Can the world achieve “herd immunity” with respect to COVID-19? Anthony Fauci has said that 80% of the population needs to be vaccinated in order to reach herd immunity. My view is that using vaccines is unlikely to achieve this result, something I discussed in my August 2020 post, We Need to Change Our COVID-19 Strategy. Now, the news arm of the prestigious journal Nature has published a similar view: Five reasons why COVID herd immunity is probably impossible.
In this post, I explain why, in my view, COVID-19 seems likely to become endemic, like the flu. The vaccines won’t be enough to make it go away completely. I will also look at the issue of how we should respond to the cases of COVID-19 that we will almost certainly experience in the future.
To a significant extent, what we can and should do in the future is an energy issue. If we plan to transition to a green energy future, or if we simply plan to reduce usage of fossil fuels in future years, we probably need to scale back our plans for vaccines. In fact, any treatment that would be given in today’s emergency rooms is likely to become less and less possible as energy supplies deplete.
We will need to focus more on what our bodies can do for us, and what we can do to assist them in this effort. We also need to think about what simple changes to our environment (such as windows that open) can do for the prevention of both COVID-19 and the many other communicable diseases that we can expect to encounter in the future. The big issue will be changing expectations.
[1] Why herd immunity is unlikely
[1.1] Viruses don’t pay any attention to the geography of humans. As long as there are active cases anywhere, they will tend to spread to other countries.
Over the past year, we have seen how ineffective cutting off travel between countries is in stopping the path of the virus. Even New Zealand, far out in the Pacific Ocean, has been battling this issue. The country has found that occasional cases slip through, even with a required two-week stay in managed isolation after arrival.
Furthermore, there are hidden costs with staying this removed from the rest of the world; New Zealand’s only oil refinery has been losing money, given its low use of oil. This refinery has laid off about a quarter of its staff and is considering the option of quitting refining in 2022. New Zealand would then need to import a full range of refined products if it wants to continue having industry. Perhaps being too cut off from the rest of the world is a problem, rather than a solution.
[1.2] The cost of vaccines is high, especially for poor countries.
We can get a rough idea of the cost involved by looking at a news article about Israel’s dispute with Pfizer regarding its vaccine purchases. We can also see what goes wrong politically.
Israel recently made news for failing to pay Pfizer for the last 2.5 million vaccine doses that it purchased from the company. Pfizer retaliated by cutting off future vaccine shipments to Israel. The article linked above doesn’t tell us exactly how much Israel paid for Pfizer’s vaccine, but a calculation based on information in the article seems to indicate that future doses from a mixture of vendors would cost about $35 per dose, on average. We also know that US Medicare is paying $40 per dose for administering each dose of the vaccine. Putting these two amounts together, we can estimate that the purchase and administration of a single dose of COVID-19 vaccine costs about $75. Thus, a two-dose series costs about $150, with the high-tech vaccines Israel is now using (Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca).
We also know that Israel was planning to administer two doses per person, every six months, based on an early review of how well immunity was holding up for the vaccines. If it is really necessary to repeat the two-dose regimen every six months, then the annual per-person cost of the vaccine would be approximately 2 times $150, or $300 per person. Benjamin Netanyahu favors buying all of these doses, quite possibly because it might make him popular with voters. Netanyahu’s opposition does not, which seems to be why payment has not been forthcoming.
A cost of $300 per person would amount to 0.7% of Israel’s 2019 GDP, which is theoretically feasible. But for poorer countries, the relative cost would be much higher. For South Africa, it would amount to 5% of 2019 GDP. For Yemen, it would come to 40% of 2019 GDP. (These are my calculations, using World Bank GDP in current US$.) For countries with severe financial problems, any payment for vaccines would almost certainly be a problem.
There are less expensive vaccines being made, but their percentages of efficacy in fighting the virus that causes COVID-19 seem to be lower. Thus, it would be even more difficult to greatly reduce the number of cases down to the point where the disease would simply disappear for lack of an adequate number of victims to infect, using these vaccines.
[1.3] The fact that the disease can infect animals further adds to the problem of getting rid of the disease completely.
The disease supposedly jumped from an animal to humans to begin with. We know that the virus that causes COVID-19 can infect animals of many types, including ferrets and cats. While the disease jumping from animals to humans is supposedly unusual, we know that the disease spreads easily among humans with inadequate immunity. Having a reservoir of disease among animals raises the likelihood of this happening again. Having a reservoir of vulnerable people (not immune and in poor health) also increases such a risk.
[1.4] Microbes of all types mutate frequently. We are fighting a losing battle to stay even with them. This is especially a problem for narrowly targeted vaccines.
We know that whenever we try to reduce the population of microbes, scientists can find solutions that work for a while, but eventually we start losing the battle. Scientists can develop antibiotics against bacteria, but eventually some bacteria will evolve in a way that allows them to resist the effects of the antibiotic. In fact, antibiotic resistance is becoming a greater and greater problem. Similarly, scientists can develop weed killers, but weeds soon develop resistance to whatever we develop. The situation seems to be similar with vaccines, unfortunately.
In this case, scientists have developed vaccines that target the RNA of the spike protein of the virus that causes COVID-19. In some sense, this approach is very precise, leading to a high proportion of COVID-19 cases being stopped. The drawback is that it is very easy for small mutations in the spike protein to make the vaccine not work well. We end up needing to obtain booster shots of slightly revised versions of the vaccine quite often, perhaps every six months. If booster shots are not given, the vaccine is likely to become less effective against the new mutations that arise.
One danger is that manufacturers cannot keep up with all of changes needed to match the new mutations. Another is that the cost of trying to keep up with this whole process will become prohibitive. The medical care system may be forced to give the vaccine process up, leaving citizens worse off than they might have been if we hadn’t “flattened the curve” and kept the virus around for an extended period of time, allowing all of these mutations.
[1.5] There are very real reasons for people’s reluctance to accept the vaccine, when it is offered to them. Because of this, it is difficult to get very close to 100% acceptance (or even 80% acceptance) of the vaccines.
There seem to be any number of reasons why people are reluctant to get the new vaccine. Some are afraid of the pain involved with the shot. Others are afraid that they will be somewhat ill afterward, causing them to miss work. If employees are paid on an hourly basis and they barely have enough income as it is, this, by itself, could be a reason for avoiding the shot. Financial incentives might help with these issues.
Others who are reluctant have followed the situation more closely. They realize that important steps in the normal vaccine approval process have been skipped, making it difficult to identify adverse effects that occur fairly infrequently. Even worse, it becomes impossible to discover problems that take many months or years to become evident. Over 100 doctors and scientists from 25 countries have signed a letter saying that offering vaccines that are as radically different from what has been used in the past, without more testing, is unethical.
One concern is the likelihood of blood clots in the immediate period after the vaccine is received. Blood clots have also been observed with the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, and may be a concern with other vaccines, as well. There seem to be several related conditions, including sudden blindness, heart attacks, and sudden deaths of elderly people in nursing homes. These issues seem to be fairly rare, but people worry about them without adequate data on their frequency. If the issue is blood clots, it would seem as if simple adjustments such as taking low-dose aspirin for the time period of risk might be a partial solution.
We know that in some cases, vaccines can inadvertently make later exposure to somewhat different versions of the virus worse, rather than stopping these infections. The virus that causes the illness SARS is very similar to the virus that causes COVID-19. When an attempt was made at a vaccine for SARS in 2012, a study on mice showed that exposure at a later date to a slightly different virus led to blood clots forming in the lungs. We already know that blood clots can be an issue for COVID-19 vaccines. Will COVID-19 vaccine recipients who are later exposed to mutations have an adverse reaction such as blood clots in the lungs? We don’t know. There have been no animal studies with respect to the vaccines for COVID-19.
Another risk of COVID-19 vaccinations would seem to be auto-immune problems, especially in people who are already predisposed to such issues. Not much research has been done yet to clarify this issue.
A related issue is allergic reactions to vaccines, including anaphylaxis. The possibility of allergic reactions is one reason vaccine recipients are asked to stay for 15 minutes after receiving their immunizations. Even with precautions, some deaths are occurring because severe allergic reactions can take up to 150 minutes to become apparent. It is impractical to keep vaccine recipients this long.
The very long-term effects of both the COVID-19 illness and vaccines to prevent the COVID-19 illness are unknown. The Alzheimer’s Association recommends studies to see whether people who contract COVID-19 have a long-term increase in dementia-type illnesses. In theory, the vaccines could also lead to similar issues because of prion-like structures that are formed, both with the vaccine and the disease. Without long-term studies, we don’t know whether either of these concerns is valid. If dementia is an issue, will repeated vaccinations raise the long-term risk of dementia? We don’t know. If the disease itself and vaccines can both lead to dementia, is there an optimal strategy?
Without a better understanding of what the risks are, it is hard to convince young people, especially, to take the vaccine. Their chances of a severe outcome from the disease are low to begin with. What is the point of taking a vaccine that may raise their risk of serious injury or death? The vaccine may be appropriate for people aged 80 and over, but is the risk really necessary for young people? Without better data, it is hard to know for certain.
[2] Why a change away from dependence on vaccines is needed
The Nature article referred to earlier says in its concluding paragraph, “It’s time for realistic expectations. . . we need to think of how we can live with the virus.”
Also, as I mentioned in the introduction, we are reaching energy limits. Even if in theory we could vaccinate everyone on the planet twice a year for COVID-19, we do not have the resources to do this. In some ways, the problem looks like a cost problem (poor countries especially cannot afford to buy high-priced vaccines), but it is just as much a resource problem. We cannot devote enough resources to this project without taking them away from other necessary projects. The vaccines are very much a product of today’s fossil fuel economy. We can’t expect to make vaccines with intermittent electricity.
Because of limited resources, we may encounter something similar to the “empty shelf” problem in the grocery stores. We may find that only limited doses of vaccine are available because too many doses were accidentally ruined in production. Or, not enough of the right reagents were available. Or, more doses are needed in the country where the vaccine is manufactured, leaving less for use elsewhere. Or, there is a war in a country integral to vaccine supply lines, interfering with production.
In fact, obtaining promised supplies of vaccines is already a problem. Trying to scale up production at the same time that resources in general are squeezed is likely to make this type of problem increase.
[3] Learning to live with COVID-19 and diminishing resources per capita
If we can’t really fix the COVID-19 problem with endless vaccines for everyone, we need to look at other options.
[3.1] Strengthening our own immune systems
Our bodies come with built-in immune systems. It is the action of the immune system that tends to lead to a low incidence of and low severity of COVID-19 in some people, compared to others. Some of the things that seem to be helpful include the following:
- Being young
- Getting plenty of sleep at night
- Not being overweight. Proper exercise and diet are helpful in this regard.
- Maintaining a healthy microbiome. Our bodies need good microbes to help fight the “bad” microbes. Antibiotics, excessive antibacterial cleaners and a lack of exposure to “good” bacteria could be problems. Staying away from everyone and wearing masks, indefinitely, is not necessarily helpful.
- Getting adequate vitamin D through sun exposure, eating of foods that are high in vitamin D and/or supplementation. Dark skinned people living away from the equator are especially at risk for inadequate vitamin D.
- Getting adequate vitamin C from fruits and vegetables and perhaps supplementation.
Researchers need to be actively looking into optimal strategies to advise citizens. Schools might start teaching about these issues in health classes.
[3.2] Changing our customs and infrastructure to try to reduce the problem of communicable diseases in general, not just for COVID-19.
Customs for greetings among people vary greatly around the world. Some people use hugs and handshakes, others greet with bows. We may need to adopt more distant physical greetings, simply to help reduce the transmission of disease. Of course, hugging at home is still fine.
In the last 100 years, the emphasis increasingly has been on building tighter, more energy-efficient buildings. This is good from a point of saving energy, but it doesn’t work in a world with many communicable diseases. We need to move toward much more ventilation, often based on open windows. Because of energy constraints, we likely cannot expect to keep heating and cooling our buildings as much in the future. We will need to dress more for outdoor temperatures, indoors.
Some leaders have suggested rapid electric rail is the way of the future, but rail transport also needs to be well ventilated. It is also likely that we will be dealing with more intermittency of electricity supply in the future. We need to plan as if we are dealing with an electricity constrained future, as much as an oil and vaccine constrained future.
[3.3] Finding low energy ways to deal with the likely COVID-19 cases that do occur.
The approach in the “rich world” to date in looking for ways to deal with COVID-19 has been to look for new, high technology drugs and vaccines that might have a two-fold benefit (a) help sick people and (b) help the pharmaceutical industry. What we really need are technologies that are low cost and can be used at home. Repurposed old drugs, such as steroids, are ideal, especially if they can be made locally without dependence on international supply lines.
If COVID-19 doesn’t really disappear, we can expect recurring instances of having inadequate medical facilities to treat all of the patients in a given area. Countries need to plan strategies for dealing with this likely long-term problem. Should there be an upper age limit on patients using these facilities, for example, especially when demand is high? Or can the richest citizens have the ability to buy services, when others cannot? Should there be a lottery for beds? Ordering everyone to remain at home is sort of a temporary solution, but it is very damaging to the economy as a whole.
[3.4] Finding leadership that can think in a direction other than “more technology will save us.” Unfortunately, this is pretty much impossible.
Back in 1979, Jimmy Carter tried to change the direction of the US economy when he gave his famous Sweater Speech. In this speech, he told people that they needed to adjust their thermostats and drive their vehicles less because there was an energy crisis. We all know that Jimmy Carter was not reelected after this speech. Instead, Ronald Reagan was elected. He cut taxes and raised debt levels, temporarily delaying our need to deal with our energy problem.
When Anthony Fauci took on the COVID-19 issue, he led us in the direction of spending more money on vaccines and pharmaceuticals. His own financial interests and his work interests were in the direction of helping the vaccine and pharmaceutical interests. He certainly didn’t stop to think, “This is not a battle that we can win. There are too many instances of transmission of the virus by people who have no symptoms. Our track record at wiping out diseases with vaccines has been pretty dismal in the past. Stopping COVID-19 in one part of the world won’t stop the long-term problem.”
I expect that President Biden will continue on his current path until the economy “runs off the cliff.” I wrote in my recent post, Headed for a Collapsing Debt Bubble, that the economy was reaching a point where a major discontinuity would occur. Interest rates are about as low as they can go, and debt levels are reaching an upper bound.
Ronald Reagan’s administration started to decrease interest rates shortly after he took office in 1981. This drop in interest rates has hidden rapidly rising debt and energy problems for many years. We are now running out of room on both energy and debt. When the world’s debt bubble collapses, our ability to fight COVID-19 with vaccines will likely go downhill quickly. We will then need to find new strategies. Unfortunately, considering new strategies in advance is almost impossible.
[4] Conclusion
While it is possible to see what change in direction seems to be needed with respect to COVID-19 and infectious diseases in general, it is not something that those in leadership positions will be able to implement. Instead, we will likely “go off the cliff” at full speed. Changing expectations in advance is almost impossible.
At most, a few interested people can try to explain to their fellow citizens what is happening. Perhaps, in our own little spheres of influence, we can make some small changes in the right direction, starting with strengthening our own immune systems.
“Myanmar approaching point of economic collapse: UN report.
“The turmoil following the military coup in Myanmar, coupled with the impact of COVID-19 could result in up to 25 million people – nearly half of the country’s population, living in poverty by early next year, a United Nations report said on Friday.”
https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/04/1091002
“Tonnes of dead fish wash up on shore of polluted Lebanese lake…
“Ecological disasters are the last thing Lebanon needs as it suffers through an alarming financial collapse and the aftermath of a huge explosion that devastated Beirut port last August.”
https://www.reuters.com/article/lebanon-environment-fish/tonnes-of-dead-fish-wash-up-on-shore-of-polluted-lebanese-lake-idUSL8N2MMA4D
“Starving Malagasy forced to eat leaves, locusts for survival.
