I'm not interested in being a guinea pig for a new vaccination technique against a relatively harmless (at my age and health) disease. Not even if millions of people are doing it and governments are insisting on it. Especially if governments are insisting on it.
"Forced to hand over their (unlocked, obviously) phone to staff". That's a hard no from anyone with any sense of privacy. And it's a slippery slope to requiring the same to police.
Universities and similar institutions providing close-quarters living space do have an interest in ensuring the health of their student bodies through vaccinations, which they can make mandatory for attendance or employment should they so choose. However, the COVID vaccines are substantially different than the much safer vaccines against the many more dangerous diseases we suffered from in the past. Further, the intent by those in power is clearly to make use of the COVID vaccination as a tool of social control rather than as an individual choice. The danger is that a wide array of nominally private social institutions will take up the call to require COVID vaccinations for everything. And that slides rapidly into totalitarianism. Indeed, if you judge by the masking campaigns and lockdowns, we are already there.
We should reject demands for vaccination against a relatively low-risk disease because liberty must not become conditional on vaccination status.
This is exactly what a totalitarian government needs to keep its people in fear. All over a disease with a survival rate around 99% and several viable treatment regimes, even if you exclude the vaccines as too risky.
No thanks. I wasn't sold on a flu shot that had to be taken every year and didn't always hit the right strains. The COVID "vaccine" is less tested, more dangerous, and the actual disease is a very minimal health threat to anyone whose immune system is reasonably functional, in addition to potential cross immunity from other coronaviruses like the common cold. (Which they still can't manage to vaccinate for, by the way). Oh, and we now have several viable treatments.
I see no reason for anyone not in a high risk group to consider the vaccine as a one time shot. As a once a year thing, no way.
I was wondering why it was taking so long for the Deep State and media to turn off the COVID panic after Biden got inaugurated. What I wasn't taking into account was that they had bought a lot of vaccine stocks and needed to get people injected with those before they can really stop the panic. They've already adjusted the panic dial downwards (by changing the testing to reduce false positive rates) but it takes time to be noticeable, and they are using that time to inject their experimental "vaccine" into as many people as possible before the panic stops.
I do wonder about that vaccine. It's not necessary for COVID, a fake crisis. Is profit motive really enough explanation for how hard they have been pushing it?
The only other credible possibility I am aware of is a risk (not confirmed) of fertility reduction, which is also known to be one of Bill Gates' obsessions. I don't think we'll get any answers on that front for decades, if ever.
The Germans (of course) now want vaccination passports
Instead of yellow stars for Jews, this time it's anyone who doesn't have the official stamp of submission gets ... well they haven't defined the punishments yet. It's easier to pass the requirement and worry about the punishment later, when the punishment can be more... fluid.
WHO advisor says Kung Flu likely came from Chinese lab
That this came from a lab leak was obvious from the beginning. The hard part was proving it. Now that Trump is out of office and Biden can prevent any actual consequences, this sort of thing is allowed to become part of the public discourse.
Biden ran on having a better plan to fix the coronavirus right away, but practically his first day in office he admits there is nothing he can do to change its course. Lockdowns don't work. Masks don't work. It's a respiratory virus; the relevant particles are just too small for a mask to filter and infections will spread no matter what. Hand-washing and sanitizing surfaces are helpful but not preventative. Even vaccines are useless -- the immunity will be temporary as the virus mutates.
But the panic put Biden in office and that's all he cared about.
Fact Sheet: Activity at the Wuhan Institute of Virology
The State Department has posted a fact sheet regarding the origin of the Wuhan virus. Because the new administration is likely to make it go away, I'm copying the whole text below.
Bottom line: it is highly likely the virus came from the lab.
What we hear is a disgusting man who thinks lies are better than truth. We remember when he lied about masks and he has kept lying about masks, death rates, risks, everything. When you lie, you lose all credibility and people stop believing you.
Newsweek suddenly starts warning of vaccine side effects...
