording suggests that non-infectious disease physicians had been considering or actually prescribing ivermectin for COVID patients. The relatively cheap treatment has been promoted by an eclectic group of influencers. Evolutionary biologist and former Evergreen State College professor Bret Weinstein has regularly touted ivermectin on his DarkHorse podcast, which led YouTube to demonetize his channel.

America’s most popular podcaster, Joe Rogan, joined the chorus last week after taking a drug cocktail that included ivermectin in response to his COVID diagnosis. Rogan endorsed Sen. Bernie Sanders for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, as did Weinstein in 2016. The drug was widely hailed in the medical community for its proven track record against a host of infections in humans — until the COVID pandemic. [..] Ten years ago a Japanese medical journal dubbed ivermectin, which was discovered in Japan in the late 1970s, a “wonder drug” alongside penicillin and aspirin. It cited the drug’s “versatility, safety and the beneficial impact that it has had, and continues to have, worldwide — especially on hundreds of millions of the world’s poorest people,” with new uses “continually being found.”

A 2017 review in The Journal of Antibiotics, published by Nature, repeated the “wonder” label. “Today, ivermectin is continuing to surprise and excite scientists, offering more and more promise to help improve global public health by treating a diverse range of diseases, with its unexpected potential as an antibacterial, antiviral and anti-cancer agent being particularly extraordinary,” the article said. The review specifically cited the drug’s “antiviral activity against several RNA viruses” — a category that includes SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID.

“Here comes the black-market.”

• Australia Bans Ivermectin (CTH)

If you suspect the extremely heavy-handed Australia/New Zealand COVID-19 mitigation efforts might be a beta-test for just how far a government can go to control the citizens therein, well, this latest development appears to be an affirmation in that direction. The ruling authority in Australia has just banned doctors from prescribing Ivermectin. The Advisory Committee for Medicines Scheduling and the Australian National COVID Clinical Evidence Taskforce, have determined that any effort to mitigate COVID-19 with therapeutics will likely diminish the goal of vaccinating the entire population. Therefore Ivermectin, which has saved thousands of lives and is widely in use in multiple countries including India, is now official banned from use by Australian doctors. Quite remarkable….

Consider this from Studies within the NIH: • STUDY1: “Moderate-certainty evidence finds that large reductions in COVID-19 deaths are possible using ivermectin. Using ivermectin early in the clinical course may reduce numbers progressing to severe disease. The apparent safety and low cost suggest that ivermectin is likely to have a significant impact on the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic globally.” • STUDY2: “There were no severe adverse drug events recorded in the study. A 5-day course of ivermectin was found to be safe and effective in treating adult patients with mild COVID-19.” The Australian government is banning a therapeutic treatment with a history of success in order to force the citizens into a situation where they must take the vaccine. Here comes the black-market.

“These higher doses can be associated with serious adverse effects, including severe nausea, vomiting, dizziness, neurological effects such as dizziness, seizures and coma.”

What are we doing to our horses?

• Australian Regulator Bans Ivermectin After Sharp Rise In Prescriptions (G.)

Australia’s drug regulator has banned medical practitioners from prescribing the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin for “off-label” uses, such as for treating Covid-19. The move comes after prescriptions for the drug increased between three and four times in Australia in recent months. The Therapeutic Goods Administration announced the ban on Friday afternoon, acting on advice from the Advisory Committee on Medicines Scheduling. People will now only be able to get an ivermectin prescription for TGA-approved conditions, including scabies and certain parasitic infections. “These changes have been introduced because of concerns with the prescribing of oral ivermectin for the claimed prevention or treatment of Covid-19,” the TGA said.

“Ivermectin is not approved for use in Covid-19 in Australia or in other developed countries, and its use by the general public for Covid-19 is currently strongly discouraged by the National Covid Clinical Evidence Taskforce, the World Health Organisation and the US Food and Drug Administration. Some specialists, including infectious diseases physicians, dermatologists and gastroenterologists, will still be able to prescribe the drug for unapproved conditions if they believe it to be appropriate for a particular patient. The TGA said it was concerned people who may have Covid-19 would take the drug rather than get treated, or some might take it instead of getting vaccinated.