“Near-total disappearance of food sources has created a ‘full-blown nutrition emergency’ in southern Madagascar, World Food Programme warns.”
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/30/famine-looms-in-southern-madagascar-uns-food-agency-says
Too many sad stories around the world.
“Kenya meets IMF to review policy progress on Sh255 billion.
“The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Thursday started reviewing policy reforms that saw it approve $2.34 billion (Sh255 billion) facility for Kenya early this month… The fund gave Kenya a number of demands especially on fiscal and governance.”
https://www.the-star.co.ke/business/kenya/2021-04-30-kenya-meets-imf-to-review-policy-progress-on-sh255-billion/
“Tunisia will seek a $4 billion loan programme from the International Monetary Fund in talks starting next week, Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi told Reuters on Friday, saying politicians faced a “last opportunity” to save the economy.”
https://www.reuters.com/article/tunisia-prime-minister/update-2-tunisia-to-seek-4-bln-imf-loan-pm-says-idUSL1N2MN257
I am wondering how a governmental ” wage bill cut and consolidation of state agencies with duplicate roles” is really going to help the economy. Laying off workers in one of the many countries with not enough jobs is hardly helpful.
Paying them to stay home initially might be the plan (a very short term one).
“Sri Lanka declares worst economic downturn in 73 years.
“Sri Lanka announced Friday that its economy shrank 3.6 percent last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic, making it the worst downturn since independence from Britain in 1948.”
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210430-sri-lanka-declares-worst-economic-downturn-in-73-years
““Worst economic crisis” in Tonga’s history.
“The economies of the Cook Islands, Niue, Samoa, and Tonga will continue to decline in 2021. “The COVID-19 pandemic is the worst economic crisis in the history of these countries,” said economist James Webb. “While lives have been saved, livelihoods have been lost.””
https://matangitonga.to/2021/04/30/worst-economic-crisis-tongas-history
We have the worst downturn in a very long time, almost everywhere (except in the US, where stimulus is pumping up the economy)!
“Affluent Americans Rush to Retire in New ‘Life-Is-Short’ Mindset.
“The unprecedented surge in shares and home values during an economic crisis is easing the retirement path for those who have savings and investments.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-30/more-americans-are-considering-retirement-because-of-covid
“Consumers might not return to old product choices once finances improve. When faced with job losses, a sudden drop in income, or other stormy economic conditions, consumers will likely need to shift their purchasing priorities and preferences.
“Those changed preferences outlast the contraction and shape choices even after income recovers.”
https://phys.org/news/2021-04-consumers-product-choices.html
From the article:
Businesses need to find ways to be helpful to customers with lower incomes.
“Brazil registers record 14.4 million unemployed:
“Pandemic-battered Brazil registered a record 14.4 million unemployed workers in the three-month period to February 2021, up two million from the year before, officials said Friday.” [The official figures hugely understate the issue, according to a Brazilian friend].
https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/latin-america/brazil-registers-record-144-million-unemployed.phtml
“Mexico’s young workers are desperate for jobs.
“One in every six young people aged 18 to 29 in Latin America and the Caribbean has left work since the pandemic began, studies show.”
https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2021/4/30/mexicos-young-workers-are-desperate-for-jobs
Not enough cheap energy = not enough jobs that pay well.
The RCMP will set up road checks on highways connecting B.C.’s regional zones in a bid to enforce the ban on non-essential travel, the province’s solicitor general said Friday.
Mike Farnworth, who is also the public safety minister, said police will conduct periodic road checks at key travel points and that violators could be fined $575.
Farnworth last week banned non-essential travel between the province’s three regional zones until May 25.
He said at a Friday news conference the RCMP can now set up road checks on highway corridors connecting the zones — but not within the zones, in downtown Vancouver, for example.
Farnworth said police can ask the driver for the reason for their travel, along with their name, address, licence and secondary identification if they have recently moved. Documentation proving the reason for travel will not be required, and vehicle passengers will not be asked for documentation.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/farnworth-travel-update-1.6008936
The LEAK…..
Fast Eddy, I agree that the Leak looks more and more prescient.
That being said, do you or anyone here understands why the countries are diverging more and more in terms of Covid policies?
While Uk, Israel, Canada are turning into authoritarian hellholes, US is moving the opposite way. More and more states are opening up (and dialing down the PCR cycles) and even the federal government suggests opening up (for vaxed).
Is it a period of false perestroika, while the new regime sinks its claws into all the bureaucracies? Is the US breaking up? Or dare I say it – maybe the bad guys are losing ground?
Could it be simply that US still has enough energy production that they can afford to open up? That would support Gail’s hypothesis that the fake pandemic is just a cover for controlled collapse.
Of course US has almost half the population vaccinated so maybe they don’t feel the need to push the panic if the people willingly obey. But Israel has even more people vaccinated and yet the scaremongering and lockdowns continue.
Good question. Perhaps different speeds, due to different cultures and levels of resistance, and lots of muddying of the waters, so that the common goal is not too obvious to the casual observer.
In the UK and Israel they seem to be seeing just how far they can go and how fast. Israel is insane. The UK is awash in lies.
As long as everyone arrives at the agreed destination (a universal Digital Identity and Social Credit, CBDC’s, etc) in the next 5 years, they can afford to vary tactics regionally.
Isn’t it fun getting to see and feel what living through a Five-Year Plan is like……..
Perhaps this is a way to employ more people as traffic checkers, besides a way to cut oil usage.
It is really interesting that the virus originated in China which had to impose population control limits in the past. And that it originated in close vicinity of the perifery, where the depopulating Japan is situated. Now, at the times of the limits to growth.
The ageing of the populations, the energy limits and the virus are coming from the perifery to the center.
There will be more and more people living on the perifery which will experience the things that were unimaginable in the past, at the times of growth.
There are various aspects of the shrinking, imploding human world which are spreading around the world.
E.g. although the population of Africa is still rising, there is a big rise in the celibacy represented by the Catholic church vocations, which is also a signal that we are reaching the limits of growth.
Powerful ….. Weekly Update from Front Line Covid Critical Care Alliance with Dr. Pierre Kory
dramatic charts, critical India information, Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Panama, updated protocols
go straight to 14:45 for the meat and potatoes
So, withdraw invermectin and effective early interventions, thereby creating a photogenic and shocking hospital crisis in India?
Oh, but, surely, psychopaths who’d think of such a thing can’t exist……
Which Circle of Hell are we all living on just now, remind me?
I’d have to listen again, but I’m pretty sure what he said regarding India was that the success in Uttar Pradesh (250 million population) is readily apparent to anyone paying attention and that other states in India are showing signs of heading towards Ivermectin test and treat. In other words, no matter what the psychopaths may desire, reality and effective action can and do intervene. Best laid plans of mice and men and all that jazz. The withdrawal of Ivermectin was in Peru.
I see Dr. Kory is encouraging the use of Ivermectin. It would be good if these early care success stories could be properly written up in journal articles.
The “early” ones have been so far, but most are ignoring them. Dr. Kory and his collaborators are tracking more of the recent scene. Yes, it would be good to have more real-time publications in journals, but there’s a war going on. The repetition required to “break through” the MSM fog and the medical collaboration with Big Pharma is enormous. It’s like trying to get someone out of a cult basically.
If a tree falls in a forest …???
The following excerpts are from a Meta-Review published in the Japanese Journal of Antibiotics (March 10, 2021). Among the authors was Ivermectin’s discoverer, Satoshi Omura. Theirs is only one of a few Meta-Reviews available; all of which are in agreement. It’s getting pretty hard to ignore Meta-Reviews. That posture is certainly deliberate on the part of Big Pharma and Big Gov.
I’ve posted a link to this review at least once over here, and referenced other Meta-Reviews more than once. They end this one on such a positive note as to compare Ivermectin to the importance of Penicillin.
https://covid19criticalcare.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Satoshi-Omura-Global-trends-in-clinical-studies-of-ivermectin-in-COVID-19-Japanese-Journal-of-Antibiotics-March-10-2021.pdf
QUOTE:
One month after the declaration of the pandemic, countries such as Iraq, Egypt, Iran, and India began to register clinical trials with the US clinical trial registration site ClinicalTrials.gov and the WHOʼs clinical trial registration platform. The publication of the results of the first clinical trial of ivermectin for COVID-19 in the world was an observational study conducted at four related hospitals in South Florida, USA.
The mortality rate of 173 patients in the ivermectin group was 15.0%, which was significantly (p＝0.03) superior to 25.2% of 107 patients in the control group. This result was published as a preprint on the 6th of June 2020, but its value was not recognized at the time because it had not yet been peer reviewed. Following peer review, it was published without any changes in the prestigious journal Chest on the 13th of October.
Since then, numerous clinical trials have been conducted in various countries around the world. As of the 30th of January 2021, a total of 91 trials in 27 countries has been recorded at these registration sites.
There are 43 trials in phase 3 and 27 trials in phase 2, along with 17 observational studies. This includes 80 trials being conducted for therapeutic purposes and 11 for the purpose of preventing the onset of disease in close contacts and healthcare professionals.
Furthermore, by the 27th of February, the results of 42 clinical trials, including approximately 15,000 patients (both registered and unregistered studies) have been subjected to a meta-analysis after exclusion of biasing factors. It was found that 83% showed improvements with early treatment, 51% improved during late-stage treatment, and there was an 89% prevention of onset rate noted.
This confirms the usefulness of ivermectin.
Since it is a meta-analysis based on 42 test results, it is estimated that the probability of this comprehensive judgment being a mistake is as low as 1 in 4 trillion. In addition, two separate meta-analyses also showed the usefulness of ivermectin and their conclusions were presented to the WHO and the US FDA with a request for an expansion of the indication of ivermectin in the treatment of COVID-19
ENDQUOTE
“Since it is a meta-analysis based on 42 test results, it is estimated that the probability of this comprehensive judgment being a mistake is as low as 1 in 4 trillion.”
Clearly, the folks making money from selling vaccines and high priced treatments want their territory protected. Also, high-tech medicine needs to be seen as the “way of the future,” so many students in college will decide to follow that path, and thus keep the funding for these institutions going. If problems can be solved with cheap generic drugs and vitamins that anyone can buy off the shelf, medicine (and medical research) cannot maintain its huge place in the US economy. Also, it needs a major place in economies around the world.
September ’77
Port Elizabeth weather fine
It was business as usual
In police room 619
“Biko” is an anti-apartheid protest song by English rock musician Peter Gabriel. It was released by Charisma Records as a single from Gabriel’s eponymous third album in 1980.
The song is a musical eulogy, inspired by the death of the black South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko in police custody on 12 September 1977.
DUPid is set to make tw/t of the year its new ‘leader’ and/ or the first minister of NI, as it lurches back to belligerent fundamentalist extremism. His idiocy actually makes him a ‘good ol’ boy’ in those circles. Moderate voters will move to the Alliance, and SF will take the post of first minister.
The goons fancy that they can weaponize Jesus for the British state. Decent people everywhere say, ‘no’ to DUPid. The “union” is finished. Attacking gays is not going to change that – not for the Vatican and not for the DUP.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-9527011/LEO-MCKINSTRY-DUP-gets-wrong-death-knell-Union.html
> Oddball hoping to take reins in Ulster claims Earth is a mere 6,000 years old
Arlene’s ignominious exit – ousted by her own side over her perceived softness on issues including gay rights and co-operation with Sinn Fein – has dramatically intensified the unionists’ sense of crisis, and may prove the moment where the cries for Irish unity rise to a crescendo.
The tide of history is moving in one direction. Support for a united Ireland is at record levels: one opinion poll last year by Lord Ashcroft showed a slim majority of Northern Irish voters in favour of reunification, while another poll in February put Sinn Fein five points ahead of the DUP. The Republicans are on course to be the largest party in the Stormont Assembly after next year’s elections. Now the DUP faces the first leadership contest in its history.
The favourite to take over from Arlene Foster as leader of the DUP is a creationist who believes the world is only 6,000 years old. Edwin Poots, an agriculture minister in Stormont, announced his intention to stand for the leadership last night.
But the 55-year-old’s religious beliefs have raised eyebrows. In a BBC interview in 2007, Mr Poots said: ‘My view on the Earth is that it’s a young Earth. My view is 4000BC.’
He also questioned the Big Bang Theory, saying: ‘We’ve had lots of explosions in Northern Ireland and I’ve never seen anything come out of that that was good. And you look at this Earth and you tell me that there was a big bang and all of a sudden all that is good about this Earth came out of it?’
He hit out at evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins in the same interview, accusing him of wanting to ‘indoctrinate everyone with evolution’. Mr Poots has also weighed in on the age of the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland – a rock formation consisting of 40,000 interlocking basalt columns.
The visitor attraction, the result of volcanic activity, is estimated by geologists to be up to be 60million years old. Mr Poots told the Belfast Telegraph in 2009: ‘I don’t believe the Giant’s Causeway is 60million years old. If other people make an issue of that, it’s up to them. The Giant’s Causeway is a fantastic site, an asset which needs us to sell it and make it marketable. Whatever length of time it has been in existence will not undermine that message.’
I thought it was 4004 BC.
October 23, 4004 BC but “Ussher wasn’t the only 17th-century scholar to date Creation. Johannes Kepler (1571-1630), who formulated the laws of planetary motion, placed it in 3992 BC. Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727), perhaps the greatest scientist of all time, placed Creation in 4000 BC. Why mock Ussher – and excuse Kepler and Newton?”
It is a cultural thing. Ussher’s date was attached to the King James Bible, which was the Bible of the British state. Persons in UK grew up for centuries with 4004 BC as the commonly received, quasi-official “date” of creation.
DUP types tend to revere KJV as the British Protestant Bible and they continue to defend it as the “best” version regardless of any faults. The C of E has long since produced revised versions, based on different MS, and continues to reconsider the language used.
The dubiety of the KJV (and other common translations) has long been an embarrassment for Protestantism vis a vis the “authority” of religion. Protestants end up with all sorts of doctrinal differences depending on the text used and how they interpret it. DUP types tend to present KJV as quasi-infallible, a divinely protected translation – an alternative to a pope, which is how the problem was located in their culture.
The joke here is on the provincialism of Poots and DUPid, rather than on Ussher or Newton, who were limited by the science of their time.
Poots is simply playing the idiot to epitomise his subculture and to get on in that milieu. Of course, it is a very dangerous thing to let organised idiots, bigots govern a country. DUP is like something from The Land that Time Forgot. NI deserves better than that, and it will receive better.
Edwin Poots is a gem, straight from the 17th century : we need some humour in this dark hour!
Hot off the Nano-Express Train – April 27, 2021
Research collaboration between Germany, Slovenia and Switzerland.
(note the bit about “which may impair subsequent vaccination”.)
Full paper isn’t available yet, but it would be useful to read which are the “several vaccines have been designed based on…”, because they aren’t mRNA tech if I’m reading this right. It sure looks like a lot of somebody’s are figuring-out if there’s a better way to stimulate an adaptive immune response than that of turning our cells into spike-protein factories.
TITLE: A Nanoscaffolded Spike-RBD [receptor binding domain] Vaccine Provides Protection against SARS-CoV-2 with Minimal Anti-Scaffold Response
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33925446/
The response of the adaptive immune system is augmented by multimeric [protein that has multiple polypeptide chains] presentation of a specific antigen, resembling viral particles. Several vaccines have been designed based on natural or designed protein scaffolds, which exhibited a potent adaptive immune response to antigens; however, antibodies are also generated against the scaffold, which may impair subsequent vaccination.
In order to compare polypeptide scaffolds of different size and oligomerization state with respect to their efficiency, including anti-scaffold immunity, we compared several strategies of presentation of the RBD domain of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, an antigen aiming to generate neutralizing antibodies. A comparison of several genetic fusions of RBD to different nanoscaffolding domains (foldon, ferritin, lumazine synthase, and β-annulus peptide) delivered as DNA plasmids demonstrated a strongly augmented immune response, with high titers of neutralizing antibodies and a robust T-cell response in mice.