So now the official media are broadcasting very mild and milquetoast warnings about "long-term side effects" of COVID vaccines, while minimizing the risk by comparing it to a disease that -- without vaccination and while ignoring several promising treatment protocols -- has killed significantly less than 1% of the people who catch it, and the vast majority of those within well defined risk groups by age and comorbidities. In other words, roughly the same people the seasonal flu would kill.
That they are suddenly warning of long term side effects that "may emerge" and simultaneously downplaying their severity is more than a little ominous. Combined with more than a few examples of people faking a vaccination shot on tv?
What is it they know is coming that they won't tell us?
... if he was really vaccinated the first time, he wouldn't need to be vaccinated "again". I have no idea why this place would stage a vaccination, but they clearly did. Maybe it was for some innocuous (heh heh heh) reason. Whatever the reason and intent, it damages their credibility and the credibility of the people desperately pushing a vaccine for a disease most people barely notice.
And speaking of lost credibility, note that they aren't going to broadcast their volunteers' second sticking, just promise that he got one without showing any proof.
For a good roundup of potential problems with the vaccine, see here. While these are all in the realm of potential problems (with the exception of possible fertility issues, for which there is evidence in similar viruses, making is more than just speculative), the insane rush towards applying this vaccine to everyone makes my risk-management antenna twitch like mad.
COVID-19 is being used to shut down independent communication channels
I've made this same point. The coronavirus shutdowns have been very targeted at shutting down communication that is not filtered through the Big Tech censorship/spy operation. And, not accidentally, at shutting down small businesses in general that provide the economic support for millions of Americans.
Now that the election is over and millions of doses of an advanced new vaccine have been purchased, they can announcement that we already had an effective and cheap treatment all along.
It's about control. It has always been about control. They want to keep you at home, where you can't go to Trump rallies, or get information in any way other than through the official media channels, which are ever more heavily censored.
I generally believe that vaccines are important medical advances that protect both individual and public health, but that they are also matters of personal choice. If you don't want to be vaccinated, for any reason or none, that's pretty much on you. It's a cost-benefit analysis.
Childhood vaccines that offer long-term protection against serious diseases are great. A yearly flu vaccine that offers anywhere from 30%-70% protection against a disease that makes you sick for a few days is silly, unless you are in a particularly high risk category.
With respect to the COVID vaccine specifically... I don't trust it. It was developed so rapidly, with so many medical experts originally saying it was so difficult to vaccinate against that type of virus, that I think it's unusually risky. There are reports people can still spread the disease even after being vaccinated. And the disease it protects against is easily survivable by the vast majority of people who contract it, who will then generate natural immunity.
So I'm going to avoid the COVID vaccine for a while. And I don't like the arrangements that are evidently being put into place to force people to take it.
Mask mandates in CA to be enforced by volunteer force
I know! We can form a volunteer organization. These are times of emergency, so we need quick action and executive decisions, so it had better be organized along military lines. Paramilitary, just with civilian volunteers. And they will need some kind of name and identifying uniform that is distinct from the military and police. Military use camo, police use blue... I know! We'll call them the Brown Masks!
Mask mandates are nothing more than totalitarian submission rituals
Edwards was right; he did nothing wrong in being around people without wearing a mask. What he did exposed the naked hypocrisy of mask mandates for what is it: a submission ritual.
Austin mayor caught on vacation after imposing year-long mask mandate
He wants another year of this bullshit because he can spend his time vacationing in Mexico. Normally I would say he's better off in Mexico than imposing his dictats on Austin, but apparently he can do that remotely. I see one good side to this... after another year of goddamned fucking face diapers, even Austin will vote this guy out.
There is absolutely nothing about COVID that should prevent you from buying a gun. It is a retail operation like anything else, and a specially protected constitutional right on top of that.
Hydroxychloroquin improves odds of hospitalization by 84%
They did the treatment regimen correctly, and it worked. The results appear better than the high tech new therapeutics (which improved odds by about 25%, IIRC).
It appears that either a) COVID killed everyone who would have died anyway, or b) a lot of people who died from normal causes had COVID incorrectly listed on their death certificate, or c) both.
UPDATE: Johns Hopkins took down the study. Not because it was wrong but because they didn't like that people noticed and shared it because it went against the narrative of covid terror.