The regulator was also concerned people taking advice on how to administer ivermectin could lead to people using it in unsafe doses. “The doses of ivermectin that are being advocated for use in unreliable social media posts and other sources for Covid-19 are significantly higher than those approved and found safe for scabies or parasite treatment,” it said. “These higher doses can be associated with serious adverse effects, including severe nausea, vomiting, dizziness, neurological effects such as dizziness, seizures and coma.”

“..a state of officially-decreed “permanent crisis” — itself a contradiction in terms..”

• Insane “Australia-Style” Lockdown Happening Right Now In The US (Tracey)

Much to the chagrin of many thousands of internet commenters, I’ve never thought that COVID, at least in the first instance, was any sort of concerted conspiracy or plot. It seemed doubtful that global health bureaucrats — or whichever other co-conspirators are alleged to have been involved in hatching the scheme — could be so ruthlessly competent at doing much of anything. That being said: enough already. It’s long past time to stop extending any benefit of the doubt to the hordes of profiteers, neurotics, and control freaks who still incessantly use COVID as an excuse to flaunt their pathologies and micromanage everyone else’s life. To the extent these hyperventilating moralizers wield power, every effort should be made to strip them of it.

Most (sane) observers now acknowledge that COVID is well on its way to becoming an endemic disease, and will not be fully eradicated any time soon, if ever. Therefore it stands to reason that COVID has ceased to be an issue which ought to compel everyone’s constant, hyperventilating attention; nor does it any longer constitute an acute “crisis.” And so whichever factions have a vested interest — commercially, institutionally, politically, or otherwise — in maintaining the appearance of “crisis” need to be treated not just with intensifying skepticism, but when appropriate (which is often) outright contempt.

The edict issued yesterday by Joe Biden, a sweeping unilateral imposition on tens of millions of people to submit to an injection that they do not want, is just the tip of the iceberg. Biden still has Presidential Proclamations in effect today that assert the existence of a “National Emergency,” under the same criteria which existed in March 2020. At what point will the public officials who insisted that they needed Emergency Powers on a temporary basis be compelled to relinquish these powers? Next month? Next year? Never? If it’s the latter, then we are being consigned to live under a state of officially-decreed “permanent crisis” — itself a contradiction in terms. A crisis is not a crisis if it’s temporally indefinite.

Fitting, though, that this should coincide with the 20-year anniversary of 9/11, which likewise ushered in a “permanent crisis” — the response to which vastly exceeded all semblance of rationality and proportion. Politicians, corporations, and other functionaries had far too much invested in demonstrating their aggressively proactive response to the perceived threat, and as a result could never bring themselves to admit that terrorism, while real, was ultimately a minor issue.

‘vaccine passport paradox’

• Vaccine Passports May Lower Number Of People Willing To Get Vaccinated (ME)

Introducing COVID-19 vaccine passports in the UK could see people who are willing to get vaccinated do so more quickly, but have the converse effect upon those who have concerns, especially when passports cover domestic activities, suggests a new study published in EClinicalMedicine. Led by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and St Andrews University, the study involved a survey of more than 16,000 UK adults in April 2021. Respondents were asked their intent to receive a vaccination, and if vaccine passports were introduced for domestic or international use, how would this impact their decision.

Overall, the study found that passports may lower vaccination inclination by 3.6% if introduced for domestic use and 1.7% for international use. Younger adults, Black / Black British groups, and non-English speakers stating lower inclination to vaccinate than others if passports were introduced. This was also found to be the case for some work statuses, including part-time employed and looking after the home or family. The researchers call for further evidence on the impact of restrictions requiring vaccine certification, including studies on the impact of these restrictions on vaccine confidence and willingness among those individuals and communities who are already more hesitant about vaccination.

[..] “The data suggest that passports receive popular support, however, this is predominately among the vaccinated or among those who state a firm intention to vaccinate. What worries us is the possibility of a ‘vaccine passport paradox’—a scenario in which passports in the UK may accelerate the rate at which the population is vaccinated while simultaneously lowering the level of that maximum.”

“Wait for it. The pin has been pulled. Watch the USA descend into its season of darkness and chaos.”