Antibody titers and virus neutralization were most potently enhanced by fusion to the small β-annulus peptide scaffold, which itself triggered a minimal response in contrast to larger scaffolds. The β-annulus fused RBD protein increased residence in lymph nodes and triggered the most potent viral neutralization in immunization by a recombinant protein. Results of the study support the use of a nanoscaffolding platform using the β-annulus peptide for vaccine design.
Here’s another way they’re going at it.
Note the “innate immunity evasion” reference. Most Covid papers seem to be focused on the adaptive immune system.
TITLE: Lost in deletion: The enigmatic ORF8 protein of SARS-CoV-2
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7577707/
The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) genome contains nine open reading frames (ORFs) that encode for accessory proteins which, although dispensable for viral replication, are important for the modulation of the host infected cell metabolism and innate immunity evasion. Among those, the ORF8 gene encodes for the homonymous multifunctional, highly immunogenic, immunoglobulin-like protein that was recently found to inhibit presentation of viral antigens by class I major histocompatibility complex, suppress the type I interferon antiviral response and interact with host factors involved in pulmonary inflammation and fibrogenesis
Could you elaborate a little on this. I am afraid both of these papers will be completely over my head, if I try to read them. I am also trying to work on a new post, as well, in my “spare” time.
“Chart of the week:
“This week’s chart looks at how the pandemic has driven government debt levels higher, a topic that will be on the agenda at the G7 summit in Cornwall in six weeks’ time.”
https://www.icaew.com/insights/viewpoints-on-the-news/2021/april-2021/chart-of-the-week-the-debt-of-g7-nations
This is an attempt to link to the chart of the week. Needless to say, the debt level of all of the G-7 countries is moving up. Japan has the highest debt level. The US has the highest percentage change.
https://www.icaew.com/-/media/corporate/images/insights/articles/2021/april/chart-of-the-week-30-april.ashx?cx=0.5&cy=0.5&cw=1600&ch=2133
“At least 13 people have been killed, scores injured and 10,000 evacuated after a water dispute led to some of the worst clashes in years on a disputed Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan border.
“Clashes started on Wednesday when people from both sides hurled stones at each other after surveillance cameras were installed at a water facility.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56940011
“With Ethiopia edging closer to unilaterally filling the Renaissance dam’s reservoir for a second time—and thus crossing the “red line” set by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi—it may be up to the United States to help broker a peaceful solution and prevent unrest in the region, which forces of extremism and terrorism would undoubtedly look to exploit…
“Egypt is already facing severe water shortages… the country is almost entirely dependent on the Nile for renewable water.”
https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/04/29/gerd-renaissance-dam-negotiations-biden-ethiopia-egypt/
“India Must Settle the Teesta River Dispute With Bangladesh for Lasting Gains.
“The “Golden Era” in India-Bangladesh relations must also lead to resolution of the most vexing issue between the two.”
https://thediplomat.com/2021/04/india-must-settle-the-teesta-river-dispute-with-bangladesh-for-lasting-gains/
For an upstream country to steal water from a downstream country is contrary to international law. There is a 1955 movie the Egyptians could profitably watch, the
one featuring a “bouncing bomb”.
Water is increasingly becoming a source of conflict among nations.
“India COVID crisis: four reasons it will derail the world economy…
“If the leading powers fail to do everything they can to help out, India’s crisis will become a world crisis in short order, not only for health but also for the economy.”
https://theconversation.com/india-covid-crisis-four-reasons-it-will-derail-the-world-economy-160024
“Should the overstretched Indian healthcare system collapse, it will trigger a humanitarian crisis that would set back the global fight against the coronavirus and reshape the geopolitical map of Asia.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/indias-covid-crisis-could-reach-you-too-11619713949
“A prolonged slump in Indian coal demand threatens a recent recovery in South African prices.”
https://www.argusmedia.com/en/news/2210343-india-slowdown-threatens-s-african-coal-price-outlook?backToResults=true
“India’s worsening COVID outbreak is set to disturb the nearly balanced global oil market, which will show a surplus of oil supply of as much as 1.4 million barrels per day (bpd) next month amid a sizeable loss of demand from the world’s third-largest oil importer, Rystad Energy says.”
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/Rystad-Energy-Indias-COVID-Crisis-Could-Result-In-Global-Oil-Glut.html
Wow! We lose sight of which countries are now the world’s largest oil importers. When I look at the largest importers of oil and oil products in 2019 according to BP, it says:
Europe 579.6 million tons
China 518.3
India 205.3
Japan 167.2
It is possible to look at Europe on a country by country basis. My guess is that if the calculation were done on that basis, the number 1, 2, and 3 importers of oil would be China, India, and Japan.
“The ongoing massive wave of the coronavirus in India is likely to reduce demand for ships amid a slowdown in the South Asian nation’s crude imports, and potentially refined products exports, creating an artificial surplus of such oil tankers.”
https://www.spglobal.com/platts/en/market-insights/latest-news/oil/043021-tankers-demand-to-take-a-hit-as-india-grapples-with-massive-covid-19-wave
The coal problem is a price problem. The greatly depleted mines could produce more, if the prices could be higher. There is no way that the population of South Africa can afford the higher coal prices, which the source of its internal problems. If South Africa can’t sell the coal at high prices elsewhere, it has a real problem.
Poor South Africa certainly looks like one of the most vulnerable emerging markets:
“Speaking at the Rotary Africa Centennial Conference, Finance Minister Mboweni said South Africa’s real GDP per capita stopped growing in 2007 and has now fallen to its 2005 level.”
https://businesstech.co.za/news/finance/486509/south-africas-real-gdp-stopped-growing-14-years-ago-mboweni/
I was looking at an IEA forecast for economic growth issued fairly recently. It says, “With a projected 2021 GDP growth of 9% in China and 12% in India, electricity demand is expected to grow by around 8% in both countries compared with 2020.”
I think the IEA is hallucinating. Most electricity production requires water. Both countries are terribly short of water.
China had rolling blackouts earlier this year, and was forecasting problems later in the year as well. India has lots and lots of problems, one of which is COVID-19.
“China’s Hidden Bank Assets Are Emerging from the Shadows.
“Lenders are being pushed to recognize $1.3 trillion of products sold in racier times. That could prove costly.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2021-04-29/china-s-hidden-debts-are-emerging-from-the-shadows
“China Reports Slowdown in Manufacturing and Services Activity, Economic Recovery…
“The figures showed “China’s economy continued to recover steadily,” but “some surveyed companies said problems such as chip shortages, poor international logistics, shortages of containers, and rising freight rates are still serious,” NBS economist Zhao Qinghe said in a note.”
https://www.investing.com/news/economic-indicators/china-reports-slowdown-in-manufacturing-and-services-activity-economic-recovery-2490870
From the article:
This sounds like a big mess. I expect that banks will cut back on other lending, in an attempt to offset the effect of this big mess. Such a cutback will impair China’s economy’s economic growth. China’s economy looks a lot like a big debt bubble. This is not too different from Japan, the US, and Europe.
“Alex” is funny today:
https://www.alexcartoon.com/index.cfm?cartoon_num=7896
Sounds like a helpful hint to workers going back to the office.
“The Guns And Butter Era Has Returned, Bringing Inflation With It.
“Economists often refer to the era of the late 1960s as the “Guns and Butter” era, as that administration chose to pursue several ambitious goals at once, all of which required significant and sustained increases in fiscal spending along with an expanding budget deficit.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamstrauss/2021/04/29/the-guns-and-butter-era-has-returned-bringing-inflation-with-it/?sh=3de054b77354
“Soaring timber prices are just one more sign that inflation is on the way.
“The price of lumber has risen by more than 230% since the onset of the coronavirus crisis and timber is now trading at all time highs of around US$1,188 per thousand board feet.”
https://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/companies/news/948056/soaring-lumber-prices-are-just-one-more-sign-that-inflation-is-on-the-way-948056.html
The 1960s was an era of rising consumption of cheap energy. It made sense to do everything at once: guns and butter.
Today, all countries can do is print money and try to redistribute resources to failing companies and workers that can’t get jobs. This is completely the opposite.
“La Nina Gives a Turbocharge Boost to Already High Food Prices.
“The prospect of a U.S. drought — and difficult weather almost everywhere else — has prices soaring.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-04-29/la-nina-is-pushing-up-food-prices-and-making-inflation-fears-worse
“Argentine farmers struggling to ship their crops through increasingly shallow rivers may soon face a new obstacle: one of the world’s key soy waterways needs to be dredged, and there’s no firm plan for who will do it.”
https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/economy/soy-shipping-turmoil-deepens-with-transport-ministers-death.phtml
We cannot count on favorable weather. When there was lots of margin in the system, that didn’t matter as much.
“The eurozone economy fell into a second recession in less than a year in the first quarter, data showed on Friday, as slow vaccinations and pandemic lockdowns stopped a rebound…
“Germany was the major drag on growth in January to March period, with exports unable to overcome a steep drop in demand by discouraged consumers.”
https://news.yahoo.com/eurozone-enters-double-dip-recession-090002666.html
“Meat and seafood, particularly exports by small firms, are paying the highest price for the Brexit deal, and pressure is growing to lighten the burden of paperwork.
“German businesses that are used to UK supply are now paying higher costs and looking elsewhere for more reliable partners.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-56931396
Not exactly like the reported 6.4% annual rate of growth reported by the US.
“Margin debt and leverage are flashing red, again. Much of the froth in US markets is being driven by unusual liquidity flows that may reverse soon…
“Data collected by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority shows that total margin debt across Wall Street hit $822bn by the end of March — *after* Archegos had failed. That was almost double the $479bn level of this time last year and far more than the around $400bn peak that margin debt reached in 2007, just before the financial crisis.”
https://www.ft.com/content/ac7cfe19-54a5-4e9a-b059-bbce3e78e354
Wow!
Pay attention because this could be epoch-making, or at the very least mind-boggling.
A paper was posted in Nature Immunology in January this year entitled SARS-CoV-2-derived peptides define heterologous and COVID-19-induced T cell recognition
I’ve browsed it and found it very heavy going, but it is saying some important things that have generally been overlooked. The abstract reads:
“T cell immunity is central for the control of viral infections. To characterize T cell immunity, but also for the development of vaccines, identification of exact viral T cell epitopes is fundamental. Here we identify and characterize multiple dominant and subdominant SARS-CoV-2 HLA class I and HLA-DR peptides as potential T cell epitopes in COVID-19 convalescent and unex- posed individuals. SARS-CoV-2-specific peptides enabled detection of post-infectious T cell immunity, even in seronegative convalescent individuals. Cross-reactive SARS-CoV-2 peptides revealed pre-existing T cell responses in 81% of unexposed individuals and validated similarity with common cold coronaviruses, providing a functional basis for heterologous immunity in SARS-CoV-2 infection. Diversity of SARS-CoV-2 T cell responses was associated with mild symptoms of COVID-19, providing evidence that immunity requires recognition of multiple epitopes. Together, the proposed SARS-CoV-2 T cell epitopes enable identification of heterologous and post-infectious T cell immunity and facilitate development of diagnostic, preventive and therapeutic measures for COVID-19.”
Most people would have difficulty making much sense even of the abstract, but among the tech-speak in this paper are some real gems. Blogger Karl Denninger points out one of the most important:
“I will start right here with what you do not want to read,” he writes, “but you damn well should before you take the shots.
This T cell-mediated immune response is even more important as studies on humoral immunity to SARS-CoV-1 provided evidence that antibody responses are short-lived and can even cause or aggravate virus-associated lung pathology
Note that when you get the shot the first thing you get is antibodies; you may get a T-cell reaction. This pre-existing knowledge, from SARS (CoV-1) entirely explains why people who just got vaccinated often get hammered by the virus and frequently end up in the hospital or die. It marks the premise of attempting to vaccinate out of a pandemic where transmission is actively occurring as stupid.
You go get the shot. Five days later you get the virus. You have not yet developed immunity and the partial expression makes it worse.
You would have been better off, by far, taking the same infection straight up front. It likely would have harmed you less.
This generally applies, by the way, to all vaccines and all viruses. The government and researchers know this. They’ve known this for decades. It’s fact. It’s why you don’t wait until the measles is raging around you to get a measles vaccine and the same is true for the flu shot; you get it before the flu season starts for this very reason. Attempting to vaccinate out of a raging infection does not work and in fact kills people.
Yeah, if you don’t get infected during that latent period you get protection. But if you do get infected you’re screwed and all of the two-dose shots have a roughly four week window during which you get hosed instead of protected. Israel’s data, by the way, proves this is real; Berenson has been reporting on it since the beginning of the year and I’ve noted it as well.”
The above seems to be in broad agreement with the warning from Geert Vanden Boosche about the folly of pursuing universal immunization during a panic.
Please read the whole article, and the comments. They are entertaining as well as educational. for instance, did you know that the percentage of people who seem to be naturally immune to Covid-19 is 81%? This figure comes from the Nature paper, and Karl explains its relevance. The “vaccine” makers claim their products can boost immunity in about 80% of people, and Dr. Fauci claims that we need 80% of people to be double-jabbed in order to achieve heard immunity. And around 80% also happens to be the rough percentage of alleged Covid-19 infections that were either asymptomatic or very low-symptom for which no medical treatment was sought and, in many cases, not detected.
Interesting how that 80% figure keeps coming up. And if 80% of us are immune anyway, the whole thing is a scam.
https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=242205
I agree that the blog article is well worth reading. I haven’t gotten to the comments yet. I am sure that the academic article is over my head.
According to the blog article, there are two different pieces of the virus, (1) the nucleocapsid section, which allows for virus reproduction, and (2) the spike protein, which “standing alone, is pathological.”
As I understand the article, the vaccine only encodes for the spike protein, not for the nucleocapsid portion. The T-cell protection seems to come from encountering the nucleocapsid portion of the cell. The spike protein gives antibody response to the virus, but this response is very temporary.
According to the article:
The vaccines perhaps should have used only the nucleocapsid portion of the cell, inactivated. We don’t know for certain that it is not pathogenic, but it quite possibly is not pathogenic. If we had gone this route, we perhaps could have gotten safe vaccines that really worked.
Good one Tim. Thanks. I read Karl all the way through this thing. He’s a bright guy and I really like his comment section for lots of on-the-ground insights from business owners, truck drivers and people who understand how close we are to the edge.
This one is similarly oriented to the innate immune system. I posted it on April 12 and thought it noteworthy because macrophages are so important in immune function. They’re right on the front-lines literally everywhere. One can imagine the effect of cells being induced to produce spike proteins that end up impairing macrophage function.
TITLE: Is SARS-CoV-2 Spike glycoprotein impairing macrophage function via α7-nicotinic acetylcholine receptors?
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278691521002179?via%3Dihub
Here’s from Wiki on Macrophages
Macrophages (abbreviated as Mφ, MΦ or MP) (Greek: large eaters, from Greek μακρός (makrós) = large, φαγεῖν (phagein) = to eat) are a type of white blood cell of the immune system that engulfs and digests anything that does not have on its surface proteins specific to healthy body cells, including cancer cells, microbes, cellular debris, foreign substances, etc. The process is called phagocytosis, which acts to defend the host against infection and injury.
These large phagocytes are found in essentially all tissues, where they patrol for potential pathogens by amoeboid movement. They take various forms (with various names) throughout the body (e.g., histiocytes, Kupffer cells, alveolar macrophages, microglia, and others), but all are part of the mononuclear phagocyte system. Besides phagocytosis, they play a critical role in nonspecific defense (innate immunity) and also help initiate specific defense mechanisms (adaptive immunity) by recruiting other immune cells such as lymphocytes. For example, they are important as antigen presenters to T cells. In humans, dysfunctional macrophages cause severe diseases such as chronic granulomatous disease that result in frequent infections.