This admission makes it quite obvious that the lockdowns, masks, and everything, were never actually about the virus. They were and are about power; nothing more and nothing less. Stay in your homes like terrified sheep until we give you permission to leave. If you don't keep your vaccinations up to date we'll revoke your travel papers, and if your opinions are unapproved we will censor them from the internet while keeping you locked in your house so you can't spread them the old fashioned way.
And yes, the expanded welfare and "stimulus" purportedly for COVID is really just a universal basic income, isn't it?
The people insisting you stay at home and wear a mask are not following their own rules. The masks are just a system of control and a symbol of submission. They don't actually work (against this specific disease, anyway), and the "elites" believe they are not subject to their own rules.
To be clear: Masks work for some diseases and in some circumstances, when worn properly they can protect against large particles being spread from an infected person to other people. When trying to use them in widespread fashion, against the coronavirus, they do not work. Why not? The particles are too small and pass through the masks easily, even when properly worn, and they are not properly worn by the general public.
They are basically meaningless unless you experiencing symptoms (coughing, sneezing) which produce large particles the mask can catch before spreading. But if you're not showing those symptoms but are still contagious, the particles you are shedding are too small for the mask to stop.
Argument here. I won't endorse it or reject it because I simply do not have the expertise to evaluate the evidence. I will say that this exact sequence of events has occurred to me repeatedly and with growing emphasis throughout 2020. Initially I was skeptical, but that skepticism has been steadily worn away as the irrational hysteria and media panic continues and the Democrats take political advantage of the chaos.
Biden advisors already pushing a 4-6 week lockdown
They already want to go back to total lockdowns. Why? WHY? To spend more trillions in printed money? To punish us for refusing to accept Biden as president?
This is the governor who sent COVID patients into nursing homes to kill as many old people as possible, and now he wants to delay a vaccine just so Biden can take political credit for something Trump did?
Well, no, to treat COVID-19... which is only slightly more dangerous than the flu. The facility that money built was dismantled less than a month after it was completed. That's Chicago for you.
City officials are using cooked numbers to keep Austin closed until December. Why? Well, if they open up in December, the economy will start to recover in January when Biden has just (they hope) taken office.
FBI claims it foiled "militia plot" to kidnap governor
They arrested 6 people for the plot, which involved them discussing actions to take in response to Whitmer's unconstitutional shutdown of the state. No actual violence was involved, though the FBi alleges they agreed to try to recruit more members and possibly surveilled the governor's vacation home (that means "they looked at" the building).
In the US, the Deep State (represented by Fauci on the medical side, the Democratic party, and the media) want to oust Trump. I've mentioned previous how the virus helps that effort, along with delaying and distracting from SpyGate.
In the UK... well, you haven't heard about how Brexit is or isn't going to happen in a while, have you?
In many other nations, it matters less because their media doesn't necessarily operate in English, making the internal posture less visible. Are China or Russia panicking too? Who knows? I would guess not, at this point. Tracking, yes. Panicking, no.
So, again, why are we panicking? Because it is politically useful to those who would be our masters.
9th Circus makes it official: suspends 1st Amd during pandemic
Two judges in the 9th Circus have purported to suspend the 1st Amendment until there is a cure for the Kung Flu.
This doesn't actually surprise me much; there's historically a lot of latitude for this sort of thing during public emergencies. Courts will let the executive handle the emergency and focus on reviewing it all well after the fact.
The aspect this court is missing -- probably deliberately -- is whether there is actually an emergency that justifies that treatment. There's certainly a panic, but I'm not convinced the data shows an actual emergency. So can the government exaggerate an unusual, but not disastrous, new disease and get a pass from the bill of rights? I suspect not, but I doubt the courts will say so until more time makes the evidence very clear. Particularly courts with a liberal bias.
There's also the question of duration; temporary restrictions can pass muster where permanent ones would not. So, for how long are we supposed to hide from the Kung Flu? What happens if there is never a cure, never a vaccine, and (just like the normal flu or the common cold) we just have to learn to live with it? Does the bill of rights stay suspended then?