• Then What? (Kunstler)

Now, something tells me that of those 80-million unvaxed Americans, most have made up their minds pretty firmly about this. “Joe Biden” speaks from the head of a government that has been lying to them about, well… just about everything, for a number of years, and this Covid-19 virus is one of the sketchiest stories that government has tried to put over —Tony Fauci funding development of the disease in a Chinese lab, and elsewhere… the shady business around the vaccine patents and the royalties from the sales of them… the spooky VAERS numbers… the testimony of quite a few medical giants warning about the vaxes…. This “hesitant” 80-million is probably going to take the sage advice of former First Lady Nancy Reagan, and just say “no.” Out of good ol’ American politeness, they may even add … thank you… no, thank you….

If “Joe Biden’s” government insists, the politeness may evaporate, and our countrypersons will walk away. From their jobs. Maybe not every single one of them, but plenty… enough of them… enough to make sure that many of the activities in America seize up, including hospitals and doctors’ practices, with nurses, technicians, and even some doctors walking away. Yes, you will be shocked to learn that even some American doctors still have an ethics module in their well-trained brains. Also, probably trucking, so that things like food and auto parts and medicines don’t get where they are needed — which is, let’s face it, every place. That could harm the US economy, for sure, but it could also harm the administration of “Joe Biden.” Wait for it. The pin has been pulled. Watch the USA descend into its season of darkness and chaos. Then what…? Redemption is a possibility.

Released 30 years ago yesterday.

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Debt Rattle July 26 2021

Jul 262021

July 26, 2021 Posted by Raúl Ilargi Meijer at 9:08 am Finance Tagged with: Biden, Bill Gates, breakthrough, Cuomo, Fauci, insects, masks, Mercola, PCR, VIX 134 Responses »

Henri Matisse Reading woman in violet dress 1898

• CDC Withdraws PCR Tests: “They Can’t Tell SARS-CoV-2 from Influenza” (GN)

• Bill Gates Primary Funder Of MHRA, Owns Major Shares In Pfizer & BioNTech (DE)

• Little Known Osteopath In The Spotlight As An Anti-vaxx Superspreader (NYT)

• CDC ‘Actively’ Considering Face Cover Advisory For Vaccinated: Fauci (RT)

• The Other Side of the COVID Vaccination Argument (CTH)

• 159 Dead, 593 Hospitalized in Illinois Breakthrough COVID Cases (NBC)

• Biden DOJ Drops Civil Rights Probe Of Gov. Cuomo Over Nursing Homes (NYP)

• UK Economy Growing At Fastest Rate In 80 Years (G.)

• Judge Refuses To Identify 5 Market Participants In VIX Manipulation (ZH)

• The Insect Apocalypse: ‘Our World Will Grind To A Halt Without Them’ (G.)

• CNN Airs Hour-Long Public Service Message On Dementia (BBee)

Seneff long term effects

Senior MIT research scientist Stephanie Seneff – flabbergasting if true… pic.twitter.com/9HlCOMycvl

— Camus (@camus37) July 23, 2021

Lee Merritt – Synthetic Spike Protein Affects Every Cell
– start at 50 min

In case you were wondering why there are no flu cases left.

Google translated.

Note: Bill Gates and George Soros bought UK testing firm Mologic just days ago.

• CDC Withdraws PCR Tests: “They Can’t Tell SARS-CoV-2 from Influenza” (GN)

On 21 July 2021, the 18 lines that rewrite the history of the Covid-19 pandemic were published. The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) of the USA, the highest health authority of the American government for monitoring diseases and in particular infectious ones, has launched an alert that assumes the range of a nuclear missile against the rubber wall of the international narrative on the emergency caused by the SARS-Cov-2 virus ( believed to have been built in the laboratory by many scientific researches now ).

“After December 31, 2021, the CDC will withdraw the application to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of the CDC 2019-Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) Real-Time RT-PCR Diagnostic Panel, the test first introduced in February 2020 for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 only. CDC provides this notice in advance to clinical laboratories to allow sufficient time to select and implement one of the many alternatives authorized by the FDA.”