Beyond increasing inflammation and stimulating the immune system, macrophages also play an important anti-inflammatory role and can decrease immune reactions through the release of cytokines. Macrophages that encourage inflammation are called M1 macrophages, whereas those that decrease inflammation and encourage tissue repair are called M2 macrophages. This difference is reflected in their metabolism;
M1 macrophages have the unique ability to metabolize arginine to the “killer” molecule nitric oxide, whereas M2 macrophages have the unique ability to metabolize arginine to the “repair” molecule ornithine. However, this dichotomy has been recently questioned as further complexity has been discovered.
Human macrophages are about 21 micrometres (0.00083 in) in diameter[9] and are produced by the differentiation of monocytes in tissues.
Macrophages were first discovered by Élie Metchnikoff, a Russian zoologist, in 1884.[11]
I am sure I have heard Dr. Sherri Tenpenny talking about the macrophage issue on one of her videos.
“The above seems to be in broad agreement with the warning from Geert Vanden Boosche about the folly of pursuing universal immunization during a panic.”
Except that the above text directly contradicts Vanden Bossche’s claims. The above text says that vaccination creates a window of opportunity for the virus to attack a weakened immune system, possibly killing the recently vaccinated person. While Vanden Bossche claims that vaccination will put additional evolutionary pressure on the virus, the mutated virus will spread, and eventually become an “uncontrollable monster”.
“Global Chip Shortage Hits Apple, BMW, Ford as Crisis Worsens.
“The global chip shortage is going from bad to worse with automakers on three continents joining tech giants Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. in flagging production cuts and lost revenue from the crisis.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-29/auto-chip-shortage-crisis-worsens-with-bmw-ford-succumbing
something that has puzzled me about this chip ‘shortage’… where are all the chips going? the fabs have not, by whatever accounts i’ve seen/ reduced production. so is somebody buying all these chips, and somehow whoever is buying them is getting top priority on everything produced such that long term major customers are not getting enough?
I think part of this is the fact that automakers cut back on future orders of chips a year ago because they expected auto sales to stay low for quite a while. Auto chips are bottom of the line, inexpensive chips, by and large.
At the same time, there was an increase in demand for other kinds of chips for the many workers working at home and for the many school children needing laptops to work from. I expect new 5G applications have added to the demand for chips as well.
Chipmakers headed for the kinds of chips with the most profit margin in them. The auto makers got left out.
There are production issues too. It is difficult to ramp up world production, even slowly. Taiwan is the largest producer. It is suffering a drought. Water is needed in chip making. Allocations have been cut back from farmers, to give the chip-makers more. I don’t know whether chip-making is actually down, or not. With the limits it is facing, it is hard for its production to rise.
China has tried to enter the chip production market, but so far has been fairly unsuccessful. The factory must be very clean, have the right equipment, and have trained workers. Even ordering new chip-making equipment presents a hurdle. Such equipment seems to be on back order.
This is my interpretation of what I remember from recent articles. Please correct me if I am wrong.
I imagine producers worked through inventory assuming they could quickly return to production. Now they find themselves competing with everyone else who did the same thing.
Thank you for the cogent explanation
The Leak… The Leak….
Hi Fast Eddy. Did The Leak say anything about The Stock Market? The Fed Reserve Feb 2021 Stress Test did mention 3rd quarter 2021 for a big dump of 50% in equities.
“Shipping Delays and Supply Shortages to Constrain Firms All Year.
“Companies worldwide expect supply-chain constraints resulting from logistics backlogs and the global semiconductor shortage to continue for much of this year.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2021-04-29/supply-chains-latest-shipping-delays-to-restrict-firms-all-year
It is easy to believe that shipping delays will continue.
In March 2020, when the outbreak in Italy started, I advised my family to buy electronics (especially mobile phones, computers) they expect to be buying in the next year or so, because of probable supply chain disruptions.
Did I time-travel to October 2020, read the ‘Canadian leak’, and time-travel back? No. I just read Zerohedge.
Check this out … almost every story is Covid related
https://www.ctvnews.ca/
MSM is useful for knowing what our teachers want us to believe, and as such to show us where the truth is NOT. Therefore, I think it is appropriate to take a look at MSM every day (I’m refering to online newspapers – tv news I haven’t seen for a long time).
But I would say that more than 15 minutes of daily exposure to MSM is potentially harmful to the brain and corrosive to the soul. In fact, I’m beginning to think the most sensible course of action would be to banish all MSM from my attention. Is not even funny anymore (in a schadenfreuden way), only unnerving or depressing.
teachers means masters, of course. (Google-translator s*cks!).
Agree… I scan headlines.. seldom read an article…
Even 5 mins of the make-up caked ‘news’ presenters and TV hosts is too much! I cannot bear to watch Boris Johnson and his minions except with the sound mute.
Even viewing of the good stuff has to be limited, as it’s dispiriting in accumulated effect.
And yet one has to keep one’s finger on the pulse.
Maybe this our Purgatory, and we will soon be released – Blessed Spirits and Seekers of Truth that we are?
Fauci and Uncle Bill are working on that release, I believe……
Fail… hahaha… notice the cops crawling all over the place… sounds like a Fun night out!!!
https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/3131668/coronavirus-silent-comeback-hong-kong-bars-after
Villagers in India dont seem to want the VAX. https://www.bitchute.com/video/fKS4Gyi5vkFq/
USA economy grew at 6% this quarter. Widespread lack of availability of building materials. Not just lumber. Wire and electrical boxes not available many many places. When a electrician finds some he buys 1000 not 2 dozen which doesnt help. Conduit prices double. Limits to buying of many materials in place in most big box stores and some other retail outlets.
I wouldnt call it BAU but its better than death by lockdown I guess. What is ahead?? I know not.
More…more! more! I still think that that the PTB are manipulating oil…..it was high oil that crashed everything in 2008 and but they want us to believe it was the housing debacle of giving people bad loans!!! Housing prices are crazy now and all over people think that this time everything is different…and material cost are just what they are…
I know that they say people are not driving as much and not traveling as much but look out your front door! Go to a restaurant they are all packed. The only industry down is cruise ships….
I think they know that if oil goes up above 70$ its all over…yes there may be less use of oil but there is also less supply out there as most fracking has been shut in.
yearly world oil usage is about 30 billion barrels x $65 is about $2 trillion so if oil goes to low $70s then it’s $2.2 trillion so you might be able to see that’s not a big deal. 2011-2014 oil plateau was about $100 and in today’s dollars that would be about $120. So oil is still on a half price sale compared to that recent plateau. Oil is at an excellent price for personal and business usage. There are many bigger problems than oil prices.
The high oil prices were paid with credits (a promise on the productivity of tomorrow) that are not available today. Without covid supply could not match demand, that is quite obvious.
The point is not a little shift in prices but if productivity growth pumped by fossile energy can still boost economy. When this pump breaks what looks like a temporary recession will become a structural permanent downturn.
To illustrate it: car sales are declining everywhere because people dont have the money and dont trust the future enough for a credit. Car manufaction is a huge driver of economy. Add the deaths of covid and/or vaccinations. Do you expect house prices to go up or down?
“When this pump breaks what looks like a temporary recession will become a structural permanent downturn.” I think we are already here because net (surplus) energy is now turning to decrease after centuries of increase. It is structural and irreversible.
Part of the problem is that the economy is reaching limits in many ways. There is less fresh water per capita in a lot of parts of the world. This, besides oil and coal problems represents a huge challenge for economic growth.
This was a new author to me this week. Apparently 80 or so non-renewable resources are reaching limits. https://www.readblip.com/
“Clugston’s previous work includes “Scarcity – Humanity’s Final Chapter?”, the definitive resource pertaining to NNR scarcity.” I haven’t read the book, but I’ve seen the list and it is more confirmation that IC is in the endgame of diminishing returns. And I can never remember his name later on. Clugston Clugston Clugston.
One thought: The inflation adjustment is biased downward. (For housing, it is now set at 2% per year, and housing amounts to 25% of expected spending.) The calculation is made by looking at the growth in total goods and services and backing out the artificially low inflation adjustment. This will tend to give a high net GDP growth rate.
‘Don’t want to be guinea pigs’: Most govt hospital health workers in Delhi refuse to take COVID-19 vaccine
‘A majority of us do not want to be guinea pigs. Most of us have decided to wait, though we all gave our names,” said a health worker at AIIMS
Ahead of the COVID-19 vaccination drive set to begin on January 16 across the country, it has come to light that less than 30% of health workers (doctors, nurses, lab technicians and paramedical staff) in six government-run hospitals in Delhi have opted-in for the vaccination. Most health workers submitted their details three weeks ago, but during confirmation calls made during the last two days, most have opted out.
National Herald spoke to health workers working in All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital (RML), Safdarjung Hospital, Lok Nayak Hospital and Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital.
At AIIMS, RML and Safdarjung Hospitals, health workers will be administered Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin vaccine, while at the other two hospitals, Covishield vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India will be administered. Covishield will be administered at 75 centres while Covaxin doses will be given at the remaining six facilities.
According to sources, at AIIMS, 150 health workers are on the first list of the 12,000 employees at the Hospital. However, of these, less than 50 of them have agreed to get the vaccine on January 16. While phones of several health workers were switched off, some of those who opted out said that they have already recovered from Covid-19. Others said they were not in the city.
“We are not against the vaccine. I will tell everyone to take the vaccine, but I am not yet ready to take a vaccine for which the trials have not even been completed. A majority of us do not want to be guinea pigs. This is going to be the largest trial. Most of us have decided to wait, though we all gave our names,” said a health worker at AIIMS.
At Lok Nayak Hospital, less than 75 health workers have signed up to be vaccinated on January 16. Of these, 58 are doctors, 11 nurses, six paramedical staff and two support staff. As some of them are above the age of 50, they have been removed from the list. Most doctors on the list are senior residents and post-graduate students.
“ list of 100 beneficiaries have been prepared,” said Dr Suresh Kumar, Medical Director of the central Delhi-based hospital.
Asked if his own name was on the list, Dr Kumar said that 4,000 health workers from Lok Nayak Hospital had given their names for vaccination. “I don’t know if my name is on the list. The names are randomly generated. No one knows whose names are on the list. It will come from the District Surveillance Officer,” he contended.
https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/india/dont-want-to-be-guinea-pigs-most-health-workers-in-delhi-govt-hospitals-refuse-to-take-covid-19-vaccine
This is just so totally f789ing ridiculous… but people believe it! Of course there needs to be a hitch on one of the flights… can’t seem to easy…
https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/nasas-mars-helicopter-push-limits-fourth-flight
A drone can fly for about 15-30 minutes on average for most of the popular drones available.1\https://www.droneomega.com/how-long-can-a-drone-fly/
We had a guy take some photos of our property with a drone a month or so back… it was a bit windy … he crashed into a tree and the drone was ruined…
What I am wondering is how it is possible to control a drone from 302.24 million km away… would there not be massive lag … surely the signal would take forever to reach the drone … and how is the drone recharging… does it dock with the landing vehicle and recharge using solar? How does it dock… does a guy at NASA toggle it in from 300 million km?
This is total nonsense… I wonder how many people out of nearly 8B question this… I suspect only a handful…. ‘they’ wouldn’t lie – would they? What would be the purpose?
It took Fast Eddy quite some time to determine the purpose of the fake moon landings and these forays to the other planets… so for the average 180IQ monkey to work that out … is impossible.
FE, you should give up on the fake Moon landings. BTW, a 180 IQ describes some very intelligent people. the record seems to be a Korean (South) engineer with a verified IQ of 210, per this site: https://patch.com/california/alameda/an–worlds-most-intelligent-people-2010-intelligent-p104fa58fba
Not sure why Bill Gates is considered so brilliant … money is not a measure of brilliance… as Gladwell states…. a monkey with an IQ 0f 120 has the horsepower to do just about anything….
In any event … all the circus monkeys on that list added together do not approach the Entity Known as Fast Eddy.
Kim Jong-un claims to be on the level of Fast Eddy … but he also claims to go around 18 holes in 18 shots….
Doomphd,
can you answer my questions below about the Moon Landing?
David refused, so I was hoping someone could.
Unlike FE, I don’t think everything is a conspiracy. I also don’t consider myself very smart so I need to ask and study in order to figure things out.
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks!
not too sure why present NASA staff do not recognize the Apollo program? I did not know this to be the case. the Moon landing deniers seem to focus on the photos taken. my take on this is most do not understand the lighting conditions on the surface of the Moon, cast shadows, black horizons, etc. and therefore think they are faked.
there is plenty of hard evidence of Moon materials returned to Earth. the rocks have a distinct chemical signature. deniers think they were collected on Earth from meteorite falls, but how to explain samples of the regolith, which is very fine grained?
also, one of the landing crews left a beacon or reflecting mirror on the Moon’s surface that can be seen from Earth. I think that is hard to fake.
radiation exposure was and is a problem. it was not lethal, because the astronauts returned OK. they likely got exposed, but no long-term damages reported. RT periods were on a week timeframe. longer exposure periods would be much riskier.
in a fews years, when we reoccupy the Moon, the evidence of prior landings will be obvious from the debris and footprints left behind.
What did Fast Eddy determine to be the purpose of the fake moon landings?
They were faked at the same time as oil in the US peaked… the purpose is to convince the cattle that we can do anything — technology will overcome — so no need to worry about oil or any other resources running out.
I have been told by people that we could re-capture burned carbon and create more oil … not yet but it’s possible…. like a perpetual motion machine… amusing given most of the plastic we use cannot be recycled…
Also – it demonstrated that once we completely denuded the planet… we would set out for new pastures… Star Trek launched in 1966….
Well reasoned. Thank you.
Is it safe to assume you put the Space Force, Nikola Tesla’s free energy, cold fusion, and the cabal hiding technologies (aka Trumps inauguration speech) from the Cattle all in the same scheme to placate us indefinitely?
hi Herb. so are you new here? I hope you stay around. Though your “well reasoned” affirmation of Foil Eddie is reeeeediculous. If you don’t know, doom PHD has his degree in Science, so you might want to give his above comment far more weight than the lightweight tin Foil Eddie. FYI. peace, dude.
Grovelling for respect is so …. feeble.
also Moondenier is a new religion which has been phooling many persons lately.
David, I was hoping you would actually contribute to the debate. Why do you talk past FE’s questions?
As a Moon Landing agnostic, I have a question that would help me decide: if the Moon Landing was real, why does NASA behaves like they never did it? I can put here links but just watch/read any recent documentary/article about the attempt by the US to go “back” to the Moon.
Why do they say that the radiation issue is not yet solved? Why do they say they need 20 years to figure out how to land on the Moon and return?
Most official NASA scientists never mention the previous Moon Landing when talking about future plans, but this one does:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16MMZJlp_0Y
Can you please answer instead of a drive by dismissal?
sorry Nomad but in my opinion this Moooondenier reeligion fairly deserves only drive-by comments. In my opinion, this topic lessens the value of OFW. Once again, I defer to the comment above by the man with the science phd. peace, dude.
Michael Collins has just died aged 90 in Naples, Florida. God rest his soul.
It is reported that he died from cancer. BUT… one can’t help wondering… did he get the Jab? Or did they do him in to prevent him from spilling the beans on the Apollo 11 mission?
I like the dots you connected there. We know he was exposed to much radiation on his roundtrip to the mooon, so cancer was not unexpected. The jab? I would guess that he definitely was jabbed so add that to the weak cancer patient and poof he’s gone!
According to NASA, “It generally takes about 5 to 20 minutes for a radio signal to travel the distance between Mars and Earth, depending on planet positions.” So there isn’t going to be time for the operator and the drone to hold the conversation: “Mind that rock!” …. “What rock?” …. SPLAT!!!
so the entire batch of sigals for the half minute flight would have to be sent as one package.
signals = flight instructions.