Sources say Chinese virus likely escaped from Chinese lab
Just a few weeks ago, the idea that this originated in a Chinese lab was classed as a conspiracy theory. Now it's the known and accepted government theory.
In another few weeks, will the idea that the virus was deliberately modified in that lab become accepted as well? I expect it will, because I think that's exactly what happened.
And as for the bioweapon question, it's not just about whether and why the virus was developed. If China knew enough to close internal borders to Wuhan, but left Wuhan open to international travel, that's a damning measure of intent regardless of origin.
CDC confirms Kung Flu is no worse than a bad flu season
The death rate appears to be 0.26%, a little more than double that of the average flu (0.1%). Stanford researchers pegged that number over a month ago.
This was a political panic job designed to sabotage the economy. Not that the virus isn't real; that seems undeniable. Not that it wasn't manufactured in a lab -- case not proven yet, but it seems likely. But it certainly wasn't the deadly disease it was sold as when the CDC's Dr Fauci shut down the country.
Unanswered questions: So why did China shut down like they did? Maybe deliberately, because they hate Trump and were read in on the plot. Maybe they just panicked in the presence of an unknown disease. Maybe the disease really was as bad as advertised, but mutated to a less deadly strain. Maybe air pollution in China is bad enough to increase vulnerability. I don't know.
It's worth also pointing on when that funding happened. 2015, under Obama.
I'll trust Pompeo's description of what the intel community's best experts think over what a random interviewer thinks they said, given that Pompeo's the one with the official clearances. I don't read Pompeo as backtracking at all.
We're a long ways from understanding everything going on behind the scenes with this virus. But Fauci appears to be central to it, and I don't think he's been asked the right questions yet.
In other somewhat unrelated news, Senator Burr is stepping down from the committee over an FBI investigation into insider stock trading around the Kung Flu.
I can't help but think this is merely convenient timing, and he's actually leaving for reasons related to SpyGate. Although the FBI investigation into his trading habits certainly justifies his removal by itself.
Wait, what? Why? Why was this done, why was it considered good policy? Even if you want the FDA to have regulatory control of food safety, why would you require in those regulations that food be processed in a large central facility instead of in a distributed (and thus resilient) system?
Let's let the free market and competition solve this problem.
Researcher close to Covid-19 breakthrough killed in murder-suicide?
The murder part is pretty solid. The suicide part is based on assuming a dead man they found was responsible for the murder. Who knows whether he was actually close to a breakthrough. But the whole situation is weird
This one seems to hit the right notes: early application and combination with azithromycin. It doesn't downplay the known risks of those drugs, and it attempts to control for other risk factors.
Most of the other studies on this topic have either not tried both of the drugs together or waited until patients were already hospitalized with a severe case.
UPDATE: They let out Avenatti, another high-profile release. He's going to be spending his house arrest in Venice, apparently. We'll see if he is still there when he is supposed to come back. Weinstein was also released.
Official investigation into the origin of the Kung Flu
Holding China accountable is unlikely to be very successful. Yes, this situation will generate a lot of political support for policies to punish China. Which means what? Pulling our manufacturing out, applying more tariffs perhaps, things which we mostly wanted to do anyway (under Trump, at least). We're unlikely to get them to actually pay us trillions. They will ignore lawsuits or enforcement actions through international bodies. They already have enough intellectual property to be only mildly inconvenienced by losing access to more.
A military response is only really on the table if there is strong evidence they did this deliberately, and that's a hard case to make. (Accidentally, sure).
Our options for responding to this hostile act by China seem limited.
CIA issued a warning against hydroxychloroquine, saying it has potentially dangerous side effects, despite Trump talking up the drugs' usefulness against COVID-19. To be clear, they are both right: the drug is unproven but appears useful against COVID-19 but also has well-known risks and side effects that mean some people probably can't or shouldn't take it.
But the fact that someone at that agency was going out of their way to contradict the President is noteworthy.
Covid-19 virus may have orignated in Chinese lab after all
I don't know where the virus originated, but there is quite a lot of credible evidence that it escaped from the virology lab in Wuhan. The lab was studying coronaviruses in bats, hiring people to study a new virus, and has had previously reported safety incidents related to their bats.