This is the “Lab Alert” launched by the Division of Laboratory System (DLS), the specialized section of the CDC ( link at the bottom of the article ). Alone, it would already be enough to confirm all the investigations carried out in recent months on 97% unreliable tampons, as claimed by various scientific researches and international judicial authorities . But the official communication of the CDC (branched body in all the confederate states) states between the lines something already shocking, anticipated by Gospa News already last year: that is the risk that the nasopharyngeal swabs PCR, subject to cycles of variable amplifications , may not distinguish Covid-19 from a simple flu.

Visit the FDA website for a list of authorized COVID-19 diagnostic methods. For a summary of the performance of FDA-cleared molecular methods with an FDA reference panel. In preparation for this change, CDC recommends clinical laboratories and testing sites that have used the CDC 2019-nCoV RT-PCR assay to select and begin transitioning to another FDA-cleared COVID-19 assay. The CDC encourages laboratories to consider adopting a multiplex method that can facilitate the detection and differentiation of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza viruses.Such tests can facilitate the continuation of testing for both influenza and SARS-CoV-2 and can save time and resources as we head into the flu season. Laboratories and test sites must validate and verify the selected test within their facility before starting clinical trials. ”

The Real time PCR – also known as Quantitative PCR , abbreviated qPCR – is a method that simultaneously amplifies (polymerase chain reaction or PCR) and quantifies the DNA , similar but not to be confused with the RT-PCR method (Reverse Transcriptase -PCR ) . DNA is amplified by DNA-polymerase chain reactions. After each round of amplification, the DNA is quantified. Common methods of quantification include the use of fluorescent stains that intercalate with double-stranded (ds) DNA and modified DNA oligonucleotides (called probes) which are fluorescent when hybridized with a DNA. Real-time PCR is often combined with Retro Transcriptional PCR (RT-PCR) to quantify the expression levels of specific RNA: retro-transcription (or reverse transcription) produces single-stranded complementary DNA called cDNA (complementary DNA) keeping the relative concentration ratios of the different RNA species unchanged. In this way it is possible, for example, to measure the relative expression of a gene at a particular time, either in a cell or in a particular type of tissue.

Fully impartial.

• Bill Gates Primary Funder Of MHRA, Owns Major Shares In Pfizer & BioNTech (DE)

An investigation has revealed that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation are the primary funders of the UK’s Medicine & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, and that the Foundation also owns major shares in both Pfizer and BioNTech. The Medicine & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) extended the emergency authorisation of the Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA jab in the UK to allow it to be given to children between the ages of 12 – 15 on the 4th June 2021. At the time, the Chief Executive of the MHRA, Dr June Raine said the MHRA had “carefully reviewed clinical trial data in children aged 12 to 15 years and have concluded that the Pfizer vaccine is safe and effective in this age group and that the benefits outweigh any risk”.

We are left wondering if Dr June Raine and the MHRA have even read the results of the extremely short and small study. If they have then they would have seen that 86% of children in the study suffered an adverse reaction ranging from mild to extremely serious. Just 1,127 children took part of the trial, however only 1,097 children completed the trial, with 30 of them not participating after being given the first dose of the Pfizer jab. The results do not state why the 30 children did not go on to complete the trial. The information is publicly available [..] There was never any doubt that the MHRA would give emergency authorisation for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to be used in children when you consider that a certain Mr Bill Gates owns shares in both Pfizer and BioNTech and is the primary funder of the MHRA.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation bought shares in Pfizer back in 2002, and back in September 2020 Bill Gates ensured the value of his shares went up by announcing to the mainstream media in a CNBC interview that he viewed the Pfizer jab as the leader in the Covid-19 vaccine race. “The only vaccine that, if everything went perfectly, might seek the emergency use license by the end of October, would be Pfizer.” The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation also “coincidentally” bought $55 million worth of shares in BioNTech in September 2019, just before the alleged Covid-19 pandemic struck.

The MHRA received a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in 2017 to the tune of £980,000 for a “collaboration” with the foundation. However, a Freedom of Information request which the MHRA responded to in May 2021 revealed that the current level of grant funding received from the Gates Foundation amounts to $3 million and covers “a number of projects”.