One of the things i immediately remarked to my wife: how can that thing even fly there ? The atmospheric density on Mars is like only a few percent of Earth i think ?? Seems like a problem for a propeller to generate enough lift….. Of course that is assuming that they actually determined Mars atmosphere accurately.
Then again, i’m “only” a simple biologist, not an physics expert. The problem is once you catch governments and media in the midst of a really big lie you just can’t help but wonder about a lot of other things and just how big they could really go….
Ty, thiis is why the blades are large and spin extremely fast.
correct Ed, the copter was well engineered for the very thin Martian atmosphere.
FE, it is NOT controlled from Earth. It is controlled locally by the on board computer. It has on board solar cells to recharge.
Hahahahahaha…. hahahahahahha…. see — we can do ANYTHING!!!!
So that DelusiSTANIS will believe this is real…
The search for life in space just took a big leap forward. Researchers working on the New Earths in the Alpha Centauri Region (NEAR) project, funded by entrepreneur Yuri Milner’s Breakthrough Initiatives, have potentially discovered a new planet in the habitable zone of the nearby star Alpha Centauri A, located 4.37 light-years from Earth. Their report was published in the Nature Communications journal this week.
https://www.travelandleisure.com/trip-ideas/space-astronomy/new-possible-planet-alpha-centauri-region
Cool, we need to send a probe to go into orbit around Alpha Centauri A so we ca communicate with our neighbors.
Agreed!
me too! 😉
Nanobody technology – probably even better than Ivermectin when they figure it out.
Note that these nanobodies can be made from bacteria (and yeast) like Ivermectin is. They mention eliminating the risk of Antibody Dependent Enhancement of Infection (ADE), as well as an existing nanobody therapy in Europe for a Trombocytopenic condition.
April 22, 2021
Just in from the New England Journal of Medicine
Preparing for the Future — Nanobodies for Covid-19?
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMcibr2101205?query-featured_coronavirus=
Koenig et al. have contributed to the growing number of studies that have isolated nanobodies against SARS-CoV-2. Owing to the relatively small size of nanobodies, they have favorable biophysical properties and are cheaper to produce than standard monoclonal antibodies. Their small size and their long, heavy-chain complementarity-determining regions enable them to target concave epitopes such as the receptor-binding site of the spike protein.
Nanobodies can be made with the use of prokaryotic expression systems (e.g., from bacteria or yeast) because they lack the glycan-harboring Fc domain, making them easier to manufacture than standard monoclonal antibodies. The absence of an Fc region eliminates the risk of antibody-dependent enhancement of infection, but it also shortens the half-life, which could plausibly be addressed through attachment to or amalgamation with polyethylene glycol or human serum albumin. Moreover, nanobodies can be nebulized and delivered straight to the lungs of a patient with Covid-19 with an inhaler, thus presenting a better logistic alternative to intravenously administered antibodies. Aerosol formulation of nanobodies has shown promising nonclinical results.
Although nanobodies are under clinical investigation for use in a wide range of diseases from cancer to infectious diseases, it was the approval of caplacizumab (an anti–von Willebrand factor bivalent nanobody) by the European Medicines Agency and the FDA for the treatment of thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura and thrombosis that marked the foray of nanobodies into clinical medicine.
Thanks! This does sound promising.
From “ Confessions of an Engineered Nanoparticle”:
“This is my story of how I am often mistaken as a virus . . .
“It seems an appropriate time to speak out.
“I am not a naturally occurring nanoparticle (i.e., produced by cosmic dust, volcanic activity, forest fires, iron mining, wind erosion, or solar energy).
“I am synthesized for nano-bio interface projects that are often kept secret from civilians. I am called an engineered nanoparticle, or ENP.
“I am not produced by gain-of-function virus research projects. However, it may be helpful to review that work and its implications in some instances.
“I may cause certain conditions that can be mis-attributed to viruses, but are instead novel forms of cytotoxicity produced by oxidative stress from ENPs, which I call nano-bio cytotoxicosis.
“I am designed to enter into the human body by targeting the ACE2 receptor, thereby gaining quick and easy access to the neurological system. Once engaged and aggregated in the nervous system, ENPs like me can wreak havoc, including vast and obscure adverse health effects. As a neurotoxicant, one of my more mild effects is to inactivate a person’s sense of taste and smell. This occurs because I hijack neurons, and tend to ‘knockout’ receptors, causing slight perturbations of synapse function where the neurological signaling for taste and smell transpires. Over the years, I (and naturally occurring nanoparticles) have been a causal factor in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
“Depending on where I take refuge in the human body, I can cause inflammation (especially in organs) and create macrophages (which lead to antibody, cytokine, and exosome production). This inflammation results from generating reactive oxygen species (ROS). My presence and bio-distribution results in oxidative stress (and therefore, production of ROS), which can be mistaken as a viral infection.
“Allow me to tell you more about myself . . . “
https://pieceofmindful.com/2021/04/23/confessions-of-an-engineered-nanoparticle/
This sounds disturbing!
Wow….Thanks.
We are definitely guinea pigs in sorcerer’s apprentices labs.
I am still wondering why Sweden has not achieved herd immunity…. is this because the ‘virus’ has engineered in this manner … or perhaps the lockdowns and vaccines alter the ‘virus’ ensuring herd immunity is never reached?
Always fun visiting Mark’s site. That’s a heck of a rabbit-hole that nano subject. The links below the article have some fascinating titles. I got into a couple of them and some of the lecture slides at the bottom series. Presently reading this one. https://pieceofmindful.com/2021/04/05/part-7-the-endgame-one-web-to-rule-them-all/
I read stuff there back in 2016 for awhile. Posted my thought on his Sam Cooke became Louis Farrakhan hypothesis. I don’t think he had the twin part of the deal back then, which means he (they) update articles without being clear about the transition. I’m pretty sure it was a straight one-to-one facial analysis back then; which was easily dismissed by just reviewing early NOI pictures of Farrakhan. They left it uncorrected for a long time and now I think it’s been elaborated to include twins and geneology. If I knew how to use the Web Archive stuff I could compare and see if my memory serves.
https://pieceofmindful.com/2016/10/10/louie-your-goose-is-cooked/
I looked at the link given today. It has a lot more to say than just what is in the article. The article (which is “fictional”), has a huge number of references at the end. The author writes under the pseudonym. Based on some of his comments, he is a holistic health practitioner. Otherwise, there is no biography given for him. There are very large number of comments at the end of the article, which the author has answered.
Seems like a technology desperate for a reason to exist. There simply aren’t that many “patients with Covid-19” to make all of the “science” around it justified.
I know the paper talks about a variety of applications, but… the third leading cause of death in the US is medical misadventure it is said. What is this system *as a whole* doing to us?
I would possibly turn that on its head and ask what kind of people are we creating a system like that. No?
Perhaps, just perhaps the system isn’t any better than its constituency?
🤔
Sigh. It’s probably all down to the MPP. Easy to lose sight of that even though it ends up explaining why all the “wrong” things seem to keep happening.
And those ‘philosophies’ originate from where?
It is the Nietzsche ‘core’, an immutable ‘truth’, within people that in most cases simply is a reflection of everybody else. A hard coded set of ‘rules’ – raison d’être of the Jungian collective unconscious.
However crazy and absurd, it is still followed as the unwritten book of what society ‘expects’ of you.
I don’t know a way out of this quagmire set in motion. I guess this is the human condition, nobody escapes it. There is always this evanescent psychosocial ‘sting’ of not conforming. Personally, I try to dodge it as much as possible, still there it is. It gets easier with age, however the malice is partly coded in society and partly in ‘Mr DNA’.
But hey, it is what it is and soon summertime is here. Time for some cycling in nature. I’ll keep my rubber shod hoofs off the flowers, bees and butterflies flapping around carried by the winds of time. It is all very beautiful.
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0229/3678/0878/products/Curiosity_II_Small_5567ba9d-8aa2-42f8-8429-8ae815c4450a_530x@2x.jpg
☺️
1 billion vaccine doses have been administered now. Severe side effects seems to be quite rare.
My boss got the Pfizer vaccine yesterday. No side effects…yet.
Israel used the Pfizer vaccine and daily Covid cases have dropped from 10,000 to 100.
The MSM told you that right?
Easy to manipulate infection numbers — just test less… and if any official were to say anything … they’d be called a conspiracy theorist and their career ruined.
The issues with mRNA vaccines, Pfizer and Moderna, and possibly the others too, I am not sure about them, is that the bad effects including death don’t usually kick in en-masse until the following ‘flu season’. So it is a pretty good way to get rid of a lot of people Nazi-extermination style. A few months window-of-opportunity to get as many as possible vaxxed.
Most people (here in the UK anyway) watch and absorb whatever they see on the TV news (think BBC), and for months believe everything is fine and dandy, especially with the better weather and shops / pubs re-opening, encouraging others to join them to take the ‘experimental’ drugs. Then October comes along and the mRNA-vaccinated start dropping like flies.(due to lower Vitamin D levels – the ‘flu season’). Although there are other reasons to believe that the dropping-like-flies might come sooner. Not sure myself, difficult to keep up. Many excellent videos have been posted here.
Stupid monkeys are we.
Quote: Deep in the Lancashire countryside This is a field of lettuce growing under fleece. Where is the birdsong, flowers, insects ? A silent ‘factory field’ Food choices impact biodiversity, soil health and more…
https://twitter.com/lowcarbGP/status/1387661543177867265
Monocrops are the opposite of the natural order of things.
Happens all the time
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JH4-L7L_GuI
Like it when the clear cut a diversified forest and replant with one fast type of growing trees in rows and claim that it is renewable…
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=olbbhTSwDIk
Thanks
Sad indeed, especially since arboreal monocultures are *not* renewable.
Trees coevolved to defend each other against predators; if you plant only one kind of tree your plantation is liable to become infested by insects, bacteria, or other tree eating organisms. And once they establish themselves in the soil you can write off that land.
Good points!
The sooner that industrial capitalism collapses in Britain, the better it will be for the island itself.
I have given up any hope of protecting the island before that happens.
They are building more and more new homes out here in the countryside, trashing old real ‘places’ full of character. I have seen many old fields go over the past decade.
Productivity growth is entirely collapsed at near zero, and GDP growth now relies entirely on labour expansion to keep the profit and growth based capitalist economy going.
The ‘greens’ never talk about the ongoing labour expansion from outside, because then they could no longer pass as ‘right on’. No one wants to get labelled a ‘racist’, so the state has a free hand.
Britain has hardly any agriculture, it really is not the problem. One can drive for hours and never see a single crop. It is the house building and population expansion that is doing the damage.
It will take an holistic socio-economic solution, and collapse itself will do the trick. There is no other realistic solution, anyway. The capitalist state will fall when industrial capitalism itself falls.
Anything in the meantime is just personal vanity and ‘moral’ posturing. “Look at what a right on, caring person I am!”
Many of us will be gone when it happens, and what we thought or felt, how we postured, will be neither here nor there. It really is not about us.
Nature wins in the end.
Calling it a ‘labour’ expansion is not quite right. Rather an ‘useful’ consumerist and materialist expansion. Very few in IC is remotely productive as in actually being able to produce something of value to anyone.
“Many of us will be gone when it happens, and what we thought or felt, how we postured, will be neither here nor there. It really is not about us.
Nature wins in the end.”
The posturing is cheap. Turning the cranks and chewing oats is real.
Damn right nature “wins” in the end. Death is inevitable, extinction not optional.
There is only one thing of any importance:
1. The process of evolution
The beauty of mindless process outputting minds, however flawed and blinded by the myopia of the ordinary. Not bad at all when you think about it, yet too flawed, too broken to prevail.
Let it rain.
🌍☄️☄️☄️
I have asked you before not to keep replying to me. If you have something of your own to say then say it in the open space, not to me.
Take a look into the European Alps, pine monocultures occur naturally there – also at areas that are too steep to be harvested.
I have been in the European alps. They are not monocultures. Below the trees is a layer of shrubs and other small plants, all helping to contribute to the ecosphere. And below them are mosses and lichens also unique to that environment.
An artificial monoculture first clears the ground of these “weeds”, and the disaster follows.
They have too much time and money on their hands.
Cultural figures across Europe are calling on the EU to make clear that the door to EU membership is still wide open to Scotland, before the independence referendum is held following next week’s elections. That makes sense.
EU membership has clear support in Scotland, and one referendum on independence can suffice. Scotland will then be back in the EU, and post-referendum planning can then proceed on that basis. EU can also provide transitional financial support.
The EU has already stipulated that NI would automatically rejoin the EU if a border poll favours Irish unity. That same provision of automatic membership may now be extended to Scotland.
> EU should ‘hang out welcome sign’ for an independent Scotland
European leaders are being urged to make an “unilateral and open offer” to Scotland to rejoin the EU should it vote for independence in a future referendum, in a letter signed by more than 170 prominent cultural figures from across the union.
Launching the SNP manifesto earlier this month, the party leader and first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, suggested that moves to re-enter the EU would be automatic after a yes vote on independence, rather than requiring an additional referendum, stating that “the vast majority of people in Scotland want to rejoin the EU”.
“The EU and its member states should make a unilateral and open offer of membership: an exceptional proposal to match Scotland’s exceptional circumstances,” suggests the letter, adding: “Generous terms should be offered to support Scotland’s budget in the challenging months of the transition before rejoining the EU.”
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/apr/29/eu-should-hang-out-welcome-sign-for-independent-scotland-letter-signed-cultural-figures
Scotland really couldn’t be hitching itself to a much leakier lifeboat than the EU.
Different gold, same treachery?
For England/English, just read EU.
Fareweel to a’ our Scottish fame,
Fareweel our ancient glory;
Fareweel ev’n to the Scottish name,
Sae fam’d in martial story.
Now Sark rins over Solway sands,
An’ Tweed rins to the ocean,
To mark where England’s province stands-
Such a parcel of rogues in a nation!
What force or guile could not subdue,
Thro’ many warlike ages,
Is wrought now by a coward few,
For hireling traitor’s wages.
The English steel we could disdain,
Secure in valour’s station;
But English gold has been our bane –
Such a parcel of rogues in a nation!
O would, ere I had seen the day
That Treason thus could sell us,
My auld grey head had lien in clay,
Wi’ Bruce and loyal Wallace!
But pith and power, till my last hour,
I’ll mak this declaration;
We’re bought and sold for English gold-
Such a parcel of rogues in a nation
Luke telling it like it is. Great rendition, thanks.
The analogy between the Act of Union and EU membership fails, though.
The union with England was not through popular mandate and consent, it was to settle the private debts of the grandees who betrayed Scotland.
EU membership has clear support in Scotland, and they are free to enter into a trading bloc that they perceive to be in their interests.
Chalk and cheese bar the barest abstract similarity.
Please do post any other traditional Scottish songs that you fancy have some bearing though, as it is a great repertoire.
If Scotland were to gain independence, it would be much better advised to adopt a Norway-style relationship with the EU than enmeshing itself in the increasingly acrimonious, indebted and unwieldy bloc IMO.
Also installing a hard border with England, which is by far its largest trading partner, would be a nightmare, surely?
They want a pragmatic solution like the NI Protocol, to ease border flows and to maintain trade with UK. No doubt that would be the solution.
No doubt, Scotland would also maintain a common travel area with UK, like Ireland does, with the right to citizenship after 5 years of residency. Things will not change much on that count.
You could maintain your UK passport, and get your EU passport back.
A nightmare for Scotland perhaps; a joy for England. Even better, rebuild the Wall and garrison it with a reconstituted Ninth Legion.
Why you so anti-Scotland?
Even the Scots are anti-Scotland.
They are the contentious people…
Thank you, Tim, long one of my favourite laments, and me an Englishman. Mirror’s historical commentary is also spot on.