“More than 97% of people hospitalised for COVID-19 are unvaccinated..”

Because the vaccinated are no longer tested.

NYT going after Mercola big time. Who’s next? They’ll pick them off one by one.

• Little Known Osteopath In The Spotlight As An Anti-vaxx Superspreader (NYT)

The article that appeared online February 9 began with a seemingly innocuous question about the legal definition of vaccines. Then over its next 3400 words, it declared coronavirus vaccines were “a medical fraud” and said the injections did not prevent infections, provide immunity or stop transmission of the disease. Instead, the article claimed, the shots “alter your genetic coding, turning you into a viral protein factory that has no off-switch”. Its assertions were easily disprovable. No matter. Over the next few hours, the article was translated from English into Spanish and Polish. It appeared on dozens of blogs and was picked up by anti-vaccination activists, who repeated the false claims online. The article also made its way to Facebook, where it reached 400,000 people, according to data from CrowdTangle, a Facebook-owned tool.

The entire effort traced back to one person: Joseph Mercola. Mercola, 67, an osteopathic physician in Cape Coral, Florida, has long been a subject of criticism and government regulatory actions for his promotion of unproven or unapproved treatments. But most recently, he has become the chief spreader of coronavirus misinformation online, according to researchers. An internet-savvy entrepreneur who employs dozens, Mercola has published more than 600 articles on Facebook that cast doubt on COVID-19 vaccines since the pandemic began, reaching a far larger audience than other vaccine sceptics, an analysis by The New York Times found. His claims have been widely echoed on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

The activity has earned Mercola, a natural health proponent with an Everyman demeanour, the dubious distinction of the top spot in the “Disinformation Dozen,” a list of 12 people responsible for sharing 65 per cent of all anti-vaccine messaging on social media, said the nonprofit Centre for Countering Digital Hate. Others on the list include Robert F. Kennedy jnr, a longtime anti-vaccine activist; and Erin Elizabeth, founder of the website Health Nut News, who is also Mercola’s girlfriend. “Mercola is the pioneer of the anti-vaccine movement,” said Kolina Koltai, a researcher at the University of Washington who studies online conspiracy theories. “He’s a master of capitalising on periods of uncertainty, like the pandemic, to grow his movement.”

Some high-profile media figures have promoted scepticism of the vaccines — notably, Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham of Fox News, though other Fox personalities have urged viewers to get the shots. Now Mercola and others in the “Disinformation Dozen” are in the spotlight as vaccinations in the United States slow, just as the highly infectious delta variant has fuelled a resurgence in coronavirus cases. More than 97% of people hospitalised for COVID-19 are unvaccinated, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. President Joe Biden has blamed online falsehoods for causing people to refrain from getting the injections. But even as Biden has urged social media companies to “do something about the misinformation,” Mercola shows the difficulty of that task. Over the last decade, Mercola has built a vast operation to push natural health cures, disseminate anti-vaccination content and profit from all of it, said researchers who have studied his network. In 2017, he filed an affidavit claiming his net worth was “in excess of $US100 million”.

In religion, credibility is not a factor.

• CDC ‘Actively’ Considering Face Cover Advisory For Vaccinated: Fauci (RT)

White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci has revealed that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) could soon reconsider its guidelines, recommending vaccinated Americans to mask up again. Top health officials have reportedly been having preliminary talks about revising mask recommendations for vaccinated Americans due to a rise in cases and concerns over the more infectious Delta variant of Covid-19. According to current guidance, those vaccinated against the virus do not need to wear masks in most public spaces. The revision of the mask guidance is indeed “under active consideration,” Fauci confirmed to CNN on Sunday. The infectious disease expert did not give a timeframe for when the federal guidance could change, but he praised those state officials who had already rushed ahead to reinstate local mask mandates in response to rising coronavirus cases.

“If you look at what’s going on locally in the trenches, in places like L.A. County,” Fauci said, “the local officials have the discretion, and the CDC agrees with that ability and discretion capability to say, you know, you’re in a situation where we’re having a lot of dynamics of infection, so even if you are vaccinated, you should wear a mask.” Fauci and other White House officials have used the uptick in cases to continue pushing unvaccinated Americans to get inoculated. Recent polling, however, has signified that those who have refused getting vaccinated thus far have little to no interest in changing their minds.

Great video.

• The Other Side of the COVID Vaccination Argument (CTH)

There is a lot of incoming information from government and the private sector promoting the vaccine. Recently, there has been a significant uptick in compulsory demands for taking the COVID vaccine. This forced vaccination approach has made many people start to question why this coordinated pressure campaign has increased with such ferocity. As a result of such one-side information, people are increasingly skeptical. In this video below you can review the counter-position for why people do not want to take the vaccination shot.

Very rare.

• 159 Dead, 593 Hospitalized in Illinois Breakthrough COVID Cases (NBC)

More than 150 people have died and nearly 600 have been hospitalized in Illinois due to COVID-19 in “breakthrough” cases after they were fully vaccinated, according to state health officials. According to data updated Wednesday by the Illinois Department of Public Health, 159 people in Illinois have died due to COVID-19 or complications after being fully vaccinated. That figure equates to 2.3% of COVID-19 deaths in the state since Jan. 1, officials said. At least 593 fully vaccinated people have been hospitalized in Illinois, IDPH said. The state only reports breakthrough infections among those who have been hospitalized or died, following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, IDPH said.

Those totals mean eight more fully vaccinated individuals have died and 30 more have been hospitalized in the past week since the state last updated its reported numbers. The state does not publicize the number of residents who tested positive after being fully vaccinated but did not die or require hospitalization in order to “help maximize the quality of the data collected on cases of greatest clinical and public health importance,” IDPH’s website reads.

He’s a made man.

• Biden DOJ Drops Civil Rights Probe Of Gov. Cuomo Over Nursing Homes (NYP)

The Department of Justice has decided not to investigate whether the civil rights of residents in New York’s government-run nursing homes were violated by Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s controversial admission policy related to the COVID-19 pandemic. In a letter Friday, the DOJ’s Office of Legislative Affairs told US Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), ranking member of that House Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, that New York was off the hook in connection with potential violations of the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act. In August, the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division requested information from New York in connection with a March 25, 2020, order from the state Department of Health that required nursing homes to admit “medically stable” COVID-19 patients discharged from hospitals.

It also sought records from Pennsylvania, Michigan and New Jersey, which adopted similar rules that the DOJ said “may have resulted in the deaths of thousands of elderly nursing home residents.” “We have reviewed the information provided by these states along with additional information available to the Department,” Deputy Assistant Attorney General Joe Gaeta wrote Friday. “Based on that review, we have decided not to open a CRIPA investigation of any public nursing facility within New York, Pennsylvania, or Michigan at this time.” In a prepared statement, Scalise called it “outrageous that the Department of Justice refuses to investigate the deadly ‘must admit’ orders issued by governors in New York, Pennsylvania, and Michigan that resulted in the deaths of thousands of senior citizens.”

“Where is the justice for nursing home victims and their grieving families? These deadly orders contradicted the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s] guidance, and needlessly endangered the most vulnerable among us to the deadly COVID-19 virus,” Scalise said. “Even worse, Governor Cuomo in New York intentionally tried to cover up the true death toll resulting from his mandate. Grieving families deserve answers and accountability. It’s unconscionable that Biden’s Department of Justice refuses to investigate the deadly actions that went against CDC’s medical guidance taken in these states.”

Oh sure. As the media scream Armageddon.

• UK Economy Growing At Fastest Rate In 80 Years (G.)

The British economy is growing at its fastest pace in 80 years and could recover its pre-pandemic size by the end of this year, according to a leading economic forecaster. Buoyed by the vaccine rollout and a bounce back in consumer spending, the EY Item Club said it now expected GDP to grow by 7.6% – which would be the fastest annual growth in national income since 1941. The UK economy shrank by 9.8% in 2020, the worst performance in the G7. The optimism comes despite the chaos caused by widespread staff shortages as workers self-isolate en masse after being pinged by NHS test and trace. The “pingdemic” is affecting the running of shops, restaurants, factories and even railway services as bosses struggle to find staff to cover shifts.