As for the EU, even if the Guardian is telling the truth about their generosity, which I very much doubt, all that means is the EU are trying to lie an independent Scotland into their roach trap.
By the way, Gail, thank you for the bigger comment window, But was it really beyond the IT morons who wrote the program to create a window that expanded and contracted as necessary?
Mirror, speaking of good alde Scottish songs, are you familiar with the ballad of Lady Maisry (also known as “Bonnie Susie Cleland”), who’s buried in Dundee?
It’s listed as No.65 in Child’s English and Scottish Popular Ballads, and I’ve always thought the treatment meted out to Susie was typical of the traditional norms of Scottish behaviour that forced the Romans to build THAT wall. 🙂
https://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/child/ch065.htm
This version is by a group named Tullamore. Notice how incredibly untanned they all are.
There was a lady from Scotland (hey my love, ho my love)
There was a lady from Scotland (oh I love her dearly)
There was a lady from Scotland who fell in love with an Englishman Bonnie Susie Cleland to be married in Dundee.
Her father met her at the gate; “Will you this Englishman forsake?”
“I will not this man forsake; though you burn me at the stake”
“Where can I find man or boy to carry these tidings to my joy?” Bonnie Susie Cleland to be buried in Dundee.
“Here am I, a fine young man; I’ll carry your tidings to England”
“Take to him this sheath and knife; tell him to find another wife”
“Take to him this gay gold ring; tell him I’m going to my burning”
Her father dragged her to the stake; her brothers there a fire did make.
Her Englishman rode down the lane and pulled her body from the flame, crying, “Bonnie Susie Cleland was to marry unto me,”
And bonnie Susie Cleland, she was buried in Dundee.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nue8f0Xoenc
By the way, the Oyster Band did an excellent version of this song.
The lover in that ballad is sometimes English, often not.
The theme of improper relations and death for unchastity is a common motif in romances and ballads throughout Europe.
The songs reflect the less liberal marriage customs of olden, here feudal times. Marriages between powerful families were an important way in which the socio-economic order was perpetuated.
The lover could be of unsuitable station, like a peasant, or from a rival dynasty (eg. Romeo and Juliet) or a foreign tribe – or just anyone apart from the proposed suitor.
Similar songs are found in England and across Europe.
The point of the songs is the frustration of love, not socio-economic reform or acts of Union, be it UK or EU. (Certainly Hollywood and Netflix do not blush to weaponize the motif for ideological ends – be it Trump’s wall, expansion of the labour force, or whatever.)
Whatever a person thinks of Scottish independence, I doubt that Romeo and Juliet is a common paradigm of interpretation.
You can rest assured that there will be no bans on free marriage in an independent Scotland. Couples will be able to marry ad lib as is the late bourgeois custom.
Many a ballad could no doubt be written about modern marital customs, like divorce and single parent families. “She lived up in a council flat, and she shacked up with a nearby brat…” No, that would not be PC.
10/10 for resourcefulness though. Unionism is simply not part of the old traditional Scottish repertoire, any more than a longing to unite with France is a part of the old English repository.
Just to balance that one, here’s a song about a young English lassie who falls for an imprisoned Scottish rogue, steals the keys to his cell, and runs off with him, only to be unceremoniously dumped after crossing the border. But her parents manage to deal with the incident with patience, understanding and compassion. It’s called The Fair Flower of Northumberland.
And when she’s got back her faither did frown and said,
—Oh but her love it was easy won,
“For to be a Scot’s whore when you’re barely fifteen,
And you were the fair flower of Northumberland.”
But when she got back her mother did smile and said,
—Oh but her love it was easy won,
“But you’re not the first lass that the Scots hav beguiled
And you’re still the fair flower of Northumberland.”
Boris ordered 280 nuclear bombs recently. He’s in trouble and will need to start a war if he’s going to have any chance of being re-elected. Right now it would be illegal for him to nuke Scotland, but if Scotland becomes independent, then war against it is permissible. It would also be all the more tempting, since Scotland has promised it will be non-nuclear, in terms of arms.
How the people of England and Edinburgh would rejoice if Boris nuked Glasgow and left many survivors horrifically burned and with their skin hanging off. It would only serve them right for dissing Boris and would make a great video, I am sure, lol!
Strange situation!
“How the people of England and Edinburgh would rejoice if Boris nuked Glasgow and left many survivors horrifically burned and with their skin hanging off. ”
They look like that anyway by the time they get back home after their summer holidays in Torremolinos. Glaswegians don’t tan very well.
Oh dear, Juliet got sunburnt.
Many an old Scottish woman left bereathed with nothing but young memories and long night dreams of her family life, all sacrificed for the vanity and the greed of organised British State capital. We will not forget their loss.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33880471/
Abstract
Prevention of COVID-19 on a global scale will require the continued development of high-volume, low-cost platforms for the manufacturing of vaccines to supply on-going demand. Vaccine candidates based on recombinant protein subunits remain important because they can be manufactured at low costs in existing large-scale production facilities that use microbial hosts like Komagataella phaffii ( Pichia pastoris ).
Here, we report an improved and scalable manufacturing approach for the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein receptor binding domain (RBD); this protein is a key antigen for several reported vaccine candidates. We genetically engineered a manufacturing strain of K. phaffii to obviate the requirement for methanol-induction of the recombinant gene. Methanol-free production improved the secreted titer of the RBD protein by >5x by alleviating protein folding stress. Removal of methanol from the production process enabled scale up to a 1,200 L pre-existing production facility.
This engineered strain is now used to produce an RBD-based vaccine antigen that is currently in clinical trials and could be used to produce other variants of RBD as needed for future vaccines.
Without really understanding this, my assumption is that this is simply a way to manufacture a high volume of something like our current mRNA vaccines, perhaps in India. Some of the authors have ties to India, I notice.
Yes, it’s all about those protein binding-domains. One angle is spurring anti-body responses, another is thwarting the binding (as I understand it in basic terms) I was wondering if anyone is looking for a way to get an Ivermectin technology patented and ran across this one. Not sure that their title is correct (yet), but the paper is pretty interesting. This is dated December 1, 2020. Ivermectin has not been under patent protection for some time now.
TITLE: Clinically Approved Antiviral Drug in an Orally Administrable Nanoparticle for COVID-19
Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami, Florida
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7724756/
There is urgent therapeutic need for COVID-19, a disease for which there are currently no widely effective approved treatments and the emergency use authorized drugs do not result in significant and widespread patient improvement. The food and drug administration-approved drug ivermectin has long been shown to be both antihelmintic agent and a potent inhibitor of viruses such as Yellow Fever Virus.
In this study, we highlight the potential of ivermectin packaged in an orally administrable nanoparticle that could serve as a vehicle to deliver a more potent therapeutic antiviral dose and demonstrate its efficacy to decrease expression of viral spike protein and its receptor angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), both of which are keys to lowering disease transmission rates.
We also report that the targeted nanoparticle delivered ivermectin is able to inhibit the nuclear transport activities mediated through proteins such as importin α/β1 heterodimer as a possible mechanism of action.
This study sheds light on ivermectin-loaded, orally administrable, biodegradable nanoparticles to be a potential treatment option for the novel coronavirus through a multilevel inhibition. As both ACE2 targeting and the presence of spike protein are features shared among this class of virus, this platform technology has the potential to serve as a therapeutic tool not only for COVID-19 but for other coronavirus strains as well.
COVID-19 Injected People Becoming a Threat to Public Health and Safety
A California man reportedly crashed his vehicle after suffering a seizure driving back from receiving his second injection of a COVID-19 shot.
The Paso Robles Daily News reports:
The California Highway Patrol has responded with a statement regarding the accident that occurred on Highway 101 Northbound on Friday in Atascadero.
According to Officer Jose Meza of the CHP, on Thursday at 1:40 p.m. on Highway-101 Northbound, North of San Anselmo Rd, a 73-year-old driver driving a Nissan Titan suffered an unknown medical event.
Per his wife (right-front passenger), he went blank and started holding his chest. He started braking and his wife steered the vehicle to the shoulder of the road. A semi-truck clipped the Nissan as it was slowing.
The wife forced the Nissan’s gear into park and came to a stop. The driver was transported to Twin Cities Hospital, CHP reports.
According to a California Highway Patrol incident record, the driver’s spouse reported that they were on their way home from receiving a second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. A second vehicle that was involved in the accident reportedly left the area.
https://healthimpactnews.com/2021/covid-19-injected-people-becoming-a-threat-to-public-health-and-safety/
One sees that people are often travelling great distances to get to the mass vax centres, and heading back home after a short pause to check for reactions: obviously perilous if they have a delayed adverse reaction, which can take up to 2 hours after the shot according to some accounts.
Mining magnets: Arctic island finds green power can be a curse
http://www.fasterthanexpected.com/2021/03/01/mining-magnets-arctic-island-finds-green-power-can-be-a-curse/
Each Greenland mine would cost about $500 million to develop, the companies say. Both plan to send mined material away for final processing, an activity that is heavily concentrated in China. The only rare earth mine now operating in the United States – Mountain Pass in California – is partly owned by a Chinese state-backed company that currently sends material mined in the U.S. to China for processing.
Hillcountry, since that was written, this happened:
“Voters in Greenland have rejected a government that backed a controversial rare earths mining project, handing victory to an opposition left-green party for only the second time since the island gained home rule from Denmark in 1979…
“The snap elections were sparked by political division over the Kvanefjeld mining project in the south of the world’s largest island where there are large deposits of rare earths…”
https://www.ft.com/content/fef867e8-1afe-4b12-9d61-2f830efb097d
Interesting!
thanks Harry good to hear. I found the article over here as well.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-greenland-election-idUSKBN2BU0V1
seems like a reasonable position:
“It’s not that Greenlanders don’t want mining, but they don’t want dirty mining,” Mered said, referring to uranium and rare earth projects. “Greenlanders are sending a strong message that for them it’s not worth sacrificing the environment to achieve independence and economic development.”
Energy companies have left Colorado with billions of dollars in oil and gas cleanup
http://www.fasterthanexpected.com/2021/03/11/energy-companies-have-left-colorado-with-billions-of-dollars-in-oil-and-gas-cleanup/
My impression is that this situation is very common, perhaps almost universal. I am sure that mining of any kind has a similar situation. Governments need to take over, if they want to solve the problem. If oil and gas companies were making a profit, it would be easy to solve this problem.
“The funds industry is failing to deliver top-quartile returns with the average falling to a historic low in the first quarter, according to new research.
“Just 1.8 per cent of funds consistently achieved top quarterline performance over the past three years, according to BMO’s latest FundWatch survey.”
https://www.cityam.com/funds-are-failing-to-deliver-top-quartile-returns/
“The tragic death of prominent investor Charles de Vaulx has reportedly left Wall Street in a shock. The 59-year-old asset manager apparently committed suicide on Monday, April 26, 2021, after jumping off from the 10th floor of a Midtown Manhattan tower.”
https://meaww.com/charles-de-vaulx-died-suicide-new-york-wall-street-investor-iva-cause
Hmmm, this from Barron’s
De Vaulx entered his Midtown Manhattan office Monday afternoon and jumped from the 10th floor, according to the New York Police Department. The news came six weeks after IVA announced it was closing down, and a week after it liquidated its two U.S. mutual funds, a move that had surprised the industry because the firm still had more than $2 billion in assets, and value was beginning to see a resurgence.
Hmmm…wonder what happened?
According to the article:
Also
That explains it…looks as if many will take the same path as BAU unwinds…remember …he should have listened to Our Gail..
It’s NOT YOUR Faukt.😇
It seems he ran out of ‘value’ investments…. and was unable to adapt to a world where losing money is the new ‘value’….
Good way of putting the problem!
Excuse me, Harry, but is this post really claiming that the “top quartile” contains only 1.8% of the total? That seems to represent a new nadir of mathematical illiteracy, even for economists. As ever, when the model no longer reflects reality, change reality.
Robert, I am a bit of a mathematical dunce myself, preferring to see the world in narratives, but I think the BMO is saying that only 1.8% of funds have been *consistent* enough to achieve top quartile returns over a three-year period.
This lack of consistency makes it sound like they are winging it to some extent, with luck playing an oversized role.
A quick though regarding oil reserves…
Conventional peaked in 2005 and oil prices started to seriously lift off hitting $147 less than two years later…
This is an indication that reserves are not as deep as some might think… i.e. we cannot live off of what’s in the bank for very long…. Even with oil over $100… not much was being found… cuz there ain’t no more to find.
Now that the only growing supply is a year – possibly two beyond peak…. without a doubt the Elders realized they had to put the breaks on a great deal of economic activity or the economy would have imploded — likely in 2020.
That’s how I see it too, thanks in no small part to the wisdom and clarity you’ve been sharing with us.
But you can’t just put the breaks on a great deal of economic activity and let the market sort itself out, because that would be incredibly messy with people pulling each others faces off, etc.
So you literally have to take much tighter control of the remaining economy and institute SIABN (Socialism In All But Name) or CIABN, which is SIABAN plus a Dear Leader.
Does the NZ Prime Minister count as a Dear Leader, I wonder. 🙂
But then you would have a big game of musical chairs with almost eight billion struggling people chasing a rapidly decreasing number of seats. That too would be incredibly messy over the long term.
One solution to avoid that mess would be rapid and substantial depopulation, particularly in the parts of the world that use lots of energy per capita AND have amassed higher levels of savings, pensions, healthcare entitlements per capita. This, I think we all agree, would be an absolute game changer, whether it ended up as a 30%, 50%, 70% or 90% drop.
Economics would become economical again. Useless eaters would become useful. Actuaries would actually have accurate data to play with.
A 100% drop would be another thing altogether. It’s preposterous! Where would the global elite go? Who would shine their shoes and cook their Escargots à la Bourguignonne?
Tim, I really like your musical chairs analogy, but please take it one step further. There may well be enough chairs to go round, except that Jeff Bezos is sitting on a billion seats, while two billion people have only half a seat each.
https://i.ibb.co/WB3sjTP/Deagel-Karte.png
This shows a Deagel Military Map of Expected Population Changes by country 2020-2025. The countries with big expected decreases in population look (to me) like they are ones with high per capita oil consumption.
Interestingly, the Deagel site is gone….
The problem is “the economy of scale”.
Official but not openly discussed plans of the German government and the EU see the necessity of a reduction of energy spending of 30%. This is more than what can be achieved by enlarged efficiency. Discussion papers of the Green party suggest mandatory living standard reduction monitored on the personal level as to control how many meat a person eats.
A reduction of energy can be achieved by reducing the energy by capita, that is living standads, or by reducing the capita, or both.
In any case the economy has go scale down. While services can reduce easily, the sales of cars, mobiles, computers and washing machines will fall. This means demand for steel, aluminium and glass will shrink which leads to higher costs and less availability in the future.
Can capitalism survive in a structurally and permanently shrinking economy? No, because noone would give a credit to someone that has tomorrow less than today. Exception: negative interest rates. But there are too many slip holes.
Can capitalism restart after a large catastrophe? As it seems only with growing resources. It means the breakdown must be so large that building up takes so many years it looks like having huge resources.
Can a totalitarian economy be successful with shrinking resources? Looking to the Roman reich I doubt that.
Can a sustainable economy be stable? Yes, of course, but only within the limits of carrying capacity, which means for a smaller population and with a technology based on wood, clay and stone with some metal tools.
All those scenarios lead to a breakdown sooner or later. The Roman reich took 300 years to fall. Industrial revolution started in the 17th century, the largest accelleration is only 100 years old.
So how long could it take? In my eyes it should already have happend, there are unpatient people. What is realitstic, 5, 10, 30 years?
It has already started! Look around!
It will gain much more speed – arriving at a Seneca cliff, in short time, max 5-10 years, my guess. Can happen tomorrow by a financial crash.