Although the economy has proved increasingly resilient through lockdowns, the EY Item Club report came with the health warning that the “future pattern of the pandemic and any renewed pandemic-related restrictions will have a significant bearing on whether the forecast is achieved”. The UK economy is more dependent on consumer spending on services, such as recreation and leisure activities, which meant that the lockdowns had a greater economic impact than in other countries, said Martin Beck, the EY Item Club’s senior economic adviser. The reopening of these “face-to-face parts of the economy means the UK should have a correspondingly faster recovery”, he said. In the spring, the group of economists, which is the only non-government forecasting organisation to use the Treasury’s modelling of the economy, pencilled in growth of 6.8%.

This is the second time this year it has upgraded its forecast, putting the economy on track to attain its pre-pandemic peak by the end of 2021. That milestone would now be reached some six months sooner than when it last crunched the numbers in April, with the UK’s successful vaccine programme a key factor. Recent surveys of economic activity have, however, been less encouraging, leading to concerns that the recovery is stalling. The IHS Markit and the Cips survey showed growth at its slowest since March, which was attributed to wide-ranging staff shortages, rising Covid cases and thousands of workers having to isolate owing to the pingdemic. It also highlighted a new mood of caution among the public triggered by the rapidly rising infection rates.

Because the Fed is one? Because the market makers are?

• Judge Refuses To Identify 5 Market Participants In VIX Manipulation (ZH)

[..] on Feb 5, 2018 the steamroller woke up with a vengeance, and shortly after the close, the infamous volmageddon event took place when a handful of the most popular inverse VIX strategies crashed from near record highs to zero in a manner of minutes as ETN liquidation triggers were activated, sending the VIX briefly to record highs and wiping out billions in value and leaving countless retail investors stunned and facing total losses. Yet while to retail investors losses were in the hundreds or, at most, thousands of dollars (recall this was in the pre-stimmy stage when people cared about their money), some hedge funds got completely wiped out. One among them was LJM Partners, a Chicago-based fund that lost $446.8 million in one day from the market moves, wiping out 86.5% of its assets in seconds.

And so LJM and more than two dozen other investors and fund managers sued over the next year to recover losses, claiming unidentified market participants that rigged the index “repeatedly posted and immediately canceled” tens of thousands of quotes for S&P 500 options, whose prices are used to calculate the VIX. The plaintiffs, understandably furious at the events of Feb 5, claiming that unidentified market participants manipulated the VIX by posting S&P 500 options quotes that only stayed in the order book for milliseconds, not long enough for anyone to trade against but enough time for them to be incorporated into the value of the VIX.

That technique, known as “flashing” and popularized back in 2009 first by this website, was unrelated to any legitimate positions the unidentified market participants held or wished to hold, but successfully manipulated the price of S&P 500 options and futures contracts, LJM claimed, even though the CBOE which is the Chicago-based owner of the VIX and the exchange where S&P 500 options trade, has repeatedly dismissed claims of manipulation of the index. And while LJM has yet to recover any funds, on Friday the defunct fund suffered another setback, when a federal judge refused to identify five market participants accused in the lawsuit of manipulating the VIX index.

US District Judge Manish S. Shah, during a telephone conference Friday in Chicago, said the plaintiffs had failed to provide enough evidence of actual manipulation to justify revealing the names of the market participants, who were identified only by code names in exchange records. “Plaintiffs have not demonstrated good cause” for the disclosure, said Shah, who had earlier authorized the release of exchange data to help them make their case. “Rather than specific allegations of manipulation, plaintiffs’ complaints offer a menu of what they characterize as potentially manipulative conduct that may have occurred on February 5 and 6, 2018,” the market participants said in a court filing.

Many people asking where the bugs on their windshields went. Which is a typical “connection” with nature.

• The Insect Apocalypse: ‘Our World Will Grind To A Halt Without Them’ (G.)