Grow or die!
Let us endeavour to grow spiritually, then – and die happy, in the truest sense of the word.
And try to remain as free as possible – and unpoisoned – until the crash.
That is the way forward, according to my own sight as well, Xabier.
THEM’S FIGHT’N WORDS!
Ardern + Trudeau Dream Team!
Difficult to say with certainty … on one hand we have the PR Team ‘prepping’ us for a Great Reset/Build Back Better… and often when they soften us up with artillery barrages … the troops follow.
But then again… we’ve been prepped with renewables and EVs for decades now … and that’s 100% mirage…
I have trouble going beyond the CEP because of Korowicz… and the outcome that $147 oil delivered…. if not for shale I am mostly sure we would have gone Bosnia on Steroids (BOS)… and we’d be long gone by now…
Shale kicked the can… but we seem to be on the precipice of another 2008 … with no ‘Drill Baby Drill’ around the corner…
But who knows … never underestimate the Elders cleverness… or their will to continue to Live Large.
The Suspense…. is actually Killing Me.
Whatever happens the best case scenario for us is the life of a communist zombie… so I am hoping the CEP is The Plan.
Fittingly… I’m making my way through this very good audio book … https://www.penguin.co.nz/books/a-peoples-tragedy-9781847924513
At geopolitical scale, (from an edited comment at Unz Review blog), perhaps there’s a bit more than meets the eye to rationalization of global resources?
“Now it becomes clear how and why Azerbaijan had all those drones, loitering munitions platforms and rocket systems provided by Elderville. Elderville will now extract it’s pound of flesh. The Elders participated in another Armenian genocide.”
“The key strategic move here is that by having Azerbaijan in her back pocket, the Elder has injected herself in a key position to block the OBOR initiative by the CCP. Nagorno-Karabakh was critical for linking Azerbaijan to Turkey. This also gives Elderville immense leverage over Turkey, who is already using Elder drone technology in its drones.”
“It is also important to note that Elderville is a partner in OBOR, responsible for cyber security IIRC.”
“When we look at this move, it seems clear that this a very bad for Russia. It allows China to bypass Russia and Iran on the path of the OBOR to Turkey and Europe. Putin not only sold the Armenians down the river, he shot himself in the foot. This is likely related to why Turkey sided with Ukraine.”
“China labels India, Australia, Japan supply chain plan as ‘artificial’ and ‘unfavourable’ to global economy…
“A move by Australia, India and Japan to establish an initiative to “strengthen supply chain resilience” in the region that is viewed as an effort to lessen dependence on China has been criticised by Beijing as an “artificial” programme that could upset the global economy.”
https://www.scmp.com/economy/global-economy/article/3131449/china-labels-india-australia-japan-supply-chain-plan
“China is scrambling for semiconductor supremacy…
“Chinese companies, along with others, have long-relied on a globalised value chain, and supplies from other companies. But this reliance has become, in the words of those at its highest levels of government, a “choke point” for the country’s technological ambitions.”
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/china-microchip-autonomy-huawei
“We will defend ourselves to the very end’: Taiwan minister’s vow as China ‘prepares final assault’…
“China is “preparing for its final military assault” on Taiwan, the island’s foreign minister has told Sky News… Chinese military aircraft have been making almost daily incursions into Taiwan’s air identification defence zone recently, with April being a record month.”
https://news.sky.com/story/we-will-defend-ourselves-to-the-very-end-taiwan-ministers-vow-as-china-prepares-final-assault-12289421
“We will defend ourselves to the very end”, Taiwan minister’s vow as China ‘prepares final assault’
Then they will lose. Freedom must be defended in the first trench, not the last (a lesson the US seems also to have forgotten, just as Britain did in the 1930s).
Will Taiwan be the reward for China’s invaluable assistance in launching the Covid scam?
Anyone here from Taiwan?
Would you fight to the bitter end?
Scorched earth, leaving China with nothing that she could utilise?
Scorched earth, leaving China with nothing that she could utilise?
China might consider that outcome as a win. Strategically it might be better for the CCP than to have their enemies in control of the island. And they’d knock out one of the world’s major semiconductor producers
The US scorching China would be the biggest deterrent to an invasion of Taiwan. But if the CCP thinks it can call the US bluff, it might be time to send in Henry Kissinger.
Tim, the CCP controls the US government and military. There will be zero push back from the US.
It looks like it, Ed.
But I wonder who controls the CCP?
Could it be the globalist corporations, banking and investment syndicates that seem to control almost everywhere else?
If so, would China need their approval for a takeover of Taiwan?
And mightn’t they balk at the optics of such a show?
So the ’elders’ control both China and Taiwan. Then what is the point in invading Taiwan?
That is just some weird “logic”. Clearly it is to get the USA embroiled in war.
With other words, to remove the “M” from the MIC, and then shift to AIIC. Guess what the “AI” stands for.
😉
I’d go full bore nuclear against China per default if they touch Taiwan. A few sizzling warheads as a starter package once Biden is sidelined.
Remember where you read it first.
🤣👍👍
One might suggest that the CCP is the opposition to the Elders… but then the Biden family are engaging on all sorts of corrupt deals with the CCP…. so why would the Elders allow that… or perhaps all those corrupt deals are fake… and the 5 Eyes sanctions on the CCP are fake as well…
I’d sacrifice my neighbours two young children for a proper peak behind the curtain….
(maybe Epstein will be there with his minders … and 15 yr old nymphs?)
recall that the USA is downwind from China. any nuke radiation in the stratosphere ends up as fallout here and in Europe.
“Cant make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.”
— Vladimir Lenin
1. Neutron bombs
2. Dial-a-yield warheads
3. Iodine tablets
Why make shit complicated. Wanna keep the Holy Trinity of IC operational? It won’t be easy without the Taiwanese semiconductors, that is for sure.
Here’s the message to the CCP/PLA muppets:
“Touch Taiwan and we’ll nuke you from orbit – fuckers”
It’s the only way to be sure.
Let it rain.
🌍☄☄☄
Remember the Lincoln Brigade from the Spanish Civil War? I’m now accepting registrations for the Nixon / Carter Brigade!
Strange world we live in.
Taiwan, at least at the moment, seems to have a fresh water problem. China has a fresh water problem as well. At least from that point of view, the combination doesn’t work all that well.
Oil is only the tip of the iceberg…
In a way, this is a group of “second tier” suppliers trying to band together. Australia has coal, but both India and Japan are short of energy resources. Australia is not doing all that well either with its high-cost electricity supply. None of the group has adequate oil resources.
It is sort of like the EU for being a union of weaklings.
A beautiful one-line dismissal of the pretensions of the EU to be a world power (and the same would apply to the UK, of course).
“Millions of drinking wells around the world may soon be at risk of running dry. Overpumping, drought and the steady influence of climate change are depleting groundwater resources all over the globe, according to new research.
“As much as 20% of the world’s groundwater wells may be facing imminent failure, potentially depriving billions of people of fresh water.“
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/millions-of-groundwater-wells-could-run-dry/
“India’s deepening water crisis at the heart of farm protests.
“At the heart of India’s farm protests and decades-old agrarian crisis is a policy conundrum: India has been subsidizing the cultivation of rice in the north, but these are thirsty crops that have dramatically lowered the groundwater table.”
https://www.google.com/amp/s/abcnews.go.com/amp/Technology/wireStory/indias-deepening-water-crisis-heart-farm-protests-77389335
Oh dear, I hadn’t realized that India had been subsidizing rice production in the North. Irrigation can dramatically help food output for a while. When water levels drop, this becomes impossible.
Very brave of the Scientific American to mention “overpumping”. Of course, they do not draw the obvious conclusion “too many people”, but rather blame that perennial scapegoat “climate change”.
And there is the usual woke nonsense about how the wealthy will still be able to obtain water by (wait for it) “digging deeper wells”, which of course is the absolute last thing they should be doing. So not just too many people but too many greedy people.
The elephant in the room is still quietly asleep.
I just came upon this obit, of a 24-year-old Taiwanese-American woman who lived in Texas and died “of complications of covid-19”. What struck me is that the New York Times went to the trouble of reporting on her death, although there have been over half a million deaths in the US attributed to Covid-19 and over 500 deaths per day at present. I suppose her youth and her community spirit made this a good human interest story from their standpoint. Her case is particularly sad as the young are relatively lightly touched by this disease, although the death rate for patients in their 20s is ten times higher than for teenagers.
Erica Chang, who was born in Flushing, Queens, graduated from Texas A&M University in 2019 with dual degrees. She was a rising star in the Society of Asian Scientists and Engineers. She had contemplated a career in medicine, possibly as a doctor. But when the coronavirus struck, she decided instead to focus on how to better deliver care.
“She made the career change to become a project manager,” the society said in a statement, “seeing the need for process improvements in the health care system, especially during a pandemic.”
Ms. Chang, who lived in Katy, Texas, just west of Houston, died on April 6 of complications of Covid-19, said Khanh Vu, the chief executive and executive director of the society. She was 24.
Her parents were also infected. Her father, Chi-Kai Chang, died of the coronavirus five days later. He was 57.
https://latestnews.in.net/erica-chang-motivated-by-the-pandemic-to-help-dies-at-24/
Of course, the first question I’d like to ask about Ms. Chang is, was she vaccinated against Covid-19? Since she was working in the health care system, it seems to have been a distinct possibility.
It’s a fair presumption with anyone in that sector.
But it’s getting insane (r ) here: a 27 yr old engineer died in Cambridge shortly after his vax, usual cause, and it has drawn comments such as ‘How did he jump the queue? I’m 50 and still waiting!!!’
Vax envy seems to be real………
This, I think, goes some way to explaining why more experts, specialists and professionals in the medical and pharmaceutical fields are not coming out to decry or condemn the evil now unfolding around the world in the name of fighting COVID-19.
DR. YEADON: “MOST OF MY PEERS (SCIENTISTS) AGREE WITH ME.” BUT THEY ARE THREATENED AND KEEP SILENT.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/nzFEi8iSz9cy/
I’m sure that is true. Now we will have to wait for confirmation when 10 million or 100 million are dead by the end of the year. That will be impossible to hide, well, at least to many of us here at OFW. A long ways to go, since vax deaths are far less than 1 million right now. Or are they?
Patience, david.
Surely the people running this thing wouldn’t be injecting everyone with a substance that kills them off shortly following injection. That would scare off the masses and increase what they call “vaccine hesitancy.”
They need enough time between the administration of the jabs and deaths to prevent people from drawing a correlation between the two.
Or, perhaps they’re thinking ahead one generation and the end result for us will be similar to that of the Aedes aegypti mosquitos in Florida:
“The state will release almost 144,000 nonbiting male mosquitoes in the coming weeks engineered by the British firm Oxitec that are meant to mate with biting females, with any resulting female offspring unable to survive.”
https://www.nbcnews.com/science/weird-science/genetically-modified-mosquitoes-be-released-florida-after-years-planning-n1265512
Will it be untimely death for vaccine recipients – Fast Eddy’s extinction plan?
Mass sterilization?
Transhumanism?
The “vaccines” are really gene therapy designed to enhance the awesomeness of those who survive the mRNA “programming.” If you continue to make it through multiple injections you’ll ultimately become superhuman. Those who die along the way clearly weren’t meant for the superhuman life.
Nothing of consequence?
They’re really injecting everyone with saline solution as part of the world’s greatest gaslighting operation.
This has been decades in preparation, and will take a few decades in implementation – although the tempo is speeding up now.
I don’t get what you are getting at. The evil now unfolding around the world is still unfolding regardless of how many millions of deaths results. People have been and are still being killed and injured deliberately, wantonly, and unnecessarily as a direct result of these inoculations under the banner of prophylactic medical treatment. I assume you accept this is happening. But you seem to be arguing either that it isn’t evil or it isn’t unfolding since the scale has not yet reached some arbitrary official death count number.
Please be sure to correct me if I’m wrong. I know I must be wrong because you can’t possibly mean what I understand you to mean from my interpretation of the words you wrote.
The problem is that readers have to interpret or imply because comments such as the one you made above are impossibly vague. You wrote “I’m not sure that’s true” without bothering to define what “that” is, thereby creating an open invitation to misinterpretation. Possibly you are certain what you meant by “that”, but everyone else is on tenterhooks as several possibilities are available and you didn’t specify or narrow the context of your comment sufficiency to allow others to come to a precise understanding of whatever the point was you were trying to make.
I find it much easier… to just filter out usernames… and mass delete…. with so little time remaining …. I prefer not to waste it hitting Delete dozens of times each morning.
that’s because you’re Foil Eddie.
David, I too am unclear what is going on. I do think in 12 months it will be much clearer.
David, I apologize. I read your comment as “I’m not sure that is true” when what you actually wrote was “I’m sure that is true.” So I’m going to hide in my hole now and put the manhole cover on top of it.
Not that it is any excuse, but I have not been feeling at all well for the past week. The lymph nodes on the left side of my neck are swollen and I’ve been getting slight pressure on the left side of my head above the ear and on the temple. Then this evening came a burst of shivering, a feeling of pressure on the chest in front of the heart, and when I took my pulse and blood pressure both shot up to very high levels.
Things have since calmed down but I am going to visit my doctor tomorrow morning for a checkup and a chat. Maybe he’ll prescribe some leeches. I really don’t want to go anywhere near a medical facility because people have been going down with Covid-19 locally, including people I know personally, for the first time during the pandemic.
Oh dear, I’m sorry to read the new vitamin enhanced “super Tim” proved to be less than invulnerable. Thank you for your previous well wishes for myself and my family and here’s hoping you have nothing to worry about.
Very best wishes,Tim, may it be nothing serious. You are simply invaluable to us, both for links and wit!
Get well soon Tim
Hope you are better, soon, Tim!
May the Force be with you, Tim. All the best.
Hang in there Tim, best wishes for a quick resolution.
it surely will pass… ‘The Core’ requires that it pass….
Tim, my personal experience of the acute phase of infection included swollen lymph nodes under armpits, chest pain, blood pressure rise, and a bunch of other things. It definitely got into my nervous system, including the brain, since I had a few really strange visual distortions like upside down letters and colored lines crossing through text. Really messed-up my sleep bad. I hope you nail it down.
Hillcountry, this is very important testimony. Thank you. We hardly heard of any Covid-19 cases last year, but it has flared up nicely around here over the past two weeks.
I had a weird episode last night when my blood pressure shot up from the usual 120 to 180 and I was shivering like someone with malaria. This passed after half an hour. After that I lost some sleep but had a comfortable morning. Today I feel something in the lymph nodes of the neck and something behind the left temple. Not painful, but it feels very unnatural. The doc has been postponed until Saturday morning.
Best wishes Tim. Get well we are just getting to the exciting parts.
leeches rock and so do you Tim!!!!
Tim, my best wishes to you also. I hope to hear you are better and soon.
Take note DuncNorm…. now you know how it is possible to keep a secret by stopping people from whistleblowing. It’s actually very easy
Why I Won’t Be Getting the Vaccine
A few friends have asked my thoughts on the COVID jab(s) so I thought it was time to write an article on the topic. All my friends had not heard most of the details I shared, so I figured you might appreciate hearing some of what I told them. Knowing how contentious this issue is, part of me would rather just write about something else, but I feel like the discussion/news is so one-sided that I should speak up.
As I always strive to do, I promise to do my best to be level-headed and nonhysterical. I’m not here to pick a fight with anyone, just to walk you through some of what I’ve read, my lingering questions, and explain why I can’t make sense of these COVID vaccines.
Three Ground Rules for Discussion
If you care to engage on this topic with me, excellent. Here are the rules. I am more than happy to correspond with you if:
You are respectful and treat me the way you would want to be treated.
You ask genuinely thoughtful questions about what makes sense to you.
You make your points using sound logic and don’t hide behind links or the word “science.” In other words, make a kind, level-headed argument (links welcome), but don’t just post a link and say “read the science.” That’s intellectually lazy.
If you do respond, and you break any of those rules, your comments will be ignored/deleted. With that out of the way, let me say this — I don’t know everything, but so far no one has been able to answer the objections below. So here are the reasons I’m opting out of the COVID vaccine.
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2021/04/no_author/why-i-wont-be-getting-the-vaccine/
Someone shared this before, but it is probably worth sharing again. One thing it does is list animal tests on similar vaccines that turned out badly. Another point is:
13. Fauci and 6 Others at NIAID Own Patents in Moderna’s Vaccine
References 63, 64, and 65 are the following:
63 University of Wisconsin-Madison, Bayh-Dole Act: Regulations Impacting Ownership of Patent Rights https://research.wisc.edu/bayhdole/
64 The Defender March 8, 2021 https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/truth-rfk-jr-naomi-wolf-constitutional-rights/
65 Axios June 25, 2020 https://www.axios.com/moderna-nih-coronavirus-vaccine-ownership-agreements-22051c42-2dee-4b19-938d-099afd71f6a0.html
There are a total of 18 points, with 80 references.
” Tony Fauci owns over 1,000 patents (see this video for more details64), including patents being used on the Moderna vaccine, which he approved government funding for.”
I read a few weeks ago that there is a limit of $150,000 maximum income per patent, per year, for such govt employees. I doubt he is receiving that much from each patent, but if he did that would be $150M / year. Nice work if you can get it.
The thought had occurred to me that Fauci might actually be a member of the billionaires club. With that sort of wealth, all that matters is – maintaining your wealth.
“Tony Fauci owns over 1,000 patents.”
Although common sense certainly isn’t infallible, my common sense tells me this is complete BS.
This site lists 12 his patents:
https://patents.justia.com/inventor/anthony-s-fauci
This site lists 6 his patents:
https://www.niaid.nih.gov/research/anthony-s-fauci-md
Fauci Reportedly Relaunched NIH Gain-of-Function Research without Consulting White House
Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin, who has done invaluable work in calling attention to the possibility that COVID-19 originated in a Wuhan lab, broke some news during his appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience on Tuesday.
After laying out the circumstantial evidence that COVID originated in the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), Rogin explained why Dr. Anthony Fauci, like many in the world of virology research, has a vested professional interest in downplaying the likelihood that so-called gain-of-function research — of the kind performed at the Wuhan lab — not only failed to prevent the ongoing global pandemic but actually may have played a hand in unleashing it.
“The Godfather of [gain-of-function virology research], the head of the pyramid, is a guy you may have heard of called Anthony Fauci,” Rogin said. “So, Anthony Fauci, the hero of the pandemic, is the most important person in the world of gain-of-function research there is . . . Basically, he is the one disbursing all the grants for this, he is the one who pushed to turn it back on after Obama turned it off, that’s another crazy story, he turned it back on without really consulting the White House.”
“He consulted the Office of Science and Technology Policy, which is part of the White House, but the White House put a pause on it and he undid the pause,” Rogin continued. “The details are a little sketchy. I’m not saying he did anything necessarily wrong or illegal, but I’m saying that a lot of people that I know inside the Trump administration had no idea that he had turned this back on. He found a way to turn it back on in the mess of the Trump administration because the Trump administration is full of a bunch of clowns, so you could get things done if you knew how to work the system.”
As Rogin himself admits, “the details are a little sketchy,” and we’ll have to take a look at the sourcing included in whatever article this piece of news appears in before alleging any wrongdoing. But Rogin has banked significant credibility by questioning the mainstream COVID-origin consensus. He dealt a significant blow to the media’s near-religious faith in the natural-transmission theory by reporting on the existence of 2018 State Department cables that raised concerns about the lack of safety protocols at the Wuhan lab, which was performing gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses at the time.
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/fauci-reportedly-relaunched-nih-gain-of-function-research-without-consulting-white-house/
Josh Rogin writes for the Washington Post, which is a fairly liberal paper. He would seem to have a conflict talking about Anthony Fauci’s role in this problem. It sounds like when he was interviewed on the Joe Rogan Experience, he let out more of what he knows about the story.
For what it is worth, the two references in the Lew Rockwell report (See comment above) to Fauci’s role in getting the gain of function research transferred to China are these:
68 The Daily Signal April 6, 2021 https://www.dailysignal.com/2021/04/06/fauci-must-explain-why-oversight-bypassed-for-funding-to-wuhan-lab-congressman-says/
69 BitChute August 18, 2020
https://www.bitchute.com/video/4u7rt61YeGox/
Analysis of test sticks from surface testing in the Slovak Republic –
confirmation of genocide.
https://www.golokaproject.org/documentfiles/Analysis-of-test-sticks-from-surface-testing-in-the-Slovak-Republic.pdf
OMG they are going to kill 6 million Slavs.
I am afraid I don’t understand this.
https://www.golokaproject.org/documentfiles/Analysis-of-test-sticks-from-surface-testing-in-the-Slovak-Republic.pdf
Interesting, According to this paper, the pineal gland is piezoelectric and does respond to EMFs.
https://autismoevaccini.files.wordpress.com/2015/01/piezoelectricity-in-the-human-pineal-gland.pdf
” Gonadotropin-inhibitory hormone (GnIH), a neuropeptide that inhibits gonadotropin synthesis and release, was first identified in quail hypothalamus. GnIH acts on the pituitary and GnRH neurons in the hypothalamus via GnIH receptor to inhibit gonadal development and maintenance. In addition, GnIH neurons express melatonin receptor and melatonin induces GnIH expression in the quail brain. Thus, it seems that melatonin is a key factor controlling GnIH neural function.
https://academic.oup.com/endo/article/151/1/271/2456134
From Medical News Today:
Melatonin may block the pituitary gland from secreting hormones that play essential roles in the development of the ovaries and testes and regulate functions such as the menstrual cycle.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/319882#other-functions-of-the-pineal-gland
So we have the disparate facts that for some reason taking melatonin helps with Covid-19 infection, the pineal gland is piezoelectric and potentially affected by various electromagnetic radiations, there may be a depopulation/sterility pogram occurring, women are complaining that their cycles are being disturbed, and others are complaining of Morgellon’s fibers. I almost forgot, whatever you do don’t take Ivermectin because it might cure your Covid-19. Another conspiracy theory?
I’m not so sure about this, but http://www.golokaproject.org looks pretty good. I might have to go on retreat.
looks good! 5 star accomodations and the pre-enrollment fee is ONLY $1,800 so yeah if a person has big bucks then they can escape from the captivity of gov and reach a higher plane of existence. I didn’t see the full cost, but I bet it’s worth it. 😉
We have a wonderful panel along with Dr. Fleming and Dr. Yan. We have Dr. Lee Vliet, Dr. Ryan Cole, Dr. Richard Urso, Dr. Peter McCullough, Dr. Kelly Victory, Dr. Lee Merritt, and Dr. Peter Breggin author of “We are the Prey.”
https://rumble.com/vg79i5-lethal-deception-part-2.html
Thanks Michael I was just about to post that link.
PLEASE WATCH IT!
It’s absolute gold. Seven doctors discussing the prion issue, the unnatural origin of the virus, and how everything ties in to billionaire paedophiles and Epstein. Seriously I can’t recommend enough.
Particularly Richard Fleming’s contributions.
https://rumble.com/vg79i5-lethal-deception-part-2.html
A convicted felon wants people to enroll in a COVID-19 clinical trial. What could go wrong?
(Richard Fleming, a felon convicted of health care fraud who has been debarred by the US Food and Drug Administration, would like to invite you to participate in a clinical trial.)
https://retractionwatch.com/2020/05/29/a-convicted-felon-wants-people-to-enroll-in-a-covid-19-clinical-trial-what-could-go-wrong/
Bill Gates is also a convicted criminal… perhaps not in the US, but elsewhere in the world.
Most capitalist’s are criminals.
Most politicians are corrupt … yet people still vote for them… go figure
Having a conviction doesn’t cancel out a person’s qualifications or expertise in their field.
I think some of his problems related to offering different treatment than what he was reimbursed for. He felt the alternative treatment was better. There likely have been other billing issues. If I understood it correctly, he lost his ability to practice law, but not to practice medicine.
Doctors sometimes feel like they can adjust the rules any way they like, as long as the medical treatment is OK.
From “Prepping for a cyber pandemic: Cyber Polygon 2021 to stage supply chain attack simulation
Will Cyber Polygon 2021 be as prophetic as Event 201 in simulating a pandemic response? perspective”
February 10, 2021
“The World Economic Forum (WEF) will stage another cyber attack exercise as it continues to prep for a potential cyber pandemic that founder Klaus Schwab says will be worse than the current global crisis.
“The SolarWinds hack served as a wake-up call to the supply chain attack vulnerabilities still present in public and private organizations, and it served as a warning that the next breach could be exponentially worse in spreading through any device connected to the internet.
“Following up on last year’s Cyber Polygon cyber attack exercise and event aimed at preventing a digital pandemic, the WEF has announced that the 2021 edition will be taking place on July 9.
“‘A cyber attack with COVID-like characteristics would spread faster and farther than any biological virus’ — World Economic Forum
“This year, Cyber Polygon 2021 will simulate a fictional cyber attack with participants from dozens of countries responding to ‘a targeted supply chain attack on a corporate ecosystem in real time.’
“In his welcoming remarks at Cyber Polygon 2020, WEF Founder Klaus Schwab warned about a coming ‘cyber pandemic’ that would be worse than the current global crisis.
“‘We all know, but still pay insufficient attention to, the frightening scenario of a comprehensive cyber attack, which would bring a complete halt to the power supply, transportation, hospital services, our society as a whole,’ he said.
“‘The COVID-19 crisis would be seen in this respect as a small disturbance in comparison to a major cyber attack.’
“As the digital world encroaches on our physical and biological worlds, an effective cyber attack could compromise anything connected to the internet, including:
Medical devices that keep people alive
The Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem of connected devices that run smart homes (i.e. cameras, microphones, sensors, etc.)
The Internet of Bodies (IoB) ecosystem of digitally-connected humans
Global financial systems
Energy grids
Water treatment facilities
Government IT systems
Military and defense infrastructure
And more
“Currently, ‘The only way to stop the exponential propagation of a COVID-like cyber attack threat,’ according to the WEF, ‘is to fully disconnect the millions of vulnerable devices from one another and from the internet.’
“But, ‘A single day without the internet would cost our economies more than $50 billion, and that’s before considering economic and societal damages should these devices be linked to essential services, such as transports or healthcare.’”
https://sociable.co/technology/prepping-cyber-pandemic-cyber-polygon-stage-supply-chain-attack-simulation/
Mark your calendars:
Cyber Polygon 2021 – July 9
I wonder how much time they’ll give us before they flip the switch and blame it on a “real” cyber attack?
Drills. They’re always running drills before their live exercises.
Cyber Polygon is an initiative of BI.ZONE (Sber Ecosystem) supported by the World Economic Forum Centre for Cybersecurity.
We don’t need the World Economic Forum investigating things like this:
“A cyber attack with COVID-like characteristics would spread faster and farther than any biological virus. Its reproductive rate would be around 10 times greater than what we’ve experienced with the coronavirus.”
Soon we will discover that our oligarchs are funding disruptions such as this as well.
Any ‘welcoming remarks’ from Klaus Schwab are inclined to be ominous, truly the skeleton at the feast. But one has to admit, he seems to be in great demand.
Maybe they intend a switch-off for a week or three, just to see how the public react?
And to impress on us the immense danger of their Age of Viruses, and increase the sense of general insecurity, which they like to cultivate as true psychopaths.
It might also be cover for eliminating further small businesses, independent internet platforms and maybe even troublesome individuals.
And a nice tick-up in death rates – cold, hunger and shock, lack of regular medication, etc.
One could have so much fun!
Scientific Study shows the Pfizer Vaccine puts people at higher risk of catching Covid
A scientific study carried out in Israel has found that those who have received at least one dose of the Pfizer vaccine are up to eight times more likely to contract Covid-19, specifically the alleged “variants of concern” including the South African variant as labelled by authorities.
A team of researchers from the Tel Aviv University (TAU) and Israeli health care provider Clalit Health Services conducted the study. The team looked at SARS-CoV-2 test results of 800 Israelis, of which 400 came from those who were vaccinated with Pfizer, while the other 400 came from those who were not vaccinated.
The purpose of the scientific study was to determine which group were more likely to catch what the authorities are telling us are “variants of concern”. It found that the “South African” B1351 variant was eight times more prevalent in those who completed the two doses of the vaccine with 5.4% testing postive compared to those who were not vaccinated with just 0.7% testing positive.
The study also concluded that the alleged UK variant was more prevalent in those who had received just a single dose of the Pfizer jab, but comparable to the “South African” strain in those who had received two doses.
https://dailyexpose.co.uk/2021/04/27/scientific-study-shows-the-pfizer-vaccine-puts-people-at-higher-risk-of-catching-covid/
It would be better if we could find a scientific write up to the study.
I found the original, but had to dig for it !
It’s a preprint:
Title
Evidence for increased breakthrough rates of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern in BNT162b2 mRNA vaccinated individuals
Authors
Talia Kustin, Noam Harel, Uriah Finkel, Shay Perchik, Sheri Harari, Maayan Tahor, Itamar Caspi, Rachel Levy, Michael Leschinsky, Shifra Ken Dror, Galit Bergerzon, Hala Gadban, Faten Gadban, Eti Eliassian, Orit Shimron, Loulou Saleh, Haim Ben-Zvi, Doron Amichay, Anat Ben-Dor, Dana Sagas, Merav Strauss, Yonat Shemer Avni, Amit Huppert, Eldad Kepten, Ran D. Balicer, Doron Nezer, Shay Ben-Shachar, View ORCID ProfileAdi Stern
Link
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.06.21254882v2
Why do the researchers set as hypothesis – and subsequently demonstrate – that the vaccinated are MORE likely to contract variants ? Seems to me a first confirmation of Dr. Yeadons warning of Antibody-Dependant Enhancement (ADE) ?
You are a research talent and hero!!!! :-)))
Geert Bossche FAQ
What are your expectations right now based on what you see in Israel and USA on the one hand and India, Ukraine and other countries on the other?
All these populations will ultimately evolve towards resistance to the vaccine. Some populations like the UK and Israel are currently breeding resistant strains in asymptomatic people (so increasingly in vaccinees as vaccine coverage rates in these countries are quite high already) on a background of low infectivity (reduced number of new infections). I am saying this because the low infection pressure in the population will promote adaptation of variants with enhanced infectiousness. However, in order for the virus to acquire a much higher level of infectiousness in vaccinated people, it has to completely overcome the pressure placed by vaccinal Abs. As its spread has been dramatically reduced due to high vaccine coverage rates, this has now become a conditio sine qua non for the virus to ensure sufficient propagation.
In countries where the level of infectivity is still quite high (e.g., USA), the virus will most likely evolve to resistance using one or more intermediary steps of enhanced infectiousness before full resistance to the vaccine will occur. This is to say that I first expect one or more even more infectious variant(s) to emerge and adapt and to cause more or less important wave(s) of infection and disease. The steeper and more important these waves, the more impressive their decline will be and the (relatively) lower plateau they will reach (e.g., Ukraïne, Hungary, Uruguay, India as compared to USA, France, Chile, Brazil etc).
How can it be explained that in Israel it seems that the massive vaccination has almost stopped the pandemic and no dramatic effects are being observed over people that have been vaccinated?
It’s just a matter of weeks for a surge in Israel to occur due to resistance of the virus to vaccinal antibodies in vaccinees. I expect this surge to occur before summer.
https://www.geertvandenbossche.org/faq
that is excellent that he has predicted this for early June in Israel. We soon will know if this surge happens.