In 2015 I was contacted by the Krefeld Society, a group of entomologists who, since the late 1980s, had been trapping flying insects on nature reserves scattered across Germany. They had amassed insects from nearly 17,000 days of trapping across 63 sites and 27 years, a total of 53kg of insects. They sent me their data to ask for my help in preparing it for publication in a scientific journal. In the 27 years from 1989 to 2016 the overall biomass (ie weight) of insects caught in their traps fell by 75%. In midsummer, when in Europe we see the peak of insect activity, the decline was even more marked, at 82%. I thought initially that there must have been some sort of mistake, because this seemed too dramatic a drop to be credible. We knew that wildlife in general was in decline, but for three-quarters of insects to have disappeared so rapidly suggested a pace and scale of decline that had previously not been imagined.

In October 2019 a different group of German scientists published their findings from a study of insect populations in German forests and grasslands over 10 years from 2008 to 2017. The study’s results were deeply troubling. Grasslands fared worst, losing on average two-thirds of their arthropod biomass (the insects, spiders, woodlice and more). In woodlands, biomass dropped by 40%. What about elsewhere? Is there something peculiar going on in Germany? It seems highly unlikely. Perhaps the best-studied insect populations in the world are the UK’s butterflies. They are recorded by volunteers as part of the Butterfly Monitoring Scheme, the largest and longest-running scheme of its kind in the world. The trends it reveals are worrying. Butterflies of the “wider countryside” – common species found in farmland, gardens and so on, such as meadow browns and peacocks – fell in abundance by 46% between 1976 and 2017.

Meanwhile, habitat specialists, fussier species that tend to be much rarer, such as fritillaries and hairstreaks, fell by 77%, despite concerted conservation efforts directed at many of them. Worldwide, although the bulk of insect species – the flies, beetles, grasshoppers, wasps, mayflies, froghoppers and so on – are not systematically monitored, we often have good data on population trends for birds that depend on insects for food, and these are mostly in decline. For example, populations of insectivorous birds that hunt their prey in the air (ie the flying insects that have decreased so much in biomass in Germany) have fallen by more than any other bird group in North America, by about 40% between 1966 and 2013. Bank swallows, common nighthawks (nightjars), chimney swifts and barn swallows have all fallen in numbers by more than 70% in the past 20 years.

In England, populations of the spotted flycatcher fell by 93% between 1967 and 2016. Other once-common insectivores have suffered similarly, including the grey partridge (-92%), nightingale (-93%) and cuckoo (-77%). The red-backed shrike, a specialist predator of large insects, went extinct in the UK in the 1990s. Overall, the British Trust for Ornithology estimates that the UK had 44m fewer wild birds in 2012 compared with 1970. All the evidence above relates to populations of insects and their predators in highly industrialised, developed countries. Information about insect populations in the tropics, where most insects live, is sparse. We can only guess what impacts deforestation of the Amazon, the Congo, or south-east Asian rainforests has had on insect life in those regions. We will never know how many species went extinct before we could discover them.

“The strawberries. The strawberries. The strawberries. That’s what makes it work! Airplanes!”

• CNN Airs Hour-Long Public Service Message On Dementia (BBee)

As part of a campaign to raise awareness and improve public knowledge on treatment options, CNN aired an hour-long public service announcement on the warning signs of dementia Wednesday night. The PSA, which ran over an hour, showed tragic footage of an old man ranting and making nonsensical, confusing statements. CNN says they hope the footage will encourage family members of the elderly to get them tested for the early warning signs of dementia. The cable news channel displayed a phone number for a hotline people can call if they believe someone they know might be suffering from symptoms of the condition.

“If you or a loved one act like this man,” said Don Lemon, “please, we beg you, get help. Slurred speech, inaccurate statements, an inability to remember where you are—these are all signs that your loved one might be suffering from dementia, whether he’s retired or the president of the United States.” “… and we’d take the rhubarb and we’d put it in the pie, right in the ol’ pie,” the old man said suddenly, in a rare moment of lucidity. “It was incredible. You wouldn’t think rhubarb would taste good, but it’s the sweetness. The strawberries. The strawberries. The strawberries. That’s what makes it work! Airplanes! Airplanes are neat, you know, but they’re a myth. How do they get them up there? They don’t—d-d-don’t even have feathers.” Many of the attendees were touched by both the PSA and the old man.

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The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it
George Orwell

Melenchon
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